HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-01-09 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor (electronically), Thomas,
Throgmorton
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Andrew, Dilkes, Karr, Bockenstedt, Schaul, Mansfield,
Korpel
Budget Overview and Highlights -City Manager's Office & Finance:
Throgmorton/ Let's begin our budget session for January whatever this is (several talking)
January the 9th! And, uh, just to get us going I think I'll turn things over to our City
Manager!
Markus/ (both talking) roll call?
Throgmorton/ You want to do that, Marian? (several talking)
Markus/ Okay. All right, yeah, I'm ready to go. Um, if anybody thinks budget sessions are lot of
fun and really easy, take a good look at Rockne Cole (laughter)
Cole/ (both talking and laughing)
Markus/ He's been racking his brain, trying to get ready for all of this (laughter)
Cole/ (mumbled)
Markus/ All right, so today we're just gonna, uh, do a budget overview, and then we'll go into the
individual departments, uh, and start to discuss the different line items that exist in those,
uh, various departments. And some of this, I think, was gone over a little bit by Dennis,
uh, in the work session on ... the budget document itself, but (noises in background)
hopefully this won't be too redundant. Uh, to start, uh, is ... today is the operating budget
review. On, uh, Monday afternoon at about 1:00 we'll get into the capital improvement
plan review. We set the hearing for the public hearing on the budget on February 16th,
and then on March 1 st we'll hold the hearing and hopefully adopt the budget. It needs to
be, uh, actually adopted and passed on to the ... the County Auditor and the State, uh, by
the 15th. Uh, we hope to have it certified with the County Auditor on March 8th. Uh,
again the ... the State law requires approval by March 15th. And I should ... and I should say
a little bit too about the ... the timing of the budget, uh, even though Dennis talked about
that as well. Our ... our fiscal year starts July 1 st of 16 and runs through the end of June 17.
So when we talk about fiscal years, this budget that we're working on right now is called
the fiscal year 17 budget. It's always the second calendar year of the fiscal year that
identifies the budget that you're talking about. And ... when you think about, um, actually
having to have this document all done and off to the State by the 15th, you start to
calculate the months that that proceeds the actual start of the budget year, and you can...
you start to backtrack from that point, back to November and October when these ... the
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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staff is all putting this together. You can see how numbers can fluctuate, and so we're
constantly monitoring that and trying to make sure that we make adjustments for those
things as this document goes forward. So in essence, you're ... you know, you're out there
10 months before the budget's actually implemented. So ... the things that you're going to
be talking about and approving in this document... you're not going to start spending
money on or implementing those things (mumbled) budget that you're working on was
approved at this time last year for the remainder of this ... this six months that your ... your
term starts in. So ... you kind of have to get your head wrapped around where we're at in
terms of budget cycles to understand, you know, what programs are going to be in effect.
So ... (music playing) telling you all that, um ... is that ... you have some time to ... to discuss
it. We have these deadlines that are built in the budget, but you have time. Rockne sent
me a couple emails yesterday about some concerns that, um, constituents had raised with
him about different programs. You have time to talk about those things. Um ... and, you
know, as I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about those requests, as I often do,
I thought to myself, we probably should talk about process too because one thing
university towns are known for is process, and ... I know this Council and the new
candidates talked a lot about process. So, I think you'll want to be careful not to just
jump into an item. You want to ... you want to think about how the process works and
when you talk about, uh, whether it's a local foods' initiative or something else like that,
you know, we have Aid to Agencies. We have the PIN grants. We have community
events. All of those things are kind of vetted and, again, remember my comment about
matching resources to desires of the Council reflecting the community's needs and
desires. So it...it gets down to context, you know. All of these things that you're going to
be approached with are probably all good things. Okay? But at the end of the day, at
some point you have to say I pick this over this. That's the difficult part about budgeting
and ... and what your role is in that regard. You can't afford everything! I haven't seen a
city that can afford everything. Um ... maybe some of the Saudi countries can afford
everything, but we clearly can't. Um ... so we'll keep going! In terms of the, uh, the
agenda, we'll do the overview. Then we'll jump into the departments. Now probably
what we'll do in terms of the general government, the administrative and finance staff are
here all day, so I probably will take, for example, legal and have, uh, Eleanor present
legal and so that Eleanor can go on and enjoy the rest of her Saturday, and then we'll
probably jump into the others, depending on how long-winded I am during this general
overview process. Okay? In terms of the, uh, budget document overview, uh, obviously
the transmittal letter is kind of the executive summary of the entire document. Um, I try
to give you a lot of information. If you were to compare, uh, executive summaries from
budgets across the country, there'd be some shorter, not many longer, uh, but I try to give
a lot of information in there. In fact, the document itself is 675 pages, and I've picked up
a couple things from our, you know, our little work session on the document itself. Um,
we're looking at GIS mapping in terms of giving you some... additional kind of graphics
on how things lay out in terms of values and ... and by neighborhoods, and we think we
have some pretty good ideas about how to segment that across the community.
Obviously there'll be that need to refine and drill down into certain things. The other
thing we talked about was some leading indicators, and I think that's a good thing for me
to ... to include like in an executive, uh, summary, but then monitor those throughout the
course of the year. So it's like that canary in the mine, right? So that leading indicator
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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makes a change, and we have an opportunity to ... that's a signal to us and I'm gonna talk
about some signals, uh, as well. This week on, I think it's Wednesday afternoon, uh, the
CBJ's economic forecast luncheon is scheduled, and I think you probably were all
invited. If you can attend I encourage you to go. Um ... again it's about context. You
know, when I started budgeting four years ago, we never thought about what was
happening beyond the State, and even the State didn't come into play very much in those
days. Now it's the federal government, it's international, it's global, and you know all of
those things have an impact on us ... when it, you know, comes back to us. I ... I was in
Europe trying to recruit a world cup event, uh, where we set up a welcoming committee
to welcome our international community. We've got a committee set up on
international ... to try and explore the possibilities of keeping international students here,
getting them to develop businesses, getting them to reside in our community. So it really
is kind of a global approach and you want to think beyond our borders. Actually we had,
um ... I think two or three mayors from the State of Iowa over in Paris, uh, for the, uh... uh,
global, um ... climate change conference (mumbled; background noises) some feedback
back and forth between the states and ... and I think the mayors had an impact. You all get
the NLC, uh... newsletter (mumbled) So I want to ... I just want to, uh, read a couple of
quotes to kind of give you kind of a context from ... from the market standpoint and from
international, and some other things that you folks are actually talking about and ... and try
to give you ... maybe a broader context of things. So on December 16 , uh, of this past
year, the federal open market committee of the Federal Reserve raised the fed run ... fund
rates, uh, target to, uh, a quarter percent to about half a percent, with the additional
guidance that both the pace and magnitude of future increases, uh, will be data -dependent
as they should be. Uh.... now what's interesting about that is that's the first rate increase
in nearly a decade. You know, we've been in this ... this cycle where it's ... every time you
hear from the Federal Reserve it's another ... it's a nick down, it's a nick up, can't go any
lower, you know, to speak of, so now ... that's an indicator! That's one of those things that,
to me, would be an indicator that we gotta be paying attention to what that means and
how that translates back into our community. At the same time, the FOMC, the Federal
Open Market Committee, lowered its expectations for inflation in 2016, with core
inflation not returning to 2% ... until 2018. So that's a bit of good news for us, you know.
Inflation seems to be in check, and won't be coming back for at least a couple years. The
bottom line, the market needed a dose of good news at the end of the last year and got it.
It was a solid jobs' report with plenty of good news to check off, providing reassurance
that the domestic economy is withstanding the headwinds of the stronger dollar and
slower growth from overseas. However, the recent volatility in the market, stemming
from worries about China's growth, and if anybody's been watching the stock market,
it's ... it's been a wild ride! Um, I imagine, Susan, you're trying to calm investors at this
very moment.
Mims/ Yeah, I've had a few phone calls!
Markus/ Yeah, about growth... China's growth prospects and the steep slide in oil in the first week
of 2016 should test the durability of the job market in the coming months. I'm bringing
this back home (laughter) Home prices have risen faster than incomes... which means
affordability is declining. Moreover the recent increase in the fed's short-term interest
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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rate is causing some consternation about mortgage rates, okay? Now that's right in the
discussion you folks are having. And the other part of the discussion that I want to
mention to you is ... that when you talk about property taxes and you talk about fees
related to owning a house or ... or living, those are all things that go to the question of
affordability, right, cause they all roll into those costs and so when you start to talk about
you don't want to have people spending more than 30% of their incomes for housing and
these fees and taxes and interest rates for mortgages and the price of housing keeps going
up, it makes our challenge even greater... going forward. So I absolutely agree that has to
be a focus of ours, to look at ways to create more affordable housing for our community.
And ... then that translates, by the way, to the jobs, okay? And in terms of filling jobs,
we're at 2 1/2% but I'll ... I'll continue with this conversation. This is widely known
economic growth in China has slowed over the past few years., The big question that
most observers have is whether the Chinese economy will achieve some sort of soft
landing, or whether touchdown will be more painful, not only for China, but for the
global economy as well. And it seems like the (mumbled) a little rough so far. The other
thing I wanted to talk a little bit about ... in terms of...of, kind of internat ... or at least
national markets is ... is the, because of our university status and our university, uh... um,
town -gown relationship. At present, credit cards represent 5.9% of household debt,
compared to 7 1/2% a decade ago. That's a good sign! Mortgage debt accounts for the
bulk of household debt, at roughly 69%. More restrained credit card growth appears to
have occurred, partially at the expense of stronger student loan growth, which now
accounts for 10% of household debt. So, what's the relative comparison? That is up
from 3.9% just a decade ago. Now that ... that should be one of those indicators that
we ... we pay attention to. Why is that important? We have ... 32,150 students (mumbled)
okay? They bring not only their tuition and their payment for room and board, but a lot
of economy to our town. We have ... this university provides 22,827 jobs at the
University. Another 8,347 jobs at the, uh, Hospital and Clinics. For a total of 31,000
employees. We have to pay attention what's going on at the University, and so I think
some of the indicators that we should be talking about are just that, you know, what
student loans look like, the impact. But it goes beyond that. The rapid increase in
educational debt now estimated at $1.2 trillion has raised significant concerns about the
finances of the millennials. It's that generation that's coming up. Rises ... rising student
debt is pointed to as one factor holding back consumer spending and limiting the ability
of millennials to participate in the housing market recovery. So now you've got this
nexus, right, between student loan debt and affordability in housing for our future
residents, and what that does in terms of our community. Rising rates of non-payment on
student loans, as well as the fact of longer term ... terms mean millennials will be paying
off debt later into life, suggests that the dynamics of student debt continue to change and
have an impact on us as a community that we have ... need to be paying attention to . I
like to bring in some of these outside factors because there's things that we ... there's forces
that we don't control when we start to put our budget together, but we have to be paying
attention to how we fit into this whole dynamic of our country and internationally,
globally. So I'll continue with our ... our Power Point. Our budget goals are to continue to
implement steps to respond to the property tax shortfall resulting from the 2013
legislative changes, while maintaining service levels. I would say the most important
thing we're doing right now is maintaining good fund balances and the creation of this
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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emergency fund. I don't know how many people are doing across the state, but ... the other
thing I would tell you is that Iowa City probably was hurt more severely than any other
city in this state because of the multiple family change in terms of designation from a
commercial type of tax, uh, situation to a residential, and there aren't as many, uh, places
that have the percentage of multiple, uh, rental that we do. So ... that's gonna have a
drastic impact. We want to continue to maintain our triple-A bond rating. I'm going to
show you some graphs that probably should make your hair stand up if you haven't seen
these before. Um, maintain an affordable tax ... and fee environment for residents. That
goes back to the whole affordability question. You buy a house, or we make affordable
housing available for rent to purchase, we've gotta be cognizant of the associated costs. It
isn't just buying the house. It's maintaining the house. It's paying the taxes. It's paying
the interest on the loans. You know, mortgage insurance! House insurance. Continue to
follow the industry best financial management practices and receive the GFOA
Distinguished Budget Award and the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in
Financial Reporting. We've always, uh, we ... for 30 years we've been getting the annual
reporting award. One of the things, um, I saw when I first came here was the need for us
to ... to go after the budget award, and the reason for that is is not to put another plaque on
the wall. The reason is to have our budget vetted by other operations and finance
directors around the country and have them give us comments about what they see as
good and what, you know, maybe needs to be improved on. The document then helps us
shape all of that. I can take you into all sorts of budgets and show you where the ... the
bottom line number probably is an inaccurate number. Because a lot of places are
counting transfers as expenses and they're eventually double -counting. We don't do those
things, and ... and I'm surprised that that still happens, but quite frankly those sorts of
things happen, and by vetting our budget with others and going after the award every
year, you chen... tend to catch those things and reduce the chances, uh, in creating a much
more accurate type of document. Uh, and provide resources to achieve the strategic plan
goals. Okay? So we wanted ... want to do all of those things, and quite frankly they're all
interconnected. Maintaining a triple-A bond rating allows you to achieve the best interest
rates that you'll get in this country when you have to go out and borrow money. That
creates more opportunity for you to look at different strategic plan goals and be able to
pay for them. Urn ... we'll continue. Budget highlights, uh, preparation for the impact of
the property tax reform — I've kind of gone into that. Uh, and a continued reduction in the
overall property tax rate. Again ... I like to be ... if...if I had my druthers in terms of...of
property taxes and fees, I'd like to be ... right in the middle, or a little lower. Okay?
That's... that's where I'd like to be in terms of comparisons. But I'm going to show you
some comparative analysis, again, that explains why you've gotta really drill down to
understand why we fit where we fit into compara ... comparisons.
Throgmorton/ Tom, be ... before you go on, one of the things I was struck by in reading, uh, the
overview, and ... and looking at this particular page is the 6.4 -cent, uh, 6.4% growth in
taxable valuation.
Markus/ Yeah! And I'll talk about that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I kind of expected it to be much smaller than that, so...
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work session of January 9, 2016.
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Markus/ Yeah. I'd ... I'd say there's a couple things that are going on. Um, we get reassessed
pretty much every two years, and so this is the year when the bump occurs, and when you
start to look at ... we got a graphic in here so that you can see that. I ... I'd tell ya the other
thing, um, that I think is going on is we're using ... we're changing methodologies for
commercial property (mumbled; noises in background) yeah, and so it's more on an
income base rather than ... market sales and that sort of. ... and so I think that's gonna go
up. And so I think ... what I've been hearing for years, prior to us kind of figuring out what
was going on, Coralville's businesses were complaining constantly about their
commercial taxes going up, and they ... they, you know, my colleagues would say, are you
gettin' those kind of complaints? No, we're not hearing that at all! So ... if you
remember ... we have two different Assessors. Right? Iowa City has its own City
Assessor, and Coralville and the others are all in County assessing, and the County
Assessor was using an income basis for those, and I think that's starting to show up in
some of these things as well. Plus the reassessment. I want to caution you ... I want to
caution you ... don't think this number's going to repeat itself, cause I don't! Okay?
Commodity prices which drive farmland prices, which believe it or not are connected to
residential values in ... in a formula not even Dennis Bockenstock (laughter) completely
understands. Okay? Are all connected and so you need to ... you need to understand that
this was ... we were very happy with this number, okay, but I don't think it's going to
repeat itself. I think just the opposite, and I'll show you some information as I go
forward.
Mims/ Well, and Tom, also to emphasize that connection with that new State legislation that tied
ag and residential use to have a 4% cap on it. It's now a 3% (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and ... and (both talking)
Mims/ I know we'll get into it, but just (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and there's that cap ... and ... and all of these things go to play. One of the things I'll
tell you is, you know, the number we'd used is we expected like a reduction in taxable,
uh, income, uh, about $50 million based on the property tax reform laws. About $50
million over 10 years, and quite frankly so far ... at least in the different categories where
they made adjustment in property tax reform, our numbers are comin' pretty true!
So ... you know, we could actually experience that $50 million hit, which is why Dennis'
suggestion for this emergency fund and the whole conversation I just had about China,
with a soft landing, that's kind of what we're trying to set up for you is that as we go
forward when these ... you know, the bumps right now, quite frankly, are ... are kind of
gradual. They're kind of on a gradual decline. But there can be these drops, and that's
where that emergency fund can help you. I mean, if they choose not to backfill, you
know, and you're stuck with a ... a loss of a million and a half dollars or whatever that
actual backfill number is, and it's a big hit to make up in one year. Again, we'll get into
those things. Urn ... so there is this 6 1/2% growth we kind of talked on that. Uh, the tax
rate is actually been reduced by 7 ... uh, 7.2% since fiscal year 12. Um, it's probably the
lowest rate that we've had in terms of our tax rate since 2002. Again ... there is a ... change
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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that is moving the burden, the tax burden, on a relative basis from commercial to
residential, and the only way I can soften the am ... impact on residential, which also helps
commercial, is to keep the tax rate in check. Okay? I could cut expenses. I could find
alternative revenues that would also help, and I'll get into some of those discussions.
Um, so I talked about the emergency fund. Um ... I would say even though that we've
reduced our tax rate, we're still on the high ... uh, high end, uh, in terms of taxes. And I'll
explain that. I think we're number five out of the 12 comparables that we used. We
compare ourselves to what's called the Metro Coalition communities, which is 10
communities, plus we throw in Coralville and North Liberty so that you have a south
corridor kind of comparison that you'll see. Um ... budget highlights, um, we do an
annual, um ... uh, rate review. What we're trying to achieve in terms of our Park and Rec
fees is that they make up 50% of the ... cost of that operation on fees, and recognize
that ... that we're not, uh... uh, we're mindful that there are those that can't afford those fees
and we do scholarships and we do funding, um ... uh, on a regular basis to offset, uh, to
make sure that everybody can participate in our programs, even if they're not financially
able. Continue with a ... aggressive capital improvement program. Uh, flood mitigation,
meaning the gateway project. We completed one of the biggest cap ... uh, capital projects
with the, uh, relocation of the north plant and the expansion of the south plant.
Um ... critical infrastructure comes to mind is the grade separation, which probably has
been talked about in this community for 20 years and it's now under construction, and
like most construction, there's a lot of angst over, you know, the interruptions and traffic
service, but ... once that's all done I think you're going to have a very happy east side that
can move back and forth, and I think you'll actually see some benefits, not just to travel,
but I think to commerce in that area, that ... is now more accessible with that. So there's
going to be some interruptions on it ... on a ... on an interim basis. Um ... the storm water fee,
we are increasing that. Um, if you looked at the acronym, we used the acronym ERU,
that stands for equivalent residential unit. So in ... and so we're recommending a dollar
increase in that rate, and ... when we talk about equivalent residential unit, we ... then we
take and apply that to industrial, commercial and typic... typically roof tops, parking lots,
all impervious type surfaces, uh, we calculate and translate that to commercial and, um,
industrial properties, and so ... there's a .... probably a better than a proportionate charge -
back to them, as well. Um, but this helps us deal with various storm water issues, um,
and some of the natural areas that we use (mumbled) try to ... spend some more money and
develop some plans to ... to maintain those, so they're ... they serve both a storm water
function and a recreational function. Terms of, uh, property tax reform impact, this is
kind of a ... an interesting chart. There's a two-year drop, after all the years of discussing
commercial property tax reform, July lst they rolled back commercial property to 95%,
and uh, residential and agricultural were limited to a 3%, uh, statewide annual growth.
July 1 of 2015, the second, uh, shoe dropped in terms of the reduction in commercial
property tax reform. It dropped to 90%. Uh, backfill is set at $1.58 million. That's
where it's capped. That's what it'll be going forward. That's actually I think a little bit
lower than the previous year cause multiple family rolled out of commercial and so ... that
kind of changed that number as well. Um ... again, um, our estimates are coming true,
pretty well, and accurate on our estimates, so, uh, we could hit that $50 million loss, uh,
in what the potential was for it. Some of the things are very difficult to calculate,
like ... you know, the 3%, you know, cap on things in terms of well, what would the
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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growth have been, you know, and ... and ... in terms of 4%. It's very difficult to really
calculate those things going forward. So that's... that's our best estimate as to the impact
on those things. In terms of, uh, tax reform, this is an interesting chart. If you look at the
table on the ... or the summary on the left, um ... multi -residential taxable, uh, property. So,
at one point it was at 100%, right? So you ... you're reducing every year. The property tax
reform act wants or sets up a scenario where over this period of time that you're
seeing... multiple -family residential property will reduce to the same rate as single-family
residential properties. That's a huge drop! The way they've got it set up, it's about 3 and
3/4% drop every year. But ... in fiscal year 24, that's the final year of the drops, and it's
going to match the rollback of residential. Now the rollback of res... residential, I think
right now, Dennis, is 56.3, something like that? Yeah. So ... if you look at all those years,
86.25 to 82.5, that's a 3 -point, 3/4% drop. So when you get down to fiscal year 23, you're
at 63%, which used to be 100%, by the way, okay? That's a huge impact! But... rollback,
we've had rollbacks as low as 40 -some percent, right? (several responding) So if you're
at 40% in residential in fiscal year 24, it's going to drop from 63.75%. Let's say it's 23, or
let's say it's 43.75 is the rollback number for residential in 24. You're gonna drop 20%.
That's a huge hit! In one year! That's why you have to be mindful ... and don't get lulled
into this view that it's just ... it's moving along just fine because there's some ... there's some
trap doors (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) set up in this thing that you have to be
mindful on going forward. Now, I would tell you when you start to get to fiscal year 21
and 22, you'll have a pretty good sense of what those rollbacks are and what those ranges
are, so that you could plan ahead of those, but somebody's gotta watch those things as we
go forward, and I'm gonna take a little ... voice break and I'm gonna have Simon talk about
this chart on the right, just so you can interpret that.
Andrew/ Sure, absolutely! Um...
Karr/ Simon, I'm sorry, you're gonna have ... or the table!
Markus/ Yeah, jump up at the table. (several talking; background noises)
Andrew/ So the blue line up here, uh, the one that, uh, fluctuates the most, that goes across the
bottom, is the, uh, history of the residential rollback, and that's the number that, uh, we
have typically paid attention to that is most impacted us, and across the top is where you
had, uh, industrial commercial, and multi -family was included in that commercial
number. And they were up at 100% for ... uh, most of the history of this rollback system.
The purple line that you see, kind of fall off a cliff there after 2017, is the multi -family
(clears throat) Excuse me! Number, that will drop until it hits the residential number in
2024. Uh, the red and the green lines up top, commercial and industrial, you see that
those went from ... uh, 100 to 90, uh, in the ... A ... uh, reform era in the 2016, 2017 range.
So ... uh, really it's that purple line that drops off significantly that we're most worried
about and ... again, as Tom said, that that's something that impacts Iowa City, probably
more than any other community in the state, just given our percentage of, uh, multi-
family properties. So, that's a ... a really big number to pay attention to and that's
something we, uh, really have to be mindful for, uh, going forward.
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.
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Markus/ Thanks, Simon. Let's move to property tax, uh, levy. This is ... this now is ... under the
category, all of these next charts will be under the category of comparative analysis,
and ... you know, I ... I know that this, you know, property taxes and fees is not something
that necessarily ... uh... is a major competitive factor when people make location decisions,
but they do look at these things. So there's that part of it. The other part of it is, back to
the affordable issue ... the affordability issue in terms of housing and ... and how we ... how
we compete. So, in.. just in terms of property tax levy, if you ... if you look we rank about
five out of 12. Remember this is the 10 Metro Coalition communities and then North
Liberty and Coralville added to it. And you can see a ... sizable range. It ranges from
$17.76 tax rate in Waterloo down to $10.63 in Ames. But again, you have to drill down,
and I'll just generally make a statement right now. Coralville and North Liberty, I think
the major difference there are the services that they provide compared to us. And I'll give
you some examples. This is not exhaustive, but some really important examples. We're
the only full-time fire department ... in the three. Coralville has a bit of a hybrid. You
know, last time I looked they had four or five full-time firefighters. So ... that is a huge
number. That makes up a lot of (can't hear) in terms of tax rate. The other thing I would
tell you is ... we have a wonderful fire department. It's got a very good, strong rating.
Coralville's is rated the same as ours, with a hybrid department. And you have to pay
attention to that kind of cost factor. Um, many of our firefighters came from volunteer
ranks. Many of our firefighters still serve as volunteers elsewhere ... in the county and
within the range that they're permitted to live. Um ... I think, you know, at some point in
the future we should have a conversation, and we will, about are there other forms of
service delivery, you know, are there other hybrid examples that we could use as well, in
terms of those kind of cost issues. And the other thing I want you to be cognizant of and
Jim and I have had this conversation. You look at expanding into new areas for growth.
You have to evaluate your tipping points, okay? By that I mean ... is the tipping point
going to require you to jump into another fire station, okay? Whereas if you were to fill
out the development areas that are currently kind of pockets within the developed, largely
developed areas, you wouldn't have that same pressure, so you wouldn't pass that tipping
point and the current services could do that. I would tell you, I'm ... I'm familiar with the
Metro Council in the twin cities. That's what I grew up understanding. They use a
philosophy, it's more of a business philosophy. You use up ... a certain percentage of your
infrastructure before you move beyond. And that is critical. That's smart, okay, and
that's what we've gotta get to. Now ... you're gonna say, Markus, you're a bit of a
hypocrite! Cause you went ahead and, you know, went ahead with the Moss
Development. Yeah, and I felt a bit hypocritical about that. Okay? Cause I would have
rather focused more attention on ... River ... Rivercrossings. So you gotta keep those things
in mind! We have a huge industrial park, out on the east end of town. And staff has
heard me say this so many times it nauseates 'em, but we haven't had ... we don't have one
viable interest in that! You have a shovel -ready development with incredible
infrastructure, but we've walked into the face of...you know, a, just ... a dearth of
manufacturing space across this country, and people are almost giving away, and
manufacturing is just not recovered or you know, it's just not there. We were hoping, I
think, many people ... that the price of natural gas and things like that would make us a lot
more competitive on an international basis. I don't think that's actually happened. And
so ... (laughs) we ... we sit there with that property and to the tune where, you know, the
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staff is looking at potential alternate uses for some of that property because it...it just isn't
giving us any return on investment at this point. So that's a big issue for us. So ... I would
say to you going forward, and the Carson property is the one that we're getting a lot of
pressure on right now, um, you know, people own property. They get to a certain stage
in their life; they want to move on and so ... you know, they look at the development
opportunity. I think it's premature to move into those areas. We have other areas, north
Dubuque you have that, you know, that whole swath between Dubuque and Prairie du
Chien. That ... that should be considered for development. The whole south part of town
that's got services. We should, you know, work on getting those things, you know,
developed before you punch out more infrastructure into the inter -lands.
Throgmorton/ Tom, I think you're completely right about that. So I just want to echo it, but I
also want to just let you know that spoke with somebody yesterday who is trying to, you
know, get my attention with regard to that particular property, and I said we need to have
that meeting with Tom, uh, and one other thing is I ... I'm guessin' that not everybody
knows where the Carson property is. Yeah, so maybe you could (both talking)
Fruin/ It's roughly, um ... north of Menard's, south of Rohret Road on the west side of (both
talking) the interstate. Big ... big open farm land right now.
Thomas/ Tom, quickly I have a question on the ... the summary of the tax levies for various cities,
and one ... one that jumps out with me is Ames. Is there a short answer (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah!
Thomas/ ...as to why that's (both talking) so much lower.
Markus/ ...I'll show you that, but ... but let me just say about both Coralville and North Liberty. I
told you about the full-time fire department. Couple other bigs things that ... that roll
down on us in terms of higher expenses. We have a different pension plan, okay? And
this is through State law. Uh, they're in the IPERS program, which our employees are
too, and I'm going to give you some really startling data (mumbled) comparative data on
that. It's... our... our plan is the MF ... the municipal fire, police retirement system
(mumbled). That's a different system. It's a much more expensive system, as the
employer, and it's a much less expensive system as the employee. And it's a much better
benefit system than the IPERS system, and I'm going to show you some stuff on that.
Brothers and sisters in the fire and police union don't like me talking about this, but the
reality is it's a cost factor that we have to watch, and ... back in Michigan I served on
pension boards, okay? 20 -some years of it. I have more knowledge than I ever wanted
about pension systems and their expenses and their costs and how you make 'em work.
And the thing I would say to you is, if you give somebody something as an employer to
an employee, that is not sustainable, then you haven't given them anything. You've seen
all sorts of stories where ... they get, the employee gets retired and all of a sudden the
system says 'I can't afford to keep paying you,' and they take it away. You've... you've not
only didn't meet your promise... you've actually hurt that person. They were depending on
that revenue. And so ... you do not want to get yourself into positions, um ... and it's almost
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an unfunded mandate, quite frankly, cause a lot of this stuff happens at the State level and
we can't bargain, you know. We're barred from bargaining pension, um, benefits in the
state, but you need to see this and I'll show it to you.
Throgmorton/ Tom, would you remind me please if the, uh, the name of the pension program for
police and fire?
Markus/ Municipal Fire and Police Pension, uh, Retirement System.
Throgmorton/ Thank you.
Fruin/ Commonly referred to as the 411 System.
Markus/ Yeah, 411, which is the statutory reference number on it. Um ... couple other things.
The Airport. Believe it or not, we contribute general fund property tax to an airport, and I
told you this story before. The Airport serves, you know, an economic development
purpose, and a recreational purpose in my opinion. Beyond the borders of just this city,
but we're the ones that contribute the funds for it. And then human rights. Urn ... we have
a human rights staff and we spend a lot of time and energy dealing with human rights'
issues in this community. The others ... they go through the State, and you've seen stories
— Des Moines I think talked about, you know, dismantling their human rights. I'm not
suggesting that (mumbled) but ... what I might suggest to you is that at some point, when
we evolve a much better inter -governmental relations in this part of the corridor, maybe
what we could do is serve as the human rights department for other departments, with
them paying their proportionate share for ... how we provide services. I can tell you, I
can't imagine the State doing a better job than Stefanie and Christen do in our office.
They are... they're... they're excellent in terms of dealing with, you know, the ... the
problems that get, they get confronted with, so ... next thing is a comparison of utility rates
and again I'm going to get into some comparisons a little bit later. We rank seven. This
is kind of where I like to be in these types of things. And I would tell you that ... when you
talk about utilities, especially like water and sewer, there's a lot of fixed costs in water
and sewer, and so we've just gone through substantial, um, improvements, both to the
water system in the last 10, 15 years and to the sewer system in the last couple of years,
and so our costs are probably from the major parts of our infrastructure are probably
going to stabilize and over time I would say that we'll continue to be very competitive.
We do have some infrastructure needs, but I would also say to you that when you look at
our balances in those funds, we've been building up balances to deal with not only bond
coverage, but for future capital improvements, so we'll be in pretty good shape in that
regard.
Throgmorton/ Tom, one thing I remember from Rick Fosse's many presentations is the woeful
state of our water infrastructure.
Markus/ Yeah, and we're gearing up for all that, so we ... we are putting ... we raised the rates there,
you recall.
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Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ And that was the reason for that, is to get into the actual transmission line part of the
infrastructure. The plant is in good shape, and the plant has growth capacity built into it
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ Right.
Markus/ ...with the transmission nine ... lines, you know, in certain parts. We ... we monitor that.
We know when those things need to be replaced and so ... there'll be greater emphasis, but
again, you know, when you think about underground infrastructure, if you're gonna do
that, you want to do it holistically. You do not want to just go in and fix water main. If
you're gonna go in, and you're gonna tear up a whole street, the last thing you want to do
is go and fix the se ... the water, come back three years later — fix the sewer, then do the,
you know, a streetscape project or a, you know, a ... a ... you know, a smart road design, uh,
so ... you want to kind of look at this thing comprehensively. It all comes from different
sources, but the citizen doesn't see that. So it's critical that we look at these things like
we are in Washington Street. It's a perfect example! And you know ... you're gettin' a lot
of push back on that ... I've experienced that throughout my career. The best thing you can
do is do it once! Okay?
Thomas/ Some cities have moratoriums, you know. You do a street repaving. You do not ... lift
up for any reason that paving for five years or some...
Markus/ Yeah!
Thomas/ ...some period of time.
Markus/ And it's because it's just ... I mean, it just creates such terrible PR...
Thomas/ Uh huh.
Markus/ ...in terms of (both talking)
Thomas/ Well it compromises the system of the street.
Markus/ Yeah, exactly! So ... um, there's... there's a couple things in here, you know, people
provide services in different ways, right? So there's some privatization that occurs,
especially in solid waste. And so what we've tried to do when we look at these
comparisons is plug in an estimate of what that private... regardless of where the money
goes, the citizen's paying it, and the point of these things is to kind of show you a
comparative analysis as to where you fit. I see these as indicators. So that it tells you,
you know, are you really competing? Are we doing things on an efficient basis, and
that's... that's what that's about. Um, now there's some things that ... you know, on the 10
big cities, and when you start to look at those 10 big cities and you kind of go, gosh we're
still higher than some of these other places in the 10 Metro cities, but I want you to
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understand that, and I'm going to show you this, that they have alternative sources of
revenue. Theirs is more on the revenue side why they ... why they beat us in tax rate. You
know, they have, um ... well let's just start here. Utility franchise tax. Ours is set at 1 %.
Initially I think we were going to go for 2% and then we ratcheted back to 1. But if you
look at all those other places there, that I% generates Iowa City $900,000. Okay?
So ... 2% is 1.8. You're startin' to talk about real money in terms of if you use those things
for general fund items, then you would be able to reduce your tax rate. Okay? But you
get into all these discussions about what a progressive tax is versus what a regressive tax
is, and how that all plays out, and so ... my argument is ... that if you want to have ... a more
even kind of impact across the board, you should consider multiple types of taxes. The
key to that though is not to end up with ... those taxes that have high administrative burden
to administer those taxes. And probably the most expensive one is the property tax. We
have a whole infrastructure in this state and at our city and county that's all based on
property tax. Well, and then you compare that to the cost, administrative burden of like a
sales tax. Man, that's a computer application! You know, the staffing levels for that
administration are significantly reduced. So you want to think about, I mean, what does
the administration of a tax system really get you, right? It's .... it's an extraction of
resource to pay for those services. You want to try and control that the best you can.
So ... again, um, you could go up to 5% normally. Des Moines, by the way, is at 7 1/2%
(laughs) and that happened as a result of some, uh, litigation. They imposed, which tax
was it? They imposed a tax in Des Moines, then they got the legislature to bail 'em out
(unable to hear person speaking away from mic) Yeah. (person speaking) Yeah.
(person speaking) Yeah, and so now they came back, the legislature gave them
special ... you know (mumbled) to ... to ... to move in this direction and (noises in
background) add this tax (noises) pay off the ... the damages, which is ... apparently are
going back to taxpayers anyway so it's kind of circular. Okay! So the next one, and you
know, we all had some experience with this not too long ago, but here you have seven
cities out of the 10 in the, um ... um, Metro Coalition that are collecting sales tax, and look
at the numbers, okay? Look at the numbers that these amounts are generating. Now
I ... I'd point you out to Dubuque. Dubuque is smaller. Ames is smaller. Um .... I don't
know that any of the others are smaller than Iowa City. We're like the sixth largest in this
state. And ... I mean if I had that kind of money, I could certainly reduce your ... your
property tax, right? But we're not collecting any of this. We used to, you know, with the
special flood, uh, sales tax that we had, but that's a huge difference! And so that impacts
that tax rate. It's one of those things you gotta drill down and pay attention to, as to well
why is our tax rate here? Well, because these people are extracting funds from different
sources. Urn ... there, we're ... the only two metropolitan areas in the state that do not
collect the LOS are Des Moines and Iowa City. So West Des Moines, Des Moines don't
get it. Iowa City doesn't get it. West Des Moines and Des Moines are trying to change
the law to accommodate 'em. The thing I'll point out to you in terms of sales tax, and
something I want you to be mindful of, I hope it doesn't go there, but in the State of
Illinois, um, the sales tax, a I% sales tax, returns to the community of origin, which
means the sales tax goes to where the business is. You do not want that to happen here!
Okay? Fight that! Whether I'm here or not, you need to pay attention and fight that.
Because it would go back to where the stores are. Okay? And my point to you is, stores
don't pay sales tax. People do! You're talking about 73,000 in the ... in the City of Iowa.
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A number of the stores in our neighboring community could not survive if we
disappeared. Right? It's our people shopping there paying that sales tax. And the sales
tax is redistributed based on a per capita methodology. That's the way it should be done.
And you don't want to yield on that, and ... and that gets you into a situation where it's
difficult because there's this Metro group that has to vote on this. That gets you into a
difficult situation to get that sold. And there will be attempts ... to get you to kick back
certain parts of that to get it sold. I think what you need to do is explain to your potential
partners how they benefit from the current formula, and some benefit more than others.
You can figure that out, I'm sure, based on where stores are located. Okay, revenues.
Urn ... the other thing I want to tell you is there's a couple other things that don't show up
on our charts. Some of the other Metro Coalition communities have casinos! Right? So
I think there's four or five of those. (several talking) No, I'm not. I ... I've read the ... I read
the poll results, what people think about casinos in Johnson County. Urn ... it's an old poll
result! Um (laughs) but that produces alternative sources of revenue, right? I can tell
you, for example, Dubuque is really struggling right now because Illinois opened up
casino, you know, online gambling and whatever, you know, store gambling, and that's
been a real hit on their revenue stream. Another is utility, you know? Some places are ... I
think Ames has an electric utility which spins off revenue, as well. Again, all those
things impact what those tax rates look like. So, it's not just a simple comparison and, oh,
they must be managing better than this place because your taxes are higher, or your taxes
are lower. (mumbled) fund revenue comparison, um ... terms of property taxes, the
increases in valuation are a new development and the re-evaluation from the Assessor's
Office. Other city taxes, projected increase in TIF and hotel/motel revenue. More TIF
data will come on the following slides. Projects that are using the increase in captured
TIF revenue for 17 include the Riverside Drive, uh, pedestrian tunnel and streetscape, uh,
design project. Uh, the past industrial park infrastructure, in particular the railroad spur,
um, a huge expense. Collecting for planned early retirement of the Park at 201 bonds.
Towncrest, the medical office building had a loan and streetsc ... and streetscape. Under
license and permits, the increase in building permit revenue is really attributed, again, to
a cycle. We inspect multiple, uh, rentals every two years and so you ... but there's a bump
there that you'll see in the ... in the revenue and that's what's driving that. The use of
money and property, we've, uh, had better interest earnings and, uh, rents, uh (coughing,
difficult to hear speaker) a little bit. In terms of inter -governmental, there's a
degrease... decrease in federal grants. Um, there's a slight decrease in the State backfill.
Uh, it's now capped though, so that should be a consistent number going forth. Uh,
increase in road use tax, uh, funds. You know, they did pass a 10 -cent increase. That's a
huge thing for us. And you recall, that was one of the key items of our LOST so, you
know, we had to back up at that point and say, you know, it's hard for us to return to the
voters when we were trying to use LOST largely for road improvements or road
infrastructure, and then the State came off, you know, they've been talkin' about it for
years and low and behold, they actually... they actually increased the gas tax ... to their
credit! I can tell ya, across the country, that's a big issue and the whole'no tax' crowd,
you know, fights every tax, but that was a smart...
Throgmorton/ (both talking) roads been deteriorating in cities all over the country.
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Markus/ Absolutely! Miscellaneous revenue increase... increase in (mumbled) charges, internal
charge -backs and other financial sources, include increase in debt sales, uh, due to GO
bond funding for the gateway project, and revenue bond sale for the Scott Boulevard
trunk sewer project. Um, all funds revenue, uh, sources — this across all funds,
um ... obviously you understand what property taxes mean, uh, but under charges for
service that includes, uh, charges.... fees rather, for water, waste water, parking, refuse,
landfill, etc. Inter -governmental, uh, funds include, uh, federal and state grants, uh,
FEMA reimbursements — Federal Emergency Management Agency; and road use tax,
local 28E agreements. Everybody know what a 28E agreement is? Okay. Uh, federal
revenues is the largest share, followed by road use tax. And then other financial sources
include debt sales and sale of assets. That's when we sell a ... a, uh, a UniverCity house.
Terms of percent of City value captured in TIF. Um ... I was joking earlier and I said ... the
DEA should add TIF to the, um ... list of most dangerous drugs, because obviously a better
part of our state is fully addicted to TIF. Urn ... so just look at these numbers, and you
know, I ... I know some of you made some pretty strong comments about TIF and TIF
policy. That's fine. Believe it or not, some of us think very similarly. But ... you're in a
contest, you know, a context of how this is used, and look at what's going on! So ... Iowa
City's at I%. That means Swisher is at 27.7 times greater! That means that Coralville is
at 44.8% or 8 times greater than what we're doing in TIF! That doesn't argue that we
have to do more TIF. But ... (laughs) you're paying for that. You're absolutely paying for
this. In a couple ways! So if a business hadn't been relocated and it was used ... and TIF
got used, and you know the stories associated with that, what happens? The monies that
went to the School, the monies that went to the County, okay, are now diverted to a TIF
fund to pay for the TIF project. The monies that were diverted... let's assume that it was a
absolutely viable economic development project. Okay? Regardless, for a period of
time ... the time that the TIF is in play ... it's not going to be a net gain in that place. So ... by
taking the ... and, the money, the tax value out of the School and the County, it's likely that
a tax rate has to be increased in those jurisdictions, to the extent that they can do it. They
may not even be able to do it. That means that those ... like the one percenter here, that do
not have that much TIF in comparison, that means that our tax rates go up. So indirectly,
okay, it may not be the direct agency, meaning the School or the County that's... that's
suffering those things, but our taxpayers are paying for that. To me it's a subsidy of
economic development in other jurisdictions, especially when you look at how
disproportionate this range is! You have to be stunned by that! I mean, that's a ... that's a
significant number! And ... the other part of it that I would say to you is, our policy, our
process requires what we call a'gap analysis.' Now, you can quibble about it. You can
refine it, but ... how many places are doing a gap analysis? I can tell you they're not all
doing a gap analysis, which means that people are getting TIF ... where it hasn't been
financially determined that it's necessary to have TIF! And some people have said, you
know, I didn't even ask for it. Okay? So ... you've gotta ... when you start talking about
inter -governmental relations, this should be in your line of sight! You... you... this is part
of it. This is part of why inter -governmental relations are a bit strained! Because
philosophically we're just on different planets when it comes to the issue of TIF!
So ... good luck with it!
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Throgmorton/ Um, Tom, I have a re ... a request. Could you please explain, uh, for, uh, some of
us — me for example — how capturing a TIF increment relates to the creation of TIF
districts.
Markus/ You ... you, first off you have to have an urban renewal district. One of the things
that ... so we create an urban renewal district.
Throgmorton/ We have how ... how many? Eight, ten? I don't know. (several talking) What's
the number?
Fruin/ I was going to say seven or eight come to mind.
Markus/ Yeah. And so then ... then you have to, uh, define in those how you're going to use them,
and the law's very specific about the creation of this TIF process, how you would use that
money. So when you create that, it ... you don't have to take the full extraction of the
growth, okay? You can manage what you take. Some take the full, you know, the full
amount off of the ... the TIF, and so ... that diverts that money from the city of origin, the
county, the school, and any other property tax jurisdictions. Takes it away from them,
that taxable value, to be used so the rate is spread over the remainder, which means on
occasion the rate has to go up and the burden is placed there. Now ... the other thing I'd
say to you is ... there's been this... this... evolution of use. Initially TIF, as I understand it
here, was to deal with slum and blight, okay? It evolved to economic development, and
when it evolved to economic development, Katy bar the door! Okay? Because the ... uses
were pretty expansive. Now there's... there's different controls as to how much time you
have and, you know, to ... to amortize those types of things, but ... for example, public
buildings, okay, have been financed with TIF. Now ... so ... you should feel very proud
walking into different community buildings and city halls around the county because you
helped pay for them, okay? Indirectly. Well, when we do those things ... how do we do
it? We issue GO bonds against the full faith and credit of our citizens. We pay for 'em
ourselves. We don't use those proceeds, okay, to build those types of facilities. We do an
analysis, determine need, determine benefit. You ... you can quibble about all those
things, and you can refine those things. I get that, but that's not even ... many are not even
close to the analysis that we're doing. (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Uh, largely yes. Uh, I asked the question because, uh, and... Susan's actually
discussed this several times in various public venues, but ... it's important to distinguish
between project -based TIFs...
Markus/ Oh sure!
Throgmorton/ ...and I don't know, area -based (both talking)
Markus/ And ... and our goal, largely, is to do a project -based TIF. Now what that means is that
the ... the increment that rolls off the specific project is exclusively used to retire the debt
or the cost of the TIF, um ... proceed that we provide to the developer. Many places use
the district. So it's the growth of the district. We've had to do that. The Sycamore
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Page 17
project was a classic example, but I felt that it was so important to ... to infuse something
into that project, and ... quite frankly, you know, Lucky's made the most sense, um, in
terms of a business that was needed, but also caused a repeat kind of traffic to that
development, and so the larger district helps fund that because the roll -off from the
project itself was not going to be significant enough to retire it. Now, the fact of the
matter is, if the values, quite frankly, have a resurgence faster than we expected, it could
come close to paying for itself. But that remains to be seen. Some of those ... our
objective is to evaluate the project and have the project support itself. That's... that's the
way we tend to look at those .... those issues, and Rockne and Jim and Susan,
you'll... you'll get into a lot of those details as a part of the EDC (mumbled) That it?
(coughing, difficult to hear speakers)
Throgmorton/ For now, that'd be great — thanks, Tom!
Markus/ Next is the taxable value, uh, captured and it's the same scen... pretty much scenario, but
it relates it to on a per capita basis. So in ... in terms of TIF in Iowa City, you're at $453.
In terms of TIF in Coralville you're at $34,620 per capita (mumbled) if I'm reading that
number correctly. I mean, it's ... it's a bit of a mindblower, isn't it?
Thomas/ Do you know where Cedar Rapids is? I know they're another (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, no .... I'd have to look that up, John, to tell you that. Um, I ... I can tell you that
they've become way more aggressive. Jim and I met with the Mayor yesterday and um...
they ... they have taken on a very aggressive stand, um ... we're not that ... we're not as
aggressive as they have been, and can tell you their policy is not necessarily a gap policy
like ours is. Theirs is a if you meet these criteria you're eligible,' and ... and you saw the
Marion, you know, Cedar Rapids' story?
Thomas/ Uh huh.
Markus/ Um, I ... this is an issue that probably has to be resolved at the State level. We even tried
to get a fair play agreement here, um ... you ... you have to want to play fair to enter into a
fair play agreement. And that's another challenge for your inter -governmental. All right,
next is ... and this is just another graphic display, I mean, it's dramatic. Between ... um,
North Liberty and Coralville, um, they ... they constitute almost 87% of the, uh, TIF use in
Johnson County. It's huge! And yet ... you know, we probably make up in the
county ... what percent of the county do we make up in terms of taxable value?
Thomas/ I'm not certain, to be honest.
Markus/ I think it's well over 50%. It's ... thought it was (mumbled) so....
Cole/ Have we ever done an analysis as to how that 70.71 % number translates into a tangible
increase for the Iowa City taxpayer? How... what... what is that actually translate into?
mean I know that you have to do a certain ... some indirect analysis to get there (both
talking)
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Markus/ Yeah, and it's ... it's at best a projection.
Cole/ Okay. Just in terms of a rough ballpark figure.
Markus/ Yeah and, you know, there's probably some subtractions from that too (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ Presumably they've created value, presumably they've created additional sales tax.
Some, you know, and so it's ... it's a number. Uh, but ... you know, I kind of stay away from
those because the number's fraught from being attacked. Now I think Peter Fischer's
report actually puts a number to that (several talking) It did.
Mims/ It was about 200 .... (both talking)
Markus/ ...per capita, yeah (several talking)
Mims/ Capita, or was it based on valuation of the house. I ... I can't remember. (both talking)
Markus/ It was household.
Mims/ Yeah, it was (both talking)
Markus/ It was so much per household, what ... what that was costing us. It's in Peter Fischer's
report. But that's a....
Cole/ Helpful number to understand (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, because people (both talking)
Cole/ ...gets too abstract I think a lot of times people, uh (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and you ... and Jim and I talked about this, you know, I'm plagued with the City
Manager's disease. I just see things from experience and ... and looking at things very
differently, probably than the average person does, and this does not translate to a sound
bite very easily, right? It just doesn't resound to that. It's... it's... it's a lot of thinking and
you gotta constantly test, you know, what you're measuring and ... and that's why Peter
does such a beautiful job of...of doing that.
Throgmorton/ I think it might be helpful to, uh... arrange to have, I don't know, about a two-hour
work session, public work session, that enables the public to ask questions, uh, but also,
uh, gives us, the staff and the Council Members, an opportunity to present
what... what's... what we know about TIF and TIF districts and...
Markus/ Be great to have Peter back!
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Throgmorton/ Yeah, and have Peter involved. Have Nick, uh... uh, Nick Johnson involved. He's
an aggressive opponent of TIF, you know, and give him an opportunity to ask questions
and to respond. And ... and have it televised so that, uh, it becomes a way of helping all of
us understand how TIF works and how it's being used here in Iowa City versus how it's
being used elsewhere, without hammering other communities (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and ... the common refrain, and it isn't just in our area. Uh, Geoffll tell ya,
Simon'll tall ya, we ... we're on these calls with Metro Coalition and (coughs) I had
suggested that we should get together a subcommittee of the Metro Coalition and look at
best practices around the country. Geoff spent time in Illinois. I spent time in Illinois,
Minnesota, and Michigan and they have very different approaches, and there's different
approaches in almost every state, and there's some ... I think that there's some potential
best practices that would improve our situation. You see, I ... at the end of the day, I think
that TIF has a place, but at the end of the day ... I don't want to spend a dollar more in TIF
than the public should need to. And I think that requires a financial model and a metric
and in some places that's required right in the state law. As dismal as Illinois, uh, ec...
economics are, they do a much better job in my opinion of evaluating TIF, wouldn't you
agree? (unable to hear response) Yeah, we describe it as they have a little cottage
industry, and you have to go through these metrics and create this whole analysis to
justify that use. The problem with us doing it ... is we're alone! You know, and it's like ... it
just keeps ... it keeps going. Now the ... the dramatic comparison is looking at these charts.
Wait till you get to ... wait till you get to bond rating charts, and I'll show ya... I mean, I
don't think that there is necessarily a disconnect there, and I don't know that it's a direct
inverse relationship kind of connection, but it...it certainly is dramatic to see it, and then
wonder and ponder ... you know, what that inter -relationship is that drives such an
opposite result.
Andrew/ Next.
Markus/ Urn ... again, this is kind of an interesting chart because you know you have assessed
values, right? And then we have rolled -down values. So we roll down our .... our
residential values to 56%. We roll down our commercial values down to 90%. We're
rolling down our multiple -family, the new category, values. So what you're going to see
going forward, and the critical part of this is is the blue line and the red line are going to
continue to separate, which means that you're going to be able ... the taxable value, which
is what you can collect on, is going to get smaller ... or further away from the actual
assessed value... because of the property tax reform, um ... changes that were made. Um,
this is a ... this is an issue of shifting, uh, burden, urn ... and I need to get moving. Um,
commercial roll -back effect, um, growth in residential burden. In 15, uh, 17, multi -
residential roll -back, uh, is about 86.25%. Now here's the interesting thing that I want
you to look at on this ... on this ... this chart. Residential, um ... taxable value is increasing by
.8%, okay? On a relative comparison of everything that is taxable. At the same time,
commercial and multi -residential is decreasing by 1 %. Okay? So ... from a relative
standpoint, you've got a swing going on of about 1.8%. Meaning... residential burden is
going up. Commercial is going down. That ... that wasn't talked about a lot ... when we
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talked about commercial property tax reform. But anybody that... couldn't connect the
dots, right, was not paying attention. That is the likely result. And from my standpoint,
the only thing I can do to ... at least help so that this doesn't become even more of a burden
on residential is to keep workin' on that tax rate and keep lookin' at that part of it.
Property tax receipts, um, significant bump. I think we explained that. It's the biennial
bump from assessment, uh, re-evaluation. Next year's growth is not expected to be as
big, uh, as it is an off year and uh, not re -valued. Property tax rates, um, you know, we
comment about this all the time. This would be the fifth straight year. It's a ... it's a
modest decline, but ... I can tell you, um, we make up over 40% of the tax bill, um ... School
is next and then the County. Um, so ... you know, it has ... whatever adjustment we make
and then that bill... that... that applies to about 40% of that tax bill. And here's the ... here's
the next chart that shows that. City of Iowa City's 43% of the tax bill, School District
36, and Johnson County 18%. Small part for the, uh, Kirkwood, and a fraction of a
fraction for the State of Iowa that they collect. Um ... keep going. Um, this is just a
different way to show, um, the different tax burden split out, and then, uh, other major
revenue sources. Um, hotel/motel tax, fiscal 14, is the first full year that the Hampton
down on Riverside, uh, revenue would be received. Uh, it's expected to continue the
increase with new hotel developments. We just went to a groundbreaking for the hotel,
uh, it'll be next to the museum and the, uh... uh... Music Center. And then the gas and
electric tax based on, uh, gas and electric valuations. There used to be a property tax on
this and..and, uh, Simon, uh, had done some research on the history. It was kind of
interesting. So what we were doing, we were charging a property tax on the gas and
electric utilities in the state, and some ... it dawned on somebody that, well, you know,
there's foreign companies, meaning out of state companies, that are importing gas and
electric, and we weren't charging them. So they changed the methodology to a, um,
excise tax. So they .... they kind of took the same amounts and then they just
proportioned 'ern across, you know, how much ... gas and electric (coughing, unable to
hear speaker) imported versus what's being generated here so that it was a fairer system.
Otherwise we were subsidizing, um ... or actually punishing the in-state (noises, unable to
hear speaker) so ... that was the reason for that.
Botchway/ Tom ... oh, go ahead, finish what you were saying (both talking)
Markus/ ...and then the utility, uh, franchise tax is a ... a percent tax. We talked a little bit about
this. We don't make projections beyond 16 and 17, uh, because we're really too
conservative on those projections. The... the... there's some variation in all these things, so
we just show ... you'll see that we just end at fiscal 215 and that's because we want to show
the actuals and then, you know, we ... we're pretty conservative in terms of our budgeting
going forward. You had a question, Kingsley!
Botchway/ ...the hotel/motel tax rate comparison to, um ... or actually not rate but the actual
revenue compared to Coralville? I feel like you gave that number to us before (several
talking) Okay. So it's not higher than that. Okay, just wanted to make sure.
Markus/ Yeah and ... and, you know, we ... we followed their model because they get a little bit a
break. They provide the space for the ... uh, CVB, um ... as ... as a part of...part of this, so
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they don't share that part of the tax, but they're providing the space in lieu thereof. And
we use the same gambit when we did the ICAD facility, uh, downtown (mumbled)
(noises in background) and gave them a better deal on the ... on the lease rate. All right,
um, next in terms of all funds expenditures, some of the highlights. Public Works is up
16.4%; some personal expenditures moved from capital projects into Engineering
Services. Expenditures for maintaining, painting traffic signals and street light poles.
Health and Social Services, about a 23.3% increase includes 200 grand, uh, per year for
five years. No ... 200,000 and it's, uh... 20 ... it's 20,000 for five years. It was a 100 -year
matching grant and, Kingsley, you brought this up the other day. Uh, that's included in
there, for the 1105 project. 30,000 for the winter homeless shelter. 50,000 per year for
three years for the Iowa City Endowment and the Community Foundation, and I ... did I
explain this the other day?
Cole/ No.
Markus/ Okay, we have this Community Foundation through the Johnson County, uh,
Foundation, and what we decided to do, and in fact Steve Long and some others came to
me and said, you know, what we should do is we should have our own fund. Coralville
has their own fund inside that fund. I think North Liberty does, and so what we thought
would be a really good idea, not knowing where the state of funding's going in the State
of Iowa or Iowa City, we should create a fund which sole purpose is to create a host with
spin-off revenue that would be used exclusively for social services, and so ... we've started
this fund. Um, I agreed, uh, subject to Cou... Council confirmation, to kick in 50,000 a
year to get this fund started. So when you contribute funds to, you know, the Johnson
County Foundation, you can designate this fund and you can put money in there so that in
the long run, you have an alternative source of revenue. It's going to take a while to build
it up but ... you gotta start sometime! And you know, you ... you could see this roll into the
millions over time, and that, you know, depending on the interest rate market at the time,
that could create a nice spin-off for you so that we can maintain our social services. The
other thing while I'm thinking of social services, think about ... the pressure you're under
right now in terms of jo...social justice issues, and ... and the County, by statute, is the
main... provider of social services. That's... that's ensconced in the law. The County has
suffered.... cutbacks at the State level, at the federal level, and then when you think about
TIF cutting that off, it's no wonder that the Board of Supervisors is looking for partners in
terms of social justice issues and social services, and ... think about what they would have
had in terms of resources to be able to apply if you didn't have those dramatic numbers in
terms of TIF use, and money being carved off away from them. So ... those are all things
that you gotta keep in mind in the big picture. Um ... debt service, 14.7% increase;
payments for the early redemption of the fiscal year 11 GO bonds; uh, enterprise funds,
8.9% increase predominantly related to infrastructure, maintenance, repairs, capital
projects, and other charges are standard personnel and cost of doing business. Some
place, yeah, it's the next chart. Um ... personnel, um, and I'll show a graphic on ... on, they
make up 73% of your general fund, and I think the comment earlier on property taxes for
the general fund, property taxes make up 64%. So while the property taxes are under a
hit, right? That's your major source, 64% in the general fund. And your major expense is
73% is personnel. So if I suffer... declines in property tax, where do you think it's going
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to come out? There's a 73% chance it's going to come out of personnel, okay? Cause
you can't really reduce much in terms of supplies and some of those things, and we're
tightening those numbers every year we look at 'em anyway. So ... that's why you
have ... I ... I run what's called a modified attrition program. Every time there's an opening
and it, you know, the staff sends it ... are we going to fill this position, and I look at those
things. Can we do it better? Can we fit it in? Can we double up? Can we do it some
other way? Every time one of those comes open. We've cut 40 -plus positions. You
know, I don't brag about that. That's not the most popular thing to brag about in Iowa
City, but ... I think we are a more efficient operation and when you think about 40
positions, if those 40 positions each paid $50,000 a year, including benefits, which would
be at the low end, that'd be a $2 million differential in your budget every year. So you've
gotta pay attention to those (both talking)
Botchway/ And state that again. You didn't cut the positions, I mean (both talking)
Markus/ We attrited them. (both talking)
Botchway/ You didn't fill those positions back.
Markus/ And ... and ... (both talking)
Throgmorton/ And there's only one or so that was a real cut (both talking)
Markus/ ...and then ... and then we brought that person back! (several talking) At least one of the
two. The other one retired.
Mims/ There's also a difference between position and people. So ... people weren't cut. They
(several talking) Right, but...
Markus/ And I appreciate your bringing that up.
Mims/ Right but then as a result, the positions may have been removed from the budget
eventually.
Markus/ I'd say probably the average is closer between $60,000 and $70,000 so it's a significant,
you know, and ... and I ... I don't think we've lost a step in terms of service (mumbled) It's
one of those things where people... people understand, I think, the issues and adjust to the
circumstance. And ... one of the things that ... that I really believe is that ... um ... employees,
given the opportunity, will be able to accomplish a lot more than we typically give 'em
credit for. If we pigeonhole'em too tight, I think you're just hurting the organization.
And I think we have an obligation... to provide the services the community wants, but the
quid pro quo is that we have to do it in the most efficient manner we can, being
reasonable to our employees, but also reasonable to our taxpayers. So we look at those
things (mumbled)
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Throgmorton/ And ... and if I remember correctly the total number of employees in terms of FTE
right now is 599.
Markus/ Yeah, it's right at ... just under 600.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ And if you ... if you start doing comparisons, like around the state on that, you'd find
some dramatic, you know, I ... I think we're pretty much where I think we need to be. You
know, there's probably some positions, you know, as we get into more technology in a
certain area you can tweak this or cut this or adjust this, but I try to do it through attrition,
and the other thing I would tell you is, we know ... we know we're gonna face a financial
crisis! We know that! As a manager ... I feel it's my obligation to get you ready to deal
with that! And I can tell you, just as Kingsley's pointed out, attrition is a much ... softer
way to deal with that issue than waiting until the crisis is right between your eyes and
then lay off people! I would feel like I wasn't doing the job of this team if we did it that
way. So ... we're always looking ahead, we're always trying to figure out what the calculus
is in terms of the operation.
Botchway/ Well and two questions to that, Tom, and (mumbled) not going to be able to answer
in this quick time frame, but ... kind of going back to the funding as we're talking about
expenditures, is there anything ... one, that we're doing ... at that initial staff level to ... not
decrease services but ... well, maybe decrease services or maybe the amount that we're
paying for particular services within a particular department by, you know, stating ... I just
remember going through like large budget documents in my own recent, or previous job,
where we look at, you know, where we could cut 5% out of the budget, out of each of our
different line items. Where we could cut 10% out of...I mean, and 10% was crazy! We
wouldn't be able to ... feasibly be able to provide services to Johnson County residents, but
do we do that type of analysis, in the wake of, you know, the crisis that we're talking
about?
Markus/ I think the net result the same, but I would say ... I look at it in a more positive way. We
take that strategic plan and I can tell you that ... the amount of performance review
analysis that was done previously... was not where it needed to be, and so we've infused
that. We insist on that. We have those conversations, and so ... throughout the
organization, those conversations are taking place, to be consistent with the strategic
plan. There's a lot of exercises, quite frankly, in terms of...you know, we can cut across
the board and we can do all this. Quite frankly when you're doing that, I think you're
behind the curve. I think ... we're trying to be ahead of that process. We're looking at, is
this system working the way it is? Does this match a strategic goal? All of that ... in
advance. So I ... I've done all those types of analysis. I think you're... you're kinda in the
soup by the time you're doin' those things. Um ... and I ... and I made the emphasis on that
one. So let me talk a little bit about MF, uh, PRSI, and this is our police and fire
pensions, and ... it is so nice that the Chief just happened to (laughter) It's kind of an
encore! (laughter) Um ... and the Chiefs know about these issues, but um ... though the
cost has dropped some in the last two years, note the increases on the chart, uh, since
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2011. Okay? Going back one more year, um ... the fiscal year 2017 total ... is 101%
increase in the employer contribution since 2010. That is huge, folks! And the ... the real
challenge with these pension systems is, the employee has a fixed contribution. The
employer ... has the total risk. So ... if the unfunded accrued liability... okay... spikes, it's all
on us. The employee's contribution does not change. So ... any ... need to ... amortize the
actuarial unfunded accrued liability is the burden of the City. And it's expensive! The,
even in the, uh, 17 budget, the contribution for pension alone ... is $1,165,000. For fire it's
$1,539,000 — a total $2,300... 704,000 and that's actually a decrease! Okay? So when
you start to calculate the tax impact, $2,704,000 is being contributed just to the pension
system alone for that, and it ... and the comparisons are dramatic and I'll show you those.
So let's go into the next. So there's two pension systems. There's the IPERS system, the
Illinois Public Employers Retirement System, and then Municipal Fire/Police System.
And you can see the differences in terms of employer contribution. The two critical
numbers are ... just look at the bold numbers on the top. The total employer contribution
for IPERS is 17% of payroll, versus MFPRSI, which is 27.37%. So ... it's a better
benefited system. It's a more expensive system, and the employer pays that cost. And I'll
keep going with this a little bit. Here's one of the things that... that... is sometimes difficult
to explain, but ... under Chapter 411, Chapter 6 mandates the City to pay for medical costs
for retired employees in the MFPRSI system. It spells out ... that a disease of the heart,
lung, or respiratory track, including cancer or other infectious diseases, are presumed ... to
have been contracted while on duty for police and fire. So now look down below at these
red charts. Our workforce is 81 % in IPERS. And 19% in the police system. And yet
that 81 % results in only 48% of the medical expenses for that 81 % of employees, versus
52% and 19. That's a mandate. That's one of those unfunded mandates that your State
thrust on us. And at one point, the State used to help contribute to this fund and they
dropped it, which is ... typical state approach to things, right? So ... these are things, again,
that ... that make a huge difference. Coralville, North Liberty — they aren't in that system.
They're in an IPERS system that deals with law, uh, public safety. Even that system is
less expensive.
Throgmorton/ How can they not be in the system?
Markus/ Well, the statutes were set up so that it was a size situation, and once you crossed a
certain size community population, then you kicked into this system. That's kind of gone
by the wayside and communities are way beyond the numbers and they're going there. I
joked at one point ... you know, I'm gonna start ... I'm gonna start lobbying that everybody,
all police and fire, just for equity purposes, should be under this system.
Because... they're all sittin' there, you know, happy as church mice, right? Not having to
deal with this pension system, versus the IPERS system, and ... by gosh, I think the
Coralville police officers deserve the same pension that Sam's people do and John's
people do! That'd make me real popular, wouldn't it? (laughter) But, I don't know how
to, you know, construct... you know, a ... a position without getting to somebody else, cause
they're just gonna sit on the sidelines on this and so are their legislators. So maybe, you
know, you have to use a little counterintuitive kind of approach and go after the rest of
'em and ... and say why ... why aren't your officers doing this? Why aren't your officers
gettin' this benefit?
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Botchway/So you're startin' to talk about it from a political benefit, or not a political benefit but a
political argument standpoint. I guess my question is is that ... if that's the case, why
haven't any ... based on size, why haven't all the other ... Cedar Rapids, Des Moines....
Markus/ Oh they have! We ... we talk about this at our Metro Coalition every year, but you
have .... you have some very prominent State legislators who also happen to ... one in
particular, be a firefighter. Okay? So there's some loyal opposition to this, and quite
frankly, you know, you ... the union movement is not inclined to jump into this sort of
thing and ... and you're talkin' about, quite frankly, public safety personnel are ... normally
held in the highest esteem and they're not ... it's not easy to just shift that, and ... but I ... but I
think that there's some things you can do. The pension reforms that I experienced back in
Michigan and ... and just the, you know, the ... the crazy financial positions that they spun
the cities into ... you've gotta pay attention to this. When you have increases ... I think some
of those increases approach 30% in one year! 30%! I mean ... that's huge! So ... yeah!
(unable to hear person speaking)
Karr/ We're (unable to hear person speaking) I'm ... yeah. Just for the benefit of Pauline, as well
as recording, we can't hear anything that is said.
Markus/ All right.
Mims/ (both talking) Tom, can I just ask one quick question on that. Am I correct in that the
medical costs ... those that are listed under those certain diseases, first dollar payment is
coming from the City and not from Medicare?
Bockenstedt/ That is correct. We pay 100% of those costs.
Mims/ I ... I realize this is a political issue for the State, okay, but wouldn't it make sense if we
could get the legislature to change that ... that Medicare was the first dollar and then we
came in after that, and ... the police and fire would still get the same benefit? We're ... the
employee and the City are paying into Medicare at the same rate as IPERS employees
are, yet Medicare's getting the break on those particular diseases, and the Iowa City
taxpayers and .... and that retirement system...
Markus/ Anybody in that retirement (several talking)
Bockenstedt/ And there are Medicare rules as far as, uh, other payers should pay first, and so we
do have to report some of these things to Medicare and they ... they ensure that if there's
other payers out there, that they pay first before Medicare. So ... so they do have rules as
far as who pays first. The federal system does.
Mims/ And the State needs to rewrite it in a way that (laughs) Medicare pays first (laughs)
Bockenstedt/ (both talking) ...supplement than a...
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Taylor/ I like that, Susan! That's... that's a good idea if there's some way we could do that, to
lobby. I know that's one of our ... in our strategic plan is to ... the legislative things, and I ... I
think that would be a great idea and seem more fair, more balanced.
Mims/ Don't know if it can be done, but...
Botchway/ Do we lobby in this ... this is a question for Susan. Do we lobby (several talking) with
that level of specificity?
Markus/ Oh yeah, we talk about all these things and, you know, we both belong to the Metro
Coalition which lobbies very directly. We have our own lobbyists that hit these issues
and we ... but ... but you're talking about ... it's like TIF! You know, you've got so many
users of TIF, you're... you're up against a formidable, you know, uh, user group that
supports these types of, uh, issues and again, it doesn't resound to a quick sound bite.
Mims/ My only point on this one is if...(laughs) With whatever the Medicaid rules are, if this
could be changed in a way that it does not negatively impact those retirees, why would
they lobby against it? But, again, I don't know the complexities of the Medicare regs
either, so...
Markus/ So there's a pool going on right now, how many Markus is going to go over his
(laughter) some people are (several talking and laughing) Um, so (several talking) so let
me crank it up a little bit. Health insurance premiums, um, our projected increase 17%;
the estimated dollar impact to the general fund is $6 million. Overall the funds is about a
million dollars. Um, again, this ... this fluctuates, um, we work our insurance company
pretty seriously in terms of these rates and we've actually had, uh, this the first real spike
we've had for a few years now.
Dickens/ Will age have anything to do ... is it considered in there as you get these younger people
(several talking) retire (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, it's actually... it's almost exclusively usage and ... and so we end up ... there's a
OPEB cost because employees are eligible to continue to participate at their expense,
but ... their category is a higher risk category, which causes more claims and then ... so we
get an OPEB charge back on that sort of thing. Road use tax funds, gas tax — in March of
2015 the State increased the gas tax. It's been a big help. Uh, we've increased the
pavement program to about $1.5 million. Um ... we were under $650,000 before so this is
a big help, and the other thing is, you know, um, this ... this deals with a lot of, um, ADA
issues too because we improve the ADA intersections when we do these types of
(mumbled) Um, sometimes that cost can run as high as 30% of the total road
maintenance perog... program because those are expensive improvements associated with
that.
Thomas/ A quick comment on that cause I ... notice this kind of a detail but I ... I hope the DPW,
um, is aware of this. Many of the...
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Mims/ DPW? I'm sorry.
Thomas/ DPW. What did I say?
Mims/ You did and I don't know what it means.
Thomas/ Oh! Public Works... Department of Public Works.
Mims/ Oh, Department of (both talking) Okay!
Thomas/ Um, many ... at many of our curb ramp locations the grade is such that when we have
either rainfall or snowfall that then melts (both talking)
Markus/ Accumulates!
Thomas/ You end with a pond at the bottom of the ramp, which I slipped on the other night
(laughs) when it turned to ice, so (both talking)
Markus/ And ... and that's why ... quite frankly, John, it doesn't make sense to do those adjustments
(both talking)
Thomas/ No (both talking)
Markus/ ...unless it's associated with (both talking)
Thomas/ You do it as part of a street repaving project. So we ... we really need to address where
we do these projects to adjust the grade at the bottom of these ramps so we don't create
these hazardous conditions.
Markus/ I agree with you! Um ... the other thing is the brick, uh, street reconstruction on
Davenport and Fairchild, uh, streets. Um, I would say to you again that's a,
um ... that's ... you know, per square foot, it's a much more expensive road improvement,
but it has the historical connection and the previous Council made a very strong
commitment to keep doing that. So that's plugged in there. We've doubled again the
curb ramp project, exclusive of the street (mumbled) and then we have a, uh, some
funding for annual complete streets, uh, projects. Under debt service, the State of Iowa
allows you, uh, the maximum of 5% of the total assessed property value. We're at about
1.1 %. Um, we used to have a policy that we would not exceed 25% of the total debt
levy. Uh, just before ... as I was starting, the City raised it to 30%. Uh, we've kept it under
the 25%, uh... uh, the whole time. We're now at about 23.1. We've done substantial, uh,
debt restructuring and limi ... elimination. Um, we want to ... we ... we continue to look at
that because that's a tax rate, uh, factor. Um ... and we also, um, we look at our ... our rates
every year. Our fee rates. Um, my philosophy is ... adjust 'ern so that they cover the costs
they were intended to and you need to do that on an annualized basis. Don't wait and
then spike it, you know, by double-digit percentages. Do it every year so that it's always
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relative. So it's like a COLA adjustment that you're making every year so that you're
covering those things instead (both talking)
Dickens/ ...think we raised it because of the flood issues, at that particular time, so...
Markus/ Iowa City debt limit and fiscal. This is another, uh, just showing the, um ... um, the ... a
graphic comparison. The point I'd make here is between fiscal year 11 and fiscal 16, we
reduced outstanding GO debt by $22 million. So ... that ... that's the basis of restructuring
early ... early calls and getting it off. Urn .... and then the distribution, uh, in terms of
Moody's, uh, A rating and you know ... if this is ... this is based across all cities in the
United States, okay? These are bond ratings. These are investment grade bond ratings.
When you go off the chart on the right, you're at junk bond status. So ... we're in the top
7% of Moody rated communities in the country. If you're at the other extreme, you're in
the bottom half percent of investment grade communities in the country. That's
significant! Despite the comments I hear about Moody's, I will tell you I've been through
Moody's ratings. Dennis has been through Moody's ratings. It is the most
thorough... comprehensive evaluation. I'm always struck by how much they know about
our business. How ... they do have leading indicators and they do measure 'em and they've
gotten even tougher. There's three bond rating agencies, at least that I'm familiar with —
Moody's, Standard & Poor, and Fitch, and they kind of go in that order of...tough ... tough,
you know, tougher... tough, you know, and ... average or whatever. And we have the ... we
have the gold standard, okay? You should be very proud of that. I'm just maintaining it.
You've had this for ... what is it? Almost 40 years ... in this town? Yeah. I mean, it's ... it's
phenomenal that you have it, and ... despite what, you know, the comment was about
demographic, it's actually... it's actually more significant that you have this rating
compared to the..."typical" demographic of a triple-A community, where you have, you
know, much higher, uh, income per capita, um ... you know, you have a ... more of a closed
suburban type of environment. I think that's the more stereotypical. Here you have this
dynamic, independent core city and you're maintaining a triple-A. You should be very
proud of that! It's the most thorough vetted survey of your business that you can get.
Cole/ What is the threshold for the junk status?
Markus/ It goes down ... you go into, you know, you go beyond the BAA3, you're in junk.
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ This is the last investment grade, and I think what that technically means is commercial
banks can still buy this, can still ... trade in this (mumbled) right? After that...
Bockenstedt/ Once you get in that junk side there's pretty much speculative, risky at that point.
So...
Dickens/ Anybody in the area that's (mumbled) that low?
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Markus/ Um, apparently there's no one in the State of Iowa that goes below the ... but there are in
the country that go below that. Um ... there's only two, uh, at the very bottom and
in ... when you compare it in the State of Iowa, um, we're in the top 3% of all those in
Iowa, versus the bottom 3% if you're at the other extreme. And ... and, you know, what
this really is is, from left to right, it's a measure of risk. Right? That's all that is. It's ... it's
a ... it's a metric driven analysis of risk and so when you're over on the left, you have the
best risk, which means that equates the lowest interest charges on your bond issues.
(noises on mic) ...the right, that means you're the highest risk. You're gonna pay a lot
more money! We do that by a combination of things that are very prudent in terms of
how we manage. We maintain good fund balances. We watch our expenditures. We
look at our revenue sources. We try to stay ahead of the game in all those things.
Throgmorton/ Tom, what happens if a high risk... community, uh, defaults on a particular
payment?
Markus/ Well technically in a ... in terms of, uh, bond issues, you have pledged the full -faith and
credit of your city. And I suspect, you know ... in the old days we used to have this
theoretical discussion of what that actually means. Quite frankly it might mean the sale
of municipal assets. To recover some of that.
Bockenstedt/ Yeah, if you default, the bond owners can essentially sue you to raise the revenue
to repay that debt. So ... um ... you know, that's really the alternative option if you don't
raise the taxes or the revenue, they would sue you and force you to raise your property
tax rate or ... or revenues to repay that debt.
Markus/ (both talking) ...so in the State of Michigan they had what's called an emergency, uh,
finance manager. Very familiar with that. Um, so Detroit defaulted, right? De ... Detroit
was in bankruptcy. So in the state law the emergency finance manager would come in.
They have total discretion. City council doesn't have discretion anymore. They have
hiring and firing authority. Uh, at any given point in that discussion, and it evolved, based
on what the State allowed 'em to do. They could break contracts. Um, they could deal
with labor contracts. Um ... they could raise fees. I mean, you know, you're supplanting
government with an individual that makes the call, all driven to get you back into
solvency. And that's technically how, you know, you go through a bankruptcy, how you
come out. You've... you've forfeited your right to run your operation because you ... you
can't be trusted to run it in a solvent and fiscal way, and ... so they come in and they ... they
take charge. Um, I'm not gonna go through all the reasons for the en ... enterprise fund
balances. We maintain very substantial fund balances, but I'll make a couple comments.
There's bond covenants, okay? So we have coverage factors that are reflected in there,
which means that when you ... you sell a bond issue, um, the ... the investor service says you
have to maintain this in order to achieve this kind of an interest rate. Um, there's capital
projects built in there, and one of the big ones if you look at the Landfill, there are
closure, post -closure requirements. Um, it's a big environmental issue and I ... and I
actually think it comes from the feds, but the EPA, through the State, um, actually
monitors ... DNR probably monitors it. They impose criteria for the cells that you have
and the capacity in the cells, and so that if there's a leakage in the future, there are funds
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already set aside to deal with that, and so those funds have to be maintained. That's why
those funds are so significant, and there's similar kinds of things throughout all that,
urn ... and we can get into those kinds of details, but ... it's time to move on. Property tax
impact. I think this number on the right is wrong. That number in the big box or the
house should be $921. The net effect of...of this is a difference of about $7.00. So with
all the fees and the taxes that we're charging people, on a $100,000 home it'll actually be
a $7...$7.00 decline. Now... you... you gotta understand something. At the same time,
remember that number in terms of value increase, right? So this is just an apples to
apples comparison. But if your value increased, right? On your house ... that means ... even
with a tax decline (mumbled) the value increase, you're gonna suffer some tax increase as
a result of that. So I don't want that to be misinterpreted. Uh, next is the property tax
impact. Um ... this is ... this is on a commercial property, and obviously commercial
property tax reform is working quite well. Okay? Just look at the decline, um, in the
property taxes for commercial. Now, it's easy to get ... on your high horse and ... and say,
well ... you know, uh, this is just a burden shift and they're just really hammering us, but
remember, commercial property was assessed at 100% ... before! Whereas residential was
assessed, you know, in a you know rollback. Like this year 56.3%! So ... it's hard to say
that it, you know, it's a relative burden shift compared the way the system was operated
before, but... obviously a higher percentage of commercial and even multiple -family and
get..until it gets out of the residential rate, is paying a higher proportionate share based on
their value for... government services. So ... that was part of the ... the logic. I thought they
were actually pretty reasonable when it came to commercial, only dropping it like to a
90% rollback, but .... we talk about a burden shift, but it's relative. Okay? Next, the
budget analysis, uh, storm water, uh, rate is gonna increase. It has a larger impact on
commercial, multi -residential properties, properties that benefit, uh, but they've already
benefited from the State property tax reform so .... you know, doing a little social
adjustment there I guess. Mention policy of annual rate increases. That's a note to
myself. Again, we ... we look at these things on an annualized basis. We don't ignore 'em
and then in five years just come to you with some god awful, uh, rate increase, which the
newspaper has a heyday playing it up, but we do it on an annualized basis. Annual
financial household impact. Um, again, this, um ... uh, the percentage change, uh, for
fiscal year is about a .3%, uh, impact change between ... uh, decline in property taxes, the
raise in the storm water — all the other, uh, issues are the same. So it's a fairly modest
adjustment or hit there. Um ... budget summary. Um ... we are continuing funding the
emergency fund to provide additional, uh, stability, protect against a sudden loss of
revenue or increase in unfunded mandates, and make the community more resilient
through disaster relief and mitigation funding. Just (mumbled) couple things. Uh,
summary of the other, uh, post -employment benefit liability. Uh, that's included in there.
State commercial rollback reimbursement potential and unfunded pension liabilities.
Again, trying to have funds available for a soft landing rather than a ... a real bouncy
landing. Um ... budget summary, continuation, sustainability issues, uh, the natural area
management plan and inventory. What's it called, the Sycamore... Greenway. Uh, intern
for enhanced data collection and tracking, working with Brenda Nations. Uh, facilitation
expenses for climate mitigation plan. Uh, edible landscape at Robert A. Lee Rec Center.
SNAP, which is the supplemental nutritional, uh, assistance program, which previously
was kind of referred to as food stamps. And, uh, what that'll be is a central collection so
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that we can, uh, accept SNAP cards and some ... some of our vendors don't, and this is a
way that we'll serve as central, uh, repository to take care of those, and then, uh, be
able ... the people'd be able to ... to buy foods at the, uh, market that way. Multi -family and
single -stream recycling. Um, we're moving into those areas. Social justice. New full-
time community outreach position in the Police department. Endowment of the Iowa
City Community Fund. That's that $50,000 per year I was talking about.
Botchway/ Tom, when'd you start that? Just this year?
Markus/ Yeah, it ... it'll be a part of this budget, so it'll be July 1St
Botchway/ So this would be the initial phase? Okay.
Fruin/ Yeah, are you talking about the SNAP?
Botchway/ Well that was ... the other question (both talking)
Markus/ ...the $50,0000....
Botchway/ ...Endowment, yeah, I just wanted to know if that was (both talking)
Fruin/ We have not made that contribution yet. (both talking) It's dependent on your budget
approval.
Botchway/ But the SNAP question is, how will that work?
Fruin/ Um, the SNAP program will ... it'll be a token type of system is how it's envisioned. So
you would come and, um ... trade your ... your SNAP card and receive a ... a, equal value
token that then you can go and ... and use at a vendor. So maybe it's a dollar token, and
then we true up with the vendors at the end of the market.
Botchway/ But will everyone be ... get tokens?
Markus/ Anybody that has SNAP (both talking)
Fruin/ Anybody that has SNAP, and we'll ... we'll try to make it work to where even if you don't
have SNAP, if you want to just use your credit card and use the tokens, um, that that
would work too, or you could pay cash for tokens (both talking)
Botchway/ Okay (several talking)
Fruin/ (several talking) ...so you don't stand out, yeah. (several talking)
Markus/ Good point!
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Fruin/ It's not mandatory. You're not gonna have to go and get a token to shop at the Farmers
Market, and ... and this needs to be fleshed out a little bit more, but it...it wouldn't be just
for SNAP, uh, users.
Botchway/ That was my (several talking)
Markus/ So continuing on the budget summary, uh, transportation issues, next slide ... um ... uh,
annual complete streets, uh, improvements funding, bike master plan, uh, one of your
initiatives was to move I think from silver to ... (several talking) gold and so (several
talking) I think we need a bike master plan to accomplish that. Additional bus shelters.
Uh, this'll be Mary Gravitt Memorial bus shelters (several talking)
Botchway/ Not just bus shelters (laughter) but bus shelters and benches! So...
Markus/ I hear ya! (laughter)
Botchway/ I'm just ... making sure she's (laughter)
Markus/ ...bike facilities (several talking) and bike facilities, and .... and so, uh, eventually, you
know, in 20 years I expect to come back and ... and see that we've built a bike parking
deck, just like they have in Amsterdam. Um, accessibility, parks ADA improvement line.
Um ... line items. Uh, double, uh, curb ramp, uh, CIP funding for second straight year.
Additional pavement rehab will increase curb ramp replacements. We talked about that.
Healthy neighborhoods, continue neighborhood park improvements. Um, this year it's
scheduled for Mercer, Highland, Pleasant Hill, Mea ... Fair Meadows. Increase hours for
the historic staff. Four new homes to the UniverCity program. Parks master plan update,
and the Davenport (mumbled) street improvements continuing. Flood mitigation
includes the gateway project. The Riverfront Crossings park wetland. Um, I really ... I
think we did plug some money in for acquisitions, right, or at least we have (both talking)
Fruin/ We have the flexibility.
Markus/ ...and I ... and I really would like to see us get to the point where we start the process,
where we ... acquire the land along the river, um ... where City Carton is located.
They... they... they're subcontracted to (mumbled) and so on both sides of...what's the
street? East west street?
Mims/ Benton? (several responding)
Markus/ On both sides, and get that cleaned up, get that leveled, and pursue and continue to
pursue that master plan, but I'd like to lock down that property. And the reason I want to
do that is it shows our commitment that we're ... you know, that we're making a public
infrastructure commitment in that area, and part of that land acquisition is for the
extension of Capitol Street, which I think then circles over to (both talking) Kirkwood.
So ... that's one of the things I think would really start to influence, um ... people's
willingness to invest in that area. So ... I really want to see us move in that direction.
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Critical infrastructure. First Avenue grade separation, Washington Street reconstruction,
American Legion Road, Scott to Taft, and Mormon Trek/Benton intersection (mumbled;
noises on mic) And looking ahead, there's a virtual...just construction boom actually
going on here. You can read the University, the City projects, uh, the private sector— we
have a number of projects, not only that are, you know, under construction, but are
certainly close to getting moving forward because of plans and so forth, and then the
School District, and our ... and our hopes is is that we start to see, uh, progress on Lucas
and Longfellow and City and ... and uh, include the new Hoover, uh, and of course this is a
non -exhaustive list. There's other projects that you can probably think of yourself.
Looking ahead ... uh, federal — there's tightening revenue sources impacting CDBG,
Home, Housing Authority, Transit, Airport, and capital programs. I expect that to
continue. Urn ... at this stage, urn ... Jim and I, or possibly Geoff, uh, will be going out to
Washington, D.C. in March, as a part of the, urn ... National League of Cities. My brain's
(several talking) National League of Cities, which is a little different than what we've
traditionally done. We've gone through the Chamber of Commerce, and we had a
meeting scheduled there and I've often thought the National League of Cities I think
would provide you a ... a very different opportunity. I think initially I'd like to see Jim
and ... me or Geoff go, then report back, but eventually ... I would encourage other Council
Members to go as well. I think they do a great education program. You get (mumbled)
and both houses. You get the administration staff coming and talking on issues. It's a
very different process, uh, I've gone to 'em for years in previous employment, um, plus
you still have the opportunity to arrange meetings with your legislators and talk to 'em.
Geoff lives, I don't know, three doors from our representative, uh, we talked about, you
know, you don't need to make a trip to Washington to sit down with Dave Loebsack.
He's very approachable. Maybe we'll do something a little more sociable here in town
to ... to talk about federal issues and where we want him to focus. So ... urn ... that's a part of
it, you know ... in terms of (mumbled) The State of Iowa, uh, agricultural land price
bubble impact on rollback taxable values. Uh, public safety pension expenses, and if you
looked at the stock market, hopefully they weren't looking at the stock ... this wouldn't be
the day that they valued our assets in our portfolio because our, uh, our payments would
be substantial if this were the day ... I think they use a day in June, don't they? I think
that's ... you know, you have to pick a day as to what the value of the market is to
determine the actuary for (mumbled) and then, uh, the uncertainty of the State backfill. I
can tell you that through the Metro Coalition, um, we've extracted a commitment from
the Governor, at least for this year, that, um, he will continue with the backfill. So that
just gives us a little (mumbled) keep the pressure on; he made that commitment. Looking
ahead, utility fran ... diversification of revenues, you could use the utility franchise tax. It
tells you those numbers. You could go the local option sales tax, and what I would tell
you is, you want to be flexible, um, you don't want to just hone in on one. Because ... in
the case and example for the local option sales tax, it requires a partnership to accomplish
that. I sense that, you know, with a changing of the guard and with, you know,
(mumbled) mayor, uh, maybe there's an opportunity to develop a new relationship,
but ... you know ... the facts....
Throgmorton/ ...give away the store...
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Markus/ ...and the conditions (several talking)
Mims/ ...that is so funny; I was thinking the (both talking)
Markus/ ...are the same. (both talking)
Mims/ Not just the same concept — the same (several talking and laughing)
Markus/ ...you just (several talking) and I bring you that information so that ... you know, you
...you really have a sense of the total context of things. So I'm done. We're going to start.
I think Eleanor, um, is going to go first.
Throgmorton/ Tom, I want to ask you two quick questions (both talking) just to get some dollar
figures right in my head. How much money do we currently have in the contingency
fund and how much money is currently in the ... the backfill fund? I don't know what the
label (several talking)
Markus/ Yeah, we've got those numbers for ya.
Fruin/ Dennis (mumbled) The, uh (both talking; noises in background)
Markus/ That's a safety alarm! (laughter) The emergency fund has been breached (laughter and
several talking)
Fruin/ I'm going to look to Dennis' help on the emergency fund there, but the ... the...
Bockenstedt/ I think, uh, 4.....it'd be $4.6 million (several talking) 4.6 is ... is I think where it'll be.
Markus/ It's in here.
Botchway/ Wait a minute, say that (mumbled)
Bockenstedt/ 4.6 million. So this'll be the third year of contribution into that fund.
Throgmorton/ I'm sorry, which fund is that that you're (both talking)
Markus/ That's emergency (several talking)
Bockenstedt/ That's the emergency fund (both talking)
Markus/ What's the general fund balance?
Bockenstedt/ The general fund balance?
Markus/ Yeah. That's what he really (several talking) The emergency reserve balance is just
under 4.7 million after ... after the fiscal 16 transfer.
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Fruin/ The contingency, which is three-quarters of 1% in the general fund is 391,000. That's
what we're projecting for fiscal year 17. What you see next to it, the fiscal year 16, is
what's ... I think rough... roughly left, uh, in our contingency for the remainder of the
budget season.
Markus/ And what's the fund balance in the general fund? That's in here too.
Bockenstedt/ Fund balance at the end of 15, um ... the ... the unrestricted, unassigned fund balance
was $19.3 million.
Markus/ And we try to keep that at 30%.
Bockenstedt/ Yeah, that's the ... that's the ... the Moody triple-A standard is 30% of revenues. So
that's... that's where we try to benchmark it.
Markus/ So Moody's bumped that up. So Moody's has a scorecard when they come in, and so
we look at that scorecard and we try to model our budget and our finances to meet the
scorecard, and so ... that number is in there. Um ... and then if...if we hit our targets, that
money over and above our fund balance targets is the money that gets transferred to the
emergency fund. That's how we do this. Now, you talked about ... Rockne talked about
some things that you wanted to consider in that, and what I'd like you to do is think of
those as we go through the documents, that you list those for us, and what I'll do for you
is come back and suggest a process of how to handle (mumbled) I ... what I would suggest
to you is that you do not specifically... identify a pro ... a ... a vendor, whether that be profit
or non-profit, but the type of project because for example on the local foods initiative,
there may be more than one vendor, and (both talking)
Cole/ No, no, absolutely!
Markus/ ...and so what we need to do to be fair is possibly put out a call for, okay... proposals.
And what we can do though to take care of that is I can plug a number so if you're
interested in a local food initiative, let's plug a number, and then we will develop a
process for you. So what we typically do is like Aid to Agencies. Everybody has to
compete. Um ... community events. We get a ... we have a call day. You need to submit an
app. We review them. We review them against each other. Um ... the PIN grants. They
all have to compete. Okay? And I would encourage you to keep that ... that way.
Otherwise you're going to be accused of favoritism or you're going to be
accused... somebody's going to come in and say, well, I could have done better than that
and I would have submitted a proposal. So ... so the concept that I think you want to do
is ... what do you want to accomplish. We'll create a process; we'll invite participants. I
like the idea of non-profit.
Cole/ Yeah, and I think that really gets into the concerns of the letter is that I don't think at least
prior to this meeting we've gotten enough into ... you know, how we are to effect budget,
both in terms of increases and reductions, and I think that's just sort of a ... sort of feedback
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going forward from year to year, but that process is extremely helpful. I mean ultimately,
you know, 95 or 98% of the budget is really going to be developed based upon the needs
of the department, but I think really where....I think our role is to look at those ways that
we can increase or decrease, and that has just now been made clear to us. So I think if
you identify that process we can get on the same page and move forward. (several
talking)
Throgmorton/ That's one of the great things about this session, even though it's, uh, ends up
being a very long session, we learn a hell of a lot (several talking)
Markus/ ...and it's contextual.
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ Gives you (several talking) I always say to people ... you know, growing up my mom
sold Avon, right? And then ... and then there were people that were into Amway. And
then there were people that were into Tupperware. Some of you are too young to
remember it. (laughter) But .... when people would come to your door, right, there was
only one product in front of you, and so your chances of selling that one product were
better. So I always say, you have to look at this in the context of the whole! There's
competing, you know, requests for limited resources, and so ... if you create the process
and bring people in and make'em compete, you'll... you'll get there, it will be a much
more transparent policy, and a much more acceptable policy to the vendors. (several
talking)
Throgmorton/ Right. (several talking)
Bockenstedt/ I'll just mention one thing about the property tax growth ... on that 6.4%, and ... and I
know Tom mentioned this, uh, that this was revaluation year. And I think that's an
important point to note, that we really looked at this as a two-year revenue bump. Um,
because what that doesn't show is the offset from the reduction in the State backfill that
we lost this year ... which would reduce that 6.4%, and then if you look into next year, it
starts at 0%, and there'll be no revaluation. And with a continued reduction in the multi -
residential, uh, rollback... you're really starting in the hole for next year. So ... the only
growth in the property tax would be from new value that is added in ... in the second year.
So, when you look at that 6.4%, you really have to think of that in the context of you
getting that growth for two years in that ... in that one year. And that's kind of the ... one of
the approaches that we took with this budget and I just thought I'd throw that in so that...
you kind of looked at how we ... how we looked at that ... that growth.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Good! All right, we should turn things over to our fine City Attorney!
Eleanor!
Karr/ Okay, and real quickly, Pauline, just so you know we're done now with the City Manager's
budget presentation and the handouts we're looking at now would be the organizational
charts.
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Taylor/ Okay.
City Attorney'
Dilkes/ Morning! Um ... my budget you'll find on page 124, um ... but you also have to look at...
page 152 because one of my ... one of the attorneys in my office (mumbled) tort levy.
Um ... so as you can see it's essentially all personnel, and supplies and ... uh, but ... I've
got ... we've got 6.5, um, full time equivalents. I've actually got 7, um, people in the office
— 2 support staff and 2 of the attorneys in my office have three-quarter time positions, or
appointments. Um ... my staff has been ... is pretty experienced. They're... Eric's been here
10 years; uh, Mary 24; Sue 15 years after 14 years at legal services, um ... so ... we're
probably at the higher end of the ... of the, uh, salary schedules. Um ... I don't have a whole
lot more to say about it. (laughs) I can answer any questions.
Mims/ I think especially for the new Members, um ... the importance ... as maybe we're looking at
other cities' budgets and stuff, just maybe some comments about how other cities do their
legal work and how ... quite frankly I think little that you outsource and how much you do
in-house.
Dilkes/ Um ... yeah, it's hard to compare cities.. just like in most things, it's hard to compare, you
know, city attorney offices in different cities because ... we all do different things. Um, for
instance, um ... we have a ... a $500,000 self-insured retention on our tort liability, which
means that ... we're essentially handling all the ... the tort litigation, um, because ... we have
very few cases where your actual exposure is over $500,000. So, um, we do that
litigation. Uh, another example is property acquisition. A number of cities, their city
attorneys don't kick in until the condemnation stage. We do, um ... as soon as plats are
prepared, we work with the engineers to do the negotiations. Um ... there's ... there's a
couple examples. We ... we do have ... we obviously have bond counsel who does our ... our
bond work. That's a very specialized area. We have had a, um ... uh... outside counsel
negotiator for our labor relations for years and years, um, before I came and City
Manager's office has chosen to continue that to date. I think that there's going to be a
retirement that ... we'll probably be havin' some discussion about whether it makes sense to
do that in-house. There's some... obviously it's a ... it would be a cost -savings, but there's
also some issues about ... how my department functions with ... you know, for instance
we ... we, uh, prosecute simple misdemeanors and we're dealing with police officers all the
time, that kind of thing, so ... um ... and then finally our worker's comp is done... has... has
been done for years by an outside attorney, cause it's kind of a specialized area. I don't ... I
think you know most recently (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) that, um ... that the City
Manager's, um, approval we decided to hire outside counsel for the Mediacom litigation,
just because I think that expertise is ... is going to be really necessary. Um ... the only other
outside counsel that I have hired, I think, in 20 -some years is, um ... when, uh, we have a
construction contract where... there's attorney fee provision in the contract, which allows
us to recover attorney's fees, um, from the contractor. We have ... we had some
significant, um ... claims against the contractors in connection with the water plant, for
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instance, and I hired outside counsel there, but all the fees were recovered... finally,
against the contractor, so...
Throgmorton/ Eleanor, my sense is that you .... you've had ... you and your staff have had a great
deal of work to do with regard to the ... to the development agreements. This ... this has
been a challenge over the past couple years, has it not, for you?
Dilkes/ Well I ... I think, I mean, that's just an area that, you know, 10 years ago we didn't do any
of, um, and it's ... um .... I mean, it's very interesting work and it ... but it takes a lot of time
and it's... it's... takes a lot of precision. Um, takes a lot of work with the different
departments to ... and with the developer, obviously, to make those come together. So
that's, I mean, that's an area where we just ... we've developed over the last five years and I
think we're getting... Sarah, uh... uh, Hecktone in my office and I work on the development
agreements and ... we use, um ... bond counsel to advise us, but we do most of the ... most of
those agreements ourselves now.
Botchway/ Is that provided within this goal and objective performance measure portion of the
document?
Dilkes/ Is what?
Botchway/ Is that provided within the number of meetings that you have to do in relation to, you
know, kind of the economic development work?
Dilkes/ No.
Botchway/ Okay. Is there any reason .... can we ... can we put that in there? As it translates
to ... (both talking)
Dilkes/ Yeah...
Botchway/ ...public meetings, or just the ... or just meetings in general? I just...
Dilkes/ (both talking) ...included in the ... I think it ... well, no! (both talking) EDC would be
included. (several talking) EDC would be included in the public meetings, but ... I mean,
I think one of the things to think about what my department does is we do a lot that you
all never see. You know? I mean we ... we ... we deal with personnel almost on a daily
basis, in terms of per ... various personnel transactions. Um ... you know, property
acquisition stuff, real estate closings, etc., uh, prosecution and uh... of municipal, or
um ... infractions and simple misdemeanors. Um ... so ... its ... goals are a very weird thing for
my department because essentially my goals are established by my clients. You know?
What you all ... choose to do; what the City Manager chooses to do; what Planning
department chooses to do; Public Works; I mean all of that. Those are not really, I mean,
my goal is to rep ... provide legal advice to ... the rest of you who are making policy
decisions. I mean I participate as a problem solver often, at the table when we're talking
about a particular issue, because there are often legal issues that come up, but ultimately
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in terms of where I spend my time, those are dictated by ... by other ... people other than
myself.
Markus/ And one ... and one of the things, I think, we're trying to do generally is ... not just Legal
but, uh, Finance and Personnel is infuse them early into the decision-making process so
that we avoid problems later on, and so ... that ... that helps in developing consistency in
practice application across the organization. So, Eleanor finds herself sitting in a lot of
meetings with me and the administrative staff, working with a department, trying to make
sure that ... you know, we're consistent with existing policy, but where we might want to
go if we're setting precedent at that particular time, and thinking about all those things.
The objective being ... that stuff is better handled up front, rather than having to
reconstruct it at the end (mumbled) and so in the terms of those development agreements,
uh, the Legal staff has done ... has learned a great deal and prevented a lot of issues, and
these developer agreements, almost every one of 'em, while they have some similarities,
has some unique features to 'em. Land assembly, uh, air right issues, easements,
um ... lease purchase, uh, and so, you know, we're integrating with Finance. We're
integrating with, uh, bond counsel. So all those things are kind of in the mix to move
those things together, and ... hey, it's interesting. The personalities in the, uh, Legal
department, they almost have ... kind of developed their own key areas of expertise right
within the department, and we can call on different people to kind of hit these different
issues. You ... you've got a great legal team! They're very thorough!
Cole/ I guess one of the things I want to address, and I don't want to get into the particulars of the
Mediacom litigation. Obviously it's a very complicated issue. Um, but are we intending
to get a ... do a special session to see sort of what direction we're going to go. Um, you
had mentioned it is a large departure to hire outside counsel, um, and I guess I would like
to get feedback from staff as to what direction we're going to take. Um, I have received,
you know, obviously, urn ... urn ... you know, updates from you, uh, but where ... where do
you see that going and do you anticipate, uh, updating us on a special session or how do
you ... in terms of the (both talking)
Dilkes/ I mean at this (both talking)
Cole/ I'd like to get that relatively soon (both talking) because it seems like we're at the front part
of that stage, so...
Dilkes/ Well one of the reasons that, I mean ... I sent many, many, many documents to our outside
counsel that they need to spend time reviewing and assessing.
Cole/ Okay.
Dilkes/ I mean, what I'm ... one of the things I'm looking for from them is to advise us on whether
we have any ... um ... liability and what the best course of action might be, and those
conversations will occur in executive session with you.
Cole/ Okay.
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Markus/ You'll see that (both talking)
Cole/ ...and I would like that sooner rather than later. Is my opinion.
Dilkes/ I'll do it when I think that I have something to tell you.
Throgmorton/ Right, okay. So I ... I think we probably... hear... heard what we need to hear from
you, Eleanor. Thank you! I ... (both talking)
Dilkes/ You bet!
Throgmorton/ ...appreciate our patience too. Uh, and the ... the intent now is to move to Police,
right, to Sam? That was ... that's what I understand, so ... thank you very much, Eleanor.
Good mornin', Chief! How are you, Doug? (noises on mic)
Police
Hargadine/ My name is Sam Hargadine, Chief of Police, and I have with me Captain Doug Hart.
He is my Administrative Services Commander. For the familiar faces, um ... thank you for
your continued service, and for the new faces, congratulations and uh... look forward to
working with you in the ... in the coming year. We are on page 165 of the ... of, I believe
what you're looking at. We have ... 83 sworn officers, which is one over right now. Uh,
we got permission from the City Manager to overhire. Our authorized strength is 82.
Um, we're only going to be over for about two weeks. Uh, the Academy starts... Monday!
And we just swore in ... that 83rd, 82nd, uh, officer yesterday, uh, and we have, um, Al
Mebus is retiring, I think at the end of the month, the first of February — something like
that. So that's the overhire. We knew that, uh, Al was retiring so ... and we needed ... we
had to get, we had a deadline to get that guy in the Academy. So, uh, we will be at full
strength, um ... and within our authorized, uh, 82, urn ... um, very soon! Um, we have, uh,
so it's .... 82 sworn; non -sworn staff in ICPD is 15. We have 17 temps. And eight
volunteers. These volunteers work in records, evidence, and our police chaplain (noises
in background, difficult to hear speaker) Animal Control has six full time employees,
four temps, and ... they have 50 to 60 volunteers, and they wanted me to point out that's
active volunteers. Um, which I think is just incredible! Uh... we did a staffing study, uh,
a ... a little while ago, which delivered both good news and bad news. The good news is
that we can tweak the existing day off rotation schedule. They work a four and two
schedule. And it ... we can increase the number of officers on the street. So we think we
can improve service, utilizing what we have now, by tweaking the days off. Where right
now there are six sets of days off, we reduce that down to three sets of days off, it puts
more boots on the street. The bad news is at the time we didn't have enough patrol
vehicles to pull it off. They ... there was nothing for them to drive. So, in this budget
we've asked for, uh... uh, two marked patrol cars. That would be an increase in our fleet
from 19, uh, we'd be going to 21 marked cars. So there is an increase in service there.
We actually need three to pull it off right; however, uh, we're gonna seek funding, uh,
elsewhere for that third car, uh, we ... and we think we can pull that off. So, uh, we're
looking at tweaking with our existing staff and ... and increasing our service level. Uh, we
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are asking for one increase full time employee in this ... for this next budget — Community
Outreach Assistant. This is a non -sworn community service officer position and we've
been experimenting with a part-time person in this position, and our preliminary
experience is very positive. We're still tweaking the position and we are still working out
the kinks, but we think it fits in with ... well with the neighborhood stabilization strategic
goal. The person in the current part-time position is cross -trained as a Community
Service Officer and front desk Station Master. So we've got plenty of things to ... for this
person to do, while we're tweaking out the best possible, uh... um ... uh... duties for
this ... this increased... person. We are constantly looking at ways to increase our
community outreach. There's a long list of community outreach events. Uh, I won't read
'em all off, but the highlights are ... are our youth academy explorer program. We've
partnered... we've partnered with the Iowa City Fire, Johnson County Ambulance,
Diversity Focus, and the Dream Center. We are starting ... we started recruiting in April,
kicked it off in May, and this youth academy goes year-round. There is training that goes
on constantly. Some of the depart ... some as a department, some with other agencies.
Right now MATS, or Multi -Agency Training System, is going on right now. And every
officer, every deputy, every University officer, Coralville, North Liberty — we all train
together in January and February. This goes on every year. But we also have multiple
specialties. Uh, for example, DRE, which is drug recognition experts. Evidence
collection. Domestic violence. Canine. These are all specialties that ... that go on above.
Sometimes we can train locally, send 'em to Des Moines or ... um ... there's a school just on
the other side, in the ... in the Quad Cities. And, um ... but there's other times when we ... we
train around the country. One of the things that I've noticed is that when we send
someone to one of these specialized schools, is frequently... sometimes 12 months later,
24 months later, I'll get a call ... and this has happened multiple times, and it's that person
that we sent to a training is now ... subject expert or leading person in the entire state. For
example, DRE, drug recognition expert. I've got the number one and the number two guy
in the entire state, and that's including Iowa State Patrol, Des Moines, and Cedar Rapids.
These guys are.... they.... they put what they learn to use and then turns out ... the top one
(mumbled) top number two for this department. Evidence collection, another highly
special ... uh, specialty area. Our prosecutors, our ... our neighboring law enforcement, the
Iowa State, um ... Division of Criminal Investigation — they all recognize our evidence
collection specialists as some of the leading guys in ... in the ... in the entire state that do it.
Domestic violence efforts, uh, we ... we recently received the National Verizon Hope Line
Award. So these are just areas that, uh, and it's not necessarily something I'd ... I, uh,
when ... when we go to one of these schools, uh, I'm not expecting them to ... I want 'em to
learn it, I want 'em to apply it, but ... very frequently they come back and they lead the
state in this particular area. I've seen it over and over again. And I think that speaks well
of the ... of the people that we have doing these jobs. We also lead the state in other areas.
One is our traffic stop data collection analysis. It's ... um ... that we do in conjunction with
St. Ambrose and Dr. Barnum. Previous Council has received a presentation on it. We've
got a memo coming in one of the ... one of your upcoming packets with a brief update on
that, and ... and there will be a ... a second presentation in the next month or two. But, Dr.
Barnum and I have been asked to present in Des Moines at their Human Rights
Conference. So these are things ... and I'm not professing to be perfect. Our agency's not
perfect in this area. Of...of, we've had multiple conversations with Kingsley and ... and
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he's well aware of our efforts. Urn ... we've got room for improvement, don't get me
wrong there, but ... we're also leading the state in ... in what we're doing, to try to address it.
Uh, there's an article that was in the Press -Citizen, uh, where even Governor Branstad
is ... is discussing making the things that we're ... we've been doing all along, as a statewide
mandate. So ... um ... Georgetown Pre -Arrest Diversion Program, the Supreme Court
Justice Cady mentioned in his State of the Court Address what we're doing here
(mumbled) you know. Again, we're not perfect. We've got room for improvement.
But ... what we're doing in this city and in this area is being noticed in other parts of the
state and ... when the Supreme Court Justice is touting it as 'look at Johnson County, look
at what Iowa City PD is doing,' um...I think it b ... it also brings credit upon, uh, our
agency. LGBTQ liaison officers, I hadn't even heard of what this is two years ago. Um,
but we're the first in the state. Don't quote me on this, but I think we're the only one in
the state that has an LGBTQ liaison officers to the gay and lesbian community. Um ... gay
rup... gay rights groups from the University in Des Moines have visited our department
and they're highly appreciative of our desire to reach out to that community. Um, one
thing of note is ... I've been doing this almost 35 years, and I've never seen a case like this.
I ... hope I don't ever see one again, but it's the, uh, the Chinese murder case that, uh, we
went through. Um ... it took ... it took quite a while, um ... I've never seen one where, uh... the
state or local jurisdiction didn't prosecute when they solved it. This particular case is
going to result in a prosecution in China, and it's our investigators that are going to seal
that case, um, for the Chinese. Like I said, I've never seen it before. I suspect that the
trial will be held probably in April or May, uh, time frame. We've not ... we've not, uh,
solidified that with the Chinese. Um, but they're... they're continuing to, um...
communicate with us and um ... you know this was originally a case that started in Ames,
but the victim was found here. Both the victim and the suspect are Chinese Nationals and
inn ... I've never seen a case where they're going to hold the trial back in the home country,
but ... um, there's first times for everything. So, I ... I think that speaks well of our
organization as well too. That concludes my presentation. So I would like to open it up
for any questions.
Markus/ Sam, before you ... you conclude, why don't you talk about CIT?
Hargadine/ Um ... I suspect that that's another area where six months to a year from now, this
particular jurisdiction, uh, including Johnson County, uh, will ... will be leading the area,
and it deals specifically with mental health. And the crisis that occur, probably
mo ... more so with the homeless population, but what they're finding is is, um, between
the emergency room or the jail, there's just quite a bit of...of service need there that
neither one of those two can accommodate, and what do we do when they can't
accommodate it? San Antonio is leading the nation in this particular area. Um ... Tom and
I are headin' down at the end of this month with a County delegation and um ... I guess
more to follow, but uh... uh, I've ... I've got a number of questions that I've got in the back
of my mind that I'd like to answer and I think the trip's gonna do that. Um, but it's also
training program, uh, the boots on the ground are typically with police, uh, the first
responders when they ... when they're dealing with someone on the street and if there's a
mental health issue, uh, but then there's... there's specific avenues or channels
that... that... that training provides, other than sending 'ern straight to the ER or jail, and so,
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um ... more ... more to be, uh... learned and ... and I suspect that's going to be coming back,
uh, in front of you probably in the near future.
Markus/ (both talking) ...officers?
Hargadine/ We're gonna send four for the training, um ... Johnson County (both talking)
Markus/ ...week long training.
Hargadine/ It's a week long training. Tom and I are gonna go through the first day of it, and then
have a tour of their facilities and the ... and, uh... you know look at what have they done
from a bricks and mortar standpoint, what ... what are the different services, are there ... do
we have overlapping services here or similar services, and if we don't, what do we need
to do. Those are questions that I'm ... I've got personally, but ... um ... I guess stay tuned is
the (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, really, four, uh, I look forward to hearing about it, Sam. Um ... uh, Tom,
well, either one of ya, who's going from the County? Is ... is Sheriff (both talking)
Markus/ It's Ron ... Ron and Jenelle.
Botchway/ Dolzell, he's going.
Markus/ ...and a deputy (several talking) And I think... they've actually had officers go through
the training before.
Hargadine/ They've gone through it before. Coralville, I think, has sent at least one.
Markus/ Yeah.
Hargadine/ Um...
Botchway/ What's CIT? You just said that...
Hargadine/ Crisis Intervention Training.
Markus/ It's a diversionary program, and quite frankly you know, when you go back and look at
the results of the jail elections, um ... you know, that ... this seems to play right into, you
know, what ... what some of the objections to the jail process were that they want to see
more, uh, persons diverted out of criminal justice and you know across the country, I
mean, there's all sorts of literature out there that ... we've been criminalizing mental health
issues when in fact that's not the most successful way to deal with those issues.
Throgmorton/ Right.
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Markus/ Diversionary program, working with, urn ... mental health services really seems to be a
very logical practical diversion for ... persons.
Cole/ I'm curious about efforts to recruit and retain, um, more, uh, minority officers. Um, to
some degree I think that is a budget issue, um, in terms of where you can actually recruit,
um, so what do you think in terms of a budget, from a budget standpoint we can more
effectively facilitate your efforts to recruit a greater number of, um, minority officers, and
two, um, we have a number of, uh, linguistic minorities also in the community, in
particular that are Arabic speakers. Are there any funding needs that you have in terms
of interpretation, translation, uh, that would more help ... uh, effectively help you serve
those communities.
Hargadine/ I don't ... I don't think it's a budget. I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it's a
budgetary issue, cause I think we're doing ... that. We ... we recruit on a nationwide basis,
um ... you know, with the internet it's not hard to ... to ... to do that. Urn ... we, especially with
military deployments around the world, as ... as soldiers are looking at getting out, they see
our .... our job announcements and ... we're getting applications from literally around the
world when it comes time to ... to recruit. It is a challenge. It's a challenge all throughout
Iowa. It ... it, really in the Midwest. Urn ... I go to Academy graduations, uh... I go to a lot
of'em, I'll just put it that way! And when I look at'em, there'll be a class of 50, 60
officers, and they're predominantly white. Not always, but ... it, you know ... and it's
because it's not hard to recruit an Iowa farm boy. I mean, it's ... urn ... that's ... that's ... that's
who's applying for the jobs. So we ... we, you know, there's... there's Chicago, Detroit. Uh,
we used to recruit in Gramling a lot, I mean, there was just a number of ways, uh, Lincoln
University is a ... is mostly minorities. It's not 100% but .... but a lot of, uh, Chicago and
St. Louis minorities go to Lincoln University in Missouri. They have a criminal justice
program. Um, but ... for the most part, they're ... when they're done with their degrees, they
want to go back and work in St. Louis and Chicago. So...um...it...it is a constant
challenge. There ... some of the things ... there are some roadblocks and those are
discussions that we have internally all the time, uh, our labor contracts sometimes tie my
hands. Civil service rules and regulations tie my hands. Um...
Cole/ But if there's any financial roadblocks, and I think you had mentioned (both talking)
Hargadine/ I don't think there is, because (both talking)
Cole/ Okay, but in terms of...you can get an internet application, but I think, you know, in terms
of going to Des Moines, that's obviously good, but if you do have some need to go to
other jurisdictions, I would think that'd be a good use of funding authority.
Markus/ Well and... and.... there would be (both talking)
Cole/ ...recruiting purposes.
Markus/ ...hesitation to let 'em go if (laughs) you know there was any percentage of potential
success (both talking)
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Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ It's a very challenging thing. You know, the whole program that Chad Simmons runs is
a program to make this area ... more, uh, inviting, welcoming to, um ... not just the African
American community but the, you know, the minority community at large, uh, so that we
can attract those individuals, but ... you know, bars that you wouldn't typically expect to
run into, like civil service and ... and um ... um ... union contracts, you know, seniority
provisions and ... and so if you think about if we had to take that much time ... to integrate
our staff, it would be decades to accomplish that. So one of the things that, uh, came out
of our Ad Hoc Diversity Committee was to create this whole, um ... program of integrating
our young, uh, people in the community to get them exposed to careers in public safety so
that we could draw from them, eventually get them into school, get them to ... to serve in
volunteer capacities (mumbled) their relationship and work them in. So, we're kind of
approaching it on a lot of different fronts, but I can tell you there's... there would be no
hesitation to hire ... any qualified individual across all, you know, distinguishing
characteristics. There is no problem with that.
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd say Kingsley raises an important concern, uh, but let's see if there's any other
questions for Sam.
Hargadine/ Well and ... and (several talking) for two years now, Council has put 10,000 in my
budget, 10,000 in Fire's budget to get this youth program going. So a little bit of kudos to
the... the... your immediate predecessors, that ... those Councils. Of all the gnashing of teeth
that we do over budget dollars, that has not been a fight. Um, and ... and ... to your alls
credit.
Botchway/ So I have a couple of things and I guess first I want to say, you know, I appreciate,
you know, all the work the Police department's done. I mean I know we've had numerous
conversations and you know just so y'all know, some of the conversations that have been,
have taken place, um, in different community, um, you know, events, whatever the case
may be and even at the, uh, the CJCC level, and when we're doing our subcommittee
work, has talked about how, you know, in relation to the Iowa City department, and I'm
not trying to ... say anything bad about the other departments. We just do a phenomenal
job, even if our...in our data collection as far as, you know, when I was putting out the
question can we look at, or can we review this. We have the information. It's just that
maybe some other departments don't, and so when you look at it from a regional
approach, we can't necessarily have that conversation until we can have those apples to
apples comparisons, and so I just want to state that as kind of being a big deal, and
appreciate just over the last ... you know, obviously I've only been here two years, but over
the last ... I feel like four years there's been a ... a documented effort to really focus on, you
know, what we can do from that standpoint, and I'm sure there's things happening before
that I was not aware of, but in the last four years for me, I had a keen eye on looking at
those things. Um, Rockne brings a great point about the diversification of the workforce.
The only question that I would have, um, because it comes up in some of the community
discussions and I know that I'll be at the BVP meeting on Monday night after our work
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session, um, what is our exact plan? Because I know that we could, you know, you're
stating that you're going to the meetings I think is fine. I think if that's written in
somewhere, I think that's a perfect like piece of document that can go back and say, 'this
is what we're doing,' that I would feel like if we had an exact plan as far as what's
happening, and maybe some language or some rhetoric as far as, you know, some of the
issues around the labor agreement, or the union agreements, and also some language
around the Civil Service Commission, I think that would paint a better picture because I
think consistently run up against that wall, especially when you know some heated
national thing happens, or even some... something locally happens as well.
Markus/ Yeah, I ... I don't have a problem doing that, but I think you probably start with having
to... need to understand civil service and union contracts, and I think at that ... I can set a
goal, but I can tell you there'll be positions go vacant. I could say ... I'm going to ... the next
five people I'm going to hire are going to be of minority status. And the result will be
you will not be able to fill probably all but maybe one of those positions.
Botchway/ Right.
Markus/ That's how difficult this is. And it's not just here. And it's not because we don't have
the desire to fill those positions. So ... I would say to you, I ... I think it might be good for
you to understand that process and we can ... we can bring you that type of information.
The other thing I want to tell you is that ... for city managers and police chiefs ... it's a
different... situation. Since, uh, the Martin incident in Florida. Since the Ferguson
incident. Since the Minneapolis, the Cleveland, New York (several talking) I can tell you
I approach these things very differently. In the past I might have been just a delegator.
You can't just delegate this stuff anymore, okay? The Chief can't just defend his officers.
You need to do a thorough review, and I can tell you that that's caused some angst inside
the department, some pushback, and Sam and Doug ... mainly Sam and Doug, they look at
these things and if they think we could have done better ... I've instructed them to say so.
And we're going to say that. We're not going to create a blue wall around every situation.
If we could have done better, we're gonna say it and we're gonna do better. But if you
don't do those things, you're gonna have ... you're gonna have a very dysfunctional
relationship, quite frankly, between your ... your department and your community. So,
managers that don't get that ... (laughs) they're not surviving. They have to change the way
the relationship is. And I'll tell you unique, not just in the state of Iowa cause we're the
only one with a CPRB, okay? Unique in this state is probably my involvement. Every
police officer that gets ... that has a complaint filed against'em, I'm sitting in on those
interviews. Now, can you imagine I had a ... I ... I sit down with every new officer that
comes in, and have a chat with them, and we have this discussion and I tell them about
this. This is unique. These officers aren't used to this. So you got the Chief sittin' there,
maybe Doug, maybe one of the other commands, and you got the City Manager sittin'
there! And they're answerin' those questions. Can you imagine that? Some young
officer and ... been accused, maybe rightly, maybe wrongly, and ... I can tell you, you have
a great department. These people, they don't ... they understand the culture of this city,
and they try to respond to it, and yet they have to understand that when it comes to ... Sam
and me, we have to look at how we can be better, and we're gonna say those things. That
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doesn't mean we don't support the department! That doesn't mean that we want to see a
brooming of a, you know, an officer. We want to be better.
Mims/ I would just make (several talking) one other comment, I mean, I know for a fact that Sam
has had... candidates at the very top of his list for hire when they've had openings that
were people of color, that have chosen to go on, um, and do something else. You know?
They ... and I think it's indicative of the issue that we have in this area, and nationwide.
We have the school systems, you know, across the state of Iowa competing intensely for
people of color to teach. You know? We've gotta get the people in the pipeline. So it's
not just our police force, our fire department, our school systems. They are all competing
for people of color who are interested and willing and ... you know, to get that kind of
training and education to prepare themselves for those positions, because we just don't
have enough of them. To me it goes back to something that we'll see in front of us in the
future, um, that I had proposed, you know, back before the end of the year, and Tom has
now in front of him, for the diversity roundtable, is My Brother's Keeper. I mean, that is
a program to start looking, and I think just like with the youth academy, that the police,
fire, and ... and EMT's have put together. We've got to start ... at a much younger age and in
cooperation with the school system and everybody else to get more people of color ... into
the systems, prepared, accepted, understanding, want to, feel that they even have the
chance to be successful in doing these things, so that it will make it much easier for our
police department, our fire department, our schools, our city in general to hire people of
color, and so ... we're workin' on it, but ... there's just not a big enough pool right now,
which makes it incredibly difficult for our schools and our fire department, police
department, to reach these kinds of goals and (both talking)
Markus/ So we've offered, quite frankly, positions to African American, uh, minority candidates
and when you get a place that has a 2 1/2% unemployment rate, guess what? (laughs)
They're highly sought after, highly valued employees. They have options, and ... police
work is a career, okay? Police work isn't something that you just do for three years and
then move on to something else. Police work is a 20, 25 -year career, and so they're
making those decisions and yet they're looking at all the options they have and everybody
in this area is attempting to recruit and ... and ... and diversify their operations and so ... you
know, there's lot of opportunities (laughs) there, but at the same time ... there's lots of
opportunities for the candidate to look at other possibilities.
Cole/ Well and that's ... oh, go ahead!
Botchway/ Well I guess to ... to Susan's point I think -that, you know, -this is such an important
point because with My Brother's Keeper, with that youth academy, as it expands and as
we start, or possibly start it as it goes through the diversity roundtable, um, to Rockne's
question, I mean, this is a 15 to 20 -year situation from a strategic planning standpoint. I
just want to make sure, to Susan's comment, to your comment, Tom, as well, that you
know when, you know, I'm hearing complaints as far as, you know, what's going on,
what's happening, I just have something to say. I mean, that's ... I mean it's more kind of
a ... we offered a position or we offered two positions. This is what happened, you know,
this is a 15 to 20 -year type of thing because, you know, from a union standpoint cause I
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understand going through union contracts. It's not like you can just get rid of people, I
mean, it's going to take some time, um, having people retire or people move on to where
positions even become open, to have that conversation around, you know, putting
the ... the qualified candidate into a position. So...
Hargadine/ (mumbled) lot of balls in the air when it comes to this. And ... and you know one of
the things is we enjoy a very low turnover. Um, when we ... when we select someone, we
want 30 ... we want 'em here for 30 years. Um ... with some exceptions. Sometimes
they'll... they're here because of their spouse going to med school or law school or some of
those things, but ... very rarely do we get people recruited from us. And ... um ... you know,
when ... when you talk about recruiting throughout the nation, one of the first things they'll
ask you is how many job openings do you have. Well I don't have any right now.
That's... that's a tough one, ya know? And I'll want ya to ... I want ya to go through our test
and get on a list. That's not what they want to hear. Um ... they want to know I've got five
positions, will you come work for me tomorrow? That's... that's the problems and when
you ... when you ... when you recruit nationwide, you gotta have positions available for that
person that's graduating, or they're gonna go somewhere else! So, that's just one more
ball in the air that we're constantly working... but... you gotta remain dedicated to it. You
gotta take every... possible advantage and, um, I think we try to ... I think we try to do that.
Cole/ And I was pleased to see the community service officer being fully funded. That's a non -
sworn position, correct?
Hargadine/ It is!
Cole/ Um, I guess my thought would be to is that as we go forward over the course of the year,
I'm going to make sure that (mumbled) good to be cross -trained, that we're not ... that he
is, has maximum exposure throughout the community. Um .... and that we evaluate
whether that needs to be...
Hargadine/ He or she.
Cole/ ...he or she, uh, he or she, whoever that may be, and that as we evaluate the success of that
program going (mumbled) future years, whether we can look at expanding it, because at
least for that particular position, whether it's a he or she, that does not require a sworn
officer at that point. So, those are the things that I'd like to see, so ... great job!
Throgmorton/ One ... one of the things I'm very conscious of is that, uh, when I talk to members
of the, uh, minority community, I ... I ... often hear that... nothing's being done, nothing's
changed, and we heard this in our last, uh, in our meeting Tuesday night, uh, from at least
one ... one speaker at the ... at the, uh, at ... where you're sitting, and ... and it's pretty
frustrating cause we know we've tried to change things and have changed many things
significantly, within City government, but still looked at all... from... from the ground,
where people live. They feel like there's been no change. As it ... and that matters too.
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Markus/ And so, you know, we may not have an opening, but I'll tell ya what you're dealing with
in this administration. Sam had a minority count, uh, candidate. Person came back from,
uh, overseas service. We didn't have an opening. Sam immediately reached out to the
University Public Safety Department. Transitioned that person into that department. He
would do the same thing with North Liberty. He'd do the same thing with Coralville. So,
we don't ... or the Sheriff, we will make those entrees to bring'em into the community.
Eventually, you know, they might circle back to us as a department.
Botchway/ Tom, that's a great segue cause I have another quick question. Um, has there been
any type of analysis done ... on the services throughout ... I would just state Iowa City, in
relation to the amount of police officers we have here. I don't remember where I read it,
but I felt like you gave some type of analysis, somewhere — I just can't remember where I
found it. Where we talked about ... or maybe it was in here! We talked about the officer
or the amount of work an officer does in relation to, you know, um, whatever it was, I
can't (both talking)
Hargadine/ ...per capita (both talking) population.
Botchway/ And that was only specific to Iowa City officers, but obviously, you know, as we
think about, we have ... four jurisdictions within Iowa City. Has there been any thought
to ... and I'm ... I was just thinking about ... when I was thinking about this question in
relation to downtown. You know .... if downtown has been primarily the focus, it used to
be, that it was around the University, you know, activities and now that's being ... that's
changing and that might, you know, put an uptick as far as the amount of officers we
have. You know, or is it ... are there any cost savings? I mean, what's happening with
that? Do we need to do some analysis, because I think that plays into that metric that's
kind of a hidden thing.
Hargadine/ Well, whenever ... I bring up per capita statistics, it gets thrown back that that's the
worst possible way to do it. Um, you know, and you got a professor here that can tell ya,
uh, all about that. So, uh, and ... and that's one of those (both talking)
Markus/ ....City Manager that'll get (both talking; laughter)
Hargadine/ But ... it is an easy way, it is very easy to calculate and understand it. And compare to
other cities. We've done ... we used to do that extensively, uh, in ... in my first couple of
budget presentations here. You know, Midwest, Big 10 cities, you pick it, uh, we ... at that
time we were, you know, one of the lowest. With Ames being lower than we were on
per ... per capita. Um ... and then one of the arguments back is well, you've got a university
police department that's in our same community, um ... I heard that same argument in my
previous community. That's... that's all true, but they don't provide services to our
neighborhoods. They don't answer those calls in the neighborhoods. We ... this
jurisdiction, the corridor, I've never been in a ... a ... a setting that we corroborated as well
as we do, um, I get my help from Coralville, North Liberty, and Johnson County. Some
extent the University as well. State Police, State Police is there, but bottom line is they're
not in Johnson County and so ... uh, if I called and asked 'em for help, they would ... they
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would come, but not like these other jurisdictions. We just ... you know, RAGBRAI's a
perfect example. Football's an example. We do this as a community, not just one
particular jurisdiction. The ... the political, uh, the campaigns that are goin' on right now.
There isn't one agency big enough to handle all of 'em. If the President comes to town,
every officer in the county is needed, and ... you know, we wait to find out who ... what
community they're comin' to. Is it Coralville, the University, or Iowa City, cause they
own it. But we all know we're all workin' it.
Throgmorton/ Okay, folks, this is all very important, we know it. We know that, but uh, if we
don't move on, we'll be here till ... I don't know, midnight, so ... why ... why don't we move
ahead to, uh, Chief Grier and the Fire Department. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Doug.
(several talking)
Fire Department:
Grier/ Good morning, everybody! John Grier (several responding) Fire Department. I start on
page 177 of the budget document. Just gonna kind of step through our different, uh,
areas of operation. If you want to ... questions along the way, that's great. Otherwise I can
take questions at the end, but ... uh, staffing wise we maintain 64 full time equivalents.
We have not requested any increases for the upcoming budget. Uh, of those 64, we have
19 assigned to a shift. That would be the captains, lieutenants, and firefighters. We have
three battalion chiefs that serve as commander to the shifts. A deputy fire chief, a fire
marshal, a training lieutenant, and myself. Some of the things that we've, uh, we're
looking forward to with this upcoming budget. We're finishing... we're going to be
finishing up a community risk standards of cover document, covered by the last budget,
or the current budget, and then we're going to also finish up our own strategic plan. So
going forward into this budget, we'll be using some of the things we determine through
the strategic plan. We'll spend some of the ... that money, and some of those programs
have already been talked about. Uh, we are active participants in the Youth Leadership
Academy. We tried doing a, uh, fire academy with, uh, the School District prior to this
event, and it just didn't go off as well, and I think it was a good idea to pool all resources
and, uh, get together. In fact yesterday somebody showed me an article online of a
newspaper of a young lady that travels from, I think it's Manchester, to come to the
Youth Leadership Academy. So ... so that's, uh, certainly worked well for us, much better
than it did before. Uh... through fire administration we do have some expenses that I'll
just ... I'll note. Un ... covered under fire administration weather alert sirens, so you'll see
the expenditure for weather alert sirens coming up in FYI 7. We're trying to replace a
couple of those. Uh, ant ... getting antiquated I guess as far as weather alert sirens to my
knowledge, but uh, some of 'em are a good 20 -years old and we're trying to look at
different models that give us a better range, to help us cover down by Terry Trueblood,
uh... Alexander School, and ... north of the interstate. We are, uh, constantly working to
maintain our ISO rating of 2. You see our goals and that's certainly something that we're
concerned about, so we're ... we're looking at that. Something that you will be seeing here
in the near future, I .... I assume it would be an agreement with University Heights for fire
protection. I was able to talk with, uh, Mayor Fromm and uh, say that we could work
together. So hopefully that'll get to you and we can look forward to that. To me it's
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a ... it's the right thing to do. I worked at Station #2 for a number of years and I found it
interesting that it couldn't cross the street (laughter) But I don't anticipate it causing us a
big blip in call volume. A number of the calls they have are during football weekends.
So I don't think it's going to be a big deal for us, but ... I just think it's the right thing to do.
Uh, emergency operations (mumbled) numbers show a 4% increase in calls so we ... we,
uh, 6,016 calls the previous year. T I don't have the numbers clean to tell you what some
of those were. Our numbers ... our fires did go up a ... a few, I think we went up to ... just
over 203 fires, 56 of those would be considered structure fires and fires confined to
cooking continue to be, uh, one of our major fires, unattended cooking. People leave
something on the stove. Uh... so it's about a 4% increase, but we'll have ... we'll have better
numbers as that. A continued challenge for us as far as emergency operations is ability to
get to the east and the west, and even to the south just a little bit within our own time...
frames that we're trying to ... to get to for our accreditation. Right now those, uh,
populations are teetering to where it's going to make it, where we have to get there just a
little bit quicker. So we're always looking at ways to do things a little different to, uh,
change how our response goes, but ... just something on the radar, and that's standard
(mumbled) some of that information. Uh, as I did mention we are in ... included in the
Youth Leadership Academy. We also function on multiple teams within the area. We...
have two active members of the Metro Dive Team. We have a ... a captain assigned to the,
use our team out of Cedar Rapids. Uh, we're involved in hazmat. We're involved in
EMS. I think we've had to do it all. We're all parts of the county, contingents of all those
things, so... Starting at the end of February we will be, maybe early March, we will be
having Johnson County Ambulance cohabitating with us at Fire Station #4 while they
build their new building, so... I think that'll work out just fine.
Dickens/ Is that going to be a permanent (mumbled)
Grier/ Eight ... 18 months, I think, uh, Steve Spindler (both talking)
Dickens/ I mean after they build that, is there any...
Grier/ I don't think ... we don't ... we have not had those discussions. I think their plan is to go back
to, uh, the Dubuque Street location for their main Iowa City, uh... location. They have a
unit on the west side out at the SEATS. Then they have a unit at Coralville Fire Station
#2.
Dickens/ Because I, since I live up in the northeast part of town, there's... ambulances going all
the time.
Grier/ Sure!
Dickens/ Emergency vehicles going out that way and ... having 'em stationed at #4 does make
sense. That ... that covers that...
Grier/ It is a good location to go north, east, west.
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Dickens/ Right!
Grier/ They get some of that with the Coralville location, I mean... that... they do go to Oxford
and, uh, Tiffin quite a bit, so that's a good location for them and Steve and I talk all the
time. I'm sure we'd be ... if we found that that was necessary, I'm sure we could talk about
it further, but ... it'll be a good experience having them there and they're certainly
appreciative of us allowing them to do it. Uh, we do have some costs which you're going
to hear about at the CIP next week, but we have some engine costs, replacement costs.
We do have a replacement schedule. We have a system in place to look at those things,
but uh, those are just some upcoming operational costs. Fire prevention wise we, uh...
always keepin' busy. We're doing our.... continue to do our schools. We continue to do
our inspections. We continue to do our fire investigations. Outside of the Youth
Leadership Academy, we have a firefighter that was able to get his foot in the door at the
School District. It's ... it's difficult (laughs) They're busy! He went down to Alexander
and he started a program called 'Fired Up About Reading,' where he went to the
classroom once a week, uh, read with the children, and there were some parameters on
what the children had to do to be selected the winner, and I ... off the top of my head I can't
recall what that is, but that person gets to come down to Fire Station #1. They get to be
on the fire engine, go for a ride on the fire engine. I think the fire marshal is working
with the ... the Police Department. We're hoping to combine.... fire and police to do a
similar project so that we get to those, uh, children when they're younger and say, hey,
you know, this might be a good career to ... to go after, so... More to ... more to hear on
that. We're also ... we're continuing our Safe Kids involvement. We have a ... a'fit station'
for car seat installations at Fire Station #4 every other month, on a Wednesday night, and
then we have a number of technicians and we receive phone calls all the time. I'm going
to pick up my baby tomorrow. Can you help me put my car seat in? And we're ... we did
58 of those, uh, outside of the regular John ... uh, Safe Kids. Training wise, we continue
to, uh, maintain all of our training hours. As you ... as you're aware, the training center,
uh, was razed due to the redevelopment down there, so we've made some progress on
how we do things. We refinished Fire Station #4's basement area into a classroom where
we can do some video conferencing out of there. We, uh, have been working with
Coralville to utilize their fire training center for our, uh, on -hands training. We also use
acquired structures quite a bit. And, uh... we have two new hires that will be going to
Coralville next week. Uh, Coralville just requires us to have a little more, uh, foresight in
how we're going to do things. It has diminished our ability to just go down and do
something, but uh, luckily we've been able to, uh, work with ... also businesses in the area
to use their ... their land or ... if we want to cut up a car we can go down and cut it up at the
recycling place. We don't have to have them bring it to us anymore, so ... our training
officer has done a ... done a great job of kind of changing things, but... you... you hear about
our training every once in a while. I just wanted to mention it. We'll continue to look at
different ways to, uh, develop sites within the city where we can go and do those spur of
the moment training, but.. just, it's on the radar. I think I hit all my high points. I'd be
happy to entertain any questions.
Botchway/ I guess two points for me. Um, one (clears throat) I don't know if it's still here, and I
can't remember who came for that, um, that one training with the kids over at ... whatever
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school, um, that ... they were dancin' around. I think that's still talked about. I know it's
talked about (both talking)
Grier/ Is this the, uh, Fire Prevention Week?
Botchway/ Yes! Yes, it was, yeah (both talking) That was a really good job and (both talking)
Grier/ Had the whip and the na-na in there (laughter)
Botchway/ He actually said it correctly too! Wow! (laughter) So it was .... it was really good
that, uh, you know, y'all were able to do that and get out there and ... and highly appreciate
that. Um, at the risk of sounding redundant, and I think (mumbled) already mentioned
this as well, I mean, what of...what are your recruitment efforts as far as, um, people of
color. Is it the same constraints that the Police Department has as well?
Grier/ It ... it is the same constraints.
Botchway/ Okay.
Grier/ The civil service restrictions on our testing process and our list process.
Botchway/ Okay.
Grier/ And we do the same. We ... we go far and wide to recruit. Uh, we ... entertain questions.
We ... every place we go we talk about Iowa City and what a great place it is to live and
work, and obviously the Fire Department's a great place to ... to work as well. Uh... as far
as hiring process, we have very limited prerequisite. Well, you have to be 18 and have a
high school graduation. Where some... jurisdictions you have to have EMT or paramedic,
or all these other things, and we ... we have specifically not done that to increase our pool.
Botchway/ Right.
Grier/ But it...it is a very competitive process. When we did it the last time I think there was
probably over 300 in the written, over at the Rec Center. So, but yeah, we're do ... we're
doing the same thing. We advertise far and wide.
Throgmorton/ To follow up, what can be done to change civil service rules? What ... and the
processes? (several talking) ...state law, that's... that's what I was wondering about.
Grier/ Yeah.
Cole/ Is that a lobbying priority? I mean I think that it strikes me that, you know, on the one
hand we can talk about what, you know, the ... the restrictions are, but the point is is what
are we doing. I think we need to look at as a lobbying priority are there any tweaks we
can make to the civil service reform, um, to allow greater opportunity because sometimes
these metrics themselves (mumbled) disproportionate impact in who gets in and who gets
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out, so is that going to be a priority in terms of, uh, possibly changing those? (several
talking)
Botchway/ ...legislative standpoint
Cole/ But I think in terms of Des Moines, if there's some ... Des Moines ... we're talking about
restrictions at the state level, correct, or not?
Grier/ Correct, yeah (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Botchway/ But my point was was that's not, you know, we wouldn't make that a part of our
legislative priority packet. (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah (both talking)
Botchway/ Oh I thought you were asking the (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah, what I'm saying ... in terms of us as an advocacy to the ... the Des Moines, um, is what
we'd like to see. Is that ... is that being done -or ... in terms of lobbying to reform those civil
service so we (both talking)
Markus/ Specifically, no.
Cole/ Okay. Like I said, like to see that. Um ... one specific question, in this community had a
healthy dialogue, uh, regarding highrises in the community.
Grier/ Sure!
Cole/ Um, what have you been able to ... in terms of a budget impact, in terms of training needs. I
would imagine there are some specific training, specialized training, that's required over a
certain level. What is the line item impact on your budget to ensure that your officers can
safely service the taller buildings that we've had in the community? Is there any
specialized training that's needed and ... and how does that impact the budget, if at all?
Grier/ No, I think we've ... we've maintained a healthy overall training budget, spread out through
all of our different areas. I ... I think, uh... I don't think there's one specific program that
would, say if we go to this program we're gonna be great. Highrises are the animal that
they are. The good thing about highrises is that they're built differently. You know, they
have fire protection systems built in, so they're ... we do gain a little bit of advantage by
that. But, it's all about boots on the ground and how many people we can get there
effectively and how ... how quickly we can get 'em there. I think we do a good job of pre-
planning for those buildings. Good number of 'ern are, you know, central to the business
district here, so we ... we can get there quickly and we have enough folks on duty to, uh,
help with the initial attack. And then our system that we have in the county is that we do
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call for mutual aid and we'll ... we'll have some backup, and we can call our own folks
back in. So I just think the continued ability to get into similar buildings and train, and,
uh, be able to actually carry hose up, and we've had the opportunity just recently to use
the, uh... uh, Century Link building to do some highrise training, and it was .... we had the
multiple scenarios that we were in. We found different ways and better ways that we
wanted to do it. The Fire Department... across the nation they always, well that's how
we've always done it, and ... and luckily we have enough folks that have ... get out and
about and say, well you know, maybe we can have it a different way. So I think we're
...we've looked at ways that we load the hose, what we carry, who does what. I think so
we ... I think we have what we need. Obviously more is better. I wouldn't turn'em down!
Cole/ Yeah. So there's no particularized budget impact related to then the higher rise buildings.
Grier/ I don't think so. (both talking) I think we have all of the equipment necessary, uh, and I
think we do a good job of forecasting, you know, hose and ways to get things there. Uh,
our air packs are designed to be able to hook up to another spare so we carry extras with
us, you know, so...
Cole/ Okay!
Grier/ I think we have what we need but certainly continue to look at all those buildings as they
come in and make sure that we're prepared for it.
Mims/ I have a question, and Tom, this may be more for you but also for the Chief. You
mentioned mutual aid and Tom, this is something that you have mentioned because of the
different kinds of fire departments and organization, and yet if there's a big one ... we're
called in. I mean, we're always going to end up there. Should we be looking at
something in our budgeting process related to, and I don't understand or know off the top
of my head how these mutual aid agreements work. If these are 28E or if these are kind
of'gentlemen's agreements' that are ... you know, typical in certain localities. Um, but if
this is costing the Iowa City taxpayers more than these taxpayers in these other
communities because we are paying for a full-time professional fire ser... department,
should we be looking at restructuring our mutual aid agreements?
Markus/ (clears throat) I ... I think the only thing that I ... I see, and I want to have John hear this
and verify this, but ... when we have ... fully -trained firefighters and they go home at the end
of the day because they have a radius that they can live out to ... how many miles, John?
We just went through a court case on this.
Grier/ 17.
Markus/ 17 miles. Some of them are residing in places that have volunteer departments. And so
they serve on those volunteer departments. So when we have mutual aid and we're
calling for ... return of service from these other volunteer departments, at the same time we
put that call out, we're putting... callback out, which means we call ... our full-time people
back. So, that person that serves in a volunteer ... in a volunteer department that's a full -
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time officer, that person may return here and be paid overtime ... to serve, rather than go
through the volunteer operation. So a lot of times it doesn't come back in the way that
you would hope a mutual aid would. John has rank and command people that serve on
some of these volunteer departments, as well as serving on our department. So, I think
the benefit is a bit lopsided; outbound rather than inbound. And so ... John, you want to
verify or...
Grier/ Everything said is ... is up to date. We do have folks that live in different jurisdictions and
uh, I know they live there for various reasons — family, farms, etc., etc. And it does, uh,
as the City Manager described, that does occur when folks will come back. I don't know
to what extent. We ... we don't, uh, I don't have the number in front of me. I mean mutual
aid wise. We ... we don't go out a lot. We go out ... on occasion. We do have some
(mumbled) agreements that I guess you would consider some sort of mutual aid, where
we go to the interstate... with Coralville, cert..through certain mile markers and with West
Branch through certain mile markers, so ... those kind of get thrown into that same mix,
but ... I ... I don't know that there's a disproportionate that we're ... we're giving, versus what
we're getting. I mean we certainly also rely on those folks when we have bigger
incidents, you know, uh, Brueggers, Freedom Court, anything that goes to, uh, taxes. Our
resources we do call mutual aid so that we have coverage in the city. I don't have the
numbers in front of me, but... I ... I agree it's something we certainly want to continue to
look at and make sure.
Markus/ So one of the thoughts that I had was (clears throat) you have a core of full-time people
now. And so ... it seems to me that we should, because we draw I mean .... I don't know
what percent of your firefighters are volunteers when they come on the department, but I
bet it's significant, and ... you know, I ... I've always thought, well maybe what we should be
doing is developing our own farm team. So that we have... volunteers that work out of
our stations too, that as time evolves, um, and we take some of our local residents and
maybe that's a way to diversify the staff, and then we have these people that are getting
trained and getting familiar with our department, and then when we need to fill full-time
positions, my thought process is we'd make a commitment that we wouldn't reduce our
full-time staffing, but that as we grew, we ... would use hybrid, you know, volunteer
operations to backfill some of the full-time positions, and you know, do a paid -on-call
kind of basis. They'd get a stipend and ... and, you know, if they wanted to really get into
the fire service, this would be kind of a nice entree for 'em to do that. Um, they would
get the training and they'd be ready to ... to move in, you know, when we did have
openings. Um, I think that overall... could spread and reduce some of the cost.
Traditionally IAFF, the International Association of Firefighters, is not ... is not real
encouraging of volunteers, but Iowa has a very different history in terms of volunteers,
and then the departments that actually become full-time, lot of those folks come from
volunteer operations and continue their connection. It's not only their vocation, it's their
advocation. And I think ... I think there's more chance that we could eventually get there.
Firefighters, um, quite frankly the, you know, like the department in Coralville. I think
Coralville has the exact same rating we do.
Grier/ They do.
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Markus/ And ... it's a hybrid operation. So that doesn't mean there's a diminution in the quality of
service that would be provided to our constituents. The other thing that's kinda quirky
about our model here in this county is that you have emergency management being
provided by the County and is separate and distinct, and a lot of places what you have is
when you have full-time departments, they also serve as emergency medical or
paramedic, and in those cases, the vast majority of the response calls are in the area of a
emergency, um, response for medical rather than for fire service. So ... I think those are all
things going forward you want to think about. The other things I would say to you is, I
think it's kind of, um ... generous of the taxpayers to be supporting... let's see ... one, two,
three ... uh, three major departments in this area, plus the ... the paramedic program. It
seems like you could almost have a countywide program, um ... which would be higher
service and less cost. Um, if they were all managed together. But that takes a great deal
of trust to get you there, because we parochialized our system of governance here in
service delivery. And ... there's plenty opportunities, and so when you free up money
there, you lower the cost of operation, you free up money to be used for other ... other
demands that you want, and I ... you know, think about this. Johnson County's 150,000.
John, in California where you came from, how many cities are 150,000 (laughter) I
mean, they're all over the place, and they have one department! That's not an
unmanageable number of people to be in a department, but that takes a lot of inter-
governmental relations to do that, and ... Sam left, but that applies to police too.
University Pol... the University Police, University Heights Police, Coralville, North
Liberty, Iowa City, County, and State police. Really? We need all of those different
units? Now ... you know, I'm ... I'm sure my name will take on a .... additional adjectives
after saying something like that, but the reality is ... there's some efficiencies that could be
ground out of this operation with no diminution of service, and things that you gotta
consider, and by the way, the training tower ... that John ref ...refers to, that was funded by
the State, as a regional tower. It's not Coralville's tower. That is a tower that was
supposed to serve ... the training tower was supposed to serve the region. Right?
Grier/ Correct. In conjunction with Kirkwood.
Throgmorton/ Uh, seems to me, uh, the hybrid model that you refer to, Tom, has potential, but
uh, my sense is that that'd have to ... would have to be explored with, uh, the firefighters
union, you know, engage in conversations with 'em and so on, but we can ... we can return
to that at some other moment in time, right?
Markus/ Yeah! I just want you to think...
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ ...down the road.
Throgmorton/ Right. Okay.
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Grier/ (both talking) ...had multiple conversations about different ways to look at things. (several
talking) We are ... we are always looking at a different way. A better way. (several
talking)
Markus/ ...push/pull on that.
Throgmorton/ How bout maybe one more question. Then we should move on.
Botchway/ Well I just want to go back (mumbled) cause I don't know, I mean maybe (mumbled)
answered but ... I just want to be clear. And so ... and I thought you were bringing this up.
So if you go to Coralville and there's a big fire, there's no ... discussion as far as money or
anything else if we supply help?
Grier/ Correct. And if they come here, there's no money.
Botchway/ Okay, that's what I (both talking)
Grier/ It goes both ways. If we go we don't ask for money; if they come they don't ask for
money.
Botchway/ There you go. Thanks.
Markus/ But ... to be clear, that if the officer that is both a full-time firefighter here and a
volunteer someplace else comes back on callback, that's one less officer (mumbled)
Right, John?
Grier/ That is correct.
Throgmorton/ All right, Chief! Thank you very much.
Grier/ Great! Have a great day! Thanks! (several responding)
Libr :
Throgmorton/ Susan! It's about time to hear from the Library!
Craig/ Okay! Have a ... a handout (away from mic) Tom was talking about parochialism. In ... in
no place in Iowa is it more evident than in libraries, just um ... Iowa has over 500 public
libraries, per capita the most of any ... state in the union, and most of them are municipal
libraries. It is possible by state law to have a county library, but there are only a couple
of them, and they only serve parts of counties (laughs) So ... it's just ... the way we are here
in Iowa! Uh, I wanted to share some highlights of the last year. Uh, we ... adopted a new
strategic plan. We set a couple of records last year. One was for the number of people
that entered our building. Um, over 825,000. Um ... we ... our busiest weeks are in the
summer during the summer readings programs and all the activities downtown, where we
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typically see more than 20,000 a week through our doors. We also set records last year
for the attendance at our library programs. Um, a ... again across the board for children's,
teen, and adult programs, almost 30,000 children, um, attending children's programs at
the Library. And we also recognized what for me was a really important milestone. We
did a ... a thanks a million campaign to acknowledge the gifts that have come to us in the
last five years from the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation. The mission
statement of our new plan that went into effect the beginning of the fiscal year says 'the
Iowa City Public Library is a center of community life, that connects people of all ages
with information, engages them with the world of ideas, and with each other, and
enriches the communi ... community by supporting learning, supporting literacy, and
encouraging creativity. We think that the goals and the tasks that we've adopted to go
with that plan are very compatible with the City's new strategic plan. Um, we have some
exciting things going on this year. I think one of the highlights of our programming is,
uh, a series that we've called "Music is the Word." We're now just entering season two,
which is January through May, and ... someone on the staff had the wonderful idea of
doing nine months of musical programming to welcome the UI School of Music to
downtown. It's been a wonderful partnership. Um, we've made some good relationships
with the UI School of Music, and with lots of other people in town through this. So if
you don't have your schedule for season two, um, look at the web site or pick one up
when you're in the Library or I'm glad to get you one! Uh, something that's coming soon
in early February, we are launching a new initiative, um, aimed at early childhood
education, which is a national program that we are doing here called 'A Thousand Books
Before Kindergarten,' that ... the idea is to emphasize the importance of reading to children
basically from birth and to help them track and show milestones, um, of their reading,
and we hope to have a lot of kids in Iowa City who have read a thousand books by the
time, or had read to them, a thousand books by the time they get to kindergarten. Um,
we're looking ahead and...one of the things that we're hoping to introduce to the
community in the near future is book mobile service, and Robin Praetzel, uh, who is the
President of our Library Board is here today to talk a little bit about that and Marian has
the information to hand out.
Praetzel/ Thank you for allowing us to come in and talk a little bit about this. Um, as Susan
mentioned, we've had a lot of accomplishments and the result of the strategy work that
we did showed us what our strengths were, that the community truly appreciates us, but it
also shows us where some of our challenges are, and there are disparities in access in the
community that we need to address. We're the largest city in Iowa without a branch
library and I think that's affecting how people can use our services. The decision to go
with a book mobile allows us to be flexible. It's a cost-effective way to reach multiple
communities. It allows us to meet the needs of families who cannot physically get into
the Library because of their access to buses on weekends, because of their working hours.
It creates a comfortable, smaller environment for families who may not feel quite ... they
may not identify with the Library in the same way that ... that other people do. Um, we...
this will allow us to move it about, to be able to get to know the families individually,
um, and to really serve them in a more effective way. Um, we've submitted a budget
proposal to you, our original idea of working with this book mobile was to try to support
the operations of it from the, a request support, from the, um, income that comes from the
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space in the Library, um, that has a rental income, but that has been committed by the
City to a very creative idea that we're excited about with the Maker's Base, however, it
changed how we're going to be able to focus on this book mobile. And I can see that you
share our goals of addressing these disparities because the budget recommendation did
help us with the acquisition of this, and we're ... we're actively working as partners on this.
The challenge we've seen right now is acquisition without a commitment to service
leaves us in an awkward situation. We need to be able to staff the book mobile, and so
we're asking if you would review again the request to work with us on the financial need
for services. Um, and we're glad to answer any questions that you may have. The
specifics on the numbers are in the handout that Susan just distributed.
Botchway/ Some brief questions about those numbers, um .... in relation to advertising, uh, phone
and wireless, uh, miscellaneous, I think's about $16,000. Um, why those separate budget
items if it's going to be in conjunction with City services?
Craig/ The, um ... I guess I don't understand the question.
Botchway/ (both talking)
Craig/ The phone and wireless is, are the ... the internet connections that we would need at each of
(both talking)
Botchway/ Okay, that's what (both talking)
Craig/ ...at each of the sites.
Botchway/ Okay.
Craig/ Um, the advertising is ... extra for one-time kind of thing to make people aware of where
the stops are, of what the hours are.
Botchway/ Okay.
Craig/ Um...
Taylor/ And this is Pauline. On ... on the staff, that number then is above and beyond what you
have listed in the budget book for actual Library staff, the 42.77, so the book mobile staff
is above and beyond?
Craig/ That's correct.
Taylor/ Okay.
Craig/ We were ... we requested that the City fund one full-time equivalent person, and (both
talking) and the ... the gift ... the Library Board has committed through gift money to
support, um, 16 hours of additional staffing from gift money.
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Cole/ So the annual increase per year will be $100,000?
Craig/ Just under 100,000. In the first year, in FY 17, it would be considerably less, which is why
this chart looks a little complicated, because ... by the time we do an RFP and get a vehicle
built, we .... we would be looking at introducing it in probably March, you know, not a
full year in FYI 7, but after that it would be in that range.
Botchway/ I guess going back to that miscellaneous insurance costs. It wouldn't be covered
again then with City services. We don't have a (both talking)
Craig/ The ... the miscellaneous, it's part of the vehicle maintenance. Those are areas where the
City charges us back for those kinds of things. So ... the, we have two vehicles now — a
passenger van that we use for outreach and for travel, and then we have a ... a cargo kind
of van that we use to pick up from book drops every day, and so part of our budget is the
maintenance and operating costs of those vehicles. So ... the City operations take care of
those vehicles for us, but it's part of our budget and our responsibility to pay them to do
so.
Markus/ So what we do is we'll buy the vehicle through the ... that particular fund and then we'll
charge that back to the department that benefits from the use of that vehicle, for
maintenance, amortization, you know, depreciation, so that, you know, over the life of
the vehicle we estimate how .... how long it's going to last and so we build back in a
reserve so that when that comes up again you can buy that vehicle.
Cole/ I gotta say that there's so much that I really like about this project. I mean I think that it
enhances access. It doesn't fix that, um, that branch location in one segment of the
community. Um, one of the things I want to evaluate though, see there's a lot of things I
really like about it and I think it's a really fabulous proposal, um, there obviously is an
existing non-profit book mobile service, and I'm wondering on what ... while we can't
comment on any particular book mobile service, as you evaluated the need for this, um, is
there a way in which we can proactively outreach to ensure, um, that if we have those
non -profits that have worked really hard to build up a model, to build up the fundraising
relationships, how do we ensure that then their model of service is not adversely
impacted if now all of a sudden the Library's going to assume that service. So can we
have a productive collaborative partnership or ... or what would be your response to that?
Craig/ The, uh, the book mobile that operates now in southeast Iowa City, in the summertime as
a non-profit, does great service and it really targets areas where there are low-income
families and children. It is run entirely as a non-profit and through gift funds. So it only
operates during the summertime and, um, and only in southeast Iowa City. I think that the
City book mobile service would complement that service. I mean, if they are at ... in a
certain location, on a certain day in southeast Iowa City, if the City book mobile shows
up two days later, I think that just brings more vibrancy and more opportunities to those
areas of the community, in addition the City book mobile would have an annual schedule
and could see ... serve other areas in the community as well.
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Praetzel/ You know, I also want to comment that there's a quality difference from an ongoing,
sustainable library, um, book mobile and the small one. I think the small one actually
proved to us the need for some of these services. We are in conversation with them.
We've offered displays of their services. Um, I think when you have a ... a non-profit book
mobile that's dependent on donations, you don't have, um, the ... the same quality of
services that others have, that we have a larger inventory of books. We have supplies.
We have programming. So, um, I think it's a very good workable relationship. It is not
our intention to replace them in any way. It's simply a matter of getting, uh, quality
services that, um, are more equitable out throughout the entire community but we are in
conversation with 'em. It's not a matter of trying to, um, squash a very productive
partnership with the community that already exists.
Thomas/ So with the book mobile, how would it actually interface with the neighborhoods?
Where ... where would it ... where would it park? How long would it stay in that location?
Craig/ We are ... we are educating ourselves about book mobile service. Book mobiles were
really ... um ... quite common in the 50s and 60s, and then as the price of gas went up
and ... and automation came along, it was very hard to deliver off of a book mobile. You
saw their use decline, um, and now it's on the upswing again. The community in Iowa
that has a book mobile that we have looked at and visited is Ames, Iowa, and they have
recently just this year they have a new book mobile and they've sort of redefined their
services. Previously their services were mostly delivered at school sites, and now they
have expanded that, dropped some of their lesser used school sites. They look for very,
um, accessible and ... ob... obvious sites, so it, um, corners to park on, where there's a lot of
traffic, where people will see you. Um, you need to think about things like restrooms,
which the book mobile won't have, and um, storm shelter. So you need to be someplace
like in a park where there's, you know, an emergency shelter you could go to and things
like that. Um, some places you need to have electricity. Other places you would ... it
would come with a generator. You would run off the generator, um, so ... those details
remain to be worked out.
Thomas/ (mumbled) I'm intrigued with the idea. It's certainly something that I think, in terms of
City services as a whole, the idea of...having a more, um ... equitable distribution of
service is a really important consideration and Iowa City seems to be in kind of an
awkward demographic, in that you know is ... do we ... do we emphasize neighborhood
services over centralized services. It's a ... it's a difficult... it's a difficult problem, but I like
the way the book mobile, given the ... the existing circumstances, is addressing it, and it...
I think it could be synergistic in my mind with this notion that I'm intrigued with, of
strengthening neighborhood centers within neighborhoods throughout Iowa City. So the
book mobile could be a part of that, you know, provide an attraction within the
neighborhoods that would then... synergize other activities around the book mobile. So
for example at a park.
Craig/ Right. Well for 20 years we have been ... more than 20 years. Um, cause it was before I
was Library Director. We've been delivering summer programming, um, at parks, called
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'Stories in the Park,' and we would just take the book mobile to Stories in the Park. The
last couple of years we've tried to take very small collections of books to check out with
us, that we carry in bins, but a book mobile would be a bigger draw, and sometimes, you
know, we can get ... I would say average is more like 30 -some kids at Stories in the Park,
but we've had 80 kids at Stories in the Park, um, and ... all summer long kids know,
families know — it's at Mercer on this day and Willow Creek on this day, so...
Praetzel/ You know a lot of these examples we're using are focusing on children and ... and
services that would be toward young families, but there was also a lot of feedback when
we collected, uh, public input on mobility and parking -related issues, and so this allows
us to get into the communities for people who find it physically difficult to either park at
the Library or to manage the sidewalks. It allows us just one more avenue to address
people with mobility challenges.
Botchway/ So, what's the timeline on this discussion? Tom? I mean...
Markus/ Timeline on this discussion?
Botchway/ Yeah. This proposal's before us and I'm assuming it's, I mean, it says for the FY17
budget. I'm not prepared to make a, I mean (both talking)
Throgmorton/ No, we're not gonna make a decision (several talking)
Mims/ Yeah, and if I can ... cause what I want to ask if kind of related to what you're asking,
Kingsley. And this is to Tom. Okay? Typically, you know, you've laid out the process
that you go through in terms of developing the budget and you and Geoff and Dennis,
whoever, meet with all of the department heads and lay out the budget. Okay? So I
guess there's a two -fold question. One, why in that process was this not included? Was it
because at that administrative level you weren't just comfortable making the decision and
felt it should be Council or whatever, and then secondly, if at some point here we do
decide to include it, okay, what then is the impact in terms of other budget items, and if
we as a Council cannot prioritize and say we simply want to add this and aren't willing to
take anything else out, what does that mean in terms of the rest of the budget and the tax
rate?
Markus/ We can lay that all out for ya. I'd say that, um, the ... the request for operational funding,
you know, we've been in this, kind of this pattern of not adding staff, and when we do
add staff, we're trying to meet, uh, strategic plan objectives. And, um, I thought
Rockne's, um, analysis, urn ... was kind of interesting because he talked about this non-
profit operation versus the, uh, full-time book mobile, and ... and I (laughs) that actually
intrigued me, cause I like the non-profit model. Um ... operationally there may have been
a thought process of depending on the spin-off of rent from the annex that's now going to
be the (can't hear) facility. Our intent was to use that for debt retirement, uh, for the
facility itself. Um ... so, you know, in essence you're going to have to come up with this
much more money to do it. Um ... (laughs) you know, I ... I understand what they're trying
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to accomplish, and I ... and I appreciate that, but .... and we're not opposed to it, okay? We
like it, but we like lots of things.
Mims/ Right!
Markus/ And it's one of those things for the Council to kind of determine. So here's what I'd
suggest you do. Let's get through this document, okay? Let's take all of these ... what
about this. Add 'em all up. Calculate the financial impact. Let me talk to Susan. I get
along great with Susan (laughter) I really do. I mean, Susan ... (several talking and
laughing) You know what, even then she, I mean, you read her memo. You know, it was
a very thoughtful, professional memo, and you know, she could have been all pissy about
it (laughter) you know. So, I mean, you know we have that kind of relationship. On the
other hand, you know this whole thing with this non-profit, I want to make sure I
completely understand that, because it seems to me that that non-profit ... kind of takes
away to some degree ... you know, the whole social justice kind of connection for it, when
they're focusing their attention in southeast or in vulnerable neighborhoods and doing it
during the summer, when the kids probably do need that, and I know (mumbled)
expansive scope for the Library, uh, service, but ... um ... I ... I would say that, um, I still
want to hear more about this non-profit and how we ... kind of work with them in this
regard, and I would also say, that was the point I kind of slipped over in my mind was...
that seems to be the right time to make that kind of service available. I grew up in a
small town that had a county regional library, and so we had a book mobile and that was
more about serving populations in rural areas (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) rather
than the main Library (mumbled) (noises in background) um ... I ... I like this way better
than a bricks and mortar project. Okay? So ... you know, there's... there's pluses and
minuses here, and it all gets weighed against what are the ... all the other things, but if...if
we kind of get to a sum total of what might be added or subtracted, it might be a lot easier
for us to come back with some facts and figures for ya (mumbled) impact on the budget,
and ... you know, maybe in ... maybe, uh, my friend Susan and I can negotiate a little bit
(mumbled)
Throgmorton/ I clearly hear interest in the ... in the topic, so we'll have to revisit this in the way
that you describe (both talking)
Markus/ So you'll need some analysis from us anyway, so...
Cole/ And just one very, very quick question. Are there any policies that prevent, internal
policies, cause I'm obviously not an expert on Iowa City Public Library policies, that
prevent seeking outside vendors to ... to provide a service, not necessarily for a book
mobile, but just in general. Are there any internal restrictions that would prevent that?
Craig/ Well we have service contracts with lots of entities, and if we were to sign a contract with
someone for a significant amount of money for services, we would be governed by
purchasing policies and (both talking) that entity would have to meet certain requirements
that the City requires of people they do business with.
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Cole/ Like an RFP and, yeah. Yep. Okay.
Markus/ So let me ... let me explain something else. So when we go through the budget process,
we get all sorts of requests. Okay? What's unique about this request is that the Library
has its own Library Board, okay, and so ... it's not the same thing as those departments
under the Manager's direction. So I make recommendations to you, I do the slicing and
dicing before it gets to you. The .... the budget process and the way the budget works here
in the City of Iowa City, like in most council/manager towns, it's the manager's
recommended budget. And then the Council deliberates on that. So I pre ... I prepare the
budget based on what I've discerned is the right thing. So there's other things that were
left on the floor that got cut that probably also didn't, you know, serve social justice types
of issues, and other priority issues as well, and so ... they get an extra ... kind of shot at the
Council that other groups won't, and one of those people is sittin', you know, right now
to ... to, uh, Susan's left, you know, that made a request and I said, 'No, we're not gonna go
there.' So ... just understand that, and that's kind of the dilemma. Somebody has to make
those decisions, and that falls to me on all departmental things under my jurisdiction.
There ... budget is ... is your purview. When it comes to the Library. Operations, service
deliveries, those types of things are really ... the administration of the Library and the
Board of the Library makes those calls, and that's why ... they get this opportunity that
others wouldn't, but I want you to know there's other things that have already (several
talking) (noises in background)
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're ... we've been hoping to address two other departments before noon
and let's go! So, we can't do it unless we move on, so....
Craig/ Thank you and if you need any other information, just let us know. (several talking)
Botchway/ So, my family says thank you and (mumbled) and my son doubly says thank you
(laughter) So..and then, Tom, if we can get that information, you know, the things left on
the floor in conjunction with what Susan was talking about and the ... that, I don't
know ... (mumbled) all the different things (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
Markus/ Really want to see everything (several talking) that was left.
Botchway/ Not everything, but .... there's an important.. just mentioned the fact that there was
some social justice pieces that, you know, were left off the board of some of the agencies
(several talking)
Markus/ There's ... they may meet that requirement, they may meet other requirements, but
ultimately... that document is my responsibility (mumbled) and ... and if...and if we're
going to, I mean, that almost is a change in the way the plan works, council/manager
plan.
Throgmorton/ Parks and Rec, who we gonna hear (both talking)
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Markus/ I don't mind giving you all the things that ... that come to you that don't filter through me.
Summarize those. That's where I would suggest you (mumbled)
Fruin/ I'm going to handle Parks and Rec today, um, but because Linda's been waiting patiently.
I'm in it for the long haul today. Linda gets to go home after this. I'm going to suggest
you take the Senior Center next.
Throgmorton/ Okey doke! Hi, Linda.
Karr/ It's page 228.
Senior Center
Kopping/ (several talking) Well at the Senior Center we've celebrated many accomplishments
in, uh, FY15 and so far in FY16. Uh, we continue to offer a variety of classes taught by
volunteers and independent contractors. We have 25, uh, groups and clubs that meet on
an ongoing basis. Eighteen different volunteer activities. Six different Senior Center
affiliated performance groups, and we offer, uh, special events open to the community
throughout the year. Uh, we do have memberships, but we offer a lot of programming
for the 50 -plus population, um, that don't require memberships. We also have inter-
generational programming, programming for populations with special needs, and as I
mentioned just a few minutes ... few seconds ago, um, community programming. Much of
our programming is offered in cooperation with community partners. In fact in 2000 ... or
FYI 5, we had 128 different community partners, uh, to enrich our programming, as well
as programming offered in cooperation with the Rec Department and the Library, and
we're trying to build on that right now. In total, the Center sponsored or hosted 11,243
activities in FY14, and this would include everything that involved staff programming or
scheduling. We had nearly 113,000 visits to Center -sponsored programs, which showed
a 3.6% increase over the previous year, and just over 124,000 visits when events
sponsored by other organizations are factored in. Our volunteer participation was stable
at about 600 volunteers, um ... donating about 26,000, uh, volunteer hours of service, and
as I say at the volunteer recognition event every year, we would not be able to
accomplish nearly what we are able to accomplish with our staff without all the volunteer
support that we receive. Our paid membership as of yesterday is 1,631 and this includes
the 20 new members we had sign up on Friday ... or Thursday after our successful open
house, uh, celebrating this year's 35th anniversary. Now we've offered some stellar
programs and services in the past year, and we have some great ones planned for the
coming year that I'd like to tell ya about, but I don't think that's really been the major
focus of our work in the recent past for next year's budget. Since the Ad Hoc Committee
for Senior Services released its recommendations for the Center, funding and fundraising
has attracted and will continue to attract a lot of staff attention. In your budget
information packet, you have a section titled "Senior Center Operations," and I ... I think
it's on ... page (several talking) starts on 228. Mine's all marked up and has coffee stains
thanks to the cat! Um ... but if you look on page 230, I .... I think it's kind of interesting.
There are two columns there, one is titled "Recent Accomplishments," and there are five
recent accomplishments and four of the five have to do with fundraising, and if you look
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at the column adjacent to that, "Upcoming Challenges," there are 15 upcoming
challenges listed, and all but four of the 15 upcoming challenges are identified for the ... all
but four of the 15 upcoming challenges have to do with fundraising. So ... clearly we are
working hard to diversify our funding and decrease our reliance on the City's general
fund for support. So if we look at our revenue section of the budget first, uh, one of our
goals for FY 17 and I'm not sure how apparent this is, is to increase our cost recovery by 2
1/2% this year. Ultimately the goal is to increase it by 2 '/2% annually until we reach 35%
cost recovery. And when we reach 35%, we'll re-evaluate and see if we can, uh, go
higher. The cost recovery goal was developed by a broad-based participant committee
that met throughout the summer. Um, I can't say enough about this committee that was,
uh, very diligent in carrying out this responsibility. There was a lot of free exchange of
ideas and they gave this decision making process a lot ... a lot of thought. They worked
very hard on the recommendations they came up with. You also, Marian distributed a
copy of their report ... which is also coffee stained! Titled "Recommendations Involving
the Senior Center Fee Structure and Cost Recovery Goal for the Operational Budget."
And ... on page 3 of that report, um, the cost recovery model they used is outlined in a
table. They decided to use a cost recovery pyramid as a model, um, and this model is
used frequently by rec centers throughout the country to, um, come up with a cost
recovery amount. In fact, uh, Chad at the Rec Center tells me that they're attempting to
implement this model at the Iowa City Rec Center. Or ... at least they had ... have been;
(mumbled) they might be taking new directions at this point. Um, how they began was to
identify, uh, five budget categories that when combined would include all operational
expenses, and so the budget categories are listed in the third column, and they came up
with the facility, operations, volunteer service, and programming and sales, and then they
went through the only budget we had completed, which was the FYI budget, line item
by line item, and dropped each line item in one of those five categories. Then they went
back to the categories and placed ... a value on each one, based upon the amount of
individual benefit versus community benefit, if provided. And that amount was
represented by a percentage. So the higher the percentage attributed to it, the more
personal benefit there was. So then they took the percentage and ... took that percentage
from the actual dollar amount that was in that particular category. So ... um, I think the
example in this one... level 4 under programming has a total revised, uh, I guess we used
FY15 budget, of $140,050...$140...$140,554 — 70% of that amount or the recommended
amount for cost recovery is $98,387. They did that for each category. Then they added
all those together, and then determined how much that was ... uh, what ... what percentage
that was of the total operational budget. Then they figured out what the percentage was
of, um ... the total budget, and it came out to be 32% of the, uh ... operational budget. It was
very complex, and I can't ... I have to tell you that, um, after this looking at all the fees was
really easy. It was a piece of cake! Um ... they have outlined and presented the rationale
for this decision, um, on page 3 and 4, uh.... and why they decided to stick with this.
They feel that the recommendation is realistic, based upon the cen... the Center's,
uh ... participants and ability to generate revenue, um, the building's usage and, uh, several
other factors, but, um ... they wanted to stick with the ... they feel that this is a good
recommendation and, um, it has been approved by the Commission. And the 32%,
uh... also included the County, uh... grant that we've received as revenue from the City. It
was revenue generated by the Center, excuse me. So ... uh, as I said, when they got to fee
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increases, uh, things became a lot easier. Um ... they estimate that the fee increases that
they have recommended, um, roughly will, uh, in ... increase revenue by about $20,000.
They have suggested that, recommended that these will be implemented on July 1St, 2016,
and the increase that will be affecting the most number, the largest number of people, of
course, is the membership fee increase. Um ... the fee increases are summarized on a table
in the back of the report that begins on page 9. Every... everything is outlined,
um ... showing the percentage of change, the current revenue, and then the projected
revenue. Um, so it's ... it's neatly summarized in that table. Um, the membership,
um ... fees, I will say, uh, are increasing about 25%, um ... for each level of membership,
and they have decided to eliminate the out -of -county fees because they were ... costing
more in staff time to keep track of than they were in the benefit they were generating in
terms of, uh, revenue. One of the things in the report that is discussed is the rental of the
assembly room. They did not, uh, really establish fees for the, uh, assembly room rental,
but they feel that it has the, uh, really good prospect for genering ... generating rental
income and recommended some remodeling in the assembly room, the kitchen, and the
lobby to increase rental appeal. They asked a representative from the, uh, rental
management company that works for the ... uh, Rec Center to manage its property to come
in and evaluate, and this person felt that the ... the fact that the Senior Center is located
downtown, that its a historic, uh, facility that's well preserved, the parking is so close,
there's a skywalk that encloses the ... uh.... that provides an enclosed connection, uh, the
availability, the kitchen, all make it a very desirable rental location, and they ... the
Committee recommended that these kinds of improvements to the area that would ... that
would be needed, um, be pursued. So we are currently working with available funding,
uh, with the Engineering department to see exactly what would be needed. Um, I don't
believe that they'd be major, um ... major changes, but they would be some changes. I'm
sure there would be some costs incurred. Insofar as expenses are in ... concerned, we are,
uh, going to start removing wallpaper (clears throat) skimcoating if necessary, and
painting in some of the second floor rooms next year. We also want to upgrade the tables
and chairs. Many of our tables are broken, making them difficult or impossible to fold
up. They are very, very heavy. Uh, the chairs are uncomfortable. However, we could
save the chairs and use them, uh, for rental purposes, um, if that does come to pass, and
so we have a request in the budget to purchase classroom tables that are narrow, lighter,
improve ... have an improved appearance, uh, they'd be easier to move, and will allow for
increased seating because of the, um, narrow profile, and help us cut down on the number
of class wait lists we have. We ... would be able to fit more tables in a room, thereby
being able to seat more people. Um, this request would be funded by Friends. We would
also have a request in there to purchase new classroom chairs, which would, uh, be
designed for a classroom setting and provide additional comfort. The biggest thing in the
budget that we're requesting is a half-time development specialist. Uh, obviously this
relates to our effort to increase the diversification of (mumbled) funding and our
fundraising. In the summer of 2015, we ... contracted with fundraising and marketing
consultants to develop a strategic plan in both areas. The plans that have been developed
and are being refined, based upon the findings from the eight focus groups and a survey
conducted by one of the consultants that secured over ... 1,100 responses, um, have been in
the works and we're, uh, trying to implement some of the recommendations that came
from that. Um, some of the recommendations, um ... as I said, have been made and they
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have had some positive results. For example, our annual appeal letter last year drew 55
responses. This year it drew 130. Now ... this is a small response. There's no question
about that. But going from 55 to 130, that's a big deal! Um ... we have redone our
program guide, uh, and one of the, uh, things that's been involved with that is reducing it
from a four -time a year publication to a three -times year publication. We are evaluating
all of the promotional, uh... methods that we use, um, including our television and,
um ... routine media, urn ... exposure that we use so that we can get the best, uh... bang for
our buck, so to speak, uh, trying to target specific markets, and uh, improve on the return
on those dollars that are spent. So we..we have been able to implement some of the
changes that have been recommended and we have been achieving some positive results
from those. But we face a difficult situation. Um ... current Senior Center staff is not
trained in fundraising. We are learning, we're attending local seminars, we're doing a lot
of reading, and we're working very closely with the consultants. But the problem is,
current staff already has a full-time job, and.... fundraising in and of itself is a full-time
job. And to raise a significant proportion of the Center's budget, I need a person who can
work with me to, uh, develop and implement, evaluate a successful fundraising campaign
and program that incorporates technology in all its available forms. Someone who can
identify perspective donors, secure corporate sponsorships, identify and train volunteers,
develop donor databases, implement a stewardship program, and apply for grants!
Um ... because there has been a lot of confusion in the past when it comes to who to donate
to, um, do you donate to Senior Center? Do you donate to Senior Center Gift Fund? Do
you donate to the Community Foundation? Or do you donate to Friends of the Center?
The, um... consultants have suggested that all donations go through Friends of the
Center, so that it's just one group that receives donations. And if that happens, it would
appear that the development specialist would and should be an employee of Friends of
the Center. While at this point Friends of the Center is in no position to pay the salary
and benefits of a development specialist, but ... the develop..or the consultants are telling
us that ... um ... a good development specialist will bring in about $4.00 for about every
dollar of salary spent. So what has been discussed is hiring a person through the City
and... maintaining the person as an employee with 100% City support for the first year.
The City support would be replaced by funding from Friends over a period of three to
four years, and if the Friends were unable to fund the position's salary plus benefits
within that time, through the fundraising efforts of the development specialist, the
position would be terminated. And ... if the funding ... is produced, the person would
continue as a City employee, as long as Friends pay all the salary and benefits, and it's
my understanding that... the... Library development people ... that their employees are City
employees and that's how they're managed. Um, I have to be very honest, um ... there's
been some illness among the, uh... the Chair of the Board of Friends has been ill, and I've
not been able to meet with them. Um ... so the plan has not been approved by the Friends
of the Board; however, I don't think there are a lot of options, and I can't imagine that it
will not be....be approved. Urn ... however, uh, if they don't approve it, and we do not get
a development specialist, I think that what we actually can accomplish in the area of
serious fundraising, uh, without compromising our current operation will be far more
modest, uh, than what we could with someone hired specifically to do that. So...
Throgmorton/ Okay! Thank you, Linda. Any questions for Linda?
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Cole/ I have a question on the part-time position FTE for a fundraising specialist. I love the
concept of three years to sort of have ... upfront costs with the expectation then that the
fundraising would go up and the City's contribution would go down. The question I have
for you is ... should we get it right and fund it at a full-time position, uh, in the first year,
uh, so we make sure that we get someone sufficient qualifications. You outlined a series
of very technical requirements and obligations that this person's gonna have, and it
doesn't seem to me that a ... a part-time position... you're gonna get what you need, and we
could be in a situation where we're penny-wise and pound-foolish, uh, we're saving the
money on the ... on the fundraiser. It's not ... we don't get the qualifications that we need
and then we have an unfortunate situation where we need to terminate in three years. I
want to try to avoid that. What is your thought about that? Um, do you think you can get
adequate qualifications at that part-time level?
Kopping/ Well the recommendation of the consultant was for a half-time to a full-time position,
preferably a full-time. Uh... the less ... the less, well, the less time we have in this position,
the ... the half-time position will require more help from one of our existing staff people.
So it's obviously going to function at a less optimal level. So a full-time position would
be fabulous! Obviously.
Cole/ And what would the, uh, rate at ... for that be?
Kopping/ Um...
Cole/ Would.. just would double whatever the (both talking)
Kopping/ Yes, it's ... and it's ... it's rated at a pretty high grade.
Cole/ Okay.
Kopping/ The position is. It's ... it's a, um ... a significant skill set required for this position.
Cole/ Second question relates to the fee increases. I think obviously sort of a pay -for -service is a
good concept. Um, how much internal... obviously no one likes to pay higher fees, how
much internal buy -in have you had from the users as those fees go up and .... and related
to that, um, what assessments have been made to assure our low-income seniors aren't
essentially marginalized in terms of their ability to participate in the Senior Center?
Kopping/ The, uh, reaction of participant has been, uh, very accepting and we have maintained
our .... low-income ... scholarship fund and we make that, uh, readily available to people,
and ... I think people were expecting fee increases. This is not anything that was a shock
to them, and one of the goals of the, uh, Committee A that you received the report on, uh,
that felt very strongly that participants should not bear the brunt of the ... of the
fundraising, and they tried to -set the fees and the fee increases with that in mind.
Cole/ Thank you.
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Markus/ ...get a ... get a comment and a response to, um, Rockne. So if you ... if you double the
amount of the person that's going to do fundraising, you're talking about $85,000. So...
you're $85,000 in the hole before you get back to zero in terms of fundraising. You've
gotta earn $85,000 before you've gained dollar one. So I ... ask you, you know, what's the
likely return on that, considering all of these? Now, the Library did the same thing. And
I think the ... the school is still out on whether that was paying for itself. And I had that
same discussion. Personally, if it were me, for my money, I'd hand'em a check for
$85,000. Now you got $85,000, you know ... for things to spend money on, with no risk of
ever earning it! But think about it, I mean (laughs) you're startin' at $85,000 in the hole.
You gotta make $85,000 back before you've earned dollar one. It's a pretty risky business
in my opinion.
Mims/ Well and I would just say, I know we'll get into this later, but ... and I ... and I appreciate
your question, Rockne, about the difference in the skill level you might get (both talking)
for a full-time position versus half. But again, you know, we have a lot of people in this
community that are underemployed — people who are looking for things, who may have
those skill set. I think to start it as a half-time and keep our ... if...if we do it. Starting it as
a half-time, and ... and really incentivizing (laughs) somebody. If you can really raise the
money, there is the potential for this to go to full time. So you prove to us you can make
enough money to pay your salary and benefits, at a full-time rate plus bring in money to
benefit the Ce ... the Center, then we'll move you to full time!
Kopping/ 1 would like to add also something that I ... neglected to say earlier. Um, the consultant,
cause I asked also ... about the quality of the employee we'd get, um ... and the consultant
told me that ... uh, a half-time person in fundraising would probably... would probably get a
skill set that was, uh, would be a good skill set in terms of an applicant because being a
City employee, they would have benefits offered. And typically for a half-time position
in fundraising, they would not have a benefit package attached to it. And so that would
be one incentive for the, um ... hiring ... or the job appeal. So that ... that's another thing to
consider.
Markus/ When the Library went down this path, they started with a half-time person and grew it
into a full-time.
Cole/ So that is the expectation then. You ... you seek to then eventually grow it into a full-time,
or...
Kopping/ I think if the, um ... community support is there in terms of the funding, yes.
Botchway/ Two questions, one related..or one question related and one question not. I guess I'll
start with the one question related to that. How does that work from a benefit's
standpoint? If they're a City employee and they...
Markus/ It's proportionate.
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Botchway/ Well, I mean, from the standpoint of they take our civil service exam. They go
through all that. How do we ... how does that work out from a proposal, is that within the
contract of the actual employee that we would then terminate in three years, assuming
that things don't go well (both talking)
Markus/ It's a job description and expectation, and if the performance doesn't meet, then that's
dealt with at some point in the future (mumbled)
Botchway/ Okay.
Mims/ Well is this even ... is this at a level that would be a civil service or not? It's probably not
(several talking) Yeah.
Botchway/ It's not? Okay (both talking) The other question was, um, and related to the formula
that you put together ... to me, and this was just my suggestion, um, in the
future.... because of the, uh, decrease in funding, I think it has it here, the local 28E
agreements, and I'm assuming that's the County money, which was that $70,000 in 2013
and then dropped down to $59,224 for subsequent years.
Kopping/ Right and that's not really a 28E. That's a .... grant.
Botchway/ Right! Um, but ... I just feel like there's an over -reliance there, and so if we were able
to work the formula from the standpoint of not incorporating the County's money, you
know, it might just give us a ... I'm not saying we shouldn't consider it, but just not doing it
could just put us in a better place later on down the road.
Kopping/ Right.
Botchway/ Not to say that inter -governmental relations won't go better, but ... just trying to think
(both talking)
Markus/ I have total confidence in this Council that you're gonna be able to go right over there
(laughter and several talking)
Botchway/ ...just wanted to make that comment or suggestion.
Kopping/ I think it's a good one!
Cole/ One final question — have there been any projections though, did the consultants give you
projections in terms of fundraising, what you would expect that they would be able to
raise at the end of year three, in addition to, um, their salary? I mean, what's the
expectation, a $4.00 to $5.00 for each dollar of...of sal ... of salary, is that the expectation?
I'm not saying (both talking)
Kopping/ They really haven't provided any particular... expectations. Uh, they feel from the
study that they did that there's a good potential for fundraising for the Senior Center, that
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there's a lot of positive attitude within the community and a lot of, uh, potential
dona... donors. Uh, we just need to identify and cultivate those relationships.
Markus/ I would be ecstatic with a 4 to I return!
Kopping/ As would I!
Cole/ (mumbled) is not the number though that the consultant talked about? Okay.
Thomas/ I mean based on my tour of the facility, I think there's great potential... for um ... gaining
more financial support.
Cole/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ I would think so too.
Markus/ It's a beautiful building! (several talking)
Throgmorton/ All right, Linda. Thank you very much!
Kopping/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/ And thanks for your patience. Are you thinking we'll (both talking)
Markus/ You know what, if we could bring the lunches back out here ... um ... we have a great
performer here in Geoff and he can (several talking) so just go grab your food and come
back out. Is that okay? (several talking)
Karr/ Take a five minute break or (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...take a five-minute break (several talking and laughing)
BREAK
Parks & Rec (pg 195):
Fruin/ All right, I think we're ready to go. Pauline, this is Geoff Fruin, and I'm going to present
the Parks and Recreation budget, uh, to the Council...
Taylor/ Okay!
Fruin/ ...uh, today. So we're gonna start on page 195, but before I jump into the budget, uh, I ... I
was, uh, wanted to give you an update. We did, uh, have our new Parks Director, Julie
Seydel-Johnson, start this past week. She started on Monday and was hoping to be here
today. Uh, unfortunately, uh, her father, who is....who had been in hospice for, uh, the
last several months passed away, uh, last night. So she is, uh, with her family today and,
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uh, will not be able to join us here or, uh, at the ... at the Monday, probably not the
Monday budget session, as well. So we are very excited to have Julie on board. She's
had a busy week meeting staff, touring facilities, uh, the HR orientation, all that stuff that
comes with the first week, and uh, she's ... she's jumped right in and done a nice job so far,
so I look forward to getting a chance, uh, for you to meet her. Uh, again, page 195 is
where I'm going to start. That's the Park's admin budget. This budget includes, uh, 6.33
employees, and there's three kinda subdivisions within the administration department.
There's the, um, what you would probably consider the administration, uh, division, with
the director and a secretary position, and then we have the Farmers Market and
government building divisions, and the government building division, uh, is ... is largely
our facilities management operation, and our facilities management is split between, uh,
this division here — government buildings — and then rec, and as ... as you would probably
guess, um, when we're in the rec budget, we're talking about the management of the
recreation centers, the two recreation centers that we have. When we're in the
administration budget, we're talking about City Hall and some of the, um, non -Parks and
Rec facilities. So for the administration, uh, budget, uh, it's largely the two employees
that's driving the expenses there. There is an increase in $75,000 in the services line, and
that $75,000 is earmarked for a new Parks and Recreation master plan. The last master
plan that we undertook was adopted in 2008, so it largely reflects public input, uh, 2007,
uh, and as you know, there's been quite a few changes since 2007. We had the flood, uh,
we've seen a shift in, um ... uh, just the types of Parks and Recreation facilities, uh, that we
have. Uh, you think about we've added the Riverfront Crossings Park, Ashton, Terry
Trueblood, uh, a ... a number of smaller neighborhood parks that have come in with, uh,
subdivisions, so, uh, there's... there's been a lot ... lot of change.- You couple that with just a
change in the, uh, recreation demands in the community that we're seeing, things like the
emerald ash borer and we really think it's ... it's time to, um, take a look at a new master
plan. So, uh, we put that in the 17 budget, um, and uh, I think once Julie gets her ... her,
uh, feet on the ground here later this year (noises in background, difficult to hear speaker)
she wants to (coughing, unable to hear speaker) Also I think it'll be good to help guide,
uh... uh, a ... a focus, wherever your strategic plan lands we'll be able to tailor the parks
master plan, uh, to that strategic plan. Moving on to the Farmers Market, um, budget.
Uh, there is a ... a couple of changes here I want to highlight, uh, for the existing, uh.... uh,
the Council members that, uh, carried over from the previous City Council, you'll
remember that we outsourced the management of the Farmers Market last year to
Avacentre, and Avacentre, uh, has been working with us on the management of Terry
Trueblood, the Ashton House, Riverside Festival Stage for a number of years. They do a
really nice job. Uh, we decided last year to, um ... roll a Farmers Market into their
operation, as well. And while that largely went well, I don't think the public, you know,
probably realized that there was a different management structure. Uh, when we did our
year-end review, and looked at the numbers, looked at what they submitted in terms of
their financials, you'll ... that they would require to continue to manage the market going
forward, uh, we made the decision to bring that back in-house. It wasn't as financially
viable as we .... as we thought it was going to be, so this budget, um, you will see some
changes, um, in ... in personnel, and reductions in services and consultant lines, and what
you're really seeing is a swap back to ... to how we did it for a number of years. Um ... uh,
we talked about incorporating, uh, a centralized SNAP center. I don't go into those
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details again, uh, but ... but I do want to recognize a ... a couple of people, organizations,
that .... that really made that happen because honestly I can't say that that was internally a
City -driven idea. That was an idea that was presented to us that we ... we thought was a
really good idea. That came from, uh, Johnson County, um, Local Foods and Planning
Specialist Shanti Sellz and uh, the Local Foods Connection presented us with a
framework to make that work. Uh, we sat down with'em, we thought it was a really
good framework, and uh, so those resources are in the budget that's, uh, proposed in front
of you, and we expect it will be able to carry that out, um, not... we'll... we'll look to start
that with the market here this spring, so we don't necessarily have to wait until July 1 st
to ... to implement that. We'll ... we'll try to kick that off with the opening of the market.
Mims/ Geoff, while you're on SNAP, I'd just like to make one comment, not in terms of impact
to the budget. There are communities who with their farmers markets are getting non-
profits and/or individuals to donate so that when people come with their SNAP cards and
get their tokens, they get the double amount of tokens versus the dollar amount on their
SNAP cards to help them be able to afford fresh food, which is more expensive than
processed food. So I throw it out just as kind of an idea to think about, if we can ... and
I'm not advocating City money for it. I'm advocating for us to think about it in ways that
we might find out ... other resources within the community who might be willing to start
doing that, so that those dollars can go further for people to buy fresh produce.
Fruin/ We've had that same thought and there ... um, is a little bit of City money ... we've discussed
an initial, um, promotion of that, so where there may be some City money to start that
and really, uh... uh, give it, uh, give it a platform and then attract a donor. I think that's a
really good idea. Um, the... for... for us the market is a break-even operation, so when I
say that there's City money in it, understand that, um, we do expect to ... to recoup that
through the fees that we charge the vendors, and that's a segue into the ... the fees that we
do charge, um, the ... the City Council in December approved a ... a number of charges to
Parks and Recreation fees, uh, and one of those was a change in the Market fees. So
we're increasing the stall rental fee $1.00 per vendor per session, uh, which raises it to
either $14.00, if you're, um, a seasoned holder. So $14.00 per stall, um ... uh, per ... uh,
per ... per vendor, um, or it goes up to $16.00 if you're not a seasoned, uh, vendor and
you're just comin' in for a day, uh, a particular market, you pay a little bit more. So, those
fees have already been adopted by the City Council, and just as a reminder, we take the
Parks and Recreation fees, um, oftentimes earlier to you because there's... there's different
start dates with all their programming, um, and it doesn't always make sense to start
things on July 1St, uh, because if we did that, often times we would wait a whole other
year, so a Farmers Market for example — if we waited till July 1 St — the market season's
already well in effect by that time and ... uh, it makes more sense just to do it at the
beginning of the market. Uh, moving on to government buildings, you'll notice in this
budget there's a reduction of one staff member, but um, it's not a loss of a position city-
wide. It's just a shift from the government buildings facility division to the rec center, uh,
facilities division. So it's ... it's just a shifting of...of resources, uh, not a ... not a reduction
of positions. Uh, it's a status quo budget. I'll tell you what our focus is right now when it
comes to facilities management. Um ... we are looking at a lot of building automation
system control projects, which you'll, uh, hear about when we present you with the CIP.
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Those are often, uh, more expensive projects, uh, but allow us to really do some things
from an ener... an energy efficiency level that we can't do with some of the manual
controls that we have in our older buildings right now. It also allows staff to monitor and
adjust things remotely, so we don't have to call in as many people to solve problems
that ... that we might have. They can do it from their phone or from their tablet, computer
at home, or from a centralized office here in the ... in the City. Um, we are also focusing
largely on LED light conversions. So whether it's projects like .... like this in the lobby,
when we're doing renovations we're making sure that we're....we're going to LED lights.
We're also retrofitting different areas, uh, and that fits well with the, um, electric rebates
that are out there now. So we're looking at what are those rebate opportunities and we're
trying to pursue those projects that .... from an energy efficiency standpoint, provide us
with the greatest return on our investment. So those are ... those are two main focus areas.
I'll move on to the recreation division, which starts on page 200. Uh, this division has
15.42 employees and uh, this is where, uh (noises in background, difficult to hear
speaker) programming takes place. So we have youth sports, adult sports, special
populations, social and cultural events. We have aquatics, and as I mentioned before, the
Rec Center, uh, building maintenance operations that take place in here. Um, and this is
where you will see the increase of one employee, that was transferred over from the
government buildings division. Again, a pretty status quo budget with personnel making
up the ... the bulk of the ... the, um, expenses, uh, here. A couple of highlights to point out —
(noises in background) it's not in this budget, but in the last budget, um, we proposed
hiring a customer engagement, uh, staff person. That staff person has been hired. Uh,
that person is tasked with, um, couple of things. One is the customer service operations.
So, um, Amanda Opitz is who we hired and she manages the, um, the..the staff at the rec
centers and has really, um ... uh, brought a new focus on how we're staffing the rec enters,
making sure that those employees are properly trained. Those are ... those are employees
that are, uh, largely temporary employees, college students that ... that work for us, and
um, in the past we didn't have a good system to where they're receiving proper, uh,
training on ... on both, you know, de-escalate incidents that might happen there, on how to
serve, uh, customers coming in wanting to register for ... for programs in off -hours, those
types of things. So she's done a nice job getting that going. The second part of her job is
really marketing, and she's just gettin' into that now, so I would expect that you will see a
greater emphasis on marketing from, uh, Parks and Rec going forward here with her on
board. Uh, we do have two rec centers, um, that ... that we have — Robert A. Lee and the
Mercer, um, Center, Aquatic Center. Uh, you can imagine that the ... uh, being that they're
50 and 20 yeas old, respectively, we do have some maintenance challenges, uh, at those,
uh, facilities, not only maintenance but just making sure they are .... are, uh, the facilities
remain modern and appealing to the public. Um, the best example I can give ya is it's
been a ... is over across the .... across the street here with the Robert A. Lee Recreation
Center. Uh, we've closed down the Rec Center for a couple of weeks for the emergency
boiler project that Council approved a couple of months ago. Um, it's been a rough
stretch over there from a facilities maintenance standpoint. The ... the boiler project itself,
uh, was unexpected. We didn't think that the boilers were going to go out on us as soon
as they did. That's a quarter of a million dollars, um, that we didn't... didn't expect to have
to spend over there. We had a significant, uh, pool issue where we, uh, had a ... a leak that
was hard to find, um, ended up finding a ... a leak in our surge tank, um, but that was
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something that took us .... well over a year to troubleshoot. It's a 50 -year-old pool. There
are not too many 50 -year-old pools in the state of Iowa. Um, pools just don't have that
type of longevity and uh, we have not only that one, uh, but we have City Park, which is
very, uh, old as well, and Mercer now, which is pushing 20 years. So there's a lot of
maintenance challenges, um, at those facilities that ... that we're struggling with right now.
I think staffs doin' a good job keepin' up, but it's gonna be a continued, uh, emphasis
going forward. We have, uh, operation of non -City assets in here as well, and
specifically I'm talking about the partnerships that we have at the School District, at, uh,
Wood and Alexander. We have not formalized the 28E agreement at Alexander, but that
should be coming to you hopefully, um, this, uh, winter or spring. And in the budget, uh,
in the CIP budget that you'll see Monday, you'll see that we're proposing a .... a similar
partnership with the new Hoover Elementary School, where the City would pay for an
expanded gymnasium that would allow us to program out there, um ... um, for ... for
different rec events, neighborhood events, that sort of thing. Uh, we have pretty much
status quo programming. We are shifting a focus to more of the, uh, 'steam'
programming, so you're going to see more arts, science, technology programming than
you have in the past, particularly for youth, and uh, you'll see an increase in our special
populations, uh, programming. The School District recently stopped coordinating the
local Special Olympics effort and so there's been a lot of pressure back to the City to pick
that up, and um, we've had a lot of the ... of the parents, uh, and uh, participants in Special
Olympics that ... that now are ... are looking for us to fill that role, and we're trying to figure
out how fast (noises in background, unable to hear speaker) forward. That's all I wanted
to (noises in background, unable to hear speaker) from the park maintenance point of
view, and that ... that's page 207 in your ... in your budget. We've got, uh, a few highlights
to tell ya about. Um, this is one area where we, uh, are recommending a new position.
Um, now when you look at the budget you'll see status quo staffing here at 19 employees,
but it's actually we're recommending a net gain of one, and what's happened here is park
maintenance lost an employee, uh, essentially they transferred over to Transportation and
Reso.... Resource Management. Um, the reason that transfer was done is because they
are now handling the maintenance of the central business district, um, that was a ... a
proposal that we made to the Council last year to reorganize and restructure a couple of
departments. Um, essentially what it came down to is we had a lot of maintenance
operations that were bein', uh, duplicated with all of our parking decks and then the
downtown maintenance. They used a lot of the same equipment, and we had a lot of staff
that were crossing paths, so we gave central business district maintenance to Parking,
transferred one Parks employee over there to help facilitate that. They're handling that
now, um, and so Park maintenance is focusing just on the horticulture part of downtown.
We are increasing, so it stays status quo at 19. One, uh, maintenance worker, one
employee, and that is, uh, a ... a cost neutral, um ... proposal that, uh, we've put forward and
we achieved that through a $75,000 reduction in temporary employees, and a
reclassification downward of a maintenance worker II position to a maintenance worker I
position. That reclassification down, uh, will take place when there's a vacancy, so it's
not a demotion that an employee will have to, uh, that will have to be handed to an
employee, but we do expect a maintenance worker II position to become vacant soon. At
that time we'll reclassify it down. That creates a little bit of savings, coupled with that
$75,000 in temp savings, and we'd like to add a .... a full-time position. As I mentioned
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before when talking about the Parks master plan, we've added a considerable amount of
parkland over the last several years and we have not added any staff, um, while a
temporary staff is ... is .... is, uh, is good and can accomplish a lot of our goals, um, it will
help having a full-time person on board that can help, uh, particularly on weekends — we
can get some extra staffing out there, which is ... tends to be when our parks, um, are used
the most and when our staffing is ... is down. So that should help quite a bit. Uh,
highlights of the budget --- we have $45,000 in their budget for natural area management.
Um, this is new. Uh, this was in the budget last year (mumbled) first time the Council
saw this. Um, it's becoming a greater emphasis in our parks operations, but they're
tackling more prairie burns, uh, rest... restoration of creeks, ponds (background noises,
difficult to hear speaker) um, and doing more invasive species control. So there's a ... a
new funding source for them to pursue that. Uh, this is the first budget where we have
solidified our shift to a no -spray chemical policy in our parks. Uh, this is something that,
um, we've been working on for a number of years, but for the first time in our Parks
budget there are no funds appropriated for chemicals ... in ... in our parks. Um, I do want to
qualify that, we do on occasion use, uh, chemicals, um, however, it's just to treat invasive
species, um, so it's a very limited application, and our Parks staff has really embraced that
challenge and uh, kind of wear it like a badge of honor now. They're... they're really
challenged to ... to provide a nice environment with... with... without fertilizers and
chemicals and I think they've done a nice job moving to that. And I want to point out, it's
particularly rare to do that on ballfields, uh, baseball fields, soccer fields, and when you
look at what we're doin' there with ... with no chemicals, and at Kickers at least, using the
effluent from the ... from the waste water plant, it's a .... I don't know if there's another,
certainly not one in the ... in the state of Iowa, you can probably find maybe a couple more
in the country that are doing no chemicals, and using effluent on their fields, but
that's... that's pretty rare, um, that .... that we're able to do that, so ... again, Parks really takes
a lot of pride in that and I know that they speak at conferences and with their peers quite
a bit on ... on how they accomplish, uh, that. Uh, a couple of, uh, minor capital outlay
projects — some fencing and irrigation, uh, projects are being undertaken at Mercer, City
Park, and Napoleon. Uh, we continue to have a neighborhood park focus, uh, and uh,
you'll see that in the CIP with improvements to Highland, Pheasant Hill, Willow Creek,
Kiwanis, Mercer, and uh, hopefully Fair Meadows Park, as well. This continues from
our efforts last year where we invested in Tower Court Park, uh... uh, started the Highland
Park project, finished Reno, and developed the Hickory Trail Park. We have master
plans underway at City ... Lower City Park (noises in background, unable to hear speaker)
sports complex, uh, for Hickory Hill and for Riverfront Crossings. So very busy
from ... from a master plan, uh, stage at those parks. Uh, and the Parks maintenance has
implemented a new, uh, tree diversity, uh, policy, and uh, they are working hard to ... to
make that work. It's 5%, so we all know what we're going through with the Emerald Ash
Borer, um, and um .... the tree diversity standard of 5%, while very challenging to meet,
uh, will hopefully make our community a little bit more resilient to those types of issues
going forward. And, uh, as far as, uh, tree plantings, uh, there's... certainly the focus is on
accommodating, um, or ... or dealing with the EAB issue. Uh, but we're also trying to
focus on street tree applications and so we're trying to pick out areas of the community
where, um ... uh, that would benefit greatly from some ... from some street trees and uh, the
latest example of this is McCollister. If you go in front of Terry Trueblood, just about a
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month or two ago we planted 30 trees along McCollister Boulevard, uh, to provide a nice
entryway there. We've got some more work to do on, uh, McCollister. We're looking at
some street tree plantings in the Lindemann subdivision, and also in the medians at ... on
Camp Cardinal. So trying to make a .... not only get the trees planted, but group 'em in
such ways where they make a ... a nice impact, either to some, uh, heavily traveled
corridors or neighborhood settings.
Dickens/ Have they changed the rules on the ash borer, where the ... if they drop 'em they don't
have to move 'em now? I thought there was something (mumbled)
Markus/ (several talking) ...cut 'em down and leave 'em (several talking)
Fruin/ Um...
Dickens/ They don't have to be removed and...
Markus/ I thought they had to be chipped to get rid of (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, I think you still have to chip, um, I ... I don't know to be honest, Terry, but I ... I think
there's still a chipping standard. Used to be you had to chip to a ... a certain level. Um, I
can tell you in a lot of the states, you know where there used to be quarantines, they're
lifting the quarantines cause essentially the whole state and the surrounding states are all
impacted. I'm not sure Iowa's to that because the ... the western part of the state, um, hasn't
been impacted by EAB yet, but ... just a matter of time. Okay, one final operation is our
cemetery operation. We operate the 40 -acre Oakland Cemetery. That's managed by
three employees who coordinate with the public and funeral homes, in addition to taking
care of the grounds out there. It is a, uh, heavily subsidized operation from the general
fund, to the tune of about $250,000 a year we subsidize the cemetery operation, and
largely what you're seeing in front of you is sta... is a status quo budget. One of the things
that we've challenged the Parks department to look at, um, in the coming years are ways
to explore having cemetery staff assist with some of the nearby geographic, uh, the
nearby parks, um .... and .... and whether they can pick up some maintenance at those
parks. So, um, Reno Park, um ... uh, Happy Hollow and some of those that are in that
general vicinity of Oakland, uh, Cemetery, I think there's some flexibility with three staff
that we have, that they could probably provide some enhanced services to those parks and
allow our traditional parks maintenance folks to spend more time in ... in other areas. So,
uh, we are ... we're already looking at that and ... and it's probably something you'll see in
the coming years. That's it from Parks!
Cole/ Geoff, uh, relating to the no -pesticides on the ballfields, let me just say you sort of said that
in a very dry manner, um, but when I heard that I just wanted to stand up and clap!
(laughs) I think that is a huge deal. I think it shows amazing leadership on the part of
staff. Um, one think want (mumbled) drill down and ... and address though is on these
28E agreements where the City then collaborates with School officials relating to the use
of...joint use of facilities. (clears throat) What efforts do we take to ensure that, and uh,
partner with our School Board friend ... or School Board employee friends, uh, as to
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whether they are following a similar policy. Obviously we have no control over that, but
in terms of our discussions with them, is there any suggestion to them, cause that was
actually a ... fairly big issue in this last year's School Board campaign. A lot of parents
really upset about the use of, uh, pesticides and herbicides on the school grounds. Um,
what ... what efforts have been taken in terms of being proactive, uh, to ... if we can do it,
certainly I think the School District should be doing it too.
Fruin/ Well I think the School District staff has been in contact with .... with our Park
maintenance staff and just asked for, uh, you know, information on how we operate our
parks and .... and maybe some of the techniques that we use. Um, other than those
informal staff to staff conversations, I'm not aware of anything that's taken place.
Cole/ Okay.
Fruin/ I know the School District has a committee that's set up. I don't know if they're done with
their work, but ... that has looked at that issue.
Throgmorton/ Very concerned, uh, different topic, Geoff. Very concerned about our street-
scapes, uh, in relation to the Emerald Ash Borer and uh, the trees that'll have to be torn
down. (clears throat) And so that makes me think about replanting, uh, and ... I'd like to
get a better sense of what the replanting strategy is, and ... and then a related point has to
do with the potential for involving community volunteers in the process of...of either
identifying trees that need replacing, or in replanting trees, so I don't know if. ... I don't
know if you've given any thought to that, and if so, you know, let me know!
Fruin/ Yeah, certainly the EAB challenge is ... is pretty daunting when you start to, um, look at the
inventory that we have, not only along streets but in our parks.
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Fruin/ Um ... and uh, there'll be some drastic changes that ... that we see. Our policy right now has
been, um, that ... only in very rare circumstances will we try to chemically treat a .... an ash
tree, um, to keep it going. You'll see that strategy from another ... a number of cities
where they're chemically treating their trees to ... to try to prolong the life or ... or perhaps
until there's a ... a solution that ... that can ultimately save the tree. Um, our experience has
been, uh, that, urn ... it's ... it's ... uh, it's just not an exercise, um, worth pursuing because
you're just buying a little bit of time. So, urn ... we're not ... cutting down all the trees right
away. For example, on the Washington Street streetscape project, there's some beautiful
ash trees on Washington Street that are very healthy and they're not showing signs
(coughing, difficult to hear speaker) of EAB right now. When we go through there, we're
not necessarily taking those out, because they're providing great canopy, um, and ... and
great aesthetic, but we recognize that we'll probably be back down there in 10, 15 years
to take those trees out. Um, our ... uh, we have a CIP line item for $75,000 a year. That is,
uh, for the EAB, uh, removals, and uh... uh, our direction to Parks has been any time you
remove a tree, we expect you to plant a tree, um, with ... with those EABs. Um ... we are
not quite at that one-to-one ratio yet. We're ... we're pretty close. We had a pretty good
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conversation last budget session about our ... our tree planting and removal ratios, and
urn ... uh, we've closed that gap and we're trying to get to that one-to-one ratio right now.
We're almost there, but we're not .... not quite there. That'll be the expectation going
forward. I'm sure we'll get to that ... one-to-one ratio in this coming year, but it makes it
challenging when you have the EAB problem in front of you, urn ... so .... uh, I'd say ... I'd
say the Parks department is ... is up for the challenge. Uh, they use a strategy where some
of that is contracted out and some of that's done in-house. They can't do everything in-
house, so they ... they do contract, uh, the pl... a portion of the plantings and removals out.
Regarding the volunteers, urn ... I....I'd say we'd be open to looking at that. There's
probably some ... some issues that we have to look at when ... when you're having
volunteers plant and operate in the right-of-way, but it's certainly something that we can
look at.
Dickens/ (mumbled) ...there's so many trees in there. I don't know (mumbled)
Fruin/ Yeah, I ... absolutely, it'll be impacted.
Dickens/ But are they going to do one-for-one?
Fruin/ Yes! When it ... when we get ... when we're moving forward, the direction has been one-to-
one. Hopefully, you know, we can get to where we're actually planting more, you know,
1.5 to 1, uh, and..and I think we'll eventually get there, but... we've... we've had some...
we've had to make up quite a bit of ground the last few years.
Throgmorton/ Then there's the, uh, all the, uh.... (clears throat) all the ash trees that are owned
privately, on private property, you know. So I wonder if there's some way to envision
a ... a community -wide strategy, that would help property owners identify their ash trees,
figure out whether they're infected and how ... how to demolish them, how to take 'em
down, how to ... what to replant, you know, and ... and maybe volunteers could be involved
somehow in that process, but it ... so when I just think about the forest in which we live, I
think, well, a lot of it's privately owned, so we can't focus only on the public part of it.
Fruin/ The..there's public education. I do think that's a good role for volunteers — if there's
people with expertise that first can identify an ash tree. A lot of people don't know what
kind of tree they might have in their backyard, so is this an ash tree? Is it showing signs
of decline? Urn ... one of the issues that .... that cities have faced with the Emerald Ash
Borer is you get a lot of, uh, fly-by-night removal companies that come in, or people that
think that they can remove trees, because they see the economic opportunity there, when
in reality they may not be qualified to ... to do that. So one of the things that we'll have to
think about is how do we (coughing, unable to hear speaker) um, the ... the proper
considerations that one needs to go through when removing, urn ... uh, when determining
how best to remove their... the... the tree. So, there's ... the good thing about EAB, um,
where we stand is that there are plenty of examples for us to look to. We can look to
Illinois, to Michigan, uh, to ... to cities that have been dealing with this for ... 10 years now,
and ... and there's all kinds of best practice studies out there, and applications, that our ... our
Park staff is ... is focusing in on.
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Cole/ I was glad to see that you had, um, reassumed responsibility for the Farmers Market. Um,
what I'm wondering is, is there a Farmers Market association, uh, that currently works
with the City, cause I think the priva... the privatization issue that you faced I think is
something that is ... that comes up a privatization (mumbled) very low cost to start, and
once you contract with 'em, then there's that sort of back -end increase, so I think that's
sort of a cautionary tale in that respect. Um, but if we ever did get that itch again, to sort
of look to transferring it, has there ever been any thought to working with the vendors
there, to see if they'd want to form their own association, so that they would (mumbled)
be then able to independently administer the Farmers Market?
Fruin/ Uh, there's been various Farmers Market committees formed over the last ... 10 years or so,
uh, there was a Farmers Market strategic plan that was completed, um, probably in 2012
that was presented to the Cou... the City Council, uh... I don't believe that there's an
ongoing committee structure like that. It ... it's certainly possible, and I would say, you
know, although it did not work out the way that we thought it would financially with
Avacentre, there are other people that have expressed interest in managing that for the
City. We just weren't prepared to explore those options, um, right now, um, but ... but, uh,
I've been approached by at least two non-profit groups that have said, hey, if you go
through that again, we'd be interested in ... in sittin' down and talkin' with you, so ... um,
while we are shifting back in-house, I don't want to completely close the door on ... on
going back where we did, um ... I think it would less likely be a private company that we
would work with, but more of that non-profit. So that ... that could be existing non -profits,
that could be a new one that forms (both talking) vendors association...
Cole/ Yep!
Fruin/ ...not out of the realm of possibility.
Botchway/ To that point, um, have we talked about or have .... has there been any discussion
around increasing the Farmers Market? I say that around, you know, the fact that I
regularly frequent the Farmers Market for breakfast on the ... that particular day, and then
you know, sometimes go up to the Cedar Rapids Farmers Market as well, and ... and
seeing how expansive that is, and I almost feel like we're losing business not expanding
our streets a little bit to accommodate for ... with something I think is really successful.
Fruin/ Yeah, um ... yes, there's been ... there's been conversations, I think uh certainly looking back
10 years there's been a lot of conversations about venue, and whether that should be
where it's at and ... or should it be moved to ped mall, Iowa Avenue, all those sorts of
things. Those discussions haven't really rekindled, but I could say that, or I would say
that, um ... there ... there are a lot of eyes on Cedar Rapids and what they're doing now,
and ... and ideas turning on what we could do here. So for example they did a ... a market at
night last year that was a huge hit. Um .... could we do something like that, and maybe
not necessarily the same thing, but could we make more of a special event out of it and
get more people down there, and the answer is yes, and I think there's people willing to
do it. Uh, the Downtown District has expressed an interest in ... in helping to do, not
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to ... not to move the market, which was once their position, uh, to ... to move it all
downtown, but to say, hey, maybe once a month or once a ... or twice a season, let's ... let's
grow out into one of the bigger areas, to Iowa Avenue, and have a bigger celebration of
local foods and ... and yes it's a ... a ... a displacement of the Market for that week, but we
could do so much more with that other space. So those conversations, um, are happening
out there. I think with it being back under our control that's one thing we can look at this
year, um, to ... to do. There's a lot of politics when it comes to the vendors and, you know
the spots that they get and ... and how they feel about the ... the current location of the
market, so we ... we have to tread carefully as we go down there, but ... as Cedar Rapids and
others really excel at those special event type (coughing, unable to hear speaker) shows
that we could be (both talking)
Dickens/ ...Riverfront Park a location, I mean, in the preliminary plans there was a place for
a ... the Farmers Market.
Fruin/ Yeah, yeah it's certainly a possibility going forward. We don't have the supporting
amenities down there now, um, but ... yeah, clearly going forward that could be a very,
um, attractive setting for some type of market.
Botchway/ The other question I had (clears throat) the other question I had centered around
supervision, and so you talked about hiring that customer engagement, um, individual. I
guess my question is is where are we ... around, um ... the supervision I think that was
talked about kind of at night, um, around some of the kids, may ... maybe during the
summer. Maybe those conversations haven't happened, but then I think you already
mentioned it, providing that type of de-escalation training for staff, albeit temporary staff.
Where are we, cause I think initially we talked about maybe hiring a supervisor or
somebody who would be on call during the night, so that would help as well, but...
Fruin/ Well the customer engagement specialist that we hired, Amanda, um, she came on-
board ... August or so, um, this past year and so she's already shifted quite a bit. Now
we're still working with ... with temporary employees there, but her hours flex into the
evening. I think she, um, I think her ... her day ends at 6:30 or so, 6:00 or 6:30, so she's
there a little bit later into the evening. She's coordinated a ... a number of different
trainings for those staff people that are now mandatory that ... that are going to happen on
an annual basis, as well, so they're... they're reoccurring. Um ... and we've also
implemented for ... for the time being, it's not, uh, a long-term solution, but all of our ... we
have six program supervisors. So you think youth sports, aquatics, and all the major rec
divisions, they all have a ... a supervisor over the top of them. Um, there's now a rotating,
um, coverage where they're coming in for .... for half a day or for maybe one evening a
week or they're comin' in on the weekends, um, just to provide some additional oversight,
uh, to the ... to the Rec Center. Frankly this winter has been pretty ... pretty good in terms
of how things have ... have, um, gone both at Mercer and Robert A. Lee, so um, before we
jumped into, you know, coming to you and asking for additional full-time staff, uh, to ... to
serve that role, we ... we felt it was best to say, well, let's make sure we're givin' our
employees a fair chance, the employees that we have now, let's make sure they're trained.
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Let's make sure that they have property supervision and guidance, and uh, while it's a
short sample here of couple months, it's working well right now.
Botchway/ Is there any reason why (clears throat) and this is just a suggestion, is there any kind
of a question, is there any reason why we couldn't possibly ask for volunteers, as well, I
mean cause as you ... as we talked about some of the issues that might have occur ... or may,
that occurred um, it also occurred to me that, you know, in light of the things that
happened, maybe we can get some parent volunteers or other volunteers within the
community to come in and kind of, you know, facilitate, not necessarily the
programming, but just overall the supervision. Is there anything barring that or ... is that
just a kind of an ask as we talk (both talking)
Fruin/ Well, they wouldn't necessarily be able to supervise staff, I mean, you can't have a
volunteer supervide ... supervise paid staff.
Botchway/ No, no, no! Supervise...
Fruin/ But you could ... but certainly I think you could have kind of a ... um, a mentor oversight
type of position where if a community member could come in and ... and try to engage
more with the ... with the people using the Center, then our staff are able to, cause keep in
mind our staff not only have to serve the people there, but they're welcoming people that
come in, they're taking phone calls, they're... they're kinda stuck to the desk operation
there. They don't get a whole lot of opportunity to ... to walk the facility except when
they're doing their daily ... or their ... their half-hour checks. Um, so yeah, there probably is,
you know, um, some opportunity to do that. Um ... and I can relay that to our Parks
department and see if that's something they've considered or ... or would consider.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, you ... you didn't, I didn't hear you mention the possible sports complex on
the far eastern part of town. Would you say a few words about where that currently
stands?
Fruin/ Sure. Um .... Tom in his opening remarks mentioned, uh, our industrial property and uh,
there is a portion of that industrial property that falls north of the railroad tracks. The
majority of it falls south of the tracks. And, um, as you look at that area, if you were to
look at an aerial, uh, map, um, you would see that the pattern of development in Iowa
City is that industrial for the ... for all intents and purposes has been south of the tracks,
and then that transitions north of the tracks to ... to residential where more traditional, uh,
commercial uses. Um ... we ... when the new school, when new Hoover was sited, uh, out,
where it ... where it is currently, um, we started to take a look at that district plan and ... and
really how we see that neighborhood growing, and we became a little concerned that we
had industrial property north of the tracks that was going to inevitably make a pretty hard
transition into a neighborhood that surrounds that school, so we .... we decided to, um,
repurpose that industrial land, or at least explore how we could repurpose that, and uh,
you know, it's 75 -acres and the... the... the top idea that came to ... to mind was to look at,
um, our demand for sports' fields, because sport fields do require a lot of acreage. Um,
and as our community grows and as we're, um, dealing with some of the issues that we
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are in Lower City Park, um, with the flooding there, we know that we're going to need to
expand our ... our fields, not just the traditional baseball fields, uh, or soccer fields, or
softball fields, but there's a greater demand for fields that serve, um, users that we don't
support now. Rugby, cricket, um, even lacrosse has been talked about. Archery's been
talked about. These are all growing demands in the ... in our community. We don't have
space for them, and it requires a lot of space, so...
Cole/ What's the cost associated with that?
Fruin/ Cost with the park?
Cole/ Yeah.
Fruin/ Uh, that is what we're exploring right now. So we've hired a consultant to help us, uh, not
only determine what the, maybe the appropriate mix of fields may look like and lay that
out there, but to give us cost and phasing opinions. So, um ... it's .... it's, you know, fully
built out at a complex like that, it's no problem to spend $15 to 20 million on it.
Cole/ $15 to 20 million and that's in addition to the $750,000 contribution on the gymnasium for
new Hoover?
Fruin/ That ... those are two separate projects.
Cole/ Two separate projects, okay, just want (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, the ... while it's close to Hoover, it's not a part of the school site, and it's probably a
good half, three-quarters mile down the road...
Cole/ Okay.
Fruin/ ...at least. Um, so ... but ... but understand that we don't ... we don't expect, um, nor
would ... would push for the full build -out of it. That's something that you think about
Kickers Park or other, um, even ... even our Riverfront Crossings Park, that's something
that can be phased in. So you could start with, uh, a wagon wheel of...of four baseball
fields and a small parking lot, and then build it over time, uh, as community demand and
resources are available. Uh, but that'll be something that, um, is ... is presented first to the
Parks Commission and then we would share that information with the Council, uh, or the
CIP project, the CIP budget does not recommend any fimding..or implementation of that,
uh, of that park, partly because we haven't seen the plan. We wouldn't even know what
to ask for, um, and partly because, you know, when you're dealing with sport fields like
that and, um, there's... there's an opportunity for private fundraising. So if...boys' baseball,
you know, really sees a need, then ... then they can step up and ... and do some fundraising,
at least to ... to get that started, and um, there's something else we're exploring. There's the
potential for naming rights at that facility, um, it's a facility that could potentially attract
people from outside of the community for regional tournaments and uh, there is, uh, there
is a value there if we want to explore naming rights.
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Throgmorton/ Thanks, Geoff. Uh, so ... uh, are there any other pressing questions for Geoff on
Parks and Rec?
Cole/ I just have one final question. Quick on urban gardening — I really like the Blue Zones'
recommendation to allow gardens in parks. Obviously there's an administrative
component to that. Um, what's the current staffing level to ensure that those, uh, gardens
are properly administered? Who ... who administers that at this point?
Fruin/ That falls to our Parks maintenance operations, which is overseen by Zach Hall, who's our
Parks and Forestry Superintendent. Um, now there's two different policies... there's two
different gardens, uh, that we ... that we allow or that we have. One is the traditional
garden that you would see at Wetherby or at Chaddick where we actually, um, design
plots and sell those plots, and ... and those are more labor intensive for us. We ... we have
to go in and ... and, you know, we extended water to those sites and we cultivate those on
an annual basis. Those are......those are fairly labor intensive. We handle it fine with the
existing inventory that we have, and ... and matter of fact we think we can grow our
operation at Chaddick to ... to meet the community demand, which we're not meeting right
now. Um, the other, uh, policy that we have in our parks is the neighborhood garden
policy. Um, which says if there is a neighborhood group or, uh, for instance maybe a
Girl Scout or a Boy Scout group that ... that wants to do a garden, in a ... in a neighborhood
park, um, that we would, uh, work with them to identify a portion of the park, uh, that
they could use that would not impact other uses of the park. So maybe something
off ..off in a corner or in an area where there's not ballfields or playgrounds, and ... that is
hands-off by the City. We tell 'em here's the area that you can have, but you're
responsible for cultivating it and for ... for planting it, for maintaining it, and as soon as
you, uh, fail to do that or if your ... your group loses interest in that, then we'll just restore
it back to the ... the, probably the typical turf grass, uh, there. Um, that, uh, was just
passed by the Parks Commission this past year, and we had our first approved policy
over, uh, at Creekside Park and they've, uh, recently, urn ... developed a couple of
neighborhood gardens there. Those really don't require any additional staff. That's really
on the ... um, the, whoever... whoever we, uh, sign the agreement with. It's their
responsi... (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay thanks, Geoff! Okay, the question about that, uh, sports complex raises all
sorts of interesting planning questions, which luckily (laughs) we could get answered by
Doug Boothroy! (laughter and several talking)
Karr/ Neighborhood and Development Services start on page 238.
Neighborhood and Development Services (pg 238):
Throgmorton/ Hi, Doug!
Boothroy/ Good afternoon! (noises in background) Doug Boothroy, Neighborhood
Development Services Director. Um, before I start talking about some of the,
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urn ... specifics of the ... of the department of Neighborhood Development Services, one
thing that ... we talk about livability in the community, we talk about walkability and
accessibility, and ... and I wanted to mention the, uh... uh... uh... major effort that we've
made in the last five days to clean sidewalks, uh, from the last storm. I've been at this...
unfortunately I've been dealing with, uh, ice and snow on sidewalks for about 30 years,
um, it's my penance, but uh.... this is, uh, a sense (mumbled) last week, uh, we received
over 623 complaints. Uh, we've investigated all but about 20 of those complaints, and
we've re -investigated, um, about 400, over 400 of those. So we've done over 1,000
inspections to ensure that the sidewalks are safe, walkable, and accessible, and um, it's a
major effort, uh, for all the inspection staff, as well as supervision staff, and some of the,
um ... other staff in the office to get out and make sure that those sidewalks are kept clean
and ... and are walkable, uh, during this time of year. So we normally, uh... uh.... for a
winter, usually average around 900 to 1,000, uh, complaints, and this one event, uh, we
got two-thirds of the way there. So, uh, we do that with existing staff. Uh, and ... it's not
something that's, uh, funded under the, uh... as a separate item under the budget. Uh, if
there were ... if there's a requirement that the snow needs to be removed, uh, or the ice,
uh... we contract to have that done, and the property owner, uh, pays for that, um, service.
Uh, and that comes back to you, uh, couple times a year, either through weeds ... uh, weed,
uh, charges or snow charges and you approve that as part of your budget usually, uh, in
April or something of that nature. But anyway, they ... we've done a great job and I just
wanted to ... to bring that to your attention. It's, uh, streets are plowed, but people
sometimes forget about sidewalks, certainly some of the citizens of Iowa City.
Thomas/ Doug, are they ... were these complaints, uh, how were they distributed in Iowa City?
Were they primarily in the center of town or ... all over?
Boothroy/ I didn't look at .... but uh... over the years of my (both talking)
Karr/ ...excuse me, Geoff, can you switch it to NDS? (several talking in background)
Boothroy/ Thank you! (laughs) Uh, they do primarily come in from the areas that are most
walkable, uh, so the suburbs, we don't get as many complaints as we do as we get closer
to downtown, and that's traditionally been the way it is, and that's natural.
Thomas/ Yeah. I ... I was expecting (both talking)
Boothroy/ ...more people are out on the walks and ... and of course we've changed over the years
to be more electronic, uh... uh, receiv... we receive these complaints electronically through
icgovexpress or ... so we, uh, we get them 24/7, uh, and uh.... uh, but get out on 'ern as
quickly as possible. So, with that, um ... let me start with the department of Neighborhood
and Development Services, and uh, as you can see, uh... uh, by the makeup, we have, uh,
three divisions, uh, to the left is the Metropolitan Planning organization, uh, in the center,
and that's ... in the ... the Director of that is Kent Ralston, uh, Neighborhood Services
Coordinator in division is, uh... um, Tracy Hightshoe, uh, in Housing Authority, Housing
Inspection, which is where a lot of the snow complaints are dealt with, uh, are ... are under
her jurisdiction. Uh, and ... and Community Development, which is CDBG and ... and
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Home, and then Development Services is John Yapp. He's the Coordinator of that. Uh,
and there are two, uh, divisions there — Urban Planning and Building Inspection, and of
course you see a lot of John ... John Yapp because, uh, the Development Services division,
uh, staffs the Planning and Zoning Commission and -there's always a large part of your
agenda dealing with Planning and Zoning matters. Um, but uh, they deal with the Board
of Adjustment and Historic Preservation and ... and some of these other, uh, ac ... activities.
Um ... I would like to, uh, start with, uh.... Development Services, uh, and a couple things
about that. Uh, the Building Inspection, uh, division, uh, is a self-funded division. Uh,
and it's ... it's funded primarily through licenses, or fees, uh, so, um, building permits in
Iowa City, uh, are ... as they are at most cities, are based on value of construction. Uh, so
the, uh, more construction and development in, uh, the community, uh.... the more
revenue that is brought into ... to support the division. Uh, this last year, uh, and we ... we
work on a calendar year with regard to our statistics, because they're reported at a
national level. So we ... so our statistics are always calendar. Uh... uh, we were above the
year before with regard to our revenue, um ... but ... and we're above our 10 -year average,
but we are down a little bit. Um, my expectations are that given some of the projects that
you all have been talking about, uh, such as CA Ventures or projects like that, uh, we
should have, uh, revenue, uh... significantly more than we had this last year. Uh, one of
the things that ... that that does is that it takes some pressure off the general fund, but it
also helps support, uh, the other, uh... division, Urban Planning, which plays a significant
role with development as you know, and uh, supervision of that ... of that particular
division. Um ... also about, I wanted to mention something about federal funding
also ... because I think that's a matter that comes up as a concern. The Housing Authority
and Community Development, under the Neighborhood Services, uh, division, uh... get,
uh, their funding, uh, primarily through federal sources. I'll start with the Housing
Authority. Uh.... the good news is that ... that our, uh, administrative .... let me back up a
minute. With regard to the voucher and public housing program, the monies that have
become ... come from HUD are generally about the same to support the number of
vouchers we have, and the number of public housing units, uh, that we, uh, manage and
own. Uh, where we've had stress in years past has been with the administrative fees, uh,
so when they do seq ... sequestration or something like that, they're cutting the
administrative fees, uh, to administer the program, not necessarily the voucher, uh
(mumbled) that they have out there, and so we've had, uh, two to three years of stress
with regard to reduced administrative fees. This year we're back up to where we were
three years ago. Um ... uh, however, the expectation, we're being told, is that after the
election we'll be going back down again, but ... uh, our staffing level is at the right, uh,
level to handle the work. Uh, it...it....it is at the level that is supported by the fees, uh,
even if there is a reduction again in the future and I don't see any problems for the
Housing Authority with regard to its budget. Uh, the CDBG, uh, Home funds, uh, and
we can talk more specifically about those allocations, uh, but those funds are, uh, about
the same as last year. Uh, the program income is up a little bit, and by that I mean
program income is the stuff that when we loan out money to, um ... folks that do projects,
we get some of it back over ... over time, and so that program income, uh, MECCA for
example, returned $100,000. Our program income was up a little bit this year, so we'll
have a little more money to distribute through the process that they follow in the spring
when the Housing Commission sits down and looks at applications for the funds and
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makes their ... their, establishes their priorities and they make their ... makes their
recommendation to the City Council. A little bit about Development Services, uh, some
highlights that I wanted to, uh... bring out today is that first I'd like to start
with ... (mumbled) what was, uh, great work on the part of Sarah Walz with, uh,
completing the South District Plan and ... normally I wouldn't bring up a Comprehensive
Plan amendment, but that was a large area of the community, south of Highway 6, east of
Gilbert Street, uh, north of the sewage treatment plant. It's an area of the community that
has not always gotten positive press, uh, and I think she did an exemplary job, uh,
working with the neighborhoods, working with different groups within the area, bringing
out the best in that particular neighborhood in terms of what they have, what parks, what
opportunities they've had, and uh, I think it helped energize them in terms of how they
view themselves and how they view themselves as a neighborhood. Uh, the south district
area has not always had the bad press that it got over the last decade or so, but um, I think
that this effort on her part has caused some ... or created some energy and we have met
with the development community about trying to, uh, springboard from that and do some
things that are ... are positive for the development of that area. Also didn't hurt to have an
elementary school built in that particular area because I think that's going to stimulate a
lot of interest, uh, for, uh, residential growth and the expectation would be that a lot of
that residential growth will be ... will be, uh... uh, more ... similar to what's happened in the
past — there'll be a lot of affordable housing provided in that area, uh, which is the kinda
housing style that you've seen in many parts of the south district area, uh, over the last
four decades. I also wanted to ... to mention, and I want to also say that, you know, when
you ... when you do ... that's good, uh... City interaction with neighborhoods and it's
something that... that.... that I'm very proud took place. Uh... the other thing that, um, we
accomplished and will be bringing to you this spring is, uh, we ... that, we established an
inclusionary housing work committee, made up of, uh, developers that were for-profit, as
well as non-profit. Uh, the bank ... we had a representative from banking, we had a couple
representatives from, um, affordable housing advocates... that we affordable housing
advocates, uh, there was, uh, a wide difference of opinion about inclusionary housing and
whether it should be mandatory. Uh, we worked for, uh, six -plus months and uh, were
able to come up with some recommendations to the City Council that were considered
last fall. Uh, and those recommendations from both the development community, as well
as the housing... affordable housing advocates, were unanimously presented to the City
Council. Uh, so we are in the process of...of, uh, putting that information together in an
ordinance. We did have to make some changes, uh, in December ... or actually we're
doing it now. It ... we didn't know until December that under Iowa law, uh, you cannot do
rent control. And so requiring rental housing as a part of inclusionary housing ordinance,
uh, is not legal. So we've ... we've had to make some adjustments, uh, this type of...these
type of adjustments have been made in other states, so there are best practices out there,
um, you know, Colorado's had to go through this. California's had to go through this.
Other states have had to go through this, where ... where the states have adopted state
legislation that prohibit, uh... uh, rental control. Um ... the Riverfront Crossing Park is
something that we've been working on in ... in NDS and the Development Services area.
Uh, we got involved in this, as I understand it, uh... uh, primarily because of the grants,
uh, that we were, uh... uh, that we were able to ... to secure. Uh, and it is a, uh, it is in the
location of the old waste water treatment plant. It is along the Iowa River, providing
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frontage along there. It will be, uh, a significant, uh, asset to the new Riverfront
neighborhood, uh, we have just recently, uh... gone out for requests for proposal for park
planning, uh... uh, and more specific construction type details. Uh, those,
uh.... consultant, um ... uh... documents are back ... are due back, uh, on the 19'h of January.
We'll look at the various proposals at that point in time. Uh, we had... incredible interest
in the park planning, uh, I don't know the numbers but there was well over a dozen
different firms, uh, interested in, uh... uh, pursuing this particular project, so I'm ... I'm
really looking forward to seeing what kind of proposals we get back from it. One of the
things that we need to do as we go forward, uh, is ... to meet some of the requirements of
our funding, is that we need to get the, uh, Ralston Creek, uh, riverbank restoration and
wetlands feature at the south end of the, uh, park, which is down by Highway 6 bypass,
uh....uh, completed, and that will be the, uh, initial focus for sure, uh, in trying to get that
done to meet our... our... our grant, uh, obligations. I think that, um ... you know, John was
involved a lot with CA Ventures and, as well as Wendy Ford, with the Economic
Development part of our operation, and ... and uh, and we were able to, uh, come together
with, uh... uh, a good project that the Council picked, and uh, we ... we've been involved
with them in terms of design review and compliance with the form -based code and I'd
like to, uh, mention that as a highlight of some of the things that we've been doing. We
have also, I wanted to mention that, uh... we've been over the ... well, for quite some time
now, uh, moving more and more towards a paperless environment. Some of the
(coughing, unable to hear speaker) people that are on the Council are aware of this. Uh, a
couple years ago we, uh, purchased and implemented, uh, software, uh... we call ... it's
called Project Docs, but what it essentially does is allows all building permit applications
and site plan applications to be submitted, uh... uh, electronically, and submitted 24/7 and
paid for online. Uh, this has had a substantial impact on, uh, walk-in traffic, as well as
paper. When we finished our recent remodeling, uh, we had empty file cabinets down in
the ... we have a storage area downstairs. We had about 15 empty four -drawer file
cabinets that used to be full of plans and specifications, as well as we used to have the
entire ... uh, area above the file cabinets stored with plans. Uh, all of this stuff is now
electronically stored in laserfiche. Uh, which is the City's general document storage
system. Uh, and it has, uh... uh....we get a lot of positive feedback from .... from the
development community that it makes their life so much easier that they don't have to
drag all of this stuff down, and we don't have to route it all around the City. As we move
forward with ... our paperless thing, one of the things that we are up ... in the process of
finalizing and will be ... will be sitting down with City Attorney's office and the City
Clerk's office about is we're about ready to, uh, bring out the, uh, Project Docs for
subdivision submittals, and that'll be happening and then after we do that we'll be looking
at other planning applications, but I expect that to come out sometime, uh, late spring,
early July. We're, uh, that process will now be, uh, paperless. Uh, we continue to,
uh... change our operations to be more and more paperless, uh, traditionally
inspection... inspectors, that building inspectors (mumbled) have left, uh, forms on the
site, inspection cards — we no longer do that. We no longer provide the pouches.
Uh... uh, we do everything with laptops in the field. Uh, which, uh, we've been doing for
about ... since the flood of 2008 when the ... when the wireless system in Iowa City was
upgraded as a result of the floods, and uh... uh... the, uh... the thing that we added as a
service this year is when we do an inspection and they enter it in on the laptop, you can
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automatically email the results of the inspection to the contractor. Uh, so there's nothing
that needs to be left on the site. All the information can be instantaneously, uh, shared
with everybody that ... that's on that link or that string, uh, and it's had a ... a, it's been just
another way to improve customer service and....accuracy and making sure that people
get the results, uh, in the field. Some of the things that, um ... besides the subdivision
things, one of the things that we started last year, uh, and uh... have talked to Tom about
this as well is that we ... I started having, uh... uh, the MPO, with their GIS expertise
be ... begin developing a zoning GIS map. Now what that means is that we're taking a
zoning map with all its detail and categories and making it dynamic, and by that I
mean ... everyone of these is a layer that could be in the GIS, and all of the categories on
the zoning map can then be matched up with other layers as you make those connections.
So you ... you, at some point should be able to click on that zoning map and get
information, either based on the zone or you could drill down to the parcel, or you could,
uh, I think it's really exciting and uh, I hope to see that that gets, uh... uh, out there as far
as those connections in the next year. The ... the GIS zoning map will be out, uh, but
making the hooks to other databases, uh, we haven't done yet, of course, because we
haven't got the map out there, but ... we can collect information by zone or we can do all
kinds of things. It's ... it's really gonna change the way, uh, even citizens can, uh, access,
uh, zoning information, uh... um ... and I think that'll be a great ... great tool to have for staff,
as well.
Markus/ So, John, that's what we were talking about earlier, and then you can manipulate the
data so that you can create different boundaries for sub -categories, uh, just by changing it
out, that ... punch it in with the County's information and create that individual value data
that you're looking for. So...
Boothroy/ Yeah, it's ... it's gonna be fun (laughs) when we get there! (laughter) So (laughs)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, Doug, I'd like to pick up on that, and I have talked with Tom and John both
about this, uh, having that kind of GIS capability for property tax valuation would be
really helpful, and also probably information about ... um, I don't know, City expenditures,
um, by...
Markus/ By different categories.
Throgmorton/ ...by different categories, and you know, but displayed through this GIS capability.
Uh, and especially ... I ... I've talked with somebody else about this, I can't remember who,
is especially if we could produce some, uh, 3-D visuals of such things and I ... I know I've
seen those kinds of 3-D visuals but I don't know what the technology is required to
produce them.
Boothroy/ Well I do know that if...uh, that (both talking)
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
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Boothroy/ ...in the development community, uh, you know, architects are already working 3-D
and uh... I could see in the next couple years or so, we may end up upgrading our Project
Docs software, uh, because there ... it can be upgraded to reading 3-D plans. Uh, we just
don't ... we haven't gone there yet, uh, but I can see that happening. Uh, so I don't know
what that means and what you're talking about because I'm sort of just on the outside
looking in. I'm not a tech, you know, I'm not a techie type person in that sense, but ... but
uh, it is exciting.
Cole/ Well I don't know if you're referring to Chuck Marone has done a lot of work on the
economic productivity of certain types of development...
Throgmorton/ Right!
Cole/ ...um, and so those sorts of things, I think, would be helpful, sort of as we assess the future
economic growth, can we visually display sort of how productive each block is, um, in
terms of a dollar amount. So I think if you just go to YouTube and watch some of what
he's done, I think that's sort of what you're gettin' at.
Fruin/ Yeah, it's a ... it's (several talking) a value by acre. I've seen his ... his little schtick on that.
It's a value by acre type of visual analysis.
Cole/ And do we have that capability?
Fruin/ Um, we ... we're gonna look into that.
Cole/ Oh that'd be great!
Fruin/ Um ... we have all the data, you know, how we map it and whether it looks exactly like he
does it when he does it, you know, when he presents, I don't know, but ... we can do it.
There's a lot of other ... like I said, there's a lot of other considerations to take into account
when you're lookin' at a map like that. We'll ... we'll package that all up for ya and ... have
that discussion.
Bockenstedt/ I was just going to mention, there's something I was going to talk during my
presentation ... and that is we're looking at adding a GIS coordinator position, uh, next July
and that really to enhance the use of the GIS system and ... and uh, that's a package that we
purchased about a year or two ago and ... and we're really just startin' to dabble in it, and
this will help, uh, further utilize that package and ... and explore other applications, like the
kinds of things you're askin' about.
Cole/ Okay.
Boothroy/ It's, you know, we ... we use a lot of interns within the department and ... and uh, things
have changed a great deal since I was in the Planning department as a student, but
uh... uh, all of these, what I call 'kids,' come in with a ... incredible amount of GIS expertise
and it kinda blows you away, uh, and I'm sure 3-D is coming very quickly, as well. Um,
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so ... uh, but having, you know, I was involved in creating the original base map that was
used for the zoning map in Iowa City, and uh..uh, we, that was pretty primitive because
we cut and pasted subdivision maps together (laughs) redrew it back in ... back in the 70s
and uh... uh, and this is just a whole new ballgame and I've been around long enough to
see significant change I guess. Um ... any questions about Development Services and
some of the things I've mentioned, um...
Cole/ I have a question about the inclusionary zoning.
Boothroy/ Sure!
Cole/ You talked about the legality of the rent control, but there were some other mea ... measures
to get sort of the same outcome.
Boothroy/ Yes!
Cole/ Um, what do you anticipate those measures would be? Would there be incentives to the
developers or ... or how ... how would we go about achieving sort of the same outcome
(both talking)
Boothroy/ Well, the way we're... redrafting the ordinance is that ... is that the requirement will be
for owner -occupied affordable housing, and then there'll be options to opt out, uh, either
with fees in lieu of or provide rental.
Cole/ Okay.
Boothroy/ It just ... it's a different approach and this is what Boulder, Colorado has done. This is
what many communities in California... they just, once they (both talking)
Cole/ ...had the same problem (both talking)
Boothroy/ They had exactly the same ... and they lost lawsuits on it. It's the same ... back (both
talking) this ordinance was passed, I understand, when ... when Tom Vilsack was
Governor and during that time period, a lot of states adopted this ... this provision. I didn't
know it existed until December of this year when somebody from the apartment
association pointed it out, but ... but you just change your approach and then give people
the option. If they voluntarily provide rental, or fees for it, then that's fine. So that's ... it's
going to happen. It's just going to look a little different than what we thought it was
going to look like. Anything else about Development Services? Moving on, I wanted to
talk about sustainability services, uh, which is not in one of the divisions, but, um ... uh, it
was brought up the other night at the Council meeting and ... and, uh... uh.... uh, Friday at
11:00 we ... we submitted, finally submitted all the information that we have, uh, to the
STAR rating program, so that ... Brenda was ... Brenda Nations has been doing this along
with Carri Fox-Rummelhart, and it's been a huge effort over the last year to try to get this
information collected. It's so inter -departmental and also includes not only County
information, but School Board information and other economic development information,
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bringing all of this stuff together, uh, has been a major, major task. Can't even begin to
tell you how (laughs) how much work has gone into this. It's just... it's... had we known
maybe (laughs) we would have looked at it a little bit differently. Uh, STAR stands for
sustainab ... sustainability tools for assessing and rating communities, and you're going to
talk about that next week with regard to the strategic plan, but ... uh... it's going to energize,
I believe, uh, our, uh, sustainability efforts because we will now have put together as
comprehensive a database of what we've accomplished. It will also, uh, help us define,
uh, what the opportunities for improvement are, uh, and.... the... the thing that I think is
really important about this as well, not only this data and all the stuff that we've gone
through, uh, but it is an evaluation that's going to be done by inti... independent body, uh,
and it will be compared to other communities. So I think it gives us some objectivity
which is really good, uh, as we start forward on looking at some of these sustainability
issues, and I really hope you embrace that, uh, as part of your strategic plan and process
(mumbled) as we talk about it next week. Any questions about that at all? It's a...
Cole/ What are the costs associated with obtaining the rating? I think of, for example, a LEED
certification, there's been a healthy conversation, do we sort of want to have LEED
equivalents or do we want to pay for the actual certification, and I'm .... sort of the same
thing comes up to me with, uh, the STAR community rating system. The cost associated
with it, and are there some alternatives that are possibly available, cause frankly I haven't
looked precisely at that question.
Boothroy/ There is a ... we're sort of a membership community, and there was a membership fee,
uh. It doesn't impact individual developments or uh, projects. And so the City pays its
membership fee and what we get for it is not only this evaluation by their staff, but we
get a rating, uh, we also get access to the database that's growing substantially from other
communities in terms of practices and ... and how they've addressed certain issues. Um, I
don't recall what the ... it wasn't very much.
Fruin/ No, I think it was roughly $5,000 (several talking)
Boothroy/ Something of that nature.
Fruin/ The ... the true cost is in the labor (laughter) and there's...
Boothroy/ Everybody's labor! (laughter)
Fruin/ ...probably knock you off your chair (several talking and laughing) Um, but you know
this is ... it's, this is meant to be a thing where you .... you do this huge initial submittal and
then I think every two years you have to re -certify, and just like LEED, there's all these
evolving conversations because just about every city that submitted has come back and
said, we don't want to go through that again in two years. So they're looking at some, uh,
kind of shorter -term ... (both talking)
Boothroy/ The streamlined version of...in.... in two years it's going to be a streamlined version
(several talking)
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Fruin/ And there's a .... in the meantime, they've developed a STAR indicator, um ... system, which
we are ... we are joining as well, where they've picked out 21 LEED indicators. We talked
about this ... Tom's talked about this a number of times with you in regards to your
strategic plan, but .... whether those most important....21 most important things about,
um, about your community and ... and how do you measure those and ... and so I think that's
probably what we would expect to see going forward, and then maybe every five years go
through the big exercise.
Boothroy/ (mumbled) we had to do this to know what we had. And we didn't ... we really didn't
know, I mean, we're like ... the blind folks at the elephant trying to figure out what's
(mumbled) we had no idea, and ... and the thing about sustainability is it ... is that, you
know, you saw that there are seven goals. It's so broad that ... if you don't figure it out,
then it's ... you can lose energy and you can lose interest, and I think that this was (both
talking)
Cole/ The benchmarks...
Boothroy/ This is crit ... this was critical in order to ... to ... to take the next step.
Cole/ Okay! Thank you.
Boothroy/ Neighborhood Ser... Neighborhood Servies, um ... this is Tracy Hightshoe's, uh,
division and, um, one of the things that we brought to the Council's attention this year is
that, uh, we met ... we met a milestone. We had sold 50 homes. We are now ... have sold
52, and counting. Uh, we've ... we've purchased 56 and so we still have a few homes
to ... to sell and there is money in the budget for next year for four additional homes, uh,
and so doing six to seven houses a year .... is kind of what we like to try to do. Uh,
anything more than that, uh, becomes.... becomes very difficult for us. But it's been a
great ... a great program, and I'm sure most of you have ... have heard about it, so I won't go
into detail on that either. Um ... the Housing Authority, well, I did mention about the
CDBG, uh, Home budget, uh.... it's ... it's anticipated to be similar to last year in terms of
allocation, plus .... plus the program income. Um ... with regard to the Housing Authority,
we again received high performance status last year. The Housing Authority, uh,
manages the Section 8 pro ... voucher program as well as the public housing program. Uh,
high performance status is based on maintaining 95%, uh... plus, uh, voucher utilization.
Uh, we were at, uh, slightly over 100%, which there's a penalty for that and we had to
return ... we have to return $11,000 but....but remember, this is a program, uh, the voucher
program brings into this community, and I like to mention this, $6 million...well, next
year it's going to be $6,725,247, uh.... and that goes directly to landlords. It does not go
to low-income families. It's used to reduce, subsidize the rent, but it goes directly to the
landlords and so it goes into the economy, uh... uh, and supports, uh, landlords in the
community. Um ... that's a ... that's about 500 .... that's 560,000 -plus a month, um, or, uh,
figured out that it was about 13 -cents a minute. So ... um, I'm making an amazing
contribution today. (laughter) (mumbled) ...my time I guess! Um ... (mumbled) um ... with
regard to the Housing Inspection program, I would mention that ... that again, uh, it's fully
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funded based on fees. Uh, we establish the fees every four years. Uh, we did this, uh....
I guess it's coming on two years now, uh, in terms of the fee increase. Uh, and so we'll be
coming back to you, uh, again, um ... uh, in the next year I guess. Or would it be the year
after? Anyway, uh, it's every four years. We try to keep those fees, uh, adjust them on a
regular basis, uh, so that tho... that increase is not much more than 3 to 5% in any one
particular fee increase period, and we always try to keep a two-cycle, uh... uh, of fees. So,
under the rental inspection program, everything in Iowa City's inspected every two years
and so if we keep it every four years, there's two cycles where people have, uh,
what ... know what the fees are and what the expectations are with regard to those, for
budgeting. Uh... it's good not to get behind. Uh, 15 years or so ago we got behind and we
had to do a 50% increase and that ... that was ... we were able to get lots of people down at
the Council meeting for that one.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
Boothroy/ (laughing) ...we did get it approved! (laughs) Um ... one of the things that I want to
mention to you is that this spring, the Council has approved a stepped up inspection
program, uh, for the University impact areas. Some of the new Council Members not...
may not be aware of it. This is going to be done by existing staff. There is no additional
staff being, uh... used in this case. Uh... it will be, uh, an on the ground, walking type
survey where we go ... go out this spring and take a look at exterior conditions. Uh, we
have, uh, we are in the process of developing, uh, a, um ... um, exterior facade, uh,
program to help homeowners and, uh, other owners of property in the north side to afford
any, uh, changes that may be a result of those inspections. Uh, we have several different
types of programs that we can use for low-income families, as well as we'll have some,
uh, pro ... uh, money available for ... for folks that are not, uh, low-income. I think in the
budget we have $150,000 maybe, uh, for this, but I'm not, uh, I ... that's what I have in my
notes anyway. Um, after we get that accomplished, and it will take some time to work
through that, uh... we will also, uh, on a regular basis, on a monthly basis, uh, be more
active in terms of driving around, uh, more like a windshield type survey to see if
anything is jumping out at us with regard to a nuance issues. Uh, the other thing that will
be happening bec... partly being triggered by the multi -family recycling, um ... ordinance
that should be coming to you this spring is that, uh, because we're going to be increasing
dumpsters in alleys, because of multi -family recycling in some areas of the community,
we're now going to be asking for those al ... those dumpsters to be enclosed and screened
(mumbled) because of...of the dumpster appearance and the trash that occurs around it,
but also to contain the trash from blowing, uh, around the neighborhood. Uh, and so that
will start, uh, as soon as the, uh, multi -family recycling ordinance gets adopted, and I'm
not sure what the schedule on that is yet. Um, but that's... that's coming down the road.
So, the way we work typically with ... with a lot of these programs with the housing
inspection is that we're on a two-year cycle, so things like mult... the dumpster enclosure
and things like that, which are ... are expensive to do, uh, we ... they will probably have
about two years in order to get those ... those things implemented, uh, in terms of...of, uh,
getting 'em in place, and some of 'ern will take some creative planning in terms of finding
space, uh, for those dumpsters, and so it won't ... it won't be just a easy thing to do in every
situation. Uh, the MPO, uh, I want to move to that one, uh, briefly. Uh, this is Kent
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Ralston. It's the ... for the new Counc... Councilors, that's, uh, all of the cities in the
urbanized area, plus Johnson County and ... and the University of Iowa. The City funds
that by population, assessed by population, size, and I think Iowa City's about 19% of the
total cost of that. Uh, but also staff of the MPO are ... are in the budget as well for local,
uh, Iowa City only planning, uh, type activities. Probably the biggest thing that's
happening next year as far as the MPO is the long-range transportation plan, and that is
due to be submitted by May, 2016. So, excuse me, May 2017! Yes, we're at 2016
(laughs) excuse (mumbled) Lost my ear here for a minute! We have to submit that in
order to get federal funds, and so during 2016, we will be meeting with all of the
communities, putting together what you would think of as a comprehensive plan for, uh,
transportation planning for the urbanized area. Uh, getting that to the MPO after the first
of next year, which'll be in 2017, first part of 2017, uh, get it adopted and get it
submitted, uh, to the federal government so that we stay, uh.... uh, eligible for
transportation dollars. So it is a big effort, uh, and all of the communities will..will be
contacted and we'll go through that planning process.
Throgmorton/ Doug, if I could interject for a second. I think this is a topic that our Council will
want to be discussing.... before we get to the point where the MPO has ... actually been
putting together the full entire plan. So that our Council can be clear about ... what its
view is with regard to the components of that plan, and I know I'm not going to be a
member of that discussion. You six will be but, uh, we probably need to have a
discussion about it earl ... fairly early on.
Boothroy/ We can do that. I could have Kent comment. We can have those conversations ... to
schedule that at some time. But it's a year-long planning effort, so we have some time
to ... to have that conversation. Um .... I don't know how much was discussed about
economic development and Wendy's, uh, efforts, you know, but we continue to work
with various, uh (mumbled) Tom got into some of this. Uh, hopefully Moss Ridge will
come online this year and we have the preliminary plat submitted for that now, uh,
finally, and so that's the first step to getting it in a situation where they can begin to
develop the ... they can get the ... the infrastructure in and they can begin to sell and develop
the land and that ... that would be great ... to have that ... that happen. Uh, hopefully CA
Ventures will get started this spring. I think the design of the building is pretty much
been approved by the City, so it's just a matter of, um, moving that forward, if they can,
and um, and then we've ... we've got a number of projects that, uh... and .... and developers
who have talked to us about development in the Riverfront Crossings area, everything
from down by the south Gilbert Street area, uh, next to the new park, uh, as well as, uh,
you know, Madison Street's still there. Uh, they're still talking and oth... other folks are
talking to us about, uh, the opportunities that ... that will be there. Any general questions
then?
Cole/ I have a question about the UniverCity program. I think that that has been one of the best
decisions the previous Councils has made in terms of assisting families to be in our ... in
our historic neighborhoods. Um, but there's been some hiccups and growing pains, and I,
um, you had talked about ... it's about four proposed purchases for this upcoming year.
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Boothroy/ There's money in the budget for it. Yes.
Cole/ Okay.
Boothroy/ We don't have anything identified.
Cole/ Okay. Uh, but you would like to see six to seven, um, on an average basis, so there might
be a little bit more room to, um ... aspire a little higher as far as that goes? Why ... and why
is it set at four as opposed to six to seven then?
Boothroy/ Staffing.
Cole/ Staffing, okay.
Markus/ (several talking) And ... and because of existing inventory that we (several talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ We've bubbled up to almost...
Boothroy/ We had 15, approx... 18, I'm sorry! We had 18 at one point and, uh... we struggled to
get that, and part of the ... when you get that kind of stock that go through the winter and
we have carrying costs, we ... we, since it's not a public purpose, we paid the taxes on it.
We paid the energy costs on it. Some of the carrying costs on these units, the longer we
hold on to them, uh, become a burden as well when we try to resell them and try to keep
them as affordable as possible. So we don't want too much inventory cause we don't
wanna, you know, have all those carrying costs.
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ And ... and the other thing is, we've lost partners along the way — University, state
funding. So it's on us now, so ... we have to be a lot more strategic about buying units and
then potentially getting stuck with some units. We've had a lot of success, but we
recently got stuck (both talking)
Cole/ Burlington, right? Yeah.
Markus/ (both talking) ...with a bit of a dog.
Cole/ Yeah.
Boothroy/ Yeah. Enough said! (laughter)
Markus/ And you know, you're talking about 50 -some homes and ... quite frankly, that's pretty
good track record when you (both talking)
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Cole/ I think it's been a great program, I mean there's been some hiccups, but that's why I was
talking about building upon that. I think it's been great!
Boothroy/ Other questions?
Thomas/ Did you say that, uh... with this work that's going to be done in the University impact
zone that the ... the, uh, trash enclosures will (both talking) dump ... for the dumpsters will
also be re ... uh, required, not just simply for the recycling but for the existing dumpsters?
Will that... that's... that'll be (laughs)
Boothroy/ I assume (both talking) Yeah, I assume they'll keep ... they'll have both dumpsters
within the same enclosure.
Thomas/ Yeah. That's great!
Boothroy/ It's only for the multi -family that have dumpsters though. Yeah. Some don't have
dumpsters.
Taylor/ And is that at the expense of the business or the City?
Boothroy/ I couldn't hear what...
Taylor/ Is that at the expense of the, um, business or the City? For those enclosures (both
talking)
Boothroy/ The ... the property owner, uh, pays the cost for the dumpster enclosure.
Taylor/ Okay! Thank you.
Botchway/ Doug, are you the person to talk to about that, uh, the multi -residential, um... kind of
enclosures, but the, um .... recycling?
Boothroy/ The multi -family recycling? (both talking) That's gonna come up later!
Botchway/ Okay.
Boothroy/ Okay!
Botchway/ And then the other qu... um, I guess not question/suggestion is, the numbers provided,
I think that was tied to neighborhood services, can those be disaggregated by race?
Boothroy/ Uh, what ... what numbers in specific are you talking about?
Botchway/ The...
Markus/ Snow complaints?
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Botchway/ No! (laughter)
Boothroy/ Students don't do such a good job shoveling sidewalks by the way! Just kinda FYI!
(laughter)
Mims/ Well my guess is we got hit extra hard with the holiday and people being out of town, and
the way that precipitation came down and froze.
Boothroy/ And the Rose Bowl!
Mims/ Yeah! Nobody wanted to go out and clean after that! (laughter)
Boothroy/ Exactly! There was depression! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Well what better way to take aggression out than you can go out and whack on
that ice! You know!
Boothroy/ Absolutely! That's what I thought! (laughs)
Cole/ (mumbled) looking at the numbers, along that line, Kingsley, what I was wondering on that
precise issue is as we think about ... new developments and new investments in newer
neighborhoods, how do we look at the likely impact on race, in terms of whether there is
a disproportionate impact, or benefit, on ... (mumbled) pertains to certain races. Does that
make sense? Cause for instance we had a lot of diversity training, I went to one (both
talking)
Markus/ Equity tool kit.
Cole/ Equity tool kit! (mumbled) what they really talked about, when you do a policy, is there
an unintentional disproportionate impact or burden on a race, but I think the flipside of
that question is ... is when you have a new development, a new cost. Is there a
disproportionate benefit to a certain demographic of the community, is that analysis done
as we look to expand, or...
Boothroy/ No, no, we don't do that. We have not done that analysis in the past.
Markus/ You know, what we do is ... is to some degree a fiscal note on a lot of these issues, that I
think potentially could be expanded into more of the equity tool kit kind of...(mumbled;
away from mic)
Cole/ Yeah.
Boothroy/ You know one of our goals for next year, uh, is to ... uh... in a, and frankly Brenda
hasn't had time to work on this, but ... but uh... is to begin to ... to fold in in our, uh, data
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collection with our permits and applications, not necess... probably wouldn't have
anything to do with race, but ... but sustainability measures...
Cole/ Yep.
Boothroy/ ...so that we can begin de ... developing a database, based on applications that we
receive, uh... and we're also, uh, I've talked to John Yapp, uh, about, you know, changing
the format a little bit on the staff reports, so that we have some ... some, uh, indication that
we've looked at some kind of checklist for some of these things.
Cole/ ...(both talking) ...be helpful!
Throgmorton/ Doug, somewhere I've read, uh, a recommendation that we ... uh, when we're, uh,
doing, issuing housing permits, that we collect data about rents.
Boothroy/ Talkin' about rental permits?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, yeah, thank you, that we collect, uh, information about the rents that are
charged. Do we do that now? I didn't think (both talking)
Boothroy/ No, we ... we, uh (both talking) just completed that survey that he does every two
years...
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Boothroy/ ...uh, in that information we're going to be using, uh, for our fee in lieu of for
inclusionary housing ordinance, but no, the City hasn't done that specifically.
Throgmorton/ Are there any legal objections to collecting that information when we issue those
(both talking)
Boothroy/ In talking to Casey, uh, you know ... it's always a struggle to .... some landlords aren't
willing to share that information. I don't know if there's any legal issues with it, but ... but
some landlords treat it as confidential or are not willing to share that information.
So ... he's had a better response this year from his surveys, um, and I think he does a pretty
good job, um ... uh, but I don't know the answer to your question, whether there's ... I ... I
don't.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Fruin/ I'll pass that question along to Eleanor.
Throgmorton/ Great, thanks!
Boothroy/ But that's traditionally how we've gotten that information, is through Cook appraisals
report.
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Throgmorton/ Okay, any other questions for Doug?
Botchway/ Yeah, Doug, I can't find it in my notes, but it was specifically around the, you know,
Section 8 vouchers...
Boothroy/ Uh huh.
Botchway/ ... and just that, seeing that within the budget document (mumbled) disaggregated by
race, I'm not sure why (both talking)
Boothroy/ We have that information. We do that all the time. It's just probably not in the budget
book.
Mims/ It's in the annual report though.
Boothroy/ Yes, in the annual report that we give out (both talking)
Mims/ ...annual report booklet that has ... that's all broken down by race.
Botchway/ (mumbled)
Boothroy/ Yeah. Yeah, we just hand that out as a separate document. It's not incorporated in the
budget.
Throgmorton/ Okay!
Boothroy/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/Thank you, Doug! Chris, I think you're up! (laughter) (several talking) Mike's
lurking out in the lobby! (several talking) Could do ... you wanna do that? (several
talking) Okay, we're gonna do Mike Tharp. Good afternoon, Mike. How are you?
Airport (pg 453):
Tharp/ Good afternoon! Just fine. How is everybody there? (laughs) (several talking and
laughing) Hi, I'm Mike Tharp. I'm the Airport Operations Specialist. Uh, the Airport
this year is actually having one of its best budget years that I can remember in ... in terms
of, uh, the money, the general levy support we've asked for. Um, we operate generally
about a $400,000 operating budget. This year as part of our capital, uh, capital projects...
Karr/ Mike, excuse me. It's page 453.
Tharp/ Um ... as part of our capital projects and our operating support, we're asking for a grand
total of just over $113,000, and of that really $13,000 is going to our operational support.
Um ... outside of that, we manage, uh, six t -hangar buildings, four other conventional
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hangar buildings, a terminal building of varying ages. The terminal building is 1951 -
vintage and it's a very wonderful building, but it's also ... costs us a lot of money for
upkeep and management. Um, and then our two runways, which, uh... um, pavement
maintenance and management is also a ... a,uh, pretty decent, uh, piece of our budget
op ... operation. Uh, outside of that, uh, over the next year we're looking at, uh, trying to
work with some of our cash balance to facilitate some additional building development
out there. Um ... and hopefully continue to increase our revenues and ... and decrease that
reliance on the general levy fund even more! Um, so outside of that, I have ... if there's
any particular questions about the operations, happy to, uh, answer them and...
Mims/ I would just comment particularly for the new Members, the Airport has improved its
financial position considerably over the last few years. We've had land around the
Airport that came kind of under the auspices of the Airport and we've sold that off and
that, the agreement was that a certain amount of that was going to be used to require...
retire debt. Um, so that has improved the financial position of the Airport considerably.
Cole/ It's a pretty esoteric topic, so I think we'll trust your judgment on ... in terms of what's
necessary (laughs)
Dickens/ What....what, do you have any outstanding debt now or...
Tharp/ No, we have completely cleared our ... our debt.
Dickens/ (mumbled) Good. So it is superior management. (laughter and several talking)
Tharp/ I'll ... I'll take it! (laughter)
Mims/ The other thing I..just recall from these years of meetings is ... the interesting challenge of
the fact that there's... there may be demand for hangar space, but hangars don't cash flow
(laughs) it appears. I mean the competition in other areas and where other people can
keep their planes, like it costs you more to build the hangars than you can rent them
for ... you know, and even pay for your building. So it's ... it's just kind of a weird...
Tharp/ It ... it is! That is ... that is one of the biggest challenges the Airport has in terms of being
able to build more buildings to attract more people to base aircraft there, and generate
revenue. Um ... for whatever reason in aviation, yeah, and it's not unique to us. It's all
over. Um, the hangar buildings themselves, unless you can get a really good corporate
building, um, t -hangars themselves especially do not cash flow themselves and it'd
take ... it takes, uh, either a large subsidy or some type of cash, uh, cash influx to be able to
develop them with ... without debt or you've got an extended debt period that -that makes it
unmanageable.
Cole/ And what's the percentage of use in terms of just recreational, um, business... how... how
does that break down in terms of category?
Tharp/ I don't have those figures off the top of my head, but I can follow up with ya.
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Cole/ Okay.
Tharp/ We do have a .... a pretty healthy mix of recreation, business users, um, we also rent a
building to the University of Iowa for the Operator Performance Lab, which is a big
research facility for, uh, the University. Um...
Thomas/ How many ... how many planes fly into the Airport (mumbled) (both talking)
Tharp/ Operationally we have about 25,000 operations a year, and an operation is defined as a
takeoff or landing. Uh... based aircraft, we have about 90 airplanes based there, and that
ranges from about seven jets to, uh, an additional seven turbo prop -type aircrafts, like a
King Air, and then the rest are single -engines.
Throgmorton/ I don't see any other questions, Mike.
Tharp/ All right! Thank you!
Throgmorton/ Thank you.
Cole/ Thanks, Mike!
Throgmorton/ Hello again, Chris!
Transportation and Resource Management Services:
O'Brien/ Thanks for welcoming me again, Mayor (laughter) Good afternoon! Uh, Chris
O'Brien, Director of Transportation and Resource Management. Uh, before we get into
actual budgets, I was just going to start with a summary of how we got to Transportation
and Resource Management. Uh, because last year at this time it was Transportation
Services, uh, was the name of the department and at that time we were just presenting on
Parking and ... and Transit were the two operations that we oversaw. Starting July 1St of
this year, so this would have taken place ... there was some discussions of it at the budget
last year. Um, but starting July lst, uh, the operations of the Landfill and ... and Solid
Waste collection operations, uh, as well as the CBD maintenance operation, uh,
were ... were removed and put over under our umbrella of operations, uh, and so the name
then was changed from Transportation Services to Transportation and Resource
Management. So, we ... we sort of have, kind of three different areas — Transportation,
which con ... takes, uh, takes the Parking and the Transit operations... Resource
Management, which handles the Landfill and Solid Waste collection, uh, which is a nice
pair, and then we also have the CBD, which is a ... kind of a very small operation that
we ... we kind of maintain underneath the Parking operation piece of it, uh, to maintain the,
uh, CBD area downtown, including snow removal, trash removal, uh, general
maintenance of the ... the ped mall and the areas surrounding, urn ... and that all took place,
like I said, July 1, um, primarily. The CBD slid over a little bit later than that but ... um,
due to some changes that happened in staffing within the Parks and Rec department.
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Um, so it made for an easy transition at that point, uh, because a lot of our maintenance
operations, we completely surrounded the ped mall with our parking maintenance
operations, uh, because we maintain all of the facilities basically around, so it was just a
natural fit to have our staff, uh, assist with those ... those operations. Questions on that
process before we ... we kind of jump into...
Throgmorton/ Well I ... I'd like to say one thing. It's not intuitively obvious why this (laughter and
several talking) marriage would have taken place. I ... I think I remember that, uh... it took
place partly because of Tom's, uh, appreciation for your managerial skills. Uh, but ... are
there really other substantive... reasons why (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah there were, um ... it goes to capacity. Um, quite frankly the Public Works
department was just ... their span of control was way too wide, and when you get a span of
control that is that ... wide, um, I don't think you can really pay attention to the
responsibilities you have in (mumbled, away from mic) Heretofore, the, um ... the Landfill
area in particular, and the ... and the Recycling were managed, uh, along with the sanitary
sewer treatment plant by one person. That did not make any sense at all. Uh, here we
were with the largest public works project in the history of this city, and we had a person
split between the Landfill ... post -fire, and this, um ... expansion of south treatment plant
and demo of the north treatment plant, and it was obvious to me that the person couldn't
do justice, um, quite frankly to either one of 'em, having responsibility for (noises on mic,
unable to hear speaker) and it was obvious to me that the director of the program was
spread (mumbled) over all ... the Public Works director, including Rick Fosse, were spread
too thin. And ... this is a young manager that is in a point where I don't think he had
enough to do. And he certainly showed capacity. Now, I would tell you that I don't
typically go about these things this way, because this is more personnel -driven than it is
function -driven, and most organizations in terms of the skeleton of an operation, they
align things up according to function. This is personnel -driven because of capacity. He
had the capacity. The other was over capacity. And so to do it justice, we needed to re-
assign some things. It's re -energized Chris. It's created some ... some room for Ron
Knoche to pay more attention to some of the other elements, which are typical Public
Works elements, and ... he is ... risen to the occasion, on every level! He went and got his
certification. He's out there. He's checking with other operations. He's reconfiguring, or
looking at reconfiguring the cell to get more capacity out of the cells. Um ... he's looking
into things that I had asked for, after the fire, about how we prevent the similar situation
again, and quite frankly was told those things didn't exist. He found 'em. He has proven
what I hoped would happen. That there's more attention to detail being paid to that
Landfill and he still runs Transportation and Parking, as well as anybody. He is one of
your future stars, okay, in terms of operating departments for this City, and so ... he's
fulfilling what I saw, and he has great capacity to grow as well. That's what it was about.
Throgmorton/ That's what I thought! Okay, Chris.
O'Brien/ Usually the answer I give to that is ... Parking and Transit, it was transporting people
from point A to point B, and Parking was where you would place vehicles and ... Refuse
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Collection was picking things up and transporting them from point A to point B, and the
Landfill was a place where we would park things, so that's kinda (both talking)
Mims/ (mumbled) (laughter)
O'Brien/ Right! They're kinda mirror images of each other if you really look at it is ... is how I
(several talking)
Markus/ Only he could come up with that creative (laughter and several talking)
O'Brien/ Um ... so .... a couple... couple other items from the transition. So we went from, our
department went from 75 employees to 107 during the transition. Um, our operating
budget ... so I'm not including any capital projects, we have a $21.7 million, roughly,
revenue budget, and an $18 million expense budget for the, roughly, for the ... the
operations that we oversee. Um ... you know, the ... the Recycling also came under the
Landfill, so I don't want to say just the Landfill operations. The Recycling's been ... and
there's a lot of exciting new ... new initiatives that we're going to be talking about and that
we're going to have coming up that I think are, um ... have been hovering out there for a
while and I won't say long overdue, but are things I ... everybody's excited about and I
think there are going to be some good programs for us. Um ... any other ... any other quick
questions? Feel free to jump in any time. I mean, we can ... we can do questions at the
end if you'd like, if there's something I don't cover, but... obviously feel free to jump in if
there's something that as I'm covering it you have questions about or you want me to
expand upon. Um, the first budget I'm going to talk about is the admin for Transportation
Resource Management, which is ... the one area I oversee that's not a ... an enterprise fund.
It's part of the general fund operations. And, um ... it's on page ... 279 of the budget book if
that's ... if that helps. Um, so what that's responsible for is just the oversight of everything
else. Um, as well as the CBD operations. Um, so that ... this three personnel in that, that's
myself, the associate director Mark Rummel, and then we have one maintenance worker
that ... that transferred over with the CBD transition, and basically what that allows us to
do and ... and Dennis could probably speak a little bit better, is it allows us to charge out
time and separate it out amongst all of the entities without having a ... a .2 here and a .3
here and a. 15 here. Puts us all ... and then it has ... an administrative charge -back then that
covers the cost of those. Is that roughly accurate?
Bockenstedt/ It was just more or less a change in accounting for Chris' time. Before he was split
between two functions. Now he manages four or five functions. So it was really just an
accounting mechanism to split his time.
O'Brien/ Um, as far as the CBD piece of it, urn ... which is a ... a small portion of our overall
budget, but, uh... it's really important in the fact that it's really high profile. There's a lot
of things that take place in the downtown, uh, whether it be snow removal, whether it be,
uh, trash receptacles, whether it be general maintenance, cleaning, playground at the
Library ... in front of the Library, that ... all those things fall underneath the ... the umbrella of
the CBD. Um, now there are certain things that we ... we also partner with Parks and Rec.
Um, they handle a lot of the living items, urn ... obviously with some changes they've
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made internally with staff, and then we handle a lot of the cleaning and the maintenance.
Uh, the big bellies that were installed were kind of a combination between a recycling
program in the CBD in order to install the big bellies were removed, I think 14. I think
there's going to be 16 total trash receptacles that we've removed in order to implement.
Uh, we have four big belly stations that are a combo, uh, trash unit and recycling unit, uh,
with plans to expand upon that, which we have, uh, in this capital outlay for this budget
of, uh, $24,000, which is to expand upon that big belly program, uh, to try to get some
more, uh, directed recycling out of some of the items that are ... that are coming in, uh,
once we get another effort to try to divert things from getting put into the Landfill, uh,
and ... and being recycled if possible. So, urn ... we've done a few sorts, initially, and found
that there's ... (mumbled) actually been very little contamination, which is something we're
fearful of, uh, and so in the big bellies in the ped mall is that people would just utilize
those for trash regardless of...and what we've seen is that there's been... hopefully a
concerted effort to ... to recycle, but it's been a lot less contamination than we ... than we
assumed was going to happen initially, so it's ... um, I think those ... those units have been
(mumbled) we'll see once we get some more time under our belt and have some more
statistics on it, but the initial sorts that Jen has done, uh, have been very positive so far.
Questions on the admin/CBD? I'll go into the Transportation piece now, which consists
of the Parking and the Transit funds. Uh, I'll give a ... kind of a quick overview of
Parking. Uh, obviously it's an enterprise fund as ... as everything else that we'll talk about
is. Um, we handle the off-street, on -street parking operations for the City, which ... okay,
we have five parking facilities for the City of Iowa City, but only four of them fall
underneath the Parking fund. Uh, one thing to keep in mind is that Court Street
Transportation Center was a federally -funded through FTA asset. So that actually falls
under the Transit operations piece, uh, as we're talking about the budget, but, uh,
obviously from the Parking side we manage it, um ... but it is an ... actually a Transit asset.
Um, our operating hours, we operate seven days a week, uh, we operate until midnight,
uh, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday; 2:00 A.M. Thursday, Friday, Saturday; uh, until
10:00 P.M. on Sunday. Uh, we've got two facilities that are completely automated, and
that's Tower Place, located on Iowa Avenue, and the Court Street Transportation Center,
um, which is on ... on the corner of Court Street and Dubuque. Um, our on -street
operations consists of about just over 1,100 on -street parking meters, uh, some of which
are in the seven parking lots that we manage. Uh, we also handle maintenance, which is
of equipment. We do snow removal downtown, of all of the streets and parking spaces,
um, with assistance in coordination with Streets. Uh, Parking Enforcement, of all the
regulations in the downtown and the, kind of the adjacent areas where, uh, we have
odd/even parking, urn ... bicycle facilities, uh, Zip Car was a project that we did jointly
with the University of Iowa, uh, and then obviously we work closely with the Downtown
District (mumbled) events, uh, to assist with whatever they need from either a parking
standpoint or an enforcement, a regulation standpoint, or from a signage, uh, to prohibit
parking areas to allow for the vendors and such to get settled in those areas.
Throgmorton/ Chris.
O'Brien/ Yeah?
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Throgmorton/ How's the Zip Car experiment going?
O'Brien/ So the Zip Car ... um, we've actually ... so we started out with 10 vehicles, which, uh,
initially all of us thought was a little heavy, and um, I don't know what the reasoning was
to start with ... one of their largest starts ever as far as a ... a community of this size. Well
they backed that down to six pretty quick, and we've actually expanded on that, so each
month outside of when you get into the summer months. So your prime ... when students
are here and everything's fully functioning, every month it increases... since we've had it.
Now ... they've very ... because of what we really have as an agreement to provide space for
Zip Car. We don't really manage the project as much as the space, so they're very ... uh,
they really hold on to their information, and then they don't give us a lot of it, because I
think of...uh, competitors that would ... would get, have a chance to look at that, etc. So,
um, we get kind of basic information about the amount of usage and ... and every month
until we get to December, January, it increases for every year that we've had that in place.
So ... uh, they pay us for our spaces, uh, the full market rate, uh, for the spaces we allow
them to utilize. Um ... and our hopes that eventually... and we've started to see this with
developments, where they've looked to increase the capacity for Zip Cars by adding those
as part of their developments, to try to reduce the amount of vehicles that are being
utilized at those actual developments themselves, so ... that's been a ... a successful piece of
it, as well. We, uh, we almost had an agreement for the project down on Madison Street
until that project changed slightly. So we haven't ... we haven't heard from them in a
couple months but ... we've had a couple other developments approach us about potentially
utilizing Zip Cars for their ... their facilities.
Cole/ How bout metering efforts in ... in some of the other neighborhoods? Well I think one of
the big concerns in a lot of neighborhoods is the commuters are using the neighborhoods
for free parking during the day.
O'Brien/ Yeah.
Cole/ (both talking) full cost. What efforts have been made to ... to talk to neighborhood and
maybe as a funding model to look at, uh, you know, if we did metering that we could
maybe put some of that money into the neighborhoods themselves?
O'Brien/ Yeah, I think the metering, we've always tried to stay away from metering residential
neighborhoods.
Cole/ Okay.
O'Brien/ Uh, I think one of the things that comes up every couple of years is a ... is a residential
permit program, um, which is something that for those neighborhoods that are highly
residential, where people are utilizing that as parking ... urn ... and then they're either taking
a bus or walking into wherever they're headed is something that's come up every few
years, but as a ... as a practice we've tried to stay away from putting meters in front of
residential, or in heavily residential... now there are places where we have a few, but for
the most part we try to stay away from ... from that. Now, obviously if that's a policy
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change that ... would like to be undertaken, that's something we could investigate, um, but
typically we try to keep it to ... to commercial areas when we're talking about, um, limiting
and requiring people to pay for ... um, spaces like that, so...
Markus/ So what we used to do, where I came from, is we had neighborhood permit (both
talking)
Cole/ (mumbled)
Markus/ What you do is you sign the area that parking's prohibited, unless by permit, and we'd
sell permits through the City, and you ... you then would post your permit in your car and
you could park on the street, as a person in that neighborhood. We would verify that you
actually lived in that neighborhood. What you have to know is that ... it keeps pushing the
problem, until ... people don't want to go any further. So you may keep growing that
problem as you go out, but it worked for us, and we had the very same situation, very
popular downtown. We had five parking decks ringing the downtown. And what
happens is...you know, employees that don't want to pay for the permit in the deck or pay
the meter charges, they're constantly looking for those spaces that, you know, create an
avoidance of paying any kind of fee. It puts 'em in the neighborhoods and so ... that's the
way you get around that, and it works, uh...
O'Brien/ But you can provide guest type permits. They have so many guest permits, so if they're
having events or people over, where ... where they can utilize (both talking)
Thomas/ I think, Tom, what ... what I've been considering in ... based on our, my observations of
what happens in the north side is that ... the idea would be to permit for outsiders to use,
you know, they could purchase permits as well ... that wouldn't be limited in other words
just to the residents, but we would actually encourage that, and um, sell them. The
revenue that that generated could then be ... put toward ... snow removal, for example
(laughs) so we don't run into the situations we have during the winter time because there's
so many ... you know, absentee landlords and so forth that the snow removal just is not, it
doesn't work! The current system doesn't work. There's too many property owners who,
for whatever reason, don't remove the snow. So it seems to me to be an opportunity to
try to address that.
Markus/ Well let me ask you something though. Because we have a system set up where if they
don't shovel then we come in and clean, then we bill, then they don't pay, then we assess
the property.
Thomas/ Yeah.
Markus/ You know that, right?
Thomas/ Well we just ... yeah.
Markus/ Is it just too late?
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Thomas/ Yeah, I mean we ... we go weeks, you know, where ... where you have problems, and it's
not just on the sidewalks. It's also where the ... the ramp meets the street. You know those
little like extensions beyond the sidewalks. So it becomes an obstacle course, you know,
I ... I just walk in the street.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, there are several stretches of sidewalk, right now in the north side, that are
still covered with ice.
Mims/ Then file a complaint!
Throgmorton/ Well, it gets to be (both talking)
Mims/ I mean... (both talking)
Thomas/ ...very onerous, you know, cause you're talking about lots and lots of property owners.
Markus/ Actually... actually, and that's true because I can tell you on our app, we know
that... multiple complaints are coming from one person. I ... we ... we contemplate that
somebody's out dog walking and (several talking)
Thomas/ Those are the people who ... who file the complaints are the dog walkers in the
neighborhood.
Markus/ And maybe ... and maybe what we have to do is something even more aggressive than
that, and just schedule a cleaning and bill.
Thomas/ Uh huh.
Cole/ And related to this issue, I think gets to student parking, so what efforts have you done
with the University to encourage less students to ... to bring their car to the University of
Iowa? Are there any ongoing efforts to do that?
O'Brien/ Sure, so ... (laughs) if you actually go through and you read the ... the master plan for the
University parking, a lot of it is to be utilized ... our spaces, if you read there so (several
talking) they have, uh, several hundred permits that they utilize of ours, urn ... but I think
what we've seen over the last few years is a ... a drop in the amount of vehicles that we see
as far as ... four -wheeled vehicles. What we've seen is a massive increase in the amount of
mopeds, scooter, motorcycle, bicycle type ... uh... type uses, um, being downtown, so ... uh,
one of the things we'll ... so we, few years ago had next to nothing as far as motorcycle
permits, and actually prior to that, we allowed them to park on bicycle racks. Um, once
we prohibited that, now we're up to 700 permits that we issue annually, uh, for moped
permits, and that isn't a joint. So ... in addition at the University... has additional permits
that they utilize for that. So, urn ... I think some of the challenges that we've seen is that
there's so many more residences that have moved into the downtown, that there's a desire
for storage of vehicles, and that ... from a, when you're in a vibrant downtown, you really
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don't want to have all of your spaces tied up in storage, you ... you still want to have that
turnover capability. So, uh, we're kind of combating ourselves with the, um, with ... with
some of those issues that have arisen, um, so I think we've found a pretty good balance,
um, you know, we'll start talking about the first -hour -free numbers in a second as far as
what we've seen, um, over the past ... as far as the increased number of vehicles that we've
seen utilize our parking decks over the last two years, so we've, uh... so we've had a full
two years of first -hour -free ... where we're at 2.2 million hours of free parking, we've given
away over those two ... over those two years. It was at one point ... just over one million
year one. We're about 1.2 in year two. 630,000 vehicles have entered our facilities and
exited without paying a fee at all. So they've been under that 60 minutes. Just to come
down, use the ... so what would have been an on -street space possibly taken up, they're
utilizing the decks for those. Uh, we've seen 235,000 additional vehicles, and that's just
in one year, so this year compared to the year prior to going first -hour -free. Uh, which
we've ... so it's been a total of a 26% increase in the amount of vehicles we've seen in our
facilities, versus what we saw prior to first -hour -free. So it went exactly how we wanted,
which was to increase the amount of people utilizing the facilities, allowing those space
on -street to turn over continually, and even anecdotally I can tell you, if you ... if you were
to walk downtown, it used to be you wouldn't find a space until you got, uh, east of
Gilbert. Well you can get to 200, 300 Iowa and you .... you're continually seeing spaces
available, as well as even Clinton Street, um, some on Dubuque. So it's been a ... it's done
exactly what we wanted it to. Now, the negatives to that are ... for those of you who have
seen ... everyone wants to park in the Capitol Street facility, which is the main one that's
attached to the Old Capitol Town Center. So there are times where you'll see cars backed
up, even though we have capacity in other locations, because they want to park in that
facility. Um, so that's... that's one of the things that we'll be addressing here in the ... in the
coming months is to try to educate people and ... and direct them to different locations in
order to try to prevent that ... that backlog that we get at that facility. So...
Dickens/ Along with that, is there a way to get out ... I probably average one or two people a day
that either come in the store or run into me, talking parking, that don't know about the
first -hour -free.
O'Brien/ Uh huh.
Dickens/ And this is after two years. I don't know if it can be put in with their water bill or ... I
don't know how you get it out there, other, you know...
O'Brien/ I mean we have it posted in our facilities. We do occasional outreach with social
media. Um ... you know, I...
Dickens/ It's amazing (both talking)
O'Brien/ (both talking) ...those inserts would be effective. I don't know how effective an insert is
(mumbled)
Dickens/ Yeah, they don't (both talking)
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O'Brien/ ...but we'll look at some ... some, I'll write that down here as a way to try to
market... market that better as well.
Botchway/Well and to that, you know, talking with the business owners to make sure that they're
marketing it as well, assuming it's a ... (several talking)
O'Brien/ They have a decal that we assign ... or that we handed out to all the businesses, to the
Downtown District, that are posted in their businesses. They have cards that we issued to
them that they can hand out that have just information on that. Um, so they've... they've
been very supportive of that program as well. Um ... as we've gone through the ... these first
two years of it.
Dickens/ But we are a very transient city, I mean, our .... (both talking)
O'Brien/ ...turns over quite a bit (both talking)
Dickens/ ...extremely high, so ... it's gotta be ongoing.
Thomas/ How many street parking stalls did ... did you say you have?
O'Brien/ Uh, around 1,150 is what we have on -street. That includes some on, kind of just off-
street parking. That's where we have metered spaces. Um ... some other highlights that
we have, really quick. So we have a bike sharing RFP that we're putting together that's a
joint project with the University of Iowa, uh, to do a bike sharing program in the
community. Uh, a facade improvement to the ... we're starting with the Capitol Street
facility to follow the next development of...of, uh, you have the School of Music. You
have potentially the Art Museum that'll be comin' up here soon. The ... that facade of that,
of just trying to dress it up enough that it doesn't serve as an eyesore, um, but yet doesn't
overshadow those other projects as they go up, is something that we're working on right
now. Urn ... our credit card usage ... uh, on -street, over 51 % of our revenues are coming in
from credit card usage. Uh, that's up 36% from when we initially installed our new
meters. And we're at about 70% within our decks, as far as the amount of revenues we
get, uh, are ... are coming in via credit card. So a lot of those changes we made have made
it, what we feel is more convenient and giving other payment options for people who are
utilizing our facilities rather than having to have cash or change, uh, when they go to
those.
Dickens/ Do we pay a percentage for the credit card services?
O'Brien/ We do. Um ... we do. It's ... it's a per transaction, as well as then ... um, a percentage of the
actual transaction as well. Um, but what I'll tell you is we've seen such an increase in the
amount of usage that we've gotten that we're as healthy as we've been from a parking
fund standpoint as ... as far back as I can remember, and I don't... Dennis, if you disagree
with that, but it's about as healthy as we've been financially. Um...
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Thomas/ So the parking operation is entirely self-supporting?
O'Brien/ Correct.
Thomas/ Do .... can you earn a profit or is it...
O'Brien/ What's that?
Thomas/ You can actually run a profit on the parking operation (several talking)
O'Brien/ Correct, and we utilize those funds then for expansion and so for example we have the
Harrison Street facility that will be ... the lease purchase of that which is coming online in
17. We'll have a debt service to that which ... right now while ... while it looks like a ... it's
between restoration projects and new construction, that's what you build those reserves
for. So I wouldn't call it necessarily a profit as much as you're... you're building in
capacity to (both talking)
Thomas/ But at least you're not ... it's not ... drawing funds, it's ... it's paying for it's own operation
and expansion (both talking)
O'Brien/ Correct. We're not ... we're not touching the general (both talking)
Thomas/ Other than the loss of the land, I guess you could say (laughs) for some other use.
Bockenstedt/ And that's considered an enterprise fund, which we talked about on Tuesday and
like the water and sewer, parking systems are intended to set fees and rates to ... to pay for
their own operations without using general funds.
Thomas/ The reason I ask is that, uh, the City Attorney in one of the Planning and Zoning
meetings said that they, the parking structures were operating at a loss, which I was
surprised to hear. So I'm glad to hear that in fact ... the, um ... they ... they aren't (both
talking)
Botchway/ ...Transit services operated at a loss, right?
Bockenstedt/ The Transit services has operated at a loss, but not the parking system, and one of
the things we review every year is ... we get a true accounting from our, when we produce
our annual financial report, that takes into account depreciation and all other accrual and
accounting expenses, and ... one of the things we want to do is set the fees and rates for
those enterprise funds based on the true accounting profit and loss. Um, a lot of utilities
set their rates based on a ... a cash flow. Um, what we want to do is ... is recover the full
cost of that operations, and those rates and fees, and so that is reviewed annually,
and ... and then we review those, uh, rates to ensure that those operations are self-
sustaining.
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Botchway/ But going back to John's point kind of in a way, when we do see a re ... or I guess we'll
talk about Transit soon, but when you do see an increase from a parking standpoint, is
there a possibility of doing that transfers... transfer in, transfer out of monies being used
to ... help out Transportation in any way or spend on services?
Bockenstedt/ Well (mumbled) from Parking to ... to move towards Transit?
Botchway/ Yeah.
Bockenstedt/ Uh, those systems you have to be very careful about moving the funds towards
other forms of operations. Um, because then they may be considered a tax.
Botchway/ Okay.
Bockenstedt/ So if...if, when you said a service rate, that service charge is intended to cover the
cost of providing that service. If you start to skim the revenues off of that service and
move it towards other types of operations that are not funded by that fee, then that may be
considered a tax and ... and, only the State allows you to .... to levy a tax under certain rules
and circumstances.
Mims/ Plus, we want to make sure ... that we're doing what Dennis was just talking about, that
those revenues that we're getting from Parking are actually over 20, 30, 40 years covering
all the expenses. So, building up the replacement funds and everything too, you know,
either minimize the GO bonding necessary or at least, you know, being there to help
repay that, so that ... you know, not only the tax implications, but then we don't have the
money to replace the infrastructure over long periods of time.
O'Brien/ (mumbled) are typical is about 500 to 600 spaces. You're looking at a 800,000 to a $1.1
million annual hit if you ... if you do that, is what we've seen over ... so right now we're debt
free because of some changes that we made ... or some payments that we made in order to,
urn ... take care of the outstanding debt on Tower Place. Um ... but the next one's Harrison
Street comes on, you're... you'll see an increase in our ... it'll be a lease payment, um, that'll
go towards our operations, but then you'll see ... so then you'll see a dip next year in 17,
starting with that ... that facility when it comes online.
Botchway/ Do we have any, um ... you know, it was kind of a ... sensationalized news article
around the transportation center, or ... or transportation center being built in Coralville and
some of the operations moving there, um, compared to here. Do we have any ... I wouldn't
say, you know, um, response. I'm just more talking from a planning standpoint, because
you know... speaking to the fact that our students ... are primarily a lot of the students live
in our jurisdiction. It just seems not advantageous that they would go there, but...
O'Brien/ Are you talking about the Megabus move from...
Botchway/ Megabus move.
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O'Brien/ So I can address that one specifically. So, Megabus was housed at...at the Court Street
Transportation Center, but they didn't have a space that they actually utilized. So what
would happen is the ... the person (mumbled) utilized the Megabus service ... if they wanted
shelter or restrooms or ... would utilize then the services of commercial properties in that
area, which led to, uh, those businesses being upset with that ... that type of...so we
approached Megabus and said, we're fine if you're in Iowa City, but that's... that's not the
issue. But you need to provide the level of service that's expected for someone who's
going to be in the climates of Iowa, meaning cold, rainy, uh, hot. So, providing shelter,
providing ... so ... we were ... we were more than happy to ... and we actually even found them
temporary locations while they were attempting to locate a lease, and the only thing that
they found that was suitable to what they wanted was at Coralville's facility. So
that ... that wasn't so much us. I think they wanted to stay in Iowa City and we were ... we
were fine with them being in Iowa City, under the assumption that they had proper
facilities for the people utilizing their services. So that they were not utilizing those of
businesses that may not see ... they may see costs from that, but not anything from the
people that were utilizing them.
Mims/ Do you know if they're paying Coralville for the use (both talking)
O'Brien/ There is a lease rate, correct. I ... I don't know what that is off the top of my head, but....
Markus/ You know, there's a plus/minus with everything. They're... they're finding out their
minus.
Throgmorton/ We probably need to keep moving on, Chris.
O'Brien/ So Transit, um, six-day operation, operates Monday through Friday, 5:45 to 11:00;
Saturdays 5:45 A.M. to 7:40 P.M. We operate headways during peak times roughly 30
minutes for I would say 90% of our routes, some of them are not. They're... they're still
60. And then we go 60 minutes during off-peak. Uh, off-peak being basically 9:00 A.M.
to 3:00 P.M., and then after 6:30 P.M., and then all day Saturday. Um .... we're also
required to provide complementary paratransit service for the hours that we provide fixed
route services. So they mirror the same hours that we have for our paratransit service.
Uh, which is ADA paratransit service. Uh, we have a fleet of 27 big buses, l l ...um...
paratransit vehicles. We operate roughly 55,000 hours of service a year, covering
710,000 miles, um, of revenue miles. Uh, we have over two million rides, this is just
Iowa City, two million rides per year, uh, the ... the area including Cambus and Coralville,
we're over seven million, which is the most in the state. Um, and actually we get
recognized nationally with our per capita transit use. You ... you see a lot of, uh, Iowa Cit
area being ranked highly in transportation. Um, we have 585 bus stops. Once again, this
is just Iowa City. Uh, and we also then maintain the fleet for our fixed route and our
paratransit operations. Uh, our funding for Transit, so we have a Transit levy, which
funds a ... a large portion of our operations. Fare box revenues, which we have a goal of
33% for operations —we're roughly around 31%. Uh, we receive federal and state
operating assistance, which totals roughly around $1.8 million from those two. Uh, we
also receive then rents and parking revenues from the Court Street Transportation Center.
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All those revenues are required to be used by, uh, for Transit operations since they were
funded with FTA funds, uh, for that facility. Um, and then we have capital funds that
receive. Typically when we get grants from, uh... either federal or state for vehicles, it's
roughly in the 80 to 85% range. Uh, occasionally we'll get into 90, but typical year in
that 80 to 85%, depending on the type of vehicle and the grant funds being utilized for
that. Uh, and then we have a small amount of revenues that come in from University
Heights, 30....$30,000 and change, uh, for services to ... to provide service to that
community as we pass through.
Dickens/ I see on the list here you're taking ... 10 new buses and 4 new paratransit buses. Will
that help your...
O'Brien/ (both talking) Yes, so we have...
Dickens/ ...because you're updating some of...I know we still have quite a few older buses (both
talking)
O'Brien/ Yeah, this'll be ... you know, while it's nice to get 10 new buses when you have a fleet
the age of ours, getting 10 buses in the same year isn't ideal. Um, that's roughly... well,
almost ... it's over a third of our fleet, when you're talking big bus. Um, so that's not ideal,
not .... not just from a funding standpoint, but just from a ... so you'll see those massive
peaks and valleys in maintenance just from, uh, from having things all happen in one
year. So yeah, we have ... we have 10 buses that are going to be funded out of...that we
have grant funds for, uh, the State did a procurement and we're going to jump on that
and ... to purchase our 10 .... our 10 buses. Uh, we also have, uh ... additional funding for
one mini -bus, and we just purchased four, so, um, roughly... almost half of our fleet is
replaced from that standpoint.
Dickens/ They were in bad shape. A lot of those.
O'Brien/ Yeah, they were well past the ... and that's the thing. So it's a five-year useful life,
roughly, for your ... your light duty vehicles, and 12 for your ... your heavy duty vehicles,
and we ... heavy duty we're 18 to 20 years is what we have to run 'em before we see
funding. Light duty, we're in the 8 to 12, just depending on, um, before funding comes in
for those vehicles. So ... uh, our maintenance guys do an amazing job of keeping... keeping
our fleet up and going. Um...
Throgmorton/ Chris, what happens to our used, old Transit vehicles?
O'Brien/ So the first crack goes to, because they were funded with federal funds, the first crack
goes to other agencies. So we have to put it on the DOT's web site, and if nobody
purchases those, then we put those out on govdeals, uh, we ... we sell them through our
purchasing department, um ... and equipment, and ... and somebody will put a bid in and
purchase those. Typically we get around 4,000 to 5,000 for a $400,000 bus that you
bought 18, 20 years ago, so...
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Botchway/ So who do you have to be to be a part of that government deals organization?
O'Brien/ I'm not .... I don't know that I have...
Fruin/ I don't think there's any type of membership. It's just a ... it's just a, uh, broker web site, so
any citizen can bid on whatever we put on govdeals.
Botchway/ And I'm not .... yeah, I just want to be clear, I'm not (laughing and several talking)
just wanted to know! (laughs) (several talking)
O'Brien/ Yeah and a lot of, you know, by the time they get to the point where we're ready to sell
them, they've, um, they're still in pretty decent shape, by the... considering that they're 18
to 20, just because you don't know when you're getting funding for'em, so you're... you're
doing a really good job of maintaining those, so ... um, and there's certain requirements
that we have as ... as far as even tracking that information for when we have our
(mumbled) reviews so .... um, some budget highlights, just some things coming up as far
as Transit. Obviously the relocation of our facility is one that ... that you'll see in the CIP
and that's in an out year, but that's to get us off that, the current site, which was an
unregulated dump site prior to that facility being built there. Uh, bus shelters, which we
have $50,000 that we're putting in for the upgrade and replacement, and increased, um, as
far as bus shelters go.
Throgmorton/ How many shelters is that?
O'Brien/ It depends on size and, you know, you can find'em for 3,000 to 5,000, but you could
also spend 15,000 to 20,000 on them if you... depending on ... if you include heat, lighting,
how large is it, um ... what type of...design goes into it, so it really depends on what you
want to put into that shelter, uh, and then obviously the big one we have as far as projects
coming up is the Transit route restructuring. We've got a survey that will be going out
next week. Uh, there'll be a lot of outreach that we do with communities, and then some
of the things we're looking to do is ... kind of simplify our route system, um, it....it gets
somewhat complicated, uh, when you start talking evenings and weekends, because you
start doing routes .... you may run one route all day and then you start doing combo routes
and ... and uh, it could get confusing. Uh, operational hours, um, starting earlier, ending
later, things that we're looking at in order to make sure we're trying to capture, um,
understanding now that it's not an 8 to 5 world anymore, that there's a lot of shifts that
start later on and begin earlier, of...of looking at ways to incorporate that, and then
looking at headways of cert ... headways of certain routes, um ... you know, is 30 minutes
enough for some? Is ... is it too much for others? Um, do you need to go to 20 minutes,
15 during certain times of day for certain routes? Um, can you drop some off. Can you
eliminate certain ones if you ... if you run another route and .... those are all things that
we're working on right now in order to address, uh, a lot of concerns that we've heard, as
well as things that we've ... we've seen just through operating, uh, that system that need
addressed.
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Throgmorton/ One thing I think about now has to do with, uh... bus service out to the newly
developing neighborhoods, out by Alexander and the new Hoover, for example. I don't
know where that stands now. I guess you're going to be addressing that.
O'Brien/ Right, and I think that those are ones that we've put on our radar as we've been doing
that, because, um, you know, if you start talking out, even out Sycamore — Terry
Trueblood — there's some, even some recreational activities out, um, not just the school
but recreational activities as well in those areas that we're ... we're looking at ways to try to
address that.
Cole/ And I guess I would like to really see that particular question of that high ... high density
routes, um, because to me the gold standard, of course, is much easier for them because
they have lower labor costs, is the University with the Cambus, um, so I'd really like to
see that happen. Um ... obviously the barrier is cost per mile...
O'Brien/ Sure!
Cole/ Um ... what I'm wondering is ... is we have those, um, smaller buses for our ... our
dis... disabled friends. Is there any sense that we could ever do smaller buses? Would
those be low co ... more low cost during low use times, cause (mumbled) anecdotally
observationally, lot of times you see the buses. There's a huge bus and it's totally empty.
(mumbled) get that same service for, you know, those huge buses?
O'Brien/ If you were to drop down to a light duty bus ... now the issue we're gonna run into is
(both talking)
Cole/ Is that just robbing Peter to pay Paul?
O'Brien/ ...you would need to invest in ... because they're running those service, I mean those
buses get a lot of use from the paratransit side. Um, they ... they have a lot of the buses out
primarily most of the day. Now they do start to ... to come in, um, now if you're talkin' a
smaller heavy duty bus, and that's ... so they offer 30 -foot, 35 -foot, 40 -foot. To operate a
30 -foot or a 35 -foot really isn't much difference (both talking) and there's not a lot of cost
difference than you have ... unless you're operating it less. So if you were to switch
partway through the day and ... but then you're talking about excess fleet, um ... because a
lot of those ... those routes during peak times, a 30 -foot or 35 -foot may not have the
capacity that we need, but at night ... but in order to then switch all of your routes to those
smaller buses, you'd have to have excess fleet. So the cost that you have in your capital
upfront, and even your maintenance because you're maintaining more vehicles,
that's... that's a tough rub at that point, so I understand completely what you're saying
and ... and that's, um...
Cole/ ...always lookin' for efficiencies...
O'Brien/ ...of course!
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Cole/ In terms of...transportation's obviously a big barrier for jobs; a lot of community advocates
have identified. What efforts do we have there and what's the impact going to be on the
budget in terms of maybe some free bus passes for employment programs, to get people
(both talking)
O'Brien/ Sure, and I think there's some certain things we're looking at with regards to
employment and some of it has to do with our hours of operation and where we think we
can address certain areas.
Cole/ Uh huh.
O'Brien/ Um, I think ... I think a ... one thing we've looked at is a ... a ... that we're in the process of
looking at is subsidized cab -type program. Um, now we ran one of these a few years
back and it ... it, I don't want to say an epic failure, but it didn't do very well at all and ... and
I think a lot of it had to do with the restrictions we put on it, which was it could only be
contained within Iowa City. I think in order to make it really successful, because of ...of
having North Liberty, Coralville, other neighboring communities, it has to be sort of a ... a
community -wide program in order to be really successful, because you have people that
may live in one region but their job is in another. So ... finding that ... that, the way to make
that work I think is ... is a priority. The other is ... is the concern you have with the cab
program is currently there are no cabs in Iowa City, at least the last .... that were ADA -
accessible.
Cole/ Okay.
O'Brien/ So that's something that we would need to address as well, as far as how we approach
that.
Throgmorton/ So we obviously can probe all these things, uh, for a long time. We ... we need to
move on (both talking)
O'Brien/ ...yep, and we'll ... we'll be able to bring you ... we'll be continually bringing you
information on a lot of these. Uh, Resource Management, I kinda combined to ... cause
there's a lot of things intertwined between these two. Uh, so Solid Waste collection is a
five-day operation. Uh, Monday through Friday, um ... refuse collection, yard waste
collection, recycling collection curbside, uh, white goods, and bulky items is another item
that we pick up. Uh, we have four refuse routes a day. We have five recycling routes a
day, and we service about 15 ... uh, 15,400 households, uh, within Iowa City on the refuse
side. Uh... so the Landfill budget consists of the Landfill and the East Side Recycling
Center, and then some additional operations. Landfill operations are actually Monday
through Saturday, 7:00 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. Uh, we handle 123,000 tons of refuse
annually. Uh, we have ... 4,000 tons of compost that go out every year. We have,
uh... household hazardous waste. We have ... um ... tires, wood chips, oil, um ... light bulb, all
of these things that the Landfill handles in order to process, and then, um ... divert from
actually going into our actual landfill. So that's really some of the things that we're
focused on, on ways to ... divert as well as prolong the life that we have within each of the
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cells that we build. Um, and some of things that we're looking at ... oh! Sorry, shingle
recycling, which has been a great program. It's a new one that we did. Um ... partnering
with LL Pelling. 1,084 tons were diverted since ... that's just since May 4lb... this year, so
that's been a great program for us. Um ... so extension of life of the Landfill, diversion,
operational practices, education, and outreach are things that, um, and ... and you know,
you guys talked about multi -family recycling. That's one of the things, uh, curbside
organics is one that we really ... we want to bring to you guys to talk about, as far as what
our thoughts are moving forward with curbside organics. Uh, and then single -stream
recycling is one we'd like to come and talk to you about as well. Um, as far as, um, and
then there'll be some rate structure, ways to address this to try to simplify things moving
forward, that we're trying to put up kind of a big package of things together to come talk
to you about related to those programs. So we can ... um, not only get these programs
going, but it also helps us divert things from our actual Landfill. We'd like to see that
tonnage going the other way, rather than the increase we continue to see.
Cole/ So the curbside, that'd be compost?
O'Brien/ Yep! Uh, food scrap program, similar to what we're doing now on a limited basis, but
then we would compost it once we got it to our site.
Cole/ ...that'd be a very popular program.
Mims/ Throw out another one for ya, Chris. Discussion I had with somebody (both talking)
O'Brien/ Sure!
Mims/ ...who in their industry, and clearly indicated it would not be unanimous, but he thought it
was something we should strongly consider. That is preventing... builders from having,
um, the big trash... containers that they put out, the big dumpsters.
O'Brien/ The big roll -off dumpsters?
Mims/ Yep! The comment was a lot of...a lot of builders simply throw ... every scrap of
everything in there because it's just the easiest and quickest way, and then all that stuff
ends up (both talking)
O'Brien/ ...see a lot of cardboard, a lot of wood, a lot of things that we could... could (both
talking)
Mims/ ...chip, yeah ... and so the, and this is somebody who works in building industry, but he
was...
O'Brien/ Sure!
Mims/ ....he said it would not be a unanimous opinion, but something that he really thought we
should look at and could divert a lot of stuff, um...
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O'Brien/ There's some other ... you can start talking cardboard ban (mumbled) a lot of things you
can also look at with relation to ... uh, ways to address things like cardboard and ... and your
wood products. Um, I think a lot of it is directing outreach and education towards those
larger builders and ... and starting there with discussion (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
but that's something we'll ... we'll certainly look at.
Mims/ You kind of mentioned the cardboard. I'd be interested in us looking at the cardboard
ban, as well.
O'Brien/ Yeah, and there's a lot of communities that have done it, and um, you know, I think
obviously the concern goes to the enforcement of that and how you do that, and what that
looks like, um, and I think we have some ... we've had some good dialogues internally, as
well as with people who have done those programs, of ways you can make that work that
we'll ... we'll be ready to discuss with you here shortly.
Botchway/ Going back to multi -residential. Um ... why no glass?
O'Brien/ Um, because glass is a contaminant that currently they don't accept at our ... it's not
accepted by our, in the ... in the single -stream, uh, by City Carton. In this area.
Markus/ There's no market for it.
O'Brien/ And the ... and what it does to the materials when it gets broken and embedded in there.
Now ... there are companies that we've talked to, Ripple Glass is one, and there's some
others that ... that you can talk to that will assist where you can ... we can maybe pull glass
separately, house it, and they'll come pick it up, uh, we're looking at things like that with
vegetable oils and ... and, there's other things that we're looking at as far as those, but glass
is a big one. It's heavy, so from a weight standpoint, and it ... when you're talking about
cardboards and papers and ... it, once it gets broken up and those shards get in, it makes
those useless materials, which is why you've seen some of the markets do what they have.
A lot of it is people who take glass ... the glass contaminates those, um, those products, so
that's why we try to stay away from it. It's a cleaner product in the end for recycling.
Botchway/ Well and then kind of...that kind of segues into me ... into my next question is ... is do
you have any thoughts about a west side recycling center?
O'Brien/ We would call that the Iowa City Landfill (laughter) I mean I ... I don't mean to, that
wasn't to sound sarcastic (mumbled) It's not that much farther out Melrose, um, versus
spending, you know, I think we could look at drop sites possibly, and then taking those,
but ... but we have the Landfill right there, where ... where we have all of those bins for
recycling and maybe it's just a matter of educating people on its presence there. Um,
but ... urn ... we feel that we have coverage on both the east and west side, and then, um...
you know ... uh, I think maybe potentially adding, especially when Hyvee.... at some point
we're going to have to remove the ones from the northside Hyvee area.
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Mims/ No!
O'Brien/ (laughter) Right now we're okay. It's just if somebody moves into those (several
talking and laughing) somewhere else, but I ... that's a valid point! From a drop site. I
don't know about building a full education center and things like that, but ... I think a drop
site could be something we would look at.
Botchway/ Well I only state that cause I live around a lot of students and ... (mumbled) glass and
(several talking) but that was huge. I just wanted to say, having that multi -residential
made my recycling go up, you know, ten fold, or I was recycling before a ton, but
(several talking and laughing)
O'Brien/ Most of our big projects we'll talk about at CIP, so I will ... I'll hold off on going any
further, cause I'm probably way over my time limit.
Throgmorton/ All right. Good deal (several talking)
O'Brien/ I can keep goin' if you guys want! If you have any questions or...
Throgmorton/ Well...
Thomas/ Would you like to see more on -street parking downtown? (several talking)
O'Brien/ Like to see more on -street parking downtown ...... I mean I'm ... I'm always a fan of
adding ... it just depends on where and, um, you know, I think we have some ideas for
some expansion, around some facilities that are, um ... I think you'll see along Clinton
Street there are some areas where ... where you would see some on -street potential, uh,
around the Midwest One building, uh, kind of the federal lot area where it's currently
unregulated parking and we're gonna have a really nice facility there that we want to
encourage people to go into. So I think there are some... some.... some places, but you
know I think we also have, if you look at Harrison Street hill for example, places that
maybe are underutilized. So it really depends on ... on the where, um, and I think the
impacts of the .... of the Harrison Street facility will tell us, you know, especially, you
know, we'll incorporated first -hour -free into that as well ... uh, we're startin' to see really
that less of the on -street, um, but I think in certain areas it could potentially be...be useful.
Throgmorton/ John, your question relates to, um, road diet kind of thing, doesn't it?
Thomas/ Yeah, uh, you know there may be possibilities with .... with lane reduction to apply that
either to on -street parking or bike lanes, uh...
O'Brien/ Yeah, I think bicycle facilities are one that we're really... that's another, some money that
you'll see in our, uh, capital outlay are for putting (mumbled) so converting parking
spaces to....to bicycle facilities, stackable covered parking facilities with ... in our ... in our
parking decks, where we have ... on our walls we mount stackable bicycle units that are
actually then covered and out of the elements that are still right up close to the street so
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people have easy access to 'em. Um, fix -it stations in some of these areas as well so not
only does it serve as a parking area for them, but also there'll be tools and ... and other
items for them to ... to utilize if they have things they need to fix on their bikes.
Um ... yeah, I think ... you know, I think through out streetscape project that ... that we're in
the midst of, uh, Washing... you're seeing some conversions of parking from maybe
diagonal to parallel, um, and I think there's a lot of benefits that we've talked about as far
as the flexibility of those spaces when you go that route, um, but I mean I think especially
if you're in the core of downtown, um, if there's capacity to add those and it ... and it
makes sense and it's in an area that's high density, I would .... I think there's always a
place for it.
Cole/ Quickly, related to the road diet, on Capital Street and the Burlington Street bridge, are
there any plans for that to become a road diet? I know (mumbled) Burlington Street
bridge is but a huge issue, um ... in terms of making it more bike friendly. Maybe Geoff
would want to comment on that.
Fruin/ Yeah, we'll get into that on Monday.
Cole/ Okay!
Fruin/ Um (both talking) discussions about that and there's some program funds in the CIP...
Cole/ Okay.
Fruin/ ...to address that.
Throgmorton/ Chris, Ron is on the verge of one -upping you because he brought a visual aid in
with him! I don't know what he's gonna do but (several talking) Thank you, Chris!
O'Brien/ Thank you very much! (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Should we take a short break and then, uh, turn it to Ron? Does that sound good
to you? (several talking)
BREAK
Public Works (Pg. 52, 272):
Throgmorton/ Okay, Ron, I guess we're ready!
Knoche/ Good afternoon, Ron Knoche, Public Works Director. Uh, I thought what I'd do this
afternoon is just kind of run through the budget book, give an overview of what Public
Works is and what we do, and uh, allow you to ask any questions. So, um, starting on
page 52, uh, just a general overview of the Public Works department. Uh, we are five
divisions, seven operational areas. So, up on the screen is ... is the five divisions. We
have Streets, Waste Water, Water, Engineering, and then Equipment, and then the other
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two operational areas that we deal with is Public Works administration and Storm Water
Utility. Uh, page 272 of your budget book is the Public Works administration, um, the,
kind of, we have two ... two staff members in that position — myself and then we have Kim
Sandberg, uh, we deal, uh, a lot with the right-of-way management. Any of the
temporary use of right-of-way agreements that come in for construction projects, street
closures, um, utility, uh, new utility companies, utility companies coming in to do work
in the right-of-way all come through Public Works. Uh, and then we also, uh, in the
Public Works administration piece, uh, manage the sidewalk repair program. So, uh, we
have some temporary folks that go out and ... and inspect for us, um, and then all the, um,
billing and notices that go out each year in the sidewalk repair program come out of the
Public Works administration piece. Um ... page 275 is the Engineering Services. Uh,
Engineering Services, obviously, deals with, uh, subdivision, site plan review, and now
all of our capital program, uh, needs come out of the Engineering division. Uh, we have,
uh... a staff engineers, we have, uh, recently added or replaced our Senior Engineering
Technician, uh, with a person that has a little bit more GIS background. Uh, typically
that position in the past has been a CAD -based position. Uh, we now have some ... some
more GIS capability there. Uh, with that we work a lot with the Johnson County in their
GIS department, um, to not only, um ... populate the databases, but then also, uh, every...
few years we do, uh, aerial mapping and (mumbled) of Iowa City, and uh, we will be
getting that data up on the Johnson County web site here, uh, within the next six months.
Uh, we just went through and did a new mapping project with them in 2015. Uh,
with ... with that, the one thing you'll notice in the Engineering Services is there's a ... there's
a staffing increase in there. Uh, that staffing increase actually isn't an increase. It's, uh,
we have special pro ... in the past we've had our special projects, inspectors,
administrators, um, and engineers, uh, actually assigned to a capital project and so they
reci... they reside at their (mumbled) actually resided within that capital project. Um, with
this ... with this budget what will happen is, um, they will actually reside in the
Engineering Services and then they'll charge her back ... their time back to the capital
program, which is what we've done in the past. Uh, the other, uh, change in the way that
we're budgeting in this program is, um, budgeting 100% of the time of the engineers and
staff in the Engineering Services department program budget, and then we'll do charge -
backs to the projects based on that. In the past we had, um, not fully funded it out of the,
you know, in the general fund, um .... with the understanding that they would at least be
charging out to their capital projects, but it's just a ... um, with our ... with our new
accounting software and some of the new timekeeping software, makes it a little bit
easier just to charge it out. Um, the..the, it should look the way (mumbled) the way it
does, so ... um ... on page 298 is the road use tax fund. Um, that is the major funding piece
for our Streets operation, which is on 302. Uh, in our .... in our Streets, uh, system we
have around 270 miles of center -line miles of roads. Um, we have 90 signalized
intersections, uh, in Iowa City. Uh, we are responsible for, uh, maintaining, uh, the
signalized intersections on the State routes, our local routes, with the University of Iowa
and for University Heights. So ... our staff, um, then charges back to those other entities,
uh, for the time that we spent on those ... on those signalized intersections. Um ... kind of
the... the... besides going out and patching streets during the summer and I know Jim
had ... was able to go on a ride -along with John this year. Um, besides that major piece,
which is our major function during the summer, uh, we also, uh, with the Street staff deal
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with the leaf pickup, uh, so we do that in the ... in the fall, and then, uh, also deal with the
winter maintenance. Um ... you know we ... on the average our winter maintenance,
we ... we have 20 to 30 events where we have staff out on the streets. Wouldn't
necessarily be a ... you know, a large snow event. It could be just freezing, you know,
icing up streets and we get called in by PD after hours. Um, we normally deal with five
to 10 large events. Uh, and then, uh, as part of that, uh, we, uh, work with the downtown
groups, uh, the University of Iowa, um, our parking folks to clean out the downtown, and
so we haul the snow out of the downtown. We have a blower and that all gets hauled
down to the ... the Public Works site down on Riverside Drive. Uh, we, um ... kind of
the ... the up and coming challenges that we're dealing with in, uh, in the Streets
department — the leaf pickup program is a ... is a challenge for us. Um, as our ... as we have
an aging staff, um, it's a ... a very manual type of operation. Uh, the leaf vacs that we use
are ... are, you have to man-handle'em to, you know, to really do the job. Um, we're in the
process now lookin' at some automated, uh, leaf pick-ups, uh, whether it's trailer... trailer
mod the way it is now, or a ... or vehicle mounted. Um, and then, uh, we're also looking at
our snow, uh, policy, um, and updating that, uh, with looking at kind of what the current
technologies are. Um, potentially looking at going to a salt brine type of system, uh,
to ... to help, uh, with not havin' to ... a lot of the grit and grime to clean up in the spring
with the snow ... or with the sand that we currently mix with. Uh... and then, uh, the ... the,
kind of the major up and coming challenge, uh, that we have with our Streets group is
just facilities. Um, right now, uh, all of our trucks are parked outside, uh, during the
winter. We, uh, find as many spots as we can to put trucks in ... in warm storage and uh,
we have, uh, majority of those are stored down at the Fairgrounds. Um, but then we do
have some others stored, um, in some of the other City facilities around town, and uh, so
we are currently going through a ... a Public Works master plan. Probably end up being
more of a municipal, uh, campus master plan, but uh, for the site down on south Gilbert
Street, uh, at Napoleon Lane, so we're.... that's, uh, one of the things you'll also hear
that ... about that on Monday, but that's... that's one of the major things that we're working
on in the Streets department. Um ... the ... the map before you, uh, just a ... I'll go ahead and
go through that quick is ... is, uh, map showing what our PCI, pavement condition index,
looks like around Iowa City. Um, the... that... that goes from zero to 100, 100 being, uh,
basically a new street, uh, zero bein' a street that's fallin' apart. Um ... we are .... are in the
process of trying to develop a ... a better way of...of identifying streets. I think the process
that we use is pretty good right now, um, but I think we can always, uh, do a better job.
Um, so part ... I guess part of the battle is getting through and getting the inventories done.
The ... the data that you see in front of you is from 2013; uh, 2015 data has been collected
and we'll get that in February. Um ... basically we break that up, uh, in .... in every 20
increments, so zero to 20 is the worst, 20 to 40 and so on. Um, our goal right now is .... is
we look at the program as trying to ... try to maintain an average above 50. Um, that's, you
know, a C. Basically in the way that our scheme is set up, it's a C, um, but ... it, with, uh,
the funds we've had available to us in the past, um, it ... it's been a challenge to maintain
that. Um ... we have roughly right now the average of our system is a 52. So it's ... it's,
we're above that a little bit now, but um ... with, uh, the way that the conditions deteriorate,
um, we'll ... we'll fall below that, uh, with what we had used in the past as far as our
funding amounts.
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Throgmorton/ Ron, could I ask ... I'd like to ask about that. So, uh, if...if you remember, what, uh,
what percent of our 270 miles of streets, uh, in ... in Iowa City are 20 or below?
Knoche/ (mumbled) the last time I ... I had checked that data, it's ... it's a fairly small amount. I
mean we're ... in the 10...10% range, roughly in there. In that very, in that lowest category.
Throgmorton/ And ... and what does it cost to resurface a typical street?
Knoche/ Um...
Throgmorton/ Per ... per mile!
Knoche/ Per ... if we go per mile, um, you know, we're basically lookin' at, uh... well,
it's... for.... for ours, you know ... if. ... if you look at strictly just going out and ... and
overlaying per mile, it's, uh, it's a pretty... small amount. So, you know, for our program
last year, we had about $750,000 that we spent on our program, um, you know, we had ... I
don't think we even had a mile in that. So it was, you know, in ... in the overall dollar
amounts, it's probably $400,000 in ... in actually paving costs, and then you have
additional costs in storm sewer intakes and replacing curb and gutter, and then also
upgrading for the ADA, uh, compliance at the curb ramps, which that is about 25% of the
overall budget ... is doing that piece.
Throgmorton/ I ask cause I was just trying to get a sense of, uh, I don't know, $1.5 million is in
the budget, right, for some resurfacing projects...
Knoche/ Correct.
Throgmorton/ ...so I was just trying to get a sense of...for how much that is in terms of road
length, uh, and ... and then what criteria you would use to determine which streets to
resurface.
Knoche/ And ... and I think that's, you know, there's a lot of different philosophies out there in
regards to that and... and you know, some folks believe worst first, you know, so you're
out tryin' to do those pieces. Others believe you need to maintain, you know, the higher
volume traffic streets to, you know, to .... to keep your PCI index up. I think we ... we
are... in our system, you know, we look at worst first, but, um ... the ... the problem with the
worst first is you may never, ever put enough asphalt on it to ... to keep 'em, you know, in
the condition that you want 'em to be in. So, you know, we're lookin' in that 20 to 40
range, and then, uh... we're also looking at the other pieces of, you know, if there's utility
work that's going to go on in those areas, whether it be water, waste water, storm water,
and try to get the biggest bang for the buck that we can in those areas.
Markus/ Actually you know a lot of times if the road is moved from overlay status to
reconstruction status, you might as well go back and do the roads that you can overlay to
prevent them from getting to reconstruction status because the cost to go from overlay
into reconstruction is so significant, and once they hit reconstruction status, aren't going
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to get any better! You know, the ... they're probably not going to get a whole lot worse.
So ... you tend to leave those and then if you have a water, sewer main replacement, then
go in and deal with it, uh, but pave the ones that you can prevent from getting into
reconstruction status. That's where you... typically the smart money is.
Fruin/ And just to point this out, you all understand this, but it's important to keep in mind that
the resurfacing program is only, you know, one piece of the roadwork that we're doing.
We have all these stand-alone capital projects — the Lower Muscatines, the Sycamores,
the gateway projects, um (several talking) are reconstructing streets too, so when
we're ... when we're talking about a ... a three-quarters of mile or mile or two miles of
resurfacing, you also have to layer on all those capital projects that we're doing to get the
bigger picture.
Knoche/ (mumbled) ...on Streets? All right, um ... page 388 in your budget book is the Waste
Water Treatment Fund. Um, for waste water we have approximately 300 miles of
sanitary main, uh, in town. Uh, we, uh, provide sanitary sewer treatment, waste water
treatment for the University of Iowa and University Heights. Um, on the average, uh, per
day we're treatin' about 10.2 million gallons per day at our waste water plant. Um
(mumbled) later on is we produce about 5.5 million gallons of water a day, so uh, there's
about a $5 million difference... or five million gallon per day difference in there and that's
basically what's coming from the University of Iowa. Uh, for, uh... for, you know, the
waste water, uh, in this last year has been a ... there's been some exciting stuff going on.
We, uh, torn down our north plant, which uh... uh, gave us some 79 wonderful years of
service, uh, so that plant is completely decommissioned. Uh... with that, uh, we are in the
process of finishing up a ... a large, uh, expansion project down at the south plant, or ... the
waste water plant now. Um, the ... the only hangup on that project has ... that has been for
us is, uh, in June last year .... June a year ago, uh, we, uh, we're finishing up the project
and we had a storm event, uh, a large one event and it blew the roof off, or a quarter of
the roof off our bio -solids building, which was part of the construction project. So we're,
uh, been in the process of working with the contractor to get that roof replaced, and so
that should be done, um, within the ... the first two quarters of...of this year and, uh, we'll
be able to finish that project up. Uh, in our ... in our system of the 300 miles of...of main,
we have 16 lift stations. We have five storm water lift stations that we maintain. Um,
and ... on the storm water side we have roughly 110 miles of dedicated storm sewers that
we deal with. Our system is completely, um, separated. We don't ... we don't have any
combined sewers in our system. That we're aware of, uh... anyways. Uh, we do ... every
once in a while we'll come across one where there's a cross connect, but uh, we go out
and we deal with those. Um ... the ... kind of the upcoming challenges we're facing, um, in
our....in our plant is, uh.... looking at nutrient (mumbled) Currently we've received our
new permit for our plant, um, part of that requirement has been to do a nutrient study,
basically to see how efficient our new plant is. Uh, and over the next year we'll be doing
the ... that information, turning that in. Um, we've, uh ... received our limits, uh, our current
limits and we're able to meet those, but the ... kind of the two limits that they're lookin' at
right now is nitrogen and phosphorus, and uh, and working through those pieces, um,
the ... the one thing that ... that did happen with our new permit, um, that we weren't really
expecting was ... uh, the ... the DNR looks at...at point source, you know, where our fluent
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goes out to the river, um, so they ... they didn't combine our ... our limits that we had at the
north plant and south plant and give us basically a new total limit. They've actually done
some limit reductions and so, um, one of the things that we're gonna have to watch is ... is
our zinc, the zinc that's in our fluent and uh, and the zinc that we take into the plant
and ... and um, the ... the biggest contributor of that is P&G. You know, they use that in
their process for making their shampoo and um, they do, uh, some pretreatment at their
facility, to try to eliminate some of that, but uh, we'll, um, be watching that and making
sure we don't have any violations, because those violations then will go back to P&G and
they don't like violations either, so ... uh, we'll continue to work through that. Uh, for the
Water Fund that starts on page 408, um, you know, if...if our water system, uh, we
obviously supply water to the University Heights. We have some University facilities
that we do supply water to, and uh, we have, um ... an emergency cross connection with
the University of Iowa and to Coralville, and so if, uh, there'd be a situation where
there ... you know, University's plant would go down or Coralville's plant would go down,
we'd have the ability to ... to service those ... those, uh, communities and those ... those
organizations. Um, our plant, uh... that we have, north of the waste water .... north of
Interstate 80, um, has the capacity to produce 16.7 million gallons per day. And so on the
average we're ... we're producing the 5.5 million gallons. We have roughly 270 miles of
water main, uh, in our system. Uh, we have, uh, the ... kind of the ... the major, um, issues
that we've, you know, that we run into are water main breaks. Um, in 2014 (mumbled)
we had 98 water main breaks, and that was, uh, that was probably one of our worst years.
Um ... in 2015, we were down to 52. So, uh, I think in 2014, if you remember that winter,
it was a cold winter and uh, it was just ... it was a rough year for us. Uh, currently
year... currently for fiscal year 2016, we're ... we're at 16. So we're having a ... a really good
year, um, in regards to water main breaks, and ... I think a lot of that has to do, obviously,
with not having a cold winter yet, um, and then also just the ... the moisture in the soil, um,
tends to keep those, uh, pipes from breakin' on us. So it's, uh, that definitely helps us out
quite a bit.
Throgmorton/ Ron ... Ron...
Knoche/ Yes, sir!
Throgmorton/ I'd like to ask you a question about the water plant. Uh, you know, I was on this
Council when we approved construction of the water plant, uh, and my vague
recollection is that, uh, the ... (mumbled) from the existing water plant back then was, I
don't know, 8.3 million gallons per day or something like that, and the anticipation was
that it was going to continue to grow, but that's not happened, has it? So why ... why is
that?
Knoche/ Um, so ... in anticipation of...of building a new water plant, the ... they obviously had to
raise rates, um, to do that, and so, uh, when you raised rates, uh, it's kind of supply and
demand, right? So, um ... you know, we ... people were able to conserve water and they did,
and so that's where we've been at. Um, the...
Throgmorton/ We had a long debate about that!
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Knoche/ Yep! Yeah, and ... and (both talking) it's ... when we have hot summers, um, you know,
the demand goes up a little bit, you know, when people are watering their lawns and doin'
those things, but uh, you know in general, um, our ... our demand is ... is stayed pretty
average. You know, it really hasn't ... there hasn't really many major fluctuations in there
for us.
Cole/ When did that new water facility come online?
Knoche/ Uh, the water plant came online in 2003, I believe.
Cole/ Okay, that's ... I just gotta say (both talking)
Knoche/ 2003 or (both talking)
Cole/...the water quality now is so much better.
Knoche/ It's amazing!
Cole/ When I came to Iowa City, one of our big bills was the Brita filter. Um, and we haven't
used one in 10 years. So, kudos to you in terms of (both talking)
Knoche/ It's ... yeah, definitely. It's been an amazing, uh, improvement for our citizens.
Cole/ Is storm water subject to your purview? As well (both talking)
Knoche/ Yes. Yep.
Cole/ Okay, one question I have related to that is, and this actually popped up in door knocking
last fall, is that evidently we have a residential program to assist residents to make their,
uh, yards become more resilient in terms of storm water retention. One resident
has... expressed concerns that there could be a modification in how much assistance the
City gives to individual residents, to give that increased resilience. Could you comment
on that in terms of where we are, in terms of (both talking)
Knoche/ So we ... we have two ... two different grant programs that we work with out of the storm
water utility, uh, one grant program is a streambank maintenance program. So, uh, we
have some pieces of Ralston Creek, Willow Creek that are private property. They, you
know, there's some that ... that the City owns, but I'd say a majority of it is actually on
private property. So we have the ability to work, uh, if...if there's an erosion issue, we
will work with the property owners to ... to come up with a good plan and then also fund
some of the construction, uh, for those pieces. Um, the other piece is a BMP program, or
best management practices program. Um, that's where folks can apply to do rain gardens
or pervious pavers, uh, on their property and ... and we'll help offset, um, some of those
costs also. Urn ... in ... in prior years, we really didn't have a ... a cap on that, other than
obviously the amount of money that's... that's in the program. Um, this year in ... in this
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fiscal year, one of the things we've done is we've ... we've kind of looked at capping what
folks can ask for, and we've capped that at $1,500. So, you know, if...if a ... if you want to
put in pervious pavers, um, it ... you, you know, you can come in and work with our storm
water engineer to come up with a good plan, um, and then we'll ... it's a grant program, so
it's an application that (both talking)
Cole/ What was the average expenditure prior to the cap (both talking)
Knoche/ You know, there was ... there was some large ones that we dealt with, um, and ... and I'd
say on the average in the past we were probably dealing with, um, a $5,000, maybe
$10,000, depending on the year, and it really depended just on the number of applications
we had each year. It ... it's a program that, um ... I don't ... I don't know if we, I think we ... we
try to do a good job of advertising it, but I don't know if the word is really out there. Um,
the ... so ... so, kind of in regards to, urn ... where we're at with ... with water, kind of the big
concern out there is nitrates, um, in the water system. I think you're probably aware the
Des Moines, uh, waterworks sued the county, the farmers, and the counties around them
to, um, see where things are goin'. What we're ... what we're experiencing right now
with ... with our water plant is our ... is our nitrates are high in the river. Um, and... it's... it's
not normal that we would have high nitrates in the winter. Um, you know, but obviously
without havin' snow cover on the fields, there's a lot of runoff that occurs, especially with
the events that we've had ... been having. Um, our ... when we get, uh, above nitrate levels
of...of 10 in the river, we start managing our wells a little bit different. So, uh, our major
source of...well, the Iowa River is our major source of water. Uh, it always has been.
Always will be. Um, but what we did with the new plant construction was did horizontal
wells and drilled them into the ... the sands of the Iowa River, down the Peninsula area and
then also up at the water plant. So we ... we draw, basically we use those sands as a ... as a
big filter, so we ... we draw the water down to the wells, and then it ... everything gets
pumped up to the plant, uh, what we can do is ... um, work some wells a little harder than
others, and ... and so when we start seeing a ... a, an increase in nitrate levels in one well,
we'll dial that well back and go to a different well, and uh, and start, um, pumping out of
that well a little bit harder. Uh, we also have some ground water wells that we can also
mix, uh, into the system. Uh, the only issue with water quality that that brings is it has a
little bit more suspended solids in it, so we're dealing with a little more minerals because
it is coming, you know, from the aquifers, uh, down deep. Um, so we ... we try to stay
away from those if we can. Uh, right now, uh, we haven't had any issues with managing
the, our alluvial wells so, uh, we're in pretty good shape right now. The ... the only
concern that we have, um, is ... typically what you'll see in ... in the river is there's kind of
a .... it's, you know, peaks and valleys, and ... you know, you may have some high levels,
you may have some low levels, but ... but what we're startin' to see is the low levels aren't
as low as they used to be. They're... they're stayin' up, so ... it's just one of those things that
we're gonna have to look at, um, as we're managin' our plant, um, and as we look at, you
know, look at the plant itself, we may have to bring out some new technologies, uh, to
help us in that system. Um, we are ... uh, in the process of doing a couple things. We
have, uh... um, we have, um, a ... a project that we're lookin' at for, um ... uh, looking at
treating water and ... and pumping it down into the ground and ... and using the, you know,
the ground as an aquifer. Um, aquifer storage. Um ... we're also looking at different types
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of, uh... filter membrane treatments at the plant, which, uh, are ... can be expensive, but
we're ... that's something that we're not to that point yet. Um ... so it's, uh.... there are some
challenges out there, obviously being an agricultural state, those are the ones that we're
gonna have to deal with, but uh... I think with the plant that we have, um, and the
foresight that was put into the plant, I think we have the abilities to overcome that if we
need to. If and when we need to. So ... uh, okay ... um, Storm Water Management Fund is
the next one. That's 460 ... page 460. We talked about that one a little bit. Um, one of the
things that we're, um, we deal with a lot in the storm water management program is, um,
getting out and doing events, so we're out doing, uh, creek cleanups, um, working
with ... all kinds of folks in that, you know, there's, um, private industry that want to help.
There's the University of Iowa was a number of folks that ... that like to help. And so
we're, um... this last ... this last year we had over 1,800 hours of volunteer service that we
brought in. Um, you know in the budget book there is a ... a, kind of a breakdown of
volunteer hours. You'll notice that, uh (mumbled) calendar year 10, 11, uh, 14 we're in
that 1,800 range, uh, 12 and 13 it's a little bit higher than that, uh, we had some flood
events in there so we ... we had some volunteers that came to town and helped sandbag.
So that ... that's kinda what the ... what the unique thing is there. Um, and we talked about
nitrates with the water plant. Um, some of the things that we're lookin' at tryin' to help
with that is, um, some watershed management groups, uh, one ... one group that has
officially put self together this year has been the, um, Clear Creek Watershed, and that's
one that, uh, we just joined (mumbled) Council did action at the end of the year this year
to ... to join that. Another group that's out there ... that's trying to develop is a Lower Iowa
River Watershed Group. Uh, the University of Iowa is ... is trying to manage that through
the flood center, so, uh, get something kicked up there and start, uh, looking at doing
projects out there in the ... in the watersheds and dealing with those. Um ... wanted to take
kind of, on your question, um ... Rockne, uh, our...our, um, best management practices
program, uh, funding, um, we're about $146,000 in combined projects, uh, for FYI 5.
Um, and we were ... funding about half of those. So that's... that's what we've been dealing
with, so roughly 17 projects there. Uh, and then the last, uh, fund that we have is the ... the
Equipment Fund, the Equipment division. Um, the Equipment group, uh, we deal with,
uh, about 530 -some vehicles in our fleet. Uh, our, uh, Equipment division, um..uh, is the
one that procures, maintains, and disposes of those pieces of equipment, um, basically
they do everything except for the Transit vehicles. Um ... we deal with the fire trucks and
then also, uh, the police cars. Uh, we also manage, um ... the fuel site and ... and
distribution of fuel. Uh, we have, um, four sites around town that we deal with. Uh, in
FYI 5, uh, was about 630,000 gallons of fuel that we dispensed at those four facilities.
Um, that's not only for our City vehicles, but we also distribute to the School District and
to Johnson County, um, mostly use our site. So ... um ... it's, uh... you know, in ... in regards
to the Equipment division, um, I think the ... the challenge that's there for them is their
facility also and being able to maintain the newer vehicles, and that's part of the ... the site,
uh, program and bringing them on, uh, to the campus down at Public Works, and
A ... then also with ... what you'll hear about on Monday is, uh, we're also doin' a vehicle,
uh, maintenance building, or a wash bay building, that we're gonna have built down at the
Public Works site, so we're tryin' to get that sited down there. That's Public Works!
(several talking)
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Markus/ ...I wanted to mention something. If you look at that organization chart up there,
starting with administration and going across Street superintendent, Waste Water
superintendent, Water superintendent, City Engineer, Equipment director, and then you
look down under Engineering... they're all new people in those positions in the last two
years. Including Ron. And ... quite frankly they haven't really missed a beat. But that is a
huge turnover, and ... two of 'em are ... two or three are outsiders, one in the Engineering,
but the Street sup is an outsider, uh, the Waster Water superintendent is an outsider, the
other internal advancements, but ... you know, for a group of people to all be moving in
different positions in that short of (mumbled) time period, and keep it all moving
forward, is pretty significant.
Throgmorton/ Indeed! So, uh, we'll give Ron all the credit for that, right? Well done! (laughter)
Knoche/ It's, uh, years of succession planning that's happened in Public Works that's helped us
get to this point. Obviously, um, you know, we're ... I think ... the thing that's exciting right
now is just the ... the energy that's within Public Works, and ... and with the projects added
that we're facing, which I think all the easy projects are over. I mean they really are.
We're ... we're into the difficult ones now, and uh... and ... and the folks that we have on staff
are excited and ... and interested in learning, and wanting to help move the City forward.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and you have two great, pretty... pretty much new facilities in the water
plant and waste water ... south waste water treatment plant, so...
Knoche/ We have on horrendous facility in our ... in our Streets, Maintenance facility, but it's...
(mumbled) non-existent, but uh, it's, uh, you know, the ... the thing that's interesting with
that group is, um, they still come to work every day with a smile on their face and they're,
uh, excited to do what they do and they ... and they, it's amazing to me that they can do
what they do, with the facilities that they have.
Markus/ Yeah, and ... and that's another really important point. That's gotta be your priority in
terms of facilities for ... people in terms of their staffing. Those... they've waited long
enough. So we're puttin' a plan together to get these facilities built. They operate in
some of the most... primitive facilities I've seen for a public works' operation. It's time we
get those things fixed up.
Throgmorton/ Okay, any questions for Ron?
Knoche/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/ Well done! Thank you. Uh, well we have Marian. We have Dennis. We have
Tom. No, Tom's done. (laughter) Marian and Dennis, right? (several talking)
Karr/ We have the rest ... the rest of the City Manager's office.
Fruin/ We'll whip through this, um ... I'm gonna start you on page 115, which is the City Council
budget. And uh, this should go pretty quick here, but if I go too fast, just uh... stop me
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and we can ask some questions. Uh, City Council budget is ... is fairly bare bones.
Obviously that's your salaries, uh, we do have a travel and training, uh, expenses that we
budgeted for you, should uh... uh, um, you choose to do that. We typically use those for
the D.C. lobbying trip. Urn ... uh, we've used that for ... for things such as UNESCO
conferences and things of that nature. So those are ... those are available for ya. Um ... we
do a welcome letter. Uh, traditionally we started this with ... with Mayor Hayek to all
incoming freshmen at the UI to, uh, specifically to their parents. Uh, we send them a
letter, welcom... welcoming them to Iowa City, and that's been received very well. We
also do the same with international students, although it's directly to the students through
email, and that's a partnership with the University of Iowa. They help us, uh, make sure
that message is ... is communicated appropriately to those students.
Markus/ In their language!
Fruin/ (mumbled) uh, Jim, you on that ... on that initiative here, uh, in the next couple of months.
We have some dues and membership, uh... uh, lines here, so your National League of
Cities, Iowa League of Cities, Metro Coalition — those types of things are all paid for out
of your budget, and um, we have, uh, minor equipment. So tablets and replacement
tablets, those sorts of things are also taken, uh, out of your budget for your operations.
That's about it. You'll see there's not much change to your budget. Page 125 is the City
Manager's budget and I'll run through that, uh, really quick. There's some change in, uh,
personnel expenses, uh, that is ... a reflective of Simon's promotion and Ian, who are both
in front of you. Um, Ian is a ... a paid intern of ours and in the past we have ... we have not
used paid interns, so you see the personnel lines, uh, are ... are up a little bit there. Um, we
don't have a lot of, uh, day-to-day services that we manage, but there are a few things I'll
point out. Our lobbying contract, um, that we have with the ... the Davis Brown Law Firm
out of Des Moines. They assist us with our State lobbying efforts. Uh, that is paid for
out of our budget. We also have travel and training expenses, and then we have, uh, a
couple of lines that we use for minor sponsorships of community events. So, often times
we'll get a table to a ... a Chamber of Commerce or a Corridor Business Journal luncheon.
Those are often paid for out of our special event budget. Um ... that's really ... I think it that
I need to point out in the City Manager's budget. Any questions? Okay, uh, Ian ... Ian's
gonna (several talking)
Andrew/ Ian's next with the, uh, Communications Office and Cable TV (mumbled)
Communications Office and Cable TV (pg 130):
Korpel/ Um, like they both said I'm Ian. If you haven't met me yet I'm the intern of the
Manager's office, um, and I'm gonna do Communications division, which is on page 130.
Um, so the Communications division is split into two. It's the Communications Office
and the Cable TV administration. Um, so I'll just start with the Communications Office,
um, and it has three full-time employees and it also staffs, um, the lobby desk out here
with, uh, a couple temp employees. And what they primarily do is, uh, deal with the web
site and, um, the intra -net, which is, uh, internal communication, and social media, press
releases, um, event promotions, and um, City translation services. Um, they also staff
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special events, um, which are things like Arts Fest and Soul Fest, um ... and like University
student orientation, um, events like that. As far, uh, as budget goes, it's largely personnel.
There's some marketing expenses, but the majority of it is definitely personnel related.
Um ... you might see a ... an adjustment, I think it's on the supplies line, of about $40,000
and that's, um, I think that's the laserfiche one (several talking) yeah, um, we moved the
laserfiche software from the City Council budget, um, to here, um, because we're shifting
it from, um, just doing City Council archiving work to .... um, also some public access
stuff, um, so it seemed more appropriate in the Communications. Um, it's just a...just a
shift over. Um ... the office also does some other software, such as, um, handling the
icgovexpress mobile app, um, Adobe licenses, and social media, and things like that.
Um, the Cable TV administration has four and a half full-time employees. Um, and they
obviously do the City Channel 4, urn ... and uh, the staff also works with the ... the
Telecommunications, um, Commission and um, that does things like dealing with the
cable franchise and uh, community surveys, and uh, stuff like that, and that's pretty much
it. So...
Throgmorton/ I'd like to mention one thing. Several hours ago I made a comment about, uh, TIF
and about communicating the complexity of...of that topic to the public by maybe having
a two-hour public work session or something like that. Uh, and I ... seems to me that this
is, uh, the kind of endeavor that would really benefit from having skilled advice and help
from the Communications folks about multiple ways of communicating ideas, because
we know that people, diverse people, learn in diverse ways. So if...if we could try to
imagine ways to communicate the same idea in multiple ways ... we might be able to make
considerable progress in terms of sharing with the public, uh, ideas about TIF and then
being able to respond to questions that come from them.
Botchway/ Along that same line, I was wondering... and... and since you're kind of a ... a younger
gentleman yourself, have there been any thoughts from the Communication department,
and this can kind of go to the City Manager as well, um, around texting? Something the
School District has now moved to as far as trying out a way to get out to more people,
because, um, a lot of folks don't use the ... just the telephone anymore, and now the
email's even becoming more archaic. Um, that's more used from a document retention
standpoint or maybe sending something of like importance to make sure that you said
you'd sent it, but have we dib ... I mean have we dabbled in that at all because it's
something that, you know, I check my texts all the time.
Markus/ Why don't you talk about the number of different media?
Fruin/ Yeah, uh...
Markus/ (mumbled) ...we use.
Fruin/ Sure, so um, one of the benefits of the web site relaunch was that, uh, we got to look at
our subscription -type services and overhaul those a little bit, and we're still gettin' into all
the functionality of them. I do believe that there is text functionality on our, uh, our list
serves. I'd ... I'd have to confirm that. I know we have that functionality and I think we've
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implemented it, uh, it might not be on all of our subscriptions, but I'll double check and
follow up with you on that. Um ... we ... we use a number of platforms, um, the big ones
are, you know, Facebook and Twitter, Instagram, um, right now one of the ... the most
rapidly expanding ones that we're using is called Next Door, uh, which is a neighborhood
based, uh, social media platform, um, that is, uh... uh, taking hold and allows not only us
to communicate to people in ... in either broadly across the whole city or ... or tailored to
their geographic location, but it also just allows neighbors to talk to each other. Um, and
uh, that's... that's been a nice, um, addition. So ... uh, we're constantly looking for new
platforms and ... and not just focused on digital ones. You know we ... we've, uh, had a big
emphasis of trying to make sure our staff is present at special events. So some of you
have probably volunteered to sit at a .... at a City table at a festival. Uh, we've, you know,
Juneteenth, Soul Fest, Arts Fest, um ... we have staff that attends every single University
of Iowa student orientation. That's a huge undertaking just in terms of a time
commitment, but it's part of that customer service effort. It's part of making that
connection with people when they first, um, are ... uh, come into our community. So
we're .... we're trying about anything, uh, that we think will be effective and it's a trial and
error process. If there's... avenues that we haven't explored that ... that you think we need
to, please let us know. Um, we're not opposed to trying anything, but specific to the text,
Kingsley, I think that's there now. I'll ... I'll double-check and follow up.
Human Resources and Human Rights (pgs. 137 and 141):
Andrew/ All right, any other questions on Communications? I'll walk through, uh, briefly the
last two divisions in the City Manager's budget — Human Resources and Human Rights.
Uh, Human Resources begins on page 137 of the budget book. Uh, the Human
Resources handles all the functions that you would expect out of a personnel office. Uh,
benefits administration, recruitment, hiring, training, uh, collective bargaining, and
contract administration, uh, civil service compliance, um, it's a division that's staffed by
three, uh, full-time permanent employees and they do, uh, periodically employ a
University work study student as well, um, to help them through the busier times of the
year. Uh, it's largely a status quo budget. Uh, the largest different you'll see from last
year is, uh, attorney services that..for collective bargaining, uh, negotiations that were
previously present in the City Manager's budget have been moved over to the Human
Resources budget. Uh, they handle most of those payments and uh, are involved in those
negotiations to the point that it just made more sense, you know, from the backend
accounting side to have those present in their budget. So that was about $42,000. Uh,
the other bump from last year is a periodic expense that the, uh, Human Resource
division, uh, incurs for, uh, police and fire promotional testing, uh, again getting back to
the civil service requirements that we were, uh, discussing earlier. So that one is a, uh, a
$25,000, uh, budget line item that is (mumbled) budget, but again, um, mostly personnel
expenses in that division and not a whole lot of change from previous years. Um, were
there any questions on Human Resources before I bump over to Human Rights?
Mims/ Yeah, what's the acronym ACA?
Andrew/ ACA...
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Fruin/ That's the Affordable Care Act.
Andrew/ Oh, there ya go!
Mims/ Okay. Thanks!
Botchway/ Any .... I'm assuming we have Affirmative Action Policy. Is there any ... where do we
put that information in, as far as, um ... (several talking) as it applies to positions and when
we hire folks?
Fruin/ Yeah, I ... I don't know exactly what, um .... the correct terminology is for the ... for the, um,
that type of policy anymore. It's ... it's not Affirmative Action anymore. It's usually Equal
Opportunity Employer...
Botchway/ Right!
Fruin/ ...type of deal. That would be standard on all our employment applications, um, and
probably job postings (several talking) job descriptions, things of that nature.
Markus/ Affirmative Action actually ... you know, had targets, and...
Botchway/ Right and you know I was just trying to (both talking)
Markus/ ...that was moved away from some time ago.
Botchway/ I guess .... but my question is is do we have that anywhere, cause I know it wasn't in
the equity report, where we had it documented out from a Human Resources standpoint,
you know, what we were looking at with our internal applicants as far as when they get,
um, when they're interviewed for positions.
Markus/ Well there's ... oh, there's EEOC reporting. (several talking) Is that what you're talking
about? (several talking) Oh, yeah, that's a ... that's a standard reporting format.
Urn ... we ... we can provide that to (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) that wants it any
time. You have to ... we have to file those reports with the feds.
Botchway/ Right!
Fruin/ That basically breaks down things like, uh... uh, hirings, terminations, just various
personnel actions by job class, by gender, by race, that sort of thing, and that's a standard
federal filing that ... all cities undertake.
Andrew/ And Human Rights, the last division in our department, uh, page 141, uh, Human
Rights is staffed by two, uh, full time employees. Uh, the Human Rights investigator and
the Human Rights Coordinator/Equity Director. Um, the division investigates claims of
unlawful discrimination, uh, provides training and presentations to the public. That's
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something that we've really stepped up quite a bit in recent years. Uh, and also, uh, staff
(mumbled) with the Human Rights Commission. They staff all the ... the Commission
meetings and make sure that agendas are pro ... are posted and uh, minutes are taken. Uh,
the Equity Dir ... Equity Director has also, uh, added a good number of duties in recent
years, including producing the equity report and additional staff training and resources,
uh, in terms of equity, uh... uh, for personnel internal, um, personnel actions. Um, there is
an increase in the travel and training, uh, line items in this year's budget. Uh, this was
associated with GARE training and Sustainable Communities training, um, that Stefanie
participated in. Um, this line ... this budget, this division, also includes, uh, agency
funding for, uh, Diversity Focus, uh, GARE, the Dream Center, and LGBTQ advocacy
organizations. Um, some community event fundings included for events such as
Juneteenth, and they're also a City -sponsored events including, uh, the Human Rights
breakfast, an annual job fair, and a community outreach and fair housing initiatives. Um,
most of those are just (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) Human Rights breakfast does
bring in revenue. Tickets are sold for that. It's ... it's largely a self-supporting enterprise.
(coughing, difficult to hear speaker) um ... those are the ... the main changes, uh, from
previous fiscal years, slight bumps in these categories, but, um, again, a budget mostly
associated with personnel costs. That's, uh, reasonably flat from previous years.
Cole/ Are all City employees subject to the civil service requirement or are only some of them
subject to the ... the testing requirement?
Andrew/ Um, it's different for Police and for Public Safety than it is for .... um, the other
employees. The Police and Fire will have, um, very extensive testing that, uh, was in the
Human Resources budget that, um, isn't something that all employees have to go through.
Um, for ... as I understand, at least, the civil service — please jump in if I'm wrong (both
talking)
Markus/ No, that's right. There's validated tests that are required for public safety, but... typically,
um, we run internal processes for, um ... non -safety type positions. Then we declare who
the candidates are back to the civil service. They review that and then they return a
verdict on whether that's an acceptable candidate or not. So when we're talking about job
fair ... one of our points in going to these job fairs is to make ... um, all segments of our
community aware of how to become a City employee, and so that's something that we've
implemented in the last two, three years, trying to get out and ... let people know that
might not otherwise know, and I've... anecdotally I will tell you that for a long time, our
Public Works employees came in by word of mouth, usually one or two mouths, okay,
and so were all, you know, generation after generation, all these employees were coming
from the same place. And so there was no real attempt to even diversify that population.
So ... we've kind of...changed that all up. Okay? So ... everybody gets an equal shot at
these jobs.
Cole/ It sounds like for the Police and Fire, we're dealing with some State law limitations. Other
departments we can be more proactive, that it's our internal processes that we can (both
talking)
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Markus/ But what I would tell you is that... typically, for like Public Works, Parks positions,
things like that, we hire off of...temp/part-time. It's kinda like our, you know, like our
farm team. We get to see the employee in action, right? So what we did when we went
out to these job fairs is we said ... here's a way to get a leg up to get a chance to get a job
herewith the City. And ... and here's how you get into the ... the cycle so that you can
become a City employee, and that was kind of the message we were trying to convey,
because you get a lot of these ... these employees that eventually want to get ... get on full-
time, but we hire off ...a lot of 'em off temporary, I mean, we get to see what they can do
and not do and their work ethic and ... that's how we move 'em into the system. They still
have to go through the competition.
Throgmorton/ All right! Thank you very much!
Andrew/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/ Dennis and Marian, who wants to go next? (several talking and laughing)
Finance (viz. 146):
Bockenstedt/ I can go, I can go! That's fine. (clears throat) (several talking)
Markus/ You have, uh, one minute. (laughter)
Bockenstedt/ One minute! (several talking and laughing) All right, and that was it! (laughter)
Um, the Finance department has, uh, 35.78 FTE, which... there's four par..., uh, part-time
people in our department, so it's, uh, a total of 37 individuals that work for the Finance
department, and that is across six different divisions. Um, and the administration
division, that is four individuals, uh, but some of those are split up amongst the 3.7 FTE
and really we take care of the health insurance and dental insurance, reserves, uh, manage
other insurance programs, uh, the employee benefit programs, uh, we also manage the
issuance of debt, and the debt service fund, uh, we prepare the City's budget and also take
care of the City's investments and banking. Um, there's also a little community event
funding, uh, that we go through with the committee and review applications. Um, and
actually this begins on page 146 in your book is where administration begins. Some of
the ... of our bigger initiatives, there's been a lot of change in the Finance department over
the last three or four years, and a lot of that is through the implementation of software
packages and developing efficiencies, uh, and so we've spent a lot of time, uh, over the
last several years just buying and implementing software, and we're getting to a point
now that we're ... we're really getting to the tail end of some of those, but we have some
new packages that we're just starting to get into. So that's... that's been a big process. Uh,
there are things that we're looking at across our department, across the entire City is
policy and procedure development, um, and getting more into internal auditing, and so
really fine-tuning some ... some of the operations and what that's allowed us to do is get
into operations and see maybe where we're doin' things well and not so well and ... and
rewriting some of...some of those procedures and so ... the software, the policies and
procedures all work together to ... to try and develop efficiencies through out department
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and throughout the organization. And I think we've seen some of that, where, you know,
as Tom talked about through attrition, where especially in some of the clerical positions
we've been able to attrit some positions without losing efficiency through the software
and change in polices and procedures, and ... and so those were some of the areas we spent
a lot of time on in the last several years. Um ... the next division I'll talk about is our
accounting division. Um, that has ... there's 7.6 FTE positions in our accounting division.
Um, we have anew City Comptroller last year and she's doin' an excellent job. Um,
some of the major challenges that the accounting division facing ... is facing is ... the
number of, um ... uh, disaster events we've had, uh, we've had ... if..we're still tryin' to...to
close out the 2008 disas... disaster event. The Animal Shelter was the last major project
from the 2008 flood, um, but in 2013 and 14 we had three more events ... in those two
years, and so, um ... we've spent a great deal of time and also because of those flood
events, um, those were just the disaster events and we had a lot of other funding for
housing, land acquisition, um, a lot of other projects. So the grant work has taken a great
deal of time. Um, also in accounting, uh, there's been a lot of change in the governmental
accounting standards. The ... the GASB, or governmental accounting standards board has
been very active and there's been a ... Tom has mentioned the change in like the post, uh,
post -employment benefits, and the pension accounting, and some of these, you know,
there was a period of time where they wanted to make it, you know, shrink the
paperwork, make it easier, and they've really gone the other direction, where now they've
really bloated everything and have ramped up these requirements. Um, and then also as
part of those initiatives, uh, there's been a change in the federal single audit standards,
and .... we've been trying to get answers on the impact of this, um, lot of this goes back to
the Enron affairs, uh, where they've changed audit standards. They've changed oversight,
and so there's going to be a ramp up in the oversight of the federal government on..on the
grants that they provide. We don't really know to what extent or what impact that's going
to have, um, but we're ... we're tryin' to get answers as far as, um, you know, what type of
oversight issues and accounting issues this is going to create, and that's... that's an issue
that's coming up for us. Um, another division we have is our purchasing division. Um,
we revamped our purchasing manual in the last couple years, and it was a very
complicated document that a lot of people had trouble reading and remembering, and
we've really tried to simplify those rules, um, to make ... create some more efficiencies in
our operations because when people can remember the cut-offs for approvals and
bidding, it's a lot easier than constantly have to ... either have to do things wrong
inefficiently or seek answers all the time, and so we've really tried to create, uh,
efficiencies in that area. Um, that division also handles our central services, uh, which is
like they replace the copy machines, they do the mail machines, that type of thing. Um,
one of the programs that they've taken over in the last couple years was when they redid
the backup radio system. They now handle all the radio maintenance contracts and radio
systems for ... for the City. Um, the next division is our revenue division. And this has,
uh, 7.88 FTE, which is two part-time cashiers kind of make up that .88 in that, uh,
division, and that ... they handle our landfill and our utility billings, and they've just went
through a major, uh, system upgrade in the last year and ... and so we're just on the tail end
of that and ... and there's still pieces of that we're still implementing and are facing another
major upgrade in the next couple months. After they get it implemented, now they have
to upgrade it! Uh, so that'll be a challenging upcoming for them. Uh, but that has created
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a ... a big change in that division, because that software, we've had that same software for
20, 30 years and it was custom written, and so it's been a big change for them. Um,
information technology services, uh, we have 10 individuals in this division, that account
for 9.8 FTE. Uh, this is an area of our operation with the ... I talked about the ... these
changes that we're making in our software. There's been a major shift in how
we ... use ... uh, information technology services. Um, this is also an area that's ... where you
see the stresses are in the, uh, management of memory. When we get (mumbled) we're
adding more and more, uh, safety video cameras at like the water facilities, the rec
centers, uh, and different facilities, plus as we get into the body cameras with the Police
department, uh, the storage requirements are .... are just going off the charts. Um, you
know, and...and we're past gigabytes. We're into like terabytes of data now. We're, um,
just the amount of storage that you have to have for this video is ... is a real issue and it's a
very expensive issue. And not to mention storing it but then backing it up (laughs)
and ... and a lot of those ... cover a lot of data, and if it's involved in a court case at all,
sometimes we have to keep large chunks of data for mo ... for many years, until those
cases are resolved, and maybe into indefinite future. So, uh, storage capacity is a major
issue, um, also the culture shift away from, uh, some of this stuff goes way back where
everybody did custom programming for everything they did, um, and that was great
cause it was very customized to how you did things, um, but it was very inefficient
because every time you'd have a program released, then nobody would know how to
operate the program. So ... there's been a major culture shift, particularly with these
upgrades to move towards more canned software, um, transfers of data, and ... and further
away from a lot of custom programming. So ... there's been a ... a real shift in that division,
um, from custom programming towards canned software, and then dealing with some of
these.. just change in technology, um, toward ... away from kind of PCs, more to ... back to
more of the dumb terminal, where you're doing remote access on devices and ... and tablets
and phones and other things back to a server, rather than actually have a PC that can do
all kinds of things for you. So there's ... it's kind of a reversion almost back to old
technology, uh, that's... that's also changing things. Uh, one individual we'll be adding, or
one position we'll be adding is a GIS Coordinator. Uh, this is coming up, uh, several
times now and this is a position that we've been really looking at, uh, for some time. And
we purchased the GIS system in the last couple years and I know our different division at
different levels that are utilizing it and populating it and creating layers, but it's really
been underutilized and... and the intention with this position is to ... uh, really, uh, increase
the usage, create consistent usage across divisions, and bring in those that maybe aren't
using it or underutilizing it, um, to start using that system, filling it with data, and then
integrating it with ... City-wide so if you look at a neighborhood you can see their water,
their sewer, their storm water, sidewalks, street signs ... versus now there's bits and pieces
and maybe they're using different formats and really trying to get all that information
organized into a ... cohesive database and of course that's a, uh, multi-year undertaking to
get that type of system to where it's really, uh, functional. And, uh, and I know that Ron
alluded to (mumbled) very closely with the County. We already do, just to ensure that
that transfer of data (laughs) Tom's givin' me the wrap it up signal (laughter and several
talking) I've gone over the minute, and the last division is risk management and that's
just the insurance. Now here's Marian! (laughter and several talking)
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Throgmorton/ No questions for Dennis, right? (laughter)
Markus/ The only thing I'll say is, as good as Dennis is and everything else, he's amazing in debt
service, and he's ... in ... in terms of all the finance directors I've ever worked with, he
knows more about debt service than any of 'em!
City Clerk (pg 117):
Karr/ Okay, uh, City Clerk budget starts on 117. And the City Clerk, uh, is one of your three
City Council appointees, along with the City Manager and the City Attorney. Uh, the
Clerks office has 4 full time, uh, employees and one hourly transcriptionist, uh, and
there's no changes in the personnel levels rec ... recommended or requested for the coming
year. Uh, the Clerk's office is the custodian of the City and the Council records, uh,
which includes the publications. In addition to that we do a number of, uh, licenses, such
as, um, the alcohol, uh, cigarette, taxi. We, uh, over the years have coordinated board
and commission application, uh, announcements of vacancies, and also the, uh,
acceptance of applications. As we've talked to you in ... in recent months, we, uh, that's
one of our, um, highlighted, uh, goals of making some changes to being more accessible,
both from the standpoint of...of, uh, applications themselves, but also the availability of
multiple commissions, uh... for ... for an applicant to apply for at one time. Um, the office
also staffs the Community Police Review Board and also is the clerical support to the
Cemetery. And we handle, um, the software packages and issuing of cemetery deeds in
that respect. Um ... over the years the Clerk's office has really been one of those that it is
your strategic plan and your goals that makes our workload what it is. Um, they've been
as diverse as, um, staffing, um, ad hoc committees, uh, we just wrapped up, of course, the
Charter review as well, which is every 10 years. Um ... we've, uh, over the years helped
with the fireworks or census, and then developed that and turned it over, and now other
staff are doing that. Currently our primary, um, highlights and primary assignments for
the upcoming year include as mentioned, uh, working with our Equity Director on
improvements to our board and commission application process, um, and um, education
of that. We're also going to be, uh, working, coming back to you very soon, setting up
your, uh, listening posts for the upcoming year, which is part of our commitment to better
communication and ... and diversity in the community. Um ... just a couple things to
highlight. Um ... Doug mentioned early on, I think many of our, uh, our departments are
doing the same — we are really looking at, um ... uh, paperless (mumbled) a ... an issue, but
also we are required by law to maintain lots and lots of records, and you just ... with
storage is one thing but it...it also is problematic as far as locating it quickly and
accessibility to the community. So we are in the process ... and we will continue to be, of
converting a lot of our microfilm, which is archaic now, a lot of our microfilm into
digital, and that ... you'll see some of those figures of over 26,000 images converted this
past year and that's simply a dent, because our files go back to the middle of the 1800s.
In addition to converting them, we also have to have the ability to find things. They're
all ... many of them are hand-written. They're not typed, and so when we enter into the
digital system with it, we have to then take additional time to be able to search those
records while we maintain them. Um, financially there's two major changes you'll see to
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this year's budget in the Clerk's office. One is the, um ... the 43% decrease, which is every
other year we have, um, elections. So we peak to cover the election cost and then drop
down the next year. So the $60,000 reduction because as far as I know there's no election
next year. Um ... the other thing we're asking is the capital outlay, to take a look at some
agenda management software. Um, very quickly what that will do is enable departments,
as they submit right now they submit agenda items to me, and ... and to our office, and
we'll balance as many as six different meetings at a time. Um, in the old fashioned cut
and paste method. Well this will allow (mumbled) submitted that they can be accessed
by those departments and looked at and then pulled, um, and reassured they're there or
they're not there, rather than one individual accessing all of them. So that's our proposal,
so ... questions?
Cole/ One quick question on the CPRB. Why is that under your jurisdiction as opposed to
mana... how does that work in terms of your support staff as opposed to the Manager's
office?
Karr/ Um, going back to the initiation of that, it was viewed the Police department is under the
City Manager.
Cole/ So it was an independent (both talking)
Karr/ It ... an independent (both talking)
Cole/ ...overview.
Karr/ That's correct.
Cole/ Okay, that's what I thought.
Karr/ And lately as Tom alluded to earlier, it's even more critical because of the City Manager's
involvement into the process that wasn't originally planned, that that be a separate...
Cole/ Okay.
Karr/ They also have separate legal counsel, the Community Police Review Board, um, their
services, their budget, is a separate legal counsel, so the City Attorney represents, um...
the City or the officer, while the independent legal counsel if the Community, uh, Police
Review Board staffing. So that's a contract attorney.
Botchway/ One question I had ... one ques... one question I had was just around workload, because
I think that you talked about the fact that meetings go up based on, you know, whatever,
uh, Council's objectives may be or strategic planning objectives may be for that particular
year or two years. Um, have we given some thought, because I know that, you know, for,
you know, ad hoc meetings, whatever the case may be, you would be there, Tom would
be there, Eleanor would be there. Um, just having those meetings ... be, you know,
designating some secretary or somebody who'd be the chair or the vice -chair, whatever
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the case maybe, in order for you not to be there? I'm just conscious of...some of the stuff
that we've even talked about during our strategic planning session, and the more and
more I thought about it, it was just workload, workload. I mean obviously I think we're
going to do great things but I also worry about ... the workload that we put on y'all as far as
everything that you do on top of, you know, the additional meetings.
Mims/ I think it really depends on what ... those additional meetings are, because I think there's a
lot of things that are potentially being talked about that have such significant impact on
staff and/or legal issues, and/or just knowing the history of the community, and ... other
things that ... I can't see those being staffed by a secretary simply to take notes. I think
depending on what it is, I think we need upper level staff there, de ... depending on what it
is, for their input and guidance as well. I think that can be critically important. Just.. just
depends on what it is!
Karr/ I think also we go back to the importance,um, and how I rely on, uh, two -fold — one the
Deputy City Clerk for the general operations of the office, first and foremost, but
secondly the hourly transcriptionist, because once we do wrap up a meeting, and we
do ... we right now we'll download it yet tonight so she works independently on her own
equipment, at her own home, and so she'll work nights, weekends, in a non-traditional
role so as not to involve at all the "office staff and a workload."
Botchway/ Okay, I didn't (both talking)
Karr/ And that's a critical component of...
Botchway/ Good. Good.
Karr/ And I think that the ... uh, we've also been very, very successful with the transcriptions,
because we've noticed over the years a lot of people have relied on that, rather than
coming in and having to, uh, locate the audio, where in the audio it says it, uh, you know,
there's just .... now there still maybe needs to go back to .... we do archive it of course, but
it has helped a great deal in searching. You can search through the, um, transcription.
Throgmorton/ Oh it's amazingly easy now! I've done a fair amount of that.
Karr/ Uh huh, it is. Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Thank you, Marian! Tom, did you want to wrap up anything?
Wrap U
Markus/ Um ... you have the opportunity to ... to pursue questions, but I think we did a pretty good
job listening throughout this whole thing and at some point, um, I think we need to have
kind of a discussion about your other items and, uh, Geoff and I are here talkin' back and
forth ... Jim, you asked about ... um .... well, you talked about an initiative on, uh,
greenhouse gas reductions, things like that.
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Throgmorton/ Yeah, an ad hoc (both talking)
Markus/ ....talked about that. You talked about lo ... local foods production. If we go to the
strategic plan on ... uh, Thursday ... uh....I think we'll be ready to talk to you about how you
can consider those things in the budget document. Come up with a process for you, so
that, uh ... everybody feels like if in fact you're going to open up some processes like that,
that everybody feels like they have an opportunity to at least consider for those types of
things. I think you want to be general more than specific. For example, um, we may
suggest that you do a local foods initiative, and that you invite, UM —individuals...
companies, whatever, submit ideas about how the local foods initiative could be
advanced. You consider those. We refine those. Urn ... in terms of greenhouse gas
reduction. We do the same kind of thing. Plug some numbers in there. We have an
account, a revolving fund, uh, where we have saved money as the result of initiating
different energy saving devices, so we take the savings and plow that into a revolving
fund, with the idea that we would use those funds for additional... things just like what
you're talking about. So I think that would create a much more transparent open process
and ... fact of the matter is, you're sittin' here in January for a budget that doesn't start till
July I st so you have plenty of time to get it in the budget, in a general way, and then
refine it through an invitation to the public to respond to what you're lookin' for. Sound
like a reasonable plan?
Throgmorton/ I ... yes, and of course you and I have talked about this several times. It ... it just
strikes me that the ... the key step at this moment is for us to engage in the strategic plan...
crafting, so that we make sure that we know what it is that we want to accomplish and so
on, and then that can immediately be fed back into the revision (both talking)
Markus/ I think we can address those as you refine the plan and towards the end of that we'll be
able to talk to you about how you accomplish that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. And ... and I think, um, I'm guessing y'all would agree that this ... series of
presentations today has been tremendously informative, and very valuable for us in terms
of...thinking through out own specific ideas with regard to the strategic plan and so on, I
mean, that we candidates ran on certain things in mind, and I'm sure we'll foreground
them. Nonetheless, there's... there's action that's already been taking place that City
governments already been doing, and so ... you know, take that into account (mumbled)
feedback into our strategic... strategic plan thinking.
Cole/ Well back to that question of process. I think sort of what I was looking at was ... a clear
process where we could propose increases or decreases, um, and then also probably you
would be able to evaluate to us whether, hey, you know what, we already have that
program. (mumbled) can't know every City program (both talking) duplicating it. Um,
but two, I ... I also want to make sure that we have a mechanism ... uh, so we can get ... input
from frontline staff. I mean what would be the best way to do that, because I think this is
the leadership, uh, that makes the presentations. How do we go about that in such a way
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where we're respecting the Council/Manager form of government, but with the same
token making sure we're getting valid information, um, from frontline staff people.
Markus/ Well...
Cole/ I'm concerned about that we get one ... piece of...of, a picture, um, in terms of a budget.
Markus/ Well I would ... I would tell you that the process we have with our staff is pretty open.
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ So ... these, you know, for example I staff once a week with the entire department heads.
I expect push -back. We discuss all of these things. The individual departments do the
same thing with theirs. They're getting that feedback. Um ... there's no imperialist
operating inside this operation.
Cole/ (both talking) ...the process....(both talking)
Markus/ Well, but I'm saying to you that what we're doing is we're vetting these things with our
staff anyway. Marian's doing it with hers. Uh, Dennis is doing it with his people.
Um ... that's part of our process to begin with.
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ Um, I think it would be really awkward considering the Council/Manager form of
government to bring in a, you know rank and file and say, you know, how do you want
this. In fact, you know, if you look at the Police and Fire departments, they're basically
para -military operations to begin with, and so there is a hierarchy and a, you know, the
chain of command that typically gets followed. Um ... and I ... and I think you have to
remember something. You know, in a union environment, okay, and ... and you can run
on positions of being supportive of labor, but in a union environment, unions are special
interest groups, okay? You can believe what you want about their global perspective on
life, but the union itself is there to advance the cause of the employee, so what you may
hear is not necessarily advancing the general cause of the community, but more the
general -improvement of the employee group. So ... I've never looked at them as
necessarily... I'd rather hear from your constituents. I'd rather hear (both talking) yeah,
and -and that's, you know, and quite frankly the employees have the opportunity to come
in here (mumbled) but at the end of the day, the City Manager is the one responsible for
submitting a budget. I've never shied away from employees... you saw it with the Library.
Come on in and ... and make your pitch! But at the end of the day, not everything is going
to make it through the process, so ... that is the form of government (both talking)
Cole/ Related to this question too, um, as I said in my email, you said that you had made a series
of changes in response to the election. I think what would be helpful for me is that going
forward to identify the part of the changes that you feel reflected what we had focused on
during the campaign (both talking)
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Markus/ ...that was in that list I gave you. Right at the end of the Power Point, a number of those
items were reflective of (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ ...comments I heard, not just from your particular perspective but from the commentary
of the public in general (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ ...that then fit into the strategic plan.
Throgmorton/ Rockne, I would add that Tom and Geoff and I had precisely that conversation...
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ ...uh, this past Wednesday.
Cole/ (mumbled) Okay.
Throgmorton/ Anything else?
Markus/ It's time to go home!
Throgmorton/ (several talking and laughing) It is time to go home! Thank you, everyone!
Thank you for your help! You're brave souls!
This represents only reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 9, 2016.