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Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Dilkes, Andrew, Karr, Hightshoe, Yapp, Nations, Laverman,
Jordan, Bockenstedt, Ford, Knoche, O'Brien
Others Present: Nelson, Simpson (UISG)
Questions from Council re Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ All right, I guess we can get this show on the road. So, uh.... convene the work
session for Monday, June 6, 2016. Questions about agenda items. Who's on first?
ITEM 3d(1) HOUSING EXTERIOR LOAN PROGRAM - RESOLUTION
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SIGN LOAN AGREEMENTS FOR
THE HOUSING EXTERIOR LOAN PROGRAM (HELP)
Mims/ I have a question on ... concern I guess on 3d(1) (mumbled) This is about the HELP
program, um, in the University impact area. I guess I'm just curious where we came up
with 140% of median income. I don't know. I guess I've got a question about that. It
seems high to me, and secondly, how are we going to be .... looking at the ability of
landlords to fund this stuff because a lot of `em do LLCs and kind of divvy up money
between one property and the next and ... I'm not... certainly not adverse to helping people
who need it, but .... I'm not comfortable, I guess, at this point.
Hightshoe/ The 140% was to match the University program. Um, if we receive an application by
a homeowner that's under, it qualifies for the GRIP program, which goes up to 110%, or
the CDBG and Home programs, that go up to 80%. We will filter that person into the
program that's most financially advantageous to them. But the 140% was to .... capture
all ... to match the University program. Landlords are a different ... I mean if you're a
homeowner, you get 50% deferred payment loan. So you don't have to pay until you sell
the home or it no longer is owner -occupied.
Mims/ Right.
Hightshoe/ Landlords, there is no income requirement, but they have to pay back the loan, um,
five years at 0% interest. So put a mortgage and assignment of rents on the property.
Mims/ So theoretically we could have landlords in that area that are .... very financially set
getting 0% interest from the City for five years.
Hightshoe/ Yes!
Mims/ I'm not comfortable with that personally. And I look at the 140%, I mean ... my daughter
doesn't live here so I'll throw it out whether she likes it or not, I mean (laughs) she
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moved back to this community about three and a half years ago. She's not here any
more. Making probably about $60,000 as a single person, which is less than that 140%,
with over $100,000 in student loans from law school. Managed to purchase a house and
I would ... be astounded and I would... would not support her getting taxpayer money to do
home renovations. So I look at these numbers and I personally feel they're too high.
Throgmorton/ Tracy, why are you .... why is the staff recommending the ... the landlord component
of this?
Hightshoe/ It was to encourage, to give an incentive, for a lot of landlords to proceed with the
repairs, um, we will go out. We're doing increased enforcement. So it was just a vehicle
to encourage and provide a financial incentive for 50% of the total repairs, up to 10,000.
So because we kept (mumbled) at 10,000, probably these huge property, multi -unit
families that need a .... to rehab their property's going to take a lot more than 20,000.
Probably not a good fit for the program, but for smaller landlords or smaller properties,
whose total project cost is 20,000, we would help with 10,000, and they'd pay it back,
and that money that ... would go back into the program to help and be a financial incentive
for other landlords. Um, with the homeowner we get paid back but we don't know when,
cause we don't know when they'll sell the property, so that mortgage just stays. They
could stay in it five years, 10 years, 15 years, but the money would come back when they
sell the property.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so I understand Susan's concern, but not all landlords are wealthy, are they?
Hightshoe/ No. (both talking) We wouldn't review their taxes or to find out their income or
even the property.... the income that they derive from the property. It would just be .... I
guess it was a program to incent landlords to ... to make the improvements earlier than
they might have planned. (both talking) Cause we are stepping up code enforcement in
that area.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Taylor/ I'm sorry, you said you wouldn't look at their taxes (both talking) How would you base
their income then? How would you know?
Hightshoe/ We don't for landlords.
Taylor/ Oh, okay!
Hightshoe/ Um, for homeowners we would just look at their most recent tax form.
Taylor/ (mumbled) agree with Susan, that seems like even the one ... one person household, two
person household, that's a really high amount, high income.
Throgmorton/ So it's a 0% loan ... to landlords.
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Hightshoe/ For homeowners it's a deferred payment loan (both talking)
Throgmorton/ What's... what's the current interest for loans, uh, a landlord might be able to get
on the private market right now?
Hightshoe/ Well, commercial?
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Hightshoe/ 4 to 6%, maybe. Where's Dennis?
Throgmorton/ The question I ask is, you know, trying to get a sense of what kind of financial.
Hightshoe/ It's an incentive, yeah.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) Yeah.
Fruin/ If you recall, the whole, um, I guess that's where this issue is rooted, is there was a desire
to really step up enforcement in these areas and ... and make, uh, the .... the properties in
the neighborhoods look quite a bit better, but there was also a concern that it was going to
be a burden on a number of folks. So we crafted this program to help soften the blow.
Uh, you know, hopefully you go through a couple of years of this and you get things
caught up and then the need for these types of programs dissipates, um, quite a bit, or at
least the volume of applications goes down, but, um, .... that's what we're trying to
respond to here.
Cole/ I guess I'm supportive of where we're at right now, unless you want to have a separate
work session on this. Um .... so I....I support the status quo on this. I think it's a good
program.
Throgmorton/ You mean what's being recommended?
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Botchway/ I guess to Susan's point (clears throat) I guess to Susan's point, um, I'm just not
understanding the criteria then for land owners and so an individual submits an
application, um, to the program and it says you can get up to $10,000. What is .... what's
the criteria, I guess?
Hightshoe/ Um, hold on, let me (mumbled) They can't have any mechanic liens. They have to
have their pay .... their taxes up to date, and then they ... it has to be an eligible
improvement. So it has to be a facade improvement that you see from the .... from the
public right-of-way. Um, and I mean a roof, siding — if you're going to side the ... or paint,
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then it'd be the whole house but it has to be a .... there's a list of eligible repairs. So we're
not ... we're not improving the inside, just the exterior.
Botchway/ Yeah, I would agree, Susan. I just think there's some terrible facades out there and so
I mean whatever's necessary to incentivize folks I'm in agreement with, however ... I see
your point and....
Mims/ I mean I ... I agree there's plenty of facades, I mean, this actually.... this whole thing
actually started when Matt Hayek brought it up, and Matt and I went out with Stan, I
believe, and Simon, and kind of drove around the north side and looked at a lot of
different houses, and Stan was pointing out which ones are rental, which ones are
homeowner (laughs) He knew just by driving by which was which, and said look, we
need to come up with something to try to ... you know, stab .... help stabilize the
neighborhood, you know, the issues of the exterior of a lot of these and the fact that, you
know, what was ... what we came back with was we don't have two separate housing
codes. It's one housing code regardless of whether it's owner -occupied or rental, and so
we have to work within that scope. We weren't going to divide it out. So I totally
support that concept, I mean, I was involved from the get -go in saying that we need to
make improvements in the area. My one concern is .... is the 140%, um .... and the fact
that we're never getting that money back. I shouldn't say never. We're not getting it
back till it's sold, which could be a long time, um .... I do think the 140 is a little high. I
guess I can deal with the landlord issues. The max they can get is 10,000 and it's paid
back in five years, regardless of how much .... how wealthy or not they are. Urn ... those
are my concerns.
Throgmorton/ Back when we were having that original conversation, my main concern had to do
with ... uh, low to moderate -income households that own property in the area and could
not afford to rehab the exterior and keep their property in good shape. So, they're the
people I'm most concerned about in .... in the University impact area. So...
Hightshoe/ If those folks apply, we are definitely going to put `em in our CDBG/Home program,
if they eligible .... if they're eligible for that improvement, just because this is a targeted
area, and with CDBG and Home, it's a 50% grant and then they pay back 50%, but no
more than .... so if they're already paying 30% of their income on housing, it's a deferred
payment loan for them too. I don't know if that makes sense.
Botchway/ Did this information go out to everyone in the area, University impacted area? Okay.
(mumbled) sense.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think it's a substantial incentive, and should result in some significant
improvement to properties. So I .... I'm excited about that. But, Stan .... or maybe Tracy,
either one of you, do you know approximately what percent of structures in the
University impact area are ... uh, owner -occupied? It's small, right? But I don't know
how small.
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Hightshoe/ It's small, I mean where we've surveyed so far is primarily all rental. It's only been
one homeowner. Urn .... but we anticipate the demand will be for the rental, not the
owner -occupied.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Laverman/ I just had one issue I wanted to share. We have an application in front of us right
now where I was out there, um, they were going to do some work on the ... on their house,
um, and I talked to them about it — it's in a historic area — um, and was able to say `Hey,
this money's available now. Why don't we consider upgrading, uh, the railings to the
second floor. Let's bring those up to historic standards.' So they're working with HPC,
so they're going above and beyond minimum code to bring it up to, you know, bring it up
to a better standard now because the money's available, and they're spending greater than
20,000 at this point. They're into the 30, 35,000, because of the incentive of the money.
Mims/ Okay! Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Well, I .... I support what's being recommended by the staff, but I don't know what
the rest of y'all think, so....
Cole/ I do too.
Botchway/ (mumbled) Susan expressed in her concerns, kind of hearing some of the comments
and .... so I feel comfortable as well.
Throgmorton /With what the staff s rec... (both talking)
Botchway/ With staff recommen.... yeah.
Thomas/ I'm comfortable with the current (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Uh... any other questions about agenda items?
ITEM 3d(5) BY-LAW CHANGES — MOTION TO FORWARD TO COUNCIL
RULES COMMITTEE BY-LAW CHANGES FOR THE AIRPORT
COMMISSION, COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD, HISTORIC
PRESERVATION COMMISSION, PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION
AND TELECOMMUNICATION COMMISSION
Botchway/ Uh, 3d(5). Marian, when will that rules .... am I still on the Rules Committee? I think
I am. When will that Rules Committee (both talking)
Karr/ I was going to talk to you and, uh, Terry (both talking) in between, to see if we couldn't set
it up as early as next week...
Botchway/ Okay.
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Karr/ ...so that I'd like to announce the vacancies, uh, on the 215` when you act on it.
ITEM 3d(4) MERCER PARK PLAYGROUND REPLACEMENT - RESOLUTION
ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE MERCER PARK PLAYGROUND
REPLACEMENT PROJECT
Botchway/ That works! Um, another one was 3d(4), um, the Mercer Park playground
replacement. I think it's amazing. Um, again I think, uh, as I've talked about my son,
you know, based on how loud he yells as he leaves the playground, it's pretty substantial.
The only thing I would think about is it's hot, or hotter, compared to the other
playgrounds. I don't know if there's something to mitigate that, but ... I'm just lettin' ya
know! And then last was, uh, I have a slight issue with, um, Item 10 and 11. So the
surcharge. I'm not necessarily, I mean, I'm all for experimental .... I think it's $35
surcharge, is that correct (mumbled)
ITEM 11. AMENDMENTS TO TAXICAB REGULATIONS - ORDINANCE AMENDING
TITLE 5, ENTITLED `BUSINESS AND LICENSE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER
2, ENTITLED "TAXICABS," TO ELIMINATE A LOCAL OFFICE, 24/7
SERVICE, AND INSPECTION OF NEWER MODEL VEHICLES AND TO
ALLOW A SURCHARGE FEE ON CERTAIN DAYS AND NEMT SERVICES.
(SECOND CONSIDERATION)
ITEM 12. TAXICAB FEES - RESOLUTION RESCINDING PRIOR RESOLUTION NO.
15- 36 AND SETTING FEES WITH RESPECT TO THE ADMINISTRATION OF
REGULATIONS FOR NETWORK AND METERED TAXICABS, AND
ESTABLISHING A NEW FEE FOR INSPECTION OF VEHICLES LESS THAN
TEN (10) YEARS OLD
Throgmorton/ ...taxi cabs (both talking)
Botchway/ Taxi cabs, yeah. Um, I'm all for it cause I like the experimental piece that we're
trying to play here, but the one thing that concerns me is that it's designated for an entire
time period, and I know that, you know, the taxi cabs were very particular about making
sure that everything was fair.
Karr/ Okay, can I .... I'm sorry to interrupt. 10 and 11, 10 is the School District.
Botchway/ Oops, 11!
Karr/ 11 and 12.
Botchway/ 11 and 12 (both talking)
Karr/ And the $35 fee is to .... the inspection. It's not to a flat fee. We are establishing the
mechanism to establish a surcharge. We're not establishing the surcharge.
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Botchway/ Never mind (mumbled)
Karr/ 35 .... okay!
Botchway/ Well I still have a concern about the surcharge, because....
Karr/ Okay, so not the inspection fee of 35.
Botchway/ No, the inspection fee. For the surcharge, I guess I'm just throwing it out there for
consideration, not necessarily to, you know, um, hear any comments on it, or I guess you
can comment on it — my bad! But, urn .... it's just that with Uber, it fluctuates, and so with
the taxi cab surcharge, you would be surcharging it for an entire time period. So again,
when we're talking about fair and equal, it would not be equal, and again I'm all for
experimental things. I'm throwing it out there. I'm okay with it; I just want us to be
clear (both talking)
Karr/ Right. The distinction that we made on that you're absolutely correct. The distinction we
make on that is with .... with Uber and the fluctuality of it, the consumer knows when they
get into the car, and before they accept the fare, what it is, and it fluctuates. A
consumer .... of a taxicab would not until they got in see it on the rate card. So that was
our ability to fluctuate was allowing it on an experimental basis for certain higher usage
times.
Botchway/ Okay.
Karr/ Um .... you're absolutely correct. It is not fluctuating like it would in an electronic
situation. Because the rate cards within a taxi business do not fluctuate electronically.
Botchway/ Right. Just a concern.
Karr/ Uh huh. (several talking in background)
ITEM 3d(10) ASPHALT RESURFACING PROJECT 2016 - RESOLUTION
RESCINDING RESOLUTION 16-117 AND AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST
A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE ASPHALT RESURFACING
PROJECT 2016
Thomas/ I had a question on 3d(10), the asphalt resurfacing project. Do we have a schedule for
which streets will be resurfaced when?
Knoche/ We can put (mumbled) schedule in your next packet, that calls out the .... we had the
pre -con last week, uh, we should have that set up for us.
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ITEM 3e(1) AMENDING DOWNTOWN URBAN RENEWAL AREA PLANS -
RESOLUTION DETERMINING THE NECESSITY OF AND SETTING DATES
OF A CONSULTATION (June 23) AND PUBLIC HEARING (July 19) ON A
PROPOSED AMENDMENT NO. 14 TO THE CITY UNIVERSITY PROJECT I
URBAN RENEWAL PLAN IN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA
Throgmorton/ All right, well I have, uh, a few items to refer to. Item 3e(1), which is the
Resolution of Necessity for amending the City University Project Urban Renewal Plan.
Uh, and .... and I .... I'm guessing that this is a new process for our new Council Members.
I wonder if there's a good moment to .... brief our new Members about how that process
unfolds. Like now! (laughter)
Ford/ Sure! Wendy Ford, uh, Economic Development Coordinator. In order to consider
amending an urban renewal plan or even creating a new one, the first step is to have
what's called a Resolution of Necessity, and that means you all decide `yes' let's go
forward and consider this, and steps between the Resolution of Necessity which is on
your agenda tonight, and the public hearing, which would ultimately adopt or not adopt
that amended plan are to, A) have a taxing consultation, and that is where we invite
members of, uh, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and the Iowa City Community
School District in for a meeting to discuss the potential, uh, property tax, uh, revenue
impact on ... on their, uh, on everybody.... on all the taxing entities, I should say. In a new,
uh, for .... in .... in creating a new district, um, another step of, um .... presenting the, uh,
proposed new urban renewal area, uh, has to go to P&Z so that they can, uh, judge
whether or not it is, uh, it conforms with the Comprehensive Plan, but that is not
necessary when you amend a plan. Um, so we won't be having that step in this
procedure, despite our not having edited a line out in your memo from staff that refers to
that. So my apologies for that. We discovered that afterwards and ... and didn't get that
line out of there. So, in this particular case, we have a taxing consultation, no meeting,
uh, with P&Z, and then we have the ... the public hearing, which I think is set for July 19a'.
Throgmorton/ Does anybody have any questions for Wendy about the process?
Cole/ Is this a condition (mumbled) authorizing tax increment financing or what would the
purpose of it be?
Ford/ Yes, it....it does. When you, um, add area to, um, a .... an urban renewal area, you have set
the, uh, you have created the possibility to consider a tax increment financing project.
Throgmorton/ Right, so it does not literally commit us to approving a tax increment financing
(both talking)
Ford/ Absolutely not! That would (both talking)
Throgmorton/ But it....it....such a .... a developer's agreement could not be approved unless we
first take this step, right, so that's half way.
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Ford/ Yeah! That'd be a completely separate consideration.
Frain/ And ... and in this particular case, we don't know if tax increment financing will be needed
or not. We just want to give us that flexibility for when that time comes.
ITEM 3f(8) Paula Swygard: Urban Forest Policy for Iowa City
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Good! Any other questions for Wendy? Thank you! I ... I have a couple
others, but I don't want to intrude on people. Item 3f(8), which is an email from Paula
Swygard, uh, concerning.... urging us to adopt an urban forest policy, but I think she's
really concerned about Douglas Court, Douglas Street and a sidewalk and trees there.
Uh.... my personal sense is that this deserves some attention, uh, beyond just an email
from her, uh, perhaps we could get some feedback from the staff in response and give us
a chance to weigh in if we feel like we need to. I .... I don't know how the rest of y'all
think.
Cole/ I'd be supportive of that.
Throgmorton/ You okay with that, Geoff?
Frain/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Okey doke. I see a bunch of nodding heads so...
Botchway/ Is her email kind of a policy discussion? Or, I mean (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Well (both talking)
Frain/ Well it's how we, um, move forward with our complete streets' policy. And if,
uh.... Council wants to .... to weigh in on .... on how we prepare those plans and specs, I'm
fine with that. I think she ... she frames the issue well. We could ... we could, uh, describe
that to you and .... and if you.....I think you understand from her email where staff s at
now. We're .... we're going through and we're applying the.... the.... the policy to
the .... to its fullest extent, sidewalks on both sides, curb ramps. If there's a desire to .... to
show some flexibility, you can signal that to us and when we bring the plans and specs
forward, they'll either have, you know, be some scaled-back compromise version or we
could look at perhaps providing an option or alternative for you to consider.
Taylor/ I'd be open to that cause I ... one of my major concerns, not only from hearing from a
number of residents about they've never had sidewalks there and a number of concerns,
but one major concern was the number of trees. It was something like 31 trees. That's a
lot of trees to be removed.
Throgmorton/ Right!
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Taylor/ ...in that area and so I would... and she had listed many options, which I think Geoff and I
had talked about some of those, and I think we should look at that before that project gets
started.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I ... and even if we decide to move ahead with the complete street policy as it
exists, and do apply it to Douglas Court, Douglas Street, at least we will have considered
fairly what she brings to the table, (mumbled) concerns are.
Fruin/ And I think as you prepare for that discussion, and I think we've got plenty of time to .... to
bring that to you before we're actually ready to have you vote on plans and specs, um,
you need to not only think about the application on these two streets, but this is really
going to set a precedent for how we apply it throughout the entire city. And, um .... these,
uh, these types of projects can be very controversial, especially when you're going into
older neighborhoods and puttin' in sidewalks that might not be well received. Our .... our
neighbors to the north in Cedar Rapids are going through some of that right now and it's
pretty common with complete streets. So .... I think we need to look at the policy itself
and its application, and then you can provide us some direction on the Douglas
Street/Court situation.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Thomas/ I would say ideally it would be ... uh, maybe not ideally, but if we can learn from this
specific instance and revise the complete streets policy to allow a little bit better, um,
expression and articulation as to when certain (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) of that
policy, um ... you know, waivers would be considered, I think that would be productive as
well.
ITEM 9. WORKFORCE HOUSING TAX CREDITS - RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF
THE APPLICATION OF MONARK LLC FOR THE WORKFORCE HOUSING
TAX INCENTIVES PROGRAM FROM THE IOWA ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY TO CONSTRUCT RESIDENTIAL HOUSING
AT 7 S. LINN STREET AND COMMITTING LOCAL FUNDS TO THE
PROJECT
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Done with that? Okay. Uh, the last item I wanted to bring up is Item #9,
uh, which concerns the workforce housing tax incentives, uh, for 7 N. Linn Street. I ... I
guess this isn't the best moment to go into detail about this, uh, but it seems to me that we
need to ... discuss this pretty thoughtfully and thoroughly, and I .... I guess the formal
meeting's the best context for that, but .... I just want to alert y'all that .... that's probably
going to happen.
Taylor/ I would agree cause I had some concerns about .... that as far as the amount.
Botchway/ Will the, uh, developer be here?
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Fruin/ Uh, yes, I believe Kevin Monson will be here for the, uh, Van Patten site. I'm not sure if
anybody from Three Diamond will be here.
Botchway/ Okay.
Fruin/ I doubt it, but I think you're more familiar with that project.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I was just referring to the (mumbled) (both talking)
Fruin/ So we'll frame it up for you at the meeting and then Kevin can walk you through
specifically what his project entails.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Good deal! Uh, any other agenda items? Uh, okay, going once, going
twice, going three times. I guess we should turn to the waste minimization strategy.
Chris, Jen.
Waste minimization strategy review (multi -family recycling, curbside composting, single
stream recycling, plastic bags and cardboard) RP # 3 Info Packet of 6/21:
Botchway/ So, Chris, how do you want to do this? Do you want to do questions afterwards or
during the presentation?
O'Brien/ Yeah, I think it depends ... I'm fine. If we can keep it kind of informal, if you want to
jump in with questions during, that'll be fine — while it's fresh in everyone's head.
Botchway/ Okay.
O'Brien/ Um ... so basically what ... I know we put kind of a .... a dense memo in the packet that
was .... bad quite a bit of data in it, uh, thanks obviously a lot to Jen Jordan for ... for
putting that together. Um ... if there's questions that go ... we might be bouncing back and
forth as we go through this, both Jen and I as far as questions that might come up. Um...
so I guess to answer the question, I'm fine either way. There.... obviously we'll take
questions at the end, but you know, we can keep it informal and just have a dialogue
about this as we go cause more or less, uh, what we did with the actual presentation
was .... was summarize the memo in a....and kind of wrap it up into a, um, a much smaller
version, and then at the end we have the matrix that we had on the last page that kind of
goes through each item, um, so we can kind of go through and decide what we want to
move forward with and .... and what we don't, so... Uh, so waste minimization
(mumbled) Chris O'Brien, Director of Transportation and Resource Management. Jen
Jordan, our Recycling Coordinator. Um ... you know, a lot of ... there's .... since
Transportation Services merged with, uh, the Landfill and the Solid Waste collection
operations, this has been a ... a discussion that's been ongoing, uh, and obviously when...
when staff, not our staff but City staff put together that, um, the STAR rating package,
obviously there was a lot of work that went into that. I know Brenda's here in the crowd
now and ... and they put a lot of work into that and we got a great result, uh, it brought
some things to the forefront too that kind of fit in with things that we're already looking
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at, uh, within the department of ways to minimize, urn .... items that are getting.... getting
landfilled and.... and.... that have a better purpose. Um, so ... you know, obviously Iowa
City, uh, was awarded the four-star community rating. hi that second column, which is
the yellow (mumbled) blurry on that screen so I apologize, um, at the bottom of that is
the waste minimization category. Uh, and of that, you know, we received a score of 8.7
out of 15. Um .... and if you go through the categories, we go through the detail of it.
Actually we scored I think full credit on everything except three, and of those three
(laughs) we got no credit. Um .... so those are the three that we ... we put into this and
wanted to focus on and that was incremental progress toward achieving 100% reduction
by 2050; adopt a waste management plan that identifies waste sources, sets targets, and
establishes an action plan; and then action 2, which is adopt specific product bans to
advance progress toward waste reduction. Those are kind of the three ... and you know,
like I said, it just so happens it .... the STAR program rating coming out fits right in to
things we're already looking at as a ..... as a department moving forward. Uh, not to
mention just to give kudos, we (mumbled) highest in the state of Iowa with our raring,
so.... You know, good job (both talking)
Throgmorton/ What were we? Number what?
O'Brien/ Number 1, I believe, in the state of Iowa. (laughter) Uh, so our current operations, and
once again, I'll go through this quick because we, I mean, we could probably talk all day
about the operations of the Landfill. Uh, began operations in 1972. Obviously we're
regulated by the DNR and the EPA. But here's some of the things that we really want to
touch on, and I think these are the things where you .... you saw that we .... we didn't do
very well in the scoring, and the graph really tells the story about the tons of trash per...
per fiscal year that we've put in the Landfill, and it .... it's pretty steady across the board
since 2005. Um, but despite all the recycling efforts, that .... that number has stayed pretty
consistent in that 110 to ..... 110,000 to 120,000 tons of waste that we landfill annually.
Um, so then I wanted to list the current recycling and composting programs that we have.
Um .... and rather than read through all of those, if there's any questions about things that
are on there. Uh, the ones I really want to highlight are the curbside recycling, electronic
waste, um ... the non -treated lumber wood waste, food waste, and then banned materials
that we have listed in there, because those are things we're gonna kind of get to later and
talk about different topics, uh, some additional banned materials, uh, some additional
composting efforts, uh, and then the other graph at the bottom is from a .... a waste study
that was done that shows ... what's actually getting landfilled, by percentage. And you can
see that a lot of the high things, you know, you have plastics, paper and cardboard,
organics, urn .... all of which are recyclable. So those are .... those are the things that we
really wanted to talk about as we go through this, uh, not to mention metal and glass,
which are other items that are .... that are recyclable.
Dickens/ Does population have anything to do with the increase?
O'Brien/ (both talking)
Dickens/ ....put in there at all?
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O'Brien/ Yeah, and so we did a per capita and once again, there.... there's another graph that we
had put together, um, it just didn't fit in the actual.... information we were ... it stays
relatively consistent, even with the per capita, um, outside of. ... I believe there were two
years where we had, uh, flood materials and ... and other materials that came from, um...
oh, what's the word I want to use? From, uh, major events that occurred that caused
destruction. So floods, tornadoes, items like that that actually cause a spike in those ... in
those numbers. Um, so we start looking at things that we .... we want to address and, uh,
this has actually been before Council once already, and that's the mandated multi -family
recycling. Uh, we have Stan here also from .... from NDS to assist if there's anything that
comes up from a code regulation standpoint. Um, but our staff, as well as staff from
NDS, Legal have been working on putting it together. Uh, all the information necessary
— code changes, policies, um, administrative rules for.... mandating multi -family
recycling. Um, at the time that we came to Council, it was more of a ... here's something
that we're looking at; come back when maybe you're a little bit closer. Well I think
we're at that point now where we're actually a little bit closer, and if you start looking at
some of the statistics of. ... of what we've seen from the recycling pilot that we did in
2013, urn ... you know, we saw 29% to a 54% reduction, uh, with a very low
contamination rate by going to multi -family recycling. Uh, the average cost of $257 per
unit, per month, uh, for recycling services, which I think a lot of our staff were shocked at
what that number came in at as well. Urn ... so our .... our proposal, and once again, this
was a ... urn, a small sample, you know.... urn .... I think it was five apartment complexes
(mumbled) was the total for a 100....about 200 units out of what would be, you know,
1,050, um, complexes that we have now. So .... urn, it was a small sample size but I think
it's .... I think it tells the story of what we would see if we went city-wide as to what we
would see from a diversion rate. So our proposal, as far as mandated and multi -family
recycling, um, is to propose a man ... that it be mandated; that new developments, that the
minute that we ... we pass all of the information, any new development that occurred after
that, it would fall into those requirements, and then any existing would be grandfathered
in per se and they would have until their permit renewal, which .... I just want to make
sure I have this right ... is every two years. So basically they'd have a two-year window to
come into compliance, which would allow us time to work with them on, um, screening
options, um, what it means for them to be in compliance, and to help them through that
process, and obviously at that point ... and we know there's going to be times where
there's going to be exceptions and that would allow for staff to work through what those
exceptions are, and if there's any .... any modifications we can make otherwise in order to
make sure that they're in compliance. Um, and then once again, estimated I ....1,700
tons would be estimated diverted from the Landfill. Um, that would go on top of...of
what we're already, um, would come off of what we're actually landfilling every year.
Any (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I'd like to make a quick observation.
O'Brien/Sure!
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Throgmorton/ And, uh, Susan, Terry, maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong about this but I
think for the past four years or more we steadily heard from students about how they
really want to see recycling in the apartments that they're.... complexes that they live in.
Jake, tell me if I'm wrong about that. It's certainly what I recall hearing.
Simpson/ Absolutely true! (laughter)
O'Brien/ (several talking) ... really see it the move out, move.... move in/move out times, you
start to see a lot of, you know, that's where all of your cardboard boxes and a lot of things
end up getting stuffed into dumpsters and you can see a lot of that just in general as
you're driving through those neighborhoods, so...
Botchway/ I'll wait!
Throgmorton/ Thanks!
O'Brien/ Um, the next one that we're going to talk about is organics at the curb. Uh, currently
Iowa City runs two yard waste routes, daily, and that goes between, uh, the months of
March and January. Uh, the way you get to do your recyc.... or your .... your yard waste
is, uh, you can pay for a $25 annual waste sticker, or you can pay per bag, which is $1.25
per bag, uh, and then we will pick those up during our .... our yard waste routes. Uh, in
2007 the Landfill began composting food waste, um, and ... and the food waste was ... if I
remember right it was industrial, commercial.... urn.... from the University and then it
gradually turned into where we have other commercial, in 2011 .... I'm sorry. In 2014,
uh, when we started participating in the food too good to waste program, um, we did a
pilot with 52 residential neighborhood ... or residential units, um, in order to participate in
the food waste program, uh, for curbside pickup. Um, and as you can see in 2011 when
the waste study was done, which was the graph that I had earlier, food waste makes up
about 14.8% of the material that's landfilled, equaling 17,250 tons of materials that we
could use for .... for other .... for other uses — composting, etc. So ... uh, the proposal that
we have for that is just start offering a curbside organics pickup, um, to all households,
not just the pilot programs, to where we would include that on our .... on our .... on our
food, or excuse me, on our yard waste pickups and it would be .... if somebody already
has a yard waste sticker, they could just combine their food waste with their yard waste,
uh, and then we would set up a system, whether it be, you know, outlining what the
actual size of the bin would be, but for somebody who just wanted to do food waste, and
not yard waste (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) mechanism to ... to do the same thing,
which would be a ... a $25 sticker that they would be able to use in order to ... to actually
use their food waste, and then it would be picked up, once again, with the yard waste
routes and combined with that when our, uh.... when our refuse trucks go through that
area.
Simpson/ For this, um, in the .... in the future will there be ... looking at a policy for ... similar to
how we're doing apartment recycling, having a composting, um (mumbled)
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O'Brien/ Yeah, I think we would start with the households and then eventually, once we got
through.... once we got the recycling piece going and got those programs established, we
would look at...at ways to incorporate that.... because obviously there's a lot of
households that that would impact, uh, of offering that type of service as well. Um, but
you can see an estimated, uh, 1 .... 1,000 tons would be diverted from the Landfill, in ... in
our minds, by switching to this program, and it would ... it would correspond to roughly a
13% increase in the composted materials that we could hand out, uh, to citizens to utilize.
Okay, the next one we have is the curbside single -stream recycling. Uh, so currently we
offer recycling services to 15,300 households, and that's just the curbside pickup, little
bins that sit outside next to the trash, that come, uh, and get picked up the same day. Uh,
prior to 2011, households used to have to separate everything into six actual recycling
streams. Um, and that changed, obviously, in 2011. At that point we reduced it to three,
uh, and then in 2014, a pilot program was .... was once again implemented. As you can
see we have a lot of those pilot programs.... that start out as small and gradually work
themselves into .... into bigger programs. Uh, to provide limited single -stream service, uh,
and so basically we have one route a day that we operate where we pick up and we co -
mingle those recyclables as we pick those up. Um ... our staff maintains visual contact, so
even .... even though we're co -mingling, um, because of the bin size we're able to, when
we go to ... to load those bins, you can look in it to make sure that there's no
contamination in it, and I think that ... as we're going through the education process and as
we start to transition that this would be something that we would continue, uh, to make
sure that we ... we maintain as low a contamination rate as we could, uh, when
we're ... we're running those recyclables through. So our proposal, once again, is to offer
curbside single -stream recycling to all households that are currently served by Iowa City.
We're estimating that about 400 tons, uh, would be diverted from the Landfill at that
point because .... I think I put this in the memo, but basically you see like a....10% to
25%, uh, increase in those that participate in the recycling, and if...what we also have
seen is if you have a .... a good education and outreach program, you can minimize the
amount of contamination that you see, even though you're increasing the amount of
recyclables that you're processing, so... Um ... the contamination rates, obviously, would
still need to be monitored. Um, the thing about going single -stream is it makes our fleet,
uh, more flexible and the routes more efficient. Uh, when you're not having to sort at the
curbside, uh, you're.... you're pulling up .... you're grabbing the bin, putting all the
materials into the same location, and then that way .... so right now we have the trucks
that have all of the sortable bins on them. Uh, under single -stream, you're able to, no
matter what type of truck you have, whether it's a packer truck or, um, even if the
vehicles that we use for recycling now, you can use any truck for those because all the
materials are going into the same place. You're able to pack, you're able to get more
materials in it, which allows you to .... to cover more area with a single truck, making it
therefore more efficient. Now, the one thing that we wanted to make sure that we
covered is .... um, and this is something you're starting to see .... I don't know if any of
you have seen the articles that are going on in Cedar Rapids with, urn .... with Republic
services hiking the rates for combing of recycling in Cedar Rapids, but .... due to that
mixing of materials, processing costs would increase by what we estimate to be just
under $100,000 annually. Urn .... which would be ....could be countered with an
estimated 59 -cent increase per household, per month, in recycling fees. So by increasing
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our .... our recycling fee 59 -cents per month, per household, we would .... we could cover
that $100,000 if that were a direction we chose to go. So, that's just -just to let you know
what that ... how you balance those costs of. ... of co -mingling those recyclables.
Throgmorton/ How would that processing be conducted? Right now we individual homeowners
typically, but ... but, uh, sort ourselves and so I put .... I'm the recycling guy (both talking)
O'Brien/ Right!
Throgmorton/ .....so, uh... but now I'll just be dumping all the recyclables into the....
O'Brien/ Into one container (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....y'all do with it after that, after it's (both talking)
O'Brien/ Currently we have a contract with Republic Services, which used to be City Carton, uh,
and then they take it to their .... their transfer station in Iowa City, which is then
transported eventually.... some of the materials are transported directly from there. Some
are transported up to Cedar Rapids to their .... to their main facility. Um...
Mims/ Basically they would do the sorting.
O'Brien/ Correct! Same as they do now.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Good!
O'Brien/ Roughly about 30% of the materials that we currently recycle are co -mingled currently.
That was 10% a year ago and we're at 30% already (mumbled)
Botchway/ Were you throwing out the number as far as mitigating the 100,000 by increasing it
by, you know, 59 -cents, that wasn't in the recommendation. So are you saying that
you're going to come to us at budget time to discuss that or....
O'Brien/ Yeah, and I think you'll see it .... I believe curbside is one that we proposed to push out
a ways in order to do outreach and it would be around budget time that we would have
those .... the coming conversations we'll be having on budget, that would be when we
would discuss that as far as what direction we wanted to go.
Fruin/ Yeah, we'll .... I think it's best to consider that fee increase during budget cause .... you
know, at this point we don't know what we may or may not need for water rates, sewer
rates, property taxes, and if it gets to the point where those become more urgent needs,
we may not want to go down this path right away. So we're not quite ready to say let's
do this now, but we'll look at it in budget.
O'Brien/ Okay, so the following are more policies and material bans that we would propose
(clears throat) that we handle at the .... at the Landfill. Uh, electronic waste, once again as
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we stated in the memo and as was pointed out here, we began recycling electronic waste
in 2003. Um, as you saw there was a graph included in the ... in the packet for those of
you that recall, with tonnages for electronic waste really on an uphill swing. Now, um....
things that we still see, and once again we're estimating around 360 tons would be
diverted, are televisions and monitors. Uh, and the reason we're targeting those two
specifically is, one, they stand out when .... when the load gets dumped at the Landfill, so
you can see it when it comes out. Uh, and two, because of the materials that they're
made out of, um, there's a lot of toxicity in both the monitors and the ... the televisions that
are something that we want to keep out of the Landfill. So, that is why we approach that.
Um, once again, it's .... while it's a relatively small number, I think because of the
hazardous substances within those units is the .... is the reason we're interested, uh, in
specifically removing the electronic waste from actual Landfill .... the fill area.
Botchway/ So what type of current education goes on as far as, you know, where you're
supposed to put televisions and monitors?
O'Brien/ Yeah, so currently we have, and Jen, you might want to speak .... you might be able to
speak more to this as far as things that have been done in the past, but .... urn, you know,
upon coming up to the scale at the... at the Landfill, um, obviously the first interaction we
have is with the scale house operator, who .... what do you have, um, you know, and if
they say, `Okay, I have a television and a monitor, some trash, some yard waste,' well, go
get rid of A, B, and C and come back with the monitors, we'll re -weigh, and then
we'll.... there's a flat rate for those items that they .... they address upon. Now, there's no
ban on those currently, so people could ... take those over and... and dump them right in
the....
Botchway/ Actually let me clarify my comment a little bit, and so as we're going to the multi-
family recycling, I'm just thinking, you know, just as the multi -family right outside of my
townhome, um, presumably electronics would not be able to go in there. I'm thinking
about students now too as we're having kind of the transient community that we have
students, urn .... how are we mitigating that concern?
Jordan/ That's a great question. I think the best example to give is with the appliances because
they are currently banned through state statute. Um, it really comes down to the haulers
enforcing it, and if they miss it when they get to the dumpster to pick it up at their .... their
townhome or their condo or their apartment, they miss it and it gets in the dumpster,
when it gets to the Landfill than .... then we, the guys generally see it, the guys down in
the hole see it. Um, but addressing the education, it really comes down to working with
the haulers and getting the word out through the University through as many student
groups as we can, landlords, general social media, general.... general City communication
efforts.
Botchway/ And then .... kind of...since you're already up, now that goes to the cardboard as well,
and so, you know, tons of cardboard. I think about the fact that if we are, I mean myself
(mumbled) personally, you know, when moving cardboard is kind of huge for me, um,
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from diaper standpoint, and so (laughter) what urn.... obviously, what urn ..... how you
gonna mitigate that concern, as well?
Jordan/ Same thing (both talking) Essentially the .... my understanding is with the communities
that are...that have already banned cardboard, there's essentially a percentage limit and if
a ... if a ... a load of waste is dumped at the Landfill and it's over .... visual quick glance of
10%, then that load is fined and it goes back on the hauler and it's on the hauler to work
with the City and tenant to educate (both talking)
Botchway/ So there's no individual responsibility as far as (both talking)
Jordan/ ...that's the front end of it is that the City will ... it's going to have to be a huge
educational outreach.
Botchway/ Okay.
Cole/ And where will they dispose of these items? Are there companies that will dispose of
them for them or...
Jordan/ So that's the great thing, we already have locations for recycling the items in particular —
cardboard and electronic waste. Electronic waste we've taken at the Landfill for
recycling since 2003. We added the East Side Recycling Center as a drop-off location in
2012. Our numbers shot up that year with Restore. Uh, Goodwill takes stuff.
There's.... there are lots of outlets for the various materials (both talking)
Cole/ ....going to the Landfill.
Jordan/ Right.
Cole/ Yep.
Botchway/ I guess from the education perspective as well, you know, access would be important
because, you know, for me it might be easier for me to drive down to Republic or, um,
the East Side Recycling Center. I think you made the comment before that the closest
place on the west side is take it to the Landfill, but for others that may not have the access
to transportation that I would have, or may not want to be carrying a whole bunch of
recyclable materials on the bus, um, you know, how that would happen, giving
communication to folks as far as how that .... how they could be able to recycle as an
individual, but may not be able to get to, you know, a certain point, so we have recycling
centers.
Jordan/ Sure. Well the cardboard one's easy. If ..if we move forward with multi -family
recycling, they're going to have it in their parking lot. E -waste could be a little bit more
difficult, in that there are still going to have to be central locations probably. Um, the
City does pick up at the curb from residents who do have curbside service. There's a
charge for it, but that is an option. Um, and then, you know, certainly the landlords we
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can work with them to find out what other communities have done and who do ... or who
have the (both talking)
Botchway/ The curbside service even applies to multi -family households?
Jordan/ No. Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that. No, it .... the curbside service that the City offers
applies to single-family homes, up through four-plex apartments. And we would pick up
appliances, e -waste, couches from those households, at a .... at a fee.
Throgmorton/ Can I ask you a naive question having to do with contamination and cardboard?
(laughs) Cause I'm the recycling guy at home, ya know, and so pizza! Pizza boxes.
Jordan/ Sure.
Throgmorton/ You know, they get contaminated with .... with food, right, with the pizza. What
are you supposed to do with the contaminated part of the pizza box?
Jordan/ Well, if we move forward with curbside organics, we could compost them. So the top
half could go in the cardboard for recycling, the top half, the clean half and the bottom
half with the grease on it could go in with the organics for composting, or it could all go
in the organics.
Throgmorton/ And this would be communicated clearly to (both talking)
Jordan/ Yes, and we ... we have some good practices with that in reaching... in working with the
commercial haulers that are doing the food waste pickup from a dozen or so commercial
entities around the community, including giant places like the University of Iowa
Hospitals and Clinics. So they've done a fantastic job of reaching out to their clients
and ... and customers there to educate them. So, we'll be looking at what they've done to
succeed.
Throgmorton/ Thanks.
O'Brien/ So cardboard we've kind of covered. (mumbled) move on to, uh, covered loads. Uh,
so the last thing as far as things that we're proposing at this time, and then we .... we've
got a couple more items to discuss, urn .... is a covered load requirement. Um, for
anybody that's come out towards the Landfill or just gone out IWV.... at certain... certain
times, uh, specifically once you get to the winter thaw time, um, you can see a lot of the
items that have blown out of the back of ...of vehicles that are strewn upon IWV or Hebl
even, as you're trying to head into the Landfill. Um, and then once you get on the
Landfill site, they even get blown out as they're... they're traversing from the scale house
down to the actual Landfill area. So one of the things we're.... we're, and there's a lot of
places that have done this, but we're proposing is a covered load requirement, which,
um .... will help assist with the blowing litter, and as you can see, we spend an estimated
$34,000 annually just to address litter, both on site and off site. Um.....now that is
required by the DNR. You're required to have all of your litter picked up, um, you know
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obviously they give you within reason to make sure that you get that done, but on a daily
basis, we go and we pick up wind-blown litter, whether it be on our property or as you,
you know, we have farms that surround our property that we have to, at times, when we
have windy days, which is why, you know, you'll get the alerts of the Landfill closing
early. Lot of that's to address the wind-blown .... the wind-blown litter issue to try to
keep it off adjacent properties so that we don't .... so we can try to be as good a neighbor
as we can to those properties surrounding us. Uh, so the requirement would be that all
vehicles bringing trash to the Landfill have their loads covered. Um, and typically what
you see is somebody shows up on site without a .... it's .... lot of them consider it a
violation. I haven't done the research or talked to Legal as far as what our .... what our
methodology would be. Um, whether we would be able to charge an additional fee or
sort of a citation to that individual when they arrive, but.... typically what you've seen is
an additional fee to people that come out to the site and they don't have a .... uh,
their... their vehicle is not covered with either a tarp or some of them have automated
covers over like roll -off dumpsters, etc.
Cole/ This might be a little granular, but I'm wondering whether you could do it like with
parking tickets, where the first one is free. Maybe a little bit more detailed than (both
talking) but would there be that (both talking)
O'Brien/ No, no, I think we'd be able .... and, you know, I didn't get into the how we would roll
this out, how we'd ... you know I think initially we would .... we'd take the time to make
sure that we educate people, not only prior to, but as they're coming through because
there's.... there's sometimes people that we're not going to be able to communicate with.
Uh, we service a lot of areas that aren't just within Iowa City, um, in order to ... to make
sure that we're educating them and, yeah, I .... I think that's a reasonable way to approach
it, much like, okay, you haven't done it in a year and a half. You're .... I think there's
ways to track that, hopefully within the software package that we .... we have not
implemented the (mumbled) software to make sure this can be done, uh, but I think
you're right, especially up front, you know, we'd go through a .... call it a grace period or
a warning period where we just continue to warn people until we get to the point that you
get so many until we move on to actual violations, or you could do it, you know, there's
things that we do with parking citations, whether it's zero, then the first one's X, the
second one's X plus 2, you know, the third one's X plus 10, where each time that you
violate it, it staggers up so that you're not .... the people that routin.... you know, regularly
forget, or that forget just on occasion, you're not punishing them. It's the people that
come out habitually and aren't following the regulations that you could .... but that's
certainly something we can look at. Uh, the last two things we have, um, plastic bags and
Styrofoam. Um ... plastic bags, and once again, we....the two recommendations we have,
just to summarize up front for these, are that we don't move on these at this point. Um...
you know, Styrofoam we don't really have a good option for it at this point. Um, unlike
a lot of other items where we have the ability to recycle those. In the area we don't really
have a viable option to .... uh.... to move forward with recycling. So without the
alternative, that made it a little bit difficult and I think too when you start looking at
priorities of things addressing from the Landfill side of things, uh, we're trying to hit
those .... those big number areas first, of things that'll have the most impact on reducing
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the waste that's going into the Landfill. And both of these, while important issues, don't
quite measure up to the amount of tonnage that we would di ... divert, um, compared to the
other items that we listed before. So, um, with the plastic bags, uh, makes up about 360
tons of the material, um ... and like I note here, there's recycling concerns, but most of..a
lot of the concerns are, uh, resource extraction, impact on wildlife, and litter. Um, this
discussion, the plastic bags discussion, has come to Council, um .... I would say prior to
my overseeing this ... the division here, but, urn .... the last time was in 2012 and I ... I put a
list of the recommendations that came at that time. uh, which were a ... plastic bag
recycling locations and advertising efforts, uh, continued creek and river cleanup
program, which we currently do, uh, replace a plastic bag rec.... place a plastic bag
recycling bin at East Side Recycling Center, which we currently have. Um ... we put, one
of the other was to organize a campaign with local grocers to decrease use of single -use
bags, which was completed .... uh, if a plastic bag ban is desired, we'd need to do
additional research, and then the last one are cardboard and electronics bans would be
more impactful on Landfill operations was one of the recommendations that came out of
the last one, which is one of the things that we're proposing at this time, as well, so ... um,
obviously this is a national issue. There's a lot of different.... lot of different
opportunities that people have taken in order to address plastic bags, ranging from bans to
fees per use to increased recycling efforts to try to capture `em, rather than moving
towards a ban of those... those actual, um, single -use plastic bags, uh, and as I note here,
we don't recommend any action at this time in order to implement the other strategies we
outlined for plastic bags. Uh, Styrofoam, once again it's a (clears throat) it's a similar
issue. Both are .... are litter issues, even at the Landfill there are things that when you see,
uh, the materials that we pick up — Styrofoam and plastic bags are two of the .... of the
higher ones that you see out there percentage wise, um, there's some local entities that
have moved away from it. You know, I included a web link that showed different areas,
cities, different states that have implemented bans. Typically you see it on the coast,
waterways, um, in those areas is where you have seen it, um, and once again, because of
the lack of recycling options in Iowa City at this time, uh, we do not propose any .... any
action, any recommended action, at this time.
Botchway/ So, Chris, I agree and disagree. I think you're, you know obviously it's your job, uh,
to look at, you know, what we can do to, you know, decrease the ones with the highest
impacts, so the tonnage is .... is regards to cardboard and electronic waste and so forth. I
do disagree on the plastic bags. You know, I feel like, um, we've been circling this issue
for .... you know, now it's two and a half years for me and then even before that, so about
three to four years. You know, I'm of the thought, and you know I'm not necessarily
talking to you but the entire Council, uh, that we move just towards a ban. Um, now I've
done some research as far as, you know, where you have the, you know, some, um .... uh,
some compost material, plastic bags that can be used.....I don't know how (mumbled)
weigh in but .... um, you know, that's not necessarily something I saw a lot of. It's just
something I thought about was an interesting alternative, but urn .... I think we need to
move forward, frankly. I think that it's something that .... I think you're right from
a .... obviously (mumbled) it's one of the, you know, the amount of tonnage, um, that goes
into the Landfill, but I .... I think this is .... is some .... I mean obviously it's an
environmental issue, but it's also somewhat of a political issue where I feel like we can
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take an action that other cities, um, progressive cities, however you want to define that
term, have already taken action on this and been successful. I haven't really seen any
type of negatives that have come from it. I have .... my concerns as far as, you know, the
folks that it, um, could possibly impact the most, as far as plastic badge.... plastic bag use,
I just feel like, you know, I mean I was a young buck not too long ago and I was carrying
for, uh, carrying bags from Walmart to, uh, whatever that place is up the street,um, I only
could do it with plastic bags. There was no other way that it would have been possible
for me to carry all those groceries. Um .... but I just feel like it's something that we need
to move forward on, so....
Cole/ If I'm wrong too, didn't we already identify and agree upon in our strategic plan that we
wanted to do that? I ... I thought we did, or at least to consider (several talking) and so
what I ... but I get those complexities with this, and that there will be a lot of pushback, so
I'm totally aware of that, and I also know that staff has .... an enormous amount on the
agenda, and I like where the staff is going with this. I'm wondering though, on
Kingsley's point, if we could .... you know, six months out have a specialized work
session on this topic, with a little bit more research and study in terms of what we can do
with the expectation that it would be sort of. ... operational, and then we would try to go
towards like 2018 or something like that, because I want to get more detail, because when
I thought we were going to consider plastic bags, that it would be more of a standalone
topic, um, as opposed to at the end of very thoughtful recommendations (both talking)
O'Brien/ Yeah, and once again, this wasn't necessarily the only way we were going to approach
plastic bags.
Cole/ Yeah.
O'Brien/ This was just ... I know that we wanted to have the discussion, but I also wanted to make
sure we got out there.... there's a lot of other things that we're looking at that we felt
would have a more impactful.... um, result to how we operate at the Landfill and ... and
trying to pull as much material out of there as we can, urn .... so .... yeah, point taken. It
wasn't .... this was not the only discussion we intended to have on it, but we just wanted to
let you know where we stood at the time with all the other items that we wanted to
address, how we felt these other two items fit into that at the time. This ... this moment in
time.
Throgmorton/ Do .... do the rest of you have comments on the plastic bag part of this?
Taylor/ I keep thinking of the 100 Grannies' presentation and I thought if you needed assistance
with like educating the public, they've got that entire presentation, and they've done a lot
of research and work on that already, uh, which is really wonderful, but I kind of agree
with you that there's so many things to do, you can just kind of take baby steps and... and
work towards that, but ... and in the meantime can educate the public on it. This is coming
so that they know. I myself I love plastic bags; use `em as lunch bags and ... and whatever
else and .... I think people would need to, uh, get a heads -up on it first.
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Botchway/ I will say I disagree, you know, I, again and I understand wanting to spend more time
talking about it, but I mean, this has been an issue that has been discussed for years now,
and you know frankly I feel like we're just... kicking the can down the road. Um, which I
don't want to do.
Mims/ I agree with you, Kingsley, and .... and I mean I spend a fair amount of time talking to and
listening to the 100 Grannies outside of our meetings here, and first of all, let me say I am
totally supportive of the stuff you're talking about banning. I ... I think the staff is
absolutely right on, I mean, you know, cardboard is something that ... that I've, you know,
I've brought up before and we've talked about, urn ... you know, I think if we can increase
the recycling with the curbside single stream, I think the organics, etc. I think those are
all incredibly positive, but I agree with Kingsley that I feel like we're just kickin' the can
down the road on .... on the plastic bags, and when you look ... I realize it's not a whole,
huge impact tonnage -wise at the Landfill. That's not the reason to do it. Obviously the
others are much more impactful when it comes there, but when you look at the
environmental impacts with those bags getting blown around, ending up in the ocean or
various waterways on the way to the ocean, etc., I think it's time that we started moving
forward. Now, having said that and with the very aggressive plan that staff has put
forward in terms of. ... diverting things from the Landfill, I'm definitely willing to cut
staff some slack (laughs) on how we can do this in a manageable way because you guys,
if we agree to this, you've just added to your workload tremendously in terms of
educating and those kinds of things, but I would like to see us come out of here with is a
very definitive timeline for this. So we're not back here (both talking)
Dickens/ Needs to be phased in because (both talking)
Mims/ I agree!
Dickens/ ....so many....
Mims/ It needs to be phased in but I think we need a timeline so we're not back here in six
months or 12 months or 18 months saying, oh, we need to have another work session to
talk about plastic bags. We're going to be doing it for the next five or 10 years.
Dickens/ I know we quit buying plastic bags at our store. We've gone to all .... paper bags, but
it's .... we're still using up the last plastic. We're going to use `em up because financially
we just can't let `em sit there and....
Mims/ Sure!
Dickens/ ...so we're .... and they're not single -use. They can be used multiple times.
Mims/ Well the way (both talking)
Dickens/ ...it's gotta be over a period of time that you (both talking)
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Mims/ And I know the 100 Grannies have sent staff some .... some ordinances that have been
done in other cities, and some of those places I know they have started like with your
really big retailers first. And then have, over time, moved it to your smaller retailers,
which gave them even more time to do, uh....
Dickens/ ...grocery stores and (mumbled) major like Walmart and some of those are the biggest
users of `em. That's where you gotta....
Mims/ But I'd be interested in having staff come back and given all the other stuff that you just
added to your plate, assuming that we approve it, which my guess is we will (laughs)
what's a doable timeline to actually put some definitive dates to the plastic ban, plastic
bag ban.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I'd like to support a lot of what's been said. I .... I'll change the metaphor
just a little big. I think we don't want to be kicking the bag down ... the plastic bag down
the road anymore, because it just gets stuck on our foot, so .... (several talking) in fact I
just bought something and they put it in a bag, and I unthinkingly walked out with the
bag in hand and, Becky Ross, if you watch this, I apologize. I know I committed not to
do it, but ... you know, it's just unthinking! So, I...I believe we really need to move ahead,
and I think you're right. We need to have a .... a time table in mind so that we don't
burden the staff excessively and yet we're... we're moving ahead.
Mims/ Making it clear that....
Cole/ Well that's why I was thinking like a standalone work session. She could come with a
proposal. We could get that feedback, and then have a time .... you know, get it done, so I
agree!
Fruin/ What we typically do is just put together a memo with a recommendation — this is how we
plan to move forward — and .... and you can choose at that point, whether to put it on a
work session or not. (several responding) But if you're just .... if you concur with
everything that we've stated, then we just keep rolling. If I'm understanding .... the .... the
sentiment of the Council correctly, you're more or less saying `we're doing this; just give
us a plan,' because that ... that matters how we frame the public discussion on this, and
when we approach retailers, it's not `hey what do you think about this.' It's `this is
happening....'
Throgmorton/ That's what I hear.
Botchway/ I agree!
Cole/ I would agree with that.
Throgmorton/ Okay. (laughter) With regard to the bigger picture, I don't know, I'm sensing a
lot of support for everything that's being recommended.
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Cole/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Yes, I mean I think.... sorry, I didn't mean to start with a concern without, you know,
giving the pat on the back, um, I was just waiting on this particular issue when it came
up, but I'm ... no, I think everything's tremendous.
Cole/ ...fantastic work, guys. (mumbled)
Dickens/ 16,000 tons is a lot.
O'Brien/ So overall then, just to make sure we understand moving forward, move forward with
everything else that we have along the timeline that we've kind of laid out here, in
addition put a memo together related to plastic bags ... solo? Or plastic bags (both talking)
Thomas/ Styrofoam, the Styrofoam and plastic bag. I .... I (both talking)
Mims/ But is there anything you can do with Styrofoam, I mean....
Thomas/ It's banning it, or coming up with a way of discouraging its use.
Mims/ What are (several talking) but what are we going to do with Styrofoam if there's no
recycling mechanism? I mean, you buy something and it's packed....it's got Styrofoam
in it. I bring it home. I don't know how they've packed it. I open the box. It's got
Styrofoam in it and you tell me I can't send it to the Landfill, and there's no recycling
options. What am I going to do with it? Store it in my basement?
Jordan/ I can at least attempt to answer that. Styrofoam bans that I've seen in other communities
are generally more ... not so much as on the user end or the Landfill. They're more for
places like restaurants, where they might .... we might consider banning, uh, Styrofoam
cups or Styrofoam plates or clam shells actually (several talking) yeah, takeout
containers.
Mims/ I'd say lets start with the plastic bags.
Cole/ I agree. I agree!
Throgmorton/ I do too. We've had extensive discussion about plastic bags (several talking) We
have not had that discussion about Styrofoam.
Botchway/ I really like Styrofoam and Diet Cokes. I want to wait (laughter and several talking)
Mims/ I don't like the Styrofoam either, but let's .... (several talking)
O'Brien/ Understood!
Throgmorton/ Good deal!
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Mims/ Thank you very much!
Information Packet Discussion [May 19, 26, June 21:
Tbrogmorton/ Bravo! Thank you (several talking) All right, I guess we can move ahead to our
Info Packet discussion so the first is May 10. Any .... any, uh, comment about May 10
items? Uh....
Mims/ That's May 19'11! (several talking)
Tbrogmorton/ Oh, bad eyes! I apologize. May 19th.
Thomas/ I've got one .... one on May 19'11 would be the, um, the memo from the City Attorney
regarding the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting on the Chauncey development
agreement. And ... I ... I would be interested in having.... some Council discussion on that
particular item.
Mims/ In what regard?
Cole/ (both talking) work session?
Thomas/ In the regard of a .... of, there was some discussion at that Parks Commission meeting
where there was, uh, an interest in exploring, uh.... limiting the scope of the easement for
the geothermal field.
Tbrogmorton/ You mean the spatial (both talking) boundary (both talking)
Thomas/ The spatial... the... the actual area that would, where ... where no construction would be
allowed, uh, due to the placement of the geothermal field. Uh, I'm not opposed to the
geothermal field. The issue here is .... um .... can .... can we allocate space for potential
development of a building, urn ... while at the same time .... pursue the geothermal field for
the Chauncey.
Dilkes/ No, we can't.
Thomas/ We cannot.
Dilkes/ (mumbled) agreement has been reached and it's a .... the agreement specifically provides
that there will be no buildings or structures.
Tbrogmorton/ So let me ask a clarifying question. So .... yeah, I haven't read all the detail
(laughs) of the agreement you have, but .... does it specify that there cannot be building,
any structure.... any building, above the field, or does it define the whole Chauncey Swan
Park as `the field' for .... for (both talking)
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Dilkes/ It does not provide a legal description of the field. But it also requires that there be... a
concept plan has been agreed to. The concept plan does not include any structures.
That's part of the agreement between the developer and the City.
Thomas/ And the agreement cannot be changed? If...if it were (both talking)
Dilkes/ Not without the agreement of the developer.
Thomas/ ...with the agreement of the developer, we could change (both talking) Right, with the
agreement of the developer, the agreement could be changed.
Dilkes/ Could be. That requires a discussion with the developer.
Thomas/ Right, exactly!
Dilkes/ (mumbled) among the Council.
Thomas/ Right.
Dilkes/ And .... and we've got two Members that are going to have to recuse themselves.
Throgmorton/ Oh yeah, from .... from, right, from this conversation we should be quiet, right?
Mims/ Given everything that's gone into getting the Chauncey ready to go, I'm not interested in
reopening any kind of discussion or negotiation with the developer.
Botchway/ Yeah, I mean I don't want to, uh, I would agree. I don't want to not keep an eye on
things. Like I don't want to just, you know, something happens and I .... I know that we
would keep our eye on things, but I guess when I was looking at this memo, I mean, I'm
looking at my notes and I just kind of asked the question `what's going on' and then I put
`harassment...' like I'd feel like to a certain extent we are.... we're.... we're getting to the
point where it's becoming problematic to revisit this issue time and time and time again.
I mean again, I don't want us to not look at this as a, you know, it's a huge project and I
don't want us to like take our eye off the prize, so to speak, but .... yeah, I would ... I would
be very wary of, you know, having additional discussion on the .... on the topic when it's,
I mean it's been discussed, agreed upon, move forward on.
Dickens/ I have no interest in doing it (mumbled) from what I'm understanding the geothermal, I
put it into my personal home. (mumbled) all the way through the front yard, underneath
the house and .... you need.....you need a certain loop area for it to be effective, and .... and
it really isn't... once it's buried under, you're.... you're pretty well set. And I don't see
that it's a problem. You just don't want to build on top of anything once you .... once
you've done that, and....
Taylor/ I think I'm kinda sensing John's concern though, I mean, it seems as though we're sort
of, uh.... giving up the concept of the public space or the green space that ... that we have,
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or had there, and I'm still having problems visualizing how they're going to, uh, show a
movie on ... on the ramp with the noise. I .... I, Gilbert Street just is so, so busy, and
(several talking) wall or something.
Botchway/ ...moving towards making sure that we're not going to have a, uh, what is it, two-lane
street, so we're moving forward on the business of the street and slowing that down.
Mims/ It would seem to me if we've got two that have to recuse, and we've got three that have
indicated.... and we've got three that have indicated they're not interested in reopening
discussions, that we're at a mute point (several talking)
Cole/ Maybe this can be (mumbled) but I'm not recusing myself for future discussions to not
involve past actions. I don't believe there's grounds for a conflict. Um...
Dilkes/ I completely disagree.
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Uh,that'll have to be resolved in a .... in some other.... context I believe. At the
moment I hear three, two. So we should move ahead to a different topic.
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Uh, any .... any other topics on the, what, May 19a'9
Botchway/ Yeah, IP2. Uh... okay so ... I don't know, I was confused by this. The
recommendation....
Fruin/ You want me to walk through the recommendation with you?
Botchway/ Yeah, well I don't want you to go through the whole thing. I guess this says like the
recommendation was that staff wasn't going to put a substantial amount of time into it,
but then it says .... I don't know what's going on with my iPad... um, it then says that....
staff is going, I mean, I guess I list here is this something that we're going to need
minutes for (mumbled) establishment of a carbon emissions reduction goal, um, staff
present goals with other communities as well as other relevant information to assist the
Council in making this determination, and then ... I .... I guess I don't know, it just seems
like .... the ch ... the task force is going to not be within Council, or not be within kind of
the City's... general (both talking)
Fruin/ No, no, no, no! (both talking) Yeah, it still would be, you know, as I .... as I envision it
with this recommendation, it would still be a Council -appointed body...
Botchway/ Okay.
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Fruin/ ...and have to comply with all those same rules and regulations that the Ad Hoc Senior
Center, uh, Committee did, Ad Hoc Diversity Committee. What I'm suggesting is a third
party facilitator, um, maybe .... uh.... may be beneficial for two reasons. One is it .... this
committee will take an incredible amount of staff time over a very extended period of
time. A year, two years. Uh, two, I think it would be helpful to have somebody with
some subject matter expertise that can help those, um ... uh, kind of corral the discussions
because a .... a committee with this type of scope can .... can really get unwieldy at times,
um, so .... we .... we recommend we at least explore a facilitator. Put a call out there;
see .... see who could offer such a service, and that could be someone from within the
community, uh, or ... or it could be someone, you know, a firm that ... that does this type of
thing, uh, as their .... as a core part of their business. So we're suggesting we go out for,
uh, proposals, uh, that Council have a representatives on that selection process, and then
we come back to you with a ... a recommendation on the facilitator and a recommendation
on the scope of the committee.
Throgmorton/ So, could I interject for a second? Uh, Geoff, you tell me if I'm wrong about this,
but uh, my understanding is that we've already set July 190' as the date for a work session
discussion focusing on this particular topic.
Fruin/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so we don't really need to process, uh, the memo and the details about it
right now, because we're going to come back to it on July 19a' during a work session.
Botchway/ I just wanted to know why. It just seemed weird (several talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, unless.... unless now you know, you know, there's a majority of you that really
want to take this a different direction then you can give us that heads -up now. Otherwise
we (several talking)
Botchway/ It just confused me, that was all!
Mims/ I just .... on IP3 and IP4, uh, heads -up to Parks and Ree staff on the recreation skills for the
Sudanese community. I thought this just ... really unique (several talking) idea for people
whose culture is totally different than ours and don't have experience with those kinds of
activities, and also, um, IN the summer fun program, uh, to give some teens something
to do and.... hopefully learn some things and ... just give them some activities. (several
talking)
Taylor/ ....77 participants in that Sudanese program (mumbled) That's amazing! That's
wonderful!
Botchway/ Quick question in relation to the teen's program — are we going to do some type of
analysis maybe. I know that we had talked about the fact that we're trying to figure out
ways of mitigating some of the, you know, issues of not having things to do, you know,
kids being kids, from that perspective. Are we going to, you know, maybe have some
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analysis, some cross analysis between, you know, maybe we're seeing some type of, you
know, juvenile issues (both talking)
Dilkes/ Kingsley, I'm sorry, but I just can't ... I can't hear you.
Botchway/ (noises on mic) ....just have one of those deep, low voices (several talking) um...
juvenile issues and doing some like cross analysis on, um .... kind of, you know,
participants in the program, but .... as we see there being participants in the program, does
it have kind of an effect on....
Fruin/ Yeah. Absolutely that'll be as .... as summer ends and we look back at the program and we
start to shape what we may or may not do next year, that'll be a critical component.
Botchway/ Okay.
Fruin/ If we're not gettin' people through the doors, or maybe we get `em through the doors for a
couple of weeks and then we lose `em the rest of the summer, then we know we've gotta
do something different.
Throgmorton/ Anything else on May 19a'? Okay, May 26.
Mims/ I would just say on IP4, um, the 1.5 million to Protostudios from the Iowa Economic
Development Authority. They'll be located in the MERGE space. Fantastic!
Congratulations! Uh, 775,000 direct financial assistance to Meta Communications, under
the, uh, high quality jobs program. So ... just congratulations to both of those!
Botchway/ I would say IPS. I know he's not here but just, you know, congratulations to, um,
Chief Hargadine. Um, I know there's going to be a time and place to kind of discuss
more, but .... I just wanted to kind of put that out there. That was in the packet.
Throgmorton/ I ... I should make a brief comment about IP #2, which is the letter sent to the
School Board on the Council's behalf. Uh, after sending that letter, uh, I had extensive
conversations with three of the Board members, Lori Roetlin, Chris Liebig, and Phil
Hemingway. Uh, and they were very beneficial conversations. I think mutually
informative, uh, kinds of conversations where I could hear clearly why they voted the
way they did, and they could hear clearly our concerns and, uh, other details pertaining to
those concerns. So, I just want you to know that other conversations have in fact taken
place. Uh, I .... my own gut feeling is that we, and the Board, face a .... very important and
very difficult issue that has been unfolding for years, and ... god, somehow we need
collectively to figure out how to respond well to it. We haven't been able to do it yet, but
we need to figure how to do it ... figure out how to do it, and it's not something we as a
Council can respond to adequately, completely. It's not something the Board can
respond to adequate... adequately and completely. We have to do it together somehow.
So, um, please talk to your friends who are on the Board, encourage them to .... I .... you
know, do what they can to facilitate discussions between the Board and the Council, uh,
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so that we can, um, move ahead productively and, uh, effectively in a mutually
satisfactory way.
Cole/ Jim, at some point you were talking about essentially subcommittees. Is that still
something that you're interested in, or would like to float, or do we want to bring it up at
our joint entities meeting? Um, any feedback on that?
Throgmorton/ Uh, well ... um ... yeah, I think we need a better.... process for interacting with the
School Board. Uh, some in .... uh, inventions, some creativity in terms of jointly
inventing a process would be very helpful. Uh, we didn't get very far in my initial
proposal, uh, and .... for, you know .... good reasons, but uh.... we need to co -invent
something that works more effectively. One thing that we're doin' right now is Simon's
at least alerting me to what's on the School Board agenda (laughs). That's a good thing,
because I don't watch every School Board meeting, you know, and .... all that, but .... uh,
we need to do better. Anything else on May 26? Okey doke. Uh, that brings us to what?
June, what is that date, June the 2"d. Trying to look at my own notes. I don't know what
y'all are doin' (laughs)
Mims/ I don't have anything.
Karr/ Is there any discussion... um, on the listening post invitation? The 14th.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, maybe this'll be a convenient segue, uh....
Karr/ That's on the June 2nd
Throgmorton/ Yeah, uh, IP 14, is that what you're referring to?
Karr/ It's after that, but yes.
Throgmorton/ After that, uh, but ... um, it connects to the, uh, IP14, the press release about, uh, the
development of North Dubuque, uh, Forest View. Uh, Rockne, I know you had concerns.
You know, this would be a time to bring (both talking)
Cole/ ....I was going to bring it up during Council time, but .... you know, when Geoff brought up
one of our original proposals for that North Dubuque project, I was really pleased what I
think the initial concept, um, but one of the things that's really come .... and I've heard
from a lot of people is that people are really upset because they haven't known what's
going on, um, and so there's a lot of fear out there in terns of what the proposal's going
to look at, so relating to the listening post, I understand that that was going to be essen...
wasn't there going to be I think a media .... I think June l It", the good neighbor meeting.
Fruin/ The developer's hosting the meeting, yes.
Cole/ June 11th
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Throgmorton/ Yeah, Parkview Church.
Karr/ Which is separate from the listening post (several talking)
Cole/ Okay. Would it make sense to do it during that particular timeframe, or should we
separate it .... okay (several talking) but in terms of the reason why there was concerns in
terms of the fear, um, Marcela Hurtado , who's a community leader, she's a founding
member of Center for Worker Justice, um, was served a notice of termination of her
trailer, uh (noise on mic) 2016. She's been a community organizer. She has been, uh,
essentially fought for the residents. She's stood up for them. She's a mother of three.
No prior disciplinary history at all, uh, the folks at CWJ were really concerned about the
possibility of retaliation due to her organizing efforts, and so there was concern about
that. Let me say this though, there was a lot of part this proposal that I really, really
liked, um, and so I was hoping that our staff would be able to reach out to Mr.....to the
developers there, uh, look into that particular matter relating to Marcela, um, to see and
also to see whether some of the residents there can have a seat at the table going forward.
I understand that there is going to be essentially a process going forward relating to this
development, but .... uh, there's still a lot of misinformation, and the second thing that I
think we're probably going to hear tonight is two of the residents were leafleting the area
and there was some threats that they'd be, uh, the police would be called. Uh, so there
are some concerning developments out there and I ... I think we need to be able to take
this very, very seriously, so I don't know if you've been able to follow up on that. I
know you had some contact with some members from Center for Worker Justice, but I
think.... people are concerned about whether the residents that live there are going to be
able to go into, uh, the new trailer court that they're proposing, which again I was very
pleased with, but I think the residents don't know whether they're going to be able to be
there and so when are we going to get those details, I think is the ... is the key thing.
Fruin/ I don't have those details either, and I .... and I think this is really .... uh, I'll speak to two
things. One, uh, I think there's a timing issue between the communication that needs to
take place between the developer, the residents, and the City, and then two, on any
harassment, intimidation, discrimination, uh, concerns, we have avenues, uh, to .... to
investigate those, and we're happy to do so. If there's harassment, intimidation, our
Police Department can sort that out. If there's discrimination, um, we have a Human
Rights office that can ... that can pursue those investigations. So I think the important
thing is to make sure that the residents know who they can contact, um .... if they want to,
um .... uh, pur... pursue, uh, the .... the, having the City step in and investigate those
matters. Uh, that was communicated today at a meeting between staff and Center for
Worker Justice, and a few of the residents out there. Um, I believe the Police Department
has already made contact with the Center for Worker Justice to make sure that the Center,
and the residents, know who they can go to if there's concerns. Uh, Stefanie Bowers has
also followed up with a `know your rights' brochure that we have that ... that talks to
residents about, um .... uh, the rights that they have as, um, renters or ... or residents in ... in
that area. So .... we can certainly facilitate that information, um, and... and hopefully let
the residents know, um, what avenues they have. Um .... uh, regarding the timing,
um ... everything that is being requested by the residents, we have suggested to the
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developer that that needs to be .... well flushed out before they approach the City, before
there's a Comprehensive Plan amendment there needs to be a clear relocation plan. I
can't dictate the timing of that. It's not going to be ready until the developers are ready
and, um, my understanding is they're going to begin starting to meet with residents. I
don't know if they're going to have a series of meetings. I don't know if this is a .... a
single meeting. That's really up to the developer. Until they formally apply for the
rezoning and the Comp Plan. That's where we can really step in and initiate that
discussion. I'm happy to meet with... residents any time, or the Center for Worker Justice.
And.... and.... and discuss what I know, but in this particular case, I don't believe that
we've had anybody on staff really meet with the developers, and .... since April,
so .... I .... I can't represent what their plans may or may not be. I think that's unfair
and .... and if we were to .... to talk about those plans in concept, I ... again, I can't guarantee
that they're still the same and we may just cause more confusion, uh, for folks. So....I
think it's just a timing issue, but rest assured, staff has reiterated in as clear a manner as
we can to the developers from day one that the relocation plan needs to be one that the
community can support, if a Comprehensive Plan amendment is going to be
sub.... approved.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, when you say that the community can support, can you be a little more
precise about that?
Fruin/ The community that you represent as elected officials. If you're not comfortable with it,
that Comprehensive Plan amendment won't go through. So ... if you feel the community
is supportive, that ... that's your call .... as elected officials. It's .... we'll provide you with
the recommendation as staff, but ultimately you're the decision maker.
Taylor/ And I was impressed with the handout we got, and I think you shared that with me when
we met last week, uh, the very first item is existing housing and talking about the Comp,
uh, Comprehensive Plan application, and it very specifically outlines some of the
concerns that need to be addressed, including, uh, financial assistance and who is going
to move and the cost and I was very pleased to see that .... that the staff had, uh, expressed
these concerns.
Fruin/ I think the developer shares those concerns. That's what they've relayed to us. You
know, the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and we just haven't seen that quite yet,
so....
Throgmorton/ With regard to the intimidation and harassment that, uh, seems to have taken
place, I mean I know Marcela too and, uh, have great admiration for her. So .... even if it
wasn't Marcela though, it .... if any intimidation and harassment is taking place up there,
it's unacceptable. So .... I gather you .... that's been conveyed to staff, rest of staff, and
there have been conversations and ... so I'm very pleased to know that. Yeah. And, uh,
Geoff and I have had various conversations indirectly... well, pertaining to what could
possibly hap... happen out at Forest View and .... uh, speaking for myself, I can say that I
have expressed a .... a .... a very strong.... desire to make sure that the, uh, residents who
currently live out there are accommodated and treated fairly by whatever the
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redevelopment is. And then the details, uh, you know, details have to be worked on.
And there are lots of questions that can very legitimately be raised about the particular
aspects of the movement of individuals from particular trailers to different trailers on
different pads, things like that, I mean there are lots of questions like that that have to be
worked out. And, that's up to the developer and negotiation and things like that, I gather.
Botchway/ I will say briefly, one of the things that I've noticed just kind of in my work at the
School District and, you know, being on City Council, we have to do, um, at times, and I
know that, you know, Geoff kind of is .... has this load as well, but .... I worry at times that
we are not providing residents with the access that they deserve as residents. And so as
an individual that may come here from another country, even an individual that may not
....they come here from another community, I want to make sure that we're not
necessarily giving the false hope, I'll use that term cause I can't necessarily think of
another term, that we're able to act on a particular issue when there are certain things in
place, and so Geoff's already outlined some of the things, but .... um, you know, a lot of
times I see these situations and so I'm not saying this is speaking to this particular
situation, but .... where you know folks will come to us and talk about a particular issue
and frankly just makes me feel stupid. I mean, folks will come to us and talk about a
particular issue. I know that I can't do anything, um, but we're not providing
information, um, to folks .... I'm not saying us, I'm just saying, you know, who's working
with them, whatever the case may be, about where to go, you know, discrimination,
Stefanie.
Mims/ Yeah, Center for Worker Justice should know, you know, about contacting police
and ... and human right's violations and ... I would think, and certainly if they don't now,
then ... then staff has hopefully made them aware of those.
Botchway/ But I'm more talking about it from a Council standpoint, when we are in these
meetings having discussions with residents, you know, I don't want it ... make sure that....
I want to make sure, and this is also with me cause I had to become more knowledgeable
about things and I'm still not as knowledgeable as I would hope, when somebody's
coming to me, I use an example — I have a person who contacted me as far as using, you
know, gym space, and I was going to sit there and hold on to it, acting like I knew what
to do with it. It's not my job, and so one of my things I need to do is present that to an
individual who can do that and facilitate that conversation. So I just want to make sure,
as Councilors, cause I, you know, I fall into that a lot, um, that we're not necessarily
bear ... or barring people from that access that I think they're, you know, entitled to have
as residents of our community. So, that's all (mumbled)
Cole/ And the other concern I had had was is that we talked about disclosing the development
plan. That has happened, and so that is ... that is good, but I do want staff to reach out to
the residents, that they can participate in this process (mumbled) community, obviously
the community as a whole we're concerned about, but I want to make sure that the
individual residents, uh, have access to staff in terms of this planning process and input
into the relocation plan cause what I'm seeing is that a lot of people are trying to think
what the residents would want, and I think again the new trailer court is a great
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development. I'm very pleased with that, but what was clear to me in talking directly to
the residents, that the residents had no input whatsoever in turn ... in terms of what was
going to happen and then once Marcela was then, uh, evicted, there was a lot of fear out
there! And so I think that was really the issue, and I think in terms of the identifying the
long-term issues, it was sort of a clear and immediate concern that they had. A lot of
them were concerned that they were immediately... they were going to call the police,
there was going to be essentially a, um, they're going to be evicted. So that's really
where the concern was, and I think we'll hear about it tonight, I mean, so they'll provide
those details, but I want to make sure that we are allowing them access to the staff in the
development process.
Mims/ I think we have to (several talking) look at what our process really is, and .... I don't think
we can just change the process simply .... and I don't mean to minimize the ... the distress
or worry that people are under, but .... we have processes and procedures that are in place
for development, whether it's a Comp Plan, whether it's a rezoning, whether it's a site
plan approval, whether it's a TIF or whatever it might be, and .... members of the public
have certain opportunities and rights to be heard and .... and be involved. I do not believe
that we have .... the.....the ability, I mean, a lot of that stuff is laid out, you know, by
ordinance and/or resolution, and .... to say because we have a particularly sensitive
situation here maybe because of low income people in an area that all of a sudden we're
going to change the process and they're going to get more involvement in or access to
or .... whatever the process, I think violates processes and procedures (both talking)
Fruin/ ....yeah, you know.... this... this particular case, uh, is a bit unique because there's been so
many proposals over the years, and ... and really a lot of public discussion on this property.
So, uh, I think it's ... it's no secret to the ... the residents or anybody else that's paying
attention in the community that there's been a desire to ... for the property owner to
develop this .... this property. Um .... uh, we ... we checked, uh, just did a quick search for
newspaper articles and there was a 2012 article that popped up that, uh, the ... the
developer, uh, the property owners were working with a different developer at that time
and they expressed very publicly their desire to start construction in 2015, and this was
their plan and it was big and exciting, urn ... you know, and .... and in that newspaper our
staff is quoted as saying our biggest question is what's happening to those residents. And
we need to figure that out. Well, guess what, that never happens, and that hap .... you
know, we get people walkin' through City Hall on a daily basis with ideas on what to do
with a particular property, um, and .... only a small percentage of them ever materialize,
and so we can't .... we can't, urn .... speak for the developer. And in this case, the
developer is not ready to file their plans. They're still changing different aspects of their
plan, or reviewing their performas or doing whatever it is they need to do. I would feel
very uncomfortable going out and trying to represent the developer. I .... I don't think
that's fair. I think that could be really misleading to the residents and I .... and I think it
would be unfair to ... to the developer as well. I'm not sure anybody's going to get any
benefit of it. I think what can take place is a general understanding .... is ..... is for us to
learn a general understanding of what the concerns of those residents are...
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Cole/ And that's what I'm talking about. I .... I'm not saying we're going to negotiate. But I'm
saying we need to reach out to the residents and listen to what their particular concerns
are and what they would like to see, so that when that proposal does come, we have a
complete understanding of what the specific concerns are (several talking)
Taylor/ ....that's my concern, I think you know I've talked about the process, I think there was a
major step missed in this process because a lot of our other developments we hear about
the neighborhood meetings they have or have had (both talking)
Fruin/ We're just not to that point yet.
Taylor/ Right, but unfortunately it was leaked to the press and that's how these folks .... but what
they wanted to do, what they want to do and what Marcela's goal, uh, was to form a
neighborhood association so that some of these folks could... could get more information,
because there's the language barrier too which is major.
Fruin/ The typical good neighbor policy takes place once you have filed for a rezoning. And at
that point the developer then does your .... what your typical good neighbor policy is, and
which staff usually attends and then we report back to the Planning and Zoning
Commission and ... and Council on that particular matter. I .... I want to say one more
thing regarding, um, understanding what the tenants' needs are and .... and we had some
tenants today that, uh, did a great job of really expressing what those.... what.... what the
concerns are and what they really want to know, and my only response I could tell `em
is .... I understand and I agree and those are the same questions that staff ll be asking and
the City Council will be asking when the developer puts forward a plan for us to formally
consider. Um, about a year ago this time, uh, staff met with representatives of the Center
for Worker Justice and .... and had a .... had a similar conversation, and the Center for
Worker Justice and the tenants out there made it very clear at that time that there was
concerns, and they all center around the issue of relocation and what's going to happen to
the folks out there. So, staff has known for .... many years that relocation is the number
one issue to deal with here, and whether it's this current developer or any number of past
developers that have come through the doors of City Hall asking about this property,
that's the first thing we tell `em! And we've got staff from a variety of departments that
can .... that can share that same sentiment with you. That question has to be answered.
We understand that. We cannot.....dictate the timeframe in which the developer prints...
presents those answers to you. Or the residents. We can only .... let you know that it's in
the works and if you have particular concerns, we're able to listen to those and pass those
on to the developer.
Mims/ I think it's really important too for those Council Members who are having contact with
people out there.... that..... you make sure that you understand the process and the
timeline on things. So when people are saying, well, we don't know; we haven't been
told — you can also understand why they haven't been told, and it's not that anybody's
trying to hide anything or anybody's trying to avoid have.... having, you know, a good
neighbor meeting or .... or sharing information, but that the developer just isn't to that
point yet. And that these are the various steps in the process. So, and I understand with
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new Councilors you haven't been through as many of these things and so you may not be
as familiar, but I would encourage you, you know, maybe to take that time to talk with
Geoff or other staff about, you know, what does happen to .... what does have to happen,
and he's outlined some of it tonight, and what order so it can ... from us, from our
perspective to these individuals who are scared and worried, we're not just reinforcing it
and saying, oh, you're being treated terribly. We can explain to them that, hey, these
things will come; we'll ask about it, you know, we'll encourage a good neighbor meeting,
etc., etc., but you need to understand that, you know, the developer hasn't even put
anything formally in place yet, so ..... you can't start complaining that they haven't shared
information with you when they don't have it all laid out yet, and so we need to make
sure that we're not escalating the fear (both talking)
Cole/ That has been conveyed and that's why you had a meeting with Mr. Fruin today, so that is
precisely why we conveyed that, so they can get that infonnation directly (several
talking)
Throgmorton/ If I could, with regard to, uh, Susan's point, uh, I want to return to something that
Marian brought up, I don't know, 15 minutes ago about, uh, a listening post that our
Council intends to conduct out in Forest View. It's my understanding that Eddie Cole
says it's fine to do it out there.
Karr/ Right, but I just want... under the circumstances, want to find out if you'd still like to pursue
it and when, because I think there is some confusion about that June 11th.....
neighborhood meeting, and the listening post, which is intended to be various community
issues, um, and inviting.... other, um, areas of the community to attend as well. So I just
want to see if you are still interested in pursuing at that location in June, or whether you'd
like another location or another time.
Mims/ I don't think we should do it there in June. I ... I think it (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Why?
Mims/ Because I think it .... I think it confuses the whole thing. I think it makes it look like the
entire purpose of that listening post is to simply deal with this issue, which we really as a
Council are not ready to deal with. The timing of the whole development process is such
that we're gonna go out there, you know, we're gonna hear all these concerns, which staff
is already hearing, and we cannot begin to address, other than to say, you know .... you
know, when they come to us for a Comp Plan amendment or when they come to us for a
zoning changes, that's when we'll have input, yet staff has already told them that
relocation is a huge issue, secondary access to the Peninsula's a huge issue .... I .... I think
it's really confusing the communication that they need to have between the ... the residents
and the developers, and the property owner, versus what our intent as a Council has been
for listening posts for broader.....not.... for broader community issues, not just one
specific issue. I think it'll get narrowed down into just one issue for one group of
residents.
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Taylor/ (several talking) ....uh, when we talked about the listening posts there was not an agenda
for a listening post and (both talking)
Mims/ Right.
Taylor/ ....discussion and this looks like it really would be .... and Mr. Cole in his memo, I think,
had said that, uh, Council are welcome to come to the June 11d', uh, if we so wished,
so....
Throgmorton/ If Councilpeople choose to go to the June 11 a, thing, not more than three should
go, I would think, and ... and uh.... probably you shouldn't be talkin', you should be
listening.
Mims/ If more than three go we cannot talk.
Throgmorton/ Right, you can't talk.
Botchway/ So I'll say this. I disagree .... I mean I see what you're saying, Susan. I disagree, just
because, you know, um.....frankly regardless of the timeframe, I mean, it's heated now,
but regardless of the timeframe, I think this issue will come up, as far as, you know,
what's going on, I mean, the question has been, as Geoff had pointed out, years coming.
I mean this is a question that always comes. I think it's a ... it's an issue ... I think it's a
place we need to go, urn .... and so I .... I think we'd actually get more folks there than we
would normally, based on the, um, based on the issue. I actually would like to go. I
think we should, um, I think going back to Rockne's point, it would be a great place to
understand concerns, and clarify I believe, um, where I think at times we .... kind of
muddy the process as far as what the City can do and what the developer has to do, and I
kind of frankly want to have that kind of discussion, maybe even an educational
discussion because so many times people come to us for certain issues. That's why it
goes .... it goes back to what I was talking about as far as.....1 mean, access, um, in that a
lot of these conversations should be happening with the developer, but unfortunately
whether it be the media or whatever else, it comes back on the City and we're left
answering questions that we, you know, have no question ... or no answer to (mumbled)
anyways, and um, it just makes us look bad, and so I want to make sure that we can tell
people that as well, and so I ... I want to have that meeting, and (mumbled) (both talking)
Cole/ ...precisely when I think these issues are percolating up that we need to talk about it, if
nothing else to clarify what we can and cannot do, and if ..if nothing else, if we're able to
just convey that nothing's set, that we're gathering information, I think that's
constructive, so I think we should have it in June.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) can you think of any reason why we should not do it on legal grounds?
Dilkes/ No, I mean I think you're certainly free to do it. I guess my one concern is making sure
that any particular individual who has a legal issue or another issue, whether it be being
faced with a termination notice or notice of eviction is .... is not .... is not under the belief
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that the City Council can do something about that, because ultimately the City Council
can't.
Tbrogmorton/ Right.
Dilkes/ That that's a decision to be made by the tenant/landlord laws that govern it, and ... and a
judge if that's where it gets to, and they may need legal representation, whether that be by
Legal Aid or whomever. So I would just caution you about that, but you certainly can
have the meeting.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I personally think we should hold a listening post out there, but there are
only three so far that .... I mean I don't know what.... Terry, what you think, or John, I
don't know what you think.
Thomas/ I would support the meeting. I think, you know, there needs to be clarity as to where
we are in the process, you know, I would .... I would tend to categorize this as kind of a
pre -planning phase that we are in, so you have to be very careful, you know, not getting
ahead of the process in terms of expectations as to how things are going to be resolved. I
think the point that simply, urn.... having Members of City Council and perhaps, uh, staff
there to hear what the concerns are of the residents would be an important gesture.
Mims/ You make a point, John, I think is really important that if we are going to do it, I think it's
important to have the staff member there.
Karr/ (several talking) We had already agreed to have staff and an interpretor.
Taylor/ Yeah, and an interpretor.
Mims/ Yeah, because I just think given the complexity of this issue and .... you know .... the
timing, the process, the steps in the process, to have somebody who actually understands
that and can explain it the best I think is really important.
Throgmorton/ I think also, uh, that two Councilpeople who go should have a set of talking points
in hand. It would be very helpful to have them provided to the staff ..I mean by the staff.
You know (both talking)
Karr/ But there will be no agenda.
Throgmorton/ (both talking) No agenda.
Karr/ Right, but the talking points, I understand. (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Suggest the 24a' of June. It's a Friday. Uh.... just to put a date out there. Uh, I
personally have not been on a listening post yet, uh, for this Council. Uh, I would like to
volunteer myself, uh, and then, uh, you know, one other person.
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Cole/ Yeah, I think that'd be perfect!
Karr/ I'm sorry?
Botchway/ I'd like to go as well.
Karr/ Okay, and that's ... in the evening would be your preference?
Throgmorton/ When it's most convenient to them.
Karr/ I'll check (both talking)
Throgmorton/ 8:30's dark or 9:00's dark, so....
Karr/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ And I think it's gotta be done in collaboration with .... people who live in the area,
if that's where we're gonna (both talking)
Karr/ I'll work with the contacts I have out there and then get back to .... Kingsley and Jim.
Botchway/ Yeah, but I also think it's an opportunity for, you know, that's the entire community.
I know we're just focused on the Forest View Trailer Park, but there's also the Peninsula
that'd be interested (both talking)
Karr/ We're going to do .... we're going to handle the listening post publicity like any other
listening post and do a general citywide .... (several talking)
Dickens/ Possible future places, have we considered ever doing the Farmers Market? As a
listening post?
Karr/ (both talking) I can certainly add that.
Dickens/ ...such a cross-section of people coming to those, whether you do it on the Wednesday
or the Saturday. Saturday's busier, but....
Karr/ I can add that to the list for consideration the next time (both talking)
Dickens/ ....considerations. I've had people that have contacted me and say that that would be a
great place to....
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're gonna have to stop there, folks, uh, so, uh, we'll retum.....uh,
forgotten (mumbled) Are we at .... did we finish June 2ad9 Yeah, so we're gonna turn to
Council time when we return. So this work session is, uh, work session (both talking)
Karr/ Recessed!
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Throgmorton/ is adjourned (several talking) Recessed! Thank you, till after the (several talking)
(BREAK FOR FORMAL MEETING)
(RECONVENE AFTER FORMAL MEETING)
Council Time:
Throgmorton/ We were at Council time, so that's where.... where we will pick up. Uh, Pauline,
why don't you start. I mean anybody can start. (several talking)
Taylor/ I'm excited cause I'm leaving for Philadelphia tomorrow for that invest... invest health
group, um, meeting with the other 50 cities there to learn about the grant process
and .... and see what some of the other cities have, uh, are planning for, um, looking at
health disparities in the low income folks, so .... excited to do that this week!
Throgmorton/ Good deal! So others?
Thomas/ Well, Jim, I'll just piggyback. You know you mentioned that affordable housing event
June 17th.
Throgmorton/ Yeah!
Thomas/ Uh, I ... I will be moderating one of the sessions, so that should be interesting. I've
never moderated before (laughs) (several talking and laughing) It's on neighborhood
revitalization session (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Good deal!
Cole/ I have a couple things that I'd like to try to get support to get on a work agenda for June
2151. Um (mumbled) is I would like the Council to consider on June 2151 for
consideration of $50,000 extra for the Rose Oaks residents. Um, in terms of the
particulars of that, I would like to explore that in a work session, but I believe that, um,
it's a major problem and I don't think that our Council, I don't think the community has
properly stepped up, um, I think there's major financial needs that are still at play, um,
and I don't think that the funds so far are sufficient, um, and so in terms of yeah or nay on
this, I'm not asking us to decide finally for night.... tonight. What I'd like to do is get it
on our work session for June 2151 so that we can more fully explore this, um, so that's the
first request that I have. Um, does anyone support me getting two other Council
Members getting that request on our work session?
Throgmorton/ I .... I have no objection whatsoever to having it on the work session.
Thomas/ Yeah (mumbled)
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Cole/ Okay.
Botchway/ I don't object to it. My only issue with it is ... is that we are having an affordable
housing discussion on the 21 s`, right?
Fruin/ Correct.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Botchway/ And that's a big issue.
Throgmorton/ Big issue.
Botchway/ Um ... but I understand from a, you know.... priority standpoint and I just .... be ready
for that night!
Cole/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Basically I'm saying, you know, if it gets to the 11:00 or 12:00 hour, I'm gonna want
to push it through. I don't want to have another meeting.
Cole/ It would be a work session, so I mean we wouldn't be having people commenting would
be my expectation.
Botchway/ Right, but again, the affordable housing discussion is a huge discussion. I ... I plan on
having a lot of questions, and so for that I'm just thinking about the meeting. We never
know what comes up, you know, in two weeks, and so I just want to make sure
everybody's ready to go. I just don't want us to have another meeting.....to talk about it.
Throgmorton/ I agree, and just to be clear with, uh, Rockne, I ... I have various questions that I
would need to (both talking)
Cole/Absolutely! (both talking) ...work session.
Mims/ I'll just say, I mean you've got your three. I'm not in favor, cause I haven't seen that
they've run out of money. So .... until you show me they've run out of money, I don't see
the point of having an additional conversation for it, so....
Cole/ Those are reasonable questions!
Throgmorton/ Okay (several talking)
Cole/ ...affordable housing discussion, are we going to include a major site plan revision as part
of that process, because I would also like to review how we do our major site plan
reservations, because .... I look at what happened with the Rose Oaks' process as a policy
failure. Uh, we have no mechanism in place at this particular time, uh, one to review
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those, and two to provide adequate notice to the residents if there's a dislocation plan.
So, I don't know if we'll address this at the affordable housing, um, discussion, but I
would really like support to consider how we do, and to see whether we can modify our
major site plan ren... renovations, um, and so I'd like to also try to get that on the work
session. If that ends up being too crowded, uh, I could certainly defer for another time
but I think it's important that we look at what happened in Rose Oaks and to see whether
there's any policy changes that we can make, uh, to ensure that the major site plan
renovations don't happen. Um, I think we could have avoided a lot of what's happened
here, and I think it's a policy failure, and I think we need to make sure that we address
that. So that's my second. And my last one (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I'd like to ask Eleanor, uh, did you intend to address that particular topic, not...
not Rockne's specific proposal, but the general topic?
Dilkes/ I had.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. So....
Dilkes/ You had asked me the question, the general question about what could ... might we do
legally to avoid the Ro... the Rose Oaks' situation and so .... I was prepared to give you a
memo on that topic in connection with the affordable housing.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and it would be a separate memo coming from you and staff, other staff
would give us a different one. So it could be ... I mean, we .... we need to see what Eleanor
provides us with and....
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ ....go from there.
Botchway/ Quick question, Eleanor. Are you, I don't know, I didn't do well on property law so
I'm not even going to sit here and talk to you about it. I didn't do well in property law so
I'm not going to sit here and talk to you about it, but are you going to talk about .... or
possibly, um, speak to the implications of. ... kind of, you know, the property rights, and
so I know that Rockne's talking about major, um, kind of displacement so to speak, but
I ... I wonder, are you going to do some analysis on, you know, what other communities,
the legality between, you know, just a regular owner of a property that may be renting out
to folks that could, you know, give .... I'm thinking about the, urn .... cottage situation in
particular, and so .... (mumbled) residents but the same type of property law.... situation is
applied.
Dilkes/ Well .... I .... I will address, um, there's a number of communities that have adopted
measures to deal with displacement from ... uh, low income housing. Um, a lot of those,
you know, the term `home rule' is used very generically, but it's anything but when you
look at the actual, um, home rule authority in some of those communities. I plan to get
into that.
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Botchway/ Okay.
Dilkes/ Explain what the boundaries of our authority, you know, for instance, some .... uh, local
communities have the power to tax. We explicitly don't have the power to tax, and that
definition has been very limited in terms of what fees we can impose. So I'm going to go
into that, and I'm going to tell you what I think .... we could do.
Throgmorton/ Excellent!
Fruin/ If I could just make one quick comment, I think as you start to prepare for that meeting
and think through it, keep in mind that the site plan for Rose Oaks has still not been
approved. So if you think that the site plan.....process can prevent what we're going
through right now, you may be looking for a solution in the wrong place. We'll get into
that, but .... keep in mind, after all these discussions, all these weeks and months, there's
still no approved site plan out there. They still have the right to not renew leases, to evict
with just cause, etc., etc.
Cole/ That's fine. I understand that.
Dickens/ You have a third or not?
Cole/ Well, looks like we're already going to have it on the agenda for major site plan (several
talking)
Dilkes/ I guess what I would suggest is that you get the memos from staff and then if your
questions are not answered or you have other ideas you want us to look at, we can....
Throgmorton/ Sounds good! Uh, so uh, I don't know, Terry, Kingsley, uh....
Simpson/ Jim, I....uh, I just wanted to say that tomorrow I have a meeting with Geoff and
Simon. I think we do it each year. I'm really excited to talk with them, try to figure out
what we're going to be doing for this next year, and uh, what I want to do this next year
is really try to realize the opportunity that students have, that you've granted us by having
this position. Um, I've heard a lot from you, uh, in past meetings that you really want us
to participate a little bit more, and I finally am trying to feel a little bit more comfortable
figuring out like what we can speak on and what not. So throughout this next year I'm
really excited to, uh, work with you and uh, I hope to (several responding)
Throgmorton/ Super, glad to hear! I .... I'd like to mention afew things that I've done over the
past four weeks, or relate to the Council as a whole. So, uh.... I .... I went down to
Alexander Elementary for that talent show that, uh, various people from Midwest One
have ... and the teachers, parents and everybody else put on ... which, uh, huge amount of
energy. It was really fun to be there. A lot of people, and uh, and in a couple of days or
so I'm going to be meet.... sorry, be meeting with the principal of Alexander Elementary
and talking with her about the school. I was interviewed by the Corridor Business
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Journal's editorial board, uh, on the 23`d of May. Did another Mayor's Walk as part of
the Lucas Farm neighborhood's tour de farm, which in itself was really fun. The ... the
Lucas Neighborhood's terrific, uh, and there's all sorts of high quality (mumbled) in all
sorts of ways, and the neighborhood organizers, uh, did a superb job of putting it
together. Lastly I ... another thing I'd mention is, uh, that, uh, Geoff and I, and I don't
know who else, so ... a whole bunch of other people contributed to the cyclo -cross world
cup video, welcome to Iowa City, that kind of thing. Yeah, it was really fun to do! And
bravo to all the people that put that together. So, meeting schedule's next I guess, isn't
it? Got a couple meetings next week.
Meeting Schedule:
Karr/ We'll have packets going out (mumbled) Thursday packet (mumbled) on, uh, on Thursday,
but on Friday you'll have, uh, materials for your special meetings on the IP and the 15d.
Throgmorton/ And there's an Economic Development Committee meeting on the 14`h. Okay,
any... any other meetings?
Dickens/ I'll report on the, uh, the Paratransit. We just had that last week and I just haven't got
all the notes in, so I'll send those to Marian.
Pending Work Session Topics IIP # 4 Info Packet of 6/21:
Throgmorton/ Okay. Movin' on. Pending work session topics. Uh, the latest version of this
adds two topics for July ... no, June .... I'm sorry, July the 511, and July the 19`h. So the 5`h
has to do with, uh, form -based code, where we want to apply it, and the 20 .... the 19`h
applies to the climate change task force, topic that we briefly discussed earlier. Okay,
uh.... anybody want to....add anything to the list? I'm not hearing anything.
Up ... upcoming community events. Council invitations.
Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations:
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Thank you! (laughter)
Cole/ I would of but I had a trial so....
Dickens/ (several talking and laughing) ...last on the list!
Cole/ That was me the other time!
Throgmorton/ I'll mention a couple things. Some CIVIC visitors from Ukraine are coming here
on the 13`h of June. Monday I guess it is. (mumbled) (several talking) And World
Refuge... Refugee Day is on June the 186'. It's going to be held over in Coralville.
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So .... interesting event. I think that's it! Are we done? Okay! Done with our work
session for the evening.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of June 6, 2016.