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Home My WebLink About2016-11-15 TranscriptionPage I Council Present: Members Absent: Staff Present: Others Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas Throgmorton Fruin, Dilkes, Karr, Andrew, Tharp, Havel, Knoche, Sovers, Yapp, Boothroy, Bockenstedt, Hightshoe, Goers Simpson (UISG) Botchway/ Before we get started I want to read a brief statement. Uh, the City Council has posted notice of a work session discussion item of Airport Master Plan. In accordance with Section 21.4(3)(b), I'd like to publicly announce that the Airport Commission is present and is meeting with Council on this subject. Discuss Airport Master Plan lIP # 3 of 11/10 packet]: Botchway/ All right, Mike! Go ahead and take it away. Tharp/ Well, good evening! Um .... we wanted to present, uh, the Airport Master Plan, the update that was just completed by the Airport Commission and a number of other folks that made up, uh, the Airport Master Plan group. Uh... this plan basically represents the next 20 years that we feel the Airport should be developed in terns of, uh, operations and facilities and .... and something that continues to be a ... a contributor to the local area, not only in terms of economic development, but in opportunities to bring people into the .... the, uh, Iowa City area to further business ventures, business ventures that are in Iowa City, to be able to get them out and across the country. So with that, we'll kinda start, uh, little bit of background. You're aware of the organizational chart. The City Council does, uh, appoint Airport Commission members. Airport Commission is responsible for the operations of the Iowa City Airport and I am employed by the Airport Commission to, uh, maintain the daily operations of the Airport. Uh, duties of the Airport again, under the Code of Iowa, um .... uh, the Airport Commission is granted the powers, the cities and towns, under the, uh, Chapter 330 of the Code of Iowa. Basically everything you guys can do, Airport Commission gets to do, except sell the Airport. The purpose of the Master Plan is a comprehensive study of the Airport. It looks at, uh, short- term, which is basically up to five years, median term up to 10 years, and long -tern, which is 10 to 20 years of develop.... development needs, uh, goals, and the Airport Master Plan will provide a direction and guidance to the Airport, uh, Iowa City Airport Commission regarding the future Airport preservation and development, uh, priorities for the Airport. Uh, it'll become .... this plan becomes the Airport Commission's strategy for those developments to occur, and it considers financial, environmental, and socioeconomic factors. Uh, one thing with the Airport Master Plan, it is governed by the federal Aviation Administration. They have a nice .... long process of requirements and things you have to do to complete an airport master plan. Um, all of those which we have done to, uh, their satisfaction. The last Airport Master Plan was completed in 96. Uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 2 that plan basically gave us the Airport as we see it today, uh, lengthened runway 7-25, uh, decommissioned the north -south runway, 18-36, and con ... began the construction of parallel taxiways to the runways. Uh, the Airport Master Plan back then, much as it does today, also calls for additional hangar development as need as funding is .... is able to consider. Um .... uh, the panning .... the planning process, we started with the Master Plan Advisory Group. That is a group that was made up of Airport tenants, businesses, uh, City administration, economic development, neighborhood representatives, and throughout that, they basically put the plan together, recommend things to the Airport Commission for final adoption. Uh, the Airport Commission then takes the whole thing, sends it on to the FAA for, uh, their concurrence. During the planning process we held two public meetings, uh, to gather additional infoot... input from the community. Uh, the first one was held kind of at the, uh, first third of the process, which basically is a forecast data collection, um, to confirm with the .... uh, confirm with the community that the data we have is .... is relatively accurate. Um, they agree with it, and then we go forward. The second meeting was after the plan was mostly put together, uh, to say this is the direction it's going, and you know, are there any comments or concerns about how the plan is .... is taking shape at that point. Uh, we also used pilot and user surveys, uh, as a way to wrap in the transient operators that come in, and it's ... it's a way to get the operators to, uh, tell us what services they're really looking for, uh, what services we have and where we might be able to improve on a user, um .... um, component. So the Master Plan, we.... basically starts looking at what we currently have, and .... and the Master Plan, as we were going into it, uh, the .... the common thought process was this is the footprint we're gonna have. We're not gonna expand the Airport to a great deal. We're not gonna, um, dramatically increase what we're doing. Uh, we've got a pretty good operation right now, but how can we further maximize what we have, and make it even more efficient. Um, again, planning considerations, uh, the airspace around the Airport, how we're protecting it, uh, development within the Airport confines, uh, ways aro.... generate revenue, um, that's also evaluating options for the hangars, uh, the financial resources that are available to the Airport, whether that's grant funding, whether that's local funding, whether that's, um, Airport -generated revenue, and uh, all of that comes together to help develop the Master Plan. Uh, one of the first things we looked at was the Airport design itself. The category of standards is to design under, and I'll show you a ... images of aircraft examples in a second, but ... uh, the .... the FAA really has two types of...of standards they're designing to. It's the critical aircraft, that is the aircraft family that's... that's conducting at least 500 operations at the Airport, and then there's the approach types, so whether you have instrument or visual approaches, and whether those instrument approaches are precish... uh, precision or non -precision. That gives us an Airport reference code and a little (mumbled) it'll get a little bit muddled. The reference code is adaptable to the runway, so each runway can have a design code as well. (coughing) Excuse me. Uh, this (mumbled) of the critical aircraft category examples so what we're .... we .... what the 96 plan had designed the Airport to was called a C2 category. That's your.... your, typically your Citations, your Gulf Stream 3s. Um, it's actually the bottom row, the third one in. Uh, and what we found over the last 20 years, we do get aircraft of that type, but we don't get enough to qualify for that type of airport. So what's happening is we're rolling back the .... the critical aircraft design, back into the B2 category. Um, that's the one where we meet that 500 aircraft operation threshold, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 3 it's doing a ... actually quite a bit of things for us, uh, which we'll kind of start going into. Uh, this is an overall view of all of the changes, um, that we expect over the next 20 years, and maybe even longer in terms of, uh, when you talk about hangar facility, uh, construction, but uh.... uh, what we're doing, uh, first and foremost is it's going to have a ....a critical aircraft design change. We're rolling back from the C2 to the B2, um .... what that does, again, it....it reflects the aircraft that are actually using the Airport, um, to that 500, uh, operation, uh, level. It doesn't prevent the larger aircraft from using the Airport. Really what it's doing is it's changing the protection zones and the .... the areas that the Airport and the FAA deem critical to the operations. Um .... by change .... uh, by instituting that change, we're actually expanding the landing distance available on runway 7. We're going from about 4,300 -feet to a little over 5,000, and there's .... uh, a couple other changes, um, that are planned in the future that can bring that up to 5,200 -feet. Well it gives you a look, uh, the red is the current, uh, runway protection zones; the bink ... uh, the pink is what they, uh, re .... uh, come back to with the runway change. So again, less land we ... uh, we have that needs the critical protections, um, opens up a few areas that we currently own that may be considered in the future, excess land that we can, uh, put back into the tax rolls, that sort of thing. Um .... uh, and it still maintains safe operations for the Airport. Um, other things along the way for 7-25, uh, again, that extension of 213 -feet, we can get a total landing distance of 5,217. That's critical for the operators. Uh, there's a lot of insurance, uh, companies that have a 5,000 - foot magic number for operations when you get into the charter aircraft. So it ... it's really key and... and critical for the Airport to be able to meet that. Uh, there's some future, uh, options that will need further, uh, study as we get to that point. There, uh, it's what.... there's what's called a `stop way' at the end of pavement. You can put that down and it's .... it's able to extend some of the, uh, declared distances for runways, which the aircraft operators, again, use, uh, some airport.... airplanes can then take on more fuel or more passengers and... and be able to operate out of the Airport. Uh, potential lighting additions, again, something else that will have to be considered as, uh, more of a cost benefit, but, uh, additional runway approach lighting, uh, could make, uh.... uh, operations in inclement weather, uh, easier to handle, so... Runway 12-30, the secondary runway, uh, doing a couple of things on that one. That will get a displaced threshold on the northwest end and a little bit of additional pavement on the southeast end. Um, what the displaced threshold does is it's gonna move that approach protection zone further in to the Airport grounds, and it's going to eliminate a lot of, uh, obstructions that are being found on the northwest side of the Airport and, uh, the City. Um, the southeast side, it really doesn't change anything, but it...it enables us to maintain the, uh, relatively close to the existing landing distance that we have. And there's a .... a visual of it right there. It's a ... it's a roughly 500 -foot displaced threshold, um, again bringing it back out of the, uh, it brings the approach pass out of the neighborhood a little bit better, so we have less obstructions to deal with there. Um, it also plans development areas for future hangar space. Here's a picture of. ... of what we've got, at least in mind for the terminal area, as it exists now. Um, as you can see, there's enough room in there for about eight more buildings, um.....we actually have the .... the, uh.... uh, southwest building under construction with a private agreement, and we're workin' with the FBO to build another, uh, storage bay, which would be on the east side of that area. On the west side of the Airport, uh, we have space to basically double the size of the Airport in terms of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 4 buildings. So, that becomes the critical, uh, aviation re ... reservation area in terms of future expansion and future need. And then we have, uh, lastly we have some room for non -aeronautical development. This could be any .... really any commercial use or any use that doesn't meet necessarily the Airport's direct operating objectives. Uh, this is ground along Mormon Trek, um .... the keys with this area, uh, leasing preserves revenue for the Airport operations, um, any of the non -aeronautical uses would still need to be essentially blessed by the FAA, and.....uh, the consideration for that, the development of that area, would likely, um, end our current farming operations. So we have to be careful of timing, um, otherwise we have a significant loss of revenue until that comes back from the .... the development side, but here's a picture of it. It's roughly about 45 -acres that could be potentially available, uh, based on the Master Plan study. One of the things coming up that the FAA's been pushing for a number of years is obstruction mitigation, making sure we have clean approaches. Um, as part of the Master Plan we do conduct a survey of the .... the approaches and we do have some items floating out there that will be working in the future to, um .... uh, essentially mitigate, and it could be anything from.... They could be trees, they could be power poles, they could be other objects. Uh, you know, fixed items are a little easier to deal with because we can .... we can light them and ... and the FAA can say, okay, you've got a light — a warning light — there. Um, if they're natural obstructions, then it's more of a ... can we trim `em or cut `em back or replace `em with something similar that doesn't quite meet that ... that, uh, height restriction area. So with all of this, obviously there's.....there's capital funding costs. Anything the FAA participates in, they participate at a 90/10 split. So that's.... that's one of the nice things. Um, as part of the Airport improvement program, uh, we do get an annual, what's called an annual entitlement of $150,000 a year. Um, that money becomes the first in any time the FAA is ... is working on .... on a project at the Airport, um, and then the FAA has their own, uh, ranking criteria where, you know, safety will trump expansion, um .... in .... in terms of the projects that they fund. State grants are also an option for some of these projects. The State grants can contribute 70 to 85% of the, uh, the awards. Um, the FAA .... or the State runs a similar program as what the FAA does on a federal scale. And again, they have their own criteria of. ... of ranking the projects that they award funding to. Uh, and then the final sheet that I have for a presentation is basically the, um, you know, it's part of the Master Plan. It .... it ends up as kind of a cost summary, um, obviously this is in kind of today's dollars, so it doesn't really count for... for future inflation, but uh, you know, over the course of the next, even 10 years, there's, uh, not that significant contribu.....contributions that ..... that we'll need from the local side to get this done, and um, you know, we look forward to working with the Council to shape this in .... ways that make it work for everybody. I guess that's not my last slide, sorry! Uh, with the ... the grants, we do ... um, obligate ourselves to certain grant assurances, basically, uh.... uh, Airport stays open, Airport's maintained for op, ... safe operations, revenue, uh, generated by the Airport's used at the Airport, uh, and then we have an obligation to, again, maintain that ... the clean approaches, the hazard removal, and mitigation. So with that, I think what the ... we had another Member of the Airport Commission here. (mumbled) more of a Q&A type session, if...if there were any other outstanding questions the Council might have had, um, I know we were able to get the .... the entire Master Plan documented to the Info Packet. Uh, if you've had a chance This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 5 to look at that. Happy to answer questions but... that's.... that's, uh, where we're at for the next few years! Dickens/ Just one question. Have you been approached by anybody about doing small commercial? I know like Dubuque and Burlington have a six to 10 -passenger commercial that goes to Chicago or St. Louis on a regular basis. Has anybody approached us about doing something like that? Tharp/ We haven't. Um, with .... with the TSA rules in effect now, I think that would take some significant capital investment that .... that really.....it.....it doesn't make it impossible to do, but it certainly makes it a lot harder to do now. Dickens/ Okay. Thanks! Botchway/ You had mentioned that there's fixed items when there's like fixed construction or buildings that, um, are in kind of that runway path, um, you .... place a warning light. Is that actually on the particular building? Tharp/ Uh, it...it can be, yes. Botchway/ Okay. Tharp/ Uh, if you .... if you look at night, uh, especially downtown, the tower cranes, uh, you'll see a bunch of blinking red lights. Uh, northwest of the Airport on some of those power poles they've already got some. Um, that ... that's really what those red lights are. Those are aviation warning lights so people aren't, you know, running into things at night. (laughs) Thomas/ Who .... who would you say are the primary users of the Airport? How would you describe that? Tharp/ Well, we still have a lot of business traffic. I .... I'd see it's a pretty good split between the University and University -related flights, whether it's medical, whether it's, uh, other departments within the University to the business community. Urn ... you know, by .... by far and large, I think the .... a lot of our users are .... are operating locally, um, with .... with, um. .... uh, the aircraft we see and the uses we're seeing, so... Botchway/ Any other comments or questions? Okay. Mims/ I'd just like to thank the Commissioners for their volunteer work cause ... these are all important roles that we .... and sometimes have trouble finding people to volunteer for, and so ... really appreciate, uh, your time and commitment to the Airport. Botchway/ Yes, thank you and thank you, Mike. I appreciate the presentation. Thank you very much. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 6 Tharp/ Thank you! Determine 2017 leaslative priorities IIP # 4 of 11/10 packetl: Botchway/ All right .... we're gonna move on to the next item in the work session. Gonna focus on determining our 2017 legislative priorities. Geoff is going to come forward and kind of give us a brief summary of the memo, even though it was pretty short. Fruin/ I'm gonna have Simon, um, start us off and just (laughter, noises in background) uh, Simon's gonna start us off and just let you know what we've done in the past, and then, uh, I spent the bulk of my day in Des Moines, meeting with, um, the Metro Coalition, which is the representatives of the 10 largest cities in Iowa and we spent our, uh, good part of the afternoon talking through legislative priorities that we share as a group, so I... I'll fill you in a little bit on .... on the conversation that I had this afternoon. Andrew/ Uh, so typically this time of year, uh, the Council adopts legislative priorities for the, um, upcoming State legislative session. Uh, generally these focus on items that are, um, not only of particular importance to us, but that we think might be bubbling up as an issue, um, at the legislator.... legislature in the upcoming year. So we try and anticipate a little bit, um, what some of the hot button issues that are gonna affect us might be and... uh, try and focus on those, uh, and as Geoff mentioned, we, um, usually indicate some measure of support also for the League of Cities and their legislative priorities, and the Metropolitan Coalition. Uh, the legislative priorities for the League are in your packet, as well. I'll briefly touch on those and then Geoff can speak to, uh, the Metro Coalition's that were, um, put out today. So the League of Cities represents, um, every city in Iowa that is a member. So, um, very small cities, very large cities, and so their legislative priorities tend to be a little bit more general. Um, you know, there are a lot of issues that affect larger cities in Iowa that don't affect some of the smaller communities. The Metro Coalition is the largest 10 cities in Iowa, and so those tend to be more, uh, narrowly focused and tend to apply more to issues that affect larger cities in Iowa and not necessarily the same across the board. Uh, so last year our legislative priorities, very quickly, um, were to ensure the financial sustainability of the public safety, uh, pension system. Um, that, uh, at the time was increasing in cost rapidly and there were some proposals at the State in previous years to add some additional State funding to that pot of money. Uh, so that was on our.....our agenda last year. Um, also, uh, providing local governments flexibility in determining revenue sources. Um, this was, um, also, uh, wrapped up in the local option sales tax discussion, uh, coming on the heels of that vote. Um, another was to increase infrastructure funding and supporting a diverse transportation network. We made sure to put something in there that, um, it wasn't just, you know, an ask for more State funding for infrastructure, but also to focus on, um, the pedestrian, bicycle, and transit facilities, as well. Um, and then we had .... to support the University of I ... Iowa's efforts to be a global leader in 215` century higher education. Uh, again we try and be as supportive as possible of, um, our local stakeholders and other, um, other organizations of which we're members or, uh, have a lot of dealings with, and the last one was, uh, as I've mentioned, to support the legislative efforts of the League of Cities and the Metro Coalition, uh, that we typically have in there but, uh, you know, not This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 7 every issue we're ... are in lockstep with all the other, uh, cities in, uh, in the state, so we can, you know, always put in a statement that differ... differentiates ourselves if there is something in their legislative priorities that we don't, uh, necessarily feel as strongly as they do about. Uh, so the Lig... League of Cities legislative priorities for this upcoming year were, um, economic development, um, and this includes a statement of tax increment financing with the State Senate, uh, switching parties this year. For the party that's in control we expect the tax increment financing will have some discussion at the, uh, the State level, and this .... that in particular is an issue that, you know, was sort of in my mind when I was talking about us not necessarily agreeing with all of our, uh, Metro Coalition partners. In the past, you know, we tend to take a little different tact on ... on that one in past years. Uh, financial sustainability was the next one, and this is similar to our statement last year of, um, allowing cities the ability for, uh, raising revenues in multiple ways and not relying on one source of revenue. Uh, water and waste water infrastructure; uh, statement about supporting Home Rule of cities; and uh, the final one from the League of Cities priorities was public safety, ensuring that cities have adequate resources, uh, to meet their public safety needs. Um, so we haven't come to you with a.....a list of recommendations for this year's, uh, priorities. We'd really like to, uh, just get your input and allow, uh, a robust discussion amongst you all and, um, we're hoping to have a draft resolution to you, um, at your December 6`" meeting. So as much direction as you can give us tonight as to what you want to see in that resolution, uh, we would definitely appreciate it. And, uh, next Geoff can speak to what was discussed at the Metro Coalition today. Those weren't available at the time of your Information Packet. Fruin/ Well we ..... we purposely waited. The .... the Metro Coalition purposely waited till after the election to have our....our meeting, um, and we're glad we did because obviously the .... the political landscape has changed dramatically, um, with the, uh, Republicans having control of. ... of the House and the Senate and, uh, the Governor's office, and so, urn ... we had a pretty good discussion. We laid out just about every issue that we think could be on the table, and then, uh, we tried to work through, urn .... uh, priorities for each city, and as a ..... as Simon mentioned, urn ... each city's .... each cities kind of put different weight on certain things, so even within the Metro Coalition, um, you'll see that there's some subtle differences, uh, in .... in how people feel about things, but urn ... before I jump into .... to those priorities, I want to ... maybe just give you a couple of, um, thoughts as you begin to process all this information. One, with legislative priorities, I think ... I .... I always personally believe the fewer the better. The more focus that we can give, the more meaningful that message is to those in ... whether it's Des Moines or Washington, uh, if you come to somebody with 10 legislative priorities, they take that sheet and they put it in a drawer somewhere that ... that's just too much for them to focus on. Um, you have to understand, just like you all have a number of constituents, uh, that you work with, with a number of different issues, so do the folks in .... in Washington and in this case Des Moines. So the more focused, I think, the better. And two, um, just so you know, you know, it's always expect the unexpected in .... in Des Moines. So, historically we may have set three or four, five priorities. Inevitably we spend most of our lobbying time on other issues, because if. ... if our issue doesn't get traction, you know, we're not gonna... we're not gonna kind of beat the dead horse and continue to push it. If we know This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 8 it's dead, it's dead, and inevitably something else that we didn't expect gets .... gets pushed up and we're either supporting that or, uh, more likely, um .... trying to state our opposition, uh, to those items. So, um.....the, uh, the .... the discussion this afternoon was very good. Uh, all cities were represented, and uh, there was a clear number one priority, unanimous, uh, from the group, and that was protecting the property tax backfill. Um, so this is the, uh, money that the State backfills from the, uh, reduction, uh, in commercial and industrial, uh, taxes, and we've .... we've covered that before, but for Iowa City that's, uh, in round numbers, $1.5 million, and uh, certainly there's a fear and a thought that, um, there's going to be a push for some tax reform, additional tax reform at the Statehouse, maybe income tax or .... or .... or other, um, tax initiatives, and they .... and they have to find a way to pay for those, and so, uh, you start to look at the different pots of money that are available, uh, the State doesn't have a .... um, a large stream of unused revenue. Everything's committed, and ... and the revenue projections aren't meeting even what they thought they would, so .... uh, they're gonna have to do a lot of cutting to achieve, um, some of their tax cut objectives, if indeed that .... those are their objectives. Um, and ... it's, uh, pretty well though arung.... around the group that, you know, backfill's going to be a number one target. Again, for us that backfill's about $1.5 million, and um, as we communicate that to our legislators, we'll put that in .... in numbers that are easier to ... to kind of understand the impact of, but, um .... you know, just to give you a sense of ...of, um, how ... how that, how big that number is for us, I would say that's roughly the equivalent of operating one fire station. It would be the equivalent of, uh, more than two- times our subsidy of the Senior Center. So we subsidize Senior Center roughly $700,000 a year. You can see that $1.5 million, when we start to talk in those terms, that's real service dollars. Um, that's not somethin' that we can just huddle up in a conference room overnight and .... and cut without the public, um ... uh, really feeling an impact in some way, shape, or form. On a statewide level, it's about $172 million, and so when you, again, you start to talk about income tax reform, um, and some of the larger initiatives that have been thrown out in the past, they're typically in numbers 500, a million, plus, and so $172 million's a big chunk of that, and um, we certainly feel it's at risk, um, and again, that's the number one priority for the .... the Metro Coalition, to ensure that that's protected. Uh, the second item that we discussed where that rose to the top was TIF reform. Uh... certainly I think, um, you know, cities view TIF as one of the only tools in the .... in the toolbox when it comes to economic development, and it's been no secret there's been TIF reform, uh, bills that have been floated every year for several years, and urn ... uh, those cities that .... that use TIF, uh, quite extensively are very nervous about, uh, what, uh, what changes, uh..... uh, tax increment financing reform may bring. Third is just what we .... we call protection of Home Rule. Um .... uh, Home Rule is really a .... a term that just recognizes the cities to govern themselves as opposed for the .... the State to take away our ability to govern ourselves. And for each city this means something a little differently. So, uh, there's a few cities that rely on, uh, automated traffic enforcement cameras, Cedar Rapids being the .... the closest one here. Um, they, uh, have an interest in maintaining their ability to, uh, deploy those cameras, uh, and that's certainly something that's already being discussed. Uh, I've seen in some of the newspaper articles. For us, uh, the biggest issue that I could draw attention to was residential occupancy. This comes up every year, but it's really our ability to regulate the number of occupants in a house based on a familial status. So part of our zoning regulations we say This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 9 no more than three unrelated, uh, may live in a ..... in a house, um, and that's been challenged the last several years, um, at the Statehouse and, um, we, uh, hasn't.....hasn't passed, obviously, but if that did, that would really impact, um, how we regulate our neighborhoods, particularly those close -in neighborhoods that have, urn .... uh, a lot of pressure from off -campus student housing. Uh... for others, uh, Home Rule means .... may mean protection of our ability to .... to leverage a franchise tax. Um, there's been discussion that that may be, um, one thing that could be at risk, and the State may seek a uniform, um, franchise, uh, tax for cities. Uh, right now that's capped at 5%, but um, they may .... may seek a lower level. Other... other items that made it, we had six priorities that we landed on ... um, so after Home Rule initiatives would be water quality and infrastructure, and we fully expect water quality is going to continue to be another issue, uh, this, uh, session, and it's really just ensuring that, um, cities are part of that equation. However they're going to collect the revenue, we're not really focused on the revenue side, but on the expenditure side, we want to make sure that, uh, some of those dollars that inevitably will be collected from residents in urban areas go back to urban areas to focus on water quality, uh, infrastructure projects. Fifth would be, uh, it was kind of lumped into personnel issues, so whether it's worker's compensation reform, pension reform, um .... any number of, uh... uh, those types of issues we expect will come up. Um, and .... and we'd just like to have a seat at the table. We don't have a proposal; we don't know of a proposal, but, um, certainly we expect that that may come up. And the sixth priority would be, um, we kind of lumped into economic development, other economic development tools, and A .... uh, those tend to be tax credits. So whether it's, um .... um, tax credits through the economic development authority at the State or historic tax credits, again, if there's a desire for the State to look for revenue, uh, to fund other initiatives that may be their priority, tax credits are one source. They could go and remove those tax credit programs or significantly reduce them, and free up State revenue, um. .... uh, to .... to fund whatever initiatives they have, so .... again, summary — backfill, TIF, Home Rule, water quality, infrastructure, uh, personnel issues, and um, other economic development, um, tools for cities. Those are the, um, Metro Coalition priorities, uh, that were discussed today. Um, I think you'll see plenty of overlap with the League of Cities. Um, from the City Manager's office standpoint, uh, I don't have any other priorities that are unique to Iowa City that I would offer you. Um, I think, um, the .... what the League and the Metro Coalition has put forward is a .... a good place for us to be, uh, but certainly if there's something that you all, uh, want us to advocate for or to look out for in a more, uh, defensive or reactive position, uh, we're happy to do that, and that can be done with, you know, through a stated priority position from the Council or just general direction to us as we work, urn .... uh, with our delegation and our, uh, coalitions, uh, this coming session. Dickens/ Has the ... the clean water in schools, I know they talked about a tax where .... has, is that part of the priorities that would help us as far as the schools getting more money so (both talking) Fruin/ Yeah (both talking) Dickens/ ...taxes would remain (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council session of November 15, 2016. Page 10 Fruin/ You know, that .... that's interesting, and .... and the cities haven't been able to really unite on what we think is the appropriate revenue source. Um, there are a lot of school districts in, uh, throughout this state that have encouraged their cities to resist the Governor's proposal, which .... which splits those dollars. Urn ... you've all heard from School Board Members here who .... who indicate there's some advantages to that type of split, given... given the bond issue that .... that faces this community, uh, next fall, but the cities have taken the .... the, I guess the position that, um, we're not going to, at least at this time, weigh in on how the State collects those dollars. We're more interested in how they spend those dollars. Now obviously if ...if a proposal's brought forward, um, and we really feel strongly against, um, you know, how those dollars are being collected, we'll step in, but we ... we all felt .... we all felt that we were in different positions because of, um, how different school districts felt about that proposal. Botchway/ All right. Um, so .... basically the way I kinda see this going .... thank you, Geoff, and Simon, for your comments is, um, we just kind of share out, urn .... whatever points that you have available, um, to bring forth for the priorities. Um, you know, Geoff, my .... my first question, I will say, is you know, since we have that last, um ... kind of prong in there about just following with the, um, Metro Coalition and the League of Cities, we don't necessarily need to talk about anything or do you think it's necessary to re-emphasize some things in our own, um, legislative priorities as well? Fruin/ I .... I would re-emphasize the ones that we feel strongly about. Botchway/ Okay. Fruin/ Urn .... certainly the backfill piece. I think that's one that you're gonna see cities across the state, uh, hammer away at pretty hard, um, especially early on to .... to, just let people know what the impact of that would be, because really what you're .... what you're looking at is service cuts or tax increases, and so one of the messages that we want to .... we want to put out there is that if. ... if we're forced .... if we lose that revenue, you're likely to see a lot of tax increases at the local level throughout the state because very few cities can cut their way out of, um, that type of number. It may be a combination of some cuts, but you're gonna see cities go and .... and tax more through property tax or franchise, uh, taxes, uh, that sort of thing. (both talking) But I would re-emphasize. Botchway/ Okay! Does anybody have any thoughts? Comments? Thomas/ Uh, I would want to, um, emphasize, you know, what ... several things that we .... I think we've been working on just in the past year, uh.... and these are more issues I, you know, they may be able to be sort of folded into the .... you know, the priorities that have already been listed here, but I'11.....I'll just mention them. Uh, I think affordable housing is an important concern, uh, and how that may be affected by State legislation. Uh, healthy food choices. We just got that acknowledgement of our progress on, uh, you know, healthy community. I would say healthy food choices would be .... is an important element in that and um .... for lack of a better term, inclusive economy. So if there are... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page I 1 to the degree that those three items are impacted and influenced by State policy or legislative action, um, they're concerns that I have cause we .... we could end up back- pedaling on, you know, some of the things we've initiated. Frain/ We certainly..... so throughout the session, urn.... the.... the Metro Coalition employs a lobbyist and, um, we get updates not only on our priorities but just any bill that would impact, uh, a (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) a city is shared with us, and so lots of times these things, uh, affordable housing, healthy food choices, those types of things that aren't on the radar right now, we don't know of any proposed legislation or any strong desire to .... to push an agenda or to pull back in a certain area, urn .... I think that's one of those things that we'd be reactive to as proposals come up. We could say, okay, this ... this looks like it would impact healthy food choices and then we would register against on that, but .... we tend to focus .... the priorities, uh, for the City on those things that have a very high likelihood of.....of coming up, with some specific proposals. Dickens/ So they couldn't be all lumped under quality of life or.... Fruin/ It could. I mean, you just.....you just want to be able .... when you convey these priorities, um, to our delegation, um, the .... the more specific the better. You know, if we come and we say, you know, protect quality of life types of initiatives, they don't really understand what that means and it's hard to translate that into action. When we talk about backfill and here's these dollars in backfill and here's what it means, that sticks in their mind a little bit more. Dickens/ So we really should push what we think we can get through. Like property tax is probably the most important. Home Rule really affects our (both talking) Mims/ Yeah. Dickens/ ....you know, all of our zoning and .... and can affect our taxes. Frain/ Right. Cole/ Well I guess, I think there's two specific things that I think we really need to focus on that are going to be signal issues. One is going to be stripping away collective bargaining rights for public employees. Um, I'm extremely concerned that that's gonna be on the agenda, and I think we need to speak very clearly that we oppose any effort to restrict public bargaining rights and collective bargaining rights for our public employee unions. Um, the second thing that I think we need to speak very clearly about is to oppose any effort to strip our County of the ability to regulate the minimum wage. I think that's likely to be one of the first legislative priorities of this new administration, um, at the State level, and I think we need to oppose any effort to do that. Um, but on that minimum wage, if they do seek to increase the State minimum wage, of course we would do that, um, but I think we do need to speak very clearly on those two issues. The third would be more offensive. I think we need to support greater, um, Home Rule authority for, uh, marijuana decriminalization efforts. Um, so those'll be the, uh, three things that I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 12 guess I would like support for, and my sense is that if the six priorities that are already identified, um .... those are likely gonna be advocated for whether we ratify them or not, um, I guess I would like to see two specific resolutions, especially on the minimum wage and collective bargaining. I don't know what people think about that for public employees. Botchway/ Let's get some other thoughts first and then come back around. Cole/ Okay. Botchway/ I want to hear what everybody else has to say. Susan, do you have any comments? Mims/ Yeah, I ..... I hear what both John and Rockne are saying, and I .... and I agree with the positions that you're both taking. But having been through this .... I think this is my seventh time now or whatever, at least sixth, and having talked to legislators and hearing their feedback from what we have given them, I agree with Geoff 100% that we need to keep a very finite list, um, that we're gonna put in our proposal and it needs to be things that we really think are going to be acted on and other things certainly that we can react to if they come up. And so I .... I'm not sure.....so from that standpoint, when .... when I look at this, um, I agree .... I agree with the Metro Coalition six. I think .... and I think there's lots of things that can come under those, and I think if you look at the ones that we had before, I mean, the municipal fire and police that comes under there, #5, personnel, um, providing local governments more flexibility and local revenue, I mean, I think that comes under the Home Rule, can .... can fit that under there, urn... increased infrastructure funding .... I'm not exactly where that's going to come in, and then the last one, and I guess it's one that .... that I would support kind of adding but .... but adapting a little bit, we had in supporting the University of Iowa's efforts to be global leader in the 21" century higher education. I'd like to see us have something that is broader in terms of K-12 .... K through the University. Um, I think we all are very much aware of the problems that the K-12 systems have had for years in terms of one, low, um, growth rates that the .... that the State has funded as well as the fact that they are consistently way behind. They continually break the law in terms of not deciding on that funding level by the date upon which they are supposed to, which puts the School Districts in a real bind in terms of their collective bargaining and, I mean, it forces them to do layoffs and then call people back, etc., etc., so I would be supportive of one of our statements just being, you know, educational funding and can let staff figure out how to word it, but not only K- 12, but of course the University. Um .... I, so I think most of ours can kind of be rolled into the Metro. I .... I think the other ones, so far that have been mentioned here, um, I think are more things that we can react to, you know, if and when they come up. Um .... I guess, because again, if we get too long a list, it gets ignored. Botchway/ Pauline? Taylor/ Well I think the .... the protecting the property tax, the backfill, I think that's a major thing and kind of hit a raw nerve when you were talking about, uh, a fire—one fire station and the Senior Center, um, I mean, previous Council worked very hard, uh, to get the #4 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 13 Fire Station and.....we would need to try to protect that and then, uh, Susan and I were just at the Senior Center today for our listening post, and I think every person that went by thanked us for our support of the Senior Center and what a wonderful place it is and... and, you know, a great .... great place and, uh, continue to help funding with that, and so that would be a major loss, and I think what .... I'd like to echo what Rockne said, course everyone knows I have a union background, uh, and as a public employee, uh, I think it goes along with what Terry was trying to say as far as, uh, quality of life. I mean, there's a very large percentage of, uh, members of our community who are the public sector employees that would be affected by that, and so I think that is a truly important thing that we need to stress because with the University of Iowa was listed as our number one employer. They're ... the majority of their employees are the public sector and they would be truly affected by that. So I think that .... that is important and we should try to include it somehow. Botchway/ Okay. Um, I would say as some people have already mentioned, the property tax backfill. I mean I think you even alluded to that, Geoff, a little bit earlier on, um, kind of in the year, um, having this kind of discussion, and so I would definitely say that's a huge thing. Um, you know, I kind of went at it a little bit different way and .... and try to add in some of the strategic planning points we bad in there, and so I, you know, before we talked about the fact that we really need to have, um, a restricted amount of items, and so I did, you know, bring in, you know, promoting environmental sti ... sustainability and talking about some of the work that we're doing now and wanting the State to have a better, uh, a bigger kind of piece of that puzzle, and in advancing social justice and racial equity. Um, you know, again, I think that we're doing a lot of work and, um, you know, staff should be commended for that, but I also think on the State level, some of the things should be happening. Um, I know that the Governor had recently talked about .... or not recently, but couple months ago had talked about, um, had some .... he was answering some questions around, um, disproportionality and talking about, you know, having police look at those disproportionality rates and I'll be honest with you, I don't know where that went, um, I know that there was a recent, um, a forum or discussion or conference around this particular thing, and so some of my thoughts go to that, but I think that, again, kind of back to Susan's comments, I don't necessarily know. That could be more kind of in response to, um, if it comes up as a .... a agenda item at the State level we can talk about. I will say that, you know, a lot of the communication that I'm seeing and in the newspaper articles and other things, uh, also focused on, you know, public rights and public employee rights, and so I do think having something, um, about that would have ... would send a strong message, and I don't necessarily think it could be wrapped into the, um .... to the personnel action that I think you talked about with the Metro .... #5, um, when you talked about some of the personnel issues along those lines and .... and so, uh, for me, taking out kind of the environmental sustainability and advancing social justice, racial equity, I would focus on those two — property tax backfill and then public employees, uh, rights for the unions, and so .... that's where I'm at. Um ... kind of as we've kind of gone through this, what are some.....I know that property tax backfill has kind of come up as (several talking) go ahead with. I feel like from what we've talked about as well we should go ahead with, um, the union, uh, pretty.....pretty proactive stance from a union standpoint as far as protecting the rights of public employees. Um.... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 14 Cole/ (both talking) ...have the votes on that? (both talking) Mims/ I think you've had three (several talking) Botchway/ Oh, it's only three. Okay! Never mind! Cole/ So, John, have you weighed in? Thomas/ I ... well that's, you know, that ... I think it's an important issue, and Pauline reinforced it with our economy, I mean it does kind of tie into our economy. It's heavily dependent on or relies on the, uh, employment of the public sector at the University, as well as on, you know, the local level, so .... you know, that .... that would, could potentially have serious implications in terns of our local economy. Aside from the rights issue. Fruin/ Um, a .... a couple things with that point. One, I think everybody expects that that issue is gonna.... gonna come up, but we have really zero idea on what it will look like. Um, and ...there could be reforms that, you know, I can't obviously speak for you, but there could be reforms that .... that we as City administration think make sense. Um, I ... I can't sit here and articulate what those would be, um .... at this point, but when you get into some of the finer points of worker's compensation laws or, um, the civil service chapter, which some would argue has some pretty antiquated language, um, in it, um, I think you just want to be careful enough to leave flexibility so that really what we want is a seat at the table, and a voice in shaping some of these things, unlikely that us here in Johnson County will get that, um, but .... but I would be really cautious about taking a .... a firm position on any rights because there.....there may be some that .... that we'd want to look at. Now for .... for several years, one of our positions has been, uh, the sustainability of the police and fire pension system, um, and what we've advocated for is we're not interested in .... in taking away rights of those employees that are in the system, but we have serious concerns about the sustainability of that system going forward, and the growth in those expenditures and the City's ability to continue to .... to.....to pay, um, those expenses going forward, and so, you know, what .... what we've argued and ... and Tom would articulate this probably a lot cleaner and better than I could, but it's a tiered system, and where new employees come in and .... and they're in a .... a system that is more financially sustainable so you don't get to the ... to the point where you're having to make the choice of, well, it's not really a choice at that matter, continue to pay your pension obligations or .... lay off or reduce staffing because you can't afford to grow your staff or to keep your current staff, because your pension obligations are going through the roof. Um .... so.....again, as you think about how you want to state and frame your, the worker's rights issue, and I get where you're comin' from, I think you want to be flexible enough, um, to.....to be able to examine those proposals as they come up. Botchway/ So let's do this. Let's, um, because I think Susan was going through kind of the resolution that we had last year, and let me kind of get Council's pulse on kind of walking through that, and, um, Susan, I'm going to kind of use what you've kind of stated to maybe change some things out, or you know, remove some things and see what This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 15 can be wrapped into the Metro Coalition piece. Um, so for example, on that first one is ensuring the financial stability. Geoff, you just talked about it. The municipal fire and police retirement system. Is that, kind of what you, Susan, said, is that something that we can wrap into the ... the Metro Coalition, or Geoff, are you still stating that's something that we need to have as a separate item? And I'm saying this kind of with the thought that we could replace that item with the property tax backfill piece. Fruin/ Yeah, I think .... I think the focus on the property tax backfill piece this year (several talking) you'd get it even more down to the details than we did with that last resolution. Botchway/ Okay. So is everybody in somewhat of agreement that we can remove the ensure the financial sustainability, wrap that into the Metro Coalition piece, and then put the property tax backfill one there? Cole/ I'm gonna agree with that. Dickens/ Yep! Botchway/ Okay, got some head nods. Um, provide local governments more flexibility in determining local revenue sources and preserve the local option sales tax, election process, and distribution formula. Urn ... I would state that that's a pretty important issue, um. .... that I think we need to keep on there. Fruin/ The only thing I'd say to that one is it's .... it's highly, highly unlikely that we're going to be afforded more taxing authority, um, going forward. Dickens/ We just don't want to lose it. (several talking) Fruin/ We just don't want to lose, urn .... that one, urn .... I .... I think it was framed a little bit more on the offensive in.,...in seeking proposals last year. I think this year you're going to find that cities are going to be much more on the defensive, whether it's franchise or any, you know, anything else. I would kee.... I would personally key in on .... I would kine of lump that into more of a Home Rule type of issue, and if something like a franchise fee discussion comes up, you know, we can hit that. If you want to keep a Home Rule piece in there, which I think would be pretty, uh, pretty wise for us to do, I would focus in on the residential occupancy, um. .... uh, perhaps the franchise or just some general probably taxation type of language, and then....really one .... one thing for you all to talk about is if you want to take a position on .... on minimum wage. That's... that's kind of a pure policy issue that you all need to ... to take a .... to take up, but if you want us to advocate to continue to allow counties to, um, enact local minimum wages, we'd be .... obviously you can take that position and we would advocate on the City's behalf on that. Botchway/ So let's go ahead and do this. Let's go ahead and replace this second one with the, um, the Home Rule, and then.....I think that we have agreement on the first two points Geoff mentioned. I don't know if we necessarily have agreement on the minimum wage. I am for that. I know that we have three. Anybody else as far as supporting that piece or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 16 is this kind of...we want to wait and kind of. ... there's a couple of issues — the minimum wage piece and I think the .... the union piece that I think we're gonna .... I'm kinda setting into a kind of parking lot that I think we want to wait and not necessarily decide on tonight. Um, but then, you know, bring it forth when we actually make that last decision at the December 6h Council meeting. Cole/ You mean in terms of the resolution? Botchway/ Yeah (several talking) Mims/ ...resolution ready to vote on though. (both talking) Botchway/ ....on December 6'h9 Fruin/ Yeah, and I would say it's not.... absolutely critical that December 6`h the decisions made. The reality is things don't really heat up at the Statehouse till .... mid-January or February even, um, so if...if it had to kick over to January I don't think that's a .... uh, the end of the world. Botchway/ Well I guess for the first two points, I mean, basically my proposal is putting that Home Rule piece in, taking the local option sales tax out, and then, you know, to Geoff's first two points, keeping those in there as kind of the discussion, and then .... I actually would say that minimum wage needs to be in there. So I would .... I would advocate for that. (several talking) Cole/ ....I would like. I mean, cause it's .... the Governor's made that a key priority, and so it's likely to be an issue. Um.... Mims/ And I would, I mean .... while on the one hand I would rather see.....one.... Cole/ Yeah. Mims/ ....one minimum wage for the whole state, um, the more I've listened to.....you know, some of the other.... people from around the state and you look at the extreme difference between some of the very, very rural areas and some of the urban areas, I think it does make different.... make a difference, um, in terms of what is a reasonable minimum wage, and also, you know, the concern that what they'll do is just set it at a very low rate, you know, only a .... only a modest increase at the state level, so.... Thomas/ We've already seen that just in Johnson County, so I think it would even be more of a concern at a statewide level (several talking) Fruin/ Well we can .... we can do a general Home Rule, but hit those three bullets specifically underneath (both talking) Botchway/ That works! (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 17 Mims/ So the Home Rule piece would have the residential occupancy, the ability to levy the franchise, and then the minimum wage. Cole/ Yep. Perfect. Botchway/ Everybody in agreement with that? Cole/ Yeah! Looks good! Taylor/ Definitely. Botchway/ I'll move on to the next one — increase infrastructure funding that supports diverse transportation network. Fruin/ I .... I would say the infrastructure discussion's less likely to be focused on, um .... transportation this session, urn .... it's more likely to be focused on water. So if we .... if we want to stick with that infrastructure piece then.....I'd focus it on the water side. And I ..... I personally think that would be appropriate to keep in. Botchway/ Appropriate to keep in? Fruin/ To keep in, yes. Botchway/ But with a focus on water? Mims/ ...focus on water. Botchway/ What are other thoughts? Everybody in agreement with that? (several responding) Okay. Dickens/ Better chance of water than.... Botchway/ Susan, I know this last one I ... I forgot what you mentioned about kind of changing it a little bit. Oh, never mind! K-12 through University. Mims/ Yeah. Botchway/ I support that change. Cole/ A 100%! Botchway/ And so, um, I mean I think you can work out on the, kind of the detail piece of that, as well. Fruin/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 18 Botchway/ And then last but not least, um .... support the legislative efforts of the Iowa League of Cities and Metro Coalition. I think that we need to keep that in there. Mims/ Yeah. Definitely! Botchway/ Okay. Um, so I ... I do want to make a, I mean we didn't.... so the, one of the parking lots was minimum wage. I really feel strongly about, um, the.... Geoff, I hear your comment about waiting to see what the State is going to do first. Again, I'm talking about the public employees' kind of union issue. (sighs) I..IA mean, personally I think we still need to make a strong statement. Cole/ Yeah, I agree! Botchway/ Um .... I know that we, I mean, John, I don't know where you're at. So you are supportive. Thomas/ I do agree. I think it's ... it is something.... Botchway/ I think we need to word it in a way that .... I mean I want to make a strong .... I want to make a strong statement, but I want to word it in a way that does, you know, allow for the fact that they need to have that discussion and .... ensure that we're .... we're very interested and very aware of the discussion that were had and we want to be a part of it. So.... Fruin/ We can word somethin' and ... and of course if. ... if you're not comfortable with the wording on December 6a' then .... we can kick it to the January meeting (several talking) Cole/ Well, and I'm thinking just .... we oppose stripping collective bargaining rights for employees. I mean I think that's what's on the table, is it not, or am I wrong on that? (several talking) ...on the table (several talking) Fruin/ ....whole host of things that could come up (several talking) Dickens/ ...pension reform could be thrown in that too so (several responding) Fruin/ If...if that's, I mean if you want to have a narrow .... a narrow focus like that, I would feel more comfortable with that, um, given my.....my past comments, but ... my sense is that, urn.... it's.... it's gonna be, it has the potential to be a much wider view than just collective bargaining rights. Botchway/ Well (mumbled) I understand your point. Let's .... let's keep a generalistic view right now. And then as we have some time over the next two weeks, we can maybe, you know, focus on how we can hone that in and .... and have a different conversation. Is that in agreement with everybody? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 19 Frain/ We'll put some language in there. Botchway/ I .... I just want to see what it looks like first. Cole/ Okay, relating to collective bargaining. Okay. (several talking in background) Fruin/ So that's six.....six priorities there, urn ... is there anything else that anybody wants to offer? Mims/ I'm missing .... I thought we had five. Fruin/ I've got backfill, Home Rule, water quality, uh, education, worker's rights, and .... and just general League and Metro Coalition support. Mims/ Oh, okay! Cole/ And maybe under the Home Rule, I mean, are we not supporting then the marijuana decriminalization? Because I know in the past some of our efforts to allow greater flexibility in the community, we've run into our Home Rule limitations in terms of whether we can do that under the criminal code. Hasn't that been the problem in the past? That we don't have the authority to do that. (several talking in background) Um, I think that's a big issue, and I'd like to at least see that in terms of an advocacy point of view, to allow us that Home Rule authority. Like for example, I don't think we have the authority to do a municipal infraction, do we? For marijuana? Dilkes/ We don't, because of the State Code provision. (both talking) Cole/ Because of the Home Rule, yeah. Mims/ I'd be supportive of adding that under the Home Rule piece. Keep that, I mean..... Botchway/ What are some thoughts? (several responding) Okay. Fruin/ I think the County has had that as a legislative priority, so we can .... look and see how they've approached it and add that to Home Rule. (several talking in background) Cole/ That's it for me! Botchway/ Any additional thoughts, comments? We have six. Cole/ I think it looks good. Clarification of Agenda Items: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 20 Botchway/ Okay. Good deal! Let's move forward. Clarification on agenda items. Pauline, I know you had a couple questions, uh, this is the time to get some clarification and ask any additional questions before we get to the agenda. ITEM 4d(4) WILD PRAIRIE ESTATES, PART SIX - RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK FOR THE WATER MAIN AND PAVING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS FOR WILD PRAIRIE ESTATES - PART SIX, AND DECLARING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS OPEN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS AND USE. Karr/ Mr. Mayor, I'd just like to note the, um .... Consent Calendar will be adopted as amended with the additional correspondence, but also removing 4d(4), uh, till a later time. ITEM 4f(10) Tobias Epstein; Katrina Wolfe; Zac Piker; Kayden Hotka; Jayden Freeman; Ian Roller; Sydney Nunnally; Sonja Liebig; Tkius Orr; Melanie Tran-Duong (Cece, Olivia, and Brian); Harley Werderitsch and Gabe Baird; Gabriel Etuma; Daquan Johnson, Clifton Kelly, Abigail McCormick, Jack Carrell, Joanna Rivera, Sejh Colton Kollasch, Erik Jones, Corrine Smith, Ana Koch, Amari Cookes, Frida Escorcia, Rachel Meehan Recycling Taylor/ It's more ... not a clarification but just kind of a comment, uh, because we received a number of, um, emails and letters from the, uh, students at Southeast Junior High regarding recycling, and I just....I wanted to commend them. I was very impressed, uh, with their letters, even though people would say, `Oh, it was a class project. They had to do it,' but, uh, it was very obvious they put a lot of thought into it and lot of things I hadn't even thought of, like the t -shirt recycling. I'd never even given that much thought or the running shoes, and .... and they had some very clever ideas that, uh, hopefully we may would be able to along with our other environmental, uh, ideas, uh, be able to implement sometime over the next few years, because that's another item too is that, you know, this is the next generation and they're concerned about the environment and I .... I... they're very aware of it and ... and what can be done to help, uh, reduce the gases and ... and so I was just, uh, very impressed, uh, with ... with their letters and .... and their ideas, so just would like to commend them. Thomas/ I .... I was impressed too and I felt what .... what's the appropriate acknowledgment of...of that in terms of the City's response. Um, but I felt something was warranted, um, exactly what that was, whether that's going back out to the school and having a conversation with the, uh, the students. Karr/ If Council's interested, um, Geoff and I just spoke about this briefly last week, I'm going to contact the school directly and see if we can possibly, um, make contact with the teacher, the class, directly, rather than trying to respond to each one. Yeah (several talking) so we'll make that contact if you're ..... so wish us to. (several responding) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 21 Thomas/ Yeah, I could see, you know, someone from our staff going and meeting with the students and, uh, you know I .... the kids are the future (laughs) (several talking) If we're serious about these issues, it needs to be acknowledged at that level. Karr/ We'll make that contact. (several talking in background) ITEM 10. ALMOST PARADISE TOBACCO PENALTY - RESOLUTION ASSESSING A $300.00 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST ALMOST PARADISE, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 11. DELI MART #2 TOBACCO PENALTY -RESOLUTION ASSESSING A $300.00 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST DELI MART #2, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 12. DELI MART TOBACCO PENALTY - RESOLUTION ASSESSING A $300.00 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST DELI MART, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 13. CREEKSIDE MARKET TOBACCO PENALTY - RESOLUTION ASSESSING A $300.00 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST CREEKSIDE MARKET, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 14. (REVISED) JOHN'S GROCERY TOBACCO PENALTY - RESOLUTION ACCEPTING A WAIVER OF RIGHT TO HEARING AND PAYMENT OF A $1500 CIVIL PENALTY FROM JOHN'S GROCERY, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 15. (REVISED) WALGREEN TOBACCO PENALTY —RESOLUTION ACCEPTING A WAIVER OF RIGHT TO HEARING AND PAYMENT OF A $1500 CIVIL PENALTY FROM WALGREEN, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) ITEM 16. (REVISED) NORTH DODGE SINCLAIR TOBACCO PENALTY - RESOLUTION ACCEPTING A WAIVER OF RIGHT TO HEARING, PAYMENT OF $1500 AND SERVICE OF A THIRTY DAY PERMIT SUSPENSION FROM NORTH DODGE SINCLAIR, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2015) Botchway/ Other comments, questions? I do have a quick couple to note, urn .... we are collapse... well, not collapsing. Combining.... combining, um, Items 10 through 14? Mims/ Oh, good! Botchway/ And then we are also combining Items 15 and 16. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 22 Karr/ 15 and 16 are different because they have paid versus the other ones. So we're just distinguishing the two types, and we'll have a motion ready for (mumbled) Botchway/ Um, and then last point, I do apologize, um, for gettin' this to you late. Um, I'm planning on making a statement, after we do the, um, Consent agenda, um, cause I would make the statement and then we'd move right into the Public Comment, instead of having that gap of time where people are trying to figure out and at least give some time to kind of walk into it, and then, um, you know, begin discussion with us. Any thoughts, comments? Everybody okay with that? (several responding) All right. Any more ... any more? (several talking) Okay, let's move on to Information Packet discussion. November P. Information Packet Discussion [November 3, 101: Mims/ I just want to thank John for the article on the urban trees. I thought that was great. Um ... I mean I grew up out in the country on a dairy farm, lots of woods around as well as the pastures. I love, you know, being out there. In fact, a week or so ago it was really funny. I .... I live on the north side and have a lot of woods out behind my house, so I'm out there with my dogs and these people are walking in my backyard, way in the woods, and I'm like `Who's out hereT And so I go around the corner of the path and this guy's walking out there and .... I admit because of the space we have one of my dogs doesn't go on a lease, but he never leaves my yard (laughs) Um, so I holler, you know, the dog's friendly and I get around the corner and I look — it's Zac Hall, and Zac looks at me and says what are you doing here? And I'm like what are you doing here (laughter) Zac is head of our Forestry Department. And he was out there with a couple of State foresters, um, cause they've been doing.....they've got some I think federal grant money or something, and so they were doing some.... looking at Hickory Hill Park, I think, and some stuff, and then somebody said have you looked at this land, out towards the interstate. So there's some .... our property borders on City property, uh, down near the end of Bristol and the pumping station and stuff, so they were out there. Um .... finding .... there's lots of invasive species out there, which I could have told them very well, but .... so, no, I appreciated the article. The more we can plant, as you've talked about, there's lots of good things, um including air quality. So, appreciated having that in there. Thomas/ I appreciate your appreciation (laughter) You know, it's a .... (several talking and laughing) there's so many, I mean, I was just, you know, in reading this, one can argue for ... for urban trees from so many points of view and this just added yet another.... support. Dickens/ Well to save some of those urban trees, we need to have a deer kill again. There seems to be .... I've had quite a few people contact me about the ... the number of deer. Andrew/ We're workin' on a count, uh, again this winter. We've had several winters in a row where we didn't have the snow cover to conduct a count. They do an aerial of the, uh, DNR does it for us, and I guess they need snow cover to be able to spot the deer so This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 23 (several talking) um, unfortunately I think we're expected to have more snow this winter than the last couple is what I've been told, so DNR's expecting to .... to get a count done and we combine that with the, uh, traffic collision data and, um, yeah, make the decision whether to go forward with a .... a culling operation or not. Mims/ Well, I can tell you there's at least one very, very large buck with a very, very large rack in my backyard (laughter) Dickens/ I think he wonders that whole area (laughter) Mims/ Yes, he does! Dickens/ He owns it! (laughter) Mims/ He's a big one. Frain/ We do budget I believe $50,000 every year in case the need arises (several talking in background) so we'll .... Simon is I think workin' with Liz Ford at the Animal Shelter, and if we can get the data, we'll present it to ya, and if you want to move forward without the data, you know, there's certainly anecdotal. We get calls and emails and I'm sure you do as well, so it's a discussion that we can have, um, come budget time or later on in the winter. Cole/ Wasn't that a pretty big issue in the late 90s, where it was very controversial? Is there been any controversy lately? Have we been receiving any negative feed .... I ..... I..... Frain/ We haven't proposed anything recently. Marian and Eleanor could probably speak to the controversy. (several talking and laughing) Cole/ ...nightmares or bad memories, but.... Mims/ Yeah, there's people who don't want to kill Bambi. Um.... Cole/ I just wanted to know (both talking) Mims/ Yeah, but..... Dilkes/ My recollection is, um .... there was general.... there was a committee that formed and reached the conclusion that something needed to be done, but it was very much about the humane way of (several talking) Mims/ ....starving to death (both talking) Cole/ It's.... collisions are huge too, so..... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 24 Karr/ And we haven't done it lately, so I think that's why you haven't heard much about (several talking) Exactly! Yeah, right. I'm sure that once a decision is made, one way or the other, you'll hear. Cole/ (mumbled) Botchway/ Okay. Anymore items for 11/3? Mims/ Just real quickly, um, 1P4, the .... good rating on our Section 8 program and what our people in the Housing, uh, Department do, so appreciate that. And then, um, IP7, the Iowa City Better Bridges Program that's going to be in January. Just want to draw attention to that. Lot of people don't necessarily look through and read through our entire packets — I don't know why, they're so interesting and enjoyable reading late at night (laughs) um, so if anybody's watching this and listening, uh, this is for businesses, organizations on, uh, developing more inclusive and diverse workforces and work environments. So, that is a day and a half program in January, um, supported by the City, by the University, and I forget who else, but would, uh, encourage people to look at it if they're interested. Botchway/ All right. November 10`h. So I'm gonna focus on the equity report, so again kudos to staff and Stefanie, you know, for putting this report together. Kudos to, you know, Council for, uh, you know, wanting this particular report, asking these type of questions. I have a number of questions, I don't necessarily kind of want any answered, but um, one particular point or comment is, uh, on page.....(mumbled) This is IP8, I think it's one, two, three, four .... the fourth page. Just talks about our diversity on our boards and commissions. I just think we need to, you know, just continually be thinking about that when we, uh, appoint boards and .... board members and commission members, um, there is a slight decline. I don't know necessarily (mumbled) we'll get an update of 2016 next year, uh, but just be thinking about that. I think it's important. I never want to be in a situation where, you know, we haven't been keeping that (mumbled) on the top of our heads when we're thinking about, you know, appointing people, so..... There are other questions I'm just gonna list out. Um, it has .... refers to the different data, you know, some of the youth related calls, you know, what was the cause of the spike, um, come on, come on, come on.....uh, what was the cause of the spike in youth related calls, but then a reduction in referrals. Um, there seemed to be, uh, overall decline as far as, um, youth charges by race. I focused, you know, on African American, black, cause that's been, uh, really put out there from a community standpoint. Also, uh, from you know the media as well. There seemed to be, when you're looking at the traffic stops by age, there seemed to be, uh, 2013, 14, 15, there seemed to be an escalation as it applies to, uh, 20 .... the age range of 20 to 29. Um, when I say escalation I don't mean to .... I just mean there seemed to be a large number from that standpoint, and so, um, again I don't .... I don't think we're going to have any answers today, but I wanted to just kind of let you know some of the questions I have and I'll send that, uh, I'll send that out, or send it to Geoff and see if we can get some answers on that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 25 Fruin/ Sure. I think there's a couple ways we can do it. If you want to submit questions, and that goes for anybody, uh, we can respond in ... in memo format, um, or if you'd want to schedule it as a work session, we can have Stefanie and uh, a few representatives from our Police Department, uh, answer questions as well. Mims/ I think actually scheduling it as a work session would be good. Just to have a .... it's just more visible in terms of the fact that we have an interest and are ... and are concerned about things, and to get some answers that also helps get those answers out to the public better than it does if we just submit questions and they give us a written response. Cole/ Well and especially after we hire the police chief, cause I know we sort of brought this up a little bit last summer, but I think for the new police chief, that'd be a great way to start on the right foot, to take this data and say, okay, proactively what are we gonna do about it? Botchway/ No, definitely. Is there any way we can wrap that into #2, um ... on the pending work session topics, significantly improve the Council and staff's ability to engage diverse populations on complex and controversial topics? Fruin/ Yeah, I think it ties into .... you know, your desire to set a goal for disproportionate I think arrests, but contacts, I mean, one of the .... one of the conversations we still need to have and I've .... I've encouraged you to wait till the chief, so I appreciate you given', you know, having the patience to do that, but .... what exactly do you mean by that? What do you really want to get at, and we have to make sure that we're on the same page in terms of what arrest means, what the charges mean, all that kind of stuff. So, um, a work session in .... in early 2017 to .... talk about the data and then Council's expectations or hopes, uh, going forward, uh, for the department, for City staff, I think would be very appropriate. Botchway/ Yeah, I think it'd be good (several talking) Cole/ ....support that. Thomas/ Yeah, I mean, there'e.... the.....the data's great. Um ... but I'm hoping we can try to develop some kind of action plan to address the data, you know, what trends we're seeing with the data, um .... because there, yeah, it does raise a lot of questions and .... at the same time.....begs the question of well, how are we going to address this. So I .... I do think sort of pulling it out and having a work session makes a lot of sense. Cole/ That'd be great. Fruin/ We'll add it to the pending list. And, uh.... Dickens/ Toward the top! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016. Page 26 Fruin/ (laughter) Yeah. Those aren't necessarily rank order on the pending list, and then if...if you want, we can go ahead and schedule something, you know, I could .... I could plug in the date in January if you want, or February, whatever..... Mims/ I would say February, after we get through some of our budget stuff in January (laughs) (several talking) Cole/ When are we going to get the recommendation .... have you made a decision? Fruin/ My hope is December 611. Cole/ Okay! Botchway/ Okay. (several talking) Any other comments about the, uh, November 101' packet? All right. Karr/ Just like to note, uh, in your late handouts tonight that will be added to your packet is the invitation from, um, the, uh, consultant on the Iowa City Park System Master Plan, and the invitation is extended to have a couple Council Members attend, and it's December 1 at the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, 7:30 to 10:30 in the morning, and I'll be happy to coordinate if you'd like to check your calendars and just get back if you're interested. Mims/ I cannot. Karr/ Just if you're interested, and that information is in your late handouts. Cole/ So we'll just email you afterwards? Karr/ That'd be great. Thank you. Botchway/ Thank you (several talking in background) All right! That's it! Have fun on break! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of November 15, 2016.