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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-12-06 TranscriptionPage 1 ITEM 2. STUDENT LEADERSHIP AWARDS ITEM 2a Longfellow Elementary Throgmorton: I wonder if our three terrific students would come up and meet me in front. (mumbled, away from mic) Hi, kids! It's good to see you again. Um ... so, what I'm gonna do is read ... the award, which has exactly the same text for each of you, and then I'll ask you to read your, uh, the pieces you've written, okay? All right! So, Fiona, you will go first, right? And again, the text is the same for all of you. (reads award) So, Fiona, why don't you read your statement first. Arnold: Hello, my name is Fiona Arnold and I'm a fifth grader at Longfellow Elementary. I want to thank Iowa City and Longfellow School for the opportunity to be here. Some of the things that make me a good citizen are being an active part in student council, doing recycling for my class, and serving on safety patrol. I enjoy helping people such as my brother with his homework, or my parents, and supporting my friends. I think events like this help make Iowa City a special place. I'm looking forward to growing up here and continuing to contribute to our schools and to our community. Thank you. (applause) Throgmorton: Terrific! (applause continues) Well done! So I forgot to say my sons went to Longfellow Elementary. It's a terrific school, one of my favorites. All right. Who's next? Ian, you're next, right? Okay, so again, I just read your award, right, so it ... it, but it has your name on it. There it is! So, would you read your statement, please? Weaver: Hi, I'm Ian Weaver, a fifth grader at Longfellow Elementary, the school I have attended since kindergarten. I am a Longfellow representative because I treat others with respect. In fourth grade, I was appointed to be a pride officer, which protects others from bullying. I play the trumpet, am involved in safety patrol, book fest, and the recycling program. I have all my homework turned in and respect all of my teachers. I volunteer at community events as well, such as the (can't hear) 5k to raise money for breast cancer. I have also represented my class in the Longfellow student council. (applause) Throgmorton: Excellent! (applause continues) Congratulations, Ian! Which turns us to Jack Kahle. So, Jack, again .... same text, but there's your name, right? So, let me get over on this side. Would you read your .... your statement? Kahle: Hi, I'm Jack Kahle. (mumbled) in the community for a lot of reasons. Here are a few of them. I have helped at the homeless shelter. I have played with some of the younger kids who lived there. I'm a recycling member (mumbled) and in third grade I was in student council. This summer my neighborhood had a music festival. Me and my friend, Ian (mumbled) lemonaid stand. We made $174 and donated all of it to the Cedar Valley Humane Society. Ian and I also volunteered at a (mumbled) at Terry Trueblood. (mumbled) when they were done running. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 2 That's why I'm a good community leader. Thanks for giving me this opportunity. (applause) Throgmorton: Well done, Jack! So I'm confident there are very proud parents in the room. There's some right over here. There's a brother too that's pretty proud, and.... there's a proud mom right there and a proud mom, proud dad, and a proud brother! Wow! Anybody else? (laughter) Proud sister, oh my gosh! (laughter) I apologize, I almost skipped you! Okay, so well done, kids! Keep it up! You're doin' great work! All right! (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 3 ITEM 3. SPECIAL RECOGNITION a) Housing Trust Fund Thank you Throgmorton: Okay, so I'm gonna stay up here because Tracey Achenbach's gonna come up here to, uh, give, uh, the City of Iowa City a plaque, right, Tracey? You want to do it from there or come up here? Why don't you come up here? Achenbach: Oh! (several talking and laughing) Throgmorton: Just do it right there! (laughter) Achenbach: Um .... so, hi, Mayor, Council... staff; Ashley, I haven't met you yet. Um ... I'm here on behalf of my board. I have a couple of board members behind me — Jerry Anthony and Larry Wilson. Uh, Mary Ann Dennis, of course, is an advisory member, as someone who was key in starting the Housing Trust Fund, and as you have heard me say, it is phenomenal what you are doing in regard to affordable housing and your dedication to it. So my board wanted to recognize you. So the plaque says: In recognition of outstanding support to affordable housing, presented December 2016 to the City of Iowa City City Council. Ji ... Jim Throgmorton, Mayor; Kingsley Botchway, Rockne Cole, Terry Dickens, Susan Mims, Pauline Taylor, and John Thomas. Um, Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, Board of Directors, and we deeply, sincerely thank you, uh, for the commitment to affordable housing and we hope it's just a start, and the plaque, if it were a lot bigger, I would include a lot of other folks, um, your staff of course because they're key in all of this, and the Housing and Community Development Commission, but anyway, this is .... we just wanted to say thanks, and I'm sure I speak on behalf of all of my peers who work in affordable housing as well. (applause) Throgmorton: Are these other guys gonna say something too? (unable to hear responses, away from mic) (laughter) So .... yeah! Come up, and I don't know, somebody might want to take a picture. That'd be great! Oh, Peter's gonna do it! Sorry. Can we (several talking) Let's not block everybody out. (several talking) I don't know, you could hand .... hand me the plaque. (several talking and laughing) So I'd just like to say that, uh, Geoff Fruin.... our City Manager and the rest of our staff deserve most of the praise for this, but we're happy to accept it on their behalf and on the City of Iowa City's behalf. Okay! (several talking) Mims: Thank you very much! (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 4 ITEM 3. SPECIAL RECOGNITION b) Henri Harper Induction into Iowa African American Hall of Fame Throgmorton: We have another person we want to recognize. Henri, where are you? Would you come up here, please? (applause) So we want to, uh, give a Certificate of Recognition to Henri Harper, and I'm really pleased.... tremendously please to be able to do this. So, let me read some text for you first and then give you the award, Henri. So the Iowa, uh, American..... sorry! Iowa African American Hall of Fame was founded in 1995 in Des Moines, Iowa, by the Connect Foundation, which is an incorporated non-profit network of volunteers that promotes improved community relations. The purpose is to recognize outstanding achievements of African Americans with respect to enhancing the quality of life for all Iowans. It is their hope that such achievements will serve as an inspiration to all populations and that each person can make a contribution through dedication, persistence, and the pursuit of excellence. At the 21" annual induction ceremony held on November 4, of this year, the organization recognized Iowa City Police Community Outreach Assistant Henri Harper. In recognizing Henri, the organization wrote: He has empowered youth and families, enabled challenged youth to meet seemingly insurmountable goals in school work. He has been exemplary in efforts to bring community support to inter -agency cooperation between law enforcement, community residents, and students. So, tonight it's my great, great pleasure to recognize Henri with his ... with this certificate, honoring his induction into the Iowa African American Hall of Fame. (applause) Harper: Well I .... I do have to say something, cause I've always said everything I've always done within this community. I accept this on behalf of all the kids and families that I work with, and also to be able to work in a community to support all kids, being able to succeed and push through (mumbled) goals and directives. So, I'm very grateful and thankful, and I'm really proud that I'm actually at this point able to perzoo.... pursue the work that I continue to do by working with the Iowa City Police Department and I thank the City government and the Iowa City Police Department for now making me feel part of the family. (applause) Throgmorton: Thank you, Henri! (applause continues) Well that was so much fan .... so much fun to do, uh, but now we have to do work! (laughter) So I want to thank all of you for coming out to .... on this cold night, you know, winter's finally, uh, comin' around the corner. Uh, but thank you for coming, uh.... to your City Hall to see how your City government's workin' to try .... and try to influence what we do. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 5 ITEM 5. COMMUNITY COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). [UNTIL 8 PM] Throgmorton: This is a moment when anybody who wants to make a comment about any item, anything that's not on our published agenda, uh, can feel free to do so. I'd like to ask you to keep your comments to not more than five minutes. And, uh.... make sure it's not about a topic that's already on our agenda. So, good evening! Nyren: Good evening! I'm Judy Nyren and the three of us are representing the neighborhood organizations and we attend the Neighborhood Council meetings, and uh, so we've got several things we just want to thank the City for, for the cooperation between the City of Iowa City and those neighborhood organizations, and we speak on behalf of other neighborhood, uh, associations. I'm Judy Nyren, I represent Lucas Farms. This is Nancy Carlson and she represents College Green, and this is Lorraine Bowans, and she represents Longfellow Neighborhood. First we want to thank you. The Mayor of the evening, Henri. Uh, he attends some of our meetings, and we always like to hear the good ideas he brings and the discussion that he brings to certain elements of our .... our neighborhood concerns, and we're appreciative that his position has been raised from a part-time to a full-time position, so we want to thank you for that and we also just want to thank Henri for the contributions he's made. And then, uh, we also just want to give a general thanks to different, um, organizations within the City. I know that our particular neighborhood has benefited from cooperation with the Streets Department, and I'm sure others have as well as we appreciated the, uh, Mayor Throgmorton's walk through the neighborhoods, and in our particular neighborhood you rode on our Tour de Farm bike ride, and we've also had a lot of cooperation with the Parks and Rec Department, as well as, uh, the Transportation Department, uh, in our neighborhood at least on the, urn .... Lucas Farm's history day. So, with that in mind, we just really want to express a thanks and there's going to be a few more comments that she'll thank a few significant people too. Bowans: Well I'm Lorraine Bowans from Longfellow and I was one of the organizers for the Longfellow Neighborhood Association, which was made possible from the hard work and dedication by Marcia Bollinger. We wanted to thank her. More than anything Marcia's been with the City and with the neighborhoods since the beginning. She has been the most tremendous asset to keeping the neighborhood asa.... associations going, and would not have been as successful as it is without her. So we want to thank the City for supporting her and supporting the neighborhoods. We also want to thank you for increasing the PIN grants to back to what they originally were. Um, some of the neighborhoods, ours included, struggled when we lost the money to print newsletters that go out to our .... our community. Here's an example of Lucas Farm's newsletter, and by the additional PIN grant money, hopefully we can get the newsletters printed back to all the neighbors. Um ... we have 900 -some households in Longfellow neighborhood alone, I believe. I think that's what Marcia told me. So, not everybody does This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 6 Facebook, not everybody does Next Door, although Next Door is an excellent service that your .... that has come out through the neighborhood association. So we just wanted to really show you our appreciation for supporting the PIN grants and supporting Marcia, and all of us in our neighborhood associations. We're very thankful. Throgmorton: Thanks to all of you. Uh, Judy, would you say hi to that fine veterinarian doctor of yours! (laughter) Anyone else? Nations: Hi, Brenda Nations, Sustainability Coordinator, and.... Hightshoe: Tracy Hightshoe with Neighborhood Services. Nations: Uh, we're here to give you an update and to introduce you to our new AmeriCorps team. Uh, we .... they came in September and AmeriCorps is, uh, a State .... state-wide program. It's our first, uh, year in Iowa City. There's seven other cities across the state. It's a federally -funded program and, uh, we have been working together, along with Pat McKay, uh, who is also the site supervisor with me. We have five AmeriCorps members that we'd like to introduce you to. Um, Aren (mumbled) say your name right (unable to hear response) Calton, Aren Calton. We have Kai Hedstrom, Emily Mueller, and Michael Delp, and Michael Delp's gonna give you an update on what they've been doin' with our .... our publicly -owned, uh, housing. Michael! Delp: We have the privilege, and the pleasure, to be doing, uh, audits on all the City - owned properties, the single-family, uh, low-income housing. Uh, for energy audits we check for asbestos and we measure for correct levels of insulation. Uh, during our audit process we make sure that the water heater and furnaces are running, uh, correctly and there's no carbon monoxide problems. Uh, during our audits we replace aerators, shower heads that need to be reduced to our lower flow, and this can be reducing water usage in these properties by 60 to 30%... depending on the shower heads, they're usually 60 and the aerators are usually 30. Um, and we replace LED light bulbs also and .... we're kind of switching out incandescent light bulbs and these can be 87% more efficient. And .... let's see, and our status update so far, we've completed 35 of the City properties, and we've changed out 30 ... or 78 incandescent light bulbs with LED light bulbs, 51 low -flow aerators, uh, 10 low -flow shower heads, and we've sealed 681 square inches of leakage areas in these houses so that they're more efficient and more .... uh.... sort o£.. just efficient for the homeowner, and we also do outreach events. Uh, we do tabling at the Farmers Market. We do invasive species remo... removal. We've done seed collection at Kent Park, uh, alternative energy talks at City High, and we've helped tree keepers plant some trees around the area. Tbrogmorton: Excellent! Well done! (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 7 Hightshoe: We just wanted to thank you. This project is, um, we have 91 hou... housing units. This makes us better stewards of the property that we own and that house our tenants and it's better for the tenants and so ... thank you! Throgmorton: Great! Thank you, Tracy. Thanks, Brenda. Thanks, Michael, and everybody else with AmeriCorps. Anybody else want to speak? Brandon! Ross: Hi, I'm Brandon Ross, uh, from Iowa City. I, um.....a number of things this week, uh, brought me to, urn .... a quote from Henry Giroux, uh, about, uh, our government and, uh, public versus private, uh, interests. And I ... I will read a little portion for you. I thought it would be, uh, related to things going on. It's about Flint, Michigan. As you know that privatization has created a catastrophe in their water situation. What the Flint catastrophe reveals is a survival of ...of the fittest ethic that replaces any reasonable notion of solidarity, social responsibility, compassion for each other. Flint makes clear that rather than considering the lives of black children just as sacred as those of white kids. Our current system considers harming them defensible. Chris Hedges concurs that the crisis in Flint is far more ominous than lead -contaminated water. It is systematic of the collapse of our democracy. Corporate power is not held accountable for its crimes. Everything is up for sale. Including children. Cities like Flint and Ferguson hold a mirror to the fact that America is indeed at war with itself. For they reveal the civilian casualties of racist class war. The people, families, and whole communities whose existential struggle is to convince the rest of the country and the world that their lives matter too. Under a regime of neoliberalism, impoverished communities are not only increasingly defunded and abandoned, they are under siege, and their modes of resistance have been cauterized, subject to criminalization, harassment, surveillance, and police violence. As we have learned from the scandalous condition of the public schools in Detroit and many other collapsing public institutions in our country, the victims are mostly children who are forced to spend their days in economically ravaged schools and communities, and lives ... they live in environments contaminated with health - compromising toxins. The characteristics of this wartime regime are all around us. The domination of financial self -interests, the elimination of social safety nets, the criminalization of communities of color, and an economically disadvantaged, the impunity of police violence, the internalization of the terror wars and its invasive surveillance machine. The selling off of public goods to private, and corporate interests, increasing debt, the continued impoverishment of larger segments of the population, the relentless, perpetuation of environmental racism, and growing unemployment for large numbers of young people. In our own state, we have a governor who is fighting public education, defunding. We have a party that cares only for finance. Market versus society. In our own town, we have these problems. I encourage people to form agency, to work with government, that government means something, to come to the City Council meetings. In the City Council meeting tonight there are about 60 people in what you might call the audience. But there could be more of you. We can enlarge the City chambers over here. We have to fight for education, public .... all our public This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. am places. The commons, we have to fight for them. We should not privatize them. We should beware. My daughter's in, uh, City High School. She's a sophomore. Class sizes there are 30 to 45 people. That's a lot. When I was in school, back in the dark ages, we had maybe 20....25 kids. We have to protect our population. So I bring up Flint tonight and Henry Giroux's quote, uh, from America at War With Itself to draw attention to our own city, to our Councilors, our management — that we must close ranks and form a critical mass of agency against tyranny. And I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Throgmorton: Thank you, Brandon. Anyone else? Seeing no one else, we'll move to Item 6, Planning and Zoning Matters. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 9 ITEM 6. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS ITEM 6a PLEASANT VALLEY AND NAGLE LUMBER — ORDINANCE CONDITIONALLY REZONING PROPERTY FROM INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL (CI -1) ZONE AND PUBLIC (P-1) TO RIVERFRONT CROSSINGS — SOUTH GILBERT DISTRICT (RFC -SG) ZONE FOR APPROXIMATELY 8.52 ACRES LOCATED AT 1225 S. GILBERT STREET, 1301 S. GILBERT STREET, AND 1201 S. GILBERT STREET. (REZ16- 00002) (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Throgmorton: This is second consideration but staff has requested expedited action. I should, uh, ask if there's anybody has had any ex parte conversations? No? No. Okay. So..... Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally passed be suspended, that the second consideration and vote be waived, and that the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time. Thomas: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Thomas. Discussion? Hearing none, uh, roll call. Motion carries 7-0. Mims: Move the ordinance be finally adopted at this time. Dickens: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Dickens. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 10 ITEM 7. FRAUENHOLTZ-MILLER PARK — RESOLUTION APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE FRAUENHOLTZ-MILLER PARK PROJECT 2016, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS a. PUBLIC HEARING Throgmorton: I'll open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Julie..... Seydell-Johnson! Good evening. Seydell-Johnson: We're having technical.... there we go! (several talking) (mumbled) Frauenholtz-Miller Park, um, located at .... 4329 St. Patrick's Drive. There we go! The three -acre park located up by St. Patrick's Church, um, acquired by the City in 2007, uh, City staff along with consultants from Shive-Hattery worked on this park design throughout the summer. We had a public meeting up on site, which had about 60 or 70 of the neighbors come, and the number one thing we heard was thank you (laughs) and maybe get this built quickly. Um .... and then it was approved by the Parks Commission, or recommended by the Parks Commission in October. Mims: And Terry's absolutely thrilled! Dickens: Yes! (laughter) I got a garbage can two or three years ago and so this is really good to see the rest of it finally.... finally catching up, cause it's ... it's been a vacant lot for quite a few years with no improvements. So it's .... very nice to see. I don't live in that neighborhood, but I....L....I go by there on a regular basis and it's, uh, be a nice addition to that area. It's .... it's a growing.....growing neighborhood. Throgmorton: Julie, do you have apointer there at hand? Seydell-Johnson: I do, yes. Throgmorton: Yeah, could you just describe, you know, point to the various features of this particular plan and where St. Patrick's Church is and.... Seydell-Johnson: Very simple park design. The one thing we heard clearly from the neighbors is they love the view of the church. So the church is up to the north of the park, uh, they love the open view of the sky .... of the skyline or the open space up there, and they wanted to be able to have this open lawn area. They see a number of soccer teams, flag football teams, whatnot practice up there, so we kept about half of the park open. Um, there's paths that go through, walking paths, a small playground, uh, slightly larger than what we put (coughing, difficult to hear This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page I1 speaker) Highland Park last summer, but similar to that. Um, some berms around that area for people to watch, to sit on, and to picnic on, and then we did two small shelters instead of one larger one, thinking this was more for the families and neighbors in the actual area to walk into the park with their, um, picnic lunch or to watch the kids play. Uh, the berms on this side make it so that you could be in the shelter, either watching the soccer practice going on in the open part of the park or watching younger children play down on the playground. Thomas: It looks like the pathway on the northern edge of the .... the play area, uh, the walkway is broken up into, urn .... separate flags so to speak. Is it .... does it ... does grass grow between them (both talking) Seydell-Johnson: No, it's actually stamped concrete, just to give it some different color and to pick up on the architecture of St. Pat's Church. Throgmorton: Okay, any other questions for Julie? I don't hear any. Thank you, Julie! Would anybody else like to address this topic? I don't see anybody else so I'm gonna close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Dickens: Move the resolution. Mims: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Decken... Dickens, seconded by Mims. Discussion? Mims: Just happy to see it moving forward. Tbrogmorton: Me too! Thomas: This is one that Terry had asked us to move .... move up at our budget discussions last year, so .... (both talking) Dickens: Runnin' out of time so I guess (laughter) Thomas: Just under the wire! Throgmorton: So what are you gonna do out there? What are you gonna do out there? Dickens: Take my grandkids out and play in the park! Botchway: And play soccer! (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 12 Throgmorton: Well let me know when you're goin' out there (both talking) ...witness it! (laughter) Okay, so, uh, I closed the public hearing, we have a motion on the floor. No further discussion? Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 13 ITEM 8. DOUGLASS STREET AND DOUGLASS COURT WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT PROJECT - RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE LOCATION FOR PROPOSED SIDEWALKS AS NECESSARY TO COMMENCE FINAL DESIGN SERVICES FOR THE DOUGLASS STREET AND DOUGLASS COURT WATER MAIN REPLACEMENT PROJECT Throgmorton: Uh, so .... introduce yourself, please. Sovers: Uh, Scott Sovers, Senior Civil Engineer. Throgmorton: Thank you, Scott. Sovers: Yes. The Douglass Street and Douglass Court water main replacement project generally includes the replacement of an aging six-inch water main that has a history of breaks. Since 1992, there have been approximately 10 to 15 water main breaks, uh, causing residents to be without water while the main is repaired. Because of the emergency nature of these repairs, there's an increase in cost which negatively impacts, uh, operating budgets. In August of last year, the City hired a consultant to perform preliminary and final design services, including the preparation of construction plans for the project. With the absence of sidewalks within the neighborhood, the desire to meet ADA, City code, and complete street requirements, the preparation of a con... conceptual sidewalk layout was included in the scope of services. The intent was to have a sidewalk layout that not only could be, uh, constructed on a future project, but it would also ensure that current, uh, project improvements wouldn't be in conflict with the future sidewalk. Upon completion of the water main, uh, preliminary design, uh, it was determined that temporary easements for all 53 properties within the neighborhood were required to properly connect existing water services. Given the disruption the project would have on the residents, the adopted streets, uh, complete streets' policy and desire to foster healthy neighborhoods throughout the city, sidewalk construction was incorporated into the project. On December 10th, uh, 2015, the City held a public open house for the project. At this meeting, the preliminary plan for the side .... for the water main and sidewalk was presented. The plan included five- foot sidewalks on both sides of Douglass Street and Douglass Court .... which is shown in the ... on the slide. Subsequent to the public open house, questions, comments, and concerns received from the neighborhood regarding incorporation of sidewalks. Hearing these concerns, sidewalk widths were reduced to four -feet, and (mumbled) preserve existing trees and landscaping, while allowing for enough room for snow storage. Preferred distance for snow storage is eight -feet from street to sidewalk, with six-foot being acceptable. On April 28th, 2016, the City attended a neighborhood meeting to provide an update on the project and to answer any additional questions. Uh, based upon additional comments received, three options were developed. They were as follows: four -foot sidewalks on both sides of Douglass Street and Douglass Court, four -foot wide sidewalks on one side of Douglass Street and Douglass Court, and then the third one was This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 14 elimination of sidewalks on both sides of Douglass Street and Douglass Court. In order to aid in the analysis of these options, an independent arborist was hired to determine the health condition of the existing trees located within the project limits. Forty-seven public trees and private trees were analyzed. Of the 47 trees, 36 were categorized as extreme high or moderate risk were rec.... and were recommended for removal. The storm damage that occurred this June, as shown in the picture on this slide, supports the recommendation received. In addition to the tree assessment, we also reviewed other factors and public concerns. The first one being parking. Currently on -street parking is permitted on the north side of Douglass Street and on the south side of Douglass Court. Private amenities such as landscaping and fencing will either be removed and reinstalled as a part of the project or the property owner will be compensated through easement negotiation process. Lastly, providing adequate distance between the street and sidewalk for snow storage. As noted on the slide, these distances may be adjusted at isolated locations to protect existing trees. That leads us to the recommendation. Staff's recommendation is to move forward with option 2, four -foot sidewalks on the north side of Douglass Street and the inside, generally the north side, of Douglass Court. Under this option, the sidewalk would be on the same side as the proposed water main and would be constructed within the existing right-of-way. Lastly, no additional tree removal above what is required for water main construction is needed for the proposed sidewalk. And this is, uh, a picture of the, uh, proposed option, which basically has sidewalk on the north side of Douglass Street and then on the north side of Douglass Court, um, primarily where the ... the water main is located. Guess at this time I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Throgmorton: The .... the specific information about the trees is new information to me, uh, so wonder if you could take us back to that slide. Sovers: Sure! Throgmorton: Uh, so there are many other trees in the neighborhood, I guess, right? So you only looked at ones that are... either in the public right-of-way or .... (both talking) Sovers: Or within the project limits. Throgmorton: Within the project limits. Sovers: Right. Throgmorton: And you found 47 trees, right? Sovers: Correct! Throgmorton: And so you're tellin' us that 36 of them were cate.... categorized as ... as, uh, at risk, of ... of, uh... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 15 Sovers: Correct. Throgmorton: .... recommended for removal. Sovers: That's correct. Throgmorton: And the other 11 recommended for further assessment, right? Sovers: Correct. Throgmorton: So, I'm very aware that ... and we'll get into this in a few minutes, but I'm very aware that many residents really like, uh, the shadiness and safety and security associated with the trees, and there're all sorts of other benefits we .... which we all agree to and recognize. Sovers: Right. Throgmorton: So, uh.... I .... I need to be absolutely confident that.....if a tree is going to be removed, it really has to be removed. So, you know, is .... is there some way you can.....elaborate on the analysis that your arborist did to make sure we know that we're getting a good recommendation from the arborist. Sovers: Right. So they did an independent analysis of each tree and they fill out a form. It's a pretty extensive form that .... that looks at different, urn .... um, different aspects of the tree, um, and then they .... then it goes down through and has a score for each tree, and that's how we came up with .... and he actually worked with our arborist, um, to kind of develop just a ... just a summary of those independent analysis. So..... Throgmorton: Okay! Uh.....does anybody have questions (several talking) Thomas: On the trees, my .... my understanding is the ... the only trees that are going to be removed, aside from the assessment, are those that are necessary in order to install the water main. Sovers: That's correct. Yeah. Thomas: And then the, um.....couple of questions I had would be were the traffic speeds and traffic volumes looked at? As a part of this project as well? Sovers: That's correct. Yep. It.....they were, I mean they're fairly low because of the... the, um, the way that the subdivision's set up. I mean it's a loop street and then the other street, uh, Douglass Court .... or Douglass Street, I'm sorry, is .... is in fact a dead-end street. Thomas: Do you remember what the speeds and volumes were? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 16 Sovers: Uh, I believe the posted speed out there is 25. I'm not... sure what the volumes were. Thomas: But the....did you do the actual speed test to see what the actual speeds were? Severs: We did not do a speed test. Throgmorton: Anything else? Thank you, Scott. Sovers: Thank you. Throgmorton: I'm imagining some neighbors would like to address this topic, uh, would anyone like to speak? Good evening, Paula. (several talking away from mic) Paula, before you begin speaking, I'm going to get the resolution on the floor. Yeah, which, uh..... Mims: I'll move resolution. Throgmorton: Thank you. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Um ..... there we go. It's on the floor. Swygard: Okay, um, I don't know that I need to go through this in detail. You have all seen it. It was sent to you ahead of time. Uh, brought it up in case you have any questions about anything that I put in there for you. Um, I do want to thank you all for, um, listening to us as we've worked through this. I want to thank City staff, especially Scott, who has been just tremendous to work with. Urn .... I'm sure there are many times he thought oh, not this woman again, um (laughter) but he's been very patient, um, explaining things to me. Urn .... I also want to thank you quickly for your investment in the University neighborhood partnership, and one other little thing. I notice that you're initiating a city-wide, uh, tree inventory. Just got news of that and so .... I thank you for that. Um, basically, um, this project from the start imposes, um, today's standards in a physical setting that was developed in the 1950s. These lots are small. The houses are very small. Uh, we're in a mature environment, and um .... there was very little regard for the context when the original plan was developed; that, uh, with option 2 is now under consideration, and urn ..... we are a loop design. We have very low traffic. People walk in the streets all the time. There's no concern. Kids play in the street all the time. My daughter played in the street, uh, many, many years ago. And we have a history of struggling in the neighborhood with unneighborly behaviors that are perceived as a threat to personal property and to personal safety. Um, the application of the complete streets policy appeared to lack any flexibility, and I think that's one thing that you need to address, not just for this neighborhood, but This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 17 for other neighborhoods, mature neighborhoods where you plan to put in sidewalks. Regarding the tree study, which, um, isn't something new that has been released. Um (clears throat) when they mention the number of trees, they are lumped together in one .... in, as extreme, high, or moderate. Those aren't broken down as far as how many are extreme, how many are moderate, urn .... (clears throat) It doesn't talk about whether the study results would be the same in a similar, older neighborhood where you have established trees. Are there any differences? Um (clears throat) the reality is any tree can fall or break. Urn ... the, uh, picture of the downed tree in the storm, now this neighborhood went through the tornado. We were affected by that in 2006, and many of our .... my neighbors here tonight did have problems with trees. It was a tornado. The storm that is referred to and pictured here happened in July of, uh, July 6a', just this past year, and, um, according to Ron Knoche, he would say .... he said, and I'm quoting from an article here, um, the downed trees were mostly in western Iowa City, south of Highway 6. It wasn't just our neighborhood that was affected by this. And he said probably more damage in that event than they've seen in recent past events. So I don't think we should hold this neighborhood to any different standards than other neighborhoods affected by that storm in particular. Um (clears throat) my last, uh, comment because there are other neighbors here is if you choose option 2, which is sidewalks on one side of Douglass Street and one side of Douglass Court, I really encourage you to move them closer to the curb. No matter what standards are being quoted. This neighborhood is different, very shallow lots, urn .... there is still, I believe, enough stack space if you allow four - feet. And I've pictured in, uh, this presentation that I sent to you, the original plans do show that they were placed closer to the curb. Okay. Any questions for me about anything that I sent you? Mims: I would like to ask one question. Would you characterize it to be the consensus of the neighborhood, members of the neighborhood, that the preference is to see no sidewalks at all? Swygard: Yes. Mims: Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Paula. Does anybody else want to address this topic? Good evening! Falk: Good evening! Uh, my name's Mark Falk and I live at 435 Douglass Court. Um, which is on the back end of the curb. Urn ... I'm, I want to speak in favor of option 3, no sidewalks. As Paula was saying, kids play in the street all the time. For us, heavy traffic is about a car an hour. Urn .... it's effectively a cul-de-sac. Urn ... we have a fine sidewalk. It's 20 -feet wide, paved, City plows it every so often (laughter) It works for us. Um, I'm concerned also about, uh, if you run a sidewalk around, then you cut across driveways. Okay, that eliminates the option to park two cars in your driveway, which will then force me or my partner to park our car out on the street, and this would be true for a lot of people. Therefore the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 18 parking density would go up dramatically, and the snow removal stack space becomes burying my car, and .... I'm not really in favor of that sort of thing. Um, I'm 62 and I have a bad back. I don't need any more shoveling. Um ... so I hope you'll take a look at that and .... go for option 3. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Mark. Anyone else? Bell: Hi, I'm Cathy Bell and I live at 434 Douglass Street and um, thank you for this opportunity. I would like to echo everything that both Mark and Paula have said, and I would also like to thank you both for your astute, uh, recognition of, um, of the tree issue. Uh, not only is this neighborhood unique and established, but as you're well aware, um, the development around Riverside Drive is rapidly happening, and so any canopy that we have, not only acts as a soundproofing to the rapid development, but also to the light exposure. And it is my fear that once we remove this number of trees, um, we will have .... that will have a significant impact on the livability of our neighborhood. Um, I would also, uh, say .... I would also like to say that this is not a situation of if you build it they will come (laughs) These sidewalks will get no traffic (laughs) uh, to the, uh, extent that we are, Douglass Street is a dead-end, and I actually live on the dead-end. I believe that putting in these sidewalks would actually encourage the, uh, the traffic that is crossing from, uh, Orchard, uh, Miller, in through pup .... public proper ... I'm sorry! Private property to get to the sidewalks, if they even get there (laughs) They're just not used. We are....we, I would even say to Mark's comment, it's a good day, it's a Hawkeye Saturday if we have one car an hour, and usually.... every other hour that person's lost (laughter) so we (mumbled) it's not a .... we're a very quiet neighborhood. Um, and I .... I ..... I sincerely hope that the Council strongly, strongly, um, takes under consideration option 3 is where the neighborhood is at. Um, and I would encourage everyone, if you've not been through our neighborhood, to drive through. They are very shallow yards, and if you take up six -feet and then put a four -foot sidewalk with the .... minor, uh.... uh, extension of. ... of, um, of landscaping that we have in front of our houses, plus the sidewalks of houses, you are going to be putting people right in my front window. As .... on a walkway, and I am not alone in that. Everyone of these houses you're going to be putting people right in our .... our privacy will be down to nothing. Um, and again, just as a close, this is not a situation if you built it they will come (laughs) It's.... this... this is a .... this is a .... a real .... none value added, um, project. So .... thank you very much! Throgmorton: Thank you, Cathy. It's the first time I've heard that expression applied to, uh, you know, one of our decisions along these lines. (laughter) Anyone else? Yes, ma'am! Casey: Hello! My name's Erin Casey. Um, I'm actually a new resident of Douglass Street and Court. I moved there at the end of July. Part of the reason I moved there is because of the aesthetic beauty of the trees and how quiet and private the neighborhood is. As has been stated, it is a cul-de-sac. We don't get .... we barely This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 19 get any traffic. I barely hear any cars that go through there. The thing I hear the most is kids playing outside. If we move forward with the sidewalks being added, not only will that put more cars onto the street, but it also provides less places for the kids to play. Also could als.... could mean more damage to them or to cars as well. Um, we've talked about trees having to be removed because of what condition they're in. Um, I'm at 301 Douglass and my lot has two very young trees that with the sidewalk being added, both of those trees would have to be taken out. And I don't want to lose them. Urn ... the first, one of the first things that I heard from my neighbors when I got there was .... the talk about the sidewalks being put in and there was a lot of concern. I was being encouraged to come and speak on behalf of it. This is the first time I've been able to, and I just .... I really don't want to see the sidewalks put in. Our neighborhood is nice. It's quiet. I feel safe there, and I feel like the addition of the sidewalks, again, will put .... will be too close to the property itself, where I'm not gonna feel comfortable walking out of my house at night if the sidewalk is right there, right by my door. Um, I understand with the water main that that needs to be put in there, but we have such little traffic there's really no reason to put a sidewalk in and on top of that, a lot of. ... I see a lot of people out walking during the day. We're fine with walking in the street. There hasn't been any problem. The kids know when to move if cars are coming, and adults obviously know when to move when cars are coming. So ..... I very much ask you to consider not having the, um, sidewalks added. Throgmorton: Thank you, Erin. Good evening! Olson: Hi! My name's Jane Olson and I'm at .... I, um, live at 435 Douglass Court and excuse me, I have laryngitis. I hope you can understand me! Urn.... ironically when I first moved to Iowa City, I looked at a house on Douglass Street and... dismissed it because it didn't have a basement. I came from Wisconsin and I thought every house should have a basement. But I've looked at it over the years as the trees have matured, and urn .... I've come to love that neighborhood since I moved into it. It is quiet. It's..... it's beautiful. It has small lots, but very nice people. Um, it's nice to ... to pass those people as you're walking at night, to see their dogs that they walk, and the kids in the streets are not a problem, playing in the streets. Everybody who lives there knows to watch out for the children. And, um, it's .... really the volume is so low of traffic in that neighborhood that I .... I would not be afraid to have, um .... any of my children, but I don't have any, uh, walk in that street or play in that street, either one. Um, my concern is for shoveling sidewalks. Um, I can't do it. And.....also even though you would pay to put the sidewalks in, there would be the care down the line of those sidewalks, which would be the homeowner's expense. And, um, I don't think any of us who live there want that or need that extra expense. I do appreciate the fact that you wanted to sort of bring us into the 21" century by putting sidewalks in front of our houses. I think it's, uh.....it's probably what most neighborhoods would want, or neighbors, you know, in most neighborhoods, but this one is very different from any neighborhood I've ever lived in, and part of its charm, I think, is .... that it's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 20 just as it is right now. And I hope that it stays there and that you vote for option 3, no sidewalks at all. The other concern I have really is ..... has to do, as Mark said, with parking cars in driveways. Since the sidewalk would be crossing the driveway, we ... we would have to park at least one, um, car in the street and many others would too. It's already hard .... we live at the end of it. It's already hard for, uh, the snow plow to get around there, to make that curve. If there are cars parked along there.....and they have to be because otherwise we'll be in violation of, you know, parking across a.....a sidewalk, then that would be a real problem for the .... the, um, not just.....um.....the snow plows, but also garbage pickup, especially like on the curb, at the end. It's already kind of.....you have to, you know, we have to be very careful where we park our cars when we know it's garbage day. So, I hope you listen to all of us who have spoken and know that, um ..... we speak on behalf of a lot of our neighbors, many of whom couldn't be here, but ..... were at the meeting in April and uh, very concerned about this. Thank you for your time. Throgmorton: Thank you, Jane. Van Noy: Hello, I'm Aaron Van Noy. I'm the owner at 416 Douglass Court. Um .... and I actually, uh, I'm a recent owner of that place. Um (clears throat) and I actually, uh, I ..... I .... I'm 100% for the water main, by the way. I think it's obviously needed, but, urn .... as for the.....the sidewalk itself, I am totally for C, having no sidewalk, and there's a good reason for that. One I do have a renter, uh, so he has a car and then of course I have a girlfriend. She has a car. That's three cars right there. Uh... that .... that driveway is barely enough to hold two cars. Um, I .... we (laughs) pretty much get close to the road every time and ..... I can't park two cars there with a.....Aith a, uh, you know, that would be a huge issue, and then if you extrapolate that to multiple other locations and have I don't know how many other places would have three cars, but if you have that issue and you have a littering of cars on the road and that .... that actually bothers me for snow removal purposes and I'm not sure if that tree that he was .... was, presented earlier (clears throat) is even affected by this plan. Uh, that was never addressed. Um, I would like to know is that a tree that would be, um .... a part of that plan? That's a question you'll have to ask him, but um, I'm just not for it and I do like the neighborhood. I think it's great the way it is and I appreciate your time so much. Throgmorton: Thank you, Aaron. Anyone else? Tatro: Hello. (clears throat) My name is Adam Tatro. I live at.... Dilkes: I'm sorry, could we get you all to sign the .... sign in on the little sheet there. Tatro: Right here? Okay. Urn ..... (several talking and laughing) Um, I'll talk while doing this. Hi, my name is Adam Tatro. I own, um, the house at 336 Douglass Court and um, I've been there about five years now, and, um, I don't know if you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 21 guys have ever seen the neighborhood. I have one of the larger houses at 850 square feet. Throgmorton: Wow! Tatro: And so the houses are on the small side. The lots are on the small side. The street has one road in. It .... for both pedestrians and actual cars, and urn .... the, there is another way in if you hop over through someone else's yard, which no one really wants to do. Um, so .... I am actually for sidewalks normally, but this is conflicted because these would be the most unused sidewalks in all of Iowa City. Because there is very little ..... foot traffic. There is very little .... car traffic. Um, that's... like everyone else here, that's what actually brought me to the neighborhood was you'd normally think where it is it'd be in a area with a large amount of light pollution and sound pollution with heavy use streets around us. And the canopy of trees have actually... makes it where you can't hear any sound of the roads in the surrounding areas, and you can't see any of the lights from Paul's, which is a great business, um, or any of the other .... any of the other areas that have large amounts of light. Take that away and it becomes a little bit more .... of a less livable sort of area. So .... as I said before, normally I am for sidewalks, for everything like that and this one .... in this situation I don't see that to be very practical and I am also asking you for going for, I believe, option C for no sidewalks. Thank you for your time. Throgmorton: Thank you, Adam! Anyone else? Stroik: I'll just make another quick point. I own (both talking) Throgmorton: Would you say your name, please? Stroik: Yeah, uh, Mallory Stroik. Throgmorton: And address. Stroik: 316 Douglass Court. Um, just one final point, not to belabor anything. And I've sent you that really probably stimulating one and a half page email that you may have read about sidewalks. Uh... but I guess the final point I'd like to make is clearly we all agree that first option, two sidewalks — sidewalks on both sides, nobody really wants, even that engineer has not .... uh.....of.... offered that as his .... his favorite.... favorite option. Option 2, one sidewalk on one side of the street, uh, I guess my point there is what.....the point was to make the neighborhood walkable. I have no idea what -what one sidewalk on one side of the street helps with, that in no way would make .... I don't.....you still have to cross the street multiple times in order to walk around the neighborhood. So, I guess I don't even know why that was an option in the first place. And so that's my point about the second option and clearly we all agree option 1 not a good This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 22 option. So I just..... narrowing it down, you're .... you end up with no sidewalks basically. That's I guess my final point about the whole thing. Throgmorton: Thank you, Mallory. Looks like no one else wants to speak. (both talking) Mims: (mumbled) Throgmorton: Ah ha! I was wrong! Good evening! Tack: Real quickly, Tim Tack, 317 Douglass Court. I believe that the money that you would be spending on this project could be better spent on something else. It's fine just the way it is and just wanted to put that out there. Voparil: Please sign in. Throgmorton: Tim! Would you sign in please, and Tim, it's nice to see you again. I haven't seen you for like five years or somethin'! Anyone else? Okay, I don't see anyone else. Discussion? Mims: I'll start. Um.....I made the motion on the resolution to get it on the floor, but I support the neighbors on this. Um, and ... and here's where I come from. As we sit here as Councilors, in my view our role is to provide services and .... and certainly listen to the desires of our constituents .... and the people who live in this community. And one of the things we've talked about and I totally support is the complete streets' philosophy as we develop and make changes, um, in areas of the city. However, I don't think any policy, um, should be looked at as absolutely hard and fast. I think we always have to look at the situation in which we are applying that policy and what are the unique circumstances, uh, surrounding that. And as you look at this particular location and as ... and as you listen to the residents of this area, um, the points that they have brought up, that totally resonate with me, um, is the fact that it is not a through street. There is very low traffic. The parking I think is an incredible issue that they have pointed out, that they cannot park two cars in a driveway because they can't park across a sidewalk. So immediately you're.... you're gonna incredibly increase the amount of on -street parking, which as they've indicated makes it more complicated for trash pickup. Makes it more complicated for snow removal, and quite frankly I think it also makes it much more dangerous for kids playing in the street because now you've got cars having to weave in around other parked cars on the sides of the street. Kid comes out from, you know, in front of a car that's parked on the street, a car's driving down the street, doesn't see the kid coming out. Well, if you've got clearer streets because the cars are parked in the driveway, you have less opportunity for that sort of thing to happen. If we had ... if we had heard more of a mixed message from the neighborhood, I would find this a little bit more difficult in terms of making a decision, but as I've listened to people tonight, as I've read all the correspondence that we have gotten from the neighborhood, it is very clear to me that certainly if. ... if not unanimously, the high percentage of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 23 people living in that neighborhood do not want sidewalks. They see their neighborhood, you know, as being very satisfactory the way it is, and I think Paula put it very well — we're trying to take a .... a modern day, uh, philosophy or plan of complete streets and implementing it in a 1950s neighborhood where it doesn't fit, where you have particularly the issue of very shallow front yards, and that makes this very problematic, um, in terms of the privacy, in terms of the parking, etc. So .... um, I'll wait to hear what everybody else has to say, but I will either vote against it or if it looks like we're headed in that direction, uh, I would like to amend the motion to go with option 3 instead. Botchway: So I would just quickly say I agree ... with Susan. Throgmorton: That was quick! Dickens: I guess my.....my only concern is the precedent we set. I .... I agree with the neighbors. I think we should leave it because it is an older neighborhood. Uh, if there's a way to grandfather it in the way it is versus what new construction would be, that's the way I would go, so I .... I do agree with Susan and Kingsley that the neighbors have spoken and it's their neighborhood. Yes, we're supposed to look over the whole city but .... this is a very unique neighborhood and I think it should remain the way it is. Taylor: I'd like to commend the staff for, uh, considering the neighborhood concerns, uh, because when this was originally presented to us, it sounded like the done deal with sidewalks on both sides of the street, and uh, and if not for the water main project, I don't think that this issue would of ever come up! Um, and uh, so my preference is for of course option, uh, option 3 and I .... I don't know if the other Members of the Council have had a chance to do their homework and drive through this neighborhood. They do have very shallow front lawns and to cut them off and add the sidewalk, I mean, if they went with option 2, I would propose that it be the four -foot from the curb, rather than the six-foot from the curb, but my personal preference, um, is to preserve what little green space they have and .... and, um.....go with option 3 with no sidewalks. Thomas: Uh (clears throat) this is kind of an interesting project in the sense that, uh, you know, I'm .... probably there's no one on Council stronger on the use of sidewalks than I am, um, and I .... I do think there certainly are some issues here where, uh, I would .... I would have to say the standards that we're looking at applying I would recommend that we revisit the standards, mainly the setback, uh, and also the opportunity in .... in specific locations, uh, there's some conditions at, uh, 30...304 Douglass Court, on the corner there where there's the curb radius where, uh, I think the .... the standard of four -feet would have to be reduced to even further to approximately two -feet, uh, in order to .... to make it appropriately fit within that particular condition. Um ..... you know, I'm .... as many of you know, I practice landscape architecture. I've worked on .... on projects like this. I .... when we... when we moved to Iowa City I had the opportunity to work on North Market This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 24 Square and I will always remember my neighbor, Charlie, saying, `What's wrong with the way it isT There.... there's an enormous amount of weight we all give to existing conditions, just because they are. Um, my.....my feeling, and I feel this pretty strongly, that, um, if. ... if we were to go ahead with option 2, with the conditions of moving it closer to the street, um, and also allowing for those conditions, um, where it needs to be moved further closer to the street, we do that and Paula documented that on Hudson, which was the street directly to the west, uh, that sidewalk is on one side only. It's four -feet from the curb, and where there was a tree, the .... the pathway deviated to avoid the tree and it was about two -feet from the curb, and I would add a third point. Um.....and that would be considering, uh, on the Douglass Court, moving the parking from the south side of the street to the north side of the street so it would align with the sidewalk location, uh, because..... the..... the driveway lengths would be reduced and so I would .... I would prefer that the parking be on that side so that residents would have direct access to parking. Um, I would also suggest that they.....if we were to do that they could park directly in front of their driveway. In other words, block their driveway so that .... the.....the di£..the difference between the second car, um, on the driveway and that car being moved to the street frontage along the curb directly in front of their driveway, uh, would be a very minor inconvenience in terms of placement, but I do think, and it sort of speaks.... this'll be my last point .... it sort of speaks to Jeff Speck's presentation, which is that, you know, for .... for a walkable experience to truly work it has to be safe, it has to be comfortable, interesting, and useful, and my .... my concern is that there .... there are people in this community, um, who would prefer not to walk in the street, um, for a variety of reasons. Um ..... you know, and I don't.....I don't want to go through all those scenarios, but there, you know, there are persons with disabilities, perhaps a parent with a stroller would I think at least .... I would want to give that person the option of walking on a sidewalk. I'd want to give a person, uh, in a wheelchair the option of walking on a sidewalk or a cane, anyone with mobility impairments I would want to give them the opportunity to walk on the sidewalk. Um .... but furthermore I would want to, you know, the .... the.....the sidewalk is being viewed as purely a negative, and.....my experience tells me that if we place it right, and we enhance that walk, that it will be used. It's .... it will be. a different experience than walking in the street. So .... so I would support 2 if we can adjust it's location, allow for, uh, deviation where necessary so that, you know, the fence that was built there and the .... that corner lot where it would be very tight if it were not moved closer to the curb, and we look at moving the parking, um, to align with where the sidewalk will be, um, or would be, uh, I think it would work in .... in that location. Cole: I'm going to support option 3 (clears throat) and I think first of all I want to commend the neighbors because so often we as Councilors hear negative feedback about what they don't like and why we're doing something wrong, but what I found throughout this process is that's not what you did. You just didn't tell us I don't like it. You did your homework. You did the analysis, and you at least persuaded me during the course of this proceeding that option 3 is the best This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 25 option, and I think to Terry's point, he brings up a very good point because I think it's important that we telegraph this to the community as well. I am a big supporter of the complete streets. I think connectivity and walkability is absolutely essential. Um, but I think that you have made your case that this particular neighborhood just wasn't designed to our modern standards, and so we're sort of mixing a modern standard with a historically designed 50 -style architecture, and I think that I found the parking argument very, very persuasive. So I'm going to support option 3. I don't know going forward whether there could be some tweaks to option 2, um, that .... that maybe might make this more of an option, um, but I commend the neighbors on this because I think you made your case. Um, you know, we serve you and I think any time we make a policy decision, we have to determine are we going to set a precedent that will be adversely used, and I guess you've persuaded me that there are unique characteristics to this particular neighborhood that we're not likely to see replicated in other context. Um, so I will support option 3. Mims: I'd like to ask a procedural question of Eleanor. With the resolution written the way it is, are we better to vote this down tonight, if that's what the majority of Council wants, or is there a reasonable way to amend it on the floor? Dilkes: I would just amend it on the floor to .... to make it the option 3. If that's what you're wanting to do. Mims: That's what (both talking) Dilkes: I mean I think we should have a record of what the decision was. Throgmorton: Before we do that I'd like to have an opportunity to speak. (laughter) Uh, though, uh, my six colleagues have said most of what I would intend to say. Uh, what I'm really struck by is the unique context of the neighborhood. Uh, I .... there are lots of, uh.... parts of European cities, for example, where.... vehicles and people use the streets, people play in the streets. They're often very small scale neighborhoods. So I don't see any inherent objection to .... uh, having, um... keeping things the way they are, but .... before John started speaking I found myself thinking about Harry Olmstead, our friend who's confined to a .... or .... or uses a wheelchair, and I found myself thinking a lot about people with mobility impairments, and, Paula, I think you've perhaps had a conversation with Harry about this. So, uh, I .... I do wonder about that, and whether .... you know, if. ... if I were living in the neighborhood and I had to use a wheelchair, I'm not sure I'd want to use the street, but the traffic's so low maybe I would. I mean I'd have to know the neighborhood. Really inside out. And y'all have persuaded me that you know the neighborhood. So....I.....I find myself, uh, being fully persuaded that we don't need to install the sidewalks, but I want to ask Scott a question about the trees. So you said that, uh.... uh, installation of the water main would affect trees, some trees. Do you have any sense of how many trees would have to come down simply because of the installation of the water main? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 26 Sovers: Um, I think it's roughly 33 trees. Throgmorton: So, uh.... I see Paula scrunching her face for.....for good reason. I mean it's really important to be clear about this because if trees need to be removed in order to install that water main full stop, then a lot of the concern that neighbors have expressed is .... is really misdirected. At least it seems that way to me. It's not about the sidewalk — it's about (laughs) (both talking) Sovers: That's correct (both talking) Throgmorton:..... the .... the core work. So, uh.....uh, I think, uh, great care would need to be taken to make sure that that water main avoids damaging trees to the maximum extent possible. I don't know what else to say about that, but that's the best I can do. So I.....I.....I'm agree .... I agree that there's no need for the sidewalks because of the unique characteristics of this particular neighborhood. If it was about connectivity, from one neighborhood to another, I'd say gotta do it, full stop. Gotta do it! I think this is different. Mims: I'd like to amend the motion to .... that we will accept recommenda.... accept option 3 in the staff report, which means no.....no sidewalks. Dickens: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Dickens. Discussion about that? Any objection to that .... to that amendment? I see no objection. Sorry! Mims: It's a voice vote. Throgmorton: So all in favor of that amendment say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. So, uh, we have that amended motion on the floor. Mims: I would just make one further comment, and .... and I want to state this very strongly. My support of the neighborhood is in absolutely no reflection against what staff has done. We have directed staff, as a Council, to implement a complete streets policy, and that is what they did to the best of their ability, um, taking into account some of the considerations, um, of the neighborhood, but still coming back with sidewalks as part of that complete streets policy. So, um, I appreciate what staff has done, but it is our role for policy decision to make that final decision and that's where I come down on the side in this case of not following the complete streets and supporting the neighbors in their desires. Botchway: (mumbled) ...one other quick question. Just about tree replacement, um, you know, is there any thought on how that, I mean, removing 33, where are we at with tree replacement? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 27 Sovers: So a tree replacement, you know, with adding the sidewalk and the six-foot width between the street and the sidewalk, that gets kind of narrow for tree replacement. I mean, you can put some under -story trees, um..... Botchway: We're takin' out the sidewalks. Mims: Right. Sovers: (several talking) ...taking out the sidewalks, yeah, without the sidewalks, yeah, we can ... we could definitely put trees back that would need to be, uh, removed for the water main construction. Botchway: Okay. (several talking) Thomas: I just want to make one last comment. I .... I would have supported, uh, the no sidewalk option if I felt, uh, we were approaching this as a shared street concept. In other words that we would make improvements to the street, uh, which acknowledged the fact that the roadway now is being designed, uh, with the intention of it being shared by pedestrians and automobiles. The ... if you were to look at say the (can't hear) standards, shared streets is a concept. It is a ... it is an acknowledged and legitimate approach toward how to use the public right-of- way. Um .... but, you know, we weren't presented with that concept, uh, by staff so I felt .... you know, the .... the next best option would be sidewalk on one side with the modifications as I described it. I ... I do really have concerns about how, um, this, you know, the notion of inclusivity, uh, really is a factor here. Uh, and that, you know, there are many streets in Iowa City that have sidewalks on one side and I think it's ... you know, it's in part because of the acknowledgement that, uh, that level of access is .... should be kind of a .... a minimal accommodation, uh, on our streets. Throgmorton: Okay, we have a motion on the floor. All in, uh.... uh.....roll call. Sorry! Motion carries 6-1. Okay (applause) we'll move to Item 9. Thanks to all of you for coming. Voparil: Motion to accept correspondence. Botchway: So moved. Mims: Second. Tbrogmorton: Moved by Botchway, seconded by Mims. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. Uh, we'll take a brief break here to let folks walk out. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 28 ITEM 9. WORKFORCE HOUSING TAX CREDITS - RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE APPLICATION OF MONARK, LLC FOR 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 Mims: So moved. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Would anybody like to just, uh, to discuss this topic before us? Okay, uh.... oh, Mark, go ahead! Nolte: Uh, good evening, Mark Nolte with the Iowa City Area Development Group. Just wanted to offer our support. We have a tremendous, uh, demand for workforce and affordable housing in the community, so any projects that can do that in the urban core, uh, are greatly helpful for us to attract and retain workforce. So.... Throgmorton: Thanks, Mark! No one else? All right, seeing no one else, discussion? Botchway: So I'm supportive of this particular project. Uh, I did ask about, you know, whether or not there was a little bit more to the concept plan but .... kind of understand where we're at with this, uh, particular proposal. Um .... I don't want to I guess repeat exactly what I said the last time, but um .... I do think it's important, I think Mark just briefly mentioned it from .... I mean, and we talk about this in .... in different ways. I mean there is a workforce element. We talk frequently about an affordable housing element. Um, I do see the need here. Um, just with talking.....just with talking with folks, um, you know, in my particular age demographic, um, and I don't mean to make that into any type of, um, you know.....say anything about anybody by saying that. I just ... there is a .... there is a feeling, um, for folks, again in my age demographic, to ... to live in housing, um, downtown, and I think that this is a .... a great, um, kind of affordable opportunity from a workforce housing standpoint, um, that's being presented. Um, it's definitely come off the height tremendously from where it was pre.... previously and so, um, you know, I.....I don't .... I think I still voted for it regardless of the height, but I can appreciate that just from some of the commentary that was, um, discussed. Um, so I'm supportive of this motion again for the .... kind of the same reasons that I, um .... um, that I talked about before. I do hope that there's an element that we can, urn .... I know that the previous building had some..... some interesting elements in there that were tied to it, um, from an environmental, sustainability standpoint that I hope could be added back to this project. Um, I know that we, um, obviously don't have that in front of us today, but um, I'm supportive of this project. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 29 Mims: I'll support it as well. Um, my preference would have been for the taller building with more units downtown. I think as .... as we talk about affordable housing, um, getting more units, you know, around town entirely, and especially downtown, I think is really important. Um, and certainly the rents that were indicated by the developer, um, put it actually not just in workforce housing, but actually put some of those rents in what we would say is affordable, based on, um, median income in the county. So ..... um, but this is what's before us now and I certainly will support it. Dickens: I'll be supporting it as well and just sorry that we're leaving millions of dollars, potential dollars, on the table that we'll never see because we're downsizing this project that was zoned for much .... much higher, so .... but I will support it. Cole: I'm happy to support this. You know obviously there were concerns about the decision that we made four or five months ago, um, I think that there was a difference of opinion about whether it complied with the Comprehensive Plan. I know that some people felt that it did. Some people felt that it didn't, and others felt that it didn't really matter because it complied with the regulatory framework, but I think that's precisely the point here is that this .... this proposal represents a consensus. I know some other people wanted a different project but we ... we're getting development. We're growing the units downtown, and I think with the compromise that we made, rather than sort of taking our ball and going home and not developing the parcel at all, this reflected an effort on the part of staff and the part of the developer to come back with a project that we could support. So I'm happy to support this. I'm looking forward, uh, to when that shovel gets dug and we have more, uh, workforce housing units downtown. Thomas: Yep, I'll be, uh, supporting it as well, urn .... you know, this .... it went through kind of an interesting process, uh, with ... uh, the Board of Adjustment and the staff recommendation. Uh, part of what that generated, which I found useful, was it generated comparisons or alternatives, uh, rather than.... Council and the community being presented with one option only. We had two .... to look at. Uh.... one of the things that.... looking at the alternatives brought to my mind was not only the relationship of this particular project to, uh.... the, um, the Yacht Club, the historic building, but also its relationship to the building to the north, which has, um, on its upper most floors, uh, continuous outdoor terrace, um, facing the east, which I think will benefit, uh, from having this lower building height because you won't have those terraces put into, um.....you know, long periods of shade through.....throughout the day. So I, you know it .... it, I think it does present a more neighborly approach, uh, both toward the historic property as well as to the property to the north. Uh, it's not precisely what is recommended in the Comprehensive Plan, you know the .... the, um, the Comprehensive Plan talked about a four-story building there, but I feel it is in .... in the spirit of what that plan was advocating, uh, which I would ..... I would characterize as a mid -rise building. Um .... and, so.....I think it will be a significant improvement to the downtown and will fill that gap, and I .... I look forward to it being constructed. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 30 Taylor: I'm also in support of. ... of offering this incentive for them. Uh, I believe it is time that we offer more of a housing option for .... for those folks that were listed, the professionals, the graduate students, uh, that are looking for a less expensive way to be able to live downtown, so .... I am in favor of this. Throgmorton: Well, me too. I'm very pleased to see this revised proposal and I'll vote in support of it. In my judgment, it's consistent with the downtown portion of the Comprehensive Plan. It complies with existing zoning requirements. It will incrementally enhance the existing architectural character and identity of the block. It is sensitive and complementary to the adjacent buildings, which are two quite different, uh, in architectural designs from one another. It contributes to a harmonious rhythm and proportion of building elements along the street frontage. It will add residential opportunities downtown. It will be compatible with nearby structures, and it will contribute funds for needed parking. So I'm really pleased actually that, uh, Monark went back, went to the Board of Adjustment, heard what they had to say .... and has come to us with this proposal. I'll support it. So, uh, any further discussion? Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 31 ITEM 10. APPROVING CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR A FORM -BASED CODE ANALYSIS, CONCEPT PLANS AND A PARKING IMPACT STUDY - RESOLUTION APPROVING, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE CITY MANAGER TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND OPTICOS DESIGN, INC. TO PROVIDE CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR THE CITY OF IOWA CITY FORM -BASED CODE ANALYSIS AND PARKING IMPACT STUDY Botchway: So moved. Mims: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Botchway, seconded by Mims. Would anybody like to address this topic? Seeing no one, discussion? Among the Council? Thomas: Well I'm really looking forward, uh, to seeing this move forward and uh, where it goes. It's, uh.... I think a .... a really important element in our .... in our land use planning, uh, toolkit, so to speak. Um .... so I, you know, I'm.....I can't say how much it's.....it's something I'm really looking forward to as .... as we begin ... begin this work. Botchway: I would agree as well. I think that some of the, urn .... I can't remember. I feel like I was talking to you, John, um, some of the conversation .... um, that we've had around parking. We've had to kind of wait because we knew this parking study was coming and so I'm excited we're kind of moving forward on it so we can, you know, get to some of the work that, um, I know we've kind of talked about before and I think that frankly some of the .... the neighbors have come, um, back and, you know, made comments and concerns about it as far as, you know, parking in their neighborhoods and, you know, what Council can do about it, so excited about moving forward on this project, and obviously, um, the form -based code element as well. Cole: Yeah, I'm in support of it too, I mean, the form -based code is something that a lot of people have questions about. While I really think it's sort of back to the future in the sense that if you go through our historic neighborhoods and you see the contextual design in all the different types of housing types that were sort of seamlessly, uh, integrated into a healthy, thriving neighborhood, I think that's really what we're trying to explore is essentially using those traditional, uh, principles and bringing them into the modem, uh, form -based code. So, um, I ... I think people will really be excited about it once we actually get this presentation. Uh, this funded. The other thing is is that parking — parking is going to be .... that's probably one of the biggest variables I think that we face, how we handle it at the inner core neighborhoods, how we handle it in our downtown, and so what this study will finally allow us to do is really grasp our minds around all the different variables so we're deciding our parking policy as a whole rather than This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 32 sort of incrementally. So I'm really excited that we're making this funding a priority. Throgmorton: Anyone else? I guess the only thing I would like to do is note that this is, if I understand correctly, Geoff, is supposed to be a five-month project ending in June of 2017? Fruin: That's correct. Throgmorton: Yeah, and it's being done by Opticos, uh.... uh, which is headed by Dan Parolek who is a gentleman who visited here, what, five months ago, six months ago, uh, very excited about the work that, uh, they will be doing and I look forward to seeing what comes out of it. Yeah! Fruin: If I could make one clarification. Throgmorton: Sure! Fruin: The ... the parking study really focuses on the neighborhood itself. It does not get into downtown parking policy. The thought, um, was that once the Council has a better understanding of some of the dynamics of the neighborhood, uh, parking issues, and .... and develops any solutions that it deems necessary that we'll then be able to, uh, tum our eye to the downtown parking policy and look at things like devel... required developer contributions and .... and other similar, uh.... uh, parking regulations. Throgmorton: Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. I wonder if we could take about a three-minute break, uh, for personal reasons. (several talking) Thanks! (laughter) (BREAK) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 33 ITEM 11. GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION GOAL - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING SETTING COMMUNITY -WIDE GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION GOAL OF 25- 28% FOR THE YEAR 2025 Throgmorton: And I want to make sure that everybody knows .... two things about this. One is the emissions have to do with all emis.... emissions generated by activity that takes place within the city limits of Iowa City. It's not just the municipality of Iowa City. So that makes it much more difficult to achieve. All right, so that's the first thing I want you to know, and the second has to do with .... um, the ... the. the 26 to 28% reduction goal applies to the difference between 2005 emissions and 2000 .... year 2025 emissions. So .... we're already.... more than half -way there. So we're not givin' ourselves a whole lot of time to achieve a 26 to 28% emission reduction. All right, but I know people have things to say, and I look forward to hearing, uh.... what's on your mind. Mims: Move the resolution. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. And I see that Jean Lloyd Jones is up to speak and John Fraser is with her. But you know, Jean, before you speak, I don't know, Brenda, do you need to get some information on the floor for us (unable to hear response) Jean, would you mind waiting for just a second. (several talking) Thank you. Nations: Hi, Brenda Nations, Sustainability Coordinator. Um, so as we know it's a strategic plan goal to set a resolution and we did talk, um, at a past meeting and discussed the....about having re .... (mumbled) resolution for, um, this meeting and have discussed, um, this particular goal. Uh, since then there's be ... been, uh, some ... I .... some misinformation out there and a little bit of confusion that I wanted to clarify before we had, um, public comment. Um, as you know, um, the, um, our Mayor signed a .... the Compact of Mayors and that ... having a target is, uh.....uh, a part of this. It's actually phase three, uh, we committed, which is phase one to the Compact of Mayors in February of this year. We're just about, uh, completed our new, updated inventory for .... with the new, uh, global protocol and then setting a target this month, uh, will put us well ahead of schedule on this cause, uh, staff has been working on, uh, expediating this process cause we know it's very important to you. Um, so, uh, for phase four, um, we're already, uh, not even 10 months into this and we're already to phase four, so we're workin' as rapidly as we can since we know it's very important to you. Um, another thing is, um, there's been some talk about a different, uh, a different baseline and a 1990 baseline, and uh, we have no, um, no way of knowing what our emissions were from that year. Um, we have emissions from, urn .... um, here stated from the real data that we have and if we have a .... a .... another emissions, urn ..... uh, baseline from 2000 we could use it but we just don't have that data. In fact we do have gaps from 2 ... um, before 2008 and that's just because some of the data that we use This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 34 comes from MidAmerican and, uh, it's .... uh, aggregated data for industrial, commercial, and residential, and they don't have that data and we have no, um, we could spend time trying to get that data but for instance it would be 26 years ago, um, that would be very difficult. It would take a lot of time, and it wouldn't be, uh, accurate. So, that's why we have recommended the 2005 data. It's very, um, accurate and um, the work that we've been doing with our annual inventories, um, one thing to note is that, um, population growth is taken into account in the red line and so the red line would be business as usual if nothing was going on, um, within our community to reduce gases. Uh, the blue line there is the baseline from 2005. Um, you can see we're below the baseline and haven't, um, gained as many greenhouse, uh, emissions as would be expected. So we're trending towards, urn .... uh, lowering our gases. We're not doing enough, so having a more, um, bold measure would be good to have a .... a target, um, but we are trending along the .... the, um, 27% reduction that's recommended, um, as ... with the Paris Agreement. Um, I know there's some information that's come out that the Paris Agreement still may not be strong enough, but there's nothing to say whatever, um, goal you chose to set as a target that we can do, uh, more than that and exceed that. So, um, the main point is that, um, beyond just setting a target or having a plan the .... the main point I think that ... that you, um, are trying to get at is having the impact of actually achieving reductions, and so, uh, tracking that with good data is the best way to go about that I think. Um, there's also, um, there's some confusion about the date, um, that amount of time that we would be having, um, to work on a climate action plan, and I know that, uh, it's very important that we should, um, do it, uh, as quick as possible. We've almost completed, um, the RFP that could go out this week, um, to look for somebody to help us with that, and it's gonna be a community -wide effort because as you said previously, um, the City, uh, operations is only 4% of our community -wide, um, emissions. So the 96% of the community, um, includes, um, the University, transportation, uh, residential, commercial, industrial, and waste, and to, uh, figure out the real strategies to make, uh, real improvements in these areas to reduce our emissions, um, is gonna take some time. Urn .... uh, we'll be working with Jerry Schnoor's class at, uh, U of I Engineering the .... over this next semester and I'll be working on trying to get to ... together some strategies, um, starting next month. So, uh, we're moving as quickly as possible, um, trying to use really good data, and urn .... know that this is a priority with Council, so ..... thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Brenda. Good evening, Jean. Lloyd -Jones: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and Members of the Council. Um, I'm Jean Lloyd Jones. I am the President of the Johnson County United Nations Association. We have nearly a hundred members and we welcome your efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and we commend Mayor Throgmorton for being one of the three mayors in the state of Iowa to be a member, to have signed the, uh, Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy. There are now over 420 signatories around the world, part of a groundswell that supports the Paris Agreement on climate change. And tonight we have with us the, um, State President of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 35 United Nations Association who actually attended the Paris meeting and, um, he's gonna speak to you in just a moment. So the Johnson County Chapter of the United Nations Association urges the City to.....tap into the expertise of local and regional consultants and to move as quickly as possible, and it's encouraging to hear what Brenda Nations just said about your willingness to move ahead. (mumbled) other cities in taking bold action to protect our health, advance our economy, and promote climate justice. In the words of the Des Moines Mayor, who was also a signatory of the, uh, agreement, Mr. Fra .... Frank Cownie, we don't need to have an act of Congress or an appropriation that might come 12 to 16 months down the road. If things need to be done, cities can do them today. In other words, cities can act faster than the federal government. So we urge you to develop and implement Iowa City's emission reduction plan as quickly as possible. And now I want to introduce Mr. John Fraser, the President of the United Nations Association of Iowa. Throgmorton: Thank you, Jean. Fraser: I'll .... I'll keep this brief. I did, uh, go to Paris. Paris was the most successful this year, last year actually, of any of the preceding efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions, for a number of reasons, but the biggest reason is there was a groundswell of companies. I'll talk about that in just a second cause this is ... the company involvement is huge. And cities, communities. So it's grassroots, ground -up, as well as from top down. Top down didn't work very well. It communicated some of the goals. It, uh, oriented people to the challenges, but what we really were successful in achieving in Paris is a ground -up, top-down, and there's something going on that's very interesting that's making this all much easier and we already commended you, Mayor, and the Council, for being one of the three cities in Iowa that have stepped up early and participated in the Compact of Mayors. And the evolution of that organization as it grows worldwide. Frank Cownie, the Mayor of Des Moines, and I and the Mayor were sitting, do we have a 32 -story building here in Iowa (several talking and laughing) We were sitting at the top of a 32 -story building in Des Moines and Frank Cownie, the Mayor, was holding court, pointing 360 -degrees around the, uh, around the city of Des Moines, educating Jim relative to what's really important that will help us immensely. This is no longer just environmentalists trying to do good. This is now common sense business for people to realize when they build a new building, when they modernize their manufacturing facilities, that if they do it in a green way, there's a break-even in three years, in five years, in eight years, in 10 years, and every.... every year after that, subsequent to that, they're making money. And I hate to say it, but if it's just environmentalists, doing good .... don't like to use the term tree huggers but tree huggers don't have a lot of respect in the business community. Well the business community is now supporting the tree huggers. Why? Cause there's economic reasons to do it. This is the best time for cities to jump on and do this. We can make a huge difference, and Iowa City can be a role model for many other cities in the state, across the country, around the world, that should be joining in this effort. Now let's just pretend, and I'm not a denier, and I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 36 stood up in a meeting in, uh, Pans when I heard there were no more deniers and I said, `Well that's funny, I bump into deniers all the time.' If this is just a ... a myth perpetrated by China as somebody is saying. I've forgotten who that is. Oh, yes, our President Elect.... that's fine, but even if it is, we're all smart enough to know there's a finite supply of fossil fuel left in the ground. And for short-term in our thinking, we don't care about our children or grandchildren, I could say, `I got mine. I'm just gonna live this out and have a great life and, uh, pollute and who cares cause I'll be dead and gone.' But if we care about future generations, we have to admit that we're going to have to clean up our act, not because we want to be great conservationists, but because we'll have to .... to survive. So all this is coming together. The reality of surviving, because we have finite fossil fuel supplies, the fact that all of a sudden now the reason to put, uh, solar on the roof of the new bank isn't just to be a good citizen. It's to break even or make money! It's economically feasible and you've got support from around the world. This is great! And I commend you for being involved in this and I urge you to be very aggressive in your efforts. The (mumbled) role models that have already started this, have done studies, have done research. There are protocols. We've seen some of them on the .... on the screen, and I'll tell ya one last thing and I'll sit down. I find it very amusing that the Mayor of Paris, France, was coerced into joining the Compact of Mayors by the Mayor of Des Moines, Iowa. (laughter) Isn't that cool? Thank you very much! Throgmorton: Thank you, John. Good evening. Jennings: Good evening. My name's Brandon. Um..... Throgmorton: What's your last name, Brandon? Jennings: Brandon Jennings. Um, I have a statement prepared on behalf of the Iowa City Climate Advocates. Um, so the Iowa City Climate Advocates is a non-partisan group of citizens, uh, working to create a sustainable, carbon neutral community, and educate people about human cost of climate change. We serve this ... we serve as the Iowa City Chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, uh, which works on federal legislation to create a revenue neutral fee on carbon. We commend the leadership roles that the Mayor and the City Council have.... are.... are now taking to combat the, uh, causes and impacts of climate change. Uh, we support the resolution calling for a 26 to 28% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2025 because we believe that it is an ambitious, uh, realistic, and .... and achievable goal and can build a strong foundation for future efforts. The timeframe for developing an emissions reduction plan should be no more than one year, beginning January 2017, although we prefer completion in six to eight months. Um, we have three suggestions to improve the project's chance of success. Uh, first, we would like to urge the City to add a second, uh, long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, uh, by 80% by 2050. Long-term targets send powerful market signals and provide the impetus needed for long-term investments in infrastructure that is not possible by short-term efforts. Uh, this target is widely accepted by scientific This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 37 and poli ... policy making bodies as the reduction needed by industrialized nations to avoid catastrophic climate change. Um, would .... would the Council be interested in hearing the amended language to the resolution? Throgmorton: Sure, go ahead. Jennings: Okay! So it reads, um, now therefore be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Iowa City, Iowa, Iowa City establishes a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 26 to 28% from 2005 levels by 2025, and a reduction target of 80% by 2050. Greenhouse gas emissions for the Iowa City community in 2005 totaled 1.32 million metric tons. Therefore the target emissions for 2025 is 964,000 metric tons, a reduction of 356,000 metric tons. And for 2050, uh, is a.... is 264,000 metric tons, a reduction of 1,056,000 metric tons. Um, we .... our second suggestion is that we urge the City to contract with a consulting firm with the technical expertise and experience in community -level greenhouse gas reduction plans needed to lead this effort. Uh, although the University of Iowa can and should provide assistance in analyzing technical, financial, and other aspects of this plan, we believe that a consultant with extensive experience and replicable models for local level climate change, action plans will speed up and increase the chances of the success. Um, and our third suggestion is we urge the City to address financial aspects of its plan beyond direct costs to the City. Uh, preventing catastrophic climate change is arguably the largest and most critical project that human society has ever undertaken. Um, it is time to get serious about the financial costs and benefits that such a project engenders. Iowa City's plan should include information about private and public funding sources for different strategies, uh, and assessments of the adequacy of these resources and recommendations for mechanisms to cover expenses far into the future. We believe that the tendency of action plans to avoid these issues dooms their chances of success. Thank you for your attention. Throgmorton: Thank you for comin', Brandon. Good evening, Miss Dianne. Dillon-Ridgley: Uh, my name is Dianne Dillon-Ridgley and am I supposed to give my address or just that I live in Iowa City? 2204 MacBride. Um, I wish to, um, thank and appreciate the Council and the staff for the work they've done, in particular Brenda. Um.....and I take your points, but .... um, I put down a few points that I just wanted to, uh, address. I'm not here speaking on behalf of the 100 Grannies, but I am a member of the 100 Grannies for a Livable Future. There are others here who may or may not wish to speak. I do want to go over a few points because I have worked on this for a long time. In the 1990s, I spent six years as an appointee of President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development, along with five other cabinet members and all of us were either.... cabinet members, which I wasn't, or CEOs of some organizations, and I was the National President of the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development. The ... and I took great pleasure during those six years in making reference frequently to the progressive policies, especially the commitment of Iowa City to the ration of green to black This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 38 space as we were one of the first communities in the country to have that in any sort of coded language. In 2009, in Copenhagen, at the conference of the parties, which ... and prior to the Paris Agreement, was probably the most significant, um, progress that was made on pushing the issues towards getting an agreement. Uh, it's called COP, the Conference of the Parties, as many of us now know. I was there on behalf of the UN Foundation and several other organizations whose boards I served on. In addition, the U.S. Green Building Council this past October in Los Angeles made a major commitment, and it again had a forum of the, uh.....um, world's mayors to participate in that, and I'm only doing this by example to just .... since not all of you know me, to give a sense of how long and how hard I've worked on this because it is so critical, not just personally to me or my family or my children or the grandchildren I hope some day to have, but to our communities, all of them — domestically and internationally. And I'm the Former Chair of CL, the Center for International Environmental Law, which is headquartered in D.C. and in Geneva in Switzerland. We have with these organizations and a few others over the past 35 to 40 years worked and focused on climate change, including a keynote I was honored to give to the, uh, Global University and College Presidents in 2012. And I am truly glad and proud and pleased that the Council is moving forward with action on climate change for Iowa City. Last month in Quito, there was the third UN Global Summit on, uh, City Summit. At the second summit I was appointed by the White House and one of the major commitments that we achieved at that time was the elimination of lead in gasoline, which made a huge change in the overall health of children around the world and a lowering of overall, um, particulate matters, as well as, um, reductions in greenhouse gas .... matters, but there has been much experimentation and many proposals and plans, including IBM, which has selected a hundred cities. The Rockefeller Foundation, which has put much together, and I ..... I'd suggest that we don't need to take two full years to create a plan. There are real tried and tested examples of what we can do on which Iowa City can draw at this point, and I also suggest that this particular community is rich with people who have worked on this, uh, in many years. We've mentioned Jerry Schnoor. There are others who have been part of the IPCC, as well as many other, uh, bodies like myself. So we have, um, much that in the past 20 years has been (mumbled) so we simply don't need an additional 18 months for creating the plan. Now maybe its implementation and parts of the perfection, that's a different issue, but the way at least the language reads to me and a number of other colleagues it seems like it will take too much time to get to what we need to have done. We need to push for, and as I say with all due respect to Brenda, we ... if you look at where we are at the, uh, collective global rise in temperatures that has occurred, the melting of the ice pack .... ice cap, uh, this .... we may have within the next 18 months the first time ever free-flowing ice in the arctic region in the summer. I'm closing. And so it really will be imperative for those who wish to be in leadership on this to push for not 25% but 40% reductions. That is going to have to be the number. So .... I encourage, I offer any support that I can give. As I said, our community is rich with talent and people who .... who've cared about this and who've worked on it a long time, but I urge you to shorten the timeline, to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 39 raise the percentage of reductions that we have, and let's get goin'! We need to. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Dianne. Good evening. Bergan: Hello. I'm Christopher Bergan. Uh, live here in Iowa City, almost, uh, 16 years now. Um, I'm a member of the Iowa City Climate Advocates, but I'm here more on my own part .... at the moment. I, uh, I completely agree with Iowa City Climate Advocates and uh, many things mentioned by, uh, the Grannies and the (can't hear) and, uh, there should be a second long-term reduction of emissions, 80% by 2050 I think is quite doable. Uh, the energy we get through the grid will be greatly reduced in carbon content because they're switching coal plants to natural gas. That alone will have a huge impact and, uh, there are many things that we've done besides that, beyond that. Uh, to make a somewhat unfair comparison, Ontario and, uh, Quebec in Canada currently have grids which are 95% fewer emi.... greenhouse gas emissions to what Iowa has. And so there's.... things that can be done, and moving to natural gas (mumbled) first step, which I think should have been made 20, 30 years ago, but uh..... we can only do with what we can do now. Uh.... also, uh, the second point in the, uh, Iowa City Climate Advocates message, uh, contracting with a consulting firm, which has experience in greenhouse gas reduction plans. I would encourage you in addition to looking to the University of Iowa and to MidAmerican, to also look at, uh, MISO, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, for guidance on these energy issues, uh, they maintain the grid. They hold and, uh, the five-minute auctions on energy, which feed the grid. Every five minutes. And keep it going, and they are, uh.... Well they basically go from Montana to, uh, Michigan, down to Louisiana, uh, and .... they are ... I think that they would have expertise which would be invaluable, not only in moving forward, but to make sure that anything Iowa City does isn't something which .... is only a slight chance I think, that we don't do something that they have to mitigate against in order to keep the grid stable and vibrant, uh, giving us our .... the lifestyle we're .... we've grown accustomed to. Uh, which is, uh, misoenergy.org on the internet. Uh, also I .... I feel that, uh, another area to address, uh, would be, uh, at our lighting, which you've already done well with... beginning with LED lighting, public spaces. There's a group called International Dark Sky Association, the IDA, uh.... encourage you to look at them. They've looked at, uh, light pollution. They've done consulting projects. They've been, uh, currently consulting with, uh, Malibu, California, in writing ordinances. And, uh.... uh, they have, uh, preserves, Dark Sky preserves, which have met and possibly exceed what I would expect you to do with this plan, but you can go to places like the Grand Canyon, uh, Big Bend preserve in Texas; Block Canyon in Colorado. Breckin ... Beacons in Whales, UK., Kissimmee Prairie, Florida; the, uh, (can't hear) reserve in France; and the Rhone reserve in Germany; the Yong Yang Park in South Korea; the (can't hear) preserve in Hungary; and the (can't hear) Park in New South Wales, Australia. These are all Dark Sky preserves, places where you can go and expect to see the beauty of the skies at night, and uh.....and there're Dark Sky towns as This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 40 well — Bon Accord in Alberta, Canada; Flagstaff, Arizona; Moffat in Scotland; Borrego Springs, California — these are places which have gone above and beyond and become Dark Sky, uh, not preserves. Dark Sky, uh, cities, where they use moderate amount of light, projected towards the ground, and people can see well and there are, uh, there are many things on a Dark Sky association, darksky.org web site, that, uh.....they point to, uh, circadian rhythms being affected with, uh, blue tinted LEDs. Uh, they also mention safety. Uh, if you have bright spots or brightly lit, you also have dark spots, which are.....which are hard to see in and that's where crime happens. So it's actually safer to have less lighting, moderately less lighting, which allows your, uh, night vision to allow you to see around. And that information's on their web site as well. Throgmorton: Christopher, we usually limit ourselves to five minutes each (both talking) and you've gone over five minutes. Bergan: I apologize. I'm basically at the end. I just want to, uh, encourage you to look forward with stringent because we're always behind the curve ball on this issue it seems like. Thank you for your time. Throgrnorton: Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, I don't see anybody else who wants to speak so, uh, Council discussion? Let me start. I'll just, um, I have a bunch of stuff written. So we've received many emails, 15 or more, uh, urging us to adopt this 40% reduction, from 1990 levels, and to use our good friends Martha Norbeck and Jerry Schnoor to develop a plan immediately. I understand the rationale behind both of those recommendations. I think the strongest email comes from Cheryl Miller on behalf of, uh, Climate Advocates, Iowa City Climate Advocates, who urges us those three points that have been repeated a.....a couple times. Uh, include an 80% reduction target for 2050, ensure that the .... the consultant has documented technical expertise and experience, and make sure the consultant addresses financial impacts of the plan beyond.... direct impacts, direct costs to the City. So, uh, some .... some good friends of mine and ours, and some of whom are in the audience, have claimed that we already know what needs to be done. I .... I don't think that's true. Uh, moreover, this is not a simple mathematical task. The challenge is not math. The challenge is people. The challenge is figuring out how to do it here. How to reduce emissions here, given the complexity of industry, businesses, people, and so on. So we need to devise a means by which we can bring people along at a rate that they're willing to go along with, and yet do it! So, uh, we've got to get buy -in from the public, and John Fraser spoke quite articulately about that particular point. As for involving, uh, local people is concerned, I totally agree. Totally! It's for that reason that, uh, Brenda and Geoff and I spoke with Dean, uh, Alec Scranton in the College of Engineering and then Brenda and I later spoke with Jerry Schnoor, Professor Jerry Schnoor, about involving College of Engineering faculty and students in the technical work. They will be involved in the technical work. Brenda, you.....I think you've already talked with, uh, Jerry again, right, about that? Yeah. Uh, likewise, it's for that reason that, uh, I personally included Martha Norbeck on a list of people that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 41 would be great members of the technical advis... well, of the, uh, of the community-based advisory committee, uh, that we intend to create and that we will be discussing at our next meeting on January 3`d, during our work session. I think John Fraser would be a great contributor as well, and then surely other people. I don't want to limit, uh, this to just Martha and John. But ... Martha and Jerry Schnoor have both been part of the conversation all along, and let's see.... there might be a couple other things I want to say. Um ... uh, I think, uh, we .... as a Council could, tonight, and tell me if I'm wrong about this, Eleanor, consider, uh, amending the proposed resolution to add this, uh, reduction target for the year 2050, if we wanted to. I'm not pushing it, but we've been urged to do that. Uh, and.....yeah, so I'll just leave it at that. I think I'm really happy everybody's here. I'm really glad that people are pushing us, uh, but I'm excited about the fact that we have .... we're stepping forth, we're gonna be doin' work. It's comin'! We're takin' it step-by-step. So .... others? Thomas: Well I agree with your comments, Jim, and thanks for articulating them. Uh, I think .... you know, I would support the second amend .... this amendment of 80% by 2050, although I think, uh, you know, in discussions we've .... I've had over the last several days, the ... the real issue isn't these goals we set for.....33 years from now (laughs) but what we do, uh, in the short-term to start realizing them. So, um, I .... I think adding that is ... is something I would support if the Council supports it. I'm .... I'm also concerned that what .... what can we do in the period between we ... the adoption of the ... the action plan. I mean I feel in some ways we're already making progress on some of the actions the Council has initiated in terms of land use and transportation. We really haven't emphasized their greenhouse gas reduction function, but they nevertheless are part of their value, and .... and perhaps we need to do a better job of explaining and educating ourselves and the public as to when we make initiatives to what extent they will impact. We may not be able to measure it now but will, uh, as we proceed with perhaps our .... an urban forestry program, further reductions in transportation by, you know, uh, gas -driven automobiles and so on and so forth, the bicycle networks. So I am concerned that .... how can we anticipate, um, what those actions will be, and to the extent we can begin to guide our actions so that they're in accordance with them. We ... we kind of briefly talked about that with the Public Works (mumbled) that we'll be developing. But I do think it needs to be part of our thinking, uh, straight away. And to the extent we can make that a meaningful conversation incorporated into our work. Throgmorton: Others? Taylor: I would be okay with this resolution and the inclusion of the 80% by 2050. I think it's been stated a couple times about, uh, without a buy -in from the groups that the goal's hard to achieve and just looking at the graph that Brenda presented there, it's industrial, commercial, uh, residential, the UI Power Plant, which is a big, major, uh.... factor in this, and transportation. So there're a number of folks involved, a number of stakeholders, that would need to be included in that, and I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 42 assume that would be part of the community-based committee that you were talking about as far as the stakeholders. Throgmorton: Yeah, and I've ... just to add on that, I've talked with, uh, Don Gukart and other staff at the University of Iowa's Facility Management.... Facilities Management office, uh, and.....and completely persuaded that at least one of their key members would be eager to participate in our advisory committee. So..... Botchway: So I would be, um, supportive of the, um, obviously the resolution, but also .... or the goal, but also the 80% by 2050. Um, I think, um, everybody's kind of said about the buy -in part and looking at the short-term aspects of this is ... and obviously important from a foundational perspective. I will say that I'm always proud of our community coming forward and talking to us about these issues, um, wanting to be a part of these issues, and so .... in whatever way that we can use, I think groundswell was used a couple of times, this groundswell of ...of community members that have emailed, um, that have called, um, in an urgent way, and obviously the 100 Grannies are always, um, at the table. Um .... to, uh, to ensure that buy -in from a .... a community level happens in.....in maybe a faster way, I think would....1 think would help some of the concerns that were discussed as far as maybe the 25% goal not being enough. Um, I think that Brenda did a wonderful job of just, uh, simply stating that, you know, it's .... it's a goal. It doesn't mean it doesn't necessarily.... something that we can't surpass or ... or look towards, um, doing more as we're kind of doing some of this ground work and so, um, again, I'm supportive, like I said, of the, um, of the resolution, but obviously of the 80% as well and I would encourage everybody that's here, I know the 100 Grannies will be here and some other folks that have obviously, um, worked on this as well, um, to continue to be a part of this, um, beyond some of the community advisory group aspects of it, but to help us with the buy -in because, um, as .... as Jim, Brenda, and I think we talked about it during the work session, this is .... this is going to be some work, and it's going to be about the people part of it, you know, getting people on board and having.... asking different questions and having different conversations, and so I'm excited about this kind of energy around, um, this particular type of change. Cole: Well you know I think of what we achieved in affordable housing this year and we got an award for that tonight, but I sort of wanted to share that aware with all the community advocates that helped make us hap .... make that happen, and the reason I bring that up is that we achieved that goal not because of what we did, is because we have willing partners in the community that work with us, our staff. They struggled with us, they knew that we were, you know, imperfect people trying to perfect policy, and I think that's where the environmental task before us, there's only seven of us. We need every one of the people that are concerned about climate advocacy to .... to continue to work with us because if it's just a resolution, we could have 100% or 150%, but if we don't have the collaboration of the community that's not going to happen. So, um, I'm absolutely supportive of where we're at. I think that reflects a considered judgment by staff in terms of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 43 what we can achieve, to shoot for the 80% by 2050, um, but one thing I think that hopefully we can achieve is some sort of short, sort of immediate action type projects where at least we can get started on certain projects. I think for example of the ped mall where we have those recycling things. Like quick action projects. So I think as we look at these long targets, I think it is important that we do try to identify that and I think again of what we achieved in affordable housing, although it is more probably technically complicated with the environmental plan, but I think we can this year hopefully provide some, you know, projects where we can really point to and say, `Hey, this is signaling where we're going.' So, um, I'm very happy in terms of where we're at. Can we do better? Absolutely, but I think we can all do better in terms of where we move forward with this. Mims: I'm supportive of the resolution. I ... I don't .... I guess I don't feel real strongly one way or the other about the 80% by 2050, simply because .... I.....I have no idea where that number comes from. I have no idea if it's.... anywhere near feasible, if it's just something that people have kind of pulled out of a hat to be really aspirational, and I realize sometimes just being really aspirational can be very beneficial. Um .... but I .... I just don't know, like I say, I just don't know where it's coming from or how realistic, um, it is. I won't vote against it if that's .... if that's what the rest of the Council wants to do. I think .... if we can get some things done in the .... in the shorter timeframe, I agree with what you're saying, Rockne. I think Brenda laid it out really well that .... and as Pauline mentioned, as you look at this chart, and I was going to mention this as well, you know, the big aspects of this are particularly the industrial and the commercial and the UI Power Plant. Um, things that technically are totally out of our control. And so the idea of really having to develop those relationships as staff was talking about earlier, getting people on board with the importance of this, uh, comments were made about how, you know, business is starting to see that it is really economical for them long-term to be environmentally sensitive and responsible. Um, but not everybody sees that yet, and so there's.... there's a lot of work to do, but I think the more... the more wins we can get in a short term help get more people on board for the long-term. Dickens: I'll be supporting it as well and I... just looking at graphs, I ... I'm very visual, it looks like the industrial area's where we're gonna have to work the hardest. Uh... the residential doesn't change that much. Uh, each of us as individuals can do our own. I look at my father who's in his 80s and he put geothermal in his house. He didn't do it to get the buy-back. He did it for the next generation. Um .... we can all do what we can. Turn your thermostats down a little but during the winter. Couple degrees. One, it's a plus for you. You save money. Two, you're usin' less energy. Uh, there's just little things that we can all do. It adds up, so .... but our biggest concerns are the industrial, uh, the power plants, because we as individuals are doin' as much, maybe not as much as we can, but we're really tryin' to do it, so ..... I .... I support it. The 80% may be, I don't know .... I.... I haven't done enough research on it to see if it's a feasible. It would be great if it can, uh.... 30 some years from now, well, with the longevity in my .... my father, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 44 he's going to be 88 next week, I .... I may still be around (several talking and laughing) So, I guess I better start worrying about it a little more but uh... no, I .... I support the .... the program and I think we do need to kick start it. Throgmorton: Okay uh.... so I would, urn .... invite an amendment, cause we don't have an amendment on the .... on the table yet. I would invite amendment which adds the following language, immediately after the first time that the date 2025 appears. And the words that would be added are: and a reduction target of 80% by 2050. I ... I think that's .... I think it fits okay within the context and the language. Okay, so .... motion. Cole: So moved. Taylor: Second. Throgmorton: Moved ... by, uh, Cole, seconded by Taylor. Discussion? I .... I guess I want to say a couple things. It's my understanding that the 80% ... Dianne, you know a lot about this. It's my understanding the 80% figure comes mainly from the Paris Agreement, but it's tied to changes in global average temperature, and a desire to keep the increase down, and they figure that 80% reduction's necessary. Yeah. Okay, so (unable to hear response from audience) Yeah. (unable to hear response from audience) Mims: Yeah, I've ... I don't know. Throgmorton: As time passes, who knows. I mean time'll pass, we'll have better knowledge about all this stuff and hopefully be able to do better work, but that's where that 80% comes from. Mims: Thank you. Throgmorton: Yeah, and I think there was somethin' else I was gonna say but now I don't remember what it was. So, okay, we have an amendment on the floor. Uh, further discussion about it? Oh, I know what the other thing was (laughs) Uh, I ... I wanted .... I'd like to have a sense of the Council about this. My ... my sense is that our am ... the focal ambition is the 2025 reduction. (several responding) And we have this longer-term ambition, but what we want the consultant to focus on is the .... the reduction by 2025. Mims: Yes. Throgmorton: Yeah, I see a lot of nodding heads. Okay, so, uh, there's a motion on the floor. It's, uh, to adopt that amendment. Uh, roll call. (several responding) Sorry! Voice, uh (laughs) all in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. We're back to the amended, urn .... uh.... um, motion. Further discussion? No? Okay, uh, roll This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 45 call. Motion carries 7-0. Thanks to all of you for coming and, uh, contributing your hearts and passion to this. And minds! Voparil: Motion to accept correspondence. Botchway: So moved. Dickens: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Botchway, seconded by Dickens. All in favor say aye. Uh, motion carries 7-0, I guess. Okay, uh, Item 12, we'll wait just a second till people depart. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 46 ITEM 12. REJECTING INTIMIDATION - RESOLUTION REJECTING INTIMIDATION AND SUPPORTING SAFE COMMUNITY Botchway: So moved. Throgmorton: Moved by Botchway. Mims: Second. Throgmorton: Seconded by Mims. Uh, to be clear, uh, what this, uh, does is .... partly it's based on the language that Kingsley expressed so articulately at our last meeting, probably on some material that Rockne had provided, uh, partly in terns of how I kind of reconstructed that into, uh, my own, um, press release that went out, I don't know, two weeks ago or thereabouts, and then, Eleanor, you re ... recrafted this into a .... a, this final draft, right? Uh, but it, uh, it rejects acts of intimidation, whether they be verbal or physical, and really tries to express a.....a strong sense of where our community stands on this. We all know that there are motion... there's motion underway, uh, to .... uh, scare people, to instill fear into their hearts, to force people out of this country, to ... undermine many of the basic purposes and principles of, uh, of this country, uh, that have to do with the U.S. constitution and in our case havin' to do with our city, uh, our, what do you call it — the, uh (laughs) Cole: Charter! Throgmorton: Charter, thank you. I'm gettin' a little tired, I can feel it. Uh, the City Charter and our City Code and so on. I don't want to reread it right now, but uh... we .... we reject that .... that stuff. Okay, so we have a motion before us, uh, any farther discussion about it? Botchway: Just want to make a quick couple points. Um, kind of to your point, Jim. This isn't political, it's a people issue. Um, frankly people are scared and I .... I think it's not only something that's happened obviously in the community, but also in the schools as well. Um ... we talk ... words matter, um, but I think action does as well and so I know that we're doing this, um, resolution, but you know, I urge our community in particular to, um, to be progressive, you know, we .... we frankly talk about it, um, a lot, um, from an Iowa City standpoint, but I .... I'm more interested in the act of doing so, um, especially when it comes around, you know, hateful speech and rhetoric that's been spewed recently. I do want to just commend, um, I know we're gonna be talkin' about police chief in a moment, but the Interim Police Chief Campbell, um, you know, that whole .... the whole crux of that situation, I think Jim alluded to an email where he talked about, um, the protests that occurred, but just as a response, um, you know, and the fact that we can .... we can do better, you know, um, we may not have responded, um, the adequate or appropriate way at the particular time, um, but we can do better. We'll work .... we'll work to do better, and .... and I just appreciate the message This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 47 because as we're working through this heightened, urn .... uh, this heightened time, heightened climate, um, we're gonna make mistakes. Um, we're gonna .... we're gonna do some things that we're obviously not going to be proud of and so, again, from a community perspective, I hope that we can, um, trust each other to do better, but also, um, act and do better in that way as well. That's it. Thomas: I'll just.....I'll just mention that, uh, last week, urn .... and with regard to this, there was a .... a considerable amount of graffiti that was applied to North Market Square, uh, Preucil School and uh, a building adjacent to the park, and this was... I don't know if you would technically call it hate speech, but it was ... if not it was very inflammatory. This is not your usual type of graffiti. Um, and I was very pleased to see the City's response, the staff, um .... Rec Park ... Parks and Rec staff went out immediately and removed it from the park. Uh, Zion Lutheran Church called a meeting, uh, I think two days after the incident, uh, where community, Jim attended, um, and a number of people came together and so .... like it's kind of the same issue we're .... we're facing with the climate change. This has to be a community effort. It has to engage all of us. We, you know, the .... the resilience of our community and I thought this incident spoke very well for the resilience of the northside. I was very pleased with the response, but urn .... this is .... this is what we have to .... to work toward. It's a .... it's a community effort. Throgmorton: Yep. Okay, we have a motion on the floor. Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 48 ITEM 13. POLICE CHIEF — RESOLUTION APPROVING THE APPOINTMENT OF JODY MATHERLY AS POLICE CHIEF IN IOWA CITY, IA Mims: Move the resolution. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Uh, I guess .... do you want to speak? Or I mean.... Fruin: Yeah, I ... I'd like to. (several talking and laughing) It's been a long night, but (laughter) um .... I have been looking forward to this night for (laughter) seems like a very long time (laughter) so if you will indulge. Throgmorton: Oh, all right! (laughs) Fruin: I will .... I will walk you through, uh, the process, not only for the benefit of the Council but for the benefit of the .... the audience and anybody viewing on TV, and then, uh....um, tell you, um, why I have chosen to appoint Jody Matherly as our next Police Chief. So as .... as City Manager I ... I think the single most important rule that I have is to hire good people in key positions for the City, and I take that role very seriously. Uh, we're here tonight to talk about arguably the most critical position that I'm responsible for and that' the police chief. And as required by Charter, I'm seekin' your approval of. ... of my appointment of Chief Matherly to the Iowa City Police Chief position. So I want to start by talkin' about the process and .... and make sure that everybody, uh, knows how we got here tonight. Um, when the, uh, vacancy occurred with the retirement of Chief Hargadine, I decided to enlist the help of a, uh, search firm that has experience in .... in public sector searches and after a .... a competitive RFQ process, uh, we selected Slavin Management Consultants to help us guide that process. We chose Slavin, uh, because of their track record of recruiting and placing diverse candidates, uh, their pricing, um, and .... and just in general their track record, um, at successful placements within, uh, communities, not only police chief positions, but a variety of public sector positions. The first step in the process was to really for us as a community to express what we want, uh, in a new police chief. And we took a little bit more time than usual to do that. Uh, we brought Slavin in, we allowed them to meet, um, with different constituencies, including each of you individually, urn .... uh, without the presence of me in the room and .... and others in the room and just let..... let folks talk freely about what they see in the Iowa City Police Department, what they'd like to see in the Iowa City Police Department, and specifically what they'd like to see in the next police chief. Uh, that information, uh, was used to put our recruitment brochure out, um, essentially how we advertise the position and .... and that may seem like a simple thing, but I want to stress that.... absolutely affects who applies for the positions. As we identify those key issues, and there's, uh, people out there looking to .... to, uh, take on a new role as police chief, um, they look at what the issues are that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 49 they're going to be dealing with, and if they are not interested in addressing those issues or leading on those issues, they won't apply. So, um, we knew that in putting out that recruitment brochure that would absolutely shape our applicant pool. And I think it did, because each of the candidates that we talked with were, uh, very serious about, um, helping us a .... address some of the challenges, uh, and .... and, uh, and opportunities that we have. In the memo I listed the various ways in which we advertise the position. In addition, uh, Slavin indicated that they initiated 300 to 400 contacts with, uh, local law enforcement and government management professionals, uh, really networking to try to encourage applications. In total they recruited law enforcement personnel from communities in 23 separate states. Uh, the application period generated 18 candidates, and uh, with, um, the recruitment, uh, brochure, uh, in mind and .... and the issues that we identified in there, uh, Karen Jennings, who's our Human Resources Administrator, and uh, the folks from Slavin and I worked to, um, do the initial screening of those 18 candidates and we found 10, um, of. ... of those candidates that really I think fit well with the profile that, uh, we created as a community. The next step in the process, um, that Slavin, urn .... urn, recommended was a .... a pretty basic questionnaire that went to the candidates, uh, to .... to further learn a little bit more about them, a little bit deeper than the, uh, the resume and cover letter, uh, provided. Uh, in addition to Slavin's, uh, standard questions, the City, uh, added three different questions that gave us some initial insight into where candidates, uh... where candidates, um, opinions were, uh, on ... on a couple of key, uh, issues. Uh, in the process of sending out those 12, or I'm sorry, those 10 questionnaires, we had two candidates voluntarily withdraw from the process. That's pretty, uh, it's not uncommon in any process like this, um, where, uh, people will voluntarily withdraw for any number of reasons. It could be they found other employment, um, they've decided to stay put where they're at, uh, but we had two and thus we had, uh, eight candidates to vet. Based on the responses to, uh, the questionnaire, um, a larger group of City staff determined that there were six strong semi-finalists, uh, to bring in, uh, for, ub, more in-depth interviews. In the process of scheduling those interviews, we had two additional candidates drop and that's how we arrived at the four semi-finalists candidates, urn .... ub, that we had. Um, as you know, uh, I brought together a team of, uh, 16 individuals from the community, a mix of City staff and.... and.... and non -City staff. Those, uh, folks are listed, uh, in the memo and you have that, uh, in front of you, and we conducted, uh, interviews with each of the four semi-finalists. Uh, those 16 people were brought.... were broken up into two separate groups, and each candidate met with, uh, those two groups separately. In total it was about an hour and a half, uh.... uh, worth of questioning for each panel, so a total of three hours of questioning. Urn .... roughly 20 questions from each of the panels, 40 in total, uh, and then on top of that would be, uh, a number of follow up questions that candidates were able to .... to ask of the candidates during that time. Uh, Mayor Throg... uh, Throgmorton, Council Member Mims, and Simon Andrew from the City Manager's office also met with the semi-finalists in a more informal setting, um, took them out to .... to breakfast or lunch while they were here in town. Ub, after we went through and, uh, interviewed all four of the semi-finalist This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 50 candidates, uh, that group of 16, uh.... uh, people as well as the Mayor, Council Member Mims, and .... and Simon Andrew came to .... came together and just generally discussed, urn .... uh, insights and observations from the interview. I want to make it .... I want to make it really clear that I did not ask any of the 16 individuals or the Mayor or .... or, uh, Council Member Mims to, um, indicate who they would support or who their favorite was after the interview process. That really wasn't, uh, what I was looking for and it wouldn't be fair to ask, um, any... anybody that participated in such a short window to .... to give that kind of, uh, feedback, but really what we were looking for, um, what I was looking for was how different people viewed their interactions with each of the candidates, how they viewed their responses, identify issues that needed to be followed up on at, um, a finalist stage or as we do background checks, what are some of those, uh, key questions that .... that need to be explored as we move forward. I found that process, um, and the involvement of those people to be, um .... uh, quite enlightening. I .... I .... I, um, learn things that I didn't necessarily pick up in the interview, but just in terms of how other people interpreted responses. It was... it was very helpful. Based on that feedback, um, I ... advanced three of the candidates to a .... a finalist, uh, stage. At the finalist stage, um, the candidates, uh, became public. Their information was posted, uh, publicly on our City web site and the public was able to learn little bit more about each of the candidates. They were brought back to the community, urn.... Council Member Botchway and I met with each of the three candidates, urn ... and they also received a tour of the Police Station, met some of the Police staff, uh, they, uh, performed ... or were able to go on a community tour to learn a little bit more about the community, uh, and uh, the Iowa City area, and then there were two meet -n -greet opportunities. Uh, the first one was for the Police Department staff, um, and that was, uh, mid-afternoon meet -n -greet, and then the evening, we transitioned to a public meet -n -greet process where, uh, those that were interested could come on ... uh, come in and have some one-on-one or small -group interactions with ... with each of the, uh, which... with each of the candidates. We collected feedback from all those different exercises and um, then began, uh, the background checks and it was after those, uh, processes that, um ... I came, uh, to the conclusion, um, that, uh, Chief Matherly was the absolute right fit for our department. I want to address a couple things before I talk a little bit about, um ..... uh, Chief Matherly's background and .... and the particular aspects, um, of..of his background that I think will .... will carry over, be an excellent fit here in Iowa City. Um .... uh, and one of those, uh, has been publicly discussed, uh.... um, here in the Council chambers and in the media, and .... and it's the fact that there were no, uh, minority candidates at the semi-finalist or finalist stage of the process. We made every effort to recruit a diverse applicant pool. Um, we were, um ... uh.... very conscious of that when we determined where to advertise. We were conscious of that when we put together the recruitment brochure, to make sure that, urn .... uh, we had the ability to attract a diverse applicant pool. Um .... at the end, uh, when we received the 18 applications, I think that there was very good reason to believe, uh, that we had a diverse applicant pool. Um, and .... and I, as I mention in the memo, this belief of mine is ascertained through disclosures in application materials. So it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 51 could be memberships to, uh, particular organizations or other disclosures, uh, that would lead one to believe, uh, with some certainty that they were of minority status. And, um, once we have those 18 applications in this case, um, everybody was held to the same standard going forward. Urn .... uh, and so where minority con, uh, candidates dropped off, um .... uh, I can tell you some was, um, they .... they, you know, could have been at the questionnaire stage. Uh, we did have, uh, believe minority candidates voluntarily withdraw from the process too, and so, uh, that happens, um, but I want to make sure that you... you're.... at least have the information, um, because that has been, uh, publicly discussed, um, over the last couple of months. And I'll be happy to answer more questions, uh, about that, but .... uh, to my, uh, appointment tonight, and I am seeking your approval per the City Charter, um, very, very excited to, um, appoint, uh, Chief Matherly. Uh, he has over 33 years of law enforcement experience and a variety of settings, and I think each of his, um, each of the work environments that he's been in, uh, over his career have certain aspects that .... that really, um, put him in a unique position to serve the Iowa City community. He's currently serving as the police chief in Altoona, Iowa, and prior to that was in Grinnell, Iowa. Prior to becoming the chief in Grinnell, Iowa, um, he worked in Flint, Michigan, uh, where he started off as an officer, uh, moved to sergeant and eventually, uh, ended his career there as lieutenant, again before, um, moving to, um, Grinnell to take on the police chief position. Again, each of these com.... communities, uh, that I just mentioned there I think have, um, unique attributes with Iowa City and really, um, give Chief Matherly a unique, uh, perspective as he approaches the job here in Iowa City. A couple of things, uh, that, um, really, uh, s .... uh, stood out to me during the process, and some of the things I heard from other people, um, really, uh, have a deep appreciation for Chief Matherly's commitment to professional development. Uh, he's very active in the, uh, various police industry associations. Um, he was up to speed on every topic that we wanted to, uh, discuss with him. He very much is plugged into best practices, and I think he's demonstrated a, uh... um, a.....a willingness, um, to be on the leading edge of. ... of, uh, particular issues. He has a strong reputation as a visible presence in the community, and has really demonstrated a commitment to developing and nurturing relationships in the community. Um .... he didn't, he's not coming to Iowa City, and this is ... this was one thing that really struck me. He's not coming to Iowa City with all the answers. Um, and that.... separated him from some of the other candidates. He's coming to Iowa City with a strong desire to learn about our community values, um, to build relationships, and collaboratively work to find those solutions. And that's what really stood out, is his .... uh, his willingness to say I may not have all the answers, but I'm gonna (laughs) work really hard with the right people to figure out those answers, and um.....uh, not only was he able to.....articulate that very well in the interview process, but as we did background checks and we talked with people, uh, that have worked with him, um, that have observed him, uh, in other communities working, it was clear that that, um, is not only something that he, uh, says but something that he does. Lastly, I'll say that I think, uh, he will be a very strong internal leader, uh, for the department. We have an excellent, excellent group of employees at the Iowa City Police This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 52 Department. Um, they want to, uh, serve this community. Um .... uh, and they, um, I think are going to be very pleased to have a leader like Chief Matherly who will, um, work hard to gain their trust, their respect, and that .... and they will work even harder, um, with him to.....to strengthen those ties in the .... in the community. So, um, I thank you for allowing me the floor, um .... for this long at this point in the evening. Um, I do want to point out, uh, Chief Matherly is in the audience there with his wife Laura, and um .... look forward to answering any questions that you have about my appointment or the recruitment process. Throgmorton: Thank you, Geoff. Nicely done! It may be that there's some other people in the audience who would like to address this topic and I think we need to give them an opportunity to speak. So if anybody would like to, please do! All right, I don't see anybody. So we have a motion on the floor. Let .... let me begin by very briefly stating my view. As Geoff said, selecting a chief of police is probably the most important individual appointment that the City Manager can make, or will make. For that reason, I have followed the search process very carefully, and have spoken with Geoff about it many, many times over the past five months. I think I've just been trackin' it all along. In brief, my sense is that Geoff has done a truly outstanding job of conducting this search, and I have complete confidence in his selection of Jody Matherly as our new Police Chief. And I will obviously vote in support. Mims: I would agree with everything you said, Jim, and I'm honored as a Member of the Council to have had the opportunity to meet with, um, as he .... as Geoff said, Jim and I took each of the finalists, or semi-finalists out to either lunch or breakfast and just a very informal opportunity to, um, discuss things with them, much differently obviously than the interview panels. Um, but I think it was a very well done process. I think we've come to .... I think Geoff has come to a very good conclusion. Um, I think Chief Matherly will be a great addition to this community, and look forward to having him on board! Botchway: So I'll make a couple of comments. Urn .... I think that, as a .... from a Councilor perspective and I think Susan has mentioned it as well, I mean, I'm very, um.... you know, as we look at positions that come open, and we just had this, um, recent couple positions that we (mumbled) for on the Police Department, um, you know, I .... I want to be clear that diversity is important. I mean that's.... that's something that, you know, and I know that it gets redundant and I think frankly, um, to Jim's comment as well, I think, um, I think I called Geoff or text Geoff, um, more times than I probably want to mention, just because of, um, my feeling or thoughts or concerns, just about an important position, as Geoff kind of talked about. I ... I do want to make clear a statement that I ..... I agree with Jim's statement as well and I think Susan, um, that I support Geoff in the process. I thought it was a really well done process. Although there were concerns about timing and some of the other things and, you know, there was a lot of thought process that went into, um.....how we went about what we .... where we went about or .... and how we went about it, and so, um, I can appreciate that. Uh, I just This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 53 want to do .... I do want to say a couple of things about, urn .... uh, Jody Matherly. Um, you know, I did get an opportunity, as Geoff mentioned during the process, to kind of speak with him and I .... I do want to echo some of the comments, um, Geoff mentioned. Uh, it was interesting how he handles community. Um, that was something that I think came off very strongly. Um, just overall..... not only his demeanor, um, but how he talked about issues that he's working through, and I know I'm talking about you in third person being there (laughter) but I have some written down so you have to apologize (laughter) urn .... the other piece of it, I agree, was the professional development, um, part of it, and that's a huge part of my job currently, and how to address issues and to hear somebody, you know, I think that across the country when you hear about, um ... uh, police related issues, there's a, you know, we're gonna handle this immediately, we're going to make this immediate change, without the thought process of really growing your police force in a mindset, um .... uh, but also kind of, um, and the growth around, how to address issues properly and so, um, you know, he was even able to give a couple examples in that regard, and so I can appreciate that as well. Um, you know, since you are here, um, I do want to say it's a hot seat (laughter) you know, I mean this is .... this is the hottest seat outside of Geoff s, which is just really kind of a .... a steady simmer, and so, um (laughter) I .... I think that it's something that, uh, frankly you know, I'll be honest with you and frank with you, I mean even right before the conver... right before this meeting, um, you know, I said that there was something that, you know, I want to work with you, um, pretty exclusively as all Council Members obviously will with our departments to .... to really, you know, see some of the things that ... I think that you stepping forward and wanting to see some of these key leadership, um .... uh, pieces in the community was really important. One of the hot button topics is going to be disproportionality and that's coming around the bend in February, and .... and just so you know, I mean, that's going to be .... since it's a strategic plan element and we have a goal in mind and, um, I'm assuming that there will be some strategies and discussion around that as well, um, that's going to be kind of a key moment, um, not necessarily for you to, you know, have a laundry list of things that you, um, have prepared to do, but just to see how you can step up and .... and kind of, um, work with your department and work with the community on how we can, um, improve on this together. Yeah, that's all I have to say. It's a hot seat, so you know, uh, I appreciate you stepping into the role because, um, because it's a .... it's an important opportunity and I'm .... I'm going to be really glad working with you, um, through the upcoming, um, months on how we can, uh, work on this together. Dickens: We haven't voted yet, but I think you've got a good chance of getting in (laughter) Um .... uh, I was surprised, since we really didn't have a whole lot to do as far as our input was not really solicited. I was amazed at the number of people that called me with, uh, voices of support for Jody, so it's, uh, it makes me feel very good about, uh, Geoff's decision, so I'm ..... I'm very excited about the future and .... I was born here, I'm gonna die here, so you're gonna have to put up with me for a long time (laughter) so .... great to have you here! (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 54 Thomas: I .... I thought it was a, you know, the memo was, Geoff prepared was outstanding and it really articulated the thoroughness of the process. Um, just .... a lot of people involved in.....in various ways to contribute to the decision. Uh, I just wanted to highlight, and Geoff, you mentioned it in your description, but I'll... I'll bring it up again. You said that, uh, Chief Matherly has a strong reputation as a visible presence in the community, and has clearly demonstrated a commitment to developing and nurturing community relationships that build trust, open communication channels, and lead to collaborative community problem solving efforts. You know, I think that's it! (laughs) That's what it's all about! Uh, not only for the Chief, but for all of us who .... who aspire for this community to be all it can be. So .... you know, thanks for that memo. I .... I thought that that was a great, um ... just a great way of expressing that sentiment and.....Chief, I .... you sound like you're gonna be a great addition to the Iowa City community, so welcome! Cole: And I'm gonna support the appointment. You know I think in terms of this....this process, we really had three fantastic candidates, and I know it must have been in incredibly difficult choice for Geoff to make, but I gotta say, Mr. Matherly's name kept on popping up, in .... favorably! And, and that's precisely what you want to see. You don't want any sort of in ... information that cause... gives you any pause, and everything I heard was.....was very positive from a variety of different people, and I think the thing that stood out the most in terms of your experience is Flint, Grinnell, and Altoona. I mean, that's such a unique convergence of experience, and I think of for example what Iowa City is. We have urban elements. We have suburban, and we have small town, and I think those really the elements are why we love living in this community and it seems like your background is really tailor made to make that happen, and I think the ... what Geoff s point was, the fact that you said that you don't have all the answers. I think that's precisely the type of framework to build those collaborative relationships is gonna be so, so important because there are a lot of people in Iowa City that do have positive, constructive feedback, and so the fact that you're receptive to that, I think is gonna be a good foundation going forward. Taylor: I also like, uh, Terry had heard from members of the community, and it's very diverse members of the community that I ... I respect their opinion, who also said that they were very pleased with.....with your selection, so .... I'm .... I'm very much in favor of it also. Throgmorton: All right. I don't sense a lot of opposition (laughter) We have a motion on the floor. Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. Congratulations, Jody! (several talking) Congratulations, Geoff. Fruin: Thank you. (laughter) If, yeah! Dickens: What else can we add to your plate (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 55 Fruin: If, real quick .... I forgot to say this in my remarks, but I .... I put it in the memo and I want to echo it publicly. I have to thank Captains Troy Kelsay and Bill .... Bill Campbell. (several responding) Um, they have, uh, done a very, very nice job stepping up and leading the department, um, and I certainly depended on them a lot and .... and they delivered. So, um, Chief Matherly's inheriting, as I said, a really good team, and it starts there at the top with those two. Throgmorton: So Chief Matherly is gonna start work on the 23`d of January, is that right? Fruin: That's correct, yes. Throgmorton: Lookin' forward to it! Okay, well we have a few other items of business. We should go on to `em. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 56 ITEM 14. RESOLUTION APPROVING, AUTHORIZING, AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT AND MUTUAL RELEASE BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND JOSEPH J. HENDERSON AND SON, INC., REGARDING THE SOUTH WASTE WATER TREATMENT PLANT BIO -SOLIDS ROOF Throgmorton: Resolution approving, authorizing, and directing the Mayor to execute and the City Clerk to attest a settlement agreement and mutual release by and between the City of Iowa City and Joseph J. Henderson and Son, Inc., regarding the south waste water treatment plant bio -solids roof. Mims: Move resolution. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Discussion? Hearing none, roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 57 ITEM 16. 2017 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES — RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE CITY'S 2017 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES Botchway: See .... or move resolution (laughs) Mims: (laughing) Second! Throgmorton: (both talking) Botchway, seconded by Mims (several talking) Discussion? (several talking) The, uh, the elements appear in our packet. I'm .... I'm not gonna restate `em. Cole: Public comments! Throgmorton: Oh, I'm sorry! (several talking) I apologize. Adam, go ahead! Thank you. (both talking) I .... I was kinda hypnotized by the motion (laughter) Sullivan: (both talking) That's okay, and I will sign but let me, uh, get my words out. Um, and there were a handful of other people I think who are interested in this, but as you know it's a long meeting and some of `em hit the road, but want to speak really quickly. Um, I imagine some of you are probably pessimistic about your prospects at the State House this year, but I actually do think that there's, um, some cause for optimism. I think, uh, Geoff made the point at a work session a couple weeks back that you need to find those issues where there's gonna be movement and see what influence we can have on those and .... so I'm glad that you've taken that mindset. Um, specifically I want to talk about, um, local control over law enforcement and you included some language in the memo about cannabis in particular. Um, you all know that, you know, drug reform, criminal justice has been an interest of mine and I think we have, um, my understanding and, you know, at some future point you might want to ask Eleanor for a more qualified opinion, but um, what's keeping us, uh, Iowa City from governing that enforcement, um, locally, um, is that it's a serious misdemeanor at tha... at this point, um, and I .... we have a Republican sponsor for a bill to make that a simple misdemeanor, which I believe would empower you all, um, to lessen those penalties. Um, and end point hopefully is that we don't have to have folks in jail, um, if they're not hurting anybody else, and I think we can move towards that. At this point, statewide reform isn't gonna happen. It needs to be a local issue, and especially with Republican House, Republican Senate, um, that local control issue is where it's gonna be important. So, uh, specifically thanks to Rockne for getting that in there. Um, he's done an excellent job at taking and implementing community comment and really appreciate that so ... I just wanted to speak in favor of that, uh, make sure that that got in there, um, and then as you're talking to legislators in the next few months here, um, if you could bring that up I would really appreciate it. Throgmorton: Thank you, Adam. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 58 Mims: Thank you. Curtin: Hi, I'm Sean Curtin, an Iowa City resident. Um, I just wanted to speak today cause I think this is a bellwether day for Iowa City with the new Police Chief, um, you know, discussing criminal justice reform we're on the, uh, wake of a... an election that is now seen, um, eight states plus Washington, D.C. move for the full legalization of marijuana. Um, you know, at this point we have, uh, about 65 million Americans who have that legal protection, so about a fall 20% of our population, uh, in the country, but there's been no action in Iowa, or in Iowa City, and I think if there .... if we're gonna be sort of on -pace with the rest of the country, I think something originating from Iowa City would be the most likely way for that to happen, and that's what makes sense. Um .... and it's a bellwether day because in all of the other states action on, uh, marijuana has come from, uh, the citizens, citizen -led initiatives. Uh, but today, you know, something very special has happened, uh, where our Councilor, Rockne Cole, has, uh.... has decided that he wants to advocate for that to be part of Iowa City's legislative agenda, and so that's something that represents a huge shift and a huge change, uh, from just four years ago, um, when there was a lot of discussion about building a new jail facility. I think, uh, disproportionality contact, which directly interplays with, uh, marijuana issues was at least half of the reason that three of those measures were defeated over and over again (clears throat) and basically what you saw is the County, but also the city at large, to a certain extent just remove their consent from the on-going criminal justice practices that we were suffering under at that time. Uh, but we have a new opportunity with our new, uh, Police Chief. (clears throat) Uh, and I think one thing that's noteworthy for him and for you guys is shortly after the 2014, uh, courthouse expansion, uh, our Sheriff, Lonny Pulkrabek mentioned that he wanted to move his department more in the direction of, uh, making marijuana, misdemeanor marijuana charges, trying to loop those in with simply a citation for marijuana paraphernalia, and I think that's something that has not got a lot of attention, but it was a great thing that our Sheriff did, and I think that's a good step that could probably be started day one, uh, with our new Police Chief and that'd be something to strongly consider. Um, but finally as far as, uh, the .... the City's legislative agenda, you know I think, uh, this marijuana should not be a back -burner issue. This is the direction that the country is moving in, and .... and in conclusion, there's absolutely no, uh, legal or moral justification to take someone who has, uh, marijuana in their possession, uh, and to throw them in a jail cell, with criminals. Um .... you know I think it's, uh, similar to liquor, except, uh, it's not physically addictive and it can't kill you. In conclusion, on this topic the .... the prohibition of marijuana in America is tied in the 20s and 30s to a department about to have its budget cut, coming up with outrageous propaganda, using it as a culture war wedge issue, to crack down on Hispanics and Mexicans. Um, in the Nixon administration, we have an official who's now said that the advancement of the war on drugs was a tool to crack down on hippie and black dissidence against the Vietnam war, and that when you have this, it's something you can do to break up opposition and to go into minority communities. Um, so it's time for this action to happen. Um, and it's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 59 a .... it's a big change and I think we need to look forward to progress on this issue. Um, led by the whole City Council, as well as Rockne Cole. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Sean. Krauss: Uh, thank you for....excuse me, thank you for your time. Uh, my name is Jared Krauss. I (clears throat) excuse me, I'm an Iowa City resident. There are just a couple things that I wanted to talk about. Um, echo support for the two preceding me and to add a couple factual points. The national average for the, uh, ratio of arrests for blacks and whites regarding marijuana, according to the ACLU released a couple years ago is 3.7. So ... or 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana -related charges if you're black in America, national average. In Iowa, uh, we were one of the highest. In Johnson County we were the highest, and Johnson County was among the highest at 8.34 times more likely to be arrested. The, uh, population for blacks in Iowa is 3.1 %, so you can go ahead and do the math there. Uh, I don't know .... I'm not gonna say that we are intentionally trying to pursue those tactics, but uh, there is something to be said for, you know, sort of conditional bias and I know that that's something our, um ..... uh, Troy Kelsay I believe was the Interim Police Chief, talked about, uh, during the first round with implicit bias (mumbled) explicit bias, and that's good but, um, I think we need to be doing more and so I appreciate the efforts by Rockne Cole and you guys, uh, being willing to take this into consideration and, uh, more citizens to advocate for it. (clears throat) I want to echo, uh, support for, uh, somebody earlier who mentioned, I believe what I think of in my own head as this idea of light hats, which is essentially extends a shade over the top of exterior lights, um, you should go look at the map for the dark skies in Iowa. The closest place is like 15 miles southwest of here to get anywhere where you can actually see the Milky Way, so like the Perseids that happened a month ago, yeah, that's where you gotta go if you really want like a good viewing. You can't even go up to like, um, Lake Macbride or Palisades, etc., um, and then finally, uh, the public wi-fi, or public wi-fi. Uh, glad to see the City all has it. Glad to see that downtown has it, but there are a lot of communities in Iowa City that, uh, severely lack access to wi-fi. Throgmorton: Excuse me, I .... we have a motion on the floor and you need to be addressing the motion. Krauss: I'm sorry, uh, I thought it was consideration for, uh, legislation for the coming year (both talking) Throgmorton:.... our proposed legislative agenda. Krauss: I apologize for that then. Um .... uh, just wrap up by saying that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has something called the open wireless movement, which is attempting to provide public wi-fi to as many people as possible and I think that's something that, um, we should consider utilizing, so sorry for taking the stand. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 60 Pector: Hi, I'm Brad Pector, a University student. Um (clears throat) I just want to echo the other things that people have said, uh, including the .... at least more petty for me, I .... the light shades would actually help a lot, I think. It goes right into my, uh, front window of my house and I feel like a lot of people probably just haven't said that but it's important. Um, but the more important thing I have to say is that, um .... it is final's week during, uh, for University students, and I know a lot of others, uh, would have liked to come here to show support, um, so I think I can speak on behalf of many individuals when I say that cannabis reform is long overdue. Um, as a community we should be able to dictate our own practice when it comes to charging people for a substance that is almost certainly less harmful that alcohol. Um, along with this, I think all of us should also acknowledge the horrible connection that the incarceration system has to institutional racism as said before. Um, in fact it depends on it. Uh, in 2013, the ACLU, uh, in Iowa reported that a black person is, ub, 8.37 times as likely, um.... to be arrested for canis... cannabis possession compared to a white community member. Uh, even though all people carry cannabis at roughly the same rates. Um, this was the worst disparity in the entire United States, uh, so Iowa's the lowest. Although cannabis reform won't erase institutional racism, it will allow people to continue living their lives. I also believe this is an in ... an incredibly important step in lowering the population of the Johnson County Jail. No one needs to go to jail for cannabis. Uh, we need to take this measure very seriously and, uh, as our Council, I urge you to do so sooner than later. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Brad. Hi, Carol. Dieterle: Um, yes, I'm Caroline Dieterle, um, and I just wanted to pass on that, um, I was at a meeting at the Senior Center for something entirely different. I think we were watching a film or something, and while we were waiting for the film, uh, some of the people there got into conversation and, um .... uh, the, uh.... complaint was expressed that they wished that there was a .... a safe room in the Senior Center where senior citizens could smoke marijuana medically. Um, they said that the people who are telling me this said that they, uh, had been trying all of these various prescription drugs and that they were expensive and habit-forming, uh, I think that probably some of them were opioids, um, and that they wouldn't have had to do that if, uh, they could use marijuana, and that they'd known that because they had tried it and now felt like criminals, and you know you see (laughs) 80 - plus year old people (laughs) who think that they're criminals because they, uh, relieve their pain with a little marijuana. It's.... it's really pathetic, and I don't see how the legislature can be so heartless, and (clears throat) so anyway, I think I also .... am really, really glad that, uh, Rockne has taken the initiative on this and um, I hope that it can be reduced to simple dis.... misdemeanor sort of things or citations. It would.....it would be a big .... big boon to not only the young but also to the old and middle-aged! Thanks! Throgmorton: Thank you, Caroline. Anybody else? Okay, hearing none, uh, any Council discussion? Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 61 ITEM 17. COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS. Applicants MUST reside in Iowa City and be 18 years of age unless specific qualifications are stated. Throgmorton: We have appointments to make to four commissions tonight. Board of Adjustment, there's one, uh...... I thought there were .... yeah, one....one vacancy and two applicants. No gender balance required. The two applicants are Jeff Falk and Bryce Parker. What's your preference? Mims: I'd.....I'll start but I'm gonna tie this into Human Rights because we have people now who are applying for more than one commission at the same time, so you almost have to look at things together. Um, what my recommendation would be would be Bryce Parker for Board of Adjustment and then Jeff Falk for Human Rights. Um, the reason I did that and let me kind of go through this and start maybe with the Human Rights, um, we had one male requirement, um, the... as I recall, yeah, there were three males who applied out of all of those for .... for the Human Rights Commission. Um, Paul Retish is on, finishing unexpired term, but he also has served before. I think he does and has done an excellent job on the Human Rights Commission, but we also have talked about trying to give more people an opportunity on the commissions, and since we do have other people applying, um, and I .... I think in his materials he said he'd served.... he's finishing up with three years now and about five years ago he served three years. So .... I... I just feel it's opportunity time to give somebody else, and so that was where my rationale came was with, uh, Jeff Falk for Human Rights and then, um, since we only have two for Board of Adjustment, then that would give Bryce Parker the opportunity on Board of Adjustment. Taylor: I was thinking along the same lines as Susan because Jeff did actually mention that he was also interested in Human Rights but I have to add that I felt of all the .... all the months on Council and seeing applicants, this list .... we had a very impressive list of applicants (both talking) Throgmorton: For the Human Rights Commission. Taylor: (both talking) What's that? Throgmorton: For the Human Rights Commission. That's what you're (both talking) Taylor: Yeah, uh huh, there were .... there was a long list of folks (both talking) Throgmorton:.... 12 applicants.... Taylor: ...and we've talked about having more diversity in our commissions and .... and, uh, boards, etc., and you couldn't have asked for a more broad diverse group, uh age wise, gender wise, uh, sexual orientation, uh, ethnicity, it was quite a broad range and I commend all those folks for applying and .... and hope that ... even if they're not selected that they would continue their interest in serving the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 62 community. But I agree with Susan on .... on, uh, Bryce for this one, the Board of Adjustment. Throgmorton: And Falk for the other one? Taylor: And Falk for Human Rights, correct. Throgmorton: So obviously we're talking about the Human Rights Commission as well as the, uh, the Board of Adjustment. So .... what do the rest of you (several talking) Botchway: I don't have a problem with it, just to kind of, not a procedural point but .... it says here that the, um, so the .... there's another opening gonna come about after 12/19? Mims: On which one? Botchway: On the Human Rights Commission. Am I reading that right? It says there's no gender requirement after 12/19. Mims: Doesn't mean there's another opening, it just means if we waited till after 12/19, we would not have to follow the gender.... gender requirement. Botchway: So .... yeah, so .... I would, so if ...that's the case, I would actually not agree. Um, because I think there are a couple applicants here that, um, could diversify, not necessarily just in, urn .... uh, race .... race or ethnicity, but also in age. Urn ... and get a little more energy into the Human Rights Commission. Not sayin' it doesn't do amazing work! I know that I'm gonna get calls and emails right after this (laughter and several talking) um, but urn .... but just to look at that piece, and so I mean my .... my recommendation actually would go with Susan's initial choice for the Board of Appeals, Board of Adjustment (several talking) but wait for the Human Rights Commission, um, because of the .... the length of the (mumbled) Dilkes: (several talking) It's not just waiting that period of time though. It's if you've not found a qualified appi .... applicant of the appropriate gender within that period of time then you can appoint.... Botchway: Oh, okay! So that's (both talking) Dilkes: No, it's not really just waiting. Botchway: .... ust to wait. Dilkes: Yeah. Botchway: Okay. Dickens: Go with Susan's (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 63 Thomas: I had no objection. Dickens: That seems to be the.... Throgmorton: Okay, well, uh, I don't have any objection to that either, but I do have a .... a request. Uh, and it's a request, uh, I .... I guess to the Clerk's office. The Human Rights Commission must be diverse internally, and diverse in complicated ways, because we have people with disabilities. We have, uh, African Americans. We have Hispanics. We have gays and lesbians, people in the LGBT community, uh, we have older people, we have, you know, this .... this wide range, but I ... I never have a clear sense of what the current mix is. Unless it violates law, I'd like to have some ongoing list of who's currently on the commission and how they characterize themselves. Now you tell me if it's law, I mean, illegal. I can see you thinkin' about it. Dilkes: Well, I ... I think the only ray .... way you would get that information is when they initially apply. They either .... they voluntarily can self -disclose. I don't know that we can require them to disclose. But .... but you could take that information and .... and we could tell you that when we have an opening, but it would be based on whatever they had told us when they applied. Botchway: So, yes .... to Jim's point. I would just one-up it and say it for all Council appointments, if possible. Dilkes: We don't.... Fruin: I think we ask for voluntary disclosure of race, but we certainly don't get into, uh, disability, uh..... Mims: Actually that is on the new (several talking) Is it on the new one? Throgmorton: Yeah, I'm trying to make a (several talking) ...trying to make a point about the Human Rights Commission, which itself must be internally diverse in complicated ways. Botchway: Well, I agree, Jim, but my point is that all of our commissions should be diverse. Throgmorton: No. I don't think so, not (both talking) Botchway: I fundamentally disagree. Throgmorton: Not in the way the Human Rights Commission must be. Botchway: Well I .... I fundamentally disagree, but..... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 64 Throgmorton: All right, so .... all right so, uh, we .... let's not..... Mims: Let's not go there tonight! (laughter and several talking) Throgmorton: Okay, so uh, we've .... we're agreed on the Board of Adjustment and the Human Rights Commission. We also have .... uh, let me get my notes in front of me here, um.... Mims: Parks and Rec, we have two female and there's only two female appli ... (several talking) Throgmorton: ...was just gonna say we have three applicants for two four-year positions, both of which are female gender balanced required. Suzanne Bentler, Ben Russell, and Jamie Venzon. Dickens: I know Jamie Venzon very well and I think she would be an excellent person for that. She's a life -time resident of Iowa City in the area so.... Mims: Yep, and Suzanne Bentler is very much interested in continuing with the things they've done and she's been very active in .... in a lot of their initiatives and we do have a two female requirement so.... Throgmorton: Yeah, and she's completing an .... an initial run, an uncompleted term (several talking) Yeah, okay, so any objection to appointing Suzanne Bentler and Jamie Venzon? All right, got that! Okay, and the last is the Senior Center Commission. There's one applicant for two three-year positions and both of them are male requirement. The only applicant is Jay Honohan, and Jay is currently serving his sixth consecutive term. I cannot support reappointing Jay again. I did not support reappointing him last time. I can't support reappointing him this time. We need to make space on that commission, I believe, for other people to step up, and .... and Jay's done great work over the years. He's played an important role, very important role, but .... I think .... I think we need to move on. That's my judgment. Botchway: I would agree. I know he's a former boss of mine from my law school days, but um, I would agree. Thomas: Hard to argue (laughs) six .... six terms if we're talking about refreshing the commissions. Mims: Yeah, I think that .... the issue is we've gotta get some people to apply, I mean, that's what's disturbing to me is there's two openings and there's only one applicant and the applicant's been on for six terms. That's... but.... but (several talking) but I agree with what you're saying, Jim. I think, um ... you know, I guess can I ask Geoff to talk to Linda and see if she can.... encourage some other, you know, she sees people in and out of the Senior Center all the time, and if she can encourage some other applicants for us to consider. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 65 Dickens: But are we just gonna leave it open then? Mims: I would just leave it open for now, give us our ... give ourselves a little time. Taylor: We've done that .... on others. Thomas: Yeah. Throgmorton: Okay. We're clear about that. All right, I need to announce some vacancies. Bear with me for a second. Mims: Do we need a motion on those appointments? Throgmorton: Oh, yeah, I guess we do. Mims: So moved. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: (both talking) ....just a roll call, or ... it's a roll call? Dilkes: No, it's just a .... it's a voice vote. Throgmorton: So all in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 66 ITEM 20. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION Throgmorton: Like to mention two things just to get off, uh, make sure they get said. I've been asked to sign a Mayor's Pledge against LGBT discrimination and uh, my inclination is to do that, but I wanted to run it by you to see if you had any objection to my doing that. (several responding) Thank you. Uh, and in the late handout, uh... well, I think it was in there. I don't remember seeing it. I guess I didn't see it. Son of a gun! What I was going to say, in the late handout there should have been a .... a, an email indicating... from Hunter Gillespie to me asking us to ban conversion therapy. Mims: That was .... two or three weeks ago (both talking) that we got that. Throgmorton: Yeah, but she .... she's checkin' back in on it and she wants to know.... you... you can help me with this, Eleanor. Dilkes: He .... I think he wrote another (both talking) Throgmorton: Oh, he, I'm sorry, you're right (both talking) Dilkes: ...email wanting to know what the progress was on the research and .... I didn't get any direction from you all to do that research. I think I indicated to you when I.... when he initially asked the question that ... um .... the .... I think there may be some significant preemption issues because of the heavy regulation by the State of the medical and psychiatric professions, so .... and that, I think I had told you there had been a proposal to the Board of Psychiatry to ban that therapy in Iowa, and they rejected that. So I can certainly research the issue, if you want me to. I'm ... I'm not inclined to think you're gonna be able to do it, but I ..... I can't tell you that for sure. Throgmorton: Yeah, so that's the question I wanted to ask you, uh, would we like to ask Eleanor to find out whether this topic is preempted by State law? Mims: I guess I'm .... I guess my only question is .... how .... I understand this is an incredibly important issue for people, but I also am ... incredibly concerned about the demands we're putting on staff time. And I don't know, you know, how much time it's going to take staff to research this and, you know, how much of an impact this has .... when you do something like this just in Iowa City. I mean I .... I guess my concern is every time we get an email from one person.... okay, out of a residents of 70,000 plus people that live in Iowa City, and we get an email from one person. Are we going to start running staff down .... you know, hours and hours of doing research? Throgmorton: We can return to this topic next week, or next meeting, uh, if we want to. I don't think there's any pressing need to respond right now. I just wanted y'all to know there's this question out there. My guess is that Hunter's speaking for other This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 67 people, uh, so, uh, I don't know what I think! And I don't know what the law says (laughs) uh, so, uh.....why don't we, uh, we're all tired. I know I am. So why don't we come back to this topic at our next work session and we can consider more thoughtfully about what we want to do. Does anybody want to bring up any other topics with regard to, uh, Council time stuff? We can start with Pauline (both talking) Taylor: Oh, just one quick thing. We had in our, uh, packet a notice regarding Holiday With the Hounds, Saturday, December 10u, uh, 10:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. at the Animal Shelter and folks are encouraged to bring, uh, a list of items to help out with the care of the animals there. Sounds like a fun event! Thomas: Um (clears throat) briefly, two things. One I had a meeting, uh, last week with Iowa .... an Iowa DNR urban forester, as well as a rep from Trees Forever. And Christen (can't hear) who .... who's interested in urban forestry. Uh, I'm .... I'm really interested in seeing how we can further that initiative, uh, in the coming year, um, one of the .... the recommendations of the DNR urban forester was that the City, uh, initiate a .... an analysis as to the creation of either a commission or perhaps a committee within the Parks and Recreation, uh, Department, um .... that could serve as an advisory board, tree advisory board, something of that sort, and I just wanted to mention it tonight just to sort of bring it to your attention, but perhaps that's something we could talk about .... um, you know, as we move forward, but it....it does seem to me that it .... may deserve more attention than it currently has, and I think staff is just too busy to be able to lead that effort. Uh, and then the second thing is this coming Saturday, at Robert A. Lee, uh, Parks and Recreation are having another workshop on their, uh, master plan effort. I went to a meeting, um, last week. I thought it was very useful, so I would encourage anyone listening, uh, that would be from 10:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. at Robert A. Lee. There's information at the icgov.org website about that. Mims: Uh, just a few things. One, um, as was mentioned tonight, the University is in finals week this week, which means a lot of people, uh, are going to be traveling, not only students and .... and University staff but, you know, a lot of us over the coming holidays. Encourage everybody to be safe, um, would encourage staff, I don't know what resources we have to get information out to the students before they leave about our snow emergency procedures. I know we try to do this all the time, um, in terms of them having to, you know, have their cars moved. If they're, you know, not leaving them parked on the streets if they're gone two or three weeks, and particularly if we happen to have a snow emergency and they come back and find that their car is gone because we have towed it so we can plow the streets, um, so anybody listening, if you're a student, if you know students, if there's a way to get that information out, would encourage you to do that, and as usual, I like to remind people that you can go on to icgov.org and sign up for email notices, um, so you can get those notices on snow emergencies or leaf vacuuming schedules, which are probably done now because they put the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 68 snow plows on (laughs) um .... and just wish everybody happy holidays, regardless of what holiday they celebrate and be careful! Botchway: Stay warm! It's cold out there. (laughter) Dickens: Well, as you noticed, uh, Marian Karr isn't sitting in her seat. (several talking) Uh, I look at her as a, like an official in a sports analogy that, uh, a good official is not being noticed. That means you're doin' your job well, because that game is moving along, and Marian has done that for.... forever! So .... we're gonna miss her. Mims: We are! Throgmorton: For sure! Cole: Agreed! I don't have anything else. Throgmorton: Okay, I could blather on about a whole bunch of things, but I won't. I .... I think we're done for tonight, uh.... uh, do I have a motion to.... Mims: Are you gonna give staff a chance to (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016. Page 69 ITEM 21. REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF a) City Manager Throgmorton: No I'm not (laughter and several talking) Ashley, you get a chance too, ya know! Monroe: I'm good, thank you so much for having me. I'm enjoying my time here. (several talking and laughing) Dilkes: I have nothing. Throgmorton: Julie? Okay. Mims: Move to adjourn. Botchway: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. We're done! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of December 6, 2016.