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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-12-14 TranscriptionCity Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page I Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Throgmorton Council Absent: Thomas Staff Present: Fruin, Dilkes, Karr, Andrew Others Present: Dave Jacoby, Mary Mascher, Joe Bolkcom Discussion of 2017 City Legislative Priorities and Upcoming Legislative Session : Throgmorton/ (unable to hear first part of meeting) Fruin/ ...and Sioux City respectively that, um, just this week met with Governor Branstad, uh, about this and the Governor renewed his pledge to veto anything, uh, that would .... any legislation that would come before him, and although Lieutenant Governor Reynolds was not in attendance, uh, the Governor, uh, indicated that, uh, she would uphold that same pledge as well. So, we .... we feel good about that but know that, uh, things certainly can change. Um, real quick I thought I'd give ya, um, some perspective on what the backfill means to Iowa City. It's just over 1.5 million. If we were to, um .... push up property taxes to fill that gap, it would be a 46 -cent, uh, impact to our tax levy. Um, and that would be about $115 in new taxes for a home of $250,000 in value. Just to give you kind of a rough sense of what that would mean. Um, if we wanted to look at the expense side of our budget, you're talkin' about 15 police officers or 15 firefighters. Um, that's the equivalent of really one of our fire stations being taken off the map, uh, a little bit.... actually a little bit more than that cause our substations would have about 12 firefighters staffing those. Uh, you could combine the books budget for the Library and the operations of all three of our pools, and we'd still have to find close to $400,000 more to cut ... if you wiped out all those, and then one last, urn.... combination I'll give you, um, you could .... if you took out, uh, our Animal Shelter budget, our Forestry budget, our Crime Prevention and Crossing Guards budget, and our Fire Prevention budget that would be the equivalent of this backfill. So, 1.5 million is a lot of money, uh, for .... for Iowa City, and it would be very difficult to cut our way out of that. So you're really looking at, uh, a combination of cuts and ... probably tax increases being the solution here. So, again, that's probably, uh, our top priority and as you hear from other cities, um, and the League of Cities and the Metro Coalition, um, I think you'll hear that same thing, that the, uh, backfill is, uh, the .... the top priority. Throgmorton/ Geoff, if I could interrupt for a second. I just wanted to note that Representative Dave Jacoby just joined us. Welcome, Dave! Thanks to see....good to see you. Jacoby/ Sorry for being late (mumbled) I was out voted and my car was outside of the garage this morning (laughter and several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 2 Throgmorton/ Geoff was just going through the importance of backfill for us, and laid out some detail about what affect the backfill, disappearance of the backfill would have on our, either on expenditures or on spending, or on, uh, income. Fruin/ The, uh, second priority was the protection of public sector employee collective bargaining rights. Uh, we know this is going to be, um, or we assume it's going to be on the table. We'd like to hear your perspective on what you think may be coming forward, but really I think it's important that cities have a .... a voice, and so we'd like to .... to be at the table, uh, whether that's through the League or the Metro Coalition, um, or .... or just direct input to you, but, um, those .... those changes will have a profound impact on our organization, and our employees and .... and, uh, I think we can offer some valuable perspective to you through that process. We.... Mascher/ Geoff, I'm just curious, did you have that conversation with the Governor as well? Did the folks who met with him? Fruin/ No, it was, uh, it was a, kind of a one topic (several talking) Yeah (several talking) wanted to stress that (both talking) Mascher/ ...about whether that came up as well. Fruin/ Right. Taylor/ Geoff, if I could, the one on that that I've seen too that I think is really worrisome in light of the privati .... privatization of Medicaid is the Governor's suggestion of taking health insurance out of bargaining, and providing some statewide pool, yet not indicating what the benefits would be and so .... I think that would be devastating to our public employees. Bolkcom/ (mumbled) point of that, since we're here, um, so .... (several talking) You have bargain units and I know when I was at the County we'd.... there'd be pay increases and we'd say, well, if we're gonna do this for our bargain employees, we're gonna do the same thing for everybody else, by way of. ... you know, COLAs and ... and benefits. How is that .... how is the City historically.... Fruin/ That's been our practice. Yeah, we have three bargaining units and typically the non - bargaining members will follow along with the, um, ASFCME contract. Mascher/ And how many non -bargaining unit folks do you have? Fruin/ (laughter) Well we have an administrative and confidential group. I ... I don't know off the top of my head, uh, how many but, uh, certainly the vast majority of our employees are unionized. Mascher/ The other thing that we brought up before is just recruitment, um, of police officers, firefighters, your city employees, um, it becomes much more difficult if you're not able to provide for them, um, that package of insurance that they've given up salary for, uh, in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 3 bargaining at times. So, um, I know that that's gonna make it more difficult to .... to try and find people and obviously we're struggling with that anyway. So ... that's one of the bargaining issues and one of the things that we're going to be talking a lot about as well. Fruin/ Yep. Taylor/ This issue concerns us, Mary, because not only the number of City employees that are represented by ASFCME but the University of Iowa's a major employer in this community and so it would.....and of course they're represented by ASFCME as well as SCIU and COGS and that would have a devastating effect on the entire community. Bolkcom/ Geoff, on .... on, this is on your legislative agenda. Is this something the Metro Coalition (both talking) Fruin/ No, no it's not on their agenda. The, uh, next piece is the, uh, Home Rule authority for local governments and .... and, uh, in the, uh, resolution that you have, you'll see a couple of specific things that, uh, the City Council called out. Some of them may look familiar to you because we've talked to you about those in the past, urn ..... one would be the regulation of rental housing, and .... and regulation by familial status. You all know how important that is to us. Um, but, uh, we also called out the, uh, Home .... the ability for, uh, localities to, um.....uh.....uh, establish a minimum wage. Um, we called out the, uh, flexibility in revenue sources, and you know, if there are proposals to restrict the few revenue sources that we do have control over. We would have certainly some concern there. And the last thing that, uh, we called out was, um, something that we don't have, uh, Home Rule authority now, which is the, uh, regulation of, uh, marijuana at the local level, and so, uh, giving our, uh, police officers an opportunity, um, to write, uh, municipal citations as opposed to, um, the State, uh, the State citations there is something that certainly has been, um, successfully implemented in other states and .... and we would be interested in that as well. We know that water qualities going to continue to be a .... a topic, and again, this is one where we'd like a seat at the table. Um, a lot of the revenue sources seem to be, uh, at least what have been talked about in the past are .... are very much .... driven from urban areas. Um, yet the funding seems to be focused, uh, almost solely on those, uh, rural areas. We just want to, um, you know, remind the rule that cities have in .... in protecting our waterways and with the increase in regulations that we face, particularly on the waste water side, um, it....it would be great to .... to, um, have cities as a partner in whatever revenue sources is, uh, chosen. Um .... I can tell ya, you know, we just, uh, closed out the project on our waste water plant down south, new ... new, uh, plant down there, and we're already, you know, we already have pressures on ..... on keepin' up with the, uh, more stringent regulations. So that's gonna be a constant thing, uh, that you hear from cities, even those .... even those of us with new plants are struggling to keep up with the expenses, uh, that have to go into meeting those standards. And then, uh, the last, uh, the last two, um .... I think, um, focus on education and .... and our partners with the Metro Coalition and the League of Cities. Um .... we all recognize the role that education plays here with our, uh, institutes of higher education — Kirkwood and, uh, the University of Iowa — but just the K through 12 system too, uh, I know that's been a priority for you all for.....many years, uh, throughout your careers even, um, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 4 we continue to support you in your efforts to make sure that, um, education funding is a top priority. I do have the League of Cities' priorities and the Metro Coalition, uh, priorities here. Uh, we didn't share those with you. I'd be happy to get you copies or run through those, but, you know, I think the point of this morning was, um, to have dialogue, not to necessarily listen to me, uh, talk. So, um, I think I'll just open it up to the group. Any questions on these particular issues or .... or other items that .... that, uh, you think we should be, uh, cognizant of headin' into the session in January. Mascher/ Geoff, is the only one on here the backfill, um, that's part of the Coalition? Fruin/ Uh, the Metro Coalition, uh, the two top priorities would be the backfill and TIF reform. And then they also have, uh, the same thing - Home Rule authority with a little bit of different twist, you know, many cities are focused on the .... the traffic cameras. Um, and um, water quality and, uh... um, they do have, um, a.....a statement about, um, pension systems and personnel, no....no real statement on that, just again want to .... they want to be at the .... at the table when those conversations take place, and then concerns about historic, uh, preservation tax credits and, uh, the development authority tax credits. Um, you know, I think there's a fear that some of those programs may vanish to .... to provide funding for other initiatives and, um, that's a concern to many cities, and just because those aren't on our top five list here that that would be a concern of ours too. Dickens/ We have heard that there's, you know, in the paper yesterday they talked about $100 million shortfall, uh, where does that put us? (laughs) Bolkcom/ I hope it puts everything on the table! I mean, I think the folks that are gonna take over in January (unable to hear, turned away from mic) work cut out for `em and the Governor, I mean, it is really, really hard, I think, in this budget to find $100 million. Um, we've been through six years of no increases for any department of. ... of State government and.....so, I just think there's not like .... you can't look at the DNR or the DOT or .... or, uh (unable to hear, turned away from mic) department and .... and see $100 million or $10 million. So, I just think it's going to be really, really difficult to find that, um .... and you know with the ... we've gotta .... we've got all this tax stuff over here that really never is on the table, whether it's historic credits, which are really popular, really good program, but $50 million a year ... or research activity credit. In .... in .... in February we're gonna write like $40 million worth of refund checks to three companies. Uh, should those be delayed, right? Uh (unable to hear, turned away from mic) for the Medicaid, uh, oversight meeting in the, and uh, we've gotta come up with another ... part of the .... part of the deficit is ... is funding to that, some changes the Governor made over the interim to give the companies $33 million has increased the deficit by another $22 million, um, so there's, uh..... (noises on mic) We changed, uh, you know, the election had some .... some pretty significant changes, but I think there's some real challenges to this budget coming up and .... it'll be interesting to see the Gov ... where the .... where the cuts are gonna come from. I don't see it in the backfill, I mean, I ... I assume, you know, that would be.....that'd be a place to look. I think it'd be really difficult to pull money back from K-12 system. Um ... it's, uh, it's quite a challenge. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 5 Mascher/ Especially in light of the fact they're probably going to be looking at more tax cuts, um, that seems to be a .... an agenda item that never goes away and, uh, in light of what we're dealing with with the budget, it makes no sense to do that right now. But often times, um, common sense doesn't play into that at all in Des Moines. So, we'll see what happens with that, but .... um, that's one of our concerns is that they'll, um, propose more and expect that to go through. So I don't know if Dave wants to comment too, but .... (laughter) Jacoby/ We're screwed really! (laughter) Actually there.... there's one positive thing I'll lead with that, and that's if we can ship someone to China as soon as possible, an incoming Governor at least has some local government experience, that she appreciates. So, I think there'll be less of a focus on .... to be honest, Governor Branstad, and this is a quote, cities are cash cows. That's what was said a number of times. So, uh, I think, I'm hoping, uh, with optimism that incoming Governor Reynolds will have a better treatment of cities and counties. Uh, what I really like, Geoff, is when you said that we'll talk about water, that urban pays. Uh, I think we need more urban areas to say it out loud because that is somethin' that's gettin' lost in Des Moines, about who's payin' for cleaning up the rivers now. Joe has always been .... Joe and Mary have always been strong on it, but we need some people outside of Johnson County and outside of Polk County to say ... you know what, we're payin' for your.... streams.... that originate in your area. So I think .... I'm.... I'm hopin' urban areas and suburban areas have a little groundswell, if you'll pardon the pun, that .... says, you know, we don't want to pay for what you're doing, and we don't want to chip money into a big fund, which it looks like will happen, to save water quality thing has resurfaced, and we don't want to pay more of our money to go to clean up your area. So it's .... it's gonna be quite the fight. It's .... we've said (mumbled) not about water quality, it's about who pays. And as far as the backfill, is this three going into year four? (clears throat) And we're guaranteed 10 years? Kind of, and after that 10 years, remember there's a fall-off too. Uh, we've asked numerous times, show us the proof that it's working. Is the growth itself outpacing what we're, the reduction in the commercial, uh, rollback. So, uh, there... they've been real shy about showing these things. Uh, we can't compare it. Sure, you can. All's you gotta do is ask the Department of Revenue and go by county or locale, what the sales tax are. Or you can look at locales and general numbers what your income tax are. Cause remember our top two funding streams at the State are .... are income tax ... which we're using to backfill the property tax. If I had hair it would fallout. And then .... sales tax. So we could look at those two. You .... it can't be tied directly but you can look by region how those taxes are going up, income and sales tax, and that should be an indicator if that commercial property tax and apartment rollback are working or not. It was claimed in 13, is that when we passed it? In 13 that, uh, they would be able to tell results in three years. By my math, 2013 plus three is 2016. So .... so (mumbled) was a math major at UNI. So I .... my four year degree was the best eight years of my life (laughter) is that .... we should be able to tell in 2017 some results from that. Now I don't want it in the backfill, but we should be able to .... have an honest conversation on whether or not that's gonna happen, and finally, Home Rule, oh heaven! You know.....(mumbled) can go head-to-head every day on what it actually means, but I'm glad you have it on there, and I hope other entities have it on there too. I mean there's .... a number of individual issues that come up, but uh.... just that whole facet of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 6 Home Rule, and count the number of times during debate you hear, "I support Home Rule, but...." I think last year I counted 26 times (laughter) I have my little count charts (laughter) so .... but, thanks again for holding the meeting this morning. Dickens/ Where .... also where do you stand on minimum wage? You know, I think that's gonna be a hot topic cause there's so many municipalities that are already doing that. Do you think that'll come to the State this year, and finally.... Bolkcom/ Yeah, it's gonna be preempted. I think one of the early bills will be a preemption by the counties that have done it to strike it down and we'll have only a State minimum wage. So on the issue of Home Rule, that power, if you think you have it, and you do have it, it's gone away. Whether they'll.... whether 7.25'11 be the number or there'll be some other new number, there's no indication that there's gonna be an increase in the minimum wage. There's gonna be people that are gonna take pay cuts that, in those counties, when the .... when this happens. I saw in this paper this morning, Linn County might delay the implementation of theirs. (several responding) Dickens/ Thanks. Bolkcom/ You know they .... the local ordinances are (mumbled) inaction by the State to get it (several talking) Mascher/ And of course we would have much rather had a statewide minimum wage and increased it and had proposals, both in the Senate and the House, to do that, but we couldn't get any movement on that on the part of the Republicans so .... um, there we sit, and .... I'm, Joe's right. It'll probably be .... the preemption'll be gone and we are not going to be allowed to have that ability to raise it within a county. Bolkcom/ I actually think the water quality issue's really going to be a challenge in that there's no mon .... trying to find 100 million in next year's budget, the 18 budget's also really, really hard, that, you know, this is a big ole' problem and if you're gonna solve it, you're gonna need to find some new money. Dickens/ Cause will that affect the schools too, because I know they were kinda tied in to the ... the water quality (both talking) Bolkcom/ ....the Governor's proposal was to take their infrastructure money over .... over, you know, in 20 years from now, uh, the schools really are not happy about that. There're a bunch of Republicans that said, 'We .... this was voted on for this purpose. It's not fair to the voters to switch and move that money away,' but I think the problem the State has at this point, we don't have a really good data set on how that $460 million is being spent. The districts don't have to report very much about it, and I think going forward, the question is: what's the demand for infrastructure in 2030? 2040? 2050? And we all know that, you know, building that might cost $5 million this year, a new elementary in 2040's gonna cost $15 million. Sothis notion that somehow we're just gonna have all this money flowin' in on us, things are gonna cost more, uh, in .... in 2050 when we're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 7 still gonna need good school infrastructure. So .... the challenge I think to the policy people at this point is.....is tryin' to predict what are the financial needs into the future for infrastructure, and because we don't have a very good data set about.... about that from districts, um, it's hard to say, `Well we could redeploy some of this money to some other purpose,' without a better understanding of what we need. Mascher/ And it seems real logical to raise the penny sales tax and use that for water quality. Many of our Republican colleagues have signed pledges of no new taxes. It's a Grover Norquist effort and, um, it's nationwide, but um .... it's amazing how many have signed that pledge and so whenever it comes to the majority of voters support that. We know that, uh, a lot of `em thought when they, uh, did the Constitutional amendment, uh, that they were actually increasing the sales tax. Didn't realize it was another vote by the legislature that would require, uh, that to be increased, and so that's part of our dilemma is that we could generate new dollars, uh, through that mechanism, uh, but we have a lot of people who have signed pledges that they won't. Mims/ This is one specific issue and I don't know the total funding source on this at all, but ... the Iowa DOT is planning to spend in the ballpark of $400 million for flyaways at the 380, 80/380 interchange. I have no idea how much of that's federal money and how much of that is State money. Jim and I actually were I think the only two that voted against that at the MPOJC. Um, I understand there's a significant safety issue at that interchange, believe me. I drove it for 18 years when I was teaching up at Kirkwood in Cedar Rapids. I drove it twice a day. I understand that. However, it seems to me that that is an exorbitant... exorbitant amount of money for one interchange. If you go different places in this country, and I was through there this summer. Somebody told me about it. You go through Cleveland, on Interstate 80, okay, and that interstate takes two 90 -degree turns, and they take the speed limit down to 45 miles -an -hour on six lanes of traffic to get you through that part of the interstate. There are ways to increase the safety at that interchange without spending $400 million. It may be too late, but .... and again, I don't know how much of it's State money, but I just think it's an absolute travesty that we're gonna spend that kind of money, local, State, or federal, on one interchange in this country. Mascher/ (several talking) ...DOT director, so (laughs) Throgmorton/ (several talking) ....sat next to one another when Trombino was down (both talking) Bolkcom/ ... we .... we asked him about it and he had some .... did you know that there's a lot of, there's a lot of value in .... in the commerce that goes across I-80 and by god we've gotta have that interchange because the ... somehow the (laughs) we're gonna have less commerce coming through Iowa unless that interchange is fixed. It's like, really? Mims/ It's a bunch of bull. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 8 Bolkcom/ I .... I totally agree with you. I mean, I'd rather deploy that money to Iowa City streets, some of it, right, I mean... We got serious challenges in our .... in our system (both talking) Jacoby/ ...or 380 itself (both talking) Bolkcom/ ...can't keep up. Slow the traffic down. It's fine! Jacoby/ I ... you know, there are changes needed, in my opinion. The frustration I've had is that I've advocated for years for a slow -down, starting in Tiffin, and ... and the interchange is one thing. Look at the number of accidents at 244 and 2 ... and 246, and they're fatalities and they're usually involving 18 -wheelers and that ... that's a problem that I've (mumbled) Why can't we slow it down for that six ... eight -mile stretch (several talking) and... and just slow it down through the metro area. It .... we're not talkin' 35! We're talkin' make it similar to Cedar Rapids, where I just got a damn ticket! (laughter) And ... and I .... and I first thought, you know, I'm gonna appeal this sucker, and I go .... well, actually I'm guilty and the second thing is I showed it to my daughter. She goes, dad, look, you can see the dogs in the backseat (laughter) I go, well, I've.... wouldn't do too well if you can see two goldens sittin' in the backseat, waving at the cam ..... but (laughter) that's been somethin' I've talked to Trombino for a number of years, is there a way that we can slow it down here, because I've heard from a number of Coralville people on the danger of the interchange, but that was second to the speed limits comin' from Tiffin over and ... and, you know, well, it's cause of traffic counts. It's cause of ...traffic flow, and I go but we have another lane there between, uh... you know, 40....42, 44, what, and .... and that's a frustration a lot of people were upset because a number of those accidents that have happened and... there.... there, and it seemed for a stretch, for a time period there, there were.....there were all fatalities. It wasn't minor injuries. It wasn't sideswiping. It .... there were people dying on the road. So, uh.... it seems to me, talkin' about the interchange, it was important, you know, slow it down a little bit. You can slow it down to 55 and still you're gonna have a nice flow. Cause if you slow it down to 55, then people are only going 65. Throgmorton/ Yeah, sometimes it seems to me like there's a ... unwillingness to think, and it's crazy making, you know, so I want to ask a broader question and maybe it's too broad so, you know, pull me back if it is. It .... I think we're all very conscious that we're a bubble in much of Iowa, we're unique and there're a lot of people out of state who really don't like Iowa City, who really don't like the University of Iowa. So I'm wondering if you have any insights into what we in Iowa City might be able to do to .... uh, positively influence that negative impression. Uh, one thing I .... I can tell ya I'm gonna do is write a letter to, uh.... uh, Kim Reynolds, uh, asking to be able to meet with her up in Des Moines or maybe have her come down here so we can show her around Iowa City and talk with her. Also, Mary, thanks to you, uh, we're reminded that ... that Bobby Kaufmann is a member of our legislative delegation. Sorry, Marian, we just discovered this because part of. ... tiny little part of Iowa City's in his district. So we need to reach out to Bobby, as well. But .... beyond that, do you have any insights into what.... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 9 Bolkcom/ Yeah, I don't know if I agree with the premise, right, that people are down on Iowa City and .... and down on the University. I think, you know, people.... there's a lot of people around Iowa that have come through Iowa City and gotten a really good education at the University and have really fond mem .... memories of here and they come here on the weekends during the fall and .... have a .... have a lot of love for Iowa City. We have a lot of people that get really good healthcare here from around the state that ... that have stories, and you spend a little time in the capitol and you run into these.... you meet people from other parts of Iowa that have an Iowa City story, right. So, I mean, I .... I wouldn't overplay that, you know, Iowa .... I occasionally remind people Iowa City is in Iowa, right, I mean, that we ... we do live here. Um, so I ... I think you're.... doing some outreach with the Lieutenant Governor's a really good idea, uh, and .... and do a tour of, you know, just, I mean, she knows Iowa City. She's here. But I think doin' some outreach and just talkin' to her about the issues of. ... that .... that the City has and the hopes that you have for the City would be a really good thing. Throgmorton/ Great. You know, the way you responded initially, Joe, makes me wonder if we might be able to put together some Channel 4, I don't know, 15 -minute show or somethin' like that, that focuses on people from out ... out in the .... outer parts of the state coming here, their responses to being in Iowa City, the importance of the hospital (mumbled), that whole array of things, and then have that on television and we could circulate it one way or another. Cole/ Along those lines, even though it's really not directly within our control, I think of for example what the Iowa State Extension Service does for a lot of rural counties, and you know, whether it's that or something else, um, you know, again, it'd really be more of a University issue, but I do think that Iowa City does need to play a more constructive role in sort of identifying public policies that won't only work here but will work in other areas. You know, whether that'd be sustainable agriculture or those sorts of things. So, just sort of a thought as we're thinking about wa.... because I do think, you know, when you look at the presidential election, there are these little floating islands of blue, um, and of course that does oversimplify things, but I think in terms of really identifying how we're developing those relationships. I'm wondering, um, any good news (laughs) Um, what ... what should we be excited about, um, moving forward? Mascher/ Rockne, I was going to go back to, you know, you talk about extension with Iowa State, I think healthcare is what we are known for (both talking) Cole/ Yep! Mascher/ And it is one of our driving engines in terms of...I can't tell you the number of legislators who have been to this hospital and have gotten treatment, or their family members have. It's Joe's comment about there's Iowa City stories everywhere (both talking) Cole/ Yep! Yep! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 10 Mascher/ And so we need to capitalize on that. Think a few years ago the University came out with their $6 billion impact statement on the State budget that the University of Iowa has, and if you think about that, I mean we know how important it is to the City. We know how important it is to the County, and obviously when you look at education, we have a lot of Chinese students. I don't know if anybody noticed that, but I mean (several talking) maybe we should capitalize on some of those issues as well in terms of identifying that, um, we're often, the University of Iowa's the international face of the U ... of the United States! It's not just, you know, Iowa. It's .... we really and truly have very far-reaching, um, fingers in terms of how we impact others, and I think we need to continue to capitalize on that, and tell those stories. Because they are important and they are, uh, ones that a lot of people can resonate with cause they have had an enormous impact on their lives. So, I .... I, any time we have that opportunity, I think we should, um, that's another question, and having Bobby Kaufmann here, it would be important to ask him what would work best with his Republican colleagues and.....and get that kind of a conversation going because he really and truly does represent a ... a portion of this county. I think he's got about 40% of his district here, right? And so if you look at that, um, we have a.....it, Cedar Rap ... or Cedar County, biggest employer is the University of Iowa! In Cedar County! And that's true for Benton and a lot of surrounding counties, as well, when you look at that, again, economic, uh, impact on those individuals. Their jobs are here! And they're commuting on that interstate every day to get to work. So I think, you know, we've got to start realizing that this university, this community has an enormous impact on the budget of (coughing, unable to hear speaker) Thank goodness it's here. We'd be struggling even more if it weren't. And so I think we oftentimes are kind of that `Iowa humble,' and `Iowa nice,' in terms of, um (laughs) I think a quote I heard over the .... last week was "It's a sorry dog that can't wag its own tail." And (laughter) we don't wag our tail very well. We don't brag about what we do well, and what we have here to offer, and um, we're kind of humble about that and aw, shucks, and we've gotta stop it! You know, we've got so much going on and it's important to tell that story. Taylor/ I think you make a very good point ... oh, go ahead, Jim. Throgmorton/ One .... one quick thing. Uh, I was just doing something on Facebook a couple days ago and I saw an advertisement about Iowa City .... I think the CVB just put together ....I wasn't paying attention to who produced the video (laughs) but it was terrific and all sorts of people we know were... appeared in this.....ad, you know, it was a pretty long ad, as well. Anyhow, I'm sorry, Pauline (both talking) Taylor/ ....I was just gonna comment, uh, about the international status of Iowa City. I've always thought of it as a melting pot and you mention the Chinese students, but even small little country like Iceland, uh, the University has, uh, a .... a working relationship with them and exchange students and .... and a number of the residents and .... and surgeons at the Hospital are Icelandic and the students, and of course the International Writing Program. We ..... we really have that international connection. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page I I Jacoby/ Yeah we do. Too bad melting pots don't go over real well west of Interstate 35, but uh .... (laughter) one thing I like about your suggestion though with Channel 4, and this is how .... it's just kinda nickel and diming, but if we do a special like, uh.....uh.....Lynette is from Rockwell City, her mom lives there. It doesn't do me any good to call a representative from Rockwell City. It does some good for her to call `em, and so when we're doin..... we're doin' those snippets on Channel 4 for (several talking) for Channel 4 for student here, why not have a parent or a relative that's in Rockwell City do the same snippet and send it to their ... their, uh.....uh, public access channel, because by god all that's runnin' off there 24/7 is the garbage schedule. (laughter) ...round and around, and they need some things and I think they'll post it, and that's one way to get it for free out there but it .... they like the local citizens' take, so if it's, you know, Linda Peterson saying, yes, my daughter went to Iowa and I go to visit once in a while for games, go Hawks. Just somethin' that gets that little bit out there to help out a little bit. And Dr. David Johnson, the Dean of the Dentist.... Throgmorton/ Sure. Jacoby/ ....School, he did the traveling salvation show across Iowa. It's somethin' that you may want to, you know, we may want to incorporate it a little bit and it's, uh, he still gives me guff about the one motel, that's a motel with an "M," has burned out in Rockwell City too (laughter) that he stayed at that with a bunch of the hunters. He was worried for his safety, but he's okay, but.....I..... I think that's one way to get the word out there too. It's ... it is .... we're viewed in a couple ways in Des Moines and one of it is that we have an exemplary hospital, a great university, and then the other is, oh, you're from there. (laughter) So.... Botchway/ I do want to quickly interject. I know that, uh, we're kinda moving to more of a positive message, but I had two questions around, um, kind of in the shifting landscape of immigration .... policy overall, what you're hearing. Um, I think you mentioned Representative Kaufinann and I think some of his comments recently, um, make me worried about some of the immigration policies from the State. Um, and then, uh, the other part is, uh, just overall police, um .... and, uh.... uh, racial, ethnic, um, kind of, uh, relations (clears throat) I know that (clears throat) there was a .... a shooting in Des Moines, uh, or excuse me, shooting in Waterloo, shooting in Cedar Rapids. I know that, you know, as things move, history... or as time moves, you know, we tend to forget about those things. Um, there was a recent, you know, two officers that were killed. There were also recent two officers that were, um, resigned or let go because of, um .... um, putting some type of, uh, evidence or.....in.... in an investigation that wasn't supposed to be there and so, um, and I heard that from the Des Moines' killings that there was going to be legislation, um, that would be more protective of officers in some particular way. I wonder if there's anything that's going to happen, again from a racial, ethnic standpoint, um, to .... to help protect, you know, those type of interactions, um, from, you know, an African American, Hispanic, that ... that type of standpoint as well. So those are my two questions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 12 Bolkcom/ Yeah. Um, let me start. Um .... last session, I mean I think that ... I think that we had a ... a slightly more open, uh, group of legislators, uh, this, you know, before this election there was .... there was legislation on .... on data collection around profiling, for example I think there's gonna be some effort on civil forfeiture, which is a completely different issue but it's.....it has .... it's different issue. So, uh, so it's unclear really in terms of what .... what legislation might come forward. Um, I haven't talked to anybody, I haven't heard ... just other .... other than the reports I've read in the paper whether we're gonna see some legislation to .... to provide more support for police officers over potential victims, right. Um ... so I'm .... I'm interested in the subject. I think this last year we were able to put some money towards a ..... assisting refugees coming to Iowa, uh, in ... for the first time the State has invested money in .... in trying to provide support to families that come here and individuals that come here, and there's actually a meeting today, uh, at First Presbyterian with all the local leaders and people working on refugee assistance here in .... in Johnson County, um, to talk about more investment. I think that .... I think we're doing about $300,000 was the appropriation and it's ... it's allowed us to hire some AmeriCorps folks to .... to ..... to work in communities around the state. So the ... I .... I hope we can sustain that, that was one of our initiatives, Democrats' initiatives, um, and uh, see more of a statewide effort on refugee help. Um, but you've raised, I mean, on .... on the issue of ...policing and, you know, the .... the training element. We have our training academy and it's just .... so, I....I don't have a really good answer on that. Um, other than it's out there as an issue and we'll see what kind of leadership emerges with the new.... the new chairs of these committees as we get re.....reorganized in January. Mascher/ And, Kingsley, I would just add to that. I .... I set up a meeting with Geoff and, uh, the acting police chief and Bobby Kaufmann, and I wanted him basically to hear from our police force what the scenario was on the interstate and how that all occurred and what was done by the police, um, why they made the decisions they did, and what they would do differently, if anything, and so I thought it was important for him to hear that, and to know that the police were acting in the best interest of the people, and the citizens, and I think they did a good job getting people off the interstate as soon as possible. It hasn't happened again. He mentioned that as a .... um, he was glad to see that it hadn't happened again. He thought this would be a regular occurrence and that's what his concern was, but I think the police did a great job in terms of identifying exactly what did go on, and why, and again, what kinds of resources are available to deal with something like that. Um, it would be cost prohibitive to have people, you know, camped out on the interstate trying to prevent any kind of -whenever we have a demonstration downtown. It just isn't even practical to think that we could do something like that. But at the same time, um, we talked to Bobby about words matter. And so suck it up buttercup is not an appropriate response to anything! Anything (laughs) and .... and I think he listened to that in terms of understanding that that was detrimental and those kinds of things, in a public official's role, you just don't do that! And it does hurt and it does have an effect on our students here at the University. It had an enormous effect on a lot of people who were very fearful after that, and felt like, gosh is this really where I want to be? Is this a community that's gonna be supportive and .... and we had lots of reports of that from the University in terms of their counseling services and what they were providing for students. And, urn .... the callousness of a response like that is just unwarranted, and I think Bobby realizes that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 13 That's why I think it's important to have him here and to have him part of these discussions because, um, I think he learned from that as well. And I appreciated the fact that Geoff was willing to bring people together and to have that conversation, because, um, I think our police officers were exemplary and did a great job in keepin' people safe and that's what we want, uh, so.....I' ll stop there and (both talking) Bolkcom/ Couple other.... couple other thoughts on it. I think, um, the.... there's .... I have a bill draft going now in decriminalizing marijuana as an issue. Um, and I think there's gonna be some effort to reinstate voting, uh, rights, right, trying to get back on that issue. Be happy to have any other ideas on policy from you or other folks that you or other folks that, you know, are workin' in other parts of the state around.....around that. If there's— if there's specific ideas, be happy to have those. Mims/ What about related to that, um, and I don't know if this comes at the State level or if this is all a county issue. And that is when there is a police shooting, I .... Stacy Walker in John ... in Linn County suggested an independent prosecutor, and it would seem to me that we .... when we have situations like that, it makes total sense that it's automatic that an independent prosecutor is appointed, because our County attorneys work very, very closely with all the police departments within the county, which is what we expect, we want, we want good prosecutions, we want, you know, all the information and .... and resources to go to bear when those kinds of, uh, of cases are going to trial. However, the idea that .... that County Attorney can in fact be totally independent, um, than in present either in filing charges or in presenting to a grand jury, and maybe they can, but certainly the image is that they are not. Um .... and so I think if there's anything that could be done in that regard. I .... I think the other one, I think, is training, and I know we've got a new ... a new head of the, uh, the law enforcement training academy, and I think anything, you know, that we can do as ..... as city officials, just members of the public, talking to our own police, uh, officers and command staff, and any input that they and we can have to that academy as to how the training is done, um, I think is absolutely essential because I think that's the only way we're gonna really see an impact in terms of how some of these officers are behaving. Bolkcom/ Well and back to the ... the pension benefit, you know, we want good ... we want really the top candidates to come into law enforcement, and I think part of this is people being able to support their families at an adequate, uh, adequate level and not havin' to worry about second jobs or, you know, I think .... I think it's going to be important to continue to have high quality people comin' into law enforcement. Jacoby/ I'm not so sure we don't .... this is just my idea, uh, training is key and it's that partnership that .... if we're gonna discuss anything, everyone has to be at the table at the same time, cause when you do it in different pods then you get different feels because the State can say this is what you need to do, but it's the cities that hire! I mean, you're hiring, you're doing the interviews, you're determining who comes on our public safety. I think public safety and FTE should be 32 -hours a week. That's just me, and I know that's difficult to afford, but I think if you're in public safety, high stress work, that it should be a 32 -hour a week, full time paid position, so it gives a person an opportunity to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 14 live another part of their life. In other words, uh, I think .... I see a lot of officers.... give so much of their time. They're paid for some of their time. They donate time when they help out with special, you know, special events are paid for but other things they do ... why not make it a 32 -hour a week job and if give that person something else to do too. And that's .... and I think we need to do that ... well, that's my view of manufacturing. As we're lookin...... I hate to put the two together. They're totally two different, uh, employment pods, but if we can't find people that'll work in manufacturing, maybe we need to take a look at the fact that we're workin' `em 46 hours a week and sayin' we're family friendly. But they're workin' 46 to 50 hours, and in our rural counties that's.... that's (mumbled) I see it almost every day. They have to work six days a week, and if their child has a volleyball game on Saturday, what they can do is work on Sunday to make up for Saturday's time. And then we sit down the next half hour they go, `We can't get people to work here.' (several talking) Well no (laughter) you know! But anyway with police officers and .... and other public safety, I think we need to change the whole position and make it something where we're hiring good people and we are, but can we do it and say this is another .... not only retirement benefits, but also it's a 32 -hour a week job. We want you to have a life outside of law enforcement too. Botchway/ Quickly going back to Susan's point, I think that .... the, I wouldn't say elephant in the room, but I think the overarcing theme is just the eroding of trust and so, you know, having that independent investigator, thinking from a State standpoint how we can objectively look at situations, I think that would help overall the community's trust, um, in the Police Department, um, in .... in government in general. I think that that's kind of a part of this as well overall from a .... a minority or people of color perspective, and so again, that was it ... that's a huge point as far as independent investigator and thinking about ways of, again, uh, from .... it's the same thing, kind of thing with body cameras and we hear from our officers all the time that, you know, um, it seemed like it was a community swell of people that wanted body cameras and then I think that our own Police Department has said that body cameras have not in any instance, um, been something that has shown that they haven't been doing what, um, they need to be doing to handle situations in the appropriate way, and so some of those objective means that we have or .... and resources that we have, I just think need to be at times rolled out from a State standpoint or at least give us the ability or flexibility to do something here so we can work on, you know, building that trust in a more meaningful way. Mascher/ Kingsley, I know the County has been, uh, kind of spearheading that whole movement of alternative jail, uh, diversion programs and what's the City's involvement with all of that, because I know they've sent teams down to Texas and have investigated what can be done, how it works, and ... and how we could implement something like that here but ... what's been our involvement in that? Who can answer.... Mims/ We're all, I'd say we're all involved in the community, um, from, you know, Coralville, North Liberty, Iowa City, Johnson County, we're talking with the University. So I mean we've had a lot of people go down. One, officers for the actual training, for crisis intervention training, but we've also had a lot of non -officers go down to see their low barrier shelter and all the various services they offer in San Antonio, as well as we've had This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 15 some go to, one of the Kansas City suburbs, I forget, um, they have another one there that certainly is much smaller than San Antonio's, I mean San Antonio is like 15 times as large as what we would need to have here in Johnson County. So basically, you know, we're .... we're working on getting officers trained, we're actually going to start doing the training here in Johnson County in 2017 so that we no longer have to send them down there. We've got a .... a critical mass, if you will, of people who've been trained. I think that they're gonna have people from San Antonio come up maybe for the first training or two to help with the training, and then our people, I say `ours.' The County as a whole will take over the training. Then we have a steering committee group and there's kind of a smaller group and a larger group that are working on the actual physical aspect of a low barrier shelter. This would be people who are intoxicated, urn, but are not a danger to themselves or others, so they don't really need to take `em to jail. There's not a medical issue so they don't need to take them to the emergency room. So a place basically to drop `em off that they could sober up, um, also, um, detox and then other mental health aspects of that. So, funding is the huge issue on that, and we're looking at somewhere, I believe somewhere between five and seven million, uh, to get the building up and then we're looking somewhere between 5 and 7 million annually to staff it. And certainly part of those discussions with the University is, um, they have tons of medical people over there. Uh, students who need training, uh, at various levels as to whether they would need supervisory staff or not. That obviously becomes an issue, as well. So those discussions are all ongoing at this point. Throgmorton/ On this point, uh, I .... I'd just elaborate just a .... a little bit. Uh, I think it was in September all .... all the elected officials, uh, from the ... within the County, major elected officials, uh, met to discuss CIT and, uh, the, uh, the .... the annex ... uh, access center that's being proposed, and Susan's exactly right, uh, went through the funding possibilities and it's not the, uh, not the capital costs that's a problem, it's the operational costs (several talking) Yeah, and ... maybe Geoff has greater detailed knowledge about this but we made a lot of progress but then there's.....somebody had to go back to the University and have further conversations with the University to see to what extent they could get onboard with .... with regard to the operational costs. Uh, all this though makes me think about this new piece of legislation that was just enacted, uh, yesterday, I think, at the national level, having to do with, I don't.... cancer, medical stuff (several talking) I ... I heard somebody being interviewed on NPR last night and he was talking about CIT and about how there's money in that bill for CIT (laughs) so it could be there's something in the works there that might be of help to us in our county, and of course it might go away too with the new president, I don't know, but .... we need to be respectful of your time, so (several talking) Mascher/ I appreciate knowing that, um, we don't always get that information in terms of actually what is being done on the ground here, and I'm glad to hear that the training is going to be here as opposed to shipping people down there and is it mostly for police officers or is it for other city employees as well? Mims/ Mostly police officers, but I think they're also doing any emergency personnel, aren't they, and I'm not sure who beyond that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 16 Fruin/ Yeah, and ... and while it focuses police, we'll .... we will probably see at least Iowa City branch out into some other areas, um, because there are some skills that could carry over to our Parks and Ree staff, uh, to our Transit drivers, uh, to .... to folks that are interacting with the public. (several talking) Even the Library staffl (laughter) That's absolutely right! So, um, but....but certainly the key is .... is police at this point. Throgmorton/ Susan went down to San Antonio, what, in May as it (both talking) Mims/ Back in May, yeah. Throgmorton/ ....for the broad overview. I was down there just, I don't know, what, five, six weeks ago, uh, doing the same thing. Lonny Pulkrabek was down there as well. Amy was there. John Lundell was there. So (both talking) Jacoby/ Did my wife go? Throgmorton/ Yeah. Jacoby/ Okay. She said (laughter and several talking) Bolkcom/ Congratulations on your new Chiefl Uh... Mims/ Thank you (several talking) Fruin/ Thank you! (several talking) Thank you. Excited to welcome Chief Matherly here. He'll start on January 23rd and, uh, hope you'll get a chance to meet him soon. Mascher/ In the past we've done meetings with the police chief and the fire chief, and it would be helpful to do that again. Fruin/ Yeah. Mascher/ Um, just especially since he's new.... Fruin/ Yeah. Mascher/ ....and to touch base with folks and get a chance to talk about their issues as well. know they have different issues sometimes, um, that wouldn't necessarily be on your agenda, but are also important to the City, from their perspectives. Throgmorton/ What kind of timing would work well for you in terms of (both talking) Mascher/ I would do something on Fridays when we get back in January, um, we're home every weekend and, uh, we're certainly willing to do those kind of things on the weekends and, um, set up some time on a Friday when we're home. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City session with area legislators of December 14, 2016. City Council and Iowa City Legislators Joint Meeting Page 17 Fruin/ One of the things (both talking) Jacoby/ ...Thursday after a forum here. Mascher/ Yeah, Saturday (several talking) Throgmorton/ ....make sure we invite Bobby too. Fruin/ Yep. We'll .... we'll be changin' the way that we interact with you a little bit this year, uh, in the past you've been workin' with Tom Stanberry and Kay Carluchi. Um, our contract with the Davis Brown Firm ends at the end of this year and we're not renewing that. Both Tom and Kate moved out of state. They're in Minneapolis now. Um, we're not gonna employ a lobbyist for this session. We're just gonna, uh, see how it goes without that. Simon's gonna lead our, um, legislative efforts and one of the things that we've talked about is .... is, um, providing you more frequent updates, not only on what we see happening and where we might be on particular issues, but letting you know, to your point Mary, letting you know what's happening here and some of the .... the local issues that .... that, uh, could help inform your discussions as well, so .... give us that feedback, um, as well. We hope to, you know, be bringin' the chiefs and ... and whatnot to you in Des Moines, as well, to talk about particular issues and, um .... be curious after this session, uh, be great to touch base with you and .... and get your feedback on how our communication went t his legislative session cause we .... we do .... we're gonna take a different approach and we think, uh, not only will we potentially save a little money, but I think we can build a better relationship with you all and .... and, um, get you the, more of the information you need as opposed to relying on the outside firm. Mascher/ If we forget to tell you, thank you, um, we're so proud of what goes on here and you don't always hear that from legislators or even the public (both talking) Throgmorton/ Feel free! (laughter) Mascher/ .... but ... but we do have a lot of pride in what our city provides for our citizens, the trail systems, our parks, um, even snow removal, I mean I'm going to get as basic as that, um, garbage pickup, all of those things contribute to quality of life here and it's one of the reasons why we live here and I thank you for your efforts and all of the time and energy you put into making sure that this community is a good place to live and raise families and work. Um, I think it is and I think it's one of the reasons why we attract so many people and we're growing so rapidly. Um, there's reasons for that and ... and I think you can look at yourselves and .... and pat yourselves on the back for a lot of that, so thank you. (several responding) Throgmorton/ All right, um, I think we've had a fantastic conversation. Thanks to all of you for coming. And we'll do something about the potholes along the way. (laughter and several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council session with area legislators of December 14, 2016.