HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-07 TranscriptionPage 1
Iowa City City Council Work Session
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Dilkes, Fruehling, O'Brien, Rummel, Knoche,
Havel, Resler, Yapp, Hightshoe, Bockenstedt, Seydel-Johnson
Others Present: Simpson, Nelson (UISG)
Update on Johnson County CIT initiative:
Throgmorton/ So we're gonna begin the City Council.... Iowa City City Council work session for
Tuesday, March 7 .... 2017. First topic is an update on Johnson County's CIT, actually I
don't know.... annex... facility, um, initiative. Hi, Rick!
Dobyns/ Hi, Jim! I want to get this right. You'll tell me to speak into the microphone correctly,
so.... I'm not used to doing it from, uh, this point of view, so I'll see how I do!
(laughter) So, urn .... Rick Dobyns. I'm a family physician, um, at the University of
Iowa, and I'm currently on the Steering Committee, um, for CIT and the access center.
Um, the CIT is crisis intervention training and the access center is sort of a project that
sort of goes along with it, and we're going to explain that. I know some of you have had
a chance to learn more about it, but this is in general for the rest of Council, staff, and for
the public who are watching, as well, we're going to answer three questions. Um, why
do we need a behavioral access center? What is the business plan? And then how do we
pay for it? Um .... you know, if you had to put together a group of people, I think, in
Johnson County who really had broad expertise, sort of an all-star if you will, in terms of,
uh, healthcare issues, regarding behavioral health, regarding homelessness, regarding,
um, emergency health, you know, you really couldn't have a better group of people than
is, uh, up here. Um, in fact I ... I'd say the one person who really doesn't belong in this
group is me. Uh, I've had some (laughs) experience with, um, mental health, from my
point of view as a medical physician, but I can tell you I've learned a lot just in the last
year that I've worked, um, with this group. Um, one thing I've learned is that .... when
I've .... I mean I've been on the in-patient service all day today, at the University of Iowa
Hospitals, and we're gonna kind of pepper this discussion, um, with some anecdotes
about people, cause that's what this is really about, is some of the people of the City of
Iowa City and in larger Johnson County. For instance, think of a time, and I've taken
care of many patients like this, including today, where you'll have someone who
(mumbled) be on the street, and obviously their life is in crisis, and their life is in chaos.
And it's unclear, um .... what's to be done. The law enforcement, uh, professional can
come up and try and figure out, okay, is this a person who has some encephalopathy? Is
intoxicated and has some medical concerns? Or is this a problem with some, um,
chronic, behavioral mental illness? The person is creating some level of disruption, but is
it disruption that right now meets the threshold of actually bringing them to the jail, and
at this point, there are three options for that law enforcement personnel. They can bring
them to any one of three emergency rooms, um, in Iowa City. And I can tell you, if that
person ends up in the emergency room, and it ends up on my service, that is not the best
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way to take care of them. Yeah, I think I can take care of their medical problems, but the
problems are so much more than that. Do you take that person to the jail .... uh, and
criminalize them? Um, and have them stay there, and that law enforcement, uh, officer's
thinking either to the emergency room or to the jail. The amount of paperwork of that is
extremely daunting. Um, and the number of hours that they'll have to wait there. The
third option is for the officer to decide from their point of view as a law enforcement
professional that they move on, and they leave them there. We're gonna talk to you
about a third ... or a fourth option today. So, Dr. Flaum!
Flaum/ Thanks, Rick. So I'm Michael Flaum. I'm a psychiatrist. I've been at the University of
Iowa a long time. Like almost 30 years. Working in just about every capacity there and
a lot of capacities here in the community. Um, so I feel like I know this community
pretty well. Um .... I also happen to be the serving President of the American Association
of Community Psychiatrists, which gives me an opportunity to get kind of a national
perspective on issues which are not uncommon to our community. Every community
is... faces the problems we're gonna be talking about today. So I know some of you are
very well aware of this project; many of you I see Councilwoman Mims and we were in
San Antonio together, and I know several of the others have been there. I will say, this is
not a San Antonio remake here. I mean that was just one place that we went. Uh, so
some of you are very sophisticated, but others may not be, and my job in the next five or
seven minutes or so, I think, is just to kind of set the stage, especially for those people
who may not be as grounded in why we feel so strongly about this and why we feel like
we have to do something. So forgive me if...if this is old news to you, but .... our current
situation is the situation we've been in as far back as I can remember, which is if a person
is in a behavioral health crisis of some sort. Very often, as Dr. Dobyns said, they're
taken, or they wind up ... or they bring themselves to an emergency room. Why that's so, I
gotta tell ya, I don't .... I've never really understood that. I get it if you have chest pain, it
is right that we've taught our community and our EMS to get people to the emergency
room, stroke, you're in a car accident — you want to get checked out, I get it! Why we
bring people who are in the middle of a behavioral health crisis to a medical emergency
room, I gotta tell ya, after 30 years of working here I still don't understand! The dirty
little secret is they have no idea what to do! They call our residents. Our residents have
basically one answer — uh, either go back to where you came from, home or jail or....
which obviously wasn't workin' or you wouldn't come in, or I guess we'll admit ya to an
inpatient psychiatric unit. And so it's not a surprise that a majority of people who walk
into the emergency room with a behavioral health crisis wind up on a psychiatric
inpatient unit. Now, you've probably heard lots of news over the last few years about we
don't have enough psychiatric beds and people are up in arms about the closing of the
State hospitals. I get asked that question all the time. I, you know, do we have enough
beds? Well functionally, obviously not, because as you may know, it's not uncommon
for people to sit in the emergency room for days and days and days, not only because
there's no bed in Iowa City, but there's no bed in the state. So, functionally it's a no-
brainer. We don't have enough psych beds. People ask me: should we build more psych
beds? I say absolutely not! That's not what we need. Structurally we have plenty of
inpatient psych beds. We just use `em for the wrong reasons! We admit people who
really shouldn't be admitted to an inpatient psychiatry bed, often leaving those who need
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it without a place to go. Uh, so you really need to look at the whole array of services and
we're talking about a different kind of service that is really missing in our array. Okay?
So ... I staff an inpatient psychiatry unit. It's a minority of patients that I think really need
those services. Most of the people that we see are people who have ... a variety of
problems. Lot of substance abuse problems. A lot of trauma. A lot of homelessness,
and a lot of lifelessness, uh, and lot of criminal justice issues. And ... life is hard for all of
us! And, uh, you know, at a certain point, some people hit the wall and when they hit the
wall, as I said, they .... we bring `em to the emergency room and we put `em on a
psychiatric unit, and we often throw various medications at `em, which is not really going
to help the problem, uh, but that's the tool that we have. And it's time that we changed
that. And we've been workin' on this now, this isn't anew idea. Sothis group that's
here has been gettin' together for, I don't know, 10 -plus years now? On a regular basis,
and we started really focusing on this issue at least seven, eight, nine years ago. Uh, and
we came up with a vision for a comprehensive behavioral health access center that we've
been working on over the years, and we .... we know what the .... the main ingredients for
that needs to look like. Um .... this was a slightly later version of it, um, that has a lot of
the, uh, pieces that we're now talking about here. Um ... we then did due diligence and
said let's not reinvent the wheel and let's see what's goin' on in the rest of the country,
and take a look at various models and San Antonio is one such model. Lot of the folks
went to, uh, a place in Kansas, places in Miami. There are lots of different models. But
essentially they have common features. And this is a busy slide, um .... but I just want to
take you through a couple of the ... the features of this and then I'll .... I'll stop. So (clears
throat) what should we do when someone is in a behavioral health crisis? Well, one thing
is we .... often we just need to let `em sleep, right? It's nighttime, it's cold, they're... upset,
they've just been kicked out of their temporary home because they were usin' drugs again
and, you know, the spouse got pissed off or something like that. And they've had it!
They're at their wits end! And they say things like .... I can't go back there. If I go back
there I'm gonna .... somethin' bad's gonna happen! And so bing — they meet criteria for
inpatient. What they really need is, okay, it's dark, it's cold. Let's get your clothes
washed. Let's get you a place to lie down. The sun'll come up tomorrow. We'll see
how you feel tomorrow. And often that makes a huge difference. So just a place to just
not make any rash decisions, but just be for a day or two, and then the next day, have
some people who can actually help connect to these folks to the services they may need,
which we don't do very well on inpatient services, by the way. Um, or maybe they need
to just sleep off a drunk! Maybe they don't even need the (mumbled) Maybe they just
need to sober up! And in San Antonio they have a .... couple of mattresses where people
sober up. Um .... maybe once they sober up, it'll be pretty clear they're in detox, and they
need medical services. So, couple of detox beds, which we're terribly short of in
(mumbled) Maybe it'll be clear that they need to be on an inpatient psychiatry unit.
That'll be one of the outflows, but probably maybe 10% of those people. Um, maybe
they'll need short-term housing. Things like that. Maybe they'll need some, uh, urgent
medical care, nothing fancy but something that we can do off-site. Um .... so that's kind
of the model. Um, the, urn ... low barrier shelter is a bit of a separate issue. I think most
of you are probably familiar with the winter shelter. Does that term low barrier mean
something to you? Uh, the idea that you don't have to be sober to get into a shelter. Um,
so having that on the same physical premises makes a lot of sense to us. Anyhow, this
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is .... this is the basic model. Um, it makes a ... a tremendous amount of sense,
um .... it's .... it's non -hospital based. It focuses on short-term crisis case management. It
connects to the things they really need, which are housing supports, vocational supports,
substance abuse services, and often general medical services. So I think that, um, what
we're saying is, you know, we've been thinking about this and talking about this for a
very long time. Um, it's very clear that .... that the things that we're doing now are not the
best use of the resources that we have. Um, there are common sense approaches, um,
approaches that are working elsewhere. We need to stop medicalizing everything. Uh,
and medicalize what it makes sense to medicalize and use hospital based resources
appropriately. Um, lot of talk about housing first. We can throw all the meds, all the
services at people, but if they still have no place to spend the night, life is going to be
chaos. Uh, and just getting people, helping people! Um, and, um .... yeah, I think I'll
leave it there and, uh, pass it over to Ron. Ron Berg, uh, who is CEO of Prelude.
Berg/ Ron Berg, Prelude, uh, CEO. Some people might remember our name as MECCA; same
organization, just changed up our name. Um, so I'm gonna .... so just real quickly, the
situation. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. I think, uh, we've covered this, or
the community has been made well aware of some of the challenges in both the jail, as
well as emergency rooms. Uh, they're over -utilized, as Dr. Flaum was alluding to. Uh,
law enforcement, um, again, only have a couple options, one of those bein' the jail. The
other option bein', uh, the emergency room or simply letting someone go on. Um, both
of those are costly for both law enforcement in terms of the amount of time that they have
to spend with them at the emergency room, but also costly for the patient and then also
the patient family, uh, just want to bring that, uh, constituency in here just a little bit. Uh,
the families quite often are the ones that really feel at loss of where to go with someone.
They ... you know, I don't want to take a loved one to the jail. I don't want to take a loved
one to the emergency room and then see them discharged, or not admitted, and feeling
like nothing's really been resolved. So trying to find a way to provide a resource to the
family members that are .... are trying to care for their loved ones as well. I just want to
stress, sometimes people feel like, well, you know, they need to be in jail and we wanna
be all this, uh, as the friends in San Antonio will say the `hug a thug.' We just wanna
take somebody that's a criminal and not put them in jail, but put them in a behavioral
health unit. That's not what we are about. If you think of the broad number of people
that need behavioral health services, there will be a small group that are appropriately
served in the jail. That's where they can be safely served and it keeps our community
safe, and there's another smaller group of people that are more appropriately served in an
inpatient psych unit. That's where they can be safely served, but there's a large group,
uh, I think some of the national estimates are 50 to 75% of the people accessing
behavioral health emergencies in emergency department can be diverted out of that. So
there's a large group in the middle that either the jail or the emergency department are not
the appropriate place, and that's really what we're talking about trying to provide here.
And for me, the issue is how we're, uh, providing safety for these individuals. That
really is my kind of bottom line, uh, with this is the safety. Um, we know that the jail is
over... overcrowded, uh, the County is still transporting people down to Muscatine.
Emergency departments, they have longer and longer lengths of stay. Uh, where you
used to be in the emergency department for a few hours, now you might be there
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Iowa City City Council Work Session
overnight because there's no place to process people through. Um ... so they end up, uh,
with related mental health... or, um, criminal charges as well, and really the .... the
emergency department and the jails are just not the best environment. Just ... one example
from my work at Prelude, uh, we had a person come in looking for a detoxification bed.
Um, long-term, uh, use, abuse of alcohol. Severely intoxicated and we simply did not
have a bed. Uh, every pillow in the place had a head on it and we were not able to
provide service, and his response was, "Please don't make me go to the emergency
department and tell `em I'm suicidal!" That was his only option. He knew how to get
what he needed. He knew how to get safety for himself and it was to go utilize the
psychiatric bed that really wasn't appropriate, really wasn't needed for that situation. So
our proposal.... here's the list of services that we've put together, and we've .... urn, and
we've talked about a phase one and a phase two, and .... and really where we're at now is
our vision for what we would really like to see, and then a scaled-back version of that
that, um, tries to get within the financial models that we think are reasonable. But our
vision for this would be a sobering unit, and that, the sobering unit and the low barrier
shelter on this list, I put together as a harm/risk reduction strategy. So it's really about
giving somebody a safe place to be so they aren't harming themselves, so they're safe,
okay? So safe, harm/risk reduction, the sobering unit, and the low barrier shelter. The
reason I put them in that category is the focus, the sole focus in my head for those two
services is safety. We're not talkin' about getting them into services. We're not
providing treatment. We're just giving them a safe place to be. Now it doesn't mean that
while they're in one of those services we wouldn't have staff interacting with them,
trying to move them along a continuum, if you will, but the focus of those service, again,
is safety. The next unit is, uh, detoxification and that's a step up from the sobering unit.
Um, what I said before is if you start to get .... if you're in the sobering unit and your
blood alcohol content starts to get down to zero and you're at risk of going into
withdrawals, that would be the time that that person would leave. They would probably
go resume alcohol use, to avoid the withdrawals, or it's somebody that just needed a
place to be while they sobered up and they're not really at risk for any withdrawal at all.
Uh, but the detox, that's where we would provide some medical interventions to make
sure, again, that they're safe, but the goal for the detox unit is to move them from detox,
get them safe, and then move them into residential or outpatient treatment. So we're
trying to move them up that continuum of care, if you will. Crisis observation similar to
the detox as Dr. Flaum was talking about. It's a place that's quiet. It's warm. Get them
showered. Get them cleaned up. Give them a place to sleep. Where we can observe
them for a while and see is this an addiction issue? Is this a mental health crisis? Are
those two things resolved with just a little bit of time and getting their natural supports
back and .... and interacting with them. So an observation where we can take a little bit of
time and figure out what to .... what the next steps are. Crisis stabilization would be for
that person that needs a few more days. So somebody that has been on their medication
and very successful in the community, um, goes off their medication,
becomes.... their.... their behavior could become, uh, concerning, so they come to the
attention of family or law enforcement, be brought here, go through the observation, put
into stabilization, get them re, uh, started again on their medication, get their behaviors
resolved, get them connected with the community supports, and move them out. Very
appropriate, very much needed for many of our patients, or community members. Uh, so
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that's the crisis stabilization. It'd be about five days. Sobering unit would be 12, 10 to
12 hours length of stay. Detox (mumbled) we're talkin' about a three to five-day, usually
about three, three and a half days length of stay in detoxification. Low barrier shelter,
our vision instead of having that just available during the wit... winter months, we would
envision havin' that available year-round, 12 months out of the year. Again, it's just a
place for people, uh, so they can have a safe, warm place to be; get them off the streets.
Uh, but really no expectations, um, you know, there's no criteria you have to meet to get
in the door, um, except that there would be some limits on behavior, again, uh, so that
they're safe and the other people in the .... in the low barrier shelter are safe as well.
Expanded mobile crisis, right now we have a very active mobile crisis team that's
operated by the Crisis Center. Um, with the CIT training that will be happening in a
couple weeks, we're going to have another 64 officers trained, so we really anticipate that
we'll be seein' the mobile crisis utilized more as the local law enforcement officers
become more comfortable and understand that service. So we think that the ... the
demands on the mobile crisis will continue to grow, and they're growing rapidly right
now for the Crisis Center. Uh, so we would envision needing to, um, expand the ... the
resources and the staffing of the mobile crisis. And then again, just having some .... Dr.
Flaum alluded to, nothing fancy, but some medical services. So somebody needs a
suture, uh, they need a compression, um ... you know, we're not gonna be takin' any
serious injuries, of course, but trying again to keep people out of the emergency
department with some low level medical care. Uh, due to funding, uh, we think that what
we want to do, could afford initially, uh, would be a 10 -bed — the sobering unit, the detox,
crisis, observation, and crisis stabilization. The low barrier shelter for just the winter
months, not year round, and then the mobile crisis outreach out be at its current limit. We
wouldn't be able to expand that. Uh, and then the 24-hour medical assistance, try to
make that available through telemedicine with the University of some ... for some
arrangement. So the difference right now between ... the primary differences between the
vision and what we're gonna look at here in just a second in terns of pro forma is the, uh,
low barrier shelter, the mobile crisis, and the medical services would be scaled back at
that. Uh, so the staffing, and this is on this scaled back version here. So we've split this
into three shifts — the day, the evening, and the overnight. So during the day we would
have a peer support, so that's person with lived experience, either a mental health lived
experience or addiction lived experience, somebody that can be there and really, uh,
interact with patients, again, trying to engage them and move them from that crisis
stabilization or the detox into somethin' a little more permanent, little more supportive
for them. Nurses on duty. Emergency medical technician on duty. Security would be
24/7. Uh, we .... that's one of the clear lessons we've learned from visiting the other
programs is that we need that 24-hour security. A lesson that we learned also from, uh,
the Crisis Center or the, um, Shelter House experience with the winter shelter — we need
to have security. CADC is a certified alcohol and drug counselor, so we'd have that
specialty on site to deal with people with addictions. LISW is a licensed independent
social worker so that mental health expertise. Care coordinator, um, physician assistants,
and an advanced registered nurse practitioner, ARNP. So you can see we're fairly heavy
on the medical side. A lot of this is about safety. Getting people engaged and move them
into something more permanent in the community. So on the budget, uh, just look at
some of the revenue and then, um, our operating expenses. Uh, if you look at the
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revenue, Johnson County is $15,000 and the asterisks down at the bottom explains that
that's what these different communities are giving right now towards the winter shelter.
Okay? So that's what we're just showing the current funding and ... putting that in the
budget for the winter shelter. So we've got Johnson County, Iowa City, Coralville, North
Liberty. Uh, mobile crisis, they get their funding from the East Central Region, the
Mental Health Region. Uh, they also get some grant funding for that, and they do some
fundraising out at the Crisis Center to operate the mobile crisis. And then philanthropy,
that is fundraising that, uh, Shelter House performs in support, again, of the winter
shelter. So, Shelter House is contributing a lot of their, um, fundraising efforts
towards .... to support that as well as the other community, uh, supports. The revenue,
urn .... we know that we can bill for detoxification services. We can bill, urn.... insurance
companies. So the managed care organizations, we ...... if someone has Title 19 coverage,
uh, we can bill for detoxification. We can bill crisis stabilization, crisis observation, and
those are the revenue figures that we estimate, uh, bringin' in from those sources.
Sobering unit is the service that we cannot bill anybody, so there's no revenue shown for
the sobering unit. That would be a piece that would have to be supported by overhead
from the other operations. Um .... you know, as we go through these.... estimating these
revenues, we have to make some assumptions about what rate we could get, what
occupancy we could get, how many beds we're gonna have, uh, and as we debated this,
um, you know, I thought they were pretty high, coming from the non-profit world. The
hospital staff thought they were pretty low. So maybe we're .... hit it pretty good. We'll
see. Uh, but these are our best estimates, uh, that we can make at this point. Uh, and the
operating expenses, not surprising, the personnel's about 80....80% of the overall costs.
Uh, food, overhead, utilities, and so on. So we've got a total operating expense of about
2.4 million, revenue of about 2.1 million. That shows a gap of about $300,000 — roughly,
$322,000. So that wo... that's the piece that we are missing for ongoing operations. Um,
you know, there are opportunities, I think, to fill those gaps. Uh, could be .... one example
could be if the local law enforcement, uh, could come up with a way to provide the
security that is in that personnel budgets. The security costs would about eliminate that
$300,000. If we could do some medical services, in-kind, to support the operations, that
would come close to eliminating that $300,000. So there's some strategies there that we
think we could pursue, but uh, that is the gap that we've got identified right now.
Throgmorton/ Ron, could you, uh, hold on there for just a second (both talking)
Berg/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Uh, well we all know that the healthcare system's, uh, in turmoil.
Berg/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ At the federal and state level. ... Sol ....it seems to me it'd be very difficult to
really project with confidence what kind of revenue can be expected for different kinds of
activities, but you know this stuff way better than I do, so uh... or at least the team does,
so can you help me understand how that uncertainty's being.... handled so far?
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Berg/ Well, I'll give you my perspective and, um, other members from the team might be able to
add into this too. Um .... my .... my first thought is that there has been a lot of resources
invested by the different insurers to make a switch from where we have been in terms of
a fee for service world, to movin' into different funding models. Accountable care
organizations, um, I don' t think that they are going to go away, regardless of what
happens with the federal Medicaid dollars. Um, I think ..... my prediction is that the
federal Medicaid is going to continue in some fashion, and I think what we're hearing
today, uh, following from yesterday's release of the Republican plan is that the .... the
expanded Medicaid would be continued for another couple years and then phased out.
Um, there's some uncertainty that we just can't control for. I, you know, I have to be
honest with that. I think the other potential here that .... that I think is .... probably gives
me the most hope that somethin' would be continued is that.... the.... the folks we're
talkin' about aren't gonna go away regardless of what happens with the funding
mechanisms for that. There will be a motivation to find some way to fund those. And I
think some of the stuff that we would see happening in the next few years would be
changes in terms of, uh, I would call them `case rates' or `population health management'
are bundled services that are much better .... much more fleshed out in the medical
services compared to the behavioral health. Um, so I think that we can expect to see
some growth and maturity in that, in how services are paid for, as Medicaid and as
Wellmark or Blue Cross learn how to bundle those packages in a way that saves them
money. You know, follow the money — it always comes back to that in some way. So,
this model, it can save the County, it can save, um ... potentially the University some
funds, but when it starts saving, you know, the Blue Cross of the world, the Magellans of
the world, um, they'll find a way to make it .... make it pay. I, you know, I'm an eternal
optimist. Um .... I've been at Prelude for 36 years and ... and, uh, you have to be that way
or you wouldn't (laughter) wouldn't stick around. Um, but certainly it's a huge
unknown. I can't deny that, so .... but I .... I think there are some opportunities. (unable to
hear person speaking away from mic) No. (laughter) (several talking)
Clemsen/ Um, I'm Lance Clemsen. I'm with the University of Iowa emergency room; been with
psychiatry for 20 -plus years. Um, so you .... I mean you're really addressing, you know,
one of our big concerns is that ongoing funding. So we've already started conversations,
negotiations with the three different for-profit, uh, MCOs, managed care organizations,
for Title 19. They are, of course, very, very interested, uh, in this product. Um, we're
also talking with, uh, DHS and the Iowa Medicaid enterprise. And that's gonna be key.
Now the thing that is significant here is this has already been established in other states
around the country. So this is not a precedent. It's been established. Um, they expressed
their interest. Uh, these managed care organizations have, uh, stakes in other states, and
so we're optimistic, um, but that is a really, really key factor that we can't say for certain
quite yet.
Berg/ Yeah, um, in our conversations with the managed care organizations, the first ... the first
response was what outcomes are you selling me? What .... what outcome can I buy from
you? They are very keen on doing somethin' like this that's gonna.....that.... that will
save them money, and I think there's great opportunity. Other questions?
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Botchway/ I have a question about the data, and so, um.....kind of along the lines of not
necessarily what Jim was talking about, but overall from a financial standpoint and
assessment standpoint, have we looked at the data? I mean I know that Jessica kind of
knows the data as far as the in and out pieces of the jail. Have we looked at, um, and
from an emergency room, um, situation and if we have, is there any way we can see that
data, because honestly this is a great presentation but as we think about how this will go
out to the community, I mean, to me it's just a easier discussion and kind of walking
through all the different, um, sophisticated terminology that was used, um, compared to
just, you know, `hey, these are how many people that are currently served in an
emergency room; these are the people that would currently be diverted,' and the cost
savings in that.
Berg/ Um, we have looked at the data. Um .... one of the challenges, you know, for people that
were able to go down to San Antonio, they've got .... a tremendous amount of data that
they can look at and.... can show their savings and so on, but they've been developing
that data collection for a decade. We are not at that point. We have a lot of data from the
University and from the jail, but what we kind of struggle with is how to put that
together, to show, um .... you know, it's kinda.... well, it's predicting and making some
assumptions based on some national statistics, but we can certainly get you some
additional data, um, to support what we're talkin' about. (unable to hear person speaking
from audience) (several talking)
Kannedy/ So the thing is (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Could you say your name?
Kannedy/ Oh yeah! I'm Levi Kannedy. I'm the Administrator of the Emergency Department at
the University. So we see 60,000 patients total in the emergency department, and about
8% of those are behavioral health. So just under 5,000 patients a year.
Peckover/ And .... we'll just keep adding on! (laughter) I'm Jessica Peckover, Johnson County
Jail Alternatives. You're all probably shocked that I sat there for 35 minutes and this is
the first time you're hearing (several talking) Um, so what I would just add to that stat is
that what we know nationally, and again, we don't have the local numbers, but what we
can extrapolate from other communities is that nationally they'll say that 50 to 75% of
individuals who present for behavioral health reasons to the ER could be better served in
community based settings. Um, and I would just extend on ... or, expand on what Ron said
about, um, some of the underdeveloped stats. What we don't have a real grasp on is our
law enforcement stats,what I've ... come to know when I've been in communication with
dispatch is that the information that we would like to pull, it's not easily gathered, it's not
easily mined to even say `how many behavioral health calls is law enforcement currently
going on.' That's just not....there's not even a great way to capture that. So then to even
take that further to find out how much time are they spending on those calls, requires
going into each individual call for service. So what we've started doing is just looking at
nationally what we know, the amount of time that, um, officers spend on a regular call for
service is almost double, uh, nationally speaking on what they spend on a behavioral
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Page 10 Iowa City City Council Work Session
health call for service. Did I say that right? A regular call for service versus behavioral
health call for service. Um, so we've just pulled nationally from those numbers. So
that's why we didn't necessarily put a side in here because... what we know is that we're
going to have to develop as we go, and so as we're developing our crisis intervention
team training that's in a week and a half -that I'll see you on Monday at noon, Kingsley,
right? (mumbled) I'm harassing everybody at this point. Um, we're a week and a half
away, um, so what we're hoping to do is start to do some data tracking with those
officers. We'll share what the County is doing right now and what the officers who are
currently trained in CIT, so we're hoping to start .... having a little bit more information
on the behavioral health calls that law enforcement's doing, but um .... this is a work in
progress.
Berg/ Okay, I've totally lost control of this! (laughter) Big questions! I appreciate it! But, you
know, we really would like to just have a conversation about it, so please, jump in with
questions as we go! So the previous slide, I'm not sure how to back up, was looking at
the operation costs, you know, we've got that little over $2 million operating cost, and
about a $300,000 gap. This slide is we're looking at what's it cost to get this thing up
and running, and we have looked at .... several different scenarios of ...of, uh.... um,
remodeling, purchasing, building new, and so on, uh, but the capital costs keep comin'
back up to about $7 million for a 15 to 17.....16,000 -square foot building, between six to
seven million. Uh, the footprint would remain the same, whether we do, um, you know,
just the...the initial phase or our full vision. I think if you look at that staffing pattern,
you can quickly see that there's a lot of budget advantages to having everybody in one
building. Um, you know, if we had a couple different locations, then we're gonna have
to duplicate those.... security for example. We're gonna have to duplicate the nursing
coverage for them. Um, so you would get a lot of economies of scale by having these all
in one place. Plus it allows us to push down the staffing a little bit, uh, with the
expectation that all of the staff would be able to respond to any one of the different units.
So, LISW might spend some time in the detox unit, but then go over to the crisis
observation and so on, so you're not limited by your credentials on where you would be
spending your time. Uh, so the operating for the, um .... for the .... phase one would be
2.4. Personnel, salaries, again, is about 2.1. Um, and then the whole vision would be
about a $3.7 million operating budget, 2.8 with salaries, uh, and we, again, project about
2.1 million in revenue. Um ... as I mentioned, we've looked at .... or explored a little bit
about, you know, what .... what buildings could we purchase, what could we renovate
with them, um, again some very rough estimates, trying to get some understanding of
that; possibility we're about 5 million. Um, for another $800,000 it looks like we could
probably purchase a blank .... uh, empty lot and build something new. Um .... pros and
cons. You know any time you do renovation, you .... you end up making some
compromises based on what the building is that ... that you're presented with. So that's, to
me, that is the biggest, uh, downside of the renovation. Um, you know, when you're
building from new, it really would allow us to create a space (coughing, difficult to hear
speaker) maximize the staff being able to observe different services. When we looked at
the operation they have in Kansas City, for example, they have the crisis observation was
right in the center where the staff could be, and then through different windows you could
see the sobering and the detox area, and over here you could see the stabilization beds.
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Page I 1 Iowa City City Council Work Session
So you really had a lot of..of, uh, line of sight observation from one central location. Uh,
that type of stuff is really helpful to be able to work from the ground up and design your
building, as opposed to, again, trying to renovate something. We could do the
renovation. There are some advantages, um, building from new, of course.
Throgmorton/ Ron, uh, I know that when I went down to San Antonio with Jessica and others,
we went through one building where the people we were talkin' to really emphasized the
point about how if...if we had been in a building that had been constructed from the get -
go ... for this kind of activity, it would have been designed totally differently from the
existing building that they had to shoe -horn themselves into. (unable to clearly hear
person speaking from audience)
Berg/ Yeah, the ... (mumbled) the central area was very far removed from the stabilization beds
and really created some issues for them, so.... I'm gonna turn it over to Dr. Dobyns!
Dobyns/ I thought I'd cut to the chase on this slide. Uh, currently the Steering Committee has
made some recommendations and an ask of each of the governmental jurisdictions in the
county. Um, I did have a chance to get this to City Manager Frain, uh, back when you
guys were spending all Saturday here during your January budget, uh, discussions.
Um ... our recommendation, part of this is based on some of the capital costs that, uh, Ron
Berg presented to you just a few minutes ago. From Johnson County the request is $2.5
million over the next two fiscal years. From the City of Iowa City $2.5 million. From a
combination of the cities of Coralville and North Liberty we're asking for $1.0 million.
In other Johnson County governmental jurisdictions we're going to be looking for .5
million .... for a combined $6.5 million, which would cover the capital costs.
Throgmorton/ Rick, if I could, the .... kind of an obvious question is about fairness, you know.
So how .... what kind of ...did you use any explicit metrics about tryin' to figure out
how... which, how much each jurisdiction should contribute?
Dobyns/ Thank you for that segue, Mayor Throgmorton! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Just tryin' to set ya up, ya know! (laughter)
Dobyns/ Um....
Mims/ Did we talk about this yesterday? (laughter)
Dobyns/ Yes we did! Yes! (laughter)
Throginorton/ It was that phone call over the weekend, I remember (both talking)
Dobyns/ ...and part of this is, uh, I had a talk, had a chance... the Mayor gave me to talk and we
discussed some of the things we wanted to get across to you is what has been new since,
urn, Jim and, uh, Susan, um, and others have gone down to San Antonio. And so Ron
had a chance to talk about that. Urn ... also what is the University going to do, and if you
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Page 12 Iowa City City Council Work session
can see for the first time the University of Iowa, and I'm the, uh (mumbled) office and
the University of Iowa, um, representative for the Steering Committee. So, um, when I
talk about the University of Iowa, I will be speaking on behalf of, uh, Bruce Harreld and
his office. Um, so take a look at the background. Probably going to take a look at three
different ways that you could possibly look at it, and there's many other sort of facets in
terms of, um, you know, who could justify as far as, um, payment. Uh, from the
population perspective you have up here the relative populations of the governmental
jurisdictions. Notice that the information about, um, Johnson County is outside, um, in
the county areas, uh, the non -incorporated areas of Johnson County. The University of
Iowa, um, that's sort of a .... a second .... (mumbled) those are just University of Iowa
graduates and undergraduate students who have (mumbled) for the most part live in all
the other cities. So that's sort of a doubling, um, but we have it there for, um, you to take
a look at. Arrest by agency, um, is basically law enforcement, um, information in terms
of all those various jurisdictions. Kind of give you a sense of percentiles. Um, the other,
of course, and this is also a health related matter, um, we picked ambulance transport
that's available, um, from each jurisdiction as well. So if you take a look at that, one of
the justifications, I'm going to go back and forth and I'm going to let your questions
drive this discussion, of course. Um, is that this from point of view, um, from Johnson
County, um .... where they get their revenue is they, of course, urn, from a property tax
point of view, they tax people from each of the different cities. Um, so you could say
that, uh, people in each city jurisdiction are sort of taxed twice. Once is by the County in
their urban levy, and once is from their respective cities as well. Um, and the County, in
tradition, has basically been responsible, um, for, you know, jail activities, um, and this is
where a great source of savings has occurred from. So what we felt at this point is that,
um, the City of Iowa City and Johnson County roughly, even though there is some, uh,
proportionate differences in terms of population. Uh, remember everybody who lives in
the City of Iowa City also lives in the ... Johnson County. The City of Coralville and
North Liberty is less, and that's of course by population, by ambulance transport, um, as
well as by service by law enforcement personnel. So that's sort of what the number's
derived from. What is not on here, and Jim, this is something you asked is what is the
University of Iowa's participation. Um, and we would ask that we recognize that the
University of Iowa as a Regent's institution has a different mission than any of the
governmental jurisdictions in Johnson County. Um, it's a ... we represent the entire state
of Iowa, which has different political implications, um, in terms of who we represent, and
has a different mission as well. We recognize that, um, we don't really look at this in
terms of our undergraduate and graduate mission, but in terms of taking a look at
healthcare. Um, the healthcare, of course, is a large proponent of what the University of
Iowa does. And at this point, um, Bruce Harreld and Vice President Robillard are .... do
not feel that because of the mission that capital cost participation by the University of
Iowa is something that the University is willing to do at this time. However, um, one
thing that has been mentioned in terms of ongoing costs, not something that we've heard
from the Supervisors, um, I've learned here of my time working the City of Iowa City
and Bruce Harreld made this very clear to me as well is that ongoing costs are really sort
of the major problem. Capital costs are one thing, but ongoing costs, year to year to year,
is a major problem. And the University of Iowa is very interested in participating in that.
Ron Berg mentioned to you that you notice that, uh, one of the margins, uh, the deficit as
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Page 13 Iowa City City Council Work Session
proposed in a year-to-year cost for the access center is for the most part based on salaries.
The University of Iowa healthcare portion feels that, um, the activities that are going on
here are very consistent, um, with what the University's mission is in terms of healthcare.
Typically what a university does and what we're looking forward to looking into is, um,
you know, donating in-kind, uh, medical director, nursing directors, uh, people who have
appointments at the University of Iowa, to, uh, participate in-kind for, um, directing
efforts at the access center. So if you take a look at, um, the salaries, just reducing the
salaries and making that... coming from the University of Iowa, will significantly reduce
the costs. You all mentioned that we're unsure about healthcare going forward. Right
now if Ron Berg was correct, this place as Bruce Harreld wants, as the Supervisors want,
and as all of you want is that on day one, we want to be operating not any sort of negative
margin. Um, indeed if the University of Iowa participates as we're looking into, in terms
of, um, having directorships participate, this potentially could run at some sort of, um,
positive margin, and you'll notice that the City of Iowa City (mumbled) other
jurisdictions are paying into, um, the, um, low barrier shelter on a annual winter basis.
That is something that would be very nice in the future, that could be folded into the
business plan, um, of this .... this situation. So at this point... questions.
Botchway/ Rick .... what's up? How's it going?
Dobyns/ Hey, Kingsley! (laughter)
Botchway/ Um .... I wanted to ask about Mercy, and so, um, one is their mission, I don't know ... I
don't know if their mission's vastly different than, uh, University of Iowa, but I know
that, um, they have an interesting mission that's focused on, you know, helping the
community, blah, blah, blah. What are any thoughts as far as whether or not they
participated in any kind of this conversation?
Dobyns/ You want to speak on that?
Peckover/ Um, since Ron stole my slide I have to find an excuse to come talk! Um, so Dr.
Schenkel of the emergency room (mumbled) medical director has been involved. We've
had several work groups as we've been developing this and he's been involved on that,
and just recently we've been, um, as we noted at the joint entities meeting, we've been
trying to invite more partners to the Steering Committee, and so, uh, Ben Jaggers who's
a .... I can't remember if he's a nurse practitioner (several talking in background) Nurse
practitioner at Mercy, uh, has been designated to come. He .... he just hasn't been able to
make it to a meeting yet. So we're .... we want to involve... and the V.A., um, thanks to
Mayor Throgmorton, connected us with some leadership at the V.A. and they're gonna
get involved, and we've .... we have Susan Mims who's joined us and then we're trying to
get the other, uh, elected officials at the table, as well, so yes, Mercy has been part of the
planning process and now we're trying to get them as part of kind of the Steering
Committee, as well.
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Page 14 Iowa City City Council Work session
Cole/ I was just going to actually ask about the V.A. Are they gonna contribute to the capital
costs or ... what role do you see the V.A. actually having? Would it be more of the year-
to-year or would it likely be .... what role perspectively?
Peckover/ Yeah, and we just met with `em a couple weeks ago, so those conversations are really
new.
Cole/ Okay.
Peckover/ Um, I will just .... I will tell you so far the way the conversations have been that
the ... the capital cost has been a conversation more with the municipalities and then
figuring out in-kind donations from the staffing pattern has been more the direction
we've gone with the clinical aspects of the partnerships. So I can't say with certainty, but
I imagine that's sort of what.....but I think, um, I will add that, uh.... they might be a
potential (mumbled) from like a fee-for-service model, like if we have a veteran who's
there, you know, they asked about can we do, you know, out of contract (mumbled) those
sorts of things, so I think that there might be billing opportunities there .... in addition to
staffing.
Throgmorton/ Jessica, I think I'd add, based on the conversation that we participated in, that I ... I
heard the V.A. officials express considerable interest in this project, uh, and certainly
were eager to have a person participate on the Steering Committee.
Peckover/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ And discover what's possible and what's not.
Peckover/ Right! Yep. Ditto!
Dobyns/ (mumbled) sort of beyond that, just as we're talking about healthcare facilities, um, the
University of Iowa currently to my knowledge, I think the University of Iowa has a
primary care clinic in southern Iowa City, currently located, um, you know, just south of
Court Street on Court .... uh, Scott Boulevard. That will be moving, um, up towards
Rochester Boulevard, and so the entire southern part of Iowa City at this point, other than
some quick -care options, um, as I'm aware I don't think Mercy Hospital systems, um,
has any healthcare clinic facility, nor does the University. Uh, the University of Iowa
recognizes this, Vice President Robillard has ... is interested in, um, developing a, uh,
primary care clinic in southern Iowa City, um, specifically geared toward, uh, serving the
underserved, um, as a comprehensive clinic. You may have noticed in the slide we have
some mention, and Dr. Flaum mentioned it too in terms of telemedicine services that can
bring some level of 24-hour care, um, to the access center to help, you know, divert from
the emergency room. We would hope in the future to expand that to full comprehensive
primary care services, especially geared for the underserved.
Cole/ (mumbled)
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Iowa City City Council Work Session
Throgmorton/ Geoff, did you want to say anything (both talking)
Fruin/ I just have a couple of questions. One is, um, what .... what the thought is on the .... the
legal structure or .... or who owns this entity. Is it a non-profit? Is it government? Is it
hospital? (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Oh, no! Jessica again! (laughter)
Peckover/ Rock, paper, scissors (laughter) Um, so early .... so this has so many different moving
parts, and early on in the conversations we started looking at governing structure options.
Do we have a separate 501(c)(3), um, with the municipalities and various partnering
agencies having seats? Do we do a 28E with governmental entities? So we're still...
that's sort of next in our strategic plan to kind of look at because it was this chicken and
egg ... cause a lot of conversation on who are going to be the funders, and then depending
on who the funders were, that sort of felt like that was going to guide the conversation
and so, um, it's been undetermined yet, so I think, again, the way the conversations have
gone so far it's sort of...has been evolving to a place where it looks like municipalities
might be primarily responsible for some capital costs, whereas our hope is that, um,
through third -party billing and some conummity partnerships we might take care of the
ongoing costs. So maybe once that gets a little firmer that might naturally lead to does it
make more sense to be a 501(c)(3) or a 28E government entity, so ... um, we certainly
welcome input. I think it ... there .... because that's a, um, undecided, so I think that's part
of the reason when we've invited elected official representatives to be on our Steering
Committee, uh, we were doing a lot of guessing on what each agency would want and
that we weren't getting very far with that, so we hope that we can start having more
formal conversations about that once we have representation from all the municipalities
and the various partnering agencies of the Steering Committee. So that's on the to-do
list. You got any opinions .... (laughter) City Manager Frain? (laughter)
Fruin/ You're on the right track (both talking)
Peckover/ Yeah!
Frain/ Second question was on, uh... site selection. What are .... what kind of attributes are you
looking for in a .... in a particular location?
Dobyns/ Before I have Jessica answer that question, I did have an opinion, and this is in my, uh,
spokesperson for the University of Iowa. I think the University recognizes there is
unusual collaboration between governmental organizations and not -for -profits, um, in
this concept. So the University of Iowa would support a, more of a 501 (mumbled) uh
not-for-profit, uh, governance structure, uh, for this, rather than a 28E. Do you wanna...
Peckover/ Sure! Um, so while .... when we've been looking at site location we've kind of been
trying to figure out does it make sense to keep things around the currently existing
services, so something maybe near, um, Shelter House and near Prelude, with easy access
to the hospitals and other agencies. So that's sort of what we're looking at. We know we
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Page 16 Iowa City City Council Work Session
need about 28,000 -square feet, gross total, um, and that's about as .... I mean we certainly
have been looking at some properties and we don't necessarily want to have that
conversation right now and here, but um, to try to get some prices. We've been working
with Neumann Monson to give us some, um, some better idea about space needs and
what .... and working with physical plant folks to figure out what makes sense in terms of
renovating a building versus new land. So we're looking into that, and of course part of
the reason we want you all to have more substantive information about what the project
looks like so when we get to that place that we start talking about some capital cost
movement, um, that you guys have enough information to feel comfortable saying, you
know, to the County or whoever's takin' the lead, that, uh, this is kind of the direction we
want to go with either new construction or remodel. So we are looking at some places.
We have a good sense of what the space needs is .... what the space needs are, and ideally
we would like to try to keep it near existing, um, services so that there ... our warm hand-
offs are easy and .... and I think maybe what didn't get talked about in the model is that
we want this to be law enforcement friendly. Uh, we mentioned and alluded to the fact
that people are sitting in the ERs, law enforcement are sitting in the ERs for three to six
hours and the communities that have these types of behavior health access centers, the
model is 15 minutes or less, the officers are in and out, you know, and .... and a lot of the
stats show that it's about seven minutes. So we want to make it accessible to officers and
we want there to be parking so that officers (laughs) aren't, you know, just make it easy
for people to use it, so that we're taking into consideration those types of things as well.
So....
Throgmorton/ So at this point, is there anything you folks want from us?
Mims/ A commitment for money! (laughter)
Peckover/ Thanks, Susan! I was going to say that ... but I'll let ya! (laughter) I think what
we .... the hope from, the take -away from today was really to give you enough
information about what the project plan is, what we'd like to see here locally, so that you
would feel comfortable when we come back and we say this is exactly what we need to
ask for financially, that you feel like you have enough information. Um, and so I
think .... we've given you some numbers and those are pretty close for what we would
need in the next couple fiscal years from the capital cost standpoint. So the hope is that
you now have that information and when you guys are at the place where you can make
a decision, um, and maybe relatively soon. I know the County, um, has budgeted for this
fiscal year, um, $1 million, the next fis... fiscal year a million dollars to kind of just have a
placeholder since we didn't have numbers ready when budget season came around. Uh,
and they have identified a property sub -group that's kind of looking at this sort of stuff
and working with the attorneys to draw up, uh, offers and those sorts of things. So, um,
feedback on where you guys are on that as well, cause I know a lot of the conversations
that have been had it's been let the County sort of take the lead, tell us what you need,
um, and (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) we're kind of comfortable with giving
personnel time to do that and, um, I know inside conversations I had had with Geoff was
also, you know, at what level you guys want to be involved in that, so that if we are
saying we're going to make a decision about new construction versus remodel, is that
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Page 17 Iowa City City Council Work Session
something that you guys want to be involved in that decision or do you want to say
`we've made a decision and now we need a check!' So we just want to start having some
more of those dialogues, and again I think having the representative on Steering
Committee might lend itself to that, but, um, that's sort of the take -away we're hoping
from today. So if there are any unanswered questions that would help you be able to
make decisions about whether or not and how much financial you'd be prepared to
commit to the project then we'd be happy to .... we have the people in the room today that
can hopefully answer those questions (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ My own personal sense is that we need to have a conversation with our City
Manager about it. My understanding previously was that operating costs was the big
challenge, but that seems to be pretty much in hand. So the capital costs don't look
extraordinary to me, but we'd have to have that conversation.
Botchway/ Well and to that point, does capital costs include, um, it says new construction, land
purchased (mumbled) with renovation and capital costs?
Peckover/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Okay. I just (mumbled)
Peckover/ Yeah, those are the (both talking)
Mims/ It's all factored in (both talking)
Peckover/ Yeah! And all sorts of things I know nothing about — soil boring — there were all sorts
of numbers that got included in those... those two estimates that you saw.
Dickens/ And percentage wise, you know, I just did a quick figure here. Iowa City's paying five
times its population versus four times for Coralville, North Liberty. Are those numbers
(both talking)
Peckover/ Susan, do you want to answer (both talking)
Mims/ I will! We had this discussion yesterday. Because, I mean, I think Jim mentioned it
to ... to Rick and when we were in the meeting yesterday I gave everybody a heads up, you
need to be prepared to answer that question. And one of the things that .... that I think if
you go back and look at the data, that I think is really important, is utilization, and I don't
think that there's any perfect way to parse out who should pay how much. Um, I mean if
you look at the County from a population standpoint of outside the metro areas, you
could say they're way overpaying, but the idea is hopefully they're getting some savings
on the jail in terms of getting that jail population down. They also, my understanding is
they have direct funding from the State and/or feds, right, for ... uh, DHS kind of stuff
and .... and mental health. I mean I'm not sure (both talking)
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Page 18 Iowa City City Council Work Session
Peckover/ Historically, yeah. Mental health dollars, that's a hot mess right now but ... but (both
talking)
Mims/ So .... so I don't think there's any perfect way. If you look strictly at utilization,
theoretically then we're underpaying, cause our utila.... utilization is 55% basically on
ambulance calls and arrests. Um, you don't know how many of those arrests are
actually.... will be related to this. Um, I mean some arrests they're going straight to jail
anyways, I mean it's not mental health issues. So .... I look at it, and you know we need
to have more of a discussion, but I don't think the .... I don't think what has been laid out
by the Committee so far and the rough requests that are being made are out of line. I
don't think this is one where you can go straight by population. So....
Throgmorton/ So .... we should have a conversation, uh, at some point pretty soon, but not right
now... about, uh, the capital costs basically.
Fruin/ We, um, I think we talked about this a little bit during the budget work session. We don't
have a specific line item, uh, in our fiscal year 18 budget, which you will be asked to
adopt tonight, um .... however, we .... we have the budget flexibility and when we put
together the budget we knew an ask was coming. We just didn't know exactly where that
would fall, um, so we have the flexibility, if the Council, uh, determines that this is a
priority, we'll have the ability to move forward and be a partner in it.
Throgmorton/ But we all know we're very, and tell me if I'm wrong, we're very supportive of
the concept, so we just have to make sure we're on the same wave length.
Fruin/ Right.
Throgmorton/ All right. Fabulous (both talking)
Peckover/ And just a huge thank you. As I mentioned the 40 -hour training is happening in a
week and a half and you,the City has contributed a lot of resources to this. We have...
many of our instructors are law enforcement from ICPD, who are phenomenal
instructors, so I think, um, this all should be very good, um, and we're gonna hopefully
start having lots of law enforcement who can start directing people to the appropriate
services. So thank you for your support and contribution to that, as well.
Tbrogmorton/ Great! Thanks, and thanks everybody for comin' (several talking) Yeah!
Dobyns/ I'm gonna go slink back into my retirement now! (laughter)
Mayor's Climate Action Project Memo:
Throgmorton/ Okay, well the next topic on our work session agenda is, uh, the Mayor .... oh, I
can't read this! The Mayor's Climate Action Project memo. So let me provide some
summary for people who might be watching on cable TV and just to refresh all of us. So
I sent you a memo dated May 24, proposing two climate action projects for fiscal year 18.
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Iowa City City Council Work Session
So I thought I'd briefly highlight the key component of the proposal and then see what
you all think. Uh, on April 20 .... on the 22 ad of April, Earth Day, there will be a Barbara
Schlachter RunfWalk for Victims of Climate Change event. This public event will
provide a, I think, a perfect opportunity for us to formally initiate our full climate action
planning initiative. Uh, and Pauline's gonna correct me I guess, but by that date we will
have hired a technical consultant, appointed members to our Climate Action Advisory
Committee, and approved a fiscal ... like we're gonna do tonight, approved a FY 18 budget
that includes $150,000 for climate action projects. The event would also provide a great
opportunity to announce specific climate actions that Iowa City will undertake early in
FYI 8. You remember last year, we chose to invest in energy efficiency audits for our
public housing units. I think that was a great decision for the time, but there have been
major political changes at the national and state level, and those changes have created a
very different context that I think we should take into account. So in this new context, I
strongly believe that we need to take positive actions that will inspire and energize a
broad range of Iowa Citians. And ... will, and will symbolize our commitment to climate
action, and lastly will help build strong public support for climate action effort. So, with
that new context in mind, what I propose is that we direct staff to pursue two specific
initiatives, both of which would be announced on April the 22nd. The first initiative
would be to create a $25,000, uh..... at least in the first year, maybe just one year, climate
action grant program, and the second would be to install a significant array of solar
panels, um, photovoltaic panels, at a specific site. So, a little more detail about both of
those. The .... the climate action grant program would provide seed grants totaling 25,000
for small community-based projects, activities, or events that are designed to stimulate
further creative community-based action .... with a lot of cross-fertilization is what I'm
imagining, among organizations in the ... in, uh, Iowa City. So here's one possible
example, and this does not appear in the memo. And I'm not sayin' `do this.' I'm sayin'
it's a .... just try to put a little flesh on the bone, so to speak. A climate action, uh,
advocacy.... I'm sorry. A climate advocacy organization could join with trade labor
unions and small locally owned, renewable energy firms to conduct a job fair for lower
income individuals. Just a possibility, right? And then, uh....I'm hopin' that initiating
this, uh, climate action grant program would stimulate creativity and people would invent
ideas that would be, uh, very constructive. Details about that proposal need to be worked
out, you know, who would be .... evaluating the various proposals that are submitted, etc.,
but I imagine it would be run pretty much like our existing social justice and racial
equity, and neighborhood PIN grant programs. The solar array, as I envision it, would be
a substantial ground -mounted installation located near and connected with the sewer
treatment plant. Partly because, as I understand it, the sewer plant accounts for about
35% of our carbon emissions in terms of all specific, uh.... uh, City of Iowa City
facilities. And, unlike other possible locations which are served by MidAmerican, which
is heavily invested in wind and so on, the sewer plant is served by Eastern Iowa Light and
Power, and I think would achieve a greater reduction in carbon emissions for us. Now,
Geoff, I know you sent me somethin' earlier today which indicates it's something like...
35% of Eastern Power and Light's electric energy is generated with coal. That ... that's
what I'm remembering from that pie chart.
Fruin/ It's about 40%.
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Throgmorton/ 40%, okay. Uh, okay so Geoff and I have discussed the pros and cons of a
proposed, uh, of the proposed solar array, as well as possible locations for it and so I'm
sure he'd be fully prepared to talk about the stuff we went through and .... provide staff
assessment about those kinds of things. So anyhow, that's the gist of it. I could
elaborate, but that's enough. So the basic question is — whatdaya think? Is it worth doin?
Are you supportive? If not, you know, then we're not gonna do it. If you are, we'll put
things in motion.
Mims/ I just have a question from a procedural standpoint. I mean when I read this, and we've
set up, you know, we're doin' this RFP. We're gonna hire a technical consultant. We're
gonna have a climate action advisory committee. I don't know, the way I'm looking at it
it seems like we're jumping ahead of that advisory committee and what we expect them
to do. It seems like if we decide to do this, we're kind of taking over what we were
gonna appoint an advisory committee for. So .... so that's my first question. I think
procedurally and time -wise, I've got a problem with it because it seems like we're just
totally upending what we have already started to set in place. Why are we hiring a
technical consultant for this coming year and asking people to serve on advisory
committee if we're gonna go ahead and basically make a huge decision like this without
their input. So....
Throgmorton/ ...let me provide my answer to that (mumbled) Okay. So .... if ...if this was a
long-term initiative, for ... for both of these elements that would just continue year by year
by year by year, I'd say well of course you're right. Uh, but it's not. So the idea is to
jumpstart some things, and .... the other, the advisory committee and the technical
consultant will not have had time. They need, you know, many months to start
generating their own particular ideas. Especially the technical consultant, so that ... that
outfit, whoever it's gonna be, is gonna work for, I don't know, what's the RFP call for?
Six months? I don't know. A year?
Frain/ Twelve months.
Throgmorton/ Twelve months. So they're.... they're not gonna come back to us for another year
basically with specific recommendations. And the, uh, the advisory committee will be
generating ideas a .... along the way and providing connections with, uh, key parts of the
community to build, uh, political support basically for, uh, whatever comes out of our,
uh, climate action initiative. But they.... nothing will be happening in the short -run. So
I'm thinkin' we need to jumpstart it for the reasons I articulated — inspire, motivate and
energize.... people in our city. Give us somethin' positive that will, uh, signal that we're
....we're really divin' into this.
Mims/ How ... how do you expect to have .... enough research, concrete data back via staff that this
is something that we can really act on and announce on April 22nd? I mean, I .... I can't...
Throgmorton/ Geoff just (mumbled) try to respond to that (both talking)
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Mims/ Yeah, I mean .... (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...reasonable question (both talking)
Mims/ That doesn't seem like very long. I've got a lot of questions on the financial aspects and
the actual benefit of the solar arrays, etc., versus other things that we could do with that
money that really reduce our carbon footprint, etc. Um....
Frain/ I think ... I think for April 22"a, I .... I think it ... for the first piece, a climate action grant, we
can put some meat to .... to that type of program before, um, April 22"d without much...
without much issue. Um, and at least come back to you and ... and say here's how we
would do it and get your feedback. The solar array's certainly a little bit more tricky.
Uh, we have to do an RFP and there's.... there's no way that we could have an RFP
complete by, um, April 22d. So I think the announcement would be that we are working
towards this, um, but certainly we wouldn't have the RFP done. You wouldn't have the
data, um, that you need to make a final decision. Um .... so it's more of a, uh, work in
progress type of announcement.
Mims/ Yeah, I mean I have a real concern that here we're gonna.... potentially announce some
big project that we think we're gonna do and we don't even know if we're gonna do it,
because we don't even have the data on it.
Botchway/ Let me say this, I mean ... I didn't mean to cut you off!
Mims/ No! Go ahead, that's fine.
Botchway/ Um, so I ... I agree, urn .... I have some other questions, that I think Susan's raised, just
about.... especially around the solar array piece and the big project. However, I ... Jim, I
understand your point, kind of in the national context and state context thing is that
jumpstart. I do see the actual climate action committee, so to speak, as separate from
this, because again they're looking more at, and again this is my interpretation, so
hopefully I'm not far off cause I was hopefully paying attention during that meeting, um,
the .... kind of long-term implications of what type of strategies from a long-term
standpoint we're gonna look at as far as carbon emissions. I do like the idea of that
jumpstart. I mean I'm .... I can basically say right away that I'm for the, um, $25,000
climate action grant program. I don't necessarily know about your example, but I'm for
that piece. I would simply say that .... I have a lot of questions about the solar
implications and so for me, kind of going back to what Geoff mentioned but not
necessarily stated was, you know (mumbled) we could say there's a .... we're interested in
doing more from this climate action standpoint and we're going to do a big project, um,
but we don't know what that project may be. I don't necessarily know that that's
something I want the committee to do. I think that is a City Council kind of initiative and
push, um, and so I ... I'm not necessarily sold on the solar array thing. There's some
questions I have, I mean there's other ways that, um, we may be able to get to what I
think you're tryin' to get to and so I mean I'm supportive of this proposal as it stands. I
just have some questions as far as what maybe that big "jumpstart project" can be, but
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I'm supportive of ..I understand your question cause I have some of the same ones as far
as the .... the fees, or not the fees but some of the .... the issues that we've even discussed
at the County level around the solar arrays. Um, I was interested in how you were tying
that to the, kind of the sewer plant and what that could mean, but there are some.... still
some outstanding questions about that, but .... I'll be honest with you, I mean, I do like
the .... the jumpstart piece, but I think .... and I think that that's only something that we can
do as a Council, and so I mean, having that 25,000, uh, for that climate action grant
program, and in even saying that, you know, we will be doing in the next .... or we will be
planning, whatever Geoff said it .... kind of want to reiterate, in the next however many
months, some type of proposal to do a project that will, you know, look at that. I do like
that idea. I'm just not ... the particulars I'm not, um, I just have questions about, but I .... I
do like the jumpstart aspect of it.
Dickens/ Is the 25,000 come out of 17's budget? Because we....
Frain/ No, we've committed the 17 funds to the, um. .... uh, public housing audit and the, uh, non-
profit grant program.
Dickens/So where's this 25 come from cause (both talking)
Fruin/Fiscal year 18 dollars. (both talking) Yeah, well .... no, I don't necessarily think we would
have the grant program expended by July 1st. Come July 1St there's another 150,000 in
the budget for climate (both talking)
Dickens/ That's what I wondered where the money was (both talking)
Frain/ So, it'd come out of that 150.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, that's what I was thinking, Terry. I certainly did not intend to, uh, suggest
that the.... the .... this.....this $25,000, uh, grant program should start on (both talking)
Yeah, right.
Dickens/ ...timing was, and what budget it was going to be in. Where it was going to come from.
Taylor/ I'll go a little bit different route cause .... I was, uh, I'm very much in favor of the solar
array. Um, during campaigns we talked about, um, new developments hopefully using
more solar panel type things and we haven't seen that yet, and then the County has taken
the lead and has their solar panels. If you haven't seen them yet outside of the County
Admin building — it's amazing. It's really awesome, and they've already taken a lead and
so we're kinda 10 steps behind `em on that and ... and I think you've looked into that, and
looks like the sewer plant area would be perfect for that and, uh, so at some point in time
I'm not like saying we have to do it this year or next year, but I think that would be a
good plan.
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Throgmorton/ Yeah. I don't want to oversell things too much here because.... clearly more
technical analysis would have to be done about the sewer plan site, where the array would
go if in fact we want to have one there, and....
Dickens/ Is the water plant, up by KXIC, is that (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah (both talking)
Dickens/ ...or is that a different (both talking)
Fruin/ It's .... it's MidAmerican. Um, really about, just about every facility we have is
MidAmerican, except for the sewer plant. Um, so .... you know, I think that's the....
the ... there's a number of questions that ... that you all need to ask yourselves and .... um,
you know, what are .... what are the priorities for the project. Is it .... is it maximize carbon
emission reductions? Is it, uh, maximize return on investment? Is it more of the
jumpstart, energize, make a statement, um, because that's gonna define what this project,
um, really is, and there doesn't have to be, um, all in one of those categories, but what
type of balance do you want to achieve. Urn ... you know, the .... the one facility absent
this discussion, the one facility we were, um, contemplating, um, for solar would be the
new Public Works building. It's always easiest in new construction to design, uh,
renewable energy into the project. So, staff is already looking at that as we start to, uh,
get into design on phase one of Public Works, but that doesn't meet your objective
necessarily of...of getting something, um, in the ground quickly, uh, cause that building
wouldn't even start construction until 2018. Um .... so, you know, that's.... that's the
discussion. We've had that discussion before. From a staff standpoint, we've looked at
solar in previous years. We've looked at it at City Hall, at the Ree Center, um, and that
wasn't at Council direction. That was just through out regular facilities, uh, type of work.
We just haven't found that it makes economic sense relative to other energy, urn .... uh,
efficiency investments that we can make, um, so again, I think that's where the .... the
political dynamic, the Council dynamic, if you're looking to make that statement, make a
very visible, um, investment that shows your commitment to renewable energy, then
that's different from the, kind of the facilities lens that we look at things through as staff.
Throgmorton/ So on ... on that particular point, near the end of the memo I use a figure of
basically $40 per ton, per year, as a shadow price for the cost .... for the cost of, urn ... uh,
the climate.... climate effects, uh, of, uh, carbon emissions. It's.... economists would call
it negative externalities. So the climate effects are the biggest negative externalities there
is, and .... so if we use $40 a ton, I ... I'd be very curious to see how that influences all sorts
of decisions we make. But with regard to this particular one, what it led me to think
about was how first of all the sewer plant, uh, accounts for about, what was it .... 35% of
our City's, uh, carbon emissions. At least from facilities.
Fruin/ Correct.
Throgmorton/ Uh, so.....and.....and also about 40% of its power comes from, uh, no, I'm sorry.
40% of, uh, Eastern Iowa's Power.... Eastern Iowa Power and Light's power comes from
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Page 24 Iowa City City Council Work Session
coal-fired power plants. So we have an opportunity, uh, to think in terms of the negative
externalities associated with, um .... with our use of, uh, of electric energy. So the shadow
price could be a tool for doing that.
Mims/ Yeah I mean .... my perspective I guess on it too is when you look at the dollars and .... and
I guess it's going to take a lot of calculation when you look at those negative externalities
and what .... how do you also factor that in with other kinds of things that we could do
across the city that decrease our carbon emission, decrease our carbon footprint. So does
it make them look that much better also because we have not been factoring it in before?
I get the idea given what's going on nationally right now and ... and we're .... you may not
believe it, but we're on the same page, Jim, in regard to that. And wanting to make a
statement. My concern is .... our we making .... if we go down this path, are we making
a .... yeah, we're making a political statement, but we could take that say $125,000 if we
go ahead and take the 25 for the grant programs. Are there other things that we can do
with that 125,000 that really reduce our carbon footprint a whole lot more? As ... as Tom
Markus said in the last meeting, or the last meeting (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
they're a lot less sexy and a lot less publicity -oriented, but when you really get down to
the nitty gritty of what is it we're trying to accomplish, that are much more effective,
much .... you get a whole lot more done for that money than you do for the solar array.
So, you know, we can look at this. I have no problem looking at it and doing comparison
....but my perspective is gonna be I want to see the maximum results we can get for the
money we're spending, not just a glitzy publicity, political project.
Throgmorton/ Which is what the technical consultant's gonna provide us with, and that's a great
thing. I'm really lookin' forward to seein' the results of that.
Mims/ What's that gonna cost (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...won't get that for another year.
Dickens/ But will it pay for that (both talking)
Mims/ (both talking) I mean .... but I'm not willing to go forward with this now, simply because
we're not gonna have technical results for a year and have wasted 150 or $125,000 on
solar panels. I say wasted when we potentially could have gotten a lot more reduction in
carbon emissions by doing some other kinds of things. I'm not willing to rush it ... just
for the political.....the ability to announce this and the political pomp and circumstance if
it's not really giving the citizens of Iowa City, the taxpayers of Iowa City, the best and
biggest bang for their buck in terms of actually reducing carbon emissions, when that's
what we've said. I think that comes back to Geoff s comment about what is .... what is
our priority? To me the priority is if we're gonna spend this money, we're gonna spend it
the way people talked about. The four of you that ran this, you know, year.....little over a
year ago in terms of the environment and carbon emissions was huge! I'm not interested
in spending this money for political capital. I want to spend it for actual reduction in
carbon emissions, and that's what you guys campaigned on.
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Throgmorton/ Well I .... I don't think of it as, uh, you know, as a, if you Will, a political move. I
do see it as an inspirational move. One that is designed to connect with people in the city
and give `em a strong signal that we're openin' up space for creativity. We're tryin' to
inspire action, and it .... motivate various things that would, urn .... uh.....build over time.
So.....
Cole/ Well and I think we have to err on the side of having a little urgency here. I mean we're
coming on a month where we've had 70 -degree days in February. Um, and .... and to
Susan's point I think you bring up a good point. Why are we doing this when we have
the climate action plan? I think the climate action plan deals with sort of the macro level
issues, which is how do we monitor, measure, and implement on a citywide basis, private
sector or municipal output, on a citywide basis. That's actually pretty complicated in
terms of actually achieving our targets that we'd like to do. But on a micro level, we
know right now if we promote biking community we're gonna reduce our carbon
footprint. We don't may .... maybe know exactly how much, but we know we're gonna
get there. We know if we have walkable, more people walking to work and not using
their cars much, we're gonna get that reduction. And we also know with solar, if we
convert to solar we're gonna get reduction, most likely in the form of -from the RFP the
companies themselves that will get us that data that we can have. So I do think, in this
time when we're having 70 -degree days, we need to have some urgency, and so I think,
Jim, to your point, to use this as a template of inspiration for the private sector, public
sector, you know one of the things that came up at our TIF review process is one of the
first things off of people's mouth from the developer's point of view is how can you
expect us to do it if you're not doin' it yourselves for your municipal buildings, and so I
would like to support the, um, sewage plant solar project. I think it's extremely important
that we get the data. One of the reasons why we don't have the data right now is as I
understand it we have no solar arrays at all in any municipal building. Is that ... is that true
or ... or not?
Fruin/ No, it's not true. We have it at the East Side Recycle Center.
Cole/ East Side Recycling Center, so one ... one building. Um, so I would at least like to be able
to get that data, and related to Susan's point ... I would also like to do RFPs, uh, on the
building, cause I understand it doesn't really cost anything for us to get an RFP out there,
and if it comes back and we don't like the financial numbers of it, we can always put...
push the pause button as far as I'm concerned, at least that's the way I understand it.
We're not committing to anything. So if we got a proposal and we got the sticker shock,
uh, on the sewage plant, we would be able to With... withdraw. We wouldn't have to go
forward with it, is .... isn't that correct?
Fruin/ It's correct. The cost is really staff time.
Cole/ Staff time. So I say ... I say we move forward with it and get that ... get that data, get that
RFP out there and that will give us both the carbon emissions that we'll have, and then
also the actual cost.
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Botchway/ Well let me ... or, go ahead.
Fruin/ I just wanna... I just warm make one point. Um .... um, I .... I want to make sure that you
all know that for the last several years, um, staff has been workin' really hard at energy
efficiency measures throughout our entire facility. So it's.... it's not like nothing is being
done here. Um, Jim, this spreadsheet that I shared with you that I later shared with Susan
at her request, um, where you're pullin' the 35% of, uh.... uh, the figure from, um, shows
some incredible progress that our staff has made in reducing energy consumption at all
our buildings across the, uh, across the City. Um, since 2008, we've .... we've been able
to reduce our utility costs annually by a quarter of a million dollars through those
investments. Um, when we are building new buildings, we're building very efficient new
buildings — East Side Recycle Center is LEED platinum; Fire Station #4, Fire Station #2,
I believe, are both LEED gold; the Animal Shelter, why we didn't pursue LEED
certification is ... is, um, a very efficient building and we spent extra dollars there with GO
thermal. So, we have been making considerable investment in facilities to make them
more energy efficient and bring down our carbon, uh, emissions numbers. But ... we have
not been incorporating renewable energy because we didn't feel like it was the best return
on investment for those particular projects.
Thomas/ Well, I would just say that, I mean, I would be interested in .... seeing where.... we're...
we're being presented at this time, Jim, with some concepts that you've developed. I'd
be interested in other concepts, just as a way of -comparing, um .... before making a
decision. I'm not against the idea of solar, in and of itself, but I would be interested in
understanding, you know, this question of balance, you know, that is a sensible idea, um,
at a sensible cost, uh, and that it....it does have that, um .... PR aspect to it, not in a trivial
way, but in ... in sort of announcing what it is we're .... where our values stand. I had
mentioned to Jim in an email, urn .... it was yesterday....I'm.....I'm from it from a visual
standpoint. I'm .... I'm really intrigued and don't know the, you know, the .... from an
investment standpoint the value of it, but wind turbines, from my perspective, have a
much stronger visual quality (laughs) to them, if we're interested in making, you know,
an impact in terms of a public expression, um, wind turbines, I think, are kind of an
interesting concept, and I don't know what value they have in terms of reducing carbon
emissions, but, uh, there's a .... an assembly of them at Crissy Field in San Francisco,
which is, you know, a magnificent park right at the, um, the southern base of the Golden
Gate Bridge, uh, and it's a very highly visible site with significant impact in terms of
conveying a message. Um ... so in terms of conveying the message, I think that is .... I .... I
think we need to be paying attention to that as well and trying to balance how .... how we
do this so that each aspect of this is .... is .... is maximized, not putting all our eggs into one
aspect of it, but trying to distribute them.
Botchway/ Yes, so I would .... I would definitely agree and that's what I didn't articulate, um, as
eloquently as you did, I mean .... for me, I .... I feel like from hearing from everybody,
maybe not Terry just yet, but .... it sounds like, um, we feel pretty good about the 25,000
climate, um, action grant program. I think the bigger question is kind of this kind of big
project and what that looks like, and that's where I wanted to leave that somewhat
ambiguous and say can we move forward just on the climate action grant program and...
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what that big project may be, cause it could be solar. I'm not necessarily sold on the
location. It may be the only location that I think you kind of, um, vetted from that
perspective, but kind of bringing in Susan's point. It goes back to Geoff's discussion
about... about balance. I mean I .... I would agree. I mean when we looked at the County
numbers, and I think that was during a County conversation, the numbers for the solar
array didn't add up, and I don't mean to say that publicly from a negative standpoint. It
just .... it didn't make sense to me, and I'm not necessarily a math major and so for me
was more, you know, I kind of agree with Susan, wanting to make sure that if we do
something, it's not just to show. I think there's an important piece that I think you're
highlighting as far as wanting to show kind of what you, John, said, our values and
wanting to show them in a public way, but I also want to make sure that, from that
balance perspective, we're also thinking about, you know, there's at least some .... some
type of investment or some type of return of investment and so again, I'm not necessarily
sold on solar as well. I mean I think there's a couple of different things, and you know
more about this than I do, and so for me it's more .... uh, I don't necessarily know if we
need to have a conversation at the Council level or rely on, you know, you working with
staff as far as what we can vet out to be, uh, a more appropriate location and a more
appropriate, um, concept, but I mean I .... I'm for the big project. I'm for the grant
program, and I think everybody is, and I think to Susan's point, this is more making sure
that that grant ... or that big project makes sense, makes .... makes fiscal sense, and I think
you're.... you're for that as well. I ... I just don't want us to .... I just don't want us to get
into the minutia about the project when we can decide that at a later date.
Throgmorton/ Okay, I .... what I sense is that ... as you articulated, Kingsley, is that there is support
for this $25,000 grant program? (several responding) We'll have to flesh out the details.
Uh, I think I hear support in general for some project, but it's not .... it's gotta be looked at
more carefully, uh, and ... you know, maybe the sewer plant's a good location, maybe
solar's a good thing, maybe.... perhaps wind, I mean, so .... I think we'd like to ask staff to
look into that a little more carefully for us. Uh.... but I think we .....we do have
agreement about the $25,000 part. Okay.
Fruin/ So ... if we came back to you with some ideas on, urn.... uh.....projects that would have
a .... a, kind of energizing effect, that we could accomplish yet in this calendar year, is that
what you're looking for? Fit within the budget range?
Throgmorton/ I think that would be ... I personally think that would be great. Could be FY18,
which is not the same as the calendar year, but..... calendar year would be great!
Fruin/ Okay.
Mims/ And return on investment's important.
Fruin/ Okay.
Mims/ As far as I'm concerned.
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Throgmorton/ Shadow price $40 a ton. You know, I'm really curious about that. I don't want to
belabor the point too much, but I'm really curious about how that would play out.
Fruin/ Sure.
Washington Street Traffic Control:
Throgmorton/ Okay! Uh.... the time here .... it's flying, oddly enough! So the next item, Geoff,
is the Washington Street traffic control.
Fruin/ Yeah. We had this discussion in January. There's a .... I .... I just, uh, copied the memo
from January, uh, so you didn't have to go searching for it. Um, really nothing's changed
from the last discussion we've had. We've, um, staff has not received a whole lot of
feedback, good or bad, uh, about the temporary traffic, urn .... uh, the .... the stop signs.
Um, our position remains the same. I think either traffic control measure can work, um,
can ... can function and ... and handle, uh, the flows, um, at acceptable levels. So, uh, with
the weather warming up, the contractor is lookin' to remobilize on Washington Street, uh,
beginning April 3d is ... is the last date that I've heard, so we need to give them some
direction antici... in anticipation of their mobilization and .... and let `em know that gear up
for the traffic signals or get ready to take the footings out and install the permanent stop
signs.
Throgmorton /Yeah, so what's your pleasure, folks?
Dickens/ Stop signs. (laughter)
Mims/ I mean I was just going to say, I had expected that we might hear some negatives back on
the stop signs, just in terms of like when students are changing class and you get a lot of
pedestrian traffic across there. But we haven't heard that, and given that I say go with the
stop signs. Again, the traffic calming of everybody having to stop at those blocks makes
sense.
Dickens/ (several talking) I've heard more positives, uh, haven't heard any negatives, and from
all age groups, which I was a little surprised to....had an elderly couple, which means
they're older than I am! (laughter) They came in and they said we really like, and
people, I mean, being very courteous, uh, you know, you'll get eye contact with the car
or, you know, it's .... I've been amazed how well it has .... has worked, and for those two
corners, I think .... I think it's, for me it's a no-brainer, because it just seems to be
working. It's slowed traffic down. It seems to be safer. There's not the people blowing
through to get through that yellow light to get to the next comer, get through that next
one. It just seems to belittle more calming effect and it just .... people seem to like it!
(laughs)
Botchway/ So I will say, cause I know I'm .... this is gonna move forward. I'm not in favor, um
(several talking and laughing) Um ... I still feel (laughter) yes! Um, but more .... more
seriously and I kind of brought this point up a little bit, but I was able to flesh it out a
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little bit more, and this kind of really hearkens back to discussion that we had with
Ukrainian group, um (mumbled) you know I just .... I still see, um, the.... the.....there's a
lot of different, um .... events and things that happen downtown. I mean we're involved in
some programming right now, and so, um, you know, I ... I agree. It has helped and I've
driven it multiple times and I feel like I do stop and pay attention to, um, individuals
walking by, but you know initially (mumbled) they were talking about, um, you know,
the effect of individual disabilities may have and I .... I will be honest with you, I mean,
frankly I think that, you know, for me, um, not considering it is .... is me looking at it from
a privileged standpoint. I don't have any issues with it and so when I've been driving it I
haven't necessarily, um, actively thought about .... or I had actively thought about it now,
more from a .... because of that privileged mindset, but um, before, I mean, if you were to
ask me is it ... better? Yes, I mean I feel like I can even navigate it somewhat faster, to
Pauline's point, um, than I would without it because if there's nobody there I can go. If
there is, I need to wait and that's fine, but .... again, that's my own bias and privileges
playing a role there and I'm ... I .... I'm not necessarily in the, um, shoes of someone that
won't be able to navigate so that's why I appreciate staff's, again, giving us that initial
proposal, um, or recommendation because I think it accounted for that, and you know, I
think it was mentioned during our conversation with that Ukrainian delegation, um, of
what we were doing. I mean I know that we've, you know, increased ramps and ... and
this is a terrible analogy, but it made me think about the ... the ramp use, and granted that's
an ADA requirement, but it ultimately.... and I don't necessarily know that, um, from a
ramp standpoint when we talk about some of the, urn .... um, I can't remember the correct
name for it, but the dotted, kind of, um, you know, walking area. Every.... every ramp
that we see at the intersection, whether that's necessary, um, but it's important for, you
know, folks that are able to navigate that particular traffic, and I know it's an added
expense, um, but as we look down, you know, 20 to 30 years later on and not being on
Council and being able to project that out, to me it...it is ... it is a problem, because I .... I
think that as we think about walkability and I .... that's where I really focused on and we
think about that downtown ped mall feel, I want to make sure it's accessible and safe for
everyone, regardless of my own thoughts cause, again, the sign .... the stop sign works
well for me. I mean it's actually perfectly for me, especially based on the traffic that
y'all have already mentioned so .... that's all I'd say. I mean I know that y'all know that
and are concerned about it and so I know you're not thinking of it.....know you're not
making this and -with .... without that in mind but .... that's why I'm .... I'm not in favor
of...
Throgmorton/ What do the rest of you think?
Taylor/ Well I think of it as ... the flip side of the safety aspect as far as the amount of time it takes
to cross the intersection if you have a walker or a cane or you're just slower to move
because you're older, like some of us. Wheelchairs, those kinds of things that there's not
nearly enough time with a light to get through it. Um, so I'm thinking more of the safety
as far as that aspect of having more time to....to cross with the stop signs.
Thomas/ Yeah, I .... I think the ... the sense I have with this is that it, um, first of all seems to be
working well, not only for pedestrians, but for drivers. I mean I was hearing from a
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number of drivers that they preferred it. It, and then that the full stop, that .... that clearly,
I think, establishes a higher level of safety, for everyone. Um, but at the same time .... it,
the ... the stops allow in general for flow to keep moving. That .... that's the goal ... is to not
have lengthy stops for anyone, and so you have this general sense of continuous flow, uh,
that's pedestrian and driver friendly. I think that's important, and I feel .... I don't know if
(coughing, unable to hear speaker) represented it or not, but I feel that a number of these
initiatives that we're pursuing, Kingsley, have a driver -friendly aspect to them. It's ... it's
not punishing drivers (laughs) It's.... it's actually trying to get that flow .... more constant
at a safer speed. Uh, whether it's at a four-way stop or a road diet, it's....it's not to
punish drivers. It's simply to make driving safer, uh, at a moderate speed that's best for
everyone. Um .... and then I got.....I got an email from Scott McDonough, of all people
(laughs) you know (mumbled) out of the blue, saying 'So ... so, John, what .... is there any
way we can keep those stop signs,' (laughter) so I thought that was interesting. He
had .... he had seen it, um, and I don't know why ... why I said `of all people.' It was just
interesting that, you know, we have this relationship, um, but he had seen it in .... in a
historic district in Lincoln, a four-way stop and thought it worked well and he feels it
works well here so ... he .... he just inquired.
Mims/ I would just like to make one last comment to .... to what Kingsley said. I would actually
think ... for somebody who's visually impaired that the stop signs are just as safe or safer
than traffic lights. Now I realize when you get in some of the cities and you've got a lot
more traffic and they've got the audibles, you know, that's totally different, but here
where the cars have to come to a complete stop, and if you have somebody standing there
ready to cross, you know, and have an indication that they are visually impaired, so they
don't know whether they have the .... uh, a service animal or whether they have the white
cane, etc., it would seem to me that your drivers are also going to be much more
cognizant of anybody who's trying to cross, whether they're in a wheelchair or like
Pauline said, somebody older or with any disability who's using a cane or a walker or
something. So I guess I wouldn't look at it that we're .... that we're looking at it
particularly from a privileged point and not taking those in ... those individuals into
account. I ... I do think it's just as safe or safer, in this kind of situation with the limited
traffic and the width of the streets, and I would just finally like to say thank you to John
for really bringing this up and bringing it to Council's attention. So, appreciate that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I've heard nothin' but positive. Not a single negative! So I think we should
move ahead.
Fruin/ We have our direction (several talking)
Throgmorton/ We're gonna have to break, uh, so we'll have to come back to the clarification of
agenda items, etc., after the formal meeting. (several talking in background)
(BREAK TO FORMAL MEETING)u
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Clarification of Agenda Items:
Iowa City City Council Work Session
Throgmorton/ Does anybody need to take a break? (several talking)
Mims/ We just have the Info Packet to get through (several talking)
Throgmorton/ There's one thing.... there's one thing in the agenda stuff I want to bring up,
so .... even though we've already gone through the agenda, but still .... let me get back to
the right page here.
Botchway/ I do want to talk about IP5 pretty extensively, if you don't mind.
ITEM 4f(7) Emily Klinefelter, Matthew Peirce, Florence S. Boos(x2), Harry
Olmstead: Divesting
Throgmorton/ I ... I, yeah, of course! Let .... let me do the one agenda item. (several talking and
laughing in background) So Item 4(7), uh, this contains request from I think four
separate residents, asking us to withdraw all our investments from Wells Fargo and US
Bank. Uh, I think we .... they, this is not the first time we've gotten a request of. ... of this
type concerning .... uh, concerning the Dakota Access Pipeline. Uh, I think it would be
appropriate to respond in some fashion. So the question becomes how shall we respond.
And I've been thinkin' about this a lot, tryin' to figure out how .... how to, uh, present
this, uh, topic to you. Uh, so the way I think about it .... a key question is what factors
should be considered when deciding how we should reply to them. So I have a few
factors I'd like to toss out to you. Uh, I .... I think there are good reasons to oppose, uh,
the Dakota Access Pipeline. Uh, I won't go into `em, but one of `em has to do with our
climate action initiative. Uh, but there are also good reasons not to divest, especially
from US Bank. Uh, these include the very positive role that US Bank and its employees
play in the city. The difficulty of evaluating banks based on projects or companies they
may have in their portfolio, and the likelihood that dis-investment would lead to another
negative response for the State legislature. Maybe some other things as well. Uh, but
I .... I'm gonna suggest that we could consider a resolution or a proclamation,
expressing... if you agree, our reasons for opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. That's
first. Secondly, acknowledging and appreciating the positive roles that US Bank and its
employees play in our community. And third, urging ... I think that's the verb I want to
use, urging it to divest from .... from the Dakota Access Pipeline and other firms and
projects that continue our nation's dependence on fossil fuels. That's just my suggestion
though. I don't know what the rest of you think. My main point though is .... is I think
our residents.... merit an answer (laughs) to their question. What do you all think?
Botchway/ Off the top of my head I think I'd be okay with the one for sure. Three, um, for sure,
just kind of a ... when I say three it was kind of talking about urging, um, US Bank (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ....urging them to divest, not .... not saying we're going to divest
from them.
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Botchway/ Right. The second one I .....I do have an issue with, just because .... I don't have a
issue with it from the standpoint of I think US Bank is ... lot of people that I know that do
good work, um, I just worry about saying that to them and I think about the other banks
that we may be, um, in contact with and that just makes it a little awkward, from that
standpoint. Um, but I'm definitely for one and three! For sure, um, I just don't know
about two. I guess, off the top of my head.
Dickens/ And I just worry .... I don't know how many people are involved with their group, that
we're putting this much time and effort into responding to `em because we have people
send us things every day and we don't respond to all of them. So I don't know why
we're just picking this. I know it's politically charged, uh, you know, I .... I agree with
why we would want to do it, but I just don't know if we're setting a precedence of
responding to every person that comes up with something they don't like. So I ... I .... I .... I
think we're getting away from our role a little bit as the City Council. And that's... that's
just my feeling.
Mims/ Well and I think you make a good point, too, Terry, just.... there's a lot more complexity
in terms of where the City invests its money that has to be taken into account, other
than... how those companies, how those banks, credit unions, do business and what they
invest in. I mean it's ... it's much more complicated than that, and so to start, you know,
saying that we're going to div ... divest, or then writing letters to them because of the way
they're doing business, I think, opens us up to a whole can of worms in terms of
what .... what policies that are totally out of our control are we gonna start then speaking
out on, simply because another business .... a business does certain things that we don't
like. I ... I'm ... I think that starts us down a slippery slope.
Throgmorton/ So I...1, I understand and I'd say ... so it..it really depends on whether this particular
issue rises to the level where it deserves, uh, a ... attention, and maybe it doesn't. I'm, you
know, that's somethin' we'd have to answer.
Thomas/ Well I would support, Jim, you exploring ... I thought the way you outlined it sounded
like a good starting point to explore, uh, developing such a proclamation. Was that, is
that the right word, proclamation?
Throgmorton/ Well I said either resolution or a proclamation, uh, I'm not sure which would be
better frankly, uh, maybe our City Attorney would have an opinion on that, but uh, I'm
not sure which.
Cole/ Well resolution'll have the effect of policy, correct, as opposed to proc.... proclamation is
sortof (mumbled) It's not just sort of aspirational. Isn't that the difference between the
two?
Taylor/ We would just be proclaiming that .... we oppose the pipeline and that we would like
them to divest themselves (several talking) and I go along with Kingsley in that I think
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to .... to slap `em on the hands but then pat `em on the back, I ... I don' t think ... and then the
second item as far as saying they do a good job, but the first and third I do agree...
Cole/ Your point would be the local employees that we recognize have nothing to do with the
nationwide.... you don't want that lost, right, I mean we're recognizing the wonderful
work that the local branch does, as well as the employees. It's the concern with the
nationwide decisions that the .... the corporate headquarters is making. Is that ... is that sort
of where (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, very close. I .... I want, I'm suggesting that if we have a, um, proclamation
or resolution along these lines that we should acknowledge and affirm the important role
that ... US Bank plays in our community, this local version of it at least, and uh, and its
employees, the important role they play in our community.
Mims/ I think you have to be really careful of how you word that. Back to what Kingsley said.
think ... one, I'm not sure I'm in favor of doing this, but if we do it, I think you have to be
very careful how that's worded, in conjunction with what Kingsley said, that it doesn't
appear that you're praising one financial institution and not others. I think it has to be
very much that while we're asking them to divest, we don't approve the Dakota Access
Pipeline, we understand that .... their local employees have nothing to do with that. I
wouldn't go on and praise what they do in this community. It's more.... acknowledging
the separation of what their corporate policy is from what they do locally, without
necessarily praising.... what they're doing.
Cole/ And I want to follow up on what Terry and Susan have raised, cause I hear where you're
coming from that, Terry, because .... I think the question is is we want to be very careful
before we start making investment decisions that affect local businesses and community
partners that have been good.... partners for a long period of time. With certain
exceptions, I think the magnitude of the crisis in this particular case, um, I think we
should be very cautious before we do these sorts of things, but I think for this particular
investment decision, especially as it pertains to what's happening in North Dakota, which
I .... at least in recent memory, is one of the worst violations that we've seen of Native
American rights, in terms of disregarding their concerns, and it is in North Dakota, but
the pipeline is something that we're being asked to give a decision what our investment
policies are. Um, so I ... I think that you have a very thoughtful, uh, approach to that, Jim.
One thing though that I would like to sort of wrap my mind, and maybe they wouldn't
want to give us this information, but what is the nature of their investment? I mean is
it... what is their connection to the pipeline and ... and it would be helpful to get that
information, but I think your point about urging them to divest is a good point, and I
think there may come a time based upon how this goes that we may have to think very
seriously about projects of this magnitude that have this amount of a violation on
especially, um, native rights. It ... it's a major moral issue and I think it would be rare, um,
but I think this may be one of those rare instances in which we do seriously evaluate this,
at....at some point in the future, um, for these sorts of projects.
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Mims/ You know, piggybacking on that, Rockne, and I hadn't thought of it from this
perspective. One, if we were to move forward on something like this, one, this
infonnation in these letters needs to be verified.
Cole/ Yeah!
Mims/ I mean, you know.....
Cole/ Yes!
Mims/ ...somebody is simply saying that they're (both talking)
Cole/ That was my point too, yes.
Mims/ And ... are there any other large banks that we're working with that are doing the same
thing?
Cole/ Pardon?
Mims/ Are there any other banks that we are investing with that are doing the same thing?
Cole/ Yeah.
Mims/ So I .... think there's more to this than quick proclamation.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, it's not an easy thing, seems to me.
Cole/ And I don't think this will open the flood gates for us doing this for all sorts of different
political opponents, because I think this particular project hasn't happened, again, this
type of violation (several talking) and I think we can distinguish it, at least I think, so...
Dickens/ But I just don't want to get....
Cole/ Yes!
Dickens/ We got enough to do Without .... I mean we try to save the world but we can't save it all.
Throgmorton/ Well, given the conversation I think I'll see what we can pull together and, um...
maybe return to you with a draft proclamation. Or with a proclamation or
resolution... I'm not sure which. I'd like to talk with you, Eleanor (both talking)
Dilkes/ It depends on what you want to do.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Dilkes/ They're very different things. If you want to set policy then you do that by resolution.
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Iowa City City Council Work Session
Throgmorton/ So it'd be a proclamation. I'm not suggesting that we try to set policy on this
(several talking) Yeah.
Botchway/ The other piece, Jim, and I know we're trying to close but urn ... then I also just
thought, you know .... we're not gonna divest. So I mean, ultimately, kind of going back
to some of the communication received and some people are comin' from City Council
meetings, the issue is we want you to divest. So (mumbled) we're saying that we're not
going to, there's some complications behind it but .... I mean I just was thinking as we're
having this conversation, I mean Seattle divested, there's other cities across the state, I
mean.... what... it kind of goes back ... sorry. It kind of goes back to, um, what exactly are
we wanting to do. Are we wanting to highlight, urn .... you know, our.... disassociation
and, um, kind of. ... kind of oral response to, um, the Dakota Access Pipeline. Can it just
be that? Does it need to have the bank implications, because I do feel worried about
having that discussion about bank implications, but we're still going to be.....continue
our business with them. Is that ... if that makes sense. I mean I think there's.... there's a
thought that I ... I feel really strongly about, probably having a proclamation about the
Dakota Access Pipeline, period, um, to address some of the concerns that were brought
up, and even saying in general, any people that we do business, we would urge you to
divest. I do feel weird about, you know, particularly calling out US Bank and then still
continuing to do business. The same thing, conversation we had about Wells Fargo. I
mean I think we've done it for (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ That sounds like a pretty good idea to me, in .... instead of explicitly calling out
one particular bank.
Mims/ Well and the other thing is, I mean, you ask .... you urge them to divest but ... I mean quite
literally you're blowing in the wind. These people have contracts. I mean... they've...
they've, if they're involved, they've already loaned money. They've... they're
contractually obligated. They're not gonna just, one they're not gonna do it because they
get something from us in the first place, and two you're asking people to do something
that probably contractually they can't do anyways. So I ... if we're gonna do something, I
think what Kingsley is saying is maybe more in line with what we ought to consider.
Cole/ Well even wondering sort of prospectively, like it's one thing to say we're going to
affirmatively divest our investment in US Bank, but prospectively they continue on with
these sorts of investments. We want to continue to do business with them in the future.
Um, is that ... is that (mumbled) um...
Mims/ Yeah, I ... I still think (several talking) I still think (coughing, unable to hear speaker) look
at the guidelines which municipalities have to use in terms of selecting their investments
and the banks and financial institutions they use, we have to be incredibly careful about
not tying the hands of staff, um, in terns of. ... as ... as minimal as the rates are right now,
um, trying to get the best return on our cash that's sitting there as we possibly can.
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Dickens/ It'd be interesting to get Dennis' perspective, as far as how this would affect our budget
and how (both talking)
Mims/ I .... yeah.
Dickens/ .... Moody's.
Mims/ I think we may want to stay away from that part of it.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay, it's a complicated topic, but I wanted to just get your sense about this
and (mumbled, noises on mic)
ITEM 4f(6) Steve Goetzelman: Too many pedestrian/cycling issues to count [Staff
response included]
Thomas/ I had a .... agenda item I wanted to ask about too. It's the, um (clears throat) under
correspondence, 4f(6), uh, Steve Goetzelman's comments regarding.... pedestrian....
accessibility during construction. Um, you know, I've ... I've been noticing this as well
and uh.... I really feel we .... we should do better on ensuring accessibility during a
construction project. .... Sol ....I'd like to, I'm not sure what the next steps on this
might be (laughs) Would this be a work session item perhaps, but .... I do feel we ... we
really should, uh, and ... and many cities have this. They have language, you know, in
their codes that require, uh, facilitation during construction, um, and ... and I, you know, I
am troubled... it's probably because we have this surge in construction that we're seeing,
um, but you know this .... this is an important issue, I mean when you have, you know,
population... persons with disabilities in particular who are being diverted, uh, you know,
sometimes in ... in very odd and potentially very dangerous ways around a construction
site, um, I .... I .... I'm concerned about that, and there are remedies to it. I mean, there are
ways of doing it. Uh, we just as a city have chosen not to accommodate other than by
just simply closing sidewalks.
Fruin/ Any time we have a, um, right-of-way application, you know, we .... we look at detour
routes. Now, you're right, some cities take a firm stance that, you know, you might have
to put up scaffolding and you know we do that in downtown often, uh, we won't let you
close a sidewalk if it's going to be an extended period of time. We'll tell ya to invest in
that scaffolding, but, um, we absolutely, any time someone's doin' a project look at those
detour routes. Now occasionally someone may not come in and get the required permits
and we don't catch it, urn ... or they will put up signs contrary to the plan, or they'll leave,
in the case of this, uh, correspondence, they'll leave up the, urn .... uh, the sidewalk close
signs longer than they should, um, and that's really just an enforcement standpoint, and
it's hard for us to check every private job site out there right now, uh, with all the activity
that we have, but it's definitely something that we look hard at, um .... but yeah, we
can ... we can become more aggressive with preserving sidewalks and ... and more direct
paths, but it comes at a pretty steep cost to the private sector.
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Botchway/ John, is this ... kind of hearing Geoff s comment, is this something, as...I mean, kind of
going back to that, is this something that's more complaint driven? I mean I feel like....
I'm assuming we've addressed it from the complaint with the ... with the individual
construction site or developer, whatever the case may be.
Fruin/ We've responded and ... and staff has gone back and forth. I wouldn't say that the ... the
person writing the letter's happy, uh, by any stretch but we responded.
Botchway/ I guess my .... my point back, and I'm not disagreein' I'm just ... I agree with you, but I
don't necessarily know if. ... one if it should be a work session item because, I mean, it's
more of a policy implications and kind of what Geoff talked about that could be more
money that becomes involved because of that. I'm more interested in it from a complain
standpoint, if there's a situation where somebody's complained that it hasn't been done,
um, to what Geoff was talking, more of specifications that we're not able to maybe
enforce on a regular basis, then I think we get that email or message and we move on it. ]
don't necessarily know if it should be policy, policy but I don't know. That's just my
initial thoughts.
Fruin/ If we get complaints on that, we ... we are saying... we're same-day service, I mean, we
have staff that are dedicated to right-of-way issues and uh, we'll address it as soon as we
hear about it, particularly if we know it's a .... a safety issue.
Cole/ I would support a work session on it, but I would want it way into the future cause I think
there's a lot of other work session topics. (several talking) ...but I would say for
example, Chauncey by the way has been really good. I walk that nearly every day, on
both sides of the block, and I think that's an example of allowing that through traffic
that's great and I don't know if that just because of the park or what, but I actually think
that's been really good, and you compare that, there's other locations along Iowa where
there is the obstruction. So I don't know whether that's just sort of the nature of
the .... but I would support a, some time into the distant future, 15, 20 minute, but I think
there's a lot of other priorities that I want to try to cover in work session.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I'm not eager to schedule another work session... yet, about such things.
(several talking and laughing)
Dickens/ Is that subtle?
Information Packet Discussion [March 21:
Throgmorton/ Pretty subtle! (laughter) Could have done better! Okay, so, uh, can we turn to
the Information Packet for March the 2"d. Geoff, do you want to say anything about IP6,
the pending work session topics?
Fruin/ Yeah, um, we are not going to be able to present on the disproportionate, uh, minority
contacts, uh, information on, uh, that date, and ... uh, so we have an opening on the, uh, at
the next meeting, uh... you have the pending list in front of you and some topics we could
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Page 38 Iowa City City Council Work Session
certainly bump forward. Um, others we won't be ready for but a couple of suggestions,
uh, from staff would be, uh, a review of our strategic plan status report, which we plan to
have ready, or could have ready for you. Um, and uh, we also have the bike master plan
consultants that are available to give you an update on their progress, if that's of interest
to you.
Throgmorton/ And there are several other, uh, work session, uh, topics have already been
identified by date, right, so like April the 4h joint meeting with the School District, April
the 18`h currently, uh, joint meeting with the Telecommunications Commission, May tad
bookmobile tour, May 24h joint meeting with Johnson County.
Frain/ Correct.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. I know you and I communicated a little bit about the Telecommunications
Commission, uh, and I .... I expressed concern about the residential occupancy legislation
and I was thinking maybe right after this legislative session ends, uh, we should look at
that topic and carefully... and decide what we're gonna do.
Frain/ Sure.
Cole/ What will the topic cover on May 240' with Johnson County? Is that related to the Poor
Farm?
Frain/ Uh, the plan is to get a tour of the Poor Farm. Um, I've had some conversations with the
County about potentially meeting at their new ambulance facility and doing a tour there,
and then taking a bus out to the Poor Farm. I figured as that date approaches we can have
a conversation. There might be other topics that spring up.
Cole/ Lot of great things out there.
Botchway/ I do want to say about the, um, kind of strategic plan, I understand (mumbled, noises
on mic) back a little bit, but I mean is there any reason that we can't say .... I can talk to
you. (mumbled) Cause I guess I'm thinking obviously can't do April, but .... if not May
then I don't necessarily know that I'd want to do it over the summer. So I mean (both
talking)
Throgmorton/.... seems to have slipped because of, uh, Chief Matherly's, uh, operation. We
need to find a time to dedicate to the disproportionality discussion. So we're just gonna
have to figure out when to get that in, within the next two months at the most.
Frain/ Sure. Um, I think the first opportunity would be the April 18`h, and bumping the
Telecommunications Commission meeting back, um ... or we can schedule a special
session with the Police Department.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Other items, uh, in the ... our second Info Packet? I guess I noticed IP7,
that... it's, uh, National League of Cities report that Geoff shared with us, uh, titled "City
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Page 39 Iowa City City Council Work Session
Rights in an Era of Preemption," a state by state analysis. Uh, it was pretty striking to
read that in relation to what's going on in Des Moines. Uh, and ... and it all, according to
the analysis and this makes sense to me, it's a function of first of all the urban and rural
divide is .... was, played a prominent role in the recent election, but also the, um, one party
control of legislatures and governorships in about two-thirds of our states. So .... it's part
of a bigger agenda ... to do this preemption kind of stuff. Making our lives vastly more
difficult actually. Anything else on that ... in that Information Packet? Seeing nothing
else, I think we're done. Thanks, everybody!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of March 7, 2017.