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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-21 CorrespondenceJulie Voparil 3f(1) From: Nikolaos Maggos <nsmaggos@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2017 2:50 PM To: Council Subject: ICE in Iowa City Hello, I've seen mixed messages lately on the role Iowa City and Johnson County officials would play if ICE agents ask for help in detaining undocumented immigrants. I think it is extremely important for the safety of our community, the relationships among community members, and the peace of mind of all immigrants (documented or not) that city officials refuse to use city resources to assist federal ICE agents (resources unlikely to be reimbursed, I might add). We are under no legal obligation to commit city resources to federal agents. I hope the City Council continues to honor the resolution you have passed expressing the importance of our immigrant community, and I hope you will continue to encourage the police department to do the same. Thank you, Nikolaos Maggos Julie Voparil From: Amanda Owen Van Horne <ajowen@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 7:46 PM To: Council Subject: ICE & Iowa City Dear Councilors I am writing to share my opinion as a concerned citizen of Iowa City that we should go out of our way to avoid helping ICE detain or deport non- criminal individuals. As I understand it, the supreme court has ruled that we do not HAVE to help given the types of warrants that they issue. I believe that we should avoid, to the extent possible under the law, providing information to ICE, providing physical or material support to ICE, or in any other way aiding and abetting these raids. I am also of the opinion that to the extent that we can protect people by informing them of the raids if we have advance notice or, by actively delaying or disrupting raids we should do that. But I can see where that may be an untenable official position to take (even if it might be an appropriate unofficial position). Amanda Van Home 1722 Ridgeway Dr Iowa City IA 52245 Amanda J. Owen Van Home aiowen@t=_mail.com Julie Voparil From: jahensch@aol.com Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 3:03 PM To: sups@co.johnson.ia.us; Council Subject: ICE I do not want our local and county law enforcement used to do the work of ICE. Jo Hensch 03-21-17 Julie Voparil 3f(2) From: Holden, Palmer J <pholden@iastate.edu> Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 5:12 PM To: Council Subject: Hickory Hills I can't believe the city would spend $140 thousand to replace the east bridge. Just think of all the enhancements we could do to. Thpark and have thousands over. Put a crane in to liftnth Dr. Palmer Holden Prof. Emeritus, ISU 15 Mary Ct Iowa City, IA 52245 515-231-5543 Julie Voparil From: Holden, Palmer J <pholden@iastate.edu> Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 5:19 PM To: Council Subject: Fwd: Hickory Hills Begin forwarded message Subject: Hickory Hills I can't believe the city would spend $140 thousand to replace the east bridge. Just think of all the enhancements we could do to the park and have thousands over. Put a crane in to lift the north end, pour a concrete base and set it back. Or get Coach Ferentz to send 10 linemen over to lift it back as a project. Let's try something more innovative than blowing tax money so freely. Palmer Dr. Palmer Holden Prof. Emeritus, ISU 15 Mary Ct Iowa City, IA 52245 515-231-5543 Julie Voparil From: Holden, Palmer J <pholden@iastate.edu> Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 8:26 AM To: Council Subject: Hickory Hills By the way I donate $50 to Friends Of Hickory Hills every year. Apparently the park has sufficient funds so won't need any more. Palmer Dr. Palmer Holden Prof. Emeritus, ISU 15 Mary Ct Iowa City, IA 52245 515-231-5543 Julie Voparil From: Geoff Fruin Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 8:18 PM To: Amy Charles; Council Subject: RE: Sexual harassment and subversion of government at Uber. Ms. Charles, Thank you for your email. The State of Iowa began regulating ridesharing companies, including Uber, on January 1st. The City of Iowa City no longer has the authority to regulate the industry. If you have questions about the state regulations we would be happy to try to help you find answers. Best, Geoff Fruin City Manager From: Amy Charles [mailto:amycharlesl@gmail.comj Sent: Friday, March 3, 201710:52 PM To: Council <Council@iowa-city.org> Subject: Sexual harassment and subversion of government at Uber. Hi, guys. I know that before you did the necessary to allow Uber to operate in Iowa City, I sent you multiple emails about Uber's history with reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault of passengers, stalking of people using the service, etc. I am sending you this blog post from Susan J. Fowler, a former Uber engineer, describing the culture of sexual victimization of women at Uber. I'll send you the link, but I'll also include her post in full so that (a) it's part of this record, and (b) if the link stops working you can still read it. Here is the link: hUs://www susanjfowler com/blog/2017/2/19/reflecting-on-one-very-strange-year-at-uber ; the post is attached below. At this link, you can find a story on Uber's concerted efforts to thwart local government's enforcement of ride -hailing regulations: https://www.nvtimes.com/2017/03/03/technology/uber-greyball-program-evade- authorities html?hn&action=click&pg"e=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column- region&region=ton-news&WT.nav=ton-news& t=0 You guys were pretty starry-eyed when you changed the rules last year for Uber. I think it's time to rethink the deal. It's not a good company, not a friendly company, not a safe company to deal with. I would also suggest that Uber has well-known and longstanding problems and that it would not be surprising to see them crop up here, nor should you as officials be surprised to see them arise. Sincerely, Amy Charles Iowa City And here is the text of Susan's post: As most of you know, I left Uber in December and joined Stripe in January. I've gotten a lot of questions over the past couple of months about why I left and what my time at Uber was like. It's a strange, fascinating, and slightly horrifying story that deserves to be told while it is still fresh in my mind, so here we go. I joined Uber as a site reliability engineer (SRE) back in November 2015, and it was a great time to join as an engineer. They were still wrangling microservices out of their monolithic API, and things were just chaotic enough that there was exciting reliability work to be done. The SRE team was still pretty new when I joined, and I had the rare opportunity to choose whichever team was working on something that I wanted to be part of. After the first couple of weeks of training, I chose to join the team that worked on my area of expertise, and this is where things started getting weird. On my first official day rotating on the team, my new manager sent me a string of messages over company chat. He was in an open relationship, he said, and his girlfriend was having an easy time finding new partners but he wasn't. He was trying to stay out of trouble at work, he said, but he couldn't help getting in trouble, because he was looking for women to have sex with. It was clear that he was trying to get me to have sex with him, and it was so clearly out of line that I immediately took screenshots of these chat messages and reported him to HR. Uber was a pretty good-sized company at that time, and I had pretty standard expectations of how they would handle situations like this. I expected that I would report him to HR, they would handle the situation appropriately, and then life would go on - unfortunately, things played out quite a bit differently. When I reported the situation, I was told by both HR and upper management that even though this was clearly sexual harassment and he was propositioning me, it was this man's first offense, and that they wouldn't feel comfortable giving him anything other than a warning and a stem talking-to. Upper management told me that he "was a high performer" (i.e. had stellar performance reviews from his superiors) and they wouldn't feel comfortable punishing him for what was probably just an innocent mistake on his part. I was then told that I had to make a choice: (i) I could either go and find another team and then never have to interact with this man again, or (ii) I could stay on the team, but I would have to understand that he would most likely give me a poor performance review when review time came around, and there was nothing they could do about that. I remarked that this didn't seem like much of a choice, and that I wanted to stay on the team because I had significant expertise in the exact project that the team was struggling to complete (it was genuinely in the company's best interest to have me on that team), but they told me the same thing again and again. One HR rep even explicitly told me that it wouldn't be retaliation if I received a negative review later because I had been "given an option". I tried to escalate the situation but got nowhere with either HR or with my own management chain (who continued to insist that they had given him a stern -talking to and didn't want to nun his career over his "first offense"). So I left that team, and took quite a few weeks learning about other teams before landing anywhere (I desperately wanted to not have to interact with HR ever again). I ended up joining a brand-new SRE team that gave me a lot of autonomy, and I found ways to be happy and do amazing work. In fact, the work I did on this team turned into the production -readiness process which I wrote about in my bestselling (H!) book Production -Ready Microservices. Over the next few months, I began to meet more women engineeA in the company. As I got to know them, and heard their stories, I was surprised that some of them had stories similar to my own. Some of the women even had stories about reporting the exact same manager I had reported, and had reported inappropriate interactions with him long before I had even joined the company. It became obvious that both HR and management had been lying about this being "his first offense", and it certainly wasn't his last. Within a few months, he was reported once again for inappropriate behavior, and those who reported him were told it was still his "first offense". The situation was escalated as far up the chain as it could be escalated, and still nothing was done. Myself and a few of the women who had reported him in the past decided to all schedule meetings with HR to insist that something be done. In my meeting, the rep I spoke with told me that he had never been reported before, he had only ever committed one offense (in his chats with me), and that none of the other women who they met with had anything bad to say about him, so no further action could or would be taken. It was such a blatant lie that there was really nothing I could do. There was nothing any of us could do. We all gave up on Uber HR and our managers after that. Eventually he "left" the company. I don't know what he did that finally convinced them to fire him. In the background, there was a game -of -thrones political war raging within the ranks of upper management in the infrastructure engineering organization. It seemed like every manager was fighting their peers and attempting to undermine their direct supervisor so that they could have their direct supervisor's job. No attempts were made by these managers to hide what they were doing: they boasted about it in meetings, told their direct reports about it, and the like. I remember countless meetings with my managers and skip -levels where I would sit there, not saying anything, and the manager would be boasting about finding favor with their skip -level and that I should expect them to have their manager's job within a quarter or two. I also remember a very disturbing team meeting in which one of the directors boasted to our team that he had withheld business -critical information from one of the executives so that he could curry favor with one of the other executives (and, he told us with a smile on his face, it worked!). The ramifications of these political games were significant: projects were abandoned left and right, OKRs were changed multiple times each quarter, nobody knew what our organizational priorities would be one day to the next, and very little ever got done. We all lived under fear that our teams would be dissolved, there would be another re- org, and we'd have to start on yet another new project with an impossible deadline. It was an organization in complete, unrelenting chaos. I was lucky enough during all of this to work with some of the most amazing engineers in the Bay Area. We kept our heads down and did good (sometimes great) work despite the chaos. We loved our work, we loved the engineering challenges, we loved making this crazy Uber machine work, and together we found ways to make it through the re- orgs and the changing OKRs and the abandoned projects and the impossible deadlines. We kept each other sane, kept the gigantic Uber ecosystem running, and told ourselves that it would eventually get better. Things didn't get better, and engineers began transferring to the less chaotic engineering organizations. Once I had finished up my projects and saw that things weren't going to change, I also requested a transfer. I met all of the qualifications for transferring - I had managers who wanted me on their teams, and I had a perfect performance score - so I didn't see how anything could go wrong. And then my transfer was blocked. According to my manager, his manager, and the director, my transfer was being blocked because I had undocumented performance problems. I pointed out that I had a perfect performance score, and that there had never been any complaints about my performance. I had completed all OKRs on schedule, never missed a deadline even in the insane organizational chaos, and that I had managers waiting for me to join their team. I asked what my performance problem was, and they didn't give me an answer. At first they said I wasn't being technical enough, so I pointed out that they were the ones who had given me my OKRs, and if they wanted to see different work from me then they should give me the kind of work they wanted to see - they then backed down and stopped saying that this was the problem. I kept pushing, until finally I was told that "performance problems aren't always something that has to do with work, but sometimes can be about things outside of work or your personal life." I couldn't decipher that, so I gave up and decided to stay until my next performance review. Performance review season came around, and I received a great review with no complaints whatsoever about my performance. I waited a couple of months, and then attempted to transfer again. When I attempted to transfer, I was told that my performance review and score had been changed after the official reviews had been calibrated, and so I was no longer eligible for transfer. When I asked management why my review had been changed after the fact (and why hadn't they let me know that they'd changed it?), they said that I didn't show any signs of an upward career trajectory. I pointed out that I was publishing a book with O'Reilly, speaking at major tech conferences, and doing all of the things that you're supposed to do to have an "upward career trajectory", but they said it didn't matter and I needed to prove myself as an engineer. I was stuck where I was. I asked them to change my performance review back. My manager said that the new negative review I was given had no real-world consequences, so I shouldn't wont' about it. But I went home and cried that day, because even aside from impacts to my salary and bonuses, it did have real-world consequences - significant consequences that my management chain was very well aware of. I was enrolled in a Stanford CS graduate program, sponsored by Uber, and Uber only sponsored employees who had high performance scores. Under both of my official performance reviews and scores, I qualified for the program, but after this sneaky new negative score I was no longer eligible. It turned out that keeping me on the team made my manager look good, and I overheard him boasting to the rest of the team that even though the rest of the teams were losing their women engineers left and right, he still had some on his team. When I joined Uber, the organization I was part of was over 25% women. By the time I was trying to transfer to another eng organization, this number had dropped down to less than 6%. Women were transferring out of the organization, and those who couldn't transfer were quitting or preparing to quit. There were two major reasons for this: there was the organizational chaos, and there was also the sexism within the organization. When I asked our director at an org all -hands about what was being done about the dwindling numbers of women in the org compared to the rest of the company, his reply was, in a nutshell, that the women of Uber just needed to step up and be better engineers. Things were beginning to get even more comically absurd with each passing day. Every time something ridiculous happened, every time a sexist email was sent, I'd sent a short report to HR just to keep a record going. Things came to a head with one particular email chain from the director of our engineering organization concerning leather jackets that had been ordered for all of the SREs. See, earlier in the year, the organization had promised leather jackets for everyone in organization, and had taken all of our sizes; we all tried them on and found our sizes, and placed our orders. One day, all of the women (there were, I believe, six of us left in the org) received an email saying that no leather jackets were being ordered for the women because there were not enough women in the organization to justify placing an order. I replied and said that I was sure Uber SIZE could find room in their budget to buy leather jackets for the, what, six women if it could afford to buy them for over a hundred and twenty men. The director replied back, saying that if we women really wanted equality, then we should realize we were getting equality by not getting the leather jackets. He said that because there were so many men in the org, they had gotten a significant discount on the men's jackets but not on the women's jackets, and it wouldn't be equal or fair, he argued, to give the women leather jackets that cost a little more than the men's jackets. We were told that if we wanted leather jackets, we women needed to find jackets that were the same price as the bulk -order price of the men's jackets. I forwarded this absurd chain of emails to HR, and they requested to meet with me shortly after. I don't know what I expected after all of my earlier encounters with them, but this one was more ridiculous than I could have ever imagined. The HR rep began the meeting by asking me if I had noticed that *I* was the common theme in all of the reports I had been making, and that if I had ever considered that I might be the problem. I pointed out that everything I had reported came with extensive documentation and I clearly wasn't the instigator (or even a main character) in the majority of them - she countered by saying that there was absolutely no record in HR of any of the incidents I was claiming I had reported (which, of course, was a lie, and I reminded her I had email and chat records to prove it was a lie). She then asked me if women engineers at Uber were friends and talked a lot, and then asked me how often we communicated, what we talked about, what email addresses we used to communicate, which chat rooms we frequented, etc. - an absurd and insulting request that I refused to comply with. When I pointed out how few women were in SRE, she recounted with a story about how sometimes certain people of certain genders and ethnic backgrounds were better suited for some jobs than others, so I shouldn't be surprised by the gender ratios in engineering. Our meeting ended with her berating me about keeping email records of things, and told me it was unprofessional to report things via email to HR. Less than a week after this absurd meeting, my manager scheduled a 1:1 with me, and told me we needed to have a difficult conversation. He told me I was on very thin ice for reporting his manager to HR. California is an at -will employment state, he said, which means we can fire you if you ever do this again. I told him that was illegal, and he replied that he had been a manager for a long time, he knew what was illegal, and threatening to fire me for reporting things to HR was not illegal. I reported his threat immediately after the meeting to both HR and to the CTO: they both admitted that this was illegal, but none of them did anything. (I was told much later that they didn't do anything because the manager who threatened me "was a high performer"). I had a new job offer in my hands less than a week later. On my last day at Uber, I calculated the percentage of women who were still in the org. Out of over 150 engineers in the SRE teams, only 3% were women. When I look back at the time I spent at Uber, I'm overcome with thankfulness that I had the opportunity to work with some of the best engineers around. I'm proud of the work I did, I'm proud of the impact that I was able to make on the entire organization, and I'm proud that the work I did and wrote a book about has been adopted by other tech companies all over the world. And when I think about the things I've recounted in the paragraphs above, I feel a lot of sadness, but I can't help but laugh at how ridiculous everything was. Such a strange experience. Such a strange year. In Lessons Learned Share 774 Likes Introducing Susan's Book Club Julie From: Geoff Fruin Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 8:27 AM To: 'Sam Van Horne'; Council Subject: RE: Immigration Raids Are Not the Responsibility of the City of Iowa City Mr. Van Horne, Thank you for your email. The City Council adopted a resolution in January relating to this topic. The document can be found on our City website in multiple languages (https://www.icgov.org/city-government/departments-and-divisions/equity-and- human-rights/social-justice-and-racial-equity). I have provided a direct link to the resolution below: Resolution Reaffirming the Public Safety Function of Local Law Enforcement Best, Geoff Fruin City Manager I City of Iowa City P: 319.356.5013 From: Sam Van Horne [mailto:sam.vanhorne@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2017 9:17 PM To: Council Subject: Immigration Raids Are Not the Responsibility of the City of Iowa City Dear Iowa City Council As a resident. of Iowa City, I am asking that the Iowa City Police not participate in or aid federalagents in immigration raids conducted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The Iowa City Police should not participate in activities related to immigration enforcement --the police, after all, are a law enforcement agency and not an immigration enforcement agency --and police officers in Iowa City should go out of their way to not help ICE with the deportation of non -criminal individuals. Does the City of Iowa City have a written policy that addresses the ways in which it shall coordinate activities with or otherwise provide support for ICE? If so, is this policy able to be reviewed by public citizens? Thank you for your attention to this matter, Sam Van Horne 1722 Ridgeway Dr. Iowa City, IA Julie Voparil 3f(5) From: Dennis Doderer <hawkemedia@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 8:33 PM To: Council Subject: USA TODAY: Uber's 'Greyball' accused of deceiving authorities From USA TODAY: Uber's'Greyball' accused of deceiving authorities Uber has for years evaded law enforcement authorities with a program called Greyball, NYT reports. htt p: //u sat.ly/21 nzS m c Get USA TODAY on your mobile device: http://www.usatoday.com/mobile-apps/ Sent from my iPhone Julie From: Gregg Geerdes <geerdeslaw@peoplepc.com> Sent: Monday, March 06, 2017 9:15 AM To: CityoflowaCity@public.govdelivery.com; Council; Geoff Fruin Cc: MurphyGeerdes Subject: Re: Pedestrians to be temporarily re-routed off of Dubuque Street This is a serious mistake and is likely to result in someone getting hurt. What is this a $50 million dollar project? And the City can't spring for temporary sidewalks even though hundreds of students walk down this busy street daily? Build an elevated wooden sidewalk on the east side of Dubuque Street and be done with it. Thanks, Gregg Geerdes 890 Park Place Iowa City 341-3304 -----Original Message ----- From: City of Iowa City Sent: Mar 6, 2017 9:02 AM To: geerdeslaw@peoplepc.com Subject: Pedestrians to be temporarily re-routed off of Dubuque Street © SHARE Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. �rt�m 10WACITY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: 03/06/2017 Contact: Melissa Clow, Project Engineer Phone: 319-356-5413 Pedestrians to be temporarily re-routed off of Dubuque Street Pedestrians need to again use a temporary detour that will re-route them off of Dubuque Street. Crews need to close the temporary pedestrian path that recently opened between Park Road and Church Street to install water main. It will likely be closed for the week, but will reopen as soon as possible. Pedestrians and cyclists will need to follow the marked detour and cross the Hancher Pedestrian Bridge. They must use the marked detour as there is no sidewalk on the east side of Dubuque Street. Entering the construction zone is dangerous and the detour is in place for safety. Community police officers are patrolling the area and will issue tickets to anyone found inside of the construction area. The Iowa City Gateway Project is a flood mitigation project that will elevate Dubuque Street while raising and replacing the Park Road Bridge. To receive project updates sign-up for City of Iowa City e -subscriptions and follow the City of Iowa City on Facebook and Twitter using #ICgateway. To learn more visit icgoy.org/gatewaypro6ect. ATTENTION PEDESTRIANS! Doe to sonatrucM1on on D.6 qoe Street, all ppedestrian fool troffi< has 6Den Temporarily ratautad. r 6 p! IIm 6 1 � l trn®raq Questions? a.ay� Contact Us C111)' 01 IOWA CITY Mascot M of MIMItME STAY CONNECTED: SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: Manage Preferences I Unsubscribe I HeID Learn more To learn more about the Iowa City Gateway Project, visit icgov.org/gatewavoroiect, This email was sent to geerdeslaw@peoplepc.com using GovDelivery, on behalf of: City of Iowa City -410 E poe'ed�.e..� y ���� 9a p Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 rro wa-aaur This message is intended only for the use ofthe person to whom it is addressed and may contain information that is confidential and privileged. Ifyou received this message and are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and destroy your copy and attachments. Messages sent over the internes are not secure. Please notify us ifyou prefer not to use email to communicate with this office. Gregg Geerdes. Attorney at Law, 1051owa Avenue, Suite 234, Iowa City, Iowa 52240. Telephone (319)341-3304 ImTrr7T 3f(7) 0 ALL CITY COUNCILMEN OF IOWA CITY,IOWA.PLUS UNCLE DO NALD,PRESI DENT OF U.S.A MAR 6,2017 THIS IS A COMPLAINT AGAINST ALL PERSONS THAT CONTROL THE PEOPLE] HAVE MADE THIS BEFORE. THE PEOPLE THAT ARE COMING FROM THE UNITED STATE'S TO IOWA CITY.ESPECIALLY THE SLUM'S LIKE CALIFORNIA AND CHICAGO,ILLINOIS I HAVE SEEN BEFORE. THE STAFF AT THE VETERAN'S HAVE HARRASSED ME TO THE POINT OF THREATS TO MY LIFE..ONE MEMBER CAME FROM BEHIND THE DESK AND GOT IN MY FACE,TELLING ME WHAT THAY WERE GOING TO DO TO ME IF I CONTIUNED TO TALK BACK,LIKE I WAS IN PRISON.THE ONE TODAY MAR 6,2017 THREATEN ME AFTER HE HAD WALK OVER TO WHERE I HAD BEEN SITTING.I KNEW HIM FROM L.A.CALIF SKIDD-ROW WHERE MOST OF THE BLACK'S ARE EX-CONVICTS.ONE OTHER "VET" HAD TOLD HIM TO COME AND PICK A FIGHT WITH ME..WHILE YOU CLOWNS ARE PRETENDING TO DO "GOD'S" WORK THE SLUM'S ARE COMING TO IOWA CITY,IN THE FORM OF RACISM,ROBBERY,MURDER AND ASSAULT.NNE OF THESE PEOPLE ARE CONTRIBUTING ANY THING BUT,POOR QUALITY OF LIFE THAT IS CREATED BY THEM,I AM TO POOR TO GET AWAY FROM THEM BECAUSE "YOU PEOPLE ARE PROVIDING A PLACE FOR THEM TO LIVE -WE VETERAN'S SHOULD HAVE BETTER PLACE'S TO ESPECIALLY IN MY HOME STATE.. JERRY BOKASSA,UNION CARPENTER. cell 213-840-2960) P.O. BOX 1905 IOWA CITY,IOWA.52244 C) v Cn '7s _. _77 Julie Voparil 3f(8) From: Anthony Moris <anthony@mailmozo.com> Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2017 10:38 AM To: Council Subject: Iowa AFL-CIO, This is Nucking Futs Hi Iowa AFL-CIO, Yes, My friend Mike is Nucking Futs. Last time he revealed his twitter strategy. Now he revealed how he use the intemet to make living Learn how to make fortune just by giving your opinion P.S Check Here Thanks, Anthony Moris Unsubscribe me from this list Julie From: Geoff Fruin Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2017 4:06 PM To: 'Lara Laurentis; Council Subject: RE: Hi ballot request Ms. Laurentis, Thank you for your follow-up email. I believe you are referring to an October email asking for Iowa City residents to vote on all future construction projects. The City Council did receive your correspondence and did not take action on your suggestion. If you have specific concerns about a construction project I would be happy to try to assist you. Best, Geoff Fruin City Manager From: Lara Laurentis [ma ilto:Rosebud. org@maiLcom] Sent: Tuesday, March 07, 2017 1:31 PM To: Council Subject: Hi ballot request Hi What happened to my request for a ballot for new building permits? This was made last year. Thank you. Lara Laurentis Sent from my Android phone with mail.com Mail. Please excuse my brevity. Julie Subject: FW: Big Grove Parking Question From: John Yapp Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 4:07 PM To: '2dogspubiowacity@gmail.com' Cc: Tim Hennes; Doug Boothroy; Geoff Fruin; Julie Tallman Subject: FW: Big Grove Parking Question Mr Eckhardt — your email to Tim Hennes regarding the parking at Big Grove was forwarded to me for a response. See below. PARKING REQUIREMENTS 6UILMNOPREi U,L61 SF EATKO AN'D DRINKKG ESTAbLr HLFNT 129FTECHNIOHF LFAOTURNO 12,S20V 4OUS EAADFrECiiTMWENET IOIOEUSE TOTAL=282S45F EATKG AND DRENNG ESTASLISNVENT. I SPACE PER ISSSF•ErsPACESRE(NIRED TELM''FA 1T 1AAtAJFACIURKG I STALE PER ISJSF • I SPACSPACES WARENU SE AMAXFV.OVENENT:ISPACESPER tEJD SF UPTOA IlUSE I S OF S SPACES = S SPKFS GENERAL OFFCE USE I SPACE FER am sF=e sracEs TOTAL SPACES REOURED =ISSPACES LOADVO SPACES REOU RED -2 SPACES TOTAL PAWNSSPADES PRWOED • n SPACES TOTAL PAFKKG SPACES W LOADNG DOCKAREA = 13 TOTAL LOAD NO SPADES PROV.DED • 2SPA1£S PDASPACESRECVIAEDPROVAED=4SSPACES The table breaks down the number of parking spaces required for each use in the building. There were 91 parking spaces striped when we did our inspection. When the site plan was submitted, the property was zoned Intensive Commercial (CI -1), and parking requirements were based on the CI -1 zone. Parking for eating establishments in the CI -1 Zone is based on the lesser of two numbers: 1/3 occupant load of the seating area, or one space for every 150 square feet of the restaurant floor area. In the case of Big Grove, the lesser number was one parking space for every 150 square feet of restaurant. In addition, the manufacture of beer requires one parking space for every 750 square feet of manufacturing area, and they also have warehouse where they store beer for shipping that requires one space for every 1,000 square feet (at a maximum of five parking spaces). The image to the left is from the approved site plan for Big Grove (1225 S Gilbert) and it's not terribly clear so I'll summarize it here: 1. Restaurant 9,051 sf @ 1/150 = 60 parking required; 2. Manufacturing 4,932 @ 1/750 = 7 parking required; 3. Warehouse 12,620 sf @ 1/1000 = 5 (maximum required); 4. Office 1,685 @ 1/300 = 6 parking required. Total parking required = 60+7+5+6 = 78 parking spaces required. 91 parking spaces are provided. The property has since been re -zoned to Riverfront Crossing which requires one parking space for every 500 square feet of non-residential floor area. The gross square footage of the building is 28,288. The parking requirement under the Riverfront Crossings zone is 28,288/500 = 57 parking spaces. The rationale for a lessor parking requirement in the Riverfront Crossings zone is that it is a more urban zone, with numerous alternative transportation options (public transit, sidewalks, trail system) and urban densities. Thanks, and let us know if you have any questions. John Yapp Development Services Coordinator I City of Iowa City, IA 319.356.5252 1 john-vapoC�iowa-city.ore Julie Voparil From: Susan Mims Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 12:18 PM To: Council; Geoff Fruin Subject: FW: Alan Eckhardt Geoff, You may have already seen this. Can we get a staff reply? Thanks, Susan Sent from Mail for Windows 10 From: Alan Eckhardt Sent: Monday, March 13, 2017 9:26 AM To: Terry Dickens; Kingsley Botchway; Rockne Cole; Susan Mims; Pauline Taylor; John Thomas; Jim Throgmorton Subject: Alan Eckhardt After attending the Big Grove soft opening in Iowa City this weekend I have a question about parking. They only opened their inside space and there wasn't enough parking between their space and the lumberyard next door. They have another 150 person occupancy space outside and later another 600 people when the outside space becomes functional. How did this property meet the minimum requirements for parking? I know there will be a trail and walking but they still seem to be short space for 400-600 occupants. It's frustrating when it appears different groups are playing with a different set of rules. Thank you Alan Eckhardt "nmn7T YN1) From: Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition <jcaffordablehousing=gmail.com@mail141.suw14.mcdlv.net> on behalf of Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition <jcaffordablehousing@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, March 10, 2017 10:01 AM To: Council Subject: Venezuelan Dinner for Affordable Housing! News and Updates from the Johnson County Affordable Is this email not displaying correctly? Housing Coalition! View it in Your browser. Enjoy a Delicious Dinner and Support the Coalition! On the evening of March 29th, the Coalition's first "Supper Club" event will take place at the home of Kineret and Joseph Zabner! In exchange for a donation of $40, participants will enjoy a delicious home -cooked Venezuelan dinner, and a chance to view the Zabner's beautiful collection of South American art. All proceeds will benefit the Coalition. There are only 8 spots available, so sign up here soon! Please email the Coalition (jcaffordablehousing�algmail.com) if you have any questions. March Community Meeting will take place on 3/31, not 3/24 PLEASE NOTE: the Coalition's Community Meeting is taking place on Friday 3/31, NOT Friday 3/24, at the usual time (12- lpm) and usual place (room 214, Johnson County HHS Building on South Dubuque). We will discuss $6 billion in proposed cuts to the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and updates from our YIMBY and Advocacy Committees. We are moving our meeting to 3/31 because there is an important all -day conference, Accomplices to Eliminating Racial Bias, in Iowa City on 3/24. Tickets are going fast! Another I conference that will help our community effectively address racial disparities is Advancing Racial Equity: The Role of Government being held in Iowa City on 4/7. We hope you can attend one or both of these important events! Our thanks to LaTasha DeLoach and Stefanie Bowers for organizing these timely gatherings. Best, Sally Scoff Executive Director Copyright O 2017 Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you signed up at an event or meeting. Our mailing address is: Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition 205 Black Springs Circle Iowa City, IA 52246 Add us to your address book I F-1 unsubscribe from this list I update subscription Preferences I view email in browser 2 r r � CITY OF IOWA CITY oi4 MEMORANDUM Date: March 7, 2017 To: Geoff Fruin, City Manager From: Jason Havel, City Engineer TT1f Re: Competitive Quotation Results Kiwanis Park Storm Sewer Improvements Competitive quotations for the Kiwanis Park Storm Sewer Improvements Project were opened on February 28, 2017 and the following quotes were received: Lynch's Excavating West Branch, IA $ 23,715.90 S. Siems Grading & Haulting Tiffin, IA $ 23,790.72 Yordi Excavating Cedar Rapids, IA $ 24,347.60 Engineer's Estimate $ 24,000.00 Public Works and Engineering recommended and the City Manager awarded the contract to Lynch's Excavating of West Branch, Iowa. The project will be funded through Account #M3631 Annual Storm Sewer Improvements. 2017 Clearing and Grubbing Competitive quotations for the 2017 Clearing and Grubbing Project were opened on March 3, 2017 and the following quotes were received: DeLong Construction Washington, IA $ 44,112.00 Tschiggfrie Excavating Dubuque, IA $ 75,528.50 Engineer's Estimate $ 43,838.00 Public Works and Engineering recommended and the City Manager awarded the contract to DeLong Construction of Washington, Iowa. The project will be funded through Account #M3631 Annual Storm Sewer Improvements and Account #L3322 Hebl Avenue and Account #10530200 Park Maintenance Operations. T 3f(12)