HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-08-01 TranscriptionPage I
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Dilkes, Andrew, Fruehling, Knoche, Rummel, Seydell
Johnson, Tharp, Grier, Morris, Boothroy, Yapp, Bockenstedt, Hall,
Nelson, Dyson, Opitz
Others Present: Stewart (UISG)
Discuss Johnson County Health Department and Parks Commission recommendation to
pursue a Tobacco Free Parks and Trails Code Amendment lIP #3 of the 7/27 Info Packetl:
Throgmorton/ Clay, you're gonna speak! Hi, good evening! It's nice to see you.
Claussen/ My pleasure, Mr. Mayor, and Council Members. Thanks for inviting the Parks and
Recreation Commission here this evening. Uh, I'm Clay Claussen, I'm the current Chair,
and in support we have members Suzanne Bentler and Wayne Fett, and the other
members that could not be with us this evening are Lary Brown, Cara Hamann, Lucie
Laurian, Angie Smith, Jamie Venzon, and Joe Younker. But we have their full support.
And we do encourage the Council to amend the current code to extend the smoke-free
areas to include all parks and trails, and to include all forms of tobacco, and to that end
we have a presentation by Susan Vileta with the Johnson County Public Health
Department and that will be followed by, uh, Juli Seydell Johnson introducing the Iowa
City Parks' master plan. Thank you.
Vileta/ Thanks, Clay! Hi!
Throgmorton/ Hi.
Vileta/ Susan Vileta with Johnson County Public Health, and I had the opportunity to chat with
Juli and the Commission, um, at an earlier date, and honestly, Iowa City has been, you
know, ahead of the curve in tobacco -free policies for quite some time, before bars and
restaurants even went smoke-free with the Smoke -Free Air Act, you were doing those
kinds of things here locally, um, to even just, what? Two summers ago now where some
of you Council Members who are sitting here right now decided to add electronic
cigarettes to that ordinance. Um, so you kind of have a history of. ... of.....of tobacco and
nicotine -free, um, ordinance and policy work. Um, people have just grown to kind of
expect the same sort of protection in outdoor spaces as they have indoor spaces for so
long at this point, cause there's really no risk-free level of second hand smoke. We know
that. Um, not to mention, the clean up and the fire risks would be reduced. I do want to
point out, I know that you received the information about a short survey we did last
summer, um, into the fall, and you can see the results there .... were pretty promising for
supporters, uh, that were residents of Iowa City. If you have any questions about that, let
me know! And .... you know, keep in mind ..... those faces, you know, I know that the
Parks Commission and the Parks' staff, that having those .... those environments that
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 2
people can get together in, those healthy places for outdoor recreation are impoi...
important (laughs) and that tobacco use doesn't necessarily co -exist with that view of...
of the recreation in those kinds of spaces. Right? Also keep in mind that it's also about
social, um, social norms, right, and role modeling, that if we're in spaces where our kids
are still seeing that smoking is the normal thing to do, they're really not! This is a
community that, you know, you've shown through.... through ordinances and ... and other
work, um, with other organizations that it's not kinda the normal thing to do anymore.
So, an ordinance like this, um, upholds the City's kind of ongoing commitment really
already to make tobacco and nicotine -free spaces the none. So ... and Johnson County
Public Health can help with ... whether it's, um, any technical or communications
assistance, and free signage. So, just .... so that you're aware of what I can do. Thanks...
for your attention!
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Susan.
Frain/ At this point what we're just lookin' for is kind of the .... the head nod go-ahead from
Council to prepare the code amendment, if you're comfortable, or if you'd like more
information, what exactly you're.... you.... would help you make that decision and we can
bring that back to you as well.
Mims/ I'd say go ahead. (several responding)
Throgmorton/ Well, I'm gonna make some friends mad by asking, uh, at least one or two
questions, cause surely there are people in the community who want to be able to smoke
in certain parts of parks, especially when the park's are large and there's ample room for
smoke to diffuse .... to diffuse. So .... um.....basically what I'm wondering, trying to....
channel the....that kind of voice, is whether there are, uh, some subtle modifications that
could be made to a blanket tobacco -free, urn .... rule that applies u .... uniformly to every
one of our 42 parks, regardless of ...uh.....um, s .... scale or character, and as we know
from our, uh, the Parks master plan that we're going to be considering, there's
considerable variation, uh, among parks in terms of scale and character. So .... um....
that's the question out there — might there be some subtle variation that, uh, would be
called for. And ... I don't know what the rest of you think about that, and I don't know
what you folks think about that. Uh, but I .... I don't think we should just kind of
uniformly, uh, quickly without any .... any kind of discussion really, make this decision.
think we need ... need to have some kind of discussion. So, there you go!
Botchway/ I guess I would have two questions. Um, one, my first question before you asked that
question was does this, um, you may have said it .... sorry, I was kind of zoning a little bit,
but .... does this, um, also include e -cigarettes? In this .... so, yes, okay! Sorry I missed
that! The second question is, kind of going back to I think a former conversation that we
had maybe a year, year and a half ago, there was discussion as far as, uh, I think it was
banning e -cigarettes or banning cigarette use in the .... in all City buildings or whatever
the case may be (several talking) cigarettes? Did we have a similar, um, kind of. ... what
you're kind of proposing, a separate space that could be designated, um, within those
situations? Okay. So, no then, I wouldn't be inclined to do it at a park .... as well.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 3
Mims/ I think when we did the e -cigarettes we just made it comparable to everywhere else that
we had banned.
Fruin/ That's correct.
Dickens/ (several talking) Currently a lot of `em are just the parking lots that are allowing, in our
City code. Those would have to be changed. Cause (mumbled) says that smoking is
allowed in some of the parking lots, if you go through the list, like, uh, Mercer Park,
Napoleon, and some of those, so .... if you're gonna do it (coughing, difficult to hear
speaker) include all those, switching those over to current code. But I don't see any
problem with Jim's idea, that there are some people out there that wanna use the parks
and they have to smoke, whether it's good for `em or not, and for them not to enjoy the
park, if there's a certain area — whether it is the parking lot still or whether you just do a
complete ban — that's the question.
Botchway/ So my reason for bringing up that complete ban before is I think that, you know, my
reasoning for why I supported it prior, because (mumbled) issue for me. So, I mean, how
are we going to .... and maybe, again, this is a tough conversation to have just kind of on
the fly, but how are we going to then enforce that particularly designated area? Um, you
know, from my feeling, and just encountering, you know, not only smokers in my family
but smokers in general, I mean it's .... it is kind of, you know somewhat (mumbled) and so
if having a designated area, I think, makes it really tough to .... to enforce and I think that
it then really doesn't, you know, speak to why we're doing it in the first place in general,
and so .... that's my take on why we should move forward, um, on this particular, uh
(mumbled) you know.....yeah!
Taylor/ I think a pro for having a designated area would be so many of these are neighborhood
parks and if they can't smoke in the parks, they might, uh, be prone to go across the street
and .... and smoke on the sidewalk in .... in the neighborhood, and we don't want that
either. So, I think Jim's idea of a designated area might .... might be a positive thing.
Throgmorton/ (several talking) ...talked about this before so, you know, at the Commission level
or Board of Health level or whatever, so .... yeah.
Fruin/ Come on up, Clay!
Claussen/ Yeah, I don't think this is a convenience issue. It's a health issue, and smoking is not
healthy and .... second hand smoke infringes on everyone in the area. So I think .... and,
uh, I think we're going in a direction that we need to go in and that is a total ban on
smoking and use of tobacco products in ... in public areas. And I think it's encouraging
more people to quit smoking. Most people that do smoke, want to quit desperately and
they're trying to quit, uh, cause I think they understand. I know it's an addiction issue,
but it's a health issue to the other people, first and foremost, so in the general interest of
the community and the individual citizens, I think a total ban is reasonable and I know
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 4
everybody always says, well wait a minute — what about the other people's rights. The
right to smoke on me is not a right that I can enjoy or support.
Cole/ I guess I support the total ban. Uh, we're just here at the work session, we're
communicating to the public this is going to be on our radar and that it will hopefully
come back to us in a final ordinance form. Um, so if the public wants to weigh in on that,
they'll certainly have the opportunity to do that, but I think we need to send the clear
signal that we do want to do the total ban and if we have an overwhelming number of
people that speak out, we can evaluate that, um, but I would like to support the total ban
at this point.
Thomas/ I think we want to promote healthy parks. We're trying to promote healthy
neighborhoods. Um, I think .... I think trying to carve out a particular area where smoking
would be allowed is sending kind of a mixed message. I think it...it would be, uh,
enforcement issues as well. So I think to declare a ban is a clearer message.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay so that's... we'll proceed that way. I .... I want to say one other thing,
and I know I'm going to get in trouble for saying this, but .... but um .... I .... I used to work
in air pollution control. I did it for five years. I ran an air quality monitoring section. I
know all about diffusion of...of smoke, diffusion of chemicals, diffusion of, uh, harmful
substances, if. ... uh, if they're in the atmosphere. And .... so that makes me think about
situations where if somebody wants to smoke in say Hickory Hill Park, and they walk to
a nearby hillside and pull out a cigar, they're gonna do it, and it's not gonna harm
anybody except themselves, and it will harm them. My dad .... I mean my mother died of
lung cancer, so I'm no fan of smoking, uh, at all. So my .... you know, my thinking, just
sort of gut feeling, is .... um. .... there are situations where a person can smoke and not harm
anybody except her or himself. So, but we have made a decision here about moving
ahead, so what .... what we want to have come to us is, uh, the proposal about a total ban
within, uh, City parks and City trails, right? You said, Clay? And I ... I .... did you name
other features or just.....all? All property within City park stuff. Okay. That's clear.
Yeah, good!
Froin/ We will prepare it and bring it back to ya!
Throgmorton/ Okay. Good deal! Thank you! Thank all ... thanks to all of you! Speaking of
parks, I guess, uh, I guess, Juli, you're probably going to talk about parks and the, uh,
Park master plan and accessibility audit.
Presentation of the Parks Master Plan RP #4 of the 7/27 Info Packet]:
Seydell Johnson/ We did tell ... talk to you about our 10 month process that we are just wrapping
up now. Um, we have our Parks Commission. They've been very involved in this
process through the whole thing, as well as our staff members, Chad Dyson, our
Recreation Superintendent; Amanda Opitz, with our Communications of Parks and
Recreation; Zac Hall, behind him, Park Superintendent; and Kumi Morris, our Facility,
uh, Manager have all been very involved with this and happy to show you what ... what
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 5
we've come out with this plan. The full plan is on the web site, um, including all the
appendix information. It's over 200 pages so I'm sure you've read it very thoroughly at
this point (laughter) I'm gonna walk you through the process, what we've gone through,
and some of the highlights from it. There's a lot in that plan and we .... and we certainly
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
Seydell Johnson/ ...all of it.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) ...page 54.
Seydell Johnson/ Excellent! (laughter)
Botchway/ Me too! (laughter)
Seydell Johnson/ I will quiz you! Are you ready? (laughter) Here we go! So we started it
out... this plan is unique and it's unique because Iowa City's a unique community. We
talked a lot about equity throughout our park system. We talked a lot about social equity.
We talked about income levels. We talked a lot beyond the typical park master plan,
which generally looks at how many acres per thousand people and is all .... is that spread
out throughout your community. This plan really took that discussion to the next level
and I' really proud of our staff and all the community members that participated, because
I think this is a really important part of this plan in going forward looking at ways that we
want to make our parks available for everyone to gather in, and we want to make sure
they're welcoming and open for all. So that's a real theme, this `gather here' theme
through the entire, uh, master plan. So in the process, we started out by first of all
reviewing the entire park system. So our consultants and our staff walked through every
single park area that we have, and this is our active recreation areas. So like the forested
areas at Hickory Hill Park, that's covered under the natural areas plan which you'll see in
a few months. This is our active recreation areas, and that information is all included in
the appendix of the report. So in the back of the report, or in the separate file on the web
site, you see a park -by -park inventory. They walked through each park, located where
everything was. We tried to gather as muth.... much information as we could about how
old the play structures were, the equipment, the ... the shelters, tried to get as much
information about all of that, and then this is where we looked at accessibu... accessibility,
physical accessibility in the parks. Um, and it calls out in each one where there's areas
for improvements and where there's areas where there's a small improvement that's
needed or in a few parks, they're just old and it's time they get redesigned, um, for kind
of a complete overhaul. Then we, uh, next we had public engagement, and this took
place October through Jru... June. We had over 500 residents take part in the master plan
process, so very excited. Parks and Rec of cor... of course touches people in a lot of
different ways and we have a number of partner groups. We had most of them come to
the table in various ways. We had stakeholder meetings. We had individual interviews
with a few groups. We went out, uh, and did special outreach to a number of. ... of group,,
that we wanted to make sure got included. Uh, we had public open houses with the ... the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 6
...the holiday market last December, and we had online ways for people to interact with
this report. So I feel really good that we got a lot of input and touched a lot of people.
Parks Commission met and talked about it twice during their meetings. Lot of
opportunity for input and we got a lot of input, so that was exciting. Then we next,
through all that public input, developed the guiding principles of the report and kind of
the strategy. There's six items here. First of all access is one of the main things we
looked at. Physical access to the parks. Equity to make sure there was access to people
in all areas of the city. Connections between the parks. Some of those are kind of
tougher answers because we've got some areas, as you learned in the bike ... bicycle
master plan where getting the connecting trails is going to be difficult. This plan kinda
called out some of those same things. Um, and then building strong neighborhoods with
the parks that are in it. Play, providing year-round recreation opportunities. So we heard
people's request for everything, you know, from our typical outdoor pool, summer
activities to ice skating and ice fishing. So, people here in Iowa City want to be outdoors
all year-round and they want us to provide activities and, uh, things for them to do that
with all year round. Restore. We heard over and over, we want our kids to be able to
play in the creeks. We want to get back to the river. The Iowa River's a great asset to
the community. Let's not turn our backs on it any more. So a lot of our plans, and
it ... and it really fits well with what's going on with our natural areas plan and the tree
inventory, go along with this guiding principle of restoring the natural environment so
people can use it, sustaining, uh, making it places where people want to be outside
playing. Educate. So important goal that we heard — ensure that every child learns to
swim, safely rides a bicycle, and develops outdoor recreation skills. So everything from
gardening to sports to the new sports, you know, futsal, pickle ball, those kind of things.
We heard a great interest in making sure that we have programs and opportunities for
people to not only enjoy those, but to learn how to do them in the first place. So every
kid knows how to swim so they're safe playing in the creeks or by the rivers. Um, the
other part of this that we talked about was integrating STEAM, the science, technology,
engineering, arts, and math curriculums into what we do in recreation and parks — making
sure that kids, what they learn at school they can also experience as they play in our
community. Sustaining, making design choices for consistency, branding and longevity.
So you'll see that we have our architectural designs later on and choices made for our
future buildings that help us have consistency throughout the building so if a maintenance
staff member is going to one park shelter and they need a light fixture, it's probably the
same one they have in stock for all of our different, um, shelters and it's easier to
maintain in that way, and people get used to the branding and the consistency of what
those facilities look like through our parks. And then finally, measuring. Once we get
underway with implementing this plan, we'll be back with you occasionally with
measurements of how we're doing on implementing it. I want to point out something
really nice and that I'm particularly proud of in our report. There's a lot of this report
that goes to equity, and this, as I said, is different for our Parks and Recreation master
plan. It took us quite a few conversations even with our consultants to say, this is really
important to Iowa City. They've heard it from our residents and we kept coming back to
this, so in our park planning efforts, it really talks about fostering the neighborhood and
cultural identity. Although we want to have facilities throughout the parks that are easy
to maintain and have that kind of branding, we understand that each neighborhood's a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 7
little bit different and what one neighborhood wants, is maybe different than what another
neighborhood wants as far as the sports they play or the ways that they gather as a
community, and we want to be open to that and able to do that. Parks facil ... facilities and
services in all areas of the community, so looking to make sure we are geographically
spreading out our services throughout all residents. Being cognizant of our transportation
barriers and realizing that there are residents that heavily rely on public transportation,
and so in those areas making sure that they have park facilities closer to where they live
and probably in more concentrations so they can use them. Uh, using the social equity
toolkit, so for each park redesign, this commits us to doing extra outreach in the
neighborhoods to make sure that we are assessing the character and the specific needs of
the residents of that area, not just our general overall population needs. Providing non -
gender specific, family -friendly public restrooms. Lot of talk about this lately, but
we .... through this plan are seeing that restrooms in the future, that we put in the parks,
will be single -occupancy, available not only for families, but non -gender specific at the
same time. And then working to just (mumbled) barriers. Uh, we've come to an
understanding with a lot of conversations that there's policies, procedures, and things
we've done for a long time that maybe aren't as inviting to all members of our
community and this is just our, um, our way of saying we want to keep looking at those
and working through them to find ways that we can invite and make sure that everybody
wants to gather in our parks and use our recreation facilities. Finally, or the next step we
did was reviewed the open space planning. This is more of the traditional park planning
that you've seen in reports before, lots of maps in the overall park master plan. We
looked district -by -district, um, not only how the parks are laid out, are there enough parks
in that area. The parks were categories.... categorized based on kind of their primary
activities and the idea to make sure that each district within the city has a mix of those
activities, um, to make sure that there's not, uh, busy roads or something that are cutting
off a park or a neighborhood not able to access things, to make sure that, um, that we
have equal and equitable parks throughout the system. And then the work to prioritize
our future park projects. So this is where we get into the nuts and bolts of what does all
this plan mean and how do we implement it, and you'll see more of this as we move into
the capital planning process, um, but this plan went through all the parks. First of all, as I
said, we looked at physical accessibility issues and kind of good news, bad news in all of
this. Uh, I wouldn't tell you there's a lot of parks that are .... that are completely
accessible, but there's a number of them that are pretty darn close, and so you'll see two
lists in our capital planning. We have lists of parks that have, um, have small needs for
accessibility. They may need a parking space, a curb cut, or some pathways put in to
make them more accessible, or actually the number one thing in a lot of parks is just us
getting back and putting enough mulch in the playground areas, uh, to make the
playgrounds fully accessible for people to get to the playground areas. Um, and then
there's larger maintenance needs or age of equipment. We, uh, based on about a 20 -year
life span of a piece of play equipment, so we'll try to get back to each park about every
20 to 22 years to redevelop, replace those larger pieces of equipment. Equity across the
city, um .... and that takes us ..... as I said, equity. Neighborhood needs, priorities, and
then leaving some room for those future trends, because even a year ago I'm not I would
have known what pickle ball was and how popular it was (laughs) uh, now that we have it
at Mercer you often see all eight courts busy in the mornings. So, gives us some
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 8
flexibility to meet new community needs .... with that. Then here is what I talked about,
the planning out. We have all of the neighborhood parks listed between now and
2029 .... on a schedule of when they would be redeveloped, um, as an entirety. So 2018
probably not a surprise at all — Creekside which we just finished the master plan.
Cardigan, (mumbled) playground started going in today actually, and Riverfront
Crossings, which is moving very quickly. But then the row below here, where we look at
the accessibility improvements. These are smaller ones, and these might surprise you.
Highland Park, we just did this park about .... a year ago, two years ago. Beautiful new
park. We didn't get all the pathways put in, so when we look at it from accessibility, it's
missing those pathways. So this would say we'll go back in and get the pathways put in.
Same thing, the Mercer play area. Wonderful playground with lots of accessible
equipment. It's missing the pathway between the playground and the shelter (laughs) so
not a big, you know, a big project, but a lot of little projects to kind of bring those up. So
we look at both larger projects and then the smaller, urn, fill-in, kind of accessibility
things over the next four years, and after that placing out each of the parks for the larger
redevelopments as we go down. Now these are based on neighborhood parks. It doesn't
include the larger projects yet, such as, um, Eastside Sports Complex or redoing all of
Lower City Park. Those aren't in this plan so far, but, um .... we did try to get everything
else planned into place, um, there. The other thing we looked at were, uh, priorities for
our park annual improvement plans. This is some money we have in the capital, um,
budget each year. We'll be looking at replacing a number of the park signs. In fact, we
were just talking Riverfront Crossings. Have you seen all the work going on? We don't
have park signs designed for that yet (laughs) so we need to get signs in a number of our
parks. Uh, then working on site furnishings. One of the other things we're missing on
the accessibility audit is, uh, handicap accessible picnic tables. So if we get a process
going where we can add picnic na... picnic tables throughout the parks and make them
accessible picnic tables, that will help our accessibility rating right there. Um, getting our
benches. We've had, uh, priority from the Parks Commission to add recycling
throughout the parks. You may have noticed we have it at Terry Trueblood this summer
and we've been adding it more and more at our athletic facilities. Uh, we have a
challenge to add it even more so throughout our parks, so you'll be seeing that, and then
shelter facility maintenance. Our shelters throughout the city need new roofs, need a lot
of TLC, uh, court maintenance, basketball courts, those kind of things have not been, uh,
maintained quite as well as they should of over the number of years. And then leaving us
some space for partner opportunities. Oftentimes we have a neighborhood come with an
idea for their park that's not in our schedule. Um, they may come with funding or they
may get a PIN grant for some funding. Uh, we like to help out and see what we can do to
make those things happen, and then emerging opportunities. You know, futsal, gaga pits,
pickle ball — those are all three things we put in in the last year that probably hadn't heard
of before we actually started to build `em in the parks. Um .... so that's how all of the...
the rest of this planning fills into the different years. We looked at architectural
guidelines. The picture on the right probably looks familiar. It's Terry Trueblood. Um,
as we did our public input on this, people are like `Terry Trueblood Park is an awesome
park. Do it just like that!' Or build off of that, so a lot of our design guidelines actually
build off that. There's nothing really.... amazingly changed to a lot of this. It's just
refinements of it that we would hope to start using as a design, uh, character throughout
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 9
the parks. Uh, the shelter and restroom that you'll see are the ones that were recently
proposed for Happy Hollow. I would just caution you, as you know the bids came in
very high on that, so that is one thing we're still looking at is will this be the final design
in this plan? Is it something we can afford? I think you're gonna see some revisions, um,
that make it a little more cost effective. Signage, we looked at signage options. Talked
with community about those too, and guess what? They really like the work that's been
done in the last couple years, so we didn't see any reason to change it, uh, in a great way.
We did find some options that were a little less expensive, so that we can get more and
more of the signs done so that they match and you can see that branding throughout
the.... throughout the city. And that's it! It's been a fun project. Uh, we're nearing the
finish line. We hope to bring it back to you for final approval sometime later this fall.
Um, but once again I commend the staff, the Commission, just a number of residents that
really took active voices. Even this afternoon I got calls about, okay, was this in there?
Did I get this? You know, tell me what you're going to talk to them about? So there's
been a lot of interest in this plan. Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Okay, good deal, Juli! Uh, do you have any questions for Juli? Or reactions.
Mims/ I don't have any questions. I just want to commend you and all the people involved. I
don't know that I read all of it, but a lot of it, and the detail in here is just incredible. I
mean .... it's mind boggling bow much detail there is, and so .... you know, for those of
you who were down in the weeds on all the detail, just commend you for getting this to
the point of such a good plan and, you know, really laying out a program going forward
of how we can really, you know, make the improvements and stuff and how we can fit
things into the CIP and those kinds of things I think are really going to benefit us,
and... and the whole equity piece of looking at what we have in different areas of the
community and the accessibility and the distance and those kinds of things are just
essential. I think they're gonna .... it kind of fits in with some stuff that John put into one
of our packets, in terms of complete neighborhoods, in terms of, um, the—the parks being
a huge part of that, and people have easy accessibility to those. So ... greatjob!
Botchway/ Yeah, I would agree, and I think I remember you being at, um, one of the
conversations at the GAR training where I know for a fact that you spoke with her
afterwards and, uh, I'm assuming some of iterations of this plan came from some of the
consulting you may or may not have done with her, but um, you can tell, and so I mean I
appreciate that work and the one thing that I did have a question on is going back to that
social equity toolkit. Did you mean like socioeconomic racial equity toolkit?
Seydell Johnson/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Okay (both talking)
Seydell Johnson/ ...basically it means really looking in depth at the neighborhoods we're serving
and doing extra outreach to make sure that we're hearing.... hearing what their needs are
when we go in to redo a park. That's how we see it.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 10
Botchway/ Great work! I use the parks a lot now. I used to not use the parks at all, so .... this is
good!
Cole/ I guess I have a question related to social equity as it pertains to growing spaces and
community gardens. (clears throat) And also eda... edible landscaping. How high a
priority, um, do you place on edible landscaping, and secondly, what is the plan to
increase growing opportunities for everyone throughout the city of Iowa City?
Seydell Johnson/ Sure! So.....we talked about community garden.... gardening quite a bit during
this plan. Um, Backyard Abundance and a number of other groups were .... were part of
our stakeholder groups that were there. Um, it is (mumbled) we've been doing it
neighborhood by neighborhood and fitting it in, you know, growing in the community
gardens each year. This year we had 200 plots that were already rented. Um, so it shows
that even though we expanded two more areas, they still expanded. Next year we look to
go into Creekside Park, into some of the new lots that have been added by Creekside.
Um, potentially one in the Peninsula neighborhood. We've really been working on it, uh,
when a neighborhood contacts us and has an interest in it. Um, we find that it's much
easier to get it started when there's actual neighborhood around the park that has that....
that high interest, but I think the rate that we've been growing, at two or three gardens a
year, is sustainable at this point.
Cole/ Then I have a question relating to chemical -free signage in the park. Um, you know, one
of the things that I think the staff has done a wonderful job of is essentially our ban on all
artificial pesticide, uh, use and herbicide use in the parks. Um, how much does the plan
focus on promoting that, that in fact it is a chem -free park, um, is that something that's
going to be part of the plan as well?
Seydell Johnson/ It actually was not included as a special statement in this plan, other than under
the restore and sustainability (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Seydell Johnson/ ...and I would clarify that we do have some limited chemical use in the parks
still. For instance, with invasive species and sometimes with poison ivy, but in very
limited designated uses. So, I just want to caution that we're not completely 100%
chemical free. Uh, generally in any area kids are playing in and in the athletic fields, we
probably lea ... lead as far as using very little to no chemicals in those areas, but ... there's
been a few places where we've still had to use some, so .... yeah.
Botchway/ I forgot to mention my actual question to the point I was raising about that GAR
training. So, one of the things you talked about was incorporating kind of those elements
as far as when you're putting out and you're promoting, um, whether (mumbled) the
advertisement on your own book, um, kind of the Parks and Recreation, you know, um,
program book that, you know, different elements of accessibility is on there, not only
from a multi -cultural standpoint as far as race and ethnicity, but also from the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 11
accessibility standpoint as well. Is that going to be part of kind of going forward? Have
you had discussions about that? Is that currently in the plan?
Seydell Johnson/ Um, it's not necessarily called out in the plan, other than we are really looking
at all of our processes and procedures that go along with equity and making sure we're
welcoming to all. I've got Amanda, our communications person, and she's on me all the
time (laughs) looking at ways that we can make our publications and our
communications, um, more open and make sure that we are .... are reaching out to
everyone. So it's .... it's definitely an ongoing part of our conversation. Um, one of the
things we just changed recently is we used to have.... require male or female, um,
designation for you to be able to register for our programs. Well, we actually don't need
to know that for like 98% of our programs. So we just took it off the form.
Botchway/ What about for bathrooms?
Seydell Johnson/ Well, we're movin' to the single -stall, um ..... non -gender specific bathrooms as
we do renovations and construction. Yeah.
Thomas/ It's a very impressive plan and I .... and I especially.... was, um, taken by the inclusion
of the ... the social equity issue because it kind of tied with the study that, um, Pauline's
been working on in health, and actually taking it to a very fine grain, you know, where
you .... you actually show specific areas where there's high priority with respect to social
equity, uh, which I think gives the Council a much, for me anyway, a much better idea of
where we need to focus our efforts, uh, and then I .... I also, and I don't know if you've
had a chance to read it, but I ... I prepared a memo to Council on this concept, uh, of
complete neighborhoods. And it relates to parks, uh, I think the plan speaks the same
language, more or less, I mean, one .... one of the issues is .... um, that they be accessible,
you know, and in some respects Iowa City has pretty good distribution of parks. Uh, but
I would say that not all of them are complete in the sense that they provide a wide range
of activities. Uh, and the reason I think that's important is it .... for a park to attract a wide
range of users, you need a wide range of activities, because people want different things,
as you had noted. So .... so the memo is basically emphasizing that .... within an easy
walking distance or an easy biking distance, that ... that everyone in Iowa City have an
opportunity to experience a complete neighborhood, in part because it's those complete
neighborhoods which are going to promote the social equity, uh, issues, as well as social
capital, the .... the ability to know the people we share our neighborhoods with. Uh, so
that.... that's.... that I think is the challenge because as the plan noted, in some of these
areas of Iowa City we .... we.....you know, we just don't have the facilities. There's one
park on the west side of town, west of, um, West High. Um, how do we solve that
problem. (laughs) It's hard to acquire land when you've already built out your
neighborhoods. So I think one strategy that I certainly have been advocating for and...
and is in the plan, uh, in some ... in some of the recommendations is collaborating with
the, um. ... Iowa City Community School District. I know in our ... the Central District Plan,
which was I think also noted as having priority with respect to equity, where else are ya
gonna do it? (laughs) Um, again, the neighborhoods are built out. So, fortunately I think
those schools offer an opportunity. Um, in my view the schools have tended not to focus
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 12
on their outdoor spaces. So I think it would be a good collaboration between the City and
the School District to, in a way, bring the School District's facilities, um, GO bond,
which is about facility equity, uh, and focus on the, uh, outdoor spaces, which are really
not part of that bond program. So .... so I'm really excited by what the Parks has done. I
think it's really given some much clearer idea where we need to focus our efforts and,
um, you know, the comprehensiveness of it is .... is really extraordinary.
Taylor/ I found it interesting that it, uh, it seemed to complement the bike master plan that we
just went over at the last meeting. It just kinda goes along with that and ... and really fits
together well, uh, with the trails and the connectivity, and I was really impressed with
that. I also was impressed with, uh, there was a section in there..... you talked about
involving the community in.....in even the maintenance of it, because, uh, living hear the
Willow Creek Park and I heard that it's the master gardeners that are, uh, taking care of
the .... the flowers and the entrance, and it's just really beautiful. Really makes it
attractive, uh, to that entrance to Willow Creek Park, as well as .... I'll have to make a
note, I do love the .... the wooden, it's old, the old wooden sign that says `Willow Creek,'
uh, it .... with 1972 on it. It .... it's been well maintained so it's in good shape, uh, and I
like that and I hope you keep that because with the master gardener flowering there that
looks really nice and, uh, so ... and I also, uh, was impressed with the fact that, uh, with
some of them you're to, uh, replace some of the playground, uh, surfacing area with a
more rubberized, uh, cause the .... the wood chips just sometimes are not the .... the safest.
Seydell Johnson/ I would say we won't be able to do that in very (both talking) very expensive
(both talking)
Taylor/ It is expensive!
Seydell Johnson/ ...that's one of the things we'll look at is how do we get more accessibility at
certain areas in each district as we go forward. So...
Throgmorton/ Well I'd like to say there's a lot I like about the plan. Bravo! Well done .... to you
and to the consultants. Uh, I ... I like, for example, what you .... the racial and
socioeconomic equity review toolqui... toolkit, and the emphasis on equity. I like the
plan's linkages, as Pauline said, to the bike master plan, but also to the natural resources
area study and to the tree inventory.
Seydell Johnson/ And you'll be seeing both of those later this fall and winter, and yes, they all
connect.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and if I understand the plan correctly, I like its emphasis on filling specific
gaps in the park system service in terms of geography or service types, rather than to
focus on acquiring more park space. So, focusing on what we have, improving, etc. Do I
understand that correctly?
Seydell Johnson/ It is. I mean there are some calls in different districts for .... there are some
areas that could use some more park land but I think the plan realizes that's a difficult
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 13
and tall order right now, uh, there's not a lot of land available. If land would become
available in those districts, I would want to .... I would hope you would consider adding to
the park land, but in the meantime, it gives us a real clear picture of how to use the land
that we already have, and how to utilize it and maximize its use.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Understood! Uh, I do have one question. I .... I don't.....I didn't see in
your presentation the maps about walkability and transit, uh, and they .... they had
shadowing associated with `em and, you know, a quarter mile walk radius or something,
but frankly I couldn't interpret `em properly. So ... I don't know if you have one that you
could show, but like with regard to the walkability maps, uh, I was looking at that map in
relation to one of the rezoning decisions we have this evening, and.. A couldn't make
sense out of the circles and how they were drawn. So....
Seydell Johnson/ Don't actually have it that I can show you right now, but I can get with ya after
the meeting and we can look (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, if you could clarify that, that'd be terrific! Uh, I have a question for Geoff.
Uh, are you imagining that this will come back to us on our next formal meeting or
maybe the one after it or something like that?
Fruin/ Yeah, shortly. I think we'll do what we did with the bike master plan, or what we're
proposin' to do with the bike master plan, which is to have you adopt it by resolution.
Preliminary FY 2019 budget discussion:
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay, an .... any other comments or questions? Okay, I think you're
hearing a big bravo. Thank you, Juli. Okay! We have, uh, as our next item for our
work .... thank you, Clay! And.....our two other Commissioners who are departing now,
Suzanne and Wayne, thanks for your good work. Okay! So our next topic is the
preliminary fi... uh, fiscal year 2019 budget discussion. Did you want to say something
(both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, just real briefly. This is, um, a work session.... this is the second one of these. Last
year we started this. It's just an opportunity for you, um, to, urn .... let us know of any
budget priorities that you have, um, going into, uh.... staff s preparations. So department
heads are pretty, uh, shortly here will be pulling together their list of request for capital
and operational needs, and then, uh, the Finance Department, City Manager's office'll be
reviewing those, and again as .... as is tradition, presenting you our recommended budget,
um, in December, for discussion in January, February before the March filing date with
the State. So, um.....yeah, this is really just an open discussion. I don't have specific
questions for you. As you know, there are a lot of competing priorities for the dollars.
The last two work sessions you spent reviewing the bike master plan and now the parks
master plan, both very aggressive plans, and those are layered on top of other aggressive
plans and .... and operational needs that aren't necessarily reflected in a ... in a, urn ... uh....
uh, a strategic plan, uh, type of document. So, any input that you can have, any guidance
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 14
is appreciated, and anything that you don't think of tonight, uh, that you want to
communicate to me, um .... the sooner the better, as we, um, look into things.
Throgmorton/ So I think I'd like to begin and, uh, first by making a general comment, uh.... Uh,
what I expect will happen tonight is that we will each mention particular .... uh, sugges...
make particular suggestions about what could be included in the budget, but that does not
necessarily mean that that's what the Council majority, or Council as a whole, wants to
do, but we need to get those topics out on the table, if you will. Uh, and then .... so, uh,
with that, uh, as, uh, sort of background, I want to mention like four topics that, uh, I'd
like to emphasize right off the bat. One is, I would hope that our, uh, forthcoming budget
will make significant investments in the major actions called for in our strategic plan,
especially the form -based code, the bicycle master plan, the climate action plan, and the
affordable housing action plan. We don't warm end up with plans. We wanna end up
with action and .... on the ground that really affects, uh, and improves lives of people in
our city. So, that's the first thing. Uh, the second is, and you alluded to that ... to this in
your, um .... self-eval... no, never mind! Um, in some other written document that we got
from you, Geoff. Uh, we need to respond effectively to the expected disappearance of
the State's backfill of commercial, uh, and industrial tax revenue. And I know we've
been expecting this to happen, uh, but .... just to be clear, it's an important thing. I think
we also need to set aside a reasonable amount of funding for our fair share of expenses,
uh, that might be associated with construction and operation of the proposed access
center, behavioral health access center. Uh, I don't know how much (laughs) uh, you
know, cause no fine decisions have been made, but .... uh, I think we need to move in that
direction. So, there's that! And one other, uh.... um, point. I ... Geoff, as you know, when
you and I talk with the people involved in the .... the, um....uh, what's it called? The, uh,
the .... the 10 largest cities discussion....
Fruin/ Metro Coalition?
Throgmorton/ Metro Coalition, thank you! Uh, there's a sense that we need to tell our .... the
City's story better, uh, that would be, uh, our story as, uh, as Iowa City but also, um...
the ... the 10 largest cities as a whole, but not just tell a story but tell a story more
effectively to people out in the state. We gotta find a way to do that effectively .... to, and
I'm thinking in particular about, urn .... uh, people who live in rural areas or small towns
and the legislators who represent them. So we might put a little bit of thought into that
and find, you know, if there's some investment required to do that, well, there you go!
We're also going to be developing a new strategic plan. So that will have budgetary
implications for the fiscal year that we'll be talking about. So .... we need to take that into
account. So ..... those are some topics on the table.
Mims/ Jim, could you .... I couldn't (mumbled) the first list you're talking about our cur .... current
strategic plan, you list four major items that we've kind of started on. The bicycle plan,
affordable housing, climate action, and what was the fourth one?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, good question, uh.....
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 15
(female)/ Form -based code.
Mims/ Form -based code, okay!
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Thanks!
Mims/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Well in .... in terms of the future strategic plan, I think we need to begin the
process of developing a fonn-based code for the downtown. And that .... could be a part
of this budget. Now I know we haven't decided that. I don't know if the Council agrees
or not, but .... that's what I think.
Thomas/ I have a few .... a few thoughts and projects, one of them ties to that presentation we just
saw on the, uh, the park system. Um, and as I said, kind of in some ways reflective of
the, um, the GO bond for equity among .... among the schools, on the school sites, make
sure that they're equitable. I would want to make sure that, um, Iowa City from a
geographic standpoint has equity across town with respect to access and, um,
comprehensiveness of the park facilities. Um, there were three it ... three areas specifically
that were identified in the plan, two of them are in my district. Uh, the third is, um,
would be, um, along Mormon Trek, as I recall. Um, so that would be one thing to .... to
address the equity, and I would encourage as I was suggesting in my memo that, um...
the ... the notion of a complete.... complete neighborhoods require parks that have a .... a
comprehensive, um, range of. ... of activities that are offered. That doesn't mean every
park has to be comprehensive, but at least one would be, and that ties to the .... the idea
that these are places where the community as a whole can gather to build social capital.
Um, the second thing would be on the bike master plan. Uh, you know we had that
presentation, and, you know, I asked the question of what .... how would we sort of
profile, give a higher profile to the .... to the plan, and they mentioned, um, that if, you
know, Dodge and Governor are two projects that would, um, I think give .... give the
program a stronger profile. Governor is already in the budget, uh, so what I would be
asking is combining, uh, with .... or adding to Governor, Dodge Street. Uh, Dodge is
actually a more dangerous street in terms of collisions. It runs right along, uh, Happy
Hollow, Horace Mann Elementary, College Green Park, and the two streets combined are
a real ... ea ... east -west barrier in terms of, uh, pedestrian safety. I think one of the key
issues in my view with the, um, with the bike master plan moving forward is many of the,
and we're going to be talking about this later tonight, but, uh, quickly the .... most of the
improvements are going to be on streets. So they're gonna dramatically improve
pedestrian safety and bicycle safety, as well as driver safety. Um, the third thing would
be, uh, street tree planting initiative. I talked about that before. Um, you know, we've
been seeing partly due to construction, not only of projects on private property, but some
of our own projects, uh, in public rights-of-way, uh, a real loss of tree cover, urn ... that
combined with the value of it with respect to climate action change and all the ... you
know, I've talked about before many times (laughs) the multiple values of, um, a
comprehensive and extensive canopy that, uh, and I know we have some money bud...
budgeted for that, so it's really ques.... maybe a question of strategizing and prioritizing
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 16
where that money goes and I think, again, it could be tied to the bike master plan and the
park master plan.
Throgmorton/ Others?
Botchway/ So, um, I think for me, I would agree with John. I didn't know he was gonna talk
about tree coverage, but it's hot outside (laughter) and so we need more trees. You've
kinda turned my .... uh, turned me around for that. I would agree with Jim on the
affordable action plan. I think, uh, Rockne talked about edible landscapes and I think
some of us have had conversations with, uh, Backyard Abundance. I know this is an
interesting time to talk about it in conjunction with the park master plan, and so if we
were gonna make that a priority, I think it's... great to talk about it right now to see how
we can include that. Um, if not, you know, sounds like moving forward, but I think that
the element would be kind of the educational component and some of the other things,
and even though the community's not asking for it. This is one of those things that I feel
like if we do it, they will come, I mean if we're .... if we're .... if we can advertise in a way
to do it, they will come, and so, um, the other part of it would be, uh, fleshing out
opportunities for economic development for people of color. Um, we've done some of
that work, I think it was hugely successful. Um, I'd wanna see, um.....what... what more
can we increase from a funding standpoint, to ensure that it's not just about kind of the
educational component, but how can we, um, provide forgivable loans or other things to
ensure that this is happening, um, in our area. I mean I'd hope for one day be able to say
that from a business perspective in Iowa City not only that we have kind of an
entrepreneurial hub for people of color to come and, you know, do that in some of those
same ways that we have it for other businesses, but also that, you know, it's 50%, you
know, from a sta... that standpoint. Not only when we're talking about people of color but
also, uh, women as well. I don't necessarily know all the .... the, um, the, uh, owners of
all the businesses but, um, just from what I do know, I still think that we could
considerably do more from a .... just general, uh, women standpoint. Uh, I would say that
one of the things that I've relatively missed, and I didn't necessarily bring it up in the
strategic plan, was just diversifying our staff, and so I know that we've had that
conversation. Rockne and I briefly talked about it a little bit, maybe just like walking out
of a Council meeting, around kind of that, um ... now I'm forgetting the name. Starts with
a C. Commission, something commission. (several responding) Civil Service! Yeah,
Civil Service and how we can effectively, I mean it's a barrier. So how can we
effectively, um, mitigate that particular barrier, and it may cause more funding. I know
we did some interesting things when it came to the Police Department, as far as how we
were kind of, uh, tricky with our funding and able to diversify our staff, um, more so than
we would have been able to do without that. So how can we effectively plan for that
moving forward, not only obviously within our Police Department but other departments
as well. And last thing is about mental health. Um, I know that we're talking about, um,
the cost of the, um, crisis ... or the access center and .... most of the training that our
officers are going through as well. One of the things I also want us to focus on has been
around, um, kind of our .... people with disabilities just in our area, with intellectual
disabilities. Um, I know from a County perspective that, uh, I think Rod was in the ... or at
the State level, I don't know, six to eight months ago, advocating for why there were
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 17
significant cuts to kind of Johnson County and their ability to, urn .... uh, you know, have,
uh, case managers for people with disabilities in our area, and so....I don't know if we've
filled that gap, and again, whenever I see a gap, especially from an equity standpoint, I
feel like it's govern.... incumbent on government to kind of step in and .... and help in
some way. It may not necessarily be monetarily, but what can we do from our own, uh,
ability to help empower our residents and individuals that live within our .... our
boundaries, and so, again, that's a little separate issue than obviously the, I think the
crises and intervention training and the access center is focused on one area, which I
think is important, but also we have a significant amount of people with disabilities in our
community that, uh, I know that we haven't necessarily talked to other Council, but I
know that our staff work with and especially the Parks and Ree Department, work with
considerable amount and so what are we doing in that range, cause I know there's been a
cut in funding and I want to make sure we're doing what we can do. Those are my
things.
Throgmorton/ Anybody else?
Taylor/ One thing I'd .... I'd like to see, speaking of equity, is, urn .... we're getting the new transit
buses and I think it's the time to .... to maybe look at our routes and, uh, have better
access, equal access, to all folks. Uh, it came out of the park study that there .... there is
some difficulty in, uh, getting some places. The bus stop is maybe half mile away
from... from the park, so they ride the bus and then they have to walk it. Maybe
rearranging that, and we've heard from folks on the east side of town that those bus
routes aren't as frequent as some on the south or the west part of town, or ... or even the
timing of the bus routes, and I think that's important, and we're still hearing about the
need for the shelters, and I know we budgeted for shelters, but I think there's still a need
for that, to have safe places for people to wait for the buses. I think that's important.
And then I can't stress enough the importance of the behavioral access center. I mean
we're hearing from the law enforcement folks that yesterday wouldn't have been soon
enough to have something like this in place and it really is important and we need to look
at the funding for that.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Anybody else?
Cole/ Yeah, I would like to. (clears throat) You know I .... I think in ... it's good that this is sort of
following up on our park's master pra... plan because I think one of the things that I would
like to see more of in that particular plan in terms of our funding priorities is very clear
goals about providing low-cost growing opportunities for everyone in the community,
and to really commit that in terms of a budget plan. I understand that this process, this is
the beginning of a conversation, not the end. The beginning of a dialogue, um, not
stopping it, um, but I think with that in mind, I think we really need to have a community
guideline.... or dialogue about very clear goals about what we will do in terms of over
time what our goals are for growing spaces. Um, I think that the proposal, I mean
obviously I know we can't quote on, you know, particular projects, but I think the .... the
proposal by Fred Meyer is the type of project that I think accomplishes a lot of our goals
in terms of increasing low-cost growing opportunities, providing, um, destination type
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 18
play spaces, and so I would really hope that we could come up with a similar type
concept in terms of budgeting priorities because that I don't think has been emphasized
enough so far. Although we've made a lot of progress on that. A lot of you know and a
lot of you know that I'm a big fan of the UniverCity program, um, but I think now is the
time for us to begin the conversation, is there a way that we can re -imagine and re -
envision that program, one — whether we can use those dollars more effectively than we
are now, I mean, right now we're limited to essentially a single-family model. Um, so
I'm hoping that as we then reconvene in ... in January, that we'll get a ... maybe a budget
proposal. We ... we'll think about after consultation with various stakeholders, whether
there's a way that we could more effectively participate in this program, to sort of
achieve our goals, and I think that's really going to be key now that we have some
limitations in terms of our regulatory tools that are available. And the third thing is, I
think one of the things that really struck me about that neighborhood plan, about how it is
so strong, is this question of neighborhood and cultural identity within those
neighborhoods. And how do we achieve that. I think one thing that we would do ... is to
adopt some sort of participatory budgeting framework for our various neighborhoods. So
I'm hoping that we can evaluate how we more effectively bring in those stakeholders,
because we all have blind spots, and I think we're more likely to be more culturally
attuned if we actually incorporate them in the decision-making process to the extent that
we can. Um, of course as Geoff talks about, there are competing priorities, um, and that
has limitations as well in terms of, um, you know, each person sort of views their own
particular point of view, but that said I think we need to really try to focus on that. So
those are the three areas that I was planning on talking about, although I also saw, uh,
Dan Cummins' article on The ArtiFactory, um, and I'm hoping at some point we can
incorporate a true, uh, creative space that we can use downtown, easier said than done,
um, but I think that's something hopefully we can achieve at some point in the future
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think that'd be good too.
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ Susan, you haven't had a chance.
Mims/ Yeah, um.....I don't think there's anything that anybody's mentioned that I don't agree
with from the standpoint that it's.... important and in an ideal world I would support.
Um, again, it comes down to the competing priorities, you know, as we .... as we've
talked about, and there's never a .... there's never enough money to (laughs) to do all the
things that we'd like to do and to do `em as fast as we would like. Um, I guess one of the
things, and I'll come at this a little bit differently maybe, and it probably won't surprise
any of you. One of my key priorities is that whatever we do .... continues to keep our
financial position in a very, very strong, uh, keeps in (mumbled) strong financial position.
That means continuing to build our reserves, um, you know, Geoff has ... has talked about,
and we've all talked about it at different times, the fact that, um, the backfill coming from
the State will probably end at some point, and when that happens, that's gonna hit us
hard. And that's when we're gonna have to start using those reserves, instead of building
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 19
those reserves, and so as long as we have that backfill, I think it's imperative that, um, we
continue to build those reserves. Um, I think as we look at some of these different, um,
ideas and ... and ways of spending money, I think one of the things we have to be really
cautious of is what does that mean in terms of the demands that we're placing on our
staff? Um, I think one of the things that .... to me has be ... become I think really apparent
and I think we've heard it more from some staff over the past six or eight months is ... we
passed a very, very aggressive and bold strategic plan about a year and a half, going on
two years ago, and we've accomplished a lot. Um, but it has also put an awful lot of
stress on our staff. Uh, we've cut, you know, 40 staff over the last few years. We've
got, you know, a leaner and more sustainable number of staff for going forward, and I
think we just have to be really careful that as we ... as we look at the budget and we look at
how we're gonna spend money and what kind of programming, that kind of. ... that needs
or... you know, any time we hire a consultant, that's not just hiran... hiring a consultant.
That is a lot of staff time that goes into working with that consultant and those kinds of
things. So, I just .... I hope that as we get into the .... the nuts and bolts of the budget, that
we kind of keep those things in mind, because I think everything that everybody has
mentioned are great ideas. Okay? I .... I liked some of your creative ideas, Rockne, with
the UniverCity program. Maybe there's some way of re -imagining that that ... we can do
some things cheaper and more effectively than .... than what we've done in the past. Um,
but I think to be sustainable, we .... not only have to really keep focusing on our budget, I
hope we can continue to decrease our tax levy, um.....but sustainability also means our
staff. We have got to be .... we have a lot of very, very good people that work for the City
and we've gotta be careful that we don't burn them out. And I'm afraid with the load that
we've put on them over the last 18 months that .... we .... we've just gotta be really careful,
cause I think we've pushed `em hard. I think they've done a lot of great things. I think
they're workin' hard to get those things done for us. Um, we've gotta be careful we
don't push too hard, so that ... I think that's important as we go forward.
Dickens/ I just have just a couple things. Uh, the access center is number one on my priority list
for you guys to do in the next year. (laughter) Um, parks I would say would be number
two, the master plan, because it really helps the most people in our city. Bicycle plan is
way down on my list, and I'll tell ya that $14 million over five years seems to be a lot of
money for 3 1/2% of our commuters or people. I know there's a very strong bicycle
group that's very vocal, but .... you talk to people that don't bike, they think $14 million
over so many years is a lot of money, and then ... when it goes along with this Gilbert
Street going to three lanes. The number of people (mumbled) you gotta be kidding. So, I
think be very careful as we're moving ahead if we're budgeting for this, cause I know
we're going to be talking about this over the next six months, that.—that, uh, I've already
heard people say, well, now that we have this process where we can do a petition to have
it put on the ballot, they're that serious about Gilbert Street. So, I don't think Gilbert
Street's just a done deal, as some.... some people think, with the park plan, so .... when
we're budgeting, looking at budget priorities, I mean there's..... there's certain areas that I
think we should be putting our money to help the most people and bicycles, from what
we talked about at the last meeting, 3 1/2% of our commuters are people that bike, I
mean, we want to get it up to 5%, but that's still a very small, uh, minority of. ... number
of people in the city. So .... just a different look on it.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 20
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay! Well, thanks, everybody.
Botchway/ (both talking) ...two things real quick. (both talking) One, return on investment, and
so as we're thinking about strategic plan priorities, can you give us some type of metric
back that speaks to .... I think John mentioned in the last meeting the affordable housing,
like what dent are we making, I mean, instead of just continually doing it, I mean, want
some return on investment, and then going back to Susan's point about staff and kind of
sustainability. I know that we get our, some of those things as far as what's going on, but
what's happening to make sure that we're promoting a healthy culture within our own
City staff. I don't think we ... we talk about that enough as far as, you know, are you
having fun? Do you enjoy coming to work? I mean, is this the greatest place to work, I
mean I think that you're the City staff, so if you're ... if it's not the case, then it's gonna
bleed into the community and I think that's a bad thing. Done!
Tbrogmorton/ All right! One minute! I counted. (laughs) Did you get what you need, Geoff?
Fruin/ Uh, yeah (laughter) I think so.
Mims/ There's not enough money for all the priorities! (laughter)
Fruin/ ...some things to work with! (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, we'll revisit this, uh, I don't know, come January, right? All right, so we're
gonna have to, uh, what's the right verb here, uh ... (several responding) adjourn the work
session till after the formal meeting and we'll pick up with clarification of agenda items.
Mims/ Which we won't need to do at that point! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Well, I don't know, some things .... (laughter) Okay, so thank you, all!
(BREAK FOR FORMAL MEETING)
(RECONVENE WORK SESSION)
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Item 2d(5) City Manager Signature Authority - Resolution repealing Resolution No. 15-301
and approving a new compilation of contractual authority delegated from the City
Council to the City Manager which grants the City Manager additional authority to
disburse Community Development Assistance, City Sponsored Event and
Community Event Funding consistent with the amounts Identified in the Annual
Budget; Sign Leases of Real Property for a Term of Three Years or Less, Contracts
with Entities Providing Grant Funding to the City when there is a City Match not
Exceeding $150,000 for which there is funding in the annual budget, and temporary
construction easements on city property with a duration not exceeding one year;
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 21
and, and eliminates authority for the Townerest urban renewal grants as those
programs no longer exist.
Throgmorton/ I know we just went through the agenda so there's not much to do here, but there
are a couple questions I wanted to ask. Uh, the first has to do with Item 2d(5), the City
Manager's signature authority. And I know we already voted on it and it's ... it's already a
done deal, but it ... as I read it, it seemed to me that the .... the delegation of authority was
...felt pretty broad. There .... there were some dollar amounts that .... that, uh, kind of
surprised me, uh, but we didn't have a chance to talk about it at all. Uh, so I wonder if
...uh, if, Geoff, maybe you could make a few comments about the .... the, uh, or maybe
Eleanor, cause I don't know really who ... who drafted this, uh, about the, uh, the
delegation of signature authority.
Frain/ The intent certainly was not to ... to broaden my authority but really to, I think, expedite
some .... some actions that we feel are fairly routine, and even though it's passed, it
certainly, uh, I don't want to create any, uh, type of situation where you're uncomfortable
with the signature authority I have. That's a ... um, a delicate issue, I understand. Um,
probably the biggest thing had to deal with the, urn .... the dispersement of community
development, uh, dollars. So, um, particularly those of you that have served on EDC
before, you know that you'll have groups come to you and you recommend funding. It's
Film Scene, the Englert, Riverside Theater, uh, EDC, and a whole number of other
entities that you recommend funding for. Um, what typically happens is .... is you
recommend the funding, we budget for that amount, and the full Council approves the
budget. In the past, we've been a little inconsistent with how we've, urn ... uh.... been
dispersing those funds. I think technically in all cases we should have come back to you
and.... and.... and I think in most cases we did. We came back to the Council for
dispersement of those funds. This would just give me the authority, assuming it's been
vetted in the .... by the EDC Committee, and it's been in the .... in the full, uh, adopted
in ... in the budget, uh, we're gonna do a better job in the budget, in the economic
development section, spelling out exactly what those individual dispersements are going
forward. Right now they're lumped into a single line item. Uh, the second, uh, piece,
um, would be temporary construction easements on ... on City property, uh, with a
duration not exceeding a year. This doesn't come up much. Um, but again, this would
be a short-term use of City property. I think the most recent example would be, um, for
a .... a developer that needs to do some, um, test, soil testing on City property. So we
talked about the Augusta Place. They needed to do some soil, um, sampling on that
property to prepare for the construction. Who .... who's best to approve that, does that
need to go through Public Works, City Manager, the Council? We felt as long as it's,
uh... run, a use of City property for less than a year that the City Manager authority was
okay. Anything... any use, uh, construction use of City property beyond a year would still
come to you. Um, the Towncrest grant program doesn't exist anymore, so we stripped
that out.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 22
Dilkes/ And then the....the final one is, urn .... uh.....leases of real property for a term of three -
years or less, um, that came from my office, um, just and ... and there's an example on the,
or was a suggestion by my office. There's an example on your agenda this time, which
was the Ashton House, the Project Green use of the Ashton House for two years. So it's
pretty minimal, uh, space, um....it....it took more time to accomplish that because we
have to go through the Council process. I mean it was really.... those kind of items, and
the 150 .... and then the grant funding, um, when we're getting money and, um, we have a
match that is, um .... uh, not exceeding 150,000, which is consistent with, um, the City
Manager's spending authority. Otherwise, um, also seemed reasonable because there are
rarely instances in which we will deny grant funding.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Fruin/ The other thing I'd point out is just because I have the signature authority to do it, often
times if I feel there's a political sensitivity to the issue, I'll still ... I'll still bring it to you.
Dilkes/ Yeah.
Item 2d(7) Space Sharing Agreement with Johnson County Ambulance Service -
Resolution authorizing the Mayor to sign and City Clerk to attest Iowa City Fire
Department Station 4 sharing and indemnification agreement with Johnson County
to allow the Johnson County Ambulance Service to utilize a portion of Fire Station 4
Throgmorton/ I understand that. Okay. Thanks. With regard to Item 2d(7), uh, and the sha
...space sharing agreement with the County Ambulance Service. I just wanted to note
that publicly, uh, especially if Bob Welsh is watching, because he's so happy about how
well the .... the various local governments are cooperating with one another, but it's really
good to see us extending that, um, agreement with the County with regard to
a .... um .... Fire Station #4 and letting them use some of the space there. So...just very
pleased to see that. All right, that's all I wanted to do with regard to agenda items that we
haven't already processed.
ITEM 14. Land Banking Guidelines - Resolution Adopting Land Banking Guidelines
Botchway/ Real quick! I know that we've already passed it, and again, I'm supportive of it, so
it's not an issue of that. Item 14, just going back, cause you kind of ..it was quick inner -
play and then I didn't want to spend too much time talking about it, the land banking
guidelines. For ..... the restrictive for the City money, that City money is restricted.
That's only that restriction. Like for example, the, um .... Affordable Housing Coalition
can use other dollars to spend on whatever property they choose to see .... okay. I ... I just
got confused and you kind of said it too quick.
Fruin/ The ... the affordable, uh, location, housing location model only deals with those situations
when City funds are involved in. So if, you're right, if different firm wants to do it on
their own, a non-profit or a for-profit, that's ... both in their right.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 23
Information Packet Discussion [July 20, July 271:
Throgmorton/ Okay, should we turn to .... to the first Info Packet. That'd be July 20"'. I ... I want
to say somethin' about IP #3, which is an article that appeared in Politico, concerning the
"Real Risks That Cities Face." I found that really interesting to read. Uh, it .... for people
that are watching, this involves mayors, urbanists, and other thinkers, uh, pointing out
threats that cities really will be facing in the future, rather than, uh, sort of dreamed up
worries about, um, rampant crime increasing and that kind of thing, I mean, crime's a
significant challenge, but .... not in the way some people talk about it. Uh, and I .... when I
read that I thought, man, that would be a really good, maybe this is the scholar part of me
talkin', but man, that would be a really good topic for some kind of. ... public discussion,
orienting around that particular article. So that we could, uh, kind of help us and the
members of the public look ahead to .... uh, you know, what's.... what's at stake with
regard to the coming of autonomous vehicles, for example. Uh, and... and all the other
topics addressed in ... in this particular article. Anyhow, I found that article really to be
quite fascinating and well worth talking about, uh, and discussing in detail.
Mims/ Yeah I thought it ... I would agree, Jim. I thought it was really interesting and ... I think the
challenge in reading that also is looking at I think some of those are much bigger risks to
much larger urban areas....
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Mims/ ...than ours. (both talking) Um, but some not, I mean, some are a risk for us very much
as well so .... it was interesting though.
Taylor/ I'll go back to IN again and Rockne's request. I'm very much in favor of approving
funding and having him go, uh, cause he'd said it's like two days, jam packed with, uh,
sustainability measures, and I was thinking some of those Rockne could almost present,
cause some of those things are things that we're already doing as a city, which was good
to see (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Sure.
Taylor/ But then there were other really neat things that I want to hear back about, like the
fueling fleets with compressed natural gas. That sounded really interesting. Using, like
from the Landfill and methane from that to .... to turn into fuel. I think that's just really
fascinating. I'd like to hear about that!
Throgmorton/ Yeah. I was pretty curious about the community growers program for youth in
Des Moines. (several responding)
Cole/ ....all sorts of that stuff (several talking)
Throgmorton/ And it's pretty inexpensive. We're not talkin' about big bucks (several talking)
Uh, I don't know, IP7, there's the ribbon cuttings for new Hoover, Lucas, and Weber on
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 24
the 2151 of August. I intend to go to each of those. I'll cut the ribbon and stuff. Anyhow,
anything else on the July 2001 packet? Okay. I don't see anything, so ... or hear anything.
July 27.
Dickens/ KXIC!
Throgmorton/ (several talking) ...we need to sound off here.
Mims/ I can do August 10h and September 21"
Taylor/ Actually.... are those dates right, in September? I thought when I looked in my
calendar.... the Wednesdays are 6", 13th, 200', and 270'. (several talking)
Thomas/ ....can you .... cause that was a date I had....
Mims/ No, I don't have to. Then I'll do September 200i.
Throgmorton/ I'd like to do August 9h. Uh, and I say that because it's .... I'm .... I'm due and I
can't do .... no, I can't do it on the 9`h! Never mind! Excuse me. Just read my own notes.
Taylor/ I can do September 6h. (several talking) You want to do 60'?
Botchway/ Yeah.
Taylor/ Okay! (laughter)
Dickens/ August 300i (laughter and several talking) August 300'1
Cole/ Has anyone called the 23rd yet?
Throgmorton/ I'd like to, cause .... (both talking) yeah, if. ... if I could. 23`d. (several talking)
Cole/ I could do the 4h of October.
Dickens/ Whatdaya got left?
Fruehling/ I think the 90 , the .... 130i, and .... the 270'.
Botchway/ So I can do the 130i, sorry, Pauline. I jumped (both talking) So I cando the (both
talking)
Taylor/ ....rather do the 201(both talking)
Botchway/ She can do the 60i, I can do the 130'.
Taylor/ Okay! You're good?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 25
Botchway/ Yeah.
Taylor/ I'll do the 6`h. (unable to hear person speaking away from mic)
Fruehling/ 27th, I'm sorry.
Dickens/ I'll do September 27`h.
Botchway/ My birthday's the next day so just remember (both talking) I can do August 9`h.
Taylor/ I thought Jim said .... I thought you said you could do August (both talking)
Throgmorton/ 23`a!
Taylor/ Oh, 23`a.
Botchway/ I can do the 9th.
Throgmorton/ August 23`a
Dickens/ Kingsley, 9h.
Throgmorton/ Does that fill it out?
Fruehling/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ Good deal! Okay, uh, other items? IP6, uh, the resignation letter from Doug
Boothroy. Uh, I .... I just want to say I found it to be a really lovely, um, sort of heart
...felt memo, uh, that really, urn .... uh, affected me, I know that. I .... I, and, uh, Doug has
served the City so admirably for 42 years, uh.... uh, and a lot of knowledge will be going
with Doug when he departs, and part of what I thought when I read that is, uh, maybe
Channel 4 could do like, I don't know, 15 -minute interview or something like that with
Doug, uh, asking him what's changed over 42 years, what he's learned, what his major
challenges have been, what he's most proud of, you know, that kind of thing?
Frain/ Wish the other staff was here to say .... to .... to hear you say that cause 15 minutes of Doug
(laughter) all of that (laughter)
Mims/ An hour and 15 (several talking and laughing)
Throgmorton/ So maybe a half hour, I don't know, that's for (both talking)
Frain/ Yeah, four-part mini-series. (laughter)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 26
Throgmorton/ But, uh, his, uh..... we should take advantage of the experience he has accumulated
and try to learn from it.
Mims/ Good idea!
Throgmorton/ Other items?
Mims/ I just wanted to thank John for IP7, urn .... thought there was some good stuff in there.
So .... kind of fit in a lot with some of the stuff we're talking about tonight, but good to
see stuff from different perspectives. So....
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and I'm guessin' it'll come back when we do our strategic plan discussion?
Thomas/ Yeah, I hope so. I hope it implanted (laughs) in your minds, uh, cause I .... I did feel
that it tied together a number of things that, you know, we've been talking about
and .... that I've been thinking about for years as to how.....how 1 mentioned when we talk
budget, about that whole fine grain issue, you know, that ... we tend to see some data in
aggregate and so .... between the Invest Health and the, uh, parks master plan, I think there
was some insight into how you need to dig a little deeper, and so I think the complete
neighborhoods might be a way to ... approach that.
Mims/ And then IP9, I was just glad to see that we're doing the community -wide survey. It'll be
interesting to see kind of the comparison between the last one and this one and know
there'll be a little bit different methodology on some things and I guess always good to
try to get that kind of information community -wide and see what people are thinking
about the City.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I was wondering about language other than English and Spanish.
Andrew/ Yes, we reached out to, uh, NCS to make sure that there would be options for that, um,
to mail out all 1,800 or 2,200 in, uh, more than those two languages becomes cost
prohibitive, but they did assure us that there will be options if we want to have people
say, come in and use our language line and take it in person here or if we want to
translate documents ourselves and make sure that we distribute those to folks that, um,
that want to participate in the survey and neither English nor Spanish is their first
language. Um, what we would do is include small cards in with the mailings, that
expresses if you want to take this in a different language then you, uh, can contact us and
we'll make it happen.
Throgmorton/ Okay! On IP #8, if I can jump to it. Uh, Sue Dulek asked us a question which we
need to answer, uh, you may remember there's a memo from Sue concerning a variance
of the housing code, that the Board of Appeals granted on July 13th for a building to be
constructed at 820 Cross Park Avenue. Uh, she tells us that a super majority of the
Council could overturn the variance if it so desires. So .... the question is, do we want to
consider, uh, vetoing the variance? And I can tell ya I don't.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.
Page 27
Mims/ I don't. This is for the chronically homeless....
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Mims/ ...housing, and so (both talking) got some variances that, because of that specific
population, that they think makes sense to minimize problems that they might have and
make it more conducive to those individuals.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Mims/ I felt comfortable with the variance.
Throgmorton/ So we're okay to ... just leave it as it is, right?
Thomas/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Let's see, anything else, anything else .... so, does anybody have any other
items to bring up there? Okay. That's it for the work session, correct? Okay, so we're
gonna adjourn the work session and .... turn to our executive session, right? Yeah, okay.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of August 1, 2017.