HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-06 TranscriptionPage I
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Mims, Salih, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Dilkes, Fruehling, Bockenstedt, Budding,
Knoche, Hall, Rummel, Dyson, Hightshoe, Matherly, Grier, Craig,
Kopping
Budget Overview and Highlights -City Manager's Office & Finance:
Throgmorton/ So let's begin our City ..... Iowa City City Council work session concerning the
budget for fiscal year 2019. Uh, first I'd like to thank all of you for coming. You're
responding... many of you are responding to an innovation that Kingsley Botchway came
up with, the idea of having a breakfast, uh, with the budget. So, kudos to Kingsley!
Great idea! I think we're all really pleased with it (applause and several talking) Uh,
likewise kudos to the staff for layin' out the donuts, the bagels, the coffee, the juice, and
all that, uh, thank you, Kellie. I think you probably organized all that. So ... we're all, I
don't know, pumped and ready to go. We only have a seven -hour meeting or whatever
(laughs) won't turn out to be that long probably, but ..... we're gonna begin with Geoff,
correct? I think the idea is Geoff s gonna give us an overview of our budget for the
forthcoming year.
Fruin/ Yes. Thank you, um, and I'm gonna have some help with the presentation. Ashley and
Simon are both gonna, uh, take a chunk of it so you don't have to listen to me talk for an
hour, hour and a half (laughter) Um, but I am going to start off, and I want to start off
with, uh, some thank yous. Pulling together, um, a budget for an organization of our size
is .... is no small task. It takes several months, and it really starts with, uh, our individual
departments, um, and .... and particularly the department heads that, uh, coordinate their
budgets, and uh, this year, uh, they made our job a lot easier by submitting very
responsible budgets, and I can tell ya there's probably not a department in the City that
wouldn't love to have a lot more financial resources to carry out the services they do to
the public, um, but the department heads understand the financial constraints and they
submit, um, budgets, uh, again that are very responsible, which makes the job of the
Budget Committee, um, much easier. The Budget Committee is just an internal group
that sits down with the.....each department and reviews their submittals, line by line, uh,
takes a couple of months to get through that process. Uh, Ashley, Simon, and I are on
that committee, ub, as is, uh, Dennis Bockenstedt, our Finance Director; Jacklyn
Budding, who's sitting over here; uh, Nicole Davies from the Finance Department, as
well; um, and uh, we complete that process and ultimately the Finance Department
creates the 680 -page budget that you have in front of you, which I'm sure you all read
over the last, uh.... uh, couple of weeks. Um, it is no small undertaking, uh, particular
thanks goes to the Finance staff with Dennis, Jacklyn, and also Cyndi Ambrose who
really do the heavy lifting to, uh, to pull that together. And then to, uh, Simon for the
work that he does. The presentation that you'll see, the transmittal letter that you read in
the budget are really the work of. ... of Simon, so we appreciate, uh, everybody's effort
there. Uh, today we're going to be talking about the operating budget, okay? So on
Tuesday we'll talk about the, uh, capital improvements' budget. Capital improvements
would be the major road projects, major parks and facilities. Um, today we're really
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focused on the operations, and uh, what we'll do today is, uh, you'll get a high level
budget overview, uh, from the City Manager's office and then one by one you'll have an
opportunity to interact with department heads as they, uh, tell you what's in their budget
and again, you'll have the ability to ask them questions about, um, not only things that
are taking place, uh, in their budget, but just operations in general, any questions that you,
uh, want to ask them. When it comes to the budget, um, it probably is the most important
decision that the Council makes. Um, if there's not resources in the budget behind a
particular initiative or project, the project's not gonna happen. So, um, really you should
feel free to ask any questions that you want, because anything that's on your mind
probably has a tie to the budget in some way, shape, or form. So whether that's today or
at a future work session, uh, please keep in mind that, uh, that the time is now to ask
some of those questions. Here's the schedule that you have in front of you. Um, the, uh,
March 15th date is, uh, required by State law, so that's the .... that's the end date that we
have, and there is a public hearing, uh, that has to take place before then. So really the
key dates that I want to have you focus on are January 91h and February 20'h. Okay?
January 9th is next Tuesday. That's when we review the capital plan with you, the sa.... in
that afternoon. Um, February 20'h is when we have to set that public hearing to meet the
State deadlines. You really have between January 9th and February 20th to complete your
budget deliberations and make the changes that you need to. Um, you can actually back
that February date, uh, up a little bit, uh, because obviously we have to prepare the
documents for the .... the setting of the public hearing. So really January 9t11, uh, February
10'h or 121h or somethin' in there, and that's when we'll have to work with ya to schedule
special work sessions, uh, as needed to .... so that you can deliberate, uh..... uh, any aspect
of the budget you need to. Uh, you do have a 680 -page budget in front of you. Um, it's
not realistic that you're going to be able to digest all of that information. You should
read any component of that budget that .... that certainly you.....you can and that you find
interesting, um, however, in order to kind of guide you, I would suggest that these
sections here, um, are .... are the pages that you really need to focus on. There's about 50
pages there. Um, if you, uh, cannot get to anything else, I would focus in on .... on these
particular sections. I think they're most.....most relevant to the policy making, uh,
decisions, uh, that you have, uh, with the budget, and .... and the most informative in
terms of some of our policies and our financial position right now. Gonna do, uh, a basic
overview of, uh, our fund structure. This is how the budget is organized. Um, what you
see, uh, in each of these little boxes, you can think of as individual accounts, and each of
these accounts have unique aspects to them. Uh, there're certain strings attached to each
one, certain limitations on, uh, what money can be spent on, and there's different revenue
mixes in each of these. So I won't go through all of them, but I'll hit some of the major
ones. You start on the top left of the screen with your general fund. We spend the vast
majority of our time focusing on the general fund. That is where most of the operating
services occur in the general fund. Your police, your fire, your parks and rec, your
administrative staff all take place in the general fund. Largely supported by property
taxes, and we'll get into that a little bit later. Um, that is where the real prioritization
takes place. Um, that's where you have the most discretion, um, but it's also where we
have a lot of the financial, uh, limitations, because of our dependence on property tax and
our .... really our inability to .... to add a whole lot of different revenue mixes, uh, or
revenue sources to .... to that, uh, particular fund. The next category over is our special
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revenue funds. Um, these are, um.....uh, individual funds that have very specific
purposes and very specific, um, revenue sources that support them. So you can start with
the top as .... as examples CDBG and Home. Those are two federal grant programs. That
.... those ..... those funds are, you know, what we get is what we get from.....from
Congress. Each year they decide what we get, and the ... the CDBG and the Home
program have very defined uses on how we can use those funds. Uh, road use tax would
be another good example. That's the .... the money that we get from the State, from the
fuel tax that people pay when they fill up their .... their vehicles. Um ..... we have very
specific limitations on how we can spend road use tax dollars. I can't take road use tax
dollars and build a park, or hire, uh, a ..... a staff person in the fire department. Um, so
those .... you can think of individual accounts that just have very narrow focus. Debt
service fund is .... is self-explanatory. Uh, when we borrow money, we have a .... um, a
debt service obligation, uh, so that's.... really, um, our tax.....we're bringin' in tax dollars
to pay off those bonds. Enterprise funds, uh, are treated like a business account. Um,
you can think of it as.....as the government running a business without the profit motive,
uh, in there. So each of these funds are designed to be self-sustaining, meaning that the
revenue that they bring in pay for the expenses that are going out. Uh, probably the
easiest way to focus on that is to look at some of the utilities, like a water account. What
you cha.... what we charge on the water bill is what we need to run the water system.
When we raise a water rate, we're not raisin' water rates to build new roads or to build
new parks. We're raising water rates to pay for the water system itself. So each of these
accounts that you see there, uh, are really designed to be self-sustaining. They each have
revenue, um, that directly relate to that particular service. Capital projects funds, again
that's what we're discussing on Tuesday, though it's the main...... that's the big projects.
A lot of what the public's usually interested in is when is this road gonna be improved,
when is this park gonna be built, uh, that type of thing. And the internal service funds,
we don't spend a lot of time on, uh, the .... with the budget deliberations. That's really
just the inner workings of the City, how do we pay for, um, our computers, our phones,
uh, our .... our fleet, uh, this is our insurance, uh, programs, things of that nature that ... not,
don't really reflect public services, but support the internal operations of the City.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, before you move on, I'd like to ask a question that maybe would be of
benefit for people in the public. Has to do with the enterprise funds. So am I correct in
understanding that the enterprise funds, the fact that we have enterprise funds, is really a
policy decision. They.... there's no legal mandate that we have specific enterprise funds.
If we wanted to .... I'm not tryin' to push this. I don't wanna do this actually, but we
could .....blend that all in with the general fund in some fashion?
Fruin/ Yeah, I would say you can.....you can use general fund dollars to support the enterprise
funds. So if you take transit for example, if you wanted to enhance transit service, um,
one of the options that you could do is look to raise money in the general fund and move
it over to transit to support that. Um, it typically wouldn't work the other way, where
you .... you're not gonna.....you're not going to use water rates to .... to fund something in
the general fund.
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Throgmorton/ Well I .... yeah, I guess I need to be more clear. The fact that we have, uh, a waste
water enterprise fund is a policy decision. That .... that's what I'm, all I'm tryin' to get at.
I .... I don't warm change it. (both talking)
Frain/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ That's a fact, so in the past, somewhere deep in the past, there wasn't such a thing
(both talking)
Frain/ Correct.
Throgmorton/ ...then there was.
Frain/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Frain/ Theoretically you could.....you could have no waste water fee to your residents and you
could pay that through the general fund. It'd be very rare but (both talking) you're
correct.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Frain/ Okay, I warm, um .... uh, just take a step back from the budget and ... and kind of set the
stage and make sure we understand the context in which we are operating, uh, right now,
and... and really.... we're in an era of robust growth in this community, and if you look
from 2010 to 2016, we've grown by 6,500 residents. Urn .... those are Census numbers,
um, that is a very, uh, robust pace of growth, and I'll give you a bit of perspective, uh, so
you can understand the magnitude of this growth. Here's using those same .... same years
and same Census data, here's some of the growth of the neighboring, uh, communities in
eastern Iowa. And inevitably every year when the Census Bureau comes out with their,
uh, population statistics you will get a rash of stories on the fastest growing communities
in Iowa. Iowa City never makes that list of the fastest growing communities in Iowa.
You .... you frequently will hear about North Liberty's or the Tiffin's and the Waukee's
which are experiencing phenomenal growth, um, but one thing I want to make sure that
you understand is we're adding more people than those communities are adding, and
when you hear the stories about the growth in North Liberty and Coralville, um, it's often
attached to the challenges with that growth, whether you're talking about housing,
whether you're talking about infrastructure, uh, public safety services, um, the .... the
challenges that they have are real, but so are the challenges that we have when we're
adding 6,500 people in six years. So a bit more perspective, uh, that I'll share with ya,
um, is that, uh, you know, in the last two decades, if you look at the 2000s, we only
added 5,600. In the 1990s we added 2,400. Um, we're on pace to add over 10,000,
maybe 11,000 residents in the decade that we're in right now, four more years, again, to
add to the 6,500. We will probably add more population this decade than we've added in
any other decade in Iowa City's history, except the 1960s. I don't think we'll probably
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get there, we could, but in the 1960s we added 13,407 residents. So, robust growth, uh,
that we are experiencing, and there's a lot of challenges, uh, that come with that.
Um ... and that effects, you know, certainly the policy, uh, side of things, but also it effects
on the staff side the operational and the service delivery side of things. Um, the service
demand challenges I .... I just, uh, mentioned, uh, I wanna just give you a .... a sense of
where the City as an organization is, so I'm not talking about the external community.
I'm talking about your 600 -plus employees right now. Um, during this period of robust
growth, we've had exceptional change, um, in the City organization. So typically when a
community is growing as rapidly as we are, you would find that we're also adding
employment to, um, bolster those services, you know, 6,500 residents need fire
protection. They need police protection. They need new parks. Um, but actually during
this time we've reduced our workforce by 5%, which is about 30 positions, and we've
done so out of necessity, uh, financially. Um, we've also turned over 60% of all our
management and our confidential employees. Um, if you look at the department....
Department head positions, we've nearly turned over 100%. Not .... not quite there, but
we're pretty darn close and there's a list up there. Clerk, City Manager, Neighborhood
and Development Services, Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Transportation Services,
Finance, Police, Fire — some of the posi.... some of the people holding those department
head positions have been with the City a long time. They were internal promotions, but
some are external too. Um, regardless, there's challenges that come when you turn over
that high a percentage of your management staff. You lose a lot of institutional
knowledge, um, and .... and that's a .... that is a challenge for us. Some departments are
completely turned over. If you look at all their management staff. One of our biggest
ones is Public Works. Not only has the department head changed, uh, but each of the
operating divisions, the .... the leadership in those divisions has changed, sometimes twice
in our Streets division. So ..... there's a lot of challenges that come with that, and um, I
think our staff has responded, uh, extremely well, but this is the equation I talked to our
Supervisors about when I met with them a couple months ago, this is what I'm tellin' ya
— we have a rapidly growing community. We have some shrinking operational resources,
and we have high management turnover. That makes for a really difficult, um, equation,
and that's the backdrop at which we're gonna be having, uh, our discussions, uh, today.
So let's jump into, um, the budget goals. We have three budget goals that we want to, uh
.... uh.... convey, to you, as .... as we put this together. Um, one is responding to property
tax reform changes while maintaining service levels to meet the growing population and
the increasingly diverse population that we have. So it's not only that our population is
growing, but the makeup of our community is different, and our services need to evolve,
uh, to reflect, uh, the changing demands in our.....in our community. So, uh, a few of the
things we've done to address these budget goals, and this isn't just a one-year effort.
This has been a goal of ours since 2013 when the State, uh.....uh, passed the property tax
reform. We've really focused on building our reserves. Our reserves are our savings
account. Um, in each of those boxes I talked about earlier, um, we've really focused on
making sure that we have healthy savings accounts so that we can address sudden drops
in revenue, uh, for instance as we'll talk about if the State takes away the backfill. We
want to make sure that we are prepared to address that. Uh, with this particular budget,
um, we are able, uh, to add and we're recommending that we add some positions in our
Housing Inspections and our Police Department to bolster some of the core services, and
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we think, uh, do so in a way that reflects the Council's, uh, strategic plan. We're also
makin' a concerted effort to invest in technology to increase, um, the, um ..... uh, ability of
the current staff to do their job more efficiently, and there's some examples up there. Uh,
we're gonna get into a conversation about expanding the downtown camera network, for
example, in the Police Department. Um, that is not a .... not only a, you know, you
shouldn't think of that as not only a public safety measure, but one that frees up a lot of
time in our Police Department. You know we spend hundreds and hundreds of hours in
investigatory work, uh.... uh, on downtown crimes that take place, that a camera system
could relieve. So when we think about how do we grow our Police Department to meet
the growing population, this is one way. It's not always adding staff. It's also utilizing
technology, and then understand that that's a very important policy discussion that you all
will need to have, but, um, that's what we're lookin' at, and .... and one of the things, uh, I
want to make sure you understand is when we look to the technology, often times the
technology is a one-time investment, um, as opposed to an annual, on-going .... or if there
is an annual on-going component, it's a much lower, um, cost than .... than the initial
capital outlay. We're in a position right now where I feel much more comfortable
making that one-time commitment financially. Um, because there is some uncertainty
with property tax reform going forward, I have .... I have hesitation in adding staff
because when I hire a staff person I wanna make sure that I can be confident that we're
gonna have the resources to su.... to support that staff person in five years, in 10 years. I
don't wanna ever hire somebody and in three years say, uh, I'm song. We don't have the
financial resources to support you, and that's what the property tax reform does. It puts a
big cloud of uncertainty, uh, over our ability to continue operations at the .... at the current
level. When we can invest in technology, again, that's a one -rime outlay that can really
help our staff, um, but it doesn't give .... it doesn't have that same, uh, cloud of
uncertainty going forward. Uh, the second budget goal, uh, which I know is very
important to you is to make sure that the funds that we are spending reflect your, uh,
strategic plan, and uh, reflect the master plans that we've recently adopted, uh, that are
rooted in great community input, and .... and we talk a lot about, uh, the bicycle master
plan and the parks' plan. Obviously the community contributed greatly to those plans.
They were widely accepted, uh, by the City Council, and we want to make sure that this
budget is.....is, um .... uh, going to accomplish what those plans, uh, laid out. Uh, and I'd
say the same for the .... uh.....um, plans that are in progress right .... right now, including
the climate action plan. So I won't go through the list there. This is a high level. We....
we will go through in more detail throughout the day of how the budget is addressing
your plan, but these are some high level topic areas that we feel our .... our budget, uh,
that we're recommending to you, um, addresses. It'll be your decision to, you know, to
tell us if ...if the, you know, if there're sufficient funding behind each of these things, but
um, we can certainly point to, uh, areas in the budget where, um, we're addressing each
of those bullet points. Our third.....our third, um, goal is to maintain an affordable tax
and fee environment for our residents and businesses. Uh, this is, uh, probably will
always be a goal when we compile a budget, uh, but we're very proud, and I hope you are
too, that, uh, we're looking at a seventh straight year of a property tax rate reduction.
We're going to spend some time talkin' to you about, uh, that today. Uh, we're not
recommending any new taxes, uh, with this, uh, particular budget. Uh, we are
recommending one fee increase, which is the, uh, 5% increase in the water rate and that's
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really to reflect the, uh, system maintenance needs that we're projecting out over the next
five or six years. Um .... so when we get into the capital plan and you start to look at the
water investments, how many water mains we're replacing and where we, uh, are making
improvements to our system, we need funding to support those, and uh, it's ... it's a 5%
increase is .... is what we're lookin' at there. And we're not lookin' at increases in any
other, uh, utilities at this time. So, what is the cause for concern? I talked about the, um,
uncertainty going forward, um, and uh, I apologize in advance. You're going to be sick
and tired of me talking about property tax reform by the end of the day. Um, but it
absolutely effects everything that we do and we plan for going forward. Um, and I'm
gonna start now. So the commercial backfill and, uh, this is, urn .... uh, a .... a check that
the State writes us, every year, uh, so when property tax reform was implemented, uh,
commercial properties, uh, received a .... a tax break, and the State said, `Don't worry,
cities, you're gonna be left whole. We're gonna write ya a check every year.' Um, you
know if you've been following the news, and I've shared a lot of articles with you, uh,
that commercial backfill continues to be in jeopardy, and it looks increasingly likely that
it will either be taken away or .... or phased out. And so we're gonna have to adapt to
that. Multi -residential tax ability, these are the apartments, um, you know that, um, as
part of the reform, um.....uh, multi -residential properties received significant tax break
that's.... that's still be phased in and will be phased in for, uh, another five or more years,
um, that's just somethin' we're gonna deal with. Every year our tax base erodes as they
get, uh, more, um, more savings from their... their, uh, their tax bill. Uh, we have a
declining residential rollback, and so this is your single-family, how single-family
properties are .... are, um, taxed, and we're gonna get into that. And then these are some
things that are .... that, uh, volatile expense items. This is always going to be the case with
City budgets. We have expense items that are hard to predict from year to year. Fuel
prices, uh, we've benefited from low fuel prices from a budget standpoint, uh, for several
years, but it....it didn't, you know, it wasn't.... what, four or five years ago when fuel
was .... was almost, you know, twice what it is now. In an operation like ours, and you
think about all the cars and vehicles that we have on the streets, that can really shoot a
hole in your budget. Uh, healthcare's another one. We're gonna talk a lot about growth
in the city. We've obviously experienced a tremendous amount of growth, and that's
really helped us through these first four years of. ... of, uh, the first few years of, uh, the
property tax reform. Um, it's not likely that we're gonna sustain that growth, and so I
wanna talk about where I think we're gonna end up and .... and the challenges that that's
gonna present. And I think we're seein', uh, particularly in this past year, uh, a whole lot
of uncertainty in some key industries in town, and this has more of an indirect impact on
the city, but you look at the healthcare industry right now, and uh, we're certainly, with
UIHC and Mercy, very dependent on the healthcare, um.....um, industry in our
community, and there's some tough financial times that they're experiencing now, plus a
whole lot of uncertainty in the healthcare field. If. ... if those major institutions, Mercy
and UIHC, are not expanding, investing, bringing in new people, uh, if they're cutting
back their workforce, that has a ripple effect through our entire economy. That affects
housing starts, that affects, um, the success of. ... of local businesses. So that's a .... that's
a challenge, and certainly the University itself, which is our major economic engine, um,
we know the discussions that have been taking place over the last few years at the State
level, and how the State is funding the University, or how the State is more appropriately
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not funding the University. So what changes might they go under? Um, are they going
to be looking at, uh, cuts and reductions in workforce and we have to understand, that's
not a direct impact on our budget, but affects how we project growth, uh, in our
community, and reinvestment, uh, in our community. So this is the property tax reform
slide that, um, some of you have seen for several years now. Don't want you to worry so
much about the, um, narrative at the top. I want to focus on the, uh, graphic on the lower
right-hand side of the screen, and it's a little difficult to read but, uh, what you have, um
....uh, across the bottom is, uh, is your.....your years. So it starts over at fiscal year 1980
and goes all the way to fiscal year 2024, which is.....which is when the property tax
reform is .... is fully phased in. And you have three different color, uh, actually four
different color lines there. You have the blue line which has the .... the greatest volatility.
That's the, um, you can think of as your single-family homes, and this is showing what
percentage of each of these categories, uh, which percentage of their value is taxed. Um,
and then you have the green and the red, uh, green is industrial, red is commercial.
You'll see that those lines were .... were even at 100% for many years. And the fourth
line doesn't come into play until the very right-hand side of the graphic. That is the
multi -residential. Multi -residential never existed prior to property tax reform. Multi -
residential, if you owned an apartment building, it was considered to be a commercial
property. Right? That makes sense. That's probably your job. That's what you do for a
living. If you owned an apartment building. Uh, the State legislature said, `No, I think,
uh, I don't think that's really a commercial enterprise anymore. I think it should be more
of a residential type of tax structure, and that's why you see that purple line eventually
meet the blue line. The goal of the State was to say that the apartment should be taxed
the same way as single-family home is. So what you see here is that for a long, long
period of time, at the very top of that graph with the green and the red, that commercial
properties, uh, and industrial properties were taxed at 100% of their value. So if you
owned a commercial property that was worth a million dollars, you paid taxes on a
million dollars, uh, of value. Well the State said, `We want to bring that down, uh, as a
way to, um, help businesses and .... and encourage reinvestment, uh, from businesses, we
want to bring that down to 90%.' So you can see how it drops down and then it flattens
out again. It's gonna stay at 90%. Well that gap, that short little diagonal line, that
represents the backfill. That's that check that the State writes us every year, and that's
about $1.5 million. I've got a slide after this that'll break that down. That's where the
State told us, `You're okay, cities. We're gonna .... we're gonna keep funding you.' The
purple line, um, is that multi -residential line, and you can see on the table to the left that
every year, um, it goes down about another 3 '/2, 4%, um, and the budget that we're
talkin' about right now is .... is 78.75%. So if you.....five years ago owned a million
dollar apartment building, you paid taxes on a million dollars worth of value. In this
coming budget year, you're only going to pay taxes on 78% of that million dollars. So on
your 780,000, um, so you can see that every year that goes down, every year that's our
tax base eroding. We have to make up for that, uh, somehow.
Throgmorton/ Especially since we've had a great deal of investment in multi -family structures
over the past few years, and have more coming online.
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Fruin/ Absolutely. Absolutely. This is .... when I talk about my reluctance to add a whole lot of
operating, uh, comm .... long-term operating commitments is because I know that our tax
base is gonna continue to be chipped away and I don't know if we're gonna have the
same resources to support that. I feel comfortable at this point sayin' the status quo
operations we can continue to fund through this property tax reform. I do feel
comfortable in that. I think the steps that were taken when I started this and I said we had
to reduce our workforce 5%, I think those steps were really, really important and they put
us in a position to kinda keep the status quo going forward. Unfortunately, we're not a
status quo community. We're a growing community, but I .... I have some hesitation
to .... to add be .... particularly because of this multi -residential piece.
Salih/ (unable to understand) multi -residential piece is that they are not doing any backfill, right?
Fruin/ Correct. Yes.
Salih/ And the goal, their goal is by 2024 to be just like residential?
Fruin/ Yes, that's correct. So the blue and the purple become essentially one line. The blue line
is your single-family homes. That's always been very volatile. There's a .... a
complicated State formula that we use to determine the taxability of single-family, uh,
residential properties. Um, and you can see it's been as high as 80%. It's been as low as,
roughly 44% I think, and we have a slide that'll blow this up, but ... um, you know, simply
put, the lower that number it is, the better it is from a homeowners' standpoint. You're
payin' lower amounts of taxes, but from a budgetary standpoint in the City, we're not
getting those same number of resources. So over the last few years you've seen that
slowly go up for us. Well that's another reason we've been able to get through the first
few years of. ... of property tax reform because our residents..... or our single-family
residents are payin' more and more taxes. That's offset some of those losses. This is the
first year in which we're actually star -tin' to come back down, and that presents a
budgetary challenge to us.
Thomas/ Geoff, how...... this..... this reduction in the multi -family percentage, is that typical for
other states? Where .... how does.....how does that compare with other states?
Fruin/ Yeah it's really hard to .... to compare the, um, the tax structure from.....from state to state.
It's.....it's very different. I .... I don't have, um ..... uh, a good answer for ya, uh, John, on
that. I would say.....I would find it very uncommon to think, um, I would be surprised I
should say if, um, apartments were treated like residential property in other states. They
might be, but I'd be surprised. I think intuitively most people think that that's a
commercial enterprise. So I'm gonna break down each of these components for ya and
just give ya some.... some perspective, uh, on .... on what that means. So this is .... this...
the backfill, this is that 10%, uh, that I've talked about a couple of times. Uh, for us it
means 1.5 million and it .... it's.....it's not just a 1.5 million, um, that .... that, uh.....we can
use anywhere we want. It effects all our different levies. So when we tax, when we set
our tax rate, it's actually made of many different levies, um, and we'll get into those, but
um, you can see how it impacts each .... each of.....each of our different levies. So if
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general fund takes the biggest hit, that's, uh, you know, almost $800,000 of. ... of loss that
we would see. Transit would take a .... a big hit. Um, and even the SSMID district, the,
uh, Iowa City Downtown District, uh.... uh, because they have a tax levy you guys have
authorized. They would take a hit on .... on the backfill, uh, bein' removed. So what's
$1.5 million mean to us? Well, if you wanted to .... to pass that along through a property
tax reduction, you'd knock off 44 -cents on your tax rate. Um, it would mean roughly 15
police officers or firefighters. Uh, and then you can see it also would be, uh, the
combination of all our pools, uh, the Animal Shelter and the Forestry Division combined.
So it's a huge, huge chunk of money for us. Um, you know, to give you an example of...
of, uh, you know, on the fire side, we need.....we need a minimum of 12 firefighters to
open up a station. So we lose $1.5 million, that's the equivalent of. ... wiping off a.....of a
fire station. I'm not sayin' that's gonna happen if the State takes away the backfill. I
don't want that to get out there, but I'm just tryin' to give you some perspective on.....on
what $1.5 million means. Again what I really want to convey with this budget is .... with
the.....with the backfill going away, I feel comfortable because of the preparations that
have been made, that we can maintain status quo, but I can't look at the Fire Chief and
say, `Yeah, you know what, we're gonna be able to add another fire station in the next
few years.' Because obviously we're losin' a lot of financial resources. That's the
backfill. Let's go to multi -residential. Um, multi -residential has been incrementally
impacting us every year. If you remember that table, it's about 4% a year, uh, that that
impacts us. For fiscal year 19, when the apartments are taxed at 78.75% of their assessed
valuation, that means if you applied our tax rate to the difference between the 78% and
the 100% that they used to be at, that's another $1.6 million. So now the multi -
residential, with this budget, has become more costly than the commercial backfill. And
that number's gonna continue to grow, year after year after year. Um, to give you some
perspective on what $1.6 million means to us, it's pretty similar to the last slide. Um, but
uh, it's also what we spent on road resurfacing this year. Our entire road resurfacing
budget was $1.6 million this year. Um, that's what we'd lose. We could double our road
efforts, um, without the .... without those dollars.
Mims/ And, Geoff (clears throat) sorry if you can't understand me. Can you clarify that 1.6
million is the tax revenue that we have lost on the apartments since property tax reform
started?
Fruin/ That's.... that's an annual number.
Mims/ It's an annual (both talking)
Fruin/ That's an annual number. Um....
Mims/ Thank you.
Fruin/ ....it's about, I think about, um .... I think the first year was roughly 900,000 or so. The
second year was about 1.2, 1.3, and this year's gonna be 1.6. So you can think of it
growing probably several hundred thousand dollars per year. So next year when I show
you this slide, I'd probably guess it's gonna be around two.... million. This is the
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residential rollback here. Um, and again this is the single-family taxability, and uh,
you'll see from .... from really 2006 roughly up until the current year it had steadily
increased. Uh, this is the first year that we've actually seen a ..... a drop, um, so we
dropped 1.3 points, or .... or, uh, the equivalent of 2.3%. Just another challenge for us,
um, as we, uh, as we look to maintain our operations. Okay, my last slide before I tum
the, uh, presentation over to Simon, um, how have we navigated this so far?
We're.....we're a few years in here. How has the City been able to do this? Well, um,
largely because of the great robust growth that we've had. So the chart that you see
across the top is the building permit construction value in, uh, from 2008 to 2017. So you
have a 10 -year history here. Um, so when someone applies for a building permit, they
have to tell us what the value is of whatever they're building — the home, the remodeling
project, the.... the commercial building — um, and you can see, I broke .... I broke it out
into kind of four-year segments here, from 2008 to 2011 our community was seein' on
average $100 million in, uh, new construction. Um, that started, we started to experience
a large uptick in the 2012 to 2015 era, where that jumped all the way up to 161. Really
phenomenal jump there. You think about a 60% growth over those four years. And then
2016 and 17 happened, particularly 2016, where we blew everything out of the water in
terms of any records that we would have. We had $388 million in, um, value added to
our community. We just closed the book on 2017, and uh, we finished just over 200,
which again (laughs) is a phenomenal year, looking at this trend. But I can tell ya, um, I
don't believe that we'll be over 200 next year. Just knowing what's coming and you
have to understand, there's a huge lag in, uh, these values. For example, uh, in December
of 2017, um, what put us over the edge was a $44 million permit that was pulled on the
Chauncey project. Okay? So.....usually, particularly with the.....the larger projects,
you're doin' incremental building permits. You're gonna get a foundation permit. Then
you're gonna get kind of a structural steel permit, and .... so, these things take some lag,
and just knowing what we have coming in, I think we're going to come back down to
normal levels, uh, that we should expect, uh, going forward. Um, which is still going to
be strong growth. (laughs) We've got some really good projects coming forward. We're
just not gonna, you know, match the Hilton Garden and The Rise, The Chauncey, you
know, those were .... those were things coming together at one time that it's probably
pretty rare that .... that, uh, we'd see that coming again. There's a lot of narrative on the
bottom. I'm not gonna provide that to ya. I think the .... the.....the biggest thing I wanna
stress is this .... this fifth bullet point, the last one there. When I talk about maintaining
status quo operations, you have to think about 3 to 4% growth per year. If you just think
of salaries and benefits, we're..... we're lookin' at 3 to 4% per year, uh, just to maintain
status quo, and so when you talk about losing the State backfill, that's 10% of
commercial value that we'd lose. We talked about the multi -family of 4% a year. Um,
and then we talk about the residential rollback that's startin' to decline. All of a sudden
we're in a pretty big hole to start. We gotta.....we gotta grow out of those holes, we gotta
make up for that backfill, we gotta make up for the multi -residential, we gotta make up
for the residential, and then we've gotta find another 3 to 4% on top of that to maintain
status quo. If we wanna add, you gotta get on top of that more. So, as this growth comes
down, there will be a significant challenge just to maintain status quo, and I think we'll
get there, but to think about expanding services? It's .... we're gonna be really hard
pressed to do so. I ..... I'm very happy that we can recommend to ya a .... a couple of new
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Police positions and some Housing Inspections poli.....positions, and I hope over the next
few years you're gonna see strategically added positions, you know, one here, two here
but... there's.....there's not gonna be a time in which I'm comin' forward in the next few
years and say, `Hey, we can add six or seven positions in a given year.' I just don't think
we'll get there. So that's the backdrop at which we're at. The .... the rest of the
presentation, Simon's gonna walk you through some of the particulars on the revenue.
Ashley's gonna walk you through particulars on the expenditure side, and then I'll kinda
provide a wrap-up before we get into the department presentations.
Botchway/ Hey, Geoff (both talking) Oh, go ahead!
Throgmorton/ Go ahead.
Botchway/ Geoff, before you move forward, you talked about, um, going back down to levels of
like kind of average growth. Were you talking about that 161 average level?
Fruin/ Um, yeah. I .... I think, um, I think that's probably realistic for next year. I would .... I
would think, um ... you know, it's a shot, it's kind of a shot in the dark, but um, I think
we'll be at that, 150 to 170, 175, uh, we've got some.... some decent size projects corrin
forward that would push us there. Um, but .... but again, you know, it's not just the big
projects. You know, last year we had 150 new single-family homes built, which doesn't
sound like a lot but that's.... that's quite a bit, and if ya, you know, you multiply out what
the value of those are, that .... that adds quite a bit too, and that's why I talked about
earlier when key industries in our community are facing uncertainty, if they're not hiring,
if they're not replacing positions, we're not gonna see those same single-family starts.
We're not gonna see new apartment buildings built, uh, because there.... there's that
uncertainty in those key positions. So that's gonna contribute to I think, uh.... um, a
declining growth, but make no mistake, um, you know, if we're above hun.....hundred
million, I think we're doin...... we're doin' pretty good.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, I wanted to ask about recent, uh, the rec.... sorry! The recent enactment at
the Congressional level of federal tax cuts, and I'm quite aware that many states around
the country, and some cities — I don't know how many — have been tryin' to conjure up
creative alternatives in response to uncertainties generated by that Congressional set of...
Congressional tax cuts. I wonder if you have any thoughts about .... what we know is
gonna filter down our way with regard to those tax cuts, and then whether you've seen
anything in terms of innovative ideas about (both talking)
Fruin/ ....lot of conversation about that, but um .... I ..... I don't have any conclusions that I could,
you know, I could share with ya at this time. I think there is a lot of uncertainty, um, I
think more so at the State level, as you look at the questions of federal deductibility and
those types of things, um, and how the State's gonna respond to that. Um .... um, you
know, I'd be happy to .... to try to pull together some information for Council on that, um,
there's a lot of conversations with cities right now, but I'm not sure there's a clear picture
going forward. But we'll.... I'll..... I'll follow up with ya on that.
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Andrew/ All right! Uh, moving deeper into revenues. Uh, Geoff discussed a lot of the factors
that affect our revenue mix, so, uh, now we'll move into, uh, what that revenue mix
actually is.
Throgmorton/ Simon, just.... just to be clear, you're Simon Andrew (both talking)
Andrew/ Oh I'm sorry! I should start with that (both talking) I'm Simon Andrew, Assistant to
the City Manager. Uh, I appreciate everybody coming today! This is by far the biggest
turnout we've had for a budget work session since I've been here, and I think it's
fantastic that, uh, the public came out for it. Uh, so the first slide here is, uh, all funds
revenue. So this covers all of the boxes on the previous slide that Geoff showed you with
all of the different accounts, all the different funds we have. So this is all of those funds,
uh, other than the internal service funds. Um, as you can see, very heavily reliant on
property taxes, uh, and again Geoff noted the need to have an increase of 4 to 5% a year
just to maintain status quo services, uh, so you see in those property taxes we're a little
above that and, um, we'll get into the reasons for that in a little bit here. Um, overall
across all of our funds we're down about 3%, uh, compared to last year, and this largely
has to do with, uh, both a decrease in inter -governmental revenue, um, largely due to, uh,
bus purchases. A federal grant that came in, uh, the 2018 revised budget and um, some
differences in, uh, bonding, uh, versus using, uh, general fund dollars for some capital
projects, and that is in the, uh, other financial sources line. Uh, so probably a little more
digestible way to look at that, uh, those numbers, is this pie chart here. Again you see
a .... across all of our funds, we are, uh, heavily reliant on property taxes. Uh, the next
biggest slice of that pie is charges for services. So those are your water bills, your sewer
bills, parking permit fees, uh, recreational programs. Uh, next biggest piece of our
revenue mix is inter -governmental revenue. Uh, as I noted this includes the federal inter-
governmental revenue was the biggest piece of that, um, as well as the road use tax funds
and local 28E agreements for services. Um, then we get into much ..... (mumbled) drops
off significantly after that, uh, you get into animal adoption fees, debt sales, um,
hotel/motel taxes, etc. Uh, so again, as Geoff noted, we focus mostly on the general fund,
uh, at this, uh, point in our budget deliberations. It's where, uh, you all have the most
discretion and uh, it's where, uh, we fund our core services that the public really
identifies as our core services — police, fire, parks and recreation — uh, very heavily
reliant on property taxes, and this is largely due to, uh, constraints at the State level. The
State really dictates to us what we can use as a revenue source and how those, um, are
structured. Um.....the next biggest slide, uh, the next biggest slice in that, again, is inter-
governmental, uh, revenue. Uh, so our overall property tax receipts over the last decade
are on this slide. Um, again you can see that we've had a little over a 4'/s% increase as
compared to last year. Um, but if you look back over the several previous years, if you
keep in mind that we need 3 to 4% to, uh, maintain status quo services, you'll see several
years in there, um, where it was below 3 to 4%, um, or even a negative number, and that
is when we were starting our response to property tax reform. That's when we started,
um, reducing our workforce, uh, almost exclusively through attrition that, uh, Geoff
noted, uh, getting that, uh.... ub, total employee count down about 5%, and uh, doing
some other things — debt restructuring — uh, to prepare for property tax reform. So you
see in those, uh, 2013 to 2015 years, um, is when we really focused on controlling costs.
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In 2019, um, part of that increase above the 3 to 4% is, uh, additional resources devoted
to a strategic plan initiatives, uh, that Council wants to see, and um, the more transfers to
capital project funds to catch up on, uh, some deferred maintenance. Uh, property tax
rate trend, uh, as Geoff noted as well, this is our seventh consecutive recommended
decrease in the property tax levy, um, but if you, uh, think of this chart in, uh, concert
with the slide right before it, um, you'll note that even in most of those years where we
were decreasing our rate, uh, people were still paying more in dollars on their property
taxes, and that's related both to valuations and that residential rollback figure. Uh, so this
is the first year in those seven years that both the residential rollback figure went down,
and our levy went down. So people will be paying less, assuming that their valuation
stayed the same, they will be paying less in real dollars, as compared to the previous year.
And it's important to keep in mind the overlapping property tax rate too and there's
another chart, uh, we'll get to on the next slide, um, but of course, uh, residents don't pay
property taxes just on our revenue. Uh, the three biggest slices of that are, uh, the City,
the County, and the School District. And we should be mindful moving forward, um,
that .... of the, uh, property tax rates of those other, um, of those other institutions. So we
know that both the School District and Kirkwood, uh, have significant facility needs and,
uh, their property tax rate will likely increase in the years going forward, um, to help fund
those, and those are things that, um, our community really wants to see and that, uh, City
Council's support ... uh, supported, especially in the School District's bond levy, um, so as
those levies go up, we will want to be mindful of, uh..... making ours go down or as best
we can, uh, balancing out that increase in the other levies, so residents don't see a
dramatic increase in their overall, uh, property tax bill. Uh, the line across here, now the
percentages on the right are a pretty narrow window, so that line's probably a little bit
misleading, but um, you can see our percentage of the overall total of, uh, the property
tax levy, um, and so we're down in the .... the low 40s now, but as those others increase,
uh, we would want to account for that. Uh, so other major revenue sources — in most of
our slides you'll see us project out a couple of years, um, on this one, this is just the past
four years of actuals. Uh, we budget for these very conservatively, uh, given the
uncertainty in these, uh, revenue sources and, uh, the.....the volatility that is included in
them. Uh, hotel/motel tax you'll see is increasing pretty steadily, um, over the last
several years and we expect that to increase quite a bit in the next few years. Um,
between .... um, 2012 and 2019, uh, 91 % increase in hotel rooms in Iowa City is expected.
Uh, and so that includes hotels that have recently come online, such as the Hilton Garden
Inn, uh, but we also have Hyatt Place, The Element, uh, The Chauncey that will have
hotel rooms added to our community's inventory as well. Uh, gas and electric excise tax,
uh, this was ..... this replaces property taxes that used to be charged on, uh, utility
companies. Um, it does float with valuations in our property tax rate, uh, but it is meant
to account for what the property taxes would have been for those utility companies if it
was charged on the property and not on the service delivery. And then the final one on
this slide is the utility, uh, franchise tax. Uh, this is a tax that we charge on utility bills.
Uh, currently Iowa City charges 1% on utility bills. Um, this was originally passed, uh,
to help fund Fire Station #4 on the east side of town. Um, this floats quite a bit with, uh,
the weather. So you'll see in fiscal year 2014 there was a spike there. That was a, uh,
very cold winter and so, uh, utility usage went up quite a bit that year, so .... again, a
volatile, uh, revenue source. Uh, Council can go up to 5% on that, um, and you'll see on
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a.....a subsequent side later what other cities have their rates currently at. Uh, that was
does not need to go to a referendum. Council can, um, act on their own to set that
anywhere between zero and 5%.
Throgmorton/ Let me follow up on that.
Andrew/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Am I correct in understanding that we could increase it to, I don't know. 1.5%,
1.6%,1.7% (both talking)
Andrew/ I believe that's correct, that it doesn't have to be in whole number increments, but I....
I'd have to follow up on that, but yeah, my understanding is anywhere between zero and
five. Uh, cable franchise revenue, uh, so these, uh, revenues have been declining over the
last several years. Uh, you know you have, uh, fewer subscribers in a lot of cases. Um,
our City franchise agreement, uh, with Mediacom expires on July I" of this year. There
was a, uh, State law change in 2007, 2008 timeframe, um, that allowed, uh, cable
companies to move to a State franchise agreement under certain circumstances. Um, so
after our agreement expires in July of this year, Mediacom will have the option of
moving to the State franchise, um, which we expect that they will and so on top of this
declining revenue that you see here, um, we would expect another 10% decline on top of
that. Um, there are other revenue sources in addition to the, uh, cable franchise fee that
we get, um, which includes pass-through funding for Public Access Television and um,
public, uh, educational and government programming, uh, what's called PEG
programming, uh, and you see dollar amounts there. Those will both completely go
away, on top of, uh, the dollars that you see in the chart there. Uh, the dollars that you
see on the chart are what fund our Cable TV operations, um, and uh.... you know, help us
provide those services. Uh, the pass-through funding we just send on to Public Access
Television. Uh, we have, um.....been in discussions with them since the State law
changed, um, a number of meetings, uh, hoping to prepare for this eventuality that we
knew would be coming. Uh, so again this.... this revenue source is uncertain at best
moving forward. Uh, so those are our major revenue sources. I'm gonna move into a
little bit of comparative analysis. There're only a couple slides here, but uh, this
compares us to other cities on some of these revenue sources. Uh, so you see the
property tax levy rate comparison. Um, we have two columns here, both, uh, our high
point in 2012 compared to where we are today. Uh, in 2012 we were a penny off being
the second highest in, uh, the state amongst the larger communities, and as you can see
we've moved down to the middle of the pack here. Um, we have had the .... the largest
percent decrease over that time period, and again, that's a combination of, uh, that
rollback increasing, of our robust growth, as our tax base grows we can charge each
property owner a little bit less and still get the same or more revenue, um, as well as
valuations increasing. We've seen our, uh, property values in Iowa City increase
substantially over that timeframe.
Fruin/ Simon, can I.....can I jump (both talking)
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Andrew/ Sure!
Fruin/ ...one point here. Keep in mind that no city is .... is equal, uh, with ..... with property tax
rates. Um, it .... we show you a ranking, but you have to understand a lot goes into the
ranking. More goes into on the revenue side, which Simon's gonna talk about, so some
of these cities have different revenue sources, uh, than we do. Um, you know, they might
have gambling revenue, you might have sales tax revenue, which we don't, which allows
them to have lower rates, and in some cases they don't offer the same level of services
that we offer. So, uh, our goal is not to get down to a North Liberty, or even a Coralville.
Um, we won't get down that far. Um, we have a.....a professional fire staff that's fully
paid. We don't run a volunteer department. We have a Human Rights' office. We have
a Senior Center. We have more services that we offer the community and unless we
wanna start peeling services back, which I don't think we do, we're never going to get
down that far. So, um, understand that this is a.....this is a comparative analysis, but
we're not tryin' to convey to you that we have to get to a certain level. It's a lot more
complex than .... just the numbers that you see there.
Andrew/ Thank you! Utility franchise tax, as I mentioned here, uh, several cities of our, uh,
comparison group don't have the franchise fee at all. Um, us and Coralville are at 1%,
and the other cities that have it are a little bit higher (clears throat) Uh, couple of those
have increased in, uh, recent years. I believe Cedar Rapids and Dubuque both increased
theirs, um, and that goes to, uh, gas and electric, uh, bills largely. Uh, local option sales
tax, so, uh, Iowa City ...... as Des Moines metro area is pursuing their local option sales
tax last fall and this spring, um, we could potentially be the last, uh, large community in
the city, or in the state rather, that does not have a local option sales tax. Uh, you can see
the, uh, estimated receipts for FY18 here and as Geoff mentioned, this is largely, um,
what informs that property tax rate slide for a lot of those other communities. Uh, for
instance Dubuque and Ames down there, uh, 50% and 60% for property tax relief
respectively, um, it gets their levy rate down quite a bit, um, as Geoff said, that's not, you
know, something that we're communicating as a goal of ours, um, but this certainly does
allow quite a bit of flexibility, um, for cities. You'll see in Cedar Rapids they have an
immense amount of road construction and uh, public infrastructure work going on right
now that is funded from the $18 million a year that they get from local option. Uh, we
would project ours to be in the $10 million range if we were to have the local option, and
that's for the City's share, and that's largely dependent on what other, uh, cities or
unincorporated county, uh, pass theirs as well. It goes into a countywide pot that's then
distributed, um, largely by population, so.....
Cole/ Simon, is there any restriction for a local option sales tax funds, I mean could we just use it
for general funds dollars if we chose to do so?
Andrew/ Yeah, absolutely and that's essentially what property tax relief is. It goes into the
general fund and, uh, that effectively comes off your levy rate. Uh, when you place it on
the ballot, you have to, uh, define what your, uh, purposes would be, but yes, you do have
a great deal of flexibility as to what those purposes would be. Uh, you could identify,
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um, you know, a general fund service that you wanted to use it for, uh, and then it would,
you know, replace those property tax dollars within the general fund.
Fruin/ One thing I would mention, Simon, with that, uh, you see that they have sunset dates.
Now you can pass a local option sales tax that goes on for ..... in perpetuity that does not
have a sunset. Um, typically, especially the first time a community passes it, they're
....they're probably not gonna give ya a ..... a blank check forever, you know, they're
gonna wanna say `let's try this for five years,' and then, you know, maybe after that that
becomes, uh, in perpetuity, but if you have a sunset on your local option sales tax, you
are not gonna want to use those for operational dollars, okay? You're not gonna want to
pass a local option sales tax and .... and open a fire station with those dollars, because if
the community does not support that renewal in five years or 10 years, then all of a
sudden (laughs) you have no money to support that fire station. So, typically what you'll
see is, um, you know, you see street repairs, you see infrastructure, parks, you see capital
investments that are done with local option sales tax, even a .... um .... a property tax relief
because if those dollars expire, there's not a sudden loss of service to the community.
You're maybe not repairing as many roads, but you're still pickin' up the trash, you're
still doin' those types of things. So, if you're thinkin' about local option sales tax and
you want to have that discussion, I would just very much urge you not to focus on
operational services, uh, if you're gonna push for a sunset date.
Andrew/ Yeah, it's a very good point and, uh, to that, uh, to that point, Cedar Rapids, the first
local option that they had in recent years was in the 2000 timeframe. They had a one-
year that was 100% for parks and they made huge investments in their parks and pools in
the community, uh, that .... after the public saw the benefit of that, then I think that they
were more likely to pass it. They did have a couple of votes that failed in recent years.
They had very complicated, uh, allocations of the funds when they moved to 100% street
repair, infrastructure. That is something that generally the ... the community can get on
board with, so .... uh, they sort of followed that path that Geoff was describing there. And
that is my last slide. I'm gonna turn it over to Ashley for expenditures.
Monroe/ Good morning. My name's Ashley Monroe. I'm the Assistant City Manager, and
welcome everybody! Um, so I'll just take a quick look at the general fund expenditures.
Here's a pie chart identifying, uh, the various expenses that we .... that we have from the
general fund. Uh, as you can see we have a fairly labor-intensive organization, so
personnel takes up 72% of the general fund. So as we introduced earlier, the Police,
Parks, Fire, um. ...... Personnel, our .... our general offices finance all come out of the
general fund, and we also have, uh, the next biggest piece of the pie, services are .... for
18%. Um, this includes, you know, our fire and casualty insurance, equipment rentals,
uh, professional, and consultant services. Um, some of our internal services. So IT, uh,
Risk Management, Central Services provides, um, mail, uh, and .... and other services.
Go to the next one .... I'll explain a couple more. So here we have, uh, a chart showing
the .... the proposed budget and the percentage change. So Personnel, uh, as we've said,
keeps up with that 3 to 4%, uh, just annual increase as a .... as a status quo kind of
approach to .... to our hiring and our staffing. Um, we have our services, which I
explained prior. Uh, you see again just that, uh, generally status quo increase in that
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amount. Supplies, we try to keep at a .... at a moderate spending level. Um, in the last
couple of years we've tried to reduce the.....the amounts that were, that we're using for
supplies, um.....you know, that just goes to general operations, uh, materials. Capital
outlay, uh, is different than our capital expenditures. So our.....our capital investments I
guess, or improvements, you'll talk about on Tuesday. Uh, you see a decrease here and
that's, urn ...... that includes things like vehicle purchases, uh, small equipment, maybe
some office furniture. So we reduce those over .... over this year, for our proposed
budget. Um, we have the contingency, it's 1% of all expected expenditures. So just
laying out, uh, a portion of what we might expect, uh, we need if expenses go beyond
their budgeted amounts. We have our debt service. The explanation for that reduction,
that 60% reduction in.....in debt service from the general fund, uh, we had quite a few
UniverCity homes. Those are, um, for that program, and they were held for a little while
last year, I guess, and.....so we have sold those properties, and the proposed amount just
indicates that we're expecting, uh, less expense as far as the UniverCity program.
Andrew/ I do apologize for some typos on this slide clearly.
Monroe/ Oh, okay!
Andrew/ (mumbled) total down there at the bottom. (laughs)
Monroe/ Okay! Well, our uh...... so we have our, we have several, um, public pension systems.
So I'll start with the Public Safety Pension contributions. This is the Municipal Fire and
Police Retirement System of Iowa shown here on this chart. Um, it's governed at the
state level. So, uh, the City doesn't have any say in what the employee, uh, contributions
are, um, so we're capped as to what we .... or I guess we're required by State to put in a
certain amount of. ... of money into the pension system. So, um.....we've had a
contribution rate over the last couple of years that's fairly steady, uh, it varies year to
year. 17 contribution was 25.92, 18 25.....sorry! 25.68, 19's expected contribution rate
is about 26.02. So you see it's .... it's fairly steady but still varies, and over time you've
seen in this chart, um, you know, changes in that percentage as to what we've had to
contribute. So, um, some years, as in 2014, we had to contribute significantly more. Um,
it's gone down quite a bit in .... in those percentages and it's kind of ramping back up at
this point. So .... this also fluctuates as the market fluctuates. So as ... uh, as returns
decrease, we are expected to put in more regardless of. ... of what the ..... market returns
dictate. Our next one is IPERS. This is the .... the general, um, employees, non -police
and .... and fire, uh, pensions, and uh, as you see the contributions here have also
increased. Uh, this is a 60/40 split between the City and employee contributions to the
pension system and both systems, despite the volatility and what we pay are fairly well
funded at the state level. So, um, they're.....they're in good shape despite the increase in
what we have to pay each year. So you have something, uh, people have interest in as far
as our personnel changes that are coming up. (mumbled) here. We've talked about
adding two new police officer positions, uh, one of them is going to be specifically for,
um, neighborhood response and a downtown liaison. So that's one of. ... one of those
positions. We also have the promotion of an officer to the street crimes action team.
Um, they'll be a working sergeant. We have Housing Inspections, so we're adding two
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new, um, inspector positions. The .1 increase to that from 6.2 to 6.3, or I'm sorry, 8.3,
uh.... we moved a por..... a small portion of an.....a building inspector from the Housing
Authority to accurately reflect, um, our costs. We also have Landfill. This is a little, uh,
little tricky. There's just a slight change in that position. We moved some customer
service representatives around, um, between refuse and landfill they .... they split, uh,
costs for customer services, as well as a superintendent position. So, um, when we
reduced one of those positions there was a little bit of a balance that .... that bumped that
up. We also have, uh, some changes in Finance, uh, through Finance Administration,
Information Technology, and Accounting. So, uh, last year we had added a position and
recl.... reclassified some, and so the .... these changes this year are ... are better reflective
of ...of what Finance positions, what Finance positions are needed. So we have a ... a new
budget analysis/internal auditor. We're going to fully implement a .... an internal auditing
program this ... in fiscal year 19. And then we're eliminating a .... one position in IT. That
was, uh, part .... due in part to that reclassification, and then the accounting position, um,
is .... is the elimination of a port .... of a part-time, or I should say .6% of a full-time
equivalent. So I'll also talk a little bit about debt service. Uh, the State of Iowa limits us
to no more than 5% of our total assessed property value, um, to be issued. So Iowa
City's projected to be at 1.09 of total valuations, so that means our.....our total debt. Um,
Iowa City policy specifies also that debt service levy shall not be more than 30% of our
total City levy in any fiscal year. So we're at 19.9% of the total levy. We have, uh, debt
restructuring and elimination continuing to be a critical component of our strategy, and
uh, another one or two years of debt service levy reductions are projected. So, uh, as
we've seen a decrease in the property tax levy, a .... a good portion of the reduction in that
levy comes from a reduction in the debt service levy. Um, debt service is just our annual
principle and interest payments on our general obligation and .... and TIF, um, bonded
debt. So, um.....in this.....in this chart here, we're just taking a look at the ratio from,
um, the amount we're allowed to borrow versus the debt that we've incurred (mumbled)
outstanding debt. So .... and that ratio has shrunk significantly so that, um (mumbled) the
amount we're allowed to borrow, and then the red is the portion that we have
outstanding. So we've reduced that quite a bit and we're seeing pretty static at, uh,
21.9% of...of our limit. Okay, we have, um, a bond rating is .... is helpful, especially
helpful when you're trying to account for, um .... expenses incurred when you're
borrowing money. So .... we work with Moody's. It's a third -party independent, um,
group that, uh, we pay to assess our financial, uh, si.... situation, and ... but primarily their
job is to .... to assess these communities, but they're working for the investors. So there's
no, um, you know, stake that they have in .... in politics or, um, within our community at
all, but we like to work with `em so that we get an independent rating. Um, an open and
honest evaluation if you will. So, we prepare when we .... when we talk to Moody's, we
talk to them a couple times a year or at least once a year, um, and so when we do that
we're preparing by just taking note of all of our assets, our, um, our current debt, our
planned expenditures, what's going on in the community. We talk with them, uh, we
prepare financial information for them, they go back and analyze it, and come back to us
with the rating. So, we have a triple-A bond rating, uh, which nationally is, as you see, is
quite difficult to do. So, uh, not many communities. It's on the chart, 219 nationally
hold that, uh, rating, and then in Iowa we have, we're one of three, uh, communities that
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hold a triple-A bond rating. So us, West Des Moines, and Clive, uh, currently hold that
status. That's it!
Fruin/ Okay, I'm gonna take us back through the home stretch. I know we're rennin' a little late,
we always do. Um, but I appreciate your patience here. I'm gonna kind of wrap some,
uh, some of this up. We've got about a dozen more slides or so. Um, the enterprise
funds, again these are the business account funds, uh, that, um.....that we operate, and
I .... and I think from a policy standpoint, one of the things you want to key on is our fund,
uh, an assigned fund balance. That's the, uh, second column from the right-hand side. I
want to point a few things out to ya. Um, there's been a lot of discussion on transit, um,
and I think the Council's anxious, as ..... as is staff, to really dive deep into transit and.....
and try to make some changes that will better serve the community. I want to point out
that we have a $5.6 million fund balance in Transit. Um, and each year, uh, we have, uh,
been running a .... a surplus in our .... in our Transit accounts, which means we're bringin'
in more revenue than we're, uh, putting back into the system. So this fund balance
continues to grow. Um, I believe for the, uh.....uh, current year, uh, our surplus is
projected to be around 500,000 or so. Um .... but we're doing so intentionally. Um, we
certainly realize that that surplus could potentially be deployed to providing higher levels
of service. Um, but uh, as some of you know, if you've been through our Transit
building, we have a .... a very old, um .... uh, Transit facility that is inadequate, um, it, um,
we don't have room for expansion out at that site, bringing on new buses would be a
challenge. We don't have the capacity to store those buses. We don't have the
maintenance facility to take on new buses. Um, it was built on an old dump site and we
spend a lot of money, urn .... uh...... uh.....tre.... uh, counteracting the effects of building
on a dump site. Um, there's a lot of settling out there. It's just a .... a poor facility. Some
of the Council Members, um, toured the Public Works' facility about a year ago and, um,
the Transit's out at...at that same location. A new Transit facility is probably..... you're
probably lookin' at about a $15 million expenditure, and so, um, you know, in .... if you
look back, you know, in history, um, typically the federal government would help you out
with a Transit facility and it'd be maybe a 70/30 cost share, with the federal government
pickin' up 70 or an 80/20 cost share. Um, and we've always thought that, you know, we
needed these four, five million dollars to pursue a .... a federal grant when the opportunity
comes up. Unfortunately in this day and age, federal grants of that magnitude are rare,
and they're extremely hard to come by. Urn ..... and so it's becoming increasingly likely
that we're going to have to pay for a larger portion of that ourselves, if not the whole, uh,
Transit building ourselves. So, um, five million's not gonna cut it. Uh, we need to
continue to have a strategy for putting money aside for a.....a new Transit building. Uh,
frankly it's needed now. Um, but we're not within, you know, while we have land, um,
secured on our Public Works' campus for the Transit building, we're not close to being
able to come to you with a .... a plan to .... to build anew facility. So we just have to keep
that in perspective as we start to have Transit discussions, and that's a policy decision —
how much do you wanna save each year for a new Transit facility versus how much do
you really want to pour back into the service itself for the .... for the residents. Couple
other things I'll point out, you see some really high fund balances in operations, like
waste water and water. Um, those are healthy balances, but you need those. As you look
at the capital plan on Tuesday, of the water and the waste water, you'll notice that a lot of
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the capital investments are millions of dollars. So .... having a $13 million, uh, waste,
excuse me, waste water, uh, fund balance is nice, but when you're talkin' about, you
know, several projects of the four, five million dollar range, you'll see why we have that
type of fund balance. Uh, the last one I'll point out is the storm water, uh, down at the....
at the bottom there. That's a little low. Um, that's a little lower than I would like, uh, to
see that. Um, ideally that number would be, um, would be over a million dollars. You
know, a typical storm water improvement project that might come up, it wouldn't.... you
know, it could be several hundred thousand dollars. Um, and, um, while we don't have,
you know, anything immediately pressing that we're not addressing, um, storm water
continues to be a major challenge and will continue to become, uh.....will continue to be
a major challenge going forward. So, in the coming years I think staff s gonna have to
look hard at, uh, at that storm water account and really, um, come to you with some plans
on.....on how we use those dollars, and potentially look at a rate increase to, um, to get
that balance up to a .... a more comfortable level. Just quickly compare water and sewer
rates. Um, Iowa City's kinda right smack in the middle there, if you combine water and
sewer. Um, we always compare ourselves with the 10 largest cities in Iowa, and then we
through in North, uh, North Liberty and Coralville just for some comparative purposes
there. Um, you know .... water and sewer rates are .... are really so dependent on the, uh,
major, you know, kind of the treatment operations. Iowa City is extremely fortunate that
we have two relatively, um, new, uh, treatment facilities in our water, in our waste water,
so we don't see, uh, a whole lot of, you know, um, major growth in our rates going
forward. I think we're gonna be pretty steady. Obviously with this budget we're
recommending a 5% water increase. Um, but we've got really good facilities, and
frankly on the waste water side, you know, a .... a brand new facility that we didn't have
to have the ratepayers pay for, you know, we were able to leverage flood, uh, funds
to .... to pay for that. Um, you know, if you look at the communities on the higher side,
it's likely that they are making major investments into their treatment plants and that was
the way they paid for them. Um, if you look at the communities on the lower side, I
know Coralville bein' one, they have some major projects coming up in which you'll
probably see their rates escalate pretty quickly, as they have to pay for a new treatment
facility. So again the fee changes that we're talkin' about, um, the only one is the water,
uh, 5%. Uh, we are also recommending, if you're familiar with, uh, this, we .... we do
have an option on our utility bills right now, uh, where if you sign up for SurePay, which
is a direct deduction from your checking account, that you get a dollar credit on
your .... on your bill. Uh, this was done many years ago, um, to incent people to sign up
for that. Uh, it's about an $80,000 roughly expense for us, uh, to do that, and we don't
feel like that incentive is needed, uh, anymore. Um, certainly we want people to sign up
for that, but, um, $80,000 is a considerable amount of money and, uh, we just think it's
time to .... to re .... remove that. Um, not really related to the budget, but one thing
we're.....we're anxious to roll out this next year, uh, pretty shortly here is a voluntary
donation program on our utility accounts for our low-income assistance, uh, efforts. Um,
so you may have seen this on a .... on a electric bill or a gas bill, where you can check a
box and donate a dollar, $5.00 to a .... a low-income, um.....uh, program. Uh, we've
never done that, and we're gonna give that a try, and hopefully increase the amount of
voluntary resources coming in to pay for discounts to, um.....uh, those users of our
utilities that are havin' trouble payin' their bills. Um, currently the City, uh, the users,
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uh, so we all pay water rates. We just use those, urn .... uh, to .... to pay for it, so to the
extent that we can get people to voluntarily donate funds for this cause, it's gonna be a
relief on .... on all the utility users in the community. And last point, while not included in
this budget, in the last budget that the Council approved, um, we did change the waste,
uh, fees and so as of January 151, just last week, there's now a new $2.00 monthly charge
on your utility bill for the yard waste program and the compost program. Um, that
replaces the $25 stickers or the $1.50 bags that you had to buy before. Talk about
property tax impact. Um .... we use, uh, an example of a tax on a $100,000 residential
valuation, $100,000 is easy to multiply, so if you have a $300,000 home, you can just
multiply these numbers by three. Uh, fiscal year 18 is the current year. Fiscal year 19 is
what we're looking at. And so you can see on a $100,000 home, for the City taxes itself,
um, a resident is going to pay $30 in less taxes to the City, and there's a couple of things,
um, going into that. One is that rollback number's going down, okay, so we .... we
dropped that. So there.... you're payin' taxes on a smaller percent of valuation, and then
our tax levy goes down on top of that. So that's why you see a $30 reduction. Uh, the
commercial property side is .... is, uh, quite a bit different. Uh, this reflects the impact of
that, urn ..... uh, property tax reform. So if you look before property tax reform was
implemented in fiscal year 12 on the far left side of this chart, a $500,000 commercial
property was payin' just shy of $9,000 in taxes. There was a tax, uh, break or, um,
benefit extended through property tax reform where they're only payin' , uh, 90% of their
value, not 100% of their value, and so you can see over time, a .... a, between a
combination of the State reform changes and our property tax levy coming down, that
that same valued commercial property is now only paying $7,200, uh, in taxes to the
City. Now what I would say to you is this is a very simplified graph for illustrative
purposes, but there's probably not a commercial property in town that did not experience
some valuation growth. So that property, if it was valued at $500,000 in 2012, it may be
valued at $700,000 this year. So .... those taxes would go up as that valuation occurs. Uh,
we like to show this graph because we try to represent what, um, all the changes
collectively that we're making in this budget .... that we're proposing in this budget, uh,
would.... how they would impact the typical residential user, and so you see from fiscal
year 18 to 19 the two far right, uh, columns on the side, you see there's the $30 less in
property taxes, the storm water fee stays the same, the refuse — we're accounting for that
$2.00 charge that just took a .... impact, that goes up, and then, uh, the water has a 5%
increase. So, uh, the typical user is experiencing a.6% increase, um, in what they're
payin' the City through the various utilities and property taxes. I think for a lot of users
it's actually going to be zero or less, because if you were buying yard waste bags or if
you were buyin' the stickers, uh, on the site, that was never reflected in this chart before,
where it is .... where it is now. So, it's really a no -growth, urn .... uh, or .... or actually a
negative growth, uh, impact to our, uh, typical residential households. Okay, getting into,
uh, some highlights here, uh, to wrap things up. Um.....we have, uh, again experienced
really strong growth, that has enabled us to really prepare for the, uh, property tax reform.
Uh, over the last few years we've been able to establish nearly $5 million in an
emergency reserve, uh, that provides further cushion for us, uh, should there be sudden
drops in revenue, uh, or, uh, other opportunities that the Council wants to, uh, pursue.
Uh, our operational reserve funds are .... are really strong. You know we talked about
those with the enterprise fund, uh, with the general fund we target a 25 to 35% reserve,
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and ..... um, we currently, with this proposed budget, we're sittin' at just .... just shy of 36,
so we're a little bit actually above the high end of this particular budget. Um, and we've
been above our policy target the last several years, and what that's enabled us to do is
direct some dollars to some really important commu... community initiatives. And so I
wanted to stress that to you. As we're getting surplus funds in, we've not only created
the reserve fund, but we've created opportunities to fund some things that we felt were
gonna be out of reach for many years. Uh, last year it was the Public Works' facility, uh,
$2.5 million to enable us to finally pull the trigger on that long needed, um.... uh, Public
Works' building. Um, this year we're able to use, uh, we budgeted $2.8 million as a
contribution to the Behavioral Access Center. We're .... we're able to do that in cash
because of the surplus that we have. Uh, that's a .... phenomenal position to be in to be
able to really come up with those types of one-time capital dollars, uh, for a project that is
widely, um.....uh, being called for in the community and supported in the community.
So, this budget does have those dollars in there. And we've also been, um, able over the
last few years to start contributing, uh.... um, to a, uh, affordable housing fund, you know,
this Council created, uh, the affordable housing find and over the last three years there's
been nearly $2 million that have gone in there in local funds, and that does not count the
million that came from The Rise. Um, so this budget has $650,000 from the general
fund, uh, so did the last budget, and then, uh, previous to that we bonded $600,000 for
the, um, project that's bein' constructed in Towncrest right now. So, there's.... that's, uh,
roughly the $1.9 million, um, and then again the .... the funds from the .... the sale to The
Rise group, uh, is on top of that. We have increased the general fund transfer to the CII',
particularly trying to, um, get to where I think we need to be in order to aggressively
implement the bike plan and the parks plan. Um, we hit the, uh, the ....the tax decrease,
certainly a highlight, uh, for us there, and then we've been able to really strategically
focus some investments and....and staff in a couple of key areas there. Um, I'm not
gonna go through.....we've got three slides. This is in the transmittal letter in the budget.
Not gonna go through each of these bullet points, um, but I wanted to give some
illustrative examples to you about how we, how this budget reflects, um, your strategic
plan, understanding that your strategic plan is going to be tweaked here in the coming
months. Um.....strong local economy, um, you know we continue to invest in the local
foods, um, the Council created that local foods line item a couple of years ago. That's
still in there. Uh, community gardens has been important. This budget, uh, calls for
enhancements at three locations. Uh, when we look at the, uh, urban core section, a
couple things I'll point out there is a, uh.....uh, the bike plan implementation. You're
gonna see a lot of bike lanes striped next year, uh, particularly on Dodge and ... and
Governor, two major, uh, bike lanes. They'll be our first buffered bike lanes in the
community. Uh, which I think is exciting. Um, and we've got, uh.... um, a small amount
set aside to re-establish the building change facade program in downtown, uh, which we
dropped for a couple years, and I think we'd like to bring that back, and we'll talk about
that, uh, during the economic development section later today. Sustainability, uh, there's
a whole page dedicated to sustainability here. In addition we have a capital fund
dedicated to, um, whatever comes out of the climate plan. Uh, we've really got some
aggressive energy efficiency measures that we're going to be pursuing in our facilities.
You see some lighting, some boiler replacements, uh, we've got a couple of tree planting
corridors that are reflected here on Camp Cardinal Boulevard and Lower West Branch
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Boulevard. Um, one of the things I'm really excited about is we're creating a natural
areas maintenance program. For the first time! You know we've .... we've always had a
lot of natural areas. Hickory Hill and Ryerson and, uh, those types of facilities, but we've
never really had a .... a.....a dedicated program to maintain those. We've just done the
best we can. Well we've .... you authorized some funds to go through a natural areas',
um, study. Uh, that plan is currently being finalized. You will eventually get a copy of
it, but it was far enough along for us to really create a program, uh, to where we say we
might not be able to do everything we want to do, but we can really start to focus on.....
on properly managing our natural areas. Um, one thing I do want to mention there, uh,
on the previous slide is the Landfill gas study. Um, you've all looked at the greenhouse
gas report in ... in .... in, uh, previous months. Um, you know that our biggest generator of
greenhouse gases is the Landfill, and so if we're gonna get serious about attacking
greenhouse gas emissions, we really have to focus on .... on how.....how to better utilize
the .... the gas that's out there, and there's some funds in the Landfill budget to do that...
to start that process. Healthy neighborhoods, um, probably the biggest thing here, ub,
two biggest things is the.....the contribution to the affordable housing fund and the, uh,
form based code, uh, development. $385,000 that's.... that's what we're lookin' at for the
next phase of the form based code, so you previously had spent, um, 150, 200,
somewhere in that range, on the feasibility study. Um, you're lookin' at close to
$400,000 to actually move us to actual code language. A significant amount of dollars,
uh, to do that. We're workin' with the consultant to.....to finalize that. That' 11 ultimately
be a contract that comes before you. And then you see a number of things on the social
justice side, um, the biggest bein' the Behavioral Access Center contribution that we
previously talked about. Look ahead, um, we just spent a lot of time on 19. I always like
to kind of tell ya what I think you're going to expect in the coming years too, so you can
(mumbled) uh, or keep that in mind as you .... as you, uh, go through your deliberations. I
think we've got a couple years left of the tax rate decreases. Remember we're decreasing
our tax rate really out of our debt service levy. It's not our opera .... it's not our general
fund levy, it's not our, urn .... uh, Transit levies or anything like that. We're reducin' it
out of the debt service levy and as we project out, um, our .... our, um, bonding, we
probably have about two years left I think of decreases, and .... and probably some fairly
significant decreases, uh, before we start to level off. So .... we're in the low 16s right
now as a tax rate. I think we'll probably end up, uh, you know, at this point my best
bet .... my best guess would be in the mid -15s, uh, for, urn .... uh, for a tax rate, which I
think puts us in a .... a very, very competitive tax rate position, and one that I think
everybody would be very proud of. Utility increases, I mentioned refuse, landfill, storm
water. I'm not sayin' we're gonna pursue in those area .... all.....all three of those, but
those are the areas that... that probably, um, are next up at some stage. Uh, we talked
about the growth comin' back down, uh, we're gonna continue to selectively add
positions, you know, last year's budget it was the Streets Division where we were able to
add a couple positions. Now it's Police and Housing Inspections. There's a few others
that I'd like to get to, um, and we hope to in .... in future years. I'd like to have a more,
uh, and this is on the staff side, I think we really need to start thinkin' about long-term
public facility planning. Um, and I've listed some examples there, but as we're
experiencing growth, we just need to anticipate the .... the growth in .... in our operations,
um, and .... and in a lot of cases just dress.... address woefully inadequate facilities, um, so
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I listed a few up there. Um, not sayin' that, you know, those things are gonna happen in
three to five years, but we need to start thinkin' 10, 15 years out and .... and really comin'
up with a plan, and a funding strategy, so that we can tackle those when.... when the time
comes. You know, federal uncertainty goes without sayin'. We get a lot of federal funds
and who knows what's gonna happen, um, I ... I know we're really nervous about things
like transit and our Housing Authority and our ... CDBG and Home programs, but we're at
the mercy of whatever's allow.....you know, whatever they, uh, want to do. So, uh, we'll
just have to wait and see. And then, you know, I think the biggest limiting factor that we
have is our staff capacity right now when it comes to, uh, the major capital projects, and I
picked out a couple of divis... or departments there. Public Works, NDS, and Parks and
Recreation, we have an incredibly aggressive slate of projects and planning initiatives in
each of those things. Um, I think we'll be fortunate to meet the schedule that we've laid
out here. We're gonna try as hard as we can to do so, but.....we're certainly at capacity
in those areas, and .... and we'll need to have that conversation as you have your budget
deliberations. Last slide I promise! Okay, um.....my final thoughts, um, you should be
very happy with where we're at, um, financially. I think we're in a great financial po....
uh, position and we've been able (laughs) to address some really pressing issues in our
community over the last several years. We've just talked for an hour and a half and I
haven't even mentioned flood recovery, you know. We're 10 years post -flood and we're
wrappin' up, um, the Gateway project next year. That's a heck of an accomplishment for
our community and we should be proud of that, proud of the fund.... outside funding that
we brought in, and the local funding that we raised to .... to carry out those projects. Um,
what I really, uh, appreciate about our staff is, you know, our staff is not afraid to tackle
the .... the big, tough projects. It's easy to kind of, urn .... kick the can down the road on
some tough projects like a Washington Street or a First Avenue grade separation project
or comin' (mumbled) those are difficult projects, really trying not only on the staff side,
but the community side, um, but we're able to aggressively pursue those, and that's....
that's important. Uh, we've been able to dedicate funds to affordable housing for the first
time, uh, in the last few years. I think we're, uh, in a great position to do that. I
mentioned the Access Center. The last bullet is looking ahead and kind of forecasting
where you want to go. Uh, you've talked a lot about bicycle -friendly community.
There's more conversation about transit. (mumbled) really excited and we have the
resources to be able to go after and look at a more integrated transportation network for
our future. We have some instability in our tax base. That's that cloud of the property
tax reform. So that ... that's gonna continue to challenge that core service delivery, um,
going forward. What I really urge the Council, my final thought to you, is, uh, as you
begin your budget deliberations and later this month as you begin your strategic plan, uh,
initiatives, use this financial position wisely. Um, you have opportunities, uh, you're in a
position to pursue opportunities, uh, that you can collectively agree to and you think will
impact the community the most. Um, but there's gotta be that focus there, and ... and
that's one thing I'm gonna stress as we get into strategic planning, I think we really need
to think about do we want to do 30 or 40 smaller things, and.... and that's not a bad
strategy. Or do we really want to try to focus in and narrow that list of....of.... of areas
and say, you know what, we can do these handful of things really, really well and have a
profound impact on the community. Um, you know, something like that transit, uh, study
and that focus. In order to accomplish, and .... and do so in the right way, we really need
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to have that organizational focus to.....to keep us locked in. So, um.....I'll remind you of
that, uh, at least my perspective, um, as you have your deliberations here. Um .... thank
you for your time. Thank you for everybody out here that sat through that. Hopefully,
uh, we didn't put you to sleep (laughter) There's plenty of caffeinated coffee back there
if we did, um, and now the rest of the .... rest of the discussion is, uh, at....at the Council
table.
Throgmorton/ Before we get into questions from the Council, I want to thank you, Geoff; thank
you, Ashley; thank you, Simon, for presenting.....making such a great presentation about
the context that we are acting in and the choices that are possibly available, our
expenditures, our revenues, etc., and how we need to act with regard to, uh, developing
our budget for the forthcoming year. And I also want to thank people in the audience and
people at home who might have been watching this, and I really invite you to submit any
written comments or phone comments to us about, uh, about your concerns, about your
suggestions, uh, and any other kind of response you have with regard to the overview
we've just seen. Uh, and I mean that for people watchin' on TV as well. So there are
ways to do it, right, uh, you can phone us, you can send us emails, you can use your other
social media, you can contact City staff. There .... there are a whole range of ways to do
it. And, uh, with that I .... I think we need to give our Council a chance to ask any
questions they feel a need to ask at this point with regard to the overview we've just seen.
Cole/ Geoff, I'm curious about the retail consultant. What would you envision that would do,
and what are we looking at in terms of particular budget outlay for that position?
Fruin/ So that'll be in the economic development budget. Um, this is somethin' we've never
done, but a lot of cities have, and I've had a couple Council Members over the years talk
to me about a retail, bein' a little bit more aggressive on the retail side of things. So it's
a $50,000 expenditure, um, that.....that we would anticipate. We'd have to do an RFP,
um, but it would be someone from the outside to come in and, um, analyze our retail
community, um, give us suggestions on maybe areas where, um .... um, our ..... our, um,
types of retail would normally fit in a market like this, but that are absent. And then
really give that information and some of the connections that that consultant would have
to the commercial brokers, to the, uh, commercial property owners. It's not really the
City. We don't have retail space that we would be looking to fill. It's.....it's more
supplementing the resources that, um, property owners and commercial real estate
brokers, uh, would have. It's not a focus on downtown. I mean they would be .... that
would be encompassed in it. Most of the concerns I've heard is, you know, what's the
retail like on .... on the highway corridor, uh, or on some of the, you know, the western
side of the .... of the community. Uh, and how can we supplement what we have there.
So there's...... there's consultants out there that .... that help with that, and again, a number
of cities do. Um, we just looked at a few, you know, Dubuque recently, um, had .... did
that and, uh, have had some success with that. Um, you're typically looking at, you
know, more on the national level, the chains and ... and that sort of thing. Um, it's .... it's
information, it's connections, that sort of thing.
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Botchway/ Yeah, Rockne, to your point, you know, this is something that I've talked to Geoff
about before, and I think, Susan, you've been in on some of those conversations as well. I
actually think it's in the wrong section, um, from a strong local economy standpoint, I
mean I know it obviously promotes that, but to me it's really a social justice issue. Um, I
don't know how many people have come to me and specifically talked about the fact that
it's tough to get, um, you know, clothes and other things, based on where they're living,
and so when we're talking about walkability and some of the other things I know our
Council was promoting, which is important, we really need to provide a.....a different,
um, ret.... retail market for a lot of our residents who aren't able to, you know, I can shoot
down the highway real quick and go to Coral Ridge Mall if I need to get something from
that retail standpoint, but a lot of our residents can't and this is another, you know,
concern that came out not only in the campaign but again, just conversations in general,
um, with the, you know, change in Kmart and the fact that Kmart's going down. I have
some serious, serious concerns about, um, what's gonna happen to our southeast side as
far as people being able to walk, um, and you know, uh, frequent that establishment. So,
um, you know, again, that would be my only comment to that, that I think it's a social
justice issue, um, but you know I'll (mumbled)
Mims/ (coughing) (several talking) This may not work today! (laughter) My response to that,
Kingsley, would be I think there's a lot of things that we do that are and should be social
justice related, but I don't think that means we put `em under social justice category.
I .... I think we keep `em under the logical categories, and that is definitely an economic
development issue. Um, but I think it comes with that focus that we've talked about is
thinking about all these issues, from a social justice perspective, and I've had those same
concerns and those same conversations with Geoff, particularly about the southeast side
and with Kmart closing.
Thomas/ This may be an unrelated question, along the same lines, but .... the.....the other issue
that I've heard concern about is affordable retail, you know, businesses looking for
affordable retail and not being able to find it. I'm not hearing or sensing that this will be
addressing that aspect of our retail sector, but it is a concern.
Throgmorton/ You mean affordable retail space?
Thomas/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Thomas/ For ..... for businesses.
Fruin/ Yeah, and I think that's .... at least when I've heard that concern, you're really focused on
the downtown, urban core. No, this is .... this type of consultant would not necessarily be
brought on to address that, um, this is more filling existing spaces, working with, again,
the property owners and the brokers.
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Throgmorton/ Anything else? All right, so we've going to dive much more deeply into each of
these items by goin' through each of the departments. But I .... I'm lookin' at the
schedule and lookin' at the time. I know we're runnin' behind schedule, but I think we
need to take that short break (both talking)
Fruin/ What I would suggest is, um, when we come back we quickly address the City Clerk
budget and then that way Eleanor can have her, the rest of her Saturday. Uh, we'll hold
off (both talking)
Mims/ She's City Attorney.
Fruin/ City Attorney (laughter) Um .... (several talking and laughing) Finance Director, City
Clerk, City Man .... we can wait till the end. We're gonna be here all day anyway, and
then we'll jump into the .... the Public Safety.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so we're gonna take a five-minute break, get back together, I don't know,
about 10 till or thereabouts. (BREAK)
General Government Program Budgets:
City Attorney
Throgmorton/ Okay, we're gonna return to our work session on January 6a'. So, we're gonna
hear from Eleanor first, is that right, or are we gonna do Public Safety (both talking)
Fruin/ Let's do Eleanor.
Dilkes/ Morning! (several responding) This'll be quick. Um .... so you can find, I think you all
have this big book up there. Um, on page 140 you'll find, um, my budget, and you'll see
there's .... I have a total of, um, 5.5 full-time qui... equivalents, and the reason it's .... looks
like half a person is because I have two attorneys that work 75% time. So together
they're 1.5. Um, it's actually 6.5 cause if you look at the finance administration budget,
on page 173, you'll see that one of the attorneys is funded out of the, um, the Tort levy, to
get those funds from some place other than .... than the general fund. Um, I think most of
you know, uh, what my office does. Um, our role essentially is to support the initiatives
of the City Council and, um, staff .... staff efforts to, uh, support our core services, and...
and those initiatives of the City Council. Lot of what we do, um, you don't see. It's kind
of the nitty gritty, um.....we review for instance every consultant contract, or most
consultant contracts to make sure that it's clear in terms of what we're getting, and what
we're paying for, and that if we don't get what we pay for, there's a remedy there. Um,
similarly we .... I have one attorney who spends a hu .... a huge amount of his time on
personnel issues. Um, personnel legal issues around, uh, personnel decisions with all the
various regulatory frameworks, um, federal and state, um, are pretty complicated. Um,
so .... sometimes we play a more, uh, central role in issues, um.....you know, one that
comes to mind is the recent neighborhood stabilization efforts in light of the, uh, State
occupancy legislation. Um.....uh, the affordable housing action plan, um .... we were
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involved in that just.....in determining what is and what isn't viable, um, under Iowa law.
Obviously we are engaged in litigation, um, which is and ... and often, uh, to support the
decisions that the Council has made. Um, typically.... planning decisions, um, the
planning decisions that were made, um, for instance, for the property owned by TSB,
between Governor and North Dodge. That's being litigated. Uh, the zoning decision
made on Lehman Avenue, um, on the south part of town is being litigated. Um, those are
a couple examples. Urn...... relocation plan for Forest View, we were involved in that.
More centrally just because of our experience and expertise in .... in relocation. Um,
and... obviously with development agreements, all the development agreements that
come to you, we take a pretty central role in. But other than those.....bigger things that
you see and that come to Council, we really are kind of behind the scene support people
for the City. Um, and that's all I have for ya!
Throgmorton/ I didn't hear ya mention any of the Amicus Briefs that we've been involved in,
and I assume that doesn't take much time but.....
Dilkes/ Yeah, that's.... personal, I mean I've been doing that personally, urn ..... uh, and we have,
there's, as you know and I've reported to you, there.... cities have joined together
throughout the country to participate in what are called Amicus Briefs, which are kind of
friends of the Court Brief. As you know there's a lot of immigration -related litigation
going on. The litigation against, um .... uh, the travel bans of the Trump administration,
litigation in Texas over the, um, anti -sanctuary bill that the state legislature passed, um,
litigation over the additional, uh, conditions that the, uh, Attorney General Set.... Sessions
imposed on the BURN grants, the law enforcement grants, and we have joined other
cities as well as other organizations like the Conference of Mayors, International
Municipal Lawyers Association, uh, City Managers' organizations, in joining those
briefs, um, to give to the court to provide the cities perspectives on those issues. Um,
they certainly contain legal authority and legal argument, but their primary purpose is to
provide the facts and the circumstances that support those..... those arguments, so....
Throgmorton/ Thanks!
Dilkes/ Uh huh!
Throgmorton/ Any questions for Eleanor? Keep up the great work! You both, you and your
staff. And enjoy the rest of the day! (laughs)
Dilkes/ Thank you for (unable to hear, away from mic)
Throgmorton/ All right. So we're gonna turn to Public Safety. Yeah. So we'll start with Chief
Jody Matherly, Police Department. Good morning, ChieP.
Public Safety Program Budgets:
Police Department
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Matherly/ Good morning, Mr. Mayor, uh, Council, and .... and community members. My name's
Jody Matherly. I've been your Police Chief for going on one year, uh, just two weeks
shy of that. So, we've had a lot of, uh, great things put in place in the last year. We've
evaluated a lot of activity, and we have, um .... made a lot of. ... lot of progress. As you
know from a month ago when I talked to you at a work session, it was a very busy year
for us. I told you at that time that we were on track for group A crimes to be, uh, in 2017
almost on .... on track with 2016, and in fact as of yesterday, um, our final numbers were
comin' in. We're just 27 crimes above 2016. So, as I .... surmise would happen, uh,
crime has not spiked overall. However, as you know we did have a.....an increase in
violent crime and .... and that's a nationwide trend, and so today, uh, I want to talk to you
a little bit about, uh, how the Police Department's set up and what we're doing to address
that, and what our future plans are. Um, I will tell you that the previous administration
here did a nice job educating our, uh, division heads and .... and department members
on .... on the budget itself, so I came in, uh, with a .... a learning curve on our budget, but
had a lot of help from our staff, uh, and I told them not to make it too complicated, you
know, a budget is a .... simply a plan stated in fiscal terms. Uh, what do we want to do,
uh, how are we going to get there, uh, what's it gonna cost us, and that's where we're at
today. So as you look at, uh, how we're set up, uh, we have 105 em .... full-time
employees with the Police Department. 82 of those, uh, with this budget year are sworn
police officers. The rest are civilians, non -sworn, and .... and lot of that is support staff.
Uh, and we're broken up into three divisions. So one of the divisions is, uh, the police
administration and uh, it's pretty small party. It's just Jenn Dahm, our Administrative
Assistant and myself. So our office parties are usually in a phone booth cause (laughter)
uh.... the field operations on your left is one of the other divisions. That really makes up
the largest part of our department. There's 79 members there. Uh, they, um .... consist
mostly of uniformed officers. These are the folks you see out every day, responding to
calls and doin' what's considered traditional police work. As .... as you can see it also
involves the investigations unit, uh, besides patrol, and uh, those are the folks working on
the backside. Once a crime occurs, then, um, they're the ones that .... that investigate it
and, uh, solve the crimes and .... and bring those responsible to justice, including taking
care of the victims. Um, the next division is over on the support services side, and that is
everything that we do that's pretty much non -police related. They're the ones that take
care of the, uh, the Animal Services side, the Planning and Research to help give us
direction, and then the Training and Accreditation, and uh, when we talk about
accreditation, we are, uh, a .... accredited nationally through GALEA, um, which is the,
um .... the national standard, the gold standard, for our policies and procedures and the
way we operate. Ub, as of this past year, we reached our sixth accreditation and so we
have meritorious standard with that national organization, so that keeps us on track, uh,
truly we're doing best practices. Uh, and then we have the crime prevention, uh, unit,
also called community outreach, and those are the folks you see putting on formal
programs, uh, such as National Night Out, um, Coffee With a Cop, uh, Shop With a Cop,
and all those programs. And then really the nuts and bolts of the record section and our
station masters, um, and they keep the place up and runnin' and make sure that we're
doin' things properly, uh, you know, 5% of what you see on TV with police work, uh,
you know, is the exciting stuff. 95% (laughs) is that backside with the record systems
and ... and making sure that we're getting stuff done. Um, as a reminder, we run 70,000
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calls for service each year, so we're a very busy, uh, organization. Uh, we're doin' about
12,000 traffic stops per year. Um, and so that, you know, and .... and about 4,500 group A
crimes, which I .... I showed you a month ago, uh, so that does keep us very busy. We
have a mission statement that's very similar actually to, uh, your trate... strategic plan as a
Council. Uh, and I'm just gonna run that by ya real quick, because I .... I want you to
know what direction we're headed and why we're doin' what we're doing. Uh, our
mission statement is that the Iowa City Police Department is to protect the rights of all
persons within its jurisdictions, to be free from crime, be secure in their possessions, and
live in peace by pursuing the goals of education, prevention, and enforcement. It is a
primary objective of the Iowa City Police Department to pres.... pursue the ideal of a
community free from crime and disorder in a fair, responsive, collaborative, and
professional manner. And when you think about your strategic plan, um, and enhancing
community engagement and inter -governmental relations, fostering safe neighborhoods,
and advancing social, um, justice and racial equity, that's consistent with what our
mission is, and that's what we try to do every single day. We send you measurements in
different reports and equity reports, um, to .... to keep you knowledgeable, and when I say
you not just the Council but the community, uh, in those efforts. So .... to get all this
done, we hover at about a $14 million budget. Um, most that as you know is personnel.
Uh, for the next year we're really, uh, very similar in costs with the operation side of it.
That is, uh, when it comes to our pens and pencils, up to our training, uh, and our
uniforms and equipment, and everything else, we .... we have a .... a sufficient amount of
money to get that done, and we're doing very well in that area. We are taking a .... a
strong look at our amount of training, to make sure that we're very efficient in that
there's not redundancy built in and we're not just spinning our wheels. So that's very
important. Um, some of the other things that we've done is, uh, we've expanded
our .... our community policing, uh, efforts. As you know we put Henri Harper in place a
couple years ago, um, and .... and, you know, when you think about efficiency in a police
department, uh, you know..... calling us and making sure we're there quickly for
emergencies and that we're responsive is .... is priority; however, just as important piece
these days is our community outreach. Uh, we've never been able to do this job alone.
We have to do it with the community, with the businesses, with the schools, uh, with....
with those civic organizations and .... and human, uh, services organizations, that ... that
help make us .... this a healthy, uh, city, and so those are our partners, and it's important
that we continue those partnerships to really be effective. Um, the disproportionality
minority contact study continues. There is a $18,000 increase in that. Uh... the reason
that the cost goes up just about eight grand, we usually pay about $10,000 a year for that
study. That's.... that's absolutely money well spent. We are gonna, uh, count the
benchmarks again, if you will, to make sure that those are accurate, so that takes
manpower from St. Ambrose to get people on the streets and actually count cars, if you
will. So we're gonna reset those and make sure they're accurate. That study continues
and for us to be effective crime fighting, and making sure that we're lowering crime
rates, but also being fair, the DMC study is an integral part of that, so I really encourage
us to stick with that. Uh, the, uh, crisis intervention training, uh, continues and .... and
some of those things as well, so, um, including the data -driven justice initiative, which
you've heard all about. Officer Schwindt was here introducing you to that here a while
back, urn .... but that deals with our transient population and homeless population, uh,
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which is critical, not just for those folks, but.....but for quality of life and uh, and to keep
a vibrant business district as well.
Throgmorton/ Chief, if I could interrupt very briefly. Have all of our officers, at least uniformed
officers, gone through CIT?
Matherly/ We're at about 63%, so those .... those classes continue this year. Uh, we held four
classes last year, and so, um, we should be all trained up by the end of 2018. That's a
good question.
Throgmorton/ Thanks.
Matherly/ Um, in looking down the road, uh, we're gonna try to expand in a couple ways. We
are asking for a couple personnel. Geoff Fruin, uh, and .... and Ashley hit on that earlier.
One of those personnel we're looking for is to put over the investigation SCAT unit. Um,
I've said all along, you've heard me say this, uh, you know, we want to deploy resources
by crime trends and not by entire communities, particularly communities of color. And
so it's important that we have that intelligence. We find out... who's.....who's doin' the
violent crime? It's spiking, nationwide. We need to identify those folks and then we
need to stop it, uh, and to be honest, and I think you know this, it's a very small percent
that raise havoc in our neighborhoods sometimes. Uh, so we need to know who those
folks are and actually, um .... uh, make sure that they're, you know, uh, mitigated from....
from doing that. That means identifying them and .... and arresting them if they do break
the law, and uh, to make sure that we keep the community safe. Uh, so that will also be a
working sergeant's position. So we have, our investigations unit only has one lieutenant,
one sergeant, but we have 12 investigators, and that span of control, the ideal is usually
three to eight, uh, that sergeant's literally running 12, um, plus we have three SCAT
people, so they're literally running 12 officers and that span of control's just out of
control, if you will, so we need to get another supervisor in there, and it'll be a working
supervisor. This person will not sit behind a desk. They'll be out in the street, making
sure that we stay safe, reduce liability, and be as .... as effective as we can. So that's very
important concept. Uh, so that'll work out of the field operations side, the investigation
side. The other officer that we're looking to do is over on the support services side.
They'll be down in the crime prevention area, and you can see, uh, under crime
prevention there's neighborhood services officer. This position will be compatible with
that, um, they'll work kind of a half and half. So half of it'll be in the neighborhood area.
We hope to fund that through, uh, permit fees, through the inspections and code
enforcement housing side, uh, for half of it, and help out with the neighborhoods, uh,
making sure that quality of life issues — loud parties, uh, littering, and .... and consistent
issues like that — are, uh, identified early on and then also, uh, handled and prevented so it
doesn't become a neighborhood nuisance. The other half's a .... other half of that officer's
time will take place, uh, in the Downtown District. We've seen how effective a
Downtown District officer can be, and we all think of Officer Schwindt and what he's
done, uh, in the Downtown District. So this officer will do similar activity, but they'll do
it in the evening hours. Uh, we .... we lack in that area. I think it's clear, uh, certainly
when you talk to the downtown businesses and to Nancy Bird and to Angela, and some of
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those folks, um, that's badly needed down there. To have an officer down there assigned
that can identify the problems, um, bring the businesses together, work with .... with
the .... the homeless folks that are down there, and make sure that they're taken care of
and making sure that they're, um, you know, urn ...... not being a nuisance to .... to the
folks down there, um, and that they're getting help with their, you know, referrals that
they need — that's very important. So we want to make that connection down there. Um;
we run 17,000 calls for service in the downtown area each year. It's a very high number.
So it's important that we .... that we staff that appropriately.
Thomas/ Excuse me, did.....Chief, did you say 17,000?
Matherly/ Yes.
Thomas/ Out of. ... 70,000?
Matherly/ ...out of the 70,000. It's a very big chunk. So.....
Botchway/ Chief, uh, just ask a couple questions in relation to that. Um, one speaks to .... the ....
I kind of talked to you (mumbled) before. For me it's a little bit around cost-sharing, and
so, you know, relative to downtown, I'm asking the same question in relation to our
traffic cameras. What is gonna be the cost-sharing between us and the University, um, in
relation to, um, you know, this additional person downtown, and in relation to the traffic
cameras, cause I'm assuming that it won't just be us using the traffic cameras. Um, the
University would probably already.... would be interested as well, and I'm not saying this
is a student issue. I'm just saying that this is a joint issue where, you know, we have
people from multiple walks of life that are part of it. What's your response to that?
Matherly/ Well my initial response is, uh, our collaboration and partnership with the University
is.....it's never been stronger. Uh, I have talked to the University, um, Director of Public
Safety, Scott Beckner, about this numerous times. He's all about partnerships. He's all
about collaboration and cost -savings. Uh, so from that aspect, it can definitely happen,
um, but any conversations above that, go above my pay grade, and that would be more of
a Geoff Fruin, uh, answer.
Fruin/ Yeah, so let me clarify a couple of things. Uh, one with the cameras I would not refer to
what we're suggesting as traffic cameras. We're talkin' about, um, security cameras.
Um, I wouldn't call them surveillance cameras either, cause we're not going to be
actively watching them, um, but they're more for .... of aninve....an investigatory tool.
Um, and .... and those would absolutely be accessible to any other law enforcement
jurisdiction that wanted them. If the UIPD was investigating something that occurred on
the ped mall, they would work cooperatively with the Iowa City Police Department, just
as if we needed something from them, they would work cooperatively with us. I have not
planned, uh, had not planned on approaching them about cost-sharing, um, for those. Uh,
we're not looking to extend those onto the campus area, and again, I think their
departments work well enough together where they have a lot of resources that we tap
into and they don't charge us and this would be one of those things that I would look to
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on the other end. With the actual, um, position, uh, the downtown position that, uh,
Off... uh, Chief Matherly talked about, and you can think of Officer Fowler who's our
downtown liaison officer now. He gets off at 5:00. This position you could say works
from 5:00 to 9:00 or 10:00 downtown, and then transition into the neighborhoods. The
neighborhood piece of it is .... is bein' funded with Housing Inspection Fees, so as we
move to annual inspections on a number of our properties, that's bringin' in new revenue.
Um, we need that to actually perform those inspections, but then we can be proactive on
our, um, neighborhood enforcement, as opposed to just responding to calls. We can
actually have somebody in there anticipating what those calls will be. Um, I would not,
um, think that, uh, you know, currently Officer Fowler's position is .... is funded by the
City and the Downtown District. The Downtown District contributes 10,000. Um, I
think that the Downtown District will increase their contribution. Um, I don't think that's
a .... I've.....I've communicated to them. Uh, I don't think that they have to, in order for
us to do this. I think it's the right thing for us to do to move forward, um, but, um, we
would welcome their contribution and I think that reflects the partnership, um, that they
have. I think they enjoy, um, the fact that they contribute to the current downtown officer
position, because it allows them to sit down with that officer, and with Chief Matherly,
and .... and um, talk as if it's a .... a partnership type of position. So, um, they may
nominally increase their contribution, say to like a .... a 15,000 or somethin' like that.
Um, but it's not a critical piece of the funding proposal in this budget.
Throgmorton/ If I can make one point. S ... Simon? Could you help me remember to inform the
Partnership for Alcohol Safety about the .... the new officer working at nights? Assuming
we adopt this in the budget.
Botchway/ The other concern, or guess question/comment I have is in relation to what Jim had
mentioned earlier about training, and so will this individual be .... because of some of the
things that Officer Schwindt had previously, um, been working through with the
Downtown District and the downtown in general, would this officer then be kind of, you
know..... pushed through CIT training in particular, especially with the mental health, um,
pieces around that? And then additionally, um, some of the concerns I've heard from,
um, the business community in particular downtown is a lack of training, not necessarily
for our officers or anybody in relation to the City staff, but in relation to the businesses
and how they're addressing individuals with, uh, pote.... potential mental health concerns.
Is there anything from out standpoint that we may be doing in helping them or is that
kind of a conversation that we can look into later on down the road?
Matherly/ Uh, those conversations are taking place now. Angela, um, the Downtown Mayor, has
approached us and .... and wants us to meet more with the business folks down there,
number one, get to know `em better, uh, but also maybe expose `em to some training, um,
so that's absolutely something we not just can do but should do as well, uh, and this
evening officer would certainly be able to help out with that, along with Officer Fowler.
To answer on the CIT, yes. This officer's going to be very well versed, such as Officer
Fowler is and Officer Schwindt was during his tenure there, in handling those folks. Uh,
we don't want somebody to go in there and undo what .... what's taken years to do up, and
we just wouldn't have that. So, it's a very good question.
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Fruin/ Um, just a point of clarification. Although this is a new position, um, it will not be filled
with a new officer. So this would be a .... a.....a appointment that the Chief would make.
There'd probably be an application process and we would pick a well experienced officer
for this type of role.
Matherly/ Thanks for clarifying that. The other things, uh, you'll see ... and I'll finish up here,
couple major .... uh..... uh, differences in budget from.....from this year's to the proposed
next year. We did some shifting of personnel so if you see a, you know, there's
a.....$300,000 difference in the two, uh, just know that the only additions we are asking
for those two officers' positions, there was some shifting just for.....for the ability to
match our budget to our, um .... um, structure and organization with the Police
Department itself. The two didn't talk to each other, so we have restructured with the
help of Dennis and his staff to .... to make sure that the two talk together. That is, Support
Services' leadership doesn't need to be in Police Administration. We put them back over
where they belong so we can manage that division much better. So if you see those
differences that's all it was, was the shifting of personnel, not necessarily major additions
or subtractions to one.
Fruin/ And then I do want to just offer a little bit more information for ya as you, um, consider
the policy ramifications of expanding a camera system downtown. Um, again we're not
looking, uh, at a surveillance type of situation, which we would have people actively
watching these, uh.....uh, cameras .... um, and nor are they for any type of proactive
enforcement, like red light running or speeding or anything like that. Um, these would be
strategically placed throughout the downtown to help investigate crimes that take place,
and perhaps inform officers as major events are taking place, urn .... um, that they need
to .... to watch. So for instance, with the shooting that we had on the ped mall, um, in all
the chaos that assu.... that ensued after that, it may have been a nice tool for the officers
to be able to say, okay, here's the cameras. I can see groups of people over here and here
and there's some excitement over here. It helped deploy those resources. More
importantly, the time spent investigating that shooting would have been significantly
reduced, and in some cases we spend hundreds of hours interviewing people, trying to
piece together exactly what happened in that type of environment, um, whereas cameras
could tell us the story with certainty and save us a lot of time. There have been a number
of high-profile downtown incidents over the years that you're familiar with. Um, in some
cases the length of the investigation has caused a lot of community concern. Um, we had
a, um, alleged hate crime that took place a couple of years ago. That took us a good 20 to
30 days or more, if memory serves me correctly, to investigate, and during that time,
there was a lot of angst in the community. There was a lot of fear. There was a .... a lot of
concern that we could have headed off, um, had we had a better, uh, investigatory tool
like a camera system downtown and we could of, I think, served the community better
through that capacity. So I understand it's a big policy decision. I just want you to know
what .... what our intent is. We have a pretty robust camera system at our City facilities
right now. You can see we're.... have a security camera up there on the wall. We have
`em in our parking decks, um, we have `em in pretty much all of our buildings, rec
centers and things like this. They would be....it would be the same system, just expanded
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out onto the street. We did anticipate this with the Washington Street project. We did
anticipate it with the planning for the ped mall, in that we have City fiber run to our light
poles down there, um, and so it's a.....uh, a.....a, I don't want to say a nominal expense.
I think, um, you know, we're lookin' at $100,000 over a couple of years to get the
Washington Street, ped mall area, uh, set up, and then over time we can choose to expand
that if we find value there.
Cole/ Geoff, this is obviously a really huge topic, and I know we could probably spend all day on
it. Um, but very, very briefly, um, have you reached out to groups like the ACLU just to
get a policy review of the privacy protections in place, to ensure .... I know you probably
already have a policy, but is that process on the horizon at all? Very briefly.
Fruin/ Well I assume that'd be part of the policy discussion, but before we really go out and do a
whole lot of external engagement, we .... we would need to know if there's an appetite on
the Council, because I don't want to get groups involved and either excited or (both
talking)
Cole/ ....we can address later (both talking)
Fruin/ ....until I know that there seems to be some support here.
Cole/ Okay.
Taylor/ And, Geoff, you'd mentioned, uh, streets and the ped mall. I know there's been concern
over the past with some incidents in the alleys. Is that a possibility too that it'll be in
some of the alleyways?
Fruin/ Yeah, it's a possibility. We would cert .... at this stage what we would do is try to set up
cameras, uh.... uh, in the, say in the ped mall that .... that would look down those alleys.
Um .... uh, but for now our main focus is on that, kind of the Washington Street entrance,
and then throughout the entire ped mall, but we would capture, for .... for example,
the .... the, uh, walkway that is between the Sheraton and Martini's and .... and make sure
we have a viewshed down there. Alleys are.....are critically important too. So we try to
make sure, but it wouldn't be 100% coverage to start on the alleys.
Matherly/ Final big piece you'll see is .... is the capital outlays. We're replacing seven police
cars, a ..... a CSO truck, um, and adding some....some safety equipment to our .... our
response teams, special response team, in the way of helmets and .... and safety, uh,
communications to enhance safety, so ... not breathtaking there. That's all I have! Unless
there's other questions!
Throgmorton/ I .... I do want to ask a question, just comes to mind hearing about the capital
investment. I have a general interest because of our climate action plan in hybrid
vehicles and .... but I have no idea whatsoever if there are reasonable hybrid alternatives
that would be, uh, adequate for police enforcement. What's your sense of that?
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Matherly/ Well I .... I actually .... I actually got a hybrid for patrol before they were cool (laughs)
uh, it was about 10 years ago, when I was the Grinnell Chief, and we, uh, put one into
the, uh, supervisors' arena to let them drive it. Um, for patrol use, they're.... they really
don't manufacture a car that's gonna work for that, but certainly we .... we have, uh, 12
unmarked cars that we use for administrative and for .... for detectives, and that's where
we could folde ... fully utilize a, uh, a hybrid -type vehicle, uh, so they're makin' them
bigger and better, and uh, more efficient, and I think that's somethin' that we could take a
look at down the road, certainly.
Throgmorton/ Great. I'm certainly interested in taking a look. Yeah.
Botchway/ I had a couple additional questions, um ...... sorry, I'm trying to read from my notes.
Um.....so on page 193, as I looked at the different performance measures, uh, I kinda
understand that, why there's an asterisk there, but then there's.....there's a reduction of
like public education on .... efforts on rights from 48 to 14. 1 mean and I understand some
of that is also community requests. Did we see just a .... a reduction in community
requests or is that kind of encapsulated in some of the community outreach events?
Matherly/ In .... Officer Cash usually handle those for us and .... and there wasn't any rhyme or
reason why that went down, other than requests, and ... and the availability to get .... to get
that program out there. That usually takes place at the University level and, uh
(coughing, unable to hear speaker) organizations that .... that wanna know about that, um,
so ...... we can certainly do more of those. It's just a matter of. ... of need and .... and uh,
but we have people in place to certainly do that, but that's all that means is less requests.
You're right!
Botchway/ Uh, the other question's related to page 198, and that, um.....was just under bar
checks performed. So I know that Mayor Throgmorton.... may have been two years ago
or maybe a year ago had requested that we do a little more .... a better analysis related to
the bar checks performed. But then I saw here the compliance check just basically
dropped off to zero.
Matherly/ And that was before my arrival. I spotted it too, uh, Councilman, and uh.....it should
not have happened. I can tell ya we've already picked the ball up for 17 (coughing,
unable to hear speaker) so they should have been done, they weren't done for whatever
reason, and .... and understand the Department was in transition. Things get lost
through... through that translation, uh, but we're back, and we have done `em this year
(both talking) and we will continue (both talking)
Fruin/ I don't think you'll see the rise to the levels of the 12 through 14, because those used to be
grant -funded operations and those grants are no longer available. So, those.... those, um,
compliance checks are done on overtime, urn .... uh, typically, and um, it's nice to have a
grant.... provide that overtime dollars. We don't have that now. It doesn't mean, as
Chief says, we're gonna stop, but um, you're not gonna probably see us get into the 200s
and 300s going forward.
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Matherly/ And same with tobacco compliance. We .... we do the same thing with tobacco, and the
State funds those, but we can't get `em to fund it for alcohol yet (laughs) or anymore, but
we'll certainly keep working on that. You know, we .... we're in position, if we have the
DDJI grant that, the data -driven justice grant, uh, there's hopefully going to be good
news in the coming weeks for additional grants that we're seeking, to make us better in
the investigations area, particularly in gender bias, so, um, we're trying to, um, to .... to
get the most bang for our buck, including any assistance we can find that's worth our
time seeking and will make a different for our community, we're going after those.
Botchway/ The last question is around training. So just .... I got a call, um, this last week around,
um, the .... our Department not doing the training for car seats. Is that a budgetary issue
or.....
Matherly/ Well it was kind of a .... a, kind of a state issue. We have the most, um .... child
restraint trained folks, uh, in this county than in any other county in the state.
We .... we're saturated. The Fire Department does an excellent job, and Chief Grier can
speak to that, um, but they.... they've really boosted the numbers in .... in certified folks.
Um, so it got to the point where the state said, ya gotta enough there, um, how many
(laughs) how many more do you think you need, and so we've kind of deferred that,
referred that over to the Fire Department, and some of the hospitals are still doing it as
well. So there's an adequate number. We have pulled out of that process, uh, just
because it didn't appear that it was needed. There was too much redundancy.
Botchway/ And is this additional people trained, like once you've received certification, there's
no need to continue to be certified?
Matherly/ No, you have to be re -certified. You have to do a certain amount of seats, and you
have to, you know, attend classes for that. It's not real labor intensive. Um, but .... you
know, just....when a good process is in place, it was a little bit overkill for us to continue
to do it. So if there was a need we would certainly get back into the business.
Botchway/ Okay.
Matherly/ And part of it is facilities too. We just don't have a place, like in the wintertime
(laughs) to do those inspections, because of our physical setup. So it's kinda tough.
Thomas/ At, um, there was.... interesting event at the Library. I'm not sure if you attended it.
There were four mayors from, what, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Madison, and Jim
representing Iowa City were in attendance, and the mayor of Madison spoke about how, I
mean it had to do with homelessness and drug-related, you know, issues that ... that they
face in Madison, and I think, if I recall correctly, said roughly a third of police.... their
police officer time was spent addressing those issues, which I think from what I'm
sensing, one of the reasons we're so supportive of the .... the crisis intervention center
facility would be to try to reduce that percentage of time, and so what it....it causes me to
think about is how .... how is our police time allocated.... by certain types of responses,
uh, you know, whether it be drug, homelessness related. You have.....you have a number
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for traffic stops, urn ... you know, how .... how does.....I don't know if you keep track of it
in this way, but how .... what, as a percentage of your overall police time, how is it .... how
does it end up being allocated to .... in response to these .... these different issues that you
face in terms of your duties?
Matherly/ I will tell you that .... that up to 90% of our crimes are .... have a nexus of drugs, uh,
alcohol, and mental illness. Um, you know, when we talk about the statistics in prisons,
you know, over half of those folks have those types of issues, and so we need to get on
the front side, and I say we — society (laughs) needs to get on the front side and be more
preventive in nature, and that's where we're headed with things like CIT to make sure
we're identifying folks that don't belong in the criminal justice system. But belong on
another track to help `em out, um, be it through, you know, alcohol, drugs, or ... or mental
health counseling. The problem is once you identify `em, where are they gonna go, and
this goes right back to, uh, including data from DDJI that helps us identify those
numbers, back to ideas with access centers and a place to take these folks, and give `em
some assistance and see if we can't, you know, give them the help they need and prevent
them from .... from committing crimes, some out of desperation, uh, some because
they're, you know, they're just not hitting on all cylinders, and it's unfortunate that we've
put so many resources on the back side. We (laughs) the entire nation! We need to get it
back on the front side. It's a large amount. We recognize that. But .... but we are also
training to do somethin' about it.
Throgmorton/ Jody, picking up on this point, nationwide there's obviously been a considerable
uptick, epidemic in opioid, uh, addiction and use. Uh, and .... but my understanding is
that that's not really.....it's not really such a problem in this part of the country, or at least
has not been up till now. Are you seeing any trend that's really worrisome?
Matherly/ Uh, as you'll recall back in June, uh, Chief Grier and I submitted a .... a, uh, a memo to
you folks that talked about those numbers, um, and just referring back to that, um, we....
In 2016 experienced 19 deaths reda... related to heroin and opioids, in the county.
Not .... not Iowa City, but in the county. Um, and as of April of 2017 we were at five
deaths, and I don't have the statistics after that. Um .... you know, that's.... that's too
many, obviously. One .... one is too many. There is, uh, an epidemic in this nation, uh, I
will tell you it's worse in the eastern states than it is here. Um, but, uh, you know, it's
sometbin' that needs to be dealt with, absolutely. Um, so the question is, you know, what
do we do about it, and again, lot of that's on the front side through getting these folks into
systems that are available, that are affordable, and .... and effective to .... to get them, uh,
off this addictive habit, um, because that's absolutely what it is. So ... we're working in
that direction, uh, but .... but it's, a lot of it's much bigger than the Police Department
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....need to do what we can do to keep that wave, uh, epidemic coming fully into
our area (both talking)
Matherly/ Exactly, and I'll be quite frank when we deal with overdoses and things of that nature,
we're .... we're not looking to .... to charge folks, and we .... we preach this to the
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University kids all the time. Make that call. Call in if somebody's in distress. We'll
worry about the criminal side of it later. Um, you know, we don't want people to fear
calling us for assistance, uh, when .... when somebody's in need, uh, in an emergency
situation. So, keeping that reassurance there that we're .... there to aid that person is key.
Throgmorton /Okay, any other questions for Jody? Okay, thanks so much, Chief.
Matherly/ Thank you very much.
Throgmorton/ Good job, keep it up! Hi, Chief'.
Fire Department
Grier/ Morning! All right, how do I get to my slide? Hey, figured it out! (laughter) John Grier,
I'm the Fire Chief. I've been the Fire Chief for four and a half years almost. Been with
the City 25 years. Seems like yesterday. I'll run you through our, uh, stuff real quick.
64 personnel operating out of four fire stations. 60 of those personnel are assigned to
shift work, the 24-hour shifts, and then four of us are doing .... doing days so .... broken up
into those different areas. We have a lot of crossover of responsibilities at the, uh,
administration staff level. So .... some of that kind of goes intertwined, but the .... the day
folks are myself, the deputy fire chiefs, the fire marshal, and a .... a training officer who is
afire lieutenant. I'm just gonna step through some of the areas of responsibility here and
if you have questions along the way let me know. Uh, fire administration, our big focus
that we're just really ramping up right now and I've been runnin' back and forth across
the hall, we're doin' all of our data tables right now cause we're up for re -accreditation
this spring. We've been accredited twice by our accrediting body, so we'll be having a
visit here March, April, May, to review all of our things and make sure that we're up to
the best practice models out there in the .... in the world, cause it's a world, uh,
organization. So we're, uh, doin' a lot of data crunching right now. I can tell you that
the call .... number of calls that we have for this year, for 17, was.....6,849 I believe, and
that may go up or down. Sometimes we find a duplicate that, uh, data replicates.
So .... the other thing that we have going on with the fire administration, we recently
did .... redid our strategic plan and we tie our strategic plan to your strategic plan. So I
think we have a good, uh, intertwining of ideas and commitment to what your plans are.
So we've... we recently redid that. Uh, financial highlights for fire administration, I'm
also responsible for weather alert sirens, so we're just finishing up a RFP on doing a five-
year plan to update and replace and make sure that we have good coverage. So that's
what some of that big money you see in there. Uh.... we just received our, uh,
classification from ISO. We remained in a class 2. Our score was kind of similar to what
we had before. They changed their matrix on scoring, so it was .... you can't really
compare apples to apples with our last one, but it's .... we're right in the upper level of the
class 2. Uh, there's a couple things that restrict us, obviously station location and
personnel, but those .... those are things that take a while to.....to address, but uh, we're
very high in the class 2 and we have great water, great communications, great folks, so
that certainly helps. Operations, I already highlighted how many calls that we have. We
are busy! Uh, we have some areas that are of concern to us. Obviously as far as response
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to the far sides of the city and, uh, those sorts of things. Another thing that we've been
experience ....as our call volume goes up we have concurrent calls. I think the report I
ran this morning, what was it, 40% of the time we have one unit out on a call and another
unit gets dispatched to something else. So, lot of ways the district that's out, but that's
something that we're gonna look at as well is how often is .... engine 2 out on a call and
there's another call for district 2. So those are the kind of things we look at. Fires are
remaining stable numbers. Uh, you know, under 50, but I don't have the final numbers
on those. So the overlapping one is the .... the biggest concern to us. No staffing requests
for ... for ours. We're looking at using some interns and, uh, internal folks to do some
specialty data things for us, so we've kind of adapted and over.... overcome when we
needed to and we work with, uh, the Fire Marshal's had an intern for a while and we just
had a partnership with Western Illinois University, where we had an intern here for three
months, and he helped do .... do some work for us. I think that will continue with that
program there. That was .... that was a good thing to get goin'. Uh..... the performance
measures for emergency operations. Might notice some differences in the numbers there,
and I think we'll probably come back to some of those. Our capital outlay and
operations, we're replacing..... the $20,000 is to replace our high pressure bags for lifting,
uh, heavy objects, that sort of thing. Fire prevention, we get out there a lot. Something I
would highlight out of our accomplishments is working with the Police Department, the
Johnson County Ambulance Service, emergency.... other emergency folks, the Youth
Emergency Services Camp with .... that we held at Station #4. The junior high one we
actually had to cap the number of folks, it was full, and the senior high ones we had 25,
and I .... I assume that we'll see some repeat customers and I think with the people telling
their friends about it, we'll have.... that' 11 be full again. That was very successful. I
really enjoyed going out there. Another thing under fire prevention is that compliance
engine. That's the third -party vendor that we use to help us make sure that we're getting
compliance with fire alarm, sprinkler testing. It's also helped with, uh, maintaining
compliance, and reducing the number of false alarm calls by faulty equipment. So we do
have the, uh, healthy inspection workload, and something that we always do is we look at
how we do things and how we might do them a little better. So we're.....kind of
revamping our inspection schedule, things that are scoring low on a risk get the less
frequent physical inspection, but self -inspections and that sort of thing. Moving on to
training, we're.... obviously we're excited with the potential of the upcoming changes of
building a fire training tower in Iowa City. Coralville has been more than gracious in
letting us go over to their place. They've been really great to work with, but it would be
nice to have it here in the city. That'll certainly help us with some of our training time,
and the ability to get things in just a little easier. We did have some software changes.
We moved from our standard records management system that we've had since I've been
here, to something new, and .... it's the one time I wanna do it. I don't wanna do it again
(laughs) We're tryin' to get those two to talk and get five years worth of data is .... has
been an interesting and challenging experience, but it's .... I think we're there! In fact, uh,
Deputy Chief or .... Fire Chief Brian Platz now in North Liberty is actually here today,
helping us go through some of our data and making sure that we can get it to talk so...
Uh, leadership development initiative, I'd just like to talk about that a little bit. This is,
uh, taking folks from all levels of the Department now. We've started at the command
staff and it's just basically, uh, developing yourself as an individual and how you can
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impact what you do at work, and lift everybody up. It's .... it's not management 101. It's
more just, uh, lots of internal reflection and how .... how you can do things. It's been an
interesting experience so .... think we're gonna try to push that down through the
organization and I think that'll go well. I think that's the highlights. So I'd be happy to
enter .... answer any questions.
Botchway/ So I had a coup .... oh, go ahead!
Taylor/ I was just gonna say, Chief, that, uh, I was impressed with your report on the number of
lost days due to injury. Uh, very impressive decline there from 452 in 15 to 144, although
even one day lost is not good, but I was hoping, cause I was also pleased to see there
finally are plans for the training tower, and I'm hoping that maybe, um, you might also
think that that might help with that, as far as some additional training could help reduce
that (both talking)
Grier/ I think so. I think anything we can do that's job task related and do it in a controlled
environment that helps us. Lot of our injuries are slips and trips, that sort of thing, but if
you're fighting a fire today, we .... we do have some conditions that make it a little more
difficult, but I think the training tower and the ability to do things that you do normal, but
will be helpful.
Taylor/ (both talking) ...money well spent!
Grier/ Yep! Absolutely!
Botchway/ On page, uh, 208, actually it's before, just kinda wanted to .... for public knowledge,
we um .... on both compliance pieces, we dipped below our target, compared to prior
years.
Grier/ Yes.
Botchway/ What was that for?
Grier/ Well as I told you earlier, there's a few .... there's a few things, uh..... lot of construction,
so alternate routes, that sort of thing. Far east and west always get us on .... on the times,
and then another thing that we also have done, we've changed how we look at our data.
We're.... statistically we're .... we were able to take out outliers and determine if it's one
of those that's way out here, you can drop it. We decided just to pool everything and take
a true picture. So we have the one call that took us nine minutes to get to, for whatever
reason. We used to be able to look at those and say this is an anomaly and we can drop it
out. We just....we keep everything in now. So .... we did not go back and change the
previous years, uh..... mostly cause of the data sets, but .... so that's part of it too. But it is
more difficult to get to some parts of the city, and particularly it's been a lot of
construction and it kinda slows us down a little bit, and then any time you have weather,
that's also been a factor.
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Throgmorton /Kingsley, can I follow up on that? Yeah, so you're referring to new development
in other parts of the city. I think in particular the far northeast or.....what we might call
the for .... far northwest of Iowa City, and then more of the far southwest, but also the....
all the multi -family or multi -unit development right in the core of the city.
Grier/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ So have those transformations had any adverse effects on your operations or how
have you tried to adjust to them?
Grier/ No, I don't think it's had an adverse .... the number of calls obviously you put more folks
in a area we go to more calls, but I think the type of call remains consistent. Uh, I don't
think there's any major..... major change associated with those.
Throgmorton/ Okay, good! Glad to hear it.
Botchway/ My other question is on page 206 and it's.....I think it was a ..... focused on the
challenges, discusses the fact that cooking fires continue to be a trend. You know, what
are we doing in response to that, I mean, obviously if it's continuing to uptick, you know,
what's the Department's response related to ensuring that it goes down.
Grier/ Sure. Continued public education, obviously fire prevention is a big thing that we do. So,
we continue to get into the schools and hope that the .... the messages get home and those
sorts of things. The other thing that, uh, we've tasked the prevention division with is
tryin' to get into the ... the neighborhood meetings, uh, hook up with those folks to just
get .... get our message out. A lot of it is just your.....your common things where it's
unattended cooking. Uh, we do have a lot of.....early morning incidents where folks go
home to make something and then get distracted or fall asleep, that sort of thing. Uh, so
we do focus on that as well, but .... public education will continue to be a .... a big thing for
us, and that was part of the .... what the intern did for us. Looked at what we do, how we
do it, and how we might do it better. So .... we're kinda synthesizing that information too.
But that'll be the big focus to get that .... that and reducing number of false alarms is
also .... takes a lot of our time. So continuing to work on those things.
Throgmorton/ Any other questions?
Taylor/ We talked earlier with the Police Chief as far as, and I think Kingsley brought that up,
the .....the car seat, uh.....(both talking)
Grier/ Oh, yes!
Taylor/ Is that, uh, an issue with your department then, having increased number of having to
have that responsibility?
Grier/ Uh, we've.....we've adjusted to it over the year ..... we've been a part of the Safe Kids
organization of, uh, group, one of the sponsors with Mercy Hospital since its inception in
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Johnson County, and Mercy continues to .... to work with us. It's certainly morphed over
the years, whether you .... you used to have all these different subcommittees that did
things. Now there's so many organizations that do bike or do this or do that so we serve
as a clearing house and refer people to the right place, but we've maintained, uh, safety
seats. Fire Station 94, we've kind of adjusted where we do things. We've moved public
education to Station #4 because of the drive-through bay and that's where the car seat,
uh, events are held. We do every other month. We do one time, every other month, uh,
and we use technicians from across the county, whoever wants to come help, and then we
also allow folks to call and make an appointment with the Fire Department personnel and
we're also looking at do we want to try to dedicate another time to do that, cause
the .... the one drawback that we have is if we have somebody there doing a car seat and
we get a call, we leave. And.... it's.... and somebody's left sitting there. So we're tryin'
to .... tryin' to work through that a little bit more, but we do schedule a lot of those and we
continue to train technicians and as .... as the Chief mentioned, there is ongoing education
but for us it's a good investment in .... in the community. The University has helped pick
up some of the car seats with their, uh, the Children's Hospital, they now have a spot
underground in the parking ramp where they do that, where we used to get all of those
too, but we .... we continue to work with all the groups in .... in the town, and ... and both
county, and go around and help out, so yeah.
Throgmorton/ Different topic, Chief, as you know, one of our ambitions is to diversify our staff.
Grier/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ So we have 605 or so, or will have 605 employees, FT .... FTE anyhow. So, um,
what's y'alls situation and, uh, do you see any opportunities for diversification of the Fire
Department staff?
Grier/ I think we'll continue to work with HR to get our message out when we do testing. We
have a current list that we hire from. It's probably near the end of its life. So as part of
the testing process or the advertising that we just continue to .... use word of mouth, social
media, every way that we can. Uh, I think that it's a nationwide problem. Uh, certainly
looking at other fire departments, and I go around and do the accreditation visits at other
departments, and it's ..... it's everywhere. But yeah, we will continue to work with that.
We have, uh.....made inroads, I think, in the past. The testing process is difficult, so we
lose some folks in the written and we lose some folks in the ..... in the physical agility,
you know, so I think .... we're doing what we can, but I think we can .... like anybody, we
can do better.
Taylor/ On that note, do you reach out like on the high school level and do career day kinds of
things?
Grier/ That's the .... where the camp comes in. I think that's part of that exposing folks to, uh,
police, you know, fire, ambulance, emergency services, kind of plant that seed and
something.... we get to the grade schools, and then we see folks maybe at a camp. We're
still trying to work, you know, to get into the junior highs when you're kind of getting...
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develop.... where do I want to go. When I was the Fire Marshal I had the opportunity to
go to City High numerous times, one of the teachers there. My kids went to City High so
I went and talked and it was a great opportunity to just sit down and talk to kids, so we're
tryin' to get into the junior high too so we can, uh, keep contact with `em, to keep
planting the seed.
Throgmorton /Any other questions? Apparently not! Thanks, Chief.
Grier/ Thanks! Have a great day!
Throgmorton /Enjoy the rest of the day.
Grier/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ All right, we're gonna turn to Susan Craig. Hi, Susan!
Culture & Leisure Program Budgets:
Library
Craig/ Hi! You guys must be havin' a good day cause you are on schedule! (laughter) Great!
By the time we get to this part, sometimes we're early and sometimes we're late and boy,
you are like on task today. Um, just a little few summary things about the Library. Um,
oh I have to (several talking in background) There we go! Urn .... here's our org chart.
Uh..... Library Board of Trustees up at the top. We have a nine member Board of
Trustees, one of those members is someone who, um, you officially appoint, but the name
is sent over from the County. So we have one rural county, Johnson County,
representative on the .... the Board. Uh, we have .... 44.17 FTEs of permanent staff, um, a
little over 20 FTEs of hourly staff, that's probably about 50 different individuals, and um,
4 %2 FTEs of volunteers. Um, so that's how we staff our operations. Uh, 61 .... over
61,000 card holders. Last year our circulation was 1.3 million and we had just under
800,000 visits to the Library. Um .... you know, our .... our big thing last year was the
bookmobile and I think you've heard some updates on that throughout the year. It's been
a resounding success, and I want to thank you so much for your support of, you know, it
was .... it was a chance and um, it has turned into something that will continue to grow
and get even better, that is really benefiting many areas of our community, I believe.
Um, so that was a big focus of what we got done last year. The operations and one new
staff person are funded by the City, um, our Foundation supports additional staff hours.
We took a part-time person that we had in the children's room and made them full-time
and that portion of that person's expenses, both salary and benefits, is paid for from gift
dollars that the Foundation gives us. Um, we've also worked in the last few years to
really expand children's programming, um, which we're up to .... we have a children's
program seven days a week pretty much now. I mean some of them are simple things.
Sunday is known as craft day and we just set up tables in the storytime room and have
craft things out there, but again ..... just to get your kids out of the house in weather like
this or .... if you're a low-income family, sometimes buying crayons and markers for your
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children is an expense, or just to use somebody else's crayons and markers is a fun thing
to do. Um, you may have read about the special programming we're doing with the
autism community, where we open the building ..... we.....we do this jointly with the
North Liberty Community Library, because they heard we were doing it and they said,
we'll do it the months you don't. We started out saying we would do it every other
month. So on the months we don't do it, they do it. Ours is .... we open early on
Saturdays, um, a 9:00 to 10:00 hour, and .... um, families, um, who have members with
autism are welcome into the Library at that time. There's less noise, less people,
disruption. We bring in some special programming, um, that is very appealing and
comforting, um, to those individuals. We bad our first STEAM Fest last year, which we
cooperated with the School District. Part of the goal was to get school kids, give.... Have
it in May so at the .... towards the end of the school year. The elementary kids could
come down on a field trip, which is an exciting thing, um, and I think we had eight or
nine elementary schools, um, participate on that Friday. Uh, we focused on third and
fourth graders. We just found out yester.... one of the things that I really appreciated was
we got some grant money last year and we were able to give every kid that came a
science -related book, which was, you know, it's always great to have a book to take
home and we just found out yesterday that our grant was funded for this year. So we'll
be able to do that again. Um, new prog.... relatively new program in the children's room,
1000 Books Before Kindergarten, um, isn't really (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
parents of young children, um, to get them.....to continue to read, uh, throughout so that
they read, how important it is to go to kindergarten or even to pre-school, having been
read to consistently. Um, I ... North Liberty has a program they call Read to the Bump,
which I sort of like the name of that. Um ..... we have, there is growing interest in using
electronic collections, and we have a partnership with the North Liberty Community
Library and the Coralville Public Library where we have gone together. That saves us all
money and .... and is, helps all of our patrons, because they get access to a larger
collection. So we .... go together and mutually buy, um, items that go into those electronic
collections, the downloadable e -books, the audio books, the magazine product, and um,
actually we (clears throat) excuse me, we've done a data base this year, so .... um, I think
that there's a lot of potential in that kind of partnership that benefits everybody, and we
are working with, um, continually working to update our web site and we have,
uh.....done a lot of work on that this year and that works continues. Um .... in the current
year and looking forward, um, we don't have a lot of big things that we've asked for new
in the budget. We're still focusing on maximizing, um, the bookmobile services and
getting it where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. Um, we are in the midst of a
small remodeling project, which was in this year's budget, um, CIP budget. We are
redoing our computer lab on the second floor. If you follow us on Facebook, I think they
had a picture up yesterday. Just started and a wall got torn down and suddenly you see
like, oh! There is going to be more space there! Um, we're trying to create a space that
is more flexible. It used to have furniture that was fixed to the floor, so you couldn't
really move around, you could not work well in groups. Um, so I think that that is going
to be a .... a big service improvement up there and we'll be able to serve more people.
Um, continuing to improve the web site. A big thing that the Board is going to be doing
this year, I have announced I'm going to retire the end of December of 2018, so, um, they
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have started that process and appointed a committee to begin a search for a new library
director.
Throgmorton/ Hold on, Susan! So 40 years of two directors or whatever and ... and you're
gonna .... we have to replace (both talking)
Craig/ I know! I ... you know there's a certain amount of panic I hear from people. I just go it's
just cause you don't do it often enough, you know, um ..... (mumbled) I think Lolly was
the director. She became the director in 70.....1 wanna say 78.....76, and then I became
the director .... in 94. So, yes, it's been a long time with two of us. So .... but change is
good! We'll all be good! Um ..... you know, I .... I did want to also add the .... to the
conversation, um, that started with the Police Chief about security cameras. Um, you
may remember that, um, the State passed a law, the legislature passed a law last year that
went into effect the first of July that required, um, that we.....we had security cameras in
the public parts of our larger public restrooms, and um, that law, which was specifically
written for Iowa City, as so many are, uh, we're so special, um, required us to take `em
out and .... you know, I .... I could have .... I can argue the points on either side of that
conversation, but I do believe that it was the right thing to do. The Library Board
discussed it multiple times. They felt it was the right thing to do, and I'm ..... I'm sad that
that tool is no longer available to us. Uh.....
Thomas/ Is everything (both talking) is everything okay in the restrooms? So far?
Craig/ Well, you know, in the last few weeks.....in the month of December I think, we've had....
um, two teenage boys approached in restrooms by one was a man who offered him
alcohol, and you start to wonder where that would have gone if he hadn't been smart
enough to say no, and another one was someone soliciting money from a teenage boy.
Um .... we had an incident about a .... a week ago when it was one of those really cold
nights, um, we had closed the building for the evening. We had a single maintenance
person in there, and he discovered someone in one of the restrooms who had not left, who
was inebriated, and refused to leave, and sort of pushed him, but he did .... it was in
the .... in the lobby restroom and he did get him out the door, um, but .... you know, a
public restroom in a building that has 800,000 a year in it, um, that lets everybody come,
encourages everybody to come, wants everybody to come, is not .... a place that is, you
should just idly not pay attention to the security of what goes on in public restrooms.
But....
Taylor/ I think the other thing that you'd brought up, Susan, in relation to the cameras was, uh,
possible theft of some of your library materials also (both talking)
Craig/ Oh yes, that's a (both talking)
Taylor/ ...safety issue there was that, that concern.
Craig/ Yes, and that has .... we've sort of lost that tool altogether... because the police, we could
show the police that this person went into the restroom carrying, you know, five DVDs
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and that they went into a stall with five DVDs and then they came out and they put the
DVD cases, cause they'd gone in there to break them open and take the discs out, in the
trash. But we don't have that anymore so.....we just find the DVD cases in the trash and
we don't know who put them there. But......
Botchway/ On a more, you know, enlightening note! (laughter)
Craig/ Yes!
Botchway/ Um.....just want to say kudos, you know, I think that, uh, you know, I'm glad you
came now, instead of before when my son was here because as soon as you'd have said
Library we'd probably.... his mom would have probably had to spend the rest of the day
there. Um....
Craig/ That's good!
Botchway/ ....but there's.... there's a lot of things that I think you mentioned already that
are .... that you .... you haven't glossed over, but are huge, I mean having additional hours
for autism community to come in, uh, from a lower sensory standpoint is a big deal, I
mean that's something that isn't necessarily done, um, in all libraries across the country.
The teen area, I know you didn't necessarily mention that. I see a lot of my kiddos up
there, you know, when I go upstairs to get a book, whatever the case may be, and they
love it, especially some of our kiddos that have had some significant issues, um, at the
School District. You know, having an opportunity to kind of decompress, um, and
participate has been huge. The STEAM Fest was packed! There was a lot of people.
Uh, it was amazing. I think there was also, um, I think you did the engine, the train kind
of exhibit in the first part of that, which I think I've stayed in there a little bit too long
because my son and his love of trains. Um, and then the 1000 Books Before
Kindergarten, you know, reading is an issue from a School District standpoint that is, um,
is frequently talked about in relation to third grade reading retention and some of the
other things and to have, um, obviously the City step in and provide an opportunity where
you get some really cool prizes, um, if you're able to read, um, you know, a lot of books,
and even say. ...and the problem with it is I think you .... you don't necessarily talk about
reading multiple books. You talk about it's okay to read the same books, which is an
issue (laughs) because some of those books I don't wanna read over and over and over
again (laughs) um.....
Craig/ The ones you have memorized!
Botchway/ Yeah, the ones I have memorized (laughs) but um, I also want to kind of, um,
elaborate my last point, on the collaboration with different events. Um, cause I don't
think you spoke to that as well, not only with the block party cause it was open for that,
but just in general with the different festivals, the Library is always collaborating. I just
want to say that's.... kudos to that because I have some questions kinda later on in the day
to ensure that we're thinking about how we can leverage a lot of our partnerships with the
community to ensure that we are .... um, you know, being as diverse as possible, but also,
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you know, ensuring that people are using all of our City services to the best of their
ability.
Craig/ You know the thing about the festivals, for instance Mission Creek, um, when they first
approached us and said, you know, we're looking for venue space, um, what can we do at
the Library, and in our reply was, well, we have this room and we would make an
exception and allow you to book it, you know, for a couple of days, but everything you
have there must be free. So .... people don't have to have a wristband, they don't have to
pay for a ticket, and they have found.....that that is very good for them, because people
who have come to the free events at the Library, the next year they buy a wristband,
because they say this programming is really good.
Thomas/ One thing I noticed was the, uh, under the Foundation section, you received $225,000
in contributions. Is that.....typical on a year in, year out basis? Or is .... how does that....
what's the trend there (laughs)
Craig/ The trend is you work for every penny you have, I mean small foundations are .... I don't
wanna say hurting cause I think that's too strong of a way, of a word, particularly in Iowa
City which supports its non -profits very well. Um, but .... it's, some years it's a struggle.
And you.....the amount per year can change (clears throat) excuse me, quite dramatically.
For instance if you get a bequest. If you get $100,000 bequest, which is what we used,
um, for our part of purchasing the bookmobile, um, then .... that year it looks like your
contributions have shot up, but .... this amount is .... is more general of, you know, the
annual kinds of go out and get gifts from ordinary people, hope you've all given, and um,
corporations, local businesses, and things like that. So that is a pretty normal kind of a
number (both talking)
Thomas/ ...no major contributions (both talking)
Craig/ Right, we didn't get $100,000 check last year from anybody.
Throgmorton/ Any other questions for Susan?
Craig/ While.... when we talk about City departments working together, in my tenure with the
Libr... with the City, I think City departments are working together better than I have ever
seen, and you know, we work very closely with the Police Department. Uh, when you
talk about safety concerns, um, people who suffer from mental illness, um, people who
suffer from substance abuse, a lot of those individuals see the Library as a safe haven and
we want them to, um, but when we have issues, the police are there for us. Um, they've
done training for us, um, and Parks and Recreation, you know, we are working more and
more collaboratively with them, um, I think it's a great thing!
Throgmorton/ Excellent!
Craig/ Thank you.
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Throgmorton/ Thank you, Susan. Enjoy the rest of the day! (unable to hear speaker in audience)
All right, we're gonna turn to Parks and Recreation.
Parks & Recreation
Dyson/ Good morning, everyone!
Throgmorton/ Good mornin'!
Dyson/ All right, um, Chad Dyson, Recreation Superintendent. Uh, fillin' in for Juli today who
is on vacation. Uh, also here is Zac Hall, our Park Superintendent, who will cover the
park side of things. I've been with the City for about seven years, going on eight.
Um ... um, we're gonna break this down into our basically four divisions that make up the
Parks and Recreation Department. Um, the first being, um ..... this is sort of backwards,
but admin, um, which consists of four activities. So that consists of our admin
operations, our Farmers Market, our government buildings, and then parkland
acquisition. Um, the, uh, operating budget for this year, for FYI 9, for admin is about
$1.2 million. Um, they are .... the admin portion consists of two, uh, full-time employees,
um, and then government buildings, uh, consists of another four, so there's six total in
that program area. Um, backtracking a little bit, the entire department has 44 full-time
equivalent positions, uh, across all four divisions. Um, government buildings, um,
basically is the maintenance operations of our rec centers and our, uh, City Hall. Um, it's
headed by our Facilities Manager, Kumi Morris. Um, the.....Farmers Market is sort of
self-explanatory. It's our Farmers Market on Wednesdays and Saturdays in the
Chauncey ramp. Um, that is currently being overseen by our administrative secretary,
Tammy Newman. Um, some of the recent accomplishments within this division over the
past year are obviously our completion of our parks master plan, our natural areas
inventory. Um, we received several, uh, substantial grants and donations this past year,
including, uh, $50,000 Disney and RPA grant, um, for, uh, the nature, uh, play area at
Riverfront Crossings Park. Um, a REAP grant, uh, also for Riverfront Crossing Park, uh,
totaling $154,000. Then, um, another resource enhancement grant for $200,000 for
Hickory Hill Park. Um, the .... um, market, to touch a little bit on that, we, uh, maintained
pretty status quo this year, despite some of the challenges with the Chauncey project
impacting, uh, sort of minimally our operations. Um, couple things to highlight with the
market that we are going to change for this upcoming year, we're looking, uh, for a way
to bolster additional vendors on Wednesday evenings. We've seen a slight down -tick in
vendors, um, participating, um, so we reevaluated the fee structure for stalls on
Wednesday evenings, so we'll see a reduction there to hopefully attract additional
vendors to the Wednesday evening market. Um, and then, uh, not a whole lot on the
parkland acquisition side of. ... of this activity area in the admin division. So.....um, the
other.....challenges, um, particularly within this division area, uh, would have to do with
government buildings and .... and our aging facilities. Um, Robert A. Lee Recreation
Center is, as we know, is .... was built in 19 .... opened in 1964. Um, Mercer Park Aquatic
Center is coming up on 30 years -plus operation, um, so we've had some backlog of
maintenance, um .... and .... and upgrades, and those facilities are getting that attention in
this budget cycle, which is great. Um, so you're gonna see some improvements. Most
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recently we've been on a three-week shutdown over here at Robert A. Lee. Um, we've
done some significant renovations with the restrooms on the lower level, um, the offices,
the stairs were replaced, we shut down the pool, did some painting and maintenance, the
gym was completely redone. So it'll really, really...... we're excited to reopen on
Monday, um, it'll really pop and shine for the community. So, um, those are some of the
challenges within that division. Um, moving on ..... to the recreation division, the
recreation division, um, manages the operations of our facilities and programs. Um, it is,
um, responsible for the Ree Center, Robert A. Lee, Mercer Park Aquatic Center, City
Park pool, our three splash pads in the community, uh, we do the rentals for
Thornber.... or not Thornberry, excuse me, for Terry Trueblood lodge and Ashton House.
We also oversee the two dog park operations, Thornberry and Rita's Run, um, Rita's
Ranch. We are also, um, responsible for the scheduling and rentals of all our athletic
fields, uh, Zac's crew takes care of obviously the maintenance end but, uh, my staff on
the recreation side manages the scheduling and the rentals of all our ball diamonds,
soccer fields, tennis, and pickle ball courts. Um, the .... the vision consists of six program
areas, all headed by a program supervisor. Youth sports, adult sports, social, cultural and
environmental programming, uh, aquatics, special populations and under -served
populations, and then customer engagement. So that's our six main focus areas within
the Recreation Division. Uh, the division has roughly a $3.2 million budget. Um, it's
hovered around that the last couple years. We don't really see any significant operational
increases or changes. Um, and of that, 2.1 is general fund subsidies. So, um, everything
else is covered through, um, other local taxes or fees and charges for our services. Uh,
some of the big accomplishments we've, uh, seen in the past year within Recreation of
the addition of the Mercer, uh, Park pickle ball, uh, courts. Uh, we have a growing pickle
ball population with our....our senior community that, um, utilizes both the gym
downtown and had a need for some courts. Our Wetherby sport -court was an addition to,
uh, the Wetherby Park neighborhood, and we received a $75,000 match grant from
Wellmark for that project. Partnered with Backyard Abundance, complete and open the
outdoor edible classroom on the south side of Robert A. Lee. Um.....we received a
couple other grants — a $19,000 REAP grant, uh, for our stream table, which helps us
take, urn .... um, out to the schools and within our internal programs, uh, environmental
education piece. And then we raised nearly $20,000 for sc... sw.... swim scholarships, um,
for swim lessons in the community. So, we're really excited about a lot of that .... that
work we're doing. We implemented a beginner gardening program, uh, which was
targeted for our under -served populations and was headed up by RaQuishia Harrington,
who's our Program Supervisor in charge of that. Uh, we served about 15 families, um,
who had little or no begar.... uh, gardening experience, but it was partially funded through
the local foods initiative. Urn .... we continued the expansion of our teen dynamics
program, which is a .... another, um, effort to help, um, give teenagers in the community,
um, some place to go and do and be active. Uh, that started a year prior, uh, it came
under RaQuishia's, uh, supervision this past year and we served about 80 kids, roughly,
uh, during the summer months, provided them recreational opportunities (mumbled) um,
some experiences throughout the community. Um, we continue to develop some
outreach strategies, um, within our under -served population, and if that's sort of a theme
I'm presenting here, that's been a big focus of the Recreation Division. Uh, our special
populations involvement program has been around for over 30 years, was headed by
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Cindy Coffin who retired, um, and we took that opportunity to revamp that position, um,
bring RaQuishia on from Neighborhood Centers, and really help that social and racial,
um, social justice, racial equity portion of Council's goals, uh, with the under -served
area, and Rakesha's been instrumental in really bringing a lot of these programs and
doing that outreach and making those connections for us within the community. So
we've....we've done collaborations with UAY, Neighborhood Centers, uh, Johnson
County Social Services, Dream Center. We continue to be heavily, um, partnered with
the School District, as well as, um, the Library, and then most recently we've been in
discussions with more partnerships and work with the Center, um, as well. Um, a couple
examples of programs that have come out of that is our re ... our red shirt flag football
program, which was hosted at Wetherby, uh, which was designed to be a drop-in
introductory program that would eventually hopefully lead kids into the Red Zone league
that plays at Napoleon, but this was a way to get kids....who may have transportation
barriers or economic barriers or other things, uh, an opportunity to par.... participate in
their local neighborhood park and it was, uh, a great partnership, urn ..... and
Neighborhood Centers contributed to that. Um, we continue to do more outreach to
promote the swim scholarships, one of our big goals is to be able to basically
provide.....no or little cost swim.....skill lessons to all kids in the community, I mean, as
a department we strive as a life safety and recreational, life-long recreational activity,
everybody should be able to swim. So that's our end goal, that's why we're working so
hard to raise those funds, um, to get to that goal. We collaborated with the Iowa City
Police Department, uh, with the high school basketball league, which was held at
Alexander Elementary School, uh, police actually had the opportunity to help officiate
the games and interact with the kids and be more engaging. Um, and then just a couple
other .... solar project, we initiated a, uh, solar panel on the windmill at Thomberry Dog
Park, so that's a small solar project that we've .... we've worked on. Um, and then we've
had a couple STEAM murals installed, one at Robert A. Lee and one at, um.....Mercer.
So.....um, the big challenges that we talk about, uh, with recreation is .... really has to do
with our service delivery. Um, we're pretty good as far as our allocations and our
staffing levels. You won't see any significant changes in that area. Um, our challenge is
really to reorganize to meet the demands of, uh, changing population, um, busier family
schedules, um, things like that. So, we've seen to be honest a down -tick in some of our
programs as far as .... uh, what we would consider the traditional programs, the six to
eight-week format type things, so that require a significant commitment from a time
perspective. Um, arts are one of our big ones, for example, and we .... in years past,
we've done a lot of planning efforts, um, put in the front end of that, and with .... seein'
little or no enrollment, lot of class cancellations. So, what we're finding is really a shift
to work more on one off special events, workshop type formats, um, again this is another
trend within adult sports, uh, you know, trying to find .... like-minded individuals who can
participate on .... same night of the week for eight weeks, continuously.....it's a challenge
and we've seen a down -tick in adult sports. Um, we're looking to counter that by
working more collaboratively, regionalize potentially some of our adult sport offerings,
working with Coralville, working with North Liberty, that type of thing. So, those are
really the challenges then with .... within Recreation. Um, and to tie that in, hand in hand,
is some of our aging infrastructure and facilities. So trying to reinvent, modernize some
of our program offerings, and bring our facilities, uh, up is .... is where we .... is what we
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are facing as a division. So .... um .... lastly I just note that we have about one point.....or
$118,000 in capital in the Recreation Division budget and a lot of that is going towards
facility improvements and enhancements, uh, within the rec centers, so ..... with that, I
will entertain questions or I'll turn it over to Zac to handle the Park side.
Throgmorton/ Why don't we have Zac come up, uh (both talking) then we can talk, ask questions
of both of ya. Hi, Zac.
Hall/ Good morning! Zac Hall, Superintendent of Parks. Um, I've been with the City for about
three and a half years now so .... as Geoff talked about the.....the changing management
staff, I'm .... I'm one of those, so .... thanks for having me. Um, a lot of the, uh,
accomplishments that Parks, uh, has had in the, uh, past few years are really capital, uh,
capital projects, so you'll hear more of that next week, but uh, some of the highlights,
um, from those are the Hickory Hill, First Avenue bridge, uh, Upper City Park
playground, uh, I spoke to you last week about Cardigan, uh, Park and the playground
that we've installed in there, Frauenholtz-Miller, uh, Park redevelopment project, um, the
Ashton House, uh, patio and landscaping, um, so you'll get more of. ... information from,
uh, Juli on that next week, as far as the .... those accomplishments, but really as Chad, um,
touched on, the big one for us is, um, is the park master plan. Um, if you .... if you'll
recall, we, uh, we hadn't gone through a park master plan since 08. Um, and that park
master plan was completed before the flooding of 08. So a lot of things changed in our
community, uh, the community needs changed, our.....our, uh, our use and our
perception of our parks and natural areas changed. So, um.....having that park master
plan, um, that's gonna be a .... a real key for success for us, um, specifically with respect
to accessibility. Um.....and standardizing of the upgrades that we're gonna do within our
park system. So, uh, with shelters, with, uh, restrooms, with, uh, benches, amenities,
things like that. Still have some flexibility to, uh, have some variations, such as with
Happy Hollow, uh, and the upgrades that we're gonna have there, but it will help, uh,
operationally standardize, um, our amenities. Um.....and as Chad, uh, noted, in progress
items which .... which we will be completing very soon, uh, are the natural areas
management plan and the, uh, tree inventory. I spoke with the Mayor and Council
Member Thomas, uh, before the work session about both those projects and we're really
excited about getting that information. So since I've been here in the last three and a half
years, we've had a concerted effort and focus on .... on really tryin' to collect data,
understand our operations, see where we can become more efficient, where we can focus,
um, focus our efforts. Um, and then deploy those efforts and really start to get some
development going, uh, in the areas that we hadn't before, such as Frauenholtz-Miller,
Cardigan, uh, Chaddick Green. Um, some of the, uh.....some of the top priorities coming
up in the next couple years, as I said, uh, is implementing the parks master plan and the
natural areas plan, the tree inventory, um, completing the Riverfront Crossings projects,
completing, um, these other park development projects. Um .... some of the things of note
as far as operationally that you'll see in the budget, um, we .... we are adding two new
staff members to Forestry. Uh, which will help us with our response, uh, and impl....
implementation of the, uh, forest management plan out of the tree inventory, that'll help
us with our response with Emerald Ash Borer, with our efforts for tree plantings, um, I
believe it was noted, um, about our, uh, I think Geoff noted it about our, uh, tree
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plantings on Camp Cardinal and Lower West Branch Road. So, um, our staff members,
uh, these new Forestry staff members are gonna help us with that. Um, that .... that is
a .... a, that is greatly appreciated and .... and that's gonna help us immensely. Um, the
other, um.... thing that you'll note in the budget as far as with the capital outlay, and
Geoff, uh, spoke to it, is the, uh, natural areas maintenance program. Uh,
so .... implementing that natural areas plan, having that maintenance, uh, budget line item
to help us, uh, get into our natural areas, uh, combat these invasive species that we have,
and .... and really kind of bring `em back within a 10 -year timeframe to a ...... a
manageable level. Um, so .... we're really excited, um, we know that we have some
challenges as far as, um, parkland that we are developing, uh, trails that we are taking on,
and then the efficiency of our staff, uh, at key times of the year to really address some
of ....some of the backlog that we've had and deferred maintenance that we've had, but
also the .... the growth that we're, uh, we're experiencing, but we're excited. We've been,
since .... in my time here, we've been, uh, implementing a number of operational changes,
one of which is, uh, districting of our staff members. Uh, before my time, we, uh, we
had, um, things aligned in a little different sense so we've done some restructuring.
We've done some re -aligning and we've.... we've.....we've got staff members, uh, in the
right .... in the right areas and the right key positions, uh, to address some of our
operational efficiencies. Uh, the other.... the other operational note is the automatic
clo... lock system, and I know that Geoff had talked about that, us.....us utilizing
technology, uh, over adding new staff, and we are excited about having it implemented.
Um, I know other communities across the country have this, with, uh, their restroom
facilities. Uh, we have one currently in south Hickory Hill. It's, uh, part of our,
um .... um, storm shelter, uh, emergency shelter in that restroom facility. So, um, we are
looking to expand that to the rest of our restroom facilities, uh, and operationally this will
make staff, uh, more efficient and .... and be able to get them to focus on, uh, areas, uh,
other than just opening and closing restrooms. So .... we're excited. Uh, we know we
have a lot of challenges, but we .... we are.....we are really excited to start implementing a
lot of this data that we're getting. So.....
Throgmorton/ Excellent! Zac, why don't you come on up. So, y'all have questions for Zac? Or
Chad?
Botchway/ Yeah, so on page 221...... um, it does seem to fluctuate, and I think I missed this
when I first read it, but it seemed like the donation grant fund.... funding tapered off this
year, but I thought, I mean, maybe I'm just reading this wrong. I thought that we, um,
received a bunch of grants, and so maybe it's not showing in the 2017 yet, or ..... yeah,
2017. It's in the middle of pu.... page 221, under donations and grant funding. I thought
we'd received grants and donations in relation to (both talking)
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ....yeah we have (both talking)
Botchway/ ...some other things.
Fruin/ Yes, so that would show up in FYI 8.
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Botchway/ Oh, okay!
Fruin/ Yeah, which .... we tried.....we'll try to update that for the final budget, but these are all
one-year delayed (both talking)
Botchway/ Okay. The other question was around page 229, and it was related.....it was related
to, um, something that I know Mike had worked on prior to his retirement, um, focusing
on, um, financially self-sufficient, um, the reliance upon, you know, the general fund and
some other things and, you know, we've been hovering around 37% for a while, you
know, what is our plan? What've we been able to do? I know that you just talked about,
Chad, as far as our .... our shift to focusing on more social justice type of issues, and so
and it .... it's tough, cause you know, a lot of these things are, I mean as you related to the
swimming program and some other things, you're trying to generate additional funding
just to compensate, um, but what are we doing .... the reason why I ask this as well is
because, you know, it happened I think two years ago, but just in general, there's some
concerns about some of the .... the programming that happens at Mercer in that it's not the
same programming that happens at the downtown rec, and people wanting to see more
programming and are willing to pay for more programming. I know it may be a staffing
issue and so I guess I'm saying a lot of stuff to you, but mainly, what are we doing, what
is our plan as far as, um, that (mumbled) recovery?
Dyson/ Sure, um, so .... you're right, I mean it's been sort of stagnant at that 37% for a while.
Um, the challenge is that balance that you mentioned, you know, how do we maintain
access at a fair price? Um, really the plan is, and I think Juli and I have discussed this a
little bit about really developing a .... a true cost recovery or revenue policy. Um, we
haven't had one to be frank. Um, there's opportunities, like you said, to price certain
programs that are maybe more, urn ..... uh, specialized or specific to.....uh.....um, I'll give
you an example. Usually like, um, golf would be an example, if we had a golf course,
you know, it's a very highly specialized sport, so it tends to have a higher price tag. Um,
somethin' that serves more of the community as a whole generally has more of a subsidy.
So we need to really look, cause we .... we're pretty middle of the road as far as how our
programs are priced. Um, and more towards the low end, but also to create value in some
of those programs too. We can certainly adjust some rates, and that just hasn't been a
charge of commission or previous Councils, but it's somethin', uh, I think internally
we've discussed quite a bit, and it's just a matter of taking it and developing that (both
talking)
Botchway/ Yeah (both talking) I mean I would say as kind of an avid basketball player, you
know, I go out and pay, um, a substantial amount of money to go out to North Liberty
Rec Center and also to the Coralville Rec Center. I mean I know there's people that live
in Iowa City, most of our teams from Iowa City, that would pay a substantial amount
more just to stay in the city, so I mean I just think it's just somethin' to think about,
especially when you're talking about some of those more specialized opportunities where
maybe traditionally the cost has been relatively low, but I would say some of the other
communities are kind of feeding on kind of that lack of ability. I know we do have .... I
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know I played in the one that we do have here, the basketball league, but again we could
have more or, you know, think about how we could increase that cost.
Dyson/ And I think just a couple .... we.....we've done things to also put in place opportunities
for access, even to those specialized maybe higher priced programs, whether it's our
scholarship or our low income policy that would help defray or offset, and still allow
access for those (mumbled) afford that. So.....
Throgmorton/ A spin-off Kingsley's question, and uh, and um.....build on what you said, Chad,
about the work that RaQuishia and others have done with regard to reaching out to, I
don't.... disadvantaged groups within our community. I think it's really crucial,
absolutely crucial, especially with regard to newer communities, uh, refugee or
immigrant communities who, uh, don't know the territory, maybe even speak a different
language, and so having a .... a real, uh, competent reach -out to them, that draws them in
to the kind of, uh, activities that we offer is .... is really crucial. Otherwise they're gonna
feel isolated. They'll feel disconnected from the community, and that's not good in the
long run.
Hall/ (mumbled) can I, uh (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Hall/ ....make a reference to that. So Geoff had mentioned, uh, three garden plots that we're
gonna be implementing, uh, in this next year, and one of those, uh, plots is in the Walden
Road area. We own a parcel of land, and we know that there's a concentrated immigrant
population in there, and so we .... that's one of those offerings that we're looking at trying
to get in that neighborhood, uh, but also hit on the local foods, um, initiative that
(coughing, unable to hear speaker) put forth, um, so that's.... that's another recreational
opportunity that we're (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Great!
Cole/ Along those same lines, uh, last summer we had talked about the possibility of adding one
additional Backyard Abundance type project in another part of the community. Is that
reflected here on page 229? Um, or is .... is that in the works, that, you know, we had
talked about the Robert A. Lee, and that's been a very successful, and the possibility of
identifying one other area. Is .... is that in the works for this budget?
Hall/ It is, if you look on, uh, in the capital outlay (both talking)
Cole/ Oh (mumbled) capital (both talking)
Hall/ Uh, on page 237, um, there's a line item in there on the capital outlay that, uh, lists
Backyard Abundance, uh, improvements, and so, um, that partnership will take place, uh,
specifically at Chaddick Green Park, uh, expanding those gardens and .... and working on
kind of a place -making (several talking) and then, um.....so the Walden Road, uh, as
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Geoff mentioned, there were three.....three, uh, garden initiative projects. Walden Road
being one of them, the Backyard Abundance partnership at Chaddick Green bein' the
second, and then, um, a third with the, uh, Creekside Park development, which we also
consulted with Backyard Abundance before that .... master plan process.
Cole/ Super quick follow up question for you, Zac. In terms of percentage of tree canopy, do we
have a particular target in terms of expanding our tree coman ... canopy .... in the
community?
Hall/ That's a good question, and uh, as part of that forest management plan that will be coming,
that our consultants are working on right now, um, that'll be, um, coming out of the tree
inventory, we'll get some better numbers on that. I think what we initially looked at, um,
I think we're sitting at about 32%, um, canopy coverage. Um, and so .... we'll be looking
at those numbers and what our goals and .... and honestly what your goals are, as far as
what that canopy coverage is.
Botchway/ I think in relation to that, I appreciate you bringing that up, Rockne. I'm going to use
my, you know, John Thomas lens here a little bit (laughter) um, in relation to kind of
urban, um, tree or tree planting, how, you know, we had the ped wall .... ped mall redesign
project. How integral are we, and how much, you know, from a forestry standpoint, are
the two ini.... additional positions going to help, you know, have .... kind of what Rockne
was talking about, have a .... a greater percentage increase, um, as it relates to tree canopy,
um, within I'm thinking just within our urban network, particularly our ped mall.
Hall/ Sure. So with the ped mall redesign, um.....um, our staff, particularly our horticulturist,
Tyler Baird and myself, uh, have been, uh, instrumental in .... in meetings as far as
looking at what the .... what the vegetation is that's going in there, um, and what trees, uh,
how many trees, things like that. So we've .... we've been sitting in on those meetings
and giving our recommendations in .... and input for that. As far as the two additional
staff members, um, they will definitely have some, um, some extra work with .... with
respect to the urban core and tree plantings in the urban core. Um, our .... our framework
for adding those new staff members operationally is increased tree plantings, uh, and then
also increase our small tree pruning, um, without getting into a lot of the, uh, our
horticultural details. You get more bang for your buck from a tree health standpoint with,
um, small tree pruning and .... and early on work, uh, on trees. And then, uh, it'll be, uh,
an additional response to, um, the effects of Emerald Ash Borer. So, those are kinda the
three components that we see as far as, uh, operationally with those two additional
Forestry staff members.
Salih/ I just want to ask Chad, uh, as a part of the swimming for everyone that you was talking
about, I heard that you have like some kind of program during the.....like few months
(unable to understand) um, woman to swim.
Hall/ Sure!
Salih/ How (unable to understand) you guys running to do it again or....
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Hall/ Um, that was a program that we, again, partnered with Neighborhood Centers. We weren't
the direct lead. We .... we more facilitated or gave access to the pool, but yes, we have
more of those planned. That was a need, um, identified just, uh, Muslim women and...
and having access and ... and privacy in the pool, um, it was successful. I think we had
close to 40 -some participants show up for that event, and really we just facilitated the
space, but we made the efforts to block the windows and .... and make it more private.
We provided all female guard staff, um, for that day, uh, to accommodate that group,
so....
Salih/ (unable to understand) Thanks!
Thomas/ A couple of things, um, wanted to ask about. I, over the last year or so I've been,
when .... when parks' issues have come up I've emphasized, and it was partly driven by
conversation at the state level with the State Urban Forester, I .... in terms of moving an
urban forestry plan forward, uh, having a tree advisory board as part of the .... seemed like
the most logical place for such a thing would be on the Parks Commission, would help,
uh, advance that plan, uh, cause I know, I mean you guys are just..... you're out in the
field (laughs) I mean you're.....you're so engaged in sort of the day to day activity that
it's hard to.....think, you know, in a more kind of comprehensive way cause this ... you
know, a .... a tree advisory board could be not only looking at parkland, but other public
lands and .... and how that could play into and integrate with a urban forestry plan. So I
still strongly encourage (laughs) that, um.....you know, I think, you know, that ... that
could really be helpful in terms of advancing that.....that initiative, and then the other
thing, you know, following up in a way on the Library's Foundation, and you know
you've identified it as an upcoming challenge, how do we build the parks .... you know,
Foundation's donations, which has also been a long-term concern of mine. I .... I've
always felt that the park system, uh, like the libraries, and the schools, are so critical in
terms of. ... uh, you know, quality of life in any.....in any city like our own, um, I .... I do
feel that the ... the master plan should be extremely helpful as well as, Zac, your, uh, tree
inventories and the natural area planning. That ... now I think we can begin to see a vision
for how the park system is moving forward. That I think should help with fundraising,
because it's much clearer now where the department is going, and you can use these
plans to help with the fundraising effort because I think people are much more inclined to
contribute when they have an idea of what they're contributing toward. You could even
bundle, you know, certain projects that you have in your CIP plan and say this is what
we're .... we're planning to do, we would encourage public funding to help..... bridge any
funding gaps that you may have, um, so those are two of the things that I .... I think that
the park system now is developing a vision and I'm really, as you are, excited about the
implementation, um, and how can we kind of build the social capital to help advance that
further.
Hall/ Yeah, um, I would say, uh, one example of im..... implementing that, uh, with the natural
areas plan is ... is the, uh, two .... $200,000 REAP grant that we got, uh, for Hickory Hill
for the vegetation management. Um, you know, we were able to use a lot of the
information from .... from the natural areas plan, from, uh, forest health, uh, assessment
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that the District Forester and the DNR, um, had completed, and go for those state dollars,
uh, for that, and with respect to, um, donation.... other donations and .... and volunteer
efforts, absolutely. I .... I would agree that, you know, it .... all three of these, uh, plans are
giving us a good, clearer vision as far as where we can go. From a .... from a operational
standpoint, as far as our donations, um, Juli and I know, uh, she's been workin' with
Geoff, uh, in the last year or two on this, uh, and Chad, maybe you can speak to it a little
bit better, but we've changed up the structure of our.....our donations and our.... our.....
our.....our funding in that sense, so .... um, I think that's gonna help quite a bit too.
Thomas/ Okay.
Fruin/ Yeah, I would.....couple of comments. I've talked to, um, Juli about both .... both those
issues and I do think a, uh, a tree advisory board, um, discussion will occur. Um, I think
the waitin' for the inventory to complete and then once you have that inventory and
the... and the management plan, that's really when your advisory board can start. I agree
at the Parks Commission.... it seems like a subcommittee or a sub -group off of that Parks
Commission is probably, um, appropriate. And then on the.....on the fundraising piece,
uh, we've transitioned the Foundation to the Community Foundation. Um, and there is a
renewed sense of energy and passion to try to ramp that up. Um, and I would say, um,
from that kind of community fundraising standpoint, so I do think you'll see more of that
going forward. Um, but I ... I think you've noticed in the past couple of years, um, the
staff has gotten much more aggressive in pursuing state and even private foundation
grants, and uh, the Riverfront Crossings grant, uh, multiple grants there, um.....uh,
you've seen come through. The Hickory Hill, there's been a.....a number of others. I
know Juli and staff has also worked hard, just to .... to talk with service clubs 2nd, you
know, little things like the .... the, a little red fire engine play equipment at the Mercer
Park, you know, was refurbished with a, uh, service club donation. We have service
clubs that are contributing to the natural area, um .... uh, natural play area, the Riverfront
Crossings Park. So staff has I think got that focus, but .... you just need that, you know, in
terms of the community push, um, need a little bit more time to pull that together.
Throgmorton/ So ... Zac, you and Chad have referred to two additional positions in the Forestry
Department. Geoff, I wonder if you could clarify that.
Fruin/ Yeah, so Council has already approved those. About three or four months ago we came to
you, we had a vacant position in Recreation, and uh, we made a difficult decision to .... to
recommend to you that we not fill that in Recreation, although I can tell you it was
needed in Recreation. We just felt that there was a greater need in Parks. Uh, so that
position was eliminated, uh, we then added those financial resources to the Forestry
Division, and .... and then on top of that, the Forestry Division was very heavily
dependent on temporary employees in years past. We reduced their temporary budget,
uh, temporary employee budget to create a second full-time, which gives basically Zac
another crew to work with, the .... the pairing of the two. Um, Zac could go into more
detail if you want to, but, um, the temporary employee in the Forestry side, that model
just wasn't workin' very well. The type of certification, uh, and licensure that's needed
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for those operations does not fit well with the temporary model. So, we shifted there and
that's where the two new employees come from.
Throgmorton/ Good deal, thanks! Uh, any other questions for Zac and Chad?
Hall/ If I could just...
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Hall/ We forgot to mention the fourth division (laughter) um .... cemetery status quo
operationally. Yeah, um, not to leave them out but uh, yeah, it's maintaining its
operations so it has three full-time employees and, uh, they're doin' well out there
so .... yeah, the biggest change is, uh, really operationally with the cemetery would be,
um, the .... um, allowance for dog walkers. As I'm sure you're all aware, so there's,
um .... um, doggy bag stations out there and then, um, changing the .... the column bearing
to a dual niche, uh, so......
Throgmorton/ I can tell ya my dog Watson loves walking through the cemetery. And it's such a
gorgeous place. It really is! (several talking)
Thomas/ Go ahead!
Salih/ I just would like, since you were talking about the hiring and employment, and I know
(unable to understand) part-time employees, I really would like to propose that Iowa City
should increase part-time wages for all City positions, with the goal of reaching $15 an
hour within the next two year. (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ You need to direct that to Geoff, I mean .... and for us, cause that's a policy
decision.
Salih/ How I can do that? (several talking)
Monroe/ We're working on an assessment of what that would look like and if. ... what the current
status is and what ..... what we would need to do in order to ... make that happen if. ... if we
want to (mumbled)
Salih/ Yes, of course, you know, working with you guys just to make sure we can do that in the
next two year (unable to understand) $15 an hour.
Fruin/ Yeah, and I can say I appreciate Mazahir gave us a heads up on that so we've already been
pulling that data together, so that was much appreciated. Um, we are, um ..... um, just
to ... I think most of you know this, we are at $10.10 or above with every single one of our
positions. Um, most of our .... vast majority of our positions are already above $15, um,
but we do have a large chunk, particularly in the, um .... uh, Parks and Rec field. We have
a little bit in the Library. We have a little bit in Cable TV and a couple small pockets
elsewhere where you're.... you're between $10.10 and $15. A lot of those will naturally
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move up, uh, in two years as .... as wage scales increase. Um, but we'll come to you with
a full analysis on, uh, the types of positions that are below $15 and what it would take to
get to $15 in two years, what kind of cost you could expect. Um, and we'll try to .... we'l:
try to do that, you have to remember as you increase the bottom wages, you have .... the
compression issues to deal with, so you.....you tend to have to, you know, increase the
wages above $15 too. Um, and so that's why it's gonna take us some time to pull that
together.
Throgmorton/ Okee doke.
Thomas/ Just wanted to mention, I don't know if you saw it. Speaking of the cemetery, there
was a really lovely little short story on Christmas Day I think in the Press -Citizen, uh,
centered on the experiences of the .... the writer in the cemetery, as well as Brown Street.
My street (laughs) so it was (laughs) uh, but it was a very .... very charming story if you
haven't..... haven't read it. The cemetery is a wonderful place!
Throgmorton/ Okay, I think that's it! Thanks a lot. Enjoy the rest of the day. Is Linda still here?
She is! Hi, Linda! (several talking)
Frain/ Linda, no pressure but we (both talking)
Throgmorton/ .....little bit behind (both talking)
Frain/ Linda, no pressure but we've got about 10 minutes to stay on schedule! (laughter)
Senior Center
Kopping/ (several talking) ...nice to be the last person in line right before lunch, when you've
been sitting there for so long. So I will try to make this as brief as I can. Um, my name
is Linda Kopping. I've been the Coordinator at the Senior Center, well I've been
working at the Senior Center for 23 years this coming March, 19th to be exact, and I
started out there as a Program Specialist, and I worked in that position for a year, and, uh,
since that time.....I have been, uh, in my current position as Coordinator. So I've been
there a while. Um, the Senior Center has ..... I'm gonna change this (several talking) The
what? Say that again, please? I can do it (several talking) Sorry! I just didn't hear what
you said. I'm sorry! Um.....so the Senior Center operates with seven full-time
equivalent employees. Uh, we have three professional level staff members, three hourly
staff members in permanent positions, and two part-time permanent, uh, positions, which
comes to seven! And we supplement that with two part-time temporary employees, as
many work studens .... students as we can get and handle, and urn ....... over 600
volunteers each year. So, uh, the volunteers are really critical to our operation. If we
didn't have them, we'd .... be in a lot of trouble. I think that the, um.....their contribution
is equivalent to about 13 FTEs, so it's a lot of ....lot of time they put in. Urn .... I just
wanna say a word about our staff at the Center. It's a small staff. Uh, we work very
closely together. Urn .... they're great. I .... and I'm not saying that just to say it. I'm very
sincere. Uh, they're all very talented and very conscientious. They really see the value
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in what we're doing and they work hard to get the job done. Um, I'm really fortunate to
have them to work with. Um, the Center provides programs and services that are known
to help adults make the most of their individual potential, so they can live longer, happier,
and more independently. While our target audience is people, uh, 50 years of age and
older, we spend a lot of our time organizing community events, inter -generational
programming, and working with students from the University of Iowa, who find that...
they can have really positive learning experiences working with the staff at the Center,
and it's kind of a win-win situation because the student gains insights and we gain help in
accomplishing something important. Um, we currently have about 1,600 paid members,
and .... uh, an additional undetermined number of community members who take
advantage of our programs and services. We have, uh.... fitness rooms and computer labs
that are.....used by members and...... others, and we have .... offer between 400 and 500
programs, um, services, and activity groups each year. So.....we're putting out a lot ... a
lot of.....really high-quality, urn .... choices for people to select from. In, uh, fiscal year
17 we recorded over 120,000 visits to the Center programming, and we had 118
community partnerships to support the programming we did. It helps us avoid
duplication of services. It saves us money, and it really enriches the programs that we
offer. Um, and the volunteers, as I mentioned, uh, they contributed 26,000 hours of
service. In the past couple of years (coughs) excuse me, we have been, um ..... really
working hard on diversifying our funding, and we have experienced some success. Um,
in FYI we raised over $40,000 in additional operational funding than we had the
previous year. Um, we did this through fee increases, grant support, and fundraising
efforts, as I said. Um, this helped increase the Center's costs recovered.... recovery
slightly to 29%. Now that's not a big increase from 28 to 29, however, it is an increase
and I think it shows we're moving in the .... in the right direction, and we .... we all
recognize we need to go further with this. Um, most of the staff effort in this area, over
the past year, has been put into restructuring the Board of Directors and operation of
Friends of the Center, and that's the 501 C3 that supports the Center. Um .... with
operational funding and helps us fund certain programs. Um, we have been able to create
and are working with an interim board of directors. We have developed and approved
new bylaws and operational policies and procedures for the board and organization. We
have a web site that.....I hope is up in the next month, and we are active, very active, I
want to underline very, very actively, um, planning and working to have a permanent
board of directors in place and a half-time development specialist, uh, hired by early this
spring. This would really take a lot of the extra work the current staff has been doing in
the area of fundraising off of them and put it where we really want it to be, on the board
and the development specialist. Um, another area, and I heard, uh, you talking about this
with Chad, um, we have been, uh, working with the Library and, uh, the Ree Center to
coordinate some programs and services. Um, we have.....we offer computer classes at
our Center that are taught by Library, taught.... they're planned by and taught by, uh,
employees of the Library, and that has been a really ..... um.....that's been a real
enriching, uh, addition to our....our programs and services. We also, um, promote the
aquatics classes for older adults, and the pickle ball, um.....programs that take place at
the Ree Center. It's kind of interesting that the pickle ball program was really started at
the Senior Center, but it....it sort of has .... has evolved over to the Rec Center, urn .... uh,
just because it fits in better with the services they provide and they do have the equipment
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and the materials, so it's kind of logical, but um, we, as I said, we still do promote the
programs and we have a lot of older people who are interested in that activity. In
addition to the programs, classes, and services we offer on a routine basis, we have
sponsored a lot of activities that are of interest to all community members, and this is
something we're trying to expand on. Um, we do it quite a bit but rather than tell you
about everything we've done, I'm going to focus on two of the programs, um, sort of
highlighting our goal in .... in delivering these programs and these programs took place in
FYI 7. The first one was we had Zach Benedict here for a full day of public and
professional programming. Um, Zach is a well-known, award-winning architect who
focuses his work on creating age -friendly neighborhoods and communities. Um, in his
public presentation he did at the Center, he stressed the importance of multi -generational
neighborhoods, with features like walkability, opportunities for social engagement,
diverse housing opportunities, and nearby services. And I would like to say a lot of times
we start talking about age -friendly communities and people think we're talking
about.... stuff built for old people, and that's not true. An age -friendly community is
friendly to all ages, and.....would help everyone live a more, uh.....active and,
um.....how do I .... I don't know how to .... the words are escaping me but you know you
wouldn't have to get in your car to drive down to 10 miles to go to a store because the
store would be right in your neighborhood. So .... it would be more environmentally
friendly. Thank you. Um.....another, um, successful event we had, a very successful
event, was the day long series of community-based programs on ageism that featured
Ashton Applewhite, the well-known author of This Chair Rocks, a Manifesto Against
Ageism. Um, she shared her insights and stressed the importance of fighting against
stereotypes that are so common in today's society, as well as the need to resist
inter.... internalization of these harmful stereotypes .... and prejudice that tells older adults
that they're really too old to do something. Um ... take for instance my daughter, who
thinks I'm too old to do a lot of things actually. But.... these.....these stereotypes
have .... and I'm sure you know this, that have been, uh, internalized by the community
and they work against older adults when they go out and look for jobs or.... people don't
pay attention to `em because, um, they don't think they're interested in a certain product,
but it's pretty.....it's pretty pervasive, and it can be very damaging. And it's really
damaging if you, um, internalize those beliefs because you pull back out of the activities
that you normally would enjoy because you're old, and old people don't do that. So, you
may have guessed that aging and age stereotypes is one of our, um .... goals that we are
working on at the Senior Center. We're really trying hard to challenge those. So, um,
right now in the past year we have done some facility renovations that include
remodeling one of our rooms to create a usable fitness area, and purchasing new
classroom tables, which have been a big success. Uh, currently we're working on
removing the wallpaper skin coating and painting, uh, all of the second floor classrooms
and hallway. We're also doing the ground work to secure re -accreditation through the
National Institute of Senior Centers, a unit of the National Council on Aging. Uh,
accreditation is important because it demonstrates to the community..... that we meet or
exceed standards of excellence that have been established for senior centers, in nine
different operational areas, and the nine areas offer.... excuse me, offer a complete, um....
a comprehensive overview of the operation that you're running. So it's pretty thorough.
Um, I am also in the process of evaluating the operational structure of the Senior Center
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to determine if there are ways to improve the .... our delivery of Senior Center
programming.....which has been interesting. Most immediately, we need to hire and
train a half-time development specialist, complete our organizational work with Friends,
and begin succession planning..... for two employees who are planning, or
near.... planning for or nearing retirement. Um, and we also wanna.... urn, complete the
accreditation process in the next 12 to 18 months. Further, in addition to our ongoing
support and collaboration with Friends, we would like to explore other options.....and
opportunities to expand our revenue stream. For example, uh, we have been talking a lot
recently about, uh, identifying underwriters for the program guide who, um, would help
support the cost of that publication, plus they probably'd bring in additional funding to
support the, um.... operational expenses. Um, to this point we really haven't had the
time, uh, to pursue this yet. But it is on the table of things that we wanna get done. Um,
we also I think in the next couple years need to .... do some pretty comprehensive
evaluations. We need to do some evaluations of our programs and services.... services
that use outcome based measures so that we can show people not that we've done a
hundred classes or, um, had X number of visitors. This is the kind of information that
would talk about the actual benefits to the individuals who are participating in the
program, um, social bene .... um, health benefits.... health benefits, uh, mood benefits,
those .... those types of things that are much .... I believe, are much more indicative of the
success of the programs that you're offering. Um, we also need to survey in the
community to identify any unmet needs, um, and interests that are out there that we're
not addressing, and I think, uh, we will be continuing our evaluation of the organizational
structure, to determine if there are areas for improvement that would enhance the City's
ability to serve older adults. Now we face a lot of challenges, um, like every other
department, but I'm only gonna talk about two, but I did want to warn you in advance
that both of these, the solutions that .... part of the solutions I've identified involve
increases in staff. Now I realize that, uh, the economic position that the City finds itself
in is not great, and that it is quite unlikely that we would de .... receive, um, staffing
increases.....would certainly surprise me, and um, I guess what I'm trying to do is plant
the notion within you that if these things could ever happen at some future point, that it
would be very helpful to our programming and help us increase the quality of services
we're able to currently provide. So ..... uh, the first one involves the ever-present, uh,
effort to expand operational funding. Um, due to the absence of a development
specialist, the staff has devoted many hours this past year to routine fundraising and the
reorganization of Friends. And yet we still have not been able to implement and maintain
effective stewardship members or identify and pursue potential funding opportunities.
And I truly believe those funding opportunities are out there. We just need to identify
and cultivate them. It's quite clear to us, given all the time we've spent on it, that this is
more....:the development specialist position is far more than a 20 -hour a week job. Um, I
think in the best case scenario, um, would involve increasing the development specialist
to a full-time employee, um, and this would improve our hiring options, but more
importantly, it would improve our fundraising efforts. Of course expanding, um,
operational funding involves a lot more than the work that can be done by the
development specialist, and we will continue to use our resources effectively and pursue
other options. We're not gonna give up just because we have only a half-time
development specialist. We're happy to have the half-time development specialist. But I
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think at some point in the future, it would be prudent to look at that in terms of increasing
the hours worked. Um, we .... an ongoing issue we face is the expansion of programs and
services to include currently under -served areas of the city and segments of the
population. I think this could be done relatively easily, um, through developing
partnerships with community, uh, based services and organizations, so that we would be
able to use their facility to provide classes and other things of interest to the members
within that community, um, but to be realistic it's not gonna happen, uh, with the current
staff, or very drastic changes in our current programming, which happens to be quite
popular with the people we are serving now. Um, we will continue our efforts to attract
participants who represent the, uh, entire community through diverse programming, and
identifying additional target audiences and partnerships, but the most effective approach
would be to take the program to the participants, uh, we wanna serve, much like I think
perhaps part of the rationale for the bookmobile that the Library uses that .... it delivers
the services to the people rather than having the .... (noise on mic) sorry, having the
services .... um, having the individual having to make it to your facility to .... to carry them
out. Um, certainly that would be the most effective approach, and we'd need, uh, another
program specialist to take care of that. Not a full-time one I wouldn't think. Um, our
proposed operational budget for fiscal year 19 does not really .... it's really kind of
unremarkable. It doesn't include any change.....significant changes in our requests for
staffing, services, or supply needs. We have asked for two capital, uh, projects, each of
those costs $14,000. One is to replace the.... chairs and .... tables in the assembly room,
and that is really needed. Everything's kind of breaking down and is stained and looks
icky. And the other is to install an air filtering system, uh, in our HVAC system. So
looking further into the future though, uh, we have requested funding to carry out a
capital improvement project, um, we're asking for funding to do facility renovations and
repairs. We wanna do some exterior work, uh, like tuckpointing, and um, also some
more aesthetic work, the painting, plaster repairs, replacing furniture and the carpet, and
to do small amount of remodeling that will improve efficiency of programming and,
uh.... expand the, uh, types of programs that we can offer. The aesthetic, uh, items that
I've mentioned have .... are things that have not been done in 20 years, more than 20
years. These were things in place when I started at Senior Center and as I said at the
beginning, at the outset, that was 23 years ago. It's really time for these things to be
updated. Um, the total amount of these requests is $350 and um ...... that's.....that's really
our big anticipated outlay in the future. Um, I wanna conclude by thanking you for your
support and your patience as we try desperately to become fundraisers. Um, it's been
slow, but I think we're making progress. The Friends of the Center endowment has, um,
over $850,000 in it now, and we, you know, the intent of building that is to
generate.....revenue from the earning from the endowment that would be transferred right
to the City. So the larger that grows, that's money you can really count on. Uh, we also
have some more liquid assets, uh, that are pretty significant right at the moment, but we
also have some expenses coming up too with the web site. So .... we're working on it, I
can assure you.
Throgmorton /Great! Thanks, Linda. Any questions for....
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Taylor/ I .... oh, I have a quick question, uh, first I'll say I'm pleased to be one of the 1,554
members. I've, uh, utilized a lot of the services there, um, some of the, you know, like
the SHIP counseling, uh, and cholesterol screening, but also have attended some of the
events like, uh, the Zach and some of your, uh, musical events, which have been
wonderful and always been very well attended, uh, but I remember a year and a half or so
ago, uh, when we approved the, like the tiered membership sort of fees, as far as Iowa
City residents versus County residents, and I've heard some concerns from a lot of folks
outside of Iowa City as far as them having to pay an increased fee, and I wondered if you
have like a breakdown of the membership, Iowa City versus County, and if you've had
any .... seen in decrease in .... in those County -type memberships.
Kopping/ Yes, we have seen a decrease in, uh, County members. They really resent, um, paying
that extra amount. Which I don't fully understand because, um, as an out of city person
who wanted to take a Rec Center program, I would pay more, and people don't balk at
that. So, this.... instead of paying.... class by class, people wanted to pay as a unit, and
therefore the fees are significantly higher, and if we were to balance out the funding
that's received from the City and the sund.... funding received from the County, they
would be charged a lot more. So it's .... it's, people don't recognize it, but it is a deal.
Taylor/ And along those lines, uh, on page 261, the participation of racial minorities at the Senior
Center was a little alarming, that it's, uh, a low of 5% and you sort of touched on that a
little bit as far as, uh, looking at unmet needs or interests and maybe reaching out to some
of the neighborhood associations, uh, cause I know we're seeing an increase, uh, in the,
uh, Hispanic population in the community, as well as the Sudanese population, and
hopefully, uh, staff member is able to reach out to those kinds of groups, see what they
think their needs are, and to kind of, uh, anticipate that and .... and provide some of those
services for them?
Kopping/ I think, um, we would love to be doing that and we will certainly reach out, um, I think
we're in a .... position where we have to be careful that we don't promise to deliver
services that we.....can't do. Um, we have to make sure that we can have the staff there
who can set it up and, um, supervise the programming and get everything straight and get
the instructor started and all that. But that's certainly is something we really, really
wanna work on.
Taylor/ Thank you.
Botchway/ And related to that I have two questions, or at least related to the one question. Um,
there wasn't a survey done in 2017. Why is that?
Kopping/ We didn't have a student to do it.
Botchway/ Okay. Second question is, um, in relation to just overall, um, pull my notes up here,
in relation to just overall, urn .... where are you at? Oh, 261, oh so I was looking at just
overall membership, and just in thinking, kind of going back to Pauline's point as well,
and I've always felt like, you know we talk about the Senior Center and you being used
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by everyone but it just isn't out there as being used by everyone. I mean I know people
use it, I've used it from time to time, but you know even when I went through the ...... the,
um (mumbled) calendar, the calendar speaks to a dance event that's happening tonight,
but it's not on the Facebook web site, and so ... or the Facebook page for the Senior
Center, and so just from a communication standpoint, is there something we can do to
kinda get those messages out there because (both talking) that's something that
everybody can participate in. I think it's $5.00 at the door, but it wasn't on the .... the, uh,
Facebook page, you know, and again that's just my social media presence and it's
something I pay attention to (both talking) it may not be necessarily what you see, but
just in thinking about how we can get information out there more to ensure people know
that it's .... cause I think when I first started Council, I think I knew that it was for
everybody, but then I think there was some question as far as maybe it's just for our
senior population, and then I think you talked about it again that it's used for everyone,
and so I just wanna make sure that message is being kind of articulated and clear out to
the public that it is for everyone. There's multiple events that are being held, some which
Pauline already mentioned, that are for everyone to attend, and they can pay and you
know participate.
Kopping/ And that's really good idea, and I will mention it to, urn .... the staff who maintains the,
uh, Facebook page and ask them to really focus on posting community events on
the .... on the Facebook page.
Botchway/ Thanks!
Kopping/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ No further questions? Thanks so much, Linda.
Kopping/ Thank you!
Throgmorton/ All right, so we need to take a break, get a bite to eat. Looks like we might be
able to get back together by 1:00. So, let's shoot for that.
Fruin /Okay, there's lunch, uh, in the, uh, conference room back here. (BREAK FOR LUNCH)
Community & Economic Development Program Budgets:
Neighborhood and Development Services
Throgmorton/ Good afternoon, Tracy! Nice to see you. Congratulations upon your appointment,
and I wanna tell you something as well. Um, I'm .... very conscious that people in your
department have been asked to do an enormous amount of work over the past year or
two, and .... I don't know that they've gotten the credit they deserve, and they've been
asked to do this enormous amount of work ..... while two people were also leaving from
the department, uh, and that's not an easy position to be in. So would you please
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communicate to your fellow staff members how much I and I believe we appreciate the
great work they have been doing, under pressure.
Hightshoe/ No problem! Yep!
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Hightshoe/ You just want me to start?
Throgmorton/ Why not? (laughter)
Hightshoe/ Okay, I've been official director now for a week, so (laughter) wasn't exactly sure, I
haven't been through this. I have prepared about two and a half pages of information, so
it's written down so you can stop me at any time. I won't forget. I have it written down.
Um, we are the Neighborhood and Development Services Department. There are three
divisions within our department. We have about .... 42 FTEs if we have .... if in your
budget you approve the 2.5 FTEs. So .... I'm gonna start with Neighborhood Services, the
division where I came from previously. Neighborhood Services has three. We have the
Housing Authority, the Housing Inspections, and the .... and then Community
Development. As you know, the Housing Authority, um, is operated under a department.
We have about 1,300 Housing Choice vouchers that we administer in this ... in the Johnson
County, Iowa County, and parts of Washington County, and we operate 81 public
housing units. The Housing Inspection, we have about 19,000 rental properties in Iowa
City that we inspect on an every other year basis. You'll be seein' some changes that we
might be going to more frequent inspections. That might add 9,000 more inspections if
we go on a, some of those properties go on an annual basis. So that's why we're coming
to you for the 2.5 FTEs cause it's a lot of ins.... inspections that we'll have to .... to
perform. Community Development is that branch that we administer all our federal funds
that we get. So our Community Development Block Grant, our Home Funds. We
operate the UniverCity program. We do the HELP program. Um .... we do the various
Aids to Agencies. We administer that. We do the Economic Development programs,
like your Building Business Basics. So that .... oh, our Neighborhood Outreach, our
Public Art. So Community Development's that .... that wing of the department that does
all your, um, non -building, uh, or urban planning, but all that ... that outreach to
communities and neighborhoods, um, that fosters economic development. Housing, jobs,
and services for low to moderate -income folks. Um, we also were the ones that did the
ha ... the grant, the flood buyouts. So we just recently, that's one of the highlights I was
going to put, we just recently purchased our 101 property. We are now in a closeout of
our hazard mitigation grant program funds. So I'm doin' that next week, um, but that
program is done. We'll keep looking at properties as we go, but our .... our hazard
mitigation grant and our community deve.... Community Disaster and CDBG funds,
we've .... we've expired, unless we apply for new and get awarded new funds. Um, the
next division is Development Services. While Neighborhood Services has about 23
FTEs, Development Services has about 11. Um, that is your .... your division that
facilitates development processes. So when you have annexations, rezonings, site plan
reviews, um, building inspections, all of that permitting activity, that comes from the
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Development Services wing. Um, they also do our flood plain management, our historic
preservation, um, and our nuisance complaints, uh, between.... nuisances between
building code violations and housing, the rental inspection, and the building code
inspections handle those. We get about 2,000 complaints a year. Um, with the new
changes in the occupancy law, we expect that those will be proactively in some of our
high nuisance neighborhoods, um, starting to patrol those more to enforce those more.
So where you have our average of 2,000, we'll see that go up, um, with the new changes,
Metropolitan Planning Organizations of Johnson County (MPO)
Hightshoe/ And then our MPO Division. Now this is the Metropolitan Planning Organization of
Johnson County. So they are a County tran .... transit planners, and when I say transit I
mean all forms of. ... of transportation, like ped, vehicle, um, public, um.....so they also
administer, um, they prepare, or they apply, and they administer federal funds. And they
have about 5.2 FTEs (mumbled) we're requesting a.5 FTE, um, in that position. And
then we have our administrative staff and we have a Sustainability Coordinator that's not
up on that map, but our Sustainability C, Brenda Nations, she's there to ensure that our
public services and our planning efforts are rooted in sustainable principles. So I'll be
giving you more updates about that, but that is the general layout of our department.
Does anybody have any questions about that?
Botchway/ You said a .5 where?
Hightshoe/ In MPO.
Fruin/ That was approved by the (clears throat) the MPO Board. So that's not an approval that
you need to.....
Botchway/ Would we add that though .... in (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, they'll become part of the MPO staff, and it will be reflected in the budget, but the
funding decision is from the MPO Board and not the City Council.
Hightshoe/ I can go to accomplishments for the year if everybody understands our organization.
Okay! Um, it's been a busy year, um, our Development Services reports that we've had
phenomenal growth in 2016 and 2017, and I think Geoff mentioned that earlier today.
Our 10 -year average in the value of construction permits is $155 million. In 2016, that
was $388 million. 2017 that was $216 million. So we're havin' unprecedented
development. Uh, that puts a lot of time and staff, uh, pressure on reviewing site plans,
doing the permitting. It just is a phenomenal amount of work, uh, for our staff. During
the year we adopted and implemented the Riverfront Crossings plan, as well as adoption
of the affordable housing requirements. So if you're going to develop more than 10 units
in the Riverfront Crossings, there's an inclusionary zoning component, so 10% of the
units have to be affordable for 10 years. So we are getting developments coming online,
having those. That's all co ... requires a training too. This private developers are not used
to certifying income and having restrictions on what rent that they can provide. So that's
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just a learning process for the new developers that are coming in and developing. So....
we'll start monitoring that, um, we'll do that every year, um, for that 10 -year
requirement. After that 10 years that the landlord can .... can rent at whatever the private
market will bear. We completed the form based code feasibility study for the Northside
and Alexander, um, neighborhoods. We secured two civil rights grants for two historic
properties — the Tate Arms Rooming House and the Iowa Federation Home.... Dormitory.
And what has taken a lot of time this year is what we didn't anticipate was the State
changes in occupancy. So, we have had to dedicate, we've had to put things on hold in
order to ensure that we have some neighborhood stabilization, that our code is based on
familial status and occupancy. So if we can't regulate for unrelated persons, what do we
do in that place? So we've already approved in December housing code changes that had
the rental permit cap, that has some changes in bedroom, uh, like the percentage that the
house can be bedroom, some park, um, rear setback, um, those zoning changes will be
coming up. So zoning changes will address parking and some open space, and rear sar
....rear yard setbacks. Um, it's also .... that's 19,000 permits, so that means.....we are
scratching on the permit about occupancy and having to reestablish maximum occupancy
for the 19,000 rental permits that we have now. So ..... it's great that we have something
on the books, but now implementing it for next year will be .... will be a challenge too.
We've made significant progress on the affordable housing action plan. Um, a me ... as
many of you know, it's great you've set aside funds for affordable housing. We passed
those 15 action steps. The majority of those action steps are finished. The occupancy
(laughs) changes kinda caught us off guard, so some of those improvements ... or some of
those action steps are still remaining, such as your land annexation policy. Um .... we're
reviewing regulatory changes to make affordable housing easier in neighborhoods. And,
the last one, oh, tax abatement. Um, there'll be another committee meeting to ... to
recommend to Council about, um, a policy about when we can abate taxes, if it
encourages affordable housing, especially in the multi -family. I think you'll see that the
committee's recommendation, it wasn't financially a large enough incentive to encourage
home ownership in our market, uh, but there was at some point with higher level of
multi -family. Um, you'll see that recommendation hopefully this ... later winter, early
spring. Um, we also had a great partnership with UNI's Center for Energy and
Environmental Education. Um, we partnered with the Green Iowa Americorp. What
they did is they came and they did energy efficiency testing in our 81 public housing
units, made recommendations. We spent about, oh we'll spend about $60,000 in making
those improvements, and those improvements are meant for energy efficiency so our
public housing tenants are paying less utilities, and that's an expense that they're
responsible for, so anything that we can do to reduce that expense gives them a higher,
um, disposable income. Uh, we completed 60 blower tests. We weatherized 22
properties. We completed renovations, and I think the only thing left was windows. We
had a hard time securing a contractor that would order the windows we needed for our
property on Washington Street. So that's the .... the last remaining item that we have to
do. Then our Housing Authority, we are a very effective Housing Authority. We
average a, well .... our last year we had a 99.7 housing choice voucher utilization rate.
That compares to 89.1 in the state and 91.7 in the .... in the U.S. So we're very effective.
We get the vouchers out there. They are utilized and .... um, very proud what the Housing
Authority, about what they're able to accomplish. Then I mentioned the buyouts. We
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bought out a hundred properties. We dem.... demolished all of `em except for one, and
that was the Ned Ashton House. Um .... and that's great cause we .... we've eliminated the
flood threat to those hundred properties and it'll, at some point, it'll expand our parks,
whether it's, uh, the City Park or Creekside. We purchased three homes along Creekside
to .... to expand that park. And we completed the bike master plan and adoption of the....
and adopted the complete streets policy. So, those are the major highlights, in addition to
what we do every day, um, so I wanted to focus on those and then we have a lot of in -
progress initiatives. So anything about.... any questions about what we've done over the
past year? I don't know if your silence is like, oh, or crap! (laughter) So talk about in -
progress, um, we have those zoning code amendments that I talked about for occupancy.
So we're gonna get after the parking, looking at parking and rear yard setbacks. So that's
on our to do list. Um, we took out an RFP for the form based code for the Northside and
Alexander. It came back too high so now we're reviewin' our options about how we get
that code drafted. Um .... we're doing a downtown historic building survey, and
implementation of the historic preservation plan. So that's in the works. We're also, to
make our jobs easier, looking at a new permitting software, so the Building Division's
looking at that. Um, we've had the old system for a while. We've had phenomenal
growth and it will take us a while, so as soon as we have that new software, it ... it'll ... it'll
be more efficient for us, but there's always a learning curve whenever you learn new
software. You get upset (laughs) nothin' works (laughter) Call IT a lot. So that's
coming down the pipeline. And like I said, we'll .... we'll keep trying to process as timely
as we can those, urn .... nuisance complaints as we get `em. Um, you know, weeds, snow,
noise, parking. Um, 2017 was great because we had very few snow complaints. It's not
lookin' like 2018 will be good (laughs) so those are coming in. Um, UniverCity
program, we have purchased 65 properties to date. We have sold 59. Nineteen of them
have went to, um, households under 80% of median income. After a point, you purchase
65 properties, and I'm gonna send you a memo and you're gonna get it in the next month,
um, about the direction of the UniverCity program. We're havin' a harder and harder
time trying to find properties that meet that $50,000 repair budget, and that we can buy
under 200 grand. So, we're.... that's..... that's coming to you, but it's been a great
program. We have clustered development in five neighborhoods. So, they're not all in
these neighborhoods, but Douglass Street, Court, Burlington, Governor, Gilbert, and
Davenport, and if you talk to those folks in those neighborhoods, they have found that it's
been a great influence and we've seen a lot of private development that when we've
repaired and upgraded some of the homes, you see neighbors starting to upgrade theirs as
well. Um.....we're gonna work on the.... we're gonna finish up the affordable housing
action plan this year. Like I said, with tax abatement recommendations, the regulatory
changes, um, annexation policy. We also have about $425,000 in land banking funds that
we've already built up. If your contribution is the same as last year, we'll have close to
$600,000. We'll actually start looking for land now to purchase. So, we might now be
able to develop that land right away, um, but we will start accum.... accumulating the
land so that hopefully at some point we can take it for a LITECH application or if we
can't get a LITECH application, we'll work with our non -profits to how we develop that
land. But we have to secure land first, um, and believe it or not, most developers don't
come to me saying please put affordable housing on this lot (laughs) so it'll be difficult
trying to get lots, but we'll start working on that this year. The Fuse partnership, many of
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you are familiar with the Fuse. Um, they'll get the building permit this winter. They'll
start building. Our Housing Authority will look for the new .... and implement the new
special emissions criteria for persons experiencing homelessness, so that we work .... that
they're, that folks going in there will have a voucher, so that the project is sustainable,
and that they have rent (laughs) so they can make the neces.... necessary repairs and do
what they need to do. Also, we're gonna increase participation in our neighborhood
associations and our neighborhood planning activities. Um, one of the Council's goals
was to diversify our representation on neighborhood associations, um, and we're
learning, Pauline and I have sat on the Invest Health and we're learning that in some
neighborhoods, especially your extremely low-income and your transitional
neighborhoods, neighborhood associations might be too formal for that first step into
helping to plan, actibly.... actively be involved in your neighbor. So with our PIN grant
we might reserve, um, right now with a PIN grant you have to apply a year in advance.
You have to go through your neighborhood association. That might be too formal of a
process for a lot of our extremely low-income neighborhoods. So we might reserve
funding so if organizations want to come in in those neighborhoods and they want to
have an event, that was one of the things that ... was one of the top five priorities when we
took out and we did that Invest Health survey is that these neighborhoods, and there was
four neighborhoods in Iowa City, wanted more events in their neighborhood. You know,
so if you can't drive or you have problems with transportation, you can be there.
So .... we'll open it up to organizations to apply. (mumbled) has a neighborhood event,
neighborhood feeling, it's the same purpose as .... as a PIN grant. So just some more
flexibility and getting more participation than what we've had in the past. Invest Health
also says change happens at the speed of trust. So as those neighborhoods come to have
different events and they interact with staff more, we're hoping that they feel more a part
of the process and they start engaging and they ... we can plan better activities, we
can .... we can do more things with their... with their input. We will be implementing the
bike master plan. Um, Kent will be talking to you at the CIP on Tuesday to go into depth
about the prioritizing of projects. He did mention to me that some of the major things
that will come, um, was the upcoming buffered bike lanes on Dodge and Governor,
conversion of regular bike lanes to buffered lanes on Market, Jefferson, and completion
of road diets on Clinton, Madison, and Mormon Trek. We'll also start implementing the
complete streets policy. And then Brenda, and I believe Ashley, are working on the
climate action adap .... adaptation plan. It's still supposed to be complete in May. So
once that's completed we'll start looking about what we can do to implement that plan.
And I believe there's a solar feasibility study going on, reviewing six different locations.
So once we get that recommendation, we'll start planning and implementing those
projects. We'll also work on funds to implement programs and increase education on
local foods. And, we do have funds available, we have about $200,000 available for
energy.... in the energy efficiency revolving loan fund. That's for City facilities, um, to
increase their energy savings through LED or, um, replacements or retrofits. And it's
been an exciting time in the last year and we'll continue this for next year, is that it's
basically working on that collective impact model, about having each department's
organization do what they do best, but having a common goal and everybody putting in
their efforts, their skills, and to get things done. So we have been partnering, um, our
rental inspectors over the past year completed training on, uh, I believe it was code
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inspection for healthier homes. So when we go into properties, we can look to see what
would make indoor air quality better. Is it ... are we mitigating radon? Lead?
Deteriorating asbestos? Are we looking at mold and mildew issues? Um, so that we can
make those units healthier. We have a partnership right now with the College of Nursing,
the school-based clinics, Housing Trust Fund, and Iowa Free Medical Clinic. So we are
going, we're getting referrals from school-based clinics. If you have a child with asthma,
we're going out to the house, um, we're doing up to $7,500 rehab, and then the College
of Nursing is providing that in-home asthma education for that parent and child. Um, the
Free Medical Clinic has been great. We had a child with a lot of dust allergies. Um, they
went out and they .... they found us all the mattress covers. Instead of just providing for
that family, they provided it for every family that's on our waiting list that we're .... we're
gonna go out and get to. So that's been a great partnership. We're working with
Kirkwood on the Building Business Basics workshops. Um, talked to Ann yes ... was it
last week. Our next one' ll probably be Saturday, May 19a . It's not official yet but that's
when the next one'll be, um, lot of people are starting to volunteer. I heard from ICAD,
they want to be part of, um, the .... this May's event. We have the micro -loan funding
with Midwest One. Um, Midwest One helps us underwrite some of the loans, um, so we
will continue to work on those partnerships, and .... those are just with outside, but even
with inside organizations. We offered the free wheels program this summer, and that was
a partnership between Police, Parks and Rec, and MPO, NDS to provide, uh, to repair
impounded bikes and have junior high students, primarily from our Invest Health
neighborhood, um, get those bikes after a four-week training on maintenance, safety, uh,
and they received, if they completed the four weeks, they got a bike helmet, um, bike
lock, and.....helmet, lock.....
Taylor/ A bike!
Hightshoe/ And what else?
Taylor/ A bike!
Hightshoe/ Oh yeah (laughter) um, that went really well. We're gonna do it again this summer.
Um, we'll have the scholarship program, and I think Parks and Rec are gonna expand it
for those that can pay. Um, we also .... they were learning an app about where they can go
and we can chart where junior high kids were riding their bikes so we can make those
pathways safer, uh, for everyone involved. Um ..... those are in -progress initiatives in
addition to what we do every day, just our daily routine. There's some issues that we
need to talk .... well, that I feel relate to our strategic plan, but they're addre... addressing
critical issues or just challenges in my department. Um, and there .... our complexity of
reviews just keeps growing. So they've become increasingly time consuming. Um, and
when our zoning code and our housing code, that's just not our department. It affects
Parks and Rec, Transit, Engineering, um .... so currently we have our current zoning
regulations. We have.....conservation, historic districts; sensitive areas ordinance; we
have design overlays; we have the Peninsula code; we have the Riverfront Crossing
codes that have su.... seven sub -districts within them; and now we're .... we're considering
adding the Northside and Alexander. It's just getting very complex, so we're trying to
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figure out ways that we simplify that .... if we have a hard time explaining it, if our
enforcement folks have a hard time knowing what to do, then our development
community's also struggling about what they need to submit. So we're .... we'll try to
look to see how we can simplify the process when we can, to standardize when we can, to
make those reviews (mumbled) I'm just afraid at some point, things get missed or
we .... or we slip up. So .... you'll see me always seeing if we can't simplify the process as
we go. Um .... we will deal with the new enforcement and new hos....... housing code
changes. We hope that we see in the neighborhoods that we have a lot of, um, that the
increased enforcement, the UniverCity program all has that impact that we want, um, and
safe, healthy, vibrant neighborhoods, which for the most part Iowa City is. I mean you
see people wanna live here, um, and that's great. They want to add to our community.
So see if we can't foster that. And as always, we live with federal, state, and local budget
uncertainty, since a lot of our .... our program is federally funded, between the Housing
Authority, Community Development, um, MPO to an extent. It's just hard with, um,
especially the federal budget. When they keep delaying when we get notice, um, it just
keeps pushing projects back further, and then you don't know how much money you
have to allocate. Makes it hard.
Throgmorton/ No problem, Tracy. We'll take care of that. (laughter)
Hightshoe/ That's great! Um, and those are all my prepared remarks. I don't know if I was
supposed to spo.... speak for the whole hour (laughter)
Botchway/ You're okay, Tracy!
Throgmorton/ I'd like to ask ya.....sort of ask ya a couple questions; they're really more
commentary than anything else. Uh, one has to do with .... uh, a short, um, I don't know,
statement that Casey Cook wrote for the most recent issue of the Commerce, or Corridor
Business Journal, and in it, Casey, well known property value assessor, basically said....
to landlords, because of the influx of new units, you people better think about finding
ways to improve, spruce up your properties and reduce your rents, because it's gonna be
a more competitive situation for you because vacancy rates are higher, etc. So I'm very
curious about, to see how that plays out, especially within our core neighborhoods, the
ones that are most affected by the University. So there's no question there really but
I'm .... I'm just making that observation. And the other thing, uh, that comes to mind has
to do with the fact that .... has to do with the intersection of various departments and what
they're doin. So the Parks and Rec, uh, Department is really enhancing the quality of our
neighborhood parks, a lot. So Cardigan Park, Happy Hollow Park, course Riverfront
Crossings, I mean whole .... whole series of neighborhoods throughout the city, while at
the same time the School District is ... ramping up its effort to renovate and put additions
on our elementary schools and .... and Southeast Junior High too. Uh, like Lincoln, which
we voted on a few days ago, and I think that combination of. ... of putting money into our
neighborhood parks, Frauenholtz-Miller Park another example, and money into our
neighborhood schools, uh, really, uh, has the potential to really enhance the quality of our
neighborhoods, and then there's this whole thing havin' to do with the rental cap and...
and, uh, the .... the effects on landlords and rents and so on, and..... uncertainty about how
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that will play out. So, I don't know if there's a question embedded in all that but
(laughter) I'm just thinking about that, and I know that's part of what your department
will have to be dealing with over the coming year, and more.
Hightshoe/ Yeah. We've historically had such low ra... vacancy rates, um, higher vacancy rate, I
think, will enforce, um, will .... will force landlords either to .... in able to rent their
property, to clean it up, um, so I think in that way we might have a private market
working with us to improve... to improve housing conditions. Um, I don't know how it'll
pla.... play out, but we're hopeful that it .... if it doesn't reduce rent, it'll at least stabilize
rent, um, for the next few years.
Throgmorton/ So any questions for Tracy?
Botchway/ On, uh, page, uh, 268, um .... I have a question and then some commentary, but mine
just more relation to why the jump from 228 to 691 as far as e -subscriptions? Anything
in general led to that or was that in relation to kind of the uncertainty around the, um,
recent State change?
Hightshoe/ Are you talking about for.....
Botchway/ For number of subscribers.....in sustainable news (both talking)
Hightshoe/ I asked Brenda and she thought it was like due to social media.
Botchway/ Okay!
Hightshoe/ Just having that information out and people subscribing.
Botchway/ Cool!
Fruin/ It was.....it was just created in .... in 2016, so my guess is 228, um, you know, just reflects
the .... the first couple additions and then, you know, through good content and promotion
we've been able to get that up.
Monroe/ It's also possible that, um, an increase.... could have been in relationship to the
community meeting we held about the sustainability climate action plan. They may have
added the, uh, participants to (mumbled) opt in.
Botchway/ Okay. So the .... the other part is a commentary, and Tracy, this is somewhat relevant
to you, but also relevant to some of the departments that happened beforehand, and I
don't have my notes in front of me so I'm going to try to remember. You know, so this'll
go back to some general discussion, but I just want to highlight it now that Tracy's here,
but as we're thinking about it, I have some serious concerns in relation to three of our
departments — Neighborhood Development Services, our Police Department, and our
Parks and Rec Department — as far as adequate staffing. Um, now obviously I know that
you're (mumbled) two FTE for Housing Inspections in general because of the changes,
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but I think, Jim, you alluded to the amount of work that's happened over the last, um,
couple of years. Uh, I think we know that. I think that I've been talkin' to people in the
community that are, you know, not frustrated, but just.... they're.....they're aware of how
much work and how much time that you're spending on a lot of different initiatives, um,
even in relation to our strategic plan goals, and so I think we need to .... we need to think
about it, um, and I'll be preparing a memo. Geoff, I need to meet with you, as far as kind
of those three departments and what that looks like and what the plan may be as we move
forward. But those are pivotal, um, departments and I feel like that are going to move our
strategic plan conversation in the way that I think we want them to move into. You
know, even if you're talking about affordable housing, some of the things that, you know,
the affordable action plan as you know, super, super exciting for me and to know that,
you know, granted, State change wasn't something that we had to do, but all hands on
deck to kind of, you know, address that particular issue so we had some neighborhood
stability, but some of the things I've been waiting on, such as the property tax abatement,
which I think would be huge, and some other things, didn't come before us, by no fault of
our City staff, but I think we need to think about it from a staffing standpoint, because I
think that as we think about development and even Geoff had mentioned before, we're
not gonna probably be at the 300, 350 level of development across the board when it
comes to building permits or other things. We're gonna, you know, be a little bit lower.
There are some things that, you know, are still gonna consistently happen as we need to
think about how we're sustaining growth across the city, how we're looking at policy
changes in fron.... in regards to Riverfront Crossings District, um, some of the, uh, the
missing middle and other things, some code changes ..... I ...... I just don't want to leave
our staff kind of high and dry, um, with trying to manage some of the priorities that we
believe are important, and I believe are definitely important, um, but then also trying to
think about other things that they have to work on, as well, especially with the State
changes and other things. So I'm just throwing that out there. I know we have sometime
for discussion later but I want to say that with Tracy here, because in particular around
affordable housing, around the changes in State laws, and even the code changes, I have a
particular interest as far as what our plan is moving forward, especially with an
accelerated timeline within the next two years to see some .... some huge growth.
Fruin/ Can I make a few comments and then just keep `em relative to this department, and won't
get into the other departments. Um, there's no doubt that Neighborhood Development
Services could have benefited, and would still benefit, from additional staff. Um, in this,
uh, you know last couple of years, um ...... uh, there's the financial constraints, which we
talked about earlier today, but .... but also you have to think, um, of a couple of other
factors. One being, what do you anticipate the workload to be going forward, um, and so
as I mentioned, I don't expect that we're going to have $388 million worth of projects
continually come on the books, even $216 million worth of, uh, development cumin' on
the books. So it's.... it's..... it's, we try to staff at that .... that average year, and .... and the
staff has done an exceptional job of really stepping up to....to take on this influx. Um,
but it eventually will comeback down. I think we're starting to see that. Um, so
that's.... that's one factor you need to consider on the .... on the building and kind of the
planning side. Two is the uncertainty in the federal. Um, in ... in the federal, um,
programs. You know, President Trump has proposed eliminating the CDBG program.
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Uh, I believe the Home program too. Now other presidents have, uh, put forward that
proposal and it hasn't happened, but we have staff salaries that are tied to those federal
programs. It's not just the services that come from those programs or the projects that are
funded with those grants. It's actual staff salaries. So one of the things I look at there is
....if those federal funds are yanked, are there ways for us to pull that existing staff in to
other general fund funded services. So is the time to add right now? Um, or ... or do we
look to .... to see what happens at the federal level and instead of having to .... if we were
to add a staff now, we're probably in a position where you're lookin' at staff reductions if
that federal money is .... is pulled. Um, if we have the flexibility and that federal money's
pulled, I'd like to keep those staff on and repurpose them into the areas where we have
stress, uh, in that, uh, in that department. So that's just a couple of things I would offer,
um, from a timing standpoint, um, I never, uh, like to add staff during a time of transition
in a department. Um, I like to .... I like to get the department stabilized, particularly with
new leadership and .... and really give Tracy and eventually, uh, the Development
Services Coordinator, which we'll be going.....we'll be posting next week, and then
Tracy's old position, Neighborhood Services Coordinator, which won't be posted for
several more weeks, um, I'd like to give that team time to gel together, to really identify
where those resources would be strategically placed, um, before we start to, uh, consider.
That would be my perspective. I certainly understand where you're coming from, and
that ... there's a lot built up here, a lot of what you want to do is directly related to this
department, um.... I get that. Just lettin' you know how I .... how I view these types of
things too.
Hightshoe/ It will be. We have, um, our Community Development Planner, we've offered that
position. That person starts February I". They'll be most welcome! And then we'll
work on, um, well like I said... Geoff said, next week we'll post the Development Services
Coordinator position. Then since I'll be, um, in training the Community Development
Planner, um, I'm gonna hold off on the Neighborhood Services Coordinator for a little
bit. Um, as soon as that person's trained, then we'll.....so at some point we'll have three
new FTEs coming in within probably the next six months? They'll be more than
welcome! (laughs)
Frain/ Can I offer a couple of, uh, couple of tid bits here on .... on the NDS budget. Um, as Tracy
mentioned, uh, she's prepared a .... a nice memo on the UniverCity program and you'll get
a chance to see that in your next Info Packet. Um, what this budget includes is .... is three
homes. Um, but we have, uh, increased, or we're recommending that we increase the
purchase price allowance from $180,000 to $200,000. Uh, we think that this could
potentially open up the pool of homes that are available. Um, as Tracy mentioned, it's
becoming increasingly difficult for us to find homes at that $180,000 and under. You
layer on a rental cap, where those rental properties become more valuable, it's going to
be even harder to find $180,000 homes. I don't know if 200's the right number or not,
but we felt that that was a .... a decent increase. And then we'd also recommend
increasing the rehab budget, uh, to .... up to $60,000 instead of up to 50. Um, again, if
you're going to be buying sometimes larger homes, you're gonna need that additional
rehab, um .... uh, dollars to address kind of the basic needs of those homes. So that's
what's in the budget now. You'll get a full report, uh, on .... next Thursday, and you'll be
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able to talk about that program and.... whether you think the changes are appropriate or if
you'd like to take it in a different direction. Uh, two other quick things, um, in, uh, the
sustainability budget, we still have the local foods initiative. Uh, we also have placed,
uh, $10,000 in there for climate, uh, plan, uh, implementation. That wouldn't be the
physical improvements. That's more of community education, so if we want to do an
education campaign or an advertising campaign, uh, related to that climate, uh, plan, we
do have $10,000 to do so, which can pretty fi.... pretty far in terms of an advertising
budget.
Throgmorton/ So I do have a question this time, Tracy. Uh.... I didn't, maybe it was my
oversight, but I did not hear you mention historic preservation. Did I? (unable to hear
talking in background) What did you say about it? Thank you!
Hightshoe/ (mumbled) for in -progress or .... that, what we completed last year? Either one?
Throgmorton/ In -progress.
Hightshoe/ Progress? Okay! We are doing the downtown historic building survey update, and
we'll be implementing the historic preservation plan. Um, those were the two.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, uh (both talking)
Fruin/ From a budget standpoint, it's status quo. Uh, so last year you'll recall that we took, uh,
from a non -benefited position to a benefited position, um, and we also introduced a grant
program, uh, to .... to help residents in historic districts, uh, that have, um, qualify on an
income basis to make improvements to their properties that are, um, appropriate for
whatever district that they're in. Those two things, uh, remain... remain the same.
Throgmorton/ Good! So just in terms of work, not in terms of additional budgetary funds or
anything like that, I'm thinkin' about the process of designating specific properties, or
recommending designation of specific properties as historic landmarks.
Hightshoe/ I think they're looking at seven, right?
Throgmorton/ I know the Commission has identified, I don't know, somethin' like seven
individual brick residential structures that .... they want to move ahead with. Uh, and
because of the, uh, the study that's just being completed for the downtown area, there's
always the potential that some buildings down there would be recommended for
designation. So I'm just thinking about that process and know that.....I know that that
would take staff time, as well as Commission time.
Fruin/ Yeah. Um, bar .... hard to tell at this point. Um, there's couple of factors. One I think
letters have gone out now, uh, maybe shortly, to go out to those property owners. Um,
reaching out to them to .... to start a dialogue about what it means to have your property
designated. Um, certainly if.....if there's a ..... a mutual interest in designating it makes
things a lot easier. If there's not a interest in the ..... from the property owner in
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designating, then it becomes a ..... a policy decision on how aggressive the City Council
wants to be in forcing designation. Um, so.....hard to.....hard to know what staffing
needs would be. If you hear back from all seven of those properties that nobody's
interested, it could be nothing, or you could say ..... we're gonna pursue it anyway and
then we'll have to probably sit down and talk to ya about what's realistic from the current
staffing levels.
Throgmorton/ And.....and then there's the downtown survey that's (both talking) being
completed and whatever might come out of that. Any other questions for Tracy?
Thomas/ Are we going to be seeing that, um, student housing market analysis sometime soon?
That was a.....
Fruin/ Yes, you will be. Um, I have the final report now. There is a meeting next Friday, uh,
with all the stakeholders — that's the University and Coralville, uh, the three of us jointly
funded it. Um ..... uh, and so I wanted to have that meeting, uh, to....to discuss with them
the roll out. I don't wanna give it to you if for some reason they're not prepared to give it
out to their council or through the University channels, but I do have it. I've shared a
copy with the Mayor, urn .... I haven't reviewed it, the final version, myself, but I do, uh,
based on the draft that I reviewed a couple months ago, I think there's some very useful
information in there. Um, hopefully later this month unless for some reason the
University or Coralville asks to .... to hold off on it.
Cole/ Tracy, as reflected in your priority for neighborhood stabilization, what element of the
budget would you say most accomplishes that goal in terms of. ..... from a funding
perspective? Um ..... in terms of neighborhood stabilization .... in our inner -core
neighborhoods (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...all the nuisances, so just being able to actively ..... our.....our inspectors are .... are
going out there proactively dealing with nuisances, um, the changes that we have about,
um.....before we were looking at nuisances, before we started doing like property
management plan, you know, you had to have three.....nuisances in a 12 -month period.
Now we're looking at a 24 -month period. I think just constant vigilance and pol.... not
policing but just enforcing the nuisances in those neighborhoods will be huge. Um, the
UniverCity program makes an impact, from what you hear from the neighbors, um, but I
think it's just that day to day, um, police and our efforts to.....to just, to resolve and to
prevent `em if we can.
Thomas/ Tracy, on .... on that score, one .... one thought I've been having is.....and it will kind of,
uh, it relates to the .... the percentage rental cap, and what .... what we see in the coming
year in terms of how the State, if they respond to that. Uh, but .... but one strategy, in
terms of neighborhood stabilization I think is critical, especially in the neighborhoods
with the high percentages, is how do we get that percentage down, and .... and one thought
that .... I'm hoping we can .... we can look at would be .... um, with respect to missing
middle housing types, especially ones that have that house form aspect to them. Like a
duplex or a quadra-plex. Uh.... if we can .... if we can in -fill develop on properties that are
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non-contributing to historic character, where they're in districts and.....in a more general
sense where we don't have districts or, uh, conservation or historic. If. ... if we could
build .... those housing types and have them fall under the cap, I know a duplex already
would, but say a quadra-plex. Then that could .... could potentially really help us address
the percentage. But that would require a change to our zoning code. Because, you know,
as it stands now, you know, some of those types aren't allowed and then in terms of the
cap, um, right now we're just single-family and duplex are the only two housing types
that fall under the cap. Um, but anyway, that's.... that's some, a strategy that I'm feeling
....would be, um, in the spirit of I think what we're trying to accomplish, uh, and would
open up more avenues to .... to reduce the percentages. Does that make sense?
Hightshoe/ Uh huh. (several talking) Go ahead! (several talking) ....the form based code, um,
in the Northside, that will help that, um, to some extent, to allow the flexibility of the
building type as opposed to the zoned use. Um, so we'll see how that works. Um, we
did pull off, Stan and I pulled off our .... not our top -20 violators, but looked to see where
our most common nuisance are coming from. I was hoping to see patterns, either ... is it
the same property managers, same owners, the same type of house, and what we found,
it's .... it's all across the board. But there are some properties that have like 40 nuisance
(laughs) complaints in the last two years. I mean, if we can curb that, you know, if we
can work with the property management plan .... to go from 40 complaints in two years
down to 10 (laughs) I mean that is huge! Um....
Thomas/ Uh huh.
Hightshoe/ ....so we'll also be looking at trying to target those folks that are constantly coming
in and having.... having complaints. So, I think a lot of ways, I mean the form based
code, the different development types, and also concentrating our efforts on those
properties that have historically had so many complaints.
Cole/ Tracy, quickly, at the bottom of page 286 (clears throat) it refers to a mixed-use building,
hotel, residential, commercial. I just want to clarify, that is referring to the Hieronymus
project? It says `in design,' that's the only reason why I ask that question. If it's not
referring to anything across the corner from here? Bottom of page 286. Assume that's
Hieronymus?
Fruin/ That's correct! (both talking) We don't have any discussions on the Starbuck's lot right
now.
Cole/ Yeah, just saw the `in design' part of it and I didn't know if that was maybe a hold -over
from last year.
Fruin/ No. Um, it's actually in ... it's in design review right now (both talking) so when you
approve those development agreements and the rezoning, keep in mind the developer has
not gone into full design. They're showing you a concept, with the intent....
Cole/ Okay.
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Fruin/ ....all those granular level details have to go through the form based code design review
(both talking) that's where we're at right now.
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ When one walks the neighborhood regularly, one sees things that .... would, one
would not ordinarily see. So, with regard to nuisances, so.....a.....a few weeks ago I was
walking along one of the streets near where I live and.....encountered a house, uh, whose,
uh, which the front ra... yard of which was covered with dog poop, and that remained the
case for at least two weeks, and.....so, I don't know. I'm not blaming anybody, but it's,
you know, nuisances can kind of pop up quickly, stay there for a while, and then
disappear (laughs) and.... and...... and yet not really be noticed unless.....unless you have
eyes on the street.... basically. So, it's important to do that, and the housing inspectors,
adding two, will certainly help with that for sure. But ... with regard to the form based
code, uh, you mentioned that, um, I don't know, an R .... RFP had been sent out, bids
came back, bids are higher than the budgeted amount. So, I ..... basically I'm wondering
how big's the gap? Can it feasibly be narrowed?
Fruin/ Yeah, I've been workin' with Karen on .... on this. Um, so we're workin' with Opticos,
um, they.....they came back with a proposal to take us to code, uh, language, um, and
they kind of gave us the low end and the high end, and it ranged from about, uh, 350,000
up to about 750,000, and it's all how much do we want to accomplish and in what
manner do we want to accomplish? How many public meetings do we want to have?
The charrettes, the, um, additional studies, do we want a market study on top of, uh, the
form based code, all those kinds of things. Um, frankly I was kinda floored by that
range. Um, I was expecting it to be, um, two to three hundred, um, is .... is kinda what we
had in mind. So, uh, we ... had a conference call with Opticos and.....um...... we talked
about, you know, what's really essential to getting the job done and .... and what's not.
Um, we're still waiting for them to come back, um, with, um.....some firm
recommendations on .... on what would be included. Um, ultimately I felt like $385,000
will get us what we need, based on that conversation with Opticos. Um, but.....um,
probably won't be as a robust of a public input process as .... as, um.....it.....it might be in
say like the Riverfront Crossings District. Um, one, I don't think we necessarily need
that as much in the.....on the south end of the area where it's a lot of greenfields, um, and
two, on the Northside, I felt we had some pretty good participation. I'm not gonna say
we're gonna have no public input when the code's written, drafted, but I just didn't think
we needed a whole lot of the .... the charrette-type of processes to demonstrate need. I felt
like everybody was pretty comfortable in the direction that we're going. So we'll get
there. Um, but it's expensive. You know, when it's all said and done we'll have
probably three-quarters of a million dollars into those two form -based codes.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay, other questions? Thanks, Tracy.
Hightshoe/ Thank you!
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Business -type Funds:
Throgmorton/ So, we gonna hear from Kent? No?
Fruin/ Um, no. (both talking) Oh, do we have that on the schedule? No, we....
Throgmorton/ I didn't think so, given the fact that (both talking)
Fruin/ Tracy .... Tracy covered a little bit of the MPO there. Um....
Hightshoe/ Kent will be .... sorry.....Kent will be there at the CIP, going over the bike master plan
in depth. So I just got the very....the basics (laughs)
Throgmorton /Okay, good deal. Thank you. So we gonna turn to Mark? Yeah. (unable to hear
response from audience) Could do! I'm okay with that. Mike, you wanna (both talking)
Fruin/ ....Airport real quick?
Airport
Tharp/ There ya go, a nice .... pretty short, uh, chain of command there! Good afternoon, uh,
Mike Tharp. I'm the Airport Operations Specialist. Ura ....... just workin' through
the .... the Airport budget, I think we're on page 468 of the .... the budget book. Um ..... uh,
actually pretty excited about this year's upcoming budget, but 2018 for us is going to be a
big year. It is the 100°i anniversary of the Iowa City Airport, and the story that's been
told to me, I will retell it here and it .... it, you know, it's one of those things when the
myth becomes legend, print the ... print the legend. Um, the Iowa City Airport is the
oldest airport still operating in its original spot, west of the Mississippi River. So it's
a ..... it's a pretty big thing for the community. Um.....
Throgmorton /I'm lookin' forward to seeing the movie! (laughter)
Tharp/ So with that, we're.....we're anticipating a .... a nice celebration June 9t' and 100' of this
year, uh, to kind of cap off the .... the 2018. We're gonna have some activities at the
Airport, working with the Iowa Children's Museum, um ..... have a, have some display
aircraft from the eras of aviation, the his .... uh, tying into the history, and then trying to
do a component about the future of aviation, uh, especially within the community. Um,
so operationally, I am the .... the lone City staff person. I report to the Airport
Commission. Uh, we operate a roughly, uh, we're expecting to operate a roughly
$360,000 budget this year, for 2019, is what we're proposing, and the highlight of that is
we are not asking for any general levy support for that budget. So it's been a long time
coming, uh, and I know the Airport Commission and .... and Councils in the past, and, uh,
many of. .... of you folks have worked with the Airport Commission over the .... the last
few years, and uh, you know, we're really excited to have the Airport in this kind of
position. So, uh, definitely ....definitely looking forward to .... uh, to be able to do that in
the future, uh, and we do have some, you know, some dollars in there that we're gonna
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use to, uh, touch up some furniture in the terminal building, make things, you know,
continue to .... to have things presentable to the folks that are coming in and coming
through the .... the Airport terminal and into the community, make sure they get that good
first impression of the community as they.....they travel through. Um .... we've been able
to use some of our cash fund balance that we've accumulated over the years that, uh,
helped pay down some of that.... that old, uh, Airport debt, uh, to facilitate a couple of
new hangar, uh, developments. The hundred by hundred hangar was finished, uh, August
of last year, and if anybody attended the Shelter House fundraiser, I think that was in
October, um, that was that new hangar that was just built. We also were able to work
with another individual to, urn.... facilitate a .... a smaller hangar, about a 50 by 60 hangar,
but again, anything we can do to help encourage, uh, especially private development at,
uh, at the Airport, I think, is ... is also a good thing, cause it shows people that do want to
be at the Airport, they have, um .... uh, certainly investments into the Airport, not only just
from the City but private sector too. Um ..... with that, you know, urn .... with the hundred
year anniversary coming up and our celebration, we are going to be tackling some of our,
um, entrance roads and .... and, uh, the Airport viewing area. Uh, we do have some .... we
have had some plans on the books for a while. It's just finding funding and getting
everything aligned to, uh, finish those off, but we are working with Parks and Rec, uh,
the Parks and Rec Department to redo the entryway and a lot of the frontage along
Riverside Drive where the Airport entrance is, so we're gonna, uh, trim back some of
those shrubs that are ... uh, and growth trees that have kind of just grown up over the
past .... 20 or so years, uh...... make everything look, uh, look pretty. Uh, pretty attractive
to everybody. Um .... we're not proposing any other staffing changes. Uh, we are still
seeing, urn ..... a ...... a pretty small increase in our fuel sales, but uh, you know, it is still
trending upwards, so that's a good sign. Um .... and that's pretty much about it for the
operations budget. Uh, you'll see during the CIP presentation on Tuesday little bit more
about our .... our grant programs and how we, uh, tackle projects and capital funding.
Um.....you know, the big thing we are working on, uh, that is taking up operational time
but will take up capital time is .... is the obstruction mitigation project that we're working
on. We're, uh, in the middle of the environmental assessment study and a lot of that stuff
is about to the point where we're gonna push that out to the public, uh, for the public
comment periods, and uh, we're being slow and deliberate on it, but we wanna make sure
we're doing everything right and, um, tackling everything we need to tackle with it.
Throgmorton By obstruction mitigation, you mean for flight paths? Yeah.
Tharp/ Yep. Every time we, um, accept an FAA grant, even a State grant, we, uh, we refresh our
obligations to maintain our, uh, approaches as, you know, safe and clear and, um, there
are standards that .... that are out there that we need to .... live up to and that's what we're
doing.
Throgmorton/ Any questions for Mike?
Mims/ If I can talk (laughs) not very well. I would just say the Airport has come a long way
financially from where it was when I came on Council eight years ago. The land sales,
paying the debt down.... numbers look really good! So thanks for all the hard work.
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Tharp/ Appreciate that!
Throgmorton/ Okay!
Tharp/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Mike. You get off scot-free! (laughter) Hi, Mark. Good suggestion
about switching!
Transportation Services
Rummel/ Good afternoon! My name's Mark Rummel. I'm the Interim Director for
Transportation Services. I've been workin' for the City for 13 years. Um, so my
department manages the parking, transit, and the maintenance of the downtown, uh,
the....the Central Business District downtown. Um, department has a total of 76.23 full-
time employees. Our staff includes Director, Associate Director, uh, supervisors that
cover both the parking and transit side of things, uh, cashiers, um.....customer service
representatives who answer phone calls for parking, transit, um, CBD area, as well as
refuse, landfill and recycling. We kind of have a call center sort of set up in our ... our
office up here on Tower Place. So those, uh, those staff members really have a lot of
knowledge. It's kind of similar to the....the, uh, info desk here, um, but we run a lot of
that ... that through our Tower Place office. Um, we also have, uh, transit drivers,
mechanics, and um.....uh, maintenance workers that are cross -trained. They go between
the....the, really all of those .... those areas that we manage. Um, and a parts clerk. Um,
Transportation Services consists of an administrative deci... division in the....the Central
Business District that are located in the general fund. The parking, um, well the parking
and transit are .... en .... enterprise funds. The Central Business District, urn .... uh, is
really .... what we do with that is ... is maintain basically everything that's not living down
there, uh, so we don't, uh, we still rely on Parks and .... and Rec for, urn .... um, the....the
planting and things like that, but um, all of the, um, the benches, the bricks, the fountain
work down there, uh, really any of the maintenance on the....the hardscape stuff, runs
through our office. Uh, we do all the trash collection, the recycling that's down there
now. Uh, the snow and ice is always a challenge for down there. Um.....uh (mumbled)
over a few years ago. Uh, I think we've really improved kind of the....the reaction time
and just the ability to get some of that stuff up because we have the equipment to do it.
We had the smaller, uh, skid -loaders and .... and staff that could get in there quick and
clean that out. Uh.... last year we .... our department, um, as you know was .... was, uh,
Transportation Resource Management last year. So we did a lot with the, uh, with the
(noise on mic, unable to hear speaker) and refuse, and part of that we, um .... um.....uh,
had a program for the single waste hauling, uh, issues that were downtown with the
alleys, uh, so that was an RFP that we put out to .... to, urn .... to basically make it so that
it's just one hauler that's..... that's working downtown. We put the RFP out with the
Downtown District, um, and since that point, uh, if. ... if you've been through the alleys at
all, it's .... it's much cleaner. The.... there's, uh, there's not dumpsters everywhere.
There's kind of one point of contact that we .... that we have, the businesses have. Uh, it's
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offered a recycling option that, uh, that maybe wasn't there before and just really cleaned
up the alleys down there. Um, we're pretty excited about it. It ..... it just started last fall,
um, and ..... you know, since then we've.....we've had, um, some fashion shows down
there. There's painting that's going on in the alleys. It's just really exciting. I think .... I
think it's somethin' you're gonna see a lot of, uh .... um ..... urn ...... programming in the
future, uh, actually in the alleys, so it's a little bit different. Um ...... so all in all, uh, the
events that occur in the ped mall, the Black Hawk Mini Park. There's daily events.
There's the special events throughout the summer. We, uh, our department plays a major
role in .... in, kind of help just with setup, the maintenance, the .... the cleanup afterwards.
Um, we have a program with the Shelter House to come down and help .... with events
and .... and, uh.... uh, some Sunday cleaning, after football games, things like that. Um, so
one challenge that we're .... we'll see for sure next year is just the .... the ped mall redesign
project and, um, the programming around those situations and have to see how that plays
out. So the Parking Division, like I said, is .... is an enterprise fund. Um.....and we
manage six parking ramps downtown. One of them is of course (mumbled)
Transportation Center that actually falls under Transit, but um, there's six.... six ramps,
five lots, um, in addition to a little over 1,100 meters on the street. Uh, this is a seven-
day a week operation. We've got staff here every day, urn .... pretty much from .... 6:00 in
the morning until sometimes 2:00 in the morning, dependin' on the day. Um.....um, like
I mentioned before, we've got parking enforcement staff, uh, parking cashiers, customer
service representatives, um, all that assist with .... with our department down there. Um,
we also coordinate the snow removal in the downtown stalls with the Streets Department.
Um, again, we've got the equipment to do it. We, urn .... uh, we've got staff that can help
out. So.....so we, uh, try and help clean out the downtown, uh, as well as our lots and our
parking facilities. In the past year we completed the construction of the Harrison Street
parking ramp. So this is a 600 -space, um, facility on the south side of town. If you
haven't been there, uh, you should take a look. It's, uh, it's a really nice facility. It's
really a little bit different. We've ..... it's got the Midwest One Bank on, uh, on one side,
connected with a skywalk, and then the Sabin Townhomes on the.....on the other side.
Um, it's, uh.....it's given us, uh, a few amenities that we didn't have before. There's
actually two electric vehicle charging stations in there. Um, as well as some heated
storage, uh, in the basement that we're really feelin' the benefits of that right now.
We're.... we've, uh, it's large enough we can get some of our snow equipment in there, so
that it can sit heated overnight and be right downtown, um, for us to use when we need
to. Um.....so this was the fourth year of our first -hour -free program. Uh, what that is,
any of our ramps that have, um, basically a gated facility, we were able to set up where
the first hour when you enter there as a visitor is free, uh, and then it goes to a dollar an
hour after that. Um, so we were able to, uh.... uh, to offer to .... to allow 1.1 million hours
of free parking this year, um, through that program. Uh, it's really.....it was first
designed to help alleviate some of the pressure on the streets, to get street parkers in the
garage. Um, it's really done an outstanding job as far as that's concerned.
We're .... we're seein' a lot higher capacities in the ... ramps and, uh, you know, more
available spaces downtown. And people love gettin' that first hour free. Um, we .... have
issued 20,800 expired meter tickets at zero dollars. So our expire meter ticket fee
structure is set up on a .... accumulated basis. So your first one is free and then it goes
higher if you get more. It resets once a year, uh, on July 1. Um .... so it's just another,
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um ..... it's another program that we put in place, uh.....to kind of help that first-time
visitor that maybe couldn't understand it or.....or, um, you know, they're down for the
ball game and never really parked in town before, but ..... 20,800 expired meter tickets
free.....that were free.
Cole/ Could.....could you speak up just a little bit? I'm having trouble hearing you.
Rummel/ Sure! Um .... so last May we implemented a mobile payment program. It was a joint
project with the University. It's called Passport Parking. Um, if you've parked at a
meter, the Chauncey Swan ramp, or the Harrison Street ramp, we've got signs and
stickers put up, uh, basically with, uh, a smart phone or a web.....web access of some
sort, you can, um, pay for your parking through your phone. Um, it's a really nice
feature. It allows you to quickly pay for your parking. You don't even have to go to the
meter. Um, if you're at the Chauncey Swan facility, you don't have to go in the stairwell.
You just park, uh, do it on your phone, and you can walkaway. Um, being a joint project
with the University, it's a .... the same program, the same app can be used on the
University meters, um, so ..... we're .... students, faculty, anybody really can go back and
forth between the two. Um.....since we implemented in May, uh, the highest transactions
per day that we've seen is, uh, 680, which is, uh, pretty impressive. I mean those were
either people that weren't paying or paying in some other means, uh, that are .... urn .....
seem to be enjoying the app because that's a.....a pretty consistent number, and it's just
been increasing ever since then.
Botchway/ Mark, related to that, cause I'm a frequent usen... user of the app, um .... you know,
one, uh, is there gonna be any kind of transference to other parking ramps? So, basically
the parking ramp behind us, um, being used, cause I still, I mean I remember, um, I
forgot my pass and so I needed to pay in the meter and just really liked the convenience
of the app and had to use the pay station, and it was just fine, but, um, you know, I saw
a ... another couple, a couple people that were using it as well, and just taking some time,
and I think the app really transformed that. So that's my first question as far as whether
or not we're going to transfer that application to other ramps, or.....yeah, other ramps,
um, and the second question ...... I just forgot.....yeah. First question. Yeah.
Rummel/ All right (laughs) I'll answer the first one. It actually works at the Chauncey Swan
ramp right now.
Botchway/ Oh, okay!
Rummel/ Um ... any of our, well, it's just two facilities I guess that are not gated, it works at. So
the Chauncey Swan ramp and Harrison Street ramp, um, there's.....on the road map it
will work with, uh, some gated facilities, but they're just not set up for that right now.
Um.....just the way that ..... the app would have to interact with the gate to raise it and
lower it, but uh, any of the multi -space pay stations, like what these are, it works with.
So it'll work with those. Um.....um, yeah, next time you pull in there, I guess look for
....there's signs when you come in and signs at the pay station. I think the zone is 4800 if
you want to try it out so....
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Botchway/ All right. Appreciate it. The second question is around the kind of expired meter and
sol....I appreciate the app and its, you know, use obviously but I think sometimes people
get confused with the kind of it still shows expired, I mean I know and I usually tell
people that doesn't matter, you know, you have your app. You're fine, um, but has there
been any thoughts on what we can do to change that or.....somethin'?
Rummel/ So there are some integration with the newer, uh, meters, newer smart meters that are
out there, where this app would just send that, relay that message that it's been paid. So
you do ...... you would process it on your phone and the.....the meter would show the hour
that you paid for. Um, unfortunately these are a generation or two behind that. Um, so
probably when we .... go to replace these meters, um, in the next few years or so, uh, you
know, that's somethin' we could look at .... for sure, but yeah, right now the meter shows,
um, expired but for our enforcement staff, they see it on a hand-held device that shows
what it's paid for, so .... yeah, I understand it's a little confusing. Unfortunately that's
kind of our only option right now. Uh.... we'll talk a little bit more about this, uh, in our
CIP, uh, meeting, but we continued the restoration work on our parking facil.... facilities
this last year. Uh, it's .... it's a program, uh... um, expense that we've done for the last few
years. Basically our ramps are to the age where the concrete needs certain repairs.
There's joints that need repaired. Um, this last .... this past summer, we really focused on
the Chauncey Swan garage. Um, part of that had to do with, uh, just the fact that we
knew the vehicles from the City Hall lot were going to end up over there, um, as part of
the project back here, and the Chauncey project, um, and just the fact that it needed it, but
I don't know if you've noticed or if you were in the stairwell, um, it's a huge
improvement. It really, um ..... it needed some repair for a while now, so we've kinda
focused on that one. Um.....as well as the College Street bridge entrance. There was
some joint repair work up there. Um, let's see .... uh, in the past year we've, um, we
focused on, uh, promoting environmental, uh, sustainability through adding some .... some
different bike facilities downtown. There's three new ones that we added, uh, right on
the edge of the ped mall, two .... two on the edge of the ped mall, and one in the Chauncey
Swan garage. Uh, one's right outside the Library and one's at College and, um, Clinton.
It's the blue kind of bicycle -looking structures. What's really nice with those, they also
incorporate bike fix -it stations and, uh, vehicle pumps that are in there. Um ..... staying on
the bike theme, um, in the next, uh, really few weeks, we will be putting out, uh, our bike
share program RFP. This is a program that we've been working with the University on
for quite a while now. Um, there's a few changes that.....that occurred in the last year.
Um, this resulting us putting this back out, but uh, basically this would be a .... a bike
share program. We're really lookin' at some that are not, um, dock -based, so they're....
they're, I .... basically called dock -less stations. Uh, it would help reduce or eliminate the
cost that.... that would be associated with it, but it would still be a bike share,
urn .... program and the idea would be really these bikes can be used anywhere in town,
not just downtown, um.....you know, uh.... through the University or .... or further, uh,
past there, but this should be, urn .... this RFP should be out in the next, like I said, uh, the
next couple weeks, and we're hoping to implement it this spring or early summer.
Botchway/ Mark, to that .... oh! How many stations are you looking at?
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Rummel/ Um, you know, they're not really stations. They're more bikes that can lock
themselves up. So .... we don't.....we don't have, uh.... a good grasp on that yet. When
we were lookin' at it before, we .... it was, uh, three to five stations, about 10 bikes per
station. So I would assume it's a similar 30 to 50 bikes.
Botchway/ Okay.
Frain/ So if I could elaborate on that more, we went down the path of a joint agreement with the
University for the bike share programs. We did an RFP. We selected a vendor, and we
were frankly ready to pull the trigger on a vendor and then, urn .... you know what
happened during that time is the bike share industry got disrupted, um, and uh, kind of
the new technology came out that we started to see new cities start to adopt to, and they
moved away from the stations. So when you're traveling and you see a big station with
10 or 15 bikes locked into it, you pay at a kiosk, it unlocks your bike and you go. That's
a .... that's a model that's starting to fade. Um, and what Mark is Wkin' about is now
they're..... they're station -less. They're.... they're dock -less. They're just free floating
bikes. So you can imagine a .... a red bike, uh, that .... that, um, is out there, um, it can go
onto any standard, you just.....you hook it up to any standard bike, um, rack, and then the
user, instead of paying at a kiosk or, um.....um, at a ..... at a station, you can just go up
and with your smart phone, actually unlock the bike at the .... at the dock that it's at. And
you can also pull up a map and see the .... the entire community and where all the
different bikes are located. And then there's a staff person, not a City staff person, but
from one of these companies that goes around and not only helps maintain the bikes, but
makes sure that the bikes are distributed in the correct way, so that if you start to get an
imbalance of bikes in one area, they can pick `em up and shift `em around, um....the
cities that are adopting this are finding it to be a more user-friendly, um, option. Um, it's
also much easier to integrate with transit with these types cause you can use `em as part
of your transit route and maybe not even, you know, have to think about bringin' `em
back to the original location. Um .... uh, but for .... for us another advantage is they tend
not to cost anything from the City standpoint, because those .... those stations were what
was really expensive, and the technology behind that station. With these free floating
bikes, there's really, uh, no need. So, um, quite honestly I don't think we're required to
go through an RFP process because we don't expect that there will be any type of really
considerable expense for the City. We felt it was appropriate to go through the RFP
process so we can get the most competitive rates, uh, we can pit the really the ... the user
rates against each other and then look at the tech .... ease of technology and those sorts of
things. Um, so, you know, we're frustrated too that it's taken us this long to get to a
point where we're rollin' out the bike, uh, share program, but ultimately I think we made
the right decision in.....in delaying it and going with this new technology. Otherwise I
think we would of installed the stations and had people clamoring for the dock -less
within months.
Throgmorton/ When I was at the Mayor's Innovation Project in Vermont several months ago,
one of the vendors of this kind of device was present and, uh, it got a lot of attention at
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that meeting by ... from the mayors and other people who were present, and Geoff and I
have talked about that afterwards.
Botchway/ Just real quick, the locks don't go with the bikes, right? They stay at the .... they stay
at that location?
Fruin/ The bikes, the locks are part of the bike.
Botchway/ Oh, wow. Okay.
Fruin/ So if you wanted to take it downtown, down to Terry Trueblood and someone wanted to
come and pick you up in a vehicle, you could leave your bike down there. And you
just .... you just chain it up down there, and again, me as a user I could pull it up and say,
hey, there's a bike at Terry Trueblood (coughing, unable to hear speaker) rent that and
just ride around the lake down there.
Rummel/ There's a few different types of locks too I think, depending on the bike. Some are sort
of a built-in u -lock kind of thing that swivels, and some just lock the wheels and, so
there's a few options on that and we'll have to see what they present, but.... Urn .... got
another joint project with the University, uh, for electric vehicle charging stations. So
we've been workin' on this for a few months, and .... it's another one that I'm days,
maybe a week or two away, from uh, hopefully awarding this one, and .... and get some
installed soon. So this would expand our electric vehicle charging network, which for the
City right now is our two spots out at, uh, the Harrison Ramp that I told you about, um,
but ....the idea behind this .... this, um, joint project would be to have the similar stations
and, uh, spread out amongst downtown or the city in general, but also on .... on University
property to .... to allow more electric vehicle charging. Uh, hopefully the idea would be
bring the chargers in and then get the vehicles to follow that. So .... urn .... otherwise on
the Parking side of things, really some challenges that we see in the next year, or .... or
years is just kind of the increasing demand, um, in the downtown residential locations,
um, the higher density housing and hotel markets that are ... that are downtown. It's....
it's, uh, you know, somethin' we're definitely keepin' an eye on. Um.....we're
increasing our enforcement of the .... the Northside residential, uh, locations, uh, for a
meeting we had a few months ago, urn .... um, for street storage. Then we also installed
some meters on the College Green, uh, by the College Green Park, uh..... on Johnson
Street. We were able to get those in before, um, the ground really got hard. So it kinda
worked out weather wise so ... we'll see how those work.
Throgmorton/ Before you go on, Mark, uh, with regard to parking structures, one thing I
consistently find myself thinking has to do with autonomous vehicles, and what the
potential effects of, uh.... um.....the arrival of large numbers of autonomous vehicles
might have on the demand for parking spaces in our parking structures, and it's my
understanding there's this tremendous uncertainty out there about what the effects of the
autonomous vehicles might be. So I, uh, believe pretty strongly we need to have some
kind of connection with some researcher or.....uh, set of researchers who can keep us
abreast of the.... the..... the most current information about the status of and progress
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toward introducing autonomous vehicles and what's known about potential effects on
parking structures, on.....uh..... um, vehicle miles traveled in a region, and .... and that
kind of thing. Uh, knowing that there's a lot of uncertainty out there right now. So, I ... I
don't know how to do that, but it sounds like a connection with a University (both
talking)
Frain/ Yeah, and Dan McGehee's clearly one of the .... the preeminent experts in the .... in the
country, in the world, on this topic and, uh, it's on my to do list to try to, uh, set up some
time with Dan and not only, um, Transportation Services, but Public Works and MPO
and just start to, um, have that discussion, because it's not just parking decks, although
that's maybe one of the biggest ones, but .... when we're building intersections now and
traffic signals, what types of accommodations might we need? Um, when we're starting
to stripe roadways, you know, a lot of the autonomous vehicles, they read lines. They
read paint lines. They read signs. So are there some different striping techniques that we
should be experimenting with now. Um, Dan knows all about that. He's educated me
and many others in the .... in the area. I've got a, um, connection him with some staff and
start to think about those things (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think that's really important, but I'd add one other thing. I .... I personally
don't want us to .... let ourselves be in a passive situation, by which I mean just waiting
for the arrival of autonomous vehicles and then responding to whatever the effects of
those autonomous vehicles are. I want us to be ahead of the game as much as we
possibly can.
Fruin/ Before Mark transitions to Transit, I wanted to offer just a couple of things. Um, Mark
alluded to this, uh, we have a lot of stress on our downtown decks right now, just in terms
of demand. Um, two in particular — Tower .... Tower Place and Chauncey. Um, and it's
really development related, uh, obviously we just lost our parking lot, which has forced a
lot of parking into Chauncey Swan. Uh, the University's project on Iowa and Gilbert, the
psychology building, you just took away a lot of staff parking for the University. We've
accommodated them in Tower Place so that deck is .... is fully stressed out too. Um, so
it's a challenging time (coughing, unable to hear speaker) I think we can accommodate
it. We're trying to do everything we can to loosen up demands. Um, one of the things I
know Council's heard about in the past is our Police storage, uh, evidence storage over in
Chauncey Swan. Um, Mark is working with the Police Department to move that over to
Harrison, where we have some extra capacity. So, uh, we're tryin' to get that done before
the Farmer's Market season next year, um, when we .... we'll have even more stress on
Chauncey Swan. We'll try to get all that bike and .... and evidence storage into the ... into
the Harrison Street deck. So we're mindful of it and we're workin' on it.
Botchway/ Geoff, my only question is how does that relate to kind of getting to it quickly? It's
literally right next to the fire .... I mean the police station compared to now at Harrison
Street.
Frain/ Yeah. And Ashley and Mark have talked to the police about this. This .... it's not a big
deal for the bikes and for the, um.....uh, vehicles and some of the larger item we store
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there, because we .... we don't frequently have to access those. Um, we, um, do .... do, uh,
come upon a lot of personal belongings, particularly with the homeless, uh, population
that we will, um, hold, and then, uh, inevitably, you know, they'll come and ask us if we,
um, have those belongings. Um, so we're trying to find something closer to the police
station, uh, for those types of evidence, uh, storage. It probably wouldn't be in the deck
or maybe it'd be a very, very small piece of the deck, but, um, that's really where the
challenge is and so it doesn't .... we don't need a whole lot of physical space to
accommodate those personal belongings.
Rummel/ All right. Don't tell my parking friends but maybe we saved the best for last here.
Transit. So, urn .... during the past year Transit provided 1.5 million rides and covered
over 700,000 miles. Our paratransit service provided over 86,000 rides, urn .... um....
why .... why I'm sayin' this is, uh, kind of the best for last, there's just a lot of excitement
right now in our Transit Department. We've.... we've experienced some changes this last
year and some coming up that, uh, that we just never really had before. Um.....uh.....as
far as our.... our.... our current setup, we've got, uh, our transit route is ... is really
somethin' that was put in place years ago and as the city grew, we just kind of expanded
our routes a little bit more to .... to try and reach where we needed to go. Um, we have 27
buses that run 19 routes during the peak time, um, eight routes at night and on Saturdays.
In, really in the past you just had your set schedule at this stop. You went out there and,
you know, the bus was either there or there maybe a couple minutes late. Um, so a few
years ago, the technology in Transit really changed with the AVL, the automatic vehicle
location, uh, we were able to implement our BONGO system so you could see bus
predictions, you could see a bus on a map, um, again all through your smart phone or ... or
web site, uh, what have you. Uh, so this last year, we .... our contract with our bus
tracking vendor was up and we put it out for an RFP, um, have a new vendor that came
in. So we've really been working with them quite a bit in the last.....nine months really,
um, tryin' to get this, um, working, all .... all up on the ground .... up running, uh,
accurately. Uh, the goal in what we're .... what we are going to see is just more, um,
accurate predictions, less downtime, um, and overall better system. This is running in the
background. So we will still have our BONGO system, the .... the customer -facing
interface will be the same. They probably won't even notice, other than it should work a
lot better for `em. Um, so we've been working on that, uh, and .... pretty much have it
almost 100% done, but uh, still working out a few, uh, issues here and there. We've got a
bus shelter RVP that, uh, it's another one that should be awarded, uh, really within the
next couple of weeks, urn .... it's to replace some of our shelters that are in pretty rough
shape and to expand our shelters at different stops, um, throughout, uh, throughout our
routes, uh, there's just .... we've had a lot of feedback. We're really looking at all the
routes, uh.... how busy they are and where they're at, um, as far as where we're going to
be placing some of these. There's, like I said, there's definitely some that will need re...
replaced and some that will be added new. And this is somethin' that we're looking to
program down the road as well, um, just to have a, uh, a .... a program in place to replace,
uh, aging bus shelters. Um .... so this past year we received, uh.....um, a few new SEATS
vehicles that were .... were definitely needed. Um, this is for the paratransit, I guess I
should back up. So our paratransit service, uh, is contracted through Johnson County,
um, SEATS. It's .... for federal regulations, they have to operate the same time as our
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fixed routes. Um, so we supply the buses, we do the maintenance, and then they kind of
do the administrative part of scheduling rides and .... and it's their drivers that are doin'
that. So we have, um, we got some new buses for that and just in the last week and over
the next couple weeks, we're starting to get our new buses in, our .... our, um, fixed route
buses. If you remember, last summer we talked to ya about a new bus scheme, a new
paint scheme for `em, uh, so it's really exciting to see these. They're.... they're down at
Transit if anyone wants to see `em you can sure stop down. We've got a few weeks of
cameras, this bus, uh, the AVL tracking. We .... we've got a little bit of work before
you're gonna see `em out on the road, but they are down there, um, a couple more should
be coming next week I think. Um.....so.....we'Il have eight total, urn .... now and then
the .... the remaining three will be in May is when they'll show up. Um.....so these, uh,
these new, this new paint scheme's gonna replace, uh, well we're .... what we've had for
the last few decades, since the early 80s. So one part of our budget that we're looking
to .... to, um, to implement over the next year is some bus wraps. Uh, maybe both for
some, uh, City programs or departments that wanna do some type of wrap on.....on, this
would be the older buses that still have the older scheme. Uh, as well as offering some
....some, uh, public advertising through some type of bus wrap, again just .... to kind of
dress up those older looking buses. Uh, this past year we contributed to a Mobility
Coordinator position that's, uh, that was funded through Johnson County. So it's
Johnson County, uh, Coralville Transit, and uh, and Iowa City, um, as well as there was
some grant funding for it too. It's a new position to .... to really just help educate a variety
of riders, um, throughout the county, um, in each of the cities as well. Uh, she's
undergone a lot of training in the last year, um.....excuse me (clearing throat) um.....as
well as provided some different educational classes for .... for, um, a lot of different riders.
So, kind of the goal is really just to help explain how transit works and help ..... help
people who may be, um, just need a little assistance on .... on usin' public transit, and/or
SEATS. Um, finally our .... our biggest project for the next year is our comprehensive
route and hours of operation analysis, our route study. Um, we've put $200,000 in the
budget, uh, to bring a consultant in and help us look at basically our full route setup, um,
all the routes, all the stops, our hours of operation. Um, we may look at, uh.....at our rate
structure as well, um, but ..... the goal behind this will really be to .... to increase our
ridership, to .... to try and look at where these routes need to go, urn ..... you know, they all
may not need to come downtown. We may not have to .... have to, um, be as spread out I
guess as we currently are. Urn .... uh, you know, if. ... if we can get more reliable, um,
service, low .... uh, less headways, uh, you know, really see what.....what a consultant
can, uh, suggest for improving our .... our public transit and.....um, we've been in
conversations with Coralville and Cambus as far as, um, what their roles may be in this.
And the University is definitely interested in it and I think Cam .... uh, I think Coralville
will .... will play a role as well, but, urn .... this'll be a huge project for us. I mean we'll
definitely have to bring in several stakeholders to .... to, um, for input, uh, public
meetings, surveys, um.....um..... urn, there's just gonna be, uh, a lot of work involved
with it. We're .... we're really fortunate because .... urn, CyRide in Ames is just underwent
a similar type of study, um, as well as Dubuque and, um, DART in Des Moines, but
CyRide, um.....I've been in communication with all three of `em, but .... but their route
study is .... is very similar to what we're gonna be looking at, so they're.... they've been a
huge resource, and I think they will continue to help us out, urn.... but..... some of
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the .... the input that they've had is just, um, you know, how they .... how they went about
this type of program, how long it's gonna take, and .... and we were kind of expecting
that, uh.... it's really gonna take a .... a good year to .... to get all this in place, and to really
push out any changes that .... that we would have to do, I mean we're talkin' schedules,
um (mumbled) notification. A lot of, uh, just a lot of education out there in general.
Um.... but it's definitely a.....an exciting project that, uh, that we're hoping will.... will
improve the .... the transit system for everybody in the .... in the whole city. Um.....
Fruin/ Mark, can I jump in real quick. Um .... we're really excited about this. This is .... this is a,
there's a real opportunity here to make a big difference. Uh, we have the resources to go
out and make this, uh, this type of change. I think it's really important upfront that the
elected officials lay out your goals for the study. Um ... uh, that you .... you express your
values in a way that we can write down and tell the public `this is what we're trying to
accomplish with the study,' upfront. It's easy for us to say we want to better serve the
community, we want more efficient routes, we want .... but you really need to spend some
time thinkin' about what are those two, three, four, however many .... core kind of value
type statements that you want this to produce. Um, that is going to guide all the analysis
that is done and all the recommendations. When the consultants get those numbers, as
you know there's multiple ways that you can interpret those numbers. If you're tryin' to
make the most cost-effective changes or you're trying to serve those most in need. Are
you trying to provide equitable service across the entire geographic city? Those are
types .... the.....the initial philosophical guidance, um, that we really need from you all,
not here today but in the next several months, um, to help guide this process. So we'll
have to schedule some time, probably multiple work sessions, uh, to .... to talk through
that. Um, but this is a, as I said, this is a ..... a real opportunity here to .... to make a
difference and the Transit staff is really excited, we're excited, and we know you are too.
Salih/ (both talking) Um, I'm very, very excited about this and uh, hopefully with the consult
and, you know, cause everyone's passionate now about this and if we can do this and this
will be great, um, and also while we're talking about this I just want to mention to the
Council (unable to understand) goals that they have for transportation and uh, I already
talked to Geoff about this, but I just would like to put it before you. Uh, one of (unable to
understand) services and creating a (unable to understand) route and also completing the
study as soon as we can, and just, uh, I know we have time to discuss this but I just would
like to put it (unable to understand) process so everyone know that I have those kind of
ideas.
Throgmorton/ Maz, I missed one word. You said to add a certain route? What....
Salih/ (unable to understand)
Throgmorton/ Southern route, yeah, okay.
Salih/ Two route.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, down by Alexander and that whole general area.
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Salih/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Thomas/ And I would guess this would be tied to the .... our bicycle master plan. I would think
we could, you know, depending on how the routes, what the options are with the routes,
if they're tied into the bicycle network, you can put your bike on the bus and.....off you
go.
Fruin/ Yeah, and you know one of the things that Council also needs to have a discussion about
is the scope of the project, um, because this can be as big, or as little, as you want it. Um,
we do have some interest from other communities and I presume we would welcome
their involvement, uh, in the study. It's important that we're coordinating systems. Um,
but certainly as you add Cambus, and as you add Coralville into this, it becomes a more
complicated project. You're probably gonna lengthen the process up a little bit. Uh, you
have different constituencies that you have to talk about. The Coralville council may not
have the same values that .... that you have for this type of study. So, um, again I'm not
suggesting that we don't include them. I .... I think it's probably best that we do, but you
have to understand there's layers of complexity with .... with the addition of a State
agency and another municipality. So, um, we'll need to have those discussions. I think
we can .... you all can start to have them too with your counterparts, whether that's in your
joint meetings, um, or in your MPO meetings, um, or just as you come across folks on the
street, um, but you know the funds here, we've really earmarked for July I", the
$200,000. That's kinda our best guess at what we'll need. So I think you have some
time, uh, in the next few months to figure out exactly what you want the study to be, um,
but if we want to get started right on July I", that means you probably need to dial that
back two to three months to allow us to go through a procurement process, cause we'll do
a request for proposals from consultants that have this expertise, uh, and you guys are
familiar with that process, but then we select one. So if we wait till July I" to start that
RFP process, we're not gonna start the study until late fall and then you've got 12 months
after that.
Throgmorton/ I know there are many values to consider so I won't get in to that in great detail,
but I .... I also know that one of my core values is improving the accessibility of this city
for lower income residents. So ... especially so they can get from their residences to places
of work or places of education, I don't know, the Southeast Ju ... not Junior High but uh,
Kirkwood Community College, for example, so that they really have an opportunity to
find good work, get to and from work, and do the kinds of things they need to do. It'd be
good for all of us. But I know there are other values to consider.
Fruin/ Lastly I'll mention, sorry, I .... I keep jumpin' in here but.....
Throgmorton/ Somebody else'll say lastly (laughing)
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Fruin/ Urn .... uh, Mazahir, we did have a nice conversation, um, about the three items that she
mentioned. Just to give Council some ideas, Mark did some.... some quick kind of
number crunching on Sunday service and .... and I stress to you these are ballpark.... these
are ballpark numbers, um, but you're probably lookin' at about a $600,000, um,
operational expense to start Sunday service, if you use the limited Saturday service
model. So right now we have weekday service and we have a scaled-back Saturday. If
you wanted to emulate Saturday, roughly about $600,000, which includes what we would
anticipate the paratransit costs to be. If you want to emulate more of the weekday model,
you're probably at, um, a million and a half to two million, um, to do that. So .... that's
why I talked about that fund balance in Transit and the operating surplus in Transit. Um,
our Transit levy is maxed out right now. We cannot increase our Transit levy at all. Um,
so .... there's some constraints, um, to the extent that you want it to remain a true
enterprise fund. If you want to start havin' the general fund contribute a little bit, you'll
have to prioritize those obviously, um, but that's kind of the .... the window in which
you're workin' in for that Sunday service provision.
Throgmorton/ So we get in .... when we get into that discussion, we'll have to have background
information about where we were a few years ago and how we scaled things back a few
years ago. Yeah.
Botchway/ I do have a quick question related to that, Geoff. You said....so it was $600,000 to
start, but does that incorporate kind of the continual operational, you know, back and
forth, and so ... you know, presumably for our current, uh, weekday and Saturday service,
whatever that money it took was to start it but then, you know, that's currently being paid
through fees and other things as well, and so.....ultimately that ... that 600K would ... we
would recoup?
Fruin/ No, I mean that's.... that's really the operating expense to us.
Botchway/ Okay.
Fruin/ Yeah. That's.... that's (both talking)
Botchway/ Outside of, above and beyond the fees. Okay.
Rummel/ We would get a little bit of fees, but we really operate at a loss if you back out all the,
you know, the federal funding and everything else.
Botchway/ Okay.
Rummel/ Costs us a lot more to .... to drive an hour than what we usually get, so.....
Thomas/ You may have already been considering this, but Mark was mentioning that .... you
were mentioning, Mark, the .... Ames has done a study. I know Cedar Rapids has done a
study. You mentioned Dubuque. If any of those could be.....summarized in some way
or we could be directed toward where we could learn about how their process.... went and
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they, kind of the conclusions they arrived at with respect to policy. That ... I would find
that helpful.
Fruin/ Sure.
Taylor/ We've talked at the meeting the other day about meeting with, uh, council members from
Ames and I think that would be a good thing to talk about too.
Throgmorton/ I .... I've actually followed up on communications with Tim Gartin in Ames, uh,
they're eager, uh, to meet with us, so.....and I think he mentioned that that could be one
of the topics we would discuss. Also rental cap, that was one of the things they were
interested in.
Rummel/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Any more questions for Mark?
Rummel/ Yeah, I .... I really didn't have anything else. Um, I know Geoff touched on the funding
and our facility earlier today so, um .... I think he pretty much took care of all of that, uh,
unless anyone had any other questions.
Taylor/ Just kind of a quick question, um, cause it was brought up to me earlier, uh, was there
any thought given to like acquisition of smaller buses versus the bigger buses? Maybe
that'll wait until we have some sort of ridership study, so that, uh, different times during
the day where there's less ridership, a smaller bus could be on that route. Is that a
possibility? Perhaps?
Rummel/ Um, it's a possibility, uh.....I think what you find with the smaller buses, they .... they
really don't hold up as long as the ... the larger ones, like we're replacing the SEATS
buses, uh, their expected lives are .... uh, I think it's 12 years, and may have just turned to
13. And these larger buses, uh, unfortunately we're running them for about 20 years
before we get `em replaced, so.....I know that's a factor that .... that, um, we've looked at
before. It's just the cost of running the smaller buses sometimes can be more than what
you're going to get out of it.
Taylor/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Thanks, Mark.
Rummel/ Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Good timing, Ron! (laughter) I'd say you were watching us on TV but there are
no TV cameras.
Cole/ Are we ahead?
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Throgmorton/ Are we ahead, uh, well.....man, we could have taken a break.
Fruin/ (mumbled) need a break?
Throgmorton/ Anybody need a break? (several responding) Let's roll!
Public Works Program Budgets:
Knoche/ All right! Ron Knoche, Public Works Director. Um .... I've, uh, been in my position
now ... this is my, uh, third, uh, budget presentation, but uh.....um, been, uh, Public Works
Director since 2015. Uh, been with the City since 1999. So, um, be 19 years in April
that I've been with the ... the City of Iowa City. Um, the Public Works budget, uh, you'll
see there's kind of, um, seven divisions per se of...of what we deal with. We have the
administration budget; uh, then we have Engineering, uh, Services; Equipment; Streets;
uh, Water; Waste Water; Resource Management. Um, in .... in my hierarchy of things I
have nine direct reports that report to me. I have each of the .... each of those, uh,
divisions has a division head and then I have two support staff, uh, our Project
Coordinator who's, uh, who's in my office and then, uh, Carol Sweeting who does all of
our volunteer stuff is also a direct report to me. Uh, we have .... um.....as.... as we go
down through, there's.....we have 17 staff members in Engineering. We have 31 in
Streets; uh, 26 in Waste Water; 31 in Water; 31 in Resource Management; and 11 staff
folks in Equipment. Um, so we have, uh, quite a few folks that .... that do, uh, work in our
Public Works Department. Of that there's a .... we have 162 total, uh, and 11 of those, or
12 of those folks are temporary folks that .... that are interns. Um, our Water Division has
a very good student operator program. Um, for our .... for our Water Treatment folks, uh,
we have college students that come in and are working and running our plant on
weekends, um, and some after-hours times so we're not havin' full-time folks doing that.
Um, and we actually, uh, that was a very beneficial program for us. We've actually had
one of our, uh, new treatment, uh, operators came out of that program to us. Um, you
may recognize the last name, Sam Fosse actually is .... is working with us full-time now,
um, out at the water treatment plant. So that .... that program has been very good for us.
Um.....with that I think we'll dive in to, uh, the administration budget. That's on page
293 of your budget books. Um, you know, the .... this year, um, I think our .... the biggest
thing that I've been dealing with has been bringing Resource Management back into
Public Works. Um, when I started as Public Works Director, we transitioned, uh,
Resource Management out, or actually developed Resource Management, um, transi...
transitioned them out, uh, but uh, we brought `em back and .... and welcomed um. Um,
and so we're .... we're still kinda working through that. Uh.....uh, we've, uh, you know,
with .... with it set up in Transportation Services, um, there are customer service
representatives that were, um, it worked right into their program, where customer service
representatives, you know, were .... were available, um, they were using that for
scheduling and ... and really did a nice job with that aspect of it. Um, we've left that in,
uh, that .... that, um, relationship is still there. So we're still, um, dealing with customer
service folks in .... in Resource Management, um, funding them both ways and working
through that. Um ... you know, as, uh, as we've finished up the Washington Street project,
um, we're (mumbled) sidewalk cafes and kind of a different look, uh, of those, and that
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continues and .... and, uh, so we have some street cafes and, um, Kim Sanburg does a
great job of managing that program, but uh, it, uh, every year is, uh, the neighbor sees
what the other neighbors' doin'. They want to change the way things are workin' and so,
uh, I think as we move forward in the Iowa Avenue corridor, we'll start to see some
changes in that corridor as far as, uh, how the sidewalk cafes are set up. Um, whether
they're attached or detached as we work through there. And then, uh, the small cell, um,
legislation that .... that occurred this year has....has created another workload for us on the
admin side. Um, you know, with us not really havin' much control over what, uh, our
cell phone companies can attach to as far as public property, um, there's a lot of folks that
want to attach, whether it's to our street light poles or if it's to the power poles of Mid
American's or .... or other .... other folks in the .... in the right-of-way. Um, and so there's
some workload there that we're dealing with. Um, you know, as .... as we move forward
in the Public Works admin, our, uh, our goal is to, uh, really develop and look
wholeheartedly at electronic permitting. Um, all facets of it, whether it be our, uh,
excavation permits, um, small cell, um, dealing with our sidewalk cafes, um, just... just
really, um, delving into that signif.... significantly. Um, one of the.....the biggest outlays
in our budget year is you'll see the development of a right-of-way management
ordinance. Um, that is a .... a, something that's been on the books, I think since I started
with the City, um, and so as .... as we move forward with that, um, you know, our .... our
goal is to, urn ..... basically the users of the right-of-way, whether they be utilities, uh,
whether they be temporary use permits, whatever it ends up bein', um, really we .... we
develop a system such that they're paying for that use. Um, currently we don't have any
type of fee structure for, uh, Chauncey project, um, taking up space in the College Street
right-of-way. Um, you know, or sidewalk closures or any of those things, and so, um,
obviously there's.... there's not an impetus for those folks to get out of the right-of-way,
um, in a timely fashion, and so as we .... as we move forward in that, um, you know,
we're gonna.... we're gonna look and see, um, what those costs are, um, to the users and
to the community. Um, unfortunately that brings also, um, potential charges to our own
public utilities (mumbled) water, water mains and our waste water sewer mains and our
storm water mains, they're all in our, um, right-of-way also, uh, so we're also a user in
the right-of-way. So we'll, um, figure out how that impact is, but that's kinda the big
thing in .... in our, in the realm of the Public Works admin that we'll be working on in the
next year. So, um, so that's our Public Works administration piece. I don't know does
anybody have any (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I .... I've heard a fair number of complaints, directly related to the right-of-
way point that you just made. Uh, maybe also....damage to streets as a result
of. .... certain uses of (both talking)
Knoche/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ ...but I'm glad to hear that you're developing something to respond to that.
Knoche/ All right, uh, Engineering Services is the next one in your budget book. That's on page
296. Um, you know, part of the Engineering Services, uh, group is .... is probably been
one of the most strained groups that we have, uh, in our Public Works Department. Um,
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you know, in the past two years we've completed over 60 projects. Uh, two of those
projects, one of `em's still ongoing, but two of those projects being the two largest Public
Works' projects we've done in Iowa City's history. You know, we had $45 million in a
public .... in a waste water treatment plant. We have $40.5 million that ... that we're
currently working on in the Dubuque Street, uh, Gateway project. Uh, so .... uh.....there's
just a lot of things going on. Um, you know, and I ..... and of those 60 projects that we've
completed over the past two years, probably the most impactful project that I've done in
my career is the First Avenue grade separation. I think, you know, that project, um, has
really helped the east side of town in regards to the ... the circulation of traffic and folks,
you know, knowing that, um, when they go in that corridor they're not going to be held
up by a train. Uh, I still, as I drive down that corridor and I see the train going across the
bridge, I still think' oh my goodness there's a train comin',' so, um, anyway so .... the,
you know, we have those projects going on. Um, we have 25 projects that are ongoing,
um, that we're still in the proj... you know, in the process of completing. Um, we have 30
to 40 projects over the next two years that we're adding to the .... to the program. Um,
you know, so there are a lot of, um, different directions that our staff's gettin' tugged in,
uh, as far as our engineering staff and we are currently down one engineer, uh, Dan Scott
left us. Went to the city of Boone. He's a city engineer over there now. Uh, so, um, you
know, we're..... we're operating one person short right now in that group. And, what we
see is, uh, some backload of projects that are going on, um, so there are some delays just
because we're .... we're havin' trouble stayin' on.....keeping up with the projects that are
coming. Um, probably the .... the biggest, um, piece that we've seen is the delay in this
adoption of SUDAS. Uh, so we'll, uh, focus on that this year and .... and get, um,
the .... the easy piece, the construction specifications, adopted soon, uh, and then we'll....
we'll work hard with, uh, the rest of our, uh, organization to get the design standards
adopted, um, yet this spring, and be ready to go for the next construction season on .... on
those things. Um .... that, urn..... that.... that way we're, you know, we're always about a
year behind as far as the subdivision realm goes. Our projects, you know, our capital
projects, it's easy enough to stay on top of those, but we basically end up kinda bein' a
year behind on the way the subdivisions are developed, cause a lot of the projects that'll
be built this summer, uh, from a private development stage are being developed on last
year's design standards and last year's construction specifications. So, um, we'll see that
impact on the private development really be, uh, in the construction year 2019 as we
move forward there. Um, any questions on Engineering Services? Okay. Um, I'll talk
about storm water a little bit later, but the, our storm water engineer is actually in
Engineering Services. They help manage that program, but we'll talk about that one here
in a minute. So, urn .... Streets, uh, page 317, urn ..... as Geoff mentioned this morning, we
are in the process of breaking in a new Streets Superintendent, uh, Brock Holob with, uh,
came to us from the City of Cedar Rapids, um, as a ..... as a younger, um, a younger
manager but ... but really has a lot of experience, uh, in the streets realm. Um, started off
his career at the.... at the Linn County and then, um, came to us from the City of Cedar
Rapids. Um, and I .... a lot of good things I think are gonna happen as we move forward,
um, with him in, uh, in that role.
Cole/ Real quick, was he involved at all in the downtown Cedar Rapids' street redesign?
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Knoche/ He was not.
Cole/ Okay.
Knoche/ No. Um, in Cedar Rapids, the way that they have their maintenance group set up,
they .... they have one superintendent, but then they have five like regional folks.
Cole/ Uh huh.
Knoche/ He was one of the .... one of the regional guys, uh (both talking)
Cole/ Okay.
Knoche/ Um (both talking)
Cole/ Very impressed with what they've downtown.
Knoche/ Yeah, but he .... I mean clearly there's involvement in his group, uh, in that area. So
I.... one of the things I'm excited about is, you know, as the City of Cedar Rapids has
pushed a lot on the bicycle facilities, and the maintenance of those, uh, I'm excited to
hear what he has to say in....and... and what he can bring to us in regards to that. Um, and
then also from the snow removal standpoint, um, City .... City of Cedar Rapids has done a
lot with salt brine and the brining, uh, operations, uh, which we currently .... we.....we
have some trucks that are capable of. ... of doing that. Um, but we have not really delved
into that yet in our .... in our winter maintenance, and so excited to see that as we move
forward, uh.... as we get our facility built and bein' able to incorporate that into
our .... into our repertoire, our toolbox, as we move forward in the .... in the winter
maintenance.
Cole/ Thanks, Ron.
Knoche/ Um .... you know, they're.... they're dealin' with about 420 lane miles of streets, um,
that we're maintaining right now. Um, this year we .... we were able to hire two
additional staff members, uh, to add our 13° snow route. Um, that's kinda an ongoing
process for us. Uh, that .... that route, we kinda.....we..... we split part of the downtown
out and so, um, and .... and so the 1P route kinda fits in, kinda south of the downtown
and, uh, kinda along the Iowa Interstate Railroad is where that 13a' route ended up bein'.
Um, and .... we are currently, knock on wood, uh, fully staffed in that group. We're
actually, I should say, we're fully staffed (mumbled) we had two folks that, uh, one
retired.... well actually two retirements so we're in the process of backfilling those
positions. Um, but uh, in the past we've been down five or six folks this time of year,
and so we've been looking at the other divisions and departments to help us out, and so
this year although we have been doing that a little bit, um, not as big of a .... a concern
there. Um, the .... the big, uh, the big move, uh, is, uh, the Public Works' facility, um,
we're phase one, uh..... at the next Council meeting we should have a....a design,
uh.... contract on ... with Neumann, uh, Monson Architects to .... to move us forward in that
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design. Uh, our goal is to have a project, uh, start construction August of this year and be
completed, uh, by October of next year. So, um, we are .... have all intentions of not, um,
well, we'll be at .... we'll be at the, um, fairgrounds one more year, um, and .... as far as
rental space down there. That's where we keep our trucks right now for winter
maintenance and then after that we should have our own facility, which'll be wonderful.
Um, and one of the .... the big, uh, things that we'll be dealin' with in the Streets Division
in the coming years'll be staff turnover. We have quite a few folks that'll be, uh, getting
close to retirement, um, and so we'll be in the process of, uh, handing down that
institutional knowledge. Um.....as we move forward with GIS and .... and asset
management, um, will help us be able to, um, grab that knowledge before it leaves our
office and, uh, and .... and move forward with those folks. Um, any questions on Streets?
All right! Uh, Waste Water in on page 407. Uh, Waste Water we have 300 miles of. ... of
mains that we're dealin' with as far as sanitary sewer. We have 110 miles of storm
sewers, uh, 18 waste water lift stations, uh, five storm water stations, and one treatment
plant. So, uh, obviously over the last .... past few years, our.... our biggest, uh, project
has been the consolidation of ...of our two plants into one. Um, but we're currently
treatin' about 10.5 million gallons of. ... of waste water a day, um, and then, uh, we have
the capacity to treat up to 24 million, uh, and we have quite a bit of storage if need be on
a .... on a very big wet weather, uh, event. Um, the .... from a .... from a collection
standpoint, uh, we are in ... in pretty good shape. Uh, our.....our system is... we're doing
pretty well, especially with our annual projects that we've been doin' for.... for the
cleanup of those, um, and getting things, um, as far as lined and replacements done as
necessary. Um, what the waste water plant consolidation project did for us though is,
um, it .... it's highlighted some.... some other, um, maintenance that's needed at the plant,
and so we're currently in the .... in the process of replacing three belt filter presses. Um,
those are the .... the.....the piece of machinery that actually sgel... squeezes the water out
of the sludge, um, before we .... we take that to a .... our sludge pile, and then the other, uh,
project we'll be workin' on, we're going through right now, is upgrading our generator at
the plant, um, to be able to power the whole plant. Uh, right now the.... the generator we
have down there only powers about half of the plant. Um, so that project will be .... it's in
design right now, so we'll be bringin' those plan specifications forward to you. Um, one
thing we'll .... we're looking at right now is the potential reuse of the generator that we do
have there, um, to move out to the Peninsula site and our well field there, um, to help, uh,
power those, uh, if we get a high water event. Um, as we move forward in the .... in the
waste water treatment, um, nutrient removal is .... is, um, gonna be the key, um, and
that's, uh..... uh, the big, um, push that will be coming out from the EPA, um, obviously
in an agricultural state, um, there, uh, there's a lot of, um, non -point sources that are out
there. Um, but it's easy to regulate the point sources, and that's... that's what we are with
the waste water plant. Um, we're doing very well as far as our .... our current nutrient
removal. Um, but with the process that we're using right now, um, there.... there's a by-
product that's being, uh, produced call struvite and ... and basically it's a, um, a
calcification that occurs within the piping, within our plant, and uh, so as .... as we move
forward to the next few years, we'll .... we'll probably see a struvite removal, uh, study
that'll be done and the potential.... basically it's the phosphorus that's in the sludge
is .... is starting to precipitate out and .... and causing some issues for us. So, um, we're
lookin' at ways to try to prevent that, uh, from a treatment standpoint, as far as chemical
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treatment, but, uh, eventually we'll have to have some type of process to do that removal.
Um, and then the other, um, issue that we have right now is .... is we're .... we're getting,
uh, to the point we're up against some of our zinc, um limits. Uh, when we had
our .... our two permits were combined into one, uh, they did not just add the two limits
together. Um, they reduced some of the limits and so, um, we are having some issues
with zinc within our plant, um, we believe that it's within the process. We're actually....
we think we're actually putting it back into the system and it's not being... it's not that
we're getting a huge zinc, uh, from our community, but it's actually we're kind... we're
condensing it and .... and creating some.....an issue within our plant, so we're working on
that right now. Um, the .... the other big push that we have right now in our collection
system is just, um, GPS and going out and developing the GIS standpoint from our whole
collection system. We started that with our, um, plan upgrade and we've hired an intern
to help us, um, get those manholes identified and .... and located and, uh, basically as we
start getting into the GIS realm, um, asset management in general, um, we're able to ... to
map those. We have maps now, but to be able to map them at a more accurate location
than .... than what they're being showed right now on our maps. Um, any questions on
Waste Water? All right. Um, Water Treatment, uh, page 426. Um, you know, it's pretty
amazing when you think about, uh, water, um, we're basically producin' water .... our
community's payin' about a penny a gallon for water. So, I mean, it's .... it's pretty
amazing, uh, process that we go through and what we're doin'. Um, we have 274 miles
of mains, uh, we have four storage reservoirs, uh, obviously we have one plant, um, and
our.....and our system, um, our oldest main right now that we're dealing with is ... is in the
area of, uh, the Bloomington Street, um, reservoir. Um, some of that pipe dates back to
1886. So we're, uh, we .... we have some pretty old pipes in our system, um, still serving
very well. Um, serving us very well but, uh... urn, but that's what we're dealing with also
from an asset management standpoint. So we have some pretty (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Maybe we could designate some of these old (laughter) historic landmarks
(laughter and several talking)
Knoche/ I don't know if we wanna do that (laughs) but uh (laughter) but uh.... (several talking)
Yeah, so uh, you know, our .... our plant, we're 16.7 million (several talking in
background, difficult to hear speaker) gallons a day is what we can produce at our plant.
Right now we're producin' about 5.5 million gallons a day, you know, on....on average.
Um.....you know, last .... in .... in last fiscal year we .... we produced 2 billion gallons of
water. So .... um, we're .... we're putting quite a bit of water out into the system. Um,
and...... because of, um, our, you know, we're 13 years now, 14 years out from when we
opened our plant. Um, so there's some maintenance things that are going on for us.
We're doing a roof ...some roof replacement this year. Um, we're looking at upgrading
our ..... our SCADA system. That projects underway right now. Um, and then .... to .... to
help service our community in the future, we're doin' a pressure study, uh, to figure out,
um, what we can do within our system. Uh, right now our .... we have one pressure zone
within Iowa City, um, and that's created at the .... up at the plant. So there's .... the pumps
up there actually create the pressure zones that we're dealing with. So if you have a .... a
big break, um, like we had about a month ago down at P&G, where their fire system blew
apart, um, it .... it'll take.... it can take down the whole system, you know, and .... and
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really cause some problems for us. And so ..... we've hired HDR to .... to do that pressure
study for us and really identify within the system where we can add, uh, where we can
add some, um, valves, uh, and basically start pressurizing the system, potentially, from
our reservoirs. Um, Sycamore tank, the Rochester tank, um, the Emerald Street tank,
and .... and.....and not have to have such a big pressure zone, uh, and .... and it really.....
moderately regulate our system and .... and then with the .... the ultimate goal then would
be to create some energy efficiency for us, you know, so we're not havin' to pump all the
time at the plant. We can, you know, pump less, uh, out at those ... at that .... as far as the
big piece, but then, uh, but then also, you know, be able to pressurize from those tanks
themselves. Um.....the.....the water treatment side of things, from a .... from a GIS and
asset management, they've done a very good job of identifying where things are at, um,
within the system. Um, they're currently using Cartegraph. We have a .... a.....a upgrade
that we're looking at doing as far as, uh, an overall asset management, so whether it's
Cartegraph that we would use for that or another product, um, they already have pretty
much their whole system identified. Um, everything is within that current Cartegraph
system for them. Um, and then, uh.....yeah, so .... so we're .... we're sittin' in a really
good spot right now with .... with our.....with our water group. Urn .... you
know.... overall, um, management -wise, you know, in Public Works, we've obviously
had a complete turnover of our staff. Um, Water was one of those where, you know, we
were able to hire from within and Kevin Slutts has done a great job of...of managing that
group and really, um, creating a culture up there that .... that, um, the folks really enjoy
working in. Um, anything in regards to Water?
Thomas/ Just curious, I .... I've always loved water towers (laughs) uh, but ... will they ever play a,
um, role in .... in pressurizing our system, or do we just have high elevation points where
we don't need towers?
Knoche/ You know, I .... I think that that's gonna be a part of our discussion. Um, you know,
there was a point in time when there was a decision made, um, by the City of Iowa City
that we weren't gonna have elevated storage. Um, but clearly, um, elevated storage has
its advantages and disadvantages, and so I think that's what we're gonna look at. You
know, in a .... in a, you know, the advantage of elevated storage is if you have a complete,
uh, electrical failure, you're still pressurized. Um, you know, the disadvantage is you....
you have to get the water up there somehow. So, I mean there's still the pumping cost
that'd go along with that, but, uh, that is one of the things we're gonna look at with our
pressure, uh, study that we're doin' right now.
Cole/ Maybe just a brief comment, along the topic of water. I remember what the water was like
in Iowa City prior to that plant, and I just want to continue to commend the staff,
everyone who was part of that decision to make that happen, because I remember (can't
hear) used to be a regular part of our budget, and now it's just .... I think we have some of
the best water in the state. It's easy to take for granted, but to provide it at that cost I
think is magnificent and I just commend..... continuing kudos to the whole staff.
Knoche/ Yeah and, you know, as .... as we move forward, obviously the nutrient removal piece is
gonna be a .... a thing that we're gonna struggle with. Um, what we're seeing as far as our
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source water, you know, obviously you know we have .... we have basically four different
sources that we can deal with right now. We can pull directly out of the river, which we
tend not to right now. Um, we have our collector wells, which basically are ... is river
water pulled down through the sands, um, we have solarian wells and we have a jordan
well, and, um, what we're seeing in the river is .... as the nitrate levels increase, um, and
typically it was a summer thing. It wasn't really a winter thing. We're seein' those
nitrate levels increase in the winter also, and we're ... it used to go up and come back
down, but what we're seeing now is it's not coming back down completely to the level it
was previous, and so, um, that's one thing that we're gonna have to be cognizant of....
Cole/ Uh huh.
Knoche/ ....as we move forward, um, to make sure that we're not gonna have issues with nitrates
in our system. All right, Resource Management, page 444. Um, Refuse, uh, you know,
we .... we have a lot of I'd guess .... take a step back. We, uh, Jen Jordan is doing a
phenomenal job, uh, for us. You know it's .... it's, uh, you know her, um ..... her demeanor
has.....has been great. Um, you know, I think we're seeing a lot of waste minimization
stuff coming out that, um, is.....is stuff that's been on the books for quite a while and
then ....so really doing a great job of. ... of, um, implementing that and getting the word
out to the community. Um .... you know, from our Refuse side, um, we're,
uh.....we're.... we're, there again, we're, you know, we're teamed in with the customer
service reps in Transportation Services, so that's going really well. Um, you know we're
now co -mingling recycling, uh, we have, uh, four new trucks that we....we have, uh, we
took possession of within the last month. Um, still usin' the bins, uh, but not Navin' to
sort curbside. Uh, it's been, uh, it's been really good for us. Um, you know, we're
dealing with the food waste, um .... you know, we're .... we're lookin' at, um, carts for
pretty much everything. So we're looking at carts for waste, for recycling, um, for yard
waste, um, and.....we're, um, gonna look at route optimization. That's probably one of
the .... the biggest things right now that I .... you know, I don't know if our routes have
been looked at. I know they haven't been looked at within my timeframe, but I think it's
probably been at least 10 years plus since we've actually looked at the optimization of
our routes, and .... and really figure out what's the best way that we can, um, pick up, uh,
the resources in our community. Um, so that's.... that'll be the big push this year, uh, in
regards to the Refuse. Um.....what we are looking at with our, uh, Public Works' site,
uh, phase one project, um, some reuse of a .... of a current warm storage building
that .... that they are usin', uh, that Refuse folks are using, um, at the current Public
Works' site, um, down on South Gilbert Street. Um, we'll actually move their group to
the water distribution building on, uh, on May .... or ..... in the South Gilbert Street area in,
uh, and... and really, um, get them pulled back together. Right now they're.... they're
kinda spread out in a couple different spots. So, um, that'll be a .... a, one of the, uh,
things that'll come with our Public Works' site phase one project. Um, so that'll be a .... a
good thing. They did, uh, we did do some roof replacement down there, some fixing, um,
so Rodney doesn't have to have garbage cans all over his office, keepin' the water from
gettin' on everything, but uh, that'll be a good move in the .... in the next year with that.
Um, from the Landfill side, obviously waste minimization, uh, cardboard ban started on
January 2nd. Um, it was one I think there was a .... a lot of folks were nervous about. Um,
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a lot of our haulers were nervous. The University was nervous. I think they've done a
good job of getting the word out to folks. Um, last week the first three days we had one
load each day that .... that we did, um, end up havin' to tag. Um, so, um, and .... and what
that looked like, it wasn't just one .... one cardboard box. It was a cardboard box showed
up and then the whole rest half of the load was cardboard boxes. So, uh, you know,
and.... and what those were is roll -off containers from construction sites, mainly. So,um,
as we ..... as we move forward there, um, you know, staff is .... is looking out for that stuff.
Um, you know.... enforcing it but .... but, you know, being realistic about the enforcement
side of things there. Um, we are in the process of designing, uh, our next cell
construction project out there. Um, that'll come before you within this.... probably within
the next couple months. Um, as far as construction starting this summer, um, for that cell
expansion, um, and then operations standpoint, um, we're lookin' at, you know, different
methods of fill, um, pancake method, uh, a few other things there and then also, um, we'll
be looking at the tarping system, to be able to help reduce the amount of daily cover that
we have to put on, um, out there. Um, and .... and start, you know, reducing the amount
of extras that we have in our cells, uh, versus just having the trash in there.....on that.
Any questions on Resource Management?
Cole/ In terms of the cardboard, that is an issue that people have talked to me about too. Um, are
there any .... what are the solut.... I mean they're supposed to be recycling the cardboard.
It's still been a concern. Are you working with the downtown stakeholders? Those have
been the most .... in terms of solutions? Are there any private....
Knoche/ Um, and.... and I think .... it's been the .... the private haulers are the ones that, you know,
that have been coming to us and talking to us, and I .... and I think, um, you know, Jen has
done a really good job of. ... of getting the word out and, you know, if ... if. .... if there are,
you know, major issues that come up, they will start to work with the folks individually
on that. Um, you know, from a, um, from a customer standpoint, so from a city .... from a
city pickup standpoint, we are also tagging, um, those carts, if we do find cardboard in
those, um, right now it's, uh, the first tag is free but then after that, uh, we'll be figuring
out how we're gonna deal with that....
Cole/ Uh huh.
Knoche/ ....but uh.... um, basically if. ... if I have cardboard in my .... in my bin, um, it gets
tagged. They won't pick it up. It's my job to pull the cardboard out, recycle that, and
then I call in to ask for ..... to get a pickup, uh, done on that .... on that garbage .... uh, from
a city standpoint. So.....anything else? All right. Um, Storm Water Management is on,
uh, page 478. Um, that, as I mentioned, that is administered by our Engineering
Division. It's kind of a tag -team. Waste Water helps out in regards to the .... the piping.
So if there's any issues with clogs, um, they'll come out and ... and do the, um, jetting of
those. Um, storm .... if there's any issues with intakes, the Streets Division handles those.
Um, and any outlet issues, they also handle that part of it. Um, the Storm Water
Management, um, programs that we (mumbled) management practices, so we have a
grant program for folks if they're, um, looking at, um, doing some type of, um, pervious
pavers or some other way of, um, basically detaching, um, direct runoff of their lots to
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our .... our street system. And then we also deal with creek maintenance programs. So,
um, if you own a piece of creek, urn.... you..... you can come to us and .... and start
working with us on how .... how to maintain that and .... um, Ben Clark's done a pretty
good job of working with folks there. Um, the other piece that comes out of our Storm
Water group is .... is a lot of our volunteer efforts that occur. Um, Carol Sweeting does a
great job of. ... of working with groups. Um, in our FYI we had 38 events that we dealt
with, um, 2,200 hours of volunteer effort, um, that was put in. Um, and that is, um, our
local folks, whether it's fraternity, sororities. Um, it's also outside folks. We have
groups that come in from Minneapolis and .... and, um, we have a, um, another group
comin' in from Utah, uh, that is .... is, you know, really focusing on our community,
which is a great thing, and uh, we always find a spot for `em to help us out and, uh,
and .... and Carol's done a great job there, uh, in regards to that. Um, our .... our storm
water piece, um, you know I think, uh.... you know as .... I think we do a .... a pretty good
job, um, but obviously as we move forward, um, you know, we'll .... we'll be lookin' at
through SUDAS, you know, our .... our, some storm water management changes,
potentially, um, and then the big key in regards to this is just maintenance in general of
those basins that are out there and .... and how we work through those, and so
we're .... we're gonna try to identify some of those things as we move forward. Um,
because that's probably one of the biggest places that I get phone calls on is, um, you
know, my storm water management basin is not maintained very well, um, what can I do
to help, you know, to .... to make that better, and so we'll .... we'll work through that piece
and .... and really come up with a better plan on that as we move forward. Storm Water
questions? All right, last group, Equipment. Um on page 605. Um, we have 550 fleet
vehicles, um, and our .... our.....our Equipment group does a great job of maintaining
those. Um, you know, we .... we basically are maintaining everything, um, other than
Transit, uh, equipment, uh, down at our Equipment facility. Um, we are, um, providing
fuel to pretty much, um, all of our, uh, local government folks. So school buses, um,
second .... or for the, um, Sheriff's Office, you know, all those vehicles are .... are fueling
down at our site, um .... and uh, it .... it's.... it's worked out really well. Um, as we move
forward, um, we're..... we're really gonna emphasize....uh, focus on how we can bring
some fully electric vehicles into our fleet. Um, we currently have two vehicles that
we've identified, um, to .... to pursue, um, electric vehicles on. Uh, and then the potential
of a third, as we move forward, and.... and it looks like right now we're gonna do our
own purchase on that. We had looked at some other purchasing, uh, programs that are
out there, and um, they're just.... there's not a very good, uh, purchase out there on
electric vehicles, but the idea would be, um, our .... some of our pool cars for our in -town
cars, uh, replacing one of those with a fully electrical vehicle and then also, uh, one of
our, um, fleet vehicles that is in, uh, one of the other departments, um, looking there,
so.... Um .... yeah!
Throgmorton /Is that it?
Knoche/ That's it!
Throgmorton/ Good deal! So ... what are the three biggest risks facing your units within the next
year or two?
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Knoche/ The next or two, I .... I think for .... for our community I think our .... our biggest concern
right now is just the nutrient removal piece on our water, waste water. Um, you know,
the .... as .... as we start moving forward with, um, getting our permit renewal for our waste
water plant, my guess is we're gonna start to .... to see some things there, uh, in regards to
nutrient removal, and .... and as I mentioned, on the treatment side, I think that's... that's
probably the biggest thing, um, that we're gonna be dealing with. Um, I think the second
piece that we're gonna .... is just, um, our workforce, and an aging workforce. Um,
whether it be retirements, whether it be risks of injuries as they, you know, as .... as folks
get older, there's a bigger risk there, um, and .... and that impact that it has on our
operations, and uh, we saw that last year, uh, in our Streets Division, uh, as a prime
example of that. Um, and then, uh, I think the third thing for us is as we, um, bring the
Public Works' facility, uh, phase one on .... on .... online, um, it's just gonna be the .... the
balancing of that as we move forward, and people gettin' used to new .... new quarters
and, you know, getting used to different people being .... being there, cause we'll bring
our water distribution folks, our traffic engineering folks, and our streets folks will all be
in that same facility. So .... it's, uh, it's exciting times, it really is (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....excited about that!
Knoche/ Yep!
Taylor/ I'd like to go back to Streets for just a second if I could. First of all, I wanted to applaud
your workers. That storm a week ago, with the heavy snow, and not only that it was
coupled with extremely low temperatures, but they were out there. They cleared the
streets. People were able to get out and about by 8:00, 9:00 in the evening, and then for
the past week with these sub -zero temperatures, the trash collectors on my street were
right on schedule. They always have been, and then I looked out and I thought about
them, cause they have to get out of their vehicles....
Knoche/ Right!
Taylor/ ....until we get totally automated, get out in that cold weather, and .... and do their ... do
their jobs. So I applaud them and thank them for that service. Um, but on the .... in
relation to roads, uh, I was part of probably four of the seven listening posts we had, and
every time, and I don't know about the other folks, streets came up, and the potholes and
street repair. So I .... I was glad to see some of the data here, the 420 lane miles of city
streets, and 2,900, uh, pothole patches, and you think 365 days. That .... that math just
doesn't balance out. It's .... it's not possible for ya to be out there, course everybody
thinks their street is the most important.....
Knoche/ Sure!
Taylor/ .....but I mean does it kind of come down to funding or staff or equipment or just the
time? I know you .... you kind of, I think you've talked about a process that you have for,
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uh, following certain streets, uh, and then also in relation to complaints, but can you
speak to that just a little bit?
Knoche/ Sure!
Taylor/ Thanks!
Knoche/ You know, um, it's.... it's a little bit of all that, I think. You know obviously funding is
a part of it. Um, you know we're .... we're doing, uh, a better job I think as .... as we're
looking through our capital program and .... and our road use tax funds, where they're at,
um, you know in this ... in this next, from FY18 to FY19, um, we're adding almost
$600,000 into our, um, annual repair program, you know, so that .... that is not our staff
doing that. You know, that ... that is hiring a contractor to do those things, um, but um,
you know, we are focusing on those things, and um, you know, from an internal
standpoint, obviously we've added two additional staff members, uh, in our Streets
Department, so, um, we will, um, not only be able to .... to do a little better job in regards
to those potholes and dealing with that, but also look at how we can better facilitate the
on -street bicycle facilities that we have and .... and making sure that those are clear, uh, as
we move forward. Um, you know, from a.....from a maintenance standpoint and a
priority standpoint, um, you know, we.....we are looking at, um, you know kind of the,
you know, which .... which of our corridors are .... are kinda the worst, um, we are, um,
working with the DOT, uh, in every way that we can as far as, um, you know, this .... this
year you'll see Riverside Drive, uh, the rest of that getting overlaid. Uh, you'll see
Governor Street getting overlaid. Um, also we're.... we're, um, really optimizing our
work that we can do with outside agencies. Um, and then .... kind of piggybacking on
those, uh, and .... and getting more streets done as we move forward.
Throgmorton/ Speaking of streets, when's the Clinton, Burlington Street intersection gonna be
done?
Knoche/ Be this year.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, we've already issued (both talking)
Knoche/ ....you awarded the contract for the (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....I knew we had taken action but I couldn't remember (both talking)
Knoche/ ...so that'll be this summer.
Throgmorton/ Good deal! Any of you other tired folks have any questions to ask? Your span of
control's pretty wide, again. Yeah, so .... I assume that means you and Geoff think it's
manageable and we're off to a good start, but I just recognize that.
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Knoche/ I ... it's, you know, obviously you have to have a great management staff to be able
to ... to .... to have as many folks as we have in Public Works and right now we're .... we're
doin' very well.
Fruin/ I ... I've talked (clears throat) Ron quite a bit about that and .... he was one of the
considerations, obviously I had to, um, think through when we moved Transpor... or the
Resource Management back over there. Um, and as Ron mentioned, the highest stress
points in Engineering, um, and we talked about it and we were close to recommending an
engineering, uh, type of position, uh, in this budget. Um, ultimately we decided not to do
that but, um, you know, as I look ahead in the next couple of years, I .... I don't see the
CIP stuff, the projects slowing down, and you'll probably hear that on Tuesday. Uh,
we're movin' past flood recovery, but they're gonna stay very busy. Um, I think that's
one of those core areas I talked about this morning, the higher priority areas. I've got two
or three in mind, and .... and Engineering is one of them, where if we wanna stay this
aggressive, and I think we'll be able to financially for an extended period of time, we're
probably going to need to look at the Engineering Division.
Throgmorton/ Any questions? Thank you, Ron.
Knoche/ Thank you very much!
Throgmorton/ All right. So ... what the heck's the City Manger's office been doin' lately? And
Finance and City Clerk's office?
Fruin/ (several talking) Simon, you want to go ahead and get started.
General Government Program Budgets (cont.):
City Manager
Andrew/ Absolutely! (mumbled) book or just all three of mine right in order?
Fruin/ Just do your three in order.
Andrew/ Okay, hello again! Uh, Simon Andrew, Assistant to the City Manager. I'm gonna start
on page 133 with the City Council budget. (noises on mic) So this division has seven
FTEs. Um, I'm just gonna focus on three areas within this division's budget. Pretty
status quo from previous years. Um, the dues and memberships line, uh, has increased
about $10,000 compared to previous years. Uh, this, um, is because we added
memberships to the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Mayors Innovation Project, and
many of our other memberships, like the League of Cities, is based on population, so as
our population grows those dues and memberships go up. Uh, the second area I was
going to note is, uh, the travel training budget. Um, we have increased this about
$10,000 total, uh, compared to previous years. Uh, that number if consistent with the
2017 actuals. Um, we have exceeded this budget in travel training for, uh, the last couple
of years so, um, we matched the 2017 actuals, but if you think that there is going to be a
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need beyond, uh, the travel and training that you all did in 2017, then let us know that and
we can work that into the, uh, budget before we finalize it. And then the third area, uh,
we are continuing the welcome letters for, uh, University of Iowa freshmen. Um, really
for the dollars that we spend on that, there are very few things that we do that we get such
positive feedback. It's a very low dollar amount, uh, $3,000 is in your budget and, uh,
we hear about it every year, how much the students and the families appreciate those
letters from the Mayor. Um, so those were the only notes I had from the City Council
budget. Other than that it's primarily just, uh, salaries and, um, you know, printing and,
you know, basic office costs. So, did you all have any questions on the City Council's
budget? All right.
Throgmorton/ Some snarky person could suggest a, like a 30% cut or somethin' (laughs)
Andrew/ And there is a....a CPI cost of, uh, living increase in, uh, the salaries in that too, that
you, uh, approved in a previous year. Okay, so I'm gonna move on to the City
Manager's office budget now, page 143, uh, in the proposed budget book. Uh, division
has three FTEs, uh, the, uh, expenses in this division are almost entirely personnel costs.
Again there are just a couple of areas I want to key in on. Uh, first is the event
sponsorships. Uh, most of our summer events and special event sponsorships come out
of this, uh, division's budget. Uh, this includes Summer of the Arts, the, uh,
Independence Day fireworks, which we, uh, bumped modestly this year, uh, went from
23,000 to 26,000. Um, we do have some money programmed in for .... this year for a
partnership with the University, um, for, uh, programming along the river. Uh, their big
splash campaign that, uh, Mayor Throgmorton mentioned at the last, uh, City Council
meeting. Uh, also dollars in here for Cyclocross. Uh, those are the big events that are
coming out of this budget. Uh, we do have some smaller sponsorships that come out of
the City Manager's office budget as well, including, uh, Juneteenth, uh, the ADA
celebration, and Bike to Work Week. Uh, the other, uh, item I was gonna draw attention
to in here is our legislative consultant contract, which you all approved recently. Uh, that
is a $25,000 contract, 25,200, urn .... and that is flat from previous years. That's the same,
the exact same costs that we had when we contracted with Davis Brown as well. So
those were the only two areas that I was highlighting in the City Manager's office budget.
Any questions on those? Or anything (both talking)
Fruin/ I'm gonna clarify one thing, uh, the big splash event that Simon, um, mentioned, this is a
new event that I've been working, uh, on, uh, with, um .... the folks at the University, uh,
particularly with their hydraulic, um.....uh, lab and Hancher. Um, there's a ... very much a
renewed interest in the community, uh, at the University community, um, to actively
program and activate the river corridor, and um, we're looking at 2019 as a potential
kick-off and celebrate the river in a really big way. It ties in with, um, I believe the
hundred year anniversary with the hydraulic lab, so they're gonna have a major
international conference to celebrate that, bring back a lot of alumni, and experts in that
field. Um, it's gonna be kind of hosted at Hancher, uh, but we really wanted to kick off,
uh, that conference with a big community celebration on the river. Um .... we're talkin'
about the, uh, more than a million dollars, uh, in .... as an event program, budget. So
you're talkin' about a huge budget, uh, for this. A lot of it would be privately raised and
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Hancher's takin' a lead on raising those funds. Um, but the idea is not that we're
throwing a million dollar party in one year, but we're really trying to set the tone, uh, for
what we want the river corridor to be long-term in Iowa City. So there's gonna be
elements of this that last well past this conference and .... and leave a lasting mark
on .... on the community, uh, so there's a group workin' on this now. What's in this
budget right now is a $120,000 commitment over three years, so it'd be 40,000, 40,000
and 40,000, ub, leading up to this, which again, I really see as not an investment in a
program, but an investment in a mindset, and an investment, um, that signals our
commitment to the river, and to a partnership with the University on ... on really
energizing the river corridor.
Throgmorton /It's also connected to the joint declaration concerning the sustainability theme
semester that the President and I will be signing. I think there's going to be a signing
ceremony, maybe on the 15th, 16°i, I don't know exactly when. It hasn't been decided
yet. Uh, but you should keep your eyes open for that.
Andrew/ Very good! Moving on to the last division I'm gonna talk about, it starts on page 161,
Economic Development. Uh, I just handed out a .... a supplemental page to, uh, what will
be in your proposed book and I'll get to the reason for that in a second. But, uh, this
division does have, uh, quite a few more expenses that, um, tie into, uh, things that the
City Council's been talking about over the last couple of years. Uh, so, uh, first thing I'll
call attention to is our, uh, National Development Council contract is in the Economic
Development Division, uh, so this is the third party that we contract with to, uh, review
our, uh, Economic Development incentive, uh, programs. Uh, and uh, incentive packages
with proposed developments. Uh, we already mentioned in the, uh, the introduction
today the retail consultant. That $50,000 is, uh, in Wendy's budget here. Um, this also
includes, uh, many of our sponsorships that, um, support local, uh, arts organizations and
economic development organizations. So this is the budget that, uh, funding for ICAD,
the CVB, the City of Literature, Riverside Theater, Film Scene, Mission Creek, and the
Entrepreneurial Development Center all come out of, uh, Wendy's budget here as well.
Uh, the micro loan program that, uh, Tracy talked about a little bit, uh, the loan
guarantees, so that's a partnership with Midwest One Bank. The loan guarantees are
budgeted for, uh, in this division's budget. Um, those are only used, uh, in the case that
somebody defaults on their loan with Midwest One. Um, ICDD, the Downtown
District's summer programming, uh, we also include it in Wendy's budget. That's
$25,000 budget. So, that helps support things like the, uh, paddleboarding event that the
Downtown District did in Blackhawk Mini Park, or the block party last year that was so
successful. That's, um, where some of this, uh, funding comes from. Uh, reinstituting
the building change program, which Geoff also mentioned this morning. Uh, so we'll be
reinstituting that to, uh, help support facade renovations downtown. Um, so that was
exciting to bring back. Uh, and now getting to the reason why I handed off, or handed
out a supplemental page here for 162, uh, this has a table of the exact dollar amounts, uh,
that we support those local arts organizations, and rather than coming back to you all with
a resolution for each of these, uh, some of them are on, um, three-year, uh,
memorandums of understanding, that all are on staggered years, and it becomes very
difficult to manage. So we were hoping that moving forward, uh, we could approve all of
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these as part of the budget process. So if you see anything on this list that, uh, you want
to discuss further or that you have input on, uh, please let me know, but these are the
amounts that we have, uh, budgeted for, um, over a number of years, and some of these
have, um .... uh, intent to budget, uh, resolutions that, uh, Council has already approved.
So, uh, those are, other than the Englert Theater, uh, those are all, um, status quo from
previous years. Uh, but we should, uh, draw attention to that Englert Theater amount
there. That does include the, uh, half million dollar, uh, historic, uh.... uh, historic
renovation grant, um, that we have talked about with the, uh, Englert Theater and the
Film Scene joint capital campaign, uh, that they're moving forward on now. Uh, this has
been mentioned in our budget for a couple of years running and they're really gearing up
for that campaign now. Uh, so those funds are budgeted in the FYI budget, and again to
remind you, we're, um, we're intending to do, uh, a million dollars over two years, uh,
$500,000 in 19 and then $500,000 in 20, uh, is the intent with that, and so that also goes
along with, you had asked, uh, Mayor, about, uh, funds budgeted for historic preservation
earlier, and so this is one of the large pots of money that we would be supporting historic
preservation efforts downtown.
Fruin /If I could just jump in and clarify, um, what Simon mentioned about not coming back to
Council. He's .... he's referring to those smaller grants, the Riverside, the annual
supports. Certainly that 500,000 and the million dollar commitment, that's gonna come
back to Council, and you'll know exactly what the terms of that grant would be, and
ultimately you'd have to approve that. So, um, really what we're just looking for during
your budget deliberations this year is if your comfort level in allowing us to just facilitate
the payment of those smaller annual dollar grants, which seem to be pretty routine at this
nature, and .... and do filter through the EDC.
Andrew/ Thank you for that clarification. Yeah, that's exactly right. Uh, just a couple other
things I would like to mention just on the ... the workload of the division currently and
moving forward. Uh, Tracy also mentioned earlier the Building Business Basics
program. Wendy's been heavily involved in that. Uh, she works with both, uh, Ann at
Kirkwood and Tracy to .... to pull that off, and that was very successful the last time
around. Um, we got a ton of good feedback on it. There were, uh, 50 unique participants
that, uh, I think that really got a lot out of that. Uh, Wendy has also started doing the, uh,
large employer site visits again. It was something that she did a number of years ago, and
we've had a number of the site visits this year to make sure that our.....our businesses in
town know that we're, uh, doing what we can to .... to support them and listening to any
concerns that they have. Sometimes out of those meetings it's, um, something as simple
as the signal timing on a .... a stop light outside of their business that cou.... that can make
an effect. So, um, we're pleased to be doing those again. Of course we just completed
the, uh, TIF policy review, the Economic Development policies that, uh, you recently
approved and of course the Augusta Place and Hieronymus Square agreements, um, were
a large, um, accomplishment for, uh, this division over the last year. Um, on the horizon
for the next year, both the, uh, Foster Road extension and the Forest View development
are going to take, uh, quite a bit of, uh, of Wendy's time and the City Manager's office
time to .... to make sure that we're staying on top of those pol.... uh, processes. And that
is all I have for Economic Development. Any questions?
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Cole/ I have a question regarding the micro -loan. I think that's a terrific program, the way that
we back up the loans with the Midwest One. Do we have any data on what the default
rates are? That's the first question. And related to that, is there any view that the micro -
loan program would also be used for enterprises with essentially more than one person.
So it'd essentially collectively own enterprise of three to four that maybe want to join
together and start a partnership or a worker owned cooperative. Is that in the pipeline at
all?
Andrew/ Um, I don't think that's something.... I'll take the second one first, that we've discussed
up until this point, but that's certainly something that, um, we'd consider, and I'm sure
that, you know, Wendy would be amenable to going forward. Um, in terms of the default
rate, I don't think we've had any defaults since we moved this into the general fund. Um,
there were (both talking)
Cole/ That's terrific!
Andrew/ ...yeah, absolutely! Uh, when this was CDBG funds, I think that there may have been,
um, some that didn't meet their CDBG commitments, but since we've moved this to the
partnership with Midwest One, um, I don't believe that we've had any defaults on it.
Cole/ That's terrific!
Andrew/ Yep.
Fruin/ One thing we're lookin' at with these micro -loans, um, a lot of the folks that come to us,
um .... uh, and .... and go to the banks looking for loans, they don't necessarily have the...
the sophisticated business plan that we think that they really need to be successful, yet
they're not great candidates for like a economic development center, um, or a small
business type development center. You know, you're looking at food truck operators
and .... and, uh, things of that nature. And so Tracy's exploring some partnerships, um,
with community CPA and others to say, hey, you know, before we .... before we go the
step to ... to maybe guarantee a $5,000 loan or somethin' like that, let's .... let's spend $300
to $500 with .... with someone like a community CPA that could really help you put
together a business plan and understand... and help you understand what it means to
incorporate your business and to make sure that you're compliant with registering for the
State for sales tax remittance and things like that. That's a lot of what we're seein'.
We've got community with a lot of great ideas, but they need that technical assistance too
in addition to the micro -loan guarantee. So, um, the program's evolving as we're
meeting and talking with more people.
Andrew/ Any other questions?
Throgmorton/ I think that's it, Simon. Thank you. Dennis! Are you gonna speak?
Fruin/ We've got a couple more. (several talking)
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Throgmorton/ Oh, sorry! (several talking)
Monroe/ All right, so I'm gonna talk about Communications and ca .... and Cable Television as
part of that and ... and Human Resources as well. So, um, Communications starts on 146,
and uh..... what's important to know about the Communications and Cable budgets, uh,
there's not a significant change in the dollars allocated for either of their budgets. Uh,
there were a couple of capital outlay projects, uh, and .... services that were, um, budgeted
in the fiscal year 18. So one of those included the intra -net, uh, procurement process for
Communications this year. Um, it's taking place and we hope to have, uh, finalize an
RFP, uh, within the next month or so. Um, so there .... there've been questions coming in
about the RFP that's been out there and we hope to select a firm to do, uh, to build a new
intra -net. Uh, we have .... also not, um.....and there's really not a lot of change in any....
any other aspect of the Communications budget. Um, Cable administration — I'm kind of
jumping around. I apologize, but again they bought some equipment last year and there's
not any real change, uh, to the allocations this year. Their back up another, uh, Cable
assistant, so Toni joined us, um, earlier this week, and she's been .... very enthusiastic. So
I'll talk a little bit about our recent accomplishments and the challenges in each of those
aspects of our operations. Uh, we've had significant social media and video, uh,
presence. There's been a lot of growth in our social media, um, platforms. We've de...
been developing marketing plans and they've done a really great job of working with our
departments to have a .... a planned approach to, uh, promoting events and .... and issues,
and uh, they're working at doing that more often so we can have a really comprehensive
approach to communicating about what we're doing. Uh, Cable stuff won two awards for
some of their videos produced here, which was good to hear. And we brought on a part-
time temporary creative communications assistant. Uh, she's been very helpful in doing
a lot of graphics work and, uh, that was budgeted last year. And, uh.... they're going to
concentrate also on some photo archival and retrieval. Um, we're planning to implement
that in this upcoming year, a photo archival system to cut, you know, cut down on lots of
time spent searching for photos, as well as, uh.... being able to grab good photos right off
the bat. Uh, we're doing some we.....web site reorganization. Uh, we'll be
implementing the intra -net, and uh, you know we're working hard to improve internal
communications and .... as well as reach hard to reach populations. Uh, there's been a lot
of, uh, cooperative work with, uh, Stefanie's office in Human Rights, uh, we've been
working with Finance to coordinate, uh, translated documents, uh, web forms, urn .... and
so those are .... those are some of the things that we're looking forward to with
Communications. Does anybody have questions about things happening there?
Botchway/ Have there been any thoughts on like putting together an app? Or providing an app?
For .... I was thinking more from a communication standpoint, and so normally when you
have like a Facebook or a Twitter app, you have the notifications that occur and so
instead of using the email subscription system, which I love. I mean I .... I actually have
no problem with it, but um, the .... the level of getting a notification on your phone is kind
of ...it's shifted from email to more phone notifications.
Monroe/ Okay.
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Botchway/ I know we have the government express app, which I know is being used, and I
sometimes forget about it, but, um, you know, what are our thoughts on .... the City of
North Liberty has an app. Their app isn't well rated so I'm not necessarily saying that we
should use their app but.. just thinking about that in general. I just didn't know where we
were at.
Monroe/ So some kind of. ... SMS or .... application where we could source our.....Channel
productions and other .... (both talking)
Botchway/ Yeah.
Monroe/ Okay.
Fruin/ We'll have to get back (both talking)
Monroe/ Yeah!
Fruin/ ...some thoughts on that.
Monroe/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ I think the social media and Channel 4 folks have done a great job over the
last ... two or more years, right? Uh, so I'm really impressed with that, and I .... have
considerable interest in this Facebook Live idea that we've talked about a little bit. Uh,
this morning's innovation by, sponsored by Kingsley himself, was I think really good and
we should build on that, but I was also thinking as we were out here milling around that it
would have really been good to do a Facebook Live at that moment, so that, uh, people
whoever might be watching, you know, would have an opportunity to see Kingsley
talkin' to somebody or .... or, and introduce some other people from the general public,
like Charlie or whoever, who happen to be present for it. So I think there's considerable
potential there for connecting with people and revealing to them that we're not slugs
(laughs) you know, that .... that, uh, there's actually real people here and you know some
of `em have a sense of humor and things (laughter) so .... yeah!
Monroe/ There (several talking) there are potential opportunities to, um, to create a live
experience that would, um ... focus engagement on particular things. It doesn't have to be
Facebook Live. Um .... the.....the best, um, outcomes for Facebook Live are when they're
slightly produced, where you have an idea of what the content will be and, um, can
prepare in case there's not any active questions in the moment and those types of
considerations we want to take into account, but .... but we'll certainly investigate other
applications for .... for doing things like that, like today.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Other people know this a lot better than I do, so yeah!
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Monroe/ Yeah! Great! (mumbled) Okay. So, uh, Human Resources. Again, uh, not much
change in the .... the allocated budget. Uh, some things they have been doing, uh,
promotional testing for the Police and Fire Departments. The money that, um, is used for
that testing is absent in the.....in the fiscal year 19 budget. So you .... we don't need it, so
we don't budget it. Um, we launched a mandatory online training for our staff and
supervisors. Um, there was a great deal on a ... on web application and so we're doing a
lot of the regulatory types of training, um, you know, sexual harassment, um, FMLA,
those types of training for .... for staff that need `em. They're short and it's been pretty
successful so far. Um, they updated.... we've updated our personnel policies this year,
and um, the Employee Wellness Committee has done quite a lot of work, urn ..... just
engaging our staff and getting out there in the community and, um, providing, you know,
support for community activities and organizations. So some things that we're focused
on next, uh, we began an Employee Health Insurance Committee. So as the collective
bargaining rights of employees were, um, significantly reduced this past year, we, uh,
decided that although we don't have to bargain over insurance, that employees should
know what .... what the decisions are that need to be made about insurance, um, or
insurance program on a year-to-year basis, and so it's a part educational tool, part of a
communication tool for employees in each department to, um, know why we're making
the decisions we're making. They're seeing the data, and then they can go back and
share that with the other employees in the department. So, uh, we have police testing
today taking place, so that was something they're involved in actively, and the only other
things that I'11.....I'll touch on is that, um, we've been working on collecting, uh,
employee demographic information. Some of that's included in the racial equity report.
Um, and we'll come back to you with a little bit more specific information, if possible.
Uh, if you need to see some other things we'll have to ask or you can give us that
feedback. Uh, we've also been focusing recruitment efforts and that'll continue, but
concentrating on diversifying our .... our workforce and, um, so those efforts will .... wi11
continue through this year. Um .... let's see.....and I've shown everything else.
Botchway/ What is our current marketing budget, in relation to Human Resources?
Monroe/ Um.....
Botchway/ I wasn't able to tell from that (both talking)
Fruin/ It's probably a consolidated line. Um .... we tend, uh, for .... for a lot of our positions, we
don't necessarily ad .... we don't have a advertising budget. So what we'll do is we'll take
the, um, salary that we're not paying for a particular position. So if the assistant city
manager's position is vacant, there's salary savings there. Those salary savings can get
deployed the recruitment effort. That's how we typically fund it, as opposed to kind of
guessing what vacant positions would .... would be coming up. Um.....but I .... I certainly
in my time here have not had any conversations with Human Resources, or any
departments, um, in which they have asked for more, um, dollars to push their vacancy
that we haven't approved. Not to say that we couldn't advertise them more, um, but it
hasn't been a concern raised to me by .... by employees. I think this last police testing,
actually the reason that, uh, Chief Matherly was .... was, uh, in full uniform today is
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because there's police testing going on after this and he was going over to the .... the
testing facility. Um, we push that.... testing opportunity as hard as I've ever seen us push
that before. So, um, I think they're encouraged by the pool they got and we'll see what
shakes out in the testing process, but we're tryin'! We're tryin' and I think, um, I don't
know the numbers off the top of my head, but I .... I reported in my personnel evaluation
last year the progress that we've made, and it wasn't, um, phenomenal progress, but
we .... we were making progress. We were showing, urn .... uh, some movement in the
right direction, and we hope to continue that.
Monroe/ As far as the, um, ability to advertise positions too, at least externally, um, some
organizations that we belong to, some professional organizations, sometimes include, um,
job advertisements within the membership costs. So you won't necessarily see it within
the .... the HR budget. Yeah.
Botchway/ The other question had to, um, focuses on kind of our union groups. So I know at the
School District we're looking at effectively having to put together an employee handbook
because of the .... the changes at the State level that won't allow us to, uh, negotiate some
of those terms. I know that we're a couple yea .... I mean, we're either a year or two out
of some of those negotiations, but .... but where do we stand on what our kind of next
steps are in relation to those groups?
Fruin/ Yeah, our .... urn, really when you look at the bargaining rights, you're talkin' about the
non-public safety unions, which for us is just one union. That's AFSCME, and uh,
before the, um, law change, um.....uh, happened, uh, you extended their contract through
June of 2021. Um, so we haven't really focused on what that looks like cause our
contract is valid through that time. There's legal challenges. There's elections that are
gonna take place. We just don't need to spend a whole lot of energy at this time trying to
think of what that is. We do have an employee, uh, handbook and manual and personnel
policies, uh, for non, uh, union, uh, employees that are, you know, on our web site and
that we can get you copies of. You .... you approved the, excuse me, the update to our
personnel policies, uh, earlier this year.
Monroe /We also made an effort on an informal basis, or a less formal basis, when we met with
all of the employee groups last summer, the Manager's office and HR, um, met with each
of the departments in over 20 meetings to .... and that was a question that got raised ... at
just about every meeting as to what that meant for .... for them as union employees and,
uh, we tried to address some of those questions at the time.
Fruin/ (several talking) Okay I'm gonna jump in to Human Rights, it's the last budget, uh, in the
City Manager's office, and uh, Human Rights is on page 156. Uh, we have two
employees in the Human Rights office, uh, you're probably most fa .... uh, familiar with
Stefanie Bowers. Also Kristin Watson serves in ... in that office. Um, they've been a
busy, uh, team, busy duo the last several years as we've really challenged them, um, to,
urn .... uh, meet some of the Council, uh, goals that .... that you all have set, and I think
they've done a really nice job, uh, expanding the scope of the Human Rights office, uh, to
meet that. So you're seein' more reports come out of there, uh, the racial equity report,
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uh, bein' one. Uh, there's also a lot more external engagement, uh, than there has been in
year's past, um, and that's one of the focuses in this budget. Uh, I would characterize it
as a, pretty much a status quo budget, but we do have increased funding for outreach of
the Human Rights office, uh, particularly to, uh, non-English speaking, uh, groups in the
community. Um, so Stefanie's involved in a lot of the discussions about what's bein'
translated and what needs to be translated. She helps inform other departments about
what she's hearing from the community in terms of, um, what needs to .... needs to be
done. As Ashley mentioned, she's working more closely with Communications to help
guide those efforts. Um .... in the financial highlights, uh, we did note a reduction in the
agency partnerships. I just want to clarify what that was. Um, for many years we had,
um, sponsored Diversity Focus, uh, at a $50,000 level. Uh, Diversity Focus no longer
exists. Um, and so we reduced, um, part of that commitment. You can see we ... um,
reduced that line item $30,000. So we kept .... we kept 20,000 of that, just to be
opportunistic if. ... if things come up and Stefanie says, hey, there's a real nice opportunity
to partner with this group or to expand some, uh, Human Rights Commission effort that
we still have some .... kind of some flexibility within that budget to .... to ...... to meet that
opportunity. Um.....the, uh.....uh, social justice and racial equity grant program, uh, is
continuing in .... in this budget. We had a successful first year and, uh, I know I'm
excited to hear about the applications that, uh, the Human Rights Commission will soon
be evaluating, um, and ... be forwarding recommendations on to you. Questions on
Human Rights?
Throgmorton/ I .... I like the, uh, improvements that have taken place within the racial equity
report overtime. I .... I think it's more sort of user-friendly. Uh, I like that a lot, but I was
wondering, we have a sustainability newsletter, uh, online newsletter. Is it, have you
thought about doing a ... basically a racial equity or racial equity and social justice
newsletter? Uh, comparable to that one?
Fruin/ Not to my knowledge, but .... but perhaps, and we can certainly float that idea.
Throgmorton/ Well .... think about it.
Fruin/ Yep.
Monroe/ They do .... I believe they have an existing LISTSERV at least, uh, so we have a .... a
base that we could send that to if we wanna develop one.
Frain/ One thing to keep in mind, um, as a Council regarding the racial equity report, the ... the
data that's in the racial equity report is prescribed by resolution, and so the Ad Hoe
Diversity Committee that took place, one of their recommendations four or five years
ago, whenever that was, was the creation of that report and they said this is the .... these
are the topics we want in the report. Um, we haven't gone back to Council and said, is
this still the data that you want to see? Is there other data, um, are there variations of data
that you'd like to see? So keep that in mind, you know, the next time you review that
report that, um.....there may be other angles to the complex problems that you want to
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see and we're certainly flexible in what data we collect and .... and, uh, provide in that
report.
Throgmorton/ Good!
Frain/ I think we're done. So we'll turn it over, uh, to the Finance Department, but before they
jump on, we've been working almost eight hours today and .... uh, the .... the two most
important people in the budget process have not said a .... a, really a word and that's
Dennis Bockenstedt the Finance Director and Jacklyn Budding over here. They do 99%
of the work on this budget, and it's (laughs) I just thought to myself, it's kind of a shame
that they have not said anything at all eight hours into the meeting. So, um, kudos to
Jacquelin, kudos to Dennis, and ..... and really their entire team. Um, I recommend that
you support everything in their budget proposal. (laughter)
Finance
Bockenstedt/ (several talking and laughing) ...time to go! (laughter) And I also want to
mention, uh, Cyndi Ambrose, who actually compiles the documents and get those ... gets
those notebooks ready and .... and she really puts in a lot of hard work into that budget
book and .... and does a lot of behind the work scenes and .... and doesn't get enough credit
for what she does. Um .... so I'm gonna briefly run through our department and what we
do and .... and our staffing, and then some of the initiatives we have in this upcoming
budget. Um, our department has, uh, just under 35, uh, full-time equivalents, across six
divisions. Uh, that first division, which begins on page 167, is Finance administration
and really it's a division of three of us, uh, myself, Jacklyn, and Cyndi, and .... and it's
really our responsibility I would say to ... to manage the overall direction of the City's
financial operations, uh, which includes the budget, uh, the bond issuance, employee
benefits, and also, uh, we do most of the City's investments and banking activities. Um,
some of the initiatives we have, uh, going right now is we're lookin' at adding a fourth
individual into that division, and that would be an internal audit. So right now there is a
three-quarter time internal audit, uh, budget (mumbled) position, which really would go
through the City's operations conducting audits, uh, and re ... reviewing the City's policies
and procedures, and we see this as a.....an important next step as to the policy
development that we've been workin' on for the last, really three, four, five years. Um,
other things we're lookin' at is we're evaluating financial, uh, long-term financial
projection software packages. Um, just to see.....right now we do a lot of, you know,
one, two, three-year projections. We do specific projections for debt and .... and you can,
you know, Geoff talked about the section in the book about long-term financial planning,
but this would be more comprehensive, uh, more extensive projections throughout a lot
of different areas of the budget in .... in different, uh, financial angles. So we're just
gonna look out there and see what .... what's available out there in .... in regards to that.
Uh, also I, uh (coughing, unable to hear speaker) we just started our finance and budget
LISTSERV, um, in the last month or so and .... so if you haven't had a chance to sign up
for that one, make sure you get out there and sign up for it. Um, but ... some of the things
that we've not put out in the past in regards to, you know, setting public hearings and,
you know, like when we set the public hearing for the budget, there's no press release.
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There are no .... there's no notice, other than what we publish in the newspaper or in the
Council packet and so things like that, we thought it'd be nice to .... to send out those
notices that people sign up so they would really know that those public hearings are
coming up and that information would come right to their email. Uh, the second, uh,
division, uh, I'll talk about is our Accounting Division. That begins on page 175. Uh,
this, uh, has seven full-time equivalents and, uh, for next year we're proposing the
elimination. It's actually 7.6, uh, the elimination of our .6, uh, full-time equivalent grant
accountant, and that was a position that was added, uh, probably roughly about 10 years
ago after the flood. Maybe it's been about not quite 10 years, and so .... you know, there
was a lot of the buyouts, uh, a lot of the .... the, uh, flood grants, CDBG grants, uh, this
person's been workin' on flood and flood -related grants for very, very long time
and .... and so, you know, it's sad to .... to eliminate a position and see somebody leave, at
the same time it's a .... it's a great relief to get through, uh, you know that period of the
City's history of. ... of all that flood and .... and the aftermath following the flood and we
actually just closed our last of our FEMA grants, uh.....from the two events in 13 and one
in 14, uh, just got closed in the last couple months. So, uh, that was .... that's very
exciting, um, and one of the other activities going on in Accounting is, ub, next year
they're gonna begin taking over the bookkeeping operations for JECC. Um, JECC was
looking for some alternatives to .... to their bookkeeping and accounting services, and we
met with them and so we are going to begin taking over their operations, uh, from a
bookkeeping perspective, uh, starting on July I". And so that .... that's a really a .... I
mean that's a good initiative. We're going to see if that can maybe even lead to further
opportunities for cooperation with JECC in different areas. Um, another, uh, initiative
going on in Accounting is, and this was part of the racial equity toolkit, we were one of
the first departments to do that, uh, that was a very exciting opportunity and .... and
we .... we dove into it and uh, one of the things that came out of that is .... is a .... a new
grant policy, um, which includes a component, um, of. ... of, uh, of racial impact analysis
on grant applications, and so, uh, that's one that we're starting up, and .... and we're
gonna see how that goes in the next, uh, you know, six months, year and so forth. Our
third division is, uh, our Purchasing Division and Central Services. Uh, this is on page
179. There's the purchasing and then there's the internal service fund on page 629, and
they really .... they.....they do all the....bidding RFPs for all the supplies (mumbled)
services, um, they manage a lot of contracts. So once those contracts are in place they
manage those. They also maintain all the City's copiers and the replacements, and all the
postage services throughout the City. Um, things are fairly status quo in ... in that division.
Uh, they were also one of the ones impacted by the racial equity toolkit analysis, and they
are now cooperating with cities like Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, um, we're
doin' a lot of mailings out to vendors to try and track, uh, minority and women vendors
that we haven't done before, as well as develop, uh, greater lists of opportunities for those
vendors that we can send bid packages to. So in the past we didn't know who was
getting them, who was returning them, you know, one of the difficulties is finding
women and minority vendors, to actually .... to get to bid. And so we're really workin'
with these other jurisdictions across the state. We're gonna try and build that data base
so that, you know, if we want to, uh, you know, bid out a service that we have those, uh,
a list of those vendors that we can include. Um, and so that .... that's very exciting, what's
going on, that all those jurisdictions are comin' together, uh, to really work on that
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same .... that same program. Uh, our fourth division begins on page 183 is our Revenue,
or our Utility Billing Division. Uh, they have just under eight full-time equivalents. Of
course they manage all the water bills and the water payments, um, and .... and all those
related services. Um, the .... they are also part of the racial equity toolkit, and uh,
they ... they probably went ... one of the more interesting, uh, you know .... parts that came
out of that and for the parts of town that we were having a higher default rates at
and ... and that's where we, you know, we're lookin' at trying to do civic marketing of our
low-income discount program, and looking at, uh, you know, direct mailers into that area,
and trying to expand that program, um, and then that also would include the .... the donor
program to help offset that cost. So, you know, one thing, um, you know, if we can get
more, uh, individuals, cause we .... we feel there's a lot more individuals out there eligible
for that program that are not registered, however, there's a cost to that. And if we can get
them to register at the same time offset some of that cost with the donor program,
and .... and those things are we .... we are working on right now, just developing the
marketing pieces of it with Communications and .... and, um, and .... and their staff to try
and get all that organized. So, um.....our fifth division is the Information Technology, is
on page 620. Um, this is one that we've really been undergoing a reorganization. You
know technology has changed so much over the last 20 years and .... and government
organization doesn't always change as fast as technology does, um, we've really shifted
from a self program, part of it where we programmed everything, to really more you buy
the software and you manage the operations, and so, um, you know, we've undergone
some changes in that, and really some of the .... the staffing changes in there are just some
of the final remnants of converting programmers into more managers of software
and ... and development. Um, you know, one of the .... the interesting pieces of that, that
started, uh, we really got a new GIS Coordinator on board, um, and that's been very
exciting, you know, it's an area that we barely tapped the surface of and .... and Ron
mentioned it a couple times, but um, you know, there.....there is a lot that we can do in
that area that we've just really begun to .... to start, to take a look at, and I think you'll see
a piece of that, uh, next week when we do the CIP presentation. You'll see, um, just
maybe little bits and pieces of what the potential is ... are for the GIS system. Uh, and then
(mumbled) mention the (can't hear) management software and right now it's really
uncoordinated effort citywide, and you talked about water as, you know, really you've
got everything marked and we have other divisions that have nothing. Uh, or very little,
and then everything in between, and so this is just an effort to get everybody in the City
on the same.... package, and together in the same page and ..... so that's really going to be
a large undertaking to .... RFP, acquire that software, and then .... and then get all of that...
and that's gonna be a, really a multi -department effort, um, that .... that's gonna come
together. Um, and then also I would want to mention with IT is that, you know, we just
installed a new phone system, which is no small undertaking, and it really overall has
gone pretty smoothly and they're wrapping up, uh, that particular implementation right
now. It's just (mumbled) reports and that type of thing. And so that's really, um .... the
City's financial operations in a .... in a nutshell, or I should say the Finance Department's
operations in a nutshell and I'll try and field any questions if ya.....if ya have any.
Throgmorton/ Well, Dennis, fantastic job, uh, that you and Jacklyn and everybody else in the
Finance Department have done in putting this budget together. Thank you so much for
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doin' it. Uh, I can't say I've read every word, or every number, but uh, it's a great job.
Thank you.
Bockenstedt/ I do want to mention, uh, Jacklyn has been here six months now and .... and she has
really done a good job so far. She's worked very hard and she's put a lot of effort into
this budget document, and so that's.....that's been a very good addition to our
department.
Throgmorton/ Okay, does anybody have any questions for Dennis? Okay. You're off scot-free.
Thank you.
City Clerk
Fruehling/ Saved the short one for last! Uh, Kellie Fruehling, City Clerk. Um, I've been with the
City and in the City Clerk's office for 17 years. Uh, I've been City Clerk since June of
17. Um, our budget starts on page 135. Uh, has four full-time employees. So myself,
Deputy Clerk, a Administrative Secretary, and a License Specialist. Um, then we also
have one hourly transcriptionist. Uh, there are no changes recommended or requested,
uh, as far as personnel levels. We're just happy to be full staffed finally. Um, one of our
main duties is to prepare Council meeting packets and the weekly information packets,
uh, with items provided to us by staff. Uh, also then we archive those meeting packets
and information packets, along with signed, completed resolutions, ordinances, and take
care of any filings associated with those documents, with the County Recorder or the
Secretary of State. Uh, we're also responsible for legal publications, such as public
notices, ordinances, and minutes required by law. Um, over the last year we finished up
our conversion of the microfilmed Council documents that date back to the 1800s, um,
and converted those all to digital files. Uh, we're working on breaking those out into
kind of our current, um .... meeting folder breakdown that we currently have. That way if
you go to search something from the older documents, it's kinda the same format. Um,
we'll probably only go back to about 1973 doin' it that way, cause that's when the ... the
open records law changed, and so .... documents were kept differently before then, so....
Um, you'll still be able to search folder items, except for the hand-written ones, and then
we've got indexes, so little bit more time consuming. Urn .... we also ..... took the micro-
filmed City projects and converted those into digital documents. Uh, right now they're
still in that roll form, um, so that's one of the things we'll be working on is pulling those
apart so that if you want to look at a single project, you can just go into that project and
research it. Um, our goal is to make as much information as possible available, uh, to the
public online. Some of the licensing duties in the Clerk's office are the taxi companies,
the taxi drivers, uh, we do dancing permits, outdoor service areas, cigarette, beer and
liquor licensing, uh, and then we also recently acquired public assembly, parade, and use
of ped mall permits. Thanks to Simon! (laughs) Um.....uh, we also maintain City
subdivision and rezoning files, current City project files, and dep... uh, domestic
partnership registry. Um, we also staff CPRB, so Community Police Review Board, uh,
we're clerical support for the cemetery, and we assist City staff and the public with
researching information. Um, our budget is basically status quo. Um, there's a little bit
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of a decrease cause it's an off election year, uh, and then we still do have the 9,500 in
there for an agenda management software system. So .... any questions?
Throgmorton/ I don't see any. Thank you, Kellie! And thanks for the terrific work you've been
doin'!
Fruehling/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ All right, folks! Unless somebody tells me otherwise, I think we're done!
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work session of January 6, 2018.