HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-02-06 Transcription Page 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Mims, Salih,Taylor,Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Dilkes, Fruehling, Knoche, Rummel, Havel, W. Ford,
Seydell-Johnson, Hightshoe,Bockenstedt, Budding, Knudtson-Davies,
Andrew, Miklo, Bowers
Others Present: Nelson, Stewart (UISG)
Operating and Capital Budget Discussion:
Throgmorton/The first topic is the operating and capital budget discussion. (mumbled) ...bear
with me please for a second. Okay, so we need to complete our budget discussion
tonight, and we have several other topics to consider during our work session. I think as
we discuss the budget, it would be good to remember or helpful to remember that each
additional penny in our tax levy generates about$36,000. Just,uh, for example, a 10-
cent increase in the City's tax levy would generate about $360,000 for FY19, but there'd
have to be some action on the part of staff, as I understand it. So, Geoff, did you have
thoughts about how we're gonna move through this or.....I know you gave us that....
updated memo.
Fruin/Yeah, so the, uh, updated memo was in your January 18th info packet. Urn, it has yellow
highlights, so it's the same memo you saw earlier in January. The yellows, the
highlighted text in yellow, is....is simply, uh, indicating what,uh, kind of the status of
each of the items is. So, it's really up to you. I don't have any introductory remarks, um,
can start with the operating budget or the capital, and just work down the list.
Throgmorton/ I think I want to say one other thing. If I understand correctly, during our first
meeting about the budget, we tentatively agreed to add about 90.....$90,000 for three
separate activities. Uh, you know, what were they, um.....social justice and racial equity
grant. For example we added $50,000 to it tentatively and so on. There're like three
activities involved there. I suppose we should just turn to the first topic, which....or the
first item, uh, on Geoff's, uh, memo, which is....the suggestion to increase affordable
housing contribution from 650,000 to $1 million for this fiscal year, and as....as of the
moment, we have not made a decision on that. So....what do you folks think?
Salih/(unable to understand) ....my idea and I want it to be move forward, of course.
Taylor/I would certainly be in favor of increasing it somewhat, but not quite up to the million
dollar, even...if you might consider 750,000 even I would consider that.
Mims/I'm not in favor of increasing it right now. 2018 is our first fiscal year to have this size of
a contribution. Um, and....and I'm really concerned about the fact of continuity. Um,
once you start doing things, it's really, really hard to take things back. Um, we have to
start taking things away from people. And I think it's very questionable when you look
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at Geoff's memo and, um, if you go back and look at some of the Moody's comments in
the....the debt, uh, report that was in one of our recent, um, info packets, as well. We....
we have not yet seen the full impact of the 2013 property tax reform. The multi-family
housing, uh, is still being implemented. I think it's, what, 2022, Geoff, somewhere in
there that it gets all the way down to (both talking)
Fruin/ ....close,yeah....
Mims/Yeah, somewhere around there, so we've still got another four years or so maybe before
that gets all the way down to, uh, the residential taxation rate. Um, we don't know
what's going to happen with backfill. Um, some people are saying that depending on the
revenue,uh, reports or projections this spring they may start taking that away this year, or
they may wait until after the election, which is probably more likely. Um, I would rather
stick with where it is, get a better sense of....of what our finances are going to be in the
next year or two, and then gradually increase, and make sure that it's something that is
sustainable going forward, rather than potentially spiking with peaks and valleys on this
sort of thing.
Throgmorton/Geoff, uh, I know we've had a conversation with our lobbyists about the backfill,
but I don't remember specifically what Jim Carney and, uh.....(both talking)told us, can
you?
Froin/In....in the Governor's proposal, she did not, um, include the backfill. Uh, I'm sorry, did
not include taking the backfill away. So the Governor has signaled that she would like to
keep the backfill in. Uh, ultimately,um, the House and the Senate have to, um, go
through a de....deappropriations bill, which they're working through right now. Urn, it's
anybody's guess as to whether it's included in there, but the....the feeling that we're
getting is that, um, at least in this initial deappropriation, that should be wrapped up I
would guess within a couple of weeks, that backfill will be preserved. As Council
Member Mims alluded to,urn, the Revenue Estimating Committee convenes again in
March. If you recall last year there was a second round of deappropriations that were
needed, um....uh, at that time. So folks are a little bit nervous about what the projections
will say in March and whether that leads to another round of deappropriations or further
budget cuts for fiscal year 19. That's....I....I would say if things stay status quo, we look
pretty good for the year, but with some bad reports in March, it's back on the chopping
block.
Throgmorton/What do the rest of you think?
Monroe/I was just going to comment. Today Simon Andrew and I spent the day in Des Moines,
and so.....at the League Legislative Day, and so we heard a little bit more about the
backfill and what, uh, the feeling is there in the capitol. Um, as Geoff said, they're antsy
about the....the reports back in March. Right now they're looking at, um,adding to
the....the amount for deappropriations in case the....the revenues are less than expected
or projected. So they're working on that. Um, the other report that we're getting as far
as, uh,holding on to the backfill or not,um, the message from the legislators we heard
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from is just that....it's really important to....for all the communities to reach out to their
legislators and continue talking with them about the value backfill has for....for them,
and that it was, again, as Geoff had said, the feeling is that the backfill is intact, but,um,
for this upcoming budget year, and then after that it should be,um, likely to decrease in
the next two or three years. Um....
Throgmorton/ So we ha....by State law, we have to approve the budget not later than March 15th.
Is that right? Yeah, and after that we can amend the budget, at some point down line. I
don't know if there's any time....limitation with regard to that. As far as I know there's
not.
Fruin/You can amend the budget...mid-year. You can't raise the tax levy mid-year.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Uh, yeah! (mumbled)
Salih/I think,urn, I understand everything about the backfill but my understand when I talk to
Geoff, he told me that's gonna come out from the reserve. The money is there, and we
are not interrupting the budget, and I think since we been talking about affordable
housing forever,but even though we have affordable housing action plan but I think this
not moving forward. I would like us....since the money's there, why not increase it to
one million? I like the letter that Tracy sent out and that like (unable to understand) they
really done a lot of good stuff there, and we can continue doing the same thing. And....
that's why I think this is something I have been campaigning on (unable to understand)
70%of the voter supported me, 77% of the voter supported me,because that what I'm
(unable to understand) and I will be continue pushing for it, for everything that I been
campaigning.
Botchway/ Yeah, I....I wanted to say a couple of things. I mean I....I definitely understand,urn,
concerns, urn,because I think that, you know, each of our roles, you know, we have to
think about obviously the budgetary constraints, urn, and as we think about how we're
going to push forward on different initiatives,being cognizant of those, obviously with
staff's help,to make sure that we're, you know, moving forward prudently. I would say
though, you know,my focus on this particular initiative is see....seeing it from the
standpoint of we need to move forward when we can. I think that, you know, Geoff laid
out, um....uh, kind of a pretty strong case in the sense where there are some concerns I
have with FY19, in....in a similar sense what Susan had said, as far as the sustainability
of this. I think that we've had some conversations as far as economic development in
general, and so this....the.....the money that we have generated that's in surplus, urn, may
not be there in a year. I think that that's concerning. Urn, but I....I do feel like that's a
conversation that we can have, urn, as we're talking about the affordable housing action
plan, as we're thinking about additional things that we can do to move forward,to think
about alternative funding sources or revenues sources to that extent. So I'm....I'm really
comfortable moving forward. Urn.....I feel like, you know, my main....I think that as we
look at it in this particular housing.....affordable housing equation, it's tough to kind of
see why the extra$350,000 in funding, I mean four to eight units of affordable housing, I
mean, doesn't necessarily rile me up, but I'm actually interested in more how we can
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change the equation to maybe reallocate some of the resources that we're looking for
with that extra$350,000, to look at land banking and some other things that I think are
really important.
Salih/Yes.
Botchway/I don't think we should miss this opportunity for the exact same concerns that Susan
just mentioned. I....I totally agree, and think that if we don't allocate the funding now,
we won't have that opportunity in the future, um, because of other things that may come
down the pike, and I just feel like now is the time.
Throgmorton/So you think we should increase it to a million (both talking) Is that right?
Botchway/Yes.
Thomas/I, urn, also agree that, you know, this is a....a really important issue in Iowa City. Was
confirmed by our citywide survey, which we just got back. The, uh, in terms of aspects
of community characteristics, affordable quality housing was at 24%. It was
considerably lower. I think the lowest scoring of all of our attributes was the affordable
housing measure. Uh, so that....that, also that tells me not only do, you know, have....
have we on Council been speaking of this as a concern, but it's a citywide concern and
....and at the very top of....of areas where we're deficient. You know I....I hear, Susan,
your concern about consistency and I think that is something to consider, although I....I
think,uh, Kingsley responds to that pretty clearly. Urn, we also have to be....I think
taking....where, when we have opportunities to increase the fund, we....we take them.
Uh....the fact that we may not have this same mechanism by which to increase the fund
next year does speak to me about how do we find alternative funding sources to move
forward. Uh....so we do need to look at that, plus we're not at full force with respect to
some of our action plan items. One that I was really counting on we didn't even
implement and that is the, um, regulatory. Staff got....taken up on (laughs) other
responsibilities and couldn't.....couldn't, uh, look at that and.....and the detail that was
going to be required. So I think for now, um, this seems like a sensible thing to do. We
have the resources and I....I think everyone in this community acknowledges that it's a
very important issue.
Throgmorton/Well I wanna push back on that a little bit, John, but mainly by asking Geoff a
question. A few days ago I was reading that the State was very unlikely to cut the
backfill,and now I'm hearing that it's much more iffy, I mean, that's the way it feels to
me anyhow. Regardless, what.....if we increase the affordable housing amount to a
million, and the backfill is either eliminated or reduced significantly.....what does that
imply for us....doin' the budget, you know, and making sure we, um....comply with
budgetary requirements.
Fruin/ Yeah, so I'll ask Dennis to, um, maybe come on up and help me if I misstate any of this.
Um, or....or fill in the blanks, but when we put together the budget for FY19, urn, we....
um, layered the backfill payments for FY19 on top of, uh, what it takes to operate the
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City. So essentially we're counting on the....the backfill to be a surplus in FY19, so if
the backfill runs out,um, or does not.....they choose not to distribute that in FY19, we
have a relatively status quo, or break even, budget. Is that....
Bockenstedt/Yeah, I think, urn, we tried to work around the backfill, cause we were not certain
as far as what its status was going to be. So I think if it were to go away, uh, we would
have to certainly take a look at, you know, where we're at from an operating perspective,
but I don't think we'd have to look at any drastic types of cuts. Now that's without
adding any of these further increases into the budget. So I think if....there are any
changes to the backfill, we would have to go back in,probably just take a look and see
what that impact is going to be,but to the budget to this point, we tried to work around
that as much as possible, or to minimize the impact of any that might take place.
Fruin/I think for....for your, where you're sitting today, um.....assuming that worst-case
scenario where it's taken out next year, um, it's not really next year that Dennis and I
would be concerned about. It's....it's what we're (laughs) gonna do in FY20 and 21,
cause....I think as I mentioned in one of the memos, even the 650 is not a stable revenue
source. We're.....we're, um, you know, payin' that back with....with funds that won't be
there beyond FY19. So, urn, even with backfill goin' on, if you're comfortable tappin'
into the reserves, and that's really an opportunity cost question for you because those
reserves are available for anything,um, if you're comfortable with it, I think that we'll be
okay with whatever decision the State makes for one year.
Throgmorton/Thanks. (several talking) So I....I'd say I.....I would....like Pauline, I would
support increasing the amount to 750, maybe 800, but I don't think it's wise to go to a
million.
Salih/ Can I just ask a question? (several talking) Of Geoff. Uh...how much we gonna we
planning to reduce the tax levy this year?
Fruin/ 15-cents.
Salih/Okay. And you just saying that....one-cent would generate 36,000. 10-cent would get it
more than what I ask. Then.....why we refusing it? With the priority here? Is it....I
know that is good to use the tax. I understand this, but we have to have priorities. I
guess if we don't do anything, if we done nothing, even we don't reduce it or we don't
increase it, so we can do....especially that we....we even have something.....like (unable
to understand) backfill and all this. Why just like leave it as it is? Don't increase it,
don't decrease it, and I guess (unable to understand) and do this for this year.
Fruin/Just a real quick comment on the reduction in the tax levy. The....the reduction on the tax
levy is coming from the debt service levy. Uh, so the debt service levy, um, is one of
several levies that make up the total tax levy. So the total tax levy's coming down.
That's because the debt service levy is bein' reduced by 25-cents. We're actually
increasing the employee benefits levy 10-cents already. So if the Council wanted to....
uh,raise the tax levy to come up with the 350,000, I think Dennis' recommendation
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would be that we tap into the emergency, uh, levy that's available to cities, cause that's a
levy that we do not use right now, but is a 20....you could use it for up to 27-cents,um,
for emergency purposes and you would have the ability to raise it for this purpose.
Cole/If I jump in here. Here's my position. Hopefully, um, I guess what my view is I'd try to
like to synthesize some various points that have been made. Urn, I think Susan brings
absolutely a legitimate point in terms of the long-term budgeting process. We most
certainly would not want to convey that this is something we could do every year. Urn,
but by the same token, I think Mazahir and Kingsley bring up a really good point. We
can communicate, I mean some of them hopefully are in this room, to our affordable
housing partners not to expect this increase every year, and to communicate the
uncertainty associated even with the 650, even though I think it seems like there's
consensus that we will do our darndest to make sure that we do that going forward, and
so to the backfill point, what I would like to do is is I would like to get up to Mazahir's
number,but as an intermediate position, I would like a$750,000 number,with the
expectation if there's not a reduction in the backfill we commit to the full $350,000 extra
that Mazahir, um, cause I think she is right. Um, setting aside the election, this is a time
in our community where we have widespread and vocal support on this issue. I know it's
not unanimous. I know not everyone in the community feels that way. Um, they
certainly haven't come up in this chamber to vocally oppose what we're doin', and so I
think that we do have this unique moment. My expectation would be that our affordable
housing community could use this to sort of springboard additional efforts, in both the
owner-occupied affordable context, as well as the rental. So I would like to see an
increase now, commit to,uh, 750,000, um, or at least half-way there, with the expec...
I'm sorry. It'd be 175,000 more with the expectation that if there's no backfill reduction
we'd go the full amount. And we should know that in three weeks, correct? I mean
when....when would the....
Fruin/I would say you....you would know that when they conclude their session.
Cole/Okay. (several talking) ...and the, when is the end of the legislative session again this
year?
Fruin/Uh (several talking) It's probably May, June. Sometimes they'll go into June.
Cole/Okay.
Fruin/Typically May.
Cole/ So I'm comfortable at least with that, as sort of a....a compromise position in terms of
these(both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...get to the point I was trying to ask about with regard to the backfill (both
talking) about whether we could....make a decision now and then....have the opportunity
to increase the amount in case the backfill was in fact funded, fully funded, and if not,
then we wouldn't get ourselves into....a complicated situation.
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Botchway/I would just....you know, I....I don't disagree, obviously, because it gets to that
million that, you know, obviously, you know, I'm interested in. I would just say,
harkening back to John's point, and being....having some past experience with budgets, I
mean, Dennis, if we....it comes back that there's an issue,that we make amen...
amendment to the budget, right? I mean if there was...we would....that's just, I mean, in
my prior experience working with budgets, things happen all the time, not just focusing
just on this. Um, you make amen...amendments to budget all the time and so again,
going back to John's point, we would amend the budget. I mean if it was...if it was that
concerning of an issue that we needed to have a discussion about it again, we would
come back together and amend the budget. So I'm not disagreeing with Rockne's point
because I think it's gonna get it to some consensus, but again,just from a budgetary
standpoint, I feel like it does signal to the community that we're moving forward with
one million right now. In the event that some information comes down from Des Moines
that changes our, um, focus, or anything occurs, not just focusing on just what's
happening in Des Moines. I mean there could be some other things that happen that may
need our attention, but we'd have to make some budgetary changes, and that would come
in the form of amendments. So I just want us to (both talking)
Cole/One quick point though. I would rather amend to increase rather than amend to cut. Urn,
it's sort of.....
Salih/I guess the cut is not going to be for this only.
Cole/No....
Salih/(unable to understand) affordable housing(unable to understand) We gonna cut a lot of
stuff so we can make everything equal. That's why I....I rather really go for award, uh,
full amount, especially it's coming out from the, you know, the reserve....not from the
budget.
Throgmorton/I can agree with your suggestion, Rockne. I....I, it seems wiser to me to do it that
way than to do it this other way. So we don't have any motions on the floor cause it's a
work session. So we don't have any motions on the floor cause it's a work session,
but....I hear one,two, three people in favor of increasing it to a million. Now I'm
agreeing with Rockne's suggestion, about increasing it to 750 and later on increasing it to
7....a million, if the backfill remains in place for this coming fiscal year. Would anybody
else shift to agree with that or shift to agree to the million?
Thomas/If we can build consensus around that, um,you know, I....I think it's a reasonable
approach. I'd rather we'd all support it, I think, is what I'm trying (both talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah. Uh, right now it sounds like one,two, three.....four. Four in favor
of doing 750 now and increasing it to a million,unless the backfill payment goes away.
Correct? Okay. All right. Next item.....I'll just read(mumbled) somethin' that we
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already know. We already decided to increase funding for the social justice and racial
grant program from 25,000 to 75,000.
Thomas!Could I add a....
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Thomas/I mean, maybe we're all on board with that but, urn, one....one thought I was having
was....not knowing the quality and content of all the proposals that came to the
Commission. Um, it may....it may be very well that by raising it to 75,000, every good
proposal that has come before them, um, would be covered by that increase. Uh,but the
scenario I was thinking of was what if there's some really good ones between 75,000 and
$100,000 that we will not be able to reach because.....of running out of grant funding.
Throgmorton/I'm not following you. You talkin' (several talking)proposals that are between
75,000 and $100,000, is that what (both talking)
Thomas/I'm saying...they got 20 some odd proposals, I think.
Throgmorton/Twenty-eight.
Thomas/Twenty-eight. Uh....
Throgmorton/To allocate, and you know, for a total of$25,000.
Thomas/Right. Well,but we were talking about raising it to 75,000, correct?
Throgmorton/Total. Yes.
Thomas/Uh, so....so the thought I....I had was, um, if we were to raise it to $100,000, another
$25,000 in other words, uh, with....are there any.....has the Commission identified
beyond the....the, those grants that would be funded through the $75,000. If there were
some they'd really like to be able to fund, but....their....their$75,000 allocation has been
expended.
Mims/Right. You're going to have another set of applications next year. I think....you always,
no matter what you set for the amount of the budget, you always have that potential that
you're going to have good proposals that exceed the budget that you set. So whether it's
25, or 50, or 75, you're gonna have a new set of proposals, applications, every single
year. I mean the ones they got this year aren't going to be the same ones they use next
year. People are gonna have to reapply next year with$75,000 in the pot and you may
have$60,000 of really good quality applications and you might have $120,000 of really
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....240,000 or so. (several talking)
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Mims/ ....and I don't know how good they were. I've talked to a couple of the Commissioners
and I think they would have liked to be able to support more,but there also were some
that they clearly felt were people just trying to create jobs for themselves, so to speak. So
there was....there was a real variety, I think, in the quality.
Taylor/I think last year they gave us more of an idea of who had applied and who they denied,
and so we had kind of an idea of those that maybe, uh,weren't appropriate. This time we
didn't have that information.
Fruin/(several talking) It's ultimately....it'll come to you in March. It's your decision. They're
....they're making a recommendation to you. They have, uh, made their
recommendation, but they're going to confirm that in their, uh, February meeting, and
then it'll be on your.....one of your March agendas to, uh, confirm what their
recommendation is and award those grants or you have the ability to, uh,modify what
their recommendation is.
Cole/(both talking) The only thing I....go ahead! The only thing I would say related to that is
that would be true with every budgeting situation. The one thing, and this may just be a
staff discretion issue. Um, for our funding decisions on these grants, I would like to see a
lot of grants to a lot of different organizations, as opposed to a really high percentage
grant to one or two. Um, I know that that's sort of the philosophical debate. Ultimately
it would be a....a, you know, staff decision in terms of what makes sense,but I view
these as sort of, you know, seed funding for a lot of different types of organizations that
are doing a lot of really good work, so....little bit of commentary there (both talking)
Fruin/Actually it wouldn't be staff discretion. These,the....the program itself, um, is under the
purview of Council.
Cole/Okay!
Fruin/Um, so the Human Rights Commission, I don't think Council gave, uh, Human Rights
Commission any specifics when we first started it because we didn't know what to
expect, and urn,but if you wanted to set a maximum grant limit, or a minimum grant
limit, for the future, you could do that.
Cole/Okay!
Froin/You could say no grants more than 10,000 or whatever number you felt was appropriate.
Cole/And I won't bring that up now cause I think that's the type of proposal that I should give to
Councilors in a memo format, so you'd have time to think about it. But just some food
for thought, for us to think about.
Throgmorton/One of the things I like about....this process is that the $25,000....the current
$25,000 limit and going through the Human Rights Commission was an innovation. An
experiment. We didn't know how it would work, and suddenly we get 200 and whatever
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thousand dollars worth of applications from 20 different....28 different entities. So we
know there's interest. So I can....I....I wanna build on that incrementally. I don't wanna
make some grant leap and then start really adding a lot of money to it, but....it sounds
like there's interest. It sounds like there's, um....uh, lot of innovative proposals comin'
out so let's.....try to marginally increase what we're doin' to it. All right. So, I think
we're still agreed with that, right, 75? Yeah. Okay, let's see, um......we decided to
increase the local food budget from 30,000 to 50,000. Correct? (several responding)
Fruin/Can I make one....can I ask a clarification on that?
Throgmorton/ Sure.
Fruin/Uh, there was discussion at that same time about this downtown food incubator project,
but my understanding of the increase in the local foods budget is you weren't necessarily
earmarking that extra 20 for that specific proc.....project. Those were just two different
conversations occurring around the same time. So it's still....50 for whatever
competitive applications we get in.
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Cole/And, Geoff, on that point, quick. I've had some conversations with the leaders of that
particular project. My response to them is that's really something that should go through
staff, um, to sort of get that proposal and then you guys have a sense of how reasonable it
is (both talking)
Fruin/Okay.
Cole/ ...back to us. So that's what I.....thought.
Throgmorton/As a parenthetical comment, I noticed that in the consumption base admission
inventory that (both talking)
Mims/I was gonna mention that (both talking)
Throgmorton/ got from Brenda Nations, you know, it draws a lot of attention to the
importance of food, getting away from animal and dairy products, from a carbon
emission reduction point of view. So I think that's justification for(both talking)
Mims/Well but what was interesting about that was they said what you eat is more important
than how far the food is transported.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah.
Mims/Which was kind of antithetical to what we think about in terms of local food. I mean I
still think local foods are important, but I found that very interesting that it
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was....quantified the way it was, not really surprising, because.....meat is very inefficient
use of energy.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Okay, and we also agreed to add $20,000 for what I....I described as a
public art and wayfinding concept plan along the Iowa River. I want to clarify that just a
little bit. This is an unfolding kind of idea, connected to....um, activities that the
University of Iowa is pursuing, and Geoff and I sat in on a meeting pertaining to that just
a few days ago. Also to, uh, an endeavor that the Convention and Visitors Bureau
supports, as a result of its strategic plan process. So....I guess I think of as a placeholder
that would help us with regard to that particular project. Uh, Geoff; you're squinting. I
don't know if that(laughs)
Fruin/No! No! (laughter) Sony! (several talking)
Throgmorton/All right, so....(several talking) I think we now need to move to the
capital....sorry, capital improvements part of the budget. Is that correct, or did I skip
something?
Botchway/Just a couple of things. So, um,just wanted to make sure we.....we're not going to...
I thought there was....we moved forward on the consulting....piece (several talking) I
thought that you said that the yellow was what we decided.
Fruin/Yes, so Council decided to keep the funds in the budget (both talking)
Botchway/Oh, never mind. Sorry(both talking)
Fruin/ ....directed staff to focus, uh, the effort on under-served populations.
Botchway/Never mind! (both talking)
Mims/I would actually like to comment on that. I'm concerned about limiting our focus on that
retail consultant. Um, I don't necessarily disagree with you, Rockne, that it....it needs to
include looking at under-served populations. But....we.....I think we need to look at any
kind of retail, um, in the area with, I think with Kmart leaving and....you know, we talk
about having walkable neighborhoods across the city and small businesses and this and
that. Um, I think we need to keep that more open-ended, quite frankly.
Botchway/ I mean I guess for me, um, cause I think that was part of that conversation as well, I
mean maybe it's a word change in the sense Council decided to keep funds in the budget
for this purpose,but directed staff; um, with a focus on under-served populations, instead
of to focus on under-served populations. I mean ultimately it kind of goes back to the
conversation we had in relation to, um, you know, my talk around the toolkit. You know,
in the event that we don't ensure that it happens, or we make sure that it's a part of the
conversation ahead of time, then it's gonna be left out and then I'm gonna have questions
about whether or not we're focusing on under-served populations,um, in general, and so
I think it's important to incorporate the language, urn, within this particular proposal as it
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goes out. I can....I can understand what you're saying, Susan. I guess I'm not....I'm not
proposing a....just a....a.....just a consul....or retail (mumbled) consultant just for under-
served populations. Urn, it was more with the thought in mind that we would consider
both. So there'd be a `with' in there as well. So maybe it's a language, I mean, change
from my standpoint(both talking)
Cole/So maybe with a focus on under-served and traditional retail?
Botchway/Yeah.
Cole/Urn, the only reason that I brought that up is, you know, you had talked a lot about the
Kmart,and that's a huge area. It's like why not focus in on that, cause that seems to be
struggling a little bit retail-wise,urn, and maybe they would of anyway,but maybe not. I
mean maybe they would of focused on other parts of the community. That just seems to
be the most pressing need.
Fruin/Yeah, they'll do a scan of the entire community, and frankly the research they provide is
going to be beneficial to people outside of our community, because we're....the retailers
aren't looking at what's the Iowa City demographics. They're lookin' at what's the
Johnson County demographics, or what's the Eastern Iowa demographics. So, urn,you
know, this is the type of consultant,um, agreement that we would bring to you for final
approval. I think I'd get a sense of what you're looking for here. You'll be able to see
the scope and be able to amend it if you're uncomfortable with it when we bring it to ya,
but....that'll be several months from now before we can get to that.
Throgmorton/Okay. Let's move to the capital improvements part. And the proposal was to
consider acceleration of the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center improvements currently
budgeted in fiscal year 21, and we have not discussed this yet. So whose suggestion was
this?
Cole/I....I had brought this up, and in part it was an original discussion that I had had with....
with staff about this particular project. What I love about this particular project is it's
something that's already in the staff's pipeline. Urn,they've already sort of identified
working with,uh, staff at the Robert A. Lee Center that this proposal,which as I
understand it would be making where the racquetbar...ball courts are now to...to bust out
that wall and make it more permeable with the area that's currently served in the parking
lot, as well as the Farmers Market. Urn, a non-profit....my.....my goal would be to
connect this to the bike library. We can talk about that. Urn,because one of the things in
terms, if you look at all the different initiatives that we're trying to achieve, social juc..
justice, exercise, carbon reduction,urn,place-making,uh, skilled development. You
know I wasn't successful on the, urn, you know the maker space, but really a bike library
has that element. I mean where you're learning tool development,you're learning how to
use tools. I think that's a component of what they do, um, and the fact that it provides
inc....or essentially resources for, you know, some of the low-income residents of the
city, including,uh, City Councilors (laughs) I actually bought a bike there like two years
ago. Uh, not every bike fits me,but I did find one there. Um, so it's really a service that
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provides for everything, and the reason why I want to move it up is that the bike library
has struggled to sort of find it a space,uh,they're a well-established, long-term
organization. Most importantly with an extensive track record that we know that they're
gonna be doing something amazing there. So my recommendation would be we move it
up to 2019. Urn,we authorize staff for funds for, I think it's like $60,000 for the
consultant,um, and then we reach out to that particular organization and move forward
on that, as opposed to sort of an open-ended process, I think they're sort of a unique
entity that really do fit nearly perfectly, and it brings 'em back to their historical roots.
They were at Wilson's Sporting Goods store, and to be able to bring them back, almost to
where they started, would be a perfect sort of, you know, ending to that whole process.
Throgmorton/ So, Geoff, budgetary, uh, follow up here. What would be the budgetary
implications of doing this?
Fruin/Well we would....we would need design funds, uh, in this particular year. So you're
probably lookin' at, I'm guessin'....40,000, 50,000, somewhere in that ballpark, um....I
typically think of about 10% of project costs,uh, for design firm....for design funds. We
would get that design then going this year. Uh, we do have some very conceptual studies
that have been done, so we'd have a little bit of a head start on it, but we'd....we'd move
to design and, um, I think.....you know, constructing the improvements next year would
be pretty aggressive, but it's probably in the realm of possibility if you wanted to move
the entire project,um,up to 2019. Uh, but really until we get into the design it's hard to
know all the variables that....that may come into play. So short answer to your question,
I'd have to consul....you're probably, we'd probably put about 40 to $50,000 of the
general fund. This 475 is, although it's in the capital plan, it's actually general fund
dollars. Um, so we would....we would, uh, move, uh, some of those funds up to the
current year.
Botchway/ So I would actually.....Geoff, are you done?
Fruin/I'm done.
Botchway/Okay! I didn't want to cut you off. Um, so I....I'm (mumbled) supportive of this.
Uh, you know,talked a little bit about.....took, talked a little bit with Rockne. Um, I
actually wanna take it a step further. Um, and more from a design standpoint, I guess,
initially. Um, you know, I know that this, um, this particular project is just looking at
improvements within the Robert A. L...uh, Robert A. Lee Recreation Center, as well as,
you know, the potential for...Rockne was talking about as well,which I'm very excited
about. It did beg the question for me initially was why just them, and when I started
thinking about that a little bit, what I'm getting to is....l was interested in possibly
looking at.....looking at just designs. I'm not saying we should, but going up. Um, and
I'm only talking about....going up as far as building on top of the Rec Center. I'm only
talking about one to two stories, and the reason why I'm bringing that up is in the same
sense that Rockne was talking about creating space for the bike library,which I bought a
bike from as well. Urn, and it was like super-cheap so I really enjoyed it. It was great
and was riding around till it broke but(laughter)um....there's other organizations out
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there that are,non-profits, that have always been thinking or looking for space. We, I
think we've talked about this before, at least I've talked about before,maybe not
necessarily in Council,but just out in the community, that,urn, City space is something
that,you know, is hard to come by. You know,um, it's something that,you know,we....
we have to think long and hard about as far as what we're doing with that space. I think
we had that conversation when we were talking about the project,just right across the
way as far as, you know, losing that City space and the importance of what that meant
and why we wanted to do it in that particular fashion, and so my only piece of this, and I
don't....I don't necessarily know how much of that would increase the cost,but I would
just increase the scope. Doesn't mean that Council would move forward on that,but I'd
just be interested in what the consultant would come back with,by introducing an extra
floor, maybe two, for potential for non-profit spaces to be a part of the Rec Center as
well.
Throgmorton/Think you're increasing the amount,the cost, a lot. That's what it sounds like to
me. I mean, Geoff and....other staff would have to answer that question.
Fruin/I couldn't answer it now. The design costs, I mean, you'd add....I don't know,tens of
thousands to the design cost, obviously, to construct a couple new floors on the building,
if it could support that,uh,would be incredibly expensive.
Botchway/I mean I think that even within the scope of this particular question, it'd be interesting
to note just whether or not it would even support it, I mean I think that would have to go
within some of the design,urn, as far as just within the individual improvements. So I
mean I think that even if you....even your comment,Jim, in that sense, you know,that's
still maybe two steps out from, you know, we don't even know if the building supports it,
and so I think that within the understanding of the improvements that are happening
currently, I....I think that asking that question, having an answer, a solid answer on that
question, I think,would be important just in general.
Frain/We could,um, you know, as part of the scope, have a very rough question to the design
team,the architects, that said if the City wanted to expand the Rec Center operations,
what....what options are there, and....and not necessarily program space, and not say it's
for this purpose or that purpose,but they could look at it structurally and say, yes, you
can build out into the parking lot or you can build up above the pool or this or that. We
may have even done some of that. Urn, Juli's shaking her head. If you've got
information, come on up, Juli,but....that type of scope....addition wouldn't be too
expensive, if we're not actually designing space.
Seydell-Johnson/We'd have to have a.....an opinion to see if we could go up, based on the age
and the structure of the current building. I know at one point there was a study that
showed expansion of the gym space in one way or another. I don't have the specifics on
that, but I know that was looked at before.....as well.
Throgmorton/Well, I very much like Rockne's initial idea. I know that's....very much under-
utilized space at the moment, and Geoff, you and I have talked about it before. We....it
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seems like there's considerable potential there for that particular space. I can see doing
exactly what you suggested with regard to getting....to getting some general sense of...
you know,what would be....whether the building could be built upon as a whole. But
otherwise I like the idea of moving ahead with,uh, design. I mean the only....the only
real question is, should we ask the staff to,uh, focus the design on a bike library for that
space or something else, or alternatives for that space. Juli, what do you think?
Seydell-Johnson/Um, I would just mention that when we added the money....or the request into
the budget, it contemplated just making that a shell. So making the space usable by
another group with an outside entrance with just simply a shell to this space, not any
finishes or anything on the inside. So that would be an additional cost, and would leave it
open for design for whatever group maybe would go in there, and potentially that would
be their contribution is to....to finish off the space on the inside.
Taylor/I like the idea of the....the bike library. It's kind of in harmony with our bike master
plan and kind of what the community, um, wants as far as biking, and I....I think that
would be a good use of it.
Cole/Normally I don't like choosing specific organizations, but I just think given this particular
organization's history in that location, coupled with...even just the fact that the Police
store the...are those stolen bikes they put in Chauncey Swan? What....there's a lot of
bikes there. (several talking) Um, I think it makes sense in this particular context to
focus on them.
Throgmorton/What do the rest of you think?
Thomas/I....I think it seems like a reasonable idea. I....it does seem to me, um,that some
consideration should be given, you know,jumping to the bike library may or may not....
sounds like a good idea.
Cole/Uh huh.
Thomas/It seems like there should be some preliminary phase to this process that verifies that,
um....I would say that. And then furthermore I think it would be useful to better
understand in my view....kind of building on Kingsley's comment,how doing this may
or may not interfere with any future plans on the site, whether it's....expanding the....the
current building or building into the parking lot area. Just kind of confirming that this
isn't going to then close the door on some other options that might present themselves
later, um, but that's a dead space. So it does (laughs) seem to....it seems worthwhile to,
um....to utilize it, and I do like the idea the way it would open up the building to the east.
I think that's....that's a benefit too.
Mims/Geoff, my understanding when you and I talked about this was that you felt that this
wouldn't....cause I think I asked that, basically the same question that John's asking, that
in doing this, and obviously this is only the design piece anyway,but it's not going to...
um, have a negative impact on.....the.....the other future design and development and
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things, I mean, is this....that we might do, or....or are we kind of closing some certain
doors if we do this.
Fruin/Well, I think it'd be hard to expand the gym, uh, ever if we did this. If you wanted to
ever, you know, double the size of the gym or....or, uh, add space for, you know,
additional courts or whatever it may be,uh, that may be a challenge,but,urn, you know,
the.....the ....the way those rooms operate now—racquetball and the game room—our
staff does not have any eyes on them. Uh, there's.....there's certainly accessibility
concerns. Um, they're just not good spaces for us right now. So, um, I don't
envision.....I don't envision that we could even use them for anything else, other than
really what they're used for now, and we're not really even very comfortable with how
they're used now. So, um, yeah, I think other than gym expansion, I don't really see.....
Mims/So basically it would preclude gym expansion.
Fruin/Um....yeah I would assume you have to build out for the....for the, in order to expand the
gym you'd have to build into that...that space. Urn.....now you might be able to expand
the gym and then build a, you know,build a shell further out into the parking lot for the
type of space that we're alluding to here, but....we.....the path that staff is on right now
does not include a gym expansion. We weren't lookin' to that. If that's a priority, um,
then yes, I think this whole thing gets called into question. We need to have that
discussion—do we want to look at expanding the gym.
Mims/And I'm not saying I do, it's just I....kind of like what John is saying. I don't want to do
something that then in 10 years we're like, darn, why did we do that, cause now it
precludes something else that we would really like to do.
Seydell-Johnson/I'm not 100% on this but the gym expansion idea may have been before the
Scanlon Gym was added to Mercer. So that's....very likely the timing of it,that some of
the use went to, um, Scanlon or to Alexander where we use the school gym there too.
Mims/ So we're looking at 40 to 50,000 just for design work.
Fruin/That's....that's a guess. Yeah, but that's....based on the cost of the project,that's probably
a pretty good range. And....and we should clarify. There...there probably will be some
other things we try to bring in. So the 475 is.....is, I think,more than we think is needed
to do just....just shell the space, as Juli was sayin'. There's a,um, a whole list of
accessibility improvements that need to take place at Robert A. Lee and we just
completed the first round of....one of many rounds of those. So we would look to bring
in a couple of other things as budget allows. So this....this could be a little bit bigger
than just shelling this space, but we'd essentially work within that$475,000 budget, do as
much as we can.
Throgmorton/Any other comments?
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Botchway/ So,I mean again I....I would go back to if we can get some type of general opinion
as far as our options are concerned (both talking)
Throgmorton/I think that's already understood.
Fruin/Um, so what we'll do is we will,uh, internally have some discussions on scope. We'll try
to frame that up for you. We'll schedule a work session, um, I would like some firm
direction from Council as to whether you want us to work directly with the bike library
from the start or as John alluded to, if you would like us to consider some type of, um,
call for proposals or call for interested parties to determine if there's other uses that may
be....that may fit in there. So, we'll....we'll put this on the pending work session and,
um, try to frame up the issue for ya.
Throgmorton/Okay! Sounds good. All right,the only other item I'm aware of...concerns
North Market Square Park, improvements to it. We haven't discussed this yet. I'm not
sure where the I.....I don't know specifically where the idea is so....
Thomas/I have that and I have another that I think didn't make the list,that I'll follow up with.
Uh,the North Market Square Park improvement project was related or triggered by the
fact that the, um,the school addition at Horace Mann will, um, basically....take place and
displace the schoolyard that's there now. Uh, and so that the school stands to lose, and I
don't recall the exact figure,but I would say,uh, over 10,000 square feet of yard space
will be lost in what was already in terms of outdoor usable space, a very limited area. So
the....the,uh,the burden in terms of usable outdoor space for Horace Mann, once the
renovation is complete, will be dependent on the....the acquisition of the property where
there's the duplex and use of North Market Square. So....so my concern,knowing....
knowing the nature of what was in tha....in the school yard,which included a school-age
play area,uh, losing that space could have some impact on the way in which North
Market Square has been designed,particularly the quadrant of North Market Square
where we have the school yard, or school....play structure. Uh, that play structure, uh,
and thethe play area, uh, around the structure were designed,uh, I would say
primari the structure itself was for younger children and then the....more....all ages
were accommodated by the rest of the play features,to some degree. Um, so my.....my
concern was, and it was really kind of trying to anticipate what might happen, do
we....do we want to budget, uh, a limited amount of funding, uh,to....to work with the
programming of North Market Square, as it relates to the programming of the....what's
remaining of the outdoor spaces at North Market Square to....to try to make sure that
the....whatever's lost other than usable space itself in the yard, uh, from a programmatic
standpoint can be mitigated by adjustments at North Market Square.
Cole/What dollar figure you talkin' about, John?
Thomas/I would imagine it's somewhere south of$50,000. I mean the school yard is not that
large. Uh,but.....one might want to adjust what's there, take out maybe a bay of swings,
replace that with a more hi....high-intensive use than, uh, the swingsets, at least that one
bay of swings. Um....and see what....what adjustments need to be made to improve
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the....the age-appropriateness of what's in the school, uh,play....uh,the park
playground.
Throgmorton/Geoff,have you had any conversations with Steve Murley that relate to this
particular situation?
Fruin/No, urn, I....I haven't,uh,received an update from 'em where they are with their plans. I
do know that,urn, Steve had mentioned the possibility of the,urn, School District,uh,
wanting to pay for a playground replacement there. So I'll....so although the...it's new,
they would look at their....their, uh, students using our play structures more so than they
have in the past and so they might wanna, uh, update those, but that's a conversation that
occurred months ago. I don't really know where they stand on it.
Mims/And their timeline....Horace Mann is going to be renovated next year is the plan, right,
cause they'll be out at the new Hoover.
Fruin/ Correct.
Mims/So we're in 18,no we're in 17/18 now. So the 18/19 school year, they're going to be
empty. They'll come back in the fall of 19.
Fruin/Believe that is the plan, yes.
Mims/Okay.
Cole/I'm not supportive of this until we know what the School District is gonna do, and I
imagine they would budget it for their own. Urn, I know there's some uncertainty there,
but to me it's already been renovated and it's....that's a lot of money, and I think that
should be part of a strategic planning so I'm not supportive.
Mims/Yeah, I want to hear what the School has in mind. If they've already talked about the fact
that they might expect to pay for some of that then I'd like to hear more from them about
that.
Throgmorton/ Sounds like there's a decision there. Sony, John.
Thomas/Well I hadn't heard that the School District was interested in possibly....renovating the
playground. So that....that may be (both talking)
Fruin/Again, it was more conversational with Steve at the time, as they were thinkin' about
what....what the improvements may have. So I don't know if that's still the case,but at
least at one point that was on the table.
Thomas/Okay. The....the other thing that I had spoken with...with Geoff at one of the
(mumbled) was the,um....Eastside Sports Complex tree buffer. It's a$78,000 item, and
whether at this particular point in time....that should be funded. Uh, at the time it seemed
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to me that wh....what would be more pressing would be applying$78,000 toward, uh,
plantings that....that could, for example, be used toward,um....climate mitigation, once
we have the action plan. I'm...I'm assuming that the action plan will include, um....uh,
actions related to the urban canopy,uh, to address heat island effect,which from what I
understand in terms of the state of Iowa, that's going to be a key issue looking forward, is
the increase in....in temperatures and heat island effect is....is an important one. Um, so
it....it was primarily in response to that. At...at this point in time we don't know what the
use of those lands that are currently being earmarked for the, urn, Eastside Sports
Complex will actually ho....in what way will that actually take place,um, so it seemed to
me both in terms, and until we have a better, clearer idea of what....what we're buffering,
uh, and....frankly the additional benefit that would come from planting trees in....in a
context where they would actually benefit those of us who live here now,uh, keeping in
mind that with tree plantings there's always a time lag in terms of their effectiveness. So,
um, try....tryin' to get a head start on putting them where we would achieve the most
benefit was what I had in mind.
Throgmorton/Geoff, am I correct in thinkin' this would be a budget item, not a CIP item? Or
would it be CIP?
Fruin/It's....it's listed in the CIP.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Fruin/ (several talking) I believe it's the general fund, uh, contribution and our rationale was
really what you were....what you were saying, John, is trying to get a head start on that
area,knowing that whether it's a sports complex, a residential neighborhood to the north
where the school is, that...there's going to be a need for a landscape buffer against the rail
line and the industrial property to the south. So we were kind of factoring in that, yeah,
five, 10 years is maybe when that residential area starts to take off or maybe when the
park takes off, and to get ahead five, 10 years of tree growth would be good but.....it's
nothing that we feel incredibly strongly about. If you'd rather see those monies moved
for trees somewhere else or....or taken out of the budget or put to another use, we're okay
with that.
Cole/I would like to leave it in. I've sort of evolved on this project a little bit. Um, on the one
hand I was like well do we really need an extra soccer park,but on the other hand, um, I
do think for these major projects that we've had in there for a while, urn,before we sort
of indicate that we don't wanna do it, we should really telegraph that to the community
and indicate that we're thinking of modifying it substantially. So to your point, it does
take a while to get those trees going and if it does go in, why not get an early start on that,
and if we are gonna make a big change on that, I think that's something we should really
telegraph to the community, because I'm assuming that that just didn't come out of
nowhere. I mean there's been a lot of planning on that particular project, and I wouldn't
want to change course until we get substantial community input on....on a project of that
magnitude. So I'd wanna keep it in.
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Throgmorton/Well it's in the parks master plan, right? This sports complex.
Cole/Yeah.
Throgmorton/(both talking) Did we have a work session discussion about it like four, five years
ago? I think we did.
Fruin/When the concept was finished, I mean we had one to start it. I think Council approved
the contract to do the plan and then when it was finished we presented it. It's never made
it into a funded year of the CIP.
Throgmorton/Yeah, it's not clear that....thanks for that background, but it's not clear to me that
there's Council support for....for the idea in the first place, because we....this Council at
least has not really had that discussion.
Cole/Yeah.
Throgmorton/So I'm just trying to be clear(both talking) Right.
Mims/The money for the tree buffer, was that in this year's CIP or....I'm just....I'm sorry, I'm
just....
Fruin/I think it's this year's.
Throgmorton/This year's,you mean the one (both talking)
Fruin/It's 2019. (several talking)
Mims/ ...so the one we're considering now.
Fruin/Yeah, for the CIP we always tell ya, think of that as the construction year, so (mumbled)
fiscal year side. So we would actually plant in fiscal year 19.
Mims/So what John's requesting is not anything different than what was already presented to us
from staff. I...I, we've just seen so many things in the CIP, I just wanna make sure that
I'm understanding that right.
Fruin/I think John's suggesting that we....we take those funds and deploy them in.....in a
different way. Plant somewhere else in the city.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, instead of whatever it is, 70-some odd thousand for that tree (both talking)
Mims/Okay, so you're saying not do the tree buffer out there.
Thomas/Right.
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Mims/Oh, I....okay, I totally misunderstood what you were saying then.
Throgmorton/But instead allocate the money to urban tree canopy(several talking)
Mims/Yeah, I would not agree with that at this point, cause we haven't even had a discussion
about that park and our support, or lack thereof, for that. So I think we need to have that
kind of conversation before we decide to plant the trees somewhere else.
Taylor/ Shouldn't we also talk about it before we decide to spend 70,000 on them? (mumbled)
entire discussion (mumbled)
Throgmorton/Well, what Geoff did point out, quite correctly I think, that....even if we do not
move ahead with the sports complex out there,probably....not moving ahead means that
it would be developed residentially. So that means the tree buffer would probably be a
good thing. So the point there is, in either case, the tree buffer's a good idea. So....that's
the real question: do we wanna build a, or plant a free buffer along that rail line,
regardless of what's gonna be on the other side, or do we want to reallocate those funds
as John has suggested. I think from a carbon point of view, it doesn't matter. They're
trees. (several talking)
Thomas/ It does matter in terms of heat index, you know, if we're planting them as a tree buffer,
as opposed to (both talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah, okay.
Thomas/ ...urbanized area where....where the residential population would have....uh, more
direct benefit, I would say it does matter.
Botchway/ I would say I'm not supportive. (clears throat) I would say I'm not supportive, um,
in part. I mean (both talking)
Mims/Of what? I'm sorry, I'm asking you to clarify because I think we've kind of talked about
different things.
Botchway/Yeah. So I...I guess, yeah, you're right. That's (laughter) master plan! No.
Cole/Agree to (both talking)
Botchway/Yeah. I'm....I'm not supportive of kind of what you're talking about as far as
reallocating the funds, urn, for this urban tree canopy idea. I actually like the idea. I'm
more interested in, I guess, having that conversation as we come up on particular projects
more so at that particular point. Um, and maybe I'm mis-understanding what the urban
tree canopy would mean. I was more thinking about it as we're having this conversation
around ped mall reconstruction, other things, ensuring that, um, or even road design,
ensuring that we have, um, more trees to, you know, go to the issues that I think you're
talking about—heat index and other things. I'm not necessarily moved on it tonight, but I
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think that as we look at other, I mean....other projects down the line, I think I'd...I would
be more interested in hearing more about it and how that would then tie into our
conversation at that time.
Throgmorton/Anyone else? So I'm not gonna support it either, John. I....I think we should just
stick with the idea of planting these trees along the rail line, expecting that something will
develop on the other side of....of the line. And when I think about....um....ur....urban
heat, what was it a heat island effects? That means the canopy would have to be put
where concrete is, where asphalt is,you know, shading that stuff so that it doesn't build
up the heat, right?
Thomas/More developed area.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah, so...yeah, so anyhow, I....I support keeping it the way it is now. So
I don't know,that's one, two,three, four. Okay, so we're gonna keep it the way it
currently is. All right, as far as I know we're done with the budget discussion. So we
have a tentative set of...recommendations, which will be built into the budget. We'll get
a revised budget, and come back to us, and then on March 15th we'll vote on it. I think
that's right (both talking) public hearing on the 20th or.....
Fruit)/Yeah, the public hearing gets set on the 20th. I think the actual meeting date is the sixth.
Throgmorton/Yeah, right. Sony. Is there anything else anybody wanted to get on this budget
discussion....topic?
Cole/Whether it's a strategic plan or operating, we still haven't taken up Mazahir's
transportation and the$15 issue, have we?
Throgmorton/Yes, we discussed that in the strate....
Cole/Okay! I just wanted to make sure that it was (both talking) I didn't know whether we
needed to follow up, in term....okay!
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Salih/Also I don't know (unable to understand) but I'm gonna say it and you tell me. Uh, I
really interesting since we been talking about affordable housing forever, I really
interested in (unable to understand)task force or committee together, so...from people
who have real experience, and how we can solve that problem, like affordable housing or
ideas in Iowa City. And (mumbled)
Throgmorton/Well that's a good idea but there is an affordable housing(both talking) coalition,
which consists of most of the people in this city who have been working on this topic for
years and years and years.
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Salih/I know but I mean like those people(unable to understand) Johnson County. Like for
Johnson County. But I mean something special to work with us so we can come with
ideas or....to see how we can do even budget this from the budget next year or how we
can like just some ideas of like renter assistant, idea about like more housing that we
can....and people can own houses, like some ideas, you know,just for Iowa City and like
one of us can be there and....like something for Iowa City. Maybe could be from the
same people! But we need just something like this, so we can really be serious about
affordable housing. If we...if we have (unable to understand) we just gonna talk about it
forever and we're not gonna do anything.
Cole/I'm wondering for this, along those lines, for that 350,000 that probably we're gonna end
up doing, that we would have a....since it's sort of going to be a one....the places I see it,
probably a one-time thing, that we would consider.....a task force for that amount to
make sure that that's optimally spent....along those lines.
Mims/I don't agree with that(several talking) We've gone with Johnson County....Housing
Trust Fund! (laughs)
Cole/Okay.
Mims/(mumbled) and I, to me we decided last time to use them because, I mean,they've done
so much of this for so long, and....and have a good reputation and know how to work
with the developers, I mean even from that memo that we got from Tracy(both talking)
Cole/It could be with them, I mean (both talking)
Mims/...I mean that 650 from this year, I mean they've allocated to two developers 325. That
may not get spent for another year or two, depending on low-income housing tax credits
and stuff;but I really felt good about our discussion last year about who we would have
handle that money, because there are people who've been working for decades in this
community with great success.
Cole/Uh huh.
Mims/ So I....I think trying to put together(both talking)
Cole/ ...ad hoc, I mean it may be them. I mean I was thinking like Sara Barren, um....
Mims/No, I....I don't think Sara and that group have the ex...the technical expertise though that
like Maryann Dennis with the Housing Fellowship, or Tracey Achenbach and her group
with the Housing Trust Fund have.
Throgmorton/They're all in the Coalition.
Mims/Right. (several talking)
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Throgmorton/Maryann(both talking)
Mims/Right,yeah, they're all in the Coalition.
Botchway/I guess I would say....just real quickly, for me I agree with you. I understand where
you're getting at, because I do think,you know, while there have been people that have
done it for years, there may be some ideas that they have that may be new, other people
that may have ideas as well. I do think we're jumping the horse just a little bit, or
jumpin' the gun just a little bit in a sense because I thought during our strategic planning
session we talked about, you know, completing our current affordable housing action
plan and talking about potentially(mumbled) I think that...to that extent if we're thinking
about revising, I think, Geoff, you're saying that you're coming forward to us in the next
month or two months with some of the work that's come out of the Tax Abatement
Committee. (mumbled) whatever that was. I think it's Tax Abatement Committee. I
think that when we have that conversation,more of a cohesive sense, we can discuss that
as well, I mean I think it's a great point. I think that we kind of have it set up to where
we can discuss it at that time.
Throgmorton/I agree. It seems to me this really isn't a budget conversation for the current fiscal
year budget. It's about strategic plan. So I....I think our next work session we're gonna
be talkin' about the strategic plan, tryin' to finish that up. So, it can be brought up right
then.
Salih/Sure. I will bring it.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Okay.
Taylor/I had just a question....it sprang to my mind after looking at that, uh, community survey
in that 61% of the people,uh, thought our street repair was not good, and John and I have
talked about this before too that....at our listening posts that comes up constantly. We
get emails about it. We get phone calls about it, you know,why aren't they fixing my
street? My question I guess is like....how can we allocate, or is it possible to allocate
more money for the Streets Department? Where would that come from, and can we do
that now, cause it's necessary.
Fruin/Sure, um.....so this current fiscal year we did add two staff members to the Streets
Division, uh,pri....primarily paid out of the Road Use Tax funds, and urn,my years are
fleeting me here,but I think since maybe 2012 or 13,uh, we've increased our road
resurfacing budget by 200 and some percent, so (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....used to be 500,000.
Fruin/Yeah, every year we've been really adding to that. This year'll be the highest it's been in
a long time, and if you look at the budget, every year we add another 100,000 to that.
Um, so the....the.....the answer is we are ramping it up. It was way too low for way too
long, and we're seein' the consequences of that. Um....uh,we'd still like to get it higher,
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urn, it's....it's just, it's tough to go from zero to 60, um, and....and get there,but I think
we're makin' some good progress. Um, if you do want to add more to it,there's certainly
a...um, a never-ending list of projects on roadways that....that we could add to our
resurfacing list. Uh, I'd want to just have maybe Dennis talk a little bit about where we
are in terms of a reserve and the Road Use Tax fund. I think we're operating at a slight
surplus in that fund now. So,you know, annually we're taking in maybe a couple
hundred thousand dollars more than we're spending, and that's just being banked in a
reserve. Urn, so we probably have the ability to draw down those reserves for a little bit,
for....for road resurfacing. Um, but....keep in mind, road projects are very expensive.
So you wanna have a big reserve,because inevitably there will be some challenge that
comes up where you might need a couple million dollars to...to....to tackle a road. So, I
feel pretty good with where we're at on road resurfacing. Um, I understand people's
frustrations, especially this time of year. I mean, you know, the next two months are the
worst for, uh, the conditions of our roads and then the asphalt plants start operating again
and we get 'em patched up and...um, you know, they're better throughout the remainder
of the year, but....if Council would like to allocate more....more than what staff has
increased, we can certainly accommodate that.
Throgmorton/Yeah, we should be clear about this. Roadway...the condition of our streets
deteriorated for years and years and years because there was nowhere near enough money
coming to us from the Road Use Tax. And about, what, three years ago I think it was, we
got more...started getting more money from the State through the Road Use Tax, because
they increased that tax, and so three years ago it was like$500,000 we were receiving.
Now it's what, 1.7 I think for this budget, something like that. So, we're able to do more
with that, and that's great, but we still have a huge backlog of streets that need
improvement. And we....we cannot afford to do all that quickly. Can't do it! So....
Fruin/Most of the cities that have....you know,pretty robust resurfacing programs rely on the
local option sales tax. You saw Cedar Rapids, 100% of their local option sales tax is for
roads. They passed that a couple years ago. I think they're probably close to $20 million
a year into their roads now because of that, um, that's the kind of magnitude of
investment that you really need to make quick progress on....on.....on a road network as
big as ours. So....um,while I....I like that we're able to increase it every year, and we
are getting more done, uh, you're gonna continue to hear complaints. You know, if we
do that survey again in a couple of years, you're probably going to see a similar number.
I'm not sure we'll make a huge dent,but(both talking)
Taylor/ ...catch up.
Fruin/Yeah.
Taylor/But that's good,that's good to hear, and those numbers that there is progress. That's
good!
Throgmorton/Okay, I'd like to suggest we move to our next topic, uh, cause (both talking)
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Salih/(unable to understand)have something else. Uh, I know that we talk about that
transportation study(unable to understand)uh, I know that you guys agreed to do it,but I
would like to ask is this a budget thing, we have to budget for it this year or....are we
going to do it when and....
Throgmorton/Transit study's already in the budget. I don't remember how much.
Fruin/So it's, the....$200,000 in the budget, urn, and what we would like to do is get some
confirmation from the neighboring communities on who is interested in participating and
what they envision the scope to be. Obviously you all need to have a conversation about
what you want that scope to be. I would love to get into the process of consultant
selection, urn, in April or May, so that we can start in July and August, um, as soon as the
fiscal year....and.....and get this thing goin' cause it's gonna be at least 12 months. If
we do get other cities or the University that wanna participate, that 12 months is probably
gonna grow to 14, 16, 18 months. It's just gonna become more complex of a study. So I
think our....I think our funds are there. Urn, if we've miscalculated and....and need
more, I feel comfortable that we have plenty of Transit reserves to....to increase that
amount. So....
Salih/ Sure.
Botchway/ Is this the MPO conversation, as far as getting the other communities? Are you going
to reach (both talking)
Fruin/No,we've reached out to them. Urn....uh, I think....I think they're all interested, but just
like you all are going through strategic planning and budget, all these other communities
are too, and I think as they conclude their discussions then the administrators,urn, and
the, um....uh, folks over at the University'll be able to come to us and say this is what we
would like to see in terms of evaluation of our system and uh, here's what we can bring
to the table in terms of financial resources. And then we'd do a joint,you know, we'd
invite them on to the consultant selection committee and, urn....get the process goin'.
Salih/Thanks!
Throgmorton/Okay, so let's move to the second item on our work session agenda, form based
code development for the Northside and the South District, especially around Alexander
Elementary. Uh, you're gonna give us a presentation, Geoff?
Form-Based Code Development(Northside and South District):
Fruin/(mumbled) slide here. Urn.....so I had a, uh....Tracy Hightshoe and I had a phone call
with the, uh, folks from Opticos who did our initial feasibility study. Um, we're in a
situation right now where, uh, the, uh, three staff people that were working with Opticos,
um,have either left or, uh, will soon be leaving us. So Tracy and I had a phone call to
get up to speed on what Opticos' impressions were, urn, moving forward. Um, I had seen
a couple of budget proposals that they had sent our staff, uh, in the....in the last, uh,
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couple of months, and these are.....these are some rough numbers. Uh, when you're
developing a form based code, there's lots of variables. There's lots of pieces that you
can take in and out. Uh, how robust of a public input process do you want. Do you want
to do any, uh, additional studies to go along to help,um....uh.....uh, maybe make the
case, uh, for form based code, either with, uh, residents or with developers. Urn, so I've
tried to get a handle on what that looks like and summarize that for you. Urn, this is
a....a very rough summary of.....of generally the options, uh, as provided by Opticos.
Urn, the form based code, that's the FBC and Traditional Neighborhood Design
ordinance. That's the meat and potatoes of it. That's what you'd expect to get. Um,
that's at a very basic level. That's what we have to get, urn, here. If we just look at the
South District slide, uh, Opticos is recommending a couple of, um, sub-consultants that
they would bring on for the South District, a residential market study. Uh, they felt it was
important, um,to be able to, urn, get a sense of what types of housing could sell. They
feel very strongly that this has the potential to be a mixed income neighborhood. Um, but
they feel like it may be a hard sell for people to....to believe that it could be a truly mixed
income neighborhood. So they'd like to bring on a sub-consultant, uh, to, um....uh,
discuss, or to analyze what the market could support, urn, especially with some of the
newer housing types that they would be, um, recommending, uh, what the market for
those may be. Uh, they also have a transportation planning sub-consultant that they
would suggest bringing on. Um, this would be not only for roadway network design,but
for, urn, I think how they framed it is optimization of utility placement. So making sure
the right-of-way is narrow....as narrow as it can be, yet still accommodating all the
utilities, uh, which takes some extra coordination. Uh, they also suggested a four-day
charrette. So they would essentially bring their team here and do a community charrette
for four days, which is a pretty extensive process. And then the miscellaneous is just
everything else—the kick-off meetings and the consultant,uh, discussions and work that
gets lumped in there. Um, so the, uh, roughly what we're looking at, um, to do
everything that they'd wanna do is....is a$445,000 expense on the South District. If you
flip over to the Northside, um, it's not, uh, they're not, uh, you don't necessarily need the
residential study, and the, uh,transportation planning. It's, you know, a built out area of
the community. So they dropped those two components. Urn, they would also not see
the need to do as robust of a, uh,public, uh, outreach process, because it is built out. Uh,
because you're not designing something from scratch, so to speak. Uh, so they
would....they would recommend some targeted workshops, urn, that could be held, um,
in the...with the Northside neighborhood. The Ronald Street pilot is interesting. Council
may recall that a year or two ago the City, uh, took possession of a property on, uh,
Ronalds. It's a little larger lot than's typically found in single-neigh....single-family
neighborhoods, so it presents a really unique opportunity to do a missing middle type of
project. So they would help us conceptualize what that Ronald Street,uh...uh, pilot
project may look like. They put together some initial concepts and designs that the City
could use to,uh, issue an RFP, or maybe test some of the code provisions that they would
recommend. So the Northside project,uh, comes in a little less expensive, uh,because
of, uh,the....the reduced scope there. And then the,you see the asterisk at the bottom, an
additional service, and this is really something that I feel is necessary. It's nothing that
Opticos is recommending, but....um, I think it's important to make sure whatever new
code is developed,uh, aligns well with our existing form based codes, and I mentioned
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the Riverfront Crossings code here,but you need to speak the same language. You need
to have similar, uh, processes, so I really want Opticos to spend some time learning that
Riverfront Crossings code to understand how it's organized, so that when our staff is
reviewing proposals or developers and architects and engineers are lookin' at our code,
that there's some continuity there, urn, between those. Urn, the second thing, uh, I'd like
to have them focus on in the review of the Riverfront Crossings code is, uh,potentials for
simplification of any standards we have, uh, added administrative flexibility, um, the
code's only three, four years old right now, but we've had a lot of development in the
Riverfront Crossings area. Urn, we've also had to do a number of code amendments in
the Riverfront Crossings area, and there are a lot of.....there's a lot of design review, uh,
issues that come up. You know we recently had the....the code change, I think the most
recent one for the stepbacks. Uh, if you remember really for the Hieronymus project, we
had to change the code to allow for alternatives to stepbacks in that particular location.
So I'd just like their thoughts on whether there's some things that we could do to simplify
standards and....and perhaps to provide some more administrative flexibility. Ultimately,
whatever the recommendations would be would have to go through P&Z and to you.
You would have to be comfortable with those, but I think it'd be nice to have a third
party review, um, of that code for us. And....and they've, uh, quoted a cost of$10,000 to
do that review. So,how do we go forward? Your budget has $385,000 in there, uh,
which is what we felt we could afford, given all the other priorities, and after talking with
Opticos, I think, um, we have some options to get that number down. Urn, so I'd like to
go through, um, what I feel's important after talkin' with, uh, with, uh, Dan Parolek and
his team. So I personally feel the South District is more of a priority. It's a greenfield
site. It's somethin' that's portable. We could take whatever's developed and....and, uh,
plug it into other greenfield sites in the community. Um....whereas the Northside change
happens more incrementally, uh....uh, so I think the urgency is....is at the South District
now. We know McCollister's gonna get built through. We know the school's there. Uh,
we know there's some interest, uh, corning. So, uh, the....the highlighted pieces are...are
what I'm recommending to you that...that we focus on, and I think by focusing on these
we can get down into that $385,000 level. Urn, I was a little skeptical on the residential
market study, and I probably didn't do it justice as I was sittin' here describing, uh, it to
you. Um, but, um, I do after talking with....with Dan and John on his team feel that that
study could go a long way to, um....uh, communicating to the development community
and to the finance community how a different type of housing in Iowa City can be viable.
So I do feel that's important. Um, I did not highlight the transportation planning. I....I
would feel comfortable dropping that. Um, I think we as staff really fully understand
where this Council is on design standards for roadways. We're working on those design
standards. We know, uh, I think we....we feel strongly that we know what you're
looking for, um, and that we wouldn't need necessarily the assistance in designing some,
uh, road standards for that. I'm also not really sold on the utility placement portion of
their....of their scope. I think we can, uh, work through that. We've done so in other, uh,
areas of the community. So, uh, that's about a$75,000 expense, that transportation
planning piece. And I....I feel comfortable that we can....we can drop that and still, urn,
get a good compact, kind of new urbanist grid network in there that....that would serve
the community well. The four-day charrette, um, I highlighted it, but I....I don't think
there's a need for a full four-day charrette. Urn, you know,there's, uh, we're talking a
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greenfield site here. So you're really thinking there's probably a...a few neighbors in the
adjacent areas that are interested. There's certainly going to be a few property owners
and developers that are interested,but I think we can scale that back to maybe a couple
days of workshops, uh, which would, uh, save a considerable amount of money. A four-
day charrette, to bring their planning team down here and hold this is over$100,000. So
I think we could probably, um....safely cut that in half and....and, um, reduce that, uh,
reduce that process a bit. Uh, after hearing the Council talk at the, urn, strategic planning
session a little bit, uh, we talked to Dan and said if we.....if we just focus on the South
District, what's possible on the Northside, and I think, John, you talked...may be using
your term here but, um, some form based code light. What are some interim steps that
we could take, uh....uh, to perhaps promote missing middle development in the, uh,
Northside, urn, but within the framework of our existing code. And so....Dan thought
that that was possible. They haven't scoped that out for us, uh, but he thought that they
could do some things and....and help with that. I also think, urn, they could make some
suggestions and help us with some code language that, uh, could also be applied to, uh,
situations like we had on Lusk Avenue with the Kinnick house(mumbled) when we
talked about that and were responding to some of the neighborhood concerns. We talked
about how the form based code would produce some tools that would, urn,help with that,
and I still....I don't want to lose sight of that, um....I think there's some things that we
can do there, uh, that would help us,but we would not go so far as to develop the form
based code there. Um, I do think the Ronald Street pilot is intriguing. Uh,that's about a
$12,000 cost, at least that's what they have, uh, listed there now. Um, and we might be
able to bring that....bring that down a little bit, but um....if we're gonna do some code
changes, I really like the idea of...of showing how those code changes can be put to use
in a practical sense,by looking at our lot, which we have no desire to keep long-term.
We can then spin it out and hopefully demonstrate the type of in-fill development
that....that we're seeking in the Northside. Uh, so that's, uh, I....I feel like we can get
pretty close to 385, if you're comfortable with that, but I want to give you an opportunity
to discuss that. Um, the other....question that needs to be put on the table is whether we
go out for competitive proposals. Urn, typically on a contract of this scale, we would,
um, do an RFP and um....uh, see what....see what other firms, uh....um, offer in terms of
price and scope. Um, in this case we've already worked with Opticos. They're, um,
already invested in the project. They did the feasibility study. They've laid the
groundwork. I think, uh, we would all like to work with them directly,but they are
recognized as the best of the best when it comes to developing these form based codes
and....you have to pay for the best of the best, if that's...if that's the level of service that
you want.
Cole/How much would that delay, uh, if we went out for competitive bidding, how much that
would delay the process?
Fruin/Oh, probably four months.
Cole/Oh, four months. Okay. How much would the residential market study cost?
Fruin/Um.....I believe it was $31,000.
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Cole/And final question is how much would it cost the City just to do the open bidding process?
That's the minimist right, that would just be staff time (both talking)
Fruin/ ...staff time.
Cole/Okay.
Throgmorton/ Seems to me this is a question we didn't want to have to be asked(laughs) It
forces a difficult choice. I....you know I like the recommendations you've made. I've
thought about this a lot, tryin' to figure out which, you know(coughing, difficult to hear
speaker)ways we could proceed, and I agree that the North...not the, I agree that the area
around Alexander Elementary, the South District, should be the highest priority because I
keep seeing developments on the periphery and if we wanna alter our land development
process in a way that's consistent with missing middle, form based code, etc., we...we've
gotta start where the action's happening. Uh, so I'm supportive of that. Uh, and I like
the missing middle light idea that you proposed. I think I'll be silent about the Ronald
Street pilot,because I live about three houses away from it. Um.....so.....that's what I
think. Yeah. The question about issuing RFPs, seein' what other bidders might say, I'd
be curious what the rest of y'all think.
Mims/I would agree with you, Jim. I like the priority on the South District,um,you know, like
....like Geoff said,the fact that's greenfield and one of the things we've talked about is
trying to get something in place before people come in and we have acres and acres of
single-family homes and then it's too late to try and really address the missing middle
and....and mixed type housing. So, I'm very supportive of that. Um, really interested in
the interim missing middle code review. Um, that's something that, I don't know how
many years ago it's been now that Matt Hayek and I toured around the Northside,um,
just with some of staff and looking at, you know, what could we do with some of these
run down properties and that's where we got to that first code change, the housing code
change that we've made to try and put a little more teeth into that so to kind of force
people to keep up their properties. Um.....yeah, I like the things that you've prioritized.
Um, in terms of whether we bid it out or not,that's a real challenge for me because I
don't know what other companies are out there and what....you know, like you say, if
Opticos is the best of the best, then....are we paying a premium for something that's not a
whole lot better than maybe something....somebody else? I....I just have no clue.
Cole/My....if we do the competitive bidding, does that then commit us to if we get a lower
bidding to say we'll okay,that's important. So the answer to that would be no, that
if we did the competitive bidding to see what else is out there. As far as I'm concerned,
I'm extremely disappointed with the cost of this, and that's through no fault of staff at all.
I.....I just think with Opticos,that in the sense that they seem like a really good firm.
They are the best of the best,but really what we're trying to do here is create pre-World
War II neighborhoods that didn't have these fancy consultants and they just made these
awesome neighborhoods without all these, I mean at least I think so. Urn....and now
it's....to recreate that, we have to spend all of this money, um, which I'm committed to
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making a substantial,urn, investment in,but I would like to see, urn, whether we can get
some, um, nearly as good,uh, firms out there through a competitive bidding process. So
that's gonna be my position. Um, I think if I don't get the support for that, I think it
seems like you've made a thoughtful prioritization,um, of what we already have,but my
first preference would be competitive bidding. Um,the only other comment that I would
have is that we do have the form based code in this area. Are there things that we can
utilize now to sort of.....expand out into the neighborhood or is that just so much
different,um (both talking)
Fruin/ ....I think....I think with the Riverfront Crossings code it's just(both talking)
Cole/Who did that design,by the way?
Froin/I believe it was,uh, was it(mumbled) HDR.
Cole/Okay. And was that similar cost in terms of that was a lot of money too?
Fruin/I don't....I don't recall costs.
Cole/Okay.
Throgmorton/ I think a downside to issuing an RFP is that any other bidders would come in,
uninformed about the particularities of our(both talking)
Cole/(mumbled)
Throgmorton/ ....and Opticos has already spent a lot of time here. They have a much better
understanding. So we....we'd be giving that up.
Cole/But we could still pick, I mean if we didn't like any of those firms, we could still pick
Opticos with this proposal, right?
Throgmorton/Geoff, it'd be pretty hard, if we got a thous....say hypothetically, $100,000
difference in estimated costs, it'd be very hard to go with the higher cost firm,would it
not?
Fruin/Yeah, so we have a....if you've participated in any of our, um, RFP processes before, so
before we even get proposals we decided how we're going to weight them. So we'll do
experience is 30% of the score, price is 40% of the score, and whatever other criteria we
determine at the outset. We communicate that as part of the....the proposal process. So,
a lot would have to go into how we weight that. If....if we wanna have price be the
predominant weight,then you're probably going to end up with the lowest bid. If you
wanna weight toward experience, really heavily, you're probably going to end up here
anyway. So,um, it's tricky to say how those things fall,but yes, it's always hard to
award a contract. I mean difficult politically to award a contract when there's a lower
bid. You really have to be able to articulate why that experience is....is,why there's such
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value to that experience. I....I do think if....if we can work with Opticos we're much
better off than starting from scratch. Ur, we really like the work that they did for us, uh,
with the feasibility study. They clearly have a number of really good examples that...that
we can look at and say, you know,this is the final product and....and we'd be happy to
get a similar quality final product here. So, urn, I think if we can get them down into our
budget range, I'd feel very comfortable coming to you and....and recommending, urn,
without going through that....that process that....that this is a good value. I feel very
comfortable with that.
Taylor/You offered up some very good ideas for, uh, decreasing the cost by quite a bit, and so
you think that they might be open to, uh, negotiating with ya on that?
Fruit)/Yeah. Well, you know,just by, again, dropping the transportation study, they had at 70-
some thousand I think(both talking) and then you're really taking most of the Northside
cost out, so I....I think....I think we could get there. Urn, I did fail, I highlighted it now,
but I still am interested in that....look back at our Riverfront Crossings code, so I forgot
to mention that to ya but I would want to include that$10,000 expense there.
Botchway/You would not?
Froin/ I would (several talking) I just forgot to mention it earlier.
Botchway/Yeah I would...I would say I'm impressed, Geoff, cause, you know, I....I guess I'll
be very honest just in the sense of....I was going to be a hard 'no' on this particular
project,just because I thought the cost was really exorbitant. I do appreciate you kind of
pulling out different items that you prioritized,um, that I think are important, and I think
that we'll, urn, as I think Jim mentioned before, urn,have a focus more on the South
District because I agree. I think there is, you know, with all the planning and everything
else that's kind of focused in that area,having a deeper conversation, more developed
conversation with the help of this information, I think, is...it's gonna provide us with a
more informed, uh understanding as far as how we move forward. So I am really excited
about that. Um, I, you know, I....the RFP troubles me. Urn, you know, cause I'm....I'm
always interested in competitively putting projects out there, even from negotiating
standpoint. I mean it would be interesting to come back and hear Opticos come back
with a different price, if they knew other potential bidders. I am a little bit worried about
the time. I mean that's....
Cole/That's my concern too (several talking)
Botchway/ ...that's an issue, cause you, I mean, you threw out four month, right, Geoff? You
know, for me....oh man! Come on! You know I mean, Geoff, this is one of the times
where you could have just said something and I'd have gone with it, in that sense.
Fruin/That's what I'm sayin'. You can go with it! (several talking and laughing) Yep,
ultimately this....this is not a contract that I could approve. So we're talkin' about giving
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me direction and staff direction to develop a scope, uh, to....to draft up a contract, and
present that to you, where you'd still have final say.
Botchway/Yeah, I mean I'm in favor. I mean I guess the reason why, I mean, favor moving
forward with this particular company. The reason why is that we're already kind of, you
know, down the road a lot with this company. I do have a, your point, Jim, about
experience. It's gonna take a lot to get people ready, I mean, so we're not only looking at
four months, we're looking at six, maybe seven, eight months down the road. I don't like
being put in this position because I do like the RFP process to, um,possibly negotiate
situations....I'm not saying you did this, Geoff, I'm just saying in general,we need to
think about that, kind of ahead of time as we're thinking about ensuring that there's
competitively bid projects,just to make sure, I mean, cause there could be a company,
even though Opticos is the best of the best, there could be another company that has
innovative thoughts or designs that we're just not necessarily thinking of.
Mims/But you're always going to be in that situation, Kingsley. I mean...whatever point in time
you come and talk about it, at Council, you're always going to be talking about a longer
period of time if you're going to bid it out versus if you're going to go with somebody
you already know. So I mean it's....so that's always going to be the case. (several
talking)
Fruit)/ ....first time that the City has....has gone forward without, urn, kind of....putting
something back out for proposal. So for example, we didn't RFP for the downtown
master plan consultant. We selected Genus Landscape Architects. When it cane time to
design the Washington Street project, and it came time to design the ped mall project, we
just worked directly with Genus because they were heavily invested in the project from
the master plan standpoint. So this isn't....this isn't new. This isn't something that
we....we have never done before. Urn, I think it's a very similar situation here. Opticos
was hired early on, urn, and they're heavily invested in both these areas. They've got a
head start. We felt really good about the working relationship we had with 'em, and we'd
like to continue with `em.
Thomas/Yeah that....I think (several talking) that's the key issue really is, urn, and...and where
we have an opportunity, you know, Opticos came in and from what you've said, Geoff,
you're really....staff and I think the Council is pleased with the outcome. So, that...that
to me, it's now what we're talking about is the cost of it and, urn, I think we do have
some good strategies. I....I do think there are ways of moving forward in the Northside,
which is going to be incremental anyway because of the...you know, the lot development
is going to be kind of scattered. Uh, that....we.....we can test some ideas without getting
into a full vocabulary of missing middle. Uh, in fact, it may in some cases be preferable
if we limited the palette, uh, particularly in the bulk of the neighborhood. It would be
interesting, I know there's a lot of interest in Northside Market Place, and....and refining
that....that's one of our great potential development areas. I would hope that's going to
be, you know, still in there, urn, I.....I know there's expectation on it, as well, so....but
I....I do think there's....room to nego....to negotiate this and scope it down while still
preserving, you know, the two projects, which I think is critical.
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Throgmorton/Maz?
Salih/Yeah, I agree. Uh, I just (unable to understand) I don't know this company very much but,
Geoff, you just said like they be in the past they done very good job for the City and the,
you know, he know the cost and if you can negotiate the cost a little bit with them, would
be great too,but otherwise I really support it and (unable to understand) Yeah.
Throgmorton/It looks like you can get down below 385 if I'm reading this stuff correctly.
Fruin/I think so.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Okay, I would suggest we move ahead (several talking)
Mims/One last comment that I would just make is....you know....to me every dollar that we
spend here with a good company in some respects is also spending money on affordable
housing. Because we're talking about.....you know, missing middle. We're talking
about all kinds of price points in our housing. And so quite frankly I'd rather be spending
more money here right now than doing the one-time,potentially one-time bump from
the.... from the 650 to a million,because this is going to help with the long-term solution,
with lots and lots of units potentially, as we go forward.
Thomas/You're right,the two key issues, and it sort of gets back to what....what I was saying
before,that we....we haven't made as much progress on the regulatory side....
Mims/Right!
Thomas/ ....and that's what this is, and it's....it's both affordability by design and then
addressing inclusivity be design. Those are really both important. Affordability in and of
itself can be problematic. I think it's...insofar as we don't want to segregate....
Mims/Right!
Thomas/ ....uh, where we....where we find opportunities for affordable housing. It's that
integration that's critical to the, you know, to the strategy in my view.
Salih/I agree with both of you,but this till...this not gonna help like the very low-income people,
because it's not gonna be affordable for them as well. We have to change our way that
we think for our affordable housing. We have to think about the people,their income is
like 70% or less of the area median income. This is not gonna help them very much.
Mims/I would disagree. I think there's a potential (both talking) significantly.
Throgmorton/There's potential. We'll see once we (both talking)
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Thomas/ It should (both talking) bring down development costs, you know, we're talking
about....there's so many segments of the population of the community that, you know,
one can apply affordable housing to. Um, but I don't think there's any question in my
mind it will, uh, drive down development costs, and that's a very good thing for everyone
in terms of affordability. (several talking)
Salih/ ....but not like a very low-income.
Thomas/No, thatthat, I think is....(both talking)
Salih/We can talk about this more(several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...ample opportunity to discuss this over time. Geoff, I think you got
marching marching orders from us, right?
Fruin/Yes I do, thank you.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/Okay. Thank you! So...we have about 15 minutes. We could turn to the next
item, which is clarification of agenda items.
Item 4e(2) Pedestrian Mall Improvements - Resolution setting a public hearing on
February 20, 2018 on plans, specifications, form of contract, and estimate of cost for
the construction of the Pedestrian Mall Improvements Project, directing City Clerk
to publish notice of said hearing, and directing the City Engineer to place said plans
on file for public inspection
Thomas/One thing I was going to ask is if we could, uh, separate out the pedestrian mall from
the Consent Calendar. Uh, one reason being.....uh, in looking at the information in the
agenda packet regarding costs, there's been a change from the, urn, the base bid costs,
from the work session to the, uh, what's in the packet.
Throgmorton/Well maybe Geoff could just explain why the change. Why it exists.
Fruin/Yeah,uh, Ron, help me out here if I'm....if I'm misstating anything. Uh, so the final cost
opinion wasn't, uh, ready for the work session that we had. They were still....so we were
workin' off one that was a little old. Urn, when they revised the final cost opinion, it was
substantially lower, which you typically don't see going, you know, at that....at that late
stage. My understanding there was two items, uh, that were listed incorrectly, urn, or
calculated incorrectly in the cost opinion we were workin' on. Uh, the first dealt with the
limestone planter walls, uh, that we have in the pedestrian mall. Um, we are trying to
reuse as many of those as we can. There are a few instances where we're realigning
planters, uh, where we need to actually have, urn, new limestone brought in. Um, and
there was an error in the, um....uh, the amount of new limestone we had to purchase. So
they were under, vastly under-estimating, urn, our ability to reuse the existing limestone
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planters. So that dropped the material cost down quite a bit. And then we learned that in
some of their material cost they had, um, a sale tax calculation in there as well. So the
estimator that they had working with them, whether that was just part of their, um,
routine or....or their software,they had an automatic sales tax being calculated and as a
public entity,we don't, uh, have to do that. So those were the two primary, uh, drivers in
bringing that down. There was nothing that changed. We didn't change the scope. We
didn't take anything out. Um, it was really those two changes and probably a few smaller
adjustments that,uh, got us to where we are. Uh, we did add, um, one more alternate. So
you'll recall the stage is gonna be an alternate and the Black Hawk Mini Park,um, shade
structure, uh, would be an alternate. We did add the alternate for how we treat the bricks,
um, so,urn, there's, you know, whether we want to preserve the bricks and perhaps give
them away or sell them to the community members. Um, or if we just wanna have the
contractor deal with 'em, like they might on a typical project,just haul 'em off and they
can resell `em or they can do whatever they want. We'll bid that as an alternate, so, um,
we know what that cost difference is, but....uh, it will be more expensive for a contractor
to care for the bricks, wash 'ern, palletize, um, deliver `em to where we want them as
opposed to just haul them off and do it....do whatever else they might do with `em.
Throgmorton/Do you still want it pulled?
Thomas/Urn, well the reason I was thinking of pulling it was so that the general public would
have a better idea if...if(both talking)
Throgmorton/Well we can do that if you want to.
Cole/I guess I would support pulling it. The only other question I have was regarding the shade
structure. Um, we made a decision to keep that as an alternate, um....I guess I had
thought we were going to maybe potentially yank the shade structure, or not (both
talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Cole/Okay. Well that wasn't my recollection on that but I....I would support, uh, pulling it for
the regular agenda.
Throgmorton/Let's see, that's Item 4e(2). Okay. Other....I have like five minor items, but does
anybody else have other agenda items?
Item 4f(3) Roger Bradley: Amendment requests
Botchway/ I...I have just one, or I have a couple as well. So mine's 4f(3). Um, what's the
process (several talking) what's the harm? I....I guess I just....it came before us, but I
didn't know, Kellie, whether or not that needs to go through you or some type of
committee.
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Fruehling/Urn,we did go ahead and send out an email to the remaining three companies since
the letter was from Yellow,just to get their feedback on it. We didn't hear from any of
the companies. Um, at all. Urn, and then we also reached out to staff for,uh, Equipment,
because they do the inspections, and then the Police Department, um, for their feedback,
and kind of the consensus was between Equipment, Police, and even staff in the Clerk's
office is the question of with that soft meter, urn, and how we're gonna monitor the rates.
You know,just....just not knowing the program, whether, um, folks would go towards
like an app-based. I'm sure there's tons of different apps that are similar, you know,
how.....how we're gonna monitor that.
Botchway/Well and can you, what's the....what is a soft meter because it...it looks like that it
said it was kind of like Uber but then it didn't seem like Uber at all.
Fruehling/I think it's more of an app-based.
Fruin/Yeah, so it's a.....it's a tablet, essentially, that they would have in there that calculates
the....the charge for the ride, as opposed to an actual meter.
Botchway/Right.
Fruin/Urn....difference is the....the meter's calibrated and tested. We know that they can't
tamper with that to adjust the rates. So there's just a question of how secure,um, a
mobile system is. Preliminarily, Simon's done a little bit of look into this because there
are, as Mr. Bradley alludes to, other....other states or, uh, areas that have allowed these.
Um, clearly people are using them. Urn, states have permitted 'em. I believe California,
he mentions, allows for that technology, but, urn, honestly we're just not....familiar
enough with it right now to...to tell ya, but I....I think on the surface, if we can just make
ourselves comfortable at a staff level that the smart meters, um....uh.....uh, cannot be
tampered with, and....and would provide a....an accurate reading, then I don't know why
we wouldn't. You know, they're really asking to use a similar technology as the ride-
sharing companies.
Cole/I was just going to say, I mean anything we can do to make them align with where we are
with Uber, cause I think in terms of monitoring the....the prices,we can't with Uber
either, and I think to me, that ship has sailed a year ago when the legislature took away
our Home Rule authority to regulate transportation networks, cities...or companies, and I
think it's incumbent upon us to have regulatory parody with, um,with those companies.
So anything, if he can get more support from other taxi cab companies, I am all for, urn, a
work session or something along those lines, cause I think they're operating in an
environment that is still incredibly unfair, visa vie Uber, and I think we should facilitate,
put them on equal platform.
Botchway/I don't disagree. I just wanna make sure we don't forget about the driver, cause I'm
interested in how the driver, the driver piece may change as well,because I understand
the meter and sitting there and having the meter tick up. I'm more concerned about how
that...is the soft meter going to introduce a situation where as a cab company comes up,
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does it change, you know, me knowing how much it's going to cost from point A to point
B.
Throgmorton/Okay, staff's lookin' into this so they know we're interested! (laughs) All right.
Any other agenda items?
Item 4d(4) Parks & Recreation Fees - Resolution establishing a revised schedule of
fees and charges for Parks and Recreation services and programming and
rescinding Resolution number 17-33 previously establishing said fees and charges
Botchway/4d(4), Juli, uh,real quick, uh, you know.....this is a.....I noticed the fees and
restructuring. I keep, I can....I kinda keep bringing this up, and (mumbled) I was
bringing up the same questions as far as equitable programming between the Rec Center
and Mercer. Um, there's just been....it's constant conversation about, you know, making
sure that, you know, we have the same type of programming and people are interested in
paying for it at Mercer. Has that been a part of the consideration in regards to this
particular item?
Seydell-Johnson/It's a consideration in how we program the facilities. We program based on
the uses and what we're hearing from the different user groups at both facilities.
Botchway/ Okay. All right. Just wanted to ask the question, cause I was told I needed to ask,
so....
Item 4f(9) Dennis Jones Stage: Joe Murphy, Kelly Plumber, Daniel Davis,Nick
Stika, Kylie Buddin, Rita Schmidt, Eric Quiner, Casey Stone, Rebecca Arnott,
Susan Futrell,Brian Fuller,John McNeill
Taylor/Question about one of the other correspondence items, the, uh, about the naming of
things, and I know there's a policy. Maybe Geoff could explain that cause I don't know
(mumbled)what the process is for naming(mumbled)
Fruin/Yeah we do have a, uh, a naming policy that's more geared towards, um, you know, if
someone in the community, uh, wants to....you know,name....name a facility, um, I....I
believe, you know, in rough terms you have to contribute 50%of the....the cost of
whatever it is, the park shelter or....or whatever it may be. Um, and, uh,if it's going to
be named after someone that is deceased, there is a two-year waiting period, uh, for that,
uh, to occur. Um, I think that what you're getting correspondence on is the....is the, uh,
pedestrian mall stage that's in the....that'll be in the plans and specs. I think you're
gonna hear from, uh, someone at your regular Council meeting about that as well.
Certainly the Council has the ability to rename a park,uh, a stage, a pavilion, however
you see fit. Urn, I think the policy's more geared towards, urn, again someone requesting
to, uh, to....to rename something in honor of, uh.....uh, either a loved one or....or
someone beloved in the community, whatever it may be.
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Throgmorton/ Seems to me if we're gonna rename it we should have a process for soliciting
possible names.
Cole/I'd agree.
Throgmorton/All right. Do...any of you have any other agenda items?
Item 4f(5) Judith Crossett: pizza boxes [Staff response included]
Cole/For me 4f(5), Judith Crossett, she brought up the, uh, pizza boxes, which made me think of
cardboard. Urn, I've been getting a lot of complaints about,primarily from commercial,
uh,both landlords as well as downtown business owners, about our cardboard, our new
cardboard policy, which I am very much supportive of continuing on with the cardboard
recycling, urn, but....I just think we need to continue to work with 'em constructively in
terms of solutions. I know I think for the residential, multi-family, they're going to come
online this fall, cause I understand there's a problem with landlords getting fined for
primarily what their students are doing. Um, I just think we need to keep a close eye on
that because that seems to be of our new environmental initiatives, the most frequent
complaint that I hear. Um, so I don't know if you have a quick response on that.
Fruin/Uh, I'm....I'm not privy to the complaints. Urn, I....I really, they haven't come through
our...my office (both talking) but as you....as you hear `em, send `em our way or at least
convey what you're hearing and we can adjust accordingly. We can certainly do some
targeted education,but we are in this period where not all of the multi-family has been
converted yet to....to where they are having recycling. Urn, yet the Landfill's not
accepting it so Waste Management or Republic or whoever is picking up at these
apartments and there's large amounts of cardboard and the....those landlords are not
offering the recycling service yet, yeah. They may be getting fined at the....at the scale
house, uh,for having that cardboard.
Cole/That's it for me.
Item 4f(13)John Whalen: LEDC request
Item 4f(14) Rev.Lauren Lyon and Rev. Dr. Thomas Wolthuis: Faith in Politics
Item 11. Second Avenue Bridge-Resolution authorizing acceptance of City Bridge Funds
from the Iowa Department of Transportation and authorizing the City Manager to
sign the Project Agreement
Throgmorton/Okay, I'd like to make....mention something about three specific agenda items
and I'll be very brief. Item 4f(13), again, uh, has to do with correspondence. It was a
January 31 inquiry via email from John M. Whalen, Director of Laborers Economic
Development Corporation. That sounded like a pretty interesting....suggestion. I hope
we're going to follow through on, you know, connecting with him and seeing what we
can learn and whether we could do something with that. (several talking) ...yeah, sure
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seems like it. With regard to 4f(14), which is an invitation from Reverend Lauren Lyon
at Trinity and Reverend Thomas Wolthi...Wolthuis, uh, Geneva Campus Ministry. I've
already contacted Reverend Lyon about that and I'm gonna have a conversation with 'em
and maybe proceed, maybe not. Uh, Item 11....uh, it's a resolution concerning accepting
funds for the reconstruction of the Second Avenue bridge. Given the time I'll be very
brief. Ron, could you....could you and I have a very brief conversation about this, in our
20 minute break? Great. Thanks. Any....anything else to bring up with regard to agenda
items? Okay, well we should take a break now and come back to our formal meeting,
and afterwards we'll have to pick up with the information packet discussion.
(BREAK FOR FORMAL)
(RECONVENE AFTER FORMAL)
Information Packet Discussion [January 4,January 11,January 18,January 25, February
Throgmorton/Does anybody need to take a break? Okay I'm hearing nos. I'm trying to find my
place in notes here. Okay, we left off at th info packet discussion, section. You know I
think we are supposed to,uh, give ourselves a chance to look at the January 4th packet,
January 11th packet, January 18 packet, and ones that follow, right? So anything about
the January 4th packet?
Mims/ I did, but we've covered it all already. (laughter)
Throgmorton/Anybody else? Let's go to the January l la'packet. I'd like to mention IP8, which
is the,um,basically the consumption based emission inventory report. I find it to be a
really interesting and stimulating report. Uh, I have a question about it, but I'm really
also thi....wondering what the staff is thinking about how we could integrate the report's
recommended actions and initiatives, into City codes and practices. You don't have to
answer that right now. But the, reading that report certainly brought that question to
mind. So, but a detailed question I have, and I don't know if anybody can answer it, but
maybe Ashley can, uh, maybe Geoff can, uh, am I correct in understanding that the
consumption based emissions are in addition to the territorial ones? They're additive, not
one's part of the other.
Monroe/We can get back to you and confirm that.
Throgmorton/Yeah, I couldn't really tell from the report, so I think I know the answer but I just
want to make sure. Yeah.
Monroe/(mumbled) Sure!
Throgmorton/All right, that's pretty much all I wanted to say about that, but it's a really
interesting and informative report and I, if you haven't had a chance to read it, I suggest
you at least read the first several pages.
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Mims/The thing that struck me the most out of that is that basically our consumption in the Iowa
City area is four times what it needs...should be to be sustainable on a planet level, which
is....
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Mims/ ....pretty interesting and also discouraging, um....yeah.
Throgmorton/Yeah,that's an interesting tool (both talking) ecological footprint, EF analysis.
Mims/...using hectares and....
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Mims/Yeah, I would....I'm with you, Jim. I would really encourage people if they haven't read
it to at least read that first part of it, the executive summary, um....it's very interesting.
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Taylor/That and graphs are....are (mumbled)
Throgmorton/Really pushes us to do more than we're already doing. Uh, but let's get done
(laughs) with what we're already doing. Okay, let's see.....uh, do any of you have any
other questions about that....information packet?
Taylor/ 1P9,urn, Tracy gave just a brief, talk about the update on the UniverCity program, but
she mentioned in there that,uh, she would be open, staff would be open to a possible
work session discussion sometime about the UniverCity program. I think we could do
that(both talking)
Cole/ I would like that.
Taylor/We could add it....add it to our list.
Cole/Can I say why, Jim?
Throgmorton/Sorry? If you want to you can.
Cole/Well I mean the only issue there would be, urn, the issue of the duplex, urn, I think that's
something that we should explore, about making a duplex eligible,um,because I think
for some of those properties,we would be able to purchase them if we were considering,
you know, them as a duplex. So each one would be a separate unit is my point.
Throgmorton/Sounds like a reasonable question to ask, yeah.
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Fruin/You want.....you want that on the pending work session?
Throgmorton/Yeah, I think we should put it on, at least just....just to hear from Tracy about the
UniverCity program and what she's recommending, and then Rockne's asking this
question. At some point we'll have to look at the whole pending list, because, you know,
we need....(several talking and laughing) It's really long (laughs) Yeah,we're gonna
have to decide what to kind of skim through, all right? Anyhow, I don't think this is one
of those. Anything else on the January 11th packet?
Mims/Urn, I would just point out on IP10, urn, that was the....the budget and compliance officer
memo. Uh, I don't know what page of that document it is. I just wanted to quickly read
from what Moody's wrote, uh, and this was dated May 30th of 2013, but they were
talking about the State of Iowa, urn, as a result of the, uh, property tax reform and you
know according to Moody's local governments that....that may experience
disproportionately higher revenue losses include regions that have a substantial
commercial base, a large share of multi-residential property, such as college towns, or
significant amounts of telecommunications property. Urn, and they were talking about
the decrease in property tax revenues that they expect it could start in some of those
communities, starting in 14 and 15, while we haven't seen the decrease in the revenues
because we're still growing our tax base and it's been growing quite a bit in the last two
or three years. Urn, they are, in their outlook, they are pointing this out in the State of
Iowa their concern, uh, with property tax reform what that's gonna do to property tax
revenues, and so I think as, you know, as we go through and are issuing GO bonds each
year, we have to look really, really carefully at whatever Moody's is putting in those
evaluations. In terms of any concerns that they are seeing with Iowa City, cause keep in
mind, they do not see us as a typical triple-A bond rated city.
Throgmorton/Okay, let's move to the January 18`h packet.
Botchway/ IP7. Thank you, Eleanor, but I don't know if you need Council guidance as far as
moving forward, but I feel like you clearly leered out...laid out, excuse me, it's gettin'
late. Clearly laid out kind of why you chose to do what you chose and I feel comfortable
moving forward in that way. And just so I'm clear for public, urn, it's keeping the, urn
....um, you know, the gender, uh, requirement as it pertains to ensuring that we have
State balance, or I think the State requires the gender balance,but incorporating gender
identity as part of the demographic information.
Throgmorton/Anything else....anything else in the January 18th packet?
Mims/It's (both talking)
Botchway/Do we need Council moving forward on that?
Throgmorton/Oh, sorry!
Mikes/Just need direction,that's fine. If you're good with that. (several responding)
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Botchway/ Okay, I didn't know if everybody....okay.
Mims/Urn, it's been brought up a little bit but just if anybody is still watching at this point in the
meeting or looks back at our videos, uh, the citywide survey that was IP4 in the January
18`h, uh, packet I think was really interesting. Um, John referenced it earlier in terms of
one of the topics we were talking about. Just....lot of I think really interesting
information that, uh,people had in comparing our community with other communities.
You know, we spent....how much money did we spend doin' this?
Fruin/Probably close to 20,000.
Mims/Yeah, so I would certainly hope, even if the general public doesn't read it, I would
certainly hope that Council Members, uh, take the time to really kind of go through this
in some detail and really think about, you know, how our community is responding, urn,
to these various topics, cause I thought it was a lot of good infe...information there. Uh,
and the other one which I think we'll be certainly talking about more and we haven't
really had a whole lot of chance, other than we've been talking about a certain amount
through the strategic planning, and that is the strategic housing master plan, um, that's in
there, IP6, and that is something that we certainly need to be, um, I think looking at more
and having more discussion, um,with the University of Iowa and with Coralville about
how any of us are going to be moving forward, either on our own or in cooperation with
each other, um....in terms of student housing.
Throgmorton/Yeah. With regard to Item 4, which Susan has just mentioned,uh, a second ago,
uh, I would agree it's a very thorough survey and very informative, but it's also....it also
contains a lot of information. So I'm hopeful that someone on the staff will be able to
parse it(laughs) really go through it carefully and I imagine that's happening, but there's
a lot of material there, and it raises all sorts of questions, uh, on my part, but I won't go
into that because of the hour. The housing study, uh (mumbled) really valuable
information that we need to pay careful attention to and, I don't know, on the strategic
plan, ff3, the strategic plan preparation memo that Geoff wrote us. It contained all that
information from the various departments, and I really appreciate the concise summaries
from each of the departments. It was really very instructive to read them in relation to
our ongoing discussions about the strategic plan, and in relation to the survey, and in
relation to this consumption based emission inventory, I mean, all that stuff kind of wove
together for me. So those are some things I wanted to mention. Maybe there's one or
two other things, but....let's see. (mumbled) All right, uh......that's all I wanted to say
about the January 18th packet. Can we turn to January 25'h?
Botchway/IP3,just the social justice and racial equity report. You know I know it's, um,
obviously labor intensive and I know that other departments provide that information,but
just a lot of steps that were taken that I mean I think, you know, in connection with the
conversation that just occurred, urn, via community comment and also, I mean, Susan's
comments,urn (mumbled) Council Members' comments as well, I mean....there is a lot
more to do, as Barbara said, but I think that there's a lot of work that we are doing and
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I....I want to make sure we highlight that because it's not.....it's not easy, and I think that
sometimes we overlook some of the steps that we have been taking, and looking to the
future, but um, it's not easy. I mean those to...it took time and it took a lot of effort to get
to where we are now.
Throgmorton/Sure.
Cole/Well and along those lines, Kingsley, I think, you know with those reports,you know it's
easy to sort of think, oh, they're just sort of reporting stuff that's already happening, but
no, I mean, there's actually a lot of unique planning activities. So it's not just routine,
urn, events. It's....it's really implementing. Really what you put on the plate six years
ago, or thereabouts, with the diversity....the Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, and it's nice
to sort of see that,those wheels still in motion and it's still bearing fruit.
Throgmorton/I....I think we made huge strides. Not enough, but huge! Uh, I guess I'd like to
mention 1P5, tentative Council meeting schedule, and all I want to do is point out to
Kellie and the rest of you, I have a conflict on June the 19th since I'm scheduled to go on
the Civil Rights tour.
Cole/I'm gonna be gone then too.
Taylor/Oh. Oh, that's right (mumbled)
Mims/We'll just have fun with five of us! (laughter and several talking)
Throgmorton/ 19th....of June.
Mims/There have been times when in the summer we have not necessarily had two meetings
every single month. So....we may just want to wait till (several talking) usually it's been
July or August, or both, but if you guys, if.....if two of you have a conflict, we might just
want to look at what the schedule looks like as we get closer and see if we can (both
talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah, so....
Taylor/ I had a question about the June ones anyway, cause June 5th is a primary and I know in
November we moved the meeting because it was an election night. (several talking) I of
course,none of us are up for election that day, but it is a primary....it's the gubernatorial
primary and, uh, so (several talking) may be a conflict. To me we can just change and
have one meeting (both talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah, we might want to do something with the June meetings. Yeah.
Taylor/It's a ways down the line.
Throgmorton/I guess we...(several talking)
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Salih/I don't know how it work really but usually (unable to hear)
Throgmorton/June and (several talking)
Salih/ ....six week and(both talking)
Botchway/ So,we're gonna need to.....cause I'm traveling a lot(several talking and laughing)
I'm trave....I was worried about you saying that. I'm traveling a ton. Urn, I think I'm
flying out almost every month, and so we'll need to think about that as we move forward.
Mims/Well, and keep in mind one of the things that we, you know, we've done is made, you
know, the electronic participation available if people can use that when they're traveling,
and part of....we did that was to minimize changing dates, so that we could be, you
know, as consistent as possible with the first and third Tuesday for the public. So, not to
say that we can't and shouldn't make some changes, but if people can use that, that's also
an option.
Salih/(unable to understand) so that we have (unable to understand) I will attend that one
(mumbled)but if you want to like (unable to understand) I would like(unable to
understand)
Mims/ Sure!
Throgmorton/Sure.
Mims/I mean if we move that one....I would suggest, if it worked for people, we do the same
thing we did in November and move it to Monday night, which would be the 4th.
Throgmorton/There's a thought. (several talking)
Mims/Which would avoid the primary(several talking) on the 5th. I mean,people just wanna
plan on that? (several talking)
Throgmorton/...take a quick look.
Mims/We can.....
Throgmorton/Yeah, it's no problem for me.
Botchway/ I may be late. I have a training.
Taylor/What works for you, Mus....Maz? (several talking)
Fruehling/The second meeting then or.....
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Mims/Leave the second meeting on for now(several talking)
Throgmorton/Yeah,we might have to revisit it, but for now(several talking) I know I won't be
there. (several talking) Yeah.
Botchway/So we know three are not going to be here.
Throgmorton/Yeah. It's probably not a good thing.
Mims/Then....maybe.....folks.....
Botchway/I actually disagree. I got a couple things I want to push through (mumbled)
(laughter)
Throgmorton/We'll have to revisit the June 19th meeting. Can we move to the February 15`
packet?
Taylor/IP9, the KXIC schedule. Kellie would probably like to....like us to get that.
Throgmorton/(both talking) Yeah, I wanna say something about that. I, you know, I....you all
know this I think. I accidentally missed my interview on the 31d of January. Uh, so I'm
in arrears. I'd be happy to do this twice over the....over that period of time that's
covered by the announcements. So I'd like to volunteer for Valentine's Day, February
14th(several responding) March the 7th, and April the 4th.
Mims/I'll take the....February 21st and.....April I lth.
Cole/ I can do the 28th of February.
Thomas/April 18t1 for me.
Taylor/ I can do March 215`.
Botchway/Hold on one second. (mumbled) (several talking)
Mims/What do you have left, Kellie? It might help.
Fruehling/March 14th, March 28th.....April 25th and May 2nd. And then whether you're gonna
plus staff in one of those.....
Taylor/Oh,that's right.
Fruehling/ ....spots.
Cole/Mazahir should probably go next.
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Salih/(unable to hear) (several talking)
Cole/This is the next slide so......(several talking) So what are the dates that she could choose
from?
Fruehling/Urn, March 14th, March 28th, April 25th, or May 2"a
Cole/(mumbled) (several talking in background)
Botchway/Can you say it one more time?
Fruehling/Uh, March 14th, March 28th, April 25th, or May 2"d
Botchway/Urn....
Thomas/I could do March 14th.
Botchway/April 25th. (several talking in background)
Throgmorton/Mazahir, April 25th.
Botchway/ (mumbled) ....both together.
Throgmorton/Oh, okay.
Botchway/What was the last one? I missed it.
Fruehling/Uh,there's March 28th and May 2"a
Throgmorton/And you wanna leave one of'em for departments? Or maybe two?
Fruehling/If you want to continue to do that. (several responding)
Throgmorton/Yeah!
Thomas/(mumbled) (several talking in background)
Mims/So which one's still open?
Fruehling/I was going to say do you want to leave just one date for staff or did you want to do
two?
Botchway/Let's do two!
Throgmorton/Well there's a pretty long period of time, right? There's like 12 dates on there. I
don't know. (several talking) Yeah. We could leave two. If that's all right with staff.
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Fruehling/So March 28th and May tad?
Mims/ Sure!
Throgmorton/Yeah. Staff for those two.
Botchway/Better be good! I'll be listenin'! (laughs)
Throgmorton/Okay, so that's KXIC, right? I wanna mention 1P3, pending work session topics.
So just to be clear, on February 20th we're gonna complete the strategic plan.
Fruit)/Yeah, we'll have a....Chief Matherly and the strategic plan.
Throgmorton/Okay.
Pruitt/And this list will get longer, so what I plan to do is,now that we're kinda through the
budget, and we'll take all that long list from....uh, that memo, and for whatever didn't
fall into the strategic plan discussions, I'll move everything else over into pending, and
then you'll have to (laughter) sort through that list at some point, cause it'll (mumbled)
look pretty daunting to you.
Salih/(unable to hear)
Throgmorton/Okay, anything else on the February ls`packet?
Nelson/Wait, so the next, uh, work session is gonna be,um,based off of the strategic plan (both
talking)
Throgmorton/Finishing the strategic plan.
Nelson/Okay! Sounds good.
Throgmorton/And hearing from Chief Matherly.
Salih/(unable to understand) 4:30 since we have the Chief and.....
Throgmorton/Since we have what?
Mims/The Chief.
Salih/ ....will come.
Throgmorton/Oh yeah, right, uh.....
Salih/4:30 again?
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Throgmorton/Uh, whatda y'all think? I don't have any opposition.
Botchway/ Schedule mine until 4:00 (several talking)
Throgmorton/Okay?
Fruin/That's fine. If you all want to start early, that's fine.
Throgmorton/Let's do it!
Fruin/ Okay. (several talking in background)
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions and committees:
Throgmorton/4:30. Which brings us to Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and
committees. Uh, maybe we could start with Susan and move left.
Mims/ Sure! Uh, we've had another meeting of the Steering Committee for the Access Center.
Um, things are continuing to move along. The, um....still lot of decisions to be made,
but I guess I would say management is, uh....the idea of who's going to manage and how
that's going to work is....is continuing to be discussed. So I think we're making progress
there. Urn, we have another meeting coming up that I just got an invitation to tonight and
I don't have the date of it in front of me. Ur....so that's going fine. JECC, we canceled
our last meeting, um, basically for lack of a quorum, and there's nothing....we've already
passed the budget. So...we meet quarterly. So we just kind of canceled (laughs) that
meeting and we're gonna meet in March. Uh, waiting till that one. Um....think that's it!
Throgmorton/Okay!
Thomas/Um, I missed the, uh, MPOJC with my flu, but....got ICAD coming up on Friday.
So....nothing much to report.
Cole/ So I did the City of Literature update already, with the One Book, Two Book. Um,briefly
though,the MPOJC, urn, very substantive discussion. Every once in a while that sort of,
that....I think one of our staff has called that the most important body that no one really
knows about,um, in the sense that, uh....but we brought up the train issue, the Crandic
rail line, and I think there was some discussion about, you know, what the future of that
looked like. I think that's a really exciting project. Um, hopefully we can figure out a
way to expedite that as quickly as we possibly can. Urn, I know that it's an extremely
complicated issue with all the jurisdictions, um, but for the public out there, we're
looking at evaluating a third-stage study for the Crandic rail line, and we're also I believe
looking at a possibility of using that as a rails-to-trails concept. So both of them are
really exciting opportunities for the community, and I'm really looking forward to the
possibility of getting some alternative transportation modes going forward. So stay tuned
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on that project, you know, it's gonna take over the course of years, but hopefully we can
get those years into single digits rather than double digits.
Throgmorton/Maz? Any board, commission? Yeah.
Salih/Not yet(unable to understand) The first one will be on the 20 (mumbled)
Throgmorton/Okay. Kingsley?
Botchway/ Oh,we were supposed to bring back to our community somethin'....can't remember
what that was. At the MPO.
Cole/We already got authorization on the,um, third stage study.
Fruin/I think I'm gonna be, uh, I'll frame up the issue on the federal aid swap to you. (several
responding) We need some MPO needs some feedback on that. So (both talking)
Cole/That's actually a big issue, yeah(several talking)
Fruin/ ...package that up (several talking)
Taylor/ Yeah, there's kind of some controversy (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...done, Kingsley?
Botchway/Yes! Sorry, it was literally in my mind but I couldn't think of the words, so I just,
you know, subliminally sent it over to Geoff and Geoff got it out there. (laughter and
several talking)
Throgmorton/Pauline?
Taylor/Um, yeah, same on the MPO and the controversial discussion about the (mumbled)um,
swap program. Uh, ECIG....ECIOG has not met yet.
Throgmorton/Okay! I get to be last! The Convention and Visitors Bureau regular board
meeting on the 18th was canceled,but on the 23`d Geoff and I participated in a strategic
planning meeting with other people on the CVB Board. It was a fruitful discussion, uh, '
where they indicated they had two initiatives they wanted to focus attention on. One has
to do with the Crandic line and the other has to do with the Iowa River corridor. So I was
really very pleased with both of those judgments. Also, there was a....with regard to the,
uh, Partnership for Alcohol Safety, there was a very interesting conversation in the PAS
meeting on the 23'a, and I'm gonna ask Simon to....kind of turn away from that and help
me remember pretty much what, uh, the spokesperson said when they, uh, attend....when
they spoke to us at the PAS meeting. I know....catchin' ya off guard! (both talking)
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Andrew/Oh,no not at all! And I was doing work emails (laughter) I just wanna(laughter)
aware of that. Urn, so there will not be any legislation expected coming out of that this
year. Uh, the ABD is going through their stakeholder meetings for the rest of this year,
and will be, urn, ideally forwarding a proposed legislative change for next year. Um, we
are very, uh, pleased with the way that the discussion has been moving so far. Uh, we
expect that,uh,there will be some legislation that will give us some more local control
over, urn, the licensing process, uh, and uh,better clarity on the 'good moral standing.'
You know, that's where we really have a hard time enforcing what we want to with, uh,
alcohol licenses. Uh, there is some legislation that's been proposed this year that,urn,
Eleanor's office has been working with, uh, both ABD staff and our lobbyists on, urn,
smaller changes that would, uh, affect our permitting process, but not so much on the, uh,
addressing problem bars.
Throgmorton/Super! Thank you!
Andrew/Yep!
Throgmorton/Gustave, I should give you a chance to say anything you wanna say, you know.
Stewart/Uln....yeah,pretty much we talked about that. Um, talked about, um, nite time mayor
initiatives, urn, that right now we're looking at, um, doing a series of events, urn, through
downtown, as Ben had been saying. Urn, what else? Uln....fraternity and sorority life
was changing their, uh, code of going about things to promote more, urn, I guess safe
alcohol practices or something like that. I'm not sure about the details. Urn, other than
that, that pretty much sums up the meeting.
Throgmorton/Okay. Good deal! All right, folks. I think we're done with our work session. It's
been a long night. Thanks for your patience and, uh....done with the meeting.
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