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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-04-17 Transcription Page I Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Mims, Salih,Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton Staff Present: Froin,Monroe, Offices, Fruehling,W. Ford, Bockenstedt, Knoche, Havel Others Present: Nelson, Stewart(UISG) Clarification of Agenda Items: Throgmorton/Okay, so I guess I'm gonna convene the work se....uh, City Council work session, Iowa City City Council work session, for Tuesday, April the 17th and the first item would be clarification of agenda items. I gotta open my own file to....(mumbled) Go ahead, Pauline! Item 3d(7) Senior Center maintenance positions -Resolution amending the budgeted positions in the Government Buildings Division of the Parks and Recreation Department and the Senior Center by transferring Senior Center division maintenance positions to the Government Buildings Division and changing the job title of the Maintenance Worker I—Senior Center position to Custodian— Government Buildings, and the job title of Maintenance Worker III—Senior Center to Senior Maintenance Worker—Government Buildings Taylor/Uh, this is a question for Geoff, and I know,uh, you and Jim and I had talked about this, but I just had a question on 4d(9), the Senior Center maintenance positions and realigning them with the Parks. Uh, I wasn't clear on then...salaries and from whose budget their salaries would come from then, Senior Center versus the Parks (several talking) Monroe/Yeah,the um....the current salary, the pay plan, uh, will be maintained. So, urn, as they move from the Senior Center department to Parks, uh, government buildings, they're going to,uh, end up changing the title of their position,but the pay plan will,the range that they're in,will stay the same. So there won't be any changes in...in salary, urn, so they'll maintain the same steps and....and uh, salary (noises on mic,unable to hear speaker) Fruin/The,uh,the budget that you adopted shows the positions in the Senior Center budget. Urn, we're not quite sure whether we'll formally amend the budget to show it out of Parks and Rec right away or if we'll just wait and take care of that at the next budget cycle. Urn, either way they....the positions hit the general fund. So it's the same dollars payin' for the positions. The employees are bein' paid the same amount. They still have the, as Ashley said,the same steps in front of them. Item 5h Rezoning Historic Landmark Designation 319 East Bloomington Street— Ordinance rezoning property located at 319 East Bloomington Street from Central Business Service (CB-2) to CB-2 with a Historic Preservation Overlay(CB-2/OHP). (REZ18-00008) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 2 Throgmorton/I'd like to bring up Item 5h,which is, uh, first consideration of the historic landmark designation for 319 East Bloomington. It used to be we could not discuss such things in work session. Can we discuss them....uh,now? Dilkes/You can. I think it's preferable to do it(unable to hear, away from mic) everybody is (both talking) Throgmorton/Yeah, I don't....I don't wanna go into any detail about the substance, I just wanna make a suggestion and see if the Council wanted to do it. Uh, I....I'm inclined to open the public hearing,but then.....hold the public hearing, ask for a motion to continue the hearing, and defer decision to our May Pt meeting. Uh, I'm inclined to do that..... Mikes/Mayor, I don't think you should be (unable to hear) public hearing (both talking) Throgmorton/Yeah, you gotta use your mic,please. Mikes/I don't think you should be making decisions about what you're going to do about a public hearing until you hear the public hearing. Throgmorton/Okay, fair enough. It's a good thing somebody around here knows the law and all that! (laughter) Taylor/Keeps us honest! (laughter) Throgmorton/Uh, any other agenda items y'all wanna talk about? Item 3e(4)Univer-City Sale— 115 North Dodge. Resolution setting public hearing for May 1,2018, on a proposal to convey a single-family home located at 115 North Dodge Street Item 3e(5) Univer-City Sale—619 North Johnson-Resolution setting public hearing for May 1,2018, on a proposal to convey a single-family home located at 619 North Johnson Street Salih/(unable to understand)talk about Items 3e(4) and(5), or this is not,uh.... Throgmorton/Yeah,uh, those are(both talking) Salih/ ...ask questions or no? Throgmorton/Well sure, uh(both talking) Salib/...gonna come for like later or....or what we are doing here now? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. • Page 3 Fruin/(several talking) ....properties. You are setting the public hearing for the UniverCity properties. So the actual vote will be at your May 1st meeting. You're just really, with this action, notifying the public that they will have an opportunity for a public hearing (both talking) Salih/ ...be like(unable to understand) (both talking)publicly about it. Yeah, I just....(several talking) Botchway/Would it be on the actual agenda or would it be another Consent item? Fruin/The UniverCity sale will be on the(both talking) Botchway/ ....agenda. Okay. Fruin/Because there's a....there's a public hearing with it. Botchway/Okay. Salih/Well, yeah, that's great,because I'm...really would like to think careful....seriously about the(unable to understand)talk about it later. Throgmorton/Okay, so we'll do that at our,uh, at our next meeting. Salih/ Sure. Throgmorton/Any other agenda items? Item 3e(1) Rezoning 1705 Prairie Du Chien Road—Motion setting a public hearing for May 1 on an ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 1.89 acres from Planned Development Overlay/High Density Single Family (OPD/RS-12) zone to Low Density Multifamily(RM-12)zone for the property located at 1705 Prairie Du Chien Road. (REZ18-00002) Taylor/3e(1),the rezoning of the Prairie Du Chien Road. Urn, I....wondered where, if we have any information,where they are with,urn, like the displacement of the residents, if we have any more information on that? Fruin/I....I do not, uh, have any information right now on that. Uh,that again is just setting the public hearing, so on May 1St,uh, as part of that public hearing, I think that's gonna be an expected,uh,well the applicant's gonna be expected to answer that. Hopefully the applicant can. If not,probably wanna consider a deferral of that vote. Taylor/Thank you. Information Packet Discussion [April 5,April 121: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 4 Throgmorton/I had that down too. All right, I....I'm guessing there are no more agenda items? So turn to info packet discussion, April 5th packet. I wanna mention IP #2, which is an email,uh, from me, indicating that I have received quite a few emails asking me to join other mayors in signing the Cities Open Internet Pledge. I haven't counted 'em, but it seems to me I've gotten somethin' like 50 of these, from Iowa City residents. It's currently a form petition. But nonetheless,they're coming specifically from Iowa City residents. So, we not...we have not discussed this topic, uh, about having a, you know, an open intemet and we do not have an explicit policy about it. So I'm hopin' to get some advice from you folks about whether I should....do as the petitioners request. Go ahead! Taylor/I was going to bring this item up also, cause I'd, uh, wondered exactly what it would mean for us as a city. I mean we've already been labeled as the liberal Iowa City,terrible liberal Iowa City. I see it more as a progressive city that we, uh, follow suit with progressive ideas, um.....and.....I would be in agreement with it if...if other folks on Council thought it was the right thing to do. Botchway/Proceed. I mean this is something that, um, I've been interested in bringing up. I'm glad that there are other residents that,uh, felt necessary that this be something that we move forward on. Um....and I....and I think I'd only look to Eleanor to see what it would potentially require us to do,um, since we may not necessarily, urn,have certain things from a city that may be different but I'd ultimately proceed. Cole/I'm just wondering.... Dilkes/I think the question is just simply if you want to give the Mayor...tell the Mayor to (several talking) Throgmorton/All right, I hear yes. There'll be some happy people out there. That's good! So... Fruin/If I could, I'm just flipping through this cause it's been a couple of weeks since I've looked at that. We should....we should probably report back to you on what the pledge actually says and what you're committing to, because it's not just an advocacy position. Urn....you know, it....it does have a caveat to the extent permitted by law and within our control. Then it lists, uh, I'm seein' six different tenets, urn, and....and one is procure ap ....applicable intemet services from companies that do not block, throttle, or provide paid prioritization of content on sites that cities run. Urn, ensure an open intemet connection with any free or subsidized service we offer. I think if you're interested in this, we probably need to dive into it a little deeper(both talking) law are and....what(both talking) Mims/Can we get the whole pledge in the next...packet, cause all I saw was the link and I didn't have a chance (several talking) I didn't have a chance to go look at it. Fruin/Obviously we're not a provider of that service, so....um, with some of these....with some of these pledges, you're really pledging to do what you can with, obviously within the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 5 constraints of law, to influence how private providers are providing their service, and it'd probably be helpful for you to know exactly what those constraints are. Throgmorton/Yeah, my recollection is I tried to make a....a .pdf copy of the...of the pledge and I couldn't do it the standard way I do such things, right. Couldn't figure out how to....how to proceed and then got busy doin' other things. Yeah, Geoff, I think that's a really good idea. So....you know, if you could provide some feedback within a reasonable period of time,that'd be very helpful. Fruin/We can do that. Throgmorton/All right, uh (mumbled) um.....yikes, all this stuff. Mims/Just 1P7, reminder of the Community Police Review Board is on April 23rd. Throgmorton/Yep! Salih/I just would like to talk about IP5. Throgmorton/Uh huh. Salih/For the affordable housing action plan update. This is really good but the I'm just have some ideas (unable to understand)that show the number of affordable rental units (unable to understand) and also the update....the update for that for like three years and also (unable to understand) on those unit. And also the number of affordable owner-occupied (unable to understand) and the sales price, of course, and the units. I....I just also mention, uh, you know, you're not there to (unable to understand) if we can add those to the table it'd be great. Botchway/Geoff, where are we...oh, I didn't mean to cut you off, Susan! Mims/No, I just didn't quite even catch what Mazahir was asking for, so I....(both talking) respond, cause I didn't..... Botchway/My first, where are we at with kind of bringing that back, to have the kind of deeper discussion, cause I think that we discuss it during our strategic planning process, that we were going to come back and make some changes to (several talking) Fruin/Yeah, the....the refinement or, urn.....um, reissuing of the affordable option....action plan is part of your strategic plan. So that will be something we tackle in the next two-year period. Um, we'll just build on what we've started here. Uh, and performance metrics, Council has requested that we develop some performance metrics, which is essentially what you're requesting, uh, Mazahir, so we will develop those, um, come back to you with what we think many of the items that you talked about, units created, um,under which, you know, how are those units created. Was it because of inclusionary zoning, direct investment? Was it federal dollars? Was it the affordable housing dollars? Was it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 6 through our investment in the Trust Fund? We'll try to lay all that out, urn, and then we can specify rental, owner-occupied, period of....of affordability. We'll try to provide as much of that, um, as we can. So...that's...that's in the works. Um....I will say,urn,the annex....the annexation policy I previously reported to you that would be on the second meeting in April, the agenda there. Urn, we got tied up with the Forest View rezoning application and gettin' that out the door, so that's delayed, urn, one....one meeting. It should be in front of the....the P&Z that first meeting in....in May. So....yes to the performance metrics. We're workin' on it and, um, that's the one update from what we submitted here. Throgmorton/Yeah, so I think they'll be providing what we want. Yeah. I....I wanna make one very small note about IP #5, the same topic we were just discussing. I....I just observed that the fourth element in action 9 (laughs) uh, refers to, um....um, keeping occupancy at three unrelated. So that...that needs to be cleaned up. Fruin/Needs to be updated. Thank you. Botchway/ I would just make a comment as well, cause I...I mean, I just want to thank staff for their work on this. I mean I know things come up, as you just mentioned with the Forest View rezoning and some other things have come up over the course of, you know,my time on Council, which is fine. I....I'm just more focused on the fact that we are making, urn, steps on this effort, and doing it in a way that I think is, urn, not necessarily clearly articulated, or I know I haven't done a good job as far as clearly articulating, um,the different steps we've taken. I think a lot of it's been focused primarily on the money that we've been able to, uh, apportion towards this effort, urn, but there are other steps that I think are addressing affordable housing in different and inclusive ways, and so for the record, I just want to make sure that we...we state, or I state that at least. Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah. Good. Uh, I wanna mention a couple topics, I guess. Uh, one is.... where did it go? Urn, IP #3, which is a post by...that John put into the packet, it's a post by Kaid Benfield about, uh...the healthiest neighborhoods are both walkable and green. I thought that was a pretty instructive article, spot on. So, thanks for puttin' it in there, John. Thomas/You bet! (several talking) Botchway/ ...type of kudos when I put a memo in the packet(laughter) Thomas/Um, I....I was looking through it again, after just, you know,the last day or two, and... and one thing it said, which I....I don't think it registered in my first reading of it, was that people living in urban environments are at a higher risk of mental health issue. So, uh (laughs) in a sense what....what the....the article is emphasizing is that that higher risk needs to be addressed by certain actions, uh, and that what....seem to be effective in addressing those higher risks for stress and...and mental health related issues are walkability and nature. And, urn, you know, how that relates to Iowa City in particular, at least within the Iowa context, as I recall, Iowa City is one of the higher, has one of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 7 higher, if not the highest, density in the state of Iowa in terms of its, you know, population per square mile. Uh, so.....we.....we are an urbanized community and that can be stressful (laughs)you know, um, you know, we've been talking most recently about the impacts of traffic and just as one example, the noise, the pollution,uh, that... just the physical risks that are involved with that, but....I.....I was very pleased to see how some of these things that we've been talking about,you know, there's a lot of science supporting....you know, what...what we are trying to do, and I think the climate action plan will just reinforce that. Throgmorton/Yeah, I was pretty impressed with the extent to which Benfield went through the science and....related to these topics. Yeah. Taylor/I also liked that article and wanted to thank you for including that, cause....especially it said the natural features, such as trees, gardens, parks, birds, water are associated with a higher level of mental well-being and I....I think that that's really important and we should never lose sight of the importance of our parks and our green space, and I think we should also always be cognizant of that when people are coming before us for,uh, zoning changes or approval of developments that..that we don't allow them to, uh, do such things like fee in lieu of a green space, cause the green space is important, and I think we've seen that now with the lack of the trees aren't even budding out yet, and I think the seasonal affective disorder is really apparent(laughter)with a lot of people cause it's just not green yet and...and I think it does make a difference. Thomas/Get out the green spray paint at this point. Taylor/Right, right, but it also stressed that it's more than just a plot of grass, that you need more than that. Throgmorton/If we could get seasonal affective disorder into our code so that (several talking and laughing) It's real for sure, but you know..... Taylor/It's gonna snow again! Throgmorton/Yeah. I wanna mention IP #6 also,l which is a letter from the....the CRS Coordinator. I don't know what CRS stands for, but CRS coordinator of FEMA's Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration, congratulating Iowa City for,uh, increasing to a Class 6 in the National Flood Insurance Program rating system, which is likely to result in lower flood insurance costs, if I understand correctly. That's a good thing! I think... maybe City government, staff had something to do with that better rating but.... Froin/Yeah, uh....staff did. I certainly didn't. Uh, Julie Tallman is the one that really spends a lot of time on this and...and we're lucky to have her, um, be able to really dive deep into this issue. Um, she's good. She's really good at what she does, and uh, it....it shows here, uh, and....and this is great because those that have to pay flood insurance will now see a savings because of,uh,her hard work, and of course a lot of the projects and...and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 8 the flood recovery effort that's....that's spanned all our departments and that you all at the Council table have....have helped support and....and provide funding for over the years. Throgmorton/Good work, Julie! All right, anything else on that information packet? Taylor/Oh, IP 13, the report from the Human Rights Commission. Just wanted to commend them and thank them for, uh,their activities in the community. From that list,they're really,uh, busy out there and...and doing a lot of things,uh,to....to (mumbled) community and its inclusiveness. Throgmorton/Movin' on, April 12th Taylor/IP4, uh, Geoff s, uh, article that he shared, uh, from National League of Cities, uh,the preemption. It's kind of timely as far as the things that have gone on, uh,in our state, but also I think goes to show us that we're not alone. It's....it's happening. It was interesting to see the data and the colored graphs of all around us, all across the country, these things are going on, um, and on that line, I'd like to thank the....the,uh, businesses in the community that have continued to honor the Board of Supervisors minimum wage rate. I think our....our community stands out as far as that goes and can do those kinds of things. Uh, but uh, it just....it has economic and human rights implications and, uh, but we're not alone, obviously. Oh, along with that(laughs) I was gonna mention it later cause I had, uh, gone to the, uh, Municipal Leadership Academy,but they talked about, uh, celebrating this year, 50 years of local control and home rule, it's the 50-year anniversary of that. So,uh, folks can go to the League of Cities,uh,web site and see. They'd like to plan some activities this year and have proclamations made by the cities, which(mumbled) the Mayor some information on that so that we can proclaim that. Throgmorton/ Speaking of home rule, yesterday Kingsley and I met with visitors from,uh...um, the Philippines. It was a really interesting,uh, meeting. There were I think nine....people, seven of whom were mayors and two of whom were vice governors. Yeah, and one of the things we talked about was home rule,because they were tryin' to get a sense of how the federalist system, federalism system works within the United States and how cities fit into the Constitution, etc., and then....that led to some conversation about home rule in the state of Iowa. You know,preemption,that kind of thing. It was a pretty fascinating meeting. Uh, I warma bring up something that was in the late handout, uh, but I don't know....1 think this is the appropriate moment to bring it up. Dilkes/ (unable to hear) Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah, so....um,there was an April...uh,there was a story in the Little Village, an article in the Little Village, on April the 10`n, entitled"Governor Reynolds Signs So-Called Sanctuary Cities Bill, which she says was aimed at far-left liberals in Des Moines and Iowa City." So I....alerted Geoff and Eleanor earlier today that I'd like This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 9 to give....give them an opportunity to clarify for us, and for the Coun....and for the public,what effects, if any, this new law might have on our policies and practices. So... Fruin/Yeah, I'll start and Eleanor can...can chime in as well. This has certainly been a question that we've been asked, uh, quite a bit in the last couple weeks in a number of media interviews, talked with members of the community that have had questions too. Um, I think it helps to start back a couple years ago when you considered the....the resolution that has been called into question in Des Moines. Um, important to look at the title of that resolution. That resolution was reaffirming the role of law enforcement. Reaffirming. With that resolution you weren't asking the Police Department to do anything different than they had done for the previous 20, 30-plus years. Um, and simply we're not immigration, uh, we're not a....an immigration enforcement arm. We've never been asked to. We're not trained to, and we're not empowered to be immigration, uh....uh, an immigration enforcement agency. Um, so what you did is you said that we are going to maintain a public safety role,uh, with our....with our Police Department. You also said that we will comply with all federal and state laws. Um, so my message has been, um, you should not see any significant change in our, really any....probably you don't even need to say significa....don't even need to say significant. You shouldn't see any change in our daily approach to law enforcement. You didn't two years ago when you passed the resolution and you won't with this, uh, change in state law. Uh,we will comply with the law. There's some updates to internal policies that we need to do to be compliant. That's specifically stated in the law,by....by January 1st we have to update some policies. We have to make sure our officers know what SF481 says. Urn,but we're not going to ask them to be immigration enforcement,urn, officers,uh, so again, I....I think the challenging part is....is this sets us back with the immigrant community, uh,because now they have an additional layer of fear, an additional layer of hesitation. There's an additional layer of uncertainty. It makes the job of those police officers that much harder. Um, we've been trying to build those relationships. I think we've been having some small victories over the years in....in building trust. There's no doubt I believe this is a set-back to that....to that effort,but we're gonna continue to try to...to build that trust and....and, uh, build those relationships, despite....SF481. So, I hope that's clear. Um, I know Police Chief Matherly is, uh, feels the same way, and uh,that's how we're gonna be instructing the officers to move forward. I'd ask Eleanor if there's anything regarding compliance with the law that you think(both talking) Dilkes/ ...very well said. Botchway/I have a question, and I'll leave my for my Twitter account, but um....the question I have is is there any way we can send a statement regarding that, um.....through our kind of web-based....whatever, communication channels? Froin/Sure. Botchway/ Okay. Mims/Might wanna wait till the legislative session is done. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 10 Botchway/I mean I don't wanna reward, you know, ignorance, I mean,basically I think they made a....well, I don't want to go into comments (laughs) Twitter account, um....(both talking) Mims/I'd just let them get done and out of Des Moines before.... Botchway/Yeah. Throgmorton/I....I agree with that, that there, uh, the situation calls for some,um....um.... subtlety and deftness in trying to figure out how to respond. And I think that's a key part of it. Cole/One issue relates to....I know that the County had talked about whether they wanna file a legal claim on the basis of the detainers. Our Police Department has nothing to do with the detainers, is my understanding. Um,the question is is....could we support them in an amicus capacity? Is that something we can decide as a Council, where we would support the litigation or do we have any role with that? Cause I think they're gonna challenge on the basis of you're compelling us to detain someone illegally. We could be sued, and that's not a defense for a federal lawsuit. Could we participate with them in the same way that we've helped, urn, Chicago in their briefing or what would your response to that be? Dilkes/ Sure, yeah I mean counties are in a very different situation because of the detainer issue. Um....but depending on what litigation, I mean, they bring and...there certainly would be the opportunity for amicus participation. Throgmorton/Yeah, so we'll have to play that by ear, it seems. See what the text of anything they generate actually says. All right, any other topics on the,uh,April whatever it was agenda? Taylor/1P7, like to thank Ben for that article about the hidden crisis (several talking) Gustave, sorry! (laughs) Sorry(several talking and laughing) Gustave! Yes, Gustave,uh....it was very informative and hunger is....is just something that people don't like to, uh, talk about or even admit, and....and having served,um, some of the free meals down at the Crisis Center, uh, I have to admit I often times don't think about the student population, and I don't know if...if you have any feel for if it...if it isn't really a problem in this community as well, which according to the article it sounds like it probably is and....and what we can do. Is there some way that we can help provide transportation for these students that might be able to go down to the Crisis Center to get some free meals, or even the Salvation Army does some dinner meals....what you think we could do to help this. Stewart/Yeah,uh, we have a really, urn, good food pantry program, um, that's in the IMU and they're looking to expand,um,to the west side, so that way it can kinda hit populations, but that's kind of the narrative Student Government's pushing forward is, um, seeing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page I 1 what food accessibility looks like. Um, at the Big Ten level we're seeing Wisconsin recently made their,urn, dining halls food stamp accessible, SNAP accessible. Urn, so just seeing different ways that we can kind of see this,because to your point, you know, this is a narrative that has...hasn't been talked about. So, uh, we're excited to see, you know,what we can do on our own campus,but also knowing the intersectionality between campus and city,how can we kind of coordinate those efforts in any way possible, so..... Throgmorton/Good deal! Any other items on that agenda, or that information packet? Thomas/I...on the bar check.... Throgmorton/Bar check? All right. Taylor/IP8! (several talking and laughing) Throgmorton/When was the last time you checked a bar(several talking and laughing) Thomas/Um....I....I'm just wondering if we really....do we need this information? I'm not sure ....how is it useful to us as a Council, um......(several talking) Botchway/Well, I mean I guess when we initially had provided, we had changed....we had changed the nature of the information that was previously provided,because we wanted to at least show for what it's worth some public accountability,based on these situations. At least that's why I....wanted it in that sense. There isn't much we can do,but at least it shows the public for whatever it's worth that this is occurring and that they should be aware and...that's about it. Taylor/It does kind of show a pattern. It's the same offenders every time, but it was helpful to me one time because somebody mentioned to me, oh, they....I won't say the name of the bar, oh yeah, they always have underage drinkers, and I showed them the data and I said, no,they're never on this list, uh, it's these bars that are the ones that are the same offenders. So, it has been helpful information in that respect. Fruin/We still do use the information on....on, uh....um, PAULA citations, urn,to, urn, determine whether exceptions certificates to business should be issued. So, uh, for example, uh, if you were to pull up this item, you'll see that Bo James, uh, has a ration of 1. That's over the limit and we have recently notified Bo James that they've lost their exception certificate. That's not their liquor license. Uh,but that's the exception the 21- ordinance rule. So, we do use it, uh, and....and,uh,the City Attorney's office, uh, helps track that with the Police Department and once businesses reach a certain threshold, uh, they could lose that. Many of these businesses that you see here don't have an exception certificate. So for some of them, it doesn't mean anything, but there's.....there's a few, like Bo James,that....that did. Um....the other thing is, it....it keeps the issue in front of you, albeit you know, maybe you don't see that influencing, uh, your policy, you know, even every year,but it keeps it in front of you. It makes it public so that groups like PAS This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 12 can review it,uh, Partnership for Alcohol Safety, uh, can take a look at it. Urn.....and the other thing I would say is that, um, there's been some discussion. It's just been discussion at this point, but....um,the ABD is considering....Alcohol Beverage Division is considering whether to extend, um, it'd have to be passed at the State House, but whether to propose legislation that would extend more Home Rule authority to cities on liquor licenses. Um, again, that has not been proposed yet, but they've been having a series of....of public meetings across the state, to kind of vet that issue out, and we think that there may be,um, legislation introduced next year that could potentially extend some.....some more Home Rule authority to us. So we talked about the preemption report,this would be the opposite of that. This would actually be the State granting us more,uh, authority over liq...local liquor licenses, and if that's the case,this information could be extremely useful. So I....I (both talking) Thomas/I wasn't debating the importance of the information,just having it in the information packet was my question but um....if you all think it's really valuable,that's....that's fine. Throgmorton/I don't know that all that detail is required. Thomas/Uh huh. Throgmorton/Uh, at least for our,uh, for our purposes. It is helpful to know that there are typically something like five bars or whatever that are....are,um, imperfect(laughs) Mims/I mean I think as long as they're compiling it this way, I....I think it's worth putting in, because sometimes you can see a pretty high percentage, and then you realize, oh, it was only a couple of visits, you know. That's different than if you've got 30 or 40 visits and you've got a really high percentage, so..... Throgmorton/All right, I'm gonna assume there are no more, uh, items to bring up there,but I want to mention something that's not on the list, uh....uh,pending work session topics. I don't recall seeing that, in the information packet. So...I just wanna note that we need to talk about what's going to happen on May Pt(laughs) Fruin/Yeah,my apologies for that. Um....uh, we do not have a topic for the next work session agenda. Um....uh, I can throw out a few possibilities for ya. I think we would be ready to,uh,have a discussion, if you are, on the,uh, $15 an hour,um, wage rate for City employees that's on your, urn, pending list. We've compiled that information, we can run through that, uh, with you again, and allow you to....have that discussion, or begin that discussion. And then another item that Council has requested, uh, should be in the info packet,uh,this week, and that's a...um, a memo on participatory budgeting. So looking at our budget process and giving you some examples of how other cities approach budgeting in ways that can,urn, involve the public to a greater extent than we do now. Simon has worked on that report, and uh,that's, uh,that's ready to go too. So there's.... there's two possibilities. Um, if you look at the, I guess the last pending, um....list, would be on your info packet,uh.....let's see which one that would be. While This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17,2018. Page 13 I'm looking at that.....(mumbled) ya where that would be, but we'll start with those two topics and then if you've got others, we can talk about those too. Throgmorton/All right, we can chat a little bit about....uh, a little bit more tomorrow about that I guess, uh, when you and I and Pauline meet, but that sounds like a good idea to proceed with. Fruin/It'd be on the 3/29, March 29th info packet, uh, IP4 would be the last one. Council updates on assigned boards, commissions and committees: Throgmorton/Okay! Moving on, Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. So maybe we can start with Pauline and move to the left. Taylor/I don't have anything to report. Mims/Uh,just would mention on the Steering Committee for the Access Center, Jessica Peckover has submitted her resignation. Throgmorton/Oh no! Mims/ She is headed to take a job in San Antonio (several talking and laughing) so it's gonna be a huge, huge loss for us. Um, at the same time, we have hired a"project manager," basically it's a University employee, uh, the County will be paying for that employee. So somebody who can really kind of look at the nuts and bolts of....licensing and facility requirements, especially in light of the State legislation on access centers and how that affects what we want to do here, um, so that's a real positive, um, but yeah! We're very much going to miss Jessica. Throgmorton/I don't think I've ever met a staff person, or anybody else, with more energy than Jessica has (laughs) Mims/She's....yeah! Throgmorton/Pretty amazing! Mims/Yep! We're gonna miss her. Throgmorton/Yeah! John? Thomas/Uh, at the most recent Iowa City Area Development meeting there were some, I thought, interesting topics. One,which was brought up at the....our joint session yesterday, which is the, um, the change with the corridor branding, which I think....I'm very supportive of it. It's the moving away from the creative corridor concept to emphasizing Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, so ICR with the C being in coming with both city names. Not to say that the smaller communities won't be part of this marketing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 14 effort, but the....the effort now will focus, which I think is very appropriate, more on the ....productive places within the region, rather than the corridor that connects them (laughs) um, it's hard to....I.....I can't even....what....what does one conjure up as an image when one things of the corridor, you know, what? The interstate? I mean (laughs) um, so I think it's really appropriate to....focus that...that effort more on Iowa City. The cities that make up the region rather than the creative corridor, and so a lot of material now will be coming out with that focus, which I'm looking forward, and we've seen previews of it. I think it's pretty interesting. Uh, another item was the ICAD and the Chamber of Commerce are kind of going through a conversation, trying to determine how and when and in what ways their respective roles could change, uh.....or at least be as well integrated as....as possible. So I think that's another interesting one to follow and see what comes out of that. That's it! Cole/Don't have a ton of information other than that we did finish up the City of Literature conference and once again just wanna give rave reviews to John Kenyon, you know,just the logistics of bringing all those people together, putting all those events together. I only had a chance to go to the Old Capitol event. I saw some of you there, and that was very well done, but I think it's just another reason to feel incredibly proud of the community that we live in and the people that make that up, and those sort of things don't just happen. It's only by sort of that day-to-day work that John does such a good job at that we can celebrate this great literary community that we live in. So, once again kudos to John Kenyon. Throgmorton/Yeah, for sure. I...the directors of the, uh, other cities were rea...really raved about the quality of work John has been doing. So, uh, I....I think we can see that here at a local scale, but they're talking about the effect that John, and our City of Literature, are having on cities all over the world, you know, at least a select set of cities all over the world. Just today, or yesterday, I....I got emails from a couple of the directors who visited. Praising,uh,the....the event itself and the way they were received and the things they had to....had an opportunity to do here. So, yeah, it was a big hit! So....and John knows that! (laughs) Salih/I don't have any. Throgmorton/Kingsley? Botchway/No. Throgmorton/Well, gosh I guess that brings it up to me. So,boy sound like James Comey, "Gosh!" (laughter) Um, so the Convention and Visitors Bureau, I met with their board on the 22'd of March and in that board meeting the discussion focused on upcoming events,mainly the, what, United World....what is it, World Wrestling World Cup. Alas, Iran did not come. Russia did not come. And I think Turkey did not come, but the first two are powers in that kind of wrestling, so.....too bad, but it was a big event, and I had an opportunity to hand out bronze medals to Japanese wrestlers (laughs) They were so (several talking) they were excited! Uh, they were really pumped and it was so much This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 15 fun, uh, watchin' the joy in their faces. So at....at the CVB meeting we also talked about RAGBRAI, about the UCI,uh, Cyclocross World Cup, which will be in the fall, I guess, and also about construction about the new arena in Coralville, and about the CVB staff's ideas about how to implement the CVB's strategic plan, focusing on first embracing the river, which is connected to ideas we've shared here. Secondly, building a stronger connection with diverse communities. I was really pleased to see that, that's something that's emerged within the CVB over the past year or so. Uh, maybe it has deeper roots, I don't know, but definitely over the past year. Thirdly, improving connections among bicycle trails and....and transportation in the corridor. So as a part of that discussion, that part of it, I....I mentioned that, uh.....our Council had instructed me to draft a letter havin' to do with the widening of I-380, and I....I indicated that the instructions were, uh, to draft a letter opposing the widening. So, Tom Gill was not happy to hear that. There's a surprise. Uh...uh, Chris from up in North Liberty, uh, said, well maybe there's some things we can talk about and work on there. Uh, Mike Carberry was there, as well, and said something similar. But I....I bring that up partly because it was discussed during the CVB board,but also because we,uh,briefly discussed it yesterday in the joint entities meeting. Can I go a little bit more deeply into this, the....the I-380 widening? Cause, yeah, all right. Dilkes/If it's a report from the CVB. Throgmorton/Yeah, uh, well....so I think each of you have received a copy of the draft letter, or the letter I drafted. Uh, it's probably a little bit too long. It's very typical of the kind of stuff I write. So I'm sure it could be shortened, but in the joint entities meeting yesterday, I did as I, uh, alerted you to...alerted you that I would do, I.....indicated to them that I had been asked to draft, instructed to draft this letter,that I had drafted one. I didn't know whether to really use the word `oppose the widening,' uh, 'have objections to the widening,' or 'have strong concerns about the widening,' etc. Uh, and then.....recalled that one of our ambitions, I didn't use the word `strategic plan,' but one of our strategic plan's ambitions is to, uh....build upon and strengthen our, um, collaborative relationships with nearby communities, and en....and governmental entities. So in that spirit I said well maybe we could work together, uh, to....to create a working group and all that,but during that discussion you remember I said we have not, our Council has not had a chance to look carefully at the specifics of that draft letter. So...I just wanted for us to be conscious of that and....if there.....um, if there are things you need to tell me about a draft letter, or about what we should be....what the end game should be, it...it would be helpful to be clear about that. What I mean by what the end game should be. We could just....send pretty much the draft letter that I've put together. We could send it to the DOT and express our values. What would that get us? We could....work with nearby communities to maybe come up with some collaborative statement, that's maybe not fully in accord with our values but....closer to our values than what currently is the case. So we need to have some sense about what....what our end game is, what we want to accomplish by....with this draft letter and with this conversation, but that we hope.... we're hopefully able to set up with, uh, a working group that we talked about at the joint entities meeting. Uh, so....I don't know if we wanna go through all that in detail right This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018. Page 16 now, but....yeah. Urn, it'd be helpful to be thinkin' about that some. Give me some feedback if you can. Okay! That's the only thing I wanted to (both talking) Cole/When would we discuss that, maybe at Council time then? At the end of the meeting or... when would you prefer that we give you feedback, on that...on the letter and what the end game is? Throgmorton/What's....l don't know, what's an appropriate moment? I'm not sure what the most appropriate moment is. Urn....we could do it, I guess, at the end of our formal meeting, but that doesn't make any sense, does it? Dilkes/(several talking) ....you know discussing a particular topic that we haven't really given (both talking) Throgmorton/Right, right, so.... Fruin/We could place it as a work session topic. Throgmorton/Yeah. Yeah(several talking) Yeah, all right, let's do that. Okay,anything else? I think the answer's no. All right, we're adjourned from our work session. We'll reconvene at 7:00. Good grief, 50...what is that? 57 minutes from now. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of April 17, 2018.