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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-09-18 TranscriptionPage 1 Council Present: Cole, Mims, Salih, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Fruehling, Havel, Nagle -Gamin, Ralston, Matherly, Brotherton, Fowler Others Present: Johnson County Board of Supervisors --Carberry, Green- Douglas, Friese, Rettig, Sullivan Discussion/update of the following: a. Iowa City Climate Action Plan (Iowa City) Throgmorton/ All right, great! We have, what is this (mumbled) six items on the agenda, plus other topics that might come up, and an opportunity for public comment. The first item is the Iowa City Climate Action Plan. So .... tonight on our formal meeting agenda is the proposed adoption of the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan for Iowa City. As you know, we have been working pretty hard — we being the staff, the consultant, the steering committee and so on — have been working pretty hard on this climate action and adaptation plan for the past two and a half years. First to indicate that this, adopting such a plan was a major Council priority. Second to set .... clear goals in terms of. ... reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. Third to create a steering committee, consisting of a diverse mix of 13 individuals, organizations, interests, and so on. Fourth to hire an experienced consulting firm to provide technical assistance, and now tonight, to consider adoption of the plan. So, reasonably good timing, I think, because just last week the Global Climate Action Summit closed with a strong call to action, and uh, I don't wanna elaborate on that but it was ... an impressive mix of people, large number of people and organizations, and mayors, and.... governors and whatever, and just this past weekend, much of North Carolina was inundated, and still is, by massive amounts of water produced by Hurricane Florence. So .... we .... believe there's good reason to be doing what we're doing. But we wanted to give y'all an opportunity to say anything you wanted to say to us about the climate action plan. Uh, otherwise... we'll be movin' on it tonight. Carberry/ Um, Jim, you know I've, uh, climate change and working on climate change has been something I've, uh, done professionally since the year 2000 and I, uh, wholeheartedly, uh, applaud personally and endorse, uh, this climate action plan. I, uh, I know we worked with the City almost 10 years ago, uh, on the Cool Cities program and uh, Bren... with Brenda Nations and your other staff, and so, uh, to me this is the culmination of. ... of a really, really good start and, uh, any help that the County can give on this, you know we have a ... a sustainability staff as well. So, uh.... uh, if I had a vote tonight, I would vote yes on this. (laughter and several talking) Throgmorton/ Yeah, that's right! You don't! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 2 Carberry/ Exactly! I said `ifl' Throgmorton/ Thanks Mike! Carberry/ Yeah! Tbrogmorton/ I mean you .... nobody else has to praise us or anything. (laughter) I'm not looking for praise. Just warm make sure that y'all know this is happening and we feel pretty good about it. Okay. Sullivan/ Can I ask a question, Jim? Throgmorton/ Yeah, sure! Sullivan/ Um, maybe Brenda would have to answer this, but uh, how frequently are the staffs from Johnson County and Iowa City talking about this (both talking) Throgmorton/ Brenda, could you (both talking) perhaps address that? Sullivan/ And, uh, is there anybody missing from the conversation that should be there? Nations/ Hi, uh, yes. I'm on a monthly call with Vicky, she's a part of the Heartland Network and so we're also, um, come to the meeting for her quarterly sustainability group meetings, and so um, she's kept abreast that way and also in our plan, um, we're hoping to work with the counties, especially with the emergency management planning, and um ....uh, your public health for adaptation reasons. So we're hoping to, uh, collaborate as we move forward. Carberry/ Thank you. Throgmorton/ Maybe I could add, excuse me, Mike, go ahead. Carberry/ Yeah, I also would like to thank Brenda and Iowa City for collaborating with us on the solarized, uh, group solar project. Um, I believe 180 homes will be .... and businesses, will be installing solar, because of that program, and over a megawatt of, uh, solar installed. So, uh, we couldn't be prouder of. ... of what the citizens of Johnson County have done, but it was .... working with the City of. ... of Iowa City and other, uh, entities within the county that made this a real success. Throgmorton/ Yeah. Great! I guess the other thing I was gonna add, Mike, is that one of the... another element that we're going to be addressing tonight is a recommendation from the Climate Action Steering Committee that after adop... um, after we presumably adopt this plan tonight, they would disband and .... but they're recommending that we create, uh, I don't remember the exact title, but an advisory board that would consist of those original members, plus probably a few others from specific organizations or interests that maybe weren't considered fully enough beforehand. Yeah. Okay! I guess we can move on to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 3 the second topic, which will be a construction update from Iowa City, and Ron .... no, Jason Havel's gonna give us an update. Good evening, Jason, how are ya? b. Construction Update (Iowa City) Havel/ I'm doing well. How bout yourself? Throgmorton/ Great! Havel/ Uh, Jason Havel, City Engineer for City of Iowa City. Just to give you a .... a brief update of construction projects, the major construction projects that we have goin' on. Obviously you don't have to go very far to ... to run into one (laughter) Urn .... kickin' things off, uh, Gateway project — that one is still ongoing, with completion, uh, substantial completion we're hopin' for yet this year. Uh, couple of the .... the minor, or major items that are still left — we still have some southbound paving left to do. Um, the Park Road bridge is open, um, but not fully. They still have some utility work that's going on with the bridge and so finishing that up, and then hopefully have those remaining lanes open here shortly, as well as some traffic signal work, some lighting work, that kind of stuff. Um, the other (mumbled) piece that is still is ongoing is the Kimball and Gilbert intersection. Um, they have some culvert work and other items there to complete, but again, completion — lookin' at hopefully this October, November timeframe. Um, we'll likely still have some touch-up work in the spring, but hopefully, uh, substantial completion yet this year. Throgmorton/ Jason, let me inter ... uh, interrupt for just a second. I meant to, uh, alert the Board of Supervisors and other Council Members that ... this particular meeting is being televised, or ... recorded, by Channel 4 and will be available for subsequent streaming and so on. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. Havel/ Uh, next one, ped mall — uh, workin' on phase 1 now, which is essentially the intersection of Dubuque Street and College Street. Um, the .... the major items still remaining there would be the stage canopy. The stage itself is, uh, more or less complete and really just lookin' at completing the canopy. Also have some paver work and .... and landscaping, that type of work still left to do. Looking at hopefully having that portion of it complete here probably mid-October, um, the remainder of this year we would focus on the rest of the north -south section so the Dubuque Street corridor, as well as the Black Hawk Mini - Park area, um, again, looking at probably, um, some storm sewer work. The water main work is complete, so storm sewer work and then the remaining paving, pavers, uh, landscaping work yet this year, and then in 2019 we would focus on the east -west section, the College Street corridor of that project, and again, that would be, uh, all the landscaping and pavers, replacement of those, um, with completion of that section next year. The Mormon Trek 4 -lane to 3 -lane conversion project — that one we are currently working on the right turn lane there on Mormon Trek, there at Benton Street, lookin' at probably another couple weeks before that's complete. Uh, once that is done then we would focus on the four -lane to three -lane conversion portion of it. Um, with that restriping complete yet this year. Next year we will focus on the intersecsheen... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 4 intersection patching, uh, curb ramps, and then also the street lighting replacement north of Melrose for that section, uh, with that work being completed next year. The main reason there's that gap in what's completed this year and next year is really the lead time on the poles. So the signal poles and the street lighting poles, we're just waiting for those to come in and don't feel that we can....get those in in time to get that work completed this year, especially with curb ramps. We don't wanna be mid -stream over the winter. So just kind of tryin' to stage that. Um, so again, really completion of the 4 -lane to 3 - lane conversion this year and then the remaining work, uh, in the spring of 2019. The overlay projects, the first one there being Riverside Drive, working on, uh, PCC or concrete patching here shortly. That'll be night work. So a lot of that'll be occurring overnight and look at that occurring probably into October, November timeframe. Um, Myrtle Avenue is currently closed. Looking at that being closed still probably rill mid to late -October for utility work, as well as intersection improvements there. Urn .... sol think overall, probably looking at completion of Myrtle in October and then like I said, uh, the concrete patching for Riverside Drive the end of this year. The actual overlay portion of that will .... will be in 2019. So probably looking at April, May timeframe for completion of the overlay on Riverside Drive. Moving to the other side of the river, uh, Burlington, Court, Johnson — those areas, um, the surface is complete, so the asphalt overlay is complete. Now we're just focusing on tying those intersections in and ... and kind of wrapping up those portions of it. Looking at that work being done probably the end ... by the end of September. So here shortly in the next couple of weeks we'll get that wrapped up. Um, then they will move on to Governor Street, where they'll do, uh, concrete patching, curb and gutter, curb ramps, that kind of stuff. The goal is to have that done, um, still this year. We're gettin' to that time of ...of the year where, especially with asphalt work as we get late in the year, it's gonna really be weather -dependent. So hopin' to have the asphalt work and the restriping done yet this year, um, if. ... if weather were to turn cold early, then that may get pushed to next year, but that would be the plan. Um, and then that would include also, um, restriping a bike lane on both, uh, Dodge and Governor. And then finally just a real quick update on Burlington and Clinton. Um, we still have some remaining traffic signal and curb ramp there at that intersection, hoping to get that wrapped up here in the next month or so. Uh, and then following that would be restriping of the corridor, with .... which would also include a 4 -lane to 3 -lane conversion for kind of the middle section, as well as bike lanes throughout the corridor. So I think that is my .... list of projects, unless anybody has any questions. Carberry/ Jason, when you say 4 -lane to 3 -lane on Mormon Trek and the others, does that mean the addition of the bike lanes as well? Havel/ Correct. All of those will be 4 -lane to 3 -lane width, which will add bike lanes on each of those corridors. Carberry/ Fantastic! Thank you. Friese/ I have a couple questions about Gateway, uh, and they're design questions, so I guess they're probably too late. But.... why.... why on earth was there not a right turn lane put into Kimball? At Dubuque. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 5 Havel/ I think that was considered during the design. I .... I don't know that the traffic volumes warranted that turn lane. Friese/ And if everybody who drives it thinks that it does (laughs) um, and the other question is, and I think this might be on just about everybody's mind regarding that bridge and the... and the skateboarders and so on. How did they not see that comin'? Havel/ That's probably a good question. (laughter) So I think it's something we've addressed from the construction standpoint. Obviously it's still an active construe.... construction site.... Friese/ Uh huh. Havel/ ...so we've taken some measures to help hopefully alleviate that, um, during (both talking) Friese/ ...danger signs this afternoon. Havel/ And then ... and then we'll also look at options for more kind of a permanent fix there as well, so still workin' through those, but I would anticipate that coming shortly. Throgmorton/ Can't imagine why anybody would think it's dangerous to be on top of one of those arches. (laughter) A skateboard or whatever. Friese/ It's a college town, Jim! (laughter) Salih/ Didn't anyone ask you did you receive, uh, like comin' from the construction worker about this early on the project because I remember while I was campaigning, I been approached by two worker on the construction site who brought this to my attention, and I told them, hey, I'm just campaigning. I don't know if I'm going to be there or not. You just have to address this to the City, and they said they sent to the City a letter or .... maybe an email, I don't know, they contact the City already, and they said if the design completed, this'll be dangerous. And they was complaining exactly from the same thing, people will use a skateboard and .... try to do that, but have you received those complaints? Havel/ I'm not aware of them, but I .... I don't know that anybody on staff hasn't received them, but I .... I'm not aware of that specific complaint. Salih/ Okay. Throgmorton/ We've received lots of complaints, as you know, from .... users of the various roads that have been interrupted for, uh, construction related reasons, and in some cases like on Clinton Street, people have been very .... some people anyhow, have been fairly frustrated by the slow pace of work on the intersection in particular, or the intersections. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 6 But we've already gotten a memo from staff about this. I think you wrote it, it came through Geoff, and so it's just frustrating for us and frustrating for people that use those streets, and .... they'll be done! They'll be done fairly soon! Yeah. Thanks for your good work, Jason. Any other questions for Jason? Thomas/ Quick one! Jason, on ... on the, uh, Mormon Trek project, do you know off the top of your head some of the safety statistics, because I mean that's.... in my mind what was really the impetus behind the project was to make it a safer corridor.... Havel/ Yep! Thomas/ What .... what the collision rates are, for example, as a 4-laner and what we're anticipating. Maybe Kent has the answer (laughs) Havel/ I don't know (several talking) off hand. I don't know if Kent (several talking) Ralston/ Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. I don't know what the collision rates are, um, Mr. Thomas, but I can tell you what we're expecting is about a 25% reduction in overall collisions. Uh, and that corridor was one of the higher collision corridors, uh, in the city, as you know, and that's why we're also, uh, the benefit, we benefit from the traffic safety improvement program grant through the DOT, ub, which was $500,000. So both the DOT and staff agreed that that corridor could benefit from this, uh, sort of treatment and then hopefully we'll get, uh, 25% or maybe even a higher, uh, reduction. Thomas/ As I recall, the time travel within that corridor is maybe .... the estimates I guess at peak periods is a 30 -second increase. Ralston/ Yeah, maybe upwards of like a minute. So we're not expecting huge differences, um, you know reality could be a few minutes, but from north to south, uh, it's a long corridor. Even if it was upwards of a minute or two, I'd say that's well worth the effort. Thomas/ Thanks! Ralston/ Thank you. Throgmorton/ Okay. Thanks. Why don't we move on to the third item, so we can make sure we get through all these items in a reasonable timeframe. So this is a, was jointly suggested as an item by both the County and City. It's an update on the Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center, and Matt Miller, right? Matt is gonna brief us on this? c. Update on the Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center by Matt Miller, Project Manager (Iowa City/Johnson County) Miller/ Yeah, Matt Miller with Johnson County. Throgmorton/ How ya doin'? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 7 Miller/ I'm the project manager. Um, so really the point of this is just to give you guys just a general update on what's going on. Um, I'll try to keep it fairly high level, um, but several of the folks here have been highly involved so like Lisa, Rod, Susan, if you guys think of anything I might be missing, please let me know, and if there's any detailed questions, please just feel free to ask. Um, so really the way I have this project broke down is into sort of five different categories to help me kind of keep it organized. Um, that would be building, your governance structure, your funding, your community outreach, and your operations. So I'll give you guys some general updates on what we're working on in each of those categories. Um, the big one on most people's mind is your building and your land. Uh, we're going through the purchase process right now. Um, we had a 90 -day due diligence period which will, uh, be up on October Yd. Thus far in all the studies we've been conducting, no issues have been reported. Um, there is an archaeological survey that we're going to get.... go ahead and go do. Um, initially we thought we may not have to do that, but now it's kinda come to light that that is required. So that's kind of the last little survey we're gonna have `em do. Um, we don't anticipate anything there, um, but once again we're gonna go ahead and conduct that, just to make sure we're being thorough. Um, another thing, uh, that has been brought up as an issue would be the fact that the property is in the 500 -year flood plain, um, so we're definitely working to mitigate that risk. Um, we have had engineering firm come in and give us fill dirt estimates for what it'll take to raise this above that level. Um, we need to be at an elevation of 646 1/2 feet. Um, to do that we need approximately 5,600 cubic yards of fill dirt. So it's actually lower than our original estimate, so we're gonna make sure that when we build we'll be above the 500 -year flood plain. Um, we're also working to make sure that there's going to be an access point in the event of a flood. The primary access point with this .... for this will be on Southgate Avenue. Um, as many folks know that can flood though. If you look at aerials from 2008, a lot of Southgate was under water. Um, so we have, um, a little piece of property off of Waterfront, which would be just to the west and south of HyVee, um, where we'll have access. Um, we've been meeting with the railroad, it's the CR&IC line, um, they've given us permission to make sure we have an access point across those tracks. So we've kind of mitigated that risk as well. In the event of flooding we'll always have an access point there. Um, we do have a Planning and Zoning Commission meeting this Thursday. I'll be presenting to them. I believe that's at 7:00. Um, so we'll be going through that zoning process. Um, our close date is December 14°i, but that is contingent upon rezoning, um, to, uh, P-1. One final thing I wanna mention is we've been working with our architects on the actual facility plans. Um, we've had several conduc.... um, productive meetings to talk about just what sort of space we'll need, um, getting rough square footages, what sort of rooms, what the layout should look like. Um, so we have our architects working, um, on that piece right now as well. So that's sort of where we're at with the building. Does anybody have any specific questions for me on that part of it? All right, if not I'll move on to our governance structure. So this is another major piece is figuring out how all the various entities and all the various services providers are gonna work together. Um, in some talking with other peer institutions, we found out this is actually what has taken them the longest, was figuring out the governance structure. For example we spoke to a facility out in Portland, Oregon, that has done this and they said by far that's what took them the longest. Um, so This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 8 we've trying to get a good start on that. We've had several very productive meetings thus far. Um, we've been working, um, with University of Iowa legal team to help get some legal advice on how to set up a healthcare entity such as this one. Um, I think after a meeting we had a couple weeks ago we've kind of come to a general agreement on how we want to get this structured. Um, I won't pretend that I understand all the legalize behind all of this, but I can say that, um, we've kind of got some next steps on agreements that need to be drawn out. Um, we'll have a 28E agreement with municipalities and everyone involved there. Um, there'll be various, um, service provider contracts then with like Prelude and Abbe Center and those other folks that are providing the services. So we've got kind of a general outline there. Now it's just working on the actual structure, and getting those documented. Ub, any questions on governance structure? All right, if not I'll move on to funding. So that's obviously another very important part of this. Um, two different types of funding — the way we look at it we've got our operational funding. So once we're up and running, how are we going to make sure that we're having income for this to support it, and then your capital funding. Um, so the .... the next thing we have coming up for operational funding standpoint is a meeting with the East Central Region of the Mental Health and Disability Services. That's on September 27'x'. Um, where we're gonna meet with that board, um, discuss kind of what we think our operating costs are going to be, um, our tentative staffing model, and then just make sure that we have their support that they'll reimburse us for the things we expect to be reimbursed for, in particular from, um, the East Central Region, this would be for patients who do not have any other type of insurance, such as Medicaid or private insurance. We would want them to obviously cover, um, what can be covered there. Then we're also working on our, um, capital funding for the project. Um, at this point we've .... we've secured funding to cover most of the project costs. We're still a little bit short, but I think we're going to get there. Um, we are going to be meeting with the North Liberty city council on October 9a' to try to work toward a commitment from them. Um, we've already received commitment from Iowa City, um, and Coralville has stated that they're onboard as well, and then we'll also look at additional funding sources, um, through philanthropy and, uh, other things of that regard. So that's what we're workin' on so far with funding. Um, next I'll just jump to community outreach. So community outreach would be things like this, for example. I wanna definitely make sure that we're keeping all of our stakeholders and the public in general informed of what we're trying to do. Um, tentatively this probably won't open for another 18 to 24 months, probably in the summer of 2020. So you're probably not bearing a ton about it right now, but as we get closer to the opening date, um, we'll definitely be having more and more of these public outre.... outreach events. Um, we are planning on having an open house as soon as we have a few more plans solidified, where we can have the public come, they'll hear a little bit of an update about what we're doing, look at some archaeologic ... or I'm sorry, architecture renderings, um and sort of provide their input on this as well. So we just wanna make sure everyone's staying up to speed on what's happening. Um, I've talked to several newspaper reporters, cause I want them to be informed. I even met with a student last week who's writing a paper for a class, and he interviewed me, so (laughs) really we're just trying to get the word out and make sure people understand what we're doing. Um, and the final piece I'll touch on then is operations. Once again with us still being quite a ways from actually opening, we haven't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 9 had a bunch of discussions on how we're going to operate, but a few things we have worked on already. Um, one thing we did that sort of falls under operations would be the Iowa Administrative Rules for access centers. We're out for public comment. So our steering committee met and kind of collaborated on what we feel we should submit for public comments, um, because whatever the Iowa rules are that's going to have a great affect on how we actually operate. Um, so we got our public comments submitted, uh, by September 4`s. Um, from what I understand that overall Iowa process is delayed for a public hearing, so we probably won't have finalized rules until later this winter, um, but those will definitely affect us, so we're trying to keep our, um, fingers on the pulse of what's going on there. Um, we have had some other discussions regarding staffing. We have tentative staffing, uh, projections, which are helping us, uh, with our, uh, with our operational, uh, costs and trying to make sure that we understand what's going to happen there. Um, we've also, uh, started discussions about having a medical director on staff. It can take quite a while to hire someone in a physician position. So we're starting those conversations early. And we're also working with, uh, AbbeHealth to be a managing entity for this. Um, none of us here have a great deal of healthcare experience or running a clinic of this kind, um, so we wanna work with someone who's an expert. So we've engaged with them on talks to potentially be a managing entity for this. Throgmorton/ What's the name of the entity again? Miller/ AbbeHealth. Throgmorton/ AbbeHealth. Miller/ Yep, I think their headquarter's in Hiawatha. Um, so that's where we're at with operations. So once again those are kind of the five different buckets of things we're working on. Did anybody have any questions for me? All right, well I really do appreciate the time, guys. I appreciate the collaboration with Iowa City and Johnson County. It's been great workin' with everyone so far, and uh, please just reach out to me if you guys have any detailed questions. Appreciate it! Thanks! Throgmorton/ Thanks for providing us with that overview, Matt. It's a big and important project. Keep up the good work! Okay, so the next item is ..... to discuss current and future transportation and transit projects and issues in Iowa City and Johnson County, including CRANDIC, SEATS, bus rider survey, I-380, and trails. So, County? d. Discuss current and future transportation and transit projects and issues in Iowa City and Johnson County, including CRANDIC, SEATS, bus rider survey, I-380, and trails (Johnson County) Carberry/ Yeah, well I put this on there just because there's a lot of things going, and if we, um, you know, I see Kent's in the audience. He might be able to help us on some of these, including, uh, CRANDIC, and I know that, um, the express bus, uh, for, uh, that ECICOG is running will be starting, uh, in about a week and they'll, uh, the web site, there was a big, uh, lot of press on it yesterday and, uh, and so we're very excited about This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 10 that, the express bus, but I also, uh, wanted to tell .... uh, give you an update on our trails, uh, that we're working on. Um, I actually took a tour of, um, both the Hoover Trail and the Mehaffey Bridge trail on Friday, uh, with our conservation director. Um, on the Hoover Trail, which is, uh, will be the trail completion from Cedar Rapids, uh, to Solon, uh, and specifically our portion of that is from the county line at Seven Sisters Road, which is just about a mile south of Ely. Um, that will be completed, uh, about two-thirds of that project into Solon this construction year and they're really doing well on that. Um, there have been issues, you know, with some retaining walls and a few other things but the, uh, the bridges have all been completed over the creeks and, uh, they're doin' a lot of work now, uh, from, uh, the .... right north of Solon, um, to, uh.... uh, where .... I can't even think of the name of the, uh, the road that goes out there, but there's just one section there that will not be completed, and that's done in conjunction with the, uh, the repaving of Ely Road. And then on the Mehaffey Bridge trail, which is from North Liberty, uh, to the bridge itself, over the Coralville reservoir, the Mehaffey Bridge, that's a separated trail as well. Uh, that's scheduled to be done this year. Uh, there was a cost overrun, uh, but we're working with that, uh, but that, uh, should be done by the end of this construction season, and then of course, uh, the County, uh, is, uh, trying to work with other counties and other entities, uh, to basically complete our trail system throughout the county, uh, including the Clear Creek trail, with the City of Coralville, which'll gt the Clear Creek trail all the way out to the 80/380 interchange, underneath of that to Tiffin, A believe we've purchased, uh, the right-of-way or the land to get that Clear Creek trail then from Tiffin and Half Moon Road all the way to Kent Park, and then future plans are possibly working with, uh, Iowa County and Cedar County to complete a trail network throughout the whole region, which'll be, uh, really good for, uh, bicycle tourism. So that's...... that, kinds the trail portion. Um, but we had, ub, just other things I wanted to hear from you, uh, the City about the bus, uh, the bus rider survey on where that was and, uh.... and then any other transportation issues that we had, you know, can Mike give us an update on, uh, on the CRANDIC, uh, rail line? Throgmorton/ Sure, you wanna do that, Kent? Ralston/ Yeah, real quick. Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. The .... I think as most of you know, the third and final phase of the CRANDIC study is underway. Uh, the contracts have been signed. The consultant's working on those. The third and final, uh, phase of the rail study should be done this December, and then the auxiliary sort of what we do if rail won't work study, um, to potentially put a trail in the corridor should be done by November. Um, nothing else to report at this time since they just got started, but hopefully within the next three to four months we'll have some information to share. Throgmorton/ Mike, I guess on a related.... thanks, Kent. (both talking) ...related point, all of you Supervisors know that .... on behalf of our Council I sent a letter to the Director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, concerning future widening of roads in the Iowa City to Cedar Rapids corridor, and to the best of my knowledge we haven't heard back yet on that letter, uh, we did get .... (unable to hear person speaking away from mic) Sorry. (laughter and several talking) Oh my gosh! Yeah, we did get a letter from Mayor Donahue in North Liberty, uh, expressing the views of their council. Uh, at least .... well, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 11 we haven't gotten the final version of that, as far as I know, right, Geo... Geoff? So, but sort of a draft of their response. So ... that's underway, and with regard to the bus, uh, the transit study. Darien, do you want to address that? Nagle-Gamm/ Hi, Darien Nagle -Gamin with Transportation Services. Um, we are buttoning up the final first draft of our request for qualifications for a consultant to help us give a comprehensive review of our transit system, um, which is great. It's been a long time since we've really comprehensively reviewed. We've grown as our population's grown, but I think it's time to do, um, more in-depth analysis. We've got a lot of requests from the community and I think it's time to balance, um, balance things out, figure out the pros and cons, and .... and benefits, and get everything laid on the table so we can make a decision about how we want our transit network to look going forward. We're partnering with Coralville and we're also partnering with the University. So I think our first step is, um, taking our draft request for qualifications and working with those two entities, make sure we're all on the same page, and then really getting a consultant onboard, uh, hopefully this fall, and getting the process started. Any questions on .... I guess I can give you a little bit of overview of what we're looking for. Um, I think some of the high, the broad points we're looking at are .... we're really looking at the transit network itself. So stops, routes, um .... we are studying an expansion of operations. This is something that we've been getting a lot of requests for, both in terms of paratransit, which of course we contract through Johnson County SEATS, and uh, in terms of our own operations. So that's something we're going to be evaluating. We're going to be looking at fares, um, passes between the agencies, seeing if we can find some ways to improve connectivity between the three systems. Urn .... yeah, so we're basically.... we're getting into the weeds in a few other items too, but that's probably the broad overview of, um, what you can expect the transit study to look like. Carberry/ (both talking) Sunday service? Salih/ ....yeah. Nagle -Gamin/ Yep, hours of service and Sunday service is something we're going to be evaluating in the study. Salih/ Okay. That's great. And, uh, when you say the fall, do you mean the .... the .... (unable to understand) will start in the fall or.... Nagle -Gamin/ To bring a consultant onboard yes. The study's going to take .... and it's hard for me to give an exact timeframe. It's going to take some time (both talking) Salih/ Yes. Nagle -Gamin/ ...really we really do want to do a comprehensive review of the system. Like I said, we've been .... we've been growing and we've been.... growing our routes as we needed to as population has grown, as the footprint of the city has grown, but in order to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 12 really in-depth assess and do a good job, I think it's gonna take some time, but we're hopin' to get a consultant, um, onboard yet this fall or early winter. Salih/ Okay, that's great but I'm sorry but could you tell me the study roughly gonna take how much time, like .... 1 year? Fruin/ I'd say 12 to 18 months. Salih/ Okay. Yeah. Thanks. That's what (mumbled) Thank you. Throgmorton/ Thanks, Darien. So I guess I'd like to emphasize that there's a pretty strong connection between this particular study and our climate action plan, and our efforts to improve the affordability of living in this city. So if we can really get this done well, we'll make great strides in both of those things, as well as enabling people to be more mobile and get around, uh, these towns better (both talking) Carberry/ ...all over the agenda. (several talking) Mayor, I'd just like to comment. Your letter, while I really appreciate it myself, and I think that we never took an official vote from the Board on .... on your letter to support it or ... or not support it, uh, just know that the Board of Supervisors has really supported alternative means of transportation, including trails, CRANDIC, uh, direct bike routes, uh, the express bus — any way that we can, I mean we are, uh, we're climate fighters as well (several talking in background) and we know that, uh, that we need to move to 100% renewable energy as fast as we can, and one of those ways is to .... to get, uh, single drivers out of cars and uh, and we also know that, uh, if you build it they will come, and so the .... as you .... as you build more lanes, more ... they'll fill up with cars, and so anything that we can do to, uh, look at alternative ways, uh, to move our people around the county and the region, uh, we'll be very supportive. Throgmorton/ Good deal! Let's move on to the next item, which is an update on the Johnson County historic Poor Farm. County? (several talking) e. Update on the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm (Johnson County) Friese/ Uh, sure. Uh, hopefully some of you were out .... were out there on, uh, on Sunday. I know I saw Rockne there. I'm not sure who else was on the, um, Farm Cycle, uh, Ride that brought a bunch of people out there. We had a .... a .... a, before nearly all the riders arrived (laughs) we had a brief ceremony and little kick-off, um, unveiling, ribbon cutting sort of thing for our .... for our gorgeous new sign out there. I hope everybody's gone out and seen it, preferably just after sundown when it lights up. Uh, the, uh, we have also just recently, uh.... uh.... voted for the public hearing for the bid letting, I think I got that right, for the, uh, for the west barn which is the first, uh, major reconstruction of the... of the structures that we're doing out there. We've, uh, we've got some fairly, uh, thorough architectural renderings. Uh, they're up in our office if anybody wants to come see `em (laughs) uh.... for .... for what we're gonna do there. It's gonna look really nice. It's, uh, in a sense it's not gonna look any different, except for one thing. The really major difference you'll see in that west barn is that the steel roof that was put on there, 20, how This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 13 long ago? I don't know how long ago that was put on there, um, is coming off and being replaced with, uh, a .... the way it was originally built, which is, uh, cedar shingles. Um... they also have to dig down because they didn't have the, uh, technology or the wherewithal to, uh, put the pilings down below the frost line when they built this thing back in, uh.... uh.... (several talking) um, and so they're gonna dig those out, put new pilings under `em so that the, uh, all of this basically so the barn doesn't fall down (laughs) uh, which is our biggest fear. Um, there'll be a couple of, I guess you could call them modern conveniences added to it, that is to say there'll be some electric light and, uh, a couple of ceiling fans, and some very rudimentary water access, uh, farm spigots in two corners of the thing. Concrete floor'll be completely replaced, um, as will the outside sort of feedlot thing that'll end up behaving more like a .... kind of a patio. Um... we have .... uh, prairie that is being put in south of where the two, uh, NGOs are doing their things. The top, uh, let's see that's northwest 10 acres will be the next section, after this season, to come out of row crop production and it'll get planted to rye first and then probably go into more local food. Um, what am I forgettin' guys? Cole/ Kurt, with the Poor Farm, do you have someone who's responsible for giving tours of the Poor Farm? Um, at the county level. Of course there's Grow Johnson County, but when I (both talking) Farm Cycle, the highlight for me.....I ran out of superlatives to talk about that event, but was the tour of the Poor Farm, and for those out in the public that have not been to the Poor Farm, it is phenomenal and I think the vision is phenomenal too in terms of what you're gonna do going forward. Friese/ (both talking) ...the one that Brad did, right? Cole/ Brad (mumbled) so I don't know (both talking) Friese/ ....conservation and (both talking) Cole/ Would there be someone else that would (several talking) Friese/ ...it's going to be primarily Vanessa, although the nature one, you're still gonna want Brad. In any of these things they've gonna have to be set up ahead of time. Yeah. It's not like there's somebody waiting out there to give you tours, but um, and for the, uh, also if ...if you're specifically interested in the history behind the asylum, then, uh, Johnson County Historical Society. Alex out there is the one to do that. She's got the key. She knows everything about it. Cole/ Perfect! Sullivan/ It's not an update per se but I think just to put it on your radar. You know obviously this facility is completely in the City of Iowa City limits, and so far what we've been doing is stuff that we can ... do without your permission, I think (laughter) At least I think so! Uh, but we're getting close to some bigger, urn... decisions that we need to make and ...and some, we've got some bigger plans... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 14 Friese/ In regards to the farm incubator.... Sullivan/ And ... and we're gonna really need, I think, not just the assistance, uh, and feedback of ...of you folks, but um, probably some pretty serious help from .... from your staff, uh, probably from a variety of departments. So, um ... it won't be long, I think, before we're asking you to really help and .... and partner with us on this. It's .... a time is coming soon. Carberry/ Specifically I can think of connecting a trail through there, connecting to the Iowa City trails and using the Poor Farm as the trail head. So that would be somethin', uh, off the top of my mind would be one of the first things. Throgmorton/ Well let's talk (several talking and laughing) Yeah, so we'll talk more (several talking) Nice article I guess in the DI today, wasn't there? Didn't I see an article about... about the Poor Farm? Thought I did! (several responding) Okay, can we move on to ... to the last specific topic, and that is to discuss Iowa City's plans for electric car charging stations. Geoff, who might be able to address that? f. Discuss Iowa City's plans for electric car charging stations (Johnson County) Nagle-Gamm/ Hello. So we do have a couple EV stations, or electric vehicle charging stations currently in the new Harrison Street ramp. You'll find two of them as soon as you ... as soon as you drive into the facility, and we have plans to expand to three more facilities, hopefully this fall, um, two more across the street at Chauncey Swan, that we have two more coming at Dubuque Street, and two more coming at Capitol Street. So that's kind of going to be our first phase of EV charging stations and I must say one of the best features about `em for transportation data lover like myself is that you can see from your desktop, or from a laptop, how much they're being used and, uh, when there's vehicles there, when they're charging. So we plan on keeping an eye on the usage and sort of growing from that point on. Um, it seems like if you look in transportation planning literature, just in the news, you k now, that electric vehicles are coming. So we're keeping really close tabs on, um, keeping very close tabs on it and we'll expand as necessary. We've also looked into putting EV vehicle charging stations in the public right-of-way, at metered parking spaces would be the first thing that comes to mind. That's trickier and .... and, uh, we're hearing that actually from the people who sell them even, uh, and it's just basically because of the power requirements. You need to run power, and we don't typically have a lot of power readily available, uh, at least in a clean and comfortable way in our right-of-way. So, we're still lookin' for opportunities for where we might be able to ... to get some on -street EV, um, stations out but ... but that's yet to come, that's kind of our phase two I think. Cole/ Darien/ are those free and open to the public? Nagle -Gamin/ Yes, they are. Yep, they'll be public spaces. We do have two spaces, um, currently at Chauncey Swan for two of our fleet vehicles that are not open to the public, um, but we will soon have two spaces that are open to the public. That's a good question. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 15 Friese/ Darien, I was the one that put this on there and my main reason for, uh, on the agenda, and my main reason for doing so was, uh, question, uh, we've been trying to expand some of what we've got, and I know that there was a conversation between Becky and the City, perhaps with you specifically, about, uh, a couple of the City meters going into the, uh, County, uh, public parking lot at the .... at the Admin building. And I just wondered where that was and can we move forward with it, should Johnson County go off on its own instead? Nagle-Gamm/ Um, that's a good question. I don't know ... if it was me she had those conversations with, I don't recall, but (both talking) Friese/ It was the City, I don't .... I'm not sure it was you. Nagle -Gamin/ But that's something I could certainly reach out to Becky and we could talk about. It's really ... it really boils down to I think the City would be supportive of testing it anywhere we could find the power. It's the running the power which is in the public right-of-way outside of buildings. In our ramps, it's a different story. It's a little easier, but uh, that's been the challenge. So I'm ... we'd be open to looking at that. Friese/ Cause like what you have across the street with a couple of stations for, uh, for your cars, we have a couple stations that are in the employees' lots and for ... for our own vehicles and so on, but we don't have one for the public (mumbled) so we .... we need to fix that. Nagle -Gamin/ Yep! I'd ... I'd be willing to have any conversation on that. Friese/ Great. Carberry/ So one of the issues, uh, two of us five Supervisors have EVs, Kurt and I, and I just sent a letter to the Iowa Utilities Board. They currently do not allow, uh, charging of, uh, EV stations by the kilowatt. It has to be by time and that's just like, um .... going to a gas station and filling up and just say it's $50 for a fill -up, whether you buy eight gallons or ... or 50 gallons. (several talking) ...five minutes, right, so it's not on time, so I ... I sent a personal letter to the Iowa Utilities Board to basic ... to allow the charging for a station of...of the actual electricity delivered to a car, which just makes a lot of sense, but at this point we're gonna have to provide free charging and ... and there's nothing wrong with that, I don't think but, uh, we need more EV infrastructure, and so we'd love to work with you on the City, uh, on ... on any way we can get more EV infrastructure in this community. Friese/ You mentioned the, um, your, ones you put in you can see on your desktop exactly how they're being used, so you know exactly how many kilowatt hours are going (both talking) Nagle-Gamm/ I believe so (both talking) Friese/ ...through each meter? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 16 Nagle-Gamm/ Kilowatt hours, when people are parked there and that's the panacea for ... for somebody in parking, right, to know if somebody's actually in that spot or not, so it's really great (both talking) Friese/ ...however you want to do it, just meter for a month or (several talking) Carberry/ ...I have the app on my phone (both talking) Friese/ ...well ChargePoint yeah, but that's with that company. We're talking about the ones that she runs and.... Nagle-Gamm/ That is through ChargePoint. Friese/ Oh! (both talking) Nagle -Gamin/ It's ChargePoint based, web based application that comes as .... (both talking) Rettig/ So, Darien, you said it's free, so who's subsidizing the power for these vehicles then? Nagle -Gamin/ So the .... the charge that is charged for the ... it's basically the parking charge, so they pay for the space and (both talking) Rettig/ ...pay extra then for their electricity? Nagle-Gamm/ Not at this time. Rettig/ So every other vehicle is subsidizing those vehicles. Nagle-Gamm/ That would be .... that would be correct, yes. Rettig All right. Throgmorton/ Thank you, Darien. Okay, item g is other. Is there anything else anybody wants to bring up? g. Other Rettig/ Yeah, I have another, Jim. Throgmorton/ Sure. Rettig/ I noticed on your agenda coming up is a discussion about, uh, the City's salaries for their own employees and I'm sure some people will be referencing the County, and so I just wanted to, um .... uh... there's a little misinformation out there and I'd just like to ... to state what it ... we actually do with, uh, living wage for all County employees. Um, when the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 17 County decided to raise minimum wage .... three and a half years ago, uh, we quickly studied our own salaries. We happened to have one permanent position that was paid below $15 but we had a lot of temporary and summer help and interns that were, and so we fixed the one permanent employee position instantaneously and then we created a plan for four years to bring all salaries at the County up to $15. The first year it was a variety of jumps, uh, to get to $12, um, everything from 10.25 to even almost 11.50. We still have tiers after that, so like if you're in your second year as ... working at conservation in the summer or what not, you .... you may be paid the base number, but you will also have this additional. So all tiers still exist. We went from 12 to 13 to currently this July I to 14. Our plan is to go to 15 next July 1 and have a broader discussion about what a livable wage is in Johnson County, and our intention is to pay every single employee in Johnson County that works for the County a livable wage, whether they work an hour or up to below a permanent employee. So it was four different jumps to get here, and I just .... I know you're gonna have that conversation alter and I just wanted to say that and as a citizen of John ... of Iowa City, I'm completely supportive of you paying your employees a livable wage. It's time for us to stop taking advantage of all workers. That's it! Green -Douglas/ And tagging on to that, I would like to say that I would be very .... I'm also very supportive of you all raising that wage to 15, whether you do it in one fell swoop or over a couple years. Throgmorton/ Okay! Thanks. Carberry/ Kurt and I concur and I think Rod, before he left the room would have concurred with that as well. Throgmorton/ Okay, any other topic anybody (several talking and laughing) Rettig/ I just wanted to thank you all, um, it's, you know, years ago we couldn't even get meetings scheduled. It's a pleasure to get to meet with you, um, we .... we've been out in some of the smaller cities and our ... our hope was always that we can meet with Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty once a year and the smaller cities about every third year, and uh, we got a little off track, uh, but we're back on track, and I just really appreciate spending time with you and going through a couple of issues. Throgmorton/ Likewise. Good thing to do. This is the second time we've done it, right? We did that tour together (several talking) Rettig/ I think this is three now (several talking) Salih/ This is my second one with you guys! Throgmorton/ There you go! Okay, good deal. Uh, I should ask the public if anybody would like to make a comment to the .... to the Council and Board, uh, about this topic, not about what y'all are holdin' signs for, please. (laughter) Um.....okay, I don't see anybody else. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018. Page 18 So I think we're at a moment where we should adjourn. I'll adjourn, or get a motion form the Council to adjourn. Could somebody make a motion? Cole/ So moved. Taylor/ Second. Throgmorton/ Moved by Cole, seconded by Taylor. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Motion carries. We're adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council joint meeting of September 18, 2018.