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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-10-02 Transcription Page 1 2. Proclamations 2.a. Fire Prevention Week Throgmorton: All right. Is....is Brian here? Yeah. So let me read this, Brian, so, uh, you can sit if you want or you can stand if you want, so....(reads proclamation) So, Brian, could you come up and get this, please? (applause) Greer: I'd just like to add a couple other things on to this. Um, Fire Prevention Week starts this Sunday and goes through the....through the week there, but we don't consider it just to be a weekly thing. We consider fire prevention to be year- round. We wanna make sure that people are safe. A little history on the....on.... on Fire Prevention Week. It....it's in remembrance of the great Chicago fire from October 8111, 1871. It actually...they started doin' remembrance in 1922. Then the President in 1925 made it....it's annual, urn, week that we....look at....at fires and what we can do to....to.....to prevent, or at least minimize them. As the proclamation said,uh, the main topics out of this particular year are to make sure that we look for places that fires may start. You know we have places in our houses that....that may be unsafe. If you see an unsafe thing in your house, or even if you're at a friend's house, go ahead and let 'em know, or take care of the issues so that we don't have to worry about it. Listen, make sure you know what your smoke alarm sounds like. Make sure it's working. We wanna make sure that....we'll have another proclamation in a couple weeks for Change Your Clock/Change Your Batteries. Make sure that they have batteries in 'em so that they work. We wanna make sure that they're working properly, they...if it's an interconnected one in your house,make sure they all go off if one goes off, and take a look at 'em. If they're over 10 years old, on the back side of....of the smoke detector, there....of the smoke alarm, there will be a date. Ten years from that date, they're supposed to be replaced. So we wanna do that, and the last thing is learn. Make sure we know two ways out of every room. That's....that's imperative. We teach the kids at....at the schools all these different things and we're actually starting tomorrow, well Thursday I guess. We have our first Fire Prevention Week programs at the elementary schools. It's a.....it's a great thing that we do with puppetry,uh, full-sized puppetoons and....and it gets the kids to learn some of these Fire Prevention Weeks and....and just basically stuff that's fire safety. And, you know, we do a lot of stuff with the kids, but fire safety education is not for the kids. Everyone's affected by fire at some point or another. Whether it's somethin' that happened at your house, a friend's house, or just what you see in the media. So we just wanna make sure everybody's safe and....and the....the....I'm just gonna go with age, but there's a lot of other social This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 2 demographics, but kids are use....under the age of five and people over the age of 65 are the two biggest categories for people getting hurt in fires. So you know we try to do what we can to educate, not only those groups,but every group. And with that I'd just like to thank you guys, um....Mayor Throgmorton and Council, for bein' behind us in everything and we hope y'all have a safe night. Throgmorton: Thank you, Brian. (applause) You remind me of when I was a child, Brian, I was somewhere around eight or nine years old and I heard I was upstairs,uh, in the two-story house that I lived in and I heard crackling in the other room. I couldn't figure out what it was and I went in there and I saw two candles. They had burned down and they were burning into the wood, uh, on a cabinet or whatever that was in....in the other room, and if I hadn't walked in there, at that moment, probably five minutes later it would have spread and then....then what, you know. The whole building would have been damaged and so on. And maybe worse. So thanks for doin' this! 2.b. Indigenous People's Day Throgmorton: (reads proclamation) Joe? (applause) Coulter: (unable to understand) Hello my friends. Thank you, thank you. It means a great deal, uh, to me, uh, with the Council to take these actions, uh, now for the second year, subsequently. I'm Joe Coulter. I'm a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Uh, I work on the Human Rights Commission here in Iowa City. We have 574 federally-recognized tribes here in the United States. Eighty of these tribes have a historical connection to the state of Iowa and Iowa...in Iowa City take their name from the Ioway tribe, which is still there, uh....they're located in Kansas now (laughs) I look forward to helping educate our community,uh, and thanking them for recognizing the native people(mumbled) American. (both talking) (applause) Throgmorton: (both talking) Joe! (applause continues) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 3 9. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) Throgmorton: Uh, anyone who would like to address us on any topic that is not on the formal meeting agenda is invited to do so now. Please come up, state your name, and then please limit your comments to not more than five minutes. Good evening, Charlie! Eastham: Good evening. My name is Charlie Eastham (mumbled) Canton Street in Iowa City. Erre....earlier in your work session this af....this evening, uh, the Council discussed, uh (clears throat) uh, the staffs', uh, South District Partnership Plan, which involves the, uh, City eventually purchasing up to two duplexes on Taylor and Davis Street in southeast Iowa City, and selling it....which are, uh, would be rental properties at the time of purchase, and then selling those properties, uh (clears throat)uh, at a relatively low price. Dure...duri....during the discussion I thought Council Member Salih, uh, made some important and very substantive, uh, observations about this program and objections to it, which came from her personal experience, urn (clears throat) and, uh, I hope the Council would have... would have paid more attention to her, uh, to her comments. Uh, I just want to say that, uh, the, uh, this project was, um, subjected to an equity toolkit review at the....request of the Housing and Community Development Commission, urn (clears throat) and I want to say that I, uh, and a couple other commission members were instrumental in getting the commission to, uh,make that request of the staff. When the staff was....when this project was originally,uh, su...brought before the HCDC, uh, it had not had an equity toolkit review and uh, the staff was not at that time planning to have one. The purpose of the equity toolkit review is to see if the project has a racial and ethnic effect. It's not necessarily an economic effect—a racial and ethnic effect, and I would say that the,uh, the, uh, report to the, of the....of the, that was contained in your memo, shows that the project actually will have a racial and eth...uh, ethnic effect, and uh (clears throat) and the staff has made some, uh, changes to the original proposal, which they assert will, uh, reduce the effect,um (clears throat) and increase the benefit. I think the staff has overlooked some things. Uh, I think, uh.....uh, Councilwoman Salih, uh, Salih, uh, actually made a very good, uh....uh, recommendation to change the program, uh....uh, operational plan such that purchases of rental units on Taylor and Davis Street would be done only when the occupants of those units, the renters of those units, uh, say that they would like to have the opportunity to purchase and....and that they have in fact, uh,the, uh, income and, uh (clears throat) uh, credit references that would support,uh, their being able to obtain a mortgage and thereby to,uh, to purchase the unit. I think just making the, uh (clears throat) the purchase....um....uh, or the ability to, uh, buy a unit a....uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 4 given as a preference, uh, at the time the City's deciding which units to....to purchase is not....is not strong enough. Um, and uh, I also think that, uh, given the results of the, uh, toolkit analysis, uh, the equity analysis shows that the percentage of, uh, African American families in this area is much higher than it is, uh, citywide, uh, that providing that kind of a, uh...um, of an option to...to, uh, to purchase units, uh,made available to current residents, would actually increase homeownership among African American and Hispanic, uh, households and families in this area in a way which simply given a preference would not. The staff included in their, uh, toolkit analysis a description of, um, some similar situations they claim in the Miller Orchard neighborhood, where UniverCity, uh, the, uh...uh, a UniverCity approach was appli....was applied to that neighborhood. Around 10 homes I think, uh, originally were purchased there, uh, under the UniverCity program. Uh, re....rehabilitated and sold to...to homebuyers. Those homes were converted from rental to homeownership, but the staff also recog... (mumbled) uh, flatly that buyers of those 10 homes in Miller Orchard were ....came from outside of the Miller Orchard, uh, neighborhood. Uh, the staff also said they did not know what the racial demographics were of the 10 or so households that bought those homes. Um, the staff also indicated that the....that was a good program because, uh,property values actually increased in the Miller Orchard neighborhood, uh, along with the....along with the project pace; however, the (clears throat) the table that shows property values inc....increasing in the Miller Orchard neighborhood actually shows increases in values that are about the same throughout the community. Urn, so I....I......(mumbled) uh, my request would be that the Council pay a good, uh, a lot of attention to, uh, recommendations of Mazahir and have the staff improve the language and the plan for the South District,uh, Partnership so that homebuyers are almost for sure going to be people living in the Taylor/Davis, uh, Streets. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Charlie. Anyone else? Crawford: Hi, my name is Laurie Crawford. I moved to Iowa City two years ago and I picked the house I picked because it's in the woods and there's a lot of wildlife there and that's what I wanted. I was surprised when I moved here to hear recently that people in Iowa City were complaining about the deer. I moved here one reason was that it's an educated community and a progressive community, and I was really hoping to avoid issues like this. I was involved in an issue like this in Cedar Rapids for a number of years. I served on the Deer Task Force there as well. The primary complaint of letter writers and people who spoke at the deer committee meeting was their plants. Urn, killing one deer doesn't stop another deer from eating a plant. Killing one deer doesn't stop another deer from crossing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 5 the road. Non-lethal methods, such as education and preventive measures, allow people to protect their plants and empowers them to take care of their own property. Killing deer doesn't work because the populations rebound. As long as there's sufficient food, there will be deer for that food, and we've learned in past studies that the litters are even larger after a kill. Even DeNicola,who spoke at the deer committee meeting, said we've been doing this for 30 years and nothing has changed. So we need to find solutions other than killing. There are non- lethal solutions such as education, preventative measures like fencing, spraying for deer. I sent you a letter about wildlife crossings. About half the states in the country have implemented wildlife crossings. If you do decide to kill, which I hope you won't, I urge you to do sharpshooting versus bow hunting. Sharpshooting is....lasts for a few days. Bow hunting lasts for four and a half months. For four and a half months you have hunters in your community, you have divided neighbors, you have people who want hunting living right next door to people who don't, and it caused many problems in Cedar Rapids. I, uh, hunting,bow hunting has a 50% wounding rate. So a neighbor is likely to find a wounded or dying, or even dead deer in their yard. The DNR has told the hunters they have permission to enter my yard, even though it's posted non-hunting, to finish off a deer. I have many photos of wounded and dead deer. I have photos of deer with arrows in their face.....if anyone's interested in having visual information about bow hunting. In summary, killing is a knee-jerk reaction. This is always the reaction to nuisance wildlife. I encourage us instead to respond. Let's not react. Let's gather more information about non-lethal methods and learn to co-exist with deer. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Laurie. Good evening. Jaynes: Hi, I'm Allison Jaynes and I'm at 1181 Hotz Avenue in Iowa City, and I'm also here to speak about the deer management plan. So I know that you might talk about this in the continuation of the work session after the open Council meeting. So I'm hoping that even though we can't comment during that work session that the comments we're making now, uh, will stay with you when you're talking about this after this meeting is over. So my main message to you is to...i urge you to slow down and not make any decisions right away, and that's what I want you to take into this work session when you do your discussion. I know that there's, um, some pressure being put on your from various neighborhoods, various people, but I would really urge you to slow down until there's more information gathered, until there's been more chance for the public to have input on this. I know that there's been a lot of misinformation, uh, spread through White Buffalo and Associates, and maybe not intentionally, but there's been a lot of misinformation This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 6 surrounding this issue. Traffic accidents that didn't occur, uh, Lyme disease that's not spread by deer, and so forth. So there's some things here that need to be cleared up before you can really make an informed decision. We've, uh, there's a few of us here tonight, and there's a larger group that couldn't make it. We've put together a web site,where we have a lot of information about, uh, how you can do some deterrent methods for deer, uh, what the real issues are with... with the deer problem. I mean we all live in this city and we know they're not... there's not deer just clogging the streets and knocking down doors, right? So it hasn't come to the point where you really have to make this knee-jerk reaction to go ahead and...and call the order in to do the sharpshooting. And then I also wanted to say just as....just to end this, um, that to go back to Mayor Throgmorton's point at the beginning, that there is a lot of chaos going on and we're not like that here in Iowa City. We don't....I hope we don't wanna do just these backdoor deals where the public isn't involved and the public isn't informed, and that's a little bit what I feel like the....the Deer Task Force has been like. There hasn't been a lot of back and forth with the Council. There was the....the committee meeting, or the community, um....input meeting where the Council was not present,but there hasn't been a lot of back and forth between the community and the Council, except for the petition that we were able to send in, which had over 500 signatures, asking to explore non-lethal methods to control the deer population, or prevent them from doing harm to public property and private property. Okay, thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Allison. Bird: Good evening. Throgmorton: Hi there! Bird: I'm Nancy Bird with the Iowa City Downtown District. Um, we prepared a quick slide show real....real quickly, um, for public comment tonight, cause we wanted to make sure and let you know what the Iowa City Downtown District is working on with regard to some of our retail incentives. Urn, so as you know in 2017 we went through a program called Co-Sign and it was a very successful program where we brought artists and business and fabricators together to develop additional wayfinding for the streets, um, and for the storefronts, with 12 new creative signs that went up, um, in 2017. Well this year we're working on a new program. Uh, this fall we're developing the actual, uh, parameters of the... parameters of the program and then in the spring we'll release it,but we thought it would be helpful to bring it to Council tonight, kind of the draft program, so that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 7 you understand some of the real nuances of this...uh, of this, um....um, of this, uh, Co-Sign+ is what we're calling it, and um, the....your dollars are part of this, um, program. Uh, $10,000 we're receiving from the City of Iowa City that was planned in the economic development program, so we're really appreciative of that. We'll also have some sponsor income that will support it and the Iowa City Downtown District will also support, um, with the expenses. So,um, I don't...I wanna make sure not...go over my time, but what I wanted to do is just talk to you about, like I said, the changes that we'll be providing, and let you know a little bit about the,urn, some of the lessons that we learned during that time was that, uh, number one, that there was a lot of interest around it and it really did help. Um, it's a data-driven, uh, concept that, you know, a better sign will help support the marketing of that business. The wayfinding element is also very important. But what we did is really tried to use the design guidelines that were prepared as, um, to offer the guidance for how these signs should be put up, and to encourage more pedestrian-oriented signs. Urn, we (coughing,unable to hear speaker)that process, um, we recognize the fact that, um, signs are costly. Um, the incentives we're providing were....were lower, and um,the stores that had been there for a long time were really cognizant of that. So this time around we're trying to increase the incentive offered. Um, that the opportunities for storefront enhancements can be, um, encouraged based on those guidelines. We continue to use them, and that we probably need to do a little bit more, um, hand-holding I would say between the stores and the artists and the fabricators that are involved. Thomas Agran and Betsy Potter will be supporting the implementation, sort of like Nate Kaeding and Thomas did last time. Um, but it'll be a nuanced approach. (mumbled) on to my next slide here. There we go! Um, so the mission is really about pedestrian-oriented signs and wayfinding, because we know that we have, um, you know, 350 businesses downtown and many people still don't know who they all are,uh, and the goals are very similar to last time. They're really to foster the sense, urn, of an authentic place. Uh, Co-Sign in itself hasn't been done in very many places around the country. Co-Sign Plus is a unique addition that we're in Iowa City adding to that program. We'll continue to work with the, um, with the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, and we'll be talking with them about how we're tailoring that program, which is branded and has a trademark, um, to see if they want to include some of these elements into their program. So it's kind of a....a fun way to work with them and they're very interested in that approach. Um, again the goal is to bring back creative signing...signage, so we will certainly focus on signs. Boy I'm really not doing well with my....my, uh.... PowerPoint here! Urn, the creative signage is important,but also the storefront improvements. So the plus element will really relate to other improvements to the storefront. So, um, I have a couple pictures here to....to talk about....geez This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 8 Louise! Sorry, guys! Nothin' like, uh, kinda screwing up the delivery of the PowerPoint to...get in the way of your message! Um....these images were important,just to demonstrate really how a colorful storefront could look different, um, and draw your eye. So we have,urn, some examples of what paint, what door plates.....at the bottom, how they can draw your eye; uh,new doors, urn, illumination, all kinds of different ways to really make the downtown a more authentic, uh, place. So that is the piece that we will be offering that will be in addition to the, um, Co-Sign element. And here's some examples of just some of the fun signs that were established,uh, last year. Um, and then, you know, the merchandise zone piece is in the design guidelines and one of the things that a lot of people don't know about this right now is that it is a permit....in the permit right now, there's a retailing permit the Downtown District applies for annually, and there are some guidelines around that. So we're trying to encourage the retailers to actually pull out some of their merchandise in front of the store,under that permit. So some tweaks are going to be made to the permit, so that we can encourage a storefront that looks more like the....the last slide. So the....the timeline for this is really trying to establish the rules and regulations this fall, urn, get the applications, the submissions, and all those things out to all the different property owners so they participate, and the in January and March we'll really start, um...uh, with those workshops, and we'll be doing those in tandem with the City because there is the facade, uh, the larger building change program that will be happening too, and so our goal is to work with the City so we're really communicating all three of those programs to the entire retail community. Urn, so Building Change and Co-Sign,the opportunities with the Building Change program of Iowa City's is that, you know,there's the larger storefront enhancements, and then with the, um, the Co-Sign storefront and then the smaller option will be the other, urn, paint and doorplates and things like that. So there'll be multiple levels and tiers of financial, um, contributions the stores can....can, uh, get involved with. So the key take-aways here is that we're trying to really expand the impact of Co-Sign, grow it in a way that other communities are taking a look at,um, and then also work with the City to really and do our best to incentivize really great,um....uh, buildings, and making sure that, um, when people come to Iowa City and there's pictures of Iowa City you know exactly where you are,that you can't be anywhere else in the country and look like we do downtown. Urn, I think there's, you know, long-lasting enhancements for the business, for the downtown, and for the entire community, and we hope this is a model that we can hopefully import to other places, to other neighborhoods, and so that,um, others can benefit from it as well. So as we go through this process, um, we hope to hear,uh, if you have any feedback for it. Um, we certainly want to encourage others to...to use it. So we'll be out advertising,but because of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 9 three tiers, we wanna make sure that everybody kinda knows the different nuances of the program, and we certainly appreciate your support. So, uh, we look forward to working more with City staff and, uh, there's a lot more information to come in the future. So thank you! Throgmorton: Thank you,Nancy. Good evening, Florence. How are you? Boos: (mumbled) Okay, thanks very much. I too am a member of the Iowa City Deer Friends and I wanted to expand and reiterate some of the good points that were made earlier. Laurie Crawford mentioned Danna... DeNicola's statement. After 30 years of shooting, she found that the situation had not changed. That should give you pause. He makes his living by doing this, and I believe he at one time thought it was more effective. It's also not ineffective but expensive. Past experience here and elsewhere indicates the long-term programs are costly and have little or not effect, and as Laurie mentioned, sometimes the population rises in the second year because the deer compensate. The last time we did this it cost nearly a million dollars and here we are. Such a program serves a minority population and is highly offensive to others, and by minority I mean I looked at the map. I was only able to see it today, but in....the year 2017 in the entire city there were eight deer complaints, and as mentioned, we have a petition of 500 persons that we submitted, who would like to see alternative methods tried. So I suggest that the Council should first consider is there a problem? Are there alternatives? Are these effective, and have we tried these first? First alternatives. One of them is long-term contraception programs. These are used, uh, increasingly in recent years. There's one now underway in Clifton, Ohio, that started in 2015 and there are others. Urn, and then there are mixed programs that sharpshoot and contracept. Then there's the issue of adapting the park and the habitat, um....fencing, hedging, tree plantings at the east edge of Hickory Hill Park and elsewhere, and I'd like to read from our web site, icdeerfriends, urn, what is said on.....on gardens. Public education about deer resistant repellent plantings, fencing options, and repellents empower citizens to protect their plants. Many of these products are available locally and some, such as Deer Off Stakes by Have a Heart offer satisfaction guarantees. Eight to 10-foot fencing, lower fencing with hedges, double-fencing, and 45-degree angle fencing will keep deer out. Deer will not attempt to jump over something if they cannot see what lies beyond it. Netting and tree guards protect trees and plants. These are permanent solutions. Killing is not. Now....I looked at.....some of these complaints are from the Bluffwood area and that's right near the east edge of Hickory Hill Park. Those are very fine homes, uh, some of the people have gardeners. If those homes would just relandscape on the edges and if....ifHickory Hill Park were This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 10 adapted on that eastern edge so they go back in, rather than out, I think even those most concerned would find this a preferable solution, and it'd certainly be cheaper to offer people not only advice but, urn, compensation for their alterations than to have a major, uh, program thrown back on the City in expensive ways. Okay, third, the problem has been in adequately assessed, I believe. DeNicola has a conflict of interest because he's the one who counts the deer. Then he's the one who reports on how successful it is. Um, I think the City has an obligation to move on these fronts, since after any killing the problem will reoccur. Several non-lethal methods haven't yet been implemented, but the, urn, people who manage the park might help, and um....people who manage their programs of information in those neighborhoods. So I think we should make a serious effort and long....and long-term solution of adaptive, um, response, before turning to more violent, the more violent non-solution of killing. Thanks. Throgmorton: Thank you, Florence. Hi, Crissy! Canganelli: Jim. Good evening, my name's Crissy Canganelli. I'm Executive Director of Shelter House. And I'm here not with a concern this evening, but to express my deep gratitude and my highest regard for the City Council and the leadership within the City staff, and in particular for Steve Rackis, who I hope is still here somewhere tonight, and Tracy Hightshoe. Urn, it's only been with their leadership and....and your support that, uh, we've been able to move forward with the recen...recent initiative—Cross Park Place—urn, so we're deeply grateful for the recent amendments to the, uh, Housing Authority's administrative plan to create the targeted preferences in the project-based voucher program, uh, allowance for the Cross Park Place project. Um....it makes our work possible and it is a demonstration of the fact that....to end homelessness in our community, that these intentional partnerships need to happen between both the public and private sector. Uh, your work, your decisions, your leadership is inspiring communities across this state and across this region, and I think that that's important for you to know. Um, it's inspiring to my colleagues, uh, when I have conversations in conferences across the country and um, I'm just so deeply grateful. So thank you so very much. Throgmorton: Thank you, Crissy, and thanks for the great work y'all do at Shelter House. Ross: Hi, I'm Brandon Ross. I, uh, piggybacking on the end of what,uh, she said. I spoke recently with a homeless man, who, um....he'd never been homeless until about the past five years. Since then he's been on and off homeless, and uh, he has worked in many jobs and also, uh,was part of the armed services for a while, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 11 and um, I see him. He talks with me, uh....outside at the coffee shop I go to and I asked him if he could give me three concerns that, uh, that he had, that he could put into order, or if he would even go to the Council, but he won't come to the Council, but so for him, without mentioning any names, uh, I will give you his... his three things that he's concerned about. Um, one thing, um.....one thing would be, uh, to....have transportation on Sunday. Uh, this puts homeless people at a great disadvantage, that we can hardly mana...imagine ourselves. We can't. Urn...two would be to open up, uh, shelters, uh, provisional shelters, earlier in the wintertime....uh, than....than we have now. That puts people, uh, in mortal danger to be out in the cold. Urn.....and his third was to have....to have some place on Sunday that was in town where they could have,uh, food, a bank. Um... so...the one was Sunday transportation. The other is opening up shelters sooner in the winter, and uh, the third is a food bank in town that,uh, that would help feed people. He's actively homeless and speaking to him I feel like I'm talking with a very intelligent person who knows so much more than I do, as I've been fortunate in my life not to have to have been homeless. Um, as I see the....the top seven points or the seven points that the City is considering itself, uh, with, I see that there is an absence of the....in the seven, uh, in this particular area. Another person who spoke before me,whose name just escapes me, uh, thank you for doing the work that you have been doing and I also appreciate that. To, uh, to this man, perhaps a lot is abstract as to what's going on. And to a lot of homeless people, even the City Council meetings are abstract. So...those are his....his ideas. He also brought up, uh, about how many places there are in town that are unoccupied,business spaces that seem open and he sees that there are spaces for people and doesn't understand why that these empty spaces, empty for a long time, cannot be used to house him and the people that he knows. And it's not just men. It's women and children sometimes. So, I'm just here on his behalf tonight, uh, to speak, uh,where he may not, and to ask the Council to make considerations along these lines, and other related lines, and to even perhaps bring it up whenever possible, uh, these are people who are growing in numbers and are becoming a larger population sector, and it's great to talk about diversity and finance and economy and other great things that the City is doing. I fully support all of those, and to also please,uh, remember these points by this gentleman and I hope that, uh, that some things can be further done to help. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Brandon. Hi, Royceann! Porter: Hi, Jim. Royceann Porter. Urn, congratulations, Crissy! I too wold like to say thank you, urn, for that project. It's so much needed in our city. We talk about affordable housing here in Iowa City. We,uh, been talkin' about different stuff This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 12 like this for so long, urn, workin' with homeless people and workin'....people live where they can afford, and so I'm here to talk about, uh, what you talked about on the work session earlier, urn, about the, urn, UniverCity. Urn, and it's a great idea. It is. It's truly a great idea but....Rockne, John, Pauline, and Jim, when you guys was runnin', we stood with Rose Oaks. To me....this project that you're doin' reminds me of Rose Oaks again. If those people are already in this home, and you're talkin' about revitaliz....revitalization, remodelin' it, whatever, makin' it whatever, but you know the people who in it. You know the people who live in these homes. You know the people who live on Taylor and Davis Street. On behalf of the Black Voices Project, we talked about this. We...you know who those people are that live over there. You know their situations. You guys know that neighborhood. You know....when we talk about minimum wage, some of 'ern....a lot of people over in that area, some have to work at one,two jobs. Kids even can't do sports cause they have to come home to babysit. Y'all know the area. Y'all know that they're not gonna qualify for a mortgage. If you would just some kind of way just rethink, some kind of way that the homes that you want to remodel or do whatever to it, if there's a way that you can help these families. Some kind of way, urn, homeownership can be put into it, to the people that's already over there. That's all I'm askin'. Slow the process down, instead of us....because this makes me feel like we're at Rose Oaks again. Here we are.... you're sayin' you're willing to take these people and put 'em somewhere else, in another home, place 'ern somewhere else. How bout givin' them homeownership? How bout makin' it a way where those that's livin' there already can become homeowners? That's all I'm askin'. We've been through this before and it's not, to me, it's not a good feelin'. I didn't want to get up here, but I couldn't sit no more. I was like this just feels like here we go again. And the idea sounds good, but when we think about it, we doin' it again. If y'all look at it, it's happening all over again. Y'all already know that those people are not goin' qualify for homeownership just by goin' into a bank. We know this. So I'm askin' if you would just kinda like maybe rethink it, if we can just....I don't know. I....I really just don't know. I just feel hurt by it, and I....and I couldn't sit without sayin' somethin'. Throgmorton: Thank you, Royceann. Porter: You're welcome. Throgmorton: I was gonna say anyone else,but I see someone coming! Good evening. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 13 Taylor: Hello,uh, Christine Taylor. This is Michael Taylor here. Uh, we live on Dearborn Street. Urn, and I'm here to talk to you about the City Park rides today. Urn, I understand that the decision has already been made to get rid of the rides and they've already been put up for sale. Urn, and I did create a petition to save the rides before I knew that it was a done deal,before I knew that they had already sold the rides. Um, so I guess what I'm here today to say is that why not use the money from the sale of the rides to buy new rides, since the issue with the rides is that, um, they're too old and too expensive to maintain. So....um, since we're gonna be spending a lot of money on getting, you know, new playground equipment, um, why not put that money towards getting some new rides instead? Um....and when I put out the petition I expected to only get maybe 20 or 30 people to sign it, but I had, um, a total of 142 as of today and....the comments on it, I did email it to you, so you should have a copy of it, but do read the comments that people had said because, um, there's some really good ideas in there and a lot of people are even willing to have fundraisers and I'd be willing to help with that too, to have a fundraiser to get some new rides. Urn, and the reason that this really resonates with me is because I like many....many members of our community grew up with those rides. I have happy memories of those rides. Um, I remember going there on Labor Day and riding the rides. That was just what I did, every year, and now I have children of my own and they enjoyed the rides, but unfortunately they won't be able to enjoy them anymore since they are no more. Um.....but I had a....a lot of, um, older people comment, saying that they enjoyed them when they were children and then their children enjoyed them and now their children's children are enjoying them, and the hope is that we can continue this tradition, carry it on, um, and so that, you know, our children's children can have these rides because although the argument is that there's a lot of things to do in Iowa City for families,there's really not, and yeah we have a lot of parks and it would be cool to have, you know, a cool new playground equipment, but this....these rides are a part of Iowa City history. I....I read up on the history. It's quite interesting. Um, they've been around as....as long as my parents have been around, and it was something that they put together to give these young families to do, and I mean I even read a story about somebody who had their wedding at these rides. So there's some really good stories behind it and....we, um, the City here....we have a problem with destroying historical things, and you know, we want our children to learn to appreciate and admire our history. So why should we continue to get rid of these historical objects when we can instead keep them, or in this case, get new and just continue the tradition with....with new rides. All right, thank you. Throgmorton: Thanks, Christine. Michael, are you going to say anything? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 14 Taylor: Yeah. Well I'm Michael and I wanted to say that we should save the rides because we don't wanna have to go to Cedar Rapids or Des Moines to go to like Adventure Land or Lost Island and spend $100 when we could just go to the rides and spend 50-cents. And.....and I think we should.....people are,they're building these huge apartments, hotels, and I think we....they could like take some money out of it to fix up or even get new rides, because......we have so many hotels and apartments already, and I think we could like do a fundraiser too or something, and like...well, my mom said they're historical and we're destroying a lot of historical things already in Iowa City, and.....that's all I have to say. Thank you! Throgmorton: Thank you, Michael. (applause) Anyone else? Good evening. McCubbin: Hello, my name is Andrew McCubbin. Urn, I live at 69 Kirk....629 Kirkwood Ave. I'm just gonna double-check if there's gonna be discussion on the traffic calming and if so I'll wait till then.....to have my, urn.... Taylor: On Keokuk Street? Highland (several talking in background) McCubbin: Highland, yeah. Number 11. Throgmorton: Yeah, so we'll get to it in a few minutes. McCubbin: There will be discussion though? (several talking) Great. That works; I can wait! Throgmorton: Anyone else? Okay, seeing no one else we'll move on to Item 10. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 15 10. UniverCity Sale-727 N. Lucas Street—Resolution authorizing conveyance of a single family home located at 727 North Lucas Street. 1. Public Hearing Throgmorton: I'll open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Would anyone want to address this topic? Okay, seeing no one I'm going to close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) 2. Consider a Resolution Mims: Move the resolution. Cole: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Cole. Discussion? Salih: I just wanna continue saying on this kind of....I been seeing this coming a lot during meetings, like UniverCity sales, you know, like many since I become on this Council I see many, quite many of them come out, which is while I appreciate the hard work that staff do on this,but I still wanna say a UniverCity house will cost the buyer 207,045....7,000....7,450, which was the amou....it is the amount of the, of course,rehab that the City pay for it. (unable to understand) profit. They buy, you know, selling it for the same amount, which is great. To....again, to make the neighborhood stable, because renters they don't make the neighborhood stable, and we want more ownership. But I would really think if we can use the same thing and just decide, you know, like try to reduce the cost by using some kind of another fund and so we can sell it affordable. We been doing this quite often and think about it, if you put a low income person there, which is...will make the, you know, the neighborhood more, yeah! They(unable to understand) because, you know(unable to understand) I don't know, I just... think this program somehow I know that, you know, no one will agree with me on this, but I would like to lay my values all the time over and over, even though I know I don't have support. Thank you. Throgmorton: Anyone else? Uh, I'd like to observe that I walk by this house probably every day, uh, I'm really pleased that our city has been able to rehabilitate it and make it available at a reasonable price to,urn, an owner who....uh.....and....to an owner and to know that the compliance period—it has to remain in homeownership for another 30 years. Uh, this will be a very good thing for that particular This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 16 neighborhood. It's been very good for other neighborhoods in the city as well. So far we have purchased 68 homes to date, and of the 68, 63 have been rehabilitated and sold. Uh, I believe it's been a terrific program and I'm very pleased that this particular house is....is part of that program. Any other discussion? Taylor: I'm always impressed by the before and after photos. Good job! Mims: I would just comment that this program was never designed to bean affordable housing program. It was designed to be neighborhood stabilization, particularly in areas where we have a really, really high percentage of rental housing, and to try and increase at least minimally the....the number of homeowners. There.... there's plenty of studies and statistics that document if you get too out of whack, in terms of rental versus homeownership, the stability, or lack of stability, within those neighborhoods, especially if you don't have long-term renters who are really concerned about the neighborhood. Speaks to nothing about any individual. It's just kinda the....the dynamics that you get when you don't have, um, a certain percent of homeownership. Um, so I think this is an important program and obviously the City in other ways have put....has put a lot of money into the affordable housing. So, I don't feel like in voting for this that I am not voting for my values as well. It's just that we have different pots of money to do different kinds of things. Salih: I really want to add something again. Uh (laughs) because, you know, I understand this is not affordable. That the problems! This is not affordable housing. What we are doing, we are doing it and why we don't just make it affordable so we can like make more affordable housing, like be establish in Iowa City, especially on those kind of neighborhood, where we doing (mumbled) if we....that would be like we....we integrating people who are low income with other people around them who are not. The price$207,000 is not reasonable for lot of people. It's 80% of the area median income. No. We need to think carefully about the people who are less than that, 30%, 40%, even 50%. You know that's why....and also I just realize that who are buying those houses is not the low income people, are not the people of color, are not our low income people. That's why I'm saying we are doing it! (mumbled) here,just try to figure out a way(unable to understand) figure out a way this to be like affordable. I would like to highlight that. Thank you. Throgmorton: Any further discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 6-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 17 11. Highland Avenue Traffic Calming—Resolution authorizing the installation of speed humps on Highland Avenue, between Boyrum Street and Keokuk Street. Throgmorton: Could I have a motion to approve please? Salih: Move. Mims: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. Discussion? Would anybody like to address this topic? Good evenin'! Deeds: My name is Lyle Deeds. I live at 913 Deforest in Iowa City, Iowa, and as you can tell I don't address the Council very often. I am adamantly opposed to this particular project. It has been tried on Highland several years ago. Half of you, maybe most of you, weren't around when they had traffic calming devices on Highland Avenue years past, within the last 10 years. Great expense to the City. Traffic calming devices. Tried to navigate traffic around Highland. Unsuccessful. Great expense to the City. Highland is now.....a.....thoroughfare without any traffic calming devices. And the whole point of that was to slow traffic down. I understand the citizens that are in this two or three block are concerned about the high speed of traffic. I personally drive this particular stretch of Highland almost every day. I don't necessarily speed. I can't speak to other people. Traffic calming devices, whether they're speed bumps or navigational devices inhibit emergency vehicles,police department, fire department, ambulance, snow plows when they're plowing, street cleaners, let alone the wear and tear on vehicles that are just driving this at normal speeds. It is a small three, perhaps four block at the most.....designated area that they're trying to calm down. I understand! Highland Park that maybe a lot of you don't know. It's a tremendously small park, but is visited by people. And it's also on a corner where people have to slow down. I do not believe this is necessary. There are many, in my opinion, places if you actually want to calm traffic down that are much more inclined to be traffic calming devices necessary in this community rather than a three or four block area of Highland Avenue. I am adamantly opposed to this. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Lyle. Uh, Kent....did you plan to say a few words about this? All right. Okay. Anyone else? Welcome! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 18 Temple: Good evening. My name is Bob Temple. I live at 1402 Yewell Street....which intersects with Highland Avenue to the east of the proposed speed humps. I'm here to encourage you to vote yes on the installation of speed humps between Boyrum and Keokuk. As a resident of the historic Lucas Farms neighborhood, I've long been a proponent of initiatives that would reduce traffic speeds on Highland Avenue. More than one traffic study along this street has shown that speeds exceed the established mean set by the City. In fact, these studies have shown that speeds often exceed the posted limited by 10 miles per hour or greater. A motorist traveling to Kirkwood College or Sycamore Mall from Gilbert Street has three main route options. Kirkwood Avenue has a stoplight at either end, and it has three stop signs in between. Highway 6 has a stoplight at each end and it has three stoplights in between. Highland Avenue, with only one stop sign along a one-mile length has become a speedy alternative. Motorists frustrated with this 25-mile-per-hour zone are often, or on occasion at least, will pass motorists traveling too slow for them. Although I do support the speed hump initiative on the west end of Highland, something needs to be done on the east end as well. As you consider approval of tonight's proposal, I urge you to take a close look at the traffic calming process as a whole. Why are city residents being held accountable for speed enforcement? The posted limit is the law. It requires enforcement by whatever means necessary to ensure the safety of the residents in our neighborhood. I urge the Council to examine other alternatives, such as raised crosswalks or choker medians and solar-powered radar activated speed signs. Speeds are excessive along the length of Highland Avenue, and I urge you to initiate measures to help ensure the safety of the neighborhood, while also controlling the speed of traffic within established limits. So tonight vote yes, but please don't stop there. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Bob. Anyone else? Good evening. Thorton: Kathleen Thorton. I live at 72 Highland Avenue and I,uh, wanted to come up and say a few words. I live right in the middle of this section we're talking about for speed control, and I watch this happen on our street for 24 some years. I've lived there for 24 some years on Highland Avenue at (mumbled) I think,um, Kent and Sarah probably up and maybe spoke and I guess I'm not sure, but I know they've posted and given you lots of facts, and for me the facts speak for themselves. Traffic calming(mumbled) on Highland Avenue. Our section as well as the other sections too, but this is the one we're talking about right here. This little section between Keokuk and Boyrum. You know some neighbors talk about wanting a four-way stop at Keokuk and Highland and I'm not opposed to that, but that has nothing to do with our calming on Highland Avenue. We're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 19 talking about our little section that's just had things completely out of control for years. A recent post to our Lucas Farms' Facebook page said, `History repeats itself?' with a question mark and actually included a cartoon of the chicanes back in 1999. For me, the history that needs to stop repeating itself is the history of the speed on our section of Highland. So I'm asking you to vote yes for this resolution. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Kathy. Any....uh....we've already heard what you had to say. Thanks. Anyone else? McCubbin: My name is Andrew McCubbin. I am,uh, a resident at 69 Kirkwood Ave. All right, um, so....I'm gonna get started with a couple of questions, um, and things that I had hoped had been clarified for the Council. Urn, the objective traffic regulations to increase safety and efficiency of road travel, urn, are increased regulations are flow impediments needed to increase safety or efficiency in a case of Highland Ave. Urn, I am requesting clarification on whether the complaints are a matter of vehicles driving too fast or too many vehicles using the road. Have any traffic or engineering studies been done after every speed hump installation to show the efficacy, um...uh, of safety or efficiency, urn,with these installations. Um....so the current state on history, obviously there's been some, uh, traffic calming mechanisms, urn, implemented in the past that have seemed to be unsuccessful and/or, urn, not satisfactory to the residents of Highland. Urn, obviously there's currently lane lines. Um, those were intended to mitigate, urn, high speeds, which in and of themselves don't cause accidents. Urn, there's lots of statis...statistics, excuse me, urn, to...that show that, urn.....uh, speed in and of itself is not a....a direct factor in most accidents. In fact most accidents happen than 35 miles per hour. Um, so I would like to ask has there been an engineering study besides the traffic flow numbers that were submitted as part of the, urn, packet with regard to, urn, the, urn.....the decision to do traffic calming, urn, has there been a comprehensive traffic flow study to see how traffic calming on Highland would affect the, urn, flow of traffic on Highway 6, Gilbert, Keokuk, or Kirkwood Ave. Urn, I am a resident who lives on Kirkwood Ave and I know there's traffic issues on Kirkwood Ave itself, um, and based on having driven on Highland, urn, it seems like there's other avenues to go ahead and fix the calming issue, both on Kirkwood and possibly on Highland, rather than just putting speed bumps. I think it's a bigger problem than just speed hump installation and lowering traffic speeds. Um....so, uh, the first thing I wanna point out, um, based on the study locations of Highland Avenue,urn, a majority of the vehicle traffic is west of Boyrum,urn, which is all commercial. Uh, this is, I believe, three blocks worth of, urn, commercial buildings and, urn,based on the 2014, 2016, 2017, urn, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 20 traffic flow studies, urn, only that portion of the street would qualify for traffic calming, if the traffic calming program is to be (mumbled) I would consider, urn ....uh, Highland to be a collector street, not a local street, and correct me if I'm wrong on that. Urn, and if that definition is, urn, what you're using to determine calming, urn, only the west side of Highland Ave will qualify for that,based on averages (mumbled) here...excuse me, um....and also if....if we have speed limits that are 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, there should be a question of whether or not that speed limit's appropriate. Most instances, urn, where engineering studies are done, traffic limits are raised, or speed limits, excuse me, are raised. It's due to the fact that the 85th percentile is above the posted speed limit,um, so if there's a statutory limit that's imposing the 25 mile per hour limit, I would advise you to do an engineering study to determine whether or not that statutory limit is appropriate for that street, and whether or not that street's classified correctly. Um.....I can go into some of the state law provisions about that. Urn, but I'm gonna go ahead and make this a little bit more abbreviated since you wanna limit it to five minutes. Urn, couple other questions I had is, urn, law enforcement of Highland Ave. Um, are there any, um....I should say official reports and statistics on the number of traffic violations that are committed on Highland Avenue, and how many, um, accidents have occurred on Highland due to speed. Um, especially over the 25 mile per hour speed limit. Urn, why haven't there been saturation patrols executed on Highland Ave. Urn, is this just a deterrent issue or is it actually, urn, something that the City needs to spend money on in order to, urn, have traffic calmed. Urn.....let's see here.....uh, I got into, uh, how does the City think traffic should flow? Urn, if we are finding enough traffic volume that's, urn, happening on Highland, it's gotta be for a reason. If we want to have that traffic be flowing on other streets or, urn, on Highway 6 to the south, urn, there should be a determination of what,urn, needs to be done to make sure that we mitigate the traffic volumes on Highland Ave, urn, and not just reduce speed. As I said, speed in and of itself doesn't cause accidents. Urn, it's....it's based on many other factors. The main thing is distracted driving. Urn, so I would....I would think that, urn, there's other ways that we can go about doing this without either spending (mumbled) money or spending less money than we are proposing to spend on, uh, for speed humps. Urn....uh, reading through a lot of the community suggestions based on this, uh, proposal, urn, a lot of people seem to think that a four-way stop at Keokuk and Highland Ave would be a solution. Urn, based on the traffic data that I'm seeing here,that's not the problem point. It seems like the problem point would be west of Boyrum, and if we were gonna make a, urn, change in signage, it should happen on Boyrum and Gilbert Court. Urn, I would propose that instead of changing, urn, Keokuk and Highland that we make a....an effort to reassess and do an engineering study, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 21 figure out what are the other options potentially for cheaper methods, simply based on signage and directing traffic flow. Um, so I think I'm gonna leave it with that. Urn....let's see here.....uh, yeah, I would like to determine also, um, the mechanism to which we measure the effectiveness of these speed humps, if you do indeed vote to implement them. Are you going to be doing a study every year for the next three years to look at traffic flows and traffic speeds to see if they are calmed? Um, obviously with having speed humps here, you're gonna have to be very careful with how you place your traffic flow sensors, urn, as.... it'll be (laughs)very much skewed if you place one right after a speed hump or right before, urn, so I wanna know, urn.....ask the Council on what decisions will be made to....to make sure that the efficacy of these speed humps in general all around the city are actually working. Urn, so I'll leave it with that and won't take too much more of your time. Thank you. Throgmorton: Thank you, Andrew. Kent, I'm gonna have to ask you to come up, please. Andrew just, urn, asked quite a few questions. I'm sure you can't begin to answer all of them right here now. Were there any key questions that you heard that you know you can address based on the kind of work y'all do? Ralston: Yeah, there's a few things. Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. Uh, yeah, I won't, urn, attempt to answer all of those, but a few I think the salient points are, you know.....is there a study done afterwards? There is. We go and measure the ....the speeds, in this case the volume, uh, should we put speed humps on Highland. Uh, we'll do that. I can say for the dozen or so installations we have in town, they work. Um, they're one of the more effective ways that we know how to, uh, calm traffic, and in fact when we have our community meetings with the neighborhoods, uh, early on in the stages of traffic calming, we offer other solutions, uh, but when they ask me what do you know that works the best, is cost effective, lot of our residents are interested in the cost, urn, I usually tell them that speed humps are the....are a sure bet, and uh, I think our....our data does back that up. Uh, as far as, urn, some of the other public comments as far as emergency response. Uh, we have a Traffic Calming Committee,uh, that meets before we ever meet with the neighborhood,to make sure that we're only offering solutions that the City feels comfortable with, or at least City staff feels comfortable,urn, and that includes the, uh, Fire Chief; urn, and the Fire Chief has indicated that he, you know, he's never a proponent of traffic, uh, calming in general because it kinda goes against the grain of what they....what they do, uh, that he was not, uh, ultimately concerned with this installation, and that's not been the case, uh, in some instances in the past where the Fire Chief has indicated a strong opposition to these,urn, and that we've went other directions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 22 Throgmorton: Okay. Thanks, Kent. I see at least one other person would like to say something. Dixon: I'm actually a visitor to Iowa City. Throgmorton: Welcome! Dixon: Uh, I've enjoyed my visit. Um (laughs) but visiting Andrew, um, getting to his place would require getting over some speed humps, uh, through one of the easier routes to get there if this, uh, plan were to go forward. Throgmorton: Could you, uh, say your name please? Dixon: My name is David Dixon. Sorry! Uh.... Throgmorton: What? (several talking) Dixon: Dixon, D-i-x-o-n. Urn, and I guess what I'm seeing here as somebody that... other than an occasional visit, wouldn't be affected by this at all, is that it seems unclear what....what questions we're trying....or what problem we're trying to solve. Um, I haven't heard any....any discussion of...accidents on Highland Avenue. Haven't heard any discussions of....police enforcement,you know, not being able to effectively control the existing speed limit. The data that is presented suggests that if anything the speed limit might be under-posted, from an engineering and safety standpoint, and I don't see that speed humps are gonna make that safety proposition any better. And as has been brought up a couple spa....places, it potentially gets worse. It's gonna take a fire truck longer to get down the street, um, I....I imagine if you talk to your police, uh, officers, when they've got a choice of which route to take to get from Gilbert over to the east side of Iowa City, they're not gonna take Kirkwood. They're gonna take Highland. The reason is it's a wide open street that they can safely operate at a much higher speed. And while that's disconcerting to the person that lives on Highland Avenue, they don't...nobody wants somebody driving pas...fast past their house. You're ultimately trying to solve a que....or answer a question of how do we efficiently get, not just the police, but every member of the Iowa City community efficiently from one place to another? If you divert somebody away from Highland Avenue or slow down the travel on Highland Avenue, it's gonna increase the likelihood that somebody takes a different route and potentially a less safe one. You may have fewer people speeding on Highland Avenue,but more accidents at the intersection of Kirkwood and Dodge. So think about the big This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 23 safety picture and....whether....whether it's a safety problem you're trying to address or whether it's somethin' else. Thank you! Throgmorton: Thank you, David. And welcome to Iowa City. Anyone else? Okay, seeing no one else, Council discussion? Mims: Well I would just say that, you know, thank people for coming out tonight and speaking both, you know, for it and against this, but in the years that I've been on the Council, I've had pretty good confidence in....in most of the time with what our staff has done in terms of looking at these traffic calming situations, getting the input from the neighbors, urn, the....the threshold that that needs to meet in terms of even going forward and doing the analysis, and um, we've had a few (laughs)that we've taken out over the years, but very few, um, and I think in most cases, um, the vast majority of the residents have been supportive of these, and so I'm gonna vote for it. Thomas: I'm gonna(clears throat) uh, thank everyone for....for coming out and speaking on this, and I also noticed, uh, today in....in just looking up, uh, on our staff report, there was some....and some of the letters we've received that, uh, got quite a bit of, uh, conversation out in the Highland neighborhood in terms of, uh, the... the, um,the project and....peripheral concerns, at least to the scope of this. Um, you know I'll have to say straight up that...or initially,that I....I always prefer other ways of solving, uh, traffic speeds. I....I certainly support the neighborhood's concerns about, um,this is a residential street, not frustrating traffic—just slowing it down. Um, if..I don't know if staff looked at the idea of how more friction could be created on....on Highland through bike lanes. Apparently there isn't enough demand for street parking to kind of reduce the effective lane widths, which we know slows traffic down. Um, in looking at the bike master plan, I believe,um, Highland is considered a secondary route, so there is some potential....and maybe that's still there, that could be looked at in terms of how to, uh, slow traffic down on the corridor,because I think that's.... there's....there's this small project and then there's speed on Highland as a whole. Um....and.....and I think that....that needs to be looked at as well, and perhaps the bike....a bike lane concept could....could solve that. Um, the....the scope of the....the speed humps is relatively limited. I....I don't think it....you know, I prefer looking at the corridor as a whole but, you know, I don't know that....l don't sense that speed humps in this one area will in any way set back the idea of....of treating the corridor as a whole. Uh, I did find the idea of, uh, a four-way stop at Highland and Keokuk, uh,pretty interesting. Um, I would just add to that that....in looking at the map of this area, there aren't many, uh, as....as Bob This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 24 Temple noted, there aren't many east-west streets, urn, and there frankly aren't that many north-south streets that sort of run through the neighborhood. The east end has a little bit more of a grid pattern, but further west it's, you know, there's a lot of ways to get through the neighborhood from end to end. Kirkwood, Highland is one of those intersections. It's kind of like a crossroad of two major streets, and it has a park and it has a church. My hope in the....in terms of looking at that intersection, it would be almost viewed as a kind of neighborhood center rather than a place where traffic's flying through. So if traffic could be calmed down there, at that intersection, not through the corridor through a block but at that intersection, make the crossing safer, um....that intersection I think could be considered more of a....a centerpiece of the neighborhood rather than cut up and divided by the through traffic. Um....and I think that Bob made an interesting point about how, you know, if you compare it to Kirkwood and, uh, Highway 6, it's more of, at least in terms of stops, more of a thoroughfare than, um....uh, you know, these other....other two streets to the north and south. So, the idea of....how....how can we make safe crossings,just like we have on Highway 6 and....and, uh, Kirkland, occur along the, uh, Highland corridor is something I think could be looked at as well. Cole: You know any time we make a decision we have to look at community feedback, the process we have in place in terms of survey results, as well as our staff s considered judgment, and I think in this particular case, um, we have the survey results of nearly 81% in support of this. We have our staffs considered judgment and we also have our own observations sitting on Council about the efficacy of these particular devices, and I think primarily what we're looking at is the livability and the safety of our individual streets, and I think this goes a long way to addressing this, and it's based upon empirical data. That doesn't mean that we're not gonna continue to review this, but I think in this particular case, making our streets safer, making our neighborhoods more livable does involve regulating traffic speeds, and I think if we can do that in the least intrusive way possible, that's always our goal, urn, and in this particular case I think this is a....a sensible approach,based upon the information that we have, urn,before us. Now we're not always going to make everyone happy, uh, but consider for everyone that's opposed to it there is allegiance of people that are supportive of it as well and we try to balance all of those preferences based upon our existing policies, as well as our staffs professional judgment. So I'm gonna be supportive of this. I think it's a sensible approach. Salih: (unable to understand) I really don't have experience on like....going on those to maybe too much to just figure out if there is really speed....people speed up over This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 25 there or not, but really always I will love to see if the City before they do anything to contact the people who live there, and from the moment that we get I think the City contacted 100% of the people, which is 20...in this case 20 families I guess, or 20 household,maybe almost 100%,but 55% only respond, which is 11. Even though if I add the people who came tonight and thank you very much for coming and like comment on this, but if I add those people to the 20% that like (unable to understand) really don't want this, it still the people who want it is more than the people who don't want it, and I think this is....that means this is concern. Concern of safety. That's why you know if....if there is a concern of safety, even though it's like really like low percent of concern, as long as it's about safety we have to look into that, and I would be supporting of this (mumbled) Thanks. Taylor: I also would echo, uh, thank you to the members of the audience that spoke up, uh, as well as to the folks that, uh, we received correspondence from. We got a lot of correspondence from people, uh, regarding this, and....and we do pay attention to that. Uh, what....um, struck me the most was the traffic study. I was really alarmed by the speeds that were shown,uh, that, uh, they watched this for some time and....well over the limits. I have a friend that thinks driving seven miles over the speed limit is acceptable, but that's not. Uh, as somebody said, it's posted for a reason. Um, that's just not acceptable. It's not safe. I...I live, uh, just a short distance from Teg Drive, which had....has had speed humps for a very long time, and it...it's been successful. It runs right along a park and there had been a lot of issues with that area for a long time and that has controlled the speeds on....on that street, and we haven't noticed an problems with any, uh, emergency vehicles or anything of that nature. So I would be in favor of this, but I do agree with, uh, Mr. Temple that, uh, we should at some point consider the other end of Highland as well, cause obviously people are using this as a cross street. Throgmorton: Well I don't wanna repeat what other people have already said. I'll just highlight a couple or three things. Uh, a suggestion was made that,uh,perhaps we should have police enforcement out there. Uh, I think that's not really viable because we only have so many officers, and we have plenty of streets and there are lots of instances where people drive, uh, above the speed limit and have sim....create similar kind of challenges is what we're witnessing on Highland Avenue. So I don't think we can expect to have police enforcement out there. Another, at least not any kind of regular way. Uh, another has to do with the idea of possibly raising the speed limit, because people drive over the 25 mile an hour speed limit. But we don't wanna do that,because the...the higher the speed, the more likely it is that severe damage will occur, the risk of severe acnises....accidents increases This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 26 with increasing speed. Uh, I don't have any desire to do that. The other thing I just wanna mention is that a little over a week ago I was in Highland Park, attending the Party in the Park, with quite a large number of families,many of whom had small children, and I repeatedly heard from these families how important it was to slow the traffic down on Highland. And they also supported the idea of having a four-way stop at Keokuk, but that's....that's another thing. So, uh, given those factors and given what other people have said, I'm gonna support this motion. Any other discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 6-0. Could I have a motion to accept correspondence please? Cole: So moved. Thomas: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Cole, seconded by Thomas. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 27 12. Settlement of impending litigation—Resolution ratifying the settlement of impending litigation. Mims: Move the resolution. Salih: Second. Throgmorton: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. Um....Eleanor, could you briefly explain what this is? Dilkes: Urn, yes, this is a....a claim that was made against us,urn, due to damage to a car from, urn, a backed up....back up storm sewer in the Tower Place ramp. Urn, we had several of these claims, urn, and this one exceeded the City Manager's, urn, settlement authority of$20,000. So it comes to you for approval. Throgmorton: Thank you. Any discussion? Hearing none, roll call please. Motion carries 6-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 28 13. Council Appointments—Applicants MUST reside in Iowa City and be 18 years of age unless specific qualifications are stated 13.a. Telecommunications Commission -Two vacancies to fill a three-year term,July 1, 2018 -June 30, 2021. Throgmorton: We received one application from Kyla Paterson. There's no gender balance requirement. Uh, what's your judgment, folks? Salih: I really would like just, you know, appoint like Kyla Patterson to this. Throgmorton: (several talking) One thing I do...I think there's sentiment to appoint her, we'll find out in a second, but one thing I'm wondering about has to do with the discussions we had I think two weeks ago, about this particular commission, and about, uh, our questioning whether we should continue it or give it a new, revised charge. Uh.... Monroe: I can speak to that. Throgmorton: Yeah. Monroe: Um, so our staff liaison Ted Coleman brought, uh, that particular issue to the....to the commission. So they are, um, going to think through what those particular duties could be or look like as a....as a new charge or a new form of whatever this commission would, um, I think part of that discussion will be whether it should exist in its current format. So they're gonna discuss that amongst themselves as the commission and then bring recommendation back to Council. So.... Throgmorton: Oh good, okay. That's very helpful. So the question is do we want to appoint Kyla Patterson? I think Maz said...and Pauline I think both said they would like to. I'm seeing a lot of nodding heads. (several talking) Yeah. Taylor: It says there's no gender balance but there's three males (several talking) Throgmorton: Okay so....uh, could I have a motion to appoint Kyla Patterson to the Telecommunications Commission? Salih: Moved. Taylor: Second. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 29 Throgmorton: Uh, motion...moved by Salih, seconded by Taylor. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 30 16. Community Comment Throgmorton: Gustave? Stewart: Hi, Gustave Stewart, urn, Student Liaison. Good evening to you all. Throgmorton: Good evening. Stewart: Urn, so I wanted to...I wanted to highlight, um...uh, some off-campus housing support initiatives that the University and UISG have been collaborating on, um, for kind of the past year. Urn, John Thomas, you mentioned the Neighborhood Ambassador's program. That was something UISG,um, partly funded, urn, to kind of....be a liaison to both students and the community within the neighborhoods, and kind of,urn, do good within, urn,the community. Urn, so there's currently seven,um,Neighborhood Ambassadors and this is the pilot year. So you have seven students,um, throughout different neighborhoods, urn, within Iowa City. Some at Riverfront Crossings. I believe there's,urn,there might be some in College Green as well, wherever students reside and applied. Urn, so I believe they're looking at events to do like, um, community raking,uh, of leaves, um, and various things like that, and I can,urn, can inform you on kind of the events that,urn, do occur throughout the semester, uh,throughout the year, urn, that they decide to put on. Urn, in addition I would like to, urn, I'll let you know about the renter's guide that UISG, so UISG distributed a survey this last spring, to get data on student experiences on landlord-tenant relations,urn, and we formed this guide and it's going to be published within the next week, and the idea is to get a quantitative,urn,understanding, urn, for both students that are looking for housing, urn, and for the community,to get an understanding of, um, what is quantitatively,urn,the student experiences, for each landlord, and various things like that. So,urn, we plan on distributing that and I can,urn, send it into an information packet,um, if, uh, you want, and uh yeah! So...thank you! Throgmorton: Uh,unless anybody objects,urn, I...encourage Gustave to submit that. (several talking in background) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 31 17. City Council Information Throgmorton: Pauline, would you, uh, lead off please? Then we'll move to the right. Taylor: Sure! Urn, last week the, uh, Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition held, uh, their third annual summit, uh, Monday through Friday. Uh, it was a really, uh, great week, with a lot of, urn, good conversation going on. Held in partnership with the College of Medicine and....and the, uh, Harm Reduction Coalition. It brought together local and, urn, as well as international experts, community members, healthcare providers, and students, uh, to hold conversations about the opioid crisis. Uh, the Wednesday evening event, uh....uh, Dr. Daniel Ciccarone,uh, Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, uh, spoke about what he's been doing with the, uh, national Harm Reduction, uh, Council, and uh, was very interesting and he had some, uh, very graphic photos of some things that he has seen along the way. There also was a young woman who was instrumental in establishing a safe injection site, uh, in Vancouver, Canada, and there's apparently a....a push to get those established across our country, but I don't know, uh, how open people are to that. Uh, Dr. Ciccarone stated that the opioid epidemic is the greatest public health crisis of our time. Uh, he gave some very alarming statistics, uh, 64....over 64,000 people die due to overdose in our country in 2016 alone, and he spent his entire career trying to improve people's understanding of substance use and abuse, and uh, the health consequences associated with that. Urn, but...so the summit I thought was, uh, very thought provoking and....and, uh, lot of....lot of people attended, and uh, got a lot out of it. Uh, and then on Friday the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition held their annual meeting. Uh, it was good to hear all the great efforts made in our, uh, area, uh, towards affordable housing. Uh,both Mayor Pro Tern, urn, Mitch Gross and our own Mayor, Jim Throgmorton, uh, shared some impressive information on how things are going in....in our communities. It was good to hear about Coralville. We don't hear about them much, but they are also doing some things, uh....uh, in relation to affordable housing. Uh, and of course, uh,the Candidate's Forum was last Thursday. I found that very interesting. Large number of people were present and it was great to see such interest in our Council. And it looks like there was a(mumbled) latest numbers is something like 9% voter turnout, which that's not a lot but at least that shows there's some interest and we will have somebody joining us in two weeks,which will be great. Um....come...upcoming is the Gateway event. I'm looking forward to that. At City Park, 9:00 A.M., on Thursday the 16th, uh, to kinda,uh, announce or open up the new,uh, Gateway area there. And then, uh, Susan mentioned the IP item, uh, the invitation to the `State of Poverty in Johnson County' discussion, uh, Friday, October 12th, 9:00 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 32 A.M. to noon at the HHS building, uh, room 203. Strategies to address issues of poverty in our community. Uh, they did encourage registration and you can go to the web page and...and register online,but you can probably also just show up. That's all! Salih: Okay, I really don't have a lot. I always forget, but you know I attend yesterday the Green Room at the Englert Theater. Oh my god that was great for me for first time I attend this kind of things. I love it. I like the speaker, and I like the song made by the, you know, uh (unable to understand) which is really it was very nice, and uh, my child was with me. I think that was really great and I hope to go more often to this kind of event and encourage everybody. Also the student was amazing. This was really good event. Nothing else, but I really I just received the election result. I would like to thank both candidate who really run for this because we do have, you know, two strong candidates. Hopefully we can have like two seat but you know (unable to understand) uh, I really would like to congratulate Bruce Teague for winning the elections, and also thank.....and for running. This was really tie election,but because both of them are great. Thanks! Cole: Just found that news! So with your permission I'm gonna sort of combine my City Lit update with,um, this particular Council time, and urn, as many of the community members probably know, we do have a wonderful City of Literature, uh, Book Festival occurring right now. Um, there's a ton of events that you can sort of find in IowaCityLiterature.org but I just want to highlight at least a couple of'em that I think may have residents for the community. Uh, there's a ton of events to go to, but couple that really interest me, um, one is is a guide by...by Art Cullen called "Storm Lake," and it's a book on politics, agriculture, the environment, and immigration in the heartland. I think it's sort of a timely book, uh, with all the different issues that our state as a whole is...is facing. Um, and that event will take place at the Iowa City Public Library,meeting room A, 123 S. Linn Street, Iowa City, Iowa—you know where that is—and it will take place Saturday, October 6'h at 4:00 P.M. Uh, the other one I wanted to highlight is a...a huge event, I guess it's a really big deal, that we're getting Common is coming to, uh, Englert and he's also going to be here, um, this Saturday, urn, and he has a new book called, uh, "One Day It'll All Make Sense," and the rac...rapper and actor Common will discuss his mem....memoir in this special Book Festival appearance that will take place Saturday, October 6`11, at 2:30 P.M. at the Englert. Um....it's a big get for us to be able to get him, and um, I'm really excited about that happening. So those are just two events. There's a ton of events that are taking place. And I encourage people to check that, uh, festival out this week. I think it's going to be a fantastic, uh, event. So....that's it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 33 Thomas: Uh,just a couple of things, uh, of note. I went up to, um, the Twin Cities about a week or so ago. Hadn't been up there in quite a while and, uh, always....I always enjoy going to the places and seeing, you know, what the differences are between wherever I happen to be living and, uh, the places I'm visiting. Uh, couple of things that jumped out at me a little bit in Minneapolis was the presence of scooters, urn, which are not....they haven't landed in Iowa City to my knowledge (laughs)but, uh, they've landed in Minneapolis and um, so I'm kind of interested to see how that phenomenon may land in Iowa City. They're a little bit disruptive, uh, in terms of circulation patterns,because you know scooters never know quite where to place themselves in the public right-of-way. Urn, you know, they're somewhere between a pedestrian and bicyclist, more closely aligned I think with bicycling. Urn, also, uh, I....lots of construction, you know we....we ....we've kind of gone through our construction season; you know, the bigger the city the more the construction. It was really....especially when you're a visitor, trying to navigate through the construction period in the midwest is something, and uh, the other thing I would note is that I....something I don't think about because it's not present in Iowa City, and that is airplane noise. Um, certain parts of Minneapolis really suffer from overhead flights passing over their neighborhoods. Urn, I know it's inconvenient getting to....to....to some degree inconvenient getting to our airport,but it is completely separate from the major population areas. So it....there is some benefit to that, and I hadn't in my previous visits to Minneapolis appreciated how impacted some of the neighborhoods are. Mims: Nothing! Throgmorton: John, you remind me of a party I went to a long time ago out in Los Angeles,uh, and the party took place inside a house located directly underneath the flight path from LAX(mumbled) International Airport. So like every...minute(laughs) or somethin' like that (makes loud noise) Wow! It was quite the thing. I'm glad we don't, uh,have to experience that. All right so on the 20th I met with several, uh, a few key administrators at Mercy Hospital. It was pretty instructive for me and I think it was, uh, beneficial conversation from their point of view as well. Later that night....I walked around downtown with other members of the Partnership for Alcohol Safety, tryin' to gauge what the post-10:00 P.M. scene is like, and much to our surprise, nothing was going on (laughs) Right, Gustave? There's nothin' happenin' (laughs) except in one of the bars we went into which was pretty full and pretty active, but....(laughs) it was boring frankly, so....um, unlike, uh, some other nights. On the 25th I had a great conversation with students at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018. Page 34 Kirkwood, students and faculty at Kirkwood, about their concerns pertaining to the sanctuary city topic from the point of view of, urn, recent immigrants or perhaps even refugees, but yeah....uh, there were probably 60 people in the room, uh, it was a really terrific conversation. I hope it was fruitful from their point of view. I plan to attend ICAD's annual meeting on the 10th of October. On the 11`h I'll be making welcoming comments at the Conference of the Iowa Chapter of the American Public Works Association, and Geoff, uh, perhaps you could ask somebody to put a few talking notes or whatever together, talking points, for me. On the 13th I plan to attend...I don't know if, Maz, you may...or Pauline, you might have mentioned this, uh, I plan to attend the Center for Worker Justice's annual fundraiser. (both talking) Salih: Yeah, I forget to say that. Throgmorton: And....uh, the Community Foundation of Johnson County's having a grant's award luncheon on the 17th and I hope to attend that as well. I'm gonna be out of town for a few days, so I'm gonna give ya a heads up here. Thursday I'm departing, uh, on a trip out to Bend, Oregon, to attend a celebration of life for my cousin Janet who died recently. So...uh, I can't say that I really look forward to that, but you know....it's something I want to do. And last I congratulate Bruce Teague too. That's, uh, it's, you know, it was a good election campaign. It was a sprint campaign, is the way it seemed to me (laughs) you know it's the first time we've ever done anything like that, as far as I know. So congratulations to Bruce, and I understand he's having a....his victory party at Billie's High Hat. So I'm plannin' to walk down there right after our meetings end. That's it for me! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 35 18. Report on Items from City Staff a. City Manager Throgmorton: Geoff? Got anything? Fruin: Nothin'! Throgmorton: Ashley? Monroe: No! b. City Attorney Throgmorton: Eleanor? Kellie? c. City Clerk Fruehling: I have one thing. I had emailed on the Neighborhood Council, City Council meet and greet and there's several of you that are available. I just need two current. So whether you wanna duke it out(both talking) ]Throgmorton:Well who are the people? Fruehling: I know Rockne said he could. Pauline said she could. Jim, you did. The dates didn't work for John, um, I'm not sure (several talking) Throgmorton: ....did not work for John, the days did not work for John. (several talking) Fruehling: Urn, I know when I had sent out was,uh, the 10th or the 11s'. So it's...of October (several talking in background) 5:30. I think they were going to confirm the day, but those were the two days they were looking at. Throgmorton: Maz, are you interested in doing that? Can you do that? Salih: (mumbled) is full. Throgmorton: You can't do it on the I l th? Salih: But the 6th maybe, I don't know, or the 10 I mean. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 36 Throgmorton: Uh, well I'm....like I told you, I'm happy to defer.....I don't think Pauline should do it cause she's been on many listening posts here recently. Yeah, so Rockne and Maz, if the two of you can go that'd be great(several talking) Fruehling: If it's the 11`s then Maz has an issue, correct? Salih: Yeah, because on the 11 I have....well how long does this take, by the way? Throgmorton: Hour to hour....what'd y'all do last time? (several talking) Salih: I have 6 (mumbled) Throgmorton: Well, if it's on the 11t, I'd be happy to, uh,take part, along with Rockne. If it's on the 10th, Rockne and Maz? Salih: Yeah(both talking) 10 for me work, like 5:00, you say 5:30? Fruehling: Uh, they were lookin' at 5:30 last I heard. Salih: 5:30, where you said this gonna be? 5:30.....(mumbled) Fruehling: They did not give me a location. Uh.... Throgmorton: Well we'll pin that down, right? (several talking) All right, so you'll get back to us about that, right? Fruehling: Hopefully first thing in the morning. Throgmorton: Okay. Salih: I mark my calendar for that. Throgmorton: I think we're done, so can I have a motion to adjourn please to the...to the work session that is. Salih: Move. Mims: Second. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2,2018. Page 37 Throgmorton: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. All in favor say aye. Opposed. Motion carries. We are adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of October 2, 2018.