HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-05-05 TranscriptionPage I
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Frain, Monroe, Dilkes, Fruehling, Bockenstedt, Knoche, Seydell-Johnson,
Havel, Rackis, Hightshoe, Kubly
Others Present: Longenecker, Van Heukelom (UISG)
COVID-19 Update:
Teague/ Welcome, everyone! So happy that you're here virtually and.... hopefully with all of our
new protocols that we have with Zoom, we won't have too much, um, issues now that we
are within our second Council meeting, uh, with this new process. So, happy that you all
made it! We do have .... the work agenda looks rather light, but I can tell you that just
talkin' to some of the Councilors and from some of the letters that we've received in
response to one, uh, on our Consent Calendar, Item 8.c. I know that that's gonna have
some (mumbled) conversation amongst Councilors. We also have comin' up the COVID-
19 update, and I know the City staff wants to take some time and help us, uh, navigate
through that. And we also have the last of our stra... strategic plan. So ... we're gonna
navigate the agenda, but ... just know that we may wanna. .... some things we may put on
hold, which could be the strategic plan, again, but let's see how time goes, um... so we'll
go ahead and start with the COVID-19 updates, and I will ask our City Manager Geoff
Frain to start us out!
Frain/ Okay, thank you (garbled) Council. I, uh, appreciate this opportunity. Uh, so the primary
focus tonight is on the short-term financial impacts of COVID-19 on our City operations.
Gonna have Dennis Bockenstedt walk you through the, um, impacts for the remainder of
this fiscal year and the first half of next fiscal year. So (garbled) nine month focus. Also
I wanna provide you an introduction on a (garbled) framework, uh, that we hope to
present to you in more detail at your next (garbled) and then finally I wanna allow you
some time to offer input and direction to staff, particularly I wanna talk about some of our
reopening decisions and some of the more time -sensitive operational decisions, uh, that
need to be made. Uh, so, uh, looking ahead, uh, a real quick update before I turn it over
to Dennis. Uh, a few of you have asked some questions about, uh, our Parks and
Recreation activities, and so Juli, uh, and her team at Parks and Rec have been working
really hard to reimagine what, uh, summer programming looks like, uh, in this COVID
era, and uh, I wanna touch on a few of those points with you. Um, one, uh, we'll talk
City Park pool real quick. Uh, cities across the .... the country are kinda struggling to...
with decisions on what to do with outdoor pools. Uh, once the health guidance gives us
an okay, it's likely about four to six weeks, uh, for us to get a facility prepped and ... and
get all the guards hired and trained. So best -case scenario right now, we're .... we're
probably looking at opening in early July. Uh, but in addition to kinda managing through
the health crisis, we need to think about the .... the economics of. ... of running a pool.
(mumbled) there's a reason that governments run pools. They don't make money. You
don't see them often in the private sector too much, urn ... and so when you shorten the
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season and you only have a month or two, um, particularly if there's occupancy limits on
that pool, your revenue -making opportunities are .... are pretty low, and so you could
stand to .... to take a fairly big financial hit on a decision to open a pool, uh, in late season
like that. So, um, you know, right now the health guidance isn't such that would even
prompt us to begin to .... to work in that direction, but I wanna let you know that ... that it's
much more complex than just filling the pool with water and .... and as this stretches into
May now, we get into late May or early June, uh, we're gonna have to make a decision on
whether we open the pool or we leave it closed throughout the year and... and focus on
use of our indoor pools. From a rec, uh, programming standpoint, uh, the team is really
starting to look at, um, late June as the kick-off point for summer programming, and we
do, uh, focus on small group format that'll consist of no more than eight participants in a
class. Uh, so we're talking about youth sports, outdoor education, bike safety, arts, crafts,
STEAM enrichment, and those sort of things. Uh, really looking at an emphasis on skill -
building, as opposed to organized sports. Uh, so (garbled) that offer one -day clinics or,
um, programs that, uh, focus on a different sport, uh, throughout, uh, throughout the
week. Uh, really gonna try to be avoiding use of indoor spaces for programming this
summer, and ... and really thinking about how to, uh, better utilize our park system for ...for
programming so we can spread out a little bit. On the teen side, we're going to be
looking at opportunities for outdoor experiences and education, things like fishing, kayak,
stand-up paddle boarding, hiking, biking, gardening — those types of things. And then,
uh, as I mentioned, our .... uh, arts, crafts, and STEAM, uh, group will be working on
small group programming, uh, outdoor programming throughout the summer as well. We
do plan to, uh, carry on with Party in the Park, although we'll modify that and make sure
that we do it in a way that, uh, is not really geared at attracting large crowds, but
engaging neighborhoods in a safe and responsible manner. So, again, Juli's team is .... is
working hard to reimagine what that might look like, uh, in the summer months. Uh,
hopefully you've seen some of the online programming, uh, that the Parks and Recreation
Department has started. We'll continue with effort, uh, throughout the summer. Uh, as
you know we're running the, uh, child.... childcare camp, uh, and we .... but we have been
for the past month (mumbled) month and a half or so. We will be transitioning that into
our summer camp, uh, and it's going to look very much the same, so all the current
participants will have an opportunity to .... to roll into our summer camp, um, but we'll
still do the things that we're doin' to make sure folks are safe, like temperature checks
and frequent hand -washing stations, making sure that supplies aren't shared and yet
they're assigned to ... to individuals that are participating in those camps. It'll all be small
group based with, uh, no more than eight children in a ... in a group, along with one or two
of our camp counselors. Uh, working our way through the rest of the ... of the Parks
operations, our ball fields — we have canceled use of organized, uh, the ball fields by
organized sports through August 15a'. So we're really lookin' at that fall season, uh,
to .... to gear up on the organized sports side again. We'll still allow, right now, informal
use of our fields. Uh, if...if, uh, folks are out there and they warm play catch on a ball
field or kick a soccer ball around, as long as it's not a large group, that's okay, but we
wanna avoid situations in which we have spectators or teams crammed into dugouts, uh,
that sort of thing. So, uh, that's, uh, doin' what we can to follow the .... the best, uh,
health guidance that's out there on.... Really exciting for us, uh, and, uh, for Juli and
Tammy Newman and the Farmers Market team. We have gone live with the online
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ordering. That's available through Field to Family. Uh, I was, uh, told today by Juli that,
uh, I think we're just a couple a days in, we already have over, uh, 250 orders and over
350 people that have registered, um, for the online, uh, Farmers Market, to be able to
participate and buy things. So by all means, uh, that is going very well, uh, in its .... in its
first week. We look forward to .... to kickin' that off and, again, uh, the Parks team is
workin' through the logistics of that. That'll be an online order and then a drive-through
kinds pick-up situation. Uh, and then last, uh, I'll mention is fireworks. We need to
eventually make a decision on, uh, whether we will host the 4a' of July fireworks or not.
We do have the fireworks under contract, and we do have some cancellation provisions in
there. Uh, probably gonna need to make a call on that in late May or early June, at the
latest. Um .... uh, and we're hopin' that we can offer that in some type of,
urn .... responsible way, uh, and makin' sure that people spread out, uh, but the reality of it
is is that we just may not be able to do that. So that's a decision that's a few weeks out. I
just wanna mention that that's hanging out there. Okay, so I think, uh, if Council has any
questions on that, we'll do that after, uh, the financial, uh, presentation. Uh, and then,
A .... I've got a few other things, a few other questions for Council that we'll take on after
the financial presentation. So I think, uh, Council knows that we've entered this financial
crisis in a very strong position, and this will certainly help us absorb some of this, uh,
initial hit. Uh, there are some immediate concerns, uh, which you'll hear from Dennis,
and there's also some kind of medium term concerns, uh, if we look a year or two out.
But probably most concerning for me is the long-term consequences of this, looking
really two to five years out and how some of those changes could impact our organization
significantly and really require some tough decisions over the next couple of years. Uh,
we need to prepare for a situation in which our tax base is gonna be stagnant, if not
declining, and that's not something that happens overnight, uh, but it can have a profound
impact on our organization. If you, uh, think back to our budgeting, uh, sessions.... one
of the things we always talk about is you typically need about 3 to 4% growth, uh, in
order to sustain your status quo operations, cause you have salary increases that are tied
to collective bargaining agreements. You have health insurance and just the general, uh,
inflationary costs that ... that lead you to need that growth, and if we reach a period, uh,
again kind of in that two to five-year range where our tax base isn't growing, we're going
to have trouble sustaining our status quo operations, uh, for that reason. So that's
something long-term, and that's not really the focus of tonight's presentation. Uh, Dennis
is, uh, gonna take over now and is really going to give you the short-term view of what
this means for us, so what does it mean this fiscal year, these .... these last few months of
fiscal year 20, and the first six months of fiscal year 21. So with that I'll turn it over to
our Finance Director Dennis Bockenstedt. You're still muted, Dennis.
Bockenstedt/ I'm Dennis Bockenstedt, Finance Director for the City of Iowa City, and tonight
I'm gonna talk about the financial impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the
City. Uh, gonna cover a lot of information, uh, so just feel free to jump in and ask
questions. Uh (garbled) time period, um, from mid-March through the end of December,
um, it's really kind of a near term look at what the impact is. Um, and it's .... it's such a
volatile situation, I think that's the .... the best part we can get a handle on at the current
time. So I'm gonna go ahead, uh, and share my screen here. Now if everybody can see
that. Um, so just to give you an idea of the time frame we're talkin' about as far as when
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this began and to where we're at now, uh, March 8"' was the first cases, were three cases
were identified in Johnson County. So we're really not even two months into this
situation yet, um, and March 17a' is when the State had declared, uh, its health disaster,
and shortly thereafter, uh, Iowa City closed its City Hall, and a week after that, uh, all
non-essential service personnel were assigned to work from home. Uh, and as of
yesterday, um, currently Johnson County, they've identified 518 cases and six deaths. So,
uh, this situation from when it first started to now has evolved very quickly. Um, the
financial situation's been very fluid, uh, oftentimes changing from day to day, week to
week, um, as more information's known, as the State makes decisions, as the federal
government makes decisions, um.....you know, we're just trying to keep up and....
And.....and stay on top of things. Um, another challenge through this situation is that,
uh, the length of this pandemic is unknown. So, you know, it could go two more months,
it could go nine more months, it could go two more years, and so, uh, just trying to
remain flexible, um, to react to whatever the changing situation holds. Um, and ... and due
to this fluidity, um, you know, this situation, we're havin' to monitor it, um, and evaluate
it on a continuous basis and .... and some funds require a lot more monitoring than others,
as ... as those impacts have been more severe. Um, and then each fund is different. Its
funding sources is different, its expenditures are different, so how it's bein' impacted, uh,
each one is unique, um, and then each one has its own, uh, challenges and restrictions,
um, which creates other layers of difficulty and ... and managing their particular situations.
Uh, just to give you just kind of a big picture look at the City's, uh, financial and
budgetary system. Uh, we maintain a fund structure for .... all the different funds and
revenue source, uh, throughout the City. Um, each one has a particular purpose in how it
behaves and what ... why it's set up that way. Uh, budgetary funds are those funds that we
filed a budget with the State, and the non -budgetary funds are the ones that we do not file
a budget with the State, and those are mostly internal operations, uh, such as our health
insurance or our equipment fund. Um, the special revenue funds are those funds which
account for revenues which are restricted to a particular purpose, and the enterprise funds
are those that are self-supporting and like a business, uh, also called the enterprise funds.
Uh, the ones that are highlighted in yellow here are the ones that we're currently seeing
the .... the most significant impact. Those are the ones we're gonna focus on, uh, tonight.
Um, some of the other funds could be impacted, uh, in the future or .... they're bein'
impacted now, just to a lesser extent. Um, so we're just gonna (mumbled) focus on those
ones which we know have immediate concerns are bein' addressed, uh, as of right now
are things that we're havin' to take care of immediately. Um .... just to kinda set the table
a little bit, urn .... the City's overall budget is about $175 million. Um, this is the funding
sources, uh, for fiscal year 21, what's been budgeted. And you can see property taxes
makes up the largest portion of that and makes up about 38% of all the revenues that the
City receives. Uh, the next largest piece is charges for services. Um, the property taxes
primarily support governmental operations, where the charges for services primarily, uh,
fund those business -type operations that are self-sustaining. And then the third largest
piece of this is the inter -governmental. So the inter -governmental sources are those that
we get from the State and federal government, such as HUD, uh, Transit Authority, um,
and Johnson County and the State. Uh, just to give you, uh, an idea of some examples of
what those are, and .... and the impacts we're seeing, uh, for property taxes are those taxes
that people pay on their property that are levied, um, and assessed through the City
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Assessor, um, for residences, commercial, multi -residential. Uh, we are currently seeing
a delay (mumbled) delay in unpaid property taxes. Uh, it's not a severe percentage, uh,
but it .... there is an uptick in, uh, in delayed and unpaid property taxes. So ... but right now
we're seeing this is kind of a low to medium impact, um, on the budget. Certainly this
one has potential to become much greater impacts since, uh, the size of this revenue
source. Um, other City taxes include hotel/motel taxes, utility franchise taxes, um, right
now these are .... are takin' a pretty good hit, particularly, uh, hotel/motel. Um (mumbled)
some of the hotel closures, we are seein' an increase in the hotel vacancy rate to lesser
travels; uh, closure of portions of the University. Um, we're also seeing reduced utility
consumption and .... and so far this is .... have been a pretty immediate impact, um, and a
pretty high impact on .... on the City. Um, for license and permits, uh, things such as
business permits, construction permits, rental inspection permits, um .... what we're
seeing right now, we've got some sidewalk cafe refunds. Um, we are seein' a real
downward, uh, trend in construction activity. Fewer building permits bein' taken out.
Uh, and there's also the unknown impact, uh, which we ... we haven't seen yet, haven't
determined yet, and that is on the student housing market. And so if this condition were
to pers... uh, persist through the summer into the fall, this would... would have a .... a very
high impact on construction permits and business permits (mumbled) a healthy dollar
amount to the City's budget. Um, for that use of money and property, that's our interest
income and facility rentals. Um, you know, we've seen this, where ... uh, there's been, uh,
right now there's really no park or shel... uh, shelter or facility rentals going on. Um,
we've also seen deferrals of rent and unpaid rent in City facilities. Um (mumbled) really
severe drop in interest earnings on our money market accounts and our investment bids,
to the decrease of the feds.... the feds fund rate, and so right now this has really had a low
to moderate.... moderate or medium impact, partially because it's just a small percentage
of the overall budget, um, but those (mumbled) that are impacted here have been ... been
pretty severe. Uh, for inter -governmental, uh, this is really had a kind of mixed result.
Um, this includes the road use taxes, CDBQ HUD, um, some of those revenues have
decreased dra.... rather dramatically, um, such as road use taxes; however, we are
receiving more grant income, uh, through the CARE Act, for CDBG, uh, HUD, and the
FAA. And so this has really had a high impact but it's been a mixed. Uh, we have had
some positive news here, um, as well as negative news. And, uh, the charges for services
that I mentioned, really this impacts most heavily those enterprise funds, such as parking,
transit, water, sewer, uh, right now we're seeing greatly reduced parking and transit fees.
Um, we're not shutting off water or charging late fees. Um, we've also seen reduced
water consumption for motels and other businesses. And ... and we're having no
recreation or programming activities, um, and so right now this has had a very high
impact, uh, particularly in those enterprise funds. Uh, miscellaneous revenue, such as
police, library, and parking fines, uh, there's been reduced enforcement, uh, primarily
to ... to minimize the face-to-face impact for the general public. Uh, this is a low to
moderate impact. It's a .... it's a smaller revenue source, um ... so it...it has had some
impact, but just not as signi.... a really high or significant impact. Um, and the last
revenue source is the other financing sources. This is really our bond sales, uh, we're not
really seeing any impact, and so the impact on ... on our bond sales is rather low from a
revenue standpoint. (mumbled) expenditures, once again about $175 million. You can
see, uh, nearly 40% of all dollars spent by the City go to personnel, salaries and wages
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and benefits. Uh, about a fourth, uh, of the dollars spent, uh, go to services, including
(mumbled) repairs and maintenance, utilities, cleaning, uh, and about, uh, 20% goes
towards capital outlay, including capital projects, and then about 13% to debt service, and
you can see the supply's budget citywide is .... is just a very small percentage of the
overall budget. Uh, just some examples and some impacts, uh, for staffing, you know,
that's our permanent and temp wages, overtime wages. Um, you know right now we are
paying both temporary and permanent staff, uh, to stay at home, uh, to be idle, to come in
if they are essential or as needed. Uh, we'll begin furloughing hourly staff on May 17a'
and some of the things that we've been lookin' at, uh, for mitigation or savings would be,
uh, workforce reduction, uh, furloughing employees, uh, delaying the filling of open
positions, uh, discontinuing temp and intern staffing, um, there's just some of the things
that we're lookin' at at the current time. Uh, those services would include equipment,
repair and maintenance, cleaning, utilities, (mumbled) training, uh, consulting. Um, right
now pretty much most all travel from City employees has been discontinued. Uh, most
training conferences have gone online or have been canceled. Um, we're also having
lower equipment usage, and lower utilities from, uh, fewer operation of facilities and
fewer operation of equipment. Uh, potential savings of what we're looking at are, uh,
reducing consulting fees and services, um, further reducing travel and training
expenditures. Uh, we're also anticipating lower repair and maintenance costs and lower
utilities, uh, also due to lower usage, uh, fewer.... lesser programming, uh and then
potentially lesser, uh, grant programs, such as economic development, um, to help save
expenditures. Supplies, that small portion of the budget (mumbled) cleaning, safety
supplies, plants and trees, uniforms, brand-new equipment. Uh, currently we .... we've
seen an uptick in supply purchases, primarily for safety and cleaning supplies. Um,
we're also purchasing more software, um, mostly because people are workin' remotely,
just like we are right now, and so that requires additional resources, um, for people to be
able to operate remotely. Um, also, uh, potential savings here is reduction of office
supplies or minor equipment, as there's fewer people in the offices, it requires fewer
supplies, and .... and fewer, uh, tools for them to work with. Uh, capital on .... outlay is ... is
equipment purchases, uh, cars, books. Um, right now we're not seeing much impact due
to COVID-19; however, there is potential savings here for delaying, reducing capital
purchases or reducing, uh, capital projects. And .... and the debt service, that's our general
obligation, uh, revenue bond payments, uh, also our parking lease/purchase payment, uh,
right now we're not seeing really much impact from this, um, but as you'll find out later
tonight, we are seeing decreased borrowing rates, which should save, uh, the City
some .... some dollars from what it costs to borrow that money. So now I'm gonna get
into the .... the, uh, the major funds that are bein' impacted here by COVID-19 and just
kinda dive deeper into their financials and .... and certainly feel free to ask questions
and ... and, um, there's a lot of information here, so I'll try and take it as slow as I can.
Um .... you know, the general fund is the City's primary operating fund. It's the one that
really accounts for most of what people think of governmental operations, you know, the
City Council, the City Clerk, the City Manager, um, the Police and Fire, Library, Senior
Center, Parks and Recreation. So it's ... it's really the largest primary operating fund of the
City. Um, to take a look at the general fund budget, uh, of how it's funded and what it
pays for. Um .... the .... the general fund revenues is about 59 million and two-thirds of
that comes from property taxes. So this is, uh, primarily a property tax -funded, uh, fund,
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um, and that really is (mumbled) two out of three dollars, uh, that comes into that fund
comes from those property taxes. On the expense side, um, you can see the personnel is
by far the largest, uh, expenditure here. So three quarters of all dollars spent in the
general fund goes to salaries and wages. So there's a direct equivalent here between
property tax dollars and salaries and wages that are being spent, uh, for City operations
like the Library, Fire, Police, etc. Um, just to take a look at the COVID-19 impact on
the....the City's general fund operation. Um, you know, one of the big impacts is the loss
of hotel/motel taxes. Um, you know, this is a delayed reaction since it's .... it's quarterly
payments. Um, so we've yet to see what the actual impact, um, but we do know there's
gonna be an impact. Um, also reduced Parks and Recreation, Senior Center, and other
program fees (mumbled) most of these facilities have shut down and the programs have
discontinued. Um, also we've seen a large reduction in fine revenue, uh, permit revenue,
and rental revenues. Uh, so all of these areas we've seen, uh, decreases, um, the largest
of which is the hotel/motel taxes. And one of the revenue sources that I won't really talk
about, all the funds are experiencing (mumbled) income revenue, um, it's just across the
board. So I'm really gonna focus on those .... those other revenue sources. Um, for the
expenditures, this is kinda what we're lookin' at to ... to mitigate these lost revenues is .... is
reduce travel and training. Uh, we're delaying (mumbled) new and open positions, uh,
that are upcoming. Uh, we're looking at a reduction in consultant expenditures. Um,
also due to the reduction of hotel/motel, we will see lower, uh, Convention and Visitor
Bureau payments, uh, and Hilton Garden Inn payments, uh, which will be paid back to
them, and um, it's possible that, uh, we could also lower our grant program, uh,
payments. Um .... we're expecting to see reduced recreation program expenditures as
those programs have discontinued, um, potentially reducing our capital outlay
expenditures. And then also we do maintain a contingency line item, uh, in the general
fund which we would be able to use to offset some of this loss. Uh, to dive a little bit
deeper into those lost revenues, to give you kind of an idea of the impact. (mumbled)
about a $60 million budget. So, you know, right now with the loss of hotel/motel, we're
estimating just under $500,000 for the last three and a half months of fiscal year 20, and
then would be another 800,000 for the first half of 21. Do you have a question, Bruce?
Oh, okay (both talking)
Teague/ (garbled)
Bockenstedt/ (laughing) Sorry! Um .... for a loss of about $1.3 million. Um .... for the program
fees, uh, also about $400,000 loss in 20 and then in .... estimating about another $600,000
loss in 21, uh, for about a million dollar loss total. And then for that fine, permit, and
rental revenue, um, $385,000 loss in 20 and another 870 in 21, for about $1.25 million.
So our ...our total estimated losses, and like I said, a lot of this is kind of best guesses of
....of the information we have right now, of about $1.3 million in 20 and about $2.3
million in ... in 21. And also just to say that this is kind of projecting at what's going on
now and anticipating it would stay this way through the end of the year. So, uh, like I
said, there could be changes in this, if. ... if things would begin to tick upward or
downward. Um, so (mumbled) give you how that .... as far as the whole fund is
concerned, how that impact looks. For fiscal year 20 we had budgeted, uh, ending
unassigned fund balance with $26.3 million or 37% of revenues. Um, so we're lookin' at
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an impact of, revenue impact, of about .... of minus 1.3 million and, uh, we believe that
we can identify expenditure and offsets, uh, of about that same dollar amount, which
would leave us at about the same ending on the unassigned fund balance at the end of the
year of $26.3 million or 37% of revenues. Um .... so, uh, you know, right now for fiscal
year 20 we believe that we can, uh, take what's going on, make adjustments, and .... and
absorb that impact. For fiscal year 21, um .... you know, we're lookin' at another
estimated ending fund balance of $26.3 million, with 36% of revenues, uh, and transfers
in, uh, with no impact on 20 being carried forward. Uh, an estimated $2.3 million impact
in revenue for next year, and then, uh, once again we .... we can go in and identify, uh,
delayed expenditures, cuts, um, and other .... other adjustments, uh, to offset that. Um...
you know, this is ... is somethin' that, you know, the revenue impact could be worse and...
and ... or we could reduce these impacts and... and use fund balance, um, but right now
we're lookin' at makin' adjustments that could offset that lost revenue and keep us in the
same financial position, um, as when this began. Um .... movin' on to the road use tax
fund. Uh, the road use tax fund is a special revenue fund that tracks and accounts for the
transportation taxes that, uh, that we receive from the State that they put on gasoline,
vehicle sales, um, your state licensing, and uh... they distribute those to us monthly, and
those are restricted to, uh, streets, right-of-way expenditures, uh, that includes, you know,
snow removal, street cleaning, your traffic signals, uh, street lights, engineering, your...
your street and storm (mumbled) water repairs. Uh, currently the State's estimating about
a 25% reduction in these revenues. Uh, it is possible that this could be much more
severe. Really just depends on, um, you know, what is goin' on with travel and ... and fuel
and auto sales. Um, but right now just their .... their best guess was a 25% reduction. And
so just to give you a look at those dollars, how they fit into this budget. In 99% of the
budget, uh, about $8.9 million comes from those transportation taxes. So it's a .... it's a
direct correlation between those taxes and the operation of this fund. Um, so if you look
at how we use those dollars, uh, about a third goes towards the personnel, uh, the people
out there plowin' snow and ... and patchin' holes. About a third goes towards services and
supplies, which really primarily reflects, uh, equipment usage in this, uh.... in this, uh,
division. And then about a third goes to, uh, transfers to capital projects, uh, the biggest
piece of which is your annual overlay program. Soto summarize that the COVID-19
impact, we're lookin' at reduced road use tax selections about ... uh, 25%, and really what
we're lookin' to mitigate that is really a reduction of, uh, transfers out of the capital
improvement program. So this is really reducing the amount of dollars, uh, that are bein'
spent on capital projects, uh, however, the emphasis on that is to try and preserve as much
of the pavement repair program as possible. Um .... so just kinda go deeper into the
numbers. So we're estimating about a $550,000 loss in 20, and about $1.25 million in
21, for a total of $1.8 million over a nine and a half month period. So pretty significant
dollar loss here. And (mumbled) look at the impact of the ... that fund, um, we were
estimating about a $2.1 million ending fund balance to start with, or 24% of revenues.
Um .... reduce that, uh, $550,000 in lost revenue. To mitigate that, right now we're
lookin' at, uh, cutting really two projects. One is the salt/sand bunkers at the new Public
Works facility, and then also reducing some of the pan to zoom cameras, uh, in that
particular traffic signals project, uh, which is about a $500,000 offset. So we see a slight
reduction in fund balance of $2.12 million, uh, or still 23% of revenues, which
is .... which is a decent fund balance. Um, for next year we were projecting an ending
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fund balance of 1.6 million. Uh, we'd carry forward that net impact of a .... a $50,000
loss, um, and then we .... we apply that estimated loss of $1.25 million, um, and we
currently haven't identified any, uh, expenditure mitigation here or project offsets, which
brings that.... would bring that fund balance down to $300,000 or 3% of revenues, and I
really, uh, that's a.... would be an unacceptable level, um, that would probably put us in
the negative cash situation at the end of next year. Um, so there likely would have to be
some offsets or capital projects reductions, um, and really the .... the most sizable project
to go to would be the annual pavement program. Um .... it's just going to be our attempt
over these next few months or year to .... to try and maintain as much of that program as
possible, uh, to full funding. Uh, to move on to the ... the (mumbled) parking fund, um
(mumbled) maintains all the City's parking operations, from parking meters to ramps to
on -street parking. Uh, the parking system is a ... is a enterprise fund. It's fully self-
sustaining, like a business. Uh, it receives no subsidy from taxes or any other source.
Um, it does have a lease purchase that was for the Harrison Street parking garage. Uh,
and it's requirement as part of that lease, that contract, is to maintain a net revenues in
excess of 1.25.....1.25 times the annual lease payment, and what that means is your
revenues have to be greater than your expenses by 1.25 times the amount of that lease
payment. And in the past, uh, the fund has been pretty easily been able to do this. Um,
so if we look at the parking fund revenues expenses, you can see pretty much, uh, 94,
98% of the ... the parking fund revenues come.... parking fund comes from those parking
sources — service charges, uh, permit fees, uh, parking fines, um ... and the meter revenue.
And how that money is spent, about a quarter goes to personnel, uh, about a third to ... to,
uh, repairs and maintenance, utilities, and other services, and about 43% to debt service.
I will mention that ... that this is a little skewed cause we did budget an additional $2
million early -call on the lease for next year, um, so if you took out that two million,
you'd see an adjustment in those percentages to a much larger percentage going towards
personnel and... and services. Um, so the impact of COVID-19, uh, we're lookin' at about
a 90% reduction in parking revenues. So that's about a severe as a revenue reduction
as.....as a fund could have, um .... and so what we're .... what we need to do to mitigate
this, we're really lookin' to reduce all transfers, uh, capital project transfers, um, postpone
and eliminate all types of, uh, non-essential spending, um, or discretionary spending, uh,
delaying of filling open positions. Uh, we're also evaluating, uh, the early call, uh, the
remaining lease, um (mumbled) some of the .... the cash we have on hand, um, and to
bring down that .... that ongoing operating cost. Um, to look at the next three.... through
the end of this fiscal year, about a $1.86 million loss in parking revenue. Another 2.4
million in 21, for a total of $4.2 million of lost revenue, and .... and what this does to the
fund .... fund balance operations. So, uh, currently we were estimating about a $4.2
million fund balance at the end of the year; 68% of revenues, which is .... which was very
healthy, very strong, um, re ... reduce that revenue impact of 1.8. Uh, we have currently
identified expenditures and offsets of about 400,000. So that brings us down to $2.77
million estimated ending fund balance or 44% of revenues. It's still very healthy, but it's
a very sh.... sharp drop in a short period of time. And you'll notice that our debt coverage
here, uh, falls below the 1.25 requirement to just .25 and so this, uh, if we did nothing
else, we would anticipate that we would not be .... meet, uh, the covenants on that
lease/purchase agreement, uh, at .... for fiscal year 20. And if we carry that forward into
21, um, we would end our fund balance, originally projected ending at 3.9 million, or
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66% of revenues, uh, we would carry forward that net loss of 1.46, add in additional
revenue loss of 2.4, um .... we've also identified additional capital projects and expenses,
and we could reduce about 1.3 million, and this leaves us at a .... a new projected ending
fund balance of 1.37 million, or 23% of revenues, which still is .... is adequate. It's
sufficient; however, our debt coverage actually goes negative, um, minus .1 times our
annual debt payment, and so just as far as our ability to meet our .... our, uh, debt covenant
commitments, uh, we'll be strained, uh, due to the loss of revenue here. Okay, moving on
to the transit fund, uh, this really accounts for the operations of the City's transit system,
you know, our paratransit, fixed bus routes. Uh, this also has a parking ramp, that is the
Court Street Transportation Center, uh, which they do lease space out of, uh, for private
enterprise. Um, this is also an enterprise fund; however, it is subsidized by property
taxes. Uh, it's also subsidized by State and federal support. Uh, it's currently operating,
uh, a slightly scaled-back model from its normal, uh, model, operating model. Um, the
transit fund was also the beneficiary of some of the CARES Act funding and uh, we're
estimating about a $5.1 million of...of grant funding, additional grant funding, from the
federal government. Uh, that will come into this operation. Um, so just take a look at the
transit fund and .... and how it's funded. Uh, nearly half, or 49%, comes from the
transfers in from property taxes. Uh, about a quarter of it comes from charges for
services or transit fares, and passes, and about a quarter, um, from inter -governmental or
State and federal sharing. Um, that helps support this activity. And ... and how that's
spent, about 57% goes towards personnel. You know, that's bus drivers and mechanics,
and about a third towards services such as equipment repair and maintenance and facility,
uh, utilities. Um, so the impact that we're seeing on the transit fund, uh, the bus fares and
passes have been reduced substantially. In addition the Court Street Transportation
Center, uh, the parking charges have been greatly decreased. Um, some of the things that
we're looking at to help mitigate this is, uh, we are having to lower equipment and
maintenance costs, uh, due to fewer use to equipment or lesser use of equipment, and also
possibly delaying the filling of. ... of open positions. So to look at the dollars of. ... of that
impact, uh, for bus fares we would be lookin' at a ... at decrease of about $350,000 of
revenue for three and a half months, and another 608,000 for the rest of the ... from July
through December, the rest of the calendar year, for a nearly a million dollar loss, uh, in
bus fares and passes. And for the parking ramp, for the Court Street Transportation
Center, uh, loss of about $223,000 of revenue in 20, uh, another 385,000 in 21, for a total
loss of 607,000, and in 20 that amounts to about 573, and in 21 about $993,000. So when
we apply that against, uh, our original budget projections, um, you know, we're
lookin...... we started with a projected ending fund balance of $1.5 million or 18% of
revenues, and transfers in, uh, we apply the estimated revenue loss, we have identified
expenditure mitigation of about 300,000. That brings us down to about a $1.2 million
fund balance or 15% of revenues. Uh, that is a sufficient fund balance; however, uh, with
the CARES funding that would be comin' in, we would potentially be able to use some of
that money to offset those lost revenues. Um, for fiscal year 21, we have projected
ending fund balance of about 1.75 million. Um, applying that net deficit from 20, uh, an
additional revenue loss of the 993, uh, we have identified, uh, other expenditure offsets of
about 200,000. This gives us a new ending fund balance of about $685,000 or 8% of
revenues and transfers in, and... and once again this ... this is getting pretty low. This is
probably lower than you would want your fund balance to get. Usually, you know, 15 to
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20% is ... is .... is considered healthy. Um, and once again, uh, we are.... anticipating
funding coming in from the CARES Act, of up to $5.1 million, which could be used to
shore up, uh, this operation. And, uh, the last fund I'm gonna, uh, talk about, uh, tonight
is the water fund, which accounts for the City's water utility operations. Um, it's also a
self-sustaining business -like activity. Uh, the water fund does also have, uh, debt and
debt covenants. Um, you know, their .... their net revenues or revenues less expenses,
must exceed 1.1 times its annual bond payment. Uh, also due to some ofthe .... the
challenges that we were foreseeing with Procter and Gamble moving its personal care
product lines. We'd already adopted a 5% rate increase set for July l', uh, of this year.
Um, so the water fund, much like most of these enterprise funds, are highly dependent on
...on their service charges. Uh, 97% of the water fund is funded through service charges
and fees. And a similar breakdown, where you got a third going to personnel, a third to
services, and then, uh, the rest ... the other third split to debt service and, uh, capital outlay
and supplies. So the impact that we're seeing right now in the water fund is, you know,
we're not shutting off people's water, we're not charging late fees or shutoff notices. So
we've, uh, discontinued bringing in income from those sources. We're also seeing
reduced water consumption, uh, particularly from the business sector. Um, and also, uh,
it's potential, uh, we could potentially delay the (mumbled) rate increase, um, possibly
looking at three months, um, and it could be up to maybe six months, urn .... right now for
expenditure mitigation we've .... we've not identified any at this time. Uh, so to give you
kind of a dollar and cents on this, for those late fees and shutoff notices, uh, we're gonna
lose about $140,000 of revenue in 20, in just three and a half months in 20, and then
about another $240,000 for the first six months of 21. So total lost revenue of about
$380,000. Um, due to the reduced water consumption, right now we're about 8% under
the five-year average for water consumption. Um, so it's about another $210,000 of...of
lost revenue this year, and $360,000, uh, additional lost revenue in 21, and then if, uh, we
delay that rate increase, that 5% rate increase for three months, it would be no impact for
20, uh, but another loss of about $110,000 in 21, uh, so (mumbled) 20 and 21 totals of
350 and 710. And to look at our bottom line, um, so we were projecting a fund balance
of about $5.7 million or 59% of revenues, which is, uh, it's again very healthy. Um,
reduce that revenue offset, uh, brings us down to $5.3 million, uh, projected ending fund
balance. Still very healthy, 56% of revenues; however, our debt coverage, uh, drops to
1.21, uh, but it's still sufficient to cover our 1.1 requirement. Uh, for 21, um, we were
also projecting about a $5.7 million ending fund balance, carry forward that loss from 20,
um, also the additional lost revenue of 710,000 brings us down to about a $4.6 million
ending fund balance. Uh, actually (mumbled) still healthy, 46% of revenues; however,
our debt coverage drops to 1.1 times our annual, um, bond payment, and so this is cutting
it really close. Um, we wouldn't really be able to experience much more losses or
elevated expenditures, um, without really pushing that .... that debt coverage requirement.
Um, I'm gonna talk a little bit about the emergency fund. Uh, this was a fund we set up
in 2013 related to deal with emergencies, just such as this. Um, and we do have certain
restrictions that we placed on that fund, um, or uses of it that is part of the City's financial
policy. Um, you know, one of those uses is to provide natural or other disaster response
or mitigation funding or interim modes, and so this would certainly qualify as .... as a
disaster, as the State has declared it. Um, it's also uses to mitigate fluctuations in sudden
revenue loss, um, such as the backfill or other operating assistance, um, also could be
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used to mitigate (garbled) or other healthcare funding anomalies, emergency or spikes.
Um, also to avoid any defaults from the payment of long-term debt, um .... uh, also could
be used to assist in the rehabilitation or replacement of depreciated or outdated buildings,
to avoid the issuance of long-term debt. Uh, and it could also be used for any other
financial emergencies as declared by the City Council. Uh, to date we've only used this,
uh, a couple times — uh, to purchase and clear homes in property within the flood plains;
approximately $900,000 of expenditures, uh, between fiscal year 2018 and 2020; and
we're projecting a balance at June 30t1 of 2020 of about $5.2 million, uh, in this
emergency fund. Just to kind of give you a.....a summary of. ... of these different funds
(mumbled) significantly impacted by the COVID-19. Uh, the general fund's gonna
experience broad-based revenue declines. Uh, right now we're looking at expenditure
cuts and spending freezes to ... to mitigate most lost revenues, and at this point we think
that is adequate, that that will take care of it. Um, should the revenue situation get worse
or the property taxes either State mandates or what have you, uh.... uh, create a .... a more
dire situation, we may have to come back and take a look at other measures in the general
fund. For road use tax fund, you know, we're lookin' at a 25% or greater reduction in
revenue. Uh, that's gonna take a major hit to this fund. It's gonna require significant
capital improvement project reductions, uh, to offset that, and much of that's not been
determined and... and, uh, hopefully we'll start to see the impact of those revenues as ... as
each month goes by, uh, or if the State would be able to hopefully provide us greater
guidance on what they're seeing. Uh, the parking fund is experiencing near total revenue
loss. It's gonna require all available measures to meet, except debt covenants, and then...
in addition to that, uh, the fund is gonna be losing cash at a .... as a .... at a somewhat
severe rate, and so ... in .... in addition to just meeting debt covenants, it's gonna have to
take measures just to avoid, uh, basically running itself out of cash. Uh, the transit fund,
we are seeing a sharp drop in operating revenues. However, the CARES Act has
provided funding for this system, and we should be able to use that to mitigate, uh, lost
revenues that we're losing from operations. Uh, the water fund, uh, we are seeing
reduced consumption, also reduced late and shutoff fees. They've all declined, uh, as
we're not charging them and not shutoff, and also just lower commercial activity. Um,
also we're looking at possibly postponing the July 1" rate increase. Um, and right now
we're only looking (mumbled) available fund balance to mitigate. Uh, we will have to
continue to monitor those debt covenants to ensure that we are complying. And then
also, uh, the emergency fund is available, uh, you know you can only use those dollars
once, so to speak, so we certainly would want to be strategic, uh, but they could be used
for disaster response, uh, mitigation funding, and also for interim loans. So the bottom
line, uh, the situation is fluid. The situation is ... was continually changing and still
changes, um, you know, like I said, daily, weekly we get .... more information, more news,
uh, others.... other things that the State and the federal government are doing. Uh, the
impact across various funds is uneven, uh, some require greater mitigation or have a
greater impact, uh, due to these events. Um, also these financials, uh, are requiring
continuous monitoring and evaluation as ... as information comes in and as we team
things, we .... we constantly need to be goin' in and ... and seein' what the impact of that is.
Um, also, uh, the duration of this is unknown, and that's, uh, a very stressful part of it is
that we don't know when this is gonna end so we really have to .... to hopefully make
plans for .... for a long duration, uh, even though tonight I'm primarily talkin' about that
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nine and a half month period. And then, uh, one thing, uh.... we.....we don't know if
either funds could start to experience difficulties. If property tax revenues, um,
if...become an issue, uh, or if other events would take place, there could be other funds
yet that could experience financial difficulties, such as our employee benefits fund or
debt service fund, uh, or other tax supported funds. Um, and I will try to answer any
questions you have. Otherwise I will, uh, pass it back to Geoff and, um .... and he can, uh,
continue the discussion.
Teague/ I imagine there might be questions (garbled) but maybe, Geoff, if you wanted to chime
in first and then maybe we'll come back to .... include all questions at the end.
Fruin/ Sounds great, uh, thanks, Mayor. Uh, thanks, Dennis, as well for ...for the update.
Um ... I've got a tough transition to make here, cause (mumbled) we talked about how
challenging fmancial.....financially it's gonna be, uh, in ... in the, both short-term and
long-term, um, I also recognize that there's a ... a desire, uh, for the Council to explore
ways in which we can help the community recover, and ways we can help our residents
recover, ways we can help non -profits, and the business community recover. So we are, I
wanted to let you know that we are working on a recovery framework, and while we
don't know the full frnanc.... we don't know if we'll have the ... the full financial capacity
to do so, but we definitely wanna be prepared on that .... on that front. So, um, we are
working on that. We hope to present that to you, uh, on May 18'. Again I don't think
we're going to be able to make any decisions on .... on recovery activities until the
financial situation becomes a little bit more clear, but um, on the 181' I hope to get some
clarity from you on maybe some strategies that, uh, that you're interested in ... in staff
exploring and a little bit more detail. So there are two different recovery frameworks that
we're lookin' at. Uh, one is regional, or Johnson County based in nature, and is being
spearheaded by the, um, kind of the collaborative economic development group. That's
Think Iowa City, the Business Partnership, the Downtown District, and ICAD. Uh, they
are pulling together a .... a team of folks, uh, from all the cities, county, uh, non-profit
sector, business sector, to really look at how we can work, uh, as a region, uh, to, uh,
rebound as quickly and as .... as strong as we can from this disaster. And one of the things
I'd like the Council to consider tonight is a representative .... appointing a representative
from the Council, uh, to serve with me on this, uh, regional, um, body or task force that...
that's going to be, uh, formed and .... and get to work here in the next couple of weeks.
The second tier that I wanna really focus on ... on the May 19a' meeting is .... is just our
recovery for our city. What can we do as a city to help, again, our residents, our
businesses, and our not -profits, and of course this assumes that the Council makes the
financial.... makes the determination that we're .... we're financially able to do so, uh, but
we'll have, uh.... uh, an overview of some different options and things that we're lookin'
at here internally, uh, for you to, uh, think about and offer comments on, on the 19'. Uh,
so to wrap things up tonight, I wanna get your, uh, feedback on a few issues. Certainly
anything that you heard from me or Dennis tonight, we ..... we can help clarify, answer
questions, uh, about. Um,but also love to get your thoughts on, um, reopening plans.
Um, you know, I .... as we have through this whole process, we're going to rely on the
health guidance that we're getting from Johnson County Public Health, uh, the Iowa
Department of Public Health, and the CDC on making these decisions, but if you feel
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strongly as a group that we should be particularly aggressive in one area or conservative
in an area, that, uh, general guidance will help me as I make decisions on reopening, um,
in a way that's aligned with Governor Reynolds, um, future orders. We are working on
physical modifications to our work spaces, so ... uh, and securing all the PPE we need, so
that, uh, we are prepared to open up safely when that time comes. Uh, one thing you
heard Dennis mention tonight was, um, the, uh.... uh, sidewalk cafe fees that we collect.
Uh, that's usually about a $50,000 revenue, so it's a pretty small revenue but ... but
certainly, um ... uh, one that has been important to us in the past. Uh, the last few years,
uh, we have waived this fee several times, uh, because of the construction challenges
downtown, and some of the limited cafe seasons that we've had because of the ped mall
or the Washington Street project, uh, staff would like to suggest that the Council again
waive those fees this year, and with the prospect of. ... of restaurants opening up soon, uh,
we would like to get that underway. So I'd like to get your feedback on whether you're
comfortable extending a cafe, uh, waiver, uh, for... for this year. Obviously the use of
cafes will be governed in accordance with public health guidance. So if we have to have
fewer tables and chairs, we will work with, uh, the individual businesses to make sure
that we achieve that. I think from a business standpoint, um, people are going to be very
interested in, um .... probably dining outside as much as possible if it's spread out, uh,
more so than indoors. So I ... I expect that we'll be working with the Downtown District
on ... on some creative ways to .... to safety provide people, uh, to visit their (mumbled)
their favorite restaurants or .... or retail options by using more of the outside space this
year. And then, uh, as Dennis mentioned, uh, we do believe that, uh, should the Council
be interested in it, we can delay our water rate increase of 5%, uh, another three months.
Uh, I would suggest that we start at a three-month period, and then as ... as we, uh, get
closer to October we .... (mumbled) reevaluate at that time whether we wanna extend it
another.... another three months. We do need that rate increase, again, this is largely in
response to a lot of Procter and Gamble's production moving out to West Virginia. Um,
but that .... that, uh, transition has been slower than we anticipated when we set that rate
increase, so I think we can safely do that with our reserve balance. So those are the three
things there at the end — the reopening plans, the sidewalk cafes, and the water ...water
rate delay that I'd like to get some feedback on tonight, and I'll turn it back over to the
Mayor for the Council discussion!
Teague/ Thanks to both you and Dennis for this in-depth, um, projection of what we're lookin' at
for City funds. Really appreciate all of the time spent by staff to give us a ... a picture of
what we ... be dealin' with. Of course they're all projections and so I wanna open it up, of
course, to Council now and I would chime in. I do have some thoughts but I'll kinda wait
till the end.
Weiner/ This is Janice Weiner. I .... I have a couple of questions about what we do or don't know
about, uh, what the State is planning to do. Uh, do we have, um, Dennis, or...or have we
heard anything about, uh, payment of backfill, as to whether the .... the State continues...
intends at this point to continue paying the backfill, and maybe because the .... the
legislature's been out of ..out of session and we don't have any sense of that, um, and do
we have any sense, the .... the, I know that there are a fair number of dollars through the
CARES Act and probably from some of the other .... from some of the other legislation
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that Congress has been passing that will flow to Des Moines, but not directly necessarily
to any of the cities. Do we have any sense of what the thinking of is in Des Moines with
respect to helping the cities out?
Bockenstedt/ Well, um, I can try and address some of what I know about that. Um, for .... for the
year we received our backfill already for fiscal year 2020. Uh, they paid that out in two
payments, uh, throughout the year and we've received both those payments for fiscal year
20. Uh, although it was lower than what, uh, the estimate they gave us at the start of the
year, uh, we have received whatever monies we're going to get already. Um, what they
will do next fiscal year is completely up in the air. Uh, we've not, at least I've not heard
anything and so, um, I would say it's possible they could cut all those revenues next year
but we've not heard that yet. And then I'll let Geoff address the State funding, um, as far
as the dollars they're getting and what they're doing with it.
Fruin/ Yeah, um, real quick on the backfill. Any, urn .... removal or reduction in the backfill will
take an act of the State legislature and then approval by the Governor. So, uh, the .... the
State legislature is obviously been adjourned. Uh, we have not heard any rumors that...
that that's on the table, um, so I don't .... I don't think we're at risk of losing backfill for
fiscal year 21. Uh, but of course, in an emergency situation, uh, and I'm sure the State
legislature will do everything they .... they can, they feel is needed to secure their own, uh,
financial situation. But I .... I would say I think feel pretty good about the backfill going
forward, uh, for next year. Um, the, um, the CARES Act did provide 1.25 billion to the
State of Iowa, um, and uh, the State of Iowa will have the discretion on whether they
want to forward any of that to local governments. So this was state and local government
relief dollars, and the way the CARES Act was put together was cities of 500,000 or more
in population could apply directly to the federal government for those funds. If you're
under 500,000, which was every city in Iowa, you have to work through your state, and
the states are not obligated to pass that money down. Uh, they have pretty wide range on
how they can use those funds, and uh, we expect that that'll be a topic of conversation
when the legislature, uh, comes back together, uh, in May or June, uh, probably June.
Um, but I wouldn't .... at least at this point I wouldn't hold out a lot of hope for those
dollars. I think there's going to be a lot of competition between hospitals, the education
system, and the State budget itself. Remember the State budget is, um, primarily made
up of revenues that have more of an immediate impact than property taxes. They rely
heavily on sales tax. They rely heavily on income tax. And their... their financial pain
points are gonna be a lot more immediate than ... than some of ours. So I don't hold out a
lot of hope for that, but believe me the cities are workin' together to try to, uh, ar.... uh,
make sure that the State is aware of our needs and .... and, uh, advocate for those dollars.
Teague/ All right, any other thoughts (both talking)
Thomas/ ....comments on, uh, certainly on the cafe, uh, you know, holding off on the cafe fees
makes a lot of sense. It seems the restaurants are gonna need as much floor area as
possible, uh, with meeting the distancing requirements. In some way it may .... may
create a, you know, an interesting scene on the street if more area, uh, is occupied by the
diners. Um .... the, what were the other two? One was on reopening, they just did
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reopening plan, was that .... yeah, I .... I'm pleased with what I'm hearing. I think we're...
we're taking a conservative approach, uh, very mindful of potential of things going
haywire, uh, so I'm .... I'm very pleased with that, and I don't recall what the third, what's
the third item?
Frain/ The water rate, delay on the water rate increase.
Thomas/ Um....yeah, I'm .... I'm okay with that. I mean that is part of something we're going to
be looking at with respect to, uh, potential response to help, uh, mitigate the impacts on,
you know, those who were especially hit by the ... by the up, uh, COVID. So I mean
that .... that I guess would be part of our larger conversation, but urn ..... it seems
reasonable to defer the increase.
Taylor/ This is Pauline. Um, thank you, Dennis, for that presentation. Uh.... we were all, of
course, in the back of our minds thinking there's going to be a major impact, but to
actually see the numbers in black and white, uh, really tells the story, and then (garbled)
we're talking to, uh, people in the community to .... to know that kind of information. So
thank you for putting all that together. Uh, as far as the sidewalk cafes, I would also
agree that, uh, that would be fine to ... to put off those, uh, fees for them, but of course
encouraging them to, um, maintain a safe distance if they do utilize those sidewalk cafes
(mumbled) that's a major problem now, especially when the weather was nice. People
were getting out and they were kind of forgetting, I think, to maintain that safe distance.
Uh... uh, waiting on the water rate increase, I .... I agree with John. I think, uh, since
people are wanting us to even just waive any fees at all, I think that would be a good
route to take and as you'd said, Geoff, revisit it in ... in October. So that would be a good
time.
Mims/ Yeah, I would agree with staff's recommendations on waiving the cafe fees. I think our
restaurants are just gonna be hurting so badly financially anyway that any break that we
can give them, uh, I think make sense. Um, same thing on delaying the water rate and
revisiting that in three months. I'm fine with that. And then I'm comfortable with what
staff is looking at right now for reopening. I would rather, um, that we take a cautious
approach to this and that's what I'm hearing from staff. So, I'm supportive of those
suggestions.
Teague/ Geoff, in your projections are there time -sensitive things that staff should ... that you
would like them to weigh in on. I know that, uh, there's the furlough of hourly
employees, um, as well as .... maybe some delay in reduce ... in the reduction of capital, uh,
purchases and, uh, projects. So I don't know if there's anything specific that has a date
between now and next Council meeting or soon after next Council meetin' that you
would like us to weigh in on.
Fruin/ Yeah, um, the only thing that'll come up between now and your next Council meeting is
we will, uh, furlough the hourly workers who are not working for us. So we've been
holding those employees, based on projected work schedules and normal times for, uh,
since mid-March so (mumbled) nearly two months, not quite two months, and those
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employees have been notified that they will be furloughed, um, on the, I believe it's the
10h or 17a'. Uh, so that is in progress, and if you wanted to change course on that, this'd
be your ...your last opportunity to do so. Um, in terms of expense mitigation strategies,
we're .... we're heavily focused right now on .... on the, urn .... uh, the equipment and the
travel and some of those .... some of the easier things to obtain. Uh, we're not gonna fill
some of the positions that were authorized in the budget until we have a better level of
comfort, uh, with our budget situation. Um, we're not, uh, looking at any immediate
furloughs of permanent staff, um, or, urn .... uh.... um, terminations or anything like that
right now. Um, but as you did see, we do have a few areas in the ... in the City that are
experiencing significant and immediate financial pressure, and probably the most
concerning for me is that parking fund. We .... we can't continue to operate a full staff of
parking employees with 10% of the revenue. We have fund balance to help us out a little
bit, um, and we have been moving employees on to, uh... into other departments to try to
lower expenses during this time. Um, but .... but that can only last so long before we need
to make some .... some structural changes to that fund. Not quite there yet and not
anything that you need to, um, kind of debate or .... or talk about between now and the
next Council meeting. Um, but if. ... if we don't (mumbled) business doesn't open up in
the next, you know, couple months and, you know, we're not seein' people return and
paying parking fees, then, uh, then we're gonna have to have those discussions.
Teague/ What is the situation with the reimbursement of some fees that people have paid. We
know that the parking ramp is .... we've delayed that on our, uh, agenda because of the
Harrison Street parking, and I know that Dennis has the authority to go out and kind of
negotiate on ... on that behalf. But people are still in the .... lurkin' around, tryin' to figure
out what we're gonna do, uh, there and I understand that there's still that delay in maybe
gettin' some answers back from, uh, the Capital One public fund, and I think (mumbled)
What about Senior Center? Are there any fees there, because I know people have signed
up for some programmin' that's been canceled (garbled) So what are some of the things
that people have paid for in advance that they won't be able to .... utilize?
Fruin/ Yeah, I think, you know, Mayor, getting back to the parking, we do get a lot of questions
from permit holders on rebates and I still think the Council needs .... needs to give good,
you know, consideration to rebating those.... those, uh, parking permit numbers. Um,
we'll have to return to you after we can navigate the situation on the Harrison Street deck.
We're just not quite there yet. Um, if you had signed up for a rec program (mumbled)
Parks and Recreation or the Senior Center and that was canceled, you get your refund on
that. Um, the Senior Center does have membership dollars and we have not been
rebating those. We continue to try to provide, uh, as many services to those members as
we can through online outreach, telephone calls, and those things. So the Senior Center
will probably be the last facility we open up, because of the, um, elevated risk that, uh,
older Americans have with .... with COVID. So if, uh, you know, we're opening other
facilities up in June, it may not be rill, you know, July till we open up the ..... the Senior
Center. I'm just kinda pickin' dates there, but that's our .... that's our current thoughts
on .... on reopening. So the longer it extends at the Senior Center, the more we might
have to think about, um, rebating some of those member fees, but um, at least as of right
now our staff's workin' really hard to try to serve those members in a different way.
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Teague/ All right (several talking)
Salih/ Okay, Mayor, I just wanna ask Geoff again. I .... I also support the recommendation of the
staff, but I ... I wanna ask, if you remind me, how much is the cafe fees? For the whole
year that we gonna waived?
Fruin/ It's roughly about 50,000, but I don't think if we .... if we charged cafe fees this year, I
don't think we'd get anywhere near 50,000. Fifty thousand would be in a regular year.
Uh, with the financial impact that, um, that the .... the restaurants have taken downtown, I
don't think a lot of them probably could afford to ... to pay those fees, um, or would
choose to....to forego those because of the financial pressures. So hard to say what we
would get, but some .... somethin' less than 50,000.
Salih/ Okay. You know, it is okay, yeah, I agree (mumbled) support it. I know that as Susan
Mims said, uh, they (unable to understand) hardship by closing and they have rent to pay,
they have a lot thing to do, yeah. I understand that. And we can go ahead and do that.
But I wanna just like remind all of you, uh, the Council and the staff, if we can do
something for business, of course we can do something for resident as well! We have to
think about if we can waive almost 50,000 or maybe 30,000, it doesn't matter, uh, for
business people because they have impact. We .... we have to think about also (unable to
understand) water bill for the very low income people who live paycheck to paycheck.
Just keep (mumbled) keep in mind that you waiving 50,000. Also remember the very low
income people who cannot pay the water bill. I understand in your email you said, uh, as
cities like Coralville and North Liberty are not doing it, and they are, uh, maybe working
with the residents a payment plan or something like that. Yeah, you know, they can do
whatever they wanna do, but we as a city, if we can do something for business, we have
to do something for resident as well.
Fruin/ And that's what I hope to get into on .... at your next work session. I hope to provide you
some options on things that .... that we could do, and you all have to be comfortable from
a financial standpoint to do that. I just wanted that feedback on sidewalk cafes, knowing
that the Governor has opened, um, businesses in other parts of the state, and she could
open up restaurants before your next Council meeting. That's the ... that's the reason I
wanted to get that in front of you tonight.
Salih/ Sure! Thank you!
Thomas/ Geoff, has any discussion, uh, taken place in terms of the, uh, outdoor seating, of
expanding the, uh, amount of area where that could take place, by say looking at reducing
street parking, at least on certain downtown streets? I know that would impact our
parking availability, but it sounds like we have lots of room in the ramps, so .... um.....
Fruin/ Yeah, a couple of things, uh, Darian and I, uh, and Mark Rummel had the conversation
today actually about some of our delivery zones and .... and leaving, uh, extra delivery,
pick-up, carry -out zones throughout the summer, um, until we really see our ramps pick
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back up, um, because we do wanna encourage people to .... to grab and go as much as
possible too, and I don't think that's gonna change throughout the summer. Um, I have a
call tomorrow with Nancy Bird, with the Downtown District, and... and I know one of the
things we're gonna talk about are cafe modifications that can be made, uh, temporarily
for this year. Maybe takin' up some parking spaces, um, allowing some .... some greater
footprints. Um, I think there may be some opportunity to do that. We're gonna have to
get kinda creative. The challenge is .... part of the biggest challenge in my mind, I haven't
reached out to ... to all the staff yet, is alcohol. Um, I think as we expand, um, we're
probably not going to be able to expand the liquor license footprint, just because there's
so many, uh.... uh, State approvals, uh, and City Council approvals that are needed with
that. It's just quite a large process, but you know to the extent that we can extend it for
non-alcoholic purposes, I think we should .... I think we should look at that. So an
example may be, urn .... uh, a .... a business that .... that currently can't have a cafe, um....
uh, because they're not a restaurant, but they may be like a .... like a yogurt store. You
know, could we allow them to put a couple of seats outside, where as in the past we ... we
haven't allowed that. Um, or .... urn .... taking up a few extra spaces on Dubuque Street in
the .... in the parking stalls where we've limited, uh, the amount of encroachment in the
parking stalls in years past. Maybe we can expand that a little bit more, uh, knowing that
our debt capacity's gonna be greater. So I suspect we'll have some .... some proposals to
talk to you about, um, and I know the Downtown District's very interested in having that
conversation.
Thomas/ Thanks! That's good!
Teague/ I have one last comment about the parking. Wondering if Council wouldn't be
interested in lookin' at all of the parkin', the other parkin' ramps, and not doin' Harrison
parkin' right now. Unfortunately .... maybe the people that are at Harrison park ... parkin'
lot won't understand why they're not also allowed not to get some refunds back, um,
that's one thing that Geoff just mentioned. So I at least wanted to bring it up, to see what
Council thoughts were on there.
Fruin/ Actually, Mayor, it's, um, the ... you can't do it on a deck basis, cause the Harrison deck,
the revenue coverage applies to our whole system. It's not a deck by deck, um ... uh,
arrangement with that bond. We .... we committed to using all parking revenues for
that ... that coverage. So (both talking)
Teague/ Thanks for the clarity.
Frain/ Dennis, maybe you can ..... maybe you can clarify. The ... the slides that you showed today
on the parking had the unassigned fund balance. We also have the assigned fund balance.
So, uh, that would be used to pay off the Harrison Street deck, if we .... if we get it. Can
you explain the difference there, Dennis?
Bockenstedt/ Um, yeah, unassigned fund balance is essentially is available to use for whatever
purpose (clears throat) or whatever you wanna spend those dollars on, in relationship to
that fund. Um, there are assigned funds, um, without that parking fund for debt service
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and other purposes, and those are monies that we get in such as parking impact fees, or a
debt service coverage. We put money aside to pay that debt service, and so those funds
(mumbled) because they're already being restricted towards another purpose. So our
intent would be to take, uh, those funds that we have set aside for, um, the .... the debt
payment and parking impact, uh, along with some of that fund balance that you were
seeing, um, for the unassigned and use that to pay off that lease/purchase agreement.
And, uh, that balance is going to be about $6.8 million after June 151. And by paying that
off it really lifts those covenants and so you don't necessarily have to meet that .... that
coverage requirement, um, that stipulation of it, which allows you, if you warm go equal
revenues and expenses, you would be allowed to do that because the .... the Capital One,
or the lease holder, wouldn't be keepin' those restrictions on you. Um .... so although it
frees you up to not meet those debt coverage requirements, it still doesn't eliminate your
cash flow issue, in which case your revenues are less than your expenditures. And when
you're operating at deficit, and then if we take that cash and pay off that lease, we have a
smaller ...cash footprint, which means that deficit spending is gonna get to zero faster. So
we kinda got .... a little bit of a puzzle there, is if you spend that cash down .... to get rid of
that coverage requirement, but then now you have less cash to cover your deficit
spending. So .... you know, it's .... it's kind of (mumbled) which is the lesser of the evils
there, urn .... you know, following our discussion tonight and .... and lookin'....I've been
tryin' to track essentially the parking financials every week on a daily, weekly basis. Um,
I believe that if this extends past May and through the end of June, um, essentially we'll
almost have no alternative other than to approach Capitol One, to call that lease in. Um,
otherwise we would have to take, uh, a greater action to shore up those financials. Um,
that would allow us, uh, without that coverage hangin' over our heads, to make those
refunds, urn .... and .... and that would be fine, to the extent that we have cash in the bank.
And, um, you know, that would be the one particular issue then, you know .... when we
get to the end of this fiscal year, lookin' ahead, is how are we gonna bring the revenues
and expenses back into line, let alone have to worry about meeting those coverage
requirements.
Teague/ Hopefully when you talk to Capital One's public fundin', they may say to you because
of COVID-19, we've kind of waived some of our requirements. You never know,
so ... urn .... but.....
Bockenstedt/ It's possible they could and ... and that does also present other issues, um .... because,
you know, then it may require some certain disclosures on our part, and so there's....
there's just issues with whatever approach we take, and right now we're workin' with our
bond counsel and our financial advisor to determine, uh, which of those, the lesser of the
evils (laughs) in front of us, um, to really just make the best decision possible for the
City.
Teague/ All right. Well thanks to the City staff for all their work on projecting, um, givin' us
some projections that we can think about between now and next Council meeting, and I
understand Geoff'll come back with some more recommendations about COVID-19
updates at our next Council meetin' on the 19'. So thanks to all of you. Now we're
going to, if Council is in agreement, we may .... delay our.... strategic planning
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conversation today, as I anticipated. Um....what are people thinking? We have about,
what, 20 minutes, not even. (several responding)
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Teague/ Yep! I just wanted to make sure (laughs) All right, we'll move on. We're gonna do
clarification of agenda items. But thanks, Ashley, for bein' prepared to assist us with
(garbled) ...formal agenda. I know that there's quite a few people that, um .... I've talked
to about Item 8.c. and we've got lots of emails about .... the prairie restoration. Um, I
understand that in our public comment, uh, we have several people signed up to speak
tonight, and so even with us havin' about 20 minutes now, um, just warm (clears throat)
remind Council, uh, we can certainly talk about this now or wait until our public
comments come in, but .... the question that I have is for staff. Um, do you all have any
thoughts or recommendations based on the feedback that has come to Council?
Fruin/ Yeah, I could take that, Mayor. I appreciate it. Um, just to give ya kind of the lay of the
land here. Um, you have already approved the contract. So this is not up for a vote
tonight. Um, however, um, Juli has not executed that contract yet. We were working
through the Benton Hill, uh, Park issue, um, and before that contract was...was signed.
So, um, Juli and I have been talking and, uh, kinda taking cues from the ... the discussion
on Benton Hill Park. Um, we have gone through the list of the 18 locations and have
reduced the total amount of prairie, um, and uh, believe that, um, the areas that we are
now focused on, uh, while .... while maybe not supported by .... by everybody in town, I
think would be viewed as .... as pretty non -controversial. So, um, we did take Benton Hill
prairie out. I don't think that there was really going to be a workable solution with the...
with the neighborhood there. Um, we also, uh, reduced the scope of prairie in, uh,
Kiwanis, uh, Park, uh, taking out a .... a new swath of prairie that was going to be located
in front of the playground and concentrating the prairie where it already is, just
expanding that out a little bit more. And then along the creek, uh, for stabilization
purposes, along the creek. Uh, we'd also had removed prairie from Villa Park, um,
reduced it in City Park, reduced it in Scott, uh, Park, and .... um.....reduced it substantially
in Willow Creek Park. Um .... and the Willow Creek Park is where Council received the
most criticism of the plan. Um, our goal there would be, uh, to reduce it from nearly 10
acres to I'm guessin', you know, maybe two or three acres and preserving the open areas
that the residents were most concerned about. So, what's most critical in Willow Creek
and Kiwanis Park is that we establish a good prairie buffer along the creek. Uh, some of
the residents I've talked to about the.... the.... the condition of that creek, um, and over the
last, uh, year or so our staff has been going in there. We've cut out a lot of the ... the trees
along the creek that were contributing to, um, some erosion that we were havin' in there,
and our plan was to come in with prairie and really try to stabilize those stream banks
naturally. So there are some areas, um, that I don't believe, uh, are in (garbled) areas that
you've heard about, um, that we would keep prairie, uh, but the large, uh, the large
swaths of open area would remain turf grass. So, um, I don't have specific numbers for
ya, but I'm guessing we're.... we're, staff has a proposal we've worked out, to go from
about 86 acres to maybe ... maybe 50, 60 acres, some... somewhere in that ballpark, and
again, uh, we've been, um .... looking at all the comments coming in, and I think Willow
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Park and ... and certainly Willow Creek have been the two that have, uh, raised the most
concerns. So, uh, what we're hoping to do is to get your approval to proceed tonight. I
know you don't have that complete information. (mumbled) little bit of a leap of faith
here. We ... we can delay it, if you want us to forward you that information and, uh, you
to ... to debate it on the .... on the 19th. Um, but we're really in prime planting season right
now, and I know the contractor's ready to go, get their team in here and ... and start with
the planting, and we do think we have a number of areas that won't be controversial.
Salih/ I just wanna ask you, Geoff. How did you come up with, uh, amount of reduction for
Willow Creek Park? Did you contact the resident, did you talk to them, and I just wanna
know that, please.
Fruin/ Uh, no, we saw a lot of the same emails that you did, so we .... we looked at the content of
those emails, where they were focused on, and they're really, uh, in large part focused in
the areas where, uh, people can run around, play Frisbee, play soccer, uh, all the .... all the
things that you ... you saw, uh, picnic and that sort of thing. So we left those open areas,
um .... uh, as they are, and then again, focused on the.... the.... the piece kinda nearest the
creeks. So both along Benton Street near the creeks and then as you get further down,
kind of into the heart of the park, urn .... uh, along the creeks there. Again, I don't think
it'll impact the .... the usability of the park, um.....um..... and I think we try to preserve as
much of usability as possible.
Salih/ Uh, I really, you know, because I been seeing .... I used to live in that area, and I been
seeing like a lot people on the west side using Willow Creek Park during the summer, for
soccer, for a lot of thing. That's parks really busy during summertime, and uh, I guess
Pauline also (garbled) talk to that, because she been ... it is in her neighborhood, but even
the fact that there is a lot of park in that area, that's why a lot of people from the west side
like even like when you, uh, cross, uh.... (unable to understand) other people who live
there. They come to this park, and I hope if you can meet with the residents, like the, uh
(unable to understand) or anything, just to get the feedback between now and the next
meeting, if, uh, not ... I'm not meaning you. I mean like the (mumbled) Juli or somebody
who is taking care of this, because those people can give you feedback about what
exactly happening there and why they .... they don't want the prairie there. Please, if you
can do that, that will be great.
Taylor/ John Thomas and I, uh, spent a great length of time. I think, John, it was over an hour
last Saturday, uh, walking Kiwanis and Willow Creek with several of the neighbors that
had written some letters. We contacted them and we met, and we talked and walked...
walked along the area. Um, I think they're.... they're.... they mostly were very frustrated
and felt that, uh, the community engagement aspect of...of this was ... did not take place.
So they were frustrated but, uh, they weren't confrontational. I was impressed and I
applaud them for contacting us, uh, they were very passionate. Uh, they love their park.
I love that park. I live less than a block away from it and .... and echoing what Mazahir
said, course now it's under construction, which is another double -whammy for them. Uh,
we're still waiting on .... on the completion of the playground area, but as we walked
along, uh, the creek is in big need of...of some maintenance, and so if. ... if, uh, the
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planting of the prairie along the creek beds would help, uh, to stop that erosion, I ... I
would agree with that immensely, and I think the residents that we talked with, and John,
you could .... you could echo this too if. ... if you remember that they talked about along
the creek would probably be acceptable also. ... sol ....I'm very much in favor and...
and thank you, Geoff, and Juli, for reducing the scope of this project. Uh, and .... and
limiting it to some of the areas that were maybe less controversial (mumbled) some of the
things we heard from these residents too is when .... when you burn the prairies and ... and
that, uh, goes into the air and so it's not very, uh, conducive to planting prairies near
residential areas. So I ... I think it looks as though you looked at that also, some of the less
controversial areas, um, but I would also stress, and the residents talked about this at
great length is we've gotta have a definite maintenance plan for those prairie areas, cause
looking at that Kiwanis Park prairie, uh, it's in bad need of. ... of some help, and so I think
we need to maybe have a person designated as the prairie, uh, prairie maintenance person
so that we keep on top of these areas, but yeah, I'm very much in favor and applaud you
for reducing the scope and ... and, urn .... in the areas that you selected. I approve.
Thomas/ Yeah, I like Pauline looked at all the various sites, the 18 sites (clears throat) and you
know, what .... I really kind of landed at was ... the sites that were the least risky with
respect to, um. .... any kind of blow -back from residents, are those sites that are not in a
residential context. So that .... that seemed like kind of an obvious, uh, observation, but
there actually are some fairly significant pieces of this plan where.... where that's the
case. Um .... you know, we .... we've gotten responses at Willow, uh, Willow, Kiwanis
clearly was, um ... you know, kind of an overreach in terms of the conversion, and it...it
created quite a backlash and so my feeling at this time, and I'm a strong believer in the
importance of community engagement as a starting point. Any time the City is initiating
actions, uh, in a facility, in a park facility where it could have an impact on the everyday
lives of those who use the park, there has to be that engagement. Um, and then as we've
noted, with ... with Willow Creek, Kiwanis, and Benton, there was also a back story that
contributed to the tensions. So ... so my feeling on Kiwanis, Willow is that any .... any
work related to the creek restoration and sta... stabilization, that overlaps with our prairie
restoration, um, I think is .... is a reasonable piece of the work. Uh, I'm .... beyond that
feeling that there really would need to be a conversation between the neighborhood and
the staff, uh, with respect to any expansion of prairie. So ... um, and I think in .... in part it
has to do with the, you know, the condition of the existing prairie. So, um, you know,
I .... I'm not really supportive of the idea of expanding, and I'm not saying I'm opposed to
it, um, but I think for it to move forward, uh, it would need the support of the community.
And then since... since Willow Creek, uh, I, you know, asked, uh, some people that I know
in Manville Heights. I ... I don't know if you all had a chance to read the correspondence
on that, but what I'm finding is is that when I reach out, um, and I also reached out to
some of the board members on Hickory Hill Park, that, uh, when I reach out ... there is an
acknowledgment that these projects that are embedded within neighborhoods, have the
potential for a response like we've been seeing elsewhere. Uh, it may be just simply that
they don't know, and every time they ...they do know, there's that chance that they will
respond in a .... in a negative way. So .... that .... that would apply in my view, in looking at
the sites — to Hunter's Run; uh, Bloom ... the Bloomington prairie, which is Hickory Hill;
uh, Crandic, which is the Manville Heights condition; uh, and to a lesser extent, uh, Taft
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Speedway, where most of the project is away from residential areas, but there are .... some
lots, uh, along the riverfront there that, uh, are interspersed with the existing residential,
um, and then Wolf...Wolf Brook prairie, uh, is another, uh, which is surrounded by
residential. I know that it's no -mow, um, but changing from no -mow to prairie is a
change, and um .... so there too, again, I'm not... I'm not, I don't wanna suggest that I
don't want these projects to move forward, but I think there is a risk if they move forward
without some form of community engagement.
Mims/ Um, I'm comfortable with ... staff's recommendation in terms of....
Teague/ You've frozen. I wonder if you turn your video off and turn it back on. (mumbled)
might be able to hear you.
Mims/ Are you able to hear me? (several responding) Okay. Um, I ... I think as an organization
we have, um, underestimated the passion that, um, our community members have for
their parks, and particularly as, I think as you've said, John, the neighborhood parks that
are in those residential areas, and while it is ... is really time-consuming, I think we have to
find a way, um, as we move forward, and I'm not saying for every single one of these
projects, but just as a matter of the way we do things in the future of being a little bit
more proactive and somehow reaching out to residents and showing them what we're
thinking and what the proposals are and getting feedback from them before we get so far
down the line, and like I say, I realize that can be incredibly time-consuming for staff, but
I think the amount of blow -back we've seen here has shown us, you know, like ... as I said,
how passionate people are and we have to be responsive to that. So I'm glad that staff is
responding to the input that we've gotten, but having said that, I'm comfortable moving
forward with staff making those judgments, um, on this contract. (several talking)
Bergus/ Thank you, Mayor! I was just going to say that I....I really appreciate staff's
responsiveness to the public input that we've gotten, like Geoff mentioned we did
approve this, uh, contract at the last meeting, I think with the understanding that some of
the other areas could be controversial and balancing the different priorities that we have
to balance in terms of what the prairie provides for the community. So I think that
what ... what staff has proposed I'm .... I'm in favor of in terms of, um, really reducing the
area in those residential, you know, the neighborhoods where we know it is controversial
and listening to the feedback that we've provided, to scale it back in a way that will make
sense without completely eliminating what we know is a necessary part of improving the
environment in some of these places.
Weiner/ Um, I ... I would agree in general. I ... I also think that part of the conversation needs to be
very specifically about what the benefits of prairie are, why it is helpful to have it, what it
does for the soil, what it does for the environment, what it does for pollinators, and while,
I mean, we saw in some of the ... in the .... in some of the correspondence and I think in
some things that some people, um, sent to me directly, there is a lot of.....there's a lot of
clover that's been mixed with ... with turf grass in some places and that provides habitat
for pollinators, but it's really not the same. Um, so there's.... there's a constant push and
pull with the need to, um, with the .... with a very real need to engage the community, and
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at the same time provide the.... the.... the information and education. We want, um, a
robust climate action plan. This is a piece of our climate action plan, um, and we ... we
need to figure out how we engage people and bring them along with this so that we can
move forward with the climate action plan in a successful way.
Teague/ I....I think at this, uh, time, since we've already done the approval, staff is makin' some
recommendations. My suggestion would be, um, because I've heard a lot of Councilors
talkin' about that opportunity for the community to be engaged, I think even now with the
staff recommendations, even though I have some, um, thoughts of support for some of it,
but also know that people in the community, that ... that have weighed in, may have some
thoughts or .... actually will be like .... would like the opportunity to be a part of a
conversation, and so what I would suggest at this point is that durin' our .... when we get
to the formal agenda, of course, under the consent calendar, we can certainly talk more
about this, one ... um, Geoff, you might wanna consider makin', uh, public comment about
what your thoughts are, but I think the greater consideration for Council would be that we
can continue this conversation. Do we want to ask for a step back before implementin'
what staff has suggested, just to allow the opportunity to do a Zoom meeting, um, of
some sort, I don't know, but .... for the sake of time I don't think that we can probably go
into that right now. Um .... why don't we .... (several talking) (garbled) Oh! Well it's
about two minutes to our typical cutoff (garbled) Why don't we go through info packets,
and then if we find we're not gonna be successful within maybe two to three minutes
(laughs) then (garbled) come back after our formal agenda.
Information Packet Discussion (April 23, April 30):
Teague/ So info packet April 23d. Info packet April 30°i.
Taylor/ Items 5 and 6, the letters, I just wanted to say that I .... I thought they were very well
written, incorporated all the thoughts and concerns that we'd shared with you about what
to include in the letters, um, so I ... I think they were very good.
Salih/ Yes, that's true!
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees:
Teague/ Any other.... thoughts on that? And then Council updates on assigned boards,
commissions, and committees. And actually what we'll do is when we give our updates
at our formal meeting, we'll add all of that at the same time.
Taylor/ Sounds good!
Teague/ So we'll be back in 15 minutes.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of May 5, 2020.