HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-05-09 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Frain, Monroe, Dilkes, Fruebling, Nagle -Gamin, Bockenstedt, Seydell-
Johnson, Platz
Others Present: Van Heukelom, Longenecker (UISG)
COVID-19 Update:
Teague/ It's 5:00 P.M. Welcome to the Iowa City .... uh, work session for tonight, which is May
19°i, 2020. And we are still social distancing here at Council and hope everyone is doin'
the best you can to say stafe.... to stay safe durin' this time. Miss all of you here at City
Hall. I am here tonight! So (laughs) um, hopefully we'll be able to come together again
in the near future. So ... with that bein' said, I did want to .... maybe just start us off with
some COVID-19 updates from our City Manager, and ... he's gonna talk about some...
potential relief efforts and go into other stuff with us tonight. So, Geoff Frain!
Frain/ Thank you, Mayor. It's good to see everybody and as the Mayor said, tonight we wanna
talk about, uh, recovery efforts. Uh, so at your last meeting we spent quite a bit of time
with you, uh, covering the City financial outlook, and uh... uh, with that in mind we
wanna begin to talk recovery. Uh (mumbled) at this point there's, uh, a lot of unknown
variables, uh, so we wanna keep this discussion at a very high level. What I'm hoping for
is at the end of the work session, I'll walk away with a general (mumbled) of where the
Council as a majority stands in terms of the, uh, level of aggressiveness that you may
want to pursue recovery efforts with and .... and where those, uh, areas of focus, um,
before the higher areas of focus will be. So with that I'm gonna share my screen and
walk you through about a 12 -slide presentation here, uh, this evening. Okay, um, again,
uh, I wanna start with just the acknowledgment, I think this goes without saying right
now, but a lot of unknown variables, uh, right now, and that complicates all the decision
making that we have as a city, but that's the same for everybody out there. We're not
unique, um, but we just have to acknowledge that it's a pretty fluid situation. In terms of
our abilities to ... to offer recovery packages, um, it...it would be nice to have a better idea
of where certainly we are from a financial standpoint, and some of those unknown
variables that are still hanging out there are the future federal relief efforts, uh, you know
there's discussion ongoing right now about a CARES Act 2.0, uh, the Heroes Act as it's
been termed initially in Washington. Uh, we still are also.... haven't seen the State
legislature reconvene, and when they do they'll likely have discussions on how to utilize
the, uh, 1.25 billion that they received through the first CARES Act. Uh, that, uh,
includes, uh, the ability for them to pass that down to local governments. Um, on the flip
side of that, we don't know what steps they're going to need to take to mitigate the
pressures on their own budget, which are .... which are significant. So backfill dollars, or
any other decisions they make that, uh, may impact funding to cities, need to be, uh,
taken into consideration. We expect a lot of clarity to come in the months of June and
July, around those issues at the State and federal level. As we've talked about at length
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before in these meetings and ... and others, uh, we really don't know the duration of this
health crisis. Uh, we don't know if it will spike again, uh, in the fall or in the winter, um,
so we just have to understand that we have to be able to scale as well, whether that's with
recovery efforts, with our own operations. We need to make sure that whatever we can
do can .... can ebb and flow with the changing guidelines that are out there. Probably
most important for ...for us here in Iowa City, urn, would be the announcement of the
University of Iowa's instructional plans that will come out, uh, later this .... later this
summer. Um, certainly having the students back here in Iowa City, uh, means one thing,
and having all online classes means (mumbled) thing for ...for our ...our own health, our
community's economic health, but the City of Iowa City's, uh, health as well. Uh, and
then, uh, long-term just the .... the shape and speed of this recovery. If you read a lot of
the recovery talk is questions about is it a W, is it a V, is it a Nike swoosh, uh, what...
what does that recovery scale look like and again, we ... we just don't know that right now.
And, uh, you'll need to take that into consideration when thinkin' about recovery
packages. Um .... at the last meting we talked very briefly about the `better together'
project. There are kind of two levels of recovery happening right now, uh, that the City's
involved with. Um, I'm not going to cover the `better together' project tonight, but
happy to answer questions about that. Councilor Mims would be able to do so as well.
But keep in mind that's a very high level regional effort, uh, looking to kind of leverage
relationships and .... and.....and support collaborative recovery when possible. I wanna
focus more on what's in orange here and that's our city recover. What can we as a city do
to help, uh, our residents, our businesses, our non -profits. And so there's.... there's three
bullet points there and I'd .... I'd say these are .... could almost be numbered as (mumbled)
taken in kind of sequential order. What we're doing right now is we're still kind of in
that assessment phase. What are.....what's our ability, what's our capacity from a
financial standpoint, uh, what resources do we have to ... to help, uh, spur recovery, and
where are those resources best spent? What are those community needs out there that we
can (mumbled) After that, we need to determine our guiding principles, which is
something I'm gonna talk about, um ... uh, in the next slide. And then we'll craft whatever
programs we can, uh, to fill the most pressing needs, uh, of our community, and ... and
again that's at a very high level what we're hoping to get out of tonight's discussion. So
it's important that, um, when drafting recovery plans that we adopt some .... some values,
or what I've called the guiding principles here, um, but it goes without saying — we're not
gonna have the resources to meet every need in the community. And so we wanna be
very clear with the community on what is .... what is guiding our decision making when it
comes to recovery. Why are we prioritizing what we are? If we can .... if we can
constantly go back to ... to these guiding principles, um, it will certainly help us
communicate what we are trying to do with whatever recovery efforts we develop. So
I'll walk through these one by one and whether it's tonight or at some other future
meeting, I really encourage the Council to spend the time to .... to perfect these, uh,
because the staff will utilize these when developing our programs and again it'll be a
focal point of our communications for ...for other programs. So certainly one principle
that I hope you consider is .... is we need to make sure we're not compromising our own
ability to provide essential services. We all wanna do what we can to help but at the end
of the day it's going to be counterproductive if we, um, get a little too aggressive and...
and are forced into cuts to our own essential services that end up hurting the community
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in the long term. Wanna make sure that any individual or household relief that we offer
is .... is equitable and prioritize those that are most in need in our community. Relief
efforts for non-profit agencies should reward collaboration and create lasting operational
benefits. Business relief programs should be coordinated with the actions of regional
partners and aim to leverage external funding. Any type of stimulus efforts must target
Iowa City -based businesses and support jobs across multiple sectors of our economy. All
relief efforts should yield enduring outcomes that align with our climate action
objectives. This is a great opportunity to make sure that climate action, uh, the crisis that
you declared, is .... is directly, uh, related, uh, to whatever recovery efforts that we put out,
to the extent possible. And then, uh, as we do with all our City funds, we just want to
make sure we're not duplicating benefits, and that's.... that's part of that community
assessment that needs to take pace .... take place. If we're gonna offer business grants, we
wanna make sure that we're looking for those gaps. What are those businesses that
weren't able to access the State and federal funds, what types of businesses were they?
Were they large businesses, were they small businesses, um, but really understanding that
we wanna, uh, not duplicate benefits that have been offered by others. So again, uh, we'll
circle back to this. I encourage you to, um, think about this and .... and uh, whenever that
time comes, modify these as needed. Uh, quick summary, last, uh, meeting's presentation
that you received from Dennis Bockenstedt. Uh, the duration of the pandemic is .... is
unknown and so we don't really know what the complete financial impact is, and uh, the
impact across all our funds is pretty varied right now. We have short-term pressures and
we know we're gonna have some long-term pressures as well. In the short-term, we're
feeling pressures in parking, transit, road -use tax, and water, and Dennis went into detail
on those at your last meeting. We also know that while the general fund does not have
those, uh, short-term pressures right now, they could very well develop short-term
pressures, as we wait and see where property tax collections come in and what the State
does with our backfill payments. So what we thought initially was going to be more of a
long-term impact on the general fund, um, could be kind of short-term impact, and we
just don't know, uh, that right now, at...at this time. We do know that we will have long-
term impact in the general fund, as ... as, uh, as tax ... as our tax base stagnates, as .... as we
see a drop in building permits and as we, uh, predict that we'll see some stagnation in ... in
values and assessments, if not a decline in some areas. We know that that's gonna ... that's
gonna cause some pressure, uh, in our general fund and we're gonna have to make sure
our services can weather that. So the next two to five years, cause we're at abut a two-
year lag between the values and our budget cycles. So, um, we already knew that fiscal
year 24 was going to be tough, cause that's the last year of the property tax reform, that's
where we'll see the biggest drop in the multi -residential category. So you're already
kinda bracing for the tough year in fiscal year 24 and now we have this dynamic to place
on top of that. So we need to make sure that whatever we're doing these next few fiscal
years doesn't put us in a position that ... that we can't pay for that same level of service
(mumbled) in fiscal year 24. And .... and of course we always wanna maintain strong
reserves. You know, the City has reserves so that we can respond to emergencies like
this. I don't wanna discourage you from using your reserves, but we need to have some
good honest conversations about, um, how much of reserves we can tap into and how
much we need to keep for, um, our own .... our own stability when it comes to our
operations, both in the short and long-term. We are doing some things to mitigate the
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budget pressures that we have right now. Uh, in the short-term we are eliminating or
delaying discretionary or non-essential expenditures. Our department directors are doing
that, uh... um, on their own right now. We have looked at some capital projects that we
may need to delay, uh, just to ... to free up some.... some cash flow. Uh, we have, uh,
delayed the filling of some vacant and newly authorized positions. So, uh, you k now the
budget you approved for fiscal year 21 had several new positions. For the most part
we're holding off, we'll make a few exceptions there, but most of those positions won't
be filled immediately come July 1s`. We'll wait until we have a little bit more clarity.
And then the Council has also, uh, been involved in discussions about our temporary staff
that aren't working (mumbled) furloughed (mumbled) went into place, um, earlier this
month. Long-term things we may need to consider, uh, these are things that we would
really get into with the ... the budget that we'll work on this fall, uh, but do we .... do we
need to reduce our workforce at all, um, in order to kinda meet those pressures that we're
expecting in the next couple of years, and how best do we do that. So questions we can't
really answer right now, but as, uh, again, the financial impact becomes clear,
we'll ... we'll need to consider whether the general fund can continue to support the
number of positions that we have, if those values stagnate. We'll have to look at all the
operating dollars that are being transferred to the City's capital improvement plan and
whether we need to scale those back, so that those dollars can be put into operations.
Um, and uh, if so we might need to reallocate some of our CIP funding and we might
need to look at those projects and .... and, uh, have to prioritize those a little bit more. So
we talked a little bit about that last time. We talked about the decrease in road use tax
and ... and the pressures that we see there. We also know that road funding is one of our
most critical needs, so going forward as we make adjustments to our capital plan, we're
really gonna have to look at how we can take dollars (noises in background, difficult to
hear speaker) set aside for purposes and put more towards roads, uh, just to fill those gaps
that we're gonna see in road use tax. Okay, so, uh, this is a pretty busy slide, but I wanna
give you a sense of just ... from a financial standpoint how we would look to fund recovery
efforts, and the first thing that we would do is we'd look at our existing operational funds.
So what are the budget line items that are either unused at this point, um, or that, um, are
budgeted for .... a non-essential purpose really, that could be, uh, targeted towards
something else and I'll walk through those with you, but understand this isn't meant to be
an exhaustive list. It's just to kinda give you a sense of where staff
would...where.... where our kind of mindset is and ... and what we would look to,
um .... where we would look first when developing programs. So we have some existing
funds that, um, are....are meant for more longer term efforts and .... and you have some of
those in your affordable housing fund. So as you know, over the years we've land -
banked dollars. We've set aside dollars every year with the idea that in four or five or six
years we'll go out and we'll buy some.... some property in the community to support an
affordable housing project. (mumbled) repurpose those dollars because of the short-term
emergency. You could say that the short-term emergency takes precedence over that
long-term effort and that we would rather use those land -banking dollars for short-term
rent relief, uh, as opposed to a long-term affordable, um, housing project. Uh, we also
have fee in lieu of dollars that we collected, uh, for affordable housing projects. Again
our strategy was to hold those and .... and put together a more expansive program in the
future, but given the emergent situation that many households find themselves in, we
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could repurpose those, uh, rather quickly and, uh, supplement some of the other rent
relief dollars, uh, that are coming out. CDBG and HOME funds, we do have unallocated
program income dollars. These are .... these are programs, uh, loan programs that we have
offered for years and years. As those loans are repaid, uh, to the City, we have those, and
those are generally unallocated funds. And so we can put some of those to ... to use as
well. Um, with your fiscal year 21 budget, we did, uh, utilize the emergency levy for the,
uh, climate action fund, and so we could really get into that climate action fund, decide if
we wanna take some of that roughly million dollars, and, uh, repurpose maybe what our
game plan is for using those dollars. Doesn't mean you necessarily have to take the focus
off of climate action. There's certainly things, relief efforts that you could do that would,
um, be a little bit more, uh.... uh (mumbled) with, uh, how quickly we spend those, but
also tied back to our climate action goals. Um, we would certainly think that that
emergency levy, those dollars, uh, would fit well for any type of recovery effort. We
have economic development discretionary dollars that are unspent. Uh, the Council
knows we have a 1 % contingency line item, both in this year's budget and next year's
budget, um, that, um .... uh, can be deployed for some type of recovery efforts. Uh, we
talked about the capital improvement fund, um, we can delay some of our projects, um,
push `em off a couple of years, and take some of those general fund dollars that were
used to support our CII' and put those to use as well, and then we are already looking at
tax increment financing and how we might be able to use dollars in those districts, uh, to,
uh... uh, to help with recovery. So those are existing funds. Those are funds that are
budgeted that .... that could just be repurposed slightly and .... and put to use. We also
have reserve funds, and I .... we have our general fund reserve. We have utility reserves,
and we have our emergency reserves. Again, this is where you wanna be cautious
because these are ... these are intended to support our .... our operations, uh, and we don't
know the long-term impact on our operations. So we don't wanna be quick to draw these
down, only to find out we're going to need `em in years one, two, or three in this
recovery, uh, but know that they're there and know that they're healthy for the most part,
and uh, that ... that they could be used, uh, once we get to that comfort level. And then
finally we have the supplemental dollars that are coming from the federal government
and .... and perhaps from the State government later, but, uh, we have the CDBG
supplement, which was on your last Council agenda. Uh, we are getting word that the
State is likely to pass down some of their CDBG dollars that they got through the CARES
Act to entitlement cities. Uh, so, uh, we hope to be able to share with you, uh, in the
upcoming week or two that we'll have even more CDBG dollars, uh, to put to use, and
again those can be targeted toward individual relief or to relief for non-profit agencies
that are responding to COVID pressures. We have public housing dollars, uh, Iowa City
public housing funds that were granted through the, uh, CARES Act, and... and those'll be
put to good use in the community, and then at your MPO meeting on May 27s', you'll be
voting on how to allocate some transit dollars that we received from the .... from the
CARES Act. We may be able to put those to use as well. Again, kind of three different
......three different sources of funding that staff is looking at now. Um, when we talk
about relief, uh, I've tried to categorize things into these four buckets. We have relief
efforts that are .... that are targeted towards households or individuals, uh, direct. Um, we
have relief efforts that would be targeted to non -profits. Uh, to our for-profit business
community, and then the fourth one's a little bit different. This is kind of what you think
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of when you ... when you maybe think of the federal government and... and recovery efforts
of the past. Um, really thinking about stimulus and .... and how can we maybe spend
more, how can we prepare or...or move forward on a greater number of City projects, um,
and spread those out across many sectors to get that business community going. And...
and this is the part of the presentation where I think at the end we're gonna wan some
Council feedback on priorities, cause what you're going to see in the next few slides is...
is a list of...of various examples that we could pursue. Again not meant to be exhaustive
lists, but different things that we could do and we could explore, um, but know that we
can't do them all, and I'm not suggesting that the following list (mumbled) things, you
know, we can do all these things. Uh, just to kinda get you thinking about, um, what you
think is most important for our community. So when it comes to individual and
household relief, uh... um ... uh, I wanna talk about some of the considerations that I think
we need to keep in mind, and then again, share with you some examples. So on all these
slides you're gonna see the City's ability to pay. Um, I don't want us to lose sight of that,
uh, we have to be able to ... to afford these programs that we put together. What are those
thresholds for eligibility? Are we utilizing existing eligibility criteria? Are we gonna
look at new eligibility criteria, uh, such as unemployment, um, claims? Are we gonna
target, uh, certain types of relief? Um, as opposed to, you know, kind of the federal
checks, you know, the $1,200 checks, uh, are we gonna, uh, think first about let's make
sure that those who are in need of housing or food or healthcare or childcare, whatever
that is, um .... let's .... let's kinda target our relief efforts to those areas. How are we gonna
coordinate any type of relief with non-profit, uh, providers in our community? Um, again
you know, the classic example of that is rental assistance. We can provide rental
assistance direct to people, but we might not do that from City to household. We might
go from City to non-profit partner to ... to household there and... and be much more
efficient of how we handle that. We talked about the affordable housing funds. I think
that's one area that we can move pretty quickly in, if the Council wanted to look at
repurposing some of those longer-term affordable housing funds. Rebates and credits for
unused City services; uh, those are all types of considerations that I think we need to look
at. So examples of relief efforts, um, the two in red have already been done. That's the...
the foregoing water shut -offs and late fees, and then postponing that water rate increase.
Um, we could expand the City's utility discount program. We have an existing utility
discount program. We have about 450 households in that program that receive a discount
every month on their utilities. Uh, all the eligibility criteria is already taken place.
They've already submitted paperwork. Uh, we could really look to expand that, or you
could kinda throw that program out the window and look for a more expansive utility
relief, uh, effort. Um .... we could do more direct housing assistance. So in the last
meeting you approved CDBG dollars for some housing assistance but we also talked
about using some of the opportunity funds in the affordable housing fund, uh, to, uh,
make sure that undocumented residents also have access to those funds. Uh, we can
certainly look to supplement those efforts. How can we work on food security? Um, do
we .... do we look to, uh, try to provide some enhanced benefits through existing
programs, uh, that we have? There's great examples of existing programs out there.
There's the Food With Love program. There's our double -up bucks program. There's
some good frame work already started there that we could help supplement if ..if ...if that
food security was a priority for the Council. We talked a lot about childcare. We all
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know that childcare was an existing, uh.... um, challenge for many in the community, and
that's going to really be exponentially increased going forward. So what could the City
do to provide some, ub, childcare, uh, credits, for those that need them. Maybe we could
....could we work with, uh, childcare providers to .... to.....to help carry out some type of
new local program. Transit's another example, um, you know we were already, um,
contemplating of a fare -free transit, with some of the CARES Act dollars that we ... that
we may be getting, um, it may be that we have additional resources to .... to really focus
an effort on trying to reduce the transportation costs, uh, that many households, uh, have
in our community. Uh, employment enhancement partnerships, how ...how do we ... how
do we make sure that people who have been laid off in their .... in their positions can get
new skills, uh, to reenter the workforce, and can we partner with labor organizations or
some of our educational institutions. Again, these are all examples of..of what we might
be able to do, uh, should.... should individual and household relief be a priority for
Council. Uh, non-profit support, um, really when we think about non -profits we kinda
have two , uh.... um, two categories in mind. Uh, we have the human services, uh,
agencies — housing, food, healthcare, mental health — all those things. Uh, but we also
have a .... a very vibrant, uh, arts and culture, uh, scene that's been devastated by this
pandemic, and Council'd need to weigh if we wanna, uh, be more aggressive in trying to
help, uh, the arts and culture community rebound from this, and we .... we do know that
they play a significant role in our .... our economy as well. How do we encourage
collaborative efforts among .... among non -profits? How do we leverage some of the
existing private and ... and federal funds that are already out there? Um, we can do direct
operational grants. That's certainly familiar to us. We have the Aid to Agencies program.
We have some frame work in place where we could supplement those budgets, do an
extra application round, and tum things around pretty quickly. Uh, we could think about
loans to...to agencies, to really, um, look at how do we help them long-term? Right?
It's .... some of these, like the CARES Act funding, those are really meant to .... to help
some of those short-term issues, but how can we spend dollars, uh, to help these
organizations shore up their long-term futures, because as .... as many will be .... as many
are kinda fightin' for survival right now, uh, even when this pandemic passes, uh, there's
going to be challenging times for our non -profits community. So can we look at, uh,
ways to help them, uh, long-term, by reducing some of their operational costs, by
reducing some of their debt costs, uh, going forward. Direct business support, uh, is
the .... is the next one. Uh, there's been a lot of attention paid to this at the federal level.
Obviously we talked about the PPP program, uh, quite a bit. The State has offered some
funding, as well, but we know it falls way short of the needs that are out there in the
business community. So what ... what might the City do, uh... uh, for direct business
support? Uh, we have seen some cities in Iowa respond with business grant programs.
Uh, I saw one today out of Muscatine. I believe the Des Moines area's, uh, seen a couple
of cities start some .... some grant programs. Uh, we can look at .... I think what we would
try to do is look at what ... what, uh, types of businesses were not able, uh, to access those
State and federal dollars or where did those dollars maybe not go for enough, and we'd
really try to find where those gaps are and ... and help those most in need. Uh,
traditionally in situation like this, cities would be targeting very small businesses, uh, for
our relief efforts, and we can expand existing programs that we have, like our loan
guarantee program, our CDBQ uh, program. We could ... you could look to create new
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programs. Uh, we could look at targeting, uh, certain types of businesses, and a note on
here — minority and women -owned businesses. Um, it's been well documented that
minorities have been hit, um, much harder than the rest of the population by this
pandemic. So we may need to think about that as we're crafting our .... our grant
programs, uh, to make sure again, following those guiding principles, that we're .... we're
reachin' out to those who ... who need the help the most. Uh, had some conversations, uh,
with some of you and others in the community about what the City could do about, uh, to
make sure that businesses open up, um, and they have all the PPP they need for their
employees and their customers. As businesses are .... are strapped for cash right now, uh,
they may not have, uh, the resources to .... to properly equip, uh, their employees. Uh,
they may not have the resources to modify their, uh, their retail stores or their restaurants,
and that may be a .... that may be a good role for the City to step into and... and help. Uh,
we'll revisit the parking pass, uh, rebate credit, uh, type of program that really applies to
individual households, as well as businesses and non -profits, because I think they,
uh.... uh, there's several, um, types of businesses that, and people, that ... that have those,
uh, parking passes. So we could, uh, we could, um, revisit that one, uh, probably in
another few weeks or a month, uh, once we have the, urn .... uh, the lease issue worked
out on the Harrison Street deck. Um, but there's also possibilities to get creative with that
too. Is it a straight rebate? Do we provide some incentives? Uh, tie it in with the
community gift card program to encourage further spending in the economy? Uh, lots of
different ways we could go with that. And then the last bucket was the economic
stimulus. So this isn't necessarily, uh, direct support to businesses, but this is more about
how can we incentivize activity through.... through City investments? So, uh, while I
talked about scaling back our capital plan. You could look at it differently. If we wanted
to tap into more of our funds, our unused funds, our reserves, we really look to expand
our CIP. That's not something we can do overnight, um, but as we look at a two or three-
year period, we could really look to.....to.....to, um, bolster the amount of work that
we're .... that we're pushing out the door. We can do that through accelerated climate
action grants, as well, and really try to incentivize, uh, people to make improvements to
their ...their buildings and their homes, urn .... uh, through our climate action grant
program. Uh, we've talked, uh... uh, listed here (mumbled) livable wage job credit
programs. Really trying to .... how do we encourage employers to .... to add, urn ... uh, new
positions back. Can we incentivize jobs that are well paid, uh, or maybe that fit ... fit into
our climate action, uh, goals? Uh, prior to the pandemic we were already looking at a
commercial tax abatement program on Highway I and 6, and we're gettin' close to bring
that to the EDC for consideration. So that's... that's more of a, uh, a fortunate timing
situation, but that's certainly a program that Council could adopt that would, um, help
incentivize, uh, additional improvements in the .... in the community. And how do we
expand upon existing food, uh, service partnerships between, uh, restaurants and non-
profits? So again, just a different way to think about recovery there. Um, and uh... uh, we
could certainly explore these a little bit further. So this is my last slide here. I just warm
wrap up with a couple of thoughts. Um, we do have resources, uh, to .... to put towards a
recovery effort, um, and I think we're in a fortunate position. Not many cities across the
country are in a position to be offering local recovery, but I think we are. Uh, we just
have to be very careful with the speed at which we move and the size of the program. I'd
encourage the Council to ... to start small and scale it up as we get a little bit more
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comfortable with our financial effort. We'd first like to use those existing budgeted
dollars before we moved into, um, any type of reserves, and again that's really just kind
of waitin' for that financial picture to clear up a little bit. And then lastly again, what I'm
hoping today, uh, results from, uh, the ensuing discussion that you'll have is for ...for the
City staff to walk away with just a better idea of where your priorities are. I don't expect
that you're going to be able to give us specific direction tonight, um, but we'd like you to
think about those guiding principles and we'd like you to start to talk about what areas,
um, that ... that you saw here, or maybe that we didn't present on that you think are the
highest priority for us as staff to be considering right now. I'll tum it back over to you,
Mayor, and happy to answer any questions.
Teague/ Thanks for givin' us a lot of information to think about right now. Um, I think it is very
clear that COVID-19 will have impacts that we're seeing now and that we'll see in the
future, and the reality is is that people in our community are the ones that are, uh, needin'
the relief, and so I believe that it's appropriate for staff to present this to Council and I
think it's our duties as Councilors to really look at it and give some direction, I think, um,
to the best of our ability now, realizin' that things... it's gonna be on a continuum and...
and .... and it could change. One of the things that I've been sayin' is that we have to co-
exist with COVID-19 because it....it appears it could be here a while and so ... thanks for
your presentation. I warm open it up to Councilors. I .... I jotted down some notes, and I
imagine others have notes and some thoughts as well, so I'll open it up to our Councilors
to kinda chime in.
Taylor/ This is Pauline. Can ya.... can ya hear me?
Teague/Yes!
Taylor/ Geoff, you, uh, stressed several times, uh, to avoid duplication of any sort of, uh,
assistance to certain groups or individuals, but I think you also talked a couple of times
about the undocumented, and we've heard that over and over again that, uh, these folks
oftentimes don't qualify for the federal assistance or even the state assistance. So I think
one of our priorities should be looking at that group of individuals and .... and seeing
where we might be able to help them out, whether it'd be the utilities or, uh, housing
assistance, those kinds of things. I think that should be one of our key priorities.
Weiner/ This is Janice. As part of that, I think that we've been hearing that the federal dollars
that were sent out, the $1,200, um, per person or per household did not go to households
that have ... at least.... even one person who is, um, who is not ... either a citizen or in the
citizenship process. So it could be that .... I don't know how many folks here are, um,
affected by that, but what.....you can have one spouse and the kids be citizens, but they
didn't get it because the other spouse is not.
Salih/ What do you mean by that? Do you mean like .... green card resident but not citizen, or
what do you mean exactly? Or undocumented?
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Weiner/ I don't ..... I don't know exactly what it ... what it means, but I just have read a number of
stories that indicate that, uh, despite the fact that a part .... at least one partner in the house
....household, and the kids were citizens, because the other one was not, they did not
receive any .... any of the federal relief dollars, and so I'm just putting that out there,
because that will put those households in an even more difficult situation because they
will be short the $1,200, in addition to everything else.
Salih/ Yes, that's true for all the undocumented, uh, people. If the parent undocumented and the
kids are U.S. citizen, it still they are not eligible. The whole house. Well that's true. But
for residents, all the residents are, uh, you know, if you have a green card, you are
eligible. (unable to understand) but undocumented, of course they are the ones that get
hit really bad because they don't get anything.
Mims/ I guess my thought would be, Geoff, when you talked about not .... not trying to duplicate
services and looking at what venues are already in place, they're used to helping the
people in our community that have the greatest need .... I guess where I would be most
comfortable is that we at least start our initial priority in.....putting money to the non-
profits to let them .... give them more money to get out to the individuals and the
households. They already have the mechanisms in place, um, to help, whether it's
through the food insecurity issues, whether it's housing or other issues, to me that seems
the place where we could get, uh, maybe the most benefit to the neediest individuals in
our community the quickest. Urn ... and then look at some of these ar...other areas as our
financial picture, you know, kinda... we get a little bit more definition of...of what we
really have available, and I'm concerned that we don't, as you said Geoff, that we don't
do too much too fast. Let's figure out what we really feel like we can afford. It's not
going to hurt us long-term, and ... uh, utilize the mechanisms through our non -profits.
Thomas/ (mumbled) This is John. Yeah, Susan.....I would agree with Susan's comment on the
sector, uh, of services that are provided by the non -profits, uh.... I think we (mumbled)
that's one of Iowa City's great strengths. So I think it's building on their ability to
maximize and leverage the funds that they received, the connections they have within
those who they serve, um ... that's an extraordinary resource that we have that I think, uh,
will .... will help us as ... as a city to, um, maximize our .... our reach and ... and benefit. Um,
I found this whole exercise that if you will of the pandemic and the question of what's
essential and what's not essential to be a very interesting and kind of provocative way of
thinking about our response. I know on a ...... just on a personal level, you know, I've
really been asking myself, `What's essential to meT Uh, and so I think as a city, at trying
to understand what that may mean, uh, I think, would be a useful exercise, and Geoff,
you've thrown ... just a ton of stuff at us here (laughs) so I'm looking forward to trying
to, um .... kind of (mumbled) and process it a little bit more. I am interested at the same
time with how it may provide opportunity, and I've sent to you, uh, an email on how from
the urbanist standpoint, uh, many cities are responding to .... to the pandemic because it
has changed the way in which public space can function properly, you know, with respect
to safe distancing. Some of those efforts may have long-term benefits, uh, so I think it's,
in that sense, kind of an interesting opportunity to explore ideas for how to help our
neighborhood commercial districts, how to help our neighborhoods, uh, moving forward,
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both in the short-term and in the long-term. You know, one .... one example, for me,
would be the, uh, in the commercial districts, uh, Northside Market Place, the idea of
closing Linn Street from Jefferson to the alleyway north of Hamburg Inn. You know
that's the kind of thing that we've done on an event basis, with the, uh, was it the, uh
(mumbled) to Table events that we've been staging, as well as special events. Think...
think of that as kind of a, more of a pedestrian mall, where there's flow ...in that space
with tables and movement, you know, from one side of the street to the other. I think we
may find that might be of value beyond the pandemic perhaps, and we can test that over
the short-term. So I ... I think there are ways in which the situation we're in, uh, may be
.... it's .... it's going to force us to let go of some of our preconceptions and, uh, you know,
while it's certainly going to be a struggle because of the .... the financial aspects to this, it
may at the same time offer opportunities moving forward.
Bergus/ Geoff, maybe you could just share that slide again that listed out the different, um,
priorities. All of those looked, I mean just as you read through them, all of them seemed
appropriate to me, but I think if you're looking for, um, a little more guidance from us
on .... on ordering those, is that .... a little bit of what we're trying to do tonight? Or is that
too ambitious?
Fruin/ (both talking) Yeah, I think, um....you know, you guys (mumbled) decide how ...how deep
you wanna jump into this tonight. As .... as John mentioned (laughs) it's a lot to get
thrown at ya, uh, and react to, uh, on the spot here. So, um, I can ... uh, I can get you a
copy of this presentation. Uh, I'll email ya that, uh... and .... and, well, maybe I'll just put
it in the Thursday info packet and then the public will have access to it too. Um .... you'll
probably wanna sit and think about those a little bit (mumbled) but um, tonight, you
know, to the extent that time allows, but, um, my purpose tonight wasn't to necessarily
pin .... pin the Council down on ... and .... and give staff clear direction. It was just to kind
of feel you out and get a sense of, uh, where you might wanna go, but we can ... we can
revisit this at your next meeting as well.
Bergus/ Well I would just say for myself that, you know, the principles that you've set forth here
do look good to me, and I think, you know, none of those give me pause. They certainly,
I think, are in line with our values, and our .... our policies, at least as .... as far as that
goes. So my initial impression is, um, you know, the direction that you were thinking,
based on this presentation, is .... is exciting and helpful. Good!
Salih/ Well I mean I really believe I, you know, we should (unable to understand) the.... assisting
on housing, because everyone is, uh, I guess the rent or the mortgage is larger bill
everybody pay, ev...every month. So if we can really, you know, focus first like the ... the
first priority. I know that you have it there, but I really wanna just say we .... we need to
have that the first priority on, uh, I .... I agree with everyone who said that the non-profit
organizations should handle this. This is ... this is true because they ...they have a system in
place. They know how to evaluate people, uh, you know, and they can .... they have the
ability to write the check to the bank for mortgage, or to the landlord for rent, and also I
would like to see what our Housing Authority's is doing for the people who have Section
8, uh, because I know some people they have portion of the rent that they have to pay.
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Is ... are they adjusting it immediately if their income, like, went down or...and also I know
that there is some people who pay more than, uh, like they pay 40%, not 30%, up to 40%
and that different is being paid by them, regardless if their income went down or not. Uh,
I would love to see also what the Housing Authority's doing. Can we give also the
Housing Authority some of the money to cover those or not?
Teague/ I think for me there's a lot of ...items to think about, but I just wanted to maybe talk a
little bit about, um .... prioritizin' the ... how we assist. I think that's gonna be a real
challenge, because in our community I think we have so many people, uh, that potentially
have need. We have households that have need, and ... and that's somethin' that if we're
gonna be lookin' at how to .... you know, create some relief for those that are in our
community, it ... it, you know, we have a lot of households that have needs. We have our
non -profits that I believe can help us in, uh, administering some of the funds. They have
existin' programs, um, men .... it's been mentioned about undocumented individuals
within our community. I would love to have them a part of a, uh, of a recovery effort.
Um, but we also have the business community. I know of a business that is, um, they're
struggling, um, and .... where PPP money has been readily available through .... to others
throughout our community, there are some businesses that either, um, they're not in the
loop as to how to, um, fill out for some of these items. Maybe they were so stressed out,
but um, to .... to really navigate some relief efforts. I'm very happy to know that we have
a group that is meeting, um, and that is the one that, uh, Councilor Mims is appointed to,
and that is ... where better together there will be navigating various things, and I'm not
sure how that'll all play out, but I .... one big thing is, uh, I think that will be beneficial is
just information sharing and trying to reach those communities, or individuals, um,
businesses or individuals that have, um, that may just (garbled) resources and some
information to be successful durin' this time. I ... I like the idea of, um .... for the
businesses, potentially lookin' at them a little more, whereas loans .... loans to agencies, to
help their survival, but there's..... there's..... our community is widely impacted. I know
that we won't be able to do everything. I will say for the parking garages, um, I ... I hear
some creative ideas and I may just say that we might want to, uh, really zone it in to
maybe a rebate refunding those, um ... parking garage passes, or...givin' credit for future
parkin' or somethin' like that. Um, there's rationale behind that. Um, we did open up
those garages without any fee and so .... people still are paying. So I ... I mean that's the
only rationale that I have, not to get into any more minutiae on anything, but I .... I wanna
appreciate, uh, and say thanks to Geoff for all the work that you and staff have done, uh,
to bring some thoughts and ideas to us and .... um, please have this in our next packet so
we can really think about it, because there's a lot to think about.
Weiner/ Could I add something, Mr. Mayor?
Teague/ Absolutely!
Weiner/ Um, I ... I, uh, am ... agree with the non .... the non-profit focus. I also think that as we go
forward that it's helpful for the City to focus on things that either already exist within
...within the City's toolbox, like utility rebates or...or a reduction in utility bills, helping to
some extent with that. The proposal that, um, that, Geoff, you made with respect to
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transit. Because I think we can think of things in different baskets, and one basket can be
basically as, uh, ability to live at home, and then people are gonna need to get back to
work. How do you .... how do you do that? You do that through public transit. You do it
through daycare. Um, but you live based on your rent and your ability to pay utilities,
and that's sort of how I'm focusing on things. (noises in background) Sorry for the
background noise here.
Teague/ I think a lot of us can piggyback off that. Oh, go right ahead, Ryan, please!
Longenecker/ I just wanted to .... to echo, um, something quickly, and just bring .... aware of the
fact that, um, the eviction freeze is ending, um, next Wednesday, and so that is something
to consider any relief plans is that many people if they haven't been able to pay their rent,
if their landlord chooses to go ahead with eviction proceedings, that can start again next
week. So that may be something to look at when talking about, uh, the financial needs
and direct assistances, are people are to be forced out of their homes in the middle of the
pandemic.
Salih/ Thank you, Ryan. I was really trying to bring that and I forget, uh, because we have to act
quickly about this really, you know. I don't know if like waiting until the next Council
meeting and .... until we come up with something will be (sound ends) ideal, because
some people are not paying the rent of March and April and May, and now June is
coming and those people are not .... they are the one who gonna be evicted because they
have (unable to understand) I ... I just wish the Council will ... will act on this quickly so
Geoff have clear idea what you do, uh, and I .... I just like everything that you put together
and this is, uh, the base. We just have to add little thing on it and we can just act quickly.
Weiner/ Do we have any idea what Johnson County is gonna do on evictions? Linn County has
said that they are going to proceed after the 27th. Last I heard Johnson County that ... had..
had made no decision.
Fruin/ I .... I have not heard a decision communicated publicly, Janice.
Dilkes/ Nor have I. I can ... I can, I know there are conversations going on. But I haven't heard
anything definitive. I don't think.....I'm trying to pull up the Supreme Court's order right
now, but I'm not sure they're even gonna schedule evictions, um, in June, but let me pull
that up and I'll look at it.
Teague/ Um, while .... while that conversation is I think very important, I do wonder if we don't
consider .... allocatin' some funds that may not be controversial (laughs) amongst us, um,
I think about the land banking. I know what those dollars have been used for, or are
intended for, but.... potentially we could look at allocatin' that, and I don't know if that's
somethin' that Geoff wanted to take back to, um, staff and maybe make recommendations
to Council. One thing is the urgency of it, or potential urgency of it. I .... if people are
gonna be evicted, I think that is somethin' that we wanna at least look at within our
community. Um ... that would be one immediate action that we could take.
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Fruin/ We could do .... we could put together, um, a suggestion for your .... for your next meeting,
um, on .... on rental emergencies. One of the, um, you know, we were gonna look at, um,
60% of our .... our CARES Act allocation from CDBG to ... to go to that purpose. We still
don't have authorization to ... to get that .... get those monies out the door, and with the
State possibly adding money to that, um, we may not be able to get it out in the next few
weeks, cause there's some additional work that has to go to incorporate a new allocation
of federal dollars. So we could look at, um, lookin' at some of our .... we could look at
some of our existing budget line items and get some rental relief monies out the door,
uh.... uh, quicker, knowing that the CARES Act will .... will come later in June. Um, we
would look towards those existing budget line items like I .... like I said, so we could....
we could sketch something out for ya for your .... for your first June meeting, if you'd
like.
Salih/ Geoff, you saying that the 410, you still have something to do with it, because I thought
you told me last time we need to spend that as soon as possible.
Fruin/ Yeah, so ... so what we did is we ... we got Council approval. We went through and did all
the .... all the kind of the paperwork and approvals that were needed, um, but we still don't
have the authority to spend it from HUD. Um, HUD... basically we were gettin'
everything ready to go and then once HUD gives us the green light, we're able to move
forward. Um, the final rules on .... on what the eligible expenses, uh, are for those funds
have not been established yet, and that's what we're waitin' on. So ... that could be, you
know, there's good news and bad news here. You know, our 400, um, may end up being
closer to a million dollars worth of funding, with the new money from the State. So that's
great news, but that's gonna cause a whole other set of approvals potentially, and ... and
delay in getting those dollars out the door. We're gonna try to do everything we can to
get those dollars spent as quickly as possible, um, but if. ... if your .... if your direction
tonight is we need to move very quickly on rental assistance, what we're probably gonna
have to do is get some local funds out the door first and then let the .... let the federal
funds supplement those, um ... hopefully later in June.
Salih/ But if you don't know the guideline, how we gonna ... like use .... you mean like use local
fund and when we get the federal fund just replace the ... the fund. Uh, the problem is, if
we don't know the guideline, uh, how they supposed to use those? Or we ... you have
those things, like you have the guideline (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, so what I would suggest is, um, now I'm gonna pick a number. Don't hold me to
this, but if...but if the City came up with $200,000 to, uh.... uh, yeah, say $200,000 of
local money, we could put our own rules to that. We can work with our .... our non-profit
partners and say, you know, here .... here's the rules on how to spend that and we can
move as quickly as we need to. Um, the federal dollars that we get in after that would not
replace what we would spend. Uh, they would supplement it. So they would be on top
of what we spend, so (both talking)
Salih/ Oh, okay!
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Fruin/ .....um, we, you know, it wouldn't be ... this isn't a cash advance that gets paid back with
federal dollars. This is a cash advance to address an emergency that you're seeing, and
then knowing that those funds aren't going to stretch very far, they hopefully will stretch
far enough to a point in time when the CARES Act dollars can then be added to the pot.
Salih/ I just don't wanna use like City money that we can, uh, do whatever we wanna do with it
and, uh, after that get the money (unable to understand) restricted to certain things. So if
the federal fund will be good to use for housing, and if the waiting time is not that long,
we just should wait, I guess, but uh, I really urge people to do the .... because a lot people
I know that they .... they just been coming and asking for rental assistance. I .... I really
don't know. This is tough!
Teague/ It sounds like, uh, Geoff will come back with recommendations at our next meeting. So
....and we .... I'm sure he's open to Council meetin...... you know, reaching out to `em if
they have additional thoughts or questions. All right, well thanks to everybody for
chimin' in on this item. Any other thing for this item, before we move on?
Fruin/ Uh, Mayor, I just wanted to give the Council an opportunity again, um, for any other
COVID related, our ...our work session topic is just general COVID. We focused on
recovery, but before we move on to the next item, if you have operational questions,
urn ... uh, or .... or questions about our emergency response, I'd be happy to field those.
Salih/ No, thanks.
Weiner/ (mumbled) this is, uh, I think that the.... Geoff, you said that (noises in background) said
things correctly at the beginning, that this is ongoing. We don't know what .... what the
end is going to be on this. I was watching the Johnson County Emergency Center press
conference, um, this afternoon (noises in background; goes silent) .....Sorry! It happens
(mumbled) Council at home. Uh, and ... and Teresa Brennan, Dr. Brennan of UIHC said
yes, Johnson County has flattened the curve. We have no new cases today.
Hospitalizations are down, but that doesn't mean that any of us can let our guard down,
um, and the best way to keep that going is for people to be considerate of other people,
um, by .... we can prevent 85% of infections by everybody wai....wearing some sort of
face covering, as .... as things, um, as things open up. The .... we have now lost over
91,000 people. I did the math. That's 60% of Johnson County, if you sort of wanna try
and conceptualize it. Um, I would love to see us continue to flatten and crush the curve
here, but it's gonna really take everybody. So I would just make a plea that this is not a
curtailment of people's freedom to wear a face covering of some sort, or a shield. It
actually is liberating, because it allows people, um, to go out without necessarily putting
themselves or others at risk. Thanks.
Teague/ I've been actually wearing a shield since you, uh, told me about your shield, uh,
Councilor Weiner, and .... it is liberating! It really is, and urn .... sol ...I've enjoyed
wearing it, but I do believe you're right. I think, um, sharin' the message that we need to
continue doin' all that we can, to make sure that we don't see a .... a change in what our
current status is here in Johnson County. All right, hearin' nothin' else on this topic, uh,
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we're gonna move on to continuin' the conversation of our strategic plan, which we
started, um, I wanna say it was back in .... it was back when we could meet, so that was
prior to March 8°i (laughs) Yes! So we have our Assistant City Manager Ashley Monroe
and, um ... I'm gonna just let you take it from here because I'll .... one thought I, I don't
know if you're thinking.... maybe we go through some clean-up language first and then
jump into the last item, but I'll let you kinda navigate.
Continue Development of the 2020-21 Strategic Plan (IP#):
Monroe/ Well thank you! Um, I do have the document where we, um, left off with some
adjustments to language, based on discussion, and I'll share that momentarily. Okay! So
here we ... we have a couple of the other sections, uh, worked through the initiatives,
included the .... the, uh, demonstrate leadership in climate action. Uh, we had advancing
social justice, racial equity and human rights. As far as I'm aware, uh, Council came to
an agreement generally on the principles and .... and bullets that we find in .... in these
sections. Uh, the last time we spoke about this, the section....(mumbled) initiative
(mumbled) strengthening community engagement and intergovernmental relations. Um,
there was a suggestion to add `and neighborhoods' to the .... to the item related to creative
engagement techniques, and focusing on reaching diverse populations in neighborhoods.
So if we're ... are we okay with that generally.... amongst this group? Okay. Uh, there
were not any changes. We discussed thoroughly the.... initiative to invest in public
infrastructure facilities and fiscal reserves. So we won't talk about that. Uh, there was
some discussion about fostering healthy neighborhoods and affordable housing
throughout the city. Uh, recall that we added the affordable housing, called that out
specifically in this section. So we expanded on that in this first item to continue efforts to
expand and adapt the City's affordable housing and neighborhood improvement
strategies.... to meet the needs throughout the community. So that was speaking a little
bit to not only the housing affordability, but also what happens within our neighborhoods
and kinda .... other improvements to .... to those areas. And then through the discussion,
we also talked about .... the activities within the neighborhoods. So what happens in those
places, um, that make those areas so special to us (noises in background) community, and
so I...I added, uh, from your discussion `support neighborhood activities and
improvements that create vibrant, creative spaces and inspire a sense of place and
community.' And so I wanted thoughts and feedback from you on whether you like this,
whether it embodies what you're trying to capture here through a variety of programming
and other.... opportunities to engage with the neighborhoods.
Salih/ Ashley, before you go (garbled) I really would like ... I remember when we talked about it
at the Recycling Center. I was mentioning that we need to have like clear plan for
affordable housing, like a goal for .... like (unable to understand) like long-term plan for
affordable housing. I really would love to see that language in place.
Teague/ I....I have to agree. I, when I look at what we did before in the first one, you know, it
kinda talked about strategies to improve avail... availability and affordability of housin' in
Iowa City, but I think that .... we have opportunity here to really streamline and focus on
our affordability .... on our affordable housing and I would suggest that we really do look
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at, urn .... some, you know, look at this with policies and .... and some comprehensive, uh,
steps that we can .... get to really ensurin' that we have affordable housin' opportunities,
developin' as Maz just talked about, a .... a plan, um, with some strategic objectives and so
I ... I do want some, well personally I would like to see a little more here, um, with some
teeth, that we can walk away, um, and not have this on our continued, um, strategic plan
over and over and over, and we really take some time to evaluate needs within our
community, uh, figure out even funding options potentially, as well as create those
policies for more .... just a .... a, just so that it's more comprehensive in .... in nature.
Mims/ I guess my comment to that would be that I typically look at a strategic plan as being
more of your high-level, calling out at a high level those things that you're trying to
really focus on over the next two years, and then from that developing what you're
talking about, Bruce, in terms of, you know, more details and specifics that you're going
to do, and ... and quite frankly the idea that this is not going to be a part of our strategic
plan at some point, I'm not sure that's realistic if we continue to make it a priority
because I don't think we're ever gonna be able to meet the need for affordable housing in
Iowa City. So I think it's .... I think it's always going to be something that is with us, but I
think the fact that when we added it into here, called it out in the title, have it in that first
bullet, um, that puts it, you know, kind of front and center on the radar, but typically
your .... your strategic plan itself I don't think is going to have the level of detail that
you're talking about. That's gonna have to be our next step. (several talking, garbled)
Bergus/ We're all so polite. Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and speak! Um, I .... I think maybe kinda
in between what's, um, Councilor Mims and our Mayor are saying is .... is what I would
advocate for, which is something acknowledging the affordable housing action plan. If I
understand correctly what that plan was is that the 15 -point item where we've
accomplished like 13 of the points. I don't know if that's ... if that's what I was
thinking .... if I'm thinking of the right action plan for the affordable housing.... action
plan, but if that is the case, I think for the next two years we wanna look at what
expansions we can make to that, not to say what those 15 points are in our strategic plan,
but just that we would actually implement some expansion of an action plan, rather than,
um, you know, just having it a little more vague as it's stated here. So that .... that'd be
my recommendation, to kind of split the difference there.
Thomas/ Yeah I would (several talking, garbled)
Weiner/ ....on language, that would .... that I think would .... might address some of your
concerns, Maz, because I really think that we do need to include the term `long-term' in
there at some point, so we're not talking about things that sunset after 10 years for
example. It could read something like continue to expand and adapt the City's affordable
housing and neighborhood improvement strategies to meet long-term needs throughout
the community, or something like that, that would then sort of say we're going to
continue to work on this and it's a long-term strategy.
Thomas/ Okay, I would just add that, um, I think all of us had a, uh, conversation with Sara and,
uh.... Keith from the, urn .... oh .... I'm forgetting.... Habitat! And, uh, to me that.... that's
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precisely, that's a great example of an expansion, uh, of our efforts, uh, especially with
the emphasis on the partnerships with the non-profit there. Um .... so.....I.... I don't know
that we, you know, it's .... we.....we have it in there, I mean if we .... in fact the genesis
question of the, urn... the.... the mention of long-term, that was part of Habitat's proposal
as well. That was .... that was integrated into it. Um.....I think .... I think the language
personally I think is okay. It's really a question of. ... of, um.....engaging with our non -
private partners, uh, and expanding and leveraging, uh, what City dollars we have. I was
....I was very impressed, uh, with the proposal. I think it, um, in fact I've been hoping
for some time that our UniverCity program was going to transform into something along
the lines that we saw in that proposal. So I think we are making considerable progress,
uh, and I would hope we would continue to make progress and it also, um .... the Habitat
proposal, at least in our conversation, uh, had that neighborhood emphasis, which I
thought was also, uh, valuable. So in a number of dimensions I think we are advancing
this. Um (laughs) my only comment is I'd like to see that program in the South District
replicated. I think there may be opportunities, should be opportunities to, um, apply that
kind of program in other parts of Iowa City.
Taylor/ I liked, um (garbled) suggestion about the... including language, uh, to meet ... uh, and then
added in there `the long-term, uh, needs,' but then I would go so far as to also say long-
term needs, uh, availability and affordability throughout the community. I think we're
missing that availability aspect of this.
Salih/ I'm gonna say it again, we need really to add that on the language, saying that we need to
work with another like organization, affordable housing organization, imple.... to
implement a plan for affordable housing. That's it! We just need to (unable to
understand) you know, and so we can work with the people who really wanna do this, and
we can .... we can figure out a way. We been talking about affordable housing for long
time. We .... we have some here and some there. We ask some developer to like give like
(garbled) I guess, uh, percentage, 10% to be affordable, but it's never been affordable
forever. That's why we need a plan. We need a clear plan and after that we can see how
we can fund that plan, but as long as we're not putting it here, we are not going to do it.
We really need to put this just .... not like you have here. Something (unable to
understand) continue implementation of the park master plan, like there is some kind of
plan there. That's why we continue doing it. We need to have this language through
there. That what I believe.
Fruin/ A quick, uh, history might .... might be helpful for .... for, uh, Council. Um, when we
originally did .... the Council, gosh it's probably been four or five years ago now, um,
asked the ... the City staff to develop a .... a affordable housing plan, and that's where that
15 -point plan came through. I think we checked off 14 of those boxes and are chippin'
away at the 15a' one. And then last year you see that 2018-2019, um, objective A, which
was to modify the existing affordable housing action plan. Um, when we did that, um,
maybe a year, year and a half ago, we came to Council and suggested that we spend our
dollars a little bit differently. Um, that's where, uh, funding for the South District, uh,
program came from. Uh, we emphasized, urn .... uh, rehab over construction through a re -
prioritization of how we were spending those dollars. We created the opportunity fund,
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which is where we might have to tap into to help with some of the undocumented, uh,
households that we have for our relief efforts. So we did modify it. I think the question
is going forward, urn .... if. ... if you want a new set of plans, I .... there's always gonna be
an evolution of the programs that we offer. We should always be looking at partnerships
and things of that nature. Um, but I don't think .... I don't think you can expect staff to
come up with 15 new ideas. Um, it's .... it's really about.... getting the amount of funding
that you need into the .... into the various housing programs, uh, that we have. So, um, we
can do a .... we can do a .... a new plan, a new study. Many cities hire consultants to do
that, uh.... uh, and we can .... we can go through that process, if that's a priority. Um,
what I would suggest is that Council, however you word it here you need to have a work
session pretty early on and say this is what we wanna look at. We wanna look at the
policy side of this. We wanna look at ways to increase funding. We wanna take the
South District model and ... and blow it up to .... to where we're doin' a dozen houses a
year, whatever your goals may be, that's what's going to be critically important. Um,
a ... a plan is fine. Uh, we will take a lot of time, you know, we'll go through all those
planning processes. I don't think there'll be a whole lot of new ideas that come from that.
Um, I think we ... we probably know what needs to be done, and it really is gonna involve
some conversation amongst you seven, uh, in a .... in a work session or two dedicated to
this topic.
Teague/ I do wonder if for the meeting today, for this part, if we can agree on some language for
this and then .... it sounds like from the majority of what I hear at least, uh, what Geoff
just mentioned is that we may want a work session to really dig into exactly what it is that
we want. So maybe if...if the language can be encompassing somehow. Um, I always,
uh (laughs) like Councilor Bergus, uh, she seems to find a word or two that we can add to
be all inclusive of what we're talkin' about, but um, maybe continuin' efforts to, uh,
innovatively expand and adopt .... adopt the City's affordable housin'. I'm not sure, but
seemed like there's maybe one or two words that it's missing in the existin' that's there,
that might satisfy Council for today, and then we can certainly come back and go into a
work session that really spells out what we're lookin' at and maybe have that
conversation amongst ourselves.
Fruin/ So what if we .... Mayor, instead of continue, urn .... what if we, um .... replace continue
with `identify new efforts to expand and adopt the City's affordable housing and
neighborhood improvement strategies to meet long-term needs throughout the
community,' picking up on a couple things you've said.
Teague/ Yeah.
Fruin/ I think if you emphasize (both talking) If you emphasize identify upfront, that puts the
onus back on the Council to actually, whether that's directing a plan at a later date or
identifying policies that need to be evaluated, that ... that word identify means a lot, means
something very different than continue.
Thomas/ I would be okay with that. I ... I think, one ... one thought I have is, you know, with the
idea of a work session in the near future, we can always circle back and revise the
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language in our strategic plan. It may .... it may come out of that work session, uh, in a
more meaning.... meaningful way or at least in a more, um, comprehensive way, uh, than
what we might develop now, but I think the idea of identify, uh.... new efforts is .... is a
little bit more concise than continue efforts, um, but I would.....I would be interested in
....having that work session and see what may come out of it. I'm certainly... I've
proposed and met with all of you Councilors and... and tried to point toward different
programs that are being done in other cities in the state of Iowa. Uh, there .... there are
other strategies we could be looking at, urn .... I, what I found is that a critical element in
developing any new plans is understanding, uh, who within our own affordable housing
community may be able to take that action forward, and that .... that's what I found
interesting with Habitat. They seemed to be a very well positioned organization, uh, to
....to, um, also identify and develop new .... new strategies moving our housing, our
affordable housing program forward.
Teague/ So it sound like maybe we have an agreement on language suggested by .... our City
Manager. I'm not seein' too many nods (laughs) but, uh.... yes! All right, we do! All
right, sounds great! All right, Ashley, you can continue!
Monroe/ Okay, I'll continue. I ..... I got most of what Geoff had suggested. So we're .... we're all
set there. Urn .... here is the section where we .... modified this from a .... encouraging a
vibrant and walkable urban core to enhancing community mobility for all residents. Um,
we finesse some of the .... the discussion into three, uh, objectives here, and they are to
continue implementation of the City's master bicycle plan and pursue bicycle -friendly
community status from the League of American Bicyclists. So this is intended to ... to...
encompass all of those, um, items within our bike, our existing bicycle plan, um, and
pursuing some of those other components — education and ... and other measures that go
along with that designation. Uh, the second is to complete the Iowa City area
transportation study, pursue recommended changes, and evaluate implementation
outcomes to ensure that community needs are met by these system changes. So that
again is .... is finishing our transit study and then assessing the potential outcomes of that
study, and then the final one is to ensure ease and safety of travel for residents and
visitors through expansion of accessibility measures, improved connectivity, and use of
adopted complete streets design standards. So this is ... taking, uh, some of the discussion
about enhancement for safety and crossings, uh, access of. ... of those crossings at...at curb
cuts and others, um, improving connectivity. So pedestrian sidewalk connections or, uh,
transportation accessibility connectivity and then implementing our .... the complete
streets design standards that were adopted, uh, a year or two ago. So, um, this is what we
came up with, but if there are things that are missing here or any changes that you'd like
to see to this language then I'll take some notes and.....take it from here.
Thomas/ Uh, one thing I ... I would ... was thinking could be added, uh, and that is again the, this
dimension that's .... upon us now, and that is the COVID and how that could affect our
opportunities to explore in .... as that article mentioned, kind of a tactical, exploratory
way, uh, how we deal with the .... this immediate issue that we're facing of maintaining
proper distancing, uh, in our .... in our public right-of-way. Um, so that seemed like
something.... and.... and as we've noted, we don't know how long these issues are going
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to be with us, uh, we also may have, as I've said, opportunities that we test during this
period that we find, um, actually may improve the .... the, uh, the vitality and um, you
know, business climate within .... our commercial districts and the quality of life in our
neighborhoods. So ... uh, one ... one added bullet that I would suggest, would like to
suggest, would be ... explore opportunities for maintaining proper physical distancing in
our public right-of-way during the COVID-19 crisis.
Teague/ I guess I was waitin' for somebody to chime in there, but um ... are you suggestin' that we
have that language with COVID-19 in .... in this strategic plan for now?
Thomas/ Yeah, you know, this is a two-year document and I think at...at least for the next year,
where ... if not longer, going to be ... uh, trying to address ways in which we can maintain
proper social distancing, uh, in our right-of-ways, as well as accommodating, uh, you
know, for example, restaurants having outdoor access to some portion of that right-of-
way to make up for their loss of, um, occupancy, uh... within their buildings. So it seems
like this is going to be with us within the time frame that the strategic plan is .... is
addressing, uh, so I thought, you know, we .... we could articulate it, um, in the strategic
plan as something that we are pursuing.
Weiner/ (mumbled) ....to me that if we were going to include something like that it might
actually, um, work better in the section we haven't fleshed out yet that's coming next,
which is to promote an inclusive and resilient economy throughout the city.
Thomas/ Yeah, it ... it, as is often the case, sometimes these bullets could be placed in various,
under various headings, um, cause it is ... it is more than mobility. As I said it's, um, also
trying to expand opportunities for the businesses as well. So it .... I think it has relevant
....relevance under either category.
Teague/ I think you bring up .... the reason I wanted to just make sure, um, tho.... you wanted that
language, is because I think it's important that we recognize we're going to be here. This
is a global pandemic, and our two-year strategic plan, I think havin' it in here, that was
somethin' I hadn't thought about. So I think it's very valid, and givin' the conversation
that our City Manager gave today, and even last Council meetin', where we heard
Dennis, uh, talk about our future, I think it's very appropriate for us to fit it here. I would
have .... I would agree with Councilor Weiner that we can maybe have that in the next
bullet.
Bergus/ (mumbled) ...just add that .... pardon me, Mayor.
Teague/ (mumbled)
Bergus/ I would, thank you, it seems to me that, um, acknowledging the need for that physical
distancing, as well as .... as prioritizing public health and safety in the context of the
pandemic is something that should inform probably all of the goals, and certainly in the
way that we've been talking about the City's actions moving forward, you know, in sort
of the near-term and the longer-term, and as was mentioned with the presentation we
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received at our last work session. So it .... if there's some way of incorporating that kind
of overarching, urn .... as a .... as ..... as part of this plan, as part of a goal. Like you said,
Mayor, I do think including it, um, in some way, acknowledging it in the two-year plan,
could be years 2020 and 2021 makes a lot of sense. So it may be sort of over everything,
if...if that makes sense to folks.
Weiner/ I think it makes an enormous amount of sense to have it (mumbled) for ...for the strategic
plan, that this is part of the .... this is part of the .... the world and the community we're
living in right now, and we're going to have to be dealing with it over the next two years.
Mims/ Yeah, I would agree maybe somehow having some language at the very beginning, um, to
kind of inform the whole thing, I think, makes sense.
Teague/ Ashley, do you think you have enough to go off of?
Monroe/ Yes, urn ... I was thinking along those lines where, um, as we have our plan currently
presented, the formatting and that, you have kind of this overarching vision of, you know,
an equitable, sustainable community, and .... there's definitely room within that .... the area
that follows that, before these specific objectives that we can certainly have an
overarching statement that addresses the COVID-19, urn .... response and .... and support
and security for our community, that kind of thing. So, yeah, we'll .... we'll work on some
language to include, um, as part of the plan.
Teague/ Great!
Monroe/ Okay. Um, and then the final section, I'm not sure if you feel comfortable jumping into
this this evening, but urn .... I will just introduce the topic and then.... then leave you to
any discussion that follows. Urn ... this was .... just my (mumbled) discussion at our first
work session about the plan, uh, to include in ... inclusive and into resilient economy. So
you are promoting an inclusive and resilient economy throughout the city, uh, some of
that discussion also, um, encompassed this desire to ensure that all areas of commercial
activity and, um, businesses felt supported throughout our community and .... we just
didn't get to ... to the content that follows that thought. So I'll leave you to discuss any
further or..or put aside, urn.... further discussion.
Teague/ What I might suggest is if Councilors do have maybe somethin' prepared to ... for this
item, that you can state it now. Uh, we only have about 20 minutes before we normally
break. I do wanna spend some time on offering response to the info packets, as well as
any formal agenda clarifications. So, um, if you have somethin' now, I might suggest you
throw it out and then we'll have to put this back on our next future agenda. If we can,
within the next five minutes, kinda, um, figure out where we wanna be with this one.
Bergus/ I might (both talking)
Thomas/ I had (both talking)
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Bergus/ (mumbled) ...to say that, uh, of ..of, just what's in front of us here from the prior
strategic plan, definitely carrying forward. I think we addressed A elsewhere in ... in the
mobility section, but B and C I think are very important and should continue, and I think
D takes on a whole different shape and isn't quite, uh, relevant in the way that it was
before, but ... but maybe something relating to, um, the future of that production, but
certainly carrying forward B and C would be my input for right now.
Thomas/ I would .... I would agree with that. I did think that B could perhaps be, uh, revised to
say .... uh, effectively market and grow the local food economy and small locally owned
businesses (talking in background, garbled)
Salih/ (unable to understand)
Teague/ Hey, Councilor Sa.... uh, Mayor Pro Tem Salih.
Salih/ Yes?
Teague/ Your phone is .... your mic is unmuted. (laughs)
Weiner/I'd like to see sort of built into this the .... as we talk about different, as ... what's currently
in C, what's needed for people to be able to succeed and improve. I would really like to
fold in there somewhere, um, an acknowledgment of ...of expanded daycare
opportunities being a part of that. That's up to others, but I think it would be helpful
because it's really important piece of people (noise on mic) to go to work.
Taylor/ I agree with, uh, Janice because it also incorporated B, C, and what she mentioned about
childcare, kind of incorporates the presentation by Geoff and those kinds of recovery
efforts that .... that he's talking about that the City's going to need to look at. So I think B
and C really, uh, reflect on that and then (mumbled) but adding the childcare in there too
would be important.
Salih/ I agree as well because this has become very huge needs in the community right now and
obstacle for a lot people who cannot even .... go like .... make more money or become
economically stable because they don't have a childcare.
Monroe/ To .... to summarize, um .... the ..... the general take on B would be potentially to include,
uh, small business support, along with the local food economy, as Councilor Thomas had
suggested, and then for clarification, um, item C, we can move over, um, an included
childcare as a .... as a part of this. Um .... do.....increasing access to affordable childcare,
um, takes on a different characteristic potentially for increasing this access for
marginalized populations and low-income individuals, and then expanding that childcare
access community -wide. Um .... so I'm just clarifying and making sure that it's within
this kind of thought and .... and grouping of ideas and not a separate item. Do you have...
maybe just give it some thought for next time.
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Thomas/ The .... the other .... the other thing that, um, I would .... I would mention is, and it also,
like the childcare, was a issue that came up during the, um, our Council campaigns, uh,
last .... last fall, and that is the, um.....concems about our neighborhood commercial
districts. Uh, you know, the Sycamore Market Place got a lot of attention, uh, during that
period. It's ... it's a .... it's a commercial district that's received, uh, two tax increment
financing packages and so it seems to me, uh, that .... uh, considering, uh, how we might
revision these commercial districts as centers, uh, of a more mixed-use nature, uh, would
be something to think about. And then I would ... I would add to that, um, the ... the idea of,
uh.... which .... this was kind of spurred.... another.... another topic that has always been
brought up is .... is the, uh, value of small neighborhood commercial nodes. Um, one of
the best examples I can think of would be say Deluxe, uh, and how everyone wishes they
had a version of that. Urn .... that might be something too that we could .... we could, um,
consider, and I think, again, the emphasis, uh, is especially, uh, of value when you tie it to
locally -owned, uh, small businesses. Uh, those are ... those are really I think when ... when
people talk about these .... these little nodes in neighborhood commercial, they're not
talking about a franchise. They're talking about a locally -owned business, and I think the
emphasis, if we can .... in as many ways as possible, promote locally -owned businesses.
Um, that's to our advantage, and .... and these .... these small, locally -owned businesses in
small commercial nodes may find that their rents are less, uh, in those locations. So
it's .... it may be, again, an opportunity where we can promote, uh, entrepreneurship as
well as, um, mixed-use in our neighborhoods.
Teague/ All right, with that bein' said, I think, Ashley, you may have somethin' to go off of for
now, and we'll have to put it on a future agenda for us to come back to, uh, discussin' it,
but great job, Councilors. I know it's very hard, um, because these are things that we
want to be very intentional about and we want to have some goals that we really can
work on, um, and reach. So thanks to all of you for partaking. Now we're gonna go to
clarification of agenda items.
Dilkes/ Mayor (both talking)
Teague/ Yes!
Dilkes/ This is Eleanor. Can I just make a quick comment about evictions, before you move on?
Teague/ Yes please.
Dilkes/ Okay. So the .... the, I think when we talk about evictions, and I always have to pull out
Iowa Legal Aid's website to remind myself of all the various deadlines. We're not just
talking about the Governor's deadline, or the Governor's moratorium until next week,
that Ryan, uh, referred to. We're also talking about the Supreme Court's order that
doesn't allow scheduling of them at ... until after June 15th, or they have to be heard by
phone, and we also have the federal CARES Act, which, um, prevents the filing of
evictions for unpaid rent until July 25th of this year for what they call covered properties,
which would be things like Section 8, um, federally -backed mortgages, you know, those
kind of things. So .... I ..... I just want people to ... to not get .... um, inaccurate information.
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So go to, people should be goin' to the, um, Iowa Legal Aid website if...if they need
better, more accurate information.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Teague/ Thank you for that clarification. All right! Formal.... agenda items.
Information Packet Discussion (May 7, May 14):
Teague/ Info packet, May 7a . Now I know that (both talking)
Mims/ (both talking)
Teague/ Oh, please go right ahead!
Mims/ I was just going to say, I wanted to thank staff for the IP2, the comparison of, um,
UniverCity and the South District program. And maybe this is what you were going to
say, Mayor, that John had mentioned earlier, our conversations I think that everybody had
individually or in small groups, with, uh, the Affordable Housing Coalition and Habitat,
and I certainly came away from that, and I think the other Councilors on that Zoom
meeting with me, I think had the same feeling of this is a really exciting possibility, um, I
personally would really like to see the City staff, um, having further discussions with the
Affordable Housing Coalition and Habitat for Humanity to see how we can work
together, um, to really stretch the City dollars. I think Habitat's, um, ability to tap into
volunteers and to get donations, um, and do some things that a governmental entity can't
do, could be very beneficial, and I certainly understand there's certain controls that the
City needs, especially on federal dollars, um, but I'd really... really like to see us, um, try
to partner with them so that we can get kinda more bang for our buck and do more
properties.
Salih/ I totally agree with Susan (several talking, garbled) Yeah, this is exciting. I ... I believe,
yeah, we should look into that... strongly, recommendations.
Teague/ Yeah, I would agree, uh, that .... to really maximize our abilities, uh, to help the most
people, and to have that dollar stretched the furthest, that is worth lookin' at. It is
appropriate definitely for staff and for the partnership of, uh, potential partnership, uh, to
have discussions and then come back to us and so I think, um, we're in a good position
just for havin' the, uh, conversation here today and I think that would be next steps for me
is to just ask staff to meet with, uh, to have furthering conversations (mumbled) this
matter. All right! Anything else on that agenda item? Movin' on to May 146i. Um, I'm
gonna get it out there right away. We have in this info packet a proposal for our new
schedule for, um, this summer, and so the .... the June schedule that's bein' proposed
would be the second week instead of our typical first and third weeks. So it'd be the
second week on June 9a', and then the fifth week, since it's a five-week month, uh, on
June 30a'. Then in July we would have only one meeting, on July 215`, which is the third
week, kinda the middle of the month, and then we'll be back to our first and third
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Tuesdays goin' in August. So wanted to get Council thoughts on any, um ... conflicts or
any, um....
Salih/ I really think we should (both talking, garbled) go back to normal and uh, especially now
during this crisis. Maybe we need more meetings. That's why if we can just go back to
normal, you know, like on, uh, June and July and .... moving forward.
Weiner/ I'm supportive of that.
Thomas/ I'm okay with it as well.
Mims/ I'm fine either way.
Taylor/ So am I.
Bergus/ Me too.
Teague/ So I got three `let's go back,' and then .... kinda three `fine either way,' so .... I .... I'm
assumin' that we're going to go back to our twice.... first and third Tuesdays.
Fruin/ Um, Mayor, we'll have to connect with you between the, uh, between the meetings, cause
we are setting a public hearing for June 9a', uh, so ... we might need to amend that on the
floor. I'll talk with Eleanor and ... and Kellie between meetings, but we might need an
amendment on the floor for that (mumbled) public hearing. We'll let you know.
Teague/ I....I wonder if, um, we really do need to get through our strategic plan, and ... and maybe
have furthering discussion on .... kinda some .... some of the relief efforts. What if...would
people be interested in maybe .... meetin' three times in June and keepin' the revised
schedule, or are people really set on, um, goin' back to the first and the third?
Salih/ What do you mean, Mayor, by three time? Do you mean like, uh, just a special meeting to
do specific stuff like for one hour, two hour, or you mean like the whole meeting?
Teague/ No, just specific stuff that we still have lingering.
Salih/ Oh, okay. I .... I guess like you mean like additional meeting to discuss some stuff.
Teague/ Yes!
Salih/ Okay. I don't mind that.
Teague/ I don't know what other people thoughts are. We could potentially have one, the first,
because we know that there's going to be some things that are pending. We could
potentially have three meetings in June and then decide if we wanna do a ... another
meetin' in July. That would be my proposal. That way we can get some things off our
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agenda that we're .... that we really wanna talk about. I don't know what people thoughts
are.
Mims/ I guess my thought would be, if we're going to do a third meeting in June, it would just be
a work session, just have the two formal meetings, like on the first and third, and then I
think we still have to have a meeting in July, because there's always things that .... that
come up that need our approval. So I don't think we can not meet in July at all. I think
....things just come up that have to be approved (garbled) P&Z or contracts or something.
So I guess the question is, you know, what ... what else do we have, um, for our work
session. Say we go to the second, we've... we've necessarily spent quite a bit of time on
the COVID updates, um, each meeting. Do we potentially forego as much time on the
COVID updates on the second and really try to focus on finishing up the strategic plan
and then we could see if we needed a special formal ... or a special work session after that.
Teague/ Okay. I ... I'm comfortable with that, as well (several talking, garbled)
Taylor/ That sounds reasonable.
Weiner/ (mumbled) we're gonna have to also focus on the, uh, on whatever we're choosing as
relief plans. So I don't know how that ... the two of those (garbled) balance that out.
Teague/ I think, uh, Mayor Pro Tem said that some of the decisions, the reasons why she wanted
to meet more is because there's things happenin', and I think, um .... we'll ... it sound like
there's, um, we can meet on June 2ad, which would be the first Tuesday, and then maybe
....so the next meetin' after that will be the 30th. Potentially we can decide if there will be
a work session as, uh, Councilor Mims suggested, in between, and we can probably have
that discussion on the 2 a and maybe some of the things that Geoff will bring to us can
kind of, uh, create that. We'll have time for public announcement if we, um, decide not
to do it and then decide to do it, so, um, if people are in agreement, we'll meet on Ju...
June tad (several talking)
Mims/ Mayor, I would suggest if we're gonna go back to the second that we go to the ... go to the
first and third so we're on the regular schedule, and then we can figure out if we need a
special .... an extra work session, rather than going first and fourth. I think that's just
gonna be more confusing for the public.
Teague/ All right, that's ... (both talking)
Taylor/ I agree with Susan. (both talking) So the, yeah, the tad and the 16'h. Yeah. Yes.
Salih/ The tad and the l0h.
Teague/ All right, so we're gonna go 2nd and the 16th of June, um, any .... any thoughts at keepin'
the July 2155 or.....or do people want to put that a little bit in the middle of the month?
Taylor/ Are we keeping July 7th or we're not doing July 7th then?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of May 19, 2020.
Page 28
Teague/ We're not doin' July 7'
Salih/ We're not?
Teague/ Well, we can. So if we wanna do .... so it sounds like people are more interested in just
keepin' the first and the third, and then we'll go from there.
Salih/ Yes!
Teague/ All right (several talking, garbled) All right.
Taylor/ And then .... oh! Mayor? Just a question for Eleanor then, and Geoff had brought that up
about the, uh.... public hearings that were already scheduled, or maybe it was just one, for
the 9'. Eleanor, is that..... does that pose any legal issues if we....
Dilkes/ No!
Taylor/ .....repost?
Dilkes/ No (both talking) No, we'll just amend it. I think Kellie's already given the language to
the Mayor.
Teague/ All right. So then July would be the 7s' and the 2151. And then June would be .... so we
would just be back to our regular first and third in the month of July and June. All right!
Anything else from IP .... um, from the .... the May 109 Hearing nothin' else, then we're
gonna adjourn for now and we'll be back at 7:00 P.M. and at that time when we give, at
the end of the formal meetin', we'll do any assignment boards and commission updates at
that time! See you in about 15 minutes.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of May 19, 2020.