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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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 2 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 3 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 4 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 5 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 6 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 7 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 8 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 9 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? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 10 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, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page l l 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. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 12 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page ] 3 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. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 14 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! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 15 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, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 16 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 17 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 18 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, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 19 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 20 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 21 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 22 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) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 23 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. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 24 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. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 25 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 26 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 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 19, 2020. Page 27 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.