HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-07-21 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Kilburg, Dilkes, Fruehling, Bockenstedt, Hightshoe,
Brotherton, Nagle-Gamm, Grier, Seydell-Johnson, Knoche
Others Present: Longenecker, Van Heukelom (UISG)
COVID-19 Update:
Teague/ Welcome to all of our Councilors and to the public tonight, uh, for the work session of
Iowa City City Council, Tuesday, July 21", and lots of things on our agenda tonight. It's
been a busy day, um, for Council, urn ... uh, because we have a mask .... a face coverin'
order that, uh, was put into place today that we're very proud of, but we wanna get some
COVID-19 updates. I will talk about the order a little later, but maybe we'll start out
with some COVID-19 updates and I know that our City Manager, as well as Dennis, uh,
the Finance, um, Director, has a presentation for us. So we'll start there.
Fruin/ Thanks, Mayor, uh, Dennis Bockenstedt is going to start us off with an updated, uh,
presentation that you heard, I believe, in .... in, uh, May or so, uh, about City finances. So
with that I'll turn it over to Dennis and then after Dennis is done, Tracy Hightshoe is
going to, uh, join the call and describe the, uh, housing and, uh, rental assistance
programs that are currently available in, uh, Johnson County.
Bockenstedt/ All right I'm gonna try and share my screen here with everybody. Uh, hopefully
everybody can ... can see that. All right, and uh, start here. Uh, good evening, Mayor and
Council, uh, I'm Dennis Bockenstedt. I'm the Finance Director for the City of Iowa City,
and tonight I'm gonna give you a financial impact update for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Uh, the City of Iowa City operates a variety of funds for .... for many different purposes,
and uh, when this began several months ago, uh, we took a look at those funds and tried
to identify which ones were gonna be impacted, uh, the greatest financially. Um, at that
time we had identified the general fund, which is the City's primary operating fund. Uh,
the road use tax fund which is, uh, the fund that accounts for the State's road use tax
sharing. And then, uh, three of our enterprise or business -type funds, uh, the parking, the
transit, and the water funds, as we felt these were going to be the ... the most impacted, uh,
financially by the pandemic. I'm gonna give you an update on ... on those revenues that
are bein' impacted, uh, what we'd estimated, and then you know what we're seeing now
and then maybe a little, a glimpse, if that's what you wanna call it, into the future. Uh,
for the general fund, the City's primary operating fund, uh, we were anticipating lower,
uh, hotel/motel tax collections, uh, as hotels had ... had closed and travel had decreased.
Also we were looking at reduced Parks and Recreation, Senior Center, and other program
fees as facilities were being closed and programming was being shut down. Um, we're
also lookin' at a lower fine revenue and uh, construction and building permit revenues,
uh, as activities slowed down and enforcement activities slowed. And something else
that we're going to talk a little bit about tonight, uh, that we're seeing. We did not, uh,
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project this at that time and that is we are seeing, uh, higher rate of unpaid property taxes.
Um, so several months ago when we .... when we just kind of took a ... a rough guess as to
what the impact of our hotel/motel taxes were going to be, uh, we estimated nearly a
complete loss or, uh, $478,000, uh, through the remainder of the fiscal year 2020. Um,
right now we're looking at actual shortfall of, uh, $376,000. Uh, we do have one more
distribution coming from the State, but we're really not sure exactly what that's gonna be,
what we've ... what's gonna come out of that, and ... also, uh, just to let you know that, you
know, these figures are preliminary. We ... they're not audited. Uh, we haven't closed our
books for fiscal year 2020 yet, uh, so we're just kind of giving you a look at where we're
at right now. Um .... for the, uh, Parks and Recreation and other programming fees, uh,
we originally estimated a loss of about 430,000. Our actual shortfall came in at just over
450. And for our, uh, fine and permit revenue, uh, we'd estimated a loss of $385,000 and
our actual shortfall, uh, was roughly about 282,000. Um, and for those property taxes,
we did not place an estimated, uh, shortfall on property tax revenue several months ago.
Um, however, due to delays in late penalties and... and, uh, the elimination or delay of the
property tax sale, uh, we're currently at a shortfall of, uh, $654,000. So our original
estimate was about $1.3 million shortfall in the general fund in 2020 and our actual
shortfall to date is about 1.7 million. Uh, lookin' ahead to next fiscal year, tryin' to see
what's gonna happen. You know, we kind of put together a six-month estimate if these
conditions would persist through the end of the calendar year, and then a 12 -month
estimate if it would persist through the end of the fiscal year. And for those hotel/motel
tax collections, um, you know they came in higher this last, uh, FY2020 than we thought.
So our six-month estimate, uh, going forward is 350,000 and our 12 -month estimate is....
is 650,000. Um, for those Parks and Recreation and other programming fees, our six-
month estimate is ... is 500,000, uh, and our 12 -month estimate is about a million dollars,
and we're lookin' at a, uh, almost a complete reduction of. ... of all.... recreation and
programming fees. Uh, for fine and permit revenues, uh, our six-month estimate is
$550,000 and our 12 -month estimate is about $1.1 million. Uh, and then for those
property taxes, um, we've not yet, uh, placed an estimate on those. Uh, we're not exactly
sure what's going to happen at the State level with these, um, or what's going to happen
with the property tax sale or those future collections. Um, the impact could be great, um,
so we have not ventured to make a guess (mumbled) at this point. Uh, so for fiscal year
2021, our ...our estimated impact would be about $1.4 revenue loss in the first six months
and about $2.8 million loss, uh, over 12 .... the next 12 -month period. Uh, and just give
you a brief summary of that, uh, for FY20 we had a, about a $1.7 million shortfall, which
is about 2 %z% of, uh, the City's revenue, general fund revenue. And we were able to
offset this by, uh, cutting expenses, such as consulting fees, travel training, capital outlay,
uh, rec programming. We delayed the filling of open positions. And also then we had,
uh, some remaining general fund contingency, uh, so the bottom line for FY20 is we did
have revenue shortfall; however, uh, we were able to offset that revenue with the
expenditure cuts. Uh, for fiscal year 2021 we're looking at much the same. Um, you
know, revenue shortfall for the six months and a 12 -months, uh, roughly in the 1.9 to
3.8% range of total general fund revenue, and right now we're lookin' to expenditure cuts
and delay filling open positions, um (mumbled) spending, uh, cuts and ... and delays, uh,
help offset that. Uh, we are going to keep monitoring the general fund monthly and if we
see property tax receipts or other revenues, uh, begin to slip, or any of these other receipts
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slipping further, uh, additional cuts may be necessary. Uh, for the road use tax fund, uh,
which accounts for the State road use tax sharing, uh, we did anticipate road use tax
collections, uh, due to slower automobile sales and ... and less, uh... uh, passenger vehicle
traffic. Our original estimate was based on information we'd received from the State and
we'd estimated a shortfall of about $550,000 in FY20 and in actuality, um, we should be
able to meet our revenue, our original revenue, uh, targets for FY20 and ... and not
experience a shortfall, uh, in this last fiscal year. Uh, for FY21, the State is still
projecting a (mumbled) in those road use tax revenues, however at a lower rate. Uh, so
we are projecting a six-month shortfall of 440,00, and a 12 -month shortfall of $880,000.
Uh, just to summarize that, we did not have a net revenue shortfall in 20. Uh, we had
however cut CIP spending, uh, that was funded with the road use tax revenues by
500,000. Uh, so that cut that we made for 20 actually should help cover some of our
shortfall that we're projecting in 21. Um, DOT did, uh, or does have an estimate of, uh,
10% shortfall in those road use tax revenues, uh, for next year. Uh, we are gonna keep
reviewing these monthly to ensure that they're coming in, uh, at that rate or above, and
that, uh, CIP cut we made should cover that first six months of 21; however, uh, you
know, looking forward to the second half of 21, if the situation, uh, stays the way it is, uh,
further cuts, uh, and spending changes, uh, may be necessary. Uh, for the parking fund,
uh, this is .... actually the fund was probably impacted the most of these funds we're
gonna talk about, as .... as, uh, parking enforcement had cased back in March and April,
uh, we saw a dramatic decrease in revenues. Um, at the time we ... we estimated a revenue
shortfall of about $1.8 million for the last, uh, three and a half months of the fiscal year.
Um, and our actual shortfall was around $1.5 million as we had resumed enforcement and
collection, uh, throughout the month of June. Um, for FY21, uh, we're still lookin' at a
revenue shortfall of about $1.5 million, uh, primarily from .... from hourly parking. Uh,
and that would translate into a 12 -month loss of about $2.7 million. Uh, to summarize
that, uh, we did have a shortfall of (mumbled) about 1.5 million. Uh, we did manage to,
uh, use cash on hand to pay off the Harrison Street parking ramp, uh, lease. Uh, this
(mumbled) parking fund set coverage requirements, so that is no longer an issue, uh, for
the parking fund. That also freed up the parking fund use restrictions, uh, that were in
place because of that lease, and also this added about $80,000 a month of ...of net cash
flow, uh, to the parking system. Um, so the .... the parking fund did (mumbled) uh,
behind, uh, where it normally would. Uh, we ... through expenditure cuts and CIP cuts, we
did manage to cover about 50% of...of that lost revenue. Um, and the remainder of that
would have been taken out of fund balance, uh, or cash balances. Um, and we are
projecting losses for moving into 2021. Uh, we are monitoring these revenues weekly to
see what is goin' on. Uh, we feel that we may still have a structural deficit in the parking
fund, um, so we're keeping a close eye on it and um, it is possible that we may need to
make additional expenditure cuts or other changes down the road in the parking system.
Uh, the transit fund, uh, this is one that, you know, as .... as, uh, as people quit goin' to
work and ... and transportation slowed, uh, bus routes were altered. Uh, we did see a
reduction in bus fares and bus pass revenue. Uh, in addition we saw a reduction in the,
uh, parking charges and parking revenues for the Court Street Transportation Center,
which falls under the ... the transit system. Um, so for the bus fares and passes, we'd
estimated about $350,000 of lost revenue. Uh, in actuality we came up short about
$270,000. And in the Court Street parking ramp, we'd estimated a loss of about
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$222,000 and the actual shortfall came in about 84,000. So our total losses in FY20, uh,
for the transit fund, uh, we estimated 573,000. It actually came in about ... $356,000. And
then looking, uh, towards FY21, uh, for those bus fares and passes, uh, they continue to
come in at lower .... lower rate. Uh, we expect that to come in about $510,000 short in,
uh, through December and for 12 months that would translate into just over a million.
Uh, for the parking ramp, uh, we had come in short around $230,000 for six months, and
about 400,000 for the 12 -month period. Uh, so total impact in the transit fund of about a
$740,000 loss. Uh, in the first six months of the year and in the second half, or the total
of the year would be about $1.4 million, and so, um, although we are experiencing
revenue shortfalls in the transit system, uh, the transit fund was the beneficiary of, uh, of
the CARES Act. It received federal funding of $5.1 million to, uh, deal with the, uh,
COVID-19 pandemic and so for that FY20 we will use the CARES Act funding to cover
that shortfall. Uh, we also anticipate using that CARES Act funding to cover those
revenue losses in 21 and um, it is possible that... that... remainder of that CARES Act
funding could be used in future fiscal years as well. Uh, the water fund, uh, is the last
fund we'll talk about, um, that we expected to see impacts, uh, these major impacts from
the COVID-19 pandemic, um ... uh, we ... if this continued in enforcement and collection,
uh, of unpaid utility bills, um, back in March at that time. Um, so we're seeing
(mumbled) anticipated seeing reduced revenues from late fees and other shut-off notices,
um, we're anticipating lower water consumption as .... as business activity slowed, um,
and we also were ... the Council approved to delay the July 1" 5% rate increase, uh,
through October 1'. So for our FY20, uh, impact, uh, those late fees were estimated at
$140,000 shortfall, uh, actual shortfall was about 133,000; and then, uh, for reduced
water consumption, we were estimating a $210,000 shortfall; actually we will not have a
shortfall in that, uh, as primarily because Procter and Gamble has not slowed their water
usage, uh, at their health and beauty care production facility to the extent we were
anticipating. Uh, so the total impact on the water fund, uh, originally was estimated at
350,000, uh, actually came in, uh, currently at 133,000. Um ... so for FY21, uh, if we were
to discontinue collective practices, uh, for the next six months we would anticipate losing
$240,000 of revenue and if we were to continue that practice through the end of the fiscal
year and we would estimate a loss of about $475,000 of revenue. Uh, same if we delayed
the 5% rate increase through the end of the year, uh, we would lose $220,000 of revenue
and if we, uh, carried that through the end of the fiscal year we would lose about
$450,000 of revenue. Those total impacts amount to 460 over six months and 925,000
over a 12 -month period. Um, so to give you an idea of the past -due accounts that we
are ... are not pursuing. Right now there's a total of 932 past -due accounts that total just
over $156,000 of revenue. Um, and right now we've been the beneficiary of, uh,
continued, uh, water usage beyond our expectations at Procter and Gamble, and that was
able to absorb, uh, any other pumpage short flow ... flows or those past -due accounts. Um,
for FY21 however we are going to continue to monitor these revenues on an ongoing
basis. Um, if the Procter and Gamble usage does start to slow, uh, it is slowing, but if it
begins to slow at the pace that we originally thought and you couple that with these other
revenue losses, uh, it is possible we could experience stress on our bond coverage, um, so
we'll be .... definitely wanna be mindful, um, to maintain those coverages for our water
revenue bonds. Other revenue issues that we are experiencing, um, as I mentioned
property tax collections were coming at a later rate, um, for FY20. Right now we've
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collected just over 90%, um, of our property taxes. It's not uncommon that we collect,
um, right around 100%. And, uh, you know, this was primarily due to delayed late
penalties, uh, that the State has imposed, and also they have canceled or at least delayed
the property tax sale. Um, and so right now we currently have about $1.1 million in
uncollected property taxes for fiscal year 20. And that is across all property tax supported
funds. And if this situation were to persist into fiscal year 21, um, this could have a .... a
substantial impact on property tax supported funds, such as employee benefits, debt
service, uh, the transit system, um, and the .... the general fund of course. Um, we're also
seeing lower sewer revenues. This is primarily due to, uh, water usage at the University
of Iowa. Um, they produce their own water, but they pay us a sewer fee and we have
seen a decline in that revenue. Um, we're going to continue to monitor this, uh see if
this trend is going to persist, and then of course evaluate the consequences. Uh, the
sewer fund was and is relatively healthy, uh, and has a healthy, uh, bond coverage on
their .... on their sewer revenue bonds, and so, uh, there's no real threat at this time as far
as them not meeting, uh, the requirements of their bonds. Um, our interest income
revenues are dropping and this is pretty much across the board. Uh, the federal funds rate
has declined to near zero percent, um, so we .... are seeing a very ... lower rates returned in
our money markets, uh, we do still have investments that we've purchased over the last...
year, year and a half that are maturing and have a higher rate of return; however those are
being renewed at a much, much lower rate of return, and this, uh, loss of revenue's going
to really impact pretty much most of the operating funds of the city. Uh, so just give you
a brief summary of. ... of everything. Uh, general fund is experiencing broad-based
revenue declines. Right now we'll be able to manage that through expenditure cuts and
spending freezes. Uh, the road use tax fund, the State is projecting a 10% revenue
shortfall. We're going to continue to monitor this, uh, we believe the initial cut we made
should carry us through, uh, the end of the calendar year, uh, but after that, um, it is
possible we may need to do more work there. Uh, the parking fund is .... continues to be
stressed financially. Uh, we are monitoring this weekly. Uh, it may require further
intervention. Uh, the transit fund is having an experienced... or experiencing a drop in
revenues. Uh, due to the CARES Act funding however, um, it should be able to mitigate
those revenue shortfalls in the transit fund. And in the water fund, we are having, uh,
lower late fee revenues, uh, and not collecting any shut-off notice revenues. Um, we did
delay the 5% rate increase that was set for July I", uh, for three months. However, due to
Procter and Gamble, uh, consuming water at a higher rate than we had estimated, uh, last
year, uh, that has been able to mitigate those revenue losses at this time. However, we're
gonna continue to monitor to see that Procter and Gamble, if they start to fall off, then...
then that could cause us an issue. And I will try to answer whatever questions you might
have.
Weiner/ Um, Dennis, could you just quickly explain to me again the ... the bond issue with water
please?
Bockenstedt/ Sure, um, we issue water revenue bonds and sewer revenue bonds and essentially
those are bonds that are payable with those revenue sources, uh, are being pledged to
repay them. So in lieu of using property taxes or pledging the full faith credit of the City,
we pledge those water bond holders that we will, uh, maintain water revenue at a level
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that's sufficient to repay those bonds. And usually when we talk about coverage, they
want us to have our revenues, uh, exceed our expenses by more than the actual amount of
the bond payment, and in this case it's 110% of that bond payment that we need to
maintain.
Weiner/ Thanks very much!
Bergus/ I have a question that might be more for, um, Geoff and Dennis, I'm not sure, but could
either of you provide a little bit of insight into what the expenditure cuts and spending
freezes in the general fund really entail, like what does that look like as far as service
delivery from the City?
Bockenstedt/ Well, um, as far as the service delivery goes, urn, the one (mumbled) that is the
most impacted was our Parks and Recreation fund. Um, most of the essential operations
have been maintained; however, uh, as, you know, programming has been discontinued,
you know, those revenues have fallen off, but then so have a lot of the expenses that...
that are connected with those revenues. Um, you know, also it was late in the fiscal year,
we pretty much had cut all the travel and training expenses for the remainder of the fiscal
year, um, we did also have some .... some large consulting, uh, line items, or budget ... line
items that .... that we were able to cut and .... and not utilize, um, and then there was a
variety of other smaller cuts that departments identified, urn .... and then, uh, there was
some vacant positions we did not fill and Geoff may be able to speak, uh, more to those,
um, and then of course we had a ... a large contingency that we ... we budget every year 1 %
of our general fund expenses, um, and we had a ... a healthy portion of that remaining that
we were able to use to offset some of that revenue loss as well.
Fruin/ In terms of, uh, positions, um, we have gone forward and filled a number of positions, but
I .... I have held some back. Um, Council may recall with the fiscal year 21 budget you
approved several new positions, uh, and several of those positions I just haven't filled
yet. Typically we would have the authority to do so as of July I", the start of the fiscal
year, uh, but in this case I've held back the third climate action position, which was more
of the ... the data analyst, uh, type of...of position for our climate action team. Uh, so
instead of a three-person team, right now we have a two -person team. Um, also held
back, uh, the two new Forestry workers in Parks and Rec that were approved as part of
the budget. Um, and, uh, hoping to fill those, uh, as we progress through the fiscal year,
but until we have a .... a better handle on our, um, our financial situation, I just felt it was
best not to put people in those positions if there's a ... if there's a risk that we would have
to eliminate positions going forward. Uh, and then we also have a few vacant police
officer positions right now that, uh, that are not being filled. Um, as new positions
become vacant due to retirements or .... or people moving on, uh, for other opportunities,
I'll take a look at those and if we can either delay or, um, altogether not fill that position
until things stabilize, we'll do that.
Salih/ How much has been budget for the ... temporary employees that, who are not using it right
now?
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Bockenstedt/ Um, I ... as far as ... you know we did pay, uh, the temporary employees I believe
through May, uh, even though they were not working we were maintaining those .... it
might have been the middle of May, we were still maintaining those ... those salaries. Um,
I ... I do not have an exact figure as far as ... at that point what we are saving in temporary
wages. A lot of those are tied to, uh, the programming that would have been provided,
um, I can get that figure for you, however, um, you know, because when we lose that
revenue we also lose all the programming costs attached to that revenue, such as when
they, uh, the City Park pool did not open up, um, you know that's all that revenue we're
not getting from the park pool. It's also all the expenses and the staffing that, uh, is being
cut as well, but .... I can get you a more detailed figure on that.
Salih/ Sure! Please. And do we see like more increase of residentials water bill? Because to be
honest with you my water bill's going high (laughs) than normal because the kids staying
home.
Bockenstedt/ Uh, that's certainly possible, you know, the... the.... the commercial, we anticipated
loss of, uh, water consumption due to business closures. It is quite possible that some of
that was picked up through an increase in residential usage for more people havin' to eat
at home.
Teague/ (mumbled) deficits projected, is there any thoughts of -borrowing funds to help us
through this time, um, because I ... right now I hear that we're holdin' positions, which for
the climate action in my...I mean I understand it, urn, but the climate action is somethin'
that's critical, that Council wants to do, um, so have we thought about .... any other
options for makin' it through this time, as far as borrowin' money? I know that's not the
optimal idea, but has there been any discussion on that?
Bockenstedt/ Well I ... I don't know that we would want to go to the extent where we'd actually
have to borrow funds, uh, primarily because we do have, um, we do have an emergency
reserve, and we do have, uh, a large fund balance, um, in our general fund, and in some
of our other funds, and so, um, I would not anticipate that we would need to borrow
funds. Part of the challenge with this pandemic is ... is nobody knows when the end is
coming. So ... um, you know, if we .... we knew there was kind of a .... a better beginning
and an end, we could plan for that, uh, without knowing when the end is going to be, and
the .... the lost revenue could be prolonged. It's difficult to know exactly, um, you know,
when that deficit spending would end, and when there's .... you don't have an exit plan
when you create deficit spending, um, down the road it can create a rather large problem
in the future. So, um, you know, if we get kind of an idea of when this would come to an
end, we could do a planned spend down of ...of fund balance, uh, and then kind of
hopefully, you know, transition that into a soft landing, um, however, with no idea when,
you know, revenues would resume or what the future looks like, that makes it much more
difficult to ... to plan, uh, for how, uh, we would use that fund balance and strategically, uh,
fund positions, um, because we don't know when those revenues will resume that would
pay for them.
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Salih/ If we can go back, you was projecting the loss and... until... the end of the 21, uh.... fiscal
year or....
Bockenstedt/ That's correct. Uh, the 21 fiscal year, and that's just kind of a rough idea, I mean a
lot of these are rough ideas because we really don't know (laughs) what's gonna happen,
and for a while there, back in March and April, it seemed like on a daily basis things were
changing, um, and then on top of that, you know, we could not control the actions that the
State were taking in regards to property tax, uh, delaying late penalties and delaying the
property tax sale, and so there .... there have been things that have been out of our control.
Um, in addition, you know, um, there was talk of federal funding, uh, to assist local
governments, uh, that is ... really been hit or miss, you know, we've received some things
such as CDBG and Home, um, you know, public housing, but then there's other areas,
such as parking and our general operations that ... that have received nothing. Um .... so
it's the kind of environment that just makes it really difficult to .... to know what to do and
....and, so that.....those projections really are just ... just rough projections because, you
know, things could start back up in three months or they could be shut down for, you
know, another year. Uh, we still don't know.
Salih/ Thank you.
Thomas/ So, Dennis, on the, uh, water rate increase, the 5%, do we have any sense of when we
might consider putting that increase into effect?
Bockenstedt/ Well right now it is, uh, that delay has been delayed through October 111. Um, we
are talking about some other forms of. ... of relief, urn .... you know, for utility bills, and
um, and... and late fees and penalties. Um, you know, at this time, you know, we are ... we
are still sticking with the October I It, uh, resumption, um, or collection and procedures
and that ... that, um ... uh, the rate increase, however, you know, between now and October
111 anything could happen and ... and, uh, those things are really still up for discussion.
Frain/ I think on that note we probably wanna revisit that, um, maybe at your second meeting in
...in August, or your first meeting in September, to see if...if that is something you wanna
progress with or if we wanna push it off further. Um, as Dennis indicated in his
presentation, uh, the revenues have come in a little better than we expected on that. So,
um, my sense is that we might be able to ... to push that a little bit, but I think we'd all like,
uh, another month or so of..of data, uh, to help inform that decision.
Thomas/ One .... one thing that I would be (garbled) is seeing, uh, considering the .... the rate
increase, if we had, uh, rate discounts for those who need financial assistance. And I
don't know what percentage of our water users would.... would, uh, be able to pay that,
you know, we wouldn't be too concerned with that 5% increase, which... where we would
be concerned, but um, you know, I ... I'm .... I'm interested in seeing if we can do the
increase while at the same (garbled) place, uh, lower rates for those who need them.
Salih/ I really disagree with you, John, because he just said over 900 people they are not even
pay their bill (mumbled) and uh, that will tell us exactly there is a lot people are suffering,
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and uh, we don't wanna make like another burden on them, and even, uh, on the
(mumbled) I was trying to ask also, uh, if we can continue not shutting the water for
people, and not giving them like also fee, late fee. Is that still going to happen or...you
know, and I really encourage not to increase the water right now if we can postpone it,
because as ... just from your report, over 900, almost thousand.... 1,000 families did not
even pay it.
Bockenstedt/ Yeah (mumbled) you know the Council can at their discretion decide, uh, you
know, how they wanna handle those items. Um, you know, the one thing that we pay
attention to, as well as ensuring that we meet the covenants that we pledged to our bond
holders, um, and so as long as we're able to meet those bond covenants, we really... really,
um, are able to .... to do with fees and rates and collections as ... as we wish. Um .... and so
that's really up to the Council's discretion. Uh, we have made pledges to those, uh, bond
holders, um, that we would meet certain covenants and we would meet certain
contractual demands, and so those were the items that .... that we pay close attention to,
um, and then of course, um, you know, just as far as just cash flow in the fund and then,
you know, capital replacement, um, some of those things, uh, might slow a bit, such as
water main replacement, uh, you know, infrastructure at the water plant, and so there are
other considerations that .... that could come into play. Um, however, those are .... those
are priorities and discretions, um, and those bond covenants are contractual
commitments.
Salih/ Yeah, I really don't understand on those bond very good, but from the way that you
explain it, I guess they should know that there is pandemic going on (laughs) and, uh,
maybe a lot of things not makin' us meet the needs, and maybe, uh, right now you see
like some bank, uh, you know, coming up with some like break for those people who
cannot, um, make a payment. I mean like just all the financial (mumbled) they doing a
lot to, you know, understand.... on understanding the, uh, the dynamic of the pandemic,
and since Iowa City, you know, they always, uh, make the standards. I hope there is
something there so it's not going to be really hard on, you know, on like—meeting the
requirement, and uh, I don't know what about using the ... it have to be maybe, it have to
be from the water usage and you have to show that you have the money, or we can use
emergency fund. I really don't understand on that, but I ... I believe regardless, uh, of, uh,
is this going to effective or how much you gonna pay for fee or how it look, it still....we
need to think about the Iowa City residents.... who cannot pay this right now.
Bockenstedt/ Well maybe a simple way to think about it is ... is, you know, um, you know the
bonds are .... it's a loan. It's like taking a mortgage out on your home, and um, you know,
if you fail to pay that mortgage, then it's gonna be harder to get a mortgage in the future.
So, you know, um, you know, the City has borrowed money and we've made a
commitment to repay it, and when we fail to ... to repay those or meet those covenants,
then it'll make it harder for the City to obtain those loans in the future if we need them,
and in which case we would pay a higher rate of interest to get them. So, urn, of course
(both talking) That's just one of the considerations of the many.
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Salih/ Sure, but don't you think as, uh, right now even if I don't pay my mortgage, uh, the bank
is understanding that I'm going through a tough time. They go back to my history and
see that I never miss a payment, and you know, also in the fixture. I think all this will
come.... supposed to come into consideration by those kind of people. I really am not ... I
don't have experience on doing that, but I ... I don't thinks we (garbled) ...have a lot of
effect on those if we are really maintaining this for long time and just given the fact that
this is pandemic, never happen before, and you know, maybe that's will help a little bit,
uh, not sure that's your area of experience (mumbled) say anything (mumbled) but that's
my two cents!
Fruin/ I might offer on ... on that. I think if, um, if...if the Council wants to prioritize the utility
relief through our own utilities, which .... which Dennis indicated is .... is, we're currently
about 150,000 behind in all utility accounts, maybe about 950 or so accounts. Um, we
would look to probably use, um, reserves to the extent that we can, but as soon as you get
close to those bond covenants, it's a big enough deal in a utility operation that I think
we'd wanna look towards other sources, like the emergency fund. So, um, I think what
we .... we look for as staff is Council direction to say utility relief is .... is most important
and .... and how you want to prioritize, uh, that relief, uh, and then we can figure out a
way to get that done. It .... it probably, I don't think we'd have much success working, uh,
with the bond holders on this particular case, but we certainly could look towards the
emergency fund or other internal sources to help bridge that gap.
Teague/ Geoff, were you going to kind of walk Council through some potential relief efforts that
Council can consider .... uh, similar to what you did the last time?
Fmin/ Yeah, I have the .... I have the same presentation. I didn't modify it, but I thought we could
revisit some of those points and we could .... we could talk through some of those issues.
Um, you know, it's ... the utilities is a good example. Just because we have 946 accounts
that are past due doesn't mean that we have 946 accounts that don't have the ability to
pay. When you announce... it's kinda like the property taxes. When you announce there's
not gonna be late fees and you announce that there's not going to be shut -offs, you will
get people that maybe have the ability to pay, um, but choose not to because
there's...there's no penalty. Um .... uh, so that gets into a question of how many, uh, how
much administration do you want around a program like this, do you want us to, uh, to go
through and try to verify need, uh, from all those 950 accounts? Um, or do we just
wipe ... wipe the slate clean and take their balances to zero, and then you get into issues of
people that have really been struggling to live day to day, um, but they have found
resources to pay their bills and ... and those people need relief too, even though they're
current. So there's a lot of equity issues to concern ... uh, to .... to consider when designing
a .... a utility relief program like this, and we can walk through some of that, um, maybe
after Tracy's done with her portion of the presentation tonight.
Teague/ Okay. Great! Any more questions for Dennis? All right, hearin' none! Thank you,
Dennis.
Bockenstedt/ Thank you!
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Fruin/ So with that, um, I'll introduce Tracy Hightshoe from Neighborhood and Development
Services and she just has a few slides to go through on our housing relief programs that
are available here locally.
Teague/ Welcome, Tracy!
Hightshoe/ Hello! Let me share my screen with you. Okay, do you see it?
Teague/ Not yet! There... it's comin' now!
Hightshoe/ (both talking) now?
Teague/ Yes!
Hightshoe/ Okay, great! Okay, so I wanted to take you through the resources that we have
available in our area for COVID relief. Um, it will not be comprehensive. I'm focusing
on those funds available for housing assistance to maintain housing. So this doesn't
include all the funds that we ... we received to get folks out of shelter or depopulate
shelters. Um, it also doesn't include all the multiple agencies and foundations who may
have allocated money to employees, clients, families in need. So I'm basically focusing
on the government response and basically United Way, urn, for emergency housing costs.
Um, the first major program that came out to assist folks in Iowa was the IFA's, the Iowa
Finance Authority's Iowa, um, Eviction Prevention and Eviction and Foreclosure
Prevention program. They allocated 20 million across the state. Um .... for renters they
capped assistance at 3,200. You could get up to four months of assistance, as long as you
stayed under 3,200, and for mortgage relief, it was up to 3,000. There were some
caveats. You have to only apply online. You go out there, you answer these 12 to 13
questions. If you're eligible you can proceed. If you're not, you're not. Um,
undocumented residents aren't eligible. People who have received the stimulus
unemployment, that $600 payment. They weren't eligible. So ... eligibility is limited, but
we are encouraging folks in our community that if you are eligible, apply there first,
because of...amount of funds that are available. The City has always been expecting that,
um, since COVID .... since COVID came out, HUD announced that they would allocate
the City 410,422 for, um, COVID relief. We met earlier back in May. We submitted an
annual action plan amendment to 14UD that basically had 60% of that going to direct aid
to households. We also went up to 3,200 up to three months. CDBG funds only allow up
to three months in emergency payments. Um, we're contracting with Community
Services. We just entered that contract this week. We got HUD's contract with us the
week before. Um .... Community hopes to start providing this service as of this next
upcoming Monday. Due to the delay that we knew we'd have from the time that we were
notified of the federal funds and to the time that we thought we could actually utilize the
funds, we allocated 50,000 to Shelter House to start a program, back in early June, to
provide assistance much like we would with Community, but limit it to two months cause
we were hoping that was the time frame that we would have the federal funds. Those....
um, like I said we entered that contract with Shelter House early June. As of July 20a',
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they've assisted 19 households and spent 8,000, a little over 8,000. They have 36,000
remaining. Um, they've been working to do outreach. They're partnering with Commun
....Center for Worker Justice. They've been on site, um, I believe three times to date.
Center for Worker Justice has helped with translation and they've helped with, um,
scheduling appointments. Shelter House does look at the impact on COVID on families
and they've been flexible in documenting that need. I think Mark said for one family, the
way they documented was they called the employer. They asked if he'd been working.
They said yes, but they didn't have the work. So they just documented that phone call
and they were able to assist that household with benefits. I wanted to mention besides the
Shelter House and Community funds, we did allocate 70,000 to Community Crisis
Services back in February to help with our security deposit program. That was part of
your assistance in the affordable housing fund ... that actually was really helpful during the
COVID as we tried to depopulate those shelters, cause we were using some of those
funds for security deposit, for people to get out of shelter. Um, as of ...the end of June,
they had spent 34,000. They have 35,000 remaining, and then the last program to
highlight is Johnson County. They recently agreed, they allocated 40,000 to the Center
for Worker Justice, to help with their, um, their program that provides up to 600 to
families in need, primarily immigrants and refugees. Iowa City, you'll be reviewing their
request for 25,000 tonight, and in this program, eligible expenses would include that rent,
mortgage, utilities, food, healthcare, and childcare. As far as CARES Act funding goes
for utilities (mumbled) um, received an extra 365,000 for our area. The administering
agency is HACAP. So HACAP provides, uh, regular assistance and then due to the
CARES Act funding, you get a .... you get up to (garbled) $1,000... for those funds. Then
there's funds that the local community received for either, I call it specific needs or
targeted households. So the Veterans Administration provided 650,000 for the rent and
utilities. That is going through HACAP. Um, that funding ends as of July 31", I believe,
and I'm not sure if that will be renewed. Shelter House was informed that they would get
another 677,000 through the CARE Act for rapid rehousing and homeless prevention.
They've not determined what mix they'll dedicate to rapid rehousing and what will be for
homeless prevention, or the service territory. So due to our City funds or the CDBQ um,
that are available to Iowa City residents, they might prioritize those folks in Johnson
County that do not live in Iowa City. But we don't know yet. Um, they've not
announced the funding parameters there. And then our local Housing Authority received
extra money through the CARES Act to cover the increases as people were filing those
notice of, um, changes of income forms. We hadn't increased our payments to the
landlord to make up for that, so we received extra funds, um, for the .... those, the extra
needs, and we also received 18 additional vouchers, urn .... they're called Main Street
Housing Vouchers. They're for persons experiencing homeless with a disabling
condition. So ... we .... we have those and we started to implement those. During this time
United Way has been, um, fundraising. They provided $818,000 to assist 154 households
in Johnson and Washington County. However, unfortunately the no longer .... they don't
have funds available any longer. Um, for the good news, the City does expect an
additional 686,000 from the State. Um, instead of being directly routed to us to ... through
HUD, they are going through the State. We've not been told, um, if there is any extra
requirements or limitations on those funds. The last time I spoke with the State they said
their amendment is with HUD, they're reviewing it. Once that goes through that process,
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we expect that money. I'm hoping by that time we can see how the funds are going
through our local entities, you know, like Community Crisis Services and Shelter House,
to determine where we need the funds. Also we will be ... um, releasing an application this
week for non -profits to apply. We have to, I believe, 160 -some thousand for non -profits
impacted by COVID that focus on homeless, childeare, mental health, and food. Um,
we'll have a two to three-week application window. We'll get those applications in, and
then we'll make our funding recommendations to the City Manager. So we have those
funds up and coming. They're going out. What we find odd, or...you know, during this
pandemic it's a learning curve for everybody, um, speaking to Johnson County Social
Services that... and it was common with a lot of providers, that the assistance requests are
down, and some of those might be like their gas and electric assistance are down. Maybe
that's because there's extra LIHEP money that they (garbled) people too. Um, but there's
several reasons why that might be. Um, it might be the receipt of stimulus funds, the
extra unemployment benefits, loans, people might be puttin' it on credit cards, but from
the social service providers that I've spoke to, they do ex ... they do expect that once the
CARES Act unemployment benefits end, and the eviction moratorium ends, they're
gonna see a spike in requests and that's when, uh, people will start coming to our local
community and our local providers, asking for assistance. That's a summary of what I
know that's available in the community right now and when we'll release it. Does
anybody have any questions?
Salih/ Yes, I have a question. Uh, what about the months, uh, because we spoke about, I don't
know, I spoke to Geoff I guess, uh, about the .... the months of, uh, July, is the Shelter
House still able now to ... because I know that it was April, May, and June. (both talking)
Hightshoe/ Their agreement just says anything after April 151, but it has to be in arrears. So if
they got a request in June, they couldn't pay for July because rent was not late yet.
Salih/ No (both talking, garbled) now I mean, now is ... (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ....they could have, yes.
Salih/ Uh, okay, and just, uh, I'm gonna be honest with you here. Uh, just given the fact that
they use only 8,000, uh, I think .... like (garbled) opinion on that, uh, this is, uh, because
of the difficult that people reach out this program. I know that they, you know, both
people who come at the Shel... from the Shelter House to CWJ, everyone is saying they
are amazing. They done a very good job talking to people. They tried (unable to
understand) as much as they can, but the problem is ... they .... they take 45 minute with
each person, and they come here at 10:00 and they leave by 4:00. Divide that time into
45 minute, once a week, a lot people have to go and without applying. A lot people call,
uh, you know, call in the Shelter House (garbled) like two, uh, week or something like
that, you know. It is very difficult. I'm not like accusing the Shelter House by any means
because they don't have a lot of maybe staff to handle, uh, this capacity, you know, this a
lot people who came, uh, to apply for this, and also the language barrier and everything.
For example, tomorrow they are coming here, uh, but they already sent us a list for the
people that they gonna meet here for each time and we have like few spot to enter some
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names that we can do, and we have a lot people. We don't have a spot for them to meet
them. Uh, I .... I just, you know, really this has been difficult for the people and we need
to see a way that we can expand the services, uh, to the people who really need it, before
Community even come, because now it take people a week to wait so they can meet
person-to-person, and now they cannot meet because there is no spot for them. It take 4'
minute per person. (several talking, garbled)
Hightshoe/ Um, Shelter House does do a comprehensive assessment. I ... what we were finding
when they first reported their benefits is that they.... they.... they do might take some
time, but they're also looking to see what other programs people can qualify for, and that
does take sometime. So it's not just they're looking at this assistance, but I know
they've made referrals over to General Assistance. They've made referrals over to
different programs that they know. Um .... but since Shelter Shen ... House is not here to
talk about it, urn .... we can have them respond. Um, might not ... it won't be tonight, but
we could have them provide a memo.
Salih/ I'm just gonna tell you right now, I'm .... I'm telling you experience. That's okay if you
don't believe me, uh, but that's what they told me when I ask `em why they take. They
are doing great job. They are not only referring people to another services, they are
actually applying for people for a state program if you are eligible (garbled) and say hey,
go and apply online, they sit there and physically help those people apply for that
program. I been seeing them, I know what they doing, but I'm just saying that one day a
week here at the Center for Worker Justice is not enough for them to do their work,
taking application over phone because you have to provide, uh, you have... first they take
application over phone but you have to somehow send all your documentation. They are
doing, they went far and beyond to accommodate people by (garbled) just send it to me to
my phone maybe, you just .... send me a picture of your documentation to my phone, text
it to me instead of I come. They went far and beyond to do staff. They don't have to
defend themself, but it still they are short of staff. That what I mean. They only two
people doing this here. I don't know at the Shelter House how many people is doing that,
but you call only .... I call myself. They will tell me I have to talk to Dina and I have to
leave a message and other people also, they came here so I can put a message for them so
they don't speak English. We have to do that. That's something from my personal
experience. You can.....they can respond, but those are obstacles. Uh, if they want to
respond differently, they can respond differently and I can prove the ... the opposite, but I
don't think so because I hear that from them. They told me take them for fact 45 minute
for one person because they have to do all this, and they try to hurry up. Sometime they
give me the application, I give it to the people, fill out the application. By the time you
go there just ... they will go over it again so we can expedite the process. But that's what is
going on right now, and they are doing a fantastic job. No doubt!
Teague/ I think I would like to (garbled) definitely see whatever, uh, maybe a memo from them
to maybe highlight some of the great things about the program, as well as some of the
challenges that they face. That might be good for Council to know. The other thing I
wanted to mention is the City expects the 686,000 from the CDBG, um, I don't know
what the CB funds mean. What does CB mean?
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Hightshoe/ City development block grant and then the coronavirus has a special initial that they
attach on. It's...
Teague/ Okay (laughs) That makes sense!
Hightshoe/ Yeah, that's how they identify it separate from our regular entitlement funds.
Teague/ Just when I thought I knew all of the little, uh, acronyms (laughs) and there's one more
in there. Um ... but I .... with the 686,000 I understand that we don't have the, all of the
re ... the requirements for the funds, but do you anticipate that any of these funds will be
able to be backdated to funds we've already released or would it be movin' forward?
Hightshoe/ If it's anything like our regular CDBG funds, the waiver, it goes back to once the ... the
pandemic started. But I .... I don't know what the State will require. Um, until I get the
requirements, urn .... I'm assuming no, I mean you can't duplicate benefits, so if our
program's already paid for someone to have their April, May, and June rent paid, no, they
can't get it done again. But they could be eligible for July, August. Um, I ... well.... I
don't know because the community development block grant program only allows you
three months of assistance. So I don't know if. ... just because it's through the State
allocation if you can double ... if you can .... if you can do more than three months. I'd
have to find out.
Teague/ Okay.
Salih/ (mumbled) doing more than three months. I have somebody who get paid for April, May,
June, and August.
Hightshoe/ Not .... not with the .... (both talking) community development block grant funds?
Salih/ No, no, I'm talkin' about the State fund.
Hightshoe/ Oh yeah, yeah, you can have up to four months. Um, it's not CDBCT. It's not ... it's
State funded. It's not through HUD. But the community development block grant fund
has that limitation that you can only pay up to three months.
Salih/ Oh, you talkin' about the one that not start yet, at the Community.
Hightshoe/ Yes, yes.
Salih/ Okay. And do you know when it's going to start, because I call them and they said
(mumbled)
Hightshoe/ Um, I talked to ... I keep callin' `em Crisis Center. I called Community Crisis
Services, I spoke with, um, Sarah today. We hope to go live on Monday.
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Salih/ Oh! Good! And, uh, if somebody was receiving $600, the unemployment, and for any
reason, you know, this days we hear a lot people (garbled) they receive the
unemployment, uh, for a certain time, and after that they just disconnected from them,
and they came and they even ask them to pay everything back because the employer that
they was workin' on, they protested. So you are not eligible, so you pay everything back.
How those people will be eligible if they say yes, we receive it for certain time?
Hightshoe/ What Community Crisis Center will look like .... you just have to show COVID
impacts. So you have to show that somehow, however they wanna do that, is that their
income was lower. Their household income of all the adults in their house was lower
after COVID. And however they wanna do that, and even if they got the unemployment
benefits, if they were .... they have 20 bucks less in .... income than they did before, then
they would be eligible. We don't (garbled) assistance. We just have to show that their
income now is less than it was.
Salih/ What about the people who been, uh, impacted before the COVID-I9 and they still
impacted by any (garbled) and they are low-income and they are not making any.
Hightshoe/ You have to show it was directly due to COVID for the federal funds. So we're only
getting the money due to COVID. So somehow you'd have to document that the reason
you have less money than before is due to COVID. So it might not be that we can help
you with federal funds.
Salih/ Even if you are (mumbled) job during this time? Because of the COVID?
Hightshoe/ We can ask, I just don't .... you have to show COVID impact. So if you ... I mean
maybe if you just left your job, but if you haven't had a job for seven months and then
COVID impacted, I don't know how we would verify that there's been a COVID impact.
Salih/ I really don't know what can we do for those kind of residents, you know, like for example
I, two household who are making, uh, 3,000, uh, 4,000 total before COVID and for the
COVID (mumbled) they now making 3,500. They lost like 500. They showing COVID
impact, and another person he made zero and he struggle, and now they make zero and
they are not eligible, because even during (mumbled) other person (mumbled) 3,500,
showing there is impact of 500. You know, if there is a way that the money at the Shelter
House will be for, you know, the rest of the money could be for those people who are
really low .... very low-income. They are not, uh, they couldn't pay their rent or anything.
Since every resident are benefiting somehow, how can we make those people are benefit
too, you know.
Hightshoe/ That I don't know, urn.... obviously we're not gonna have enough for everybody, so
we have to figure out some way to prioritize. We'll have to discuss that.
Salih/ We don't have enough for everyone. When it finish, it finish, you know, like now in our
programs, since donation page and now we have second amount, first come, first serve,
and that's how it is, you know. I ... I don't thinks we have to have for everyone, especially
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those like it's not going to be like a lot of cases (mumbled) same way like undocumented
people and comparing them to the people who can apply for another, you know,
programs. There are a lot people qualify for another programs and ... (mumbled) people
who are not. So .... well we need to talk seriously about those people really, uh, because if
are providing help, uh, you know, and uh, we are restricted by federal, uh, law, uh, let us
just, uh, implement the value of us, of the City. How can we help those people who
are ... their income is really low and they are not even making ends meet, and how can we
help `em, if we still have, uh, out of 50,000, we spend only 8,000?
Teague/ What I might say is, um, when Geoff maybe gives his overview, um, because this
program here is really with some restrictions, um, because of the CDBQ maybe we'll be
able to get into, um ... talkin' about some of the individuals that are impacted by COVID,
but you know, for the example they didn't have a job, um, prior to COVID. COVID, now
they can't get a job to show loss of income, but I think we can have that conversation
here, um, sometime with, uh, maybe durin' the time of Geoff. Any other questions for
Tracy?
Bergus/ Tracy, I think we highlighted the challenge of these different programs, different sources
of relief and what Mayor Pro Tern was talking about with, urn, Shelter House taking a
good amount of time with individuals to ensure that they have all the opportunities that
might be available to them, do you feel like we're doing what we can or do you have
recommendations for making sure that a given individual in the community knows about
all the different opportunities, is there any way to streamline that with, you know, if they
come looking at one program, to ensure that every point of contact they'll have the
opportunity to learn about everything.
Hightshoe/ What we're find when Shelter House first started, um, we didn't advertise, we didn't
do a huge marketing effort for the Shelter House funds cause we were relaying on
referrals because we were hoping that our federal funds would come through.... faster
than what they did. Um, what we're finding from Shelter House is that out of a hundred
phone calls, maybe only 10 knew about the State's program. So getting that information
out that, you know, first go ... go apply and if you're not eligible then. So our ...our priority
order, and we're going to start marketing this and we're start gonna .... we're gonna push
this out to the community, um, the flyer that's been made basically says there is
emergency housing available, contact first, you know, go online, take .... take the ... the
checklist to see if you're eligible. If you are, apply. If not contact Community Crisis
Services and then they will go through. Um, we have it with Omnilink (mumbled)
translate into different languages just the flyer so that we can start getting that
information out. Um, so basically after you take the State's checklist and if you're
determined not eligible, you come to Community Crisis Services. They will help and
there's also ... it's not just about assistance. It's about knowing all the programs in the
community that help you and they refer you out. If they can't help you due to the federal
requirements about documentation, they're gonna send you to Shelter House, and if you
approve the money tonight for Center for Worker Justice, they're gonna send you there, if
that's appropriate. So we're hoping that triage, as of next week, starts with, you know,
folks ... go to IFA's website, they apply. If they're not eligible they go to Community
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Crisis Services, and then Community Crisis Services, if they can't help them then they
start directing them to different community resources that can. Is that .... does that answer
your question?
Salih/ But to be honest with you, a lot people don't know. I don't know! I'm in the City and I
don't know a lot (mumbled) I guess the way that we advertising (mumbled) improved no
doubt. Okay I know, Tracy, you are doing your best. You are trying to reach out even to
organization. I receive one of your email for that, uh, you know, for the Shelter House.
Nothing (mumbled) but I don't know but there is somehow maybe we need to translate
this to different language, so it (garbled) the people, and you know, I ... we have money to
translate, you know. We ... we can just pay somebody $30 an hour to translate for us, uh,
all this, uh, kind of (mumbled) put it on one sheet and make translation, uh, the people,
uh, they tend to grab the attention to the language they know better than like looking at
the paper they don't understand what's going on on it or you know also like when you
send text message (mumbled) like I have to copy and paste the link to the ... to the group,
and everybody call me back and say what this, and I will try to explain it again with that
or have to send a message in Arabic, uh, with the link and say this is this and that. So I
think we need to do like, uh, a better job in reaching out to the community, uh, with
translation material, if we can allocate money for translation. This is have to be budget
even in our budget every year. So we can reach out to the people that we cannot.
That's ... some kind of the equality that we looking for!
Weiner/ (mumbled) as far as I understand, I think Tracy had just said that they ...that they
translated some of the materials. I agree, we need to do that. We need to be pushing it
out to the community, in every way possible, and um, in ... in sort of...uh.... simple isn't the
correct word, but sort of basic information so that people then know where to go and seek
information or where to go and seek help.
Teague/ All right, any more items for Tracy?
Salih/ Thank you for everything you do! Really this is amazing, helping a lot of people. Thank
you!
Teague/ Thank you, Tracy. We'll go back to Geoff. Geoff, do you have any....
Fruin/ Yeah, Tracy, you wanna stop sharing your screen, I'll share mine. Um, I don't wanna talk
very long cause I .... you've only got a limited time left in your work session and I wanna
make sure that, uh... uh, that you can, um, discuss various types of relief. Um, so back
in ... in May, um, we discussed, uh, various types of, uh, economic response that we could
provide due to, uh, due to COVID. And, uh, I'm just gonna, um, bring that presentation,
uh, back up and, um .... walk you through a few pieces of that. I won't go through
everything here. Um .... so, um, one of the things that we talked about that I still feel is...
is very important for the Council to .... to consider are some .... are some guiding
principles, because as we're starting to see, your ...you've gotten some requests for relief.
Uh, Better Together has asked for funding. Center for Worker Justice has asked for
funding. Uh, Council, you've created the $50,000 program you just talked about. Um, I
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really think that that's going to continue to come your way, and you're gonna get one-off
requests for... for dollars, and there needs to be some framework established for, uh,
considering, um, considering how we're gonna spend our dollars so that they all work
together and they're coordinated. Um .... so these were seven principles that I presented
back in May as .... as a starting point, but this is really the foundation. You should, we
should identify exactly what ... what we wanna make sure that any relief effort, um,
accomplishes. And... and we don't need to work through this tonight, but I do encourage
you to carve out some time, uh, for discussion amongst yourself on whether these are the
right principles or not, urn ... uh, while there's other, uh... uh, items we need to consider.
Um, I don't want you to worry so much about, uh, the funding source, cause I think that
...you can get down some rabbit holes on funding sources. I think if you can articulate,
um, exactly, you know, what your priorities are, your staff is here and ... and Dennis and
the Finance team will ... will work to figure out the right source of funding, but as you can
see here, we do have several options, depending on the type of relief that, uh, the
Council's interested in. So back in May we talked about four different types ofrelief —
individual and household relief, non-profit relief, business, and ... and the economic
stimulus. Um, really my take -away from that meeting was that the Council's focus on the
time in May was that we probably need to be thinking about individual household relief
and non-profit support. Uh, so I wanna focus mostly on .... on those two tonight. This
slide is not updated from May, um, so there's all kinds of variety of different options you
can pursue, but what this slide attempted to show (mumbled) some things you probably
need to be thinking about, um, if you're going to be offering individual and household
relief and that's the ... the considerations piece or the ... the bullet points under the yellow
heading. Um .... we have to think about what we want those thresholds for eligibility to
be, and that's some of the things that you just, you know, some of the topics you've been
discussing the last couple of meetings is how many rules and regulations do you wanna
put on these funds, how accessible should they be, and yet how do we make sure that we
are, um, investing our dollars to ... to get to those who need it the most and that, uh, we
know that those dollars are ... are, um, going towards those critical, um, items that we
wanna help with, be it rent or utilities or whatever the case may be. And then as Tracy's
mentioned here, uh, the duplication of benefits is really important and you're already
startin' to see many different agencies facilitating, uh, administering different funds. We
really have to make sure that we have a system in place to where everybody's talking to
each other and we're .... we're not duplicating those benefits, cause as you just talked
about in your previous discussion, we don't have enough money to take care of
everybody's, uh... um, financial challenges. We have to make sure that every dollar we
spend, uh, goes as far as it can and is not duplicated. So from the water, uh, utility side,
um, we talked about shutoffs and late fees and some of the things that I .... I began to talk
about earlier today you need to think about. Uh, yes, we have 950 -plus accounts that are
behind, um, about 5% of those I think are on our, um, existing utility discount program.
Um, so do we wanna work with those folks that are on that utility discount program, uh,
or do we wanna wipe the slate clean for everybody that's late, um, do we want to, um,
really make a big push to expand our utility discount program right now? This is a great
opportunity for us to go out and market that program and get more people that are eligible
to .... to be signed up, and then allow them to accrue those benefits. To me that's an
example of something that'll have a long-term affect. You're not just helping someone
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for a month or two, but if you can get them on a program that they didn't know existed
and that they didn't know they could benefit from, you are helping them, uh... uh, next
year, the year beyond, uh, and as long as ... as long as they remain eligible, uh, going
forward. Um, the water rate increase we've talked about. Um, direct housing assistance.
Again, that's, uh, part of what's on your agenda tonight with the Center for Worker
Justice contribution, although it's not strictly, uh, for housing, it certainly would help, uh,
alleviate, uh, housing costs. We've talked about food security, childcare, transit, all these
things are, uh, are different things the City can do. These aren't recommendations from
staff, but we're trying to just paint a picture that there's all kinds of recovery options that
we can do. Um, some of them would be more urgent than others. Uh, we know that
housing is going to be urgent. We know that utilities are going to be urgent as soon as
there are, uh, shutoffs occurring, uh, as soon as there are eviction moratoriums that are
lifted, uh, things like that. We know that that's probably gotta be the most urgent and
that's probably where our most immediate focus is, but as we progress through this
pandemic and we ... we get actually through it and to a recovery phase, you could start
looking at things like transit rides, for example, uh, when people are more comfortable
riding on transit. Uh, it's a great opportunity for us to consider getting them, uh, getting
people back on the transit or introducing new people to transit, uh, through some type of
fare -free or discounted program. So again, some examples of...of individual and
household relief there. As I move to non-profit real quick, um, obviously the direct aid
is .... is occurring through some of our CDBG funds, uh, that we've received. Those are
limited funds, uh, you know, the amount that we're able to provide above and beyond
what you have already provided through your Aid to Agencies program isn't going to be
significant in the grand scheme of things. It's going to help, no doubt about it. The
agencies will be extremely grateful for getting it. Uh, but the problem, or the magnitude
of the problem is .... is much more significant than, uh, what we're able to, urn .... uh, fund
through those CDBG dollars. So you .... you're probably going to look at, uh, need to
look at, um, what the long-term needs are of the non-profit community and, urn .... one of
the things mentioned here is ... is certainly this is a great opportunity for us to continue to
look for ways to, um, gain long-term efficiencies with....with non-profit organizations,
whether that's finding partnerships that don't exist right now or funding, um,
organizations in a way that not only help them fill some immediate gaps in their services,
uh, and in their financials frankly right now, but are there other ways that we could fund
them that will, um, help them, um, for the foreseeable future too. And ... and those tend to
be creative discussions that are needed, but are there ... are there debt reduction strategies
that we could look at to help a non-profit that immediately takes some ... some burden off
their books, but also helps, um, them with their cash flow going forward. So again I'm
gonna .... I'm gonna leave it at that. There's a lot more detail in this, uh, presentation, um,
but, um, I wanna make sure you all have ample time to ... to discuss, uh, where your
priorities are right now.
Teague/ All right, Councilors, what are thoughts?
Weiner/ Uh, my initial thoughts are that .... our, at least for me, our priorities remain pretty much
the same, and we need to figure out how to organize as .... as Geoff was saying, how to
have a structure so that, um, so that we can focus on the people who are the hardest hit,
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um, on housing and utilities, and so that we can also focus, uh, to some extent on .... on
supporting the non -profits who are also supporting those people. To me the question is
how ...how we .... quickly and efficiently put, um, some structure in place so that we can
end up with a ... with workable framework going forward, cause we don't know how long t
his is gonna last, but we know that we want, um, people to stay in housing. We want
people to stay fed. Uh, and we want our very robust non-profit community to be able to
continue to function and help with that support.
Salih/ I just wanna throw out there that, uh, yeah, I .... I agree with you, Janice. Yeah, this is ... I'm
still also my priority remain the same, but I would like just to mention that the Affordable
Housing Coalition, they going to have a meeting on Friday, inviting all the housing non-
profit to talk about how the best to (mumbled) it, all the relief, and avoid, you know,
unneeded duplication. And I ... I thinks Tracy Hightshoe also is invited for that meeting,
and uh, I think this is will be like great cooperate where all those people will come
together and try to figure out how they can do this together so everybody will benefit out
of it.
Weiner/ I would hope that HCDC or people, representatives from HCDC could .... would be a
part of that as well.
Salih/ I guess help Sara hearing us and she will do that.
Bergus/ I would agree that my priorities remain the same as what we talked about a couple
months ago. Um, I also agree we need some kind of structure to facilitate being able to
respond quickly, with still some framework for understanding the requests that are
coming forward and making sure that they're, um, in line with these kind of guiding
principles that we've talked about, uh, a couple of times now and that I think we're all in
agreement on. Um, Geoff reminded me just.... maybe this morning (laughs) it was in the
last couple of days, that we have an emergency, um, funding request framework that was
developed, um, earlier this year, and so I ... I would recommend that we look at using that
for these kinds of requests, to help streamline and not reinvent the wheel every time
something comes forward. So I don't know if other people mem... remembered that
process or not, but if. ... if that framework or parts of that can be applied to the COVID
relief requests, I think that would be helpful.
Teague/ One of the things (both talking)
Mims/ Go ahead, Bruce!
Teague/ Oh! One of the things that I .... that I'm hearin' is that ..... we want .... we wanted to find
some time to talk about this, but you know, COVID's been here since March and .... we
need to get this on an agenda so that we can really spend some time and advocate, or...or
give direction as to how we're gonna, uh, fulfill our priorities. So if I'm hearin' at least
the, um, Mayor Pro Tem and, um, and I guess even Councilor Weiner and Bergus, they
mentioned that their priorities are there, which I would imagine is the individual
household relief and the not-for-profit is where we wanna focus our attention. I think we
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need to really carve out, um, time. Of course today we can't do it because we're runnin'
out of time here at our work session and then, uh, it's not on the formal agenda. So, I
might propose that next work session we actually ...um, talk about this in the work
session. It's hard to put anything on the formal agenda. I don't know if we wanna give,
uh, a .... a dollar amount, turn it over to staff, or do we wanna work, uh, like three people
work on this outside of. ... Council meetin', before next Council. I .... I'm not sure how we
wanna do this, but we need to figure out a way .... uh, to .... kinda allocate some funds,
kind of figure out what other programs we want to do because this ... is .... is .... we're in the
third month of COVID-19, and so if I'm counting correctly. I'm not! We're in the fifth
month (laughs) We're in the fifth month of COVID-19 (laughing) and so we, I think we
need, at this point, Councilors, I think we need to, um, make some decisions and, uh, let's
put our, uh, funding where our priorities are.
Salih/ And you know I just wanna mention one thing so everybody know about it. You know the
(mumbled) been cause was by the, you know, the.... the.... we did not receive the
guideline of how to spend money, even though Geoff told me that we received this
money, like long time ago I was very excited that it will be going through immediately,
but we have to wait for the guideline from the government about Trow we can spend this
money, and it took them forever to come back. So we ... even you just saying five months
and we did not even (mumbled) the program yet. It will be next Monday. So, you know,
people are suffering. What you don't know, I have people come here and they say I can
show you my credit card statement. I have a credit card for $10,000 credit line and I pay
the months (mumbled) for June and this program just came through. How I'm gonna pay
(garbled) People they go to debt because immigrant doesn't know their right. They don't
know there is eviction protections. I was.... everybody would say I wasn't know because
the landlord was putting the pressure on me, uh, so that ... they told me that if I don't, uh,
pay I will be evicted, and I don't want to be homeless. That's why I have to figure a way,
even if I went into debt, I have to figure a way to just pay those. There is many, many
stories like (mumbled) on and on, uh, but what I ... I'm saying that because, you know,
delaying things to come back to the next Council meeting and just like also, you know,
uh.... figuring out the, after that we going to figure out that's 15 days and we gonna figure
out the guideline and could be more than that (unable to understand) will be more than
that. So I ... I just mean like we are .... things are really get delayed and those people, uh,
for example, the ... the Center for Worker Justice, I ... I know that they have (mumbled) I
don't have even talk about that, but I'm thinking when they push it very hard I know that
they want to, uh, cover (mumbled) of, uh, of (unable to understand) because no one
(garbled) for months of July, for another program, and the months of August. People are
past due two months. One month and another month is coming soon. By the time that
we will get (mumbled) the eviction (garbled) ended on July the 301' I guess? My
understanding? Maybe it's already removed. People will be (mumbled) uh, if we wanna
do something like that, hopefully (mumbled) not going to affect the current applications.
Teague/ I know Susan, uh, Councilor Mims wanted to say somethin'.
Mims/ I was gonna say (garbled) agree with what other Councilors have said about our priorities
in terms of the individuals, um, and household relief, and the non -profits, but I totally
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agree that we need some structure, um, and as Councilor Bergus said, I think the fact that
we, you know, we did just -just a few months ago put in place a process for emergency
requests, um, it would seem to me that we ought to use that process, um, going forward if
we have requests from agencies for money. I guess to the Mayor's point, I guess the
question becomes are we now talking about, um, some other specific allocation of City
dollars, which to me I'm not ready to do that yet when we're just barely getting, um, the
federal money and some of these other flows of money starting to come in. So it would
seem to me that we might be, um, it might be a little soon for us to do this. I know it's
frustrating because of the delay in getting the federal money and the guidelines, etc., but
now that those are ready to go live, it would seem like we want to utilize those, um, use
our emergency funding, uh, or emergency request process that we've put in place, and
then I would encourage that maybe we do have, you know, three Council Members that..
that sit down outside of our meeting to meet with staff additionally to maybe understand
this better and look at what other options we might want to explore going forward, and if
we do it that way then it doesn't just get pushed off every two weeks like Maz is saying,
from one meeting to the next, that we could start making progress on some other potential
avenues of assistance, but I do think we have time with those since the federal money is
now here and ready to be started.
Weiner/ I also think that we have some real, um, some real resources that we can bring to bear.
Maz, you were just talking about the Affordable Housing Coalition and the group that
they're bringing together. If they .... we have had groups present to us before, including
in ... in work sessions. None of us have to figure this out from scratch. There are a lot of
people who are working on this every day. If they can ... if for example we can ask people,
like the group that's coming together on ... on Friday, together with HCDC, to come up
with a list of suggestions. I know HCDC has done that before, but we haven't looked at
them specifically. We also have the legacy of non -profits who we could ask to come
together and really give us their perspective so that we can .... we can have it all in one
place, um, and .... and find a real way forward.
Fruin/ Mayor, uh, if I may, um, I ... I think you all bring up great points. I .... I think, um, what the
Council probably doesn't want to happen is .... is for the City to be kind of flat footed and
for a big wave of evictions or a big crisis to hit, and for us to, you know, have to jump
through a couple of meetings as .... as Mayor Pro Tem was describing. So what I would
encourage is .... allow your staff in collaboration with, uh, whether it's some Council
Members or...or a local providers, uh, to put together a framework, uh, so that we can
administratively, um, authorize some expenditures, um, through existing partners that we
have, um, to ... to .... to help react quickly, should we find ourselves in the situation where
maybe the federal dollars, um, aren't addressing a gap in our community and we have
a ... a certain part of our community that's not able to access the funding and they're facing
evictions. You don't really wanna have to wait until a Council meeting to ... to have to
authorize those funds. So I think there's some longer term recovery that you all can take
some meetings and have some discussions about, but um, you're.... you're probably
gonna want, um, to be a little bit more nimble, um, just not knowing what's.... what's
gonna happen in August. We don't know if the federal government's gonna pass a
CARES Act, urn ... uh, another CARES Act type of bill to extend some of these benefits.
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We don't know what the Governor's gonna do. So I'm .... I'd be happy to .... to work with
a few Councilors or...or just as staff, bring you some recommendations on how we can...
how we can move quickly through existing partners, uh, that we have. Um, so that we
don't get caught flat footed in the case of, uh... uh.... uh, a .... a real housing crisis that we
all think is probably on the .... on the horizon.
Taylor/ I .... I think that sounds like a really good plan, Geoff, cause you know sometimes the two
weeks between meetings seems like almost two months. It can be a really long time, uh,
especially if there's something that's urgent, but I ... I think your idea about looking at
what we've got, the resources, and literally we don't get caught with our pants down
and ... and needing to scramble to put something together. So I think that's a good idea.
Mims/ I would agree.
Salih/ I agree too but the only thing I wanna highlight on this too. Yes, we have money out there
as, uh, you know, Susan Mims said, uh, for .... from the federal. It just going to (garbled)
next Monday. We have someone at Shelter House that will continue to this week at least,
to the end of this week, and um, you know, we .... we are fulfill some like (garbled) the
resident of Iowa City to have (unable to understand) programs, uh, the only people that
we are missing is undocumented people and I thinks, uh, if we get the City money, that's
will also be another (mumbled) other people, until we think about a way that to come up
with something else, a structure or .... or whatever, everyone was (mumbled) and the City
Manager was saying the same thing. Uh, I ... I just wanna throw that out there.
Teague/ I warm make sure that I understand, um, you're saying .... we can create kind of the, the
collaboration between the City, uh, City staff and maybe a few Councilors, as well as
other organizations, but you want to make sure that undocumented individuals are also in
that conversation.
Salih/ I ... what I meant is right now Susan .... Susan Mims just said we ... I agree with (garbled) she
just said there is money out there, just being allocated to the community, and it will be,
you know, there is federal money there, some of our residents will be eligible for. If they
are not eligible to the City money, they will be eligible to the State money! Who is
missing in that picture is undocumented people. And if we going to wait .... as also Susan
Mims request that, and I agree we can wait, no problem. Uh, if we going to wait to do
that, we wanna make sure that we will allocate money for undocumented people through
the (mumbled) I'm not pushing you to approve this under for Worker Justice by any
means (laughs) you know, this is, yeah, tonight, but I'm just saying that we wanna make
sure until we come up and wait for another thing to like to figure out the structure and to
figure out what we want to do, whether we want (mumbled) City money or not, that's
would take time. So ... let us move this, make sure everybody have some to apply until we
come up with something else. I hope you ... I answer your question (laughs)
Teague/ Yeah, maybe .... (laughs) I think you had me until the last minute! (laughs) Until the last
(laughing) last 10 seconds.
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Mims/ (mumbled) the Mayor Pro Tem is .... is trying to thread the needle here on a conflict of
interest issue.
Salih/ Exactly! That's why I'm not .... (both talking) I don't wanna talk about it (both talking) but
(both talking)
Mims/ I think we know where you're going and probably you would be best to quit (laughing)
Salih/ (both talking, garbled) but why you don't talk about it (laughing) Yeah, I don't wanna talk
too much on this because it's conflict of interest for me to talk about, if I start talking
obviously and you going to understand, uh, you know, what I mean.
Teague/ All right, so it sound like the majority of Councilors, when I saw heads nodding, were in
agreement with, uh.... uh, City staff workin' together with some community partners, and
maybe a few Councilors working alongside, uh, with Geoff and City staff. Um, does
that ... am I correct on understandin' the majority of Council wanted that, just by nodding
your heads. Yep, all right. Um (both talking)
Salih/ Yes, but you know, uh, keep in mind I'm saying with the understanding that the money
that (mumbled) have to be eligible for everyone. That's it!
Teague/ Yes! Yes! Yes, yes, yes! So with that ... um, maybe we'll start with three Councilors.
Um, I think that's what I heard was proposed. Um, are there three individuals that would
like to be a part?
Salih/ I want to.
Mims/ I would be interested.
Teague/ (several talking) I hear Mayor Pro Tem and, uh, Councilor Mims.
Mims/ My only concern with the Mayor Pro Tem is the .... is the potential conflict of interest.
We ... we all know that strong interest and I think others can represent that and I ... I don't
know. I .... I would (several talking, garbled) ...where that's a problem.
Salih/ That's okay. No problem. As long as, uh, there is somebody there who talk about the
whole community, including undocumented people, immigrants, everyone in this
community. I don't have to be there. And it better somebody else advocate for those
people than me. Is ... is much better.
Bergus/ (mumbled) for that, Mayor.
Taylor/ I .... I'd be interested too.
Salih/ Okay, now you have three!
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Clarification of Agenda Items:
Teague/ All right, so we have ... the three! Okay! Anything else on this? We'll, uh, be lookin'
forward to next meeting to have more discussions on it. All right! We only have about
we'll say, uh, seven minutes to kind of...and ... and if we need to come back we can always
come back after, but urn .... any clarification of agenda items, and I'll delay the mask talk,
uh, I guess I just wanted to make .... make mention out there to everyone that, uh, today,
uh, an order was made for masks and that will be in effect until September 15', and I
hope that the residents in our community do understand the necessity as to how, um, I ... I
felt, as well as all of the Councilors here felt, it was necessary for the safety of our
community that masks be ordered and I'm lookin' forward to total compliance within our
community. So thanks to everybody for, uh, who ... those that have reached out, that have
already, uh, showed their support for the masks, and even for those that, uh, may not be in
compl... um, may not be happy with the order, but I will say is that, uh, you wearin' a
mask and my wearin' a mask hope the numbers go down and so that's what I would
encourage all of us to do is to wear the mask and with that, we're gonna go and do some
clarification of agenda items.
Salih/ I don't have any.
Information Packet Discussion:
Teague/ Hearing none.... info packet discus ... uh, so info packet June 9m
Taylor/ I think that's actually July (garbled)
Teague/ July 9`n (laughs) Uh A ... okay! Um, June 16`n. July 16`n.
Taylor/ I wanted to comment on IP, uh, I believe it's five. The report from the Fire Department
and the Police Department, um, on the fireworks, uh, calls, uh, this past season. Uh, kind
of goes along with, uh, an item, uh, Item 6.d. in our correspondence, uh, from a
community member, uh, regarding the use or abuse, as it stands, of fireworks, and uh,
I've known the person that wrote that, uh, for a long time and she's not one to complain
about things. So for her to .... to be concerned about this and upset, and she sent some
wonderful photos that showed, uh, that obviously fireworks had been used. It wasn't just
simple little sparklers. It was major fireworks. And, uh, our community members should
not have to, uh, tolerate and ... and endure, uh, these things. Their pets, the infants, the
people with PTSD, uh, that are especially affected by this. It's .... it's very traumatic to
them and I believe that, um, before the next, uh, period of time, which is the Christmas,
New Year's, uh, where they're going to be allowed to be sold again, I think we as a
Council need to visit this issue and the use, uh, or misuse of fireworks in, uh, within our
city limits. And perhaps even a work session topic, uh, that we can .... we can talk about,
uh... uh, what we really need to do about this to ... to curb the use of this, uh, cause it was
quite a problem. It was like triple the number of calls this year over last year, and uh,
we ... we just, I think we need to look at that, uh, for the well-being .... we're talking about
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the health of our community. This, uh, relates to the well-being of our community too,
cause it was a big issue this year.
Teague/ Any other items from July 16°19 IP.
Mims/ Can I skip back to the agenda real quickly. I forgot that late handouts are part of the
agenda.
Teague/ Yes!
Mims/ May I? Um, late handouts, uh, 6.m., this was, um, a ... a email that came in to staff, um,
regarding flying the flag at half-mast in honor of Representative John Lewis. That came
out, um, we have a ... a resolution that we passed I think back in 09 on the Council, and we
typically follow president and governor's orders and then we have some other, um, cases
in which we would do that, and unfortunately because of COVID and change of staffing
obviously that order when it came in on the weekend of, you know, of all times was
missed. I would like, and I did talk to Geoff about this earlier today, um, I would like to
advocate that the Council, um, direct staff to go ahead and fly the flag on the top of City
hall at half-mast, um, starting tomorrow through Friday in honor of John Lewis.
Taylor/ I would approve of that!
Teague/ Yeah, I think it was a ... a unfortunate, um, oversight, not intentional by any means
(several talking) because (both talking)
Mims/ ...was a combination of the weekend and COVID and change in staffing is how it got
missed and so....
Teague/ Yeah. I would be in agreement.
Mims/ Thank you. I appreciate your support on this. I think it's a really important one. He was
a definite icon of this country and will be sorely missed. He's done a tremendous amount
for us.
Teague/ Yep! I agree. Any other agenda items? Hearing none ... um, can we say, I think what
we'll do is we'll just save our updates and we'll give that at the end of Council, unles,,
there's someone that has a bumin' update that they wanna give now.
Salih/ (laughing)
Teague/ Hearin' none, all right. We will be back at 7:00 P.M.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work
session of July 21, 2020.