HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-15 TranscriptionPage l
Council Present:
Staff Present:
Others Present:
Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Fruin, Monroe, Kilburg, Dilkes, Fruehling, Hightshoe, Knoche,
Bockenstedt
Van Heukelom, Longenecker (UISG)
Affordable Housing Plan Update (03):
Teague/ Well, it is 5:00 P.M., so welcome to the City of Iowa City work session for September
15, 2020, and happy to see all our Councilors here and I see our, um, City Manager and
Eleanor, our, uh, City Attorney is present. Um, I wanted to see if we had .... um, ah,
Anna's here from the University, so welcome! Um, so we are going to get started with
our meeting tonight. So, again, welcome to everybody. We're gonna start with
affordable housing, and that was a part of our, uh, information packet. And so I think, uh,
Geoff, I'll turn it over to you for ...to get us started.
Fruin/ Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council. Um ... uh, as you know, um, you've set forth in your
strategic plan an effort to update our affordable housing, uh, plan here in Iowa City, and
we wanted to get that conversation kicked off with you tonight, and uh, we felt it would
be best to look back at the past year, and uh... uh, see some of the programs that we've
had in place and what results that they've, uh, produced for us here. So I'm gonna turn it
over to, uh, Tracy Hightshoe who's going to, uh, share a presentation with you that
essentially walks you through the ... the written materials you have in your information
packet.
Hightshoe/ Hello! Um, thank you! We're excited to present the affordable housing
accomplishments for fiscal year 20. I'm going to try and share my screen so you can
look at ... what I'm looking at. Is everybody looking at an affordable housing report?
Fruin/ No (both talking)
Hightshoe/ You're not seein' it?
Fruin/ Nope!
Taylor/ Not on the screen.
Hightshoe/ Do I not have the ability to share my screen? Can you see it now?
Teague/ Yes, we're .... it's comin' up now.
Fruin/ Yep!
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Hightshoe/ All right, good. That'd been a long presentation if you had to just sit there and listen
to me, um .... okay! So I wanted to start by just a general definition of what is affordable
housing, before we get into the conversation about the specific program. Just a reminder
that affordable housing means that someone pays basically about 30% of their income on
housing and utility costs. So for most of our programs, whether they be owner occupied
or rental, we further limit the income that those folks can have in order to take advantage
of our program. So for most home buyer, owner occupied programs, you have to be
under 80% of median income. For rental you have to be below 60%. That being said, the
far majority of our clients (mumbled) people that we serve are below 50% of median
income. With these income limits that I broke it down to what the hourly rate is, you'll
find that our cashiers, cooks, janitors, bakers, sales clerks, childcare workers, home health
aides, all these folks make about this amount of money and our economy needs them and
they need affordable housing. We further look at rent, also about what we cap rent at,
what ... um, HUD allows us to charge for rent in our affordable housing and a lot of our
affordable housing. No matter what program you have, it usually ties back either to the
income of the beneficiary or the HUD rent limit. So the maximum rents for Home and
CDBG are ... is what you see below in that table. With Home and CDBQ it's further
(mumbled) by the utility amounts, where the tenant pays the utility. So for example if
you live in a one -bedroom unit and you pay 774, if that utility allowance is $92, that rent
can't exceed $682. Um, that means that the maximum rents, some programs limit rent
even further, but in general when we refer to Home rents or CDBG fair market rents,
these are the rents, they don't tie back to the income. What HUD does is they look at the
(mumbled) community survey and basically they decide if for our market these are the
rents that are (garbled) and they represent in our community. So it gets confusing cause
they don't necessarily tie back to those income limits. Um, this report is a departure from
how we normally report. Usually when we're doing CDBG and Home reports to you, at
the end of our fiscal year, and that has been the CAFR report, our Consolidated Annual
Performance and Evaluation Report. That report, CDBCS Home, our Housing Authority
accomplishments, um, and then we also... typically report other programs when they end,
or at the end of the calendar year. This report looks at everything and tries to give you a
comprehensive review of everything that we've done in fiscal year 20 out of
Neighborhood and Development Services that evolves around housing. And when you
look at everything we do, I came up with, well two (mumbled) CDBG and Home goals,
but these four goals represent about what all those programs do, and in that Excel
spreadsheet that I gave you, you can put every program that we have into one of these
goals, and .... some of these programs serve more than one of these goals, but it's only
reported once. So it's only in one location. So just the summary data. We've made 12.4
million in funds available in fiscal year 20. We've spent about 12 million of it to assist
1,780. What programs that consist of — we're gonna go over the affordable housing fund.
We're gonna go over the housing rehabilitation program, such as the South District,
UniverCity programs. We're gonna go over competitive allocations, the Housing
Authority accomplishment data, and then all those legislative, uh, programs that we've
done, either ...or negotiated through tax (garbled) financing, our Riverfront Crossings, um,
and we're reporting that because I don't think we've ever reported that in a holistic
fashion to you, and we're gonna show you how many units are in compliance during
fiscal year 20. So I'll start with the affordable housing fund. We allocate, well basically
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Council allocates a million dollars. They did in fiscal year 20 and fiscal year 19. Then
back in July we switched how we allocated funds. So instead of land banking and
different things, we ... we modified ... the allocations, the distribution formula, to what you
see in front of you. So 70% goes to the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County. Out of
that 70% they have to reserve 20% for low income housing tax credits. (mumbled) refer
to them as LIHTC, but that's what that is. We created an opportunity fund just for
flexibility, to take advantage of opportunities that come within that year. We're continue
with the healthy homes program and what I'm really proud of is the ... the 10% that
(mumbled) to help low-income households secure housing. It was a huge gap in our
community. A security deposit program of our size. So that's great. And then we reserve
5% for emergent situations that ... that we .... that we don't anticipate. Um, the reason why
(mumbled) Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, why we allocate basically 70% of our
funds to them, to me it's a lot about their board. They have highly (mumbled) highly
experienced in housing finance. They review complex projects, but out of all these
reasons (mumbled) is the one that appealed to me most is they offer funds on a quarterly
basis, including one LIHTC round that precedes the annual application cycle. If this was
done administratively, I don't have the staff capacity to have multiple funding rounds
every year. So this is great that when they have funds available they're getting that out to
the community. They're taking applications. They're a lot more flexible than federal and
state programs, as well as financial institutions with their interest rate, what they approve
for funding. So those are some of the reasons why we select the Housing Trust Fund of
Johnson County to partner with us. Out of their fis.... fiscal year 20 allocation of
500,000, they spent 182. They commit the balance of their funds to the (mumbled) senior
apartments. It was a LIHTC project. Unfortunately no LIHTC applications were
received by (mumbled) didn't approve any this year. So the Housing Trust Fund went
back and they quickly allocated those monies to the Cross Park Place 2.0 project, much
like the...if you're familiar.... many of you are familiar with Cross Park Place, but Shelter
House got another award for 2.7 million through the National Housing Trust Fund. So
start this spring, they have to make total project costs of 6.3 million. So that's where the
balance of those funds'll get placed into that project. Um (mumbled) senior did not get
funded. Those funds, at least 190,000 of `em, get carried forward to the fiscal year 21
and LIHTC round. So it sits there and when IFA has their next funding round, there will
be another Iowa City application that we'll see. Hopefully that will get funded. We also
report accomplishments, but you know when the ... when a project is finished and we can
report beneficiaries, that is when we report project accomplishment. So for the ... for those
LIHTC funds, or the project completed by, that the City assisted through Housing Trust
Fund, we completed the Del Ray Ridge and Nex apartments this fiscal year. Urn .... you
can see the allocation (mumbled) over six ... I think that's 61 units of affordable housing.
Each of those two apartment complexes also have four market rate units. So that are the
accomplishments that get reported this fiscal year. Um, LIHTC projects can bring a lot of
new construction, but we don't also ... we don't always get an application every year. So
having two in one year is great. The next one I was gonna talk about was the 10%
allocated annually to help people secure housing. So we established 70,000 for the
security deposit program. We entered a contract with CommUnity Crisis Services in
February. At the end of fiscal year 20, they've spent 27,000, assisted 31 households.
Um ... when I called them recently, that number has went up to .... they've spent 61,888 out
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of their 70,000. So we'll be entering the fiscal year 21 allocation with them this month.
So they'll have another 70,000 to work with. The 30,000 that we reserve for the landlord
risk mitigation funds was not able to proceed. So we hope to work with the Johnson
County Local Homeless Coordinating Board in fiscal year 21 to set that up. So the funds
that ended in fiscal year 20 that weren't spent in that fund go into our opportunity fund.
So we don't lose those funds, they just get moved to opportunity fund. And we'll talk
about the balances at the end of the presentation. Emergent funds, we spent the
remainder of what we allocated out to the Hawkeye Trailer Park relocation. Um, we
spent a total of 17,000. Approximately this was eight households. We spent .... 2,135 in
fiscal year 20 (mumbled) eight households that benefici... benefited in this fiscal year
because it's done in this fiscal year. And like I said, anything that's balance at the end of
the year, goes into the opportunity fund. So once again, it's available for reallocation
(garbled) Out of that opportunity fund, the balances that we had, um, we acquired our
first vacant lot, um, for six townhomes in the Lindemann subdivision. Hopefully we'll be
able to add this to a future LIHTC project for families (mumbled) um, but we have that
land, it's available. All the utilities are there. So it's ready for development. In our
opportunity funding this year, that 75,000, that money got allocated out to Houses into
Homes. It pays for the Center for Worker Justice, the COVID relief payments and fiscal
year 20; and then (mumbled) funds went to the Shelter House for the eviction/foreclosure
prevention program. And I wanted to mention this before I get into our COVID relief
efforts, because we do encourage Iowa City residents to apply and determine eligibility
for (mumbled) program before (mumbled) assistance. The state has allocated this $20
million. We want residents to tap into that $20 million before they come and they use
our .... our local funds. So ... we encourage people to start here and if they're not eligible
or they're denied assistance, then they apply to CommUnity for services. So we have
(mumbled) I'm going to get to the CommUnity program last out of the three, but that
50,000 to the Shelter House, eviction/ foreclosure prevention program, it's for your basic
emergency rent, mortgage, for utility assistance for three months. They can self -certify
their income if they're impacted financially by COVID. We made those barriers easier.
They just have to self -certify. The first payment must be in arrears, but after that,
subsequent payments are made on time if the applicant basically self -certifies during the
same financial conditions (mumbled) originally. Urn ... the benefit of Shelter House
(mumbled) their assistance is to provide through the coordinated entry system for home
services, and I'll explain that benefit when I get to ... to the CommUnity Crisis Service,
and the payment has to be issued to the landlord, mortgagee, or utility provider. For
Center for Worker Justice, they allow emergency payments of $600, up to twice in a 12 -
month period for either rent, mortgage, utility (mumbled) healthcare, childcare.
Urn .... this is the funding that, you know, if you're not eligible for anything else, it's
intended for those folks that are not eligible for unemployment or stimulus benefits.
They too can self -certify their income if they're impacted financially by COVID, and the
payment is made to the vendor. If that's not possible (mumbled) applicant can submit
receipts for eligible expenses. And at one of your most recent Council meetings, you
allowed the City Manager to increase allocation for these programs, when needed.
(garbled) that for Shelter Hou ... (laughs) that for Shelter House, um, they were allocated
50,000. They've spent 36,600 to date, and then Center for Worker Justice has spent
16,500 of their 25,000. So those are going to be needing to be renewed shortly. Our
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largest program locally is the CommUnity Crisis Services contract that we had with our
Community Development Block Grant funds. This was a direct allocation from HUD, in
the first allocation wave of the CARES Act. We dedicated 246,000 of this program. We
entered a contract with, um .... CommUnity Crisis Services, I think in .... oh, July .... July
14 of 2020. They spent $20,941 to date. That money will get quite a bit more as we go
because not only are they starting to assist new people, but all those old people that
are .... all the other people that they've assisted, they'll continue to get rent if they just
self -certify. So you're gonna see that number grow quite substantially in—as subsequent
months go on. So this is a federal program. It has to be due to COVID. So you do have
to document income... income, and if you're financially impacted by COVID. They're
trying to be flexible in the documentation they provide. They're calling employers,
they're.... they're accepting what they can, but due to the federal nature of the program,
they do have to document it. So we do allow the first payment must be in arrears and
then just like Shelter House, subsequent payments are made on time if you self -
certify.... you're in the same financial condition. What's great with CommUnity and
Shelter House is that ... they use the Homeless Coordinating or the coordinated entry
sys... (clears throat) sorry! Coordinated entry. So CommUnity gets the referral and
they're not able to document what they need to, or they can't assist `em, they can refer
that household to Shelter House. It goes anything that that tenant or that person has
provided for documentation gets attached and.....(goes silent)
Fruin/ All right, Mayor, um, you get the B Team now (laughs)
Teague/ All right!
Fruin/ Tracy looks like she's disconnected. So, uh, hopefully she'll jump back in. She certainly
knows this, uh, better than I do but, um, she's just wrappin' up on the CommUnity Crisis,
tun ... uh, program. Um, we do have the second allocation of the CARES Act, um, on your
agenda today. That would provide additional funds, uh, for this program. Uh, should...
again, should you approve that, uh, proposed allocation that staff has in front of you
today. And like Tracy said, uh, although there's, uh, only, uh, 20,000 spent to date and
we have 246, we expect this number to rise pretty quickly, and I'll just, uh, I know
Council knows this, but uh, we expect the ... the housing impact, uh, from COVID to last a
lot longer than ... than perhaps the virus may itself. So, um ... uh, keep in mind that we may
have, um ... uh, housing needs that extend pretty far into, uh, into, um ... next year. All
right. Tracy must still be connected cause someone's flipping through these, uh, flippin'
through these slides. So, uh, Tracy, if...(ringing in background) can you, uh.... can you
hear me okay, Tracy? (ringing in background) Just one second, Mayor (goes silent)
Okay, um .... Tracy is still controlling this screen. I don't know if, Kellie, if you can ... uh,
Tracy, uh (laughs) We ... you can just flip through the next slides, Tracy, otherwise I can
bring up the presentation that you sent me earlier today (ringing in background)
Fruehling/ I have it too, Geoff. But I ... I'd have to dump Tracy out.
Teague/ The joys of Zoom!
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Fruin/ All right, Tracy is feverishly trying to get back on. Um ... Kellie, why don't you stop the
screen share and if you could bring up the PowerPoint that would be great. I won't have
to hunt for it. Okay. Go, uh.... all right, back up one. (both talking) Yep, one ... one more
forward and then we'll start with, uh, our housing rehabilitation programs. Okay, uh,
thank you, uh, Kellie, and if you noticed Tracy hopped back on. By all means, um, tell
me to be quiet, invite her on! Um, so in addition to the, uh, to the programs that Tracy's
outlined before, we have our housing rehabilitation programs. For fiscal year 20 you see
that we spent just under $700,000 to assist 32 homes throughout Iowa City. Uh, the more
profile pro .... high profile programs that we have are the, uh, South District program, uh,
which was new, uh, that's the picture on the, uh, on the ... on the top of the PowerPoint
there. It's a duplex that, uh, we were able to buy and ... and renovate, and—and sell to two,
um, households that were already living in the, uh, the neighborhood. Uh, we have one
other one, uh, underway, still, uh, yet. Um, you can see that the monthly housing costs,
uh, for each of those homeowners is, um, approximately $510. So actually when the, uh,
project was over, um, the folks that moved into this duplex were actually paying less, uh,
towards home ownership, uh, than they were, uh, renting in that same neighborhood. So
a ... a good success story there, and uh, Council knows that, uh... um, we are exploring
some partnerships with Habitat, uh, and the Affordable Homes Coalition to ... to take this
program even further. We also continue with our UniverCity home program. Um, we do
have one unit for sale on ... on North Dodge that you see there, and we have one other
program, um, that is under renovation on Douglas Court where we've done a number of
these, uh, renovations. The lesser known program is actually the first bullet point there,
which is our GRIP program, and that's where the majority of funds are spent, just over
half a million dollars were spent rehabilitating 30 homes, and this is a real critical
strategy for us, in ... in order to preserve our affordable housing stock. So this is making
investment in the existing stock and making sure that folks can stay in their homes longer
and that those homes, uh, remain affordable going forward. All right, jump ahead please,
Kellie. I saw a new panelist join. Is that, uh, Tracy by chance? Okay. Um...
Hightshoe/Yes it was, can you hear me?
Fruin/ Oh, perfect, yes. Tracy, so can you see the screens okay?
Hightshoe/ (laughs) No, now that I can hear you but now my screen won't show. So (garbled)
(laughter) looking at this cause it says I can only view Kellie's screen, and I can't ... I can't
share my screen so I can't see it (laughs) Let me (both talking)
Fruin/ Well, Tracy, if you have, uh, if you have your presentation up in front of you on your... on
your computer, uh, we're on the CDBG, Home competitive allocation.... slide.
Fruehling/ I can stop sharing, Tracy, and let you back in.
Hightshoe/ I'm afraid I'll miss it, so I will just ... let me (goes silent) Hello? Wait, which ... which
slide are you on?
Fruin/ Uh, it's slide 16, it's the CDBG, Home, uh, competitive allocation slide.
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Hightshoe/ Go ahead and keep talking and I'll find it and then, um .... I'll just jump in.
Fruin/ Okay, uh, the high level statistics are listed on the top there, just over $700,000 spent in
the last fiscal year. Um, impacting 29 households. Um, the Home tenant based rent
assistance program is administered by our Housing Authority, and that's where the 29
households were assisted over four years. Um, at the end of the program, um, all, um,
tenant based rental units, um, get converted over to our regular housing choice voucher
program, and Tracy'll talk a little bit more about the Housing Authority, uh, going
forward here.
Hightshoe/ So we're at the Housing Authority slide, right?
Fruin/ Nope, we're on the Successful Living bullet point of your, uh, CDBG program.
Hightshoe/ Okay, yep! You want me to go from here?
Fruin/ Yes, please!
Hightshoe/ (laughing) All right, thank you! So our CDBG and Home funds, like I said, we report
accomplishments in the year that they're completed. So we've spent more than, well we
spent that 731,957. That includes prior years. That's what got spent in fiscal year 20 and
those 57 beneficiaries are what projects got completed. So the ... the bullets that you see
here are all projects that were completed in fiscal year 20. So, um, Geoff talked about the
tenant based rent assistance. We completed projects by Successful Living, the Housing
Fellowship serving persons with disabilities, and for people under 60% of median
income. Successful Living and Mayors Youth completed their projects of acquiring three
properties to provide housing (mumbled) persons with disabilities. Shelter House
acquired another home for permanent supportive housing, and Habitat acquired land and
constructed (garbled) three homes. Kellie, can you go ahead and move it? So are you on
the Housing Authority? Yep! So I always wanna remind people that the Iowa City
Housing Authority, it's not just Iowa City. Our jurisdi...jurisdiction includes three
counties — Johnson, Iowa, and Washington County. Washington County is (mumbled)
that part of the county that's north of Highway 92. HUD also, we have to report to HUD
on a calendar year, not a fiscal year. So when we're reportin' our CAFR for ...year end
data, we're lookin' at CDBG and Home programs that completed in fiscal year 20 and
then calendar year 19 for the Housing Authority. So we're consistently reporting that
year to year. So when you look at calendar year 2019 for the Housing Authority, we had
over 1,200 housing choice vouchers. We had 83 (mumbled) vouchers that are for
veterans, and those abo... those vouchers assisted over 1,300 households. We own and
manage 81 public housing units and 10 affordable housing units. In fiscal year 21 you're
going to see that we acquired five more additional public housing units in the Chauncey
and six in Augusta Place, but since those weren't purchased until fiscal year 21, you'll see
that next year's report. What was great for us was that we were awarded 78 new
(mumbled) vouchers for persons or households who are chronically homeless with a
disabling condition. We started leasing those in March of 2020, so once again that gets
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reported in the calendar year 20 so that'll be in next year's report regarding beneficiaries,
and then I always like to remind people with the Housing Authority, since there's so
much misinformation about the Housing Authority and voucher holders, that 57% of our
households are elderly or disabled. Out of those, out of the rest (mumbled) 49% were
working families, that less than 1% of assisted households report family investment
programs. Basically welfare is their sole source of income. Now a house ... head of
household can earn income and have a disabled spouse, and that's how someone would
be counted both as a working household and a disabled. So sometimes our numbers
don't actually add up to 100%. That's some of the reason why. The last part of
accomplishment data is our tax increment.... oh, Kellie, you can move to the tax
increment financing (mumbled) So due to either negotiations with our tax increment
financing, our Riverfront Crossings requirements, or any type of local requirements, we
have 99 units under compliance in fiscal year 20. So for tax increment financing, 25 u
nits are under compliance. One underway. Um, tax increment financing is a negotiated
deal, um, so in early... when we were starting the TIF, we did approve 12 units. They are
set at, uh, 120% of home fair market rent. One of the next projects were 12 units and
(mumbled) was based on 40% of median income, where the developer pays utilities.
Um, the remaining two are set at the home fair market rent. There's a local requirement,
if you remember, for the Rise at 435 Linn Street. Due to us ... them purchasing the units,
um, for that point on, they had to provide 33 units for those under 80%, rented at the
home fair market rent. That was before TIF or Riverfront Crossings, but it was a local
requirement. And then the Riverfront Crossings affordable housing requirement that we
set has contributed 41 units under compliance period, and then you don't always have...
you either have to do on-site units or fee in lieu. So 756,244 has been received for
payment in lieu. Now these funds can only be used in the Riverfront Crossings District
and some background regarding the Riverfront Crossings affordable housing
requirement. Um, before that was enacted there was a committee of affordable housing
advocates — lenders, developers — that worked for about a year .... year and a half on a
policy, inn .... to develop, and that sets the fee in liens, that sets the affordable housing
requirements. So in the Riverfront Crossings District what makes this unique in what we
can do, why we have this requirement is that developers choose to get this rezoning, and
if they choose to get rezone their property from CB -10 or whatever their commercial
zone is, was in the commer...was in the Riverfront Crossings District. In exchange to get
increased density and height, they have to provide affordable housing. So somebody
technically could develop in Riverfront Crossings under the old zoning and they don't
need to provide affordable housing. However, once they decide to get that rezoning, then
that .... that requirement kicks in. Uh, Kellie, you can go to the next one. So I put .... so
this is a pie chart of funds spent by category, and I think it's interesting to see. So when
you include the Housing Authority and all of our sources, you see more than 90...I think
about 95% went for rental housing and 5% went for owner occupied. Um ... so you can
see rent subsidies, the Housing Authority took up the ... the lion's share of the pie chart,
along with rental reconstruction. That had mostly to do with our two LIHTC projects that
came online in fiscal year 20. Kellie, can you go to the next one? So when you go to the
next pie chart, um, it changes quite a bit because you have those rent subsidies taken out
from the Housing Authority. You still see rental new construction and rental acquisition.
Basically you have about a 75/25 split. So 75% for rental housing, about 25%, um, for
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owner occupied housing. So this is where we're spending our funds locally and what the
categories we're spending our funding on. Can you go to the next one, Kellie? So, funds
that are carried over to next year. So our opportunity has 595,000 that'll be converted to
next year. We are looking at a property to acquire. It won't take the full 595,000, but we
are actively working with land owners to purchase property. Our low income housing tax
credits, we will combine our fiscal year 20 remaining funds with our fiscal year 21. So
will go into the next fiscal year 21 LIHTC funding round, with 380,000. We've
accumulated those 6 ... 756,000 for fee in lieu in the Riverfront Crossings, and then our...
our Housing Authority has 420,000 available for the development or acquisition of low
income replacement housing units. So we have approximately 1.9 million available that
(mumbled) fiscal year 21 for more affordable housing opportunities. Um, Kellie, can you
go to the next one? So what you'll see our focus in fiscal year 21 being is we're gonna
continue our COVID housing relief efforts with CommUnity Crisis Service, Shelter
House, and Center for Worker Justice. We were just notified that we're ... well, later on in
this agenda you're going to see how our second wave, the 390,000 that we just got
allocated through the State will join the funds that we already have available or our
programs with CommUnity. Um, but we also just were notified of a third round that
we'll receive directly from HUD again for I believe 424,000. We'll have to discuss how
those funds are ... are going to be administered. At some point both the City and our ..our
funding partners, we have to look at staff capacity.... quite a bit of funds, so while we
might have difficulty administering all these funds, also our local non -profits are
receiving federal (mumbled) as well, along with increased need. So capacity may
become an issue. To recognize that, HUD has allowed us to spend the funds, up to three
years, to get a much long range view of the problem and where we need to put our
resources. So .... the fiscal year 21, that second ... that round two and three, will allow us
increased time to spend it, and to see where the needs develop. Um, we'll talk about that
second round later, uh, an agenda on your ...on your Council agenda. Um, the second
focus will be regulatory changes, which .... is extremely important. Like I said, we
subsidize about 10% of the rental market. That means 90% of the rental market ... is
private market, and so what we can do to encourage the private sector to increase density
(mumbled) housing in every neighborhood, um, will help us with our affordable housing
goals. So three of the items that we're working on is adopting and implementing a South
District form based code. These are codes that we will use (mumbled) future rezonings
of outlying areas. We're gonna review our policies. We've .... we've taken input from the
Homebuilders Association, the Affordable Homes Coalition. We're currently reviewing
that input and seeing what changes can be made to our code, and we'll ... within the next
few months we'll initiate a comprehensive plan amendment, which increases density and
diversity in all our existing single-family residential zones. So that's what our Urban
Planning Department will be working on extensively within fiscal year 21. Kellie, you
can go to the last slide. That's pretty much a summary, and I'm pretty sure Geoff
probably did an excellent job of the slides that I missed (laughs) but if you have any
questions, I can answer them!
Bergus/ Tracy, I'm wondering if you have a sense of how Iowa City compares to other
communities when you've kind of put everything together in this sort of overview.
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Hightshoe/ Most entitlement cities, and I mean ci.... cities with more than 50,000, they do have
access .... they might not, their housing authority might not be part of the city. That's
probably unique for a lot of cities. Um, usually housing authorities are stand-alone
agencies with the county or a multi -county jurisdiction. But from what I hear from other
entitlement cities, the amount of funds that we spend outside of our federal funds,
whether they be vouchers or Community Develop.... Community.... Community
Development Block Grant or Home funds is unique. I think we spend and we allocate
more funds than a lot of other .... Iowa entitlement cities.
Salih/ Tracy, you ... you said that there is more monies coming, which is great news that a lot
people will be like receiving help, because we know the need is great on this community
(garbled) now we being (mumbled) but you talk about .... you brought like really a good
point about the staffing capacity. What else can we do to make the fund .... that the City
have out there more accessible to the people? If there is any way the City can give more
money to like, uh, non-profit organization to hire in person, uh, somebody who can meet
people in person, at least one person. I know that the coronavirus and everything all this
challenges, but in the same time like low income people tend to do better with in person,
you know, like I mean our applications or, uh, you know, just like calling and (garbled)
somebody (mumbled) and, uh, when they call back, the agency call back most likely
maybe those people is out working or they did not hear the phone and they will miss that
phone call, you know, and it will be just like back and forth, and this way I don't thinks
our money is really accessible. How can we just like really make it easy for those agency
to make it accessible to the people if can ... if we can allocate more money for them to hire
in person or what you think? I just like .... ideas!
Hightshoe/ Yeah, we can encourage them. When we get the money we .... we definitely work
with our community partners. The ... our community partners, like Shelter House, Center
for Worker Justice, um .... all three of `em, when we reward money, it's usually a one-time
assistance or it's a ... it's a grant. We ... agencies have to determine if they can hire staff that
might not go past that grant, and so each agency has to determine if they're going to add
staff, and so we typically don't require them because the amount of admin we're paying
with these contracts is only 10% of ...10% or less of the contract. So it's up to the
agency to decide if they're gonna hire additional staff, or if they're gonna hire some part-
time staff just for this grant, and then that person .... that position is eliminated or that
position ends when they ...when they stop the grant. So ... that's somethin' we've always
let the agency decide, um (both talking)
Salih/ That's why I'm (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ....think what....
Salih/ I'm not ... I know the (mumbled) and I know it's up to the agents and everything, but I'm
saying now to the City. I'm asking the City .... how can we make this accessible with this
challenges that happening with the coronavirus and the (garbled) can the City allocate
separate money to hire a temporary staff to meet people in person? I'm not talking about
to the agency. I'm talking now to the City.
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Fruin/ I think that's ... if I could jump in, I think that's probably, you know, within your discretion
at the, uh, with .... with your, uh, opportunity fund. Your opportunity fund was designed
for that type of, uh, that type of assistance. So if you felt like that was a need, we could,
um, approach our partner agencies and ... and, uh, and see if, um .... uh, that would be of
interest to them. Basically what you're doin' is you're increasing that admin fee with
local funds. So instead of the 10% federal, they might get 10% federal and another 10 or
15% local on top of that. Um ... but yeah, that... that's probably, you know, that
opportunity fund was ... was meant for, you know, uh, anything that may come up
throughout the year that's unplanned.
Salih/ I ... I thinks we need to think about that, Council, because you know, I .... she just give us the
update of the numbers. We still have money out there, 20% out of two something
hundred, and uh, the challenge is ... is there. And there is great needs .... in the community.
And I guess we have this money out there so we can spend `em, you know, we don't
wanna save them (laughs) We need people to use it! And, you know .... it is, we ... we
need to figure out how can we help the non-profit organizations, uh, so they can, uh, also
they have other work. Those non-profit organization is not designed only to do this.
They have a lot of work to do in the community, beside that. So let us think about a way
to like make this accessible to a lot people.
Teague/ Hey, Tracy, I have a question related to, um, are ... is your department gettin' a lot of calls
directly about housing needs? Um, if...whether it's affordable housing or rental
assistance, is your department directly gettin' calls?
Hightshoe/ I ... I know Community Development is not, because when we advertise some new
programs, the advertising directs them directly to CommUnity Crisis Services. Um, I can
check with the Housing Authority cause usually people start with the Housing Authority,
um, for assistance, but I think all the advertisements that we sent out, either put you
directly in contact with Shelter House, Center for Worker Justice, or Crisis ... or
CommUnity. So we've not been gettin' a lot of calls at NDS, but I can check with the
Housing Authority.
Teague/ With the Housin' Authority, I know their .... we had some increase vouchers, which was
great, but of course it's for multiple counties, beyond just Johnson County. I'm assumin'
that all of those vouchers have been called for. Or do you know that information?
Salih/ Mayor (garbled) (both talking)
Hightshoe/ (both talking, garbled)
Salih/ ...have a one year or two year, like almost two year waiting list.
Teague/ Yep!
Salih/ Period, you know; if you apply today, you will get it after two years I guess.
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Teague/ Yeah.
Salib/ There is a lot of needs and a lot of people waiting on the waiting list.
Teague/ Uh huh. So one of the .... one of the things that I was tryin' to, um, drive at is, one, is
that need, and ... and that is showin' the need, with the waiting list, um, if we ... were to do
...some type of a large-scale project with affordable housin', are ... are there any ideas, and
maybe not now you don't have to share it, but would be interested to hear any ideas that
you've heard done in other cities. Um, we know that it'll be cheaper if we use existing
stock, um, or whether it's cheaper or not, um, I think it's more climate friendly if we're
usin' existing stock, um, but ... I guess the Council has, you know, stated that we wanna
plan, uh, affordable housing plan, and wanna be aggressive, and so, um, want to ... if
there's any ideas for Council, we ... I'd certainly would entertain it, and it doesn't have to
be done today. I think the purpose of today was to just give us like information about
where we are, and I .... I wanna commend you and your staff for all of the programs that
you've presented today. So we're doin' some great things. Um, and I think we should be
proud of that, and we should not run away from acknowledgin' we have a lot more to do.
So ... um .... yeah, I....I.....I think....
Salih/ That's true!
Teague/ Yeah, I ... I think if we can, um, for me personally just marinate on the information for
today and then I hope to be dreaming tomorrow (laughs) about other opportunities that
we can have, um ... within our community.
Salih/ (several talking, garbled)
Taylor/ Go ahead, Maz!
Salih/ No, go ahead, Pauline!
Taylor/ Oh, I ... I just wanted also to, uh, echo that and just thank Tracy and her staff for, uh,
compiling this report. You ... you and your department have obviously been very busy
and, uh, recently there have been public comments inferring that we haven't put much
effort into helping with housing for the low to moderate income members of our
community. Uh, in the past few years I believe that we have taken some major steps
towards addressing housing insecurity, uh, by developing plans and authorizing funds, a
lot of funds. Uh, this report, uh, documents those efforts, but uh, just side note, I was
especially pleased, uh, to see the report regarding the South District, uh, duplex project.
Uh, I have supported plans for this project, uh, since I first heard about it, and I was so
impressed with the figure quoted for the monthly cost to the homes, uh, for mortgage,
tax, and insurance. Um, as Geoff said, it's ... uh, very, very successful, uh, story, uh,
because that'll certainly be helpful economically for those individuals that are able to buy
those, uh, duplexes, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to continue, uh, with
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that project, so that other individuals, uh, can also realize the dream of...of home
ownership. I think it's a great project.
Salih/ Okay, Geoff, I just want to conclude what I propose. I see nobody talk about it, but I'm
gonna ask if that means we are inviting the non-profit organization to apply for, if they
need, if they need the position, to apply for that grant, uh, to apply to the, what you call
the opportunity?
Fruin/ Well, I think what would happen if there's a majority of Council that wants us to ... to do
that, we would just contact the three providers that we're working with and ask what type
of assistance that they would need in order to expand the availability of their staff, um...
uh, so I ... I don't think it would be necessarily an application period. It would just be
more direct outreach from our, uh, from .... from City Hall here to those three providers,
to say what would be helpful and then we would cobble together a proposal, based on
the ... the needs of those individual agencies.
Salih/ Okay. So I really propose this to my fellow Council Members and this is, there is a great
need. So I been first hand experience. I been seeing this. I know the limited capacity of
a number of the organization, and I know that, you know, this is going to be temporary.
It's not like something.... hopefully! Hopefully.... just temporary situation and it will go
away, uh, I really propose that if we can help, uh, you know, or give direction to the City
Manager and Tracy to reach out to those community and ask `em those questions, if they
need help.
Weiner/ I ... I agree that we really need to build capacity, and so I apologize also for my picture
being off. I had to just move into City Hall from my home because we lost our internet,
speaking of, um, speaking of challenges with Zoom. Um, but I ... it seems to me that the
best way to ramp it up right now, whether it's someone within the City or using the
opportunity funds to offer extra funds to our partners, would be to increase the capacity
by allowing at least, um, one extra staff, if not more, to be hired.
Taylor/ I think that those three agencies that we were talking about, uh, I don't see them as being
shy, uh, for asking, uh, for assistance, and knowing what kind of assistance they need,
and I think they would be honest enough up front about it, and I ... I would be okay with
that.
Teague/ I think during this time we've seen maybe .... well we have seen, uh, a lot of challenges
and more work on all agencies, um, even if they're.... some of their programming is
down. I think the work load has been increased in other ways, which has been stressful
for people, so, um, I would be totally willin' to, urn .... ask staff to just inquire what the
needs might be and get back to Council about it.
Mims/ I'm fine with that. I think we need to look at it, obviously, as one position, um, and
clearly that it's set up as a temporary position and somebody who's familiar with all the
agencies, um, and then figure out, you know, who ... if they're reporting to the City or, you
know, CommUnity or whoever. Um .... but if they are having trouble actually, you know,
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allocating the dollars and getting the money out, then I don't have a problem with doing a
temporary, uh, funding so that they can have some extra capacity in their staffing.
Thomas/ Yeah that seems (both talking)
Hightshoe/ You're talking about the agencies themselves hiring somebody, correct?
Mims/ That would be my thought, yes, and so that it's clearly a temporary position, simply to
help with the allocation of these funds for COVID.
Fruin/ We'll do that. We'll reach out to the three agencies and, uh, and ... and kind of do a needs
assessment with them when it comes to, uh, administering these programs, and then
we'll, uh, we'll report back to you, um, on what ... what we find, and ... and hopefully with
a recommendation.
Mims/ If I could go back, Tracy, I've got a question. Um, and one I just, um, couple ... I guess a
couple comments. Pauline, thank you for your comments about, you know, we have been
spending a lot of money and a lot of people in the community have no clue how much we
really have been doing. I mean we've completed basically a ... a 15 -point, um, affordable
housing plan that I don't remember how many years ago we put that in place, but we've
accomplished an awful lot (garbled) getting that done and certainly it's, you know, time
to ... to develop a new one. As we move forward, it builds upon what we've already done
and as Pauline said we .... we've spent a lot of money, and kudos to staff for helping us
figure out how to leverage the money that we have. Uh, with LIHTC projects and ... and
IFA funding, etc., um, I mean for us to put in roughly a million and have (mumbled) sent
out about ... over 12 million this past year is ... is pretty phenomenal, um, so I really
appreciate that, and to you, Tracy, and your staff, yeah, kudos on this report. In the 10 %:
years I've been on Council, this is by far the most kind of comprehensive, all -in -one
place, um, you know, table so you can really see what ... what we've done and what kind
of funding streams they fall under, etc. So it's ... it's incredibly good. My one question is,
um, as we look at, uh, Shelter House's new project, kind of Cross Park Place #2, we have
done project based vouchers, um, in the first Cross Park Place and I assume that we're
going to be wanting to do that same thing in the second one. Do we have enough project
based vouchers and if...and if not, how is that going to impact the vouchers we have, or
can we get additional project based vouchers?
Hightshoe/ Back in 2018 when we approved the project based vouchers, it wasn't just ... we didn't
just approve project based vouchers for Cross Park Place. We set aside 5% of the
vouchers in our program to be used as project based for these types of projects (garbled)
enough vouchers for, um, the new Cross Park Place. I think there are going to be 36
units. So Council doesn't need to do anything. We will, I believe we just allocate those
with ... we send, I talked to Steve, but I'm pretty sure we just communicate directly with
HUD. If anything we might just have to get a resolution from you, but I think since
we've already set that set-aside, um, they'll be granted those vouchers. (both talking)
You're gonna see all those Main Street vouchers, those (mumbled) utilized in Iowa City
because they're for a very specific population. It's for people that are chronically
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homeless with a disabling condition and permanent supportive housing. Basically it's
Shelter House properties in Iowa City. So you're gonna see, uh, unless we create some
new units outside of Iowa City, the major... probably all of them being utilized in Iowa
City.
Salih/ My question about LIHTC, Tracy, is the LIHTC is certain years affordability?
Hightshoe/ Sorry, what was that?
Salih/ LIHTC programs (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...affordability period?
Salih/ Yes!
Hightshoe/ It's essentially 30 years. Technically for 15 years and then those are situated where
they re -up for another 15 years, based on their application. So, yes, most LIHTC projects
are 30 -year compliance period.
Fruin/ That ... that said of -oftentimes they will be affordable for longer than that, you know, for
example with Del Ray, and that bein' owned, uh, in the future by the Housing Fellowship.
You know, their mission is to provide affordable housing. So presumably, um, they are
gonna hold that beyond the compliance period or if they decide to sell it, um, those
proceeds would get reinvested into, um, other affordable housing. So a ... a lot of it
depends on who you're partnering with, um, on those programs, but the minimum is
gonna be that .... that 30 -year period.
Salih/ (mumbled) sound good.
Weiner/ I think ... I think what staff presented is really remarkable and at the same time I think that
as we gather our ...our forces and whoever decides to really work on affordable housing
going forward of...of my colleagues, um, I think we should continue to think
of ...essentially to think big, to think there... the.... the need we ... continues to be great.
There ... there are large numbers of people that are spending way, way too much of their
income on housing. That's not gonna go away, in addition to COVID and everything
else. Um, it's tremendous that we're getting the CARES Act funds and ... and all these
C .... CDBG funds, uh, but I .... but, you know, we've been able to leverage funds. We
have the new partnership with Habitat for Humanity, um, I just ... let's, you know, we...
some years ago we started ... the Council and the City started at a much lower base. We're
starting at a higher one now. And I just suggest that we set our sights as high as we can,
even considering our fiscal constraints.
Salih/ I really wanna echo what, uh, yeah, Janice said, but first really, um, there is many thing
has been done (garbled) to the staff, thank you to everyone who really like, uh, you know
(garbled) those together and now we are, uh, as Laura said in the beginning, she was
asking how the City's doing comparing to other city. I think we are (garbled) much better
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and we are ahead of the game. But as the Mayor said, there is a lot of work need to be
done, and back to Janice, we really need aggressive plan for, uh, you know, affordable
housing, or Bruce said that I guess! And Janice also said we need something really, you
know, uh, and I think, uh, we ... we have, today we are not going to say what we going to
do because we don't have any experience to say, okay, well the plan for affordable
housing will be one and two and three. We don't .... I don't have that experience! But I
thinks as all of us agree that we need to have, uh, aggressive, strong plan for affordable
housing to put in place. I thinks, uh, our next step will be just like inviting the people
who really working on affordable housing, whether it's like Housing Trust Fund or
Affordable Housing Coalition, Housing Fellowship, or Habitat, those the people who area
really, you know, show a lot of, uh... uh, progress in working on affordable housing. Uh, I
thinks we just need to do that and I .... (garbled) say that I would like (echoing in
background) to be on the Affordable Housing Committee.
Teague/ You have a echo, undoubtedly (laughs)
Salih/ I guess it coming from Tracy somehow (laughs) but .... it is, yeah! That what I was trying
to say, uh, when we put those committee .... I don't know, do you guys wanna do it now or
not, but you know, um, I have very, um, interesting on being on the Affordable Housing
Committee that we need. I don't know if that committee will be the committee
(mumbled) supposed to put the plan together with the staff or this is just like, uh, we
invite people to come up with a plan. I don't know how we can do it, but .... all of us now
I think agree that we need plan for affordable housing.
Teague/ I don't know if Councilor Bergus wants to say anything, um, but I ... but I did warm
maybe just quickly echo. A part of the hope that I have for us today, uh, with the Black
Lives Matter, um, is to kind of, well actually with this one right here, is to talk about that
plan and how .... the initial prospect of bringing people together that will create that plan.
Uh, does staff want to, um, you know, kinda start the initiation, do we bring in, uh, part...
community partners, which I think would be very valuable, um, to have some experts that
deal with housing. Um, they're the ones that are dealin', you know (mumbled) day to
day. Um, landlords definitely have some, um, not -for -profits, like the Affordable
Housing, um, Trust Fund, as well as, urn .... Shelter House. Many, many different
businesses could contribute to this, uh, conversation. And just like we're doin' these, uh,
meetins' in the parks, which hopefully will not be total fall weather (laughs) um, maybe
there's an opportunity for maybe there to be some type of a ... urn, brainstorming of
imagining what housing opportunities could be. This could be, um, people... submitting
some things that they've learned from other communities, um, so .... I would at least like
to start that conversation and definitely include, uh, staff, um, thoughts, um, entertain and
welcome your thoughts as well.
Weiner/ I think there's an enormous brain trust in our community with the ... with the non -profits
and staff and others. There's, um, we have .... we have the ability to ... to put the heads...
have everybody sit down at the table, um, and come up with a plan.
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Mims/ I think it's really important as we move forward that, one, whoever's involved looks at
our previous plan, that we're just finishing up, because .... 15 -step plan was pretty
comprehensive and accomplished an awful lot, and we need to make sure that what we're
doing is building on that and, you know, some of those may be things, you know, that
we're continuing to do. So ... it .... the next one, while you know I agree that we wanna be
as bold as we can, um, when you're, like Janice said, when you're already starting from
higher level, you know, you gotta look at where you go from there and I don't recall who
was involved in developing that last one. I think it was primarily staff, um, but I would
certainly, you know, agree that, you know, the Affordable Housing Coalition, Housing
Fellowship, etc., um, would be, you know, good people to include in that, but I think it's
really important that the people that sit down at that table to try and work on that are
people that do have some expertise in housing. Um, otherwise I think the idea is let's
throw money at it, let's throw money at it, but what we need to do is make sure that the
money that we're putting in there is used as efficiently as possible so we get the biggest
bang for our buck. So, um, and we just really need to make sure we've got a lot of
experts in housing at the table.
Taylor/ I agree with Susan and I think it's .... it's very important that we build on .... on what
we've done in the past and ... and not totally reinvent the wheel as such, because those...
that, uh, 15 -step plan we had accomplished a lot. So I think, uh, we do need to build on
that, and we do, uh, need to utilize our resources from the community.
Bergus/ And I see our .... our role as the policy makers, I get really excited about the regulatory
changes that ... that Tracy mentioned, those things that we still have in the works that are
upcoming very soon. The South District form based code, um, and talking about the
other sort of regulatory changes that .... that can be maybe hard to quantify exactly how
they impact in terms of dollars to the affordable housing landscape in our community, but
we know that long-term, providing, urn.... alternatives for allowing for more affordable
housing for having density requirements changing, I mean these things that we're talking
about with the comprehensive plan amendment and the form based code in particular, I
think that's, you know, that's kind of our expertise here on Council, that I get really
excited about. So I think we've got a great, um, whole group of people — the community
experts, the staff experts, and ... and I see our role as really focusing on that policy part to
bring it all together.
Teague/ I'm curious to know, uh, what our next steps for ...what are people thinkin' are the next
steps?
Fruin/ Mayor, I'll .... I'll jump in, I mean ultimately this is a ... this is a Council -driven initiative,
but um, I ... I would be really interested in trying to, uh, work with Tracy and her team,
and .... and sketch out a, um, a preliminary public input, um, a plan, um, and ... and really
get started with that. I think you all said it really well — let's.... let's, uh, find a way to ... to
talk with the, uh, providers in the community, uh, that know this issue better than
anybody, and...and, uh, get some of those ideas on the table and then after that process is
complete, I think there'll be a clearer picture forward on ... on, urn ... uh, what we need to
do as a city to put together a plan. So, Tracy and I and ... and her staff could... could sketch
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that out for ya, and if you're comfortable with the process we lay out, uh, we could get
goin' yet this fall.
Teague/ I ... personally I think, um, that would be a great next step, just to connect with
community providers and, um .... bring somethin' back to Council!
Mims/ Agreed!
Taylor/ Agree!
Teague/ All right, I'm seein' some noddin' of heads. So, all right! All right! Well anything else
for Tracy? Thanks for the presentation!
Weiner/ Thank you very much, Tracy.
Hightshoe/ (garbled) come back or let Geoff just...let Geoff handle the rest of it!
Fruin/ Good call, Tracy! (laughs) Good call! (laughter)
COVID-19 Update:
Teague/ Yes, yes, yes! Well, all right, well thank you again, and we're gonna continue with our
agenda for today and, uh, COVID-19 updates. Um ... I did wanna just make mention that
on Friday I, um, extended the mask mandate, and that is in effect, um, it was to expire on
the 15th, today, so on Friday, uh, that has been extended into November, um, and so, um,
thanks to everybody out there that are ... wearin' the masks, um, it is not just symbolic. It
really is savin' lives and decreasin' the risk of another person contacting COVID. So
thanks to everybody that is really, uh, participatin' and, um, bein' an active, um, player,
very conscientious of rememberin' to take your mask out the house. I know sometimes,
um, you can jump out the car and start walkin' into a business and get half way there and
think, oh my god, you know, uh, I need a mask. So thanks, uh, for every—to everyone for
adjusting.
Weiner/ Um, I think we're also .... we seem to be all about plans right now. I think we're gonna
need, um, to continue to have a plan going forward. The Governor just .... the Governor's
Office just announced that they're gonna lift the, uh, the restrictions on, uh, bars in four
of the six counties. So not in Story County and not in Johnson County yet, but the other
four counties starting tomorrow evening. So, I mean I ... I don't know how long the
Governor's gonna keep the restrictions on here, and so we need to work very closely
with, um, with the community, with the ... with bar owners, with student organizations,
with the University, with everyone to make sure we have a viable plan going forward.
Teague/ The Governor's plan for here does expire on the 20th, so that's only five days away. So,
um ... I ... I mean I .... I don't wanna take a guess at what could happen, but um, our numbers
apparently, um, are very concerning to her, as they are to us, and so, um .... we'll have to
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wait five days from now to see what happens. If she's gonna extend it or if she's gonna
end it.
Thomas/ One thing ... one thing I would mention on COVID, uh, since it's ... there's so much need
for education among ourselves and everyone on it, uh, even at this stage, I ... Iran across
an article by Ed Yong in the Atlantic. It's called "America is Trapped in a Pandemic
Spiral," and I felt it, uh, captured the, you know, the complexities of the issues we're
facing in terms of COVID, and uh, you know, trying to look forward into, you know,
what needs to be done to address the situation we're in at the moment. But I found it to
be as comprehensive as anything I've .... I've come across in terms of trying to
summarize, uh, the challenges, you know, we face moving forward.
Fruin/ Mayor, can I offer two COVID-related, uh, topics real quick?
Teague/ Yes, please!
Fruin/ Um, one is, um, the next round of CDBG funds that ... that Tracy alluded to. Uh, we don't
have, um ... uh, all the communication we need to from HUD but we do think we'll be
receiving $424,000 more in CDBG funds, and um, I would like, um .... to begin to look at
a CDBG business support, uh, program. Um, we do some CDBG business support that
you may be familiar with with our regular, annual entitlement funds. But with the first
two, um, allocations going to non -profits and housing programs, at least for the time
being, fe... feeling pretty good about the fund balances that we have there, the additional
spending authority you gave me, uh, on the ... on the local side, I think it would be good
for us to look at a small business support program, uh, that ... that targets, um, income -
qualified business owners in Iowa City ,and it'll take a little bit of ..little bit of time for us
to research some of those programs that are, uh, other cities have .... have deployed with
their CDBG funds, but um, before we get started on that at a staff level, I'd like to see if
there's Council concurrence at least a .... a, if uh... uh, in allowing staff to ... to investigate
and share with you what that program may look like. Doesn't mean that you have to
follow through with it. You could clearly put more money into the housing programs that
we have, uh, stood up for COVID, but uh, I'd like to ... I'd like to hear Council's thoughts,
uh, real briefly on .... on whether we should be lookin' at a .... a business support program.
Mims/ I would like to ... see staff look into it. I think what we all need to remember is when those
businesses fold, those are employees that no longer have jobs and can no longer pay their
rent or their mortgage. So while it's not direct rent or mortgage assistance, it really ...can
be helping people continue to pay their rent and mortgage because they continue to have
a job. So I would be interested at least in seeing what that would look like.
Salih/ Do you mean the business who cannot apply for the, all the money out there or just this is,
uh... which one?
Fruin/ Correct. So, um, we would ... just like we had to kinda think about all the rules and
regulations for the, um, the housing programs, we'd have to think about that for the
business program. So you may be a lower priority if you've already received the, uh,
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payroll protection loans from the federal government, but we know that a lot of those, uh,
small businesses especially did not receive any federal assistance. So my guess would be
that we would, uh... uh, prioritize those ... those, um, small businesses, and as I mentioned
before, um, because of the nature of the source of the funds — CDBG — there's probably
gonna be some, uh, type of, uh, income, uh, qualifications for the owners or employees of
the ... of the business that's receiving assistance.
(female)/ (garbled)
Fruin/ Thanks, Tracy.
Taylor/ Geoff, could that include such things as like I know there are some hair salons that have,
uh, been, uh...uh, traumatized by the COVID. They ...they are following the strict
guidelines and only have one customer at a time, whereas maybe they had three chairs
going with ... with three customers in at one time. So would something like that, a
business like that be considered, uh, the small business you're talking about?
Fruin/ Yeah. Yeah, I ... I think so. Again we have to do a little bit of homework on our end to, uh,
figure out what makes sense, but you know, thankfully there are cities that ... that have
already used COVID, CDBG, uh, for these types of programs. So we can ... we can
borrow from them and see what works best here.
Salih/ And, uh, also is this going to be like payroll or you .... you did not have any idea yet, you
just (mumbled)
Fruin/ Yeah, we ... I just wanna make sure that the concept itself isn't ... isn't gonna be kind of dead
on arrival, if you will, that if you felt really strongly that ... that the housing programs need
all the money that we can get, then we would just continue down that path, but um, I'd
like to invest some staff time in exploring the business side of things, and if at the end of
the day, again, we decide that that's not the best use of the funds, it's okay, um, it's just a,
kind of a more exploratory process for staff.
Salih/ (several talking) some...
Thomas/ ...and, uh, just also it may be implicit in the idea of small business, but I would add
local.... locally -owned as well.
Salih/ And it will be something like ... oh, you said you don't have details but I'm just saying that
is this something that people can apply to the City or be housing somewhere else, and ... I
don't know.
Fruin/ Yeah, we'd have to think through (both talking) it'll probably be some competitive grant
program, um, and whether we administer it or look for a partner to ... to administer, I ... I
don't know yet. (several talking, garbled)
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Weiner/ I think a lot of the hospitality industry, particularly restaurants and stuff, there just are...
I don't know how many of `em are going to survive, and they do employ a lot of people,
if we ... if we can't give `em a little bit of a handout because if we really want them to
continue to follow distancing guidelines, and we need them to, um, they really can't make
ends meet right now. (several talking, garbled)
Fruin/ I ... I appreciate that. We'll.... we'll.... we'll sketch somethin' out and then review it with
you at a future work session. Um, the other topic that I just wanna let you know that staff
is starting to think about, um, and ... and you can direct us any way you want in the future
is we need to anticipate that day when ... when water shut -offs will resume, and uh, I don't
say that as I anticipate that happening anytime soon. Um, I don't .... I don't believe that
would be your intention to resume that in 2020 even. Um, but we need to plan for that
day, because we don't wanna come to that day, you know, whether that's sometime in, uh,
you know, next spring and have a ... have a huge backlog of people that are gettin' shut off
notices. We wanna try to bring those people and ... and get them .... get them paid before
that date hits. So, um, similar to the past conversation, what I'd like to do is spend
some ... some staff time, uh, looking at a, uh, utility relief program, and it would be tied to
a ... it would be tied to a, urn ... a, kind of a payment plan of sorts. So we would notify
those accounts that are past due, and we have over 800 accounts that are past due right
now. Um, and let them know that, you know, we'd like them to ... to come on a payment
plan, uh, with us, and then we'd have to figure out how this all works, but based on their
own financial situation, um, all or a part of that, uh, past due amount could be forgiven
with a loan to the City. Um, again, depending on ... on their .... on their situation. So we
would, um, have to think about how to structure that program, but um, in my mind I'm
thinking that sometime this fall we start to engage those 800 accounts, um, with a ... with
the thought that we're going to resume shut offs sometime maybe, uh, early next spring.
Again, you all have to make that ... that call, but that gives us four, five, six months to
begin to work with them, and even if they're not paid off by that date, if they're active in
that plan with us and showing good faith to try to catch up, then we're not gonna have
this situation where we're ... we're issuing 800 or a thousand shut off notices,
which..which would be a terrible idea. So just trying to get in front of that. Again, it's
somethin' that we would come back to you, um, on, uh, to make sure you're comfortable
with the approach that we're taking. Urn ... but if you have .... if you have thoughts on how
we should do that, um, you know, in the next couple of work sessions under this topic,
it'd be helpful to hear those.
Salih/ But, Geoff, I really believe that we don't have to do anything right now. I understand that
you are not doing it now, but you know it's really sad to see that we have 800 people past
due and still we have money out there. Is there any way the City can reach out to those
people and refer them to ... where they can get help? There is many people helping on
water right now and utility bills. So ... uh, I ... I think they just, maybe those people they
don't know. Uh, or, uh you know, how can ... when you send the bill if there is a way you
can put a flier there or you can put something on the envelope saying that, uh, you are
late, please contact those people for help. So, you know, those people can apply for the
money that we have it out there.
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Fruin/ Yeah, it's a very good point and I think we would .... we would roll that into whatever plan
we produce. I just haven't, I mean we haven't given it much thought, um, but ... but
you're right, um, leaning on those existing programs would be critical in making sure that
our customers are taking full advantage of those programs would be a top priority.
Teague/ I ... I wanna (both talking) Oh, sorry! Um, I have one question, so that I understand this.
So what you're proposin' is that essentially, um .... no one would essentially be cut off, I
mean that's.... that's kind of the goal, that no one's water would be cut off. There would
be some type of a resolution to keep them going. Um, what I do know is that, um, for
whatever reason myself COVID has been a ... a busy time or just this entire year and I...
I've kinda had some bills.... normally I pay my bills right on time, right? And so (laughs)
then, uh, sometimes the, it gets like on a shelf and by the time I get to it, it's past due!
You know, and so I do know that there's some people out there that may be in that same
boat, where ... if they got that shut off notice, they'll run and pay the bill. Right? Or
they'll call. So I ... I think what my preference would be definitely right now because
COVID is going to be, um, here for a while, and the implications from COVID reduced
income and all types of things are gonna be here for a while. So what I would like to see
personally is that, yes, if we do have that, you know, shut off notice go out there or
somethin' like that, like your balance due, maybe it's just no one goes. It's just on the,
you know, when you see that, uh, past due stamp on that bill, um, you know, shut off at
risk or whatever the case may be. We'll get those calls into City Hall for those payments.
So, I...I just wanted to, you know, kinda put my two cents in there where if Af people got
that notice that, you know, it's due, then some people, um, whether they're, um, just
kinda had it on the shelf and forgot to pay it, now, you know, they see, they're like
rnnnin' to pay their bill, um, those individuals will come forth and pay and then for
individuals that get the letter that Mayor Pro Tem just mentioned, you know, there are
resources out there if you can't afford it, then those individuals have that opportunity
to .... find resolution and not have their water off.
Salih/ I ... I really don't agree with you, Mayor. How many people like you did not pay because
they didn't get out to it? That's gonna be a few, few dozen of people! I don't think 800
people will be, uh, like, uh, hundred out of them just like you did not get to the bill.
Those people they did not pay, and this is (mumbled) don't think the City notice, uh,
something like this happening before. This is maybe because of this crisis (mumbled)
start happening. I ... I think if we send them shut off notice, we really scare those people
and we don't need to do that! We ... we can tell them about the resources. If it's
somebody like you receive that, most likely they are not going to use it, and that's will
remind them all you need to pay, and if, uh, somebody like a low income person who
receive that and (mumbled) very exciting there is help out there, they never knew about
it, they will go and ... and do it, but right now I thinks we don't have to speak about shut
off. To be honest with you, why in the world we shut off people water, even if there is no
COVID? This is like really not supposed to be the value of the City. We ... we need to be
better than that. Uh, I just think like right now, please no shut off at all, you know, just
like let us just put this idea away right now, especially, and think about how can we refer
those people so they can pay. There is money out there and people can pay.
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Weiner/ (mumbled) about to run into winter, whether we like it or not (mumbled) (several
talking) not the time to shut off anything.
Fruin/ Yeah, Mayor Pro Tem, and that's the ... that's the approach that we're contemplating at the
staff level, is ... is again, we're not .... um, we're not gonna hold the date over anybody's
head because we haven't set a date, but we do feel like we need to start connecting people
with resources, making sure that they can get on a payment plan, because with each
passing month that past due amount just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, and we need
to ... we need to figure out a way to ... to bridge that gap. So whenever that date comes, be
it six months or six years (laughs) that amount is a manageable amount. So, um, again,
we won't ... we won't do anything without talking with you all first and making sure
you're comfortable with it. We're just kind of letting you know that that ... that planning's
going to be important this fall.
Weiner/Yeah, and one more COVID challenge that we may all face is if the Big 10 decides to
resume football play this fall. I think we will likely know that within the next ... within the
next day or two if they're going to do something like an ... an eight -game season, um, but
that could have impacts both good and difficult on the town, and we'll have to think
carefully about that.
Taylor/ I was thinking the same thing, Janice (garbled) depends on ... on whether they, uh, do the
open stadium and actually have, um ... uh, fans in the stadium or if they just do the football
game like .... like some schools are doing. So you're.... you're exactly right, that's very
big concern.
Continue discussion of Resolution (20-159) of Initial Council Commitments addressing the
Black Lives Matter Movement and Systemic Racism in the wake of the murder of George
Floyd by the Minneapolis Police and calls for action from protesters and residents QP4):
Teague/ Yes. All right, anything else there? All right! We're gonna move on to ... continuin' our
discussion on Black Lives Matter movement and systemic racism. And ... um, I did wanma
refer to IN, um, from the... actually it's from the September I Oth.....information packet.
And .... I don't know if anyone has anything that they wanted to just maybe open up with,
but ... inn, I think it might be helpful if we just kinda look at this and go through it a little
bit. Are people okay with that? I should have asked, um .... Kellie to (laughs) post it.
Maybe in the future we'll just have a standing order to have it available, to kinda just
throw it up on screen share.
Fruehling/ Do you ... do you want me to grab that and....
Teague/ Actually I think I ... I think I'm sharin' on my screen.
Fruehling/ Okay.
Teague/ Yep! All right, so....
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Fruin/ Mayor, uh, on that first item, um, you have, uh, Council's first listening post is tomorrow
at Mercer Park at 5:30. And I just wanted to, uh, make sure that, uh... urn, we....
everybody has the same understanding on ... on kinda what to expect, and that ... that
includes Council, staff, and the invited guests, um, that we're .... that we're bringing in,
uh, to ... to go with the theme. So, um, what I was thinking was that, um, the ... the three
Council Members that are hosting these would offer a welcome to the ... to the audience,
and ... and just generally speak about the ... the process that you've set forth for this plan to
restructure towards the community policing, and then again, each night has a ... has a
theme and, uh, Kellie's been working hard to get some of the service providers in the
community, uh, to attend these and ... and share their perspectives as well. So I .... I would,
uh, recommend that Council then give, um, the invited, uh, service providers an
opportunityjust to talk a little bit about their field. Uh, I ... I think tomorrow it's maybe
mental health and addiction, um, crisis. Um, let them kinda just, A ... uh, share their
thoughts on ... on, um, those topics and ... and share some perspective on how they work
with law enforcement now and perhaps, um, you know, any ideas that they may have
going forward to strengthen those relationships, and then .... and then of course, um, you k
know, make, uh, make comment available to anybody from the public that comes as well.
Um, whether it's related to the theme or not, and I think that's important. There's gonna
be people that have ideas that maybe aren't tied to that theme that we certainly need to,
uh, welcome at those, uh, at those meetings as well. So, I'm really asking this because
we've gotten a few questions from the non-profit providers, uh, on ... on what they're
going to be asked to do or say at these, and just wanna make sure that we're givin' them
the right guidance.
Teague/ Uh, has the, urn .... CommUnity Crisis and Shel... uh, Food Bank been invited?
Fruin/ Yeah. Kellie, maybe you could jump on here and ... and help us with who's ... uh, who's
confirmed for ...(both talking, garbled)
Teague/ And I guess the reason I ask that was because Raneem has sent, um, somethin' in
relationship to, urn.... urn.... kind of the, uh.... MCOs, the mobile reach councilors, is what
I think is the, kind of the.... relational thing that, um, was in the information that she sent,
and so I just wondered if CommUnity would be there, because they actually have that
model already, um, deployed, and they have that model deployed, um, I wanna say
definitely 20 .... urn, 2015, but potentially even much earlier than that.
Fruehling/ Um, so I .... I did send out, um, for this ... this first, it looks like, urn .... Mobile Crisis
Outreach and CommUnity. So Becci Reedus is going to be there, and then Prelude, Ron
Berg is gonna be there ... for tomorrow's listening post. Urn .... and then the, do you wanna
know all of the ones that I have confirmed so far?
Teague/ At least for me I just wanted to know if they ...they would be there. I mean there is, um, I
don't wanna use the words `small scale' by any means, but, um, there is a ... a model that
we can, uh, look at, uh, that's already in our community. So I thought that would be very
beneficial for people to learn about that model, um, and how they do interact with people
in the middle of crisis, urn .... and .... and they get, urn .... invited to some calls, and maybe
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there'll be some conversations about, um, how .... there's been some avoidance of, uh...
you know, police involvement, but nevertheless, um, I just wanted to know if Becky
would be there. So that was my only question (both talking) from CommUnity will be
there. All right, and can you send out, um .... to all Council the dates again, so we can add
them to our calendar, because um, I did not do that totally.
Fruehling/ Yes! Sure will!
Teague/ Thank you. Any .... anything else on this one?
Weiner/ I'd just be interested in hearing, Kellie, what the next couple of ones are, and if you
know what the themes are going to be for them, after tomorrow night's.
Fruehling/ Um, sure. For, um, September 22nd, that's the Zoom meeting, um, and the focus area
is special needs populations, and so we've got Mary Roberts from the Village
Community, uh, and then Sarah Martinez from Access to Independence of Eastern Iowa
that have confirmed that they would be available. Uh, and then.... September 26th is still
in limbo, uh, as far as .... focus and service providers. Um, September 20, uh, focus area
is domestic abuse, child abuse, victim outreach. Um, and Kristie Fortmann- Doser from
DVIF, Karen Evans from DHS, and Attorney Zimmerman Smith from the County have
confirmed.
Weiner/ Thanks!
Fruehling/ Uh huh.
Fruin/ Um, Council, I also, uh, maybe would give, uh, Ryan, uh, a ... a chance to speak. Ryan sent
me a note earlier in the week and, um, wondered what the reception might be to doing
something, uh, that was focused on the ... on the .... on the student population near campus.
Um, so as Kellie mentioned, we ... we've struggled to get the meeting on the 26th, uh,
programmed. We could look at, um ... either rescheduling that for ...for a good time with...
with students or adding a .... another listening post to focus on students, but Ryan,
maybe ... maybe you can, uh, jump in and kinda talk about why you think that's important.
Longenecker/ Yeah, thank you very much. Uh, I just, uh, had some conversations with other
USG members and, um, kinda brought up the, um, the fact that, you know, students have
been leading, um, a lot of these, you know, a lot of the protests, a lot of these changes,
um, certainly been leaders in the community, and um, I think it would be a really good
idea to have a night to address just specifically student concerns, um, for a couple of
reasons. One, just the fact that students have been leading, inn ... uh, in this movement,
but also, um, I think as we've all seen, there are certainly generational differences in
opinions about, um, what we wanna see in our community, and so I think in some ways it
actually might help to bring a more, inn ... fruitful dialogue and discussion, if students had
a night themselves to voice their opinions, as well as, um, for the adults that would come
and a way to not feel pressured by students, um, to not speak their mind for fear that there
might be disagreements and so on, because, um, that's certainly one thing is that we
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might have disagreements because just generationally, um, as we've seen in this
movement, and so I think just between those couple of things it'd be a really good idea to
have a night that's just geared purely toward students and it might make some students
feel a little bit, um, more likely to come, um, and like they're being heard, um,
specifically by Council.
Weiner/ I think it's a good idea.
Teague/ Uh huh.
Salih/ Yes, this is very good idea.
Mims/ You think the 26b is too soon, Ryan, or...could we ... take that 261' and make it that, and
then I guess my question would be, is there a possibility we could do that on the
Pentacrest? I don't remember the location for the 26' that we originally had set.
Longenecker/ I would have to check with, um....obviously with scheduling stuff on the
Pentacrest. Um, and whether or not the 26 would be too soon. Um .... that only really
gives us 11 days, urn .... so I know, I mean if it's two weeks out, I can ... I almost guarantee
that we can get that scheduled, um, the 26' might be ... mildly soon.
Mims/ (garbled) from your end. I think I'm hearing that ... that Council is supportive of doing
something dedicated to the students, and to me it would make sense, if we're gonna do
that, to do it on the Pentacrest, unless you have a better idea. But ... given that we're
trying to keep these things outside, we wanna do it sooner rather than later, before the
weather turns on us.
Longenecker/ Yeah, I think may ...maybe if I just work with, um, work with Geoff and Ashley and
City staff and, urn .... to figure out that scheduling and we can get that scheduled, you
know, hopefully by the end of this week (mumbled) that works.
Teague/ Yeah, and maybe Kellie can just, uh, email all of us and ... um .... if ...if the 261 would be
moved or .... who wants to be a part of that, but I think we can, uh, work that out off...
offline. All right! Um, we're, um, only have about 15 minutes left, um, here. I did want
to ... get to the next item, um, just to have some comments, cause that is definitely, um, on
the website. Maybe to give information about where people can see the, um....we gave
the video out, um, and maybe that's the body camera and, um .... what ... no, it must be
number two in a way (laughs) so, urn .... is there anything else on here that people want to
talk about, um .... before we, um, I ... I think just for public information, we just gave out
the video after the last meetin' on that Thursday, um, and it's on the City website. Um...
Weiner/ I just wanted to mention that the CPRB is doing its public forum on, uh, next Monday
the 21' at 5:30. You just need to go to the, on the City website and sign up for it and
you'll get a link, and uh, I know they would appreciate, um, having a lot of public input!
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Mims/ Just reminder (garbled) Council Members on there we can't speak. But I've always found
it helpful to go and to listen.
Teague/ Okay. Um ... I, we are gonna get to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That's on
our agenda tonight, on our formal agenda, so lookin' forward to that conversation. Um...
is there .... and I am so sorry because these don't have numbers on `em, but the ... um, I was
referrin' to the tear gas, rubber bullets, flash bangs and protests. Um, that is the video
that is on the City website. Um ... so, that was somethin' that was directed by Council last,
um, meeting, and that was put out ... that Thursday after our last Council meetin'. That's
what I was referrin' to. So I just wanted to clarify. Sorry about that! I know that we're
gonna have a .... a .... a discussion tonight with Truth and Reconciliation, and so unless
there's someone else that wanna talk about any item here, um, we started the
conversation, which is great, about the housing. Um, affordable housing plan, and so, uh,
we'll wait for somethin' there, and then next, uh, work session we'll probably try to dive
into this a little more, make sure that we're checkin' some things off as well. Or makin'
some plans. Unless there's anything else that anybody wants to address.
Bergus/ Just really briefly, Mayor, in case people haven't had a chance to look all the way
through it, members of the public haven't had a chance to look all the way through our
September 1 & info packet, that this is part of. There was the report on military -grade
equipment included in there, which was, uh, just recently completed, as well as the, um,
general order modifying the use of, uh, body -worn cameras and car recording that had
some, um, pretty sensitive updates in my opinion. So thank you to staff for getting those
done and including those in our packet.
Weiner/ Thank... thanks, Laura, and I just wanted to, uh, sort of second something that I think
Councilor Thomas talked about at...at the last meeting, which is, uh, considering as we
move forward whether we might not merge .... take advantage of COVID policing and
merge it with police reform, so that we can really, uh, so that we can really roll back some
of the minor traffic stops and ... and stops (mumbled) really then put a stop to some of the
disparate contact.
Mims/ Given that we have just a few minutes left, I don't know, and we kind of have a mish
mash of things here in terms of our agenda, because.... we're talkin' about the Black
Lives Matter. We've got the info packet discussion that's later. I don't know if we'll get
to but some of that stuff in the info packets relates to this. So I guess I'm gonna bring up,
um .... well, no. I won't. I'm sorry! I'll wait (laughs) (mumbled) crazy schedule!
Teague/ Yeah, there's a few overlapping things, uh, that ... comes up later through the info packets.
Um ... but .... all right, if any ...does anyone have anything else ... for now?
Thomas/ I'll just mention quickly that, you know, I have been, and I ... I at least, and I think all of
us have been getting quite a bit of correspondence related to the, uh, you know, IFR's, um
(mumbled) architectural framework relating to, you know, community wellness and um,
accountability, and I ... I've been trying to use that as a kind of a reference as I think about
our response to the policing question. Uh, so for example with, urn .... with the student
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engagement, uh, one of the items, policy areas that that architecture refers to is the
alcohol and drugs, and um ... you know, in looking at this ... this Iowa City Police
Department's statements that I've found in the ... in the yearly budget report, there's a
fairly strong emphasis on, uh, enforcing underage drinking. Uh, so that ... that's an
important piece of our police, uh, operation in terms of its day-to-day activities. So I
think to me, I .... I did contact Ryan earlier, uh, or late last week, um, that that like traffic
law enforcement. I think it's a ... it's a potentially, um....truthful area to explore at this
particular point in time, uh, to ... to see if we wanna consider ..uh, you know, really take a
dive into our policies related to, uh, underage drinking and ... and the drinking question in
general, and ... and have that conversation with students, um, and see what may come out
of it, because as I said, I think at this particular moment in time, like with traffic law
enforcement, where things have been disrupted to some extent, uh, I think that's an
opportunity to explore other ways of thinking about, um, you know, how we deploy our
resources in that area.
Taylor/ If Ryan's still on I think that would be a good point for that, uh, listening post, uh, that's
geared towards the students. I think if you can emphasize that and ... and have the students
think, uh, what their thoughts are on that, I think that's a good idea, John.
Longenecker/ Yeah, I would add that's certainly between traffic stops and probably, I mean,
when students think of their interaction with the police in Iowa City, they're probably
thinking of downtown and underage drinking. Um, that's probably the greatest or most
likely place that they interact, um, with ICPD, um, so that's certainly ...uh, an important
part that I think would be helpful to talk about at the listening post, and students would
definitely have opinions about it.
Clarification of A¢enda Items:
Teague/ Okay, all right. Well thank you so much to everybody joinin' in on that discussion. Um,
we'll move on to .... clarification of agenda items, unless ... uh, there's anything else.
Don't wanna cut anybody off! There are five .... I will mention that today there are five,
um, res...uh, proclamations today and didn't know if anyone, uh, wanted to kind of
volunteer. I know Councilor Taylor has volunteered to take over, um, I think it's the...
the Mid ... the Midwifery Week. And if so you can just contact me, um, once we got off
and say, hey, I'll do this one. So ... I won't, uh, spend any more time there. If you're
interested in takin' any of those, just let me know! And, uh, any other items on the
formal agenda, for clarification?
Mims/ Just wanted to let people know, when we do get into the formal meeting, um, in the...
consent calendar, um, we've gotten a lot of letters that are essentially form letters that
have a lot of questions in them related to policing and Black Lives Matter. And I talked
with Geoff this afternoon, and I am going to be asking Geoff to go through those
questions and answer those publicly. Um, and it has to do with the, you know, the police
officers being trained to de-escalate, you know, altercations, that sort of thing. Are they
forbidden from using choke holds, etc. I think to really try and get some of this
information out there, um, with the number of these letters that we're getting that...
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they're basically form letters. We've had some that are handwritten, um, so I am gonna
be asking him to go through those questions and give those answers to the public when
we're in the formal meeting.
Taylor/ I'm okay with that, Susan.
Information Packet Discussion (September 3, September 10):
Teague/ Anything else from the formal agenda? Info packet, September 3. Info packet,
September 10d.
Mims/ If I ... I apologize, If I can go back to the 31d for just a minute. I think ... I hope that people
looked carefully at IN, which is the CPRB's annual report. Um, I think there was a lot
of good information in there, um, five complaints filed in fiscal year 2020. I think there
was a total of 11 allegations within those five complaints, and they were all, um, not
sustained, both by the police chief and by the CPRB, um, and also if you've been reading
any of their minutes, um, they really are working to get some information from former
members, etc., on ideas for changes, um, to the CPRB. So ... urn .... that was it. Sorry, I
was a little slow on the date there.
Teague/ You're fine! (laughs)
Mims/ Um, on the 10th, IP6 on the body cams, since we've gotten to that, um, I just wanna let all
of you k now that I did talk with Geoff earlier today about one of the issues in there, and
that is, um, I guess two issues — how do officers know if their body cam is
malfunctioning, and the response was, well, sometimes they know and sometimes they
don't. When they turn it on it's supposed to have a light come on and it's supposed to
vibrate, but there can be issues that it could malfunction and they would not be aware of
it. So that's, you know, one of those glitches with technology that we all have, and the
second one was the issue of if they do know it's malfunctioning and they're out in the
field, um, having to come back to ... the station downtown to get a new one, if they don't
have an emergent situation, and my question was can we make that a decision of the shift
commander instead of the officer? So that it doesn't become a judgment call, um, for
which they might ultimately be disciplined, um, later on, depending upon how it's looked
at. But the answer that Geoff got back from, um, Interim Chief Brotherton was a concern
that the ... the shift commander is not always immediately available, and they both I think
felt pretty strongly that if an issue did come up with this, that a .... that an officer did not
come back and get one because there was an emergent situation that they felt that they
could deal with that fairly, um, in terms of any discussions or reporting after the fact. So
I just wanted to make sure that, uh, we looked at that, both from the standpoint of
protecting the police officers and protecting the prub... public, um, when we have an
officer out there with a camera that's not working.
Teague/ Okay!
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Thomas/ I had a ... question on, uh, IP10, the taxi cab regulations. Uh, is ... is the questionnaire
leaving the, urn .... the number of cab ... cabs at four, rather than, uh, dropping them to two
as requested by the, um the taxi cab companies?
Fruin/ Correct. That was the ... I think you had some correspondence a couple meetings ago from
a, uh, company that wanted to reduce down to two vehicles, uh, so this is the background
on how we got to that minimum vehicle. (mumbled)
Thomas/ Cause I ... one ... one city that I did a little bit of a search on that, and um, Marion has a
policy or an ordinance where it, um ... it req ... it only requires that there be two vehicles,
uh, but one of them has to be in service all the time. So that, I don't know if...if that's
something that we may wanna consider as, uh, you know, if...if we were to drop it to two,
um .... you know, if having that requirement that one of those two vehicles has to be in
operation 20, you know, 24 hours. There has to be constant service from at least one of
those vehicles all the time. But that ... that was one option that, um .... in....in my little bit
of research seemed like one way of ..of approaching that, and I don't know if that was
talked about, uh, as part of the two, reducing it to two or not.
Salih/ What do you mean by that, John, and also for City Manager, what ... what we have right
now, what (mumbled) right now for operation wise?
Thomas/ Well we're .... as I .... as I understand it we require the taxi cab companies to have, uh, a
minimum of four vehicles, and there's been a request, by the cab companies, to drop it to
two vehicles, and what I found with Marion, Iowa, outside Cedar Rapids, was they have,
uh, a two ... two vehicle requirement, um, you know, minimum, uh, and one of those
vehicles has to be in service all the time.
Salih/ I'm talkin' about, uh, what we have currently on the, like if they have four vehicles or if
they have one, uh, what the requirement for like when they have to be available?
Thomas/ That I don't know.
Fruehling/ You're asking currently, Maz?
Sahh/ Uh huh, yes, currently.
Fruehling/ Cur... currently they have to have a minimum of four vehicles when they ...they renew
their company license.
Salih/ But it doesn't matter they have ... one of them have to be operated all the time.
Fruehling/ Urn .... let me look through this, cause I .... Ashley's kind of my point person on this,
but um....
Fruin/ I believe they have to ... they have to have a 24-hour, uh, 24/7, um....
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Salih/ Answering call (several talking)
Fruin/ Just call answering, right? (several talking, garbled)
Fruehling/ We had those, um, in there and those were dropped.
Fruin/ Those were dropped (both talking)
Fruehling/ So we had like the office requirement in Iowa City or Coralville, and then a ... a 24/7
operation, but those were dropped .... from the requirements.
Dilkes/ This is Eleanor. I don't recall a ... a requirement that they be operating always, other than
that.
Salih/ I thinks, you know, John Thomas, I don't know if you knew that, uh, the people who have
like taxi companies in this area, is ... we have like (mumbled) yes, but most of the other is
really low income people who are doing this, and this kind of requirement, it would be
like (mumbled) I guess we need to leave it as it is, as it was. Uh, with minimum of two
vehicles.
Thomas/ Well it's four vehicles.
Salih/ But right now they reduce it to two, right?
Thomas/ No, no it's four.
Salih/ Are you (several talking) Yeah, it's four, but what ... what the two come from? I did not
follow that.
Thomas/ That was requested by the tax ... taxi companies, correct?
Salih/ Yeah, but (garbled) are we doing it?
Weiner/ It was requested by one specific taxi company (several talking, garbled)
Salih/ Yeah! I guess that mean they don't have enough business, that's why they requested to
down to two, and I ... I mean like even if we guaranteed that to two, we don't have to
require them to operate it 24 hours, because I guess with everything going on right now,
there is no business!
Thomas/ (several talking) I wasn't....
Taylor/ (both talking) oh, excuse me.
Thomas/ ...necessarily advocating for that. I was just, um, it was another variable ... um ... you
know, with the idea of being that it seemed one ... one of the issues associated with this
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question is the ... the legitimacy and viability of the service, and that, um, you know, the
fewer the cars that are part of the fleet, the less viable the service may be. Well, you
know, in rating Marion's, it seemed like one ... one way of trying to address maintaining
service with fewer vehicles is ensuring that at least one of them is in service at all times.
It's not an area (mumbled) um (both talking)
Teague/ Is this a conversation we can pick back up? It's 10 minutes to 7:00.
Salih/ I think so, yeah.
Teague/ Okay, great! We're gonna get off now and we'll be back at 7:00.
(BREAK TO FORMAL MEETING)
(RECONVENE WORK SESSION)
Information Packet Discussion (September 3. September 10) (CONT.):
Teague/ All right, so we are, uh, resumin' our work session, and I know that Councilor Thomas
had, um, and Councilor, um .... uh, Mayor Pro Tem, were in conversation, just as we had
to end. So....
Fruehling/ Mayor, can I ... hop in with just a little bit of information, if we're talkin' about the
taxis?
Teague/ Yes!
Fruehling/ Um, so we ... we had the request from the cab company to go from four down to two
for the... the.... maximum requirement, or minimum requirement. Um, and Council had
asked for some history, so that's your IP 10 in the September 10' info packet. Um, from a
staff perspective, I ... I think with ... the, when we, the changes that have evolved with the
business renewal change to being once a year, and then with the TNC's, the ... the number
of pop-up companies during the football season has dropped dra.... dramatically, um, we
don't seem to have that issue any more. Um ... and I did survey some other .... other cities.
About half of `em responded back. Um, but Clinton, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and
Dubuque, they have no minimum. Coralville is four .... four taxi cabs and four drivers.
Um, I was hopin' to hear back from Ames but I ... I didn't. That would have been a good
comparable with us. Um, and then currently just the two companies, Big 10 has two
vehicles, um, since they're able to do that with the ... the Mayor's order and the suspension
of the requirement of four cabs, and Yellow Cab has 17 vehicles. And hopefully that will
help with your discussion.
Teague/ Thanks, Kellie!
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Mims/ So, Kellie, you're saying that with the changes to the once a year licensing in May, in
particular, that you're not ... we're not really seeing any of these kind of pop-up ... kinds of
companies come football season, is that right?
Fruehling/ Not like we were, and I think some of it has to do with like Uber and Lyft also.
Mims/ Uh huh.
Fruehling/ Um, I think the combination of the two.
Mims/ Given that situation, I'm willing to entertain the idea of going to a minimum of two. Um,
I ... I just wanted to make sure on that, because let me tell you when you go back and look
at that history, I can tell you over the last 10 and a half years, I don't know how many
Council meetings I've sat in that we talked taxis (laughs) and I mean it's just been really
crazy, but I think with the ... the TNCs, which are basically the Uber and Lyft, that really
has changed the landscape a lot, and obviously we're in unprecedented waters right now
with the pandemic, and with the cancellation of football season, or at least delay,
whatever, um, so I'm willing to ... to go to the two, which I'm assuming would require
staff to bring back an ... an ordinance to us.
Taylor/ I also would be in favor of going to the two rather than the four, because, uh, as you'd
said, uh, Susan, the Lyft and Uber did change the landscape of our taxi cab business in
our town significantly, uh, we're down to just the two, as she said, the Big 10 and Yellow,
uh, and ... and that's a shame, I think, because, uh, there were some independent. We talk
about independent and, uh, businesses, small businesses, and that's what this... these
were for these folks was business. So, uh, I think we should, uh, we should encourage
them, and I think bringing it down to two might help.
Teague/ I would agree with the two as well. Um, I think, um, Mayor ...I forgot who had proposed
the ... they looked at another community, maybe it was Marion where it was 24/7, and I
would be like Mayor Pro .... and I'm with Mayor Pro Tem, that we shouldn't do those
requirements. So definitely, uh, I support the two, with no, um, just changin' that, um,
only.
Thomas/ Yeah, I think the two seems ... all things considered, a reasonable change.
Teague/ All right, so it seem like we have majority there. Any other comments? Hearin' none,
all right, is there .... um ..... we .... are there any items from the info packet that anyone
wanted to mention, and then after that I think, um, we'll probably entertain an
adjournment from work session.
Thomas/ I quickly would mention, urn .... IP11, uh, on the 10th. The, um .... memo from the
Climate Action Coordinator, you know, the ... the numbers... are... are, we're tracking well,
but it's really primarily because of the actions of Mid American and the University, and
so, you know, issues related to reducing carbon emissions, um, other than for those two
factors, you know, we're losing ground. So ... um, it's just something to keep in mind.
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Don't really have any (laughs) any thoughts beyond that, other than perhaps with the fires
in ... in the west that, um, the emphasis on, uh, adaptation, uh, you know, if you look at
actions, whether they're mitigation or adaptation, uh, I personally feel that we need to be
as concerned with adaptation as we do with mitigation, um, and you know, how that
would translate to conditions here. Uh, because climate change is not some future event.
It's happening right now. And, urn .... so we need, I think, to acknowledge the fact that,
uh, you know, we may not be able to meet our goals, at least in ... in as timely a fashion as
we would like, uh, so we ... we need to be thinking adaptation, as well as mitigation.
Teague/ Any other IP item? Hearin' none....uh, are we good to adjourn for the evening?
Weiner/ Um, we are but I'd just like to make one comment that I meant to make at the end of the
formal meeting, which is ... you know, as we've seen and heard about people are hurting.
There are people who have experienced trauma. There are people who ... who are having
enormous difficulties. Some of them we know, some of them we don't. I just ask that
everybody give people space and grace. Thank you.
Taylor/ And, Mayor, I'd just like to go back to, um, John mentioned the fires and I would like to
say that, uh, I know many in the community have friends and relatives that live on the
west coast and our thoughts are certainly with the entire west coast. It's just literally
burning, and then there are others in ... in the country that are facing hurricanes. So my
thoughts are certainly with all the members of these communities that are facing these.
Teague/ All right, anything else? Hearin' nothing then we are adjourned for the night. Thank
you, Councilors, and thanks to the public, and uh, for bein' with us tonight ,and of course
to our staff for, uh, bein' with us as well, and have a good night, everybody!
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