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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-03-22 TranscriptionMarch 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 1 March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn, Wright Staff Present: Helling, Dilkes, Hargadine, Fosse, Karr, Davidson, Boothroy, Laverman, Severson, Morris, Yapp Others Present: Shipley, UISG A>?enda Additions: Hayek/ All right, why don't we get started. First bullet point is Council appointments. Karr/ Mr. Mayor, if I could just note, uh, there's two additions that we'll make, uh, to the agenda tomorrow night. One is on your Consent Calendar, setting a public hearing on the Iowa Department of Transportation Consolidated Funding application for Iowa City Transit, and we'll pass that information out to you tomorrow evening. And, the other one deals with announcing two vacancies...on boards and commissions. One on the Airport Commission and one Library Board of Trustees, and that information will be distributed tomorrow evening. Champion/ We have it! Karr/ Okay? Do you have it? Okay, good! Council Appointments: Hayek/ Got it! Thank you. Okay, uh, Council appointments. We have, uh, just one appointment to the Cool Cities Task Force. (several talking) (mumbled) consensus for Mr. Carsner? (several talking) Next is agenda items...and as you can see, a number of them are separate bullet points, so, uh, try to avoid those. Agenda Items• ITEM 6. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION DETERMINING THE NECESSITY AND SETTING DATES OF A CONSULTATION AND A PUBLIC HEARING FOR APRIL 27, 2010 ON A PROPOSED MOSS GREEN URBAN VILLAGE URBAN RENEWAL PLAN FOR A PROPOSED URBAN RENEWAL AREA IN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA. Mims/ On number...5...let's see...pardon? (several talking) Nope. Let me... Karr/ I'm sorry! Are you all wearing your microphones up (several talking) it's very difficult! (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 2 Mims/ It doesn't want to stay over there. Karr/ It's not only Susan. Matt, I can barely hear you, and Dale, I didn't get anything. So...(noise on mic) (laughter) Okay! That worked! (several talking) Mims/ I was on the wrong one. Number 6, um...notice at the end of the notes they had asked for, uh, a special meeting to do that earlier, to do it April 16th instead of our regular meeting of the 27th. So I didn't know when was the appropriate time to discuss that. Now? (laughter) Hayek/ Have they, um...have they identified for us a tangible benefit that will occur to them if we move this forward by 12 days? Cause I guess I'm...I'm not averse to...to assisting them, but it's unclear to me that moving this up by 12 days really helps them in any real way. Mims/ I don't know. Do you, Jeff, I mean... Davidson/ They've not identified anything more than just a general interest in having it moved up in order to help them, in their eyes, move their project along more quickly. Wright/ I think barring an actual good reason to hold a special meeting for that, I...I'm not interested in doing so. Champion/ Could somebody check with somebody tomorrow to see if there's a reason? Helling/ We could follow up, or...I would anticipate their presence, but we can contact them (mumbled) at the meeting (mumbled) Davidson/ It...what they've expressed to us is in their negotiations with potential purchasers of property and... and businesses that would locate there, they need to show that there's ongoing... and they don't like the fact that there's such a long gap between Council meetings in April. Champion/ I can understand that. Dilkes/ I think if you want to have an explanation from the applicant, you're going to have to wait until tomorrow night, unless you want to invite them to talk to you now, but... Dickens/ We do have the potential of having an extra meeting anyway for some of the other items on the agenda so... Hayek/ We do, but as I understand it, not as it relates to this, because you've got a...a requirement for a consultation with someone else (several talking) would not occur before then. Dilkes/ You could not have the public hearing sooner than April 16th. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council speclal work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 3 Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ All right, so they'll...they'll be there tomorrow night. Why don't we just ask them then (several talking) Karr/ And then prior to taking action on that item, you could simply amend it with the date, or...leave it the way it is and it would remain as the 27th. Mims/ Okay. Thank you. Hayek/ Other agenda items? ITEM 13. DECLARING THE CITY'S INTENT TO PROCEED WITH AND AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR THE 2010 SIDEWALK INFILL PROJECT. Mims/ I did on number 13, just a question. This was on the infill for the sidewalks, um, public hearing. Were property owners, did they receive something in the mail, I mean, to notify them of that or what kind of notification was done? Dilkes/ Yes they do. They receive a notice. Mims/ Thank you. Hayek/ Other agenda items? Okay. Hearing none...let's move on to 21-Bar Entry Ordinance. This is item 21... and there is a.. . Wright/ The irony in that! Bailey/ I thought that was purposeful. (several talking) Hayek/ Indeed! (laughter) Uh...that's hilarious! (laughter) There's a memo in our March 11 packet from the City Attorney, as well. 21-Bar Entry Ordinance (Agenda #21 and IP3): Helling/ (mumbled) mentioned, uh, the reason this is the last item on the agenda (mumbled) appears as if your normal business will probably...would be taken care of fairly quickly, and I anticipate you'll have a number of people wanting to speak to this, and rather than hold up a lot of the other meeting (mumbled) Had it appeared that other things on the agenda were to take up time, we probably would have put it (mumbled) Champion/ I think that's a good idea. Wright/ Yeah, makes sense for that one. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 4 Bailey/ Well, and given that there will be a lot of people here tomorrow night for this, I mean, I don't...I would prefer to have the discussion tomorrow night myself. Unless there are particular questions or things that need to be discussed. Wright/ I had a few questions. I just want to get some things clarified. Um...so is...this is essentially the same ordinance that we have right now, with the entry age of 19, with the changed language. Is that correct? Dilkes/ Yes. Wright/ And so... Dilkes/ Changing it to the legal age, which of course is currently 21. Wright/ Right, but the same exceptions then will apply? Dilkes/ Yes. Wright/ Okay. Dickens/ And we can add...variances to this ordinance after it's passed, as far as...um, I just had some questions about timeline and things like that, or is this going to be set, all set when we do this? Dilkes/ The, in terms of the timeline, the...the ordinance in front of you has a, um, effective date in it, um, of June 1st. You can certainly deliberate about that and change that, if you chose to, um...and you would do that during the process of adopting the ordinance. In terms of subsequent amendments, it would be just like any ordinance. It certainly can be amended after it's adopted. Hayek/ Seems to me that...that tonight, and...and I agree with you, Regenia, we ought to save as much as we can for tomorrow night as possible. There...there are three, uh...items we ought to hit upon, and one is if anyone has any... any questions, need for clarification of the proposed language, um, the second is the format for tomorrow night, and I want to just throw out my idea for that, and then the third is, um, the issue of timing. If we move forward with this, by when do we want to, uh, have third and final reading, and that relates to the City Attorney's memo. Are there any other questions about the language of the proposed ordinance...that we can get clarification on? Dickens/ Pretty well said. Hayek/ Um, let me just briefly talk about the format tomorrow night. Um, I'm mindful that this is an issue of great importance within the community. I'm also mindful of the fact that we have lots of other agenda items and it's...and we can't realistically be here until every last person, um, has an opportunity to speak to the Council, and...and uh, and I don't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 5 think it does the public a service for us to be here all night. What I would propose that we do is, um, allocate 90 minutes to public discussion. Our deliberation would be on top of that. Uh, and in lieu of our typical 5-minute cap on speaking, ask people to limit their comments to 3 minutes so that more people can be heard. I'm not tied to that, but it seems to me that...uh, that would increase the number of people who can be heard on the subject (mumbled) Champion/ I think that's a really good idea. However, there might be...uh, somebody from the public whose...who is representing a group of people and...I think maybe they might have 5 minutes. I mean, I think sometimes a group has already prepared what they want to say, and they're used to the 5-minute limit. Can we just see how that kind of flows out tomorrow night? Wright/ I think it would be better if we had...rather than loosey-gooney, have...have it one or the other, uh, and I think 3 minutes is reasonable. Most people, whether they're speaking for a group or just for themselves should be able to distill their points down. If they have 5 minutes worth and we have a 3 (several talking) does that seem reasonable? Wilburn/ The other thing is that, um, it's less likely that any new ideas or concerns are going to be, uh, addressed. The faces may be different, but the content of what (mumbled) then shared, uh, if there's something new then it'd be the discretion of the Mayor to, uh, extend that time if there's...if there's new categories of concern, uh, (mumbled) Champion/ Okay. Bailey/ I do, um, and I understand why you would want to limit it to 90 minutes. I certainly have been at meetings that have gone well past midnight about this topic. Um, I do have a... a little bit of a concern given, well, given that it's a very contentious issue, and...I do think limiting comments also...I mean, there was a vote on this, and there is some concern that we are also ignoring that, and then to limit comments, the comment period, I think kind of underscores, um, a perceived disregard for public opinion. Um, I...I...I mean, I'm trying to balance my own interests and not being here all night, given...the issue. And I understand that we probably won't hear a lot of new ideas, but... Wilburn/ I wasn't...I, as my concern...more, I was just trying to (mumbled) what the Mayor was thinking, but uh, my uh, concern if...if there's a large turnout, more so rather than going from 5 to 3, is before you allow anyone else to speak a second time, exhaust the options that people speak for the first time, um, there've been some times where, um, (mumbled) with that and you end up with a banter going back and forth (mumbled) audience who may or may not come to agreement, uh, and, uh, less an opportunity for the Council to hear, uh, the breadth of support or opposing views. Champion/ And I think also that we allow people to speak almost always at every meeting, or every ordinance, and I think 90 minutes is...is adequate. I disagree with the group of people who think that we're overriding a public vote. Their option was to put this on the ballot and they did that, and that was their option. It's our option to bring it up again. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 6 Bailey/ Oh, I'm not...saying that that's how I feel or don't feel. I'm just talking about a perception that's out there that might be underscored by a limit on conversation. Um, and it might not even come into play! We might not have, I mean, people may be satisfied not to speak, but I wanted to put that forward because I think it's worth considering. Mims/ Well I think also to remind and encourage people that they can...they can call us, they can write to us, I mean, certainly in this packet we have a lot of emails, um, from people expressing their opinions on both sides of the issue, and so to really...the only way to give input is not by standing at the podium at a public meeting. I mean, they can certainly do it other ways, and encourage that! Bailey/ ...provide an opportunity for people who wouldn't otherwise, or may be the first time for somebody to have that kind of experience. I mean...I don't know. Wright/ I would think an hour and a half is going to give... Bailey/ If the majority is, I mean, that's fine. I thought it was important to bring that concern forward. Hayek/ Yeah. Champion/ 90 minutes is fine with me. Hayek/ And... and that's... and that's one of three readings, I mean, if we do (both talking) Bailey/ That's fine. Hayek/ ...that's four and a half hours of public input potentially, on top of the emails and letters and...and every other channel of opportunity. I'm mindful of your...of your comment, as well, um, but you know if hundreds of people are here, it's not realistic for hundreds of people to speak in a given evening. It's just not, you know. Mims/ Well, and quite frankly the effectiveness of it wears off after you sit there and listen for an hour and a half or two hours as well. So... Wright/ So does the effectiveness of the Council. Mims/ Well that's what I mean! (laughter) That's what I meant, it's...it does, so...I'm comfortable with an hour and a half, and like you say, we're going to have more than one reading so there will be other opportunities for people who want to speak to us directly, as well as through written correspondence. And I would encourage them to! Champion/ And putting it at the end of the meeting I think is a good idea, because ordinarily...the beginning of the meeting we're even more cramped for time, so I think 90 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 7 minutes is an hour and a half and I think it's at the end of the meeting...and I think 90 minutes if plenty... Hayek/ And again, that's exclusive of the time we will spend deliberating it. Champion/ Right! Hayek/ Okay? Champion/ Do you want to talk about the other timeline of... are we going to talk about that tomorrow night, if we pass the first reading...about what we're going to do about the second and third readings. Hayek/ Um, well, I...I mean, to the extent we can talk about that tonight, I think that's a good idea, um, because we're going to have to give staff, um, some... some instructions as to scheduling. There's the memo from the City Attorney, um, at IP3...essentially, uh, to ensure that, assuming there is a referendum that occurs this fall, we would have to have final adoption by Apri18. We don't presently have enough meetings scheduled for that to occur. We would have to hold a special meeting. Champion/ Or we could...mesh'em. Hayek/ Or we could collapse, but I don't think that's a good idea when you're trying to provide as much...provide, you know, adequate opportunity for public input. Wright/ (mumbled) go until the, the second meeting in April, um...and assuming that there's a referendum, that puts that...that vote off unti12011 for the regular City Election. Dickens/ Don't want to do that. And we do have the...I don't know, the 30th is open. It's a Tuesday night. In between the two meetings. As a potential date. Wright/ Not sure it's open for me. Bailey/ Yeah, it's open for you! Dickens/ No, I mean, that was...we had talked about it at one time that that was a possible date for... for something, because I wrote down Council (mumbled) many weeks ago. Wright/ Three readings at the regular scheduled meetings. Dickens/ Then if we do that, we're past the...April 8th date. Mims/ I think my preference is...well, as I said, I will support this. I think my preference is to get it done in a manner which would allow it to go on the ballot for this coming fall, 2010. I think there...there's enough dissention out there in the community and...and various opinions on this, that to get it done that would allow people, if they chose, to get This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 8 a referendum and have it back up for public vote within six months, rather than waiting a year and a half, um, would be my preference. Hayek/ I agree with your comment. Champion/ Yeah, I do too! Shipley/ My biggest concern as well. Hayek/ Is what, Jeff? Shipley/ Getting it on the 2010 ballot, I mean, people are already kind of organizing for it. Making 'em wait eighteen months seems a little cruel. Hayek/ Ross, what do you think? Wilburn/ I...I think that we've been, uh, the Council has historically with this and other issues been...willing to, um...um...adjust our actions so that there's opportunity for that, uh, we're the...we're the public input town, so... Champion/ I frankly don't (both talking) have a Wilburn/ ...it's in our Charter for, um, initiative and referendum process as...as it is the, in our Charter for the Council to have the authority to, uh, to put this ordinance forward in the first place. Champion/ I don't have any problems collapsing it. Um...if we have the votes, they know we're going to have the votes. I'm sure they'd much rather we collapsed it then make them wait a year and a half to put their ballot... initiative on the ballot. I don't think we're going to get any static from the public for collapsing this. Dickens/ If we collapsed it, then would you have three hours of... Champion/ No! Dickens/ (mumbled) Champion/ I think it'd be obvious at the time that we're going to have the votes to pass this (mumbled) and I would still allow public input, but I think their...the opponents of this ordinance I think would be more concerned with getting it on the ballot in the fall, if that's what they're planning on doing, than having to wait a year and a half. I think that's the choice they're going to have to make. If they want us to have a third reading at a regular meeting, then that will be their choice. Wilburn/ And they can address that tomorrow night. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 9 Champion/ Oh, yeah! Great, yeah! I hate to, you know, I would feel...a little guilty by making them wait a year and a half, and our other option would be to spend the City's money on a special election, and I don't think that's a good idea. I would like to have it at a regular election. (several talking) Wright/ I think a special election's out of the question. Hayek/ Okay, so the question is do we collapse three into two, or do we schedule a special, uh, a special meeting, for example, on the 30th. Champion/ Not everybody's available. Wright/ It would depend on what day we're looking at, but yeah. Bailey/ Definitely! Hayek/ Well, Terry had suggested, uh, Tuesday the 30th. Wright/ (several talking) I know I have something else to do that night. Dilkes/ You should be mindful...I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt...when you're talking about collapsing it. It takes more votes than four to collapse. It takes six to collapse. Bailey/ If we have it on the 30th, could we have it at 8:00? A meeting at 8:00? Champion/ I'm sorry, Regenia... Hayek/ P.M.? Bailey/ Yeah, start it at 8:00. I know I'm traveling that day. Mims/ I'm flexible. Hayek/ I can do that. Wilburn/ (mumbled) on your schedule or... (several talking) Bailey/ Oh, it's Passover too. (several talking) (laughter) Hayek/ Speak up, everybody! Marian can't hear you! Champion/ When do we have the...well, that won't help us! When do we have...the meeting with the consultant, is that a week from Friday? Karr/ The meeting with the consultant, April 9th. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 10 Champion/ I'm just throwing that day out there cause we already have it on our calendars. Karr/ Monday, Tuesday...your next meetings are 5, 6. Mims/ Does Monday the 29th work? I'm flexible pretty much in the evenings, so...I don't know. Wright/ I think Monday could be okay. Hayek/ Monday the 29th we do have a work session scheduled... Karr/ Our next meeting is 5, 6. Hayek/ Is it adouble-header? Karr/ No. Our next meeting is 5, 6. Hayek/ I'm looking at this funny. Bailey/ Could we still have it at 8:00? Dickens/ I have to work till 8:00 on Monday so...it could be at (several talking) 8:12, I can walk down the hill. Bailey/ Okay (several talking) Hayek/ Can we do 8:00? Dickens/ Yeah, 8:00 Monday would work. Champion/ And what date are we talking about? Karr/ 29th. Bailey/ Does that work for you? Mims/ 29th...(several talking) Helling/ Somebody mentioned that Passover starts at sundown on Monday (several talking) Dickens/ Starts on the 29th. Wright/ (mumbled) Dickens/ At least that's what the Senior Center calendar says. (several talking) Hayek/ What about the, uh, 31st, which is Wednesday? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 11 Dickens/ Don't we have a JCCOG at 4:30? Karr/ You do. Wright/ We do. Hayek/ Afterwards? Karr/ Where's your JCCOG meeting? Dickens/ It's here, I believe. Wright/ Yeah, we could just go right after JCCOG. Bailey/ I have a 6:00 meeting that night. Wright/ You have a 6:00 meeting? Bailey/ Uh... Dickens/ Monday after 8:00 would be fine. If that works for (several talking) oh, that's right. Wright/ I think actually Monday works cause...we're talking about (mumbled) which is the second night. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ So the 29th at 8:00 is the tentative, and we can firm that up tomorrow after... Wright/ I just (mumbled) holiday. (laughter) Bailey/ ...do it really early the next morning if (mumbled) Champion/ Okay, if we're talking about March 29th... at what time? Karr/ 8:00. Mims/ 8:00, tentatively. Dickens/ 8:00 or shortly thereafter. Champion/ All right. So the first reading will be...tomorrow night, which is the 23rd, and then we'll do the second and third reading on the 30th? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 12 Bailey/ No. The second reading on the 30th, and the final reading on the 6th, and it's in under the wire. Champion/ Okay. Wright/ Second reading on the 29th. Bailey/ 29th! Sorry! Champion/ Okay. All right, good! Hayek/ Do you have any concerns about that, staff? You okay with that? Karr/ Yes. Hayek/ Okay. Okay, I think that's the extent of which we need to discuss this issue tonight. All right, anything else on it? Wilburn/ Just to reiterate for the, uh, um, the media, that people can look at the existing ordinance (mumbled) insertion of legal age and just a reminder that all the other (mumbled) exemptions (mumbled) Hayek/ Good point. Okay, why don't we move to downtown issues. Mr. Davidson. Downtown Issues (IP4 of 3/11, Consent Calendar item #3(18): Karr/ There's a chair right...Dale, right beside you there's a chair. Davidson/ Is that working? Uh, just to orient you real quickly, um, a little over a week ago, not in last week's packet, but the week before you received a memorandum from myself and Eleanor and, uh, the Police Chief that we wanted you to have prior to a meeting that we had already set up with the Downtown Association. That's why it went out a week earlier. We had that meeting with the Downtown Association to discuss the original letter, which was attached to that memorandum, original letter, uh, here, attached to the memo that you received about ten days ago, and we were able...we had a good meeting and were able to refine down some of the issues to where the Downtown Association then had some subsequent discussion and forwarded us a letter which was in your formal meeting agenda packet this...this week, okay, and so we're going to, uh, primarily use this to guide the discussion, hopefully streamline the discussion a little but, but wanted to make sure you have that in front of you when we do that. Um, you know we really feel like with...with the several issues that we're going to talk about tonight that we're, you know, we're all trying to pull in the same direction here. I mean, the City has a lot of interest in downtown. Certainly your prior agenda item is directly related to downtown and what it is, and what we want it to become, and similarly the Downtown Association, the people that are down there every day, of course that includes some of you as well, uh, have some specific concerns that they would like your consideration of, and, um, you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. Mazch 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 13 know, we do have a aggressive solicitation ordinance already, a panhandling ordinance basically, and there are some things that the Downtown Association would like you to consider in terms of, I think, the issue of the degree of... of regulation that we have, and possibly making some modifications to that. Uh, and we're....we're going to walk through that. We also have, uh, requests that they've made in terms of, uh, the no- smoking ordinance, uh, and possibly making some, uh, well, making it more extensive basically is what the request is. Um, we want to know specifically how you might feel about what's called a parking meter donation program, and again, we'll step through these, but that's something that we have done some research on and...and can discuss a little bit with you tonight, and then, uh, a licensing requirement for solicitors, for panhandlers. We're going to discuss that as well. The final thing that we probably want to touch on, and obviously Sam, uh, is directly responsible for, is the enforcement of either the existing ordinances, or any modifications that you would chose to make, and we had some good discussion with the Downtown Association about that, uh, it's not specifically addressed in their second letter though, and we may want to touch on a couple things before we, uh, wrap up tonight. So, um...the first thing that we want to talk about is some of the requests that have been made for some modifications to the existing aggressive solicitation ordinance, and some specific distance requirements, and uh, Eleanor will step through those. Dilkes/ Okay, just...I wanted just to cover briefly what we already have in place, so we're all...on the same page. Um, I gave you two maps tonight. The first map is labeled 'Downtown.' (noises on mic) And that...those areas that are identified on that map...are the areas where we regulate solic...where we have limitations on solicitation. Um, so what I say applies to those areas. Um, we currently, as Jeff said, have what is typically referred to as an 'aggressive' uh solicitation ordinance. It prohibits solicitation, and that's defined as a request for...an immediate donation of money or other thing of value. Um, and there are certain aggressive activities by the solicitor that are prohibited, and there are also distance requirements, so many feet from an ATM, so many feet from the entrance or exit of a building, that kind of thing. Um, one...one thing I do note from the, uh, the memo, most recent memo from the DTA is the ATM is 20...the distance requirements for ATM currently is 20 feet, not 10 feet. Um, just keep in mind the purposes for which we regulate the solici...regulate solicitation are, number one, to maintain the traffic flow, the pedestrian traffic flow, and number two, or the vehicular traffic flow, if that's what you're talking about, um, and then to avoid disruptions, both to businesses and citizens who use the downtown, and then to prevent the intimidation that can occur with that kind of behavior. Um, in terms of the requests of the DTA, uh, they've made a specific request to include a prohibition on obscene, profane, and offensive language on signs. We currently in our ordinance prohibit, um, obscene, profane or offensive language. That's one of the aggressive activities that's not allowed, and I don't see any problem with prohibiting that on signs. Um, they have asked for a...a prohibition on solicitation within a certain distance of a crosswalk. We can certainly do that. Um, and between solicitors, we can do that as well. The...I'm not going to go through some of the things I talked about in my initial memo to them, because I think we had a good discussion with the DTA. Um, the most...troubling thing from my perspective was a, um, would be a ban in the entire geographical area, like the entire downtown area. And I think the DTA This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 14 understands that and based on their most recent memo, I don't think that's what they're asking for...at this point. Um, in terms of the distance requirements, I think we're...what I'd like from you is direction to...to bring something back to you that addresses the problem areas that the DTA has identified, um, and uh, after I sit down with the DTA, bring that back to you. It's...once you start talking about these distances, you almost have to, and we did this the first time around, you have to start mapping out the whole area to see what happens. Um, I can envision...we have to do that. I think we have to bring some clarity to this because we're getting so many distances now from various points that would be nice to be able to simplify it. Um, I think we may be talking about different regulations in the ped mall area, and the rest of the downtown, simply because of the way they're structured. Um, one of the problems you have with a 20-foot, um, requirement, for instance, on some of the city sidewalks is we don't have near 20 foot of width on those sidewalks. So those are some of the things that we need to...I need to sit down and look at, um, and kind of think through and then talk to the DTA about, but L ..I think the problems that they're having, and the additional restrictions they, um, want to put in place are consistent with the purposes of, uh, the current solicitation ordinance, and we just need to work through those issues. Davidson/ So, we have the go-ahead to do that? Hayek/ Okay with that proposal? (several responding) Davidson/ Okay, and maybe a logical, uh, not to jump around the order that the Downtown Association has in their letter, but maybe let's go to the licensing requirements since I think it does relate, um, if we end up with some modifications to these distance requirements, one of the things that the DTA has specifically requested is a licensing requirement, where a solicitor would be required to come to City Hall, uh, and get a permit, basically, uh, to solicit. There's a couple of purposes that they would like to accomplish with this, uh, discourage spur of the moment soliciting, uh, be able to get a handle on exactly how many solicitors are out there, and I think probably the most important thing is to educate solicitors about the regulations, and what that would be is basically at the time you were given a permit, you would be handed the regulation. Now, how much good is that going to do, you know, we don't know. The other thing that the Downtown Association has expressed is that if they can get out to their membership a similar list, and...and they observe somebody, uh, doing something that's outside of the regulation, um, they can, again, have...have the regulation right there and...and that is, I think, really the principal purpose of the licensing requirement. This is not something that we do currently, however; there would be an administrative burden, if you will, to that, uh, and we don't have to debate the details of how to do that. If that's something that you would like to do, when Eleanor brings back the specifics for the distance requirements, we'll also bring back specifics for how we would handle the licensing. So, uh...how's everybody feel about that? Dickens/ I think there...this is...they kind of prioritized on their list a little bit, and I think the distance is probably the most important, and then some of the other things, and I think the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 15 licensing may be down the list a little bit, but it's still something I know, having talked to a lot of people in the downtown that...that that is a concern. Davidson/ And certainly we can prepare that regulation sheet and...and get it out to the DTA's membership, whether or not you decide you want to have a formal licensing requirement. Dickens/ I think it'd be very helpful for a lot of the people to at least have what we currently have and don't have. Because I...I don't think all the downtown, not all of'em belong to the Downtown Association. So... Dilkes/ I just want to make a couple points about the licensing, not to repeat what I put in the...our original memo, but there are, I mean, that...that is a free speech issue that we have to be very clear about what it is that...what information is required, um, and uh, it has to be done quickly, um, it should not be viewed as a way to discourage, um, additional panhandlers. I...the purpose that I find, um, that could support such a licensing restriction is the final one in the DTA's memo, which is to educate the solicitors about the regulations. Um, and again, I guess you'll just have to struggle with whether that's worth it or not. Bailey/ This would affect musicians downtown, right? Dilkes/ Pardon me? Bailey/ I mean, this would affect musicians solicit...playing and soliciting. Davidson/ That's passive solicitation. Bailey/ So they wouldn't have to be licensed, if we had a license requirement? So the things that happen after the Jazz Festival and musicians go on street corners and...and start playing, and that's just sort of spontaneous, that they wouldn't be required to have a license. Dilkes/ No, they would be required. Bailey/ They would be! Dilkes/ Solicita...there is no...there is no distinction between active and passive solicitation in our ordinance. Bailey/I'm not interested in having a licensing requirement. Dilkes/ Any solicitation, which is an immediate request for a donation of money, um, is covered, so and... all of those solicitations would have to go through the licensing. Bailey/ I mean, I understand the DTA and what they see during the day, but there are some...there are some things that happen on the plaza that are spontaneous solicitations like that, that make our city interesting. I mean, it was really, really fun, um, I mean, it's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 16 really fun during Arts Fest and Jazz Fest, after the...stages are done, to have musicians around town. So, I'm not interested in that kind of structure. Davidson/ I would point out, Regenia, that we have had complaints about passive solicitors, mainly musicians where it's basically this guy's been in front of my store all day long and I'm tired of listening to him. Bailey/ Some of them really don't sing very well either (laughter) quite frankly. Now if we could... if we could differentiate between the good musicians and (laughter) then we would have to have a chief musical officer or (several talking) Dilkes/ We don't want a...an administrator in the...in the office deciding what good and bad music (both talking) Bailey/ I understand the urge to give that structure, but there are so many...there are so many, that's...that's the richness of our downtown, is some of that spontaneous, and we have to strike a careful balance. Wright/ No, and I think the, uh, when there's somebody playing outside your store, maybe they're not particularly good, there are tactful ways to ask them, how would you like to share your music a few doors down for a while. You're so good I'm afraid we're just hogging it! Champion/ I don't think.. . Wright/ You know, there are ways to do that, but I...I agree with you, that there is a... Dickens/ Five bucks! Will you move! (laughter) There's different ways! We've tried some of those so...but, no! Champion/ ...ask people to move. I wouldn't hesitate to do that. (several talking) Hayek/ What...you mentioned in the memo that Bettendorf does this, and that they use a licensed social worker to...do we know much about this? Davidson/ I don't think we know much about it. We do know that Bettendorf and Cincinnati we found that both require solicitors to have...panhandlers basically, to have licenses, and in both cases the person issuing the permit at the city is a licensed social worker who tries to ascertain, um, perhaps what issues the person may have, that's causing them to panhandle, and then direct them to the appropriate social service agency. How successful that is, we don't know. Wilburn/ One of the concerns that I had expressed originally when this issue had come up a few times, was related to, uh, part of it was related to somebody, uh, constitutional issues that Eleanor had raised. Another part was, um, getting into judgments as to, uh, who is doing the soliciting, and in the case of individuals who, um, you know, it was, uh, financial or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 17 homeless situation, um, this is kind of related to the parking meter too, that uh, given some of the constraints that we had with, uh, shelter space or inadequate shelter space to meet the existing homeless and...uh, and those issues is like, you know, and because we struggled for so long with some, uh, residents arguing against even having a shelter, a homeless shelter here, um, my argument was unless we've got an adequate shelter space with a place for homeless, you know, essentially some drop-in space for them to, uh, get health services, uh, mental health service or even some potential job search type things, then I wasn't interested in regulating and now that Shelter House is coming up and they're going to have some of those, that in a similar way that'd work for having the social worker doing some type of outreach or connection, um, you know, uh, so if the Council moves this direction, I would hope that, uh, and um, if some of the downtown, uh, and other business folk and community folks would be more supportive of... Shelter House and them getting their...their building going and uh, and their workers being able to do their job, then uh, then I'm willing to give a little in terms of, uh, this...this effort to address this concern, you know, um, the other thing in terms of parking meters, uh, if people would give money to Shelter House and the United Way member agencies, um, and not give money to someone on the street, then you know, you don't go asking for money where there's...where it's slim pickins' and uh, so that's...if the public would actively engage in supporting the structures that we have in place in the community to try and address some of the issues related to poverty, then uh, you know, perhaps some of this would disappear too, and this is still going to be, uh, even with the licensing, it's going to be on acomplaint-driven basis, uh, someone has to, uh, I mean, unless a police officer witnesses someone still has to take the initiative to let law enforcement know that a violation's the problem here (mumbled) uh, I know that hasn't been a problem, but in others people just assume, um, you know, why aren't the police doing...it's just like the traffic light is out on whatever street, and everyone assumes that someone else called about it and no one, you know... Davidson/ The police calls for the aggressive solicitation ordinance, since it was implemented in 2008, uh, there have been I think 38 calls, was it, Sam, and they've all been handled with warnings, where basically the person complied with the warning, and so there was not a citation issued. Uh, before we get into the meter donation program that Ross touched on, let's...let's get a clear direction here in terms of the licensing and if there's a majority that is in favor of that. Champion/ I have very mixed feelings about it. Um, I don't like the idea, but I like the idea of people who are in the situation where they need to solicit money on the streets be put in touch with a social worker. I like that idea. Um, where's the money going to come for the social worker? Wright/ I don't think we're going to hire one! Champion/ Yeah, that's what I mean, I mean, how would that work. Mims/ I'm not in favor of the licensing, certainly not at this point. I would rather try some other things, and when we get to that discussion on the...I had to go back and dig to find out This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 18 what these parking meters were (laughter) concept was that they were talking about, and I'd like to look at those kinds of options and...as part of that educating the public, um, in terms of how that money gets used, rather than starting with the licensing program. Wright/ And actually you mentioned something that I think is key to making anything work, and that's educating the public, and that's something I didn't really see addressed (several talking) Davidson/ ...meter donation program we'll get into that (several talking) Wright/ ..strong education component, that would be terrific. Davidson/ Oh, yeah, and then...yeah! Hayek/ I, uh, I agree. I...Regenia, I think you hit it on the head. When we...when we start to look at the, you know, the aspiring bad musician who opens up his guitar case and...and just wants to play in public, um, that's when I become queasy about it, and uh, I'm...I'm okay with looking at it further if there's enough interest, but I...I, and I'm kind of disinclined to...to support this. Dilkes/ It might make some sense to make a final decision on that, after you see what we end up with the distance, um...because my current thinking on that, at least as of today, is that we try and identify areas where it's acceptable, as opposed to where it's not acceptable, and maybe we can (mumbled) Wright/ Having gone through the downtown with a tape measure... Dilkes/ Yeah, yeah. Wright/ ...uh, the results are pretty quirky, when you have a flat 20 foot, as you said (mumbled) places where you could have panhandling if they were sitting on top of a parking meter. So I think some (mumbled) is going to have to happen. Davidson/ Well, Mr. Mayor, shall we...shall we proceed then and...and with the understanding that there's not currently a majority of the Council in favor of licensing requirement, but we'll sort, as Eleanor said, kind of give you the ability to change your minds if you want, but we will assume there's not a majority at this time. Let's, uh, talk briefly then about the parking meter donation program, uh, since... since we brought it up, and then we can deal with the no-smoking finally. Um, the parking meter donation program is something that, uh, Wendy Ford and Linda Severson did some research on, and I think we've got a pretty, uh, good proposal for you, if it's something you'd like to, uh, like to go after. What these are, and there are several communities that have implemented them, considered them and not implemented them, but we did find quite a bit of, uh, research out there. You know, the...the nature of what this is is you take out-of-service parking meters. You...you locate them in various areas around the area where you're trying to discourage solicitation, uh, you augment it with signage to make people understand, hey This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 19 listen...and, and this would be something that we have not currently done. So I mean this is a significant policy position for you. Are we aggressively going to suggest to the public that they not donate to panhandlers? Uh, and that's what...what this element of the proposal would do. Uh, we would...we would probably start with six to ten parking meters. We may, uh, Chattanooga, Tennessee does it through their public art program. They decorate the meters just to give it a little bit of a festive flavor. They even call it the 'festive meter program' I think, but the...the notion that is you have signage around the downtown saying, listen don't contribute to panhandlers, uh, instead put money in the meters. It's collected, uh, and then given to entities such as Shelter House or Free Lunch or something like that, uh, to support those programs. Denver has a program. It's actually administered by the Mile High United Way in Denver, uh, the program collects from the meters about $15,000 a year, but then each meter has a sponsor, and it's a thousand bucks to sponsor a meter, and they actually collect $85,000 a year from the meter sponsorship. So, they...they collect $100,000, uh, annually, that then goes to the agencies, but only $15,000 of that comes from, uh, the meters. Uh, we would like...if this is something you want to pursue, we would like some input in terms of how aggressive you want to be with that message to the public, uh, not to support, uh, not to donate to panhandlers. Face it, the reason panhandlers are in downtown Iowa City is because it's lucrative to be there, and...and the research that we did showed that college towns are the place to be panhandlers, that a much higher percentage in college towns donate to panhandlers than do in non-college towns. So that's why they're here. So this would be discouraging that behavior of giving to panhandlers. And, I'll tell you that in the research that we did, the notion of how aggressive to get with the anti-panhandling message is one that there's been all kinds of controversy over, to the point where some places have not even bothered to implement a program because City Council was not willing to get the...the business owners perceived that the Council was not willing to get aggressive enough with that anti-panhandling, uh, message, but um, this would get right at that issue of trying to discourage that kind of behavior. So, uh, we...we have, uh, sort of thought through an approximate ordinance, or approximate program if you'd like to start this, but we would bring the details back. We don't need to debate it tonight. We'd bring the details back...back if there's something the majority is interested in. Champion/ I love the idea of parking meters. I think most of the social service agencies would prefer that people gave money to the social service agencies than panhandlers. Davidson/ Connie, can I interrupt for just a second, cause I forgot to mention we did run this by the Director of Shelter House and Crissy said that she's supportive of it, as long as the message is not don't give to the agency, give to the parking meter.' (laughter) They...they want to make sure that it augments, and doesn't offset the (both talking) Bailey/ Have we talked to the United Way? Davidson/ I don't know that we've talked to United Way. Linda, did we talk to United Way? No, we...we talked to just Shelter House I believe. Bailey/ Oh. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 20 Champion/ And I...I think it's a...I know, uh, I'm not going to quote Crissy, but there is some belief that some of the panhandlers, that is their vocation, so to speak, and...and um, people who are in need, I mean, we all want to help somebody who's really in need, no question about it, but to have people begging for food downtown, it's ridiculous since they're a half a block from Free Lunch program, and can go to the Shelter House for a night and a meal, and the Salvation Army, and there's also breakfast around. So, food is certainly not a problem. Uh, I think shelter is a problem, and shelter is always going to be a problem, even with the new shelter, because they don't allow intoxicated people in there, uh, or...you know, some people who have other problems with substance abuse aren't going to be allowed to stay at the new shelter. There are mentally ill people downtown who...who really need help, and...but they're not the ones panhandling. Um, and I don't know how we handle...how we handle that, cause they're...they're in great need and very ill. Um, and they don't seek out...help. Um, so I...I think it's worth talking about, and more seriously thinking about. Um... Dilkes/ One thing that Jeff didn't...didn't mention is that you can kind of combine the...the two, the distance restrictions and the...the meters, and kind of target the meters to places where you have problems, um, and that then, you know, gives the...the person who's walking by and feels bad or whatever cause they're not donating an option, and that reduces the intimidation factor of it. Davidson/ How aggressive would you get with the signage, Connie? Champion/ Oh...I would want it to indicate (several talking) yeah, gigantic! No! (laughter) I would want it to indicate...I'm not sure how it could work...how you would word it, but I would want to...to be in place of giving to panhandlers, to give money to social service agencies, um, I don't know how you would word that! Bailey/ I love this 'real change not spare change' sort of thing, with an explanation, but I don't...but apparently it didn't work! (laughter) Because it was in one of the towns where the...they didn't feel like they were...they went far enough. Mims/ I think my preference on it would be to try not to take a negative approach to it, to try and be a positive educational approach with the signage, that, you know, if you want your money to get the best use, you know, and make sure it's well used, donate this way, you know, rather than... donate through the agencies who make sure the proper services are provided, versus going directly. Um, you know, trying to find a concise way to do that, but that's kind of the tone that I would approach. Champion/ You could say something like if you really want to help donate here. Mims/ Right, and I think...the other thing I think about is if you...if you do that signage that way, I don't think it's going to take away from the musician who sets up on the street corner and is playing, and people still appreciate the music (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 21 Bailey/ ...music lessons! (laughter) Mims/ You know, they're still going to throw the money in because they appreciate the music, they want to support the musician. I think people will distinguish that from what we consider the traditional panhandler who's, you know, out there desperate for money because they don't have any, from that kind of standpoint. So I'd like to see it more of a...educational and not being perceived as being really negative about people, but more, hey, here's the best way to get the best use of your money is using meters. Wilburn/ I think that's... Susan, I think that, too, that approach or that kind of the philosophical approach is in line with what several of the agencies are trying to do, um, there's not really an agency that's going to say, um...they put guidelines on...on how they're going to help people, um...both for fiscal reasons, but also in terms of...of effectiveness is what they're looking at, and here's how you can, uh, really magnify the impact that you're going to try and have with...with your money, and that that's, you know, it's unfortunate that one can't (mumbled) why that wasn't successful in that community, but um, if there's a way to, uh... um, to really get at the root of some of the social conditions that lead to, uh, or there's the effect or by choice of...of panhandling to try and...this is how this community wishes to address this particular, uh, issue and concern (mumbled) Champion/ We can't write an essay. Do you have any ideas on some quick way to say that? Wilburn/ You know, I bet if we, uh, had, uh, Linda talk with some of the, uh, agencies that they might come up with (several talking) Davidson/ I think what we'll do...it sounds like there's (several talking) Hayek/ ...the tone and (both talking) Davidson/ ...sounds like there's a majority here to go ahead. Denver and Chattanooga are two places that told us they have seen a direct reduction in the number of panhandlers from this program, because I mean, face it - if people are not giving to panhandlers it's going to reduce the number. So, why don't you let us check with those two places, especially, and see what kind of signage they use because it's apparently been effective there, and we'll bring that back when we bring the program back. We have the out-of-service meters already so that's not an issue. Bailey/ So we would administer the program? Davidson/ Pardon me? Bailey/ We would administer the program? Davidson/ Well, I mean, there is the example of... of the United Way administering it in, uh.. . Bailey/ That's why I asked if we talked to them. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 22 Davidson/ It is collection of funds for agencies so you know maybe there...we could at least check with them and see how they feel about it. Bailey/ That would be a good idea, since we're kind of (mumbled) Hayek/ If you're talking about sponsorships, I don't know if that crosses a line with public entities, and....and makes it preferable to have somebody like United Way handle that kind of thing. Bailey/ Well, and if United Way were going to handle, I mean, they would not...they would have a marketing firm who could help design some of the language of the signage (mumbled) and... Dickens/ If the Rolling Stones wouldn't mind -give me shelter. Wilburn/ Or even (several talking) Dickens/ Give me shelter, you know, just something as simple as that, and that kind of ties in with the musical thing downtown. Davidson/ We'll bring something back for you. It sounds like (mumbled) Wilburn/ ...check with the Consultation of Religious Communities who (several talking) Hayek/ You can call Nick tomorrow. Wilburn/ ...again, they don't just provide everything for folks that are (mumbled) requests. Maybe they might have some suggestions too. Davidson/ The final thing we wanted to go through tonight is the request to expand the no- smoking area. Uh, Eleanor, did you want to... Dilkes/ That's the second map I gave you, which...is the current area that is non-smoking in the ped mall, and then that piece of Linn Street, and just by way of background, um, the State of course passed the Smoke-Free Air Act and required that certain areas be non-smoking, and then gave cities the authority to designate additional areas as non-smoking. Um, and the City Council did that, and there are a number of areas that we have designated as non- smoking, but one of them is the City Plaza area that's shown on the map. In addition, um, there's a provision in the Smoke-Free Air Act that requires a distance of about 50-feet from, uh, entertainment venues, and that would kind of be layered on top of this. Um, I think...I don't think there's a legal problem with designating the entire ped mall area as non-smoking. Um, nor do I think there's a problem with designating, uh, other sidewalks in the area as (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 23 Davidson/ And the DTA was pretty up front with us when we were discussing this in terms of trying to get at some of the loitering that's occurring down there and (mumbled) that was part of the motivation to (mumbled) Dickens/ Well, and the outdoor cafes. I know my wife and I were sitting at one of the outdoor cafes and somebody sits on a bench right next to where we were eating and lights up and it comes right at you and...I'm sure they didn't even think about it when they sat down, but that's...that's, there's a lot of outdoor cafes in the ped mall area and that was...I know that was one of the concerns as well. Davidson/ Well, the proposal is specifically the pedestrian mall from 8:00 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. That's the...that's the request that has come from the DTA. Dilkes/ One of the issues that staff discussed and is included in our original memo, and we had some discussion with the DTA about it and it sounds like they had further discussion is the whole issue of where do smokers go if they're not going to be smoking in the ped mall, um...that's just... Champion/ And I think that is a concern. I've always thought the ped mall should be non- smoking, uh, even before I was on the Council, and I think I called somebody from City Council and thought why don't you just make it non-smoking. That would keep some of the riff-raff out of there. Not including me! (laughter) My problem is exactly, are they going to start smoking in front of Herteen and Stocker? Are they going to come down and start smoking in front of Catherine's? I mean, people...I'm not going to say inconsiderate smokers will smoke, and is this enforceable. I mean, we're making a law that cannot be enforced. Bailey/ Well, that's what my question is, how is the enforcement going now? Hargadine/ By internal policy we've been issuing warnings. That could change, I mean, we...would we be down there all the time issuing summonses? No, but as part of an initiative when this thing is new, we could step up an enforcement action. Champion/ I think...I don't want laws that aren't going to be enforced. I think that's ridiculous. Some people start thinking other laws aren't enforceable. Bailey/ Well, and I don't want laws that are, I mean, well, we have laws that are certain times, but you know, it's either smoke-free or it's not. It's not just smoke-free during the day. I mean, if we're going to go Plaza smoke-free, let's go Plaza smoke-free. Dickens/ And that would not include the alleys. I don't believe. Bailey/ So that's where people would smoke! Dickens/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 24 Bailey/ ...to answer your question. Wright/ Some would go to the alleys and some people would go out to the streets proper, but yeah. Wilburn/ You know the other piece about the, uh, enforcement, we're forgetting the self- regulating component which you've seen in several of the, um, establishments since the ban was passed, and I know that came up, and in fact, I've, uh, more often (mumbled) people to the web site, uh, complaining, um, that they were in a restaurant and somebody was in there smoking and uh, you know, did you...notify management, well no, I didn't. You know, I really encourage you to do that. I've seen some managers come out and ask people not to smoke, um, I had some folks, uh, go to one of the establishments downtown, uh, they were here with a big conference and, uh, they've come to, um, the downtown area for lunch in particular because they heard it was smoke-free, and somebody was in there smoking and they complained and someone, a manager came out and asked the folks to stop, so...um, so it has the effect, can have the effect of empowering non-smokers or conscientious smokers to say something to (both talking) Champion/ I think people should! Sometimes they're intimidated by that, but...I mean, I don't...I've always thought the Plaza should be non-smoking, but I'm just wondering where people are going to smoke, and how it's...is it going to be enforced. Wrightl I think that's true with any of the...this type of ordinance. Enforcement is going to need to be present in some way or another. With that said, and you know (both talking) I'd love to see the whole thing go smoke-free, and we...I mentioned that the last time (several talking) little piece, um, so I...I think the whole thing should be smoke-free. Bailey/ But we've got...we've got, um, cafes on every street, and I mean, if cafes are the concern.. . Champion/ Well, they're not my concern, but my concern is the riff-raff that hangs around those places. Wright/ But I think in terms of the...the ped mall, if you're thinking there's the...like there's the table out in front of the Saloon, for example. If somebody just happens to walk by smoking, yeah, you do notice that, but it's brief. But if somebody plunks down on a bench, and they sit for a half an hour or 45 minutes and they knock back four or five cigarettes, you...your clothes smell. Bailey/ Well, and you've got your nicotine buzz too! (laughter) Hayek/ To that end I think there's an issue of fairness here that relates to the businesses located on sidewalks in the CBD. I mean, cause the same thing could occur in front of 126 or on Iowa Avenue, at Atlas. Bailey/ Cause there are benches right, I mean (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 25 Dickens/ The Brown Bottle, Bo James -- there's a whole series (several talking) Bailey/ We are fortunate to have so many sidewalk cafes! Wright/ When you start talking about basically the entire downtown, I don't think...that's talking too restrictive. Champion/ Yeah, you can't! You'd never (several talking) Hayek/ So then why, let me play devil's advocate, if you can't do that or shouldn't do that, why... Bailey/ Why do the Plaza? Hayek/ ...why do the Plaza that benefits some businesses with outdoor seating but not others that just don't happen to be located there. Wright/ (mumbled) birds with one stone on the Plaza. Davidson/ I don't think it's a loitering issue...that was one the DTA brought up (several talking) Bailey/ I'm not really...it's not my interest to address that really because that's what a plaza's for, unfortunately. I mean, one person's loiterer is another person's, uh, you know, musician or writer or whatever, I mean, who's to say... Wright/ ...pointed out that the ped mall really is for loitering. Bailey/ Yeah! That's what makes them successful, unfortunately! Wright/ If we want to do away with all the loitering on the ped mall then we just need to turn it back into traffic. Bailey/ That's right! Which some communities have done because their downtowns are dead, and fortunately ours is the envy of every community in Iowa. Davidson/ So...kind of bring things back (mumbled) question little bit here, uh, how's everybody feel about the... Bailey/ Well, I think Matt has a point, I mean, the fairness issue. We don't...I don't know. Hayek/ I'm not opposed to this necessarily, but I...I'm concerned about this inequity. Dickens/ The other...the other restaurants and, you know... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 26 Bailey/ It becomes a problem, and then there would be potentially preferential. Let's go there, because I know nobody will smoke, you know, when you sit outside and... and there won't be any smoking. If we go there, maybe there would be. I mean, if you're that... Wilburn/ I would support it, um, I think there's also the aspect, I mean, very supportive of the, uh, health benefits too. In terms of impact on other areas, I guess I'm looking at it, um...putting your foot in the door to create some, uh, change that other communities may start. We started the whole, uh, we were one of two cities in the state that started just the smoke-free restaurant thing and...uh, that went from it being implemented to Supreme Court making the decision to it becoming astate-wide ban, and, um...it, this may lead to, um, you know, business and other (mumbled) and just...not, um, you know, addressing or making the request of people that...that park themselves in front of their business to, uh, to sit and smoke, so I... Hayek/ (several talking) could you...let me just interrupt (mumbled) could you consider...could we consider some sort of distance requirement for smoking. You know, no smoking within 15 feet of a cafe or something like that. Bailey/ Yeah, that's what I was going to suggest too. When we take the measuring tape downtown, let's find out what that looks like. If that's too...if that becomes in effect every sidewalk in downtown, or not. Champion/ We could make the ped mall non-smoking. And also add, well, how many feet did you say? Bailey/ He said 15. Champion/ Fifteen feet, or ten feet of a (several talking) the outdoor cafe. Mims/ I like that idea. I...I'm...I support making the ped mall smoke-free. Champion/ Yeah, I always have. I... Bailey/ Twenty-four hours though. Champion/ Oh, I would want it 24 hours! Mims/ (several talking) I think signage wise you have to, I mean, I think to make it...I mean I think to make it effective, you've got to have the signage out there and you're not going to take the signage down at 10:00. Bailey/ Well, and if it's a health concern, it's a health concern, right? Mims/ True. I (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 27 Bailey/ I would...I would be interested in going that direction if we could figure out this other distance from cafes. That would be (both talking) Mims/ I think that's worth looking at. Davidson/ Well, I heard ped mall plus ten feet, just as a starting point. Ped mall plus ten feet from any outdoor cafe. Is that... starting point at least? Mims/ The starting point (both talking) Davidson/ ...Eleanor can refine it when she... (several talking) okay, and then what was, oh, the...8:00 to 10:00 or 24-hours? Dickens/ I think you go 24-hours. If it's a health concern at 8:00 in the morning it's a health concern at midnight. So I think if you just...because this...the ped mall is really almost a park. Champion/ It is a park! Bailey/ Well, I have one question about smoking in the alleys though, because if alleys are close to air intakes, that becomes problematic as well. Champion/ Would you want air intake from those alleys? (laughter) Bailey/ Or if it's close to...I don't know, but I see that happening a lot, I mean, I see people out close to doors and...it seems like it would go... Dickens/ Most of those are exhaust coming out. There's very few intakes that are in the (several talking) if you're a regular in the alleys like I am...I take the trash out and I walk up and down a lot of the alleys downtown, and most everything's out...going out, but just today I....with the University, uh, U.S. Bank, I know that since that's partly University, they can't smoke in the building there. I saw several employees down around the corner in the alley smoking, so you know, they have to be so many feet away, so...it's being done now. Champion/ Yeah, it is. And, but I think we can put this out and see what the public thinks about it, uh, we may get...may want to hear from the restaurants and bars that are on...on the ped mall. Um...but I think it's worth seriously looking at. Davidson/ So do you want the proposal to come back with 24-hours or 8:00 to 10:00? Champion/ Twenty-four. Bailey/ Twenty-four (several talking) Dickens/ Twenty-four. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 28 Davidson/ Okay. Champion/ ...willing to go 8:00 to 10:00 rather than nothing. Davidson/ Well, uh, I think that gets us through the issue. Just real quickly, you know, we had a very frank discussion with the DTA about the enforcement issue, uh, and we're not going to debate it tonight, but they...they seem to understand that our existing ability for the Police Department to...is based on our existing, you know, our existing revenue level, basically, that not withstanding that Sam is going to get six new officers we have coming here, but you know we tried to be brutally honest with them about that. Um, I think the DTA is willing to consider, uh, for example, we had a discussion about a SMID, aself- supporting municipal improvement district, uh, Sam, you said your former, uh, town had that. Hargadine/ Correct. Davidson/ Okay, um, and...but again, that...that needs to be debated by the DTA in terms of them bringing forth a petition to do something like that. In the meantime, they seem to understand that it will be, you know, as Sam said, we can step up, you know, when we implement something new we can step up enforcement for a time, but basically then it will... it will go back... and again, there are also certain times of the day, especially later in the evening, when... smoking and panhandling are not going to be the number one priorities. Alcohol related things are going to be (both talking) Champion/ Right, and that's what I'm wondering about the 24-hour ban on the pedestrian mall. mean, it's...I have a hard time believing that the police are going to have any time to enforce that. Bailey/ Do it, train people, let's try it. Dilkes/ In terms of enforcement too, it's not just the actions of the Police Department. The Legislature has set that as a civil penalty, not a criminal penalty, so it's...you know, it's arguably not... Champion/ Not the polices' domain. Davidson/ And the DTA said, you know, several of the people downtown who own businesses, they're aggressive enough that they'll be out there, you know, indicating, enforcing it in their way, uh (mumbled) Anything else on this issue? Champion/ I'm willing to go 8:00 to 10:00, um, I'm also willing to go 24, but I think we need (several talking) Davidson/ We'll bring it back (several talking) we'll bring it back with 24 and... and then you can debate it. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 29 Hayek/ Okay, thanks, Jeff, for leading that (mumbled) Sam. Okay, next item is nuisance enforcement. IP2 of the March 18 Info Packet. We've got a memo from Doug here, uh, how do we want to structure this discussion? Do we want... do you want to go over what you came up with, or uh... Nuisance Enforcement (IP2 of 3/18 Info Pkt): Boothroy/ We could start with the recommendations and work backwards, if you'd like. Um (mumbled) Hayek/ That'd be fine. Boothroy/ Okay (mumbled) Before I start, let me just introduce Stan Laverman, he's the new Senior Housing Inspector, so it's not that the Council person from University Heights is here to watch. He's here to...he's (laughter) in his official capacity as Senior Housing Inspector. (several talking and laughing) That was for the purpose of the media. Um, well, one of the things that I thought through on this was, uh, we don't have a lot of additional, uh, resources in terms of staff hours that we can...can, uh...you know, dedicate to, uh, you know, surveying neighborhoods and walking through neighborhoods and doing all that kind of stuff because, uh, the rental housing inspectors are scheduled and...and those inspections continue to...to grow every year, so we get more and more rental units. So how do to be as effective as possible and...and uh, I believe that, uh, if we, uh, for those neighborhoods who have problems, who want to be educated to help enforcement, uh, I think we can improve our effectiveness because we can identify what the neighborhood priorities are, and we can train people to...to understand what the process is, uh, how to identify a violation, what kind of information that we need, uh, and the information that we get from those, uh, folks, uh, would be good information in terms of when we go out to do the investigation, because a certain amount of complaints that come in sometimes just aren't valid, and that's because there's a misunderstanding of what is a violation and what isn't. Uh,.with the Housing Code, for example, and many of our codes it's a minimum standard, and a minimum standard is not necessarily the standard that everybody has, but that's what the law is, and that's what we enforce, and so we need to talk about that. We also need to talk about the process. There's a...there's a process that takes time, and sometimes, uh, because it does take time to...if we have to litigate it, go through that process, people think that, uh, we drop the ball or nothing's happening because they don't see anything happening because it's been three months and nothing has happened. Well, that may not be the case. It just means that...that, uh, we have a court date coming up. It hasn't...or that we're waiting for the judge to make a decision, or uh, for whatever reason it was postponed and rescheduled and it's taking a little bit longer, uh, than...than we had anticipated. So, you know, getting that process out there so people understand what it is, uh, so they understand what they are...what are the violations and how to identify them and how to report them, and then I think...I think, uh, developing contacts within the neighborhood between, uh, code enforcement and the neighborhood, uh, getting that dialog between those individuals going, uh, that when those complaints come in, those are...they're going to be valid complaints. I think it's very helpful for us, as well, um, and so that's...that's kind of the idea behind, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 30 empowering the neighborhoods to...to help us, uh, on a 24/7 basis to be the eyes on the street for us. Do you have some thoughts about that? Wright/ I think that can be a place to start, Doug, but there's still...there are some places that I think, and we've talked about this a little bit on the Council, um, if folks are on the street from your office and it's Thursday, and the trash in this neighborhood was picked up on Tuesday, and the cans have been sitting out there since then, um, why couldn't that just be picked up by...by an HIS staffer going past? Boothroy/ Typically for a housing inspector they're going...they're going from A to B to...for a scheduled appointment. So if they stop and, uh, take care of that violation, then they miss their appointment, and that's another issue. So (both talking) Wright/ ...going around for example. Boothroy/ Pardon me? Wright/ If you have the assistant going around, for example. Boothroy/ The other person? Wright/ Yeah. Boothroy/ And she does go out on a lot of those, uh, inspections, and she does pick up, uh, adjoining properties. Uh, this spring I think is a good example of...probably as trashy as I've seen some of the neighborhoods and street areas in terms of, you know, the...I think it's partly because of the snow covering being down for so long and people just pile...pile and keep on piling trash out there, and we have sent out information to landlords to get that cleaned up, um...but to do systematic patrols is...is difficult, uh, we can target certain areas, and one of my recommendations is...is to target certain properties. Uh, we have like with the couch ordinance, uh, we can target that and that's a little different than trash, because it...we can do that maybe once a year and rely on complaints, but that's... that's kind of what you're talking about, um... what I don't want to ... to, um, commit to, because I think it might be overpromising is that, to say that we have enough people to do several neighborhoods on a regular basis for trash patrol. It just isn't...we just don't have the folks to do that. And I don't want...I don't want to mislead anybody to that. Wright/ Well let me ask another question, kind of related to that. I see the...the pie chart that you passed out. In the winter we've got 40% of the time on snow complaints, which sounds about right. Boothroy/ It's...it's huge. Wright/ 40% of the total complaints. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 31 Boothroy/ It's huge! (laughter) Wright/ Uh, in the summer time there's a part time person to help with the weeds. Boothroy/ Uh-huh. Wright/ And the tall grass, so...if 40% of the complaints in the winter are being handled generally quite well, um... Boothroy/ And one of the things that we're doing with that, as well, is that...is that during the winter, just to...we have a few more resources to throw at that, let me just say that...that, uh, the building inspectors handle a lot of the snow complaints in the winter because that's typically a down time for their construction season. So it's not just the same number of people. I'm throwing in another five or six inspectors who are going out and handling those snow complaints. So that's part of why we're able to balance that out. Bailey/ I think one of the challenges, of course, is what you said is...is the understanding of what the process entails, but quite frankly I've spoken to quite a few neighbors who are very tired, get very discouraged. They make complaints, they make complaints, and they don't see anything happen over time. I myself have complained about a particular property on Dubuque Street - dumpster in the front yard - a couple of times. Every time I drive by it the dumpster is still there, but I've stopped complaining for the same reason that citizens stop complaining -because you don't see any change. Um, and it's quite frankly, I mean, I appreciate our citizens' involvement, but it's not their job to every day they go to work, or every day...I hear stories about people who have you on their cell phone for snow complaints and those kinds of things, because they walk to work, but this...the process is so frustrated, or not understood, that people get discouraged. So, how can we address that I think is important if we're going to engage and empower, people have got to feel like they are indeed making a difference. Boothroy/ And I agree with what you said, uh, I think that, uh, in some cases with trash containers and stuff like that, uh, there are some properties that there just isn't any place to put them except... and they end up migrating back out... (both talking) Bailey/ ...entryway and our major entryway on this street, a dumpster? Boothroy/ And we move 'em and we've moved 'em, uh, and I think that that may be something that we have to have a discussion with the neighborhood on, but uh...it's frustrating. I under...that, you know, you get a new batch of, like I'm thinking of trash cans primarily where you know we're constantly having 'em moving them back behind the front of the building, but...but the tenants continue to bring them to the front and we...we cite people and we do all that kind of stuff, but it... it's an ongoing problem. Champion/ Well, I can't believe we have a dumpster in front of any building. I mean, that's (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 32 Bailey/ But I guess my point is, for this to work, you know, engaging neighborhoods, for this to work I think we're going to have to have, um, see or some kind of change in the understanding and the engagement because that's why people don't engage, because they don't feel that they can make a difference. So I don't...I don't know what that answer is, but that's...I'm just reporting what I've heard, the level of frustration about not seeing change, calling um, parties on a Thursday night. The yard is trashed. They might call it in Friday morning, they might not, but then it sits there all weekend and blows into everybody else's yard because we don't have inspectors or people to go out on the weekends, those kinds of things are the kinds of things that discourage involvement. Wright/ I think there's another element there that perhaps we need to look at our, actually at our nuisance ordinance. Bailey/ Yeah. Wright/ Because, you know, I have...uh, some printouts that I made from the City's web site about some nuisance properties on the north side, and it's the same complaints. It's trash, trash, trash, trash, several items, parking in the lawn, trash, you know, and it's corrected every time. There's no question about that. But there's also no permanent mediation of the problem. Bailey/ And that's what people are frustrated about. Wright/ And that's where the neighborhoods I think are getting extremely frustrated is, and it's often the same properties, and we...at this point we don't have any teeth to go in and say, you gotta clean up your act or else, and I think that's something that...that maybe we as a council need to look at. Bailey/ Well, and it's also, I mean, this focus is on rental properties. Not all the problems are rentals. Wright/ No, it's not! Bailey/ They're owner-occupied, I mean, maybe it's a University of Iowa student or somebody who might be a first-time homeowner, I mean, we hear this throughout town. It's not all rental properties, so...then again, there again we even lack, um, lack additional teeth for that, because there's no rental permit riding on that. Champion/ I don't understand, I mean if you go and ask your neighbors to cleanup the litter they don't do it? I mean, do people ever talk to their neighbors and tell 'em that this really bothers you and...could they, I mean, I don't understand this lack of communication between neighbors. Wright/ Well, I think people do ask their neighbors to clean up. I certainly have. Um... Champion/ Is it effective? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 33 Wright/ Sometimes. Bailey/ Depends on the (both talking) Wright/ Sometimes not. Sometimes it really does take somebody from the City coming out and knocking on the door and saying here's the problem, and you have to have this cleaned up. Bailey/ Well, and part of it too is a scheduling issue, I mean, in some of these neighborhoods the...the schedules are almost flipped. I don't see a lot of my neighbors because, I mean, after their parties, I mean, they're not out, you know... Hayek/ Um, the nuisance property ordinance from 2002, and I'm looking at this, be sure you're ready to party flyer and it really has to do with party-related, but it doesn't appear to touch upon trash or things in the yard. I wonder, do you have any thoughts about that as a possible part of this solution, or Doug, do you? Boothroy/ Um, well, that nuisance property ordinance was an amendment to the Housing Code, and it was dealing with behavioral nuisances only. Hayek/ Yeah. Boothroy/ Uh, and so it never was meant to deal with parking or trash or anything like that. Um... Hayek/ But it's got, I think the appeal of it is it's got some teeth, you know, you hit strike two and there's (several talking) meeting and all that kind of stuff (both talking) Bailey/ If you get to the citation point, if you're doing a lot of warnings, it... it doesn't work, because you have to get the citation. Wright/ When you get the citation, the nuisance ordinance can be very effective. Bailey/ Right. Boothroy/ And we did adopt a reinspection (mumbled) we think that that's going to have an impact on repeat offenders, I mean, we're just as frustrated with...the reason we have 40% effort every winter in snow, and the reason we have that reinspection fee in part, was...is it's the same properties, uh, playing dumb every year that they don't know they're supposed to shovel their sidewalk, and part of that is there's a transient population too, so there's a lot of people who come in every year that...don't understand that, as well, but go ahead and talk about how that works. Laverman/ Yeah, last fall you did give us some teeth in the $75 reinspection fee, and that is just starting to come into play, uh, we did do a little education with the property managers and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 34 with tenants, and now we're starting to issue those first $75 reinspection fees, so and that is having a little effect, um, that economic sanction kind of helps a little bit, however; it's a like anything, um, it takes some education, um and follow through. Boothroy/ So there is a...there is a charge in a situation where we have a repeat offense, uh, because of the paid for, uh, our time to come out and once again, deal with parking in the front yard, once again deal with, uh, trash, and these aren't permanent, uh, problems, as you said, they can be cured, much like shoveling a sidewalk, but they can reoccur as a nuisance and it's about, you know, being on top of people to make sure that they (mumbled) uh, you know, I think there's a lot of rental property on the north side and...and, uh, you know, dumpsters and trash cans have been a problem, uh, and it's been difficult to, you know, it continues to be a problem because of the occupancy. It's not all rental property, I agree, but there... some of the problems are directly related to (mumbled). You know, I...the idea behind, uh, getting neighborhood support and involvement is to...to have this discussion on this very idea. I mean, I think part of the reason (mumbled) is...is that there is that discussion and I think that in a situation where, uh, we have, uh, neighborhoods that are interested in... in being involved in the enforcement more directly, that would have to be a regular meeting, like a monthly meeting or whatever...whatever's regular for...for the folks that want to be, uh, so that they could get, um, follow up on some of the questions that are being asked tonight. Why...why is the...why are we continuing to have problems with this, uh, this particular issue. Uh, and uh, you know, maybe there'll be another solution, maybe there'll be...or maybe there'll be people that can put peer pressure on a particular property owner to...to deal with it, but you know, it's...been doing enforcement for a long time, and there are...there are a number of people that no matter what you do, uh, they're not going to change their behavior, and uh, apart from, uh, you know, closing down, which might be a question whether you can, you know, take a rental permit away if it's a trash on rental property, that (mumbled) extreme measure. Champion/ Could you...I don't, how, I mean (mumbled) pretty easy to keep track of, could there be a fine for a second litter call? Or... Boothroy/ That's the $75. Champion/ Oh, that's the $75. Boothroy/ It's not a fine, but it's...it's a charge for...you would be wanting a fine on top of the $75 is what you're... Champion/ No, I thought...I thought the $75 was a reinspection, that means when you go back out to see if it was cleaned up. Boothroy/ And if it's not cleaned up, they get charged $75. And then a citation could happen (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 35 Mims/ What if it's cleaned up, and then a month later you get a complaint on the same property.. . Laverman/ ... $75 fee. Mims/ Okay. Boothroy/ We keep track of that, for the period. Bailey/ So...so there's a $75 fee, but do they...do they at any time go on more of a city watch so neighbors don't have to constantly complain? I mean, couldn't we do something like that, that wouldn't mean that your inspectors will be looking at entire, you know, the entire neighborhood, but there would be these particular watch list (several talking) yeah. Boothroy/ Yeah, I think we could do a hot spot type thing. I think it depends on how, you know, one of the issues I think doesn't...could work for like a hot spot, although I'm not so sure our inspections would cure the problem, but one thing I notice is the Dubuque Street corridor, which is a high pedestrian corridor (both talking) Bailey/ Yeah... Boothroy/ ...the only place there's a trash can along that corridor, because everybody's picking up food and walking back and forth from (mumbled) down the sidewalk, throwing their stuff in everybody's front yard. There's one on the corner of, uh, right by the, uh, the, uh, the church there at the corner of, uh, where the Casey's is, um... Champion/ Right, Market. Boothroy/ There's one on that corner, and then there's not another public trash can all the way down there. So there's no place to put that litter. Now, people should carry it all the way to the Mayflower, but they're not. They're dropping it on the way, and...and so, I think it's a combination of...of, uh, of enforcement, but also having something there for people to use, because, uh, otherwise we're just going to be chasing this for...for, uh, ever. Champion/ Well, we have ash trays downtown and people don't use them either. Boothroy/ I understand that, but I mean (several talking) Bailey/ And a lot of that...on Dubuque Street too, a lot of those houses along there, their yards often look, um, quite aggressively used in the nighttime hours, um, so I mean, that happens quite a lot as well. Boothroy/ All I'm trying to say, it's a combination of things. That's a very high pedestrian corridor, and so you get a lot more trash, uh, being, uh, laid out there so... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 36 Wright/ Another problem that doesn't necessarily relate to people not taking care of their immediate trash is that we do have a lot of dumpsters, um, that are just exposed, and the wind picks stuff up and blows it (mumbled) um... Bailey/ Your plastic bags, Connie (several talking) Boothroy/ ... as a property owner, the Housing Authority, the issue that we have with dumpsters, and we have all ours in closures, is...is we have to make sure we get back out to the property after the garbage is picked up because the guys that pick up the garbage never... don't often put the dumpster back in the containers, or into the closure...enclosures, because it's too much work or it's (mumbled) extra effort cause they're in a hurry (mumbled) so that's something we preach to the landlords, that they have to check their properties, but you know if they don't check their properties, the dumpsters end up in the alleys and they're rolling around and all that kind of stuff, and it's an ongoing process. Wright/ Are those supposed to be enclosed? Boothroy/ On newer properties, uh... Wright/ Not on anything older? Boothroy/ That...that regulation went into effect maybe, uh, ten years ago. Wright/ ...we've got a lot of dumpsters that are just...it basically is fine that they're...they're exposed and...(several talking) blowing all over the place. Boothroy/ ...be off the alley and (several talking) yes. Um, so...um... Bailey/ Well, and part of the challenge too...many of these neighborhoods that are challenging are the same neighborhoods that are in the UniverCity program, and we're not going to achieve the goals of that program necessarily, if... if we continue to have these kinds of, you know, sort of disorderly appearance, disorderly, you know, of these houses. I mean, they go hand in glove of maintaining, um, sort of a rigorous inspection and rigorous follow-up of complaints, and then actually achieving the goals of that program, and so that's one of my concerns is how do we do that. Mims/ Well, I like the idea of trying to develop more communication and contact between the inspection department and the neighborhoods, if the neighborhoods...certain neighborhoods are interested and want to, you know, say have somebody come in and do some education for them, so they start understanding, you know, what the rules are, what the process is and...and depending on how involved they want to get and how aggressive they want to get, and...and kind of having a point person, you know, who follows up on stuff. I mean, I agree with what you're saying, Regenia, on the one hand it shouldn't be everybody's responsibility to do it, yet at the same time in the City we can't afford to have the staff (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 37 Bailey/ But Doug has been to the northside neighborhood, many times, I mean, I don't know how many, I mean, he's a frequent appearance person at the, I mean, you know, don't have a program -he's, he's the guy, I mean, that's the problem. There's just a...there are some chronic problems and I think we need to address those chronic problems or come up with a way to put 'em on a watch list, if there's a chronic property, and that if somebody's out driving around, it doesn't have to be a citizen complaint. You're on a watch list, you got there because you, you know, we've talked to you and talked to you and talked to you. We don't have the resources to talk to you all the time. We're going to stop. Boothroy/ And part of it would be, uh, for the neighborhood to...to all agree that the, you know, there may be some properties that we're not identifying that are...are either overoccupied or not as obvious as trash. Uh, and... Bailey/ Right! Boothroy/ ...and uh, I mean, there are some, you know, I've been in situations where the property is pristine on the outside, but you know because the person was a hoarder, the inside was incredibly filthy and a mess. So I mean there are things that you don't necessarily see from the street, and... and neighborhoods can help in those... identify those kind of issues, or abandoned houses that we might not know that...that exist. Uh, so I think it's like what you're saying, is that we would develop targets, but I think we're talking about, uh, developing it in the context of the priorities of the neighborhood, not in the priorities of the complaints we receive, necessarily! We'd still take complaints, but it would be something that we, uh, if we can put in the context of the neighborhood concerns, then we might be perceived more effective. Hayek/ I guess, um, I mean, I...I do like the idea of fortifying the neighborhood groups, and we...we've seen on other issues the, um, the fruits of that labor, that...that neighborhood groups really are, uh, more active, uh, and...and they accomplish more. Um, so I think that's a positive, uh, step and I don't know if Marcia Klingaman's, you know, the conduit for that or somebody else, but...but, but, um, I guess...I...I would like to see if...if it's possible at all, even some sort of token devotion of dedicated time to...to proactively looking for this stuff. Even if we had a couple of hours a week or something like that of driving around. You could hit some of the, um, some of the properties, um, and if... if there's any way to work that in, I'd be interested in doing that, and then the last thing is, um, it seems to me that to really be effective you gotta...you have to catch the landlords' attention. Uh, which is why the behavior based ordinance that we enacted eight years ago has had some success, and to the extent we could morph that into these trash and... and outside concerns, and I don't know whether we can or not, but... but that's of interest to me. Bailey/ Could we add, I mean, could we add certain types of.. . Wright/ Housing complaints? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 38 Bailey/ Disorderly house sort of housing complaints to the nuisance... Dilkes/ Well, I think...I think (both talking) they're very different because the issues that you're dealing with in the current ordinance are criminal behaviors, um, and...and...and we deal with those...they're dealt with in a completely different way. The whole, um, you know, the nuisance issue, the more, you know, trash in the neighborhood kind of things, ultimately it's a civil infraction that has to be dealt with through a municipal infraction in the...in the District Court that is...that has a different standard, I mean, there's a lot of issues that we'd have to look at. I'm not sure you could accomplish the same thing with the more nuisance type of things, and I also wanted to note, just some of the stories I'm hearing...around the table is I think the education piece about what it takes to get enforcement on some of these properties is an important thing, because I think... HIS has...has traditionally, you know, worked for compliance as opposed to bringing down the hammer with municipal infractions and fines and that kind of thing. Am I correct about that? And, to, I mean, that would be one way to change, but that brings with it a whole other, uh, group of disappointed people. Um, so...that, but that would be one thing to look at. But I don't think we're just going to take these trash things and put'em in a neighborhood code enforcement and have 'em be able to deal with 'em in the same way, but we can...we can think about it. Boothroy/ The frustration I've had with litter, and I've...I've thought about this a lot is that...is that it needs to be cleaned up immediately. And, and we do contact the landlords, by the way, and we have landlords...mostly rental property, and they do (mumbled) immediately. Uh, if we take it to court, we're talking maybe a month. It doesn't do us a lot of good to take litter to court, frankly. Uh, and we don't have the right to go onto your property and take the litter off the, you know, off lawns, so, um, it is complicated to deal with litter, uh, we can cite people, they can be fined, but in the...in the meantime, uh, it may have blown around the neighborhood. And, uh, and so I think we have to continue to talk about that, and find out maybe there's a creative way of handling that, uh, I would love to be able to call up, uh, City crews and have them go out to such and such an address and remove all the litter the next day. (both talking) Champion/ But how do you know... Boothroy/ If I had that authority, we'd be doing it. Champion/ But how do you know... Dilkes/ But he doesn't! (laughter) Boothroy/ Because it makes my job a hell of a lot easier, and (several talking) Champion/ How do you know where the litter came from? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 39 Boothroy/ Well, it doesn't make any difference because it's on your property and (several taking) but it...my job would be significantly easier if I could have it cleaned up the next morning. We wouldn't be having this discussion. I can...trust me on that! Wright/ You know, I think there's...I...Iknnw that the neighbors in the Northside in particular, Northsiders by and large know an infraction. You know, you guys...you guys did a terrific job of coming to the Northside Association. That's a pretty well educated neighborhood in a lot of respects, but in... especially in terms of some of these issues. Their frustration comes when it's the same properties over and over and over and over. Bailey/ And they are calling over and over and over, and perhaps...perhaps they don't understand the process, or perhaps what they need to ask for is some kind of expedited, instead of going for compliance on certain sorts of things. Wright/ But, you know, no property should have complaint sheets that go in multiple pages... Boothroy/ I agree! Wright/ ...over the past few years. We've got'em! Boothroy/ We have better things to do with our time. Wright/ Yeah, and so do the neighbors. Boothroy/ Because if we're doing that, we're distracted from someplace else. Wright/ Yeah. Hayek/ Try tracking your memo then, maybe the question is...could staff look at, you know, this targeted code enforcement against criminal nuisance property, could we do something analogous to that for this other (mumbled) Boothroy/ That's what I was thinking was... if... if for example let's take the Northside as an area that we would...I've been there and given presentations, but I'm talking about actually doing something a little bit different, more in-depth, than just a presentation, and...and having a regular meeting, but it may be helpful in developing our targeted inspection program if we have, uh, a consensus of... of that process, from that process, so that... so that we're not, uh, it's not what I think should be targeted, uh, because we have, uh, limited resources and I might prioritize things a little bit differently. I might say, well, we won't do the couch ordinance this year because we don't have enough time; we'll do this. Well, somebody might, you know, we need to work that through too because I think some...some types of issues on trash is not as tolerated, obviously, but there are some type of issues that might be more tolerated by the neighborhood than others, and they want...they may want to use our resources in...in a very targeted or very specific manner. Uh, and we do have time that we could spend, uh, in certain neighborhoods. If you look at our chart, but we couldn't spend that amount of time in every neighborhood in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 40 Iowa City. That's the other thing, I mean, we could do the Northside and maybe Goosetown area, if that's a separate neighborhood, maybe the Southeast side of Iowa City, but you can't ask us to do the entire city, on a systematic basis every day, or every week. It just...there's no, unless you hire more people. Wright/ Well, fortunately I don't think you'll have to do Walnut Ridge or... Boothroy/ No, no, I agree! I agree, all I'm trying to say is if we have a targeted neighborhood, as well as issues, then I think it..and everybody has kind of agreed to that, uh, from our...because right now we treat all complaints equally. Every complaint that comes in gets equal treatment. So it doesn't make any difference where it comes from, if we get into a situation where we know where our priorities are, in terms of some of these targeted areas, and the UniverCity is an area that's now being put together and brought together as an important area to target, then...then we may be 48 hours getting to that other complaint because we're dealing with that particular area of the city first. Hayek/ Yeah... Boothroy/ And that's fine. I think that's fair. Hayek/ But assuming the bulk of these problems stem from rental housing, couldn't you, you know...rank the...the saturate...relative saturation levels of the neighborhoods. All right, these seven neighborhoods or whatever have the most rental housing, so to the extent possible we're going to at least start by focusing on them. Boothroy/ If I get into, if we get into citing owner-occupied property, and... and in a housing code, you know, it was very controversial in 78 when...when the housing code was adopted because, uh, there was some question about all owner-occupied property having to go through an inspection process, and of course they specifically at that time adopted, a council adopted the code, saying owner-occupied property would only be on a complaint basis. There are some differences in terms of treatment, so we have a systematic program for rental. So all I'm...I'm using that as an illustration to say that..that I think that it would be helpful to have neighborhood support, if we're dealing with an aggressive program against owner-occupied property, then to free lance it. You get all the emails, I'm back before you, uh, and somebody's complained because we cleaned up trash in the backyard, went to court, you know, that one that came recently to you, and we did what we thought was right, but we had...we had to spend many, many hours, uh, putting all that information together, justifying it, and doing all that kind of stuff, which is fine, but you know, that takes a lot of time out of our... our schedule too to, uh, to you know justify cleaning up somebody's backyard based on a court order. Hayek/ I know we're not alone. I got a law school friend who's on the city council in Ann Harbor, and they...they too have acomplaint-based system, but there...there is interest in looking at... something more proactive there, um.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 41 Boothroy/ Well, that's what I'm trying to say is I...I would like to work with the neighborhoods to get a more proactive program and have it more targeted, and hopefully that'll...that'll get to your concerns, Regenia, and uh, yours also, Matt, that we'll be better at...at doing this, um... Dilkes/ I think you could...I think...I actually think the neighborhood ordinance does include so many nuisance infractions, you can go through the code compliance, that kind of thing. It's just that we don't...it's a, the criminal citation process is very different than the civil citation process, and we typically do not file a lot of municipal infractions. We...we try to get problems solved without doing that, and so the...the way to ramp it up, I think, um, would have to be with the filing of more municipal and actual court citations. Boothroy/ And if... if the neighborhood is supportive of that, and the Council's supportive of that, I don't see a problem with us doing that. Uh, but I think that we all need to be on the bus together. Bailey/ So what's your schedule for meeting with the neighborhoods, and so when could we expect to have discussion about if we want to ramp those up or if neighborhoods are interested in that? Boothroy/ Well, I think we had one meeting...I don't know if we're meeting (several talking) Southeast side on April 15th and (mumbled) meeting and we'll just have to schedule something with the Northside, uh, we... Bailey/ Well, and then Miller Orchard and then the other... Boothroy/ Right, but we have one scheduled at this point. Helling/ (mumbled) realities that we have to keep in mind, what Doug's talking about here largely is a shift in priorities, shift of resources based on that. Um, clearly if we're going to become a lot more proactive, then there's a cost to that, and then if...what goes hand- in-hand with that is trying to figure out how we're going to fund that, um, whether you want to fund it purely with...with tax dollars, or whether you want to look at...at, as Eleanor's talking about, more municipal infractions being charged or, uh, reinspection fees, those kinds of things, to try to raise some of that revenue, um, basically let the offenders, you know, bear the cost. Um, the second concern I have is that while we can... in a lot of ways, tweak this, maybe we could be more proactive, I don't think we ever want to get the message out to anybody that we'll reach a point where they don't have to be concerned about the neighbors' property or whatever, that we'll find it, because that's not going to happen, unless we...(several talking) Bailey/ Well, that's not the community we want to have either, but I...I also think that there are people who wonder, I'm doing all this and I'm taking responsibility for my neighborhood and I'm not seeing any change. So I think we have to give them some opportunity to say what kind of change they want to see and see if it's feasible for us to move forward, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 42 because once again, if we expect people to engage, we have to be listening to their frustrations, as well as what they...what they would like from us. Champion/ On Michael's list of properties, I mean, I think.. . Wright/ It's just two properties, all these pages. Champion/ Well, and those ought to be municipal infractions, every... (male)/ Are we sure they're not? Champion/ Oh! (several talking) Boothroy/ Yeah, we have to check that. (several talking) I think that's some of the (both talking) I think our web site needs, uh, some improvement because it's difficult to...to look at our stuff and necessarily know where we are in the process with some of these properties, and...and uh, there's a couple things, and I'm kind of moving on to a different recommendation now, but it's...it's all together. Uh, I like...I've seen some web sites and I'd like to do that with ours, but we'll have to have some resources dedicated to doing that from IT, but...but uh, I'd like to see our...our web site a little more, uh, divided up by neighborhoods or areas of the city so that when a citizen wants to find out what's happening on a certain property, they can click on this particular area. That'll pop up all the...it can pop up all the rental property in that area; it could also pop up all the outstanding citations and different things like that, so it would be collected a little bit differently. Right now you have to go in through a series of screens and, course you know... if you know how to work it, it works well, uh, but uh, I think it can be confusing and...and people don't quite understand what they're looking at. So that's one of the things that we need (mumbled) as well as maybe change how we present the information, and I, you know, this is something that you have to have some expertise on, because we're...we're mostly, you know, enforcement people. Champion/ Let me ask you one more question about his list. After a certain number of phone calls or complaints, this is a complaint list -- is that what you have? Wright/ Yeah, these were complaints that were telephoned or emailed. Champion/ Does this...is the tenant responsible or, do we have recourse with the landlord? Bailey/ Are these rental properties or owner-occupied? Wright/ Yeah, these are... one is, um, rental. One is anowner-occupied with rental... in it. (several talking) How would you ever guess? Laverman/ Right, and he has...he's had multiple citations, um, he has had multiple reinspect fees, um, we have, um, he had three snow complaints, um, this winter which he paid, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 43 probably a thousand dollars for snow removal. In addition he had a...a $250 citation plus court costs for that. Um, yeah. Boothroy/ That is a very difficult situation (several talking) money is not really an issue, so he's willing to pay the fines. Go figure! Dilkes/ I do want to clarify. I pulled out the ordinance, the...the Neighborhood Nuisance Ordinance as we call it, and there's already a mechanism in place in there to...to deal with the, the nuisance-type infractions, if ... if there's a municipal, a citation or a notice of violation three within a year, then you can start running through that code compliance. Boothroy/ Right. Dilkes/ Um, system. Boothroy/ If we had...if it's been cited as a violation. Bailey/ Yeah, that's the difference too. If we're going for compliance, we don't always cite, is that correct, or...or we might... Boothroy/ Um, it varies (both talking) Bailey/ ...this has been a problem too with... Boothroy/ ...it varies. I would say for repeat offenders, uh, we're pretty aggressive, uh, in...and first time offenders, uh, we try to work with them. Champion/ Yeah, and I think that's (several talking) Bailey/ ...because it could just be ignorance. Boothroy/ Right, and sometimes it's just not understanding (several talking) Laverman/ We're working on documenting those situations that are too, so the first offense is...is documented, even though there wasn't a citation or anything given. Boothroy/ If we have, you know, five or six people, uh, involved in dealing with different properties, they may not realize that, you know, they've been a previous one unless that information's documented correctly, so sometimes you can miss a second offense if you're not...not looking for it. Particularly if it didn't happen within a short period of time. Um, but I think...I think the..on, back to this whole neighborhood thing, I think if we...if we can have an ongoing dialog, that...they're going to hold us accountable. I mean, they're going to say...like you just got through saying, Mike, what the hell's going on here? (laughter) And, and we'll have to have that conversation. And that... and that might come back to you as an ordinance amendment. There may be something that somebody comes up with, or an idea, that... and uh, you know, we support in the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 44 neighborhood for that. It won't be just coming from, uh, a city bureaucrat (mumbled) and new law. Wright/ So I just...I know we have to give up this discussion (mumbled) but I wanted to follow up on Eleanor's, uh, just reading from the code, but some of these nuisance type infractions for the properties can actually be, uh, actionable. Does that happen...much? Boothroy/ The code compliance process has only been used for, uh, criminal behavior. Bailey/ So not the municipal. We haven't used the... Boothroy/ We've issued municipal infractions for nuisances, but we haven't used the (both talking) at the table, uh, uh...of one-on-one meeting in that same context. It's only been the criminal. Yeah. Dilkes/ And that's...it's that process that sets you up for a reduced rental term permit or the suspension of a rental permit, so I think that process is in place, if we would choose to use it, and it's not just municipal, there doesn't have...at least the way the code currently reads, notice of violation.. . Boothroy/ Right. Dilkes/ ...would take care of it. It wouldn't have to be an actual municipal citation (several talking) Boothroy/ The property on Fairchild, we've had...lots of eyeball to eyeball discussions, and... and apart from, well, I don't know what the solution is. It's... it's... it's a problem ownership, frankly. Wright/ But you know there are other bad properties in this same area (both talking) Boothroy/ ...and there always are extreme examples, and sometimes, uh, we take a long time to get to the root of it. Wright/ But you know there's one that just...out of complete coincidence happens to be across the street from me! And it's also a multiple page complaints. And uh, it did change hands. I think that has made some difference there, but...uh, you know, it was an extreme source of frustration to the neighborhood for a long time. Boothroy/ Well, I guess the question is, you want me to go proceed with that or not? Champion/ Yes. Bailey/ (several talking) talk about this after you meet with neighbors and see what recommendations (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 45 Boothroy/ Well, yeah, I was going to go ahead and set up the meetings. Wright/ Yeah, I think that would be good. Hayek/ Okay. Then let's just make sure we circle back though to (mumbled) on this. Boothroy/ Yeah. Try to have at least, I mean, I would try to schedule at least two or three neighborhood meetings set up and (mumbled) Champion/ It'd be nice before the start of next school year to have some definite things down on paper that... Bailey/ That's a good idea, Connie, cause...yeah. Boothroy/ The, uh... (both talking) Bailey/ ...talk about this in October. Let's, yeah. Champion/ It needs to be done before then. Boothroy/ Recommendation'b' is, uh, as a result, this is this crime-free lease addendum, um, this is something that, um, I'm working with a particular property in Iowa City that...that has a high number of criminal complaints. Uh, police calls on an annual basis, and I was, um, I was actually shocked to find out that a large property owner didn't know that there was (mumbled) this kind of, uh, of provision in the State code that would allow him to consider, uh, evicting people because of, uh, of violent criminal activity. So, my thought here was...is that, like we do with the, uh, information and disclosure lease addendum that the Council adopted, and if you look through it, it has lots of information about what...what's going on to help people comply, uh, is that...that we would require this of all landlords in Iowa City so the...the tenant and the landlord are on notice that this is an option, uh, to pursue. Um...it's...it's as much education as anything, but I think it also, uh, doesn't hurt that...that landlords have this in their lease and tenants are aware of it so that...that may have some impact on behavior. Uh, it would require an ordinance amendment. It would be an amendment to the housing code, and it would have to come to you for adoption. Wright/ I'm certainly in favor of that. Hayek/ Any concern from staff about this? I'm open to (mumbled) Boothroy/ Okay. Well, and I would, uh, I would have a conversation with the apartment owner's association before we come...it'll come back (several talking) once it's in final form. I gave you a draft there of my thoughts, but once we have it finally formatted. One of the issues, well, I won't go into that. I'll talk to the apartment owners on that one. Number'c' is something that...that, um, I think is really important to do. There are a couple neighborhoods in Iowa City where there are, in my opinion, criminal nuisance properties This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 46 and I...I define that based on the high number of police calls and um, frankly I was a bit oblivious to, uh, one of these properties and having, uh, this number of police calls. I mean, we're talking about police calls in the hundreds in one year, and uh, and so that's why I'm involved in trying to come up with, uh, a compliance plan. There's a number of things that I'm requiring in stuff like this. I think that...that when we deal with, um, criminal behavior in...in neighborhoods, um, there are some properties that...that contribute to it because of the lack of management. It's just that simple. Champion/ Right! Boothroy/ And, no matter how many police you throw at it, and how many, uh, organizational things you have going on there, as long as you have property owners, uh, that don't care, uh, it's going to be difficult to get a handle on it, and uh, I was...I was absolutely shocked at the number of...of criminal complaints that...that particular property had, and it didn't rise to the occasion of causing (mumbled) nuisance property. We were looking at it on a tenant-by-tenant basis, uh, because you know there was only one stabbing. So, it takes two charges. Champion/ Takes two stabbings? Boothroy/ Well, I mean, that's the way the ordinance was written. It has to be on premises and it has to be the second offense, and so you know, but if you've got a hundred units, and you have, you know, 50% of'em having problems, uh, it might not...if we're looking at it incrementally, uh, it might... it might not come to our attention, and what happened was is that, uh, I got the (mumbled) the property in general. What had they done for the whole year, and found out they'd had too many police calls. So, uh, what...what we're having is a monthly meeting with the property owner, uh, and they've developed code compliance. They've got an attorney involved (mumbled) crime-free lease addendum, I'm asking for, uh, a certain performance standards to include, uh, I want them to issue trespass warnings for anybody coming on the property. There's a whole series of steps I'm asking them to do, and if they don't do those steps, then we get into the rental permit sanctions. Hayek/ Let me cut to the chase here. Is there interest on pursuing 'c'? Champion/ Pursuing what? Hayek/ Pursuing recommendation 'c' (several talking) okay, so let's pursue that. Boothroy/ Just so I...and then the next one, of course, is just to get the notice, the information out. We've handed this out at the Union or down there for registration, and I don't think...I think it's more effective to hand it out to every apartment as we do inspections. Cause I have a feeling that some of that stuff they pick up at registration goes in the garbage can or along Dubuque Street (laughter) (several talking) so any problem with that? (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 47 Laverman/ ...in targeted neighborhoods, uh, Northside, more of the student... Bailey/ Some...yeah, some neighborhoods actually do do a packet...a packet of information at the beginning of the school year too. Laverman/ Sure. Bailey/ I don't know if they still do that.. . Boothroy/ We do this as a routine with every inspection, and we do inspections every two years, so we don't hit every property every year. The next one, e, is one that, um, I'd like to get cooperation with .the University on. They, in the past they've not been too excited about contacting, uh, mom and dad when students have been charged with, uh, drunk and disorderly behavior or something like that, and we're involved in that process because we do the nuisance, so what I... what I'd like to do is on behalf of the City contact the University and ask them, or encourage them to. We'll send them the information, and we would like to have them call mom and dad and let 'em know what's going on. Hayek/ They are working on an expanded code of conduct for students that includes (several talking) off-site (several talking) Johnson County so... Champion/ ...parental notification. Mims/ But they're talking about that. Hayek/ ...really. Bailey/ I think we should, yeah, I think we should talk with them about (several talking) Boothroy/ ...information to them on a regular basis now, and I think...I think they need the information, and I think... (several talking) Wright/ I think it's worth pursuing! Boothroy/ Yeah. Wright/ Very much, and I...I think this current administration might be a little more receptive. Boothroy/ That's what, in talking to Sam, I guess that's the impression I got is that...that whoever you've been talking to (mumbled) Wright/ And I know anecdotally when you give parents a call and tell them what was going on, their interest tends to perk right up! Boothroy/ I think... i think it would be helpful. It's not necessarily going to solve every problem, but it'll help! It'll help. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 48 Champion/ Well, I'll tell you, it does help. Wright/ Oh yeah, I've had...I've had kids (several talking) Champion/ It helps a lot. Bailey/ They own the property. Boothroy/ The reason we don't contact them directly is that we don't know their home address, cause the police citation is on their Iowa City address, and...and in the past tried to...we haven't been able to get necessarily get the home address from the University. They wouldn't give it to us, so that's been part of the communication issue. Champion/ It's actually listed in their... Bailey/ It's no longer. (several talking) Laverman/ Sometimes the kids will give that address to the police officer to try and throw off the whole disorderly house charge, and those are interesting phone calls from the parents when they get this letter from the City of Iowa City (laughter) and you read what was going on at their parent's, or their child's apartment. Boothroy/ But it's not typical. Laverman/ No! Hayek/ All right. So then, uh, perhaps that web page... Boothroy/ Do what with it? Hayek/ No, you had mentioned that earlier, the enhancement to the web page. Wright/ It would really be great to have the web page, um, updated to provide aone-stop information and...and for when people provide, a citizen complaint, uh, much the way Amazon gives you a receipt. If something could be sent back, you just sent this data to the City of Iowa City, because the neighbors like to use that for tracking. Boothroy/ Yes, I think...I think we need to have a better way of (several talking) it's just more difficult to mine it right now because if you... Dickens/ That it was received. Boothroy/ Anything else? Hayek/ No. Good discussion (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 49 Mims/ Good recommendations, thank you. Boothroy/ Thank you. Champion/ Lot of work! Hayek/ Take a five minute break. Wright/ Five minute break. Champion/ Lot of work. Hayek/ Next up is the ECICOG funding proposal, which is IP3 (mumbled) ECICOG Funding Proposal by Council (IP3 of 3/18): Helling/ Quickly, this is just a, uh, a request, um (several talking) to...to review this issue so that she'd have good solid direction for (mumbled) liaison representative for ECICOG. Um, so what...what we did was just try to dig up some old information that...to give you a history of how we got to where we are, and that's what's in the packet. Mims/ I'll just throw out a suggestion. I talked to John about this at one point, and ...when I was getting up to speed, having just come on the Council and trying to get some information. I understand where the City came from in the past, and being a city over 50,000, we do a lot of stuff directly and so don't get all the same benefits from ECICOG that the County does or a lot of the other municipalities in Johnson County, so we really sit in a different situation. From I guess a political standpoint, and maybe making this a little bit palit...more palatable maybe, I...I'll throw out a suggestion that would be that given that everybody's passed their budgets essentially for 11 and we're going to I guess repass ours tomorrow night, um, that we maybe go ahead and continue to fund it for 11, suggest that we go to 50%, or fund it the same as we have in the past, cut that by 50% for 012, for 2012, and then phase out entirely for 2013, so that we get to the point where Johnson County's basically doing it the same way that it sounds like all the other counties in the State of Iowa are doing it, and that it's paid on a per capita basis out of the County budget. And maybe presenting that to JCCOG and getting people a little bit more lead time to digest it and think about it. Maybe we can get some agreement there. I...I don't know if that sounds like a... Wright/ I think that's a pretty measured approach to get where I think we ought to be. Um, cause I...there's not a big advantage to us paying that $20,000 (both talking) Mims/ I agree. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 50 Wright/ Um, I think this would allow the County to get used to the idea a little bit, and to budget for it, or to begin to budget for it in the following year and the year after. Um...it's a nice measured approach. Champion/ Can we just drop out? Bailey/ Uh-huh. Mims/ Somebody has to pay for it or nobody in the County gets the benefits, and there... and they are getting a lot of benefits (several talking) Wright/ We could just drop out and then everybody else would be furious with us! Bailey/ Oh, they're furious with us a lot! Champion/ Right! Wright/ I think what Susan is suggesting is a way for people to...only be mildly annoyed with us and then forget about it (laughter) Bailey/ But then if one other (several talking) Champion/ If we agree to do that, 50%... Mims/ I'm saying stay the same for 11, cause everybody's basically done their budget, and then for 12 knock it back by 50%, so down to about $10,000 that we would pay, and then for 13, go to...nothing. Basically do it the way all the other counties seem to be doing it, and that is that the counties pay it to their regional organization, based on a per capita... Dickens/ Is it currently in our budget? For 11? (several talking) Okay. Mims/ So basically what I'm looking for is some direction from the Council so that if I go sit in on that committee and try to negotiate something, I'm not going to come back and you're all going to tell me no, we're not going to agree with what you negotiated (laughter) Champion/ I think thafd be fine, as long as you make it clear that we are dropping out. Mims/ Uh-huh. Champion/ Our financial support. Cause it, I mean, I know you've been to a couple meetings... Mims/ Yeah, I've been to a couple. I have another one tomorrow. Champion/ A lot of people benefit, but we are not the benefactors of this... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 51 Mims/ No, being over 50,000 we do most of our stuff directly and it doesn't, those monies for us don't have to funnel through ECICOG and so we do not get the benefit that the other municipalities or rural Johnson County get from ECICOG. Bailey/ And then they can appoint too, they have the advantage (both talking) I mean, that was pointed out as well, that they get the power of appointment, so we wouldn't, and I think that would be (both talking) Mims/ I think that's fine. I don't necessarily... given our limits, and I've been to like two meetings. I have my third one tomorrow. I don't necessarily see that there is a huge benefit to Iowa City for us to have a representative on that board. Champion/ It's boring! Mims/ So if...(laughter) so if, you know, the County... Dickens/ That was subtle! Mims/ If the County wanted to take over that...right of appointment, I don't, personally, I don't see where we really lose anything. Champion/ They can have the appointment. Bailey/ Right, if we want (mumbled) Wilburn/ In terms of this Council though it's, uh, and this is in no way atit-for-tat type thing, but it's...it's not unheard of for, uh, the different entities in the County to participate and not participate in certain funding aspects, uh, for example, the Senior Center. Um...the County no longer provides that support for the Senior Center, to my knowledge. Um.. Champion/ They don't provide anything anymore? Bailey/ Did they give us a heads up when they were pulling out? Did they phase that in? Helling/ They didn't pull out. They cut their (several talking) Hayek/ Some concern was expressed, um, that...that if we go this route, you know, others could follow suit, and pull their.. . Champion/ Not to their advantage though, because they get a lot of stuff from this. Hayek/ Well, wouldn't they continue though if it were completely county-funded as it is in other jurisdictions? I mean, it's not really (several talking) Helling/ ...the discussion is that...I think what you're proposing is an agreement that all cities would cut back, all the members would cut back. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 52 Mims/ Well, I guess it'd be up to the others how they want to proceed, but if we just make it clear that, you know, we'll cut ours in half for 2012 and we will no longer budget it and participate financially in 2013, and what...we would suggest is that it's done the way it's done in every other community, I mean, every other county, or almost all the other counties that is it's 100% done out of the county budget. When you look at... Champion/ I wouldn't even (several talking) suggest that. I would let them come to that. Bailey/ Cause they can come to any arrangement that...that meets budgetary needs. Mims/ Right. Bailey/ I mean, we have vested interest in what arrangement they come to? Champion/ No. Mims/ No. Wright/ The ECICOG doesn't care where the money comes from, as long as they get it. Bailey/ (several talking) long as they get money, yeah, and so I think our objective is to simply phase out the funding. Wright/ However they come to funding ECICOG without us, that's fine. Davidson/ I think the...I think what'll come up in Susan's committee is that the issue is who levies the, who appropriately should levy the tax, I mean, I think the impact on the Iowa City taxpayer will be the same. It'll just be through a County tax levy, rather than Iowa City, um, and...and the notion's always been that the support for the organization should be county-wide. It is now, and it still would be (both talking) the issue is...is who levies that tax, and I don't have any idea...and by the way, that...that notion is the same in all of the counties that support ECICOG. It's just always been done through a county tax in the other counties. Why it evolved the way it did here I'm not...I'm not quite sure, because it's never...it's never been like JCCOG, part of the Iowa City organization. It's always been an independent organization. Hayek/ So is there support for Susan's proposal? (several talking) Bailey/ Do you have what you need? (both talking) Mims/ Yeah, that's fine, I just... Bailey/ I mean, I think if you come out with our funding phased... Mims/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 53 Bailey/ That's the objective, so... Mims/ Right, that's the objective. I just wanted to get some sense of where people were at (several talking) Dickens/ It'll be in the minutes so you're protected when you (several talking) Champion/ ...suggest that the County pay it all. Let the group... Mims/ I agree, let...that's just where we're going to be and...and uh, try and do it as diplomatically as possible. Get some consensus (mumbled) know where we're at. Thank you. That's all I needed! Select City Manager Search Firms to Interview: Hayek/ Let's move on to, uh, search firm, city manager. Should have received today, uh, Marian's tally of our rankings. (several talking) I can't speak for you guys, but I was very impressed with the...the number of and quality of proposals we received. (several agreeing) (mumbled) lot of hard work to get here. Wright/ It's interesting though, it looks like just...quick scan of this, that we landed pretty close together. Bailey/ About four (mumbled) Hayek/ My top five...(several talking) Bailey/ Yeah, I think my top five are in there. Hayek/ (noise on mic) (mumbled) hear us. We're also talking over each other, so let's just talk one at a time. Dickens/ Yes, Sir! (laughter) Hayek/ (mumbled) Wright/ Not worth repeating! Hayek/ Okay, well, um, as you can see on this list, starting with Brimeyer Group and ending with the person at the bottom, that's the...descending order of priority there. We need to decide, uh, how many of these firms you want to bring to Iowa City to meet with us on the 9th. Bailey/ There's a natural break after six. Champion/ Oh, you think six? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 54 Bailey/ No, I'm just saying that there is a natural break between 50 and 65, that's probably, I mean, 18 and 36, if we could just bring one, but there's a natural break also between 50 and 65, but that's six and that's a lot. Champion/ That's a lot! I think four is adequate. Wright/ Four would be plenty. Bailey/ I would delight in that. Hayek/ I'm okay with four. Mims/ I am. Dickens/ There...two of the top three, or the second and third had worked together at one time, reading through their materials. They both worked together, so...they're going to be fairly close, I think. Wilburn/ That's pretty common too (several talking) come together and (several talking) Hayek/ So should we bring, uh, those four? Those top four? (several agreeing) Karr/ Okay, I'll notify them tomorrow. On April 9th you'll have four. Then, is there a time, um, is the middle, well, we'll talk about the procedure next time. Typically we allow about a half hour between, you had a 15-minute interview, you had some ques... some questions, exchange some information among yourselves in between times, but I was just trying to figure out how soon we...reserve the day. Do we want to do it the middle of the day, um...because it'll make some difference with hotels. If they can come in and out of here, you know, if we can be flexible, they might be able to fly in and fly out the same day. (several talking) And I just didn't know if there was...it's only four firms. Wright/ We're talking about a half hour... Karr/ Well... (several talking) yeah. Wright/ I think we could start, what, 10:00? Bailey/ If we start in the middle of the day, it's a whole work day lost for some of us, and that's fine if it's going to be cheaper for the City so they don't have an overnight (both talking) Champion/ Do we pay for these people to come here? Karr/ We'll pay for the overnight. Bailey/ Yeah, so I think anything that can get them not overnighting is good. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 55 Champion/ We don't pay for their airfare. Karr/ No. Wright/ But you know, it's...ultimately Ithink for me it's going to end up being a lost work day. (several talking) Champion/ ...won't be a lost work day for me if we're not here all day. Bailey/ It will be for me. (several talking) Karr/ April 9th, Friday. Dickens/ We had it scheduled 8 to 5. Karr/ Right, because we didn't know how many you were going to interview. Dickens/ Right. Karr/ So what...I just didn't know how you wanted to structure. Champion/ How much will it cost us for hotel rooms? (both talking) Karr/ Again, it's...it's relative. (several talking) Some of'em may be coming from someplace else. I just need to know what time you want to start. We'll do our best to... Dickens/ Several of the companies are from Georgia, that top two. One's from Minnesota and not sure where the other... Karr/ Most likely they'll come in the night before. So, if most of'em come in the night before, then there's certainly an argument to be made about doing it beginning of the day, and they could fly back out that afternoon. (several talking) Wilburn/ ...consulting jobs. Karr/ Correct. And it is a Friday. Hayek/ I would throw out that we start at 9:00 on Friday, and get done by you know 12 or 1. Bailey/ How 'bout starting at 11. I can at least get five or six hours of work in, and then potentially they could take an early flight and get an afternoon flight. Karr/ If... if we start at 11 and they're the last one being interviewed, they potentially won't get an afternoon flight. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 56 Bailey/ Okay, whatever. (several talking) Karr/ But they may not fly in till that morning. Bailey/ It looks like the day is going to be lost for billables, so that's fine. Champion/ (mumbled) Hayek/ Well, what I'm suggesting is we try to get it done in the morning or in the afternoon. Bailey/ Afternoon would be my preference, is what I'm saying. Wright/ I really don't care. Bailey/ Right, I mean, I do...I don't want, you know, a lot of expense for the City to select the firm cause we'll have expenses (mumbled) Karr/ Is it enough to say if there's a preference...there's a known preference for the afternoon, we take a look at what arrangements we can make and go from there? Champion/ I prefer mornings (mumbled) Mims/ To me, if they're coming in from any distance, they're going to have to come in the night before anyway to do morning so they can get out in the afternoon. Champion/ If they want to get out in the afternoon, we should...there's not that many flights out of here in the afternoon. So I think.. . Mims/ Depends on the direction, I think, you're going. Champion/ Right. Mims/ I'm flexible. (several talking) Dickens/ Gotta make it up somewhere so... Karr/ 8:30? 9:00? Bailey/ Let's start at 8, I mean, if we're going to do it, let's do it! Dickens/ 8:00 would be just lovely! (laughter) So we can...possibly we can be done by noon or 1 or... Champion/ Uh-huh, we would be done by noon. Dickens/ Still get some hours in. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 57 Champion/ By 1 at the latest. Hayek/ 8:00, Friday, April 9th. (several talking) Karr/ On your next agenda I'll pull out the...the paperwork from the last time and questions, we'll fine-tune those, um, your April 5th meeting. Hayek/ Okay. Champion/ Thanks! Info Packet Discussion: Hayek/ Info packet discussion, March 11th packet. Ross, thanks for really great legislative update. (several talking) Wilburn/ It was helpful to have a (mumbled) I went (mumbled) talk to the lobbyists, and then (mumbled) things change fast and furious, so, um, yeah... Helling/ (mumbled) this coming week! (laughter, several talking) Hayek/ Anything else... Wilburn/ Any questions on those items...there's conversation with the Coalition about, uh, in terms of, uh, that there will be some, uh, (mumbled) most likely a conference call. Uh, it'd be helpful if we could get on that, and also in terms of getting prepped for next year, trying to, uh, there's some ideas on some legislation that, uh (mumbled) in terms of trying to craft some bill, other bills to introduce, uh, for the next session, uh, there's conversation about some type of summer gathering, uh, likely in the Des Moines area to do that. Um... (mumbled) helpful too, and then uh, the Coalition's lobbyists said that, uh, once the session's over, be glad to come to one of our work sessions to have a conversation with you all, if we have any questions or just kind of give an update on how things went. He'd be glad to do that. I promised him we could get him in at the first part of the work session (mumbled) Hayek/ I'd be interested in that. Champion/ Yeah, I would be too. Bailey/ I did have a question about the hotel/motel. I was disappointed to see the $1.50 per night, rather than the 9%, the increase. Was there a lot of discussion among the Coalition, I mean, the $1.50 I know has been pushed by one particular community. Wilburn/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 58 Bailey/ Um, that's in close proximity to Des Moines and probably go the bill drafted, but... Wilburn/ Um...and help me out with this one, Dale. I don't uh... Bailey/ I mean, I don't see it benefitting us as much as perhaps the increased percentage. Wilburn/ Right. There was a, there was kind of a split, as I recall, between, um...those who wanted it and the others who were just concerned about having it, period, uh, and so just getting a vote to have it I think was a big deal, um...and I and several others who were for that as a revenue alternative, um, were reminding folks that, you know, it's rare if you do any traveling, it's rare if you go anywhere, and not see, uh, some type of hotel/motel, airport, uh, entertainment fees that cities are using just to try and capture, to pay for the services that, uh, are related to, you know, visitors to their communities, so... Bailey/ It just...the way it's structured, I mean, I don't know if you see benefit. I don't see that much benefit to us, but... Helling/ I don't know if (mumbled) is still in there or not, Ross, do...that was basically, the proceeds could be... or that extra $1.50, could be used, uh, either... first off use, kind of like the franchise fee. First of all used to cover expenses for regulation, and then the remainder would have to go to property tax relief. Bailey/ Right, and... Wilburn/ So there was that other aspect, concern, uh, about, um...if approached in the public related to, you know, another tax, that it be...restrictive, that it be targeted, so...that's...Iowa's, again, this was an area where I think...because it was under the guise of revenue alternative that the others were willing to go along (mumbled) you can probably guess which... Bailey/ I...I can assume, I mean, I can just imagine how you (mumbled) Hayek/ Anything else, uh, on that or any other Info Packet items from March 11? How about the 18th? Mims/ I was just curious, maybe Rick...on the River Crossing, we had something that FEMA didn't like. IP (several talking) like the river. IP 10 (several talking) back to them and they're re-reviewing it. Fosse/ Yes. And we...we don't know completely, and we don't understand their concerns completely, but we're trying to work through. Mims/ Okay. Then I won't ask you to explain them if you don't even (laughter) Fosse/ Okay! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 59 Mims/ Thank you for the information on that book too. The Water Shed Year. Fosse/ Oh, you're welcome! Mims/ Interested in taking a look at that! Fosse/ Uh, just heard from Connie Mutel today, and they printed 2,500 copies and about half of those went the first three days, so... Mims/ Wow! Fosse/ ...it's pretty popular. If you only get a chance to read one chapter.. . Mims/ Read yours! Fosse/ No, no! (laugther) Go to Jack Reese's, I think that's on page 185 and it just does a very good job of talking about lot of the concepts of flood plain management and...and what happens when you get a storm that exceeds the rate, or the level to which you regulate to. Pretty interesting. Mims/ Okay, thank you. Helling/ Probably only read two chapters! Mims/ I think so too! (mumbled) Hayek/ Anything else on that Info Packet? Mims/ I know Marian was looking for people for KXIC. Karr/ I didn't know if you wanted to talk about it now or under scheduling, but yeah, I've got it in there too. IPS. Mims/ Okay. Karr/ And I need to also note, if there's interest on the May 26th joint meeting in North Liberty, as well. The joint meeting was cancelled due to weather in January, so they suggested May 26th, and I just didn't know if that would work. They've asked each of the entities to respond back. Mims/ Can for me (several talking) it's a Wednesday? Karr/ Yes. Dickens/ I will be in Chicago. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 60 Karr/ I...I think I had you and Matt as, um, having conflicts. Hayek/ Oh, why do I have to try to guess (laughter) Karr/ Yeah, I can tell you why, I had both of (several talking and laughing) I had both of you down as possible conflicts and I had noted that. Wilburn/ I have meetings scheduled, uh, until 6 that day. Karr/ I'll respond that that would not be...this just went out to all, to everyone, so it's very possible (several talking) yes. Hayek/ Okay. Karr/ All righty, thanks! And what about KXIC? I have several available options! Dickens/ I just did it last week. It was fun! Wright/ I just did it a couple of weeks ago! Hayek/ I can probably do this week, if... if you need. Oh gosh, that'll be, uh, Wednesday morning, right? Karr/ Uh-huh. Hayek/ Yeah. Karr/ It'll be right after the Council meeting. Hayek/ (several talking) I'll do it! Cause I can't do the next several after that. Mims/ I'll do the 31st. Karr/ Thank you. Champion/ I'm happy to do another one (mumbled) Karr/ April 7th? It'll be after another Council meeting. We meet the 5th and 6th. Connie, do you want to do the 7th? Champion/ Yeah, that's all right. Karr/ All righty! Hayek/ 9:05, 9:25. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 61 Karr/ Yeah, and I...I will touch base with each of you beforehand, and we'll find out what subjects will be. Champion/ We can change the (mumbled) Karr/ Anyone else, 14th, 21st, or 28th? At this time? Or I'll come back later. Wilburn/I'll be interviewing principal candidates for the month of April. Karr/ So you're out of... okay. Thank you. Wright/ I will check, I think I could do the 28th. Karr/ That'd be great, thanks. If you'd check, that'd be wonderful. Thank you. Hayek/ That's probably good enough for now. You got three weeks. Okay. iJh, Council time. Council Time• Wright/ Um, just had...something just kind of shot through my head when we were talking with the folks from HIS. (several talking) Champion/ I was just thinking it would be fun to have our student liaison do one of those radio shows before the school year is over with. Shipley/ I mean, I'd be more than happy to participate, uh, if the invitation extended. I think right now my last work session's going to be the 26th and then the 27th would be when I'll be introducing the new guy so...or girl. But, I don't care, I'm willing to do anything. Thanks for the... Karr/ 14th or the 21st is available, Jeff. Shipley/ 14th? Karr/ 14th or the 21st. If you'd just check your calendar and let me know. Shipley/ Okay! Karr/ That'd be great, thank you. Champion/ I think you could talk about your experience (several talking) Hayek/ ...and it'd be...it starts around 9, it ends by 9:25. It's really pretty easy. Wright/ It's pretty painless, goes fast! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 62 Shipley/ Cool! Mims/ And Steven's easy to work with. Wright/ Yeah, he's a nice guy. Um, I was going to say the, in talking with the folks from Housing Inspection Services, I thought it was interesting it's only in the past five years or so that they've had any kind of requirement that dumpsters need to be enclosed. I wonder if that's something we want to look at. Champion/ Or you do retroactively. Wright/ Retroactive, because dumpsters are a big source of trash. Champion/ They are a big source of trash, downtown (mumbled) Wright/ All it takes is a good wind, and it doesn't even have to be a full dumpster. And you've got a block or two...with a lot of crap blowing around. Champion/ But the lids, the locks, they (mumbled) that's another thing that's difficult to enforce. Wright/ But even if they're in some kind of an enclosure, if there's an enclosure, that will help contain... cause people don't (several talking) Dickens/ You mean like walls? Wright/ Yeah. A fence essentially. Hayek/ Well, if there are three people...I mean, are you proposing that we put it on a work session? Wright/ Let's have that at a work session (both talking) Helling/ We'll get you some...summarize the regulations for screening and those types of things, and also enclosures. I know downtown they're required to (mumbled) have the requirement being locked at one time. That didn't work out, um, so they don't have to be locked, but they're still supposed to have a lid on there (mumbled) so we can summarize all that for you and let you know what the...what current regs are. (several responding) Wright/ And I just, I do have a question for Rick. Just pertaining to, uh, sand. I've heard from a lot of bicyclists about all the sand still in the streets. Fosse/ Yes. Wright/ And I can attest to the fact that there's quite a bit there, especially in the bike lanes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 63 Fosse/ There is, and...and we started sweeping on the 9th of March, and uh, we pick up in the neighborhood of 45 to 60 tons per day of sand and debris, and we have two sweepers, and so imagine those going side-by-side at about a walking pace and going to Lincoln, Nebraska, because that's about how far we need to go (mumbled) uh, so it takes about seven weeks to get through the first pass of the city, in its entirety, and then after that it goes quicker because we can go faster because there's not so much to pick up. Uh, what we've been working toward in the past six years is putting down less sand on the streets and going to a...to a salt mix, uh, at a lower rate per lane mile, but there are certain conditions in which that doesn't work. If the pavement temperature drops below 15 degrees, or if you have high winds, you've got to mix sand with it, and... and we had a lot of those conditions this winter. So there's more sand than we'd like to see out there. Bailey/ Can we...I don't know, I'm getting a lot of questions too. Can we get something...I don't think this is press release worthy, but can we get some information out there? That it's proceeding and... Champion/ Well, I think it'd be kind of fun to have a press release, on just what you told us! (several talking) Wilburn/ I was going to say, it's always been helpful when you come up with those anologies so that when people are calling, you know, uh, and the fact that the same people that...that, uh, pick up the trash are doing this and x, y ands z in the winter time to give out those, uh, it helps people...make it more (several talking) Bailey/ The sand is being picked up, it's just...there's a lot of it out there and it's going to take a while. Dickens/ The same with the fire hydrants, cause I talked to the City workers, I was picking up trash on Dodge Street last Monday morning before I went to work, and they were coming down and I said, how's it going, and they said, well, we're done with 200, we have 2,000 or 3,000 left to go. Fosse/ Flushing hydrants? Dickens/ Yes. Fosse/ Yes, it's a big job. Dickens/ It's another project that people see, uh, out doing and don't realize the magnitude of it. Fosse/ We'll go ahead and I'll put together a press release on that and we'll get that out. Champion/ I think it'd be fine for people to see that. Mims/ What do they do with all the sand? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 64 Fosse/ It goes out to the Landfill, and it's used for daily cover. There's too much, uh, dirt and debris in it to reuse for putting on the streets, for instance. Hayek/ Anything else for Council time? Dickens/ Yes, just one thing. It can fall under community events or Council time. The Shelter House is doing the program that we chose not to participate in. They're singing and dancing and all that fun stuff. That's this Saturday, at 7:30, and Sunday at 2:00. Champion /So you should all pay dearly and go to that. Dickens/ Yes, $12.00. You can buy your tickets at West Bank. And see my wife in a nun costume! So... (laughter) She's part of the nun-sense group! (laughter) Wilburn/ Children's cancer blood fund is also having a fundraiser, uh, at the Marriott, from 4:30 to 7:00, on (mumbled) on Saturday. (mumbled) Dickens/ Thought it was 10:00. Hayek/ Anything else? Budget priorities. Priority to pass it tomorrow night (laughter) enough said! Helling/ Again! (several talking) Summary of Pending Work Session Issues (IP4 of 3/18): Hayek/ Summary of pending work session issues. Helling/ I would just...call your attention to the fact that, if I can...um, again, the work session on April 5th is kind of loaded up. Um...there's some (mumbled) if there's anything that comes up that has to come on, we may bump something, um...but we're going....keep the schedule (mumbled) open it up a little bit because as you get into (mumbled) Champion/ You have to use your (coughing, unable to hear) Hayek/ Yeah, I mean, it makes me a little nervous, see all that there, but uh.. . Champion/ If you all just voted the way I wanted you to and we didn't have to have discussions (laughter) Helling/ Well, and there are...I sort of, you know, we bumped the Historic Preservation Commission back (mumbled) um, as far, you know, we're ready to go with the debt service levy policy and the budget update, uh, but that can be...that can be moved back if something else, uh, has to be on there. Champion/ That doesn't really have to be, won't be that important until we get to next budget. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 65 Helling/ Well, it's amid-year, um, report that you're talking about, so as we get farther and father away from mid-year, but again, I think your only concern there was, are there any red flags in terms of where we were at mid-year, and I think the answer to that is no. But if there are specific questions you have, that's, you know, that's fine. Um, but we wanted to do those both at the same time, because they are kind of related. Wright/ One thing, um, that I did notice. We have our alley (mumbled) at...I just want to make sure that that stays out there, because some of the alleys really took a beating this winter, and they are nightmares! Dickens/ Now, are those cleaned? By...the snow removal on the alleys or not? Fosse/ No, we do not do snow removal or...or street sweeping on those. That's been a hard one for us to get after, just because of the...of the magnitude of it all and...and then, uh, combine that with the fact that...that if we do come up with a need, we don't have the resources to pursue it, and... and, but that's something (mumbled) (laughter) Champion/ Well, I think our, I mean, I don't see how we can start maintaining alleys. I mean, alleys belong to the people who face them, right, or on them. Wright/ Let's not have the discussion now (several talking) Helling/ (several talking) that back to later in the summer or fall, just because we're going to be doing another one block of brick street on, uh, Bowery Street, west...or east of Summit, so we've got the two projects in and we'll (mumbled) pretty well what the cost is going to be and... Champion/ Is that whole block going to be done? Helling/ Yes. We tried to sort of do patch work on it a few years back. Didn't hold. Upcoming Community Events: Hayek/ Anything else on the pending list? Okay. Upcoming events? There was an invitation to the, uh, function that (mumbled) and I meant to bring it along. Why don't I follow up with Marian on that. I'm not sure I can attend it, it's in April. Champion/ Bring it tomorrow. Hayek/ I'll try to do that. Anything else? Okay. Meeting schedules. Anything on that? Meeting Schedules: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010. March 22, 2010 City Council Special Work Session Page 66 Karr/ Again, I'll be scheduling some additional...we'll get that information out to you in the packet as soon as I can hear back from the search firms on that and also as soon as I get additional meeting dates from North Liberty. Dickens/ Just one other question, what were all these pictures? (laugther) Karr/ All of those pictures are an attachment to (several talking) to the Court Hill correspondence that's in your packet. I think there should be a number on the top. Wright/ It's in the main packet. Dickens/ Okay, I missed...(several talking) Hayek/ ...and I meant to reference that when we were talking about the agenda. Can we...that's g.16, toward the end of Consent. Um, could you guys look at that and just give us your thoughts as to (several talking) Do you know what I'm talking about? Helling/ Yeah, there already was a response, but...um... Hayek/ Oh, there is, you're right! (several talking) Yeah, yeah, I forget. That's why I didn't highlight it. Scratch that! Apologize! Okay, anything else? Shipley/ So, March 29th, 8:00 P.M., second reading of 21-ordinance? Right? Hayek/ March 29th, 8:00 P.M. Karr/ At the present time. We'll re-announce that tomorrow night after the vote so we can have public notice so we don't have to call a special meeting. We'll reinforce that tomorrow night, that schedule. Hayek/ Okay. Good work. We'll see you all tomorrow! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of March 22, 2010.