HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-05-04 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Kilburg, Dulek, Fruehling, Russett, Bockenstedt, Nagle -Gamin,
Sovers, Sitzman, Platz
Others Present: Van Heukelom, Miglin (USG)
Review Planning and Zoning Commission recommendation for changes to the City's Good
Neighbor Policy (IP3):
Teague: All right, so we are now at our May 4, 2021, work session for the City Council. We just
finished an executive session, so sorry for any confusion that this may have caused anyone.
And the first item on our work session is going ... we're going to review Planning and Zoning
Commission recommendations for changes to the City's Good Neighborhood Policy, which is
IP3. And I'm going to ask ... oh, hello, Anne!
Russett: Hi, Mayor, uh, good afternoon. Good afternoon Council. Um, Geoff, did you have anything
to say before I ... okay. Um, I just have a few slides that I'd like to share with the Council before
we turn it over to you for discussion. Um, Anne Russett with Neighborhood and Development
Services. If someone could give me ... uh, permission to share my screen. Thank you. So as the
Mayor mentioned... this is a discussion on the City's Good Neighbor Program. This item, um,
there was an item related to the Good Neighbor Program that the Planning and Zoning
Commission recommended. And they recommended some changes to the program where they
would like to make good neighbor meetings mandatory for certain land development
applications. So I have ... I have a few slides here to just give you some background on the
program, um, provide some ... an overview on recent discussions that have been held related to
the Good Neighbor Program, outline some pros and cons of changing the program, and then
outline the Commission's recommendation, and then turn it over to Council for ...for discussion.
The Good Neighbor Program was established in 1998. It is a voluntary program that
encourages dialogue between developers and the neighborhood prior to applications going
before the Planning and Zoning Commission. It's an opportunity for the developer to share
their project and for the neighbor... neighbors to ask questions and provide input. Applicants
hold the good neighbor meetings, they send out the letters inviting the neighbors to attend the
meetings. This is all coordinated through City staff. Generally property owners within 300 feet
are notified. That's the minimum. Um, often staff recommends that more neighborhood ... more
neighbors in the area are invited to these meetings and neighborhood associations are also
notified. There's been some recent discussions on the Good Neighbor Program. (mumbled) the
first discussion was held in 2013, where the program was reviewed, and staff and City Council
recommended keeping the program voluntary. In April of 2019, the program was reviewed
again and staff recommended again to keep the meetings voluntary; however, the Planning and
Zoning Commission expressed some interest in mandating good neighbor meetings for
rezonings or land development applications that had a larger impact. In August of 2020, the
Commission discussed the good neighbor meeting, Good Neighbor Program, once again. And
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they wanted to make good neighbor meetings mandatory for some land development
applications, and they also had an interest in increasing the notification radius to 500 feet from
the 300 feet. And also, including renters on the list of those notified. The Commission
requested that staff review the program once again and provide an updated report, which we did
in October of 2020 and presented some recommendations to the Commission based on their
interests, and these are the recommendations that staff provided and that the Commission
agreed with. They wanted to require good neighbor meetings for annexations, for project
specific plan amendments and associated rezoning, and project specific map amendments. The
goal was to keep these, um, mandatory only for land development applications that had a larger
impact and not require them for more technical reviews, like a subdivision. They were
interested in increasing the notification radius to 500 feet and again, including renters when
possible, and wanted staff to explore ways to increase electronic notification options. So just
some summary points I wanted to go over, and some pros and cons related to making good
neighbor meetings mandatory. If, um, we move forward with a mandatory program, staff wants
the policy to be clear and concise, and have it only affect those projects that are most impactful.
Staff does support some changes to the Good Neighbor Program, but does have some concerns
with how it could impact staff time. Also, based on our experience, applicants are generally
willing to hold a good neighbor meeting if we recommend it, and this is especially true for
larger scale projects. If we move to a mandatory program, we would need input from the
development community There has been no outreach to date to the development community,
and to make meetings mandatory it would require a code change or at least at a minimum, um,
adopting a new policy. So you can see on the table here some pros and cons. Obviously the
pros, the pro is that more residents would be notified. It would also provide clear guidance and
clear expectations for everybody, um, for the applicants, for the neighbors, and for the Planning
and Zoning Commission. In terms of some of the cons, it would be an additional requirement
for the development community. It could potentially increase the time associated with the
process. It may increase Planning staff time associated with administrative tasks, like sending
out letters, and then related to that, it would increase postage costs. So, um, that concludes my
presentation. I'll ... I'll turn it back to the Mayor.
Teague: Thank you, Anne, and I'll open it up to Council.
Thomas: Well I ... I think the, um, in the memo I have here, there was the Planning and Zoning
recommen ... Commission's recommendations, which were pretty much reflected by what Anne
just presented, um, which I think seem to, um, be a reasonable approach. The one thing I would
would say is ... I'm not clear if the notification of neighborhood associations ... or perhaps, you
know, sometimes it may just be a contact person, but that ... that piece I don't see reflected in
the... clearly reflected in the ... in the items that are listed there. And I ... I think the contacting of
the neighborhood association is ... is useful, because that's part of the network within a
neighborhood and it, you know, sometimes those networks, you know, they—they may
have ... they have some relationship to the ... those spatial boundaries defining the notification but,
um, they could extend beyond it, and then they're... they're kind of interconnected.
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Mims: John, when you're referring to the memo in front of you, are you referring to the Planning and
Zoning Commission's recommendations from October, 2020? There's four points there.
Thomas: Let's see, it was the, um, memo of, um, November 19, 2020, from Anne to the, um, to Geoff
Fruin.
Mims: Okay, yeah, and so near the bottom of that the October 20, uh, the Planning and Zoning
Commission's recommendations (both talking)
Thomas: Right, exactly. Yeah.
Mims: Okay. Thank you. I just want to make sure we're talking about the same thing. Yeah, I don't
have any problem with those. I think it ... hopefully it limits it to the kinds of development that
we would already have developers doing good neighbor meetings, because they're pretty major
kinds of things with the annexations. Um, though I ... I would agree with John, if we do have,
um, through our neighborhood association contacts with the City, to be able to add that contact.
I think as you say, that ... that can be a great line out there, so to speak, that can really be helpful,
and then the third one, um, when it says expand those notified to individual residences, uh,
when mailing addresses are easibly ...easily attainable. I don't know if we can just ... we know
what the ... we know what the addresses are within 500 feet. I mean we can look at the map and
see that, even if we don't have a name for the mailing. I don't know, just to save time and effort
on staff's part, can those just be addressed to resident and the address. That way we don't have
to be going to the Assessor and trying to find names of people at those particular residences.
Thomas: Yes, in response to your comments, Susan, I think that seems like it might be the... certainly
the most, um, convenient way of doing it, um, and I don't know what people think about
how ... how effective it is. I certainly see the mail when it's just to the resident ... our residents, but
I don't ... I don't know. I'm not sure how ...if there's any significant difference in terms of the ... the
way that the mail is received.
Teague: I wonder (both talking)
Mims: I think it probably depends on whether it's in an envelope or whether it's like a folded sheet of
paper. Um, if it's a folded sheet of paper and not put in an envelope, then it might be easier to
have somebody that... something that really draws their attention to the fact that if they're
interested in those sorts of things that they would be more apt to read it.
Teague: Anne, can you throw up the ... the pros and cons one more time? I know that you had on there
increase, uh, maybe Planning staff's time spent on administrative task. Do you have an ... I
know that we get a lot of things coming through (laughs) um, for P&Z, you know, to a certain
degree. Is there certain projects that ... would not be included in this?
Russett: Well, I think, um, in terms of our concern related to staff time, it would mainly, um, be related
to rezoning applications that are in the core of the community, where the urban fabric is very
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tight and there is a lot of multi -use buildings. So the number of letters that gets sent out
increases quite a bit. So I think ... I think that's our concern. The projects that wouldn't be
required to have good neighbor meetings are the subdivisions and that type of application, but I
think even in those situations, since we're still sending out letters regarding upcoming Planning
and Zoning Commission meetings, we would still increase the radius for notification for
those ... for those meetings. Does that answer your question, Mayor?
Teague: Um, to a certain degree, yes (laughs) I ... I ... I think, um, I know that staff time will be impacted,
you know, on this most certainly. I'm just trying to wrap my head around, um, somewhat, you
know, what is the best way, because we can send a lot of letters and people not, you know, be
aware. If one person is aware because they open it up, that wasn't aware, that's great. It's worth
it all. I'm just trying to wrap my head around like how ... what would be the most effective way,
um, for this to be done. Are there any other options of electronic... electronic options for
notification?
Russett: We can work with, uh, Communications on electronic options. I think the issue is that the only
way that we can... ensure neighboring property owners and neighboring renters get notified is
through a letter, because we don't have any other contact information besides their address, their
mailing address.
Teague: Uh huh. Yep. Okay.
Taylor: So, Anne, are you ... are you anticipating that this will happen quite often, so this is going to be
like an every week, every other week, once a month kind of increased staff time, or do you have
any sort of a guess on that?
Russett: It would probably be a couple times a month. I mean it depends on how many applications we
get, but whenever we get a rezoning application or a subdivision application, we send out
notifications to neighboring property owners, letting them know that there's an upcoming
Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. So it would ... it would essentially be for
every... every application.
Teague: Mm In=.
Russett: And that's separate from the good neighbor meetings, I want to be clear about that. The ... the
applicant is in charge of sending out those ... those notices. But staff wants to ensure that if a
neighboring property owner got notified of a good neighbor meeting that we are also notifying
them of the upcoming Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, so we want those lists to be
the same.
Bergus: Anne, is there a ... a certain amount of content that the notices have to include? I mean we keep
talking about letters and people opening them, but can it be something that's on a postcard with
like an, you know, basically automated generated list based on the location if it just says
resident?
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Russett: Yeah, we...we could look at doing a postcard. We ... we typically send out letters, but we could
probably condense the information into a postcard.
Taylor: I think that's an excellent idea, Laura, and I think that might be easier for staff then. You could
just (mumbled) road number and then apartment 2A, apartment 3A resident and a little postcard
would catch their attention, so I think that's an excellent idea and might help save time and ... and
costs. But I'm also in favor of the increase in the radius to 500 feet. I thought that was a good
suggestion, because it seemed ... I seem to recall over the last couple years that there have been
some times where, uh, residents slightly outside of that 300 foot said, 'I wish I would have
known about that,' so I think the 500 might capture some of these folks.
Teague: Okay, and I would be in support of that as well. Anyone else? Yep, I'm seeing some ... yes.
Yes, all right. All right, any other... direction that you need from Council on this?
Russett: I don't think so. I think in terms of next steps, we'll have to prepare something for adoption.
Teague: Thank you, Anne. All right. Moving on to the next agenda item, which is the overview of the
American Rescue Plan Act, and I'm going to invite our City Manager Geoff Fruin. And you're
on mute (laughs)
Overview of American Rescue Plan Act:
Fruin: Great way to start the evening here. Uh (laughs) I trust you can see the ... the blue slide on your
screen. If you have any trouble following me as I click along, just -just let me know and feel
free to jump in at any time. I have about 10 slides to go through with you tonight. And we're
going to be focusing on the American Rescue Plan and you've been hearing a lot of talk about
that, uh, really since that stimulus bill was signed into law by President Biden back on March
11 th of this year. Specifically, we're going to hone in on the local government relief portion of
this bill. So let's start big picture though. This is a graphic from the National League of Cities
that tells you a little bit about how the ... how the money is divided here. This reflects just shy of
1.9 trillion. It strips out some of the ... the federal to federal dollars and really just focuses on
those dollars that are making their way to .... to residents in one way, shape, or form. So I like to
look at this graph for this ... this chart here in kind of three sections. First is ... is the big piece to
the right there, the 47.5% roughly of the funds are going towards individual relief. That is, um,
you can think of that largely as the ... the stimulus checks that ... that some people throughout the
country received, the $1,400 checks that were much talked about as this bill was being
considered. That's kind of that first piece. That's the direct relief. That is the, um, a good, uh,
the largest kind of portion of the overall pie, if you will. The second part I like to focus on are
all these smaller elements here, starting at the top and working its way counterclockwise down
here. These are a whole host of different topic areas. You can see we have education,
workforce, healthcare, business relief, utility assistance, transportation, childcare. I won't go
through them all, but a whole host of others. These ... these funding streams are getting deployed
in various different ways. Some will be going through existing programs that, uh, that... that,
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uh, that the federal government has. It could be formula funding, could be grant programs like
CDBG and Home that you're used to, but the ... the way to think about these fands is they're all
going to be filtering out a little bit differently. Some ... we will receive some funds through some
of these programs. For example, I mentioned the Home dollars. Those are dollars we expect to
receive later this year for homeless assistance programs. That will come out of one of these
slices of the pie. Some of these dollars will get funneled through state programs, and ... and
others there'll be new programs created. Uh, so, for example, Health and Human Services at the
federal level is creating a new low-income water utility relief program, that'll work... that... that'll
work through each of the 50 states. So we're going to talk about timing a lot tonight and just
want to let you know with all these pieces, there's still a lot of question marks on how these
funds will get filtered down to our residents, and again, some will get filtered through the City,
some will get filtered through states or...or other nonprofit organizations. It's.... it's a little bit of
`wait and see' on that. The final piece that I like to focus on is just this bottom 17.6%, and that's
the government fiscal relief label, uh, at the very bottom of this ... of this graph. Um, that's really
what we're focusing in on tonight and ... and what the public's really, um, keyed in on. So a little
bit about that slice of the pie that we're talking about. Um, you have 195.3 billion that will be
going to the states and to Washington, D.C., and then cities and counties each are splitting 65.1
billion. So 65.1 for cities, 65.1 for counties. So as we look at what that means for Iowa and for
Johnson County, I've got some notes on this slide. The State of Iowa is expected to receive
about 1.3 billion. We fully expect that the allocation of those funds will be headed up by the
Governor's office, much like the CARES Act, and so, uh, just like when the State received
CARES Act funds, uh, that ... they're going to have to decide how they're going to use those
funds, and we saw the State roll out business relief programs, rental relief programs, provide
assistance to nonprofits, and a whole host of other programs. The State filtered some of that
money down to cities, and they administered some of that themselves. As we focus in more on
the City allocations, that's the notes at the bottom of the slide here, and I want to stress that
these are estimated. The legislation itself to not divvy this up between the cities, that's the role
of the U.S. Department of Treasury, and so these numbers are estimates that were developed
during the legislative process. Um, they are not final numbers and you may see these change,
although we think, um, and cities are expecting that there'll be, uh, pretty close. Johnson
County, um, the estimate is 29.3 million. Iowa City, 17.3. You can see Coralville and North
Liberty are hovering right around 3 million. And, uh, the smaller communities in Johnson
County will also receive funding as well. So your Solons, your Tiffins, your Hills, they will
receive funding as well. It'll be measured in hundreds of thousands of dollars and not millions.
So a little bit about the timing, the legislation does have some language on when we will receive
these funds. There is some practical, uh, a practicality language in there, but it's expected that
we will receive the first payment by May 11'h. So really a week from today, that marks the 60 -
day time frame after President Biden signed this legislation into law. So we'll receive, uh, the
first portion there. Uh, could be up to 50%, and then the second one will come no sooner than
12 months later. So we will not receive all this money at once. We will receive some upfront
and then some at least a year from that ... from that time, and it's yet to be seen, you know, how
that remaining portion will be allocated. I'm sure there'll be some review of how we spent the,
uh, any initial dollars, um, as ... as part of that process, and maybe a reimbursement process.
We'll just kind of have to see how that goes. And then the timing deadline is ... is that ... that we
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really need to focus on is December 31, 2024. That's the ... that's the time in which the
legislation anticipates that all these dollars will be spoken for will, will be spending by that
period of time. So it's a pretty quick period of time. I know that seems like a long ways out,
but when you're talking this large, um, sum of money, it...it will probably take all of that time
for many cities and counties to ... to spend those dollars.
Salih: Geoff, uh, you said how much percentage will be received (garbled) at least?
Fruin: Uh, we're anticipating 50%, but ... but that's... that's not certain yet.
Fruin: And again there's some language in there that says if..basically if practical, we'll get our first
portion within 60 days. So it could be that the federal government determines it's not practical
and... and we, you know, have to wait a little bit longer. Um, there's lots of questions on use of
funds, uh, so what I did here is I just copied straight out of the ... the bill, uh, the legislation that
is. This is exactly what it says is eli... you know, what ... what the eligible uses are, and I'm just
going to focus on those four bullet points, um, and ... and read through those and talk through
those a little bit. I think it's premature to get into exact uses of funds right now, because as we'll
discuss, there are a lot of rules to be written, um, to dictate this, and I think you're all familiar
with that, with the various federal programs that we run, but this will give you a general idea of
the intent of the legislation. So that first bullet is to respond to the public health emergency
regarding COVID-19 or its negative economic impacts, um, and then it goes on to say,
`Including assistance to households, small businesses, nonprofits. and industries such as
tourism, travel and hospitality.' A couple things that I pick up here, um, one is that respond to
the public health emergency. To us that implies there'll be some type of COVID impact
requirement. You'll have to prove that whatever your funding was impacted by COVID. Um,
but then, you know, in that next line it says `or its negative impacts,' and that leads you to
believe the contrary, where it might be opened up a little bit, because we can all point to the
indirect negative impacts of COVID as well. So there's real interest from cities in ... in really
learning what the guidance will be regarding this ... this first bullet and how expansive, um, the,
uh, the discretion that will be. Um, the second bullet is, uh, responding to workers performing
essential work and... and allowing us to ... to provide premium pay. Now interesting as it's
written right now, it says premium pay to eligible workers of the metropolitan city. That would
be us, um...um, or by providing grants to eligible employers that have eligible workers. So as
written right now, as I would see this, it sounds like we can pay our own City employees
premium pay, if that's, uh, the choice of Council, or we can give grants to other employers to
pay their employees. Um, we'll have to see how that guidance is written, but at least at a high
level, it may be the case where we cannot provide premium pay to ... to employees of other
employers directly. We'll just kind of have to see how that language is, um, how those rules are
written. The third bullet really talks about government services, uh, and really looks at the
fiscal impact that COVID has had on government services. So we'll be able to ensure that we
can stabilize our own operations and make sure that, uh, any losses due to COVID are
replenished, and again we'll have to kind of wait and see what the extent of...of that allowance
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may be. And finally, the legislation calls out infrastructure investment in the areas of water
sewer and broadband, and again a lot to ... to work through here. Um, we don't know exactly
what types of infrastructure within water, sewer, or broadband, uh, but presumably we could do
some work in those areas. You know, sewers, a big question mark with cities right now is that
sanitary sewer, is that storm sewer, does that get into disaster mitigation areas if the storm sewer
type of improvements are allowed... are allowed. So, again, just trying to show you that we
know the general intent, we know that there will be some allowances for certain things, but we
just don't know what exactly the fine print's going to be and that's going to impact things, you
know, like eligibility. That... that's so crucial, as we've learned through this past 12 months. We
do have a transfer authority, we can transfer these funds to other organizations, including the
State and nonprofit organizations. There's a specific mention of transportation agencies.
Transportation obviously is ... is something that ... that we have in-house here, as opposed to a
transit district. Um, so that shouldn't be an issue for us, and then we're explicitly...it's explicit in
the legislation that we cannot use the funds to deposit into any pension fund. So that's the text
and, again, we would expect that if we're going to receive our first payment within the next
week or so that the rules will come out, at least a preliminary set of rules will come out at that
same time. But we have not received those yet today. So really what I wanted to focus on
tonight is I really think it's important for you to think about process at this point. I really would
discourage you from getting into conversations about specific uses until... until you fully
understand those rules. Otherwise you may be going down a path that proves to be a path that
you can't go down, uh, after we get those rules. So these are my suggestions. Obviously you all
need to have these discussions and move forward, but I think that the first and most important
thing is before you get into talking about uses, develop some guiding principles. What are your
values, what do you hope to accomplish with these funds? As you look back in five or 10 years,
what do you really want to say about how Iowa City used these funds and allow that... allow
those guiding principles to be your filter for all the requests that you get. You're already
receiving requests from the public. You're going to receive more requests. Staff is going to
present you with ideas. nonprofit organizations, business organizations, they're all probably
going to have some ideas on ... on how to spend these, and ... and that'll certainly pick up the pace
as other cities start to announce their plans too. There's going to be a lot of borrowing of ideas
probably out there in the municipal world. So establish those up front and ... and stick to them,
and ... and make sure you're using them as a filter. I think it's really important that you
coordinate with Johnson County and other ...and other cities, and we'll get into that a little bit,
but .... we want to reduce barriers to access to these funds and it's really important that we're
being as efficient as possible. I don't think it's wise to have every municipality in Johnson
County have their own rental relief program with different sets of rules and different
documentation that's required. It sure would be nice to have one program that we can all get
behind, and I realize that may not ... that may not be possible once you get into those discussions.
There... there may be some of those values that take you down a different path, but to the extent
possible, where there is .... where there are common goals and ... and agreements, we should ... we
should look to coordinate as much as possible. And one simple way to coordinate is simply by
holding some joint public input opportunities. Um, there's a desire that we've heard for ...for
there to be some public input opportunities for some ideas, ub, sharing. I think it would be
good to hold those as a region, if we could, and that would require your... your, um, kind of
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communication with your elected counterparts, but I would hate to have an organization that's
lobbying for use of funds, um, have to go to four or five different public input meetings to
express, you know, express their desires. It'd be great to have one that ... that all the elected
officials, or at least representatives of those elected bodies, could... could listen in to. It would
also help the public, you know ... you know, at the start of such a meeting to ... to introduce some
of those rules and... and, you know, here's what we know about the use of the funds type of
presentation, before we get into soliciting those ideas, and then I think you can determine those
priorities and begin to spend those and report on them, and that reporting piece is going to be
really important. Uh, there's gonna be a lot of interest in how we're spending these dollars, as
there should be, and we need to be prepared to ... to report on those on a very frequent and
detailed basis. So this is not really for discussion tonight. Uh, we don't have a whole lot of
time left in the work session, but I wanted to provide you some examples of what guiding
principles could be. I think it deserves, you know, your thought and reflection, but these are
some different things that come to mind when I think about a ... a grant source like this. One, we
have to leverage as much funding as possible. We always look to do that, um, and avoid
duplication with other relief programs. As I think back to that ... that kind of pie chart I showed
you early on, there's going to be a lot of money coming different ways and they're going to be
coming some to the City, some to the State, some to the County, and we really just want to
make sure we're not duplicating, um, those sources with ... with these discretionary dollars that
we have. I think you're going to want to think, um, hard about the municipal operations and
what we want to stabilize. Uh, you know, we ... we did cut infrastructure projects, we did cut
some equipment purchases. We've taken revenue losses in several different areas. You'll want
to decide what you want to use to restore some of the financial stability that we lost through
COVID. Things like that could help, um, and prevent the need, for ...for example, for future
utility increases. We've taken a hit on ... on our water and sewer funds, and that has required us
to dip into those reserves a little bit more. Um, we're still in good shape, but if you don't
replenish that, you're just going to be kind of quicker to that point where you might need a ... a
water rate or a sewer rate increase in the future. The community needs will evolve. Uh, we all
feel like we're coming out of this pandemic, and that's a ... that's a good sign. But make no
mistake, the recovery period is going to be a lot (laughs) is going to be several years, and so I
think you're just going to want to exercise some patience and understand that the community
needs are going to evolve in the next couple of years. I think you want to make lasting change,
you want to be really thinking about long-term impacts, and I think, you know, my experience
was coming out of the 2008 recovery period is that the rush to spend recovery dollars was ... was
short-sighted. There was a real push for governments to spend those dollars as quick as
possible, and I give you one example. For infrastructure projects, a vast majority of cities took
those dollars and they did road resurfacing with them, which ... which I'm sure was needed in all
those communities. But it was the easiest way to get that money pumped out and into the
economy, and you know, at the end of the day, you have a road repair that probably last 10 or 15
years. Those same roads are probably being redone right about now. And you didn't see that
work, if we're staying on the infrastructure theme, we didn't ... we didn't take the time to really
think about what are those bigger projects? What are those really tricky bridge replacement
projects or other infrastructure projects that ... that could have made a lasting difference in the
community, that are still probably plaguing many of those communities. So we want to ... we
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want to really think about long-term, and I used infrastructure there, in ... in the sense of roads,
but think about that as ... as your social service funding, your ...your household relief, how are we
lifting those agencies and that social infrastructure up for ...for the long haul as well? Uh,
making sure that we are doing our best to mitigate racial inequities, that we're trying to also
reach our climate goals, um, so what are those other priorities that you've set as a Council that
should be having an influence on how we spend these dollars. I encourage you to think about
that. One of the trickiest things, and this is probably going to be the hardest thing I think for
Council to deal with, is you're going to get a lot of requests for operational dollars, um, and
these are one-time funds. So we can spin up new services, whether that's a local government or
if you're funding new services in the community with say a social service agency. But at the
end of the day, those dollars are going to run out and you really need to think about how is this
program going to be sustained once that runs out, and you know, we went through that
discussion recently on Sunday transit service, and we decided to do a two-year pilot. Um, so,
you know, I'm not saying you can't do those things. But you have to be prepared when those
funds run out to have that tough discussion about is the City going to be willing to fund this
locally when these federal dollars run out? I think when it comes to Sunday transit, we all felt
comfortable that, yes, we will do that if..if...if that's what the community reaction, if the
community reaction is positive after our pilot, you're going to have to be thinking long and hard
about that with all the different requests you get. And then certainly compliance and
transparency is going to be really important. We are going to want to be very clear with the
public and with the ... with the federal government that we are compliant and... and have public
reports, uh, demonstrating how we're achieving that. So, again, these are ... these are some of my
thoughts. I'd really encourage you to have some work session time to ... to rewrite these as you
see fit, um, and really stick through the... stick to those through this process. The final slide
here, um, just want to leave you with these thoughts as you begin your discussion on this. Uh,
again, coordination with local governments, I think, is really important, can reduce confusion,
uh, and really ensure efficient use of funds. You know, again, I'll go back to that rental relief
program. If that ... if something like that comes of this, just think of the administrative overhead
that would come from four or five different programs compared to one program. You can really
stretch the dollars a lot more by...by finding those areas where we have common goals.
There's... there's going to be a delicate balance between getting this dollar.. getting these dollars
out and meeting emergent needs, and no doubt there are emergent needs, but also you have to
balance that with taking your time, developing those relationships with the County, with the
other cities, identifying your principles. I think you can do that in these next few months, while
we're still getting clarification on the rules. I don't expect that the rules are going to show up
one day and they're going to be ... they're going to be 100% clear. There's probably going to be
some back and forth and some clarifications, and then we have all the rules for all the other
programs that we mentioned at the outset of this presentation. And the last thing is just that this
is a ... this is a historic piece of legislation and I ... I think we ... we really have to be good stewards
of these dollars, um, because it can ... it can really establish a positive precedent for us. If cities
manage these dollars well, and we're efficient, we're transparent with them, then it could
become a model for... for future federal funding, but if there's all kinds of controversy with how
cities and counties are deploying these dollars, you're probably not going to see the federal
government eager to do this again. So this is really our time to ... to demonstrate to the federal
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government, um, that we can be effective players in not only spending the dollars, but
determining how best they are spent in ... in our areas. Typically when we get federal funding,
there's little discretion. This is what the funding's for, go figure it out, you know, how to
administer the City's. This has really given us some ... some latitude and discretion, and ... and we
just need to be cognizant that this could be precedent -setting and that would be really good for
us if it was. Okay, I appreciate the time tonight. That's a ... that's an overview. And, um, look
forward to working with you, uh, as, uh, as you begin the process of determining how to ... how
to spend these dollars.
Teague: Thank you, Geoff, and I'm going to open it up to Councilors. Just, uh, chime in. I do believe
that waiting for the rules, which who knows when it'll be. We ... we've waited for rules
before ... where we was hoping that it would come right out and, um, but I would encourage us
waiting for the rules before we start discussing how the funds will be divvied out, but... and... but
I'll open it up to Council.
Mims: Yeah, my...my other comment is when you go back to that circle chart that Geoff showed at the
very beginning, and then you go to kind of his first thought on our ..our thinking as ... as we look
at this and one of the things was, you know, not duplicating other services... to have a better
understanding of what those other pots of money are that are not coming through us, and what
the rules are for those pots of money so that we really make sure that we're doing the best we
can with the money that we have control over, and as Geoff said, not duplicating other services
that are maybe money that's going directly to certain nonprofits or whatever. So it just ... it
seems to me like there's a lot of information that we're going to want to have, not only about the
rules for our money, so to speak, but also the rules for those other pots of money funneled
through other organizations and agencies.
Bergus: I was thinking about this in the context of the historic nature of this ... this funding infusion, like
our Council, um, every two years goes through a strategic planning session, right, and we take a
lot of care and thought over multiple meetings to kind of figure out our guiding goals and
principles for just a two-year period, and so that's kind of sitting with me as we're talking about
establishing the, um, prin... the guiding principles or the values that are really at the core of this,
as ... I think we do need to have some pretty... pretty deep, intense discussion to make sure we're
on the same page to take advantage of an opportunity that's this, um, just of such a scope and
scale that we may not see again in, you know, generation or even our lifetimes.
Weiner: It's my understanding that this may be the first time ever that the federal government has sent
big chunks of money directly to cities, as opposed to having them all filtered through, um,
through the State, and I ... I agree that we ... we definitely need guiding principles and, um, and
I ... and I also agree that the more we can leverage the money and cooperate with other entities
within Johnson County, um, including if we can in joint meetings the better off we will be the
more we can coordinate. Um, I can also see eventually sort of doing things in a phased manner.
So there may be things that are really ...that are really much more urgent, making people whole.
I don't know what that's going to look like. Uh, and whereas there may also be other things that
we want to wait so that we can see what other programs are going to bring. The State is
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approving money for broadband. This may include money for broadband. If...if Congress
passes a big infrastructure bill, that may also include considerable funds for broadband. So I
think we'll also ... maybe one of our values will be sort of looking at what the priorities
are ... to ... to fund upfront and what we need to wait on to see what the scope of other programs
looks like.
Taylor: I think ... it is really important that we do meet with the other entities, such as the County and
Coralville and North Liberty, those surrounding us. Uh, cause I think avoiding any overlap in...
providing funds to a certain group, uh, because I would want to, uh, not miss a need for a group
that's not being met, uh, and I think that's one way we could do that is what ... what others
are ... are helping with and what nonprofits are helping with. Uh, where's the big hole there,
where's the big gaps, and I think that's going to be important for us to ... to help that group of
folks.
Teague: Yeah, I do think that having a joint meeting and inviting others to be a part of that joint
meeting for the community, uh, could be beneficial, just to have kind of what's been asked of,
um, our Council and even other municipalities here in Johnson County, have that public
hearing, have that public opportunity for people to come together and ... and share their thoughts.
I will say that it's ... it's going to be very important that we look at what the needs are within our
community. Now there could be lots of programs that's happening out there, that people have
received funds for, um, but during this time of COVID, um, what I've learned is that even some
of those funds aren't, you know, some of the relief that people have already received hasn't been
sufficient, um, and so I would just caution us to also be open to, you know, even though people
have been granted funds, how can we still help those individuals. Um, we do know that there's
other ...lots of programs out there that ... that have been happening. How do you centralize those,
how do you know who's doing what. Um, I ... I think that that could be a big undertaking. The
City of Iowa City will have to determine how we want to utilize our funds, and I think if that's
in-house or, you know, we divvy it out to a not-for-profit organization or we go combined with
communities or municipalities, and I think we can certainly have that discussion, um, moving
forward, but ... it's going to be very important for me just to make sure, just like with our PPP
funds that the federal government gave to businesses, that ... from that lens of how those
operations were for those businesses is kind of how I want, uh, personally the lens for us to
utilize the funds that we have access to and grant to people in our community. All right!
Bergus: So what are our next steps then, just to keep this moving. Should we ... move, I mean we are...
our next joint entities meeting isn't until July. I think at that meeting we've talked about having
sort of committees or delegates who might touch base with other members, other elected
officials. Or should we set some work session time to talk about our guiding principles?
Salih: (garbled) before that, we don't have to wait for July.
Weiner: I mean I ... I've ... also I've reached out to a couple of people on the Board of Supervisors. Um,
they ...the County seems to be doing it sort of own internal vetting process right now ...that they
may want to finish before they're... before they're sort of willing to talk together. I know that
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Supervisor Sullivan had ... had proposed when we had our last joint entities meeting basically,
um, setting up a ... a working group that includes both staff and elected officials from the various
entities. So ... and we also know that it's possible to ... to call, um, an emergency or extra joint
entities meeting, if needed, which we've done before.
Teague: Well we certainly did ask the question at the last joint entities meeting if there was interest, and
the overwhelming ... well, some of the responses that I walked away with was people wanted to
wait for the rules and talk internally, and so I think that maybe we could ask our City Manager
to kind of, you know, feel the temperature of where people are and see if there's any
opportunities, but for ...(garbled) municipalities to come together, but I really believe that
Johnson County has to be a part of that. Um, personally I think they should be a part of that.
If ..if they're not a part, then I think we hold our own, uh, listening opportunities for people. I
think it should be...it could be separate than, um, our typical meetings, just to allow people to
come, and hopefully we'll have the rules by then. It sound like the rules could be out within a
week. Am I correct? (laughs)
Frain: Could be!
Teague: Could be, so ... so maybe, um, between now and our next session, uh, we can have ... we'll
probably just have some follow up, um, and have this on our agenda again just to kind of give
updates of where there's... where the rules are with the federal government, and then we can start
planning, um, if we're ... it sound like people are interested in having public discussion, um,
public input, so we can start planning that maybe at our next meeting.
Salih: Yeah, I thinks is very important, yes, to coordinate with the other entity, the government entity,
and also it is important to listen to the public, you know, to get feedback from (garbled) and this
is really important.
Weiner: I agree ... I agree with what both of you said. I also do believe that... that... that we as a Council
and a city will be best served if we do put together a process that we're... that... that will
be ... provide guardrails and answer ...and basically just the... the.... the framework that we need to
be able to eventually evaluate all the proposals.
Taylor: And I think a big part of that is going to be public education, educating the public, because they
could come to these joint meetings with a whole different idea, if they ...if they haven't been
educated on ... on the process and the rules.
Clarification of Agenda Items: No discussion.
Information Packet Discussion [April 22, April 291:
Teague: So is it fair to say that moving forward we'll have this on our work session agenda item, uh,
next work session? Get ... we'll have further in discussions. Um, maybe Geoff and I could
connect and see how we want to just feel the temperature of other municipalities, and come
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back and report that at the next meeting, going forward. Sounds good? All right, great. All
right, we are at our next agenda item, which is, urn ... I should know what this is (laughs)
...clarification of agenda items. We'll move on to info packet discussion... and we'll do April
22nd. Looking at info packet April 29th and if I'm going too fast, let me know.
Weiner: I don't have any issues for clarification on the 22ad, but I'm just happy to see some of the things
with the CPRB moving forward. That's all.
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees:
Teague: Okay. April 29th. And then the last item is Council updates on signboards commissions and
committees.
Taylor: I don't have anything.
Teague: Okay. Hearing none. All right, we will adjourn for now and see you at 6:00 PM in yet another
Zoom for today, so we'll sign out of this and see you soon.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of
May 4, 2021.