HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-05 Transcription Page 1
Council Present: Mims, Salih,Teague,Taylor,Thomas,Throgmorton
Council Absent: Cole
Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe,Andrew, Mikes, Fruehling, Bockenstedt, Matherly, Grier,
Cannan, Seydell-Johnson, Hall,DeLoach, Hightshoe,Nagle-Gamm,
Tharp
Budget Overview and Highlights-City Manager's Office& Finance:
Throgmorton/Okay! Welcome, everybody. So we're gonna begin Iowa City City Council's
budget work session for Saturday, January the 5th, 2019. Happy New Year to everyone!
Some,uh, some of us went hiking in Wisconsin,not to name any names in particular
(laughs) Sounds like fun! Is this working properly? (noise on mic) Yeah, okay. So....
Geoff, it's my understanding that you're gonna give us a brief overview.
Fruin/Uh,brief is a(laughter)relative term(laughter) Buckle up! We've got,uh,we've got an
hour,hour and a half,uh,budget overview. Before we get started, a couple of thank
yous. Thanks to,uh....uh, members of the public that came in today for `breakfast on a
budget.' We appreciate, uh, you comin'to....to join us this morning. Uh, I also want to
thank the Council in advance for what is going to be a long day. Those of you that've
been through this know, it is a, uh, full day of a lot of information bein'thrown at you and
then, uh,of course we'll have some follow up work sessions throughout January and
February to,uh,put this budget to rest and get it to the State for adoption. Also wanna
thank our,uh, staff. Uh, there are hundreds and hundreds of hours that go into
developing the budget proposal that's in front of you,uh,from the departments
themselves, the staff and department directors,to our Budget Committee, which does the
lion's share of the work. That is,uh,Dennis Bockenstedt,Ashley Monroe, Simon
Andrew, and Jacklyn Fleagle. Uh,they....theythemselves spends hundreds of hours, uh,
preparing this. So, a big thank you,uh,to them, as well. Wanna just let everybody know,
this presentation is bein'recorded by our cable TV, so the first,uh, hour and a half
overview from the City Manager's office will be recorded. We are not,uh, doing the
video recording for all the individual department presentations,uh,but of course like...
like all work sessions,there'll be transcripts available should....should anybody wanna
go back and review the content there. So with that, uh,we're gonna go ahead and get
started. I'm gonna turn it over to Ashley to start the presentation.
Monroe/Okay! Good morning. Uh,we have first just a....a review of our budget schedule. So,
we started back in August of the past year. Uh,we actually kicked it off with an exercise
called 'chip in.' We named it so because of some snacks that we were going to be
providing, as well as the ability for the public to, uh, chip in to what they felt was most
important, urn, and valued and....when it comes to the budget and what we're spending
tax dollars on. So,we gave the Council some feedback about that session and started a
work session on August 21'. Um,we are starting now with our January 5th operating
budget review today. Uh, we will in a couple of weeks talk about our capital
improvement plan....that is being proposed. We're hoping to get all budget information,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 5, 2019.
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uh, settled, all budget decisions made by February 1261. So that's....dead-set, drop-dead
date, urn, for getting things in the packet,urn, so that we can set a public hearing on
February 19t. Then we'll have the March 12th public hearing and the State requires
certification with the County Auditor by March 15`h. So....uh, we have our budget
document, if you have....you don't need, you could read all 700 pages, um, however, we
have a couple of areas to focus, including our transmittal letter. It's an annual statement
from the Manager's office, uh, City Manager, to provide a summary. We've got our
economic trends from 42 to 45, fund structure and descriptions,uh, financial and fiscal
policies, our long-range plans, and a general fund summary. So here we have a, uh,
image, a chart of our budget structure. So, you'll see several funds. We've got our
general fund, that's the....that's the primary fund that we, um, you know fund things like
our Public Safety, our Recreation services,Administration, Finance, our Library, Senior
Center. Lot of what you will see and talk about,uh,pertains quite a bit to the general
fund. Our special revenue funds can be used only for special functions. So, um, we can't
use revenues in those funds for anything but their intended purpose, uh, things like our
CDBG and Home programs, housing development,uh,road use tax, employee benefits.
You have our debt service fund,which pertains to management of the City's debt. Uh,
our enterprise funds, funds similar to a business, uh, in that revenues that are generated
from service charges, uh, like water, sewer, refuse,parking—they go directly back into
the operating expenses. So we'll cover more of those in detail later in the presentation.
Urn, we've got our capital projects fund. So, as I said, we're discussing that on January
16`h and those assign funds to larger infrastructure-type projects. Our internal service
funds are the last ones I'll mention and they cover, um,you know what is....what is
essentially kind of charged back for internal uses. So our IT, uh, equipment replacement
and our insurance funds. We've got a description of our population growth. This is a
statement showing we went from 1990s, where we added about 2,500 people. Uh, the
2000s we're adding about 5,600 people, and in the last, you know, seven or eight years,
we've added nearly 8,000 residents to Iowa City. So, urn, we're at...this makes us the
fourth largest population growth within the state of Iowa. So the top three are in the Des
Moines' area. We've got Ankeny,West Des Moines, and Des Moines as those top three
communities. So, all I wanna say is that,um, it's important to note that the...with growth
comes the challenges to providing services at the same level. So, expansions in
geographic area, increases in our police and fire calls,uh, the number of utility accounts
all....all add to us needing to keep up with our service needs and community
expectations. I have a brief overview of our three budget goals. So we hope that
throughout the presentation you'll find that....that we've adequately and really
significantly addressed our commitment to each of these budget goals,but the book says
that we're going to provide resources to make significant progress in implementing City
Council's strategic plan priorities and adopted master plans. Our balancing expanding
service needs, as I just talked about, and community priorities, while we have declining
taxable value of....of our apartment buildings through tax reform. We are considering the
overall effect of changes on our household budgets, including taxes, fees, and the needs
of the School District and the County. And now I'll go into a little bit of detail about how
we're addressing a lot of the, uh, Council's strategic plans and...and initiatives. Um,
we've got our bike and parks master plan implementation. So we've noted that,um,this
budget is addressing,uh, we are addressing, uh, destination playgrounds and other
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 5, 2019.
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enhancements to our parks, uh, specifically Lower City Park and Willow Creek Park. So
destination areas, uh, for the....for the larger community. Uh, we're completing the
Riverfront Crossings Park improvements. So we are a couple of phases into that project
and, uh,we've got just small...small punchlist-type activities,uh, for a couple of the
phases. We completed the playground, uh,the shelter is nearly complete, and we're
looking forward still to the relocation of the Snelson sculpture, and um (mumbled) circle
drive opening, uh, entry drive landscaping. We've got, uh, accessibility improvements.
Also wanna note,uh, specifically this upcoming year is that Brooklyn and College Green
Parks, but we've completed, urn,probably four to...four to six of the accessibility
improvements at parks earlier,urn,this past year. We want to note, uh, the bike master
plan implementations. So we're continuing to track our efforts here and, urn, we include
the Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Committee in our updates. So last year, uh, several of
the projects were not completed,uh, specifically those, you know, as you've observed
under construction on Clinton, Mormon Trek, urn (mumbled) Governor, and we're
looking to finish those this year, along with, uh, bicycle facilities on Foster and....and
Dodge. We've got construction of the Highway 1 trail extension to Mormon Trek coming
up this year. Uh, we've got the construction of McCollister Boulevard from Gilbert to
Sycamore, which will incorporate bicycle facility on that road, and then we've got a
couple of bike boulevards on Greenwood, uh, and Myrtle, as well as Prentiss. So,uh, a
lot of projects underway and upcoming that'll really make some nice connections within
our community. Next up,it,we have affordable housing. So highlighted here, uh, we
want to note that since fiscal year 2015, the City's contributed$7.6 million to affordable
housing initiatives. Urn,NDS, our Neighborhood and Development Services provided a
memo recently that highlighted, urn,the cumulative, unduplicated count of....of housing
units assisted with our City funding sources. So a few stats from the memo include the
fact that we've contributed to the construction of 397 affordable housing units. Urn, it
doesn't include the public housing and workforce housing tax credits. So...it's a
significant number. Uh, 87% of subsidized units have aided our families at 80% or below
of the area median income, and 63 of the units we've assisted have been, sorry 63%of
the units assisted have been rentals, while the other 37%have been owner-occupied. Urn,
the biggest things and one of the things that we'd really love to highlight is that this fiscal
year 2020 budget is the first one that has been able to embed,uh, discretionary funds. So
non one-time funds,uh, dedicated to affordable housing. So, Council direction is....is
still needed on the use of one-time funds. So we've allocated 6....650,000 this year and
if Council chooses to add any....anything to the affordable housing fund, it would be up
to you. We also have a couple pending requests, uh, one from HCDC and it, from the
Housing Fellowship that we'll talk about a little later, as well. Here we've got climate
action. We talked about that a lot this year. We've got...we've, uh, approved the plan in
September of last year, 2018, uh, so that was a major community effort and,uh, to put
that plan together and so here we've highlighted the specific, um, categories that...that
you would be looking to as they pertain to the climate action plan. I....before I start on
just a summary of this, I wanna note that climate action was, uh,just one specific line
item in our past budgets. So, um, now that the plan is in place,we've moved individual
line items as they pertain to specific departments, um, the projects, the programs,um,
equipment, studies, uh, that sort of thing. So here we have, and we might talk about a
little bit more,these individual bullet points in the....in the rest of the presentation, but
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 5, 2019.
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we've got funds dedicated to solar at the Public Works facility and pending funding
allocation for Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, as we discussed a couple weeks ago at a
work session. We've added in the....in the budget an....an Assistant Facilities Manager
position. So this position would be kicking into high gear our energy efficiency
pro....projects. Uh, our tracking is currently managed by our Sustainability Director and,
uh,they would not only do that but also manage the... the facility projects that the City
needs as we.....as we undertake, um, HVAC and lighting kind of improvements. It's not
noted in the transportation section,but um, we are continuing efforts to expand our
alternative vehicles in our(mumbled) in our City fleet. Urn, so we're....we're planning
to add two vehicles in 2019, um, and then as other vehicle replacements come up in the
future. There aren't pool cars planned for replacement in 2020,but urn, we are working
on that. We also,just in transportation, we're supporting the upcoming transit study. We
have new bike parking, urn,the new bike lanes as I just described, and then, um, we're
actually going to plan to advertise our transit mobility options. So, um,just bringing to
attention the opportunities people have to....to use alternative modes of transportation to
cut down on vehicle usage. And also support our....our other City operations, like transit.
Uh, waste,we have added Landfill staff and Refuse staff. We have one position in each
of those divisions in Public Works. Um, we're hoping that not only does that improve,
uh, and create better efficiencies in our service,but also allow for,uh,recycling drop-off,
pick-ups, and uh, at the drop-off site and create better route efficiencies. Uh, it also
allows for better usage of our Landfill site,having a second operator out there. Uh, we
also are....funding a meth...methane study at the waste water treatment plants. It's one of
the biggest producers of carbon emissions in the city, for our municipal operations, and so
we wanted to dedicate funding to take a look at that. Urn, in fiscal year 19 we're doing a
methane study of the Landfill. We have an adaptation of$125,000 for implementation of
our natural areas plan. So, uh, we are managing, you know, the natural species at
Hickory Hill, Terry Trueblood. We're also, uh, getting into Ryerson Woods and Sand
Prairie. So,uh, we have an Assistant Super...Parks Superintendent that....that came
online in 2018, and they are focused on managing the new natural areas contracts, urn,
and that maintenance, making sure that we're really digging into those areas. We've
added a Storm Water Technician position. So that should,urn, assist with our flooding
mitigation efforts and that also, uh, pertains to our adaptation section of the climate plan.
And finally, I want to note that in transportation adaptation and the lifestyle sections of
the climate plan, um, emphasize the importance of our communication, uh, so we've
budgeted for the promotion of City efforts, urn, to, you know, out..our City efforts as far
as how we're implementing our climate action plan, but also about promoting community
options to participate or modify their choices. Urn, expand on translation and
communication efforts with populations that are harder to reach. Urn, limited English
populations, for instance,urn, especially as we wanted to communicate with them when it
comes to emergency and in other climate-related outreach. So, urn, we're taking a really
comprehensive look at how we're addressing this plan in the first year of its
implementation and, urn, we're excited about the projects being spread out throughout the
departments. Okay. Social justice,we have, uh, 2.5 million in funding for the Behavioral
Access Center par....partnership with Johnson County. We're continuing the $75,000 for
the social justice and racial equity grant program. Uh, we have funding to eliminate fines
for children's materials at the Iowa City Public Library. So this is a new item, uh, it's a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 5, 2019.
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product of the...of the racial equity toolkit initiative. So this was a recommendation that
came from that. There's quite a few communities across the country that are
implementing, uh, such a....a program or absorbing the fines for chil....children's
materials especially. Um, and that cost is about $37,000, urn, net to...to be able to do that.
We are funding accessibility improvements, continuing to do that for our parks,
sidewalks, and public facilities. And then I'll talk a little bit about the wage increases for
hourly,urn, temporary employees. So,uh, step one as Council directed was to go to
11.50 an hour, uh, as of July 1 s`, uh, 2019. So that...that funding is in this budget. Um,
we are...increasing our temporary wages by about $260,000 to....to do that. Uh, about
63% of the increase in temporary wages is due to the increase in those wages. So we
have added a couple of new temporary hours,uh, we'll talk a little bit about that as we go
through the day. Um, but I wanted to give an update as far as that goes. Ilh, staffing
typically sees a, our ability to fund our personnel takes about 3 to 4% forfor regular
staff time wages and the temporary wages see about a 9% increase .to to get to that
11.50. Uh, steps two and three we're estimating our, uh, the cost to go to 13.25, about
420,000. Step three to $15.00 hour, you know, was discussed,uh,would be about
$350,000. We just wanna note that we're still going through staff analysis of the
potential compensation issue...or compression issues, I should say,uh, for those
upcoming years. So years two and three are an estimate, um, that could change as we
complete our analysis of the....of the compensation plans, urn, and pay structures, but it's
pretty close to that 1 million estimate that we gave you, uh, when this topic first came up.
We are making significant investments in roads. So,um, one thing that came from the
chip-in study, think one of the top comments we got was let's....let's improve our roads.
So wanted to note what we're doing to address that. Uh, we're continuing to increase our
funds for pavement rehabilitation. So the patching, the resurfacing,uh, and....we are also
providing for new equipment to help the Streets division,uh, do that work more
efficiently and effectively,uh, for in-house pavement management. And finally, uh, you
know, we've pushed road use tax about as far as we can. Urn, we....may need to
supplement this....the road use tax and resurfacing budget more with property taxes,
unless road use increases. So, you know, vehicle efficiency, the drop in fuel prices have
all contributed to a slight dip in.... in our receipts of road use tax this year. Um, we'll
talk about that a little bit more, as well. (mumbled) we're doing major projects though
for road improvements as well. In the CIP you'll hear a little bit more about the projects
in a couple weeks, but wanted to note upcoming projects. We've got McCollister
Boulevard extension; um, 2020 we've got the reconstruction of American Legion Road.
We have in 2021 proposed Rochester Avenue reconstruction and Benton Street
reconstruction. 2022, Court Street reconstruction and Dubuque Street reconstruction.
And then 2023, the fifth year in our plan, we've got Dodge Street reconstruction and then
a connection in Riverfront Crossings at Kirkwood and Capitol. We have concentrated as
well on additional core support. So we're talking about general,regular every day
operations that are integral to the operations of our community. Uh, as I noted, we have
added two positions in Refuse and Landfill, uh, one in Storm Water. We have one and a
half positions in Facilities. So that's that, uh,Assistant Facilities Manager and a half-time
custodian position to help support our....our Recreation and Municipal Building
operations. Uh, we're doing facil ....utility upgrades for water at First Avenue, Dill,
Spruce are some of the upcoming projects; for sewer lines,uh,projects at Nevada and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
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Scott trunk sewer. Storm water,uh, focus on Lower Muscatine. Public Safety, we have
the fire station land purchase in this budget. We have a training tower and Public Safety
storage,uh, downtown cameras, and some new technology. Last, or for me generally, uh,
we have our tax rate and surplus dollars. So it's a discussion about the budget meeting
strategic plan initiatives; urn, we're decreasing the tax rate for the eighth straight year,
with modest increases in water and storm water rates. In the general operation,reserve
funds are strong. Uh, they're slightly above the upper end of our 25 to 35% of revenues
and transfers in policy target. Uh, so the surplus that we're looking at is a combination of
loan repayments to the general fund, backfill not getting....getting pulled from us, urn,
high-value construction producing one-time development revenues. Um, our recent
surplus funds have been used to create and fund our emergency reserve. Uh, we're
looking to add a $450,000, or recommending to add $450,000 to return it to $5 million.
Uh, we purchased a couple of flood properties last year, and to further reduce and retire
debt, and bolster the CIP program through Public Works facility, training tower, the
Access Center, affordable housing. Um, and then finally there's just a....another piece
that Council can determine what to do with, um, you know any unfunded Council
initiatives and we also are thinking about a new facility reserve fund. So thinking years
forward in the future, how we would replace our municipal facilities...in critical need.
Our outstanding Council initiatives, Geoff'll go into more detail but this is just a list
of...of things that Council has provided direction on already—the South District home
ownership and Terry Trueblood solar,but also thinking about affordable housing
contributions, LIHTC requests, and the Sanxay-Gilmore relocation.
Froin/Okay! Ashley gets to talk about all the great things we're doin'and I get to talk be the wet
blanket that talks about all the future concerns that,uh, that, uh,maybe prevent us from
doing more than we want to do. Uh, you know uncertainty is the enemy of budgeting,
and unfortunately we are budgeting and have been for the last few years in uncertain
times. That uncertainty really stems from the property tax,uh,reform, uh, that was
passed in 2013,but is not completed, uh, not fully implemented, I should say, until 2024,
and that property tax reform is at the top of the list here in terms of, uh, some of those
concerns, uh,that we have when we....when we start to look forward a little bit. Uh, the
first two items, as you read from the top, uh, on the left to right, those,uh, commercial
backfill and multi-residential taxability, those are the property tax reform pieces and I'm
gonna touch on each of these in subsequent slides. The next two is the residential
rollback and then as you move to the bottom left, the volatile expense items. Those are
things that we deal with every year. Not associated with property tax reform,but things
that make budget, uh, tricky for us every year. And then the last two items,uh, deal with
just the economic times that we're in. Uh, we are transitioning from a period of robust
growth, and I will show you that we are now returning back to more average or typical
times for Iowa City. So some of those one-time revenues that....that we've been getting,
that Ashley mentioned, uh, we don't expect to continue to get, uh, because our growth is
starting to....to slow down. And we have some economic uncertainty in...in some of
our....our key industries here. So let's take these, uh, one at a time. We've got the multi-
family,uh,residential,uh,piece of the property tax reform. So prior to property tax
reform, multi-family, uh, what's called multi-residential. You can think of'em as
apartment buildings. They were tacked at....taxed at 100%of their value. If the building
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 5, 2019.
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was worth a million dollars, their taxes were based on that million dollar value. Well one
thing that the property tax reform legislation did is it said those properties should not be
taxes as commercial anymore. They should be taxed at residential rates, and we're gonna
phase into that. So every year as they phase that in, we're loosing some of our taxable
value, and right now as we look at fiscal year 20, uh....uh,the res...multi-residential
property's gonna be taxed at 75% of its value. So it's already down from 100%to 75.
That's $125 million worth of taxable value that...it's just off our books. What's that
mean? Uh, it's about$2 million in actual money that would be coming to the City had
that property tax reform bill not been passed. We would have an extra$2 million,um,
and there is no backfill for this piece. When we talk about the backfill, that is separate.
This is just money that we don't get. It's property owners that they don't pay that, uh,
they don't pay that taxes. So the cumulative impact of that we estimate to be $15 million.
So we're at$2 million for this fiscal year, we're lookin' at, but over that implementation
period,the loss to the City is $15 million. That is a significant, um, challenge for us, and
when we talk about uncertainty in budgeting, um, we have to continue to think about
every year loosing another few hundred thousand dollars, uh, off our, out of our tax
receipts because this will....will continue to be funded. Uh, I'm gonna skip ahead to the
rollback because I wanna make the point, um, when I talk about multi-family properties
being, uh....uh, coming down to the residential rate, I wanna make sure you know what
that residential rate is. So residential rates are....right now are taxed at 57. So
your.....think of your single-family home. If you own a single-family home,uh, you pay
taxes on 50% of that home's value. So if you have a$100,000 home,the taxes are based
on a value of 57,000. So that's what those...that's where those apartments are goin'.
They used to be taxes at 100%, and sooner or later, well in 2024,these two.... those two
numbers are gonna match, and...and we wanna show you what the volatility of this, uh,
rollback, uh, figure is. This is a figure that's determined by the State. We don't set this.
The State sets it and we....we deal with it, we adjust with it. Uh, but you can see, uh, it's
been as low as 44%, uh, over, you know,just 10 years ago. Uh, and we've been lucky
that that numbers been creepin'back up,but uh, the point is is that not only can single-
family homes go down that low,but we could see our apartment values go down that low.
Uh, so that's a significant drop there. The, uh....uh, a change in 1%, uh, as....as noted on
the slide is about$700,000. So fortunately, for us, uh....uh, it went up this year, which
means a higher percentage of....of your single-family home is taxed, and that's brought
in, uh, it's about$900,000 in new revenue for...for the City, so that's certainly helped us
this year. Uh, but we don't expect it to continue to rise, uh, we....we probably think it'll,
uh, go down and....and stabilize a little bit in the mid 50s there, so... um,that'll be a
continuing challenge for us. Now here's the backfill. So you have the... this is the
second component of the...of the property tax reform. So we have the multi-family piece,
which we don't get any backfill from. Um, the commercial piece is where we get
backfill. So like multi-family properties, the State wanted to reduce the property tax
burden on commercial properties, and they said you no longer need to be taxed at 100%
of your value. We should tax you at 90%of your value. So again, if you owned a
property, a commercial property that was worth a million dollars, you used to pay taxes
based on that million dollars. Now you're only payin'taxes based on$900,000. And
that's where the State said don't worry cities—we'll make you whole with these backfill
payments, and to date they have,but as you have heard from us over and over, and if
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
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you've read through, uh....uh, various publications, the future of backfill remains very
uncertain. Uh, it came down to the last day of the session last year where negotiations
fell apart on a phase-out bill that would of, uh....uh, started to...to...to reduce backfill
payments to....to cities. Uh, we know it's gonna come up again this session, and cities
are joining together to work hard to preserve those dollars, but it's....it's probably, as I've
said before,matter of time before other priorities in the State budget, uh, start to grab
these funds. Uh, 1.5 million, uh, means a lot to us, especially when you combine it with
the 2 million that we've lost for multi-residential properties. You can see some budget
equivalents that we have, uh, on the screen there. Essentially 1.5 million,uh, I think the
easiest equivalent is, you know,that funds a fire station. That funds the staffing of a, uh,
of a fire station. When you think of, uh, 12, 13 firefighters and all the equipment and
services that...that need to go into, uh, that type of operation. It's a significant part of our
budget. Okay, I alluded to this. Uh, are we going to be able to sustain the growth that
we've had, and...and the answer is no, it's gonna come back down to more typical levels.
So what we're lookin'at on the screen here is the, uh, construction value of our building
permits for each of the calendar years, from 2008 to 2018. And what you'll see is after
2008, comin'out of the recession, uh, we had,uh, really an average of about a 100
million,you know, you see 2009 through 2011 was actually under$100 million worth of,
uh....um....uh, construction value on our permits, and then we really see...started to see
that uptick in 2012. Uh, 2012, 2013, uh....uh,through 2015, that average jumped up to
161 million and then of course we had that,uh, 2016 year,which we knew was....was an
outlier but we jumped, uh, all the way up close to 400 million that year, and then we're
gonna start to see us kinda regress back down to that average. Uh, 2018, a few things I
wanna point out there. That....that's a strong number in 2018, but it's....it's a little bit
misleading. We're....we're almost at 200,000....or, I'm sorry, the 200, uh, mark there,
uh,but we had a higher than usual non-taxable, um, construction value. So these
numbers include,uh....school buildings, City buildings that at the end don't pay taxes.
So while they....while they look good and we get some building per....permit revenue
from them,um, at the end of the day they're not expanding the tax base, and you can see
in 2018,uh, on the bottom note there that we had just over 50 million in non-taxable
construction value. We average about 25. So we....we really doubled our average in
non-taxable there. So that would bring the, kind of the....the yellow bar down if we were
to...to strip out the non-taxable value there. Uh, a couple of things as I looked at the year
end building permits, uh, themselves. Um, you can really start to see a slow down. We
had a....a 109 single-family house permits issued. That was our lowest number since
2011. Uh, on multi-family dwelling units that were permitted in...in 2018, we had 163
new multi-family dwelling units. That's our lowest since 2012. Uh, so, uh, I don't think
that's unexpected. I mean we've all been seein'the....the,uh....um,kind of the
explosion of growth these last few years,um, and we've talked a lot about, you know,
just the market absorbing that and whether you're talking to....to bankers or developers,
you're startin'to hear more concern that....how much more can the market bear,
and....and I think that there's a....a, there's naturally gonna be a....a decline. Now, you
know what I hope is that we can keep that, you know,keep that number back in that 2012
to 2015 range,when we normalize, and we don't fall back down to those 2009 to 2011
numbers,because, uh, you know, certainly as we....as we look at the last four years of
property tax reform, we still need that good growth to get through those last, uh, last few
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years. I mentioned other variable costs, uh, as well, and just a couple of examples we
thought would help illustrate this point. We're all enjoying the low fuel prices right now.
Urn, as we budget we have to be cognizant (laughs) that, uh, those fuel prices won't last
forever. You know it wasn't too long ago that, uh, our fuel budget was a million more
than it is today, um, and uh, you can see on the screen there, five years ago we were...we
were, uh, at a much higher level for fuel. So, you know, uncertainty in the world, uh,
can....can drive fuel prices up in a heartbeat and...and our budget has to be able to,uh,
adopt to those costs. So,uh, you know, million dollar swings in fuel budgets is....is....is
not,uh,unheard of and we have to be able to, uh, react and absorb those costs if they
come our way. And then healthcare, I think everybody's familiar with the volatility of
healthcare. Just to illustrate that point, uh, you know, we've seen an 18%increase in our
healthcare costs in the last five years, and frankly that's probably pretty good. Urn, you
could talk to a lot of other organizations and....and see much higher percentage increases.
We've done a nice job controlling those costs, but it's still a very volatile,uh, line. And
then the, uh,the last piece, I don't have a slide for. It's just the economic uncertainty,uh,
that I noted. Obviously we're seein'the exit of Procter and Gamble, a huge economic
engine in our....our.....our community, at least the....the one sector of their....their
business. And we have the uncertainty around higher education right now and....and, uh,
how the University's gonna be able to grow and prosper. All those things, uh...uh, kind of
cloud what the future may hold for us a little bit. So, to summarize, uh, we're...we've
done a really good job. We've been very,very fortunate over the first few years of this
property tax reform,that we've essentially been able to grow out of it, and our tax base
has been able to expand and all those losses that I talked about, we've been able to
overcome those. Uh, but....we still have four more years of the property tax reform to go
before we....before we really get to that new normal, and we have these pressures there.
So we can't....we can't, uh.....um,kinda go on cruise control. We have to be, uh, very
mindful of those, urn, and as I said, our growth's gonna return to more normal levels.
The residential rollback is....is still, um....uh, able to swing, uh, and cause us some
stress, and then the multi-residential properties—we know what's gonna happen there.
It's not pretty, but we, you know, we have to deal with it. The backfill's the other piece of
that. So, urn,this is, uh,this slide repeats a lot of....of what we just talked about, but
it....it summarizes the challenge that we have and I can tell ya, while we're proud of, you
know, the budget that's before you, we've been able to expand some positions really, uh,
for the first time in....in....in a while. We need more, uh, we'd like to do more,um,but I
think we'd like to....I'd also like to get through a few more years of the property tax
reform so that we know that we can,uh, sustain those, uh, commitments, urn, to our....to
our departments, um, should we....should we make those. Okay, so, uh, we're gonna
actually get into the budget itself now(mumbled) kind of a....a big picture overview.
We're gonna give you a little bit of detail on revenues, uh, and then Simon's gonna talk to
you about expenditures and debt service, and then we'll wrap up with some analysis here.
Uh, this is just a picture of our all revenues, so if you think back to the slide that Ashley,
one of the first ones, and she went through all the different types of funds that we have—
enterprise funds and general fund. These are all those funds combined. So we say it's all
funds revenue, and you can see, uh,the increases and decreases in....in various revenue
sources. Uh, a couple of things to...to point out here. You see a very modest increase in
our property tax, uh....uh, 1.9% there. Urn,the 39%jump in the use of money and
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property is....is primarily investment income. As....as we, urn, experience better interest
rate environment, uh, we're makin'a little bit more money on our.....on our investments.
Uh, the inter-governmental, uh, funds are down 15%. That's more a function of grants
and the timing of receipts of grants, so that...that's certainly not concerning to us. And
then the other financial sources, uh, dropping nearly 30%, urn,that's just reflective of
a....of a decrease in, uh, our debt sales and, uh,public land sales. So again, not
concerning there. Overall decrease in revenue, um,but you have to kind of dig into it
more. Uh, we feel....we feel pretty good about this mix. We'll show it, uh, a little
differently, graphically for ya. Urn, couple things to point out here. Charges for service,
that's mostly utility payments, uh....uh, makin'up that 24%. But if you take our charges
for services, our inter-governmental funds, so those State and federal for the most part
funds that we get, and property taxes, it's about 80% of our revenue comes from those
three sources. Uh, we're not a very, uh, diversified community in terms o£..in terms of
our revenue sources, um, most cities in Iowa aren't because of...of restraints in how we
can raise revenue, but uh, property taxes is still the largest. Wanna break that down to
just the general fund. So I was talkin'again about all those funds combined and...and we
focus a lot on the general fund today because that's where the most discretion exists and
that's, uh,typically where the Council wants to spend most of our time. So if you look at
your general fund revenue source, you see we're very heavily dependent on property
taxes, at 67, uh, percent, and then you can see some notes on the screen about, uh, some
of the other funding sources that we have. Uh....uh,to the bottom left is other City taxes
at 5%. That's our hotel/motel and utility franchise taxes. Uh, you know, there's a lot of,
uh, I think belief in the community that hotel/motel taxes and utility taxes bring in a lot
more money than they do. Yes they bring in a substantial amount, but it's a very small
piece of the overall puzzle. Uh, again, less than, uh, or 5%with....with those two and
our utility excise, which as I mentioned they're, uh, combined. We'll talk, uh, property
tax rates; uh, we got a few slides on that. So you can understand,uh, what the trend is
there and....and what we're continuing to do, or propose to continue to do. Uh,this
shows our property tax, um, rate, uh, with the yellow line,uh, it shows the steady
decrease in that, uh, from fiscal year 12 when it reached its peak at $17.84 to what we're
proposing at$15.83. Why have we been able to do that? Well that's the....the green bar
there's our tax base has grown significantly and, uh, that along, uh, with our... our debt
management strategies has really allowed us to....to push down our tax rate, uh, quite a
bit. One thing I wanna mention here, um, is the, uh, on the table below you have a value
percentage change figure. Uh, that's the percentage change in our tax base, uh,
year....year after year from 11 to 20, urn, and the way the assessments in the community
work is that in even years it's an assessment year. So that's when the...the City Assessor
goes out and....and determines the value of properties and will determine whether the
value of your property has increased or not. In those odd years, urn, no I'm sorry, I got
that backwards. Even year is...is a non-assessment year, and odd is an assessment year.
So when we look at, uh, 2020, and that's a non-assessment year, we grew at 4.74%, uh,
and if you go back and look at all the other even years, we don't come close to 4.74%.
So what's that....what that is tellin'you is, uh, because properties aren't bein'reassessed,
that's all new growth, and....and so all this development that we've had is starting to
come online, and we're pushing that property tax base up quite a bit. That's really, really
helped us, uh, as we prepare for the fiscal year 20 budget. As you look at those odd
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years, you tend to get bigger bumps in your tax value in the odd years because the
Assessor again is evaluating what sales have been across the community and if your
property value has increased that's factoring into that as well. So, uh, really for fiscal
year 2021, we expect some really strong numbers, cause we've got more new
development coming online,plus we expect the assessment, so as we look ahead to fiscal
year 2021, we're....we're pretty bullish on what the,uh, on what the, um...uh,tax base
is....is gonna do there. Beyond that, a little less certain. Hopefully that makes sense. If
you see that pattern from odd years to even years, uh,just know that this fiscal year 20
bump is....is significant, and um,really a credit to some of the past economic
development efforts that we've had to expand the tax base.
Mims/Geoff, can I just ask a quick question....
Froin/Sure!
Mims/ ...cause I think when people look at this and we've got numbers in here for fiscal 20 and
we're not even into fiscal year 20 yet, can you...or Simon or Jacklyn, when was that re-
assessment actually done in terms of that we're making....cause I know we pay taxes like
12 or 18 months behind when the assessment is actually done.
Andrew/The fiscal year 20 budget is the January 1', 2019, assessment, correct?
Bockenstedt/(mumbled) ...first of 2018 would actually be the fiscal year 20 budget.
Mims/Okay. So just....cause when people look at this they....we're not even in fiscal year 20
yet and their question might be how are we even coming up with these numbers. The
assessment was actually done back in 18 (both talking)
Bockenstedt/...so when you look at those building permit numbers,there's a delay.....
Mims/Right.
Bockenstedt/ ...the construction, then the assessment, it's actually the fiscal year...following that.
Mims/Following that. Thank you!
Fruin/Uh, we always like to talk about the overlapping tax rate, cause while us up here at....at
the table here,we....we have control and we focus on our tax rate,the reality is when tax
bills go out and our public gets them, it's not just our tax rate that they're payin'. They're
payin'the School rate and they're payin'the County rate. So,urn, I always like to be
mindful of...of what the rates in other entities, other governmental entities are doing,
and....and if we can help, uh....um, offset any rate increases that they're doing,that
certainly helps our public, and urn, you can see the mix of, uh,the....the tax bill,what I
like to say here is the pie chart there. Uh, if you're payin' a dollar in property taxes, 41-
cents comes to the City, 38-cents goes to the School District, 18-cents goes to the County,
and a little bit to Kirkwood and the State. If you go to the next slide here, um,this just
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shows, uh,the....the mix between those entities, and that black line shows the...the
percentage of Iowa City's take on that overall tax bill. So you can see that we've...as
we've dropped our tax rate,urn, we've gone from almost 44% of that tax bill, uh, getting
closer down to...to, urn, this is an FY18 number as the previous slide show we're gettin'
close to 41%, uh, of that, uh, of that tax bill. Um....some of the decreases that we've had
are helping to offset the increases that the community supported at the...with the School
District. So we know that the School District....and we supported that bond issue as
a...as a city, that...that bond issue is pushing tax rates up for the School, and fortunately
we're in a position where we can pull back our tax rate a little bit, because of some of the,
uh, the debt management and the tax base growth that we've had, so that the taxpayer,
when they get that bill, they're not bearing the full brunt of that....that School District,
urn, tax rate increase. So, somethin'that we continue to be mindful of as we....as we
plan our rates.
Throgmorton/Geoff, course this is very good to hear because one of the things we said,uh,
during the de....uh, public debate about...the....the proposed, uh, School District
referendum was that we would be able to contribute to lower prop...well, better property
tax levies because of what we were doing. Yeah.
Fruin/Always like to give you a glimpse of where our property tax rate,uh, sits,uh, as we
compare to other communities. We compare ourselves to the 10 largest communities in
Iowa, as well as our neighbors in North Liberty and Coralville, and what is shown here is
the first column is....is the current year rate, the $16.18. That's our fiscal year 19 rate.
Urn, obviously with this budget we're proposin'to drop that to 15.83, uh, but we also
show the fiscal year 12 rate, cause that's where we peaked. That's where our rate was...
was the highest, and we were at $17.84. That...uh, would be at the top of the charts,uh,
right behind Waterloo and a penny behind Council Bluffs. So you can see the progress
that we've made over...over the eight years in....in getting a more competitive tax rate,
getting back to the middle of the pack, urn, where I...I think we'll....I think we'll be able
to settle in in the mid 15, uh, dollar range there, and that's probably, urn, what's realistic
for our community, uh, given that we don't have some of the revenue sources that some
of these other cities have. Urn, you know, and as folks look at the bottom of that list,
we're never gonna get to, uh, Coralville or North Liberty's rate, uh,because we offer a
different set of services than they do, and....and so you can't look at these rates in a...in
kind of isolation. You have to consider, urn, why rates might be higher too and that's also
because, you know, we don't have gambling revenue that some of these cities do. We
don't have sales tax revenue that some of these cities do. We offer full-time fire,
professional fire, as opposed to volunteer fire services, and all those things impact the
rate, but...um, again,really proud of the way we've been able to bring that rate back into
line with,uh, kind of the middle of the pack there. Urn, I wanna talk about some of the
major revenue sources—hotel/motel tax,uh,many of you were at the,uh, Convention
and Visitors Bureau annual meeting recently where...where Josh talked about the supply
in hotel,uh, hotel rooms. Uh, over the last 10 years, uh, we've increased the number of
hotel rooms in Iowa City, urn, by 90%, 91% I think is the exact number. Um,that doesn't
always translate to, uh, increased revenue and what we're showin'you here is actually in
18 we took a step backwards in hotel/motel tax revenue. Uh,that was primarily
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attributable to the...the temporary closure of the Sheraton as it transitioned from the
Sheraton to the Graduate. So in....in fiscal year 19,the current year that we're in, we do
expect to get back up to that fiscal year 17 level. Um, of...of 1.1, 1.2 million,
somewhere....somewhere in there, but....beyond that, we're really not sure if...if we'll
grow from that 1.2 or if we'll come back down a little bit because all the new supply that
....that Josh talked about, uh, at his meeting. It's leadin'to rate decreases. You know,
there's more competition in hotels, so they're droppin'their rates, and that's gonna
ultimately lower the....the amount of taxes that the...come into the City. Utility,uh,
franchise tax, uh, we talk about there's some volatility with this type of revenue because
it is fairly weather dependent. This is a tax on your electric and gas bills. So if it's a very
cold winter, uh, and you're runnin'the....and you're runnin'your heat quite a bit, our
revenue's gonna go up. If it's a very hot summer and you're runnin'your air conditioner,
our revenue's gonna come up. If you're havin' a 50 day degree in....in January, like
we're gonna have today, um, that's not very good for our tax revenue. Urn, so that's why
you see some volatility there, but generally speaking we....we're in that $900,000 range.
Um, always like to point out this is a....this is a, uh, a, um...revenue source that the
Council can increase. Uh, we're at 1% and State law allows you to go up to 5%, and
we've listed,uh, the other cities and....and where they stand now. Again kind of in the
middle of the pack. We're not suggesting a rate increase. We used, uh, the 1%to help
open Station 4, Fire Station 4, um, and this type of revenue source is good, uh, for those
kind of large steps that you may need to make in operations—open a fire station, increase
your minimum staffing levels in a police department, those types of things—where you
may need to hire 10, uh, employees or so, you may need a revenue source like this to...
to accomplish that. Cable TV franchise,this is one we're just slowly watching drift away
from usu as people cut the cord and....and.....and not, and don't use cable. You can see
the steady decline in the last few years, um....uh, the other thing that will bring us down
as you're all familiar with, uh,the....the Mediacom has been able to....to move from a
local franchise to a State franchise, and that's gonna reduce our revenue another 10%. So
this current fiscal year we'll expect to come in around 600,000 and every year after that I
think we're just gonna continue to see this funding source, uh, which supports our general
fund,uh, continue to decrease. Uh, and road use tax,Ashley alluded to this when she
talked about all the increased investment in our roads. Um,the challenge that we're
seein'now is our road use tax receipts, uh....uh, appear to have peaked or plateaued. Uh,
2018 was the first year we saw a decrease in our road use tax in quite some time. So,uh,
we're gonna have to, uh, we're gonna have to live, uh,with the current level of road use
tax funding, and unfortunately I don't think the amount of resurfacing that we can do, uh,
with this, with these funds, is enough to keep up, and we're proud of the increase that
we've done but we're gonna need another....another revenue source, if....if we wanna
make real progress on our roads and when we get into the capital budget you'll see that,
uh,we're gonna rely on property taxes a lot more. We've got several of those projects
that Ashley mentioned that are comin' up in out years that are, um, major property tax,
uh, users,uh....uh, but we also need to consider some other sources, and that will take me
to our local option sales tax slide,uh,because local option....oh, I forgot we had a, uh, a
road use projection here. Um....uh,this is just a long-term projection,uh, slide here
that....that shows that we do expect, the blue line is our revenue line, and as you can look
out a few years, we do expect we'll get a bump in road use taxes from the Census,urn,
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but uh,you can see that, uh, our expense,uh, trajectory that we're on is not sustainable,
and....and we're gonna have to pull that expense line back down, or keep it flat,uh,in
future years in order to....to match that revenue. So now we'll talk about the,uh, the
local option sales tax. Urn,just wanna note this because, uh, we are one of the few cities,
uh, especially larger cities that....that do not have this,uh, funding source. We've...
there's been several attempts and we actually had it post-flood for four years, uh,but as
you look at this, a number of the cities that have it, um,use it for street repair, and it's
somethin'that typically the public can support. Uh....uh, as you've heard in your
listening sessions, as we've seen in our, uh, community surveys, as we heard in the `chip-
in' event, uh,most people recognize the need to....to invest in our roads. Urn,the money
that is generated from a local option sales tax is significant. We were gettin'close to $9
million a year for flood recovery for those four years and you can see what other
comparable cities are....are bringin' in with their local option sales tax. Des Moines is
gonna have another vote on a local option sales tax, uh, this spring. Uh,based on their
last vote, uh, I think they'll....pretty good chance that they'll get that, and then we'll be
the only large city that...that does not have this, so it's somethin'that the Council,uh....
uh, can consider,um, should you wanna invest more in roads, or...or frankly any other, I
mean there's no....there's no limitation on roads. You can see the different uses that
cities have identified. Um,what we're gonna do in this next...in this next year is we're
gonna do,uh, a road condition analysis,uh, study for you. Urn,basically look at the
condition of roads and then study the funding needed to bring those up to different levels,
uh,present that to you and then we'll be able to talk, uh, more precisely about the funding
that's needed to get you to a certain condition level of roads and,uh,hopefully give ya
a....a more complete set of information to make any decisions, whether you wanna stay
status quo and kind of limp along as....as we've been able to, or if you wanna look at
alternative revenue sources. Okay, over to Simon!
Andrew/All right, flip over to the expenditure side now. Uh, we'll start with the slide that shows
you all of our expenditures. This includes all of our funds. So this is general fund,utility
funds. Uh, the major take-away from this slide is to note how heavily our resources are
devoted to utilities and infrastructure. So you see the two bars on the far right of that
slide,um, our capital projects and our business type funds or enterprise funds,uh, so you
see that the lion's share of the dollars that the City spend goes to road construction, water
mains,uh, sewers,things like that,uh,that are frequently critical,uh, needs that we don't
have as much discretion over as we may in the general fund. Um,but flipping over to the
general fund, uh, you'll note how heavily,uh, general fund expenditures are weighted
toward personnel. Uh, so the main take-away from this slide is to note that, you know,
when we try and control expenditures in the general fund, we're really talking about
people, that there isn't a whole lot of leeway in terms of services and supplies that we can
dial back on. So when we, uh,talk about a....a 3 to 4% increase generally necessary year
to year,uh, to track with the increased costs of doing business,that's largely associated
with personnel expenditures. Uh, still on general fund expenditures here,uh,just noting
percent change year to year from,uh, the FY19 revised budget to the proposed budget
that you have in front of you. Uh, the two main categories that have changed are capital
outlay and other financial uses. Uh, capital outlay, uh, the change there is largely
associated with some flood properties that we bought in FY19 that we don't expect to
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occur again in FY20. Uh, there were,uh, also some UniverCity charges in there that we
don't expect to, uh, continue at the same level in FY20. Uh, so the fiscal year 20 budget
has one house for the UniverCity program, uh,budgeted. Uh, there were three budgeted
in FY19,plus some carry-over from previous fiscal years as well so...uh,that's the, uh,
drop of 60% in the capital outlay budget. Uh, other financial uses, this is the money,um,
that we repay loans with, uh, and so the difference there is all UniverCity. So that was
paying back, um, the loans that we took out to purchase those homes. Uh, Geoff noted,
uh, vot...volatile expenditures,uh, in the slide that he noticed,uh,noted,um, long-term
trends and tryin'to...to plan, uh, financially for those expenses that we can't control. Uh,
he noted a million dollar swing is,uh, not unreasonable in fuel costs. Uh,pension costs
can see that same type of swing. Uh,between this slide, which is, uh, Public Safety
pension contributions and IPERS, uh,between the first year of those slides to today,
that's about a million dollars (mumbled) as well. Um, we just include this to note that
these are major expenses that, um, are frequently dictated by either the State or uh,
financial conditions that we can't control. So we have to make sure that we have
the....the financial capacity to....to react to these changes and, um,not have to make any,
uh, dramatic staffing or service level changes to react to increased expenditures. Uh,
especially in the climate action slides that, uh,Ashley, uh,went over,um, we noted some
of these personnel changes. So,um,we are excited with this budget that we are
recommending increasing staffing more than, uh, we have in any of recent year, and
largely these staffing increases are associated with the climate action and adaptation plan.
Uh, so you'll see a one and a half FTE increase in Government Buildings. Uh, one of
those positions is an Assistant Facility Manager position, which is intended to,uh,
implement a energy efficiency and,uh...um, other sustainability projects within our
facilities, and as you saw with the climate action plan, um, a lot of what we can do as a
city, uh,to, uh, reduce the community's carbon emissions has to do with a....several of
our facilities that are very big energy use...users. Um, in Refuse....you see a one position
increase, um, and this will help with our recycling collection. Uh, you'll see in the CIP
plan that we go over in a couple of weeks that,um, we are recommending adding a, uh,
another recycling drop site,uh, and so this position, uh, will in part help,uh, to collection
at that additional site. Uh, the Landfill, we are also recommending an increase of one
position, that Ashley noted will help with compaction rates at the Landfill,urn, and
making sure that we have two people down in the cell at all times,that can really
maximize, uh,the use of space in those cells,which of course are....are very expensive
and, um....uh,very, uh, they're not a good land use. The, you know, the better we
can...efficiently use that space the better. Uh, an increase of one FTE is also
recommended in the Storm Water fund. This would be for a Storm Water Technic...
Technician position,uh, that would design and implement management solutions
throughout the community. Also we increase our field inspections and making sure that
storm water facilities that have been constructed are operating, uh, as they should be. Uh,
and the last note you'll see on here is a decrease of 1.75 in the parking fund. These are
positions that have been vacant for some time, so this isn't a,uh, decrease in service
level. This would just be basically a cleanup for positions that we haven't filled, uh, for
some time. So that's it on the expenditure side for the high level,before we get into all
the department-level expenditures, uh, later in the day. Uh, so I'll flip over to the debt
service fund.
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Teague/Quick question.
Andrew/Yeah!
Teague/Are you plannin'to fill the parkin'....um, at any point?
Andrew/No, this would eliminate them from the budget.
Teague/Okay, so it's...gone (both talking)
Andrew/Right. Right. Generally those positions that have decreased in the parking fund have
to do with automating facilities. So we used to have cashiers at each of those exits,uh,
and now so many of them are credit card only,uh,that we don't need staffing at those
positions.
Teague/Awesome. Thank(both talking)
Andrew/ So I wouldn't see a, you wouldn't see a need for these in, uh, service in the parking
fund associated with that.
Teague/Thanks!
Andrew/Um,movin' over to debt service. So we have, uh,three, uh,policies in our debt service
fund that really guide, urn,how, uh, the....how the debt service fund impacts the levy
rate. Uh, the first one's less of a policy than,uh, State requirement,urn,that a city.....
cannot have outstanding debt greater than 5% of the assessed value of...of the total
assessed value of property in the city. We're well below this, uh, debt limit threshold,
urn, but it's important to keep in mind that this is what the State limits us at. It's by no
means a...a target or a goal. Um, what we really target,urn, is that, and this is a...comes
from what Moody's recommends for triple-A cities, is that, uh, the outstanding debt is not
more than .75% of assessed value. Right now we're at about 1.1%. Urn,which is still
very good, uh, in comparison to other cities, but is not, um, quite at our target,but we've
been,uh,moving that direction,uh,with our,urn, with our prudent borrowing practices
over the last few years. That percentage has been falling quite a bit, uh, and also, uh, our
assessed value has gone up quite a bit too, so, uh,those numbers moving ....lower
outstanding debt and higher assessed value,um,puts us in that position where Moody's,
uh, views our financial picture favorably. Uh, and the last one again,we're well below
our target here is that the debt service levy shall not ex...uh, exceed 30%of the total City
levy. Uh, right now we're sitting at about 19%, so well below that goal too. Urn,
Moody's triple-A bond rating,uh, so we include these slides every year too. Uh, and
always like to point out that this is not just a pat on the back, not just an accolade but
these really translate to dollars that we're able to provide, uh, for services in the
community, or grants for,uh, organizations within the community. Um, a triple-A bond
rating is pretty unusual for a city of our,um....uh, economic outlook. Uh, our median
income is below what,uh, you would expect to see in a triple-A, uh,bond-rated
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community. Generally they tend to be,um, suburban, uh....um, sort of bedroom
communities with high property values and,um, you know,more often a lack of
diversity, economic diversity at the very least. Urn, so we're very proud that our financial
management has put us in a position where we can,uh,maintain this triple-A, uh,bond
rating. As you can see,uh, of these cities rated nationally,we're in the top 9%there and
within the state,we're within the top,uh 5%, urn, one of only three cities in the state.
Uh, so again, very proud of that, and translates to, um, more flexibility for you all to....to
devote resources to the services that you would like.
Fruin/Okay! Home stretch! Urn, gonna talk a little bit of analysis,uh, and tee up some...maybe
some future conversation for ya. First we haven't spent a whole lot of time, uh,talkin'
about enterprise fund balances, and I just wanna, uh, let you know what we're lookin' at
with our....our business-type,uh, funds. Urn,this....what you're lookin'at here,this
table,urn, you have each of our enterprise or our major enterprise funds. Uh, then the
first column is revenues and transfers in, expenditures and transfers out, our fund balance,
and then within that fund balance, sometimes we have restricted funds, and those are set
aside for a specific purpose. Then we have unassigned, which is more to support
operations, cash flow needs, or whatever the case may be. So I wanna call attention to
three that I....that I think you'll be interested in. Uh, the first one, Simon, if you can
click once more, is Transit. Uh, obviously we're....we're gettin'ready to kick off a....a
transit study. We're in the consultant selection process, and we, urn...know that there's
going to be some calls for service level increases with Transit, and this budget doesn't
reflect funding for those, and I wanna explain why and then let you know how we're
preparing for those service level expansions. One is the study's not going to,you know,
we're going to be sitting here this time next year before that....that study's complete. So
we didn't really have any defined service level expansions to budget for. Um, so we will
be able to....to budget for those and implement them,uh, as soon as the study's complete
and Council,you make your....your, uh, you give your direction to staff, but what...what
you should know is that we are running an operational surplus in our Transit. You look at
the revenues comin'in there,versus the expenditures and transfers out. We are
intentionally and have been for some time running a surplus in Transit,trying to build up
those reserves, and you can see,uh, our estimated fund balance is almost at$7 million.
That's a....that's a significant fund balance for...for Transit. Urn, the main reason we're,
uh, we're increasing those reserves is so that we have enough to provide for a federal
match when,uh, as we....as we look to relocate that facility. Some of you have toured
that facility and you know it's well beyond, uh,the time that we need to replace that.
We've identified a location for it on the Public Works' campus, um, but we are in search
of federal grants,um, which sometimes become available for these types of facilities.
However, in order to get those federal grants, you typically have to have a 20%match at
minimum,um, and the way that things are movin'now at the federal level, urn, the....the
larger local match that you have the more competitive that you're going to be. So, when
you see that restricted,uh, column there and it says 4 million,uh, that is largely what
we've restricted so that we can apply for federal grants,uh, and say that we have the
required match and....and make our,uh, application more competitive for a new Transit
facility. Urn, we are,uh, so however that, you know, that surplus that we're operating,
uh, can also be used for operational,urn, enhancements, and uh,when we(mumbled)
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when the community and the Council defines what those service level enhancements are
that you warm pursue, we'll immediately have some of that operational surplus that we
can work with, urn, to,uh....to move forward, uh, on those. And at the same time, staff is
having conversations internally about other revenue sources, uh,that....that could help us
achieve those Transit level, uh,Transit service level expansions. So just know that while
you're not seeing anything specific in Transit this year, uh,that's probably going to be the
big focus of next year's budget, uh....uh, but we've also are preparing financially, urn,
with an expectation that there's going to be a call for increased expenditures in Transit,
and I think we're gonna be poised to...to be able to...to meet those demands. I wanna call
attention to Refuse. Uh, you'll see that we've got some razor-thin margins in our Refuse.
This is our curbside trash pickup. Uh, we're actually budgeting a little bit more in
expenditures than revenues right now, and some of that's all the cart roll-out that we're
doin', but um,this is one where we're not recommending a fee increase,but we're just
watchin'closely, uh, and....and a....and a fee increase will probably be needed a few
years down the, uh, down the road, but it's pretty thin margins right now in our Refuse
enterprise fund. And the last one I wanna mention is Storm Water,uh, we are
recommending a 50-cent, uh, per month increase in our storm water fee. Uh, one thing I
wanna point out is just how small this fund is compared to our other utility accounts,
um...uh, and yet at the same time we know that storm water management is one of the
bigger challenges our community has. I mean that's come up in clin...clina...excuse me,
climate adaptation plan and even if you haven't read the plan and you know the...the
flood history of our community and you've experienced the torrential downpours that we
did this past year, storm water management is a big challenge and we don't have a whole
lot of dedicated resources going to that. We are asking for a 50-cent increase, but even
with that increase,uh, it's not a huge thing,which means storm water needs are largely
addressed by other revenue sources, whether that's general fund or....or,um...uh, another
....another funding source, that's where we're havin'to, uh, rely on to...to make those
improvements. The fee changes, urn, we are not recommending fee changes in Sewer,
Landfill, Refuse, Parking, or Transit. Uh, we are recommending Water and Storm Water
rate increases. We're recommending a two-year rate increase in water, 5%this year and
5% next year. Frankly we didn't think we would be at this point,uh, we thought we had
adjusted them appropriately in the past few years, uh,but we are losing our largest rate
payer in Procter and Gamble. So as they move, uh,to West Virginia, they're moving
their beauty care line to West Virginia. It's a very water-intensive manufacturing process.
I'm gonna talk about that on the next couple of slides, uh, their departure is really forcing
us to have to look at our water rates. And then as I mentioned, 50-cent,uh,monthly
storm water fee in 2020's bein'proposed. I wanna talk about....l wanna talk more about
the....the departure of Procter and Gamble,the impact on water and sewer, and it's really
the....the tale of two funds, if you will. Um, our water fund, Procter and Gamble is our
largest rate payer in water. Uh, they're....they're about 8% of all revenues in our water
fund, and that....they contribute three-quarters of a million dollars,more than three-
quarter of a million dollars, to our water revenues, every year. To put that into
perspective, our next highest rate payer pays 120,000. So Procter and Gamble is not only
the largest, they're the largest by far, and we have to figure out how to absorb that
departure, and they'll still have a little bit of water and sewer, but as they manufacture
toothbrushes,that's not a....that's not a wet industry, right? They're not using water so
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we have to....have to adjust, and unfortunately our water department has not been
operating with large operational surpluses in the last few years. The money that we're
taking in, we're puttin'right back into the system, and so as we lose that largest rate
payer, we really have two choices. We can raise rates or we can...pull back on our
investment in our distribution, in our treatment, uh, system. So we're recommending a
combination of those two. Uh, two 5%rate increases, again fiscal year 20 and fiscal
year, uh, 21, and then you'll see in the CIP, um, we pull back about$300,000 a year in
system improvements, uh, and that's really where we need to be to...to get to a....a....a
normal rate and the chart that you see on the screen,you know, it's just important at the
end there, you say...you see what these two changes that are revenue lines, um, are....are
slightly above our expenditure lines there. So we think that these, uh, combination of rate
increases and....and the $300,000 reduction in the CIP will...will get us to a stable point,
but it's somethin'that we have to watch closely. On the other hand, sewer or waste water,
um, it's a....it's a different story there. It's not different, P&G is still a major, uh, user.
They're the second largest, um, sewer account that we have. Uh,they pay us about 1.35
million in sewer, uh, dollars per year. Um, only the University of Iowa is higher. So the
University of Iowa largely supplies their own water, but they rely on us for sewer. So the
University is higher in terms of, uh, sewer contributions to us, but 1.3 million is... is still
very significant, uh, again going down to the next highest sewage, uh, sewer user, you're
down to 160,000. So we're losing another huge rate payer, uh, with....with sewer,uh,
but we're not necessarily needing to increase our rates in sewer and that's because we've
been operating with a very large operational surplus over the last few years, um, that
combined with all the flood recovery money that helped us build our new plant, we
can....we can absorb it and it's not to say that, uh, it doesn't hurt the fund. We're not...
basically what we're doin'is we're cuttin' our, down our savings rate for future projects,
um, in....in waste water, but operationally, uh, and....and through our kind of CIP
program, we can continue really at the same pace that we've had and absorb this hit, uh,
with sewer. So the fact that there's so much strain on the water, that's where we wanna
focus and we don't wanna necessarily,uh,pile on rate....rate payers, uh,with....with a
sewer increase as well. Uh, we'll talk real quick about, uh, impacts to households, uh,
give you a picture of what an average household might,uh,might experience with this
budget. First on the property tax side, uh, we just use a....a, uh, a home valuation of a
$100,000. Uh, it's easy to follow the math on that. And on the first column you have the
current year budget, fiscal year 19, and then the increase in fiscal year 20. So taxable
valuation, remember that slide we talked about earlier, the rollback is going up from 56 to
57. So a higher percentage of your home is now taxable. So,uh, you see that, that
56,918, you're gonna pay more, you're gonna pay taxes on more of your value in fiscal
year 20,but we offset that by dropping the rate. So the rate goes down, and the net
impact to that household is $1. So you'll pay $1 extra in property taxes to the City of
Iowa City, assuming your valuation stayed the same, uh, at a....at a$100,000 home.
Obviously if you've got a$300,000 home, you just multiply that by....by 3. Uh,but
property taxes aren't the only, uh, City expenditures that....that homeowners will face
and so we combine that with our utility accounts, and uh, what you see here, uh, is, uh, I
think really what you want to look at is the percent change from year to year, and you can
see from fiscal year 19 to fiscal year 20, uh, we're asking households to pay about 1.3%
more to the City, and then you can go up and look where that's comin'from. So the first
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one is property taxes, and you see that $1 increase there. Storm water,we're askin' for$6
more for...from the average household per year. That's 50-cents a month. Um, no change
in the refuse fee. No change in the sewer fee, and that first 5% of the water, uh,hits too,
so it's another$19 per year on your water bill, and uh, that gets you that 1.3% increase.
So we....we think that's a pretty modest increase and certainly in line with what we've
been doing over the last,uh, few years. Okay, um, I'm gonna tee up what I think is
gonna be some points of conversation for you. Urn, and Ashley alluded to this. Uh, our
fiscal year 18 ended really well, urn, again, uh....um, because we did not anticipate
getting the backfill, that 1.5 million,because we had some loan repayments to the general
fund,because of building permit revenues, we're at close to a$3 million surplus and
that's, uh, really unallocated, um, and above our policy goal for reserves. So,urn,we're
already at essentially 35%,which is the top range of our reserve goals and this surplus is
on top of that. Uh, so here are some.....some points that, uh, that I think you'll wanna
talk about as....as your budget deliberations go on. One, affordable housing. As Ashley
mentioned,we're really proud that we have $650,000 now in the budget, embedded in the
budget,that's gonna be there year after year. It's as safe as any other program that we
have embedded in our budget. Um,however, I....I, urn, would think that you'd probably
wanna consider some....some additional one-time funds to get that number back up to
where it's been in previous years. So that's somethin' for you to talk about. We can take
some of those surplus numbers and move that $650,000 up, um....uh, to a level that you
find,um,more acceptable. You just have to know the difference between, you know,
what embedded year after year now versus those one-time funds. You've already made
the decision to,um....uh, budget$140,000 more for the South District home ownership
program. Urn,that decision came after this budget was printed, so we didn't have time to
put it in here,but we'll take that 140 from the surplus,uh, dollars. You have two
affordable housing requests that'll come your way in January. One is in an info packet
that you've already received, uh, in late December. That's a recommendation from
HCDC to increase the LIHTC support,uh, to the Sand,uh, LIHTC project out on Herbert
Hoover. That's a recommendation for an additional $200,000 there, and then you have
a....additional,uh, request coming from the Housing Fellowship for$150,000. Those
you could use surplus funds for,urn, or you could use an allocated land banking fund. So
again, as part of our affordable housing strategy, we've been saving, uh, dollars for land
banking. You could....you could tap into those funds too and that's...that's probably
where I could go first, but you could.....you know,that's for you to decide. The solar at
Terry Trueblood,that's another decision you made at your last meeting that we just didn't
have time to include in this budget. So we'll add$100,000 in for that project. And then
in your information packet that came out on Thursday, uh, you'll see that staff has
presented some cost estimates for the moving of the Sanxay- Gilmore House,which is at,
uh,near the Gloria Dei Church. Urn, those came in much higher than we anticipated and
uh, while we have$330,000 already in the budget,uh, for that move, if you want to move
that house it's gonna cost ya another 200 to 860 on top of that, depending on the level of
renovations that you wanna do, uh,to that home. So we'll need to talk through that. Uh,
staff is recommending that we replenish the emergency reserve. Uh, again as Ashley
mentioned, we tapped into that to buy some....some properties around City Park in the
flood area last year, uh, when we didn't have the State and federal funds available. So,
uh, a$450,000 contribution will take us back up to that$5 million mark. Then I wanna
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take a minute to talk to you about the reason that staff is suggesting, uh, creating a
municipal facility reserve. Urn, we've seen it, uh, this year with the....with the Streets'
building, uh, it took us a decade or more to plan for the replacement of that one Streets'
building,uh, and thanks to some surplus dollars in past years, we were able to get over
the hump and that...that project is now under construction,uh, but as we look around City
facilities and we think out,uh, five, 10, 15 years, it, there's a lot of, uh, a lot of needs
that are gonna come up, uh, frankly needs that are here now, um, and we don't have a
really, uh, a....a financial plan, uh, for dealing with those. I mean it'll be one of those
situations where in most cases we would have to go to the voters and ask for a bond
referendum. Um, I'd like to start putting some dollars aside to help, uh, ease that, um,
cost burden on future Councils, when....when, urn, decisions are made to replace
facilities. Um, some of the facilities that we've identified as....as....as either needing
construction or replacement or rehab in the next, again, I'm gonna say probably 10 years
would be, uh, Police station. We're outgrowin', uh....uh, the Police station that we have.
There's really nowhere to expand. Urn, you're lookin'at probably a$20 million project
when we look at comparable facilities elsewhere, and considering, you know, the....the
time value of....of money, but, uh, certainly now if we were to go out, I would expect 15
to 20 million, and if it's, you know, five to 10 years from now, we're probably looking
closer to 20 million. Um, we've talked about Equipment and Transit and maybe needing
funding, additional funding for....for the relocation of those buildings. Uh,
you've....many of you have been on that Public Works, old Public Works campus. You
know the conditions of those buildings and....and.....they're not good. Urn, the Senior
Center is another one. Our rec centers, some of these buildings that are, urn, really old.
They're getting to the point where they need major rehabilitation. So what we suggest is
that we set aside a good portion of the reserve, uh, into a basically a placeholder spot for
future municipal facilities, and again, that way, it, when....when, um,these needs,uh,
come to present day, urn, we have some funding to help that...that piece of the puzzle, and
if we have to go to the voters, it's a smaller ask, or if we have to tap into other, it,
revenue sources, urn, it's....it's not as, um, as big of a jump, it, for us when we need to
do that. So we would spend a good portion of the next year trying to plan out and do
some financial planning around those facilities, but certainly with the opportunity here
that we have with another large surplus, we'd like to see some money,urn, set aside for
that purpose. Uh, a few notes about next year's budget. Urn, as I mentioned, it's a...it is
a reassessment year. We expect next year that we'll be in pretty good shape, uh, because
we expect some pretty good reassessment numbers there. Um, what's a little bit more
uncertain is the....the last three years, the 22, 23, and 24. Those(mumbled)property tax
reform so, um....kinda short-term feel real good and then that cloud of uncertainty starts
to hover back over in a couple years. Our debt service levy, which is where we've done
the lion's share of, um, our tax rate reductions is....um, normalizing a bit. We probably
have another one to two years of smaller decreases. So we maybe able to get to the 10
years of....of, uh, tax rate decreases before we kinda plateau and hit that sweet spot, uh,
where our....hopefully our tax levy becomes flat for... for a good period of time. Uh,
here's some of the things that we're lookin' at closely for next year's budget. Uh, we
talked about Water and Sewer. We also have some concerns with Landfill and Refuse.
Uh, so we'll just need to watch those enterprise funds pretty closely. Uh,obviously
your....your top priority is your strategic plan and....and some of the master plans that
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you've adopted. Uh,Ashley mentioned population growth and continued demand on our
operation services, whether it's calls for service from Public Safety or, uh, Utility
accounts, our core services need some additional operational support. So that'll be a
focus next year too. The Transit fund, we've talked about. We know that there's going to
be a lot of interest in the community in...in bolstering our Transit service, and we're
going to spend a lot of time next year makin' sure that we have the resources to make that
happen, should the Council want to go there. Uh, the wage increases,that's somethin'
that we obviously are going to need some more direction from you on,but um, as we do
our compression analysis,we'll come back to you and if,you know, you're gonna have to
decide if that's a 300,000 or$400,000 expense that you wanna make as we continue to
look at stepping that up to $15 an hour. We talked about municipal facility needs, and
also the roadway needs, uh, so those are the.....kinda the top next year's budget items. I
wanna offer some final thoughts, maybe end on a....on a positive note here as we get into
our deliberations, and I thought about kind of the last three years and...and what...what
we've been able to accomplish,really what you've been able to accomplish as a City
Council. Uh, we've significantly expanded affordable housing, uh, efforts. It's now to
the point where we're not even using one-time funds. It's actually embedded in our
budget. That's a huge accomplishment for this City Council. Uh, being able to
contribute 2.5 million for the Behavioral Access Center, without taking on any new debt,
that's....that's fantastic, and we're a major player in making that happen. Uh, we've
created new grant funds to advance important issues, uh, to the community, whether
that's social justice and racial equity, historic preservation, climate action. So
we're....we're actually setting (mumbled) fund to engage the community to....to move
those issues forward, as opposed to us just moving, uh, those forward as well. We've
really bolstered our roadway maintenance plan. We may have been a little too aggressive
and may have to sti...step....step that back, but...but you have heard the calls from the
public and you've increased the....the dollars there. All the....all the master plans we've
talked about—we're on....we're on schedule with the bike plan, we're on schedule with
the parks plan. Uh, we're....we're continuing to check off, uh, even older plans, like the
downtown streetscape plan, with the ped mall project that you approved. Riverfront
Crossings plan, I mean all these things are advancing, uh, because you've been able to set
aside resources to them. You've expanded some staff in key service areas, which we
haven't been able to do. You've expanded services, I mean it's not a small thing to
initiate curbside composting or the bookmobile project. Those take operational resources
and support and you've given us those. And then, uh....uh, the investments that you've
made back in City facilities. While we have....I talked about kind of the need going
forward, you've put a lot of money into City facilities. The Streets'building obviously
bein'the biggest, but we've invested a lot at Mercer, at Robert A. Lee, even in this
building. You know, we've invested a lot and that...that means a lot to, uh, to the staff
and....and to the public that use those facilities. So, uh, very proud of what you've been
able to do with your budgets there. And at the same time, you're....you're not increasing
the tax rate. You haven't, uh, had to....to.....to look to alternative revenue sources to
fund those. So you've done those all within the, uh,the financial parameters, uh, that we
have. You've maintained that triple-A bond rating. You've brought down the tax rates.
It's pretty impressive to....to step back and look at, uh, look at that over these last three
years. Hopefully you'll find that this budget,uh, continues that tradition. We expect that
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Page 23
you'll wanna make some changes here and there, and you should feel comfortable,uh,
having those conversations and making changes where you think, uh, you need to. Uh,
but hopefully we've given you a good start here. So with that, we're done. Uh, we can
entertain discussion on the presentation now, urn, or we can, um,jump into some of the
department, uh, specific department overviews.
Throgmorton/Brilliantly done, Geoff,Ashley, Simon. Thanks so much for providing the
overview and to staff in general for putting together such an excellent budget. Uh, it's
hard not to feel very good about the general picture. I'm sure various Council Members
have questions or suggestions, uh, and so on so why don't we see if....what those
questions and suggestions might be.
Mims/I'd be interested, I mean if people have questions, I think now's a great time while this is
fresh in the mind. I would like to propose that we defer any actual detailed discussion on
it till we've all had a little more time to kind of process what....what staff has presented
to us as a complete package, urn, and either....I guess I would say for our work....not this
afternoon even but our next work session, when we've really had time to kind of put it all
together in our minds.
Throgmorton/Yeah, and our, uh, our preliminary plan is to have a....our next work session focus
initially on that (both talking)particular topic. Yeah.
Salih/I agree.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Okay, so let's see what questions people have.
Thomas/Well I'll just...I don't have a question, um....that I'd like to lead with anyway, but a
comment. Uh, one...one of the concerns I've had in previous budget discussions was the
question of the, urn, how are we going to address street conditions. And, uh, so I'm really
pleased to see that, you know, in the coming year we're going to be looking at....
basically looking at what the need is and trying to translate that into a plan. And, you
know, we've made great progress, uh, with respect to some of our other, um, facilities—
our parks, for example, you know, as an important piece of our....our infrastructure, as
well as other aspects of our....the things that we manage and are responsible for. I....I
think that....the Streets piece is the one that's been missing, uh, and so I'm really pleased
to see that move forward, and I would....I would say, you know, much of the focus on...
on the presentation has been on revenues generated by growth. Uh, I often like to look at
how are we improving the value....of.....the quality of life in Iowa City, and how that
should be reflected in....in revenue generation. So between the....the improvements to
the schools, to our parks, uh, I think eventually to our streets, uh, the quality of living in
Iowa City should be, you know, enhanced dramatically, and I think that will, in the end,
be reflected in how our properties are....are valued. Um, and certainly the local option
sales tax, I don't know if you were sort of(laughs) trying to lead, uh, lead us to think that
that may be at least, uh, partially the answer. I think we can't really make that pitch to
the public until we have an idea of what we're talking about, uh, in terms of what....what
does the plan mean in terms of how....how we can bridge that gap,that it seems paying
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year by year we're just not going to be able to get there. So....so those are my initial
reactions.
Throgmorton/Yeah. Others?
Teague/Kudos to the staff for...uh,the presentation so far. I'm pretty surprised, uh, and very
impressed that we have$2.5 million (laughs) um, surplus right now that, um, you know,
the Council can begin to discuss. Uh, of course when I look at some of that already, I can
immediately go into some specifics, which I'll wait for. Um, I do know that, um, it's the
unknown challenges that we'll see in 20....2022, uh, through 2024,which will, you
know, maybe have....have me guess...second guessing what we do with those surplus
dollars, but, urn, I just wanted to say hats off to the staff for presentin'this budget thus
far.
Throgmorton/I'll just bring up a few questions. I didn't hear any comment about the Emerald
Ash Borer,but my recollection is that there is funding in the proposed budget, uh, for
chemical treatment.
Fruin/That's correct. So we....we amended the fiscal year 19 budget that we're in, with 50,000,
and we have 50,000 every year. So even though the treatment may be once every two
years,until we have our plan put together,um,we just put it in every year to be
conservative, and,um, Juli can talk a little bit more about that during her presentation,
but yes, those funds are in the budget.
Throgmorton/Right. Okay. Thanks. Also....(both talking) well, I'll bring up one more point
and then you can say what you want. So I didn't....I did not hear anything about public
art,though we've received a really....pretty terrific presentation from Thomas Agran
about that and I think it got some of our attention. Uh, but there is money in the budget,
pertaining to public art. I wonder if you could summarize that and then I....I just wanna
leave open the possibility that we might wanna find ways to provide some additional
investment.
Fruin/Um....okay. So public art conversation, it's....it's, I would argue it's a little broader than
what, urn,Thomas presented, and I commend him for the work that he did, and he makes
a compelling presentation, but he's looking specifically at the budget that we provide the
Public Art Commission. Urn, we invest in arts in a number of different ways throughout
the budget. So, um, I would argue that you need to look a little more comprehensively,
particularly when you talk about art expenditures per capita. You can't just look at that
one item. You have to look at how we fund, uh, arts organizations throughout the city.
We do that in our Economic Development budget and our Parks budget, other budgets.
Um....uh, but if you're just focused on....on that Public Art Advisory Commission
budget, urn, it's at$25,000. We have steadily been bringing that back up over the last
few years. Uh, $25,000 is a status quo budget from the previous year. However,uh, it
took....that previous year it took a 10, uh, $10,000 jump. So it was at 15 and it went to
25, and what we did is that, uh, that initial $10,000 jump in their budget was specifically
targeted for an art project here in Iowa....in....in City Hall, uh, which has not been,uh,
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they haven't got through the whole process yet, but it's a....it's an art piece that will, that
is bein' commissioned for the, uh, the stairway area,right outside this door, and perhaps
some other art pieces in City Hall. Um, those funds....those were kind of one-time funds,
but we left the art budget at 25. So essentially,they're having a....a$25,000 budget this
year, which in the past they've had 15,plus the 10 there. Um....if you wanna increase it,
urn, we....we can, uh, talk about ways to increase it. I don't necessarily think that one-
time funds are great for....for that type of, um, increase. You certainly could. Um, we
would probably look to some of our Economic Development programs that we have
budgeted. So for example,building change, um, we could reduce the amount of building
change that we're doin', urn, and....and move some money over to the Public Art
Commission if you want. I tend to think the request is a little, um, backwards. Um,
they've come and asked for more money and said that they want to develop a plan on
how to use that. Uh, I think that's a little out of sequence, uh, if you think about how we
typically do it. We master plan. We do our strategic plan, and then we budget for those.
We get buy-in to what the vision is and then we provide funding for it. I think what the
Council and the City is....is being requested of, what's bein'requested of us is 'give us
the money and we'll develop the plan,' and I think it should go the other way. So even if
you wanna allocate more money to that purpose, I would....I would recommend that
you....you kind of put a hold on that...those dollars, until you get the Commission's plan;
make sure that you agree with that plan; and make sure that there's community buy-in
and there's community input,just like all our other plans, and then if....if you do concur
that that plan is...is good, the funding will be available.
Throgmorton/With that in mind I'd like to suggest that we....treat this as one of the topics that
we could discuss next, uh, at our next work session....in....in terms of the overall budget.
So that we can be clear about how we want to proceed, if in fact we do want to proceed
with regard to public art.
Salih/Okay, I just wanna ask you, you mention, Geoff, you mentioned that you are budgeting,
uh, for University program....UniverCity program at only one house for this year. If you
don't mind can you tell me like...remind me how much we have, the budget was for last
year.
Fruin/We had three homes last year.
Salih/Like do you assign money, like figure for that, how much it was?
Fruin/$60,000 a home. So....so 180,000, uh, I'm strippin' out the sale, cause we....the sale was
a wash at the end of it, but the rehab dollars is $60,000 a house. So, uh, current budget
was 180,000 and we're recommending 60,000.
Salih/ Okay, and it, uh, we used all of it last year, right? We don't have (both talking)
Fruin/The current....the current year's all been used. Yes. Uh, and just briefly, we can get into
it with Tracy's presentation, but...but why are we doing that? One, we shifted some of
those funds over to that affordable housing piece. So that 650 that's now embedded in
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the budget, we took from UniverCity to be able to do that. Urn, and it's really a
recognition that, urn, UniverCity is becoming a more difficult program, and I'm not sure
it's going to have the same value going forward. It's a great program; we all love it; we
brag about it, but with the rental cap in place,the....the pressures are different, and...and
the fact that we've, urn, are struggling to find homes, uh, for sale now, and I think we're
going to...with basically those rentals being a commodity, it's gonna become much more
expensive for us to continue that program. So we left one house in there, so that we
could be opportunistic. If we see an opportunity, or if we really want to target a property,
we can do that. Urn, but I think that rental caps (laughs) it's changed the dynamic of that
program and...and I personally think those dollars would be better spent in the general
affordable housing fund than, urn, than it would for the UniverCity program.
Salih/ I really would like to see that we continue this program in a different way. We can just
modify it. You know we used it, my understanding that you been used it so you can like
have more....(unable to understand) neighborhood by makin' like people have owned the
home instead of renting it, but is the same...we can use it modified toward the, like
affordable housing somehow. We been....we been doing it and (unable to understand)we
spent a lot money on this and then....and now we stop it because...you said the only
reason that you stop it because, not because we don't have money. The only thing that
you said because, you know, the rental cap is, you know, doing the pressure of it, which
is...I wanna see that...that UniverCity program continue and we budget for it, at least
three house per year, and we do it toward like affordable housing. Since we do for people
who are buying the 69 house, let us do it(unable to understand) other people can benefit
out of it.
Taylor/ I also would like to commend the staff for all their work in putting this together, and the
presentation today, I mean sometimes you think of a budgeting process, it's going to be
all doom and gloom but uh, this was very positive, and I think there are a lot of items that
over the past years and the new items in here that, uh, we should be very proud of.
We've accomplished a lot and uh, not to....John mentioned the streets. That's a big issue.
That's what we always hear from the folks and so it's good to see that there's more going
to be put towards that and affordable housing. We've done a lot and there's a lot in here
and wedding it in to...webbing it into the, uh, budget is...is good and, uh, the wages,
increasing the wages for part-time and....and all of the climate action items. It's, urn,
really amazing that....that we're able to do that. Very positive.
Salih/Also I really forget to say that I really would like to see to continue like increasing the
affordable housing fund to a million, somehow. Maybe you can discuss this later.
Throgmorton/Yeah, we'll process that. I think there's support for increasing it, though we have
not had a discussion, and so we'll find out.
Salih/ Sure!
Throgmorton/Along with that point, I want to emphasize, uh,my own personal,uh,preference
to invest funds in the Trueblood Lodge solar array. I...and I want to see some additional
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funding in affordable housing. Of course we're not making a decision here. I'm just
(both talking)
Salih/Yes!
Throgmorton/ ...pointing out some things.
Fruin/My take was that...that decision was made at your last meeting. That and your South
District program. We....we really got the Council direction to fund those two projects.
You can clarify that if we're wrong, but I think you....you told us to take care of those.
We just didn't have the time to incorporate them in this budget.
Throgmorton/Okay. And with regard to the Sanxay-Gilmore house, I simply want to observe
that the projected cost, which we now know because there's a....a memo in our most
recent information packet, is really high. Uh, and that's worrisome. I think we need to
think very carefully about whether it's wise to spend that amount of money on relocating
that house, or whether there are ways to raise additional funding, I don't know, grants,
fundraising of various kinds, I don't know what's possible, but it....we need to think
carefully about that.
Thomas/You know, since you brought it up,Jim, I...on that....on that particular issue, my...my
preliminary thoughts would be....that we consider it as a phased project, you know, that
we look at it as mo...there....there are the moving costs.
Throgmorton/Yep.
Thomas/And then there are the renovation costs, and the renovation, you know, we could
basically, um, moth-ball the house, you know, pay for the move, uh, secure the house, and
then...proceed with the funding aspects for the renovation separately. Because, you
know, I think all of us are probably, you know,there's a little bit of sticker shock with the
cost of both. Uh, so I....in my mind I'm feeling well let's....let's treat them separately
and, you know, over a longer timeframe, uh, seek funding from other sources so that the
City isn't bearing the full cost. Yeah.
Throgmorton/Fair enough. So we'll have to...discuss that in some detail at our next work
session.
Salih/And also the last thing I really wanna say, I don't know if this is the right time for it, but
I'm gonna say it anyway. Uh, you know like there is....I just notice that there is many,
many position that part-time temporary, permanent at the same time, in our City. Like,
uh, example like some of front desk position that we consider it like, um, seasonal or
maybe not permanent position, even though those people stay there year-round, and they
been working there. I don't think this is really, you know,the City should do that! We
need to make those kind of positions permanent position. If those people, they come
every day for all year, for the whole years, they should be permanent. And maybe
permanent part-time, but cannot be like people workin'here for one years without any
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benefit. I really would like to see,because we have to set example! We cannot just treat
our employees that come every day just like the....the, you know, the permanent part-
time. They show up every day, they work for one year or two years and they are not
getting benefit. This is....this is not a value of the City. Uh, I really would like you guys
to consider something like permanent position for some of those position during the
(unable to understand)
Throgmorton/Anything else? All right. Well we have a terrific budget, draft budget, in front of
us. We have various things we wanna discuss in more detail at our next work session.
What's that, a week and a half from now or...two and a half weeks from now. Uh,but
otherwise I think we're at a moment where we could....what time is it now? Yeah,we
could take a break, short break now and then get into....do you wanna jump to the....the
Police Chief and (both talking)
Fruin/What I'd like to do is allow our City Attorney to leave for the day and get that covered,
and (both talking and laughing)
Throgmorton/What? (laughter)
Fruin/ ....and then we'll jump into Police and, uh, we'll circle back to Kellie's budget (both
talking)
Throgmorton/So why don't we do, uh, City Attorney next and then we could take a break.
(several talking)
General Government Program Budgets:
City Attorney
Dilkes/Morning!
Throgmorton/Good morning, Eleanor(several talking)
Dilkes/(mumbled) great presentation. I listen to it every year but this was really(mumbled)
Um, okay my budget, um, you'll fmd on page 141.....and, um....as well as 171, because
the funding for one of the attorneys in my office comes from the Tort Levy. Um, so my
budget's about personnel. (laughs) There's not much else there. Urn....had the same
staff for a long time. Um, all but one of the attorneys in my office is at the top of the pay
scale. Um, and it's an experienced staff. It's, urn, I think a really good staff, but it gets
expensive cause they're all at the top of the pay scale. So, um....basically I think you all
know what I do. Um, I support....I provide the legal resources for City operations. Um,
and whether that's personnel contract drafting, economic development agreements, uh,
litigation, um, which you know has been, um,kind of intense lately. Um,but other than
that, I don't know....what more to tell you about it. I'm here to answer questions.
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Throgmorton/ So you're not asking to double the salaries and double the (laughter) expenditures
in the department or something! (laughter)
Dilkes/No! No.
Mims/I would just say thank you for all the timely updates that we get, the confidential memos
so we kinda know what's going on. I appreciate that!
Throgmorton/Yeah, for sure! And we have some things on our plate! (laughs) All right, any
questions for Eleanor, other than you know just sort of acknowledgment and praise and
things like that.
Dilkes/Thanks! Have a great day!
Throgmorton/(several talking) Good deal. Thanks! Okay, so we're gonna take a short break
now and get back with Jody and Chief Grier.
(BREAK)
Public Safety Program Budgets:
Police Department
Throgmorton/Jody! Good morning!
Matherly/Morning, Mayor.
Throgmorton/Can you see us? (laughs)
Matherly/ I can! You guys are gonna get a tan up there! (laughter)
Throgmorton/Okay, you're on!
Matherly/All right. Thank you very much. Again, Jody Matherly the Police Chief, and um, let
me present, uh, our budget here. I definitely wanna thank Dennis with the Finance office
and....and his staff, and the City Manager's office, for their attentiveness through this
process. Um,they ask the right questions at the right time. Sometimes there's a keen
interest in certain things. Simon showed an interest in some of the new technology we
have with little throw-bots and things of that nature. I was gonna get him some for
Christmas along those lines but they're a little too expensive so...(laughter) Um, but we
really appreciate that. Uh, I will tell you, um....the direction that we're going is similar
to where we've...where we've been and going to continue some of the same initiatives.
Uh, our police officers, our police leadership,um, the civilian staff, uh, are well-trained,
well-equipped, and well-motivated to...to stay, uh, in the lane that we're in now and
continue with...with building, you know, community cooperation, uh, reduce violent
crime, and....and stay in the direction that we're going. But with that, uh, we, you know,
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we make slight changes as we go and we'll discuss that now. Let me give you a quick
snapshot of(clears throat) our....our crime in, uh, in Iowa City. Now these are
preliminary numbers, since we're just a few days past the year, but preliminarily, um, we
have seen a decline in 2018, and you won't have this in your packet cause you have 17
numbers there,but in 2018 a decline in theft, uh, which is good; uh, criminal mischief,
which is damage to property; urn,burglaries are down; uh, simple assaults are way down;
robberies are down. Certainly as you know, uh, well weapons are.....weapons offenses
are also down, but as you know we had four homicides in 2017. We had zero in 2018.
Uh, of the ones in 2017, we made arrests in all of those. Um, they're....some are still in
the court system. Just yesterday an individual was sentenced to life in prison without
parole for one of those offenses that involved the Yellow Cab, uh, murder. So, um, our
staff has worked very hard on the violent crime in both trying to get it reduced,but also
when it does occur that we take appropriate action and bring justice to those, uh, who are
responsible. One of the thing we're looking to do, uh,this year, and we've already
started this process, is to take a more victim-oriented approach, uh, to our services. Uh,
as you know we, uh, obtained a grant that was worth nearly,uh, $400,000,uh, to, urn,
start the process of being more victim-oriented in our....in our processes,including with
expertise in gender bias and things of those nature, um, and so we wanna rewrite our....
our mission, urn, for the Police Department, to really focus on being....taking a victim-
oriented and a trauma-informed approach to our job. (mumbled) so we are....are heavy
into that process. Other goals and objectives that we have for this year, and this is where
the budget will come into play is, uh, we wanna continue to take the lead on crisis
intervention and support of the Access Center. Um, nearly all our officers are trained in
crisis intervention now. Uh, we're at the point where as new officers are hired, the
classes will be a little, you know, fewer in between,uh, to take on those few individuals
that aren't yet trained, but our officers use that craft every single day, uh, with de-
escalation and....and getting things neutralized, and (laughs)they're very good at it. I'm
very impressed with that. So that's been very successful. Um....the, uh, continue in the
direction of....of, uh, reduction in violent crime, uh, increase....and increase the sense of
safety with this community. Um, you know, downtown cameras have been mentioned.
We spent literally hundreds of hours of investigation on some of the crimes, as you know
we had the ped mall shooting, urn, and so some of these initiatives that are gonna cost a
little bit of money will save literally hundreds of hours of investigation, but also serve as
a sense of safety for everybody. We wanna make sure those cameras are being used right.
We wanna make sure that....that it's a device that we use for reduction in violent crime,
and to address, you know, issues as they arise,um,but to do it properly. Uh, addressing
folks with mental health needs, substance abuse, that comes back to the Access Center
and the crisis intervention training as well. Urn,but that is...much of our clientele at
times and we need to be really good at that. Other goals and objectives, we continue to
work on the...uh, to reduce the disproportionality of minority contacts. Um, that is a
daily effort for us to....to keep our thumb on that pulse and make sure that we continue to
make improvements. Uh, recruitment of....of minorities, not just in sworn personnel, the
blue uniforms you see out every day, but also our civilian staff. And to make sure
that....that those numbers reflect the demographics of our community. It's so important,
um, that we have a cross section of the community,uh, represented. Uh, we wanna make
sure that...that our staffing's adequate and efficient. Uh, we really need to do, uh, a
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complete staffing study. Uh, for right now we're taking a look at it ourselves. There may
be a time where I come back to you and say let's have a third-party expert come in
and....and see if we're functioning at the most efficient...way with the right amount of
people, deployed in the proper areas. Um, but that's down the road. Uh, we wanna
strengthen our partnership with the schools. Certainly we have a good partnership now,
but...but there's a lot of work to do in that area. Um, no fault of anybody's. It's just a
matter of expectation and what it is they need and what it is that...that we can provide
to....to do better. Um, you know they talk about school involvement being a third
enforcement, third counselor,mentor, and then the third, um, educator, and I think the
emphasis in our school needs to be less on enforcement and more on education
mentorship and...and counseling. We take the lead statewide for our diversion programs
for our juveniles. Um (clears throat)the...State of Iowa, uh...um, Juvenile Division is...
is taking a strong look at our county,not just Iowa City, but our county for those
programs, and we intend to expand those programs for diversion to stop....kids from
having a criminal record as they make mistakes in life and do better in that area. Urn
(clears throat) the Police Department, Geoff hit on that, uh,briefly—we need to
modernize that, make it more welcoming, more safe....safe, uh, until a new facility is
looked at somewhere, somehow, some way (laughs) and that's down the road, but we
don't wanna just pretend that....that we don't have some....some small things that we can
take care of now. Um, the CMO and....and Finance has been very supportive in that
effort. Um, and so if you ever get a chance, go down and look at our squad room in the
basement, the roll call room. We did a 180 with that, uh,just amazing, and it really
brought morale up with the officers. They got a professional place to sit and...and listen
to the roll call,the....the, um, shift briefings, and....and, you know,just a professional
environment. Very important! So that's kinda our goals and objectives. Uh, let me tell ya
a little bit about the Police Department itself and where we stand,uh, with our staffing.
We have 107 employees, urn, there's 84 police officers, so that's your sworn personnel,
and then we have, um...our non-sworn personnel at 23. Now we also have two additional
grant positions,uh, the data-driven justice grant that David Schwindt does and then the
IACP grant, um,that Sergeant Scott Stevens is involved in. That's the gender bias
investigation grant that I....that I talked about. Those grants run through the end of this
year and then they end and then we'll venture forward to find more grants, but we, uh, we
come close to a million dollars in our grants. So we've done pretty good in that area.
We're divided into three divisions, as you know. The administrative division is just Jenn
Dahm and I. Uh, so our office parties are usually in a phone booth (laughter) not much
goin' on there! Um....but you know we drive the ship from that, um, from that office,
and then support services division, led by, um, our new Captain, Denise Brotherton and
they're all the non-uniformed stuff. They run support for our field operations, our patrol,
and our investigators. Um, they also run the community outreach, urn, you know,
the....the civilians,the records divisions, the station masters, things of that nature, and the
last one is the field ops, led by Captain Bill Campbell, and that's our largest one. They,
uh, hover at around 78 employees and urn, you know, they're...they're the most visible.
They're the ones that are out answering calls day to day, and taking care of business.
So....those are the three divisions. So let's talk about, uh, the divisions themselves. The
police administration, again, very small. Um, we're not lookin' at any staffing level
increases there. Uh, no real change. The training budget comes out of that division. We
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are askin' for a, uh, little over 6% increase. That budget runs around $125,000 for travel,
training, registration, and uh, we are, uh, requesting a....a....an increase. A lot of our
training is mandatory. They're certifications and so it's not a.... not a luxury. It's....it's
a necessity. Uh....the grants that we've gotten have really provided, uh, expertise
training at no cost. Urn, so that....that's done really well, but again those dollars are
limited. When it comes to our support services,urn, again, no staffing level changes
there, and we haven't requested any staffing increases for this year. Uh, the Council was
gracious enough last year to give us two additional positions. We appreciated that. We
also understand that this pie is pretty big and that there's other divisions that have needs,
and that's been addressed as well. So we're doing more with the same,urn, but being
creative with our deployment and making sure that we're, you know, answering the call
when it needs to be done and that we're providing a good service with the staffing we
have. Urn, if you see a change in staffing, we simply moved from field ops over to
support services one body, but there was no negative impact on that. So if you see a
change in staffing, uh, personnel dollars in those lines,that's simply a transfer. Uh, what
we did ask for was a, uh....a, um, $17,000 radio console hardware. So as you walk up to
our front door, you'll see a radio system with our station master and so we're, uh,just
looking to update that. So that was about 17 grand in hardware. Pretty easy. As far as
the....field ops, again, uh, they sit at 78 personnel. There's no changes there. Urn, but
what we are looking to do is really improve technology. Uh, as social media and digital
photos and videos become more prevalent, uh, we've....we've kinda dropped behind in
being able to manage that. Most of our evidence comes in digitally these days and so
being able to properly put that in place, label it, store it, and retrieve it, sometimes years
later, is...is just overwhelming. So we're looking at a...a system, um, to store that, around
$55,000. Naturally we have to replace police cars, so six patrol cars; uh, one unmarked
car that the detectives and administrative folks drive, uh, to replace that as well. The ped
mall cameras will...downtown cameras, will come out of our budget as well. So we're
looking to....to support the second half of that too for around $50,000, and there's three
other items. Um, we're out of room for our lockers. So as our staff(laughs) you know,
needs a place to put their uniforms at night and their gun belts, urn, we've had to move
some of the lockers up into the office areas. So to make more room for the patrol officers
downstairs. So we,uh,just asked for an increase in that and we've, uh, we're looking for
that. We're putting laptops with the investigators now. Urn, they've become more
efficient if they have information on the scene, during court, urn, sometimes from home,
right at their fingertips, and now we're dealing with desk tops. It's time to make those
systems mobile. That comes with a little bit of a cost (mumbled) data and...and some of
the memory sticks...or the data sticks there, but um, it's pretty minimal considering the
time and...the savings in time and...and hours that....that,um, will make them more
efficient. So it's...it's a good trade-off there. And the last thing we're looking at is
scheduling software. We still use Excel spreadsheets for scheduling. Uh, it is antiquated,
um...you know there's systems out there that can be done by command, right from their
apps. Our staff is...our supervisors are salary, so they could log in from home and make
changes right away by usin' an app versus havin'to (laughs) try to figure out how to get
to the Excel spreadsheet, uh, on the system here. So we really need to get that updated,
and so we're looking to do that as well. And....that's all the exciting stuff. Urn, there's
not a whole lot of increase. You know we run just over a$12 million budget. What
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you're gonna see in increases, like Simon said earlier, is really the personnel side of it,
through our, uh, collective bargaining agreements and through cost of living raises that
may occur, urn, that's where a lot of the cost comes up. Otherwise, the nuts and bolts of
the increase are pretty much what I explained. So with that I'll field questions!
Throgmorton/Jody, I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about the data-driven justice
initiative and how that's going, how, you know, David's been workin' on that for...I don't
know, it's many months now.
Matherly/ Sure!
Throgmorton/Do you have a sense about that?
Matherly/Urn, you know he continues to move forward with that. It's, uh....um,he....he does a
lot of travel and a lot of, um, presentations on....on what we're doing with our system.
So he's really become a....our resident expert in that area. Uh, few of the things we have
him working on now is deployment of our officers, you know, um, to crunch what our
staffing is and....and how we're responding to...to folks in the community. Um....uh,
deployment of....of, uh, our officers, and....and see, you know, how that's aligned. He
has the capability to do that, so he's been able to weave that in with some of his other
duties. Um,but the....the biggest thing is he continues to work with perfecting the....the
data involved with our homeless community and to figure out, you know,um....you
know, what kind of resources are being spent where and what kind of time is involved.
Some of it, you know, even ambulance, um, trips, some of it involves still tryin'to get the
data perfected and make sure that...that, uh, we're not violating any, you know, privacy
rules or anything like that. So he continues to work on that. Um, but I....I think that's
a.....a solid program and we're certainly benefiting from it. I think as you'll see,
Housing First initiatives and....and things of that nature come into play, urn....then the
numbers will be....we'll be able to continue to measure....are....are we bein' effective
with spending those kind of dollars to find housing for these folks, so they're not out in
the...in the elements. Urn, and to see, you know, see....see if we're going in the right
direction. So I...I think it's....it's good to have somebody available with the expertise and
the time to be able to....to measure that, to make sure that....that our money is being, you
know, um, purposeful.
Throgmorton/Any other questions for Jody?
Salih/Yeah, for community outreach, do you have like some kind of budget assigned,uh, for, uh,
to do like some kind of education center for youth so they don't get in trouble or maybe
like, uh.....programs or something like that?
Matherly/ Sure! So we....we have, uh, four officers in....in our crime...community outreach
program, including a...an assistant, Henri Harper. Uh, we just recently, since Denise
Brotherton started to run that unit, um, begin to coordinate Henri's position with Ashton
Haze who's one of our community outreach officers in a more coordinated way, um, for a
couple reasons. We wanna make sure that we're being effective with what we do, uh, and
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it's more of a team effort. So, we're startin'to see that....that progressin'that way. Their
programs, everything from, uh, the safety village to, um....uh.....you know, Henri's visits
to the schools,um, to, uh, other programs like that. We did the bicycle program last year,
where we obtained bicycles for kids and....and taught 'em how to work on the bikes
and....and outfit `em that way. Those programs continue. We also, urn, kinda go by
request. So I was just contacted the other day by a program that's a mentorship for, uh,
fifth graders that are having trouble and....and maybe needing assistance. So they
reached out and, uh, said what....what can you guys do with us and, you know, we offer
up anything that....that those folks need to, number one, build a relationship with the
Police Department, but also if we can be that mentor, that, um.... you know, that guiding
light for them to say, hey, you know, life can be pretty good and, uh, and help in that area,
we're absolutely available to do that. So, those programs continue. So we're always
lookin'for new ideas, um....you know,Ashton certainly is... is, and Derek Frank who
runs that unit,more verse on the exact details of those programs, um,but they are
plentiful, and that's a busy unit, I can tell ya that! There's no down time for them.
Salih/Okay. My second question, like my understanding from the City Manager like we don't
have current policy for translation, when the officer interact with a person of color who
don't speak English very well or they don't speak...what....what do you guys do?
Because this is really important!
Matherly/ So.....yeah, so as you're aware, we had an incident where the question came up
what....what is our....our (laughs)protocols. You know, we go by our training, we go by
'well this is the way we've always done it.' We developed a policy. Urn, it has bounced
back and forth between three different divisions, trying to perfect it. It's not been, uh,
finalized yet, but it is extremely close, um, to....to, you know, set a....a guiding...a guide-
line, uh, in place for the translation policy. So that policy's very close. At the end of the
day, we need to make sure that, um, you know, there's....there's fairness and due process,
and consistency, for folks be it on the victim side or when we're dealing with a....a
suspect being interviewed side, and a lot of times the courts weigh in on what that
fairness is.
Salih/ I think this something that have to be a first priority. And something that's really arrogant.
You cannot just interac...officer interact with somebody that doesn't speak English
(unable to understand) to do investigation. How they can understand thing? I think this
is should be really top priority and you guys should move it like as soon as possible on
something like this.
Matherly/I understand. Now let me be clear, we have, uh.....we....we have systems in place
between our language line that the entire City has access to, that is City employees, urn,
and also interpreters. Urn, we just hired our first female Hispanic officer that...that
helped,has helped immensely in some of the investigations. Um, so we have...we have
processes in place to make sure that that's already being done. The question comes not,
you know,having that ability to do it,but when should it be done and, um, and again
every situation's different. So there's not...there's not gonna be a bright line rule sayin'
this is absolutely when that happens. Officers are trained to use their training and their
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discretion and their judgment, uh, along with a guideline to make sure that it's done
fairly. At the end of the day, we want the victim to feel fully supported. We want the
courts to say the suspect was treated with fairness and due process, uh, and that's our bar.
So it is a priority to have a policy in place, but I will tell you, it's not wholesale changes.
We're doing a good job in that area—it's not perfect—um, hopefully the policy perfects it
a little bit, but....but we have the processes in place to make sure, you know,we're not
losing court cases and...and things on that nature over this, um, at this time. So....(both
talking)
Salih/Yeah, thank you for the progress. (both talking) Yes, there is a process being done,but I
really looking forward to see that when the officer ask, you know, at the....we come to
the point that officer will ask the....the person 'do you speak English?' If they say we
don't speak very well. Done, you have to provide interpreter at that time.
Matherly/Yeah.
Sahli/Looking forward for that.
Matherly/ Okay. Thank you.
Throgmorton/Yeah, I'm confident the Department is doing a....a much better job than it did
many years ago on this, but it's a huge challenge, I wanna agree with Maz on this. We're
not talkin' about just Spanish, of course. We're talkin' about French,Arabic (both
talking) Swahili, tribal language(both talking)
Salih/Arabic.
Throgmorton/Yeah, and....and tribal languages, which are....unique (laughs) basically, uh....uh,
so the....the challenge is very large and very important and I'm sure the Department's
tryin'to do everything it can to respond to that challenge effectively.
Matherly/We absolutely are, Mayor.
Thomas/I had a couple questions, Chief, on....on some of the performance measures.
Matherly/Yes.
Thomas/Um, under the field operations. Uh, we're showing 2017 calendar year. Do we have a
2018 or is that...
Matherly/No,because some of these statistics come out of our annual report from...or by the FBI
statistics....
Thomas/Uh huh.
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Matherly/ ....and so when we're sitting her eon day....what is today, the fifth? Whatever
(laughs)we're on, we just don't have the 18s compiled yet. The ones I just gave you for
the declines and increases, are from 18, uh,but I hate to even throw out numbers cause
they're so preliminary, urn, as....as cases are being completed and those numbers are
being finalized. So I wanted to give you a little snapshot,but we've always gone back a
year in these performance, at least for this report because it's so fresh into the new year
that 18s just aren't....aren't finalized. We won't see FBI numbers, um, that we've
submitted and that they've, you know, printed until about September, October.
Thomas/Okay.
Matherly/ So they take that long.
Thomas/So....so just going from the 2017....
Matherly/Yes, sir!
Thomas/ ....um, looking at the, uh, under...it was under the strategic plan goal of advancing
social justice and racial equity, the arrests totals. And, um....you know,the...there's a
pretty significant disproportionality there, and I...I know we're working on it. I know
you....the, your staff,the police officers are, in field operations, are very aware of this.
But, urn, nevertheless, I'm seeing....the numbers, at least from 2016, well from 2015 on
are still quite high,relative to the percentage of the population that are, uh, black,African
American. So, it's just....I understand it's an incredibly challenging issue, but the
numbers are...still high.
Matherly/ It is and...to put that in perspective,urn, you know, it's....the one where there's a
complainant, for example, if....if somebody robs a bank. We don't have much control
over, you know, that arrest. It's the discretionary ones which really aren't defined in here,
you know, picked out in here. It's the discretionary ones. Just like our traffic stops.
Thomas/Yeah.
Matherly/That....that are,you know, the ones of concern for us. Urn, you know,we....we
wanna make sure that....that we do try to get to the point where it's, you know, where it's
parity. Where it's fair....uh, and equal. So, urn, we continue to work on that. You know,
as we measure the disproportionality in traffic stops, uh, and also the outcomes of those
traffic stops, which we made great improvements with citations last year, as you well
know, urn, and then the searches, uh, those are the kind of things that are tangible,
controllable discretionary things that we have to work on. Now, there's arrests that are
made discretionary-wise outside of traffic stops, you know, uh, the pedestrians, bicyclists,
things that we're called to, urn, where there aren't victims saying this person did this to
me, and you know, we have to take action. The discretionary ones, those are controllable.
Thomas/Uh huh.
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Matherly/ I will tell you it's the training. It's the education for the officers, and in being mindful,
urn, that they need to make good decisions out there, in a fair and consistent manner, that
are important. Urn, and Councilman, I would tell you every single day we drive that into
them. So....(both talking)
Thomas/Yeah, no I'm....I'm confident in your commitment to this, and urn (both talking)
Matherly/ Sure. And the officers respond well to it. They know, cause they know that the more
fair-minded they can be, and the more cognizant of that they can be, the more community
support, the more the community talks to us, and we solve those violent crimes. It's...it's
a very simple equation.
Thomas/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Any other questions to the Chief?
Teague/ I have a...well, one I wanna say awesome job at presentin'this today and um,just goin'
through some of the particulars. I appreciate that! The South District, there's a police
station over there. Can you give me just a....I don't know if this is appropriate right now,
but just a brief history of why it was placed there, um, you know, why it remains there,
urn, and what the future of that station looks like.
Matherly/You know I think there's debate on....on why it was placed there. Uh, it was certainly
before my time, but there's, you know, we needed a...diversion....we needed to occupy
the southeast side more because of crime. There was the....we wanna have more
presence down there. I truly believe that that, and I would love to see one on the west
side, trust me (laughs)but having the police presence down there,having those doors
open, and being available to the community serves a great purpose. I don't wanna appear
to be an occupying force in a neighborhood. Urn, we....we certainly don't want that. We
have, and I just had recent discussions with Geoff Fruin over this, uh, and this came at the
request of a citizen. It was a great idea! Why don't we call it the `sub-station,' `precinct,'
you know,what is that? Maybe we rename that, um, we've certainly defined it
differently since my arrival here. Uh, we're holding office hours there now. Uh, we just
had the, uh, partnership with Hy-Vee to give away the hams, at that location. We moved
National Night Out to that location for the first time this year. We're tryin'to make it
more accessible, um, more friendly in nature,um, and make it a community outreach
piece versus, you know, a place where we....where we go and just do police work. Um,
that's so important. So....you're gonna see a change in....in what the defini.. definition
of that is as we continue to progress in that area. But it is a great facility. We use it often.
Urn, somethin'as simple as our Crime Stoppers board meets there, you know, um,just to
have that presence down there and make it the norm that, you know, we're in the south
and east sides. I'd love to see one on the west side, and....and continue to have that
community outreach localized, where folks feel comfortable, and I would even love to
progress it to the point where, you k now, and I've had this happen to me. I've been at
meetings there,um, where folks have come and say I need to report this and, um, I'm not
very good at doin' actual crime reports these days. I know it's hard to believe (laughs)
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but you know I'm able to call an officer and say, hey, you've got a walk-in over here that
needs to report something. They don't have to come down and find parking, you know.
It's a nice outpost for that nature, and sometimes it's just questions. We had a gal come
in,just had gone through a domestic violence issue, and she was crying and she had
immediate assistance right there (mumbled) not havin'to call 9-1-1, she knew that she
could go to that place and....and have assistance. We talked about putting a, kind of the
blue phones that you see at the campus where somebody could pick up and call dispatch
right away. Say they run out and they don't have their cell phone or something'. So
make it also, uh, a quick and easy way to contact us if we're not there. So we're looking
at things of that nature too. So we continue to expand that....that facility.
Teague/ One thing I've heard from individuals that live on the south, uh, southside is the
perception of havin'the sub-station I'll call it, uh,present is that, urn, it does give maybe
a, um....the perception that there's major issues or, you know, there...crime needs to be
tamed over there, and so that's....I just wanted to bring, you know,just, you know, ask
where you are, um, with his....historical, um, as well as future thoughts for that, um,
facility, and....you're statin'that potentially there could be somethin'else.
Matherly/ (both talking) Absolutely! (both talking) I remind folks, if....if that was the case, I'd
have four other neighborhoods ahead of that one for....for statistics. So that is not a...our
problem area. There's a, uh, a belief that it is. Uh, if...if I was going by that, again,
there's four other neighborhoods I would put a sub-station before that one. So that really
wasn't, in my opinion I wasn't here for that final decision, but it wasn't the design or, you
know, it also came down to....to having private company say, hey, we're willin' (laughs)
to help provide some space here to reduce cost to....to assist you on your outreach, and so
that kinda comes into play, which I continue to look for on the west side too, but uh,
yeah. I hope....I hope the...the folks, as we continue to prove, um,that that's...we don't
wanna be, like I said, an occupying force. That's not what that's about. Um, and our
actions should prove that.
Teague/Thank you.
Throgmorton/I....I'd like to emphasize that point, Chief. (clears throat) Bruce, (mumbled) 10
years ago....people, many people on the south side of Iowa City did think that there was a
serious problem with regard to crime. It was racialized very quickly. There's no question
but that was a huge issue back then, but our approach to policing, public safety, and
everything else related to those two topics has changed pretty dramatically over the past
five or so years, and I'm really proud of it, and I think Jody and the other,um,members
of the Police Department have done a superb job of shifting how they're doing policing,
and so I....I think the idea of kind of rethinking what....the name of the "sub-station" is a
good idea, but definitely, uh, re...the....the effort to change public perception about what
it is there for is really crucial.
Salih/Uh huh!
Throgmorton/Cause we're not what we were 10 years ago. It's really important to know that.
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Salih/I'm also looking forward to seeing one on the west side, as you said. Yeah, I've been
hearing you say that, like many times. Uh, my last question is, can you just give us like
(unable to understand) the out, uh, the community outreach policing, what they do and
how much power they have.
Matherly/ For the community outreach police officers?
Salih/Yes.
Matherly/You know, their job is to create environments that all of our officers participate in,but
they take the lead on creating those environments where we're interacting with the public
in a non-enforcement way. Um, you know, when you call us and we go and...and we're
solving a problem or when we stop you for a traffic violation, something of that nature,
that....that's never....never a great experience for folks, even the victim. It's a very
traumatic, uh, situation. So it's important for us to....to contact the community and
converse with the community and interact with the community in those environments
where it's....where we're people, wearing a blue uniform, not just a cop. That unit is, uh,
takes the lead on that to create those...those environments and those venues, but all of our
officers, from me down, urn, and from our newest officer up, including our civilians, are
expected to participate in those on a daily basis, and be part of that, hey, we're people
too. So that....that unit plays an important role,but alls they do is tee up the ball. The
rest of the officers have to hit that ball as well, and uh, that...that's really the....the crux of
that unit.
Salih/And don't you think like really good idea if there is say....there's a situation where kids
are involving with like some like trouble, is not a serious trouble. Instead of sending like
an....like regular officer, can we send the community police, you know? The community
outreach police.
Matherly/Well it...that and we've also got juvenile investigators that are experts in that field too.
Gabe Cook being one of'em where, you know, the follow up from the situation is,
involves maybe a plain clothes officer, somebody in the....in the less, you know,
enforcement role, to help solve those. We take the lead on the diversion programs, and
the diversion programs, um, are designed to say let's not make an arrest here. Let's see if
we can put you through a system to get you help, and get you on the right track.
Salih/Yes!
Matherly/We're a proponent of expanding that, um, and so, you know....our front-line officers
are trained to take proper action with juveniles. We keep an eye on even the trespass, or
I'm sorry, the...the curfew, um, ones...monthly we take a look at those to make sure....
and we've improved in that area! So we've sensitive to the need for that. These are kids.
We need to remember they're kids. We're familiar with the school to pipeline theory, urn,
we....we train in that. We need to make sure, you know, when they say statistically black
female students tend to be suspended more and tend to be arrested more in situations that
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we're aware of those numbers and how to handle that in an alternative way that's...that's
more fruitful, um, so....(both talking) We're on top of that.
Salih/Yeah. Thank you for doing that.
Teague/Chief, I think the CIT trainin',urn, which is the crisis (mumbled) crisis intervention
trainin', urn, has really, urn, been somethin' that I've seen personally just through my
interactions, uh, through my work, urn.....as being very positive for our police. So I
think that's something that you should be very proud of. I know that I am as a citizen of
Iowa City. Urn, with the Behavioral Health facility corrin'forward, there is gonna be
kind of a shift of mentation of, you know, maybe bringin' some individuals that typically
would either, urn, go to jail or be hospitalized, bein'takin'to this facility, which
oftentimes is the officer that gets the, you know, uh, makes that decision. Are you
plannin' any trainin' or....is....is there anything in the works for that?
Matherly/Yes,urn, we presently are sitting on the committee to have some guidelines for that.
These officers, part of the CIT training is, and that was one of the discussions at the
training that I attended, is...well you're teachin'us that there's alternatives. Where do we
put 'em? Well, you know what? There's gonna be a place to put `em now, between, you
know, the University of Iowa and this,uh, Behavioral Access Center. The officers are
aware that they need a place. They just...they need a place. So it's getting close. We're
....we're happy to see that. Um, I will tell you that, you know, nobody in my business,
and even in the community, thinks that, urn,that it's appropriate to put some of these
folks in jail. The officers agree with that! Urn, no, it gets complicated, cause the more
we get spun up on this, the more time it takes on those calls and what we're startin'to see
is, as CIT calls go up, the length of time we're spending on it. It's money well spent, you
know, instead of just we cuff ya,we take ya to jail, we put you....you're somebody else's
problem, urn, so as we....this goes back to the DDJ measurements, as we continue to
keep an eye on that, and we have to think about is staffing gonna look the same, you
know, urn, how's this gonna roll, and....and so having the ability to measure that's huge,
number one, but we are prepared to use those facilities. It's for the best. Um, and I truly
think....the recidivism,the repeat situations that we run across are gonna be reduced,
cause we're handling it upfront through substance and mental health assistance, instead
of putting 'em in jail and trying to figure it out later. Just doesn't make sense! Urn, so
I'm.....I'm glad to see we're being part of the solution on that. The Police Department's
gonna be on the front line doing that.
Teague/Awesome!
Taylor/I'm glad to hear all these good things about the Behavioral Access Center, and I...I can't
wait for it to actually come to fruition, and I think another point to stress is that it is going
to decrease the amount of officer's time involvement in those situations. They're not
going to have to spend so much time in, uh, taking the patient to the emergency room
or...or to the...the jail,uh, they can take them to this Acti...Access Center and be confident
that someone there will take over and....and help these people. So just can't stress the
importance enough. I'm looking (both talking)
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Matherly/ I agree. Thank you!
Throgmorton/Okay, why don't we let Chief Matherly get back to non-work or whatever you're
gonna do today, Chief. (several talking) Thanks so much, Chiefl Keep up the great
work!
Matherly/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Please share that notion with your fellow officers.
Matherly/ Okay! Thanks!
Fruin/Fire Department's budget is on page 198, if you're followin' in your book.
Fire Department
Throgmorton/Thanks for your....thanks for your patience, Chief.
Grier/Oh absolutely! Chief John Grier. With me I have Deputy Fire Chief Eric Nurnberg.
You'll probably see more of him over the next couple years so....we're a good tag team.
We're also the administration part of the Fire Department. So....we have small parties
too! (laughter) Uh, a quick review of what we've done this past year and where we're
going. Uh, our...probably the biggest highlight of the last year was our reaccreditation,
we went through that. This is our....our third....third time. So, it was quite a little bit of
work. Uh, we had some stressful moments,but Eric and I flew down to Dallas and were
able to receive that,uh, from the Commission, appeared before the Commission,
defended their report, and then were able to come back with that. So that...that was
probably the big highlight. So, I'll just kinda step through what we do and give you a
quick overview. Four fire stations, which you're well aware of; 64 personnel; 60 of those
personnel are what we would consider line personnel. There's myself, Deputy Chief, a
training lieutenant, and the Fire Marshall are what we consider our day folks. We, uh,
our preliminary numbers for last year, we're just over 7,000 calls for the last year. Again,
like the...Chief Matherly, we're synthesizing that info to make sure that our numbers are
right, but our numbers keep going up,just like everybody elses and as we talked, uh,
earlier this year, or last year, about,uh, overlapping calls. We continue to see that as a
trend. So that, I mean, certainly the highlight was getting the purchase agreement for the
land for future Fire Station#5. We know that's not coming any time soon, but I think you
all are making a good step in planning for that. So, we certainly appreciate that. So I'll _
just kind of step through out divisions here with Fire administration, and....another thing
that we had worked to get done for a few years was remodeling Fire Station#3. I think
you guys went on a tour there a few years back and it was....it was petty beat up kitchen,
but now it's, uh, open, it's....looks so much nicer. So we certainly appreciate the time
and energy that you helped us get that. Under our challenges, you see under our
challenges in a couple of these areas, was a lack of a training center. We can kind of talk
to that now that....well, we're getting there, so....we're hopeful by the end of this year,
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2019, that we'll....we'll be in that training center. We'll be using it and we certainly
appreciate, uh, Coralville's, uh, use of their fire training facility, and it's....it's been a
good thing. It's just been a little different for us, so....moving forward with that is
certainly, uh, a good thing for us. Like, uh, Chief Matherly, our Fire Station#1 is
cramped. If you've ever walked through there, it's...you might have to shimmy through a
couple times, but we're....we're making it work. We've had a good opportunity to have
some partnerships with, uh, the County. We store a boat and some other things in one of
their buildings and we house an ambulance for them up at Fire Station#4....so..... No
staffing level changes in...in any of these, uh, these areas. The big,uh, the big money
under Fire administration for capital outlay, we are in....(mumbled) starting year three
with this budget of the weather alert siren replacement project. So it's a five-year project.
So that's...that money is in a contract. And then the other big one is the$12,000. That
allows.....is going to allow us to purchase a, uh, extractor and drying system for washing
our gear. Right now we use a local dry cleaner and....while they do a good job for us, I
think it'll be better for us in the long....long term to be able to control the, uh, method
and chemicals and things being used to treat the gear. Gear is very specific how you're
supposed to treat it and we think that...that'll be a good thing, to get that. Emergency
operations, as I kinda talked about,we're just over 7,000 calls. Uh (mumbled) three
shifts...(mumbled) numbers are in here, I won't go through those for ya again. But, uh,
fire calls for this, total fire....preliminary numbers for 2018 are 155 total fires; 44 are
what we classify as a building fire. Uh, the total loss of...a rough estimate is about$3
million. So if we...percentage-wise, we had a lot of saves (laughs) so it's, uh, again
our....our numbers continue to go up for, uh, EMS. We're actually kinda evened out,but
uh, we're still working on reducing false alarms. We....we get a lot of good intent calls,
or...or public assist calls where we go help somebody who just needs a little extra help.
Uh, a good thing that we are doing is that, uh, the Deputy Chief serves on a multi-
disciplinary team that identifies the folks that we go see frequently that maybe don't have
a, uh, true medical problem, but they just have some issues where they need a little extra
help, so...we have some good partnerships that we're tryin'to get those folks to the right,
uh, social service or group that can help them. So I think that we've seen that....I don't
know how many people we've referred through that. Do you have any idea?
Nurnberg/Uh, through the City of Iowa City,probably 12 to 15.
Grier/It's a....it's a good program. We started that, uh, with Deputy Chief Plotz and it's just
kinda grown from there. So I...under emergency operations, I've got, uh, a note I made
myself that we do have a lot of partnerships. I mean we are working with, uh, the JHAT,
the hazard teams. We have folks on USAR out of Cedar Rapids. We have, uh, we're
involved in just a little bit of everything, you know, we're....we're also working with all
those groups that Chief Matherly's talking about as far as how can we make an impact on
the folks that we see, to....when we identify, go out and have a call (mumbled)this
person needs a little somethin'that we can't give them, but certainly, uh, it's been a good
experience. Said the...overlapping calls continues to be an issue for us and as we talked
with the Fire Station#5 that our ability to reach parts of the city in a timely fashion is
something that we'll keep an eye on and we'll continue to keep ya up on that...on that.
Okay,budget-wise for operations.....think it starts with our standard. We don't really
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have a big...big push there. Fire prevention, big....big time for us. Really busy. We do a
number of inspections, of course we see the University buildings quite a bit, and then
we've....we've adjusted our, uh, inspection schedule to a three-year for the low-level, uh,
mom-and-pop type smaller buildings,where you can go in and see those every three
years. We do send out, uh,postcards and direct people to online systems to check and do
their own self-inspection,but then of course if somebody calls then we will certainly go
and see them. Uh, the other big thing is that we're....working with a compliance engine,
that's a third-party vendor that helps us maintain, uh, control over our records on who's
getting their, uh, alarm systems and sprinkler systems and hood systems, make sure that
they're getting updated and, uh,taken care of as much as possible. Another big thing we
do with fire prevention obviously is we get into all the schools, we have a lot of
interaction, we have a lot of different little programs that we do, so we get to see folks all
the time. Uh, we're also partnered up with Safe Kids and we do, uh, car seat checks at
Fire Station#4 every other month. So that's also a good thing, and we see a lot of, uh,
walk-ins or people call and we schedule and get them in, so.... Fire Station#4 has
worked out well with our changing public education up there,just the....the size of the
building and the ability to have things inside has been very....very beneficial. Okay, let's
see...fire training, as we....we talked about, uh, we're all super excited about the fire
training facility getting built. Uh, it was nice to see the dirt getting moved down there.
It's just...it's been a good process and I think that, uh....when we get moved in there and
we get that other part of the, another building there, that we'll be able to increase our
training just a little bit more and the....the ability to go down and quickly take care of
some training is, uh, certainly going to be helpful. We've also been able to use some
ground down there by Terry Trueblood, where the...we've got some,uh, props set up that,
uh, we've been using down there. So it's a....that's been a nice experience for us too. A
lot of...as,uh, Chief Matherly talked about, a lot of our training is required. (mumbled)
we have certain hours that we have to keep up, so we spend a lot of time doing that. The
other thing that....that we put under the training is that youth, uh, services emergency
camp, which continues to grow, and that's helping us get more outreach with, uh, folks in
the city. We actually have folks travel from outside the county to come to that too,but
that's a partnership with the Police Department, the ambulance service, I think the
Sheriff's Office was there, Emergency Management. So we've had a lot of, uh, again
another partnership. Uh, we actually had a, uh, the Dream Center brought a group of
folks there too and did a, uh, sort of a modified youth....youth camp, and so we've had I
think 60-plus for the junior high and then the senior high had, uh, probably half of that,
but certainly has grown and we're certainly using that as another opportunity to, uh, get
out in the community. I think the thing that I skipped over here was the Fired up About
Reading, that's a program that's been very successful. Uh....just had one of those things
go right through my head (laughs) but...so I think the....the good thing for our training
and our prevention work really well together to make sure that we get all those, uh,
opportunities to....to get out in the community. We are recruiting right now for a
firefighter position. So we've, uh, got a video out, I don't know if you've had a chance to
see it. If you get on YouTube you can see our recruitment video (laughs) It's ...it turned
out really well. We're trying to, uh, get the word out on all facets and it was neat, I took a
screen shot the other day. I was lookin' at the...the Fire Chief's web site and Iowa City
firefighter was right there so I screen-shotted....it's kinda neat to see that. So we're
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hoping to get a good number of folks, uh, apply and we'll get that process moving
through. And part of the outlay for fire training is that...that digital training package, it's
a BullEx. Our training...in the training tower we can have a live fire on one floor. You
can't have multiple fires on different floors just for firefighter safety. So this simulator
allows us to have two fires going and be....and still be meeting the intent of the codes
that we have to follow, so..... That's kinda a quick down and dirty. If you have any
questions for us we would certainly glad...to answer them.
Throgmorton/All right(clears throat) Council Members, you have any questions?
Thomas/ I....I have one question on the emergency operations. Um, with respect to the
emergency medical service piece.
Grier/Uh huh.
Thomas/Do you have any idea what percentage...of, um....your staffs'time is...is tied up with
responding to traffic collisions? This is....this is an issue(laughs) that I have been...been
concerned with for...for a while now. You know, I didn't bring it up with,uh, Chief
Matherly, but you know, there are...in the report under...under police, there was
something like 2,500 traffic collisions. I suspect some of those...included an emergency
response from....from your group.
Nurnberg/That's a number that...we do respond to a lot of traffic,uh, to a lot of traffic collisions
and, uh...uh, both, uh, in the....the technical rescue dimension, people that need to be
extricated, and also as a....a, you know, EMS calls, um, and then even sometimes just
for...for fluid clean up. Um, I....I don't know right now for the....for the last year just
how much time we did on that specific segment. That would...that would be easy for me
to find (mumbled) dig deeper into our data, um, that'll....that'll certainly be revealed.
Um, my....my, anecdotally I would say that...that we respond to at least a few hundred.
Thomas/Uh huh.
Nurnberg/Um...uh, probably several hundred, at...just at the top.....
Thomas/Uh huh.
Nurnberg/ ...of that. Urn, and you know,those range all the way from the minor fender benders,
all the way to the more....the more severe. Uh,that's a number we can get though, for
sure.
Thomas/Great, thanks.
Teague/ So dispatch, are they....um, I...I don't, I guess I don't understand. Does dispatch, um,
contact the Police Department or...or the Fire Department separately or are you all gettin'
the same call and how do they determine if you all go out?
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Nurnberg/ So for efficiency's sake, we...we have a, uh....uh, a tiered dispatch protocol that, um,
that dispatches different units in different departments, depending on the....the severity.
Uh, you know, the information that we're receiving, and so sometimes folks, of course,
might say, oh, I....I just got into a small fender bender. Nobody's hurt. Uh, we just
need...okay, so that's a property damage accident, and generally a police officer will be
dispatched to that. If there's any level of suspicion that someone is....is injured or....or
worse, um...uh, for instance if someone called and said, oh, I was in an accident and my
neck hurts, then there will also be an emergency medical response, uh, with that, and we
have the....a protocol to determine, you know, for efficiency's sake, whether there would
be, uh, one fire engine and then the ambulance, for....for example. Now, uh, if we just
rewind a few days to...to the day where we had the....the sudden ice storm. Uh, right,
there were...there were several bad accidents that happened pretty quickly and so when
we get information that there's several cars involved, and....and uh,there's a suspicion
that somebody may be trapped or there may be more than one person hurt, then we
dispatch more resources to that, to that sort of call, as well. So, uh, they're....they're
definitely tiered, and like with every type of emergency, we've....we, uh, we have a
different dispatch protocol based on the information that....that develops through...
through the course of the....the, uh, the 9-1-1 call and then as emergency resources begin
to arrive on scene.
Thomas/Thank you.
Salih/You know I just had this interesting question from two student at the University of Iowa
who doing research about something, and they ask me what the Sudanese community
have in place just in case if there is a fire in a building,to evacuate the building for the
people who doesn't speak English. And I was like, I don't know! And that question for
you now!
Grier/Absolutely! I think, uh, as Chief Matherly talked about,that's a challenge for us too. We
go, we do get into all the schools, but we....the,most of our printed materials are Spanish
or English, so we're working with the schools to try to get the messages modified to
those folks, so we can have them have it as well. I think the big thing is is that getting the
message out when you hear the...the alarm...the alarm is to leave the building, and I think
that's...the big thing and then trying to communicate what the problem was after the fact,
but...if....if we can just start with that small step that leave....leave the building and
then...and then we'll work through that. Our experience is that people don't leave the
building (laughs) You know, I've been walking in lots of times and people are just
standing there, and I'm like 'Do you hear this?' You know(mumbled) certainly a
challenge for us (both talking)
Salih/Sure!
Grier/ ....but we have access online to a number of materials that the Fire Marshall is able to get
and translate, but....so yeah.
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Salih/And that's what bring me to another question—how did you advertise your position when
you are hiring?
Grier/Uh, I know it's,uh, on firehouse.com is, you know, it's all the web sites that all....we
always look at, and then I think it's on Indeed. It's, uh, through social media, through the
City accounts, through our personal accounts, through, uh, a....a retweet and those sorts
of things, so....
Salih/And how diverse is your department?
Grier/Well we certainly don't reflect the community, but that's something that we're working on.
Uh, something we're doing with our testing this year, uh,this....this round is in the past
we've taken X amount of top scores, uh, maybe 70,top 70 scores, and that could be in the
80s, you k now, on a 100-point scale. Right now this year we're taking anybody that
passes 70 or above will move on to the next phase. So....that's gonna help us....we
believe,to get a more diverse pool.
Nurnberg/And while Human Resources could probably more accurately answer that question, I
know that, uh, regionally and even nationally they advertise on all sorts of different job
search web sites, uh, in newspapers and other periodical publications in....in major cities,
uh, across the country. Of course we circulate that information also through, uh....um,
the University of Iowa, uh, to reach the students, as well as Kirkwood Community
College, urn, and those sorts of things, and the Chief did mention some....some of our
initiatives, um, that...that in part we hope will increase diversity recruitment in the future,
but....but the return on investment is a little bit, uh, is a little bit down the road, and that
would be our emergency youth services camps, um, and in particular, you know,
something that we're very proud of that the Chief mentioned is the Fired up About
Reading program, where we match, uh, mentors with, uh, with....with.....with children,
elementary-age children, in the schools, and we.....we've kind of focused, uh, really
on....on, uh, Grant Wood, Twain,Alexander. We've been around to....to a number of
elementary schools, but we've forged some really, uh, valuable relationships there and,
uh, I....I know from experience that we have a....a vast number of....of, uh, of diverse
young folks who are very excited about service-oriented jobs. I....I think, in part,
because of that program.
Salih/Yeah, I just encourage you to also reach out to the Neighborhood Center(both talking)
Nurnberg/Sure!
Salih/And you know some community organization, like the Center for Worker Justice, they
have like many,many diverse people who are, could be like really a good candidate for...
for your department, yeah.
Grier/(mumbled)work with HR and, uh, Communications to get on all their lists and send, make
sure that they send everything out. The other thing is this year we're,the Fire
Department's part of the, uh, equity toolkit. So we're also learning different ways that we
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can use data and how to reach out and....I guess asking the right question or finding the
right thing that we're looking for. So that's been a good experience.
Salih/Yeah, and also I guess if you can give like some kind of notification in....in communities
like in the Neighborhood Center....
Grier/Yep!
Salih/ ....to the people and tell them like what you do and how...people can apply if you are
interest and this will be the(unable to understand) for the immigrants who always believe
that job is not for them.
Grier/Absolutely! We do, we have,uh, one of our goals in our strategic planning is that
companies go out to, uh, a certain number of events that are not, it's not where people are
calling and saying 'hey can you come.' It's where we just invite ourselves, and
(mumbled) that there's a neighborhood meeting, we're just gonna show up and talk
and...so people can see what we do.
Salih/Yeah, and just last, thank you so much for everything you do and for keeping us safe.
Grier/Uh huh,thanks!
Throgmorton/Yeah, I'd like to reinforce Maz's point about racial equity. You know in our
strategic plan the key, three key themes are inclusive,just, and sustainable. Under just, I
think one would put rac....uh, racial equity, and likewise with regard to inclusion, having
a more diverse workforce is really a crucial part of what we're trying to do. So you're
doin' great work as a department, there's no question about that, but I just reinforce the
point that we really want to diversify the, uh, the department, to the extent that it is
possible.
Grier/Absolutely!
Throgmorton/Yeah, so that's one thing. I also mentioned the term sustainability,right? So when
I think about sustainability, I think, well,protecting the city and neighborhoods in the city
from fires that could damage lots of property, that's all about sustainability. So that's a
very(laughs) good thing. But I'm wondering beyond that, what y'all are doin'in the
department to improve,uh, the sustainability features of your day-to-day practice.
Grier/Sure. I think....well, actually we're working with other departments in the City to help us
figure those questions out as, you know,part of the climate action and (mumbled) what
do we do. A...a bioswale at Station 4 is something, you know, our...we had the LEED
buildings. So our systems, we're trying to be as efficient as we can with what we have.
We, uh....change, you know, light bulbs, we're doing all those little things that I think
over time will add up. I think that we can certainly do better at that and we're...
continuing to figure out how to do that.
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Nurnberg/And even in terms of it at...of our....of our fire apparatus, urn, the....those are much
more environmentally friendly, urn, clean type of....of diesel engines now and, uh...um,
of....of course that's in compliance with DOT standards, but that's something that the
Fire Department identified a long time ago as....as something that we would like to
address, would...would be, uh....uh, environmental friendliness of...ofthose apparatus,
because, uh, their emissions are significant.
Throgmorton/Okie dokie! Any other questions for Eric or Chief, uh, Chief Grier?
Teague/I just have one last question. So the score is droppin' down to 70%where you're going
to open it up, what does that score kind of entail? Are there different, uh, things that are
included in that score? I'm assumin' it's just not a written test.
Grier/That is just a written exam.
Teague/It's just a written exam.
Grier/And the exam has reasoning,math....reading, you know, a little bit of everything. Uh, so
it also has kind of the, uh, scale to....judge how you get along with others. It's a, you
know, nationally-accepted test. It's, uh,vetted and HR actually picks the test. We... we
consult,they consult with us and we say yes, it's...it's, has fire-based things in it, so it's,
you know, more what we do. So that just, the 70 is the typical passing score that the
company says if you score above 70. Uh, we have.....typically have not taken any 70
above,just because of the numbers. So....depending on how many folks we get signed
up, we may have, you know, 125 people move to the next step of the process, which is
then a physical exam....or a physical ability test. So....
Teague/Okay. And I echo, you know, Maz and uh, Mayor, where....rach....racial justice is
somethin'that,you know, is a part of the strategic plan and hope that you all do make
every effort to, uh, increase the,uh....the balance.
Grier/Absolutely!
Teague/Thank you!
Grier/Uh huh.
Taylor/ I just have qwi...quick question, uh, are your fire staff also trained in the crisis
intervention training as are the police officers?
Grier/We have(both talking) yeah, we have some folks that are actually involved in the training
and have gone to the classes, instructors, and then we have that sort of training
consistently. We don't....we haven't done that program specifically,but we have taken
the parts that our folks that are involved in it say here's what we need to help us right
now. So....
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Taylor/Good. Thank you.
Mims/In terms of the written testing, I know with the Police Department there's some kind of
like study guides out there that people can look at before they go in and do the written
test. I would assume there would be that similar kind of stuff out there for people who
might wanna test for fire?
Grier/I think, uh, the packet has that information, where you could get a study guide to help you.
Mims/Okay.
Grier/And then as far as the physical ability testing, we're required to give people some training
and direct them on how they get(both talking)
Mims/Prepare. Okay. Thank you.
Nurnberg/ Similarly I think I would add....one of the great things about the way the....the Iowa
City Fire Department does recruitment that's a little bit different than the way most fire
departments do is that,uh, we really don't require, uh, many prerequisites, uh, for
recruitment. I mean you have to be a high school graduate essentially and if you look at
any other fire department, uh, even in the state of Iowa, they may require that you're a
paramedic, uh, or that you have your....your firefighter certifications already, and...and,
uh, in order to get the. the the......the widest and the most diverse, uh, group of
recruits possible, we....we prefer to....to train those folks after we....we've chosen them
and that's something that's worked out very well so far and we really hope that that'll be
a contributing factor to diversity recruitment in the future.
Mims/Can you give me an idea what your turnover rate is, I mean do you....do you have many
people leave once they're hired?
Grier/Typically no.
Mims/Okay, that's what I (both talking)
Grier/ ...once you're here you stay. We've had some folks that have moved for family reasons....
Mims/ Sure!
Grier/ ...you know, but other than that, you know, it's, uh, 22 years and beyond for most...most
(both talking)
Mims/ Good retirement package under Municipal Fire and Police(both talking)
Grier/ ...we have great equipment, we have great facilities, I mean I would put us up against
anybody in the state, I mean....
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Mims! Okay.
Nurnberg/What we see, Susan, when we do, uh, the recruitment, when we do interviews, is that,
uh,when....when I do interviews I'll talk to a lot of people who are firefighters on other
departments who want to come here(both talking)
Mims/ ...come here....
Nurnberg/...and we certainly don't have, uh, very many at all of our own firefighters that
participate in the(mumbled)
Mims/Yeah. That's what I figured! Just wanted to confirm. Thank you.
Throgmorton/Okay, keep up the great work. Thanks for comin' in! We'll look forward to seein'
more of ya as the year goes on(several talking and laughing)
Grier/Thanks! Have a good day! (several talking)
Fruin/As they transition out, one thing I just wanna mention, long-term planning for Fire. Uh,
obviously you,um, authorized us to enter in the purchase agreement for Fire Station#5.
One of the things that, uh, the Fire Department, along with Simon and our office, is doing
now is looking for land on the east side to relocate Station#3. So if you remember, it's'
going to be kind of a package deal where we open#5 and we....we relocate Station#3,
and uh,just wanna let you know that that process continues, and we hope in the next 12
to 18 months that we....we can bring another land purchase to you, uh, as we plan for that
shift. Okay!
Throgmorton/All right. We're gonna turn to the Library.
Culture & Leisure Program Budgets:
Library
Frain/I'd like to make an introduction here, cause we've got a new face in front of you, and this
is day three or four on the job and (laughter) Elsworth Carman here, our new Library
Director,uh, has the task of presenting the budget (laughs)to you, uh, right out of the...
uh, right out of the chute here. So, uh....uh, we wanna welcome, uh, Elsworth to...to our
team here and maybe you can just, uh, say a little bit about yourself and then we'll jump
into the Library presentation.
Carman/ Sure! Thank you,um, I'm coming most recently from the city of Marion, where I was
the Library Director for two years and then the Director of Administrative Services,um,
for the city for about six months. Um,prior to that I worked in Washington, D.C. and
Oak Park, Illinois, urn, as well as a mid-sized community in New Jersey,um, all in public
libraries. Um, I'm a Midwesterner by birth, I'm from Wisconsin, and my wife, uh, grew
up in Cedar Rapids. She went to school here in Iowa City, so we returned a few years
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ago, urn, for some family reasons and really just re-fell in love with the Midwest and
Iowa in particular, so when this position opened, urn, I felt like it would be a great fit and
it's a real honor to come in after a legacy public servant like Susan Craig and I look
forward to getting to know all of you and continuing the great work of the Library.
Throgmorton/(several talking) Welcome aboard, Elsworth. It's good to see you!
Carman/ So, urn, like Geoff said, this is just my fourth day here. So (laughter) to, um, to stay on
track and give you what you are hoping to hear, but also, urn, I've got two senior-level
leadership staff in the audience with me in case we need some support, and if need be I'm
more than happy to follow up on Monday with answers to questions if I'm not sure. Urn,
so I think what I'll do today is just do a really quick and sort of high level explanation of
the Library's staffing model, and a few minutes talking about, urn,highlights from last
year, (mumbled)brief description of....of what's going to look different, or how we
might use resources (mumbled) coming year. Ur....this is a great position to walk into
because Susan Craig was....was a good budgeter and she had a...a really solid,
responsible approach to all this, uh, so I'm excited to...to take this work on as I learn
more about creating my own budget next year! Uh, so the Library of course is governed
by a nine-member Board of Trustees, and we have about 44 FTE staff. Uh, the Library
has an agency-specific strategic plan,that's designed to, uh, complement and support the
larger City's plans and initiatives. The Library has an active volunteer program and it's
supported by a Friends Foundation group, which is a 501 C(3)non-profit organization.
That's the basic infrastructure,urn, hasn't changed, and I'm amazed at what this
relatively small group of people get done every day. That's a small number! Forty-four
FTE staff and when you think about the hours that the Library's open, and the breadth of
services, it's amazing. Uh, one of my primary passions as a library administrator is
creating and protecting access for all community members. And as I learn more about the
(unable to understand) I naturally gravitate towards, um, the stories and statistics that
reflect increase access to collections and services. And last year ICPL saw a lot of access
to a lot of services. There were 8,703...I'm sorry! Eight....873,000 visits to the Library.
The collection was used over 1.2 million times. There were 1,861 programs, attended by
over 69,000 people. The, uh,program attendance reflects a 21% increase, uh, which
most of came from children's events. Um, there's been an increase in STEAM and
STEM events, along with the traditional story times, live performances, and other, urn,
exciting offerings for families. (clears throat) New programs and services were
developed as well. The digital media lab opened, with support from a generous $45,000
grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the City of Iowa City, and Foundation
funds. Over 100 individuals registered to use the space between March and July of last
year, which gave them access to printers, scanners, media converters, editing bays, and
music software. A tween space was developed in the youth services area,to ensure youth
in grades third through sixth had a place to experience,uh, and gather in the Library
appropriately. The bookmobile had a successful year,with more than 15,000 visits, and
over 25,000 items checked out. Obviously the bookmobile can travel, which allows us to
create targeted outreach plans that ensure pockets of the community that may be less
served in other ways are not denied access to Library materials. Those are just a few
highlights on some of the more significant achievements. Uh, there's a lot more we could
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talk about but I'm gonna shift into....what we're looking at, urn, to...di...dive even deeper
into access in the coming year. We're looking forward to modernizing the hearing
augmentation system for our main meeting room, so that patrons can participate in
programs using their smart phones, uh, and hearing aids. Urn,that's been a major
problem for a few years at the Library. Urn, we will continue to expand programming for
adults and children, um, continuing on with our focus on diversity, and we will continue
to work towards increasing the hourly pay rate, to get to the level that....that we feel is...
is more appropriate. The two biggest initiatives the Library is undertaking this year are
transitioning to a new director, which is me,um, which will require lots of energy and
work,but should also be an opportunity to kind of hone in and recommit to our shared
vision and goals, and eliminating the fines on children's materials. I'm very thankful for
the City's support in moving forward with removing fines from these collections. We
know that fine accrual is a very real barrier for access to many of our users. By removing
this barrier, we will be able to welcome back many patrons who have left the Library.
Thank you for being willing to experiment with us on this. In no way do I want to
minimize the importance of this step. It's amazing and powerful. But I do wanna let you
know that many libraries across the country have already shifted into completely (unable
to understand) So I think that even as we celebrate locally with this really great and
crucial step towards access, we need to be thinking about next steps and how we might
make it, uh, make that access even better in the fixture. Um....there's a lot of available
data from libraries that have already made these changes, so we have a huge advantage of
being able to use their data sets to figure out how do we balance, um, loss of fine revenue
with other services and things like that. So we're in a good position for that. So that's
the basics of where we are right now. Um, I appreciate you welcoming me here today
and I'd love to take questions.
Teague/I love the children's, urn (laughs) no-fine model, um, and....oh, and welcome, by the
way(laughter)
Carman/Thank you!
Teague/Ur....and I....I guess I would be interested in learnin'in the future what it will look like
to have no-fine, uh,model for our library.
Throgmorton/Well you're coming into a terrific library with great staff. That's a good starting
point, isn't it?
Carman/ It is!
Throgmorton/Yeah, so....at some point I imagine you'll have specific ideas about how you think
things could be improved and....odds are pretty good you intend to kind of just work for
a while and be payin'attention to what's actually being done and learn from that and then
bring some new ideas to bear. So I look forward to that,uh, seeing what you come up
with as time goes on.
Carman/Thank you.
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Throgmorton/You have a great starting point, there's no doubt about it, and I think my wife and
daughter are probably, they're probably....they account for thousands (laughs) of visits
(laughter) So....
Mims/I thought you were going to say thousands of overdue fines! (laughter)
Throgmorton/Yeah, so urn, we sure look forward to workin'with ya as time goes on and uh, you
know, the bookmobile I think has been a terrific asset too, a terrific innovation, uh, saw it
parked down in the Robert A. Lee....Center parking lot, you know, yesterday, so....that's
a good thing too. Anybody have any questions for Elsworth?
Mims/I just wanna say welcome, um, and also....I think it's always....we've had great fortune in
this city, urn, to have long-tenured leaders in many positions, including Susan Craig at the
Library,but there is also I think a lot of excitement and opportunity to have a new set of
eyes,urn, new energy,just different perspectives come in, and so,urn, as Jim said,just
really look forward to...you know, next year, what ideas do you come back with or things
that you've seen or, you know,thoughts that you have from your previous experiences of
new ideas or innovations that you'd like to see us, um, try and, um, obviously working
with your very dedicated staff as well, so....welcome!
Carman/Thank you.
Thomas/Yeah, I'd like to say welcome as well and, urn, I'm....a lover of libraries. Often when
we travel I will check out the libraries (laughs) in those places, uh, I'm....I'm really
intrigued with the idea of strengthening your partnerships with the schools. Uh, I think to
me that...it....it addresses one of the challenges I think we have as a city and that is we're
physically growing and so how from one locale we can then begin to reach out and have
a meaningful point of connection with this larger community, and I think the schools, that
makes, you know,just great sense, both in terms of geography, but also, you know, a
certain,urn, segment of the population that I think would really benefit...from that
connection. So I'm very interested to see where that goes.
Carman/I, yeah I agree, it's a critical partnership, and losing the fines on children's material is
the perfect kind of dovetail to that work because it's really hard to establish partnerships
when you're working with a group that can't get the core piece of connection that they
need,um, so by being able to re-welcome, you know, youth and users of children's
materials, it's a perfect time to put energy into that.
Thomas/Uh huh.
Taylor/I'd also like to echo the welcomes and I....I know it's very hard to, uh, come into a
position following some big footsteps, uh, of which Susan Craig was, but obviously
it's....it helps for you to have your feet on the ground with that. You said she'd...good
budgeter, which she had been. I think a big part of that has been the Library Foundation
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and I...and I hope that you have some ideas to....to continue that bond and that...that
strength of getting funding from....from that foundation also.
Carman/ I do. I really look forward to meeting more of the Foundation, urn(mumbled) our
benefactors and supporters. Urn, I have some experience in other communities working
to build,um, sort of a younger demographic into foundation work and getting more non-
traditional people interested in philanthropy around the library. So, urn, I feel like in a
college community, that could be a really exciting, um, opportunity to explore as well.
Taylor/Thank you.
Salih/I also would like to welcome you onboard and I'm sure you're gonna like the city and
you'll like the people who at the Library and in the community. And also I would like to
just thank Susan for her service and wish her really, you know, um, good retirement time,
and also I really wanna just highlight all the program that(mumbled) Library has been
done from the bookmobile. Everything that my, you know, like the other Member of the
Council said, really like the digital media lab and the English classes that you guys
provide and really, really I appreciate the flyer that been done for like many language,
which is really, really good, and making like, uh, the Library work for everyone who live
in the city, and uh, you know, Susan she done a lot good thing with the staff of course of
the Library, and hopefully you follow her footstep, and I'm sure you bringing also like
more, uh, new perspective to the community, and welcome!
Carman/Thank you so much. Yeah, I think it's...it's so, as a librarian and a lover of literature,
it's amazing to come into a community that...that's just part of everything that's done
here. Urn, the...the awareness of...of culture and the importance of learning from each
other, I mean, it's a librarian's dream. So I'm....I'm really pleased to be here.
Mims/I think one of the interesting things I've seen over the years too is the....the growth in the
digital media, and I've kind of been disconnected from the Library for a while and finally
got back and renewed (laughs) renewed my card recently, and urn, it is....it is so nice, and
I think so many people have digital, whether it's' an iPad or a laptop or whatever, and
while I still love actually holding the physical book, it's also really nice to just be able to
get online and be able to search through things by category and very quickly, you know,
whether you want to look at historical fiction or science fiction or whatever, and you
know, put those holds and oh, I check back two days later and it's there, or it tells me, oh,
you're probably six weeks out(laughs) because this is, you know, such a popular, and
you know, I used to always have overdue fines, and I never have 'em(laughs) any more
because those just disappear off your....off your electronic device when they're due, uh,
but for those people who have that access, at least it's another....it's another opportunity,
another mode for people to, um, utilize the resources, which is really nice.
Carman/Absolutely, and another big advantage for libraries is it takes the damage aspect out of
it. So in lieu of circulating a....an audio book on CD, urn, there's really no risk of
damage if it's downloaded or streamed. (several responding) So...benefits all around.
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Throgmorton/Okay! Well let's....let's move to another terrific department. Thank you so much,
Elsworth! (several talking) Keep up the good work, or start the good work, or whatever!
(laughter) Hi, Juli!
Parks &Recreation
Seydell-Johnson/Good morning! My comments are actually fairly brief, I think, compared to
some of my other(laughs) people in front of us, but um, as I think back and I started
thinking this morning about exactly what I wanted to say, it's...it's first of all a sense of
real gratitude that we get a chance to do what we do here in this community, and the
support you've given to Parks and Recreation is amazing, urn and I've got a really
amazing staff; who is committed, urn, to growing and continuing a high level of service
of programs. So I'm very grateful, uh, to have that opportunity here. Urn, our vision is
to be the gathering space for the community, urn, the gathering space in some respects
we're the front yards in that we provide kind of the visual identity and the curb appeal to
the community through, um, our forestry,horticulture, everything you see at our
entrances and around the community, um, to be in the community's back yard, where the
gathering places, the facilities, the, um, events that get people into the same space with
their neighbors. We say we want people to not go home and sit on the couch at night.
We want them to get out, meet their neighbors,have that engagement with their
neighborhoods so that they have kind of a....a community, um, fabric to....to lean on
when they need help or when they, uh, need connection in our community. Our
department is, uh, in, based into four divisions, and I have three of our division heads
here to help answer questions if you need them. Uh, we'll start with the recreation
administration, which is myself and Tammy Newman. Uh, it also includes the Farmers
Market,which I'm happy to say is transitioning well, even with the growth of the
building next door to us. Urn, we have had consistent vendors, consistent, urn, following
and market,uh, users throughout the yeas and that continues to grow. This past year and
the year before we did the SNAP program and then the double-up food bucks, outreached
different areas to get people to come and try the market as a.....as a new food source, and
that went really well. We'll continue that in coming years. Um,we also housed the
AmeriCorps green Iowa team out of recreation administration. So we have three, soon to
be four, full time AmeriCorps team members that work in our community. They do
everything from outreach to energy audits of private homes, urn, to helping with a
number of our recreation programs, some of our STEAM initiatives, and the...and some
of our environmental initiatives. They help with all of that. And then we also have the
government buildings division within recreation administration. Kumi Morris, our
division head for that area. It's interesting sitting through the other departments'
presentations. They talked about some of the...the new things that have happened, the
Police getting the new, uh, meeting room in their area. That's largely Kumi's work and
so we touch a lot of different departments and different facilities throughout the
community. It's changing this year in that we, uh, recently had the....have the
maintenance personnel from the Senior Center come under that umbrella, gives us a little
more, um, variety and a little more ability to cover other buildings as we need to. Urn,
and as LaTasha grows all her programming(laughs) and use of the building, the need for
maintenance and custodial there continues to grow. So, uh, the government buildings
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area is where we have, uh, asked for two....or one and a half new staff. One will be a
sustainability-related position that will help with a number of our sustainability projects,
urn, help with overseeing the maintenance personnel, and then the other is a half-time
custodial, which I'm just as excited about as the full-time position. Uh, half-time
custodial primarily for evenings and weekends coverage. Uh, our buildings are used, urn,
much more than Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00, obviously. They're throughout the
evenings and weekends. This gives us better coverage and better service to the
community. Urn, it's been interesting in that, urn, our customer service through
government buildings has really grown. We have a staff that is very committed, and I'm
happy to say for the first time in a long time we have had no turnover in that staff in the
last year. It's...it's generally an entry-level position and oftentimes they move on to other
City departments, so we are continually retraining custodial staff and we've been very
lucky, urn,to be able to keep some very consistent staff in the last year. So it's been a
real highlight. Urn, next I'll move to cemetery. It's really the easiest one for me (laughs)
to talk about. Urn, very small operation, very, uh, three full-time staff there. No real
changes in the budget, very status quo. It is though one of our customer service areas and
I mentioned this last year or two years ago in our budget, that when you think about
reaching a diverse population,the cemetery reaches everyone, and we have a variety of
different types of funerals and....and ceremonies that happen there, and the staff that's
able to kind of go with the flow and....and help out with whatever's needed for those
different customs, urn,but no changes there in the budget,just status quo, as we move
forward with that. Uh, recreation, changes in recreation, it's a trend toward shorter
classes, family special events. If you notice in our performance measures, the, uh,
attendance looks to be well up, but that's partially in how we're counting and partially in
the type of events and services. We're finding that, um, signing up for an eight-week
class is just not, uh, not what families wanna do anymore. They tend to wanna come
when they wanna come, and they wanna drop in and they want to have flexibility of
when they come and where, so we're moving our services more in that direction. Uh, we
have our new Recreation Superintendent Brad Barker who is here and he has brought
fresh eyes and fresh enthusiasm to that division. We look forward to seeing more in
special events, along with Lyndsey Kent, who is our new Communications and Special
Events person. First one being a large grand opening at Riverfront Crossings Park,which
we're excited about next summer. Urn, and some revitalization to the Party in the Park
program and some of our other community and family special events. Um, also a lot of
outreach. You may have noticed that RaQuishia Harrington, our, urn, Special Populations
and Under-served Communities Supervisor recently was named one of the 10 to Watch
by the Press-Citizen. She is a go-getter. Urn, she is involved with a number of
community outreach programs and a number of, uh, getting our services out and
understanding better what, um, some of the areas of our community we would like to see
for programming, and we continue to see changes in expansion in those areas. So that's
exciting. Then swimming lessons! Um, and aquatics. Uh,probably the most expensive
area for us, and you notice that those budgets increase a lot this year because, largely
because of staffing increases, for increasing the...the minimum wage. Hits lifeguards,
pool attendants, customer service staff, recreation providers,probably the most of any of
our departments, so you see a little more increase there,but with swimming lessons we
have this, um, initiative now that we want every child in Iowa City to learn how to swim,
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and we've done a lot of outreach with that. We're working with the University, urn,
Public Health Division, we're working with some other grants, outreach. We're finding
that, uh, although we have a lot of scholarship available in that area, part of it is it's still a
transportation issue and barriers to transportation. So we're working and talking more
about that. Working with some of the after-school programs to bring the kids directly, uh,
to our facilities for swim lessons, and try to be really creative in how we do the outreach
for those. Okay, and then, uh, Parks and Forestry, seems like we've talked about Forestry
a lot in the last couple months. Um, continues to grow with tree planting. Over 350 trees
planted last year. Um, we are geared up for Emerald Ash Borer response. We are
working on the,uh, getting the contractor in to start treating some of the trees. The tree
inventory went live on the web site yesterday, so you can find that under the Parks and
Rec master plan page. Um, lot of information there that the public will be able to get.
You've seen the copy of the new tree management plan. And, urn,just a real emphasis on
trying to get all of our parks maintained well so that they are places where people wanna
gather, where they feel safe and comfortable gathering. And then where we are
responsible to the ecological resources, uh, the natural areas plan is under implementation
right now. We've done significant efforts at Hickory Hill Park,Terry Trueblood
Recreation Area, Sand Prairie, Ryerson Woods, those were all top priorities of that natural
areas plan and we are getting....getting work done at each of those. More prairie bums
this, uh, fall than we'd ever been able to do, thanks to the weather, but we're getting staff
trained so that we can do those safely, and it's a....it's a real good management tool for
that. Urn.....the one thing that changes in the Parks budget is an increase, uh, for more
contract mowing. Um, we want to contract more areas of our roadside maintenance out
so that our staff can, uh, concentrate more on the neighborhood parks and some of the
other projects that we have happening. Right now a good portion of their time is actually
just spent mowing and we feel like there might be a more efficient way to get that done.
So you do see an increase in that. All right, that's what I have. So I'm available for
questions!
Throgmorton/I'd like to say it's been an exciting year and I look forward to the coming year,
cause there's so much more terrific work that's (mumbled) going to be done. So, bravo to
you, bravo to Zac, uh, sort of bravo to Brad, although he's been (laughter) director only
for a few days! (laughter) Bravo to Kumi and everybody else in the department! I do
want to ask about the...the natural resources management plan, which if I understand
correctly was adopted or whatever back in January. I don...I don't know that our Council
has seen that management plan. I've had an opportunity to look through it. It looks like
quite a good plan, to me. Could you kind of briefly summarize that for us and help us
understand...what it entails and how it's, uh, being, um.....urn.....sort of followed in the
current budget proposal.
Seydell-Johnson/ Sure! I'll start and then I'll have Zac come up and help, if you want more
information. Uh, first of all it is available online, so everyone has access and can look
through it and see it. What it did was we had consultants come in and look at all of our
natural areas and parks. So basically any area of the park that's not an active use. So
they didn't look at athletic fields or areas that are...are, you know, short-mowed and
playgrounds and that sort of thing. They looked at all of our natural areas for how they
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rate...rated ecologically. So were they healthy? Were there steps that could be taken to
make them better? Urn, then the plan prioritized those and we have been following this
prioritized list, so the top areas that it prioritized are areas that, urn, they found to be the
largest areas and have the most potential for increased, um,benefit to the natural areas
information or the management techniques. So Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, Sand
Prairie, Hickory Hill Park, Ryerson Woods are actually the top four, and that's what
we've been concentrating on. Urn, I'll let Zac talk more about specific items that we've
been doing.
Throgmorton/Hi,Zac(both talking) Good to see ya!
Hall/Good morning! (clears throat) Urn, yeah, so as Juli said, uh, the natural areas management
plan really kind of focused on prioritizing I believe 42 sites, um, out of our 50 parks, uh,
so,um, we have been focusing in on, uh, those top four to five. Uh, staff, as Juli
mentioned, um,we were able to do more prairie burns this year, so we were able to
actually, urn, do prescribed bums on about 25 acres, uh, of our site in-house, uh, with our
staff. So that was really great. That's the most that we've done in the last...uh,probably
six years or so. Um....so, uh, we've been contracting out, um, or we're in the process of
contracting out some of that work of those top four to five sites. Um, Hickory Hill,uh,
being....being probably the most noticeable, uh, with, uh, our contractor actually just
starting this last week. Uh, going in and doing some invasive species work,urn,tailoring
it off of the work that the Friends of Hickory Hill have done, urn, and that's part of, uh,
some of that funding is part of the REAP grant,um, that, um, we were awarded last year
and then, uh, we also have a second REAP grant that we'll be....we'll be working on that
as well. So, um....the top four to five sites are....are really going to be looked at, urn,
from a contractual perspective,but then also our staff will be getting in-house,uh, work
as well. One of those examples is Sand Prairie. We've had our horticulture and natural,
uh, areas, uh, staff going in and doing invasive species removal. So,um, I wish we had a
time lapse video or pictures of what it looked like before we started, but it's immensely
different, uh, and we expect that to be the case with a lot of these sites. So if there's any
....any other site specific I....I'd be happy to talk about that.
Mims/When you looked at the...the invasive species removal, I'm assuming with the way you're
contracting that out, you're looking at the most efficient....the reason I ask is I've, and I
think you and I have talked about this (mumbled) always intrigued by the goats-on-the-go
companies that are, you know, bringing in the goats and I've seen time-lapse videos of
those, and it's absolutely incredible, but I've also priced it (laughs) They're not cheap
either! Um, so I don't know if you guys have ever looked at those,priced 'ern, even
consider those as an option at all or....
Hall/We have,um, and we...that was one of the barriers that we ran into,um, also containment.
Um, a number of the sites that we looked at, uh, for using those, it just...with interaction
with the public,urn, it was just not feasible as far as containment of the animals. So, urn,
it's definitely a tool that's out there that we would like to explore, uh, as well with other
tools. That's one of the, urn, one of the things that we really wanna try and do is utilize
everything that we can to...to....to make it better.
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Mims/Thanks!
Salih/I have a question about budget, and I don't know....that's for you? You know on page 219
I see like the donation and grant funding, it been really reducing from years to years, like
say in 2016 was 201, and now(mumbled)the grant, and now it's 27. Like why that?
Seydell-Johnson/Um,just based on the different grants that we have received, and which, uh, is
that in the recreation administration...budget that you're....
Salih/Yes, on the....
Fruin/It's under admin.
Seydell-Johnson/So that, the big bump was when we received several grants for the Riverfront
Crossings natural play area,um, and I noticed that the REAP grant is not shown in there.
That's 200,000, so that may not be a completely accurate number. We received that grant
after we...this information in the budget book,um, so the grants...do vary somewhat,
based on the projects that we have available and what we apply for. Does that answer
your(both talking)
Salih/ ....it's not something like (unable to understand)
Seydell-Johnson/Right. Yeah.
Salih/Okay, and under donations (both talking)
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, donations same thing. Urn, it's always been on our list to really
reactivate the Parks and Rec Foundation. We do have the Foundation through the
Community Foundation. Uh, we did have several significant, uh, donations this year. We
had, I wanna say over 10,000 that came from the neighborhood around Happy Hollow
Park for that project. We had 36,000 in private donations towards the natural play area at
Riverfront Crossings. Um, we received another$10,000 donation for a special events
trailer and supplies or equipment that we'll need as we ramp up our...our community
special events, um, and then our swim lesson scholarships is the other big fundraiser, over
$10,000 there as well for swim scholarships. So although the Foundation hasn't been,
um, extremely active, we are getting a number of donations specific to different parts of
our operations.
Salih/Yeah and I can see here on also page 227,performance measure, uh, measures,uh...like
the budget is 37, where this is all the money that you getted from all the programs you
have on (unable to understand) and I understand that the rest of it will come from the
general fund, but um....this programs, you mean the programs that really...been like....
you already establish it and you know this year you gonna have this such program and
this is every years,but say the use of the space, you don't budget that, right, cause you
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don't know how much....how many people gonna come and use the space and how much
we're gonna get out of it.
Seydell-Johnson/Um, we do budget for facility rentals, based on past years. Um, I think you're
talking about the percentage of recovery for the recreation programs being at 37%, um,
that has been something we haven't been much focused on in recent years, been more
focused on access and equity, and doing more outreach and....and programs with lower
prices to try to get more people into the programs than a fee recovery, but that's overall
all of the recreation programs, a direct cost, urn, versus the revenue that they bring for
registrations.
Salih/I understand, yeah I...because I just see like consistently say like between 36, 38, 37. It
been like over the years. That means this is like really...happening.
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah and it balances out, urn, you know, some of our programs have higher
revenue generation, like our summer camps or...used to be adult softball, used to be one
that brought in a lot of revenue,urn, whereas the special events are all free. So it
balances out,but it tends to balance out right around that 37%.
Salih/ Sure! I really would like to see this space being used more by the people who cannot
afford it. You know, uh,just the thing that we talk about (mumbled) we talk about with
the police about we need to keep our children out of trouble. That means they need to
engage in programs. You know, soccer players they have to go and pay$100 a month for
each child so they can engage in soccer, like go out and play soccer. (mumbled) like
some community they need to come and find space, that's why I really would like to see
the space of the Recreation Center being open to the communities. Those people are
paying tax, they need to have something, and I know a lot of...and also you mentioned
before the, uh(unable to understand) gym, I don't know, does that belong to the City
or....
Seydell-Johnson/Urn, we have a....an agreement with the School District that we have certain
hours that we can use it.
Salih/I guess evening time, please if you can open that for the public so like...because there is a
lot of need and we don't have a lot of space for those people to come, and if you can open
it to the public it would be great because, you know. Uh, you know what happen,
accident that we talk about before and I would like really to see people using the....the
gym at the Rec Center for free. Now like really they have to pay for it.
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, and as you know, gym time is kind of a precious commodity this time of
year,but we do have a number of open gym hours that are free, as well as our fitness
center, completely free. Showers at the Robert A. Lee completely free (both talking)
Salih/I talking only about the gym though.
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, so we have a lot of free services, urn, already.
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Salih/Yeah, I'm talking really about the gym. I don't know what the other Councilors think, but
I really think that it should be really open for free,because $70 an hour is just too much
....for the people, for the minority people, for the kids just to come and play soccer.
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah I don't think that we have very many....I mean the groups that pay that
are the ones that generally come in and are renting say, uh, Mercer Scanlon for the full
weekend. We have volleyball tournaments or gymnastic tournament. That's why we
charge a rental,because it's not available then to the general public during that time, and
it offsets the hours where it is free and open, um, and it generally is open for(both
talking)
Salih/But if there is a group of people they would like to come and play soccer, and they wanna
have like two hour of like, uh, renting it, and they cannot afford it, what should they do?
Seydell-Johnson/Um, as we talked before, it's that they come and talk with us,because there are
lots of options for them to...to do that.
Salih/Yeah but I....I just, you know, mean I need something for everyone....to be putting there,
somewhere, so the community know they don't have to come to you, or they don't have
to know me so I can come and like refer them to you. I need something really to be work
for everyone in this community so they can have access to use the Recreation Center.
Fruin/I think if I could jump in, I....I think that's, you know, if Council wants to discuss that
policy that's fine. Right now it's a struggle, because we have to balance the...the reserve
time with the open time. Certainly it could be free and open at any time, but then you're
gonna scru...uh, struggle to hold, urn,basketball, you know, like I coach my daughter's
basketball league. We had to have practice time. So the gym can't be free and open
during those practice times. Urn, there's others, you know, if you don't want to host
tournaments, uh, volleyball tournaments or that type of thing and would rather have it
open, that's a fair conversation to have, but....most communities with the rec centers and
I think what we've always done here is we've tried to balance—here's some open gym
times and then here's some reserved gym times, uh, to meet(both talking)
Salih/Yeah but I...I mean like we have the one in Grant Wood! No one's using that! You know,
we can open it at the evening time.
Seydell-Johnson/Actually it's....it's kinda the opposite. We have a hard time getting it open
cause there's so many people that want to use it, urn, so I....with gyms especially during
the winter months, there's such a demand, um, that that's why people want specific rental
time to...reservation times,because the demand is so high, urn, throughout all the School
District facilities and our facilities and the University, so...
Salih/I really wanna talk to Council Member, if we can discuss this more later, not today of
course, and like figure out a way we can open the Recreation Center for the people who
cannot afford it, and this is what keep our children out of trouble, will help the police,
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will do a lot of kind of things. That's why we need just to sit down and talk about it, and
see how we can change it.
Mims/I think the place to start would be maybe a report from staff of exactly what the
scheduling is and what percentage is rental (several talking) time is rental,what time is
free,just so at least we have a starting place of what's currently being done.
Throgmorton/(several talking) ...staff report we could discuss (both talking)
Salih/Yeah, sure! I agree!
Taylor/Then include the Grant Wood also, as far as the use of that and how...how,what times of
the day or evening, and how many folks using it,that'd be great to know. Thank you.
Mims/I think with any of the school gyms that we have contracts with, share contracts (both
talking)
Seydell-Johnson/And that's really the one that we use the most, so....
Throgmorton/Okay, any more questions for Juli?
Thomas/I just wanted to....speak on a couple of themes. I'm...I'm really pleased with the, you
know,the work that the department is doing since I've been here. I...I think it's fair to
say there's really been virtually a renaissance of our parks and recreation system. Uh,
certainly from the park side, which I...I'm, my background was more on the park side,
not recreation, but uh, you know the work that's being done to elevate and....and bring
back to life basically. Uh,the neighborhood park system is....is really impressive and I
think it builds on, you know,the work that we're doing with the schools and, you know,
these other aspects of our....our public realm in terms of improving the quality of life.
(clears throat) I also am intrigued with this notion of competency,which I think, uh, you
know there's (laughs)I guess you could say the schools are about competency,but it's
interesting how you've taken on that...that role in terms of swimming,um, a range of
skills (mumbled) I was very entertained when Jim and I went on the tour that this,uh,
with Cardigan Park, that you have the fireplace(laughs) and you mentioned how in Iowa
people like swimming, I guess,maybe a similar issue, urn,many of the residents around
Cadigan Park did not know how to build a fire. So this provided them with an
opportunity to learn that skill, which is kind of a basic skill,but it sort of speaks to the
competency question. Um,the development of the master plans, the natural areas plan,
which I did forward by the way to the Friends of Hickory Hill Park. I'm not sure that
they had seen it. I hadn't seen it. So they're aware of it now. Um, one thing I would
mention, and I guess it probably relates most to the neighborhood parks, would be an idea
that I raised a couple of years ago and that is, um,what...what would be the minimal
viable project, uh, in other words what....what we, what can we expect in a renovation to
include as part of that renovation? And I think what triggered it in my mind was reading
the, uh, report that we received in a recent information packet from Lucas Farms on
Highland Park. And it mentioned that,um....you know, the....the accessibility
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improvements have been made and they're hoping to have a couple of benches. And I, it
sounded like, and maybe you can confirm for me, uh, whether this is accurate or not, that
the park, that the City was not going to be funding benches for that facility, is that...
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah, we have (several talking)
Thomas/ ...have funded benches? Okay....
Seydell-Johnson/Yes!
Thomas/ ...so that's a,that's coming, what would be the schedule on that?
Seydell-Johnson/Probably in the spring(both talking)
Thomas/Okay, cause I...I went by the site and I didn't see any benches, and I....I kind of got the
sense that it was maybe something the community would be....fundraising for, but...
we're....we're covered on that.
Seydell-Johnson/Yeah,uh, sometimes it's just having the different neighborhoods let us know
what their needs are. We made a big effort to be out at Party in the Parks and listen in,
and there are several small things that people have asked for over the last couple years
that we're actually able to do. We just didn't know that they were big requests of those
neighborhoods. So...
Thomas/Well I would say, you know, in my experience,having benches in a neighborhood park
is sort of a....just part of the minimal viable project. So....you know,just...and it sounds
like you're, I don't know how it was triggered, but you know as we look forward to...to
renovations that we, you know, accommodate,not only with picnic tables, which...and
there's a gazebo there, but also...bench searing as (both talking)
Seydell-Johnson/I would agree and....and we're getting better at looking more comprehensively
at each park as we go in for renovations. Um, we've been playing catch-up for the last
couple years in some of the....some of the budgets we received for some of those early-
on projects were smaller, and so they weren't quite as comprehensive as what you'll see
like at Willow Creek next year. Um, I will also tell you though that very often(laughs)
benches are one of the first things that we look at cutting out when we have to make, you
know, some trims for, um, budgetary reasons. So, urn, doesn't mean that's right, but
that's one of the things that at$1,000 a bench usually, you can make some difference in
the other items, um, on the budget, and it's also that they're available for memorial
dedications and we receive probably a good 10 or 12 of those each year too, so we try to
direct those to the spots where we weren't able to place them.
Thomas/Okay.
Taylor/ I wanted to thank you for, uh, listening to Council Members and the community on the
Emerald Ash Borer,uh, topic, uh,because it obviously was very important to the
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community and to us, uh, to do what we can to....to salvage the trees and not just,uh,
demolish all of them and so it's....it's great to see, uh,the injection, um, costs in the
budget and hope that it can continue to be a priority(mumbled)just for the health and
beauty of our community it's very important, so thank you for listening to us on that.
Throgmorton/Okay! Thank you, Juli, uh, everybody's doin' a terrific job in the department.
Thanks for everything you're doin'!
Seydell-Johnson/Hope you get done in time today to go and enjoy the parks (laughter) That's
what I'll be doing!
Throgmorton/Okay! We can turn to the Senior Center. I see LaTasha's out there. I think I see a
School District member, am I right? Looks a little bit like Ruthina! Hi! Welcome! All
right, and welcome to you, LaTasha. This is your first time up,just like(both talking)
little while ago.
Senior Center
DeLoach/Urn yeah(laughs)
Throgmorton/You've been here more than four days! (laughs)
DeLoach/ I have,uh, four minutes so,urn(several talking and laughing)
Throgmorton/You're good!
DeLoach/ I also brought some guides for you all that I will leave at you all's discretion to be able
to look at, if you haven't had an opportunity. Um, I have my notes so I can be ready.
Um, okay! Well, good....good morning! (several responding) For the last couple
minutes of it! (laughs) It's my pleasure to present the City of Iowa City Senior Center
fiscal year 2020, um, budget. Uh, little bit of a narrative for you all, um, I can imagine
(laughs)there are many thoughts goin'to you all's budget decisions and uh, we have an
amazing opportunity to improve the quality of lives, not only for residents of Iowa City,
but you have the opportunity to positively impact future residents and visitors with the
decisions that you all will make on our budget for the, over the next couple months. So
thank you for considering the Senior Center budget. I will provide for you all a brief
overview of the Senior Center, a couple challenges and needs, and of course the beautiful
vision of future programming that needs your support. The mission of the Center is to
promote optimal aging by creating opportunities to support wellness, social connections,
community engagement, and life-long learning, among adults over 50 years and other
community members. Uh, the Center, uh, not only serves individuals over 50,but we
will continue to work, um, and collaborate in the community to do inter-generational
program, um, and we're gonna be moving, actually just beyond our,uh, college-age
group that we have been working with over the last couple years,to makin' sure that
we're incorporating all of; uh, of members of the community, across biological age, uh,
because,um, seniors usually have families and grandkids and so I even sometimes bring
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my children in to infuse some more of that feel into the Center currently. Urn,the Senior
Center is a 24,000-square foot facility. If you haven't been in there,we welcome you to
come and I will give you a personal tour(laughs) if you would like. Um, and we have
been there for over 35 years, opened in 1990,uh, 1981, excuse me, and actually we are
currently at one of the highest numbers of our membership that we've had in many,many
years. Urn, we're over 16....1,650, we've over 1,650 at this time, and Monday is a big
day for us because people will be coming back from vacation. So we are expecting
(mumbled) day and we will go beyond that number. So we're very proud of that! The
Center operates with four full-time staff, including myself. We have two full-time
custodians, which are in our budget,but are a part of now our Building, uh, Parks and
Rec with the Building Maintenance, uh, crew over there. We have three half-time
employees, and we're also supported by a few work study students and over 600
volunteers, which have varied capacities,um,because honestly with seven staff, we
probably could not run that entire facility. Um, it's four floors, there's lots of folks in and
out of that building all day long, so we do depend on, uh, our wonderful volunteers to
help us with those classes and programming, etc. (mumbled) Um, we also have our
leadership from within our membership, as well as, uh, we are....we have our own
Friends of the Center, which is our 501 C(3) endowment, which assists us financially,
um, with giving some of our financial goals from, uh, for our fiscal year, from year to
year. Um,we're very fortunate to have the incredible staff that we have. Has made my
job incredibly easier, um,because they have all have tenure over at least eight years. So,
um, they love the Center. They're dedicated to the Center and I'm very proud to, uh,
represent them and members today. Um, I say that the Senior Center is four floors of fun,
so please come(laughs) and um, engage with us. Uh, we are centrally located, obviously
right there on the corner of downtown,which I think it's really important,um, because it
allows elders, and I....I use that term respectively, it's cultural, uh, language that I'm
using, um, to keep them front and center. Um,many times as we're fighting, uh, ageism,
that's something that's really important is to make sure that we're keeping folks who are
elders in our community front and center by maintain' a downtown district that allows us
that opportunity, so that when the members and community members are leavin' our
building,they're also able to participate in activities downtown, walk down to the
Farmers Market, etc.,um,by,um,being right there on the corner. Um, each season the
Center offers over 200 programs, and when we say seasons—summer, spring and fall.
Um, we have our guidebooks that go out with over 200 programs. We also offer
important services,um, which includes, uh, tax aid for our low and moderate seniors over
60. We also provide senior health insurance, uh, information program, so assist folks
with Medicare and Medicaid plans, insurance, etc. Uh, legal counseling, we do have
volunteer attorneys who come in provide legal counseling. Um, advanced care planning,
which is,um, very important for people to be able to have in case there is a severe illness
that comes along, so that their wishes are honored. So it's actually called Honoring Your
Wishes. Um, and also the Center also houses a couple inner,uh, in-house agencies, like
the Visiting Nurses Association, which provides like a free, uh, foot clinic and other VNA
services. Um, we have a partnership with Public Health, which provides HIV, Hepatitis
C which is very important to our population to be tested because it's somethin'that can,
uh, be in your system for a long time and people are unaware. So we'll also be increasing
that, urn, partnership, uh, which'lI also allow us some opportunities to increase grant
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funds, um, as we continue to build and figure out what that Johnson County Health,
University of Iowa Public Health relationship looks like. We're very excited about that
and what that will bring to us in the future! We also have Senior Center TV,which means
we have our own YouTube channel. We're very proud of that,but it also allows, urn,
elders in our community to have opportunity to interact with new and changing
technology,urn, as well as our tech hours that we have that are allowing,uh, folks to be
able to, uh....uh, learn new devices. Lot of times people get these wonderful phones for
Christmas, and they're like"I don't know what to do with this exactly" (laughs) I think
I've even helped a couple times people have come in"How do you open this,"and so it's
just bein' able to do some of those small things that are such a huge help for people to be
able to be in contact with their family. What is face time? My granddaughter wants to do
face time with me,how do I do that? Urn, bein'able to help with those things is also a
powerful tool that we're able to have at the Senior Center. Um, one example of...that we
have also is with our renting of space. Um, it allows us to bring other folks, other groups,
and we'll work on advertisin' and marketing plan this year, urn,to be able to expand our
reach there, so that more people know that those are available to them. Urn, I said for
years I've been here lookin'for a space and I had no idea I could use the Senior Center,
but that secret's out, and I'm tellin'everyone, so....we will be definitely doing that! We
also house two art galleries. Um, any sales from our art galleries, we receive 25%, so
we'll also be increasing the marketing of our art galleries because it's amazing art there,
if you haven't had a chance to check it out. It changes monthly and you're welcome to
check it out on the first floor in the assembly room, as well as the second floor hallway.
Urn, we are partnering more and more with departments,including Communications,
Parks and Rec, as well as the Library. One of our recent,um....uh, partnerships with the
Rec....uh, Rec Center was using Mercer Park, for example,to do our SHIP counseling.
So that it was in the neighborhood. We looked at our demographics and the research
showed that the people who use the Center, and most of them are comin'from our
eastern,uh, section of our community, so we wanted to make sure we offered,uh, SHIP
counseling to folks. That also alleviates some of the pressure from parking, um, so that
folks can come in for their hour, get their,uh, assistance with their Medicare or Medicaid,
and able to go back to their homes, uh, and that's some of,kind of a....a little bit of a
vision of how we can also reach those populations of folks by servin'them in their
neighborhoods. The Senior Center is a building,um, the Center is all of us, all of us in
the community, and so we'll be also lookin'at some opportunities in the future. Okay!
Tryin'to stay on my time! (laughs) Urn,we also have increased our,uh, social media
presence, by working more with Communications, by bein'able to bring in City Channel
4 for some of our,urn.....events and uh, concerts and things, and people actually from
across the country have been reaching out about how impressed they are with, um,the
ability to see what's going on,uh, in the Senior Center live. So we're really proud of
that. Urn, at present we are fully staffed. Um, about a year ago we were not. Urn, and
our annual goal is to make sure that we're reaching our 30%of our budget, which we will
be reaching,um, and we'll be reaching these goals through some potential grants that are
corrin'up, urn, and this year we'll be adding our first annual fundraiser,which I'm not
about to tell y'all what it is(laughs) cause we still workin'on it (laughs) so we will be
makin' sure that we have that. Um, we also worked this year to work on a seven-year
facilities plan, cause the Senior Center has needs, urn, and you'll be seein'that probably
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in our CIF'requests, as well as a little bit in this budget. Um,we have some challenges,
uh....uh,that we have and some needs, urn, some small increases of some things you'll
see in our budget, and some of them are based on how do we increase our diversity of
participation. Um,the....our members have approached me and our Senior Commission
has also charged me with assisting us in, um, increasing our current membership and
infusing our membership with residents of under-represented members of our community,
um, through race, ethnicity,nationality, etc. We currently serve these populations,but we
can work to improve that,whether I'm sitting down with meetings with folks from the
Congolese community or Sudanese community,um, etc.,we are definitely already having
those meetings and we'll be working on that. Urn, we're doin'an amazin'job, um, and
we're excited about it. Some of those improvements will also include, um,materials
befit'translated,um, so there are some increases you'll see in our, urn,programming, and
that goes to some translation. We can't translate all of our guides, but if we can at least
get some of the basic things in that book translated, especially our services, I think that
can be greatly improved and really be able to do some more outreach in the community.
Um, some challenges,those are challenges. Those are things that we want to accomplish
with the goals of the strategic plan. Um, also you'll see the request for consultation. We
need to do an ADA,um, consultation for our building to make sure that we are able to
serve our population and serve 'ern well, so you will see that. Um, we have some basic
needs. We need a bike rack, um,because, um, we would like to support your strategic
plan, as well as we have members who really want to be able to be right there at the door
and come on in and do their yoga class so....um, some of those things are in there, um, as
well as some, uh,basic, uh, green energy ask for light fixtures, etc. Um, it's a historic
building so we do need to change those out. Um, there's some painting, etc.,that needs,
and one of our proud projects that we're working on currently is the opening of our senior
food exchange,urn, following the free little pantry,um,national project, of opening, urn,
free for people to shop and donate as much as they like, food,because the reality is we
have seniors who are running out of funding,because they didn't, uh,plan enough for
their retirement,urn, or they run out of food stamps, and so,uh, we want to be able to
provide that. It's open to the community, um, with.... obviously with our population in
mind, um, but we will be havin'that on our ground floor, on the Washington Street
entrance,um, so that anyone is able to come in. We have people from all different
populations that are in our building, um, daily, and so we want to make sure that people
have things that they need. Um, and so as I said,have a big vision for the Center(laughs)
with the support of our Commission,urn,members, and community, um....and um, I
thank you for your time!
Salih/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Well bravo, LaTasha. You know the Senior Center's a terrific asset, but it's really
wonderful to see the vision, energy, and enthusiasm that you're bringing to bear on it. It
makes me very optimistic.
DeLoach/Me too!
Throgmorton/Okay, folks, any questions?
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Teague/I have to say that you don't sound like you've been there just since like August. Um, I
have a lot of active and gray friends is what I call them,uh, that participate up at Senior
Center, and I can tell ya, every last one of them just acknowledged the work that you're
doin' and they're very appreciative for the life, uh, and the energy that has even,uh, been
rejuvenated, so thank you for all that you do! Yes!
Salih/Yeah, thank you.
DeLoach/All right! Thank you.
Throgmorton/We can't let `er get away that easy (laughter) So I take it that means nobody
wants to ask any questions, right? All right, good deal! We're gonna take a break for
lunch and stuff like that, and I want to alert y'all—I need to drive home to feed my dog
and cats. They're pretty mad right now so....
(BREAK)
Community Program Budgets:
Neighborhood and Development Services
Throgmorton/Let's turn to Neighborhood and Development Services and Tracy! Yeah.
Hightshoe/Well thank you. I'm Tracy Hightshoe with Neighborhood and Development
Services. Urn, thanks for the opportunity to present about my department. Um, we are
the department that's had a lot of change this past year. Last January I was appointed.....
well I was appointed Director in January. So last year I did it as interim. So this year
I've had a year's experience, urn, but my department, about a quarter of our department,
and we have 42 FTEs,have been hired since 2018. The management team for NDS, what
you see is the Director, MPO, Neighborhood Services, Development Services—three out
of the four have been in their positions since 2018. Um, Kent is new. Um,part of this
budget was....I saw on the agenda, was broken down by Community Development MPO.
So I thought if you had some, urn, a lot of questions, if we got into the weeds, Emily's
here representing MPO. She brought her mosquito repellent, she's ready to go if I need
her(laughter) So Kent is out of town, so Emily was gracious...said she'd come and back
me up, so...um, I'm gonna present what our department does and the three divisions what
they do. After that, I've tried to boil down what our department does. Basically we plan,
we build, we care. So basically out of those, if it's not planning or building, anything that
our community development(mumbled), I'm gonna classify as care. So...under
Neighborhood Services we have three divisions—the Housing Authority—they operate,
um, about 1,300 vouchers in Johnson County, Iowa County, and parts of Washington
County. We have 81 public housing units in Iowa City. We have the Housing
Inspections. We just hit a milestone—we have 19,032 rental units that we inspect on a
biannual basis. We are moving about 8,000 of those units to an annual basis. Um, in the
last budget you approved an FTE to help us with that. It's a....it's a task, um, we inspect
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more so I think than any other community in Iowa City, but it is to guarantee the health
and well-being of our housing units in Iowa City. And we have the Community
Development. So Community Development represents all those programs that we
administer federal funds for, like Community Development Block Grant, Home funds.
We administer the UniverCity program. We have public art. I have a cheat sheet
(laughter) We have the economic development programs, usually targeted for our
residents who are lower income. So we...we do these. Business basic workshops for
early stage entrepreneurs that are typically low income. And....we do the Aid to
Agencies, that process where we allocate money to our local non-profits that serve the
low to moderate-income community. Um, that's basically Neighborhood Services. Oh,
and we do do neighborhood outreach. So we staff, there's 33 neighborhood associations
in Iowa City that we help coordinate their meetings, get information, have good neighbor
policy meetings. Um, Development Services, that is your building wing. So they host
our urban planners and our Building Inspection. We've had phenomenal building activity
in the last two years and I'm gonna talk about that under critical accomplishments. But
they...they facilitate our whole land development process. So comprehensive planning,
annexing, zoning, subdivisions, site plans, building permits, the code enforcement wing.
We have our flood plain manager. We do the historic preservation program. That's all
under Development Services. And then the MPO is our transportation wing of our
department. They complete traffic studies, traffic analysis, prepare and administer
transportation related plans. They funnel our federal and state transportation funds to
projects in our community. Um,many of you are probably on the urbanized (mumbled)
board, that is their, um....uh, what's it called (mumbled)policy board, um, and then we
also have our administrative staff, which is basically me and Janet, and we have the
Sustainability Coordinator, and she is, um, Brenda Nations. She helps make sure that our
department, our initiatives, and the things that we do have a sustainability component in
them. And I'm gonna talk about them under our critical accomplishments this past year.
So under the planning part of our department, we completed the City's first climate action
adaption plan in September of 2008, which was a monumental effort by us and our
community partners. We purchased energy management software and transferred 10
years of utility data into the new system. This is gonna help, especially the new position
that's proposed, determine where our energy use is coming from, how we can lower it,
how we can reduce our costs. We adopted an affordable housing policy in the
comprehensive plan that if you are annexing into Iowa City and you have more than 10
residential units,um, you have to have 10%that are affordable. We completed the
downtown historic property survey and study. We received three certified local
government grants. It was an intensive survey, the Friendly Farm property, the National
Registra...National Register nomination of Clinton and railroad depot historic grant, and
the preservation plan for the Summit Street monument grant. Um....we also, the MPO
completed their 2023 transportation improvement program. That's approved by the
Federal Transit Association of the Federal Highway Administration and IDOT. For
building, like I said, we had a phenomenal, we continue to have strong development in
the Riverfront Crossings in the downtown. We excedd... we exceeded 2,000 permits for
the 10`s year in a row, with a total construction value of 216 million. The 2008 permit
value we just pulled before I came today was 192.8 million. Our 10-year average is 169.
Due to our development activity over the last three years, we're really pushing up our
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average. Urn,we don't think we're gonna sustain that. We're going...probably cause a
lot of that is large residential projects, and as we go and the vacancy rates increase, we'll
probably see less, urn, in the near....in the near future. Um, but because of that
development activity, in 2008 we either...we saw the completion of The Rise, 319
Madison, The Crossings. We're still under construction for Hieronymus Square, The
Chauncey,Augusta Place of 602-628 S. Dubuque Street. So it's keeping our Building
division very busy between the site plan reviews, the inspections, certificate of
occupancies. The UniverCity program, we have purchased 68 homes to date. We have
sold 65. And I'm gonna send you a memo, probably in the next month or two about that
UniverCity and we're gonna have a conversation probably in the next work session. I
was part of the....the staff that applied for that grant in 2010, so I've been through the
program. A lot of the goals that we had for the program, we have accomplished. Like,
um, in Douglass Court,the original goals was to stabilize neighborhoods and bring a
balance of renter and owner occupied. We've done that in the Douglass Court
neighborhood, so we've had a couple opportunities to buy more homes, but if we buy
more homes in that neighborhood,while it's affordable to owner occupied, it's also
affordable to rental. So if we buy more we're kind of...at this point, taking away from
affordable rental in that neighborhood,but we have that mix. We have that 60/40, 50/50
mix in that neighborhood. We're seeing a lot of....lot of housing, uh, we'll have 68.
We've clustered those homes on Douglass, Burlington, Governor, Gilbert, and
Davenport, and you're going to see me in the next year also, well not next year but the
next month or two give an update about where I feel our affordable housing dollars
should go, and the reasons why, and we can go into that now or later, but I'm pretty sure
it's going to be on the next work session topic. Um, we've installed bike lans...bike lanes
on Camp Cardinal, and we've received and approved 12 projects under our historic
preservation grant. Um, under the care, we've had significant process on the affordable
housing action plan— 13 of the 15 action steps are completed. Huge milestone was the
Cross Park Place. Y'all know what Cross Park Place is? Um, we issued a certificate of
occupancy on 12/28, so it is set for occupancy. We provided initial funds, of CDBG
funds, to buy that lot,but not in only financial contribution. Back in 2016 we changed
our zoning,because if you remember when Shelter House wanted to create their shelter
on Southgate, urn, we bought the land with CDBG funds,but it took seven years to get
through the court system, urn,before they're allowed to build. So we...we went, we
changed it in our zoning code to allow it in a commercial zone, urn, then in 2018 our...
we worked with the Housing Authority, and for that project we went back and we had a
targeted preference to accept Shelter House's missions and we did pro...project based
vouchers to help them with their viability long-term. So it's a huge project that evolved
our department and we're thrilled to see it's going to start accepting tenants this month.
We'll also start to move, um, maybe the 16th action step,we're working with Shelter
House now on a risk mitigation landlord fund. So for those hard to house tenants about
what we can do to assure the tenant...or the landlord, that if any damages to the property
there will be a....there'll be a fund that will help with claims up to $3,000. So that might,
you're gonna see that soon,urn,but that's like the 16`b step we're working on with the
Shelter House. I already mentioned the 19,000 rental units how this year we stepped up
and we're looking at inspections on an annual basis for....group homes, fraternities,
sororities,multi-family built before 1996, single-family duplex properties with four or
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more bedrooms. Urn, with...great news to report is we've seen a reduction in housing,
zoning,nuisance complaints. In fiscal year 14 we had 1,700. Fiscal year 18 we saw
1,400, which is great. We're seeing a reduction through a lot of our efforts,um,we
actually work with the police, we have another inspector, that go out. Now in fiscal year
19 you're gonna see this number spike (laughs) Um,we hired a full-time person who's
out there doing proactive enforcement. So we track all of our complaints, no matter
whether it's a call, a neighbor, whatever, urn, if we have a person going out to the City
and proactively, you're gonna see that...so we've had to decline and next year you're
going to probably see huge....huge spike. Urn, I think Matt's already logged in 800
so...he's doing what you hired him to do! (laughs) Urn....we did implement a rental
permit cap limitation in the University-impacted neighborhoods at 30%. .We're seein'
what that does, and that'd be part of my recommendation as the University program. Our
Housing Authority continues to be very effective. They have a...average 98 housing
choice voucher utilization rate. Compare that with a 92% for the state and U.S.
government. So we're very effective with what we do, we get the vouchers out and we
utilize them. Uh, since 1998, 197 families have moved to home own...home ownership
with assistance from the Housing Authority. And Pauline's aware of this, we hosted our
first symposium with the College of Public Health, that intersection between health and
housing. You're gonna start seeing more initiatives from our department about how
important housing and the quality of housing impacts low-income residents. So we'll
work with our sustainability coordinator. We're gonna work with different partners. It's
an exciting lime in community development, cause for 20 years I worked with the
partners that we had, you know, our normal partners. The healthcare sector, bringing in
their....their advice,their guidance, and their funds will be exciting, because we both
have the same goals, is to improve the health of our residents, and so how we can work
together. You'll see more initiatives like that from...from here on out. In progress
initiatives, so things that we're still working on. Under the planning wing, we are
formulating and adopting the South District form based code. You're gonna see the
Opticos agreement on the ne...right, the next....where's Eleanor? Okay(laughs) the next
Council meeting. Um, with your approval we'll seek a downtown National Res...
National Historic Register designation. We'll start working on our fringe area and
growth area. Urn, so we'll work with Engineering to determine where our growth area is
now, based on water and sewer, and we'll work with Johnson County to determine what
we want to see in our growth area, what we want to allow in our two...two-mile fringe
area agreement. Urn,we'll continue the affordable housing action plan. We have those
two left, urn,the tax abatement and the regulatory changes. And I can't stress enough
how much the regulor...regulatory changes will assist. When we deal with affordable
housing,there's only so much we can control. Out of those 19,000 rental units,between
our Housing Choice vouchers, our public housing units, and our CDBG and Home
assisted, we only assist about 5 to 6% of the rental market. So that means 95% of the
rental market is...is private. So what we can do to work with them to lower afford....
lower housing costs will be huge, um.... We'll also start implementing the climate action
adoption plan. We'll look for ways. I think Brenda will be releasing the climate action
grants for fiscal year 19 in the next month or so, and she's looking at local foods
initiatives, about what we'll fund in the next year. Under building,we're implementing
our new permitting software. This has been a challenge, to say the least. Urn, we use a
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Tidemark system that they stopped functionality, or they stopped servicing, a few years
back. Urn, I'm not an IT person, so good Mike's not here to correct me cause I'm gonna
probably say a whole bunch of things that are wrong(laughter) Something about security
patches and we were wreaking havoc amongst the whole City,um, to keep Tidemark
functional. So, um, we know we have problems with that. We know we have to change
systems. Um, you'll also see a new type...or a new system called Tyler that complements
Munic...it's part of the Munic family that we use now. So that will be all of our
permitting, land use software, rental permits, um....and you'll have that memo in your
Council packet, I think now, right?
Fruin/Tuesday.
Hightshoe/ So...you understand why we're changing systems, but they probably won't start until
May, and then we're looking at an 18-month window. So that means IT has to keep our
system going for another 18 months that it's unsupported, as we try to transfer to a new
system. Um, we're working with Brenda and we'll probably start working with the
Green Iowa AmeriCorps, so when we go into affordable housing programs, especially
rehab,then we'll have that energy toolkit, energy efficiency toolkit to give all of our
homeowners. So, there's some federal regulations, federal limitations that we can't do
everything we want to when we go into a home, but if we work with Green Iowa
AmeriCorps, they can winterize, they can replace light bulbs. We can work together to
improve,uh, hopefully we're trying to bring low-income residents' utilities down and
air.....and have safer homes. Um, and as you're aware, we're working on the South
District Home Ownership Program. Um, I'm probably going to advocate in the next few
months about...as the UniverCity program either dwindles down or we just have one or
two homes a year, that we can focus on other areas of town,um, especially those pre-
1980 neighborhoods. If we look at affordability and where we have the most bang for the
buck and how we can help the most low-income residents with home ownership, for a
home that's not 100 years old, that you don't have to worry about the foundation
crumbling, that we can go in there and make it affordable, and we can invest in
neighborhoods that we have not invested before. So you'll be seein' something from me
pretty soon about that. Um, we're implementing the bike master plan. This spring,
summer you're going to see buffered bike lanes on Dodge and Governor; conversion of
regular bike lanes to buffered lanes on Market, Jefferson; completion of road diets on
Clinton, Madison, Mormon Trek;bike routes on Myrtle, Greenway and Dewey, Summit.
(mumbled) And then exciting for me is that we approved two LIHTC, low income
housing tax credit projects. They are competitive, they're hard to get, and so we will
have two. We just finished the Three Diamond, the senior housing on William Street.
Urn, I think that has 36 units for seniors. Urn, we have a 33-unit building going up on
Dubuque Street, um, under the Housing Fellowship,under that Del Ray Limited
Partnership. And then on Rochester we have a family LIHTC project(mumbled)provide
36, so that's 60.....over 60 units of affordable housing that will be for 30 years under
LIHTC, and that'll be starting construction soon. So that's great to have two projects in
our community, about the size of our community. Urn, I've been here 20 years and I've
never known two to go on at any one time. We usually get one every three or four years
so....it's great news! Urn, under the care, we're going to try to (mumbled)having our
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presence with neighborhood associations community, getting our message out, and
getting feedback from people that we typically haven't always done. We're gonna keep
working on that. Um, we've changed some of the PIN grants, so that some of our very
low-income neighborhoods do...are not that organized. They're not going to go through
an annual allocation cycle, so we have opened up some of the PIN grants so you can
apply any time during the year. You don't have to necessarily be part of the formal
association,just has to benefit that neighborhood. So we're doing a trial period right
now. So this year any neighborhood can come in and if they're doing something for that
neighborhood, cause I think we just funded our first one was a Thanksgiving celebration
that was at the church, the Parkview Church.
Teague/The Spot.
Hightshoe/Yeah. So that was one of our first Invest Health grants. The second will be when the
Shelter House opens Croc Park....Cross Park Place, they're having a neighborhood
celebration. So we're gonna help fund that too. So that's what we're trying to do to get
people to apply to benefit neighborhoods, from folks that aren't used to applying just
once a year (mumbled) apply for a PIN grant. Um, we're gonna continue to work with
our inter-departmental and our outside partnerships. We started Healthy Homes. We've
completed five to six. It's a partnership with the College of Nursing. So if we get a
referral from the school nurse, they say there's a child with asthma in the home, we will
go out there as long as they're low to moderate-income, below that 80%. We do the
rehab, um, we do rehabs at limited....that impacts air quality in the house. College of
Nursing comes in and they do an education visit with the family. We'll continue that
program until we're out of funds. We've had three years of Building Business Basics.
Those entrepreneurial classes,uh, for early-stage entrepreneurs. Um....one will come up
in May and we're looking for feedback about if people wanna see a different format, if
we change what do we do, but we're planning. We have the micro-loan funding. We
partner with MidWest One. We're looking at a partnership with JPEC, maybe to do more
of that,um, that early guidance, the technical assistance,because if someone comes up to
me and wants to start a business, I really have no place...if it's a really small business, I
really don't have a place to go for them, um, to get that technical assistance. So we're
trying to look for that provider who can provide that assistance to people. Um....and we
will continue to look at developing initiatives to improve the quality of homes, um,
especially that impact health. Some of the challenge for our departments is the
complexity of reviews, and I know we're gonna start talking about the development
review process, what's expected when, so that the development community, um, P&Z,
the City Council all know what's expected and when it's expected. But when I first got
here, I think our zoning code was like this big, and now it's like this big. Um....it's time
confusing and as we're training the new staff,we're seein' a disconnect between our
planners and our code enforcement. Um, and now that I've had to, you know, when
you're training a new person you start realizing the difficulty of what you have to do in
order to go through every review. So we have our current zoning designations. We have
conservation and historic districts. We have sensitive area ordinance. We have design
overlays. We have Peninsula code. Riverfront Crossings form based code, that has seven
sub-districts, and we'll soon add the South District form based code. So when we're
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reviewing(mumbled)public, we wanna accomplish the goals we have set up,but we
want to do it as easily as we can so that we can communicate it to everybody that needs
to know—the development community—to every, our legislative process, so we're trying
to....where we can, to simplify if we can. If we can't, that's fine. Urn, but we're ....I'm
learning as we go. Like a simple question about a setback on a street, you know, you're
goin'through the code. You get it and then you realize there's somethin'else and you
have to go to a different section. So when we're training our new staff, it's just taking
more time. Um....and then I do want to thank the Council for the commitment to that
care section of my department. Um, I've been here about 20 years and it's been
phenomenal that you've funded affordable housing. I think in the last four years it's been
3.3 million outside our CDBG and Home, which is great. Um, I think it'll do great things
in our community. Housing, I always have to caution, it takes time. You have to parcel
land. You have to secure your financial resources. You have to build it or rehab it, and
then you have to lease it. So while it's gr...I think it's great that you're....you're
allocating the funds. I just....it just needs some time to come to fruition and...that's about
it that I have for my department. And I'm sure there's questions!
Mims/I just wanna say...that you may have been here for 20 years,but you have taken on an
incredible load, uh, with the changes in staff. Um, not only moving up to the position
you're in, but the changeover in staff underneath you. And I couldn't be more pleased
with what we've seen and heard since that has happened, and I hope you are making sure
that you have some time for yourself(laughs) and a life outside of City Hall (laughs)
because I know that can be....can be all-encompassing, especially like you're talking
about trying to train new staff and finding out how much time that takes and helping them
get up to speed, but I think....I think we are just really fortunate to, um,be able to attract
and....and have people who want to stay and grow within the organization, and um...I
(both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...people that have been there a long time too (both talking) for one 30 years and one
20 years, but yeah, we have that turnover now....
Mims/Yeah.
Hightshoe/But we do have some...people work in the department,they tend to stay. They tend
to like it, and I've enjoyed my time with the City and most of the other employees have
too.
Mims/Yeah. It's just,you know, when you go through this, you know I was trying to take some
notes when you were going through, I mean, so many things so fast it's like (both talking)
No,that's fine but it's just like you talk about a complex department in terms of all of the
things that you oversee. I mean I would guess it's probably our most complex one within
the City. I mean, I don't know, it...it seems like it to me in terms of the, um....the
different things, I mean they're all related to a certain extent, but they also are, you know,
Police is police. Fire is fire kind of thing and you've just encompassed so many different
areas, so....thank you for all the working you're doing.
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Taylor/I agree with that and it is very complex,but I think you hit it spot-on when you said, uh,
one of your goals is to improve the quality of the homes, and I think that includes the
quality of the lives of people, of everybody in the community,no matter what their race
or culture or....or, uh, income is, uh, that's your goal, and....and you're accomplishing it
very well.
Thomas/Yeah, it's interesting (clears throat) hearing your presentation cause it does seem that
first of all you're....you know,the NDS is very comprehensive in terms of....its impacts
and....and relationships to different aspects of the community, but it's also an area, at
least in the, you know, in the planning and development....but I would say actually now
that I think about it, uh, even issues with respect to Housing Authority, where public
health is coming into play, uh, but in terms of planning. There's a revolution really in...
in how we think about land use, so it's not jut the comprehensiveness. It's the fact that it
is going through transformational, um, a transformation in terms of how we implement
and regulate....the built environment. So it's (laughs) and then the change-over in staff.
So it's (laughs) sort of a....a massive upheaval I guess, um,that's taking (both talking)
Hightshoe/ ...question throughout the year was 'why do we do that?' (laughter) Trying to look at
like why...what happened here is it's going back and through, you know, the conditional
zoning agreement before that rezoning and trying to figure out what happened and when,
especially when you have all new staff.
Thomas/Yeah, I mean I...it is sort of, I almost want to catch my breath when you're talking about
all the issues. I know with affordable housing, I'm pleased to see that looks like we'll
finally be getting to the regulatory piece, um....but it is something where,you know, how
can we best, with the funds that we have,how can we make the most impact,because
it's....um, you know, while....while we're providing funds, in a certain sense they're very
limited too because of, you know,the....the magnitude of the issues that we're facing.
But, um...yeah,thank you and everyone on staff. It's really a...it's a mountain of issues
(laughs)you're dealing with!
Salih/I also would like to thank you for everything that you do. I have been here for one year,
but today I guess the summary that you just give us, it just told me a lot thing that (unable
to understand)that I never knew about,that is under your department, which is really
great, and I really like the passion that you have for affordable housing, which is make
me happy that you gonna go in this directions, and also you mentioning that you gonna
like the...the UniverCity program that you can use it in different area, which is really
great. That really I wanna see that. And you know thank you for all the work you do and
hopefully looking forward to work with you on implementing those thing.
Hightshoe/I forgot to add that we did ask for a half-time person,urn, to help Brenda, but we
fully support the, um full-time person that Parks and Rec is gonna get to help with the, to
monitor energy efficiency, to bid on projects. Urn, I feel that's probably a better use, urn,
while Brenda would have loved a half-time person, I feel like the result to the City about
how we....how we can improve our efficiency with our own buildings and how we have
somewhere there, I think that's great, so...um, it's actually a great outcome for NDS.
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Throgmorton/ So I can't let you get away without me saying somethin' and everybody else has
had a word, so far....except Bruce. You haven't said anything yet,but....
Teague/I'm gonna say somethin' (laughs)
Throgmorton/Yeah, I figured. So yeah, uh,pretty much like Susan alluded, uh, it's been a very
tumultuous year,transformation in staff and work load, all that kind of thing. So it's
really striking to see how much has been accomplished and that, uh, is the function of
good people doing good work. So, bravo to you and others in the dep....in NDS, for
accomplishing that! And....bravo also for hiring new people who appear to be just
terrific.
Hightshoe/(mumbled) really well!
Throgmorton/Yeah, so I'm....it makes me very optimistic looking forward. You mentioned
affordable housing in the sense that you said you're working on something that you're
going to present to us in a, I don't know, couple months or thereabouts,right? Don't....
don't go yet. Um....I think it's....we've done a lot of very good work on affordable
housing. I'm very proud of it and thank the staff for everything it's done. But there're
tweaks that clearly need to be made, and then major....maybe more major stuff, but
definitely the tweaks that you know way better than I do,but...we have all these different
ways of....calling something affordable, and they have different time periods for the....
for the,uh, affordability, uh, there're different levels—80%%, 60%%, 30%, and so on. So,
getting some clarity about that, maybe a little more uniformity if possible, seems to me
would be a good....very good thing. Uh,but also accountability. We don't really know
too much, do we, about how these affordable units are being used. Who's...not in the
sense of individuals, but who's occupying them? And how it's working out. So I think
it'd be great if we had a better sense of....better way of accounting for,uh,things that we
have funded. (mumbled) be more confident about what....what we're accomplishing as a
result of that funding. So, I'm sure you've thought about all this in your own ways and
have ideas, and they'll come back to us in another couple months, but I just wanted to
express that concern. Otherwise I'm really looking forward to the year. I think we have
a great opportunity, terrific staff, lots of energy, lots of enthusiasm, and uh, an
opportunity to do some really good stuff.
Teague/I don't know what else I can say, because they've said it all, except, urn,the NDS is very
complex, and I think, urn.....when Susan talks about, urn,this bein' a....a very involved
department,urn, I...I think about even the Housing, um,Authority, how they're really
dealin'with real people, uh, real lives, urn, even the Housin'Inspection, Community
Development, um,this is really impactin'the lives of our citizens, and so I, you know,
just,um, say thanks to you and the department for all that you do, even the Buildin'
Inspections, for, urn, you know, whoever need that type service. That's impacting our,
you know, community, and so this is a very important, um, department and I'm very
happy that you are in the position that you're in. Uh, you do an awesome ....awesome
and amazin'job and just keep it up, so thank you!
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Hightshoe/Thank you!
Throgmorton/Wow(several talking) that was easy!
Hightshoe/ (laughter) Thank you!
Throgmorton/So, Emily, are you gonna speak next about the MPO or....how's that gonna work?
Or have you already covered the MPO?
Hightshoe/If you want more, if you have specific questions. I didn't know if you had specific
questions about,urn,more details as opposed to just a general overview.
Throgmorton/Anybody have any questions about the MPO? Other than what is an MPO?
(laughs)
Mims/Well we all sit on the board, except you, Jim, so (laughter)
Fruin/Just a reminder on the MPO, the MPO board sets the MPO budget. We fund our portion
of it,uh,but the staff of the MPO also serves as our transportation planners too, so
they've....they kind of have a dual role.
Salih/Uh huh.
Throgmorton/All right! Thank you, Tracy. And thanks for comin',Emily!
Fruin/We're ready to go with Airport. I know it's, uh,Transportation's listed first, but Mike's
here and....
Business-type Funds:
Airport
Throgmorton/I had a feelin'Mike was here for a reason! (laughter)
Tharp/(mumbled) see my pretty face! (laughter)
Throgmorton/Well that too! (both talking)
Fruin/You may need to toggle....I don't know if we have an Airport slide or not,um.....(several
talking) There you go! Big(both talking)
Teague/What page are we on?
Taylor/465.
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Teague/Thank you!
Tharp/Yeah,Airport, uh, fund information starts on 465. Urn....my presentation is hopefully
short and sweet, so....um, 2018 was actually a milestone year for the Airport. The
Airport celebrated its 100-year anniversary. Um, we had a nice, wonderful weekend back
in June,uh,brought in the Ford Trimotor, um, brought in a number of other antique
aircraft, and had a....a great weekend celebration to, uh, mark that milestone. Um, in
terms of our budget, you know, the budget we're presenting is a status quo budget. Uh,
this will be our second year that we are, uh, requesting zero dollars from the general fund
to support operations. So I'm pretty proud that we've been able to maintain that for a
couple years and hopefully keep that trend goin' in the future. Um, another milestone did
happen in 2018 as we wrapped up the year. Uh, this is our first year we've....we've
flowed over 400,000 gallons of fuel. Urn, that is a....a mark of our, uh, increased traffic,
our work over the years of....of runway rehabs and pavement rehabs, and better facility
management and repair work. Um, we are seeing the increased traffic and it's...it's
showin'for our fuel, uh, fuel sales and our, uh, increased charter operations that....that
happen out at the Airport. Um, with that, um, again....let's see, where am I at? Uh, the
budget, like I said, status quo. We're presenting a roughly $360,000 budget. Um, that
revenue is primarily derived from our rents of hangar and ground rental, um, fees. Uh,
we do have a fuel flowage fee that pulls in roughly about 10% of our....of our revenue
budget(coughing) and, you know, with that...um, in terms of our operations, you know,
we're gonna use some of that money for some accessories to some of the equipment we
have of a box blade to make snow,uh, snow removal in the winter, if we ever have a
winter again, urn(laughs) a little bit easier, urn and we are working with the Equipment
division to, uh, replace some of our equipment that's...that's on the timeline for
replacement. Um, we do get $100,000 from the general fund for our capital improvement
project. You'll hear a little bit more about that in a couple of weeks in the CIP
presentations. But over the last 10 years, the Airport secured over$11 million in State
and federal grants. Uh, we hope to continue that trend of getting State and federal support
for our projects. Uh, we have the University of Iowa that operates the oper, uh, operator
performance,uh, research lab. They operate out of the College of Engineering at the
Airport. Um, they work with a lot of companies, uh....uh, now it's Collins Aerospace,
it's not Rockwell anymore, um, but uh....uh, and then any number of government
agencies—NASA, Department of Defense—agencies for a lot of research that,uh, will
have significant benefits to aviation, you know, across the board. Um, they are beginning
a lot of work into the drone technology, um, and we've partnered with them on a couple
of different studies in terms, uh, what they wanna do is....is research more of the drone
technology in terms of getting it broader access into the air space system. So they're
looking at ways of....of identifying, detection, urn, you know, situational awareness for
the drones, uh, and keeping them from im....you know, separating them from, urn, actual,
um, piloted aircraft. Um, with that,uh, you know 2019, uh, we don't have any, uh....
large-scale events planned, but we will still continue to do our Young Eagles' event. Uh,
the Young Eagles' event is a...a program we partner with the Experimental Aircraft
Association and it's a, um, members donate pi...the members of the group donate their...
the pilots, they donate their time and their airplanes and they give rides to kids to try to
spark that aviation interest. Um, and the EAA also has a couple of scholarships that they
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are advertising. They just started advertising, uh, at the first of the year to,uh, have a
couple of kids, and I don't have the fine details of it, but it's a couple of kids to go to a
youth aviation camp over the summer. So that's somethin' we're tryin'to help them
promote, uh,within the community as well. Um....with that, I mean that's....that's my
presentation (laughs) Um,the....the Airport is, unfortunately, impacted by the FAA
shutdown, or the government shutdown. The FAA is part of the shutdown, so grant
funds, things like that are kind of being withheld because of the....the functions of the
FAA that's being shutdown, so we are working withwithin our means to, uh, keep
projects at least moving as best as we can while the FAA is dealing with, uh, the national
situation.
Throgmorton/Not to worry, the shutdown will last not more than, I don't know, six months or so
(laughter) Yeah, who knows! Mike, one of the things, uh, I enjoyed most about the tour
that we took, uh, many months ago was to discover all the work being done in the
hangars!
Tharp/Absolutely(both talking)
Throgmorton/I had no idea! (laughs)
Tharp/Yeah, uh, you know, the....the....the maintenance hangar, the FBO, which is fixed base
operator, they're the....the private company that runs, uh, the aircraft maintenance,
charter services,rental,urn, they do the fueling services. So when anybody comes in,
they're essentially the initial folks that, uh, are representing the community and, uh, one
of....one of our goals, one of my goals, having had a little bit of a retail background
before I came into aviation was, you know, this is our first impression. You know,
anybody that's comin'into the community, flying into the Airport, that's the first
impression of the community. So I wanna make sure we present, not only a great quality
staff,but uh, which I think we have,but a, you know, a great view of the Airport, great
view of the terminal building when they come in, uh, so they get....they get a nice....nice
reception as they come into the community and, you know, do whatever they need to do,
whether it's, you know, uh (mumbled) looking around for facilities, whether it's, uh, any
number of the car dealerships that,uh,have been setting up camp over by the Airport,
urn....or, you know, whether it's,uh, folks coming into the University system for either
the Hospitals and Clinics or....or just University-related travel in general. So...um, yeah!
(laughs) Lot of work! (laughs)
Salih/I also wanna say, yeah, thank you for that tour. I learn a lot on that day about the Airport
and, you know, it was something that I never knew was going on over there! (laughs)
Tharp/Yeah, it's....we.....we have a lot of activities. Unfortunately some of'em are a little more
secret than I'd like to have them be, urn, you know Bruce, welcome to the Council
table.
Teague/Thank you.
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Tharp/You're obviously welcome to come out to the Airport and I'll be happy to show you
around, and that extends to anybody else who hasn't been out to the Airport in a while,
you know, uh, we've had a lot of improvements over the last few years, um, you know
the companies that operate out of the Airport, whether it's Jet Air, whether it's Care
Ambulance, the University, um, we've actually added another one—Air Methods is in the
process of spooling up a....a, kind of a flight management set-up for a fixed wing,uh, air
medical aircraft.
Salih/Uh huh.
Tharp/Urn, so they....they've bought a Pilatus, which is a, you know, a...not a....not a....cheap
plane, but it's a nice plane, really works out well for air medical, uh, transports, and....
and aside from their helicopter fleet, they're gonna be usin'that for, uh, medical
transportation too.
Salih/Yeah, and the only thing that I really wanna say, uh, after touring and seeing the stag, I
really would like to see also diversity on the staff that reflect our community, because I
know there is a lot people who went to (unable to understand) and graduate from
aviations and they looking for work to work in this community, and stay, and...I really
encourage you to hire those kind of people so we have diverse staff, and we have the
people who have the skill. I guess you hire a lot of people from Indian Hills.
Tharp/Yeah, the.....the fixed base operator actually had a very strong partnership with Indian
Hills in terms of the maintenance program they have down there, so they were kind of
direct-feeding,uh, graduates right into the maintenance job.
Salih/And I know lot of people of color who have like graduated from there, with like really
high score, and....I guess if they been given the chance, they are not gonna move from
this community!
Tharp/ Sure!
Salih/Thank you.
Throgmorton/Anything else for Mike? I think you're scot-free!
Tharp/Thank you!
Throgmorton/Thank you, Mike.
Tharp/Have a good afternoon!
Salih/You too!
Teague/I'm lookin' forward to a tour! (laughter)
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Salih/ It is nice, I encourage you! (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ So next up is Darian, and Darian, you will be the third new director speaking to us
today.
Transportation Services
Nagle-Gamm/Indeed! (several talking) I might be the newest (several talking) Am I the
newest?
Froin/Not quite newest!
Nagle-Gamin/Oh! I'm not even the newest kid on the block(several talking)
Froin/Elsworth has you beat (several talking)
Throgmorton/He's been on the job for four days (several talking and laughing)
Nagle-Gamin/I'm no longer the freshman, so that's great! Well, urn, I'll go ahead and get
started then. Um, for those of you I haven't formally had an opportunity to meet, my
name is Darian Nagle-Gamm and I'm the Director of the Transportation Services
Department, and uh, like we were just saying, I've been on, um, in this position, onboard
for about a year now. So, um, it's been very exciting. I come from the transportation
planning world, so I have a lot of transportation experience, but it's been really, uh, it's a
different ball game on the operations side of things,but I love that aspect of it. Um, and
I'm....I'm really excited to help, uh, take the City forward, urn, into this era of new
mobility, which is happening, seemingly happening all around us. So we'll talk a little bit
about, urn, what we're doing as a department to help position us for the future, but first I
just wanna talk a little bit about the department so you have an understanding of its basic
structure. Urn, we have three divisions—we have the Parking division, we have the
Public Transportation division, and then we also manage the maintenance of the Central
Business District. So there's really three divisions. We have a total of 73 employees. So
besides myself, at least in terms of the administrative staff, we also have an Associate
Director. We have, uh, three Transit Supervisors and two Supervisors who manage the
downtown....oh, thank you! (mumbled) Urn, three downtown, urn, excuse me, two
Supervisors that manage the downtown parking operations, and then we do have an
Operations Specialist who sort of flexes between, um,Transit and the Downtown Ops
during the evening hours. Um, in terms of the rest of our staff, really the bulk of our staff
is mass transit operators. It's our MTOs, it's our professional driving staff. They are,
there's 41, um, total drivers we have that run our transit system, day in and day out, and
we also have other support staff. We have, of course, mechanics that keep our fleet up
and running. We've got maintenance staff. We've got, urn, parking enforcement staff,
and then we also have, uh, customer service staff that's, uh, located over in Tower Place
in our parking ramp there, and they take all the calls, it's sort of a mini-call center
environment, and also walk-in customer service, and they take all questions, concerns
regarding transit,uh, parking, and also refuse. So that was part of, um, we used to be
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connected with the refuse, the resource management team, and it just made sense to leave
that customer service operation with that team of people. So they take,uh, they do
customer service for all three of those, urn, operations. In terms of...our facilities, at least
on the parking side, we have six,urn,parking facilities that we manage. We've got five
off-street, urn, lots. We've got about 1,200 on-street metered parking spaces. We also
manage bike parking in the Central Bis...Business District, and you also probably have
seen the motorcycle and scooter parking. Um, those have been new in the last few years.
Very popular! We also help to manage the permitting and the allocation of those spaces
downtown, and then of course we have, urn, the enforcement, uh, wing of parking. In
terms of transit, I'll talk a little bit more about transit in a bit, but um, at our peak service,
we have 27 40-foot diesel buses on our peak service, uh, fleet, and that's,um, on 19
different routes. We contract our paratransit service through Johnson County SEATS,
urn, as many agencies do in the area, um, and so they take care of all our paratransit
services and we...we focus on the fixed route. In terms of our operations, we're nearly
24/7. I mean we really are. We have people using our facilities 24/7, to be sure,but we
have staff, um,regularly scheduled until about 2:00 in the morning in the downtown area
to make sure things are taken care of and tidied up, and then we fire it back up again at
about 5:30 in the morning, to get transit ready to go, to get people where they need to be
first thing in the morning. So....that's just kind of the big picture, urn, of our department,
if you weren't familiar. And I'll just go through, urn, each one of the divisions,just talk
about some of the highlights, if that's all right. I think the first thing that we could talk
about, uh, is the Central Business District, and it's one that not everybody knows that we
have a hand in, cause it isn't explicitly transportation-related, although I think, uh,
pedestrian travel is very much related to transportation. So there's our connection there.
Urn, so we're charged with keeping things neat and tidy, um, in the Central Business
District. So, urn, what we like to do is make sure when people wake up and they go
downtown again in the morning, urn, that they're seeing a clean pedestrian mall and a
clean, urn, Central Business District. That can be a challenge, especially closer to the
weekends when you've got a lot of people out and about till the late hours of night. Urn,
so not only do we help with, you know,just the general of keeping things tidy, but we
also help with the maintenance of the actual objects. Urn.....um, Mark Rummel, the
Associate Director, always says we take care of the dead stuff, uh, in the ped mall
(laughter) meaning anything that's not alive. Parks and uh, the Parks Department takes
care of the trees and whatnot, but we really help to manage pretty much everything else.
Um...uh, so we do that, that's kind of a daily thing that we do. We deal with snow
clearing and the like,urn, like our emergency ice situation we had that came out of
nowhere last Friday. I believe it was last Friday now, urn, so we....we help to handle that
....those sorts of situations so we can get people where they need to go. Urn, a big part of
what we do in the downtown is we work very closely with the Downtown District, with
the Summer of the Arts organization, Farmers Market, uh, the Northside Market Place, in
order to help facilitate the events that we during...that we do during the summer, and we
do a lot. I....last year had to have been a record number of events, urn.....in Iowa City,
from RAGBRAI, which was new and was pulled off amazingly, urn,by staff, to the
Block Party, the Friday Night Concert Series had to be moved so we really helped with
the setup and the tear-down and the cleanup from that, and...um, in addition to our Arts
Fest or Jazz Fest or Soul Fest, and all the other festivals that we normally do. So, uh,
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kudos to staff for, especially our downtown staff. Urn, I guess transit staff also has to
make accommodations. We move our interchange over to the Court Street Transportation
Center, which is no easy feat. I must say when I came onboard, I was a little worried
about how do you coordinate all of these routes, and they got it down. They make it look
pretty easy, and they're able to communicate to our,to the public, which is most
important, so that they understand where to get on the buses and....and, urn, you know,
where's my....(laughs) where's my transit when they go to the Washington Street center
when they move, so we make sure that we get that communication out. So they also, uh,
again staff attends planning meetings. They coordinate cleanup of events. They
coordinate setup of events. They are usually on-call during the festivals. They get calls
from event organizers, so they're running operations, um....uh, non-stop during those
events. So that's a....a piece that we, that I'm very proud of how our staff has handled,
especially this year. Um, they've also done some, we've been working with the Shelter
House to do some,uh, they've been assisting us, assisting the City, in cleaning up during
and after events, so it's created an employment opportunity for people at Shelter House,
temporary employment opportunities,but employment opportunities nonetheless.
So...and that's worked out really well, I think, for both of us. So that's something that
we're excited to continue, um,this next coming year. So that's Central Business District,
urn, probably could move over to parking, talk a little bit about parking. So a couple,
first I'll start off with a couple things that we've had in play for the last couple years, but
they seem to be really popular so I wanted to highlight it. The first thing being the first
hour free, um, in our gated ramps. That's continued to be a very popular thing. We hear
good feedback about that. We were able to offer 1.2 million hours, free hours of parking,
to folks to come to our downtown, whether that be shopping, going to restaurants, going
to the Univer...stopping at the University, whatever their downtown needs are. So 1.2
million is, uh,the number from this last year, which is up a slight bit from the year
before. So I think we're....we're seeing a lot more people in the...we're seeing an
increase in the people in the downtown, at least from that perspective. Another success
has been our passport app and if you haven't downloaded the app, um, I would encourage
you to do so. It's great! Urn, it allows you to park very easily with a few, you know,
touches of your....of your phone. You could park across the street in Chauncey Swan or
at Harrison Street, any of our ungated facilities, or anywhere on-street. Urn, and it takes
two to three seconds, it's much faster than diggin' for change, um,between the cushions
of the seat in your car, um, to try to throw a quarter in there, but....so we've seen, urn,
over the previous years, at least in terms of the number of,maximum number of
transactions per day, we've seen a 68 increase, uh, 68% increase, excuse me, on our
highest days. So, urn, I think the word's really gettin' out and I think a lot of people are
turning to apps more just to solve little tiny daily problems and just get on their way. So
very happy about that! Um, not only do we help park cars in the downtown, of course,
we also help park bicycles. So one thing we're looking at this year is how we can expand
bicycle parking in the downtown, and urn, the MPO, uh, I was working on this before I
was with the MPO, and urn, we had some help from some intern staff, but they put
together a really great, urn, inventory of all the bicycle parking in the downtown—
University, City, all of the parking, and also usage. So we understand what current
utilization looks like. So we're gonna take that and it's going to help inform where we
need to put more bike parking at. Not just for all of the people that are riding their own
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personal bikes,but we also, urn, are hoping to bring in a bike share this spring. That is
the plan. So, um, transitioning over to that topic, our bike share, um, we are in, uh,
contract negotiations right now with a vendor. We're hoping to launch after spring break,
urn, when it gets a little wanner outside,but who knew it was going to be spring in
January, uh (laughs) This is great bike riding weather, as far as I'm concerned! Urn, but
so the bike share will be...it will be a dock-less system. So that's, um, a little different
than maybe what you've seen across the country. It's a newer technology. Urn, the dock-
less is sort of going by the way....or the docked system, where you park your bike
actually in a dock and it locks it in there, is kind of...a little bit antiquated it costs a lot
more money. Those docks are expensive. Um, the dock-less system, where the bikes can
be unlocked individually with your smart phone, urn, or for the people who don't have a
smart phone, there are ways you can, urn, unlock them as well. But, urn, it comes at a
much...a significant less cost. It does not come at a cost to the City, outside of our staff
time and maybe allocating some space in the right-of-way, but urn, which is a significant
decrease from....from the docked systems that we had evaluated previously. Urn, the
great thing about the dock-less system is that they're flexible. So you can move 'em
around anywhere, and um, they're really easy...they're really easy to....to find a bike real
quick on your phone and go hop on one. Urn, so part of, again, part of the bike parking
piece that we'll be managing is we'll make sure that we have places, because these can
free float, urn, that is part of the advantage to them, urn, it also can provide a challenge in
terms of parking. So we're gonna try to, um....uh, focus the parking in certain areas.
I've seen many communities do something as simple as painting boxes on the pavement.
Urn, we are also going to encourage parking by the bike racks, or in the bike racks,
although right next to a bike rack would be perfectly fine,because you wanna save space
for personal bicycles too. So, urn, that's what we're looking,urn, to do right now in
terms of the bike share. Urn, a question, the last thing on the bike share, um,before we
move on,but a question I always get is how do the bikes, urn, you know, somebody could
take the bike from downtown and say they wanna ride home. Let's say they live in an
outlying neighborhood and does the bike just sit there in front of this house for eternity or
until somebody wants to make a ride back downtown? Well there's a staff of people that
work for every bike share company and they're called 'rebalancers,' and so they go out at
night and they pick up the bikes and they put `em back to where they understand the
greatest demand is, and there's GPS on all these bikes, so they know where the bikes are
and they know where the greatest demand is. Um, so they basically will reset `em up
again, sort of like Santa's elves, they come under cover of night and then the bikes
(laughter) are ready to go in the morning, in the area where they know,based on their
data, where the greatest demand is. So, it's a pretty great system. It's, urn, most of the
vendors run the operations by themselves, with input of course from the City, urn, as they
go through the process, and they work, uh, work as a team but they're really run by, urn,
by these bike share companies, so.... We're looking very much forward to that! Um, in
terms of other transportation technologies, we've been exploring is, urn, automated
vehicle technology and also the rise of shared mobility. Urn, you may have heard
snippets in the press about, you know, automated vehicles are coming. Driverless cars
are corning. They're being tested. Well I can tell you is that there's AV, that's short for
automated vehicles,AV technology is happening right now in various ways, urn, in our
cars out there. Urn, and there's a lot of, there's a significant investment from, urn, car
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companies in moving toward AV, with the promise of increased safety and reduced, um,
reduced collisions and reduced accidents, and reduced deaths really. So,um, we have
been trying to get ahead of this, urn, technological advance,just to make sure that from...
from our perspective we....we have our eye on what this could....what our...what our
actions might need to be in the future in order to...to,uh, make sure we're prepared for
that, and if you recall last summer,um, the City took a first step and had an intern in the
City Manager's office who did some initial research on automated vehicle technology
and shared mobility, and what's some of the things that we need to be aware of. Um, this
was a graduate student from the Urban Planning Program at the University of Iowa.
Well, they have parlayed that initial research into a whole team of graduate students who
are spending a year studying what the potential impacts of AV and shared mobility,urn,
like Uber and Lyft, things like that,bike share for that matter, um, what those effects
might be on Iowa City, urn, from...anything from what our parking demand might look
like in the future, do people need as many personal cars if shared mobility's as easy as
walking out the door and grabbing your phone and picking one of your five options that
you have. Urn, you'll have cost information, you'll have how long it will take to get you
there, you can select one, and off you go. So we have a whole team at the University,
urn, that we've been working with this year and we're really excited to see, urn, how that
pans out, but I just wanted to let you know that that's something that we've got kind of
going in the background. It'll be, urn, and we'd be happy to present any information that
comes from the study, once we....once we get the final details. Uh, last but not least in
terms of parking, urn, EV, there's lots of Vs (laughs) There's EV,AV...EV is electric
vehicles, that's our shorthand for electric. You may have seen across the street we have a
couple new electric vehicle parking spaces. We also have two at the Dubuque Street
ramp and two at the Capitol Street ramp, which is right next to the mall. And we have for
the last year had two at the Harrison Street, urn, parking ramp, which was our newest
facility, south of Burlington, urn, on Harrison Street, and urn, so they've....they've....
more use than I expected so far. We just installed,uh, the six parking spaces, I guess this
would be on this side of Burlington Street, um,just this fall and right now we're at about
28% utilization for those spaces. The great thing about, urn, these, besides that we're....
we're promoting a clean energy, uh, transportation energy parking space, but we also get
a lot of data from these, um, these parking spaces,because it will tell us how many
unique users, how much, urn, how much energy we're using to power these vehicles, um,
and how long people are actually parked there. So, urn,just to give you a little snippet
there. So we had 15, when we only had Harrison Street, cause they were our first EV
parking, they were first our elec....our first electric parking spaces, we had 15 unique
users, and I don't...gosh, I can't remember if that was over the course of a year. It might
have been over the course of a year. Well we....just in the last month or so, we have 37
unique users already,just with the new spaces that have opened up downtown here. So,
urn, and that's not of course, that doesn't mean that all of the electric vehicles in Iowa
City are....are parking here, but that just shows how many are, urn, using our facilities
currently. So we'll keep an eye on that and as it grows we'll expand, um, as we see fit
and we'll move on from there! All right, so last but not least,Transit! So, urn, I think
one of the....one of the highlights,the obvious highlights, urn, from last year is that
we've got 11 new buses on the road, and they look fantastic! They're bright. They're
cheery. Urn, they make me smile every time one goes past. They just look really nice.
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They ride great. The drivers, urn, fight over them, who gets to drive the new bus, who
has to drive the old bus, urn, (laughter) in a good way! Urn, and we've got great
compliments from people who ride on them. The....the drivers love them because
they're....they just ride really nice, urn, I mean just like any new vehicle. Urn, but it's
been really great to add to our fleet, urn, and we're...we're excited for down the road
when we can get more,but it was really nice to turn over. We ran our, I would say an
average bus life is 12, 13 years. That's probably what the federal expectation was, and
we ran those to about 20 years. So we got our money's worth (laughs) out of them, um,
but we're happy to turn over about half the fleet with some...with some new buses, new
technology, new ride. Urn, another thing I'm very excited about is that we are officially
live on Google maps now. So one barrier to transit is that if you haven't had experience
in a transit system, riding in a transit system frequently, you may be just...it's the thought
of trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B can be really daunting. Urn, but
now in this amazing day and age, you can simply pull up a Google maps app, which
many people use for transportation directions in their car, when they're walking or
whatnot, but now you can click on the transit button and you just tell it where you're at,
just like you would normally ask it for directions, and what your destination, urn, is, and
it will give you three different route choices, urn, for how to get there. You can also
change, if you are willing to block a couple blocks more, um, you can....you can
basically...you can let it know you're willing to do that, so it will perhaps send you two
more blocks to hop on a bus that's going in a different direction, I mean it's....it's that...
it's that smart. It's pretty....it's pretty, uh, it's pretty cool. I really, I think it's really
gonna be helpful for those that that's the barrier for transit for them is just figuring out
how to use it. So now within, you know, a few seconds you could see exactly what
routes, what time you needed to be there. If you need a transfer, it'll tell you what bus to
get on and where to get on it at. So, it's a big...it's a big leap for us, urn, and I'm really
excited. It doesn't, urn, we have the Bongo app still and it doesn't replace the Bongo app.
The Bongo app is still, urn, our app. It's our AVL, our advanced vehicle locator app, so
that....that is what you woiuld use to determine when a bus is going to arrive. It's a...it's
our predictions, or if you wanna know information about a route, where does this route
go, where are the stops at. The Bongo app is what you want for that, but if you wanna,
uh, for trip plan(mumbled) excuse me, for trip planning purposes, you wanna use, um,
Google maps, or you can always call us or the mobility coordinator, or we have paper
maps too, so there's a variety of different ways. Urn, bus shelters, so we are expected to
receive our first shipment,urn, of bus shelters within the next couple months here. We're
excited we're gonna have five new shelters on the east side, four on the west side this
spring. Some of them are replacement projects, some of them are new, urn,places where
there haven't been bus stops. Urn, we also have for our second phase we have six, uh,
shelters planned for the summer as well, and then we're gonna press pause, urn, because
of the transit study. We don't want to...we're....we focused first on stops that we're
pretty sure,just based on their adjacent, uh, land uses, um, and their popularity that are
going to stay,urn,when the transit system is reviewed. We just didn't wanna invest a lot
and....and have to move, um, have to move these shelters. So we're gonna press pause
after the summer and then regroup after the transit study and any changes are
implemented from the transit study, and then we'll go ahead and reassess, um, or
determine what the next steps are in terms of getting more shelters up there. And last but
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not least, urn, save the best for last,the transit study (laughs) We're very excited. Urn, as
Geoff mentioned earlier, we're in the consultant selection process. Good news is is I
think we have, urn, a...when you...when you get the consultant proposals you always
kinda, you open 'em up and you're hopin'that you're gonna have some....some talented
folks or people who look like they can do the job, and I would say that we do have some
folks, urn, who have a lot of experience. So that's really great. So we're....we're
working through that piece right now, trying to narrow our choice down, and hope to,
urn, get them lined up in the upcoming weeks, which means that you will be hearing
about opportunities for public involvement, um, before too awful long. We're going to be
starting the public input process, I am sure, urn, within months, urn, so we're really
excited about that. We're really excited to get the...the ball, urn, take the ball and get
running with it. Um, you know your...if your....(mumbled) back to I guess it would have
been, it was probably October when we last talked about the transit study, and you had
really helped us articulate a really bold vision for our transit system, you know, even to
the point of, you know, throwing a number out there, let's see if we can double our
service in 10 years. Urn, that's gonna take some, urn....some, you know, elimination of
barriers. That's something that we're looking at through our transit study. It's going to
take some, as Geoff alluded to earlier, you know, some willingness to invest in the
system. So we're really excited to get through the study so we can come back to you
with some, urn, alternatives and....and see what your thoughts are and then get some
direction of how we should move forward and build the transit system of the future. You
also offered a lot of feedback at your last,uh, work session when we talked about the
transit study, uh, which we've included in our....in our draft, uh, scope, and we'll, you
know, work those things in with our conversations with the consultant,but just to give
you a brief, urn, refresh or revisit,the big picture, we're really looking at re-evaluating
most aspects of our transit system, from routes and bus stops to, uh, frequency of service,
to geographic coverage of service,urn, to you know electric vehicle transition plan, to
Sunday service. We're evaluating our expanded weekday service, um, you know, the use
of emerging technologies to help solve some gaps in service that we have. You know,
looking at our fares and transfers. We're really....we're really doing a deep dive, um, and
one thing I found through....looking through all the proposals we're receiving from the
consultants and looking at their experience and the projects that they've all worked on,
and I can tell you—this is a big project! (laughs) Based on what I've seen as the
consultant's previous work, this is....this is a big one. Urn, it's....we're askin' them to do
a lot. We're askin'them to look at a lot, and I think it's appropriate, and I think we need a
deep dive, but I think it's going to take some time. Urn, I'm...at this point I'm estimating
12 to 18 months,which means that we would likely....in my head my goal is to have our
recommendations and have, urn, things ready to go so we can implement before the fall
of 20. Urn, it seems like summer's always a good time to, urn, or fall, is a good time
to...to make significant changes like that. I'm not sure if summer's better than fall, but
either way, that's about what we're looking at for implementation. So, um, at least from
where I'm sitting right now. That picture could change once we get a consultant onboard,
but that's....that's from what I can gather,that's about what we're talking in terms of
timeframe. And I think that's about all I had, urn....in terms of transit, or the transit
study. I guess what questions do you all have for me?
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Salih/When you say that the....the study will take 18...12 to 18 months, when are we gonna start
that, and...because it depend, if we don't start it after one year and take almost 18 months
and....I don't know, but this is really....to me gonna take long time, and uh, I still gonna
say, even though I know my other Council Member might not agree with me,but I see
you have some reserve money, on the budget. Why don't it start Sunday transportation
then now before the study? I really would like to see that. A lot people in the community
now talking about it, and they will be here soon to talk to the Council about this too,but
uh, if this gonna take long time, if we can do like some routes....for Sunday
transportation, even not the whole city. Like the busy route, the people that we really
knowing needs. Um, and this is....this is not (laughs, unable to understand) for the
Council, but you know, that's really my vision, cause I see there is some money has been
reserve there and we can use it.
Nagle-Gamm/Well I can say that we've been looking at, urn, another thing that came from our, I
recall from our....from our discussion at the....at the work session in October was
evaluating some potential alternatives, and we have been looking into, urn, some al...
potential alternatives to provide some of that service to those who fall in that service gap,
um, on Sundays. So, um, I made some connections this morning with some folks from
Horizon. This,uh, came to my attention within the last, before the holidays, that, urn,
that there's a....there's an organization out of Cedar Rapids that helps do,they help, urn,
to provide some gap transportation to....to folks who don't have, well it's when the fixed
route service isn't in operation up in Cedar Rapids. So we're reaching out to them, to see
if there's something that we could do in the meantime. So we heard you all loud and
clear in terms of, um, you know,trying to...not wait necessarily till the end of the study to
see if we could find some, you know, temporary fixes for that and we are working on
that.
Salih/Because last year, like this day, this time we talk about the study, and now for one year we
haven't done anything. And I don't know when we gonna start that.
Fruin/Well I don't think that's a fair charac...characterization, that we haven't done anything.
Um, you know, we talked about it last year, uh, we were talking about the budget
allocation for the study. So those funds really became available July l51 this past year.
What we've been doing is making sure that we've been coordinating with the University
and Coralville, to get t hem involved in the study, drafting the scope of the study, which
includes, you know, scheduling the work session with you all to figure out exactly what
we want in there, and there's a consultant selection process where we have to advertise
the opportunity, and that's where we're at now. The consultants that are interested have
submitted very detailed proposals. These aren't two or three page letters of interest.
These are very detailed pa...uh, proposals. Uh, Darian and then as well as stakeholders
from Coralville and the University are reviewing those. We've gotta schedule interviews
with those companies who, um, are across the country, as far as, you know, California,
Kansas City, uh, few...a few other areas, and they're gonna have to bring them in,
interview them, select the...so we haven't been doing nothing.
Salih/No I didn't mean that (both talking)
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Fruin/ ....long process to get(both talking)
Salih/No we don't have to talk about it. I mean I'm going to be clear here. What I meant, we
did not just start the study yet. Have you? (several talking) We have....can I finish,
Susan? Please?
Mims/Sure!
Salih/You know we....we haven't started study yet, and there is need, and everybody (unable to
understand) the Sunday transportation with the finishing of the study. We know that it
taking long time because you have to do all this work, now for one year,just to prepare
for the study itself. It gonna take you more than one year. What about when the actual
study start? Also gonna take long time! That what I really mean. I don't mean like you
are sitting down there not doing anything. You know,just don't get me wrong, I mean
like you are....you guys are working hard, thank you so much, but you....we are not
doing something like not started yet and this is really take long time, I understand,
because you have to be careful, you have to look at the details, and you have to do that.
That's why it gonna make me even more ask for Sunday transportation as soon as
possible. Because this is would take long time so we can do it perfectly. That what I
meant!
Throgmorton/Darian, um, once you finish reviewing(coughing, difficult to hear speaker)
reviewing all these proposals, when do you think the consultant would start its work?
Nagle-Gamm/That's a good question. Um, so the next step is to schedule interviews with the
consultants. So we're gonna try to get 'em in as soon as we can. Um, ideally I would
love to see 'em in the next couple weeks. We're I guess a little bit at the mercy of their
schedules, but I think we're probably in the...we're in the advantageous position here, so
we're gonna try to schedule them in the next couple weeks, and urn, and then from that
point, there will be contract negotiations and quite frankly I'm...Geoff's probably got
more experience with how long that....that piece of it could potentially take, urn, but...
Fruin/Yeah, it's...it's, you're probably looking at months, uh, of contract negotiations, cause if
you remember, we're doing a request for qualifications. We didn't, uh, do proposals, and
the different is there the consultant that we select, and we're going to select on who we
think is best, that consultant's gonna help us develop the actual process too. They've
done this in a number of communities. They know what process works best. So we're
gonna have to work with them on that process, and then we're involving the University,
we're involving Coralville. That's....that's two other governments and it takes time to,
uh, coordinate through those entities too. So yes, it....by the time a contract appears in
front of you, uh, I would imagine summer's probably realistic for kickoff of the study.
Throgmorton/ So one of the frustrating things about any large-scale endeavor like this is that they
take time, and Geoff(clears throat) and Darian have elaborated on how much
time...where's my voice? I don't know where (mumbled) I have elaborated on the
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amount of time this particular study has taken. So it's really frustrating, I mean, I
completely understand that. So we really do need to be looking at some intermediate
steps we could conceivably take,uh, with regard to Sunday service or after-hours,uh,
kind of service. It depends, and it would have to be very limited, I think. We wouldn't
wanna just invent some massive new intervention in the transit system on the spur of the
moment. But some....some intermediate steps,we....we need to have an opportunity to
consider them and act on them if we think it's appropriate. So that's what you were
referring(several talking)
Fruin/ ...we're doin'that. That's...the direction you gave us at your, at the work session in
October, I believe it was, so as Darian mentioned, we've identified a service provider in
Cedar Rapids that provides some limited service on...on Sundays and we wanna sit down
and see what it would take for them to come down to Iowa City and offer such a similar
program, that we would obviously have to fund. Urn, I think I've mentioned to the
Council before that North Liberty currently has a request for proposals out for private, uh,
transit service, for lack of a better term, but basically askin' local cab companies what
they would, what kind of accommodations they would make to provide, uh, service to
their community. Urn, so I've talked to the administrator up there and they're happy to
share the, uh,proposals that they get, if any, from private providers. And I, frankly I
think that's our....that's our best bet, uh, going forward, because, um, as....as I've...as
I've, uh, mentioned before, when you add another day, um....uh, to the service, there's a
lot of fixed costs that go into that, there's a lot of fixed infrastructure, urn, it's not a.... it's
not just as simple as....as writin' a check, but urn, you know, you have to hire new
employees, you have to hire new supervisors, you have to....you basically have to have
your operations extend from six to seven days. That's a big leap to take. If there's a way
to take that through another entity, um, it's gonna happen a lot faster and a lot cleaner. So
those...that's kind of the dual path we're exploring now. If we hit dead-ends there, then I
think we start to look at whether you wanna, uh,ramp up our own internal operations for
that type of service, while we're doing the study.
Thomas/Yeah, perhaps....perhaps the, uh, consultant(clears throat) I'm losing my voice too!
Urn, could be part of that conversation in terms of....I'm sure that....I mean as the
duration of the planning is frustrating. I'm sure that they've run into that. Often transit
consulting work is done kind of under duress, I would imagine (laughs) that, uh, the....
the issue needs to be addressed, so you know, if they have any ways of trouble-shooting
how we could....at least in the interim, come up with improvements, it seems....it seems
doable.
Teague/ I appreciate the one-hour free downtown. I think that, uh,brings people in,um, and get
them there probably longer than an hour, or you know, at least bringin' `em in for an hour.
I'm used to the...and the rates are still good, even beyond the one hour, because I'm from
Chicago and so (laughter and several talking) Oh my god, so...I remember when I first
came here, I think it was like 50-cents, um, that was unbelievable. Uh, what I would say
is, uh, the transit study....the transit study, of course, I think, um,there's gonna be a great
opportunity for our city. We do wanna take our time. We don't wanna, from my
perspective, I don't want it to be rushed. I want us to be really diligent and, urn, makin'
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sure that we're doin'the right thing because whatever we do, we warma make sure that
it's gonna be very sustainable for a long time, and so....the potential alternatives that
you're lookin'at, I'm very happy to hear that that's continuin', and look forward to some
options,uh, in the near future. Um, yeah! And I even have a....an idea that I might, um,
well....l think I'll just go ahead and say it (laughs) Um, so the East Central Region, they
deal with mental health and disabilities, um, I do know that they have some funding that
they have to, urn, essentially spend between now and, I don't know when. Urn, maybe
their fiscal year would end on 20...2021 or somethin' like that. Uh, one thought that I
have is that,um, getting individuals with mental health, specifically persons, urn, in
group homes, out in the community on Sunday is huge to decrease behaviors, and so our,
you know, maybe put a call into Mechelle Dhondt and just say 'hey, you know, is this of
interest where you would, uh, maybe want to fund, um, some of those individuals, urn,
and....and that may be outside of the City, urn, but you know, this just made my wheels
turn there for somethin'that could impact some residents within our city already.
Salih/And also some businesses I guess, I met with lot businesses who are really looking
forward to have Sunday transportation so they're....they can have some employees. I
remember I was met with like a....what it called, Coralville-Iowa City, the hotel
convention bureau, and they....they really express their....their need of Sunday like
transportation, so they can find, you know, like people can come to work, and I....I
remember one of them said something like, I don't remember who, but they....they even
like start sending bus to West Branch or something like that, to bring the people on
Sunday. All those people can be part of this. Maybe they can also put some money there
and to help out and some business so we can, yeah. We can have this. And, uh, another
question, which is regarding the free pass. I know that the transportation give sometime
free pass for students and for, is this true or.....
Nagle-Gamin/We have discounted passes, there's...there's a variety of different passes we have.
We have discounted passes or free passes for, uh, elderly, disabled, um, there's a variety
of different...different passes.
Salih/Oh, okay. And....and just like how you distribute those?
Nagle-Gamin/Um, it depends on....some of them require qualifications, like disabled or elderly
pass, um...um,both require some, um, qualifications. So basically you come to the
parking office and we have a form that you fill out and some of them require, well I guess
that's with our paratransit, a doctor's signature. There's some...certain requirements that
we have for each of our passes.
Salih/ Sure. Okay. They just have to come to the office (both talking)
Nagle-Gamm/The parking office, yep, you can send 'em there.
Salih/ Sure. Thanks.
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Taylor/I recent(clears throat) excuse me, losin'my voice too, uh, recently saw, uh, a message
about, uh, folks being able to donate towards, urn, transit funds for....for people. Is that
program corning along pretty well? Are you getting folks interested in donating money?
Nagle-Lamm/I think that came through the trans....the (both talking)
Fruin/The Community Transportation Committee.
Nagle-Gamm/Thank you, I was getting my acronyms (mumbled)but yes, we did, they reached
out....so they purchased them from us, so we provided them to them at a discount, and so
they're using the fund raise...the funds that are raised, urn, and we're providing that to
that organization as a discount, and then they will distribute them. So I think they're just
getting connected with our supervisor, um, who does the majority of our....our pass
work, urn, to get those to him, but,uh, yeah, I think they've just connected in this past
week. So I'm not sure how the fundraising is going, but I know at least they're coming to
purchase them so....(several talking)
Taylor/ ....sounds like a good program (several talking)
Throgmorton/Uh, Darian, can you say a little bit about scooters?
Nagle-Gamm/ Scooters!
Throgmorton/Like when I was at the NLC meeting in Los Angeles a few months ago, I attended
a session that focused on scooters, and there were like speakers from four major cities
talking about how they...their....they have a lot of scooters in their cities, and they're
tryin'to figure out different ways to manage, you know, and they all spoke pretty
enthusiastically, but I've also read a great deal of criticism of scooters. So you know this
stuff better than I do. What....what are your...what's your thinking about scooters in
Iowa City, and whether....whether we need to be thinking about them more than we are
now?
Nagle-Gamin/Well, um, it's a great question and it's a question we're starting to get increasingly,
not just from vendors, but from the public, cause the public is traveling, and they're
seeing scooters in other places. Um, there seems to be a love/hate relationship with
scooters, depending on who you ask. Um, they are....if you haven't seen them, they are
like a, I guess adult Razor scooters, if any of your kids ever had Razor scooters, urn,
they're larger, um, we tested one, um, from one of the vendors, um, and...it was pretty fun
and easy and quick and....I can see why people are using them...it's not just a fun thing to
go ride around, but I can see why they've become....they're quickly becoming a
transportation go-to option, because you don't need a bike, urn, you don't need to sit on
the seat. You can just stand on it and sort of go. They basically move at about the same
speed as bicycles. So from my perspective,um, at least in terms of where you could
expect to have them or where you'd want to encourage them to ride, um, I would say the
same place bicycles would be encouraged to ride. So in our bike lanes as they, um,begin
to appear around town, urn, you know, I don't think they're appropriate for the CBD,
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Downtown Central Business District, sidewalks with people, but I would venture to guess
you would see them on a university campus where they have the wider paths. Um, that
said, urn, you know, there....there will be challenges with that. I know Police is a bit
concerned about, as they should be, about you know people riding scooters potentially
later at night. I think there's been some creative ways other communities have come up,
uh, some communities shut them down at a certain hour, I mean there's some creative
ways communities have, urn, addressed some of the concerns and challenges. Urn, like
the dock-less bikes, they can be parked anywhere. Um, so there's been challenges with
encouraging orderly parking of them. They might even be easier, I mean,they're still
pretty hefty. The bikes, the bike share bikes, are pretty heavy. They're probably heavier
than most personal bikes would be. Um, so they're harder to move around, but the....the
scooters tend to be a little bit easier to move around. Um, so you know, at least from...
from our perspective, at least for my perspective and I think we've....a lot of staff has
kind of felt the same way too is we would like to get the bike share onboard and get the
community accustomed to having a bike share,bikes, in the right-of-way and get that
system up and running,before we move to the next step of considering scooters. Um, I
talked to communities through the bike share, um....uh, process. We called references
and most of'em that had 'em, they really loved `em, but they did acknowledge there was
a contingent of people that, um, some came around after they had 'em for a while and
they realized it wasn't, you know, quite the mayhem that they thought, but there was, you
know, a contingent of people that weren't,just weren't going to like them, because it's a
new thing in the right-of-way. So I think that encouraging the orderly parking is going to
be key, getting the education piece out there so they know where they're expected to ride.
To me they function very much like a bicycle. So I don't see much daylight between
them. They look very different though. So, um, it....maybe it seemed,people seemed
less stable on them, because they, it's not a, there's not a seat, but it's really, it functions
from a traffic perspective, it functions more or less like a bicycle. It's about the same
speed. So....I don't know if that's the long take or short take, but that's (laughs)that's
my perspective on 'em right now. I think it...it makes most sense to me to encourage to
implement, um, the bike share, get those,urn, get that worked out, get accustomed to
having these, um,this shared.....this new shared mobility source in the right-of-way, and
then maybe consider this summer whether we wanna move forward and,urn, add a....add
a scooter component, and the University, we've had a lot of conversations with the
University about this topic, because whatever Iowa City does, it's going to be on the
University campus, I mean, so they were on the team, the bike share coordination team,
um, and they shared the same sentiment. They'd rather get the bike share up and running
and then evaluate scooters. Um,they'll have a lot more, I think, interaction, pedestrian
interaction between scooters and bicycles. Hopefully if we....if we abide by the same
rules as bicycles, we would just prohibit them in the....and this is up for debate of course,
but if we prohibited them in the downtown, where you can't, you know,roller skate on
the sidewalk, you can't bicycle on the sidewalks to try to pred...protect pedestrians, um,
so we have...I think it's easier from our perspective, we won't have as much of a
pedestrian connection,but the University will have a little bit more of that to contend
with, I think.
Throgmorton/Great, thanks! Any other questions for Darian?
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Teague/ Can you give us any updates on like Zip cars and how, urn,they're bein'utilized
throughout the city?
Nagle-Gamm/That's a great question. I need to look into that, urn, we have....I know we still
have, we've allocated space in our right-of-way at various locations for Zip cars. Urn, I
do know I had asked our Associate Director Mark Rummel at one point,very early in my
tenure, urn, how that....that very same question, how it was working, and I recall him
saying, you know, we can get access to that data, but we have to reach out to them and we
haven't reached out to them. So I need to do that and I am curious how the car,the
vehicle sharing piece of our, this new shared mobility is working, so I can get back to you
on that.
Teague/And do you know how many....and maybe that's somethin' you can get back to us as
well, um, how many locations? I....I just, I mean I see the one downtown by the Library,
but I'm not sure there's other locations, and I'm sure I've seen 'em and just didn't even
....it's not registering who they are.
Nagle-Gamin/My recollection is by the Library on Linn Street, on Clinton Street near....near the
dorms, urn, by Old Brick, somewhere in that vicinity, and I feel like there's one more
location and it's not comin'to mind right now, but I can let you know! I would be
curious how that's....I mean they haven't come to us and asked for additional parking
spaces, so to me that means they haven't felt the need to....to expand services here, but
I'd like to check....to touch base with 'ern and see how that....how that's going.
Teague/ I would be curious, because with The Rise there and then we're wantin'to,you know
(laughs) There's a lot of growth in....in, urn, in the area and so if we really do want to
decrease, urn, you know, uses of....of vehicles,just wonderin' what that would look like,
um, so....
Nagle-Gamin/Yeah, I mean that's something we could certainly consider is adding few spaces in
Chauncey Swan ramp, I mean we have between....between this building where, you
know, we're now sandwiched by a lot of households, or to be households, so that's
definitely something we could consider.
Teague/Thank you.
Thomas/Do you know what the status of the, urn, transportation networks, how....how popular,
what level of use we're seeing?
Nagle-Gamm/I'm sorry, I missed the first part(both talking)
Thomas/Uber and Lyft.
Nagle-Gamm/Oh, yeah!
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Thomas/What....what's happening (both talking)
Nagle-Gamin/It's a well-guarded secret (laughs)
Thomas/ Oh!
Nagle-Gamin/It's unfortunate, um, but we have not been....we've been trying, uh, multiple ways
to try to get, um, and we're not the only community. Um, I would love to know how
much Uber and Lyft is functioning and part of what the University group that's actually
studying automated vehicles and shared (mumbled)mobility technology on our behalf,
urn, part of what they're looking at is, um, they're kind of assessing what happens
downtown in the evenings, in terms of they have an eye for the pick up and drop offs of,
um, Uber and Lyft, so they're trying to get a sense for how it's functioning, but in teens
of actually having the data....
Thomas/Uh huh.
Nagle-Gamm/ ...from a planning purpose, they haven't really given it up yet. There's
organizations, urn,NACTO's one, urn, that's really trying to work with them, to
package... to clean it and package it in a way that....that transportation planning officials
and yourselves, decision makers, could use so we could understand, um, how we
can....how our rights-of-way might be better imagined for, you know, if we look in the
future and, you know, there's....if we're seeing this increase in shared mobility and you
can walk outside your house and use your phone and just pick a way to get from here to
there, you know, do we need all the parking spaces,uh, for personal vehicles, if personal
vehicle use potentially goes down. I mean we have all these questions....
Thomas/Yeah. We...we can't manage our public right-of-ways if we don't have that
information.
Nagle-Gamin/Exactly! So what, part of what that, the University study is to help us get a handle
on maybe a potential....potential ranges, maybe as shared mobility increases, maybe this
is what you look at for your right-of-way. So I think that's....that's our best strategy right
now is to try to get, um, try to get an approach, but we've tried to get them, we've tried
ourselves, we've tried to get, urn, the information. We thought maybe the student angle
would work, you know, they're doing research and....we haven't been successful.
(laughs) They're holdin' on tight to that!
Fruin/One measure I can tell ya is the number of cab companies that have....are operating, and
Kellie could probably give ya the numbers, but....but our....the cab industry has been
drastically altered by the arrival of....of Uber and Lyft. I think we're down to two....four
from seven or eight in....in past years. So, that....that gives you an indication that
they're...have a pretty good market share.
Teague/ I was in, uh, San Francisco and um,maybe Yellow Cab or whatever, they had an app,
urn, and that....I mean I would prefer(laughs) personally like, um, Yellow Cabs and stuff
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like that,but they had an app and it was very easy to access. Urn, do you know if there is
any communities where the city provides like an app for cab companies to be a part of?
Uin....any information?
Nagle-Gamin/That's a good question. That's something, urn, I've started to kick around, urn,
whether it's possible for....or whether there's companies that have platforms for sale,
more or less, I mean could.....could the City potentially, or...or any organization...how
does somebody besides Uber and Lyft, I mean I know Yellow Cab in Iowa City has their
own app. They've....they've just....they have their own app now too, so I'm trying to
figure out what the process is. How do people come by these apps? Are they developed
for them? Is there an open source platform for them? Urn, it's something that I've been
investigating and I can't say I have anything to share yet, but....
Teague/Sure. Apps make it so much easier, I mean even for the, you know, the....the, with the,
uh, live on Google maps and it makes it so much easier for people to have knowledge,
um, and easy access to things.
Nagle-Gamin/Uh-huh, yep! It revolutionized, um, taxi cab and....and personal transportation.
Taxi cab has been around forever. Iowa City's had a prolific taxi service, I say probably
one of the best in Iowa, urn, for many years and it's just...it's that app is what made the
difference, urn, in terms of just the changing of the(both talking)
Teague/Sure!
Nagle-Gamm/ ...that really worked for people here, so....
Throgmorton/Darian, what faculty member is heading up the University study?
Nagle-Gamin/Urn, Professor Fuller, urn,well actually was he....Steve Speers. I think Steve
actually....Steve Spears, it might be...there's a few. There's quite a few, basically the
entire staff,urn, it seems like. No...we've had every, we've had a lot of people in,urn,
Jerry Anthony I think might be heading it up. Um, Steve Speers has been involved in the
project. Uh, John Fuller was also....he might have been just....he might have been there
just to evaluate too,but I think it's....I think it's, urn (both talking) I think it's mostly
Jerry's project.
Throgmorton/Thanks!
Nagle-Gamin/Yep!
Throgmorton/Any other questions? Great work, Darian! (several talking) I'm gonna say this
again—it's such a treat to see the energy and enthusiasm. It just feels really good! Gives
me a really strong sense of optimism.
Nagle-Gamin/Well I...must say that this is quite frankly the most exciting time to be in
transportation and mobility,because everything is turning on its head and it's happening
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really fast and that's what I love about transportation planning is doing something
different and figuring out new ways to, uh, to move people around the community. So
I've been really thrilled over the last year to not just be engaged from a planning
perspective, but also from an operations perspective. It's kind of pulling the two pieces,
urn, together. So I've been...I've been absolutely thrilled and I'm looking forward to, um,
helping move the City forward in the future. So thank you (several talking)
Throgmorton/Great. Thank you! Ron, it's been a long day! Are you still with us? (laughter)
Come on up! It's your turn to roll!
Teague/What page are we on now? (several responding)
Froin/ ....when you're changin' divisions and we'll update the (mumbled) Where ya gonna
start?
Public Works Program Budgets:
Knoche/Uh, we'll go ahead and start, uh, with, uh, the Public Works administration. So that's
on page 288 in your budget book. Urn, not a whole lot here. We have, uh, two staff, uh,
positions that are, uh, paid for out of this budget. Urn,myself and then, urn, Kim
Sandberg, who's our, uh, Project Coordinator. Um,the....the administration piece, we
handle all of the work within the public right-of-way so,um (mumbled) right-of-way
agreements, urn, any of the excavation permits, urn, working with developers as far as
their use of....of right-of-way, uh, and then also all the sidewalk cafes and the street
cafes, urn, that are goin' on. So, um....in.....in, we're, um, you know, we continue to get
a lot of interest in using our right-of-way, urn, and so one of the things that we are in the
process of undertaking is a right-of-way management ordinance, urn, review, and....and
implementation. So, um, we've been meeting with Legal, uh, we've had a couple
meetings here in December, uh, and then we'll dive in, uh, here in 2019, uh, bringing a
consultant onboard to....to really evaluate, urn, what the....what that value is to us, as far
as that use of the right-of-way, urn, and then how we,urn, charge the developers back, or
charge-back the contractors that are using our right-of-ways. Um, and then also it would
come along with that is the....the utilities uses of the right-of-way also. So, urn, that'll
be....it's going to be a huge undertaking. Urn, it's a....I think when I started in 1999, I
think we were talking about doing this (laughter) so we're....we're a few years out, uh, in
regards to developing this. Uh....
Throgmorton/ ...tell ya Maz about the length of time (laughter)
Knoche/ ...but,uh, you know, urn, obviously there's been other, uh, disasters that have occurred
between mid point...so you know, urn, there's been other things that we've been focused
on as far as, uh...um....in the public works' realm, but uh...um, this is somethin'that we
will....we will get this done, uh, in this next calendar year and....and then it'll be the
implementation part'll be the challenge and how we move forward with that. So, urn,
from a Public Works, you know, administration side of things, urn, I'm....I,just overall
for Public Works,urn, you know, our management team that we have throughout all of
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our divisions is....about as good as it gets, you know, we....we have, um, added folks,
brought a division back in, uh,that....that had left us,urn, and....and the...the
management team that we have in place right now is....is a, I would put 'em up against
anybody in the state. Urn, I'd even put `em up against anybody in the country. We just...
we have a good group of folks that are helping,um, from the management side of things
in our Public Works division. So,urn, any questions on Public Works administration?
All right. We'll dive into Engineering. Uh, Engineering's on page 291. Urn, you know,
for....Engineering,there's been a lot of things going on, uh, in regards to, uh...um, this
division. Um, a lot of it just....just in regards to our capital projects. You know,we have
a....a lot of capital projects that are finishing up. We...we continue with a fairly strong,
uh, capital program. Urn,but then we also have the....the other side of it,urn,the
development side of things that have been going on,urn, updating our constructions
standards, uh, and specifications, and also our design standards. Urn, so we have,
obviously we adopted SUDAS as far as the construction side of things. You'll see a...a
item on your agenda Tuesday, updating to the 2019 version of the SUDAS construction
specifications. Urn, the next step is the design sti...side of things, and, urn, you know
we....we already have direction in regards to the street standards,urn, so
we've....we....moving forward with those, but the....the thing that we're...we're trying to
work through now is what other parts of the City operations does that design standard
impact, and you know, in regards to,um, NDS, urn, in regards to parking standards that
we have and some of those other things. So we're...we're working through that now and
the goal is here in 2019 we will adopt the design standard piece of the SUDAS,urn,
specifications. Um....obviously as we do the....the right-of-way management
implementation will also be a part of the...of the Engineering....the Engineering division.
Urn,we have,uh.....a lot going on. Unfortunately Dave Panos has left us, so we have,
uh, we have one of our senior engineers that has left the....the hole for us, so we're in the
process of trying to backfill that position, urn, so obviously there's, urn, some shifting of
duties, uh, within the division currently to....to cover those projects that Dave was
workin'on, but uh, we'll have somethin' in place there,uh, here in the, you know, in the
next quarter to, urn, cover that and move forward there. Urn.....the, uh.....in regards
(mumbled) I'll go through the budget as far as it's in the....it's in the book versus tryin'to
jump around. So, urn.....do we have any questions in regards to the Engineering
division? Um, Engineering Services budget. Okay. Urn, we'll move on to Streets, uh, so
the road use tax fund starts on 313,but the operations side of things starts on 317 in your
budget book. Urn, you know this...this division,uh, we added two full time employees,
urn, and it's been....they've been, it's really helped the impact as far as, you know, in
previous budgets, as far as the duties that we've been able to get done. Urn,the....the
amount of patching that....that is being completed, um,you know,whether it's, uh,
potholes, uh, concrete patching, urn, is really....has really, urn, been moved forward in
regards to those, urn, those duties. Urn,we have, uh, Brock Holub's been on with us for
about a year now in regards to the...the management of the division has been, urn, superb.
Urn,just his background in the operations side of thing is the equipment,urn,has really
brought a different, uh, feel to the....to this division, um, from where we were at with
John Russler who was more of the engineering kind of more of the....the (mumbled)you
know, Brock is more kind of, uh,boots on the street and, urn, in....in getting things done,
and I think that, urn, you know, we're seeing that in the amount of, uh, repairs that are
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being done and the amount of unfortunate impacts that we see on the streets, uh, during
the summer is those road projects are being completed. Urn, this, um, obviously the
biggest,um, impact in this division is going to be our Streets building. Urn, they have
started. Uh, they actually have been putting, uh, foundation, puttin the footings in. Um,
it's, uh, it's one of those things, I think the guys down there are still wondering if this, uh,
a true thing (laughter) if it's really reality, but uh....um.....with this weather that we're
havin'right now, it....it couldn't have happened at a better time for us, because, um,
when they started this project, you know, a month ago, the thought was they weren't
going to be able to get any of the....the ground work done, you know, kind of get that site
work done and, um, they're....they're really, urn, bein'able to get that done for us, which
is very good. Um, what you'll see, uh, in this budget proposal as far as the Street side of
things, we're looking at adding some different pieces of equipment, urn,than what we've
had in the past. Um, you know we typically work with a uni-body type of, uh, dump
truck, uh,which then, um, allows us to, you know, put the plows on and do things.
We're....we're goin', uh, we're proposin'to add two swap loaders into our fleet. Urn,
basically what that'll allow us to do is, um....still have a dump body but you'll be able to
put a,urn, hot box type of attachment onto a...onto a truck, urn, which will save in some
of the labor side of things as far as pothole patching, um, and doing some of those things.
Urn, also as we look at going to salt brine application for future, uh, winter maintenance
type of stuff, we'll be able to mount a tank on the back of the trucks and use that for the
pre-treating, uh, for our winter maintenance. And then we also have a, uh, another roller,
uh, basically we'll be able to go out and operate with two different patching crews on the
HMA side of things, on the hot mix asphalt side of things, uh, where today we just have
one crew that goes out and does that. So, um, dealing with the, some of those pieces of
the activity, which I think there again it'll help impact,urn, our street maintenance side of
things. Um, we do about a million dollars worth of patching internally, you know,
outside of what you see in the capital program as far as our rehabilitation program, um,
and....which is in our capital program, uh, for other street reconstruction. Urn, with...um,
the current, uh, RFPs that our out for our Engineering Services, uh, we are, um...seeking
proposals for, uh, a....a pavement management type of program, uh, so, uh, basically we
would have a company, uh, come in, help us take the...the data that we already have, and
the years'worth of data that we have from the street inventory, uh, that's been done, um,
boil it down and help us determine what is the right number, urn....for that mana...for that
pavement piece. Um....there'll be different levels, obviously there's, you know, there's
the Cadillac, there's a, you know, so as we work our way through that, it'll better help us
prepare, um, the Council, our community to...understand where we need to be at with
our....with our road improvement program, and you know, whether we'll be able to fund
it as it is today or if we need to find additional funding to do that. So it'll....it'll be a...I
don't think it'll be a huge undertaking because it's...it's...it is kind of common practice
right now. There's a couple firms in the state that have been doin'this for multiple
communities, urn, and so I....I think it's...they have it down to kind of a science in
regards to how to boil it down. Um, obviously the...the big piece is...how much budget
are you lookin'at to be able to, you know,to move your street program forward. So,this
is a....well it'll be a....um, it'll be a huge asset to us from bein'able to tell the story in
regards to, you know, what our street inventory is and what we need to do to move
forward and....and make it better. Urn, I will, urn,point out so...so Brock Holub, who is
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our....our Street Superintendent came to us from Cedar Rapids and obviously Cedar
Rapids has a one-cent sales tax, all of it going to the, you know, the....the roads. Um,
but....but he continues to tell me that our streets are far better than what theirs were to
begin with. So,um, you know, so the community, you know, is telling us that...that
they're not happy with the condition of our streets. Urn,but I....I think that we are
starting at a better place than some other communities have started in regards to tryin'
to....to get back on top of where their street system is. So....any questions on the Streets
side of things?
Throgmorton/I'm recalling that Rick Fosse gave us a presentation just a few years ago, maybe
....maybe five years ago, uh, it....and the presentation focused on, uh, a study actually
inventorying the existing quality of our streets. Yeah, so the road condition study you're
referring to, that wouldn't elaborate on that....
Knoche/ So basically, every...every two years....we're going through and we're doing that
evaluation of the streets, and so the DOT, urn, through the,urn, (can't hear) and Iowa
State, the Institution of, urn,Transportation there, um....they're collecting the data for us.
Basically we're gonna take that data, boil it down, and figure out, you know, how...how,
you know, how quickly are our streets deteriorating? You know, and....and how do you
overcome that? And, um,you know, actually the....you know, we have, urn, $2 million,
you know, ballpark in regards to pavement preservation that we're doing. We have a
million that we're doing in streets. We have you know roughly $10 million we're doing a
year in street reconstruction. You know, what....what number do you need at the end of
the day to....to.....to live at the level of service that we decide (mumbled) the pavement
condition (mumbled)that we determine to be the....the best for our community.
Throgmorton/Thanks!
Knoche/Any other questions on Streets? All right. Uh, we'll go to waste water. So waste water,
the fund....the waste water fund starts on page 400, um, but we have operations starts on
page 406. Urn.....we are, urn, you know, from a waste water standpoint, we're.....we're
in really good shape, urn, as far as the facilities. Urn, we have....we have pieces of
the....of the projects that we're working through, urn,you know we just obviously did a
planned expansion, uh, to open up the area for the Riverfront Crossings Park. Urn, we've
done some clarifier repairs; urn,belt filter press, uh, project we completed last year.
We're in the process of adding a generator that will be able to operate the whole plant
versus part of the plant, uh, because of the expansion that we're doing. So, urn, from that
standpoint we're I think we're....we're in good shape. We are dealing with a plant
that....that's, you know, bits and pieces of it are fairly old, so we're, you know, we're in
the process now of trying to work back through some of those things. Urn, the...the big,
uh, piece of the puzzle that we...that we're not certain of is in regards to the nutrient
removal. Um, our...our process, uh,that we have currently is....is working really well for
the nutrient removal, but as, urn, standards become stricter, urn.....things may change in
regards to what we're able to put out, as far as our affluent goes. And there is a....a large
nutrient removal project that's kinda out at the end of our, um, capital program that....that
is looking to address some of that. Urn, I will point out that, uh, at a, urn, spring meeting
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for our APWA Conference the DNR was in and we were pointed out at one of the top
plants in the state, so, um, you know, we're doing our job in regards to that....that
removal piece, urn, but, um...the....the nutrient side of things is, there's a lot of focus on
that, uh, as far as water quality. So, urn,we will, uh, continue to,uh, I think we'll
continue to be, um,required to have stricter standards in order to offset some of the other
users in our state. So, urn, I think that's....that's the....um, I....that's what we'll have to
work through in regards as we move forward, urn, but uh, we have....um,the... the
facility space, you know, as far as the overall layout of the plant to be able to do what we
need to do. Urn, you know, from now into the future. So, urn,we're,uh,we're, I think
we're in a good spot in regards to our waste water operations. Any questions on waste
water? All right. We'll go to water next. So the water fun starts on 420, um...but
its.....the operations is on 425. Um, I think, you know, water we're in a similar spot.
You know, our plant, when we moved in in 2003, urn,there's....there's a lot of the....the
small maintenance stuff comin' up in regards to, you know, what we're doin'there. Urn,
we are, urn, continuing to, uh, move forward with our, urn, pressure zoning project. So
right now we have identified two pressure zones that we're....we're gonna kind of divide
our city up into. We have a pressure zone that's (mumbled) Rochester tank, so urn,
Rochester Avenue,basically you take First Avenue and you go to the east in our
community, urn, down to about Muscatine, um, we'll have a pressure zone in that area
and then we'll have a pressure zone for the remainder of the city. Urn,the...the goal here
is, urn,we have....high pressures, you know, that start at our plant area. We have some
low pressure areas that....that we're havin' trouble just because of elevation, and then we
have some, obviously, higher pressures when you get to the lower elevations also. So
it's, our pressures are kinda all over the board in regards to our community. Urn, there's
increased energy costs that go along with having to pump,urn, in those areas and so by
separating the system up and....and zoning it out, we'll be able to have some energy, urn,
savings, urn, and then also be able to stabilize where our pressures are within our system.
Urn, it's a....a project that a lot of it we're being able to do with other projects that are
going on. Um, we have a First Avenue water main project that we're doing, we're adding
some backfill prevention there. Urn, the American Legion Road project will have some
backfill prevention that we'll have in regards to that system also. So, um, there... there's
a cost that goes with that, but we're seeing some reductions in cost,just because we're
able to duplicate....we were able to do that with other projects versus having to be stand-
alone projects. Um, the, uh....you know, I mean the....the water, urn, you know, we're
makin'water, basically we're sellin'water for about a penny a gallon, so I mean, you
know, for our consumers, urn, it's....it's a really good deal, uh, versus what you'd pay at
the gas station to buy a 20 ounce bottle of water, so, um....you know,we're.... we're, you
know, the....the group there is workin'really hard and, urn,they just, uh,put out some
really good water. Urn, we've been workin'with the DNR on a couple different projects.
They did some training, urn, this spring. Um, we brought in a group from the DNR, um
(mumbled) Kansas carne in there to do some training on, uh, comprehensive, uh, water
plant evaluations. Urn, and....and so.....it was, they were.... they were doin'training on
it as far as the....the idea would be if you had a water plant that had issues, um, water
quality, urn, Flint, Michigan would be an example of if you had a system that was really
havin'problems,um,they have a strategic team that can come in and....and identify the
issues that are goin' on and DNR has been doing this for quite a while, Iowa DNR, so
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they were doing some training of some other comm...other states, um, and, uh, I think
with our....with our review, and we're actually going to have a sit-down with them this
month. Um, I think there's like five items that they found, versus normally 20 to 30 that
they find at other communities. So,um, I think it just goes to show, urn,the....the quality
of....of our system, uh,the....the forethought that went into from where we were, uh,
when I came to the community in 1999, uh, actually older than that—when I came in 91,
as far as what the water quality was. Urn, but the....you know, the....we're really movin'
forward in regards to, um, you know, we've gone from ....from water quality issues, now
to just more the overall condition of the system, and moving forward there. Any
questions in the water....side of things?
Thomas/Just quickly, uh....urn, on the distribution. How is our system, what's....what's, we
must have a similar kind of assessment as we would with the pavement, on the
distribution.
Knoche/ So, urn, from an asset management side of things, our....our Water Division is....is
probably about, is the best as it comes, in regards to our....our system, and....and what
we're seeing is, urn, you know, our....we.....we have a....there's....there's a piece of...of
the, so we have mains that are a hundred years old and are operating very well. Um, we
have mains that are, you kn ow, five years old that are operating very well. We have
mains that, in the...in the 50s, 60s era that are not performing very well. Um, one of
those mains was the Washington Street main (laughter and several talking) so, um, you
know, so....so, you know, um....knowing where those assets are, we....we have the
ability to look at those and make sure that, urn, you know......it used to be, um, kind of a,
wherever you had the most issues you were dealing with things, and now it's more of a
strategic, urn, area by area as we move forward with the remain....of that distribution
project replacement.
Thomas/Okay.
Throgmorton/Ron, I have an observation and a question, so let me ask the question first, and it
has to do with waste water.
Knoche/Okay.
Throgmorton/I...I don't...recall you saying anything about the methane study,but Geoff did
(both talking) introduction. Could you elaborate on that a little(both talking)\
Knoche/ ...um, you know, we have....we have, the Landfill is....is moving...with the methane
study this year, um, and we're gonna potentially could tag-teaming that study in with the
waste water plant also. So, um, obviously as....as we, um....um,process the solids that
are created as a part of the, urn....uh, treatment process,there's a large creation of
methane. Um, we do reuse some of that methane for heating within, um,the system, um,
but obviously there's a lot of, we flare a lot of that also. So we're gonna have the ability
to look at, um,you know, what....what is going to be the best use, reuse of that...of that,
uh, gas. Um, one of the issues that we've had in the past is,um, there's a....in the
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methane that is being created at the waste water plant, there's a byproduct called siloxene,
urn, which when you burn it, it turns into basically sand, and so when you try to burn it in
a normal, uh, generator, it...it doesn't work very well. Urn, so one of the...with, and that
byproduct, um, is created by P&G and some of the processes that they have, and so
as....as P&“ urn, reduces its healthcare line in our community, um, we'll have a better
feel of how, you know....have a better ability to reuse that....that gas. So....
Throgmorton/Yeah, good! The other thing I wanted to mention really is an observation, and um,
I don't know, I feel compelled (laughs)to say this, uh, back in, uh, when I was on the
Council in 93, 4, and 5, we had a huge battle over the size of the proposed water plant,
and over the rates that consumers should pay for it. I don't know....you weren't here
then, but it was a huge fight, and one of the things I notice is that, if I understand
correctly, the water plant capacity is 16 and a half million gallons per day and....and that
was what the, part of what the big fight was over, is how big should the plant be. And
right now we're using some...or producing something like, I don't know, eight and a half
or nine million gallons a day. So the demand for water is way less than what was
projected 20-some odd years ago, and it's just striking, I mean I'm not trying to make a
big deal out of it, I just observe it. It's...it's striking to see the difference.
Knoche/I....I think, you know, one of the....one of the things that occurred, you're probably
more attune to this than I was, but you know, as....as they were looking at a way to
finance the....the plant, they....they actually raised rates, um,prior to the construction
occurring. Um, which then, um, helped, uh, encourage folks to maybe use less water. So
there was some conservation efforts that went on, urn, and so what we saw as....as those
conservation efforts went on,they just stayed. So, you know, we've been fairly level
with our....with our water use in our community, really since, you know,the mid-90s.
Throgmorton/Which in some ways is a huge surprise, cause the population's increased by what,
20-some odd thousand people? Maybe more than that.
Knoche/Yeah. And....and a lot of it too is just the conservation efforts that have gone on, you
know, urn, when you have low-flow fixtures, um, and, you know, from a...from a, you
know, from your bathrooms and your kitchens, you know, I think, you know, that also
has....has some impact on...on the use.
Throgmorton/Okay. Any other questions for Ron?
Frain/I'd just like to point out to the Council, urn,you might find it interesting. I made this
point in the overview, the impact of P&G leaving our system. Page 638 and 639 of your
budgets, in the back, there's a lot of good stats in the back of the budget if you get a
chance, but those show our top 10 water and sewer customers, and uh, without gettin'
into the details, you'll see, if you have some time to look at that, how big of a player is, a
player P&G is in our utility systems and I think just seein'those numbers will give you,
urn, a sense of how big of a challenge we have ahead of ourselves, uh, when it comes to,
um, absorbing their loss.
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Throgmorton/(mumbled)tryin'to save your vision here, Geoff(several talking and laughing)
Knoche/Urn, move on to Resource Management. Um,page 439 is the refuse collection fund,
um, and then on,uh, 444 is the refuse collection operations. Urn....a lot of strides have
been going on in regards to the refuse collection. Um, Patricia Fossom (mumbled) with
the direction of Jen Jordan, which has been a....a great, urn, division head to have, um,
we've brought on Patricia Fossom here within the last six months or so and, urn, Patricia
has just brought a....a different view to the refuse side of things. Urn, and...and has really
been able to focus on the operations just in general. Urn, and so she...she's been a....a
very good asset to have. Urn, we, uh,within the last a....about month, um, we've put out
over 13,000 new recycle bins. So, uh...we, uh, Otto Company is who we actually....
actually manufactures those. Urn, we just hired them to do the distribution, I mean, we
were puffin' out about a hundred a week, you know, as our crews were available to do
things, and they were doin' about a thousand a day (laughter) so, I mean it just....made a
huge impact. Um, some folks were really happy, some folks were really sad, urn, some
folks....yeah, if they got missed, they....they let us know, um, there's also some folks that
didn't like the size of the containers. So, um, so we have had some folks that have
determined to not get the new recycle bins, but uh....um, from a....you know, from an
overall management side of things, urn, this is one of the....one of our(mumbled)
divisions that we're asking for.....or bringing in an additional, uh, employee, urn, and...
and right now,urn, the Landfill staff have been picking up all of our drop sites. So they
....they have a swamp loader that they have out there. Urn, they....they haul around all
the containers, as far as recycling containers, and deliver those. Um, the....the.....the role
of this new employee would be to not only run those routes for the internal stuff. So the
Landfill, uh, drop site, that will still be taken care of by the Landfill staff,urn, but we will
have a person dedicated to do those, urn, on staff, urn, but then it's about a half-time
position for them to be able to run the drop sites. Urn, then it would open them up for
other duties,urn, whether it be white good pick-up, uh, other recycling pickups, you
know....basically help lighten the load in regards to the other duties that are goin' on.
Urn, one of the things that Patricia has been going through and looking at as far as, um,
route studies. Urn, which originally we had looked at tryin'to...we were going to hire
somebody to do a route study for us. Patricia brought in the expertise to be able to sit
down with, uh, Killy Laughead in our Engineering Division and pulling up the GIS
information, and really working through those things. Urn, and so...um, we're....we're
lookin'at, urn,re.....basically evening out the routes, so we're lookin'at some....some
route changes potentially corning up, urn, that will,uh, even out the days and, urn, and
really make it a little bit more efficient than what we're doing now. We have, as....the
routes never really were looked at holistically and so when you have a subdivision come
in here and someone down here, this guy over here may be running both of those and it
just...it just wasn't very efficient in the way that we were running the routes so, urn, that's
one of the things that will be coming on here in 2019, urn, and....and moving forward
there,but um, that additional staff person, urn, running the recycling routes, we know
with the cardboard ban, urn, Iowa City, with Republic Services no longer having their
drop site, urn, our...just our picks at the curb, urn, our,uh, our drop sites have just
increased exponentially in regards to what's going on there. So, um....I, as....as we
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move forward, urn, I would imagine that we're probably lookin' at some....some route
expansion at some point. Urn, I'm not certain what that timeframe will be, but....
Mims/It's nice to see the extra containers out at the old Hy-Vee on North Dodge, cause it was
getting to the point there was a lot of junk on the ground. I...lot of recyclables on the
ground.
Knoche/Yes.
Mims/Cause people would come...things were full, and they weren't taking it back home. They
were just(both talking) leavin' it there. So it's really nice to see the additional,uh,
containers.
Knoche/Yeah, and....and....go ahead!
Teague/Is there any advertisement,um, since Republic is no longer there, urn, for places to take
glass and the things that aren't picked up by curbside?
Knoche/Um, I....I believe we've done some of those in some of the flyers that we put out as far
as the mailers, urn, and I think there's information on our web site, in regards to where
you can do the drop for those. Urn, I believe we have glass recycling,both at North
Dodge and down at, uh, all three of the locations right now.
Mims/What's the third location? There's East Side....
Knoche/East Side,urn,North Dodge, and then out at the Landfill.
Mims/Oh, okay!
Knoche/And then,uh, you know, what you'll see in the CIP is we're looking at proposing
another drop site for Iowa City, in town.
Teague/Because it got a lot of use in town(laughs)
Knoche/Yep!
Teague/Absolutely!
Knoche/Any questions on the refuse? All right, we'll move on to the Landfill. Uh, Landfill is
452,urn, operations, uh, starts on 457. Um, you know there's....been a lot of things
going on at the Landfill. Uh, we just finished up the construction of...of the latest cell.
Urn, we're expanding the gas system, um, both from....within, uh, cells that are closing
out,but then also, urn, in some of our older wells, where we're havin' some issues with
water infiltration and leachate,urn, kind of plugging up those areas and so we just
finished up a project in regards to that...to that also. So we're, urn, seeing, uin....not
quite yet. We....we expect to see an increase in methane production at the Landfill and
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the collection there. Urn, and then, uh, with, uh...the amount of, urn....the organics that
we're picking up curbside, urn, also stuff being delivered, we're seein' quite a bit of
increase in regards to the compost side of things, uh, out at the Landfill. Um, we have
some operational issues out there that we're taking care of in regards to, urn,just the
compost pad bein'large enough and some issues of that, sitting on an old cell that's, uh,
going through some, uh, decomposition. So, um,we're....we're dealing with those, uh,
pieces. Urn....we, uh,just purchased a covering system for the working phase of our
landfill. So you'll see us, um, it's a tarping system versus, you know, going to a daily
cover. We were doing spray-on cover, urn, the tarping system allows to just do a little bit
different with our, urn, fill operation. We're gonna look at...gonna do a, more of a flat-fill
versus just kind of pushing it off the edge and rollin' it in. Um,the....the key, urn, to our
landfill, and....and we heard this morning, is just being able to be on, urn, the garbage as
it's going in, and packing it and really, urn, fill up the air space that we have to the fullest
potential that we have there. Urn, and so with that,um, we do have an additional
operator included in this budget. Um.....we'll also have some additional...we'lI have
about a half-time of....of an operator that had been out there running the....the recycle
side of things too. So, um...in essence we have a one and a half increase in regards to
what we'll have out at the Landfill, as far as staffing goes. Ur....we continue our, urn,
relationship with LL Pelling, um, doing our shingle recycling. Urn, that....that contract
was just, within the last month or so, uh, on your....for the extension, urn, so...so that's
basically, you know, urn, helping....open up some additional space at the Landfill by, uh,
by recycling those shingles, versus them going into the...into the working phase from the
construction standpoint. Any questions on the Landfill?
Teague/I do have a quick question about,um.....costs for appliances and stuff, when people drop
them off. Urn, like refrigerators and,um, is there a, do you know the cost per
refrigerator?
Knoche/I do not. I can find that out for you.
Teague/Okay. Mid....Mid American Energy, they...have you heard about the program where
they'll come to the house, pick it up, and give you a check for 25 or 50 bucks. I wanna
say it's 50 bucks! I do think that it has to be working, urn, although (laughs) I think if it
plugs in it...is....is considered to work. (laughter) Yeah, they even picked up a deep
freeze. It was amazin', but....um, I just wondered if there was, um....any association
with Mid American Energy that you all have for some of the appliances. It is expensive
to drop off Landfill appliances, from my experience, um....is....is quite expensive, but...
I guess that's neither here nor there. Um, but I just wondered if there was anything that,
um....
Knoche/I...I can look, I'll look into that and we'll get ya some information in regards to what
relationship, if there are any, in regards to Mid American and the program that they have.
Teague/All right. Awesome, and then one last question, um, uncovered trucks and stuff like that.
Can you tell me a little bit about that? I...I know...I haven't been out there in a while, but
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I know that I used to be able to go out there any time, and now I think there's, uh,
restrictions and....is there a cost associated with that?
Knoche/Urn, so....right now, uh, I...basically there's a secured load policy in place. So doesn't
necessarily mean it has to be tarped, but....but the load has to be secured, and one of the
issues that we've had in the past is, you know, when you left city limits in front of the
secondary roads and you...and maybe even closer to town,but there would be, you know,
debris all the way, you know, out to the Landfill, and so the intent of the secured load
policy is just to help limit the amount of....of debris that we have, um, out to the Landfill,
and that...I think it's worked very well and the....the, urn, the haulers, although, uh, it was
challenging for them to begin with, uh, I think they....they've really come around, urn, to
it. The, uh.....I'd have to check and see if....if there's....what the charge is for that. I
think we were, urn, doing,urn, we were doing a lot of warnings to start off, urn, with
folks. So I'll....I'll get some more information on that for you.
Teague/I....I think....maybe the interpretation from the public is it has to be covered and you're
sayin' it has to be secured.
Knoche/Secured, yeah. So....so it could be....if....if you're haulin' limbs out from your house,
you know, you wouldn't necessarily have to tarp it. You could just, you know, use some,
you know, rope or...or another way to secure the load itself so you're not losing it on the
way out to the Landfill.
Mims/I would agree with you, Bruce. I think the initial information or public interpretation was
it had to be tarped, and....and maybe that was just an effort to....make it really clear, you
know, and maybe now you've backed off a little bit, in terms of....of the wording of it or
whatever. Urn, but I would agree, cause my initial interpretation was....even if you had a
bunch of stuff in boxes, you know, and it wasn't going to go anywhere, were you going to
get fined if you didn't actually have a tarp over the top of it too. So I think that might...
help in terms of some, for the general public, understanding(both talking)
Teague/And do you know of, and I've not heard any issues with,urn staff charging someone or
fining someone, uh, that wasn't tarped or it wasn't secured, urn, but have you....do you
feel like the staff is pretty educated, that if someone comes without a tarp,but if it's a TV
it's not gonna fly anywhere, you know, they don't need to rope it down. So....because I,
again, I think the interpretation is it needs to be tarped.
Knoche/ Okay!
Teague/Anything that comes out, so I....I guess just as a point of, um, insurin' that staff know, I
guess. I have no idea if there's' been any issues, but....yeah!
Knoche/ (mumbled) look into that and we'll get you some information back.
Teague/Thank you.
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Knoche/Any other questions on the Landfill?
Mims/I'd just say with what you'd said, Bruce, about Mid American. I think that's really
interesting, because....if.....if there's a way to let the public know that here's some other
options for getting rid of appliances, where you can even get the utility company to come
and pick 'em up, and send you a check, versus you trying to figure out a way to haul
them, or have the City pick them up and charge you, would be....I mean, one I think it'd
be good information for our public to know, and two, what do we do with those things
once they show up out at the Landfill?
Knoche/So we have a recycler that'll come and (both talking)
Mims/Okay.
Knoche/ ....and take some and recycle some and....
Mims/And they charge us for'em or....do we....
Knoche/Um, I believe there is a charge for the recycling side of things.
Mims/Yeah, so....
Frain/Mid Am's usin'their....their energy efficiency dollars to do that, so the State required
dollars that they collect from their customers. That's essentially what they're using. Now
with the reduction (both talking) the State's not forcin'them to do as much, uh, with last
year's legislation. So we'll have to figure out if that program's gonna continue,but we
can give you a comprehensive(both talking)
Mims/Okay. Thanks!
Knoche/And....and I imagine that they have a similar relationship with a recycler, where they
pick 'em up and....takes them and, yeah. Salvages them.
Teague/And because they're not usable(laughs)not the ones they've picked up from me
(laughter)
Knoche/Um, the....the next, uh, fund is the storm water fund. That starts on 472. Um, and, uh,
the operating side of things starts on 476. Um, this,urn......this is a....a program that,
urn, we've....we've seen a lot of some consternation in regards of some neighborhoods in
regards to their detention basins and the status of...of, or the condition at their end. Um,
also have seen some, uh, complaints from neighbors to subdivisions that are going in,
based on the amount of runoff that they're seeing. So, um, this is a...another, urn,
operating budget that we're requesting an additional staff person, uh, to....to help head up
that side of things, really the inspection side of things. Urn, historically, um, in our....in
our process, as a project's being built, the Engineering Division does the inspections as
far as the storm water, as it gets turned over and goes to the single-family homes are
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being built, you know,the construction goes on, then it kind of switches to NDS. I think
the goal here would be to....to,this first one would be the bridge in between those two
pieces, cause there's....there are some times when, urn,a project's built,not quite
complete, so homes aren't bein'built,but there's really no construction goin'on, so you
kind of...you lose that....that piece of the puzzle, and so,urn,this...this technician will be
the....the person that'll help bridge that and work through those things. Um....we'll also
continue to do the volunteer events,um,that go on. So,urn, Carol Sweeting heads up,
you know, a lot of volunteer events on the rivers, on the creeks in our community, and
um, I...as Carol may be lookin'to retirement, uh, soon,um,we'll need somebody to kind
of see how those things are going, and....and be able to carry the torch in regards to...
regards to that part of the operation. Uh, we will be,um, you know, from a storm water
management standpoint, urn,through the SUDAS, urn, design standards, we'll be lookin'
at a....a potential change into the current storm water management standard that we have
today.
Teague/I do have another question, I'm sorry!
Knoche/That's all right!
Teague/What is the process for addressin'like,um, a street, and I don't even know if this is
really all related,but a street that has,um,when it rains, storms,urn, a....a lot of water on
it. What's the process that,urn, anyone can....you know,they call, they make a
complaint.
Knoche/Right. So....so,um,the....if....if it's a situation where we have a large storm event and,
you know, so a typical,um, storm sewer system for your street is designed to a five-year
event. So we have a five-year storm, you know, so 95% of the time, you know,it's able
to run down the street, go in the storm sewer, and nobody sees it,but you get the larger
events that occur,um,you know,then there's going to be water standing on the street,urn,
whether it's going through over-land flow routes, you know, to get to the streams, or stay
in the drainage ways,urn.....if a.....if a homeowner or a property owner calls and says,
'Hey, you know, this storm that occurred, water stood in the street for an hour.' We'll send
some of our waste water staff out. They'll start doin' some inspections of the pipes to see
if there's any blockages in the pipes,you know,to try to determine if there's issues there.
They'll take care of those problems. Urn, if it's bigger than that,if it really just, you
know,just a big rain event,urn, and what we see here in Iowa City, if....if we get a....a
one-inch event in an hour,we will start to get phone calls,because that's...that's about the
threshold that we have in regards to, you know,in our....in our storm sewer system, and
(mumbled)if you get a bigger event than that,um,then it, um,we get a lot more phone
calls. Urn, we did have an event in October,uh,that was a fairly large event. Um,
we're....we're just starting now to...to start,you know, phone calls from some of the
neighbors in the,urn, First Avenue, Second Avenue,Third Avenue, as you start comin'
down Ralston Creek,urn, where there's a significant flood event there that we weren't
really even aware of,urn,that occurred. So,urn,we're gonna be doin' some
neighborhood meetings to....to try to get better understanding of....of that situation. Urn,
I think that...I think it was such a large storm event that I don't think there was much we
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could do about that, but uh, we'll....we'll definitely do some research there and find out,
but uh, from a....from a, you know, from a typical rain event, um, you know....it would
work through waste water. If there's bigger issues, then it goes to the storm water
engineer, urn, and then eventually if there's....if there's a project that we feel could help
alleviate the issue, um, then it comes back to the capital program and would, uh, and
would come to Council for approval.
Teague/Okay. Awesome.
Fruin/And so we have a couple......just lookin' ahead to the CIP, we have a couple of those
examples where problem areas are gonna be addressed with larger projects, and one is the
Lower Muscatine area. Uh, which will be done in the construction year 2020, and then,
uh, out in 2022, uh, some area around Westminster,uh, Drive. So those are a couple
problem areas that we've identified, uh, through neighbors and whatnot, and....and it will
address it, but as I was trying to articulate in the, uh....um....opening remarks that we
made, the storm sewer fund is so small, uh, you know, we're bringin' in$1.7,uh, million
a year. Those two projects are right around the million dollar level. So, you know, we
can....we can do one or two of those projects every five years, and that's basically all our
storm water fund will allow for. Urn, otherwise we have to look at general obligation
bonds to do some of those.
Teague/Thanks!
Knoche/Anything else on storm water? All right. Last operation's equipment. So we're at 597
is the fund, uh, start, and then operations starts on page 600. Um,the, um.....we, uh....
the Equipment Division, uh, basically handles all the purchasing of....of equipment. Urn,
that is outside of Transit. Um, the maintenance that goes along with all those pieces of
equipment. Um, and then also looks at, um, ways that we can, um, meet some of our,
um....sustainability goals,um, and....and work through things, and so this....this last
year, um, we have brought in two fully electric vehicles into our, uh,pool car. Well,
one....one is actually within, uh, the NDS, um, depart...department, and then we have one
as one of our pool cars. Um, we're also lookin' at different hybrid equipment. Hybrid
vehicles that come in and those have been placed in NDS and also in PD. Urn, so we
continue to look at the....look at those, um,those areas, uh, as far as that goes. Urn, and
then as a....as a part of what Dan Striegel's workin'through is he's also looking at use of
vehicles, and....and obviously where the electric vehicle would be a better use, uh, on
some of those vehicles, and so, um, continuing to....to evaluate those pieces. Urn, and
then, uh, you know,just a, you know, they over....equipment also oversees all the fuel,
uh, facilities that we have, both the...the....the outside of, uh, what is occurring at our
Public Works facility,um, they also oversee all the radio system stuff. Um, one of the
things that, one of the bigger, urn, undertakings that Dan's working on right now is an
AVL, um, our(mumbled) vehicle location system. Um, we've budgeted for that in
the...in the current budget that we're in now. Um, the...unfortunately the State,uh...um,
contract that's out there....doesn't have the equipment that the vendor was having us
demo in their contract and so, um, we're going through the process right now, and
probably gonna write up our own, um, proposal, RFP, for that, um, and get that out on the
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streets here within the first quarter of the year, but uh, there's,uh.....there was some
workarounds that some other communities have been doing, but I....I don't think it's a
feasible alternative for us. So, urn, that will be somethin'that Dan will focus on and so
we'll have, um, you know, the....the vehicles that we're bringin' on this fiscal year, as far
as FY19,but then also the vehicles that,um, we'll be bringin' on in FY20. Um, we,uh,
were able to demo last year during, um, the winter, urn, snow events. We had two
vehicles that had, um,the AVL on their trucks and, uh, some....some of the information
we got was....was pretty good,just from a standpoint of bein' able to defend, you know,
you didn't go past my house to, urn, you were goin' 50-miles-an-hour down my street.
So, I mean,there's....there's some, you know, other than....there's some other information
we can glean from that,but uh, it's,uh,it'll be a good system once we have it in place.
Um....any questions on equipment? Overall, from....from,just overall from a Public
Works standpoint,urn, we're in the process right now of working through an asset
management software package. Urn, as I mentioned,you know, the Water Division, urn
....um, in their use of Cartegraph,which is a system, uh, an asset management system,
um,they're....they're probably light years ahead of,you know,the other groups that we
have(mumbled) our other groups,urn,but we'll be workin'through a purchase of asset
management software,urn,to help us,um, in the Streets,Water,Waste Water, Storm
Water,um, and...and really help us, urn, glean that information, urn, and then obviously,
as I mentioned,the right-of-way management ordinance is the other big piece that we'll
be workin'on this year. Urn, you know,we kind of had a curve ball thrown at us with the
small cell technology and, urn, some of the,um, federal regulations that have come down,
uh, on us in regards to that, but uh....um, one of the things that, with the....so basically
we don't have any ability to tell small cell no (mumbled)basically what it comes down to.
Urn, but we do have the ability to charge them for the use of...of our facilities, if we
have a manage...a right-of-way management ordinance and we're charging everybody
else the same. So, urn, there's a couple pieces there as we move...move forward,um,
we'll be able to,urn, get some more revenue in regards to some of the uses of our right-
of-way.
Salih/How do you keep (laughs) all this? This is a lot! (laughs)
Knoche/Good people! (laughter) Yeah I mean a great staff is what it comes down to,not only
Public Works staff but it's....it's everybody within....within the City. You know, whether
it be Attorney's Office or NDS or, you know,Transportation Services,we have a really
good group to work with and....and we all look out for each other. So....
Salih/I guess that's great!
Knoche/Finance Director that helps us pay for it all! So (laughter)
Mims/He prints money, right? (laughter)
Salih/Yeah, very complex really(several talking) and....(mumbled) fantastic job with, uh, of
course the staff too, for each division, and just keep up the good work!
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Throgmorton/It's important work and you've had, uh, quite a....quite a lot on your plate. You
being the'department,' in general, and all the various divisions. So, we recognize how
important the work is and thank you for doin' it! And I, to be honest, some of us are
folding, I can feel it. Maybe it's just me (laughter) So....otherwise there'd be a lot more
questions probably.
Mims/I think also you just look back over the last decade, really, from the 2008 flood, I mean,
we haven't really caught up, I mean we're.....maybe starting to now, I mean we've got
(laughs) I mean at least the Gateway project is basically done.
Knoche/Basically done....
Mims/Um....
Throgmorton/On that point, Ron didn't even mention the Gateway project (several talking)
Mims/ ...it's done. It's not in this budget! (laughs)
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Mims/Um...but I do, I mean I think back to that flood,to the 2013 flood, and you know, the
development that we've had, and so what that has meant for infrastructure and, um, we've
had a lot going on in the last 10 years. A lot! So....staff has done a great job. Great job!
Knoche/Thanks for your support! (several talking)
Throgmorton/Thank you, Ron! All right,we have three other departments to go through. Uh,
should we start with Kellie? (several talking and laughing)
General Government Program Budgets (cont.):
City Clerk
Fruehling/The biggest one for last! (laughter) Um, Kellie Fruehling, City Clerk's Office. Um,
we have four full-time employees in our office. Urn, our...our,to me, our main duty is
like support staff basically for other City employees, for Council, um, members of the
public, and any information they need that's Council-related. Um,we get a lot of calls
routed to us when they're not sure where it needs to go (laughs) and so, um, a....a lot of
just knowing different divisions and....and what they do and how to route those calls.
Um, but one of our....our main duties, of course, is to help staff put together the packets
for the Council meetings, uh, and then taking care of finalizing all the documents after
the fact. Um, and a...a big hurdle this last year has been the Agenda Management System
that we started the pilot program in April, ran both the pilot program and then the....the
old way, which was a lot of paper, um (laughs) through August, and then we finally
switched over to strictly the Agenda Management in August. So, to me...I think things
run a lot smoother, um, I haven't heard....many complaints. Little tweaks here and there,
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which I'm sure we'll...we'll keep on workin' on some of those things,but that's
been....been a big hurdle and a big thing that Marian, for years and years and years, had
wanted to kind of move that way and so it's....it's good to kind of get with the program
and....and have things electronically. Um, we also, uh,take care of permitting. So
cigarette licenses,uh, liquor licenses, um....taxi cabs, and correction—there's three
companies, um....so we're down to Yellow, Big Ten, and Jowan, and then, uh, also
licensing all the drivers. Um, we also staff the, uh, Citizens...Community Police Review
Board. Um, and...we also do their budget,but that's mainly just legal counsel for the
board. Urn, so there isn't any changes within their....their budget. Urn, a lot of the past
year's been really kinda trying to streamline procedures in our office to make it more
convenient for staff, easier access to the information, trying to get,uh, as much out online
and available to the public as we....we can. Um, and then hopefully, I....I think we're on
the last leg of(coughing, difficult to hear speaker) on that event and public assembly
permit project, uh, so that people can apply online,um, and so that it flows a little bit
better for staff approval, and then hopefully have a connection to, urn, a GIS map so that
the public can go on, see what's goin' on, click on an icon to see the information for the
event, when it....when it's happening, so...that's the big picture and what we'd like to see
the end result be. That's kinda the....a nutshell. (laughs) A quick nutshell! And....and
no, I mean we're not, no budget increases. It's pretty status quo. (mumbled)
Teague/Well as a new Councilor I have to say I've been very impressed, uh, with you, and your,
uh, staff, urn.....if they are like 10%cheery and as nice to me, um,to other people as they
are to me, then people in our community are very satisfied! So thanks for all you do!
Throgmorton/Indeed. Every time I go to the Clerk's office....things are taken care of. (several
talking) It's really good!
Mims/Very helpful.
Salih/I think I'm the most one given(laughs) hard time, because I always....I don't think about
any one in the (unable to understand) Iowa City, you know, the whole city, except Kellie.
Whenever I want something, I will call Kellie and she will (laughs) direct me. The thing
that I want. I don't know, maybe because I know her from the Police Review Board and
we build a lot of....good relationship, you know, together. That's why I just feel like
comfortable calling you first, before you can....yeah. But you've been very, very, very
helpful from the begin, especially when I was really new here and you guide me a lot.
Thank you.
Throgmorton/Okay! We can move ahead. Do you wanna do Simon and then Dennis
or....(several talking) Go ahead! (several talking and laughing)
City Manager
Andrew/Well I'm going to run through four budgets. Uh, first one is the City Council budget,
page 132. Uh, so seven employees, as you know. Uh, the major changes from last year
are personnel expenses, uh, are budgeted to go about a third,uh, based on the new salary
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structure for Council. Urn, service expenditures go up slightly this year. Uh, lot of our
dues and memberships, League of Cities, Metro Coalition, are based on population or per
capita, so those tend to inch up every year. Urn, and that's where the travel, training
budget exists too for Council Members. Uh, and supplies has a sizable increase this year,
uh, the proposed budget includes funds to replace the remainder of the chairs here in
Harvat Hall. Uh, they no longer make the old style and as those are breaking we're, um,
adding the gray ones and we're just gonna, uh, replace them all at once, should that stay
in the proposed budget. Uh, so any questions on Council's budget? All right,movin'on
to the City Manager's budget, on page 142! Uh,three of us in the City Manager's Office,
as you know. Uh,pretty status quo budget from previous years. Uh, this is the budget
where we have, um, City events spon...or City-sponsored event funding. So this is
where, urn, Summer of the Arts,uh, summer fireworks, Jinglecross, uh, those, uh, funds
come from,uh, this, uh, fiscal year 20,uh, includes $40,000 for the second year of a
three-year pledge with, uh, the University on the Big Splash, uh,planning event. So, urn,
that for three years,that line item is bumped slightly. Um, everything else is status quo,
largely a,um, a personnel-heavy budget. (mumbled) Any questions on the Manager's?
All right! Movin'in, the third one—Human Rights. Uh,page 154. Uh, so two
employees in the Human Rights Division. Uh, you see Stefanie before you often, also
Human Rights Investigator, uh, Kristen Watson. Um,the....no major changes from the
previous year. Uh, we, uh, are proposing to continue to $75,000 for the social justice and
racial equity grant program,uh,that was elevated funding last year and the....the
proposed budget continues it at that level. Um,but again, no major service change, no
staffing level changes,uh, other than the addition of a paid intern. The Human Rights
does historically have an intern but that's frequently been, uh,unpaid or University
internship where they get a stipend through them, so....um,hourly dollars there for,uh,
an intern.
Throgmorton/Simon, with regard to Human Rights.
Andrew/Yes!
Throgmorton/Uh, I wanna make a suggestion.
Andrew/Absolutely!
Throgmorton/Uh, Stefanie prepared quarterly reports that are required as a result of the work the
Ad Hoc Committee on....forgotten the exact title, uh, did, uh, five or six years ago. And
those quarterly reports are very informative,but they really end up being just a long list.
Andrew/Uh huh.
Throgmorton/And I think it would....I think we've done really good work on racial equity. But
when I look at that report, I....I can't see it because there's just a long list. So my
suggestion is this,that we...uh, seek a way to either transform....uh, what Stefanie's
producing, so that it really highlights significant improvements in changes that have been
made, or are being made, uh, or....or else,uh, she continues to produce the same report
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that then somebody else, uh,puts that into a more distilled form. Uh, I, you know, I can't
imagine anybody in the general public would pick up one of those reports and read
through it and think, well....(laughs) this is really good, I mean....cause there's just...it's
just too long a list.
Mims/Well sometime you should just get a bunch of numbers of how, like how many events the
Police Department officers have gone to or done or, you know, for whatever part of the
city and, I would agree. It gets to be a long list of...it's almost like checking boxes to
prove that we've done things and after you've done it for a certain period of time, and
showed that we're doing it, the next one doesn't really tell you anything more than the last
one did.
Throgmorton/Yeah, and this is not criticism of Stefanie.
Mims/No!
Throgmorton/She's doing what (both talking)
Mims/ ....we asked her(both talking and laughing) I would agree!
Throgmorton/ ...but I just think we could improve what we ask her to do. It's...Geoff, when you
and Pauline and I were talkin', uh, last Monday...or Wednesday, I said something about
it's like going into a museum and how the museum director focuses your attention on
certain items. They use light, they use positioning, and so on. That's the kind of thing we
need with regard to these reports.
Andrew/Sure! Absolutely. Yeah, I think you're right that the....the way it's structured now is
largely an outgrowth of the way it was developed initially. Um, I know that she, uh,
Stefanie distills that pretty well I think for the annual report, to call out, you know, from
the past year things that have, urn,major accomplishments that the City's, uh, done, but
um, you know, maybe we can borrow from that format or at least that idea to...to revamp
the quarterly reports. Urn, I know Stefanie's been working with, uh, Robin Hepker on,
uh, changing the look of it and,uh, working on the presentation of the charts and the
graphs,but,um, you know, I still distilling that information further, you know, getting
away from that laundry list probably is a good idea.
Throgmorton/We also do a,urn, what is it, a monthly sustainability report that appears online.
Andrew/Uh huh.
Throgmorton/Just with...there's a name for it.
Fruin/ It's a newsletter.
Throgmorton/Thank you, newsletter,but we don't do that kind of thing for social justice and
racial equity. (several talking in background)
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Mims/Are you saying you want that on a monthly basis? I mean, I...
Throgmorton/Well maybe not monthly. May...maybe quarterly(both talking)
Mims/Yeah, I think quar...yeah.
Throgmorton/ ...more work(both talking)
Andrew/But the look and the feel of it.
Mims/Right, and I'm not sure....yeah, we can talk about the sustainability one later, but yeah, do
we need some of those things on a monthly basis or....yeah.
Throgmorton/Yeah. But what I....what I do like about the sustainability monthly report is it is
online, is it is very clear, and it's....it's visually appealing too, and there's some sort of
human interest stories and, you know, there's factual stuff(both talking)
Mims/Uh huh.
Throgmorton/Yeah.
Andrew/Any other questions on Human Rights before I move(mumbled) All right, the last one
is Economic Development. Uh, one fill-time employee in the Economic Development
Division. Uh, again no staffing or service level changes, um,recommended for the fiscal
year 20 budget,but I would call your attention to page 160, um, that has the tally of all of
the economic development grants that we do out of this line item, uh, that we previously
had done a resolution approving finding of...for those ad hoc throughout the year as
needed. Um, Council last year, uh,passed a resolution, uh,basically this is your approval
of these amounts. So,um,make sure that you're comfortable with those before we adopt
the final budget,but this is the line item, for instance, that the Englert,uh, Film Scene,
uh, grants come out of. So that's the big dollar amount for fiscal year 20 in here. It'd be
the, uh, second, uh, half a million dollar, um, grant, uh, for that, a capital campaign. Uh,
the other large line item here is the, uh, Convention and Visitors Bureau, uh,hotel/motel
tax pass-through finding comes through there, which is about$230,000.
Mims/Can you....remind me, I don't know why I'm not thinking. What is the opportunity
populations workforce assistant. Who...who's that going to, what exactly is the program?
Andrew/Um, that I'd have to follow up with Wendy on. I believe that that was a, uh, a
placeholder, um....that we had put in for, um, your strategic plan, um....initiative to, you
know, work with,uh, populations (both talking)
Mims/Okay!
Andrew/ ....yeah.
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Mims/When we were talking about working with Kirkwood and (both talking)
Andrew/Right!
Mims/ ...Workforce Development(both talking)
Andrew/Exactly! Uh,Wendy's done a lot of great work. Basically we had a hard time wrapping
our aims around it in the beginning. Urn, all of the programs that exist throughout the
community, and what the needs were and where our role was. If you'll remember from
strategic planning discussions that, urn, you know, a lot of it was centered on'are we...'
....it didn't seem like we should be the lead agency in a lot of those....
Mims/Uh huh.
Andrew/ ...that we should be supporting efforts of Kirkwood or other groups. So, uh, Wendy's
done a really good job of, uh....getting an inventory of what exists out there and how we
can help facilitate folks workin'together. So that's....that's what that's for, it's a
placeholder, but I don't think it's a....a well programmed initiative.
Mims/Yeah, okay. Thank you!
Fruin/John and I are on the ICAD board and a couple meetings ago, Kirkwood presented, uh, to
us, urn, about, uh...uh, some....some ESL efforts that they're looking to expand on. Um,
and essentially trying to connect,uh, folks that, um...uh....uh, do not, uh....do not speak
English with the workforce. They've done some experimentations in, uh, Cedar Rapids,
where they're actually working with employers to bring,urn, employees into the
workforce and then having ESL classes at the work site. So the employee may work
seven hours and then take an hour of ESL, urn, and then they gradually,um, can move up
the pay scale as they advance through the ESL courses. Kirkwood's looking to expand
that model, and I've reached out to them since that ICAD meeting and expressed an
interested in how we can partner with them to bring that program here to Iowa City. So
they're workin' on that and they said it'd probably be February before they got back to us,
so I'm lookin' at those funds potentially for a partnership there.
Mims/Great! Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Sounds good. Thank you, Simon!
Monroe/I'm gonna cover, uh, the other two budgets that fall within the Manager's office, and
we'll jump back a little bit in our budget book to page 144, to talk abut the
Communications Office. Urn, so Communications is, uh, headed up by Shannon
McMahon, uh, the other person in the office is a full-time equivalent is Katie Linder. I've
got a note saying she's leaving us shortly but um, they've been doing a really excellent job
as far as our, urn, in....kind of an internal service. They're our unsung kind of worker
bees behind the scenes facilitating all of our communications work,urn, working with our
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departments as they prepare campaigns and promotional information, educational pieces,
uh, to the general public, managing the day-to-day, uh, you know, social media and
responses and managing the outflow of all of our press releases, our,uh, newsletter
communications, those types of things. So, urn, Shannon also works with Ty Coleman,
he's the cable coordinator, and they have, uh, Jack and Toni who you see filming, uh, our
Council meetings in the evenings and, uh, Kevin in the cable office. So they have six
full-time equivalents in Communications. We also have our part-time, uh, staffers at the
front desk, and um....and so we have....and....and as well as a part-time,uh, graphics
assistant, uh,Andrea,who's been doing great work. Urn, so their budget is highlighted in,
uh....kind of as a group. So I'll just walk through, uh, we've been working hard at getting
ADA compliance plans for the web site. They hosted some compliance training for
ADA, uh, work throughout our....our community. Uh, they hosted training for staff
working with the media. So we all sat down and, uh, got some feedback from...in....in a
profession to assist with all of the inquiries that we get, urn, throughout our organization.
Um,they completed multiple marketing plans for departments, as I alluded to. They
were integral in our RAGBRAI plan....even planning and coverage. They worked on
that this year. Took a lot of their time and they did a great job. They also have grown our
social media following, e-subscriptions. Those...those types of things. Um, cable,
transition to a higher quality video archiving solution. So we....we moved from our prior
system to YouTube, which is a easier,more convenient platform for viewing a lot of our
videos. Urn, some upcoming challenges that they're working towards, um, investigating
new ways to reach the public and engage. So they've been developing a video podcast,
uh, which you'll see shortly. The first one features a Historic Preservation. So,uh, they
brought in community members and Simon moderated that event, and so (mumbled)
listening to it the other day, so you should hear it comin' out. They're continuing to
update online forms. So internal and external forms for user ability to....to access things
that they need. Um, we're near completion of our new internet platform. So internal to
the City, urn, where all of our staff can get resources and pull information, day-to-day.
Uh, it's been a big project. It's basically been like creating a new web site, and uh, so it's
been a long time coming. Um, IT doesn't have to piece it together with duct tape. Uh,
and we're moving to that soon. We're re-evaluating cable TV priorities, urn, so just
evaluating the...the time spent of our cable staff on both internal, uh, work and working
outside in the community,just getting a good balance of...of what that looks like to best
use our resources. Urn, they're also developing a strategy for providing closed captioning
for long format video. This is a requirement for ADA, you know, requirements so part of
what you'll see in the budget is a captioning study. So about$4,000 we've budgeted for
us to get a feel for what, um, for what it's going to take to convert our video into closed
captioned pieces,um, something that we need to move towards to be compliant and, uh,
we're just not sure what exactly that's going to take or what that dollar amount will take
to....to convert our system. Uh, also in cable I'll just mention, uh, small equipment
purchase for a new production (mumbled) $2,000. In Communications the only two
things I wanna.mention there are, uh, for...relatively status quo budget for both of these,
urn, is that we put aside $10,000 for,uh,build translation and promotions advertising,
urn, so thinking about how we're communicating with the public, urn (mumbled) a
portion of that$10,000 will go specifically to, uh, translation of more of our information
for the general public, urn, it'll...part of it will go to, uh, communication about our climate
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plan efforts and uh, one objective of the climate plan is to develop a communications
plan, so part of that is dedicated there. And then the last piece is, uh, a capital expense
for laser fiche licenses. So just what we use to....to provide information to the public.
We had to up those licenses, which was costly. So....questions about Communications?
Or cable? No? Okay. HR is a little bit, uh, more straightforward. So Human Resources
has, uh,page 150, and they have three full-time employees in the office. Karen Jennings
leads this group. Urn, they just completed entry-level police officer testing. So we have
a list approved by the Civil Service Commission. Fire today, uh, talked about their
upcoming testing process. So, urn, and Chief alluded to the fact that we are planning to
......to interview the people who pass both tests, no matter their, uh, their score, uh, as
long as they've passed, uh, and so we're not sure what those numbers will look like. Uh,
typically the interviews have....have been maybe a week and, you know, a couple of days
maybe, but...if we get enough candidates that apply and....and are eligible, we may be
looking at a couple of weeks of interviews, which is a huge undertaking for the staff that's
involved in those. Um, they've reformatted and restructured our hiring and recruitment
materials. So making things easier for people to understand, less text for people to read
through. Uh, I think it makes it more accessible for people of all backgrounds to apply
for positions here at the City, and have it be understandable to them, what that job is and
the...the really specific basics that they need as they consider application. Uh, we
completed the RFP process to secure a new labor attorney. We'd had the same person for
decades it seems and,uh, so now we're working with Ahlers &Cooney through our
collective bargaining negotiations which are occurring now, uh, for Police and Fire. And
then finally our,uh, continued leadership and oversight of our Employee Wellness
Committee. They take the lead in this group and the work that they've been doing, from
helping with the United Way campaign to other employee initiati...initiatives and
benefits, uh, has been really outstanding. I think people appreciate the work that...that
that whole group, you know, organization wide, we have participation,but Karen leads
that. And we've already started thinking about seasonal hiring. So...uh, the only things
big mentioned in...in the budget is, urn.....that they've required a 20-hour a week Human
Resources office assistant. So,hourly help, um, to help with some of the...uh,job
postings. We have moved some of the responsibilities of the Library and Recreation to
Human Resources, and so as, uh, those....the needs of posting those types of positions
has increased, they're looking for a little bit of help. So, uh, that's included in here. And
I'll take any questions! (several talking)
Throgmorton/Thank you,Ashley!
Monroe/Yep!
Throgmorton/Dennis!
Finance
Bockenstedt/All right! Not sure if it's good or bad to go last (laughter) So, uh (both talking)
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Throgmorton/Well before you start talking,brilliant job putting this budget together. You know,
it's really massive project and publication and....and(both talking)
Bockenstedt/ It's really a team effort, I mean all of the departments. There's a lot of involvement.
There's the group,the committee, and one person that's not here that contributes a lot is,
uh, our secretary Cindy, who does a lot of the production and also prepares a lot of the
schedules that you're looking at. So....so it's really not just myself or even our
department. It's really a City-wide effort,uh,that takes months to really pull it all
together. So...so it's a big effort. Um, and....and we appreciate the direction that we get,
you know, the clear direction we get, the easier it is and the better it is to pre...to prepare a
good document and....and, uh,to put the...the finances and the budget in the right
direction. So....so I'll talk a little bit about our department. It's, uh, one thing that's
unique about the Finance Department versus a lot of the others you've seen is, uh, our
general who we serve is the internal customers. So a lot of what you hear from the other
departments is they serve the people, the community. Uh, who we serve is the
employees, for the most part. Um, and so a lot of when we talk about our service levels
and customer service,we're talkin' about,uh, what we do for the other departments and
what we do for the internal staff. Um,we have six different divisions in the Finance
Department, uh, and we have a lot of different funds,not to mention the entire City's, all
the City's' finances. So we'll...I won't get into all of those. I'll just primarily talk about
the....the operating divisions and....and their staffing. Uh, the first division is the
administration division, and you can find that on page 165,um, and that's primarily
myself;uh, Jacklyn,uh, Cindy our secretary, and then we added a part-time internal audit
position, uh,this past year, uh, which we're still workin' through how....uh, those issues.
Um, you know the primary responsibilities of the administration,uh,team is to prepare
the budget, and the budget book. Uh, we also, uh, do the annual bond issuance and bond
compliance reporting. Uh, they do like the Moody's rating call,uh,the bond sale,that
type of thing. Uh, we also administer the health and dental reserves, and that's related to
a weekly task where, you know, we pay the bills, review claims, well...some of the
claims,that type of thing. Uh, we manage the employee benefits, employee benefits
fund. Uh, we also do all the investments and banking, and then the internal audit is the
new piece that we're doing and actually we're fis...finishing up some of those first internal
audits, and so that's,uh, been a real interesting process at this point. Uh, our second
major division is our accounting division and this can be found on page 173. Uh,Nicole
Knutson Davies is the City Controller, oversees this division. Um, and they, uh, really
handle all the internal accounting,paying the bills,uh,billing, collecting our invoices.
Uh, they also prepare all the paychecks, the payroll, uh, that takes place every two weeks.
Uh, they also administer all the City's grants and....and federal reporting on those grants.
Uh, they also oversee the....the annual audit, when we hire our audit firm, and the
preparation of the comprehensive annual financial report, which is a....uh, you've
probably got that in your packet a few weeks ago. It's a very technical document,uh, that
we have a lot of accountants working on. Uh, so they prepare that and...and the audit of
that document every year and....and they also do other, it, general financial reporting for
the City and other County duties.
Throgmorton/I read it, every word (laughter)
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Bockenstedt/That's very exciting. We think the budget's exciting! Read their...financial report,
that's even more exciting! Um....
Throgmorton/Actually I didn't read (laughter)
Bockenstedt/I'd been very impressed if you had! Uh....the third division, uh, is purchasing and
central services, and Mary, uh,Niichel oversees that division. Uh, there are four
individuals within our purchasing division, and central services,uh, they probably do all
the...when you hear about the RFPs and the bids, uh, other than what Engineering is
doing with capital projects, pretty much all the supply services, professional services go
through our purchasing division. Um, so really we've got, uh, two or three individuals
that are handling all of those bids, organizing the committees to review them, uh, the
award of those and then preparing those things to go to Council as well. Uh, they also
handle all the, uh, copy....copy machines, copier replacements, and do all the City's
postage and mail. So all the....the postage in the City, other than like the Library, goes
through,uh, this division and goes to the Post Office and we charge that out. Um, our
fourth,uh, major division is our revenue division, also known as utility billing. And we
have just under eight FTE, uh, in that division. And,uh,this is one of the divisions, uh,
within the Finance Department that does serve a lot of the general public. In fact we
touch just about everybody in the city, uh, through their utility bills. So when you get
your utility bill in the mail or the email or however you get it, um, you know,this is....
this is coming through that division. So....uh,they also conduct the Landfill billing and
all of the daily banking and daily deposits,uh, throughout the City, either go directly to a
bank or they go directly to this division, and they....they handle those deposits,track
them,record them, and make sure they get posted. Uh, our fifth division is the
information technology services division, and at just under 10 FTE in that division and...
and,uh,technology these days is really pervasive in just everything everybody does.
There's....there's hardly a division or anybody who got up here and spoke that is not
impacted by technology and IT, uh, in this day and age and....and so, you know,what
they do and the importance of what they do cannot be understated,uh, as far as how it
impacts the general public, the employees, and what goes on on a day-to-day basis, and
essentially that's a 24-hour a day operation. You don't see about it. You don't hear about
it,but any time any thing breaks down, has a quirk, a glitch,uh,they are called 24-hours
a day to respond,uh, to that, whether it be the Police Department, the Fire Department,
uh, water main, uh, you name it,uh,they are on-call day and night. Uh,but they also
manage all the City's servers, PCs,uh, all the City networks, wi-fi networks, uh, city-
wide,urn,their fiber optic system that....that is continued to grow throughout the city, as
we add more cabling. Uh, they handle all the City's telephone systems. So all the phone
systems, uh, all the stuff you're lookin' at in this room that's electronic, uh,they pretty
much handle,uh, everything that plugs into a network cable or connects to the network in
any way. Um, they do do some general programming and data base management, and
one of our newer functions that...that is continuing to grow is our GIS, and you know last
year when you saw the CIP re...CIP presentation, realized the GIS system for that, and...
and we're really at the tip of the ice berg of what...what that is capable of doing. Uh,then
our last division is the risk management division, and we have just under three FTE
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involved in that, and that oversees most of the City's insurance, liability management
programs, and, uh, that includes safety. So you k now if somebody gets injured, uh, we
go out and review thosewhat happened, uh, we do all that OSHA reporting, um, it's just
an ongoing cycle review—injuries, what happened, and try to make improvements, and
really facilitate those improvements and those changes within divisions, uh, to...to try and
make it a safer work environment for everybody. Um, and you know the City...the
insurance programs, you'll see those in the back, where we have the health and dental, the
risk management funds, employee benefit funds. Also manages all the, uh, Police and
Fire medical claims, uh, which we are directly responsible for. Um, and so all of those...
those claims (mumbled), payin'the bills, workin' with the third-party administrators, uh,
flows through that risk management division. Um, so I touched on some of the
highlights. Ones I did not mention is, uh, last year, or this year, we took over the
bookkeeping operations for JECC, in our Accounting division, and we're workin' through
that, as far as getting that integrated, but that's going very well at this point.
Mims/I will tell you that Tom Jones is incredibly pleased and I don't remember who the person
is in the City staff who works with him, but he has nothing but the highest praise for her.
She is....
Bockenstedt/He's probably workin' primarily with Nicole.
Mims/Yeah, that sounds right, um....I know....either our last meeting or the meeting before that,
he was just talking about how helpful she is and, you know,just any time he calls, she's
like, oh, if you need anything....he's like, she probably gets so sick of hearing from me,
but he's really,really pleased that the City has taken that on. So, JECC is paying the City
for it, but it's...it's, uh, I think a real....real help for JECC to not have to do some of that.
With a small organization like that, you've got issues with who's doing what and who's
controlling things and so.....
Bockenstedt/Yeah, no and....and integrating them in, since they're really not on our financial
system, and luckily we had some expertise in-house in regards to the systems they were
using. So we actually set up a separate bookkeeping system in our department,just for
them. And they're managing that entirely separately,but, uh, we felt that there was a lot
of room for improvement in there, as far as efficiency and how they were doing things
and they're gonna go on to the(mumbled) time-keeping system that we...implemented
City-wide, and so you know we feel like there was a lot of ways that we can improve
how they were doin'those things and....and, uh, it's been very good to work with Tom.
They've been very responsive and so...so far that's workin' out fairly well. So and we're
gonna also work with,piggyback with'em as we're moving our backup radio tower
systems onto JECC, and so it's good to see that, uh, that we're enhancing that relationship
in....in a positive way. So....um, some of the things you've got some glimpses of in the
budget book, or in the presentations today, was our long-term financial planning software
that we, uh, integrated this last spring and summer, and we weren't sure how that was
going to play out. Um, it was kind of a....we, uh, contracted for that on a trial basis. Uh,
we feel like it's been going very well and so when you're lookin' at some of those, uh,
long-term trends, uh, that Geoff presented like on water and road use and....and you'll
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notice those in all the major funds at the very end, where you see...over that five-year
period where we see revenues, expenses going. Uh, that's been a very interesting process
and I would say it's been very helpful in our....in our long-term financial planning,urn,
you know, we generally have just from lookin' at year or two where we see those trends
going, and can kind of(mumbled)but this really kind of lays it out in a visual pattern to
say...oh gosh, you know, I didn't see that or that was worse than I thought, or you
know.....and really allow, can lay out and say,well, we know that....these are the funds
we need to work with this year immediately, and we can see two or three years from now,
these are some of the funds that we may need to do some work on down the road. Um,
another one of the highlights is we're lookin' at a new online, uh,purchasing/bidding
software package,which would, uh, kind of replace how we're doing things now. It's a
very manual process where we publish,post,notify vendors, and this would really
automate that process as far as what goes on the web,what notifies the vendors, when the
bids come in and hopefully integrate into our financial system so we don't have all these
manual steps that we're walking through in that process and....and that's one thing,uh,
Ashley mentioned the Laserfiche licenses. The things that we're doing in....in Munis,
really moved in that direction and Kronos, is we continue to go more and more paperless,
more and more automated. You know, this will help us take more steps in that direction.
The laser fiche licenses pretty much any form that is being filled out and submitted
internally or externally, city-wide, is going to electronic form processing and...and we're
lucky some of the hires we've made in this past year are very quick learners,they're very
efficient at it, and....and so when somebody goes online and fills out a form, like we've
been using it for information requests,when the general public has an information
request. They fill it out, it flows internally through the email automatically. Yeah, it's
really, uh, and...and they're just takin'more and more of these forms and moving them so
that they're not flowing internally. For instance a...one of the ones we're working on is
our internal travel training form. Right now somebody fills that out, they sign it, they
hand it off to their supervisor where they sign it. They hand it off to the department head,
the City Manger's office, then it goes back to Accounting; and this essentially they'll fill
out an electronic form, they hit send, and it'll just go...automatically go through the
process, um, and so we continue to move further and further down the paperless process.
Now I dare to say that we are probably one of the most paperless cities....in the state, I'm
sure in the state if not the country. So...um, so we continue to move that and we're lucky
that we have the resources and the staff to be able to continue to...to go in that direction.
So....I think that's the major highlights. Urn, we do have....we did get some temp staff
approved,uh, next year. That was the only staffing changes, and that is in our IT
division. Um, IT's gonna be working with Kirkwood and some of the other technical
colleges to help develop an internship program, urn,hiring technical staff has been very
difficult and challenging the last couple years and so that's to help develop those
relationships that maybe would help put people into the pipeline when we need those
positions in the future. And the other position would be in our GIS,uh, like...we feel like
we're just really in the tip of the ice berg, as far as what we can do, and there's a lot more
out there and this person will hopefully help us, uh, develop,uh....as far as when we find
needs, like Ron mentioned the refuse routes, that type of thing, that this person can help
develop, uh, the programs or the....the maps, the planning to help really utilize that
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system really to its potential, and I'm sure we won't quite get there with this, but at least
we'll keep movin' in that direction. So....and I think that's all I got!
Throgmorton/All right, any questions for Dennis?
Salih/Um, I really not like a question but I really would like to bring again, uh, the thing that I
was asking the Council if they can do it, which is the City should do businesses with the
people who (mumbled) like the County minimum wage. I understand that there is a legal
chall...challenge to aid like when you do big stuff, but at least we can start with the....as
like so the thing that we buy, office supply or even the food that we buy, I just see like
many times you buy food from people that they don't pay(unable to understand) and we
can easy bring this list to the City if you don't have it, you know, the Center for Worker
Justice can provide it for you, but let us start with (mumbled) that we buy. I don't know,
there is many challenge I know on like when you buy like something(mumbled) do
bidding with somebody or when you do all this, that's fine, but if we can really start by
the few, like the little stuff,just like every-day person or....like food and those kind of
things. I don't know what the Council think.
Throgmorton/Well we'll find out, uh, Pauline, when you and I were talking with Geoff, you
brought this up as well, didn't(both talking)
Taylor/ ...cause I...I hadn't heard for a while, and it was my understanding that staff, uh, cause
when...first when you brought that up, I was thinking, you know, like the juice and donuts
and things (both talking)
Salih/Yes, exactly!
Taylor/ ...thought about it, I thought there's a gazillion things out there that they probably, you
know, toilet paper(both talking)
Salih/Yes!
Taylor/ ....which, uh, I was told that staff have been looking at those, going through the vendors
that the City uses and kind of compiling a list of....of who they are, what we get from
them, and then perhaps somehow looking into what they....what they are paying, because
some things may be somethin'that that's the only vendor we can get it from,but we might
then need some time to look into (both talking)with the CWJ,but it's my understanding
that staff, someone in staff, more than multi people are....are looking into this.
Bockenstedt/I mean I think there's a number of probably...it....it sounds really great in theory,
um, and sometimes in practice things are a lot more challenging than that. You know
we've done similar things like with the....the (mumbled)verification, where we've set
those requirements. What we've done is set, uh, through (mumbled) where we have
things that we have controls in place, and that is through the bidding process, and so
when we do a bid process, one of the things we ask is...do you do, can you verify that
you've not had any wage theft issues. And...and if they fill that out and they say they
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have, then we can take that into consideration when we're considering their proposal.
Urn, that's a controlled scenario where we can review through the purchasing system
whether or not they qualify or not.
Salih/That's great.
Bockenstedt/A lot of these smaller transactions, um, would be much more difficult. You know,
because we have....I don't know if(mumbled) dozens, but maybe even hundreds of
people in the city who actually go out and make purchases with their purchasing cards,
and controlling the vendors—where and how and what they do and do not purchase, um,
can be far more challenging. And then makin'the determination whether or not they
would qualify for what you determine as a fair wage or a minimum wage,urn, you know,
that....havin'that end user on the end and setting those qualifications limits would create
an internal control challenge, uh, I'll say. Now if you set that to the threshold where, well
if we're gonna reward bids,we want to set a preference over those that meet a certain
criteria,that is a situation where we would have more discretion or control over it,but
certainly, uh....you would want to set the parameters or define how you define that.
Would it be, you know, sometimes they look at wage levels. They might look at an
average wage level, which some might say is not a fair way to look at it, urn, or do you
have a minimum wage level? You'd have to define how you would set what is acceptable
and what's not, and then, uh, like I said we did with the wage theft and that is set a
minimum purchase level or bid level that we would evaluate that at,because doing that
on every transaction that takes place within the City, aside from certifying and prohibiting
vendors, would be....would be a challenge, cause, you know, the Parks Department sends
an employee out to get donuts for a meeting, and you say well here's the vendors you can
use to buy donuts from, you can see where that starts to present challenges as this City
operates 24-hours a day, seven days a week with hundreds of people makin' those
purchases and so....so wouldn't....when you.....want to look at developing that policy,
you have to think about what you can say you wanna do it, but what can you actually
manage as an organization, and how are you going to control that scenario. My take is
slightly different appearance.
Fruin/It's on your strategic plan. We'll....we'll get you a comprehensive, you know, breakdown
of it and part of what we need to do is go through the thousands of vendors that we have
and try to categorize them by type of expense and expense level and what process that
they are procured through and...um, it's a challenge. Urn, if you wanted to start small
somewhere and just, you know, direct us as staff as we hold public meetings and, you
know, as we buy....snacks for the Council or whatever it may be, to....to try to start small
and do that. We can do that, um....
Salih/Cause I think we can start small, you cannot just like(unable to understand) everything
like once like this. I understand the challenge. I understand you have thousand of
purchasing you do, and it gonna take from the....lot of time from the staff to figure out,
but let us really start with those kind of meeting, like the...the City Manager roundtable
meeting. I been seeing like some staff there, which is not from people who been (unable
to understand) here today also I been seeing that. You know, that's why let us start with a
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small thing then. After that maybe, uh, three years from now we can change everything
but...you know,just let us have the feeling that we wanna do it and...(unable to
understand) small and we grow up. No problem!
Fruin/We're happy to work with you on that!
Salih/Okay.
Throgmorton/Yeah, sounds good.
Salih/Thanks!
Throgmorton/Sounds good! Any other questions for Dennis?
Mims/I....I wanna respond to that, and I....guess I'm not exactly sure how to formulate this, but
if you'd....if you take a small business in this community, that's paying property taxes,
um, or paying rent to a landlord that's paying property taxes, and....we don't know what
their costs are to do business. We don't know what their profit margin is. I mean I...I
have had small business owners in this community tell me there is no way they can
survive if they pay the 10.10 an hour. Okay? Um, it might be that they're using a lot of
part-time, you know, in many cases it's a lot of part-time college students and that sort of
stuff and it's very low skill work, and....I understand and I support the idea of...of the
minimum wage,but if we have these small businesses that literally would go out of
business. They're providing a service that people in this community want, and people are
supporting by going in there and purchasing things, and they can't survive if they were to
increase their wages to that"acceptable level," because if they did then the price they
would have to put on their goods would be such that people wouldn't buy them. Then to
me it says that we as a city government are saying....that that is not a valuable business
and we are not willing to support them, when we don't know anything about what their
other costs are, what their profit margin is. We have small businesses in this community,
I mean,we've talked about giving micro-loans to people who are trying to open
businesses. In many of those cases, I would bet you that they are not paying those wages
that....that we're talking about. Because they are struggling to get started and just barely,
you know,break even or to be able to pay their loans as they start, and so....I have a
concern when we don't know kinda what's under the hood, that we're gonna take one
piece of information and basically make a judgment about a business and decide whether
or not we are going to allow them to be a vendor for us,based on that one piece of
information...that we have then said that is our highest and biggest value, and if they can't
meet that target, to heck with you—we don't care if you're a city, you know, we don't care
if you pay taxes in the city. I....it's not that everybody, it's not that every business that
doesn't pay that wage is screwing their workers. A lot of these are very, very small, mom
and pop businesses, that are maybe just getting started. They have very, very small
margins in terms of what the public is willing to pay for their goods and services. So I...
have a concern. I get the idea the wage issue, but you also have businesses that are
struggling to try and survive.
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Salih/Uh, you know, I just wanna tell you that I think the City is not doing business with all the
business in the area. We doing some business with specific businesses that the City need
to do business with. And of course there is some business even the City not working with
them. Not because they're not paying the minimum. Because we...they don't need to
work with them, they don't have anything to buy from them or anything. And...talking
about a small business, do you know how many small businesses in this area they paying
10.10? And they come out publicly and they spoke about, they have small business and
they still can pay 10.10! (both talking) I don't know what your resource is,but you
know, there is many,many small businesses in this community, in Iowa City, they still
pay 10.10 and they survive. They makin'profit and they never went out of business. And
they, and also, those people also paying taxes to City. Everyone is paying tax to the City,
you know, I....I guess, what the value of the City? This is kind of encouragement. We
wanna encourage the people and...to do the same thing, that's why we will do that, and
just by...by go and eat on a like restaurant that pay County minimum wage, you
encourage another restaurant to do the same thing.
Mims/Bit I would also argue that nobody, unless you....unless you have somebody reviewing
their payroll documents, people can say they're paying stuff. I....I....yeah, I've heard of
businesses who have told CWJ they're paying minimum wage, and other people came
back and said, 'I've worked there. They were not doing that,' and so I....you get, you can
get lots of information,but I know there's some who aren't doing it and they can't do it.
They would have to close their doors.
Salih/I'm gonna (both talking) the last thing. I'm gonna go by what they told us because I'm not
going to tell a business you are lying. You know, any business who would tell me that
yes they payin 10.10, I'm gonna take that for just...for granted, and if they are not doing,
that's up to them, but....you know....we kinda just (unable to understand) You saying
you doing it, okay, we believe you.
Throgmorton/All right, it sounds like a topic that's worth discussion, but not now.
Salih/Yes!
Throgmorton/We...we've already agreed that Geoffs gonna provide us with some additional
information related to this topic. That's a good time to talk about it more thoroughly.
Any other comments? All right,thank you, Dennis. Geoff, are you gonna end with a
sentence? (laughter)
Fruin/Yes! I've got 11 different items to follow up on, I'm not gonna go through'em all, uh,
Ashley may have, and others may have captured more,but uh, those'll be items we follow
up on in information packets or emails to ya, and then I've noted five, uh, areas where
we'd like to discuss some budgetary issues further. I do wanna walk through those, and
of course as you digest this information over the weekend,more may ca...come up at
Tuesday's work session, but public art funding, the UniverCity, uh, program or some
modification of that program, uh, affordable housing contribution in general, uh, the
relocation of the Sammy-Gilmore House, and then the transition of year-round, hourly
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staff to permanent, benefited positions. Those are, again, give things that I heard from
you that you wanna talk about specific to this budget. The rest of the 11 things that I
won't walk through aren't really budget related,but more informational and we'll follow
up in due time with you.
Throgmorton/And there're specific elements that you....you already understand will be added to
the (both talking)
Fruin/Correct!
Throgmorton/ ...which do not (both talking)
Fruin/The South District housing program, 140,000 will be added from the general fund, uh,
to...to support that project, and then we're gonna add $100,000 for the Terry Trueblood
solar project.
Salih/Okay.
Throgmorton/Okay, does anybody want to make any concluding comments here?
Mims/I just wanna thank staff for once again, you know, an incredible document, long but I
mean we're compl...large and complex organization and so there's a lot of detail. Um,
very easy to read,very easy to follow, and just great informational presentations today.
So just really appreciate all of staffs work.
Salih/ I second that!
Teague/Third it!
Taylor/Fourth it (laughter)
Throgmorton/Well I wanna elaborate on it,just a little bit. I think....I think I see a lot more,
uh...um, commonality among the presentations this time, as compared to previous budget
sessions, and uh, that works really well, it seems to me. The other thing is, as I probably
said with regard to specific presentations, seeing and hearing each of the department
heads really gave me confidence that we have a great team workin' for us, and so I...I'm
really excited about that. I....I have a very high level of confidence in the quality of our
department heads. Yeah.
Mims/And I would say, I mean I think in my 10th year doing this, I would say I've always had
that confidence, but what is nice is to still have that confidence after some very major
changes. I mean lot of new department heads in the last two to three years.
Taylor/I think it was commented on several times on the enthusiasm even with their
presentations and how, uh, you could just sense that they really cared about what they
were doing, and...and the quality of what they were doing. It was great!
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Throgmorton/ Okay, thanks, everybody. We'll see you Tuesday night! 5:00!
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