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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-10-01 TranscriptionPage 1 Council Present: Cole, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton Staff Present: Fruin, Monroe, Andrew, Dilkes, Fruehling, Bowers, Brotherton, Knoche, Havel, Seydell-Johnson, Hightshoe, Laverman, Whitmore Others Present: Wu, Lenkaitis (UISG) Review Human Rights Commission Recommendations for the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant Program 1IP31: Throgmorton/ Our first topic is to review Human Rights Commission's recommendations for the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant Program, and I'm imagining that Stefanie is gonna make a brief presentation to us summarizing the recommendations and so on. Hi, Stefanie! Bowers/ Hi! Yeah, so I can certainly, um, go through each recommendation, and if there's any questions or concerns about those then address them at that time. Throgmorton/ So you did not intend to make (both talking) Bowers/ No, I do! (laughs) Throgmorton/ (mumbled) do whatever you intended to do! (laughs) Bowers/ Okay! So I'm here on behalf of the Human Rights Commission. The Chair, Tahuanty Pena, and Vice Chair, Bijou Maliabo, both had prior commitments this evening. So I'm representing the Human Rights Commission on these recommendations for the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant for FY, uh, 20, and the 15 recommendations, how the Commission arrived at those was, uh, they held a work session where they solicited feedback from community members on how the process could be improved, and then they also surveyed organizations that had applied for funding and didn't get awarded, as well as surveyed, uh, organizations that were, uh, awarded money. So that's how they arrived at the 15, and so just to provide, um, brief .... a brief background on the Social Justice/Racial Equity Grant, it was established by the City Council in FY17. The primary purpose of the Social Justice and Racial Equity Grant is to encourage, empower, and engage social justice and racial equity initiatives here in the community. The grant has, uh, six areas of focus, and that's, uh, building community, uh, criminal justice, education, employment, housing, and health. And the next slide just shows over the past three years the organizations that have been funded. So to date, uh, the Human Rights Commission, through the City Council, has awarded (noise on mic) over $127,000 in funding to 14, uh, different organizations, and of course the first two years, FY17 and FY18, uh, the allocated amount in the budget was $25,000, and then of course last year and for FY20 it will be the 75,000. So the first, uh, recommendation from the Human Rights Commission has to do with who can serve as a primary applicant, and so the Human This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 2 Rights, uh, Commission is suggesting.... because there are, uh, limited funds that public institutions, such as governments, uh, public schools, colleges, and universities not serve as primary applicants, um, for the FY, uh, 20 grant cycle. They .... have really gr...great projects, uh, the public institutions when they present proposals and they have been awarded in the past, but it does, um, make them compete with local non -profits who don't have as deep as pockets as some of those, um, public institutions. This, uh, recommendation from the Commission would not, uh, remove the ability of an organization to collaborate with a public institution. It's just that the public institution couldn't serve as the primary applicant. It also would not restrict an organization that was affiliated with a public organization from applying for a grant as a primary applicant. So like a student organization or a parent -teacher association, they would still be allowed to serve as a primary applicant on the .... on the grant. So number two has to do with, um, consecutive funding. So one of the things that came out, uh, when the Commission was doing outreach and having conversations with community members and with organizations is that some of the organizations that they funded in this last cycle had received funding in previous cycles, and so what this recommendation would do is it would, um, kind of place a one-year block on a organization from receiving, uh, funds for a project or program, and this, uh, one-year hiatus would be true even if it was for a new program or something different than they had previously been funded for, and it's really, again, just because there are limited funds available and to make sure that they're, uh, spreading the 75,000, um, around with different organizations, instead of continually funding the same organizations. So number three is, um, kind of, um, putting into writing, or codifying the Commission to actually factor into its recommendation to the City Council whether an organization has received City funding in the past. The, uh, application has always asked if an organization has received, uh, City funding. I think it goes back five years and so this would just require the Commission, when they're making those recommendations, to .... to look at whether an organization, one, has been funded. If so, how much, and what's the duration of that funding. That was another thing that came out in the conversations is that they had .... it was thought that they had funded organizations that had overlapped with other funding opportunities that the City offered. So this was one of their ways to, um, try to avoid that happening in the future. So the fourth recommendation is, uh, simply placing a cap on the amount that an organization can apply for in a grant cycle. In previous years the Commission was kind of hesitant to .... to cap the amount because they thought they might get an extraordinary proposal that wanted, uh, that requested all of the funding, but after three years of doing this, they're pretty confident that, um, a cap of 25,000 should allow for some, uh, good programs and, uh, proposals to be presented to them. Uh, recommendation number, uh, five is about transparency and, uh, communication, just encouraging organizations that are interested in applying for the social justice or racial equity grant to attend an informational session that will be, um, presented by Human Rights Commissioners and it will provide a background on the grant and then also talk about the process and how they come to the decisions that they come to when they're making the recommendations to the City Council. Um, the .... number six is to remind applicants it would be something that they're suggesting be added to the application when folks apply. But, um, it would remind them that the primary purpose of this funding is to benefit Iowa City residents. In the past few grant cycles, there have been proposals that are probably more of a regional This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 3 approach, and so they just kinda wanna remind applicants that the, um, the goal is to always try to benefit as many Iowa City residents as possible when they're, um, making proposals to the Council, and then number, um, seven, again is something that came out when the Commission was doing outreach in terms of things that, uh, may.... should be changed or modified in terms of the process, and one of the things, uh, that was mentioned is that there should be a .... a shared understanding of definitions, and so this grant cycle, they're recommending that social justice and racial equity be defined using this definition, uh, from, uh, "Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice," um, and they feel like this will better help them as a Commission be, um.....work better together at least in the sense of when they're evaluating a grant, they're all on .... excuse me, an application, they're all on the same page in terms of what those words mean, and then it also, uh, should assist applicants too in ... in, when they're writing their proposals, being able to actually look at the definition of what, um, the Commission has in mind when it says social justice or racial equity. So, um, number eight was a few Commissioners just thought it would be helpful to kind of have the reasoning or the creative process for why an organization is making a proposal. They thought it would better help them evaluate the overall application, and then number nine is asking whether or not there's a sustainability plan. That's clearly been stated by the applicant. As I mentioned earlier, um, the Commission, through the, um, City Council, has funded 14 organizations here in town, and there's been a lot of great, uh, programs and activities that have come about because of the grant, and so the Commission is just wanting to ensure that those things are not just a one-year effort and that they're continued in the community. And so they want to see organizations demonstrate an actual sustainability plan, uh, for those projects, to continue after the grant funding ends. Number, uh, 10 is about, uh, best practices and shared learning, and this is just the Commission asking the, uh, applicant as part of the process to .... to share how they're going to, uh, get the word out about their project and how they intend to reach their targeted community that is part of their proposal, and then number 11 is, uh, requiring grant recipients, after the completion of their, um, funding cycle, to do a public presentation on their project. Number 12 is, um, the Commission is recommending that organizations be allowed to use up to 25% of their, um, the funds that would be allocated to them for operational costs, and I .... my understanding is that this recommendation, um, was encouraged by members of the Commission because in past funding cycles there have been organizations that have been funded that were, uh, largely staffed by volunteers. So they didn't have an office. They were either meeting in public spaces or meeting at one another's homes, and so they didn't really have the infrastructure to .... to .... implement the project that they had been allocated funding for, and some of those barriers were not being able to use some of that money say for rent or for computers or copiers, and so that's why they have added this recommendation to, um, the FY20 grant cycle, and number, uh, 13 .... is if the Commission has questions they would prefer that they were filtered through staff to the organization and urn .... and then we would just share that with other Commissioners and the public, and then final rankings, this is again just in writing to remind the Commission members that, um, final rankings should serve a wide, um, group within the community and also be a diverse, uh, project, so all the projects and people don't look the same when they're making their funding request to the City Council, and then 15 was, uh, something that the Commission had struggled with in past funding cycles too, which is whether or not to, um, fund a project, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 4 uh, partially, and not giving the full amount that was requested by an organization, and so they felt that they would feel more comfortable giving partial funding to an organization if it's clear from the application that the project could, um, succeed with less funding, and they realize it may have to be scaled back a bit, but it would still allow the project to move forward. So that's what I have .... those are the 15 recommendations. Throgmorton/ Great.... thanks, Stefanie, and .... and thanks to the Commissioners for focusing attention on this topic and for offering recommendations based on their experience. It's very helpful to us, uh, for them to do that. Here's what I'd suggest. I'd suggest we go back to the top, to the first recommendation, and just move through 'em. I won't repeat 'em, they'll just be there in front of us, and I'll ask does anybody have any questions about, you know, item num.... recommendation number one and so on. We'll just work our way through it. And see what comes out of that. All right, so recommendation number one, who's got any comments or just ... just, you can just say 'I agree' if that's sufficient or whatever you wanna say. Teague/ I would agree with that. Cole/ I would too. Throgmorton/ Yeah, me too. Taylor/ As long as, uh, Stefanie had mentioned that they can collaborate with say the University or even have an affiliate organization or affiliate, urn .... uh, relation with that ... so that's good. Throgmorton/ Okay, item two. (both talking) Go ahead! Mims/ Sorry. I just .... I understand their point, but I'm concerned with that restriction, that what we end up on ... what we end up doing is focusing on the organizations and not on the projects, and to me the focus should be on the projects and the people who benefit from the project, not on who is doing it. So regardless of whether it's organization A, B, C, D, or E, I don't really give a hoot who's doing it, as long as they have the capacity and the ability and can execute what they have said they're going to execute. So that's .... when I look at that and say, oh, well the same organization can't be funded two years in a row, to me the focus .... seems to be in the wrong place. It's on organizations, not on the results that we want for the people in the community. Teague/ There's many organizations that are newer, tryin' to start out, and you know, if they were to be the recipient of this, you know, the next year typically they .... well sometimes they may want more fundin' to help get them to sustainability, um, and so .... I would agree that this one is a little challengin' to, um, totally agree with at this point, but I do understand the Commissioners concern when they are definitely, um, there's only so much money and... they're rewarding, um, funds to someone that's been previously awarded, within the last cycle. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 5 Cole/ What would we think about adding the option of one additional year, so that there could be some continuity for programming. I think for example.....I know I think at one point we may have funded, um, something with CWJ for language learning or something like that, or business entrepreneurship, to give a little bit of a kick-start to that organization over time, but I think the Human Rights Commission's, uh, concerns are well placed. What we don't wanna have happen is that all of a sudden this becomes a regularized operational part of someone's budget, cause at least my vision in at least supporting the racial justice and social equity grant was that we would help emerging organizations get on their feet, um, that traditionally had not been able to participate as much. So, um .... it's a hard balance to ... to match. (both talking) Thomas/ Yeah, I could see where perhaps, um, it's not a hard and fast rule. It may be preferred that, uh, organizations don't receive funding, you know, year .... year after year, uh, but I think there could be an instance where you would want to fund in consecutive years, uh, if. ... you know, it was a compelling proposal. Taylor/ I would add to that, similar to what Susan had said. If it's something different, a different project, something.... something new that also still benefits, uh, social justice and racial equity, uh, I think maybe the wording should be'preferably . ....... preference could be given to the newer applicants but the others could still be considered.... if it's a new project. Mims/ I guess going back to ... how we started this, and I guess I'm coming back to your point, Rockne. When we talk about Aid to Agencies, and emerging entities, we have specifically talked about, you know, reserving some of that money to help emerging entities, small, new start-ups to kind of get going. My recollection is, and maybe I'm mistaken, that our discussion on the social equity.... social justice and racial eq ... racial equity grants.... wasn't geared towards the organizations and starting or helping organizations. It was on helping people in the community. And so I guess I don't .... I don't see that as necess.... I guess then what I'm doing is trying to look at what ... what was our end goal? What was our real end goal in allocating this money? And to me that end goal was in helping the people who needed help, not helping new entities start, but in helping the people, and ... and I guess that's where I'm coming from in ... in my thoughts on this. Throgmorton/ Stefanie, could you go back to I think the preceding slide? No, the one before it? Uh, you showed a slide that provided language about what the purpose was. Bowers/ Yeah, so that was (both talking) Throgmorton/ ...down at the bottom, thank you. So encourage, empower, and engage social justice and racial equity initiatives to eliminate inequities. My recollection is more consistent with Rockne .... what Rockne said, about emerging, uh, emerging organizations that come out of communities. So they have .... we empower them to initiate actions that in their judgment would benefit the communities that they come from, and that .... I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 6 understood that to be a response to the fact that we have a considerable number of new communities in Iowa City and that we need to do what we can to help them .... uh, respond directly to concerns and, um.....um...... challenges they face, based on their own experience. So....I.....I think we .... we don't warm get ourselves in a situation where some familiar organizations use this grant mechanism to .... come up with new .... new projects, year by year by year. I think it's....would be better to .... make sure that funding is available for these communities that need to figure out how to solve their own challenges, but also to .... not to .... to exclude organizations simply because they had a successful project one year and proposed another project, but know you can't do it. So I'm try ...tryin' to parse a fine line here basically. It would seem to me that it would be better to provide flexibility for a second year .... of (mumbled) of funding going to particular, specific organizations, if the .... if it's a new project that involves, uh.....is consistent with the other objectives of the grant, but I think also we .... we wanna be making sure we can direct most of the money at least toward.... emerging communities, if you will. (several talking in background) Salih/ I agree with you, Jim, on this completely. Yeah, but you know there is another (mumbled), I don't know if you guys putting that (unable to understand) or not. When you say many new like, uh.... community organizations where they come up with (unable to understand) saying that our community's growing. Iowa City's not like before. We start having a lot of immigrants coming this community, and people who never wrote a grant before, and they .... those community will apply, but they don't know how to put a grant together in a way that they can describe what their aim out of this, and I .... there is example of that grant being submitted to I don't know which one, but to the City, and is being rejected, but just looking at those people, they did not really identify and (unable to understand) the way that it will fill full the mission of the social justice and racial equity grant. But if somebody can teach'em or can show'em how they can do .... (unable to understand) on the social justice and racial equity, but the way that people like (unable to understand) I just feel like I remember in ... at CWJ I went somewhere and I just told 'em that and they said, hey, we give you the grant every year, and she told me because you guys have a good grant writer. This is in Minnesota. I just went an event, somebody told me that. Then we really -those people need a good grant writer, but how can you ... this is also another thing fill in the social justice and racial equity, by helping those emerging new community group to like really apply for this grant. I don't know how you can do it, but that's something needed.... in the community. Bowers/ I think last year at the informational session, the Commission did go over the application and give pointers on, um, things that an organization should highlight or bring to the attention of the Commission. So there ... there is a little bit of that at the informational session, and I think the application, um, it's called a grant, but that, you know, that term may not be totally accurate for the ... for what the actual application looks like. Um, I .... I think the application is, um, is more of. ... telling about yourself, your organization, attaching a budget, versus maybe a more traditional grant process too. Throgmorton/ Yeah, so recommendation number five, in part, addresses your point, which I think is a totally legitimate and important point, Maz. So .... I think it's .... it would be very This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 7 helpful for people to show up for the open house as described in item number five and learn what they can and that will enable them to write better proposals. Cole/ So I think for two, at least as I see it, we should decide whether we wanna do, um, this ... a lot of discretion for an additional year, um, at the discretion of the Commission. And I think to Maza's point, is that if you do have an emerging organization, they get a grant, we also want to .... keep those programming going, um, once they get some confidence that they got that first grant, as opposed to yankin' the run out ... the rug out from under 'em. The other thing is too is the Commission still would have the discretion to deny the grant in the year two, if for whatever reason the initial programming wasn't very good or didn't really meet the objectives, but if they did sort of knock it out of the park, this at least would give'em that discretion, um, to fund that second year, and I think it should be capped at two, because we do need to make sure that we're not .... cause my concern, to your point, Susan, is that we have some extremely good institutional non -profits that do great social justice and racial equity work, but those tend to be external solutions. At least my vision was is that we would create infrastructure within the communities, um, so that they would address issues that maybe we're not seeing, we're not adequately addressing, and so it'd be more sort of, um, the grassroots, and this would sort of allow that seed funding. So that's my thought. Throgmorton/ So, Rockne, when you suggest, uh (clears throat) providing the Commission with discretion to .... provide funding for a second consecutive year (both talking) Cole/ Yes! Throgmorton/ ...you're referring to organizations, right, a second consecutive year to a particular organization, maybe for a different project (both talking) Cole/ Yes! Throgmorton/ .....it depends on the .... the Commission's discretion, is that correct? Cole/ Yes! Throgmorton/ Okay. What... would people agree with that particular point? Teague/ I think the discretion should not be limited to two years. Um, we ... when we think about racial equity, for one, and we talk about..... and.... we talk about disenfranchised individuals .... that do apply to different, um, grants and stuff like that, they're denied. Um, often, you know, by some of the things that Maz has just talked about, and so this could be that entity's only opportunity to be successful, um, in servin' the community. So I would say for number two, um, again, the grant should be based on the program, uh, similar to what Susan said, uh, focused on the people, and there not be any limitation, and that would be at the discretion of the .... of the Commissioners. Throgmorton/ So who agrees with what Bruce just said? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 8 Mims/ I do. Throgmorton/ Bruce and Susan. Okay, who agrees with what Rockne said? I do! Okay, so I think we've got a decision on that. Is that clear enough? (laughs) (several talking) I never know how clear our recommendation (laughter) Taylor/ But just to clarify that, I mean you mentioned both — a consistent project and a new project, if it's the same organization? Cole/ My point is the organization (both talking) Taylor/ ...organization itself. Cole/ The organization itself, the Commission would have the discretion to add a second year of funding, at their discretion. Teague/ And then one year off and then (both talking) Cole/ Yeah! So I think we'd have some more of the turnaround (mumbled) Throgmorton/ Okay. Moving on to .... recommendation. number three. I'm okay with that. Salih/ Yeah! Cole/ Yeah, that's fine. (several responding) Throgmorton/ Number four. I like having a maximum and 25,000 sounds reasonable to me. (several responding) Okay. Number five, the open house session. (several responding) Sounds good? Number six, um.....state that the, the focus should be on Iowa City residents, but I assume there can be some spillover to other people live outside of Iowa City, is that what the Commission's recommending? Yeah, okay. So .... but, you know when I read that, uh, that the intent and purpose of the SIRE grant is to service and benefit Iowa Citians as much as possible. I did not understand that to mean the focus should be on Iowa City residents. I thought it meant all residents within the City and that's not really what we have in mind with this, cause we have a more targeted population, within Iowa City, that we had in mind. In other words, you know, assisting new, marginalized, disadvantaged communities and that kind of thing. Bowers/ I think what the Commission was referring to was some of the proposals (mumbled) Johnson County. Like it might have served several different counties, but one of the counties involved was Johnson County. So I think they were talking about things that were occurring outside of Johnson County. Salih/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 9 Cole/ I'm not supportive of that. Throgmorton/ Okay, so we're agreed with that? Salih/ Iowa City only, right? Yeah. Throgmorton/ Okay, recommendation number seven. Mims/ That's fine. Cole/ Yes. Salih/ Yeah! Throgmorton/ Number eight. Fine? (several responding) As long as the whole thing is not really daunting, you know (laughs) It's not as if we're applyin' for some grant from the National Health Institute or something. Cole/ I think to Maza's point, I wanna make sure that this doesn't become sort of some technical application. I know at one point we considered the national program 'My Brother's Keeper.' It's my understanding that's a fabulous, wonderful program, but like the administrative requirements are significant. So we don't want excessive red tape with this. Salih/ Yeah, I just .... look to what the program, they can do, if that something really could benefit a lot people in the community who in need, to that programs, even though the way that they written their grant is not that awesome writing, uh, if you have question maybe they can call and ask them question about what they meant by this. Just like give a little supporting tools to those people, because they are new in this arena. Teague/ I....I do have questions about how they do the ranking, um, because some of these things are still gonna be a little bit subjective, urn .... to some degree. Bowers/ Yeah, so I actually thought that question may come up. So ... urn, I don't have the rubric actually in front of me, but the Commission once applications are received, they .... they have a rubric that is based upon these three sections that you see here, where the most of their, uh, points would go to the proposal, and then they're looking at how the budget fits in with the proposal of the project. But, uh, some of the questions that the, um, rubric, um, asks about for them to score are, you know, the people served; whether there's a cost to, um, participants to, um, to be in the program; and outcomes and indicators and past projects; and the mission statement of the organization, but .... so each individual commissioner, um, ranks an application, and this is from a few years ago. This isn't the one from last year, I don't believe. Um, but there were, uh.... 28 applications received, and so the Commission individually, each member, will rank a, um, application 1 through 28, with 1 being the highest, and then that number .... all those numbers are then, um, placed upon a Excel spreadsheet like this, and then it's divided by the number of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 10 commissioners that are participating in the process, and so that's where they come up with the .... the ranking, and with 1 being the .... the highest and 28 being the lowest. So I don't know if that addresses your question. Salih/ I just wanna ask you, is those application are public? Bowers/ Yes. Yes. Yep, uh huh. Salih/ Okay. Bowers/ Part of the meeting packet. Salih/ Sure! Throgmorton/ Okay, recommendation number nine, about sus.....a sustainability plan. (several responding) Okay. Number 10. Salib/ Yep! Mims/ Yes. Throgmorton/ (mumbled) communicated with the targeted community. Okay. Number 11. (several responding) Okay. Number 12. Salih/ Yeah, for me that big deal. Because (laughs) you know, if you don't have operating expense, if you are not gonna accomplish the plan that you (mumbled) really good idea to give 25% of (mumbled) Yeah! Taylor/ I agree. Throgmorton/ Me too! Okay, number 13. Seems straightforward. (several responding) And this addresses a point you just made about .... when appli... potential applicants are confused, they should just ask the staff and.... commissioners questions, but especially you.... Salih/ Yeah. Throgmorton/ Okay. Number 14. (several responding) Yeah, this sounds like a judgment call, I mean ... you know, if you come up with a ranking, with you know the point system you just described, and you get to a certain cut-off point where you're gonna go over $75,000, then is there.... there's gotta be some judgment then, doesn't there, about whether the ones in the top tier actually serve a diverse.... population within the community, or am I parsin' things too much there? Mims/ Well I guess if I were sitting there as one of the people ranking.....to me the instructions to the commissioners should be.....that your fi.... your final rankings, even as an This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page I I individual commissioner, you should be select .... some of those coming to the top should serve diverse populations. So if I'm sitting there .... you know, doing that, I shouldn't have my five top.... projects all be serving the same sub -set of our community. So if every... commissioner does that, hopefully when you combine all of them you also get that diversity. I mean, I think.....I think they're going to have to look at it once they .... put all the numbers together. But ... I think if that instruction to the individual commissioners is you should be selecting diverse populations to be served in your top tier. Throgmorton/ Makes sense to me. Salih/ Yeah but I really don't get that. Even though you saying that, Susan, but what do you really meant by the (unable to understand) population? Do you mean like the highest.... even though you are not having the highest point, but if you serve like different population, maybe you can be the one who award it or what do you mean by that? Bowers/ So I think what the Commission is referring to there is that when there.... when.... when they're making their recommendation to the City Council so those eight organizations that they, um, believe should be funded, that there is diversity in the projects and diversity in the people that are being served, within those projects. So that.... they're not sending up, uh, eight projects that are all kind of similar or related and only assisting, uh, a segment of the community. So just kind of looking at the diversity of the proposals, as well as, um, looking at the .... the diversity of the communities that would be served as part of that. Salih/ Which is mean the highest points that organization get. Bowers/ You know that kind of relates to question 15, I mean the .... last year the Commission decided to skip over a higher ranked applicant to make sure that they did have diversity in the communities that were being served, and so that's kind of how we got to 15 too, because when they do that, then the question is, is the .... number six was ranked higher than seven and eight, but seven and eight got funded. And so that's why they were kind of on the fence about whether or not they should still provide partial funding to number six because they were technically ranked higher. So that's kind of (noise on mic, unable to hear) Salih/ Okay. Taylor/ I think that goes back a little bit to what Jim had said, whether it's a judgment call, and it is. I mean obviously the commissioners are .... are judging these groups and how they, uh, fall into the six priority areas that, uh.... um, benefit the housing, building, uh, employment, criminal justice, education, and health, how .... how that is and what groups of folks that it is benefiting. So they are making a judgment, but hopefully, uh, in a positive way. Salih/ Uh huh. Throgmorton/ Okay. Item 15. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 12 Mims/ Is every application .... going to have a question regarding, you know, could .... could you do this or could you ... if only partial funding was available could you still perform this? I .... I guess my question becomes how ...once you get to that.... selection process, um, if you haven't asked that question on the application, then it would seem to me it'd be difficult for the commissioners to then kind of make that decision, because otherwise you've gotta go back and say, well, you asked for 10,000, but if we give you 7,000 can you still do this? So.... Bowers/ So yeah, it would be a specific question that was asked on the application. Mims/ Okay. Bowers/ Yeah. Mims/ Thank you. Then I think that's fine. I mean I .... that way it gives them the opportunity to use all the funding, um, and do they .... have they thought about, um, after the ranking is done, con...ever considering partially funding more than one or is it always just been we're either going to fully fund or not, except as we get down to the last dollar amounts? Bowers/ I think in past funding cycles they've always, um, decided not to .... change what an organization requested. Mims/ Okay. Bowers/ So if that meant skipping over that particular organization, then they would to .... to be able to fund the next two in line that the money still left could cover. Mims/ Okay. Thanks. Clarification of Agenda Items: 2. Proclamations Throgmorton/ Okay, good deal! Seems like we've done our task for the evening on this. Thank you, Stefanie, and thanks to the commissioners. Okay, next item is clarification of agenda items. I wanna mention one thing, just to get us going, and it has to do with proclamations. You may have noticed that there's six proclamations for tonight. Uh, that may be a record, I don't know. I know I did five one night. Uh, and in previous times I've asked other Councilpeople to read them. We could do that again tonight, but I'm gonna suggest that I ask Pauline to do like three of'em and I'll do three of'em. Is that okay with you all? (several responding) Okay. And we'll talk about which ones later on. All right, good deal. Any other questions about agenda items? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 13 Salih/ I have some but I really prefer to say it on like on the formal meeting, just like to ask (unable to understand) who are watching at that time they can know that you are addressing the concern. It's not too much discussion, and I don't wanna take anything (unable to understand) Just like regular (both talking) Throgmorton/ ...during the discussion period about the Consent Calendar? Salih/ When you say discussion (unable to understand) nothing like taking it out so we can have (mumbled) Fruin/ Can you just let us know which items they are, because I .... often staff 11 go home if they, if they don't have anything on the regular (both talking) Salih/ Oh! 8b, 8k, 8m, and Item 12, uh, that's on the (both talking) Throgmorton/ Maz, did (both talking) Taylor/ Read those again. 6.b. Amending Budgeted Positions - Animal Services Resolution amending the budgeted positions in the Animal Services Division of the Police Department and the AFSCME pay plan by adding .26 FTE to the budgeted Animal Center Assistant position and adding one full-time Animal Center Assistant II position. 6.c. Budgeted Positions - Engineering Resolution amending the budgeted positions in the Engineering Division of the Public Works Department and the AFSCME pay plan by adding one full-time Public Works Aide position. 8.b. Barbara Vinograde: Iowa City Free Clinic Annual Report 8.k. Spencer Herman: Introduction to Boxcar - Parking Solution 8.m. Mary Gravitt: A plumber for Iowa City Public Library Sahh/ Uh, it's only 8b, uh, 6b and 6c; 8k and 8m. That it. (mumbled) Throgmorton/Yeab (mumbled) 6b. Taylor/ ....amending budget positions (mumbled) Throgmorton/ Okay Animal Services position. Fruin/ So Animal Services position, the Engineering position, and then you said 8k. Salih/ 8k, the Boxcar parking solution, and Item 8m, report by Mary Gravitt. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 14 Frain/ Okay. All right. Thank you. Throgmorton/ I was gonna bring up item 8k as well. So I'll just say somethin,' then we can... if need be discuss it more. Salih/ Sure! Throgmorton/ Looks like a pretty good solution, or not a solution but, uh, pretty valuable, potentially valuable approach (laughs) or activity to me. So I'm sure staff will be looking into that. That's the, uh, email about introducing Boxcar parking solutions. Salih/ Uh huh. 8.d. Courtney Bork: Bike -sharing Throgmorton/ Yeah. Also thought, with regard to Item 8.d., that the possibility of having a bike sharing station at the Fairgrounds or Trueblood Park was pretty interesting for commuters who want to park and ride, 'cept they'd use bikes. So I don't know, that can get into our... the ... the staffs thinking about such things. Any other agenda items? 8.c. Mary Gravitt: More trees less potholes needed on 2700 block of Wayne Avenue & truthful official sign postings Thomas/ Oh I just liked Mary's, uh, Mary Gravitt 8.c. as a, just a motto: more trees, less potholes (laughter) um, sounds good to me! (laughs) 10.a. Regulating Plan Amendment - 625 S. Gilbert Street — Ordinance amending the Riverfront Crossings regulating plan to include the property located at 625 S. Gilbert Street in the Central Crossing Subdistrict. (ZCA19-03) Throgmorton/ With regard to 10.a., which is the regulating plan amendment, I'm gonna ask Eleanor to address a topic that I asked her about by email earlier. I guess I sent it to you late last night, Eleanor, but you know .... but anyhow, what I expressed to Eleanor was that I was confused about why the staff was asking us to act on the amendments to the regulating plan, and the proposed rezoning, each night for the next two or three evenings. Uh, I .... I thought we would do one and then the other after we made decisions about the first, but you gave me an answer, so I wonder if you could briefly describe that. Dilkes/ Essentially they go hand-in-hand. If we didn't .... if we didn't run, you're considering regulating plan amendment in the context of this rezoning application. If you ... if you don't make the regulating plan amendment, you really can't.....you're gonna be voting no on the rezoning. Um .... if you would vote yes on the regulating plan at fust consideration I would see that just as an indication that you're willing to consider the rezoning application. Ultimately as we get to the end, we'll have.... they'll have to match up. I mean they're both gonna go down or they're... you know, both gonna go up. So, and that's not a .... we do that fairly often. For instance when we do a vacation and a disposition, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 15 vacation of right-of-way and then a disposition of right-of-way. Um, you have to get the vacation done before you do the disposition, but we run 'em together so we don't then unreasonably prolong the time that we're talking about one particular topic.... essentially. Throgmorton/ My confusion comes from the fact that with regard to rezonings, it's frequently we first... consider an amendment to the comprehensive plan, and there it's not an ordinance. It's just an amendment to the comprehensive plan. So that's .... we'd take that action and then we'd proceed immediately to the rezoning. So .... I ..... I actually.... mistakenly thought that, uh, amending the regulating plan was like amending the comprehensive plan. Dilkes/ Yeah. The difference is that with the .... with the comprehensive plan it's not an ordinance. It's just a .... it's just a resolution. So it is done in that instance. Throgmorton/ Okay. Dilkes/ Oh, I should mention one more thing on this. Um, I talked to Anne Russett today and we don't have a, uh, conditional zoning agreement that is signed. So you won't be able to act on the rezoning tonight. You'll have to keep the public hearing open. Um, you can choose whether you wanna act on the regulating plan or defer that to the next time. They ... staff is going to make their presentation tonight though.....to get the conversation started. Information Packet Discussion [September 5, September 12, September 19, September 261: Throgmorton/ Okay. I also want to alert staff that during the formal meeting I'll be asking about the traffic implications of the proposed rezoning. And .... a .... about.....um, potential effects on pedestrian friendliness of the area. So I'll just be asking about them, so somebody will have to respond. Any other questions about ... the formal meeting agenda? Okay, I don't hear any. So let's move on to the information packet discussion and we'll do two items that are continued from the September 12th packet. One of 'em is IP #7, having to do with tax exemptions for affordable housing. Staff needs direction on this. So, Tracy, bravo! You get a chance to do it early (both talking) instead of stickin' around like you had to last time. 1. (9/12) IP7 - Memo from Community Development Planner: HCDC Feedback:Tax Exemptions fro Affordable Housing Hightshoe/ (both talking) Tracy Hightshoe with Neighborhood and Development Services. Um, as you recall, when you adopted the affordable housing action plan back in 2016, one of those action steps was to form a committee to look at the possibility of tax exemption, encouraging affordable housing. Um, property tax exemption is a tool provided by the State to encourage affordable housing, um, by temporarily reducing property taxes. Um, State law caps that benefit for residential affordable housing at 100% for 10 years. So we formed a committee back in 2017. We started meeting in January of that year. Um, we finished up our recommendation in May of 2019. Um, we had six members of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 16 community and then we had four staff that worked on the recommendation. Um, after lookin' at various scenarios, running a ton of financial, um, assumptions and'what ifs,' the committee came to the recommendation that tax exemption is a viable tool for the new construction on multi -family housing with six or more developments. They recommended, um, the developers wanted some source of predictability. So basically if a developer submitted, um, they're doin' a multi -family over six units, that 15 to 20% of the total units would be leased to households under 60% of median income. Um, and they'd get a 40% exemption over those 10 years. That is what the committee recommended. Um, there's some other caveats to those funds. A developer could request different terms, but if they did request different terms, they'd have to come back to Council and make their argument, but if they .... they follow that .... those parameters, then .... then we provide and we would market it and, um, see if any developer takes us .... takes it up. Um .... this is encouraging new, affordable rental housing outside of Riverfront Crossings because you have a tax increment financing district there, and you already have affordable housing requirements. So when the developers were looking at the, basically they were looking at new parcels and green fields in outlying parts of Iowa City. Um, this came back to you in May. You had asked if the Housing and Community Development Commission could consider it, um, what their input would be. We took that back to HCDC, um, they approved it with a vote of 6-2, uh, but they did recommend one change. In our....in the tax exemption committee's recommendation, it was for households below 60%. They recommend 40%. Urn ...... the tax exemption committee, when they did set that 60%, they did think about that. If rents are set at what's affordable to someone at 40%, that means anybody over 40% would be cost burdened. So that was a reason why the committee went with 60%, so a certain percentage of folks would not be cost burdened, based on this. Um, HCDC feels that that figure should be set at no more than 40%. So in ... income eligible tenants would have to be below that 40% threshold. Um, the vote did go down 6-2, and the two consenting HCDC members just felt that 10 years, um, that's the longest we can .... we can have the incentive and make developers comply with that, as .... they felt for the subsidy provided that was just too short a time. So what we would need is your .... your recommendation on this tax exemption recommendation and if you....if you want to reduce those beneficiaries to 40% as HCDC recommended. Mims/ Can you explain, Tracy, a little bit, and I'm sorry if I didn't quite get this, what ... what's the implication to .... potential tenants and then also what's the potential implication to the developer or landlord, of changing that from 60% to 40%? Hightshoe/ To the developer it's probably no change. It's just that you're an eligible tenant. It might reduce the number of potential tenants out there, but to a developer .... I mean they're still gonna go through their regular, um, screen and vetting of tenants to make sure they .... they can afford the rent. Mims/ So is the rent for the unit still gonna be the same then? Hightshoe/ Yeah, the rent will be set at 40%, whatever, you know, HUD comes out with those income limits every year (both talking) 40%. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 17 Mims/ Okay. (several talking) Cole/ ....cash flow will be the same then? Is that .... getting at? Hightshoe/ Yeah. Cole/ Okay. Throgmorton/ Okay, any other questions for Tracy? Taylor/ I was concerned that it seems to just relate to the multi -units, uh, the six or more units. Um, and I .... I continue to hope that we would have some incentive for developers, uh, to do lower cost homes. Uh.... Hightshoe/ Do you mean single-family homes? Taylor/ ...of the single-family. Hightshoe/ We looked at single-family, um, especially owner -occupied, and for the, what tax... tax exemption could get you, we felt in Iowa City that it wasn't enough. You would have to, in order to get a buyer below 80%, and especially below 60%, it didn't provide enough of incentive to encourage that in Iowa City, just because our land prices and constructions are too high. So this is .... this incentive alone won't be enough to encourage it, so that's why we didn't look at, um, rehab, substantial rehab, because it doesn't create enough of a, uh, increment, uh, and just for single-family didn't create enough of incentive to help those people below 80 or 60% of median income. Not without some other.... combining it with some other incentive. Cole/ I don't know if I remember seeing it in the memo, but did the developer or the committee give a response to the HCDC's recommendation? Hightshoe/ Nope! Cole/ Okay. Hightshoe/ So, um, the .... the.....the committee made the recommendation back in May and then HCDC commented, but we didn't call the committee back. I think the committee, when they made that recommendation in May, thought that was a final .... (mumbled) Is that... they thought that was the final recommendation. That's what they're pushing forward. Salih/ Uh huh. Mims/ I guess my question is why .... I don't know the exact numbers in the community that fall at each of those percentages. Um, and if it's not any difference for the landlord's gas flow, why would we want to .... reduce it from 60% of median income to 40%, which means you have fewer people who could actually rent these units, and what you're saying This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 18 is basically everybody who's renting is going to be cost burdened, because the rent is set at the 40% level. Hightshoe/ Yeah. I mean for new construction, folks at 40% would not get that choice of a unit, uh, cause usually new construction is quite high. In our estimated scenarios, um .... like a two-bedroom. The market rate for a two-bedroom, brand new construction, is about $1,200. Um, 40% rent would be 783, minus utility allowance. So it's a $517 per month difference, um .... so you could argue that for folks under 40%, they won't get this opportunity anywheres else. I think that's what HCDC probably meant. They just wanted to provide this opportunity to people at 40% or below. The tax exemption committee was hoping there'd be a portion of folks that would be able to afford these and not be tax .... not be cost burdened, basically. Teague/ Always wonder at the end of the 10 years, what's gonna happen to those individuals that's livin' there? What, I mean what are the chances? Hightshoe/ I ... knowing .... you might have some landlords that might, um, allow a steady increase, but they wouldn't be .... there's nothin' that the State law requires. So they could return all units to the market rate. So they'd finish their lease and then the landlord could go back to full market rent (several talking) so they'd either have to pay it or they'd have to move. And that's with any of our .... to be honest, with CDBQ Home, after that compliance period, anyone can go back to market rate, or whatever the market will bear. Teague/ Is there a particular group that maybe we can focus this on? I mean we .... we know that there's, um .... individuals out there, like with .... in group homes and stuff like that. Um, is there any population of individuals that we can focus this on, so that .... we know that they're.... that those individuals .... will be lookin' for long-term housing, and so I .... it was just a thought. Um.... Hightshoe/ That I don't know (several talking) Salih/ This is open for everyone, right? It's not.... Hightshoe/ It's open to anyone. Salih/ Yeah. Hightshoe/ It's pretty much meant for the private sector, cause if you're a non-profit housing provider, you're tax exempt. So this is just for private... private development. Salih/ Uh huh. Taylor/ I think (mumbled) with that, Bruce, is (mumbled) students were mentioned in that, and no offense to the students, but if they're considered the low income and do qualify for one of these apartments. They're not staying here 10 years (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 19 Cole/ There are protections for that particular (both talking) Hightshoe/ Yeah, the committee recommended the same requirements as the Riverfront Crossings' afford housing requirement, so we would look to see if they're independent of their parents (several talking) standard exemptions, like if you have a dependent child, you're in the military (both talking) Salih/ Yep! Hightshoe/ ...you're a veteran, or sorry, uh, if you're disabled, things like that. So we would.... we would adopt the same .... way to deal with, basically full-time students under the age of 24, as we do in the Riverfront Crossings. But that was the recommendation. You can always change it (laughs) Salih/ Yeah. Throgmorton/ Any other questions for Tracy? Salih/ No. Thank you. Throgmorton/ So what do y'all wanna do? Do you wanna go with HCDC's recommendation? Salih/ I can go first (laughs) I really would like to go with the HCDC recommendation, that the income of the household assisted unit be limited to 40% of the area median income, because as I said like many times, 40%, 30% of the area median income (unable to understand) cost burden and we as a city we done a lot for 80, 60, and .... but we haven't done like really more toward 30 and 40. That's why I just encourage to make this like 40% of the area median income instead. That's my opinion (mumbled) Throgmorton/ What do the rest of you think? Mims/ I .... I guess I have another question. Tracy, when I crunch the numbers, and I used the, um, I think it was .... I think it was in the staff memo. Maybe it was in the .... maybe it was in the HCDC memo, but there was one of'em.... I guess it was, uh, Kurt's memo to Geoff, September 12th, it gave the dollar amounts. Yeah. Of. ... of what the tax abatement would be. So I took the, for the 10 year period, for the six townhomes, $62,040, and that's, you know, a range. I realize that. My point is, based on that, that is $86 per month, per unit that ... the developer or landlord is gonna save in not having to pay taxes, and if you divide that by 10, to get $6,204 a year and you divide it by six to get the amount per unit, that's a little over a thousand. You divide it by 12 months, you get $86. That's not a whole lot of savings. Okay? So I guess my question really becomes .... if I'm sitting there as a private developer.... thinking about putting up a six -unit townhome... and again I still, and I apologize, I still don't understand how the cash flow works when it's... when these are limited, where the other dollars are coming from. Um, but I'm gonna be hard pressed as a developer, unless I've got a lot of extra money and just a huge heart, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 20 don't care if I'm losing money, to .... go with the restrictions on rent to save $86 a month ....because it....it doesn't make sense! Hightshoe/ We did discuss it. Um, when we first ran all the numbers we were lookin' at a rate of return so that we could guarantee like a 10% rate of return, a 12% rate of return, whatever was normal in the multi -family rental market. We looked at that and the subsidy was way too high. So we're backing off and our recommendation to you was going to be this just doesn't.... it's not financially feasible for the amount that we have to ... we might as well just buy units. City'd manage it and we'd have permanent affordability. So we looked at it and the developers basically said ... you know, I can't guarantee, even if you pass this program, that we're going to get developers to apply for it. That I don't know. But they basically thought, the developers still wanted us to proceed, cause they were looking at if vacancy rates get really high, and they still, you know, they're gonna build, then this was a program that they felt would help if they knew that, you know .... let's just say that the project required four affordable units. They know they would fill, that they wouldn't have an occupancy program, that they would address their vacancy concerns. So, basically the developer's sayin' so if in our market we start getting' higher, higher vacancy rates, then this incentive becomes much more appealing to them. So that's what they were talking about. Mims/ Okay. Thank you. Andrew/ And in that six-plex, only one unit would be required to be affordable. So it's really closer to 500 bucks for ...for that (both talking) Mims/ Okay. (both talking) Salih/ (mumbled) Mims/ Okay. Salih/ Yeah, I really think, you know, all the, as you said, if the ... if we had (unable to understand) people come and apply for it. We .... we just have to lay our value there, and make it if the developer (unable to understand) as you said and they wanna do it, they can come and do it. I suppose we really have to be serious about getting, to your point, affordable ]rousing that will be affordable forever, not only 10 years. We have to think for like, I mean like down the road, or something that really gonna benefit the people for long time or limit it is owned by the City, maybe many .... by the Housing Fellowship or another organization, but it's something that .... you mean I guess owned by the City. Mims/ I guess back to the question of the 40 or 60. I guess my preference is to have it available to people under 60, so that you've got more flexibility as to who can apply for this. Throgmorton/ Okay, so who's .... who supports... unless you wanna discuss this further, who supports 60% versus 40%? So 60%? 40? Okay, I think we're gonna go with HCDC. And learn from the experience, right, and we'll get feedback from developers and from This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 21 the commission and make adjustments. Thanks. Are you gonna do the next topic too? Okay, so, the next one is IP #8 in the September 26th information packet. Uh, has to do with City low-income tax credit funds and HCDC's feedback concerning that. So you wanna summarize? 2. (9/12) IP8 - Memo from Community Development Planner: HCDC Feedback: City Low Income House Tax Credit Funds Hightshoe/ Sure! Well first I wanna mention, by your approval of that last one, out of our 15 actions steps, that was number 14. So now 14 out of 15 are done (laughter) or completed. (several talking and laughing) So .... (mumbled) part of our recommendations about our next steps in the affordable housing action plan about where do we go from here, one of the recommendations that staff was presented was that we move that LIHTC set-aside, um, that money set aside for low income housing tax credits to the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, uh, for ease of administration, make it easier for developers. There's a... there's many different reasons, uh, we recommended that. You guys came back and you wanted to get HCDC's input. We took it back to HCDC. Um, HCDC did consider it. Their recommendation was .... that yes they .... they would like, um, the Housing Trust Fund to administer those money; however, they want, um, us to work out a memoru... memorandum of understanding with Housing Trust Fund regarding the parameters of the funds. Once they go to the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, it doesn't come back to HCDC or the City Council. They administer it based on the parameters we set. So HCDC wanted to work out that memorandum of agreement and then take it ... for you for approval. So that's where we sit with that (both talking) Cole/ So in terms of the mechanics of the Housing Trust Fund, I mean, is there anything, I mean it can be anywhere in Johnson County, correct? Or is it limited (both talking) Hightshoe/ In our memorandum of understanding, it's limited to Iowa City, and then it has to, um, has to apply with our .... comply with our affordable housing location model. Ellen is here tonight if you have any questions (mumbled) Mims/ I guess my question is, what is HCDC looking for that we don't already have in place? Hightshoe/ There was discussion about they wanted to ... urn ... kind of like with the Sand Development project that you had, they wanted to use that extra 200,000 or whatever the set-aside is for that year, to get more units, um, that are .... that are .... have reduced affordability. So more units at 30% for that restrictive rent, and they want to say like, okay, so if they gave money to a LIHTC developer, then they could come back and say ....if we provide you another 200,000, can you further target, uh, more units at 30 or 40% of median income. I think that's.....(mumbled) accurate? Okay. So they (both talking) Mims/ So I guess what is that doing other than..... than them coming back and asking us for more money? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 22 Hightshoe/ No, that would just be that they would allocate .... I think in the parameters, and I think the way we have the memorandum of agreement written right now is that this 200,000....I mean it's up to the Housing Trust Fund to negotiate it with the developer, um, that they would make their best attempt to .... to target, further target (mumbled) what do you call it? Income targeting, um, the units. Cole/ The only concern I had with that is my understanding is these income breakdowns are set by HUD, and we're trying to facilitate and expand as many low income housing tax credit projects as we can in the city of Iowa City, and I wanna make that as simple and clear as possible, so we can get more and more projects, um, as opposed to just sort of having that uncertainty as far as that goes, because I think with HUD, um, the social equity pieces are baked into the enabling regulations, um, so .... that's my only concern with that, and the other concern I have is I also wanna make sure that our LIHTC projects have that socioeconomic diversity within them, um, so we don't have, you know, concentration as well. So that is my concern related to that. But that said, if...if HUD has waivers available that sort of would work with this sort of phenomena of, I mean, how .... how unusual is that to have individual negotiations as opposed to here are the HUD requirements, these are what we do for LIHTC, I mean, how .... how frequent is that that ....that individual municipalities negotiate particular terms in terms of breakdown? Hightshoe/ To be honest I think it'd be difficult. Um, Iowa Finance Authority sets a qualified allocation plan every year, where they say so many units at 60%, so many at 40, so much at 30, um.....that being said, to be honest when we open up a new LIHTC project, whether it's that half of it fills up with Section 8 holders, housing choice voucher, so they're only paying 30% of their unit or their income on rent. Um, you have to talk to a LIHTC developer; um, I know when we .... we questioned Sand Development, if we could provide more funding, what could they do. Uh, we went back to you and it was .... if I remember right it was something like we can do one more or two more units at 30%, but only for seven years, and I think it went back to you guys and you guys decided it wasn't for the money, you weren't going to allocate additional money for that benefit. Um, so I think it'll be difficult, maybe not impossible. Um.... Mims/ I'm with you, Rockne. I think there's enough regulations there, and I see Ellen and Mary Ann both out there kind of nodding their heads about kind of sticking with the rule, I mean LIHTC is already complicated enough. And a lot of specific rules that we're dealing with, and .... you know, we only get so many of those, you know, in terms of funding, you know (both talking) Hightshoe/ They're competitive (both talking) ...don't get one every year. Mims/ ....yeah. They're very competitive. So I ... I would prefer to stay with the way we have it set now in terms of the agreement between the City and, um..... Cole/ At least as it applies to LIHTC. I don't wanna do an additional overlay (both talking) Mims/ ...which is what this is! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 23 Cole/ Yeah. Hightshoe/ And this only the LIHTC set-aside (several talking) Taylor/ You mentioned, uh, Iowa Finance Authority, and uh, in the notes there was something about their scoring criteria and that it was likely to change and, uh, might provide an advantage one way or the other. Is that .... will that effect this or have they changed their scoring criteria? Hightshoe/ No, you'll get a scoring criteria in the qualified allocation plan that'll basically say how you can score more, um, so we look at that. Like I said, if...I said it in the memo, if they ever change their scoring where a direct contribution from the City is more advantageous than a Housing Trust Fund, then we would take it back right away for that funding cycle. Um, the points are very rigid about what you get points for. So, um.... they're gonna maximize their points, and they're gonna maximize whatever that .... that ratio is that comes out in that .... their scoring criteria. Throgmorton/ Do you know whether .... the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County supports the HCDC's recommendation or not? Hightshoe/ Can I ask Ellen? (laughter) Ellen? I don't wanna talk for (both talking) Throgmorton/ Hi, Ellen. McCabe/ Ellen McCabe, Housing Trust Fund. Um, this is new territory for all of us, so the Housing Trust Fund as set aside $1.3 million for the LIHTC round. Period. Then the City of Iowa City's extra $200,000 is being discussed here. Um, our intention as .... as we put together for the HCDC is that we will work to meet their goal of getting the rents as low as possible for as many of the tenants as possible. But being in new territory, we can't know how that's gonna look. After we allocate our LIHTC funds, the Housing Trust Funds LIHTC funds, then we will go back to the winning developer or developers and say, what can you do? But we like the idea that the City .... the City staff have put forth that we're gonna streamline the process for the developers. They have enough on their plate to make these projects happen that they're not gonna have to fill out another application. They're just going to work with the Housing Trust Fund. Throgmorton/ Okay. I ask because I don't want us to be muddying the waters, but I do wanna streamline the process. So if it's a good thing for us to direct the.... additional funds to the Housing Trust Fund, and if it's .... you think it's possible to work out, um, what's the term here? Urn .... um..... McCabe/ Incentive! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 24 Throgmorton/ Yeah, work .... work it out with .... with the staff and so on, I'm on -board with that. If you tell me it's a problem, it's really gonna mess things up, then I ... I don't wanna (both talking) McCabe/ We had to learn through this process that it's not possible to, um, give the money to the developer, so we have to loan the money to the developer. If we give the money to the developer, that screws up their LIHTC package. Um .... yeah. So that was the first learning lesson and then .... what, all we can do is give, you know, give the go. Teague/ And it'd be revolving at that point (mumbled) McCabe/ Correct. Teague/ Yeah. Salih/ Okay. Throgmorton/ Well I'm gonna support the recommendation until.... unless you or the staff jumps up and down and says this is not a good idea (laughs) (several talking and laughing) Hightshoe/ So basically you're giving them the consent to negotiate, and if they can't negotiate anything better, then they're okay with allocating that money. (several responding) Okay. Salih/ Sure! Throgmorton/ Okay, so ... does that sound okay to you folks? I .... I think (both talking) Cole/ So we are authorizing the additional overlay on top of the existing HUD regulations, relating to the income make-up of the UiHTC projects. Am I getting that right or not? Mims/ No, we're not. Cole/ We're not. Okay. Hightshoe/ We're authorizing the Housing Trust Fund to advertise it and if they want extra 200,000 if they can do, if they can go above and beyond the IFA requirements and target more low income people at a lower rent, that's great, but if it comes back that it just doesn't work, they're okay with allocating the (both talking) Cole/ So they're giving them the discretion, but they're not requiring them to have (both talking) Hightshoe/ Yes! Cole/ Okay. Throgmorton/ All right, are we on -board with that? (several responding) Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 25 Fruin/ Let's see if I've got this. Staff is gonna come back to you with ... and ask you to allocate the money to the Housing .... or I'm sorry, to the Trust Fund. Um, we will put together, in that resolution, we'll try to summarize what Tracy just articulated. That will probably come at your next meeting, maybe two meetings if. ... if we don't get to it, but um, I wanna make sure that's your understanding. Your not ask (several talking) you're not wanting HCDC to continue to negotiate directly with the Trust Fund. You're okay with staff summarizing what (several talking) Throgmorton/ I am! (several responding) We are. Okay! I think we can move on to the.... thank you, Tracy! I think we can move .... and thank you, Ellen! I think we can move on to the September 19th packet. Salih/ We have not discuss the September 5 packet. Throgmorton/ Uh, I guess I wasn't aware that we were going to, but feel free. Salih/ (mumbled) (several talking) Throgmorton/ My bad. Okay. Salih/ Yeah, it's listed. That's why! I just have one item, which is September 5, Item 5. IPS. You know this is letter from Anita Jung, I hope I pronounce the last name right. Is, uh.... I know that you respond, Geoff respond. I know that we as a city, we are prohibited by Iowa state law, uh, for like any form of (mumbled) landlord relationship. I understand that completely. But to justify (unable to understand) deposit the landlord used (unable to understand) Iowa City Police Department investigate that action as a fraud? It is something that people (unable to understand) police to investigate it, if they are using... to, just to take them, because this is happening everywhere in this city. Students, low income people, everyone. They put deposits and no matter how much they clean, or like (unable to understand) they take the deposit and people come and complain about it. I just want to see a way because when I read her letter that (unable to understand) Center for Worker Justice I receive lot of complaint like this, and if they use something they believe is not right from (unable to understand) refer'em to go and see the Police Department and they can investigate this action as a fraud. Throgmorton/ Geoff, you wanna address that? Fruin/ I .... I don't .... I don't think .... so, um, I think it's gonna be a civil matter between the tenant and the ... and the landlord, and they're gonna have to take that up through the courts. Um, and if. ... if the police could assist, I'm not sure you want your department resources focused on those issues. We struggle as it is to keep up with the, um, I'd say higher profile investigations that we .... that we have on our plate. Um, I don't think we have the staff resources to get involved in those types of matters (both talking) Yes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 26 Salih/ You mean if I just walk into the Police Department and I tell them I just thinks those people, they take my deposit, because they use something else they cannot go and investigate it, because now I'm using them for wage theft sometimes. I call the Police Department and say those people they (mumbled) and work. They never get paid. Fruin/ Yeah, I guess I'm commenting on the request to ... if you're .... if you're asking the Police Department to analyze before and after photos or where this photo was taken place for security deposit, I don't think that's the ... the best use of the .... of the police resources, and in that case I think there are channels through the courts for ...for those to be resolved. Teague/ Do we know if there's any organizations .... established that kinda take these type complaints and .... from renters? Dilkes/ Well there's.... there's Student Legal Services. There's been some, um, lawsuits, Chris Warnock I think has been involved in some of those, um, actually successfully I think. Um, but it's a civil matter. It's not a criminal matter. I mean the crime would be something that (mumbled) state crime that would be prosecuted by the County Attorney's office. You'd have to check with her, um, but I'd be very surprised if she would consider a criminal prosecution under these circumstances. Thomas/ I think there is some discussion of a tenant's union. (several talking) Salih/ And also I guess Iowa Legal Aid, even though they are very, very busy because they are the only one taking care of lot of things, that's why we need some kind .... Center for Worker Justice can do that too, and I encourage her to reach out to us so we can help out. Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think tenants are systematically disadvantaged, uh, but I don't think there's much Iowa City government can do about that. Salih/ Yeah, I just was asking about the police here, to see if they can do something. Yeah. Throgmorton/ Okay, uh, since I accidentally skipped September 5, are there any other questions on that packet? Thomas/ Jim, I ... I, if. ... I just wanted to ask you personally if you'd had a chance to look at the urban trees, cause (both talking) Throgmorton/ I did! Thomas/ Okay (several talking) Throgmorton/ I actually know that area really well too, so.... Thomas/ Louisville, sorry! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 27 Throgmorton/ Okay, can we go to the September 19th packet? IP #2, has to do with the October 14th Joint Entities meeting, here in City Hall, and the question is do you have any possible agenda topics to propose? Fruehling/ I did get one from the County already, um, to ... it's an update on the Guideway Center, by Matt Miller. Mims/ That's the access center. Throgmorton/ What'd she call it? Mims/ GuideWay. Throgmorton/ All right, a new name. All right, I have a topic. Uh, and it .... please tell me if you agree we'd like to have it on the agenda or not. Um .... there's a, as we all know there's a tremendous amount of construction in Coralville, North Liberty, and Iowa City, but especially Coralville and North Liberty, havin' to do with large apartment complexes, and likewise a substantial amount of construction of hotels, and I .... I am fully aware that there is concern that we are overbuilding capacity, both in the hotels and in, uh, apartment complexes. So, I wonder if that could be a topic that we would want to discuss with the, uh, with the other entities. And .... I guess in terms of discussing it, I don't know, we could present, briefly present whatever data we have, like we could get some information from the Convention and Visitors Bureau regarding hotels, and if we have in .... relevant information regarding large apartment complexes in Iowa City, we could assemble that too. Cole/ I think that would be helpful, Jim, just to get the data, um, because I know that people have talked a lot about this sort of overbuilding, but you know, we have the 2017 housing study, my recollection. So I would like to get the data on that. Um, I think it's gonna be hard to do much substantively there, but I think certainly to get an update from staff would be helpful. Throgmorton/ Would this be intrusive? I know that our staff is busy, so you know, got stuff to do. Is...is it reasonable to (both talking) Fruin/ It depends on what you're .... what you're really looking for. I mean we can give you a ... a rundown on ... on building permits, uh, multi -family building permits for the last year or two without much effort. But, uh, if you're looking to get into, um, more specific information or having us try to project out capacity and vacancy rates, that's.... that's a challenging thing to do with a lot of time, uh, much less a couple weeks here, and with the staff hosting the APA conference next week, they.... they've got a lot on their plate comin' up. Throgmorton/ Yeah. (several talking) Fruin/ ...what kind of data would be useful, for you, to have. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 28 Cole/ Well I guess I was just thinking of sort of pulling stuff from the housing stud ... didn't, we did a recent housing study, correct? I mean just to pull some of that salient data.... Throgmorton/ That's really out of date now, I think. That's my impression anyhow (both talking) I mean there's (both talking) Cole/ But it's gonna be impossible to update it in two weeks, is the point, right, I mean.... Throgmorton/ Uh.... Cole/ Maybe we should punt, we don't have time to do it. Throgmorton/ Yeah, so here's one possibility and maybe it's.... insufficient and excessive work (laughs) for the staff too. If. ... if we could simply identify large apartment complexes that have been built, or are being built, in Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty, or whatever we can, information we can get, uh, say over the past .... two years and.....you know, maybe some will be completed within a year, and just the number of units, name of ...of the projects, uh, like I don't know, that large project over in Coralville that is, um, being built by CA Ventures. Yeah, that's one that comes to mind over there, but there are others over here, and so ... if. ... if we could just identify some threshold. I don't know, um, 50 or more units, in a .... in a structure, some threshold. I'm not .... I don't wanna put too much weight on the number 50, and likewise with regard to hotels, but I think we could just ask Josh to .... Josh Schamberger, to provide us with information .... from the CVB about hotels. (several talking) Too complicated? I mean I don't wanna (mumbled) Teague/ I think the information will be valuable for all the cities to have, um ... I'm not, it...it seems a little complicated, but I do understand what you're getting' after and, um, and when we are present I don't think we can go into great discussion outside of just Navin' to be informational, um, so maybe that's something that we can ... I don't .... I don't know what the feasibility of creatin' somethin' like that in the future, but .... yeah. It seems a little complicated for the 14th. Fruin/ You could, at the meeting you could ask if that's a topic that the Joint Entities group would like to explore at their .... at their next meeting and .... and by the time the next meeting rolls around you'll have the year-end, I'm imagining all the cities do some type of year- end building statistics report, or at least that would be a natural time to do that, come ....come early January. And .... and ask the staffs to collectively work together to present that at....at your next one, and may be a little bit more meaningful. Throgmorton/ That sounds like a pretty good solution to me. So we could put it on the agenda, just in the sense of saying we're .... we're wondering whether.... Fruin/ If everybody would be interested in a conversation, a future conversation (several talking) Cole/ That sounds good. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 29 Fruin/ So do you wanna include hotels and multi -family in the topic? Throgmorton/ That's what I had in mind. Yeah. Taylor/ Would that also include U. Heights? Fruin/ Well I think it would include everybody at that joint meeting. You have, you know, you have some rural communities in there too that may not have large complexes, but they may be having their own, uh, unique circumstances with .... with housing that they wanna add to the conversation. So we'll keep ... we'll try to find a title that's fairly broad. Throgmorton/ Okay. Good deal! Okay. Other, any other topics on the September 19th .... sorry, September 19th packet? Hearing none, September 26th. Ulr, I'll mention IP #5, joint meeting with the UI Student Government. It's my understanding from Kellie's memorandum that they would prefer to meet in the spring, rather than ... in the late fall or early winter. They suggested three different dates — the 11 th of February, 25th of February, March the 10th. They'd be happy to host the meeting. So do you wanna act on that now or would you prefer to .... wait for a while? Okay. Do you all have any preference about February 11th, 25th, or March the 10th? I don't. (several talking and laughing) Cole/ I'll punt on that too, Jim. Thomas/ Is this .... who would be attending this, all of us or .... what's .... what's the.... Throgmorton/ Yeah (several talking) involve the full City Council and Student Government. Wu/ Yeah, the idea is for ...to have all of Council come over to the IMU and then, um, everyone from the, uh, Student Senate will be present. So there'll be around 50 people, plus, um, everyone (mumbled) up to around 70-ish students as well. Urn ... this was included in the packet like (mumbled) six months ago, but uh, this happens, uh, once per semester and it seems to work out quite well. So that's where the inspiration came from. Throgmorton/ All right, I suggest the 11 th of February (several talking) Okay. How bout that for a decision, lot of nodding heads (mumbled) (laughs) All right, uh, IP #6, proposed Council schedule for this late winter and all that. I assume you've looked at the University's and School District's schedules and know when people will .... might be away? Fruehling/ (mumbled) spring break and, urn .... I think mainly it's January that we were kind of trying to gauge as far as the CIP, cause that falls on a regular meeting night. Throgmorton/ Okay. I'm .... I don't know, my sense is that we should just assume that that's an appropriate schedule and .... as time goes by the Council will say whether they think one of the dates needs to be shifted. All right, any other items on the agenda (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 30 Fruin/ Can I just .... while we have that topic open, the meeting schedule, just to make sure, uh, Council Members have Saturday, January 4th, that's our annual budget date. If that's not gonna work for any, uh, Council Members we need to know and adjust our budget schedule accordingly, and then if you'll recall, um, we typically do the capital improvements budget the following Tuesday. The way the dates fall this year, that happens to fall on a regular meeting date. So what we're suggesting is on that Tuesday, January 7th, we just start the work session a couple hours early, maybe 3:00, and we use those two, two and a half, three hours, uh... uh, of work session time on the 7th to go through the CIP. So that would be, uh, not a special work session like we're done before, but part of your regular work session, um, on the 7th. We would just start earlier (clears throat) earlier than usual. Throgmorton/Okay, can we move (both talking) Sorry, Maz! Salih/ I said that's good but hopefully we're not going to have like really long agenda (mumbled) 3:00 until midnight on that day. Fruin/ We'll try to keep it short (laughter) Throgmorton/ Yeah, there should be a time cap on any of our meetings (laughs) Fruin/ The other option would be to ... to just run the 7th like we typically do. Have a 5:00 P.M. budget ... or 5:00 P.M. work session and....and schedule a special work session for the CIP on a different day. From staffs perspective, it's easier to combine the two, but you may find it easier to split 'em. Throgmorton/ Okay. Salih/ (unable to understand) 8:00 in the morning, right? Fruin/ Saturday the 4th will start at 8:00 in the morning. We'll probably do the breakfast.... breakfast with the budget or (mumbled) we call that. Salih/ Yeah. (mumbled) Council updates on assigned board, commissions, and committees: Throgmorton/ Okay, can we move on to Council updates. All right, Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees, and all that. So....let's start with Pauline and move to the left. Taylor/ I, uh, sit on the Chief Elected Officials Workforce Development Committee, which is, uh, multi-uh county, uh, group that gets together, uh, different locations. Uh, this time we were in North Liberty, just discuss workforce issues and, uh, how things are going in each of the counties. Um .... the highlight of the meeting though, I have to say, was they gave This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 31 us a tour of where we met at the Centro Incorporated Custom Rotational Molding, uh, factory. Uh, I didn't even know that existed, and it's been in North Liberty for over 20 years, and for those of you who don't know about it, uh, take a chance to .... to tour it. It's the size of three football fields is what she told us. It's huge, and it's not just like plastic bottles and other little plastic small things. It's big fabricated plastic things like for parts for John Deere tractors and Toro Motors and things like that, so I mean that's being done right there in North Liberty, so pretty amazing that it's been there that long, but that was kind of the highlight, but they also did mention that, uh.... uh, by a State ruling, City Council Members may or may not be able to serve on that committee in the future. The State has made some ruling about, uh, perhaps being County Supervisors being, sitting on the committee, so we're, uh, waiting to hear more on that. That's all. Teague/ There are no, um, nothin' that I've been appointed to that I can report on. Salih/ Yeah, me too. Cole/ Iowa City Literature is having the Book Festival October 1 through October 6. So go to IowaCityCityofLiterature.org, um, to check out the entire schedule. Um, John Kenyon's done a fabulous job. Uh, this is essentially the biggest event we have throughout the year. So if you're a bibliophile like I am, uh, it's going to be a wonderful week, lot of terrific events and ... and check it out! Thomas/ Nothing for me. Mims/ Um, based on Kellie's comments earlier, and mine, um, we've met with the access center, um, it is now going to be called GuideWay, and um, so they'll be getting the branding and that sort of stuff going, I think a tag line that'll make it clear what it is. Um, we ... the Board of Supervisors has accepted the bids for the project. So they will be beginning construction here pretty quickly. Um, and so yeah! I think everybody involved is getting excited to actually see this come to fruition after a number of years of work. So..... Throgmorton/ It's great! Thanks for serving on that committee, too. Yeah. Oh, which brings it to me. Um, the Partnership for Alcohol Safety met a few days ago. I don't know if you wanna summarize what they said, Simon, but if you wanted to, maybe identify a point or two. Andrew/ Sure, um, we got a presentation from the Night Mayor on, uh, his activities over the last year and upcoming plans. Uh, and we had an update from our subcommittee, so there are a number of subcommittees within the Partnership that are gonna look at different issues, um ... uh, other entertainment options downtown, programming that might help, uh, the issue of underage drinking, um, or over service. Uh, the regulatory, uh, framework, so looking at City code or State law. We received some updates from those committees and I think that was about it. Throgmorton/ Great. Thanks. And the other thing is the Metro Coalition met up in Dubuque as part of the Iowa League of Cities, and we had a pretty thorough conversation with the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019. Page 32 consultant who advises the Metro Coalition, especially with regard to what the State Legislature is likely to do with regard to .... uh, property taxes and .... related issues, and part of that has to do with a new chairman of the Finance Committee in the State Senate. All right, yeah, and that person seems to be a little more enthusiastic about amending things in ways that we probably wouldn't like. So we'll see what comes out of that, but I'm bein' a little bit general here. Geoff, you were I think payin' a little more closer attention than I was, so do you wanna point out any particulars? Fruin/ Well, um, we do expect that there'll be additional, um, look at property taxes and maybe some, uh, further restrictions there. We, uh, expect that there'll be some discussions on a I% sales tax at the State level as well, uh, three-eighths of the penny has to go to water quality initiatives based on prior legislation, and the question is what does the ... the five- eighths do, um, that may or may not play into property tax. So you can imagine a scenario (mumbled) five-eighths of the penny, uh, is used for a particular purpose and that may justify to the legislature to put further restrictions on property tax. That's somethrin' that we're lookin' out for. Uh, we do expect TIF reform legislation as well, part of the .... the, uh, assignment, the committee assignment shake up that the Mayor was referring to. Um ... uh, based on who's in what positions, we expect that TIF legislation may come forward and that legislation would, uh, place further restrictions on TIF. Course at this point we have no specifics and it's all speculation, but um, we do expect that, uh, we will see that. So, um, I think for the most part the, uh, cities expect to be on the defensive again, like we have been in the last, uh, last couple of sessions and we'll do our best to .... to educate the legislature on .... on, you know, what it is that we're doing, why we're doin' it, and why we need the resources that we have to continue to move forward, but it may be another struggle goin' ahead. Throgmorton/ Indeed! Okay! I think that means we're done with our work session for tonight. So reconvene at 7:00 in the formal meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of October 1, 2019.