HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-05 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Frain, Kilburg, Dilkes, Fruehling, Grier, Ralston, Hightshoe, Knoche, Havel,
Bockenstedt, Davies, Brotherton, Tharp, Bowers, Carman, Sovers, Nagle-
Gamm, Seydell Johnson
Others Present: Longenecker, Van Heukelom (UISG)
Capital Improvement Projects (CIP):
Teague/ For those that are tuning in, this is the City of Iowa City work session on January 5, 2021, and
I think we'll go ahead and get started. I'm going to have someone reach out to Mayor Pro Tem,
um, to make sure that she has signed on. Kellie, if your office can do that that'd be great.
Thank you. And we're going to start, first, Happy New Year, everyone. Happy to see you here,
and Happy New Year to everyone in Iowa City. We're going to start our work session today.
We're starting early. Normally we start at 5:00 P.M., but we're going to start with the Capital
Improvement projects, and, um, because this will be a longer session, Councilors, I think if you
are needing to take a break, if you want us to stop, you might want to send me a message.
Otherwise, I think, just feel free to take a break and then come back whenever. So we're going
to get started with our Capital Improvement Projects planning, and I'm going to turn it over to
our City Attorney... City Manager Geoff Frain.
Frain: And I'm probably... promptly going to turn it over to our Finance Director and Public Works
Director, who are going to lead you through the presentations tonight.
Knoche: Mr. Mayor, Council, good afternoon and Happy New Year. I'm Ron Knoche, Public Works
Director. Today we're happy to present the Iowa City Capital Improvements Plan. We will use
the ESRI storybook platform for the presentation. With that, I'd like to thank the Engineering
division, and in particular Killian Laughead for producing the final presentation for us. The
Capital Improvements fund can be found in the proposed budget document, starting on page
481. Today we have five objectives. The first Dennis will go over the plan development
process and the fund summary. Second, staff will discuss the ongoing projects. These are
projects that are not included in the CIP document, but continue to have work completed on
them. There will be 11 projects that will be discussed. Third, staff will discuss the annual
projects. There are 17 recurring projects that are identified in the CIP. Four, staff will discuss
the 125 projects that are identified in the five-year program. To try to save some time in this
presentation, we've attempted to condense some of those projects that are similar in nature or
are going to be completed at the same facility, to try to save some time in regards to that. And
with that being the case, the projects as they're presented won't necessarily follow directly right
along with the capital program as its shown in the budget document. And then the final
objective that we have is to discuss projects that are considered to be on the radar. These are
projects that are on the unfunded list and staff believe Council should be aware of. We
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appreciate this opportunity to present the 20...2021-2025 CII', and with that I'll tum it over to
Dennis.
Bockenstedt: Hello, good afternoon and ... and we're going to bring up the ESRI presentation here, and
I've got about four slides to cover, essentially to walk you through the ... the process of how we
pull the CIP program together. You know, how we gather (mumbled) the data and compile it,
review it, and then also to give you a broad overview of what is all encompassed in the
program, where the dollars are going to and where they're coming from, and how this program
kind of lays out from a big picture over the next five years. So the first slide, this is the actual
dates that we put together when we..when we start the program and put together a calendar of
dates. This starts about a month before our annual budget process, and it actually overlaps our
budget process, and then at the end we bring them both together. So September I", the Finance
department sends out forms to the departments, and this is really to update projects that are in
the program and for ...also it gives them a chance to submit new projects into the program, and
we give them about three to four weeks to compile and update those programs, and then when
October hits, we produced that initial report. There is a committee that may have a ... a variety of
different departments that meets. We begin to review those projects, see how they overlap, how
they over ...how they work together. We gather that input and then we ... we take a first massage
or amendment to that report and to the program, and then we come back and issue an amended
or follow up program. Once again then later in October, that committee meets. We review that
amended program and kind of come up with what I would say is a final program. It's... it's ... it's
usually might be tweaked or amended as we go through the budget process to make sure that
the funding sources in the operating budget mesh with the capital program and that they both
work together, and generally we do that in early December, where we ... we bring that capital
budget, capital program. Merge it with the operating program, and then we submit that to the
City Council. This year is was on December 18th is when that kind of goes out the door as part
of that budget book. So the next slide ... is it gives you an idea of where the spending is at, and
you can see that the Streets funding is ... is by far the ... the largest category of...of capital
spending and ... and that's been that way for years. That's... that's nothing new. We do have some
fairly substantial projects which you'll hear about tonight, one being the Dodge Street
reconstruction is in there for about 17 million of that 82 million. Then we also have a planned
project about five years out for Taft Avenue of about 11 million, and then our annual street
rehab, pavement rehab comes to about 11.5 million. So those ... those are the biggest chunks out
of that 82 million. The next largest area that we ... our capital planning is Wastewater... at 23
million. So you can see it's a pretty large step down from ... from Streets funding to ... to the next
one, which is sewers, and the biggest part of that is going to be the digester complex
reconstruction in a couple years, of just under $8 million. So one project makes up about one-
third of...of the full capital planning for the sewer fund, the wastewater fund, and then the third
largest in this pie is Transit, which is a little bit skewed because 20 million of that 20.4 million
is one project, which is our transit maintenance facility, which right now we're... we're... have
slotted out a couple years and also it was really contingent on receiving federal funding, and
then the next largest is park maintenance at 14 million, and then in ... from down there it...it
drops down pretty quick into smaller... smaller pieces. And so how we go about funding these
projects, which will be our next slide. This ... this tells you where the money is coming from. So
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this is for all the five-year program and the biggest slice there is the GO bonds at $66 million,
and so over the next five years, we are projecting to issue $66 million in general obligation
debt, and that primarily goes towards streets and parks, where the biggest sources of funding
and probably next would be fire trucks after streets and parks. And then the next largest sources
of funding for the capital plan or the capital projects you're going to hear about this afternoon
are ... are federal and state grants. So they make up a ... a significant portion of our overall capital
program, and the federal grant portion does include $16 million for the transit maintenance
facility. So it is funding we ... we haven't had much luck in getting the last few years, but
hopefully... hopefully we'll have our time here and we'll get funding and that project will take
place. And then the next largest after that, it's ... it's almost a tie really between road use tax and
waste water. Wastewater is one of those business -type funds that sell funds through... through
fees and charging for services, and so there's other than revenue debt, they really pay for their
projects as they go. Then ... and for the road use, the ... the bulk of that road use dollars goes
towards the annual pavement rehab ... and also fund some other things such as u ADA crossings
program and ... and our traffic signal program. The bulk of that goes towards pavement
rehabilitation. And then the last slide I'm going to cover tonight, or this afternoon. Sony
(laughs) is how that program lays out over the next five years. It's a little bit of a unusual
layout. Typically you see the ... the highest dollar is being planned and in the first year and then
a taper downward and kind of a downward slide. What this tells you is we have a ... a number of
large, significant projects that we are planning ahead for in 23, 24, 25. So, you know, we do
have a large number of dollars planned and... and Ron mentioned there's 125 projects out there
in 21 and 22, but in 23 that's where the $20 million transit facility's currently programmed at,
and also that $8 million digester complex is planned in that 2023 year also. So you can see that
we have a number of very large projects planned and in the middle of this program, and then in
20 ... in 2024, we've got almost $16 million planned for the Dodge Street reconstruction. So
those large projects have kind of pushed the dollars in these outer years up, and then in 2025 we
got $10 million planned for the Taft Avenue reconstruction, and then also out there is a
referendum -based product of roughly $6 million for the City Park pool. So...that... that kind of
causes us to be a little bit un ... unusual pattern for ...for our capital program, but it also tells us
that ... that there's a lot coming down the road here, and ... and there's a lot to look ahead to here.
So that's the last slide I was going to cover, and ... and I'm going to hand it off to Jason and he's
going to start taking you through the projects, and he'll go through with each of the divisions to
talk about those projects and ... and then if there's questions later on in regards to financing of the
program, I'd be happy to answer them.
Havel: Good afternoon, Jason Havel, City Engineer. So I'll start things off, as Ron mentioned, with
ongoing projects. So just a reminder, these are those projects that either are partially complete
that we are looking at completing here in the upcoming year, or those projects that were planned
for a previous year that are not yet complete. So starting things off here with the 2020 asphalt
resurfacing project. This is one we completed a number of overlay locations this previous year.
There's one main section that remains, that'd be Muscatine Avenue between 2nd Avenue and
CourtStreet. So we anticipate that work beginning in the spring and complete in 2021. Just a
reminder that will also include the pedestrian refuge island there for the Court Hill Trail on kind
of the south end of that section. Next we have the Idyllwild storm water drainage diversion. So
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you guys have seen this recently. This is actually in the bidding process. So we anticipate
taking bids for this project early this year. Again, this will be construction of a bypass along
the ... kind of the west side of the Idyllwild area to help alleviate or deal with some of the ... the
localized flooding that has occurred historically in this area. Just a reminder, this also ... this
Friday will also include as a bid alternate the pumping station that would be for the area as well.
The Riverside Drive pedestrian tunnel, this is one that's been in the works for a while, we
actually have nearly finalized design plans for this project. Late in that design process we
received word from the railroad that they were no longer supportive of the project. So with
that, we've kind of gone back with ... back to work with our consultant to try and figure out ways
to respond to some of the concerns that were raised by the railroad and ... and find a way to move
this project forward. So the plan is still to install a pedestrian tunnel. Again, this is along the
west side of Riverside Drive between Myrtle Avenue and Benton Street, and it would
essentially include not only the tunnel through the embankment there, but also sidewalk
connections to the north and south. Next is the (mumbled) Court sanitary sewer replacement.
This is a sanitary sewer line that was badly in need of repair and we were having maintenance
issues out there repeatedly and ... and quite frequently. So looking at replacing that line,
essentially replacement of a ... an existing line. With that, we also are looking at making some
improvements to the sanitary sewer and storm sewer alignment. There's actually a sanitary
main that runs underneath one of the buildings there. So we're looking at realigning that to take
care of that issue, as well as some storm sewer alignment improvements as well. Looking at
that construction, the plan would be in 2021. American Legion road reconstruction, this will be
complete reconstruction of American Legion Road from Scott Boulevard out to Taft Avenue. It
includes going from a rural section with ditches and turning that into an urban section. So we'll
have curb, gutter, and storm sewer. Also will include wide sidewalk on one side of the street,
include bike lanes ... on -street bike lanes, as well as utility improvements. This project will also
include the roundabout at the Scott Boulevard and American Legion Road intersection, as well
as the pedestrian underpass near the new Hoover School. This is a ... will be bid through the
DOT and we anticipate that happening in March. So this will also be likely a two-year
construction window. First Avenue and Scott Boulevard intersection improvements will include
a new roundabout at the First Avenue and Scott Boulevard intersection. There'll be some utility
improvements as well, but the majority of the project will be the installation of a new
roundabout there. That one is currently under design and looking at 2021 construction as well.
2nd Avenue bridge replacement, this is one that's currently under design, looking at construction
hopefully in 2021. Essentially it will be replacement of the existing bridge, which has reached
the end of its useful life. There'll be some slope protection or bank stabilization work as well.
Also water main connection likely incorporated into the bridge design. With this it'll also
include sidewalk infill. So it'll not only have a sidewalk crossing on the bridge, but also
connect to existing sidewalk to the north and south of this location. Continuing on the sidewalk
infill, Gilbert Court sidewalk infill. This is a location where we've received complaints from
time to time in the past. There's a section actually on both sides of the street that lacks sidewalk
on the Gilbert Court area just north of Highland. Sothis will look at basically extending
sidewalk on both sides of the street from Highland, up to where the sidewa... sidewalk currently
ends along Gilbert Court. Again, this will be one that we're looking at construction early in
2021. Scott Boulevard trunk sewer, this one is actually on the agenda tonight to hold a public
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hearing. This will be extending the sanitary sewer, trunk sewer, basically from where it
currently ends just north of the railroad tracks, extending that up to American Legion Road,
kind of the alignment there shown in yellow. As part of this project we'll also be able to
remove the existing pump station that is located just north American Legion Road, kind of at
the north end of that project. Down at the Wastewater plant, we have a dewatering roll -off
pavement project. Essentially what this will do is install a pad where they can then utilize that
for the use of dewatering roll -offs, and what these are typically used for are those loads from
such as sand and car wash and septic haulers. Basically it's a way for them to dewater those
loads before they ...they deal with them down at the plant. So this will just give them a more
solid working surface and make it much more efficient. Rehabilitation of collector wells three
and four, so this is on the water side of things. Basically what they'll look at doing is clean out
the existing laterals for wells three and four, as well as repairs and rehabilitation of the pumps
and the wet wells for those facilities. That is the ongoing projects. So we will next move to the
annual project section. So these will be the projects that have money every year within the
program, and it looks like we're going to kick things off with the Park side of things. So I'll tum
it over to Juli.
Seydell Johnson: Okay, so the first project we have up is City Hall annual improvement ones. Um,
sorry! This is ongoing projects. So in year three, it is or this year it is carpeting and painting on
the third floor of City Hall. Future years include roof replacement and a few other things. So
it's ongoing maintenance and repair items in City Hall. Next we have the Park annual
improvement project. Is it... Kellie, are you moving the screen?
Frain: It's moved, Juli. Go ahead.
Seydell Johnson: Oh, okay. It's frozen on mine. Okay so Park ... the Park annual improvement is park
signs. This past year we did basketball court replacements. We are adding benches, bicycle
racks, bike fix -it stations, and grills throughout the parks. So these are smaller projects
throughout the parks and then also gives us the opportunities when partner or grant
op ... opportunities come up. Number three is the park ADA improvements. These are access
improvements to different parks. It could be curb ramps or additional paving of paths to get to
the playgrounds or other park amenities. Inter -city bike trails is smaller trail projects that are
generally connection projects or finishing out small sections of trails. A recent one would be a
small section right in front of the Parks maintenance shop on Gilbert Street. But this one is
annual Rec Center improvements, access improvements, entrance repairs. One of the next ones
coming up will be redoing the entrance paving at Mercer Scanlon. Right now at the Rec Center,
which the reason I'm doing this from home (laughs) is that we have demolition happening in the
Rec Center for the on -deck restrooms. One other small project there (mumbled) some other
things like that, and then number six is tree planting. One of our newer ongoing capital
projects, we are right now in the process of preparing the bid documents and letting the
neighbors know in the Mackinaw neighborhood and then also along Scott Boulevard, for tree
planting projects that will happen next season next planting season. Think that's it for Parks and
Rec.
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Havel: All right, back to me for annual stormwater improvements. So this is an account that we use for
improve ... or issues that come up on the stormwater side of things. So every year we kind of
deal with repairs to stormwater infrastructure, such as intakes, san ... or storm sewer pipe, dealing
with issues of damage pipe, collapsed pipe, open joints, that kind of thing. A lot of times we'll
see... similar to what's here in the picture is sinkholes. A lot of times they're an indication of
that. So just replacing ... or repairing those facilities and ... in those areas as they come up around
town. Next one, I think, is the traffic signal projects. So this is something that we use every
year. Helps to fund either new traffic signal locations or a lot of times it's to help repair or
upgrade traffic signal locations that are existing. This one ... this project will also include the
installation of pan, tilt, zoom cameras, at a number of locations that don't currently have those.
I think those were scheduled for 2022, um, will be the next time we look at installing a group of
those. Next one is the traffic calming account and this, again, is kind of based on need or
request. So this is for construction of traffic calming measures that make it all the way through
the neighborhood process. So once they're selected and approved and the neighborhood has
voted to approve those, then the actual construction dollars come out of this account. Next one
is the curb ramp, ADA, and this funds an annual project where we go and look for locations that
need either new ramps or upgraded ramps. Typically our priority is those locations that have
sidewalk facilities, but do not have any curb ramps. So those areas with full curb would be our
top priority and then we also then work our way down the list of those sites that may have
ramps that are not compliant. Either they're too steep or don't have truncated domes, but those
locations are ... are throughout the city and will vary from year to year. Next one is our annual
pavement rehabilitation. So again, this is, uh... the asphalt overlay is obviously a big portion of
that. This account also pays for PCC patching, crack sealing, chip sealing, other pavement
maintenance projects that we have throughout the city and those, again, will vary as far as
locations throughout the city. That's also... comes from recommendations from our recently
completed pavement management study. Underground electrical facilities, so this is an account
that will help pay for those times when we look to help relocate the electrical facilities from
overhead to underground. A lot of times those are situations where we have other projects in
the area, and the ... Mid American will need to relocate their facilities. Depending on the
corridors and costs, we'll sometimes have conversations with them to look at ways to relocate
underground. Helps from obviously an aesthetic standpoint, also from a safety standpoint from
Mid American's side. A lot of times what that'll be is if they already need to relocate we'll pay
essentially the up -charge that is necessary to go underground versus just relocating in another
aerial position. Next is the annual bridge maintenance and repair project. So this is one that we
use for our biannual inspections. So every other year, we go through and inspect all the bridges
in Iowa City. From that we also get repair and maintenance recommendations from our
consultant. So this account would help to fund those. Typically those are the... again, kind of
repair and rehab projects. Anything that would be a full replacement or anything like that
would actually cut... typically be its own CIP account. So this would be more the ... on the repair
and rehabilitation side of things. Next the annual sewer main replacement. So this is a ... an
annual fund that typically will find a couple of different projects, one being the sewer lining
project. So that is going in and looking at lining existing sanitary sewer or sanitary manholes,
and what that typically does is for those ... those sections that are in decent shape, but maybe
starting to show some signs of needs of repair. We can go ahead and line those and get a lot of
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life out of them for a ... are ... relatively economical standpoint. And then, as well as the lining
projects, we also typically have a sewer repair project every year. And what that'll do is go in
and complete spot repair. So maybe the ... most of the line's in good shape, but we have a
section that may have some deficient joints or pipe issues, and so we'll go through and make
those spot repairs out of this account. With that, I will turn it over to Kent to talk about the ... the
bicycle master plan.
Ralston: Yeah. Greetings. Good afternoon. Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. Most of you will
remember that back in 2017 the City adopted a very ambitious bike master plan. And with your
continued support, I'm happy to report that we've really made some tremendous progress. I just
wanted to take a minute just to give you a quick update on a few of the projects that we
completed back in 2020. Jason had already mentioned one, which was the American
Legion ... or excuse me, of the McCollister Boulevard project, where we have bike lanes now
between Gilbert and Sycamore, in 2020, and we also finished bike lanes on Dodge Street, south
of Burlington, and also completed the four to three-way conversion, uh,four to three -lane
conversion of Dodge Street between Bowery and Kirkwood. So we've got that continuous bike
lane now essentially from north Iowa City on Dodge Street, all the way to Bowery. We also
completed a ... implementation of bike lanes on Burlington Street across the Iowa River, you may
have noticed. That was a major barrier that was identified in the bike master plan, and it's nice
to get that completed. As far as upcoming projects in 21, Jason did mention the American
Legion Road project, where we'll have bike lanes, as well as a 10 -foot wide side path. That'll
be a nice project to link up to Hoover School and one that's been needed for some time. We
also have the Highway 6 side path, Fair Meadows to Heinz, which you may hear about later
today. And then we've also introduced a 2025 project in the CIP to continue that side path from
Fair Meadows to Sycamore, and that really completes the entire, uh, once those two projects are
complete, continues the entire Highway 1/6 trail corridor, which is something really special. As
part of our planning efforts to become a gold bike friendly community, I also wanted to just
mention a few things that aren't capital investment related, and staff has been working on a host
of other educational and promotional work. We've created a series of 14 episodes of bike
shorts, videos we call them, which really educate the community on everything from how to
maintain your bike, to how to ride at night, to how to ride safely on bike lanes, and so on and so
forth. We created a rules of the road brochure and translated that into six different languages to
try and reach as many of our residents here in Iowa City as we can, and then in addition to a
host of other things, we also have been creating some weekly maps highlighting popular routes
and encouraging folks to use our trail system here during the pandemic. We know that's good
for both health ... both physical and mental health. And I think you'll hear about most of the
capital projects here in your ...in the rest the presentation today, but I'll be here for questions, if
necessary.
DeLoach: Good afternoon. We have quite a bit of facility updates that we need. This is our 40th year
of the Senior Center being here since 1981. As you see, this is a picture of some of the water
damage issues that we have going on. We have been working with a consulting... consulting
firm here for a majority of this year to get a master plan. We're about 95% complete with that
master plan and we'll be coming back to you all later to kind of go into detail of some of the
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updates and needs. There's some tuck pointing, some ... some wood floors that need to be
changed, as well as we need furniture replacement for multiple reasons, lots of remodeling. We
have some ADA... significant ADA needs. We have some immediate needs for ADA, to make
sure that the facility or the population we serve, as well as the public. So we'll be working on
those things as soon as we're able. But so far, the plan is to work on some of those immediate
needs and go on down the line. It will be quite a bit of work. It'll be a couple of years before
we're actually completed, as well as we'll have some long-term items that we'll need to restore.
We're restoring a lot of the historic portions of the outside of the building, as well as really
having it more focused on the west side of our building or a new entryway. We always have
had the Washington Street entryway, but we really want to bring some focus there as well as
create an exterior for folks to be able to really know which door to come in, to help with
wayfinding in the building, which will help with folks over time with diminished capacity, as
well as new folks coming into the area, to know where to come into the Senior Center and
having our receptionist desk moved down to that door so that it's a little bit more centralized for
folks, as well as carpeting that needs to be changed, walls ... as well as moving some offices
around. creating new fitness spaces, as well as looking at some of our new classroom spaces.
So we're really excited about those options for us. We ... we really appreciate the ... the public
input that has been provided to us, and we've been able to accommodate it and move things
around to making our plan work, and so the plan is still up and going, and we'll definitely keep
you all up to date.
Nagle -Gamin: There we go. Good afternoon. This is Darian Nagle -Lamm with Transportation
Services. Happy New Year, everyone. We have the last project of the annual projects list. Itis
simply parking operations and maintenance of our parking facilities. Our annual project
includes concrete restoration, application of (mumbled) control joints, and ... and just generally
all of the things that we need to do to help maintain our facilities, which are of course
open ... open air, exposed to the weather, get lots of wear and tear and whatnot. Also part of this
project, too, is I think our last remaining lights maybe that the City manages or the lights on top
of our ramps that are not yet (mumbled) over to LED lights. We're hoping to pull that into the
project and get those on a more energy efficient... more energy efficient system very soon.
Tharp: All right. Good afternoon. I'm Mike Tharp. I'm the Airport Manager for the Iowa City Airport.
Walking you through the ... the Airport CIP, we are one of those departments that does depend on
funding from other agencies in order for our CIP plans to go forward. The FAA funds, when
they fund a project with us, they fund 90% of that project. The State has a similar program to
the federal side. They supply 70 to 85% of the funding, depending on their... their... the project
and through the budget process, the City gives us $100,000 that we use as matching for those
grant opportunities. With that, one of the things that the ... we encountered with the CARES Act
last year. The CARES Act did turn our fiscal year 20 grants into 100% federal shares. So we
were able to ... and we're planning on using some of those grant matching funds that we didn't
have to allocate to the federal grants to do some projects at the Airport that don't typically meet
the ... the scoring criteria to get awarded funding. Starting off our project list is the 12-30
obstruction mitigation and part 77 airspace mitigation. This is actually phase two, but because
of the timing and some issues with the environmental ... with the Protected Species Act ... brains
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going blank, sorry (laughs) We are actually out to bid for that and that will happen this winter.
But last year, we went through a major mitigation project with the... the... the neighborhoods
around the Airport, and during that time there were about a dozen or so other trees that were
tagged as being too tall and encroaching into the approach pass of the Airport. So we are
working with neighbors to mitigate those. The next project is the Airport parking lot expansion.
This is actually one of those projects that typically doesn't score very well with the State scoring
system. So we are hoping to use those grant funds that we didn't have to spend on ... on the
federal projects to do this. As you can see from the picture, the last couple of years the Airport
has been at capacity for parking on many occasions. It does make it a little bit harder for folks
that are using the Airport to get in and get out and, you know, just make it a little bit more
convenient with some more parking. 3465, the runway environmental assessment of runway 7.
This is a project that may or may not come to pass, based on FAA criteria, but the initial plan
for the runway 7 end is we can stretch a couple hundred more feet of runway in that ... on that
end to increase our landing distance. This is a project that comes from our Airport master plan.
That master plan is a roughly 20 -year plan on how to develop the Airport and the air side needs
of the Airport. It is blessed by the FAA and FAA uses that kind of as their planning mechanism.
Again, this one would be the start process, make sure there's no environmental issues or...or
anything else to adding that couple hundred feet to the end of...of 7. So keeps everything within
the square footprint of...of the Airport. Runway 25 threshold relocation, this is something we're
working on next spring. It is kind of the ... the end result of our master plan update and ... and the
goal of that was to take the Airport, take the... the... the infrastructure that we have, and without
really dramatically ...without expanding the footprint of the Airport, maximizing the efficiency
and the use of the Airport facilities. So with that we're able to bring that threshold back about
800 feet. That'll get us not quite to our 5,000 -foot landing distance on runway 25, and that
5,000 -foot landing distance is a pretty big number because a lot of our charter... our charter
operators use that number for being able to land at the Airport and also for taking fuel for
aircraft that ... that does land at the Airport. The runway 12-30 displace threshold and relocation,
this is one of those projects (mumbled) tight ... is tied in with the mitigation work, making the
Airport just a little bit more efficient. We can slide the landing distance on the northwest side of
the Airport down a little bit, and we do add a little bit of concrete to maintain our existing
distances on the southeast side, but it does shift the protection zones, the approach zones that
are over the northwest neighborhoods, a little bit closer into the Airport and allows... allows the
protection airspace over the neighborhoods to be higher in the sky. Airport apron expansion,
this is a more or less an airplane parking project. We do get fairly busy especially during
football season with airplanes. The FAA has a formula for ...based on operational activity and
how big of a parking apron you can have, and we are looking to expand our parking apron,
based on that formula. And then the next one is runway 7-25 pavement repairs. This is a ... a
crack sealing pavement maintenance project. The runway 7-25 was a project that was started in
2008-2009 in terms of the rehab. So we are at a point now where some basic maintenance,
crack sealing, you know, crack sealing, stuff like that will extend the life of the pavements and
we won't have a major reconstruction project on our hands in the near future. Runway 12-30,
the next project is the same thing. Again just slotted for the end of fiscal ... of the end of 2024, so
the end of this plan to do the same crack sealing, pavement maintenance, and that is the
Airport's plan.
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Grier: Good afternoon, everybody. John Grier, Fire Chief. Have a couple projects to talk with you
about today. As Dennis indicated in his opening remarks, we have ... over the next five years we
have a few apparatus that are due for replacement. That's the bulk of our capital improvement
program. Just for your refresher, we base our replacement on a fleet management score,
working with the Equipment division and number of years and service, and then if we happen to
have a ... an apparatus that develops a problem that's not fixable, we ask to have it replaced a
little sooner, but coming up in this year we have for the next big purchases the ... our big ladder
truck, which works out of downtown, and then we take a couple years off and we replace our
smaller ladder truck, which is stationed on the west side of town, Station 2, and then the Scotty
House is that fire safety house that we take around to the schools, and then we have some
pumpers coming up due for replacement in 25, and then in a couple future years after that. The
second project is we developed a crack at Fire Station 1 floor and it has slowly been expanding.
So we had some design professionals come in and look at it, and their assessment was is that it
needs to be removed and replaced. So that's the $95,000 for this year. Any questions, I'd be
happy to answer them. Thanks.
Carman: Hi, I'm Elsworth Carman, the Director of the Library. We've got three projects to speak about
today, and feel free to ask questions if...if you've got any. We are in a great building that's
really heavily used and it was finished in 2004, so about 17 years into the building life, which I
think as you're starting to hit that sweet spot of things starting to need to be replaced and
refinished. So we're looking at a multi-year project hereto replace all the carpeting and
famishing in the big parts of the library. The ... the cost of this project includes both the
replacing of the flooring and ... and some of the furnishings, but also on the demo and prep and
moving the materials to facilitate these ... these replacements. This is simply maintenance that
needs to be done in a building as it ages, and I look forward to hopefully making choices that
will last as long as this first round did and continue to very carefully steward those resources.
(mumbled) first one, and our second project here is looking at an automatic material handler.
This library and many, many other libraries use RFID tags on our materials. So when they're
checked in and checked out, our computers communicate with those chips to keep track of the
items, and that's kind of how our catalog operates. (mumbled) takes part of the human input out
of those systems and this building was designed to facilitate (mumbled) machine downstairs in
our first -floor returns area. They're (mumbled) system of conveyor belts and bins that does
some of the initial sorting of materials for you. Libraries that have these machines get benefits
like increased return time from when an item is returned to back on the shelf; more accurate
circulation statistics; fewer hands on the materials before they're back and ready for reuse. The
reason that ... that I'm bringing this up right now is there's... our library uses volunteers to do a lot
of our check-in work. So we're feeling pretty concerned about will those volunteers come back
after this COVID experience. The trend that we're seeing nationally as libraries that are ready
to bring their volunteers back aren't seeing that. So this piece of machinery would help us
bridge that gap, between a task that was done very heavily with volunteer work, to allowing us
to ... to keep doing what we're doing, have staff doing other ...other dynamic work. I want to be
clear with this one, that there is no intention of reducing staff, if we did introduce this machine.
That ... it doesn't supersede the work of human beings. Here it would replace some of the work
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done by volunteers in anticipation of maybe (mumbled) do different work to get those folks in.
We are one of the few, if not the only size eight library in Iowa, that doesn't use a (mumbled)
They're... they're a very common piece of library machinery, and it ... I think that we'd be coming
in at a great time when the technology is pretty advanced and ready to do the work that we
need. That's it for that one. And the last project (mumbled) was to look at doing a facility
study, looking at space needs and environmental impact. Kind of like with that (mumbled)
project, you know, we're ... we're getting... our building is aging, and we want to make sure that
we're doing everything we can to set ourselves and future generations up for success. So we
want to make sure that our spaces are being used well, that we're ... we're doing the best with our
large and small systems to agree to, you know, a greener future, and make sure that we're ... we're
incorporating that into the plans. So this is a multi-year project that would first start with
having experts come in to do those evaluation of how we're using the space, how we're
impacting the environment, and then going on to implement some of the changes that may be
suggested. Thank you.
Ralston: Yes, hi. Ken Ralston again. Neighborhood and Development Services has just one project in
the plan this year. This is for remaining funds for implementation of our new software package,
although the package is largely up and running. The software handles everything from tracking
of residents requests, to tracking and processing subdivision applications, and is also used to
process building construction plans and housing inspections.
Seydell Johnson: Okay, moving on to Parks and Recreation. This is Juli Seydell Johnson, Parks and
Recreation Director. It's fun for me to look through this list, because in the five years I've been
here we've accomplished just about this number of projects. So it's fun to keep moving forward
and we appreciate support on a number of things. The fust project I'm going to talk about is ... is
simply replacing the roads or resurfacing the roads at the cemetery. They haven't been done in a
number of years. So this replaces some of the asphalt within the cemetery. The second project
Kent Ralston actually already talked about. This is one of the trail segments on Highway 6.
This is a Broadway to Fair Meadows section. Later on in the project list you'll see the Heinz
Road to Fair Meadows trails. Both important trails along the Highway 6, Highway 1 corridor.
Item number three is the City Park pool replacement, and we know and love City Park pool. It's
a nice, historic pool, 72 years old. This summer one of the oldest pools in the state of Iowa that
is still operating. We will be embarking on a recreation and aquatics facilities master plan this
spring and summer, with one of the questions being what should be the future of City Park pool.
Do we renovate it as it is? Do we replace it? What are the needs of the community that can be
best met with this? And so this gives us a ... a placeholder for that project in 2024-25. The next
one is ... three very popular splash pads, one at Fair Meadows, one at Wetherby, and one at Tower
Court, and specifically the ones at Fair Meadows and Wetherby are beginning to show their age.
The equipment is becoming more difficult to maintain. The ... it's fading. There's some
equipment errors in it. So we will be looking at replacing the above -ground equipment. Not a
wholesale redo of the splash pads, but simply a refreshing of them with new play features on the
top, and that is in 2023 and 24. The next one is behind the scenes, but very important, and this
is upgrading building automation controls. This is what runs our hearing, cooling,
dehumidification systems throughout the City, through our government building staff. This will
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replace the systems in a number of facilities, including fire stations, the Animal Care Center,
Senior Center, and I believe there's one more. But this is ... it's all behind the scenes. What it
will allow is for all of the systems to be on the same platform so that staff can monitor them and
do an amount of adjustment remotely, as ... as needed. It gives us a better record of what's going
on and will help increase the energy efficiency of all of these facilities. Item number six is two
new parks eventually, one in the Palisades area in the northeast area and the one in Stonebridge,
just kind of north and east of where Frauenholtz- Miller Park, where the St. Pat's Catholic
Church is. We have land in both of these areas, and this would just develop smaller public use
parks on those lands. Item number seven is Chadek Green restroom and shelter. This is one of
our largest or second largest community garden site, but that is all it is right now is community
garden site and open space. Gardeners would really like to have a gathering place in the shelter,
along with the restroom and probably some kind of counter space for washing vegetables or
doing potlucks or something like that within the shelter. That's scheduled for 2022. Item
number eight is the rec center improvements, both to Robert A. Lee and Mercer Scanlon. We
have been ongoing... doing smaller projects and doing projects... tonight on the agenda you have
a dehumidification project and tuck pointing project at Mercer Scanlon. This project in the
future years will look at both locker rooms for ADA accessibility and just making them more
inviting to the public in general, along with some renovations at Robert A. Lee to change some
of the classrooms and use spaces to match public need. Once again, one of the questions we'll
be asking as we do the master planning next spring and summer. Item nine Whispering
Meadows, this has been in the plan for a while as an upgrade by adding a shelter and small
playground and some access paths, but we recently received a State resource enhancement and
protection REAP grant. So that moves part of the project up to 21, as we have $90,000 from the
State to do ecological improvements. So we'll be working on the wetlands plantings, removing
some of the invasive species, and replanting the area and getting it one of the new park signs.
Item 10 is shelters and restroom replacement in Lower City Park. Later on, we'll have one in
Upper City Park. We've been looking closely at the use of these facilities and the number of
facilities in this park. Following along somewhat with the City Park, Lower City Park master
plan, moving things eventually away from the river and up towards the hillside, as with the new
playground that just recently opened. What this will do is consolidate the shelters, so there'll be
fewer shelters and restrooms, but they will be higher quality and we think that really matches
the amount of use that the park is receiving and has for a number of years. Number 11 is
Kiwanis Park, this is a 2023 replacement, most likely of the playground area primarily. It ... it
did include the shelter at one time. It's in really good shape. So I don't know that the shelter
will be replaced. The playground is a favorite because it's built into the hill and it's got
naturally... some natural areas into it. It's also very hard to maintain and is very much showing
its age. So leading up to this we will definitely have a neighborhood process to look at what
type of playground people would like to see as a replacement. It might be a nature playground
again or it could be something completely different. I think that the (mumbled) wide open for
that large of an area. Number 12 is renovating softball fields at Napoleon softball complex
fields (mumbled) eight. This includes regrading, getting the drainage repaired and fixed up, so
just makes them more... easier to maintain and safer for players, as well as maintenance staff.
Number 13 is the Upper City Park shelter and restroom, 2024, similar to Lower City Park.
Looking at consolidating the number of restrooms and shelters that we have in Upper City Park
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and replacing them with ... with better quality facilities there. Number 14 is Hickory Hill Park,
the north... the Conklin shelter, replacing that and the restroom. I believe this is the last one we
have of this style that's out there, and this would be 2025 and it would simply be a replacement
of the restroom and shelter with the similar design that we've used at Creekside, Willow Creek,
Wetherby, and a number of our other parks at this point, following the Park master plan.
Glendale Park and shelter will be next summer. This is a smaller park where we'll be looking at
replacing the playground equipment and then adding a small picnic shelter for that. So we'll be
doing the public input process on this in the coming months and have the work done on this
next summer. Number 16 is the Court Hill Park shelter and playground. In this particular park,
the restroom is fairly new. So we won't be replacing that, but we will be probably once again
replacing just one and there's currently two shelters. Probably replace one, remove one, and
then replace the playground that's there. It's one of the older playgrounds we have still in our
park system. Item number 17 is Robert E. Lee pool filter and dehumidification process. The
project ... this is all the behind the scenes equipment that makes the Robert A. Lee pool run and
function. This will also kind of...this will be one of the questions that's asked on the recreation
facilities master planning process of what should the future Robert A. Lee pool be as well. So
that... would there be changes or should it continue as it is but this is all the behind the scenes,
filters, pumps, and it would add the dehumidification for a more efficient operations. Number
18 is the Happy Hollow playground replacement. As you remember just a few years ago, we
did replace the restroom and shelter. We did some court refurbishment, some ... of the field
refurbishment this summer. But one thing left to do there is the playground and that will
happen in 2023. Terrell Mill skate park has ... is reaching the end of its useful or salvageable life
(mumbled) well used every day, I believe, with a number of skaters out there. So in 2025 we're
looking... or 2024, looking at renovating the skate park. We've had requests recently for ...for
lighting and some other renovations to bring it up to more current standards for a skate park. So
we'll be looking at that .... and doing the renovations there. City Park ball field improvements
are happening, um, now it's a 2021 project. This includes fence and dug out repairs, grading of
the fields, which has already happened, and some lighting improvements, some of which will
happen and some will still happen before next spring. Twenty-one is Mercer ball park diamond
improvements and this is 2023 through 2024. This is where currently City High plays. Holding
this off till 23 or 24 will give us time to work with the School District to determine if indeed
they will continue to play their varsity baseball at this site or they will be moving to a new field,
closer to the high school. This particular budget includes artificial turf, which would need to be
a partnership with the School District, if we went forward with that, and then a number of other
improvements to all of the other fields at that facility. Item 22 is Hunters Run Park, and this
would be a new shelter and playground in the park. Once again, also one of our older areas of
park equipment. In this we'll replace that with ... we would have a public input process to
determine what type of a playground and then a small shelter, similar to our other shelters. Item
23 is the Fair Meadows to Heinz trail along Highway 6, which Kent already mentioned that.
I've already talked about a little bit. Twenty-four is events facility improvements. So this is for
our Terry Trueblood event center and the Ned Ashton House. Things like staining the outside of
the building, which is just a regular maintenance, ongoing maintenance task, and then at both
facilities also upgrading the BAS system so that HVAC can be monitored, along with all the
other systems within the City, and some audio-visual equipment upgrades at the TTRA lodge.
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Number 25 is off-road bicycle trail development. We are looking at a new site that we just
acquired through Public Works, along the Elks Golf Course, and develop this along with some
other property that we have down in the river bottoms there into an off-road bicycle track,
single track bicycle course. Number 26 is ped mall playground. This one has been moved
forward to this year. In fact we'll have the kickoff meeting hopefully for it later this week. The
ped mall playground has become very difficult to maintain. We are no longer able to get
replacement parts for a number of the slides and different pieces of equipment. In fact, it's ... it's
short at least one slide, if not two, right now just because we haven't been able to find
replacements for them. So this will look at replacing it with something new and we'll be doing
a process with the Library staff, the Downtown Association, and other stakeholders in that
downtown area to come up with something really, really unique and... and attractive for the ped
mall. Number 27 and 28 look to 2025 projects. The first one is Benton Hill. This replaces the
playground. It's rather a small playground, but replaces it in 2025, and then College Green
playground is a larger playground, which will get also replaced in 2025. In both cases,
probably not the shelters at those parks as they have various structures, different structures, that
are important to the sense of place. And those parks with the playgrounds are reaching an age
where they definitely will need to be replaced. Number 29 is asphalt resurfacing at the Park
maintenance facility. The number one thing probably asked for by staff right now (laughs) the
driveway is literally falling apart. So we look forward to getting that repaired and having safe
access in and out of the Park maintenance facility. Same thing with number 30, the Willow
Tre... Creek trail replacement. This is a well -used trail, we're finding even more now this
winter, as we've been clearing snow and ice for more of this park. But as you can see from the
photo, we've got roots that have come up through the asphalt. We'll be doing some remedial
work in the spring to make it safe for use in the meantime, but then looking at a replacement for
it in 2023. And the final project on our Parks and Rec list is ADA elevator improvements. So
City Hall, Senior Center, Rec Center, the elevators all need to have some changes made to make
them ADA compliant, things like voice active or voice audible sys... systems and some other
things that make them more accessible to more people. That's all for Parks and Rec! Thank
you.
Brotherton: Okay, Denise Brotherton with the Police Department, uh, Interim Chief for another week.
We just have two projects up here. The first one is our digital photo management, and what this
would do would give us the ability to house digital evidence from any source, and maintain
security and efficiency in our evidence room. The way that evidence comes into us has changed
and evolved, and we need to catch up with that, and as you can see, it's crowded in there, and
this will give us the ability to clean that up and have a more secure way to store photos,
recordings, downloads, and other type of digital evidence that come to us and the next one.
(goes silent)
Fruin: Denise, you're ... you got muted accidentally there.
Brotherton: Am I back on? Yes. Okay, so again at the Shelter. There's no backup power when we lose
electricity and with things like a derecho and other natural events we've had happen in the last
couple years, we find it can get very hot, very cold in there. There's not a whole lot of
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Page 15
ventilation for the animals. So especially in that summertime. It ... it was always a future plan to
have this when they first built the facility. It was too expensive to do then. But we've... we've
wanted to do this, and as we have more incidents now and we lose that electricity (mumbled)
it's imperative that we get that in there for those animals, and I am available for any questions.
Havel: All right, moving on to Public Works. Starting things off out at the Landfill, a ... a group of
projects here. First one being the replacement of the equipment building. So this will be a new
building that would actually allow for storage of all the equipment or...the availability for
storage for equipment out there. Currently, some of the equipment actually doesn't fit into the
existing building. So this will help to alleviate that. The compost pad improvements
(interrupted by talking in background) out there (talking continues) so L3333, this will be
basically improvements to the compost pad area, helping to make that area more usable and
more efficient for the composting operations. The landfill dual extraction system. So that'll be
an expansion of the existing system that is out at the landfill for leachate and ... and gas. There's
also a project for future a landfill cell design. So this'll be kind of the design phase of that, and
then construction in a .... currently an unfunded year, but a future year. The bulk water fill
station. So we have these at a couple locations throughout the city. But basically what this does
is it's a ... a way to fill large tanks. It would be usable for staff or contractors as needed. It also
could be used for ...for firefighting operations as needed. And typically what this would do is to
fill tanker trucks and that kind of stuff. There's a project for the leachate lagoons. There's
currently two lagoons out at the landfill. This would look to essentially fill in one of the
lagoons that's longer being used and then making repairs or renovations to the ... the other lagoon
out at the landfill. Then finally expansion of the landfill gas infrastructure, so the gas collection
system out there at the landfill, so that group out at the landfill. Next one is the South Side
Recycling site. This is down off of Riverside Drive, near Sturgis Ferry Park. This would install
pavement and other infrastructure to allow for a recycling site here. Also would include
lighting, signage, that kind of stuff. Would also hopefully make it available for providing
compost and wood chips to users as well. Next one is a couple pieces of equipment for
resource management, first being a couple of automated curbside collection trucks. Again
replacement vehicles there, and then replacement of a bulldozer for use out of the landfill as
well. Number four is out off of Westminster Drive. This is an area where in the past we
received complaints of localized flooding during heavy rain events. So this project will look to
address the ... those issues, look at upsizing storm sewer out there, as well as some intake
improvements and other stormwater improvements along that section. Rundell Street, the ... the
pump station vault out there. This will do a couple of different things. First, it'll make some
modifications to the hatches and the top of the vault there to allow for ADA improvements, so
it'd be compliant sidewalk and curb ramps in this location. It'll also make improvements to
some of the equipment actually included within the pump station is reaching the end of its
useful life. Number six is River Street. So this'll make improvements to the storm sewer out
there. Right now it's an existing ditch along River Street. This is an area where we have issues
from time to time regarding debris and other stuff that causing blockages. So this'll look at
installing storm sewer and making related improvements to that area. Number seven
(mumbled) Place storm sewer, so this will look to again upsize existing storm sewer
infrastructure. This is an area where we've, again, received complaints of localized flooding.
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Page 16
It's ... we have some infrastructure that's in need of repair. So this project will repair that and,
again, upsize some of those facilities. Number eight out at the Public Works site sand and salt
storage bunkers. These are ... were originally included in the Public Works site project and due
to budget constraints were removed. Basically this will install covered storage out at the Public
Works site can be used for obviously sand and salt, could also be used for topsoil or rock or
other materials as needed for ...for City operations. Number nine will address the non-public
safety radio system, making upgrades to that system. Essentially, again, equipment that's
reaching the end of its useful life, and is in need of repair for ...for moving forward. There's
some pieces of equipment that will no longer be supported here in the near future. So again,
just making those necessary upgrades. Number 10, the Melrose Avenue improvements project.
So this is on the west side of town. We'll reconstruct Melrose Avenue and IW V Road out to the
landfill. So basically between the landfill and Highway 218, complete reconstruction. This will
remain a rural section. So it'll be a roadway with ditches. Also includes water main extension
out to the landfill as part of that project. Currently looking at bidding that through the DOT,
probably mid -year this year. And again, this is a joint project with the County. Number 11, so
reconstruction of Dubuque Street from Washington Street to Iowa Avenue. This is another
project that stems from the downtown streetscape master plan. This project would be done
similar to what was done along Washington Street a few years ago. So it would address not
only paving, sidewalk area, utility improvements, as well as lighting and some wayfinding as
well. Kirkwood Avenue to Capitol Street connection, so this is down in the Riverfront
Crossings area, just north of Riverfront Crossings Park. This would look to extend Capitol... or
Kirkwood Avenue and Capitol streets. This project will look at the functional design for that.
So basically laying out the project, the alignment, that kind of stuff for the preliminary design
for those extensions, as well as utility improvements as well. Any funding for actual
construction would happen in a future year. Court Street reconstruction, this will ... this project
will look at a complete reconstruction of Court Street from Muscatine Avenue to 1 st Avenue.
Again, this will be all new pavement, sidewalk improvements, curb ramp improvements, as
well as utility upgrades and repairs. So complete reconstruction of that corridor. Out on Benton
Street we'll be doing a rehabilitation project which will be an overlay of Benton Street, from
Mormon Trek to just west of Greenwood Drive, which is where we had done overlay a few
years ago. So kind of continuing the next section here. It'll include... include not only an
overlay, as well as curb ramp improvements. We're also looking at some water main
improvements and with this project we'll also install official bike lanes on Benton Street for this
stretch. Reconstruction of Rochester Avenue, this will go from I st Avenue essentially to
Ralston Creek. Again, this will be another one that looks at a ... a full reconstruction. So new
pavement, new sidewalk, as well as utility improvements throughout the corridor. Next we
have a couple of roadway improvements studies. So the first one will be at Highway 1,
Highway 6 intersection and this is ... we'll look at basically a ... with a fixture reconstruction of the
intersection what that might look like. So it'll be kind of laying out that alignment and looking
at what that future improvement might look like. A big piece of this will also be pedestrian
facilities, connections to the tr...nearby trails and sidewalk connections through that intersection.
The second one listed is the Oakdale Boulevard extension. So this will essentially be an
upgrade or an update to a study that was done a number of years ago and will really focus on
future extension of Oakdale Boulevard to the east of Highway 1. With redevelopment proposed
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Page 17
or...or expected to happen in the not too distant future in that area, it really helps to kind of lay
out that preferred alignment so that as redevelopment occurs, we're able to reserve that right-of-
way for ...for future use. This one's been mentioned previously, so Dodge Street reconstruction.
This will be a big one, uh, a joint project with the DOT. We'll reconstruct Dodge Street from
Governor Street on the north to Burlington Street on the south. This one will include all new
pavement, sidewalk, and utility improvements as well. And like I mentioned, it'd be a joint
project with the DOT. Orchard Street reconstruction, this is one that we have under design right
now. Uh, be re -complete reconstruction of Orchard Street from Highway 1 to Benton Street.
This is pavement that obviously is in need of replacement and so it'll be all new pavement. It'll
also include sidewalk infill along the east side of...of Orchard Street. So there'll be continuous
sidewalk from Benton to Highway 1 on both sides of Orchard Street. Also will include a ... a
pedestrian crossing of Orchard Street on the south end at Highway 1. This project also will
include some sanitary sewer repairs or replacement, as well as water main replacement. So ... on
to north Gilbert Street. This will be another reconstruction project. This will be, again, new
pavement. We'll also look at adding sidewalk along both sides of north Gilbert Street, from
Brown Street to Kimball Road. So it'll tie into the improvements along Kimball Road that were
done with the Gateway project, as well as pavement and sidewalk. It'll also include new water
main, sanitary, and storm sewer improvements as well. Gilbert Street bridge, so this will be a
replacement of the existing bridge with a similar structure. In addition to the bridge it'll also
include some slope protection along the ... the creek, as well as sidewalk improvements, some
storm sewer replacement as well along Gilbert Street, and other associated work. Park Road
reconstruction, so this will look to reconstruct Park Road from Rocky Shore Drive to Riverside
Drive, again tying into improvements that were recently completed with the Gateway project,
similar to the other projects that include new pavement, sidewalk, and ... and utilities throughout
the corridor. Taft Avenue out on the east side of town, so this'll be another complete
reconstruction. This one will probably be similar to what we're ... we're going to be doing on
American Legion Road. So this would be, again, another rural section that we'd be looking at
upgrading to an urban section with new curb and gutter, utility improvements throughout the
corridor, and so this section will be ... cops! This section would be for... from American Legion
up to Lower West Branch. Foster Road elevation, so this will be a functional design for looking
at the elevation of Foster Road, essentially from No Name to Dubuque Street in that area that
flooded back in 2008. Obviously with the Peninsula neighborhood located where it is, this is
the ... the only access to that area currently, so this will look at what that ... what the design
would... would include to elevate Foster Road to ensure that that access remains open during
flood events. Next is a couple of sidewalk infill projects, the first one on Highland Court.
There's a couple of properties there that currently do not have sidewalks. So this would install
sidewalk along those two properties and tie a ... tie into existing sidewalk on both ends. Similar
along Scott Boulevard, there's a section of sidewalk along the dog park there—or a missing
section of sidewalk along the dog park there that would be completed as part of infill with this
project. Burlington Street bridge replacement, this project will look at replacing the two
existing bridges and combining those into one bridge. Sothis would be a joint project with the
DOT, as well as the University. In addition to the bridge component of the project, we also
would look at the ... the corridor from Front Street, essentially all the way from... through Grand
Avenue up to Melrose. Been some preliminary conversations with the University to look at
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how that might be done better. And so this project would look at not only kind of studying the
area, but as well will include design of the projects. I would note that construction will ... is
actually outside of the current five-year plan, right now scheduled for or planned for 2026.
Reconstruction of Fairchild Street. So this would be a couple of blocks of Fairchild, similar to
what we did on Davenport Street a couple of years ago. So this would go back as a brick street.
Essentially what we would do is ... is construct a PCC street and then have a ... a brick layer on top
of that (mumbled) it will definitely improve the longevity of the street. Likely it will include
some utility improvements as well. Next up is a couple of sanitary sewer improvement
projects. So these are projects that will be essentially replacing existing sanitary sewer, just
those areas that are in need of replacement. First one is on... along Nevada Avenue. This is
actually along the backyards of properties along Nevada Avenue. So again, replacement of
existing sewer there. Rohret south sewer, this will be upsizing the sanitary sewer along Abby
Lane from the park to the west to Highway 218, and then it would extend new sanitary sewer
under Highway 218 to ... for access to the west of Highway 218. Then the Benton Street trunk
sewer project. This will look to upsize and relocate an existing line near Benton Street that will
help with not only repairs to the sanitary sewer line, but also greatly help access to the line
which is currently difficult to do. Next one down at the wastewater treatment plant, the digester
complex rehabilitation. This project will look at making a number of improvements, not only to
equipment within the complex, but also some operational changes in how phosphorus is
removed from the stream. That will help us deal with the struvite issues that we're dealing with
down at the wastewater plant. So kind of twofold improvements as part of that project. Next
there are a number of projects that will be looking at replacing existing equipment down at the
wastewater plant. So again, these are pieces of equipment that are currently existing, reached
the end of their useful life. Many of these are operating nearly full time, so it just gets to a point
where they need to be replaced. It includes the influent rake and screen replacement, which is
essentially the ... kind of the first step of the ... the treatment process down at the plant. Then
there's a number of...of pump replacements for the influent pumps, the activated sludge pumps,
and the recirculation pumps. In addition, replacement of the grit classifiers and heat exchanger,
and then finally, there's a number of buildings down at the wastewater treatment plant that have
roofs that are in need of repair. So this will be funding over a number of years to help kind of
start the process of replacing those or repairing those as needed. A few improvements at the
wastewater treatment plant. First thing being some of the mixer portion of the plant, looking at
making some improvements there, mostly on the efficiency side, and helping to reduce energy
usage. Looking at making improvements to the biosolids conveyor, extending that and making
it, again, helping from an operational efficiency standpoint, and then a couple improvements to
the aeration basins and equipment down at the plant. Number 31 is a number of lift station
improvements, starting things off with the Hawkeye lift station. This project wou... actually
would remove the existing building, make some revisions to the lift station there, and turn it
into or convert it to a wet... wet... wet well setup so it would no longer have a building there,
making improvements to Napoleon lift station, and again, it's been in operation for a number of
years and just have some equipment that's reaching the end of its useful life. So making some
upgrades and repairs to that location, and then making repairs to the Highlander lift station that
is located up off of Highway 1, in the ... to the ... the west there and looking at making some
capacity and just age improvements to that facility. Project number 32 is the (mumbled) truck
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replacement. So this is a picture of the existing truck. This is something that has, again,
reached the end of its useful life, so making a replacement of this vehicle, just getting to the
point where maintenance costs and downtime are starting to add up and so looking at replacing
it with a new vehicle. Moving over the water side of things, a few water main replacement
projects. So again, these are projects that we'll be replacing existing main and in existing
locations. The first one, Bradford Drive, that's down near Southeast Junior High. The second
one being Highway I from Hawk Ridge over to Westport Plaza, and then off of Highway 6, Fair
Meadows to Industrial Park Road. Again, all pretty straightforward water main replacement
projects. The fourth one there, again, replacing water main along Dill Street. I ... I would note
with those street projects, we also are looking at some sidewalk infill, kind of from the Black
Spring Circle to the east to Teeters Court. Project number 34, again on the water side of things,
making improvements to some of the well locations. The first one would be Jordan well,
looking at replacing equipment that's reached the end of its useful life, so improvements there.
Out at the Peninsula well field, looking at doing some electrical work to provide redundancy to
the well field out there, and then finally looking at collector well number two, cleaning,
upgrading there again, cleaning laterals and ... and making repairs and rehabbing the ... the actual
well. Moving out to the water treatment plant, some improvements out there. First one being
the high service pump, the variable frequency drives there. The ... this is again existing
equipment that is in need of repair or replacement, making upgrades to the chlorine feeder
system, updates there, as well as improving staff safety with that system, making improvements
to the front meeting room out at the water plan. It's a large meeting room, definitely used for
training and other large gatherings. But the audio-visual equipment there is certainly dated.
Also those improvements will help to improve the functionality of the space. And then the
chemical room and outdoor lighting upgrades will be upgrades to LED for the equipment and
also help with just the usability of the spaces and improved lighting for ...for those areas. The
GSR or ground storage reservoir generator enclosure replacements, so there's three locations,
the Rochester Avenue, Sycamore Street, and Emerald Street. The ground storage reservoirs
there have backup generators. Currently the existing enclosures are getting to a point where
they're no longer weatherproof and so making replacements there to help extend the life of that
equipment. Out at the water plant or I guess part of the water system, looking at a treatment
technology study. With nutrient removal becoming more and more important as we move
forward. This will be ... help fund a ... a study to look at the nutrient removal process and... and
provide some guidance on how best to move forward with the system. And then finally looking
at asset inventory. So the City is currently in the process of implementing an asset management
software and program and so with this, this will allow for data collection to get essentially
the ... the water and wastewater systems, get data for the entire system and have that ready to
populate within that software and ... and allow for that asset management system to really be
beneficial and utilize that ... that existing data. With that I think I will pass it off to Darian for
Transportation.
Nagle-Gamm: Thank you, Jason. We have nine projects to present to you this evening, the first of
which is the replacement of our electronics in our smart parking meters. So this was a project
about 10 years ago. It was quite a revolution, at least to me. I didn't have to carry change
anymore, but now our parking meters allow us to ... to sh... you slide your credit card in and out
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without having to carry change around with you. Fortunately though they're reaching the end of
their useful life, so we're having more parking meters malfunction, but probably more
importantly the 3G technology that they're all based out of, if you if you follow technology at
all, it's pretty old and outdated, and it's going to be discontinued very soon. So we are in the
process right now of updating the ... the internal computer components of our parking meter. The
second project is video cameras for our parking facilities, and these are really security cameras
and they're designed to help keep our ...our customers, their property, our property safe and
secure. The third project is parking enforcement vehicles, and this is really an expansion of a
program that we already use today. So we have this vehicle before you, but it would be
duplicating it, to enhance our services with li... excuse me, license plate reader technology to
really aid in enforcement, and it really helps to ensure we can get to the areas of town that we
need to, and as you might imagine, it takes a long time for a person to walk through our ungated
parking facilities and this is designed to help ... to help improve enforcement of those areas. All
right, our number four project is parking ramp automated parking equipment, and again, about
10 years ago we ... we jumped into the automated parking equipment world. It's, you know, you
get a ticket in, that you feed a ticket out, you can use your credit card for payment. It's been
really convenient for the public. It's been very popular. But again, it's reaching ... our equipment
is reaching the end of its useful life and we are spending a lot of additional staff time for our
maintenance crew to help customers when they do have equipment that malfunctions. So this
project would be to help renew that automated parking equipment in all of our parking facilities.
The fifth item is the replacement of our LED fixtures in parking facilities, and again, we
were ... we were pretty early adopting with our LED ... LED fixtures. We ... we saw a dramatic
decrease in electricity usage and the amount of funds that were required to keep the power
going in our ramps, because those lights are on 24/7; however... however much we love the
electricity reduction, unfortunately they don't last forever. So we're at the point now where we
really need to invest in another round of LED fixtures for all of our parking facilities, except for
the Harrison Street facility, which was built in 2017, but the remaining of facilities really do
need to have their equipment upgraded. The sixth project is Tower Place drainage
modifications, and this parking facility was built to turn stormwater inward to the center of the
facility. And unfortunately, at the time, this was designed, I don't know if they were quite, um,
assuming maybe some of the changes in climate that have been happening to us in recent years
and during extreme rainfall events. We do have flooding in the very lower level of this facility.
So this project is meant to help divert some that storm water from the center of the facility and
help divert some of that around the outside of the facility, to reduce some of that pressure on the
pipes which can't handle some of those extreme, you know, 15 -minute extreme weather events
that seem to be increasing the frequency. The number seven project is, of course, our Transit
maintenance facility or relocation project, and Dennis talked a little bit about this earlier. So
this project would involve the construction of a new Transit facility at the Public Works site off
of McCollister and Gilbert Street. It would be a new facility for maintenance operations. It
would be a new facility for storage. Some reasons why this project is important is because we
are currently hemmed in at our current facility. We cannot add another bus. In fact, we have a
bus that sleeps in our bus wash every night, which might be the equivalent of sleeping in a
bathtub because you don't have enough bedrooms sort of thing. So if we get into a position
where we...we want to expand our service, we are ... we're limited at this facility. Other ...other
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reasons why this facility is important is because we're really at a kind of a crossroads in transit
and there's vastly, um, and a rapidly changing drive -train technology. We're looking ... we are
foraying into electric technology. There's also hydrogen fuel cells and building a new facility,
purpose built for alternate transit fueling will be really important... it will be a really important
aspect of this project. Another item is that we have some environmental issues on site at this
location that precludes us from expanding here. So being able to move to a facility a ... a
different location that does not have those environmental concerns, constraints, will be ... will be
really useful. And last but not least in terms of funding, as Dennis mentioned earlier and
(mumbled) also alluded to, you know, Transit is also relies pretty heavily especially... especially
for large-scale projects like (garbled) buses and for facilities, on federal and state funding
sources. We have been actively pursuing federal funding for this project specifically. We're
hoping our luck is ... is better this year. We've been submitting multiple federal applications for
the last several years, and we will continue to do so. Those usually will net 75 to 80% of the
project in terms of reimbursement. So we'll continue to go after funding sources for this
project. The number eight project is our Transit bus shelter replacement and expansion, and
you may have seen a few of our new shelters around town. We're replacing shelters that are,
you know, damaged, beyond their useful life, or we're adding shelters at locations that could
really use them. We did press pause on this project during the last year because, again, we
are ... we're in the deep dive with all of our routes and stops, and we didn't want to, you know,
invest in ... in a stop until we knew for sure that ... that it was ... it was part of the Transit future.
However, we are picking that back up again as that picture becomes more clear and you can
expect to see more transit amenities and facilities such as these transit shelters at stops in the
future. Last but not least is transit interchange and bus stop improvements, sort of piggybacks
off the last project, but this is really to improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow at the
interchange, and to improve amenities, again, at transit stops throughout the community, and
that can be anything from our bus stop signage to seating, shelters, you know, information
boards. We received some really good recommendations from the consultant team that assisted
us with the transit study. So these funds would be earmarked to help implement some of those
recommendations. And with that, I believe, I'm turning it back over to Jason.
Havel: All right, starting things off with the fire station. John, were you going to speak to these?
Grier: Sure! I can chat about them real quick. Fire Station #5 property, I think we just closed on that
recently, and that's the one located down on south Gilbert Street, across from the
softbil... softball diamonds. So we're doing some future planning. This will help us, so with
response on that part of the city and into downtown, and then ... the second one is the relocation
of Fire Station #3, from American Legion ... from Lower Muscarine Road, I'm sorry, to the
American Leagro ... American Legion Road. Again, this will give us the opportunity to just
increase our coverage areas and help reduce response times.
Havel: All right. The Burlington Street bridge reconstruction project. Again, just wanted to note that
the current five-year plan includes the study and design of the project, but the construction of
the project actually would be outside of the current five-year plan. So more just kind of a...a
heads -up. This is going to be along time incoming for this project. It's obviously a significant
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one with the importance of the Burlington Street bridge. So, again, just a reminder we're
talking multi-year construction, probably in the 26, 27 time frame.
DeLoach: Good evening, just again, this is our 40th anniversary coming up. We're working through
our master plan, which is about 95% completed at this point. We'll be connecting with some
architects to finish up. We've had a couple opportunities for public input, as well as we've had
an ADA study, space needs study, as well as we had a opportunity early on to partner with UI
Public Policy to get some overall community input about the future of the Senior Center in its
usage. So just wanted to touch back on that and we'll keep you updated as we continue to move
along with this process.
Seydell Johnson: Okay two Parks and Ree projects to keep on your radar screen. You've seen these
several times before. The Lower City Park master plan improvements. We had a study done
about four years ago, looking at how to better live and access the river, while getting our
amenities out of the way of the river. Some of these things have have been happening. The
new playground has been moved. The boccie courts are now ...have been moved out of the
flood area. You've seen a number of plantings, including prairie plantings, but this plan would
go further with that, uh, raising the roadway up to provide additional protection to the stage and
the ball fields. And then the other one is the East Side Sports Complex on the east side. We had
some additional work done on this this year to look at feasibility and look at numbers for it.
Community meetings that ... the baseball community is still very interested in having this
happen. It is good land. We've done a tree buffer out there, but this just keeps it on your radar
screen for the future as well. That's it for Parks and Rec projects.
Knoche: All right. Mr. Mayor, Council, that wraps up the presentation as far as the Capital
Improvements Plan. We're open to answer any questions that you would have in regards to
what we've presented.
Teague: Thanks to all of the staff for (laughs) kind of a marathon through a lot of the capital
improvement items. I do want to open it up to, of course, our Councilors to ask any questions
or make any comments.
Thomas: I have a few comments and questions. The pavement management study, is that available
online?
Havel: So we are just putting the final touches on that. We anticipate that being available probably here
in the next... hopefully matter of weeks. I believe at some point we ... the plan was to have a
presentation to Council of that report as well.
Thomas: On ... on the ridership on the bike system, do we have a ... a sense of when we we complete
these projects, the level of ridership that we see on these bike lanes that're going in? Kent,
maybe that's a question for you, if (both talking)
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Ralston: Yeah I can ... yeah, this is Kent Ralston. I'm having difficulty getting my video on but
hopefully you can hear me. Um, yeah, we do, John, we actually go out when we do our peak
hour accounts and we do count bikes that are both on the sidewalk and in street, so we do get a
sense of that. It just takes us a little time after those facilities (garbled, goes silent)
Thomas: I have a couple of more questions. On the Dodge Street project, if I'm not mistaken, I thought
I saw cross my...my...my desk, so to speak, the possibility or the study of reverting Dodge to
two-way traffic. Am I mistaken on that? Jason?
Havel: At this point the plan would be to ... for those to remain one-way. I ... I think there's been some
discussion in the past, but I think at this point the plan ... or the plan at this point would be to
have them remain one-way.
Thomas: So there is ... there wasn't any study that was going to be considered for that as a possible...
Havel: Not recently as part of this process.
Thomas: Okay.
Ralston: We ... we had done, John, sort of a preliminary investigation. Boy, it's probably been eight or
more years ago now, that I could dig up and take a look at. But, as Jason said, nothing in
the ... in the book, so to speak, for now.
Thomas: Okay. I mean I ... part of -part of my reason for asking is, I ... I've had ... had the opportunity to
speak with some neighbors just in a kind of more social setting, but they pointed out how in
front of some of the homes along upper Dodge, as you're coming down the hill, residents have
installed barriers basically because of cars leaving the roadway and, you know, they're trying to
protect their homes with these barriers. So the two-way street, I think, could potentially help
with that, in the sense that traffic speeds might be ... might be reduced. A couple of other
questions. On the tree planting, I had an opportunity to sit in virtually on a (mumbled) Cedar
Rapids discussion. Trees Forever had a symposium not too long ago. I think Tyler may have
attended as well. I saw his name, and I have to say I was really impressed with the ... what Cedar
Rapids is doing there. They're working with Trees Forever. They've also brought in some
consultants, including Jeff Speck to help with the master plan, which would be a 10 -month
effort, as I recall. And, you know, Cedar Rapids is in a much more dire situation than Iowa City
is in terms of its tree canopy, but we've lost a considerable number of trees, and I would say one
of the issues that I've ... I've always felt would help us accelerate our plan, and what I sense is
what Cedar Rapids is doing is by partnering with Trees Forever, they will be able to have a
fairly robust volunteer component to their plan. And that's, I believe, if we're going to try to
accelerate our tree planting, that would be one component that I think would accelerate it, as
well as engaging the community in what I think would be a real strong community engagement
effort. So it would serve many purposes to do that, and I'll be following the ReLeaf...Cedar
Rapids ... ReLeaf Cedar Rapids program. I think there may be lessons that can be drawn from
that effort. So, thank you.
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Teague: Anyone else?
Mims: I'd just like to thank staff, but given the time... rather than getting into a lot more questions and
discussion, I would encourage that we take about a 10 -minute break before we get into our
work session.
Teague: Does ... does anyone ... have any objections to that? I'm not hearing any, oh, go right ahead.
Salih: You mean we coming back to the same thing, or just we finished now and...
Teague: We'll come back to this link.
Salih: No, no. I mean, to ... to ask question, continue asking question to the staff or...
Teague: Well, I think we can ... that's up to us. So if you want to continue to ask questions. Um, that's a
decision we make as a ... as a Council. If you have a question, I would say go ahead and (both
talking)
Salih: Yes, I ... this one question. Just I want to make sure if we done, so the staff has... doesn't have to
be there waiting for us. Anyway, I ... I just want to ask Natasha, she's still here?
DeLoach: Yes I am!
Salih: Hey, LaTasha, Happy New Year! I just, you know, my... my every year questions (laughs) which
is the kitchen.
DeLoach: Yep!
Salih: Have you done anything about that?
DeLoach: The kitchen is a part of the overall master plan. So it is in ... it's in the plan. It's set up to be
a ... a culinary kitchen that will be used for classroom, as well as for catering. So it is a part of
our master plan process. So it is a part of the CIP process here. It's ... I think it's a part it...it will
be in our second or in our third tier, because we have to fix some of those infrastructural pieces
for the overall (mumbled) of the building, but yes, it is in our priority... area for sure.
Salih: Thank you. (garbled)
DeLoach: No problem!
Salih: That's it for me.
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Teague: Great! Any other burning questions before we go to a break? All right. We'll be back at 5:00
P.M., see you soon!
Continue discussion of the Preliminary Plan to Restructure the Iowa City Police Department
toward community policing:
Teague: It is now 5:00 P.M. and we are ... still in our work session for the City of Iowa City on January
5th. We just finished Capital Improvement Projects, and we took a short break for 10 minutes.
And so we're going to continue our work session. I do see that all of our Councilors are present.
Mayor Pro Tem is actually in transit from ... and will be joining us here momentarily. Soother
than that, I do see Ryan from USG. And I ... I'm looking for Eleanor our City Attorney. Yes,
she's there. All right. I think we are ready to go. So we will jump right back in ... on, um, and I
even see Anna. I see Anna. So welcome to both of you from USG. I want to just get us back
into the work session. And we're going to continue our discussion on the preliminary plan to
restructure the Iowa City Police Department towards community policing, and I think I'm just
going to open the floor to Councilors to kind of chime in wherever you want to on this item.
And I guess, personally, I'll start (laughs) if that's okay. No one jumped in. So I'll jump right in
there. Um, at least for me, I am still weighing through all of the items as ... as this is a huge
document, as we all know. I am certainly starting engagement with people in the community,
on more specifics within the documents. Um, so I am not in a place to give much comment at
this time, personally. I know that there hasn't been some input from some of the individuals that
were a part of the process, and I'll name two of them. That is the South District...
Neighborhood Association, as well as Black Voices Project. They haven't had a meeting
yet ... yet this year, since the document was released. And so I am kind of reserving for their ..for
them to weigh in as well, personally, and so I don't have very much to add on this topic at this
point. So that is where I am, as of now.
Mims: Mayor, I would concur. I ... I think, one, like you said, it's ... it's a pretty weighty and detailed
document that ... with which we've been presented, and I want to, you know, thank the City
Manager for that and all of his work and ... and staff who've been involved with that. And this is
a really important process. And I think we want to be as ... expeditious but also as cautious as we
can, in terms of making sure we get the public input, that we have a chance to really read
through it in depth, and I know in the last probably week and a half or two weeks, a lot of us
have been sidetracked from that in terms of reading the budget... because we have some pretty
tight timelines with the budget. So I'm the same place you are, Mayor. I don't ... I don't have a
lot to add at this point tonight. I want to hear more from a broad range of the community, and I
do want to make sure it really is the broader community, not just narrow segments that we ... that
we really need to hear from. So for any of the public that are listening, I do hope that you will
give us some feedback, call and ask us questions, and I think it's important as we look at these
recommendations, you know, as ... as the City Manager said, you know, look at the rationale
behind those, not just at the recommendations themselves, and... and then personally I think
what we should entertain is a work session devoted just to this, maybe in a month or so, and I
think we need structure for that work session. I think we really need to think about how we are
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going to do it with 36 recommendations or whatever. I don't think it's going to be a productive
meeting to just open it up, once we are ready to really talk about it. I mean, I think we really
need to think about a structure for that work session, so it can be really effective and productive.
So ... that's where I am at this point.
Taylor: Well, Mayor and Susan, I think you kind of took the words out of my mouth. I ... I ... I agree, it's
a lot to digest. It's a big document and so I ... I appreciate Geoff and staff that took time to put it
all together, but there is a lot of information in there and ... and things that ... that just can't happen
overnight, things that we really have to give a lot of thought to and, Susan, I appreciate your
suggestion and I totally agree that we should have a work session that... that's totally devoted to
this, so that we can really take time to ... to look at each item and ... and look at the consequences
and ... and what it would mean to the community, so I agree.
Salih: The only thing is about work session is people cannot speak. Do you have an idea when can we
hear the public speak and give us give us feedback, or do you want to open their work session
for people to speak. I just can't ... yeah, I agree with you, but we ... we need time but I would like
to make sure. How we going to get the input from the public? And, you know, because as you
all agree that this is big topic, we need to hear more, and we need to hear the view of a lot
people, so we can make our mind.
Mims: Well for me, I mean, I think there's a place on the website for input. People can always call us.
People can always email us. I guess the question is ... typically ...in the 11 years I've been on
Council, I would say probably 99% of the time that is ... is how we have gotten our public input
is through individual conversations, emails. We've done community input events. We still, you
know, we still could do something like that. But when it has come time for the Council
meetings, like the work session, that has been devoted to Council dialogue and Council
discussion, trying to get all that input ahead of that time. And then, of course, once we come to
that point of taking any formal action in a formal meeting, we've always opened that up for
input. Tome that is ... that's almost too late for people to really give us input that might have a
strong influence on our decisions. So I ... I would just encourage people through the website,
through phone calls, through emails, and maybe we want ... once we get through the budget,
maybe we want to think about doing some more public engagement, like we did during the
input process. So I'm not sure what other people think in that regard.
Salih: I know, I'm sorry, I'm going to say one last thing before (mumbled) I just want to say that yes, I
understand that the work session is important to Council and everything. I just ... my goal is to
make sure they will understand it. This document now in English. A lot people, they don't
understand what is this document. And what it means, what the City can do to make sure
everybody understand what's going on, and also feedback, like the way that we receive
feedback, is not working for a lot of community. And I think this is important topic. We need
to give the opportunity to reach out to a lot of community, so we can have their input. That only
thing I'm really, you know, we can devote the work session for the Council to do only. That's
not ... I don't mind that. But I just want to make sure... we don't forget to just to include
everybody on this and try to think about a way how can we include them. That's all!
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Teague: I do wonder if we don't consider having an opportunity at are... either within the formal
meeting .... or we set an aside, another opportunity for ...and then when I say the formal meeting,
maybe 30 minutes of community input on ... on this item, or we do some type of a ... listening
session just for this via Zoom, where we can get people input. So that's what I might think, you
know, we might want to think about as we're continuing this discussion.
Bergus: I agree that getting a wide variety of public input .... and I think elevating the members of our
community who we expect may be impacted the most by restructuring the police department is
really important to me, and that I especially, as Mayor Pro Tem was saying, just, you know,
reaching out to ... to communities and parts of the community. I do think we need a little bit of a
process around that. I think this is the type of subject matter that, you know, having the ... the
feedback form on the website is to me maybe not enough, you know, to get the information out
and to get feedback. So absolutely agree that, you know, encourage anyone who has input to
contact us individually and ... and to, you know, engage through those mechanisms, but I ... I think
we do need to do a little bit of organizing around it. Um, I was wondering about ... if Councilors
are interested in working groups. So the experience that we had with the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, where, you know, Janice and I were kind of a subcommittee on
that topic and then met with a variety of, you know, interested people and kind of reported back.
I don't know that the Council has to, you know, lead that kind of thing. But to me, if we can
divide up the 36 rec... recommendations, maybe by subject areas and even the plan itself has a
few different ways we can kind of cut that up, and then consider having, you know, even if
we're just encouraging or facilitating, making sure that the people who we think may have
input, who, you know, might need an invitation to ... to that table, to be able to provide that input.
I don't know what people think about... about that.
Weiner: I mean I think that it ... that it really does warrant extra and extraordinary in—efforts, much as
we put (mumbled) not dissimilar to what we put into the TRC, and that it's also incumbent upon
each of us as part of that to reach out to a wide variety of people that we know, not just expect
people to come to us. It would be great if they all did, but I think we all know that that won't
happen. So ... and we ... I ... I believe we each of us know a really broad cro... cross section of the
community. So in it ... so I would support what ... what Laura is suggesting (mumbled) in sort of
an informal subcommittees and I also really urge every single Member of Council to essentially
to make a list and start reaching out to... to people and whatever cross (mumbled) segment of
the community you know the best or think you can ... you can be effective with.
Thomas: I guess I'm going to ... it sounds like no one is going to provide common ... at least, you know,
in a more general sense, to the draft and in my mind to the the process, as it's unfolded up to
this point. But I guess I felt a certain obligation, perhaps is the word, to at least express my
feelings at the moment, in terms of, you know, what ... what I've gained from this and ... and some
comments related to the draft. So I, you know, prepared some thoughts on that that I'll share
with you. Obviously as ... as I think all of us understand, there's a much ... much needed further
discussion within the community in terms of getting a response, both to the draft and, you
know, their just general... sense of...of how this question of policing should be addressed. But I
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did want to kind of give an update in terms of where I am at the moment, based on what I've
seen and experienced. And ... and by way of a summary, I would say that the focus of...of my
observations and comments is that in terms of this strategy that's laid out in the draft, avoiding
calls for police services, which is referred to as prevention, whether that's initiated by
community members or by police officers themselves, I think that is the critical approach in
terms of trying to address what I understand to be some of the concerns related to our police
efforts. Replacing those interactions with public health professionals, you know, there's a lot of
talk about home ... the homelessness issues, the mental health issues, interpersonal conflicts, and
things of that sort. All of them clearly seem to lend themselves to that ... that notion of
addressing those kinds of calls for service with the professionals that are properly trained and
suited for those kinds of calls. And I certainly ...I think that's ... I'm in agre... certainly, you know,
that makes a lot of sense. One of the things that came out of the draft was that ... that was
different from what I was hearing at the meetings and also in my conversations with IFR was
the... the... the model for that interaction and, you know, there was a... certainly with IFR an
interest in the CAHOOTS model. I read some pieces on ... on ... on CAHOOTS and how it was
structured and, you know, that it's being considered by many cities throughout the country at
this point. That, you know, that ... I was kind of expecting that that would be knowledge
included in the report, and I ... I didn't see any evidence of that. So that .... that's something that,
as we move forward, I would certainly be...be concerned with and interested in ... in following.
As I mentioned months ago, I found the ... the architecture that IFR had presented to be a useful
one. I felt it did bridge between the kind of more generalized discussion that we see nationally
on Black Lives Matter and conditions in Iowa City. And ... and the five components of that plan
were mental health, anti- homelessness, interpersonal conflict, road safety, and drugs and
alcohol. You know, the three first categories, you know, I just discussed, but I felt the ... the
question of road safety was ... was an interesting one in the way that it intersected with Black
Lives Matter, and so ... so that's something that I'd like to comment on a little bit. You know, if
you ... if you look at our budget, it's very clear that road safety is a top priority of our field
operations within the police department, which is the largest component of our police
department. It has 78 full time employees and I've ... I've said before and I will say again that I
think there's several potential ways we can advance community wellness and public safety on
our streets, while reducing the need for police officers to enforce traffic laws through traffic
stops, which will thus address the issue of driving while black. I do think many ...many
members are ... of our community, you know, the interface they have with our police officers
while driving is a very important part of their experience in town here, and so that... that... that
was why I felt there should be some emphasis on that. As we learned at one of the listening
posts, in addition, traffic stops can also be traumatic for persons with special needs. They're
very sensitive to sirens and flashing lights. So I began to see that there ... it wasn't simply the
BIPOC community, but others as well who are impacted by the experience of the traffic stop.
The draft plan noted that 25% of our calls for police service are traffic stops and collisions. In
fiscal year 2019 there were 14,482 traffic stops. These tri ... these traffic stops are mostly police -
initiated, rather than responses to a public request. My belief is that the fewer times our police
officers interact with people when enforcing traffic laws, the less likely those interactions will
go badly, and people will be able to more peacefully go about their lives. And months ago I
mentioned how I felt some of those things could be addressed, one of them being eliminating
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traffic stops for minor infractions. That is recommendation 21. I think perhaps more could be
done along those lines. In fact, I found one of our pieces of correspondence from Donna Ruth
Barry mentioned the idea of a seasonal card check event. I know I've talked with other
Councilors about this concept. I think that's one way of taking something out of that current
condition where you're talking about an armed police officer stopping a vehicle for a minor
traffic infraction, whether it's defective equipment or what have you, and turning that event into
a very positive experience where it's a more kind of community... service and event. So
that ... that's one way I think we could ... we could address it. The second, which did not make it
into the draft plan, was implementing changes to our road conditions which impel drivers to
dre... to drive at the speeds that are posted as our speed limits, and I refer to those as self-
regulating streets, that do not require police -initiated traffic stops, and thus will vastly improve
traffic safety. Some examples of...of self-regulating streets, ways we can do that, we've already
implemented. They would be road diets, traffic lane... narrowing traffic lanes, and so forth.
This .... this in my view is really the ideal approach to our traffic safety, is making sure that our
roads are consistent with the speeds that we feel are safe within our community. And as I
mentioned, these are already underway in Iowa City. So what I would say is the emphasis, I'd
like to give it is that ... now that we understand how this issue intersects with Black Lives Matter
that we accelerate that effort. I would argue it should be accelerated for the ... from the
standpoint of transportation equity, but there are a number ...a number of ways in which
implementing these ... these changes in our road conditions and accelerating that program will
benefit the community. And then the third was the deployment of the automatic... automated
traffic enforcement, such as speed and red light cameras. There's ... what I would like to add to
what I've said before is that considerable research supporting their record of reducing car
crashes and traffic speeds exists now, as well as reducing the ... the traffic stops. Just one of
many examples that I ran across with Seattle's program, which saw a reduction of 23% in car
crashes and a third of a drop in crashes involving pedestrians. So in brief, I would say that
implementing these changes to our ...our policing policies will be more successful than our
current practices in achieving our ICPD's field operation goals of reducing traffic crashes and
significantly improving police interactions with the public, especially people of color. And then
lastly, on the question of drug and alcohol use. You know, we historically... substance abuse
plays a significant role in policing in Iowa City, along with road safety. Those are the two goals
that I see in our budget that are referenced as top priorities for the ICPD. My..one of...one of
the things that I felt was interesting was we ... the impact of COVID on access to drinking
establishments did provide an opening for exploring possibilities for creating other venues for
all of us to socialize more safely. And... and I would like to continue those conversations, again,
with the emphasis being on the prevention of alcohol and drug buse... abuse, rather than its
criminalization at the back end. So ... so those are the ... the, again, my observations up to this
point. We've been working on this for months. You know, I ... I'm certainly interested in ... in
hearing how people feel about we can restructure the police department. But I did want to
report back to those who are following this, as to what my...my feelings are with in terms of the
draft as it stands now, and also the way I would envision moving forward.
Taylor: I think, John, you make some very good points and one in particular, and I think a lot of the
points we need to, if we continue to ... to look at this and try to modify it and make it a workable
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document. The one item that really always stands out for me that you talked about are those
traffic enforcement cameras, and I think we need to give that some serious thought. As we've
said, they're... they're colorblind. They just note the license plate. And I think that's moving on
our way to the anti -racist aspect of..of the policing and... and the traffic policing, traffic
enforcement. And I think it's an excellent thing. And along with that then the idea of having
some sort of a safety clinic then, to follow up on that, to bring these folks in. We already
participate with several mechanics in the area with the bulbs program. So they would, I would
think, be more than happy to also be a part of this clinic and help folks get their ...their bulbs
replaced or whatever needs done. I think a precedent has been set with the fire department does
this with the child -safety seat. So they ...they already do this. So I think it would be only natural
for the police to pick up something like this. So I'm ... I'm in agreement with that and think we
should really give that some thought to include that.
Salih: I really want to add again, I had received a lot of feedback from some people, but 99% of those
feedback was from white people in this community. You know, I ... while I understand their
feedback is very important to me and I appreciate it. They reach out, even though they have a
very, very nice feedback. I'm going to acknowledge that, but I really want to hear. I always
believe that when ... when we get the solution for the people, from the people who affected by
the issue, it will be really amazing and great solution because it come from the people
(mumbled) been affected. They say, hey, that what we want to see. That's will make us feel
comfortable. We make a feel like we are part of this community. That's how you solve it and
(mumbled) for it. That's why I want to add to what Laura said. We really need a project, we
need a campaign for this. We need a plan. And what I really going to suggest right now here is
the City can have some budget of translation. Believe me, that's very important part. If we can
create some money or allocate some money I mean to translate the document to at least three
language, because the big population in this community right now it's a Spanish, French, and,
you know, Arabic, where we provide this document to the associations — Black Voices Projects,
Sudanese Association, Immigrant Voices Project, CWJ, and Latinos, and everyone asked them
(mumbled) meeting to discuss this with your members, because they have monthly meeting, so
they can discuss this document in their language, and... and tell us feedback and email it to the
City Manager. So we have, like, we don't have to go to individual and we make the community
involve. I'm real ... I'm willing to reach out to those people, if that document has been translated
because I know translation is a big deal. Please give this a full consideration in ... and give it
some money, so we can contact everyone and make them involve.
Teague: All right. So it sounds like there is some consensus for there being some type of a structured
meeting or input from the community, and so I heard works ... work groups. I've heard ... if we
get things in different languages those communities can respond, I think independently to
the ... to the...to the Council. Um, there's also listening session out there. Um, so I guess
with ... with me pointing out those kind of three ways to get input from the community, I haven't
heard a consensus on which ... I still, at least for me, I think getting it ... getting it in different
languages I think would be important, and ... and I'm seeing some nodding of heads here, the
majority of nodding of heads. So wanted to maybe direct the City Manager to get it in different
languages, and we're sounding like the three. Are we okay with the three, and I'm .... yeah, I
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see ... yes, I'm seeing a majority... for the three languages. All right, so we'll go ahead and do that,
and then as far as ... setting up opportunities for people to weigh in as the community, do we
want to ... do we want working groups, do we want listening session where people can just come
and share their thoughts on this item.
Fruin: Mayor, may I make a suggestion (several talking) This is a broad suggestion. But as you all
have seen, you've had this document for a couple of weeks and it's not the easiest to wade
through and even if its in different languages, I think people are going to ... are going to struggle
to find the time to get through it all. I really encourage you to think about breaking it out into
groups, however you want to group them. It doesn't have to be the same types of groups that I
used to ... to format the document. But much like you did with the listening posts, where you had
a focus on ... on each session. You can still take comments on the entire plan, but I'm ... I
fear ...what I fear is that if you just put a call out and you do a listening post to tell me about the
plan, you're going to get very high level comments. I don't like it. I don't like it. I like it. That
sort of thing. And I'm not sure that's going to be helpful for your deliberations, maybe it will on
some level, but if you can really break down to however many core issues you feel need to be
addressed by this type of plan, I think the quality of feedback that you will get, the insight that
you'll get from community members, will be much more valuable.
Salih: Geoff, I agree with you but the listening post, you guys can listen but how many immigrant were
there? Be honest. You know, to be honest with you, that's... that's not the type of outreach for
immigrants, you know. I ... you going to see white people coming to that, you know, listening
post, more than even black people. You know, I ... I really when I say like this because I want
like even if I'm immigrant and came to the listening post and see all those people, I will be
afraid to speak up. Maybe because if I speak up maybe my language is not okay and I'm ... I'm
scared that they don't understand me, but in like a community session, in your own language,
people will just speak up more. That what I have been discover from my working with the
(garbled) of course is ... is majority, but I ... it is my really obligation that to tell you what my
experience is and how those things work, and it is (garbled)
Weiner: But I agree with you, Maz, and I would be happy to help lead a session in French, for example,
with ... but and I also think that along with what Laura said initially that ... that perhaps we could
have a couple of Councilors agree to sort of go through the document and do the breakout, so
that we can figure out which ... which of these ... which of these recommendations belong, sort of
in which group we'd be ... we'd be dealing with. I mean, I know some folks, for example, in the
French-speaking community I could reach out to and ... and try and set something up. But that's
sort of...that's my niche. Every people... other people have their ..their niches as well.
Mims: Yeah, I mean I would agree. (several talking, garbled) ...did a listening post like out at Pheasant
Ridge. I mean, we had a lot of members, I think, because of the Sudanese community. People
were very comfortable. They spoke up. Rockne Cole and I happened to do that one. So I
totally support and hear what you're saying. I guess the question is with the pandemic still
going on, you know, how... how do we want to do ... how do we want to handle that. I'm limited
English (laughs) You know, I wish ... I wish I wasn't, but I am. So no, I think trying to reach out
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and ... and either do some smaller groups in person with people like that, you know, because of
the pandemic. I'm totally open to that. I think we really need to try to do that. I want to go
back just real quickly to the translation. I don't ... I really question (mumbled) all the cost. I
really question translating the entire document. I think ... I mean I think we start with translating
the 36 or whatever recommendations, and if maybe there's a paragraph or two that kind of gives
us some rationale, maybe we do that. I don't think we're going to get many people who are
fluent in English reading this whole thing. So would... would you be comfortable, Maz, if we
looked at like doing the actual recommendations and maybe a short paragraph or two for each
one? Does ... do you think that's reasonable?
Salih: Yes, it is. I was trying to say that too. I agree with you. If we can also ... there is some item that
is very important to them and maybe those like only selected item to be translated and the
recommendation, as you said. Yeah, I agree with that, totally.
Thomas: I would agree as well. I would suggest, and I ... I think the meetings, kind of in ... in the place
where the—the people we are trying to make contact with actually live would be helpful. I
think, you know, having ... if -granted it's COVID. I, you know, I'm not sure how the South
District, for example, meets, but if...if we could attend virtually, if necessary, one of those
meetings and discuss this, and I would ... I would suggest that it'd be a much more open-ended
conversation than focusing only or primarily on the plan, partly be, you know, because I
think... it's... it's a document that I'm not sure it speaks the language of everyday experience
basically (laughs) You know I ... it certainly can be .... I don't mean to suggest that it shouldn't be
discussed, but I think it would be useful to go beyond that and to try to understand when ... when
at these meetings ... how people... struggle or benefit from our current policing policies, and ... and
try to leave it a little bit more wide open as to how we can improve them. More again in the ... in
the calls for service. I really felt that's the interface right there. How do people actually
interface with our police force? That's where I think, you know, that is the crux of the issue.
How do we ... how do we improve that, and as I said in my...my comments, where possible
reducing those contacts with better outcomes is ... is what I would also suggest.
Teague: I did want to do one clarification with Mayor Pro Tem, because I think I understood that she
mentioned that she wasn't suggesting, at least for the ... the different communities, that there
actually be listening posts or any Council presence is really documents that will be within their
language and for them amongst themselves would have conversation and they would reach out
to Council. Like we can certainly make initial contact is maybe what I understood to ensure
that they have the document within their language, and maybe have a point of contact just to let
them know the Council is willing, but I ... I wanted to make sure that I understood Mayor Pro
Tem correctly in what she was sugges ... suggesting.
Salih: What I ... yes, Mayor, what I was suggesting is, uh, yeah translate whatever we want to do that,
like Susan Mims, maybe a selected, you know, items to three language and give it to the
association and like some like difference organization, as well like Black Voices Project for the
black community. So ... and we will ... they will meet and they will discuss it amongst themselves
in their language. And after that, if they would like to meet with two Council, like (mumbled)
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and they have question, maybe they will call you and ask you for qualifications, not like
call ... ask you, invite you to come, maybe for example, invite Pauline Taylor and ... and Janice to
come to a meeting with the Congolese community, and, for example, they say, `Okay, we have
question. After we discuss this, we had this question and after you do this(mumbled) questions,
answer the question. They will give you their recommendation. If they have any change, if
they want to add something, if they don't like something. So this is will be their
recommendation, but if they feel comfortable and they have (mumbled) don't have to meet.
They can just send it to a contact person, a City Manager or the City Council. (mumbled) Aftei
the group met, they can do that themself, but if they need us to come so they can ask us
question, I think they can just send us an email and ask us to ... to be present, you know, after
they discuss it by themself, but give them the chance to do it amongst themself without any
pressure from Council.
Teague: So what I might suggest is when we did the listening sessions related to Black Lives Matter,
um, Kellie, our City Clerk, reached out to various communities. Now potentially there was
some communities not on the list. So what I might suggest, at least for ...if we were to go with
what Mayor Pro Tem is suggesting is that if there is any more communities that we want to
reach out to, that we give that... that... those list of contacts to our City Clerk, and maybe she can
dispel the information. If... if...if the ... if the ... if we're really looking for public input or a space
for public input, of course we heard the work se ... working groups, as well as the listening
sessions. Would people be in agreement to maybe start with the listening session, um, and see
where we go from there? Instead of maybe breaking it out in groups at this point. I ... I know
that our, you know, Geoff Fruin, our City Manager, made mention of working groups to get a
little more information. We are getting some information, I think, through emails, and as people
begin and digest this information and read it, associations will weigh in, I'm assuming, just like
they have in the past -what some ... it varies what we get, right? Some are detailed in writing,
some are verbally detailed, and some ... so I don't know. Um, I think we ... if we can kind of come
to a ... maybe a step one. It sounds like everybody's in agreement that we'll do the translations of
the 36 points, and that'll be disseminated. I think our City Clerk can certainly help us with that.
So if we can focus now on what would be the next way to get the public engagement, whether
that be through creating work groups or would that be through a listening session.
Salih: What you mean by (garbled) what the different? Sorry!
Bergus: Sorry, go ahead (mumbled)
Teague: Well, I'll let ... I'll let you answer what's the difference between a listening session and a work
group.
Bergus: Okay. So yeah, I just wanted to kind of make my pitch for what I meant when I said working
group, because I think what we have is 36 recommendations. I do not anticipate, and please,
you know (mumbled) talk about it now if I'm wrong, but I do not anticipate that this is like a up
or down vote on the plan. Right? We have 36 recommendations that are pointing us in a
direction, you know, or multiple directions on how we can implement change based on these
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different sort of areas or themes, and so what I was suggesting was trying to dig into that, right.
I mean I ... I do agree that we need like overall input, but I think what we're doing in the
appendices to the plan itself really illustrated this for me. What we're doing is something new.
What we're doing is ... is not ... I ... I would challenge any of us to find communities in the U.S. that
are really undertaking a more comprehensive overview to try and... and accomplish something
like this. And so I want to get more concrete. I really fear we're going to take up a lot of time,
and maybe even lead people astray, if we leave it open-ended, because we need to get to the
actual implementation of the changes that we've committed to this community, that ... that we
would make. And so what I was talking about is maybe having sort of smaller group meetings
that would be based on the topic areas. So, for example, John, you brought up the the
CAHOOTS model. It is mentioned in the appendices relating to San Francisco, cause they have
a similar type thing. There's information about it in the Eugene, Oregon, description, and all of
the diversion that we're talking about, right. So CAHOOTS is a model where there's not co -
responder, and we are absolutely talking about that. So we have a recommendation for
increasing funding for CommUnity for mobile crisis. We have a recommendation about making
sure we can implement 9-1-1 integration. Those are concrete things that are not labeled with
the word CAHOOTS, but are taking the model of mobile crisis that is our communities service,
that we know we have strong non-profit support for, and making that into something bigger that
can actually respond more comprehensively and divert those calls away from ... from law
enforcement. So maybe we have a group of people who are talking about the mental health
response issues. And can, you know, use the data that we have. Absolutely agree, John, calls
for service, right, that that's ... that is the place where people are interfacing with our law
enforcement. So being able to break that down, whether it's by calls for service topics and
saying, Okay, what ... what is prevention look like in these types of incidences, right? What
can ... what can that be. In any case, I'm kind of rambling now, but that was kind of what I was
envisioning is like topical working groups where we have people in the community who are
invested in that already, who we know are going to be partners moving forward. And 100%,
Mayor Pro Tem, thank you for saying we need to elevate those people who are most impacted
and how we got to this point is by needing to make change to be anti -racist and to improve the
lives of people of color when it comes to interactions with law enforcement. And so that has to
be ... that has to be top of mind, that has to be front of mind. Anything we've already gotten
some input about that as well that, you know, we ... we really need to be making sure we're not
losing the race part of this as we're talking about it. So that's kind of what I meant about
working groups. I would be happy to participate in any of that or, you know, facilitate to the
extent possible. I believe that I'm going to be reaching out and having conversations anyway.
And, you know, would kind of like (laughs) I guess the blessing of my colleagues, if...if you all
think I'm not crazy.
Teague: Yeah. Go right ahead!
Weiner: To only agree... agree that this is a ... a pi .... an important piece of the way forward.
Thomas: I ... I (both talking)
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Salih: I agree with you.
Taylor: Go ahead!
Thomas: ... mentioned the Truth and Recon ... you know, our commissions, the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, Human Rights Commission. I think those seem like potentially good
venues... where, you know, the public could comment, you know, both the commission members
themselves and the public could provide community comment at...at those meetings. So it
seems to me that's a possible way in which we can outreach as well.
Teague: I know, Councilor Taylor, were you wanting to chime in as well?
Taylor: Oh, I just wanted to make a quick comment about working groups as such. I think what I saw
was at the listening posts we had, which we had some wonderful comments from these folks,
but it was kind of the same people who came to each one of them each, and every one of them,
and I think that would happen with these working groups too, and I thank them for their input.
They gave some very good input, but they would probably repeat the same things at these
meetings. Is ... I just would have concern about that, and I would have concern about Councilors
that weren't at a particular work session, not seeing the whole picture and not getting... getting
input, everybody's input.
Teague: Okay. All right. Um ... it did sound like the majority of people felt that the document is ... we
need to take our time to work through the document. Seem like work session, work groups are
important. I wonder if we did ... I think just for the sake of today, are people ... I want to make a
recommendation that we actually ask maybe Councilor Bergus and Mayor Pro Tem, and City
Manager Geoff Fruin, to work on this, maybe talk about what those work groups look like,
break them out, and then come back on the 19th at our next work session and kind of give us
some thoughts to move forward. What would people ... what are people thoughts there? I'm
seeing some shaking of heads.
Mims: I think that's good cause I think ... I think we've had a lot of conversation here, but we're not
walking away from this with any definitive plan or structure. So to have a couple of Council
Members work with the City Manager and maybe get us some more specific structure of
whether we're going to try and do some Zoom listening posts, whether we're going to try and do
working groups, whether we're going to try and do a combination of those things. I think that's
a good idea, Mayor, because I was ... as we were getting ready to leave this topic, I'm like I'm not
sure any of us really know what direction we're headed. And so I think that's a good way to do
it.
Teague: And ... and if I might even include Councilor Weiner, because of all of her work as well as with
different groups, the French-speaking. Would Councilor Weiner ...would you be amenable?
Weiner: Yes!
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Discuss Miscellaneous Council Meeting and Communication Items:
Teague: Great! All right, we will revisit this on the 19'11 Moving on to the next agenda item. So this is
a discussion of miscellaneous Council meeting and communication items that I ... that I and
Mayor Pro Tem had been in conversation about, as well as some ... some of the staff a little bit
before having this item brought here. And there's three items, and so we'll kind of just go
through each item and one is moving meeting start times one hour earlier. So what this would
mean is that our work session would begin at 4:00 P.M. instead of 5:00 P.M., and then our
formal meetings that now start at 7:00 P.M., let's start at 6:00 P.M. So, you know, I ... I want to
open it up and ... but I also wanted to at least maybe mention to the public, you know, what this
could mean for everyone. Right now we're ... our meetings are on Zoom, and so this is really the
focusing on when we're back in regular session, seeing people face to face. Although ... we don't
have to wait (laughs) until that happens because we really don't know when that's going to
happen, but wanted to just bring this up, and also allow opportunity for people in the
community to weigh in, if...you know, on this one hour change. And so I'll leave it at that for an
introduction as to what this is and then I'll... Councilors, please, weigh in. And one thing that I
might note is that as we have this conversation, we ... I think ... the intention is for the public to
have opportunity to respond to some of the things that we're proposing.
Mims: I personally.... it doesn't impact me either way. My ... my schedule is flexible enough that
moving it to an hour earlier is fine with me. I guess what I'm most interested in, and I know it's
hard sometimes to get that public input, is how members of the public perceive this and whether
they see it as better, um, if they're coming down to the meetings once we get back in person.
They can get home earlier. Hopefully it means we get done earlier. We don't just extend the
hours (laughs) extend the meetings an additional hour. So I'm ... I don't want to make a change
that negatively impacts people who really want to attend meetings. I think, as an aside, I think
it would be better for staff, you know, they're getting done work "at five o'clock" and, you
know, then having to do potentially our work session and then come back and do a formal
agenda, and depending where their item is on the agenda, they're not getting out of here till
later. So it would ... I think it would be advantageous for staff, but I do think we need to try to
get some input from the public.
Salih: Yes, I agree too, but I agree also for like not extending our meeting one hour (laughs) I
remember the latest meeting that we have was midnight, and I just like, you know, maybe we
can just have a limited at 11 instead of midnight, because we are extending it one hour. I don't
want to go like, you know, 12 midnight, and we have it one hour more. (mumbled) plus I really
just find out that when we had this meeting online, a lot people had the chance to (mumbled).
We need to think about maybe we can have some time (mumbled) like online. I don't know
interaction or what you call it, if we want back the in person, if there is a way that still we can
have (mumbled) for Zoom people can just Zoom in, and ... and talk to us. I don't know, but I just
find out a lot people, I think, City Council meeting (mumbled). So if we can also do something
like that, that will be great.
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Thomas: Yeah, it seems to me there really are these two issues. One is the timing of the event and then
also what's ... is it ... is it an in-person event or is it a hybrid event. You know, it does seem
the ... there are advantages, as much as I would like to get back to in-person meetings, there are
advantages to having it virtual to the community. So ideally, it seems to me, once we do go
back to in-person events, that if... yeah, as Maz was saying, if there's a way in which there's still
the opportunity for people who for many reasons cannot make it to City Hall or do not feel like
sitting there for four hours waiting for their item to come up, would have a way of more
conveniently participating at Council meetings, short of actually going to City Hall for that
event. So I ... I'm with Susan. I ... my time is very flexible. It doesn't really matter to me. I think
maybe if they started sooner perhaps we could figure out a way to have breaks. I ... I do feel we
kind of burden ourselves because we don't, you know, we meet ... our meeting, our formal
meeting, might be three hours and we don't have a break, and I don't know how all you feel, but
you know, I'm kind of running on empty at that point. So, you know, I think the two things
of...and I'm ... in terms of the timing, I think it's really what does the community benefit from,
and then the... whether we can try to maintain a virtual presence once we're back in City Hall is
the other issue.
Weiner: Yeah, I think we'd ... we need to hear from people. My only concern with starting what the one
meeting earlier is what it ... how anybody who wants to listen in, is that impacted by their work
schedule, and you might get some people we wouldn't otherwise get, so it may be a wash. I
don't know. But ... but I think we should find out.
Teague: So it ... so it does sound like on this item ... now, if anyone else want to weigh in, please do. But
it does sound like on this item, starting one hour early, we're open to it. We're just wanting
some public input. Um, I did hear Mayor Pro Tem mention maybe a hard, fast stop time
proposal. I think I heard 11:00 P.M. (laughs) because the latest... actually I think the latest we
went was about .... was it 1:30?
Mims: Well, I think, you know, that gets managed with the agenda, and I think staff is very good with
managing the agenda, but I think we do have to recognize there are certain occasions when
things come up that we end up just from a timing standpoint, uh, we end up with a jammed
agenda, you know, maybe we end up with a bunch of rezonings or something... or some other
major things. So I don't think we have to set a hard and fast. I think staff knows what our limit
is and their limit is on a reasonable meeting and a reasonable agenda, but I think we all have to
acknowledge those occasions, it's ... it's going to go long. That's just the way this is.
Teague: Okay. And what .... what could happen is any one of us, if we're noticing the time, you know,
going along, uh, pretty late, what we might suggest is having a discussion on anything that we
can potentially push back to the next meeting, if it's not time sensitive... or maybe having a
special session just for a few items that we decide we don't want to continue. So I think we
don't have to make that decision tonight. It's just in the back of our head, if meetings are going
long, we have that option as Council. So the other thing would be the virtual option. So the
hybrid model that Council Thomas talked about and the virtual that Mayor Pro Tem talked
about. I think that will be something that we can probably ask staff to look into, to see what
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that look like if we were in-person and also had a virtual option. So, all right! That's
item ... that's one ... one of the things. So we want the public to definitely give their thoughts on
that. The other is public comment and signing in procedures. So right now we use Zoom and
it's ... it works really slick. People raise their hand, and I can see it on the side, as the individual
that is calling people up front to ... and giving them their time to speak here publicly to ... to us,
and so when we're back in session, it doesn't always go so smoothly, because people have to
sign in. And if it's individuals that have never been to a Council meeting, it can be a little bit
intimidating, when you come up and then, you know, whether I mention to sign in at the
beginning, and ... and that process. It can be a little cumbersome, and so wondering if we might
consider having a sign up outside in the lobby, where people sign their name, and then that's
handed to me and maybe they'll have which item they want to speak on, that's handed to the
Mayor, and then the name would be called and they will be able to present. The other thing
could be a timer. So that could be up on the ... up on the screens here in City Hall or sometime or
somewhere where people understand that they are within their five-minute, three-minute, four -
minute, whatever has been asked, depending on how many people have signed up for an item.
So wanted to get people to weigh in on that.
Salih: I really like the model that the School District use at their Board meeting. While like it go like to
red when come to your time going to be ended, and it is on the screen. You see it in front of
you. So people like don't need to remind them and when it is a time finished... finished. So I
don't know if the... of course it is up to the staff to, you know, to see if that's something that we
can implement or not, but that's what the ... the model that I really like.
Taylor: And ... and, Mayor Pro Tem, they also. their model is that they ...you have to sign up ahead of
time. You fill out your name and ... and that you're willing to speak and it gets passed up to
the ... to the front desk. So yeah, I ... I like that model also and the timer. They keep the timing,
which is good. I like that.
Mims: I like the idea of the timing, just because we do have some people who go long winded. and I
think in all fairness to everybody, to really kind of enforce that. I'm not as much of a fan of
people having to sign up ahead of time. I think people sometimes don't... come and don't plan to
speak, but then they ...they hear something that really hits them in a certain way and they feel
compelled to want to speak. I have been ... I don't know. I've done this for 11 years. I just ... I
haven't seen the sign -in procedure be that cumbersome and that wasteful of time. You know,
occasionally you get somebody who hasn't signed in, and... and they take a few minutes to get
their name down and everything. So that's not as compelling to me. We don't... it's not that
often that we go to our 8:00 cut off for comment, which is on our agenda. You know, if people
are still commenting at 8:00, we cut it off and then would come back to (mumbled) meeting.
We very seldom have to cut people off and say, `Oh, we can't take any more public comment.'
So I'm not so worried about people having to sign in ahead of time. One of the things that we're
not getting during the Zoom, which ... and we sometimes weren't getting this in the regular
meetings that I wish we would get back to enforcing, and that is people indicating their address.
Right or wrong, we're elected by residents of Iowa City, and quite frankly, I am going to give
more weight to input from residents of Iowa City than people who do not live in Iowa City.
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I ... I'm fine listening to their opinion and if...particularly if they have expertise on an issue they
want to share with us, but when people don't live here, I'm going to listen to them as an expert
and not as somebody who just wants to complain about our city. So I ... I'd like to know where
people live when they comment.
Weiner: I ... I would also like to know if people are residents of the city. Everybody's welcome to speak,
but whether it's on Zoom or in person, these are ... these are our constituents, every... every
resident of the city are our constituents, and ... and I want to know if someone's actually part
of...essentially part of our responsibility.
Salih: Mayor, just correct me if I'm wrong. My understanding is, yes, you sign up ahead of time. But
while the public comment in session, you still ... if you decide ... if you moved by the public and
you decide to do you can go and sign in and hand it like ... hand (mumbled) because that what
I've been seeing at the School District. Where people... even if they came late, they still can go
and give the secretary, you know, a piece of paper with their name and address and (both
talking)
Teague: Again, I think it's up to us how we, you know, institute that. We currently have ... when we
were in session, people sign up at the bat, you know, they go and get their sign-up little thing
and they, you know, put the sticker down. So it's ... it's kind of the same process, but I think to
Councilor Mims' concern, we can certainly, um, you know, do that last call for anybody out
there that didn't sign up, giving them an opportunity, because again, there are people that ... like
she mentioned, you know, they're moved by a topic and we've ... we've seen people that sit there
and they say, I just have to get up, you know, and say something. So I think we can still allow
that, as a part of the process. The name and the... and the address writing, we ... in-person we
have that sign-up, and I think if people are wanting that to be a part of the initial response when
someone speaks via Zoom, I can ... I can certainly institute, you know, introducing the person's
coming to speak and asking them to state their address. We can even have them write it in the
comments section, but again, this is just an opportunity for people to weigh in. I do see our City
Attorney. So hello, Eleanor!
Dilkes: Hello, hello. Um, I'm not ... it's not clear to me whether we're talking about sign-up just for
public comment of items not on the agenda, or if we're talking about every agenda item,
because you ask for public, you know, public comment on every agenda item. And that seems
very cumbersome to me. I haven't ... I haven't seen a School Board meeting in a long time, but I
don't believe they allow public comment on every item like we do. So, I also think with respect
to public hearings, I'm not wild about the the sign-up ahead of time. I think that's a time for
people to speak when they want and if it's spontaneous, it needs to be spontaneous. If it's in
response to somebody who just spoke and they want to correct an error, then I think they should
be able to do that. I also think we need to be careful about the time limit for applicants. We
have, you know, unlike the School Board, we have people who are coming to us with the zoning
application or this application or that application. And they shouldn't be limited to the five
minutes, just like staff isn't limited to the five minutes in making their presentation. The
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applicant shouldn't be either. So I don't have any problem with the sign-up for items not on the
agenda, but to do it for every agenda item seems cumbersome.
Salih: I really mean the public comment, Eleanor, only during the public comment. Of course the
public hearing, that's something different. Everybody have to weigh in. Sometime, you know,
yeah the applicant have ... they need more time. We ask them question, and yeah, I totally agree
with you. I just meant during the public comment only for item that is not on the agenda.
Dilkes: Sounds good.
Teague: I wonder if...something different could happen. You know how you go to churches and then in
the back of the seat there's this little, you know, card that you pull out if you want to, you know,
have ... sign your name. I ... I wonder if we don't have either someone at the beginning of our
meetings or throughout the meetings, they just walk around with cards and ... and give it to
people that want to sign up. That way they can be at their seat when their name is called
because I think that's a part of it. When ... when people are coming up, there's just a little delay.
When ... when people are coming up and so maybe there could be some explanation about, you
know, if you want to speak there's ... we will ask that you sign up and here's a sticker, do yada,
yada, yada. So maybe we can have some more thoughts around that, that we are asking the
public to weigh in on these items. And we'll ... we'll put this back on the agenda, is that all right?
All right. And then the last thing is the Council emails and correspondence. So there's been an
increase of correspondence, at least in 2020 (laughs) So I think there's ... I think there's a little
growing frustration because all of the items that are addressed to the Council appears in our
information packet, and sometimes I think there could be some response to ... to some of these
emails that come in the correspondence. I'm going to ask maybe Geoff or...or Eleanor to kind
of have some ... maybe guide us through this conversation a little bit.
Dilkes: So this item ... staff started, er...thinking about this because of kind of the ... the nature of the
correspondence to Council. I'm not talking about correspondence to individual Council
Members, but emails to the council@iowa-city.org email address, and for years and years, you
know how those have been handled. They ...they are not ... you don't get them in real-time,
you... they're put in your ...in your next agenda packet, and I think ... I think some of the reason for
that has been that... couple reasons it's... it's handy sometimes to get a staff response to those
before... you... before you see them because staff has some information. And ... and then I think
there's been some concern about `replying all' and having a meetings violation, but it seems ... it
seems that...it doesn't... it's... it's odd for staff to get those emails and you not get them then, when
they're directed to you, particularly when they're of a nature that staff is not really... doesn't
really need to chime in. This is just something that they want you to hear. So I think there's
two issues with emails to Council. The first is when you get it, and the second is whether all
Council correspondence or...goes on your ...your Council agenda, and ifs ... it's not the info
packet. It goes in the correspondence under ...on the formal agendas. Kellie did and Kellie, you
can help me out here if I ... if I mess this up, but Kellie did a survey of other cities and essentially
what she found was that most cities don't have a group email. They just have individual emails,
and of the two ... there were eight cities, of the two that do have a group email, one of...one of it
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receives it in real- time and one it goes through ... by the City Manager first. With respect to
whether correspondence to the Council goes on the Council agenda, it was pretty overwhelming
that that just is not a typical thing when it's not related to an agenda item, rather just a list of
correspondence that the Council gets. I think only one of the eight cities puts an agenda item on
the agenda, if it's not ... if it's not an agenda item and then only if it's requested to be put there.
So ... those are kind of the ... kind of the issues. I ... I think the, as I said the ... the reason it's been
done this way in the past is in order to get some staff response or information that you might
want to have before you respond. The open records concerns. I don't really know why the
Council correspond... this started long before I was here, why all Council correspondence goes
on the agenda. I think it certainly creates challenges for time and focus. I think it
also... sometimes you're having a discussion about something that you really don't have a full
picture of. On the other hand, I think its something that the community has gotten used to. So
that's probably the flip side of that its kind of a community expectation at this point. A
couple... Kellie and Jeff and I were talking, one of the ways we thought you could handle this is
that ... your Council e .... the emails that go to the Council email address could be forwarded to
you, to your individual emails, and that would be a reminder to you that you don't want to be
`replying all' Only Council... correspondence to Council relating to an agenda item be put
on ... on the agenda, and then if a Council Member wanted to discuss an email received, they
could ask that it be put on the ... on the agenda. Those are just some ... some possibilities, but
those are kind of the ... the pros and cons. I have to say you got a lot of emails in 2020, but I
have been here for a long time and there have been years when there have been lots and lots and
lots of emails. So ... I don't think it's actually that rare.
Mims: I like the idea, if it's not hard for staff, to take those that come into the Council email address
and obviously if...if staff looks at those and thinks there's a reply that is appropriate from them,
that then gives us further information, for them to do that first. But then to have all those sent to
us. So if you get an email and its like, Okay, this is just some general comment on a particular
topic. There's nothing really for staff to clarify or respond to. then we just immediately forward
it on to Council. Oh wait a minute, the second one, there really is a question that we can give a
clarification on, and that would give more context for Council. Then do that and then send it on
to us. I like that idea. So that one, it keeps our packets a little bit smaller, if we're getting this
on a more regular basis between... rather than all of them at one lump sum. And from there I
don't have a problem with only putting the correspondence in the agenda packet that is related
to items on the actual agenda. And I'll tell you, in the last year or two, we've spent more time
talking about the consent agenda than I've ever spent in Councils in the previous nine or 10
years. And theoretically a consent agenda should be something that a body simply motions,
seconds, and votes on. It's... it's... you look at, I don't care if it's a board of directors for a bank
or a non-profit or whatever, just when you look at organizational structure, a consent agenda is
something that that board should not be spending much time talking about. If they are items
that need a lot of comment and discussion, they shouldn't be in the consent agenda in the first
place. And so that's where I think, as a Council, we have really started getting into a lot of in -
meeting discussion of items on a consent agenda that we don't necessarily need to.
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Bergus: As far as the public perception or expectation that you mentioned, Eleanor, um, I think I want
to make sure I understand the distinction. If an individual sends an email to our seven individual email
addresses, that will never get into the packet. Is that ... unless we forward it to Kellie saying please
include in the packet. Is that right?
Dilkes: Yes, that's right.
Bergus: Okay. Cause I think there's some ... and ... and even, you know, when I was kind of reading up
before... before joining Council, I think there's some ... that's not very clear, and I think that's not
clear necessarily to the public either, that if they send to council@iowa-city.org it'll be included
in the packet or be...be on the agenda. I kind of liked the idea of having ... I ... I would want to
communicate it first, but the idea of if a person wants that published, you know, to ... to have
some way of indicating that. On the flip side, there have been emails that, you know, I should
have probably clued in in my head, it would be helpful to put in the packet, you know, that
maybe all of us received, but we're not, you know, I don't think we're in the regular habit of just
forwarding those to Kellie to get them into the packet. So there's just some inconsistency
with... residents who reach out to all of Council, you know, they're either in the packet or they're
not.
Dilkes: It seems to me that we do a pretty good job of...or Council does a pretty good job, maybe I'm
wrong, of forwarding tho... those emails that go to all of you, all of your individual addresses, to
us to put in the packet, and there is an automatic response to the Council email that says, "This
will go in the next agenda packet," so ... so they should know ...they should know that. We
could ... we could certainly send that... change that automatic response, depending on what you
all decided to do. I have a little hesitancy about staff having to (mumbled) as ... as, Susan, you
were talking about having to make decisions about which email ... right away which emails we're
going to forward immediately and which ones we're going to hold back and answer and then
forward. That ... that may get a little complicated. I think I would suggest that we, if that's what
you want to do, if you want to get them in real-time, we simply forward them to your email
addresses and then you will get the staff response as well, if we choose to respond.
Thomas: Well I do like the idea of...of getting correspondence in real-time. I think that there's some
benefit to that.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Teague: So it sounds like what we'll do is we'll bring this back on the work session agenda and allow
the public some time to weigh in on this item and the other items and we encourage people to
let us hear your thoughts. Anything else on ... on any of the three items that were mentioned?
All right, clarification of agenda items. This ... for our formal meeting. Moving on to
information packets, December 17'x'. Moving on to December 23rd information packet, and if
I'm going too fast, just slow me down.
Information Packet Discussion (December 17, December 23, December 30):
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Taylor: Oh, I'll make this real quick, Mayor. Just IP 2 on the December 23rd, the Johnson County
Affordable Housing Coalition, the memo from Sara Barron, looking ahead to 2021. I just...I
really appreciated her memo, and I want to thank thank her, as well as the community partners,
who have helped secure rent and mortgage assistance, and advocated at state and federal
resources, ensuring that very critical needs for some of our most vulnerable members of our
community, that have been able to make it through these trying times, that we're still not seeing
really the light at the end of the tunnel yet for that. So I appreciate her work and also all the
community partners out there that ... that have worked really hard to help those, as I said, very
critical to those members of our community that needed that assistance, and thank them.
Teague: Great.
Salih: I second that, Pauline.
Teague: Absolutely. All right. December 30th information packet, and I did want to just touch base on
IP 3, pending work session topics. We had ... on our work session topics last year, up until today,
COVID. We just had it as a standard item. Wondering if...I know that Councilor Weiner had
mentioned having Public Health come and speak to us, since ... update us on COVID as it relates
to our community, or even having the University of Iowa, but also having some reports on the
vaccination. So wondering and, Councilor Weiner, please chime in, but wondering if we would
be open to having either the ... the University of Iowa or just County Public Health come and
speak to us on our formal agenda, maybe once a month or...and this is Councilor Weiner idea,
so please feel free.
Weiner: So ... so what I ... what I was interested in having ... have happen, just basically for the entire
community or anybody who's listening, is a regular report, probably at this point by Johnson
County Public Health, to tell us where the vaccination roll-out stance and if there any other sort
of hotspots or other things we should be ... we should be paying attention to, so that we're
really ...it could be the ... it could be UIFC as well, but Johnson County Public Health, I think, is
going to be integral in rolling out the vaccination plan for ...for our communities. So that we're
getting information directly from the people who are ... are making the policy and implementing
the policy. Or from the scientists and not from those of us who are trying to choose somehow to
interpret what's going on or interpret what the scientists would like us to know. So I ... and it
just ... because there's been ... there's been from ... from my perspective anyway at this point, a
dearth of information out of this ... out of state (mumbled) from Iowa Department of Public
Health on...on how the ... what they're going to do in terms of vaccine roll-out, aside from
medical professional and (mumbled) professionals and and long-term care. They put together a
commission or working group that's not public. So it seems ... seems to me that it's really what
they're doing in terms of deciding the priorities for vaccination probably more important than
almost anything we deal with under,...under public meetings law. But so the ... but the short
version is, I thought it would be useful at least once a month for us to get just a ... whether in the
work session or in the formal meeting, a short report, um, where do we stand with vaccination
roll-out, what are they recommending.
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Teague: I think it could be valuable if we're ... if our intended audience is for the greater of Iowa City is
for it to come during our formal meeting. Granted there are people that chime in on our work
session, but I think the majority of people actually wait till 7 ... or 7:00 P.M. for our formal
meeting, so I will be supportive of it and just wanted to get our other Councilor thoughts.
Mims: Yeah, I would agree. And I think the formal makes more sense. Because I do think we have a
larger audience. I think it's key to keep it short, two to three minutes, but like you say, Janice,
an update, you know, maybe where they're at in their plans and what they know. There's a huge
educational component that has got to continue to go with us to hopefully encourage those
people who are hesitant, to educate them, you know, get them as much information and answer
questions, you know, so that we can get as many people to participate as possible once they
have the opportunity. So I think if we can just keep it a real brief update once a month, I think
that makes sense.
Teague: Okay. Any ...I'm seeing some heads shaking. So we'll, City Manager, Geoff, if you can reach
out to Public Health, that'd be great. The other item that we have to discuss on December 30th
is IP 5 and this is a memo from our City Manager.
Fruin: Yeah thanks, Mayor. Real briefly, this memo just updates you on a planning process that is just
starting to unfold jointly with the County. They own property at 821 South Clinton, which is
the corner of Clinton and Benton Street. That property is often referred to as the Car Quest
Building and you may know it as the current home of the winter shelter. They are envisioning
the future of that facility, and as have graciously invited us into .... into that discussion. And just
thought I would check in with you to see if a Council Member or two would be interested in ... in
joining staff for those discussions, as we'll be working with your elected counterparts, with the
Board of Supervisors.
Taylor: This is Pauline. I was really happy to see this actually as I drive by that building so many
times, all the time and ... and I ... in my head think of all kinds of wonderful things that that space
could be used for, so I would very much, if you do put together some partners to meet
with ... with the Board of Supervisors and others, interested parties, I ... I would like to be one of
those Council Members.
Salih: I also called Geoff during the meeting and I ask him to be a part of it, and I really am passionate
about this and I would love to be part of it.
Teague: Any other .... one, general comments on this. I think ... thanks for the memo, personally, and I
think it's a great opportunity to explore, and I'll leave my comments at that. And are there any
other individuals that want to comment or that is interested in this, to be a part of the ... this
group?
Mims: Well, I'd be interested. I don't know how many we want from Council. So ... we'll just...
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January 5, 2021.
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Teague: I...I think Geoff mentioned two. So I guess we have ... we have three that's interested. I'm ... I'm
personally comfortable with Councilor Taylor and Mayor Pro Tem. (both talking)
Mims: That's fine. I mean, any decision has got to come back to full Council and in terms of...City or
(several talking) position on anything. So...
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees:
Teague: All right, so sound like the two will be a part of those conversations. So thanks to both of you.
Any other item from IP .... from 12/30? All right, Council updates on assigned boards,
commissions, and committees. Um, during the three weeks that (laughs) we had off that
(laughs) was a little unusual at the end of the year (laughs) but appreciated.
Salih: Nothing for me.
Teague: Okay.
Weiner: The only thing I have is that the JECC has a new chair and vice chair. The new chair is from
North Liberty and I'm the new vice chair.
Teague: Great. Good.
Salih: I really want to say something. I didn't have a chance to say to everyone Happy New Year to all
our (mumbled) you know, Council Members and also to the staff who are currently here and to
the staff always work behind the scenes to make our city really comfortable for everyone. And
I just want to say Happy New Year. It was very tough year to go through 2020 especially, never
going to be forgotten. But, you know, we ... we went through it safely. It is for me as a black
person and as a black leader for the City (mumbled) Mayor Pro Tem, we went through a lot, but
I think we done a lot of work that need to be done. We done some improvement, but there is a
lot more to do looking forward to working with the staff and City Council for 2021 to make it
even better. Thank you.
Teague: Great. All right. Anything else? We will be back at 7:00 P.M. for our formal meeting and
remember to sign out of this Zoom meeting into our 7:00 P.M. Zoom meeting, and we will see
you all then.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of
January 5, 2021.