HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-02-02 TranscriptionPage 1
2. Proclamations
2.a. Black History Month
Teague: (reads proclamation) And to receive this proclamation is Mr. Roger Lusala who is accepting
on behalf of the Human Rights Commission. Welcome, Commissioner Lusala.
Lusala: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and thank you Council, for this proclamation. I'm humbled today to
represent my colleagues from the Iowa City Human Rights Commission and to accept this
proclamation on behalf of my many brothers and sisters in Iowa City. I wish we did not need to
have this proclamation for the Black History Month. I wish we did not have the proverbial box
we as a nation we have to check honoring the impact and contribution of African American in
this nation. For a whole 28 days in the month of February, we will see the TV and community
and our kids will talk about in their school about Dr. Martin Luther King, George Washington
Carver, Frederick Douglass, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, and many other African American
that have paved the way for the history that we have today. Black history is American history,
and that's how we should celebrate it and that's how it should be taught to our children. Many
black people have paved the way for the success of this country and the only reason they are not
in our kids' history book is because of their race. I ... long for the day that we do not celebrate
Black History Month, but we celebrate history, including all the accomplishment by African
American. And we no longer teach black history as the footnotes to American history. I hope
one day celebrating Black History Month will itself be part of history, because we will be
celebrating black history as American history. We will stop robbing our children of the
knowledge of true American history. Nelson Mandela wants to ... educating the most
part... education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. However,
I say we have to start with changing education first and start teaching the true history of this
country, but until then Black History Month is still needed, and I look forward to the day that
we are experiencing Black history and American history in the same way, the same way that we
are today living Dr. King's dream by the look of our Iowa City Council and the diversity that we
have, but thank you. I'm humbled to accept this proclamation on behalf of the Human Rights
Commission. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, and I know that I speak for all of the Councilors when I say we really appreciate
your response to this proclamation.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 2
2.b. National Gun Violence Survivors Week
Teague: (reads proclamation) And here to accept this proclamation is Trish ... Trisha Zebrowski from
Moms Demand Action. Welcome, Trisha.
Fruehling: Mayor, I don't see Trisha on, but I believe Temple Hiatt may be here to accept, so I'm going
to allow (both talking) speak.
Teague: Great!
Hiatt: Hi, Mayor Teague, how are you?
Teague: Awesome and amazing! Good to ... good you're here with us.
Hiatt: Thank you so much for recognizing National Gun Violence Survivor Week. Um, next Tuesday
we are going to kick off our advocacy day and we welcome the ... the community to join us
in ... in ... in advocating for ...for safer gun legislation. We're going to hear from local electeds, um,
Christina Bohannan, Representative Bohannan and Senator Zach Wahls. We'll also hear from
Trisha Zebrowski. She is a survivor herself. So we will hear her personal story and her
experience at the ... at the mass shooting, um, at ... in Aurora, Colorado, when ... when she was
there with some of her students. We'll also hear from community partners, uh, Dream City and
DVIP, the domestic violence in ... intervention program. So we welcome the community to join
us and... and here our survivors, uh, share their stories and ... and help us continue advocating for
safer gun legislation.
Teague: Thank you so much, Temple, for being with us today and ... and bringing such an important
national concern for guns. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 3
9. Community Comment (items not on the agenda)
Teague: Item number nine is Community Comment and if anyone from the community would like to
address Council, please raise your hand and I will call upon you, and if you're on the phone
press *9 and I will call upon you. We ask people to keep their comments three to five minutes,
and we also ask people to be very conscientious of allowing everyone the opportunity to come
and speak what they want and not, um, honestly... let's respect our ...our speakers. So, all right,
we're going to welcome David. Thank you.
Drustrup: Thank you, Mayor, just like to start and comment on the ORI report that was released, and...
and the fact that this is exactly the reason why many of us months ago were telling you that we
didn't care whether or not an outside report was going to happen, because we just weren't going
to trust it. I mean, why would we trust this random California-based group that Geoff Fruin
handpicked. Fruin is an unashamedly pro -police, wealthy white guy, and has been resistant to
any structural change. So we have zero reason to trust anything that he handpicks behind
closed doors. And ... and that's actually a pattern now with Fruin. He disregards public feedback
because he's an unelected official who isn't accountable to anyone, except his buddies with
power in the City government, and he condition ... uh, commissioned this report, which made
dozens of statements about IFR, but didn't even ask to interview any of us, not one of us.
Meanwhile, the opinions of several police officers are valued and uplifted. And so this pattern
from Fruin disregarding public feedback like he did through the policing plan and listening
posts should be obvious now and really needs to be addressed by City Council. It's also the
City Council's decision on whether to take a stand against the obvious bias in several of these
reports that are coming out of the City Manager's office, which make no attempt to incorporate
the feedback by IFR or anyone else in the city who is critiquing the police department. We've
heard a lot how you say how grateful you are to us for bringing these issues to light over the
summer. You tell us you're listening to us, but everything that we see that comes out of the City
ignores us completely. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Martha... followed by Raneem.
Norbeck: Hi!
Teague: Hello.
Norbeck: Hi, Mayor Teague. Um, I wanted to bring your attention to a letter in your late packet, your
late handout packet, um, that starts on page four, and I was just very quickly reading the
response for Geoff Fruin. Thank you, Mr. Fruin, for providing a reply. Um, so I sent in a letter
in regards to the bonus height provision in the Riverfront Crossings, and I have been advocating
for some time that the, uh, the TIF provision to require LEED-Silver be...be replicated in the
bonus height provision component in Riverfront Crossings. And Mr. Fruin's letter indicates that
the Prentiss Street project is doing LEED. I was not aware of that. I thought they were
committing to LEED-Silver equivalent and not committing to actual certification, so that's my
misunderstanding. But I am concerned that this is a one project at a time, that it's a negotiation
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 4
every time, and ... and it's not really a known quantity for developers. I guess if the Council
come... turns around and says multiple times you need to do LEED- Silver, I guess eventually
developers will get on board and do it, but that's not exactly a policy. It's... it's a little loose. So
you will... also in your next packet be getting a letter responding to John Thomas' question in the
last meeting regarding the East College project, where Riverside Theater is going in, and that
project will be seeking LEED-Gold. I am so excited about that, uh, I can't tell you how happy I
am to see that happening, and I think it is (mumbled) you know, the fact that they went beyond
the LEED-Silver is a testament to, you know, kind of the influence that that suggestion makes to
encourage sustainability. So that will be in your next packet with some more information about
what ... what exactly makes a legal project, what distinguishes a legal project. So keep your eyes
peeled for that in the next packet. So I wanted to give you a little bit of background on ... on the
TIF policy and ... and the bonus height provision policy. So the TIF policy was adopted in 2017,
and there were a series of meetings. Um, Wendy Ford kind of spearheaded those meetings, and
there was one particular meeting where we were talking in depth about what ... what
sustainability criteria should be applied, and Kevin Monson of Neumann Monson Architects
was there. There were a number of developers there (mumbled) general contractors there, and I
said, you know, we should have at least an energy performance provision, and I will note that it
was Kevin Monson who said that's not good enough. He said how are you going to enforce
that, how do you make that legitimate, how is that a complement... comprehensive way of
addressing sustainability. Kevin Monson pressed for LEED because it's verified by a third -
party, rather than City staff trying to negotiate, are you meeting it, yes or no. They're not, you
know, the City staff doesn't have time to apply that type of expertise, and they shouldn't have to,
especially when you have a third -party verified system. It's well known in the industry and it's
comprehensive. It's not just energy. It's water, it's air quality, it's the site and location. So it's
comprehensive and it's measurable. You can say we improved water usage by this much, we
improved energy usage by this much, we diverted this many tons of trash from the landfill. It
is ... it is a way to make a very concrete accounting of your performance. So that's why the TIF
policy includes LEED as the requirement, and if you go back a few more years, in 2013 when
Riverfront Crossings was adopted. You know, I brought this up because I agree with all the
things that Kevin Monson said, but it was kind of the first pass at trying to like how do we
(mumbled) this in, and the City was ... was really slow, you know, moving in the direction of
climate action, but it...it was just kind of the beginning of that, um and so by the time we did the
TIF policy in 2017, we were able to integrate that, and so now you've declared the climate
crisis. It's time to circle back and make that happen. You know, the bonus height provision is a
public benefit, and it should Karry requirements with that. It's not a right, it is a privilege that is
earned by providing a benefit to the public in exchange for the bonus height provision. So I
encourage you to revisit this, um and ... and make this policy change something that is on paper
than... than ... rather than dealt with one project at a time. Thank you!
Teague: Thank you, Martha. Welcome, Rancem, followed by Emilia.
Hamad: I first want to acknowledge Black History Month and I also want to note that I really find it
ironic that we pay tribute to revolutionary black history, um, leaders via this proclamation
today, but actually fail to actually create any (mumbled) positive change for BIPOC people in
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 5
our own community of Iowa City. I also want to talk about the OIR report that was released by
the City, and to be quite frank, this report is really just ... has been a way for City officials to just
really cover their ass (laughs) over the brutal, you know, violence that the ICPD and UIPD
enacted upon peaceful protesters on the night of June 3rd. The ... the reality is that time is up,
and the City really has to figure out what accountability really means with respect to the events
of June 3rd. Um, and I also think it's really time for us as the community to stand up and
demand, you know, a reckoning with our values. Um, on June 3rd the City truly exposed it's
white suprema... white supremacy's violent charat... characteristics for the whole world to see as
the ICPD and UIPD deployed an onslaught of chemical munitions against peaceful protesters,
many of them (garbled). The OR ... the OIR report acknowledges this idea, but also
acknowledges that I-80 was closed at the time that the violence occurred. So there's really no
justification for the attack, other than the mere fact that protesters were not complying with
police orders to go ... tam around and go home. That's the first thing I want to note. The second
thing is that, you know, it's very obvious that, you know, Geoff Fruin, you know, has this, you
know, very much pro -police perspective that David addressed earlier, and that pro -police
orientation is really evident on every single page of this report. Um, what was really shocking
is, you know, how ... you know this report describes that police officers attacked protesters with
multiple rounds of tear gas from shotgun like monsters, you know, handheld tear gas, and then
also stinger grenades, um, and rubber pellets, and then also in the same line says that the first
recorded act of physical aggression was when a few protesters threw munitions canisters back
in the direction of the police. So it's really ironic that even in the report, the chemical munitions
assault on peaceful protesters weren't even registered as, you know, an act of aggression, as the
first act of aggression that happened in this report. The report literally contains no accounting
of any of the physical and mental trauma that the police (mumbled) inflicted upon protesters
that night. Again an erasure of black voices and BIPOC voices that we have been addressing
this whole past summer. Like David said, the victims of June 3rd when not included in this
discussion at all, and the voices of white men, um, white cis men as police officers were
included instead. I personally witnessed protesters who were literally thrown into seizures
during the attack. I literally had to help a fellow protester, you know, deal with the seizure
during the middle of getting tear gassed, and I ha ... didn't have a choice but to leave ... to leave
and had to help them instead. I witnessed other people suffered other physical injury. For many
friends and fellow citizens (mumbled) really destroyed the little sense of safety that we had as
black residents, um, of Iowa City, in general, and (mumbled) reminded of the violence of
the ... that the rapid support forces, you know, inflicted upon Sudanese protesters when I was
present in Sudan during the Sudanese revolution in 2018, and to just have that same trauma
triggered, um, the same night truly proves to me that, you know, the fight against police
brutality is a global fight and will continue regardless of what officials, neoliberal officials such
a City Council continue to do with their agenda. It's crazy for me that the OIR report didn't
even pretend to become aware of, you know, the victim ... um (mumbled) victims experience in
any of their analysis and really shows what the true intentions of this report really were, as I
mentioned earlier. (both talking)
Teague: Thank you, Raneem.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 6
Hamad: Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Emilia, followed by Nicholas.
Roberts: Hi, can you hear me okay?
Teague: Yes, welcome.
Roberts: Thank you. Um, I'm going to star ...I'm going to once again speak out against the proposed
police budget today. Um, I would also like to second everything that David and Raneem just
said. Um ... um, it seems to me that the City Manager has commissioned a report from the OIR
to craft his ridiculous police budget, and I would like to point out a few of the many flaws in the
OIR. Um, starting off with the pattern .... with the pattern we have begun to see from the City
Manager, him disregarding public feedback in the ... in the forming of the budget. The OIR
completely disregarded the vast majority who were clear ...who were the clear victims of police
brutality. Their perspectives should have been center... centered and not silenced. Um, no one
from IFR was contacted by the independent investigation to give their perspective, outlook, and
suggestions of the events of June 3'a, but numerous anonymous ICPD officers were given a
voice and platform to attempt to excuse the inexcusable. Why is this perspective of everyone
else present not represented? Why are there no victims being heard? Now I would like to jump
to the obvious, which is that the OIR repor...report makes it even more obvious to us than it
already was, that there was absolutely no reason to use any type of force on the night of June
3'a. Um, like Raneem said that the interstate had already been blocked off on the night of June
3rd. Um, the police claim the reason they left off the ... they let off less lethal force was to stop
us from getting on the interstate. But the fact that we got onto the interstate safely and easily
without law enforcement, the very next night on June 4a', proves their claim to be completely
false. This proves that the events of June 3rd could have completely been avoided in putting
our community in direct harm, in jeopardizing their safety, could have been avoided. Like
Raneem said, I mean people were having panic attacks, seizing, crying, screaming... like it was
just horrible. There's kids, older people there, like just everyday community members that we
all know, that people often all grew up with, like it was just -just completely ridiculous,
something that was really, really stunning to see. So yeah ... (mumbled) They tear gassed us
simply because they wanted to especially knowing that they wouldn't face any consequences.
The night of June 3rd would have stayed safe if law enforcement would have been ... would not
have been present and let IFR lead and organize without any presence from law enforcement.
The only thing law enforcement did do is put everyone in direct danger and cause emotional
and physical pain and trauma. Once again we're asking for this budget to be rejected and that
you give IFR complete control over the budget and organization of it. We have time to time
again tried working with you all, just to be shot down and that you guys try to silence IFR.
Other major cities are defunding the police. We've seen things in Seattle, Denver, etc., etc.,
other places. And they're reinvesting in their communities. Um, there's quite literally no
reason why we can't advance and join them. We need to be funding for schools, housing, food,
mental health resources, facilities, rehabs, community organizations, mutual aid groups, and
etc., etc. and so many other things. We've got to invest in our community and the people to see
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 7
great things happen in Iowa City, and if you don't let IFR and the community members that are
speaking up do that and try to help like our city's literally going to go nowhere. I mean I'm only
19 and I never thought that at 19 this is what I would be doing, and this is what I'd be worried
about and, um, so it's just ... it's just really mind boggling that now ...that you guys just all of a
sudden don't want to listen to us, when in the beginning in summer, in May, on the very first
day that we held a protest, that ... or that IFR leaders held a protest that we thought that maybe
we would be represented and be able to make decisions in our community. So yeah, it's just
really, really discouraging to see this happening, and I really, really, really, really would like to
see IFR completed in every .... um, in every aspect of the police budget being included and
making any decision that needs made. Um, yeah and especially in light of Black History
Month, I think this would be the perfect time to make these advances in our community. Thank
you!
Teague: Thank you, Emilia. Welcome, Nicholas, followed by Bob.
Theisen: Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, for letting me speak. I wanted to just make a
couple of quick points. I guess one's a little bit longer than the other. I want to actually go back
to the ... the TIF issue from the previous formal meeting because this is the funny thing. It's like
I know all of you forgot about this, because actually I forgot about this as well. But if you
recall the last major TIF project that "came to completion" was the Sycamore Mall TIF, and if
you recall that the completion of that TIF was a complete disaster. I mean Lucky's Market
didn't even make it three years into their increment, and the City will still be on the hook for
that until 2024. So whenever, you know, whenever Wendy comes on and gives these
projections about how like, oh, it's going to increase the tax base and there's going to be all this
money available, that's based on the assumption that those businesses and those projects last
well beyond the increment, and yet the most recent example (laughs) of this that we see is one
in which it didn't even last a full three years. So I just... honestly sometimes I want y'all to
remember the things that have happened. Like I'm not even necessarily asking you to adopt my
politics. I mean I would love it if you built, you know, thousands of units of public housing.
That would be great, and I would cheer you on. I know you're not going to do it, but you ... can
you at least just remember what happened... when you're making your decisions, please, and
then secondly, I'll try to keep this short. I want to second everything that Raneem said, that Emi
said, that David said. Basically (laughs) So the one thing that I want to highlight in the OIR
report, I think they did a fantastic job of, you know, pointing out all of like sort of the big issues,
but literally (laughs) in the report itself, there was an interchange between the OIR researchers
and a representative from ICPD, and the ICPD representative tried to make the argument that,
well, isn't it better that we tear gassed them, that we used rubber bullets, that we used stingers,
that we used all of these "less lethal munitions," because the alternative was we would have had
to have been even more violent. That's literally the dichotomy... that's literally what ICPD
officers are thinking when they go into these situations. It's like how can I be violent or more
violent, not how I can use no violence, not how I can de-escalate things. They're choosing
between layers of violence. That's how they think, and that is why they need to be defunded,
that is why we need to get rid of them, that is why we need to buil ... build something else,
because you can't reform that. You can't reform an entire body of individuals whose assumption
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 8
whenever they come into a difficult situation is how they're going to beat it up, how they're
going to gas it, how they're going to terrify it. That is how they think, that is why you have to
get rid of them. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, and welcome, Bob.
Franklin: Hello, thanks, Mayor Teague and Council. For those who don't know, my name is Bob
Franklin. I'm the owner of Elray's Live & Dive, a live music venue that opened in July
downtown on Iowa Avenue, used to be the Blue Moose. And I got a couple sort of points and
appeals I'd like to draw to your attention. Uh, potentially I'm not the only one in this type of a
situation so ... um, the Blue Moose closed in September of 2019, pre -pandemic. I then
negotiated and signed the lease through that winter, with a planned opening in April. Now of
course the ... (laughs) as everyone knows the pandemic hits and, you know, it's been a horrible
crisis for healthcare workers, for everyone that's been impacted, and ... and for the economy in
general. So I halted construction, you know, obviously I didn't want to keep going at that point
and open up a live music venue without knowing what the situation was there in March. But I
was unfortunately unable to halt construction forever. Number one, the bills don't stop. You
know, you still have to pay your landlord, you still have to pay your insurance company, you
still have to pay your property taxes, and also, uh, the way the restrictions work for the City on
liquor licenses, you have to use it within a year or you lose it, which put me on a time limit to
open before September. Had I let that liquor license lapse, I would put myself in legal jeopardy
with the property owner, cause it would have harmed the value of his building. So I waited as
long as I could, and then I restarted construction and opened in July; and the reason that time
limit's important is because I .... started my business pre -pandemic and committed myself to
these obligations, but opened post -pandemic, we've been ruled ineligible to participate in any of
the federal CARES Act funds and the most recent Iowa restaurant and hospitality grant and the
save our act stage, uh, stage grant. So again, I know I'm not the only business. I spoke to the
SBA before they passed and ... and ruled against our eligibility. I spoke or I tried to reach out to
our two senators in Congress, uh, representatives, to draw their attention to this. They
acknowledged it but, again, it all still went through and passed and... and so I know I'm not the
only one in this loophole. And again, you know, I've invested quite a bit of money. We made
the place ADA -compliant. We added new electrical, on and on and on. I think we'll be a great
asset to the community long-term, but I have two appeals that can help us get there. One is
property tax relief. I have $22,000 due this month and that's only half a year's property tax. I
paid 22 in September. So potentially helping out businesses that have been excluded from
federal CARES Act that still have faced restrictions and pay their real estate taxes, either as an
owner of the property or as a tenant that gets passed through. And secondly, I have a beautiful
sidewalk in front of me that I am in- eligible to participate in as a sidewalk cafe license because
I don't have a kitchen. We do offer food from our neighbors at Players. There are, you know,
currently I believe 40 public sidewalk cafes downtown and 11 private. We think there should be
one more that's included. You know, my only way to get that currently is to build a kitchen,
which would require, you know, more investment into the property and also would ... would
mean that I'd have to lose a stage. And I think we need, you know, live music in the city of arts,
in addition to more restaurants. And so I would appeal to you to reconsider an exception
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 9
for ...for a business like mine to utilize that. The CDC wants to see outdoor seating, the public
wants to see outdoor seating, and I'm asking for appeal and for help on those two things, you
know, cause if I don't get any help and eventually I run out of savings and run out of money to
keep the business afloat, um, that just reverts back to the building owner. All my investments.
He'll sit on the property for a while and release it to someone else post -pandemic, you know.
And so I'd like to avoid that. I'd like to be part of the community for a while, and so I make
those two appeals that can help us get there, and again, an appeal on behalf of other businesses
like mine that I know are in that same situation.
Teague: Thank you, Bob. Welcome, Bailey.
Baker: Hi, can you hear me?
Teague: Yes, we can.
Baker: Hi, so I'm also going to, um, second everything that Raneem, Emilia, Nicholas, and David had
said tonight. Um, this OIR report, I think frankly, is, um, blatantly biased. I was looking
through the report itself in a couple of news articles by local outlets, and I couldn't help but be
shocked that, um, just that Geoff Fruin and the City Council and everyone who went ... who was
involved in putting this report out or commissioning it, um, believes that two protester voices
versus multiple, um, two protester voices that were not cited directly in the report at all was
sufficient, um, considering that you gave multiple ... or this report gave multiple, um, IC
police ... IC ... Iowa City police officers, um, many chances to speak. Um, I don't even understand
how this number is acceptable. I don't understand how, um, that the City Council and Geoff
Fruin, um, still refuse to acknowledge that they disregarded IFR this summer. Their attempts to
communicate with the Council and their demands that they put out this summer about the Iowa
City Police Department and the School Board, um, I just don't even see how you guys could
believe that this report would be complete without that, and even with this report that I believe
is extremely biased, um, the 01 ... this is a quote from the OIR report itself. It speaks to how,
um, let me find the exact part, it's kind of long. Um, in ... in retrospect, the decisions to draw a
line in the sand on Dubuque Street that night to move to the ultimatum phase, aka tear gas,
pepper spray, etc., with little attempt at negotiation or de-escalation, which also has to go along
with the ride-alongs that you guys are going to be talking about later, if these police (laughs)
have already proven they can't do that, why would we put them into more vulnerable situations
in this community. It doesn't ensure safety at all, obviously. Um, to consider the crowd
members to be collectively on notice after an acoustically limited effort at warning them. A lot
of the protesters couldn't even hear those reports our ...the police telling people to get back, and
even if they did, um, that's a moot point, but, um, I just think that that's ridiculous that they're
trying to act like put this bad reputation on the protesters when they themselves can't even
defend their actions that night, and then to use flash bangs and tear gas in effectuating the
dispersal order, um, yeah I .... there's a lot of things wrong with this report. Um, according to it
the ICPD and the UIPD provided and deployed most of the flash bangs. Um, I think it's worth
noting that the Iowa State Patrol was there that night too and refused to just share comment at
all. And that the ICPD and the UIPD would only send in information in writing, although the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 10
report states that they would have gotten much more information from a conversation. I just
think that's suspicious and another reason why this report is extremely biased, um, but yeah,
ICPD and UIPD provided and deployed most of the flash bangs, tear gas, and pepper balls.
Um, ICPD was given the opportunity to contribute more information than anyone else was in
this city about their own actions, which is a... there's a blatant bias to this report, and I don't
think that Geoff Fruin or the City Council did anything to prevent this. And ... which is why I
also believe that this plan that he has proposed proves that police officers will not be held
accountable for their violent action in the future. And I just do not trust it at all. I think that it is
obvious what your community member is tel... community members are telling you. IFR
gathered a crowd of over 3,000 people the next day. So I think for you it's ... for this not to be a
major deal to you all is, I mean, I don't even have words for it, um, but yeah, I think the last
thing I would like to say is that 87.5% of the police budget is paid by property taxes, so, um,
yeah, thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address .... uh, public comment at this time? Seeing no
one, we're going to move to Item number 10, which is Planning and Zoning matters.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page I1
10. Planning and Zoning Matters
10.a. Rezoning — South of Kennedy Pkwy & West of Camp Cardinal Blvd — Ordinance
conditionally rezoning property located south of Kennedy Parkway and west of Camp
Cardinal Blvd from Interim Development -Research Park (ID -RP) zone to Rural
Residential (RR -1), High Density Single -Family (RS -12), Low Density Multi -Family (RM -
12), and Medium Density Multi -Family (RM -20) for approximately 27.19 acres of land.
(REZ20-0013)
1. Public Hearing
Teague: I'm going to open the public hearing... and welcome, staff.
Sitzman: Good evening, Mayor, Council. Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and Development Services.
This is a application for a rezoning of the areas described in the title and outlined here in the
white boundary. It's an application for rezoning from an interim zoning district that was
established prior to the establishment of some of our other research parks elsewhere in the
region, and has slowly been redeveloping and rezoning into more of a mixed-use residential
neighborhood. Um, this shows, again, the property outlined in white and that purple area being
the existing zoning. Um, there will be a ... a case on a following agenda for you dealing with the
actual platting of the lots for this development. Because platting is a process that only takes one
reading, it's being held to catch up for the ... three readings (mumbled) rezoning application will
take. So I'll give you a presentation later on in more depth about the plat itself. I'll mention it
kind of briefly as this relates to the rezoning tonight. That plat would be for additional
residential development. So a little bit of background about this property. It's been in the city
boundaries for some time. It's had this zone ... interim zoning, research park designation since
the 80s. As I mentioned, we've seen research parks kind of come to fruition elsewhere in the
region and in our city itself. It's subject to the Clear Creek master plan, which was developed in
2002, um, and there's been, uh, subsequent development of earlier phases of what is called
Camp Cardinal Pointe West. So the first phase of Cardinal Pointe West in the upper left hand
side of the screen here and some photos of that existing development. Then Cardinal Pointe lI,
the next phase of that development here with townhomes (mumbled) multi -family on the
interior of the loop street system with single-family home lots developed on the exterior of that.
Some photos of that development as well, which brings us to eventually what you'll be hearing
about ... to be developed in this parcel here, which would be Cardinal Pointe West, kind of the
continuation of that development style with a loop street system, townhome-style multi -family
on the interior, single-family residential lots surrounding that. This is their rezoning exhibit that
puts those requested zoning districts into colors for you, so you can see their outline. Here's the
first phase, as I mentioned; seco... second phase, and the eventual third phase, showing the
zoning districts (mumbled) coinciding with those types of development. Down here in green
would be a slightly more dense parcel reserved for future medium density multi -family, and
then these blue areas are being rezoned for rural residential, which is really the areas that
contain steep slopes and wooded areas or would be conserved without development on them.
Simply designating them as rural residential as an additional way to truly limit their
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 12
development potential, so that those sensitive areas can be preserved. As with our rezoning
applications, we look at two criteria — the comprehensive plan and existing neighborhoods. And
this place, as I mentioned, the controlling comprehensive plan is the Clear Creek master plan,
since it doesn't have a specific district plan and that is the most specific and recent, um,
commentary, as far as comprehensive planning in this area. It does show the area as suitable for
residential, commercial, and office development, really trying to emphasize conservation -type
development where development is clustered and kept out of sensitive areas, to the extent as
possible. Um, the requested rezoning and subdivision design conforms with that kind ... type of
conservation design envisioned in the Clear Creek master plan, as well as the policies for
housing and land use laid out in the City's comprehensive plan. One of the conditions included
in the zoning tonight is the construction of a sidewalk in the vicinity. Um, that will connect the
neighborhood as well to within itself and without ... to the neighborhoods surrounding it.
Speaking of the compatibility with the neighborhood, as I mentioned, this is again a
continuation of the existing development pa ... pattern, which already contains a mix of large lot
single- family homes, anywhere from a third acre to just under a half acre, and then the
townhouse multi -style, multi -family buildings. The planning of this would actually allow for,
and they have planned for, some duplex development as well. Staff does have two additional
conditions that I'll go over at the end relating to that multi -family style townhome development,
which is inside the loop street network, having to do with the eventual, uh, landscape plan ... plan
that would be reviewed at the time that that is developed through the site plan process. And
also tying the eventual platting to a concept that they've shown with this rezoning, uh, really
expressing that multi-townhome style, multi -family development. So just to kind of preview
what's ahead, here's the full preliminary plat where you can see the loop stre... street system.
Um, north is to your left in this exhibit and where the road network would connect to Camp
Cardinal Boulevard. Um, because we're aware that the plat is coming and zoning is the best
opportunity to address any potential impacts of development, there are some conditions I'll go
over, as I said, at the end here. Looking ahead to the potential impacts having to do with traffic
and transportation, we do anticipate that there will be a need for traffic calming. The
topography of this land prohibits connections to Camp Cardinal Boulevard in more than the
places that they've indicated, because with the steep slopes that would have to be traversed.
That results in a blo... block network that's a little bit longer than we'd prefer, so we've included
conditions having to do with traffic calming. And as I mentioned, there are steep slopes and
wooded areas. This is a sensitive area site plan that you'll see with the preliminary plat.
There's a lot of hash marks on here, but essentially is intended to portray that there are steep
slopes and wooded areas, and so a sensitive areas development plan will also be included with
that preliminary plat and the required amounts of preservation will be discussed at that time.
Just to touch on the development steps, shown here in the dark black is the step that we are at.
Um, as I said, this land has already been annexed and zoned for a while in the city. This is
changing that zoning to the variety of zoning districts indicated. Um, there will be, as I said, a
preliminary plat and preliminary sensitive areas plan to follow at a future agenda, and
eventually a final plat and some administrative steps handled by staff, like the site plan reviews
for any multi -family and building permit issuance. So the Planning and Zoning Commission is
recommending approval of this. Uh, staff did review this and based on our review of relevant
criteria recommended four conditions. At their January 7th meeting, the Planning and Zoning
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 13
Commission concurred, but they also did add one additional condition. I'll go over this
condition shortly here. Um, the first two have to do with that multi ... the townhome-style multi-
family lot, lot number 54 inside the loop street network, having to do with the concept plan as
expressed and requiring a review of the landscaping plan to ensure both usable outdoor space
and screening of garages from public streets. A third condition having to do with incorporation
of the traffic calming, as I mentioned. A fourth condition having to do with installation of a
five-foot sidewalk on the west side of Camp Cardinal Boulevard. And the fifth condition,
which was placed by the Planning and Zoning Commission, indicating that the outlots that were
not for future multi -family but were those rural residential areas that I indicated to be
accompanied by a woodland management plan, uh, to be approved by staff prior to the issuance
of any building permits. As I mentioned, just a reminder, we will be at that preliminary plat and
preliminary sensitive areas development plan that accompanies the platting of this, um, and
finally, just due to concerns about COVID, a good neighbor meeting was not held, but an
additional mailing was sent out by the applicant to the surrounding property owners. And that
concludes staff report. I'm happy to answer questions.
Teague: No questions for you, but stick around, you never know! All right, we're going to open it up to
the public, so would anyone like to address this topic from the public? If so, please raise your
hand and we ask that you keep your comments three to five minutes. Welcome, Martha,
followed by Josh.
Norbeck: Thank you, um, well I ... I have to say, of course, I am ... if I wasn't in support of this diversity
of housing types, I would be a hypocrite. So I'm..I am pleased to see the different sizes of
housing lots in this location. I know the public isn't supposed to ask staff question, but maybe
Danielle can answer, or maybe you can send me an email later. I understand that the
topography here does not allow for vehicle... vehicular cut-throughs. Um, where is the City in
terms of providing pedestrians/bike cut- throughs to make those block lengths a little shorter to
accommodate bic... cyclists and pedestrians, particularly in a site like this where it really
wouldn't work to add vehicular pass-throughs, but maybe it might be feasible to add a ... a
sidewalk or even ... even stairs. And that's the end of my comments. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, and then we'll have Danielle reach out to you. Welcome, Josh.
Entler: Thank you, Mayor Teague, uh... Mayor Pro Tem, Councilors, et al, and thank you, Danielle, for
that well, uh, well -worded presentation. In the interest of time, I will keep my comments
short ... to just what's been new since the Planning and Zoning discussion, as well as the packets
of information that were distributed. Uh, and a slight comment and ... and adjustment to the
presentation that Dan ... Danielle provided. So we do have, uh, phase two is duplexes on the
west side, townhomes in the middle, and then single-family home on the east side. So we have
kind of a three-phase model. That same model will be extended into ... into phase three, so that
we do have, you know, three specific areas that we have a variety of housing types. So we have
agreed and ... and delivered the conditional zoning agreement to staff at this time, and that
outlines the five conditions that were ... that were described earlier. So we have agreed to that,
delivered that to staff, and then on the condition number five, the timber (mumbled)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 14
management plan, we ... we are working with Sustainable Landscape Solution, a professional
firm (mumbled) of town. So we do have a draft in hand. We're excited to ... to start working
with staff and really now that we have it defined, start to refine what that could look like and
what the ... the future potential would be for that stand of timber. So thank you, Mr Mayor.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one ... I'm going to close
the public hearing. Council (laughs) probably should have did ... did this before I closed it, but
are you inclined to vote with the Commission? I'm seeing yes. All right, great. Could I get a
motion to give first consideration, please?
2. Consider an Ordinance (First Consideration)
Salih: Move first consideration, Mazahir.
Mims: Second, Mims.
Teague: All right, Council discussion? We can't hear you, Councilor Taylor.
Taylor: ... push the wrong button! (laughs) there we go! Dam technical stuff. I ... I was just saying that
I ... I like this project, and I think originally there were good intentions for this area to be zoned,
uh... uh, development research park, but obviously that didn't come to being, so I think rezoning
this is an excellent idea. I'm especially pleased to see plans for the variety of housing types, the
four -unit townhomes, single-family, and duplexes. That's, uh, a major need in this community
rather than some more 300, $400,000 single-family homes. So I think a lot of thought went into
the ... into the plans. Uh, thank you Josh that just presented, and I'm ... I'm in favor of this
rezoning.
Thomas: I wanted ... I wanted to mention the, um, one ... one thing that I think is new with this particular
project is the woodland management plan. So I'm really happy to see that, uh, that's been
incorporated as one of the conditions, and... and then also there is in looking at the plan, there is
a, uh, open space, uh, that's (mumbled) kind of a park -like dimension. I think it's something a
little bit over two acres in size, which is pretty significant amount of area that could be
developed as kind of a park -like setting within... within the residential area. So I think that ... that
has potential moving forward as well, along with the woodland management.
Weiner: Just happy to see various different sizes and townhouses built on this side of town. Or the
potential for it.
Teague: Any other comments? I do enjoy the diversity in the housing types, most certainly, and I was
happy to hear about the sustainable landscape (laughs) company that is going to be partaking in
this. So that'll be interesting just to see how all that plays out. If there are no more
comments... roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 15
10.b. Rezoning — 700, 710, 720, and 730 S. Dubuque Street and 220 Lafayette Street —
Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 1.9 acres of land located at 700, 710, 720,
730 S. Dubuque Street & 220 Lafayette Street from Community Commercial (CC -2) and
Intensive Commercial (CI -1) to Riverfront Crossing — Central Crossings (RFC -CI) zone.
(REZ20-0011) (Second Consideration)
Teague: I do understand, Councilor Bergus, you wanted to say something?
Bergus: Yes, yeah, Mayor. Thank you. I'm going to just recuse myself from this item, due to a conflict
of interest. So I'm going to hop off the Zoom and if Kellie or Geoff can text me when you're
done, that'd be great.
Teague: Great.
Bergus: Thank you.
Teague: All right. The applicant has requested expedited action, um, on this item.
Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for passage at
two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally passed be suspended, that
the second consideration and vote be waived, and that the ordinance be voted on for final
passage at this time.
Salih: Second.
Teague: All right, and would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please raise your
hand and I'll call upon you. Seeing no one, Council discussion? Roll call please. Motion
passes 6-1, recusal by Councilor Bergus. Um, motion... could I get a motion to pass and adopt
please?
Mims: (several responding) Second, Mims.
Teague: All right, so moved by Weiner, seconded by Mims. And would anyone from the public like to
address this topic? If so, please raise your hand. Council discussion? Roll call please. Motion
passes 6-1, recusal and could I get a motion to accept correspondence please?
Salih: Move (mumbled) correspondence.
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
Teague: And all in favor say aye. Any opposed? We have one abstention. So motion passes 6-1
abstention.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 16
11. Appeal of Historic Preservation Commission Decision — Deciding the appeal to the City
Council of the decision of the Historic Preservation Commission denying a Certificate of
Appropriateness to replace the original siding at 1133 E. Court Street in the Longfellow
Historic District.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: I'm going to open the public hearing. All right and welcome, staff.
Dilkes: Mayor, this is Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney. I'm going to start you off just by reviewing the...
the kind of rules that govern your consideration of this appeal. There is a memo in the packet,
but just briefly, again, this is a, what ... what you would call a narrow standard of review. Um, if
you ... it's not enough that you just disagree with the ... the Commission. You have to find that
they either did not follow the rules that are set forth in the City code about how they decide
these things, or that they acted arbitrarily and capriciously. Another way to say that is you can't
substitute your judgment for the Commission. You may not reverse the Commission simply
because you disagree with them. If you find that they followed the guidelines set forth in the
code and they did not act arbitrarily and capriciously, you must affirm the Commission's
decision. On the other hand, if you find that they did not follow the guidelines set forth in the
code or acted arbitrarily and capriciously, uh, then you may reverse or modify, wholly or partly,
the decision of the Commission to deny, uh, the application. Um, at that point you stand in the
shoes of the Commission, and you can make whatever decision they might have made, had they
followed the rules or not acted arbitrarily and capriciously. You are required to make a decision
within a reasonable time. If you feel like you need additional information... tonight, then you
should continue the public hearing and specify what that information is so it can be provided to
you at the next meeting. If you ... if you think that you do have the information you need, then
you close the public hearing and make a motion. Obviously, at this point we don't know what
that motion will be, but it will be a motion to affirm, uh, to reverse wholly or partly, or modify
the decision of the Historic Preservation Commission, and remember to clearly articulate the
reasons for your decision. That's it for me!
Teague: Thank you. Okay. I do understand we have a ... we actually have the homeowners here.
Fruehling: Mayor, we do have Kevin Boyd from the Historic Preservation Commission too. I ... I think
staff had told me that he was going to present.
Teague: Okay.
Dilkes: Mayor, I think it's important that you hear what the decision was, um, before you then hear why
the (garbled) decision is wrong, so...
Teague: Well then, uh, Kevin Boyd, I ... oh there he is! Welcome.
Boyd: Hello, welcome! Are you ready for me?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 17
Teague: Yes.
Boyd: All right, so thank you for your time tonight. I plan on just kind of running through a few things,
kind of a quick review of the guidelines relevant to the appeal, how those are kind of practically
applied in the ... in the real world, kind of what the Commission decided on this particular
application, and then what we did approve, which I think is a process to kind of move forward.
So our guidelines are based on the Secretary of Interior standards, um, that kind of guides
historic preservation rehabilitation in the United States, and those guidelines, um, our general
recommendation of preservation is to preserve original materials, if possible. And so when we
look at the Iowa City guidelines related to the siding section and the wood section, which are
the two pieces we're, um, are relevant to th... to the appeal. When it comes to siding, our
guidelines recognize that wood siding and trim details combine to make some of the most
important defining characteristics of historic districts and therefore siding is protected by the
design guidelines. Removing historic trim, covering historic trim, and installing
synthetic... synthetic siding are actually disallowed, according to the guidelines. Related to
wood, our guidelines recommend repair, including potentially wood substitutes, um, that retain
the appearance and function of wood. Several sections include actions, again, that are
disallowed, which include covering original wood siding, soffits, trim details, urn ... with other
materials, such as vinyl or aluminum. It disallows the removal of historic wood elements, such
as trim, cornices, and decorative elements. So following our guidelines, kind of based on these
broad principles of historic preservation, means that if the existing siding exists, existing wood
siding exists, then it should be repaired rather than replaced, and it should not be covered. But
these ... the guidelines acknowledge that sometimes historic siding can't be repaired, and it might
be missing, um, and those guidelines indicate that replacement should match existing materials,
and that match doesn't have to be an exact match. It just needs to kind of mimic the look and
feel of the original materials. We approve other things often. But evidence of unrepairable
conditions would need to ... would be needed for the Commission to approve replacement of the
original wood siding, according to the guidelines. Now the guidelines also acknowledge a need
for exceptions and they outline those. Documented exceptions are related to some areas of
the ... of the guidelines, but not related to wood or siding on historic homes, uncommon
situations where the guidelines don't quite make sense for a particular property. Usually it's
related to the size of the lot or the placement of a building on a lot. Um,or where the guide ... the
guidelines are silent or unclear, kind of rela... sometimes situations come up which we haven't
encountered before. So here's what that means practically and how we kind of...how the
guidelines are applied in ... in the real world. When aluminum siding is covering a house, it
doesn't have to be removed entirely to investigate the condition of what's underneath. A small
portion or portions can be pulled back, removed, the conditions underneath can be assessed and
documented, and then the aluminum siding can be put back on. Or there are places where
there's part of the siding that can be removed entirely where there's less ... less exposure to the
elements if that's a concern, perhaps under a front porch or more protected side of the house,
and we know synthetic siding traps moisture into kind of old wood. So if we're worried about
moisture, perhaps we take a portion of the siding off, let it dry for a day or two, kind of air out
and test with the moisture meter, if the, you know, if we can't kind of physically see any
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 18
deterioration. All of this evidence gathering and documentation can be done relatively
easy ...easily, but it's a critical step in how to move forward and the challenge in this particular
case. Removal of aluminum siding and repair of original siding is one of the most common
improvements homeowners in Iowa City in historic districts undertake. If there's original
material under that synthetic siding that they're removing and it's in good condition or can be
repaired, the Commission is unlikely to approve replacement of it. The guidelines are clear. It
is disallowed. If the siding condition is unrepairable or there's simply no siding at all,
replacement would be considered by the Commission and likely in ... in favor of it, but what
we ... what we need is documented evidence of the condition in order to consider removal of the
original materials. The lack of documentation is what's holding this project up. We don't have
documented evidence of the condition of the aluminum siding. The applicant hasn't permitted
staff to inspect the condition and didn't provide before or at our meeting any documented
evidence of the ... of the existing conditions, under the ... under the existing aluminum siding. The
application was to cover existing original siding or remove original materials, which is
specifically disallowed in the guidelines. And they asked us to prove without... approve without
documentation documented evidence ... uh, of the original material, which is where the problem
was created. And ultimately that's what the Commission found. There was not enough
documented evidence to permit replacement or covering of an original material, um, or
evidence to provide an exception to the guidelines. If a Commissioner thought that there was
evidence to grant exception, that Commissioner would have had to make a motion to say what
that exception was and move to approve the application as presented by the homeowners. No
Commissioner did this and the application as proposed was not approved because ... not
approved, because it is disallowed under the guidelines and none of the exceptions are relevant
here. This isn't ... this is the opposite of an uncommon situation. In fact it's very common. The
guidelines aren't vague; in fact they're quite clear. Alternatively, the Commission did approve a
Certificate of Appropriateness that meets the guidelines and allows for the removal of the
aluminum siding and are a repair of the original siding and trim, or replacement and
deterioration ... or I'm sorry, replacement of deteriorated siding and trim, following review of the
documentation by stuff and Chair. Again, the Commission needed documented evidence and
saw none presented, but we mapped out an alternative, um, that meets the guidelines and what
we did approve. Once we have some documented evidence, we can move forward. If you
agree that the Commission did not act in an arbitrary or capricious way, that we follow the
guidelines, then we'll work with the applicant to gather the documented evidence needed
and ... of the condition underneath, and map out a path forward. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Kevin. All right. So we heard from Commissioner Boyd. Now we're going to ask
for the homeowners to come forth. Welcome ... Gosia... and you're on mute.
Clore: Hello.
Teague: Hello.
Clore: Hello, Mayor Teague and hello, Council Members. Um, we're here to appeal the HPC's denial
of the application to replace the (mumbled) damage and the (mumbled) siding on our home.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 19
My husband Adam will give you details about our application, but we also asked GT Karr, who
is a construction expert, to be here to answer any technical questions you might have. Just to let
you know both GT and I have been Commissioners on the HPC. We are very familiar with the
rules that need to be followed, as well as the decisions that have been made by staff and the
Commission, and ... and we will present, you know, what ... what our truth is (laughs) uh, and
Adam will be the one presenting. I don't know how we can share our presentation. I think
maybe Kellie has access to the file, because I don't think I can share my screen.
Fruehling: You should be able to, but if you can't I sure do have your email with the file.
Clore: Okay, um, let me pull this up.
Fruehling: And there's a share... share screen button down at the bottom... middle.
Clore: Sorry, I know everybody's probably ready to be done with the meetings (laughs)
Teague: (mumbled) we can see it.
Clore: Okay, great. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council. I'll just go ahead and jump right into it
here. The current status of our house, uh, it was originally built as a ... an American foursquare,
sort of originally looked like the drawing in the corner here. In the 80s, metal siding was
applied to the outside of the house. Um, in the late 90s then the back of the house was also
extended and .... and is now about a third larger than it originally was, and because that was
done in the late 90s, that contains no, you know, historical features or trim. In addition, holes
have been drilled into our house prior to the addition of siding. These holes were drilled into
the house to put insulation in ... in the walls of the house. Unfortunately, when that was done
there's no moisture barrier that was put in and as a result of that, and as a result of the holes, we
have water that can enter our house, and also pests, including bats, mice, and insects, that can
enter our house. There was also major damage to our house during the derecho, and that
includes damage to the roof that required complete replacement of the roof, and also damage to
the siding. Now, as mentioned by Kevin, it ... we don't know the exact condition of what may
remain of. ... of wood siding, if any does remain, but we know that it does not exist on ... on at
least a third of the house. We know that there's holes that are drilled in any remaining siding
because of the insulation that was put in, and we have good reason to suspect with lack of a ... a
water barrier that there is also moisture damage in there. This is an exa... or this is a picture of
what the front of the house looks like. You can see just beyond the triple windows, um, down
the bottom here, uh, where the addition was put on the house. Looking at the back of the house,
you can see where the original porches were closed in and turned into rooms, and where a larger
edition was put on ... on the house as well. Finally on the ... sorry, on the left side of the house,
you can see probably most clearly where the non -historic addition is put on the house. There's a
large chunk of it that is ... that is non -historic here. This is a close up of the damage caused by
the derecho. You can see some chipping of the paint here. What you might not be able to see is
some of the dents and scratches that also occurred, um, with derecho. So there's quite a bit of
damage on the west side. You can also see here some of the damage that was done when the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 20
metal siding was installed. Normally the historic trim and windows would extend out beyond,
um, the ... the vertical portion of the window a little bit. That was cut off to allow for an easy
application of the metal siding and that was put on in the 80s. Underneath the siding, you
know, Kevin's right here. We don't know exactly what there is under it, but we do know that
there are these holes where the insulation was put in. This is an example of what, uh, the
damage looks like when you blow in insulation, um, and based on the lack of a vapor barrier
and based on a little bit of water damage we've seen, we believe, you know, that there is
moisture damage, and this is just an example of what a house of our construction and our age
typically looks like with moisture damage in there. The remedy for most old houses when you
blow in insulation is to remove the cladding and to blow in the insulation through the holes, um,
and then properly flash and integrate a water-resistant barrier to the outside of the house. That
keeps water from getting in and keeps this damage from happening, and it allows any siding
that you put on the outside of the house to be separated from any moisture, um, that can build
up or come from inside the house and damage the wood, and this is something that we would
like to see installed so that we can have a lasting solution on ... for the siding on our house. This
isn't something you just do for older houses either. The current building code in Iowa will
requires a water-resistant barrier to be between your house and your siding, and this is
something, again, that is done to protect the house and to keep, uh, to keep a ... a barrier against
the elements in place there, something that is best practices and something we'd like to
incorporate it in any type of, um, repair that we do of our house, so that it's a lasting repair. Our
proposal then is to repair the damaged siding, to add a vapor barrier seal so that pests can't get
in, and to replace the siding and trim with HPC, uh, recommended materials, such as cement
fiberboard with a smooth finish. As I'll show in my presentation here, this conforms to the Iowa
City Historic Preservation plan requirements. It also meets the historic, uh, I'm sorry, the Iowa
City building codes, and the best practices that are set forth by the Climate Action Plan. I want
to start with the denial itself and the description of it. Um, in their description of our proposal
here, it states the prosal.... proposal consists of the removal of aluminum siding. Excuse me
here ... the removal of aluminum siding, either in its ... uh... and either the installation of...of new
aluminum siding or cement board siding, over any existing historical siding, or the removal of
existing siding in its entirety, regardless of its condition, and replacement of cement -board
siding, in a configuration to be determined by the applicant. The same is said then for the trim.
Um, and I want to address this before we get into any of the reasons for the denial, because I
think these... these last two sentences are quite misleading. The ... the first part of this, regardless
of the condition, is misleading because we have discussed with both staff and with HPC during
the meeting that there is large sections of our siding that is completely non-existent. There are
in ... in the sections if siding that are existent, we know that those are damaged by the holes that
have been drilled, and we know that there's a good chance that there's also damage due to water
infiltration in there. Secondly, stating that this configuration will be determined by the
applicant is also not accurate. At no point did we indicate that we wanted to determine the
cinal... the final configuration without HPC input. We've worked and emailed for more than two
years with staff discussing this project, and during the meeting, uh, my wife welcomed
discussion from one of the Council Members ... or the Commission members rather, who
indicated that they may have historic information about our home from a personal contact. So,
again, we want to work with the Commission. We want to restore something that is historically
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 21
accurate, but we want to do it in a way that conforms with regulations and is sustainable, um,
and something that will last. So I want to jump into the reasons now. The first reason for the
proposal being denied refers to Sections 3.2, 4.11, and 4.14 in the ... in the guide, and it states
that it would be denied because we would be removing historic siding and trim that was not
deteriorated and replace it with material that does not match the existing, uh, the existing siding.
What we want to do is..is..and before I get on to that, the Commission also mentions that they
cannot find exceptions to these guidelines. We are not asking for exceptions to these guidelines
here. We want to follow the guidelines themselves and per the historic handbook, um, we were
proposing to use the recommended material that was previously approved by HPC for other
projects in the area. Section 3.2 actually states that the guidelines lead to the discretion of the
coun... of the Commission. The particular calculus lose ... used in determining the
appropriateness for various projects. So there was leeway built into these guidelines, as ... as
Kevin mentioned, you know, for determining what ... what can be approved and what can be not
approved. Further, in sections 4.11 and 4.14, both state that what's, uh, substitution of wood
siding is allowed if the substitute material retains the appearance and function of the original
wood, and they specifically call out the material we would like to use, which is the fiber cement
board with a smooth finish on it. As I mentioned there's examples of projects like this that have
been approved by the Commission, and I want to discuss three of those examples. The first one
is the ... the house at 1117 Seymour Avenue. This is a couple blocks away from our house. It's a
contributing house in the Longfellow Historic District, and this house looks like it did on the
left, prior to the project. Prior to the renovation starting and the finished product looks, uh, the
current house looks like what's pictured on the right here. For this project, staff recommended
that new cement board, um, shingle siding be used to capture the original intent of the house,
and also recommended changing the windows and the trim on the house, again to capture the
original intent. If we look at the minutes that were used during this discussion, it is stated by
staff that no one knows what is underneath the existing synthetic siding, and that if the asbestos
siding, the original siding, is in good condition that they may keep it. She noted that nothing
would require them to remove it; however, if it was removed, staff recommends that cement
board siding, shingle siding, could be used to capture the original intent. So they're stating here
that they don't know what's under the siding, but they allow the person to remove what's under
the siding, uh, regardless of knowing the condition. This is exactly what we are asking to do,
and the reason, again, that we are asking to do this is so that we can put a vapor barrier, uh, or
rather a moisture barrier underneath the siding so we can prevent fu ... future damage to the
house, and then replace that with a historically -approved cement board siding. And we want to
do that in a way that captures the original intent and original aesthetic of the house, something
that was exactly done here. This is what the house looked like prior to the renovation. This is
what the house looked like after the res ... after the renovation. You can see there is an addition
on the back of the house as well. The nes ... next example is a house on 725 Summit Street. This
is a house that had asbestos siding on it. The siding was intact and staff recommended, and this
was approved to be removed, and again, replaced with cement board siding. We weren't able to
(mumbled) for sure, but we assume they used best practices here and also installed the vapor
barrier that we'd like to install in between the siding. This has been installed years ago. It still
looks great, and this is the exact, uh, type of project that we would like to do in our ...in our
house. Finally, the last house is at 427 Clark Street. This is a house built around the turn of the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 22
century. This is a house that had wood siding on it and, like our house, the exterior walls were
later insulated, um, and because of this there were moisture buildup and moisture problems, and
when the homeowner attempted to paint the ... the wooden siding that existed on the house, the
paint failed and needed to be removed within just a couple of years. Again, that siding
was ... was removed. A vapor barrier was put under it, and cement board siding was added on to
it. This is, again, exactly what we would like to do. These are three examples of it being
approved in exactly the manner that we would like to do, and with an outcome that ... that I think
everyone agrees looks reasonable and contributes to the historic accuracy of the neighborhood.
This is just some of the notes from that, indicating that there was insulation in the house and
that it was possible to see that this siding's failing and could no longer hold paint, which was
the reason for allowing them to remove that siding. This is one of the reasons that we are
worried if...if we are forced to, uh... uh, repair or replace the partial wood siding that's there,
without putting a moisture barrier under it, that this could be problematic. It's one of the
reasons we want to take that off and fix the underlying problem, rather than do a half measure
that would be very costly and may fail within a couple of years. Finally, moving on to reasons
two and three. These are reasons that, uh, kind of play together, so I'll talk to them on one slide
here. Reason number two is that the wood trim and details combine to make some of the most
important defining characteristics in historic districts. Reason number three is that this proposal
con... contradicts, uh, the standards of the Secretary of Interior that Kevin mentioned earlier,
stating that the historical character of a property shall be retained and preserved, and that
removal of historic materials and alteration of features and spaces that characterize the property
shall be avoided, and we agree with this. However, given our house and given the examples
here, given that the ... our house lacks the original trim on a least a third of the house, if not
more, and that in the places that there may be original trim, um, there's... there's a known
presence of holes and damage due to the insulation, due to the fact that we know that, um, the
trim around the windows has been ... has been cut off and damaged in the installation of the
metal siding, um, and due the ... due to the underlying problem of having a lack of a vapor barrier
there that would cause failure or would be very likely to cause failure, as was shown in the last
slide, we would like to fix those problems and, again, use a approved material to put on siding
that would... that would restore the historical character of the house. Further, in addition to this,
if we look at the Secretary of Interior standards for preservation, they also state that using the
same kind of material is not always technically feasible or economically feasible, and when
that's the case, using compatible substitute material can be considered. The cement board siding
is that substitute. So it is in the standards that we can use this. Further, staff has used
considerations like this, not just to approve things that are historically accurate, but also to
approve things that are just based on the whim of a homeowner, and I'd like to talk about one
example of that and that is at ... sorry, at 314 Summit Street. This is a house that originally
looked like the picture on the left, and after the remodel looked like the picture on the right.
This is currently what it looks like. As you can see, the structural elements of the porch were
changed and the railing of the porch was also changed, and this was not done for historical
context. This was done because the homeowner wanted to increase the amount of light that
entered the .... the front of the house. Looking at the the meeting notes here, staff indicated that
the homeowner wanted to increase the amount of light that comes through the front, um, and
also showed photographs of the porch, which showed to be fairly dark. Um, there was
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 23
discussion in the Commission. There is indication that they thought it was strange that staff
would recommend to hold on to certain elements, while allowing removal of other... other
elements and this discussion also mentioned that this exception was based not on the integrity
of the materials. These materials were not decaying. They were not falling apart, but were
based on the whim of the owner. Regardless, this was recommended by staff and approved by
the Historic Preservation Commission. We're not asking to do this. We're not asking to change
things for our own whims. We're asking to change things on our house so that we can seal our
house up so that bugs can't get in and bats can't get in. We have three daughters that live here
and we want a safe place for them to live, and we also want the money that we put into the
siding to be a lasting change to our house and it's a change that makes the neighborhood look
better and makes our house a better place to live. We want to follow the historic guidelines. We
believe we are following the historic guidelines. There's approvals like this that are given to
much... given much greater leeway than we're asking for here. We just want a chance to fix our
house. Finally, the ... the last reason that was given for this is that the aluminum siding... um, the
aluminum siding that is covering the house impacts the historical character of the house, but it
is a reversible condition. It's a reversible problem that exists and removing, you know, any of
the material under there would create an irreversible change to the house and that is true. It will
create a ... an irreversible change, but given the fact that it is already missing over a third of the
house, that it has holes drilled in it, and then it likely has water damage to it, and that it has no
vapor barrier under it, um, is ... is reason to believe that ... that we can do something better with
this. What Kevin and what staff ha ... have recommended was first as ... as Kevin said, to do ... to
have a partial removal of the existing siding, but later insisted, and I'm quoting from staff's
email to us, that seeing one area or one side of the house is not enough for staff to approve a
wholesale removal. What they have told us is that we need to completely remove the aluminum
siding. In addition, we have asked staff, and they have refused, to provide a criteria that would
be used to decide if there is any wooden siding present, what would be needed, uh, to be kept.
So is it a single board, is it 10%, is a 20%? We don't know. They've also refused to provide an
estimate of time, so once we have completely exposed our house to the elements, we don't have
a timeline to get this fixed, and finally they've indicated that if we remove the metal siding, we
will not be allowed to put the metal siding back on, if...if the decision is something that we
cannot agree upon. So we were forced into a decision by doing this. This is what staff and
HPC have told us. Doing this is going to be costly. It is ... it'll make it impossible for us to
purchase materials ahead of time. It'll make it impossible for us to receive bids ahead of time or
hire contractors to start the work. So we leave our house completely exposed by doing what
they have told us at the last meeting, and most importantly, if we have to repair this ... the
wooden siding, we don't ... we won't have the ability to fix the underlying problem, the holes and
the lack of a moisture barrier under our house. This decision is inconsistent with the ... the
examples that I've shown you before, specifically the first example that I've shown you, uh, of
1117 Seymour Avenue, where siding was approved for removal without seeing what was
underneath it, without knowing anything about the state of degradation, and cement board
siding was allowed to be placed. We are simply asking for the same amount of consideration
that was given and approved to other homeowners. So in summary ...I ... I .... in summary, our
project is an attempt to preserve the structure of our historic home, to replace materials that are
known to be damaged or absent in the home, and to return the home to its original character and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 24
do so with HPC recommended materials that are commonly used on historic houses in Iowa
City and have been approved before. Staff and HPC have denied our application without regard
for the leeway that's been afforded to other, uh, other houses and in the examples that I've
shown in the Commission, and several of these examples have greater changes and changes that
are based on homeowners' whims, rather than on historical accuracy. Staff and HPC have made
this denial without any evidence of seeing the wood, and it's ... and insist on removing all of the
current siding. What was said was not what Kevin ha brought up earlier. They .... they insisted
that we remove all of the siding and that this is done ... and this is done without the consideration
to our health, to the instruc... the structural integrity of our house, to timing, and to basic
feasibility of construction. I mean doing... doing this type of work could go into the ... into six
digits, as far as the cost with this. And if we have to stick with the wooden siding, it can fail,
and there's examples of that under nearly identical circumstances where that wooden siding has
failed. All we are asking for here is the same opportunity to maintain our house and improve it,
as the homeowners in Summit, Clark, and Seymour houses were given. We just want to fix our
house. We want to do it in a way that's lasting, in a way that seals it up so that my girls don't
have to have bats in their rooms. Based on these facts, we respectively request the City Council
and ... and Members of the Council reconsider the HPC's decision and approve our application.
Thank you, and I'll take any questions if anyone has any.
Teague: Councilors, any questions?
Weiner: I'd like to to clear up the one issue that seems... that seems to be ... one issue that seems to be in
question, which is were ... the applicants asked to remove a portion, a small portion of the siding
to see ... the current aluminum siding, to see what's underneath and see the condition of the
original wooden siding or are they asked to remove all of it?
Clore: I believe you could refer to the minutes from the meeting. They were I think included in your
packet, but we were asked to remove all of the siding, and we were told that once the metal
siding is removed, we cannot put it back on. Half...half of the house is ... doesn't have any
original siding underneath it, so we will be exposed to elements, to the weather, to the pests.
We can for... forward the emails (both talking)
Weiner: Right, but I ... I was hoping that Kevin Boyd was on here as well, because we're ... we, I think ... I
mean, am I wrong, Mr. Mayor, that we ought to be able to talk, ask questions of everybody
who's talked?
Teague: Yeah ... yes, and we also have our staff here as well.
Dilkes: (mumbled) is there another witness who is ... is going to present testimony? It might make sense
to get that—done (both talking)
Clore: GT Karr is the person that we've consulted with. He has been on the Commission. He is an
expert in construction, and he ... he does a lot of siding around, um, Iowa City. He ... I think
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 25
wasn't able to get on Zoom, but I can give you the phone number, if you can unmute him and
ask him questions.
Teague: Oh, so he's on the phone. Yep. All right, we're gonna...
Dilkes: (both talking, garbled) ...that we ask him questions. I'm just ... if he ... if (both talking, garbled)
present on behalf of the applicants, he's certainly free to do that, and then I think it'd be
appropriate for questions.
Teague: Okay (both talking)
Karr: This is GT I'm on.
Dilkes:Okay! Great.
Karr: Apologies. Uh, four kids kicked me off the internet as soon as you were ready for me, so I do
apologize. Um, my name is GT Karr. Um, I did serve on the Commission with Gosia and, um,
and I have been, uh, in remodeling and siding for about, uh, little over 25 years. Um, and Gosia
did consult with me on this. Um, I have a ... I had a little interaction with some staff on this, but
I think ... just looking at this, it's difficult for me when I had my contractor hat on to see why the
examples that they've presented were allowed and why we were asked to take all the siding off.
I don't quite understand that. Um, and then I have a difficult time just .... we (mumbled) and
what they can do and can't do in historic preservation, uh, probably at least monthly if not
weekly after the derecho, and I will admit that after serving on the Commission for multiple
years and quarter century of experience, I still don't understand the rules. Um, so ... I think it's a
little.... confusing to ... to look at the, believe it was the Seymour example which had vinyl siding
on it. They let them replace the windows. It's extremely easy to take vinyl siding off, look
underneath. I could do it with my bare hands in about three minutes and put it back on. Taking
metal siding off is a little bit more difficult. It is doable. Um, when I was asked to look at this,
my understanding was we were to remove everything, um, which then you have a vulnerable,
uh, pretty expansive area that we've got to deal with, and then the other issue here that I think,
uh, I might have gotten dropped on the call, but they have holes in the siding, there's insulation
in the walls. So we have some issues with how we're going to control moisture, and I don't
know as a contractor how I'm supposed to make sure that we're not allowing moisture to get
into the wall assembly, if I can't get rotten sheathing out, and on at least three sides of that
house, that could be a potential, if I don't take the wood siding underneath the aluminum
(mumbled) There's no way for me to fix that. So ... again, with my contractor hat, that's a very
difficult thing to even bid or give them ideas on numbers and we don't have a (mumbled) and I
don't think it's at all unrealistic (mumbled) 50K (mumbled) six figures looking at this, and to
ask a homeowner to take all the siding off, open it up, and then be told what you can do when
you have two or three examples, but we're clearly were allowed recently. I remember the
projects when I was on the Commission for some of these. It just doesn't make sense to me.
Um, and then my final point would just be ... I would ask Council, and I know staff is working
on this and I appreciate that. I know it's not an easy thing to do, but this is an example of one of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 26
the original reasons why I asked to be on the Commission, and some of you Council Members
actually, uh, endorsed me for that and I appreciate that, but it was (mumbled) simplify the
project, and if I can't ... not claiming to be the smartest person in the world, but if I can't answer
this question with the experience I have, I don't know how you're going to expect a homeowner
to navigate this, and this is two previous Commissioners and somebody in remodeling. I do this
for a living full time. I think we need to look at a way to streamline this for everybody and
make it more consistent across the board. So ... um, I just wanted to hit those and just kind of
figure out a way that we can value historic preservation, valuable... value affordable housing,
and then also I think Adam mentioned earlier, we ... we've got a huge goal with our climate
action plan to increase energy efficiency and health and homes and this is a pretty good
example of homeowners that want to invest (garbled) are having difficult doing it. So, that's all
I have. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Are there any questions for any of the, uh, presenters, uh, right now from
Councilors:
Salih: I have a question for Kevin. Kevin, I just want to ask you, where you on the Council, uh, the
Commission, like a Commissioner, when they ...as ... as an example has been approved and, if so,
why you think this is different.
Boyd: Yeah, uh, thank you for asking. So for all of the presenta... the other houses that were referenced,
we ... we had pieces of information. So for the Seymour Avenue house, we knew that there was
the original historic siding, had asbestos shingles. Those have long been removed, and layers of
kind of the non -historic siding rotted. That's kind of what you saw in the before picture. And
so when the applicant removed ... you know, they ...they removed some of the non -historic siding
and confirmed there was evidence of those shingles on the house. (mumbled) shingle was used
to match the original material. The key piece on Seymour Avenue that we don't have here is we
have evidence of what the original material was. On the Summit Street house, the 725 Summit
Street. This was before my time on the Commission, but I looked it up and, again, there was a
portion of the non -historic siding that was taken off so that we could identify that there was not
any siding underneath at all in that particular case, and then we approved the repla... replacement
siding in that case. The Clark Street house, I think the... the one with the moisture that came up
was actually the one next door to the one that was in the photo, um, 425. And that had a ... a
moisture issue and we could see both visual evidence of that, and there was a moisture meter
that to ... that told us that those were failing, and that Summit Street house actually asked us
about removing all of their original siding and ... and replacing it with something else, and when
they learned that that was not allowed in the guidelines, they ...they repaired, rather than replace.
In each of these cases the Commission had something that it does not have from this applicant —
some kind of documented evidence of the condi ... of the condition under the non -historic siding.
That's the issue here.
Thomas: Kevin, could you speak to that other issue, which is to what degree does the current siding
need to be removed for you to be able to make that assessment?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 27
Boyd: Yeah ... you know, I ... I have not been to their ...to the house, but you know what the ... the
Commission did approve was replacement of deteriorated siding or trim, after a review of
documentation of staff or Chair. So that's what the Commission did approve. And ... and I don't
know that it does not, in my mind as one of the ... as someone who is approving the proposal be
expedited, so it doesn't have to go back to the Commission. We can kind of work on it more
rapidly. You know, it just needs to be enough so that we know what the condition is. If it's
not ... if the third of the house isn't there, then that'll be pretty quickly identified. You know, if
the condition of the existing wood is ... and trim are gone, and you don't have to have a lot of
area to figure out what the original condition is. And if that's, you know, I'm saying what the
Commission passed was either the repair of what is there or the replacement if..once we know
kind of what the condition is, and that's... that's kind of, to me, the issue, um, the issue here is
that, you know, in the other cases, and the ... and ... we had some evidence of what the condition
is. Here we ... here we don't.
Teague: Any other questions by Councilors?
Bergus: Yeah, I just want to follow up on, Kevin, um, what you were just saying in terms of...if I was
following the presentation, and thank you to the applicants for ...for having that so organized,
really appreciate that... that... that if the, um, under the certificate that was approved by the
Commission and understanding that you need to assess the condition of what's underneath the
siding, would the exception for what isn't technically or economically feasible fall with ... within
what was approved, or would that have to go back to the Commission? So let's say based on
the condition of what was there, it could be repaired, but it's just not feasible, is that...
Boyd: Yeah, I think ... I think that ... I don't think that we have ... we have not approved an exception, but...
but ... what we did approve was I think a lot of leeway for, you know, a replacement if...if there's
other stuff, but we did not approve an exception with the ... with the ... with what we did approve,
with the ... the current... the existing Certificate of Appropriateness.
Bergus: Okay, but if it is missing on the third of the house, has holes, you know, that compromise the
integrity where the insulation was installed and is water damaged. If that's the case (both
talking) once you assess it, then it can be replaced with the materials that the applicant would
like to use. Is that right?
Boyd: That's correct. That's correct.
Bergus: So it's really an issue of the ability to assess it.
Boyd: Right, because the ... the challenge is if we ... if we don't, then ... then the other people who we've
been asked to .... like we're trying to treat people equally, and if we ask for the condition
underneath for some, we need to ask for it for ...for all.
Weiner: I mean this ... this also comes back to the question I was ... I was asking before GT Karr had the
opportunity to speak, which is how much of it .... do you need to see? Where... we've heard both
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 28
that the ... that you need to see sort of a small par ...portion of it, and they ...you need all of it off. I
mean clearly there isn't any original siding on a third of the house ... to begin with. (both talking,
garbled) That part confused me, why ...I mean and I appreciate again also as Councilor Bergus
said, the thorough presentations. What... what... but to me there... there's, we're seeing a ... a ... two
different standards here and I'm trying to understand which one is the cor....
Boyd: Yeah, I don't ... there isn't... there's no kind of set rule of like (mumbled) take it all off or not take it
all off. We just kind of need to know what the condition is, so if...in my mind, right, I'm one of
the people that the Commission approved to, you know, make this assessment. And, you know,
in my mind, we just need to know what the condition is, and if that can be, you know, I think
if...if there's... there's probably a couple of different issues here, right? If there's no siding under
one, we just need to document that evidence, so that we can tell, you know, future applicants,
this is what we know. If we... if there are moisture issues, we might want to let it take a small
piece off and let it air out for a day or two to really figure out what the moisture issue is ... would
be. (mumbled) and you know, and I ... it would need to be enough to kind of know if there is
original trim or not, right? That's I think really the, you know, the standard, but I don't think it
is ... in my mind what the Commission approved gave a lot of leeway to myself and to, um, and
to staff to be able to kind of work with the property owners to figure out what ... what the ... once
we know what the condition is, we're ready to go, but I don't, you know, I'm not a ... I haven't had
to do this before, right, so I ... but I imagine it's not, right, it's enough to be able to kind of see
what the condition is and not much more.
Weiner: (mumbled) if I understood, I'm sorry, just as quick follow up, and to see what the original
siding was or what it ... what it ... what it actually looked like, is that a piece of it as well?
Boyd: Yep, that's part of it. Yep, because (mumbled) because the replacement should try to look like
that, if...once we know what ... if we know what it looks like. If we don't know, like the project
on Summit Street, we didn't know, right, cause there was no historic siding at all had been
removed. Um, then that's where the Commission has some leeway to kind of just to ... to decide,
and they put in that... that particular applicant put in that application and the Commission
approved what they, urn, what they ...what they asked for.
Teague: To get a little clarity. (both talking)
Clore: Oh, sorry. I ... I guess just hearing this, this is very different than the last email and the quote
from the last email that we have from staff, um, you know, saying, and I quote, "Seeing one
area or one side is not enough for staff to approve removal." You know, that ... that was what we
were told. So this...this is a very different conversation today than what we had previously.
Boyd: Well, I can tell you what the ... what the Commission approved, right, which is that ... uh, the
removal of aluminum siding, repair the original siding and trim, or replacement (mumbled)
deterioration of siding and trim, following review and documentation by staff and chair. And
I'm one of those two people. (mumbled) Yeah.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 29
Teague: So I guess this is more of a question for, um, whomever want to take a stab at it. So the
Certificate of Appropriateness, essentially there is still opportunity to show evidence of the lack
of trim of one third of the house. Um, one third of the house not having wood, as well as maybe
the... addressing the water barrier. There's still opportunity to shi... to ... to show this evidence, is
that correct?
Boyd: That's correct, right. We didn't ... we didn't have that at the Commission meeting or prior to the
Commission meeting, right? We had ... people had said things, but we had no kind of evidence
of what the condition was, and that's what ... that's what the Commission was looking for. And
so we ... we denied the original application, but passed one that allowed us to get that assessment
of the ... of the original condition, and then we can make a path forward.
Teague: And ... and my assumption is for the homeowners that they're really wanting to know a little bit
up front before they go through a lot of removal, um, what options they would have. One ... one
question I might propose honestly is we ma ... we not close the public hearing and we allow the
homeowners and the Commissioners further discussion. Because I think that there's, at least in
my mind, if we need to ... if we're going to be very specific about what our request would be, it
would be to really answer the question. Well, deal with the question about the evidence, of
being presented by the homeowners to the City staff and to the Commissioners, and from there,
it comes back to Council, but that ... that would be my assumption. Otherwise, um, evidence
hasn't been shown, you know ... well, I think that's the question, you know, has the evidence been
shown.
Clore: So ... so, I'm sorry for interrupting, can I ... can I speak? I'm sorry.
Teague: Yes!
Clore: I, you know, we were trying to do that. That was part of the (mumbled) discussing before the
HPC meeting. We were trying to figure out how much siding needs to be taken off, what do
they need for evidence? They weren't... they did not allow us to show them the evidence. They
told us that seeing one area or...or side is not enough. So I don't understand... why we're hearing
something different today, I guess, and... and... and there are no clear rules to follow, you know,
and .... and I ... I just ... I'm trying to protect the home that I love, you know. We ... we've been
trying to take really good care of a home that, you know, we had a bathroom leaking into our
kitchen. It's an old home. We're trying to protect it for the next hundred years, and I can't
imagine how we can do that without protecting it from the water coming in through the holes. I
mean it's essentially, you know, the moisture has been trapped between the metal siding and the
wood, and it just keeps going in through the holes that have been drilled that, you know, when
we opened up the walls here we can see through to the metal siding. So we know the holes are
there, and so I don't know if showing the Commission or the staff pictures of that is enough, or
if GT removes a portion of the siding and shows pictures of that or measures the moisture, is
that enough? From what we heard during the meeting was that we had to expose the whole
house, and once the whole house is exposed, we're not allowed to put that metal siding back on,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 30
and we're essentially have no other options. We have to use wood, and ... and I ... I'm sorry. I'll
probably get emotional about, you know, because it is a place where we raising our children.
Teague: Yep. One ... one thing I might suggest to kind of move us a little forward here, um, we don't
want to close ... well, we're going to allow the public to talk on this topic in one second. So,
Councilors, what I might sug... what I might personally suggest is we ... it sounds like the
homeowners have some evidence that they can present... to staff and to the Commission. Um,
and I would propose that we not close the public hearing..um, and then we bring this back ... uh,
next week ... or our next meeting.
Salih: (several talking, garbled) ...need to continue the public hearing and I will (mumbled) now or later
can just tell the owner exactly what they need to do in order to show him what, you know, what
the evidence. So ... and made it clear to them so next time will come with more information. I
think (mumbled) but maybe there is misunderstanding there and I thinks for the Mayor to
continue the public hearing, that's like a smart idea so we can hope on this. Yeah.
Weiner: I would suggest that staff coordinate as well with ... with this so that every ... so that people are
speaking... at the same, um, the same definition.
Taylor: I ... I agree, because I ... I'm as confused as I think the homeowners are, uh, as far as how much
siding they really do need to remove to ... to prove that the moisture is there. So I think some
questions need to be answered, cause when I first read through it, it made almost made it sound
as though they weren't willing to remove any at all, but I ... sounds as though they are. They just
need to know how much, and I can't understand that they would need to do the whole house,
but some of those kinds of questions need to be answered, I think. So I would agree with
continuing.
Teague: All right. So we ... we will have to, um, at least allow the public to weigh in on this topic, and
then I won't close the public hearing. Am I hearing from the majority of Council that we want
to direct the staff ..and really direct the staff, um, to work with the homeowner and the
Commission, um, and... related to evidence specifically and then come back at our next
meeting. So that's what we're going to direct the staff to do. Okay. I'm going to open up the
public... well the public hearing is (laughs) already open. I'm going to ask if anyone from the
public would like to address this topic. Please do so now. And I ... GT Karr, you can speak if
you would like to ... and you're on mute.
Karr: Thank you. I ... I want to just echo what every Council Member that spoke up said. I think that's a
fantastic idea and I think it was clear that we've got some misunderstandings and reiterate that
we have two former Commission... Commissioners who served on the Historic Preservation
Commission that are not understanding what the guidelines are. I think that's an important
takeaway, and the second is if we could just get staff to tell us exactly how much they need off
and then at least allow us to reinstall the metal siding that we take off, so they at least have
something covering their house, and they're not in a vulnerable position, I think would be
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 31
another clarifying point that I would request to someone who is having to do the work. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one .... so (both talking)
Salih: Mayor ...if you don't mind, can I just say something?
Teague: Yes!
Salih: I guess, you know, the Commissioner, I thinks you ... you have guideline, you have city, like City
code that you follow, and you are doing what you supposed to do, but I really would like
the ... the Commissioner to look up the code, the existing code, and... that's just an idea, because I
believe there is many thing that is happening now is not really consistent with old house, is
that... and the derecho that we have, and all of those damage is start happening and affecting old
houses, and it's still we have the same code that we are following, regardless of what happening
now. Maybe in the future, or the near future, if you can review the code and just try to figure
out what kind of little change you need to make so will, you know, give those homeowner who
decide to have this historic preservations, uh, you know, like their home to be historic, if they
have this kind of damage what should they do.
Teague: Point well taken. Thank you so much. All right. So could I get a motion to defer?
Dilkes: (garbled) need the public hearing, please.
Teague: Oh, sorry! Yes, would anyone else from the public like to address this topic? Please raise your
hand. Seeing no one ... could I get a motion to defer?
Mims: I'll move to continue the public hearing.
Teague: Yes, all right, great.
Dilkes: (mumbled) to the 16"'?
Teague: Yes, to the 16'b. And we'll do a roll call ... please. Motion passes 7-0. Thank you all for
coming.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 32
12. American Legion Road Improvements — Resolution approving project manual and
estimate of cost for the construction of the American Legion Road Improvements Project
(STP -U-3715(666)--70-52), establishing amount of bid security to accompany each bid,
directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and fixing time and place for receipt of bids.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: I'm going to open the public hearing. Welcome!
Sovers: Good evening, Mayor and Council, Scott Sovers, Assistant City Engineer. Just have a brief
presentation here for you today. Starting off, this project generally includes reconstruction of
American Legion Road from a rural to an urban roadway with on -street bike facilities and
sidewalks. (mumbled) of the project as shown on this first slide are from Scott Boulevard to
Taft Avenue. Also included in the project is the construction of a single -lane roundabout at the
American Legion Road and Scott Boulevard intersection, a pedestrian underpass near Hoover
School, and all new public utilities, which includes storm sewer, sanitary sewer, water main, IT
facilities. The proposed typical section for American Legion Road is a 34 -foot wide payment
measuring from back of curb to back of curb. This includes two 10 -foot travel lanes, one in
either direction, and seven -foot, on -street buffered bike lanes. Outside of the roadway there
will be a I0 -foot sidewalk on the north side and a si... a six-foot sidewalk on the south side.
Right-of-way is 100 -foot, which is consistent with our City code requirements. Lastly, the ... the
roadway geom... geometry for American Legion Road was established using a 25 -mile- an -hour
design speed. This project design speed and the posted speed will be the same at 25 -mile -an -
hour. As mentioned earlier, the project includes a single -lane roundabout at the Scott
Boulevard, American Legion Road intersection. For frame of reference, this roundabout will be
approximately the same size as the two that were constructed on Sycamore Street near
Alexander School in 2015. Because of the amount of truck traffic that utilizes the Scott
Boulevard corridor, the roundabout was sized to be able to handle large vehicles, including
semis. If these larger vehicles have difficulty negotiating the required movements at the
intersection, a truck (mumbled) is included to allow for off tracking... into the interior portion of
the roundabout. To ensure pedestrian (mumbled) and bicycles are to be able to safely utilize the
intersection at night, lighting will also be installed. The pedestrian underpass that will be
located approximately 300 foot west of the American Legion Road (mumbled) intersection will
be a 12 -foot wide by nine -foot high reinforced concrete tunnel. (mumbled) pedestrian safety,
the tunnel will be lit at night and the ends of the tunnel will include railings, similar to what is
shown in the photo in the upper left corner of the slide. We've also incorporated pedestrian
refuge for the western crossing... crossing of American Legion Road and the (mumbled) Road
intersection. The intent of this refuge is to allow for pedestrians to safely stop in the center of
the street if they cannot make it entirely across the approach when traffic volumes are high on
American Legion Road. The estimated construction costs for the project is $7,850,000. In
regards to schedule, we are hosting the public hearing tonight, which is February 2°d Because
this project has federal funding, it will be let through the Iowa DOT on March 16th of this year.
We will then bring this project back to you for award at the April 6 Council meeting. Construct
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 33
(mumbled) to start in late April this year and will finish up in the fall of 2022. That concludes
my presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that any of you may have.
Teague: Any questions for Scott? Hearing none. Thank you, Scott.
Sovers: You're welcome!
Teague: Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please raise your hand and I'll
call upon you. Seeing no one, I'm going to close the public hearing. All right, could I get a
motion to approve? (garbled) Moved (garbled), seconded by Mims. Council discussion?
2. Consider a Resolution
Mims: It's nice to see this project going forward, especially with the new Hoover Elementary School
out there, making it safer for kids to get across that road and the tunnel underneath to help them
as well, and the sidewalks that will go along with that. So glad to see this moving forward.
Teague: Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 34
13. Law Enforcement Liaison Partnership Agreement — Resolution approving and
authorizing the Mayor to sign and the City Clerk to attest an Agreement with CommUnity
and Foundation 2, Inc. for Law Enforcement Liaison Support.
Teague: Could I get a motion to approve?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Bergus: Seconded, Bergus.
Teague: All right, staff presentation.
Fruin: All right, uh, thank you, Mayor. This is Geoff Fruin, City Manager. I'm going to provide some
introductory remarks here, and then we have representatives from both Foundation 2 and
CommUnity that are here tonight to give you a little bit more background. But this agreement
formalizes the partnership between the City of Iowa City and Foundation 2 and CommUnity
Crisis Services for a law enforcement liaison position. The position will not be employed by
the City, but will be employed by CommUnity as part of their 24/7, 365 mobile crisis service
that exists today, and I'm sure Becci Reedus, who will address you shortly, could ... uh... uh, she
could tell you more about that mobile crisis service. If you have questions about... about that. I
want to stress one thing. This is clearly rooted in the preliminary plan that I presented to you in
December, and I'd like to just remind you of the objectives of that plan as it relates to crisis
calls for service that come into the police department. Our priority is going to continue to be to
prevent those calls from service and to divert all calls that are possible to an outside agency. So
when law enforcement is not needed to respond, our goal is to divert those to the mobile crisis
team. That's going to take a lot of work. That ... that team is not, uh, although they're... they're
working around the clock, again, 24/7, all days of the year, they are not equipped to handle all
of the calls that come in, and we currently don't have an integrated dispatch system with them.
So it's going to take some work to bolster that team and to incorporate them into dispatch to
where they can take all those calls and ... and respond to them in a timely manner in the
community, but that's our goal. We want to continue to work towards preventing those calls and
then if ones that do come in, again, pushing those to a non -law enforcement response. But the
plan also recognizes and... and our calls for service data recognizes as well that not all calls
can ... can be safely responded to by a civilian team, and that we are going to have crisis calls
that require a law enforcement presence, and... and it's that sliver of calls that we're really
aiming at with ... with this ... this partnership here. So this partnership would ... would have a ... a
new employee of CommUnity's mobile crisis team embedded in the police department, uh, that
would be available to co -respond with our officers on crisis calls, and in those situations, the
officer's primary responsibility is going to be to secure the scene, make sure it's safe, and allow
that mobile crisis professional to use their professional training to de-escalate the situation and
connect the person in crisis with the needed services that we have available in the community.
The ... some other benefits to this, and Sarah Nelson's here and ... with Foundation 2 and can
speak to some of the experiences they've had in Linn County with this type of position. But we
shouldn't look at this as a, uh, that the sole benefit is the assistance on those calls made. We
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 35
fully expect that the presence of this position will help us increase our referrals to mobile crisis
by helping us train and educate our officers, and... and just getting them more familiar with the
types of calls that mobile crisis can ... can safely intervene on, and I think one thing I've learned
in ... in talking through this with Sarah and others is ... is that there's ... we should expect a positive
impact on officer discretion too, so ... and ... and that's not just on those calls with that mobile
crisis person presence, but just through observation and learning from this individual and that
greater integration with mobile crisis. Those officers day-to-day decision makings are going to
be influenced over time in a positive manner. So this opportunity came to us back in the fall of
last year. The mental health disability services of the East Central Region, oftentimes just
referred to as our mental health region here, um, provided a grant opportunity for law
enforcement liaison positions. We applied for that position and ultimately were awarded that
funding, and that position will provide 100% of the salary costs in year one, and then every year
it'll go down 25%, until it hits 25% and that'll be their contribution, uh, for this position in
perpetuity. So the City is going to be responsible for picking up the balance of that cost. So we
will be working with CommUnity to fill the gap when whatever the East Central Region doesn't
fund in future years. That'll be from the police department budget. With ... with that, Mayor, I'd
be happy to answer questions, but I suggest before you jump into questions that you have the
partners on this agreement, again, Foundation 2 in Linn County and CommUnity Crisis
Services here in Johnson County, uh, talk a little bit about the partnership from their
perspective.
Teague: Sure, why don't we have Becci Reedus from CommUnity Crisis Services.
Reedus: Okay, um, good evening, everybody. Um, here to talk a ... a little bit about this program.
Thanks, Geoff. That was a really great overview about, you know, what we're doing and where
we're going. I think we're ... one of the things I want emphasis is that for mobile crisis to the co -
responding model, which is what we're discussing tonight, to the crisis team models is ... these
are different responses. They're important, um, with these different response models about
responding to incidents that we ... we use the appropriate response, or the least res... restrictive
response. As Geoff mentioned, this funding opportunity came to us in the fall, and so we
decided to apply for it, and it gives us a really great opportunity to develop this co -responding
model where we use a police officer, a law enforcement presence, in addition to a mental health
counselor in responding to a particular call, where this particular call would not be one where
we would spend ... send only a team of mental health counselors out to it. What Geoff also
alluded to though is that this is just a ... a piece of what we're working on. We're also respond,
um, working on developing crisis teams or an expansion of our mobile crisis program that's
been very successful here in Johnson County since 2015, so that we can have counselors
responding to calls also. The other thing that we discussed with Geoff was doing some training
with local dispatch, with ... with the Johnson County Emergency Communication Center to train
dispatchers in ... in recognition of certain types of calls also. We ... in ... in applying for this grant
one of the things I discussed with the East Central Region for mental health services was that
Foundation 2 has had a model o£ -program for the past sev...several years. I think, um, think
it's, uh, funded through the Department of Justice, and so the ... they really wanted us to have
Foundation 2 be in that role of supporting us, of training us, um, which we're really fortunate to
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 36
have that, because they have this experience and they can help us, I think, get this program
from, you know, the boardroom to success a whole lot quicker than if we were to do it without
any kind of training. So I think we're lucky to have that. I've met with Sarah Nelson, who is
standing by to also add a little bit of her experience with the program in Cedar Rapids. She's
standing by to talk to you about that, and we ... I've really learned quite a bit thus far and they'll
be assisting us from the hiring process to developing the ... the strategic group of individuals that
will be meeting on a regular basis to ensure the success of the program. I see that it's got a lot
of elements for success, and I'm really excited about it. So I ... I think probably it would be best
if we were ... if we heard from Sarah a little bit and then, you know, we can entertain some
questions after that.
Teague: Thank you, Becci, and welcome Sarah from Foundation 2.
Nelson: Hello. So I just want to share a little bit about the program design. So we started the project
initially with the Cedar Rapids Police Department in January of 2017, as we began to ... began to
apply for the Department of Justice funding, and we were funded March 2018 and that's when
we lured our first liaison to be embedded within that department. So we've been doing it for
several years at this point, and we've had the technical assistance of the Department of Justice to
help design and craft the program and the model as we have gone along, um, and the ... the
primary goal, and others have emphasized this, but I think it's ... it's important is that we ... the
goal of this program is to divert people from the criminal justice system. It is to divert people
from arrest and to make sure that they are being connected to the community resources that they
need, the treatment resources they need, instead of getting a criminal charge or perhaps going to
jail. So that's the ultimate goal of the program. Um, the... having access to the mental health
counselor on a regular basis builds that relationship between the community-based provider,
such as CommUnity and the police department, to create a co -learning environment, which is
really important to figure out how they can best work together and learn from each other, and as
Geoff alluded to, it also expands those opportunities for law enforcement seeing where mobile
crisis can be utilized and where we can have the most least restrictive intervention with
somebody that's either having a mental health crisis or has a co-occurring disorder with
substance use, um, a youth in crisis, etc. So ... with that diversion, you know, it provides a
response that is designed to de-escalate and reduce that likelihood of escalation, and we know
that, you know, sometimes law enforcement presence and uniforms and things of that nature can
provide that escalation and so this team provides something different to the community, um, in
that way. The, um, some of the data and the outcomes on the program, to give you an example,
in ... in 2020, calendar year 2020, we had 429 contacts in the Cedar Rapids Police Department
alone. And 89% of those contacts were diverted from any charges or arrest, and the other 11 %,
although there may have been an arrest sometimes that LE liaison is called out to help after an
arrest when there wasn't able to be officer discretion and the arrest had to take place to help that
individual and still connect with them so that they can connect with them, um, post -arrest,
which is something that the LE liaisons do as well. So, um, that, you know, that's... that's a lot
of impact for one individual, um, and we have been able to expand that program to the Marion
Police Department, to the Linn County Sheriffs Office, to adding another LE liaison with the
Cedar Rapids Police Department, so it's been very successful in having that impact where law
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 37
enforcement are really happy to have the LE liaison on the team and have somebody that has
that expertise in mental health and can assist on those calls. Geoff talked a little bit about part
of the program and the model being around officer discretion. One of the things that, uh, in the
strategic planning with the Cedar Rapids Police Department that we really focused on was
learning about what charges do officers have discretion on in the field, in terms of, you know,
trespassing, public intox, disorderly conduct. What are those discretionary charges that could
be explored in terms of if we know this is a mental health crisis, you know, the officer has the
discretion to not charge that individual and instead seek the appropriate resources. So that is
where that impact on the community is ... is fairly significant is through those conversations and
that co -learning, and that ... that collaboration together to figuring out how we can best meet
those needs. (mumbled) the primary concern, uh, 60 to 70% of the people served in 2020 was
adult mental health, followed most closely by youth mental health, and then adult substance
use, just to give you an idea of some of the primary presenting issues. And I think that
is ... that ... that's pretty much the basics of the short version of...of what the program looks like.
Teague: Thank you, Sarah. All right, we ... uh, any Coun... uh, questions ... by the Councilors?
Bergus: I just want ... I had a question for Becci. I just wanted to clarify, I think I heard you say that this
particular position is for response for calls when mobile crisis wouldn't be going on their own,
is that... did I understand that correctly?
Reedus: Uh.... yes, correct. So one of the ... Geoff, um ... um, talked about expansion of the mobile crisis
team that right now the way the team is funded through emerg... primarily through ECR. Um,
we also get some victim assistance money for that. Um, it is ... we do not have full-time
counselors 24/7. So in order to utilize crisis teams, which is, um, you know, a team without any
law enforcement presence, where we are going to need to look at expanding that, and that is
something that I'm working on right now. Met with Geoff initially... it's been a couple of months
ago, had some things on my calendar so I'm, uh, clearing my calendar off to start to deal with
some of the support and funding issues in ... in Johnson County to get that program off of the
drawing board into reality. So that's what we're doing right now is taking a look at expanding
mobile crisis, um, to develop crisis teams. We talk about CAHOOTS a lot and CAHOOTS is a
crisis team model. It's a brand of a crisis team model, um, that deals with a wide range of
mental health related crises, and that's what we're going to look at also expanding. So this is a
little bit different in that it use a co -responding team of law enforcement and a ment... mental
health liaison together. Um, different responses from the different two teams.
Bergus: Thank you, Becci.
Reedus: Yep.
Teague: Any other questions by Councilors? All right. (both talking) Oh, please, go right ahead.
Weiner: (mumbled) just trying to figure out how... how... how to phrase this. I wanted to ask Sarah
Nelson if the ... the experience that you've had in Cedar Rapids to date, or...or how the reaction of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 38
the community has been to a law enforcement officer accompanying a mental health
professional, and how ...and how that dynamic has worked with the community.
Nelson: So in terms of -just for a little clarification, are you talking about in terms of how the
community member receives that team, or how the community has responded to the program?
Weiner: Other community member, the person in crisis or the... the... receives that team, does ... does
(coughing) having law enforcement present tend to ... tend to amp up the situation or is the law
enforcement... is law enforcement co -responder able to help alleviate the... whatever the threat or
perceived threat is so that the mental health professional can operate.
Nelson: So that's an important question and it's an important part of the discussions as we all work
together to design this because, you know, the calls for, as Becci talked about, you know, this
differentiates between mobile crisis and the LE liaison in that, you know, these are calls that are
coming in through dispatch that otherwise would just have police responding, whereas now this
is giving the community the opportunity to have a mental health person respond with the
officer, who can make sure the scene is secure and then can totally step back and say, you know,
we'll let you take it from here to work with this individual on this crisis, and that's something
that our LE liaison with CRPD does quite frequently is she'll go out with the officer and... and
once the situation is safe, that officer can remove themself from being physically present,
and ... and she'll go and work with that client. There was a client known to her, for example, that
she knew was escalated by police presence and so she said, you know, I'm comfortable working
with this client, if you don't mind waiting in the car. I've worked with them many times, and
that allowed them to ... to work together in a way that didn't escalate the situation. So it's
providing an opportunity where there wasn't one before, because these weren't calls that were
coming in on the mobile crisis dispatch for CommUnity, but coming in on ... on 9-1-1 for a
mental health professional to respond versus police alone. So the response is ... definitely
provides an environment where it's not going to escalate, um, if that's something that's
triggering to that individual, and then as these teams work together, they start to know, you
know, a lot of the individuals that they're responding to and sometimes the LE liaison will go
out on their own without law enforcement to meet with that individual because they're well
known to them, they're not concerned about safety, you know, and those are the kind of
conversations that take place between the community-based organization, community staff
mobile crisis, and law enforcement is sometimes, you know, mobile crisis goes out on ... on
thousands of calls that are very much similar individuals, and you know, for .... for Foundation
2, for example, we've been doing mobile crisis since 2003. We go out on many of the exact
same clients that police get calls on, and we've never had a safety issue, and so some of it is just
working through some of the, you know, the concerns that law enforcement have for wanting to
keep everybody safe, which we value very much and knowing that there are a lot of mental
health responses that ... that don't require law enforcement, and so this allows for that kind of co -
learning and everybody starting to talk about what that can look like in the community. Did that
answer your question?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 39
Weiner: Um, it did, and you actually expanded on, I mean, it sounds almost like it's aimed at being
ultimately a bridge to a ... a newer form of...a different form of response than we've been
accustomed to.
Nelson: I think it definitely creates opportunity for that and that partnership. It's why ...central to this
model is that the mental health LE liaison is never an employee of the police department, and
that individual or individuals, as the program expands, is always based in that community crisis
services agency because it provides that co -learning, it provides that supervision from a
community-based organization, and... and it creates ... if it was just another staff member of the
police department, there wouldn't be anything different about it, right? So that's what makes it
so unique and creates that opportunity for impact is that we're really partnering and learning
together about how to best serve each other and increase the impact and ... and the positive
outcomes for the community.
Reedus: I don't know, can I add ... oh, I can add (laughs) without raising my hand. Um, one of the things
I also wanted to say in listening to Sarah, um, the couple of months that I've spent with her,
um ... um, understanding the program is ... and again mentioned earlier tonight, is mobile crisis
calls go in through a, um, a separate dispatch. They don't go in through 9-1-1, and this mental
health liaison, the learning opportunities that will take place with the police department, um,
that this individual may be able to identify also some calls that might go in through 9-1 dispatch
that are more appropriately handled by mobile crisis response. So I believe it's ... it's going to be
the start, um, we're going to start to see really how impactful expanding mobile crisis or
developing that crisis team for non -police responses is also going to be ... that's going to be
another outcome of this.
Teague: Great, thanks (both talking)
Taylor: That kind of answers my question. I wasn't certain how this position or title would correspond
with on..or affect your ..your current mobile community crisis response team, uh, that's utilized
now and also kind of along with that, how it coincides with the GuideLink Center and their
mission, because the mission statement kind of sounds the same as far as providing increased
access to mental health resources, diversion from hospitalization and jail, and other treatment
services. So I ... are they going to work very closely with them?
Reedus: Well I ... yeah, I imagine there is going to be a lot of learning as ... as we ... as GuideLink begins
to roll up, remembering that access centers in Iowa are a completely different service. But there
are a lot of calls when we have an emergency, we're ... we're just ... we're programmed to call 9-1-
1. We're not always programmed to, you know, call a crisis team or reach out to a crisis center.
So I think that as we move forward with the implementation of the the co -responding program
and GuideLink, and building up the crisis team model, so that we can respond more efficiently,
and what we're really talking about is really developing a 24/7 of staffing for that crisis team
model. Um, that's what we'll begin to see hopefully, and ... and the re-education of 9-1-1
dispatch, we'll... we'll start to be able to see that ... that, you know, people have different options
in the community, um, that they know they can call a crisis (mumbled) team, or even if they do
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 40
call 9-1-I dispatch they, you know, that they can get a co- responder team out, rather than just,
you know, than a police team, if that's not what they need.
Teague: Any other questions fon.. for... for (both talking) Yeah, go right ahead!
Taylor: All right. Yeah, thank you, Becci, but I think along with that I was going to mention this as a
concern or question I had, and perhaps you can answer it or not. Item four in the agreement
states that the hours would be what best serves the needs of the community. So I was a little
confused what exactly is this position. It says it's full-time, uh, but is this more of a coordinator
kind of position and there would be actual crisis workers then who would go out on the calls?
Reedus: Nope, this is for the, um, so we're... what we're hiring under this grant is a 40 hour a week
mental health liaison who will be working directly with a team of police officers, and the
coordination of the program, supervision of the program is going to happen through mobile
crisis and, ub, and then also we will have supervision and consultation with Foundation 2 to
implement an ongoing development of the program down the road.
Frain: Councilor Taylor, if I could add on to that. I think, um, assuming Council approval tonight, if...if
you do approve this, one of the next steps is for the three organizations to really start to dive
into the data and look at calls for service and what those trends are. We don't know if this is a
Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 5:00 position, or if it needs to be an evening position, or a
weekend position, and we want to ... we want to be making that decision with the benefit of the
data that everybody could look at and say here's where we think this person can respond to the
most calls or where there's the greatest need, and then we would ... we would hire that person
presumably to cover as much of those hours as possible.
Taylor: Thank you, Geoff.
Teague: Great. Any other questions? All right, we're going to open this up to the public. If you would
like to address this topic, please raise your hand, and we ask that you keep your comments three
to five minutes. Welcome, Rancem, followed by David.
Hamad: Hi. So this is the exact co -responder model that IFR and like literally all of Iowa City public
like rejected during the listening posts of the summer, if any of the Councilors were actually
paying attention. There's, you know, it's very obvious ... the hypocrisy is very obvious here in
that the City looked at, you know, CIT for training directives for the police department, yet
when it comes to actual CIT directives that are literally international, um, which state that
municipalities should not use co -responder models, the City turns a blind eye, i.e. (mumbled) It
doesn't matter that this is a piece of what you're working on as a group. It's not necessary and
it's simply an extension of the police industrial complex in our own community and, um, which,
you know, uses those... uses solutions... uses police us solutions for social problems. We don't
need a bridge, as Council Weiner has stated. The time is now. You can best serve your BIPOC
community by actually listening to their needs and responding to them. The most frustrating
thing here is that every Member of City Council and the City Manager have exclusively ignored
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 41
these facts and haven't even attempted to publicly discuss the feedback or why they feel
comfortable ignoring the hypocrisy of a specific proposal. We've been bringing this to you for
month after month, and we see it ... we sent you links for information so you can't say that you're
not educated about this and you still haven't even acknowledged it. Finally, CommUnity was
also present at the listening posts and they gave a lot of feedback and they never once said that
they wanted the co-respo ... co -responder model. Tonight was the first time that we've heard
Becci or anyone from CommUnity talk positively about a co -responding model. So this is very,
very interesting and hypocritical in and of itself, compared to discussions that we've had at our
listening posts. I think this is just another example of how Geoff Fruin has, you know, a plan
for just consistently moving Iowa City backwards instead of forward, even as his own
constituents have consistently pushed for the opposite. Leave CommUnity alone and instead
empower them to the job that they're already doing, with additional funding, instead of adding
more funding into a police adjacent position. If you are truly interested in diverting people
from the legal system, you wouldn't... you wouldn't insert a (mumbled) position into
CommUnity. For one, said officers need to be trained more. Are we not tired of hearing this
fallacy that is ... that literally has no basis? I'm personally tired of our City officials not listening
to our ...to their constituents. The City does not need to pick up the balance at any cost, as Geoff
said, as we don't need the position. Let's make it clear for everyone, this is just another method
to which the police budget will be increased. This is exactly what Iowa City does: create
idealistic reforms without... without the actual inclusion of BIPOC interests or voices. The
police do not need to learn more. They have shown us what they know. June 3rd has proven to
us what police ... that police do not know how to step back, as Sarah Nelson has implied earlier.
If we really want to provide something different to the community, as Nelson said earlier, you
would listen to what the community actually wants, what your actual Iowa City constituents
actually want and have showed you (garbled). Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Raneem. Welcome, David, followed by Nicholas.
Drustrup: Thank you, Mayor. Um, there's not much I can add that Raneem didn't already say better.
Um, the really frustrating thing about this is ... this ... this is another example of how Council is
just unwilling to even address the fact that very significant parts of public feedback are just not
being listened to, completely ignored. Like we get if you're going to do something else. That's
very clear, and you're going to do it this time too, but at least discuss why you're rejecting such
a large portion of public feedback. At least discuss publicly why you're going to go through
with the hypocrisy that Raneem pointed out, that ... that CIT International, the group that you all
go to for police training has explicitly said not to do co -responder models. At least discuss that,
talk about why you're going over that and ignoring that. The fact that this isn't publicly talked
about, and it just makes us feel like so many things are happening behind closed doors and our
input just simply doesn't mean anything. And this language you're using, like ... like you're
looking to ... to deflect people from being involved in the legal system. Like these are just
symbolic phrases you're using that have no meaning. If you really wanted to do that, like
Raneem said, you would simply fund and empower community in the way ...the other ways that
Becci just talked about. She gave you several other examples of the things that they would like
to do, things that the rest of the community feedback was very aligned with, the rest of the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 42
feedback at those listening posts was very aligned with. So I don't know, this is just another
series in a really long frustrating string of performative reformist solutions that aren't going to
bring us any real... any real change.
Teague: (mumbled) David. Welcome, Nicholas, followed by Em ... Emilia.
Theisen: Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, Council, once again for allowing me to speak. I don't even
really know where to begin. So I'd like to actually talk about the somewhat twisted logic of
how you... you apparently need an officer present in order to divert people away from the thing
that the officer is actually there primarily to do, cause ... cause here's the thing. We all tend to
(mumbled) like I ... I don't understand who these cops that you all think you have in your heads
are. I mean I have actually been subjected to police violence, personally. I have had a police
dog sicced on me. I have the scar on my thigh to prove it, if you want to see it. So this notion
that somehow... and... and it's really interesting to me how when specifically asked by Councilor
Weiner what the opinions of the people who receive these services are about having an officer
present, there was pure deflection, because the thing is y'all and they don't actually bother to go
to them and ask for their opinions on these questions. And that's really telling because those are
the peoples whose opinion should be centered, not the people who provide the services, not law
enforcement, not the City Manager, and let's actually talk about Mr. Fruin for a second. So he
mentioned at the beginning of his presentation that this was part of the preliminary plan that he
presented to you back in ... in December. Last time I checked that plan has not been approved.
That plan has not even been formally submitted for public comment. So why are we already
implementing the things in it? Why are we implementing the things that y'all haven't actually
discussed and approved so far? Why are we doing it on this ad hoc basis? Why don't we have
broader public comments on these things? It makes me wonder if you're actually trying to slip
it in under the radar. In fact I think (mumbled) probably what you are doing, and to be perfectly
frank, given this system that you have set up where you have, you know, 9-1-1 dispatch and a
separate mobile crisis dis ... dispatch, both of which can possibly result in law enforcement
showing up on the scene, regardless of whether or not the people who called want them there.
Then really what is the difference? I mean (laughs) previous commenter mentioned, sorry I
can't remember who it was. If it was Miss Nelson or if it was somebody else, but actually said,
like well okay, now people have, you know, a range of options to choose from. What are the
actual options if they all can result in the same thing? I don't know, I mean personally... so I've,
you know, as a teacher I've had to deal with a number of students with disabilities, with special
needs of various kinds. I would not feel comfortable calling this mobile crisis line, knowing
that there is a real possibility that a law enforcement officer is going to show up and, frankly,
possibly use violent force against someone I care about and who ... whose personal health, whose
education, whose mental well-being is my responsibility. I would not call this line. I would not
call 9-1-1. I would not call mobile crisis dispatch. I would actually probably take this up on
my own, precisely because ... I just feel like I can't trust you. It's ... it's as simple as that. This
completely obliterates all sense and all feelings of trust, and I don't know what else to say.
Thank you.
Teague: Welcome, Emilia.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 43
Roberts: Thank you, Mayor. I would just like to back everything that David, Raneem said, um, and
Nicholas, um, especially Raneem in the part she brought up about how someone said that law
enforcement would make sure the scene is secure than take a step back. Like we said, all ... the
whole meeting today. On June 3rd we saw how much restraint Iowa City Police Department
has, and it's not that much considering they tear gassed us and used less lethal force, whatever
that means, for literally absolutely no reason against the community members. Um, so I just
don't think they're ... they have any restraint. I mean it's ... there's factual evidence that they don't,
um, and also just the fact that they're all rooted in white supremacy, in fascism, and there's no
way to reform that, like we've said that every single meeting. Another thing I would like to
bring up that I think Nicholas said is the, yeah, the deflection about the community response
and how the community took what you guys were implementing or the, um, the services. I
would love to know what the responses were, and I think the deflection really says a lot about
how people probably really felt about it, and then like I brought up in two meetings ago, Denver
implicated a strategy to defund the police that worked really well. Um, that's something that
IFR, I believe, would be interested in looking at and using as a strategy, as in ... as am I myself.
So I don't understand why we're acting so clueless like we don't have things to look at and base
our strategies off of and learn off of, like this is something that (mumbled) major cities are
implementing like all over the country right now, like we can look at these things and learn
from it and bring that to our community. So like I don't understand the whole cluelessness and I
don't know, trying new things, like we're seeing these things work in other communities on
much larger scales. There's absolutely no reason why they wouldn't work here without any law
enforcement. So yeah, I would just like to really back everything that they said, especially
Raneem. I think in everyone's best interest, it would be for you guys to listen to IFR and just
help (laughs) help us help you basically. Um, help us help our community. Like this is
something that we all are really passionate about. Obviously we come here ... we've been
coming here for almost every, well not every meeting, but the last few meetings that we've been
informed about, um, and just really putting in our time and efforts into this, um, as people have
for their whole lifes, and I just think it's really important that you listen to us, especially
considering these things you ... I mean you've already had community input, um, and I think you
should listen to that, so thank you!
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? If so, please raise your hand.
Seeing no one, um, we'll move to Council discussion. And I ... I have a lot, I mean, I have a lot
to say. So, first off, I want to thank CommUnity and Foundation 2 for being present today and
sharing this information about this opportunity that we have. So I do know both CommUnity
and Foundation 2 from a personal work, uh, professional relationship. So Caring Hands and
More, my business, we had the crisis stabilization beds, and so essentially mobile .... uh,
Foundation 2 and CommUnity have worked together in the past, so this is an ... this ... even
though this is a new venture, they're working together isn't .... um, new. When we talk about
mental health professionals, these entities have that. They have great mental health
professionals. In our crisis stabilization bed, we had three beds and it was essentially, um, with
in ... individuals that had cris... was ... was in the middle of a crises, and so I'm ... I'm happy for the
partnership between these two individuals, um, in this venture. When ... because 9-1-1 calls
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 44
continue to happen within our community, there is no, as of now, Johnson County Emergency
Communications Center that will divert any type of mental health call or have any questions, as
to should this be diverted to a mental health professional or should this, you know, go to the
police department. Essentially, if it comes in, it's going to the police department. So this is an
option that we have and an opportunity where the call goes to 9-1-1 and the police department,
and the opportunity... the opportunity now is that the police officer don't go by themselves. They
actually go with a mental health professional, when that person's available and deemed, uh, and
it's deemed appropriate. So this is an opportunity that I do support. I've heard a lot of things
about, you know, the ... the community not supporting, um, a lot of things that Council ha ... is
doing or have done, but I'm black... and I talk to people in our community, and I know that 9-1-1
is a call that people make. They make that call when ... when they ...they don't under ...a lot of
people don't know about the mental health, um, the crisis stabilization or the ... the crisis line.
There's a lot of education to do, but when it comes down to the people of this community, the
people of this community are speaking, and there's a lot of voices. It's not just one voice ... that
says they want one thing. There's a lot of people, and my personal opinion is this is a part of the
process to get us to where we need to be. You may disagree with me, and that is fine, but I am
supporting of this. The one thing that I do know is that when someone is in a mental crises,
they need the help. They need the help of a mental health professional, and so calls are coming
to 9-1-1 and this is a way right now, Councilors, that we can assist in making that possible. So I
will be supporting this.
Taylor: As a health care professional, similar to you, Mayor, I believe in the principle of this and... and
believe there is a need to focus on what several of our community members, as we heard earlier,
told us over and over during the listening posts that they expressed the need for an alternative to
police intervention, uh, in particular in those cases that involve persons in a mental health crisis.
So there... there is a need for that. Uh, and with this proposal, we seem to be on the right track
and moving in a good direction. But I have one little thing to say. I don't know what people
think of this, but I'm not comfortable with the words `law enforcement' being in the title, uh, for
calls that clearly aren't criminal in nature. Uh, perhaps something like `crisis assistant patrol
liaison' or something of that nature. As you don't want to imply that any laws are being broken,
uh, this person is just in a mental health crisis. So I ... I think that's kind of important and how
the public might see it too and what it's called, and I don't mean this to be a criticism of...of
CommUnity or Foundation 2. Quite the contrary. I believe, partnership with them is ... is crucial
to this concept and ... and for its success, and I have faith that they will be a major asset to a
program like this. And I guess in closing I would just say that I ... I see this as somewhat of a
pilot program, just an idea, and as such there... there will be a lot of room for updating,
tweaking, more public input, and ... and fine tuning as we go along.
Thomas: I'll ... I'll chime in at this point. I'm certainly pleased to hear from both Foundation 2 and
CommUnity this evening. You know, I ... I would have preferred, I think, with this ... this
particular issue, since it is an important piece of our effort to, you know, divert mental health
related calls to, you know, another... toward another remedy, uh, that there had been a little bit
more ... perhaps a work session with Council where we would have had further discussion, as we
did tonight, uh, regarding„ you know, the nature of the program, how Foundation 2 and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 45
CommUnity would be approaching it and so forth. You know, I am pleased to hear what I heard
tonight. I think there are ... I think these are two organizations that really would logically be the
foundation for developing crisis team response that we heard about tonight. Uh, one ... one
suggestion I would make, and you know, I've done this in the past, uh, where I feel that there is
an organization or an individual who could bring a special expertise to the conversation.
Examples of this in the past would be Opticos, uh, on planning related issues. And Jeff Speck,
with respect to transportation issues. You know, this whole conversation that we've been having
about how to develop mental health response teams has introduced me to the the organization in
Eugene, CAHOOTS, which I've been very impressed with, not only in the way that thein.. their
organization has worked in Eugene, but the fact that since this issue has become nationalized,
they've been serving in a consulting manner with cities all over the country, you know, the size
of New York City down to smaller communities, and what ... what I would suggest, what I
would ... what I would like to see introduced into this process would be the opportunity for
CAHOOTS, a representative of CAHOOTS, to participate in the conversation of this program
that we're launching in effect, uh, with this agreement. I think they would... from what I've seen
again that, uh, it's not ... it's not one model. It's ... it's taking a set of values and an approach which
can then be adapted to different circumstances, depending upon what ... what the organizations in
a given location or locality consist of that are making up the ... the beginnings of the response
team. I do think that having CAHOOTS, a representative of that organization, to be part of the
conversation, particularly in those first couple of months where in the service delivery there will
be discussions of what the operating procedures might be, as well as what Becci was describing
as the future expansion of the crisis teams. I ... I do think that CAHOOTS would perhaps be able
to help with that, given their experience, not only in Eugene, but how they've been able to apply
that elsewhere. So, you know, my feeling would be we ... to move forward with the added
condition that we ... we do have a consultant contract with CAHOOTS to help with the
development of this plan.
Bergus: John, thanks for bringing that up because it reminded me of a work session we had months
ago, where we were talking about, you know, what would be the steps to implement something
like that, and I remember, um, the ... us talking about how in ... in talking with the folks from
Eugene, they said 9-1-1 integration is absolutely necessary. And so I'm hearing Becci, who's
our local expert in crisis response, saying this is how we get 9-1-1 dispatchers to start to
understand what would happen. We know here in ... in Johnson County what it took, the ... the
kinds of concerted and organized effort it took to ... to just get our, you know, 9-1-1 and
emergency communications kind of on the same page, and so we know that it's ... it's not
insignificant to be able to have that 9-1-1 and dispatching integrated into this system. So our
police department receives tens of thousands of calls for service every year, and we know that
some of those shouldn't be going to law enforcement at all, but they do. And this is an
opportunity for when police are dispatched, they're responding to those calls because right now
there isn't that integration with mobile crisis. They're responding to those calls with a trained
mental health professional. This is not someone who calls mobile crisis and a cop ends up
showing up. It is not that program. This is for calls from dispatch where an officer would go
and they have the benefit of a trained mental health professional who works for our trusted
community service organization, who is not a police department employee. So I appreciate and
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 46
I hear and I understand the concerns about the co -responder model. We have been listening.
We have been hearing that. I was at the the listening posts, and I remember people saying that a
co -responder might be okay. We'd have to count up every single response to say how many of
those, but I think it's ... it's a ... was not my recollection anyway that those comments didn't exist,
and we know that this is in ... this is ... this is in our spectrum, right? Number one, we need to
prevent calls for service. As the mayor said so well, that will require a lot of education in our
community. Number two, we divert calls for service away from law enforcement to the agency
that is best suited, right? And this is an instance where that can't take place because someone
has already activated the police. They've already called 9-1-1 and an officer is going to
respond. I know people are not okay with what they see as incremental change. I know
that ... that... that individuals are frustrated that we disagree with the approach that we're being
asked to take, although, again, I'm not entirely sure on what the exact policies we're being
asked to implement are. I think this is a really important piece of the puzzle on the spectrum, so
that we can make the change that we committed to make this summer, because we have been
listening to those in our community, who I believe are most impacted by changes that we're
going to make relating to our police department.
Mims: Laura, thank you. I think you said that really well and captured a lot of the thoughts that have
been going through my mind, as well. I find it, you know, I guess disappointing and sometimes
frustrating to ... to hear people say that we aren't listening and we don't care and we're being
hypocritical. And I don't feel that way. I feel we ... we kind of laid this out as ... as the City
Manager did is a spectrum from the beginning, and we're working our way through it. And
what's... what's in place with CAHOOTS, which has been there for like 30 years, we don't
necessarily have all the structural pieces to just drop that in place here. And as you just said so
well, you know, one of the big things that we don't have is the 9-1-1 dispatch prepared to parse
out those calls and determine whether they should go to mobile crisis or whether they should go
to 9-1-1, to the police. Those are two totally separate phone numbers and two totally separate
dispatching processes right now. Um, if I recall correctly, that's one thing that is in the
preliminary plan for police reform is that we do start working with the Joint Emergency
Communication Center and find ways to work with them and adjust their questionnaire process,
so they know how to dispatch differently than they do today, so that we can parse these out,
send police when we need police, send co -responder maybe when we need co- responder, and
maybe it ends up that mobile crisis is ... is dispatched that same way. So I ... while some people
say that they ...they believe we're not making any real change, I disagree. I think we're making
significant change. As Councilor Bergus said, maybe not as fast as some people would like,
maybe some of the decisions aren't exactly what they would like. But I do think we are going
to see real change and real improvement as we continue to work our way through many, many
steps over the next few months and years. So hopefully more sooner than later, but a lot of
these take time and effort, and I think we'll make a lot of progress. So I will support this.
Weiner: (garbled) also along with Councilor Mims, uh, is a representative to the ... to the JECC, the ... the
Coun... this is a countywide dispatch system, and in order to effect change there, we ... we're
going to need to work with the County and with all the other municipalities that ... that are ... that
make up the JECC, in order to have people train... trained and change, and I am ... I am personally
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 47
committed to that. It is not going to happen tomorrow, however. What is going to happen
almost tomorrow is that the GuideLink Center's going to open, and we're going to have that
additional resource and training and... and an opportunity for everyone in the community, both
law enforcement who ... who deal with these cases, because that's the way it has been, as well
as ... as well as mental health professionals, and ... and health professionals are going to have a
new opportunity to deal with a new model. We have new things coming online. It is going to
be a steep learning curve. So ... and we also have the fact, as we heard from ... from Becci Reedus
that the current mobile crisis does not operate 24/7. That's something else that... that... that... that
needs to be ... that needs to be expanded that will also take time. Councilor Bergus referred to
people not liking things that are incremental. They -almost everything that we're doing right
now is essentially a one-year trial basis. The ... because we're... we're cutting contracts that are
for a year for ...for one thing that we did recently with Shelter House. Basically this is an initial
year with this. I expect that we will be ... that we will be reevaluating as we see what happens
and how programs go. Um, there is ... I am ... I'm personally someone who's not interested in
having the perfect be the enemy of the possible and I see this right now as the possible and I
will support it.
Teague: Any other comments? Okay, roll call please. Motion passes 6-1.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 48
14. Purchase of 930 611 Avenue — Resolution approving a purchase agreement for a property
located at 9316" Avenue for flood mitigation.
Teague: Could I get a motion to approve?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: All right, staff presentation on this.
Fruin: Mayor, I'm going to take this one tonight and I'll be pretty ... pretty brief, but you know that since
the 2008 flood, the City has periodically bought properties that are in the floodplain, at high risk
of flooding, and converted those spaces to green space. Removing those structures is obviously
the best mitigation strategy you can have . It eliminates the possibility for future property or...or
personal damage. In most of the cases, and I think we bought a ... a little over 100 homes since
that 2008 flood. In most of those cases we have had the benefit of some federal or state disaster
funds; however in a few cases we've used all local funds to acquire property. We typically do so
when there's a low cost of acquisition and a .... a, kind of a time disconnect in which the property
is available, uh, during a period where we don't have access to federal funds and we don't feel
like we can wait, uh, for that opportunity, um, or if we did, we ... we felt the property would
probably likely go back into someone else's hands, and we ... and it just wouldn't be on the
market for a voluntarily, uh, voluntary removal. So this is the case that we have with a property
at 931 6a' Avenue. This is located around the Ralston Creek, near Creekside Park, um, an area
that has experienced some flooding in the past. The City has bought several properties around
Creekside Park in recent years, um, adjacent to the creek. This is one where the owner
approached us, or the estate approached us, and offered to sell well below assessed value for the
property. It is located not only within the hundred year flood plain, but essentially right on top
of Ralston Creek, as you can see from the location map there. So we're looking at an
acquisition expense of 60...$60,000. I'm sorry, $65,000, and then we'll have probably 15,000 or
so approximately for the demolition and restoration of the ... of that property, and we would care
for it in a similar manner to ... to a lot of the flood buyout properties that you've seen in this area,
or in the Normandy neighborhood as well, likely either prairie or some additional tree planting
along this corridor. We are able to use our emergency fund for this purpose, as it's for disaster
mitigation. So the roughly $90,000 would come from that $5.2 million dollar emergency fund
that we currently have. Happy to answer any questions you may have about our flood buyout
program or this particular property.
Teague: Hearing nothing! Thank you, Geoff. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic?
If so, please raise your hand. Seeing no one, Council discussion?
Taylor: I wasn't quick enough on the draw here to ask Geoff, uh, as previously, uh, properties that we've
purchased, it just turned over and became green space, and would that be the plans for ...for this
space as well?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 49
Fruin: Yes, it would. Any time we use federal dollars, we are bound to ... to keep that as green space
forever. With the use of local dollars, the Council, uh, a future Council could revisit that, but
our intention here is to convert it to green space and leave it in that condition. It's almost
a ... kind of a ... an extension of Creekside Park that we're building along the ... along the Ralston
Creek, um, in this neighborhood.
Teague: Okay, any other comments? All right, roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 50
17. Community Comment
Teague: We are at item number 17, and hello, Ryan, from UISG.
Longenecker: Good evening, Council. The only main thing that I have tonight is just to announce that
the Reimagining Campus Safety Committee at UIowa is holding two student town halls to gain
student perspectives about their plans to reform the Department of Public Safety at Iowa. Um,
the first one's tomorrow at three o'clock, registration is currently full. So hopefully you already
registered. But you have a second chance, which will be next Thursday, February l la', at 5:00
P.M. and registration is open. So please feel free to join if you're a student or a member at Iowa
and give your comments. That's all for me tonight, Council. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.
Page 51
18. City Council Information
Teague: All right, any City Council updates?
Weiner: I just wanted to thank all our ...the Public Works employees who've been working so hard to
keep our streets plowed, as well as everybody who's been ... who's been shoveling their ...their
sidewalks. It's a ... it's a ... we're getting a lot of snow, we're going to get more, appreciate
everybody's hard work.
Taylor: I'm (garbled) forward to touring the new GuideLink Center tomorrow morning. I'm very
anxious for it to be up and running, and wish it great success.
Teague: All right.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular
formal meeting of February 2, 2021.