HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-03-02 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Frain, Monroe, Kilburg, Dilkes, Fruehling, Platz, Nagle -Gamin, Bockenstedt,
Ford, Knoche, Seydell Johnson
Discuss supplemental transit services:
Teague: Welcome everyone! You are listening to the City Council work session for March 20, uh,
March 2, 2021, and our first item is going to be the discussion related to supplemental transit
services.
Frain: Thank you, Mayor. Darian Nagle -Gamin, our Transportation Director, is going to walk you
through this presentation today.
Teague: Welcome.
Nagle-Gamm: Good evening, can you all hear me all right? Excellent, okay bear with me. I'm going
to share my screen here. Let's get the screen situated. All right, are you able to see my
presentation slide? Okay, great, all right. Good evening, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Council. I'm
Darian Nagle-Gamm, Director of Transportation Services for the City of Iowa City, and I'm
here to provide an update on the Iowa City area transit study. So I'm not going to walk you
through the whole timeline, but just a few highlights. We launched the transit study in August
of 2019, and wanted to rewind you back to last fall, which is the last time I had an opportunity
to present on the transit study, and at that point we presented study recommendations to the
Council. We provide... or we received feedback regarding the preferred transit system design
scenario. The Council provided feedback on fare recommendations and the priority of potential
service enhancements. And we presented nine different potential service enhancements that
really are outside of what we are able to do within the scope of our current budget, our current
staffing, our current resources. But really responded to the needs we heard from the
communi... from the community during the transit study process. So last fall you helped us
narrow down that large list of potential ways that we can enhance our transit system and
enhance mobility in the community with three priority items, and those were Sunday service,
later evening service. So that's really service until midnight. And then what we call a night -owl
service. So that's more of an overnight type of service really geared towards third -shift
workers. So that's why I'm here tonight. Um, you had asked staff to come back with some
potential options or some information on proposed ways we could provide, potentially provide,
services or partner to provide services for the community that address these priorities. And I'm
going to walk you through some examples and some scenarios of how the community may
proceed. All right, so first and foremost, the first thing that we really had to think about before
we dug too far into what services might be available is to really develop some... some, you
know, ridership estimates, and so I wanted to walk you through some of the assumptions behind
those ridership estimates, and then what those ridership estimates, these preliminary ridership
estimates, are. First off, we assumed all rides to be within the Iowa City limits and, of course,
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you know, at any time, you know, there could be discussions about extending that reach outside
of Iowa City, but for the purposes of this analysis, we just assumed that all rides would be
taking place within the Iowa City limits. We developed some of these ridership estimates,
because of course we don't have ...these are not services we provide currently, so we really had
to reach out to our transportation partners in other communities who are providing services that
meet some of these service gaps that we've identified here, and to get some sense of what
ridership might look like, and I'll ... I'll walk you through a little bit more about that in just a
moment. And lastly, I just wanted to make sure you're aware that really ultimately, you know,
ridership is affected by multiple factors. It's really going to be affected by the type of service
that is offered to a customer. It's very much going to be affected by the fare. The more
expensive the fare, the less the ridership generally speaking. You know, ease of access to the
service. Is there an app that someone can use to ... to access the service. Is there an app that tells
you how the service works. For example, our transit app, those sorts of things. Those are ... the
more you can reduce barriers, the easier it is for people to utilize that service. Of course there
could also be program qualifiers. Some communities have income qualifiers, for example.
Those would affect the ridership. And then last but certainly not least, you know, recovery from
the pandemic is ... is never far from our mind. It's on the horizon. We're excited about it. But
the truth is currently we are, you know, we're down 65% based on where we were before, from
a fixed -route perspective. So we know we have, um, we have (garbled) feeling the effects of
the pandemic, and ... and it'll just be unknown as to how we rebuild ridership going forward. So
things to be aware of and things to consider. If you turn your attention to the table I have here.
So I just wanted to walk you through these ridership estimates that we have developed. The
first one, which is (mumbled) service on Sunday. So this is one thing we heard loud and clear
from the community, and the estimate that we developed for ridership would be up to 3,700
riders daily, and how we arrive ... daily means on ... on a typical (garbled) Sunday. We reached
out to the community of Ames, who went through a very similar transit study process that we
are going through right now, same consultants as well, and they have Sunday service that is a
minor image of their Saturday service, and they indicated that their pre -pandemic Sunday
service was about 72% of their Saturday service levels. So that's how we arrived ... we applied
that same ratio to our pre -pandemic average Saturday service levels. And that's where we, you
know, estimated that we could have up to 3,700 riders on a daily basis, so that would be
(garbled) Sunday. Annually that looks like 192,400 riders over the course of a year. Now the
next on the list is Sunday demand response. So this is more of a, um, you call to request a ride
type of service, and again, we don't have the service currently, so in order to ... to make some
assessments of what, you know, ridership might look like, we reached out to our transportation
partners in Cedar Rapids. They do have a partnership. The transit system does have a
partnership with a ... with an agency that does provide on -demand, off -transit hour transportation
service, and this is ... this is about what their service looks like, factored down for the population
of Iowa City. On a typical Sunday, so a daytime typical Sunday, um, we could expect
approximately 100 riders. Now why such a difference between fixed route and on -demand?
Fixed route is, you know, it's a ... it's community, it's a ... usually a very well known community
asset. People look here first for their transportation needs. Um, demand response (mumbled)
you don't have the capacity that you might with a fixed route service, but be ... often it is ... it is
more limited in the the scope you're able to provide, the number of people you're able to serve,
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and you know, people don't... don't often know about it as easily as you might at transit system
and, quite frankly, you might be able to ... you're just not able to support the number of riders you
would be with fixed ... with fixed route transit. So that ... that scenario, demand response scenario,
we are working on the assumption we'd have about 100 riders on every Sunday, and that would
be about 5,200 riders per year. The third service enhancement that we looked at was late
evening service, and we looked at it from a fixed route perspective, so with Iowa City transit
was able to extend all routes that, um, in operation in the evening to midnight, um, and looking
at our evening ridership before the pandemic, looking at our evening ridership with all of our
routes, um, running to midnight. We're working on the assumption we could serve 470 more
riders per night up until midnight, and that would look like approximately 171 point (mumbled)
171,500 riders per year. Now, during that same scenario, that same time frame, that late
evening time frame, if we looked at a demand response scenario, ridership would look very
different based on ... based on what we're hearing, um, what we hear from the community, and in
Cedar Rapids at least how how their application works. We assume we'd have probably 30
riders or so in the late evening, between when transit wraps up and midnight, um, and over
the ... (mumbled) and that's daily. So over the course of a year that would look like almost
11,000 total riders could be served with that ... with that service. And last but not least is our
night owl, um, so that's overnight service, Um, that's typically demand response in many
communities. We're working on the assumption we'd, again, based on what we learned from
the City of Cedar Rapids, there'd probably be about 20 riders served per night and over the
course of the year that would ... that would equal out to about 7,200 riders annually.
Teague: I had a quick question about the times related to the late evening service. Can you state those
again?
Nagle -Gamin: Sure! So we have ... we're currently working under two operations. So our current
operations, um, they tum off at different times. So we don't have a set time where our ...where
our transit system shuts down. We have routes (garbled) that end, um, depending on the
particular needs of that route and our funding, our resources. Anywhere between 6:00 and I
think 11:00 is our latest route now. If you look at the ... the transit system scenario
recommendations that we are expecting to be implementing this summer, um, their
recommendations ... the consultant team really helped us really stretch out every last dollar that
we have, so we don't have a hard reset for... for evening service. It's really different by route.
We do have five routes. Our latest routes would run until midnight under the ... the
recommendations from the, excuse me, the five ... we have five routes that would run until 10:00
under the recommendations from the consultant team. And then we ... the remainder of the
routes would really tum off between 9:30, 9:15, 8:30, 8:15, um, down to 7:00 and 6:30. So it's
really ...it's dependent on the route, so, um, if that's helpful.
Teague: Yes, thank you.
Nagle -Gamin: Okay, so let's talk about potential service options. So we reached out to our local
transportation partners, to more corporate structure transportation partners that are ... that are
functioning in our community, and we've come up with seven different potential options that
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could be employed in Iowa City to help serve some of the gaps, the transportation gaps, that
folks in the community are experiencing. I'll walk through these really briefly and then I'm
going to go through each in a little bit more detail, but first and foremost, Iowa City transit, of
course that was first on the list. So we have the potential to expand our services to help meet
needs from the community, and we certainly heard that requested through the transit study
process. Neighborhood transportation service or you might refer to them ... or you might hear
them referred to as Horizons. That is the agency that partners with the City of Cedar Rapids to
provide off -transit hours demand -response service, and it's usually in a van pool format.
Johnson County SEATS, which also I'm sure sounds very familiar to you all. We already
partner with them, Johnson County, and provides paratransit services for the City of Iowa
City ...um ... um ... our complementary paratransit services. So we inquired about, you know, a
potential expansion of services, and I'll provide some more details on that. Yellow cab also
probably looks very familiar to everyone in this room. We've all seen the yellow cabs around
town. They provide taxi on- demand and demand -response services. We also reached out to
Lyft and Uber. Both agencies have begun to partner with transit agencies to help fill gaps in
transfer transportation services, very similar... it's a transportation network company so that
there's no local ownership. There's no, you know, central location here. They're all contracted
drivers, um, and using personal vehicles. And then last but not least, we developed a scenario
that's really a partnership between Iowa City transit and, um, Via, meaning, uh, Via actually is a
micro -mobility app company or a micro -mobility service company. We would actually take on,
um, the micro -mobility platform that they use to help provide on -demand services to the
community. So I'm going to walk you through each one of these in a little bit more detail. First
and foremost, Iowa City transit, of course. Um, how it works, you know, it's a fixed route with
set schedules, so the routes do not change (garbled) do not change. There's dedicated bus stops.
People can go to the bus stops to pick up a ride. We use bus passes, cash fare. As I mentioned,
Johnson County SEATS provides our complementary paratransit services, and in the scenarios
that we've developed Sunday service, um, it would mirror the proposed Saturday service with
11 routes functioning on an hourly schedule, which is nearly double the service that we have on
Saturday today. So that's a big change in and of itself. You know, just on Saturdays, but
expanding that to Sundays would be a pretty significant increase in the available transportation
service for the community. The later evening service would involve running all 11 routes that
we typically run, um, during the evenings, until midnight. Um, from those various times that
(garbled) earlier, each route, um, we have a few that close it at 10:00 in the proposal. That's our
latest scenario. The rest of them kind of close, you know, earlier, depending on route ridership
needs, but in that scenario all would ... would go till midnight. The benefits, of course, are
community familiarity, um (garbled) $1.00 ride, it's very inexpensive, um, lower costs, um, if
you qualify for reduced fare, and it really, you know, utilizing or expanding the transit service
would really address top community priorities that we heard loud and clear through (garbled)
Expansion could also better serve our current riders and would clearly also help attract new
riders, which is the stated goal. We really are aiming for, you know, doubling ridership within
10 years. The pandemic curveball that's been thrown our way might ... we might, uh, that might
be a challenge, but that's really our goal is to better serve who we have, our riders today, and
also better prepare the system to attract more (garbled) So in terms of challenges with Iowa
City transit, it's, of course, by ... by definition it's less flexible than on -demand or demand
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response. So it's... it's not, uh, there's a route and a schedule, um, that ... that guides, um, the
public's transportation decisions in this system and in this scenario. You know, buses will be on
the road whether there's riders or not, and of course we would need to expand staffing and
develop new schedules to ... to expand transit service either to Sunday or to later in the evening.
All right, so in terms of developing the cost estimates, the first thing that we ... we took a look at
was the startup needs. So we'll talk a little bit about that for each example, and ours would
clearly be staffing. Um, we do have the buses that are not... they're not used on Sunday, so we
have ... we have the capacity, excuse me, we have the capital and the capacity, from a vehicle
perspective. Staffing would be the need that ... that we would need in order to get service
running, and even into the evening, as well. We have the bus ... we have the buses, we have the
vehicles we need to provide service, but it would be ... staffing would be what we would need
to ... to start. So I'm just going to walk you through the high level cost estimates here. So for
Sunday service, annually speaking, it would be expected to cost $780,000 to provide fixed route
service on Sunday to mirror the recommended Saturday service. So that would be running all
11 routes on hourly service. If the community wanted to expand transit service late in the
evening, which meant all routes up until midnight every day of the week, that would be $1
million, uh, $1,060,000 for ...for those total estimated costs. If...if the community wanted to
look at just late evening service on weekdays where the demand might be the greatest during
the evenings, running service till midnight would cost approximately $540,000. And also,
again, late evening on Saturdays the estimate there would be $260,000, and we did not evaluate
a night owl overnight service using fixed route. It would be pretty unusual for a community of
this size to to run fixed route, um, overnight. It's usually ...it's usually determined that those
resources are best spent investing in ... in higher frequency, better service during the daytime
when there's more opportunity for use. All right, so we talked about Iowa City transit. We're
turning our attention to the Neighborhood Transportation Service or Horizons, NTS for short.
How this works, it's a van pool service. It's shared rides. Like I mentioned before, it serves the
Cedar Rapids Metro off- transit hours, so it's evening, overnight, and on Sundays. Riders in
their scenario, riders pay $6.00 per trip. The rest is subsidized by the City. They schedule, so a
rider would schedule a day in advance or up to one hour in advance, up until January. Actually
Horizons and NTS has just adopted the Via app and the micro -mobility platform, which allows
them to function on -demand, but they've seen a big increase in ... in ... in ridership requests at
certain times of the day, because they now have an app which makes it, again, really easy for
people to access the transportation. It's ... how their partnership is worked out, it's open to the
public and there's no income qualifiers. However, I suspect that the $6.00 per trip is ... is
somewhat of an income qualifier by...by...by definition. But they do also provide paratransit
service, um, so that would not be something that would need to be considered or outsourced to
another agency. So in terms of benefits, you know, it's lower overall costs and fixed route
service. The app is really great, um, you can also use the phone to book a ride so it's not, you
know, it's not one or the other. There's both options, which is really ideal. They can provide
demand -response, which is really the technical transport ... transportation wonky term for
scheduled, or they can do the on -demand service with the app, which is really nice to have that
flexibility. You never know what's going to come up in your day, and you know, you might
need, you know, might need service within a few minutes unexpectedly. They do have curb -to -
curb service, of course, with the van pool. Multi- passenger rides. How they ...how they run
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their operations, I think, are more economical than maybe a single passenger ride, and you
know, they've had a 25 -year partnership with the City of Cedar Rapids for their off -transit
hours. So those are some of the benefits. In terms of the challenges, the vehicles and office
space would need to be procured prior to expansion to Iowa City. And I do want to talk a little
bit about fare. So as I mentioned, you know, Cedar Rapids, how their ...how their agreement's
worked out is to use a service that's a $6.00 charge. These fares are just, um, they are
completely set by the communities (mumbled) what the community is willing to, um, and able
to support what the... what the community needs, um, in terms of a fare. So for simplicity, for
the next examples that you're going to see, um, for all of them, we ... we developed a cost based
on a $2.00 fare. So we just doubled our typical transit fare, um, and we're ... we're using that.
You can really find the gamut in communities as to what the charges for these kind of accessory
add-on services are, but we modeled all these off of $2.00 per fare. All right, and last but not
least, costs. So as I ... as I mentioned, startup needs for ...for NTS specifically would be we ... the
vehicles would need to be procured, and they would need to locate office space in Iowa City.
So vehicles we're assuming would be approximately 219,000. And then again finding an office
space. In terms of providing Sunday service, the estimated cost for providing daytime service
would be about $92,000 a year. The later evening service is provided on a daily basis, um,
would, uh, the cost estimate is $357,000, and then to provide that overnight service, so that's
really that midnight to 6:00 A.M. service, the estimate is $321,000. All right, the third type of
transportation service and transportation provider we looked at was Johnson County SEATS,
and how it works today is qualified riders all ... or they can use the Anvl app to schedule rides,
and it's typically a day in advance is when those rides are scheduled. They do provide curb -to -
curb service. Um, they would potentially utilize the existing 13 vehicle paratransit fleet. The
benefits is that SEATS already provides transportation services to the community, so they're
very familiar with the community. We're very familiar with them. The City already owns and
maintains the paratransit vehicle fleet and, of course, because they are paratransit experts,
paratransit service would clearly be included in any potential partnership. Some of the
challenges with Johnson County SEATS would be that customers must have an account set up
with SEATS in order to use the Anvl app. So if you're a public rider, if this was a public
partnership or a public system that we set up, um, public riders would need to use the phone to
schedule a ride, or they'd have to set up an account, and it's just kind of another hurdle, um, that
would make a challenge for ...for using an app, and there's also just a general concern about
putting mileage on paratransit vehicles for non-paratransit rides. As you might imagine, these
vehicles are more expensive than ... than other vehicles which could potentially be used to
provide... provide rides. So general concern to be noted about that. As I mentioned, we
modeled these cost estimates using a $2.00 fare. And in terms of the startup needs that Johnson
County SEATS mentioned to us, um, in order to provide the late night or overnight service, they
would need to hire a supervisor. So we indicated those costs would be approximately $89,000
to hire a new supervisor. Sunday service cost estimates were approximately $172,000, with
later evening daily service at $360,100. And then the night owl overnight service, the cost
estimate was approximately $241,000. All right, moving on to number four, Yellow Cab. So
how does Yellow Cab work? So riders request a ride by phone only, and they must call about
30 minutes in advance. North Liberty does have a partnership with Yellow Cab currently. So
some details on how their partnership works. The community provides I.D.s to eligible,
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um ... um, eligible or qualified passengers. They pay $1.00 fare, and then the city subsidizes the
remaining amount. They also have eligible trip locations, including grocery stores, medical
facilities, government buildings, etc., again, showing these partnerships can really be set up in
any way that the community wishes to set them up ... with monthly invoicing to the city. The
benefits are that there is curb -to -curb service, the fleet does include an accessible vehicle. They
have several accessible vehicles which could provide complementary paratransit service, and
Yellow Cab is relatively low cost. In terms of challenges, there's... there's not an app, um, which
is becoming increasingly leaned on as, um, as not everybody has a smartphone, but there's a
really great number of the population that does have a smartphone, and it does make things
easier from a ride request perspective. So, um, because there's no app, riders would have to
request a ride by phone, and you know, just a general concern also about meeting the service
demand without strict eligibility requirements. That might be a challenge for Yellow Cab.
Again, we modeled these cost estimates with the $2.00 fare. They did not indicate to us any
particular startup needs, but we were, um, we calculated the ... the annual potential cost estimates
for Sunday service to be around $57,000, the late evening service would be approximately
$120,000 annually, and then the overnight or the night owl service would be approximately
$80,000. All right, so going to talk a little bit about Lyft, which is a transportation network
company. I'll go through this and Uber's fairly briefly because they're very similar, um,
functionally speaking, but how this works is riders request a ride using the Lyft app, or they
have a platform for transit agencies that, um, you could... something... you could call... somebody
could call in and somebody else could book a ride for them, but I'd say the vast majority of
users are using an app to ... to get a ride from Lyft. Income- qualified riders could enter a code to
receive a discounted fare (garbled) they can enter code. The drivers are independent
contractors. They work on Lyft's behalf to provide the ride, and Lyft then would invoice the
City monthly for the remaining balance, um, based on the criteria that we set up. So benefits,
curb -to -curb service. You could link to Lyft through the transit app. You could actually do that
today, um, when ... if you ... if you put in a couple directions, your location, where you're going to
right now into the transit app. It shows you transit routes. It shows you walking time. It shows
you biking time, and then it also shows you how much it would cost to take a Lyft or an Uber
right now. So it's already kind of embedded into our transit app. The service clearly already
exists in our community. It's out there. The independent contractors are working. It is
relatively low cost. Those without smartphones can still access the service, and they do have
some transit planning and reporting and administrative tools. The challenges with Lyft is that
they don't have accessible vehicles, nor a source of accessible vehicle drivers to draw from. So
really paratransit services would need to be outsourced. Um, there's no real oversight of drivers
and no clear indication of supply of available vehicles. So there's not really a guarantee that if
somebody is requesting a ride at 3:00 in the morning that somebody will be there, um, to pick
them up. Um, we would need to set up a call-in process for riders without smartphones or who
are unfamiliar with the app. As I mentioned that's... that's a benefit but also that would be
something that we would need to ... to take on, to integrate into our operations. And there is
potential for a discount code abuse, of course, and you know, they can limit the code usage to
certain times of the day. They can limit the code usage to one use or two users per .... per IP
address, but you know there's still that potential for ...for discount code abuse, um, potentially.
In terms of startup needs, um, in terms of Lyft, it's already functioning in the community, so
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there's really no startup need necessary, but paratransit service would need to be started up to
complement... complement the Lyft service. So we've included the paratransit cost in the annual
cost estimates... service cost estimates. So Sunday service, the estimate is $50,000 to provide
daytime service on Sundays, late evening service on weekday ...or actually not weekdays — all
days, that ... the estimate is 105,300, and on the overnight, the night owl, we're ... we're estimating
the cost will be about $70,000. All right, Uber, like I said, very similar. It's a transportation
network company. I did like to, uh, I wanted to separate these out. Some people use one more
than the other, so I wanted to identify that these are both available options for us to partner with,
but really they're very similar. You call in a ride, or you request a ride using an app. Um, they
could potentially call us as well. You enter a code, you'd get that reduced fare, and you know,
independent contractors. Benefits are all the same. It's curb -to -curb. You can link to Uber
(mumbled) service clearly already exists in the community. It is low cost and those without a
smartphones can still access it, which is great news. All of the same challenges — the
accessibility is the biggest challenge with any TNC, transportation network company,
partnership, and you know, we'd have to pull together a process for the colors and then there's
always that kind of looming potential for discount code abuse. That ... that would be of concern.
In terms of cost, these look very familiar, because they are exactly the same as ... as Lyft's costs.
So $50,000 for Sunday service, late evening service we're estimating at 105,300, and then
$70,000 for the overnight service. All right, last example, last but not least. So this, again,
would be a partnership. This would be an Iowa City transit service, I should say, um, using
the ... the Via micro -mobility platform. So how it works is the City employees would provide the
transportation. City would need to purchase and employ the Via platform, to enable on -demand
transportation. We would need to install GPS -enabled tablets in all vehicles. We do that now
with our .... with our buses as part of our advanced vehicle locator systems. Riders would
request a ride using the app or they would call us by phone, and we could book a ride for them,
and the... the... the genius of the system and this ... this micro -mobility app is that it really
strategically routes the vehicles to opsi ... optimize service, reduce travel time and cost on the fly.
So the system knows at any given time the location of all of the vehicles, where they're going,
the location of all the people requesting rides, where they're going, and it matches them
together. So it optimizes transportation, um, choices for, uh, to get people where they're going
in the fastest, most convenient way, and the most efficient and low cost way possible, and like I
said, this is also the same platform that Neighborhood Transportation Services has just moved
to. So the City would pay the installation fee to help with the setup and then there's a per
vehicle monthly charge. That's how the ... that's how that system works. The benefits is that it's
really highly customizable. It's on ... it's on- demand, you can schedule rides, it does a lot of
things. It can be used for passenger vans, minivans, you can even ... some transit systems are
even running on -demand 40 -foot buses during their low ... low ridership periods, like on Sundays
or later evenings. Vehicles, like I mentioned, ma ... are matched to riders based on their location
destination, and staff has access to operations planning tools and the dashboard. So
there's... there's good planning features and operations (garbled) So challenges and
conceptualizing what it would look like for, you know, Iowa City to foray into on -demand
service. One of the first things that came to mind was a heated storage for vehicles, which, uh,
has really been on the mind in the last few weeks, um, or just heat in general. Um, so yeah
we've had some real challenges getting the buses rolling or keeping them rolling during the
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extreme cold weather, and ... and not having ... we are maxed out capacity wise here at our facility.
So that would be a challenge for us to figuring out where to put these vehicles that we're to
launch operations from. So that's the first concern and then generally speaking, you know, just
integrating on -demand operations into a fixed (mumbled) fixed route operation, it's just ... it's a
different way to look at things, um, and so it would be a challenge to ... to bring those together,
not insurmountable by any means, but it's, um, it would be a different way to provide the
additional... be a very different way of Iowa City transit to be providing (garbled) Um, again,
modeling that $2.00 fare startup needs for this, we would estimate the cost for vehicles to be
about $276,500. That's for vehicles and all of the tablets, the ... the cameras, all of what we call
the make ready costs (mumbled) the vehicles rolling. That would also include installation of
the Via micro -mobility platform to enable us to provide on -demand service. Sunday service
would... estimate it would be an estimated $188,000. Later evening service on a daily basis over
the cost ... over the course of a year would be approximately $338,000, and then looking at the
night owl service, um, in addition to that, that would be approximately $310,000 for annual
services. All right, so thank you for bearing with me. I know I just put a lot of information out
to you in a pretty rapid time frame and (mumbled) we presented seven different ways that we
could ... we can enhance at least the mobility for the community. Some of the options are fixed
route time, so it's expanding our bus system and our bus operations. There's some, you know,
on -demand options that we could use from local transportation services, um, you know, or we
can provide service in-house ourselves. As you might imagine and might notice when you see
all of these next to each other, there is a pretty significant cost difference between the options
and ... and those differences really can be attributed to the quality of service, the reliability, the
oversight, um, you know, more control over level of service, that sort of thing. Those are some
of the things that we consider when we look at this list, and that I'm sure you will consider as
well. Another thing I'm sure you're thinking when you look at this list is funding, you know, so,
uh, so you know, how will we potentially fund, you know, any of these options. And we feel
that we could successfully pilot services that you wish to pursue with FTA funds that we have
received in response to COVID. To date, just to give you some perspective on what that looks
like. To date we have received authorization for 6 million... approximately $6 million. We've
spent 1.5 million of that to support our operations over the last year. We expect by the end of
this fiscal year we will have spent another 1.5, 1.6. million of those funds. That would leave
approximately 3 million in ... in funds, um, the unexpected funds we received from the FTA, and
then we, you know, there's a potential that we could receive additional funding. The... the... the
COVID relief package that's working its way through the Congress right now, which has not
been authorized yet, but there's some potential to receive, you know, several million more
dollars. We just don't know what that's going to look like, um, at this time. And the last item
for consideration is ... is really a recommendation. So we looked at all, um, we've been living
and breathing all of those different options, you know, and what could be a good fit for the
community. We wanted to offer staff recommendations for consideration, and the
recommendation is really that, um, that we engage with a two-year pilot for fixed route bus
service on Sundays and reasons for that is that it really addresses the unmet demand for public
transportation on Sundays, and it was ... it was the most requested enhancement we heard in the
transit study. With the thought that we could revisit after two years, see where we're at, um, it
would give what seems like some good recovery time from ... from a COVID perspective and
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also really give us time to establish service and just build ridership. So as I mentioned earlier,
the Sunday service would mirror Saturday service. So there'd be 11 routes running hourly
service from 7:00 A.M. to 7:30 P.M., which is great because it's nearly double the capacity that
we have currently right now today on Saturdays. So it would be...it would be a ... it would be
quite a different service for the community, and I think it could do ... I think it could be ... I think it
could do a really good thing, not just on Sunday, but clearly that expanded capacity on Sunday
or excuse me, on Saturday, would also be, um, would also help meet the needs of the
community. It also, you know, expanding our transit service to Sunday, also really... really
reinforces our climate action goals. Um, you know, one of...one of the many goals in that plan
is to enable a shift of 55% of vehicle trips to a more sustainable mode by 2050. So that's a
pretty specific goal, um, and that's a good challenge, but I think, you know, trying to reach that
goal on a six day a week system might be ... might be a challenge, I mean it might take seven
days a week, um, system to get people, you know, onboard and using transit as one of the more
sustainable modes to meet that 55% goal. And again, the annual estimated costs for that
service, for Sunday service, fixed route would be $780,000 a year, and we estimate that would
bring in an additional 192,000 -plus thousand riders to the transit system on an annual basis.
Now if, you know, more service is desired, uh, we offer a recommendation for later evenings or
overnight service. So in the instance that we wish to help provide some more additional
transportation during those times, we recommend partnering with NTS and Horizons to provide
that late night, overnight transportation service. So clearly that would support late night or third
shift workers. Service would begin when the transit service ends and run until 6:00 A.M. There
would be shared curb -to -curb service during the evening hours for qualified riders, and they can
provide a demand -response scheduled or an on -demand service. And it's really easy to book a
ride using the app or to call by phone, so there's... there's lots of options. And really I know that,
you know, this just really stood out. They've just had a really long and successful partnership
with the City of Cedar Rapids, and they've gotten really great feedback. When I reached out to
transportation partners in Cedar Rapids regarding how that ... how that works in their community
so. On the estimated costs for ...for that overnight, that late night and overnight service together
would be $648,000, plus startup costs for vehicles, which we estimated to be about $219,000.
And the estimate is that that would provide service, um, transportation service for about 18,200
riders per year. So combined, the two of those together would be about $1.4 million for a
year ...per year. Excuse me. So tonight, again, we're just asking for your thoughts and direction
on these potential transportation enhancements, and I would be happy to answer any questions
you might have.
Fruin: Mayor, if I may jump in and just add to Darian's final comments there. When you consider a
pilot program, I just want to make sure you're thinking about a few things. One, you've got to
make sure it ... to the best that you can at this point. I know we're talking two years out here, but
you've got to feel pretty comfortable, um, in committing these funds down the road. Don't do a
pilot project that's going to cost 1.5 million if you really don't feel like there's going to be an
appetite to ... to establish permanent funding sources to support the program. And ... and that's
one thing that makes me, um, candidly a little nervous about the ... the night owl component of
this and the late night is ... if you just look at the cost of that service, uh, for the riders, it's ... it's a
very expensive service, and you have to kind of put your ...you have to kind of think ahead a
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couple years and say, if that is indeed, you know, the ... the ridership that we see and the cost that
we see, do you think there would be an appetite to raise a property tax levy or enact of utility
tax, whatever it's going to have to be to support that ... that level of service. So I want to make
sure you're thinking about that, because you will have a difficult conversation ahead of you in
two years, um, regardless of whether we hit these numbers or we exceed thein a little bit. And
then you also have to kind of think of the flip side. If...if...if you don't, um, if you decide in two
years that the services just weren't worth the money that was being invested, you have to think
about the process of deconstructing the service too. So for a City -operated system, that means
different things than it would be, you know, for example, on the other end of the spectrum with
an Uber or Lyft. It'd be very easy for us to terminate a contract with Uber or Lyft, um, when
you're talking about City -provided services. Those are our employees, that's our vehicles. That
can mean layoffs, uh, that could mean, you know, disposing of those vehicles, which is just a
different type of process. So I know we're at the early stages of...of taking on this pilot, but I
encourage you to think about the decision that will be ahead of the Council in a couple of years,
as well.
Teague: And thanks to both of you. So, Council, just jump right on in there.
Bergus: I'll start out. Darian, I just want to confirm, so the ... the add-on for the late evening and
overnight annual cost of 648,000, and then estimating 18,200, um, new or I guess 18,200 riders.
If I just divide the annual cost by the number of riders, that's $35.60 per rider. Is that right?
Nagle -Gamin: That's... that's accurate, it's right in the ballpark. Yes.
Bergus: Okay, all right, just wanted to make sure I had that math right, Thank you.
Nagle -Gamin: yeah.
Fruin: Yeah, Darian and I with ... we spent a lot of time talking about those numbers, um, and it's our
best guess. That's all we can say, and ... and you know, ridership numbers may be different here
than they are in Cedar Rapids. So it could be that, you know, that number drops down to 20 or
it could be a little bit more, but it's definitely a very expensive service to operate with that type
of...with that type of system. There's a ton of benefits for it, no doubt about it, but it's
expensive.
Teague: With the Uber and Lyft, um, using both of those services, would that be an option? And the
cost still be averaged the same between the two?
Nagle -Gamin: That's a great question. So ... so the costs were estimated based on the average ride cost
in Iowa City, which is about $9.00. The average ride, if you're using Uber or Lyft in Iowa City,
is $9.00. So I would say that even if it was a partnership with both of them to try to maximize
the supply of available drivers, urn ... yes, I would say that the estimates would probably be about
the same, if the demand (garbled) was the same. If (garbled) the same, then I doubt (garbled) it
would be about the same in terms of the costs.
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Teague: Okay.
Mims: What about with Yellow Cab, I mean, I guess I'm just thinking if...if we were not to use Horizon
for the late night, if we were to use the more on -demand, individual on -demand show ...I guess
my concern is showing favoritism to the network companies versus the taxi company. What
could it look like or would it be feasible to contract with all three of those?
Nagle -Gamin: I can honestly say I had not thought about that, um, so that's a good question. Um, I
think the only ...the only thing that might get muddled in the messaging to the public is ... is that
there would potentially be too many options and it might be confusing, um, for the public. I
think we could manage it on the back end. It's really, you know, setting up the system, and you
know, they would... they would invoice us for ...for the cost minus whatever the fare that
the ... that the customer paid. It could be confusing for ...for customers to have multiple (garbled)
I mean it could potentially expand the supply available, but I think that ... that's the first
drawback that comes to mind.
Thomas: Darian, could you go back to the, um, the recommendation slide please?
Nagle-Gamm: Sure.
Thomas: So I mean I, it seems that the, you know, that fixed route bus service on Sundays seems like,
you know, a really good foundation, and then the ... the question of late evening, overnight
service is ... is a question. I mean that $35.00 per ride was... that's.... that's a pretty overwhelming
number it seems, but you know, as in other areas of...of, uh, City services, I would be interested
to know, you know, what the experience of comparable cities to Iowa City have done. You
know, what kind of systems they have in place. If they've tried some of these alternatives for
the late ... late evening, overnight services, and you know, what the outcomes were. Um, maybe
I'm just suffering a little bit here from information overload (laughs) but it's kind of hard to take
a ... take that piece of it all in and understand what, you know, what the ... what the alternatives
would be to the the cost of this NTS, Horizons partnership. But it does seem that the fixed
route bus service seems like a really good foundation, and then I would ... I would be interested
to understand how other cities, if they've ... if they've had such late evening, overnight services
have addressed it and what we can learn from their experience.
Mims: (mumbled) I have another question in terms of that late night ... late evening, overnight. And I
took notes, but I'm not sure if I got all this. Is ... I guess my question is, are we ... with this
proposal, basically, is this late evening, overnight available to anybody and everybody, and the
City is subsidizing it no matter ...who that person is or how much money that person makes?
Nagle -Gamin: That is a great question. So really it's up to ... it's up to us. We would be able to set
whatever requirements we wish to set. Many communities have income qualifiers for their, you
know, specialty kind of on -demand supplemental services. You know, in the ... in the instance of
Cedar Rapids, I think they set their fare in such a way that it ... maybe it provides a service, but
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it's just to those who absolutely need the service at $6.00 a fare ... for, you know, NTS in Cedar
Rapids. So there's, yeah, there's ... you could really set it up any way possible. We could have,
you know, income qualifiers. We could have an application process, you know, making it as
simple as possible or making it as complex as we feel comfortable with.
Mims: I guess when I hear that, one of the things that I would be interested in having us think about
and consider is if...if we're going to try and do the late evening and overnight, which I think is a
big need, especially for those third -shift workers and people, you know, in that situation. That
if the City is going to put a lot of money into this, it really is an income -qualified situation, that
people would have that opportunity to apply. There would be some income verification, um,
and maybe in many of those cases it would also help with our costs because it might be people
who are leaving the same employer, at the same point in time or going to the same employer, at
the same point in time. Um, one, that hopefully could help to keep our costs maybe reduced,
and secondly, really serve the people who need this the most, um, who aren't going to have their
own car, don't have two cars in the household for different jobs, you know, whatever it might
be. So if...if we're going to consider the late evening and overnight, I'd like for us to think about
how we ... really focus on ... that service on the people most in need.
Taylor: I agree with Susan on that cause I think that's who we heard from the most. I mean for years
we've been hearing about the need to assess our ...our transportation system and... and in fact
that's why ...what prompted the Council to approve a consultant to look into this, and I think it
might have even been, Susan, um, you a while back that had recommended some type of
voucher system perhaps with ... with the taxi cabs, and I think we could do that and that would be
based on income cause those are the folks that quite likely, most likely do need some assistance
to get to those jobs that are overnight.
Salih: I just want to comment a little bit here. Yes, I know that it is good comment from Susan and
Pauline about evaluating the people and make sure they are, you know, qualify for this services,
but they're, you know, if you have a car that doesn't means you can have... afford gas for the car.
I don't think this have to be like evaluated, but low income definitely. I support (mumbled) of
the thing, yeah, have to be low income people. Thank you.
Fruin: Well, we don't have to run these things in parallel, at least the decision making process. If folks
felt very comfortable with the Sunday service, we could get going on the implementation
planning for that. There's some staffing, uh, puzzles that ... that Darian and her staff need to
work through, um, and we could come back to you and refine these alternative options
with ... with a premise that there's going to be some income verification and ... and you'll see those
numbers adjust I think quite a bit, if...if, uh, that's the desire of the Council.
Teague: So with it if we just go with Sunday services, my...my only concern is we heard from a lot of
the people in the community where, you know, they're working and... and that late night service
is a challenge. Um (both talking)
Fruin: Sorry, Mayor.
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Teague: Oh, go right ahead, please.
Fruin: Yeah, I..just to clarify, I was saying we could go ... go ahead and implement the Sunday service
now or begin working towards that goal now and if income qualification is desired by...by the
majority of Council, then we should really come back to you and refine some of these
partnership scenarios, because we did not ... we did not make that assumption coming into this
work session. So we just may not ... we may need to revisit this discussion with ... with some
reframed numbers.
Teague: I wonder, would it be helpful if Council kind of give you ... gave direction on which provider
they're looking at? It ... it sounded like, you know, we have..we heard from a, you know, about
all these providers and what would seem like the most, you know, maybe one or two that
Council is leaning towards. I did like Councilor Thomas when he ... when he made mention just
looking at the other communities and getting some information so that we are, you know, we
have something to go off of.
Bergus: Um, Darian, you mentioned having compared with Ames. Was their ridership information...
that was recent enough that they also have Uber and Lyft operating in their communities, so
there's not a ... issue of like that, um, those services sort of...taking the place of any of that on -
demand, if that makes sense.
Nagle-Gamm: It's a good question. I don't know for certain whether they have Uber and Lyft operating
in their community. I would assume that they do, uh, because they're a university community,
and I think the State actually passed legislation which doesn't allow communities to outright
prohibit them from operating in the communities. That's my understanding, so I'm working on
the assumption that they have the similar amount of transportation options available to the
community that we do. One point of difference I would mention is that Ames has one transit
system. So City of Iowa City, we are a three -agency system here. So of course we have
CAMBUS. We have Coralville transit. However, you know, in trying to imagine how that
might affect our ridership, um, really we still put that 72% ratio that they said that, you know,
they operate 72% of their ridership on Saturdays, on Sundays. We thought that would still
apply just even, you know, if you narrowed that focus just down to our segment of transit for
the community. So relatively speaking, I ... I get the sense that we're functionally very similar in
that respect.
Bergus: And, Geoff, when you were saying that the numbers would change if we do income
verification. Does that mean like ridership would go down so costs would go down or which
direction would we see there?
Fruin: Yeah, I think there could be some ridership drops, but also potentially some ... some cost, you
know, staffing ... may not need as much staff, uh, vehicle cost could go down, and I think, you
know,y just the verification process is going to need some thought. You know, I'm not sure
how easy it's going to be to do income verification with an Uber or Lyft. Um, probably can be
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done, but it...it may be a lot easier with a ... a third -party provider like ... like, um, like SEATS
or...or, um, Horizons. So I think we just need to sort through some of that.
Weiner: I guess I'm not particularly comfortable with the thought right now of using Lyft or Uber, not
because they're not reasonable, but because we're talking about people's personal vehicles. We
don't know what the safe ... what the safety is. Um, these are ... these are gig workers, and I wish
they had benefits and so forth, but I feel much more comfortable if we're working with other
organizations that have, um, that have trained drivers and ... and we essentially know more about
their... their... how they're employed and so forth.
Taylor: I agree with Councilor Weiner. I'm ... I'm not, as you can look back on the records, not a fan of
of the NTS, Lyft or Uber. They've got many issues over time, uh, you can look it up, you
can ... you can find that out. So I'm just not a fan of them and would prefer using local, like the
Yellow Cab or whatever cab system might be available in the community.
Teague: I totally respect your comments (laughs) in relationship to Lyft and Uber. I just wanted to
mention that many of the drivers are local work, um, are local people that work for these
companies, and sometimes it's probably the only work available for them. Lyft and Uber, I've
talked to several people. It really is a lifeline for many, and so I would just want you all to just
keep ... bear that in mind, um, as we move forward with, you know, just talking about the
options.
Salih: That's true, a lot of (garbled) are Uber driver, and they complain that there is no a lot work in this
community, so they don't make make as much as like taxes or any (unable to understand)
company. So I don't know, but maybe we need to consider them.
Weiner: Those are good points, thank you.
Teague: Is there any other thing that staff need from Council from ... for now?
Nagle -Gamin: I think I have what I need, unless, Geoff, you have any other comments.
Frain: No. Just to confirm though. It seems like at least a majority of folks are... are okay with us
moving forward on the Sunday service to a year pilot. The fixed route option. Okay, all right,
we thought that'd be the case. We'll get ... we'll get going on that, and then we'll refine some
options for you. Your comments tonight have been helpful, so we'll refine some options and
present those to you soon.
Discuss alcohol allowances in City park shelters (IP4):
Teague: Thanks to, uh, Darian; thank you for being here, and of course our City Manager. He's always
here, right (laughs) All right, we will move on to the next agenda item, which is the discussion
on alcohol allowances in City park shelters. (both talking)
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Fruin: Yeah, Darian, if you wouldn't mind (both talking) to stop sharing your screen, we'll...
Nagle -Gamin: Give me one moment here.
Fruin: Sure.
Nagle -Gamin: Thanks for the reminder.
Fruin: While she's doing that, just by way of introduction, for some of you you'll remember this item.
It came up in in 2017. Uh, the Council did approve the first two readings of it, and then
deferred the third reading indefinitely. So we're ... we have really just kind of dusted off the old
staff reports and we included those in the packet. Uh, we don't have a presentation tonight, but
Juli's here to answer any questions about how it would work in the park system and what other
communities around us do.
Teague: I do wonder if, just for the sake of the public, if...if there could just be a synopsis of what this
would mean for the parks, what will be allowed.
Seydell Johnson: So currently in our park system, the only places you can have alcohol are within the
Terry Trueblood Lodge and the Ashton House (garbled) and the Riverside Festival stage. Um,
or if it's a City -sponsored or partner -sponsored event, um, that gets a special alcohol license. So
in general, no alcohol use is allowed throughout the park system. This would allow alcohol use
within the parks, if groups have a shelter rental, um, and it would be only during the rental and
on the premises of the actual park shelter. And we were, um, are recommending no additional
fee or permits for that. We had talked about that at one point, but then felt that there weren't any
additional costs, so that it didn't make as much sense to have additional fees. We would ask
shelter rentals to let us know if they have plans for alcohol in the application for the shelter
permits, um, so we could let police know when those rentals are happening. But it would be
pretty simple.
Teague: And is this the ... the recommendation is still ... or the vote is still limited to beer and wine. Is
that correct?
Seydell Johnson: Correct, beer and wine. No sales, no keg alcohol... or no alcohol in kegs. They did at
the time in 2017, um, the proposal was to allow smaller kegs or like pony kegs or growlers
(garbled, noise in background) to get beer from one is a local, um (dog barking) Sorry! One of
the local breweries, they can do that.
Teague: Will you repeat that last part. What can they get from a local brewery?
Seydell Johnson: So if they wanted a growler, just enough beer that's in a growler, these ... that would be
allowed, that is currently allowed at Terry Trueblood Lodge and the Ashton House. Um, we
decided not to allow at youth sports complexes. So not at Napoleon softball complex or
Kickers soccer fields. We updated the information recently from other cities, and other large
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cities around the state do a whole range of options, from a few that allow alcohol anywhere in
the parks with no restrictions to just one that we found that said absolutely no alcohol.
(garbled)
Teague: Thank you. Thoughts from Councilors? I know there's new ones. I wasn't a part of the 2017
discussion and either was Mayor Pro Tem or are ... Bergus or Weiner.
Taylor: I was part of that discussion, and I still ... I believe that making allowances for the use of alcohol
in our parks would provide a system with which we could monitor that use, because we have to
admit. We know that it already happens. Uh, but by having an application process, with
perhaps some rules and guidelines attached, we'd be providing for the safe use of alcohol in ... in
our parks, um, with a system that maybe monitors the use, such as guidelines for who would be
monitoring access to the alcohol. Perhaps even the size of the groups that would be allowed,
which on that respect I think it's a ... it's a good opportunity to provide for persons to have an
affordable option for ...for a venue for special events. I think Susan maybe originally had gotten
a letter regarding someone wanted to have a wedding reception there, cause as we know, a lot of
venues in the community are ... are very expensive. But this would maybe provide an option for
those folks who can't afford that, but would like to have a gathering after.. after their special
event, so I'm in favor of it.
Thomas: I was in favor of it, what, three years ago, um, and I'm ... I'm still in favor of it. I do think as
Pauline mentioned the, you know, we ... we ... the drinking is already taking place in our parks.
So it's... it's an existing use that... that, based on the comments from when we reviewed this
before, it doesn't appear to be a significantly disruptive activity. I was impressed in reading the
minutes from ... from those previous meetings that, you know, this had the full support of the
police department, as well. So it seems to me the permitting through the shelters does provide a
kind of a filter of the use, which is useful. I think it does put some ... a framework around it,
which helps with the enforcement. And I do think it's something I just think personally, you
know, that I can ... I can well imagine events where it would be nice to have that opportunity in
the public parks, uh, that we have. One ... one thought I did have, uh, at least was noted in the
minutes. I don't think I mentioned it before, and that is, I do think it may be helpful at the parks
to post park rules so that the public ... I don't know that the public has a clear understanding of
what ... how we control drinking in our ...in our park systems. So to have at the parks some
indication by way of park rules as to what the, you know, what the framework is for drinking in
our parks. I think that would help, um, provide... provide some information for those who may
not, you know, just may not understand, because they may make their own assumptions. So I
do think it might be useful to have some park rules, which of course could include other issues
as well. I've been getting correspondence on off -leash dogs, things of that sort. So the park
rules might be helpful in a variety of ways in which we can better communicate to the
community what ... what the expectations are.
Teague: I wanted to just highlight something that I heard both Councilor Taylor and Thomas talk about,
and that is we know that this is already happening in our parks where people are, you know,
partaking in alcohol beverages, and so for me, I know that this is limited to the shelters, but I
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wonder if there is any interest in expanding this just within the parks. I know that's not the
recommendation at this time from staff, unless they wish to comment on it. But I wonder if
there's any interest in expanding this conversation to just allow it within the parks ... um, and talk
about any concerns there.
Mims: I would just start by saying I was a part of this three years ago and I agreed with the proposal
then. I think it was very well vetted by the Parks and Rec Commission. I think the Council in
general was very supportive of it. I think it's a reasonable request when people are using the
shelters. Regarding the Mayor's comments just now, I would not at this point be in favor of
expanding it beyond the shelters. I think you run into an issue with softball and baseball games,
and other activities, where people are out there for longer periods of time of it ending up being a
more problematic practice. So if we're going to make any changes right now, I would
encourage us to go just with the shelters.
Seydell Johnson: I would just jump in and say that, in general, Park staff, police staff, everyone
involved with this is still very much in favor of allowing alcohol in the parks with the park
shelters. We haven't really asked the question about whether they would want it throughout the
parks. We do know it is there now. Our anecdotal evidence of cleaning out garbage cans
throughout all the parks will tell you that people are drinking alcohol in ... in all areas of the park,
but yes, staff is supportive of it and doesn't see any additional issues that might be caused if it's
allowed with park shelter rentals.
Salih: Just when you say like (unable to understand) the shelter, I know that if somebody wants to rent
the shelter, they will come to you and they ask and they have the permission. But sometimes
people just like go there in the park, only not like the shelter. Do you think, uh, is that means
they can just have it over there or I ... I really don't understand how this is going to be working.
Seydell Johnson: So this ordinance would allow it only if there is a park shelter rental and very clearly
only on the premise of the shelter, like to the edge of the cement around each shelter. So I think
that alcohol used in other areas, or when there isn't a park shelter rental, would be handled like
it is now, which is only on a complaint basis, and I'm not sure we've had any complaints in the
last few summers about this.
Weiner: So and it sounded like from what I read, cause clearly I was not here last time this was
discussed, that this is relatively common practice in other cities in the state, is it...
Seydell Johnson: Correct. Um, as we updated our survey of other large cities in the state of Iowa,
Council Bluffs is the only one that we found that did not allow it, except like at our Terry
Trueblood Lodge, inside an indoor facility. Um, Ankeny allows it just in general throughout the
parks, with no restrictions. Ames is any community parks, so in any of their larger system parks
it's allowed in, including youth athletic complexes, um, and you get a little bit of a mixture
throughout all. Most do not require sepal... separate permits, other than park shelter rental, and
most do not allow it in youth sports in one way or another.
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Teague: I guess one of the questions facing Council tonight is ... it sound like there is agreement from
the majority of Council to move forward with the current park shelters, alcohol and park
shelters. (clears throat) Do we want to continue and go with a third reading, at ... which will be
the final vote, or do we want to reset it all and go through three readings? I think that's a
question that we should probably ask.
Mims: I think given the time frame since the last time this was in front of Council, it would probably be
more prudent to go through all three ... go through all three readings, just to make sure the public
is aware of it. I know it delays it, but we're ... I think we've got time to get that done before
there's a whole lot of use of the shelters.
Weiner: I would really ...I would really prefer to avoid having people (mumbled) say that we ... that we
didn't, they didn't know or they didn't have time to comment or they didn't have ... they just didn't
have a chance to react, so I would agree with Councilor Mims.
Teague: I'm seeing some shaking of heads. So then we'll go through... we'll... we'll put this on the
agenda and it would just be for the shelters. Um, I'll call them the shelters. Okay, you need
anything else from us? All right, great. Personally I'll be back after we try out the shelters
(laughs) and get a report how we're doing. All right, we're gonna move on with clarification of
agenda items.
Clarification of Agenda Items:
Frain: Mayor, if I may clarify one item. I had a ... a message from one Councilor and just in case others
noticed this, in the consent calendar you have, um, the tentative agreements with our AFSCME
unions, both transit and ... and the mixed unit. The ... which we're asking you to vote on is just
the tentative agreement. We included some actual contract language in there that just...uh, we
were trying to show you the prohibited subjects that now have to be removed from that ... from
that bargaining language, but that is not the contract that you're voting on. It was pointed out
that the Juneteenth holiday wasn't mentioned in the ... in the contract language and we approved
that through a side letter with the ... with the union last year, so it will become contract language
and you will vote on the actual language in a couple of months, but for now you're just ...you're
just, um, basically voting on that general framework of an agreement that we reached with
AFSCME.
Teague: And so this year 2021... Juneteenth will be celebrated because of that side agreement.
Frain: Yes, with all ... with all City employee groups.
Teague: Great, awesome. Great. Thank you. Any other items for clarification? Moving on to info
packet, uh, February 18', and I know there's a little ... I need to switch screens here. Hearing
none we'll go to ... oh, go right ahead!
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Bergus: I was just being slow. Um, IP2, the affordable housing market analysis. I thought was ... had
some really fascinating information and definitely worth the time to ... to look at that and kind of
chew on it. (garbled) just a couple things that really struck me. So this, you know, a lot of it
was framed as the comparison of the ... the five-year period from 2014 to 2019, and seeing
the ... the rental vacancy rate, for example, in 2019, you know, shooting up, I think from ... now I
just lost my page. I think it was like 8% up to 17 -plus ... 17.7%, um, in ... sorry that was in Tiffin.
In Iowa City it just was at 4.1 % in 2019, and I just think when we're talking about all the
student housing and market saturation and that kind of thing, like just seeing the difference
between the communities in, you know, I have this perception, like we have so much extra
housing and all of this is coming online, so understanding that some of that's changed in the last
year too, but like, um, I don't know. I just thought that was really helpful to have the actual data
in front of us and see it in comparison of different communities within Johnson County, and
then also there was proportion of cost burden renters, again with the comparison by jurisdiction,
which I noted, and if I read this correctly, that Iowa City is the only jurisdiction where both the
overall cost burdened and those that are severely cost burdened decreased in that time period.
Now we still carry a ... a high percentage of severely cost burdened renter... rental households,
which of course we're trying to address, but just really happy to see data so that when we have
our conversations about affordable housing, we have context such as this.
Mims: Thanks for those comments, Councilor Bergus. I was a little slow on that too, and I had spent a
lot of time going through that document. There is a lot of really good information in there, and
then also IP3, our fourth quarter update on social and equity... social justice and racial equity.
There's always a lot of good things in there, in terms of what the City and our staff are doing.
So encourage people to take a few minutes to look at that, if they haven't had a chance to.
Teague: Any other comments? We're gonna go to info packet for February 25th. Um, there's two items
that we do want to go through, but maybe before we go there, are there any other items that
Council want to discuss?
Salih: I just want to ... because I don't see (mumbled) somehow I couldn't open them. Uh, I just want to
ask you if there is ... the one ... the water shut-off is one of those IPs or not, because I ... I
(mumbled) last time we can talk about them.
Fruin: There's... there's nothing in the IP related to the water shut -offs, but (both talking) was to place
that on the March 16th agenda, with the hopes that the State program, the State relief program
information would be known by then.
Salih: Okay, but if you can just give us update about what ... because last ... last thing that we talked about
was starting sending all the collection (mumbled) March 151 people receiving, you know, letters
to their home that they will be (mumbled) starting March 1 st, they will (mumbled) past -due
balance will be sent to collection. So if you can just tell us what, uh, the ... you know, what the
idea will be until March... between now and (mumbled)
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Teague: So I think respectfully we have to wait until the next meeting, but we did discuss about this
being on the March 16th meeting.
Fruin: Mayor, I can (both talking)
Salih: (both talking) what I'm saying, Mayor. Uh, I ... I was saying families receive that they're water...
their past -due balance, and we agree that could be March 1 s`, and now we have the State coming
and we're going to discuss this on the 15th. Is the City going to proceed ... I want the public to
know, is the City going to proceed with the collection on March 1", as they stated in the letter
that has been sent to families, or not?
Fruin: Mayor, I think I can answer this, because there is an item on your agenda tonight from the
HCDC Commission about shut -offs. So I'll use that, uh, as the basis for being able to respond
tonight. The ... as you recall back in November, we outlined kind of the return to normal
collection process with the Council. You had approved that, and it did include sending past due
balances to collections as of March 1st. However, when we became aware that the State was
going to issue a large relief program, uh, staff pressed pause on that plan. So we have not
transferred any accounts over to collections, because we want to make sure that that would not,
um, eliminate someone's eligibility for that program. Letters did go out because those letters
were being crafted before the State program was ... was really being put together. So in January,
February we had letters go out to let people know that they were going to be moved to
collections. But as of this time, we have decided to hold moving anybody over to collections
until we know the exact rules of the State program, which we hope to in the next couple of
weeks. And I think once we know those rules, we can have another conversation with you at
City Council, which is why we're tentatively planning to have that on March 16th (garbled)
nothing's changed.
Salih: Yes, that's what (mumbled) I'm looking for, because I know that by talking to you, but the public
doesn't know about it. Thank you.
Teague: Yeah, I think it'd be good to have that discussion with more details (laughter) how it'll play out
in our community on the 16`h, so thanks for that. Any other item, um, from the 25th before we
go to, uh, the two items that we need to address. So we'll go ahead and start with the, um, IP6.
Mims: I make the suggestion on that one that we delegate that responsibility to sit on that advisory
board to a staff member. And the reason I recommend that is I've been sitting on the committee,
the Executive Committee for the GuideLink Center, for ...I don't know, the last two or three
years. I can't remember how long it's been. And I will tell you there's ... I think a fare amount of
complexity that goes with, you know, what has been developed there, and I think as that gets up
and running, that advisory committee, it may or may not have a fare amount of influence
and ... and questions brought to it on how things are going to operate in the coordination with the
municipality and, quite frankly, I think it could be a lot more efficient potentially to have a staff
member who is more in tune with how staff is working and have that continuity than to
necessarily have an elected official, so I would recommend that we have staff do it.
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Taylor: I agree with Councilor Mims on that. I think for consistency also it would be a good idea, and
for the complexity of the issues that they'll be dealing with, so I would agree that a staff
member, uh, should sit on that.
Teague: Any other thoughts? I'm seeing some shaking of heads in agreement. Okay, all right, um, staff
will be ... only staff on there. So all right, IP7, which is the memo from our City Clerk. Kellie.
Fruehling: Yeah, just looking to see if anybody has any conflicts with those dates on the memo, and
then also I did reach out and was trying to schedule a special work session for March. I
unsuccessfully found a day where everybody could come. So I don't know if we want to try
again and look at early April or...or suggestions.
Mims: Kellie, were either ...was I the only, for example, was I the only one that couldn't make one of
those Tuesdays?
Fruehling: No.
Mims: Okay. I was gonna say cause I ... if I had to I could change my schedule, if I was the ... if I was the
major or the only conflict there I could... could make a change.
Fruehling: No we ... we weren't I don't think even close.
Mims: Okay. Okay.
Salih: Have you propose the 23`d9
Fruehling: Um ... and I don't know ...Geoff, if that was one of the days that didn't work for you.
Fruin: (mumbled) I could, uh, I can make that ... I can make that work, if that wasn't an option.
Salih: (mumbled) work for everyone, because I know that I have only one day I will work for me, but I
just have that cleared out today. The meeting I have on that day has been canceled.
Teague: Twenty-third works for me.
Weiner: It would depend on what time because there's ... I have a conference I have to attend for my
other work that week that runs generally between 11:00 and 4:00, and I might be able to get out
early, but that's my challenge that week.
Taylor: I'm free that day.
Bergus: We're talking just about the 23rd of March ... I can make that work.
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Mims: If everybody else can, I can rearrange my schedule.
Fruehling: And are we 4:00 or is that pushing it, Janice, for...
Weiner: Everything is virtual still so that's fine.
Fruehling: Four o'clock work for everybody else to start at that time? Okay, so 4:00 on the 23rd.
Thank you. And then the rest of the schedule, a tentative schedule looked okay? Okay, thank
you.
Teague: All right. Any other items from the February 25h? Hearing none, and it sounds like our, um,
May through August schedule will be just a typical two, uh, first and third Tuesdays. All right.
Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. I'm hearing none. All
right, well, we will be back at 7:00 P.M., signing out of this Zoom link into a new Zoom link for
our 7:00 P.M. formal meeting. See you all soon.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of
March 2, 2021.