HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-06-01 TranscriptionPage t
1. Call to Order
2.a. Jewish American Heritage Month
Teague: And this will be read by Councilor Weiner.
Weiner: Thank you, Mayor. (reads proclamation) ...and accepting the proclamation is Esther
Hugenholtz, the Rabbi of Congregation Agudas Achim in Coralville.
Hugenholtz: Thank you very much, Councilor Weiner. Thank you very much to the entire City of Iowa
City and to the Mayor and all the Councilors. I think you can probably hear me but not see me.
So I will be a voice emerging from the darkness. And I just want to say that in this time where
we see an uptick in anti-semitism and an uptick in divisions and hate crimes in our society
during, you know, this unprecedented pandemic. It is so comforting and so heartening to know
that the City of Iowa City takes our inclusion seriously, takes our representation seriously, and
takes our contribution seriously. t(mumbled) to the soul of our community to be honored as
such and to be remembered as such, even though our presence is numerically not very large in
this community. The Jewish community of Iowa City has a history going back over 100 years
and have always sought to contribute to the civic, cultural, political, and economic life of this
community. I'm reminded of the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah Chapter 19, uh, 29 where the
proffers himself issues a letter in which he says, `(mumbled) seek the welfare to the city to
which I have dispersed you and pray to the eternal on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall
prosper.' Our history is a template for many of the experiences that are part of the human
experience, as well as adding its own unique flavor and color to the human experience. And I'm
so proud and happy that we get to enjoy and be enriched by Jewish culture and history in our
community, and that we get to pray for the welfare of the city, and to share in this prosperity
and in its good fortune. I'm grateful to you all, and thank you very much, and I am honored to
accept this proclamation. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Rabbi, really appreciate you being here with us today.
Hugenholtz: Thank you.
2.b. LGBTQ+ Pride Month
Teague: (reads proclamation) ...and accepting this today is ... on behalf of the Iowa City Pride, um,
Committee, is the President, Tony. Welcome, Tony.
Sivanthaphanith: Hello, everyone, thank you for having me. Um, not much to say. Iowa City has
always been real supportive of our community here. You know, it continues to strive to be
better every time I talk with someone in the City, um, and it's something we greatly appreciate.
We appreciate the yard signs and everything you're doing. It's been been a tough year of
COVID, of not being able to do a lot of things, but we're excited for October. October also
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marks LGBTQ History Month and we just think it's a great way to ... to start the month with the
festival, um, as well as having the students there, since it is our re -celebration of our 50th and
Pride did start in October, as well, in Iowa City, um, at the homecoming march. So we have a
lot to be thankful for and a lot to be ... still be fighting for. (mumbled) reminded that, you know,
Iowa has introduced... did introduce 15 anti-LGBTQ laws this past year, at the beginning of
legislation. So we have a lot to fight for and, um, we're real thankful that Iowa City backs us up
on ... on all our fights. Thank you, guys, once again.
Teague: Thank you, and, as he, uh, Tony, noted, this will be the 50th celebration, although it will be in
the 51 st year. So thanks to Iowa City Pride and the committee for all the work that they're
doing.
2.c. National Gun Violence Awareness Day
Teague: (reads proclamation) ...and to receive this is Templeton Hiatt on behalf of Moms ... Moms
Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. Welcome.
Hiatt: Thank you, Mayor Teague and City Council Members, for the opportunity to be here and for
issuing the proclamation recognizing Gun Violence Awareness Day. My name is Temple Hiatt
and I'm with Moms Demand Action, Johnson County group. I've been a Johnson County
resident for nearly 40 years. I'm a mother of two adult children. I'm a veteran. And I became a
gun violence survivor when my nephew died by gun suicide in 2014. Moms Demand Action is
a bipartisan movement of Americans, we like to say mothers and others, advocating for public
safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. We are not anti -Second
Amendment. Some of our volunteers are, in fact, gun owners. We are against gun violence and
support sensible solutions. We also offer an educational presentation called `Be Smart,' that
helps parents and adults normalize conversations about gun safety and take responsible actions
that can prevent child gun deaths and injuries. As Mayor Teague mentioned, `wear orange'
originated on June 2nd, 2015, what would have been Hadea's 18th birthday. Now it is observed
nationally and in the years since, participation in `wear orange' has increased tenfold. The color
orange has a long and proud history in the gun safety movement, whether it's worn by hunters
in the woods of Pennsylvania, activists in New York City, or Hadea's loved ones in Chicago.
Orange honors the more than 100 lives cut short, and the hundreds more wounded by gun
violence every day. And it demands action, because here in Iowa, gun violence is increasing at
a much higher rate than the national average. It's even worse for people of color. Black people
are 13 times more likely than white people to die by gun homicide, compared to 10 times
nationwide. In Iowa City, incidents of shots fired and those injured have increased more than
200% in 2020 over the previous year. I'm here because I don't want anyone to find themselves
directly impacted by gun violence, if you haven't been already. And I don't want anyone to join
the ever-growing group of gun violence survivors. Thank you again for issuing this
proclamation and honoring those in our community who have died from gun violence. You're
also acknowledging the many people in our community who have been personally impacted by
gun violence, including me. Thank you for honoring our lives and joining us in this important
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work together. We can end gun violence and I'm happy to answer any questions from the
Council that you might have about our group and our efforts here in the community.
Teague: Thank you so much for being a part of this time with us today. I really appreciate hearing your
personal story and our hearts go out to you. Thank you so much for being here today.
Hiatt: Thank you.
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8. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) [UNTIL 7 PM]
Teague: And this is a time for the public to talk about any item that is not on our agenda, and I want to,
if you want to talk about something not on our agenda, please raise your hand at this time. And
if you're on the phone, please press *9. Otherwise, if you want to talk about an item that is not
on the agenda, please raise your hand. I ... oh, yep. I want to give people opportunity to raise
their hand, so I'll know how ...how we need to adjust time if...if needed. I see that there are nine
people ... on right now. So we can, um, give three minutes to each individual at this time.
Should there be more hands raised, I may have to adjust it. And so I'm going to welcome
Nicholas, followed by Mohamed.
Theisen: Thank you, Council. I'd like to address a couple of things. I'll put my hand down now
(laughs) First off ..well, two things that happened last week. First of all, I guess I'll go with the
latter one first and then the earlier one. So on Tuesday of last week, as you may or may not
know, I was ... the Iowa City Police Department used Johnson County's MRAP, colloquially
known as the tank by residents, during a raid that was meant to I guess terrify residents of the
South District. A tank that, by the way, this Council has said in the past they oppose. And after
you put forth min ... (laughs) basically no effort to deter its use, you washed your hands of the
situation, saying it's entirely within the County's control. However, it has recently come to light
through correspondence with Supervisor Rod Sullivan, the Chair of the Johnson County Board
of Supervisors, that in fact, not only does ICPD have "the keys," as he said, to the MRAP, they
can use it without even notifying the County in any way. So we, the public, have to wonder,
why did you lie to us and say it had nothing to do with the City, or perhaps why did the City
Manager Geoffrey Fruin. as well as Interim Chiefs Brotherton and Campbell lie to you?
Because if Supervisor Sullivan is correct, there's actually quite a bit more the City could be
doing, namely taking the keys away, preventing the MRAP's use, either through ordinance or
some ... or a general order. The other thing I want to address is the fact that on Monday of the
same week, the City's Public Works department, in conjunction with ICPD, contracted the
clearing of as many as seven encampments of unhoused persons around the city. In many cases,
without proper warning. Some cases they were warned ... it's unclear as to how far in advance,
and thereby destroyed most of the personal belongings that they need to survive. Now IFR,
along with a lot of others, you know, lefty anarchist organizations throughout the city have
actually been working with, um, Iowa City Mutual Aid to try and restore the personal property
of the individuals involved. And I guess it annoys me so much that we are constantly in the
position of having to pick up after your brutality, after the fact that you don't really care about
large swathes of residents of this community, and ... and at the bare minimum what I would like
from all of you, if you ... if you're not actually going to do anything about the housing crisis in
this city, could you at least not stand in the way of the people who are actually trying to make
things better. That would be nice. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Mohamed, followed by Audrey.
Traore: Thank you very much for recognizing me, Mayor. So I just wanted to say at this time, first and
foremost, when it comes to the MRAP vehicle, that it is a mine -resistant ambush -protected. So
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it's a term for United States military light tactical vehicles produced as part of the MRAP
Program, designed specifically to withstand improvised explosive device, IED, attacks and
ambushes. The United States Department of Defense MRAP Program began in 2007 as a
response to the increased threat of IEDs during the Iraq war. Light armored vehicles, such as
the MRAP, when it comes to these things being made for war, I just really don't see the need for
that to be within the South District, especially after, you know, not only experiencing while I
lived in the South District, the place I lived from 2002 until February of this year, uh, you know,
being used for drug raids and drug busts. That doesn't seem like a military application in any
way for me. I do know that Department of Homeland Security cleared it for other things. But I
just still, once again, do not see the need for using it for ...for things such as this, and the ... the
community members in the South District said the same. Went to their crime and safety
meeting last week. They expressed multiple times about how terrible it was to have to have
their kids subjected to that and to have to constantly see that and the trauma that they have
experienced, I've experienced, my family's experience from it is just absolutely awful.
When ... in addition, my mom, uh, major reason she did want to move out of the South District as
well was cause... cause of this vehicle. She talked about how anytime I was in the area or
anytime she saw me going out or whatever that she was just afraid of what could happen to me.
And ... yeah, again, this just should not be in Iowa City, should not be used in Iowa City,
absolutely no need for it. The South District is not a war zone. Drug busts do not require these
things. There are no mines or IEDs in these situations. There are no ambushes whatsoever.
Next I would like to speak on the Excluded Workers Fund and why this needs to be supported
by yourselves and also the Johnson County Board of Supervisors. Mainly, last week at our
Truth and Reconciliation Commission meeting we had multiple members of the ... at the Iowa
City Catholic Worker House talk about all the things they've gone through from the pandemic,
most notably want to talk about one of the people saying that she had lost lung capacity and is
being forced to ... essentially off of government assistance, uh, after also not receiving stimulus
checks, and this is a terrible situation because she obviously has bills to pay. She really cannot
safely work due to her condition and there's so many people in this area that are in that position.
People are going to be losing homes, people are going to have their credit scores ruined, people
are going to basically fall further into poverty and despair, and if we do not support this now
and get this passed and these funds there, then I fear for how people in Iowa City will go in the
future.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Audrey, followed by Annie.
Keith: Hello, everyone. Um, so first of all I want to say that, um, thank you Nicholas and Mohamed
for the issues that you brought up. I full wholeheartedly agree with what you have said about
these two things, about the MRAP and the people, the houses of people whose like stuff was
thrown away. Um, so thank you so much for taking the time to speak on these issues. The
thing that I came here to speak about today was the, um, proposed changes to the public transit
system, um, specifically (both talking)
Teague: Yep, that's an item on the agenda. It'll come up later.
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Keith: Okay, well either way then, I will say, um, I wanted to speak a little bit, I guess, about the ... the
affordable housing issue as ... as it has related to me personally. I'm simply reminded of it by
these stories of these people whose items were simply ..were just tossed out. You know, it's the
only thing they had or whatever. But just that, yeah, Iowa City has always had a problem with
being able to provide affordable housing. And we know that it's always been a trouble, a
problem for renters, and my partner and I recently had to move unexpectedly. Our landlord had
told us that they would no longer renew our lease, and we were like well, you know, we're kind
of tired of having to deal with landlords. We're going to attempt to buy a house and even, you
know, while again like that's extra difficult right now, because of COVID and things like that,
but just even dealing with the housing market here in Iowa City for a first time home buyer is
extremely stressful and many of the homes are not affordable and those that are affordable are
boughten up extremely quickly. It seems to be like they're being bought by flippers or people
who are just going to rent them out and not people who are actually going to live in them, and
that has been a very frustrating experience. And I wish there was a way to make it better. I
don't have any suggestions. I just want it to be known, um, that the struggle continues even if
you are trying to not be a tenant any longer. That is all, thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Annie. I'm sorry, thank you, Audrey. Welcome, Annie, followed by Stephany.
Gudenkau£ Hi, my name's Annie. I live in Iowa City, and I have a few concerns I'd like to share with
Council tonight. First, I would like to comment on Iowa City Public Works and ICPD's
clearing of several encampments of unhoused people last Monday. The City claims there was
48 hours notice to this destruction of shelter, but evidence does not show this. Individuals that
lived at those camps said themselves the postings were placed in hidden spots that they could
not see. I myself delivered lunches to these areas that Saturday and did not see a single posting.
Many of these people's belongings were disposed of during a pandemic. Much of said items
were recently purchased with their only stimulus checks, or new items donated by the
community. City Council should not stand for these anti -poor actions and replace all the items
stolen from these constituents at the expense of ICPD's funding. Another thing I would like to
comment on is the tank owned by the City. It's got to go! There's absolutely no need for
military -grade equipment in our community, unless the City is intending to terrorize its people.
It has come to light that County Supervisor Rod Sullivan has said that ICPD "has the keys to
the tank." City Council and City Manager Fruin have direct control over ICPD. You've all
stated your discontent with the tank, now remove it immediately! Finally, I would like to re-
emphasize the movement in town in favor of an Excluded Workers Fund, hazard pay, refugee
resettlement housing cooperatives, and Sunday transit. Do better, City Council! Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Stephany, followed by Taylor.
Hoffelt: Am I unmuted?
Teague: Yes, you are!
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Hoffelt: Okay. So I'm Stephany and I am ... what I will call the voice of Iowa City Mutual Aid
Collective and, um ... it's interesting because Iowa City Mutual Aid Collective was not formed
with the idea that we were going to be a permanent fixture in Iowa City. We were just a group
of people pooling our resources together to help our neighbors through the COVID crisis. Then
we started speaking weekly and almost daily with people who didn't want to reach out to the
many nonprofits in town, because they are distrustful of the relationship these nonprofits have
with the ICPD. That's the City Council's fault. When these organizations are encouraged to
collude with ICPD to secure City funds, they are perceived as a part of the power structure that
sends tanks into residential neighborhoods and subcontracts out to demolish people's
belongings. Because we all know the City Council has more power over these situations than
they let on. And, you know, that's why the Fruin plan is so ridiculous. Instead of offering
people options to a visit from the ICPD when they reach out for help, they can just expect more
police involvement in the future, as varying nonprofits in this town hire police light to reach out
to the community. And I guess I would just echo what Nicholas said, you know, it took us a
long time to build trust with some of these individuals. They're suspicious of people who come
as helpers. There are members of the Iowa City Mutual Aid Collective who don't speak out as
much as I do, because they're afraid to do so. I'm ... that's kind of why I got picked to be the
voice. I'm not afraid to do so. While it's obvious that the City Council doesn't want to offer the
kind of help the community is asking for, you can at least not try to make things more difficult
for those of us who are willing to because honestly... now this is a long term gig, and I'm going
to keep doing this and keep providing those things as long as the City Council and the City
(garbled) keep taking things away from people.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Taylor, followed by David... and welcome, Taylor, followed by Dan.
Sorry about that.
Kohn: Hi, I want to talk about how Council claims to be opposed to ICPD having military -grade
weapons and equipment, and yet there always seems to be a reason why nothing can be done
about it. We're sick of the excuses. You either can do something or you don't care, or perhaps
you have so little control over ICPD that you have no knowledge of the violence and
intimidation tacti ... tactics it uses against marginalized people in our city. If that's the case,
seems like we should eliminate it, just to be safe. The fact also that people in the city have to
scrape together their resources and their time to help people who are unhoused, because of the
apathy of the City is shameful. Finally, I want to back everyone calling attention to the
Excluded Workers Fund. We couldn't have gotten through the past year without essential
workers and their jobs still involve so much risk. It would be shameful to leave them out and
use this money where it isn't needed. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Dan, followed by David.
Kauble: Hi, can you hear me?
Teague: Yes, welcome!
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Kauble: Um, what a fancy timer! It would be cool if the City government put as much thought and
effort into listening to our concerns as they did limiting our ability to speak at these meetings.
Um, I would like to speak in support of the Excluded Workers Fund. Advocas ... advocates for it
have spoken at the last several Council meetings, and it's very concerning that no officials have
made any indication that they're moving to support it. It's good for everyone in the community,
not just excluded workers, and I don't understand what the hold up of Council is. I would like
to now speak to Mayor Geoffrey Fruin. Oh wait ... oh (laughs) I'm sorry, I mean City Manager
Fruin. I sometimes get confused because based on the way Geoffrey operates the City and its
departments, it seems like he's the dictator of this community. That's a problem, because
nobody cast a single vote for you, Geoffrey, and the... and the majority of people disapprove of
the direction you're taking the city. All right, now that's all off my chest, let me tell you what
the people demand. They are fed up with Geoffrey's personal militia, I mean the ICPACPD,
song again. Uh, the ... it ... Geoffrey makes this all confusing for me. Uh, forbid ICPD from
participating in any law enforcement action using the tank owned by the County. Also, it is a
tank. Look at pictures of it with guns mounted. That's a tank! It was used in a raid in the south
side district, a week or so ago. In an email, uh, County Sul ... County Supervisor Sullivan
implied that ICPD Chief Liston is using the tank whenever he pleased. Mr Mayor, you
published a letter opposing the usage of the tank, and you and the Council are in a unique
position to forbid ICPD from using it. So I humbly request that you guys use your authority to
do it ... and to do so. There is a Johnson County Superviser...Supervisor meeting on Thursday
morning at 9:00, and I encourage you all, especially you, Mr Mayor, to back up your ...to show
up and back your demands. Um, tell the County to get rid of their tank. Um, the number to call
is 319-688-8013. And you have to ... at the meetings at 9:00. You have to call in five minutes
ahead of time, um, and also I would just like to speak about the ways that the City has thrown
out the homeless people and the homeless encampments. I mean it's ... it's very interesting to me
that like at the beginning of this meeting, y'all were talking about how, oh, it's PRIDE Month,
ha ha like let's love all of the LGBT people in this community, when LGBTs makeup a huge
percentage of unhoused people, and treating unhoused people like you did last week, by
pushing out the homeless encampments, I mean it's despicable. It's an act of violence, not only
against the unhoused population, but also the LGBT people which make up a huge chunk of it.
Um, all right, thank you. Bye bye.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, David, followed by Ron ... Ronilo.
Sterling: Hello, am I coming in through (garbled)
Teague: Yes, welcome.
Sterling: Thank you. Um, I guess, uh, my name's David. (mumbled) gosh, I mean I really don't like to
just parrot what other people have said here. Excluded Workers Fund is important. Um, the
way the homeless people have been treated here, especially with the cleaning out of the
encampment, is just ... I mean it's like actually frightening to think of a tank going around, being
used to scare poor people, um, but I guess what I want to use my time for is just ask like what
people think activists in Iowa City are doing, like we spend hours working out ways that we can
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distribute food to people, that we can raise awareness for programs that people really want, but
they don't think the Council will listen because they're used to tuning into sessions like these,
where everyone is really upset and nothing ends up happening. Um, and I want to know like all
this time and effort, all the marching that we were doing last year, like where are the people
who (garbled) want this tank? What are they doing to keep the tank in the city? Like if it isn't
in the Council's hands, whose hands is it? Like it's ... it's not the County. The County says it's
not theirs and, I mean, if you want to go to war with the County about this, tell us ... like where's
the communication? It just feels like we're constantly being left to scramble for bits of
information and even when we do trust what you have to say to us, we have no faith because
there's never any follow through and then that just damages the trust. I've come to so many of
these meetings, feeling nervous and uncomfortable, but still wanting to speak, hoping that
there's some good faith that I can share with the Council that they can say, oh, you know what, I
have this. I am an elected official in this town. I'm not just a civilian. I can do something
about this, but we just don't see you doing anything and, I mean, yeah my perception's the only
thing I've got. Maybe you're do ... excuse me, doing a million things but we're not seeing it.
We're not seeing it anywhere, and especially not when homeless people are being scared away
with the tank. So like, I mean, where's the army of 80 -year-old racist boomers who were like,
yeah, we really need this tank. Like ... I mean seriously, we have no explanation for any of this.
Manager Geoff Frain penned an excellent letter, uh, during the beginning of the protests, talking
about how the City had failed in a number of ways, and in good faith, I tried to take that to
mean that there was going to be a rapid shift in how policy was made in the city and yet the
opposite has happened. We've only seen policy slow since then. We, again, our perceptions are
all we have, but clearly there's a problem with commun ... communication here and I don't mean
the staff at the Communications department. They're hard-working, caring people, but I mean
there's just nothing here. Um, that's all I got! Thanks.
Teague: Thank you, David. Welcome, Ron ... Ronilo... please pronounce your name for me, followed by
Harry.
Ragodos: Sure, my name is Ronilo. Um, I'm a PhD student at the UI. Um, this is my first time talking
in one of the City Council meetings. I've listened to a lot of them, but ... but this is my first time
talking just because I'm so horrified at what went on, uh, with the homeless people, as everyone
else is mentioning. So I just want to say, uh, the treatment of homeless people in this city
is ... is ... is really awful. So if you remember a while back there was this thing where you all are
putting partitions on the benches, so they can't sleep on there. And now you're... you're
terrorizing them with a tank. So I'd just like to appeal to your ...your empathy to do whatever's
in your power to stop doing these things to terrorize these people who are already so vulnerable,
and also I'd like to appeal to your morals, religiously speaking, because I think statistically
speaking there's a good chance, uh, some of you are Christian. So I'd like ... I'd like to offer, uh,
something from Proverbs 14:31. It goes, "Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but
he who is generous to the needy honors him." So I'd like to, uh, those of you who are
Christians, to keep this in mind, um, when you think about how to treat, uh, poor people in this
town. Thank you. I ... uh, that's all I have to say.
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Teague: Thank you, Ronilio... Ronilo! Sorry, Ronilo. Welcome, Harry.
Manaligod: Hi, I'm here also to basically tell you how awful (garbled) how awful a decision it was to
have this tank go into a homeless encampment basically and steal everybody's possessions.
And I think that this is just a perfect example of what (garbled) people talk about and ... well, by
what people talk about when they talk about abolition, and this can be used to demonstrate
alternatives to policing right here, because I want to ask ... I want to ask you, Mr. Mayor, I want
to ask you, and I want to ask every single person on the City Council, and I want to ask every
government official that has the power of states, that has the power to stop this kind of thing, I
want to ask you one question: how is the money that's spent on this tank useful to the people
who are suffering in homelessness, in ... in poverty? How is that useful? Could that money have
been better spent perhaps on housing these individuals, on feeding these individuals, on getting
these individuals back up on their feet. Do you think the money that was spent to have police
go in there and rob human beings of pretty much their only possessions, do you think that was a
useful ... (mumbled) you think that was a good use of money, or do you think that was a waste of
money? Do you think that that helps people? Because honestly I ... I'm not really damaged by
the presence of homeless people, you know, I guess if you're like a bouche bitch you might be
like a little discouraged by seeing them, but if you really want to solve the problem, how about
you help them? How about you help them get to where you're at, instead of just...I don't know,
inflicting violence on them, instead of enforcing poverty on them. How does that help? That's
all I've got to say. Fuck the police and fuck you too, man.
Teague: Thank you, Harry. Would anyone else like to address this time with communi... community
comments for ...on any item that is not on our agenda? Seeing no one else, I'm going to move on
to Item number 9.a.
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9. Planning and Zoning Matters
9.a. Rezoning — Hickory Trail Estates — Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately
48.75 acres of land located south of N. Scott Boulevard and west of N. 151 Avenue from
Interim Development Single -Family (ID -RS) to Low Density Single -Family with a Planned
Development Overlay (OPDIRS-5) zone. (REZ20-0016)
1. Public Hearing
Teague: And I'm going to open the public hearing. And I'm going to invite, uh, Councilor Thomas, um,
just to make a statement at this time.
Thomas: Thank you, Mayor. I would like to make a statement for the record regarding my status as a
board member with Friends of Hickory Hill Park. Uh, I resigned as a board member of the
Friends of Hickory Hill Park on March 31, 2021. I have consulted with the Interim City
Attorney and I do not have a legal conflict of interest. In addition, I have not been actively
engaged in board meetings and activities since February of 2020, and I believe I can farely and
impartially consider the application. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. I'm going to ask that staff, Danielle, uh, give us an update.
Sitzman: Thank you, Mayor, Council. Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and Development Services.
So as the Mayor stated, this is an application for a rezoning. This slide shows the border of the
approximately, uh, 48.75 acres bounded in the white outline. The applicant in this case is
Axiom Consultants, on behalf of Joe Clark and Nelson Development. The land is currently
owned by ACT. This exhibit shows again that same area, uh, shown in relation to the
surrounding zonings, uh, districts, uh, in green, and the, uh, this slide to the west and south is
Hickory Hill Park, to the north in orange is the Oaknoll development. Most of the land to the
north of North Scott Boulevard is the ACT campus, and then there's a neighborhood adjacent to
the west, Hickory Heights and the Hickory Trail neighborhood to the east. Again, this is a
rezoning from interim development to a development zone that would allow for development.
In this case, the low density, single-family residential with a planned development overlay. The
planned development overlay is required because there are sensitive features on the site, um,
and that brings with it the concept plan, which looks an awful lot like a plat, but which is not yet
a plat. It's intended to be a preliminary sensitive areas development plan, much like a site plan,
so it gives a preview of the way the development will anticipate and be designed with those
sensitive features in mind. It does also allow for waivers as part of the process. There are
only... there's only one waiver to (mumbled) requested through this entire, um, rezoning, and
that is to the height, uh, for the buildings, uh, to be included in senior living component.
They're requesting a five-foot height increase from the 35 -feet, that's the base zone, to 40 -feet
instead. Otherwise there's no variations for the remainder of the, um, development. A little bit
of background, um, the rezoning application was presented in February and March to the
Planning and Zoning Commission. At the time, staff did recommend approval with the five
conditions that are presented here and that I'll go over at the end of the presentation. Staff
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support has remained, uh, unchanged throughout the application process; however, the Planning
and Zoning Commission did have concerns with the original proposal and encouraged the
applicant to revise their OPD plan and provide a direction on the things that they thought
needed to be revised in order to pass ... to gamer a favorable recommendation from that body.
The applicant did choose to revise their plans and resubmit them to the Planning and Zoning
Commission, and at this point the application that the... concept that's before you tonight has
received an, uh, recommendation of approval by the Planning and Zoning Commission. So this
is the current concept expressed with the OPD rezoning for Hickory Trail Estates (clears throat)
to the north of this, the top of the slide is the north. This shows the layout of what would be
single-family lots along a street that connects North Scott Boulevard to North I s' Avenue.
Again on the west side and south side is the boundary with Hickory Hill Park. In the southeast
corner of the development is the senior living, uh, proposed development, as well. As I
mentioned, there are sensitive areas in this vicinity, and so the plan also includes an accounting
of those sensitive features and how it will be ... is designed to meet our sensitive areas
requirements, to avoid impacts to wetlands, which there are two of in this vicinity — a stream
corridor which also transects the property, woodlands, and steep slopes. So those are color
coded in various ways throughout this, uh, application. The major changes between the two
proposals, and I'll bring those up side by side for you, is essentially, uh, on the left hand side
was the initial proposal and on the right hand side is the proposal that has been recommended
by the Planning and Zoning Commission for your consideration tonight. The applicant
removed a condo -style development that was initially proposed here, increased the single -
loaded aspect of the street that goes through here, um, for 70% of its length to be, uh, have
houses only on one side. So initially houses were shown on both sides of the street. Um, they
reduced that down to be single -loaded for, um, a majority of that street. That also resulted in
the dedication of land in outlet A, increasing from approximately 10 -acres to 14 -acres. There's
been an addition of a third pedestrian crossing across the street. Um, there's been some addition
of sidewalk connecting the senior living facility. Um, the additional changes that were made
also reduced the impact to critical slopes; um, it preserved additional woodlands; and increased
the buffer around the stream corridor. (mumbled) rezonings are to general criteria that we look
at every time, including the comprehensive plan and compatibility with the neighborhood. This
district, this area of the ... Iowa City does have a district plan, the Northeast District Plan. So on
the left is the future land use (mumbled) concept expressed there, and then again the proposed
development to ... compared to it. The future land use map does indicate this area primarily for
residential development, and the comprehensive plan does allow for a mix of types of housing,
including senior living and more intensive residential development along major streets. Um, in
this design the ... what was expressed was again single -loaded streets working with the land
forms in the vicinity, trying to achieve a conservation design where basically development
follows ridge lines and stays away from sensitive features. Again, staff feels this has been
accomplished with the proposed concept. In addition, the comprehensive plan also has housing,
transportation, and environment energy and resource goals, and this development is meeting
those by providing housing choices, um, interconnecting the street network, sidewalk network
and trail system, and again, trying to achieve the conservation design and avoid sensitive areas.
With the planned development review, there are specific criteria in addition to those general
criteria that need to be met. Just go through those one by one here. They include land uses, so
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in this case single-family housing and senior living do meet the land uses, and the density
requirements of the base zone. It's actually well below the density require ... uh, maximums
allowed by the base zone. Um, it includes 42 single-family lots. Again, none of the condo
anymore, and about 135 bedrooms of senior living. As far as design of the through street,
connecting north to east, um (mumbled) homes on individual lots, it is kind of (mumbled)
development, as well as the (mumbled) development of the senior living component, and again
protecting sensitive areas. As far as open space, it does provide the required private open space
on a lot by lot basis in the single-family lots, and also achieves the open space requirements for
the senior living complex (mumbled) which is based on a per bedroom, uh (mumbled) land
reservation, and there is, like I said, a significant dedication of land for a public park expansion
to Hickory Hill Park. In addition to those open space requirements, there's also a buffer
distance being maintained between the senior living facility and the condo development to the
east, um, acknowledging that they are different heights and transitioning between the two with
use of landscaping. And as far as streets and utilities, there is traffic calming being required of
this development and is intended to be provided. Um, also there's sufficient capacity in the
street network and adequate utilities and sewer and water available. So as far as next steps,
we're at the rezoning stage here with the OPD-RS5 rezoning. There would still need to be
platting, uh, preliminary and final platting, and then as the development process proceeds, site
plan review of the multi -family or senior living component, and building permits. So as I
mentioned, the Planning and Zoning Commission does recommend approval of this application
for the rezoning, um, subject to five conditions that staff included. Those include ... a woodland
management plan for outlot A; the provision of the trail connections that I mentioned; traffic
calming in the development, including, um, the narrowing the streets so pedestrians can cross
them and eliminating certain parts of them; installation of right-of-way trees; and then a final
plat to, uh, which is required really because the subdivision is the boundary by which the
rezoning is recorded. So those will be, uh (mumbled) staff. So based on a review of our... the
relevant criteria, general and specific, staff made that recommendation. At it's May 6, 2021
meeting by a vote of 6-1, the Planning and Zoning Commission concurred with staff's opinion
and also recommended approval. The si... the conditional zoning agreement has been signed
and received, and a good neighbor meeting was held in December. That concludes my remarks,
Mayor. I'm happy to answer questions.
Teague: Jump right in with questions!
Bergus: Um, I had a question. Danielle, you mentioned that this is the ... the development overlay plan
and there would still need to be preliminary and final plat, plus a site plan for the senior
housing. Can you just kind of walk us through like what ... what those steps would entail, in
terms of the changes that were made from like February to now, or would we see potentially the
same scale of changes or the types of changes, if you could just kind of anticipate through that
process... what could change.
Sitzman: Sure. We would anticipate very little would change. In fact if much changes, we would deem
that it no longer meets the preliminary sensitive areas development plan, which you're
reviewing and approving tonight, and it would need to go back through a process. So if there
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are some minor changes, uh, as I get into final design work, you know, some boundaries change
a little bit, but we wouldn't expect to see like the number of lots increase or the locations of
those lots. Um, the alignment of the road could shift a little bit, but if it's impacting the amount
of buffer between things that we anticipated, um, staff would really, uh, flag that as no longer,
um, substantially in compliance with what you approved. So what we anticipate is that the
prelim and final plats will look (mumbled) substantially like what you're seeing tonight in this
preliminary sensitive areas development plan.
Bergus: Thank you.
Thomas: Danielle, I had a question, this is John, about the, um, senior living component of the project.
Do we have any preliminary idea of what the assessed value of that component of the project
will be?
Sitzman: I do not. Staff doesn't review that as part of the components of the zoning code. That might
be a question for the applicant tonight, if you'd like to know that information from them.
Fruin: Uh, Councilman Thomas, I did, um, real quickly just take a look at the assessed value of some,
um, other senior living facilities, and I think we could get a little bit more precise answer for
you at the next time, if the applicant doesn't have that tonight, but I'm seeing ranges in that
probably seven to 10 ... or I'm sorry seven to $15 million of assessed value, when I look at senior
living facilities. Now, this is a little bit different. It has a memory care unit and each site's
going to be a little bit different, but you know if you ballpark 10 million or so I think you'd
be ... pretty ...pretty good from an estimate standpoint, but we can look to refine that a little bit,
um, talking with the Iowa City Assessor before your next meeting.
Thomas: Thanks.
Mims: Danielle, can you maybe go back to the map and clarify for us and for the public, because I
know there's a lot of concern from the public, and I want to make sure we all understand and
they do, how much buffer, um, there is going to be from the current park boundaries, and
exactly where and how much land would be added to the park, please.
Sitzman: (mumbled) This is probably the best one. So, um, Councilor Mims, the green area here is
outlot A. That's all being added to Hickory Hill Park. The distances between the current park
boundaries are variable throughout here, but they're essentially the depth of a single-family lot
because that's what the developer removed along these areas, um, in order to create a single -
loaded street. It's probably a little bit less than a single-family lot. Um, it ranges anywhere
from ... 35 -feet to 116 -feet, it looks like; um, in some areas it's a little bit larger than that.
Mims: That would basically be up to ... like maybe the corner of that last lot on the west side, because
obviously it's much larger as you go north from there.
Sitzman: Right, and ... yes.
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Mims: Okay. And it's what, about 14 acres that's being added to the park potentially...
Sitzman: Correct.
Mims: (mumbled) agreement.
Taylor: And, Danielle, that's... that's the 13.96 acres, uh, that was mentioned in the P&Z meeting, to
satisfy the neighborhood open space requirement. So that ... that green space, that's what you're
talking about, that's what the developer (both talking) would dedicate to Hickory Hill ... okay.
Sitzman: Right, so every time there's a development, uh, we anticipate park needs, and we either
collect a fee in lieu or have dedication of land. Um, you've probably seen mostly fee in lieu up
until this point. In this case, this development has land that is, um, sufficient in size and shape
and quality to be quality parkland and is desirable to the City to acquire as a park, so in this case
it's a land dedication.
Mims: And when you look at that north part there, um, those lines that are on there indicate change in
elevation and also a stream corridor, so there is significant elevation change and significant, um,
tree growth in all of that area between this and the Hickory Heights development to the west,
correct?
Sitzman: That's correct. It's generally slipping down to the blue line, which is a creek, and the black
boundary, which is the wetland, and then back up on the other side a little bit, but ... and it is ... it
is woodland and it is quality woodland that the parks see value in, uh, maintaining.
Mims: Okay, thank you.
Teague: I don't hear any more questions for you. All right, thank you. Would anyone like to address
this topic from the public? I'm not sure if we have a developer here. We might invite them up
at this time, and I'm not sure the name of the developer, that representative. I see Terry (both
talking)
Fruin: (mumbled) Mike ... Mike Welch from (both talking)
Teague: Yeah, Michael Welch (both talking) Yep! Welcome!
Welch: Good evening, Mayor Teague and Council. Um, thank you for allowing us a chance to speak
tonight and, Danielle, thank you for a good outline and presentation. You kind of covered much
of the items that I wanted to make sure were addressed, so you've made my job a little easier, so
thank you. Um, tonight I am here representing the developers Joe Clark and Jacob Wolfgang.
Joe is responsible for the single-family portion of the development, uh, while Jacob's with
Nelson Development and responsible for the senior housing portion. I know Joe might not
make it. He was, uh, at a child's sporting event tonight. Um, I believe Jacob is on the call,
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along with, um, representatives from the rest of his design team, including Andrew Alden with
AG Architecture and then Anne Stanfield with Ecumen, who will be managing the property, and
then, um, Adam Tarr is his attorney with Pugh Hagan and Prahm here locally. I do want to kind
of I guess address for Council a little bit about this ... this project. Um, as Councilor Mims said,
there's been a lot of public comment on this and we anticipated that at the beginning of this
project and, you know, we did hold a good neighbor meeting, uh, at the start. We ... we kind of
expanded that boundary, um, so ... by recommendation by staff ..ilf, uh, you notify neighbors that
are within 200 -feet of the property. We extended that to a 500 -foot buffer to kind of encompass
Hickory Hill Park and then we included it further to the east, to really capture the entire Hickory
Trail neighborhood and including the new Tamarack Ridge Development, as well, to the east.
So really anticipated there would be a lot of interest from the public with this development
being adjacent to Hickory Hill Park, um, during the development of the Northeast District plan
and the comprehensive plan over the years. There's been a lot of public opinion and
involvement and concern about how this would develop, um, so we, again, wanted to make sure
that we ... we invited those people into the process early, uh, heard their input early, and were
able to take ... take that into account in our design. So as ... as Danielle said, we did go to, um,
P&Z with an initial design and, um, did not get the outcome we wanted on that, but got some
good feedback from the commissioners and the public. Um, we came back with another revised
design. They had a few more changes to make and got to the plan that ... that you see tonight and
really, um, the bulk of those... that feedback that we got was the concern of how this
development would impact Hickory Hill Park, and people's enjoyment and use of the park, and
where we settled on was really it came down to that ... that desire for the single -loaded street,
um, on the south and west por...portions of this development, and as Danielle said, you know,
it's a ... a significant piece of this development ind that it's over 2,200 feet of single -loaded street,
which is not something that you see in other places within Iowa City or other other cities in
general. Um, just from a comparison standpoint, that distance is kind of the equivalent of if you
go at the intersection of Hickory Trail and 151 Avenue and go east in the existing development.
That's essentially the same length as Hickory Trail is all the way to where it tees into Tamarack
Ridge or Tamarack Trail, sorry. (garbled) very significant portion of single -loaded street, which
is a benefit for Hickory Hill Park in that and creating a ... an opportunity, um, for the public to
gain additional access points to Hickory Hill Park. You know, we have two provided, one on
the south end, just near la ... across the street from lot two essentially, and that'll be lined up with
an existing connection of a pass that comes out of Hickory Hill Park and onto this private
property, and then again on the west side there's a location, um, probably about across from lot
12, west of lot 12, where the public currently does kind of cut across the property there, and
we're providing a connection there as well. That was one of the concerns that came up too
with ... with connections to Hickory Trail Park during the Planning and Zoning Commission
meetings was making sure that those access points to Hickory Hill Park felt like they were
accessible to the public. It was pretty clear that people were not comfortable with trail
connections that came down side yards between two houses, and so what you see before you
tonight, again, is really, um, the efforts of the developer and the development team, um, taking
that feedback from the Commission and the public and working that in. During the process,
we ... we heard a lot of feedback from the public, like I said, that was concerned about how this
would impact the park. And I think it's a real testament to how well and how hard we worked to
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address those concerns, and that a group like Friends of Hickory Hill Park, um, at our our final
Planning and Zoning meeting, um, while they weren't able to get consensus among the group to
speak in favor of the project, they ...they felt like ... or they expressed that they felt like the
development team addressed enough of the concerns and kind of got... got a good plan. Um, I
think we all recognize that on a site like this there's no perfect plan, there's no perfect
development... that's going to make all parties happy. But, again, I think we can ... we feel very
proud and very comfortable that the plan they came up with... finds that balance between those
who would...who would like to see this property not change and those who recognize that this
property has ... has been slated for future development (mumbled) the last 20 years, as long as
that Northeast District plan's been out there there's been some discussions of how this property
would develop. Um, the last part that I think is worth just addressing and touching on quickly
is that the addition of this senior living facility on this property clearly, um, the comprehensive
plan does not show one large building on the property, but it does show multiple smaller
apartment buildings. Um, we looked at this and saw an opportunity to provide a ... a type of
housing that ... that we feel that Iowa City needs, in that there's demand for, and that is a ... the
assisted living and memory care living for... for seniors. Again, we work... worked with the
architect and the development team to find a way to bring that ... that facility onto this property
in a way that was respectful of the existing neighbors and respectful of people using the park,
and... and create a facility that would fit in ... into the terrain. Uh, the building that's there is three
stories on the north end. But it does step down to a single -story on the south end then that's
closest to Hickory Hill Park. Um, and I don't know if it's possible for me to share my screen,
but we do have renderings we can share, otherwise I know they're in your packet too that show,
um, what this building will look like and, um, and we can speak more to that too, uh, this
evening, but I think with that that kind of covers the items that I really wanted to highlight, and
I'm happy to take any questions, and then I know that Adam Tarr would also like to speak after
me, on behalf of the developers.
Teague: Any questions for Michael? And I do see Adam Tarr. I'll go ahead and invite Adam Tarr.
Tarr: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, can you hear me?
Teague: Yes, we can.
Tarr: (garbled) Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, Council Members. Thank you, Mike, as
well, and Danielle. I just want to quickly say, yeah, I'm here on behalf of Nelson Development
in favor of this requested rezoning to OPD-RSS. I am also here though as a resident of the cast
side and a supporter and a regular user of Hickory Hill Park. We have lived in the same home
for the last 12 years, just a few blocks south of the park, and I know that the park was a huge
positive in choosing this as our forever family home. And I cross paths with many members of
the public, staff, Council Members in the park with my family and my dogs, and knowing that I
expect to see my neighbors in the park for the foreseeable future, I wouldn't be before you today
advocating for this development if I couldn't say without hesitation that this is a very, very good
plan. In fact, sitting on my desk next to me is one of my favorite pictures of my daughter, and
one of our dogs, that I took at the picnic table on top of the hill on the north loop of Hickory
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Hill, and so I just want to emphasize that this is a special plan. I know Mike conceded that no
plan is perfect and that the idiosyncrasies of the lot always have to be taken into account. As I
would say, you know, this isn't quite a unicorn of a plan, but it's darn close. I note that the
Planning and Zoning approved and recommended this by a 6-1 vote. Staff for Parks and Rec
and the City Forester have also supported this. Parks and Rec staff notice... that are noted that
the addition of 14 acres to Hickory Hill Park, abutting Scott Boulevard, will increase the park
size by nearly 8%, and it will actually also improve the eco -diversity of the park, while adding
trailheads in front (garbled) Scott Boulevard. In fact, fully 28% of this property will be
dedicated to Hickory Hill Park via outlot A. Outlet B, which is to the northeast of the park, will
be a conservation easement for the stream side there. Together outlots A and B comprise almost
38% of the development that has been set aside for conservation, and the majority of the
woodland tree cover on the property will be preserved. So I think this is a huge win for Hickory
Hill and I'm pleased as can be to get to be before my neighbors and the Council to propose such
an expansion and improvement to a beloved park. I also am happy because I can speak to the
fact that there's a second interest, community interest, that is addressed in the comprehensive
plan that this also addresses, and that is as Mike mentioned the need for livable senior
housing ... in this Community. As somebody who works quite a bit with guardianships and
conservatorships, I know all too many families who have aging family members who need the
kind of care that ends up sending them to Solon, or to Tipton, or somewhere else, but being able
to bring in a quality senior living facility here with memory care units, as well, is a huge plus
for the community and to the east side, and it will also introduce good neighbors to the north
(mumbled) northeast boundary of the expanded park. Both families and seniors who are going
to choose to live alongside all of us, because like us they are drawn to Hickory Hill Park, that
means we can count on them to cherish the park and to protect it as much as we all want to, and
so we can probably expect Friends of Hickory Hill Park to grow as new stewards are welcomed
into this neighborhood. It's clear listening to Mike that Axiom really listened to the City and to
the neighbors and took their input to heart, and so I'm asking the Council and other community
members who are listening tonight to really listen to the plan and see what's been proposed and
set aside preconceived notions about what development is or what should happen in terms of a
spot here that, as Mike said, has been targeted for development. It's no longer going to be a de
facto adjunct to the park, and ACT has made it clear with its signage and with its ... its fencing
that the days of traipsing across that are going to be done, except for the fact that those trails
have been incorporated now into the expanded park and into the trail heads and so this really is
a situation where it's the best of all alternatives and the reality is that we have an opportunity
here to address the geriatric crisis that Iowa City is facing, and to expand Hickory Hill Park, and
to bring in good neighbors and good stewards in the process. It's just too good of an
opportunity to pass up and so on behalf of Nelson Development, we are urging the City Council
to recognize the opportunity before us here and to go ahead and approve that ordinance to
rezone to OPD-RS5. Thank you.
Teague: (garbled) there's any questions for Adam or Michael? Hearing none, I'm going to ask that
the ... I see public have raised their hand. Is there anyone else that would like to address this
topic from the public, please raise your hand now? Hands are continuing to raise. If you're on
the phone, press *9 if you would like to speak. I see eight hands raised as of now. Okay, we're
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going to allow each individual three minutes. If there are more hands that become raised, I may
adjust that time. There will be a timer and we ask that you stay within that three minutes. And
I am going to welcome Terry, followed by Nicholas.
Dickens: Hello, Mayor. I'd like to say hi to John, Pauline, and Susan, who I had the honor of serving
on the City Council, so I'm very familiar with the ... the whole process that you're going through.
I think there's ... most of the points have been brought up, so I hate to repeat those, but I think the
assisted living, having elderly people in an area with other families, is extremely important that
we can have that blend of ages going through there. I'm lucky enough to live on North Dodge
Street, I'm surrounded on three sides by Pappy Dickens Preserve and Hickory Hill Park.
Like ... like your developer said, we're all good stewards of that, but when you live next to it, you
become a better steward. You feel a little bit of ownership. I know when the derecho went
through we had our man that comes up and takes care of our trees, we had some tree damage on
our house. He came up and cut down all what we call the widow makers, the limbs that were
hanging down. He went over into Pappy Dickens Preserve and cut those down at our expense
to make it more safe for all the people to use. I think it's very important that we have all these
new access points to the park. It's extremely important. It's a beautiful area to walk. We have
probably one of the largest urban parks, you know, anywhere, and it's ... I don't think it's being
used as much as it really should. I did get in on the last part of the Planning and Zoning
meeting. I thought a lot of great points were bought up. Uh, it went ... passed the second ... the
second or third time 6-1, and I know the Council in the past when they get that kind of
recommendation usually vote, and I'm just hoping that they all vote for that. Just a quick
congratulations to Eric Goers. I know you... that's up on your agenda soon, and I just want to
tell him congratulations. I hope you do, uh, let him in there, and I just feel very, very blessed to
live where I do, and I think this is a great addition to Iowa City, eastern Iowa City. It's a great
in -fill project and it really meets all the district plans and just ... it's such a good project, I just
hope it passes. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. (garbled) welcome Nicholas, followed by Dan.
Theisen: Hello, Council. I too would like to thank you for all the efforts that you have recently put
forward to underwrite the property values of single-family homeowners. Sorry, a little sarcasm
there to begin this. First, well actually first of all I'd like to note that you gave the developers an
inordinate amount of time to speak, and we once again are subject to this stupid timer. Here's
the thing, developers get constant attention from the City all throughout the development
process, but we, as the public, have extremely limited points at which we can address you, if
you're even listening at all. So this whole timer thing is absolutely ridiculous. It is incredibly
hypocritical the way you treat us, compared to the way you treat business interests in the city, so
just ... uhh! I can't believe you sometimes. But when it comes to the issue of a single-family
rezoning, just like... again, the hypocrisy of it. You all go on again and ... I mean in other
instances, you talk about how much you hate single- family zoning, how much you don't want it
to happen, and yet (laughs) a development that is like two- thirds, if not three-quarters single-
family houses, you're like, oh yeah sure, that sounds like a great idea! What happened to
affordable housing, what happened to that? Oh, I guess, well, you see here's the problem.
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Every time one of these things comes up, you make a decision based solely upon the thing that
is right in front of you, and whatever principles you have just get completely thrown out the
window. It's like, oh yeah well, you know, staff worked on this and we did a good job and we
think we put together a good plan, and you know, it's all come together, and ... bullshit, absolute
bullshit, because the thing is, and this was actually brought up in one of the emails that was sent
to you as a late handout, that it is your role to drive how development occurs in this city, not to
simply sort of massage what developers want into, well, whatever you happen to think your
principles are on a given day, and so as a result, what you end up doing is precisely what I said
at the beginning, is you underwrite the property values of the richest people in the city.
Meanwhile, those of us who actually have to deal with the housing crisis, that you do nothing
about (laughs) I ... I'm just so furious with you about this. I ... I'm just gonna stop talking because
I'm just lodging the same objection that I always do. You have no principles when it comes to
housing, you have no idea what you're doing, you should reject this, you're not going to, but
there's nothing we can do to stop you because it's clear from these stupid timers who you really
care about. You care about the developers, you don't care about the rest of us.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Dan, followed by Allison.
Kauble: Hi, um, I would also like to reiterate the fact that like the Council's giving the public a timer,
but not the developer. I mean like (laughs) good job, City government, like we know who you
prioritize. Uh, if I start my own development company, can I like not have a timer when I
speak? That would... that would be dope. Um, anyways the senior housing aspect of this is
super cool. I dig it, I really do, but that's the best thing I can say about it. Here is the thing: It
seems like this government is not interested in creating more affordable housing for folks. The
Iowa City metro has the highest property values and rental rates out of all metro areas in the
entire state of Iowa. Unfortunately, our community is filled with rich folks who kind
of...who ... who have an elite housing, who create an elite housing crisis, and we are in the
middle of a public housing crisis, and, um, it looks like this development plan just expands that.
It turns Hickory Hill Park into the backyard of a bunch of rich folks, and honestly, it only ser ...it
only is going to expand this elitism. And Adam Tarr discussed the geriatric crisis, which I agree
is major and that this senior housing will fix, but like damn, y'all, like what about the affordable
housing crisis? And also it really sounds like Friends of Hickory Hill Park is opposed to this. It
sounds like the neighblors ... neighbors and the people who are going to be most impacted by this
are against it. Aren't they the most important folks to consider, along with the most
disadvantaged folks in this community? And it seems like the people who are telling you, oh,
the neighbors are happy, are the ones with the most to lose if this does not go through. So I
would seriously urge the City government to actually find out, okay, are the neighbors happy
with this, because I mean, as one of the developers even admitted, there's not a uniform
consensus. I love Hickory Hill Park and one of the most appealing parts of it is that it seems
like it's just I can go and get lost in the wild, when I'm still in Iowa City. And it ... this plan
seems like it encroaches on that, and despite the claims of, oh land being added to Hickory Hill
Park, I fear that this plan will fundamentally change what I love most about the park, which is
just going in, getting lost, and trying to find my way out of it again. I mean that's the cool thing
about the park. Um, and just I ... it would just be so cool if we could have more affordable
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housing, more affordable multi -family development, so close to that park, because I imagine
most of the housing that's close to it isn't very affordable. I mean just use your heads and your
hearts, y'all, for real.
Teague: Thank you, Dan. Welcome, Allison, followed by William.
Jaynes: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. I also want to complain about this three-minute timer,
since you did let the developers go on and on with their disingenuous comments. But I suppose
there's no way to change that at this point. I wanted to say that I have been attending these
meetings, the P&Z meetings, since the beginning on this development. I found the whole
process to be very sneaky and underhanded, uh, from the very start and I'll tell you why. Um,
but just to say first of all that the comments from the public were overwhelmingly raised in
concern with this project and against many aspects of this project, including those from Friends
of Hickory Hill, despite the developers just claiming otherwise. So some of the things that
really concerned me throughout this process were, number one, this ... this whole thing with ACT
making threats, sending threatening letters into the P&Z Commission, and then they follow
through with those threats by putting up, you know, barbed wire fences and signs all over,
claiming that they were basically holding that land hostage and they were going to take it away
from everyone unless this development goes through. Secondly, the P&Z Commission itself
was led by a person who introduced this project as if it were a foregone conclusion. They said
things like this will happen, and this is inevitable, rather than starting with is this going to
happen, or is this a possibility. There's a huge conflict of interest there, not to mention the
conflict of interest I saw on many speakers you folk ... who spoke in favor of this plan during the
P&Z meetings, uh, because they were either... somehow a part of ACT or somehow, uh, part of
the development team, so that was also very disingenuous. Now I understand the City,
especially Geoff Fruin, really wants this to happen, since it's going to make a lot of nice tax
money. But let me just tell the Council while you're listening hopefully, the two biggest
problems with this plan. The first one is there needs to be more setback, much more setback,
and that's the buffer that I think Council Member Mims was asking about. This is for, um,
concerns with people using the park, but also for wildlife. You spent a ridiculous amount of
money slaughtering deer the last couple of years, uh, and then now you're just going to green
light this development so that people will have absolutely no buffer between their yards, and the
deer that are going to come and eat the plants and then they're going to want you to kill them all
over again. And then, lastly, Terry Dickens talked about all these new access points to the park,
but that's not reality. If you notice on that plan, there's nowhere for people to park. It's not
going to be like Bloomington Street ac ... access. It's going to look like 7`h Avenue entrance,
which is essentially a bunch of rich people get... feeling like they own the park, and they have
the park in their own backyard and that entitlement comes with the cost of making everyone
else feel left out. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, William, followed by Ann. Okay ...I'm not seeing William transferred
over.
Syrian: Hello? Hello.
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Teague: Hello, thank you. Welcome.
Synan: I'm sorry. Thank you. I'm asking the City Council to deny this proposal. The City's
comprehensive plan envisions low-density single-family residences on this property. It has
been zoned as interim development single-family residential. On December 7th we received a
letter from Axiom Consultants, on behalf of the developers Nelson Developers and Hickory Hill
Estates. We were informed that the developers were seeking to rezone the area to low density
single-family residential for the Hickory Trail Estates project, and medium density multi -family
residential for the Nelson Development project. We were told that medium density multi-
family residential zoning would be required for the construction of the senior living center. A
number of community neighbors expressed their concerns regarding the rezoning proposal,
which included the construction of the three -building complex containing 120 occupancy units.
Following this good neighbor meeting, the developer (garbled) zoning request to Planning and
Zoning (garbled) They've requested a rezoning to low density single-family residential with a
planned development overlay. Medium density multi -family was substituted with the term
planned development overlay. They also increased the number of occupancy units for the
senior facility from 120 to 135. Proposing 135 dwelling units on 9.38 acres comes out to 14.4
dwelling units per acre, which is not low density. Many members of the surrounding
communities have also raised concerns about the traffic intersection of Hickory Trail and North
1 st Avenue. The developers are proposing a throughway connection from Scott Boulevard,
traversing the park and connecting with North I st Avenue. Again, this is not what the City
comprehensive plan envisioned. The comprehensive plan proposed two separate access entries
into the property, one coming off (mumbled), the other entry would be an extension of Hickory
Trail (mumbled) I" Avenue. Both these access entries (mumbled) to end in separate cul-de-sacs
and not be a throughway. I believe the wisdom behind the comprehensive plan was to minimize
the traffic liabilities at the intersection of Hickory Trail and I" Avenue, and minimize the impact
on Hickory Hill Park. Unfortunately there are two developers involved here with two
completely different plans. One developer, Hickory Trail Estates, is planning low density
single-family residences, which is what the comprehensive plan projected. The other developer,
Nelson Developers, is planning a medium density multi -family, multi -story three -building
complex. The two completely different proposals, there should have been two separate
rezoning applications. This application was denied twice by Planning and Zoning, and we
requested a third time. The senior living center should be located along a major street, like
Scott Boulevard, not Hickory Trail, like Danielle Sitzman said. I respectfully request the
Councilors come to the site to see what it's like trying to exit Hickory Trail on the west side of
1'` Avenue. The intersection is at the base of two descending roads (both talking)
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Ann, followed by Casey.
Synan: Hello. Is ... can everyone hear me? Okay (both talking) I would like to thank, um, Mayor
Teague and the Iowa City Councilors for this time to speak. My husband Bill Synan and I have
lived in the neighboring Bluffwood area on Cyprus Court for 27 years. On the, um, as Mr.
Welch pointed out earlier, um, there has been a significant interest from the neighboring
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communities, as well as the entire Iowa City community, but I would (mumbled) just as Allison
said earlier, this has mostly been opposition to the plan. Um, this is not just senior housing,
which we would have no objection to. This is a very large, a huge as the developer once called
it, um, three -building complex with 90 outdoor parking spaces, and will end up being as high as
four stories, with the pitch of the roof that's taken into effect, and 135 units. Um, we ... as I'm
sure you are aware, the rezoning plan was brought to the Planning and Zoning Commission
three times be ... um, between February and May, 2021 and was denied twice by the ... by the
Planning and Zoning Commissioners, first by a vote of 6-1 and then by a 7-0 unanimous vote.
Opposition to the plan by neighbors and the Iowa City community was strong and has remained
strong, and the Commissioners called the attendance at the meetings unprecedented, with well
over 100 people attending each of the first two meetings. I believe 140 was the attendance at
one of the meetings. We are not opposed to the development of this land, which is a beautiful
piece of property situated between two established neighborhoods, Hickory ...um, Hickory
Heights and the Bluffwood neighborhood, and it is adjacent to Hickory Hill Park. While a
diversity of housing choices is always desirable and is desirable to us, the location of multi -unit
structures, including a large senior care facility, should be carefully considered so as not to
destroy the existing neighborhoods of single- family homes. The Iowa City comprehensive
plan 2030, which was reaffirmed in 2013, says that the property should be zoned for single-
family homes. We ask you as Councilors to support the comprehensive plan and deny this
request by the developers. Thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Casey, followed by Tom.
Kohrt: Thank you, Councilors. Um ... uh, Casey Kohrt here. I am the Chairman of the Board of
Hickory Hill Park ... of Friends of Hickory Hill Park, and we generally operate on a consensus
basis, and while we didn't have consensus on this last plan, it's mostly due to the fact that, um,
this thing has been rushed through and through, um, up until 2019. What has happened when
the ... when the Commission denied a thing, they have to start all over. So this is a farely new
process, and so they can come back month after month, and we just didn't have a quorum to
meet, because, you know, we're volunteers. We have lives, we're in the middle of a pandemic.
So that's why we didn't have a consensus on the last plan. Um, the last time we did have a
consensus was that... stick to the district plan, stick to the comprehensive plan, and what that
shows is that there are two cul-de-sacs, coming from the north and coming from, um, I'
Avenue. And, you know, the Commission has said, and I realize that there's some things in
code, that cul-de-sacs are not, they lit... they... they don't want cul-de-sacs, but at the same time in
either the February or March meeting, I don't remember which one it was, they approved a cul-
de- sac off of Rapid Creek Road. So I don't quite get that. So the owner has called us, um, anti -
development or they've called the opposition anti -development. We have never been anti -
development. We have always agreed that they have the right to develop this land, it's private
property, but you do it in consensus with the district plan and the Northeast District plan. So
they should have done their due diligence when they bought the property. The plan existed, so
they know what could be developed. I think they're trying to maximize profits and get the most
money out of that, meaning that the developer has got to push as many houses into that property
as they can to make a profit. So ... it's a little concerning why the first two plans got so far in the
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planning process. I mean why they just completely bypassed those two plans, and it didn't look
anything like those plans at all. So why staff approved those, it's very confusing what's going
on at the City there. They have made some concessions. We like the single -loaded street. If
there's going to be a single -loaded street,we prefer the cul-de-sacs and the single -loaded street
that is approved in the plan. And I'd like to talk to Adam Tarr and his picture at the picnic table
on the prairie. You know what you're going to see when you look across those ... those beautiful
prairies that we planted? You're gonna see houses (both talking)
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Tom, followed by Bobby.
Goedken: Thank you, Mayor Teague. First of all I want to say I appreciate the time limit, and I thank
you for it. I think it's an expedient use of time. You... you... you hear sentiment and I appreciate
that. I'm here to encourage the approval of this development. I spoke at the last P&Z meeting.
I did similar. Uh, it's a needed edition of single-family houses and the assisted living facility,
which is sorely needed in our community. This does comply with the comprehensive plan.
You've no doubt read it and understand that. Uh, you've... you've seen that and it, uh, if you
overlay the....the development with the comprehensive plan, you'll see it's, uh, it's right in line
with that. It's not unusual, as you know, Terry spoke of that, um, of the process. It's not unusual
for a plan to be rejected at P&Z, uh, on occasion and then approved, and this was approved by a
6-1 vote. So I would encourage you to approve it. Um, Iowa City needs it and appreciate that.
Lastly, this is not related to this, but....um... (both talking)
Teague: (mumbled)
Goedken: I...I am. Uh, Geoff Fruin's an asset to the community, and I just want to voice my support,
um, and the previous comments were unfounded and, uh, are unfortunate. Thank you, Mayor.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Bobby, followed by Annie.
Jett: Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes, welcome.
Jett: Great! Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council. So much of what I wanted to say has already
been said, so I'll just reiterate quickly some points I think are important. Uh, there's an
unprecedented demand for housing, not just in Iowa City, but all across the United States, and in
fact I think one of the, uh, a woman spoke in public comment about her frustration from going
from a renter to a home buyer, and that's because they're flying so fast because there's not
enough supply, which is driving the prices up even higher. I think this project provides a lot of
single-family housing, but also multi -family with the assisted living, which I think is also much
needed for our aging population in Iowa City. This plan, I think, was ... the developer and his
team listened to the concerns that were raised by Friends of Hickory Hill, the neighbors of
Hickory Hill, the City of Iowa City, as well as the residents who love the park, and I think
they've come back with a really responsible, respectful plan that listened to the concerns. The
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plan meets the North District... the Northeast District plan, the comprehensive plan, the
Bluffwood neighbor plan by providing that conservation neighborhood design and that
residential buffer between the existing park and the development. Uh, it's located by Regina,
City High. There's shopping in the Olde Towne Village, Hy -Vee, Drug Town. Those are all
great amenities for this new development and the people that will live there. Something I really
like is that this new development does not take any land from the existing park, but in fact adds
14 acres to the park, which is a real gift, I think, to the City and to the park, and those two, uh,
trails that were mentioned that are illegal now through ACT's private land will be incorporated
into the park with new trail heads, which will make the public much more comfortable using
them and they'll be safer. Uh... finally the, uh, City's comprehensive plan allows for this to be
rezoned as RS -5, so that's not a concern, and as one of the, uh, members on the Planning and
Zoning, uh, said at one of their meetings, `Don't let perfect get in the way of good.' I think
that's, uh, should be really taken to heart for this project. As all projects, there's no perfect
project ever, but this one is a very good project, and I encourage you to approve it. Thank you
for your time.
Teague: Thank you, and we do have a few more hands raised. I'm going to actually change our time to
two minutes. I'm going to call on Annie, followed by Taylor. Welcome, Annie.
Gudenkau£ Hi, um, this time limit is so silly, like it's so laughably representative of how Council sees
its constituents versus business professionals in the community. Um, but I would like to
emphasize what the vast majority of other speakers have said during this time. Please do not
approve this development, and prioritize, um, affordable housing for people that have had their
goods stolen by police the past week. Thanks!
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Taylor, followed by Mohamed.
Kohn: Hello, first of all it's really great that I get a whole minute less than everyone else, and everyone
else already did not get that much time. I wasn't gonna talk at all, but you made us listen to the
developers for so long, I'm going to waste your time a little bit. I can't really sum up the issues
with this plan better than people already have, but I oppose it because we need more multi-
family housing. I want to talk a little bit about my experience as a student getting housing in
this city, and I'm going to try not to cry on this Zoom call (laughs) I was a freshman in the
dorms and they kick you out 24 hours after your last final, and I am extremely fortunate. I am
about the most financially fortunate that I think is like typical here, in that the ... my parents are
well off and I had money behind me and I had a place to go that summer before my lease kicked
in in August. And I didn't have to worry about buying groceries or paying rent, but that was the
most traumatic few months of my life because my home was not safe. But I did not have a
place to go, even though I had an apartment, because in the city we have homeless week or
homeless month, a time where people are told by the City and by the University to couch surf.
Whose couches are we supposed to surf on? All of our peers are also in the same situation.
And once again, I am lucky because I had a house to go to. I've heard of other people, it's not
my right to speak to their experiences so I won't go into detail, but people who did not have a
place to go, who slept in their car or considered sleeping in their car. I know that there were
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stories that have not reached me, and this is not prioritized. We can't let perfect get in the way
of the good. This is not good! (laughs) It is unlivable here for students and for low-income
people, and it drives people out of the city. It drives young people out of the city. It drives
students out of the city. It drives working class people out of the city. It is very clear who this
Council cares about, and it is very upsetting that I only had two minutes to talk about it. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Mohamed, followed by Adam.
Traore: Hi, thank you very much for recognizing me again, uh, Mayor Teague. Just wanted to say that
yeah I attended one of the listening sessions, uh, as well on ... on this item a few months ago, and
yeah, there were so many people in there that had ... that had spoke and I said something in there,
because it was stated that there wouldn't be a massive problem with traffic or anything and in
terms of safety, and I spoke about how just in my time running cross country at City High, we
ran this area a lot. And there's this team is 80 -plus kids, and there's also a girls' cross country
team. (mumbled) there's Regina's teams as well, so there's many kids running in the area for
one, and when we talk about traffic, I just feel it's very dangerous to put something like this
there cause you have just so many other people actually driving through, and then we talk
about, um, environmental diversity and also just making sure that we actually support our
environment. If we're ripping out so much land in the area of Hickory Hill, I mean, we can talk
about other initiatives we're putting in ... into place, but when you displace so many
environmental aspects in one area, it's very difficult to get the intended ... the intended effect
elsewhere, so we just really need to ensure that we properly prioritize where exactly we are
putting developments, and not only that, but the types of developments we're putting in, such as
not just single-family homes and single-family units, but multi -family homes and units. Where
are the townhouses in Iowa City? Where are the condos in Iowa City? I mean we look at
places like Tiffin and how they're growing, and all the neighborhoods of town houses in North
Liberty, as well, in the townhouses and condos, and it has made things much more affordable.
It has allowed more families to live in these areas as well. There are more and more families
moving out of the Iowa City area to these other areas due to the decline in...in prices for
housing, uh, all around there. So once again, just want to parrot what was said earlier about the
fact that Iowa City, in terms of metro areas in a state of Iowa, has the highest rental and housing
rates, and this is based on data from the fare Housing Association.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Adam, followed by Tanner.
Parker: Hello, Mayor Teague and Council. I'll try to be brief, uh, as I want to advocate for a great
natural space in our community. Um, the Iowa City comprehensive plan discourages parks that
are surrounded by private property. As deeded over to outlot A, that is exactly what will happen
as currently proposed. Allowing high... higher income property owners to benefit from the rest
of Iowa City residents by allowing their private property to abut a wooded park, allowing
private owners long- term financial arbitrage on their property, partly paid for by community
members for the generations to come. As Michael mentioned, it is important for the City to
follow the climate action plan, as infill is better than outward expansion. However, density is
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also important to this concept. The final plan as presented has removed zero lot, um, less
expensive housing as were presented in drafts one and two. Higher density buildings could
meet climate action goals, additionally allowing more socioeconomic statuses the opportunity to
benefit from the proximity of the park. The current proposal does not adequately accomplish
this goal in its current form. I appreciate the Council listening to hours of community input. I
believe the Council should reject the plan in its current form. Developers have numerous
opportunities to revise drafts of this plan, but the Council only has one chance to approve a plan
that meets the needs of this sensitive area. Thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you, and if anyone has already addressed this topic, please lower your hand. Welcome,
Tanner, followed by Sabri Sky.
King: Hello. Thank you, Council. Um, I just want to say as somebody who is generally very
outspoken against this development, I don't personally have as much of a problem with the
senior living development. Um, the memory care development will come with its cost to the
beauty of the park, but there's at least an aspect of utility where it'll serve a large number of
people. (mumbled) keep some distance from the park, while it maximizes that utility. The real
problem that I see is that it turns the park into the backyard of a few wealthy people or as a
couple (mumbled) people have referred to them as good neighbors. These houses will not
address the issue of affordable housing, and I find it very disingenuous when I hear people
suggesting that it will. Um, I would also like to address my disappointment that this is being
backed by people such as Joe Clark and ACT CEO Janet Godwin, who have just shown so
much contempt for the public through this whole process. It's ... it's upsetting. I think they have
made it clear that they cannot be trusted to act in the interest of respecting the public. The
republic has made it ... the public has made it overwhelmingly clear over months that we are not
okay with this proposal, and I find it very disturbing how the developer was able to just keep
submitting, which is basically the same plan over and over, until they get what they want, and
you can call it a unicorn if you want, but we're not buying it. Hickory Hill Park is one of the
most special things about Iowa City, and I implore you to please, please protect the the City's
future by protecting the future of this park. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Sabri Sky.
Sky: Hello, I wanted to speak about the need for affordable housing, just to be one more voice for
that. The plan needs to include bus service going near it. Please do not accept this plan unless
it is going to be multi -family units and houses that will be there for (mumbled) homes for
people who have a really difficult time getting a mortgage loan. It's well past time that we have
as much as possible, more of that in this city, even with something like this, with every single
property being, you know, $800 for a three-bedroom. It wouldn't be enough, so please do not
accept this plan unless that is going to be the cost of rent or any equivalent, uh, or less mortgage
cost ... for a ... a two-bedroom home. I'm tired of hearing that the only possible stewards of the
area are people rich enough and privileged and lucky enough to have bought a home when rates
were more affordable 27 years ago. I also ran track in junior high in high school a little bit, uh,
until I couldn't afford to take two buses to get to school (laughs) to do practice before school,
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but I appreciate that those areas and there's absolutely no way that I could afford to get a single-
family home or even any of the apartments that are being planned with the prices being planned
for them, because we haven't heard anything about how affordable these are going to be, um, let
alone any place else in the city (mumbled) top of the competition for it. People who are
respected and given an opportunity to have a roof over their head are stewards of the park, as
well, at all our parks. Thank you so much.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Milla... Mila.
Grady: Hi, I'm Mila Grady and I have lived in Iowa City since 1974. I grew up on the south side of
Chicago, a very urban and noisy area, and I have lived close to the park for many years, and I
want the Council to really advocate for this beautiful natural space, a hidden gem that we have
an Iowa City. I encourage the Council to be visionary. There is no other place to go in this
town where you can really experience the peace and quiet of Hickory Hill Park. Um, I treasure
the beauty and the quiet of the park. It is truly a gem in this area, so please protect it. The
senior living development and housing development should be presented as two separate
applications, and voted on separately, and I'm very concerned with the traffic on Ist Avenue.
It's an extremely steep road, a two-lane road. The traffic study was completed during a
pandemic, and I don't think will accurately represent the additional traffic that's going to be
added to this dueling road, so thank you very much.
Teague: Thank you. And thanks to all of the individuals from the public that have addressed this topic.
We really appreciate the opportunity to hear you, and for Council, I am going to ask, um, if you
are inclined to vote with P&Z recommendation. So I just want to see some nodding of heads of
one way or the other. Okay, I'm not going to close the public hearing. Um...
Dulek: Mayor?
Teague: Yes!
Dulek: I think you'll want to close the public hearing because of the protest aspect of it (both talking)
then folks can ... sol ... my advice is to close the public hearing.
Teague: Okay, and then just so that I have clarification, we'll close the public hearing, but the majority
of Council is not inclined to vote with P&Z. We'll have them come and do a ... we'll have a
meeting with P&Z. Okay. All right, so I'm going to close the public hearing, and I'm going
to ... I guess, um, we're ... could I get a motion to defer?
2. Consider an Ordinance (First Consideration)
Salih: I will be happy to do that motion.
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
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Teague: Moved by, uh, Salih, seconded by Taylor, and then roll call please. Well, I guess we can do
Council discussion.
Taylor: Discussing whether to defer? Or...
Teague: Well, whatever you wanted to talk about, but certainly I think if you wanted to wait until P&Z
came, you...you certainly can do whatever you want during this time.
Taylor: Right, that's what I was thinking, I mean we ... it sounds as though most of us would ... would like
to confer with P&Z on this.
Teague: Okay, any other comments? Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0. Okay, so I ... could I get a
motion to accept correspondence?
Salih: Move, Salih.
Weiner: Second, Weiner.
Teague: All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 7-0.
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10. Sale of 520 N. Dodge St. - Resolution authorizing conveyance of a single-family home
located at 520 N. Dodge Street.
Public Hearing
Teague: I'm going to open the public hearing, and staff presentation. Welcome, Tracy.
Hightshoe: Hi, this is Tracy Hightshoe with Neighborhood and Development Services. Um, this is our
69th home of the UniverCity Program. Be ... it's a little bit different than our other ones. We
propose... let me tell you about the background. We ... we bought the house for 167,500. We
propose to sell it to... at 227,000. We bought the house as a side-by-side duplex, and we
renovated it and changed the configuration so that it'd be upper and lower, with the one -
bedroom on the main level, uh, an efficiency or studio in it on the upper level, with the
opportunity for the owner that they could rent for extra income. Um, one of the units, it's in
neighborhood commercial so you could also have a ground floor business and live on top of the
business. We completely gutted and renovated both units. They both have separate entrances
into them. So we had it for sale. We had some difficulty because of the configuration and our
reach through our City marketing, so we hired a realtor to help us sell it. We have a buyer that
wants to purchase the home and so, um, pictures of the renovations are in your packet and if
you have any questions, I can answer them about our 69th home!
Teague: Okay, doesn't seem like any questions, thank you. Um, would anyone from the public like to
address this topic? If so, please raise your hand. Seeing no one, I'm going to close the public
hearing. Could I get a motion to approve please?
2. Consider a Resolution
Salih: Move, Salih.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Bergus, and Council discussion?
Thomas: I'm happy to see this, uh, being purchased and improved by staff in the process. You know,
this is in a location on Dodge where you're coming into town, so I think it's, uh, in addition to
all the values associated with the UniverCity Program, it will improve, you know, the image and
character as one comes into town. It's directly across from Horace Mann Elementary. So
this ... this will be a benefit to the surrounding area, as well as those who are entering into Iowa
City on Dodge Street.
Teague: Okay, um and roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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11. Curb Ramp 2021— Resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for the
construction of the Curb Ram 2021 Project, 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 up the public hearing, and staff presentation.
Sovers: Yes, good evening, Mayor and Council. Scott Sovers, Assistant City Engineer. So this is one
of our City's annual projects that includes installation of (mumbled) curb ramps so that... where
they don't already exist or the replacement of curb ramps that are not ADA compliant. This
year's project generally includes installation and a replacement of ramps in the Peninsula
neighborhood and portions of the Court Hill subdivision, that is located south of Court Street
and west of Scott Boulevard. Also included in the project is the replacement of the sidewalk on
the east side of Riverside Drive on the McDonald's frontage. The estimated construction cost
of the project is $165,000. Uh, assuming we receive acceptable bids on June 29th, construction
is scheduled to commence late July and finish up mid October and that concludes my
presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions that any of you have.
Teague: Not hearing any questions. Thank you. All right, would anyone from the public like to
address this topic? If so, please raise your hand. Seeing no one, I'm going to close the public
hearing. Could I get a motion to approve please?
2. Consider a Resolution
Bergus: So moved, Bergus.
Weiner: Second, Weiner.
Teague: Moved by Bergus, seconded by Weiner, and Council discussion?
Taylor: Well I'll bring it up if John's not going to bring it up. In the past we've talked about it, sort of a
different subject, but yet this is important because obviously curb ramps and the ADA
requirements are important to the City, but I think ... and this fall is completion of this. Uh, we're
going to be looking at snow removal again, and I think that's something we need to keep in
mind about, uh, what we can do about helping folks out with snow removal on these curbs after
the plow comes through and piles up the snow. Just a little side comment (laughs) sorry.
Teague: I'm excited to see that we're still doing curb ramp, um, opportunities for people with
disabilities. We know that Harry Olmsted definitely was a big advocate for curb cuts, and so
happy to see that we are still committed to doing this work. All right, roll call please. Motion
passes 7-0.
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12. Public Housing Pavement Repair — Resolution approving project manual and estimate of
cost for the construction of the Public Housing Pavement Repair Project, 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 up the public hearing, and staff presentation. Welcome.
VanDyke: Good evening, Mayor and Council, this is Marri VanDyke with the Engineering department.
So this project will repair sidewalk and driveway pavement at 34 public housing units that are
owned by the City. So as you can see on this map, the units that are in need of repair are
located throughout Iowa City, with the majority of them located in the southeastern corner of
town. Here are some examples of the types of repairs that are needed. So essentially we want
to replace any broken, uneven, or cracked sidewalk or driveway panels, so that we're
eliminating any tripping hazards at these properties. So the schedule would be to open bids
June 23`d, award the contract July 6`h, and construction would go from the end of July to the end
of October, and the estimated construction cost is $147,000 . So with that, I'm happy to answer
any questions.
Teague: Not hearing any, thank you. And would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If
so, please raise your hand. Seeing no one, I'm going to close the public hearing. Could I get a
motion to approve please?
Salih: So move, Salih.
Thomas: Second, Thomas.
Teague: Any Council discussion?
Salih: I just have (mumbled) I really happy to see that, because we was just talking about a public
house that really the driveway it's very bad. And, you know, somebody reach out and we been
speaking about it, but (laughs) you know, the same time the City's already thinking about it,
which is great. I (mumbled) really happy to see that you're taking care of the public housing
driveway. Thank you.
Teague: Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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14. Iowa City Area Transit Study Plan and recommended transit system changes — Resolution
adopting the Iowa City Area Transit Study Plan.
Teague: And could I get a motion to approve please?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: All right, and welcome, Danielle. Oh, Darian!
Nagle-Gamm: Hello there. Hello, Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem, Councilors. One moment, as I pull up the
presentation on my screen. All right, thank you. So Darian Nagle-Gamm, Director of
Transportation Services. I'm very excited to be with you tonight to present the findings and the
recommendations from the Iowa City Area Transit Study. It's been a multi-year transit planning
process with Coralville Transit, the University of Iowa CAMBUS, Transportation Services staff,
of course, a team of transit consultants from Nelson\Nygaard, and the public, culminating in the
plan and recommendations that we are presenting in front of you this evening. Just to ... to
rewind just a bit, because this has been a long, uh, and a multi-year process, just to revisit the
objectives of the plan and really we were trying to figure out how we can optimize and improve
our current transit system, using our existin... existing funding and resources, how can we ... how
can we reimagine our service today, and also we wanted to know what enhancements, what
transit enhancements and transportation enhancements are desired by the community, if
additional funding is ultimately acquired. Our mission really has been to make transit more
dependable for those who rely on it and an easier choice for other people, and a few goals we
had with the study was to provide faster and more ... more reliable service; to simplify the
system, make it easier for people to understand; improve communications (noise in
background) improve coordination with Coralville Transit and CAMBUS to make more
consistent fare and transfer policies to make it easier to travel across the metro area, and you
know, a lofty goal of doubling ridership over the next 10 years. Take it a little bit more of a step
back in time just to to remind you of the steps that we've gone through to get to the point where
we're at night, we launched the study in August of 2019 and we started the data collection at
that point. We did some pretty significant first couple rounds of public outreach in the fall of
2019. We performed a service and market evaluation as well. We took all that feedback that we
heard from the community in January of 2020, and we presented three alternate service
scenarios to the public, and collected a lot of feedback on what they liked, what they didn't like,
and then from March until August we ultimately worked towards the development of kind of a
single proposed transit system redesign. Of course there was a ... a COVID pause in there as
well, um, didn't take all that time, but we certainly needed to reshift our efforts towards
pandemic transit operations for a bit there. So in the fall of 2020, we presented those study
recommendations to the City Council at your work session, and we received some preliminary
feedback regarding that preferred transit system design and theme, the fare recommendations,
and also the priority of potential transit service enhancements. Fast forward to this year in
March, we presented some of those potential transit service enhancements to the City Council at
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your work session, and we received direction to pursue a two-year Sunday service pilot, and to
come back with some more options and more refined options and further explore later evening,
on -demand transportation options. So in April, um, April 29th we held a virtual public
presentation to unveil the propose transit system change, and we've been collecting feedback
from the community ever since. So talking about that public input, that public outreach, and I
must say, um, first and foremost, a huge thank you to the community over the last two years.
We've had over 4,600 points of contact with the community. The bulk of that came in the first
three phases, and it was not an, you know, one of those easy surveys, tell me what you like,
what you don't like. There were ... some of these surveys got pretty involved and involvesd, uh,
some significant time investment and ... and some serious consideration of alternatives and, um,
you know, we ... we couldn't be more happy to have ... to have gotten nearly 4,000 responses, um,
and that's not only online surveys. That's people who came to our meetings, that's the
community stakeholders who we engaged with, um, so on- board surveys. We were thrilled
with the amount of, um, interest and dedication the community clearly has towards improving
our transit system. The latest phase is really what we've been experiencing since the final
proposals were unveiled in April, and again we had that virtual presentation. We had 75
attendees, um, online on Zoom. We had 139 people simultaneously watching it on YouTube,
and then we've had about 100 presentation views in the months since the event. We are most
excited about the 240 persons who stopped by our info booth at the interchange the week of the
presentation. We just went downtown and brought all of our flyers, all of our information about
the proposed routes and the proposed service, and just talked to people as they were waiting for
the bus or as they got off the bus and, um, we were really excited that so many people wanted to
stop by and learn about the new system. We've also done outreach over the last month
(mumbled) community, your stakeholder organizations, just make sure they're aware of the
changes, give them an opportunity to provide any comments tonight. Social, legacy media
outreach, website updates, um, we've been distributing flyers with the proposed routes and the
proposed service levels throughout the community, um, translated in four additional languages
outside of English, and we received approximately 95 comments since the event, most of those
have been in email and those were provided to you with your ...with your Council information
for tonight. We did, um, we did also include some of the con ... the comments we received at the
info booth and the phone calls we received too in the ... in the comment tracker that I provided to
you all this evening. So what did we hear throughout this process from the community, what
are they looking for in their transit system of the future, and first and foremost, and you can see
by a wide margin, more frequent bus service. So the community wants more buses on the road,
less wait in between buses, so that really stood out. Sunday service was the second most
requested option. Later bus service came in third. More reliable on time information, and I will
say that this survey, particularly, was ... was done before we switched from the Bongo app where
we introduced the transit app, so I hope that that's (garbled) we've already made some
improvements on this item, but nevertheless, it's something that everybody in the community
clearly wants, that they want to know when the buses are going to get there. Um, Saturday
service was another desired improvement, and then faster service, um, more direct routes
amongst the other items. All right, so just really quickly just to give you kind of a sense of
scale. Um, these are all of our routes, current routes, staff ranked by average weekday
passengers, and I highlighted the ones that have kind of the lowest average weekday ridership
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and then the ones that have the highest. I skipped the night routes, because the ... by nature, um,
by...by them traveling only at night, of course they would have less ridership. So I highlighted
the 7°i Avenue, Cross Park, and Melrose express. Those are three of the routes that we currently
have, which are ... have the least ridership on ... on a weekday basis, and then in the evenings,
excuse me, on the other end of the scale, in terms of the highest ridership, you see West Winds,
Plaen View, the free shuttle, and Oakcrest have the highest weekday passengers by route. This
is sort of another way to look at the same thing, slightly different. So this is average weekday
passengers by service hour, so again at the lower end of the scale, you have Manville Heights,
you have the 7`h Avenue routes, the Eastside express route, the Melrose express routes are on the
lower end of the passengers served per hour. On the higher end, you have Plaen View,
Towncrest, Oakcrest, and the free shuttle, um, that had the greatest passengers per service
(mumbled) Okay, so we took all of that ridership information, we took all the feedback we
heard from the community, and we developed ultimately three cost -constrained transit service
scenarios. That's using our existing funding, our existing buses, our existing staffing, and we
designed three different proposals. And again, in January of 2020 we presented those to the
public and had a lot of really great comments about what they liked, what they didn't like, and
ultimately the final proposed route system was based on the public's response to these three
alternatives. We worked towards getting, you know, as much of the city as we could within a
quarter mile of transit, while also increasing bus frequency. That's kind of a benchmark for... for
transit, um, to try to get within a quarter mile ... within a quarter mile. We weren't able to do it
everywhere, but that was ... that was certainly goal. And to, you know, come to a final transit
system redesign, um, and to... and to meet those goals to increase that bus frequency that we
heard loud and clear from the public. It really did involve some ... some tough decisions and
some trade-offs, and we'll talk a little bit more about... about what those were. All right, so here
before you, this is the ... the preferred transit system design, based on what we heard from the
public, based on those guiding principles, um, that we discussed. It ... a 13 -route system is what
we're proposing. This would have four routes serving the west side, two of them serving the
north, the Peninsula and the North Dodge routes would serve the north. Six routes serving the
east side, and then plus the east side loop, um, which is kind of that... those dotted lines you see
on the screen. That's really... those are two trips we do per day, one in the school, um, AM
period and one in the school PM period, although the routes are open to the public. All right, so
this section here, I just want to walk through, again, some of those things that we heard from the
public, uh, kind of loud and clear, and I want to show how we address those and what we did in
developing that transit system to address those things. So the first thing that we heard from the
public clear... clearly, loud and clear, is more frequent buses, please. So how we addressed that
request was to focus our routes on arterial streets, with less diversion into local streets, um, and
parking loss to the extent possible. That was really kind of a driving effort is to keep them on
the arterials and to also create routes that are more out and back, which is really more direct,
um, and it provides faster service and reduced travel time. The alternative is kind of a
circuitous route that ... that you don't board and, you know, depart necessarily at the same
location. It can be a little confusing and it can increase the amount of time people need to spend
on the bus. So we really tried to go out and back. Um, in areas where we had routes with very
low ridership, they were either absorbed into the adjacent routes or service was reallocated to
areas of greater need, and then in some areas where there is duplicative service, and that's either
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Iowa City Transit providing service kind of on top of Iowa City Transit routes that sort of, um,
use the same roads for ...for lack of a better word or overlapped each other, but also places where
CAMBUS, Iowa City, and Coralville Transit overlap. That was the benefit of doing this with
all of our transit partners locally, as we could ... we did it together so we can see do we have an
excess of service we're putting in certain areas, um, you know, and how do we ... how do we
more efficiently manage that between our three agencies. What else we heard was we need
better Saturday service. So our response has been more bus service on Saturdays. All routes
will run on Saturdays, approximately 7 AM to 7 PM, except for the east side loop, which I
mentioned just runs on school days, and the downtown shuttle, which traditionally has not run
on weekends, but all other routes will run on Saturdays 7 AM to 7 PM. Um, currently only six
of our routes run on the weekend, and they run on (garbled) the weekdays, which can be
confusing because you have to sort of memorize two different sets of routes. There's a night
and weekend route, and then for some of our routes, um, and not others (laughs) and then
there's a regular weekday route, and we tried to simplify things as much as possible and just
make one route that runs the same no matter time of day or day of week. What else we heard
was we want more reliable service, we want the buses to be more on time. So again, we
focused our routes on arterial streets with less diversion into local streets and parking lots, and
that out and back, um, philosophy where there's turnarounds maybe at the end of the route, but
you really try to maintain the same route inbound and outbound, and... excuse me, inbound and
outbound, and all of that allows us to have more wiggle room in our schedule, um, to help
ensure that the buses are on time, and also we ... where it made sense, we consolidated bus stops.
So we have some areas where the buses could stop very frequently and the bus people waiting
at one bus stop could see the next bus stop and could see that the following bus stop so we
really were strategic about consolidating some of those bus stops that, um, that maybe... that
would ... in order to ... consolidated some bus stops in order to, you know, provide faster service
on that route and... and reduce travel time on the bus. Uh, we also heard loud and clear we need
Sunday service. So, you know, prior conversations at work sessions up until this point, but
beginning in late 2020, 21 or 2022, the Iowa City Transit will begin a two-year pilot of Sunday
service. Um, this schedule will minor Saturday's service schedule, so they will be a minor
image, and then we'll decide how to ... the Council will decide how to move forward at the end of
that, but that was welcomed by the community. I can tell you we've gotten lots of positive
comments about the Sunday service pilot. (mumbled) simplified transit, so this was definitely a
theme throughout the transit study. So we heard that loud and clear, and now all routes will
have a name and number, so you'll be able to refer to a route by, you know, one or two or three.
Um, we'll also have on all of our communications, our print communications, they will be color
coded and will integrate that to the extent that we can on the buses, as well, but we also, again,
no more special night and weekend routes. So routes are the same no matter the time of day or
the day of week. Some other changes that aren't necessarily involved with the routes, but all
bus passes will be able to be used on Coralville Transit, which is so exciting, and we've heard
such great feedback from the community. Every... this is a win... this was one of those rare win-
win -wins all around. The drivers are excited. The communities are excited. The passengers
are excited, and it will just ... it will be a much more simple and seamless process for people to
travel across the metro area. Another big change for Iowa City Transit is that transfers are
going to be allowed at any bus stop, and currently transfers are only allowed at the interchange,
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which is helpful perhaps if you're ... if you're transferring to another route to get across town, but
what if you want to transfer... what if you want to go to a different destination on the same side
of town? Before you would have to go all the way down to the transit interchange and then
come all the way back. Well now transfers are going to be allowed at any bus stop, which, um,
is a huge time saver for the public, and it allows us to use... for our transit systems to just have
so much more flexibility, so we're really excited about this change. It will make things so much
simpler. This is one of the, um, probably one of the number one conflicts that happens at the
fare box is...is we have to tell people that transfers aren't allowed at any bus stop today. So
we're really excited for this as well. Free transfers to Coralville Transit and CAMBUS.
CAMBUS is always free and open to the public, but there, of course, will be free transfers to
Coralville Transit, and then the transit app, um, you no longer need to memorize the bus routes
and schedules. You can literally open an app, if you have a smartphone, and type in the location
of where you are or where you're going, and it will tell you, um, the route to take, when you
should leave to get there, how far of a walk you should... you should take. It really ...it makes
transit so much easier. You no longer have to have everything memorized, so we're really going
to be doing a lot of training this summer on, um, on using the transit app, especially in light of
all of these changes. All right, we also heard we need more late evening transportation options.
So here's what we were able to do with ... with the transit service. So six ... the proposal is that six
routes will run until 10:00 PM, two will run till 9:30 PM, two will run to 8:00 or 8:30 PM, one
until 7:00, and one until 6:30. So we stretched every, you know, last dime that we had to pull
service later in the evening, and we're going to have new evening, uh, later evening service to
the far east side and to the far west side and to Lower Muscatine, Kirkwood areas that did not
have late evening service before. Now we know there still needs, and we heard from the public,
there still needs outside of those ... those existing transit hours, and like I said we stretched that
evening service as late as we could with our current funding levels. Um, but we are going to be
exploring on -demand partnership options to provide late night or overnight service when transit
is not in service. Can you make transit more affordable, um, this is another thing that's been
very popular to ... to discuss with the public, but those who are 65 and older and those who are
disabled, who, um, who apply for the disabled pass, Medicare card holders and SEATS card
hodl ... holders will ride for free any time of day, which is ... is, you know, very popular so far for
everybody that we've ... we've had an opportunity to talk with about this, but especially to any
time of day. We do have some passes now that offer discounts. Um, they're discounts, they're
not really free and they are... they're time restricted, so you really have to manage what time for
off-peak passes. Um, we're getting rid of our off-peak restrictions and just making it easy for
folks to travel any time of day. So we're really excited about that. Youth are also going to
receive a 50% discount on fare and passes going forward, and we are evaluating a low-income
fare program for the future. All right, so this is just a kind of a summary slide of some of those,
um, some of those improvements I just mentioned. So again, all buses will run every 30
minutes during the peak times. This is that frequency, that increased bus frequency request we
received. All buses will run every 30 minutes during the peak times and two routes will run
every 15 or 20 minutes. Today only six of our 20 routes run hourly during peak periods, or
today's (garbled) excuse me, today six of our routes run hourly during peak periods. So we're
really increasing the ... the number of routes that have high frequency service during the peak
periods. And not only that, that over half our routes will now have 30 minute service or less
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mid-day and we definitely heard this from the public. Our ...our transit system today is set up
really well for, you know, maybe a ... more of a traditional 8:00 to 5:00 schedule, and we have a
lot of service during those periods, but it really makes it difficult to travel mid-day, because you
have so long you have to wait between buses. So today only three of our 20 routes have 30
minute service or less mid-day, and over half of the routes, um, with the proposal will have 30
minute service or less mid-day. We've also improved our evening service, as I just mentioned,
we're going to have our ...nearly half of our routes running till 10:00. We'll have a few run till
9:30. We'll have a couple run till 8:30. Then we get 7:00 and 6:30, I mean we really stretched
this in the evening as late as possible, and then we're going to be going into new areas that we
did not have late evening service before. Again Saturday service, we're going to have all routes
will run on Saturdays except the eastside loop and the downtown shuttle, which will be really
nice. We have that Sunday service, two-year pilot, coming and then again the transfers being
allowed at any stop. It's gonna ... it's going to make a big difference for people, especially if you
want to travel on the same side of town. Um, just going to open up so many more options. All
right, so here ... here's the trade-offs, and I promised that I ... that I would talk through some of
these earlier, but we ... we did revamp our services. This proposal is based on our existing
funding in our ...and the resources really ultimately require trade-off. So what those trade-offs
are — some neighborhoods will have a farther walk to transit. We will have fewer one seat rides
to the University Hospitals area, um, transfers will be required to complete some rides. We did
reduce duplicative service in some areas. There are routes that had very low ridership that were
absorbed into adjacent routes or the service was reallocated to areas of greater need. And it did
require, you know, consolidating some bus stops in order to make sure that we can keep the
buses on time on these routes. All right, so in terms of some of the non -transit routes specific
changes to the fares, passes, and transfer changes. Really we wanted to make the metro area
trips easier and easier to transfer between systems. We wanted to lessen that financial burden
and inconvenience for seniors, those with disabilities, and the youth. So effective July 6`h, if
approved, all passes and single read tickets again will be used on Iowa City Transit and
Coralville Transit interchangeably. The transfers will be allowed at any bus stop in Iowa City.
Again, there's free transfers between Iowa City, Coralville Transit. The, um, our 65 -plus
seniors, disabled passengers, Medicare card holder, SEATS card holders will ride for free any
time of day. We've got that reduced youth fare, and, uh, the School District will ... who has a
pass previously that they would use that will now, um, they'll get a discounted rate. The School
District kids will get a discounted rate, they'll get 50% off of their, um, their youth passes. So
very positive changes. Um, again, this is all a win-win for the community in terms of fare
pan ... passes and transferring changes. All right, so we talked about all the changes that we
made with our existing funding, how we kind of moved things around and tried to reprioritize
based on what the community wants today, versus what the community wanted when the transit
system was originally set up. And these items are the items that the Council has been
considering that really would require additional funding. So in the fall of 2020, the Council
prioritized the following potential service enhancements, and that was Sunday bus service, later
evening service, and a night owl overnight service, and in March, um, based on the ... the
scenarios that were presented, um, the Council directed staff to plan for a Sunday service two-
year bus service pilot, to commence in late 21 or 22, and then to further explore on -demand
transportation options to kind of fill in that gap after transit service wraps up for the evening for
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late evening and overnight service. All right, really quickly, battery electric buses. We're really
excited about this. This was something that we included in the plan, and we heard a lot of
excitement during the virtual public presentation about the electric buses, but we're really happy
to announce that we've received $3.1 million in federal funding to replace four of our aged
diesel buses with clean electric buses. Um, 61% of the power, um, used to ... to drive these buses
will be renewable. It will be mostly wind, so that means reduce carbon emissions, cleaner Iowa
City reduced air and noise pollution. Neighborhoods are going to love these. Um, if you have
ever stood...if you stand at the interchange, everybody knows when all the buses come in, it can
be really loud. You can step five foot off this bus and you do not know it's even running. It is,
um, it is (mumbled) quiet, um, and the ride is unbelievably nice, so we're thrilled about this
really huge leap forward for transit service in Iowa City coming this fall. All right, so now to
the comments, the public comments we've heard. So as ... these are ... this is a summary of the
comments we've received since we presented the final proposal for transit service changes, the
final plan and just going to go through these really briefly. From... they're all stacked rank, as
you can see the first item on here is the west side service to the University Hospitals and ... and
the VA. I have a slide on this, um, which will be my next slide, so we'll talk a little bit more
about this more in detail, and you can see there was a lot of comments. Um, the second item on
the list, Sunday service, um, again people reaching out to support, um, Sunday service to ... to
request it, to support the pilot. Later evening service, um, it's again people who reached out to
let us know about the needs for later evening and overnight service, and to, um, and to request
some action be taken to that end. We had a few comments about fares. I would say all of these
are positive and/or questions or (mumbled) a clarification. We did have some folks reach out
about the Rochester, Amhurst. So this would be on the Rochester route. The Rochester route
sort of does it's turnaround, if you will, on Amhurst. It's a north, south street that runs parallel
to Scott Boulevard on the east side, and the proposal is to shift that turnaround area, if you will,
over to Scott Boulevard from Amhurst. Um, Amhurst ... I think Scott Boulevard was a gravel
road when this ... when the transit system was designed, and now it's clearly an arterial built -out
with a commercial area, um, medical clinic, restaurants, all of that, so it seemed to make a lot of
sense to shift that service over there and provide access to that area. They ..we should also note
that some of these comments were positive comments, um, people who applauded moving off
of Amhurst, and then there were people who wish to have that direct service there. We also
heard from some folks who, um, who are employees of the University of Iowa Hospitals, they
live in the Peninsula area and the way that our route works today, they ride to the interchange
and then they ...they pass on to the Hospital. It's kind of a one seat ride to the hospital. Um, the
proposal does require that they would, um, that they would transfer to another bus. Um, the
Iowa City, the two Iowa City buses that will serve the Hospital will be there within three
minutes of their arrival, so that's ... so that's the news for the transfer time would be minimal, um,
and in fact buses should be there, um, by their arrival, so they would be able to get off one bus,
hop to another one, but nevertheless, that is a difference for the community. The reason for that
is, um, again, that we evaluated really closely places where Iowa City Transit, Coralville
Transit, and CAMBUS service overlap, and that is definitely an area where there is plenty of
service and there was ... there was kind of a great overlap. So really in effect we were sending
empty seats over to the Hospital, um, every single day. Um, between the three agencies, the
proposal is this summer we would have 23 buses go from the interchange to the ... the Hospital.
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Nearly all of Coralville's buses go and CAMBUS has got some really significant service over
there as well. So, um, so anyway, it was ... it was sort of right -size as to, okay, this doesn't make
as much sense for us to carry as much directly over when CAMBUS, which is free and open to
the public, has all of the service and all the Coralville buses, or nearly all of them, also serve the
north hospital area. Few other areas, um, the Friendship area, so Friendship Street service was,
um, I would say pushed north off of Friendship to Court Street, so that does require a walk for
folks on Friendship to ... to go to the proposed stop areas on Friendship. Manville Heights, um,
is another area that does not have ... the proposal is to not have direct service for a couple
reasons. One, it was it was very low ridership is the biggest reason, and then there was just
areas of greater need in the community, so that service was reallocated to other places. 7 1
Avenue was, um, the 7`h Avenue route was also very low ridership, but there are other routes
that were very close to 7`h Avenue, so really that route, those riders were sort of, um, or that
ridership is sort of absorbed into the adjacent routes pretty easily and with not a long walk.
While we received a few bus stop requests, these are just locations that people wanted to
maintain a bus stop. We received some questions about the consolidation of routes in the South
District with Lakeside and Broadway routes, um, just general questions or concerns about
the... either the routes going away or just the walk ... the walk time to the ... to the new proposed
one south Iowa City route. We received a couple requests or inquiries about direct service to
Lake Ridge Mobile Home Park, which is actually in the county, but it was served by the ... sort of
in an adjacent way by the the Westport Plaza route . Caroline Ave area, if you are not familiar
with that name it is north of -it's off of Prairie du Chien and there's a loop that has gone through
that neighborhood, um, transit....
Salih: (several talking) yeah (mumbled) yeah he's back!
Teague: Great, I was frozen.
Salih: Yeah.
Nagle-Gamm: I apologize, I was frozen... for a second. It logged me out.
Salih: (laughs) All of us was frozen too, I didn't know (laughs)
Nagle-Gamm: (both talking) it was everybody all at one time, okay (laughs)
Salih: Yes.
Nagle-Gamm: Okay, great, well ... I'm not sure (garbled) I'm not sure why ...where I left off at, but the...
the general comments, um, and again, we received many positive comments throughout this
process, um, so many thank yous and just, you know, thanks for looking at this, thanks for
investing in the transit system. Some individual comments, suggestions, that sort of thing, but
yeah, it was ... it was really nice to just get so many people, even when they're offering their
constructive comments to say, um, thank you for doing this and we're really appreciative that
you're... that you're looking at the transit system and you're trying to improve it for the future.
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Okay, so next slide, if I can ... you know what... sorry here, I think I'm sharing the wrong slide.
Just one second, I apologize. Can you all still see my screen?
Salih: You are not sharing the screen.
Nagle-Gamm: Okay, I didn't think so. I'm looking for ...okay, there we go. Now it's coming back. My
screen share option went away. I will share again.
Salih: Not yet.
Nagle-Gamm: Okay, we'll try that again. It kicked me out of my screen share too.
Salih: But now is okay!
Nagle-Gamm: Okay, perfect! Thank you so much. Okay, so as I promised, west side service — so since
we received the most questions and comments about west side service, I thought it would be
good to include a slide, um, and to kind of walk you through what we heard and... and... and
what our intent was, and how the service is setup. So first let me tell you what the concerns
were. Mostly the concerns, especially, um. ... I'd say over the last month most of the concerns
were regarding service start times. So we found out a lot of people on the west side who take
transit are, um, they start a shift at 7:00 at the University Hospitals. So our ...the proposed route
time, um, start time did not ... it would not have gotten them to the University Hospitals by...by
that, um, by 7:00. So we heard that loud and clear, and we have duly noted that, and we've
made those adjustments on the back end. So, um, so everybody on the west side who does need
to be at the hospital at 7:00, you don't need to fear. We are ... we're going to be able to get you
to ... to the hospital on time. So that's the first thing we heard. We did also hear some concerns
about that there are less routes with direct access to the University of Iowa Hospitals and the
VA, and then, you know, generally that there's just a further walk to transit, um, and ... and I
would say both of those are accurate; however, there's... there might be some features of the
system that can be utilized, um, and I'll walk you through what those are. So first let me ... let
me show you the existing routes. So on the left side of your screen you see the routes that serve
the west side of Iowa City. So we have the Plaen View, West Winds, west side hospital,
Melrose express, Oakcrest, and Westport Plaza. The Plaen View, West Winds and Oakcrest
have the highest ridership on the west side, and currently there's 30 minute service, so buses
come every 30 minutes during the peak times, and then during off-peak times they come every
60 minutes. The least productive routes in terms of ridership are the west side hospital, Melrose
express, and Westport Plaza, and those have 60 minute service. So every 60 minutes, um, the
buses, um, no matter if it's peak time or off-peak, the buses come by every 60 minutes. Um,
one thing we definitely could tell, you know, when we were really starting to dig into things, we
do have a lot of routes that overlap in some areas on the west side. Um, so fast forward over to
the right and looking at the proposed routes, we have four proposed routes, probably really
three. We'll talk about South Gilbert here. South Gilbert's down in the lower right hand corner,
mainly three routes. So we have Oakerest, the 8 Oakcrest, the 10 West Iowa City, which is in
orange. The Oakcrest is in green, excuse me, the Oakcrest is in red. The 10 West Iowa City's
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in orange, the 12 Highway 1 is in green, and the South Gilbert is served... you can see a small
gray loop at the bottom of the screen. That was cut off. That is kind of a direct service that's
provided on Gilbert Street. So our goals on the west side was to maintain service and adequate
capacity, passenger capacity to the north hospital and the south hospital areas. So you see, um,
near the hospital, um, University Hospital near where it says University Heights, you can see
that the 10 West Iowa City provides that north hospital access, and then the Oakcrest provides
that south hospital campus access. Another big change, and it's something that we were really
trying to do cause we heard from the public this is something they really wanted and needed
was, uh, we wanted to establish direct service between the west side and the Highway 1
commercial area. If you look at the existing routes, you can see, um, you can probably
see ... maybe make out where that... where the Walmart commercial area loop is at, and you can
see there's no way to really get there by transit. So part of the design of the Highway I route
was to specifically make sure folks, um, especially in the ... in the Pheasant Ridge area or the
multi -family areas on the west side of Iowa City can use transit to get to the Highway 1
commercial areas. Those were two big objectives on the west side. We also wanted to reduce
overlapping routes, increase frequency of buses, um, because again, that's what we heard loud
and clear from the public, and we were able to do that with this ... with this proposal. The 8
Oakcrest route will have some of the highest frequency in ... in the city, um, really, so it's going
to be ... the Oakcrest is proposed to come every 15 minutes during the peak period and
during... every 30 minutes off-peak, which is really, uh, incredible amount of service, and then
the ... the 10 West Iowa City would, um, which is in orange. This would bring buses by every 30
minutes during the peak period, and 30 minutes during the off-peak period. Currently, um, most
of the service in this neighborhood is 60 minutes off-peak. So that is a big improvement. Um,
and then the other thing I want to mention is allowing, again it's allowing that transfers at any
stop. So we've all... everybody who rides the transit in Iowa City is accustomed to... say you're
going to a destination. You have to look for the route that goes directly to that destination,
because you... there's no transfer options between routes unless you're going across... across town
and you happen to be transferring at the interchange, but by allowing transfers at any stop, this
12, um, 12, uh, Highway 1 route, this route in green, although it does not directly serve say the
University Hospitals and the VA campus, it can be an intermediary route to help get you to a
route that gets you where you want to go. So, again, you could transfer anywhere along Sunset
or Benton, that's shown in green. You could transfer to West Iowa City, you can transfer to
Oakcrest, and that is a feature of the proposed system that we do not have today, so it just
allows some more flexibility with our system.
Salih: Can I ask a question here?
Nagle -Gamin: Sure!
Salih: Can you give the a scenario, for example, I live here in Pheasant Ridge. (mumbled) but you can
(mumbled) back and two people ride the bus. One of them going to the hospital, one of them
going to Highway 1. Could you walk me what they can do?
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Nagle -Gamin: Yeah, so if ..if somebody was on Highway 1, let's say somebody boarded at Highway
I ... they were on the Highway 1 route. Let's just say they boarded, um...
Salih: No, no, I mean like both of them live in Pheasant Ridge, and both of them take the bus. One of
them going to the hospital and the other one going to Highway 1.
Nagle -Gamin: Yes, they would ... okay, so one would, if they both lived in Pheasant Ridge, then the...
then the person who wanted to head to the ... to the Highway 1 commercial area would take the
(both talking) Highway 1 route in green, and the person who wanted to go to the hospital area
would take the orange route, which is the 10 West Iowa City. But they would (both talking)
both routes do run past, um, the Pheasant Ridge area.
Salih: Okay, (mumbled) that's what I want to see. (both talking)
Nagle-Gamm: And they're kind of overlapping here, so you can't really see that, but underneath the
screen section it is orange and it is (mumbled) the 10 route also. The West Iowa City route also
goes by Pheasant Ridge.
Salih: Okay, yeah, okay, yeah, I can see that by West High, yeah. Thank you.
Nagle-Gamm: All right, so next steps, so late June, early July we're ... the plan is to finalize and publish
the bus schedules and continue the marketing and information campaign, and we've had to
educate the public on the transit system changes. You know, we're going to have the info booth
fired up again. There's probably going to be some cold, sweet treats, um, cause it's going to be
in the ... in the heat of summer, um, to stop by. Uh, we're going to do some training on the transit
app. There's gonna be a lot of public outreach to our media, through our social media, through
our legacy media, and just general outreach to community and stakeholder organizations. Upon
approval, we would launch the fare and transfer policy changes in alignment with Coralville
Transit on July 61h. So that's the first day after the July 4th holiday. The intent was to launch
those a little bit earlier, um, because they're, A, easier to transition to, um, and just, you know,
make things a little bit simpler when ... when the big change comes on August 2"d, when we plan
to launch the new routes, stops, and the new bus schedule. But that's not all (laughs) that is just
the first phase. So, you know, in terms of what's next, we will be launching the battery electric
buses this fall, which we're really excited about. We will have the two- year pilot Sunday
service coming late in this year or early next year. We'll be, again, digging into the late night,
overnight, on -demand service options, what we can do to help boost that access to
transportation. We have plans to start improving our bus stops holistically across the
community and we're really excited about that. We're working on community, uh, improving
our communication tools. We're working on improving our ticket availability, making it easier
to get transit passes, um, whether it's vending options or more partners downtown, um, or
evaluating a mobile ticketing option for smartphones. That's another thing that a lot of
communities are doing now, and then last but not least, evaluating options for a potential low-
income program. So we've got our work cut out for us, but ... but we're really excited about all of
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the proposed changes. So, um, just thank you for your time and I just wanted to open it up to
any questions. I'd be happy to answer any.
Salih: Can you go back again to the west side, because we really had a lot question from the west side.
Nagle-Gamm: Sure! Yes we did.
Salih: Uh, you know, for example, I don't know, you cannot see where I'm pointing, but for example,
like far away on the orange line, like far away from ... from West High.
Nagle-Gamm: Yep. On Melrose?
Salih: Yeah ... not Melrose, like going... going west.
Nagle-Gamm: Okay.
Salih: For example, if two people (mumbled) scenario. If two people like really far west on the orange
line, they took the orange line here because there is no other (mumbled) you know, service here
but the orange line, and they going ... one of them say ...I'm going to give you the same scenario.
One of them want to take the green and the other one going to continue on the orange one to go
to the hospital. Uh, when they get to the ... that means they have to exchange (mumbled) by
Pheasant Ridge or some ... like Melrose or...yeah, Melrose, to exchange to the green. How long
they supposed to stay for the exchange. Do you think like when they get off of Melrose, so they
can take the green line, how long that person will stay there, waiting for the green line (garbled)
Nagle-Gamm: Yep, great question. So we don't have the bus schedules finalized yet, but I ... so I can't
give you a definitive answer, but I ... I would, uh, we are ... we're trying to minimize the transfer
time or the dwelling time at these transfer points. I ... I can't tell you for sure. I would say 10
minutes or less potentially. It's just it's ... we'll be able to tell you that for sure once the schedules
are finalized and published. But yes, they will have... you're... you're correct that they will be
able to, you know, exit the 10 route along Mormon Trek and then they'd be able to pick up the
12 Highway 1 route along... along Mormon Trek.
Salih: Uh huh, yeah, Mormon Trek. I said Melrose. Yeah, Mormon Trek. Okay!
Weiner: So I have one question (several talking, garbled)
Teague: (mumbled) Weiner.
Weiner: Sorry, I have one more question about the west side, sort of...do we ... do we know if, for
example, CAMBUS after ...when they serve the parking lots that are ... that are out in the
Hawkeye Court area, if they then come up to Melrose and turn... and turn left to go into town,
because I'm just trying to think of an alternative for some of the folks on the west side who live
sort of out in the ... in the area that won't ... it won't be certain... that didn't have a lot of ridership,
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but also won't be served anymore by the... by the current Melrose express, um, and thinking that
if...if CAMBUS comes up there to Melrose and then hence into town, that might be an
alternative.
Nagle -Gamin: (garbled) So yes, CAMBUS does run service in a clockwise loop, um, north from the
Hawkeye lot, um, through Mormon Trek to Highway 6 to the hospital area, and then comes
back along along Melrose, and I do know ... I don't know where their stops, if they have stops
located along Melrose. That would be something I'd have to look into, but I do know that they
have, um, a tremendous amount of service that goes to the Hawkeye lot, um, in the mornings, I
mean, I think ... my understanding is that buses come by about every five minutes during the
peak times. Um, so there is, um, there's quite a bit of service that CAMBUS provides to the
hospital area from ... from the Hawk, um, from the Hawk lot.
Thomas: Dar..Darian, this is John. Do we ... do we know where the electric buses will be deployed?
Nagle -Gamin: We do not yet. I can tell you for certain they will not go, um, they will not be deployed
on any route that involves the railroad bridge on Iowa Avenue (laughs) We did ... we did take a
test run and we had someone from (mumbled) drive the bus. For ..for liability purposes, they
would... they would only allow us to do it, and it was (garbled) So we're ... the buses are taller
than our buses right now. They are reasonable height to get into our bus facility, but they're not,
um, they're not, um, we're not able to get them underneath that railroad bridge in a way that we
could do on regular service days, so virtually it could be any route and we don't really assign
our buses to routes specifically. Um, they kind of get new assignments every day, if you will,
so I would suspect we would see them all over the community, except for where that railroad
bridge is at. (both talking) for now, until they come out with shorter buses, which we're... which
we're already pushing them for.
Taylor: So, Darian, uh, sorry to elaborate on this, but back to the west side routes, and thank you for
answering my question about that and showing the comparison slides, cause we did get a lot of
questions, emails from folks in that area, primarily heading to work at the hospital, either UIHC
or the VA, and now these folks in healthcare, all ... all persons going to work, need to be on time,
but it's particularly important for healthcare folks, uh, and they normally have to be there even
before 7:00. So if they can, uh, change into scrubs or whatever they need to do. Uh, is this ... are
these routes going to allow them to be able to get to work in a timely manner, uh, or I don't
know if you can estimate that or not.
Nagle-Gamm: Yes, so the original proposal would not have gotten them to work on time, but we did
after, you know, we saw a (laughs) critical mass of people that are transit users, that are 7:00
shifters out in that area. We click... quickly realized that, um, that we would need to go back to
the drawing board and look at that start time for that, um, for that, um, for that route, so we do
have a plan in place so that we will be able to get folks who work at 7:00 at the hospital, um, to
the hospital in plenty of time, um, riding the 10 West Iowa City route. (several talking, garbled)
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Bergus: I have a few different questions and in no particular order. One is about ridership, and so you
highlighted those top ridership routes, one of which is the free shuttle. Do you have a sense as
to, um, when you're balancing the different factors that would make a ... a particular route, a high
ridership route, obviously, you know, population density there, um, the route itself and where
it's going, and for that one the ... the free fare, and when we're looking at wanting to double
ridership, do you have a sense of kind of how those different factors come into play? I realize
that's a very open-ended question but...
Nagle-Gamm: I love open-ended questions. Um, so, no, that is ... I think that is a major factor. It just...
and it's not even just the dollar. It's just eliminating another thing that you have to do. Um, you
don't have to worry about a pass, you don't have to stop at the fare box. Um, your trips are
easier and ... and yeah, so getting to a place where we can legitimately double our ridership. I
mean I think that's... that's something to seriously consider for the future. I know we had other
priorities and our... and the first priority, um, priorities that you all laid out was really directed to
let's improve the service first, foremost, and ... uh, but ultimately if, you know, if we ... if we really
want to get to that doubling of ridership, that is certainly something to evaluate for the future.
Bergus: So going off of that, when we started this process, when you started this process, it was before
the pandemic, and since then I think our transit system has received a fare amount of relief
funds. Does that influence decisions that you're making here, or what you might recommend
for the near future?
Nagle-Gamm: Well some of the ... so there's been a couple different sources of relief funds, but some of
the, um, at least the relief funds that have flowed directly to transit have been accounted for in
terms of the Sunday service pilot. And the... the... the proposed and not yet realized plan for kind
of an on- demand late night, late evening. So some of that has definitely been earmarked for
those. Um, we have also, you know, we ... our ridership is about at 50%, and we took a big hit in
the early stages of the pandemic, as you might imagine. So we've been using those emergency
funds to help backfill and support, um, keep ... keep the buses on the road, keep, um, keep, you
know, the paychecks flowing to the staff. You know, the things that we need to do to keep the
transit system running. So, but you know, that is ... that is certainly one ... that is certainly one
creative way that emergency relief funding could be evaluated is to, you know, find a way to
potentially either reduce fares for a subset of population or potentially, you know, work towards
a fare -free system. Those are all ... those are all ideas and concepts, I think, that ... that could be
evaluated. With the level of funding... the emergency funding that, um, completely was not
really expected, we're really grateful to have it and we've been able to maintain operations, but
yeah, there's more possibilities now than we maybe had before the pandemic for such a move.
Bergus: Great. Thank you, and then my last question, another open-ended one, um, with the
tremendous amount of public engagement that you've gotten through this process and a lot of
the input coming, I think you were highlighting a lot of the input especially that's been coming
recently, right, like you said you had a lot at the beginning, as well, but then in this last month
or so, um, some of those specific comments, which were also in our packet. So with this
significant, um, changes, if we approve this tonight, do you have a plan for kind of continuing
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to assess and collect data and know if additional adjustments need to be made and that kind of
thing?
Nagle-Gamm: Yeah, absolutely, so that's ... we're already working through what our ..what our new
reporting will need to be, so that we can accurately and, uh, timely monitor how the system is
performing. So we're going to be ... we're going to be monitoring our ridership, um, we're going
to be monitoring, um, on a weekly, monthly basis, just to see how everything is shaking out,
and ... and I don't suspect that these are, you know, the only changes we will make for another 30
years. It's been a long time (garbled) changes. You really should kind of take a hard look at
things, I think, every five years really. But ... but having a good program to monitor, um,
monitor (mumbled) that's what we're hearing from the community, what we're seeing in the
ridership, and... and, you know, make adjustments or offer adjustments as ... as we see fit. Um,
like I said, I think we should ... we should kind of do a rehash every five years just to, you know,
check and see where... where can we (garbled) the community changes so much every five years
in Iowa City, so it's really ...I think it's really important that we keep, um, keep tabs on that and
keep monitoring that and we will.
Bergus: Great, and do you think public engagement will continue throughout that process? There's...
will there be opportunities for the public to continue to give feedback?
Nagle-Gamm: Always, we are always ... we are always, um, welcome public feedback, um, as a general
rule, but yeah, I think it's really helpful when you create a platform for the public to reach back
out to you, so clearly when we went to the public, we went to the public in such a way that they
responded with a tsunami of feedback, which was fantastic, and I think as long as we position,
you know, our questions well (laughs) you know, if we have specific questions, um, we get
really great feedback in advance. So, you know, as opposed to the five -point survey, it's like,
how do you like transit, how's it working, you know, getting really specific seems to work, um,
really well and engage the community and we get, um, we get the information we need to make
the changes that we need to to reflect the community desires.
Bergus: Thank you.
Salih: Yeah, I really want to also like, uh, second what Councilor Bergus said about, yeah, hopefully
after even we pass this, we continue the conversation about, you know, like feedback from the
public. Because I really (garbled) approve it today and after that find out the west side people
who work at the hospital, they cannot find like really... they are not going there on time. I know
a lot people who work there, you know, at the hospitals and they take, uh, you know, the..the
bus normally, and because, you know, that it's very expensive to park at the hospital. You know,
I used to work there. I used to study there, and I ... I used to live in the west side too, you know,
at that time even I have to go and figure out where I can find a University pass so I can take it,
but this is really, uh, we start seeing increasing people who live in the west side, you know,
work at the hospitals, whether it's like kitchens or technicians or, you know, janitors, but they
need to go there early. And, you know, there is shift for the hospital's really 7:00. I hope, you
know, even though this is not clear yet, and you don't even have a clear plan yet for those and
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what you're going to do, but I went to see that (mumbled) satisfy and make those people
comfortable taking the bus.
Teague: Any other questions from Council? All right, we're going to hear from the public. If anyone
wants to address this topic, please raise your hand and I'll call upon you. I'm going to call
Mike, followed by Jeremy, and we are allowing everyone three minutes. And we can't hear
you. Um, your mic is on mute.
Carberry: There we go, thank you very much, um, and thank you, Darian, and everybody else
associated with this study. Mike Carberry here, and I've been a longtime member of the
Community Transportation Committee, not only am I a climate geek, but I've been a transit
geek all my life. I think that our transit system can solve a couple problems that we have here
in the community, and one of them is the ongoing climate crisis that we have, and the other is
the growing number of working poor that we have in our community, as maybe we have heard
earlier today (laughs) in this meeting, and I think this plan addresses a little bit of that, but it
may not have gone far enough, in my opinion. I love seeing electric buses. Four is great, but I
think we need to move to all ... all electric fleet as fast as we can. You want to double ridership,
that's wonderful. The best way to do that is to make the bus free and then everybody could
reduce their carbon footprint. But most of all, our working poor has a free way to work. So
they are really wanting to get on the bus because they can save probably hundreds of dollars a
month by not using their car. So ... a couple other things here on the routes. I grew up in
Manville Heights. Uh, Manville Heights has no service and most of the people will have to
walk that mile, at least the people in Manville Heights and mosquito flats. The closest bus stop
will be at Park Road and North Dubuque Street, or over on Newton Road. That's a long walk
for my mother, who is 89 years old. So for climate reasons, uh, those fares, uh, we, you know,
right now obviously free fares for elderly people, for people that are disabled. That's wonderful,
and also a...50% fares for youth, but what really need to do is to address the working poor
situation. Would love to see a pilot program as soon as possible on reduced fares for people that
are of lesser means, and we also ... they need that late night service and that overnight service
because a lot of the jobs for the working poor are really at those odd hours and overnight. So if
we're going to do pilot programs, I would love to see us get pilot programs for that late night
and overnight service as well. So, again, I thank everybody for working on this. I'd like to
thank the bus drivers and the mechanics and everybody else that works on our transit system
here. They've done a yeoman's job here during the pandemic, and I'd like to thank them, like to
thank the City Council for having the fortitude and the foresight to go through with this transit
study and with that I'll conclude my remarks. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome, Jeremy, followed by Rachel. And you're on mute, Jeremy. Welcome,
Jeremy. We can't hear Jeremy. Let's go to Rachel, followed by David. We'll come back to
Jeremy, please.
Smoak: Hello, this is Rachel. Thank you so much for having this meeting. First I'd like to answer a
question that was asked earlier. The CAMBUS system does not stop on Melrose Avenue at all,
so that doesn't really provide a viable transport option for those of us who live on the west side,
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like myself. In the second place, I agree with some of the comments made earlier that without
transit schedules, it's hard for me to know exactly how I'll get to work. Like I said, I'm a
resident of the west side. My route will probably involve transfers, which I don't mind, except
that I don't know what my commute will look like. Will it look like 30 minutes, will it look like
45? It's currently 12 to 15, so that's quite a difference for me. So, yeah, I have trouble seeing
why we should approve a plan without these proposed schedules, which will really let residents
know how this will affect their daily lives, so I'm actually all for the changes in the transit
system, but I need more information before I can personally endorse anything, and I'd ask you
to consider that tonight. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. We're gonna try Jeremy again before we go to David. Welcome, Jeremy.
Endsley: Can you hear me?
Teague: Yes.
Endsley: Okay (laughs) Um, thank you so much, everyone, that's worked on this. It's exciting. Transit
service is a huge help to people looking for employment, especially after COVID. And so we'd
like to ask that SNAP and Medicare card holders be able to ride for free, along with Medicaid.
It seems unclear why there's a distinction between, um, Medicare and Medicaid. Let's just let
everyone ride for free that ... who really needs the service. And we think the late night transit
service makes sense for our city. It has a vibrant nightlife and 24-hour manufacturing, and so
we're asking for service until midnight, and a permanent ongoing on -demand service after
hours. And we'd like to ... we'd like to see second -shift workers get home safely. There is a, uh,
it is a public safety concern. Um, we've talked to people at the Farmers Market, um, say they
get off work, they're restaurant workers late at night, some of them get followed home and
harassed on the street. So, you know, being just on foot, going home in the middle of the night
is not safe, so we'd like that to be addressed.
Teague: Thank you, Jeremy. Welcome, David, followed by Dan. And Da, uh, David, look like your
hand went down, so we'll welcome Dan, followed by..David. I see the hand went back up.
Welcome, Dan.
Kauble: Hi, um, I would just like to back up everything that Mike said. Um, I think the bus fares
should be free. Um, I know that folks who live and work along the CAMBUS routes, that's
something that they really utilize and it's really good for a lot of people along those routes. And
I think that if the citywide or even citywide in regards to both Iowa City, Coralville, um, and
maybe even North Liberty. I think if there is free fare, that would not only be better for
individuals, but people would be, urn ... uh, would be using the buses, not using their cars. It
would reduce emissions, it would be much better for ...for the environment. And it would
increase ridership, and I think just kind of help, uh, unite the community, I mean cause I think
it's kind of. ... it's a weird thing, but I think that if like folks use communal transit like that it...it
really, really brings folks together. I'd also like to say that I think 24-hour bus service would be
great, um, both in regards to nightlife and those who work around the clock. I think that is a
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great service for everybody involved. If the Council insists on, uh, and also, um, I think like I
said every.. everything should be free, but if the Council insists on keeping, uh, making people
pay, they should expand payment options. I know it was said that folks could pay with, um,
their phone, but I ... I don't believe that people can pay with a card to get ... to ride the buses, like a
debit or a credit card, and I think that for some people who are kind of in a tight spot, when they
need to take the bus but they don't have any other way to pay. It's kind of an awkward situation
for them. Um, and I guess in regards to ... going back to the Hickory Hill, someone said that
Geoff Fruin is a great manager and an asset to the community, and I would just like to call
bullshit on that, so ... thank you.
Teague: Thank you, Dan. Welcome, David, followed by Sabri Sky.
Sterling: Hi. Thank you, I actually lowered my hand earlier just cause I thought it was what I should
do when my turn starts (laughs) Um, yeah, first thing I want to do is say like I worked in the
parking transportation department and most of the people I worked with were really excited
about Darian Nagle-Gamm taking up the head of the department. I like to believe that this is a
pretty good show, that they were totally right, uh, really proud that our city is (garbled) going
through with this. I also shared concerns about the plan not including, uh, the route schedule
being part of it. I like to believe that perhaps there's a way that we could pass this resolution
with, um, some manner of a ... a definite timeline to allow public input, specifically for how
those routes would go. I'd also like to echo something that Darian Nagle-Gamm said about the
limitations of the budget affecting this plan. Last summer it came to light among the general
population that the Iowa City Police Department has about $8 million in non -labor budget
funding, and it feels like since we could effectively double the Transportation department's
budget by just taking off one-eighth of that, um, and we just demonstrated that we can spend
that money on tanks. Uh, you know, it feels like we should really empower our Transportation
department to make a budget request. You know, if we could have some sort of civilian
list... listening posts for how money can be (mumbled) seems like one of the biggest criticisms
of the protests that we hear is, um, that an actual plan is never proposed, but it seems like
having listening posts for route and budget decisions on this would really, really help instill
some civilian confidence. And as someone who currently works in the water billing
department, I want to suggest that we already have a program for certifying that low-income
individuals are receiving SNAP and Medicare/Medicaid benefits. I think it would be really
smart of the City to try to bridge that program with Transportation, so that we can reduce the
amount of work that's duplicated. I also support the buses just being free, but I, you know, I'm
(laughs) that's a whole topic that I'm not prepared to go into. Um, anyway, if there's any sort of
light these days, it's definitely the work we're trying to do on the Transportation department. I
love the buses. This is pretty solid so far. Oh, I worked at Little Caesars and got off at
midnight all the time and it sucked, and everybody on the south side needs more service at
night, especially overnight. Bye!
Teague: Thank you, David. Welcome, Sabri Sky.
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Sky: Hello. Thank you (mumbled) and I just started volunteering with Community Transportation
Committee (mumbled) officially, and I want to first thank Darian Nagle-Gamm and the Trans
department for ...for putting this together and doing all this work in the ... with the Iowa City Area
Transit Study, and it's really great to see such progress. And (mumbled) what has been taken
into consideration. Thank you for clarifying the transfer... the transfers working, but I do want
to ask and push for both as an individual and with, uh, with CTC that we have the later night
service, that we get that pilot program started sooner rather than later. Some of that is also in
the language and in the approach. We've ... we've seen listed weekend service not always just
named a Saturday service and that's something that we need to see fulfilled, and it's going to be
called that and if it's going to be called that now, then we need to have that actual weekend, two
days, Saturday and Sunday service of some kind if it can't be the fixed route buses, uh, than the
on -demand partnership. I ... number one want to push for that service till midnight at least. I've
worked all different hours of the clock or had obligations, uh, personally, and in doing some
outreach met with people at bus stops who were experienced randomly, so someone anecdotally
but ... but also collecting this kind of (garbled) over time and starting with CTC, that people are
waiting for the bus after they run, uh, at night, um, or waiting for a bus that doesn't come for
another 50 minutes, sometimes not knowing when it comes because they don't currently have
the app and can't download it without enough data or their phone battery is dead and we need to
take care of people in that most vulnerable situation of working at night or working till late or
needing to pickup kids delayed or get home till 8:00. I took the bus, the last bus is at 10:00 or
10:30 as a teenager out of necessity. We need to see more frequent evening service. I'm really
excited for more frequent mid-day service, and I understand that currently there are some trade-
offs. If it takes a bigger budget, we need a bigger budget for transit. (garbled) says the mark of
a city is it's transit system, it's public transit system, and while we might not be New York, we
were the first UNICEF Literary City and we try to be a green city. We're not a walkable city.
We need buses... that reflect the working hours of people, besides the early morning at the
hospital, and we do need at least a low ...that low-income discounted pass. I want to just
advocate for it.
Teague: Thank you, Sabri Sky. Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no
one, Council discussion?
Salih: Can I just ask Darian again questions about, you know, what ... what the urgency of approving this
today? Seems there is many elements is missing. Is there is an urgency you have to approve it
today?
Nagle -Gamin: So the ... we're asking for approval today, um, so that we can stay on track for the ... the
two kind of milestones that we have, um, the next upcoming milestones, which is to launch
the ... the fare and transfer policy changes on July 6`h, and then to stay on track, um, to launch the
route changes on August 2"d. So there's a ... a lot of, um, work that needs to be done
between... between approval and each of those two steps. So that's why we're bringing it for you
tonight. Um, in terms of the bus schedule, which is really the last piece, um, to be finalized, we
do plan to get that out as soon as possible and in plenty of time for it ... for the community to ... to
absorb, to, um, for us to be able to help guide them through the process of understanding how
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they will use the new system for their trips. Like I said, we're hoping to have it out in late June
or early July, and at least a month in advance is what we're ... is ... is our goal, and we have a lot
of...those bus schedules have to all be individually designed. So we are ... we're working through
that ... that custom process right now, so those are ... those are a few of the things that ... that we
have coming next, but really that's... that's the last piece of the puzzle, uh, besides, uh, Council
consideration and approval... and the (both talking) public outreach.
Salih: Yeah, thank you. I really add discussion because to me there is many people they haven't had a
chance to come on ... on the proposal when it was just like an idea, but now you having
everything clear. People start understanding what's going on, how the route is look like, and we
start receiving comment from people never come on ... on the original proposal. So they didn't
even have the survey, because some people, they just need to look how it look like and how the
change will be, you know, rather than just taking a survey, and all this. So I really want to see
like (mumbled) until we have more people comment on those, and also figure out the pilot route
and especially low-income people, uh, what you gonna do about that for ...for the fare, like free
fare or I don't know how, but I guess (mumbled) will be great for low-income people, and I
really want to see that happening before I approve anything, especially we need more people to
look at the current proposer and tell us if (garbled) for them or not.
Taylor: Thank you, Darian, for all this information. That certainly was a large part of our packet this
time with all ... with all of the information from the, uh, consult team, and thanks to them for ...for
doing all that work. I have to be honest, I was thinking that back when, and I don't want to
speak for you, Mayor Pro Tem but back when you and I, which seems like it must have been at
least two... almost two years ago when we first, both of us talked a lot about we really need to
take a serious look at our transit system because it's not helping a lot of our folks get to where
they need to be. It ... it was a barrier. We don't want it to be a barrier or access to their work, uh,
we want it to be helpful and useful for them to get to their jobs, and also to follow along lines
with our, um, climate action goals of decreasing the carbon emissions with the cars out on the
road, you know, let's ... let's get people to take transit. So I do have some concerns, and I'm glad
Councilor Bergus brought up about will we be able to revisit this cause I'm ... I'm hoping,
especially with those west side routes, uh, cause I have concerns about those changes,
especially for my folks that go to University Hospital and (mumbled) Hospital, uh, I'd like to
hear from them once we get going on this. My...my concern, uh, back to what, uh, Mayor Pro
Tem and I talked about two years ago was our concern was also access to later night. Later
night service and weekend service. So I'm a little disappointed, although I guess we have
proved that, that that's going to be at a later date. And I'm hoping ... it says late fall 2021, into
2022, and I'm hoping we can do it as soon as possible, even sooner than that, cause I think that's
where the need is, uh, cause I know I used to work with some folks that they could ride the bus
in but getting off at 11:30 or midnight, they'd have to take a cab home and that got a bit
expensive, but there was no other option at that time. So I think we really do need to look at
that, whether it's partner... partnering like, uh, you talked about (garbled) or (garbled) I hope it's
sooner than later, because that already couple years have gone by and we've been talking about
this and talking about this and ... and I think that's... that's an important aspect of it is the late
night service and the weekend service.
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Mims: Darian, I want to thank you and your staff for all the work. This is ... and the consulting team, I
mean this is ... an incredibly complex puzzle, um, essentially and, as you mentioned numerous
times, lots of competing and conflicting interests. I suppose they wouldn't be competing if we
didn't have a limited budget, but we do, and so I just really appreciate all the hard work that
you've done to put this together. In it (mumbled) and obviously you and your staff and the
consulting people have ... have worked on a timeline with certain... certain things that need to get
accomplished by certain dates, so that you can keep things moving forward, and... and I
understand the concern that we don't have, you know, the final, um, timelines of each individual
route. We know what the routes look like, we have an idea of the (mumbled) whether they're 15
minute or 30 minute, etc. And so I would encourage Council, um, that we go ahead and
approve this so staff can continue to meet those timelines and get this implemented, and as we
asked earlier, you know, the question — what kinds of adjustments can be made. It ... we want to
do so much more, and obviously the comments from the community are clear that they want so
much more, but as we went through all these presentations, you know, from staff earlier, we did
make decisions about what our priorities were and what we were going to move forward with
now and what we were going to try and add later on, you know, as soon as financially and
otherwise feasibly possible. So I would encourage us to stick with, you know, kind of what we
had told staff we wanted to go forward with at this point. The one thing I did hear tonight that
was a little bit different that I would encourage staff to look at is if we do have within the City a
mechanism already, people who qualify for certain federal programs, that we allow them to use
(mumbled) the SNAP program was one that I heard mentioned. Quite frankly just because
somebody's on Medicare doesn't mean they need free bus service, but I'm not going
to ... just ... I'm not gonna say we shouldn't do that. I'm just saying just because you're 65 and
qualify for Medicare does not mean you are in financial need. So if we're going to do it for
people on Medicare, if we have the capability within the City technology system now that we
can transfer over to Transportation to use, um, for free bus service for other individuals who we
do know are in financial need, I would encourage us to look at that. The other pieces that we
know are coming, I would just encourage Council and the public to have the patience, we'll get
there, but let's not ... let's not delay this and cause it to delay other steps along the way. We want
to get it implemented as quickly as possible, and then obviously we can ... may have to go back
and look at certain adjustments.
Salih: I think we just really ...I'm sorry, maybe somebody else want to talk, but I just believe that even if
we move forward with this, we have to give clear direction to the (mumbled) We cannot just
say we have to see, you know, we want to see ... that low-income people. Same thing like one
earlier mention the low-income for... the... the discount that we have for water, where you give
paper, so you take it to the Human Services. (mumbled) and the Human Service send it back to
the City! I guess right now, we give clear direction — low-income people who receive any type
of Human Service benefit, whether it's Medicaid, and I'm not talking about Medicare, Medicaid
or food stamp or WIC or just kind of like, you know, low-income, but if it ... I thinks we just say
it, they get the bus for free. We can just give that direction. We don't have to say we hope,
because we are the one who are making this decision, and if that's something we want to see,
just give clear direction to the Counc... to the staff that what we want to see, period. And also if
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we want to see that the people who complain about how long it takes them, and you going to do
the schedule (mumbled) let us give you direction. Make sure, you know, those people are not
waiting for long time between transfers and, you know (mumbled) the start time will
accommodate everyone. All that, and I don't know, is that you're going to bring it to us back
again? Or how, after the schedule, how we will know about the schedule? Do we approve the
schedule? Or how is this going to work? Or we approve it now and you (mumbled) scheduling
and we have to go with it?
Nagle-Gamm: I don't believe in the past that the Council has (garbled) approval of the schedule. It's
my understanding that it's been public purview over the routes themselves, um, and then
the ... the scheduling stops were sort of up to the purview of the department, of course, with, you
know, feedback from the community and feedback taken from ... from the Council, but I ... I don't
believe, um, they were ... the bus schedules have a formal Council approval process.
Salih: I understand, but we are changing system to make it better, not to make worse. So if you had
this schedule here and now we receiving complaint from west side people that this (mumbled)
you know, if this bus is starting a certain time, they are not going to be on time for their work.
So we would like to make sure you are ... we are satisfying the public. We are doing all this
because we want people to start taking transportations and going to work. That ... I really
encourage then, if that's the case, I encourage the Council to wait for next meeting, so, you
know, we hear more feedback from the public, uh, if we don't have a (mumbled) change
schedule or...I know but...
Weiner: It sounded to me like like Dar... and, Darian, please correct me if I'm wron, that you've already
made the adjustments to make sure that the .... that the ... the buses will start earlier, so that people
can get to work on time, that you have heard that piece and are building it into our... and are
building it into the ... into the schedule.
Nagle-Gamm: Yeah, that's correct. So for the west side, um, the 10 West Iowa City route, which
clearly did not start early enough for... for the folks that start at 7:00 AM at the hospital. We did,
um, find a way to, um (garbled) be sure it ... ensure that the folks can get to the hospital by 7:00,
well in time ... well in time of when their... their schedule starts. So that particular problem has
been resolved. We figured out a way to make that ... and it will be reflected on the bus schedules
once they're published.
Salih: And if you to see more, uh, feedback from somewhere else, other side of the city.
Nagle-Gamm: I would say we'd have to consider the ... the number and the types of feedback, and
(garbled) I would say on the west side, there was a clear, pronounced, um, critical mass of
University employees who rode transit and needed to be at work by 7:00 AM, and we
haven't ... we haven't heard that from other parts of the city. Not to say that we couldn't, but we
would certainly take that into consideration, um, if we did.
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Bergus: I think it's important that we not micromanage this part of it when we don't have the schedule
yet and typically we wouldn't approve it. I think, you know, Darian is our transit expert, and we
had a really well-respected consultant who helped pull all of this together, and I, you know,
personally, knowing that, I mean, all of the passes work on Coralville Transit, having free
transfers of Coralville, and having transfers at every bus stop moving forward, one month from
now. To me that's really important as critical improvements to the transit system that I think are
widely needed and will be significant improvements, and it doesn't make sense to me to delay
other parts of it that may be a problem when we've heard very clearly that our transit system
will continue to take feedback and make adjustments, if we need to make adjustments, if there
are kinks that need to be worked out. So I'm in favor of moving forward tonight so we can get
those pieces moving.
Salih: I will have to know what you mean by micromanagement. Do you mean like giving people
(mumbled) when I ask to do a free service for low-income, that's micromanaging? O do you
mean like when we ask her to wait for more feedback, that's my micromanagement?
Bergus: I was talking about waiting to see the schedule and then have us approve the schedule. That
wasn't something, I mean ... to me that would be like approving snowplow routes, I think (both
talking)
Salih: (both talking) I want to ensure that if some people have other (mumbled) somewhere else arise
with a concern, just like the west side (mumbled) consideration. No one here is micromanage,
but at the end of the day, your staff cannot just do things like that. We are here, the elected
official who look at the people concern and bring it to the staff, and that's the concern that I
been reach out by a lot of people telling me about it, and I have to speak about it, and regarding
the free fee, we have the power to tell the staff make it free for low-income people, and now I
really encourage that today we have to decide that even if we want to vote for it, I really put a
motion to make the, you know, low-income people have free right today, give clear direction to
the staff. You are muted, Mayor.
Teague: Sound like there is a motion on the floor to give, um, free fare to low-income individuals.
Could I get a second please?
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
Teague: All right, we can discuss that now.
Mims: We had discussion early on about how we were going to move forward with this and how ... I
mean we had a ... we had a pretty detailed presentation and how we were going to move forward
on which pieces and at which point in time. I think to make this sort of change, um, without
specific definition of what constitutes low-income and exactly what the financial implications
are for the transit system in the city, um, is not a prudent way to do this. I think if we want to
do this, and I expressed my support earlier for trying to expand this, that we need to ask staff to
come back with more detailed information, so we fully understand the implications of it and the
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impacts of it. I don't think this is wise to take a quick motion off the floor to make this
significant of a change. So I would not support it at this time. I'm not saying I won't support it
overall, it's just the process without having more specific data.
Salih: Let me explain to the rest of the Council. Right now we have a current system on the Water
department where there is a form, I used to have it myself long time ago. You fill it out, you
take it to the DHS, they stamp it, and they send it back to the City Council... to the City, and that
will qualify you as a low-income person to ... there is already a system in place. It could be the
same thing, and we can do that now. It's not like there is no system, and we need to create a
system. This is simple! If all of us agree that low-income people that supposed to get free
rider, we can just ask the City is staff and approve the whole program and say we approve that
you also give low-income people free rider. Figure out the plan, figure out the, you know, the
mechanism that you can use to make sure those people are low-income. But if they proven they
are low-income, they should get it. That what I mean. That doesn't means like we are not
approving this or anything, but the City have already this. If we can bring things (mumbled)
something back to us again, why don't bring the schedule then? We are saying now we want to
approve all this together, making sure low-income getting, you know, the City ride, making sure
you have public... you consider public comment and work, if you ... if something issue arise
somewhere else, you work with them, and also going to approve everything today, why not?
And now, because of low-income, we have to come back? There is a mechanisms in place with
the City.
Taylor: Mayor Pro Tem, did you want to qualify what you meant by low-income, as far as like
percentage of the median income or...or like low to moderate? Did you want to clarify that with
a percentage?
Salih: (both talking, garbled) poverty guideline that the DHS use to call ... to ... to like assign people as a
low-income. What we have now, we have current system at the utility department, the Water
department, where people they fill out the, you know, somebody can remind me of the name of
the program, but with... there is a form the City created. They give it to people who think they
are low- income, and they take it to the DHS, and DHS will say, yes, we provide their income,
they receive such benefit, that make them low-income, which is for this (mumbled) you know
any DHS benefit like whether it's food stamp, Medicaid, and WIC.
Teague: I don't ... I don't have before me the presentation that we went through where there was numbers
about, um, what it would cost. I assume if we had certain riders go free, um, I don't know if
Geoff or Darian... have any of that before you right now.
Nagle-Gamm: Sorry, Geoff (mumbled) go ahead? Okay. Um, so, Mayor, we ... as part of the ... the
formal transit study, we did a formal evaluation of the zero fare ridership, um, and what that
would, uh, what those costs associated with that would be and the increase in ridership. We did
not look specifically at a low-income fare program. However, that is something that we would,
um, we have been talking with Coralville, as we've been trying to really align all of our fare and
transfer policies, and that is something that we, um, (mumbled) we had both considered, um, to
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be a priority to do in ... in concert together, so that we can, again, make sure that, um, that
we ... those fares and those, uh, those, uh, passes, excuse me, are used on ... are able to be used on
both systems. So I don't have ... I don't have a number for you in terms of the low-income fare,
and that's... that would be our ...that would be, um, what we would have wanted to evaluate next,
is to just have some more formal evaluation of who would all qualify in the community. I mean
there's different ways we could do this. Um, as, um, as Mayor Pro Tem mentioned, you could
make it so it's a ... if the City ...if a person qualifies through a City discount program for low-
income already, it could potentially qualify for... for a pass. It could be based on, um, the
percentage of area median income. There's different ways you could approach it. I think
the ... the costs associated with it, um, that piece of it would need to be ... if we wanted to look
further into that, that piece would need to be further evaluated, and that would be based off of,
um, the same data that our trans consultant team did, um, to perform our other analysis relating
to the fare. So really we... we're hoping to reach out to them to do an add-on. That was ... that
was the way that we were going to get that information, um, to be able to bring back to the
Council as to what those associated costs might be of a low-income fare program.
Salih: Mayor, can I just tell you something about this? They ...they already approve that, people who
receive Medicare and people who are 65 years old. You know, many immigrants over 70 years
old, and they are not qualify for Medicare because they did not... either they came this country
and they don't have enough, uh, working hours to be qualify for Medicare. They never work or
they work few hours or they are not is still a U.S. citizen to be like getting the aging SSI, which
is social security disability. There is many, many families. The problem is that ... the people
look at typical Iowan, who are 65 or older and have Medicaid and they give them free bus, and
this is come with the (mumbled) automatically right now been approved. (mumbled) was
thinking about the low-income people who are really in need, and they will be even 65 or 70,
but they are not ... they cannot even, you know, have Medicare or anything to prove that they are
low-income. So I really encourage that the people who are low-income really (mumbled) if you
think about 65 year old, who have Medicaid and who could be rich, and have Medicare because
of their working, you know, history. They are eligible for Medicare and they still have free fare
that been approve already on the system, and think about low-income people that we said, okay,
let the staff think about it. Why the staff did not think about it before bring (mumbled) but I'm
sure 100%, if that's on the radar, they will do it. I ... I ... I'm sure, because I hear Geoff before said
he would like even to go free fare, you know. I ... I think we can approve this for low- income
and ask the staff to come up with a mechanism to verify if the people are low-income or not.
Teague: I appreciate, um, your comments. I did want to make sure that if there's anyone else taht want
to comment that we have some time for you to make comments. I do have a follow up
comment for myself though.
Bergus: I just want to clarify the proposed fare structure does say senior is a free pass, so that's already
included in the proposed rate structure. If you look on page 918 through 9 ... about 945 or so,
there's all these different possible fare structures that take all these different considerations into
effect, and I heard Darian say that they're looking to bring this back to us with some more
specific data, and so I'm, I mean, and I also want us to consider not means testing it and talking
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about what is it, you know, looking at fare -free overall, because we know that has lower
administrative costs and, you know, is quantifiable to something we can maybe try and
accomplish without having to parse it out.
Fruin: I can mention, um, we've been looking at fare -free transit for a couple years, um, with the hope
that we can ... we can find a way to do it, not just for low-income but for everybody. We think
that's really important, uh, to meet our climate action goals. And, you know, I'd like to think
that absent the pandemic, we would probably be in a position where we could pursue that right
now. We had some ideas for pennanent funding sources. Um, but all that kind of came to a
screeching halt with ... with COVID and how that impacted our transportation service's budget.
Um, even as we're coming out of this, we're still 50% down in ridership pre-COVID, um, and
that has a real financial impact on the system too. So you have to be able to pick up that gap
and then pay for that ... that fare -free transit, and then hopefully be in a position to expand your
transit service, because it will be used more, and that'd be a great... great thing to be in. We had
considered, um, using some... actually some ... some parking fund revenues to transfer over to
Transit to be able to do that. Unfortunately, um, probably the only budget that's been hit harder
than Transit is parking, and that's limited our ability to ... to fund it. We do have some, um,
federal relief dollars that can be targeted towards expanded transit service. We had that
discussion with you in the ... in the fall about Sunday transit and... and as Darian pointed out, in
March you all gave us the green light to do a two-year pilot, um, with some of those federal
funds that we received. We can do fare -free pilots with those same federal funds, but the
Council needs to have that discussion, um, and... and... and put that initiative on, you know, on
the same table with everything else that those funds can be used for, and then we really have to
think long and hard about how we sustain that after the... after the ... after that ... after that pilot
period. No one's going to want to offer two years of popular service enhancements and free
fares, only not to have an ability to pay for it, mn... uh, afterwards. So I hear ...I hear the call for
expanding the free offerings. I absolutely think we can do that. But I think we need to be
(mumbled) about how we do that. We need to project out what those costs will be, and not only
how we will pay for them in the short run, uh, but also how we will pay for them, potentially, in
the long run after that, after those federal dollars are essentially exhausted. So we can
absolutely come back to you. As you can tell this ... this has been a massive undertaking and we
do have to stage these things. We don't have staff capacity to do all this at once, and we'd love
to do it at once. Our first step was to get the fares lined up. That'll happen and we'll launch
that next month, and then we'll hopefully, uh, with your approval, begin the route changes in
August, and then we immediately turn our attention to that implementation of the Sunday
service, which is a huge undertaking. If you just think from a ... from an operational standpoint,
to add another day to your operations, to hire more staff, redo all the staffing schedules, bring in
more mechanics, all that ... all that kind of overhead that goes with it, that's a massive
undertaking, and that late night, um, late owl or night owl piece is kind of that... that, uh, that
next rung after Sunday service. So we're marching along with the capacity that we have. I
think we're making really smart changes here. Um, to your earlier point, we are going to realize
that ... that there are some adjustments that are made. I ... I just cannot believe we can make
sweeping changes like this and... and get it 100% right. So we as staff expect that we'll have to
make some tweaks, whether that's schedules or stop locations, or even route locations, where
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the turnaround needs to be. We should expect that we're going to have to make some
adjustments, because as much outreach as we try to do, we won't reach everybody, and
hopefully we'll entice more people to want to ride the bus and they'll have some suggestions
too. So expect all this. Um, it's... it's... it's exciting to work on. I think we're headed on the right
direction, but it's not going to be ... we can't do everything at once. We're just going to have to
take these... take these in stages. Again, if fare -free, whether full or...or, um, targeted is ... is a
priority, we can absolutely do that. We just want to make sure it doesn't stop our progress on
the other pieces of it, and we want to make sure we're financially in a position to be able to
sustain that.
Salih: I don't know you what you mean by really, you know, like I know that the fare -free will be taking
some time until we figure out exactly what we want to do. I just want to make sure everybody
understand my proposal. My proposal is to give direction to the staff to find a mechanism to
give low- income people free fare.
Teague: So if -if I understand correctly, and a part of my follow up was to, um, suggest that we give
direction to the staff ...(both talking)
Salih: (both talking) to figure out mechanism, yeah. (both talking)
Teague: (both talking) to ... to come back and, you know, with the option of free fare for low-income
individuals. We know that there's a (garbled) fare for all was something that we received.
It ... we at that time did not okay that. It's a great hope in the future, but I do believe that, um,
coming back to Council with, you know, what would it look like for free fare, I think that is,
um, something that we should do ... for low-income individuals, I wanted to specify that and give
definitions to that. So I don't know if...if there are individuals... so, Mayor Pro Tem, I know that
the motion was to ... I think the motion was to do it, but really the motion is to come back.
Salih: Give us (both talking) figure out a mechanism for free fare for low-income people.
Fruin: Is this intended to be effective with all the other fare changes next month?
Salih: If that ... what about are you giving the senior and the Medicare holder effect next month?
Fruin: Yes, we're ... we're currently on schedule to do all the fare changes next month.
Salih: Why ..why not for those, if you can figure out ... how did you figure out the senior and the
Medicare recipient? How you going to evaluate that, do you have a mechanism in place?
Nagle-Gamm: Yeah, the mechanism would be the Medicare card or the SEATS card, they actually have
a card issued to them.
Salih: Okay, and those people also they have food stamp card, SNAP card, or they have, you know,
another like human, uh, Medicaid card, which is Medicaid, that means low-income and also
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they have, um, they have the, um ... the cash, you know, a system that ... that the (mumbled) card
too, and they have also the (mumbled) card. They're... they have cards for everything, if that
what you want.
Teague: Is there a time and ... and I want to make sure that I'm getting all of Council's feedback. Um,
my...I guess I'll ask the question if Council is interested, uh, majority of Council want to look at,
um, low-income opportunities for free fare or even reduced fare, but it would be a mechanism
as, Mayor Pro Tem has mentioned. So do I have... and if you can maybe shake your head as far
as Council's interest in having staff look into that.
Mims: We have a motion on the floor and now you're suggesting something that I'm not sure is directly
the same as the motion.
Teague: The motion was to approve, to (both talking)
Salih: (both talking) to give direction, to the staff, that they will figure out a mechanism, just the same
mechanism that they figured it out for the, you know, use the same mechanism they figure it out
for the, you know, the Medicare recipient, and use the same thing for low-income!
Teague: So ... so that's... that's the clarified motion on the floor. So then I guess that this ... (both talking)
Dulek: Well I'm just still confused. I thought the Mayor Pro Tern's motion was that the City will do
this, as opposed to the City will look into doing this. I think... that was maybe my
understanding, and I don't want to speak for the Mayor Pro Tem, but my understanding of her
motion and the second was that the City will do this. How they do it, how they figure out how
to ... to define who's a low-income person, I think the Mayor Pro Tem is suggesting that if you
have a (mumbled) or you have SNAP benefits or a WIC card, but ... but I think we have to make
sure that what we're voting on, if it's we will do it or we will look into it.
Teague: Mayor Pro Tem, will you clarify your motion or did you just clarify your motion?
Salih: Before I clarify my motion, let me ask this question. I just asked Darian how she figured out for
Medicaid, Medicare people. She said they have Medicare card. That means is not like really
tough job to do, if you provide your card for as a low-income, that's what (mumbled) If I have
Medicaid card and bring it to you, and if I have food stamp card or like WIC card or anything,
and I show it to the people that means I can ride for free, just like the Medicaid recipients. Can
you tell me what's the difficulty on figuring out that. This is for Darian and Geoff.
Nagle-Gamm: So I ... so let me clarify. So what I ... what I thought you were asking was how do you
know when they ..when they ..when they board the bus, whether they have Medicare, and
they ...and they... they... they show their card. How Medicare, the discount was included in the
evaluation was part of the consultant's recommendations, because, uh, because we're a federal
transit agency. We believe there's a requirement for a discounted service for Medicare. I think
this is a ... it's a ... it's a federal requirement, um, so when they evaluated that federal requirement
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and how we were fulfilling that before, which was a 50..what was it, a 50%, I can't recall if it
was a 50% discount or if it was ... was service. We carried that over (garbled) to the
recommendations going forward, so that's kind of where that ... the origin of that piece of it was,
if that's what you were asking.
Salih: Yeah it is ... it is free, you said it's free if they are ... have Medicare, and now the problem was here
even Susan earlier she mentioned that she ... she think people who are low-income should do that
and now why we not do it now, why we waiting if there is also the same mechanism that you
can use for... for verifying if the person like Medicare or not? (both talking) same thing.
Mims: Because to me, Mayor Pro Tem, what you're asking us to do is a decision on the fly without
looking into and making sure we're clear on the financial ramifications of this and planning for
it. Maybe it is something that staff can come back to us in a month or six weeks and say, yeah,
we can do it. But to me, we went through a major presentation that we approved weeks or a
few months ago, on how we were going to do this, and we talked even then about what we were
going to do with free fare and looking into those different things. I don't believe that it is
prudent or responsible for the Council to make a decision that could have significant
finanil ... financial ramifications, without understanding what that is. As soon as we can
reasonably get that information, I am very interested in ... in looking at having people who
qualify for SNAP or other things to get reduced or free fares, but I want the analysis before I
make that decision. (both talking)
Salih: (both talking) is for what. I'm going to clarify my motion now, so we got move forward on this.
to give direction to the City to figure out a mechanism to evaluate how they can ... we ... how we
can give free fare to low-income people.
Teague: Okay, so that was a clarification of the motion, and then, um, Councilor Taylor, you seconded
that. Do you still second that motion?
Taylor: Yes.
Teague: Okay, all right.
Mims: I would just make one clarification in my interpretation of that. Directing staff to indicate how
they would determine does not say that we are approving... it does not say that we are approving
the free or reduced fear. Those are two different things.
Teague: I agree, I almost think that we can, um, personally I think the motion could be withdrawn and
we just direct staff to do that without a motion on the floor.
Salih: No, but we want them to give them free service and figure out a mechanism, that's what I'm
proposing.
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Mims: And I'm not approving (garbled) I'm not ready to approve the free fare until I see a financial
analysis of it.
Salih: Okay, that's up to you, but I ... I'm asking now, Mayor, when I say we want them to do it, that
means we agreed to give low-income people free fare (mumbled) because in the beginning, the
problem was how the staff can figure out the mechanism. It wasn't like, uh, how much it's
gonna ... I don't know when they say analysis, they mean how many low-income in the city, and
if there is a lot people, that means that we're going to lose a lot money, and I...I don't know what
the mechanism that they talking about ... the analysis that she talking about, but I'm really saying
that since we giving Medicare recipient free services, we should (garbled) low-income people.
At least Medicare, they receive, you know, benefit, raise the retirement, but low-income people,
some of them, they have zero income. Zero income. They depend on the ... on food stamp,
public housing, all this. They more vulnerable than the Medicare recipient.
Teague: Okay, so I think I understand the motion now, and I want to make sure that, um, everyone
understands the motion so that we can bring this to a vote. So essentially, Mayor Pro Tem is
saying that we would... this motion will require, um, reduced ... wait free fare for low-income
individuals and that the staff will come back and tell us who is all within that qualification. Is
that the understanding?
Salih: And even if you need to figure out a mechanism after one month or two, it's okay, but at the end
if they are low-income, zero in ... like low-income, they should get free fare, that what I really
mean. (both talking) If the staff need time for that to, figure out a mechanism to evaluate
people, whether they are low-income or not, that's okay.
Teague: Okay, I think I want to go ahead and open this up for a vote. If anyone has any quick
comments, I think maybe when you vote, you can give a quick comment. If people are okay
with that. All right, roll call please.
Dulek: It's a roll call on the motion, right (both talking)
Teague: Yes. (roll call being taken)
Dulek: Teague?
Teague: No, but I do want to bring it back to a work session.
Dulek: Thomas?
Thomas: No, but I would like ... I'm inclined always to, you know, remove barriers to the service;
however, you know, is it a question of free, is it a question of reduced, what are the financial
impacts? I mean, I do think we owe it to the community as a whole, you know, to have a
separate discussion where this thing is discussed in detail.
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Dulek: Weiner?
Weiner: No, please bring it to the next work session so that we can have ... so that we can discuss this,
please.
Dulek: Bergus?
Bergus: No, and I look forward to staff bringing us the information they already said they were going to
bring on this issue.
Teague: Okay, motion fails, um, 2-5. Does anyone (both talking)
Mims: I said no. Oh, so Pauline... okay. Sorry.
Teague: (both talking) 2-5. Okay, all right. So we have a, um, could I get a motion to approve the Iowa
City Area Transit Study Plan and recommended transit system changes?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Fruehling: Mayor, we already have that, that was the original motion, correct?
Teague: That motion is still on the floor, correct.
Fruehling: It was Mims and Bergus?
Teague: All right, thank you, and then we'll do Council discussion there ... unless we are ready for roll
call. I think we're ready for roll call please. Motion passes 7-1. Could I get a motion to accept
correspondence?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Weiner: Second, Weiner.
Teague: Moved by Mims, second by Weiner. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passed..I'm
sorry.
Salih: Well then, I really couldn't and I understand this.
Teague: I'm sorry.
Salih: Well then I really couldn't unde... understand this. (both talking) ...supporting for the tra... transit,
where we went back to the, you know, the price of the fare. I don't know, is this two separate
motion?
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Teague: So this is just a ... the current motion on the floor, is to accept correspondence.
Salih: No, the first one that we (garbled) just pass.
Teague: Yeah, so the first (both talking)
Salih: How many motion ... we have one for the fare, one for the ... one that I bought, and one for the
whole thing, right?
Teague: Yep, so the one that we just finished before this one was the one for ...I would say the whole
thing... for the transit plan.
Salih: No (garbled) I'm voting no.
Teague: Okay.
Salih: (mumbled) please.
Teague: Okay. I'm gonna finish the motion on the floor. And this is the motion to accept
correspondence, and then only because Councilor Taylor. I had already moved to any one in the
negative and you said aye. So I just want to make sure that I understood if your vote for
correspondence ... if you voted for or against the correspondence (both talking, garbled)
Taylor: (both talking) that was ... that was (garbled)
Teague: Okay, so I have seven. So the motion passes 7-0 ... for the correspondence. And Zoom did
delay. All right, so I'm going to need some guidance from our Interim City Attorney. Mayor
Pro Tem stated that the motion prior, what we did the....um, moved to approve the Iowa City
Area Transit Study Plan and recommenda ... and recommended transit system changes. She
stated yes, but she wanted her vote to be on the negative, of no.
Dulek: I think that was ... (garbled) because understanding of the item on the floor at the time and that
clearly her intent was to vote no, that she indicated. So we will ... it can be shown as a 6-1 vote.
Teague: Okay, thank you. Any (both talking)
Salih: Six to one?
Teague: Six to one—on the ... on the big plan.
Salih: I think I hear somebody else said no.
Teague: No, it was 6-1.
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15. City Attorney Appointment — Resolution appointing Eric R. Goers as City Attorney and
authorizing the Mayor to sign and the City Clerk to attest an employment agreement.
Teague: Could I get a motion to approve please?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: All right, 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?
Mims: Just excited to welcome Eric as our new City Attorney.
Weiner: And to have this move forward.
Teague: Absolutely, so welcome to Eric, if he should get the votes for this. All right, roll call please.
Motion passes 7-0.
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16. Council Appointments
16.a. Community Police Review Board
Teague: And Council discussion?
Weiner: It has to be a male, so there are only three choices in this group, I think.
Mims: Was four, weren't there?
Weiner: Ma ... maybe it, but at any event there's ... it's limited (both talking)
Mims: I didn't have any real strong feelings on any of them. I'm curious to see what others think.
Bergus: I'd put forward, um, Saul Mekies, not sure if that's how you pronounce his name. Notices his
application was more recent.
Mims: Yeah, I've known Saul for years (mumbled) way back when I was at Kirkwood Community
College. I think he would do fine.
Taylor: I just had concerns that he said that he had no real in-depth knowledge of the commission. He
subscribes to the Press -Citizen to ... to keep informed. I just had ... had some concerns about that,
because most of the others, uh, look... at least looked at the minutes or had even sat in on some
of the meetings. I ... I was looking at either Bruce Sodal or...or Willie Goodale, but I'm open.
Mims: I frankly was surprised at the lack of knowledge of all of them really. I didn't think there was
much there, um, of real... yeah, of...of really looking a whole lot at it.
Teague: And I guess, for me, I can ... I can, I do understand Councilor Taylor's concern about Saul. I did
notice that, um, you know. I ... I didn't have a strong opinion, um, at supporting anyone
specifically, so I can certainly be open to Saul or Bruce.
Bergus: I have a quick question for Kellie. Um, when people have an application that's more than a
year old, like a few of these, what's the process for letting them know their application's still up
for consideration?
Fruehling: Sure, so at the time it was announced it wouldn't have been a year old. That's kind of when
they drop off, but they do get... when... when there's an opening, they do get an email saying that
there's a vacancy and you'll... your application will be, um, up for consideration, and then it
gives them a ... a section to opt out, if they'd like their their application pulled.
Bergus: Thank you.
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Mims: The one ... I guess I don't know if you'd call it a concern. I ... I think some members of the public
would question us appointing somebody who, um, part of what he has done has been teaching
self- defense and has utilized law enforcement input and even instructed techniques to law
enforcement. I'm not saying I have a problem with that, but I think some members of the public
will, when we're talking about appointment to kind of oversee and... and, you know, look at
complaints against law enforcement. And the other two candidates, other than Saul, neither of
them indicated they had any knowledge of the commission, so I would support Saul.
Thomas: I can support Saul as well.
Teague: Okay, sounds like we have a majority supporting Saul Mekies.
Mims: I should know it, but it's been a long time (laughs)
Teague: Mayor Pro Tem is having intemet connections, just so that people know. So we'll continue
with the appointment of Saul Mekies. Could I get a motion to appoint Saul?
Bergus: So moved.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Moved by Bergus, seconded by Taylor. All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-
0. Could I get a motion to accept correspondence?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-0.
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18. Community Comment
Teague: Hello, Anna!
Van Heukelom: Hello, um, hope you're having a good night. I just have one quick announcement
tonight, since I know it's getting a little late. Um, the University just has a revised mask policy, um,
that reflects changes to the city, so, um, students and faculty are not required to wear masks if they're
vaccinated, unless in a healthcare facility or on, um, a CAMBUS system, so ... um, have a great night,
everyone.
Teague: Thank you!
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19. City Council Information
Taylor: I ... I had a ... just an item. Since we didn't do the committee reports earlier, the Mayor Pro Tem
and I are on the Rules Committee and we actually did have a meeting. We don't meet very
often, but we did just a couple weeks ago (mumbled) item 6.b. in our consent agenda. Uh, we
approved the bylaws that were submitted to us by the TRC, and I want to thank them for their
work in ... in writing their bylaws. They utilized ones from other boards and commissions as
examples, while at the same time, uh, adding some language that was specific to the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, so good job to them. That's all!
Teague: Great.
Weiner: I don't have a report on a board, but I just wanted to remind everybody there's a special
election for Johnson County Supervisor on June 8`h. You can vote early at the Johnson County
Auditor's office and there's satellite voting this weekend, I believe both Saturday and Sunday at
the Iowa City Public Library, Saturday in North Liberty, and Sunday at Coralville, so please
vote.
Mims: We can't hear you.
Teague: Yeah, we can't hear you, Mayor Pro Tem.
Mims: Now it looks like she's frozen.
Teague: Uh huh. The internet has been ... having issues all across the city (laughs)
Taylor: It's been terrible tonight! I'll be so glad to get back in person!
Teague: Yes. Any other updates?
Bergus: Well, maybe we can just mention, I think at our work session, did we talk about when we're
going to be back in person and to, uh, mention that at this meeting, which I think we said first
meeting in July at the Senior Center in the assembly room, so that's very exciting.
Mims: Better remind us or will show up on Zoom instead (laughs)
Teague: Yes. All right. If Mayor Pro Tem jumps back on, if she has any updates, certainly she can give
them.
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20. Report on Items from City Staff
a. City Manager
Teague: Our City Manager?
Fruin: I'd just like to congratulate the Council on your choice for City Attorney. I'm very excited to
have Eric assume that position, uh, very, very good choice there, and again, want to just
congratulate you. Um, also want to thank Sue Dulek for her time as Interim City Attorney, as
we all expected (mumbled) she was fantastic in that capacity and will continue to be a huge,
um, positive force on our... on our City staff, so things are looking good in the City Attorney's
office and thank the Council for your ..your diligence through that process. Um, also want to
say thank you to Ashley Monroe, our Deputy City Manager. This is Ashley's last meeting with
us. She has been with us for about five years now give it kind of an approximate time and she's
done some fantastic things for our organization. We're going to be sad to see her go, but excited
for her and her family, as they move back across the Mississippi into ... into Illinois territory, in
Riverside, Illinois, so thank you, Ashley, for your service to Iowa City. We'll miss you, but
we'll certainly wish you the best. That's all, Mayor.
Teague: Thank you, thank you, thank you. So of course we have to say thanks to our Deputy City
Manager, Ashley Monroe, who will be leaving us as Geoff mentioned, last day next week. So
thanks for all you've done and, yes, we welcome you to say some parting words on your last
day.
b. Assistant City Manager
Monroe: I will keep it short and sweet. Thank you to everyone for the opportunity, it's been an honor. I
will miss Iowa City, I will miss ... uh, okay (mumbled) staff and working with each of you. It's
been wonderful to work with all the Council Members, both present and past, and again enjoyed
my time here and thank you.
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