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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-07 Transcription Page 1 2. Proclamations 2.a. Iowa City Welcoming Week Teague: (reads proclamation) And receiving this is Jason Glass, from the Human Rights Commission. Glass: Thank you, Mayor Teague, uh, I'm Jason Glass, the Vice Chair of the Human Rights Commission. Uh, I'm happy to accept this, uh, proclamation on behalf of the Human Rights Commission and Iowa City. Uh, I've accepted several proclamations, uh, from the Human Rights Commission, and they're always an honor. This one in particular is close to my heart. Uh, I...I had the opportunity and the privilege to lead a nonprofit several years ago called Professional and Technical Diversity Network, which was in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, and we created the Corridor Welcome Receptions, which were later taken on by the...the respective Chambers in each organization, so and the purpose of those was to bring all kinds of...of organizations together that represented different parts of the community in order to welcome people who were new to this community and... and to welcome a more diverse workforce. Uh, and...so I got to see first hand just the magic of a simple welcome and a simple getting people together who may not always...who may not otherwise see each other or speak to each other and how that increases community and...and builds, uh, a sense of belonging to those who are new to our community. So, uh, that was a really special privilege, as is accepting this proclamation, and though we certainly have work to do in Iowa City, I do believe that we are a very welcoming community and have a lot of opportunities, uh, like that to bring people together, uh, through our festivals and Summer of the Arts and so many different things. So I...I hope that all of us take advantage of the Welcoming Week, uh, activities and if...just a small thing as find somebody that you may not otherwise met and...and...thank them or welcome them to Iowa City. So, uh, thanks again for highlighting the importance of welcoming all peoples to...to our community, and for this proclamation. Thanks! Teague: (talking away from mic) Thank you so much! (several talking in background) 2.b. International Day of Peace This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 2 Weiner: (reads proclamation) Teague: Thank you, Councilor Weiner. And receiving this is David Hempel, and accepting...he'll be accepting this on behalf of Veterans for Peace, Iowa Physicians for Social Responsibility, City of Iowa City Equity and Human Rights Office, Johnson County Chapter, and United Nations Association-USA. Welcome! Hempel: Thank you, Mayor Teague. Uh, on the 2151 there will be an observance, urn, across from the bank down the street here, in the ped mall, in the northern part of the ped mall. We'll have some folding chairs for elderly citizens or people with disabilities, but mostly we'll just stand for 45 minutes or so and have an observance, from 4:30 to about 5:15 or 5:30, and uh, everyone is welcome. There'll be some music, um, and a few little speeches and words pertaining to peace. Urn, all the organizations that you mentioned...we all believe in justice. So no justice, no peace. Thank you. Teague: Thank you, David, and we have this proclamation, which Councilor Weiner will give to you. Thank you again! 2.c. National Hispanic Heritage Month Teague: (reads proclamation) And receiving this will be Jessica from the Human Rights Commission. Welcome! Andino: Uh, gracias (speaking Spanish) Okay, so now English. So, thank you, Mayor Teague and the Members of the Council, for allowing me to accept this, uh, proclamation on behalf of Hispanic Heritage Month, urn, for all Hispanic Americans and individuals that we have in our community today. Um, as you know this proclamation is in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through October 15`h; however, we should also make sure that we take the time and acknowledge these individuals and families, as they should be valued every day, and not just in celebration of this month. They are our neighbors, our colleagues, our classmates, and our friends. (mumbled) make sure that the words and sentiments in the proclamation (clears throat) ring true in all of our actions and decisions tonight and in the future. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 3 Teague: Thank you. (applause) 2.d. National Senior Center Month Taylor: (reads proclamation) And accepting, uh, is Angela McConville, Senior Center Commission Chair. McConville: Yes, I'm Senior Center Commission Chair Angela McConville. I actually live in Oxford, so I'm the County Representative. Um, I also coordinate senior programming at the City of North Liberty. So since 1981, for 40 years, the Center, this incredible historic building, has been offering classes and services for Johnson County community members, aged 50 and older, 50 and better! That's a lot of us in this room. I'm nearing 50, so we'll welcome you into the Center when you're 50! Um, please join me in thanking the amazing Senior Center team of Latasha, Michelle, Kristen, Emily, and Jessie for their work over the last 18 months in particular to keep seniors engaged from afar and to safely bring seniors back into this building when it was safe. This was no easy feat (laughs) and required a lot of cyber help to get seniors comfortable, or at least somewhat comfortable with virtual meetings and gatherings. The Center assisted with several large and small scale COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Iowa City. Solon and North Liberty (laughs) with me during the beginning of the vaccine roll-out to seniors. This meant we all took on long days of phone calls to people who had access barriers, including language, transportation, and technology barriers. The Center's vision is a lofty goal, but not an impossible one. To end social isolation for persons 50 plus, and their efforts never took a pause. Thank you. Teague: Thank you and...Councilor Taylor will give you the proclamation. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 4 8. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) [UNTIL 7 PM] Teague: And so individuals will be provided three minutes to speak, and we have a clock over there. Urn, the community comment period will end at 7:00 PM...unless an extension is needed to meet a minimum of 30 minutes of total time allotted. So we have more than 30 minutes. The...I do reserve as Mayor the right to reduce the three minute period, based on the number of individuals desiring to speak. Additional comments may be sent to Coun...the City Council via council@iowacity...I'm going to say that again! Additional comments can be sent to the City Council, via our email, which is council@iowa-city.org or through the City Clerk's office. At this time I'm going to ask people that would like to speak on an item that is not on any agenda item to step to the podium at this time, and then there is a table where we need you to write your name, first and last, and your address, and then when you come to speak at the podium, please share that. Welcome! Campos: (speaking through translator) Good evening,thank you for each and every one of you to be,uh, present here today. My name is Ninoska Campos. I'm from Honduras and I live in Iowa City. I'm a member of the Excluded Essential Worker Fund here in Iowa. Urn, our lives were affected hugely by the pandemic. Nobody was prepared to lose their employment. And left without anything to sustain their living space. They were left, urn, in situations that were critical, knowing that we wouldn't be getting any kind of financial relief. We were the essential workers during the pandemic, urn, because through everything and all the anxiety that we went through. We took the risk to leave and go work, so that society would keep functioning. We did this knowing that we could get sick with COVID and infect our kids. Now every one of these people in this room are excluded and essential workers of this pandemic and we're here in front of you guys to ask for your support. Uh, we want a direct stimulus check for each person, $3,200 and also a stimulus check for our kids. It hasn't been easy, what we've gone through with this pandemic. We don't want help with rent,we want to decide what we need help with. Every one of us knows the need, our need. And this might give us just a little bit of what we deserve because of what we went through, through the pandemic. Thank you. (applause) Teague: Thank you and welcome. Please state your name and your address. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 5 Martinez: My name is Juan Martinez and my address is that...so my address is 1107 Sandusky Drive. Um, so I'm here with the Catholic Worker House and this is... this past week we've been visiting people in Iowa City and the surrounding communities, like Muscatine, West Liberty, urn, to ask for their support in the form of signatures for the Excluded Workers Fund. And so while knocking on these doors and talking to people, I learned that these people who are part of this community that pay taxes, urn, as well as people who put their lives at risk to ensure our community is stable and running, um, they've been suffering throughout this whole pandemic and now like...now, after we've been knocking on doors and stuff like that, um, at the end of the day, the one thing that stuck with me was this one couple that spoke out saying that when we told them about this, when we told them about this they said...we said, they said that this is the most selfish thing we ever heard before, about for the fund, Excluded Workers, how they didn't get stimulus, and saying that these people are putting their lives at risk to help us, and last year my mom, my sisters, myself, we had COVID. It was terrible. Um...we were blessed to have help from my family, my neighbors, you know,job security for one of my parents. Some people in my family received stimulus checks, unemployment when needed, which is something the majority of the Excluded Workers could not benefit from. Now I might be young, and you guys might be asking what am I doing up here talking to you guys. Urn, I'm just...this is an issue that I...that I care about, a lot, especially these people, back here. These are all my people. These people need help. Just like us as Americans, we should treat them as Americans, you know, because we're the... we're the country of opportunity. Treat them just like Americans! And...and that's all I ask you. Are you with us or you just going to stand there like a bystander and not help us? Thank you. (applause) Teague: Thank you. (applause continues) Welcome! Stanerson: Hello. My name is Barb Stanerson. I'm the President of SEN Local 199 and I'm also a physical therapist who works at UIHC. So (both talking) Teague: And your...your address. I know you're in Iowa City, right? Stanerson: What? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 6 Teague: Your address please. Stanerson: Oh, Iowa City, I live in Iowa City. Teague: Yes! Stanerson: So the direct cash assistance to Excluded Workers, premium hazard pay for essential workers, and affordable housing were the big three choices of thousands of Iowa Citians who participated in the City's public input process. The fund, Excluded Workers Coalition, has also surveyed hundreds of undocumented immigrant workers who have survived 18 months of this pandemic without any relief or assistance. The need is urgent, the need is very clear, and the need is now. Yesterday our coalition released a groundbreaking news report entitled "Excluded in the Heartland, Impacts of COVID-19 Crisis on Working Class Immigrant Families in Iowa." The report was based on a survey of 289 undocumented immigrant workers in Iowa and it was conducted between June 28`h and August 3151. 80% of those respondents reported losing their job or income during the pandemic and said they were still struggling to get by without assistance...without access to affordable healthcare or government relief. The report directly...the report directs policy makers and elected officials to take urgent action to address the racial inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. An Excluded Worker Fund would give 3,200 stimulus checks...$3,200 in stimulus checks to...for urgent, uh, sorry! To thousands of undocumented migrant and previously incarcerated workers who were left out of the federal pandemic relief. The money would be spent locally, and...on urgent needs, without the restrictions that have prevented other forms of aid being delivered effectively. Most notable the General Assistance Fund has been one of those. Um, an Excluded Workers Fund would also see that premium hazard pay bonus gets paid to these low-wage essential workers, in the amount of$1,600. And those essential workers would be those, um, working for less than $15 an hour. The Excluded Workers Fund must be operated by City and County governments, not corporate consultants or the nonprofit industrial complex. A government-run Excluded Workers Fund with no barriers to access would be more efficient, more sustainable, and wouldn't have to be, um, recreated from scratch every time there's a crisis. In closing, I ask that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 7 everyone in the room who supports an Excluded Workers Fund should show their support by standing up. (applause and cheering in background) Teague: Thank you. Stanerson: Thank you! (applause and cheering continue) Teague: Would anyone else like to address any topic that is not on the Council agenda? (talking in background) Okay. Oh! Welcome! (talking in background) Welcome! Keyla: My name's Keyla anad I live here in Iowa and our parents need the money so we can get food. (applause and cheering) Teague: Thank you, Keyla. Welcome! Biechler: Hi! My name is Katie Biechler. I live here in Iowa City, and I am here on behalf of SEIU Local 199. I'm also here on behalf of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, as we're part of the Excluded Worker Fund Coalition. For months, the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition has been presenting our proposal. We have been speaking out, folks who have been directly impacted by this pandemic and who haven't been eligible for relief, not even from the County's General Assistance program (clears throat) because they're undocumented, have been incredibly vulnerable in giving testimony about what they're going through and what they need. You talked about, in your work session, a robust public listening program, but when the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition showed up at your listening session on August 11`h, with 100 people in support, the only person there was Geoff Fruin. I hear you talk about helping workers, supporting workers, and equitable community, and yet not one of you could be bothered to show up and listen to the people you all were elected to represent. Not one of you! Watching the work session today, I couldn't help but notice that the needs the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition has highlighted were consistently at the top of the list of the things that you heard from people, and yet the suggested allocation was criminally low. Only $2,000! Only to adults! That isn't even close to the equity that you all said you're committed to, and in fact that your proclamations tonight claim you believe in. Those of us who qualified for stimulus checks received This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 8 $3,200 over the last year and a half. Those of us who qualified for unemployment received even more. Children were included in that relief How dare you suggest less for the folks who didn't receive that. Folks need relief and they need it right now. They cannot wait any longer, and there are no other programs that do what the Fund Excluded Workers Coalition has proposed. The General Assistance Fund is not a replacement for direct cash relief. The barriers to it are still too great and the money that comes from it is too little. Giving money to nonprofits is not a replacement for direct cash relief. It happened with the CARES Act money and huge swaths of people were left out, lots of them are in this room with us. Y'all have known this money would be coming for right about six months now. You've talked and talked about it. It is time to do something,right now. (applause and cheering) Teague: Thank you. Thank...and I do want to make sure that everyone that is speaking is signing that book. Thank you all so much. Welcome! Harris: Yes, my name is Eric Harris. Um, I'm a member of the TRC of Iowa City, so I'm known by many. Um, I'm here speaking. Uh, one of the first things that I want to say that, um, in the past week or so, I've done door-to-door canvassing where I've talked to people that's going through the pandemic. In one case that I talked to people, it was one person who was eligible to get unemployment in a household of six or seven people. That one person got unemployment. The rest were undocumented, so that one person got unemployment and took care of the whole family, and they all had COVID-19. Um, some of the things I heard in the proposal by the City Manager, urn, with all due respect, you know, we talked about things about housing and things like that and, you know, helping small businesses and those are all great things, but the money has initials. It is called ARP, which is the American Rescue Plan, to rescue all the people in this room from COVID-19, not things that were pre-pandemic problems already. Housing, affordable wages, because what are you going to do? Give money to small businesses who pay people $12 an hour? Can anybody in this room tell me they can afford to live on $12 an hour? If you're going to give money to small businesses, how about giving them advice...to pay people a livable wage. Don't waste this money on stuff that's not going to be, you know, used in the right place. And things that were pre-pandemic problems, housing has been a problem in this country...for decades. That American Rescue money is to rescue people like this. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 9 All these people that we have gathered here. You know, I understand that we have problems, like one of the things that was brought up to me—climate change! That I heard...that's been a problem in this country and we're not even going to meet the standard that we need to be at for climate change. I, like I read a report that said we're about 20 years off of that, because we didn't deal with it before. All these people I met, all the stories I heard when I canvassed door-to-door, which...is no disrespect to anybody in here, but maybe you guys should try that, and go listen to the stories about the people that struggle. Their children struggle. Their family members died. And then I hear talk, oh, well we need, you know, to invest in Diversity Markets in the South District and things like that. I've heard things like that and (mumbled) and this might, you know, inflame some people and they might not like what I got to say, but I was at every Diversity Market. I was even one of the people who set up the Diversity Market. It's about two Council Members in this room, and they know who they are, they was the only ones I saw there. How can you speak on a Diversity Market when you didn't even go and check it out? (both talking) Teague: Thank you (both talking) Harris: I know the Members who were there, who came (both talking) Teague: Thank you. Harris: (both talking) yield my time. Teague: Thank you. (applause and cheering) Welcome! Zapada: (speaking through translator) Hi, good evening. My name is Sindy Zapada. I support the Excluded Workers Fund. Still to this day we're in the pandemic. It's us, the Latino community, that has not had the option to stay at home. Urn, yes it is, urn, certain that there is a lot of programs for relief out there, but it was very difficult for us, urn, those who are undocumented without a social security number to, uh, qualify. There is a lot of us and still to this day we haven't been able to recuperate from the pandemic. I think it's just and necessary that each one of us here would receive a direct stimulus check. Um, to be able to start This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 10 recuperating from all of the things that we have lost and suffered from the pandemic. Thank you so much and blessings. (applause and cheering) Teague: Would anyone (applause continues) Thank you. Would anyone else like to address a topic...not on the agenda? (female): I'm sorry, what was that? Teague: No, welcome! Rudales: (speaking through translator) Good afternoon, my name is Nancy Rudales. I'm here because I'm in support of the Excluded Workers Fund. My question for all of you is did you all receive a direct stimulus check during the pandemic? And why us, who...who don't have documents didn't get one. There's also lots of children who are undocumented and also did not get the direct stimulus checks. I think it would be just and fair if the, uh, you used some of this money to give us, not just individuals but everyone in the household direct stimulus checks because we were the ones that were the essential workers during the pandemic. Um, all of us, we were let go from a lot of our jobs and we had to look for other jobs during the pandemic just to survive. Also we had to take out a lot of debt in order to pay rent, lights, put gas in our car, etc., etc. Um, so I think it's just and fair that we would get direct stimulus checks, all of us here, and it's not just all of us here in the room. There's a lot of people that support this cause that are working because they can't be here. I don't think the amount of money that you propose in your plan is nearly enough to provide direct stimulus checks to the people that are excluded and essential. There is a lot of us here in Iowa City (applause and cheering) that have been present in the Excluded Workers Fund. Thank you. (applause and cheering continue) Teague: Thank you. Welcome! Houlahan: My name is Ann Houlahan and I'm with the Catholic Worker House, 1414 Sycamore. And you're talking about mutual respect, peace proclamations, Hispanic heritage month, etc., etc., tonight. It seems to me that you like to talk about peace, but despite the overwhelming need of Hispanic refugees, undocumented workers, and ex-felons, we are making procla...we are making This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page I I proclamations without providing adequate financial assistance to excluded workers. We really hope that you will take this serious and help out these people at the earliest convenience. Teague: (applause) Thank you. (applause continues) Welcome! Andino: Hi, I'm back! I'm Jessica Andino. I serve as the Chair of the Human Rights Commission for the City of Iowa City and I live on the east side of Iowa City. Um, I just want to take a few moments here to acknowledge the amount of time that the HRC or the Human Rights Commission took to discuss the recommendation that we had put forth to you guys tonight, uh, that was a couple Tuesdays ago in which we were allocating the entire...well, four million from you guys and four million suggested by the County, which was within the pilot program that was suggested by the Excluded Workers Fund. We thought about it, we discussed it, we spent our time, you all appointed us to be there, so we are recommending to you to allocate the full funding amount now, instead of just sitting on it. I volunteer for a lot of different organizations in the community, and this community needs help. I'm also going to say I have a personal contact. My husband came here illegally back in, oh, it's been quite a time, but I have family members that this affects. It's not just the people that are here in this crowd that this affects. This is maybe a handful of the people that this money will actually touch, and it will be reinvested back into our community! They're going to buy diapers, they're going to pay rent, they're going out to eat, they're going to be helping our community. Why not give it directly to the people that need the help, that benefits everyone here? Thank you. Teague: Thank you. (applause and cheering) Welcome! Vasile: My name is Maureen Vasile and I live in Iowa City. These people here are the ones that did the work. They're the ones that put their families at risk and their health at risk as well. They're the ones that deserve the money, and they need it now, not in five months from now. They need it now! They needed it five months ago. So I'm hoping that you will step it up and let's get going and give them the money they deserve. Thank you. (applause and cheering) Teague: Thank you. (applause and cheering continue) Welcome! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 12 Bowen: My name is Pat Bowen and I live in Iowa City and I'm a member of the Fund Excluded Workers group, as well as Iowa CCI. And I'm a supporter of the Catholic Worker House. And the reason I'm here tonight is to support these people. They have supported us. They have put, as Maureen said, they have put their lives on the line. They have probably lost family and friends. And we sit here in our comfortable homes and we got all that money back last year, and we didn't....I didn't need that money, but I was just given it. For what reason? These people deserve money now! They are in dire straits. They don't have anything. They're going to get kicked out of their houses. We...we've heard about the rental evictions being done away with. I mean the security that they had. They can't even feed their children! That one little girl said they need money for food. Is that not a sad state for all of us to sit here and say, oh, wait six months and we'll give you some cash through some other bureaucracy. That's not the way this should work. These people are people, and they need the money now! (applause and cheering) Teague: Thank you. Welcome! Ramirez: (speaking through translator) Good afternoon. My name is Ingrid Ramirez. And I'm in support of this group. I think that we've heard a lot about this fund, but something has come to mind listening to all this. I've been living in Iowa City for seven years and what I have seen is that this is a state that's very cold or nobody really wants to do the work. I am so proud of my Hispanic people from all of their different places of origin. Because all of these people in front of you do the work of roofing, construction, landscaping, cleaning apartments, cleaning universities. I would also like to add, um, that we also do this for you, we clean your houses. We clean your hotels to stay in. We take you your food, and part of the reason why we do this is that you can see us in a good light. (applause) Hispanics do the hardest work here in Iowa City! (applause) Thank you. Teague: Thank you. Ramirez: (speaking through translator) And I would just like to add that we all pay taxes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 13 Teague: Yep, and we'll just, urn, ask people come and take the podium. We're going to go ahead and allow you to speak, and then when you're done you can sign in behind. Freddie: (speaking through translator) Hi, a very good evening to you. My name is Freddie. I live in Coralville. (laughs) The reason why I'm here today, and you can see me. I come with my kids, I come dirty. The reason that I am with this organization, Excluded Workers Fund, um, I am one of the roofers that it's very possible that I was working on your roof when the hail hit this year. It's very possible that I was the one repairing this, urn, during this year. Um, and just like I told you, Mr. Fruin, the last time I spoke to you, I have little kids. Since the pandemic started, day after day after day I went to work so that, urn, taking a risk, so that I could take care of my beautiful children that you can see in front of me, who are U.S. citizens. You can see, you all saw on the television how heartbroken it is to see a young child die because their adult parent brought COVID home to their children. This is very, um, heartbreaking. And what was it all for? Just that we could go to work, so that we could be, um, working for you during the...doing the work, the essential work that you needed, to put our beautiful children at risk? I've been working in roofing 11 years, urn, taking the risk. I think it's just that the time is now that you help us, give us something back that we need, that we deserve. For real, we need your help. Thank you very much. (applause) Teague: Thank you! (applause continues) Welcome! Munoz: (speaking through translator) Good afternoon, my name is Anita. I just would like to make a short comment, that I hope you take seriously. Why is it that you don't want to take us into account? We are all the essential workers, and now that we need your help, you don't want to take us into account. Because I know for sure every one of us that are here in this room, we pay taxes. And part of these taxes, even if it's a small percent in your salary, even if it goes to public services, you all receive. Thank you. Teague: Thank you. (applause) Mora: (speaking through translator) Ah, Zulay Mora. Just like all of us here that are sitting in this room, we left the violence in our country. So not just the pandemic, but every day, besides the pandemic, um...we've put our lives at risk and gone This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 14 through a lot of hard things, and urn, and thank you for...we understand that you guys have welcomed us here in this country. What I'd like to say is that we need a little bit of your help so we can live or kind of move and be in this community with a little bit more calmness or less fear to be in this place. We need your help. And this is why we need help, economic help,just like you've been hearing from my companeros, urn, because of this pandemic. Also we need support. [I kind of missed about, something like about the green card, telling the President as well.] But we need this support for...for us as well. I'd like to thank everyone here, not just my, urn, you know, people from my home country, from Colombia, but Ecuador, Mexico, everyone,because we left our lives, we left everything to come here to make our life here. Teague: Thank you. (applause) Welcome! Noah: Hello, my name is Noah and I live in Iowa City. Uh, the only thing I need to add, since you've heard it multiple times, and you've heard it again today, and months and months and months, so, um, stop sitting and act! Fund the Excluded Workers Fund now, not just your one to two million piddly, like actually fund it so people actually (mumbled) what was it, 2,000 for adults in a household. That is...despicable. Do not do that, and fund these people, and stop waiting now, act now! Act now! Act now! Act now! Act now! Act now!! Not later, now!! Thank you. (applause and cheering) Teague: Thank you. And we...we have, um, is there anyone else? (mumbled) one more speaker. Sinnwell: Yeah, hi, I'm Emily Sinnwell. It's nice to be here in front of all of you. I've been providing language access (mumbled) other organization, um, to all these folks in the room and it's just been awesome to work with them and hear what they need directly. I hope you all feel so excited that they're here and they want to tell you exactly what you need, because when we talk about equality and equity, this is it, right? Um...the...the plan is a start, but I was disappointed. One million is not enough. Uh, we need four million from the City, we need four million from the County, and then we need, urn, a half million to administer the funds, right? So $3,200 directly to adults and children, to undocumented essential and excluded workers who did not get a stimulus check like we did, cause they went through This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 15 the pandemic just like us. So we need eight mill...8.5 million. Again, four million from the City, four million from the County. I know that they're going to be excited to work with you on this. Urn, point five for administration costs. Now the County government, the General Assistance Fund, has a lot of issues, we know that, and they're working on those, and I can give lots of suggestions to keep making those better, right? Urn, they can administer the funds directly, if they need to, but we can use a third party. The money should not go to a nonprofit in town. It needs to be a third party. Now this piece is really important. There has to be no restrictions. People are fearful, urn, sometimes about using cer....giving away certain information. No restrictions, and we have a model for that. It's called the Johnson County I.D. I use it all the time with folks. They need to provide proof of residency and a photo I.D., and that's it, and that's what we need to require to get, urn, a stimulus check. So, again, 8.5 million, four from the City, four from the County, half a million to administer it to everyone sitting in this room, and more people wanted to come, but they had to work. Urn...you know I listen to all these proclamations, but it doesn't mean anything unless you do something, and this is the time. In Iowa City and Johnson County, we can set the example. We can start this, so that other counties and cities in Iowa can do the same thing. We are going to be the model. We want to be the model, right? We want to have a mask mandate in the city, right, because it's the right thing to do. We can do that. We don't have to listen to the Governor. Let's be the model for the Excluded Workers Fund and do the right thing. Thank you. Teague: Thank you. I am...(applause) Thank you. Community comment is closed, but I wanted to thank everybody that was a part of the community comment piece. (female): (speaking in foreign language) Thank you. (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 16 9. Planning and Zoning Matters 9.a. Zoning Code Amendment—Self-Service Storage Uses in Community Commercial (CC-2) Zones Ordinance—Ordinance amending Title 14, Zoning Code to allow self-service storage uses by special exception in CC-2 zoning districts. (REZ21-0007) 1. Public Hearing Teague: And I'm going to open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Welcome! Sitzman: Good evening, Mayor and Council, Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and Development Services. As was introduced, this is a zoning code amendment for a change to the zoning code regarding the self-service storage use in one of our commercial districts. This is a request that's been requested based on an applicant requesting to do something with a property, that being Southgate for reuse of their property at 947 Highway 6, formerly the Slumberland, uh, a big box store. Their request was to, uh, acknowledge that that use was ceasing as a retail use and they wanted to reuse their building for, uh, indoor self-storage use. Um, self-storage uses are only allowed currently in the City's Intensive, uh, Commercial and General Industrial districts. Um...sorry, and the City has acknowledged, or explored this code change due to the acknowledgment that there's changing...our changing retail landscape when it comes to big box stores, um, acknowledging that that type of retail has, uh, changed over the years. Staff generally does support the text amendment you're seeing tonight, rather than rezoning this property to one of those more intensive commercial or industrial districts. The amendment that we crafted and are proposing to you tonight on behalf of Southgate as the applicant is to allow these kinds of self-storage uses by special exception process, with general and specific approval criteria to be reviewed by the Board of Adjustment. Um, as I said, the proposed amendment would allow this particular use in the existing zone, the CC-2 zone, and would be subject to a special exception with general and specific approval criteria, which I'll go through in a little bit. But just to take a step back to talk about special exceptions. They have general approval criteria and special exception is a level of review in our code that's more intensive than simply allowing something by-right in a zoning district or allowing it as a provisional use in a zoning district. Provisional This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 17 meaning that you'd have certain provisions that had to be met in order to allow the use. That would still be a staff review. In this case what we're proposing in this code amendment is for a review as a special exception by the Board of Adjustment. So that's the most stringent type of review that can be, uh, proposed, and that's what we think is most appropriate. What's on the screen here is the general approval criteria that a Board of Adjustment would look at for any special exception. In this case, the crafting of this ordinance includes (clears throat) excuse me, specific approval criteria just regarding self-storage uses. Um, these include four main items, including the stipulation that the use be conducted completely within a conditioned space of a building, not outside. Also that the units for storage not be individually accessed and that there be no more than two garage doors, overhead garage doors, providing access to those storage spaces, and that they be primarily provided at the rear of a pr...of a property. Also that a substantial portion, both in the depth of the building and the length of the facade of the building, um, still contain retail uses, so that the facade of the building still looks like a retail use and the self-storage is a component of a larger group of, um, other uses. Um, finally, the buildings containing self-storage, um, be subject to site development standards, much like the big box retail in the first place. So those are the site development standards that apply to large, uh, retailers. They would still be applicable. They deal with things like the facade or the face of the building, as it faces the public realm. Um, details of the roof, details about building materials, and details about how entryways would work. In staff's analysis, we did look at, um, the...acknowledging that the retail landscape has changed. Urn, with us tonight is the applicant in this case with Southgate, so I'll let them get into the analysis of the changing retail climate in a little more detail for you. Urn, we did look at the areas that are currently zoned CC-2, where this zoning text change would, urn, impact. Um, they're primarily along highway corridors. Some of them are located in commercial nodes. Some of those commercial nodes also have additional design reviews, so Towncrest for example has additional regulations, and the Riverfront Crossing does. Uh, some of these other areas, uh, are also parts of commercial nodes (clears throat) excuse me, including Pepperwood Plaza here in the center. Urn, so the specific criteria (mumbled) focus on encouraging active, pedestrian-friendly front facades and requiring accommodation of other commercial uses. Uh, this slide just shows the general concept that Southgate is considering. It's not a proposal by any means, but it's one of many things that they are considering. Urn, in crafting this This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 18 ordinance, staff did look at other large, uh, communities in Iowa, uh, where, um, generally self-storage uses are required to abide by additional standards when they occur in lower intensity commercial districts, much the way we've crafted this code change. As always, when we craft a code change we're looking towards consistency of the comp plan, urn, goals and objectives. Urn, in this case there's several relevant ones about encouraging a healthy mix of independent and locally- owned businesses, as well as just general overall economic health, and then as well as design...um....uh, designing to and accommodating the...the community. So as far as steps go, we're at the orange here, where the zoning code amendment is being considered through an ordinance change. If it were to be adopted then the next step for redevelopment of this area, or reuse of this area (clears throat) would be, as I said, reviewed by the Board of Adjustment through a special exception, and then the typical site plan and building permit review steps. So the Planning and Zoning Commission is recommending this zoning code amendment to you. They met on August 5th and by a vote of 4-0 are recommending adoption of this code change. And like I said, the applicant is with us this evening, Mayor, so I'll step aside and let them make comment. Teague: Great! Welcome! Sitzman: Any questions for me if you have them. Teague: Any questions...from Council? All right. We're going to welcome... Welcome! Wilson: Thank you. I am Caleb Wilson. I actually live in Kalona, have a Kalona address. Uh, wrote down in there. I'm here on behalf of Southgate Companies, and I wanted to give a little more information about what led us to submitting this, uh, application for the zoning code text amendment. Little more background for the Council to consider. Um, and, oh, and with me today as well is Bryan Hoel. Hoel: Everyone, I'm Bryan Hoel. I live up in Cedar Rapids and manage some self- storage companies up around there. Wilson: So, um, I'll share, again, a little more background about this application and what led us to this. So we were, uh, notified in the fall, around October in 2020 about Slumberland moving to Coralville, uh, out of this building. Slumberland has been This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 19 a long-time occupant of this space, and as was shared by City staff, the retail landscape is dramatically changing. Uh, this building at 947 Highway 1 was built in a time when, again, retail was very different. The building is set back far from the highway. It is a very deep building, and a large building as well. We knew it was going to be difficult to find a new tenant for this space, as Pepperwood Plaza has been difficult to fill spaces actually even up on the highway itself, urn, so we started as soon as we were notified and had indication that the tenant was going to be leaving, uh, working on future plans for this building. Uh, we worked very closely with the City in this process to try to find, urn, what is going to be the best future use for this building, and what kind of use does the community here want. What kind of needs are in the community, urn, that we can meet with this building that'll be a long-term financially stable use for the building. Um, we...explored many different paths for this, and uh...one of the things we did was we worked with the City's retail consultant out of Texas, I believe, and they went to different prospects that they had worked with on other shopping centers and brought this building to them to see if they were interested and produced no real leads for us. So we continued to move down several paths with this and engaged community members and multiple different groups to get feedback on what would be, uh, a good solution for this space, and we, uh...we landed on self-storage initially for the whole building is what we were thinking. This space is about 38,000-square feet and we knew there was a very high demand for it, but we were initially looking at just self-storage. As we got feedback from the community, urn, we found that there was a demand or a need for small retails spaces, small nice retail spaces that were at a reasonable rent, um, and we had...had multiple businesses come to us. This idea was actually initially suggested to us, urn, from, uh, Wendy Ford who works with the City here as well, and we took this idea and...and kind of ran with it and started looked at, you know, could we create space, urn, that would work for those businesses, and then also the self-storage use. So through working with the City, the City shared with us that in the CC-2 zone, that current use is not allowable and led us to this process of the zoning code text amendment application as being how we would make this space usable for...for this kind of use. So, um, we...that's what brought us....has brought us to here. We, uh, are excited about the concept and support from Planning and Zoning. We have several businesses who are actually interested in space of this size, so on the front we're going to be able to create what looks like three or four spaces that are somewhere between 800 to 1,200-square feet each, and we have a couple different This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 20 restaurants that are interested. One is a coffee shop, dessert shop, uh, that Evelyn Casada runs, called Choco Fresa. She's been at the Diversity Market that was mentioned here earlier tonight, um, so some of you have maybe had her, uh, her awesome food. Uh, and then another restaurant as well, urn, is very interested in it, and again, these are just people we've been having discussions with. None of this is certain, but they're really interested in this space based on these same concepts in conversations we've had with them. So we believe that this use will be, again, is in very high demand in this community, this climate-controlled self- storage. Um, we believe it will draw good traffic to this center and help us be, uh, you know, maintain the retail character of the center by having retail in the front, but again, utilize the rest of the building well, in a way that the...that the community actually wants and needs. Think those are the main notes that I had to share. Bryan, do you have anything to add to that? Hoel: Um,just in general, I mean we've worked on a couple of these around eastern Iowa, but I'm here just in case anybody has any management questions or what the inside of the building and the access and all that kind of fun stuff looks like. Salih: You said how many stor...store will be there? Wilson: What's that, I'm sorry. Salih: How many store will be there, like how many businesses store will be there, I mean, not the storage. Wilson: Probably three or four, and it depends on how...how big business want...how big of a space each business would want. We think there will be roughly...4,000 to 5,000-square feet of retail space on the front, uh, so it depends on how big of a space they want. We have (mumbled) meet with some contractors this week (mumbled) we can create, um, the hood and venting for the restaurants, so we're very excited about that, cause that seems to be a very high interest. Any other questions? Teague: Thank you all! Wilson: Thank you. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 21 Teague: Great! Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please step up to the podium. I...um...before I close the public hearing, I wanted to just ask Council if they're inclined to vote in agreement...with the Planning and Zoning Commission? All right! I'm going to close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I get a motion for first consideration please? 2. Consider an Ordinance (First Consideration) Salih: So move. Weiner: Second. Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. (several respond) Weiner. (laughs) ...who said it! All right! (laughs) Uh, Council discussion? Salih: I really think this is, yeah, we miss...we're going to miss Slumberland (laughs) you know. I...I like the store and I wish if they still will be in Iowa City, but uh, still they are not far away. Uh, I really like the good use of the space, which is the self-storing, that's amazing. It needed in Iowa City. I know a lot people have to go like somewhere else in another city to use their storage, but this is good that we have this self-storage here and that, uh, the space for like kind of small businesses and restaurant will be amazing to add to that area of the city, and I like the parking lot in front of the, you know, the building, where people can easy go there and park and you know we're going to have a lot traffic to go to that side of the city, which is...I was really looking forward to see some like kind of businesses, especially small businesses, to grow there. Yeah, I will be supporting this project. Thomas: Yeah, I find this kind of an interesting evolution in the description of how it came to arrive at this proposal, uh, and how it had initially been self-storage and then... through suggestions, uh, developed this concept of kind of what I would almost think of as like a liner building that you might have around a parking garage or something of that sort. Um, kind of right-sizing the retail in a way. So I'm...I'm happy to support it. It seems like it will...serve a functional purpose, but also I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 22 think try to maintain the notion of this retail environment that's attractive, uh, in a more people-friendly, uh, retail sense. Bergus: Yeah, I...I agree. I think requiring that first 30 feet to be, um, not the storage use will help incentivize those smaller commercial spaces, which we know are needed, and very excited for this particular project that you've described, and I hope that others who might take advantage of this opportunity will consider the... model that I think was articulated to Planning and Zoning, which is that the self- storage can actually help subsidize the units in the front, making sure that those rents can be more affordable. Thank you for that. Taylor: I have to say I'm...I'm impressed with the, uh, speed with which this project has evolved. Uh, it's always sad to see empty storefronts for a length of time, but it... it seems like Slumberland just closed not that long ago and...and we're already in the planning stage of putting something in this building and, uh, with a very attractive front facade with a, uh, creative use of that with restaurants and other such items, so I'm impressed. Teague: All right. Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 23 10. FY2022 Budget Amendment—Resolution Amending the Current Budget for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2022. 1. Public Hearing Teague: I'm going to open the public hearing. (bangs gavel) And we're going to welcome our staff! Fleagle: Jacklyn Fleagle, Budget and Compliance Officer. Um, this is the first budget amendment for fiscal year 2022. Uh, first a little bit of background. The original budget for FY22 was approved in March...was approved on March 16 of 2021. It runs through July 1 of 2021 to June 30 of 2022. City policy allows for amendments in the following situations: emergent situations, transfers from contingencies, expenditures with off-setting revenues or fund balance, carry over of prior year budget ability. Um, you can amend per State code any time during the fiscal year, other than the last 30 days. So, not in May...yeah, not in May...and June. Um, Iowa City averages three amendments per fiscal year, typically early fall, the spring of the following year, and then early summer. Next plan amendment coincides with the fiscal year 2023 budget process, which would be then approved in March. A quick overview. This amendments includes carry- forward requests from the 2021 budget that were not spent, submitted by departments and reviewed by the City Manager's office and the Finance department. Budget policy is that carry-forwards must be over$5,000, or 1% of the division's budget minimum. Uh, capital improvement project budget carry- forwards as well, uh, usually CIP aligns more with the calendar year, compared to a fiscal year, and...as well as includes multi-year projects. A few other small amendment items are included as well. Uh...overall, revenues were increased, uh, for intergovernmental revenues, about 13.5 million, majority of this coming from State and Federal grants on CIP carry-forwards. Uh, next largest increase was in other financing sources for the sale of UniverCity and South District homes. Additionally miscellaneous was for 195,000 and this is also for carry-forwards for CIP funding. On the expenditure side, the program level governmental, uh, capital projects increased by 35.8 million, uh, major CIP in here, uh, would include the American Legion Road, Melrose Avenue improvements, and Benton Street rehab. Uh, business type enterprise program level increased by just over 14 million, primarily due to CIP there as well, including Scott Boulevard trunk sewer This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 24 and annual sewer projects, amongst others. Uh, additionally community and economic development,just over three million, uh, increase, primarily for carry- forwards for CDBG and Home, UniverCity, and South District home programs. In conclusion, this is the first amendment, like I mentioned, for fiscal year 22. Overall, the total impact to fund balance is a decrease of 40.7 million. Uh, this is covered through excess in fund balances and bonds (mumbled) property tax levies. Any questions? Teague: Hearing none. Thank you! All right! Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please, uh, come forth. We ask that you state your name and your address please. Noah: My name is Noah. Um, my address is 410 E. Washington Street. Um, and uh, I'd like to say you should have an amendment to defund ICPD, since it is an emergency that they are causing more harm in our community than good. And we spend 25 million on cops and 600,000 on social services and health, and I think that's very illuminating where our priorities are, as the City is to brutalize and harass people rather than helping people and promoting health (mumbled) all around health for folks. That's it. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, I'm going to close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) Could I get a motion to approve? 2. Consider a Resolution Mims: So moved. Salih: Second. Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih, and Council discussion? Roll call...oh! Mims: No, I...thanks! I was just going to say, you know, I think Jacklyn did a good job, but for the public, this is a pretty routine thing that we do this time of year, every year, because as she said, so many of our revenues and expenditures don't match up with the physical year that ends on June 30`h. A lot of our capital improvement projects flow from one physical year into another, so it's not adding money to the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 25 budget. It's...really it's not deleting. It's really just moving things from one year to the next, that didn't get completed in the previous year, is really the nuts and bolts of this. Salih: Uh huh. Teague: Hearing nothing else, roll call please. Motion passes 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 26 11. TRC Preliminary Budget—Resolution approving the preliminary operational budget for the Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission that runs from July of 2021 through December of 2021. Teague: Could I get a motion to approve? Mims: So moved, Mims. Weiner: Second, Weiner. Teague: All right,would anyone from the public like to address this topic...oh! Fruin: Mayor, may I, uh,just do a brief introduction to this? Teague: Sure! Fruin: Um, this item has been deferred from your last couple of agendas, uh, late July and then your August 17`h meeting as well. I just want to call your attention that at last Thursday's, uh,TRC meeting, and that happened after your packet went out, um, the commission forwarded a recommendation that the Council approve a one-item budget, that would be a budget for the facilitator expense only, uh,just under$200,000, and then, uh, their plan would be to return to you at a later date with the rest of the budget, with the hopes that the facilitator, uh, that they are hoping to engage could help them craft that budget proposal, uh, or redraft it before it comes back to you. So again, the recommendation from TRC last Thursday is, uh, for a one-item budget at this time, and that is the facilitator expense. Teague: Thank you, Geoff. Mims: So can we simply amend this motion to...accept their recommendation? Fruin: Yes, I forgot to (laughs) I forgot to add that important piece. Um, we have anticipated that that might come up and so the City Attorney is...is prepared to kind of walk you through a amended resolution if you want to go down that path. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 27 Goers: Shall I, Mayor? Teague: Yes, please. Goers: Uh, so as Geoff said, anticipating that a little bit. The original resolution, uh, anticipated a more complete budget that ended with the title that says that runs from July of 2021 through December of 2021. It's my understanding, having scanned the proposal for the facilitator aspect of their budget, that will not end in December of this year. It would be a longer contract than that. So I would, uh, propose that, if it meets with Council's approval, to just eliminate that last part of...of the sentence. Just have the title end with commission, um, budget for the Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and I've prepared a kind of strike- through that I'll give to you, Mr. Mayor, when you're done, along with a clean version, um, but I thought I would read through for the benefit of the other Council Members first. Uh, the other suggestion I had was in the third whereas clause, uh, in...to talk, or to add approved the attached itemized budget proposal for a facilitator, and eliminating this preliminary budget submission and referencing its meeting on September 2"d, um, and making it by a vote of 7-1, which is what the vote was on...on Thursday, instead of 8-0, which is what it was originally. Um, finally on the now therefore language, um, having it approve the itemized budget proposal, instead of preliminary budget, uh, for the Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission, attached hereto, and again striking that language about running from, uh, July 2021 through December of 2021. And to be clear, it's my understanding that the intention of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was to, uh, get Council's approval, uh, for the facilitator at tonight's meeting, and then if they receive that, negotiate the contract with the, uh, facilitator, and if they're able to do that, bring it back to Council because that would require Council's approval, uh, and then utilize the, uh, facilitator to assist them in filling out the remainder of their budget and then come back at a later date, uh, to present that to you, and then of course moving forward with the remainder of their work. (mumbled) Mr. Mayor, give you these two versions and then I'm happy to answer any questions you folks may have. Teague: Any questions...on this part before we... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 28 Salih: Yes, my question is...(talking in background) Are we...you know I get confused now. My question is, are we approving the budget? Or the specific facilitator? Are we approving the budget for facilitator to be...like 190...almost 200,000 or... (mumbled) budget and maybe, or we are approving this specific facilitator? Goers: No, not approving the specific facilitator. Just budget authority for that one line item for their budget. Uh, and just under$198,000. They can't move forward and negotiate, or at least approve, certainly a contract, unless they have the budgetary authority to do that. Uh, I assume that that's why they submitted just this one line item, uh, at their meeting and not the whole budget, cause again, I think they want the assistance of the facilitator in kind of determining what the remainder of their budget should be. So you are not approving, uh, this, um, the proposed vendor, the consultant, at this point. That will come before you at a subsequent meeting. I don't know if they'll be able to do that as quickly as next meeting. That might require a little more time. That kind of depends on how those discussions go. But that will come to you at a later meeting. Salih: Okay. (mumbled) Thank you. Goers: Sure! Teague: Any other questions for staff? Mims: I'd like to amend the resolution as described by the City Attorney. Weiner: Second. Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Weiner. All in fa...um, roll call please? I'm sorry! (laughs) We're...we haven't even done public yet (laughs) Salih: ...just amending. Teague: We just amended it. Sorry about that (both talking) Salih: (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 29 Teague: Yes. So now we're going to have public discussion, unless there's more...we'll come back to Council discussion. All right, anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, um, please come to the podium, and you'll have three minutes. Yep! Welcome, I don't know if you signed your name (both talking) Tucker: I did! Teague: Thank you! Tucker: And I...and I did for the first half hour, but it seemed to me that it was more important for all of them to speak. It was very powerful to hear all of them at once. Teague: Thank you. Tucker: And so, um, I'm Annie Tucker and I live at 91 Prairie Hill Lane, and...52246, Iowa City. Can you hear me? I just have this thing we can't hear each other with masks. Maybe it's just me! (talking in background) Great, thanks, good to see you! Um, so...I first...I first want to thank you for having the courage to take a stand against systemic inequity by founding the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. I've been to their meetings multiple times. I was there the night that the then-leadership was voted down, and that was a hard meeting. It was a very long and hard meeting. I've been to at least four or five or more of their meetings over the summer, and...including the last two meetings, which were face-to-face. And the...I'll tell you that I...I go to those meetings because I think the issues are essential to be dealt with at this time in this country, but also in this community. Right? We all have some privilege that other people don't have. And how will we level the playing field? One way we'll do it is by hearing from people, like we did tonight, people telling their stories, and so that's part of the job of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and to me...another reason I go is because I see how they handle and deliberate on issues. They listen, they're very intentional. They...actually people on the commission will have opposing views, and they just hear that and the conversation goes on and often that concern is integrated into the thinking. They're very respectful of the people who come to them, like when they had the folks, a lot of folks, urn, Excluded Workers that were brought to them in a Zoom meeting by the Catholic Worker House. It was a really This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 30 moving conversation—their interaction with them and each other about those issues. So if you want...if you haven't been to one of their meetings, I really encourage you to go, because they are doing some very powerful work that is really critical, and you guys set that in motion. So that courage, it's tough courage, but I encourage you to bring that to everything you're thinking about, because how will things shift? You know, it's not the easiest shift to take in this time in...in the world, but you're...this shift is yours and I feel like you've done a good job and the...the consultants they've chosen, I listened to the...to the, um, interview and I find them really remarkable...remarkable experience. Thanks! Teague: Thank you (both talking) Tucker: I could go on but I won't. Teague: Thank you. Tucker: Cause I can't. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, Council discussion? Taylor: Obviously the RFP for this particular group especially came back a little bit higher than what we expected would...would be the cost for this, but it's been obvious I think from the beginning, already a year ago now, uh, last September, this group has needed help with direction and clarity, uh, and I think it would be well worth the cost of any group that could help them out, uh, and this group seems to have experience and qualifications, uh, that could help them move forward in achieving their goals and...and have some strategic direction, uh, in achieving that and I think, uh, expedite it as soon as we can so that they can get moving. Bergus: I agree, and I think, um, while we're not approving a particular contract with the vendor this evening, um, having had the opportunity to watch the meeting and the presentation from Kearns and West, it's really inspiring to imagine the level of expertise it could bring if we're able to engage, uh, that firm, um, to assist our TRC, bringing national and international expertise in conflict resolution and truth This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 31 and reconciliation, that I just think building that capacity in Iowa City through this City commission is a tremendous, tremendous opportunity, and I know I've spoke with a couple of you, but um, I again want to note that in our budget amendment just now we carried forward that million dollars that we committed to allocate towards Black Lives Matter and related, um, efforts to address systemic racism in our community and I think spending just under $200,000 on this is very, very well worth it. Thomas: Well I, in reading the proposal, it certainly, uh, addressed many of the comments and concerns that I had expressed at our previous meetings, uh, so I think it's very promising, um, very promising process that I see being considered there. Uh...I do hope that, um...the...the team, uh, that part of the negotiation might include, uh, local participation, you know, it's...it's not...there's, uh, I...I hope we can incorporate more local participation in the team, if...if that's possible. Um, I mean I...I understand it's a kind of unique, uh, set of skills that this consultant team brings to the...to the process. Um, at the same time it certainly would be helpful to have more local participation, if that can be negotiated. Weiner: I think this is the...this is the group that I wish had pitched up six months ago. Um, and if...in my view if we want, uh, if it's our goal for the...that the TRC, um, succeed, um, that they have the expertise and the...and basically all the staffing that they really need for this to function well with...with people who have done the equivalent of TRCs, not all around this country as well as around the world. Um, this is...this is the money that we need to spend...to get this done, um, and I believe that we...there are some Iowa City links. I believe we could help them create more. Um, there are some people involved with this group who've been... who've known about the, our TRC since its very inception, uh, and...um...so I...I will vote in favor of this. Teague: Any other comments? Salih: For me, I think...you know, as a black person and as somebody who's really care about Black Life Matter, as a community organizer and...who reach out to a lot black in the community and engage with a lot of minority, I just believe that...for this like particular people to work from distance...is not going to work. (mumbled) like this amount of money is spending, even though as you said it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 32 come like higher than what...as, like others said, it come like higher than what expected for the facilitator, but I don't mind spending this amount of money, making sure the facilitator is local, who really engaging with our people. I don't know, maybe there is some work they can do it from distance. I heard the interview, from the beginning to the end. I don't think they really have (mumbled) Iowa City, or they know the minority in Iowa City. I just have hard time imagining how those people will reach out to our...black people! I know how our people need to be reach! They need somebody in person. They need somebody here! They need all this kind of thing. I'm not against the money, like 200,000 is nothing to spend to find like...for Black Life Matter. But I really think working from distant...spending all this money outside, not locally? There is many firm here locally. They can do that, and I...I just believe that they didn't have the chance even to apply for this opportunity. That's why only one person, uh, you know, one firm apply. I just believe...again, I don't mind spending that much, even more, but I want to make sure this is would do what we need out of this TRC. I just have hard time believing this (mumbled) they have experience, they have great things. The only connection they have is somebody who was in Iowa, like graduated from University of Iowa, and when that person has been asked what commission, he did like really join. It's nothing in Iowa City. I understand that University of Iowa is really like a....a part that we cannot like (mumbled) Iowa City but they still segregated from the community, because they are student, most of them coming from far away and leave, but the, you know, the part that also they have some like some kind of,uh, groups who really taking care of like focusing Black Life Matter, at the University, but I don't hear (mumbled) that he was part of those group one day, so I can say, oh, you have the connection. I just have hard time like really, uh,just believing those people will do that, because...even (mumbled) approving this, like Bergus said, we are not approving the people right now, but everybody start talking about them. That's why I have to talk about it as well. Uh, I really torn. I don't know. I don't mind for the budget but it still...I, uh, I think there is many, many project that the City will advertise it and everybody will bid on it, like projects, and sometime they don't like the bid and they advertise it again! I really wish to see if we can...if the TRC can advertise it again and maybe you going to find people locally or...for this firm to just give them a specific task that they can do from far away, but...part of this money have to go to something here locally, so we can see this. That's all I can say. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 33 Weiner: There's a lot of basic work that needs to be done for organization...I didn't expect that they were, they would themselves be doing...the ones doing the research. I expect that assuming if they were hired in the end and we approved their contract in the end, um, they would be...that they would be the ones largely helping the current commission put together a work plan and all...and...and do all the other pieces of it, that they don't have the expertise to do. Not that they would be (both talking) Salih: ...we going to spend additional money to the 200 because their proposal is 200,000, almost 200. That means this budget will be like even more. They will do their work from far...from distance for 200. But they will help hire another people to go around and do the work on the ground, which is...no, I...I just believe this is going to (mumbled). We giving like 200,000 to spend not locally and we...we going to hire people in addition. That means we're not talking about 200,000 for the...we talking about more maybe, if that's the case, if they going to hire...unless they will say, oh, we going to hire certain local firm where they will do the job on the ground with the same budget. That's something else. But I don't know. Weiner: Yeah, I'm not sure...with...I'm not sure that I understand...why that would be the case. Um, because...what I read in the proposal is essentially reorganizing the TRC, so that they would have a different kind of schedule, so that they have...so that they would be doing different, sort of different kinds of outreach. So they're...they're sort of, I mean I hear...I definitely hear your concerns, but I don't...I personally don't see them as, um, as being...it's...in the end it's going to be the...the much better organized TRC itself that would be doing most...most of the outreach, but, um, I, you know, I'm going to have to leave in a minute. I should have left 20 minutes ago. Teague: Oh, sorry! I...so I think people do know I have challenges, um...with our current TRC, and I want to make sure that, um, I at least articulate, um, to a certain degree what those challenges are. I think ultimately...this whole opportunity that we have is to make sure that we end systemic racism within our community. And right now we have people within the BIPOC community, specifically, the black community where there's division. Um, I won't go into all of that tonight, but This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 34 that does grieve me. Um, so when I...when I see this budget, I...I see...the basic unification that needs to happen hasn't taken place. I also have heard, and it was on the, um, in the last meeting, where, you know, at least...and I'll say it specifically, the Chair says that he wanted to be candid and that he doesn't trust this Council. And I feel like that...is...you know, some of those were shared here by some of the commissions. I...what they shared was one individual, uh, said that the Council set them up for failure. Now, I do believe that, you know, having the right make-up of the facilitator team would be very successful. So the $197, uh, $197,000 I think, you know, that for me isn't the issue. Urn, I personally do agree that...local opportunity to be a part of this facilitator, or this team, urn, needs to take place. I think I said this, urn, at the last meeting where, um, and it was really, I think, Councilor Thomas that brought it to light what was really missing. It wasn't really the facilitator, it was more of a project...project manager that was missing, and I think as we are, you know, continuing to (laughs) urn, relearn how we give direction to the TRC or help them along in the process. I also feel like right now is an opportunity and I know we want urgency, we want,um...you know, to move, you know, as quick as possible, uh, to get to some of the work within the TRC, and I understand this might be for some backpaddling, but I...the unification and the, um...just the basic of bringing people together is super important for me. What I will say is, you know, this isn't, you know, approving the vendor. It's not...you know, if it's not approving the vendor, then at least for me what I would say is, if...if this Council would consider, um, I don't know that this amount of money...I think we all agree with this amount of money, and whether we say yes to this amount of money or not. Um, I would like for this Council to consider if we ask, um, for, you know, different proposals from the community to come forth. We...this went out and we had one applicant. Uh, we have very highly skilled individuals within this community that I know can be a part of this process. Urn, we still have, outside of this 197, a lot of work, which if it goes...if we have to spend the whole million on people being a part of this and that seems like the right thing to do, then this Council ultimately will be asked to make that judgment call or asked to vote on that, but I do believe that...in hopes of, you know, garnering more, um, unification, um, within our community, uh, opportunity for...and I know this may not, you know, um...bring for some...thoughts that, you know, we are in, um, I guess we're kind of backpaddling or whatever but...I would...I would really like Council to consider if...if this was approved, we just give some direction that there is, uh, at least another This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 35 opportunity to have another people apply, but I think the 197 is...I mean, there's more cost to this, and that...and that's, you know, we'll be able to vote on that when it comes before us, but I...I really believe that...we need to, and I said this before, um (laughs) kind of just reimagine some...something with this TRC. I...the...the...the unification is a major issue for me, and the continuation of, urn, this Council, um, being seen, urn, in a negative light, and I understand. We...we've been here long enough to know that we're not always going to be, um, judged by our character or our intentions, and that's okay. I mean it's a part of the role, I'm used to it now. Um, but I...I just believe that this should not...um, I don't know. I...I feel like we really should open it up for more people to come and apply. And I'll leave it at that. Mims: Are you going to say something, Janice? Weiner: I don't know what else to say at this point. Because the...to me the question is do we want this to succeed or not at this point. If we want it to succeed, they need to have really...they need to have robust support, um, which Stefanie Bowers has worked really hard, but she is one person, without...without having run a TRC before. It's simply not the...the level of support that an organization like this needs. Um, I...I fully believe they would reach out to other people. I believe that there's...isn't there a link with Aaron Page, um, at the Human Right...Human Rights Center there as well, but they, um...we definitely have qualified people in this city. I'm just sort of...when I look at this, after all this time, after almost a year, I look and say, okay, we have an opportunity now for...for people with enormous...with enormous experience who can help...who can help reach out to whoever the people, and help heal the rifts that (mumbled) Mr. Mayor, you rightly noted exist, um, both on the commission and various parts of the community in the city, um, and that needs to be a part of their remit, if they were...if they were to be hired. Uh, but the...by sort of not allowing, giving them the ability to move forward...anyway to me that's sort of the decision that we're making. Salih: I don't think we are here not to give them the opportunity to move forward. You just said two important thing that you mention—Aaron Page, you mentioned Stefanie, because you know them and (mumbled) We saw their work, we know that they going to do good things, cause they are local. We know them. And I think if...that what we want to see. I...I just...I don't know how...even if they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 36 come and just said all this beautiful word, and experience, and they have (mumbled) still (mumbled) person, as somebody who really have experience with how...like black community and people of colors, how their community works when it come to this, I really think we need something local. I, as I said, I'm going to say it again. I don't mind if they can give them some of the work, and some of the work...like some other work will be like...certain work from distance, and certain work for people locally. That's why I will encourage....I don't...I'm not going to support budget itself. I'm just going to...we need more people to be locally, in the ground. Mims: I would say I think we've all known from June of last year that we were going down, um, a path that we felt was really important for this community and absolutely necessary for this community, and also very challenging for this community. Um, I don't think it's unusual, um, what we're seeing in this community that the black part of our community is not necessarily unified in how they look at things. I think to assume that they would be is really naive, I mean... you've got unique individuals in every segment of the community. I think we also identified, and if you look back at the history of the TRC since we started, urn, some of the incredible challenges that they've faced, and I think we've all identified the fact that they need assistance, um, you know, we've thrown...we've thrown together a group of people that don't necessarily have experience of running a commission. Um, they were all new at the beginning. We ended up adding other new people afterwards. It wasn't like we do with our normal commissions, where you have a commission's been in place and you add one or two new people at a time. It was just totally different, trying to get their feet on the ground and figure out how to move forward. As they have indicated in their ...in their public comments and in their meetings with us, the work they are doing is very hard, and it is very different than a lot of other commissions, and so I think the assistance that they need is very specific to the work that they are doing, and they did an RFP and we got one response and they feel good about the response that they got, and the conversations and interviews that they had, um, and so I am supportive of moving forward with this budget piece tonight, um, as has been mentioned several times, this is not the approval of the actual vendor. Um, I don't know if we even legally, uh, could continue to accept other applicants at this point. I'm not sure what the details on that are (mumbled) in terms of a deadline. Um...but I think to stop this or move this...or slow this down...would just This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 37 absolutely undermine any confidence that the TRC or the public has that this Council is actually serious about the TRC being successful. Urn...! agree that it will be helpful in certain aspects of this to have...definitely have people on the ground here, doing work, and as I read through this and look at this, I think that will happen, and certainly as...as they are negotiating the details of the agreement, urn, you know, staff can be looking at what they think as well with that is...is essential and part of that agreement. So I am totally supportive of moving forward on this tonight, fully understanding that we will have another budget recommendation corning from the TRC and we don't know right now how much that will be. I think part of that will be dictated by the actual agreement that is reached, if it is, with this vendor, in terms of what they're doing and then what additional support would be outside. But for any...lack of trust, disagreement between the TRC and the Council or within the black community, this is what the TRC has brought us, after an RFP and after a very robust presentation and I feel that it's really important that we continue to move this forward and show some trust in the TRC. So I will be supporting this. Thomas: This is a very kind of unique process, and you know, in the work I did professionally, sometimes...uh...you know, it's difficult to find any more than one, in this case, um, vendor who is capable of managing the project, but...so in that sense I'm not surprised, but I...I do feel that what the...what the consultant will bring is a framework in which the community will provide the picture. So the community will come forward in this process, through that framework, and in that sense, the community will be represented. It is our...truth and reconciliation. That will be the picture, but what's been missing has been the framework in which that discussion could take place. So I...I do feel...it is, especially given the history thus far, that we do need to move forward. At least I'm confident that it, uh, its success depends on this decision, um, and I...I do feel in the end, the picture will be of the community that is provided, through that framework.... which is why we...why we...we wrote the ordinance and we're pursuing a truth and reconciliation. Taylor: I agree, urn, with Councilor Thomas and although I appreciate Mazahir's comments about, uh, utilizing local persons, I mean we always talk shop local and utilize local people, uh, this particular group, although we're not looking at hiring them as such, an outside group, uh, particularly this one has experience in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 38 outreach and engagement, and I think as Councilor, uh, Thomas said, that will be to members of the community, and this group has the experience in actual truth and reconciliation commissions, and I don't know that we can say that there are that many individuals in the community as such that have that particular experience that would be necessary to help the TRC, uh, move forward from this point. Teague: I'll make one last comment. Um...I think we...and...and again, I know that we went forth with this with full intentions and I still believe that the goals of the TRC is...dead on. That's what we want to happen. Um, on a lot of levels we didn't begin with the end in mind (laughs) um...when, you know, this consultant, um, we kind of heard, when we had the joint meeting with the commissioners, that it was more robust, it was a lot of services. Um, and as I began to hear a lot of things coming from this, uh, from the vendor, of what they potentially could do. Um, that's...my mind went to this really is the...somewhat of the framework that this Council should have had, um, should have had in the beginning, or should have now, um, and just the whole make-up of the TRC, not saying that we would of, um, selected them as a facilitator, but what all goes into a TRC? We didn't have that information, and I understand, um...you know, we're at this point now, but when I heard the presentation, my mind went to still this, you know, somewhat should be under (mumbled) make sure that...we have some, you know, thoughts and input as to, um, you know, what does a TRC mean, cause that's, I mean, that's what they're doing. Uh, what all...what all does it involve and entail. Um...you know, when I looked at all of the line items that each one of the people a part of this team will be doing, um, it was overwhelming on one level, as far as what they were doing, but I'm not exactly sure, um, you know, if...if it is really consultant, um, type work or if it's, um....I saw the presentation, I read the material, and I still don't have a full sense of what they can do, but I guess, you know, I'm going to...I'll leave it at that and unification, we're not there and I...I just find it hard to move forth with this type of, uh...with this part of it. I know we're not approving the facilitator, but I really think that, um, there's a lot more work to be done and...moving forward with this is a little hard for me. Any other comments? Roll call please. Salih: I really don't know. I need time. You can move on. Come last (laughs) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 39 Teague: I don't know if people really understand how difficult...this is. Mims: This is a time to vote, not to continue discussion. Teague: Okay! I can take a minute if I desire. (pause) It is very hard, because you don't want to be (laughs) furthering any type of disturbance. We want to make sure we move forward as...as...as we can. I don't know. We're not approving the vendor. The 197...you know, for the work of...reconciliation, I...I can approve the 197, if that's...if that's what we're doing, is not approving the vendor, but ul...so I'll just say yes and I'll leave it at that. Motion passes 7-0. Weiner: Okay, I apologize but I need to leave. I needed to leave 40 minutes ago, but this was important enough to stay. Next time let's not...schedule a meeting during a major Jewish holiday. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 40 12. Friendship Street Traffic Calming—Resolution authorizing the installation of speed humps on Friendship Street, between Meadow Street and the bridge west of Upland Avenue. Teague: Could I get a motion to approve? Thomas: So moved, Thomas. Bergus: Second, Bergus. Teague: And we're going to have, um, comments by staff. Welcome! Ralston: Thank you. Good evening, uh, Mayor and Council. My name's Kent Ralston, Transportation Planner. Um, I have something I'm trying to pull up here, and I can see it, but you cannot. (mumbled) but we can...I can talk through it. So, um, before you this evening are the next three items. Uh, this as well as the next two are for traffic calming projects in and around the community, three different neighborhoods. Uh, it's been a little bit over a year, I believe, since we've talked about traffic calming, so I wanted to take just a quick minute to talk about what the policy is and...and how that works before we get into the resolutions themselves. Um, first and foremost the goal of the traffic calming program is to reduce excessive speeding and/or volumes, and participation in the program itself is initiated by the neighborhoods and not imposed by the City. That's important to know. Uh, there's five steps in the process and all three of the agenda, uh, items that you will consider have made it through all five steps. Uh, the first step is a petition for traffic calming, and to be valid, the petition must include signatures from no less than 50% of the households that would be affected. So on any given road segment, from point A to point B, we've got to get a petition from 50% or more of those households to be valid. Uh, and to qualify, uh, it needs to either be a local residential street or a collector street. Uh, the second step in the study, once we've received a valid petition, is for, uh, City staff to initiate a traffic study to measure the vehicle volumes and speeds over a 72-hour period, and we do that on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursdays because those are our typical traffic calming...or, excuse me, our typical, uh, traffic days. Um, if speeds and volumes meet the criteria for traffic calming, we then review the street section and propose a set of traffic calming measures that may be safely implemented, and we have This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 41 that discussion with an internal Traffic Calming Committee that we put together and that has representatives from Public Works, Engineering, Police, Fire, and Transit, if necessary. Uh, the thresholds to qualify for the traffic calming program are as follows. Volumes need to exceed 500 vehicles a day on a local street or 1,000 on a collector, and then what's more common is that the streets have, uh, speed, an 85th percentile speed, that will be 5-miles-per-hour over the posted speed limit, uh, to qualify. So if it's posted at 25, it's a residential street, you would then have to be at 30-mile-per-hour, or more, uh, in terms of 85`h percentile speeds. Uh, we then move on to step three, which is a neighborhood meeting. Um, we will review the traffic study with residents of the street and describe, uh, potential remedies, and those come out of the Traffic Calming Committee that I, uh, prefaced. Um, and the goal of the meeting is to determine whether the support for the neighborhood to pursue any of the measures that are proposed. So this is when the neighborhood has a chance to talk to staff, ask us questions about the program, the policy, or any of the remedies that we are proposing. Uh, it's also a good time for the neighborhood to learn, uh, what their neighbors think, uh, which is, I find, a really important tool, uh, as part of the traffic calming process. Uh, the step, excuse me, step four is the neighborhood survey, and this is kind of the crux of the traffic calming program. Uh, if we find at the neighborhood meeting that the neighborhood wants to move forward, uh, we then send out a mail-back survey card to each household along the affected section, um, and then to be...to be, to get to this point, you have to have a 50% response rate and then of the 50% of folks that respond, you have to have a 60% approval rate, and if you don't meet those thresholds, then staff does not put it on the agenda for your consideration. And then the last step, of course, is what we're doing this evening and, uh, City Council has the final say on whether or not we move forward with the, uh, the projects that are proposed. And I'm happy to answer any questions you have thus far,just about the program. Teague: Hearing no questions. Thank you. All right. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please come to the podium. There is a sign-in sheet, urn, on the side and we ask that you give your name and your address, and you can sign after you finish speaking, if that's okay. Welcome! Ross: Thank you very much. Uh, hey...um, first of all I, uh,just as a point of procedural, uh, you know, with four or five men and six or seven women here, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 42 it's hard to tell when somebody is actually speaking, uh, some of your voices modulate the same. It probably would be good if you raised your hand, uh, to indicate which...which Councilor or manager, uh, were speaking, cause it's confusing. Also, speaking up is really important. Uh, some of you like John has a very quiet manner. Uh, with a mask on it's...it's really hard. So this is...this is just for...for future. Anyway, regarding this issue, uh, traffic calming...traffic would really be a lot more calm if the City did other things that were broader, so they wouldn't have to do nit-picky things, like traffic calming. By that, I mean that you could increase the size and the number of bicycle lanes. You could discourage traffic by creating other space. Take for instance a two-lane, one-way street. If one lane were bicycle traffic, and the other lane were car traffic, instead of the bicycle getting five or four feet or three feet. All areas would do better in traffic. So you wouldn't have these areas where traffic is naturally going to collect, because people find on these roads now that the only way to travel is in fact by using a car. It doesn't feel safe to bike. Uh, we are in a global situation... where we cannot continue the way that we are continuing. We cannot make roads for transportation for cars. We're evaporating our, uh, our atmosphere. So traffic in itself, by comparison, is not that important, whether or not there's a thousand cars or 900 cars, this is very incremental. This is just looking for tiny things. But we can do a lot better by all the neighborhoods, and also by people who are working class, or even middle class, uh, who want to ride the bicycles, who don't want to get in a car. Uh, creating a situation where there is less traffic, by providing less places for cars to drive, more places for people to bike or walk. This is the solution. Thank you so much for all the good works that you folks are doing. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? And will you please sign in, Brandon. Thank you! Rauch: Point of clarification, are we talking about traffic calming in general terms, that the gentleman just presented on, or are we talking about the specifics situations that are listed on the agenda? Teague: It is what's on the agenda, Friendship Street traffic calming. Rauch: I'll wait my turn then. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 43 Teague: Okay! Welcome! And I wan to make sure that at least I address, this is the only item on here, um, unless you're talking about like Duck Creek, is that the one you're...okay. Goers: Kenneth Drive coming up as well. Teague: Okay, great! Welcome! Rietz: Um, my name is Karen Rietz and I live on, uh, at 948 Duck Creek Drive. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Teague: You're for Duck Creek Drive? (both talking) That's the next agenda item. Rietz: Okay! Teague: Okay. Anyone else want to speak on Friendship Street traffic calming? Welcome! Noah: Hello, I'm Noah. Um, I agree with the last speaker on that, uh, you know, having more pedestrian, bicycle friendly streets, and having like an actually decent public transportation system, which also helps (mumbled) need cars (mumbled) able to walk, and having affordable housing centered downtown (mumbled) more people can walk there too. That would be nice, and on the calming, uh, stop having cops enforce traffic laws. That's...how people get harmed, brutalized, killed, what have you, so stop them from doing that. We don't need (mumbled) enforcing traffic laws. Thanks. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address the Friendship Street calming, traffic calming? Hello! Ralston: Uh, Kent Ralston,Transportation Planner again. I just wanted to mention that the resolution is to authorize the installation of speed humps on Friendship Street, between Meadow Street and the bridge west of Upland. Uh, the residents of Friendship Street have successfully completed the steps that I outlined previously, and on July 7th a survey was sent to residents of Friendship Street in order to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 44 measure support for the proposed speed humps, uh, and in all,just a little bit over 60% of the (mumbled) designated section of Friendship Street did respond, and of those households that responded, about 82, uh, 82.6% indicated support, so they did meet the, uh, the thresholds necessary. Teague: Thank you. Mims: Kent, can I ask you a question? I should have asked you sooner. And...and this kind of relates to all three, but to me it's also important on this one, okay, because I feel like we need some consistency tonight in what we do. Urn, and there were, I think, some members of the public against each of these three, or at least each of the first two. Ralston: Sure! Mims: One of the things that we heard, urn, I think in a lot of the correspondence was about our policy and procedures, how we do that, who we survey, the fact that we basically, I believe, only survey the people on the street. I mean, I heard this from people when we did Hickory Trail also, that live like on Bluffwood and some of those other side streets, that were frustrated that they didn't get an opportunity to have any input when they drive on those streets all the time, and in many cases have no choice because they're a cul-de-sac off from that main street. So I guess...I guess I have a question to you in terms of...from your professional experience, do you think we should be looking at changing the way we do some of that, and potentially also engaging Council in some of that discussion, maybe before we either vote or would potentially defer any of these, so that we are consistent in that on all three. I would hate to...I'd hate to pass one of these and then we go to another, and simply because it had more negative comments about it, we choose to defer that, when really...the underlying reason for the deferral would potentially be the same for all of them. So that's kind of why I'm bringing it up at this point, rather than waiting till we get to a next one. So... Ralston: So I'll be the first to say the process isn't perfect, uh, no process is, but what we do is we post a...like a real estate sign, uh, like we do with Planning and Zoning matters and that sort of thing in the right-of-way, um, and those have been up for about three weeks. So we actually notify the neighborhood that there'll be a City This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 45 Council meeting, um, and those signs stay up for anywhere between, you know, three weeks and five weeks, uh, depending on how much time we have. So that is really, uh, if the folks weren't involved in the neighborhood meeting, or received a survey, they would have found out either through conversation with their neighborhood or from actually seeing those signs. So I guess to answer your question, urn, I think if you are a regular on that street, whether you're riding your bike, walking, or driving, you would have seen the signs, and then that way you are fairly well notified. Urn, again, it's not a...it's not a perfect system, but I think just by the way that folks wrote to you all, um, it is working, you know, pro...pro and con. Mims: Right, and I think the notification piece, like you say, with the number of public comments we've gotten, that...I guess the piece that I'm struggling with a bit is the actual process itself. You have brought to Council a number of times over the year, I've been here 12 years, and we've reviewed and talked about this and have either not changed it at all or made very minor tweaks to it. And...and I guess I'm interested in what you have to say, and Council is....is there a legitimate reason to potentially expand...the group of people who actually get to respon...who actually receive the surveys and get to respond to those surveys? Right now it is only the people on maybe a relatively short, designated part of a street, and so I'm just trying to understand this little better, to feel like I'm making a better decision for all involved. Fruin: Yeah, if I could jump in, cause we have...it seems like every couple of years we review the traffic calming guidelines and we do make some tweaks, and I think the...the distinction that's come up in the past is, urn, the section of street that... that is the focus of the...of the speed humps is...is, um...the reason that they're surveyed and it's not a greater area is because they...they have a different impact, right? It's not just `I drive down this street, and thus I'm inconvenienced,' or urn, you know, um...I guess just inconvenienced by the bumps, but maybe it's my kids play in the front yard and they're...and they're speeding or there's a crosswalk, you know, near my house where I try to get to the park across the street. So generally they...they experience the street differently than some of the feeder streets that might hit that, and that's why we focus it in, um, the survey on that aspect. If you broaden it out to a bigger neighborhood, that would be fine. I would say you'll see far less successful applications at that point, because those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 46 that simply drive down that street and don't experience it as a pedestrian or as a property owner/renter, urn, are going to have much different views and oftentimes not going to be supportive. So it would make it much more difficult to expand (mumbled) Ralston: Yeah, Geoff's exactly right, and that's been the conversation we've had for years, is just...is it...is it fair to survey folks that aren't being affected by those speeds. You know, it's always...we always think of it as if, you know, you have your kids and your family in the front yard and you're the one that's experiencing, you know, that....those excessive speeds and it...it affects your quality of life. Should the neighbors down the street that may be the ones that are actually speeding, um, get that same vote. So that's been the conversation in the past. Thomas:. Yeah....yeah, I agree. I think unfortunately there's a perception that this is simply about speeds, and that's the measure that we're looking at, but it has an impact on, you know, as Kent was just saying, the quality of life of those who actually live on that street. Uh, the sound levels go up, the higher the speeds; the use of the front yard space is impacted as the speeds go up. So there...there are all kinds of things...triggered by higher speeds that really impact the people living right along that street...more so than people who just simply use it to get out of the neighborhood. Taylor: I'd just like to say that I think that there are many, many streets in Iowa City that have speeders, and I do have concerns with the line of thinking that, uh, only the persons on that street are affected, because I think there's that domino effect. I think the neighboring streets should be surveyed on this, because what's going to possibly happen, and we heard in some of our letters that we got, was that, uh, they're going to get, um, traffic diverted through their streets. So they are in the long run going to be affected by it, and I think that is a concern. I think it would be a great practice to include residents. It wouldn't need to be the entire, apparently, street, but maybe at least that first block or so, the neighbors of that street, because they are affected in the long run, and so I think it would be a good...good practice, uh, to hear from them also, cause they are also affected, but the other thing I wanted to mention was, and I think this was in some of our emails too, that, uh, couldn't we look at some other methods. I know the, urn, speed limit flashing light on Dubuque Street seems to have been very effective, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 47 and maybe it's less expensive than putting these speed humps in every so often, every block or so, and...and couldn't we look at that as an option first. Salih: I just want to ask you, you mentioned something about threshold for the Friendship Street. Did you said you met the threshold or it did not? I...I didn't get that. Ralston: Yes, they met all the required thresholds. That's correct. Salih: Okay. Bergus: It wouldn't be in front of us tonight if they hadn't, right? Ralston: Correct, yeah. Yes, staff doesn't make judgments on these. If they meet the thresholds, then they will come before Council. That's right. Yeah, it's very black and white for us, and in fact, um, we have had some...we have had some in the past that will come in at a tenth below, you know, the required threshold. So if the response rate has to be 50% and it comes back at 49.5, we...we won't bring it to Council,just because, you know, where do you stop? It's just one of those things where you have to just kind of draw that line and...and make that judgment. Salih: And, Geoff, when did you need this by? Like is this something urgent? Fruin: Um, if you needed more time or you wanted to deliberate more, you can defer it, um, what we typically do is, uh, try to group a few of these together before we go out and we bid the projects, so we don't bid these individually and, Kent, I don't know where things stand on the next bid. Would this be the next group to be bid out probably (both talking) Ralston: Right, so...so that's why we're bringing it to you, three of these tonight, and that's not unusual for us to kind of package these up, bring them to you, um, assuming they passed, then the Engineering group can actually put those all out for bid at the same time, urn, and try and get those in the next construction season is kind of the timeline. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 48 Salih: Do you think if we, if you reach out to the neighborhood...if we defer it and we reach out to the neighborhood and see like if there is fund, uh, this is going to take like really from the line that you want it by or you can still do that? Ralston: You know, I think...I think, like Geoff mentioned, I don't think there's a....a real urgency to this. I think in the next couple two or three months would be good, just so we can make sure we meet our timelines in the spring, um, but I will say that I think if you open it up to the larger neighborhood, uh, this is just my opinion, but I would say that the vast majority of these would fail. Um, it's not unusual that most of the negative comments actually come from the folks that don't live on the affected portion of the street, um, and I think that's just...I think that's just the way it's been. Salih: Uh, I don't know how you do this, but...can we do like, I don't know, but can we do something like giving...more (mumbled) to the neighboringhood and...the people who live in the street and let's (mumbled) and just try to make the percentage of the...I don't know, but something like that, like...if there is a way that we can change the system. And it's also this is...we have first to change the way that we conduct this or do this first, and after that we can start it again or this is...we can just defer it and...asking the neighborhood. Mims: To me we either change...we either...if we're going to defer it, then it would be to us, I would think, have a discussion with staff about how we change the process. To me we can't just go out and start arbitrarily interviewing or getting surveys from other people, if we haven't actually changed the process. Otherwise we're not being fair to people across the community. So I'm...just wanted to raise that because we had so many people on the Duck Creek one. I...I would have one other question, and that is the...picture that was in here, speed humps versus speed bumps. Are most of the speed humps that are put in now do not go across the entire street? They are...I don't know, this says like 10 to 12-feet wide or something, because they're very different what's on...what's on Kimball Road, I think are old ones, that I think maybe are wider and higher and kind of steeper... Ralston: Yep! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 49 Mims: ...if you will, versus the ones that are on...as you go east on Jefferson and then (both talking) uh, is Glendale? Ralston: Glendale, yep, correct. Mims: Those are very different. Ralston: Yeah. So...so we prefer the kind that stretch all the way across the street, urn, however, we put in what we call modified speed humps. In all three of these that will come before you tonight are...would be the modified sort, and those are like the ones on Glendale, and there's actually a photo of it in your...in your packet. The reason for that is when we meet with our Traffic Calming Committee, our internal committee, uh, the Fire department, if they believe they have emergency access issues or...it doesn't quite...they have difficulty basically reaching that neighborhood, they will ask us to use the modified speed humps, because the stance of their vehicles is wide enough that they can essentially pass over them, more or less unfettered, where a private vehicle cannot, because your wheel base is shorter so you actually hit the hump itself. So...so these would be the modified sort. Mims: Okay. Ralston: We would really only like to use these in cases where the Fire department says, you know, it's one of the harder...neighborhoods to access or it's further from the fire station and so on. Mims: And I would say for me, having...I drive over the Kimball ones fairly often, and you slow down to about 10-miles-an-hour(laughs) to go over those, and I just happen to be on Glendale this past weekend and driving over those and noticing that significant difference. Ralston: Yeah. Mims: But still in my car, I wouldn't go much over 25 to 27-miles-an-hour going over those. So the speed limit's 25. I'm not going to be going 30, 35-miles-an-hour over those. I mean, and I was just over those this weekend. So that also makes This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 50 me feel better about going ahead with this now, is that these would be the modified ones, in that I think they're going to slow people down, but when people talk about having to...that it really disrupts their...their travel, I don't think these modified ones do. Ralston: Yeah, so there's a couple...that's a good point, urn, and the goal of the speed humps, or modified speed humps in this case, is not to get you down to 10 or 15- mile-an-hour. We do the best we can. You know, when they construct these they're actually rolling asphalt with whatever tools they can. So it's very difficult to get them right, um, but they all, you know, at the end of the day they all meet the specified requirements from the Engineering group. Urn, but...yeah, they're not all equal, but the goal is never to get speeds down to 10 or 15-mile-an-hour. The goal is to take that, basically those really high speeds off the 85`h percentile speed, and if you look in some of the materials, urn, for these projects tonight, I mean some of the 85...the 85`h percentile speeds are upwards of 35, 40-mile-an- hour. So I mean we're not trying to get folks to go really slow through the neighborhood. We're just trying to knock off sort of the worst offenders and bring it down to a reasonable...a reasonable speed. Salih: I have a question for you. Normally the...those speed hump would be like decided by the City to put them on the street or the neighbor requested because of certain reason? Ralston: I missed the first part, I'm sorry, Mazahir. Salih: Like...the City will decide to put a street hump in any street that they want, or the neighbor will request to the City to ask them to put a speed hump? Ralston: It's...it's the latter, yeah. We never go out and look for these. These are all neighborhood-driven processes, and...and typically the way it works is someone will call the City. They will call our office and say, hey, we have a speeding issue on our street, and Sarah Walz, who's also here tonight, she does the heavy lifting on the program, and she will say, well, let's see, you know, if you're on a residential street or a collector street you could participate in the program. Uh, they go out and get that petition and then if they get their petition, that starts the rest of the...the rest of those steps that we outlined earlier. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 51 Salih: I thinks, you know (mumbled) they come out to ask for something, because they really think this is dangerous maybe for their kids, maybe for there is a lot kids around the area or something. That why I just believe that, you know, yeah...doing a survey (mumbled) like the...like neighbors, like neighboring community is, they are not...they don't live there, they don't see the issue, they don't see like this is really dangerous for them or not. They just want to drive by that area, but the people who live there...I think the people who supposed to make the decision about. Maybe they have a lot of children around that area and they crossing the street normally or something like that and they want to just make this dangerous situations less dangerous for them. Uh, I...I still think the neighbors supposed to have the big voice on this issue. Teague: Any more questions for Kent? Thank you! Ralston: Thank you. Teague: All right! Wanted to make sure there was no one else from the public that wanted to address this topic. Welcome! Mims: We're still just on Friendship. (laughs) Teague: Yes, we're still just on Friendship (several talking) Okay. All right. Uh, seeing no one out there. Um, I know Council has deliberated here and there with questions to staff, so we'll continue that Council discussion. Salih: I just believe this is...if this has been requested by the neighbor (mumbled) want this because of certain issues in that neighborhood, I thinks I will vote yes for it. Thomas: Yeah, I...I will be supporting it as well. One other...aspect of speed that, you know, is not indicated in the report would be, uh, you know, the chances of someone being hit. If someone were, a child say, to run out into the street and be hit, at 30-miles-per-hour, the chances of that child living is about 50/50. If...and as the speed increase, say to 40-miles-per-hour, the chances of that child being killed go up to 9 out of 10. So there's a very significant, um, the...these speeds (laughs) you know, are...are...these numbers actually translate to matters of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 52 serious injury or death, and urn...you know, fortunately those things are infrequent, but...but the reality is is that there are consequences to these higher speeds. It's kind of a spectrum from, you know,just the annoyance and disruption that can be caused by it, and in some cases, serious injury and death. Bergus: I think the other important thing is that these are the modified speed humps, not the speed bumps and I drive on Sandusky pretty often, where there's the lower speed humps and you can maintain a 25-mile-an-hour speed. I bike it, I drive it, I ride the bus over it, and it's not disruptive. Um, it really is just bringing down that...that higher speed. So I'm grateful to the comments, uh, about the first responders as well that we make sure we're addressing that, and I think if you're not accelerating and decelerating, but you're maintaining a speed, um, that also addresses some of the climate concerns that were, um, provided by comments, uh, from the public to us as well. Thomas: I'll just add one comment, and it doesn't change my...my vote on this, but you know I've spoken about the notion of self-regulating streets. I would much prefer we look at our designs and see if we can't come up with a design where the desired speed, which is 25-miles-per-hour, uh, would...would take place without having to come in afterwards and...and install speed humps. So...that would be my goal! I would love to see us revisit, you know, our way...the way in which we design our streets. So this is more looking forward to new streets, so that we don't have to go back in at some later date and....install speed humps or some other...some other remedy, which would reduce the speed. If we...perhaps it's incorporating some of those traffic calming elements in the original design, um, but the speed humps are my least favorite approach. It's really...and we...we do them because they're...in part because they're affordable, relative to some of the other improvements. So that would be my....my suggestion is that, you know, in terms of future development to see if we can't some up with a street design that would avoid this situation. Mims: Which we all...we have done, I mean in Tamarack we put in (both talking) Thomas: Yeah! Mims: ...couple of, uh, circle...traffic circles, small traffic circles, um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 53 Thomas: Right. Mims: Because that happened to be a long block there that wasn't...there wasn't any real way to make it a shorter block. These are older streets that have longer blocks, which is not what staff recommends these days. So I mean I think that was a speci...a very clear example of Tamarack, where we were proactive on trying to do a design change, um, so that hopefully we'd never have to go in (both talking) Thomas: ...that certainly helps at the intersection, you know, it...it...it's through the block length that (mumbled) Teague: All right, any other comments? Roll call please. Motion passes 6-0. Could I get a motion to accept correspondence? Mims: So moved, Mims. Salih: Second, Salih. Teague: All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 54 13. Duck Creek Drive Traffic Calming—Resolution authorizing the installation of speed humps on Duck Creek Drive between Duck Creek Place and the trail at Hunter's Run Park. Teague: Could I get a motion to approve? Salih: Move. Mims: Second. Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by...Mims. And welcome again! Ralston: Yeah, thank you! Uh,just quickly, the residents of Duck Creek Drive, urn, have successfully completed the same City, uh, the same steps that we outlined in the last agenda item, uh, for the Iowa City traffic calming program. Uh, back in early July, a survey was sent to residents of the neighborhood in order to measure support for the proposed modified speed humps. In all, uh,just under 80% of the occupied residences along the portion of Duck Creek Drive responded to the survey, and of those households that responded, uh, 73.9% indicated support. So just as the last agenda item, uh, they met all the required thresholds, and again, made it through all the steps necessary. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? Please take the podium, and then after you're done you can sign in back there. Rietz: I did, thank you. Um, my name is Karen Rietz. I missed the party. I live one house away from those that were included in the neighborhood meeting. Teague: Can you give us your address please? Rietz: I live at 948 Duck Creek Drive, which is the first residence after Hunter's Run Park. And so I speak for those who live on the remainder of the block on Duck Creek and the three cul-de-sacs, urn, off of Duck Creek. The only way to access, urn, to get out of their...their home would be to come on Duck Creek Drive. Um, there are...I'm understanding from Mr. Ralston and Miss Walz that, urn, that you have to draw a line on who you have to invite to comment, but if Miss Mims and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 55 Miss Taylor lived...if they are the people that lived on the portion, um, that was invited to be part of the survey, and 75 or 85% of them said...got to participate, and all of you, all the way to Mr. Goers, had to drive on, urn, on the speed humps that were selected and voted on by Miss Mims and Miss Tay...Councilperson Taylor, then...that...that would be a concern to me, and I'm hearing Mr. Ralston state that you have to draw the line somewhere, and the quality of life and the, um, the danger of being able to be in your front yard really affects those in the, urn, in the area, and that if we were to have a larger group included, that these resolutions would never pass. I think I would like t he Council to take a look at that. Urn, why wouldn't they pass? One of the people that lives in the area of Duck Creek that is not in favor of this said, well, where I'm from we just train our children not to go there. My children are 3 and 4, and they don't go in the street. How many of you, since you sat down here tonight, have thought that the ceiling might fall down on you? It could, it absolutely could. So the problem that is being addressed, um, these limited tools to address speeding, is to address complaints but not collisions. There have been three collisions not on the section of Duck Creek where the speed humps are being placed, and Miss Walz in correspondence with me said the speed humps are to address speeding, not safety. So I would like, my request to the Council is to ask to defer the...to defer the vote on the speed humps on Duck Creek, until a larger percentage of those that have property on Duck Creek can be included in the, um, in the neighborhood meetings and have an opportunity to speak. Thank you. Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, Council discussion? Salih: I just have another question. Teague: For Kent? Salih: Yes, for Kent. Like...on Duck Creek, how many people you send the survey, how many household did you send the survey to? Ralston: Let's see here, the survey was sent to...29 homes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 56 Salih: And how many you think on that street that you exclude them because you have to draw the line somewhere? Ralston: Uh, I don't know...I don't know how to answer that question, because, again, Duck Creek Drive keeps winding...sort of around towards the park,but then there's also any number of streets that...that come off of Duck Creek Drive, so again it's hard to know...who we're excluding and who we're (laughs) who we're not. Sorry, that's not a good answer, but... Salih: Yeah. I just....i'm not familiar with that (laughs) Duck Creek Street, that's why I'm asking this question. So... Ralston: So to be clear, the surveys went to the households that were in the...what will be the affected portion. That's the idea. Salih: And those is speed bump will be....between those 29 houses? Ralston: They will fall within that area, yes, correct. Salih: Okay. But...people that you never send survey to, in front (mumbled) anything. It's not going to be placed there. Only on those area that you draw the line. Ralston: Correct, and...and I...I may be wrong, there may be a few houses that would have to cross these speed humps, but most of the households have other accesses out to, uh, out of the neighborhood. So it may divert a little bit of traffic off of Duck Creek too and we try not to divert traffic, urn, but some of our...we always collect data pre- and then post, of course after the installations and, um, some of that diverted traffic might be 5 or 10%. So we're not seeing huge numbers, but um, there are other ways out of this neighborhood as well. Salih: Sure. Thank you. Thomas: Kent, was...was the, um, so they...the study was done right up to Hunters Run there, but it wasn't...you didn't consider the full length of Duck Creek Drive? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 57 Ralston: No, that's correct,just between the trail that would take you into Hunters Run park and then up to...Duck Creek Place, which is just shy of Rohret Road. Yep. Thomas: So you didn't get a petition from the rest of Duck Creek Drive or you just...the speed, did you measure the speeds? Beyond... Ralston: No, we did not measure the speeds outside of this affected area. Yeah. Thomas: Okay. Ralston: And the petition would have also come from this affected area. Yep, and it's not unusual, um, what we usually find,just to expand on this a little bit, is that streets that...like Duck Creek Drive for instance. If this moves forward, and the speed humps go in, what we most often find is later on we might get another petition from a group that's down the street, and in fact that happened on Friendship. Thomas: Okay. Ralston: So Friendship Street, uh, which we just discussed. There's already a traffic calming installation speed humps further to the east. So more often than not, we actually get neighbors saying, hey, I want some of those too. How do we move forward? So we actually come back and...and do that. It's not been the City's policy to expand on these without the neighborhood asking us. You know, it's very neighborhood driven. Teague: Any other questions for Kent? Thank you! Continuing Council discussion? Thomas: Well this one may set the record for the 85`h percentile (laughs) speeds on...on one of those segments. It's almost 50-miles-an-hour. Um...now I...I, in looking at this, the topography is a factor. You can't read the topography, but I looked that up, um, on GIS and there is a...a slope on that section, uh, from Duck Creek Place down to Hunters Run, so that contributes. Uh, you also have...this was I think Sarah noted a 31...foot wide street, if I'm not mistaken. One of the issues that I've observed is that, um, on many of these low density residential streets, you... you have a street like this, 31-feet wide, uh, if you have limited parking occurring on that street, you have in effect, uh, 15-foot lanes, um, for...for your two-way This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 58 traffic, and as (mumbled) reference that I typically consider is that the lane widths on an interstate freeway are 12-feet. You can drive safely on an interstate at 70- miles-an-hour in a 12-foot wide lane. So it's...it's not surprising that if..you could almost...you see cars going at the 85th percentile, at 50-miles-an-hour, when you have 15-feet of lane, uh, assuming again that there aren't many cars parked on the street. So that's a common condition that I've observed on many residential streets is they're designed to accommodate street parking, but because it's so easy to park off-street, uh, you end up with excessive lane width. And that...promotes higher speeds, and that's, I think, what we're seeing here. Salih: I don't see this really different from the other one and, uh, if we really want to look at like more neighbors to be included, we should go ahead and maybe look at our policy that we have in place, but for the sake of this, I thinks this is done, using the procedure that we have right now in the City, and I will be supporting this. Teague: Yeah, I think the procedure that we have in place now, um, did what it...did what it was supposed to, and so I'll support it. Any other comments? Roll call please. Motion passes 6-0. Could I get a motion to accept correspondence? Bergus: So moved, Bergus. Salih: Second, Salih. Teague: All in favor say aye. Any opposed? Motion passes 6-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 59 14. Kenneth Drive Traffic Calming—Resolution authorizing the installation of speed humps on Kenneth Drive, between Court Street and Camden Road. Teague: Could I get a motion to approve please? Thomas: So moved, Thomas. Salih: Second, Salih. Teague: All right, welcome! Ralston: Thank you! Uh, similar to your last two agenda items, um residents of Kenneth Drive have also successfully completed the steps in the City of Iowa City's traffic calming program. Uh, back in early July a survey was mailed to 21 households along the designated portion of Kenneth Drive, again in order to measure support for the modified speed humps. In all, 61.9% of the households responded to the survey, and of those households that responded, uh, 61.5% indicated support, uh, for the proposal. Teague: Any questions for Kent? Thank you! Urn, we ask that the public come now, and you can sign that at the end. Thank you! Welcome! Rauch: Welcome, uh, my name's Kevin Rauch. I live at 4145 Ruth Street and like the lady that spoke before me, I'm one house away from the select group of people that got to provide input. But I'm...I'm a little confused about some of the findings and the statement that the majority of the people along Kenneth are in fact in favor of the speed humps. If I'm reading the correspondence correctly, a survey was sent to 21 people, of which eight responded affirmatively that they wanted the speed humps. In my math, eight out of 21 is not a majority of the people indicating a desire to have speed humps along, uh, Kenneth Drive. Um, I...and I don't believe the failure to respond should be construed as a positive vote, uh, by the same token. In this situation, it appears to me that no one group has a majority vote within the group—38% were in favor, 24%were against, and 38% did not vote. To me that's not a majority vote, uh, representing that. I'd also like to reiterate an earlier communication that I'd shared with Sarah and...and you have, I'm trusting, in your packets. That surveying 21 households,uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 60 representative of the area is not representative of the neighborhood. The neighborhood is bigger than the 21 houses that live along Kenneth Street. There are over 100 houses in a neighborhood that I would call between Kenneth, Charles, and Camden is what I would call representative of the neighborhood, because those are the people that are going to be affected by the change in, uh, travel in and out along Kenneth Street, whether they have to drive over the speed humps or they change their path from their homes on a daily basis to get out of their homes to the neighborhood to avoid the speed humps. Um, I believe that if there is a need for traffic calming and speed humps are going to be a consideration, because all of the other suggestions we've submitted to the City have been politely declined, for lack of a better term. That other people's considerations should be taken in...other people's thoughts and ideas should be taken into consideration. I understand the City policy, uh, only requires that those households along the street directly affected be included in the survey, but I believe that policy is flawed. And I believe that the policy needs to be reviewed and needs to be revised, in order to share equal representation...and inclusivity and provide the opportunity for all parties impacted by decisions such as this (both talking) Teague: Thank you! Rauch: ...to vote on the solutions. Teague: Thank you. (both talking) Rauch: ...to continue to perpetuate a flawed policy (both talking) Teague: Thank you. Rauch: ...is in error. Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, Council discussion? Salih: I just want to make sure...Kent, again please! (laughs) Yeah, you send it to 21 household, 61% reply. That what you're saying, right? And out of those 61%, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 61 you said how many, uh, how much...what's the percentage of the people who said yes? Ralston: Yep, so...so in all, the survey was mailed to 21 households and 13 resear...13 responded, and that...and that's important to know because then of the 13, uh, eight indicated support. And that ends up with the 61.5% approval rate. Salih: Of the people who respond, okay. Ralston: And so...and....and.... Salih: What the threshold? Ralston: 60%. Yeah, a 50% response rate and then a 60% approval rate. Yep, and when you get...and the gentleman's not incorrect. You know, at certain times when some of these numbers get fairly small, right, the percentages change drastically, and that's one of the...one of the things about the policy. Salih: Yeah, and the total is only 21...also that's something, yeah, but...I just lost my thought. Yeah. Thank you (laughs) Mims: Kent, in this one...and how, and I guess this is true in all of them. How is it determined what segment of the street was going to be included? Ralston: Right. So what typically happens is, as I mentioned earlier, it's...it's a neighborhood driven process. So what happens most often is a neighbor will call and say we've got this issue, um, and they will say here's our address and,you know, I've got a couple of my neighbors that think the same way. I mean that's kind of typically how these start. Um, in this case, if you...so then we say, okay, what section of roadway are you speaking of. In this case for Kenneth, the section between Court and Camden is just sort of a nice, clean break. Um, that's one of the only east-west streets that's contiguous, so that's when we say, okay, well if you're one house short of Camden, let's just get to Camden, right? So we look for natural breaks. Um, with, uh, Duck Creek Drive, we sort of looked for that natural break in front of a park and then for Friendship Street, it happened to be Meadows Street. So we typically look for some natural break because, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 62 again... we don't try and extend these, you know, we don't try and impose this on the neighborhood. We just say, okay, we've got to have some neat and tidy area that we can survey. Mims: Okay. Ralston: So again, it's not...it's an imperfect science, but we try to make a clean break. Urn, in recent memory I don't remember ever saying, okay, well let's just stop at this one particular lot line. Mims: Sure. Ralston: You know, we try and find some natural break, and that's the way the...the actual traffic calming, um, works, right? So whether it's speed humps or whatever, we try and kind of handle that in segments. Um, and that's just the natural breaks in this case is Camden down to Court. Mims: Okay. Thank you! Salih: I just remember my question now. Uh, you said that, yeah, you send to 21, 13 responded. Can you just tell me the time between you send the letter to them and the time you make a decision about this? How many days do you give them to respond? Ralston: Uh, we will typically give them no less than two weeks. Salih: Oh! Ralston: Yeah, I mean we try to give them three weeks to a month, if we can. Just kind of depends on when City Council meetings fall and...and when we can hold the neighborhood meeting, um, but always at least...at very minimum two to three weeks. Salih: Yeah, thank you, Kent. Yeah. I...I just think that 21 household, we send it to 21, given them two week, 13 respond, eight did not respond, and I'm...maybe they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 63 just don't care if they have it or not. So (mumbled) respond, that's will make it, you know, eight of them they said yes and 61%, I thinks, so... Walz: This is Sarah Walz, Transportation Planner. So Kent is right about the time frame. We usually give,when it's over the summer like this was, we gave a full month for them to respond. Salih: Oh! Walz: Because we assume that people might be away, so they did have them for a full month. Salih: Yeah. Good enough! (laughs) Thank you. Teague: Thank you, Kent. Ralston: Thank you! Teague: All right. Any other discussion? Bergus: I just want to acknowledge those who came and spoke and thank you for letting us know your opinions, um, and all the people who wrote in. Um, to Mayor Pro Tem's point earlier of how do we kind of balance or weight, is there a way to consider the people who live right in the impacted area, versus others who are driving who might be inconvenienced, and I think that's why we have the public comment, that's why we have the opportunity to receive the emails, and to have the time frame for that to happen. So I hope that people understand that they are heard, even if we end up balancing it one way or the other, we're trying to provide that opportunity to give input and it's up to us to then weigh or give weight to the feedback as we see appropriate. Thomas: Yeah, I think this one, um...was probably the one with the least, uh...you know, speeds were not as high over the speed limits as on the other two, um...but nevertheless, they were over, they qualified, um...and I think the comment that has been made on...the modified speed hump is a pretty benign hump. I mean I drive the one on Glendale and, uh, Jefferson and it really does seem to...assuming This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 64 it does get...the speeds down to 25, plus or minus, um, does so in a pretty gentle way. So I think it's...it's effective in that regard. But I...I did want to...given this opportunity. One of the issues here, urn, beyond what we're considering, is...is what are...what are we setting the speed by which we trigger these calm... calmings, these traffic calmings? And...and one of the things, and I...I haven't looked at this sort of subject matter in a while, but uh, what we're seeing worldwide is that cities are reducing their speed limits. Urn, Portland is the best example in the United States. They've reclassified something like 70% of their residential streets to 20-miles-per-hour. Because it's the safest speed for mixed- use—people, children, bicycles and so forth. Uh, earlier this year on a global scale,just saw this this afternoon, um, at the Sixth UN Global Road Safety Week, uh, celebration or acknowledgment, uh, which was in May earlier this year, uh, the UN advocated for that same speed, which as like kilometers measures as...as 30 kilometers per hour. So that's the trend, is people...cities are saying we need to reduce speeds from what they have been, uh, to try to promote more range of...of mobility—walking and biking and so forth. So we're setting it at 30 (laughs) you know, we're 20-miles-per-hour over that, what...what is now becoming more commonly, urn, used as a reference point in terms of what's a safe speed. Um, but again, I, you know, given the circumstances in which we're considering this, um, the...the effect is just to bring the speed back down to what it's supposed to be. Uh, and...and it does so in a pretty benign way. Teague: Any other comments? Roll call please. 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. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 65 16. Community Comment [IF NECESSARY] (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA) Teague: Which we'll ask...for USG to give us some updates. Hello! Van Heukelom: Hi, Council, and Iowa City community. Um, we don't have any USG specific updates; however, we wanted to speak on the recent events that happened within the Iowa City community. Um, there is a trigger warning, cause I'm going to mention sexual assault. Um, in response to the report of violence committed by the University of Iowa Fraternity Phi Gamma Delta, the University of Iowa Student Government is calling on University of Iowa leadership, as well as local leaders such as you all to act in response. Right now students and community members need to see you, hear you, and understand that you care about them. The response displayed by our community last week isn't the result of an isolated incident but rather a result of a systemic issue. Today our community is hurting, but weeks from now we cannot forget that there are students and community members who are hurting every day because of an experience like this one. Collective pain is one of the hardest things to endure as a community; however, it should be seen as an opportunity to reflect on what actions need to be taken to make our community stronger. As leaders of our institutions, students expect and deserve transparency, accountability, and meaningful action. Miglin: We understand the complex nature and confidentiality of sexual misconduct procedures; however, we want to see City work with Student Government and the University to actively prevent violence from happening in our community again. Comprehensively work to prevent future sexual assault cases such as by committing Johnson County to fully investigate this particular case, as well as provide further information on the current state of reporting and investigating of sexual assault in Iowa City. We encourage the City Council to have a representative from Johnson County to speak on the delays of the survivor's case at the next City Council meeting. We also wish to, uh, see partnerships with City bars and local hubs to provide resources in bathrooms and in other public spaces that include a way to report sexual assault and City resources for immediate help. Uh, as well as partner with local organizations, such as RVAP, and the WRAC by providing direct monetary assistance to those organizations, as well as to engage with the communities affected by this systemic violence. At the next City Council meeting we would like to add time to the work session agenda to further discuss This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021. Page 66 actions we must take and allow the community to speak on the issue. At the following City Council meeting, these conversations can help us shape a resolution City Council can pass regarding next steps to address sexual violence in our community. Together we can change the culture of our institutions and create a safer community for everyone. We look forward to working with you all, um, in order to improve our city through the actions above. Thank you. Teague: Thank you all so much and thank you for being here all day today and, urn, the subject matter, of course, is very, urn, full of compassion, so really appreciate you coming forth today. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular formal meeting of September 7, 2021.