HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-14 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present:
Staff Present:
Others Present:
Bergus, Mims, Salih, Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner
Fruin, Jones, Goers, Fruehling, Harland, Havel, Sovers, Clow,
Ford, Sitzman, Kubly
Van Heukelom, Miglin (USG)
Teague: It is 6:00 PM, and I want to welcome everyone to the City of Iowa City
formal work, um, formal agenda. And I'm going to start with item number
one, which is roll call please....Again, and welcome to everyone that is in the
audience here. And those that are virtually watching this, um, today is a day
that we had a little celebration, um, from 4:00 PM until 5:30, celebrating two
of the Councilors that are here that have served Iowa City. And we have
Councilor Susan Mims, who has served 12 years and also our Mayor Pro Tem
Salih, who has served for four years. And I want to ask us all to give them a
round of applause for their service. (applause) It is no easy task, um, in their
roles. And I know them both personally. Um, I will say to Susan Mims, I really
appreciate all of your investment in me here on City Council. It had, um,
really given me the, the, the structure, the basic foundation of learning the,
the agenda, what it all means. It wasn't easy, and I really appreciate you. I'll
also say when it comes down to the voters of Iowa City, they voted for you
because they knew that you would represent them. And I think that was done
three times, and that is a great accomplishment. And so I applaud you for
that. And I know that there has been lots of sacrifices. Um, both of you, uh, as
you sit on the City Council and the City of Iowa City do recognize your
sacrifices, Mayor Pro Tem, you have been awesome and amazing, especially,
um, uh, these past two years, especially I think this community has seen you
in full force and how you advocate for those in our community. And on behalf
of the City of Iowa City and this Council, we appreciate you both. And we
have some gifts for you as you part from this Council, but we also know that
you'll still be in the community and very much active in your own ways. So
you each will have an Iowa City sign. And, uh, there's a, I'll just show one of
them. And it says, With gratitude, City of Iowa City, Susan Mims, and it gives
the, your years of service. And it also says what's out here, Salih, and your
years of service. So thank you both again. Yeah, I'll give it to you now. That's
a little awkward. Isn't it? Thank you so much. Thank you, ma'am.
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2 — 7. Consent Calendar
Teague: And would anyone from the public like to address a topic with, which is on
the consent agenda. And we do have a sign up sheet over there, and we ask
that people, when they come up to give their name and their address. We also
ask that comment stay to three minutes. Welcome.
Kauble: Uh, good evening. Um, I would just like to say that the City needs to begin
meetings that are hybrid and hybrid, uh, being in-person and Zoom along
with regular publication of verbatim transcripts. This is topical to the consent
agenda because, um, it, it impacts how the public can engage with this agenda
item. The fact that you all don't do this is extremely ableist and limits the
ability of the public to fully engage with this with these proceedings. Urn, so
the plan is to be repeating this statement during every public comment time
this evening, except the general public comment time. So, uh, it, the County
does this and there's no reason why the City can't do this. And so there are
two options for tonight: repeating the statement for every available public
hearing where you have public comment, or the members of Council who will
be here in January can raise their hands and commit to having hybrid
meetings and publishing transcripts. So anybody on Council who will still be
here in January commits to doing this, please raise your hand now --
Goers: To be clear, public comment period is not a time for votes to be taken.
Kauble: I mean, they can raise their hands if they want to. So it's topical and
germane because it relates to how the public can engage with each agenda
item. So, I mean, does anybody want to raise their hand to commit to this
now? Or do you want me to repeat my statement again and again and again
this evening. I, I guess I'll be back up here. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic or any address Council at
this time on any topic that is not on the agenda item?
Goers: That's on the consent agenda.
Teague: That's not on the consent agenda.
Goers: That is on the consent agenda.
Teague: Oh.
Salih: Yeah, that's fine.
Teague: Welcome.
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Petersen: All right. Um, I don't really feel, need to read my statement this time, but I
do second what Dan just said about the raising of the hands and Eric, they
can raise their hands all they want, don't make up some weird bull crap
about how they can't raise it.
Teague: Would you please state your name and address?
Petersen: My name is Noah and I don't dox myself. And I mean, yes, I understand
you said you're gonna put it on the next work session, but like you, Bruce can
call a special session for, from, I think two days from now you could have one
or two or three days. So now to say, and then y'all could just add that
meeting, say, okay, from now on, we're going to be hybrid. It's that easy. And
it's like, I, I'm, I'm glad that you are telling me that you're going to be putting
it on the work session for the next year, but this is something that should
have been done quite a while ago. So I need to see some more urgency with
this, frankly. I may be standing here for my time, because anytime Bruce
could make this into a special session, cause that's like, that is the rules of
your own council that you, the Mayor, can do that.
Teague: Anything else?
Petersen: And I just want to make sure, like, remind y'all that this is not going to go
away until it's accessible.
Teague: Anything else?
Petersen: Yes. Are you going to do that?
Teague: We have a lot of people here that have items on the agenda. Anything else?
Petersen: Yeah. I get -- the ball's in your court. At any time, you could tell me right
now that you personally as Mayor --
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: will do that. No, my time's not up. So I'm not, I'm still talking. You can't
move on from me. So as I was saying --
Teague: Noah --
Petersen: At any time, as you know,
Teague: Please speak to the Council.
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Petersen: Yes, I'm speaking to you, because you are the Mayor and the rules state
that you at any time you can, you can call a special meeting, work session,
whatever to do that. And then y'all can do that. Have your session for five
minutes and say yes, where you're gonna stop being ableist, and we're going
to have hybrid meetings. Before the next meeting, because that's still going to
be, you're still gonna be excluding people from that meeting too, if you wait
until next year, which is the problem with that, which I'm glad you're not
committing to doing it to the next year, but you, the urgency is, this is like,
should have never like have been like a problem to begin with. Like you
should've never stopped offering hybrid once you started. It's really that
simple.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address a topic that is an item that is on the
consent agenda?
McGovern: My name is Tara McGovern.
Teague: Welcome.
McGovern: The fact that some of us may be familiar to you in discussions about
accessibility is not because this is our concern alone. Many people can't come
before you to make this request, for many, many reasons. As a Council, you
should be welcoming this engagement. And if you're not, what does it say
about you that you're making no effort to include a sizeable portion of your
constituents? I sat here at the November 30th meeting and watched, as you
spoke to my friend who is neurodivergent as am I, as if you were
inconveniencing you by asking for basic accessibility on behalf of the larger
community, this is after he wrote you letters, which you ignored. What we
are asking for is urgency to correct a problem that is eminently correctable.
Don't give us this bullshit about adding it to your pending work session
topics, get it done. Give us hybrid meetings, give us verbatim transcripts or
get ready for all of your meetings to get really long as we continue to stand
before you and asked you to just do the goddamn right thing. Chapter 21 of
Iowa Code states, that the goal of law is to guarantee through open meetings
of governmental bodies, that the basis and rationale of government decisions,
as well as those decisions themselves are easily accessible to the public. The
law also says that any ambiguity should be settled in favor of openness. Settle
it. Give us hybrid meetings, give us verbatim transcripts. This is a foregone
conclusion. You will provide the accommodations because law and decency
requires you. What's on your conscience is exactly how much longer you are
going to willfully exclude your own constituents.
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Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address a topic that is on the consent
agenda...Council discussion?
Taylor: Yes. Mayor, I'd like to, um, address item 5k on the consent agenda, which is
the, urn, settlement for the, uh, national opioid. Uh, I believe Councilor
Weiner would like to speak to this also, um. Prior to the start of the COVID
epidemic, the we'd heard a lot in the news about the opioid crisis, but it was
kind of overshadowed by the constant news about COVID. Uh, unfortunately
the opioid crisis, uh, is still an issue. And I, I was happy to see this settlement
agreement and I am absolutely in favor of the City opting in, uh, I do think it
would be beneficial, uh, to partner with other communities. You mentioned
the joint entities meeting earlier, and I think we could partner on the
utilization of those funds that are being offered and would suggest that this
item be included on the agenda for our next joint entities meetings, so that
we can talk about it with the other communities that are listed.
Weiner: So I wanted to, um, refer to item 5k on the consent agenda as well, the
national opioid settlement. Urn, I don't think that we can overstate the
importance of the opportunity that this presents not just the City, but every
county in, in the state. Urn, the -- it -- opioid addiction is much more than, is
something that affects much more than individuals. It impacts entire families,
uh, in all generations. It often turns grandparents to caregivers of
grandchildren. So I actually urge everyone to look at this closely and all the
different things that are part of this that that can be done when the funds are
available over a period of, of 18 years. Urn, I also want to note that it's really,
it's really exceptional that these funds in Iowa are being split 50/50 between
the state and, and local entities. Urn, there are a whole variety of things that
go beyond what one, what you might think, urn, would deal directly with
opioid addiction. It includes, um, medication -assisted treatment, Naloxone to
prevent, to reverse, to reverse overdoses, um, dealing with pregnant and
postpartum women, urn, treatment for neonatal abstinence syndrome and
working, and potentially working on long-term monitoring of them. Um, as
well as recovery, prevention, helping those who are incarcerated. Um,
looking at harm reduction, some things that are not currently, not legal under
Iowa law, but that can make such a difference and connect people with social
workers and medical professionals that can, that can help start to turn their
lives around and turn their families' lives around. Unfortunately, I speak from
personal experience on this, but this is a, this is real. This is a huge game
changer that we need to pay very close attention to and coordinate to the
greatest extent possible with other entities here.
Teague: Any other discussion?
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Bergus: Mayor, I just wanted to highlight, urn, item 5a, which is extending the
timeframe for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We discussed this at
our last work session and just wanted to call out that there is a resolution in
the consent agenda to extend the timeframe for the Commission for a, an
additional year, which would be until June of 2023.
Teague: All right. You have no more comments. Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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8. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) [UNTIL 7 PM]
Teague: We are on to item number eight, which is community comment. This is an
opportunity for those in the community to talk about an item that is not on
our agenda. And I will allow for three minutes, uh, per speaker. And we ask
that you do write your name and your address on the side table and give us
your name and your address when you, uh, come up. Welcome.
Orozco: Good evening Council. Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening, Council
members. We're here to introduce ourself. We are members of the Iowa City
Airport Commission. My name is Hellecktra Orozco, and I've been with the
Commission over a year, and my address is 3527 Middlebury Road.
Clair: And good evening condition -- Commission. My name is Scott Clair. I live on 7
Glendale Terrace in Iowa City. And I'm the current Chairman of the Airport
Commission. We wanted to take a few minutes to report with you, uh, the
updates, uh, on the airport activity for the past year. A few things we want to
talk about would be first of all, the completion of the obstruction mitigation
project, which is, uh, intended to clear the obstructions that, uh, impede the
approaches to the airport, that project is now completed. We also completed
some infrastructure improvements over this past year: in total, we have
invested about $850,000 of federal and state money on behalf of the City into
the airport infrastructure and have received another $150,000 of COVID
relief fund that's gone towards losses during the COVID period, uh, on
operations. Uh, the good news is the airport is functioning very well. We're
break-even or better on budget. So we don't, uh, draw anything from the City.
We are self-sufficient and our mission is to continue that going forward. Uh,
and we've been seeing a lot of recovery, uh, from the pandemic. In fact, this
year, Fiscal '21, we're seeing air, airport activity up anywhere from 10 to
30%, depending on how you count it from pre-COVID levels. So that's 2019 to
2021. So it is a very strong, uh, asset for the community and one that we're
seeing a good utilization of and a good return on our investments from both
the federal, state government and your continued support. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you both. Would anyone else like to address an item that is not on
the agenda, any item on that formal agenda? Welcome.
Porter: Hello. My name is Royceann Porter, Johnson County Supervisor, and
President of the Black Voices Project. I heard some comments at the last
meeting and I feel the need to come here tonight to correct the record. Laura
Bergus pointed out that the TRC has tried to address the divide in the Black
community by holding a restorative justice circle that was offered to
members of the Black Voices Project who have previously expressed
opposition to the TRC. Susan Mims went even further suggesting that the
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members of the Black Voices Project and others who volun--, who voluntarily
resigned from the TRC, uh, part of the reason there is a lack of unity in Iowa
City's Black community. I do not believe we should be giving them the power
to negatively influence the future of the TRC. And by not approving the
facilitator, I believe that is exactly what we have done, she said. The elephant
in the room is two white women acting as authorities on the Black
community and how we relate to TRC. Is the Black community divided,
absolutely not. The Black community is not divided as several of you
suggested. You may hear different views expressed, but wouldn't you expect
that in any group of people. Do all white people agree on everything all the
time. Check yourself before you speak publicly to imply that all Black people
must agree at all times. The Black Voices Project amplifies and elevates Black
people in our community. We have consistently advocated for the
experiences of Black people in our community to be heard and inequities
rectified. We do so by working together, not by tearing each other apart. This
community is full of strong and capable Black leaders. Mayor Bruce Teague,
Mazahir Salih, me Royceann Porter, RaQuishia Harrington, LaTasha DeLoach,
Hamza Omar, Fred Newell, Nakisha Jones, Pastor Anthony Smith and Angie
Jordan, just to name a few. We know who they are. We do not need the City
Council to select them for us. Several members of... lost my spot. Several
members of this Council have come to me for help behind the scenes while
this TRC has been floundering. I gave you my time and my wisdom as a
respected Black leader in this community. You ignored it, did what you
wanted, sat there and let my character be assassinated in public, and now
want to blame me, the Black Voices Project, for your failure. No. That's not
how this works. Regardless of what this Council or the TRC thinks or says
about me, I am out here doing the work that you are not. People come to me
with every type of need, because they know I will help them. I will find the
resources and the people, anyone who wants to criticize me for not being out
there --
Teague: Thank you.
Porter: and for not being out there, screaming and yelling and telling on themselves
Teague: Thank you.
Porter: -- because it means they aren't standing with me doing the work,
Teague: Supervisor Porter, thank you.
Porter: -- serving hot meals to the homeless,
Teague: Thank you....
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Porter: -- organizing clothing, food, shelter, and meals after the derecho. Arranging
and organizing vaccine clinics and food box distributions at the Johnson
County Fairgrounds, connecting families with the resources to get help with
their rent and mortgage payments, and getting those phone calls from people
in our neighborhood who have lost their loved ones to get help with funeral
arrangements, and to organize Juneteenth, just to name a few.
Teague: Thank you.
Porter: So let's be clear about who is actually doing the work to bring Truth and
Reconciliation to Iowa City's Black communities because it's not the majority
of this Council, and it's not any of you people who have spent the last year
trying to drag my name through the mud and pin their failure on me. Thank
you, Mayor Bruce Teague and Mazahir Salih for your wonderful service in
our Black community and for being a great leader in our community.
Teague: Thank you.
Porter: You're welcome.
Teague: What anyone else like to address, uh, any item that is not on the agenda?
Welcome.
Anderson: I'm Steven Anderson, 1001 Oakcrest Street, Apartment 3. Um, I have an
issue with the bus system. I ran this by the head of the Iowa City Transit on
voicemail regarding the takeaway of the, uh, bus stop at 10, uh, 1000
Oakcrest. They took that away when they reorganized the buses in August.
Um, there's no sidewalk to the bus stop at 815 or 1100 Oakcrest to avoid
going on the street. You either have to walk in the street or across the street
twice to get to a sidewalk to get to the stop on 815 Oakcrest. So that's a
danger. So I would like to see the City Council contact the Iowa City Transit
and tell them to re -install the bus stop at 1000 Oakcrest Street. So people
don't have to go in the street to get to the bus stop at 815, so somebody could
break their hip crossing the street in the snow and ice or otherwise get hurt.
So that's my comment. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Kauble: Hi, uh, my name is Dan Kauble. Um, good evening. I'm here to talk about
several other things aside from annoying you all about hybrid meetings, uh,
firstly, support the TRC. Uh, this Council has kneecapped them and you talk,
folks talk on and on and on about division in the Black community regarding
the TRC. But, um, I would like a lot of the people who talk about that to take
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personal responsibility for stoking those divisions. Royceann Porter was
abusive and very, her behavior was very unacceptable as chair of the TRC.
People I know and respect people like Ranem Hammad, Amel Ali, they were
on the receiving end of Royceann's abuse, and fun fact, if you had hybrid
meetings, people like Amel could be here to talk about this, cause I'm on --
Mel and I are messaging and talking about just all the things. If you all had
hybrid meetings, folks could come, more folks could come here and give an
accurate gauge of what's going on in the community. You should not let the
personal grievances of Porter and the Black Voices Project get in the way of
allowing the TRC to help our community. If Royceann wants to talk about the
TRC, let her talk about the way she treated Ranem. Let her talk about the way
that she's treated Mo. Let her talk about the way that she's treated Amel.
Anybody who attends the TRC meetings knows they are functioning. If you
had by -- and by the way, Royceann hasn't, uh, very few of you all have, um,
Royceann named people who are influential leaders in this community. I
have respect for Royceann. I have respect for everybody on this Council. I
mean, I think Maz you've done such great work with wage theft. Royceann
has done, Royceann is a force, but there's also things that should be called out
with this. Um, uh, Amel Ali, Eric Harris, Cliff Johnston, Daphne Daniels,
Wangui Gathua, Mo Traore, these are just a few of the people who are
working to help improve this community. We should not let personal
grievances get in the way of the work because that's when nothing gets done.
Um, I would also like to talk about, changing subjects, the intersection of Dill
Street and Rocky Shore Drive. It's a nightmare. The hill on Dill going down to
the intersection is too steep and curvy to be safe. I challenge each member of
the council to drive through that there on a snowy evening during the winter,
somebody is going to get killed on it because it's so unsafe. Councilor
Thomas, traffic dad, my Councilor, um, I don't know what can be done about
this, but something really needs to change because it's, it's really unsafe.
Thank you all.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah. Urn, so yeah, like the person before, just before Dan, he's
talking about another accessibility problem you have with the bus stops and
that problem, as I've talked to you before about how benches and stops just
gone missing across the city from different places, for both (mumbled)
people and like people trying to just like use bus stops or to sit in a bench
while waiting for their bus, lots, most, lots of people throughout the city can't
do that, which isn't accessible another accessibility problem. Uh, the full
verbatim transcripts of meetings are, uh, still, uh, last Saturday I sent you all
an email and there weren't, but now after I checked before this meeting
today, and there were more transcripts out thankfully, but still not for the
last meeting, which is kind of silly. I mean it's been two weeks or so since the
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last, till the last meeting and there's still no full transcript for that, but the
work session of that and the work session of 12/7, there's a transcript for it,
but not for the last formal meeting, which is just bizarre, if you ask me. Urn,
oh yes, uh, Shelter House, uh, the director's at Shelter House made 130,
$130,000 in salary and benefits. While currently there's not a will, a winter
shelter open when people are already experiencing frostbite and other
problems from cold weather because Shelter House is paying $14 an hour.
We all know that is abysmally, that is not a living wage. And yet the director,
Crissy Canganelli, can at least make, can make 130K a year yet they can't pay
their workers a living wage and tried to blame people, not wanting to work
on their low paying job. You, this City funds a lot of Shelter House. I don't
know exactly how much, I know you all signed the (mumbled) and Shelter
House, though. So, so I mean put some drinks on there, so you don't abuse
the workers by exploiting them, pay living wage. And then since there isn't
currently, open up the Rec Center or some other place immediately, right
now, so there's actually winter shelter for people. Because there is there is a
tremendous lack of shelter in this city. Even if the Shelter House still had it
open, there'd still be problems, because Shelter House doesn't treat people
very well. Like I say, lots of folks in the unhoused community, and they'll tell
you, you don't mess with Shelter House because they treat us poorly because
they do treat them poorly. I've seen them kick people out for no reason, good
reason, whatsoever. Your cops are kicking people out, trying to hide them.
Defund your cops and fund your people of the City. You priorities are
completely off. Developers can come here and talk and say whatever they
want, you get response, but regular, just citizens who want to people just in
the community who want to come in here and just like, have any say, we have
no say and that's not all right. So just do some reflection and change that.
Look into your hearts, as you like to say, Bruce.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address a topic that is not on the
agenda. Welcome.
Ensminger: Hello. My name is Kenisha Ensminger I live at 902 North Dodge Street in
Iowa City. Um, I'm here to read a email from a fellow organizer with the
Mutual Aid Collective. Um, this is from Stephanie Riley. She writes, Council
members. I would first like to go on record as saying, I'm put out that you no
longer make your meetings accessible to the public. I'd want it to be there in
person to address this issue during public comment. But unfortunately my
grandchildren whom I provide childcare for will not be picked up in time.
Since you are unwilling to make hybrid meetings available, I will be posting
this email on social media as well. On December 11th, one of the ICMA
drivers was contacted by an unhoused individual who had been asked to
leave Shelter House the night before and subsequently suffered from
exposure to the cold. When our driver talked with him, he said he thought he
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had frostbite. Well, we don't have confirmation of that. When I asked what to
tell individuals who don't have access to Shelter House's services on your
social media, I was directed by whomever runs your Facebook to contact
Shelter House, which obviously does no good in these situations. We
understand the Shelter House usually runs the winter shelter, but it seems as
though they're having problems pulling things together this year. I will say
that perhaps if they paid people a living wage to work there, they would get
more response. $14 an hour is a ridiculous wage in Iowa City, so it makes
sense people aren't applying. Um, I am kind of veering off course here
though. I am not interested in negating the work that Shelter House does, but
the fact remains that some unhoused individuals are not welcome at Shelter
House and the City has an obligation to make sure that all people have
someplace to go rather than be exposed to the cold, even those who are
difficult. So with all due respect, I would like an answer as to when there's
going to be an emergency shelter open to all individuals in Iowa City. Is that
known at all at this time?
Teague: And this is just an, a time for you to, uh, address Council with any of your
concerns.
Ensminger: Okay. Um, do we know when an emergency shelter may be open the
winter shelter for Shelter House at all?
Teague: Yep. Council don't engage.
Ensminger: Okay. Um, like Noah mentioned, I also wanted to say myself, the fact that
the Executive Director of Shelter House is making $130,000 a year and
wanting to pay people $14 an hour for help at Shelter House and not opening
it because of that is abhorrent. And, um, while it is warm tomorrow, we have
record-breaking temperatures and possibly very dangerous winds. And I
would hate to have unhoused individuals outside during that. And, um, also
to follow up on Supervisor Porter's comments, I just really need to say that
the Black community in Iowa City is divided as is every race ever, but there is
a divide in the Black community in Iowa City, definitely a generational divide,
a political divide. She likes to give cops really nice toy cars and not every
Black individual agrees with that. Thank you.
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9. Planning and Zoning Matters
9.a. Rezoning - IWV Road SW - Ordinance conditionally rezoning
approximately 53.36 acres from County Agricultural (A) to Intensive
Commercial (CI -1), approximately 17.03 acres from County Agricultural (A)
to Interim Development Commercial (ID -C), and approximately 9 acres from
Rural Residential (RR -1) to Intensive Commercial (CI -1) for land located
west of the intersection of IWV Road SW and Slothower Road. (Second
Consideration)
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address a topic that is not on the
Council agenda? Seeing no one I'm going to close, uh, the community
comment. We are on to item number nine, Planning and Zoning matters, 9a,
rezoning IWV Road SW, ordinance to conditionally rezone approximately
53.36 acres from County Agricultural to Intensive Commercial,
approximately 17.03 acres from County Agricultural to Interim Development
Commercial, and approximately nine acres from Rural Residential to
Intensive Commercial for land located west of the intersection of IWV Road
SW and Slothower Road. And this is the second consideration. Could I get a
motion please?....Moved by Salih, seconded by Weiner. And is there anyone
from the public that would like to address this topic? Welcome.
Kauble: Hi, uh, my name is, uh, Dan Kauble and, um, I guess before I begin, uh, y'all
don't even necessarily have to like raise your hands. I mean, you could
stretch a little bit, you could see whatever just to indicate that you're for
basic accessibility for people with hybrid meetings and publishing
transcripts, uh, or not. So I guess let us begin. Um, the City needs to begin
meetings that are hybrid in-person and Zoom along with the regular
publication of verbatim transcripts. This is topical because it really, it is
related to how the public can engage with the agenda item. The fact that you
all don't do this is extremely ableist and limits the ability of the public to fully
engage with these proceedings. Um, and again, I will be repeating this every
public comment time this evening, I'm sorry to the people in the public who
have to sit through this because the Council won't indicate whether they will
meet basic accessibility needs. Um, but honestly, I don't feel bad about
making Council and City staff sit through this because I mean, I know you all
have lives, but so the, you all talk about how I'm taking up your time and it's
incredibly disrespectful to do something like this. And you all were very
horrible to Noah last meeting, when he tried to do this, I'm just going to say,
let's talk about the time that it takes the public to come to these meetings and
talk to you all. I mean, having a lot of, for a lot of people, they can't come here
because they can't engage with you. They can't engage in local civics because
there are no hybrid options. And so, yeah, we're going to take up your time.
It's going to be super inconvenient. Y'all are going to be annoyed. And the
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reason why isn't because I'm a dick, I mean, I am a dick, but it's because you
all aren't committing right now, raising our hands and saying, yeah, we'll,
we'll work on this for hybrid meetings. So I mean, if anybody wants to get me
a sign, like, I mean, I just want to go home and cuddle with my dog, but, um,
yeah. So anyways, urn, healthy governments are, I mean, the wild thing about
this issue is that Councilors have mentioned the reason why hybrid meetings
aren't enacted, it's because you want to stern public comment. Well, healthy
governments are made healthier with public participation. I mean, the more
people you get in here generating ideas, the more, I mean, that's healthy
government 101. So, um, unless you want me to continue doing this for the
rest of the evening, y'all can just raise your hand right now and commit... is
nobody going to do that? Geoff, are you going to do that? Bruce, Pauline,
Janice. John, Laura. I can have the City Attorney look away. Urn, no. Okay.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. Um, again, this going to be directed at you, Bruce, since you're the
one in charge of meeting rules and policy and lot of stuff on public comment.
So this is up to you, not the rest of Council, really at this point, is there any
time you could call a special meeting to make your meetings accessible or tell
me right now that you, Bruce Teague, Mayor of Iowa City will make the
meetings accessible.
Teague: I think it has been very clear that this Council plans to the, to do that at the
first meeting in January. We discussed this at the work session. So yes, on, on
behalf of this Council, they will be doing that in January.
Petersen: Why not now though? Because that's like (mumbled) people till January,
which is --
Teague: For one open meeting laws, we can't discuss stuff on our formal agenda.
That's why we can't engage with the public.
Petersen: But you can call a special session to have a work session on doing that, to
hold that in, like what 30, sorry, 72 hours from now. So could have a meeting
where y'all say, okay, we're voting for hybrid meeting. Here we go. You can
do that. You personally, Bruce Teague can call that meeting right now. It
would take, y'all like five minutes to do that. You want to get even, heck, call-
in Zoom since you can do that for yourselves when there's meetings, he never
took away that option. You just talk about the option for the public to get
involved, which is the accessibility problem. Once again, that's rife within the
City. Yes, you have told me that. But like, I haven't seen any urgency in it.
That's the problem is, that should have like, this should've never, like, ever
been an issue at all to begin with. That's like, why it's a problem is because
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you took it away when you could take it right back, like right now or say,
you're going to have your specials, your special meeting on it in a couple of
days. You with your own Council's rules, by the way. And you know that. I
hope, being the Mayor and all. If I know that you should know that. Beacuse
waiting to January is that means you're going to be inaccessible until January.
And then people aren't going to be able to access the first meeting with the
new Council, which that, that doesn't do enough to solve the underlying, the
accessibility problem. That shouldn't even be a problem when you, Bruce,
right now, could say, could deal with the, deal, get ready with all. So Dan and I
don't have to keep up and doing this over and over again, because you could
call that meeting right now or again like, you could just get on your computer
and email me that you're going to do that, if you don't want to publicly say it.
And then I'll yeah. There are solutions to avoid this by the way. But you,
Bruce, I'm sorry, Mayor is that's the proper, what you want me to call you.
Whatever.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: But I do remember, like when Royceann went off and on you let her speak.
Well go. You're letting me speak now. Thank you. (mumbled) make that
point.
Teague: Would anyone else like to address this item?
McGovern: Hello.
Teague: Welcome.
McGovern: My name is Tara McGovern. Chapter 21 of the Iowa Code states that the
goal of law is to guarantee through open meetings of governmental bodies,
that the basis and rationale of government decisions, as well as those
decisions themselves are easily accessible to the public. The law also says
that any ambiguity should be settled in favor of openness. The problem that
we're having is that we have been told that there -- in the January, the
pending work session, there will be some discussion of this issue, but the fact
is that we've been talking about this and asking for this, and it's something
that can be so easily accomplished and you're leaving huge portions of the
community out by not allowing for this. I mean the last meeting I, we know
intimately, well, the last meeting went on for, I think it was something about
five hours or something like this. And this is something that's I'm aware of
because since you all don't provide transcripts, this is something that we try
to do for the people in our community on our own time, using our own time
and money for the software. And when we feed those meetings into the, into
the software, they're, you know, they're getting longer and longer every time
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that we have to stand in front of you and ask you for basic accessibility.
Something that we learned from the pandemic is that these things that
disabled folks have been asking for for years have actually been available to
us for quite a long time. And it only, I think I mentioned perhaps to these
same setting, that it only took, um, rich people to be bored for long enough
for these things to actually be available during the pandemic. So we know
that we can provide these accommodations and you're just simply choosing
not to do it. So telling us that it's on a pending work session is not sufficient
to the needs of other people wanting to attend this meeting, to engage with
this meeting, to tell you what's going on in the community. It's just not good
enough. So we're asking you as a leader and one of those -- what's supposed
to be one of the more progressive cities in the United States. We're asking
this city, Iowa City in the state that the state of Iowa, Tom Harkin wrote the
Americans with Disabilities Act. We should be leaders in this way. How can
you be resisting this? You should be thanking us for bringing this to your
attention and you should be acting on it. You're excluding people. We're
going to have to keep telling you until you correct it. And it's a waste of your
time. And it's a waste of our time. It's a waste of everybody's time. Just make
the right decision.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Council
discussion? Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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9.b. Rezoning - East of S. Riverside Dr. and North of McCollister Blvd. -
Ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately 5.81 acres of property
located east of S. Riverside Dr. and north of McCollister Blvd. from High
density single-family residential (RS -12) to high density single-family
residential with a planned development overlay (OPD/RS-12). (REZ21-0009)
(Second Consideration)
Teague: Item number 9b, this is a rezoning, east of South Riverside Drive and north
of McCollister Boulevard, ordinance conditionally rezoning approximately
5.81 acres of property located east of South Riverside Drive and north of
McCollister Boulevard from High Density Single Family Residential to High
Density Single Family Residential with a Planned Development Overlay. This
is the second consideration and applicant is requesting expedited action.
Mims: I move that the rule requiring the ordinances must be considered and voted
on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to
be finally passed to be suspended, that the second consideration vote be
waived and the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Salih: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Salih. Would anyone from the public like to
address this topic?
Kauble: Yeah, I would like to talk about, thank you. Uh, my name is Dan Kauble and
I'm here to talk about accessibility concerns, which, uh, hinder the ability of
the public to engage with this agenda item. Urn, I know people are probably
annoyed that we're, uh, doing this filibuster, but the thing is, this is number
one, it's topical because every agenda item with these public hearings, people
at home can engage with these agenda items. They're limiting the ability of
the public to talk about these agenda items. And I mean, the Council is trying
to go on, oh, we can't do this because the rules, well, I'll tell you what the
Mayor can hammer his gavel, have a three-minute recess or even one -minute
recess. And everybody can go around talking about how they're going to
accept work off and do this off the record. They can say, hey, we will commit
to having hybrid meetings. The Mayor can do it right now. Hammer his gavel,
call recess. They can do this off the record. We can go back on track. Y'all can
go about your evenings. The Mayor won't do that because I honestly don't
know why, it's no good reason. And I don't like to speculate about people's
moral shortcomings, but, um, it's extremely ableist and I mean, systemically
these meetings are structured in a way without the hybrid meeting option, as
members of the Council and staff have said it's to stem public comment.
People from the public have a right to be able to comment on these things
and people can't. I mean, think about the inconvenience that we're doing to
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you all. And imagine trying to thrust that onto the public because the public, I
mean, instead of being able to sit at home, comfortable in their bathrobe,
petting their dog, they have to come to these damn meetings. I mean, it
sucks. That's what we're fighting for. We're fighting for increased
accessibility. And so, I mean, yeah, people can be annoyed that we're doing
this, or they can be annoyed at the fact that the Mayor is not just having a
quick little recess and committing to this. So, um, I mean, it's ridiculous. It's,
it's, it's some kind of bullshit powerplay and I don't understand it. So, I mean,
instead of doing a quick little recess where everybody can, off the record,
commit to this totally legal, totally doable...I mean, it seems like I'm just going
to have to come up here all evening talking about this issue. And I, I mean, I
wish I didn't have to do this. I want to go home and watch The Last Tool.
Cause that movie looks really good. I love Adam Driver, but the City is
wanting to stem public comment by not committing off the record right now
in a recess to having hybrid meetings, Mayor Teague, you can end this, the
ball is in your court. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome
Petersen: Hello, my name's Noah, um, yeah, he said pretty much as you know, uh,
anytime some of you have privately off the record told me that you are that
for next, for next year, it's going to be a thing, but that, it needs to happen
now. And Bruce, Mayor, whatever you want to be called, gavel, and all of you
tell us off the record that that's what's going to happen. And then it's going to
happen before the next meeting and then you can set your special meeting or
you can do that. Now. It's really all, this is all on you, Mayor. Not, not the rest
of you. You, you, you could, you're on call at his whims too on this matter,
unfortunately, but it's really up to you Bruce. [drumming on podium]
Everyone having a lovely evening? Because yes, this is a filibuster because
right now the City is being ableist, and I'm a disabled person. And I don't
appreciate my community being oppressed. And I'm not just gonna be okay
with that. If my filibuster inconveniences you, I guess I'm sorry? Be mad at
Bruce for not (laughing) to making meetings accessible, then like, eh, don't
put your anger at someone who has no power and put it on people who have
the power to do this, to stop ableism right now. They are choosing not to. So
I'm going to choose to use my time in this so-called democracy. To try and get
some change here. [drumming] The meeting could be a lot shorter if you
would just do that, by the way, this isn't a controversial, this is, well, it's not
controversial. If it is controversial, you're morally wrong. It's that simple. If
you'd like to think it's controversial for having basic accessibility, because
that's like, that's not a controversial thing and shouldn't be at least, But again,
that's the case with lots of the isms and stuff is that stuff shouldn't be
controversial, but apparently is. [drumming]
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Teague: Anything else for Council?
Petersen: Urn, 8, 7, 6, just waiting for the time, run down. You're welcome.
Teague: Thank you. I do want to just mention that there are single moms and
individuals that are waiting to talk on an agenda item. And what I, what I will
say is that this Council has talked about having this item on our first, first
work session with our new Council. Would anyone else like to address this
topic, please come and welcome.
McGovern: Hello, my name is Tara McGovern, and I'm so glad that you mentioned
single moms because, um, you know, Noah has spoken a little bit about what
hybrid meetings might mean, um, from the community that he is here
representing. Um, and it's also a good idea for us to reflect on all of the other
people that, um, are left out by the lack of accommodations by the City. So
there's something called a curb cut effect and what that refers to is the ways
in which, urn, the accommodations extended to people, um, that, that require
them actually benefit all of us. And so, um, though there's lots of parents and
Iowa City's single mothers, single fathers, single parents of all varieties who
might like to be here at this meeting and engage that are not able to do so.
Um, so I'm, I really appreciate you bringing that up, that idea because that's
one of the groups that is misrepresented. So, um, I think perhaps just a little
explanation of what exactly it is that we're asking for. Um, the Board of
Supervisors and the TRC, both have meetings that take place on zoom, where
the public can call in and comment during public comment. This is
technology that is available to you and is absolutely accessible, um, that
you're just choosing not to engage with. And so the other thing that we're
asking for is verbatim transcripts. And that's something that might have been
very complicated to provide in the past, but as it happens, there are lots of
software like otter.ai is a software that can be used that would need minimal
personal engagement in order to produce transcripts. So that people who are
don't, people who take in information best when reading it, have an
opportunity to understand what's happening at these meetings in a way that
might not be available. If somebody is trying to watch the meeting or listen
to the meeting. And so we're not asking for some newfangled technology
that's not available. In fact, your very own ad hoc TRC is able to provide
hybrid meetings because they made it a priority. And I was very honored to
sit in the TRC meeting recently, to listen to some young leaders come and
speak to the TRC and be inspired by the work that they're doing. And the TRC
managed to make accessible hybrid meetings from the beginning, because it
was something that they, as a commission decided to do. It is something that
you can do. It is something that could have been done for today. We all have
other things that we want to be doing right now. And there are lots of people
here who want to engage. We are just asking for accessibility for people who
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cannot engage in the same way that those of us who are able to be here
today. So first it was Noah, then it was Noah and Dan. Now it's Noah, Dan and
me. I mean, we're not the only people in the community that have issues with
this. So I guess I foresee these meetings getting longer and longer until you
provide this basic accommodation.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic, seeing no one,
Council discussion.
Bergus: Mayor, I just want to clarify that we are voting on the rezoning of the, uh,
east of Riverside Drive and north of McCollister Boulevard. Is that right?
Teague: Correct.
Taylor: That's do we vote on the condensing? Do we have to vote on that?
Goers: That's the motion that's on the floor now.
Taylor: Is condensing.
(female): Condensing, correct. [crosstalk]
Taylor: Um, I, I personally am not in favor of condensing. I think that this group had
some issues that, uh, some questions, uh, that still need to be, uh, clarified
before, uh, the applicant can come back before a third reading. But that's my
personal opinion.
Teague: So there's, I mean, right now we have second consideration out there for it
to be, um, condensed or expedited. Is there anyone else, um, in favor of what
Councilor Taylor is stating? If not, then I think we'll proceed with the
expedited. Roll call please....Can I get a motion to pass and adopt?
Mims: Moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Weiner. Roll call please.... A motion to accept
correspondence?
Salih: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Weiner. [voice vote]
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9.c. Rezoning — Hickory Trail - Ordinance conditionally rezoning
approximately 48.75 acres of property located south of N. Scott Blvd. & west
of N. 1st Ave., from Interim Development — Single Family Residential (ID -RS)
to Low Density Single -Family Residential with a Planned Development
Overlay (OPD/RS-5). (REZ21-0008) (Second Consideration)
Teague: Item number 9c is rezoning Hickory Trail. This is an ordinance
conditionally rezoning approximately 48.75 acres of property located south
of North Scott Boulevard and west of North First Avenue from Interim
Development Single Family Residential to Low Density Single Family
Residential with a Planned Development Overlay. This is the second
consideration and the applicant has requested expedited action.
Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted
on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to
be finally passed be suspended, that the second consideration vote be
waived, and that the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Taylor, and welcome, Danielle.
Sitzman: Good evening, Mayor and Council, Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and
Development Services. At the last, uh, reading of this item, it was requested
that the, uh, applicants`, uh, aerial flyover presentation, which was given to
the Planning and Zoning Commission, be available for viewing tonight. Would
you like me to play that?
Thomas: I would. I think I may have mentioned it and I, I think it would be of
interest to the Council and to those watching.
Sitzman: Okay - we have it here, and we will dim the lights and queue it up.
Sitzman: Mayor, staff does not have a presentation tonight, but the applicant is here
and would like to make a few comments.
Teague: Great. Thank you. Welcome.
Alden: Good evening, Andrew Alden from AG Architecture, Wawautosa, Wisconsin.
That was a real solemn moment there as we did the fly around, it was very
quiet. I should have mentioned three key points about that fly around. So the
purpose of the fly around was to show how the building design nestled in
with the surrounding landscape. So the first point I would make is that the
hills and valleys are accurate. It was based off of survey data that was
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applied; the size and form and mass of the building is accurate. The location
of the trees and the vegetation is accurate. But what we really use for trees
was just for representation. So somebody that knows the real area really well
probably said, there's a red maple right there. Yeah, there probably is. But if
it showed trees in a site plan, we put trees in. If it showed vegetation, we put
vegetation. And once again, just to show the design of the building and how it
nestled in that site and I'm available to answer any questions.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic, please
come forth. And before we get started, could I see a hand, a raising of hands
of everyone that wants to address this topic please? Only one -- oh, two.
Anyone else. Okay.
Petersen: All right. Urn, oh yes Noah, as you know. All right, I'm going to read the
little resolution for Iowa City on calling special meetings here for you,
Resolution 06-54, resolution repealing or resolution tasks on July 2nd, 2002
[mumbling] for calling, establishing procedure for calling for a special
meeting in adopting a new resolution establishing procedure for calling of a
special council meeting and notification of such electronically. Whereas
sitting ordinance number 2342, codified as City Code section 1-5-5 provides
that the procedure for the calling of a special meeting shall be separate
resolution.
Teague: This is not the topic for this item --
Petersen: And whereas the [crosstalk] this is, this is about accessibility of your
meeting. This is the resolution that is, that tells you how like you could call a
special session right now to end this.
Teague: It needs to be on this topic, please.
Petersen: Uh, let's get to the good part. Uh, therefore it shall be resolved by City
Council of Iowa City, Iowa that one, said resolution of July 2nd, 2002 is here
by repealed through special meeting coun -- City Council, City Council of the
City, that's a lot of c's, of Iowa City, Iowa shall be called by the Mayor or three
council members. You're the Mayor. So you can call that. Um, notice of the
calling of the special Council meetings shall be in writing and shall include
the time and place of said meeting the business shall be conducted at said
meeting. And the person, the person's calling said meeting, which if you
require your [mumbling], gavel, gavel, and then call that meeting in your
recess, if you can't do that, this current meeting, but you can do that in your
recess, the meeting should not make this meeting go on longer than it has to.
Um, yes. Notice shall be served on each Council member at least 24 hours
prior to the time of said meeting by delivering a copy, therefore to the council
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member in person or in the Council. So a 24, not 72 hours, 24 hours, you
could have a meeting about doing this. And then at that meeting, you say,
from now on out, we're going to have hybrid meetings immediately. That's
something you can do right now, and then figure out why you have a bizarre
transcription schedule. So I haven't, I think, I've heard back as you don't,
you're, the old, the -- the past transcriber recently retired. So I don't know if
it's a hiring problem or whatever exactly is going on, but you still have some
transcripts and you have like more recent ones too, but -- it's whoever's gone
there is just weird, but you can immediately be doing the hybrid and then
doing the full ver, verbatim. Yeah. So, you know, I just felt like I'd read them
the resolution. So you know what I'm talking about.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: You're welcome.
Teague: Would anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
Kohrt: My name is Casey Kohrt and I live at 435 Rundell Street, and I am
representing the board of, uh, Friends of Hickory Hill Park tonight. And I
wanted to reiterate that we do support this project very much, and we'd like
to commend the developer for, um, being community- and environmentally -
minded, um, with their decision on the development and, um, on, on deciding
to give the land to the citizens of Iowa City. I would also like to commend the,
uh, City Councilors for, um, choosing the right, um, project for this special
piece of land. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. And please sign in on the side table there. Thank you. Anyone
else? Welcome.
McGovern: So my name is Tara McGovern. Um, I'm speaking today about
accessibility, which is relevant to this topic because people who wanted to
come and engage with you about this may not have been able to do so due to
your current policies that are in place that could be changed at any moment
very, very easily. Now, the good news is I know Iowa City always really likes
feeling better than other places. So I do have some good news for you in that
regard, which is that the Coralville City Council, now here's the thing in the
Coralville City Council. You can't even, when they have Zoom meetings, you
actually can't even call into those Zoom meetings. You have to physically go
to, um, City Hall. Even when the rest of the Council is meeting on Zoom, you
have to physically go to City Hall in order to put in a comment for the City
Council meeting. So you're already ahead of Coralville, which I think
everybody can appreciate, because we all like to think about what a
progressive community we are here and how welcoming and accessible we
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like to be. So you're already ahead in that regard, you already have the great
leaders of the ad hoc TRC who have already demonstrated in their own work,
prioritizing accessibility by setting their meetings up that way from the
beginning. Um, and, and then, um, you can look to the Johnson County, urn,
Board of Supervisors, because they also have hybrid meetings, urn, where
you can call into Zoom and engage with the comments. Um, so these are all
things that are really easily provide, easily able to provide. Um, and the
reason that we're continuing to talk about it, even though, um, I've heard you
say that this is, um, in the pending work sessions for the January meeting is,
um, first of all, we all know that that's where topics go to die here. We've
been paying attention and also, um, we're not going to wait until January
because we shouldn't have to. We're the public, we need to be able to be
engaged with the City Council. You should care about our thoughts and our
concerns. And, urn, so I guess we're just going to have to continue doing this
unless you just take a little break as a Council, be leaders, frankly, I don't
know what stopping you and just acknowledge that you've done wrong and
you can do better. This is not hard. So, I mean, I'm happy to cede my last 40
seconds, 39 seconds, 38 seconds, if you just want a break and discuss as a
Council, the leaders that we've elected and we may or may not elect again.
Um, simply what we're asking for, which is accessibility. We want hybrid
meetings and we want verbatim transcripts, and this is a City that's supposed
to be a leader. And there's no reason why you can't provide that. I think Geoff
knows better than anyone, how easy it would be to provide that. Perhaps you
could speak to that, but I know the, (laughing) it only goes in one direction.
So, but fortunately, there's other people here in this room, there's people that
are able to watch, but not respond, um, to the meeting. And so I look forward
to you making the right decision.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Kauble: Hi. Urn, thank you. I feel welcomed. Uh, my name is Dan Kauble and I'm here
to talk about accessibility. Um, so I am honestly shocked that like we're at
this point where we're having to come here, every public comment section
session to talk about this issue, because number one, folks have been talking
requesting in-person Zoom meetings for months, months. There's been a lot
of buildup to this moment right now. That's one reason why I'm shocked. I
mean, there's no reason why the stone has been kicked this far down the
road. Secondly, I'm shocked because I thought that we would get here, we'd
probably do one hearing, maybe two hearings, Bruce,I thought you would call
recess, Y'all would have the quick, yeah, we get this, we're going to go for this,
we just, we're going to support it when it comes to the work session, because
yeah, you have it on the work session. Again, work sessions are where things
go to die. I'm going to have a little prediction for what will happen at that
work session. Staff is going to talk to you about, oh, it's so hard to implement
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this. There are lots of challenges, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, lots of costs.
Someone may bring up, hey, we don't want people coming. Client -- chiming
in all these issues because people have said that in the past. Urn, or, I mean,
that would be saying the quiet part out loud. So I don't know if anybody
would do that, but I mean, I'm just surprised that the City, like, I mean, you
keep going on about how it's on a work session. That's not a commitment. I
want, hey, I'm going to fight for hybrid meetings, and Bruce, yeah, I mean,
y'all can talk about how we're wasting your time. We're wasting the public's
time, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. We're wasting single mothers time. Bro.
You're wasting single mothers' time by forcing single mothers to come here
before this council when they could just stay at home with their kids and
zoom in. I mean, what's that, that's ridiculous. And again, you, the power did
not even like, I mean, I know I said we could have the special session right
now. I'm not even for me personally, I'm just asking that, Hey, you just all say,
Hey, we're going to do this. We're going to fight for this. And we're not that
we're going to put it on a work session. Hey, we're going to fight for this and
we're going to make sure this is right. I mean, it's just wild to me that nobody
is doing that. I mean, it's kind of like a pissing contest and I mean, I'm, at the
end of the day, we will win this pissing contest. But I mean, Mr. Mayor, you
could just go into recess and have everybody commit that, hey, we'll fight for
hybrid meetings, but you won't because you want to keep on this pissing
contest. Well, I'll tell you what, I have a big bladder I'm going to win. Thank
you.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Council
discussion? And this is the rezoning of Hickory Trail.
Salih: I guess I'm glad to see that, the resident again, the resident and the developer
comes to agreement. This is really great. And that's kind of the model. Uh, I
always appreciate it when I see the developer and the residents come
together to agreement. And so this is, will be making like really easy for the
Council to decide. And again, thank you to the developers, thank you to the
residents for coming together for this.
Mims? This one is a big win for the community.
Salih: And big win for the community, of course.
Mims: I'll support it. I continue to think. It's, uh, unfortunately we've lost the
possibility of 40 -plus new homes in the area, because that plan still did add
land to Hickory Hill Park.
Taylor: I would just like to stress again to the developer that, uh, with such a large
footprint from the buildings that, uh, you please take steps to minimize any
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overall impacts on the environment. Um, cause there are many things that
you can do and everyone will benefit from it in the long run.
Teague: Roll call please.
Goers: Just -- again, for clarification, we're at motion to waive second consideration.
Teague: Motion passes 7-0. Could I get a motion to pass and adopt?
Mims: So move, Mims.
Salih: Second, Salih.
Teague. Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0 .... Could I get a motion to accept
correspondence? Moved by Thomas, seconded by Salih. Motion passes 7-0.
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10. Reprecincting - Ordinance amending section 1-9-3B of the Code of
Ordinances of Iowa City, Iowa, establishing the boundaries of the voting
precincts in Iowa City; and section 1-5-1, establishing the voting precincts
that comprise the three city council districts in Iowa City.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 10 is a reprecint, re-precincting ordinance amending the
Section 1-9-3b of the Code of Ordinances of Iowa City, Iowa establishing the
boundaries of the voting precincts in Iowa City and Section 1-5-1 establishing
the voting precincts that compromise the three City Council districts in Iowa
City. I'm going to open the public hearing and I'm going to welcome our City
Attorney, Eric Goers.
Goers: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, this item is going to require a little bit of
explanation because of some late changes and the kind of rapid pace with
which this process has evolved given the late, uh, federal Census and late, uh,
state acceptance of, um, the state maps that, uh, put a lot of time pressure, uh,
on, uh, the approval process. So again, uh, for those who, uh, weren't at the
Council's last work session, when, uh, reprecincting was discussed, uh, staff
reached out to, uh, the County Auditor's office and requested that they assist
with the drawing of maps. We thought it would be nice to have an outside
entity with kind of no dog in the fight to use, uh, the County Auditor's phrase,
um, draw the maps. Uh, they did so and, uh, uh, staff reviewed those maps, uh
were A, B and C; the staff recommended C because it had a, just even
population for each of the 27 precincts, uh, that, uh, brought to Council,
Council decided they wanted to have the work session. And so that's what
happened on, uh, December 7th. At that December 7th work session, uh,
Council expressed interest in Maps A and uh, C, uh, specifically. Um, the
developments since that time, that is since the work session on December
7th, include a number of things. One was further review of Map A, uh,
discovered that it had a precinct boundary that bisected, uh, Briarwood
Healthcare Center behind old Roosevelt School, uh, obviously that's not good.
And then so we worked with the County to make a correction on Map A of
that problem. That problem did not exist on Map C because both sides of
Briar Hill were in the same precinct. Uh, the County has approved, uh, the
County was the one who redrew and the County has approved that change.
That does resolve any slight population, I think there were six people that
moved from one Council district, not precinct, but district to the other
Council district, obviously that doesn't make a significant difference in the
population numbers. Um, furthermore, maps with the current versus
proposed precinct lines have been provided in the late handout. And by the
late handout, I'd better use dates because there have been a couple of late
handouts. I'm talking about, uh, the one from December 13th, yesterday. Um,
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and so hopefully you folks have had an opportunity to do that. There was a
special request from Council to be able to compare and contrast the
proposed, uh, precincts from what is present, uh, now. Urn, as I was
suggesting, those maps are now obsolete, sorry for that because of the most
recent change, which happened today. And that's, uh, that, uh, the County
approached the City yesterday and said, they'd like to combine to some
precincts as they've done in the past at some of the outlying areas of the city.
So that, uh, part of the County is meeting in Iowa City with those precincts
out there. I think it is three precincts per map that is on each A and C. Those
new maps are provided in the late handout that went out today. Uh, Kellie
has that loaded up on the laptop, so if Council members would like to see the
maps, you have printed copies, but if you'd like to have them projected, Kellie
has indicated, she'd be happy to do that. We also, uh, quickly changed the
legal description to account for those, because even though the County
portions are obviously outside our city limits, um, it's been made clear that
we need to combine them in the legal descriptions. And so the, uh, late
packet, uh, also -- from today, I should say from December 14th, also includes
amended, uh, legal descriptions for the pre, three precincts that are affected
in each of those two plans. Those are, um, for what it's worth, in Plan A, uh,
Precincts 10, 15 and 22, that is two to the south, in the South District, and one
to the north. Uh, and Plan C, those are in, uh, Precincts 10, 12 and 22. So
those need to be incorporated into, um, the ordinance tonight. Now it was
always the plan, urn, following the Council's work session on December 7th,
that, urn, we would have the public hearing, and of course we would hear
public comment, urn, on what they would like to see. Urn, and then Council
would have the discussion and the Council would have to make a decision
tonight about Plan A, Plan C, you know, something else, um, hopefully Plan A
or Plan C, cause that's what we have prepared and we have a tight timeline.
Um, and so when it comes time for that, uh, motion, I will ask, uh, Council to
advance, uh, or move one of those plans, you know, A or C, that Council's
choosing and then proceed to Council discussion and so forth, urn, on that
plan. That doesn't mean you're wedded to that plan. You can, if it, it looks like
Council is interested in the opposite plan, uh, the first motion can be
withdrawn and the second offered, or we can do a motion to amend, kind of
depending on how things go. Um, so you're not locked in, but I just kind of
want to set the stage for what the, uh, proceedings will be, uh, this evening.
Um, let me speak a little bit more about the, uh, the timing, just so that's more
clear. Uh, the first, uh, kinda drop dead date that we're up against is January
3rd. That's when, that's 60 days past when the Governor signed into law the
state maps. And so we need to have everything to the Secretary of State for
their approval, uh, no later than that. And more importantly now is that
January 15th is the date at which all of these, uh, are implemented in, into or
finalized, I guess I'll say, but before that date, we need to send, urn, our maps
with their legal descriptions. If we enter into the agreement with the County
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to share these precincts and polling places, those agreements need to be, uh,
approved as well. And the County needs to finish all that, that all needs to be
sent to the Secretary of State's office. They need to be given an opportunity to
review the plans, to make sure that no mistakes have been made; mistakes
were made 10 years ago. And so that's, that's a, that's a live possibility, these
legal descriptions, if you've had a chance to review them, are pretty
complicated. And we've had very competent staff, uh, within the City who
specialize in this stuff, work, them, review them and so forth. Uh, and so it's
our, every expectation that everything will be correct, but I'm here to tell you
that it would be easy to mess up one little thing. Um, and if there are any
changes they would need to come back to the City, the City would need to
amend its ordinance, with all that that entails, all before January 15th. So.
We're in a rush, um, as a result of, again, the state and federal Census' being
rather late and the approval of the maps being so late. And so that's the
reason this has been, I mean, it would be, I'd love to just defer it to the next
meeting and have it more fully polished, but, uh, that's why we can't do that.
So, uh, again, um, you know, depending on, uh, the way it, Council discussion
goes and so forth, um, I'll ask Council to move one, have the discussion on
one and so forth. And then the staff will also be asking for you to collapse all
three readings into tonight so that we can get this sent off as quickly as
possible, um, to, uh, the Secretary of State in the event that there are any
changes. Uh, as I've mentioned, there's a separate agreement that we'll need
to sign off with the County. We'll need to have that approved. It, it's, uh,
staffs recommendation that we have a single item special meeting perhaps
as early as later this week, uh, to address, uh, and approve those, uh, well that
single agreement with the County. And then that could be submitted with our
material, will need to be submitted with our material and the County's
material as well. And, uh, off to the Secretary of State's website, and hopefully
we haven't made mistakes and, and we're done. Um, that's what I've got, but
I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about the process about
the materials that are before you, um, or anything else about the re--, uh, or
the precincts that have been proposed.
Weiner: So with respect to one of the things that you talked about earlier, the, the
three County precincts or that that would be, um, voting, is it, is it simply that
those County precincts will be voting in one of the Iowa City precincts? They
always get different ballots, and it's pretty seamless. Is that what this is
focused on?
Goers: That's exactly right. With, with one potential clarification, they will all be
polling in the same place. I'm assuming it'll be in Iowa City, just because
we're more dense and we have more places available, but it will be in a single
place. And just, as you say, the different, uh, you know, city residents, county
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residents would get different ballots and they do that all the time. That's,
they're fully capable of that.
Weiner: Thank you.
Goers: Sure.
Bergus: Can we get the current maps up on the screen, just so that people who don't
have them in front of them can -- can see?
Goers: Sure. Uh, while Kellie's loading that, I'll just describe a little bit more about
what's on there. One of the, that, urn, Mark Kistler, who was kind enough at
the very last minute to put together these maps, uh, was to add a box which
describes, urn, not only the precincts, the Iowa City precincts that are
affected, that is, that are being combined, but also the number of people who
live in the townships and the unincorporated portion of the county, urn, to
make it clear that those, uh, total population of the precinct is, is below 3,500.
In fact, they all appear to be under 3000, which would be similar to every
other precinct in Iowa City. Uh, it looks like Kellie's got them up. I'm sorry,
I'm looking at it. All right. So Kellie's got A, uh, up here. And so again, just for
the benefit of those who are looking at this first time. So when you look at the
very kind of, uh, southeast the bottom right-hand corner, there's a blue line
that is the, uh, represents the boundary of Iowa City. And so you see that
there is what appears on my screen anyway, to be pink and tan. Those are
two areas that overlap that is, they straddle both the county and the city.
Those are two of the combined precincts in question, the other is on the,
sorry, one more Kellie. The other is on the north side. Um, I'm sorry, Kellie's
gonna take a moment to zoom in. All right. So you can see those are the two
precincts. Um, I'm having a hard time reading the numbers, but, uh, for those
things, is it 10 and 12? Or no, I'm sorry, 10 and 15 on this map?
Fruehling: 10 and 15.
Goers: 10 and 15. Thank you. Um, so those are the two on the south, and then there's
one more on the north, Kellie, if I can get you to scroll up there, and that's, I
believe 22. So that's in blue in the center of your screen. So you see a
reference to East Lucas North, that's an unincorporated portion of the county
and then south of that blue line is within the city limits of Iowa City. So here's,
uh, A, maybe we'll, um, go to C, Kellie, if you're ready. Again, same idea, you
know, southeast portion, you can see the overlap at the county into those two
precincts and again, same location in the north, now in the north, it's in a
green, but also labeled East Lucas North. And so again, the, the idea is here is
just, uh, voter efficiency. Um, those folks are obviously used to coming into
Iowa City for all manner of things anyway. And so they're certainly not, the
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county voters that is, are certainly not inconvenienced and we're not
overcrowding. The numbers I was referring to a moment ago are to the left,
um, kind of upper left of the screen, right there. It's awfully small, Kellie,
would you mind zooming in on that just a little bit. Thank you. So those are
the, you can see the total population listed for those following combination
with the county, uh, portions of, of voters who would be coming in. As you
can see, that's dominated by city, uh, residents. There's a couple hundred, or
in the case of East Lucas Southeast, 14 people, um, who will be, uh, corning
into, well, I presume coming into Iowa City, uh, to do their voting.
Teague: Any other questions for Eric?
Weiner: No, just if I recall, I mean, I think what the, what, if I recall what the Auditor
staff said, it's essentially much easier for them to come into an Iowa City
precinct than it would be to send them up to North Liberty. And that's what
they're suggesting now.
Teague: All right. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic? Welcome.
Levin: Hello, my name is Elinor Levin. I'm a resident of the South District at 781
Sandusky Drive. And I simply want to acknowledge and extend gratitude to
the Auditor's office staff, to the City staff and to the City Council for moving
with an expedited timetable on this incredibly important topic and making
sure that our voting will go forward smoothly in 2022. I cede the rest of my
time.
Teague: Okay. Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? And Elinor, if you
don't mind just signing on the table when you get a chance. Thank you.
Welcome.
Petersen: Hello? Noah. Urn, are you going to call a special meeting to have, so then at
the meeting you can establish your, you can have our meetings for
[mumbled] before the next formal meeting in January. All right. Okay. Let's
do a little throwback here. I'm going to read my statement that I read last
meeting, just to refresh y'all's memories. Um, now I will expand on the need
for having Zoom -in call public comment at meetings. Every single person
should have the same opportunity for public comment as everyone else.
Currently, that's not the case. Contacting y'all by email, phone, or in-person
out of meeting is not the same as giving public comment at a public meeting.
That is a fact. This unacceptable, ableist and discriminatory that the previous
accommodation of having hybrid meetings is not available for all public
meetings. This is accommodation that both the County Board of Supervisors
and Iowa City TRC are currently providing. We are in a pandemic. People
who currently still, people who can not currently safely make it to a meeting,
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are being discriminate, discriminated against. People should not have to risk
death to participate in this so-called democracy. If we weren't still in a
pandemic, there are a lot of reasons people physically cannot attend the
meetings like single mothers who have to take care of their children who
can't physically make it to these meetings. And they'd like to have hybrid
meetings and Zoom in. And so it's kind of funny that you brought that up. Um,
I guess we can't [mumbled], and should still be able to, if we truly had
accessible meetings, I'm a disabled person. I should be able to participate in
public meetings when my disability prevents me from being able to
physically make it to said meetings. But currently I can't do that. This Council
is currently being, uh, ableist and discriminatory against me and my entire,
an the entire disabled community. You were telling me and my disabled folks,
community that we matter less to this government than our able neighbors
do, which is wrong. And this so-called progressive place, whatever that
means that term is meaningless now, but like it's [mumbled] prides itself as
being better than everywhere else or whatever, even though you [mumbled]
this better than most other places in Iowa, that's just the sad reality that we
are here in Iowa and those places. And it's not acceptable to say, look around
and be happy with what you got when you're currently not being accessible.
And you, Mayor, right now could save time off your meetings by calling for a
special meeting or gaveling, and then calling for a special meeting. And then I
won't to have to keep doing this. It's really simple. So why aren't you going to
do that?
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: That's what I'd like to know.
Teague: Anyone else like to address this topic?
Goers: Mayor, before the next public comment, I'm sorry, I failed to recognize that
there are a couple of representatives from the County Auditor's office who
are here at our request to answer any questions you may have: Mark Kistler
and, uh, Bogdana Velterean. Um, so if you do have any questions for the
County from their perspective, I'm sure they'd be happy to answer them for
you.
Teague: Great, thanks. Welcome.
Kubby: Good evening. My name is Karen Kubby. I live at 1425 Ridge Street in Iowa
City, and I have to say, I haven't looked at these maps extensively, but what I
want to encourage you is that a lot of change is going to happen in our
community over the next 10 years. And so whichever map gives us the most
flexibility for growth, not only on the outskirts, but growth in the center of
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town for increased density to make sure there's room for all different kinds
of growth, and that there's room for the worst case scenario of our state
legislature doing things that make it harder to vote, that creates precincts
that make it easier for people to participate. I hope that's the choice that you
make. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
Kauble: Hi. Um, I would like to address, uh, accessibility concerns, which limit the
public's ability to engage with this ite -- agenda item. Um, I think first I'm just
going to start and kind of tell a little story. Um, it, this person, I mean, is
fictional, but also, I mean, I know that there are people out there and who are
in a similar situation, uh, hurting. Let's just say her name is Loretta
Buchanan, right? Loretta is 80 years old, bad knees, no car, no one to drive
her winter time. She has to take the bus and to get groceries, to do whatever,
to move around, to be able to do what people need to do to survive. Loretta
Buchanan, because in the winter time, the City does a very poor -- at -- as
public commenters have stated in the past, the City does a poor job plowing
bus stops. And not only that, but the new bus schedule has her confused. So
can't move around because there's no plowing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
She wants to talk to the Council about this, but can't because of accessibility
concerns. Y'all are silencing people like Loretta Buchanan. I mean, there are, I
mean, I, I know real people who I could name, but I'm not going to out them.
But hybrid meetings are essential for getting the people in front of the
government and having the government being held accountable by people.
Um, it's just really a no brainer. And Mayor, you have the power to whether it
be a hearing to automatically, as Noah suggested, put this change into effect
now a special session, or just a short recess saying every, getting everybody
to commit to this off the record, but just the gentleman's agreement,
whatever you want to have, you have the power Mr. Mayor. And it's really
it's. I mean, it's, there have been, uh, there's been a lot of time of us speaking
about this matter tonight, but I don't think that's the story. I think the story is
the fact that for whatever reason, you're putting your pride ahead of the
welfare of the people attending this meeting who have to sit through all of
our bullshit because you're refusing to just commit to this. I mean, it's, it's
really, it's really embarrassing for you, Mr. Mayor. And to be honest, I think
that when time comes, when the new Council's in session, fellow Councilors, I
don't even know if you all would want to have the Mayor, appoint the Mayor
to be the Mayor again, because I mean, there's so many other issues. There
have been problems with the Mayor's performance with this and with lots of
other stuff. So, I mean, maybe we need a new Mayor. I wouldn't be opposed.
I'm curious to see people's thoughts about this. So thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
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McGovern: My name is Tara McGovern. Urn, this'll be my last comment. I have to go
pick up my child. Um, and I wanted to talk about accessibility. I'm mentioning
that because I, I would be here longer if I could. Urn, I don't know why you
haven't had a short recess and discussed doing this very basic thing that
we're asking. Um, but I, um, I guess this would just be a good time for us to
reflect on where we see ourselves going as a city. Um, so a lot of, um, there's a
lot of people in this community that don't feel like they have a voice in
government, and there's actually quite a few people who are, are, um,
organizing so that we can have more accessibility in government. And when
we bring accessibility concerns to you, when we've brought them to the
Board of Supervisors, frequently what we get are people talking about how
they're experts on disability because they work with people with disabilities.
And, urn, this is a really problematic fallacy that we've heard, urn, from
various people in government who may have, um, experience working with
people with disabilities with, with disabled folks. Um, so what we're asking
for here is to have our actual voice, we want you to allow disabled folks, to
allow people that can't attend these meetings for other reasons, to have an
actual voice and not just speak on our behalf. It's not enough to say that
you've worked with people that you have an idea of what their needs are.
We're standing in front of you and telling you, we want to engage with
government and we vote. You should want us to be engaged. We
communicate with each other. We organize. Urn, and a lot of us actually do
quite a lot of work that the City just doesn't bother to do. You know, there's a
lot of people, um, in our group that are serving meals to folks that need them
that are otherwise filling in gaps, um, helping with snow shoveling rather
than getting penalized, um, by the City. There's just people, neighbors,
friends, people gathering in our community that are organized. And we just
don't feel like we should have to fight with you to be, urn, to here among you,
to be able to comment and, and to have you hear us and to have you take
action and not tell us bullshit things like we're going to talk about it in a few
weeks. This is so easy to fix. And I really think every one of you should be
very embarrassed at this moment that you are not looking into your own
basic humanity and just taking a pause and thinking we are excluding people.
We are willingly excluding people, and there's something that you can do
about it. And you're just choosing not to. It's bullshit. Do better.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, Council
discussion?
Goers: Yeah, we need -- if you're ready, you can close the public hearing and then....
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Teague: Oh, okay. That's right. I'm going to close the public hearing and all right,
Council, could I get a motion to give first consideration? And I think we're
going to do it for Map A and the legal description associated with Map A?
2. Consider an Ordinance (First, Second and Third Consideration)
Salih: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Weiner, and Council discussion.
Bergus: Based on the work session conversation that we had in the presentation
from the Auditor's, um, representatives, I think Map A is, is the one we should
go with, um, particularly relating to the ability for areas to have growth in the
future. Um, I appreciated the idea behind C being like balanced at this
moment in time, but I think it would be good for us to be proactive and, um,
have those precincts that can expand.
Salih: Yeah. And I agree too with Councilor Bergus about that. And I like it because
especially it's not dividing the University of Iowa into two different precincts
so no confusion and the growth, also a big deal. And yeah, I -- I'm going to
vote for A.
Thomas: Uh, I support A as well. Um, I was, uh, particularly concerned with those
persons who, um, choose to vote at their polling place, urn, have no barriers
to that polling place, for example. And this was highlighted by some, you
know, resident in the South District that, you know, the current precinct, uh,
residential precinct crossed over Highway 6. I think of Highway 6 as one of
the most significant barriers, physical barriers in Iowa City. And so with the
creation of the new, the new precinct south of the, um, highway, distinct from
the area to the north, I think that was a significant improvement. You know,
I've also, I'm very much interested in another aspect of this and I did contact
Mar, Marcia Bollinger on this question, and that is the degree to which the
precincts either align or do not align with how neighborhoods kind of self -
identify geographically. Urn, it's helpful when they do, I mean, it's not
essential, but I do think when, when all, all maps of a given area, um, reflect
one another to a great extent, uh, there's a benefit to that. You know, I'm, I
live on the North Side, the North Side has an identity that's based in part on
its geographical form and shape. It actually has been impacted to some
degree by Plan A, it's, you know, been chopped off and fragmented on its
southern, southern boundary. But, urn, that fragmentation, I don't think will
be, will disable the, this identity that the North Side has. There are other,
other aspects that contribute to that identity. And it also speaks to in my
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mind too, the other piece of this, which we don't really have current
information regarding, and that is where the polling places, because the
polling place locations will, sorry, will also, um, be a factor in terms of the
two issues that I'm raising. One is access and the other is, does this polling
place, urn, as in the North Side and I, I don't mean to emphasize the North
Side, I just happen to know it better. Uh, Horace Mann is the center of the
North Side. So the fact that it's a polling place reinforces that sense of its
centeredness, urn, you know, public, uh, public facility in the center of that
particular neighborhood. Um, I wish going into this, that, um, you know, and
asking Marcia about this, she did speak to some people about it. Um, but it
was not something that generated widespread, uh, discussion, um. In any
event, you know, it seemed to me with regard to that issue, Plan A was, was
effective in addressing some of the deficiencies of the existing precinct map.
In terms of growth, I mean, I think, you know, there's room within all the
precincts to grow. I think predicting growth is very difficult in some respects.
So I'm, you know, I, I'm more focused on how, how are these precincts
serving the existing community, uh, and that's been my emphasis.
Weiner: I sort of looked at, um, I, I also favor Plan A for a couple of the reasons that
have been discussed already. One is really the, the, the possibility for growth
on the fringes that's built into it, where we know that there are growth areas
for the city. Um, another is that it splits the, the dorms evenly so that you
have the east side and the west side, side dorms. And that, to me, it's often a
challenge to, to get our, the student population to vote. Um, we want to make
that as easy as possible and as, um, and as sort of logical as possible. Uh, and
when I sort of, when I look at some of the actions that the legislature took
over the last, over the last, in the last session, um, and think to myself, what
could, what might they do to further, to make it even more, the process more
difficult than they have in the past? The thing that occurs to me is they could
decide to get rid of satellite voting. We have often used satellite voting in
particular to help get the students to vote. So the, the fact that Plan A, that,
that A makes it as simple as possible for them to figure out where they're
going to vote, it makes a difference to me.
Taylor: I also support Plan A, I felt that it, it had a cleaner, more clear border lines of
the precincts with, uh, less disruption of, of the current lines that we have
and not crossing over the river or the highways. Um, also as, uh, others have
mentioned the, uh, growth potential, particularly, uh, on the east side and the
south side where we know we're going to have, um, uh, growth there. Um,
and also as, um, Councilor Weiner had mentioned the splitting up of the east
side dorms it's, it's, um, they have a common border and in this, in Plan A,
they share the same common border. So I approve of A.
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Weiner: Could I add one more brief thing -- I just really would like to thank the
Auditor's office for all the work they've done on this.
Teauge: For...and I would echo that, um, appreciation for the Auditor as well as for
the staff and their work on this. As we know, um, from our work session that
we had about Plan A, B and C, we learned that, um, in our discussions that
there were some positives about each of them, urn, and even, you know, C,
looking at some of the revisions and although they weren't that substantial,
um, there are good things about C that I can certainly can support, but I think
for all the things that I've already mentioned, that I won't go back into, I'm
going to support A.
Mims: Yeah, I would just say looking at A, urn, for the growth purposes, I think
keeping all the east side dorms in one district, uh, those are probably the two
most compelling things for me.
Teague: Okay. So sound like we have, uh, we're ready to get roll call.
Goer: Weiner?
Mims: I'm sorry. Do we need to do the condensing before we....
Goers: Fair question, Uh, procedurally I should kind of lay out what we're hoping to
do. Because we're hoping to collapse all three readings into one meeting, uh,
what we're hoping to do is have a motion to have first consideration, and I'm
sorry, that's the one that's already on the table, and then a motion to waive a
second consideration.
Mims: And third.
Goers: Well, yeah. And then we'd have the motion to accept the third. Um, I'm sorry,
to pass and adopt as a third vote.
Mims: Okay.
Goers: Yeah, if that makes sense.
Teague: Okay. This is first consideration.
Goers: So this is first consideration. On the table right now is just a motion for first
consideration. Okay. All right. All right.... Staff has a request to expedited
action.
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Mims: So I'm just, all I'm doing is expediting the second vote, is that correct? Using
the same language we typically have used?
Goers: Yes, the same language, yes.
Mims: Okay. I move the rule requiring the ordinances must be considered and voted
on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to
be finally passed be suspended, that the second consideration vote be waived
and the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Moved by Mims, seconded by Taylor, roll call please....Could I get a motion
to pass and adopt?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Salih: Second, Salih.
Teague: Roll call please?....Could I get a motion to accept correspondence?
Salih: Moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Weiner. Motion passes 7-O...Item number 11 is
a proposal --
Goers: I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor, may, may I interject just while we're on this topic and
so forth. As I mentioned, we will have to approve the agreement with the
County so we can include that with the submission to the Secretary of State's
website, or I'm sorry, the Secretary of State's office. And so we are looking for
a single item, a special meeting to be called again, as early as the end of this
week, if, if that's, uh, available. And so I, you know, we can either schedule
that. Now if everyone's here or we can have Kellie get ahold of you all
quickly, um, on an individual basis, it's whatever you want to do.
Salih: I think we can do it now.
Teague: Well, just get the date now.
Salih: Yeah, we can just get the date now instead of Kellie, like, reaching out to us.
We're all here.
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Goers: That's my question.
Salih: Yeah. And if we can do this week, or I don't know, next week it will be tough
for me. Can we do it Friday?
Mims: I could do Friday but I have a JECC meeting at 8 o'clock.
[Council crosstalk setting meeting date for Friday, December 17th, 10 am.]
Goers: Okay. We'll take care of it, if, if that's okay. Great. Thank you.
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11. Proposed South District Self Supported Municipal Improvement District
- Ordinance amending Title 3, "Finance, Taxation and Fees" of the City
Code to add a new Chapter, to establish the South District Self -Supported
Municipal Improvement District (SSMID) pursuant to the provisions of
Chapter 386, Code of Iowa; and providing for the establishment of an
operation fund and the levy of an annual tax in connection therewith.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: All right. We are on to item number 11, which is the proposed South
District Self -Supported Municipal Improvement District. This is the
ordinance amending Title 3, Finance, Taxation, and Fees of the City Code to
add a new chapter to establish the South District Self -Supported Municipal
Improvement District pursuant to the provision of Chapter 386, Code of
Iowa, and providing for the establishment of an operation fund and the levy
of an annual tax and connection therewith. And I'm going to open the public
hearing and I'm going to welcome Wendy Ford, City staff.
Ford: Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council. I'm Wendy Ford, Economic
Development Coordinator, and I'm here to talk about the proposed SSMID. In
October, the City received a petition from property owners in the South
District to establish a self -supported municipal improvement district, also
known as, and to what I will refer to from now on, as a SSMID. The petition
met the required thresholds with signatures of 25% of property owners and
property owners representing at least 25% of the property value in the
proposed area, which you can see on the slide to your right -- to my right,
Council, then set the, sent the petition to the Planning and Zoning
Commission for review at their meeting on November 4th. P&Z reviewed,
and then forward, forwarded a recommendation for approval back to
Council. A public hearing is required before adoption of the ordinance
establishing the SSMID. So today is the public hearing and the first reading of
that ordinance to establish a SSMID. The boundaries as shown on the slide
are, um, essentially, um, encompassing the Pepperwood Plaza neighborhood.
That, um, diagonal across the top is Highway 6. The large area is, uh, in the
middle is Pepperwood Plaza. And then on either side of, uh, Keokuk Street on
the west or left and down along Broadway Street to Cross Park Avenue, urn,
is generally the, the neighborhood that is, um, Pepperwood Plaza and would
be, those would be the boundaries for the SSMID. The, uh, SSMID levy rate
would be $5 per $1,000, of valuable, of taxable valuation, and that would
generate approximately $104,000 per year. The duration of the SSMID would
be five years and then it would sunset, or it would be renewed based on the
will of the property owners there and how they felt the success of the SSMID
was. Um, for some folks who may not know what a SSMID is, it is a self-
imposed, uh, tax, additional tax on properties within a district. And we have
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already had the experience of the downtown, the Iowa City Downtown
District, having established a SSMID years ago and, uh, carried those
activities forth to, urn, uh, the downtown area. So funds from this additional
tax would be used for administrative and operational expenses in the district
as defined by the state law, a board would be established to hire a director
and then direct the work of the, the plan of work, which has been drafted, but
would be approved after the board is established. The draft plan of work
includes development and management of activities in support of marketing,
business retention and attraction, also physical or other improvements
designed to enhance the image and appearance of the appro-- of the
proposed district, including, but not limited to lighting improvements,
seasonal and decorative enhancements, signage, wayfinding banners,
landscaping, et cetera. And then finally to also hire an executive director and
if needed, uh, additional staff support who could, uh, support this nonprofit
board of directors to manage the work of the SSMID. It's important to note
that this, uh, this, uh, would align with the, uh, Comp Plan as it notes, the
importance of thriving retail centers for sustaining residential
neighborhoods and employment centers. And we know that's a growing area.
Also the South District Plan states the goal to encourage and support
residents, neighborhood organizations, and business and property owners to
advocate for the, uh, continued improvement of the South Side
neighborhoods in keeping with the goals of the Comprehensive Plan. And
that neighborhood has certainly done that, in fact, have spearheaded this,
um, establishment of this, uh, district. Urn, and other couple things of note is
that this area also falls into the Highway 6 Urban Renewal Area, which
actually sunsets in 2025 and who has goals that are complementary to the,
uh, SSMID goals as well. And lastly, it also falls into the new -- newly
established Highway Commercial Urban Revitalization Area that offers a, um,
a tax abatement on improvements made to properties within certain districts
as well. So that could complement, in fact, the activities of the, of the SSMID
there. So those were my comments. If you had any questions, I'd be happy to
answer.
Teague: Hearing none, thank you so much.
Salih: No, I just have one.
Frueling: Would you like me to leave this slide up for a little bit?
Salih: Yeah, Wendy, I have a question. Okay. Is this the model like for the South
District, and we know that there is one in the downtown, this is the only two
model in the City, for the whole --
Ford: The only two in Iowa City. There are other examples across the state though.
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Salih: Okay. No, I'm just meaning like, yeah, this is great. Yeah. Okay.
Teague: Any other questions? Thank you. I also wanted to acknowledge that
Councilor Bergus is recusing herself from this item. If anyone from the public
would like to address this topic, please come forth. And there is a sign up
sheet on the side table, and we ask that people give their name and address.
Jordan: Thank you. My name's Angie Jordan and I live on Apple Court 1125 in the
South District. Um, I'm also the president of our neighborhood association,
chair of our Business Revitalization Committee and currently a tri -chair of
the Project Better Together 2030 Steering Committee. I believe it is
important for City leadership and others to know that business revitalization,
like all of our initiatives in the South District, is a vital piece to our larger
grassroots neighborhood revitalization effort. We dream big and boldly and
work collaboratively with those who understand that when one rises, we all
rise. Three years ago, we engaged our commercial district and many, many
nonprofits responded, but we had very few businesses interested or maybe
unable to connect with us at that time. Once we organized and found a
possible tool, a SSMID that has had success elsewhere, we re-engaged and
learned so much about the current and past struggles these businesses and
property owners have faced. You may hear some of them today, tonight. You
may have already heard some of them through emails and phone calls. It's
overwhelming, and it shows just why it's important to create a SSMID to
actually tackle these shared challenges in a meaningful, sustainable way. I
also want to share that our current neighborhood association is proof of the
power of collaborative efforts. Three years ago, four small neighborhood
associations shared many of the same challenges and saw strength and
pooling resources, engaging each other, and doing the work together as a
unified entity, the South District Neighborhood Association, we have
successfully proven the significant impact that is possible through our time
and engagement in public art, bicycle culture, gardening, crime and
punishment, voter engagement, access to literature, school connections,
beautification, resident connections, craft circles. We have pieces and parts
that when we put them together, it starts to create the neighborhood we
want and believe can exist. Having a strong business district is a huge piece
to this puzzle that is currently missing though. Having a unified business
district has so many benefits and I'm super excited for some folks to speak
more on that, how maybe those benefits would affect them. Thank you for
your consideration of this petition that has potential for bringing many more
of those puzzle pieces together to creating the lasting change we seek, we all
seek in Iowa City.
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Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome. And
then I will ask people to, um, if you want to address this topic, you can come
on up and start signing in. Welcome.
Moreland: Good evening, Kate Moreland, 2028 Lawrence Court, Iowa City. Uh, I'm
also president of the Iowa City Area Development Group, and I'm here
tonight to speak in favor of the South District SSMID. As we are navigating
this period of economic recovery, it's critical that we do so in an inclusive
way. And the SSMID is an economic development tool that will serve as a key
investment in this area of our community. I commend Angie Jordan, Tasha
Lard, and others that have committed years to this effort. I believe we're
going to look back on this time is a very pivotal and key moment when we
made an investment that will be transformational for this part of our
community. ICAD looks forward to continuing to support economic
development in the South District. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Pfeiffer: Um, excuse me. I'm Nick Pfeiffer. I actually live in Tiffin, Iowa, but I'm
representing Think Iowa City in the Iowa City-Coralville Area Convention and
Visitors Bureau. Uh, I I'm here tonight to express on behalf of Think Iowa City
the support for the South District SSMID. Angie Jordan and her team have, as
you have already seen, have a fantastic plan already in place that, they would
improve the quality of life in the South District and make it a destination
throughout, for others throughout Johnson County and beyond. We've seen
what a SSMID can do in the development of the Iowa City Downtown District,
our downtown is the envy of similar cities throughout the nation. I have no
doubts that the SSMID can bring great success to the South District
neighborhood and the businesses within. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Casko: Good evening, everyone. I'm Kim Casko, president and CEO of the Iowa City
Area Business Partnership, your local Chamber of Commerce. On behalf of
the Business Partnership. I'm here to voice our support of the creation of a
SSMID in the South District of Iowa City. SSMIDs are a great economic
development tool and a great model for providing localized business support.
We have a great partnership with the Iowa City Downtown District. They
provide that uber-local support to within their district, to their businesses
and we help connect them across the whole county. And so we really look
forward to building that same partnership with the South District SSMID.
Having a SSMID in the South District of Iowa City will be beneficial, not only
to the businesses in that district, but to the residents in that neighborhood as
well, as well to the whole Iowa City area and surrounding communities. It
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will spur economic development, extend infrastructure, enhance livability,
and enrich community -building. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Lard: Good evening everyone. My name is Tasha Lard. I'm the owner of JD Beauty
Supply inside of Pepperwood Plaza, and the importance of having the SSMID
in the South District is so that the businesses in the area can continue to grow
and flourish the way that they have been. I support the SSMID a hundred
percent as being a business owner in that area. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Mendoza: Hi, good evening. My name is Marlen Mendoza. I live in North Liberty, but
I'm here representing the League of United Latin American citizens or LULAC
and Council 308 in Iowa City. Um, I'm here in my support and representing
LULAC for the SSMID proposal. Um, I do want to say that this is completely a
community -led effort, for those of you who might not know the history of
how this came about. We've been working together, Tasha, Angie and
everyone here who's pretty much talking to get the ball rolling on this idea,
pre-COVID. Um, so this just comes to show you how, when we're put under a
very stressful situation, what the community members and those that want
to see business revitalization will do to come together to achieve that goal,
um, and to show you that there's energy already existing, and that this is just
the beginning of something that could really extrapolate to something even
better is that last summer, we didn't want to wait until we could have some
of these hearings to pass the SSMID to get started. One of our intentional
ideas was to continue to support the small businesses and entrepreneurs in
that area, and we did what some of you might've heard last summer. I mean,
this summer was the diversity market, which was a pilot program that we
started. We had over 30 vendors, many of the same people who live in the
same area, that is one of the most highly dense, densely populated, and very
diverse areas in the-- Iowa City to come out to show people that there's other
areas where we can host markets, where they can come and see the people
that live there, um, and get to engage in a community in an area that, let's be
honest, does not get much foot traction in that area. If you go to Pepperwood
Plaza, it's very hard to even see signage or any, any direction to tell you that
you can actually go in there. It is very underutilized and we're just very
excited to see what we can do in our own community to see it grow. And I'm
just very excited to see what happens with this. And I thank you all for your
support and time.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
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Liddle: Hello. Um, my name is Liz Liddle. I live at 4916 East Court Street. Urn, thank
you for your time and your review today of the South District SSMID
proposal. Urn, I am here also to represent MidwestOne Bank. Urn, we've had a
long-standing commitment to serving the neighborhood and are in full
support of this proposal. Urn, I manage the branch over at Keokuk Street, of
MidwestOne, and I can see on a daily basis how the SSMID would impact the
neighborhood in a positive way. Um, there are several things that excite me
about the SSMID. First is the ability to increase foot traffic to the area. Second
would be to attract and bring in new businesses to the neighborhood. And
lastly, the ability to collaborate with one another and create a unified voice.
For years, we've been working independent of one another, and the SSMID
provides a platform for the neighborhood to come together as one. If I've
learned anything over the last couple of years, it's that we're stronger
together. We're asking for your support of this proposal. Thank you for your
time and consideration.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Levin: Thank you. I'm Elinor Levin. I am a South District resident at 781 Sandusky.
And, uh, I want to thank you, City Councilors, City staff, and members of the
public for your attention to this incredible opportunity. I relish the sites
around the residential streets of my neighborhood. The parks, the people on
bikes, the gardeners, the basketball games. The businesses, on the other
hand, the outward facing piece of the neighborhood are unremarkable, as has
been mentioned, underutilized and disconnected. The South District of Iowa
City SSMID proposal will bring the commercial properties to life. Every
property owner who signs on is looking forward to improved signage and
lighting, coordinated marketing, walkable events, and improved utilization of
the neglected properties with a powerful potential clientele living all around.
The businesses currently in the area work incredibly hard, and I see the
SSMID's supporting them and helping the area to thrive long into the future.
Even as it creates opportunities for new and exciting retail in and around
Pepperwood Plaza. Please throw your support behind the South District Self -
Supported Municipal Improvement District. Let's see what happens when a
small portion of the businesses, business resources are pooled and put into
use by folks who love this place and want to see it bloom. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Gerlach: Hi, my name's Cady Gerlach and I'm a resident of Iowa City, and I've been a
long-time volunteer with the SSMID organizing group. I think you can see
from everyone that's speaking tonight, it's a really broad and diverse group
of supporters. We've got businesses. We have economic development
agencies, community members, uh, residents, business owners, and you can
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see from Tasha, Marlen, and Angie's passion that we have what it takes to be
a successful SSMID organization when, when this passes and becomes an
organization. Uh, I just hope that you'll support it tonight and improve the
wayfinding retail recruitment opportunities and the special projects that
await us for the South District. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Hofmaier: Hi, my name is Ellie Hofmaier and I'm at 227 East Washington Street. Um,
and I'm speaking as a fan of the restaurants, uh, around the Pepperwood
Plaza. Uh, I've been in, um, Iowa City for five years and I just discovered some
of them, um, the past two years. And it bums me out that I didn't know
they're there the whole time I've been here. Um, so I hope that the aesthetical
improvements and signage will help more people discover, uh, all the great
stuff that's in the Pepperwood Plaza area.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Traore: Hi, Mohamed Traore, chair of Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
However, just speaking for myself. Um, so currently living at 1002 Hillside
Drive in Tiffin, Iowa, before that, resident of South District on Burns Avenue
for 19 years. In my time in the South District, watched as many businesses
came and went. Uh, my first job actually was at the Kmart that used to be in
the South District. Uh, worked there from the time that I was 16 to the time
that I started college at the University of Iowa. Uh, at the time it was pretty
much the only place to get groceries in the area. And then after that, they had
Lucky's Market for a little bit, which is now also gone. Kmart's gone. And
when you look around, you really see Casey's General Store and the
QuickStar is now open, but that's the closest thing you get. Otherwise you
have to go over to the Hy -Vee, which is in Riverfront Crossings. Um, the lack
of accessibility to one, food, um, the lack of businesses, the lack of tech
infrastructure, the lack of telecommunications infrastructure in general, such
as how bad the cell service and things like that are in the area are things that
just desperately need to be addressed. Um, next, when it comes to aspects of
actually getting around, um, Pepperwood Plaza, as, as has been said, uh, the
lighting can be improved. The signage can be improved. Most importantly, I
see it as an area that could really be a focal point for major growth. Um, the
diversity market in itself, volunteered at three of the four events, and I saw so
many business owners that have major potential and can not only start their
own restaurants, but potentially even have multiple of them, not only in Iowa
City, but in Coralville, North Liberty, elsewhere. The economic boon that this
SSMID could bring to this area is much greater than the investment that it'll
take to get started in my, my honest opinion. Thank you.
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Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Bird: Thank you. Good evening, Council. My name's Nancy Bird. I'm the executive
director of the Iowa City Downtown District, and we're a huge supporter of
the South District SSMID. Um, as you may know, SSMIDs are areas where, um,
they're born of the Iowa SSMID law, and they're typically occur in areas that
need additional enhancements above and beyond City services. So while the
City can lay out a plan, sometimes, um, land use changes, and organization
around those plans need additional support. And while downtown I was
sitting in the SSMID that helps generate the revenue for our nonprofit
organization, it's very different from the South District area. The same tool
can be used to help support a really sustainable revenue support -- source so
that the nonprofit organization that will be formed can start conducting and
guiding that private investment into this area and be a really good unified
voice, um, with the City of Iowa City. And as you all know, when there's lots of
voices, it's hard for staff to kind of tailor in what should move forward, and
with a unified voice in a certain area, it'll help City staff work towards really
great opportunities that are really democratic to the needs of that particular
neighborhood. So we're very pleased to support this plan. Uh, we've been a
technical support and we see a great collaboration between the two
neighborhoods moving forward. So thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah. Um, so you literally like just called the special meeting, the
item before this. You called one, so you know how to do it. Why won't you do
one for, to making accessible? That is just as urgent as redistricting the
[mumbled], that there's legislative deadline for accessibility, doesn't change
urgentness of having accessible -- accessability. That, it just kind of makes me
laugh at this point. It's not, not that it's funny that y'all being that you're
being ableist, but like that you just, what I've been calling for this entire
meeting is to make a special meeting. You did that. You showed how easy it is
to do that. You could do that right now. Are you going to do that right now?
Did you, you saw how easy it is, and how you can do that and it's well within
your ability to do that. You're making the choice not to. Because waiting till
January to have meetings accessible means that at minimum, the first
meeting in January is not going to be accessible. That's not okay when you
can have special meetings, like you literally just called to address that. So you
could have your first meeting in January be accessible by having the hybrid
and full verbatim transcripts, uh, published promptly and easily find the
website. Cause it's still difficult to find the website. You have to go digging
through it, where it should be, where all the information, contact
information, information about where this meeting is when, when you make
it hybrid, where how you can Zoom in or call in, whatever option. I'm
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assuming it is Zoom because that's what the other two, when the County do
is Zoom. So you can do it. You - you showed like how you could be doing that
in the item right before this. There's no good reason not to, besides your
pride, Bruce, you should swallow that and say, right now we're going to have
a special meeting to make our meetings accessible before the new year.
Accessibility should not, we should not have to wait for accessibility. It
should've never gone away to begin with. And there should always have been
the full verbatim transcripts, uh, gone promptly. I don't know how long it's
been an issue where they're not being promptly. I just know for last few
months, that has been the problem, that's when I've been looking for it, I've
seen that is a problem. And it's also been a problem about the hybrid
meetings, because I've been doing this a few months now and it's not
acceptable anymore. Never was, but now it's just even more, less
acceptable..it's, you can't say you don't know about it.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: You're welcome.
Teague: Welcome.
Kauble: Hi, uh, my name is Dan Kauble. Um, I would just like to say that I support the
SSMID. Um, I think that people who've been spearheading this effort are
assets to our community and like, especially Angie Jordan and, just other
folks have been, I mean, they pour so much heart and effort into, uh, the
South District and just, I mean, it's, it's all, I think it's always been a beautiful
neighborhood, but I'm really excited to see what, uh, what the neighborhood
can do with the SSMID. I think it's going to really, um, help make it even
more, a much more brighter place. Urn, that said, I would also like to say that
I think the discussion tonight, would have been a lot different if the
accessibility concerns that we've been discussing had already been
addressed? Um, I have a feeling that there would have been a lot more people
in the community here talking about how important this is, if they didn't
have to come in person. Urn, I think it would have, the accessibility concerns
that we've been discussing, I think it's such a simple fix. People have been
talking to you about them for eight months and months and months. And, um,
I don't, I mean, I know why, uh, the City government's been dragging their
feet about it it's because they don't, they want to stern the public comment.
They don't want people pitching in, they don't want public input. Urn, it's
really ridiculous. Um, and I think it, it harms the, the community at large. Urn,
people should be able to engage with their government. And I think at, in
2021, the having hybrid meetings and publishing transcripts, I think that's
just a given y'all should do it. And as seen by in the last agenda item, when
the, when you, Mayor Teague, uh, had a special session, it's so easy to do. I
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mean, y'all could just have a recess right now and just be like, okay, we're
going to set this up in Friday, the 17th at 10:30, or whenever you finish, what,
talking about the precinct maps, you could handle it then and there, but you
won't. And I mean, it's like this evening has been super embarrassing
because it really shows the reluctance of the City government to embrace
changes for the better for our community in regards to these accessibility
concerns. Um, I it's, it's just embarrassing. And I mean, the people at the end
of the day who suffer from this are the people who want to come here and
engage with the City government, give you their concerns, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. And I would also like to commend Councilor Bergus for her
recusing herself. I know recently there have been some things where some
City Councilors should have been recusing themselves from discussions and
didn't. Um, so I think that as long as that's the norm, I think that's good.
Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Kubby: Hi, my name is Karen Kubby and I'm a local business owner, family owned
business. And I want to talk about the beauty of the SSMID as a business
person. Um, certainly what wasn't talked about was that all the legal
parameters for the petition are, have been met. And I want to talk about the
importance of that. It's one of the savviest things the state legislature has
done in the last 20 years is to require that to have the legal parameters met
that 25% of unique owners are represented by signatures and that 25% of
the assessed value of the property within the SSMID is represented by those
signatures. So what that means in practical terms is that it can't just be big
business owners who dictate this, and it can't just be small business owner,
or property owners. It has to be a collaboration of a variety of property
owners, to bring this to your attention. And one of the questions at the
Planning and Zoning Commission was well, there's only 25% or a little bit
above represented on the petition, but if we had 25% of registered voters
voting in local elections, we'd think that that was a really big deal. And a lot of
people participated. So what it means for my business is that I pay an extra
$600 a year. Well, I could maybe buy a couple of small ads somewhere,
maybe five radio ads, but instead my $600 investment leverages over a
million dollars in the Downtown District for marketing, for clean things, for,
for greening things up. And I cannot make that kind of investment and get
that kind of return anywhere else. So this really makes a lot of sense. So
besides the legal parameters that have been met, there's some other pieces of
formula that people in this room represent that are going to make it a
success. And one is, there's a volunteer base that have proven themselves
that have, they're champions of the area. They know their neighborhood
they're willing to work, and they have a lot of enthusiasm, and that can carry
you a long way. The other thing is, is that the plan has paid staff. And I'm
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telling you as someone who has worked within the SSMID without a paid
staffer, where I basically was a volunteer director for a while, you need the
paid staff to make things happen. I have a family, I have the business to run
and I have some personal life I'd like to have. And so you can't, when you
have staff, you have people whose job it is to pay attention and to live out the
mission and the directives of the volunteer board. And so the South District
has all those elements. They're already successful, and they're just going to
go wild once this happens. So I hope that you will enthusiastically and
unanimously vote yes for the SSMID district. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic, seeing no one I'm going
to close the public hearing.
2. Consider an Ordinance (First Consideration)
Teague: Can I get a motion to give first consideration?
Salih: Moved to give first consideration.
Mims: Second, Mims.
Teague: Moved by Salih, second by Mims, Council discussion?
Goers: Mayor, if I can just interject one, um, piece of information, kind of, before you
begin your Council discussion, because we don't see SSMID, uh, ordinances
before you frequently. I wanted to remind the Council that this requires a
three-fourths vote, uh, to pass, uh, with Councilor, uh, Bergus's recusal, uh,
due to a legal conflict, uh, she does not count, so five votes would be required
to pass this item.
Teague: Thank you.
Mims: I'm happy to support this. Um, I was on the council when the downtown
SSMID, uh, came before us and it was kind of the first time as the City Council
we'd looked at that sort of an entity and really kind of a new process, a new,
you know, educational experience, I think for everybody on the Council. And
a lot of people in the community certainly took a while to get, you know,
signatures and the support and everything. And so I just really want to
commend all of the volunteers, um, starting with Angie Jordan and everybody
else who have put so much time and effort into getting this to this point,
educating people, explaining what this can do, um, and how it can benefit the
whole South District. And, you know, what we saw in the downtown area in
terms of trying to get those signatures at first, it was nobody wanted to pay
the extra taxes. Um, they were really concerned about, you know, why they
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should have to pay that and what they were going to get for it. And I think it's
become very, very clear, um, that that can be very beneficial. And as Karen
Kubby said, the way you can leverage money, um, when you group it together
and, or allows you sometimes to get in positions of doing grants. So I will
very, very happily, urn, support the SSMID for the South District.
Thomas: I too am really excited, um, by this project, that, and by the, uh, the way this
project has arrived to the City Council, urn, with its grassroots emphasis, um,
you know, in my experience, great cities are made up of great neighborhoods
or districts and great neighborhood commercial districts. So this, this district
is being trans -- , the commercial district is being transformed from a kind of
an highway oriented, uh, commercial district to something that's turning now
toward the South District. And, uh, becoming more neighborhood -oriented as
a result of that. Urn, you know, Karen mentioned the 25% of the participants,
the property owners have to, um, you know, they set that, that bar. As she
said, I think, you know, that's just a start, I'm sure as this thing begins to take
off, you'll see a larger percentage of the property owners joining in. They just
are on the fence right now, um, but once the success of the SSMID becomes
evident, you know, that percentage would increase. So, you know,
congratulations to everyone who has been working on this. I see this as, you
know, the next step in the evolution of the South District, uh, which I think is
impressing all of us in terms of, uh, identifying themselves as a district and
strengthening themselves in so many ways. Um, so I'm very supportive of
this. And as Angie, I think said at the very beginning, you know, this is really
something happening within the context of neighborhood, a neighborhood
vision, uh, which I think is an important thing to keep in mind as well.
Taylor: I'm also in favor of this ordinance, amending, uh, Title 3 to establish the
SSMID. Um, we received an email and I, sorry, I can't remember who it came
from, but it was from a community member that described the SSMID as a
grand intersection of business and community. And I thought that was a
great description. It really, uh, suits this and describes it well. And as we
heard in the passion of Angie Jordan, and thank you, Angie, for all that you've
done for the South District, urn, the South District residents believe in
themselves and their ability to grow. They really do. And they really have
hope for that. And this, I believe is a win-win situation, uh, for everyone. Uh,
and it'll help enhance the efforts, uh, to revitalize and enrich this area.
Salih: For me, I think this is, was really something new to me. I, even though I know
the Downtown District for a long time. I even served on the board at a point
of time, but I wasn't know that you have to go through all this just to get that
SSMID approved. I saw this is something, you know, they can take it for
granted and that's it, but like seeing you, like Angie and the, your group who
are going do all this work, but reaching out to the businesses and going
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through Planning and Zoning and come back to us and doing the survey and
doing all this public hearing, you know, this is really incredible work that you
have done. And, uh, I'm glad to support this. And this is really going to be like,
uh, for the favor. Uh, it will, as they said, will unite the community, and also
this is, will give, like, opportunity for business to, like new business to be
over in that area. Yeah. I'm happy to support it.
Weiner: Just, I will join the chorus. I don't have much, I don't know that I can really
say anything that hasn't already been said. The only thing that I could, that I
would add is that I'm really happy to see, not just that this is, was, it was
really a truly, a grassroots effort and will continue to be one, but that it's
supported by all the economic development organizations in the City here, as
well as the existing SSMID. So, um, it's really a win-win for the community.
Teague: It has been super encouraging to see all of the partners coming together,
but specifically seeing those that live in the South District, um, actually
engaging through the process, being overwhelmed, um, through all the
requirements, but going through the process and really being very
intentional on reaching out, making sure that they understood clearly what it
all meant. And I don't know if you sat through any other presentations by
those that were doing the SSMID, but I was super impressed. I was like, oh
my God, this is, it's very descriptive, giving a vision of what they saw. And it
was also the energy, it was contagious. Um, and they also recognize that there
were some business owners that, you know, were not on board and they,
they gave their reasons why. And I think they listened with understanding
and compassion and really just continue to state why they want it, why they
felt that this was the best for the community. And I'm so happy to see this
before us today, and I'm going to support it. All right. I think we're ready for a
vote. Roll call, please.... [applause] Can I get a motion to accept
correspondence?
Weiner: So moved.
Salih: Seconded.
Teague: Moved by Weiner, seconded by Salih. Motion passed 6-0, Bergus abstained.
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12. Benton Street Rehabilition - Resolution approving project manual and
estimate of cost for the construction of the Benton Street Rehabilitation
Project [STP -U -3715(669)-70-52J, establishing amount of bid security to
accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and
fixing time and place for receipt of bids.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 12, Benton Street rehab, rehabilitation. Let's give a minute.
Item number 12, Benton Street rehabilitation. This is a resolution approving
the project manual and estimate of costs for the construction of the Benton
Street rehab, rehabilitation project, establishing amount of bid security to
accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders and fixing
time and place for bid receipt. I'm going to open the public hearing and
welcome, staff.
Clow: Good evening. My name is Melissa Clow. I'm with, uh, Engineering Division,
Public Works. Um, due to, um, how close Willow Creek is to the Benton Street
project, I'm going to combine both of them into this one presentation to
discuss. Um, really quick background on Benton Street, the project corridor is
from Greenwood Drive west to Mormon Trek Boulevard, um, and there was a
previous project for diamond grinding, um, completed on Benton Street to
smooth out the ride. Um, the joints were beginning to deteriorate and the
ride quality was, was not good. Since then the pavement has continued to
deteriorate and it's in, uh, it's in bad shape right now. Urn, the MPOJC has
programmed $1.3 million in STBG funding in the fiscal year '21. Project
overview, um, this project will be partially funded by the Iowa DOT. This
includes crack and seat of the existing pavement with a three-inch asphalt
overlay. Um, crack and seat is a process where, um, the piece of equipment
similar to the photo, um, up there right now, will drop a hammer
approximately every two feet and break up the rigid pavement, um, then will
overlay with, with asphalt. Side street intersection reconstruction will occur
with ADA sidewalk improvements, pavement widening, and signal
improvements will occur at Sunset, at the Sunset intersection for a more
efficient intersection. Water main and storm sewer improvements will also
take place during the project as needed, and we will have a new five-foot bike
lanes on both sides of Benton. The estimated construction cost is $3.2
million. Project timeline is: tonight we're holding the public hearing and
improving plans and specifications. This will lead into the Iowa DOT bid
letting on January 19th with an award date of approximately February 1st.
Uh, there's been a late start date set for May 23rd, 2022, with final
completion sometime this fall; there are a hundred working days that have
been allocated for the project. To review, um, the streambank stabilization
project really quick. It is adjacent to Benton Street, um, it was considered,
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urn, to combine these projects at one time that given the specialization of
work, um, for streambank stabilization, compared to what is being done on
Benton Street, they are being handled as two separate projects. Recent storm
events that accelerated the streambank erosion along the portion of Willow
Creek. Urn, if this continues, we expect that erosion will undermine the
sidewalk and potentially damage public infrastructure if it is left unfixed. Um,
as you can see in the photo on the right, many of the trees in the park are
being eroded and roots are being exposed. Urn, this project includes the
reconstruction of Willow Creek, including rock riffle grade control and rip -
rap steam -- streambank armoring. So will actually be, urn, the, urn, sorry, I
had a mind block, um, we'll be taking the stream and moving it a little bit
south of where it currently is, away from Benton Street and the sidewalk to
help with issues like this in the future. Estimated construction cost is
$170,000. Urn, project timeline for this project is to hold the public hearing,
approve plans and specifications, um, tonight; the bid letting is a local bid
letting, it'll occur January 11th, 2022, with an award date shortly following,
approximately January 18th. Construction start will be this winter towards
the end of February with a fi -- final completion date, this spring. Questions
or comments.
Thomas: Urn, Melissa, uh, John Thomas. Um, was there any neighborhood outreach
associated with this project?
Clow: We will be planning to have a neighborhood meeting prior to construction to
answer any questions. So, urn, I don't know, has there been, I recently
inherited this project, so.
Havel: For this one, there really, hasn't been a whole lot of, uh, uh, neighborhood
outreach. We've treated it similar to what we've done for overlay. So we've,
uh, made information about the project available online and, um, for, I guess,
general consumption, but nothing specific to the neighborhood.
Thomas: Yeah. The other, the other, I would include in this notion of neighborhood
outreach, the bicycle community with the, uh, the Benton Street project.
Clow: Yeah. We, we plan before construction begins to have, um, more
neighborhood outreach and let people know what that phasing will look like
and what will be going on there.
Thomas: Okay, great. Thanks.
Havel: Yes. Just one thing I would add is this is one product that we have had
previous discussions with the Bicycle Advisory Committee. So I think as far
as the bicycle group goes, this is one that's been out there for awhile, and one
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that we've been discussing with them in the past, and really what it's doing is
sort of formalizing the bicycle path that's there now. I think there's some
confusion right now, as far as what's actually out there on Benton Street. So
this will go from stripe, striped, uh, shoulder to actual bike lanes.
Thomas: It will be widening, in other words. I don't, you didn't talk about
dimensions, but I, I think the, the existing condition is a three-foot wide
shoulder or whatever you want to call it. And it's going to a five-foot wide
bike lane?
Havel: Correct? Yeah. So the actual total pavement width will stay the same, we're
just reallocating, and so we're narrowing up the lanes and adding those
bicycles.
Thomas: That's right, I think in the report it was 11 -foot lanes and five -foot -wide
bicycle lanes. Is that correct?
Havel: Yep.
Thomas: Thank you.
Teague: Any other questions from Council? Thank you.
Clow: Thank you.
Teague: All right. Would anyone from the public like to address this topic, please
come forward. Welcome.
Traore: Thank you, Mohamed Traore here again. Chair of Truth and Reconciliation
Commission. Um, I'm not sure if this is more of a question or a clarification,
but once again, just noticing the numbers on the board for this project. Also
the timeline from approval to when the project would begin to when it would
be completed, and thinking about the contrast to our facilitator plan, um, and
also that timeline and how that was dealt with. So I guess my question right
now is, um, is this typical in terms of a range of time for, one, submitting a
plan, getting construction started and completing the plan and the amount of
community outreach completed? Uh, I don't know that you can actually give
me that answer now. So I guess I would just direct this question to City
Manager Geoff Fruin and also City Attorney, um, Mr. Goers, is it? Um, when it
comes to Freedom of Information Act requests, if it's related to a
Commission's work, how is that paid for? Because I have looked on the state
websites about it, and I'm interested in quite a few FOIAs at this point in
time, and I just kind of want an estimate on, uh, how that would need to
work.
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Teague: And I, again, they'll be able to have conversation outside of this meeting.
Traore: Yeah. Understood. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah, as you know, and as you know why I'm standing here once
again, it's cause I'm calling on you to call for a special meeting so we have
accessible meetings before waiting until January for potentially doing that.
And just the need for accessibility is now, well it was actually yesterday, but
like now is the best we can do for you for calling the meeting. So we don't
have to wait and have more and more on accessible meetings and to wait for
a new council to, do you want to like start a new Council with having
inaccessible meetings? Really? Is that the best way to start that? The
answer's no, by the way, that was, in case that wasn't clear. Um, so yeah. Are
you going to do that because you can, you, you showed how easy it is to call
special meetings earlier this evening, like 30 minutes ago or whatever. Was
that too hard to do the second time? Is accessibility like that big of a burden
or something? It's not, but you're acting like it is. People should not have to
wait and, for accessibility when you should have never taken it away to begin
with and if or when COVID ever ends, um, never take away Zoom because it's
not just about the pandemic that's [mumbled] I mean, that's arguably
probably the worst because people don't want to risk death to come here,
which is obviously [mumbled]. I wouldn't want to either, and I shouldn't have
to, but like you said, single mothers who would like to make this meeting, but
they don't want to really bring their children because who, what child wants
to come to one of these meetings, let's be honest. And so that's one example
people. Urn, So yeah, it's, it's not hard. You could do it right now, but you're
choosing not to, and that's not all right. I hope you know that. I don't know if
you know that? How many times do I have to say it for you to get it. Do you
show -- you showed how easy is it earlier to do special meeting, how you can
do that. Right now. So do that.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: You're welcome.
Teague: Anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
Kauble: Hi. Um, I would just like to reiterate some of my previous comments
regarding accessibility. Urn, it is very, I mean, it's kind of ridiculous the,
where we're at right now regarding this issue, because I mean, it's, it's so
easy for, I mean, what we've been asking, is just for y'all to do the bare
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minimum with us. It's been, folks have been asking this for months. Um, I
mean, you could declare a special work session for it or a special just, I mean,
just -- it's so easy. There are so many alternatives to where we're at right
now. I mean, even earlier in this meeting, and there's no reason for Noah and
I to have been up here talking like talking as much as we have been, because I
mean, Mr. Mayor, you could have taken steps to just reaffirm your
commitment and the commitment of this Council to pushing for this
accessibility. Um, whether that's calling a recess or just establishing a special
work session, which y'all could easily do on Friday the 17th after the precinct
map, uh, whatever that is. Um, but it's just wild to me that this is where we're
at. I mean, it's so simple because I mean, even though the County has lots of
problems, their meetings are so accessible and we're, I mean, not in regards
to transcripts, but in regards to being able to Zoom in. I mean, I think it's such
a healthy thing for the City government to change for it to enact. And I mean,
for all the time that people have been advocating for this saying that it's on
it's scheduled for a work session is not enough. Um, so I'm just gonna repeat
that we have we're on agenda item 12, we have four more public hearings
this evening, and I really don't want to come up here and talk during them. I
mean, I will, but I mean, it would almost be easier if we could just go out and
do a quick recess and just, I mean, everybody on the Council who will be here
in January, just have off the record, affirm their commitment to implementing
this change or establishing a session within the next week to talk about this
and vote on it and just make this change, this change before the meeting in
January, I would like to reiterate that we're coming into winter when it will
be harder for folks to come to these meetings. I mean, I know folks who take
the bus here and it's just, it's so, it's so messed up all of the hoops that they
have to jump through to participate. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, I'm going
to close the public hearing.
2. Consider a Resolution
Teague: Can I get a motion to approve please?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Mims: Second, Mims.
Teague: Council discussion.
Thomas: I think these are both really, uh, timely and important projects. Uh, some
glad they're, uh, moving forward together, um, on, on Benton Street, you
know, there's pretty significant change in the, uh, allocation of the pavement
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for, uh, as a travel lane for vehicles and the bike lanes. So that's, that's also
advancing things. I think we, I, I'm, I am concerned, urn, with how, given how
much traffic and traffic speed we have on Benton, if a five -foot -wide bike lane
without any kind of, uh, protection will work. Urn, so we'll just have to see, I
mean, I think we've established the lane and, and I think then it's just a
question of observing to see if that's adequate, an adequate provision so that
we get more than just the, you know, the, the diehards who, uh, make up
maybe 5% of our bike, biking population and, um, see if we can attract a
wider, more diverse bike riding community.
Teague: All right. Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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13. Willow Creek Streambank Stabilization Improvements - Resolution
approving project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the
Willow Creek Streambank Stabilization Improvements Project, establishing
amount of bid security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post
notice to bidders, and fixing time and place for receipt of bids
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 13 is Willow Creek streambanks stabilization improvements,
resolution approving project manual and estimate of the cost for the
construction of the Willow Creek streambank stabilization improvements
project, establish an amount of bid security to accompany each bid, directing
City Clerk to post notice to bidders and fixing time and place for receipt of
bids. I'm going to open up the public hearing, and we already had the staff
comments. And so, uh, anyone from the public like to address this topic,
please come forward.
Traore: Is this item 13 or 14?
Teague: Item number 13.
Traore: Number 13, okay. Um, last thing I would just wanted to add on this is that,
um, following up on the FOIA thing. I'm wanting to know a little bit more
about, uh, the amount of money spent in each area of town throughout, um,
the last few decades, uh, particularly as well, um, instances where residential
areas were converted to, um, commercial zones and, um, on top of that as
well, uh, the amount of funding the City has directly given, uh, out of the City
taxes and also out of state funding that was allocated to these projects and
also, um, development groups involved. Um, so pretty much it, but I'll follow
up via email for more of that information. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, uh, Noah, um... Do I have to do it again? You know why I'm here,
um, and also about some more accessibility problems in this city is, uh
tomorrow is supposed to be a, uh, very worrying thunder, uh, not a thunder,
a windstorm coming through. I mean, you should be looking at people could
get seriously hurt because they don't have shelter.
Teague: Please, please address your comments to item number 13. Willow Creek
streambank stabilization improvements --
Petersen: [crosstalk] because there is a severe wind storm coming tomorrow
throughout to, throughout the state. This can hit this city and people do not
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have shelter. They do not have the Shelter House shelter to go into. Where
are they supposed to go?
Teague: And how does this relate to item 13?
Petersen: Because people are going to get hurt. They're going to lose all their stuff.
And this City could right now say, you're going to open up your facilities. So
for people who don't have shelter, have shelter. They need it now. And they
especially need it tomorrow, when we're going to have a severe weather
event that's going to be happening hit this city, that's going to harm people
and you have the moral responsibility --
Teague: Noah --
Petersen: as the City --
Teague: Noah, this isn't on item number 13.
Petersen: Are you going to provide --
Teague: We're done, you can stop the clock.
Petersen: Oh no, because --
Teague: Next one.
Petersen: Are you going to let people get hurt in your City.
Teague: Next? Would anyone else like to address this topic?
Petersen: Are you going to anyone else facilities tomorrow?
Teague: Anyone else like to address this topic.
Petersen: Is the City going to open facilities tomorrow? Cause this is urgent. This is
needed right now. Are they going to do that? Because people are going to get
hurt. If you don't do that, that's the plain fact.
Teague: Are you going to respect this leadership?
Petersen: ...are you going to have shelter for people who want and need shelter
tomorrow? It is urgent. Is that going to happen?
Teague: Any, anyone else like to address this topic?
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Petersen: Are you going to let, let those people's injuries --
Teague: Noah, please be respectful.
Petersen: I want to know if there's going to be shelter for people who need it
tomorrow. So
Teague: This is me and -- this is Mayor Pro Tem's last time here,
Petersen: People there is a severe weather event
Teague: Please be respectful of our leadership.
Petersen: That's I'm, I'm glad. You want to see people get hurt. I'm assuming you
don't.
Teague: Noah.
Petersen: So. Is Iowa City going to have shelter for people tomorrow.
Teague: Anyone else like to address this topic?
Petersen: No! Are you going to have shelter for people who need it tomorrow? It's
not acceptable if you're not going to have that shelter available for them
tomorrow. I want [crosstalk] --
Teague: Anyone else wants to address this topic? Please raise your hand, or else I'm
going to close the public hearing.
Petersen: Close it then. Yep.
Teague: Closing the public hearing.
2. Consider a Resolution
Teague: All right. Could I get a motion to approve please?
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Petersen: Are you going to have shelter --
Taylor: Second, Taylor.
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Teague: Council discussion?
Kauble: I had my hand raised.
Teague: I already closed the public hearing.
Kauble: You have to reopen it.
Teague: We're on Council discussion. Uh, any, any of this --
Kauble: Mr. Mayor? No. You said raise your hand. If you want to make a comment, I
raised my hand and then you closed up the public, this is illegal.
Teague: The public is already closed.
Kauble: Uh, I'm just going to go and talk about accessibility. Urn, sir, you, you could
reopen the public comment. You said if anybody else wants to comment,
raise their hand. I raised my hand, sir. Please respect my ability to make
topical comments on this agenda item. You can have the Council reopen
discussion about this.
Teague: We're going to go ahead and have discussion.
Kauble: I'm going to talk about. So, um, can someone put my three minutes? I'll time
myself. Three minutes. Let me just put it --
Teague: It's --
Kauble: Three minutes. All right. So, uh, we're talking about Zoom meetings and we
need to have hybrid meetings in this Council. And I'm sorry, sir, but you close
-- you said if anybody wants to comment, they can comment. I raised my
hand.
Teague: I didn't see your hand at the time when I made the comment.
Kauble: I raised it, I'm pretty sure if you go back to the video, you could see it in the
video.
Teague: Okay.
Kauble: But it's extremely ableist that the City does not have hybrid meetings. And
honestly, Mr. Mayor, it's, it's just really wild that -- I mean, we, there was no
reason for us to filibuster this evening. There really wasn't. You have been
given top chance, chance, chance, chance, even before tonight, months to
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have hy, to have the discussion about hybrid meanings and you haven't.
Furthermore, I would just like to talk about the way that you've disrespected
the public during public comment. I mean, even work, trying to show this is -
Teague: This is item number 13 --
Kauble: Shut -- I'm talking about accessibility. I still have one minute and 57 on my
clock.
Teague: Okay.
Kauble: Um, so such as when you were having the TRC discussions, you tried to shut
out the public Commissioner Wangui came up here and tried to talk and you
want it later. You want it reopen
Teague: Is this item number 13 --
Kauble: -- and we're talking about accessibility and the way that the hostile way you,
Mr. Mayor have reacted to the public when they've tried to make public
comments. And I'm sorry, but whether it's hybrid meetings or you shutting
out women of color, sir, you have a very terrible --
Teague:Uh, do not talk to me about shutting out a woman of color. This is item 13.
Kauble: -- literally done that, sir, you've done that, wouldn't let Commissioner
Wangui talk...
Teague: Item number 13. This is Willow Creet streambank stabilization and
improvments --
Kauble: -- didn't let anybody in the TRC come and share what the work that they
were doing. You didn't even invite them to the damn meeting. So I, I, frankly I
think your leadership is extremely suspect. I think when the next Council
comes, they should have a new Mayor, sir. I really think that they should. Urn,
and I mean, this evening you could have just stopped this right by saying, hey,
we're just going to take a quick recess and commit to this accessibility, and
you haven't when I, I, you said, if anybody wants to comment, raise your
hand. I raised my hand.
Taylor: Mayor -- Mayor, can we call the Question on item 13 please?
Teague: Yes we can. Thank you.
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Kauble: I still have 30 seconds left on my clock. So I'm going to keep going.
Mims: The public hearing's already been closed.
Kauble: Excuse me. It was, I raised my hand when the Mayor said, if someone wants
to raise their hand to talk, raise out about
Teague: Dennis, you got about 20 minutes, 20 seconds, and then we'll --
Kauble: And then, well, I do have 20 seconds. Thank you for timing me, but I mean,
it's a form of ableism. It's ridiculous. And I mean, the way that you've, when
regards to public comment, Mr. Mayor, the way you've treated the TRC
members after the last work session was ridiculous. Lots of TRC members
have wanted to come and Zoom into these meeting, to have hybrid meetings
and they have not been able to, my timer is going. Thank you. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. All right, we're in, we're in Council discussion, any discussion by
Council on the Willow Creek streambank stabilization improvements.
Weiner: I just, that it's really important that the neighborhood be informed of what's
going on here. That, that's a neighborhood that that's, that focuses a lot on, on
Willow Creek park. And I really want to make sure that -- I will vote for this,
but I also want to make sure that they're well informed in advance of what's
happening here and why.
Teague: Okay. Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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14. First Avenue and Scott Boulevard - Resolution approving project manual
and estimate of cost for the construction of the First Avenue and Scott
Boulevard Intersection Improvements Project, establishing amount of bid
security to accompany each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to
bidders, and fixing time and place for receipt of bids
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 14, First Avenue, Scott Boulevard, intersection improvements.
This is a resolution approving project manual, an estimate of costs for the
construction of the First Avenue and South Boulevard intersection
improvements project, establishing amount of bid security to accompany
each bid, directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and fixing time and
place where we receive the bids. I'm going to open the public hearing.
Welcome.
Harlan: Good evening, Council and Mayor. My name is Justin Harlan. I'm a senior
civil engineer with the Engineering Division of Public Works. I'm here to talk
about the First Avenue and Scott Boulevard intersection improvements
project. Um, this has been in front of Council before and presented. So just a
little background. Uh, First Avenue and Scott Boulevard is currently a four-
way stop controlled by stop signs. And it was noticed that, uh, the configure --
configuration experiences significant queuing during peak hours resulting in
increased traffic times, delays and emissions. In 2015, uh, we decided to do a
roundabout feasibility analysis that led to, um, the finding that a roundabout
would be feasible and acceptable at this location. As this progressed, um, we
went in 2019 and hired Strand Associates to complete, an intersection
control evaluation, or ICE, that further can, further confirm that a roundabout
would be acceptable at this location and improve the intersection. Um, the
ICE determined a signalized intersection and a single lane roundabout would
operate acceptably for the design here. The roundabout was selected because
it acted similarly the overall peak hour of operations, and better on the off-
peak hour operations. Um, there were similar construction costs, but there's
lower maintenance costs because of the non -signalized intersection. It
improves both vehicle and pedestrian safety and reduces emissions because
of reduced travel times. So just a little overview about what this project
includes. Um, you have pavement improvements, the construction of the
roundabout. There are public underground utilities that will be improved
such as storm sewer and water main. There will be ADA sidewalk
improvements and new street lighting. That concludes the project overview.
And I'll open up to questions after I go through the project timeline, um,
we're holding the public hearings tonight. Uh, the bid letting is scheduled for
January 11th. We'll award on the 18th, go to construction April 4th, and then
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final completion should be around the time of July 8th, 2022. Now well open
up for questions.
Teague: Any questions?
Taylor: So the entire roundabout is going to be done by then?
Harlan: Urn, that is the intent. Yes. Okay.
Taylor? Mims?: A lot faster than I expected.
Teague: Thank you.
Harlan: Thank you.
Teague: All right. What anyone from the public like to address this topic, please
come forth now. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah. Um, yes. [mumbled] accessibility of this, you already know
what I'm going to say about accessibility. That's now on the even more
urgent matter, there is a severe weather event happening in this city
tomorrow. There is no shelter for people experiencing houselessness. Is
there going to be shelter for those people tomorrow in that adverse extreme
weather event that is coming to this town tomorrow? Or are they just, or is
this, is this, they just going to leave them out there without any shelter for
them if they want it. And this, this is a very important to answer this because
it's literally happening tomorrow. So you just going to let people get hurt. Is
that what the City is going to do? Or are you going to open your facilities and
provide shelter for people who need it? It's unacceptable if you're not going
to do that. And I need an answer, and they need an answer. People's lives are
literally at stake at this, and you have the chance to help people to not get
hurt. And you're choosing to remain silent on this. And that is unacceptable.
That's immoral. Look into your heart, as you like to say, and say something
and say right now, you're opening up facilities for people who need it.
People's lives are at stake and, and, screw your rules whatever they are,
because obviously you don't care about your own rules cause you will break
them if you want to. You're just choosing not to break rules at this, so-called
rules, about commenting. When people's lives are literally at stake for this
like this isn't, something you can set a meeting for in the future. This is
tomorrow. The weather event is corning. Strong high winds are corning
tomorrow and who knows what other weather stuff is going to go down like
tornadoes. Like we, how many people died over the weekend because of the
tornadoes, the [mumbled] we have, we're going to have like a record
breaking levels of heat. And the [mumbled], that's how you get tornadoes.
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We're already having to have like the strong high gusts, the winds
everywhere and for tornadoes [mumbled] possibly, and there are people
who did not have houses. They do not have shelter. Shelter House currently
does not have their normal winter shelter for people to have it. There is no
shelter for these people available and they need that shelter tomorrow. Their
lives are literally at stake and you are choosing to remain silent about that.
And that is morally abhorrent. And that is wrong. You need to say something,
you need to open facilities up right now. This is urgent. I hope -- do you
understand that. If you don't believe me that the weather will -- look up on
Google, what's coming to Iowa weather event and you will see high winds, I
think something else. I saw something about 70 plus the winds, probably
more than that. I mean, probably most like the derecho we had last year. I
know I didn't say that right, but you know what I'm talking about. Is the City
going to just let people not have shelter when you have the facilities to have
shelter for people. Because that's happened in the past --
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic?
Petersen: Are you going to provide shelter for people? This can't wait, do you realize
that right? It's happening tomorrow and in the future too, but like, especially
because of the weather events tomorrow.
Teague: Welcome.
Kauble: Hey, um, I would just like to say that, uh, I think the point Noah brings up
about the weather also can feed into the accessibility arguments that we've
been making tonight. Because I think if you we're in winter, where in
December, um, you're asking people, I mean, if the if for example, if this wind
storm was happening tonight, right now, people in order to come and speak
to this government would have to risk their personal safety to do so. Um, I
think that people, and I mean, for example, I know a lot of people, I mean, I'm
kind of a little bit too bullheaded to really care one way or the other, but I
know a lot of people are concerned about coming here to speak about their
experiences, because they're afraid of the police. Um, my philosophy is if the
cops arrest me, then I'm just going to say, fuck you all and fuck the City. But,
um, the thing is that I think this accessibility, there are so many good reasons
why hybrid meetings are needed. We've talked about them. And I mean, I'm
happy to stop right now. If, if the Councilors who will be here in January, just
right now on three, raise their hands and say, we will commit to this. All
right. 1, 2, 3, nobody's committing to this. That's the problem. That's why the,
the, we've been dragging out these public comments all evening. And Mr.
Mayor, as I've, I've given you, we've given you multiple ways to commit to
doing this. Because as we've stated, saying we're going to have a work
session about, this is not enough. We need commitments to making these
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meetings accessible to everybody in this community, because that way that
people in the community will be able to engage with the agenda items that
most affect their lives. And, um, again, Mr. Mayor, as I said there, I mean,
there have been multiple, like, I mean, Amel wanted to be here tonight and
she couldn't because it's not a hybrid meeting. So, I mean, it's not having the
accessibility cramps down on and hampers the ability of so many people to
engage in this politics, whether they be black women, old folks, folks who are
disabled, whatever it is, it's ableist, we need to, I mean, and by not
committing to making these changes, as soon as possible, the City
government is feeding into that ableism, and that's why we're doing this
because we want to increase and improve the civic process in this
government. And y'all are irritated at us. I get it. It's all, it's past nine. Uh,
we've been here a while, but at the same time, we're just trying to improve
this process for the future. You can go with us or you can be against us, but I
mean, by being against us, that you're just making this harder for yourselves
because we're fighting the good fight.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one I'm going
to close the public hearing.
2. Consider a Resolution
Teague: Can I get a motion to approve, please. [crosstalk] Moved by Bergus,
seconded by Salih, Council discussion.
Mims: I will support this. I use that road a lot, urn, both Scott Boulevard and First
Avenue and see the backup of traffic, um, during those peak times, it can get
backed up from, uh, from First Avenue sometimes not quite back to Fire
Station 4, but pretty darn close at the worst times. Uh, it moves through fairly
quickly. I will say that, but still it does get really backed up. So the idea of
having, um, a roundabout, where we can get that flat -- traffic flow, um, to
increase during those, urn, peak times, I think will be very beneficial. So I'd be
glad to support this.
Bergus: I'm also excited about the roundabout and just an observation on kind of
how we plan and the time that things take is, I just noticed we had the
feasibility study in 2015, and this should be completed in 2022. So that's
seven years to transition a stop sign to a roundabout. Just, I, I think that's
remarkable and not unusual, but worth just thinking about how our
decisions are made. So. Like roundabouts.
Thomas: Yeah. I am glad that we're going the way of the roundabout rather than the
signalization, which kind of runs against the notion of just slowing the traffic
when it goes through the intersection, rather than bringing it to a full stop,
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because it's those full stops that end up with delays all through the day. Urn,
and it's really, we're addressing, I'm not sure how long this peak period is,
but when I drive through there, there really isn't much of a backup. So
having, you know, signals then would really be frustrating, urn, uh, just to
accommodate the backups during, during rush hour.
Taylor: Just a roundabout save fuel as well, because you don't have to stop and start.
Mims: The one comment that I would make is as we add roundabouts, um, it's still
clear that a lot of people don't know how to use them. So I don't know what
the rules are for signage, um, but I would encourage the signage that says
"yield to the left" to try and help educate people about how to use them. I
don't know how many times I see people pulling into a roundabout and
looking to the right and wanting to yield to the people, to their right. So to
me, putting, and I've seen them in some places and putting up the signage
that just says yield to the left, I think could be really helpful.
Teague: And I had never experienced a roundabout until I was in, urn, Hilton Head,
urn, and it was a little scary, I have to tell you. Um, but as the, uh, I think the,
what I did see on City Channel 4 was kind of a great presentation about
roundabouts. Um, and so I think people in our community as they're seeing
more and more pop up, um, that presentation and as well as signage, I think
would be helpful. Roll call, please. Motion passes 7-0.
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15. State CDBG-CV Status of Funded Activities - Resolution approving the
Status of Funded Activities (SOFA) for CDBG-CV funds received by the
Iowa Economic Development Authority
1. Public Comment
Teague: Item 15 is state CDBG-CV status of funded activities. This is a resolution
approving the status of funded activities for CDBG-CV funds received by the
Iowa Economic Development Authority. And I'm going to open the public
comment and welcome.
Kubly: I don't know where my PowerPoint is.
Fruehling. Should be just on the desktop there.
Kubly: Got it, thank you. Hey, Erica Kubly with Neighborhood Services. Iowa City
received three phases of CDBG-CV funds totalling over $1.5 million to
prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This agenda
item focus focuses on the third phase of funding in which Iowa City was
awarded $686,610 from the Iowa Economic Development Authority. As a
subrecipient of state funds, the City must comply with the state's citizen
particip, participation plan, which requires a public meeting to discuss the
status of funded activities and any changes to propose activities, um, once we
have expended 15% of the grant funds, which we have. Um, in our
application for these funds, we propose two different types of projects. First,
um, we allocated $390,000 towards emergency housing payments. This
program is administered by Shelter House and is a continuation of funding
used in the first phase of CDBG-CV dollars. We have reimbursed over
$200,000, or 54% of those funds and 120 beneficiaries have been reported so
far. Um, this update only includes funds drawn. So the amounts are a couple
months behind due to our reimbursement and reporting process. So it's
likely that the total expenditures and number of beneficiaries as of today is
higher than this report. Um, all beneficiaries must be below 80% of the area
median income, and 110 of the 120 are below 30% of the area mean income.
And so this project is on schedule and exceeding its performance measures.
Um, there is one change to the scope of work. Um, we initially allocated
$20,000 for City admin for this project, but did not use any admin internally.
So we plan to reallocate those dollars to project expenses. Um, our second
activity for state CDBG-CV funding was nonprofit operational expenses in the
amount of $296,610. These are for projects that are above and beyond the
services and nonprofit offered before COVID. Um, funds were allocated to
agencies to provide homeless prevention and services, childcare services,
mental health services, food assistance, and eviction prevention. We've spent
nearly $172,000, or 59% on these projects to date. Um, altogether they have
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served over about 3000 community members. Um, all individuals or
households are below 80% AMI. Um, we did have one project that came in
under budget by about $4,200. So we plan to reallocate those funds to other
project expenses. Um, we, in our initial application, we also set aside City
admin funds for this activity, but we didn't take any admin, we allocated all to
the public service activities. Um, moving forward, we will be reallocating
those unused dollars to existing activities and working with agencies to
complete and close out their projects. Um, we're required to have 80% of
funds drawn by July 2023, urn, but I expect we'll be near completion by the
end of this fiscal year. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Any questions? All right. Thanks. Would anyone from the public
like to address this topic. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah. Um, so here we have an item that is literally about housing
and tomorrow there is an extreme weather event that's going to be hitting
this city. You even have that on your own Iowa City, uh, City Facebook page
saying that here's this adverse weather event happening tomorrow, urn, so
you should be aware of that. Uh, there's no shelter, access shelter. Currently
Shelter House is the only shelter for houses for people, council in this county.
urn, that I'm aware of, uh, I guess a Catholic worker house. There's some stuff
[mumbled] other people, but the main shelter, shelter, Shelter House, and
they currently are at capacity, have waiting lines. So there's not enough
available. Well, they're currently available, but you could, this City right now
could make housing, at least a minimum temporary housing shelter for
tomorrow and the entire winter for that matter. Well, since you're already
doing it, but especially tomorrow, because there's an extreme weather event
happening in this city and people don't have shelter. And this city has
facilities has places that provide shelter. If you don't do that, you are
choosing, and that is on your hands. I hope you know that is on all your
hands, if you choose to stay silent on this, if you're not opening up your
facilities tonight for people who need shelter. It is unacceptable, completely
wrong. I don't know how you can go to sleep at night if you allow that to
happen. I sure as hell I knew I wouldn't be able to. If I was in a position of
power and I knew we had extreme weather happening the next day and I did
nothing. And it's my position and power in said city to provide shelter for
those people who need shelter for protection from extreme weather events
that are likely happening because of climate change. That's the one that's
going to screw the [mumbled], the my, generation driving generations after
me have no hope for the future. This is just, just a little glimpse of what it's
going to be like for the future. But right now today that you can help save
people, save lives, stop injuries for fighting, opening your facilities to people
right now. Cause they need it right now. It is wrong if you're just going to sit
there silently and let that happen. So you're just going to sit there silently
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and let that happen is what I'm hearing. Any of you or -- Geoff, this might be,
you think is the City going to have facilities for people who need shelter
tomorrow?
Teague: Please address this council.
Petersen: [mumbled] you're administering? And you're going to let people not have
shelter tomorrow.
Teague: Please address this council and not staff.
Petersen: Susan, are you gonna let people not have shelter tomorrow, Janice, you
going to let houseless people not have shelter tomorrow. Pauline, you're
going to let houseless people not have shelter tomorrow. Bruce, are you
going to stop people who need shelter from having shelter tomorrow?
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: That's disgusting.
Teague: Welcome.
Kauble: Hi, um, my name is Dan Kauble and I am just, I'm just here to, uh, repeat
some of the other talking points that I've gone through this evening. Um, I
mean, y'all know what I'm going to say. I again, will give you the chance for
folks on the council who will be here in January. If you commit now to, uh, to
hybrid meetings, just raise your hand and I will go back to my seat. So again,
1, 2, 3. Okay. Urn, so yeah, I'll talk for another two and, two minutes and 20
seconds. Um, again, there are so many people in this community who would
benefit from hybrid meetings and the antagonism that has been shown to
this, uh, to, to hybrid meetings by the City Council is, it's egregious. I mean,
from pushing this item back from when it was first proposed several months
ago to tonight where Mr. Mayor, you're not even calling a quick recess to just
tell us the people who are pushing for this, Hey, we're going to work on this. I
mean, I, it's messed up and I get that y'all don't like us, but we're what we're
pushing for, it's the right thing. And it's, I mean, I, for us to be skeptical of
what has you all pushing this down to a work session? We have reason to be
skeptical because the City government has been so hostile to other basic
demands that we've brought up. Hey City government, maybe we shouldn't
have the cops use tanks, hey, City government. And maybe you should
protect business owners from racist landlords. I mean, we've brought so
many things to this council and this council has just kicked the can down the
road and said, we're not going to do anything about that. Urn, it's it's
egregious and I would just like to add one thing, Mr. Mayor, that is already in
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the campaign, you were talking about how important it was for people, local
businesses and local people to visit the mi --, the boutiques owned by
minority women, especially immigrant minority women. Mr. Mayor, Naa was
furious about that because you have never been into her boutique once. And
the reason why this is topical it's because Nav I would love to call. She's a
very busy person, but she can't call into these meetings because you don't
have a Zoom option. She has been wanting to tell you how bullshit that was
for months, sir. It's crazy. Um, the, I mean, there, there are so many things
about this City government that are rotten. This is one of them. I mean, we
could talk for hours about this and if the City government continues dragging
its heels regarding to accessibility,
Teague: Thank you.
Kauble: We will.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Welcome.
Traore: Um, thank you. Uh, Mohamed Traore. Um, I just have a clarification question.
Just the way the line is written in terms of comments, sorry, I'm just a very
literal person. Uh, it says Iowa Economic Development Authority to prevent,
and then sentence ends with the COVID-19 pandemic. Just really confused on
how that's written. Was that how they actually wrote it when they allocated
these funds? I'm just, I just don't really understand how they were
preventing the pandemic in itself. And then also with, um, the organizations
are all excellent. All great. But with that wording in there, I'm just interested
to know how we're planning to allocate funds to do this in itself in terms of
preventing the pandemic. Um, the mental health services, phenomenal
childcare services, homeless prevention, everything great, but in terms of an
action plan in itself and how that actually, um, affected prevention, I think we
may end up needing some kind of report on that in itself just based on how
that was written. Uh, thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else want to comment on this? Seeing no one I'm going
to close the public hearing, wait, public comment time. Um, well close the
public hearing and then can I get a motion to approve?
2. Consider a Resolution
Mims: So moved, Mims.
Salih: Second, Salih.
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Teague: Council discussion. One thing I will say about, urn, cause these were some of
the funds that have been allocated. Um, they were to, urn, kind of prevent the
spread of COVID-19. Um, I know that at one point the, and I'm not sure this is
what the, what the Shelter House had in mind. Um, but I know that some of
their funds, we have placed people in hotels at one point, um, to kind of
separate individuals that may have contracted COVID-19. And so to prevent
the spread within, um, that's, you know, the, the space where people were
not confirmed as having COVID-19, that was a part of the prevention plan.
Um, and there was a lot of conversations about, you know, how do we
respond, urn, and prepare. So that is, urn, at least my take on some of the
things that happened, uh, for these funds.
Salih: I just want to make sure how much they said they left. I can't even see....
Teague: How much was left? You want to acknowledge that Eric --Erica?
Kubly: Um, we have a total of about $24,000 that's unallocated that we plan to, um,
reallocate into existing projects. Urn, remaining available, there's $120,000,
um, unspent that's allocated for the second activity, the nonprofit, um, and
then about $170,000 that has not been drawn through the Shelter House
program, but I will make a note that that's not, um, up to date. It's a couple of
months outdated.
Salih: No, I really specifically mean the money for rent and utility prevention, like
rent and utility. How much left at the Shelter House for that?
Kubly: Uh, we haven't, we haven't gotten a draw recently, but, urn, this is, this is the
number as of their most recent draw. I don't have the exact number as of
today,
Salih: One hundred --
Kubly: ..it's
-Kubly:..it's um, let's see, a hundred, about $170,000.
Salih: And when did we have, when did we start giving out this money?
Kubly: Um, I believe, so this is a continuation of our first phase of the CDBG-CV fund.
So when we ran out of that money, we just started with the second, um, with
the second allocation and I believe it was, um, towards the beginning of the,
of this year.
Salih: Yeah. But the whole thing is started last year. Summer of last year. Yeah. I
guess just, I really see a lot of need in the community and I still, we have
money there. That's very interesting. And, but I know that now we are doing
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like helping people survive, and we, we want to be able to like spend as much
as we can from the state so they can get help, like even more than three
months that we have. Uh, but there is many, many people who are not
eligible for that. Uh, you know, I hope, I guess don't want to see, we still have
money. That's really concerning me when I see money left and there is a lot
need on the communities. There are some people who are not eligible for the
state money and we still see that money sitting there. That's what I'm saying.
So I don't know this is...Any way, this is my last time can comment on that,
but I, I might come and be behind that podium and talk about it, but it's still, I
firsthand see the needs on the community. And, uh, we need like really, you
know, just faster service or maybe something like that. Yeah.
Fruin: If I could just clarify for Council, what you're seeing here is a very small
snapshot of the total relief package. Even the total relief package that Shelter
House is administering. So again, this is round two, uh, which means they
fully expent round one funds. And we also have our local funds that we
layered on top of this, uh, to, to really address folks that couldn't qualify for a
state funds like this and the Shelter House has received, uh, COVID relief
dollars direct, not even pass-through, through the, through the City as well.
And then of course we could layer on IFA, HACAP, and other funding that,
that may be out there. So I don't, don't just don't want you to think that this is
the only relief, rent relief, uh, utility relief. that's out there. There's multiple,
multiple layers. And as you know, each one may have its own unique, um,
eligibility, uh, rules.
Salih: Yeah. I just believe that City is helping a lot during this pandemic. And we are
ahead of many cities in the county that we are doing this. And a lot of people
from Iowa City has been benefit from this. And if we compare them with
other cities, so that's a plus.
Teague: Okay. Any other Council discussion? Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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16. FY22 Annual Action Plan Amendment #1 - Resolution Approving
Substantial Amendment #1 to Iowa City's FY22 Annual Action Plan
1. Public Comment
Teague: Item number 16, Fiscal Year '22 Annual Action Plan amendment number
one, this is a resolution approving substantial amendment number one to
Iowa City fiscal year 2022 Annual Action Plan. And I'm going to open the
public comment or the public hearing. Welcome.
Kubly: All right. Erica Kubly with Neighborhood Services. Um, this is a substantial
amendment to the FY22 current year Annual Action Plan to incorporate
additional, additional project awards into the Plan. Urn, the City did not
receive enough applications in our initial CDBG and HOME competitive
funding round last year to allocate all the available funds. So a second mid-
year funding round was held recently to accept additional projects and
allocate any available funds. Um, five projects were submitted with over a
million dollars in funding requests. Um, a total of $656,000 in funds was
available for allocation, HCDC scored the applications and made the
recommendations that are shown here. Um, $300,000 in HOME funds was
awarded to Shelter House for their 501 Project, which is permanent
supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessness using the
housing -first approach. $100,000 in HOME funds was awarded to the City
South District program for homebuyer downpayment assistance for four
additional units. Um, $128,000 in CDBG and HOME funds were awarded to a
partnership between the City and Green State Credit Union for downpayment
assistance to homebuyers who do not meet traditional financing parameters.
Um, the Housing Fellowship was awarded $128,000 in HOME funds for rental
acquisition that will serve a larger family. Um, a portion of this award is
CHDO reserve funds. The Housing Fellowship is a certified community
housing development organization through the HOME program. Um, and
they are the only applicant eligible, eligible for $78,000 in total reserve funds.
Um, Unlimited Abilities also submitted an application for rental acquisition,
but was not allocated funds by HCDC. In accordance with our citizen
participation plan, we've held a 30 -day public comment period for the
substantial amendment that ends today. And this meeting serves as an
additional opportunity for public comment on the amendment. Um, we have
not received any comments to date. With the approval of the substantial
amendment, we will submit the changes to HUD for approval and the
projects can be begin shortly.
Teague: Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you. Anyone from the public like to
address this?
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Traore: Urn, Mohamed Traore again. I'll just make this one quick. Uh, it's really good
to see more of the rental assistance and the downpayment assistance. Uh,
just the only question I'd have on this one is just the, urn, areas that these
allocations would be made in terms of areas of the city within themselves.
Uh, just really interested know whether these will be concentrated, um, for
just, uh, South District and, um, downtown area, or rather if this is more
spread out around the city and, urn, hitting any of the west side of the city as
well. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Kauble: Hi. Urn, so I would just like to draw attention to the fact that, so the amount
that's, the amount of funding that's going to Shelter House is, uh, $300,000.
Urn, their executive director makes just over a third of that. She makes
$130,000 a year. So, uh, she makes $130,000 a year. And people in our
community are going to be freezing to death very shortly. And I think that's
the problem with this town, to be honest, because I mean the City
government, you, y'all drag your heels in regards to helping folks who are
disadvantaged. And I mean, if you look back to the way that y'all have just
gone along with the Downtown District, the way that they wanted to, to
throw out, uh, people who, who were unhoused or et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera. I mean this town with all of the nonprofits, it's a really, it's a really
dirty system of scratching each other's back and then acting like, oh, we're
such good people, even though people are literally going to be freezing to
death. Um, and then to top it all off because y'all are good Democrats who,
um, have, uh, supposedly have a conscience. You, you get really angry when
people call y'all out for your shortcomings. I mean, we've seen this with
Supervisor Rod Sullivan, that's Sullivan in a nutshell, and that sums up so
many people on this Council. Urn, good liberals get offended when their good
liberal sensibilities are questioned. And unfortunately for many people in this
town that, I mean, they put their buddies, their cronies, et cetera. I mean, Mr.
Mayor, that's what you've done with Supervisor Porter. Um, you've defended
her throughout the abuses that she's thrown at TRC commissioners, et
cetera, et cetera, et cetera. The cronyism in this town is rotten. And I think
that, I mean, you can see a microcosm of that here with this discussion. Um,
it's it, it's just very disheartening. Urn, it, I mean, that's that, I we're trying to
change that like slowly but surely. And it sucks because when we try to come
up here and do things, y'all get personally offended and you talk about how
shitty we all are and how terrible people we are. And I mean, it just sucks, but
we're going to keep doing that. And I guess for my last comments this
evening, I'm just going to say, do hybrid meetings. I mean, Mr. Mayor tonight,
it's been an embarrassment. I mean the, the filibustering tonight did not need
to happen.
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Teague: Thank you. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, Noah? Um, yeah, you in [mumbled] the hybrid thing again, just have
a special meeting about making accessible meetings. I'm gonna assume the
answer is no, even though it, you could change that to a yes right now, but
since, not really expecting you to change. Um, yeah. So there's an extreme
weather event happening in this city tomorrow. People don't have shelter, on
their Shelter House gets. Yeah. $300,000. Not even one, sorry, not like a third
of a Christine Canganelli's salary. Yet their current welter, winter shelter is
not open because they're [mumbled] starting pay at $14 an hour while the
executive director makes six K, yeah yeah, six figures. Yeah, know I didn't say
that right. Six figures while paying people $14 an hour. And it's, it's a real
mystery why they don't have enough staff. It's not a mystery. It's capitalism
right there. And our nonprofit in this, in, in the nonprofit industry, because
nonprofitism is an industry. That is the sad reality that has become. People
are going to get hurt tomorrow because of that greed of not willing to pay
people a living wage. So there's not going to be shelter that normally is a
Shelter House, while the City has facilities in the past, y'all have opened up,
uh, Robert E. Lee. I know you, that's the one place that you've seen, how
facilities are shelter. People who need it tomorrow. And at least until Shelter
House figures out, how to stop paying peep -- stops to not, not pay. Oh, I'm
not even gonna -- until the Shelter House has actual, able to have that. If they
pay people while they'd have that, don't fund them any more money until
they commit to giving, paying all their employees, living wages, and more
urgently is open your facility, the City's facilities up for people who need
shelter tomorrow because they need it tomorrow. They need it today too. But
they, especially in tomorrow, because there is an extreme weather event
happening. Are you just going to let those people continue to not have shelter
available to them? Like how, how, how do you just sit with that? That's what
I want to know. Cause right now you're just sitting with that or you, or you
could open it say right now, okay, we're opening those. So we're going to
have the people and we're going to go out there and we're going to give
people shelter who need it. They need it desperately. They need it, that's
really the, that's really, especially tomorrow because again, severe weather
event happening, but people are going to get hurt with, in because they don't
have shelter that you could be providing you that currently it's not being
provided because of this, not this, the Shelter House, Shelter House operates.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: Are you going to have shelter for people who need it tomorrow?
Teague: Thank you.
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Petersen: Are you going to have shelter if you need it tomorrow, I'm not being
ignored.
Teague: Anyone else want to have public comment?
Petersen: If people die, blood is on your hands. I hope you know that if you don't
open up the facilities, that blood is --
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: -- all over your hands,
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: All over your damn hands. If you don't open your facilities up, there is no
good reason you cannot commit to right now, opening up those shelters up
right now, tonight. No good reason whatsoever.
Teague: Thank you.
Petersen: Are there going to be facilities, are there going to be facilities for those
people who need shelter tomorrow?
Teague: Anyone else like to address this topic?
Petersen: I don't see a hand, so I'm going to keep talking. Is there going to be
facilities, the city going --
Mims: -- resolution?
Petersen: Is there going to be shelter for people who need shelter tomorrow?
Teague: Noah.
Petersen: Is the city going to provide that shelter. Yes or no.
Teague: We are, you're done, you know that.
Petersen: No. I'm not done, but if you're not gonna provide shelter,
Taylor: You've said enough.
Petersen: What --
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Taylor: You've said enough.
Teague: I'm going to close, the public comment is --
Petersen: Is there going to be shelter for those people who need it tomorrow.
2. Consider a Resolution
Teague: Could I get a motion to approve please?
Salih: So moved.
Mims: Second,
Petersen: Is there going to be shelter for those people who need it tomorrow.
Teague: Moved by Salih, seconded by Mims. All right. Council discussion...
Salih: No discussion.
Mims: I will definitely support this. You know, we've got a lot of good organizations
in this town who are, I think, as efficient as we can actually ask for in
distributing this money, um, and appreciate their assistance. Um, cause
certainly we can't do all this with just City staff. So it's good to see the various
partnerships that we have and I will be supporting it.
Salih: Yeah. Okay, the same thing, yeah. My -- organization here are doing fantastic
job. And I think that like public private partnership is really great and helping
our city to reach out more communities. Yeah. Thank you.
Weiner: Permanent supportive housing for people who, with who chronically
experience homelessness is something that exists here. Um, there there's one
project at Cross Park Place that was the first built in the state to set the, the, I
believe that the $300, $300,000 allocated here are, are aimed at the second
one, which is under construction now. Um, it's a, it provides, it ultimately
provides permanent housing, permanent supportive housing with services,
um, for people who, uh, for a whole variety of reasons would never otherwise
be able to be housed.
Taylor: Exactly.
Teague: No, and I would agree that housing -first model really is, um, unique. And we
were the first in the state. But beyond that, I'm happy to know that we're on
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our second, uh, facility here in the City. All right. No more comments? Roll
call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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18. Community Comment [If Necessary] (Items not on the agenda)
Teague: Item number 18, and we welcome USG.
Van Heukelom: Hi, Council. Urn, we're still seeking feedback on our homeless week
survey. Um, the link was in the last announcements that we sent you. Finals
week is this week, and then winter break starts. Ellie and I will be out of town
for the January 4th City Council meeting. Um, we'll see you when we return
from break and then for City Council meetings for this semester, um, we both
have different school schedules, so we'll have to split up, split up our time at
Council in a different way. So I'll send you a follow-up email about this, and
then we don't really have any other announcements because our exec team
and Senate -- Senate haven't met the past couple of weeks due to finals, but
we will still be continuing on our initiatives over break and checking our
emails if you want to stay in touch with us
Teague: Great and wish you and the rest of the, um, USG the best in your finals. And
we don't, I'm sorry, we don't have public comment at this time. It's just USG.
We don't have public comment at this time,
Traore: I wasn't going to speak until they were done.
Teague: Yeah, there is no public comment.
Taylor: We don't do this at this point.
Traore: Also agenda item number 18 on the agenda --
Mims: We only do it if we run out of time early.
Traore: I have letters signed by over 30 people to read. I just was just hoping to do
so before the end of the year, one of them is from an international group as
well.
Teague: If you want to submit it to Council through email, we'll receive it. Thank
you.
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19. City Council Information
Teague: We're going to move on to item number 19, which is City Council
information, any updates by City Council.
Salih: Is this the time we can...speak?...I think this is the time we can say something
because we're leaving.
Teague: Yes. Yes.
Salih: Yeah. I was really preparing like something to say, but for somehow, you
know, I just felt sad throughout this meeting because I always see like Black
leadership in the community. We cannot retain them, you know, as they start
working somewhere, but because they did not get the supporting tools, that's
why they leave. And first I want to say that I would like to thank the public
for electing me and, uh, you know, putting that trust on me that I'm going to
do something. I, I think I'm proud. I'm very proud about the time that I
served the Council. I tried my best. I was on the public side all the time, try to
hear the public and what they need and try to, because I always think about
myself as a public servant, whatever is going to benefit the public. I'm here to
do it. I'm not here, I guess, to implement my own ideas. I'm here to see what
the needs of the public so I can, like, advocate for, and that what I was being
doing on the bus, like for like four years. Yeah. Sometime we come to a lot of
agreement. And I think when I run, I said, transportation, economic
development for all affordable housing. I think I done a lot of progress on
those, increasing the Affordable Housing Fund to $1 million, that was
proposed by me. Uh, also transportation, Taylor and me, we just pushed hard
on that in the beginning of my Council, and I'm glad to see like a lot of
improvement in transportation and also like following the econom --
economic development will be there, like having more permanent position
and the like changing a lot of temporary position to permanent positions and
increasing the minimum wage on the City for the seasonal employee to $15
an hour. And also like making the City really doing a lot of outreach now, like
improving our outreach. Now a lot of people, even, I ask even Tracy hey, how
you, she started seeing people come and try to benefit from all the grants that
the City have for small businesses for like, we started seeing like minorities
be able to really engage, you know, with the City. Uh, yeah, it is, sometimes
we don't agree. And that's healthy. I challenge a lot of time staff and Council,
but, uh, as the end of the day, I really was trying to do, to do the good for the
public and nothing, I don't have anything against nobody here where as soon
as I just finished, like get up from this like setting, we all friend and like, uh,
here in the community, live together as neighbors. And that's what I have
been feeling. But today I just like really, I'm sorry to no one, you know, Dan,
I'm going to say this. I been supporting you like, all the time, but today I felt
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like we been undermined as Black leadership. Do you know that this is the
first time Mayor, Mayor Bruce, time in the whole history of Iowa City to be
Black. And instead of giving us the supporting tools to do our work, I just feel
like we're being undermined. And we been like, you know, like they make
him the job for us difficult to, to continue. And I wasn't like, want my last
meeting to be like this. And you know, my, my husband overseas, my child is
sick at home and I'm still low-income by the way, I have five children and my
mom and, you know, I, I do this as a volunteer, I'm not, I'm not making money
out of this. I try to serve my community. And I was wishing that, you know,
the public to give us like the supporting tools to continue our work as Black
leaders. I've been in the Council when the mayor was white and the mayor
pro tem was white, never seeing this happening. Never seen people come and
just undermining the leadership like that. So I don't know, but that's kind of
thing that like, make the people like me, not even brought a kid here or not,
doing this volunteer for, because, you know, just no support. That's how I felt
today. But I just want to I say that I'm also happy that I work with all of you
and with the staff. Sometime it was very direct. I don't have to sugar coat
things. I just don't want like people to take that personally, never meant
anything. I love you all. And I'm going to be still around and we're going to
continue like working together. I'm glad that I made all these connections,
whether with the council or whether with the staff, and we're going to
continue and I'm getting come and challenge you behind that podium. So,
yeah. And thank you for the public for giving me this opportunity to serve
them. And I hope that I did something good and maybe I will come again in
the future. Thank you so much. [applause]
Mims: It's been 12 years and a lot's changed in 12 years. And I think some of your
comments tonight, Maz, reflect some of those changes, the changes locally,
the changes at the state and the changes nationally. Um, we've become
polarized. We've become very disrespectful. Um, and I, I think that's what I
find the most frustrating is we can disagree and we can challenge each other
and we can, you know, talk about these issues, but when people make it
personal, when people, um, when people want to talk and don't necessarily
understand the process and then want to criticize and complain about what's
done or not done, when they don't understand process, it gets frustrating.
Um, one of the things I've been concerned about over the last few years is, is
how much harder it is to get people to run for office. And I think those are
some of the reasons it is harder. People say, how can you put up with it?
Okay. Um, I'll come back to that in a minute, but I, I do, I do want to say, and
this is where I wanted to start. And I'm like you, Maz, this is not how I wanted
my last meeting to be. Um, I'd written some notes today and where I wanted
to start with just with a really big thank you to the staff. We have an
absolutely excellent, excellent City staff from the City Manager to our City
Clerk, City Attorney, urn, all the way through they're experts in their fields.
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They work hard to give great service to our community members, to be
incredibly supportive and helpful to Council, as we try to make the best
decisions that we can make for this community. Um, they get criticized a lot.
They, you know, they, they are good, they are excellent. They do hard work.
And I just want to tell them how much I appreciate all of them. One of the
things I've really missed actually, uh, over the last two years has been our
staff appreciation luncheon that we typically had had out at Terry Trueblood.
And I've really enjoyed that. I, you know, I would go to it. I didn't even usually
sit down and eat. I would simply walk around, I'd introduce myself, I would
talk to staff, uh, would tell them how much I appreciated their work. I'd ask,
you know, what department they worked in. And, you know, there were the
people there who had just come in there have been picking up trash, or
they've been out working on the streets, or they were working in the finance
department or whatever it might be, but just to really sincerely and honestly
tell them how much I appreciated the work that they did for our community.
And then clear the tables, they say, oh, you don't have to, you'll have to say I
enjoy doing it. I enjoy getting to know people that way and tell them how
much we appreciate all the work that they do. I went back through and
looked, and it was trying to think about, um, how many Council members I've
worked with over the 12 years. And I'm not sure if I counted it right, but I
think there's at least 16. Um, started off when I took office in January of 2010,
with Mike Wright, Regenia Bailey, Connie Champion, Matt Hayek, Terry
Dickens and Ross Wilburn. And Ross was one of the first African-American
members of this Council. Um, now obviously working at the state level and
the Democratic Party. And I figured there's been about 10 more since that
period in time and all different personalities, interests, um, and approaches
to doing things, but it's, it's been educational. It's been interesting. And I have
enjoyed it. I looked at the strate--, one of the things that when I was elected,
the first time that I ran on was the fact that the City did not even have a City-
wide strategic plan. And so it took us about a year and a half to get it done
because the first thing we had to get done was hire a new City Manager. And
we wanted to wait until we got that new City Manager before we started
down the path of a strategic plan. And so we hired Tom Marcus, and I would
say, you know, some of the, couple of the highlights, um, in those 12 years is
hiring two absolutely excellent City Managers. Um, Tom Marcus first and now
Geoff Fruin, um, also in the process, we've replaced a 30 -plus -year City Clerk
with Kellie, who's doing an excellent job and I don't know, 20, 25 -plus -year
City Attorney with Eric Goers, who's stepped in without missing a beat. And
they're great leaders, uh, for the staff. I looked at, um, went back to look at
some documents and I looked at the, uh, 2011, excuse me, to 2015 Capital
Improvement Project plans. It was kind of interesting that 2011 -to -2015
plan; 45% of that budget was for flood recovery and mitigation. We spent
tens, if not hundreds, probably of millions of dollars that we got, our own
money, state, federal, and local option sales tax. We decommissioned the
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north wastewater treatment plant. We expanded the south wastewater
treatment plant. We bought out, I think, over 40 houses along Normandy. I
was talking with Tracy Hightshoe earlier. She thought the total buyout was
like 140 from the floods. Built levees, replaced the Animal Shelter, um, uh,
elevated Dubuque Street and put in a new Park Road bridge. We've done a lot
in 12 years. Um, you know, Maz mentioned some of the other things we've,
we've had affordable housing, um, groups and programs. Um, I think our first
14 -point plan was, I don't know, six or eight years ago. We worked through
that and we've just continued, um, to go from there. But it's been the people
it's been the projects. I mean, more recently, obviously it's been, you know,
the Climate Action Plan, et cetera, but it, again, as Maz addressed, it's, it's
some of the negatives as we reach the end that are disappointing. Hearing
some of the comments tonight about Shelter House and about Chrissy
Canganelli's salary: you don't find and hire good people to do the hard,
complicated work of leading an organization like Shelter House without
giving them a good and fair compensation for their experience and their
expertise. And so I would never apologize nor should, [shouting from public]
do I think Chrissy should apologize for her salary. Okay. Um, they are, they,
they have a low -barrier shelter. Uh, there've been recently some false
accusations out there. They do not drug test. They do not do alcohol testing.
They basically it's done on the behavior of individuals. If they come in and
they're intoxicated, if they behave, they can stay. And so the, the things that
are coming out from some parts of the community, starting to, uh, really push
negative messages about Shelter House, and some of our other excellent long
time, um, social service agencies, I think is really disconcerting. And I think
the people who know and understand what's happening in those
organizations and the positive things they're doing have to really make sure
that we're promoting that. Janice, you mentioned the, um, housing -first and
they're on their second project. Um, that first one took 24 chronically
homeless individuals and gave them a safe, a roof over their head, a door that
could be locked. So they didn't have to worry about their belongings and
then moved them to get more assistance, um, as they got used to having
social workers and nurses and psychiatric people in the building and made
them less service resistant. We have to find a way to bridge the divides and
the polarization that we find in our community and across our state and
across this country. And we need to start here and we need to start by
holding ourselves accountable. We need to start by holding other people
accountable, who are not honest. We have to have the conversations, and I
would challenge this Council as they go forward. You need to discuss and
find a way, uh, and a process to keep the public comment on target. Um, we
spent, I think about an hour and a half tonight, listening to repeated
comments that had nothing to do with the agenda items. It was clear that the
Council is going to discuss the issue of meeting structure and, and how
people can access the meetings. And you'll do that once you have your full
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Page 87
new Council in place, which is for me, the process that makes sense, but
when we have policies and procedures and time limits, and that people are
supposed to address the, the item on the table, I really think you have to talk
about how you're going to enforce that as you go forward. And I don't know
the answer to that, but I think you really need to talk about it with staff and
how are you going to handle that? The public should be able to come here
and in a timely manner, get up to address the issues that they're here to
without an extra hour and a half being added to a meeting with the same
message being repeated and repeated and repeated, and oftentimes not even,
uh, relevant to the matter on the floor. I think people need to make an effort
when there's those issues that people are frustrated about is to have those
conversations outside of these meetings, to try and help with the
understanding of where we're at, what the process is that the Council is
talking about using, right. And maybe that will help in terms of mitigating
another meeting like we've had tonight, I've enjoyed my 12 years. Um, I'm,
you know, it's gonna, it's gonna be a change. So I'm, there's pros and cons. I
was talking to somebody today, there's pros and cons about leaving. Um, but
again, the last thing I would say is I just really want to thank the staff and I
want to thank the public for electing me three times. And like others have
said not going anywhere, going to be around, happy to talk, and we'll
continue to find ways, um, that I want to work within this community. So
thank you very much to everybody here and to the public. [applause]
Teague: Any other items from Council or comments from Council?
Weiner: Thank you to you both. Thank you. Thank you to you both. I've learned an
enormous amount from both of you and really relied on both of you for, for
Council and, um, coming up to speed and different perspectives and just, um,
being colleagues.
Thomas: Yeah. I spoke to both Susan and Maz before the meeting and, you know,
express my appreciation for their work. And, um, you know, I think tonight
did offer us with the, uh, the SSMID project, a really, I think, great example of
how, when things work, it's really quite inspiring. So I'm, you know, I want to
take that away from this meeting. Um, and so I'm happy that, you know, that
coincided with your last meeting, urn, because that was a great example of, I
think, how we try to, to bridge these divides. And it's, it's sort of trying to
work on that vision that we can share, uh, so that we don't get lost in the
things that divide us. Uh, we, we have a sufficient, the vision is compelling
enough that we put, set those aside. And, urn, I think we have a great example
with, with what we heard tonight on the SSMID and the work of the South
District. In general.
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Taylor: I have to say Susan, that, uh, come January and we're doing our budget
discussions, I'm going to totally miss you and your financial savviness.
Mims: I won't be here. (laughter)
Taylor: You'll gladly not be here.
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20. Report on Items from City Staff
20.a. City Manager
Teague: All right. Moving on to item number 19 --20, and the updates from our City
Manager.
Fruin: Yeah. I'd like to, um, address both Susan and Maz. Urn, and I'll try to keep it,
uh, keep it brief. Um, Mazahir, you said something towards the end of your
remarks tonight, you said, I hope I did something good. Urn, you should get
that out of your mind right now. You don't need to hope; you should know
you did plenty good. And if you need a list, just let me know. I'll be happy to
create a list of all the good that you did. Um, we had a talk earlier, uh, last
week and, um, I just want to reiterate, um, you know, you, you challenged and
pushed me quite a bit and, uh, uh, I'm, I'm confident that I'm a better City
Manager because of you, um, and the 600 -plus staff that we have. We're,
we're a stronger, better staff, more responsive staff to the community
because of you. So thank you.
Salih: Thank you.
Fruin: Uh, Susan, you're the, you're the, um, uh, the last remaining Councilor, uh,
from the, from the group that I kind of came to the City with. So you'll, after
you leave, uh, I will have experienced all new, all new Council members. Um,
uh, you have always been a strong supporter, um, of our staff. And, you know,
you mentioned the employee lunch and always coming and engaging with
staff, and absolutely we appreciated that, but, um, there's, you know, one, one
way that you always showed great respect for staff and, and, um, that's, you
were always prepared. It didn't matter the meeting, what else was going on,
it didn't matter, urn, the item, it didn't, you know, whether it was Parks or
Public Works or whatever, you were always prepared. And that means so
much to us as staff. It means so much to the, the 600 -plus employees that
work on those issues that, that, you know, have a lot riding on, on the Council
votes that we don't always think about. And I can tell you, urn, from the
management team, from all the staff, um, we really appreciated that
consistency, um, and that hard work, because I know what it takes to be
prepared. Like you have always prepared and, uh, um, I can't thank you
enough for that. Thank you for the time. Yeah.
20.b. Deputy City Manager
Teague: All right. Our Deputy City Manager.
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Jones: Well, it's hard to follow that, but I did want to share, I had the opportunity to,
uh, attend the grand opening for QuickStar. I know the Council gets a, uh,
really involved on, on some of the big issues that come through the town, but,
and forget maybe some of the smaller issues. Well, I can tell you, they were a
very enthusiastic group there, and I was asked to share their gratitude for the
support that the Mayor and Councilors have given them, um, during this
project. And, uh, I can tell you that, that, the staff there are very enthusiastic. I
think they were actually chanting, uh, the City. It might've also been because
Herky was there kind of cheering them on, but I'll take it any way we can get
it. And I want to just pass that along. So.
20.c. City Attorney
Teague: Thank you. City Attorney?
Goers: Thank you, uh, Mr. Mayor, I'd like to echo Geoff s comments for both Maz and
Susan as they, uh, end their service with us. And I'm sorry, I wasn't able to be
here for more of the reception earlier, other than to greet you both very
quickly, uh, as a result of the scramble, uh, with the precincting, uh, and on
that topic, I'd like to, um, offer a special, thanks to, uh, Kirk Lehmann in our
Planning Department who really went above and beyond and did fantastic
work in an area that I am completely incompetent in, writing all these legal
descriptions and getting the GIS mapping figured out. And without him, we
would not have made it. So, special thanks to Kirk, and again, thank you to
you all.
20.d. City Clerk
Teague: Thank you. All right. City Clerk.
Fruehling: Don't be shocked. I'm saying something. [laughter] I did talk to Maz and
Susan a little bit earlier, um, but again, thank you both for your service and
your support, uh, in me and my role as Clerk. Um, that was a big step for me
and I'm still learning every day. Um, and I do, I feel like I need to, to clarify,
uh, an issue, um, the City does do verbatim transcriptions. We have since
1998, um, I don't plan on discontinuing anytime soon. I find it's a good
resource tool to use when, when looking up things. Um, and I guess I would
say for, for Mr. Kauble and Mr. Petersen, and if you could pass the word along
to Miss McGovern, um, if, if you need help navigating the website or finding
information, because Council archives is, is my business, if you give me a call,
we can discuss transcriptions all you want. Yep. [public talking] Nope. Give
me a call and we can talk about it. [public talking.] Give me a call and we can
talk about it. I'd be happy to.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
special formal meeting of December 14, 2021.