City Council - Regular Meeting

June 29th, 2026, Des Moines City Council meeting to order. Please take the roll.

Bowson?

Here.

Simonson?

Here.

Voss? Here. Barron here, Western are here. Mandelbaum here here. We have a forum.

The next item is approving the agenda as presented and or as amended. For tonight 28, I added. On application to the US Department of housing and urban development for. future for this year of 26 pathways to removing obstacles to housing 7, 13, 26 sponsors, mayor boson, uh, 36 been withdrawn by city manager for further review. 62 is updated the amount and 64 is updated speakers list.

Move approval, your honor.

The moved and seconded. Please vote.

Okay.

7, yes.

Next item is item 3, approving the consent agenda. These are items 3 through 51. Tonight, we have 5 VOS votes no, 5A, 5B, 5C votes no, 6 VOS no. 6A, 6B, Bozen votes no. 7, Mandelbaum wants to speak. 12, Gatto is abstaining. 13, Mandelbaum wants to speak. 38, Bozen is abstaining. 38, Gatto is a no. 43 and 44, Mandelbaum would like to speak. Is it entertaining?

Move approval, Your Honor. I don't need to speak at 44.

Okay.

Move approval, Your Honor, with that change.

Second. We also have someone that would like to speak. We allow three minutes for people to speak. Carol Maher, items 7 and 38.

Mayor Boeson, members of the City Council, my name is Carol Maher and I live in Ward 3 in downtown Des Moines. This is the second time this year we are putting the Skywalk Maintenance RFP out for bid. The first time no one responded. That sounds like the marketplace talking to me. Skywalks were an interesting idea in the 20th century when everyone drove downtown to their office job, parked in full parking garages, passed bustling restaurants and shops in the sky on the way to their desk. It was a climate-controlled nirvana that ran on a 9 to 5 Monday through Friday cadence. Dolly Parton even sang about it. But that's not the downtown of today's Des Moines. Today, it's one of the largest neighborhoods in the city, with over 1,000 new units coming online by next year. The city has also committed $7 million in TIF to rehab longtime vacant storefronts to provide goods and services for residents and to support small businesses. More eyes on the streets promotes a safer environment. Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on skywalks is a direct competition with the vitality, safety, and strong neighborhoods. A goal should be to get those office workers away from their desks, outside of their buildings, to add to the vitality, support storefront retailers, and experience the art, culture, and grittiness that makes downtown great. Keeping neighbors and the office workers in separate bubbles is not a good strategy. In the strategic planning session just this morning, downtown vitality was mentioned several times as a North Star vision component. Many around the square table agreed with that. I didn't hear mentions of skywalks in the brainstorming, and I can't find it in the consultant's documentation. In this brave new world, we must do things differently. Side note, I realize I'm only one of three people in the entire metro that feel this way about skywalks, but I didn't want to let it go. Thanks. And this one I'll need, I'm going to call upon this. Thank you.

Visual aids.

I signed up to speak on this topic last night, and I'm grateful that Axios published their article today. It saved me a lot of work. I'm here to talk about the soccer deal. How much taxpayer money is the city ponying up for the soccer stadium? Let's take a look. For the lease, it's $1 per year, which is a fair market value of $16.4 million over 25 years. As a point of comparison, I just renewed my lease, which was 33 times $1 per month increase. So I'm paying just in one month 33 times more than what will be paid for this lease on an annual basis. We're also putting in a $7 million grant, 1.5 for the plaza, and environmental remediation bringing us to 37.9 million. The state's throwing in 23 and a half million, the county 17. For the grand total World Cup final of $78.4 million of public funds for a $95 million stadium, which is 83% of the deal is going to be paid with taxpayer money. How about the return on the investment for the city, the county, and the state? Property taxes? No, unfortunately, it's gonna be in a foundation, not gonna pay that. Ticket concessions, sales taxes, paid parking taxes? I think we charge sales tax on those, so there you go. While I am indeed caught up in World Cup fever like everyone else, USA, USA, Cape Verde, Cape Verde, this looks like an inside deal for a multimillionaire while the serfs are suffering. Extensive research has showed that stadium project after stadium project never returns the lofty projections that municipalities spout. And I'm going to go over right now, but I think you all deserve a raise, and you should take the raise because you've got to put up with people like me. Thanks.

Thank you. Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Please vote. 7, yes.

Motion carries. The next item to our hearings. Item 52, on conveyance of the vacated east-west alley right-of-way adjoining 1107 Guthrie Avenue to Erin N. Payne and Amanda Payne in exchange for a permanent easement for sanitary sewer right-of-way. Jermaine, comments from the general public? Two minutes per person to speak, 10 minutes maximum. Anyone wishing to speak?

Seeing none, I'll move item 52. Second.

Moved and seconded, please vote.

Sovereign, yes.

Motion carries. The next item is 53, on conveyance of 1760 Beaver Avenue to Jones Investment Properties, LLC, for $1,250. Again, germane comments. Anyone wishing to speak?

Seeing none, I will move approval of item 53.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

7, yes.

Motion carries. Next item is item 54. on vacation of street right of way adjacent to the realigned 41st Street and Beaver Avenue intersection and conveyance to adjoining property owners for $550. A is first consideration of the ordinance above. Again, germane comments. Anyone wishing to speak?

Seeing none, Your Honor, I will move approval of item 5454A. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

7, yes.

Motion carries. Item 55, on request from Youth Homes of Mid-America, Jamie Bessel, officer to rezone 1011 Park Avenue from NX1 Neighborhood Mix District to NX2 Neighborhood Mix District to allow a group living shelter use. A is first consideration of ordinance above. B is the final consideration of ordinance above. Waiver requested by applicant requires six votes. FIRST, PARTIES AND INTERESTS, THAT WOULD BE THE APPLICANT FOR REZONING AND THOSE WITHIN 250 FEET OF THE PROPERTY TO BE REZONED WILL BE GIVEN UP TO FIVE MINUTES TO SPEAK. SECOND ARE GERMANE COMMENTS FROM THE GENERAL PUBLIC, TWO MINUTES PER PERSON TO SPEAK, 20 MINUTES MAXIMUM. ANYONE WISHING TO SPEAK TO THIS?

SEEING NONE, I WILL MOVE ITEM 55A AND 55B. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Seven, yes.

Motion carries. The next item is item 56, on request from Broadlawns Medical Center, Denise Cundy, officer, to amend plan DSM creating our tomorrow comprehensive plan to revise the future land use classification of the property from low density residential within a community node to public, semi-public within a community node, and to rezone multiple parcels located in the vicinity of 1826 Hickman Road from N5 neighborhood district and NX1 neighborhood district next district to limited P2 public, civic and institutional district to allow a non-accessory surface parking lot use for the Broadlawns Medical Center. A is first consideration of ordinance above. B is final consideration of ordinance above. Waiver requested by applicant requires six votes. First is the parties and interests. Applicant for rezoning of those within 250 feet of the property to be rezoned will be given up to five minutes to speak. Second will be germane comments from the general public, two minutes to speak, up to 20 minutes. Anyone wishing to speak? If you just come on up, state your name.

Thank you, Your Honor. I'm Proctor Lerman. I work at Broadlawns. Thank you, City Council. I wanted to come today and tell you a few things that I have learned in the two years that I have been at Broadlawns. When I first got there, I would look out the window at the front parking lots and I would watch people circle the parking lot trying to find parking. and I would eventually watch them drive away. I know that one thing that is very important to you is access to healthcare. Well, access starts with getting in the building for both our patients and our employees. So when we have abandonment rates in our clinics that can be tied back to leaving the premises as lack of parking, That was a problem that I wanted to solve. So we went about trying to capitalize on the space that we had and maximize the parking. So we went in and repainted the lines and cleaned some spaces and we added about 35 to 45 additional spaces in the last two years. But frankly, it's not enough. So there was a plan that started back in 2015 with Jody Jenner before me. accumulating land for expansion. So this has been land across the street on Hickman that has been owned by Broadlawn since 2015. I know that there has been some concern about taxable property and the mayor has sent Broadlawn's a letter that we are willing to talk about. Paving this for additional parking will not take this off the tax rolls today because it's been off the tax rolls since purchase. I WANTED TO ALSO ADDRESS, I BELIEVE THAT THERE'S SOME CONCERN ABOUT BUILDING HOMES OVER THERE. WELL, WE'RE IN THE BUSINESS OF HEALTH CARE, AND SO WE'RE NOT GOING TO BUILD HOMES ON THIS PROPERTY. I DID A QUICK LITTLE GOOGLE SEARCH ON RELITTER TODAY, AND THERE ARE 80 HOMES ON THE MARKET IN THE ZIP CODE, WHICH BASED ON MY MATH OF 2,000 SINGLE FAMILY HOMES, THAT'S ABOUT 4% OF THE TOTAL, AND THAT'S I THINK PROBABLY ON THE HIGH SIDE. There's 5,000 housing units in our zip code with a 16% vacancy rate, and there are 200 vacant lots that could be infill built. Now I know that there's been a lot of redevelopment within our neighborhoods, and thanks to Steve Johnson, who is in the audience today, we have... raised our presence at our neighborhood communities and we have done what we can to involve the neighbors in all of this decision-making. Many of these decisions happened 15 or 10 years ago, excuse me, when the purchase of this land occurred. Lastly, I wanted to just talk a little bit about the rise of cost for parking ramps because if we could, One of the questions was, would we build a parking ramp? Well, I think the city probably knows better than Broadlawn's. The cost of construction and maintenance of parking ramps is greater than flat parking. And we, just like you, are on property tax rolls. And so we want to be as good a financial steward of the dollars that we have. five times the cost of a flat parking lot, I don't think is in the best interest of the taxpayers. So this is something that we would like to proceed with to be able to increase our physical parking, our access for our employees, our access for our patients. That does not diminish that we continue to have conversations with DART about public transport. We have that right out front and they have a drop off on our campus and we continually monitor what the changes are with darts so that we have access through them. It's very important to us. So thank you very much.

Thank you. I have a question. Are you currently a dart all access partner?

I'm sorry that I can't answer that. Yes or no. I do not know.

Okay. You don't know if Broadlawns is a DART All Access. Are you open to Broadlawns being a DART All Access for staff?

So if this is the free... Transportation? Yes. So we started those conversations with, and forgive me her name. Amanda. Thank you. Yes. So if that's what that program is, no, we are currently not. But yes, we started those conversations. They have not finished.

Doctor, one question. At the primary point of crossing the street, will there be any type of pedestrian activated light there?

Yeah, so thank you for that question. I've had a few conversations with city engineers, and I know that one of the plans for Hickman that you desire is to slow traffic on Hickman. There's some plans to take those four lanes down to two with a turn and some islands. Having a crossing, a blinking light crossing like is on Martin Luther King, I think would be sufficient for us, provide safe crossing for our employees. Also would benefit one of the plans that you have, which is to slow that traffic down. So I think we actually could have two goals accomplished with one thing.

So the pedestrian crossing light would be installed at the same time that the Yes.

However, that works best for you. And as long as you're talking very nice jacket.

Okay. Thank you. So is there anyone else within the 250 feet?

Chief Johnson, Broadlawns Medical Center. I just want to amplify a couple points. So we're designated by the federal government as a primary care, dental, and mental health shortage area. That's on our main campus and all of our clinics. So when Proctor says that we need a place for people to park and and get health care. We've already done this. I mean, the lack of health care available to some of the folks, as you already know, that don't have transportation. DART's a very important relation, very important. We're not part of that program yet, but we purchase about $20,000 in tokens per year just to make sure our patients can use DART. So we run about... hundred stops a day at the Stop that the main stop that Proctor identified the other thing I wanted to say is we we had two neighborhood meetings Not that well attended we did one in the afternoon one in the evening But we have been going door-to-door Brian my partner and here coming from broad lawns We've gone we've had very good conversations and the people that are adjacent to where this planned parking lot is are welcome a you know, beautiful trees, lighting, everything, welcome a very nice, you know, good-looking, we think this is going to help beautify Hickman. And then I would just second the question you had, Carl, about safety, because that's been brought up at previous meetings, and we want it to be safe. I've crossed, just in doing what we're doing, I've crossed Hickman a couple times just on my own, and it was like, you know, I was raised Catholic, so I said a prayer at the end, but it was, but it, yeah, we're all for that, so. Thank you.

Thank you. Open up if anyone else would like to speak. Come up and state your name and order address.

Hi, Council Members. Dina Bennett, Ward 2, and I sent some of you an email on this, so I'll try to be brief, but happy to talk to anyone, including Broadlawns, about why I have this position that I do. I just am here to encourage you to vote no on this request. I very much deeply appreciate Broadlawns and what they do. They have helped me and my friends and I recognize the vital role that they play in our community. Absolutely. So sorry to pick on them. My concern is not with Broadlawn specifically, but just the expansion of surface parking lots in Des Moines in general. And it just happens to be a hospital in this case. So the way we use our land, it really matters. It is a finite resource. We desperately need to expand Des Moines' tax base and create more housing. Allowing for more surface parking does neither of those things. Surface parking generates no revenue for anyone. It only serves as temporary car storage. And parking lots replace land that could be used to support homes or businesses or both, ideally. I see parking as a liability and not an asset. I definitely understand that the need for parking at bronze lawns is very real and urgent and it is important to address this. I want to see them supported and I want to see this addressed, but creating more surface parking is only going to exacerbate the need for cars in this area. It will take some creativity, but I believe we should work to find alternative solutions here. So please consider how much more effective Broadlands can be if they didn't have to dedicate more than half of their land to surface parking, if we could use that space, or they could use that space for something else to help people. So I don't think putting a parking lot here is in their best interest or the city's best interest long term. And if anybody from Prairie Meadows or Polk County happens to be listening right now, I just want them to know that I would love to see Broadlands get a big fat grant for better development on their property. Please vote no and thank you very much for your time and consideration of my remarks.

State your name, address, or word.

Yes. Hi, Mayor Bozen and council members. My name is Christopher Borey. I live at 5567 C Meredith Drive. I'm also a co-founder and president of Strong Des Moines. We're a community activist group or advocacy group, sorry. We believe in resilient neighborhoods, walkable streets, abundant housing, and most importantly, fiscally sound growth. I know the mayor and the council are in an incredibly difficult position right now with budget shortfalls, and tough choices are ahead. I appreciate the balancing act that's in front of you. We all need Broadlands and its dedicated staff, and Broadlands likewise needs a strong city of Des Moines. If today's decision weakens the city's long-term position, we all lose. That's why I respectively urge you to vote no on the Broadlands rezoning of the Hickman Road parcels. Saying no to a valued community partner isn't easy. but I believe we can work together with Broadlands to find creative solutions that meet the staff's needs while being thoughtful stewards of Des Moines taxpayers and the limited precious land that we have. Des Moines is at a turning point. Our city's budget has faced real struggles in recent years with more shortfalls projected going forward. The new state law capping annual property tax levy at 2% has put cities in a difficult position and given us less flexibility going forward. With these headwinds, the question before us is clear, do we continue to balance budgets by having to cut painful or do painful cuts of services such as libraries, parks, pools, and other amenities that residents appreciate and value? Or are we going to get serious about thoughtful growing our property tax base by making better use of our land?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Anne Crotty. I'm at 3031 Grand Avenue, Ward 3. Our city is in a dire financial straits with aging infrastructure, a property tax cap, a lot of non-taxable land, and a need for more housing. This parking lot would generate no tax revenue for the city and would add long-term maintenance costs so the city would be responsible for maintaining. It would also create a major safety concern with people crossing Hickman Road, it's quite busy, possibly at night, and with the safety features that I don't, No, I mean, they mentioned that. I haven't seen them yet. But I would like to see more creative solutions before defaulting to a parking lot. Broadlawns is on a high-frequency bus route. If they offered staff an unlimited access pass like many of our other businesses do, it could decrease the need for that parking and the people needing to drive. And it could also be cheaper than cost to maintain that lot. They could also add other options for staff that do need to drive, like vanpool or rideshare or bikeshare. If they must add surface parking, could they also add other amenities that could add revenue or value to the community and the neighborhood? Things such as a community garden to support their Food Rx prescription program, and adult exercise equipment at a city park or in the area. solar-covered parking, a daycare facility for staff, or affordable housing for staff, such as residents. I look forward to working with Broadlawns, the City Council, and the community to build a more resilient, vibrant, and financially strong Des Moines. Please consider voting no on this proposal. Thank you.

Seeing none, I'll open it up for questions.

Mayor, I have a question. Just when Proctor spoke, he referenced a letter that you had sent.

Yes, I sent a letter out to all the hospitals and to the governor on payment in lieu of taxes. And he is offered to entertain a conversation on that because he understands our role.

Mayor, I would like to move item 56, 56A and 56B.

So before we, I don't know if other folks have questions or not, but I have, I have a few and I want to, I want to talk about this for a little bit. Um, I don't know how many times in the first six months of having this role, people have asked me, are you enjoying this job? And I tell them I'm incredibly grateful for it. And one of the reasons I'm grateful for it is because...

But are you enjoying it?

I am enjoying it. I am enjoying it. I'm enjoying it because I spent about eight hours considering a parking lot over the last couple of days. And I mean, yeah, no, that's... I'm serious. I think there's a dynamic here that makes this tricky that I want to have some conversation at the council table, and I want to engage staff on this. And I appreciate Scott and Jason. I gave them a heads up that I was going to go here. I think that, you know, the fun part about this job for me, and I would hope my colleagues would agree, is that, you know, by and large, the challenges that we have are challenges of competing values. That there's very few good guy, bad guy situations that we are dealing with. That largely we're dealing with situations where... We're weighing two good options and making those decisions. And that's what I loved about being on the school board. So that is why I enjoy being a council member. Local government is the best. I want to appreciate and thank Steve and his colleagues for meeting with me out in the gravel parking lot at 1030 this morning and sweating for about a half an hour and talking this thing through. And, uh, and I, and I want to shout out Steve as well, because, uh, about a year ago when the prospect park neighborhood association was, um, on the verge of, of collapsing, uh, Steve was one of the people representing broad lawns that were diligent in going to those meetings and, and being very engaged and then standing up the, uh, the event that, that you all had a couple Saturdays ago in the Hy-Vee parking lot. And, uh, and, you know, and I'm, we talked about this and, you know, so this, this lot would be across the street and would actually be in the Mondaiman presidential, uh, neighborhood. So it would extend, I think, Broadlawn's, uh, partnerships to, I believe, four neighborhoods, uh, in Ward 1, uh, which is, uh, you know, given their, their commitment to the other neighborhoods that they're a part of is, is, is good. Um, after we, after we talked, uh, I had about 15 minutes before my next thing. And so I went out and knocked on a couple of people's doors as well and talk to folks. Um, and everyone I talked to the, I was only able to get to a couple of houses before I talk a lot and they talk a lot. And so, um, they were, they, they were fine with it. I showed them the rendering. We had that conversation. Um, it should be noted that you have security, private security that covers the grounds and so that would extend to this parking lot which is then by extension an amenity for the folks living adjacent to it. You went through the process on this. 9-0 vote at PNZ. You did go through public comment. Only had one person show up between two meetings and which also should be noted. One of the households I talked to were Spanish speakers, Ecuadorian immigrants. The other household was a Ugandan immigrant so I think some of these processes that we have as a city aren't always Hitting and getting people engaged the way that we want them to and so that's something to learn from And this has been a 10-year process that y'all have been going through that extends before I got here I'm not gonna make y'all spend eight hours on a parking lot. I'm gonna wrap this up but the thing that makes this challenging for me is this this dichotomy of we're we're we're basically codifying land going off of not going off of the tax rolls, but, but not being on the tax rolls any further, which, um, Mayor Bozen, you know, is good about reminding policymakers that 40% of our land is non-taxable, which is a constraint for us. Uh, but we have a housing strategy and we're trying to incentivize, uh, building and expanding access to affordable housing in our community. And we're talking about a property that's right along a main corridor. DART is right there. And so the question that I teed up for staff through email this afternoon that I'd like to bring to you right now is, in a situation like this, is How does staff and how should the city be weighing a very trusted partner who's gone through a 10-year process and checked all the boxes to expand their geographic footprint in a way that's a surface parking lot, not on the tax rolls, versus possibly being able to incentivize this land for construction, for housing to be able to meet our needs. How do we sit with that? How should we sit with that as a city, as a council?

Mayor, I could... So, Councilman, actually, it's a pretty good question, right? I think you've summed it up well, is that any city proposal, especially with the housing strategy, but other plans as well, are going to respect the input of the local neighbors and what their needs are. In this instance, there would be a great amount of respect and guidance taken that they need more parking for this site. And so we would likely try to accommodate that with any of the housing strategies that we would implement. So if there was an opportunity to partner with other commercial users or something of that nature, we would look at that as well. but understand that we're not in a place where we're going to be buying out property that has a need already identified to try and shift that.

So has any of that changed before or after embracing this housing strategy? Is any of that thinking, would it have changed from 10 years ago when Broadlawn started this process?

Actually, I don't think that would have been a change in philosophy, actually. The difference is now with the housing strategy is we have more tools to use, more experience in how we would look at single-family home repairs with the ION program. commercial opportunities with our invest dsm and nfc even with with with some of their products so yeah we've just gotten better at the micro elements of of rehabbing and housing strategies

OK, I appreciate that. Two minor points I want to make. One is there are still homes, privately owned homes, that are adjacent to the parking lot right now. I think Broadlawns is clear that if they could purchase those or if those came up, that they would buy those with the intent of expanding that lot. I am reticent to support that in the future and was clear with Steve and the group when I talked to them this morning, and I want to just put that on the record. The other thing is when I was talking to my friends on 18th Street, they pointed out that there's no curb on 18th Street right there south of Hickman, and so you've got these gullies that are formed which had a decent amount of standing water and are... kind of a home for families of mosquitoes. So if we move forward with this, can we put, you know, Steve, with engineering, can we think about how we can grade that so that we don't have that same situation right along that stretch? It's a pretty limited stretch. It's less than probably half a city block. Absolutely, we'll look into that.

Okay. I think, Linda, you wanted to speak.

I did. I just wanted to remind people that Broadlawns is a jewel in our county. And over the past... I don't know how many years I hear from more and more people that choose to go to Broadlawns, not because that's where they have gone before or that's the only place they can go, but they are choosing to go there. Broadlawns has a renowned memory care unit that people from all over the Midwest are coming to Broadlawns for that care. They have an OB department that is growing. People are choosing to go there to deliver their babies. I also know of, I know of one couple specifically who moved into our city. So they did bring, they purchased housing in the city of Des Moines because they wanted to be closer to their healthcare. So we can talk about you know, housing, but we have people that are moving here because they want to be close to their healthcare providers and to the hospital. My grandson was born at Broadlawns and, you know, it was a great experience. It was a little hard to get parking. I also was a caregiver for a family member who was being treated there over several months. And I would go almost daily for the chemotherapy and for different treatments. And it was a challenge sometimes to find a place where I could park and walk in to pick him up or to get him. And so I'm gonna be supportive of it because we need it, people want it, people want to park there. I understand that we'd like to, there's some of us that would like to not have cars and just rely on transportation, but we have a lot of people that do rely on vehicles to get them there. I rely on my vehicle to go and pick up the people that are at Broadlawns. So I'm going to support it. And we have a jewel that is just completely different than it was 20 years ago. And people are choosing to go there.

Okay. Anyone else wish to speak?

Yeah. I mean, I appreciate the conversation. And I actually think conversation, we should be having more conversations like this because I think this raises several issues that we should be looking to address and thinking about how we address. You know, I know we can say that the parcels that are part of this haven't been on the tax rolls for some period of time. But when they were on the tax rolls, it was three quarters a million of taxable valuation, as well as the number of homes for folks. I think the plan is, assuming that we agree to this, to expand that parking lot, if possible, to additional homes. That was certainly identified in the drawings or in the proposal. And just the homes that are identified that are adjacent would represent another $650,000 in assessed value if they're acquired and taken off and used for parking. Now, I think that's fine to make that decision, but we do spend a lot of time talking about properties taken off of the tax rolls. And I'm glad there is this conversation that's going to be happening about a payment in lieu of taxes, because I think we have very few levers in terms of how we engage on that. But with properties coming off the tax rolls, our cooperation in that effort and in rezoning for what is a, I think a suboptimal, but still necessary use, I don't dispute that there is a need for parking, but I do think that there is, particularly on our key corridors, a higher and better use than surface parking. So I hope that we have during these discussions, I'd like to see us have a more formal policy rather than just blanket approval. Think about how we tie this to, you know, our cooperation is valuable here, the payment in lieu of taxes, and particularly in this case, we have a very direct tie to some of that in terms of the properties that have been acquired specifically for this parking project. The other piece that I hope we consider from a long-term perspective, Broadlawns is a key partner and will always be a key partner. I don't disagree with a thing that Linda said about Broadlawns being an important partner. They provide an important service they're in the healthcare business. They're not always gonna be thinking about their role on a corridor and the larger land use conversation. And I hope that we long-term think about that some. The expansion looks different, for example, a surface parking lot on a key corridor versus other healthcare facilities. One of my favorite Broadlawns examples, and this is, I think, a great addition to the community, Broadlawns has added clinics in key places in our community on transit accessible corridors, contributing to the character of those corridors, but also making those corridors work better because when you have a Broadlawn clinic on University or on Southwest 9th, you're creating a key amenity, access to the healthcare that Broadlawns provides on that corridor. And that's different than what we have in front of us today. And I hope as Broadlawns considers expansion and what its campus looks like, we're going to long-term, I think, make some changes to that Hickman corridor. We just got... better DART service along that corridor. We should be thinking about what that corridor can look like and how to maximize that corridor. And I don't think a surface parking lot maximizes that corridor and maximizes the opportunity that we have over the long term. I think it can be perfectly fine as a use in the near term, but when we're, you know, we only have a few touch points that we can we're able to push these conversations and have these conversations and be able to say this, you know, I've got an audience today because broad loans is, is sitting here today because of this. But my hope is, is that long-term we think about that corridor and what these parcels could be. Cause I think it could be better than just surface parking. I know it, that meets a need today and, But I hope that Broadlawns will be a partner in thinking what that corridor can look like in the future.

Mayor, just real quick, I appreciate everything Broadlawns does. I consider us a partner with you and happy to be supportive of this. I feel like this is similar to the conversation we had about DMU on Grant. Oh, probably six years ago, where they wanted to expand a surface parking lot. And the ward council member did not want to do that and didn't speak to anybody or collaborate with anybody about it. In the meantime, before anybody found out, DMU went and purchased land in West Des Moines and moved their entire campus out there because they couldn't get a surface parking lot. Well, I don't want you to do the same thing. And I appreciate the services that you provide. And we don't want to make the same mistake again. So I appreciate that. And I'm happy to be supportive. We do have a motion on the table, right?

I also want to make a comment on if that's okay. Is everybody done?

Well, I'd like to correct the record real quick. Okay. And I know there was a zoning conflict, but... DMU had their surface parking lot.

They wanted to expand the surface parking lot. We can continue to have this conversation on the record or off the record.

I just want to be perfectly clear. I was on the record supportive of rezoning for the surface parking lot. The issue was if there was going to be other development on that, that they would have to come back for additional zoning. And we didn't even have that conversation. We couldn't, we didn't get to that point.

Okay. We're now going back to broad lines and I would like to speak only because first, this is a parking lot currently, right? So it's being used as a parking lot. What they're trying to do is make it a better parking lot. They're using it for parking now.

Most of it is green space, but there's a section that's gravel right now that's fenced in gravel.

Anyway, we're talking about a hospital that serves the need of the most needy people in our community. So I think there's two issues. They provide free health care for a number of people. And so I think it's a different, I understand the land use. Trust me, we got all kinds of parking lots all around downtown. We've got parking lots throughout this city that we could convert. Not a problem. I think for this case, when you're dealing with a hospital that serves and has been bringing more people in because of the excellent service people are choosing, that I think it's a different story for me. And that's the differentiating that we need to give them the space so they can accommodate the clientele and the people that they need to serve in a better way. And for them, and they're also the only one that responded to our payment in lieu of tax letter saying that they would entertain a conversation. They are the only one. So I believe they are good partners. I believe there's a need for now. And I believe that at some point in time, maybe the parking lot goes away, but right now they need parking. They're willing to invest and make the improvements. And we have ample opportunity for redevelopment of other parking spaces and empty lots within the neighborhoods. that I think in this case, I am supportive of what they're trying to do, because of how they serve the community in such a great way. And there's a need. So on that there's a spin moved and seconded, please vote.

A and B.

Okay, so please vote.

6 yes, 1 no.

Motion carries. Next item is 57, a request from Marco Gonzalez to amend plan DSM creating our tomorrow comprehensive plan to revise the future land use classification from business park to low density residential and to rezone 2551 Morey Street from EX mixed use district to N3C neighborhood district to allow construction of a one household residential dwelling. A is first consideration of the ordinance above, B is final consideration of the ordinance above. Waiver requested by applicant requires six votes. First is the parties and entrants, applicant for rezoning, and those within 200 feet of the property to be rezoned. We'll be given up to five minutes to speak. Anyone wishing to speak? Any germane comments?

Seeing none, Your Honor, I'll move 57A and B.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Seven Yes.

Motion carries. Item 50 on release of temporary stormwater facility easement, generally located within lot one of the creek at Echo Valley plat one is approving final subdivision plat for the creek at Echo Valley plat two located in the vicinity of 8050 golf house drive. Council communication number 26 dash 237. ANYONE WISHING TO COMMENT ON THIS?

SEEING NONE, I'LL MOVE 58-A.

SECOND. MOVED AND SECONDED, PLEASE VOTE.

7, YES.

MOTION CARRIES. ITEM 59. on the proposition to authorize a lease purchase agreement with Ziegler Inc. for the lease purchase of a tractor with boom mower for the use in city operations not to exceed $88,875 and providing for publication of the notice thereof and to continue to July 13th, 2026.

Move approval.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Seven yes.

Motion carries. Back to number seven, ordering construction of Skywalk exterior improvements phase one, receiving bids 7-14-26 and setting date of hearing for 8-3-26. Engineer's estimate is 700,000. Council communications number 26-218. Councilman Mandelbaum wanted to speak on this.

Thank you, Mayor. So Carol frequently comes and speaks about the Skywalk. I don't necessarily share her position that the... I share some of the concerns about the Skywalk. I mean, we have the system. We've got to invest in the system. We've got to keep the system. I think it has had consequence for what our downtown is. And I think we should be mindful of that going forward. And in that regard, I think we should think about while most of the core of the Skywalk system is going to continue to exist and we need to continue to invest in it, we should look if there are places in the skywalk system that maybe we could cut back on eventually or when the time comes. And I've spent a lot of time walking around the skywalk. I work right on the section of these corridors that are being proposed for repair. I think there is one of these sections, one of the 12, that is redundant and fits in that piece that could go away. And my hope is, is that we could, in putting out this bid, just get the cost, you know, do as a bid alternate so that we could get the cost of that one section and maybe know what what that one section would cost to repair and then make a decision whether or not we wanted to go forward with that now i know staff is would still recommend that we go forward with it but i think that section of the skywalk um that that crosses fifth avenue that is one of the pieces in here. It crosses Fifth Avenue between Locust and Grand. You have a block up right by the Y in the Insurance Exchange Building. That tends to be the corridor that is most used in that east-west capacity. And then when the 515 Tower is rebuilt, we will have another east-west corridor. I think that middle corridor is largely redundant and unnecessary. And I would like us to explore potentially removing that section of Skywalk. And now would be the time to do it, either that or to delay these maintenance costs. Because if we, and I don't know if this is 50,000 in cost for this section, there are 12 sections, so this looks to be 50 or 60 per section, but if this is a particularly expensive section, it might make time to have that, this might be the time to have that discussion. That's the only corridor of the 12 that are included in this bid that I would suggest that we could maybe step away from, but I think we need to be looking at, particularly in tight budget times, we could step away from a corridor what that would look like and I'd like us to have the optionality to do that here so I prefer I would move item 7 with the caveat that I would like to instruct staff to request alternates or that one section to be spelled out specifically. So a bid with the full package or a bid without that one section.

You might want to read. Yeah, I haven't had time to read. Engineering says regarding the Fifth Avenue Skywalk Bridge, yes, we could bid this project without Fifth Avenue Skywalk Bridge, but engineering does not recommend this as engineering recommends making the improvements to this section of the skywalk as this skywalk is in particular poor condition. As you can see from the photo below, there is damage to the soffit underside of the Skywalk Bridge due to the city roof drain. So we're either going to take it down or we're going to fix it.

I think within we can, I would suggest we go out for the estimate and determine, because I also, it's not inexpensive to tear down.

Right.

So first, I think we have to wait. And I don't know if there's been an analysis of, has anybody in the Skywalk done a study as, I mean, I appreciate that you say it's maybe redundant, but how many are using it? Do we have a report? Have you, have you seen any study of how many people are using it? Yeah.

I have not, but I know in terms of that walkway, it doesn't connect any. any specific users at this point? Like the buildings, I mean, the Renaissance is right next door. And I'm not saying don't go out for bid. I just want enough information to know what would, if we did this bid package without this one corridor, what would the savings be? And that would allow us to make an informed exploration of whether or not we want to go forward if it makes more sense to to tear down or to entertain that conversation, but now would be the time to do it because if we're about to invest 70 or $80,000, We're not going to have another opportunity for I don't know how long till we have to make a similar amount of investment. I also know that that corridor is among the most poorly climate controlled in the entire skywalk. It's very cold in the winter and it's hot in the summer. And I don't know if that means that we would have to invest additional dollars from an HVAC on that section as well, but I think it would be worth considering at this time. There are very few times that we have where we can consider, and it doesn't mean it changes the outcome, but I'd like us to at least get the information to consider.

So within the, so you're asking to move forward, but to have what that one would be and just for the fixing of it, but I also would like to know the cost of what the, if we would remove so that we can get the balance.

Right. And staff could, I mean, we have, what, two or three weeks before staff could come back and give us... And we can get more information. Right. Has the HVAC been replaced recently? Do we anticipate HVAC costs?

Are there other... Do an analysis of that.

Right. What would the estimate be to remove this portion of the skywalk?

Mayor, if I may, to advance this, I like where Josh is going. We would ask, we would approve this and ask engineering that that one bridge be an ad alternate. So they will bid it. We will know exactly what it costs and we can make a decision later whether we want it or not. And it might be helpful just to know what that one link is as we look into the future.

Okay. So you moved it. Is that good?

That's what I was trying to... I maybe didn't use the right bidding term. Why don't you second, Mike, with that statement there?

Is that good to go?

Can I just ask, if we don't approve this as it's written today... What's involved with engineering to go out and get another bid? I mean, are we going to be spending a lot of money?

No, we're going to do an alternate. So within this bid, it'll be the same process.

Same bid. They'll just tell us what the bridge is going to be.

And treat it like an additional alternate, too.

Yeah.

A bid.

That's easy enough.

Okay. If I moved and seconded, please vote.

7 yes.

Motion carries next item is. 13, approving and adopting the Iowa Statewide Urban Design and Specifications Design Manual, 2026 edition, SUDAS standard specifications, 2026 edition, and the City of Des Moines general supplemental specifications to the SUDAS standard specifications, 2026 edition, as the official design standards and the standard specifications and the supplemental specifications. Council communication number 26-290. Councilman Mandelbaum.

And this is more, I guess, just part of my learning process, but one of the things that, and maybe I didn't realize that there is a Des Moines specific sort of modification to SUDAS that we do all the time. one of the ongoing issues, um, or that's come up there, there've been several, I guess, design pieces that come up with some regularity. One, one is crosswalk art, for example. Um, and I think the, uh, main reason why we can't do crosswalk art is that it conflicts with Sudas, uh, and, I was actually in Providence, Rhode Island about a month ago and was walking around and there were a number of crosswalks with crosswalk art. And I snapped some pictures and I wondered, well, would we be... Providence is a city of similar size. It's a comparable city. Is this something that we could do here in Des Moines? And I guess... Now that I, and maybe I should have realized that we had our own specifications and modifications to suit us prior, but I'm interested in looking at this a little more broadly and if there are pieces that we could that have come up where SUDAS has maybe been the barrier that maybe we could look at some of that going forward. I don't need to do that here or now, but I'm interested in that conversation and understanding what flexibility we might have, because it's maybe a little more than I've been led to believe. And I'd like to see the full range of I requested that the full range of Des Moines specific changes and I got kind of a narrative, but I didn't get the entirety of the Des Moines specifications. So just wanted to raise that because I think there's some opportunity for some creative thinking and for addressing some things that occasionally come to us if we're willing to do so. And I'm happy to move item 13 with that comment.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

7 yes.

Motion carries. Next item is Item 43 is the purchase of license plate recognition software licenses from Motorola Solutions, Inc., using the SourceWell Cooperative purchase contract for use by the police department for a total of $157,200 for five years. Council Communication Number 26-235. Councilman Mandelbaum.

I wanted to raise this issue just in the larger context of the budget conversation that we're having. And again, this is a constant learning process for me, and I appreciate Chief McTaggart and the effort he's gone to help us understand the automated license plate readers. I've learned more about that. I apologize that I referred to this as flock during our budget discussion when we have Motorola. And I get there's a distinction. I think this is a valuable tool. I get how this helps improve the efficiency of police investigations. I also think that we've taken steps to have a policy in place as a city to try and address some of those privacy concerns. What I would like to see, because everything that is part of our budget discussion, I mean, I think just about everything that we are weighing, we're choosing between services and personnel we value and other services and other personnel that we value and i'd like us to have optionality particularly in the in this case where this is a a service that While there is value, there are some residents who have a specific concern about the technology and the use of the technology. And I think that's appropriate to have a public conversation about it and public feedback. We might end up in the exact same place, but if we go forward with a five-year contract, We are just in that place regardless. We're locked into this. We don't get to have that conversation or get that input. This is just in place and part of the budget going forward. So my hope is that we could just extend the contract for a year and and be able to have this be part of the larger conversation. And we might have a five-year extension that comes out of that larger conversation. But that is my hope. I'd like to give more option and more optionality to the public as we discuss this tough budget situation.

Anyone else?

I WOULD JUST SAY, YOU KNOW, I WOULD JUST SAY, YOU KNOW, AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS BUDGET AFTER GOING THROUGH THIS BUDGET AND REALIZING HOW SHORT WE AND REALIZING HOW SHORT WE REALLY ARE IN AUTHORIZED STRENGTH REALLY ARE IN AUTHORIZED STRENGTH OF THE DES MOINES POLICE OF THE DES MOINES POLICE DEPARTMENT TO START WITH, AND DEPARTMENT TO START WITH, AND THIS TOOL, LIKE COUNCILMAN THIS TOOL, LIKE COUNCILMAN MANDELBAUM SAYS, GIVES THEM AN MANDELBAUM SAYS, GIVES THEM AN OPPORTUNITY TO CATCH THE BAD OPPORTUNITY TO CATCH THE BAD GUY. GUY. THEY'RE CATCHING PEOPLE THAT THEY'RE CATCHING PEOPLE THAT COMMITTED MURDERS. COMMITTED the cameras in the porta potties. I mean, I understand people's reluctance of like, oh, they're infringing on my rights. Well, If you're not doing anything wrong, then I guess you wouldn't have that concern. And so I'm happy to move item 43 with the five years. And at least our police will have a tool for five years that they can use. Because I don't know how our authorized strength is going to be between now and five years from now. That's my issue. And Scott, if you want to jump in.

I'll second that question. There's a move in the second, but also a five-year is probably a better rate. It is.

Yes. Okay. Absolutely. We don't know. We could ask that amount, but it's definitely going to be more for single.

And I think the one thing that this, these cameras are much more restricted. They're not like the flock cameras. So it's a whole different ball game on, and we see what they solved in just this year alone. I don't know how you put a price on finding somebody that did a hit and run or how you, but if this is, I think I would assume base, usually you get a better contract over more time. So. It's been moved and seconded. If no one else has anything else, please vote.

Yes.

I'd just like to add thanks to Chief McTaggart for a pretty thorough email over the weekend about what cases have been closed because of these cameras. So thanks, Chief. Absolutely.

Next item is item 60 is the mending of a chapter 114 of the municipal code regarding the traffic regulation changes temporarily temporarily prohibit parking on certain streets annually during the Iowa State Fair. Council communication number 26 dash 221. A is final consideration that ordinance above waiver requested by Stephen neighbor city engineer requires six votes.

We'll move item 60 and 68, Your Honor.

I'll second that.

Moved and seconded. Please vote.

7 yes.

Motion carries. Next item is 61. Amending Chapter 114 of the Municipal Code regarding traffic regulation changes as follows. Council Communication Number 26-220. A is a speed limit modification for Southeast 14th Street, US 69 from East Court Avenue to Crescent Avenue. B is parking modification Center Street from 42nd Street to Polk Boulevard. C is code correction. KING AVENUE FROM SOUTHEAST 22ND STREET TO THE DEAD END EAST OF GRAND RIVER DRIVE. D IS CODE CORRECTION. PAIN ROAD FROM MARTIN LUTHER KING JUNIOR PARKWAY TO 30TH STREET. E IS CODE CORRECTION. MODIFICATIONS RELATED TO THE RIGHT OF WAY VACATIONS, 1, 14TH STREET FROM FALCON DRIVE TO LINDEN STREET. Two is from CB and Q Street from Southeast 25th Court to Southeast 30th Street. Three is Depot Street from Third Street to Fifth Street. F is parking modification Southeast Fifth Street from East Market Street to East Elm Street. G is parking modification East Walnut Street from East First Street to East Second Street. H is parking modification from Locust Street from Robert D. Ray Drive to Second Avenue.

Your Honor, I'll move 61 A, B, C, D, E, 1, 2, and 3, F, G, H. And pursuant to Rule 42A, I'll waive the second and third reading.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Seven, yes.

Motion carries. The next item is 62, amending section 2-62 of the municipal code relating to the salary of the mayor and the council members. Choose one alternative below. A, is approved first consideration of ordinance, or B, deny.

Mayor, I'll make a motion. I mean, obviously in the budget that we're in. It wouldn't be suitable for any of us to be taking any type of pay increase, as far as my opinion. So I'll move 62B.

I'll second.

If it moved and seconded, please vote.

I have a question for the city attorney. Okay. So we've now denied this. By policy, this is gonna come back again for a vote. Well, what, in two years, are they gonna present an even bigger pay increase, because we denied it now, or does it reset to this period of time.

The way that the policy is written, it will be a larger increase because SVM increases for year 27 and 28 will then be included in the calculation. So instead of eight and a half percent, it will be larger.

I think we could look at that and have more discussion on it. Two years. In two years.

Council can always change the policy.

Right. I was going to say, that's what I'm saying. We can revisit. I think this was a measure put in place because forever it was never kept up. And so we were trying to catch up. And so we can review it. Because I think it would be, by denying it now, it only would be quite a large measure. We can always check.

In two years, maybe instead of 16%, maybe you want to do a 4% raise or something like that. But right now, any type of raise would be inappropriate, obviously.

Well, I mean, I was going to say part of the reason. Thank you, Scott. Part of the reason we're doing this is because of the budget. Any salary increase is built into base budget. I would prefer that when this comes back it just restarts and they take two years from the denial motion We can just we can change the policy so we can bring that back, okay, okay The next item

Item 63, consideration of a request from Graham Investment Company represented by Jeff Hatfield to demolish three structures in the vicinity of 401 Grand Avenue pursuant to Section 58-70 of the Historic Preservation Ordinance. Choose one alternative below. Council Communication Number 26-236A is referred to the Historic Preservation Commission for further study and review or B, approve the request. I will, someone's here to speak.

Thank you, Mayor. Mayor, Council Members, thank you very much for your time tonight. We'll try to keep it brief for you. Also, thanks to all the council members here, all of you either took a phone call or took a tour of the buildings, and so that helped out a lot for tonight. As many of you know, the Brown Garage is several very old buildings that are now attached together. Some date back to the 1800s, but in 1924, 1925, it's been consistently run as a parking garage since 1924 and 1925. Let's... 102 years ago for my math. It's completely shelled out. It's always just been a parking lot for the last 102 years. It is not up to today's standards, life safety, everything else. Cars have become much heavier in the last 102 years with pickup trucks and EVs. Parking is not a very viable use after 2020. I believe your parking ramps downtown or the city-owned are about 30% full, 70% empty-ish. Okay, I'm sorry. I didn't want to be a you know, a negative nanny. Let's call it. Let's call it 6040 And we are going to keep the north-south skywalk open There's been a lot of discussion about skywalks But that north-south that feeds the major part of downtown all the way to the convention plex will be open with this agreement that we are going forward with we will keep it open and The Skywalk is actually inside the Brown Garage. We'll stabilize it. We'll make sure it's dry. We'll make sure it's useful for the next 50 years. And the city has come to us and asked us for a long-term agreement to keep it open, a long-term promise, and we're willing to do that. We do plan to market the ground that's left available about an acre and a quarter for whatever the city desires, but it would be great for hotels and condos and high density because it is so close to the convention plex. Lastly, I think there was some discussions in emails and whatnot. 516 4th, which is the northern part of the building, the land is valued under Polk County at $1.47 million. The building is $100 for value. It tells you what the county thinks of the buildings. They probably need to come down sooner rather than later. So we ask approval for our request to demolition or demo the building and get a demo permit going forward. And I'm able to answer any questions if you have them.

Any discussion?

If not, really, really quickly, Mr. Hatfield. Yeah. Just for the purpose of the record, could you identify yourself?

Yeah, Hatfield 505 Fifth Avenue, Grand Group.

Thanks. I'm happy to move 63B to approve the request.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

Thank you may or may I make one comment for the record is an architect I toured the building it's fascinating it was technology of the day and the way that building is built it's a steel frame and the floors are poured concrete over a metal mesh. And that metal mesh is greatly rusted, primarily because of the salt now. Right. And it's going to come down whether they tear it down or not. It's not in good condition.

So we want to be safe and get it down. Thank you.

Jeffrey iterated that to me, Councilman Simonson, and as soon as I heard that you had said that, there was really no even looking at the project after that.

I didn't spend a lot of time.

Yeah, he told me that. So that's good.

Okay, our next item is our public speaking, item 64. We provide speakers under the public speaking portion the opportunity to address the council for up to three minutes each for up to 20 speakers for a total of one hour agenda. Speakers will be called forward individually and we ask everyone to please state their name and address forward prior to providing comments. Please keep comments germane and avoid references to personalities or character attacks as those types of comments do not contribute to the purpose for which this public forum exists. As a reminder to the council and the public, this public speaking time is to hear your comments and if there is a need to follow up, we will get it to the appropriate staff or council to follow up at a time after the meeting. Thank you for your support of Des Moines and the first, Jerry Roland is the first speaker and you're already up here.

Yeah, Gary Rowland. The mic can't hear.

And... Get the mic over here.

I have to step over here, huh? Okay. Yeah, Gary Rowland, 78 years old, 36 in Franklin. And I've been a Des Moines resident since 1987. And I was a librarian from 1979 to 2008. And I finished my career with 20 years at the State Library. And I'm concerned about the state of the city and concerned about our Des Moines library. I wanted to point out, first of all, these are my library cards. And I can have multiple library cards from different libraries in the county and around the state through the open access program. that we started in 1989. So we've had almost 40 years where you could go and get a library card. And in this past year, about 626,000 items in Polk County were checked out by a library to a non-resident, which is, you know, that's pretty cool stuff. There's with all of this, all of this that's going on, I spent a lot of time going through the state statistics and Melissa did a wonderful job point of giving you the Des Moines system. But Des Moines is part of the county ecosystem because people can use other libraries in the county. So over 40 years, we developed this wonderful system. which of which des moines is about 40 so about 60 of activity um is with the other 12 libraries in the county so i i've sent sent you all my my late night ramblings um and i apologize for the late nightness of it but I get excited about library statistics because that's what I did for a living. And you can see where Des Moines is great. They're really doing a great job in the ecosystem is in the digital reference transactions, which is, of course, these days all digital. or mostly digital, website, also wonderful in their offsite with a rosy van. But then if you look down below here, things where Des Moines is below that 40% population, sir, 42%, is right at the bottom, number 13, physical circulation, all formats, only 25% of physical circulation is our Des Moines libraries. So 75% of circulation is from the other 12 libraries. The other thing is, this looks like, you know, kind of a... Well, confusing number, but from the state in Rich Iowa, which we developed, is the reimbursement for non-resident circulation, direct state aid, and Des Moines is an accredited library, so they get direct state aid, and interlibrary loan reimbursement. But Des Moines, you'd think, being a city of 214,000, having 42 percent, that their funding from the state would be quite a bit higher than that. And I think what this is pointing out is that people in Des Moines are going to other cities and using the libraries in other cities. I just talked to Urbandale today and they have a circulation of 400,000 and 45,000 of that is to Des Moines residents. So, you know, so I guess what I'm saying is the county benefits greatly from Des Moines, but Des Moines residents also benefit greatly from the county. So I went online and did the survey.

Thank you. Your time is up. But you can follow up with more emails and more information.

All right. And this will be on the, well, it won't be.

Next person is Mallory Hammett. Do you want to state your name, ward address?

Yeah, I'm Mallory Hammett, and I live at 1655 Northwest Drive in Des Moines. Thanks for the opportunity to speak this evening. I'm a teacher and a coach at East High School. I'm here to bring your attention to the roads and pedestrian walkways around East. Now, I'm not completely sure of the plans. I was interested to hear about your plans for Hickman, which I think might also concern you about Southeast 14th. As the city makes a push to reinvigorate its neighborhoods and schools, I would urge you to also consider the infrastructure surrounding those schools. Road construction appears to have recently finished on Southeast 14th, which runs directly in front of East High School, but there are no painted crosswalks on the newly completed construction. anywhere along the road from East High School all the way down to Hyatt, as far as I've seen. Even worse, the road construction does not include any improvements to the sidewalk, which has no grass or barrier of any kind between it or the road. So if you use the sidewalk in front of East, you walk mere inches from passing semis and trucks while you walk along that Southeast 14th Road. It's a huge safety concern as Southeast 14th is an incredibly busy road. We have 1,800 students that cross this road all throughout the day and night to attend school, get lunch at the businesses, and head to the stadium where they have to cross four lanes of traffic to get to the stadium without crosswalks. This is especially important to me as our community still deals with the loss of two students from vehicular accidents while crossing the street. So as you guys take on the task of attracting people to Des Moines, when so many are moving their students to the suburbs, I'd like you to consider what this lack of attention to the walkways has about our school's respective families. To me, I feel like this could signal that East is unsafe or uncared for by the city, which I don't believe to be true. But the city has... multiple examples of what a beautiful and pedestrian-friendly walkway could look like, like in the Market District, which is in East, inside the East Barriers or along the Drake neighborhood where all those recent updates have been. Applying the same infrastructure to the roads around East would increase foot traffic and businesses to our nearby stores. It would attract families to our schools and encourage event planners to use our facilities. But most importantly, it could prevent another vehicular tragedy in the East community. So I encourage you all to walk along Southeast 14th to experience that for yourself and what that feels like. And I look forward to seeing your solutions. Thanks.

thank you mayor i think it's important to note that it is a state highway and we and we do and scott maybe you can follow up with the state and make sure that the those are going to get painted and see what else we can do for i know there's probably not much traffic calming they want to do there but they need to do something very familiar with it so we'll look into it louis pritchett moose

What's your name, buddy? You can say it. You want to say your name?

My name is Louie.

Where do you live?

Here.

Where do you live? That's good. Thank you for coming.

My address is 3814 Southwest 28th Street. Okay.

And what do you want to tell them?

want you to rebuild the tennis court in Harmon Park.

Thank you. Thank you for coming. Getting your voice heard. Thank you, Larry. Joseph Mason. Ed Fallon.

What is that thing? Hey, yeah, thanks. This is Ed Fallon, 735 19th Street. First of all, kudos to you and all your predecessors for making Des Moines such an incredibly attractive place to raise food. I mean, I think we take this for granted, but every time I mention to people, yeah, you can raise chickens in Des Moines, you can have rabbits, you can have bees, you can grow food in your front yard, you can grow it on the parking strip. they're amazed, and you know, they're also very amazed by the fact that when I serve strawberries, they say, where'd you get those strawberries? Well, City Hall. So you know, you've got strawberries growing at Old City Hall, I don't know what's gonna happen to them, over on the east side, Emil King Building there, Gray's Lake, and I've talked to people about this before, but... We really need to keep that going. I mean, there's been some great things happening here for food security. The establishment of the Food Security Task Force and its successor. The orchard that was planted at Drake Park last fall, great stuff. I know the Economic Development Department is looking into... additional places to plant orchards, also additional lots, empty lots that could be used for food production that's happening. This is all really, really good stuff. To me, I see moving us forward toward being able to claim the title of Local food capital of the U.S. Wouldn't that be awesome? We also got the world food price here. That would be a real step forward to creating a tag that I think would resonate well beyond Iowa even. But the one thing I want to talk about tonight is strawberries. Back to that. I don't know if you realize how popular those strawberries have become. I mean, right now you go down to... any one of those facilities, especially City Hall, during the season when they're ripe, and it's only about a week or two, and it's just packed with people. It's really, really popular. People love it, and it's one of those easy things that we could do It would cost very little money to expand it to other places in Des Moines. I mean, you've got so much public land. I have talked to Ben Page, or communicated, I should say, with Ben Page about doing this at the Franklin Community Garden, but just a starting point. There's all kinds of spots there you could do it at, but there's so many other places around Des Moines where this could happen. And I did a little math. Me doing a little math is always a lot of fun. 10,000 plants would cover 0.6 to one acre of land. That's a lot. That's a lot of land in strawberries. Cost, between 2,500 bucks and 3,000. Surely the city can, I know the state's been rough on you. I understand I was there when the state was rough on you back then. Surely we can find a way to raise that much money to plant 10,000 strawberries. Thank you.

Thank you. And I think the strawberries are staying. Okay, Sheila. Come on up, Carolyn.

I'm getting a hip and stomp. Oh, wow.

Good evening. City Council, Mayor Bozen, city staff, Carolyn Euland-Hake Walker, 4111 Ingersoll Avenue. I'm a member of the Des Moines Citizens Task Force on Sustainability. Our goals since 2015, three of them. One, reduce greenhouse gases emissions that come mostly from fossil fuels. I advocate for the adoption of the Climate Action Plan of Des Moines, which we did adapt. And then the formation of a sustainability office with the goal of two professionals implementing the Climate Action Plan that was closed. This evening, I want to emphasize two things. How important it is to work on climate action at the local level. Why? Well, climate action at the state and federal level is paralyzed. So that's why I say local.

But I've got that.

The other thing, number two, is how important it is for the city of Des Moines to work at the policy level to really accomplish a reduction if you look Here at 2030, greenhouse gases are to be reduced in three and a half years to 45%. We don't know yet where we are, but because we haven't done the 2025 one yet with emissions inventory, but we've got a long way to go. And so we've got to emphasize policy instead of just individual actions. The latest update on the city initiatives that was just presented at a workshop in June emphasized actions of individuals. like recycling, planting a garden, carpooling, putting in native plants, and a rain garden. And I mean, I've been a person promoting pollinators for 10 years, so that stuff is good. But to make any impact on our greenhouse gas emissions, we have to work on policies. And the one that I'm emphasizing tonight is the benchmarking or the measuring of energy and water usage. I said water because we've got a water problem. Water usage for buildings in Des Moines that are 25,000 square feet or above. This passed in 2019. It needs to come back. It hasn't been implemented for a while. Within two years of passing in 2019, we had 71% compliance. So energy we have to remember, energy we don't use is really the cheapest energy that we can get. So let's go with efficiency. These large buildings involve a little over 1% of all buildings in Des Moines, yet they're about between 35 and 45% emissions. So they're really important buildings. But they Thank you. Okay, promoted. Okay.

Does this timer start over?

When you start.

Huh? When I said, okay, thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm Sheila Canopolo-Odole. I live at 2518 Kenway Drive, and I'm also a member of the Des Moines Citizen Task Force on Sustainability. And I am up here to perhaps discuss beat a dead horse a little bit, but my intent is to provide you all with the confidence to reinstate the program that Carolyn just mentioned, which is our measuring of energy and water use for large buildings above 25,000 square feet. And I've been tasked with doing a comparison of the city and state code because for a long time, I think we felt that the state code preempted the city from doing anything and everyone was hesitant to do anything, but the city code, if you look at it, it focuses on collecting and reporting data, whereas the state code focuses on a requirement for energy performance outcomes. Those things are different. The City Code requires owners to measure and report annual energy and water use whereas the State Code defines benchmarking as requiring a property to reduce energy or perform better than a comparable property. The City Code does not, by its definition, require any reduction in energy or water use whereas the State Code expressly prohibits the imposition of requirements on private property. Now, the city code states benchmarking means to input and submit the total energy and water consumed for each calendar year. This is fundamentally a reporting requirement. A building owner must collect utility usage data, enter it into the designated benchmarking tool, provide descriptive information about the building, and submit that information annually. Nothing in this definition requires reducing energy consumption. Nothing requires meeting an efficiency target, nothing requires improving performance over time, and nothing requires performing better than comparable buildings. It is essentially a disclosure requirement. The state code, on the other hand, defines energy benchmarking quite differently as a means of as a means requiring a decrease in the average energy use of a property or requiring the average energy use of a property to be less than the average energy use of a similarly situated property. This is performance-based, okay? Not reporting-based. Energy benchmarking exists only if the government requires either a reduction in the property's energy use or a property to outperform comparable buildings. Thus, the legislature has prohibited imposition of mandatory energy performance standards on private property. Thank you. Thank you.

Kevin Markin.

Hi, Kevin Markin. I live in Ward 2. Following the footsteps of my fellow taskmates, half of all energy efficiency savings can be achieved through operational improvements at little or no cost to building owners. So the points I would make is that the benchmarking acts as a required yearly energy torch point. at a time for renewing your buildings usage and identifying anomalies high usage and comparing against similar buildings across the country. Additionally, it would be a great resource for identifying billing issues and overcharges. Linking to the utility API application programming interface to share data automatically uploads your building usage and only takes 5-10 minutes as long as you have the necessary account information. The utility also aggregates data for multi-family and multi-tenant commercial buildings. at the compliance data date each of your building owner or 3rd party contractor reviews for any missing or erroneous data and submits to the city. This process should take at most 2 to 3 hours per year closer to one if there's no data errors if the utility does not provide If the utility does not provide automatic uploads, they likely supply an Excel spreadsheet that can be uploaded. This may increase the necessary time to comply to closer to two or three hours in a two- or three-hour time frame. So, I mean, each company could easily... train one guy and a couple hours a year, he could do all this benchmarking, find the errors. And in the long run, if you're gonna get rid of the developmental TIF incentives for bringing in people, this could be a really amazing selling point to new companies that are coming into Des Moines. And Des Moines is, undesirable place to be so. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And crotty. Okay.

You're on our move to receive a file B through J item 64.

It's been moved in second.

The question I support this when we had our sustainability work session. and the benchmarking ordinance came up at that time, there was some discussion that there would be opportunities to have a conversation about bringing back the ordinance, either as part of the budget or the strategic planning or some other. I just wanna make sure that we haven't lost that opportunity. I think it'd be worthwhile to have that discussion.

We had more discussion. I think I also brought up that maybe we could look at the people, the companies that we already hired, if they could add this as a function, because it's really more collecting data is what we're doing. But it takes time, and it takes somebody to do it. So if they're familiar with it, they might be able to add, and we can check that out. And a request has been made, Scott, this Sunday.

Uh, everybody vote. Yeah, I think there's only five people who else.

They're all in. Okay, we're all in. Okay. I just want to make a comment regarding our budget. You know, we've been talking about our budget, and as we all know, that due to our recent legislation, we're seeing a gap. As our city council considers the budget saving options to produce next year's balanced budget, we intentionally began our public budget process nearly six months early this year. Because we know that these decisions will impact the services that the city provides to our residents, and we want to provide a transparent process with additional opportunities for our community's voices to be heard. Part of that public engagement includes an online budget solution exercise, which was published earlier today. That will give Des Moines residents and business owners a chance to solve the budget gap and share your priorities with the city council. This online exercise will be available through the month of July, and we will show you the results in early August. This feedback from the public is essential to the seven council members sitting here as we discuss budget-saving options and the works towards trying to find a solution. Additionally, next week we will host a public budget discussion on Thursday, July 9th, at the Central Library at 6 p.m. This year's budget process will be challenging, and we know that. Your voice matters. You can follow the process and learn more by following our website, and I think they'll probably post it up. So again, just encourage people to take part. It is... online now. And we'd like to have you go through the exercise that I think a lot of us did and see it's not easy and get everybody's input. So again, thank you for being here this evening. And I would say, take a motion to adjourn it.

Don't you do journey?

So I could spend all in favor. Hi, this meeting is adjourned.