City Council - Regular Meeting

I call the meeting to order. City of University Heights City Council meeting. Today's February 10th, 2026. Uh, welcome everyone. Um, I call the meeting to order. Uh, all five council are present and first order of business is approval of minutes. I'll do them together and see if there's any changes. Is there any objection to approving the minutes of January 13th and January 27th? Hearing none, the minutes will be approved as sent to you by unanimous consent. Then we'll go to public input. Would anyone from the public like to speak tonight? Okay.

I didn't have anything elected. Thank you, Mike. We'll go on to um we'll go straight down to city administrative report and Troy, you have a lot of things that we're going to discuss and you're going to introduce our guest tonight.

Sure. Thanks for skipping to me, Mayor. Uh, as I was going through the bonding process with Maggie with uh, Spear Financial, I had some questions about what we were permitted and allowed to do with funds that we received that we were holding before actual spendown. Seemed kind of silly to me that they just sat someplace and that we we didn't at least earn some sort of of interest on that. Uh we had a conversation during which she asked she pointed out the University of Heights as a League of Cities member had access to the Iowa Public Agency Investment Trust or IPATE and she said that she had a good relationship with Paul Cruz of IPATE and that many of her clients and then other communities in in Iowa City and in this area have worked with with iPen specifically with Paul. So she made that introduction. Paul and I spoke uh was very very informative for me. It was a relatively short conversation, maybe 10 or 15 minutes. And I asked Paul if he'd be willing to come and and just give that similar presentation to council so that we know this service that is available to us. And I think that we probably want to avail ourselves of it. And the mayor allowed me to invite Paul to present tonight. So I present Paul Cruz with IP.

Thank you.

Thank you, Paul. Um, yes. I'm Paul Cruz um with PTM PTMA Financial Solutions and I was telling Mayor from I said I've been doing this since 1992. Um, I was the first person to to market the Iowa Public Agency Investment Trust and so I've I've been around I've been to a lot of city council meetings, boards of supervisors. Uh, we have a a sister company called or sister uh fund called IceJet the Iowa Schools Joint Investment Trust. So, Iowa City Schools, um, well, every school district in the state has passed the resolution to to utilize ICEJ. But what I want to talk to you about again is IPATE. And I'm going to I'll pass that one that way and this one this way. Um, but I'm going to give you just a little um overview of the fund. It was again, it was started in actually in 1987. The schools fund was started in '86. High pay was started in 1987. the Iowa League of Cities, the Iowa State Association of Counties, and the Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities got together, those three associations, and they said, "What can we do to offer our membership an investment option?" And that's exactly what it is. It's an option um passing the resolution, and I've got the resolution with me. It's basically somebody makes them the motion that you pass it. Once it's passed, uh your the city of University Heights is a is a participant in the fund. You don't ever have to invest, but once the resolution is passed, you're always set up. Uh we mana we manage the fund, we market the fund, we do the administration. US Bank is the custodial fund. Uh right now the fund is about $2 billion on behalf of cities, counties, utilities um in the uh in the state. The daily fund is is a money market fund. The rate today was 3.45. That's on every dollar that's in the

fund. And I I tell people I said, "If you're not getting 3.45, you should be because that's the that's the daily rate. It's liquid. There's no minimums. So, as you can have as little or as much as you want." Um, like I mentioned earlier, City of Coralville, City of Iowa City, they're both clients of ours. Um, they use both our fixed term and our uh daily fund. And again, the daily fund is liquid. Um, and I'll just throw out, you know, I know that you've got a number of banks in town. Um, let's just say, uh, Hills Bank and Trust perhaps is your bank. So, the way that would work is your funds would be transferred back and forth through a no cost. It's online. Um, and of course today, like everything, it's dual authentication. So, it's, you know, you put in your user ID, your password, and then it there's a dual uh authentication. But funds are transferred back and forth from your local bank to IPA. It's liquid. So, as long as we know by 3:00 on the day and you want it back in in the city the next day, um it'll be be there. So, as 3:00 is the deadline, the next day is a settlement date. As I mentioned, today's 3:45. Uh you can have as many accounts as you want. Um, you know, again, if we're talking about bond proceeds, usually you'd, you know, we'd have a a capital account or a bonds proceeds account. Um, but I said the city of KFax has, I think, 16 different accounts and they've got each account is maintained separately. Interests daily and then it it automatically goes into the fund at the end of the end of the month. So, it automatically rolls into it. Um, I mentioned KFAX. They've got a sewer account, they've got a police account, they've got a library account, they've got a a um parks and recreation. So again, each account is maintained separately as I as Maggie indicated again with the you're going to get I think it's the

25th of February, you're going to get a million and a half dollars. Um again, as you're mentioning, what do we do with it? Um what we would provide is is and we would work probably with if you have a a uh an architect I don't know what the project is architect or a a construction manager we would match the draw schedule to the investments. We think you know again whether it's a CD or a treasury. Um so what we would do is we'd get that draw schedule and maybe you're going to need uh say 100,000 in in April. So, we'll set it up with a CD or or treasury that would mature in April. And then there'll be a blended rate. I just did one this morning for um Musketine Power and Water. I think the blended rate was about a 365. So, again, you know, longer rates right now are going are a little lower than actually the daily rates, but that's kind of it. Again, it's it's passing the resolution. Uh it would enable the city to invest. um doesn't require you to uh we one of the things that we do is we off uh offer CD rates through the banks that we work with. So we work with about 300 banks across Iowa and so if you want you have a CD that's maturing um you know we'll go out and we'll get you know maybe it's the people's bank in Council Bluffs, maybe it's Bankers Trust in De Moine. Um, Hills Bank is one of our banks that we work with, but again, if if that's your bank, we're not going to contact them. You guys are. That's kind of it. Like I said, it's it's an easy uh it's a money market fund. We invest in everything that your city can invest in. So, it's again, it's made up of US treasuries, agencies, and Iowa bank CDs. um when it was developed uh you know and and the investment policy uh everybody had to have an investment policy and I

said back then when it was required that would have been I think in 923 uh we wrote the sample uh investment policy which included IP so most most everybody that that if they use the sample one has that in their investment policy questions again I I know I thrown a lot at you um but again passing the resolution would it would say that the city can invest if they want. Um, usually it takes about 2 or 3 days once we get it set up. Again, your local bank will be back linked to it. So, the funds are going to be transferred back and forth. Um, and again, as as much or as little you want to invest. When I talked with Paul, one of the things that I one of the things I expressed to him was that to the to the extent that we can do it and be fiscally prudent, we want to bank locally as much as we can. And you know, Paul said, I think it was actually encouraging of that. You can take our products, iPad's products to the banks and say, here's what we are able to do. uh here's what kind of vehicle here's what our commitment is as far as duration and here's where our return will be can you match this and Paul's like I paid is is fine with you doing that totally understood the local the local buyin so again when I talked to Paul I did not see a downside I liked everything that I heard but John you and Steve are the financial experts and all of you here at the tables have more experience in University Heights with these matters than I do but I I I felt important that Paul come in and at least let you know what I had heard and what was available.

The other thing is we'll we will work with the local bank. Sometimes local banks I've been to I've been to meetings where especially if it's a it's a real large one. They'll say we don't want all that all the dollars or maybe they want the longer term. Maybe they like the 69 12 month pieces and they want you know they say can you keep the liquid there or vice versa. So again, we we'll work with the local banks as much as we can, but I get it. You know, keep it local if you can and and if if you get the rate that we can offer and maybe they'll offer a better rate, you know, you don't know. I wasn't hearing anything about there being fees. Are there fees on any service that you

Yeah, good question. And you know, everybody says, "Well, God, you guys got to make money and and we do." Uh the fees, anything that we ever quote a rate is set is net to the city. So the 345 is is net to the city. If if this the CD rate is a 365, it's net. Um again, bank uh PTA, PTMA, we get there's an admin fee, there's a marketing fee, there's a investment advisory, and then a custodial that adds up to roughly and it's in our information statement, but it's about 30 basis points. But again, that's that's above, you know. So, again, our the gross rate today is about a 375.

Which cities in Johnson County have you worked with recently or? Yeah, like I said, uh city of Coralville, city of Iowa City, um Tiffen, um um North Liberty. So,

North North Liberty uh just came on um Oh, golly. and I they've got considerable investments with us. Solen is a client. Um and and like I said, every school uh I shouldn't say that there's five schools in the state that haven't passed the resolution. Um and I can you know, they're all up in northwest Iowa. Um but uh again, passing the resolution doesn't mean anything other than you can invest. But every dis every school district in the area um is is a participant. You know, North Scott, Davenport, like I said, I met met with Davenport. They've got a big bond issue that we're going to

board of supervisors. We got and I said I've got Scott I was supposed to meet with Scott today and and I got a message this morning. He couldn't meet. Okay. Thank you. But so to be clear, if we got a big chunk of money, like 1.5 million, we could send it your way and then if we wanted to pull it out for a shorter the longer term investments have a better interest rate. There's no fee to that.

Nope. Absolutely not. Um and so let's just say that that on the 25th you put it in into IPATE and the 28th the bank calls up and says you know hey I see you guys got a million and a half dollars uh you know what's it going to take and you pull it again. Now the the the point one point though is is what I would propose is we look at again we look at the draw schedule and by looking at the draw schedule we might buy a a um a 90-day treasury or a 90-day CD and or a 120day you know and so

we think it's it's it's good to to lock it in if you can. We don't see the the rates going up this year.

Yeah. you know, we said, had you had me here a year and a half ago, our daily rate was about uh 5.5, you know, and and again, because of what we invest in treasuries and agencies, when the Fed cuts our rate cuts, but chances are the bank rates go down as well. And as both Maggie and Dorsy uh rats and then Paul reiterated in a spoken uh whatever we bond for needs to be kept separate from whatever we earn on that money and that's when he also talked to me about KFax. KFax basically treats their different accounts like lines in the budget which I also thought was very interesting to do just keep it segregated. So what we would do is I'd you know again assume if you passed and and we'd set up a you know maybe it's a bond a 2026 bond account and that's where those dollars would be maintained. So and then again if you have a general account or operating account um library

any other questions for Paul? So you're going to be continue to work with him unless unless there's some reason not to. Our city treasure is John Brown right here. So there used to be a John Brown that was at another It was a treasure somewhere else. Probably Harper's Fairy. Yeah. Okay. Was that you? No. Um so what I what I'm going to do and and I always tell people I said that I'm going to head back to I my I live north of De Moine. Uh so I'm going to head back now. But if you have any questions, I know you've got my number

and it's always one of those once I leave and it's like, you know, God, I wish they would have called asking that. Call me up. I got It's on your page, too. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Um and yeah, the other piece too and I the uh did that go around this this one the um reasons to pass.

Yeah. And then and that was it was uh it's been well probably during COVID. It was the the uh Benton County Solid Waste Commission. and I met with and after I got finished and the and the chairman says Paulie is there any reason why we wouldn't want to pass the resolution and I said I can't think of any but I said I can come up with a few ideas so I did that's what these are so again it's it's gives you an idea again the benefits of of how it can help help the city and passing the resolution doesn't mean we have

does nothing more than says you guys it might be five years down the road um maybe another bond issue or you know we've seen where the banks don't want the money you know during co there was banks that they didn't want public funds and uh I said north again north school district I remember um Carrie Payton called me and she goes I need to move 3 million out by the end of February

and they had an ice sheet account and we set it up and we moved it. So, there's times when, you know, maybe maybe property tax, you know, I know Story County puts everything in in their uh IPA account during property tax time because they know what rate they're going to get and they don't have to worry about uh taxes uh bank limits. So, I'm going to I'll leave this this is the resolution. Um so, again, if you pass it again, it's as you to your point, you don't need to invest um And maybe it's just a library account. You know, it's one of those deals where, you know, there maybe there's there's accounts that at a bank that maybe they don't pay interest. 345 is not too bad today anyway. So,

appreciate your time for coming in person. If you ever get Thank you very much. If you ever head back up to the McDonald's, you know, or straight west, here's here's the thing. you have family that grew up in the same farm area of Iowa. Yeah. Appreciate it. Thanks meeting you all. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you so much. No, no, no. And then um we'll go ahead and go back to uh Steve's first consideration of resolution number 2607 since this one is really there's an application on each other.

You bet. Thank you. Uh so 2607 is the next uh resolution, next step in the process for the general obligation borrowing. Uh you know the council has approved a a preliminary official statement had public hearing authorized publication of bids and held an auction and along the way this this is the next step. So, what what resolution 2607 is uh is it authorizes um the mayor and the clerk to sign a loan agreement uh for $1.5 million to to for the city to issue bonds. It identifies and appoints a bank called UMB bank in West De Mo as the uh registar and paying agent for the bonds. Um, it incorporates a whole bunch of language that is required for uh to comply with the IRS uh regulations concerning uh municipal bonds and taxfree status of those bonds. um authorizes First consideration of ordinance number 258.

What's that? That's the tree.

This is no no. Thank you. uh this resolution and the next resolution we discussed or I brought to council for the last this is the third month in a row. Uh the citizens advisory board there were changes made at the state level that that no longer allow citizens police citizens advisory boards for pretty much anybody but us. We fall outside of that because we are we're too small to be captured in the group that they did. But we are out of step with what what current state law is as far as citizens advisory boards. Uh our ordinance, our community policing relations ordinance includes provision uh establishing and and giving direction to a citizens advisory board as I've discussed both in December and January's meeting in order to bring our current ordinance in line with current state law and and departmental practice toward that law. the changes uh that are proposed in this amendment or in this resolution would eliminate the the functions the establishment and functions of the citizens advisory board. It would still leave intact the other substanding part of the resolution that specific prohibited at a local ordinance level any sort of bias based policing. And it would still require the police department to continue to check or continue to gather data points on police contact on officer initiated police contacts so that if issues were identified in the future that it was to our benefit or anybody's benefit to go back and look at those stats, they were available. Again, we we want to try to maintain as much transparency as we can.

We don't we're not I'm not interested in stopping to collect those numbers. I just I want to do it and be in compliance with with what current state practices. So that's that particular resolution if anybody has any questions about it. So ordinance 258 is before the council. Is there um this is first consideration. Is there a motion? Motion by Doug. Is there a second? Second by McKenzie. uh discussion.

I would just say I mean I hesitate to get rid of this just because it I think it's a thoughtful approach. Um at the same time though if we're not operating pursuant to it and we're not following what we've set up. Um I know we haven't needed it yet, but it doesn't seem like we're ready to. Um that's a concern. Also, I defer to Kevin Sanders, not defer, but I take into account uh his feedback on it. And I guess in supporting this, I would just say that I'm also open if Kevin has other ideas, you know, that he sees we could take to help further, you know, our mutual goals. I think I would definitely be open to, you know, hearing that through your meetings or I maybe I'll, you know, have contact with him or something like that. So, um, yeah, those are my thoughts. I, like I said, I thought this was a thoughtful approach. I get this is not kind of the way that people are thinking right now. Um and I hate to be I hate to have a bunch of policies on the books that we're not following that makes sense that

and to your point Kevin and I maintain contact. Um you know we did the the duty to intervene conference if I don't know it's been several years ago now. he would like to do something like that again and continues to work closely with me and University Heights by extension. Uh I also am reluctant to flush if you will any part of this which is why I think it's important to gather continue gathering those stats so that if things change at the state level or the national level and it is again you know the pendulum swings both ways and if that ever changes we still have all the data sets to be able to go back. We're not stopping the collection. We're not getting rid of the data that we have. We're maintaining the collection. We're just not doing the the citizens police board portion of it, if that makes sense. But yes, I I think I think it's important that our practices match our policies.

I don't think the state's asking us not to take that out, are they? They are not. They're not that. So, we're still in line. Many of the other communities that have police citizen police boards,

that's their ordinance and everything falls under that particular ordinance. and they have just stricken the ordinance. Uh some continue to collect data like Iowa City, for example, does. That's kind of the area of the state that we live in. And I think that it's important. Again, I want to be transparent. I want to be able to self-reflect and look in the mirror if there are issues that are identified or just just as a matter of making sure that we continue to to do a good job. We have not had since I came in 2019, we have not had a complaint of any sort of bias-based policing which I think is is commendable.

So if we did, what would be the exact procedure for you'd have an internal investigation?

Correct. The if the person wanted to speak with the police chief and sometimes in my experience in a former career that wasn't always the case. they wanted to handle it outside of the police department, but they would they would speak with the police chief and then even if they chose not to pursue a formal complaint, even if it once the information is on the table, you can't just ignore it. So, my expectation would be that the police chief uh would go ahead regardless of what the person who was bringing this to light's final wishes were that, hey, I just want you to be aware of this. If there was any sort of hint or allegation of bias-based police conduct, misconduct, I would expect that an internal affairs investigation be initiated, a review of of u all available all available reports, body cam and and whatnot. And if Chief Acres is able to based on that review of the material that's available to him, body cams are or the one body cams are in car cams is able to say why I can't clear this up or not only can I clear it up but I have concerns then it would expand to where it would be necessary to bring people in to interview them or invite them in to be interviewed. But if looking at the the body of of material evidence there, the the incar camera, the video, uh the body cam, and you know, any other surveillance, anything that was concrete and not subject to, I mean, a report is even biased by what your perspective is. But if Chris were able to look at that and say, you know, this just did not happen the way that it was related to me. This didn't happen in that fashion, then Chris at that point, the chief at that point would able be able to say, I don't need to look at this any further. I think personally there's always room to have that conversation

with the employee, with the officer, and say, even in that situation, I reviewed the body camera footage. It did not happen the way that it was reported. Did not happen the way that it was perceived, but you should be aware of how it was perceived by whoever reported this. However, the information came in. Kevin Sanders, again, for those who don't know, he's the Iowa City uh president. He's the president of the Iowa City chapter of the NAACP. Kevin would be brought in early on on that. Made sure that he was aware of the incident. Sometimes Kevin has much to add to it. Other times, Kevin, Kevin's just a good resource to have. He's nonbiased. He can come in and he can look at it and he can say, "Troy or Chris or or Nick, I've looked at this and I don't have any concerns." Or he can also come and say, "I've heard this through my organization even though you guys haven't heard about it." So, he's just that good neutral party and Kevin would be brought in to any complaint we received regardless of whether it came through Kevin, if that makes any sense. I it's good to have that relationship. I we strive to be we always have strived to be as transparent as possible. It uh we are not perfect. I'm not willing to say that we are perfect as people or as an agency, but if you make a mistake, you should acknowledge it and you should do your best to make right whatever damage was done and and do your best to make certain that it doesn't happen again. Yeah, I think the relationship with the local chapter of the NAACP is probably one of the most important parts so that if there is a sense that there's becoming an issue that they will communicate openly with you, you know, with the city about it before it becomes um, you know, an issue that is not dealt with.

Kevin and I, while we don't have regularly scheduled meetings, we meet regularly. I I was uh December was the last time that we met. So, we're good about that mitigation and if you have an interest in having conversations with him, I can see that it's your extended invitation next time. But yeah, I've got a contact. I could be keeping want to say like a mediator kind of a volunteer public mediator city kind of does that I think kind of skirt the the law. I mean without with Kevin. Yeah,

he does that. He he doesn't do it for the city. I he in my experience the the instances that he's involved in he usually ends up seeing it more from the city's perspective than the other perspective than whatever the complaints perspective is. But Kevin is not and does not want to be a mediator for the he doesn't want to be anything for this. He wants to be a partner of the city collab uh he wants to collaborate with the city but he he can't be he plays a different role than that. But yes, we rely on him to come in and give an honest I he's that transparency. He's the one that says you guys screwed up or I don't really see an issue here or he he's a nice sounding board but he can't be a mediator for the city but he functions in that role kind of what you're saying but it's just not for the city I guess

and he can be almost an advocate for the person who has the concern but he can advocate in a way I think that is calm and clear and helps us to improve you know if there an issue I think it help us to improve rather than right just be budding. It's

right. And that's where it's important that even if there are things that need to be improved on hypothetically on our side, it's important that we work with him as somebody to facilitate and help make help make sure that we're making the proper changes, not just so yes, and we work very very closely with him. We actually have parallel concerns. Even though even though many people don't see it that way, they see off a fence. We have parallel concerns and Kevin has been a fantastic relationship or a resource for me and we have a a very good relationship. So, the state's asking this just to take it off the books. Essentially,

the state is not requiring this at all. However, because we're we're not civil service and because the size of our community, again, we are really the a small fish in the pond that they don't they're not paying any attention to. But we're the only city in the state that I'm aware of that still has ordinances, has an ordinance that creates and enables a citizens police review board. And the only reason we do is because we're so small that when the state required everybody else to take them off, we didn't rise to the level that Okay. So, we don't have to send anything.

Yeah. We have to we have to do a resolution and it takes three readings to pass it because we're amending a current ordinance. But that's what I just I would like us to be in line so that if there is an issue, it doesn't come down to nobody's pointing fingers and saying University Heights ordinance and practices aren't consistent with with state law. They they they're antiquidated or they haven't they haven't changed. And to Nick's point, I think our practice should exactly match our policy. I don't think you can say one thing and do another. and and we're not there right now. I don't think it'd be wise to pose the state if it does have a limit.

Yes. Okay. So, first consideration of ordinance number 258 amending ordinance number 235 is before the council. Is there a motion? Yes, we have a motion and second. Motion and second. Mhm. We had that already. Okay. Second. Um Tim nodded his head, right? Was it weird or was it motion was second? It was a while back. Yeah. I just repeat it to help the clerk. Thank you. Yep. But anyway. Okay. Um any discussion?

Roll call vote. Herbald. Hi. Moore. Hi. Schroeder. Hi. Swes. Hi. Dwire. Motion carries 5-0. Okay. Thank you. Then uh Troy, we have first consideration of ordinance number 259 amending ordinance number 52 to reduce the number of members of the tree board from 5 to three.

Yes. This is also something this is a housekeeping item. This is also something I brought before council for the last this is the third month. Uh this was actually initiated by a conversation with tree board members when I started attending the meetings back in December. The current tree board is by ordinance set at a membership of five with each member serving a five-year term and terms are staggered. Uh in discussing that there was two vacancies. uh Lisa Habberamp who was had served her five-year commitment and and was stepping away as the chair. Uh that created one opening and then uh David Conrad was had to step away because he had too many other things going on in his life and couldn't continue that commitment. And in talking with the tree board, they expressed that that was an issue. the five-year term coming on the tree board at the tree board by ordinance only really has to meet once a year if they wanted to and that is uh to do some some review and update of information required by ordinance but the tree board wants to as probably most me boards do the tree board members want to be to feel like if they're giving their time to something that it it's important and it's worthwhile and and they want to take as active role as they can and Because of that and because they were trying to flush out things for a while that they were meeting every month, it was suggested that the treeboard membership be reduced uh for ease of operation as much as anything and that even more importantly the term be reduced to three years. The mayor and I have talked about this when the mayor points out that when she asks people before appointing them to the tree board, she or to any board, she she lets

them know that even though it's a 5-year commitment, they can resign at any time if it ends up being too much of a of a of a time commitment. And while that is true, it does create issues then when in the middle of a term somebody steps away and you're supposed to have five members to do business and now you only have three members. uh the board members felt that a three-year commitment was was was easier to grasp and easier to commit to. Uh as you all are aware, if a if a board member at any board wishes to remain on the board after their terms expired, uh they can ask the mayor for consideration for reappoint. So, we're reducing the commitment, but we're not reducing their ability to continue to serve if they'd like to. Uh we also talked about as far as the reduction of members that does not prove the tree board like any other board is an open meetings board. Uh agendas are meetings are published agendas are published. Just because there's only now if if you pass this a three board membership doesn't or three member board doesn't mean that you still couldn't have five people or six people whoever was interested that particular time in their life or that particular time of the season could still come in and and participate uh be present and and to the extent the treeboard allowed them to participate. So, so this is really in response to a conversation I had initially with treeboard membership, current treeboard membership, and then the mayor. Uh, and it's it's more of a housekeeping issue. And it would reduce it would change the resolution to reduce the membership to three persons instead of five and then to reduce the term of membership, term of appointment from five years to three years. So that again you maintain that one-year stagger with the members.

Yeah, this has been discussed a couple of months. Yes. And the council's uh looked at this a few months. Um it so this is first consideration of ordinance number 258 amending ordinance number 52. Um is there a motion? Motion. Yes. McKenzie, is there a second? Second by Tim. So, are we looking at this? So, it's 258. You said 259. 259. It's 259. Should be That's a typo in the agenda.

I said eight, didn't I? It's 259. The other one was 258. Thank you. This is 259. Amending ordinance number 52 to reduce the number of members of the tree board from 5 to three and three-year terms, staggered three-year terms. Okay. And we have a motion by McKenzie and a second by Tim. Any further discussion?

Well, I just so maybe I'm not looking at the right version. Does it reduce to threeear terms? So, uh, the one that was circulated did not I talked with with Troy and Mike about that, uh, on a fly here this evening and sent Mike a version that does do that. Okay. I must have said and it might I don't think we've sent it yet but it's but all it does is the next section the next section says the term is five years and it crosses that out and says three

and then there's several sentences that talk about the initial board provided however then for the initial board there'll be one member that has five one member that has four so you can we just got rid of that because we already have the board I trust you to the drafting for it not being in here I was serious understood Yeah. Um, no, I I support this. I think that not only, you know, does the five-year term seem really long, but I think that could discourage people from even talking to you potentially, mayor, if they're like, whoa, I don't want to sign up for five years, even if they knew they could drop, you know, drop off early. Um, so I I definitely It's always been a challenge.

No, I I support making this more manageable for people because I think people want to fulfill terms, right? People don't usually want to sign up for something if they think, "Oh, I'll just quit," you know, partway through. So, yeah. I appreciate your work on this, Troy. I support this. Okay. Any more discussion? Okay. Roll call vote. Moore. Hi. Schroeder. Hi. Swelles. Hi. Dwire. Hi. Herbald. Hi. Carrie. 5-0. Thank you. Troy, do you want to continue with your Sure.

Uh, couple items I just want to make sure council's aware of. did circulate a report yesterday. It was early for me. Uh winter weather items. Probably all of you are aware of it. I wanted to make sure you knew that on February 2nd, uh Stella started taking water on in their basement, a trickle. And originally, they thought it was something internal. Uh it became clear that night and and the next morning, Tuesday morning, that that it was more than just a trickle in something internal. Uh it took a while for Iowa City Water or they responded right away. They were on top of it, but it took a while to determine where the water was coming from. They had to bring in a a specialized person and equipment from I think it was Kansas City. Uh and they eventually located the the break on Melrose in the 1200 block of Melrose. It did create an outage for some people, but the repair has been made. There's a pile of gravel on the road there now, but I just wanted to make sure council was aware of that. Uh, up south and north HOA. The This is relevant for you to know as as both the city and because it will affect the city uh in in a special assessment. The siding has been an issue primarily. This is about the siding has been an issue. the the pressurized ash sighting and the stain. Both HOA North, OUP North and OUP South HOA have decided that rather to continue to apply stain and and make repairs to rotting boards, they are going to replace all of the exterior siding uh with a type of a concrete board. uh that will result in an expense to to all of the owners including the city that will be paid for as a special assessment uh for OUP South. That isn't quite known yet. It's it's roughly

known, but there's a question about what the city wants to do with this fence out here around the playground. I was reluctant to commit one way or another without individual discussions that I'll have with some of the of the counselors and membership. I know we've talked about doing something else with that space. Uh from a former police officer and chief, I always felt that that space was closed in and was not easily viewable from the outside. I I would prefer that we could see in better. Uh when I spoke with counselor Moore, uh you know, she told me that she'd had conversations with family member with parents who liked that it wasn't closed. So anyway, I need to work out some stuff there, but there will be a special assessment. Um, dues will go up for everybody, both buildings, and it varies a little bit, but roughly 6%. Uh, I will get the numbers to John and to Steve on the expected numbers on the special assessment, so the city can build that into the budget. The commercial owners in particular, so OUP South commercial owners have been for a while now and again at the last meeting expressed some concern that one dues have not just for them but for the whole building but dues have continued to increase and there seems to be maintenance items with sighting. Um, it's been pointed out that the concrete is not holding up as well as it might have and and those commercial owners have expressed concern that, you know, while they like being here, it may not from a profitability standpoint, uh, it might not be sustainable. Uh, Jake Jake is actively trying to sell his space, for example, and and says that he will be happy to finally be out here. So, I just report that back. I I think this is a fantastic facility for the city. Uh I live in an HOA and HOAs to some extent deal with these issues, but

I I just I wanted council to be aware of those issues. Uh Swisser track trails again, you approved the contract last time that will be we got the amended contact. They agreed they had no issue with any of the suggestions that our city attorney made and city clerk has for the mayor to sign tonight. I also spoke with Jeff Ruin of the city manager of Iowa City. The 24 acres that Board of Regents allows the city is going to allow the city to develop as part of this actually sits in Iowa City and not University Heights. And I wanted to make sure Iowa City didn't have any concerns about I don't know us developing property, if you will, outside of the city limits, any liability issues that might go with it. Uh, I know we've talked about various fundraising to possibly include naming of of the trail system or even individual trails and um Jeff and I had conversation over two days and we said after discussion with their city legal they have absolutely zero issue with us developing it. It's not owned it's not property that's owned by University Heights nor is it owned by the city of Iowa City. it's owned by border regions and and anyway I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware of that because that's come up before. Uh tree board we are moving forward they are moving forward with a spring event. I've told you that before the spring hike in university height swisher track with uh district forester Mark Bitsh. The date on that has changed if you've already put it on your calendar. It is now May 30th uh at 10:00 a.m. Again, it's being organized the tree board by the treeboard as part of the criteria uh for designation from the Arbor Day Foundation as Tree City USA for University Heights LRS are refuing. There are a couple issues with

unpicked up items. It happened that that councelor Schroer was one of those. Uh LRS was super responsive once I was able to make contact with them. One of the issues that as we've run into is that their call taking center is is not in Iowa when sometimes they have a hard time locating where we are and who's responsible for it. Tim informed me tonight that in his conversation with with one of the LRF's representatives, they're opening uh they're they're changing their call center and yeah and more localized call center so they'll actually know that we're part of their system.

Yeah. To try to be more responsive directly to to both community members. And I think that's all I had that I wanted to touch on. Do you remember I wasn't at that OEP South committee last night. Do you remember what the city's increase or city's portion of the sighting was?

I do not. Uh that siding really wasn't until after when I looked at it that that's a chunk of sighting out there for this building. So it did increase the cost significantly. I don't remember what our breakdown commercial spaces will pay by the same formula that we break down everything else. So it's square footage that we will it will be divided up among square footage from all the commercial spaces. It won't be that that's the city's fence to take care of. That's part of the sighting. So, in my conversations with the other board members, specifically with Kevin, if we choose not, if the city chooses not to do the siding out there, that reduces everybody's cost because however many square foot of sighting that is doesn't need to be done and and that cost doesn't go into to what needs to be divided up. The problem with that is then what happens with if we remove the fence on one extreme if we remove the fence then the city I don't believe should be on the hook for removing the fence if that's being done as part of this sighting project or do we potentially say look you're taking off lots and lots and lots of sighting from the building here there has to be a pile of good wood somewhere in there can we not we but can the HOA store that and make repairs to the fence out here ongoing or does the fence even need from a stylistic point of view, from aesthetic point of view, does it even need to match the siding or can it accent the siding or blend in much like the the OUP signs that are out front? So, it could be a different material. It could be potentially, I don't know, like a cable barrier that disappears yet at the same time it's there so that both passing officers can monitor what's going on. yet children that are being allowed to play in there can't just disappear, you know, down grand somewhere. So,

I don't know what the exact dollar was. Yeah, there was $167,000, right? And I could go I don't know if that included the fence or not, but what what I believe what we talked about there had the city's fence stripped off of that. That was one of the conversations that needed bound on. Correct. Exact. Exactly. I think that was the low number if we didn't do the fence if I'm recalling correctly. What's the timeline for working with fence?

It would be this next it would be this coming year. Uh and if there is interest, I don't need to take up council time, but if there is interest, I can tell you there's it's a concrete board product. I'm probably oversimplifying that. That is used locally at some of the convenience stores locally. That's the one that I remember was easy for me to go look at. I can also get a sample of it. It would be stained to roughly match the same color that's here now. So, it wouldn't change the exterior appearance. It would be this concrete board that wouldn't rot away like the the pressurized ash that's underneath there. It would still need to be, as I understand it, it would still need to be stained and much like a house, probably stained or painted or whatever the right words are again sometime in the future. But right now, and we've been doing the sighting to some degree about every other year on the exterior of the building here. Uh it has, and Nick's well aware of this, but I mean, not only is it the stain that's that's not holding up, it is the materials underneath it. Uh the concrete board has a 15-year, I believe, material warranty. That does that's not the actual stain where I mean, that all sounds good. And this is a proven product. the the existing product. I mean, it isn't just the stain. It's it's it's the board underneath it that is. So, I mean, Nick and I have had conversations that is this uh is this a defect that that goes back to design, engineering, or selection or or what is it? Bottom line is it at this point it needs to be repaired, whatever it is. But that is something that we're at least discussing. So, aesthetically, it'll look the same.

Yes, aesthetically it'll look the same. It will still have a wood grain. Uh, it's a little bit thicker, but you won't notice that obviously because it goes on, but it still has a wood grain and it'll I mean, if you were to hold it up right now, the colors wouldn't match exactly, but once all of it's stripped off and put on there, it looks the same. And then, as far as this space over here, do kids actually play in this part? They do. I don't let mine cuz I think everyone just lets their dogs pee over there. So we we've I call it the pea park and we don't know it anymore.

Yeah. And that is some people view it as that. Uh when we have um when we have events like the national night out or things like that when we had the open house there were lots of people playing and that's when I learned that as a result of those I learned that parents like that because it's one entrance. Kids can't get out anywhere else so they can let them go in there and play around. But it is hard to tell where the kids play. You can't see in it unless you're right up here. You can't see it, but you do see dogs walking and out. So, that was that was the other thing is that again when we talked about it,

it makes zero sense for OUP South, specifically commercial properties and specifically the city of University Heights to pay for this new sighting to include the fence if there is a desire to change it sometime in the relatively near future. And by that I mean even the next 3, four, five years. It it just it does not make sense to make that investment when we have wood to make potential repairs or there are other other options that the HOA might be able to do at a much cheaper cost point that are actually more desirable than an enclosed corral. Yeah,

it'd be nice if the Russian people could work on, you know, how the water drips down. Anybody sees the ice that kind of forms from those slow drips? Um, while they're here, because I think it's rushed in, the same people who did the sheet metal, I think, are doing the sighting, if I understood correctly, that was where the bid was from. Correct. Yeah. And so maybe they could fix the the ice issue that we have, you know, at the same time. I don't know. That's something it would seem like as long as they peeled down behind it that there should be a little I'll bring that up. Any other questions about my report? Thank you, Matt.

Thank you, Troy. Uh, we'll go on to um city clerk report. Mike, you circulated your report. Did you want to add some things?

Um, only thing to add, we're going to have uh resolution 2608, which is the bank depository resolution. Just to let you know, I did a deposit on Saturday and used my very last Iowa State Bank deposit slip. So, I'll be able to now move to my drawer full of Midwest One deposit slips right before they changed their bank. So, it struck me as with all this happening that yeah, we're still there. I have a I I do have a drawer full of Midwest one deposit slips. So, yeah.

Okay. Any questions for Mike? We'll go on to John Brown. John, you circulated your reports today. I saw I did. Thank you, mayor. I have uh two items to append to the list a lot. One is a city of Iowa City fuel bill for $911. And the other one is sentry link phone bill $537. the bills, the Lawrence in front here. No, that's that's the Oh, he's got the report of the total revenue. Yeah. February, right? Yeah.

But there are two additional bills to the warrants. Property taxes. Yeah. Um and then the warrants have been circulated. Yes. And I thought you were going to put that. No, but John was saying we have two extra ones, but yes, I'll I'll throw the warrants up, too. Okay, here we are. Yeah, they're before the council. Are there any additions to that, John?

Uh, yes. There's an Iowa City fuel bill for vehicles for $9112 and a um sentry bill for $137 to 22.

Okay, everyone got that? Are there um is there any objection to paying the warrants? Hearing none, the warrants will be paid by unanimous consent. Okay. So, we'll go on to um John and Nick. We're going to discuss the proposed tax levy. Are you going to do that? Oh, we got to do all Are we going to do 2608? Let's do that first.

Okay. 2608 is kind of a cleanup from um John Olson and the city exam. Olson. Yes. And he said this hasn't been done for several years. Consideration is approving financial institutions as official depositories and specifying limits on the maximum amount that may be deposited at each institution. And we have an institution that's changing its name. And so he suggested this be done. And so um that 20608 is before the council.

So moved. Okay. Second. Second. Second by Lisa. Okay. Uh is there discussion? Okay. Yeah. John does.

Sorry. Um I I just want to point out that with a cap of 500k we are currently have exceeded that currently exceeded that have for some time with one financial institution. Uh there something we might want to revisit. The institution is changing its name and they've also been kind less user friendly as far as aes and what have you. I had a meeting with Hill Bank and they're they're putting together material to offer us a way to pay via AC and five cents of AC and waving the fees monthly fees. So something for us to think about maybe to consider relocating or splitting our operating account. you know, at least in half. I mean, because if we split our current operating account in half, we would still be in violation of this uh proposal that it's

Did you find out when we did this last? I mean, did you just happen to see it? Cuz I just been a long resolution first. I'm sitting here kind of gobsmacked. I'm like, I could cut our we could cut our operating count in third thirds could still be violating this. So that I I just want to say we we've got quite a bit of money at Midwest one. So Mayor, you and I have talked about West Bank. I don't know what we have there, but No, it has a big list here. So we see that any any additional questions before we Steve are you gonna give some

Well, I was gonna say I I don't pay attention to so much the balances. I appreciate that comment. I mean the council would I mean you may amend before you vote on this. You can amend those amounts to make a million instead of 500,000 in each institution. All it does is it says this is the amount that we're authorized to deposit. Mike, would you do me a favor? Pull up my treasures report. Yep. you know. Yep. I guess I I think this is a great resolution. I just want to be forthcoming and say,

"Yeah, we're going to pass it." And um down to the bottom. We've got 1.6 1.6 million Midwest One. So, like I said, we cut that in third. So, we're still in violation of this. I'm all for moving things around. Uh I like Paul Cruz is saying today, but

yeah, I guess that seems like it's maybe a connected issue. I I would if I were going to raise levels too, I tend to maybe look at the user friendly local banks um first also. But I guess I would propose that we amend I know I don't know if maybe all of them to a million dollars. I don't know if that makes sense. Um why don't I just make that motion to move to Yeah, except I think we already have a million over a million five and one of them. I mean you could move that though. We could you you can make a $2 million amount. Doesn't mean you have to go put that much in there. Doesn't mean you have to put any. Yeah, exactly.

I guess is there any I'm not a I understand like FDIC insurance with separate accounts, but do you have any other is there any other reason not to put too many eggs in one basket? I guess

No, no, no. There there there's definitely is from from sitting on some of the boards with nonprofits. I mean, we have they have this and some of their bylaws. It's just not having all your eggs in a um in in one basket, especially getting different financial times. You know, somebody makes some money on the bank. we still have liquidity at at other banks. Um, and I said we need to look at it from from two standpoints. Um, and this this is something that there just one analysis I've been wanting to do is what is the average balance of cash? We actually don't because this has always been bugging me. we still have all this money in the operating account and it's not sitting it it's not earning you know bang for our buck at you know different institutions so I I think that we need to establish what it you know the cash flow what does what does city need for cash flow regularly throughout the year and you know in timing that you know let's say with the spring and the fall when we have the influx of cash coming from the property and stuff so we establish this base it's like yeah we should always have our maintain our operating fund, you know, between this amount and and this amount, you know, get give or take you which way the head of the flow, you know, some money's coming in and our various expenses. And then we have this uh this this this other money that we say we're going to invest for future use. We stagger that in different banks and then we also stagger it in different accounts. um not because it's in different accounts but for the timing is different because you want to hedge you know it's like you always want to do something like a mixture of like a six or 9 month CD then maybe like a 12 16 month CD so you're hedging you're not because you're never sure where the

rates going it's it's it's a good smart place so I think that's analysis that I need to do is say you know this is this is the operating level and minimum and maximum we shall always attain. This is the amount of money that we could probably just like comfortably invest in various financial institutions that are in listed in this resolution and also IPA possibly which is not listed in this resolution. So, um I I think it would be a good time I think the council if they want to let's say come up with a mill and I need to shed some funds. I think I think it would be great to maybe do I could get with uh Jordan Barrett and his manager Hills Bank in consultation with, you know, you mayor and and Troy, we can go ahead and move some money over there into establish an operating account. We start taking advantage of the AC's. We don't have to sign checks anymore. 5 cents an AC that's far cheaper than a check that often gets lost in the mail. I mean it's it's Mike will tell you that we sometimes hey you didn't pay your bill or you know I think Chris Chris said another thing today the check that check just got new search so it it strengthens our payment system. So I think this is a great opportunity and I I thank everybody for the time and

I guess from a staff perspective I think recommendation would be that again I I think our practices should match our policies and as either Steve or Mike pointed out if you say that it's 2 million doesn't mean you have to put 2 million in there but at least you're in compliance if you put them all at 2 million or 1.7 million. But I just I if we have a policy, we should be following it. And even if you say, but again, it's 2 million, you know, not to exceed 2 million, John, a city treasurer can still do all of those things to see where best put the money, but we're in compliance while we're doing it as opposed to being out of compliance. So, I mean, I guess from a staff recommendation, I would say we should adjust our resolution to bring us into so that we are compliant with it. Maybe uh I think it's a good point. May maybe one thought would be to defer consideration of this resolution this evening so that those kinds of changes can be made and this this the Iowa the iPad could be added if if that makes sense.

It's not we're not staying any jeopardy whether this is tonight or not. So and we got another 1.5 coming. There's sorry with this. I guess yeah, I think that all makes sense. I do think there's maybe some wisdom to not putting all our eggs in one basket, but I also think there's some wisdom to not having it so spread out that it's additional work for staff. So, yeah, I I would be in favor of deferring and hearing what you think about and maybe moving some to Hills in the meantime. Do we have anything that's limiting us from going to Hills right now?

No, there on our

No, no, no. I I I I think uh Hills is a solid institution and I got something in my pocket that I'm going to whack them in the back of the head with it. It's it's an industry thing. It's like you set up a CD and then it seems like their letter I didn't say a better top job uh when the CDs expire. You get the letter, oh your CD is about to renew and let it renew. Auto renews at something like 0.3%. you know, that kind of thing just infuriates me that we couldn't get and I got an apology out of of Georgia because that that happened and that's why we hadn't moved some money to uh another institution with better rates because it just automatically renewed at 0.3. So, I would like some better assurances like hey, you know, don't take advantage of this. Well, and if bad stuff happens, that's why I pay. That's true. I mean, that's ridiculous.

West Bank is on the list, and they have actively been trying to get a a more robust financial working relationship with us. I don't believe they have any currently with them even though they are. I think they would be very competitive degrees, shall we? Mhm. They c they can be every everything is about I mean I I'm able to tell everything is about is about timing, right? And it's also about uh how much and for how long, right?

And it just happened when we went through this exercise. I think it was like spring of last year that uh you know they put in a bin. I mean West Bank did, Hillsbank did, Midwest One did. um um Collins and it just happened to be that Green State had that they were running a special and we were able but it's not always the case that great state you know Mike and I we went down there together what do we need Steve if we were going to defer this since there's already motion you just move to defer

I just move to defer a Okay, so a lot of months till next month. Okay, very good. That's good because we haven't looked at this in a while and a long while. Mayor Tim. Hey, can I start?

I was just going to ask about the there's a lot of things on the table like analyzing cash flow, figuring out what that is and then then there would be a strategy of figuring out what could be in each these different accounts. There's going to there's the iPaid. So, how do we get a strategy around all of that to present that so we can move forward with this? I don't do that. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess I mean I wonder like if I pay is a good play. I I like to support the local banks and so that's where I'm kind of torn because it seems like it would be

if if we feel comfortable that our money is I mean it seems like the $2 billion sort of fund. We're hopefully pretty secure to put our money there. But I pay seems to be an easy place to have that be the default and then pull it out to try to capture good CD rates. So but I don't know, you know, obviously we heard their pitch. I don't know what the downsides might be. I'd be curious to know if there there's more to the story. It seems like a lot of people use them.

Staff can work on this and and present something work session or anything to hammer this out. I I think there's enough direction from council right now for us to put together something and then if you want to hammer out details after that, but I I I think there are benefits to being diverse so that you can go to different places and already have that relationship. Uh I think what IP said tonight made a lot of sense to me and that's why I invited them in to talk. They will have the resolution. They left it here, you know, hard copy, but they are also sending the city attorney it. I just I think this is all stuff that can be rolled into one and John and I, Mike, Steve, whomever can put together. Here's what we think is is is a prudent approach and here's what we would like to do and and what do you all have suggestions otherwise or what do you think about this? We'll work on that for next month if that's okay.

Great. Sounds good. John, thank you. Senator Trump. Okay, we'll go on to um the next thing is the discussion of the proposed tax levy rate and that came from John Brown. And Nick, did you want John to discuss that?

You want to go first? I'll see if there anything. Uh, sure. I mean, there's something something new for this fiscal year, upcoming fiscal year, is we have the new bond issue. We're going to have about say 201,000 in principal uh to pay on the new bond this year. So, uh, Steve Cool and I made figured it would best way to attack that new principal payment would be to use lost funds, you know, instead of having because we currently don't have a separate debt service levy. So, to avoid, you know, re reigniting that, we could use availability of the loss funds. I mean, it's already mandated that half of the loss funds have to go to towards property relief, tax relief, and we're doing that. So, by taking what we can, and there's a little bit of roll over from previous fiscal years to take care of that bond payment, that does alleviate a debt service levy, but that also is loss funds that we don't have. We're covering other things that we've done in the past years. the the current rate is about it's about 60 cents more than what the rate it was last year but it's it's still under what it was three years ago you know two or three years ago before we had lost so it you know compared to to three years ago and compare the property tax rates rates are not going up if you look at in that uh perspective uh but they are going that from the fiscal year to fiscal year. But but that that was Steve Pool's strategy was to to push the lost over to cover the debt

service and not have a debt service levy. Yeah. I mean I guess this is

this is where pe where the council has potential decisions, right? because we learned last year that the state government has kind of ratcheted down our ability to levy. Um, and so we last year felt like our hands were a little bit tied in terms of what we could levy, but now we are, as John pointed out, we are borrowing money um at the same time that we are getting loss funds that are supposed to in part go to lowering taxes. And so, John, tell me if I'm saying something correct, but basically what's happening instead of I mean what how the the loss money is lowering taxes right now is by preventing there from being a debt levy uh where there otherwise would have been.

Correct. Um, so I mean the point is we are not raising taxes as as we would if we were levying for the debt, which is something we can do. That's we're not restrained from levying more to pay the debt that we're taking out. Um, you know, but that's going to take cash that we'd otherwise have on hand, otherwise have to do things um in the community. Um, so these are kind of fundamental taxing sorts of decisions for city council to make. The current default makes sense to say, well, why don't we just use this income where we have coming in to not have a debt levy. Um, but I just want to make sure that it's crystal clear to council that this is the decision that would be we'd be making. We're still, as as John said, we still have cash on hand. We still have the bond money coming in. So, I don't I don't think it really ties our hands in terms of how we turn around and use the bond money or the cash on hand that we have, which is significant as we've talked about. So, I I don't think unless the city council wanted to add a debt levy, which we could do, this seems to be the obvious choice. And then when it comes to the rest of the levying, that's where our hands are kind of tied anyway

from the state law, right? Well, that's great. I mean, I bet the the levies also need to coincide with a budget. You know, we can add a debt levy like, "Oh, okay. That's another 200 grand." Well, okay. Where is that going to be in the budget? You know, that this is this is us being good physical stewards. We have our budget where we expect and we don't necessarily need all all this extra loss for for fluff for the city and we're just going to apply it to the debt service levy. So we have to pass it.

But I think that also is is applicable if we do decide we want to do something in town. we have don't I don't want there you know people the council would feel like our hands are tied to not do anything because we're using this money to pay the you know this for the what otherwise would have been levied for through the debt levy I guess that's my my thought on it is that we're not tying our hands we're just not bringing in more tax revenue right now where we could correct and we're about 66 cents did you say a little around last year, but it's still under what it was uh

three three years ago. It's 11.1. Yeah. But if I go to and the year before we were even higher. So we're lower than three years ago. Yeah. Yes, Mayor. I'm pulling that pulling that up. From what I could tell, brought that with I think we're pretty good.

3 years ago, we were 11.8 if I remember off the if I remember correctly off the top of my head. So, we're still the question I had had in case anybody else has this question. I I didn't know if it was disingenuous to say we're using 50% for property tax relief when we are paying a levy. You know, we're we're just avoiding a levy that we weren't paying before. You know what I'm saying? So, that I didn't seem like from the response that that was a problem that that was seemed interesting.

The the certified property tax for fiscal year 25 was 11.83 26. Yeah. So, yeah. So we're so we're we're much lower than 24 25 was 11.83 11.59 the year after that. So we're sitting pretty good. Yeah, it's good.

And this is kind of our worksheet. We'll see how it keeps shaking out here. I know you and probably Steve Cole worked on this a long time and maybe even Nick worked on this formula. Thank you for doing that. And do you have anything else you want to add under finance? Okay, very good. Thank you. We'll go on to community protection and chief, you circulated your report yesterday.

Yes, we did. And we have a full-time sergeant.

We do. Adam joined us as of the second and uh he's he's doing well. He's brave and so he uh he's starting to pick up the systems that we use and he's doing well for himself. So, um, you know, the the one thing that I want to bring up that didn't make them important, I didn't think about it until after I sent the report out. Um, reviewing total calls for service. I I included 2025 uh in my report and a breakdown of the calls for service. Uh, the number of times we responded to to those types of calls. I looked back and for the 2024 statistics, for the year-end statistics, um, our total calls for service in in 2024 were 3,681. So, we're almost double what we were uh 2024, which would bring concern except for the most significant ones that that uh we are the most prominent calls for service that we have are going to be extra patrol requests, assisting other agencies, house checks, community uh involvement, uh school uh school checks, uh running radar down by the schools and the school crossing guards. So, all things that are generally positive for the community. So, um the the gentlemen that we employ are very active. They do a good job with what uh with what we want them to do and they interact well with the community. If you would like me to send out the 2024 statistics, I can certainly do that. Uh I have them on a spreadsheet. Um, and if you wish, I'll send them out

uh either later tonight or tomorrow. So, any questions? Nice. Uh, McKenzie, did you want to add some things? I don't have anything. Okay. Working together. Well, that's good. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. I know it seems a little further out with the uh patrolling that the school patrol, but seems like it's pushed to April or it'll all work out. I know it's not a great break but to get out and fastly

you know and and I have considered this and uh you know but even if it were spring break you still take two or three weeks to make yourself give myself the confidence that the little people can process and and activate the the cross the crossing lights and do it properly and safely. Um, if it's a couple more weeks later or a month later, or even if we have to revisit it again next year, which I would imagine we will, yeah,

um, that's okay. That's okay. I I will be dreadfully honest and tell you that I have a lot of fun at that corner interacting with all of those little people and sometimes the parents. So, uh, the little people are are, uh, I there are 10 to 15 that I speak to on a daily basis and their parents will roll down the windows and allow me to approach the vehicle and then talk to them and uh, that's very important to us and to our community.

Thanks, Ch.

Thanks so much. and we'll go down to uh Ryan and Doug. Ryan, do you want to start? I can. Yeah. Thank you, mayor. Um we've been doing um I won't go into a lot of detail. We've been doing a lot of things in the background for me complete street project. There's a report from Blake Peterson included in my report. Um meeting with Paul a couple more times. Um trying to follow up with some um city decisions items there. The rightway work that uh Tim Greenwood from Steve's office is working on uh getting um those been some acquisitions um you know offers and appraisals sent out and discussions with those property owners is ongoing utility coordination all those items uh we're working through those items this last month and will continue um in February um and March. So, uh, the MS4 storm sur permit, um, is just something, uh, oh, for our new council members that we do every year. We submit a report to the DNR, which just has some summary of storm sewer work and inspection work and and reports that the DNR requires of us as a city. The RFPs, as the mayor mentioned, I don't know I don't know who's pushing the date out for this, but it wasn't me. And uh

as far as I know, we're still on schedule. I I didn't get the contractor wasn't able to give me an update on delivery date, but the materials were ordered within um the end of the week when we approved the uh agreement last month. So, the materials have been ordered. They're kind of long lead time for polls and uh the actual equipment for the push buttons, but

I'll I'll probably have an update in the March meeting for the timeline uh for everybody on that. There was uh I'll bring your attention. There was an invoice from a city of Iowa City for the rightway permit. Uh just to reiterate uh the east half of the intersection is is in the city of Iowa City's limits. So we were uh asked to to obtain a rideway permit from the city of Iowa City in order to install that RFB sign. So

there's a new pole on Cozer that's not being used. Well, we might use that today, I guess. We'll see. Um, yeah, it'll probably look exactly like that one, too. It's here. So, uh, I'm going to leave that one in case the city ever wants to do something else with it on the coer. Melrose Avenue, uh, panel replacements is a project that was in the budget last year, uh, for the current fiscal year. This project's been um kind of a difficult um traffic control setup. Um so I've sent some sheets to the mayor and city administrator to review that. It's going to uh involve a detour uh on Melrose Avenue. This would be between Sunset and and sort of the curve or essentially Kosure area. It would be patching the pavement that's not going to be replaced with the Melrose Complete Streets project. Um so that the pavement's in good condition when we strike bike lanes. Um that's kind of the main focus of that project. City of Iowa City's wastewater last summer in coordination with Highland Drive project, they mentioned that there's some sanitary work they may want to do and actually reconfiguring some of the way that their lines lay out on Melrose around the George Street intersection. So we're likely looking at an a bigger impact there at that intersection with the dead end culde-sac than we were would have initially expected. So, I'm waiting for some feedback from Iowa City um to confirm the scope that they'd like to proceed with. The Sunrock Inspection Program will issue the quotation documents. Most of that's pretty well ready to go. Um and that work is planned. I'm going to set the contract up that the work cannot begin till June 8th, which is at least the original higher city end of school year, the first Monday after school is

done. Um and the work would be completed before school starts in August. So 280 agreement um Troy and I met with city uh public works and streets department personnel last month uh to review some proposals that we sent back to them on a 280 agreement items. This is something that city of Iowa City uh wanted to hash out again um or kind of formalize an agreement uh for for all streets and signs and traffic signals and detailing out um who's going to maintain or be responsible for what when it comes to a cost standpoint and repairs. Uh particularly where our boundaries are not a clean line straight across the street just like at Sunset and Oakrest. Uh and the rideway is down the middle of the street. Um so the the city council approved a resolution to sort of sort of share responsibilities for snow removal. Uh I believe that was 2019. And so that's been working well for city of Iowa City. And so that's they're just kind of trying to expand on that agreement and sort of also just refresh the snow snow removal agreement. No changes planned for snow removal though. So,

does Iowa City have any um have they been planning any signs for the motorized scooters and electric bikes or is like that on their radar at all? I know there was an article in Northwest Citizen. I feel like I'm going to hit one of them every single time I'm at the satellite there. I I I just Is there any talk about them putting in signage closer to the hospital with it? And would we do anything?

Um I haven't talked to them about that. I'm not aware of city of Iowa City doing that, but I have not reached out to them and asked that question. I know Nick has mentioned this concern to me uh particularly for the people that live on Melrose on our overwood sidewalk stretch. So, it sounds like they have issues. I think particularly since this university's put this new parking lot at the old athletic club building. Sure. Uh with people parking, employees parking and using those electric scooters. I when Nick mentioned it, I was wanting to get with Steve and and Troy and uh police chief to discuss what are other communities doing about this. And so

I would just be curious because like the Press Citizen article had that obviously there's way more ER visits and hospitalizations because people are getting hit by them. Um and a lot of it's kids, but it's not kids in the morning. And I I just didn't know if maybe in talks with the city there with Iowa City, they're looking I sit on the safe streets on roads for all committee and we've been dealing with an action plan. We're dealing with something else, but no, it's not the disaster recently. I'll bring it up next.

Steve, do you know like what our options are as a community? I mean I mean I mean number one and maybe it's an enforcement issue a little bit like you see them come down the roads when especially when it gets dark later. Some don't have lights and they're shooting down the sidewalk. The speed, you'd think, you know, I don't know if we can do some sort of re reasonleness standard on speed, but some go really fast.

Some of them are also on the sidewalk too because outside of like driving in the morning and me being afraid of myself by myself, I have young kids on bikes and as conscious as I am of like share your sidewalk, all of a sudden there's someone zipping by us going 30 minutes on the sidewalk and Yeah. So I think the city has pretty significant flexibility in terms of you know regulating use of sidewalks certainly speed requiring limit you know lighting you know I I I haven't investigated draft importance but I don't know if there's any of this city

well I would be in favor of if you know you looking into how to slow them down make them I guess part of it too like like you're saying I I don't know who yields to who and little kids on bikes and scooters going 30 miles an hour. I really don't know what's, you know, what's supposed to happen there. I mean, we've been hearing about this since, I think, 2018, you know, when they started being an issue with especially people in OUP trying to walk out in the community and then feeling like they're getting, you know, buzzed by these things. So, I they're really efficient ways to get around. It's just a question of, yeah, what we can do to make it more reasonable. Um, did you have like draft ordinance or was that just a

Oh, no. I'd be curious to know. I mean, I've looked at what 2018. I don't I think daddy signage or something like that, but I think in looking into it, yeah, I mean, I would be different to Steve in terms of what we can do with those concerns of mind. Can you look into it? a little off with stuff, but I just You were talking about work. I was sitting here like, "What do they do up right by the hospital?" I I can't I mean, I would imagine that people feel like they're getting run over all the time right there, too. Yeah. Sure.

I got a little thing. That sign as you come in to University Heights on George Street from the south, the new sign sits down on the pole. And it just looks tacky. Is there a way Can we just move the sign up to the top of the pole? Is it just like a wrench item on board? I was thinking about doing it. I thought he was Yeah, I mean Russ Ber has the list and I've I've followed up with them on that after the initial request to remove the the So what happened I think is the so the photo enforcement sign I think got taken down

was above it. it was above it and or something happened with that and so when he took one of the other signs down he didn't shift the other one. So, um I thought we gave him a follow-up list that said, "Hey, please shift these um what's more detail to that, but I can just follow up with them." I know he was I mean I can I know he had an injury I know he had an injury last fall so I think but you think he's he's I know he's back at it now. So yeah, I'll check in with them, especially since there's no snow on the ground right now. It's higher than you think it is. You might you might be able to get at it easier right now with no snow. I'll follow up.

Can I ask what was the timeline on those panels on the roads that would cause glazers to clean? Um it just depends how it depends on how quickly I get responses from Iowa City to coordinate that the plan set. But um we would need to have a public hearing and then bid it and then and then depending on how that sequence goes, it would be basically June, but got like this June. Yeah. Okay, that's correct. Yeah. And then can I check in on street lights and stuff like like where that is in terms of the I think it sounded like you needed to kind of start making those decisions for the underground of things. Is that right? The street lights and like for the Mos complete streets project.

Yeah. Yeah. So I followed up with our sort of like the committee that I've been uh keeping in touch with which has mostly been been Doug, Lisa, Marro and and Troy on sort of that kind of those questions right and discussions and um I don't know if we need to get together. I know I don't know where everybody's at in reviewing that. I haven't gotten I think Doug gave me a response but I haven't gotten responses from everybody on that either. Yeah. So I would we do need to kind of know what pretty good direction or what type or size and what kind of spacing we need the polls so that mostly so that I can contact city of Iowa City to notify them where they need to relocate their existing utility dumping. Yeah, that's that's probably our most timesensitive issue with the that decision. um so that we know what the impacts of other people's infrastructure.

So determining exactly what that poll looks like is not my concern. It's more like, hey, I got to get these other people moving. Yeah. You got to know like how far the light is going to Yeah. Yeah. So, the more detail we know, the more dialed in we can be. But also, there's constraints with the there's constraints on the corridor that are going to probably override some of the some of the throw of the light anyways, but that would be there's a lot of driveways, right? There's property lines. I know there's consideration to people and their their football parking, right? So trying to be sensitive to that and lay those lights out in a fashion, oh my god,

that that like works for as many vehicles as we can make it work is and and there's sanitary manholes, there's storm intakes, there's duck banks, there's gas mans, there's a lot of stuff buried already. There's water man.

So um yeah, there's not there's not like a whole lot of leeway just because we picked this light. So, I'm going to keep pushing my design team to just try to help me also, right? Say this is what makes sense. We've got to find a fixture that works with this layout. Unless the city wants to make a drastic change to what we've been talking through so far like so minimal importance, but I would I would love if we could do like street flags on the poles and like wreaths, Christmas wreaths and stuff like that. I know that that's not of importance, but I think the neighborhood would really like that, too. I have a few neighbors that like want to bring luminaries back and I'm like I don't I don't know how I feel about that. I don't want to be out on Christmas lighting luminaries on my full corner that I have. But yeah, but I think it would be nice to have that so that it, you know, makes us distinct. And then also around the holidays or certain things, you know, Fourth of July, we should do flags, all that stuff. Yeah, it is such a talked about issue that it would just be nice to know what the like when you really come down to the measurements like what are the options really you know it sounds like there's a lot of restraints that are going to limit what we can do anyway we have the city feedback you know from the open house and I know that's that's holding things up it would just be great to get as much buying as we can

I'd be all on board like negative street signs super bougie and old looking and everything, but I don't think everybody wants that. So,

the Yeah, I mean I I guess as far as what they look like, um I I mean, I'm not trying to insert myself. The the feedback that I reviewed again and I sent out to the our committee folks like a recap summary of sort of what the feedback was that we received. We didn't get a lot of people writing their opinions down on the lighting specifically um from the open house, but those that did generally I'd say the consensus was that that they wanted a more classical u historical feel to the lighting. Um that's the the theme that I noticed. So the the options that were presented that were more modern were often actually stated in the responses we received as like I really don't like this. So that's just that's the feedback that was written down. Now I don't know if that's there's a small number of responses. Okay. Um, that was I mean, as far as my I don't know if anybody else had any other questions. Obviously, we'll have the uh

a draft of the streets and sidewalk budget probably next month at the meeting. Doug, did you want to add anything at all?

Um, no, just other than a couple things and uh Brian, I need to talk about what's out there that needs to get fixed. Got put together, what's the hottest irons and fire needs to be like a new street, you know, we're working on that. Um, snow budget should be really good this year. I uh checked with our local groundhog and he assures me we are going to have another spring. So, um, if we're going to do,

you know, Lisa and I are looking at this budget process calendar that Steve Panded out, and it says completion today, February 10th, set the date for the public hearing for the proposed property tax levy. And it says that I mean that's what it says here. And you know that was handed out in what December. The public hearing cannot be held until after the Johnson County auditor has completed the mailing of the truth in taxation statements March 15th deadline. and we're supposed to have this public hearing uh March 31st. So, we don't have that as an agenda item to set the public hearing. Now,

you know, this is a paper. I mean, are we gonna have to hold a special meeting? I just want to get some clarification here. You know, I did talk to Steve Cool before he left town, but we didn't discuss this. It It looks like I mean, can we set the public hearing March 10th? I mean, at March 10th for March 31st, I don't think we can. um publication notice we have to publish at least before the meeting but not more than 20 days before the meeting. Um, typically if we did it March 10, we should be able that'd be that'd be pretty tight with Ganad because they want they

I mean, we might have to have a special meeting to set the public hearing. Correct. I mean, I just don't want to fall off schedule. And this was missed. I'm sorry it was missed. No, that's

um but I want to bring it to the attention today so that we can uh I mean when can we have a meeting to set the public hearing a special meeting to set the public hearing? I mean, I'm just, you know, we just need to follow this schedule. Isn't that right, John?

No, it is. No, no, mayor. Thank you very much for for bringing that up and uh I'm fully admonished of just updating any budget. Um I mean focus on the tax lady, but we focus past that. We should be able to meet on the 24th and that would that should be enough time because part of that is we need to know when the county is mailing the postcards. So, should we plan a special meeting for that? And we usually do a Tuesday at 7 o'clock.

Tuesday the 24th. could be a hopefully just a five minute meeting right and uh I we just need to do it in a timely manner so that we hit the deadlines with publication right and I'm not an expert on that you're better at that Mike if we were two weeks from tonight at the on the 24th Um, we we should have plenty of time. That that should work. February or March. Yeah. February.

Two weeks from two weeks from tonight. Is it particularly the 17th also? We're just he's setting the 17th of February. Next Tuesday. Next Tuesday. Thursday. Let's see. Today. Okay. And then it should be next week. Either would work because we already know the date of the public hearing, right? We know the date of the public hearing. That's why I saying the 24th we should be fine. No, the date he has us March.

Council adopt a resolution setting it here for March. Okay. If we if we hold the meeting on February 24th, we set the date of the hearing to be March 31st. That gives us plenty of time to publish within the guidelines and everything else. That that should be fine. February 24th, which is a Tuesday, right? It's two weeks from tonight. Okay. At 700 p.m. Okay. And that gives us plenty of time to set it for March 31st. Yep.

Okay. I'm sorry about that. But good catch. And so we'll uh we need at least three council members present and then somebody else can either call in or be on Zoom or something if but we need three in person. And so thank you. Okay, we'll set that date. Thank you everybody. Um, so we went through that and Doug and then did you have anything else, Tim, with your building zoning and sanitation? You were

working with LRS out there for a week and got the place. It was rock plan yesterday. Oh my goodness. Okay. And then Lisa, you sent your egovernment report. I know. And you know, we do have to think about cleanup day a little bit cuz I know John, you're on top of the cleanup day. And you had suggest what time was it last year? You had put in my notes somewhere. I think it was April 22nd or May. It was May.

Yeah, we did May last. I don't know. I was looking at too many days. Sorry. We've been trying to have it as late as you want it as late as possible. So, can I ask were we under budget at all because of I don't know. It seemed like the leaves didn't really fall at the right time last fall. I didn't know if we cost the same for those pickups. Like if we could do more pickup in this in the spring. I don't know. It seems like there's a lot of Did we miss that? The leaves fell really late and you kept pushing back and then it's snow.

Well, my husband sucked it up not even that long ago again. I mean, there's just leaves, leaves, leaves, right? We Yeah, we need to really look at Oh, that's what I was thinking. The leaf Yeah, the leaf day was something like April April 7th last April 7th last year. But, you know, we're supposed to have a pretty good spring, so I don't know. But that sounds I mean people get back from spring break and it's kind of way nice enough to get stuff. Yeah, that's like Yeah, that might be good somewhere right in there.

And then I was thinking the cleanup day with the dumpsters and all of that and that's in May. I just wanted to bring those up because you brought them to my attention and I went, "Yeah, we need to check those dates and if anybody has suggestions, say those dates." Um, so thanks Lisa for keeping everybody updated on the water issue, lack of water issue and all that and Troy. So, um, then any questions for Lisa? And then, uh, announcements. I guess we're having a special meeting on February 24 at 700 p.m. Any other announcements? Is there any objection to adjournment? Hearing none, meetings adjourned by unanimous consent. Thanks, everyone.