City Council - Regular Meeting

we will get started. I thought up keeping me on track.

I think we said we would do our proclamation at 4:45. Then we'll probably have time we can visit after. Welcome to the new home of the Des Moines city council. We're also getting to celebrate a very important m onth. The Black History Month. I think in light of everything that's been going on it's even more important that local governments recognize and celebrate the diversity of our community. With that I will read the proclamation. Whereas during Black History Month we recognize and celebrate the many achievements and contributions made by African-Americans to our economic, cultural, spiritual and political development. Whereas a Black History Month grew out of the establishment in 1926 of negro history week by Carter G. Wilson. Whereas, in 1976, as par of the nation's bicentennial, Black History week was celebrated in the first African-Americans to arrive in Des Moines came in 1843 by 1880, 672 African-American people resided in Polk County and most lived in Des Moines. Black residents ban to form their own institutions, organizing two Black churches in 1870 before Burns methodist church was established. Whereas the national bar association, the oldest and largest national network of predominantly African-American attorneys and judges was co-founded in 1925,

by our first African-American female attorney. Whereas, observance of Black History Month calls our country attention obuild a society that lives up to its democratic i deals. Whereas the City of Des Moines committed to fostering a community where all residents including our African-American community are treated with fairness and is respected and recognized for their contributions and potential contributions to our community. This state, the country and the world. Whereas, the City of Des Moines is proud to honor the history and contributions of African-Americans in our community throughout our state and nation. Now, therefore, I Connie Boesen do hereby proclaim February2026 as Black History Month. I encourage all A mericans to celebrate our diverse heritage and culture that's more just, peaceful and prosperous for all. I like to have the commission members who are here to step forward and receive the proclamation. If anybody would like to say anything else.

My name is Nate. I'm with the Des Moines civil and huge rights commission. I wanted to let everybody know that we have special event coming up. The community impact and relations department here in Des Moines does a monthly series of events and the event for February will be the Black History Month scavenger hunt. This is taking place Friday February 20th at the state historic museum of Iowa. From 11:00 a.m. to 33:00 p.m. -- 3:00 p.m. The historical museum they have fantastic exhibit. They have great exhibit on the town of Buxton. They feature people like George Washington Carver. To sign up, you need to go website which is at DSM.c ity/ impactevents. You can go to the City of Des Moines community impact and relations web page.

Good evening, I wanted -- I'm president of the Des Moines branch of the NAACP. On behalf of the Black residents of Des Moines want to thank the City of Des Moines for continuing to do what is in these times the hard thing for many people. I know that it is not the hard thing for us. I greatly appreciate i t. We thank you for the recognition. Appreciate the time spent this evening.

Thank you.

You want to come on up? We have very fortunate to have good partnership with Polk County with p. Prairie Meadows and they bring chucks to us. It's a very large amount. As we feel more pressures all the time for financial issues. This has been a really tremendous opportunity for us to fill the void that was created by some of the property tax bills. Again, anybody would like say anything?

Thank you, mayor. I'm president and CEO of Prairie Meadows. We want to say thank you. Thank you on behalf of our employees. I'm here today with Julie Stewart. Our Chief Operating Officer. Thank you to our employees and at generosity of our customers. We appreciate the ability to help in any way we can. Thank you for that opportunity.

I'm Matt McCoy with Board of Trustees -- Board of Supervisors. We have really unique position with the City of Des Moines and we've enjoyed our long lasting relationship as it relates to how city and county governments work together. Through this programming, we can provide funding for a lot of initiatives that otherwise wouldn't get done. I think that's the great relationship we've enjoyed with Prairie Meadows over all these years from the stand point of being able to work together to improve the community and do quality of life initiatives that otherwise would be hard to achieve. It's a great relationship and we're here to celebrate that today. Obviously, the funding is vital but the relationship is more important. Thank you. [Applause]

These dollars have really impacted every ward every area of the city. Come on up. This is a topping to a wonderful grand opening and ribbon c utting. It's this check. Thank you. We still have some time. Enjoy and visit until

5:00 when we will convene for

our regular meeting.

I like to call the F ebruary 9, 2026 Des Moines city council meeting to order. Please take the roll. [ roll call]. We have of quorum. The next item is item 2. Approving agenda as presented and or as amended. Move approve. Second.

It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes.

We just survived our first vote. The next item is number 3. Approving the consent a genda. Items 3-42. These are routine items. Will be enacted by one roll call vote without separate discussions for t onight, 4 A and 4B Gatto is abstaining. 9C, Barron would like to speak. 11 Gatto a bstaining. 24 Mandelbaum would like to speak. 26 Mandelbaum like to speak. Move approval.

The been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes.

Motion carries. Next item. Will be our first hearing. [agenda item read] First we'll hear from the party of interest and those within 250 feet of the property to be rezoned. Up to five minutes to speak and second germane comments from the general p ublic.

Good evening. Ryan Doyle. Representing greater Des Moines habitat for humanity. 95 university avenue. Excited to be first hearing up here. I wanted to say thank you to everyone, city staff for their work on this and support of the Riverbend neighborhood association. Be present for any questions if anyone has any. Thank you. Anyone else Wesching to -- wishing to speak?

Ryan, these will be, s ometimes they referred to as buy attach. Each duplex would have a separate? That's correct. There's total six units. So three total structure but all for sale. Thank you. I'll move approval of 43A. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. You want to waive the second and third?

Oh. Friendly amendment to my motion to waive the second and third reading for 43A. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes.

Motion carries. The next item is 44. [agenda item read] General public may comment only to the plan specifications or low bidder designation. Anyone wishing to speak?

I see none. I I'll move 44 and 44A. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes. Motion carries. End of our hearings. 5:05. Next item is number 9. [agenda item read]

You got to go back. I think he wants to do C. We have to vote on all of it right? No, just C. [agenda item read]

My apology for making you read all of that. This is just a blatant plug for the work that's going to happen in C heatom Park. There's a online questionnaire that the parks department running beginning of March. They trying to get as much feedback as possible to form a mural that will hopely go in on the courts Cheatom Park. The more feedback we can get from our parks department, the more that mural can be r eflective of the community and its rich history. I will move approval of 9C.

Second. Its been moved and seconded. Please vote. Motion carries. Next item is 24. [agenda item read].

I pulled this item and another planning and zoning appointment. We've had some discussion on this topic before. It relates to the requirement used to be in state statute. But in our ordinance for gender balance for boards and commissions. I was extremely disappointed to see the state change the law. I think it is a mistake what the state has done. Thankfully, we actually have in our ordinance. We anticipated that the state may change its law at some point. We actually addressed that from a policy perspective and said that should the state change that it's our intention under our general powers to require gender balance for those same boards and commissions. That requirement is only as good as this council is at following it. We have two appointments. Appointment A, which would be item 24 is councilmember Simonson's appointment. We voted in block appointment councilmember Gatto's appointment would put us over that gender balance. I am not prepared to violate our ordinance and I think we should follow that ordinance. I think it is good policy. Our policy only matters if we stick to it and we follow it. I was initially going to suggest that we -- I will leave it up to the individual councilmembers to make their appointments. I'm more than happy to vote for number 8 but I'm not going to vote to put a ninth person on

and violate our ordinance. I wanted to make that clear from the beginning. I support our ordinance. I think we should enforce our ordinance. If we want to change our ordinance we should do that before we violate it not after. That's what I wanted to call attention to. I will leave it to the others to move or delay however they want to approach it. I wanted to be clear I do not intend to violate our ordinance. I don't think we should be taking direction from the state on Civil Rights m atters. I think their role in back of the gender balance requirements was a mistake. I'm proud that we have kept ours and that is the path that I intend to follow.

For me, I had two females that were on the board. I actually helped the gender when people weren't participating correctly. I went ahead and found two women. I can't find anyone to serve on any board or commissions from my ward. I struggle. I got a young gentleman, 37 years old, wants to be involved. I'm going to appoint him. Emily told me months ago she had intentions resigning. I've been looking for someone. This is who I found. I intend on appointing him tonight. We can move forward whether -- I don't want to change the policy. I guess if we need to do that I think we're following the process that's been in place since I been here for 12 years. If we're not able to find somebody and we wait 90 days then we're able to put someone on there. Usually, another councilmember will even it out like I did the last time when I put two females on there.

I think what happened you had something resign because it happened at the same time. We can either have a clearinghouse Clayton is only there until the 2026. Hopefully by that time maybe we'll have another female. I think councilmember Simonson says he has another appointee that's falling off. We can make up at this point --

I think we followed our city policy how it's been laid out. I talked to legal. We have followed that policy. You're welcome to vote no more men appointment on the 26th. I encourage the rest my colleagues to vote yes for that he's a good young man. He'll do a really good job. I appreciate that. Doesn't our policy allow us if we've sought to find people? I struggle too in a few. Jeff, can you speak to that?

Sure. The code does allow council if they've made a diligent search for 90 days and unable to find the required gender appointment then they can make a different appointment and council would make such a f inding. Okay. Just if can't tell, I'm new here. Let me ask this basic question. What is a diligent search for 90 dailies? What does that look like? How do we show that?

That's for council. there's nothing in the code that defines exactly what the search is. It's for council to make the representation that they made the search. Do you want to have people sign up how many people they contacted? When you say diligent? That's a question, I take the council people at their word.

I'll give one example. I'm an architect, I know lot design people. I call different o ffices looking for landscape architect. We do receive applicants through the city. Those are updated regularly. I have gone through those lists. I did identify one person that we are going to be vote on tonight through that list. I think we all go through a diligent effort if you will to find people. Councilman Westergaard said and Gatto said, it's challenging.

Planning and zoning it's different categories. You try to fit the bill of what people --

It's a time commitment. It's a major time commitment to serve on these volunteer committees. when I go to the neighborhood meetings I ask people to serve. Don't have a whole a lot of applications. I might have some that I have no idea who these folks are. I'm not going to put someone on a board of commission that I don't know who they are. That's not who -- not how I ever done in 12 years. I will not start now. I'm going to leave my appointment recommendation. We can go forward as we gone forward in the past.

At this point, do you want -- it's your -- we can have more conversation. I think these people have got people to do it. They've tried. If we want to change the policy. We can change the policy. If we don't, we can have a clearinghouse. Whoever wants to appoint somebody maybe it comes to here. I will clear out whether it's a balance or not a balance. Mayor, I like to move number 24. I will second. With that, there's been moved and seconded. Please vote.

7 yes. Motion carries. Next item 26. Move item 26. Let me read it. [agenda item read]

I wanted to address the question about diligent search and what this means. We have a lot of boards and commissions. Some of which have very prescriptive requirements. Sometimes we require a landscape architect. That severely limits the number of people eligible to serve. Urban design review board is an example. Our b uilding codes board has very specific professional requirements. That makes it much harder to find someone to serve certainly even in a ward in some cases we've had members of that building commission who not even resided in the City of Des Moines to get the applicable experience. I get that s ometimes getting the experience that we require for boards is challenging. With planning and zoning, which is the most important board and commission that we have the one that have the most significant responsibilities. We do not have that type of set of requirements. I understand it is hard to find in some cases. I think from a policy perspective, it would be better if we can't meet gender balance, part of the due diligence will be to open it up. If you can't find someone in your ward to meet gender balance. We should be meeting that. I think for p lanning and zoning, if you are searching, you should be able to find someone to meet that requirement. There are a lot of people who are interested in serving on planning and zoning. To say -- I know we put a shell of diligence if you wait the 90 days. I think if we are truly

being diligent on planning and zoning, there is no excuse for not finding someone to meet gender balance. I'm not going to vote to violate our o rdinance. I think this is a violation. I move item 26. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 5 yes, 2 no.

I wanted to clarify one thing from councilmember Mandelbaum's statement. You're saying instead of me appointing someone from my ward or my area, that you should be able to appoint somebody from your area to have more representation over the city. I can't find anyone. That's what up asking. That's not.

Okay, guys. It is. First of all. This is a discussion. I have asked our city manager to begin with to look at all of our boards and commissions. What do we need. How many do we have and the specifications. I did that over a month ago. Some are larger. Some you can't find people. Do you need a smaller commission some are pretty l arge. We will review all of this and determine what is the best going forward. We will have a discussion on that. On gender balance, on term limits, on how many we need on it and what are the specifications. So we have a clarity so everybody you want what is is e xpectations. It is difficult sometimes and people find that the time constraint, they get o n, it's more than they can handle. And you have turnover. We can have a further conversation.

Just for the record, what I was offering is I think I could find a woman who's interested in planning and zoning in your w ard. Provide you a name. I think there are lots of folks who are interested in serving. For sure.

Okay. Item 45 [agenda item read]

Real quick, mayor. Thank you for putting this on here. When we went through this at the end of the year, this kind of got skipped over. Charging someone 19 years and younger. We were going to charge them a dollar. We had discussion about that. I just felt for me, spending a lot of time at pioneer Columbus and using that facility as a kid. If I had to ask my parents a dollarer time I had to walk in there, I don't think I would have used very often. I'm really happy that we can waive that fee. Thank you very much for getting that done. I don't know if anyone else has any oath comments. I will move 45 and 45A.

I'll second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes. Motion carries. Just to clarify this is for all of the community centers? Right. I will move to waive the second and third reading pursuant to rule 42A. That was A. Okay, 46. [agenda item read] I'll move item 46 and pursuant to rule 42A waive the second and third reading.

Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes.

Motion carries. The next item is item 47. [agenda item read] With that, I'll entertain a motion.

Move 47AB1-5, CD1-2. E1-2 and pursuant rule 42A, waive second and third reading. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Please vote. 7 yes.

Motion carries. At this time I like to recognize we have guests in our audience. Our new library director here. Melissa is coming back home. There's a reception tomorrow you said at 3:00 at the library. We encourage everybody to come meet her. We want to thank you for coming back. [Applause] We have a great library system and we look forward to what you'll bring to it and very fortunate to have you. With that, we have -- Motion to adjourn. Is there a second? Second.

All in favor. Aye. This meeting is adjourned.