City Council - Regular Meeting

Shaner here Berenstein here Bertrand Rayford here for a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance.

to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Before we get started on the consent agenda, I wanted to make a publication error announcement from the Planning and Zoning Department. We had three items that missed the publication, meaning they didn't get publicized to the for the public to know what's going on. And it was the rezoning of 1700 Jackson, the rezoning of 1308 South Cleveland, and the rezoning of 1102 and 1122 Grandview Boulevard. They will come up on the next agenda next week. So if anybody's here for that, I apologize. It just missed a publication date. All right, we're going to move to the consent agenda. Items 2 through 12C constitute a consent agenda. Items pass unanimously unless a separate roll call is requested by a council member. Anyone wishing to speak on the agenda item may come to the podium at the time the agenda is being discussed. Anyone wishing to speak not on the agenda may do so at the end of the regular council meeting during citizens concerns. Fill out a citizen concern card found outside of chambers at the entrance and give it to the city manager. All speakers shall state their name for the record and will provide their statement. I move. Okay, where are we at? Oops. Hold on just a second. Reading of the August 3rd City Council Minutes.

Ms. Sheener. Oops.

I'm so sorry. Oh, I moved the consent agenda. Sorry.

Do I have a second?

Second. Second. All right, now I can go, sorry. Reading of the third, August 3rd City Council minutes.

I'd like to just make a note and request an amendment to the minutes on page five of those minutes. The motion number was just left off for that final item number 16. It should have been 2026-0747. I'll move that correction.

Second.

Berenstein?

Aye.

Bertrand?

Aye.

Rayford?

Aye.

Jaynor?

Aye. Thank you. All right, item three. Motion appointing Jacob Wonderscheid to the Civil Service Commission to complete the balance of a four-year term and reappointing Jacob Wonderscheid to the Civil Service Commission for a four-year term expiring April of 2031. Upon due consideration of the circumstances, the City Council waives the policy that no person shall serve on more than one board or commission. I like that we're doing that all in one motion, by the way. Item four, resolution adopting plans and specs for the Midtown Terrace Project. Jill, would you wanna come up and just chat about this one just for a minute? This is so important and I hate to stop the agenda, but let's talk about what this actually is.

Jill Wanderscheid, Neighborhood Services Manager. This is a new construction. It'll be a 24-unit apartment building. 17 of those units will be permanent supportive housing. The remaining seven will be your typical rent-controlled or affordable housing units. It'll be a typical apartment building. It has individual kitchens, everything that you'd expect. But there will be on-site services for those that are transitioning from homeless to housed.

And a manager on site as well? Yes. Yeah, this is so important. Our, you know, community's been waiting for us to, you know, develop things like this, transitional housing and also low income housing at the same time on the same site. And, you know, that area didn't have anything there. So it'll be nice to add something new and fresh to the community up there into that neighborhood. I'm just, I thank you so much for working on this because the This money's not hard to obtain to get these things done, so I really appreciate that. You keep working towards those things that are great for the community.

Thank you.

Jill, you can wait, because I'm going to want you to talk about 6A as well.

Okay. Actions relating to grant 6A, resolution authorizing the Neighborhood Services Division Yeah, sorry resolution amending the position classification manual by adopting an updated job description for the position of computerized maintenance management system coordinator 6a resolution authorizing the neighborhood services division to submit a CoC builds application for the rehabilitation of 525 14th Street into 24 permanent supportive housing units Go ahead Jill

So this is another 24 unit project. This would convert the vacant building that was formerly the Jewish Community Center on 14th and Nebraska into 24 permanent supportive housing units. This is the third grant application I brought forward to you all for review. So we have about... 12 to 14 million out in asks right now. So we're just seeing what we we end up with we feel really good about These applications and I think the decisions we made on all three very soon here So we should know something about all three in the next couple months and you do have funds already committed Isn't there a murd grant for million dollars?

Yes. Yes This is a great project. I grew up in this building quite a bit in my youth, so it's nice to see that there's a plan for its redevelopment. It's just really difficult every time I drive by and I see the property in its current state, so thank you for working on this project. And then there's a lot of support for it in the community as well.

Yeah, but it's a solid building, too. It is. We spent some time up there and heard all the stories, and you can really see that terrazzo tile is still in there, and they talked about keeping that because it's in really good condition, and the walls are straight and solid. Yeah, that one's a really exciting one. That's going to change the landscape up there. And that was just brought up on social media this weekend. They said, just demo it.

Yeah.

We need some more time. We'd prefer not to. Yes, it's a great building, so I feel like there's another use for it.

Right, and its purpose is going to be really, really utilized and appreciated around the city too.

And just a quick note about permanent supportive housing. HUD says in order to be eligible for that, you have to be chronically homeless and have some type of disability. So we definitely have a gap here in our community. Typically, we always have between 70 and 80 households that would qualify for that. And when you think about people that you're used to seeing for years and years, and you're like, gosh, why are they still experiencing homelessness? It could be that we just don't have a place for them that has the support that they need to live independently.

Jill, do you know, can you just kind of give us a bigger picture of that 595, like beyond that and what that looks like?

Sure. The Jewish Community Center? Right. Yes. So what we're looking at is once we would rehab it into those 24 units, we'd utilize some of our federal dollars and do what's called a tenant-based rental assistance program. That's funds the city already has to assist them in paying their rent, hopefully transition them on to Section 8. Because there's no debt on the property, we're not taking a developer fee. We do feel like it'll cash flow as we move forward. That's kind of different than some of these projects typically um come together so um we think we'll be able to to move forward with operating expenses just fine so then do we own and operate that or as of right now we would prefer not to um and so we are having some conversations with some others because ideally you know the city puts the the deal together and and we walk away i think there's some really strong developers that are interested in the project

All right. Thank you very much. 6B, resolution approving and accepting an amendment to the grant contact with Iowa Finance Authority.

So how do they, Marty or Jill, how do they determine, so there were excess funds that were awarded but not utilized. So how do we, we're being given an opportunity to extend our grant program and gain another $16,000. How do they determine that $16,000?

Yes, so I believe they went through. There were several grantees across the state that did not utilize their funding, so then I think they just divided up on a formula based on what we got initially. So we don't have that problem here. We have a huge need for people that need rental assistance to avoid evictions, so we anticipate having these funds spent in the next probably week or two. Great.

Thanks, Jill. Yep.

7A, actions relating to agreements and contracts. A, resolution awarding and approving contract to HCI Construction for the Longline's Family Rec Center Coal Room Infill Project. B, resolution approving change order number one to the contract with Mark Albanitius for the 110 Larson Park Road Flood Repairs Project.

Is this Tom or Gordon? Gordon or Tom, can you help me understand So this was somewhat, I know it's described as emergency work, but we knew it was work that needed to be done. I'm confused why we need a change order for a sanitary sewer issue, a utilities issue, and a facilities maintenance issue. Why weren't those things understood? Gordon Ferris, City Engineer, what was that last one you asked? So the change order related to a sanitary, I'm sorry, what's that? We're on 7B, right? Yes. Yeah. So it was an emergency repair. Oh, yeah. You indicated that there was a sanitary sewer issue, a utilities issue, and a facility maintenance issue. Why weren't those things known before the work was done?

The sanitary sewer, we were trying to rehab that manhole or just fix the parts that needed to be, but it couldn't be. It had to be replaced.

We were trying to save some money there. It didn't work out.

For the utilities, we had water and electrical lines that were repaired. Again, it was beyond what we could do, what we thought at the beginning. We had to go back further into excavating to a location where it was outside the hole. Okay. Okay.

Worse than what anticipated due to all the floods? Excuse me? It was just a lot worse.

Yes. Once we started digging there and started making repairs, it was bigger than we expected. Tried to get it done cheaper, but.

And can you address the financial aspect? The fund has a deficit, correct, of $54,000, and you're talking about that the project will be submitted to FEMA. What's your assurance that FEMA will award those funds?

Well, there is no assurance if they're going to give us those funds, but we've been told that they will. So if they find something that they think we went above and beyond the repairs, then they won't. So we try to stay within those.

How will Theresa manage the $54,000 deficit then for the repairs?

We have to take that from another fund that's due to flooding. Another fund. Yes.

Theresa, could you shed some light?

What will be your plan, Teresa, for managing the deficit and the payment?

If for some reason FEMA doesn't reimburse us.

Well, but even if, because I'm assuming you're not going to get an award from FEMA for at least a period of time. So how will you pay for this now subject to the FEMA award? The $54,000 that...

Teresa Fitch, Assistant City Manager. At this point, the project would go negative until we get reimbursement back from FEMA. That's typically how it works. If we didn't get reimbursement back, we would have to fund it in the next CIP year as a negative balance.

Probably under parks, right?

Typically, yes.

Gio.

Thank you.

7C, Resolution Approving Consulting Services Agreement with HR Green for the Regional Stormwater Detention Program. ASIN project D, resolution.

I have a question on that one, Julie.

Okay.

Brought it up. I think we all do. Oh, it's good in a good way. Excellent.

Tom Pingel, public works director.

So I guess my biggest question is what do we, I mean, it's a consulting agreement. What are we expecting in...

And especially related to each of the sites that have been identified, how are you going to manage the consulting responsibilities? But then in particular, can you go through each of the sites? You've got a Court Street property.

The sites are very arbitrary. The sites and those maps are just starting points. They're not the totality of the study. The study is the whole city. And those maps were made just for the engineer to look at. to get a better idea of where we're going to start, where the developments are happening.

Tom, give us the one-minute version of what this is.

This is what we're trying to call the buy-down program. So this is where developers will come in, and instead of losing a plot to put a costly detention basin in, part of the study will be to determine how much that buy-down is. But they can buy down into the city and give us the money that they would have Relatively paid for that plot slash the detention basin so they don't lose land and we could utilize that money Into our infrastructure to create a regional basin program so we could start collecting money from developers whether it's commercial residential and put strategic basins within the city So that we can use orders of magnitude with our cost put more money together we can actually probably detain more water instead of these smaller pockets all over and So that's pretty much the gist of the one-minute version of what these consultants will be doing for us, identifying key areas within the city that are expected to have future growth, see if we can identify areas around that but regional detention basins in. Maybe we can't. Maybe it's too hilly and it's way out of place. So over here, we might not have the amount of detention we want, but we could buy out allocate those detention credits, if you will, to another part of the city.

So then do we, I guess we're, you know, what is it, 67, did we budget that or, I mean, where is that coming from? It's coming from the stormwater budget.

Yep. Professional services fund? Yep, yep, and To answer the question, we did not budget it at first because last season's operation budget didn't have these ideas up at the table. So we did work with finance to allocate funds towards this.

So what you've identified is locations for development, and within each of those locations for potential development, and the maps that you provided aren't determined or certain. No. They're potential areas, and so that's where...

Yeah, so what it's doing is we actually had a study, the city had paid for a study that we already had in our possession that was still valid. A very large pasture plant. A very expensive study that somewhere along the line they got a grant for. And the problem we're trying to solve is developers go out and when they get a site, then... engineering says we have to have a certain amount of volume of retention. And what that does is then it really screws up the site. We lose developments, we lose a gas station, we lose an apartment building, we lose something because it actually chews up physical land. The idea that we came up with with this study was that other communities do is they buy volume. So this study that we actually already had shows us that we know where the water goes. So Tom is now, what these dollars are doing is they're off of the studies, they're showing we can have community ponds that are out of the way. They're not in a development zone or a development area. They're not taking the development zone. Exactly. They're not using, normally they're in developable land. A good example of one is right behind Unity School right there off of 20th Street. There's that great big retention pond. That is like that area. So if we can develop those around the city, then the developer will come in and say, okay, I'll pay in X amount square for volume of water or square footage of the development, buy into that regional pond of retention, and then they get to keep their ground. So it's a huge, it's historic for us from a development standpoint. It's a win, and I applaud Tom and this council for having the vision to support it because it's a great win for us to move forward. Great question.

I like where it's going. When I start looking at where we pull money from and those things, that's when the questions come up. Great question.

The little one of them behind Northern Landing on Foy Boulevard, they don't each have their own. They're sharing one that the city put in and then they just bought into it as they came in. They don't each have to have their own. And anything going north of that will be able to go into it as well.

And the cool part is that once you establish these areas, you can then, if more development comes in, you just deepen the pond. You just create more volume on them. So it's not like we're going to have this area of all these big poles going in around town. It's once we establish the water flow, we can just increase the volume in it. And it's just, it's a great, it's really cool. It's just smart development.

I think so. Thank you.

And developers pay. Yeah.

All right, we're going to move on to 7D, resolution approving amendment number one to the non-ERISA advisory services agreement with creative planning.

So, Teresa, I'm just curious. I have obviously no opposition because it's reducing the fees. These fees are paid by the employees, correct? So this is not a net benefit to the city budget, but it's to the employees because they're paying the fee for this non-ERISA work?

Teresa Fitch, Assistant City Manager, yes. It's built into the cost of the plan. We as a city do not pay it. The user or our employees do.

Thank you.

F, resolution authorizing a construction and maintenance agreement and an E, resolution approving amendment number one to the service provider agreement, A and F construction with utilities concrete construction project. So this is a...

So this is a secondary source. Why is it necessary to increase the budgeted item to them? Are they already being utilized as our secondary source? Yes, they are.

Brad Pitts, utilities director. So yeah, Ellison is the primary core back contractor. They are currently busy with the Lions Park project, so we're increasing the contract with ANF as they're going to be doing the bulk of the pourbacks for the city work at this time. And then once Ellison is complete, they will go back to being the primary contractor. We believe that they will still spend that funding for them because the contract goes through February.

And because of this, then we're increasing $200,000.

Right. But you're not pulling back the Ellison pre-budget because you believe they'll still be utilized. Correct. But there's a chance they may not be.

That's correct. These are multi-year contracts. Right. Each one of them has a clause in it that we can expand on it.

And claw back what you don't use.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. Each site is...

independent we don't they're not guaranteed that 600,000 Thank you 7f resolution authorizing a construction a maintenance agreement and an easement agreement with BNSF railway for the 11th Street reconstruction project 8 item 8 is actions authorizing payments a resolution authorizing reimbursement to f3 marina for fuel system be I'm sorry.

I'm sorry I do have a question. Can I pull 8A out?

Can I read it first, please?

You just did.

No, I didn't get to finish it.

You did. You were going to B.

No, for B dock. I'm still reading. I'm sorry. For B dock repairs and dredging at 1100 Larson Park Road.

Can I ask that item 8A come out for further discussion and a separate vote? Do you need a motion? No. Okay. So can I get an update on, so a large part of this work was done to prepare the facility for 2026 use. How much did we have in gas sales?

I don't know the exact amount, but the sales have exceeded what we've expected. They have?

Yes. And can you give me, the reason I asked that it come out as a separate vote, I can't approve an invoice that simply has three line items. for fuel system reimbursement, BDOC repair reimbursement, and dredging reimbursement for $73,000. I'd like to see an itemization of each of those items. Can we pull this to defer it for further information, or do you want us to vote?

I don't want to vote it down. I'd rather defer it.

Yeah, there's going to be... This is a cash injection request of F3 Marina, so... They have to get funds to pay their bills at some point. The work is complete. I would just like to see an itemization. Yeah, I can get you that. Is this final? Yeah, it's done. Yeah. Work has been completed.

Did this tie in to fix the sewer at Johnny Jolly's?

Nope, this was for the marina itself.

We're not done. So we're not done at the marina yet?

Jolly Rogers, we consider that to be a separate area. F3 doesn't manage Jolly Rogers. They manage just the marina itself. They don't?

No, there will be a separate RFP on Jolly Rogers.

So is that pig ours? We're going to do an RFP to get a tenant for that. So right now it is, but we're looking for a third party to run it. Okay.

When's that going?

I have the RFP done. We're just waiting for the project to get complete so interested parties can come look at it. Yeah.

It's done. So the work's done.

Well, there was just the change order that was approved as a part of it.

That's the change order that we were just talking about.

You said it wasn't for Jolly Rogers. It was for Jolly Rogers?

No.

So Jolly Rogers got a sewer?

Yes, that was item 7B. 7B. Yeah. Oh, all right.

I knew it was in there somewhere. Yep. That's done done.

This is for yes.

Yeah, and I'm saying the Jolly Rogers is ready to rent.

No.

It's close. I mean, they have to do the work that was approved as a part of this change order and a couple other finishing.

We're going to put it out for the 27th season.

Is it red tag? I won't know.

I don't think we've had it affected. It's not. Is it Daryl? No.

I was there this morning. It's starting to really look come around.

Yeah, that's great.

I were just working on an RFP. Yeah. Getting closer.

So can I move to defer this item one week just to get the detail? What are you looking for? I just don't like line items for $73,000. What's the question?

Let's walk through line by line. What's the first line, Matt, so we can get this guy paid? Sure.

They picked the fuel system.

It's all tied to the fuel system. Well, most of it's tied to the fuel system. So in order to get gas early June, PINNING INSURANCE INSPECTIONS, DNR INSPECTIONS, THEY IDENTIFIED WORK THAT NEEDED TO GET DONE. IN ORDER FOR THAT TO GET DONE IN A TIMELY MANNER RATHER THAN WAIT AND BID IT OUT AND HAVE TO DRAG IT OUT WEEKS, F3 TOOK ON THOSE EXPENSES AND NOW THEY'RE LOOKING FOR REIMBURSEMENT OF THOSE ITEMS. THIS IS ALL ITEMS THAT WERE IDENTIFIED IN THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET. IT'S NOT AN UNEXPECTED EXPENSE. WHAT'S THE SECOND ITEM? Dredging of the of the mouth of the marina so boats can get in and out.

Yeah, what's the third in?

Oh, that was the third. The second one is dock repair, so the lines for the gas run under the docks and those needed to be repaired in conjunction with the fuel system. So there's a lot of moving parts all in that one area of the dock.

So really, we were kind of fortunate that F3 fronted the money to speed the process up.

If we didn't have them, there probably still would not be gas at the Marine right now.

Right. I know several people reached out to me and said, are we going to have gas? Yeah. It was a priority item.

But I can get detailed items. Yes. Thank you.

So we're not going to pay them?

We're going to wait? If it's approved to be deferred. You can vote against it.

I will. Because I just pay them. I mean, I get the paperwork. Let it catch up. But I mean, let's get the guys paid. I've been on the other end.

I do not have a second on the deferral yet.

Okay.

Okay. So on the deferral for one week, Bertrand?

No.

Rayford?

Aye.

Shaner?

No.

Berenstein?

Aye. Item does not pass. Oh, okay.

But Matt, let's make sure you get Council Member Bernstein the paperwork. It's completely appropriate. He wants the detail. I completely support that. It should be more detailed. That's a good call out on his part.

So it will be deferred for one week.

Oh, it will be deferred. Yep. That'll work.

All right. Item 8B, resolution authorizing payment to Knife River Midwest for the city facility's asphalt overlay project. C, resolution authorizing payment to Mark Albanitius for the South Westcott Street water main replacement project.

Just a quick question. Why was this a two-year project? It was bid in 24. I have no problem with it. I'm just curious why it took two years.

Actually, we bid it out in late 24, gave the contractor the right or the ability to either start it right then. So they deferred the work? They deferred it to the spring, but in the meantime, we had a huge water main break right next to that site, so we had to delay them even longer because they couldn't get into the site. Got it. There's just not enough room. Okay. Thanks, Gordon. Yep.

Thank you. Nine, actions relating to property. A, resolution. No, you still. Oops. D. Gosh darn it, I keep marking the wrong one off. Resolution approving change order number one, accepting the work and authorizing payment to RP Constructors for the Southbridge Drive Emergency Force Main Repair Project.

Quick question on that one. And I get, you know, Gordon, we had a good meeting about some change orders. Just 42.7% increase. Are we, and I know I keep asking about change orders, and that's going to probably be my thing, but, you know, I just want to know, you know, why do we have such an increase and why did it cost so much more?

So this was that emergency that sprung up overnight. About on south probably about a month and a half week of June months now week of June I don't know. There's so many I can't keep up but um right So we didn't know we were doing this project when this project started when we on we got a rough estimate from RP in the beginning We knew kind of the idea what was happening but once we got to the pipe and opened it and we're able to expose it we found about 155 feet of pipe that needed to be replaced and We thought that's the best time to do it. They're there. They're pulverized.

That makes sense.

And the sewage spill cleanup expanded way bigger than we estimated at the beginning.

Gentlemen, would you do me a favor and introduce yourselves one more time?

Tom Pingel, Public Works Director. Gordon Ferris, City Engineer.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, guys.

9, actions relating to property. A, resolution proposing to sell the vacated south one half of 1904 South Reston Street, Petitioner Roger and Jacqueline Edwards. B, resolution proposing to sell the vacated portions of West 19th Street and Colorado Avenue adjacent to 3530 West 19th Street, Petitioner Ada Thill.

So on this item, will the swap be for $1 as well?

McMorgan City Real Estate. Yes.

All I wanted to know. Thank you. Easy question. That's right.

Good detail.

Yep. 9C resolution amending resolution number 2026-0669 and approving corrective city deed to correct a Shriver's note. 10. ACTIONS RELATING TO PURCHASING. A, RESOLUTION AWARDING THE PURCHASE ORDER OF MMLJ TO ONE TANTUM AXLE GRAFFITI TRAILER. B, RESOLUTION AWARDING PURCHASE ORDER CRYOTEC DICING TECHNOLOGY FOR LIQUID CHEMICAL DEICING FOR THE AIRPORT.

I HAVE NO OPPOSITION TO THIS ITEM OTHER THAN THE FACT THAT IT'S US RECOGNIZING THAT WINTER IS COMING.

get it done right much better way applications for alcohol licenses see the list 12 board commission and committee minutes review the list come forward if you have any questions this is the end of the consent agenda vote announced oh let's vote got it Passes 4-0 with the Mayor Scott absent. Each of the following will require a separate vote. Recommendations of planning and zoning. Item 13, motion acknowledging Board of Adjustment Actions of July 28th, 26. I'll move that.

Is there anybody here on this item? Sorry, Wade. Can you help with an update on item 2026071 on 1100 Cunningham? Were there any issues? I know that they were trying to determine whether there were going to be any issues regarding the storage of the outdoor equipment. Any issues?

We don't have a site plan yet on that one. So there will be one that will come before. Wait, Schultz City Planning. That will come before. And if it meets everything, it just goes straight through like with DRC. But if there's any type of ask or waivers, they would come through PNC. Okay, great. Thank you.

Item 13 passes 4-0, absent Mayor Scott. Item 14, ordinance vacating that part of the east-west alley and a portion of Magnolia Street and Walnut Avenue adjacent to properties 5305 and 5307 Correctionville Road. Petitioner Guillermo Martinez, P&Z recommends approval. First consideration was approved July 27th. Second consideration also approved July 27th.

I'll move third.

Second.

Any discussion? Seeing none. It's not part of the motion. Item passes 4-0. Mayor Scott absent. All right. Any citizen concerns?

Seeing none. Please come forward.

Alright, come on up.

Don't be bashful.

I'm Jody House and I'm a Sioux City resident. I just have one quick question. There was an announcement today about the possible data center in Sioux City and I would just like someone to elaborate on that.

Marty, would you like to come up? That was a map that was on file that was accidentally put in that file in an error, but Marty's going to explain that. It's his department.

Marty Doherty, Economic Community Development. In your previous discussion with Tom Pingel of the contract to identify solutions for regional stormwater, there was a series of maps put out, and unfortunately, one of those was labeled something about a data center, which is There is not a data center going in there. We have no plans for a data center there. The reason it's in there was it goes back about five years ago when we actually have a, or longer, we have a CIP project where we had put, I think it's called Southeast Development. We were identifying areas for future development and that was one that was identified as a potential for a data center site. And mostly that's because of the presence of power lines and so on. But it really should have been labeled future development site because it's out in an area where the city's been growing. So there's a number of other sites located there that may be for commercial or residential development, as that land may be someday. But that's the only reason. Apparently there was some confusion over that earlier today. We have talked to data center site selectors in the past, some years ago. Obviously that's a big issue, but we have no, no current project for a data center in Sioux City or outside of Sioux City.

That map tied to the detention pond discussion.

And you guys just had a big discussion about what the purpose of that was, and the purpose of it is to respond to council direction on trying to find sites for regional stormwater basins, which is a good thing. We support that. That's good for growth and development. That's a good thought for that, but... Yeah, but there are no current plans. Thanks Marty.

Right, any more citizen concerns?

Hopefully that addresses your question. Hopefully it addresses your question.

Hi, I'm Nancy Schulenberger. I live on Talbot Road in Sioux City, Iowa. I have lived here since I was one year old. And I am here to give my rather late opposition to the new storm water management fees that have been imposed upon Sioux City residents. If I were, I do have an acreage, and of course that's consequential here. But I do feel that some of the rate hikes of 300%, or in other words, quadrupled, is absolutely beyond belief. And that's part of the reason you might call me ignorant for not having noted this as you were discussing it. But I just thought, well, this is just something they're playing with. I just read the Des Moines, Iowa stormwater management fees. And they are based primarily on impervious land surface thank you that would get dramatic runoff most of our runoff from our house and driveway go into Stone Park and it's just a very dramatic thing when I told my I received the bill on Saturday, and I told my next-door neighbor, and she said, oh, that's not even correct. That has to be a typographical error, and of course, that neighbor on the other side, who also has an acreage, said, well, we're going to have to move, and he's a doctor, and she's a nurse, and she said, we can't afford, especially the way it was worded. Number one, you said that it was a one-time increase. Well, that implied to a lot of people that that one-time increase would be for that month only, and the wording was very poor there. Also, there was a differentiation in the way that the Rates were noted it said that this is the rate for for example a home in town on a small lot And that was monthly, but then it jumped to a yearly rate for the people who had Agricultural land and there were people who were really quite out of their minds thinking that they were going to pay $25 hundred plus a month because of the way that was worded. And I hope you will assess this problem and perhaps even look at it again because it is way beyond what most people need to pay. And I'm thinking also about the few people that I know who live in Sioux City who are on perhaps a very small pension, if at all, and live on Social Security and how It might seem like nothing to some of you that their rates would go up from $3 to $12 or whatever, but that's pretty consequential for people who are pinching their money. Thank you.

Thanks, Nancy. Thanks for your email as well.

I beg your pardon?

Thank you for your email earlier as well.

And thank you for answering me. I really appreciate it. You bet.

And as I said, we've visited with Mike. We've asked to further review and revisit this. So Mike will help get some clarity.

And I really did appreciate your response. Happy to do so. Thank you so much.

Thanks, Nancy. Nice to see you.

Any more citizen concerns? Come on up, sir.

Hi, my name is Kevin Small. I do construction work and deal with a lot of customers. Up to about last three years, I used to do most of my work in Sioux City. And last three years, it's about 30% in Sioux City, 70, 80% out of Sioux City. You know, I've had some customers come and talk to me about You know, they want to build a house. And they're asking me, like, how that 300% affects them. And, you know, I really don't have an answer for them because they think that's going to, they need to go build someplace else. And, you know, I really like to, I'm from Sioux City. I like to build in Sioux City. And I think we're setting a precedence of it's too expensive to live in Sioux City. And I think we should amend that stormwater deal. I mean, 300% is ridiculous. I think we need to go back 100%. And I think we need to find grants to help us out, because I know what you guys are wanting to do. We just did a job over in North Sioux City. This guy had a business. in Sioux city. And I says, aren't you worried about getting people over here? And he says, no, I'm not worried about it. And he says, I, this is before the storm water deal. And he says, he is too expensive in Sioux city.

Even before the storm water.

Yeah. So, I mean, I just like, wow. And not, you know, I don't want to travel anymore to, you know, go out of town to do work. And, uh, That 300% just scared a whole bunch of people. And, you know, I like to see more houses being built, more commercial, more industrial, especially industrial. That brings us great money. But, you know, my bill was high.

We're bringing this back to the agenda on the 24th of this month for reconsideration. 24th of August? Mm-hmm. Okay.

Yep.

It's coming back up for review, so we'll take a look at it again. See if we can maybe split this up a little bit or something like that.

Yeah, you know, maybe.

Maybe graduate it. Yeah, graduate.

Yep. Well, thank you for letting me speak here today.

You bet. Thanks for coming up.

I'm not a very good speaker. Yeah, you are.

You did great. Thanks, Kevin. See you, Rick.

Anyone else? All right, we're going to go to our presentation for building permits, please. Hey, Marty, can you stay after for the press? Sure. Thank you. Because they're going to want to talk about that.

Sure.

Daryl Bullock, Inspection Services Manager. We've had a few little things that slowed down as far as applications coming in. Not as much on the schedules there, but you get your reports on every Friday. So if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer those. We have some people that have some health issues that are going to be out of the office for a while. So we'll deal with those as they come up.

Okay, my update here on the progress of our development review and software. We did receive, the second part of that is the building permits. We did receive the Central Square's consultant's assessment of our current process. So I'll just point a few things out that they found. It gets a little technical, I know them, but they looked at our land parcel database which is something that apparently that was custom developed a number of years ago and looking at that we have a lot of duplications of addresses property ownership and that type of thing so we they recommend that we clean that up prior to going live when we go live it's gonna be public facing and people might get confused over that also some in the permit fees and the expired permits lack of activity over so many months, whatever. So there's just cleanup that we need to do, and they made some recommendations on the best way to do that. Another aspect to it is when someone does provide us with plans now, we don't enter that into the system for a permanent application into our system, computer system, until after it's approved. So we're going to obviously start doing that differently, and do that immediately into the Naviline system when an application is made. And then the other thing that they recommended, we're looking at the rental occupancy permits, you know, annual permits that people have to do for if they have a rental property in Sioux City. And we're going to switch that to a different part of the system, the business licensing software. I know this is a little technical, but these are ways that they recommended that we can make our system work better, the database that we have, honestly had not been looked at in a number of years, and we're gonna clean it up, and prior to the go-live date on the building permit. So it's a number of things that we've been working with with Central Square. Again, there's two sides, the site development side, planning and engineering, and the building permit. So we spent quite a bit of time last week on that, sorry, on that side, on the permit side.

So as it relates to the two sides, are we able to use any side of it right now? Not yet.

We still use our system. It's the same system. It's just you're going to have a web-based version of it, which is going to be more interactive so that the public can actually look into it. It's one of the things that Marty just brought up about the application, actually data entry of the system. That happens now. That will happen when we do the go live by the customer making their application online. So it'll automatically do that. Unfortunately, I think I said this maybe during our last presentation, when this system was set up three decades ago, they did enough to get by. And we're cleaning all that up now. I think Marty's target on when this thing could have gone live would have been probably right on the line if we would have not had to do all this cleanup work. Quite frankly, we're doing a tremendous amount of cleanup work. Just on the rental portions of this alone that we're... Unfortunately, the way they had originally set this up, it went under building permits, or excuse me, under permits, I should say. And it should have never been in there. There are all kinds of bogus charges that are just laying out there as if we didn't build them out because of the way that we had to update our rental permits all the time. It never should have been that way. It should have been under a business licensing instead. That line item alone is probably 8,500 line items, and there's probably four or five steps to each one of those that we'll have to manually do just to get it cleaned up. So there's a tremendous amount of wage dollars that are going to be spent just cleaning our system up before we can even use it. And so to that point, is there, I mean, can the system clean itself or is there what we're... No, there's a couple of items that we're looking at working with them on a program that they can update that we can run and clean some things up. Yes, there are a few things, but there's still a lot of things that will be manually done. So some things we'll have to go back and say, hey, you know what, we're, you know, for... I'm just going to throw a number out. Please don't hold me to it. Let's just say it's $2,500 to do this program for us to clean this stuff up. You start looking at how much wage dollars you're going to spend versus $2,500. We might spend $3,000, $4,000 on wage dollars versus having to just run through a program. So all of those things are being worked on right now.

So what do you think your go-live date projection is?

Mine or Marty's? Mine's tomorrow, so... I'm going to say end of the year.

End of the year?

Yeah. Oh, no. I mean, I'm just trying to be real. He's not. I'm just trying to, you know, look at what we're up against. I don't want to make you, you know, believe that it's going to happen when it's not. There's still way too many things that have to take place.

And I didn't mean to go in the weeds too much there, but basically what we've learned is that there's a lot of cleanup that needs to happen in the database. So you don't want somebody going live and trying to find their address and there's three or four addresses on there. Right. It doesn't work. and on the permit side, ways that we can become way more efficient, and I know that's something you're going to hear a lot here in the future with the tax constraints and so on that we're looking at. I'm sure Mike and Teresa are looking at that, but we are already in this area, in this department, trying to become as efficient as we can, and we've uncovered a dozen ways that we can do that here where we're not only be better for the public and somebody logging online to look at their application, but also internally where we found out we've been kind of wasting time or inefficiently using our time.

There's a lot of shared responsibilities, if you will, that the building inspections department have had to take care of, say, for the utilities department. They would actually go in there and the permit for theirs but then we had to do all the billing, we had to do all that kind of processing. Now they have the ability to take credit cards down there and we started moving through each one of the different types of permits and putting the department that's responsible for that but unfortunately they don't have the training or the data to be able to even accept that yet but they will by the time we're done.

And that system will be able to talk to all of those?

Absolutely. That's the best part of it. When the application comes in, based on the Department of Responsibility, let's just say it's a building permit, for instance, that email will not just come to the building department. It will also go to the engineering department. It will also go to planning and zoning. It will also go to utilities for TAP permits and all those kind of things. So everybody will get that email at the exact same time when it's submitted.

Looking forward. I am too.

Yes. Real quick. I sat in on DRC this week and compliment that big project going down there, that Section 8 project going in there, that $18 million project, great project. It's on the book. They want to come. I'll compliment the staff was very accommodating. I still think that in the permitting side, on the commercial side, we're still a little sticky, if that makes sense, a little abrasive. I know you're taking the lead on that and you're pushing hard with that gentleman. Sometimes we're getting in the dog days of summer and we're falling back into some old habits. The other thing that I noticed, which was interesting, was at the end when, and the developer was happy, but the question that came from them was, when can we expect to go to permitting or what's the expectation, how long on the permitting? And kind of our response was, well, first come, first serve. You know, when we get it out, we get it out. And I kind of looked over and I'm like, really, that's our response? And versus, you know, I perked up and just said, what is your expectation? He says, well, we expect if we submit it, you know, if we can get it back in four weeks, five weeks, is that reasonable? And it's like, if you give us the stuff we need, you'll get your permit. To me, that's customer service. And just a little tweaks there. I just don't want us to fall back into bad habits. And then when I spoke offline with the developer, they were amazed kind of by still the permits that we still like. It was funny listening to us rattle off, well, you need a sidewalk permit, you need a driveway permit, you need a... And it was just that we're rattling off these peddly permits that sometimes need to be lumped under a general permit. Is there any way, Daryl, and you've been great on this, is there any way we can maybe in the next few weeks or months take a look at... You know combining some of this stuff and and you know where I'm going with this.

It's very very sludgy I do and I know why I was put in a couple years ago because guys were running rough shot But yeah, but it might be time to thin them within I think you know we in the Department responsibility for inspection services we we do group those together as building permit but there when it gets outside of that with utilities and and with the engineering department on their approaches and things like that they can now like say for residential development they will actually issue a sidewalk permit under that so it's not a separate fee but it still is a separate item hopefully the goal of course here like I mentioned is being able everybody be able to do at the same time so we don't have a lag I've got one I got a brand new house that just came in on Friday afternoon and this morning

our department was approved it approved it and it was done um so less than 24 hours of actually submittal time but we're still gonna we're still waiting on engineering's approval and uh planning's approval okay yeah we're making sure i decided to bring that up it was a huge project and we were in there for not even 50 minutes and they got through what they needed to get through so i was impressed they were they they were happy and and even mark with the fire department showed some flexibility which fire inspecting, which I thought was a great stride. He was part of the solution, which is fantastic.

And we had a meeting with another large project that's coming up here in Sioux City, and the pre-construction meeting, I'll call it, went very, very well. They want to stage in and be able to do some temporary occupancy if you can, to be able to separate the structure and be able to start actively working in those structures. We came up with a few items. These are our concerns. They said that's absolutely no problem. They'll be working with that, and we'll move that forward.

Thanks, guys.

Absolutely. Good job.

Thanks, Marty. Thanks, Daryl.

Thanks, guys.

Council concerns. Mr. Bertrand.

Very quickly. Nice job, Mayor Pro Tem this evening. Appreciate your leadership. A couple things. Number one, Mr. Schultz from Gallagher reached out to me on their property insurance. Is that renewal coming up? With Ron, yes, that was coming up. So if we could take a hard look at that, I know we're with Cincinnati, which I'm never a huge fan of those guys, but again, they're one of the players that can bring what they bring is they're all pushing us to higher deductibles and everything else. He says that he'd like to have the opportunity to get with Ron and he says apples to apples. There's anywhere from a three to $500,000 savings out there for our property. So I just would, I would just like the opportunity for Mr. Schultz. He's very reputable in the community. Come on and give us a look at it. If we can save that kind of cash and have the same kind of coverage, it might be worth a look. Ron and I have already had a meeting with Steve Schultz.

This has been probably six weeks ago.

He called me yesterday. I want to make sure you want me to bring that to my attention.

They've asked for property loss from, they currently have our general liability, but they do not have our property.

Okay. We've taken a look at that. We're good?

Yes, we're in the process of doing it.

Perfect. Second, I want to clear the record on the cardboard. We brought up the cardboard in the dump stations last week. I met with Gil Holling, and those guys are always a hoot when you meet with them. They do, just for the record, they don't throw the cardboard completely in the landfill. Last year, they recycled 6,200 tons of cardboard. What they do, but they want us to make a decision. They did say they're frustrated with the city a little bit off the record. They want a decision out of this council. They're excited about this council to make some decisions on the 28th Street. And the options that I'm going to have, Ara's going to present next week. She's going to put a presentation for us. It's the 150 remodel. So right now, we're going to kill a couple birds with one stone. They can't take commercial dump out to the 28th Street right now. The commercial guys can't take anything out there, and it's a weight issue. The way the building and their system is set up with their containers. So that's one of the issues we want to correct. And then the second one is the dump trailers, which all kind of runs hand in hand. So the proposal I have on the table is for a hundred and a half, we can get that site up to compliance. to get where we can, number one, bring out dump trailers, and number two, the commercial guys don't have to go all the way to Jackson, Nebraska for small loads. That's your shingles, that's your other stuff to weight distribute. The second thing is they've got a proposal on the table also with us that if they wanted, they will build us a new facility for about a half million dollars and make it state-of-the-art, more friendly. It'll incorporate the dumps, commercial guys and everything. And we can pay them back over 10 years with just dumping fees. If we want to raise, they said, anywhere from about $8 a ton, we'd cover that. On the flip side, I proposed, and I'm not trying to put a, you know, I'm big on user fees. I like the idea that if we want services, the people that are using it do it. I like the idea of implementing a sticker. a commercial sticker, a dump trailer sticker that you put on your truck for $100. So for me myself, if I'm pulling in a load, I got a sticker on my truck. I still pay the tonnage, but it gives me access for those type of things. And if we did that, it would offset the cost of that. So she's going to put that in the proposal also. And we can clean that up. Also, we spend roughly $80,000 a year now picking up the nine cardboard recyclables that are now getting all the couches and everything around that. The recommendation from them was let's get them off the street. That number one that saves us $90,000 and let's take it all. We currently have a small site at 28th Street but let's send all of our cardboard to 28th Street. We are also in talks with a really good clean recycling person out of Omaha but I think is gonna head our way as you know Julie it's and I think that's gonna it's gonna happen but I think that we it I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna bring a motion in the next couple weeks that we remove those containers from around town and we drive everything to 28th Street then and and talk about re redoing that site to maybe more citizen friendly and more developer friendly so that's coming in the next week or so

the box a little bit. I like what you're suggesting, but are these issues that should go to the Environmental Advisory Board for review then presentation to us?

Both of those issues at the 28th Street are already projects that are in the works through public works.

They've been sitting here for about three years. He says they just need a decision is what they said. He said he just needs somebody needs to make a decision in there. That was quote unquote. This council needs to make a decision. We will. That's great. So the good news is, is there's they're not. They got plans on the that are in development. So let's let's pull the trigger on something and let's make this more user friendly to the citizens and get these dumpsters out of our our downtowns and everything that are that are the downtown to put their recyclable.

Well, I think the small ones are still good. Yeah, you still do the smalls.

The curb still there, which is good there. So that's the cardboard issue. So guys, I apologize if they came in with their little vests and they were fired up. Not in any good way. I know those guys pretty well. So they're good people. Also, looking down there, I know the HART presentation is coming up again. And Mike, you and I talked about this. I'd like to have the two officers that are out there. Let's get some firsthand feedback now that we've identified the, I think there's like 234 that are just living on the streets. I'd like to know what their interaction is with them on a weekly basis. Just See, you know, just to have an interaction with them. So I'm looking forward to this next heart update with the actual officers again, which is good. Had a couple calls on people saying on the grass over the curbs. I talked to her about that. You know, that's part of our ordinance. It just looks... sioux city sloppy it's just not good so let's get the grass off the curbs teresa is also going to present us as a council there's a lot of a lot of interest right now in infrastructure and what we call workforce housing which is housing under 1200 square feet i know julie and i have been talking to a lot of developers up there we got to find a way to refill this dig bucket and and I presented some ideas to Teresa. She's going to present it for us to weigh on how we can raise some more dollars, kind of the way it used to be. City put in the infrastructure, the houses come, because the developers are done putting in the infrastructure. So we've got to figure out a way to get that dig fund is a huge wave. That's coming. Craig, thanks for getting the introduction with Jane. I'm meeting with her with UnityPoint coming up there, and I'm really excited. I took your advice and waited a couple weeks before they got settled in, so I appreciate that. And then... On the we talked about the DRC with them the grading permits as you guys know We put out invitations to all the heavy dirt guys and everything and we're gonna get together and review the next The the grading permit and they're gonna get input from those guys. So that's really good the retention we talked about and Marty he's still here. Thanks for the update on the spec building Julian the mayor had great comments on maybe to improve that program. Yep. And but if we can get someone that makes that they can make this work, we will. But I appreciate the open mindedness there. And then lastly, on the police chief thing, just want to make a brief comment on it to the public so that they understand that this is the only time that we get to talk as a council. We don't get to sit behind closed doors. I know I say this every week, but we don't get it. We don't get to sit behind closed doors and talk about who's voting for what, who's discussing. We just don't get that. That's that's that's the core of the open open rules or meetings rules so when we talk like this so again that word we when we put statements out it's really because we want to make sure that everybody knows where we stand and at the end of the day Nicole I'd like a quick 30 second so the next step in the process does the public do we vote I know Mike is the hiring manager will counsel actually have a vote in the say in this or if when the when the county when the when the manager when Mike proceeds and Is it an appointment now? Is it an approval? Can we vote to start over? What's the process that the public needs to hear?

Sure. It's contained under the city manager's authority and the municipal ordinances, if you look there. The city manager has the power to appoint most employees. With department heads, then it does come before the city council for an approval vote. So in this case, what is it? I'm sorry.

So in this case, it's it's it's just a straight up a straight appointment or is there a vote approval that needs approval?

Yeah, it's it's kind of a confusing the way it's worded is because I Recommend the hiring an appointment of this person.

It's brought formally before City Council for approval of that recommendation So at the end of the day the council will still have the vote because that's the question I'm getting at now is do you guys actually get a vote on it? Yes up or down so the upper down will come at the council level Okay That helps. And any update on the timeline? You good? Two to three weeks. Any discussion we want to have? We don't? That's okay.

And I would just caution you, if it's not a noticed agenda item for actual discussion or direction, then I would really caution you to limit.

I appreciate the caution, but we're sitting here together and I wouldn't mind having a discussion. If there is something to be said, I think it's okay. This is the only time we're going to be together.

You know the way that the code works is that you have to notice the public to reasonably apprise the public as to what? May be discussed for direction So when it said it when it's when it's council concerns if one of my concerns is we don't get to talk about it I can't talk about what I'm concerned about You can talk about it, but getting additional input or direction from other accounts members could constitute a vote So I would just caution that discussion And again, I just provide advice so

Yeah, yeah. So anyway, the public needs to know that there's not an open discussion on the backside between the five of us. And the first time we saw these two candidates was the same time that they saw them.

And we went in separately. That's right.

And I look forward to the completion of the process. People kind of know where we're at, and we'll go from there. Thank you.

Greg.

My turn? A couple quick items. On the police search, police chief search, obviously we've all been getting a lot of commentary from the public. I'll share that with you. Separate mic. Homeless court meetings last week I thought were very well done. I know they had about a half dozen meetings throughout the community, and I thought that the ABA, which was sort of coordinating the meetings, did a really nice job. And I thought what they presented I think really gives us good insight Awareness for how we can start better coordinating amongst all of the relevant parties and managing those issues ourselves So I appreciated their time. I participated in the downtown partner session I know there were others throughout the city and those were great two other things When Brad was here I wanted to ask him Are we confident, we're hearing a lot of dialogue in the country about water plants that are being infiltrated. Can we please make sure that we feel that our systems are adequately safeguarded and protected and make sure we're not gonna have any issues? And I have a request on the flock cameras. Can we get a regular report. I know there's a lot of concern in the citizenry about the use of the cameras and the data that is generated. Can we get a report on both what the chief or the captains are comfortable sharing in terms of information they're gathering and how it's helping them police in our community, and also whether they're having any incidents internally. The biggest concern tends to be described as a constitutional right of privacy, and I think it's important for the council to be aware if they're finding internal issues. I think that if there were, you would be advising us, but we have not heard that, but if we could get a report on that, I'd appreciate it. That's it.

Thank you just to respond quickly on those two things I'm not aware of any issues, but I'll follow up the chief and on the controls at water and wastewater Specifically do not attach the controls to any internet connection, okay?

And maybe that's adequate for the report out. I just want to make sure that you're comfortable, Brad's comfortable, Tom's comfortable.

We actually went through a scenario with our outside IT person last year. It was the scenario.

Great. Okay. Thank you. That's it.

No, thank you. As always, Jody, thank you for showing up. I appreciate when citizens come and voice their concerns and those things always, that's what this is about. Also, I just want to reiterate the homeless court information. I would like to see, and I don't know if there's something that we can do, Mike, or whatever, but just to make sure citizens understand that with the homeless court, that it's not a separate court system that allows people to do stupid stuff and get away with it. But definitely there's some divide there. But also just to, you know, my counterpart, I have had the opportunity to interact with some of the homeless and, you know, I mean, we don't have to wait on the police. We can go down there and do it ourselves, right? And, you know, you meet some nice people and obviously there's people who have some other issues and those things, but like that. Just excited. Took my daughter back to school and yeah, that was a good week for me. Did you shed a tear? Well, you know, this is starting year two. She gets to be an RA. Oh, nice.

Oh, there you go.

We're going to see if she's calling dad to be like, I don't know how to handle this, right?

I have nothing further to add. So with that, I move we adjourn. Second.

Rayford?

Aye.

Shaner?

Aye.

Berenstein?

Aye.

Bertrand?

Aye.