City Council - Regular Meeting

We're still in there, but we're comparing against the best. And then the other is our cash. It's still well above their thresh but they said it's not as high as

well it's It's subjective. It is. And and honestly, it helps us because we have other Yeah, I guess. When we have such stronger reserve, they're willing to we have a

Just got done. cafeter. Somebody I'm going to call the special uh meeting of the West De Moines City Council to order. Um, I will move to uh item number two, approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion to approve?

First, we need to take role. Okay. Okay. Please take role. It's not on my agenda. Sorry about that. Four members present. Good. Following the agenda. I am following the agenda to the letter. Okay. With that, can I get a motion to approve? Second. Second move and seconded. Please vote four. Yes.

Okay. Item three, public hearings. Uh the FY2627 proposed property tax rate initiated by the city. This is the time and place for a public hearing to consider the FY2627 proposed property tax rate initiated by the city of West De Moines. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice was published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo register. And have we received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience that would like to address the council on item 3A, please come to the podium here. Give us your name and address for the record. We ask that you keep it civil and respectful and to five minutes or under. Is there anybody in the council chambers that would like to address the council on item 3A? All right, come on up. Is your name and address for there? Good. How are you doing? Keith, good to see you, Keith. 809 Southeast Army Post Road. And uh just to uh question a is anybody going to explain this the piece of paper we got on the It doesn't come from us. It's mandated by the state. It comes from the county and it's mandated by the state.

Yeah. And I know that but the details of it and is it just that you add these over here and that's what's going to be the proposed tax increase. Uh for us our our tax rate is staying the same. It's 1080 uh this year. It's going to be proposed to say 1080 next year. Yeah. So, but as as the councilman was saying, this is something that was mandated by the state, the county. Yeah, I got that. I I understand that. I just This is a really needs some explanation. And I don't know.

I tried I read I'm going what is this? I don't know. Second part B is hey taxes are ownorous in our city, our state. We all know that property tax um up up. It's getting so we want people in here. we enter but and then I read in here that because the TIF uh we want uh I think that's for incremental spending or whatever there is for improved and enlarged city progress is that right uh so let me let me explain that's tax increment financing

what happens with tax increment financing is we established an urban renewal district and at that point in time um usually Usually it's for a specific economic development project and that project comes in and let's say it's in a corn field. Uh they look at increasing the incremental value of that corn field by X and we say um you know we work out a development agreement with them and say if you increase the taxable valuation of this parcel by a certain amount we will agree to provide an incentive to you to come here. And so they generate the additional tax revenue and uh we rebate it back to them or we can also use it for infrastructure. But that is not money taken out of your pocket and given to the developer. That is money that they are generated from that economic development on that parcel and that we are agreeing for a certain amount of time to rebate back to them. That should not affect your property taxes.

Yeah. Thanks a lot. I think you explained that one other time and I appreciate that. Thanks. And I don't know if there's if there's somebody in like Councilman Lo said, this is something that's been mandated by the state. I don't know if there's somebody in finance that can describe explain uh what's on that sheet uh now or we can get you maybe Okay, Tim's coming up our finance director. Keith, you want to give it to him so he can see what that is? I mean, I think we all got that in the mail. You can explain each one line by line, right? Oh, you want to give Keith, you give him that. Uh

I got I got one at my house, too. All right. Go ahead and explain. Everybody got one that owns property. All right. Thank you though. Um, in a nutshell, what that form says is the three largest taxing entities, which would be the city, the county, and the school for every property. Those are generally the three largest taxing entities. The state wants the residents, just like what you received, to know when we're going to have this hearing where their input can be made as to our upcoming budget and tax rate. That's really the purpose of the notice. There should you should see three public hearings listed there, one for each. And it's inviting you to come to this public meeting where you can speak about just like what you did about the taxes.

But Tim, there's something on there that talks about the the tax rate, the effective tax rate. That was I think what's confusing for the average homeowner to look at and figure out what they're looking at there.

Yep. And it's different for all three entities. They'll have different numbers and different figures. What it does, it shows what the tax rate was for the previous year, which is the year we're in right now. And then it shows what the proposed rate could be if you the city did not need any more money. If it was going to have a straight flat budget, no increase to their budget at all, no wage increases, no other increases, that number will be slightly lower than what your current tax rate is. The mayor mentioned 1080. Our ours went down if if we were not having any increases to our budget. What the mayor explained is our rate is staying at 1080. And that's because we need that those extra funds from the growth to increase the budget to pay for salaries, materials, equipment, those types of things.

Okay. Okay. Thank you, Tim. Appreciate it. Also, thanks for being here. Yeah. Thank you for sharing thoughts. And this would be, I would say, maybe a great opportunity to reach out to your state representative or your state senator to let them know because I think a lot of folks have reached out to a lot of us saying there's some confusing things on the sheet of paper. I think the goal is to be transparent and it's a great goal to have, but uh maybe if there was an increase in clarity of the document that we all received and that might be a good opportunity to reach out to the state because the city of West De Mo was not in charge of sending that out. If we were, we would make it as clear as the clearest river on the planet Earth.

All right. Anybody else uh in the council chambers for the public hearing before I go online? Going once, going twice. All right. Is there anybody online that would like to address the council on item 3A? If so, hit star six. Not pound six, but star six. Do unmute yourself and give us your name and address for the record. Is there anybody online that would like to address the council? Okay. Hearing no one, I'm going to declare the public hearing closed. Uh and uh we do not need uh any action at this point in time. We are just simply going to close the public hearing. Uh item four, we will receive and file uh notice of the special meeting. Uh and with no other business to come before us during this special meeting of the city council, uh we are adjourned

and be back at 5:30. Yep. We will reconvene at 5:30 for a regular meeting.

All right. I'll call the March 23rd meeting of the West De Mo City Council to order and invite you all to stand and join us for the 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. All right, please sign in. Four members present. Okay, Ryan, have there been any changes to the agenda?

Uh, there is one change. Uh, staff's recommending the removal of item 4J, professional services agreement for RecPLEX additional renovation. Uh, to allow additional time for staff to review. Uh, we anticipate it'll come forward at a future council meeting. Okay. So, we will cross off 4J. Uh, can I get a motion to approve the agenda as amended? Motion to approve the agenda as amended. Okay. It's moved and seconded. Please vote.

Four. Yes. All right. Item two, citizens forum. This is a time for anybody that would like to address the council on any item that is not part of public hearings, which is item number six, or new business, which is items number item number seven. Uh if you'd like to address the council on any item, please come up. Give us your name and address for the record. We ask that you keep it civil and respectful in the five minutes or under. Thank you, council. All right. You guys can see it. Okay. All right.

Uh my name is Sri John Karim and my address is uh 122528 Street West, of course. Um, I'm here to make some um um uh comments about the the 2040 plan that the city council discussed in their last um uh in their last city council meeting. So, I appreciated seeing the city council engage the discussion um during the uh city's long-term 2040 plan. It was encouraging to hear Councilman Travillian mention reviewing the current requirement to build garages and to hear Councilman Hudson express openness to duplexes and town houses. Re-examining garage requirements is especially important as the average cost of new car ownership now approaches $1,000 per month per vehicle and garages add about $36,000 to the cost of a house. policies that assume home homes can support multiple vehicles can unintentionally raise housing costs and limit more affordable option. More broadly, it is good to see the city leadership recognize that we need a wider range of housing types if we want our city to remain affordable and financially sustainable over time. And I'm glad to see uh Dave Leons provide some additional perspective and gravitas to how we may achieve that today. However, I'm here to urge the city council to include an additional item in the 2040 plan. as someone um as someone who professionally works on planning and designing electrical grid systems that must function reliably 40 years into the future and beyond. Um I want to emphasize how important it is um that long long range planning conversation like this uh also consider the environmental conditions that our city will face over the same time frame. Climate projections from the Department

of Energy's uh Argo National Laboratory indicate that the West De Moines are seasonal uh maximum summer heat index is predicted to increase from the historical 109 110° uh today to somewhere between 119 to 126° um in the 2045 2055 time frame. That kind of shift has real implications for public health, infrastructure, and overall quality of life. While many factors are outside our control, such as our location in the Great Plains and the surrounding agricultural landscape, the good news is we still have time to take steps now to help reduce the heat impacts our community may experience in the 2040s. For example, uh shaded walkways and increase um increasing the urban tree canopy can significantly reduce street level temperatures. Trees provide um cooling not only through shade but also through evapo transpiration which lowers uh surrounding temperatures and makes outdoor spaces more comfortable and usable. I appreciate the uh city's initiative to work with Microsoft to provide residents with trees at subsidized rate, but we need to need even more proactive initiatives from the city. These could include identifying strategic locations within the city's rightway to plant and maintain trees and developing policies so that new development include planted trees within the city's rightway. The picture on the right um shows an example of a well-covered section of a multi-use pathway on MLK Drive in De Moine. and the left shows a potential location on Mill Civic Parkway where the city could add more tree cover. Similarly, reviewing and potentially reducing parking minimums um can have multiple benefits. Large expanses of concrete parking lots absorb and retain heat contributing to urban heat island effect. They also contri encourage

development patterns that spread destinations farther apart, increasing the amount of asphalt and pavement required across the city. This not only intensifies heat but also increases the tax burden required to maintain the infrastructure over time and reduces the amount of land we have left um for developing additional housing. On the left is an overhead picture of our flagship um oops sorry on the left um is a picture of our flagship Jordan Creek Parkway Jordan Creek area shopping area where you can see there's uh seems to look like there are more parking than commercial space and uh on the right are some examples of um uh streets and parking with shades as the council uh continues developing the 2040 plan. I encourage you to intentionally integrate these ideas into the city's long-term strategy. Support infield development, review parking minimums, and expand the tree canopy and shaded pedestrian and multi-use infrastructure. Taking these steps will not only ensure the western one remains an affordable, financially resilient and livable in the much warmer summers we are likely to experience in the decades ahead. Thank you.

Thank you, S. John. Appreciate it. Okay. Anybody else for citizens forum? Appreciate it.

Thank you so much. All right. Come on up and give us your name and address for the record. And again, we'd ask that you keep it to 5 minutes or under I've never been to one of these things, so I might need a little help with some of the procedural things. Um, you're fine. Just start off with your name and address and then I'll start your time at that point in time.

My name is Jonathan Aubberg and I live at 6565 Wisful Vista Drive, apartment 2205 West Point, Iowa. And um I what I wanted to discuss today is the contract the city has with flock safety. Um this was really hard to figure out um like who was in charge of it, who owned it. I um read an article in January and then um the day after I realized these block cameras were outside where I lived. As soon as I leave my parking lot, there's a thought camera. That's an automated license plate reader. So, there were over, I believe, 200,000 um hits. So, this is a scan on your license plate. And so, through a Iowa public records request, I eventually figured out that the city council voted on this. And this is uh just like a sub item on a consent agenda. So I don't know why there wouldn't be deliberation on this. This is really important. This is surveillance infrastructure. This is half of a million dollars of the taxpayer dime. And we had this as a sub item. But I'll move on. Um, so I I did get a vote on this Hardman, Hudson, Loots, McKenna, Trevillian. I'm saying that right. And so I did want to ask about the police chief signing off on this agreement because this happened on April 1st. And so the council voted on the third.

the chief of police, Chris Scott, at the time, which I believe has we have a new one now. Um, so I couldn't understand why we're voting this agreement with Flat Group, but then there's a vote with no deliberation. There's no public discussion on it, a half million dollar agreement with this company that had 20 confirmed vulnerabilities in December 2025. I'm curious if there has been any audit since then on that camera system here in the public records request that I paid $60 for. This is public information. This is the Raccoon River Park and here's the name.

Do you want to show it? Um lay you can lay it here under the camera and we'll Thank you very much.

Yep. Um, so just to lower the mood a bit here, you know, I grew up in the 90s in Winter, Iowa. Small town, so it's it's not comparable law, you know, law enforcement wise to what the West Mo Police Department's working with, but here we see Falcon and Owl cameras. These are by Flock Safety. And so I believe the Falcon ones are your automated license plate readers. The owl ones, I believe, are meant to surveil humans. I think they have facial recognition technology and um so you know this is very concerning to me you know and when I grew up in whistle stop you know play in whistle stop park at grandma and grandpa's place there was no uh internet connected cameras that share the data with was it 5,000 national law enforcement agencies there's a really good transparency portal that flock has um I wanted to show this because you know the more I look into it the less sense it makes honestly the access policy all system access requires a valid reason and is stored indefinitely and if we look at sorry I have um the way you audit this system is you export um from this website a record of um searches. These are this is license plate lookups. Okay. And and a lot of times the reason is given investigations bar driving DWB. Uh I forget which one that was driving while bard I think. And I wanted to point out this one because I applaud whoever did this. It looks like a case number I think. So we have a case number

timestamp. Uh this is the user ID field and so you can't really identify who is doing the search here. I think that's an area of possible improvement. This is your unique identifier number. So, it's a little hard to read this, but so I had been just over a period of 6 days, I exported one copy and then I exported another one. And I'm starting to notice that there's discrepancies that the um You got to wrap it up if you can. Your five minutes is up.

All right. So I I I think this is coming due in 2027. Maybe this year the contract is going to be up for renewal and I would encourage public discussion about the implications of this issue and the potential for abuse for hackers. Um you know I'm not trying to bash anybody here. Um, I just am hoping for transparency and a lot of there's just not a lot of reasons given. There's they're just blank. All right, we got you got to wrap it up. I'm trying to give you a little grace period to conclude. I'm good. I'm good. I'm done.

All right. Appreciate you being here.

Okay. Anybody else for citizens forum? Anybody in the council chambers before I go online? Okay. Okay. Is there anybody online for citizens forum? Hit star six to unmute yourself. Give us your name and address for the record. Is there anybody online for citizens forum? Okay. Hearing no one. Citizens forum is closed. We're going to move on to item three, mayor council manager report, other entities update. We're going to start with item 3A. Uh Kayla Burkhead uh and uh Mike McCoy are here from Metro Waste Authority to talk to us about the battery boost campaign and Ryan Jacobson is getting everything all queued up.

Um your honor, while Ryan's getting this stuff queued up, I'd like to just make a comment about this presentation.

Sure. So, I've been fortunate enough to serve on the Metro Waste Authority board for a few years now as the West De Mo city representative. And um I I put Michael and Kayla up to coming out here. Um I think one of the things that I wanted to come from this presentation was really two things. Um people put their garbage in the can and it gets picked up every day and nobody really thinks about where it goes or what happens to it or cares about it. And um serving on the board, I've realized that there's actually tons of engineering, tons of care, tons of things that go into what happens with the things we throw away. And this fall, what what blew my mind was the batteries that people put in their garbage. And the thing I didn't realize is how many fires it creates that then have to be put out later. And so, um, I asked Michael and Kayla to come out and just do a little brief presentation. uh on Metro Waste Authority and and the battery campaign and and all these things. But I'm I'm I'm really excited for this presentation and want to thank them for coming and and hope it provides value to everybody who's listening and watching. So, thank you, Michael.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you for serving uh on the board for us. Really appreciate you do a great job. Okay, Mr. McCoy, go ahead.

Thank you, sir. Um thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council, City Manager. appreciate the time and and again, thank you, Doug, for us uh being on our board and uh they're not uh you know, at night they're not the most glamorous meetings and all and and garbage isn't the most glamorous. Perilian has been on the board as well and I can attest, but uh it is an important thing, right? We don't often think, as you said, about where our garbage goes or how it's handled andor our recyclables. So, I'm going to take a little liberty if I may and and kind of just give you a very uh quick overview of who we are uh of Metro Waste Authority and then get into uh the battery side of it as well. Um Metro Waste Authority being the largest landfill in the state of Iowa. We're not just a landfill though. Uh we have eight facilities uh under Metro Waste Authority. You can read those from landfills here uh outside of De Moine area to the east to Perry uh at the west. We've got a new recycling facility four years old uh in Grimes. The Northwest Transfer Station on that same campus uh which West De Moines utilizes or your hauler utilizes to keep your rates as low as possible by not having to take that garbage each truck to the landfill uh is the purpose of the transfer stations. We have hazardous waste drop off facilities both in Grimes and in Bondant. Our central office being downtown uh in East Village, a compost facility uh at the Bond Durant facility as well where we've uh invested significant dollars and then uh two redemption centers which are within our other facilities uh bottle redemption centers as law changed and folks started losing their redemption centers in grocery stores and other places. Metro Waste Authority was called upon to uh get into that piece as well. So, a little bit by the numbers of 2025, some specific numbers for the city of West De

Moines. Uh we do manage the hauling contracts for garbage, recycling, and yard waste in your city. The households served in West De Mo is around 15,172. And the rates uh believe it or not uh under consolidated collection trend lower than any other program in the nation. We are one of the lowest uh fees for garbage and recycling throughout the nation and especially in the state of Iowa. education and outreach which I think is the most important piece of this u keen on that and it's been a big uh backbone of the agency for at least 25 years uh being that education and being out there amongst uh the residents but then also building an education center both at the landfill a dedicated uh research uh site and then one at the recycling facility for kids uh school field trips to the landfill 14 from the city of West De Mo u and ready recycle ready set recycling which is a now award-winning program uh just recently uh for West De Mo 64 groups in that uh huge piece of that or why uh we do such a good job in recycling it's our residents uh in the metro uh are doing that for us it's not us uh of course we have the equipment at the recycling facility between robots and other high-tech um uh devices that can clean that up but uh our city residents uh throughout the metro are delivering It's about 11% contamination. The national average is 25%. And so they're doing really well. I'd love for that to get down to a nine just to get to a single digit for for a bit. And so would Kayla uh and working hard at that as well. So what are the community uh benefits from this? You know, we as managers of your um of of your hauling just recently about three years ago or four years ago took the uh call center inhouse. uh we are answering all those phone calls uh at the sum of about

62,212 calls coming into our facility. Uh we have launched a new uh chatbot uh which has answered almost 8,000 uh of those chats and uh also then doing the repair services for the carts in house which we have found residents have really um uh got to to en enjoy that turnaround. instead of 10 days, we're turning those around in one to two days uh by our staff doing it. So, uh managing curbside services for more than 110,000 homes throughout the metro, uh including the garbage, recycling, and the yard waste. And I'll key on a couple of those things here in a second. The uh curbside piece, residents in West De Mo disposed of almost 13,000 tons of garbage uh via the weekly collection and the spring cleanup in just 2025. uh recycling. The residents of Western Mo are doing a fantastic job with over 2,000 tons of recycling going through that. And again, as I mentioned, the Kurdsite program that we manage uh is for garbage recycling and yard waste. I do want to take just one brief moment on yard waste and remind you because the season is coming for yard waste, not just for the cleanups, but also what will happen in Iowa, and that's storms, right? Uh we know that storms are coming, but it's exactly why the yard waste program was put into place by my predecessor uh who some of you may know. Uh but but uh it is a fantastic program for just that those small storms, medium storms. Uh that is where we we uh we do our best work. Um and that's where the curbside program should be utilized uh first and foremost. there hasn't been a storm small or medium or large uh that I haven't been on the phone call on a phone call by your city manager uh discussing what's next what should happen what's best for your residents and him pushing for that uh every time so those phone calls come early in the

morning and we discuss it early and then we keep changing the game plan throughout the day if we need to and that is then times uh 23 city managers uh which is pleasant on those storm days sometimes when they're multiples getting hit, but it is something that is welloiled and it's ready to go. And so that program is uh what residents should use first. Um, and then that comes out to our compost facility, uh, which, uh, we then turn into compost and, uh, sell it back onto the market, which is a new program where we've, um, we have, uh, bagged, special bagged with our own name, uh, custom bagged compost and putting it out now throughout the Hi's, Drew Values, Ace Hardes, all throughout central Iowa and growing to Council Bluffs this year. And so that program is going fantastic. Move on to the recycling drop offs in West De Moine. Fortunately, West De Mo was one of the first cities to jump on to the cardboard drop off locations uh offering two drop off sites uh for us. There's always more room for uh drop offs and we are constantly talking to staff with West De Mo and Public Works about those drop off sites. Uh those are uh very important for your residents as they continue to buy uh from home and the cardboard is coming in uh hot and heavy. Uh those carts can't always carry that. So those those are being we when we launched that cardboard program, we were thinking about uh picking up two days a week. We're now picking up six days a week uh for our route. It's become a huge piece uh and bringing that to the recycling facility uh that is all being recycled. The myth of it going to the garbage uh is just that. It's a myth. Um we are selling it on the market. It's a commodity market. Uh some of you have toured this facility. I welcome all of you to come out and do a tour at any time. Love to set that up for you. And your residents as well are are welcome

out there at any at any time. Again, we're probably the number two most high-tech facility in North America with our facility out in Grimes. And so it is something to really show off and be proud of. Michael, you want to let everybody know where the cardboard recycling is at? Yeah. Well, you're just about to test me, but I know where one of them used to be. South Southwoods is a is a big school. I I've used that quite a bit. Uh my wife is a frequent flyer on Amazon.com. I hate to admit it, but um we have boxes that just come all the time. It just overwhelms me. But I hope you have stock as well. Days of the week they pick up because of you. Absolutely. I've made this program a success in and of myself.

You have helped. you have helped. Um, and so your second one is at public works public services east at the old public sorry people love this program. It is ingenious. So thank you.

So it's it's been a great um help for the residents and of course we need to get more out. Um we have people driving in uh from Cummings and other places uh to to West De Mo and to Grimes to drop off material. And so the more of these drop offs we get um I think uh the better the residents will be off. Everything comes down to convenience and cost in our business. It's about convenience and cost to get the residents to do the right thing. It has to be convenient and it has to be inexpensive, right? And so the more drop offs of different programs we do or the more locations we have out in the in the cities uh as a metro com uh combination of all the towns uh the better off the programs are. Holiday Lights Recycled. It's unbelievable. uh West De Mo doing uh almost 1300 uh 1300 pounds on that one. I believe it is 1300 pounds on that one and then scrap tires of one uh let's call it two tons of being dropped of just tires. That's amazing, right? Of tires being dropped uh on our program. So uh hats off to West De Moine. Keep up the good work. Let us know how we can help. now into the guts. And I am going very quickly uh on purpose for your sake. Uh but if you have any questions, stop me and um and at the end we'll we'll give you a moment as well. Kayla can jump in here at any time as well. U but um we are uh talking about battery drop offs. That's what started this whole thing and then I hijacked it with my update. Um but battery drop offs a great program and again thank you to West De Moines. Um, we have three battery drop offs in West De Mo. And this time, uh, Councilman Travillian, I have a cheat sheet on the exact locations and so I'll preempt you on that one. But, uh, 776 pounds in West De Mo. Come on, y'all can do better. No. Uh, that's really good. Uh, those are great numbers and I think one of the

leading, uh, cities in our program on those. So, uh, Public Library is one, Valley Junction Community Center, and then Public Services West. uh is another one. These are great boxes inside. It's been wellreceived. Why' we launch it? Because what we do know is batteries, lithium batteries are our biggest problem. And so, one thing I can tell you is normal at a landfill and at a recycling facility are fires. And that's unfortunate. Uh but it is the norm and has always been the norm. Uh but it is now increased uh substantially by lithium batteries. It's our biggest menace uh nemesis that we have is how to get the lithium batteries. If you watch a video, don't try this at home. Just watch the video in Google and and uh the folks that are doing it can can do it for you. The the explosion and the fires, but you hit those with a hammer and they'll explode and and set fire, right? And those are small batteries, so things that you don't think about, a toothbrush, a vape pin. Vape pins are one of our biggest fire starters in our recycling facility, right? Um, anything that's rechargeable, anything that has a lithium battery, those need to be disposed of properly and that's not in your garbage or your recycling. I'm not going to blame the residents. I think it's wishful thinking, wishful recycling, what we call it, and they're think they're doing the right thing and that's great. Um, but we need to fine-tune that right thing and let's get these batteries out. So, what we've done is we've decided not to just say lithium batteries because it might have been confusing. We said we'll take all batteries in that box, right? And before we didn't do that, alkaline could go to the landfill. They could go into the garbage. It's a very science-based uh lined landfill. Nothing's going to go wrong. But just for the confusion sake uh for everybody, any battery can go in there. And then the safekeeping, they're all fireproof. We've custom those boxes ourselves. I had them customized. You can see the picture of it. And then Sparky, I know West Mo, I think I saw West De Moine participating in the Sparky photos. Sparky is our like Flat

Stanley, right? that we've sent out to the cities and people are taking fun videos of Sparky all around their cities. And so again, a fun program. We our goal with uh the DNR uh when we set started this program was 10,000. We're at over 14,000 pounds today and we have till July 1 on our program for that goal. Uh so it's going unbelievable. Um and again all battery types in that Now to the fires. Why? These are photos. The top one I took at a at a landfill fire at about 1:00 a.m. in the morning. Uh these are becoming too uh common now. Uh once you start a landfill on fire, it's very difficult to put them out. It's not a fire department job at that point. Uh we actually ask the fire department to kind of back up uh and we get in there with bulldozers and other things to put it out. An average fire takes us probably six hours to put out in the middle of the night for a bunch of different factors. We have our own water trucks with nozzles and the whole works and then dozers and have whole crews come in. And so this is an allnight uh um endeavor uh when this happens and they'll just start uh at any time. And so that is the compactions. If you can think of a bulldozer going over a battery, uh a skateboard, a hoverboard, any of those things, uh ignite, blow up, and we got major problems. So, let's talk just the landfills. uh transfer stations. Uh we've had major fires in the transfer stations as well. And uh the recycling processing facility is four years old and we've already had probably one of the most major fires in Iowa at that facility due to a lithium battery at about $2.5 million loss in about two and a half months downtime at that facility. Fortunately, we built the facility the right way. Um, and we did not miss a

pickup or anything when it comes to back end of what your residents see. They didn't see anything different. Uh, but I can tell you the staff was uh under the gun for three months and then six months after that just to catch up in commodity market sales and getting bailed, things bailed and and processed. And so these are the real deal. The bottom one is the fire I talk about. It spread throughout the facility and again caused two and a half million. It would have been much bigger if uh that building wasn't built like it uh was like it was and prepared for fires like this. And so this is why we talk about it is so critical for our residents uh to do to do that work for us. And again, it's anything that you can think about that's that's a battery inside of a toothbrush, a vape, uh, anything you can think of that you recharge has to be disposed of at one of our locations. Um, for this not to happen at that fire that you saw at the land at the murf, we had a full staff in that building at that time. Um, so it's it's scary, right? And we had to retreat out of that building. Often, most times we will fight the fires. We fight probably a fire a a week at one of our facilities because of lithium batteries. We fight it internally uh in different ways and at all of our facilities. Um and then your hauling trucks are another big issue. We just recently last week had a hauling truck come into one of our facilities on fire from smashing. We'll dig into that fire after we put it out and try to find the cause uh from smashing a lithium battery from a um um not like a skateboard type of thing, right? Um so major problem hazardous waste facility again kind of goes into that fire and that recycling of the batteries. Uh if in question bring it to our hazardous waste facility. We started one in Grimes. There's two permanent

ones now. one in Grimes and one in Bondant. Uh we are all constantly looking at how to make that more convenient for you all. Um and so if you have ideas or you want a program kind of like a shreddit program or something like that, we're all in. We have trucks, trailers, all that kind of stuff. So again, we want to meet you where you're at. 1100 residents from West De Mo safely disposed of their waste in 2025 at one of our facil hazardous waste facilities. Uh those are pretty strong numbers. And so again, I appreciate it. your residents are some of the top ones in the metro. Uh so kudos to them um on that. And then just for the sake of the board again since I hijacked it with a little bit of an update uh taking this opportunity to do the update as well for the annual update. Financial health strong uh Metro Waste Authority has very strong books cash flow. Uh we had a record level revenue for services provided last year. That's off uh uh record levels uh on the past uh nine out of the 10 years uh coming in on revenue. And most of that isn't just built on uh growth of the towns uh around us. Uh we have grown our programs uh heavily over the last 10 years in in that record level net results as well. Um profits is a bad word and we don't really have profits. Every one of our dollars goes back into our programs and our capital cost. uh but uh we have grown our financial reserves uh to to a very uh respectable number as well. Um the significance of this though it's it's about the the capital improvement projects and the purchases that we have uh coming up when we're buying something uh it's $1.5 million. It's $1.3 million. We're about to buy a grinder, two grinders this year uh for our programs. They're 1.3 million each. Uh a a bulldozer is $1.6 $6 million when we buy a bulldozer, right? And so on and on. These are heavy costs that come into

play for these programs as well as what's called the closure postclosure fund that we have to keep X dollars in uh to manage the landfill 30 years after it is closed. So those dollars are in that reserve as well. But it's a good thing. I mean, this is one of the only uh agencies and programs that you all participate in that does not take tax dollars, right? we are all uh revenue driven user pays. Uh and so that's a that's a significant difference um you know against a lot of other places um that are doing uh regional work. So we're blessed there and good stewards I believe. Legislative uh again we all have our legislative issues. Um mine are a little bit smaller than yours uh and uh and a little easier to overcome I think uh but uh we're a little more nimble than what they're trying to do to the cities. But believe me, we're in that fight with you as well. Uh we do have our own lobbyist and if we can ever help the cities on that piece, let us know because what happens to you will affect us at some point, right? Will affect our board members, will affect other things. And so let us know if if we can help uh when it comes to those um those talks and lobbying at the uh at the at the state house. I was up there seven times last year. I've been up there four times this year. And some of the things we're looking at is a battery bill u that we're we're trying to pass. Uh again, that's going to come down to lithium batteries and how we how we get uh reimbursed for the recyclables of lithium batteries through the manufacturers. Okay. And that's who we're going after. That's sweeping across the country. We have tweaked the one in Iowa a little bit. For uh some details, we can talk offline if you're uh excited about that type of stuff. But um again, to fit Iowa's mold, not just uh this the the country's mold. All right. And so that's what we're waiting on. We've just introduced that bill.

Well, it came in last year. It's through the funnel and we've now asked for an amendment on that. So, that's kind of what we're up to on that bottle bill is uh you know, we we say keep it keep it steady. We just uh invested the $350 mill,000 uh um piece of equipment uh to sort bottles and cans and redemption centers. And so, uh we want that to stay put for a little bit. We have a three-year ROI on that piece of equipment. Um that's how kind of lucrative that business is for the distributors and and the bottlers. Um right. And so we're trying to give more uh avenues for our residents uh to take their their batter bottles and redemption pieces back. That again, I know I went very fast on purpose. Um just to get you to your next item. If you look in front of you, Kayla uh handed out a a two sheet front and back, one sheet front and back. Uh it gives you your exact numbers. uh if you want to use some of your numbers for West De Mo are on the top uh twothirds uh of what you've done and the great work your residents have done. And then on the back shows you where Metro Waste Authority is in the state of Iowa. And so it might surprise you at this point, but we touch probably I'd say what is that half to twothirds um of the state in some way. And we're working with your legislators. We're working with the legislators in every one of these counties. We do multiple events for the legislators. We do tours for the legislators. We do an open house. It's very wellreceived. I've seen many of you down there as well uh that do open house at our central office during the beginning in January of the legislative season. And then um a lot of connections at the events and up at the state house as well. So trying to keep, you know, that kind of rural versus suburban uh at bay because what we're

saying is it's not the metro versus everybody else. If you look at this map, we are part of everywhere you go and what you're doing and so call on us to help you. And that's been really wellreceived. A lot of the legislators didn't even knew we kn know we were doing work in their backyard for them. And when they see this map, uh it gets a little friendlier during those talks. So, any questions? Any questions for Michael at all? Ju just a comment. I

I really appreciate the job that you do. I've had two or three different occasions as you remember over the last several years where we've had some kind of an issue that a resident has reached out to me and you've been extremely responsive, reached out to the resident, uh visited with them. Um, so I just can't thank you enough for being as responsive as you've been uh to our residents. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yep. Councilman. Well, I think it's spring cleaning time for a lot of folks and they might go to the basement, go to the garage, find some things that maybe they want to recycle, right? So, I appreciate you sharing a bunch of stuff. Just to confirm, if we have any special batteries, those are lithium batteries. Whatever you do, do not throw them away. Correct. Please do not.

What about double A batteries? They they can technically be thrown away. Uh, but our program will also take those. That's great news. What about old TVs? Uh, our program will take those, but those need to go to one of our facilities in Grimes or in Bondor. Uh, we'd prefer it to go there because those have tubes in them. And if you put them on your parking or something like that, they get broken. There's there different uh tubes inside there that you don't want uh broken in and on your front yard. And one more. Yes, sir. Old cords. Cords. Cords. USB cords. any sort of computer cord? That's the last question because I don't know and I have so many cords. Mike, I've tried to bake Caleb up a couple times. Okay.

Uh but uh yes, your cords can go into your battery drop off containers. There is a there is a section right built into that. There's three sections. One's for tablets, laptops, batteries, cords, cords. So, put the cords in there as well. Uh again, they're recyclable. Uh, and believe it or not, at the quantity that we're getting and and Christmas lights are huge, Christmas lights, we get paid for those uh on the recycling. Now, does it match what we put into it and all that? That's not the point, right? In programs like this. Absolutely. Do the right thing. Other things bring in the revenue to to pay for these other programs. But cords, um, we want them. All right.

There's probably nothing in your house. Well, I won't say that. I won't go as far as nothing. almost nothing in your house that we won't take and we can't take, right? But give us a call. Um, if you're in question, give us a call. Your residents can call us and ask us and Kayla's group will walk them through exactly the step by step to do it. Awesome. Thank you for sharing. I think we learned a lot. Appreciate it. All right. Anything else? Yeah, I got a quick question. Okay. Oh god, this is a setup. That was a softball, Michael. I I can't get a bigger softball for you. But uh on on the recycling for the you know the you had the bottle bill on those things that you take back and you get the nickel back and things. How's that? I just put them in my green container. Yeah.

Cuz I'm lazy in that. But you recycle them. But you don't do it because you're lazy. You're doing it because you want to donate to Metro Waste. How's that work?

Yeah. Yeah. We appreciate those donations. Um, and we call it donations because the bottlers and the distributors are trying to make a distinguished uh between us and them and saying that we aren't meant to get that. Uh, we're saying it's a donation by our residents. And so we capture every one of those we can. We don't want you to crush them. We don't want you to do anything to them. Put them in there. If they get crushed, they get crushed. We'll either capture them as aluminum or plastic. And if we capture them 3D whole, we can take that back as for the nickel, right? And we do that, right? It's been a huge We've done millions of bottles now. Uh I'll have to send uh Doug with the numbers, but we've done millions of of of redemption items. We get that money uh and we put it back into our programs and typically education programs and equipment uh for this program and to build other ones. So, we want you to put it in that green container if you can't get to us. If you can get to us, it's even better, right? Uh because you'll get your five cents and we get a redemption uh fee of three cents on everything. So, we both win if you bring it back.

Yeah. All right. Anything else for Michael? That was a softball, sir. All right. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you all for your time. All right. Let's talk about the batteries. No more fires. Okay. I thought Kayla was going to speak, but All right. We're done. All right, moving on. Uh, mayor, council, manager report. Uh, I will start down to my right with uh, city manager Hatton. Your report, your honor. All right, Councilman Hudson.

I was going to say a couple words, but I think uh, Mr. Mayor, you're going to do something here in a little bit. Um, I will say we had an election last week. Our turnout was up compared to the special election in February. So, I look forward to uh our new colleague, Fanette Elliot, joining us in that seat right next to the mayor. She has to sit next to the mayor, but uh that's where the new person goes. So, you got to sit next to you, Mr. Mayor. In any case, uh she draws the unlucky seat.

Congratulations to her and certainly uh to the other two candidates that did run in the last two elections. Uh thank you for putting your name out there because it takes a lot to run for anything certainly uh in the entire city of West De Moines. So, but congratulations to Councilwoman elect Elliot. And uh one last note, I took a moment to stop by the reclex this past weekend or it might have been two weekends ago uh when there was wrestling there, there was volleyball there and it was absolutely insane because there are just so many folks who are coming to Westmore which is awesome. tonight. Certainly, there's some uh some bond measures that we're going to be talking about as we talk about the new event center at the West De Mo or the Mid-American Energy Company, Reclex run by West De Moines and owned by West De Moines. And Shane Radcliffe, who's the director out there, he showed me a couple of plans while I was out there. And the new space is going to be absolutely lit. And it's going to be a perfect space for whatever event needs to happen. And uh I'm really really excited for us to dig a hole and eventually build a third rank but the new uh reclex event center. So thank you Shane for showing me some plans and I think we'll be revealing more and more of those plans as the weeks come along. Really enthusiastic about this project and that concludes my report. Mr. Mayor.

All right. Thank you Councilman Hudson. Councilman McKenna. Uh, thank you, Mayor. And, uh, I'll echo Councilman Hudson's congratulations to new Councilwoman, Finanette Elliott. Look forward to working with her. And, uh, congrats to both her and and, uh, her opponent, Kathern Harrington, on running a a quick, uh, but I think, uh, very intense race between the two of them. So, um, all right. So, a couple items that I want to update the group on and those that are, uh, here and and listening online. We had a development and planning uh subcommittee meeting this morning where administrative appeals was a I'm sorry, administrative approvals was a topic. short version. Um we're looking at ways to make it easier uh for folks that are interested in developing uh growing and and uh you know putting in applications to do activity economic development activity in the city of West De Moines more streamlined and easier um to to navigate, especially those that are going to get approved anyway. for those that are more controversial, that are complex, uh that need additional attention, we'll continue to uh require the attention that people uh require and deserve. So, that was a good thing. We also have um and Councilman Trail, I appreciate you uh bringing this up. You talked about u a warehouse along I35 behind the Sherin there. We had a very good discussion on that. Um it would be right behind the Sheridan uh off of uh off of 50th Street and uh behind there along the off-ramp from I35 and that property that that hotel has been there for about 50 years, 45 years. Nothing's developed. So half a century that Lowe's has been there for as we heard today about 25 years, a quarter of a century. Nothing's developed there. Um and so we had a really good conversation about got a vacant piece of ground, nothing's been happening. what can we as a community do to help ensure that this vacant piece of

ground right along I35 can get developed? And um so we heard uh from staff. Unfortunately, the the developer was not present, but uh we did have a good conversation uh how we have more flexibility in our comprehensive plan that was adopted 3 years ago. We've not we don't have the ordinance in place yet, but we believe it will allow for um greater flexibility. Unfortunately, the plan that was presented probably is not the perfect plan. Um, the buildings that were there were a little bit more agricultural in nature and probably doesn't fit the design or aesthetic. So, we talked about being able to find thread a needle, find a way for development to occur on that parcel, uh, but still ensure that what we don't do is blow up um, storage across the city. So, when you've got a storage unit off of, you know, right behind uh right off of 60th Street there, the U-Haul facility or right off of 51st Street or 50th Street, we don't want to blow it up in a way that now all of a sudden we're going to have a buildings classified as industrial uh to show up everywhere. So, I think we're moving forward with something. Uh and I I I'm hopeful that we can get to yes on on a project there.

Matt, if I can expand on it. Yeah. Um, I talked with the uh developer or the I don't know if you want to call them the developer, the ones with that have that project at least and they were not aware of the meeting this morning. So, I hope that the next time this comes up that development services will extend the invitation to them because I think when you're talking about something like this, you need everyone around the table um so that you can you know get their input and they are not going to uh you know be against making changes to their overall design of the building or the layout of where the doors and things like that will go. But I appreciate you guys

um addressing this and finding a way to make that happen because it's zoned commercial. Um but as you said, for 50 years nothing's built back there because nobody even knows that that property exists. You can't see it from 50th Street. Um you can barely see it from universities. You come across the bridge if you happen to look right really quick. So I think this is a great way to uh put that on the tax rolls um and get something good out of it. So, thank you.

And I'll and I'll take the blame for not having the applicant there. This was something that I talked to staff about. I know you guys were passionate about getting this on the agenda ASAP and so I asked staff to get this on the agenda as quickly as they possibly could, which didn't leave time to be able to contact the applicant to have them there. I mean, it is what it is. I'm not I'm just saying we had a good takes a phone call. I'm just saying it just takes a phone call. Yeah. Next time, I do hope though that everybody's around the table. Well, no good deed goes unpunished. trying I'm just trying I'm just trying to tell you I'm just trying to tell you. So I didn't mean to uh just try to give an update just trying to update everyone.

Um okay uh there were some comments earlier about uh flock and I just wanted to share a little bit.

Um I can tell you that I personally believe that we got to value privacy, security and safety no question asked. And uh when we had a um we had our budget hearing oh maybe 3 weeks ago on a Saturday talked about the importance of helping us convey and I know Tom you're continuing probably to look at this uh how we can better communicate to our residents the importance of their privacy their security and their safety. And so um just want to say a lot of conversation went into the uh decision to move forward with the uh flock group. There were many folks that were involved uh in that uh including the police department and not just myself but a lot of members on the council. Um we are not going to move forward with something that compromises somebody's safety, their security or their privacy. Uh frankly, it's the people's safety and security for a reason why we move forward uh with that. Um, you know, the short version is if a crime is going to be committed in the city of West De Moines, this system is going to help ensure that that crime is solved, that the victim uh has u that the defendant can be brought to justice more quickly and the victim can have uh their day in court as well. Countless crimes have been solved as a result of the uh of the Flock camera. Victims have been found. Amber Alert individuals have been located. Um, and you know, we all know how much retail we have in this community. We have a tremendous amount of retail, which is great. On the other hand, it's a target for crime. And uh, this system allows our officers to conduct investigations much more efficiently and with a result that we are going to find folks that commit crimes. Prior to this system, we had crimes unfortunately that would go unsolved. Um, this system has helped ensure that the rate of crime solving,

so to speak, has gone dramatically up. We don't use facial recognition in the city of West De Mo. I've talked to our uh, police chief Chris Scott before and he assured me we do not use facial recognition as part of the flock system. We also do not capture video. It is focused on license plates. It's not focused on the driver. It's not focused on the passenger, not focused on any other part of the vehicle other than the license plate. and we don't keep information indefinitely. Keep the information up to 30 days and at that point it is gone. I'll tell you that I believe in continuous improvement. I appreciated the gentleman being here earlier tonight. If there are things that we need to do and I've already been in touch with Greta, our city attorney, a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago about some things that I had heard and I asked her to look into it. We're going to continue to evaluate things and if there's things that that need to be improved, we'll absolutely do it. Uh but at this point um I'm not aware of anything and and the initial feedback from Greta is that the security systems are in place, the protocols are in place and we've got protection out there. So but I just uh I didn't want that to stand unnoticed and I thought it'd be important to say something. So thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. You know, I'm going to elaborate on that a little bit. Uh so I'm a I'm a big believer in these flock cameras. Uh they have helped us to solve all kinds of crimes, as you said, that we otherwise wouldn't be able to solve. Uh we've had all kinds of different shoplifting where we've been able to identify the person that uh that stole the items and arrest them. We have had Amber alerts that we've been able to solve as a result of these flock cams. Um one of them I think uh some of us went to the apartment building where the teenager was abducted and because of the flock cameras uh they located her down in was it uh Tennessee somewhere and we were able to get her back. I don't know that we would have uh been able to find that individual without these flock cameras. Um we had uh burglary uh multiple car burglaries that were reported at Raccoon River Park resulting in approximately $9,000 in fraudulent credit card purchases. We were able to catch the individual that did that as a result of the flock cameras, stolen vehicles at Jordan Creek Town Center. Uh we were able to find the stolen vehicle and uh the individual that did this was arrested for uh seconddegree theft and had federal warrant for alien smuggling out of Texas. Um there was a bank robbery that was done. We were able to locate the suspects on that and have them arrested. I mean it it goes it goes on and on and on. But the thing that we're not talking about is how much this is going to deter crime in the future. When people see these flock cameras and they say, "I'm not going to go out there." They've got these cameras. And the other thing, as you talked about, Councilman, the facial recognition, we do not use that. Um, and we have got uh security protocol. We've got safeguards designed to protect

residents rights to ensure a responsible use of the technology. We've got a secure login that's required. It can only be uh for authorized law enforcement purposes. Each search requires the users to enter the offense type and the time parameters may include a case number or investigative jurisdiction. Data retention, as you said, is limited by state law. I think that's 30 days. uh and the information that's collected is deleted after the defined period. Uh before taking enforcement action, officers must verify any system alert through appropriate law enforcement databases to guard against misidentification. When uh data is shared with other agencies, the request must include the requesting agency name, the requesttor, the intended purpose and approval by supervisory staff and these requests are kept on file for full accountability. Additionally, all system activity is logged and can be audited in the same manner as sensitive state and federal databases, ensuring that any concerns can be quickly investigated. These safeguards align with the best practice recommendations from national privacy assessments. So, these have been an unbelievable tool that have helped keep our people safe. Uh, and I fully support these. if there's some issue that needs to be improved upon, if we find out that there's some flaw with the camera, uh, happy to look into that, make sure we're fully protecting people's privacy and and their data. Um, but it's not that these cameras also read every single license plate as they as you go through. As as I said in here, you've got to identify uh a plate that you're looking for for a certain crime, and then it looks for that plate. And if it finds that plate, then you get an alert. It's not reading, you know, 20,000 plates as it goes through. It's just the plates that are identified as somebody that they believe

is a suspect in a crime. So, these are extremely important. Okay. Before I go on to Councilman Trailion for his report, um I do want to take a moment of silence here. We've had some uh West De Moines residents uh people associated with with our city that have been killed in action uh in the war recently. Uh including Sergeant Declan Cody. Uh I know his parents. I know that family. Uh Sergeant Edgar Brian Torres Tovar who I believe attended Dowling Catholic High School. Uh, also chief warrant officer three, Robert Marzan, who lived in West De Moine, uh, from 2007 to 2023. And I'm also going to include uh, Major Jeff O'Brien, who is from the city of Walke, our neighboring city. So, would you please uh, can we please take a moment of silence? Thank you. We are looking uh at ways to try to honor these individuals. I've been in communication with the West and White Community Foundation and Robert Palmer. We've uh been discussing some ideas and we hope to come up with something uh a little bit later. So, Councilman Travillian,

nothing at this time, your honor. Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Lotz. Uh, you guys all did a lot of talking today, so I'm going to report nothing. So, thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilman. Appreciate the brevity. All right. Moving on to item four, consent agenda. Are there any items that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately? Otherwise, I would take a motion to approve the consent agenda as second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please vote four. Yes.

Okay. Moving on to item five, old business. Item 5A, Falcon Heights, south of Veterans Parkway and west of Southeast 35th Street. Amend the zoning map to establish Single Family Residential Zoning, Eaglebrook LLC. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval, the second reading, waiver the third reading, and adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Move consideration of the second reading. Second. Okay. So moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Please vote. Four. Yes. Or amen the official zoning map of the city of West Iowa 2024 by amending title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Move approval of the second reading.

Second. Okay. Please vote. Four. Yes. Uh move to wave the third reading and adopt in final form. Second. Okay. Please vote for yes. Okay. Item 5B uh ordinance amendment amend title 9 zoning to modify regulations related to temporary use permits. City initiated. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval. The second reading waiver the third and adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting. Motion to consider second reading. Second. It's moved and second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Hearing none. Please vote

for yes. Normen city code of the city west Iowa 2024 title 9 zoning chapter 16 temporary use permits pertaining to provision of shy for certain temporary uses. Motion to approve the second reading. Second. Okay. Please vote. Four. Yes. Motion to wave the third reading and adopt in final form. Second. Please vote. Four. Yes.

Okay. Item six, public hearings. Item 6A. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider Dalling Catholic High School, 1400 Buffalo Road. to amend the planned unit development ordinance to update the sketch plan for future building addition, new access on 17th Street, and changes to the internal parking lot initiated by Dowink College continued from March 2nd, 2026. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? February 13th, 2026 in the De Mo register. And have we received any written comments to this hearing? The plan zoning commission by vote of 6 with one absent adopted a resolution recommending approval of the PUD amendment.

Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on item 6A, please come to the podium. Give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on item 6A? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the first reading and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to consider the first reading. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion? Yes. Okay. This is probably a Lynn question.

So, they're going to add another driveway off of 17th Street. And so, currently they've got um two off of Buffalo Road. Two questions. Is are the Buffalo Road entrances and exits going to stay? And second, what is the uh lane configuration for entering and exiting off of 17th Street? Is it going to be, you know, one way in, one way out? How's that going to work? Because I know there's already some traffic issues on 17th Street and we there's been traffic issues on Buffalo. So, I think this is going to help alleviate some of that on Buffalo, I hope. But, uh, how is the traffic flow going to be?

Uh, Lyn Tweet, director of development services, I honestly have not reviewed the traffic study that would been done for this. We do have dowling representatives here that can speak to what's that traffic flow going to be. Um, and I don't know that Brian probably is does not have the traffic study either at the tip of his finger. So, this is just changing that that PUD sketch plan. We understand that, but people have been calling me asking me about that. That's what I'm bringing. We have the major mod that'll be coming forward right at right on the heels of this and that would have those details then of lane configurations and what everything is going to how it's all going to shake out and come together I guess is for lack of a better way.

And I think the council report talks about and there is there is already uh an entrance and an exit on 17th Street. So I'm assuming that one will stay and they'll they'll add one more, right? which which should help a little bit, but I think there is in the council uh communication um a concern that we need to watch for queuing. The queuing that happens right now on Buffalo Road could potentially happen on 17th Street. But it says if that does happen, that's something that Dowling Catholic is going to have to address.

Okay. Also, and I'm going to bring this to the police chief's attention. Um, you might want to put some officers down there on Center Street to monitor traffic. We could probably pay your salary with the uh tickets issued. Just from what I'm hearing from the residents down there, it gets to be a drag race coming down 17th and going up Center Street to the west to 22nd Street. So that is a huge issue that we need to get corrected now because to me if if you put another entrance out and or exit out there after school it's probably going to get worse. So okay any other comments questions Kevin?

No no not at this time. All right any other discussion on this item before we vote? Okay hearing none. Please vote. Four. Yes. An ordinance amending the city code of city west of Manima 2024 and the Dow Catholic High School ordinance pertaining to PUB district regulations and guidelines. Motion to approve the first reading. Second. Please vote.

And mayor, I just I meant to say earlier is this. No, no, it's fine. I'm It's great to see this this uh growth uh for Dalling. uh we're seeing um you know some of the plans on here and you know certainly recognize Councilman Travillian's comments and we certain we obviously want to make sure that the traffic is addressed and safety is is also uh paramount but uh seeing this sort of growth out there I think is a great thing for our community and I'm excited to support this. I agree. I agree. Thank you, Councilman. Okay.

Four. Yes. All right. Moving on to item 6B. This is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider Lounberry Grand West southwest corner of Grand Avenue and Interstate 35. Repeal the Sweet Shots planned unit development and amend the zoning map to establish commercial zoning initiated by West Grand Properties LLC and Andrew and Benjamin Lounsberry. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice was published? March 3rd, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have we received any written comments to this hearing? uh plan zoning commission by a vote of 6 yes with one absent adopted resolutions recommending the repeal of the PUD ordinance and approval of the zoning request.

Okay. Anybody in the audience who would like to address the council on item 6B, please come to the podium. Give us your name and address of the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on item 6B? Okay. hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got an ordinance for approval of the first reading to repeal the PUD uh and an ordinance for approval of the first reading for assignment of zoning. We need to take these separately. Does someone want to move consideration of the first reading to repeal the PUD? I'll move uh consideration of the first reading to repeal the PUD.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote. for yes. Norman the officials only map the city of West Point Iowa 2024 by repealing PUD district regulations and guidelines for the Sweet Shots PUD. Move approval of the first reading of repeal of the PUD. Second. Okay, please vote four. Yes, it is. I'm sorry. Move consideration of uh the first reading for assignment of zoning. Second. Okay. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote

for yes. Amen. The official zoning map of the city of Westwood, Iowa 2024 by amending many title 9 zoning chapter 4 zoning districts and maps. Move approval of the first reading for assignment of zoning. Second. Please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. Item 6 C. This is a time and place for a public hearing to consider South Southeast 35th Street urban renewal area initiated by the city of West De Moine. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice was published? March 13th, 2026 in the De Mo register. And have we received any written comments of this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council item 6C, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself, and do the same. Is there anybody either online or in the council chambers that would like to address the council on item 6 C? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We've got a resolution for approval of the creation of the Southeast 35th Street urban renewal plan and there are no outstanding issues. Uh this was also approved unanimously by the Finance Administration city council subcommittee. Motion to approve. Okay, it's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote.

Four yes. Okay. Item 6D. This is a time and place for a public hearing to consider fire and EMS station number 13,650 Southeast Mafik Lake Road reservation of permanent public easement for water main initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 11th, 2026 in the De Mo register and have received any written comments of this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience who would like to address a council item 6D, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. We have resolution for approval and acceptance of the reservation of permanent public easement and rightway for the water man for the fire and EMS station number 13. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and second. Is there any discussion? Well, given we approved uh sorry, Mary, given that we approved item 6 C, which has a potential for up to 800 new residential dwelling units with an estimated total construction value exceeding $495 million at the full buildout, making sure we move forward with number fire station number 13 is pretty important. That's going to help serve that area. Absolutely. Thanks for pulling that together for the crowd, Matt. Yep. Yeah, great great point. Okay, any other discussion on this item before we vote? Okay, please vote. Four. Yes.

Okay. Item 6E. This is a time and place for public hearing to consider Ashworth Road reconstruction 19th Street to 23rd Street initiated by the city of West De Moines. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have we received any written comments to this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience who'd like to address the council on item 6E, please come to the podium, give us your name and address of the record. If you're online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And we've got uh two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Second. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Yes. Good.

Brian, I'm going to ask that uh when you have the pre-construction meeting for this that you notify all the property owners that are going to be affected by it because a couple of of them have called me uh asking about it. So, I just ask if we extend that invitation to all of them if they choose to come. So, thank you. I agree. And I know you're already doing this, but the more communicate the more communication the better. Thank you. Okay. Any other discussion before we vote? All right, please vote. Four. Yes.

Okay. Item 6F. Uh, this is a time and a place for a public hearing to consider. Southeast Salix Drive, Veterans Parkway to Southeast First Street, initiated by the city of West De Moine. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have you received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Okay, anybody in the audience that would like to address the council on this item, please come to the podium, give us your name and address of the record. Anybody online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either in the council chambers or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay, seeing and hearing no one, I'll declare the public hearing closed. And we've once again got two resolutions and a motion we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote.

Four. Yes. Okay. Item 6G. This is a time and place for a public hearing to consider 2026 HMA resurfacing program phase 2 initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have you received any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on item 6G, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star 62, unmute yourself, and do the same. Is there anybody that would like to address the city council on this item? Okay, I will declare the public hearing closed. And we've got two resolutions and a motion we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. So moved. Is second. moved and second. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote for yes.

Okay. Item 6H. This is a time and place for a public hearing to consider Legacy Woods storm water wetland contract a initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo register. And if we receive any written comments at this hearing? None, your honor. Okay. Anybody in the audience would like to address the council on this item, please come to the podium, give us your name and address for the record. If you're online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Is there anybody either online or in the chambers that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I will declare the public hearing closed. And again, we've got two resolutions and a motion we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve.

Second. Okay. It's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion in the dis? Uh, I just want to say good job to staff finding $870,000 in grants to do this. Legacy Woods is an incredible project and it's um I'm really excited to see this happening. Amen. Absolutely. I agree with Councilman Lot. I mean, when you look at the list, the Great Outdoors Foundation Conservation Accelerator Grant, Microsoft Corporation, Great Outdoors Foundation, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. Want to definitely give a shout out to all of these groups that were that are giving Legacy Woods a chance to be something special and I agree with you wholeheartedly, Councilman Lot. It's going to be a great project.

All right. Is there any further discussion in the DAS before we vote? Okay. Hearing none, please vote for yes. Oh, and the reap fund grant and community foundation of greater de mo as well. Sorry, I just wonder why you left those out. Sorry. No, I just stopped reading because I thought that I was being boring and I was like, but absolutely there are more on the list. I finished it up. Apologies. All right. Thank you, Councilman. All right. Moving on to item 6 I. This is a time and place for a public hearing to consider Legacy Wood Storm Water Wetland Contract B initiated by the city of West De Mo. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published? March 6, 2026 in the De Mo Register. And have we received any written comments of this hearing? None, your honor.

Okay. Okay. Anybody in the audience like to address the council on item 6 I? Please come to the podium. Give us your name and address for the record. If you're online, hit star six to unmute yourself and do the same. Would anybody like to address the council on this item? Going once. Going twice. I will declare the public hearing closed. And we've once again got two resolutions and emotions we can take at the same time. And there are no outstanding issues. Motion for approval. Second. It's a move and second. Is there any discussion on the dis? Okay, please vote or yes.

Okay. Item seven, new business. Item 7 A, quick trip 1931 Plat 1, 3501 Westtown Parkway, approved final plat creating one lot for commercial development, one outlot and two street lots, Herd Valley West LLC. We've got a resolution for approval and release of the final plat. And there are no outstanding issues. There are three conditions of approval, including the applicant addressing any remaining final plat review comments, the applicant acknowledging and agreeing that existing private easements within the property are vacated and reestablished, and finally the applicant providing a number of easements as specified and required in the council communication. With that, does somebody want to approve the resolution? Motion for approval. Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Uh would any anybody in the audience or online like to address the council on this item? All right, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record.

All right, good evening. My name is Casey Boner. I'm a real estate manager for Quick Trip and Quickstar. Uh address is 1626 Oak Street in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, 54602. So, first off, I just want to start off by uh thanking the mayor and city council members for reviewing and approving our site plan and preliminary plat at the previous council meeting and then for um reviewing the final plat that's in front of you tonight. Um I also want to um thank the city staff uh for the multiple meetings and discussions that we've had with them to get us to this point. And also thank you um to the property owner Richard Herd for um supporting this development as well. So if all goes as planned um we hope we look forward to this new store in the Valley West uh University corridor and look forward to being a part of the redevelopment in this area. Um while we have other stores in the greater De Moine area, we do not have one in West De Mo yet. Um so I thought I would just start off by giving you a quick overview um of our company. So, Quick Trip was founded in 1965 by the Zitlo and Hansen families. It continues to be owned by four generations of the Zitlo family today with over 900 stores in seven states. So, we have uh three priorities at Quicktrip. First, unlike um other convenience store chains, Quick Trip and Quickstar is vert vertically integrated. At our Lacrosse campus, we have a dairy plant, sweets bakery, bed and bread and bun bakery, and kitchen where more than 70% of our offerings in our stores are made. Deliveries are made from Lacrosse to each store every day to provide the freshest products uh to our guests. So, we make it, we ship it, and we sell it. Our second priority is food. We aim to offer a great quality, value, and selection at good prices. And last, but

not least, our people. our co-workers, guests, and community. The Zitlo family believes that if you treat your employees well, um they will in turn treat our guests right. That said, the Zitlo family graciously shares 40% of the pre-tax profit each year with all of the employees. In each of our stores, we also aim to provide the best customer service and give back to the community. So hopefully we look forward to bringing um a store to West De Moine, giving back to the community and providing great customer service, clean stores and fresh products at a good value. So thank you. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Casey. Really appreciate your investment in our community, Richard. Thank you for bringing them here and getting this done. Uh you know, I I always ask people, what do we not have here that you want to see here? And there have been a number of people uh that have said your convenience store and talk about the food and uh everything that they love about it. And so now I can I can go back to them and say, "Hey, we're we're delivering on this. We heard you and we're delivering." So we're excited to have you here in West De Mo and we know that there will be additional investment in our community as well. And we look forward to that. So thanks. I'm excited to pick up a chicken.

Yeah. That's that's that's what I heard about. That's the that's the one thing they said. They got incredible chicken. Can I can I make a comment? Um, absolutely. This is part of the whole corridor we're trying to get redeveloped here. And I want to just give staff and Councilman McKenna and and some of the other people that worked on this. We worked hard and fast on this to get it through. It did not fit what was already in place from the previous developments, I don't know, 50 years ago or whatever. And so, this is a testament to when we want to get something done, we can really move things along. And I think that was also at developmental planning today saying, "Look, if it fits in the box, let's just have staff approve it and it doesn't need to come to council and wait for 3 weeks." So, thank you.

Well, and the other thing that's really exciting here is this is another great development that's occurring in an area that needs uh development very badly and we're really excited to get working on, you know, uh re rehabbing, breathing fresh life into into Valley West Mall. It's going to be something great when we're done. But, you know, we thought that West Bank would help jumpst start that, their corporate headquarters. And of course, there's been a little bit of time that's passed since West Bank put their corporate headquarters here, but now we've got additional investment in the area. Uh, and we know of more development to come in this area. So, this is the start of something great and we really appreciate your investment.

Yeah, I just echo that. um uh echo all those comments. First, Doug, uh to to Lynn and her team for helping move this forward. Um this is an important area that we're going to be focusing on and um and so I'm glad to see this moving forward. Um Richard, thank you for being here. You didn't have to be here. Um but you know, you put in the time, you put in the effort, you bring great projects to the community, so thank you for doing that. Casey, thanks for making the trip down. Um, you didn't probably have to be here either, but you know, the fact that you're showing up makes a difference. Uh, and it's it's certainly recognized on my part. And, uh, if you have time, tell Joe hello. Zilo. Thank you.

All right. Uh, with that, uh, any other discussion? Okay. Please vote

for yes. Okay. Item 7B, Cross Creek 2475 Southeast First Street. Uh, approve a preliminary plat to create 23 lots for single family residential development, one outlot, one street lot, Savannah Development LLC. We've got a resolution for approval of the preliminary plat and there are no outstanding issues. There is one condition of approval uh that the council provide a waiver of the landscape buffer along veterans and accept tree plantings in the common areas behind lots 11, 12, and 13 in lie of the buffer. With that, does somebody want to move the resolution? So moved. Okay. So moved there second.

It's been moved and seconded. Uh is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on item 7B? Okay. Is there any discussion on the dis hearing? None. Please vote for yes. Okay. Item 7 C. We've got a resolution for issuance of not to exceed 44.7 million in taxable general obligation local option sales tax bonds and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded and Suzanne is coming up to uh give us an update.

Good evening. Suzanne Gerlock with PFM Financial Adviserss. Uh serve as municipal adviser to the city for over 20 years now. Um good news to report on the bond sales today. Um for series A 44,700,000 taxable geoloc option sales tax bond to fund the reclex expansion that was mentioned earlier. Uh first always have to start by saying congratulations on uh the affirmation of the AAA bond rating uh by Moody's Investor Service. The city is currently rated AAA which is the highest possible credit rating by both Moody's and S&P. So congratulations. Um, we structured these bonds over a 20-year term and went to the market today. Um, after some news and some bumps in the road the last couple weeks, there's a couple things going around uh going on in the global economy, but uh very excited to get nine bids from over 48 different banks today. Uh true interest cost, which is sort of that aggregated APR over the 20-year term of the bonds, uh under 5% today. Uh we have the winning bidder uh came from Piper Sandler um out of Minneapolis, Minnesota at 4.98% um all the way down to the last place bidder um at 5.14%. So uh consensus was definitely under 5% in uh pricing with just a couple outliers in the back. Um the second place bid was less than a fraction of a basis point um 0.008 0008 behind uh Piper Sandler was Hilltop Securities out of Dallas, Texas, who I'm sure was very disappointed this morning. Um when we look at pricing, um you know, treasuries have we I'm I'm the spread I'm going to share um 1.67% over the AAA tax exempt scale. Um and as as we've all read in the headlines, treasuries have had again a bumpy road with things going on the global economy. Um but as a sort of

example, the last um the last deal that the taxable deal the city did in 2023 uh was 1.87% over the BV val scale. So actually better pricing today. Um and a TIC under 5%. PFM had budgeted 5.5%. So we are well within budget and uh final debt service costs around $40,000 per year less than we anticipated. So with that, any questions? That is awesome. Any questions for Suzanne at all? Suzanne, uh certainly it feels like there's some instability in the globe right now. Uh can you tell me we had 10 biders? Yes. How good is that?

Our goal is three with a competitive sale and a good sale is five and the city had 10. I think your record might be 14. So, uh and I will say for a taxable deal, fantastic. We're always very excited to get three bids in a taxable sale and the taxable market's a little bit smaller than the tax exempt market in the MUN world. So that's why um and 10 is fantastic. Would it be safe to say that the 10 biders are already familiar with the city of West De Mo?

Yes. Uh Piper Sandler, Hilltop, I'm just looking at the list. Wells Fargo, Raymond James, FHN, Robert W. Barrett, large syndicate, Oppenheimer um is a newer and UBS. Every one of them has been a bidder for the city of West Mo in the past and and always stands out. So the fact that all 10 of them offered incredibly competitive bids that were really really close to each other, that means that from what I hear, we're doing a very good job. Yes. Thank you for confirming that. Yes.

Well, and that's an extremely important thing. I mean, I think we are one of a hundred cities in the entire United States that is AAA bond rated by both Moody's and S&P. And you know, we need to do everything we can to make sure that we maintain that AAA bond rating with both of the rating agencies. Unfortunately, some of this is outside of our our control, but everything we can do within our control, we are doing that and we're going to continue to do that. So, and the only city in the state of Iowa that has triplet by both rating agencies. Wow. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for the job that you do for us. You guys have just done a phenomenal job for us over the years and we really appreciate all that you do. It's honored to serve the city of West Hine. All right. Thank you, Suzanne. Yep.

All right. Any discussion before we vote? Okay. Please vote. Four. Yes. Okay. Item 70. We've got a resolution for the issuance of not to exceed 15.19 million in general obligation bonds and there are no outstanding issues. This was also approved unanimously by the finance and administration city council subcommittee. Does somebody want to move? Motion to approve. Second. It's been moved and seconded. And we will go to Suzanne.

All right. Uh this is the annual GOCIP issuance. Um we went to market today. We did a 13-year term on this. A little bit shorter than what we saw in the taxp deal. Again, 10 bids from 43 different banks. Um, I will point out that this is the first time the city has received a bid from our Sealison company. They're usually part of the Baird Syndicate, but they pulled out of that syndicate to bid on their own today um for the the city's bonds. They weren't the winner. Um, but they that is a new bidder I wanted to point out on the list. Um, they've been bidding in bear with bears, so I would say they're familiar with the city's credit, but the first time they bid on their own. Um, true interest cost range here 3.33 to 3.6 six over all 10 bids today. Um the cover bids a little bit wider spread between the winning bid from Key Bank Capital Markets out of Cleveland, Ohio, they were at 3.33% and um TD Financial Products was at 3.42%. So um almost nine basis points uh between the winning bid. That tells me that Key Bank really wanted to win today and we got the benefit of the competitive sale today. That's what that tells me. And there was definitely consensus around 3.4 4 3.42 3.6 46. So there was definitely consensus sub 3.5 which is where I would have guessed we would price it would be 3.5. So we beat my estimates again. Um pricing uh again a little bit wider spreads I think because of some of the uncertainty uh 42 uh basis points uh 42 basis points over AAA BV val scale but again in this case your TIC is lower than even last year when we were pricing in the market. So we priced tighter last year with a higher TIC. I'll take a little bit wider spreads with a lower TIC which means lower um cost to the to the citizens of West De Moines. Um these uh these bonds are going to be paid for by the debt service levy and will be included in the FY27 budget uh exactly um as budgeted.

The couponing came in exactly as I anticipated and it matches the information that we've given to Tim and Chris. All right. Thank you so much Suzanne. Any other questions for Suzanne? Not for tonight Suzanne but sometime I would like to understand from you how do these banks price these things? So, okay. I I can like if you got a 30 second overview, I'd love it. But otherwise,

uh there's I would say three three primarily three primary pieces to how they structure their bids. Uh credit, uh risk, and then profit, right? And those three things, um I would say go into the bid. Credit, you nail it. You're out of the park. Risk, that's the that's the global economy. That's the things outside the city's control. That was why I'm saying the spreads are a little bit higher. um and then their own profits. So, in order to win a competitive sale, they either have to give you lower interest rates or reduce what they're going to take in that sales commission. And that's why we choose a competitive sale route for a highly rated city like West De Moine because they have to sharpen their pencil if they want to win. Sounds good. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you.

Um also maybe for a later time um and it doesn't relate directly to this, but it it relates to the importance of our AAA bond rating. Okay. And um I I know we all believe it's very important and it is important and it's critical that we maintain it. There are conversations happening uh about policy reform statewide on property tax. Yes. And one of those things that folks are talking about is how much we can have in reserves. Yes. Right now the conversation is around hey you can have no more than 35%.

Yes. Um, I want to make sure that we as a community, if there are things, and we don't need to get into the details now, but after the fact, I'd love to learn from you. If we reduce our reserves to 35%, what impact that may have on our community and ultimately our credit rating. And so, for example, if we didn't have a credit AAA uh bond rating today and we were something less than, you know, rather than the 3 point, well, I look at the right number here, but rather than the 4.9802, what would it would it have been at? Right. Um, I know you can't tell us like that. That's looking into a crystal ball. I can always give you a little bit of an answer.

Yeah. So, that's something I'd like to learn because there are a lot of active conversations going on around that. And um if you don't say something, people don't know. And if they don't know and something gets passed, shame on us for not saying it. And so that's why I'd like to better understand. And you know, if you can share something now, great. If not, I'd love to connect afterwards.

Uh, briefly, I'll just say the financial metrics in both uh Moody's and S&P Scorecard is 40% fund balance for the AAA scale, but that is for all governmental funds. General fund is obviously the largest governmental fund, but it is 40% for the AAA scale um in both scorecards. And so that is obviously the number one on my list when I look at um fund balance limitations that has credit consequences. Um I say city of West De Mo you have enough other financial flexibility other revenue sources that I don't think it would be necessarily an automatic downgrade. Um but it does put there is a portion of the scorecard that is an institutional framework score for the state laws that govern a city's ability to raise revenues, flexibility, all the different things. And currently that used to be AAA. Um that was changed to double A back when the house file house file 718 started and they started to um put some ratchet down provisions in there. That score already is at double A. Um any fund the 10% we got asked I I got we got I had a conversation with S&P and Moody's is this really going to happen when the 10% even was proposed. They're watching they're watching and that is the first score that would change is the institutional framework score which is 10% of the scorecard. And then secondarily it would be any implications uh locally. Um yeah and then you know as an example of the pricing uh AAA to the double A range I would say it's 10 to 15 basis points for every notch down. Um and it's going to vary daytoday over the 5year 10 year 15 year 20 year. Um but the PV of one basis point today was just under $8,000. So you know it could be $80,000 could be $100,000. Um, it just depends on the bonds you're pricing. And

you say PV, you mean present value. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Yes. Present value. The present value of one basis point today. So, you know, as an example, when we look at first place and second place, nine basis points, um, is $63,000 that you saved in the competitive sale today, which more than pays for my fee. So, yeah, I appreciate you taking the time to walk through that uh because we we all need to know that uh so that we can advocate accordingly. I understand and I appreciate that folks actually are listening. I think to some of these items and I'm hopeful that we can take this information and perhaps other information and utilize it so that we can find ourselves a year from now, no matter what happens up there, in a position where we can continue to maintain our AAA bond rating and make sure that those tax dollars are used most efficiently and effectively. Thank you.

Yeah, and I'm always here to answer questions and be helpful if um if it's helpful for talking points or analysis or anything like that. Okay. Thank you so much, Suzanne. Thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Uh anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on this item? Okay. Any discussion in the dis hearing? None. Please vote for yes.

Okay. Uh item 7E. Uh we've got a resolution for approval of the finance and administration city council subcommittee recommendations for allocation of the hotel motel tax revenues and there are no outstanding issues. But the way that we're going to do this is um you can see that there are items here. Uh 7E1 I guess is uh Tall Grass Theater Company uh who was awarded $10,000. Uh item 7E2, girls softball, and so on and so forth. We're going to treat this just like we would the consent agenda. Are there any of these items from 7E 1 2 3 4 5 all the way down to seven that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately?

I uh yes, mayor. I'd like to have item six, Taste of the Junction. and I serve on the Taste of the Junction board. Okay. So, I'll be abstaining from Okay. So, we will pull item uh 7E6. Um any other items that any council person would like to have pulled and voted on separately? 75 maybe or no. Looks like no. Okay. I will make a motion to move the remainder.

Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Uh, anybody in the audience or online that would like to address the council on on these items? All right, come up. Dr. Vicky Longill, give us your name and address for the record.

Yes. Good evening. Dr. Vicky Longill, 136 10th Street. And I'm before you um this evening as it relates to the hotel motel funds. I must say I apologize for coming late but I left a course education course to come here um when I noticed that the Eddie Davis Community Center was not awarded or listed on um the awards made under hotel motel grants and I'm pretty certain of this but besides the West De Mo human services the Eddie Davis Community service is the only other nonprofit organization in West De Moines that do serve the community human social education uh etc. And we have been I don't need to tell you the story I think you all know it but um it did alarm me that we weren't on the list nor were we funded. We um are known as a stop gap agency in that other social and government human service programs refer individuals to our organization. one of many roles we play when um you have persons who may not otherwise be eligible or meet the income guidelines uh demographic guidelines to receive services. We are a part partner with the food bank of Iowa have been for over 20 30 years in particular. We have always had the policy and we set we set the the role for just serving anybody food when they

come into the center and in need. whatever food staple that we have, we do serve the individuals. Unlike some other agencies, and I believe there's been a change with some agencies where you can only get one sack every 30 days, we serve people. And again, we're known as as that. And and we're known at it from we we're known as it from other um government agencies as well as United Way 211. and we get accolades for that in recognition that we know we can send individuals um who otherwise would not be eligible and they can get served. So as I pondered on this and I came in I'm like what happened? I mean I I I don't recall any phone calls or anything but I did speak Mr. Styles and he stated that he didn't get our application. I don't know. I can't speak for him. I don't know if anything else happened, but I do have proof of the email that was sent to the community center as well as the email where we did submit our application. So, with all of that being said, I I would um plead with the court with the court. See, that's a court term, right? My prayer of relief. No, but uh I would uh present to the city council that our application be considered for funding. We do depend upon the funding to assist the West De Mo residents who are otherwise left without. So I would ask that at least something be a motion be made or reconsideration

if you want to defer whatever action would need to be taken.

I I don't think we canider make a motion on the fly at this point in time. We'd have to take a look at the application, look at what was requested and everything else. uh you know we can go back and and take a look at our records to see if we overlook something and and missed your application and if so we can bring it back to finance administration to uh have a discussion about it. I can't promise anything but um my recommendation would be that we move forward tonight and that we get with Tim and and see what might have happened to your application and uh find out why it was not uh why it was not here. Um, but to as to make a motion tonight on the on the fly, I don't think we can do that.

I agree with you, Mr. Mayor. We can we can absolutely circle back. So, Vicki one, I apologize. I never got to see an application from you. So, if it got lost in the mix, got lost in the world of the internet. Uh, whatever might have happened, we're going to look into it. But, uh, Councilman Lot and I, we did not get to see your application at all. So, apologies for any error on the city's behalf. Truly sorry about that. But I agree with the mayor on the fly tonight. We can't do anything. But let's let's keep this door open to having a further conversation to find out more about this.

And and that's satisfactory to me. And I was not making the reference that to do it on the fly. Oh yeah. I'm just saying I mean you can use those words but I'm just saying please work with me and find a way where we could come back and reconsider our application and what you're saying is satisfactory to me. So I do look forward to having further conversations.

Well, we appreciate you. We will take a look at it. I will say to all applicants of our hotel motel tax and I think everybody knows this. Uh, one, we've tried to make sure people understand that this is not something that people can count on every single year, year after year. It was never intended to be that. It kind of has become that, but it was never intended to be that. Uh, and two, um, you know, we're looking at having to do more with less, uh, getting squeezed from all angles. And um so I know that we're looking at uh trying to cut back on the amount of of funding through hotel motel tax that we provide to all of the organizations that do not provide uh a function that the city otherwise would be having to provide. Um so and that I think is going to occur. I think we're going to continue to cut back little by little on the awarding of this of these funds. I know there are other cities that don't award any of these funds. Um, some do, but most I don't think do. And I'm proud that we have because it goes to a lot of of of great um, you know, sources of of of service for the community, including the Eddie Davis Center and we appreciate the partnership we've had with you over the years. You guys do a great job. So, uh, we'll take a look at that.

To the choir, what you're saying, I really know and matter. This was the first year that you didn't have in uh person interviews or I would have been at that too. So we do know and I'm part of the same group that have received funds 100,000 120 whatever 10,000 five. So I understand I'm not the only organization that's coming back repeatedly and I appreciate that. Yep. Nope. You're right. Thank you. You're right. Thank you for being here Vicki. Okay. Anybody else in the audience or online that would like to address the council on

this item that which is everything but item 7E6. Okay. Hearing and seeing no one is there any discussion on the dis?

Yeah sure Mr. Mayor certainly want to thank Councilman Lotz for serving with me on the FNA committee and as we as we go through these but per conversations with that we've had on the dis with staff the ultimately the goal has been to reduce these award levels that's just been what a lot of us have said and with with the given pressures coming from uh outside forces um I think that we will find more and more even though the hotel motel tax money that we receive is is very very robust for the aforementioned reason that people are coming to West Moy to do awesome things and we are happy to host and this gives us an opportunity to do things like this particular hotel motel uh tax grant. Having said that, um I think there are institutions that will notice that the number has been lower and the number maybe even two years ago, 3 years ago has been lower and lower and lower and I think that's uh that can be regrettable in many ways, but that is kind of the direction that the council's been going with this just to put it out there. Having said that, I think we've kind of settled on a general protocol for these that I think is kind of appropriate going forward. And we've tried to make those clear in the awards for this year, the ones that we're about to prove presumably in a second. So, for example, for a one-time event, uh a one-time event for one day, that's what we're looking for, maybe a $5,000 award. And you'll notice, for example, number seven, West Demonia Community School Robotics will receive $5,000. They're having an annual robotics competition in Southwoods. So that would be an example of a one-time one-day event. Multi-day events, uh something like the Iowa Sports Foundation, they have a event that lasts several days, several locations, and so they're getting $10,000. These are not set in stone by any means, but we wanted to establish some more guidelines. So Councilman Lotz and I talked, we talked with staff. I checked with a couple other council

members just in case just to see if they had any thoughts too. Cheed with the mayor, checked with city manager Tom Haden because we're trying to do this more in a more straightforward way when it comes to guidelines. Uh for enormous events, we didn't have any enormous events on the docket, but uh last year I can't remember speech and debate, I can't remember if they got 25 or 35, 30,000 somewhere in there. That's an enormous event, folks. 12,000 students came to the De Moines area. Uh there was a Tuesday night in June where the nearest hotel room you could get was in Perry. Like that's how much hotels were being used in West De Moines and De Moine and Pleasant Hill all over the place. And with an enormous event like that, uh the award was given for 25 35 $30,000. I can't remember what it was. So that's the enormous event category. And then finally, when it comes to community partners, uh, who maintain Cityland, I think that's the key because when it comes to girls softball, when it comes to West Point Soccer Club and Rugby Club, each of those organizations maintain Cityland, does work, maintains infrastructure on those city lands. And so those were more at the category of about $20,000. It should be said that not all institutions, not all organizations got what they requested. There were several organizations that requested money and didn't get any uh just because they didn't fit kind of the categories of what hotel motel tax money is being used for and supposed to be used for which is to generate more hotel motel stays. That's kind of the purpose of it. So with that in mind, I just wanted to share the conversations we had. We discussed this at the finance administration subcommittee meeting. Um I think I've talked enough. That's the new

Well, I I appreciate your explanation and it it goes to show how much work happens at these subcommittee levels, you know, and these are meetings that are open to the public. These are noticed uh 24 hours ahead of the meeting. Uh you know, the individual that came up and talked about the flock cameras. I know that there was a discussion there and the public safety um city council subcommittee. This is a lot of heavy lifting, a lot of u research and analysis, a lot of questions asked. So you might see something come up here and you might not get as many questions. There are tons of questions and tons of discussion at the city council subcommittee level. So appreciate all of the vetting of these projects that you and Councilman Lo do every single year and uh understanding a little bit of a method behind your madness. Not that it is madness, it's not at all, but your method. Uh and um so thank you for that explanation.

And there is one giant award. I mean you might have noticed number two the West Boy girl Softball Association. It's $125,000. Uh they are constructing safety net around the field and the fact that this organization is doing that at great cost. That is one reason why that is specifically an infrastructural enhancement down at Holiday Park. And so if you're wondering why that was so high, uh there is a specific reason. and West De Mo girls softball along with the other institutions are just great partners to hold one-day events to hold multi-events to hold huge events to hold uh events at a facility that is owned by the city partially like uh the soccer fields down at Raccoon River Park and so I really appreciate the valuable partners throughout the community who not only apply but run things in our community that people want to go to. It's super cool. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Any other discussion before we vote? Okay. Hearing none, please vote for yes. Okay. Uh item 7E6 is uh funding of $5,000 for a taste of the Junction Multicultural Festival to be held in historic Valley Junction. Does somebody want to move for approval? Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Uh any discussion at all from the audience? Okay. Any discussion on the dis? Okay. Please vote. Three. Yes. One abstension due to potential conflict of interest.

Okay. Item eight, receive, file, and or refer. Uh item 8A will we will receive and file internal financial reports. Um item 8B, we will receive and file West De Moine Waterworks 2026 budget amendment number one. And item 8 C, we will receive and file the resignation from the board of adjustments from Steph Um. I want to sincerely thank Steph for stepping up and serving on the board of adjustment. Uh she was a great member. She was only in there for a very short period of time, but I was really looking uh forward to having her serve on this and other boards and commissions. Um but unfortunately, she is going to be moving out of state, I believe. So, she's no longer able to do that. We will look to uh find somebody to fill that spot very shortly. Uh item nine, other matters. Are there any other matters that any council person would like to raise at this point in time for the good of the order? And I do have one the one that I would say is um I do want to congratulate Fet Elliott uh for becoming the next city council woman right now, city council woman elect. Uh what a race run by all three individuals that that ran first for the February 17th uh special city election uh and then the March 17th. Uh we had three incredible candidates. That is exactly what you want to see. we could not lose as a city no matter who won that race. Uh I do want to apologize to all the candidates uh as it was a very very tight turnaround for that election. So I had a meeting with uh the P County auditor Jamie Fitzgerald who does an absolute phenomenal job at his at his

job and and same with John Chido who works with him. I said guys this is this is a tight time frame. I I don't know if the the incumbents could run an election in that period of time. Is there anything we can do to give these folks another week? And they looked at some of the other deadlines and filings that they had coming up and they said, "We can give you a week and that's about the the max that we can do." And I was very grateful for that and to them listening and accommodating, giving these folks some extra time. What I did not realize is that if there was a runoff election that that would be not only on St. Patrick's Day, but over spring break when a lot of people were gone. That stunk. So, thank you to the candidates for the hard fought elections, the hard campaigns they ran. These are individuals that are passionate about our city, that love our city. Uh, thank you to Shad Clayton, to Katherine Harrington, uh, and to Finette. Congratulations. And I really look forward to having her sit here. And the main point of bringing this up besides congratulating them is that we will be swearing in Councilwoman Elect, which is going to be April 6th. So, mark your mark your calendars for anybody that wants to be here for that. Are there any other matters that anybody would like to bring up for the good of the order? I just want to point out, Russ, that um although it was St. Patrick's Day and spring break, I believe there were more people that voted in March.

Yes. than voted in February. Yep. So, yep, they did get out and vote whether it was absentee, early, or day of, they did get out and vote. So, that's great cuz usually huge uh special elections and I've been through a lot of them runoff elections, it's tough to get people to come out for that runoff election. Now, I did I did spend a little bit of money myself trying to get the word out to people on their voting locations. We had Dallas County that that chose

three three different locations instead of the regular polling places. I was not very happy about that. I continue to not be happy about that. uh and they didn't really let anybody know other than their website. Um so, uh I spent some time and money trying to get that one out there to let people know about that. And then of course with the runoff election, they

had three, but they changed one, which also was not very helpful. uh Pulk County had to uh had to change just one in their runoff, but I will say that they did notify everybody with a postcard in the event that somebody got the postcard, looked at it, and realized that if they were in precinct 314, they no longer voted at the fire station, but they vote at Raccoon River Nature Lodge. That is a permanent change. And again, I tried to spend a little money to let people know that as well. So glad that people turned out. I was worried about the fatigue, but thank you everybody for doing your civic duty. Mayor, thank you for encouraging people to vote. I know you worked hard to do that. And I believe they're certifying the election tomorrow, which is why we could not swear in Vanette Elliot, council woman-elect, tonight.

Yep. All right. With no other business to come before the council, we are going to adjourn and take a 4minut break. 30 seconds. Fourminut break before we do our workshop. We are journ.

Looks like Deputy City Manager Jamie Leing is going to kick us off here. You bet. And and by the way, just just to let you know that um the um one of the gentlemen who was killed in action that I mentioned used to live actually in your neighborhood from 2007 to 2023. In my neighborhood in West De Mo. Yeah. Oh, yep. Yep. A friend of mine recognized that he lived here for a long time and was a really good guy. So, okay, kick us off, Jamie.

Okay. So, to start with tonight, I am presenting on some information that um our boss asked us to put together and um so everybody's going to be really nice to me because I am sharing information.

Thank you. I have a lot of subject matter experts behind me that are going to keep me honest. Uh Tom asked for this information gosh couple of months ago probably um before it might have been right after um our initial Westcom budget meeting started looking at um this issue of of double taxation which uh got vastly more complicated the more I got into it. So you're going to hear about a few of those different things this evening. So tonight we're going to talk about history and background of uh Westcom. I'm going to talk a little bit about operations and their budget. And then the last three bullet points, consolidation scenarios, some pros and cons, duplicated services or the double tax question and technology barriers. We're probably going to spend the most time on. So I'm going to try to fly through the first three bullet points. uh really the purpose of this report and tonight's workshop um again presenting some solutions to reduce the duplication and taxpayer burden uh give a bit of background on Westcom emergency communication center uh and explore potential alternatives or consolidation and then identify those those challenges that I've uh put into a few buckets operational financial technical policy background Um, you know, Westcom's really more than just answering um 911 phone calls. Uh, it's it's really the the area that that provides support for um I'm going to move this over here actually so that you can hear me because I don't think you can hear me if I'm standing over there. Um they're providing radio support, NCIS, CEIS, uh alerts, public warning

alert system, and uh emergency operation center activation. They handle all 911 emergency and non-emergency calls. Um one thing that I think is important to note on this slide is that Westcom didn't begin because we were receiving poor service from the county. Um, based on our research and Rob, we were able to go back to World War II B. Is that correct? Back to World War II, uh, West De Moine has been answering, uh, its own, uh, emergency services calls. We have not had our emergency calls answered by the county. So, it wasn't as though we were receiving poor service and decided to leave and form our own. Um, that's something that our community has always been doing for ourselves. cities was five and west had their own

correct dispatch. Yes. And I think it was in order to save money among the three is when Westcom got formed if

that is correct. So in 99 uh is when the study was commissioned. Those three communities had their own PAP and they thought perhaps it might be um more economical if we com consolidated and it was deemed that um my notes say it was determined that consolidation was the right move and the most feasible location for a joint dispatch center would be at West Moy Law Enforcement Center which contained the most advanced dispatch radio and record system and the facility could accommodate expansion. So these notes across the bottom obviously were four counties um six communities seventh largest piece up by call volume in the state of Iowa over 150 square miles of coverage and 189,000ish residents. Okay. Oh no, I don't want to do that there. No, just do that. There we go. Um 13 public safety agencies. uh are are handled within uh Westcom. That's from all six different cities. Um and you can see a a few bullet points there about our 28E agreement. Um there really has has been an agreement that has survived 25 years and was the original consolidated PAP. So um something to be proud of. I think a little background on operations. So I'm sure our friends at Westcom are watching this evening. We will talk a little bit about um the 42 and a half employees that that work there. This is just a copy of their org chart from the budget book. And then this one I thought was kind of important to include. So adds a bit of humanity to the numbers that we're going to be talking and some of the technology that we're going to be talking about in a minute. Um 10 of our Westcom employees received the uh life save award in 2025.

It goes to telecommunicators who provide crucial life-saving CPR instructions over the phone, resulting in successful resuscitations. Those awards recognize emergency dispatchers for the vital role in saving lives before first responders arrive. Um, we also have uh award wco and nenina leader of the year award winner Rob Denner here with us this evening. uh as well as AppConina technology innovator of the year of 2025 Austin Taffy Taffy TAFE. Thank you.

And in addition to that, I think about six cities, uh these folks also participated in um two dozen public outreach events to raise awareness uh across all six of those communities. Uh this is a demonstration of really state rank by call volume, but I really only included those that were in the metro. Um just to show for comparison's sake how large Westcom's call volume is compared to De Moine, P County, Warren County, Dallas, and Madison. So would Ankeny and Altuna be P County?

Yes, sir. You can find the answer to that in the last page of that handout packet that I included as well. I will try not to skip ahead.

That is okay. Um, a little bit about the budget for Westcom. Total Westcom budget is $6.5 million. West Moines's share is 38% of that based on population. That percentage reevaluates every year. And uh, so our share is $2.6 million. But since we are also the managing community or managing agency, uh we also receive indirect costs from all five other communities. Uh so revenue in the amount of 791,000 offsets our net cost becomes 1.818 million and um you know all the Westcom members all six communities fund their aortionment through their general fund. Um, some of the cost-saving measures that, uh, Tom wanted me to be sure and mention, um, reducing a vacant position of a QA accreditation specialist, eliminated excess software, moved IT services into that shared cost allocation model. So, we'll receive some of those indirect costs back from other communities. Um, and we're currently, this isn't really to brag about, but we're currently sharing a chief with two other three other departments, two other departments. Yeah.

The world and they've deferred the creation of a backup dispatch center as well. This is uh demonstrates and I think correlates to um maybe the second page in of your handout if I remember correctly, second or third. Um just shows what everyone's uh percentage of total budget is and what dollar amount that equates to. I included the first page of the Westcom budget in that packet of handout information. Um so while our total is 2.6 million, you'll see here we get about um 790 $800,000 back. Um and so our our net amount is 1.8 million. All right. Um, oh, this is a comparison of and I think that I also included this slide, uh, but from the budget book summary, I the whole page of all the departments. This is just a public safety spending comparison to demonstrate. Um, there's 108 employees in the West Mo Police Department, uh, a budget of 17.7 million. That's uh, 18 almost 19% of our general fund and equates to $249 almost $2.50 of our general fund levy. Fire has 80 employees, almost 13 million. EMS uh 6 59 employees and Westcom has 43 employees. So,

and Jamie, these numbers include civilian or is this all sworn officers? I'm sure that it does. Um Tim and Chris are saying yes. Thank you. Thank you everyone. But it does not include anybody that's funded by lost. I would say it does. It does. Yes. Okay.

Okay. The next slide, um, we're going to get into that was the fast stuff. Um, we're going to talk a little bit about these consolidation scenarios and I've I've bucketed them into three different types. The first one is consolidate with a county, then request West to explore mergers or fixing the double tax issue. Okay, the first scenario, uh, if we were to consolidate with the county, West De Moine would leave Westcom, you know, consolidate with the county. That's kind of the general premise here. Um, as we know it today, we would need to coordinate with all four counties in order to prepare a um an agreement, if you will, as to who would answer our calls under Iowa code chapter 34A. Um, the default service area is a county, but it can differ with some local planning. Um, C calls are routed based on that PAP GIS layer. So, whatever you uh negotiate in your agreement gets made into a GIS layer. Um, and I would presume we'd need to negotiate with all four counties to determine which area is taking our calls. Um, there's an 18-month notice required to leave Westcom and then West De Moine would cease to be that coordinating agency. So assuming that Westcom would continue, another city would need to step up, but those 43 employees would be terminated because we couldn't transfer their employment to a different city. Um, however, they would maybe potentially be hired by someone else. I just don't know and can't say for certain. So, the idea that we could just seamlessly sort of hang up the phone and have one of the counties take our calls is a bit of a misnomer. And in the next couple of slides, I'll explain why that gets technologically quite complicated.

And the other piece that I'll introduce here is that um other cities in Pulk County, and I think it's all of them, is that right, Tom? All other cities in Pulk County have a fee that they are paying over and above their regular county um uh levy that aren't de or west.

There you go. Yeah. So, Ankeny is the example that we've been using in our office. They pay in addition to their residents having their county tax, they pay uh the city uh funds another 300 and some odd thousand dollars to the county. So, I would anticipate that if we were to ha have a contract with a county, we would probably have to pay something. I just don't know what that amount is. Uh Tom asked that question of PK County about six plus months ago and we have not heard back. So, I guess they're working on it.

We I will to expand on that a little bit. I I think they thought there was a quick answer and um Frank Morasco uh was working on it, but after all this time, I haven't received anything in writing. We've communicated with him, so he we're going to meet with them again and Scott Sanders from De Moines and see how if there's things we can do, but um and as you Jamie goes on, you'll see where why Frank couldn't get back to me with an answer. It's not Frank's fault. Yeah. It's not for last what he ran into. So, and I know we don't compare ourselves to uh Ankeny,

but for purposes of this conversation, help me understand. So, Ankeny's cost today to be to have dispatch services are what? whatever the levy rate is just like our res uh and then another 330 about 330 and then then they're showing a percent somewhat percentage growth each year Matt but it's not a big percentage increase so you know try to do I mean they have a lower levy rate than we do I think they're at $9 and something and it's a county levy it's a county levy county levy

I'm sorry I thought you were saying all right fair enough so then it'd be the same levy right pulk county's portion of west de mo to anony okay So apples to apples, they're paying the same in the pole county portion. I recognize this is four other, you know, three other counties in West De Moine. And then in addition to that, their cost is 330,000 and ours is 1.8 million. Yep. That's a fair question that I think we're somewhat prepared to answer. Fair. I'm just trying to understand the situation. That's what's driving this entire thing. Yeah. And the other the other issue is we don't know what they're doing true cost accounting when they come up with those numbers. They could be subsidizing Poke County could be subsidizing that service with money from other pots. We suspect that

we don't have an audit that shows a matter of fact the audit when we were trying to do it find out the audit where money went. If you remember, we couldn't even get the numbers. I don't know. Did did we ever get the numbers from them true numbers? I don't know. Well, we we got the state forum numbers. Okay. All right. It's been it was a big challenge though to get accurate information. All right. But when you say they're subsided, do you think they might be subsidizing Ankeny more than they're subsidizing Western? Just the whole the whole their whole system. I mean, they may be the sheriff's got a I don't know how this works. You know, the sheriff's got so much revenue and then maybe the county uses it. I don't know.

We also believe that um what is unique about Westcom is that it is sort of um wholly contained in that we have this cost allocation model. So, we know exactly how much of our administrative costs are associated with that particular department. But nowhere else in the city do we do that type of cost allocation modeling to say that uh HR costs us this much. You know, this much of legal's time and this much of Tom and my time. And I don't I don't sus I suspect that the county does not do that for the purposes of billing to those other cities. Um so I wonder if maybe they're just underestimating that. Now to what degree, I couldn't really say and that's and that's speculation. Uh good question. Okay, the next slide. Um we're really talking about some concerns and benefits here with this particular uh idea concerns. Who would take the calls from West Mo? You know, is it do we split it down 60th and try to negotiate with this group of residents having their calls being handled by PK County and this group being handled by Dallas? Is it all one county and if so, which county? Um those would just need to be questions that we would have to work through. Um,

what about Warren County? Well, we don't have a lot of employ a lot of people in Warren County. Got them. I mean, I just Not yet. Not yet. Same deal, Kevin. It' be the same situation. Yeah.

Yeah. I I guess I just focused on the larger two, but to your point, yes, it would be part of the discussion. Um, I think that there would be, you know, staff expressed that there's some operational strain there. So really just the the growing pains or or sort of like the transition pains of um of managing that type of a transition and then operationally can those other counties handle our call volume um and with 18 months notice I probably um PK County probably Dallas County I don't know they have quite a bit smaller number of staff there um transition risk kind of the same thing. Technology barriers we'll get to in a second, but there are a lot of them. And then of course the potential tax increase. I I don't know to what extent either Bulk or Dallas County would increase either their levy or charge us an additional, you know, fee, but I suspect that that one of those two things would have to happen because I don't think they could take it on without that.

A fee that might be higher than Ankeny's fee, for example. I just don't know. That's we did try to find that out but it's you know we haven't gotten that answer probably because it's really complicated. Any analysis on um you know if you've got you had I mean listen I know there's technology issues towers and servers and batch through equipment and all the other things that I you know that are out there. Yeah, of course radio. Yeah, we'll talk. But um what I was going to get through on some of these more commonly used radio prices probably maybe come down slightly when you add uh folks to it, right? Volume discounts. I'm thinking

I would think so. I would uh I think you you know it's like anything when you have additional costs for a tower and you've got you share that cost with one community or four communities or you bring on a larger community probably can spread that cost out a little bit more as opposed to having a I just has any of that been considered radio state contract sure that's why I didn't say actually radios I had a sense of that but um some of the other equipment costs that that Pulk County or Dallas are occurring. Matt, that's we're looking at the economies of scale because there should be economies of scale if we join together. So that's why we're on April 1st, we're meeting with

uh De Moines and the rest of our group from Westcom and um Poke County. Great. Do our radio are our radios compatible with what? Well, let me get to that one in a second. I want to jump ahead, but um yes and no. Would love better. That's where the cost's going to come from.

Okay. But so the benefits of of this it does achieve consolidation. So if our goal is consolidation really no matter what it does technically achieve that um by lowering the number of paps in Iowa and theoretically it eliminates the double tax problem because now our residents are not paying once for Westcom and paying again for a county levy that goes to fund the sheriff's office uh uh dispatch center. But a lot of that, you know, depends on agreements, how much would they charge us, etc.

So, when it comes down to what this double tax looks like in dollars and Councilman Kenny asked this earlier. So, basically, minus the $791,000, we're paying $1.8 million to Westcom every year, something like that. Um, well, let me fast forward to my slide where I talk about that and answer your question, sir. Um, I said it's 2.6 minus the 791,000. So, 2.6. So, 1.8, but the The precise number is not important. And yet Anken is paying $400,000. Let's just call it that. So we're looking at this gap of 1.4 million. I want to make sure we're talking about what we're talking about. This is the double tax amount. The 1.4 million extra that we are paying. That's correct. Yes.

And I'm looking at Windsor Heights and maybe you'll answer this later. Windsor Heights 10% the population of Ankeny basically like 10,000 7,000 I don't know. and they're paying 183,000 and Ankeny with 75,000 people is paying $400,000. It just I'm there's got to be a reason and and maybe it's what you were talking about earlier. Just P County is subsidizing this somehow and we just don't know why. Sort of what we believe. Yes. Haven't been able to confirm that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well, the double the double taxation aspect of that. Windsor Heights had that deal that Anking has and decided to come here which was

keep that in mind. Yeah. Pulk County used to dispatch probably free honestly. I don't know if they paid much additional if anything.

Well, and I think like we said we don't like to compare ourselves to Ankeny. There's a reason for that. I mean, I think when we looked last time at Ankeny, I think they were, in our opinion, short on police officers, short on firefighters. They don't have, if they're running a city like we're running, similar size, they don't have as many officers, as many firefighters as as we think they should have. Now that said, we like to sit there every time we speak and talk about, you know, 75,000 population, but daytime 130,000 or whatever. I mean, I don't think they have that either.

I don't want my comments to be misconstrued at all. I'm just trying to get the the facts of the matter. So, please don't infer that I I I am in desire of a change. It does not this consolidation scenario doesn't make a lot of sense to me just based on what I see right now. But I am a lay person. So, well, as am I. Um, it makes even less sense when you consider that no one pays any additional fee for uh services with Dallas County. So, we must be in heavily heavily subsidizing that for well I mean we're still like the double taxation part I guess is the whole thing but but really

they still are levying attacks on our people. Dallas County, Pulk County, Warren County, Madison County. We're just not getting any benefit from it at all. You're right. Exactly. Right. Did this double taxation took place even before Westcom? Right. I mean, when when each city had their own dispatch center. Yes. We were still paying the county. Yes. And West De Moine was Yes. maintaining their own dispatch center. you all got there a lot sooner than the PowerPoint slides, but uh you know really we as staff are sort of viewing this as more of a um taxation issue and less of a consolidation. Um

well because I think everybody everybody up here acknowledges that I mean I've seen it up at the state level. You guys have heard this from me a number of times where I'm sitting up at the state on some subcommittee or some committee that's going over something and they're like, "Oh, we got to contact West De Mo and see how they're doing it." I'm like, "Is this backwards? you guys are the state, we're the city, but they really rely on us. We have the experts here. Uh, and not only that, but they've built the statewide backbone off of us to get across the entire state. So, I don't think anybody up here is saying, "Hey, we got to we got to just do away with Westcom because uh, you know, we need to consolidate and we need to be more efficient and effective and we're not getting great service or whatever." It's it's like

Ananken is paying 400,000 and we're paying 1.8. Mhm. Do you know what kind of a tax cut that could be for our residents? Do you know how many more firefighters, police officers, how many more EMTs we could hire with that money? Yes. Somebody just needs to true up here and pay us. That's where I'm going. Thank you. With your help, we can get there. Well, can I can I make a comment quick? Yes, please. cuz I'm worried that maybe we weren't clear with what we were talking about when we were talking about double taxation. I would flip this on its head. Instead of consolidating, I would think about how do we grow it? Oh,

if we're doing it really really well and we've got this and maybe that's something we don't want to do, but like he acts like he didn't read the slide, but he did. Yes. So, so, okay, I guess. Yes, sir. Go ahead, please. Mr. Hudson. Um, one more thing about just Walke for example. Right now, if Walke wasn't at Westcom, are you saying Dallas County wouldn't charge them anything? Is that what I heard or did I mishar that earlier? Well, that's what they're doing for every other community in in So, Adel is not paying anything. Whatever. Okay. I mean, they pay their taxes.

Yeah, they pay the first time, but they don't pay the extra like Ankeny Pulk County fee that we've been talking about. There's no walk pul or Adel Dallas County fee. I seriously doubt if that would happen if we talked to the sheriff of Dallas County and said take us and we want the same price that they did.

Correct. Yeah. Do I think that if uh Walke were to or West De Moine, whomever in, you know, it doesn't matter were to leave Westcom and and tell Dallas County to take our calls that they could continue to receive that service for no additional fee? Probably not. But does that model work for the small communities in Dallas County right now? Yeah. What was the reason though? Because Walke was part of Dallas County Dispatch and they asked to come. I don't know.

Norwok was part of Warren and they asked to come to Westcom. Windsor was part of Pulk and they came to Westcom. So, do we know and I know you do why that happened? Key with the service, right? like they were having they were having chase communication issues and whatnot, weren't they? All three of them really. I know what it is. I just wanted him to say it for everybody out there listening in the internet world. I don't think you do know it. All three cities. So the the original West De Mo Clive and Urbandale formed Westcom in 2001. Uh Norwok came in about 2012

uh essentially leaving free service by Warren County Sheriff's Office uh because of a higher level of service here. Uh there was a particular incident uh they think was the the straw that broke the camel's back in Norwok um a child CPR incident that didn't go well. Um and then Walke a few years later uh 2015ish um same thing free service from Dallas County wanted a higher level of service wanted to join our radio system started paying at Westcom and then the same thing lastly with Windsor Heights in 2020ish 2021 um free service by Poke County. They were ahead of the agreement that the rest of the communities in Poke County are in um paying for West like all the others. So, we've taken three communities or three other communities from three other counties that have all been getting free service and have joined us and participate in our model.

But, but here's a question that I have and and Rob, you remember this. I mean, back in the day, we changed the formula on how each funded their portion of Westcom because believe it or not, uh I don't know how many years ago this was 10 years ago or something. It was based on calls for service and there were other communities that weren't making they were telling them don't don't make the call. don't make the call for service uh because they don't want to pay for it. So, we changed that. And I guess the reason I'm bringing this up is to say,

you know, we're looking at what Ankeny's paying and others outside of here and going, okay, there's something not right with what we're paying, but is is our own formula within Westcom correct in and of itself? I mean, and I know that we've broken it down and, you know, all these individual costs and we're getting paid these indirect costs for different things, but my feeling over the 16 years that I've been here is that we're always the good guy. We're always the administrator. We're always uh you know, whether it's West Pet or Westcom or whatever. And the other cities, we don't typically I don't think we've build them for everything that they get. and we end up kind of taking one on the chin.

I I think one of the biggest changes for for us and I I don't remember I'm gonna look to Chris or Tim when we started the indirect cost model 2017. I mean are the other communities sitting here saying the same thing we are? No, they think they're paying us too much.

Okay. So they are but they are saying that they are okay. Probably the biggest change was in 2017 when we implemented the indirect cost model where as Jamie mentioned earlier we're we're capturing the the cost of providing service from all the city departments to Westcom so that it runs through the formula so the other communities are paying for it and we really have strived over the last several years to to make sure we're doing that fair and equitably across all the cities. And I will I will just make one more editorial comment. Uh and that is that they think they're paying us too much. They've thought that on every single agreement that we've had, including Westpet, which is why we finally said, "All right,

on your own. They don't want to pay. Let's keep pressing on so we can talk about some of those double tax solutions." Thank you, Rob. This is good. Yes. Thank you, Rob. This is very good conversation and I think

leader of the year, Appco 2025. Good work. Okay. Um the next discussion option stay in Westcom but explore mergers. So uh what you were saying Councilman Lo you know let's talk about how we might be able to grow this thing. Take the cost allocation model spread it over you know some increased uh um uh service area or increased population and suddenly everyone you know a rising tide that sort of thing. Um, this has been kind of a a a long uh, you know, something that was quite a ways out into the future until very recently. Um, you see, De Moine and Pulk County share the same computer aided dispatch and it's a pretty antiquated legacy system that does not communicate very easily or very well with our system. and De Moines has recently indicated that within the next two years they're interested in updating their CAD to the same system that we're using. In doing so, that really begins to open up a lot of options. And and as Tom indicated earlier, they're coming to our meeting as is um Frank Morasco from P County to talk about what are some of those possible um collocation operations savings, you know, training. We're we don't know yet, but we're going to start talking about that. We have a couple of years to um start to learn and maybe realize some of those operational savings. Um questions about that. I can see you're holding on something.

I just don't think we're going to be able to save our way out of this thing. I don't I think it's going to be a combination of maybe this and I think you're right. Getting paid what we should be getting paid from the other counties.

Yeah. Our concern here is it doesn't solve the double tax issue. the next slide. Um, PK County is still on a different radio system than us, which is still a huge technical barrier for for us and everyone else um that's on the ES6 program radio network. Um, next slide. Here it is. Okay. The moment everybody's been patiently waiting for. So, this is our our discussion option number three. Um, duplicated services or double taxation. Um, you know, obviously we all understand the issue by now. So, a couple of options. Tom has been wanting for quite some time to just send a bill to the counties and say, "This is what you what based on our calculations, we speculate that you owe us per capita for the services that you are charging our residents, but we our residents are not utilizing." Um, that is a strategy that would offset the double tax paid by our residents. um we would need some voluntary compliance or a 28e of some kind um or a legislative solution. Um I think there based on my research there is some precedent in other states that have a municipal uh tax offset duplication program for this exact scenario. Um, we could also discuss, you know, creating an incorporated versus an unincorporated county levy. So that, um, you know, that's that that problem. Um, the problem of Ankeny paying an additional 300, $400,000 and then still taxing based on their county levy is created because there isn't two ways to tax um, urban uh, levy and rural levy.

Yes, sir. Isn't Isn't there an urban levy and a rural levy? There is for the counties. The counties have an urban basic and a rural basic levy. Yeah. Or a general basic and a rural. But they don't put all of their um costs associated with dispatch into one category or the other. We would need them to do that. Yep. Um just a correction, excuse me, Jamie. So officially this year, Anken is going to pay $49,000.

Okay. And that's 29% of what they the countyy's saying they should be paying, which would be $1.4 million if they paid their full share, which is still less than what we pay in our share. But again, the economy's scale. I I don't know other things. That's what we got to figure out. But that's So they're only going up 2% a year though. So that's pretty slow. They got a great advantage. 29%. Why are they paying only 29%. Say that again. That's what they made a deal with these communities. It would go 29% of what the true cost is and 31% 33 35 and so we are we I take that as subsidizing that agreement.

If they're not paying 100% of their share some Well, yeah. Yeah, we are. I mean, if we don't have that deal, we're not just paying our residents aren't just paying for their own, they're also paying for, of course. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We're we're we're basically getting taxed by the counties, our people, to provide service to Ankeny. So Tim, send them a bill. Correct. Rob, what are you gonna say?

Yeah, there there's an agreement between the county and the cities that they provide service for that started uh about 2022 at 25% of what the the cost of delivering services, dispatch services to those communities. So we've been talking about Ankeny a lot. Um, when that 280 was signed, it was a 25% starting point of whatever it cost the county to to fund dispatch. That's what they were build. And it's had a 2% rider every year. So, I think they're at 29 and going to 31%. So, yes, you your your math is correct. We're subsidizing the other 71%.

And that number gets uh worse when we talk about Dallas County, I'm sorry to say. So that was an agreement that Pulk County entered into with Ankeny with all those communities. All of those have individual 280s with the county, right? Altuna, Bonant, Grimes, Johnston, Johnston. Yeah. So, um, Pleasant Hill, thank you, Rob. that. So, uh, Senator Bill,

getting to Councilman Hudson's earlier question that if we were to receive that tax offset, this is based on our finance department's math calculations, we are missing out on $360,000 from Pulk County, $820,000 from Dallas County, and 10,000 from Warren County for a total of almost 1.2 million for our net share of our Westcom budget, 1.8 million less. the tax offset that we feel like we're subsidizing um the remaining portion that we would need in order to fund our share of Westcom would be $610,000. Where did those numbers come from? Because Dallas County to be so much higher than Pulk when the majority of our

Yes.

residents styles is coming up here to help those numbers. Can't miss them. So, those numbers came from uh the county's budgets on what their cost was for communications, which we don't know if that's complete because we don't know if some of their communication costs are being absorbed by um the sheriff's department's budget. You know, they're probably not allocating uh accounts payable, accounting expenses, all that. But where those numbers come from is I went through each county's taxable valuations and figured up a portion what portion of West De Moine taxable valuation the counties are taxing on. So this is based on on uh the taxable value of West De Mo and Dallas County and that's percentage of the overall total county valuation.

Wow. So, West De Moine makes up a lot of Dallas County's valuation and that continues to grow each year. What's that? It's going to be less diluted in Dallas County, thus higher, but at least don't forget they gave us 25,000 for the reclex. Well, there is that. So, but they were thinking about giving us 50, right? Well, they did at one point they did. There's a thought that counts. Yeah. Send them a bill. So, so this is that's one of the options. They obviously don't have to pay it right now. There's nothing that could compel them to pay that except we would maybe need some elected officials. You know, Tom and I could send the auditor a bill, but they're, you know,

because it's really maybe an elected official and board of supervisor discussion. And in Dallas County, they're about to have a couple more friends on

so maybe that will um we're going to come back to this issue, but can I take a brief sojourn into talking about technical barriers? Um two technical barriers that we're going to talk about is computer aided dispatch and the radio platform interoperability. Um in that stapled together handout packet there is an 11 by7 picture of the anatomy of a call and the purpose of that is just to demonstrate that when you pick up the phone to call 911 a lot of things are happening. I have learned so much. Um, but it is a very complicated series of pieces of information that go from the the terminal where the the telecommunicator sits and how they can communicate with people in, you know, mobile uh car computers, MDTs, is that what those are called? um the type of information that's being shared between the telecommunicator and the officer, the you know uh EMS, the firefighter, what type of information do they need before they even get out of their squad car and go approach the car behind them? I mean, the list goes on. It's there's a lot happening there. So, I just thought it was important to add that context. Agencies really need to be able to access all of this information. um and they need to be able to use the same information. So when we um you know respond to a call in De Moine and they're on a different CAD system and we're not able to share the exact same details that they have that we have or they have and we're not able to share those details, it puts our people in a precarious situation as you can imagine. So um there are two ways really to make those two pieces of software talk to each other. um one is be on the same system which would be great and then the

other is something called a CAD to CAD which is a another layer of technology um that acts like a bridge to connect those two systems and and really a CAD to CAD works but when you're talking about software updates or or changes to a local CAD system you're going to lose fidelity in the whole process. Amen. Yes. Um, the problem is we have two I mean we have two totally different systems between Raycom and Motorola.

Well, that's radio. This is the computer software system. We're gonna get to radios next and that is a barrier I cannot really very easily solve. The CAT system um will gain some improvement um if and when De Moine were to choose the same system that we're on in the next couple of years. That would be an improvement. Did I miss anything in the league? Yes, within the next two years, they've indicated that they have interest in being on the same CAD system that Westcom is on. The next slide is a graphic representation of all of the different pieces of information that flow into this computer aided dispatch system and for all of these different um uh you know emergency services. Okay, here are the CAD systems across the metro. Right now, De Moine and PK County share a CAD. It's called Hexagon Intergraph. It's a pretty outdated legacy system. Westcom is on Central Square Enterprise. Warren County is on Central Square Pro. Dallas County is on Tyler New World. I don't know what Madison County uses.

So, how is what's the connection with Warren and Westcom? I mean, Enterprise and Pro. Is Enterprise like that next level up from Pro? I think they just didn't necessitate. So, they do they do talk to each other? They don't really. Wow. Uh they well I think it is much easier to implement a CAD correct me if I'm wrong. Is it not much easier to implement a CAD to CAD between um something like Central Square Pro and Tyler New World than it would be to implement CAD to CAD between Hexagon Inagramraph which is a very outdated legacy program and our Central Square Enterprise. Yes.

So setting all of that aside, let's talk about radios for a second. the the elephant in the room. Okay. Um, as a mayor indicated earlier, um, you know, 1999, is that correct? West West De Moines had or did the backbone of ISIS begin pre99? Oh, no. It was uh 2012ish. Okay. So 2012ish, West De Moines's uh radio backbone became what is now known as the statewide ISIS uh platform, Iowa State Interoperability Communication System. Oh my god, look at that. See, there you go.

He did learn something.

Learn a lot. Uh and Westcom, city of city of De Moine, uh Warren, Dallas, Madison County, and the state of Iowa all utilize this system. Uh I believe that there is a map in your handout section as well. Sarah or um also known as Raycom is what Pulk County uses. So all of these communities here are on that network since they're all um dispatched through uh through Sarah or uh P County. Um Motorola radios can technically operate on Harris. um raycom uh infrastructure and vice versa. It is I will tell you now incredibly difficult. It is not ideal. Um there are a couple of ways to do that. One is to implement a talk group by hand. You have to physically touch and manually enter this information into every radio on both sides. or something else which is yet another it's like a CAD to CAD version but for radios costs many millions of dollars and is incredibly finicky and difficult and um

is that the overlay system? It's called an ISSI. Okay.

So um in the metro for any public safety I'm going to read you some notes that Chief Lou gave me. in the metro. For any public safety agency to communicate with Pulk County via a radio talk group, the uh radio must be programmed. Um, and we do have shared interoperability talk groups statewide, regionwide, and metrowide. And we even have access to national interoperability channels um that are not necessarily dependent on on either systems infrastructure. This is the the challenge that Chief Lou described to me. He said, "All chiefs, this one included, will want responders to operate off muscle memory for their communications. Each radio ecosystem has multiple channels and policies on how incidents are handled and which channels are used as the incident escalates. They also train occasionally on how to operate the radio and how to get to the regional channels that are used for the big events. What chiefs don't want is their people needing to find a channel on a radio that they don't use on a regular basis during that incident. I think we can understand why. Um he said the chiefs know that the harder we make it to be on the same channel, the more we open ourselves up to these accidents.

So like the Yonkers building downtown when West De Mo and I I guess everybody else was down there. They How did they communicate? Well, I I don't know that you were here then, but So, how did that how would that have how would they have communicated with that? Because I'm guessing EMS was down there as well as fire. I know fire was there. Fire was I didn't get all the fire departments from around. How did they communicate?

That's when uh De Moine was still on their UHF system. Um was even less compatible. um a lot of shared radios were going on and here in the metro for a long time there's a what's called the mix system the metro interoperable communication system that offered two channels that so there were two channels that we could communicate back and forth on um with De Moines's old UHF system and then our 800 system so it it works worked then

the other option that Rob explained to me is you know you have a group of people that show up to the scene they're on an IS6 channel, then the next group. Meanwhile, you get a a talk group channel established the next group. Um, you tell them to go over to the talk group. Um, and then at Westcom, one of the things that they do because they don't just answer the phone is then they patch those two groups together. So now suddenly they can talk. So that's happening behind the scenes. Um, that's a lot easier to do when you start on an ISIS platform. when you start on a Sarah or Raycon platform that becomes a little harder. Still possible, but it's harder. Sarah expire like when do when does everybody when does P County basically move on to where everybody else is doing? Is there a year? I

don't believe that they have indicated any interest in doing that. Should they? Is is this better than Sarah? Okay, I see a lot of nodding heads. Cool. I happen to believe that it is. Thank you. How much I'm I'm curious. How much did you say the ISSI is? Um the ones that I have seen and throughout this research um vary between uh 7 to 10 million. Um now Sarah has Raycom has indicated that they would be willing to fund one. So you need one on both ends. Um but I believe the state has said no thank you. And I understand the state's position because they are the statewide network. Yeah. Totally. So you think it's rough. You say seven to what? 10 million.

So in order and you got to have two of them. Uh yes. And you have to have someone who's going to manage these things because they take a lot of the a lot of ongoing maintenance. Okay. So you think it could be anywhere between 14 to 20 million to get uh tossis. Yes, that's the correct number according to the man who would know. All right. Very good. Thank you.

Okay. Um required technology upgrades. Uh, I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that part of this discussion is born from the fact that our Motorola or ISIX platform system is coming to the end of its life um, and is in need of an upgrade. Um, Motorola's uh, 2030 program or something like this costing around 9.5 to 11 million total, a cost that's shared across all Westcom cities. Um, I won't spend a lot of time on this because I think it's actually secondary to the main discussion of tonight. We can always come back to this topic, but um, obviously consolidating with a county impacts this investment depending on what path we've chosen. The other thing I'll point out as the last bullet point. Part of the the cost here is the fact that we've chosen or need to add another tower uh done on public services west site because we've had some um repeaters that uh businesses are having to install. Those are expensive for businesses in order to get the building penetration that our radios and and our system requires. That also incidentally we don't get on the uh Sarah Raycom network. Um it's about three and a half million for just West De Moine because that's something that we would want to install. We're not we can't share that cost with the other six five cities.

So is that 14.5 million potentially? I think it's is it an 11 with three I have that 11 for the platform and three and a half. Oh no it is the bundle bundle six. It's uh 11 million for the Motorola platform change. um 3.3 for the new tower site. So those are 14 15 14 yeah 14ish 14ish they have given us the earlier that we go the better deals they're willing to because they don't want everybody to wait until 2029 November. So what's what's the event on 2030 then? The compelling event. Uh I think their network comes or their systems reach end of life.

Motorola. Yeah. We just did a major radio thing since we've been on. I don't know. Don't know. What was that? We did a West De Mo or West Comm did a major radio uh switch upgrade. I don't know what you want to call it, but sometime in the life of Russ and I on the council and what exactly was that? Because that's been within 17 years

2009ish we started it u implemented at 2010 and 11. Uh prior to that since 1997 we've had a a single analog site here on our 50th street water tower. Um pre-Westcom was designed for West De Mo only. 2001 Westcom's formed, Clive Urbandale uh cover the the the service area starts to expand. We needed to expand the coverage of the system. So about that time is when uh we went from an analog system to a digital system. That technology been out for oh a few years at that point. So it was well proven. Um added multiple sites the original four sites that have then become the statewide system. Um that was the big upgrade in that 2010ish time frame.

Um this platform change is Motorola really going to their next generation of hardware. All all the the the infrastructure equipment at tower sites. Um it's that that equipment that is been out there fielded for 20 25 years is reaching end of life and they're changing to the next generation of equipment. Rob mention the interesting the last two budgets will work on.

Yeah. And and this is the infrastructure equipment that we're talking about. All of the the handheld and vehicle-mounted radios that we've been buying over the last several years, they they last less shorter periods of time. Um that all that equipment will operate on these new platforms as we go forward. Well, the initial investment in the system, too. I mean, like, you know, they're building out this statewide backbone and all these other communities are getting state funding to be able to do this. And yet we I think paid for our own system the you know communities of Westcom way back when and didn't have barely any state funding for that. I don't I can't remember what the initial cost of getting this whole thing up and going. I it was huge

30 million is what I have in my head but that was all us. Like we didn't get any state assistance that I that I know of and then now the state is building this statewide backbone for everybody else. And I think we are part I think Westcom is part of the statewide backbone. They used our system used our system to build to build out. Yeah, that's what I was saying. When we started it, we didn't get any money. We didn't get any money for it. No, I I get that. But when in 2012, 2013 when that went through, I think they they flagged us as a Can we send the bill state to about sending them a bill?

Well, and and the other ironic thing is you look at you look at the cost of public safety in our budget. you look at what kind of a share it is and and the increase in cost in public safety, which we all greatly pay and are happy to pay to make sure we're safe. But that's that's probably one of the biggest growing costs of our budget. And now we're getting hit on property tax. Well, yes, that is very true. In the interest of temperature, I'll keep us moving along. I don't know why it is 1,000 degrees in here, but what's next? Okay. um building the other city

our list of to-dos if we were interested in contracting with a county um we'd have to do all these things okay I wrote in the top corner not a feasible option right now too many technical barriers to overcome okay next option solutions next steps we think both of these things happening um simultaneously but we need help um first consolidation or m merger we're going to continue talking to um de mo and you Pulk County um with a long range plan in mind of this metrocom scenario which was talked about 101 15 years ago I believe having everyone be on the same system and the same PAP like all everybody be as one. Yes sir.

No go ahead as soon as you're done with that thought. Um, and that continues to be a long-term goal. And the fact that De Moines has indicated um, interest in moving towards uh, the same CAD as as us makes that just a smidge easier. So, we're going to keep talking about that. Can we lease our systems to them, Joe? Uh if they were on if they were already on Central Square, I I don't see why they couldn't basically use those services. But we would have to pay Central Square more. Yeah, but I mean they wouldn't have to install anything more. They wouldn't have to buy anything more. They'd have to pay us for it if they already right. We're already on the enterprise version as I saw

particularly now that we're cloud uh based as well that I just I don't know how much this whole Motorola Raycom political fight ends up coming to play because that was one of the biggest things that you guys haven't seen is that for the last 10 plus years it's been Motorola versus Raycom and Raycom Harris is a local company and Motorola is not and county wasn't willing it's not anymore well that might help but but this this whole thing's probably going to come back and rear its ugly head and then we've got to be willing to make some kind of a compromise to try to get on the same system because I anticipate there'll be fights. Maybe I'll just I'll I'll jump in there. I was in that fight as you know very significantly.

I did it at the capital and I litigated uh through the court system. Um listen I I Who did you represent? I represented Raycom who sold to I don't know Sarah or Harris or whatever it is. They they my my belief or understanding is I think they do more army uh military radios uh systems of course Motorola great company. I'm I have a lot of Motorola products. Um and I think they're actually owned by Google. I do a lot of work with them too. That's right. Um we got to figure this out.

We have to figure this out. Uh for me I think um you know I I don't know what option here but I do know about a year ago Tom you and I and some others sat down with the governor's office and we talked about a path forward um and the 24 25 legislative session passed. Here we are a year later and we're talking about exploring legislative changes. I was talking about a year ago giving them language a year ago. If we don't give them language this year, I think we're doing a disservice to our residents. To be fair, West De Mo is a member of Westcom.

I'm not talking about whether what we're a member of. What I'm talking about is giving them legislative language that compels these communities to reimburse us the dollars that our residents are having to pay year after year for a service they're not receiving. Funding Ankeny to the tune of 70 some odd percent. I think it's I think it is we are doing not enough to get that done particularly when we have a governor's office and legislators that are talking about we need to have shared services. We need to eliminate duplication. We need to have you guys lower your property taxes. So they are saying all the right things as it relates to a narrative around requiring these communities like Pulk County to reimburse our residents for the services that Pulk County is not providing to our residents.

And so I think if we let another legislative session go by, particularly where there is a narrative going on about you guys, you local communities need to do better and we're saying, "Well, maybe we'll explore it." I think we we need to have legislation now. I think we need to take it into these the the folks that are in charge and say if you are serious about communities having more shared services about lowering their levy rate and about not having double taxation you will take this and adopt it because it is the right thing to do not just for Westcom not just for West De Moines but across the state and encourage people to eliminate the duplication and I think we ought to have a simultaneous path. I think you continue to go down the conversation with with De Moine and and all the other people and have all these great nice wonderful conversations, but at the end of the day, I think the most important thing is is having a law that says, "I'm sorry. I don't care whether you want to give us $25,000 for the reclex. You're going to give us $820,000 that our residents are having to fund that we don't get anything from."

I I I just I think it is I I believe very strongly in it. I think we're getting taken to the shed on this. I'm sick of it. I want to be able to have that $1.2 million so we can fully staff the uh the third number 13 fire station. I know from Chief Scott and and I believe from Chief Bell and me that

it will help us get our numbers up to where we need to be. I I know we have so many needs in this community and if we can have the same level of service through Westcom and get those reimbursements and those dollars back to our residents so we can provide an enhanced, you know, public safety at no additional cost. It is it is a winwinwin and uh and we stop uh supplementing and and and helping these other communities with our residents taxpayer dollars. If they want to take it from somebody else, go ahead. But I don't think they should take it from our residents.

Here's the challenge, Matt, is West is very reluctant to move on this and we can't it's hard for us to do it unilaterally because I can't just say we can send a letter and say we're out in 18 months. Where are we going? Going to go to Poke County. We don't match their system. Where are we going to go from there? And we can't get I I don't know why it is. Help. Help us. You guys are the experts. Help me find somebody to write the legislation. I've asked for help writing legislation. I got nothing back. Who'd you ask? You. You asked me to draft.

Ask you, can you help us find somebody to draft the legislation? I I We pay a lobbyist, a law firm, Denton's law firm, one of the largest law firms in the country. It seems like these guys can't get it done. They Dentons won't draft the legislation for us. Have Have we asked them? Yes. Dens also represents Pulk County. Oh. So they won't draft the legislation. Right now they um have said that as far as the discussions are concerned, they're not conflicted out, but I'm not so convinced that Well, to be very clear, Tom, I don't believe I was ever asked to draft legislation. I I was very clear that I I guess I asked you to help draft legislation on the local office sales tax. That's true. I And that's true.

And what' you say? Yeah. I I I don't can't do it, right? Because you're because it's a it's a conflict. That's what you said. I don't I don't Where's the conflict? When I asked about Julie Smith. Oh, yeah. You asked me about Julie Smith. Julie Smith is a member uh a colleague of mine at Brown Winnick. She is an attorney. I would prefer not to have my firm get paid by this city. I think it is a conflict. And so what I told you is I do not want to have the city of West De Mo pay my firm for legal services because I think it's inappropriate. That's just to be clear what I said. Okay.

To if I may, you know, I I think I I guess I didn't understand that it was clear that we wanted to move forward on legislation last year to fix the double taxation issue. I felt like the discussions that we were having even at the governor's office were centered around other concepts, not necessarily this specifically. and this double they were focused on PAPs. I mean that's what they went to during the the legislation session. But I'm I'm with you, man. I'm very frustrated. Yes. And he's not he's not wrong as far as the uh the policy window. The policy window is opened up. No doubt about it. Now, we're a little bit late in the session,

but we've had some preliminary conversations outside of Denton's with um uh you know, Westcom does not have a lobbyist and and so I admittedly was thinking about this legislation from a Westcom perspective, not a West De Moines specific perspective and you know, Tom and I really just Tom sits on the Westcom management committee. Um, but not everyone was um thinking the same thing that Tom and I were thinking about how to uh attack this problem. So, what I heard Matt, what I heard you say tonight is that absent or outside of Westcom um that really doesn't prevent us from moving forward with legislation um around fixing the double taxation piece, you know, with legislatively. Um and I think that you're right. I really hadn't

it it may it may impact it a little bit because I I would just say basically we're going to come I mean the bill that we would write is essentially that uh a community uh that that does not provide um you know emergency dispatch services cannot bill another community for or cannot tax

for a service that they do not provide. I mean, it' be some legislation essentially like that. But then Pulk County, I feel like, has been working with us in good faith to try to come up with something. Whether or not they're able to do that is another story. But I feel like they really truly are working with us in good faith. So, if we brought that legislation, I mean, that would certainly sound the alarms in their mind, right? And then maybe they won't be willing to work with us like they have been. I don't know. How long How long have we worked with them? We This this conversation's been going on for a year. I know, but I know. But they How many years do we let this drag on? You can't keep kicking the can down the road.

I get that, guys. But we're we're in the situation that Tom said. I mean, it's not like we can just say, you know what, here's the deal. Fine. We're out. Because we still are responsible providing for the public safety of our residents and there's if we're out, we don't know. Do you have to do you have to do you have to put in a notice withdraw to draft legislation and ask for it to be adopted? No, you can put in whatever legislation you want. I'm just saying if we're working with communities and they're working in good faith and we put in legislation that basically says you're not going to tax our people anymore for a service you're not providing. Uh I I'm not sure number one that that will pass. And if it doesn't not going to do that on their own.

If it doesn't pass, I I don't know that they'll be willing to work with us to try to figure out this problem like they are now. That's that's all I'm saying. I I think they're just giving us lip service. Yes. Are they really working with us? I've not seen any meaningful movement in well over a year and nearly a year and a half roughly of of conversations on this. And so a year and a half uh 1.8 million per year. So we've spent uh $3 million. We're going to spend another if we don't get it done this legislative session be another year. So we're going to be at 4.8 million. And if we don't get it done then it's going to keep going up. It won't be that much, I don't think. But I thought it was 1.8 a year.

That's But we're not going to get that all recovered. Did you see the number with the 300,000 Po County and 800,000? It's 1.1. Okay. 1.1. Okay. So, well, let's put our heads together and figure out how to proceed. I mean, that's what this is about tonight. And so if we if this body thinks that we need to proceed with legislation, then we need to figure out how we get that legislation drafted up and who we're going to what what vehicle there is out there to put it into and who's going to champion it for us. But it's too late for this year. Well, it's not there may be a vehicle out there. It just Well, simultaneously, should we issue the what I've wanted to do but that we is issue a bill to them? Yes. and sit down with them, explain what the bill is about, and I mean, not a bill as legislation, but

yeah, you owe us this much money. And then if they turn that down, it's it's like, okay, you don't leave us no recourse. point of order if I may. I was reminded um this isn't this doesn't this affects us a great deal but it doesn't necessarily affect uh many people and just about every sheriff's office is going to be dead set against this because we'll be um opening the door for um cities to claw back for lack of a better term dollars directly out of the elected sheriff's budget. But how many cities in Iowa probably not many have their own dispatch centers well

that would then benefit from this. I included a list of all of the PAPs in that handout but I don't know off the top of my head. Um it's not as many as what you think well how many about a dozen people are saying about a dozen. Okay

from my friends here. Um I'm not saying that doesn't mean that we shouldn't proceed. All I'm saying is we will definitely see some opposition. Senator Webster put forward a a PAP consolidation bill this year and it immediately ignited every, you know, sheriff in within driving distance to come up uh to the Capitol and sit, you know, very grumpily and say sort of you don't understand how complicated what it is that you're proposing is. I can only imagine that most sheriffs are not going to be pleased with the idea that they would have owe cities, you know, money back. That does not mean that we should not at least try or proceed or work on this topic. Um, we should this is it is the right thing to do.

To Matt's point, you know, if if the legislature just saying, you know, here's what I want you to do, then this falls right in with that.

I had a conversation with another lobbyist and um De Moine and Walke uh who said put together some notes. they are talking about this right now and put together some notes. If it isn't a PAP consolidation bill, then what will help you to um be able to merge and consolidate? I'm not sure that consolidation is the right answer just for the sake of consolidation. But if we can't if the premise is to save taxpayer dollars, we can achieve that goal a different way. Well, I think that's the only problem with what Matt is suggesting is that what our piece of legislation would say is not not have, hey, we're going to consolidate and save a bunch of money. It's, hey, we're basically being double taxed for something we shouldn't be. Stop taxing us.

I still think that's a valuable piece of legislation to pursue, is it not? It is, but it's it's not, you know, it's it's not a local government doge per se where you're trying to consolidate, come up with efficiencies and still effectiveness and delivery of services for our residents, but but it solves our problem and then it causes a problem for Dallas County and and and Pulk County and everything. Oh, really? Because they would then charge the the Anankenies of the world 100% rather than 25%. But then look at the politics of it. Look at the politics of it. For reality checking,

there is a reason why when Tom had uh a meeting with the Dallas County Sheriff and said, "Well, we'd like to have the same deal that you're given to Perry, which is, you know, free service, he he became a little nervous because he well knows that if we were to do that, not only would he have to increase the size of his operations, but also he'd have to start charging some of those smaller communities in Dallas County. Is there a way to create legislation that would not draw the eye of 80 sheriffs from different counties in the state of Iowa? To find the answer to that. I would I need some help thinking that through.

I don't know that it would draw the eye of 80 sheriffs. I I just I I think it politically you start I I don't know that anybody's going to care anybody in power is going to care about Pulk County and come to their rescue, but I think there probably will be some that care about Dallas and do come to their rescue and say we're not moving this bill forward. There's 108 PAPs in the state of Iowa and most of them I'd say the average number of population they serve is like 5,000 people and a lot of them go down to which is which which is why they want to do the PAP consolidation.

But I mean that makes sense for that. So this is the the PAP consolidation got the the headlines when we met with the governor's office. They were thinking that was the solution, right? But that's not our solution. Well, and I guess more to Matt's point. Wait a minute. We did consolidate. We're ahead of our time. Now give us our money. We we are consolidating. We're one of the biggest in the state, right?

Okay. So brass tax consolidation merger. Consider explore Ruska merger. Sure, that sounds great. Long range plan metric. Sure, that sounds great. Senate knows her bill to counties for dispar, but and then explore legislative changes to address municipal tax duplication. Sure, but that's also probably going to draw the eyeire of the of the of the folks in the rural areas or the people who for obvious reasons didn't like the the PAP consolidation. So, I don't know. That's where I'm at. just understand as a who is responsible for sending the legislative emails

if there is an avenue to pursue I don't know what it is but would love some help determining what that might be and if you know anybody up there that could help us figure out what that path forward looks like I think Tom and I would really need that help I'll talk to my high school juniors see what they can come up with if you could do a hackathon for I have I have I have I have one question before we go cuz I really want to get out of here. Yes. And it's it's for Joe and maybe the chiefs and whatnot. Like I think about

my mom's area uh Calhoun County. There's 3,000 people in the whole county. Could we potentially operate a Calhoun County? Is it PAP? If they're on the Motorola systems, the radios. Yeah. So yeah, we we just to be clear about your earlier uh question, we have moved on off on prim and we are now a cloud-based system. So we can operate our piece from anywhere. So the GIS and all that stuff will work the same in CO County as it does West De Moine as it does in Yeah. He's out there. We could do it

because there's there's value to be had there. And then we can show that we're trying to do the thing that they're asking at the state house. And I I don't know the numbers and stuff, but that's how I would think through this. So, you're talking about taking on different Calhoun County. You go you go to them, you say, "Here's here's the thing. Spread your cost across the West Metro, Calhoun County, and now instead of maintaining your own,

hey, we'll transition your employees over. They can still work in the same center in Rockwell City." I'm thinking through this out loud. Two things I'd say two things I'd say that is going to draw the eye of these of these county sheriffs. Uh they are they are very protective of their PAPs of their E911 searchcharge money. Uh the state homeland security emergency management basically told all these paps, hey, we're not able to come up with enough funds to do what we need to to maintain the 911 system. So, you're all going to have to contribute because it's a system that we all use to be able to fund this. And they lost their minds. Finally, we passed a piece of legislation that just allowed Homeland Security and Emergency Management to send a bill and they still lost their minds and they have legislators very responsive to them in rural Iowa. So, you might run into that. Number one. Number two, unless we're charging these these other counties and cities something more than it actually takes to be able to to run their emergency uh services system or whatever. I I don't see how it's going to help us.

Right. Right. I think uh it's a great point. It's a it's a great growing up in a small town like Terrible point. You could tell me. No, it's a great point. It's it's a politics.

My dad's 85. He still lives in the county that I grew up in and every time I call him he gripes about their dispatch system and so I know I know uh they would love to have a system like ours and and the thing I've taken out of this is we have a lot of work to do. Jamie did an amazing amount of work on this. uh but every one of you has said the same thing in a different way is we have a great dispatch center uh that is serving our people and we value them because they're wondering what's going on here. Uh they get snippets of this. They don't they aren't in the game like we are. Uh so I just want to make sure we all agree we got a great system. I couldn't agree with Matt more about double taxation.

That that's what it comes down to. It's not the system. It's not the the job that people do. They do a phenomenal job. We are the envy of the state. Yep. As we have this conversation, I mean, we're not talking about, oh, we're overspending on Westcount. That's not the conversation. The conversation is the double taxation. And so, thank you for double taxation since, as far as we can tell, World War II. This has been going on. All right.

So, just think about that. This has been going on forever. It it just became an issue recently. Uh the PAP bill, odd duck bill. I I don't understand the state sometimes. You've got a PAP consolidation bill that doesn't dictate that you must use the state radio system. What? So there's a lot of that just craziness going on. But what I heard out of y'all tonight is you value our people. Absolutely. And we're going to move forward with our people and we're going to find a way to get some of that money out of those counties. Absolutely. One way or the other. Yes. And to take and to take it further based on Councilman McKin's um comments,

we got to do something. We got to get action. We got to I don't care if we're hack halfcocked and crazy. Like we got to move forward with something. We may not have all the answers, but we're moving forward with something. Help navigating those politics. Yep. I can't help. Yep. Maybe we can talk about that. We can brainstorm ideas and run into some Yeah, we want to bring it forward and see what your sheriff what how we move forward. Which option and will you be behind us when it's crunch time? I can help I can help create the baton. I just can't help hand it off.

Thank you everyone. Good job. Good job. Hey Alvin, you didn't have to come back early from Thailand, did you? Nope. Okay. No, I did not just for this. That would have been terrible. I got late day and a half late. Thanks everybody.