City Council - Regular Meeting

22 ounce stainless steel water filled with 4 tons of oxygen.

I'm gonna call the August 3rd meeting of the West Des Moines City Council to order and invite you all to stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge 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.

Ryan, have there been any changes to the agenda?

No changes, Your Honor.

Can I get a motion to approve the agenda as distributed? So moved. Second. Okay, so moved and seconded. Please vote. for yes. Okay, item two, citizens forum. Anybody that would like to address the council on any item that is not either part of public hearings or new business, this is your time. Please come to the podium. Give us your name and address of the record. We ask that you keep it civil and respectful. That's for you specifically. And five minutes are under.

Well, my name is Molly. I'm at 4949 Woodland Avenue here in West Des Moines.

All right. The floor is yours, Molly.

I was going to actually talk about something totally different than what I'm going to talk about tonight. But I just wanted to tell you the 4th of July thing that you guys did this year was very awesome. I have a little girl that has autism and being able to see fireworks for the first time as a drone show. was awesome. It was very inclusion friendly to all of us. I sat next to a guy that actually is a veteran and he hadn't watched for fireworks for years because of PTSD. And it was really cool to see him there too. So, but that's, that's what I was going to talk about. But now I'm talking about something different here. Sorry guys. I'm here tonight to ask to consider requiring Knox boxes on every apartment multi-housing building unit here in West Des Moines. Recently, I had to call 911 for my five-year-old daughter during a medical emergency we had in our home. As multiple first responders arrived, I found myself in an impossible situation. Every time a new crew arrived, I had to leave my daughter's side to run and let them in and buzz them into our apartment complex. This led to a two-minute and 30-second time delay, roughly, for them to get in from our apartment complex into our building. Our apartment complex, later on, I found out had a Knox box but wasn't registered. That was very concerning to me, and it's only installed on one building in our apartment complex, and that just so happens not to be our apartment unit that we're in. Because of that, and because we didn't have this item, like I said, we added time onto her respond time. And in a situation like that, seconds can matter. This isn't about convenience. It's about safety. I've been told by multiple people it comes down to funding and how much these boxes cost. Reality, they're $250. I looked them up online. During a medical emergency, a fire, or any life-threatening situation, every second counts. Residents should never have to choose between staying with a loved one in a crisis and opening the door for an emergency responder. Requiring Knox boxes on every apartment building could allow first responders to gain immediate access, reduce delays, and let families remain where they are needed most, by their loved ones' sides. It would also impact safety for seniors. people with disabilities, medically complex children like my own, and anyone experiencing an emergency. I hope you'll consider making this a requirement for all apartment buildings here in West Des Moines. One simple change could save time and potentially save lives.

Thanks for coming forward on that. Greta, is it possible, I mean, I presume, that any new apartment building has to have these Knox boxes. Is it possible to put this into an ordinance that all, no matter how old they are, all multifamily housing units have Knox boxes?

That's a good question. I think it could be part of the rental permit, perhaps. We can take a look at that.

Okay, I think we should. I mean, I guess I didn't realize that they didn't all have Knox boxes. So I appreciate you bringing that to our attention. And I think it's something that we definitely need to get implemented if we are able to do that on every unit.

Yeah, I guess the only concern that I would have on that, a couple concerns. One, of course, is the cost of that and mandating that the apartment owners have that. But the other one would be, I would think that if we did mandate it, which I'm not a huge fan of mandating things, but if we did mandate it, I would assume we would only mandate it on apartment buildings that are locked apartment buildings. Right? It wouldn't make sense to have these knock boxes on apartment buildings where the door, the outside door was left open so somebody could come in. So it could very well be that they opt to, instead of making them secure buildings because of the knock boxes, they just leave the doors open.

Right?

I mean, that's a potential unintended consequence. But we can look at it and see, explore that. Have a conversation with our public safety folks and... look at the pros and cons and I'd like to I would request that this goes to the Public Safety Committee and talk about it at the earliest convenience, okay We will make sure this makes it onto a public safety agenda when they have time to be able to fit that in. They're not dealing with e-bikes and ice cream trucks.

We've got a lot of other things to work on right now, but yeah, I'll put it in line and maybe we'll even talk about it. Our next meeting is tomorrow morning, so staff doesn't have enough time to get through it before then, but we'll ask about it then as well.

The only thing I would like to add, it would be great if we could work that in more sooner than later. And Molly, I thank you though for stepping up and addressing. A lot of times that's how change will occur. You may say something to your neighbor and that neighbor, but it doesn't go any further. The only way that we're going to get changes For you do exactly what you did come up public forum address it It makes all of us the mayor and all the council members it makes us aware and that's really the first battle right there Awareness, so thank you Well the other thing I guess I would say is there's nothing stopping these apartment building owners right now from getting the Knox boxes to begin with right Correct

I mean, we're here to help and do whatever we can, and we want to do that, but government's not the solution to everything. Okay, we will look at that. We will take that up in a public safety subcommittee agenda as soon as we can, and we will bring that back and report on it, maybe on Councilman Lote's committee update, maybe. All right. Anybody else? Robert, come on up. Give us your name and address for the record. And just to remind you, I know you're a candidate for office, but we have no politicking, no campaigning in these chambers whatsoever.

That's okay. I don't want to do that anyway. All right.

I didn't figure you did, but I just wanted to remind you.

I hate grades, by the way. Anyway, Robert Greenway, 211 Northwest Hay Street, Greenfield, Iowa. Three things. The first two is kind of an announcement. I passed a... The graph of the new construction in Dallas County, it's amazing to me. I don't remember exactly, was it 700 million or 800 million? Dallas County was a big part of the graph. So if you've seen it, fine. I just think it's something that you ought to be aware of that we do, I personally do check on this stuff. Anyway, second thing, Dallas County was very well represented for Iowans for tax relief. It was here. It was a free thing. There was three candidates for, not campaigning, but there was three candidates there for county supervisor, the recorder. There was a Dallas center person, and you had all been invited. If you got it, it was worthwhile. I think there was 30. Okay. I don't think anybody was there, but maybe... Anyway, most importantly lately was the information and publicity about the nitrate levels, which one of the first things I heard was here, and it was one of you that mentioned something about it. Since that time, it was, I guess, the longest nitrate removal on record. There's five towns. Didn't know that. I briefly talked to the DNR at the Dallas County Fairgrounds and met two chairmen of the watershed committees, which I didn't even know we had that. That was good for me. I did talk to Julia Helm. And she was the one first told me, I mean, it was kind of almost the same day, said she did show me the graphs for the watersheds, which is kind of the first, I think, one of the first stands to keep the nitrate levels down. She said there's hardly ever a quorum in the watershed committees. And yeah, it was, Julia Helm was, oh, she is the county chairman of the board of supervisors. I should have made sure everybody knew that. Very smart lady, by the way, and she actually has a farm background, so she understands it probably more than a lot of people. So I really do, whatever. At the same time, probably before and after this, I had conversations with City Administrator Tom and Harry Stein, who I used to work for, the biggest landowner in Dallas County, and they have done their own work in some places And he said, it's not for just making watersheds. It's some of the ground that you buy isn't worthwhile to farm. So you make wetlands out of it. He understands it. And I was driving, let someone else drive, excuse me. Uh-huh. Someone else was driving my car and he called me. I had a phone call in him. And Harry is probably... one of the best stewards of the land that you could get. And I worked for him for years and know his attitudes about it. So he gave me about a 20-minute dissertation why I was writing, and the lady couldn't believe that he called me back and said, no, that's just Harry's style. He doesn't do very well in big groups, by the way. Anyway, I also talked to a former mayor in Waukee, it's Mr. Bailey or Daley, and he had some really good ideas, too, on slowing down nitrate levels downstream. And I ran across to the DNRs, and they either knew about them or were knowledgeable about them. It's more or less right at the outlets of the tiles in what I call highly nitrate-level areas. I thought that was a pretty good deal. Anyway, there was one thing that came in front of the county supervisors about this all came in in a 30-day period of time. There was a DNR suggestion or plan costing about a half a million on some area which I was not familiar with. to mitigate it, and they tabled that. They did listen, and there was two DNR people there. I learned a lot. And it was appropriate before all this stuff that I went through to learn. Anyway, that's basically just some kind of updates. There is information out there. I appreciate, Tom, your input. I've learned a lot about this stuff in the last 30 days. So thank you for your time.

Robert, thank you for being here and thank you for giving us an update. It's always appreciated. Thank you. Okay, anybody else in the Council Chambers for Citizens Forum? Miss Rochelle, give us your name and address for the record.

This is Rochelle Long, 106 11th Street, West Des Moines. And I'm standing today as the founder and executive director for Taste of the Junction. So I just wanted to stand and make a public statement. First of all, to our city manager, to the staff, to the council, just want to stand and thank you for the support. that we continue to get from the city. And not only for us, but thank you for continuing to support Bravo that keeps the art and culture in our communities. I know there's a few that have dropped out, and I just want to say thank you to West Des Moines for keeping it, for understanding that arts and culture is still important. I know you're doing the dance. Everybody is trying to do more with less, and things like that, but thank you for keeping arts and culture at the top and in the city budgets and things like that so organizations like ours can continue to be in the community and offer what we bring to the table, our community building, our cultural education, and curating these stories about the origins of West Des Moines, which is Valley Junction. I had a... announcement that I had sent to Ryan. Thank you, Ryan, so much. Ryan keeps me on point, and he makes sure every year that our special event application gets in. He makes sure I dot all my I's and cross all my T's, so I really appreciate that. With me tonight, we have one of our board members with us, Dr. Mary Chapman, and You know, my great friend, Senator Renee Hardman, and my sisters are here with me, and maybe some other friends out of the community. But I want them to come and stand with me because we want to take a picture. We want to give a public thank you because I don't take it lightly. None of us do, especially in these nonprofits and in times like these where we still get the city support. And so I also want to echo West Des Moines. You guys did the darn thing with the Fourth of July, right? And so it's things like that that give us, that keep our quality of life in West Des Moines. So I appreciate it. Taste of the Junction appreciate it. And we want to stand and do a picture with everyone and say thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yep, we need the board. And while we're coming up.

You want to do a picture quick, Rochelle? Yep, we want to do a picture.

Yep. And then our Labor Day, our events are coming up Labor Day weekend. So please, if you're in town, the 3rd, 4th, or 5th, stop by any one of those times and come and visit us for the Taste of the Junction Multicultural Festival. We appreciate the support. Anybody that wants to take this picture with them, come on.

All right. Thank you.

All right.

Before I sit down, do you have anything?

No, thank you for being here. Thank you for the kudos. Yeah, we'll see you at Taste of the Junction.

Thank you.

All right, anybody else in the council chambers for Citizens Forum? Before I go online.

Rochelle I just want to say thank you and Mayor I'm gonna make the request that the taste of the junction there are various events that are occurring not only the Saturday event if there's any way that we could get that put on the city website may already be there I don't know but if it's not sure would be great to have it so that everyone is aware of the various events that you're having

We'll see what we can do to pump that out there. Of course, we've got to be very careful because if we push one event, then we've got to push them all. But we will see what we can do. We will see what we can do. Okay. With that, anybody else in the council chambers for Citizens Forum before we go online and see what we might have there? Okay, anybody online for Citizens Forum, please hit star six, not pound six, not hashtag six, but star six to unmute yourself. Give us your name and address for the record. Is there anybody online for Citizens Forum? Going once, star six, going twice. Okay, Citizens Forum is closed. We're going to move on to item three, Mayor, Council, City Manager, other entities update. And I'll start down to my right with City Manager Tom Hadden. Do you have any report at this time?

I'm going to yield my time to Sarah Hansen from the Community Affairs Manager for Microsoft. Perfect. Go ahead, step up. Tell your story. Thank you. All right. Go ahead, Sarah.

Well, thank you. Hello, council members. I'm Sarah Hansen, Senior Community Affairs Manager for Microsoft, and I'm honored to be sharing the information regarding the collaboration between Bravo, the Historic Valley Junction Foundation, and Microsoft. Thank you for mentioning it earlier today. Valley Junction Historical Foundation and their art committee are tasked with preserving and honoring the historic character, supporting small businesses and connecting the community. Microsoft is honored to support this incredible mural project, just later on. The commissioning of the art murals in Valley Junction marks a vibrant effort to celebrate and preserve the area's unique history. Artists were selected to create murals that reflect the rich heritage and significant moments that have shaped Valley Junction over the years. This project is designed not only to beautify the surroundings, but also to engage the community by turning public spaces into storytelling canvases. The murals will serve as visual narratives connecting residents and visitors to the historical roots of the neighborhood. The culmination of this initiative will be a community celebration where the murals are officially unveiled. Hope to see you all there. Bringing together people of all ages to honor the past and look forward to the colorful future. I want to specifically thank the Valley Junction Art Committee, and I know several of you are here in the back of the room, for all of their hard work. And to thank the City of West Des Moines for supporting such a collaboration that will provide benefits for generations to come. So I know it's been a lot to get this off the ground, so thank you guys very much for all of your hard work.

All right. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you, Rich. Acknowledge Rich, who's here from Microsoft as well. These folks, I always say it, can't say it enough, they're great corporate citizens. They are huge partners of ours in the community. You know, we got some kudos earlier on the 4th of July celebration going big for A250 and doing the drone show, and we would not have been able to do that without the generosity of Microsoft and the West Des Moines Community Foundation. Robert Palmer, I believe, is the chair of that. Now, we never promised to do it every single year. This was A250. We were going big. A little bit of the worry that I have is that people would want to have this every year. We never promised that. This was a big celebration, but we'll see. We'll put it on the record. Well, thank you guys for everything. Really appreciate this. These murals will be incredible when they're done. Really look forward to that. All right. With that, move down here to Councilman Hudson.

Any report? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just really quick. You know, we're thinking about Valley Junction and all the cool stuff that's happening. We think about Taste of Junction coming up in a month, which is really exciting. Can't believe Labor Day is just a month away. But here we are. I just got back from Washington, D.C. We did a little kid's trip, and we got to see all the Smithsonian things, saw the Capitol, Supreme Court, all the things. It was really exciting to be out there. Went to downtown Fredericksburg, which is like 350 years old, and downtown Alexander, which is like 350 years old. But it really reminded me of Valley Junction. And yeah, Valley Junction is less than 150 years old, but it's had that same feeling. And I love the fact that we have... a part of our community that has not just a history, a very rich and robust history. And the fact that Microsoft is partnering with the Historic Valley Junction Foundation, we have festivals that happen like Taste of the Junction. I know that everybody up here supports Valley Junction too because it is our history and it's a great history. So yeah, we might not have 400 years of history like over there, but I think 100 plus history years is pretty good. And one more thing, just we had an FNA meeting a couple weeks ago. Speaking of the eastern portion of our city, we're working on 8th Street. Working on 8th Street and trying to beautify that, enrich that. So there's some potential projects coming up, but it will require some help from other agencies like the state and and HUD and different levels of funding coming in for different projects. But I think there's some exciting thing happens all over the city. So we'll see how that goes. As Councilman Lotz said, we have a public safety meeting, which I'm sure he will speak to. But other than that, hope everyone enjoys the rest of summer. It is fleeting. And that'll conclude my report.

All right. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Elliott, any report?

Yes, Your Honor. Okay, I'm going to probably try to keep this a little short. Some of the events and places that I attended was the Human Services Advisory Board, FNA. Greg and I attend that. I was very honored to attend the Hip Hope Cornbread Festival at Riverview Park. It was so phenomenal to see our young people, entrepreneurs, at the beginning of the program, the summer program, they just determined they want a business. They take that idea. all the way down to the point that they have products to sell. So it was very heartwarming to be there to buy. I didn't buy something for everyone. Why not? Because there was plenty. But it really gives hope, and that's why the nonprofit is Hip Hope, giving our kids hope. So I thank you for all that you do.

And for those of us that couldn't make it, I appreciated you sending the video to the council and city managers so we could see all the festivities, how everything went, all the cute kids. And so thank you for sending that along. Of course, of course.

And then I'll just throw it out there in the universe and see what happens. But it'd be so nice if Hip Hope Cornbread Festival was here in West Des Moines next year and going forward. Let's see, I also attended the Public Services Council Committee. Main Street, Main Street of Iowa came to Valley Junction. There were a series of meetings. Let's see, Tom. the mayor and myself, we attended. For me, being the newest member of the council, I do a whole lot of listening to be able to soak things in. but what I heard from the city as far as how our historical Valley Junction Foundation is functioning was very heartwarming, and I thank you. Steve, I see you sitting back there. I thank you. Then there was another meeting that I attended also, and this was comprised of various committees, staff, Brad, and myself. And then once again, it was hearing from the staff how proud they are of their contributions to Historical Valley Junction. It was very, very heartwarming for me to hear, but I have something more heartwarming that I want to share. I want to take the time. because if people don't understand the importance of Historic Valley Junction, I'm gonna give you what their mission statement is. The Historic Valley Junction Foundation guides the evolution of the original Valley Junction District in West Des Moines, Iowa, by preserving and honoring our historic character, supporting small businesses, and connecting the community. I thought it was important to take a moment to share that, because that is kind of like the heart. And also with Rochelle's event, the Taste of the Junction coming up, it was an appropriate time to remind everyone, don't ever forget your history. Your history is your foundation. Let's see, thank you. Also, yeah, from a teacher, thank you. I got an A plus. from the teacher. I also had an opportunity to tour Habitat for Humanity. What I have known about Habitat for Humanity is really what I hear and see on the news. I was very much impressed. Habitat for Humanity had wonderful things to say as far as working with the city of West Des Moines. So I wanna thank you because not yet, not knowing the amount and with housing being so important to our growth, knowing, though, that we already have relationships with Habitat for Humanity, and there will be more to come. But it was very heartwarming to hear of the commitment, and I am going to call out Christine Gordon. She's not here, but Ryan, I want you to know that they are very pleased in working with her and her concern for housing. Need for more housing Attainable housing you notice. I didn't say affordable Attainable housing what is affordable to to one person? It may not be affordable to another average home price in West Des Moines is three hundred thousand dollars You know what that may not be affordable for a lot But attainable but to know that we have someone at Christine Christine Gordon's compassion for attainable housing was very reassuring. And to hear that from Habitat for Humanity and the great working relationship that they have with West Des Moines. Please let her know. Let's see. Oh, last but not least. And Steve, I'm looking at you because I had just noticed that the Historical Valley Junction is having a Puzzle Night fundraiser. Happens to be tomorrow night. Oh, here I was trying to report something for you. Well, Scratch That has been postponed, but tune in more because I'll keep you updated when it's time to get that show back on the road. But that's all that I have.

All right. Great report. Thank you, Councilman. Appreciate it. Councilman Trevelyan, any report? Nothing. Okay. Councilman Lotz, any report at this time?

A couple of real quick things. Tomorrow morning we have the next public safety meeting. On the agenda are the ever-wonderful e-bikes that we are all well aware of. It will be the second time since June we've talked through that. So hopefully I did get to talk to Chief Bellamy last Friday about them to some degree. So hopefully I'll have some ideas to move forward to the council for consideration. The other two items are ice cream trucks and residential neighborhoods and then some traffic calming effort and conversation based upon some other things that other constituents have brought up in the past at recent council meetings here. And I'd just like to let the constituent know on the back, thanks for bringing up the Knox boxes. I've already put it on the next agenda. So that email has been sent and we'll be getting after that probably first week of September. So thank you.

Awesome. Thank you, Councilman. Appreciate that and your attention to the Knox boxes. Okay, with that, we will move 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. Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Please vote. For yes. Okay. Item 5, Old Business. Item 5A, Glen Oaks. Planned unit development, 700 My Way. Amend the Glen Oaks planned unit development ordinance to modify regulations for fencing and ground signage, Paramount Destination Homes, Inc. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the second reading. Waiver of the third reading. 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 with McKinney absent. Second reading. Okay. It's been moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, hearing none, please vote.

Four yes, an ordinance amending the City Code of the City of West Des Moines, Iowa 2024 and the Glen Oaks Planning and Development Ordinance pertaining to PUD district regulations and guidelines.

Motion to approve the second reading. Second. Please vote. Four yes. Motion to waive the third reading and adopt in final form.

Second. Please vote. Four yes. Sorry about that. Okay, item 5B, West Des Moines Community School PUD, east of Mill Civic Parkway and north of Fuller Road, amend the Southwoods Knoll PUD to remove Valley Stadium from the PUD and establish a new West Des Moines Community Schools planned unit development, West Des Moines Community Schools. We've got two ordinances that we need to take separately. First, we've got an ordinance amending the Southwoods Knoll PUD. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the second reading, waiver of the third reading. Adoption of final form there are no outstanding issues and no changes from the previous reading Which was adopted unanimously at the last council meeting with McKinney absent motion consider secondary Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote

For yes, an ordinance amended in the City Code of the City of Western Winnipeg 2024 in the Southwoods and all planning unit development ordinance pertaining to PUD district regulations and guidelines.

Motion to approve the second reading.

Second. Please vote.

For yes. Motion to waive the third reading, adopt in final form. Second.

All right, please vote. For yes. Okay, now we've got an ordinance establishing the West Des Moines Community Schools, PUD. We've got an ordinance for approval of the second reading, waiver of the third, adoption of final form, no outstanding issues, and no changes in the previous reading, which was adopted unanimously by the council at the last meeting, with McKinney absent.

Motion to pass that reading.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? Okay, please vote.

For yes, an order to amend the official zoning map in the City Code of the City of West Des Moines, Iowa 2024 by amending Title IX zoning pertaining to PUD district regulations and guidelines.

Motion to approve the second reading. Second. Please vote. I forgot we had two ordinances here. Moved on to 5C already.

For yes. Motion to waive the third reading and adopt a final form. Second. Please vote.

For yes. Okay, item 5C, we've got it's a motion approval of traffic code amendments, no parking zones, various streets. We've got an ordinance amendment for approval of the second reading, waiver of the third reading, and adoption of final form. There are no outstanding issues and no changes in the previous reading, which was adopted unanimously by the council at our last meeting with McKinney absent. Second. Okay, it's moved and seconded. Is there any discussion? All right, please vote.

You were too quick. I know I'm too quick. Too quick on the draw. Or yes, an ordinance amending the City Code of the City of West Des Moines, Iowa 2024 by amending provisions pertaining to the traffic schedules.

Motion to approve that second reading. Second.

Please vote.

For yes. Motion to waive the third reading, adopt in final form.

Second. All right, please vote. Yes All right item six public hearings item 6a We're being asked to defer this item indefinitely until the developer is ready to bring the final plat forward for approval Good motion to defer indefinitely. Okay. Can I get second mr. Move and second it please vote For yes Okay, item 6B, we're being asked to defer to the August 17th meeting to allow the applicant additional time to review the documents. Motion to defer. Second. Okay, so moved and seconded.

Please vote. Ryan, you can pick if it was me or Kevin for that. I think we're both okay with it.

That's close.

Four yes. You guys are really making them guess down there. All right. Item 6C. This is the time and place for a public hearing to consider 2026 Pavement Markings Program initiated by the City of West Des Moines. Ryan, would you please read the date the notice is published?

July 17th, 2026 in the Des Moines Register. And have we received any written comments to this hearing?

None, Your Honor. Okay. Anybody in the audience who would like to address the council on item 6C, please come to the podium. Give us your name and address for the record. Anybody online, hit star 6 to unmute yourself and do the same. All right. We will go to M.J. Hogue. M.J., give us your name and address for the record. You've got five minutes.

M.J. Hogue, 413 2nd Street. I wanted to come up and give you guys kudos. I know you don't all, not all of you always like the... Like, you know, like pavement markings, like the bike, the sheriff's. But, and this year, it includes removing some of the old paint, which I know makes it a little more expensive. So I wanted to thank you guys and thank staff. Clearing off that old paint makes a huge difference in the legibility of the symbols, and it has not gone unnoticed, and it is appreciated.

Thank you. MJ? Who was the contractor that did that first job on the left? My.

That was me. I can't color in the lines. I was going to say. Keep the easy ones coming, MJ. Thank you.

I have a question on this one, too.

All right. Hold on. Wait. Let's.

Close the public hearing.

Yeah, let's wait until I close the public hearing. Go ahead. Is there anybody else in the council chambers or online that would like to address council item 6C? And then we're going to go to Councilman Lotz, if not. Okay. Hearing and seeing no one, I will declare the public hearing closed. And we've got two resolutions and a motion so we can take at the same time and they're not standing issues. Somebody want to... Motion to approve. Okay. It's been moved and seconded. Councilman Lotz.

A question for Mr. Stiles here, if you can. We chose to expense this rather than capitalize this, and I'm wondering why we did that. This is a... capital improvement, I thought, but maybe not. And if there's an accounting treatment here that matters, or?

Yeah, the test to either capitalize an asset or expense an asset is what is the useful life of that asset, and there's really, if we're not extending the useful life of the streets or anything by this project, it's more of a maintenance thing.

Okay, so it's not about the actual length of the life of the Chevron itself, it's the street.

Right. That it's on. And, you know, yeah, exactly.

Okay. That's all I wanted. Thank you.

All right.

Any other discussion on item 6C before we vote? I cannot in good conscience spend $125,000 for these markings that are not needed, so I will not be supporting this.

Well, you know, I think that as we look at trying to be more efficient and effective in everything we do, as we look at trying to pinch pennies, and I think we're going to have a workshop afterwards about the property tax legislation that was passed by the state, you know, we're going to have to look at, I'm sure, savings in the future. But at the same time, I wouldn't... Discount this at all because you know, we've had a resident come before us and talk about safety and this is part of safety But if there's a way we can do this more efficiently and allow for the safety and save some money I'm sure that's something that staff is looking at in the future. But right now this is the project before us and I think it makes sense to To do in this budget and I'm sure we'll look at future budgets and see whether or not it continues to make sense All right with that, please vote Okay, moving on to Item 7, New Business. Item 7A, Mills Landing, Plat 2, 5950 Mills, Civic Parkway, Buildings 2000 and 3000. Approve final plat creating two lots for commercial development. Plaza Street Partners, LLC. We've got a resolution for acceptance of legal documents and approval and release of the final plat, and there are no outstanding issues. Motion to approve. Okay, it's been moved. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address counsel on Item 7A? Okay, is there any discussion in the dais? Hearing none, please vote. Yes, okay item 7b Valley Junction murals 127 131 210 214 and 233 5th Street approved level one minor modification of the site plan for the installation of five wall murals historic Valley Junction foundation we have got a resolution for approval the level one minor modifications of the site plan and approval the license agreements and there are no outstanding issues But there are two conditions of approval one involves the city What did I write here? Accepting construction staging license agreements for the use of enclosure of the pedestrian walkways for installation of the murals. And the other one involves the Historic Valley Junction Foundation receiving approval from the Public Arts Advisory Commission prior to removing and relocating any public art in the alleyways as well as getting any other city approvals and paying for the relocation of that public art. With that, can I get a motion to approve the resolution? Motion to approve. Okay, it's been moved. And second, is there anybody in the audience or online that would like to address counsel on this item? All right, come on up, Steve. Give us your name and address for the record.

Steve Freebird, executive director of the Historic Valley Junction Foundation. It's taken a long time to get to this point. I think it was 12 months ago that we had the first discussions with the city's community and economic development department that led to this partnership with Bravo and Microsoft to make these wonderful projects happen. The two conditions that you talked about, I think we've got that figured out and actually the sculpture in question has actually already been moved off site and we'll work with the Public Arts Committee on getting that done. But again, I want to thank the city for their partnership, Bravo and Microsoft, and especially our volunteers and our board of directors and design committee for making this project move forward.

This has been an awesome partnership. It's going to be a great project, and I can't wait to see these things when they're done. I know we're working on the insurance requirement, and we'll be getting back to you after we hear from our insurance company as to what level of coverage is required.

We actually just sent, about 4.30 today, sent an updated certificate of insurance.

Okay. Yep. All right.

Sounds good. Your Honor, I'm kind of excited about this, because this is the kind of thing that makes our... community very special no doubt about it and There are some people who might say we don't need this kind of thing. Maybe we don't but they certainly Add to the aesthetic and I'm excited about this. So thank you.

Mr. Freiberg I mean every time we talk about Valley Junction we're talking about what the look and the feel of Valley Junction and keeping historic nature and You know the ambience of a place makes a big deal and the ambience of Valley Junction is very special So this will just add to it be a good addition. I

And you will all be getting invitations to the October 9th unveiling celebration of the completion of these projects.

Awesome.

Thank you, Microsoft. Steve, are these going to be done all at the same time? Yes.

So October 9th is the celebration date, so we have two months. Yeah, so they'll all be kind of worked on about the same time.

So all of the walkways will be closed down at the same time?

No, I think we're looking to use about six feet, and I don't anticipate that we're going to work on both sides of a walkway at one time. So there will be public access so there will be access.

Okay. Excellent. All right.

Thank you All right any other discussion All right, come on up dr. Vicki Longhill give us your name and address for the record I

Thank you. Once and again, it's an honor to be before you, Dr. Vicki Longhill, 136 10th Street. I just want to follow up behind Steve, and I'm honored to be a member of the Historic Valley Foundation, but I'm also honored and so proud of the work that together the board has done to increase the diversity and to increase the inclusion of the neighborhood and the community. At our meeting, I'm excited to share with the community the murals that are going up. They are quite representative and something I think we'll all be proud of. Thank you.

Thank you, Vicki. Appreciate it. All right. Anybody else on this item? All right. Hearing none, please vote. For yes. Okay. Item eight, receive file and or refer. We've got nothing to receive file or refer. Item nine, other matters. Are there any other matters that any council person would like to bring up for the good of the order? If not, we are adjourned and we will convene our workshop here at 6.21. All right, we're gonna reconvene in our workshop and it looks like Chris Hamlet is gonna start us out and maybe take us through, I don't know. All right, Chris, go ahead.

Chris Hamlet, Senior Budget Analyst with the Finance Department. I am here tonight to give you a presentation here on the effects of the new legislation on the city and West Des Moines operations. I'm gonna go through some slides here and then I'll turn it over to Tom. Tom will wrap this up here. But some of these slides will have some numbers on them. Don't feel like you have to write these down at this time. There will be a summary later in it that recaps it and then we'll provide all this information to everybody after this. I'm not sure if you want to ask questions as we go along or save your questions till the end. Let's save them. Okay, perfect. All right, I'll get moving here. So the agenda for tonight's workshop is what has changed. We've got five legislative changes, and then we have the estimated financial impacts of the city, and then what our approach is to the 27, 28 budget as our response. So there's five major changes from this legislative changes. The first one is the consolidated general fund levy, the 2% cap plus the new valuation. Then we have the homestead exemption. business property tax credit, the changes to multi-residential valuations, and then the tax increment financing, otherwise TIF. We'll just barely get into the TIF as we want to have a workshop later on that, getting more details, and we want to talk with our legal and our financial advisors on some of the impacts of the TIF changes. So the first one is the new limit on revenue. The main part of this is the 2% increase limit, which is based on revenue from existing properties from the prior fiscal year. In addition to that, we can have new growth, which would consist of construction, improvements to existing properties, or if we did any annexation, so they would not be subject to the cap. So for the year that we just started, our general fund levy revenue was just under $56 million. So using this new percent increase, our new general fund levy revenue from just on the existing properties, not including the new, will be just over $57 million. So that means our general fund revenue for existing properties can just grow over $1.1 million. Now, when you see these numbers here, I want you to focus on the 57 million, the cap number, as opposed to the difference between the growth and that'll make more sense when I get into one of these later slides here. Second part of the changes, and this is the one that I feel probably impacts things more, especially this first year as opposed to the 2% growth, is this homestead exemption. So qualifying homesteads now receive a 10% exemption on their taxable value of property. They used to be getting a credit of $4,850 of their taxable valuation. And the state has been backfilling this homestead credit over the years, so we have always been made whole and that backfill is gonna go away. So during 26-27, we had over 14,300 homes that qualified for the homestead exemption. Based on an estimated average home value of West Des Moines, which is around 300,000, and using these numbers of homes, our property tax revenue will decrease by over $1.8 million, just from the homestead part. And here is an example of how the calculations were working. So we have a $300,000 home on the left-hand side. You could see that based on the current tax rates that we have, a $300,000 home would bring $1,390 to the city. Under this new exemption, when they get 10% off of the value up to the max, they would pay just under 1,300. So big benefit to the homeowners. that they're gonna save almost $92 just on their city taxes, and you gotta think that city tax is only about a third of this, so they're gonna probably save about $300 annually on property taxes with this new homestead exemption. The next part is the business property tax credit. This is something that the state started a few years ago, where commercial properties are currently taxed at 90% of their valuation, But the first $150,000 is taxed at the residential rollback rate, and that rollback rate varies from year to year. So during 25-26, we received about $421,000 of business property tax backfill, which is going to be going away. So there's another... hit to our coffers. And this is something that the state was funding. Now the state is taking that 125 million that they distributed statewide and they're creating this taxpayer relief fund. So it's gonna get used someplace else, but it's not going directly to the cities. The fourth part is multi-residential. So rollback rates for apartments, mobile homes, assisted livings, three plexes, quad plexes, all those are currently taxed at the, residential rollback rate. Since 2022, the multi-residential has been lumped in with the residential properties. So we don't have a good estimate right now of how much of our residential valuation is actually multi-residential. But what they are doing is they are phasing in a new rollback for the multi-residential. So the first year, 27, 28, it's gonna be equal to the residential rollback rate. The second year, it's going to be the rollback rate plus 3%. And then 29-30, it's going to be the residential rollback rate plus 6%. This is going to help us a little bit, but it's not going to be anything that brings in significant dollars or changes anything. It's not really going to be a game changer. But the last time we did have the multi-residential broke out, it was about $408 million worth of taxable valuation. So that was about 7% of our residential valuation. And as the state provides more information, we'll know that later once those valuations get broke out later and once we know the rollback rate.

Fifth one is TIF.

Like I said, we'll have a workshop later this fall about TIF, but just things to know that TIF valuations do not count as new revenue when we release TIF valuations back to the general fund. And so any TIF that we release counts towards that 2% cap that we are limited to. And then one of the other things is that the school foundation levy that we've been able to include in our TIF levies over the years will be going away for any new TIF ordinances that start after January 1st of 2027.

So. They'll actually be subject to approval from the school district.

Yes.

But.

Yes, they could opt to allow us to have that, but in reality, that's probably not gonna happen.

I'd argue the other way. I'd argue the other way. But anyway, that's a discussion for another day.

Yep. So going forward, we got to evaluate how and when we use TIF, you know, to use it smartly. And, you know, again, we'll discuss this after we have more information this fall.

So estimated financial impacts to the City of West Des Moines.

New growth. That's something we haven't had a whole lot of information on, but we just recently got the past two years amounts of new growth. So over the past two years, we've been averaging 3.13% of new growth for taxable valuations. But due to some of those valuations being captured in TIFs, we've only seen an average of 1.93% of new valuation growth. Taxable, yes. And if we take that percentage and base it on our existing values, tax rates, we would see about $1.2 million of new revenue from new growth, if that was to hold up.

Is that the new growth with the ratchet put in place too? Or is that un-ratcheted?

I would say that's un-ratcheted.

Okay.

I was sort of under the impression that the ratcheted sort of goes away and is replaced by the 2% cap. Okay.

I just thought we were more towards like 4.81% growth is what I thought, and then they got ratcheted down, but this is un-ratcheted.

Yes, this is un-ratcheted growth. This is directly what. Wow.

And that was new and existing growth combined was the 4.8%. Yes. Right, right, right, right.

Yeah, this is strictly new. This is strictly new. Okay, that makes sense, more sense now too.

Yeah, and you know, each year will be its own different story depending on what comes on line and everything. So here's where I was talking earlier, this is the slide that is sort of gonna recap everything. So as you can see for 26-27, we had just about 56 million of general fund property tax revenue. Here's where the homestead exemptions coming in and that's gonna take almost 1.9 million off the top. Now earlier I said we could only grow by 1.1 million, but since that homestead exemption comes in first, we can make up that homestead exemption by under the 2% cap. But so we could get almost $3 million under the cap to get us to the new cap amount, which was 2% over the prior years. So if we could find almost 3 million of revenue from existing properties, that would be great. The challenge becomes that this is a non-revaluation year. You know, as I don't know if everybody knows, but the state only revalues properties every two years. So in this year, there's no revaluation. So any existing home is going to stay at the same value, or home and commercial property is going to stay at the same value as it was the year before unless they've added anything. So in order to get any 2% growth in this new year, we're gonna be relying on the residential rollback rate to increase, which it typically does increase in the non-revaluation years.

Or we could release.

Or we could release TIF.

Yep. This year.

Yes.

We could release. We're gonna hit that 2% number one way or the other. Yes. Because if we don't, we lose it forever.

Yes. It is very important that we hit this 2% number every year because if we don't, then it just shorts what we're able to grow in future years. Now, the one thing that I did look at is that to get to this 2.963, almost $3 million, we would have to have almost the residential rollback rate would have to increase 9.34% just to get to that, which we know is not going to happen. The residential rollback rate over the past two non-revaluation years has been between 1% and 1.35%. So this is where we're going to have to find other avenues to try to get to that cap level. Like we said, releasing TIF if we can, or maybe shifting some of the levy from one of the other non-cap levies. Multi-residential, we said we're not gonna see any changes in that for year one because it's still gonna stay at the residential rate, but in 28, 29, we'll see a little bit of increase there. And then we have the increase for potential new valuation growth. And then we lose the business property tax credit, which is 421,000. So we're expecting general fund property tax revenue to be just under $58 million, which is almost $1.9 million than we had the year before.

Yes. I mean, when just looking at salary increases pension contributions, insurance increases, we've probably blown through that.

Yes, and I'll show you that here on the, you've jumped ahead of me here, so if we get to my next slide, I show that where we have the 26-27 budget revenue, 26-27 budget operating expenses. So for the current year, we have a planned budget deficit of just under $5.2 million, and that was a planned spend. We were trying to spend down our reserves, and we had thought that at some point in time, too, some of this TIF will be released and go back to the general fund. So that's the way we've been operating under the past few years, but now this is sort of you know, changed our plans here. So, you know, we're already starting with a $5.2 million deficit. If we continue with the same operating expenses as we are for the current year, if we don't change anything, and then we add our new property tax revenue estimated at 1.9 million, And we projected that our personnel expenses for 27-28 are going to increase by $3,300,000. So now we're up to a $6.6 million deficit is our early projections. So this is the gap that we're trying to close.

So that number increases every year.

Yes, and that number will continue to increase every year as our operating expenses go up and our personnel expenses go up and as we see our revenue capped. So the city's financial model is changing. Future growth will not fix everything. We used to say that we could just grow out of our problems. We'd be fine here for a couple years. We need to wait till one of these TIFs roll off or one of the Microsoft data centers flow into the general fund and we were gonna be okay and that's how everything showed for several years. Unfortunately with these new rules, that's not gonna be the case anymore. So, you know, but the good thing is, is that even with all these changes, we all believe that West Des Moines is better prepared to handle this than many of the other cities and communities throughout the state. You know, we've been planning for this. We have reserves built up. We have different options that we can use to do this. You know, we've been through property tax changes before and we've come out okay, but, you know, it's just going to take, you know, a little bit of work to figure this out and, You don't make the best of this. So I will turn the next part over to Tom.

As he's coming up, and I know we're going to have a discussion about TIF, but If we're having to release TIF and we've already hit the 2% cap and now here comes the release of TIF, isn't that going to drive our property tax rate down even further, right? So that's going to really cause even more of an issue.

We want to hit right at 2%. That's the best we can do.

We want to be right at 2%. We don't want to be above 2%. We don't want to be below 2%. But it's going to be hard just because of the time.

If we have a bunch of TIF that we have to release, we're not going to be able, we might get to a point where we can't control that and have to release it, thereby driving our property tax levy rate down.

Yes, at some point in time, we're going to have some TIF that we have to release because we have no more obligated debt and it will have to go to that fund. So that's just where we have to analyze everything and try to figure out the best situation moving forward. Okay, sorry Tom, go ahead.

So I want to introduce the brain trust on the budget committee. When I first came here over 12 years ago, the budget session season was fall through February, March. Now it's all year round. Because we've been working on this as the legislature keeps coming up with their ideas and thoughts. We have to go through and say, what's that going to do to us? What's this going to do to us? And now we meet early. And now we're addressing how are we going to address what we have. Suddenly, we've done a number of things in the last two, three years, but now you're going to see a more proactive approach. So the team, Megan Cole, Kevin Stiles, David Westring, Laura Rebellis, and Chris Hamlet, and myself. So we've got a great team here that has a lot of expertise. So I'm going to finish this, and then we're going to talk a little about this. I can't help myself, but it reminds me of a, I know everybody's not a Seinfeld fan, but everything leads back to Seinfeld. There's an episode where George and his date, he was asked to buy a big salad, or somebody wanted a big salad. He bought it, gave it to his date, his date presented it to Elaine, and Elaine gave the date all the credit. That's how I feel the state is to us. We're George Costanza. And the state has always given gifts to the taxpayers. And they're going, they're breaking their arms, patting themselves on the back. Look what we did for them. Every one of them comes back to this local government taking care of it. So anyway, it just reminds me of that. So we'll be continuing to adjusting the budget. As I said, it's a never-ending job. We're going to be fine-tuning and you'll probably hear a little bumps in the road as we go. The things that come under my preview is we'll be making changes all year. There's going to be changes. Could be some new restructuring, reorganizations. That's going to happen. And let me see. I might as well bring this chart out because You know we're going to... I'll give you the usual... Every time the budgets come in, we're pushing back on the directors. The directors are trying to do their best job, giving us services that we ask for our citizens. They do a great job. And then we're saying, well, we've got to make this. You may not be able to replace this person. And, of course, they push back, as they should. But eventually, some things are going to give. So to look at your... We'll be starting on that really soon, actually, the 27-28 budget. So one thing I'm proud of that the team did, I think Laura spent a lot of time on this, but everybody chipped in. So this sheet, this thing I gave you, this has kind of been our guidelines. I mean, how we're taking an approach at the budget. The first phase, I'm not sounding the alarm. We're not saying, oh, my God, it's the Titanic, and let's have the band start playing. But we're started. We started really aggressively on that. We've done a lot of things. Now we're in phase two. Phase two is a little more aggressive. People are starting to feel, the employees are going to feel some things that they don't. particularly cared for maybe. You may see and eventually some little drop down in our service. I think we're going to still have outstanding service levels, but it may take a little longer to do certain things. That's what's going to have to happen. But I still think compared to others, we'll still be the best. And that's our goal. So I want you to take this home whenever we get a chance to go through this. And we'll... You know who he works for, don't you? He can't help himself. I'm sorry. So you did see this earlier. This is a little more refined video. presentation of this. But if you look through this, we're doing three phases, and I like this approach. We don't have a certain calendar date that say by this date we've got to meet this. It's all based on what's going on. The finances keep getting refined. We keep learning what our revenue is going to be. We look at other places where revenue could come from. There's not a lot. franchise fees, one thing we're gonna give you, hotel, hotel, we may pull some of that back, and some of the uses that we are having, and of course, actually, Finance Committee's been working on that for several years, right? We started already down to squeeze that, so that's gonna have to continue to do that. Line item by line item, things that we maybe not have considered three years ago to cut, They're considered now. And so that's just what's going to have to happen. So it is going to, I think there's a good comment in here by the team that says, we're not going to cross the board and say, okay, you all have to cut your budgets by X percent because, of course, we can't do that, right? Public safety has a whole other set of standards that they have to meet. We have to have people in the squad cars and in the ambulances and all those things have to be there 24-7. We have to cover that. Then we look at our other services and programs we provide, and then we're going to have to take a hard look at those. We might not have as many offerings as some of those things. Doesn't mean we can't do a great job, but it may be a reduction. And with that comes change, and as you know, change is hard to accept, but that's going to have to be kind of our culture of,

Who moved your cheese? We're going to be moving people's cheese.

Now, if there was a silver bullet and we find it, I'll get a call of you instantly, but I don't think it's there. I think we'll have to keep doing it, be doing our due diligence, working hard, cutting here and a little there. We're doing the stuff that's not painful at first, and then we get a little deeper as we go. So we will come back with you and... Later this, before the year's out, with a 2% request increase in franchise fees. And we think that'll help a lot. And down the road, we may come back again, or somebody may come back again to you for another ask. But I don't see, according to our lobbyists and others, We wanted to go back this year and say, hey, will you fix this thing with TIF? And so that's new growth. But it doesn't seem to be that there's going to be a huge appetite. And, Mr. Mayor, you can tell us if you think there is or not.

It seems like that's a big thing right there, especially considering that, and I'm not getting into TIF too much, so much... So much future predicting and modeling has been dependent on TIFs that were created five years ago, ten years ago. And so basically if there was a TIF created 12 years ago, it was a 20-year TIF or something like that, that still automatically counts as – well, it doesn't count as new growth. And so therefore we can't – you know what I mean. That's – I'm saying it wrong.

It counts against our 2%.

Yeah, it counts against the 2%, even though those decisions were made 12 years ago. The fact that there's no grandfathering is really, really unfortunate about this. That strikes me as an enormous deal. Right.

Well, not only is it counting against our 2%, but like I said, if we already hit the 2% and we have a bunch of TIF to release, then we're going to drive our tax rate down further and have even less revenues. to be able to pull in, right?

I mean... But it doesn't seem like there's any love to change that?

Well, that's what we heard from our lobbyists, and Jamie's been closer than anybody on our side of this. I don't know...

I was just going to say, we've got to ask for what we think we need to be able to operate the city, whether or not we think they're going to give it to us.

We always do. We've been working on loss for years and that, and we still work on the Westcom thing, which the more we get into that, the more complex that is. That's a big one. We're trying on all those on all fronts, and we'll keep pushing on all of them.

Certainly, if there's an opportunity, we will be at the table with the League of Cities has been really driving a lot of change, and we would certainly be present and at the table to help shape that.

Jamie and Tim are called up, go up regularly at the Capitol. It's not their favorite duty, but we do it. And because they do, West Des Moines does have a good reputation for our credibility, so I really appreciate their time that they do that. And Chris is crunching numbers.

And I would just say, too, I mean, we do have a great reputation up at the Capitol because we go up there and tell it like it is and nothing more. You know what I mean? We're not firing the firemen first. We're not saying something's going to impact us much more drastically than it actually is. We actually go up and we have the know-how because we've got incredible staff that knows what they're doing, knows what they're talking about when, you know, the other 941 cities or 940, however many there are, A lot of them struggle to try to analyze this and figure out exactly how it impacts them. And we've got great staff, an incredible finance department, a great budget team that is able to go up there and say, here's how this actually is going to impact us and resist the urge to go further and be more dramatic and that kind of stuff. So I've heard great compliments from our staff and the job that they do. helping to quantify what the impact is going to be. Maybe it doesn't change the outcome of the bill, but we certainly have a reputation.

We have been a lot of defense up there, which it doesn't get a lot of credit, but it's helped improve bills that could have been even more disastrous for us. And that's a word we never use at the Capitol either. That's disastrous. So tonight we just want to give you and ask some questions. I got the teams all here, but we're going to bring you, we just want to keep you abreast as we move forward. One thing you're going to see probably in the near future is a prioritization of a CIP revision or relist how we're going to prioritize them. We're going to need your approval the priorities so and where the funding sources will come from to move forward on those or not you know we'll see so um that's you're gonna that's gonna be one of your big decisions coming up do you have something else do you have questions now of us do you want to add or we're just like i said we're going to hit tiff really hard in the fall and some of these other things but you We just want you to be well aware of what it is. We're not sounding alarms. We're just going to get the job done.

One quick question for the big book budget book we got two months ago. I think it's 26-27. I noticed the general fund tapering off already. Yeah, that's it right there. Is that obsolete now or does that reflect our feelings here and what we're, are they the same or is that?

That's our basis. Go ahead, Chris.

I would say that that's our starting point. As we've done in prior years, we will adjust as needed. We've already cut out some expenditures that was approved in this budget. We've reduced things like the employee's cell phone allowance. I know there's, we just recently had our couriers retire in the finance department that deliver the mail. to all the different departments. We're not going to backfill those positions. So yes, we can make changes now, and we will as we deem them necessary. And this will just help improve our fund balance to be able to absorb stuff later on.

Thank you, Chris.

And I'd say we need a hiring freeze, except for that we need 15 firefighters to be able to staff Station 13 once it's up and running, which supposedly is going to be done in the later part of 27. So that's a cool $1.5 million.

We have an idea.

We got a plan. All right. We do and we don't.

All right. Love it.

Love it.

We've been, it's actually kind of, I don't know if exciting is the right word, because none of this is, I would say, is terribly exciting, but... We're coming up with a lot of different thoughts and ideas, and like Chris and Tom mentioned, we have more options than a lot of other cities. We're not tapped out in every area. For example, we could move some of our staff costs over to the road use tax fund, which we've used 100% for projects in the past. We could move some more of our staff costs and administrative burden over to the sewer, the stormwater, the solid waste. Those types of fees seem to be more palatable for residents than property taxes. And also, you know, we've looked at ways to right-size some of our program costs, like make it... so that individuals are paying versus the tax levy rates paying for some of our individualized programs, permits, some of those types of things. So, you know, I've told our staff every extra dollar is just as good as cutting a dollar of expense. So however we get there, I just feel like we've got a number of different choices that we're going to bring forward to you guys over the next few months.

Well, the people, I mean, we've had a great finance administration, city council subcommittee that's been working over the years and unfortunately and fortunately squeezing kind of those outside groups on how much we're able to give them. And we've kind of been sounding the alarm for a while now saying, hey, you know, be prepared. We're going to be cutting back, cutting back, cutting back. And I've been saying eventually you're going to have nothing. Because we're going to need all of that, unfortunately, to be able to do city operations. So we're going to be cutting back there. And, you know, we got kudos on Bravo and stuff tonight. And those things are going to be squeezed as well. And then the other battle that we're going to have is maintaining a... 30% reserve for maintaining our AAA bond rate.

30 is what?

30 right now.

That's what the rating agencies would like to see, a minimum of 30%.

And we were lucky because there was some language in there that basically allowed us to have a greater reserve than 940 other cities, but nonetheless, we're still going to have this dance that we're going to have to play, because it looks like we're drawing down general fund reserve as part of the game, and we're going to be able to do that until we can't. Or then we're going to have a decision to make whether if we want to do that and not have a AAA bond rating. That's what it's going to come down to. You can see the picture that this is all painting.

Where does the money over 2% go? Let's say a bunch of TIF rolled off and all of a sudden... That's what I'm saying. Where does that access to 2% go?

We cannot receive it. What it means is we have to lower our levy rate so that we stay within that 2%.

Okay, so that's the action that must be taken necessarily.

If you're over 2% of revaluation... growth, then you have to lower your levy rate.

It goes to the property tax owner because their rate will be decreased. It's going to go in the property owner's pocket.

And that's what I've been saying. If we're at the 2%, right at the 2%, with just our growth in unimproved, well, I guess that's new properties, right? If we're at the 2% with our new, not counting release of TIF, and then we've got millions of dollars of TIF to release, I mean, it just drives down the rate even further.

Or we find additional projects to do within the TIFs and keep some of that valuation there. If the TIF has not expired.

And that makes the most sense in the world.

I mentioned that to Dawson when I met with him last time. I'm like, what you're incentivizing is us to come up with more projects. So that we never have to release it.

Right, but we've got a race against time there because you can only have TIFF out there for now 23 years. So at some point in time that expires and then that game's up too.

As opposed to 25 though, I think.

Right.

So it's not a huge difference.

And this is where we'll get into Tiff Talks later, but as far as new Tiffs, we have to be strategic about what we do. Tiff Talks with Chris Hamlet.

Hi, I'm Chris Hamlet, your host. Welcome to Tiff Talks. We're going to bring it hard.

We'll get a set like a Merv Griffin show or something. off another Seinfeld reference, but.

Naomi is giddy at home. She's like, can't wait till these TIFF talks hit the air.

Yeah, but you know, one of the things too is, you know, as we use TIFF going forward, we've got to be strategic about what we put on there. We may not want to do TIFFs where it's going to cause us to have to increase our service levels. You know, maybe it's more of the infill where we don't have to add more public safety or, you know, have more parks or, you know, more streets that have to be plowed or sewers and all that.

But the problem that we have is topographical issues.

Explain just really briefly for those who are catching up the reason why we might not be interested. If this project increases our general fund obligations, why would that be? It would be less interesting, just in a sentence.

Just because it's going to increase our operating expenses. Right, right.

You have a residential TIF.

Our town center would not be able to happen under these new rules there because look how much public safety staff we had to add to support that area and all the roads that we added. Since that TIF is not going to roll off, we are not going to be able to capture all that to pay for the operating expenses, pay for the personnel costs, pay for the equipment to support those areas.

That advantage to us.

And essentially what's going to end up happening is what's already started to happen with the Waterpark Hotel Convention Center where TIF, you know, even if the school foundation levy was still there, is less valuable because we're not able to do as much in TIF because we've got to have money roll into the general fund on every new project that we have.

I can't speak for growing communities, but growing communities are going to struggle under these new rules to be able to have the staff to support the growth. You only get to capture the new growth that one year, and then it's just part of your cap. How do you add new fire stations, more police officers, more public services staff, all that when you're capped at 2%?

And this is to say nothing of the fact that the idea of of set-asides to fund housing programs from residential TIF. Earlier, Councilwoman Elliott, you spoke about Christine Gordon and the programs that she works on. A lot of those programs are funded through housing TIF, residential TIF that's generated.

That whole game has changed. That whole game has changed. The only way to do the housing TIF, which you don't want to do because the houses require so much more services than, say, commercial, but the only way to do that is within the existing TIF itself because with the housing TIF right now, it can go outside of the TIF district. But with this, no. Now it can't.

So the funding for that type of programming will be difficult to come by in the future as well.

Right. When it comes to renovations, how does that apply? So we obviously have some old parts of the city. We're talking about doing things in the University Corridor. If there's a tear down and then a rebuild, would that count as new growth? What if you're just gutting the inside and renovating? Where does that lie on the spectrum of new growth versus existing?

So I believe a tear down and rebuild would be considered new and tenant improvements or improvements to an existing building would be new and not subject to the 2% cap in year one. And a lot of it has to do is when those valuations come on because it's January 1st of every year where the state does, or every two years where the state does the valuation. So it's possible that something doesn't get finished or the permits are not approved until January 31st. Well, we don't get to capture that new growth until the next fiscal year.

And what the, it's gonna be a challenge for the assessor. I'll get up there. The assessors are going to have to work through that, the county assessors I'm speaking of, because right now they just have one valuation on a building. But what they're going to have to do going forward is bifurcate that into, here's the existing building, that one went up 2% in value based on the market, but you also gutted the inside and put in a new kitchen and a basement and everything else. That is more new than... They're going to have to have a differentiator.

But that counts as new, does it not?

Correct. But the valuation change in the existing structure would not count as new. So they're going to have two different, each property is going to have two different things on it if there's work that's been done. Oh, they're going to love it.

It's almost going to be similar to the way the TIF is right now. So if you've got a piece of farmland that's got X number of dollars, Yeah, basically what you get your tax dollars on the rest of it goes to pay off the debt.

That's right That's right be the same but the only difference is with the Improvements the next year it becomes part of the base. It doesn't stay as new.

It's just rolls into the base It's gonna be interesting to see how that all shakes out quick question Are there scenarios where the city might grow I'm gonna make this up five seven percent but we have to say no because we can't grow the general fund to support the services for those new areas and

We can't control the growth. I mean, if people build houses, like, we can't stop them.

And we're not going to stop doing what we're doing. We're just going to be more strategic about it, right?

Yeah, but there comes a point where you outrun, you outkick your coverage, right? And that's what I'm thinking. Like, it won't happen next year, but maybe 10 years from now.

I mean, you just got to be smarter about how you do it. We're doing the Waterpark Hotel Convention Center. We're not doing 100% TIF rebate. We're doing 90-10, right? So right away, we're going to get 10% of that valuation that's going to come in that we're going to be able to use. It's not in TIF. 90% of it's going to be a rebate.

I don't know that I agree. I think we're going to, and all growing cities are going to be faced with a challenge where they're going to be able, the growth is going to outrun our ability to support

Well, that's what the state wants us to do. They want us to live under a 2%. restriction on our expenditure growth. And so this is how they're getting there. They want us to make the tough choices of what services to reduce or cut. I mean, that governor was very open about that.

And the problem is, not unlike the state, I mean, the state's budget, the biggest two expenditures in the state budget is Medicaid and school aid. The biggest two expenditures in our budget is public safety and public services. So I mean, you can make all the cuts you want to human services, the library, and parks and rec, but if you have to have a certain amount of money, you're gonna have to make cuts to the bigger areas of the budget. And by cuts, I mean, it just could be, well, we're gonna have to have layoffs. But then, to your point, how do you service the city with those layoffs? But I think that's, you know, we're gonna be as efficient in effect as we can. We're gonna be strategic about how we go forward.

And they're not forcing this in until July of next year, right?

Well, July of next, yeah, well, it's this current year.

It could make changes to it this next session.

Yeah, they could make changes. The TIF thing's a big one. That's a big change that could be made that could help cities' budgets. But I don't want this to get lost in everything. I mean, we want to make sure that I mean, we've cut taxes since we've been on this council, but we've done it when it's responsible to do so without impacting or having to cut services. We've just kept cutting back, rolling back whenever we can to keep that property tax rate down for our seniors on fixed incomes, which is a huge deal, for the young families trying to make ends meet. But we've had the control over that, again, not jeopardizing services. But now we're to the point where we may have to look at that. We're certainly going to have to look at doing things differently than how we do it today. I mean, we may have a situation where through attrition, we just, we've got a position review team in place. That team's going to probably meet way more often than they ever have in the past. And department directors are going to have to justify hiring back. And if they can't justify it, it doesn't happen. And through attrition, That's the best case scenario. I think one of the best.

That's how most companies run.

I mean, that's how it's been.

Start with a zero base budget every year.

Yeah. Yeah. For years though. That's how that, that's why that position review team was formed was to do decide, do we truly need to replace this employee or not? And then they had to justify it to the city manager. So yeah, it's gonna get maybe a little more squeezed down, but I mean, like I said, that model's been out there for a long time and it's worked well. That's why we've been able to cut the taxes.

All right, well, we just give you some good news for tonight.

Yeah, I don't feel depressed or anything.

We have a good story to tell, and we are very strong as a city, and maybe they'll look to us again and say, oh, geez. We want the strong city. We want our cities to survive. And I don't know a little town, so they're going to have this conversation many times, moms and marriage one, how that's going to work. So I'm not sure that they're quite refined enough in their legislation.

Well, one question we asked, because we discussed this briefly at last week's F&A meeting, and I did ask the question you alluded to earlier, like, how are we doing compared to other cities? And, Chris, you mentioned cities that are growing like crazy. This is going to hurt. I mean, it's hurting everybody. It really, really is. But I think my question was, are we better positioned to... Do as best we can, and the answer is yes.

I put us against anybody. I mean, if we're struggling and we're having a difficult time, other cities are dying.

It's because of you all, too. So thank you, staff.

Absolutely.

And thank you, Tom, for the big salad. I recognize that it's you who purchased said big salad. Tom is getting frustrated.

I will say some of the other revenue sources that we've talked about, sewer, water, and whatnot, I mean, there was a big discussion on the Valley Junction page not that long ago about how people's water rates have gone up almost double. And, of course, with trying to increase our treatment capacity, because that needs to be done, too. I mean, or, you know, WRA having to pay the debt service on bonds in our portion.

They're both capital. Billion-dollar plans.

Billion-dollar plans. Each one of those wastewater, billion dollars between now and 2050, and drinking water, billion dollars between now and 2050. So those rates are going to go up gradually year by year anyway, but now people are starting to feel that as well, and so I just want to be cognizant of that.

Part of that's though because you formed Central Iowa Water Works, which now has another layer of bureaucracy that people have to pay for.

It really isn't that because there's not much bureaucracy that's been added to it, not much staff that's been added. It's the infrastructure. That's what it is. No doubt about it. All right. With no other questions or comments, thank you, staff. We are adjourned.