MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
MARCH 9, 2000
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Stutsman called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 10:21 p.m. Members present were: Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Mike Lehman, Sally Stutsman, and Carol Thompson.
JEANETTE RYAN-BUSH: INCOMPATIBLE LAND USE
Jeanette Ryan Bush: I thought I would be home awhile ago. So, I’ll keep it short. The first thing I want to say is I have been terribly impressed tonight. I just wish that this was the Board I had come before in 1994 and I wouldn’t be here tonight. But, nonetheless, I am here and I think you all have an expenditure sheet that I produced in your hand. I made copies of them for you. I am a farmer out on Rapid Creek Road. I do alternative farming. I raise produce, I raise some animals, I raise registered colored angora goats and the reason I am here is because in 1994 Bill Franz bought property along the road from us, came in with a bulldozer and promptly pulled out the fence line along Rapid Creek Road. Came in, applied to put 6 houses across the road. The Board at that point in time there was serious objection and we were disregarded. There are now 6 houses across the road. I am here tonight to tell you what has happened in my life since these 6 houses have gone up across the road. I am always the first one, when somebody moves in, to walk across the road and shake their hand and say hi, I’m Jeanette Ryan-Bush. Welcome to the neighborhood. I want you to know I am a farmer across the road and it is a certified organic farm and I’d like to talk to you for a few minutes so we can get off on the right foot. If you’re planning to use chemical lawn treatments you need to be aware of what direction the wind’s blowing from and it’s really important that you keep your dogs home. Everyone has looked me in the eye and gone oh yah, yah, yah. Then, a week later, or 2 weeks later or 3 weeks later their dogs are running and it has been an absolute and utter nightmare. So, on the expense sheet that you guys got, you can see what I…
Lehman: I don’t believe you got those passed out. I know you asked to have some copies made. Maybe we could make them.
Ryan-Bush: Maybe they are still in the copy machine.
Jordahl: The machine had some problems earlier. Indigestion.
Duffy: I’ll bet that’s the batch that probably got stuck up in there.
Ryan-Bush: I’ll bet they’re still lying there. Anyway, it’s been a repeated problem. Oh, maybe I have them here. It’s been a long night for me, too.
Jordahl: They’re safer.
Ryan-Bush: Anyway, so I’ll just hand these out. But, I’ve been really pleased tonight that I kept hearing issues of incompatible land usage. It was really encouraging to hear you guys look at that as a critical issue. These are the expenses that I have incurred. Some of these state what years they are. $800 worth of fencing is what has happened in the last 6 years because I have to keep dogs out to defend my property, to defend my livestock. Legally, yes, I have a right to shoot those dogs. But, the issue is, with 6 houses right across the road, I can’t shoot the dogs, not with a clear conscience. The other thing is, the reality is, when you shoot a dog or you even mention shooting a dog, escalated into a war a number of years ago where after I’d said, if you can’t keep your dog at home I will shoot him. Then, a rash of vandalism began and I had to call the Sheriff and when the Sheriff spoke to the people whose dog I had threatened to shoot, the vandalism ceased. So, I concluded that that’s where it had indeed come from. So, I am just here to let you know these are some of the issues. Some of it, there’s one thing that we could do that would mitigate this ongoing problem. I realize, became aware tonight, that fencing agreements do not have to be enforced along the road. This was an issue I brought up in ‘94 with the Board. I said, please, at least if you are going to put these houses over here, require fencing along the road for a number of reasons. Gene Scriber has cattle down south. Gene can’t move his cattle up the road because there is no fence along the whole front of this subdivision for half a mile. We’d have to have I don’t know how many people to keep those cattle from running into that subdivision. So, we can’t move cattle up to my pasture anymore. So, that’s a whole other issue. You guys have been really brave tonight in taking a stand and I know they have been tough decisions. I felt really bad for the guy up south of Mt. Vernon that wanted to have the house, but that’s a banking problem that Jonathan tried to point. But, now we’ve got a big mess from what happened years ago. Maybe we should go in and we should require fencing along the road lines if we have these kinds of problems. Something to think about. Another thing to think about is maybe we have reached the point in this County where we need some kind of dog control in the country. I have called the Sheriff when I was at my wits end and believe me, the Deputies and the Sheriff are not at all happy with the situation that exists with these kind of rural and agricultural land conflicts. It’s a constant issue for them. They have people calling them because the cows are bellowing. I’ve had people call me because I was weaning my kid goats from their mothers and everybody was screaming. They call the Sheriff, too. They don’t just call me and harass me at 10:00 at night. They call the Sheriff and harass him. So, maybe we need a booklet that goes out so that these people get it when they are moving out to the country. Animals stink, animals make noise. The animals have been here for a hundred years. I’m by no means the only person that is having this problem. It seems that no matter who I talk to in this County that is farming, they are having problems with precisely this kind of issue. It’s not an issue you guys created, but we need to start looking at some creative steps to alleviate these conflicts. So, if there is other farmers you would like to talk to, John McNutt, who’s family has farmed up around the corner from me for over a hundred years. He’s had people calling at 4:00 in the morning screaming because his pigs stink. It’s kind of hard to get up the next morning when your neighbors have called you at 4:00 and woken you up screaming at you. George Parsons has ongoing problems with dogs. He raises sheep. He’s had ongoing problems and the problems have gotten worse with the more we have spot zoned and done this kind of stuff around the County. But, let’s seriously think about can we go back and can we enforce fence agreements along the road. I don’t know if we can do it. There was a fence agreement with the Franz property that said they should maintain a fence line on the western perimeter of that property, north and south along Rapid Creek Road. Because of this technicality, with not having to enforce fence agreements on the roadways, it was not enforced. It’s been a nightmare that has caused me buku bucks. Now I have to go the Secondary Roads and ask to move the driveway to my building. I have an on farm store where I sell produce and flowers and stuff. One of the folks across the road has gotten themselves a real nice rotweiler, refuses to keep it contained in any way, shape or form. Two times last fall I had customers in my parking lot, with very small children. This dog was across the road. There was nothing to keep him out because my driveway is directly across from the last house. This dog is over there snarling. Scared people to death. So, now I’ve got to go apply for a new driveway. I just hope the County lets me move my driveway because it’s a problem I didn’t create. It’s a problem that was created by the ‘94 Board of Supervisors. So, there’s my 2 cents worth. Thanks a lot for really taking to heart the kind of hardship that is inflicted upon farmers on a day to day basis when we stick urban dwellings in the middle of the farmland.
Lehman: Thank you for your information and your remedy.
Ryan-Bush: Thank you. I got inspired Sunday morning when I woke up and there was a dog right outside my window and my entire flock of animals was in a total and utter panic.
Lehman: I know you’ve visited with Jonathan.
Ryan-Bush: Yes and I have actually visited with Carol on this issue when I was at my wits end.
Jordahl: I am just wondering from the point of view of the County Attorney. When we’ve gone to township trustee trainings, and listened to how these things are done, I’ll have to admit that some of it kind of goes past me in a fog because I don’t deal with it on a day to day basis. I am wondering, Pat, if you could help me to understand what she is talking about.
Ryan-Bush: See, in 94, I took that to my Township Trustee, Tom Hall, and I put up the $100 and I said, can we get this fence agreement enforced. I received a letter from you that said no, Mr. Franz did not have to put up a fence along Rapid Creek Road. Although, the piece of paper that goes with that property clearly stated all heirs or assignees of this property shall maintain a fence on the western perimeter of the property running north and south along Rapid Creek Road.
County Attorney J. Patrick White: I don’t remember the specific question, but by and large, the subdivision fencing agreements that we require are for the boundary between the farm and the subdivision, not the road. There just isn’t a requirement to fence on roadways, even in agricultural areas you have lots of unfenced roadways. So, if you wanted that sort of requirement, you’d need another amendment to the ordinance. The Trustees role is not to enforce these subdivision fencing agreements. The Trustees role is to enforce failures to maintain fences to keep livestock out. We don’t have an enforcement mechanism for our subdivision fencing requirement. That’s something we’ve talked about frequently in the past in terms of staffing and the County’s role. When you approve a subdivision with a variety of requirements, the County does not have any follow up, does not initiate any inspection or enforcement. It certainly could with more staff, but it doesn’t. It never has. The County’s posture on all of these things has always been to put in place a mechanism for the affected property owners to enforce themselves if they need enforcement action. The fencing agreement wouldn’t fit Jeanette’s case because she is across the road from the subdivision, not on the edge of it. So, again, without knowing the specific fence agreement that is in place here, the agreement that would normally exist wouldn’t provide her any protection because she’s in a different location.
Ryan-Bush: It’s just because I’m directly across the road from it.
White: She’s an owner who the existing ordinance doesn’t envision trying to protect.
Ryan-Bush: Right. Right.
Lehman: A common fence line, if you were on the same side of the road would be a boundary.
Ryan-Bush: But, it’s something that ought to be looked at because I am sure I am not the only one out here in the County that’s a farmer across the road from one of these.
Jordahl: It sounds like basically, the existing thing that we envision is that a subdivision rural residential could just be a whole open continuous bunch of houses, all could have dogs, none of which have to be on leashes or anything like that. So, any rural residential can have a dog running loose and if you had 40 of them in a place they could be 40 or 50 dogs running loose.
Ryan-Bush: Well, it doesn’t take 40. I’ve got, currently there is 4 of them across the road from me that are a day to day…
Jordahl: They’re having fun with you.
Ryan-Bush: Well, it’s not an enjoyable task. I like dogs. I rescue them from the pound. I live with 2 of them. They are sleeping on my bed now while I am still here. But, I don’t want to shoot someone’s dog. But, I also have to defend valuable livestock that is my income. You see on that sheet there is $800 worth of loss in basil crop last year because this giant dog was coming through leaving footprints every night that big. So, somebody is letting them out at night because nobody can shoot him at night because you can’t see him and he’d come through. Basil is a very pricey crop and it is my bread and butter. It is my weekly paycheck through 5 months of the summer and he would come through every night and it looked just like somebody had come through there with one of those string line trimmers. So, something to think about.
Lehman: Thank you.
Bush: Yes. You are welcome.
Lehman: Next item. Business number 3. Dwight Dobberstein. A wake up call.
Jordahl: Is there any kind of recourse for, pardon me, I am kind off the item here, but to address Jeanette’s item, is there any kind of recourse? If a cow gets loose in your field, you can have recovery against the person who’s cow got loose, can’t you?
Bush: Oh yes. The Sheriff has gone to neighbors of mine and made them hand me paychecks for livestock they’ve eaten, for poultry and foul that have been killed and carried away.
Jordahl: The same would apply to your basil crop wouldn’t it, if you could identify which?
Bush: But, how can I prove who’s dog it was?
Jordahl: Spray paint.
Bush: Well.
Andy Small: Traps.
Bush: I’ve tried traps. Let me tell you, I’ve bought a lot of cheap ham.
Lehman: OK.
Lehman: Dwight Dobberstein.
Neumann Monson PC Architects AIA Project Architect Dwight Dobberstein: I almost forgot what I was supposed to talk about.
Lehman: A request for proposals for Jail consultants.
Jordahl: Jail?
Dobberstein: Yes. Well, as you know, Neumann Monson has the contract to design the Jail. That was approved at a formal Board meeting, kind of like this one. It was at the end of the meeting and by the time we got on our agenda item, everybody had left, so the project for the Jail has proceeded along well, and I think it’s come to the point now where we’re recommending hiring a Jail consultant. We’re not asking the Board for any action tonight. We just wanted to inform you on what we were doing. In order to explain why we need a jail consultant, we need to back up a little bit and update you on Neumann Monson and who we are. It’s been quite some time since we’ve presented to the Board. Actually, it was over 15 years ago that Roy Neumann interviewed for the design of this building and he would have like to have been here tonight. He took spring break a little early to go see his grandchildren in Colorado. We just celebrated Roy’s 79th birthday. He’s still our fearless leader and he works about 50 hours a week. He would have loved to be here to tell you some Harold Donnelly stories about the days of the old Board. But, since then, we have worked on the majority of the County’s projects. I counted 9 different courthouse projects that we worked on and our work on Space Needs Committee and now with the Jail and Sheriff’s Department. Back in the days when we first interviewed for this building, of course, we had only about 5 people aboard. Now, we have 35 people and 2 different offices and half of them are registered architects and the other half are support people, intern architects and CAD operators. We don’t have any engineers on board in our office. We have grown largely, or at least in part, because of our association with Johnson County. We’ve done work now in 17 different counties, I counted, on sheriffs facilities and jail renovations and court house projects and the one that is most memorable is the one in Lawrence County, South Dakota. It’s in Deadwood, South Dakota, and it’s a beautiful courthouse renovation and adjacent administration building, not unlike this one. In fact, they hired us because of the work we had done here in Johnson County. It was condemned at the time we got there and it’s amazing restoration. If you’re ever in Deadwood, home of Calamity Jane, you ought to stop and take a look at it.
Jordahl: My dad grew up there so I’ll get around to it.
Dobberstein: Well, do that because it’s quite a courthouse, murals on the ceiling that we discovered. We’ve also done a number of correctional facilities. We have done residential correctional facilities for half-way houses in Davenport, Burlington, and Coralville. There is one right near the Interstate there, is that what they call Hope House. It’s quite a facility to show you. We’ve done juvenile detention facilities in Lee and Lucas County and we were involved in a 48 bed jail, sheriff, police facility in Mitchell, South Dakota. It was a master planning that died because the city and the Sheriff didn’t think they could co-exist after they got into the project. Other projects we’ve done locally include the John Pappajohn School of Business Administration. The addition of the Engineering College right next to Old Capital Mall there. The renovation of Hancher Auditorium and a new driving simulator, all for the University of Iowa. For the City of Iowa City, we are working on a new parking ramp right on Iowa Avenue and we did the parking ramp across from the Civic Center and I just saw you all at the Water Treatment Plant, which we were involved in. We’re doing the new Whiteway Building going up on Clinton Street, Mondo’s restaurants now we’re doing all over the country, Des Moines, Dallas, Scottsdale. So, just a lot of projects that we’ve been involved in. The point is, that I am getting to, is that on all these projects we had a team of people, a list of consultants that worked with us. When I come before you, I’m just the tip of the iceberg so to speak. We have put together the best team that we can that fits the project. Our basic on agreement on all our projects, we need a structural engineer, a mechanical engineer and an electrical engineer on all projects. So, that’s included in our basic contract agreement and is with you on the Jail. But, in addition to those and on most of the projects I just discussed, we bring in special design consultants at the owner’s approval, to help us with the design. For example, on the Engineering Building, we had ARC out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They were experts in Engineering. I mean on Business Buildings. On the Engineering Building it’s Anchon and Allan out of Las Angeles. They’ve done a lot of labs and things and so they were brought on board because of their expertise. We worked with the parking ramp consultants on those jobs and acoustical consultants, all different types of consultants that we have that are specialized in a particular building design. We could probably have designed the Business Building all by ourselves, but they have done one just like the one that we were planning to do and so it saves us a lot of effort, pitfalls and to this day it has worked because we’ve never been sued. Our insurance has never paid out a dollar for any kind of problems in that regard. So, it really is a good way to go. We can provide you with local architectural service day to day, if necessary, while bringing national expertise. A good example is the driving simulator building. It’s a one of a kind building. There’s only one other similar to it over in Germany. On that project, we worked with not only the University, but NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. They were a big part of that job and their contractors are designers and TRW, a big defense contractor out of Los Angeles. Their subs, they had 3 or 4 different subs. We all met together via teleconferencing and passing drawings now over the e-mail and Internet. It makes it possible to really bring together the best team possible. So, we’re now recommending a jail consultant on this project, who will come in, validate the program, help us with site selection, provide design expertise on latest jail techniques, do a staffing analysis according to what the design turns out to be and provide expertise and security systems that we don’t have and really advise us on all the special aspects of the jail design. As you know, we had a jail consultant, Bill Garnos, and you might ask, well, what about him. I really feel that he was more of an operational consultant. His background was in corrections. He’s not an architect. He was helpful in that he was kind of an objective 3rd party that was able to help us decide how big the Jail should be without any conflict of interest. So, he provided a space program and reported his findings to the Board and I believe he has served his purpose and now has moved on. We need now to get a consultant that will help us with the actual design. So, what we are planning to do is send out the RFP, a request for proposal to various consultants that have showed interest in the project. We’re open to any suggestions and I’m sure you must have been contacted by some. In fact, I’ve contacted the National Institute of Corrections in Colorado to see if they have a list of consultants that we can get a hold of and request proposals. We want to get those in by March 28th, which is the next date to meet with the committee that we are working with. It’s the proposal committee. At that time we want to review the proposals, pick out who we think is the best and set up a time to interview 2 or 3 of the top firms. Then, hopefully, we can pick the one we like and Neumann Monson will have to sit down and negotiate the scope of their services and their fees so that it dovetails in with our agreement with you and come back to the Board for approval. That’s what I want to report tonight and let you know that that’s what is happening and we will come back later for discussion about hiring the consultant. So, any questions? How long was that? I cut my half hour speech down to 5 or 10 minutes.
Lehman: Questions for Dwight?
Jordahl: The time frame seems kind of short. Is that customary for consultants to get them back pretty quick like that?
Dobberstein: I’ve talked to some of them and they don’t think it’s a problem. We’re asking for general information about their firms and it’s stuff that they would have on hand. Information they have on file that they can put together and send to us fairly quickly. I think we can get it all done by the 28th.
Lehman: This is more an offer to have them send credentials?
Dobberstein: Yes, and once we look over those credentials, then we’ll select who we think best meets the needs and that selection we want to have input from the Sheriff, of course, and the Jail Steering Committee. We’re open to having people involved in selecting who the best consultant is. I think they want to be involved, too.
Jordahl: We’ve had some discussion previously about the relationship between a jail consultant in terms of design and jail financing. We’ve received some assurance that that would be likely a component of knowledge that people who have been involved in designing jails would bring. Do you propose to mention that aspect in your RFP?
Dobberstein: We’re not asking this consultant to help with the financial aspects of the project. They may very well have experience in other projects and how that was done and may bring that expertise, but I think that what you were looking for is a financial consultant also for the County and for this project. I think Tom Slockett is looking for that person, also.
White: Actually, there is a committee.
Dobberstein: Is it Kriz, I think, is on that committee.
Lehman: But, we might be hearing an RFP for a financial consultant later.
Thompson: At the next meeting on the 28th they’re going to have a proposed RFP.
Dobberstein: Yes, that’s the same meeting.
Jordahl: But, the RFP, you’re handling that. That’s within your contract as our architect to do this RFP, get these responses back from consultants, because essentially you are hiring the consultant, although with our approval.
Dobberstein: Yes.
Jordahl: Is that kind of the way that rides?
Dobberstein: We can do it either way but I think that works the best, if we hire them. It’s outside. Their fee would be outside our agreement with you at this point. Depending on what the scope is. If they’re actually doing the design work, then that would come out of our fee agreement with you. But, if they’re just advising us, well, then that’s over and above what our agreement is. We don’t have the special design consultants included because it’s different on every job and we don’t really know what they are going to bring to the table until we get them aboard. So, it’s always separate. I’ll be able to tell you more once we select the person and figure out what the scope is and what they will do. Whether they are actually going to do the design or if they are just going to advise us and we do the design. So, it can work either way.
Jordahl: The other day we talked about the contract and how this related to that and the contract does not speak or does it. I don’t remember specifically. Does it speak to how this person would get paid during this preliminary visioning phase? Does it say we’ll cover it that or it just doesn’t say anything about it?
Dobberstein: Oh, our contract says that other consultants, other than the structural, mechanical, electrical can be added at your approval, but it would be at your cost. What I’m saying is that that’s true, but if they are going to do actual design work, which is included in our portion of the work, then that’s at our cost.
Jordahl: Thank you.
White: We’ve certainly envisioned preproject costs both to Neumann Monson and to this consultant in that we don’t actually have a project. We don’t have a site, we don’t have final decision about site, we have a total of what to build and where to build it and we’ll incur some costs in getting to that point before the fee arrangements under the existing contract actually kick in.
Jordahl: Thank you.
Jerry Feick: I’ve got some questions and comments on this project. You all notice there is a discussion section here. Some of you might know, for whatever reasons, I’m somewhat of an expert at the County Jail. But, I’m wondering here, and I’m not saying I’m against it or in favor of it or anything. I’m making an out of the box observatory and I think Jonathan and I discussed this one day. Pat Meade and I, the former Supervisor, has discussed it. I’m wondering, and these figures would be available through the County Attorney and the courthouse, if you’ve ever taken a look as to why you need a jail in the County as far as the increase. This County is uniquely different than any other County in the State because of the University. You can’t deny that you don’t have an immense alcohol problem. You just can’t deny it. Mary Sue Coleman, the President of the University of Iowa, promised the public, several years ago, she was going to tackle this problem. The statistics show that since she made that commitment the problem has gotten worse. Well, what really is the problem? It’s not too difficult. It’s accessibility to alcohol. I think we’re probably adults when we get to be about 40 and we’re probably smarter than when we were 15, 20. I’m not against the young kids. I don’t mean it that way. We all know what it was. We were there once, OK. So, as adults, we should realize in the community that we have some commitment other than to just, well, we’re going to build a new jail and we need one, but not look at, not even attempt to look at why we need this increase. I’m talking about for the benefit of the community and the citizens. Not only why those citizens are here, but after they leave and I’ll give you and example. If you’re a student at the University of Iowa, and this is by the University Regulations, the student policies, and you get arrested for public intox, it’s on your record permanently. It travels with every job application you do throughout your entire life because it’s on your University records. Now, you have to take some classes etc. and of course the laugh of the Jail and everybody in the County is, oh, look at all the revenue we create. Well, yes, you create some revenue, so what are you going to do. Make everybody a drunk to collect revenue? My real point here is this. I think you could borrow from some ideas from the cigarette industry recently, in that, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to look at the Daily Iowa, the Press Citizen, somewhat the Cedar Rapids Gazette and other publications to see all the alcohol adds. It’s the massive accessibility. It’s the cheap price. If you got a $5 bill in your pocket or less, you can go out and get, as they say, (expletive) faced drunk. During this last summer I spent a lot of time down in the Ped Mall observing for various reasons things that I was going to have some fun with later on in the political arena. One thing I observed was the Iowa City Police. You could see people staggering out of the bars. There’s no way you’d want to meet them on the highway. Not because of who they were, but because of the rate of alcohol they had consumed. They weren’t going to do anything with it. I said, I got an idea here. Now, I want the students of the community to really listen to this one closely, and the judges. I suggested, why don’t you bring in your police staff and just at random, maybe by lottery pick a bar on a particular night at lottery drawing. You back the police up to the front door and the back door and you breathalyzer everybody. Everybody that is over the limit you haul over to the Carver Hawkeye Arena and legally process them. That’d be a hell of a lot of them over there. I don’t think any of you will disagree, and if you do disagree, well, then I want you to keep your mind open. I want you to go down to the Ped Mall and observe. I don’t mean this is against the students. I mean this as adults, we should be more intelligent than a drunkard 20 year old or 18 year old. Now, so you borrow from this cigarette industry and you make a County ordinance that they cannot run this alcohol advertising. You have a City Council that’s already considering working on this. Naomi Novick is working on this on a committee. Of course, we all know how committees are. They cut ribbons and that’s about all they get accomplished sometimes, generally. But, I don’t think you’re looking at the problem of why. Along with this I’m going to mention this just generically. I think you need to be thinking about in this County, when you build buildings, to build buildings that you can add on to them. The Jail is a permanent structure in society. Build it so you can add on to it. Same way with the Johnson County Administration Building. I imagine that’s why we didn’t buy the Sycamore Mall. Same way with, and of course this isn’t the County, but it’s still tax payer dollars out of the community, the Library. All you got to do is stand down on the southeast corner of the Public Library in Iowa City and you can see what their massive problem is. They never had a clue as to a plan for the future. We got the Andrew Carnegie Library. Then, we got the library north of it. Then we got the library (inaudible). Now, we’re going to hoodwink the public for another $18 million to restructure the library that is there when probably you could cut a hole through the wall between the current library, do nothing to the current library, a little paint and flourine and electrical in the True Value Hardware Store. But build then a tower, where the playground equipment is setting, and this has nothing to do with the Jail, but it’s an example to what you could apply to County buildings. You build a tower, where the playground equipment is setting, you run it from the True Value Hardware Store east to the west edge of the door of the current library. But, you build that tower so that the footings are so maybe at first you only 2, 3 floors. But, on down the line, when we got to hoodwink the public for some more library funds, we add another floor. I’m talking about you start building buildings for 50, 75 years into the future. Yes, I understand technology. A building design gets better. We all know that. I think you owe it as adults and apparently sensible thinking adults, to start looking at also with this Jail proposal, why in this community do we need this Jail. I’m going to say something here.
Lehman: Wrap it up.
Feick: Pat Meade. She told me here some time ago, and I understand no one in the County will like this, and you know I don’t lie. I have fun with the truth, what people say to me from time to time. She told me that the reason why there is this whole proposal for this Jail, is that the current Sheriff wants to increase his staff enough that he can increase his paycheck. That’s her exact statement, word for word. I always tell you, it’s on tape. I don’t know whether that’s the reason or not, but why don’t you look at the future of some of the citizens and along with this proposal for a jail, start looking at well, why do we have this immense problem. Do we really want a society of downtown Iowa City, but there’s just a bunch of drunkards? I don’t think it’s necessarily the kids fault that they get drunk. Maybe we could state that the City Council and the Board of Supervisors, because they failed to act over the decades were the enablers of the alcohol accessibility. Eighty some liquor permits within a 12 block radius of downtown Iowa City. What for? These students are here to study. Go to the psychological department of the University and find out what effect alcohol has on the synapses of the brain wave patterns. How could you possibly think and learn anything when you are drunk. Enough said.
Lehman: Yes.
Feick: Might save you some money in the future and a lot of grief for all those citizens that want to apply for a job at some corporation and all of a sudden they decide, hey I didn’t get the job. Oh, I’ve got this mark on my record. Judge Gerard has mentioned this publicly to them. But, you know, maybe we can do a little more. I got this mark because I was drunk one night and I can’t get a job.
Lehman: That’s after the fact.
Feick: But, we need to be smarter than the kids so we don’t have the after the fact.
Lehman: OK. Thank you Jerry. OK. Anything else we need. (Inaudible) you’ll be back next week and we’ll take action.
Dobberstein: Not next week. Sometime after the 28th.
Lehman: OK. Anybody else have any questions they’d like to report.
Feick: Oh, also just as a real slight comment. I mentioned to the police when they said they didn’t have the staff. They actually admitted to me they didn’t have the staff to put police at the front and back door of any given bar. I said well, fine. Call the Governor or call in the National Guard. Now that sounds severe. It sounds like the 60’s. I know that and I know that’s the public reaction on the first hand. But, the point is, do you want a society that’s a bunch of drunkards? Just in for the sake of profit down at the bars and you ruined your entire business district community permanently. They all what, go to the Coral Ridge Mall, right?