MINUTES OF THE INFORMAL MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS:
OCTOBER 27 AND 29, 1998
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chairperson Bolkcom called the Johnson County Board of Supervisors to order in the Johnson County Administration Building at 9:02 a.m. Members present were: Joseph Bolkcom, Charles Duffy, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina, and Sally Stutsman.
Bolkcom: I'd like to call the informal meeting of Johnson County Board of Supervisors for Tuesday October 27th to order. Good morning, everyone.
Lacina: Good morning.
Bolkcom: Item 2 on the agenda is review of the formal meeting minutes of October 22nd. Any comments on the minutes? That will be on Thursday.
AMBULANCE DIRECTOR MIKE SULLIVAN: CORALVILLE AMBULANCE SPACE AGREEMENT
Bolkcom: Item 3 is business from Mike Sullivan, Ambulance Director, regarding the Coralville Ambulance Space Agreement.
Ambulance Director Mike Sullivan: Good morning.
Bolkcom: Good morning.
Lacina: Good morning.
Sullivan: I have a copy of the agreement, or the 28E Agreement that the County Attorney's office completed. As part of our moving an ambulance from 808 South Dubuque into the Coralville Fire Station during peak load times and we've discussed this at previous meetings. My understanding is the City of Coralville did vote on this and did approve this. There were a couple changes, I think, that were made initially.
County Attorney Pat White: I was only aware of one.
Sullivan: OK, maybe it was one change then. I'm here today to ask the Board of Supervisors to consider approving this 28E agreement. So that we can facilitate that and house the ambulance in the fire station on a temporary basis. It's also part of the agreement as well. Haven't really developed a sophisticated plan, so to speak, to look at future housing. But right now we have an arrangement with them to put the ambulance in the fire station. Hopefully with passing this we can get this started sometime this week or early next week at the latest.
Stutsman: What was the change?
White: In section 2 they requested addition of the second sentence the, indemnify, save, and hold harmless language.
Lacina: Length of contract is a year? Or what was the length?
Sullivan: It's open. It's open ended right now until...
White: Yes.
Sullivan:...both parties agree.
Lacina: OK. So if we find that other site we're not locked into a contract where we have to staff a vehicle on that site?
Sullivan: No.
Lacina: Pat your recommendation, is there any reason we shouldn't?
White: No, no.
Lacina: OK.
White: It's fine.
Lacina: Good work, Mike.
Sullivan: Thank you. Any questions? I know we've talked about this before.
Bolkcom: In terms of, if they decide at some point that they need that space how much notice do they give us on the other end of it? Is there a notice requirement or...
Sullivan: There's not a timeframe in there, but we just mutually agree. So my understanding would be is we would find another facility. They'd be willing to keep us there until that arrangement has been made.
Bolkcom: OK. Great.
White: This is a pretty low key...
Sullivan: Yes.
White:...contract. Really the goal was to create a piece of paper that said what we were doing, but leave both sides with maximum amounts of flexibility.
Bolkcom: Great. All right, we'll put this on for Thursday.
Sullivan: Very good.
Bolkcom: Great. Thanks, Mike.
Sullivan: I appreciate it.
Stutsman: Could we get a copy of the revised 28E before Thursday? I have...
Lacina: Can you do an e-mail?
White: Yes.
Sullivan: Yes. I'll give this to you and you can... Thank you.
Bolkcom: Thank you, Mike. Item 4 is business from the Board of Supervisors, a) is a discussion/update regarding our Space Needs Committee and that's Sally.
Stutsman: Cheryl was going to be here I don't know if we should wait or if we should just continue or what the Board wants to do. Maybe I can...
Bolkcom: You want to wait a couple minutes?
Jordahl: We could go ahead with c. I could talk about that.
Stutsman: OK. We'll do that.
Bolkcom: OK.
Stutsman: Because I told Cheryl between 9 and 9:15.
Bolkcom: That'd be fine. A note to the Board our agenda got a little busier than we thought it was going to be this morning. So while it may appear we have a lot of time at the moment we really don't.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: Item c, discussion regarding grant application of Iowa Department of Transportation for Trails Planning Assistance, Thomas R. Dunbar.
Jordahl: Yes, I put this on. As the Board knows I was going to meet with Tom Dunbar last week and we did meet for lunch on Thursday. He's the head of the consulting firm that has been working with Coralville to do their trails planning. This has come out of a proposal by the Department of Transportation request for proposals and his firm was retained by the DOT in Iowa to help with planning for the use of the Enhancement Fund. Because as you know the DOT wants to do that all centrally and so they want to see better planned and coordinated projects as people apply for those funds, make sure they actually get used. So the story is that he will... If we approve that he go ahead with this, he will make application to the DOT for us for a grant to help with... or for permission, I guess, to proceed, it's kind of a work order, to go ahead with helping us with the initial planning. If the DOT approves the work order there's not local match, this is a freebie. What we can accomplish by this is we can help the other communities in the county. As I said Coralville's doing trails planning, Iowa City has been doing trails planning. I'm the Board's representative on the Regional Trails and Bicycling Committee, in fact that group meets this afternoon at 4 o'clock. We can put in place a kind of a framework within which it will be easier for other communities to get Enhancement dollars for their projects whether we want to go ahead with the project at all ever or not. So I'd like to request the Board's approval informally today, and formally on Thursday if we need to put this item on, to ask him to go ahead with that.
Bolkcom: All right. Questions?
Lacina: I think we need to coordinate with the Engineer, but other than that if it enhances the opportunities for Coralville and Iowa City and the other governments to get grants, and it's part of a regional planning session, I think it's a good idea. But again I do think that Mike needs to take a look at it.
Stutsman: Have you been talking with the other communities like... Are they aware that this is being proposed and things? Are they in agreement with the plans to go ahead and have him come in?
Jordahl: I haven't talked with Iowa City specifically. I've talked with John Yapp who is housed in Iowa City and communicates with them. I've talked with Marie Ware in Coralville about the project and I haven't gone further than that to ask permission. I've also talked to Glenn Potter in Tiffin about the idea of coordinated planning, but not specifically about having Mr. Dunbar do this planning, I don't think. It's more I was talking about the County doing the planning and approving a County-wide plan.
Stutsman: OK. But he would be working with all of the communities in the county? It seems like they have to be in agreement that we're going to do this or that... It's not going to do much good if somebody says I don't want to do this and doesn't participate. I just wondered if that groundwork had been laid, that everybody is...
Jordahl: I guess I'd have to say no. Maybe that's a good suggestion that I should follow-up by calling all of the communities in the County and suggesting we're interested in this. I could try and accomplish that before Thursday's meeting.
Lacina: This is probably a good agenda item for our meeting with the small towns because I do know of an individual on the east side of Hills that is very opposed to our Sand Road construction because the concern is there'll be condemnation on her property. These bikes... as we funnel this into Hills with no input to them, we're going to have this bike trail and then dump it on Hills. So it is important that we coordinate so that things match up and we give them something they want. It would be a good agenda item for the small town discussions.
Bolkcom: Yes. I'm more inclined to move ahead soonly, use that word again.
Jordahl: Yes, (inaudible) keep up on.
Bolkcom: Thank you, Jonathan. You're a man of many words.
Duffy: I've got a question.
Bolkcom: I just think that we the county, the rural parts of the county, have some thinking about this to do. It'd be great if we had all of the communities signed on. I think right now it's clear that Coralville and Iowa City and the County probably have the most at stake in doing joint planning about these kinds of improvements because that's where most of the action is right now. Tiffin also is developing a plan, I think. Talking to Glenn Potter, they're trying to put a trail all the way around the city of Tiffin. So they'd be the most obvious next choice probably. But I think there's plenty of looking to do with the... as Steve points out, with the assistance of the Engineer who's going to be important to anything we do. If the Board feels like contacting those other communities either through our annual meeting or sometime more short term that would be great. But given the fact that this is free and there's a lot going on right now, I think it would be really helpful to just go on ahead. Even if Mr. Dunbar didn't work with all of the small towns I think there would be benefit to us, Iowa City, and Coralville, who are really the main 3 players in all of this stuff at this point, to have the benefit of him kind of taking a look at how all that's coming together.
Duffy: Yes, Jonathan, can I ask a question?
Jordahl: Sure.
Duffy: It used to be that the funding from the Feds went through the East Central Iowa Council of Governments. That was 6 counties, Benton, Cedar, Iowa, Johnson, Jones, Linn, and Washington. I'm looking at it here and we just got this memo last week from Mary Rump and it does indeed... The thing is now the Feds gave the money to the State because we used to handle the money part of it too. So where does this come in? We're going to have to... We already have input from the 6 counties and...
Lacina: But that's for the actual planning of the project, Charlie.
Duffy: No, this is a little different though. But still I think we should work through this group at least, because of the rest of them probably are. Provision of facilities for pedestrians or bicycles is one of them. So what are we starting to do here?
Jordahl: As we discussed at the last meeting of the Technical Advisory Committee that you were present at, right?
Duffy: I'm the chair of it.
Jordahl: Right. We discussed the proposed changes in the formula for distributing the Surface Transportation or Transportation Enhancement Act, Transportation Efficiency Act Enhancement Funds, by the DOT. Instead of carving out 10% dedicated to the County that it must use for enhancement projects, we're going to get the whole 100% in the County and then the State was going to handle the distribution of the 10% set aside for the enhancement projects. This would be then assistance with the application process of drawing those additional State funds, the ones that are going to be distributed at the State level down, that's how this fits in. So instead of having the East Central Council of Governments Technical Advisory Committee make the recommendation on the funding of these enhancement projects, that would all be done at the State level. I was the only one against that at that meeting.
Bolkcom: Well... Yes.
Duffy: That is true, but this group has to be someplace. Are we just going to disband this or...
Bolkcom: No, that...
Lacina: That's funding. But I think...
Duffy: No, this is...
Bolkcom: It's a different...
Duffy: I would rather have this group on my side for trails...
Bolkcom: I would agree with that.
Duffy: ...that goes to the State and that's what I'm trying to say.
Jordahl: You say you...
Bolkcom: What the State is basically doing here is they're offering free help to anybody that asks for it, virtually...
Lacina: Right.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: ...around the state because there's been some poor planning done, initially. Because there's so few dollars available to do this stuff the State is saying, we're going to help communities do the best job possible and that's what Mr. Dunbar would do. He would come in and visit with us and say, what are you planning on, this makes sense, this doesn't make sense, here's what Coralville, Iowa City, Johnson County. So that every dollar we spend is done planfully and the best possible way. That's what they're offering for free to us. It doesn't mean we have to build trails, just says if we do here's the best way to get the best bang for your buck.
Stutsman: I agree with the plan, I just think it kind of defeats it purpose if you're talking about a coordinated effort and you haven't worked with all of the other communities in the county to say that this is what we're going to do.
Bolkcom: You see very little interest by any other community in the county to put any money into this because they don't have the money to put into this. Again, I see the big players, people with the resources, are Iowa City, Coralville, and us.
Lacina: But the planning...
Bolkcom: And a little bit of Tiffin.
Lacina: ...is free. It's not...
Bolkcom: Yes.
Lacina: In order to facilitate it better with the small towns we can give them copies of the RFP, but Sally has a real valid point too. It is important that it is coordinated so we don't do the Sand Road and dump into a town and...
Stutsman: Yes, I guess that's what...
Lacina: ...say (inaudible) go.
Stutsman: I really support the concept of a coordinated... But I think in order for it to be coordinated and to be a good plan, everybody has to be on board with it.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Lacina: Yes.
Stutsman: I don't think we've done that. Maybe it's too early, maybe we don't need to worry about Tiffin buying into this or Hills buying into this. We'll just develop plans and just say, oh by the way this is going through your community hope you agree with it.
Bolkcom: It would be great if we had a plan that connected every community. I don't see that in the short run maybe 20 years from now we'll have that, but we've got to start somewhere.
Lacina: I'm hearing support for Jonathan to go forward to try to get the grant. But what I'm also hearing is that, let's not say it's coordinated, let's make it coordinated so that it does work. So one question is, is there a time limit on this grant, Jonathan, if we within the next month could put out a press release to the small towns or have a joint meeting or... Is there a problem, timing wise with us going forward? We can be doing a lot of stuff getting ready to go for this, preparing the...
Stutsman: Uh-huh.
Jordahl: I think we could certainly... I don't dispute what Sally's saying here at all. It's perfectly appropriate that I should call the small town mayors and say, hey listen this is on the table what are your thoughts about this, are you interested in participating. Because the idea of coordinated planning is dear to my heart too, and this is exactly what this is about. We shouldn't high handedly say, we're going to plan this and I don't care what you think about it. It's nice to... Ideally, I could do that before Thursday. There probably isn't any rush about this so we could wait a month to give Mr. Dunbar the go ahead and give ourselves some time to do a press release, to send a letter, to have a meeting if you want to. I appreciate the Board's input on this.
Duffy: I would not do anything until... We should have had Mary Rump down here today.
Lacina: But we're not going for any money from ECICOG.
Duffy: Yes, no... I understand that because they don't have the money now, the State does.
Lacina: But we don't have a plan to ask them for it right now.
Duffy: The State does, but right in here there's representatives from all of these counties. In other words, we're just going to scrap this and do...
Lacina: No.
Duffy: ...our own thing.
Lacina: That has a place, but right now if Mary came down and said what's your project, we would say we don't know yet. What Jonathan's proposing is we get a grant to do some planning to take a look to see if there are some needs. Then if those needs develop and we have a specific need. Then we go to the tack and the committees here it is and it is coordinated with all of the other municipalities so that we do it as a team instead of just Johnson County.
Duffy: Well that's...
Lacina: Because Joe's right, we don't want to build 2 parallel paths somewhere or have them not meet.
Duffy: We're not building 2 parallels, we're cooperating with the other Counties. Again, East Central Iowa Council of Governments holds a lot of power. What I'm telling you, that they should be in on this at the start if not...
Bolkcom: We can certainly let them know we're going...
Lacina: Well then Jonathan can call them.
Jordahl: Yes, there's a...
Bolkcom: ...if we get a grant we can tell them we get one.
Jordahl: There's an ECICOG meeting on, I believe, it's Friday. I've got conflicting memos on that, but I think it's Friday. I'll give Mary a call today. Charlie raises a good point too, the coordinated planning... I talked about this with Mr. Dunbar, it's not just a question of what coordinates within Johnson County, but it's also a question of what do we tie into at the next county. I think Steve mentioned this previously, the idea of a road going up to Minnesota and jogging over 90 degrees for a few feet to meet the Minnesota road. We should have been talking to Minnesota, similarly we need to talk to the other Counties. So that's, again, a very valid point. We can talk to ECICOG about how this fits into 6 county regional planning. That should be done so I don't have any problems with any of this.
Duffy: Have you read this that's been going across your desk, Jonathan.
Jordahl: I've got it.
Bolkcom: All right.
Duffy: They want to know...
Bolkcom: We clear what we're doing?
Duffy: ...right now, our plans.
Lacina: So Jonathan will check with the small towns and ECICOG...
Jordahl: And ECICOG, yes.
Lacina: Then you'll give us some feedback and check with Mr. Dunbar as far as what we need to do.
Jordahl: Yes, he'll do everything in terms of the application.
Lacina: OK.
Jordahl: It's just...
Bolkcom: One of the initial meetings, if we pursue this and get it, is a meeting with Mr. Dunbar and all the mayors... Bring everybody together...
Lacina: That's a very good idea.
Bolkcom: ...have him lay it out, what he can do and how it might impact.
Stutsman: I think we...
Duffy: I would suggest there's people that are on this Committee, these Counties are representing right now, and I think we're doing our own thing. Again, I'll say that they should be involved.
Stutsman: Uh-huh.
Jordahl: Well...
Bolkcom: I think that everybody agrees with that.
Duffy: (Inaudible) if this Committee says, no I wouldn't do that.
Lacina: Then we don't get the funding for the trail.
Bolkcom: Then we don't get the money.
Duffy: Right here Steve, these people have been taking time off to go to these meetings as far away as Washington County, but...
Bolkcom: Do you have enough information, Jonathan?
Lacina: The flip side, Charlie, is they draft their needs for their County they don't come to us for the input.
Duffy: Yes, they go through it here for this and our application will have to be in by November 30th...
Bolkcom: All right.
Duffy: ...to go through this.
Jordahl: It's an unanswered question to me, Charlie, as to whether ECICOG is going to review the Enhancement Grant Application. I get the sense they're going straight to the State without that local review which I think that's what we decided last time.
Duffy: I think we're going to review it.
Bolkcom: I hope we review them locally. I hope... I know... There's 2 funds, there's State money and there's local money, right?
Jordahl: Yes.
Bolkcom: What we said was, we're not going to dedicate 10% of the local automatically to enhancements, but I assume there can be some discussion at the local level for enhancement projects from STP, the Surface Transportation Program Fund.
Duffy: This is supposed to be in by November 30th.
Bolkcom: That's my understanding, may be wrong. That's why we need Mary Rump, to clarify that.
Duffy: November... And if it isn't, we're alienating ourselves from the other 5 counties...
Bolkcom: All right.
Duffy: ...if we're going to do our own thing.
Bolkcom: If there's a funding application due by then we should think about what we want to apply for if that's what your point is. Jonathan are you clear on what you need to do?
Jordahl: Lots of things.
Bolkcom: OK.
Stutsman: Thanks Jonathan, for checking into that.
Jordahl: I'm taking out all my other committees now, I'll just do this.
Bolkcom: Yes. That's about right. Maybe we could see this in a couple... I would encourage you to call those folks and get it rolling, but maybe we could see this back in a couple weeks so we don't lose track of it.
Jordahl: I'm confused about that. There are a couple members of the Board that are saying, wait until we've talked to other mayors and the other Counties and ECICOG. And I've got other members of the Board saying, go ahead do this now so it'll be done right away.
Bolkcom: I think you should make an attempt to try and...
Stutsman: I think (inaudible).
Bolkcom: Send everybody a letter and ask for some feedback, and make a few calls and see if you can get to people. But you could spend 2 months trying to track everybody down.
Lacina: Yes.
Bolkcom: I think there's enough momentum here for us to proceed and bring people in as we go. Mr. Dunbar isn't going to show up here next week and start planning for us, right?
Lacina: At some point in the future if we could sit down with the small towns we could have Mr. Dunbar come in and talk to everybody. But at this point...
Jordahl: So we can tell him to go ahead.
Lacina: As far as I'm concerned I guess that's my inner sense.
Bolkcom: I'm prepared to do that as well, but I do think we should make...
Jordahl: Right.
Bolkcom: ...current contact with folks.
Lacina: With everybody.
Bolkcom: We could get him rolling and continue to talk to people.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Stutsman: If nothing else it's just a courtesy...
Bolkcom: Absolutely.
Stutsman: ...just saying, this is what we're thinking about doing, this is how it would involve you.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Stutsman: Rather than...
Bolkcom: We want to engage them here...
Stutsman: Right.
Jordahl: Right.
Bolkcom: So that they have an opportunity...
Stutsman: Rather than somebody calling and saying, oh yes didn't anybody tell you that this is...
Duffy: Do you want to call Mary Rump or should I put her on the agenda so we get this thing straightened out?
Jordahl: You mean have Mary come down here?
Duffy: Well I think right here's (inaudible). Explain it.
Jordahl: I think I'm going up, we're both going up there on Friday.
Bolkcom: You guys could... You guys talk to Mary Rump when you see her Friday and get clear about this and somebody can report to us next week about it. Mary doesn't need to come down to explain what's going on with the...
Duffy: I think it would be a good idea. She's come down here before.
Bolkcom: ...the program. I know, but she's busy. She's also busy and we have 2 members of the Board that could probably carry that information back to the Board.
Jordahl: Uh-huh.
Bolkcom: All right. You can put her on if you want, but I think... She's busy. OK. Thank you for that, Jonathan.