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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - November 20, 2024, Joint Meeting of the Ames City Council and Iowa State University Student GovernmentJoint City Council Meeting November 20th,2024 This meeting was called to order by Vice President Quinn Margrett at 5:05 PM. ●Roll Call (Student Government) ●City Council Introductions ●Pledge of Allegiance ●Program: ○Welcome Messages: ■Mayor Haila: ●We look forward to engaging and fostering strong communications ●We represent all of you,and students make up about half of our city so we want to know what is important to you ●Thank you to the President,Vice President,and Ex-Officio for the desire to strengthen the relationship between City Council and Student Government ■President Hursh: ●Thank you to all for attending,as we are only as strong as the connections we have ●Thank you to Emily Bolland for your leadership ○Meeting Overview: ■Guided discussion as opposed to debate ●Open Forum: ○N/A ●Adopting the Agenda: ○Moved and seconded ●Student Life: ○Welcome Weekend Review with Chief Huff and Chief Newton: ■We think that activity has lessened over the last three years,with fewer calls,charges,and tows of vehicles ■Specific areas and properties with large parties are the continuing issue ●Working with the landlords of these buildings to reduce the size of the parties ■Staffing the University activities ■The behavior of the people who have no ties to Iowa State are the main issue/drawing attention ■Next year will have a football game,unsure of what this will look like ■Senator Kammayer:What are your considerations for next year? ●We have a team that is discussing ideas such as a football watch party ■Senator Peddesani:What is the plan behind the watch party,where would it be held? ●We are in the early stages,but we are open to collaborating with DIS ■Speaker Momaney:Do you think a substance-free tailgate might be a good idea? ●All of the events on that weekend are substance-free,but we are trying to attract people away from drinking. ■Vice-Speaker Pursley:Would you be open to having student representation at the meetings for this weekend? ●Yes ■Senator Rowles:Have you thought of any plans to deal with people who are not students? ●Immediate towing of illegally parked vehicles,asking close universities to host so people do not travel to Ames,,and sending the names to ISU PD as well as other universities ■Councilwoman Betcher:I have appreciated the efforts to reduce the size of the parties.We need your help to spread the word that this is a Cyclone Welcome Weekend.People are scared when there is a 500-person party next door and they have small children.They are not anti-party,they are anti-mob party. ■Senator Azhan:What about the idea of having more parking spaces to reduce illegal parking? ●There are 19,000 parking spots open on Cyclone Welcome Weekend ○ISU PD Relationship with Ames PD with Chief Newton and Chief Huff: ■City and university relationship is a tight-knit community ■Mayor Haila:Will you discuss your jurisdiction? ●Our main focus is anything owned,operated,or leased by Iowa State University ■Senator Agarwal:What is your process of responding to residence halls? ●It is not super common,we come in and most of the time we just have to connect them with the right connections ●Commonly it is roommate disputes ■Councilwoman Betcher:Thank you for examining data and publishing the kinds of stops you make.From what I’ve seen,you are shifting to the correct responders,such as having a mental health team involved in those kinds of calls rather than assuming it is a law enforcement issue. ■Senator Neil:We have seen isolated issues involving ISU students,does ISU PD respond to that? ●We will respond if Ames PD asked us to assist ■Mayor Haila:We have collaborated extensively with mental health resources,including training your officers. ●ARCH is a partnership between the city and the hospital ●Having two full-time staff members dedicated to mental health ○Liquor Licenses: ■Approved by the city council ●Renewed yearly for the most part,with as much context as possible given to the council ■Mayor Haila:Can you talk about what happens if they are not renewed? ●If a license is denied,an appeal is filed as they are able to continue business as usual (can take up to a year) ■Mayor Haila:Who has to have a liquor license? ●Anyone who serves alcohol,including retailers ●We do yearly compliance checks ■Senator Momaney:After they have gone through the appeal process,is there a way to get their license back? ●It depends on different factors,but the person who holds the license cannot get another one for 2 years and the physical location cannot have a license for a year ■Senator Reinheart:I know there are a few 18+bars,do you have a lot of issues in those bars? ●There are no 18+bars that can serve,but they can host an event where there are 18+but they cannot serve alcohol ●We also use the 50/50 rule ■President Hursh:Do you do compliance checks across Ames? ●Yes,everyone who has a liquor license ■Senator Neil:Have you seen any trends in the ability to pass compliance checks? ●Compliance was worse right after COVID and has improved since ○Message the Mayor: ■Lots of success so far,there is an increase in emails directly and is great for our civic engagement as students ■Vice Speaker Pursley:Do you have any specific projects you have begun working on through the program? ●We refer it back to our staff ○Downtown Engagement and Dining Diversification: ■Senator Peddeani:Is there a plan to get Cane’s in Ames? ●We welcome that coming to town,but I am not currently aware of it ●City Manager:We have talked to the company,they’re worried about the vehicle count,they want to be on Duff Avenue,which would require relocation so they can come in and redevelopment ■Senator Peddesani:What would the process be for adding a restaurant into town? ●We work to help them through building codes and other real estate regulations ■Speaker Momaney:Would the old Burger King work?Otherwise,are there plans on what will be done with that building? ●I’m not sure what their thoughts are about the building ●That building is being looked at by Dunkin Donuts ■Ex-Offico Bolland:They have been working behind the scenes for a long time,and one of the goals of the council is to increase engagement in the downtown areas. ■Senator Neil:It is hard for students to get there,as it is not accessible for students who do not have cars.Are there any events in the works to attract students? ●The best way to get down there is CyRide,I’m curious if you could expand on why people are discouraged from using CyRide. ■Heritage Months and a Director of Main Street and Discover Ames ●Embracing the unique standpoint of Ames with our wide diversity ■Councilwoman Betcher:Bringing back the dinky,a bus that will just run from campus to downtown.We currently have a brewery,restaurants,and eventually a plaza which will have an opportunity to perform music ■Senator Pelzer:There are lots of great events,but are you open to any new events?Such as a Taste of Ames? ■Would you email that to Emily? ■Senator Peddesani:Is there a way we can run the bus more frequently? ●That would be a CyRide issue,and you have four board members who would be willing to discuss after ■Senator Azhan:You should look into more advertising and outreach ■Senator Dimhoff:There is a lack of available public parking,are there plans to accommodate for the influx? ●The Council will be seeing a plan with the implementation of a survey.The biggest challenge is the cost,as parking is extremely expensive.We had a grant that paid for expanded parking next time,but at this point and time,it is not on the table. ●Climate Action Plan and Sustainability: ○Resource Recovery: ■Our recovery waste facility is almost 50 years old and converts the energy for the power plant ■The technology that was in use 50 years ago has changed dramatically,so we are looking at no longer using the current facility and building a new recovery facility which will require people to be more active in recycling ■Senator Azhan:Convince is important with recycling,such as the glass recycling at HyVee ●We have something similar with a company in Kansas City that converts glass into beer bottles ●We also have a cardboard recycling program which is open 24/7 ●There is not a local facility to receive recyclables so there is no convenience for the businesses ■Senator Agarwal:How do you deal with e-waste? ●There is a significant amount of it,we look to partner with organizations (which are on the website),and if it is not listed there,our staff will find a place for it ●Historically,some stores such as Goodwill take e-waste ●We also do Rummage Rampage yearly in the summer ■Senator Kekung:Are there plans to enforce individuals and dorms to separate solid and organic waste as well as the usage of plastic bags? ●We have a food waste diversion program,including a composting program involved in the dining facility ■Vice-Speaker Pursley:What will switching from the solid waste program do to the Climate Action plan? ●We are trying to increase our purchase from power with wind and solar,as well as less gas being burnt to burn the trash ●We also have trucks doing long distances to recycle,the Climate Action Plan also works heavily with education and how people can recycle ■Ex-Offico Boland:I would be happy to connect you all with the resources you may need to open a line of communication. ●Parking and Citations: ○We passed an ordinance that allowed the city to add fines for bugger events such as football games,it is an enhanced penalty for what is already a violation ○Senator Gopa:We began a pilot program where people can pay parking tickets through volunteer work,is this something you would be interested in? ■That would have to be an ordinance change,but we are willing to look into it ■It is hard economically,as this would increase the property taxes to subsidize the parking system ■Councilwoman Betcher:We are aware of the program elsewhere and we want to balance the need against the unintended consequences of certain groups such as poor students.My advice is to not park illegally.We need the ability to get emergency vehicles through to aid our community members. ○Senator Azhan:I know there are signs,but most of the graduate students are not aware of the game.Is there a way of advertising an event going on that is not common knowledge for graduate students? ■We try to advertise on social media,but if there are other ideas please let us know. ■Please also encourage others to receive notifications from the website ■There were large green signs at Cyclone Welcome Weekends,so something similar may help ●There is a lot of manpower associated with putting those up ●Send Ex-Offico Bolland any questions you have to find a contact. ●Closing Comments: ○Bolland:I am always willing to help you set up contacts within the city.I appreciate the council being here tonight as well as the additional turnout. ○Mayor Haila:This was not just chit chat,I have written down:improving communication between Main Street and International students,parking downtown,events in Main Street,transportation to and from downtown via CyRide,volunteer exchange for parking ticket fines,and better communication with graduate students.There was great discussion and input,we look forward to the spring. ○Councilwoman Junnck:I want to hear what you think needs to be bettered around Ames.I want to get ideas from you,my inbox is always open.I want to ensure that young people stay in Ames after we graduate.If there is something that other communities have that we can better,I want to hear it. ○Councilman Gartin:Thank you for your service on campus.I hope everyone has a wonderful time over Thanksgiving break. ○Vice-President Margrett:Thank you all for being here,we appreciate your time. Meeting adjourned at 7:00 PM.