2026-10-20 - City Council

This meeting of the Cedar Rapids City Council will come to order. Welcome everybody to the Cedar Rapids City Council meeting for Tuesday, October 20th, 2026. We have one absence today. Councilmember

Tyler Olson is absent today as well as City Attorney Vanessa Chavez. Trish Crop is here in her replace as the Assistant City Attorney. Thank you. As always, I welcome our city manager and city clerk

and city staff for being here today. Appreciate that. And a reminder to those of you here to turn off any electronic devices that might distract us from our proceedings today. As a reminder, as City

Council, we must have an element of order here. We have rules of conduct on display for people who are in attendance here. And those were available when you came in. They're also available on the

screen during comment periods. Disruptions during Council proceedings are not tolerated. And please note that all City Council meeting agendas, minutes, and videos are available on our city's website.

Regular sessions are also available to watch live and on replay via Facebook Live. We'll begin now with our invocation by Public Safety Chaplain Ken Glandor, followed immediately by our Pledge of

Allegiance. Let us pray. God, we thank you for our city of Cedar Rapids. We pray for this meeting of City Council that everything would be done decently in an order. We pray that you would give the

City Council members wisdom as they make decisions concerning our city. And also, God, we would ask that you would be with our men and women overseas, especially of those in harm's way. In your name,

amen. 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 peace. I'd like to invite those of

you who are here for Community Planning Month to join Councilmember Ann Poe here at the dais for a proclamation. This is the great team that we get to work with at Development Committee, so thank you

all for the work you do on an everyday basis. We really do appreciate it. Thank you. Proclamation of the City of Cedar Rapids, whereas change is constant and affects all cities, towns, suburbs,

counties, townships, rural areas. And whereas Community Planning and plans help manage this change in a way that provides better choices for how people live, work, and play. And whereas Community

Planning provides an opportunity for all residents to be meaningfully involved in making choices that determine the future of their community. And whereas Community Planning Month, as an opportunity

to highlight planning, is essential for growth, revitalization, and recovery, and how planners can lead communities to a more safe, resilient, equitable, and prosperous outcomes. And whereas the

celebration of Community Planning Month gives us the opportunity to publicly recognize the participation and the dedication planners have contributed with their time and expertise to the improvement

of the city. Now, I, Ann Poe, on behalf of Mayor Tiffany O'Donnell and the entire Cedar Rapids City Council, here by proclaim October 26, 2026, as Community Planning Month. And recognize the many

valuable contributions made by planners of the City of Cedar Rapids and extend our heartfelt thanks for the continued commitment to public service by these professionals. Just a quick thank you again

for the continued support from Council and our City Manager, Jeff Pomerance. Planners really are the bridge between our community's current reality and our future goals and our vision. And it's also,

I know a lot of the planners up here are from the planning division, but we do have other trained planners in many other divisions throughout the city, including housing and economic development and

parks and recreation. So again, just really appreciate the continued support and just look forward to working with this community who has given us their time and their effort throughout the years.

Thank you. Good job, team. Thank you. It's now time for our public hearings, so I'll remind everybody who wishes to speak today of a couple of matters to ensure we have an orderly meeting. A reminder

to stay at the lectern. If you have documents you want to share with the Council, please give them to the officers. She will then get them to us. Second, comments are limited to three minutes per

speaker, so when the light of the Council tones yellow, we'll remind you you have one minute left, and when it's red, we'll ask you to take your seat. And third, be aware that all comments must be

directed to the matter of the public hearing and that abuse of obscene, loud, threatening, irrelevant comments are not allowed. And finally, once again, we need to hold an orderly meeting, so we ask

for no applause, cheering, booing, or other disruptions from the audience today, so we thank you in advance. Does the clerk have any objections or comments in regards to any of the public hearings

today? Your Honor, there are no written comments or objections filed. Thank you. Item number one, then, is a public hearing to consider renaming G Avenue Northwest between 1st Street and 2nd Street

and 2nd Street Northwest between G Avenue and F Avenue to F Avenue Northwest in connection with the Cedar Rapids Casino roadway configuration. Carrie Pauli is here. I'll recognize you. Thank you,

Mayor. My name is Carrie Pauli. I'm the city traffic engineer, and I'm here to consider the renaming of G Avenue Northwest and 2nd Street Northwest in this segment shown here to F Avenue Northwest.

The reason for this is to provide a continuous street name due to the realignment of the street for the temporary relocation of F Avenue with the casino development and the interim alignment until the

future alignment is completed, which you can see on the right there where F Avenue will then tie into the existing 1st Street. So the renaming makes sense to have a continuous portion of F Avenue

because you can see it will continue through the roundabout and up and around into 1st Street. And the former F Avenue between 2nd and 1st will become a pedestrian walkway that will connect to the

intersection at E Avenue and F Avenue and 1st Street down underneath the interstate. So the Public Works Department recommends approving this first reading of the ordinance renaming G Avenue between

1st Street and 2nd Street and 2nd Street between G Avenue and F Avenue to F Avenue Northwest. Carrie, thank you. This is a time and a place for a public hearing on this matter. Does anyone wish to

address Council? All right, let the record show. A public hearing has been held with no objections for the record. Council? All right, seeing nothing further, approval of this ordinance on its first

reading has been moved by Councilmember Olsen, seconded by Councilmember Todd. All those in favor say aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Two is a public hearing regarding the address

previously published in connection with resolution number 0258-03-25, which granted an underground electric line easement at 101 1st Street Southeast Interstate Power and Light Company. Dustin Kern is

here. Dustin, I'll recognize you. Thank you, Mayor. Council, good afternoon. Dustin Kern with the Public Works Department. A little bit of history here. There was a resolution passed 0258-03-25,

granted that electric line easement at the northeast corner of City Hall as shown in the map. There was an inadvertent reference during the public hearing in the publication. The inadvertent reference

to the address was actually to 1st Avenue East Southeast when it should have been 1st Street Southeast. So this action really is correcting and restating and clarifying the address for that public

hearing. Just a little bit more of the why that the easement was established. It was to accommodate the relocation of utilities in that area. It accommodated the flood control system 2nd Avenue

floodgate project that was completed. So, again, this Council approval today just basically re-establishes the address, corrects it, and establishes the Public Works Department to record these. So

we'll do that in conjunction with the City Clerk's Office. The Public Works Department recommends passing the resolution. With that, Mayor, I'll pass it back to you. Thanks, Dustin. This is a time and

a place for public hearing on this. Does anyone here wish to address Council? All right, let the record show. Public hearing has been held with no objections for the record. Council? All right, seeing

nothing further, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Todd, seconded by Van Orney. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And this motion carries. Three is a public hearing to

review the status of the Fruitland project funded through the CDBG-DR single-family new construction roots program by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. Laura Shaw is here to tell us more on

that. Laura, I'll recognize you. Thank you. Hello, Mayor, Council. So the purpose of this is to -- it's a requirement of HUD funding for the disaster recovery projects. So it requires a mid-project

update for anything that we do. We have to list the accomplishments to date, the expenditures to date, any remaining work to complete, and any changes to the project. So a little bit of background.

I'm sure you remember that the state received $57.5 million in community development block grant disaster recovery funding after the derecho of 2020. Cedar Rapids received $15 million for our roots

program, which is our single-family new construction program, $9 million for our multifamily new construction, $3.5 million to help with tree replacement, and $400,000 for generator program. Today

we're going to talk about one of our roots projects. This is a single-family unit. It's West Waters is the developer. It's 2677 Fruitland Boulevard is the location. You can see it here on the map. So

to date, the construction has actually been completed. So the house, the building, the structure is done. Some rough grading has been done. Today we've -- the total project budget was $289,000. The DR

part of that, so the funding that we received was $125,000. The developer took out some construction loans to pay off the rest. And the estimated expenditures that we have received to date from him

are $80,000. This is what the project currently looks like. It's a pretty fresh picture. So the remaining work is really the final permit sign-offs and then the final grading and landscaping, which we

believe is happening yet this week. So no substantial changes have happened to the project. Everything that was submitted is exactly what happened. The timeline did shift a little. So it was

originally slated to be done in 2025. And then just with some of the things the developer was facing, he pushed it back. It should be completed probably within the month, but at the latest in November

of this year. With that, I'll hand it back to the mayor. All right. Thank you. This is a time and place for public hearing on this. Does anyone wish to address Council? All right. Like at the record

show, public hearing is held with no objections. Council? All right. Seeing nothing further, Councilmember Meyer. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for the update, Laura. Can you just

clarify, so when the developer is done with the home, does that go for sale on the market? And if so, do you know what that purchase price or sales price will be? Yeah, it's already sold. So he's

already signed a purchase contract. So the closing hasn't happened. It won't happen until all the permits are final. And we have an occupancy. So it's through the roots program. So after the house

assesses higher after all of the incentives, the final purchase price, I'm going to say it wrong because I get it wrong every time. I believe the final purchase price will be one hundred and seventy

five thousand dollars for the homeowner. I can clarify that just to be sure. But yeah, it's just through our traditional roots program. Great. Thank you. And if that's a ballpark number, that's great.

Yes, it is. Awesome. Thanks again. Anyone else? All right. If there's nothing further, then we will go ahead and move on to the next item. No vote. Thank you. For as a public hearing to consider a

change zone for property at four seventy five. Tenth Avenue Southeast and ten fifteen. Fifth Street Southeast from urban village residential to urban village general district. Traditional residential

flex district with a planned unit development overlay as requested by Tyler Oswood. Seth Gunnarsson is here with more on that. Seth, I'll recognize you. Thank you. Seth Gunnarsson, zoning

administrator, development services. This request is for the creation of what's called a planned unit development overlay, which is a customized zone district, specifically a planned unit development

overlay in the traditional residential flex zone district. This replaces the existing urban form zoning on the property. This is an approximately one third of an acre lot. The applicant is in process

of constructing a seven unit town home development. That project has already been permitted, is under construction, is conforming to the zone district that it's in. The purpose of the rezoning request

is to allow them to create individual ownership parcels for each home within the town home development, which I'll get into a little bit here when we get into this. Here's the location of the

property. The future land use map identifies this as an urban high intensity area. You'll note Nubo City Market down here. This is 10th Avenue and Fifth Street in Nubo and in the Oak Hill Jackson

neighborhood. Here's the zoning map showing the properties, a mix of urban village general and urban village residential. And this is the land that they'll be rezoning. It's kind of irregular, kind of

was hard for a lot of developers to figure out a project to do on the site for a number of years. Parcel that was a remnant of the depot development that was conveyed to developers years ago. Here's

an aerial showing the site. Here's a street view showing the town homes under construction. The most recent street view is actually from just a couple months ago. And then here's the site plan that

was approved showing what's under construction is four town homes facing 10th Avenue. And then these three town homes here, which back up to the driveway between them. There's open space as a lot

narrows out further to the south. The proposed plat for the parcel would be to place each of the units, each of the seven units in the development on their own parcel. And then there'd be a remaining

property would be an outlot, which would be the drive and the garden open space for the overall development. These two yellow parcels here would not have frontage on a public street and aren't allowed

to be created under the existing zoning, which is why they're requesting a rezoning to a PUD overlay just to allow for the lot split in terms of rezoning criteria. The requested district is permitted

by the zoning ordinance and the comprehensive plan development. The site's already approved. The city has no concern with services in terms of character. This is for a development. It's already

underway. The creation of the planned unit development would allow for them to do a plat to place each home on its own individual ownership parcel. And it does not change the character or anything

affiliated or associated with the development that's already approved. Staff recommends approval when we do a planned unit development, you do exceptions and modifications to the base district. So

specifically the two exceptions and modifications in the ordinance would be that staff may waive the dimensional standards for the TRF zone district to allow for creation of those two lots without

frontage. And if there are other standards, which need to be waived, if it's consistent with the site plan provided by the applicant staff is authorized to do so going forward. This wants the City

Planning Commission on October 1st. It was unanimously recommended that the City Council approve the ordinance. Today's our public hearing and pending council action. The second impossible third

ordinance readings could occur on November 3rd. With that, I'll turn it back to the Mayor. Okay. Thank you, Seth. This is time to place for a public hearing on this one. Does anyone wish to address

Council? All right. Let the record show a public hearing has been held with no objections for the record. Council? Mayor, I'd like to weigh in. I think this is a creative improvement on what was

originally suggested. Over the years since the flood, we have had three or four different proposals for this property. And the reality is that based on its proximity of the railroad tracks still in

the floodplain, it really is not going to qualify for any state or federal funds that I'm aware of. It probably could be done, but at a pretty significant expense. And so this is a way of getting a

market rate project and a parcel that really has been tough to develop over the years. So in this case, I'm more than supportive of the concept. Thank you. Anyone else? Councilmember Meyer. Thank you,

Mayor. So, Seth, if I understand correctly, the plan is for initially for these seven units to be rentals, correct? That's just... I'm not entirely sure. I believe that is how the developer has done a

lot of their properties. This developer has done similar townhome projects around town, and I think they do rent a number of their products, but are also wanting to set it up for possible sale, is my

general understanding. I was just curious, but I think this is an excellent example of infill development. This is a tiny, awkwardly shaped piece of land. We were able to get seven... They're

townhomes, but these are dwellings for families, and there is a pollinator green space. So I just think this is an excellent example of how you can be creative and meet the overwhelming demand for

homes for families. So I'm really excited about this project. Anyone else? All right. Thanks so much. If there's no other further questions, the approval of this ordinance on its first renting has

been moved by Van Orney, seconded by Poe. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Number five is a public hearing to consider the proposed plan, specifications, form

of contract, and estimated cost for the FY27 Large Diameter Sanitary Sewer Inspections Project. This has an estimated cost of $900,000. Ben Worrell is here. Ben, I'll recognize you. Thank you, Mayor.

Ben Worrell, Public Works Department. This project is for the inspection of large diameter sanitary sewers using specialty equipment, which is above and beyond what the city has for resources. This is

being done to identify condition issues and also sources of infiltration and inflow, which is groundwater and other water that's not supposed to be in the sanitary sewer. This package includes the

inspection of more than 82,000 feet of this large diameter sanitary sewer, and it will be the last phase of the first cycle of inspections, and it also includes inspection of 277 manholes as well.

Here's a map showing in pink the extents of the sewer inspections on this package. Engineers' opinion of probable cost is $900,000. The bid letting is scheduled for October 28th. Inspection period is

December through January of 2028, and we expect minimal traffic impacts. Public Works Department recommends approval of the resolution. Thank you. Ben, thank you so much. Doubtful that this will make

the paper or any news items. However, I just want to make sure that we do celebrate this. We know that the sewers are a critical part of our 175 year old history, and this kind of upkeep is not easy.

It's expensive. It's tedious. And again, not too sexy, but super duper important. So thank you to you and your team for all your work on this. This is a time and place for public hearing on this. Does

anyone wish to address Council? All right, let the record show public hearing has been held Council Councilmember Pope. Thank you, Ben. Can you go back to the map, please? Thank you. I'm taking a

look. Is there is there some inspection in the what would be considered the new bohemia and check village area. I'm trying to determine where that right check village would be this area down here.

Okay. In the last big rain event, we had some groundwater that filtered in. And so I'm hoping that as the mayor said, as you're looking at the sewer system, we could identify where there may be some

issues with that area. And so I'm glad we're taking a look at it. But yeah, not real sexy, but we sure need it. So thank you for that. Appreciate it. Anyone else? All right, if there is nothing

further on that, we will go ahead and pass this revolution resolution by post seconded by overland. All those in favor say aye. Opposed say no. And the motion carries. Six is a public hearing to

consider plan specifications form of contract and estimated cost for the FY 27 tree and vegetation removal project. This has an estimated cost of $270,000 that I'll recognize you again. Thank you.

This project will remove trees ahead of various projects that are happening around the city next year. This is being done because the northern long year bat has habitat within the state of Iowa and

has summer roosting habitats that are protected by US Fish and Wildlife. And so those trees should come down before March 31st in order to comply with those requirements. And the project also includes

receding of any disturbed areas. Here's an overview map showing project areas which have tree removals included. Engineers opinion of probable cost is $270,000. Bid lending is scheduled for October

21st. The tree clearing will occur between December and March of next year with minimal traffic impacts. Public Works Department recommends approval of the resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Ben. This

is time and a place for public hearing. Does anyone wish to address Council on this item? All right, let the record show. Public hearing has been held with no objections. Council Member Todd? Just a

question in regards to this contract. Is there an opportunity for an add-on to with whoever gets the contract? Yeah, if other needs are identified during construction as long as it's within that

window, we do sometimes add locations. Yes. Thank you so much. Anyone else? All right. If there's nothing further, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Overland, seconded by Hager. All

those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Thank you. Here in the City of Cedar Rapids, we have two public comment periods. The first is a chance for the public to address

the City Council on any subject pertaining to Council actions scheduled for today. A second public input period comes at the end of the meeting for residents, property owners, and business owners to

speak on issues that are germane to the City but may not necessarily be on our agenda today. Council members and City staff make themselves available always by phone and email, but at this time during

public comment, we're here to listen. Remember that all the matters that we addressed prior to the first public hearing apply to all of the public comment periods. Rain is a lectern. If you have

documents, give them to the officers. They'll get them to us. You have three minutes. When the light's yellow, it's one. Red will ask you to take your seat. Comments need to be directed to the matter

you wish to address. So abusive, obscene, irrelevant comments not allowed, and we ask for no participation or disruption from the audience. If you sign up to speak, approach the microphone we called

upon today. And actually, I'm looking at this, and it looks like we don't have anybody signed up. Let me just double check here. Yeah, we have people sign up for the second one, but none, none for

this. So that will officially close out our first public comment period. City Manager Pomerance, do you have changes to the agenda? All right. Do any council members need to recuse themselves on

agenda items or make changes? Council Member Poe. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to recuse myself on agenda item 16C, line items 28, 48, 398, and 399. I'm going to ask you to repeat those again. 28,

agenda item 16C, line items 28, 48, 398, and 399. Got it. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. That brings us to a motion to approve the agenda. The agenda has been moved by Council Member Meyer,

seconded by Council Member Olsen. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Thank you, Council. That brings us to the consent agenda. The approval of the consent

agenda has been moved by Olsen, seconded by Todd. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Thank you, Council. Item number 22, these are ordinances. We'll move on to

ordinances, and that's 22 is an ordinance repealing Chapter 23 of the municipal code cats, dogs, and other animals, and enacting the new Chapter 23 animal control, animal laws, and other regulations

in its place. The adoption of this ordinance on its third rating has been moved by Olsen, seconded by Todd. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. Thank you. 23 is

an ordinance vacating a .06 acre parcel of the alley north and west of 1018, 6th Street Northwest, as requested by the Park Line, LLC. The adoption of this ordinance on its third reading has been

moved by Van Orney, seconded by Poe. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And the motion carries. And before we vote on a resolution for this item, does Council have comments or

questions? All right. Seeing nothing further, the adoption of this resolution has been moved by Poe, seconded by Overland. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And that motion carries.

Item number 24 is an ordinance granting a changes zone for property at 3755 16th Avenue Southwest from Light Industrial District to Suburban Mixed Use Community Center District, as requested by the

Housing Fund for Lynn County. The approval of this ordinance on its second reading has been moved by Overland, seconded by Hager. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And that motion

carries. Thank you, Council. Councilmember Poe. Thank you, Mayor. I move the roll requiring three readings on three different days be suspended and the ordinance be adopted on its third and final

reading. The adoption of this ordinance on its third and final reading has been moved by Councilmember Poe, seconded by Councilmember Meyer. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And that

motion carries. And that's going to close out our formal business today and bring us to our final public input period. And as we mentioned, this is a chance for Cedar Rapids residents, property

owners, and business owners to address the City Council on any subject pertaining to City Council business. So if you are not a resident of Cedar Rapids, a property owner in Cedar Rapids or business

owner in Cedar Rapids, we will not invite you to speak at this comment period. But we do encourage you, as always, to communicate with Council members and city staff with your comments. As with the

earlier public comment period at this time, we're here to listen. I'll remind everybody to stay at the lectern. Comments limited to three minutes. We ask for no abuse of obscene, loud, or personal

comments. So if you sign up to speak, approach the microphone when called upon. And our first person signed up to speak on these city issues is Rachel Souter. Rachel. City Council Mayor, you know,

when we were up here talking about the 8th Avenue Bridge project, I stood up here and I asked you to make sure that we were planting natives with the project, which you explained, of course we will.

So imagine my shock and horror when I'm walking past the five seasons tree and it's surrounded by grass sod. Grass that does nothing for the soil, destroys the water, increasing nitrates, and does

nothing to support our endangered pollinators, which, by the way, are even more endangered now, due to your negligence with allowing massive data centers to take over our entire city. Not to mention

how much more it costs our tax dollars to pay for sod over planting natives. Just a bunch of colonizers doing colonizer shit and destroying every last piece of land and killing every living thing you

touch. The soil is already eroding down by the river. Did you even consult anyone who knows about restoration and soil management? The largest human genocide in history was committed on this soil, and

it continues to this day with every data center belt, every surveillance camera erected, every piece of non-native grass planted. Every time greed and money is placed over life, health, and the well-

being of all living things. Have you not seen all over the world what is happening to our climate? The fires, the heat, the floods? People are dying. We are facing a mass extension event, but all we

think about is the tax revenue. Money doesn't grow trees. It doesn't grow food. It doesn't give us oxygen or water. The earth does that. And our Mother Earth has given us warning after warning. The

flood of '08, the flood of '16, and the derecho of 2020. But all you can see is the tax revenue. Well, Mother Nature is about to make shit way more expensive for all of us because y'all refuse to

listen to her. The mother is wailing. They are removing her lungs. They are poisoning her rivers. They are mining her womb. They are draining her blood. But there is a reckoning that comes when the

mother can no longer be asked to endlessly nourish the very systems destroying her. You cannot cut away the roots and expect the branches to survive. You cannot poison the soil and expect your

children to flourish. But what is power when you cannot make a seed? And what is wealth when you cannot drink the water? Thank you. Christina Akers. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Christina

Akers, Mayor O'Donnell and members of the City Council. I stand here today to exercise my absolute First Amendment right to petition the government for the redress of grievances. This right contains

no periodic expiration time or constraints, and I demand to be fully recognized for the public record. This is a notice of principles and principles of notice. The Declaration of Constitutional

Violations for notes, October 20, 2026. It is to the Lynn County Board of Supervisors, the County Attorney, the City of Cedar Rapids City Council and Mayor, and all other associated public officials

and agents. And it's from Christina Akers, as a woman living upon the land, acting under the ultimate authority under the laws of nature and nature's God in my First Amendment of the United States

Constitution. A notice to all agents is a notice of principles. A notice to principles is a notice to agents. This notice applies to all public officials, municipal employees, law enforcement

officers, corporate partners, third party contractors and administrative agents acting under the color of law within this jurisdiction. First, the immediate statement of constitutional violations. You

are hereby given formal notice that the City of Cedar Rapids, in its public, public-private apparatus and are operating in the direct violation of the supreme law of the land. The following specific

constitutional protections are being actively dismantled and infringed upon by this administration. I'm not going to read them all, but the First, the Fourth, our Fifth, Eighth Amendment and Ninth

Amendment are all being violated. I don't have enough time to read them. The Second one is binding judicial presidents and supreme authorities. Every public official acting within this county lines is

commanded to recognize the following absolute, caridancy and binding law, which nullifies any municipal rule or law, administrative code or statute, contract or state shield designed to evade the

individual liberties. The laws of nature and nature is God, the supreme pre-existing, pre-political foundation of law, acknowledging that individual rights are unalienable, are unalienable, inherit

from our creator and completely out of the legislative reach of any government, servant or private proxy. The other case that I'm using on this is Mulberry v. Madison, 1803, the Corner Post and

Company v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2024, the Sec v. Jarski, 2024 also, Loperbrite Enterprises v. Romato, 2024, this one I will read. It has abolished the Chevron deferent and

completely stripped executive administrative agencies of their power to self-interpret their own regulatory reach. Public officials cannot rely on vague administrative definitions or internal agency

interpretations to justify encroaching on the people's unalienable rights and the independent judiciary. That's your time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Well, I have a question now. Your three minutes

is up. We outlined that very clearly at the beginning of the meeting. If you'd like to discuss with council or staff afterwards, we can do that, but we'll move on to our next speaker, Anthony

Errington. Good afternoon, Anthony Errington, representing the Advocates for Social Justice, ASJ, headquartered in Cedar Rapids. We're here today because the selection of our next police chief is the

most consequential decision we're going to have to make in the city. ASJ communicated in writing to the city manager and staff at the city council on September 25th and September 30th outlining the

community's expectations for a transparent, inclusive and accountable search process. To date, we had received no official response until literally at 3.36 p.m. before I walked into this meeting. I

know why that response was sent, and that was because of the pressure that we put on the communication that we've had asking for communication. And frankly, it shouldn't be that difficult to

communicate. So we spoke individually to some city council members, and I truly appreciate those that spoke to us, but it was official communication that we would have expected in any normal

communication with the city council or the city staff, and we did not get that. So we've made efforts to communicate. We're trying to follow the protocols. We want to follow the chain of command, the

process, and we just want to make sure that there's transparent communication. With the $11 response, that raises concerns about that commitment to transparency. We're also concerned about the limited

information available in the process. As a search firm and executive recruiter, I understand this pretty, pretty intently. I've actually helped the city recruit before. So the request proposal lacks

the details that I would normally see. So we hope that that will be improved. I think in the email, I haven't got to review it completely, but at 3.36 said that there was going to be some expansion in

the recruiting process that was sent to us. So I'll take a look at that, review it, and if we have any questions, we would certainly ask. But transparency, I think it's important. We couldn't even

find the RFP online unless you're a vendor like myself or my colleagues who do this business and reach out to cities. The average citizen wouldn't have even been able to find the RFP online. And so,

you know, transparency is not just about providing the information, but providing it that it's accessible and easy accessible to the average citizen. So we hope that in the future that is improved as

well. And I want to be clear here, you know, when we come in this room as ASJ, we're not speaking just on behalf of the members of ASJ, the board members. We're speaking on behalf of the community.

The voices that we hear, the communication that we have comes from the voices of the people. So this isn't about us trying to dictate your process. We understand that the city has a process and we

know it's going to be difficult. But what we don't want to see is speed over quality. Okay. So we're asking the city council really three things, you know, we got the formal response at three thirty

six p.m. today. So I appreciate that. We hope that we get a clear and public explanation of the search process. It's not clear right now, but I believe Amanda said in her message as you collaborate

with your search firm that that will be flushed out. So we're looking forward to seeing what those details are and also a commitment to ongoing proactive communication. We just have got to be better

as a city. I think we owe it to each other to be better communicators and better proactive communicators. So we hope that that happens. You know, communication requires transparency and it requires

trust. And my hope is that going forward, we can get that. So we look forward to being a part of the search. However, we in the community can help and look forward to more information from Amanda or

whoever sends that to us. Thank you. Seriously, stumble. Good afternoon. Thank you. I'm Cersei Stumbo, representing advocates for social justice as well. A nonprofit corporation headquartered here in

Cedar Rapids. I'm here to follow up from Anthony with more details about the process for recruiting candidates for a new chief of police to be sure first that each of you are aware of the email

messages that we send on September 25th and the 30th. I've got copies which I'll give you at the end. But also to assure that this input can be part of the public record and to encourage other members

of the community to know about and engage in the process. Again, I was en route to the meeting when I also received a reply to the September 25th email. I'm sorry, I fully absorbed it, but I do. It

does appear, and I could be wrong, but that there will be a survey. You're preparing a survey for community members to share their priorities for the characteristics that a chief of police should

demonstrate. ASJ will be completing that survey and urge other community members to do the same. Specifically, the things that we are going to be saying that we did say in our email messages that

we're looking for leaders who have demonstrated through their actions that they have done the following. Protected civil rights and advanced racial equity, invested in de-escalation, mental health,

bias and community safety training, champion data, evidence, research, transparency and accountability, demonstrated courageous leadership and confronted harmful practices and misconduct, built

authentic trust and partnerships with diverse communities and maintain clear boundaries between local policing and federal civil immigration enforcement, including declining voluntary collaboration

with ICE when it's not legally required. These should not be simply issues that the candidates understand or positions they articulate during an interview. Their records should demonstrate they have

championed these principles in practice. As for the ways the city will be seeking stakeholder input, we believe it will be helpful to have at least three forms of community engagement during the

search. First is including community members on the search committee. In the last chief of police search, before you repealed the citizen review board, a member of that board was on the search

committee as well as a community member at large. We believe that that kind of representation should continue. Second, in prior searches for key city positions, the city has pulled together a panel of

community members to be involved in doing such things as recommending candidate characteristics like I just did to look for in the search and interviewing the finalists. And third, in the last search,

you invited the community at large to meet all finalists in at least one single event. Many of our constituents have we know attended and have talked to us about the desire to attend an event like

that this time around. So again, thank you very much. And I'll wrap it up there. We do have copies just so if it didn't get lost in your big inboxes I'm sure. Thank you. And that's going to close out

our second public input period city manager Pomerance you have any communications. We have one very positive item, but wallet hub just came out with its analysis of the top safest cities in the United

States looking at fire as well as police and I believe they looked at 168 different factors in order to evaluate the community This is very, very data driven and Cedar Rapids, due to the incredible

police department fire department, our personnel leadership of the mayor and city council we were rated number seven in America as seventh safe to safest city out of 182 cities in the United States.

We just really congratulate our police and fire department for their, their leadership, but it's, I think it's a very positive thing and we've already received number of inquiries about it, and we

will just keep striving to be better as well. So that doesn't mean it's the end. We all have lots to learn, but I think being number seven when you look at the list Alaska city in Alaska is number one

so it's quite a bit of competition. And different factors that get us to this point, but just excited for the good news. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that and I'll just echo my

thanks to the council for its commitment to public safety. When hard decisions are made we know that our law enforcement is, you know, job one for us so thank you, and certainly the chief interim

chief Yonker thank you for stepping in, and for the men and women of our PD and fire. Thank you. All right, if there's no further business to come before Council Councilmember overland moves to

adjourn seconded by Councilmember Hager all those in favor say I, I suppose I know, and we are adjourned.