The Council Bluffs City Council held a study session and regular meeting on October 20, 2025. The session opened with a special recognition of Mayor Matt Walsh, followed by a substantive study session discussion on a proposed homeless shelter ordinance. The regular meeting included consent agenda approvals, two public hearings, and several resolutions. The primary focus was a proposed ordinance to regulate homeless shelters, which generated extensive debate about legality, funding, and the broader homelessness crisis.
First on the study session, Alan Kemp, the executive director from the Iowa League of Cities. All right. Good afternoon. So I'm Alan Kemp. I'm the executive director for the Iowa League of Cities. And so it's a privilege to come over here. About a month ago, we held our annual conference. And during that time we uh award various awards, including uh the League Hall of Fame. And so uh we had two award winners. Uh one was uh Quentin Hart, mayor of Waterloo, but also Matt Walsh uh as mayor of Council Bluffs, and so I was unable to be in attendance at the conference, and I know Matt was also out of uh of town, so we didn't get a chance. I thought it would be a nice opportunity to just come over and further recognize uh Matt for this uh honor. So the League Hall of Fame was created in 1995, and it's really designed for individuals who've provided extraordinary public service to the league and local governments. And so there's a committee that's made up of former and existing city officials uh that take a look at the uh the individuals that are nominated uh and make the decision on whether to to make this award. Uh Mayor Walsh is the 62nd member of the league's Hall of Fame. So it was really sort of the selection of the ward is made on the basis of the service that you can render to a city government, uh, but then also advocating for cities on a statewide basis uh on the and good local government, and then also providing except exceptional professional uh assistance and support for cities, including the Iowa League of Cities. Uh Mayor Walsh is a former president for the Iowa League of Cities uh back in 2001, uh and he's been a constant uh valued member of the league uh for all those years uh in providing us assistance, particularly when it comes to advocating before the legislature, just to make sure that city issues are kept uh in front of the legislature so they understand these issues. And so we just wanted to show up and uh thank Mayor Walsh, congratulate him for this uh Hall of Fame induction, and and uh do it back in his in his home community. So Mayor Walsh, thank you very much. Thank you, Alan. Yep, thank you very much. Thanks for coming over. You're welcome. Great organization, about 940 cities in the state of Iowa. It represents small cities, large cities. Um local government. So thank you very much for all you do. Thanks for having me. All right. Thank you. All right. Review agenda. Any um questions regarding the consent agenda? Public hearings. Umrdnance on first. How about the resolutions? And are we gonna discuss how do you want to handle this? All right. So if there's no questions on the agenda, we'll move to one C and I don't know who wants to take a lead on this. Do you want to, Roger? Yeah, I can take the lead. I don't think what we're doing today is working. And so I think there's a lot of good things happening. Um my ten years on council, I think the homeless population has grown. I think it's grown nationwide. It's not just our problem. It's a problem across the country. I don't think any of us have a solution. I I don't think anybody in the country has a solution. I don't think being homeless is I don't think that makes you a criminal. I think some of the actions that homeless people take and people who live in homes take are of the criminal nature.