Good evening, everyone, and welcome.

I call the city council meeting for Wednesday, August 27th, 2025 to order.

Um at this time we'll have a moment of silence.

Just want to draw attention.

Hopefully, think about the horrific uh school shooting, church shooting in Minneapolis today, and and our hearts go out to them.

So maybe an extra thought for them.

Thank you.

If you please stand and all and join Alder Woman Burkeholder in leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

One nation undervisible liberty of justice for all.

Thank you, everyone.

Mr.

Krupp, please call the roll.

Burke holder.

Here.

Job Jen.

Here.

Tim Dunn.

Here.

Lynch.

Here.

Newton.

Here.

Grip.

Here.

Brian Arts.

President.

McGinnis.

Here.

Kelly.

And Arda here.

10 present, Your Honor.

Very good.

Thank you again and good evening and welcome everybody.

As we begin the meeting of the city council, I'd like to welcome everybody in attendance and anybody who's watching through any particular electronic device.

We respectfully welcome your comments and opinions, but please keep in mind that as you share your thoughts, you're sharing them with your fellow Davenporters and anybody throughout the region.

We're certainly happy you're participating in your city government, but as for your participation, please reflect the common desire we all share to make Davenport a better place.

For the folks in here, if you'd be kind enough to maybe put your cell phone on silent, uh, simply that it doesn't get in the way of anybody talking.

Uh, if you want to address the council at the appropriate time, uh please come to the podium.

The microphones above you.

We'd love to know your name, ward or address, and if you're not from here, we'd love to know where you're from.

Please address the council as a body and not any one individual.

We'll be respectful of you.

Please be respectful of us.

Thank you.

Will an alder person please move approval of the city council meeting minutes for August 13, 2025?

So move.

Second.

Motion and a second.

All in favor.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Aye.

Any opposed?

Very good.

Mr.

Maxheimer, City Administrator, any update tonight.

I do have a few items.

Um please.

Just a reminder that uh city offices will be closed on September 1st in observance of Labor Day programming and facility closure info is available on the city's website.

Uh this this week uh we had interviews for IT director.

We had some exemplary candidates.

Uh, we're working through an offer to one of those candidates now.

Uh last week we had an again a an exemplary group of candidates for fire chief.

We're also working through an offer on that, so I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when we uh when we get those individuals on board.

And then I was also asked to just comment on 314 gains if I could.

Um the historic structure of the Hiller building that um we had declared a public hazard, and we took down this week.

Uh we did not take that decision lightly.

Uh we had considerable internal discussion about that over several several days.

It had become apparent that the external walls and the internal walls were failing and that that deterioration was accelerating.

Uh, we were afraid that um that building was gonna come down on its own.

Uh it was not a secure building.

There were uh evidence was evidence that some homeless had been in there on occasion, and we didn't want that coming down on top of anybody.

In addition, we had um uh uh occupied structure within close proximity to that to that building uh that may have had some some damage on that structure as well, and we did not want uh public safety to be jeopardized through that.

So we took the uh position to take that down.

Uh we will be taking every effort uh possible through our legal department to try to recover those costs as much as we possibly can.

We know that's an expensive proposition, but it's difficult to put a price on public safety.

Um that particular building was was uh particularly painful because of the historic nature of it.

I know uh Alder Woman McGinnis in particular is feeling the pain of that, but um based on the evidence we had it was uh it was needed.

So um you'll have more information on that as a ratification of that uh of that public hazard at uh some point in the future.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Um will an alder person please move approval of the report of the committee of the whole for August 30th, 2025.

Motion and a second, all in favor.

Aye.

Aye, any opposed?

Very good.

I have one on it tonight.

Uh I just want to let everybody know the public and of course, certainly the council and staff.

Um, as uh CA said um he's going through interviews for respective uh positions, also uh taking care of the interim city administrator position.

I think that will come very soon to the council.

Yes.

So I want to make everyone aware of the selection committee uh personnel for the permanent selection of the city administrators.

So thank you to everybody uh that has agreed.

Uh the the code requires four city council folks and seven um other individuals.

So the four city council folks that have agreed, and I thank you all for uh your willingness to be on this committee.

Uh second ward alderman Tim Dunn, uh fourth ward alder woman, Jade Burkholder, fifth ward alderman Tim Kelly, and Alderman Alder Woman at large, Jasmine Newton.

Thank you for serving.

And then the other folks, um, Paul Sikorsky, former police chief, Bill Churchill, retired teacher, mayor, member of many uh philanthropic organizations, Dwayne Hodges, pastor, Ladrina Wilson, uh uh president of her own business, Karen Klein Jerome, president of the school board, Christine Castell, the curator for the Putnam, and John Nabel, vice president of Quad City Bank of Trust.

So I thank all of those for the willingness uh to be on the committee.

I anticipate the first meeting uh will be sometime in mid-September for the commit that committee to get together.

Uh we're using the same selection firm as we did last time because of the time frame.

Um with uh the current city administrators departure uh uh time.

We can use them so they will bring many candidates uh for that selection committee to think about and narrow to finalist uh the first meeting again anticipated for mid-September, uh, and then that committee will uh do their work as they see fit with the time schedule that they see fit with the anticipation that the next mayor and the next city council will actually uh get three recommendations uh and then select the actual city administrator.

So I just want everybody to know.

Anyone else?

See, okay, Alderman Tim Kelly.

Thank you.

So I've asked on several occasions for an answer to the findings of and it's gone a month, and we're already in litigation.

And I'm guilty of something I don't know what I'm guilty of.

So I'm literally asking tonight for what the sixth or seventh time.

If we have me in litigations, what did they find to put me in litigations?

I'm owed that at least.

I'm at least owed.

I say that to say this.

Go ahead.

I want to, because I have more.

I was just gonna say when I have the results, I will forward them on I do not have them.

I find that hard to believe that we're we're where we are, and nobody has given the city of Davenport who paid for the investigation results.

But okay, I say that to say this as well.

I speak fluently from this dais.

There's some things that people luck, and there's some things that people don't like.

I have 830 followers on Facebook.

Why do I have 19,000 views?

So there's nothing I'm saying on social media that I will not let me back the bus up, that I will not say from this dais.

So if you're creeping to look to see if I'm saying something, I'm doing something wrong.

I'm all about my community.

Period.

I have worked outside of my ward on numerous occasions.

I don't do it because I want to, I do it because people call me.

And what do I look like saying no, I won't show up because that's not my ward.

So I go get the information and I forward it back to the alderman, but I definitely get the ball rolling for them.

Sometimes I don't understand why it's so hard for me to get answers and information to something, but somebody can literally look at something that I post on social media, and I'm all of a sudden I'm an ass because I did something that I didn't know was it was an inappropriate.

I didn't know because when you have folks that are running your social media pages or building websites for you, you put in trust in these folks because one, they're professionals and they do they have jobs that they do.

Two, we've never done this.

I've never been a politician before.

Now that I am, I know the rights and the wrongs, but I just think it's unfair that people will pass judgment on me, and then if I go to say something to them, I'm retaliating against them because I have a complaint that I've already submitted to the city of Davenport.

So when I tell you October can't come soon enough for me, October can't come soon enough for me because I don't understand we still don't play fair.

We do not play fair.

We have decorum for these folks that sit on this panel, but there's no decorum for the specialties over here.

And I'm just, I'm tired.

It's just a really exhausting.

I was sick all day today.

I was supposed to be doing something with Alderman Dunn, and I couldn't do it because I knew I had to come down here.

And why is it that when I feel like I'm coming into this building, I get sick every Wednesday, every Wednesday.

When this is something I love to do in the streets, but when it's time to come in this building, I don't want to come.

So make it make sense that being the and this is what people told me I lean into my blackness too much.

Well, when you do something that's racially insensitive to me as an individual, am I not supposed to say something to you or to the person that did something to me?

No.

There's enough people on lists that they can call.

There's enough people that come around City Hall and do what it is that the city administrator or the mayor wants them to do that will do that for you.

Do you know how many people are calling me now because they're ousted of a job?

Don't call me.

You didn't defend me when you were here.

So don't defend me because the city has let you go.

So just know that what is done in the dark will eventually come to the light.

I don't know it's me, because I'm telling you, if you don't believe in God, you better believe in something because the unfair treatment that is on a regular basis and for folks that sit up and always talk about me saying something, if I don't say something, then what?

Then what?

And then when I don't give you guys examples, you guys get mad, but then when I do give examples, then I put myself in a position to get sued.

But I'm just telling you, this is not an easy job.

So I can't wait to see what the results of the election will be because so many people think that it's going to be easy to slide into becoming an altered man or an alter woman.

And if you really want to be effective, you got to get out and listen to people.

You have to talk to people and you gotta go visit people.

You can't sit up in the ivory tower and watch buildings collapse.

You can't watch the homeless population explode.

You can't watch the people ask for something, and then at the end of the meeting, we don't get a chance to say something to the people that are asking for something.

And I've asked questions numerous amounts of times, and I haven't got things still.

Like I wanted to know about the church school.

I haven't heard anything about that.

You know what I mean?

How can I make a decision on something that I don't know anything about?

But you guys want to be the alderman, and then I'm all of a sudden the bad guy because when I vote no on something, well, I haven't got a clear and decisive information to be able to make a good vote for the constituents of the people that I turn around and serve.

You guys may not believe me or take that I'm taking this serious, but I'm taking it serious as a heart attack that when I will burn a tank of gas, drive it up and down the streets of my neighborhood to find out what's going on.

A lot of my stuff aren't phone calls.

I fall upon it because I drive around.

I I went to the chicken shop to talk to that young lady because we don't get a chance to talk to folks that are actually giving us a complaint, and I don't like that part of this job.

And I don't walk that well, so I can't run after you at the end of the meeting.

I gotta yell.

You know what I'm saying?

So it's just it baffles me that we don't get to actually serve.

That's why I think it's interesting that this is only a two-year term.

So to me, that's a setup to show if you do well or if you don't do well.

Because within the two years, they can look at you and go, he's not a good Alderman.

Because that gets stacked against you.

And they want to say it's us.

I'm friendly with everybody on this panel.

Can I say the same thing about the city?

No, if I don't want to come here, I who am I friendly with?

I do my job.

I didn't come here looking for a new bestie.

I came to serve the city of Davenport, more importantly, the fifth ward.

And we do not let us take this serious.

I think it's funny how many people get to rub backs, shake hands, and get things done.

I'm tired.

I want the equal equality in the fifth ward that downtown Davenport gets and what 53rd and Elmore gets.

I will say that to the day I sit here on the end of this panel.

I want what everybody else wants in the city of, and I would love to see it in this ward, but that's a long shot.

So let me just keep fighting for mine because that ward over there, screwed.

Unless you want to go to Burger King, Dollar General, or Family Dollar, they got you.

But anything else, you gotta drive.

What happens if you don't have a car?

What happens if you don't have the computer to get the groceries dropped off at your door?

So I'm telling you, we as a city are lacking.

Y'all looking at me like I'm crazy, but I'm telling you, we're lacking of trying to help everybody as folks of the city of Davenport.

How are we helping them if we really are not helping them?

What if somebody needs medicine on a regular basis and they don't have a car or a child?

I'm single, no kids.

So what if I'm laying up in the house and there's a medicine that I need and I'm on this side of town?

I guess I'm screwed because high V was offering rides.

I don't know if that ended.

Is that still going on?

So the rise from high V to high V is over.

Now what?

So I'm telling you, this job is not for the weak.

You have to want to get in here and do something because it's hard to just fight and you're fighting alone.

There's a few of us that fight together.

So let me not say that.

So don't y'all take offense.

There's a few of us that fight together, but I feel like we always have to be quiet because we're the ones that are fighting to help the folks as opposed to try to bring in big business.

That's what these guys get paid for.

I've never heard that I am on this on the position of trying to help bring big business to Davenport or to the quiet cities.

Have I tried?

Yes, I have, but that's not at the forefront of what I do for the folks that I serve.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Very good.

We'll move to the items on the discussion agenda.

The first one is a first consideration of ordinance for case REZ 25-04, being the crest of Corondo Academy to rezone approximately 10.72 acres of land located at 5348 Elmar Circle from C3 General Commercial District to IC Institutional Campus District.

And just I was asked this question earlier, so I'll just kind of remind everybody when we do uh ordinance changes and we see first consideration, that means it's a cycle.

So last week it was committee of the whole, it was discussed.

This week's the first consideration at council meeting, so it's vote potentially voted on uh the first time.

There will be two more cycles if that's the case.

Uh historically, that's usually how it is, unless something else is changed, amended or tabled.

So you'll have next week another committee of the whole, same as last week.

Then you'll have another council meeting, same as this week, and then you'll do it again for the third time.

So just so people are known, they were, I think, somewhere under the understanding if the vote happens today, that's the final vote.

No, this is the first time, and sometimes, just so people know, uh, I got asked this too.

Uh, the first vote might be different than the third vote.

Um, because sometimes people will vote uh to continue the discussion because there's a lot of discussion yet to be had.

Um, so we understand that also.

So apologize for that little speech, but I got a couple questions about that.

So is there any public with comment on first consideration?

And uh, name order address, and I'm from here, love to know where you're from.

Grady Atkins, 3800 East 53rd Street, and I'm the superintendent of Corumdeo Academy.

Uh, I want to start off today just by addressing some of the questions that were raised last time and and speak to those.

First of which is is who we are uh and what we do.

We are a kindergarten through 12th grade non-public school, uh, accredited by Christian Schools International, which is a recognized organization accredited accreditation organization by the state of Iowa.

Uh, the state of Iowa has approximately five uh accreditation organizations that they uh recognize, and we are accredited by one of those organizations.

We have hold this is what that means that we uphold, we adhere to and are accountable to the educational standards required by the state of Iowa, which means we have to have the appropriate number of hours at school, the approved curriculum, certified teachers, all appropriate policies, procedures in place for the health, welfare, and safety of our students, faculty, and staff.

Uh, and and we are held accountable to that by our accreditation organization, which again is a Christian schools international.

Um, so that's who we are.

Uh, we are um currently, as stated last week, uh school of 180 students, uh just over that.

And our goal in purchasing uh this facility, the old ATT call center, is to be able to begin next school year, one year from now, uh, with 300 students uh at that facility with the long-term uh goal of eventually growing the school to five to six hundred students at that location, as uh that facility will be able to hold.

Um that's that's who we are uh as that question was raised last week.

A second question uh that was raised was a concern of uh rezoning and losing taxes, the the city losing taxes.

Personally, I think that's the wrong way to think about uh the comprehensive plan of the city, as we will bring new life into the area uh that currently has no one in and has not had anyone in that building for approximately five years.

Uh and when we bring new life, we will bring more business and uh the need for new businesses to come in as well as to support existing businesses that are there.

Uh another way I think is wrong of thinking about it concerning taxes is the facility is currently zoned as commercial, and that's the appropriate zoning for any church or nonprofit uh organization to come in there.

So there's a good chance of losing that anyway without even rezoning.

Um so I think I think I think that's not the best way of thinking of it.

The bottom line is that we are uh we present a good opportunity to bring new life into the area and to become another good community member who will be able to enhance the comprehensive plan of the city and the people that reside within it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Next, please.

Richard Brocker from the fourth ward, the one that didn't count when we talked to one way conversion.

Our alderman said we didn't count.

66% of the people in Davenport.

Okay, sir.

Sir, we're talking about.

And you voted against the Sir, we're talking about the um rezoning for the ATT building by the requester Corn Derek Academy.

So if you'd like to talk about that, we're happy to hear from you.

But if it's something else, you know, you'll need to wait to the end, please.

So I don't have my constitutional rights.

At the end, there's public good business, and you can talk about anything other than what's on the agenda.

But this subject for this particular moment is the rezoning for the ATT building.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Hi there.

Good evening.

My name is Tim Millage.

I'm a lifelong resident of the Quad Cities.

Uh, lived in both Davenport and Betendorf, and currently uh my place of business is in the sixth ward.

I'd like to voice my strong support for the rezoning of the ATT facility for Quorum Deo Academy.

I think this project uh is a unique and timely uh opportunity opportunity to revitalize an underutilized facility with a significant private investment.

I'd like to highlight a couple reasons why I'm supporting this uh rezoning efforts.

Uh one, Quorum Deo Academy will be a tremendous neighbor.

Uh Corumdeo Academy is associated with Quorum Deo Bible Church.

And the church has demonstrated over the past 20 years to be a growing positive member of the Davenport and Greater Quad Cities region.

And I have no doubt that the Academy will be a tremendous neighbor and a huge asset to the city of Davenport.

Also, I do think a lack of support creates some risk for its neighbors and the city of Davenport.

The property is a 75,000 square foot facility that is rapidly deteriorating and sitting on minimally maintained property.

And uh it's an ISO for its neighbors, and it's a risk for the city.

Uh, as part of my day job as CFO of Lee Enterprises, uh, I've had the privilege of being responsible for selling some of our excess real estate in our 72 communities across the United States.

Uh, properties that are similar uh in stature to the ATT facility in markets that are very similar to Davenport, Iowa.

And just let me reiterate it is very difficult to find buyers willing to spend millions in a repurposing and revitalization project.

It takes years to find a buyer, and it takes years to get to closure.

Uh, and I do want to highlight that.

And I've seen firsthand the significant negative impacts uh that that a large vacant facility can have on its community.

Uh I've seen uh facilities quickly become the place where people escape, uh, break into facilities and do things in the dark that they wouldn't do in the light.

Uh, and so I think we can avoid all of that, you know, by repurposing and rezoning uh this facility.

And maybe just to end on a positive note, I do think, as I mentioned earlier, Quorum Deo Academy will be a tremendous neighbor.

And what you have here is a local buyer with a positive 20-year history of being a good community member, looking to scale and grow within the city of Davenport.

And uh this is an exceptionally rare opportunity, and I'm hopeful that the council sees it as a great opportunity and supports the rezoning.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Next, please.

Hi, I'm Becca Bloor, 2300 uh 2302 Western Avenue in Davenport, Iowa.

And I actually just moved here from Illinois, and we were looking for about two years for an opportunity, not only for my kids, but a place where I could um uh thrive, where my kids could thrive and be safe and to learn, and we're really excited about this opportunity for them to grow and have uh more opportunities than they had in the past, and also um looking for the opportunity for me as a teacher to um share the knowledge and just see uh be able to mentor to all of the different kids that I might come in contact with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing none, okay.

Well, an older person move the okay.

If there's anyone else after this gentleman, if you'd stand up so I can see.

Next, please.

Got it.

Thank you.

It wasn't quite quick enough on the trigger.

No, all good, thank you.

My name is Rob Willie.

I serve as the senior pastor of Coromdale Bible Church, um, out of which the school originated about six years ago.

I'm a firm believer in the adage that a rising tide lifts all boats.

In this case, I think that good communities are based foundationally on good churches and good schools, because good churches and good schools uh turn out good uh community members, good people, good neighbors.

And I believe that those good people and those good neighbors from those good schools and good churches have great work ethics, they interact with one another, etc.

etc.

So for all kinds of reasons, I think it's a phenomenal opportunity for us and for the city to rezone this, uh, not the least of which is that a rising tide does indeed lift all boats, and the opposite, unfortunately, is sometimes true.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Hi, my name is Katie Duncan.

Um, my family lives here in Davenport, and I am here as a parent, a volunteer, and one of the volleyball coaches at Quorum Deo Academy.

Last year, my husband and I decided to use um our school choice funds to invest in Quorum Deo Academy, even though we live in Davenport, we are zoned for the Bettendorf School District, and so we were so grateful to have the choice uh for where we place our children, and we believe in the mission of this school and have seen the impact it's having on students and families alike.

In one short year, our school has become more than a place of learning, it's a place of belonging, purpose, and growth.

The smaller class sizes give our children the academic support and personalized attention they need to thrive, and not just in their grades, but in their confidence and in their character.

It's a place where they're known by name, encouraged in their gifts and supported in ways that only a deeply committed staff can provide.

We have three girls.

My youngest just started kindergarten and my older two are in middle school.

My older girls are involved in volleyball, student leadership, and play in the Quad Cities Youth Symphony Orchestra.

CDA encourages them to pursue excellence in everything they do, but right now we don't have the space to showcase their gifts in a way that matches their efforts.

We dream of an auditorium where our girls can perform music with their classmates and invite family and friends to share in those moments.

We imagine a gym large enough to fit the family's friends, an incredible student section who come to cheer on our athletes.

A real playground where little ones can laugh and grow, something permanent that reflects the stability and joy we want for all of our kids.

And when those music and sporting events occur, our pupils show up, and we don't just come to watch, we stop and grab coffee before the concert, we go out to eat after the game, and we celebrate with ice cream.

These simple moments generate real local impact.

Right now, our school shares space with our church, and every Friday classrooms are dismantled for weekend ministry.

And then on Sundays, we transition those same spaces right back again to prepare for Monday.

It's a labor of love, but it's also not sustainable.

Our kids deserve more.

They deserve a building that reflects the excellence of the education they're receiving, a hook to hang their bag, a cubby to hold their lunchbox, a permanent place to grow.

And our city deserves to see the full return on investing in a school that's already making a difference.

We're not asking for luxury, we're asking for a space to grow into what we're already becoming.

Our city has an opportunity to be part of something truly meaningful on a larger scale with greater impact, and I really hope you'll join us.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Next, please.

Good evening.

I'm Brandon Nickel.

I live at 4743 Kensington Court in Devonport and have a business at 2155 East Kimberly Road in Devonport as well.

I'm here to obviously throw support for this as well as it just uh has personally impacted me, my business and my family tremendously.

And I want to continue to see that growth.

Mr.

Kelly, you've brought up a lot about wanting to see, you know, underprivileged and things and see the growth in this community.

That's actually why we chose to live in this community.

That's why we choose to continue to invest in this community.

Um, but the life-changing thing that has happened for us that has allowed us to continue to grow our business and even really stay in business is um I'm a father of three adopted uh boys.

My oldest uh from Ethiopia and my younger two from Haiti.

And my um my oldest is thriving academically at CDA, and my two youngest, um, we have tried so many things to try to uh help get them up to speed um without speaking in English when they came, and uh we've we've tried every scenario and we have now a home at CDA, and we're seeing them grow and develop in every area.

So it is my um uh definite hope that you guys would be able to see uh all of the countless reasons why this would be so good for uh for our community.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing no one.

Well, an older person please move the the uh ordinance.

First consideration.

Uh first there's a um motion and a second for first consideration.

Any discussion from council folks?

I say Alderman Joption.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um I'm supportive of this rezoning.

I'll be voting yes this evening.

I would ask my colleagues to do the same, especially just to move this on uh to second consideration.

Um my only thing is I'll continue to just uh have some conversations with staff, and there's some other um and there's some business owners in the surrounding area that just want to make sure that we're crossing all T's and doting all I's to make sure no adverse impacts there, but otherwise um I think this is great repurposing of this building.

Um definitely um supportive of the mission of CDA and and hope it goes through in the end.

So thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Brookholder.

Thank you.

I had the pleasure to um attend an actual function at CDA um over the weekend, and I will say it's absolutely beautiful.

Um larger than in my opinion, it it's it's about as big as our high schools, our public high schools.

So when I'm hearing that there's not enough classrooms and there's not enough um the gym space or the auditorium just from the small part I saw, it it's it's a very large building where you're at.

Um and continuing to grow, I can see that in the space that you you currently have.

Um I still have some some big questions on the traffic, and there's my understanding there's no busing, so it's going to be individual vehicles coming and going certain times of the day.

So I do still have some concerns.

Um with move with trying to rezone this and and functioning that portion uh in the old ATT building.

So I still have questions that I I really would like to dig deeper in.

So I'm supportive.

I just still have questions.

So thank you.

Thank you, Haldeman Reinhardt.

Thank you.

Uh I do have questions as it relates to the intersection.

Um that's gonna ultimately have to deal with all the traffic.

I do have one question, and maybe somebody from staff can answer this.

If not, maybe have an answer for me the next time we next week.

Um, one is how many people did ATT employ when they were actually in operation?

And the second question is um if they were multi-shifted, uh, how many people approximately were in each shift?

So I can get a feel for what type of traffic that intersection had to handle prior.

Um we've invested a lot of money in that intersection recently.

I just want to be sure that uh we're not gonna have a negative impact since there is no busing.

I'm in favor of a repurposing of a building, and I'm certainly in favor of uh private education.

So uh I just have concerns about the intersection and the potential traffic we're gonna have to deal with.

Uh thank you.

Unless you want to come up and give you a question.

Thank you.

Well, are you calling?

Can you come up, Lauren?

Give me some information.

Is that okay?

Yes.

Uh Lower Berkeley Development Neighborhood Services.

Um answer part of your question.

Um ATT had a uh maximum at their peak, uh, 548 employees.

I don't know if they were on shifts or not.

I can look into it.

Okay, thank you.

You good?

Okay.

Alderman Kelly.

Thank you.

Um, I have a lot of concerns.

I don't even know where this is located, so I'm not gonna be the one to push something through just because other people want to push it through.

So when I said what I said, hey there you know, I really when I said what I said, I was hoping that somebody would say invite me, because when I threw out there, I was a child of a preacher's kid, so I get it, but I was like, I'm not gonna look for it.

I'm going to wait for the information to come to me to tell me what's it's it's bizarre when it comes to the church for me.

So it's not that I'm opposed to um, and I never speak on how I'm gonna vote, but I'm just opposed to not having enough information about I don't even know how to correctly pronounce the pronounce the name of the school.

I don't know where you guys are located right now, you know, just small things which don't mean a hill of nothing.

I just want to know more about you before I can put my seal of approval.

And let me tell you what I do like.

I know I shouldn't probably say this because this is that lawsuit stuff.

You guys came in here with a whole bunch of men, and I was just like, where are the ladies that represent this school?

So now that I see the females, the teachers, and it's amazing to see because I was just sitting there like, what is going on?

It was just different for me.

It because once again, if you know anything about Southern Methodist religion, when I was a kid, we used to have to go, we were the entertainment.

My grandfather had seven churches, so when we would go down to Mississippi, we would spend the day bouncing around from his church to church singing songs.

So I was just like this.

I'm good.

Because when you don't know, but now that I'm an adult, I love God and that I believe, but I'm also somebody that will put a cuss word and God in the same sentence.

So that is like but anyway, so I had to reach out to this young lady's mother-in-law just to do some research because I didn't know much about this school.

I was like, to me it fell out of the sky.

I know that sounds silly, but it really did.

So it just took this family for me to even want to research it.

But I want to, I I want to.

I wish I had the luxury of going to an event, but I like I said I wasn't gonna look for it.

I wanted to get the information so then I could take it upon myself to just stop by because I love church hop and I love to go see what other folks are offering to spir spiritually feed the community.

I'm that person, so it just scares me how you guys came last week.

And once again, I shouldn't say that, but it did.

So I'm loving to see the representation this evening, but until I know more about how do you pronounce your school?

I'm sorry.

Help me.

Okay.

Thank you.

So how I quorum Dale, I I just want to know more about Quorum Dale before I move me personally before I move forward.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Old woman Newton.

Thank you, Mayor.

I don't have any questions, and I'm supportive of this, but I know that some of my colleagues do have questions, so I just want to request that any of the information that goes out goes out to the entire council.

That way we all receive the same information.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Seeing no one else.

Okay, Mr.

Krupp, please call in again.

First consideration, so we'll do it again.

Next Wednesday, Wednesday, next Wednesday, and Wednesday.

Assuming it gets a yes.

If it's a no, then it's done.

Lynch?

Yes.

T done?

Yes.

Greg?

Yes.

McGuinness.

R done.

Yes.

Burkholder.

Yes.

Kelly?

No.

Job Jin?

Yes.

Reinhardt.

Yes.

And Newton.

Yes.

Nine yeses and one no, Your Honor.

Very good.

It moves to second consideration.

Next one.

The next item number two is a resolution approving eight construction and maintenance agreements with Canadian Pacific, Kansas City Railway for the Riverfront Quiet Zone project in the amount of 3,806,000 and $10.45.

Before I call for public.

And before I call Mr.

Merit up, I'm gonna pause.

If anybody wants to leave at this moment, we'll pause while you leave, and then we'll I'll call Mr.

Meredith.

Okay, Mr.

Merritt, I understand you have a presentation that you'd like to share, so please sort of briefly.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Clay Merritt with Engineering and Capital Projects.

So over the last uh few weeks, uh we've been having I know I've had multiple conversations with many of you about the topic of quiet zones, um, and I thought, and as well as the the public has had some questions.

So I thought it would be helpful to get up here and do a presentation to walk through some of these topics.

Um I would like to first start about um what established the use of train train horns and a quiet zone process.

So uh you'll see me refer to this um quite frequently 49 CFR Part 222.

Uh, that is the code of federal regulations that established um the use of um horns.

So this is um from the federal government through the federal railroad administration.

Uh and they did so roughly around 2006 uh for safety purposes.

Um on the screen, you'll see is both the purpose of their of the regulation and what it covers.

Uh specifically, once again for safety of public grade crossings by local um by um using by requiring locomotive horns at these crossings.

However, you'll see it accepts where is um quiet zones um have been established.

That is important to note because the same regulate um federal regulation that requires the railroad for safety purposes uh to sound their horns, they also give an alternative method that cities and communities and counties can look at if that's um their decision.

Subpart C is what is what goes into quiet zones, it's exceptions to the use of locomotive horn.

Uh it provides the following.

So it establishes the minimum requirements for doing so, what the process is once one has been implemented, um, how you go about continuing to have a quiet zone, uh, if the community is um interested, what it looks like to terminate that quiet zone with the federal federal railroad administration.

It also provides a list of all the supplemental safety measures uh and alternative safety measures that you would install in use or um instead of using that train horn.

It defines quiet zone as a segment of rail line within which is situated one or number of consecutive public um rail crossings at which the horns are not routinely sounded.

Um I put this up here because I think it's important to note um it's not um that's different than what the um first part said, which is is required.

So a quiet zone, it doesn't eliminate entirely the use of train horns.

Um further in the regulation, it says, notwithstanding any of these provisions of this part, a local uh an engineer may sound the um the horn to provide a warning to animals, vehicles, pedestrians, trespassers, crews, or anyone that's in an emergency situation.

The sole discretion is up to the engineer.

Um I know over the years, as I've talked about this and as many others have, we always like to tell people just by implementing this doesn't mean horns go away, that it's still the right of the engineer if they feel like it is necessary for safety situations.

And we put that up there because that is quoting the federal regulation.

Next is a topic of our quiet zones safe.

Um so we've we've established that the federal railroad administration uh in implementing train horns provided on the alternative safety measure.

Um, through that process um of establishing a quiet zone, they have a list of requirements for um, in this case I'm gonna say municipal municipalities because that's what we are, but for public organizations.

So the requirement um of which there is many.

There's one in particular I'd like to discuss.

So it says demonstrate through data and analysis that the proposed implementation of these different measures will reduce the quiet zone uh risk index to at or below the risk index with horns and the nationwide significant threshold.

So the FRA, and in order to create consistency amongst the communities in within our country, um, they actually provide you with a calculator to then input all of your variables to establish um these thresholds.

So this calculator will allow the public authority to consider a variety of options in determining which safety measures make the most sense for their community.

It will perform the necessary calculations, needing to determine whether the existing risk level, so as we currently stand today, and whether enough risk has been mitigated in order to even create a quiet zone.

So this is a requirement by the federal government.

So a little bit, and I won't read all these, but the nationwide significant risk threshold is essentially an average level of risk across the country as a whole.

The risk index with horns, that's a measure of risk to monitoring the public when horns are provided.

I look at this as this is kind of currently where we stand because we have horns signing throughout the riverfront.

And then the quiet zone risk index is where you then apply these alternative risk measures, and then you compare it with their values to see is it from a number from a statistical standpoint safer than what it is with horns.

So the calculator uses these inputs to do the following.

So essentially you calculate the risk of each crossing within your corridor.

In our particular case, this is mound to Marquette.

And you and they base it on a number of variables, traffic, speed, a lot of other fiscal characteristics that are at each individual crossing.

They you then what you do is you adjust their risk, and that provutes the RIWH, that's the risk index with horns where we currently are at.

You adjust the risk upwards to account for the loss of a train horn.

So if you eliminate the train horn, your your risk goes up.

You're eliminating a safety measure.

You then start factoring in all the new safety measures, you're installing it each into these individual crossings, and you average them, that gets you the quiet zone risk, that's the QZRI.

And once again, it must be level or below either the national average or what you currently have in place.

In calculating that and putting this into once again, the federal government's calculator, the national average is about the value is 15,488.

The risk index with horns, where we currently stand in our city along the riverfront is 9,493, and the quiet zone risk index is 2,826.

If we implement the improvements that I'm gonna discuss in just a moment.

So while I'm I I love statistics and analysis and data, a lot of times it's it's helpful to then look at the specific individual crossing and what they physically will look like once improvements are made.

So I know there's been a number of questions about the number of vehicle crossings, and I'm focusing on vehicle crossings because that is the focus of 49 CFR 222.

Um currently, right now, from a public crossings, there are nine.

Um there's Marquette, Gaines, Ripley, Harrison, Purging, River Heritage Park, Kerry Avenue, Oneida, and Mound, and then there's four private crossings.

You'll see those are at two locations.

So the Han Ready Mix Plant and our American Waters Treatment Facility, they have three within their own.

So the uh the federal regulation says for private crossings, what they actually do is you just need to follow the manual uniform of traffic control devices signage to remain compliant.

I've spoken to each of those pro each of those businesses.

They're perfectly happy to move forward with putting the necessary signage up to remain compliant as if we move forward in this decision.

An interesting thing to note, um I know this can get confusing, so I apologize if I didn't do a good very good job earlier on of uh communicating this.

So of the nine public crossings that we have, eight of them are highlighted.

Those are the eight construction and maintenance agreements that are in front of the council today.

Um, the ninth one, Marquette Street, isn't there?

Those eight are necessary because to perform those alternative safety measures, we need the railroad to put those those measures in place.

The city can't do that, nor I think would we want us to.

The ninth one, Marquette, that one is actually something we have the room there to do site improvements, where we don't need the railroad to do what they need to do, we can enhance what's already there.

So that's the difference you'll see in the eighting agreements that's in front of you versus the nine public crossings that are there now.

So here's what it looks like from a corridor perspective.

Once again, um you have on the east side of town, we have um we have mound all the way to the west on Marquette, and everything in between.

What is yellow is public, what is blue is private.

Um next, I'm gonna go through each individual one.

Uh so what you see in front of you is um is Marquette Street.

So I'm gonna go west to east.

Um kind of hard to see on this projector, but what's in red is existing.

So there are two existing gate structures there.

What's in gray is the infrastructure that we're going to be putting in place using a city's contractor, which isn't yet in front of you.

Um, and then we move on to the next slides.

What's in blue is what's going to be in front of you today as part of the construction and maintenance agreement.

So utilizing existing infrastructure there, we can enhance that but by building in medians.

Essentially, what we want to do is eliminate people's ability to in-run around these crossings.

And you know, when the crossing arms come down, people can't go anywhere for safety purposes.

And we can do this through the installation of medians.

Next, and as we walk through, you'll see there's never a one-size-fits-all solution.

Um, they're really site-specific, and that's where it's helpful as you go back and look at those appendices provided within the federal regulations.

It allows you to apply measures that are unique to your um individuals, um, your individual city.

So on gains is our next one.

So once again, red shows existing.

Um, so we do have two crossing levels there.

However, we um unlike Marquette, we do not have the room to install medians there because of the curvature of the road.

Uh so in this case, we would go with a four-quad gate system, we would install two more to stop and provide that physical barrier.

Um, so when trains are coming, that vehicles can't cross.

Next is Ripley.

Um, currently Ripley by the freight house, um, for anyone from a location perspective, uh, there currently exists no physical barriers to stop vehicles from being able to move over the tracks.

So, and so for this particular solution, we'd be installing a four-quat gate system.

So, once again, putting something there, uh putting something where there currently isn't anything there now.

Uh, same happens on Harrison Street.

There it doesn't exist any physical uh barriers between the rail and um and vehicles, so we'd be installing a four-gate system.

Um, once again, uh the site would not allow us uh to put in medions because you can kind of see on the south side of those gates as you hit some of that riverfront parking, you would just completely cut most of that off.

Next is Purging Avenue.

Um, so this one, there are two existing gate structures.

We would install two more, once again, block that traffic.

Um medans or any other physical safety measures are unable to, but just because of the configuration of the road.

Uh next, we have another little bit of an oddity.

Uh, River Heritage Park.

So when the rail actually went through in 2019 and raised the tracks, um, it actually had a great different configuration for what that parking situation looks.

So if you actually look back at old maps, it doesn't even remotely look like this.

Um, but this was the result of um having to figure out how to maintain access to this park.

Um so in this instance, um, you can actually there's a there's an entryway and then an exit point and then a parking ramp, I mean, excuse me, a parking lot.

In this instant, because of the geometry of the field, you can actually just put three gate structures in and you meet requirements.

Once again, there is nothing there currently, right now.

Carry uh carry or its driveway.

This is another, I keep saying interesting, but this is an interesting one that is different.

Currently, right now, this is actually listed as a private access point and not public.

Um, and it's it's interesting because it's not an actual roadway, so it's not actual Carrie Avenue, it's a driveway.

So just south of the rail here is the yacht club, which is owned by the city of Daven.

I mean, excuse me, not the yacht club, but the property at the uh the land is owned by the city of Davenport and it's rented to the yacht club through the Riverfront Improvement Commission.

So this acts as a driveway.

So we're taking the opportunity to narrow the pavement that's there so it creates less confusion to the driving public to think that this is a road when it's not, um, and then two gate structures in there, um, even though once again it operates as a private, but it's on public land, if that makes sense.

Next is Oneida.

Um, Oneida has two gate structures already present.

Um we would be installing two more gate structures there.

Um you'll notice there's some uh some gray out on the northeast section.

Um to install one of those gate structures, we would actually need to kind of um reorient um uh private properties drive.

Um it's kind of common with our projects.

If we affect private property, we would correct that as part of our project.

Um so that's where you see that.

Um and last is Mound Street, Mound Street just south of the East Village.

There are no um there are no gate structures there currently, um, there's no physical barriers, so this would be installing a four quadrant gate system.

So once again, those are the those are the nine public crossings, eight of which is in front of you.

Uh next, uh, I think one of our elected officials asked about accident history.

So we pulled over the last 50 years.

So I'm gonna show you the same numbers, just kind of done two different ways.

So you can see from the 1970s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and and the most recent, um, what's going on forward on the number of injured, uninjured uh fatalities and the total number.

And these are all from the Federal Railroad Administration and the reports.

They have not released 2,025.

However, we are aware of some accidents, so for transparency purposes, we put that on there, even though they have not released their reports.

One of the two fatalities occurred at a private crossing.

Another one near Gaines Gain Street.

Without seeing that final report, can't provide commentary on whether or not any safety measures would have helped or hindered that.

Next, and this is once again same numbers, just broken out and looked at differently.

So by property owner.

So of the total number of accidents that have occurred in the last 50 or so years, 29 of them have happened at public crossings, 24 of them have happened at private crossings.

I think that's an interesting thing to note.

And the accident types are overwhelmingly vehicular related, which corresponds to the federal regulations or focused on vehicles.

Next is a question, I believe it was in the last council meeting that said what generated the project, why is this happening?

So I'd like to point out that even though, and I'll go back to the to when I first started in 2020, 2013, 2014.

I recall there being conversations about the desire for quiet zones, but it never initiated as a project.

So what really generated it?

It wasn't a particular section of the city, it wasn't any particular project that generated this.

What really made this move forward from a city perspective, and I'm by saying that, I mean the elected officials at the time were interested in the project, was in 2021, CP, it's Canadian Pacific, announced the desire to merge with Kansas City Southern.

And part of that merger would actually have our daily train traffic along the riverfront going from five to seven trains a day to 21 to 24.

Um, and as you'll see in 2023, the Service Transportation Board, which is the federal agency who oversees that, unsurprisingly, they approved that merger, and in talking with CPKC this year, they are tracking well on hitting their numbers.

I expect to see those kind of 21 to 24 ranges happening in around 2027.

So that looks to be continuing to move forward.

From that, and this once again, this is historical context.

Um, I know the question of well, why is this moving forward and why is it now?

Well, it's been going for some time.

City approved a settlement agreement with CP for mitigation projects.

This is actually listed as one of those.

In 2022, um we then from a staff perspective, it was inserted into the city administrator's work plan that kind of provides us the direction to go out and do things and to initiate these projects.

Uh in 2022, we submitted three grants for mitigation projects.

It's a long-standing process that if there is funding available to leverage city funds, um I'm saying at the state or federal level, we should go after those and seek those.

One of the stipulations for um for most grants you'll you'll see is they actually have an endorsement endorsement part of the application, and then they want to see that the governing body of who's asking for their money is actually interested in the project, and that's why you'll always see for large infrastructure projects.

We actually put a resolution in front of you approving the submission and uh proceed the preparation and submission of grants just for you to know exactly that we're on the same page and we're going in the same direction, as well as oftentimes these have large local matches, and we want to make sure people are comfortable with that.

So we did that so in 2022, was awarded a state grant at the very end of the year.

Um the FRA grant was actually awarded in 23.

In 23, we also approved an engineering contract, approved another engineering contract for CP portion, which is what's in front of you in 24, and earlier this year, um the federal railroad administration received clearance from all environmental aspects of the project, and they've also approved the preliminary engineering plans.

Next is project funding.

So how are we paying for this?

So this is this is very unique in the sense that we're able to pay for this with a federal grant from the FRA, state grant through IEDA, and that's the destination Iowa portion, of which this is a piece of, and with um remaining community investment funds.

So that basically comes out to about 4.3 million dollars.

None of that is being paid from our city capital program and our capital program for those listening at home.

Uh that's where we that's where we fund our streets, that's where we find streets, bridges, sewers, stormwater projects, our wastewater treatment facility, um, large-scale equipment for police and fire.

None of that funds that we go to that we have fund times on Saturdays in February and March, none of that is coming for this particular project, which is very unique.

I think in my um my tenure, I've only seen one other time in which we've actually leveraged two different grant sources for one project.

Next is maintenance.

So in the agreements that are in front of you, once everything is installed and it's been built, well, it's the city's responsibility, or will pay the maintenance cost of those.

Uh and then talking with um CPKC's public works manager for the United States.

It says an average annual cost of approximately 5,000 per crossing, and that covers uh inspection and any repairs that they typically do.

Eligible funding sources, so we have two uh road use tax, and since our last conversation, um, we've actually had conversations with the Iowa Department of Transportation and asking is this a do they view this as an eligible use of funding?

They do, uh, and actually built within their budget is how they pay for um maintenance of uh railroad signals as well through other agreements they have, they use utilize road use tax.

We also have um CP community investment funds remaining.

That is an option as well.

Frequently asked questions, and I'm I promise I'm getting close to the end.

Um does quiet zone means that the trains never blow their horns.

No, engineers can always sound their horn for emergencies or unsafe situations.

A quiet zone reduces routine sounding, but doesn't um take away safety warnings.

I think that's a key thing to um to bring up.

Are taxpayers on the hook if the railroad makes a mistake?

Um, no, our contracts do not require the city to pay for the railroad's um negligence.

Umother question why does the city sometimes indemnify the railroad at all?

And that's another piece of of the agreements in front of you.

Is because we're asking to alter or work within their corridor.

If a claim arises from our actions or our contractors' work, then it's fair and pretty standard for us to be able to carry that risk.

Next, how long does the city remain responsible?

So during construction, the contractors indemnity and insurance are primary.

So in this case, this is pretty standard for our construction projects.

I'll use what's what's standard for most of us.

On a roadway project, when we bid it out and we sign contracts with the contractor, the site is their responsibility, it's their responsibility uh responsibility to maintain safety at that site.

If an incident was to occur, then they indemnify the city, and that's and that's for them to work through with their own insurance, um, which is fairly standard in our industry.

But after the acceptance of the project, the responsibility follows who controls and maintains each feature.

So in this case for the city, our um ours is due to the median, one we're just doing one, so the one median on Marquette, as well as the signs ensuring that we follow and keep following the municipal or excuse me, the M U T C D standards.

The railroad is responsible for the signatures.

I mean, for the signals.

So these are the gate arms and the crossings.

Um, I believe this is the last one.

If the city enters into these agreements and properly funds the maintenance, does that alone put the city in the liability chain of issues and items with the home in which the railroad maintains?

No, merely signing a construction and maintenance agreement with the railroad does not itself make the city legally responsible for malfunctions of railroad owned warning signals.

Liability turns on who owns and controls and maintains the device.

This goes back to the previous question.

Um, under federal rules, um, the railroads have the primary ongoing duty to inspect, test, and maintain grade crossing signals, simply cost-sharing or being reimbursed for that work, does not simply shift that duty.

And I apologize for having a read from that, but it's from our city attorney, and I will make sure I don't want to mess any of that up.

So with that being said, um happy to answer any questions that you may have, um, and thank you for the time.

Thank you, sir, for the detailed explanation.

Okay.

Is there any public comment?

Please.

William Pampern's war.

We know I was gonna get up here, so Mr.

Mayor seems to have a uh little flaw in its plan, right?

In the same book, and he looks at a lot of those things.

There is no rail crossing arms or anything for any of the sidewalks or pedestrian crossings.

It's required in here that all pedestrian crossings, sidewalks are pedestrian, whatever be required to have a gate.

His Sawyer uh Snyder study, and my information was 2022 before the railroad announced the merger, and before the park was announced, was when that study was done.

Now the overall numbers have changed.

What's the chance of percentages going up?

Does that make that study invalid?

Do we need to have a new study?

There's going to be more trains and more people down or with the park.

There's a reason why we had the signals.

We were talking just great.

Standing right here.

We had a couple motorcycles take off from down here.

I couldn't even hear him.

He's standing two feet from me.

Because they echo through the building.

Why don't you do something about the motorcycles?

They're louder than the train horns are.

Again, I refer to the same book as he refers to.

It says right there.

Why does any give uh a different alternative other than the horns?

I mean, there's is this a full-time quiet zone, or is it a part time or a partial quiet zone where you can set the times when the horns can operate or be quiet?

I didn't see or hear any type of options there.

Why wasn't that presented?

Um legal, there again, states right in this book.

You want to read it, it's on the internet.

Anyone can look into it.

You don't get mine because it costs $5.50 to print it out at the library.

As far as the maintenance cost, that's an estimate.

But the flooding that we have downtown, is that on the city or is that the railroad?

Do yourself a favor.

Don't put the city in another legal binding arbitration lawsuit for a liability that you can prevent right now by not doing this.

Thank you.

Next, please.

So I have many questions, and um, I'm gonna kind of start backwards about that usage tax, and they can create a usage tax on the roads and the intersections, and how exactly is that going to work?

Um who's gonna collect it, and uh, are they only gonna charge some eyes or are they gonna charge passenger vehicles?

Um, that usage tax.

I those words are just not good words.

I left Illinois because of words like that.

Um and then that risk risk index, they showed how that lowered, but that also I believe was based on the five to seven trains a day and not the expected volume to uh hit 24 trains a day.

So I also have my concerns were the pedestrians are walking most of all.

I was in LeClaire not long before they had that train derailment, and they do a great Halloween event down there, and people aren't always smart.

And when the train was coming by, everybody was crowded right up there, right by the the train and the and where the the railings came down, and I wouldn't get up there close.

Um I'm um I'll be 61 before I see you next week.

So I'm 60 years old.

I've had enough experience in life that I know I don't want to stand up close to that train.

And when it derailed and you see how it piled up, um, you realize a lot of people could have gotten very hurt if it had happened at a different weekend at a different time.

We had the crash at Nahat Marsh.

If you go through those intersections, Kyle, you can see that it says remote control operation.

And so my concern when they say Alderman Grip that the um the engineer can uh ring an event of emergency, the horns.

What if it's a remote control train at that point?

Also said, if I understood him correctly, because I wrote the notes, was that the city takes the liability if they do the work on the intersection, but the city wants to do the intersection of Marquette Street, which means the city will have the liability if anything happens at Marquette.

Additionally, because I am almost 61 years old, I have the gift of hindsight.

And I don't know if you've ever heard of Seven Angels Crossing, and I have these concerns at some of these intersections because what happened at Seven of the Angels Crossing, the train didn't hit the front of the bus.

It hit the back of the bus.

And seven kids were killed on their way to school.

They had just changed the intersection and done improvements.

An alderman grip.

Seven children were killed.

Please address the council as a body, not any individual.

I'm just trying to get into the fucking that's please, thank you.

Um, so I have my concerns that they're looking at what's gonna happen at the front of the vehicle and not what could happen at the back of the vehicles, and especially at the River Bandit Stadium, Marquette Street.

I was I was only thinking there was a few until he did the displays up there, and then I started thinking East Village.

All of these places where a vehicle could be on the back of the tracks and there's no horn, and they're on the back of the tracks because maybe the person in front didn't move forward and left a huge gap, and they thought they could get across the tracks, but then they're stuck on the tracks, and there's no horn.

Because I have lived it, and seven kids died.

I know it could happen, and that's what concerns me about these changes that are being done and the volume going up, and everybody's looking at the front of the intersection, and nobody's paying attention to what happens at the back end of the intersection.

Um I think that's the end of my notes.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Yeah, Paul Vasquez third ward.

I'm not gonna go back over what they said, but I do agree with it.

But it seems to me sometimes when somebody puts an idea forward and then starts moving on paper that come hill or high water that's gonna be done.

Sometimes common sense and reasoning aren't really looked at because we have statistics and drawings and plans.

That doesn't always work.

Okay, you're increasing train traffic down there threefold, and at the same time, you're removing or changing the situation, hoping that statistically people are gonna pay attention, you know, we have new gates and everything, but you're still doing it three times, even I didn't know it was gonna be that much.

But again, in previous training I had, didn't take chances, didn't take risks, and that's what you're doing here, you know, and and I hope nobody gets hurt.

I truly do.

But I think maybe again, sometimes you need to take uh common sense practical look at something.

I mean, is all this can happen at the same time, the train volume increase when all this changes, and then you're banking on everything going right.

I think it's moving too fast.

I really do, and it's not worth the gamble to me.

Hi, I'm Annie.

Um, I live downtown and I own a business downtown in big right on Perry and Pershing on River Drive.

And I moved downtown in 2020.

I lived in Los Angeles, I lived in Kansas City, I've lived in big cities.

Um, that are they have billions of people, and they have trains that are silenced, and their downtowns are bustling.

They have pockets of areas of their communities that are bustling with trains going by, and it doesn't impact the economy and their communities.

I see it and I hear it regularly, the impact it has on our community having this noise.

Um people are talking about, you know, obviously the train traffic is going up and whatnot, but we're combating that with more safety precautions.

Um, you're seeing it in all cities around this country, so it's not like it, it's not like a brand new concept that's coming out just because train traffic going up.

I'm sorry, like you can't fix stupidity.

People walking on train tracks and standing on train tracks is like going and playing golf and tons of lightning.

Like it's you can't fix that.

But what you can fix is do the right things, making the safety precautions and making it a better place for our community.

Like having visitors that want to come down here and be able to say, Hey, I want to take my family, I don't want to stay downtown over to the farmers market, I want to go shopping.

I want to go all around downtown, not just like a little pocket up by the farmer's market, but I want to go experience this new revitalization, which is happening right across the street to my condo, and how much I don't know how millions of dollars that you guys are putting into this awesome new riverfront, and you expect kids to come and families to come.

I take my nephews across just to walk the river, and like it is scary and alarming, and it leaves an impact on these kids hearing that noise.

And we're on a walk for 30, 40 minutes, and you hear it a couple times, and their soul leaves their body when they hear it is scary.

Um, and not to mention just the health impact of these noise, like this noises.

Like, I my ears ring.

The long-term impact this these noises have on our health is one thing.

Um, also just when you think about visitors, like we get these people that come from um the cruise lines and they come downtown and they'll come in my store.

And you know, I always ask them like, what do you love about the quad cities?

You know, you know, what do you see here that you want to, or what do you want to see differently that you've seen in other little river towns that you guys have visited?

Um the train noise is a it's a conversation, and it shouldn't be.

Like if that is deterring people from coming back, I always say, like, we want to leave an emotional impact on somebody when they come here.

Like we want to say, hey, that like felt good in their soul that they want to come back.

And when you bring people downtown, say for a wedding or whatever it is, and you've got family, and you've got people just complaining about that noise, that's the emotional thing that they're left with is being annoyed, and they don't want to come back and hear that.

They don't want to stay at a hotel and hear that all night.

I hear it all night.

I can't take Zoom calls in my own condo because the train noise.

So there's a there's a like a lot of points, and I don't need to go into all of them.

Um, I think that he's gonna do a great who did the presentation earlier is gonna do a great job of um showing how we combat your safety concerns because we talked about how you somebody made a comment about 150 years ago, it was like this.

If we had that site mentioned up for everything, we need to make changes.

Like we need to move forward and not look back and say, Oh, work 150 years ago.

We're trying to grow our community.

We're trying to make this a bustling downtown community that people want to live, work, and play at.

It's not gonna be like that if we continue to blow these horns all day, every day, because you don't get solitude.

It's just a constant interruption.

And I think somebody mentioned that they could have a conversation and they they could hear them just fine.

I literally can't have a phone call in my own condo with soundproof windows without saying, give me a minute, I'll mute them, and then when it's done, I'll get back on the call.

Like, that's the kind of impact it's having, not just on you know, my mental health, but like my business, my work.

And I know I'm not the only one.

So I just am like we can't look back at you know, 150 years ago, we blew horns, it was fine.

We need to look at how we're gonna move forward.

How are we gonna be a better city?

How are we gonna be better communicating?

And nowadays there's there's ways to make the safety better, and that's what he's saying.

It's like there's there's things we can do that still keep this safe with silencing the the horns.

So I'm all for it.

I could keep going for another 50 minutes, but that's all I got.

Okay, next, please.

That's called privilege.

Okay.

Um, to be able to have a business downtown.

I used to live downtown for a month.

I live right up.

Um I'm gonna say it was Ripley.

I rented apartment there, but it was bio landlord that you probably know very well, and they had mice.

I moved into an apartment with mice already living there.

Now let's get back to the point.

Everybody that got up here and talked has legitimate concern about somebody's safety.

And when I hear, well, I agree with this.

What about people's safety?

Now, what I'm reminding you what the the man that works for the city just came up here and said, if somebody is walking and they see that it is maybe a possibility of somebody being hurt, they're still gonna blow their horn.

That's whether they or not, whether there's children playing it at the park or not.

Now, I understand when because I go down to eat our restaurants on the river.

You know, there's a I like to parch in some places.

And when that horn goes off, yes, it is scary.

But however, it's letting somebody you know that there is a train here, and you must be careful.

Look out.

Look out.

I just don't like I want to be able to say it in a way that is not so offensive.

We have to be able to protect the people, whether they're in their right mind or not.

Okay.

Whether that means we need more gate, you know, gating where it is next to the trains.

We need to, and people, I understand we want people to go down to water parking play.

We want all that to happen, but we also have to make sure it's safe.

So we need to work together, a medium between what you guys would like to see on this million dollar park downtown to the businesses to the people in the community that want to be safe.

Yeah, I don't want to be down there playing at the park and horns go off.

Yeah, I understand it, but we need to have safety first.

Does that make sense?

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

See, okay.

Hello everybody.

My name is Jake Palmer, and I'm here tonight to represent Restoration St.

Louis.

Um we are a proud investor in downtown Davenport.

We own numerous buildings, businesses.

We own and operate Hotel Blackhawk in the current Iowa.

Um and as such, we employ many citizens of Davenport.

We provide a place that many people in Davenport call home.

And we also see thousands of people traveling every year to come stay at our hotels in downtown.

As such, I think that puts us in a good position to at least understand what draws people to Davenport as well as what is drawing people away from Davenport.

Um the biggest things that we've seen in the past few years, ever since 2023, is a new type of complaint.

Of course, we get complaints sometimes about, say, the pillows, the elevators, but a complaint about noise coming from outside the hotel is something that's been more or less recent.

And we see a lot of complaints from people about the train noises.

Um I have a big stack of reviews, and I'm not going to read through all of them, but just a few comments here would be a resident saying, I live in the Parker building downtown.

I grew up in Davenport, graduating from Central.

The trains never used to be this loud.

It was a cultural addition to our city that added flavor for being downtown.

It is now a nightmare that makes sleeping a challenge.

Day or night, train operators blast the horn in such a way that makes it feel like they're deliberately trying to aggravate people downtown.

I admit that's harsh.

Um it wakes me up day or night.

I can hear it through noise canceling headphones.

It drowns out any festivities we have going on downtown.

I also work at the hotel Black Hawk, and we get complaints about the train noise daily.

Guests have opted to stay at other hotels in a desperate attempt to get a good night's sleep while in town for work.

This isn't just annoying for people who live in downtown, it's affecting how business travelers view our area and directly affecting the businesses we get into the area.

Uh from hotel guests, somebody said the one downside was I could hear the train at night, and it woke me up a few times.

Another person was more blunt, and they said the proximity of the train noise was a definite negative.

Three trains woke me up from 11 p.m.

to 6:30 a.m.

So that's somebody saying that right now, but think going into the future with the projections showing from 2023 to 2027.

We were going to triple train traffic.

Well, uh, imagine what it would be like just another year from now.

That's the way I look at it.

So clearly, there's a lot of people that are individually impacted by by this.

Um, and you know, those were just reviews from people.

But I can back this up with some financials as well.

Something that was a little staggering was uh since the merger in 2023, both our hotels saw in just one year going from 23 to 24, 250 K in room revenue loss.

And so far this year, just the first six months of this year, we've seen at both our properties another 250k loss in room revenue compared to last year.

And so, yes, that's bad for us, but that's also bad for a lot of other businesses downtown.

A lot of businesses have been closing shop and leaving downtown, and of course, we have to account for other factors here, such as new hotels going up outside of downtown Davenport, which are drawing people away.

But um, I I think here one more thing I really want to just note on here is I've come to an understanding that people in this council are concerned about yes, the upfront costs, which are largely covered and taken care of, but the long-term maintenance costs.

Um we we established at the presentation at the beginning of this item that there was going to say the $50,000 as a whole, five thousand dollars per crossing times eight crossings, nine crossings.

We come up to say $50,000 in costs every year for maintenance, right?

Um so that is a cost, I admit that.

But we also need to look at studies that are showing how property value is being impacted negatively due to the high decibels of train noise.

There's been many rigorous academic studies that have been taking place, say in Memphis, Tennessee, which saw that residential properties nearby train tracks that had decibels of just 65.

That's 65, and that's lower than the minimum decibel amount for uh the train horns that are passing through here in Davenport.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Anyone you sir?

I'll let you know when the public is going to be to the end.

Not right now, no, sir.

Unless you'd like to talk on this issue.

Okay, let me know what I'm going.

Yes, sir.

I will.

Okay.

Uh will an older person please move this resolution.

So move motion and second.

Any discussion with council folks?

Alder woman brookholder.

Thank you.

I still have concerns on the crossings.

Uh I think it's fantastic that we're we're going to upgrade um what's currently there.

However, when seeing the diagrams on the screen, I've looked at them when they were provided to council previously.

Um the pedestrian area.

That's not gonna be gated or protected.

So we've got the River Bandits games, we've got the farmers market, we're building an a new park where kids are going to be.

And yes, we're going to have the bridge that goes over the tracks.

However, how many times do you see kids with headphones on their ears not paying attention on their phone?

Safety first.

Safety for our citizens is number one.

I'm all for the the upgrading.

I'm all for making that safer.

But in my eyes, these are this park alone with the amount of foot traffic that we're going to have below that horn, the safety for our children and for our citizens has to be number one.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Alderman Keller.

Thank you very much.

Alder Woman Burkard, I want to touch on that.

Not only headphones, what about the folks that are here in impaired?

So I was thinking about so I was just thinking about things of that nature.

But Clay, I have a question for you.

When you said the eight workers, is that new positions?

Or I I was just trying to zap down notes when you were zooming through your presentation.

So I just was asking questions about the the eight workers that you brought up, and can I ask clarification?

We say eight workers.

Didn't you say eight eight something about eight working?

I don't know.

I was the so I apologize if I wasn't if I wasn't clear.

So the the eight is construction, it's the eight agreements that are in front of you today.

Yes.

So the maintenance that we're talking about down the road, who takes care of that?

So for any so is sorry.

No, I apologize for jumping in.

Um, so it's broken up into two sections.

One, it's within um the devices that are controlled by the city.

So this is the medians in this case we're we're building one, so it's the medium on Marquette to ensure that it's remains in compliance.

Uh you know, for instance, someone doesn't take out the median and it's no longer uh functional.

Um also is all of the signage um within the entire corridor.

So this is the this is ensuring that there's proper signage that you know have already approved that follow the the manual of uniform traffic control devices, which is what governs us.

Um so and and we just ensure that those um signage is maintained throughout the quarter.

That is the city's responsibility.

Um the everything within this like CP infrastructure, so the gate arms, the closures, all the like the sounds and everything that are associated with those, they will inspect those.

Um, they will maintain those, but um the payment for those will come from the city, but it is their responsibility to inspect and maintain.

Okay, so I'll give you a scenario of did we have I I know I'm being silly, but I'm just my mind.

Um if it's something that they inspect and there's been some kind of damage to the equipment down there at the railroad.

What's the turnaround?

If if we're waiting, are we are we waiting for an inspection?

Or is the city just jump in and we repair because of some kind of damage, some kind of wreck, some kind of you know what I'm saying?

Um I would say, and and I'll look over here, make sure if I'm not saying speaking incorrectly.

Um, if it's notified that's their infrastructure, um, I don't think we would want to be working on anything involving their circuitry or their electronic that they may have larger implications if something were go wrong.

Um we would notify them immediately.

Um they have a yard um that's down closer to Nahan where they have a switch yard and they have operations teams, um, their engineering, um, so they're they're they're pretty whenever we've had issues, um, they're pretty responsive to that.

I would imagine that they I would imagine have some type of signals or whatever that's sent to them to let them know.

If not, as soon as we find out, we will certainly let them know.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

You good okay.

Yeah, my note.

All right.

Thank you.

Hold on, thank you.

Clay, could you come back up here, please?

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, we're going from five to seven trains to 21 to 20.

Right.

Um, it was roughly correct.

Quick aside.

So it's five to seven at the time of the merger.

Since that time, they have been gradually increasing.

Um, so I'm gonna pull something off of a previous conversation I had with one of their engineers.

I I think they're I think it's pretty close.

They're probably in that 15 to 17 range now.

Um, but once again, I don't don't quote me.

Run off.

But I I agree with all of the work holder and some of my colleagues up here.

This is about safety.

We need to make these tracks safe.

And by doing this, this is going to make them tracks safer than what they are now, correct?

Correct.

Uh no no offense against the folks that don't like the noise.

But the the train engineer will blow his horn when he feels he needs to blow his horn, correct?

Correct.

That's his authority.

That's within his authority.

If he sees something wrong, he's gonna lay on that horn.

So there's no so this is all added safety, right?

That's how we view it.

Um, I would say in studies that we have looked at, um, it can range anywhere between 40 and 70 percent noise reduction.

It's all site specific.

If we have an active um down, uh whether it's downtown, it's in the East Village, it's it's on the from further west side near Marquette.

There's something there.

I mean, we we could have we could be closer to the 40 percent than the higher percent, but it's that's the added benefit in addition to the physical crossing.

So we talk about safety.

Correct.

These crossings are gonna make the intersections safer, correct?

Yes, and the engineer has the opportunity option, whatever, to blow his horn when he feels he needs to.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, go ahead.

Um, so if I'm if I'm right on this, and I maybe I'm wrong.

What are we what are we losing?

I mean, we're gaining public safety, correct?

Yes.

What what are we losing on this?

We're not we're not losing anything.

You can still blow your train horn, correct?

Correct.

Just like you do know.

You're adding to public safety with the crossings.

And liability-wise, between the railroad and the city of Davenport, that doesn't change.

Is that correct?

So on what we have current to when this is installed.

So I'll defer uh to legal for any.

There you go.

Perfect.

Thank you, Mr.

Huth.

So it's so as far as liability goes, it's always gonna be a fact-specific analysis.

Um, I I can't tell you, yes, no, I what I can tell you is we have to look at the facts.

If it was our infrastructure that causes the issue, meaning our like at Marquette, if the median that we build is somehow deficient, then we have liability, but we'd have that liability whether there's a quiet zone there or not, if we built that median.

That that is our infrastructure.

So it's it's there's there's nothing changed here.

Uh outside of outside of adding to public safety.

As long as we are continuing to maintain and fund that maintenance, we are in a good legal position to defend any cases that would come from accidents on the track.

Okay, that's what I was looking for.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I do have a question for Clay.

Um Clay, if this were to pass this evening, uh, what is the the schedule for the implementation of the quiet zones?

So where we're currently at, because we have we have federal grants involved, um, which I believe which I believe is actually a good thing because we actually we were walking through the federal process with the FRA on this.

Um so the way they do things is a little different than what we typically do with US DOT and Federal Highway Administration.

Um so currently, right now we have a preliminary engineering um plan that's been approved.

That's both our stuff and CPKC stuff.

Um what would be happening if this is city council approves it?

Um this will initiate final design.

We now have a grant agreement with them.

So we would initiate final design.

Um that will take probably anywhere between two and four months.

Um, we'll submit that to the the FRA.

They will review the plan and talking with the engineers at CPKC, don't see really anything changing at all with what's been proposed.

I know for us, we don't feel like anything's gonna be um changed um at all.

But we'll basically get that second blessing and final blessing.

And without having that final approval, you can't move into construction.

So I think that's a good check and balance to ensure that what we're having currently what we're showing is in alignment with the FRA's um regulations and their um approvals.

We're gonna ensure right before we go into construction, we'll do the same.

So I imagine once that happens, we'll see construction happening in the spring and early summer um as we move forward, hopefully to complete be completed by late summer, and then we'll initiate the actual um what happens next is inspection and review um by the FRA.

Probably the Iowa Department of Transportation's rail division will come in, which is once again a good check and balance to make sure everything is has been done in accordance with their plan, and then we'll move forward with us trying to establish the quiet zone.

Okay.

I had given dates, but I'm I'm I'm yeah, great be the end of next year um to have everything up.

If things go well, construction can happen in 26, and then once construction is complete, then you can uh start the process to officially have quiet zones.

Okay, thank you.

Um so I just had a few comments.

So, you know, quiet zones have have been something that had that have been a request for a long time, even prior to me being on the city council.

And really the the biggest issue has always been how do you fund them?

And there has always been an unwillingness to spend the the three to four million dollars out of the capital budget because we want those money that those capital dollars going to uh new roads, new sewers, uh, et cetera.

So the the biggest uh impediment to getting quiet zones done is getting grants to to build them.

And so we have the grants, right?

The that these quiet zones are being paid for uh by grants, not through our capital dollars.

So that is good, and I think ultimately that's uh you know the only reason we're able to get here.

Um I believe uh if we implement these quiet zones, the quality of life across the riverfront is going to improve.

And I also think the safety at every intersection along the riverfront is going to improve, and those are two big wins.

Uh this is a long time coming, and I hope that uh we will get this across the finish line and get quiet zones in Davenport in 2026.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else first time?

All right, all the men rick done.

Just curious what happens if we don't pass this.

Um in thinking it through, um, I believe unless something drastically changes, um, it would we'd have to wait before bringing this back in front of the council per normal rules.

Um, I'd say we would we would lose out on all the federal funding um for the FRA.

Um, we would lose out to a portion of our destination Iowa grant, which was set aside for this particular purpose.

Um, I would say anecdotally, and I can't speak for other agencies specifically, but I can say offhand that will probably ruin most chances uh going back and getting these federal dollars.

So let's say um if a council two years from now, five years from now, ten years from now, is interested in this and then wants to go out and get funding to help implement um these improvements.

I would imagine that these um resources would not be available um to the city.

Once again, I can't make a comment for the FRA, but I mean I would assume that uh that would probably be very difficult um to do so, which means funding it would be coming out of the city's capital program.

Those are assumptions, but I think they're pretty fair ones.

Yep.

Thank you.

Okay.

All the moment.

Sorry, thank you.

I just I'll be brief, but I just I I want to say something here shortly.

Uh thank you so much for that presentation.

I I asked you specifically uh after last week's meeting if you could throw something together.

You I think you already had an idea of what to do anyway, and that was extremely detailed.

And I am numbers and data driven, and to me that seems like common sense.

And so I don't have any questions for you, actually.

So um, but I don't know about anyone else.

But I I do just want to briefly state that it appears from last week and this week, I'm hearing that the folks that are in opposition and the folks that are for this both have safety in mind.

It's evident that both parties, safety is the most important thing, whether whether you're for the for this or not for it, everybody has the same goal in mind.

But it seems to be controversial because you know the folks that are in opposition think this is not safe, and the folks that are for it say this is even more safe.

So I to me personally, after seeing the the data that was presented to us, um, and I've actually looked up some studies on my own uh because I have a computer at my home and I know how to use the worldwide web, and uh there is a lot of data out there that shows that these safety zones do work, these quiet zones work.

And I uh did get a chance to speak with one of my employees that works in the East Village.

She's there a lot more than I am.

I know last week I mentioned I owned a property down there, and it didn't bother me any, but she says it does bother her, and it does bother the tourists that come in.

They are coming in off the channel cat, they're visiting from the cruises, and a lot of feedback she's received over the years in the three or four years we've been in the East Village is wow, those are so loud.

Uh how often do they go off, or is there ever a day where they don't run?

So um after all of that, and I know last week I mentioned I had my concerns by uh Mr.

Merritt, thank you for addressing those concerns, and I just want to be very, very clear.

I think the most important thing for us all to remember is we all want the same thing, and that is safety.

We just have to figure out how to agree that which way is safer.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Sorry, real quick.

So my only concern is the horns.

Um the engineer has every right at any time at their discretion.

Is there any way to only put a time limit on quiet, like on the quiet zones, like emergency if there are kids present or there's a function going on, horns blow them all every intersection?

I'm not sure.

Um, if that would be so the quiet zone works in the sense of a corridor, and so um they like to be able to know that, for instance, if is it okay to run the quiet zone if you're in the East Village and the trains coming down, and if you get the downtown, that's where we're at.

Um, and if you hit that one, are you sounding there but not sounding somewhere else?

I can look into it.

We can I mean we can make comments and we can even talk to CP and let them know if that's um a concern of hey, we're even though we're instituting this, um, safety is our forefront uh is the forefront of our of our thoughts.

Please tell them if they feel like that they need to do so for whatever reasons they need to do so, please do it.

You know, we're not going to be complaining if you know we have festivals and stuff down.

Uh I think it's the expectation that when we have those that they will be blowing their horns.

Okay.

Yep.

And like I said, the studies we've seen show that it doesn't eliminate, it doesn't 100% eliminate horns whatsoever, that it it eliminates a fairly decent amount, but that is site-specific.

So we ours, I would consider our riverfront to be more active probably than most or most um places that have them.

So there's expectation that you're probably gonna hear them more often than not.

You're probably gonna get the benefit if you're talking noise reduction.

It's probably gonna be at night, is more than likely.

So the people um, and I provide sorry, I had some numbers back there of um within a quarter of a mile to a mile, the number of residents and commercial um properties that were then range of this, they'll probably see the greatest benefit from a noise during you know the evening when there are very, very few people out.

Um, you know, most of our riverfronts consist consist of parks.

Parks are in theory closed, you know, in dark.

So you'll probably see the less number of people.

It's probably when you'll see the um horns not people in the most.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, I'll just make a few comments, and Mr.

Merritt and Miss Gleason, correct me if I'm wrong.

So we started this conversation legitimately when this merger came to our attention in December of 22.

We had a monthly meeting with the Surface Transportation Board video conference for a year.

Discussing what we called at the time the the base of the tree.

Um the roots were everything else in the CP merger would come in Davenport and then the top of the tree would go everywhere else to Chicago and to Canada and everywhere.

And the focus was the safety of the base of the tree, which is the one rail on the downtown, and we talked to Service Transportation Board staff again, mostly NCP every month for a year.

We then went out multiple times and talked with the FHRA and the Department of Transportation at the federal level, emphasizing uh and working with them to ensure the safe that they understood that the paramount thing was safety, and that we wanted to ensure that we work together to make sure all the I's are dotted and T's are crossed, and that was quite the effort, and I applaud you got you for doing that.

I was happy to be there, but your efforts were um very well noted by all the federal folks to include the Department of Transportation Secretary who made comments to me.

Um we have worked this long time and at every level, both at the state level, the Department of Transportation, the federal level Department of Transportation to include their senior staff, the FHRA, and everyone else, their senior staff in their meetings in their boardrooms discussing this with the primary focus of making sure we're safe and the merger would have the least impact upon the citizens both in the safety with crowds.

How many times did we discuss with them the crowds at the baseball game, the crowds at on uh Centennial Park, the crowds at the new potential venture of the new destination?

All of that was discussed to ensure with them that they would ensure to us that safety was paramount and they would make sure that we did the right thing.

That fair?

Okay, so I'll just say to everybody.

Um I appreciate this conversation that safety is paramount, and we agree with all of it.

Um, but I think this these things will add to that.

So with that, Mr.

Krupp, please call the rule for approval of this resolution.

Jopton, yes, Newton, yes, T Dunn, yes, Grip?

Yes, Burkhler.

Yes, Kelly.

Yes.

I'm sorry, did you say yes?

Thank you.

R done.

Yes.

McGuinness.

Yes.

Lynch, yes, and Reinart.

Yes.

10 yes, Your Honor.

Very good.

The resolution's approved.

So now I'm gonna pause.

It is 7.17 at 727, 10 minutes.

We will come back for a break because we have two more items that I assume will have some discussion.

So 10 minute break, pause.

Please, everybody, council, be back at 727.

All right, if everybody will start gathering back, we have one minute.

That's what I wanted to say.

Now I won't go down there and bag him.

I won't be keeping his position because he had to be times for here.

You know, that's what I want to know.

I'm sorry, I don't know about you.

All right, folks.

Please take your seats.

And I'm glad he was able to come down there and see when I got these one goal.

Twenty seconds.

Okay, we go there.

Okay, we're gonna start.

Okay.

Number three uh is a resolution adopting the rules of order for the Denport City Council.

Is there anybody I'm sorry?

Is there any public with comments?

Public with comment concerning this item, sir, rules of order.

Paul Oscans third ward city of Davenport.

You all know how I feel about that.

I've been extremely vocal.

But listening to you people again, with all the due diligence you do on everything else, talking about the pro and con and listening to safety and all the aspects of it.

Why didn't you do that before you took the time away anyway?

Why didn't you ask?

Why didn't you talk about it?

You didn't want to.

Sole reason it was done was to violate our rights and implement censorship because you didn't like what you caused what staff did or administration or whatever.

Because you didn't like what you caused.

What staff did or administration or whatever?

Somebody failed, an accident happened, everybody got angry, interrupted down here, so you quieted everybody.

That's what you did.

And that was wrong, and I've been very, very vocal about that.

I will say this.

I think most people know who at least battled to give us some time back.

And I'm I'm grateful to those people that have brought it up and putting it back out here.

I would like it to see, I would still like to see it at limited, but at least some of you are working and listening to us.

And last week there was a discussion on a possible amendment that you can respond.

That would be better yet.

Maybe there doesn't need to be a big dialogue here, but if you respond.

At least we know you're listening.

Instead of sometimes just sitting there, and things are said, sometimes in anger, sometimes legitimately, but a basic response to me would show at least you're listening.

And that's what a lot of people all over the city that I've already went into.

That's their problem.

And I've said that.

No one listens, no one cares, nobody helps me.

But before you took that time away, you should have you should have all thought about it.

And it should have been stopped immediately.

Instead of being allowed to go on for a year.

But again, I want to thank the people that brought it back.

At least we know someone's listening.

And as far as the amendment, I did like that last week.

Again, at least it's gonna show some of us that you are listening and you care.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Please.

The Wayne Simon's third ward.

Well, that's why I stopped coming for meetings because I come up with public comment.

No answers.

Everybody sits and looks at their phone, does whatever.

But we all voted you in.

You know, we come here to listen to what you guys gotta say too.

But that's why I stopped coming, because I never got an answer for nothing.

I had problems in the West End.

I had to call six people to get something done.

I got it done, and I appreciate the people that helped me out along the way.

But you know, we never get an answer here.

You know, we spend three hours a night in here with you guys.

You guys are all paid to be here.

I'm not.

Our citizens are not, and we're one paying it.

I think I paid $1,850 property tax.

I live in the West End.

But you know, that's why I stopped coming, because you never get an answer for what you need unless you make six extra phone calls all day long to get something done.

Every one of you look mad.

Anybody smile?

I mean, what's three minutes?

What's five minutes?

Commercial on TV.

Okay, you're not gonna make it home by 10 o'clock?

That's life.

We're all up before later than that.

That's what I stopped coming.

Because three minutes is nothing.

Is that how much you care about the people that live in your city?

That's the sad part about it.

You know, without vote without it without our votes, or these votes, or everybody's votes, you wouldn't be here.

And that's the sad part.

And why get mad at you or why you get mad at us?

You know, you're the mayor.

I understand.

You're the council.

I understand.

You guys are elected officials.

Guess you can do what you want, but we never get an answer.

Unless you got to go seven phone calls to try to get an answer and hope someone calls you back.

And that's the sad part.

What's three minutes?

Ten breaths?

A walk across the street?

What's five minutes?

Ain't we worth it?

Because without us, you ain't there.

Thank you.

Thank you, anyone else.

Case Alderman, please move this resolution.

Motion second.

Okay, any discussion from council folks.

I say Alder Woman Newton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, at last week's meeting, I made it clear to my colleagues that I would be bringing forth several amendments.

Um, I had gone through the proposal and made some notes, I'm not memorandum, but short-term.

Short uh shorthand notes, and those were provided to council.

Uh subsequent Alderman Jokden, one of the members of the committee reached out.

We were able to meet, and I was given the opportunity to kind of explain my notes further, because they were again shorthand notes, and we kind of went through some changes prior to making an amendment.

Um, I think those are in front of you.

So if you have that in front, so you know what you're looking at.

One of it is my notes, that's the one that has all the pretty highlights.

And then there's one, a new version of the rules that contains the changes in blue that was drafted by our legal counsel.

I think it would make sense after discussion to do one amendment to change all of these at once, unless there's any opposition, and I'll wait to make that motion once everyone else is uh given the opportunity to speak.

But aside from that motion, I have two separate motions.

The first one has to do with the time limits.

Um, the time limits for people to speak meeting during public with business currently sits at three minutes in the council rules.

I will motion to amend the city of Davenport rules of order, rule 9b 12 and at 9 C 15 from three minutes to five minutes.

Do I have a second?

Since there's a second.

Okay.

So there's a first there's an amendment.

So for changing from three to five, there's a second.

Any discussion on that amendment.

Do you have it for that or do you have it for something else?

For something.

Okay.

Any discussion with that amendment.

Okay, very good.

Mr.

Krupp, please call the roll on that amendment uh request.

Motion second to go from three to five.

Right art?

Yes.

Newton.

Yes.

Burke Holder?

Yes.

T Done?

Definitely.

McGuinness.

Lynch?

Yes.

Rdan?

Yes.

Job Jen?

Yes.

Grip?

Yes.

Kelly.

Hello.

Yes.

That's 10 years, Your Honor.

Very good.

That amendment passes.

Do you have other questions?

Yes, I do.

The other amendment I have.

Again, not excluding the one that I'll do at the end, or maybe one of my colleagues wants to do with all to amend all the rules as we have received from our corporate council would be one to make essentially add a provision.

I brought this up last week.

The way that our agenda is currently set after we have public with business, there's no opportunity for council to ever make any final comments.

Um or that previous colleagues had mentioned when we had management update or workshops on this matter.

But what I am requesting is is just the ability there in if any of us wanted to be able to make some make something.

So adding a provision where we could have final comments would allow us to, if we wanted to, to make any final statement.

Afterwards, many constituents were upset, rightfully so.

And I wish I would have had the opportunity to say I'm, you know, I can't speak for the city or for any other person sitting up here, but for me, I that's horrible.

It should have been acknowledged.

And I give that as as one example.

I could sit up here with so many other examples.

So I will be making the a motion to add basically a final comment from count mayor and council.

I motion to amend the city of Davenport rules of order to include final comments from mayor and council following the public with business currently seen at 9B12 and a 9C15.

Do I have a second?

Okay, there's a motion, second.

And I'll just ask would you like a statement on the agenda to just say that kind of like a management?

Or final comments from mayor and council.

Like just a statement on the agenda to resume, so I always know to go to that.

Is that good?

You got that there, mayor.

Okay, everybody got that.

So we'll put a statement on there like we have it management where I go to council perfine.

Okay.

Is there any comments on the amendment?

Alderman Joktion.

I have a comment, Your Honor.

I'll get to you.

I call hold up.

Go ahead, Alderman Jokin, then all the room McGuinness will come to you.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um the, you know, Alderman Newton and I spoke last night.

Um, the example for what she gives, I think is a perfect reason to have this.

Um I still disagree with having some sort of kind of final comments or opportunity for the council to talk towards the end.

Um the reason being is I I think there that opens a box for something negative to occur when maybe emotions might be high.

Right.

One of the things our committee learned in going through this process when we are trying to come up with the rules of the quorum is once the privilege to speak is given, then we have the right to say pretty much damn well whatever we want, right?

That's when the first amendment kicks in, and I'll let corporate counsel Huff uh correct me if my interpretation of I don't know how many hours we spoke on this um came through.

And so uh I just fear that given the opportunity, right?

If we have the opportunity to talk and we take it because we're given that privilege, then things could go south quickly when there's a possibility for there to be higher emotions.

Again, like I mentioned the Alderwoman Newton last night.

I would rather see uh the mayor, the presiding officer at that meeting prior to public with comments, kind of expand upon the message sent to the public.

Um instead of just saying this is a time for you to speak, we just listen, you know.

Hey, we're we're something more to the effects of we're listening to you.

We would encourage you if you have concerns to stay after the meeting.

The council is going to make efforts, right?

And this is where we have to band together, make efforts to then after the meeting is adjourned to reach out to these people.

Same with staff, and staff are here, right?

To then go have a go have a conversation.

I think that's a much better practice than providing council the privilege to speak, and so therefore I will be voting no to this amendment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um Alderman Reinhardt.

I agree that it could get out of hand, but I also feel that as the gentleman that came up here earlier this evening said he got no direction, didn't have an opportunity, had to call six people.

I would love to have the opportunity for one direct dialogue that I could at least put him in contact with the individuals that he needs to contact from staff on something that he's got a problem with.

He should not have to go through six different people to get an answer and probably have to wait a week or two before somebody gets back to them.

At least I can eliminate all the wasted time trying to find the correct person.

I can provide them with one comment that would say you need to talk to the chief of police, or you need to talk to Rich Oswald, or you need to talk to somebody from um public works.

I think I can do that without losing my temper.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yep, uh, thank you.

I just uh I'm uh along the same lines as Alderman Jokin.

So I think the the intentions of uh this motion are good, and I understand why you you might want to do it, I think in practice.

Um we've seen how this plays out, and this used to play out right here in uh council chambers uh decades ago, where uh oftentimes it would end with uh um you know arguments between the public and uh the mayor or certain elected officials, and I just think at the end of the meeting um we don't need to engage in the public back and forth.

Um we need to go talk to people who um we need to talk to, um, but we don't need to to do it with uh with the microphone.

And we've just seen what happens.

So um under understand the intent.

I think it's a good intent.

I think in practice uh it's going to create more issues uh than it solves.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Rick Dog.

I apologize.

Out of order.

My eyes, I didn't put my glasses on.

Alderwoman Lynch.

Thank you.

I um just want to make a couple comments on this.

I can see both sides as well.

I know the intention is good.

Um, I too felt that way when I started this this term.

I was confused as to why I could not respond.

I I felt the frustration and the confusion and the anger from my constituents as they would stand at the podium asking questions and looking at us blankly and wondering why we're not responding to them.

I think a vast majority of that was a lot of people don't understand how these meetings work.

So that that lack of understanding obviously creates frustrations.

And I was also angry and frustrated.

Like if someone has an issue that's specific to that ward, then that just that older person responds and says, Hey, I this is acknowledged, I will I will reach out to so and so and I'll follow up with you by tomorrow or by next week or something of that nature.

Because I do also see on the flip side, um, you know, I could I could very easily see when emotions are high, um, constituents being angry and saying, Well, why do you get the last word?

So now here we are, we're in a position of power, we're elected officials.

The perception is um that we we can just do whatever we want and we sit in some ivory tower, which we don't, and we cannot.

Um, but when that perception is there, and it certainly is, I am concerned of of if there is an older person that does decide to exercise that right and have a a final comment, and and we can't control what each other person says up here or how they feel.

And we are just human.

So I could very easily see at some point in time, and I I certainly hope it doesn't happen because I will vote for this because I think that this is what our our constituents are asking for, and we hear you, and let's let's try again, right?

But with that being said, let's just please remember, you know, this isn't a a last word type situation, and I certainly hope I don't hear that moving forward.

So I hope this uh this works out well and if if it passes this evening, I I just hope it's all positivity.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Alderman Kelly.

Thank you.

But you were gonna go to McGuinness after jokes and so if McGuinness wants to jump in there.

I can wait.

McGuinness.

I apologize to everyone.

Alder Woman McGuinness.

That's okay.

It doesn't matter where I go, but uh which time order I go in.

Um I um the idea I understand the idea of this.

I I don't understand the operation of it.

And that's why I'm concerned about it.

And I and at this point, it's difficult for me to support.

Here are a couple of reasons.

Um there are no um, there are no uh we're not putting it, we we took we're putting time limits on our we're putting time limit limits on our public, but we don't put time limits on ourselves.

So if we're allowed to have final comments and there are no limit time limits, I think we should probably have time limits.

Um how does it work?

I understand how it works.

Does if someone gets up and speak, then then is does uh does an older person then respond, or do we wait till we spawn if there's a response until every everybody says spoken, and then do we have to bring the person up now being practical and say, well, please explain, tell me a little bit more about your problem.

Person might stand up and we can't answer their question.

Um and so it I I guess that's I don't understand how it works mechanically.

If we're really trying to help people, um it feels like um, and I hope people wouldn't use this to grandstand, um, but that's possible as well, or retaliate against something that's been said.

Um if someone gets up and is angry and says something and an alderman doesn't respond, is that or you know, is that a bad thing?

I so sometimes people are standing up and they're not answer asking for solutions to problems.

There's expressing concerns, but it's not it's not the how can I help you?

Um I know that so I don't know how I don't I think it's a very it could be a very sloppy way to work.

Um there's a couple of suggestions that I have, um, and that is that you know, we could and I know there are nights then we that we have executive sessions.

Um and we always do those after council.

Um so you know, we could if we we could have executive sessions in front of council and council can follow an executive session, and then we could say to people who were there who were here or or there in the chamber, we could say, Hey, we will be here for 15 minutes.

We will be we're here up to 15 minutes after can after we adjourn.

Please come and see us.

I see council people, I see staff running after people at every meeting.

Um I I see it happening all the time.

I see staff running out in the middle of meetings if somebody leaves early.

Um here's another thought.

Why are we waiting for people?

Why are we uh making it so we are we have the last word, and maybe we should say, okay, we'll come into the chamber at 515.

It's not the official start of the meeting, but if you're here with concerns, maybe people can get their concerns dealt with and then they can leave.

You know, we make them sit through an entire meeting.

Um, so uh, you know, I just I don't think it's I don't think it's as thought out as I would like to see it, which is why I'm probably not gonna support it tonight.

Um, I would suggest that we adopt these rules.

Um, this is a complicated thing, I think, to ask for, and I think we could adopt these rules tonight, and then as they are, uh, with the amendment, and then and then and then go back and look at this one thing and the rules, perhaps.

I don't know.

I don't want to go through it again personally, and I've been on this committee, we work very hard.

But I just I don't understand how this works because it has no rules around it, basically.

So that's my concern.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Rick Dunn.

Thank you, Your Honor.

Um, real quick.

I I I agree.

How many times do we sit here and somebody comes up and ask a question?

We just sit here and we look.

And how many times do you want to answer that question or hey, you need to get with the staff person, or hey, wait till after the meeting and I'll talk to you.

But no, we sit here and we look.

And then, yeah, right.

All of them against we do run after after them after the meeting, but sometimes they get out of here first.

So I'm in favor of this, but to be honest, our our c or in comment just needs to be a brief real brief statement of hey, I hear you, or hey, can you stick around after the meeting or something like that?

We don't need to have you know three, four or five minutes of somebody dialoguing about whatever.

If you want to dialogue, you can stick around dialogue with them after the meeting.

But this gives you the opportunity to say, hey, I do hear you.

I will be here after meeting.

Just hang on, and we'll sit down and have a chat.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, go back to people for a second, or for Alderman Kelly.

Thank you.

I shouldn't that move my position in line, I guess.

Um, so here's the problem I have with this.

So it's funny that we're talking about that um there could be an argument or it could be uh dialogue or something.

How many times have you guys said something to us and the people on this panel have snapped out?

And I ain't talking about me.

I'm talking about it's been interesting the time that I've been on this panel that there's been people that have been asked the question, and then when they try to bring staff up, the person kind of takes it to the left, and I'm just sitting there going like, so it's interesting that you guys can remember my words and how I use them, but when you take that left at Albuquerque, it's okay.

So it's interesting to me that we're all adults and we know how to uh govern ourselves.

So the interesting part that if somebody's already in a fire, why would you throw gasoline on them?

So I I would hope that I I keep telling you that everybody up here has a different educational level, but it's like to me that's common sense because I want to act crazy with the questions that I'm not getting answered, but now I'm asking these questions in public.

So you see what I'm saying?

So I I'm not getting crazy, but I'm explaining to you that there's other folks on this panel that say things that they have to remember the words that they use, and I also the the folks to the left.

The words that they use sometimes are offensive to some folks, and it's interesting to me that we're getting stuck on because I don't run.

You ain't seen me run what the whole time I've been here.

And there's times that I've had to go out to people's houses and people's businesses because I missed them at the meeting.

So to me, it would be perfect for me to say, hey, Joyce, do you have a moment after the meeting?

I can and I can talk to you about that.

Hey, Judith, do you have a moment that I could yeah, to you know what I mean?

Because we have enough common sense that if you're heated, I'm not gonna go, girl.

Well, you can sit on down and I'll talk to you with them.

Who does that?

Come on, who does that?

So if we're not giving each other enough credit to say that we can't govern ourselves to sit up here and get help somebody like this gentleman that wants to speak.

I'm not gonna hold you up, sir, because I want to hear what you gotta say.

But I'm just interested in the part that we act like we can't sit here, govern ourselves, and let somebody say something to us because who are we first and foremost?

We did get elected in.

We are not the answer uh the gods.

This we're not Greek.

He ain't uh Zeus.

So I'm just saying, come on, let's be realistic about we can sit down and hold a conversation.

So I hate telling people how I'm gonna vote, but I'm gonna sing and dance and vote this one to a yes, because it makes sense.

It just makes sense that you communicate with the people when they come down to communicate with you.

Thank you.

Alderman Jones again.

Thank you.

Sorry for a second time.

So then I guess I got a procedural question here for maybe our corporate counsel.

And I'm not trying to step on all the women's toes, but if I wanted to propose an amendment to the amendment, i.e.

Could we could we do that?

How do we do that?

Uh oh, I'm sorry.

If the person who made the amendment agrees with it.

Uh yeah, so if the person who made the amendment, she can obviously amend her amendment, uh, or you can move to amend the amended language, and then we would dispose of that first, and then we would go to the actual amendment, whatever form it's in, which is either with the additional amendment or not, and then we go all the way back to the original motion.

So I'm stuck in the make matrix.

You want me to say it or I'm gonna move to amend the amendment to include time limit for council response to no greater than 30 seconds, and only one opportunity to uh speak.

Yes, there's a second.

Second, second okay, okay, okay.

We have multiple seconds.

Okay for council, you're saying for the final comment, then the motion and second.

Is there any discussion on that motion and second to amend the amendment for at the end when we add mayor council comment?

It's for 30 seconds and a one-time event for each person.

Is there any discussion?

I see a lot of numbers here, but is there any discussion on that point?

Yes.

Which one?

Who every okay, Alderman Grip?

I'll assume these guys are talking, wanting to talk on that.

Just on the change.

Thank you.

Again, I like where the the conversation is going and trying to get questions answered for the public.

So, like my question is, and this doesn't preclude it, it would mean that you get 30 seconds.

Um we have a five to five vote that's broken by the mayor, it's contentious.

Everybody um is obviously it's a divided council about it.

Can I use my 30 seconds um to tell everyone how ticked off I am uh of the decision that the council just made?

That that that's a question, right?

Like uh and so that that's kind of the point is you get into these types of things where yes, generally we're very good to each other and can have civil conversations, and then sometimes you you just run into a topic that is controversial and um tensions are high at the end of the meeting.

So that's my question.

If if um it and the reason I'm bringing it up here is if we're if we're making if we're putting constraints on what you can say and how long you get, um, is this the place where we also want to say that that we are not going to relitigate what we've already discussed in the meeting?

Because I I think that is a big one that that could come up is if there's sore feelings about a contentious vote, which we do have from time to time.

Okay, Alderman Joker.

Thank you.

To answer Alderman Kelly, and I think you got the answer.

Yes, this I was I was meeting for us, right?

Our our ability to comment no no longer in 30 seconds and shouldn't say take more than 30 seconds, hey Joyce, let's get together after the meeting, those types of things to your to your point.

Um, and then one time through.

And then I also agree with Alderman Grip's um point that it shouldn't be to relitigate anything.

Um and then I would also think that would be so because people are coming up for public with business on things that aren't on the agenda, right?

If we're replying to that, it shouldn't be on the agenda.

So theoretically, it shouldn't be due to something on the agenda.

However, again, going back to what I said about something we learned is that once we have the privilege to speak, we have the right to say what we want to say, right?

And so I don't know if we need an amendment to the amendment to the amendment.

I'm not going there.

My brain, my brain's about to explode.

Uh I would like to say thank you.

I'll be brief.

Uh, I agree with um, I agree that we should not this definitely this should say um it should say just as we require public and the people there, they can only speak about things that aren't on the agenda.

If we're gonna have this as part of it, then it's council for anything not on the agenda.

I mean, we really need to we need to hold ourselves to that same standard if we're telling the public, okay, we're done with the agenda.

Now other things.

We should have this should be the same thing, I believe.

So I don't know how you write that, but that's why I don't know how you do this tonight.

But in any case, my thoughts.

Thank you.

Thank you, Alderman Kelly.

I'm good.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Alderwoman Lynch.

Thank you.

Um, I that's a lot.

Yes, very good valid points.

I never I would have thought of that.

But um, I do think that at this point we we have an amendment to the amendment.

We're moving toward the right direction, and perhaps we just we vote the way we vote.

If it goes through, it's an experiment.

If it works, great.

Because we can do that, right?

So we we know that if things aren't working, we have the ability to work together as colleagues and as a council and and re revisit, right?

So again, I will still support this.

Um, I I think that Alderman Grip and Job Jin have very, very valid points.

I agree with them, but let's just roll the dice and experiment with it and cross our fingers and hope for the best, I guess.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Anybody else?

Okay, so Brian, call the roll on the amendment to the amendment.

Um whoever made it, Ellen Jones.

There, yep, if you could, because my head's all over the place.

So restating my amendment to the amendment to limit council's response time to no greater than 30 seconds, and with only one opportunity to speak during that comment period.

Very good.

And there was a second.

So Mr.

Krupp, call the rule on that amendment.

Okay.

Ryan.

Yes.

Keller.

Yes.

McGuinness.

Yeah.

Grip.

Yes.

Newton.

Yes.

Lynch.

Yes.

T Dunn.

Yes.

Job Judd.

Yes.

And Burkholder.

Yes.

Ten years.

Very good.

That amendment to the amendment passes now.

Any other discussion on the amendment, which is adding at the end, Mayor and Council comment.

Which will be for 30 seconds, one iteration.

Alderman Grip.

All right.

So I'm just gonna try.

I would make a motion to amend that uh during this time council would refrain from discussing any items that were on that uh meeting's agenda.

There's a there's a motion and second, okay.

Any discussion on that amendment.

Saying none, Mr.

Krupp called the roll on that amendment.

No discussion on anything on the agenda.

Grip.

Yes.

Job Jen?

Yes.

Newton.

Now Lynch.

Yes.

R done.

No.

T Dunn?

No.

McGuinness?

Yeah.

Kelly.

No.

Burke holder?

No.

And Reinhardt.

Yes.

Looks like five yeses and five no's, your honor.

So I'll vote yes.

Thank you.

Okay.

So now we're back to the original amendment, I believe.

Um keep me tracking here.

Um to add to the agenda for Mayor and Council comment with all the amendments.

Any discussion?

Mr.

Krupp, please call the rule.

I'm getting a little lost here, too.

Grip.

Yes.

R done.

Yes.

T Dunn.

Yes.

Kelly.

Yes.

Burkholder.

Yes.

McGinnis.

Yes.

Rein Arts?

Yes.

Lynch.

Yes.

Newton.

Yes.

And Job Jim.

No.

So nine yeses and one no, your honor.

Okay, very good.

That passes.

So okay.

Is there any other amendments?

I see Alderman Jobchen.

Oh.

Okay.

We'll go him and then we'll obviously I'm coming back.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

Sorry, I was gonna make some comments, and then I don't know if Alderwoman and I actually did rock, paper, scissors as who's gonna read all these other ones.

So uh uh I'll let her go there.

But um so I will take blame for the karmatic response back when this committee formed, and I I made the comment of yeah, I think we should be able to get this done pretty quickly, and here we are.

So eggs eggs on my face, I own that.

You know, I think um Alderwoman Burkholder, Alderman Tim Dunn and Alderwoman McGuinness, along with corporate council Huff, we spent many hours on this document.

Um hopefully get things right, you know.

That's what we're trying to do.

You know, people scream for transparency.

Um we want to make sure we get an agenda out to people.

We want to make sure that there's no 11th hour, 11th hour sliding something in or moving things around.

So people know what we do.

I I believe that is transparent government, right?

And then so you know, we we're figuring out all these other um components components of it.

Um, and so you know, I thank everybody for working on that.

I think uh everyone else on this council for your patience and and us finally coming up with this and these different ones, and so I'll throw it out there to Alderwoman Newton.

I will read all the future amendments if you so desire.

Uh I will wait to just make sure there's no other comments first.

So you'll read them and then see if any I'll I'll look for a comment and then we'll you'll make your amendment.

Yeah, if there's no other comments, then I'll go to these.

I'll wait.

Go ahead.

Is there other okay?

Do you want other general comments about this?

Seeing none, go ahead.

Okay, so therefore, I'm gonna make a motion to uh amend the city of Davenport rules of order, and I will read each of these that are on our red-lined redlined copy in front of you.

So starting with rule one, I'd like to amend the sentence that starts within the event of a holiday.

The meeting shall and I want the amendment to be as I as I read here in the event of a holiday.

The meeting shall be your scheduled to the previous business day unless otherwise determined by the city administrator without objection by the city council.

Next is on rule two.

I'm going to amend the section that starts with the sentence.

No new items, and so this will actually now be two sentences.

So first sentence is no new item, no new items may be added to the agenda.

Um may be added after the agenda is set.

Next sentence is changes, comma, i.e.

amendments and additions to the agenda after it is set, mate, comma, made during a meeting, comma, shall require a motion to suspend the rules and approve and approval by three-fourths vote.

Council member council member present.

Council members present, excuse me.

Sorry.

Next, I'm amending to delete rule seven.

Making a motion to uh amend to delete rule seven, thus um renumbering all subsequent rules as noted in the red line.

Um document, then moving on to what would then be rule eight.

Um, which uh again should now read motions to change the agenda and any action items shall be pursuant to rule two next moving on to I believe rule um nine.

Oh excuse me.

I'm amending making a motion to amend rule sorry eight adding section D, which shall read changes to the allotted speaking times must be pursuant to rule 26.

Then um on rule 11, section B to change, enforce the rules of decorum, which shall be posted outside of council chambers to reserve order subject to a majority vote of the council members presence to override any enforcement decision, then all the way to now rule 26 to read an amendment to any of these rules excluding a resolution to produce a new set of rules may be performed at a regular council meeting by motion with a two-third vote of all members upon oral or written notice at a preceding regular council meeting, and then last um, which will now be rule 28.

The most recent edition of Robert's rules of order shall govern any question as to procedure not covered under these rules.

Okay, motion second.

Any discussion?

So I did no one else.

I have a clarification from your eliminating rule seven.

Help me understand.

Moment science pledge of allegiance.

Is that staying or going?

So the previous rule said May, but then below we have our order of our meeting, which includes Pledge of Allegiance.

So we're we're saying that's what we're doing.

We're just doing that got it.

Fair got it.

It was an old seven months carry.

Appreciate the clarification.

Anyone else?

Anyone else on this amendment?

On all these comments that were just made.

I wanted to ask you to read them again.

I'm holding, holding.

Mr.

Krupp, please call the roll.

Right?

Yes.

Lynch, yes.

Burke Holder?

Yes.

R done.

Yes.

Job Jen.

Holy bejesus, yes.

T done.

I can't wait for this.

Yes.

McGinnis.

Hallelujah.

Yeah.

Grip.

Yes.

Kelly.

Don't put that on Z the F.

And Newton.

Yes.

And your honor.

Very good.

Rules of order are approved.

Next item.

Resolution.

I'm sorry, the full now.

I apologize.

That was an amendment.

So now is there any discussion on the full resolution with all of those amendments?

Alderman Rick Dunn.

Thank you, Honor.

I almost thought I missed this one, but I want to thank my colleagues that sat on this, putting this together.

I know it was a lot of dialogue, a lot of tough work.

Um probably a lot more hours than you ever thought it would be, right?

But so I want to say thank you to you folks, and and I want also to say thank you to Alderwoman Newton who's pretty much gone through this with the fine-tooth comb and and uh saved us a lot of maybe changes down the line.

So I just want to thank everybody, and I'm finally glad to see this get done.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Okay, Mr.

Krupp, hold the role on the original rules of order with the amendments, McGuinness.

Yes, Kelly.

T Dunn?

Yes, Newton, yes, Job Jen?

Yes, R done, yes, Grip, yes, Reinart, yes, Lynch, yes, and Burkholder.

Yes, and yes, sir.

Rules of order are approved.

The next item is a resolution adopting rules of decorum for the city council.

Is there any public comment?

Seeing none, I'll know the person, please move that resolution.

Motion and second, any discussion with council members, new there's just one that I uh discuss with Alderman Joker.

So if we turn to page three uh four regarding public comment, and it would be 4.2.

It talks about time limits.

Um it's just a comment.

It's each speaker's time is set by the council rules of order, which are incorporated, and the presiding officer will announce the time limit.

I know we didn't include language in our council rules that reminds the presiding officer, whether that be a chair or mayor, um, but we need to remember that it's our job to remind them as they come up.

But big since we didn't include, I just wanted to make that comment.

It's just a comment.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

So let's make sure that's on the agenda so I don't forget.

Or whoever else is here.

Fair enough.

Okay, any other comments?

All right, Ms.

Krupp calls the rule call the rule on decorum.

Newton, yes.

R Dunn, yes, McGuinness.

Yes, Reinhardt, yes, Job Jinn, yes, Kelly, yes, Burkholder, yes, Lynch, yes, T Dunn, yes, and Grip.

Yes, and yes, is your honor?

Very good.

The next time is there a motion for removal, all items on consent.

So move.

Motion is second.

Mr.

Krupp, please call the uh roll for all items on consent.

I apologize for going too fast.

Are you good?

Okay, okay, please.

T Dunn?

Yes.

Newton, yes, Burkholder, yes, McGuinness.

Yes, Kelly, yes, Grip, yes, Raynard, yes, Job Jen, Lynch, yes, and Ardar.

Yes, and yeses, your honor.

Very good.

The consent's approved.

Next said is there any other ordinances as a shampoo?

There are none for the scene.

Next, is there any public business?

You'll have five minutes.

That gentleman.

Okay, Red Warker, fourth ward.

Thank you.

First of all, the vote on the two-way was void because our our alderman on fourth ward said we did not count.

And as a taxpayer, I believe I do count.

But he said we did not count.

And as far as what Mr.

Matson, the mayor, he said the speed limit was being violated.

Well, if you follow the lights, they were all time that if you followed the speed limit, you could go east to west or west to east.

If you did speed, you'd be hitting red lights.

So I'm sorry, but you're wrong on that.

And I think we ought to replace the public works director.

First of all, on Veterans Boulevard in Eastern, he put a traffic light.

And what I'm talking about, I've checked all this safety stuff through the National Safety Council.

So I'm not talking off the top of my head.

The four-way stop would have been a heck of a lot cheaper than putting a traffic light controller box.

And the electric you're going to pay for.

Four-way stop by the National Safety Council is the safest intersection you can have.

Not a traffic light.

And so he wasted a heck of a lot of money.

Half the damn summer.

And if you're on the west side of Genesis East, that ambulance is going to take a lot longer time to detour around to get to you.

Thank God we got a fire department that's really on the ball.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Anyone, okay.

Next, please.

Please.

Yeah, I'll keep this brief.

Uh Paul Boscans, third board city Davenport.

Um, I don't do this often, but I posted this because I think it's important.

And so forgive the old eyes and the small print.

Okay.

Okay, I'm gonna try to read it without losing my place and fumbling and anyway.

So on so forth.

Here we go.

In the past, I've said we do not solve problems by remaining quiet, we're trying to ignore them.

So here's an issue I believe we need to acknowledge and work to find a solution for the homeless in our city at several of Davenport's council meetings, problems associated with the homeless presence and their actions in Davenport are discussed by citizens throughout our city.

I understand this is a sense of problem as we are dealing with people no one seems to want around, and that is never easy to admit.

The fact remains that they are, excuse me.

The fact remains that they are here, and as housing becomes less affordable, and the rising cost of everything impacts all of us, this segment of people unfortunately will likely grow.

This is a challenge facing cities all over our country.

So what do we do?

I believe our Davenport Council needs to take the initiative and utilizing staff as well as other community organizations and leaders throughout our quad cities in an effort to find answers to this problem.

Have other cities found the solution.

If uh if not, can we devise a workable solution?

Is there a path we can find to help stabilize them and help them rebuild their lives?

I will not judge the homeless.

I have never walked in their shoes.

I'm sure every story they tell is different.

The fact remains that the problems presented, it's excuse me, at City Hall are legitimate, and the situation will worsen for all of us if it continues to be ignored.

Not every challenge has an easy solution, but I believe that by working together, an answer can be found, and I firmly believe we need to try.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Knowledge is power.

I think everyone is quite aware of that phrase.

We hear it all the time, from the time we start school until the time we finish school.

It's in our language.

We can say I know all day long, even when we don't know.

I know.

You can be in the know.

If you know, you know.

That's how important it is.

Knowledge and knowing.

So I wrote down some notes when the meeting first started that I had concerns about concerning knowledge and knowing.

And one of those concerns had to do with the 314 Game Street.

And I wrote down what I believe is the quote that we had considerable internal discussions the last few days.

So they demolished the building on a Tuesday with the city council meeting on a Wednesday, and I don't really understand why it wasn't brought before the council before it was demolished, especially when it seems like the city that'd be us, not necessarily you, because it's not city money, it's taxpayers' money.

And so right now the taxpayers are on the hook for the cost of that.

So it seems like being in the no that you guys would have been aware, and it would have even come before council before it was demolished the way the last building was with the same owner.

So if you look at the phrase knowledge is power, and you look up the other side of that, lack of knowledge would equal weakness.

When I hear people say that they don't have the information they need, that everybody should get the same emails.

That to me is controlling knowledge.

And when you funnel information, restrict information, uh, then you become in the know and nobody else.

And confusion, I honestly believe is a tool of a narcissist and a narcissist personality, that they can control situations through lack of knowledge and or chaos.

And I believe that some of that has happened to our council.

I made comment last week that it seems like the tail is wagging the dog.

And then I find out that they've demolished one of the most historic buildings in the city without public knowledge.

So it seems like the tail is wagging the dog, and I certainly am not in the no, and I feel like some of you are not in the know either.

Therefore, I must question that because that is my nature.

I want to know.

See how much we say that word.

Knowledge is power, you guys.

Make sure you're getting all the information so you can make good decisions.

You can't make good decisions when you don't have all the information.

And it seems like you all have been asked to make decisions without all the information in the past.

And therefore, it is difficult to make a good decision without all the information.

So you can make it easier on everybody.

The tail trying to wag the dog.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next, please.

Marquette and over.

There's a whole west side of Davenport.

And it's falling apart.

I mean, I have two businesses in the West side of Davenport.

I got a pothole out front of my building.

Nine years I've been trying to get them to resurface that road.

No one's come along to do it.

They fill it up.

Then it goes out.

They fill it up, then it goes out.

It's amazing.

That you worry about 53rd Street.

You worry about the east side and east side.

Got a nice hospital over there.

You let them keep building on and building on.

We had an emergency room on the west side.

You know how far it is?

If I'm at 3940 Rockingham Road to get to Genesis East, and if I have an emergency, a long ways.

Why would you let Genesis keep building if they're gonna cut one off to keep building over here?

It's like high V.

They're gone too.

Is High V gonna want to build a new store down the line?

Why couldn't they build a new one down on the West E?

If you get people to put money in something you're letting fall apart because you're worried about the big tax dollars on the east side instead of the west side where we still pay our taxes, the community will get better.

But if you keep taking it away and letting it all fall apart, it's never gonna get better.

It's the sad part about it.

You worry about a two-way street that we had one ways for 40 years.

We have a one-way going up, is that gonna be a two-way again and then a two-way going down?

When's that gonna happen?

Free federal money to fix the streets where we should have already paid to fix the streets.

It's just sad that you're letting one side of the city all fall apart, and whatever happens.

I was driving down Third Street the other day, and I watched a homeless person, I should say, she was taking a crap right in the middle of almost the sidewalk.

Right in the city of Davenport.

Now, if I was from out of town, if I seen that, you think I'd want to come to Davenport.

I live down an alley where I gotta call the alderman three times a month because they're sleeping out there on couches and everything and filling the alley up.

And I drive through it every day.

It's amazing how one side of the city, like don't care about the other side of the city, it's all about that side of the city.

You know, last time I checked, my address is West Third Street, not East Third Street, not 53rd Street.

It's amazing.

How can the money get all put on one side and not nothing put on this side?

You know, it's a sad, sad thing.

A lot of us live on the West Side, but it seems like we don't care.

I mean, there was a restaurant on Rockingham Road that had to get a grant to stay open.

There's only one food option down there, Burger King.

Tasty Freeze next to me is closed.

Because they're trying to sell it.

They can't get their money.

You know, it's sad.

You let High V do whatever they want to do, you let Genesis do because they're big up operators.

They're the big money.

You forget about us small people.

That every day we get up and we some support the community.

And that's the sad part.

I mean, if Mark cuts cut off, well then cut it off and make it Rockingham Village or make it West West End Davenport.

Make let it have our own village.

Because obviously no one cares.

No one cares.

If you cared, we would figure out how we can fix these problems in the West End that keep happening.

You know?

No one cares in the West End.

They can't even run against the Alderman.

The Alderman has no contest for the last five years.

No one wants to, because they don't want to be in that part of the city.

I love that part of the city.

That's where I grew up.

It's the sad part about it is all the money goes there and up there because we're looking for tax dollars.

You let Amazon come in, you let Oscar Meyer move, you let all these big companies go up there, all the school money goes to the taxes in North Scott.

Didn't even go to Davenport.

Then it sucks all the pool of the small businesses because we can't find no help.

Family restaurant, Davenport, can't even stay open after four o'clock.

Hickory Gardens can't stay open.

They have no help because the big company sucked all the pool of the workers up.

And how's that help the community?

It really don't.

Because Jeff Basil's the only one getting rich.

You know, yeah, it gives us jobs, gives us this, but the local people that actually support the community can't run their businesses correctly because they have no help.

And you know how hard it is to make a phone call six times when you gotta try to get an answer for something.

I'm glad that you get a good comment.

It's the best thing you guys did in a long time.

Because it's like talking to a wall.

I might as well just go look in the mirror and talk to myself.

And everybody else feels by the same way.

You know?

Yeah, and everything's not gonna be perfect.

And I like the trial basis.

That was awesome.

You know, because if you don't ever try, how are you ever gonna know?

But the sad part about it is the West Side, no one seems to care about.

And I don't understand that.

Because without Rockingham Village, you wouldn't ever annexed it.

Why'd you annex it a hundred years ago if you didn't want to take care of it?

You know, you let Genesis do whatever they want to do because they got money.

It's all it seems like it's all about the money.

It's like the tax, it's like the train thing.

How much money they give you to have 25 trains more day come in.

Shouldn't be all about the money.

It should be about the people who live here and what we do to pay our taxes.

My taxes went down this year.

I'm grateful.

It didn't go down much, but it went down.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Next, please.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Mayor.

Ronald Forey's up at the wonderful seventh ward.

I brought an issue to you about four weeks ago.

Okay, a little bit's getting done, but nobody's doing nothing really, I don't think.

Number one is I want to thank the city of Moline and I want to thank the Bentendorf PD.

A big thank you, and I appreciate what you did.

My problem is child porn and human trafficking, Mr.

Mayor.

I brought that to your attention four weeks ago at that high school on West 53rd Street.

I contact the detective that's handling the case there.

All I can get out of him is it's above my pay grade.

It's above my pay grade.

Don't you know how busy I am?

No what?

The security guard that gave him a golf cart.

What does he do this morning?

He's cleaning his car out in a trash can.

He's not doing nothing.

Your R.O.

officer.

I asked for him to be removed.

At what time was it this morning?

At 11 10 this morning.

The assistant principal called me and says, we got an issue here.

I says, contact the police department.

Haven't they contacted you?

We talked to the R.O.

officer.

He knows nothing about it.

Could you, Mr.

Mayor, make a phone call to somebody up there and tell them that the police department is investigating it?

This happened like last May, before May last year.

The principal retired.

He said, you know what?

I don't care.

I'm getting out of Dodge.

My response to him was let me put a dog dish outside your doors when you quit running.

You can take a drink of water, Mr.

Mayor.

Is that what we gotta do to you to get your attention?

It's put a dog dish outside your doors so you get into something.

That police department over there.

I asked the sergeant over the special victims unit.

Contact the school.

Tell them what you're doing.

That's above my pay grade.

Whose pay grade is it to protect our children?

Moline police department's doing something, but indoors doing something about it.

I don't hear them saying it's above my pay grade.

The RO officer today.

He didn't even get there to 9:30.

And then he took off at 2 o'clock.

Get him walking the parking lot.

Get him out by the gymnasium where the kids are.

You don't gotta stand at the front door.

Do something, earn your pay if it's if it's not your pay grade.

Apply for a new job.

I hope you make a phone call to one of the assistant principals up there, or to the principal and explain it to them.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Okay, anything, Mr.

Maxheimer?

Okay.

Any?

Uh counsel Alderman Reinhards, 30 seconds, one time.

Yeah, I just want to apologize for speaking out of order.

I was thinking out loud.

Okay, anyone else?

Thank you very much.

Is there a motion to adjourn?

Motion is second.

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Very good.

All up.

Any opposed?

Have a good weekend.