Waters.

Here.

Moore.

Here.

O'Kane.

Here.

Shayner.

Scott.

Here, please stand for a moment of silent prayer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, please.

Pledge allegiance.

One nation.

Underground.

Invisible and justice.

Katie I Colt.

Commendation degrees, whereas Katie Eichold has shown exemplary leadership, commitment, professionalism in the field of public works through her service to the City of Sioux City in the Iowa chapter of American Public Works Association.

APWA.

And whereas Katie was named the recipient of the APWA Iowa Chapter's Young Leader of the Year Award, an honor, recognizing her outstanding contributions of the track chapter to the public works profession.

And whereas Katie's dedication is further demonstrated by her graduation from APWA's prestigious emerging leaders' academy in 2023.

And her consistent leadership is instrumental in the chapter's successful application for the presidential acknowledgement for chapter excellence and honor the chapter has received each of the past four years under her guidance.

And whereas Katie's strong work ethic professionals and ability to manage projects and address citizens' concerns has made her a valuable asset to both the city of Sioux City and the APWA community while demonstrating her potential for continued leadership and service at the chapter and national levels.

Now therefore I Robert E.

Scott, mayor of the city of Sioux City, Iowa, on behalf of City Council do here by commend Katie Eichel for her accomplishments.

Thank you for said this to him.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thanks, Mayor Scott, for reading that whole thing.

I'm sorry it was so long.

Um yeah, I appreciate the board and the combination and um.

I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully make the city better.

All right.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks again.

Nick Davidson for interview for effective fiscal and public policy committee.

Come on up, tell us a little bit about yourself and why you want to serve.

We're a great city.

Um I want to see us grow.

I want to see us become better.

Um that is why I do what I do out there, you know, get involved, and I think being involved in more can help to bring us together better, help us grow.

Um, I feel this committee, especially can help me where I'll be able to learn more about the fiscal policies of the city, and I can help look at it and help the city with these policies.

Good questions.

I got nothing.

No, please.

Yeah.

Any questions from Nick?

Appreciate your application, Nick.

Thank you.

Thank you.

No doubt.

Thanks for your passion.

All right, buddy.

Good luck.

Thank you.

Introduce Tyler Doherty, Explore Sioux Land Executive Director.

Good afternoon, City Manager, City Staff, uh, City Council members.

Thank you for having me.

My name is uh Tyler Doherty.

I'm the executive director for Explore Siouxland.

Have been with the organization since uh early September, and I'm very excited to be here.

So um, I think this is a meet and greet.

I'm happy to answer questions, but wanted to give you a quick background about myself.

So I'm originally from Eastern Iowa, Dubuque, Iowa, I've been in the industry for close to 15 years.

Um, was a college coach and stumbled upon this industry when I migrated back to Dubuque, Iowa.

Uh the position had sports in the title, zero idea what the heck, a convention and visitors visitors bureau was, uh, but fell in love with the industry, and here we are 15 years later, and I'm in Sioux City.

So we have the uh the p privilege to promote this wonderful community to outsiders.

We try to appeal to those who are 50 miles and out, bring them here, have them experience uh everything that we can share with them.

We can do that via leisure travel, marketing sales.

Um that's the fun part of what we do.

Uh we're a young organization, uh just about six years old.

So we've got a lot to accomplish yet, uh, but I'm very excited to tackle that.

So I welcome any questions that you have and thank you again for having me.

You're from Dubuque originally.

Originally, yes.

And and who where did you coach and what'd you coach?

Uh I was uh the head men's and women's track and field coach and assistant basketball coach at Indiana University East, was a NAIA uh Division II affiliate.

Uh did that for two years back in 2010 to 2012.

All right.

Good luck.

Excited to have you.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Good to have you on board.

Thanks.

We'll go to the consent agenda, which is items through three through twelve D.

You can consider those items pass unanimously unless a separate roll call vote is requested by a council member.

Anyone wanting to speak on that item should come up as I read it.

If you want to speak on an item not on the agenda, please come up under citizen concerns.

Remember to always state your name for the record.

I'll move the consent agenda.

Second.

Three is a reading of the October 8th and 13th City Council minutes.

Four is a resolution accepting donations for July through September 2025.

Five is a resolution authorizing an IDOT federal aid agreement for a sub-surface transportation block grant program in connection with the 11th Street Reconstruction Project.

Six is a resolution adopting plans and specs for the annual manhole rehabilitation project.

Seven is a resolution awarding a purchase order to sealer instrument and manufacturing for five Trimble Geo survey units, licenses and warranties.

Eight are actions relating to agreements and contracts.

A is a resolution approving a development and minimum assessment agreement with tri-state real estate development for 615 and 25 Douglas Street and the adjacent alley.

B is a resolution granting a permit to IMO Communications to maintain underground fiver on 28th Street adjacent to 2628th Street through 2805 Rustin Street.

C is a resolution approving amendment number one to the consulting services agreement with McClure Engineering for the Nebraska Street Water Main Replacement Project.

D is a resolution approving amendment number two to the consulting services agreement with McClure Engineering for the 8th Street Reconstruction Project.

E is a resolution approving a three-year subscription agreement with gatekeeper systems for the app 139 web-based software for the airport.

B is a resolution approving change order number three and authorizing payment to subsurfgo for the Gordon Drive Storm Sewer Repair Project.

I need to abstain conflict of interest.

C is a resolution authorizing payment to PR Harris Construction for the South Glass Street Water Main and Pavement Repair Project, replacement project.

D is a resolution approving September fund transfers.

E is a motion approving September total expenses.

10 are actions relating to property.

A is a resolution and biding proposals for the sale of land in the combined Floyd River Urban Renewal and Teton Urban Renewal Area, announcing the intent to accept the proposal of William.

The third in scheduling a hearing, the portions of vacated Adams Avenue and Vacated Lot 7 adjacent to 3298 Floyd Boulevard.

B is a resolution and pro inviting proposals for the sale of land in the Teton Urban Renewal Area, announcing the intent to accept the proposal of Delilah Morales Galvez and Garamo Dimitri Dimitrio and scheduling a public hearing, the vacated portions of lot six, seven, and adjacent to 3308 Floyd Boulevard.

11 are applications for alcohol licenses, 12 or boards commission and committee minutes.

Anyone to be heard on any of those items five or four to zero.

13 is a hearing resolution accepting the proposal of Sky West Airlines for the lease of land in the Donner Park Urban Renewaler and authorizing a lease of property at 2403 Aviation Boulevard.

I'll move that.

Second.

Public hearings now open.

Anyone to be heard?

Seeing none, the hearing is closed.

Presentation by the downtown partners.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Reagan Cody, Director of Downtown Partners.

I will try and make this quick as I understand people in this room are probably not here to see me.

So I will make this quick if you want to put the presentation up on the board.

She's working on that from the back.

Just a moment.

There you go.

Okay.

Um wanted to update you.

We update you quarterly, so I do appreciate your time.

Uh we do have a new board of directors since I've met with you last.

Our president right now is Brianna Eaton with Crawley Huff Law Firm.

Uh Jeff Hanson, you're familiar with McClure Engineering is our vice president, and Nicole Berner is our treasurer.

I would like to thank the board members who are in the room today for their support.

We have some in the back.

So thank you to them for coming today.

Um our financials is where I usually start, just to give you an idea of what we're dealing with.

Our annual budget is 516,400.

Uh you'll see the nice pink and blue lines up there.

You'll see our expenses are above our income.

Uh since COVID, we had some reserves, so each year we plan to spend down pieces of that with different projects.

Um at the bottom there, you'll see how we are detailing out our budget.

40% of what we do is all for downtown projects.

18 and 18 operating and business support.

The rest is for marketing and events in downtown.

Uh those are lower because a lot of what we are able to do comes with partnerships and people helping us do the things we do.

Um, those monies, as I mentioned, being used for the betterment of some beautification efforts in downtown.

The first of which is very popular, is our storefront grants.

This opened in the fall of 2018 and meant for the betterment and enhancement of our storefronts in downtown.

We help with everything from signage, uh, windows, safety and security cameras, lighting, uh, dining, seating outdoors that we do encourage anything with aesthetic upgrades, and in the last couple years we did add sidewalk improvements.

Some of those sidewalks were getting tagged for work and repair.

We try and help the property owners with that as well.

Uh we've helped 80 68 storefronts in the last five years.

Um that has awarded from us 151,000, but overall they're embracing that a little bit more and putting more into the projects.

So the projects themselves have been worth over $630,000 thanks to the storefront enhancements.

The other big project we're going to be doing this March is in partnership with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, the Kind World Foundation, and the support of the City of Sioux City.

We've had several staff members helping kind of identify these areas.

We've got 307 trees in downtown Sioux City.

87 of them right now are either damaged or they're missing a tree in the tree grate.

So our goal with that money is to replace those that can be replaced and concrete over those that cannot, but replace those with planters.

So those areas have been identified and the funding has been identified, so everything's good to go for March planting.

We're trying to get them in in the fall, but unfortunately, things didn't come together in time, so we will be doing them in March in the spring.

Things have been going very well in social media.

Um, over the last year to date, uh, we did January through October for 2024 and 2025.

Impressions, engagements, post click links, everything that you want to see in your reporting is all going up with great numbers this year.

We've seen a lot of positive feedback.

The top post so far of 2025 is when we welcome Pair Former Former Studio, the um Pilates studio downtown.

That required a lot of work on their part, but all do um a beautiful space.

So if you get a chance to view that, I would encourage you to go down there.

The other thing that responded very well on social media is our AI training.

We noticed a lot of businesses and us personally in the office, how we use AI and how we are able to utilize it for getting more work done and better.

So we resourced out with Chatterkick to do some training, and we got sponsorship through Security National Bank and Mark Heinz and his team were able to help us hold two sessions.

Each session had over 50 attendees learning quite a bit about AI and how to use that in the workplace and to better their business to make things more efficient.

So a lot of positive feedback.

So more to come on that.

Just to keep you up to date.

The QR code there will help you stay up to date with what we've got going on.

But downtown for the holidays, the holiday lighted parade, sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, is taking place on Monday, November 24th at 6 15 p.m.

This, in addition to last year, we have an accessible viewing area courtesy of the Sioux City Convention Center, where children who may be overstimulated or unable to actually go to a lot of parades, are able to do so inside and have a sensory area to help them with that.

At three o'clock that day, a lot of downtown businesses open up for kids to do things after school and before the holidays and kind of burn off some energy before they go out and get the candy.

But at the end of the parade, Santa normally lights the tree outside of the museum.

And this year, kids will get to visit him after the parade at the Art Sucks Building, which is at 515 4th Street.

So right down the road, so it's really close to the tree.

Festival of Trees also takes place in the Ho Chunk Center.

And then over the rest of the holiday season, the horse storefront decorating contest, excuse me, is taking place again.

However, we have had a contribution by REMAX experience, so we're upping that to a thousand dollars for the winning storefront, and that will go to a nonprofit of their choice.

So we encourage the public to vote during that time and during the holiday season on which storefronts they prefer, and that thousand dollars will be given to the nonprofit.

New this year and generally new to Siouxland is a place for kids to take their letters to Santa.

We are working with uh State Steel donated some metal for us, and the Career Academy, the Sioux City Community Schools, will be building Santa's mailbox this year for us.

It'll be ready November 1st.

It'll be in the Art Sex building this year for kids to drop off their letters to Santa.

On November 8th and December 6th, they will offer cookie decorating and place to write the letters and things like that for the kids to get involved this holiday.

We will, of course, be giving giving away things for the first 12 days of December for the 12 days of giveaways.

And as always, we encourage everyone to shop small, not only in downtown but in our community.

Um it stays in Sioux Land.

So Small Business Saturday is on the 29th of November.

And that is all I have for you today.

You have any questions?

Appreciate all that all that you do.

Thank you.

Downtown Partners say they're very active and very they've they've done a lot of positive things in the past several years.

So thank you for that.

Just try to keep it up and try to keep the money flow coming in.

That's great that you have partners that will engage in uh different projects with you.

Agreed.

Very grateful.

Thank you.

Yeah, we have a lot of great ones on the on the horizon as well that I'm pretty excited for.

I've always been a big fan of improving our green space or adding different trees and different things that we can downtown to improve the canopy.

And I know that we've struggled whether it's with utilities or otherwise underneath.

Um, so hopefully the way that we're going about it now, and I know you've worked extensively with parks and recreation.

That hopefully we'll be able to improve that because I think it adds to the overall atmosphere of a downtown when you can have some of that green space, not only for the people living there, but also shopping, and so I appreciate that and looking forward to the cycle track and a lot of other ones that are on their way too.

So thanks for all the efforts.

Thank you.

Maintens is key, right?

Thank you.

Hi, my name is Jody Merkel.

Um, I am coming to you as a long-term resident taxpayer.

I'm exhausted.

I'm tired of everything that's been going on in our neighborhood, and I assume that's why we have representation here from the police department.

What began as an isolated disturb or isolated disturbances has escalated into sustained public safety crisis that's now persisted over 18 months.

Despite repeated police involvement, neighborhood reports, and community meetings.

This property is within the school zones of East Middle and Sunnyside Elementary, where countless children used to walk daily, unaware of the dangers that they were passing.

We even have photos of a person from that house walking down to the corner in broad daylight, conducting a drug deal in front of soccer practice at East Middle School.

The homeowner Steven Starks is currently jailed with bonds revoked and facing approximately eight to nine felony charges tied to methamphetamine and fentanyl trafficking, as well as felony weapons charges.

Yet, even with his incarceration, this home remains a revolving door of drug activity, stolen property, and violence.

Most recently, an attempted murder where the suspect is seen on video running through my front yard, just feet away from my children were sleeping.

The suspect was back living at the property within approximately one day.

The victim refused to cooperate, so there was some delay in his arrest.

We as neighbors have shared hundreds of photos of the activity from his residence with the Sioux City Police Department, and they have done everything in their power since July of 2024.

And we are very grateful for everything they've done.

My request is that you consider using the Sioux City Municipal Code 8.8, where a specified crime property means any structure or part of a structure in which activity involving the unauthorized delivery or manufacture of a controlled substance is occurring.

The code goes on to state when the chief of police has a reasonable belief that a structure is being used or maintained in violation of this chapter, he shall notify the owner of record in writing that the structure will be declared a specified crime property.

I personally have inquired about obtaining this designation on at least three different occasions.

In April, I called and spoke asked to speak to Chief Moeller, uh, left a message.

Jeremy McClure called me back.

I asked about this designation, and he said they were working on a plan.

In May, I had a similar conversation with Captain Chris Groves.

In June, a group of us met with Sergeant Yannick and Detective Neely's team at the police station.

Oddly enough, just a few days ago, police chief told another neighbor that he had no idea that what his police officers and detectives had been doing in our neighborhood to try to abate this problem.

Each time I spoke to someone, I've been told that the municipal code is only applicable to rental properties.

This is in direct conflict with the way the language of the code is written.

A quick internet search today showed that our once safe and peaceful neighborhood and block has a higher crime rate than 41% of the similar blocks in Woodbury County and a higher crime rate than 51% of the blocks nationwide.

I'm urging you to all coordinate with city legal services as well as with the police department to bring this public danger to a decisive and permanent rev resolution as soon as possible.

I do have supporting documentation that's an extremely abbreviated timeline with photos of what we've had to deal with for the last 18 months if anybody's interested in having a copy.

Well, thank you.

I can only tell you that maybe I should have known this sooner, but I didn't know it sooner.

And we met last Friday with the chief and the city legal department, the city manager, and uh and uh I guess I would like you guys to give an update, Nicole.

You're looking at an ordinance that will strengthen what actually is the ordinance to make sure we can do what you're proposing.

And if and if that ordinance isn't applicable, I think we need to look at strengthening.

That's what I can have Nicole explained.

So go ahead, you go first, Nicole.

Sure.

There are a couple of different options that we're looking at.

Um, the city is able to write citations for municipal infractions or simple misdemeanors.

So we have the lower level type of crimes, if you will, the things that we're charged with under the state code for enforcing.

Um, so we're looking at what options we do have, whether it's abating a nuisance or declaring a specified crime property.

I will tell you we're also meeting with the county attorney.

I know that you had reached out to Ms.

Burloomis as well.

And so those meetings are taking place to see if there's anything additional in addition to the arrests that the police department has made over the last 18 months or so.

Um, and the police are doing everything they can, but um, the problem is they get out with a very low bail amount and they come right back and they do it again.

And and like I said, he has eight to nine felony charges pending the first of those charges came in December, and he hasn't had a trial for that yet because his case still gets continued.

So, and that's the case with all of them.

The public defenders will file a continuation and they get granted.

So I appreciate it.

Go ahead, Chief.

Thanks.

Well, first of all, I appreciate uh the residents coming.

I was not aware of the extent to which the district officers special investigations detectives had been working on this location.

So after the stabbing occurred, I was actually very gratified to know that they had been as proactive as we can be.

Now, since I think it was September of 23, there have been 30 calls for service to that residence.

Twenty were generated from the residents.

So the majority of the calls for service came from people at that uh or occupying or around that residence that called us.

The rest were neighbors.

But in looking at it, uh officers have developed dealt very strongly with anything where they could take an enforcement action, they did.

In fact, as of about an hour and a half ago, Captain Bertran just relayed to me that two arrests were made in relation to the stabbing.

Even though that was an uncooperative victim, two individuals are arrested, a suspect uh for being uh directly involved in the stabbing, and another for taking action to cover it up.

Uh this is not anything that we take lightly.

Um clearly any issue that impacts a neighborhood is going to be treated as a neighborhood problem at a community policing project.

And that's the way the officers did it.

They embraced it, uh they communicated well.

Um again, uh when the stabbing occurred, I wasn't aware uh of the uh length of time this had been an issue, but again, I was happy to understand that the officers had done exactly what we asked them to do.

They were collaborating, they were communicating, they had a neighborhood meeting at the station to discuss options, what the department would be doing, uh, you know, the limitations of our authority in some of these instances, and as uh the city attorney mentioned, we'll be meeting with the county attorney and city attorney's officials tomorrow to see what our options are as far as specified crime property.

That in general has been utilized uh by this department to deal with renters, not as much as owners.

We've had similar circumstances throughout the city that were a little bit more challenging because somebody that owns a property has more rights uh seemingly than an individual who is just a renter, and you have some more options for dealing with a landlord or renter in those instances.

So hopefully that specified prime property uh ordinance can be used effectively in this case.

But again, uh very proud of the work that the officers are doing.

I think they've been creative.

I think they've been proactive since the stabbing.

Our officers have spent specific time in that neighborhood talking to residents, working to be a visible presence to basically ease everybody's mind that we are there to help them.

I understand there'll probably be some more folks coming tonight to uh address it.

Uh we're certainly here to listen.

Uh brought some members of my command staff that might have a little bit more information on some of these things, and I'm happy to answer questions as they come up.

Okay.

Anyone else to be heard?

On any matter, not just this matter, but if we guess before you go then, Paul, I just wanted to address um, and I didn't catch your name, so I apologize, but I just wanted to at least say to you and to any of the neighbors that are here that this would be extraordinarily frustrating.

And I can't imagine living in a neighborhood having that home, knowing that that was happening, knowing that the police were endlessly there, not only keeping you awake, but also keeping you frightened, you know of what would be happening, and I wouldn't want that to go on in any neighborhood in our community, period.

And I appreciate you acknowledging the work that the police department is doing.

I I do think that they go above and beyond in these situations and try to do and be as creative and use all the mechanisms that they can.

And I appreciate that it's now been at least elevated to hopefully be able to invoke some type of code or at least adapting what we can do to make an enforceable mechanism so that it doesn't continue to happen because if you know that something is a problem and it just is continuing to be that problem because of the setup of that.

I mean, there's only so much you can do besides parking a squad out there 24-7, and I don't think either of us want that.

You know, I mean, we don't want to have our officers doing that, but then again, it's like what how would that make you feel safe in that neighborhood?

And so um, well, ironically, it might make you feel safe for that time being, but that's not a neighborhood that you would want to live in, and so or raise a family in.

And so I appreciate you being here and voicing that and and at least coming here and sharing that.

Um I had not heard extensively um of where we were at with this or what the level it had gotten to, and so I apologize um for my ignorance to that.

I don't think that I missed any emails, but if I had, I I do apologize.

Um, but I'm glad to know the the chief and the city staff are on top of it, and hopefully we can come up with some solutions because no one should have to go through that for that extensive period of time.

So I'm sorry.

Yeah, I I would echo I'm sorry.

I'm sorry if I miss something going on, I guess I apologize.

But uh I had a meeting Friday morning right away.

The staff was very willing to look at different things, and and over the weekend, the young attorney that does a lot of that type of drafting drafted when I just got it.

I haven't even had the chance to open it.

I got it at the meeting.

So we're gonna look into the matter, and and as I told the chief and Nicole, I don't I don't really care if if we can write citations, write citations, and sooner or later we'll catch the attention.

So I I want you to know that we're we don't have an we don't have an iron clad solution today, but I think it's a higher priority today than what it was maybe a couple weeks ago.

So we'd welcome your input.

You can email us on the city council website if you see something you don't think we're addressing correctly.

So okay.

Thank you.

All right, Paul.

I just want to say what we're gonna uh Will Cortez, I'm one of the residents on the block Myers Avenue.

Um you said uh parking a patrol car out there uh would kind of be negative for the neighborhood, but actually I'd be open to it if it chased these people out of here, and I think our neighbors would be too.

Uh, one point from Joey that I want to reiterate is that we have dozens of kids walking through that neighborhood from surrounding uh schools.

Um I think you guys will do your best to find a solution, but I just want to reiterate that point.

Dozens of kids that walk through this neighborhood with drug maniacs is what they are basically what they are, unpredictable.

And these are our kids.

Is that mostly the when the kids are walking?

Is that to and from a bus stop or school?

School from a bus stop from school.

You got elementary schools, middle schools, and high school there.

Um these kids are vulnerable.

And I'm just trying to think like for our police force.

I don't look, we don't have the resources to do that.

I was saying that that would maybe help alleviate some concern.

We probably don't have the resources to be able to do that, but at least if we know if we know the time of day, at least then maybe it can make some people.

Maybe maybe I'm a little bit more of a pronounced presence.

I just don't want any of these kids getting hurt, including my own.

Yeah, and sometimes it's not intended, you know.

I mean, you read stories about that all the time of people in the wrong place at the wrong time, and you don't want we certainly don't want any kids to be in that situation either.

So I just wanted to re-iterate that point.

Thank you.

Thanks, Will.

Thank you.

Uh Chris Groves, Captain Sue City Police uh department, uniform services.

For those that are here, I I will and I've said this to Jody in the conversation.

We we obviously we do have empathy, and I know that doesn't go far.

I we understand that the frustrations you deal with, and again, I'm not minimizing your uh frustrations, but I will add we're frustrated as well.

A lot of what you are dealing with with the revolving door of criminals going in and out of jail, we get frustrated with that as well.

It's not something we want, it's unfortunately things that we have to deal with.

Um we will continue to come there and do what we have to do to deal with the problem.

Um we will get to the bottom of it.

I mean, uh all I can ask you is to continue to call us and and communicate.

I know you have direct phone numbers to some of our SIU members or undercover officers to communicate directly with them, and we will continue to do what we can legally do what we can do.

Yeah, we we talk about the we wish the thing would just go away.

We all wish that, but there are legal boundaries that we have to follow and stay within in order to accomplish that.

Um we did when the when the everything kind of started blew up on social media.

Um we will take some ownership on a little bit.

We didn't put a lot out in the in the media with the first with the stabbing.

Um there wasn't a lot to release other than a bad or a horrific picture, and that we knew that that would add some fear.

Um looking back at it.

Should we have done released it sooner?

Sure, we should have.

Uh we knew we had an uncooperative victim.

We had somebody who wasn't telling us a lot at the time.

Uh it was a phone call, and I don't know exactly where the phone call originally was Jody or not actually got us to the neighborhood of 27th.

When we first found the victim, we didn't know where this even happened.

It was kind of unclear.

Um a phone call came in, at least got us to that neighborhood.

Um, once we got to that neighborhood, things kind of started to fall together.

But uh the victim was uncooperative.

The people had taken off.

We did a make, I think we made an arrest out of the house that morning um for unrelated crimes.

But uh I we did again.

But uh we did again, I started to say when the social media started to blow up, we did have officers go out there at the end of like at the end of the school year of the school time, and I think a lot of people did see those cars, and it was just to hopefully kind of settle some of that.

Is that is that something that we can continue to do every day?

Probably not, but we will do it occasionally.

We will do it just to hopefully show that we are not gonna give up on this neighborhood.

We're not gonna give up on that on that address, and we will do everything we can to get it back to uh a spot where you can feel confident and feel safe.

Uh as Jody knows, my wife grew up two blocks down the street from that, so I know the neighborhood very well.

I it's a it's a great neighborhood, so we will not give up on it, and I'll assure you that we'll do everything we can to help with it.

So just keep communicating with us and we'll do what we can.

Captain.

Anyone else?

Okay.

Paul Koskovich, I uh uh we got our uh we got an email from Renee on Wednesday about the uh Mark's property at uh 2400 Third Street in uh specifically regarding the uh tax uh imbatement that you guys offered us, and I'm just curious.

Uh it appears that you know we're starting to elevate uh the incentive packages that you guys offer.

Uh I followed up immediately with Julie because I was very upset.

Um she told me that she lobbied for the 100% uh abatement, but was not uh apparently some of you guys disagreed, so I'd like to hear why.

I'll tell you why I've never voted for more than 75% tax abatement that I can recall, maybe uh for a large industry outside of the downtown court.

I've been very consistent on that, and I haven't changed.

And Paul, I appreciate you being here, and at least and you can always text me or call me too if you want an explanation, not here, but I'm happy to give it to you.

Because I did talk to Julie at length all the way late at night, early in the morning, just trying to talk through.

I'm somewhat with the mayor.

I it would be my hope that we would never have to utilize a hundred percent tax incentive or tax rebate incentive, because then the city doesn't have any scratch coming back in or any amount coming back in throughout the length of that time.

Now, I do understand that oftentimes you're improving a property, and so they we will recoup that, especially at the end of that time period.

So, and we weren't recouping that much before, so maybe that's the only leverage that we have to be able to give developers.

I think that's I think that's a sound argument that I would want to know more about, like how often the number of projects, what type of projects we've done that with.

I talked to city staff and I got that list of what that looks like.

And one of the things that I would point out to you, and it's kind of perfect that you would come here tonight to talk about it because we awarded one tonight with 100% for seven years, and I'm sure that's not lost on you.

And so I just want to tell you why I see them as being apples to oranges, because if you look at your property, look, I texted you about that property before I even knew what it was going to be, and told you that it looks phenomenal, and that I thought you're doing a great job.

I don't know if you remember that because now it seems like it's been a long time ago, but I told you that I thought what you were doing looked amazing, and I think it's continued to get even better.

You've improved the site, you improved the building, you did all of those things similar to what a facade program would do.

Um, but you took it to another level, and I greatly appreciate that.

Now, that doesn't necessarily improve any tax amount or taxable amount on the property.

I know you've worked with staff on trying to make sure that it's out of the floodplain and that some of those other larger investments are made to get it to the assessed value because my understanding was the original assessment or assessed um target assessment was 1.5 or something like that, and we're closer to 1.3 or somewhere.

And so it was a matter of, well, are we if we're not getting all of that back, do you adjust it?

If we're not making all the improvements we thought, is it?

And so I had to kind of weigh that project versus now looking at Mr.

Nelson's project downtown, where we did award 100% for seven years, and in my mind, and should you be elected to city council, you'll be in the same position I am.

It looks great.

Is it gonna generate a lot more value for the city?

Probably not, but I'm not discounting that.

I'm just saying, like, does it increase value coming back to the city to taxpayers?

And the answer is no.

But what I would say then is then you look at Mr.

Nelson's project, which is downtown, um, it's taking an abandoned building and turning it into 18 apartments that will then pay tax and having commercial um a new business on the main floor that is not in our community um that's going to generate tax and it's adding to adjacent properties there by them being able to utilize and they coordinated with Pearl Street Park in some of those different areas.

And so those two projects are so different in my mind.

Now, do I still want Mr.

Nelson to get 100%?

I have a really hard time with that.

You know, I don't but if that's the only economic development like leverage or one of the main levers that we have, then I guess yeah, if you if we need to incentivize some of those things, I want to make sure those projects happen.

But that's I'm telling you, man, I thought a lot about it.

Julie and I talked a lot about, I'm just trying to explain my train of thought at least.

And I'm sorry, because to a developer, I'm sure that difference was significant, you know, and for what it would cost the city, maybe not, you know, you wouldn't see it as being significant on our end.

But at the end, I try, I have to try to have some principle behind it.

Like I have to have some North Star, some moral compass of why I'm doing those things.

Before I respond, uh Dan or Matthew, do you guys have any response?

Yeah.

Yeah, they all let me let me just say that this is gonna be on the agenda for it's gonna be on the agenda in a week or two.

That's really the time to talk about it, but or you can privately.

I I don't care if they answered that.

I I don't like to privately because to be honest with you, Bob, some people don't respond.

Oh well.

So here we are.

Okay.

Go ahead, Matthew.

I'm I've never received an email from you that I haven't responded to.

Sure, you have you hit a reply alt on the on the Sioux City site and it goes to every single council member.

I'll tell you one.

I've never gotten an email from you that I have not responded to.

Um I will tell you that that what we were told is that you were unresponsive with staff with regards to some of the requests that they made.

Um the amount that you intended to invest was far greater than what was actually invested.

And although all of that, I said, I think that there's some room to negotiate this.

I didn't say no, knock it all down, because I don't believe in that.

I believe that you're here, you're in Sioux City and you want to invest in Sioux City, and I think that's appropriate.

I think 100%, that should always be an exception.

I I don't like that.

Because just like what Alex said, that all that all that's doing is that's that's choking our city's growth.

Um if it's something that's truly adding to the value, or it's bringing people here, or it's you know, spurring industry, then then absolutely.

I think that there's there's room to have that conversation.

And and I think it's important for us to want to be able to negotiate with you as well because we want to encourage you to continue to invest.

I live in the Crescent Park neighborhood.

I'm still sitting next to Crescent Park School, which has been entirely gutted and it's still just sitting there.

I want to see those projects go through.

I want to see something happen to them.

Right now they're just a target for people to break windows.

Uh and that that just is bad for our whole city.

We don't want to see that happen.

So I am all for going to the table, and I conveyed that to Julie.

And Julie had said that she had a conversation with you about you coming to the table and having a conversation specifically with her.

Um and I hope that that happened.

I'm not sure if that happened because I haven't followed up with her to be honest with you.

But um I think that needs to continue to be a conversation between city staff, between us and and between you to figure out where that line is and where we can negotiate.

Thanks.

So for me, I uh had asked Renee, and she provided the fact that that's what I was looking for.

I haven't had time to review the long list when uh I was contacted.

I just something didn't sound right, didn't seem right, and I just wanted to check it out.

So I did get a list of the projects we've had in the past.

I haven't had time uh to not only review it, but I can't I can't I can't remember if it was on my text messaging or if it's in my city email.

But I will review that before the before the item comes back.

Thanks for your guys' response.

A couple things.

Uh number one, uh so uh to to respond to what you said, Matthew.

Oh, so we're bringing our one and a half year old company from South Dakota to Sioux City, Iowa, right?

Usually it's going the other way, right?

We're bringing 33 employees to this city.

So we are bringing employees, right?

You said, you know, bringing people to the town.

We are 33 employees, South Dakota are now coming to Sioux City, number one.

Number two, uh I'm glad you brought up Steve's project, Alex.

I'm a huge Steve fan.

I work for Steve every day, and uh I talked to Steve about this this morning because I didn't want to uh cause a problem between the two of us.

Yeah, what I think is uh being misled here or misunderstanding in my opinion is first of all, I consider the Marks building is downtown.

I don't know how that's not downtown, first of all, that is downtown.

I mean, we've got tons of compliments from the public, nonstop, people that I don't even know saying, Man, this place looks amazing.

And my my issue here is with Steve's building is this I think that it's not the story that's not being told, right?

And and I I I checked this with Renee, I was talking about this morning.

Is so just to clarify so we get the story straight, right?

So the city bought that building from HCI for 250, right?

Then the city borrowed Lamb Theater 350.

That never came about, so the city forgave that loan.

So now we're into that building for 600.

By the way, it was bringing in 12,000 a year in taxes before the city got it, so it's off the tax books right now.

So now we're into this building for 600,000.

The city is okay, the taxpayer, I should say.

Then the taxpayers paying Heber to knock it down, right?

And what was that, a couple hundred thousand, I think?

So now we're in that for eight hundred thousand, right?

So not only is the taxpayer into this for eight hundred thousand, now we're gonna sell it to Steve for a dollar, okay?

The taxpayer is okay, and then the taxpayer is gonna say, hey Steve, we're gonna we're gonna give them a hundred percent tax abatement now for seven years.

So I the part of the story I gathered from you, Alex was that the city needs tax revenue coming in, but we just completely ignored the fact that we spent over $800,000 of taxpayer money and now are just gifting this land that some of this council thinks is extremely valuable, that you know, downtown is where it's at, and we're giving it to Steve for free a dollar, and then on top of that, giving this extremely lucrative abatement that we only give to downtown.

That just doesn't smell right.

You know, we have a housing tax abatement right in this town, it's up for renewal soon, right?

It's been around for a long time, it's a very successful program.

That program doesn't say it only applies in downtown, it doesn't say it only applies on the north side, the west side, morning side.

It is all inclusive, no matter where you are, because we need growth in this town.

And my issue is is what I'm asking for is some sort of consistency, and I don't think it's there, especially when it comes to Ben and Ice projects.

I've said it and I'm I'm gonna stick with it because again, you brought it up.

But the fact is, guys, other cities that are growing substantially faster than Sioux City are handing out hundred or 100% tenure abatements.

So, and they are financially growing, stable, and not having tax issues.

We are so if those cities are capable are offering these incentives.

Why, as a developer, do I want to work in Sioux City when I can get a much better incentive package up the road?

I mean, it's not just about me, it's other developers that are looking at Sioux City or building in Lamar's or Sioux City and building in Orange City.

I'm not even talking about Sioux Falls and Omaha.

I'm talking about the cities that are extremely smaller than us and within 30 mile or 50 miles of here, and they're growing faster than us.

Why are we so strong-willed, so dead set on only downtown is all we really want to push development?

There's other parts of this city.

Let's find it.

Guys, there's other stuff besides downtown.

And honestly, I have no interest in working downtown until this homeless problem is taken care of.

And there is a ton of people, obviously, that feel the same way.

But for whatever reason, this council is on way over three minutes, so you can come back to the city.

No, you can come back.

Bob, you didn't get out the timer when Jody got up and talked.

She didn't talk.

I timed her.

She stayed under three minutes.

But I I looked at my clock.

She started at 19 after and she's still talking at 24.

Listen, it's easy to cut someone off you don't want to hear what you're saying.

All I'm saying is people obviously support what I said.

And there's other developments besides downtown folks.

Okay.

There's the north side.

Okay.

And I don't want to work downtown until it's cleaned up.

Okay.

Thank you.

I just want to know when we're gonna take a question.

Yeah.

What are you doing to take care of homelessness in your city?

I'm running for city council.

Okay.

If that's not if that is not.

What are you doing with your time and your resources right now?

Are you helping anybody that you see on the street?

Have you volunteered for any programs?

That's what I do.

Volunteer from your time.

I think the reactions of the people behind me support me and understand what I'm doing, what my partner's doing for this city every day.

We work in this city and this city only.

And as hard as it is, we still keep coming back for more.

I don't know why.

That's good, but I hope you have some passion.

We can't just stick them on buses.

Listen, I just brought it up because Joe Wanerscheid brought it up that it is a program that the city does offer.

Okay, that's where that came from.

When I did attend you, what am I doing?

I attended a thing over at the a month ago at the Marriott that was put on by the chamber that invited business leaders in, invited people that wanted to talk about the homeless problem and what we could do.

And that's where I learned about it.

Jill Wanderscheid said there's a program here, the city has where we give people that want to leave this town and go somewhere else funds to get on a bus and leave.

That's what I said.

If people want to misconstrue that that's no sympathy, no empathy, that's where I heard it from.

No, I'm glad that you're learning about it.

That's why I asked the question.

I didn't ask the question to be compatent about it.

I volunteered some of my time on the warming shelter.

And what I heard back feedback that I heard from a lot of business owners was all you're doing is enabling homeless people.

And I came under fire for that for volunteering my time for a nonprofit organization that helps with homeless people.

You're educating yourself.

I think that's important.

I'm not being critical of you.

I was asking a legitimate question.

And I'm glad that you're doing that.

Because that's important.

What we jump to often as a people when we hear about the problem of homelessness is a lack of compassion.

People don't have compassion.

And that irks me.

Because I'm a compassionate person.

I'm a teacher.

I look at those kids in the eyes every day, and I want what's best for them.

I don't care if they rip up their homework assignment in front of me and say, I'm not doing this.

This is stupid.

I'm never going to need to know your subject.

Because I want what's best for them.

And I just want to know that you want to find a solution that's going to be best for the people of Siouxland.

That's important for me because you are running for city council.

Is that fair?

Yeah, I mean, that's fair.

And I guess one last thing I'll say is this compassion and whatnot.

I mean, I mean, I think a lot of people saw on social media.

I mean, these meth heads and homeless people stole my skidler yesterday off a job site.

And by God, as soon as I got done dealing with the police department, I went door knocking yesterday to find out what people want.

Yes.

I don't have time, but I'm going to make time because this city needs me on city council.

That's it, man.

We got to fix a lot of problems here.

And I'm just so upset that it's not even considered what Ben and I do for this town.

I mean, we constantly spend millions and millions every year, and it's still not good enough for somebody.

But that's not fair.

It is the truth, man.

You've received you've received hundreds of thousands of dollars in incentives for your projects.

I mean, you can't argue that.

I mean, you've you've benefited greatly from the same projects or programs that you're talking about.

We don't get the incentive packages others do.

The Marx property, the Mars, yes, it is.

The Marx property.

I can't say it's not true.

I'm not on economic development team.

I don't make that decision.

I don't negotiate those agreements, but I would say I for the most part they are pretty comparable depending on the size, the scope, everything of the project.

They look at that.

You just we gotta stop looking at comparing to what this city has done in the past.

Because look, it's not working.

I don't disagree.

Okay.

This council needs to look beyond this place here and see what other cities, like I said, are doing up the road that are growing exponentially compared to us.

Stop comparing what we've done in the past and actually get aggressive.

I agree.

Thanks.

Anyone else?

Council concerns.

Matthew.

None from me.

Alex.

Um.

No, the only thing I was gonna share was one thing that I've been frustrated with.

I've contacted police department.

I actually talked to crime stuff, crime stoppers um a few different times about different things, whether it was the graffiti or otherwise, because that's one thing that frustrates frustrates me greatly.

I've worked with a couple of homeowners, um, property owners trying to work on an ordinance, looking at whether it's UTVs or golf carts or things like that that could be used on city streets, whether we're talking like around a golf course area or different things, and I understand there are communities with those ordinances.

I I wouldn't be opposed necessarily to some of those if you had stipulations because I see I mean they're running rampant now all over the lakes area, and I'm not sure that's the answer either.

Um but the mini bikes is quickly becoming something where I'm just like I don't want to open Pandora's box towards any other type of vehicles on our city streets because I'm seeing more and more of these mini bikes that are racing through stoplights, and if there's traffic, they just hop on the sidewalk and go through there and all through, I mean, all through campus and all different kinds of places, and it's very frustrating.

Yeah.

Sure.

And I will say we have a draft ordinance uh that we just finished, and we sent it over uh to the police department to take a look at, I believe, just last week.

So we're looking at bringing that forward because we have heard a lot of complaints regarding the mini bikes and traffic and the sidewalks, and so we've drafted one for the council to consider.

Because I think it will be difficult to enforce like if they evade, but if Lord help them if they do, and because none of them are safe, and it's just terrifying to watch them take off through intersections and just uh avoid all traffic laws.

I don't want anyone to get hurt, but it's also like it's weah, we need an enforcement mechanism, so I'm glad we're at least looking at that and hopefully can do something.

Because it doesn't help the argument then that people want to be able to drive their golf cart to and from or maybe in a neighborhood or a UTV or something on city streets.

I it's tough for me to see that.

Yeah, that light of day.

So that's all I have, Mayor.

Thank you, Nicole.

A couple of things I attended Saturday evening, the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet.

It was a record number of uh people that attended, and their guest speaker, Mr.

James Carter did an outstanding presentation that evening.

It was it was really good, and we we also presented a commendation.

Uh the following day was an educational day on uh BIPOC communities, and it was very uh worthwhile.

Uh James Carter spoke at that as well as Lance Morgan, and it was a good it was a good experience.

Um I'm excited about Sioux Land Explorer.

Thank you for sharing today and introducing yourself.

I'm sorry to see you go.

Um, but I wish you the best as well with whatever you do.

Um so thank you for that.

And I thought the downtown partners uh presentation is really good.

I also thought Jody Merkirl did a great job representing the neighborhood.

Um it's time and and I appreciated what the what the police force had said about you know they can only do what's within the legal bounds, but we can also look at what can be changed or what needs to be changed.

But Jody, you did a you did a really nice job, and bringing these materials was very helpful.

So I'm glad all the council members and the and the mayor accepted those.

So thank you for that.

Um I think uh this is the 11th council meeting.

Ten left, but I'm not counting.

Actually, I'm dreading it.

I just want ever all of you to know I've really really have enjoyed serving the public, serving subsidians and the Sioux land area.

And uh it was a difficult decision.

Um, and it's still difficult.

And as I come near to the end of the year, it's becoming more difficult.

Uh because it's the people, you know.

I moved here to uh to Sioux City uh in 1977, and you know, at first I thought, what did I do?

And I made the best decision ever because of the people that live here in Sioux City and the teamwork that they do.

And what I've told uh, you know, sometimes it's hard to listen to citizen concerns because they're real, but I but I'm a good listener and I want to listen for this reason.

I always encourage our citizens to come forth with any concerns that they have.

Once you all quit caring about our community, we're gonna all be in trouble.

Now, having said that, there are a number of people.

Uh my parents were this way.

They said, you know, the city council is doing a great job, and they're making tough decisions, and we don't want to do it, but we can live with it.

And so a lot of them don't come don't have concerns, don't have issues.

Uh, but the ones that do have, as Jody Merkel has, it it's a real issue.

It's your it's a real issue.

And what all of you bring to the council and to the mayor are real concerns, and we address them according accordingly.

A lot of times I will listen, and sometimes I frustrate citizens because I need to process something, just like the uh gentleman that was at the podium earlier.

I have a list of I don't know how many, Renee, how many uh projects you sent me, but but it was a good list, and and I haven't studied that.

I was thinking I had a little more time to do that, and I was working on other things.

Um but but I like to get the facts and I and I really want to do what's best for our always have and always will.

Um some of you that might forget, I contributed significantly uh being on the planning zoning commission for about I mean it seemed like it was 20 years because we kept changing the makeup, so I never ran out of terms, but I was on the planning zoning for many, many years and and learned a lot.

So I uh it's difficult.

I'm sorry I went on about that, Mayor, but it's just something that's just near and dear to my heart.

That's all I have.

I move we adjourn.

Second.

More.

Aye, O'Kane.

I Scott.

I waters.

Aye.