1 28 20 City Council Proceedings Official_Special1
CITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in special session at 6:00 p.m. on January 28, 2020 in
the second-floor Council Chambers of the Historic Federal Building, 350 W. 6th Street.
Present: Mayor Pro Tem Jones; Mayor Buol (joined at 6:04 p.m.); Council Members,
Resnick, Roussell, Shaw, Sprank; City Manager Van Milligen, City Attorney Brumwell
Absent: Council Member Cavanagh
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called
for the purpose of conducting work sessions on National Site Selection Survey Results,
Workforce Solutions and Performance Analysis of Solid Waste Operations and Rate Re-
view Study
WORK SESSIONS (3)
The Mayor stated for the record that the order of the work session is changed to begin
with the Workforce Solutions item to be followed by the National Site Selection Survey
Results.
1. Workforce Solutions: Kristin Dietzel, Vice President of Workforce Solutions for
Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, 900 Jackson Street, provided a slide
presentation with the City Council on Workforce Solutions. Topics included:
Five-year economic indicators update
o Regional employment;
o Working age population within the region;
o Employment in Dubuque MSA;
o Working age population in Dubuque MSA;
o Educational completions and attainments;
o Median household and per capita income changes.
2019 Skills Gap data
o Top skilled jobs 2014 vs. 2019;
o Top completions 2013 vs 2018;
o 2019 skills gap analysis;
o Programs and tools in place to assist;
Big Life Small City Campaign update
o Social media following data;
o Newcomers unique stories.
Workforce solutions update
o EMSI Talent Attraction scorecard, profile analytics and employer access
o www.accessdubuquejobs.com investor benefits and additional free services;
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o Talent Dubuque intern engagement program ;
o Dubuque Works programs and partners, FY19 funded project and FY20 new
funded projects;
o K-12 work-based learning and post-secondary initiative;
o Workforce bi-weekly newsletter and Finders of Keepers eblast www.greaterdubu-
que.org/gddc/subscribe.
Ms. Dietzel responded to questions from the City Council regarding concerning trends
with the older populations and lower income/wage households stating that awareness of
occupations and skills training availability is critical and that lower paying jobs can be
offset by the cost-of-living adjustment and quality of life in the Dubuque region. Ms. Dietzel
will look into creating a category/filter for older workers on the Access Dubuque jobs web
site.
This work session concluded at 6:44 p.m.
2. National Site Selection Survey Results (2019): Rick Dickinson, President/CEO of
Greater Dubuque Development Corporation, will provide slide presentation on the results
of the latest national Site Selection Survey and gathered from website data. Topics in-
cluded:
Top 10 most influential site selection factors from Site Selection Magazine;
What most employers what to see on an economic development organization’s web-
site;
Where employers go for information about their field of work;
Most common “deal killers;”
The one policy most recommended to a state or community: improve incentives;
Industry sectors that are currently the most active;
List of states that have done the most to improve their overall business climate in
recent years.
Responding to questions from the City Council, Mr. Dickinson stated that Dubuque has
the most potential for growth in the sectors of finance and insurance with growing success
in the sectors of information technology, manufacturing, education/higher education with
some challenges, and healthcare.
This work session concluded at 7:03 p.m.
3. Performance Analysis of Solid Waste Operations and Rate Review Study : Public
Works Director John Klostermann, Resource Management Coordinator and Supervisor
Anderson Sainci, and Jennefer Klennert, Senior Client Manager for Foth Infrastructure
and Environmental, LLC, provided a slide presentation on the Performance Analysis of
Solid Waste Operations and Rate Review Study [Fees]. Topics Included:
Request for Proposal (RFP) background;
Review of RFP three objective tasks:
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1. Review of current operation and identify opportunities for improved resiliency
and efficiency – Semi-automated route collection; total municipal materials col-
lected, recommendations, total cart usage, comparison with other Iowa cities,
and the benefits of automated collection;
2. Co-create a community engagement process focused on adopting and imple-
ment a path toward zero waste – outreach/engagement efforts in 2018, out-
comes, paths toward zero waste, benefits and goals of zero waste, key find-
ings, food scrap program, current recycling messages, use of technology, and
recommendations;
3. Perform a comprehensive rate analysis – review fees charged to subscribing
residents and businesses; develop and analyze alternative fee schedule sce-
narios; alternative, potential new fee goals; current services provided and
monthly options; and key findings.
The presenters responded to questions from the City Council regarding carts sizes,
costs, and availability; food scrap and yard scrap programs; Dubuque’s clean recycling
materials stream; the up-front capital costs of automated trucks and incremental purchas-
ing and maintenance through the budget Capital Improvement process; and the potential
for the marketing and sale of composted materials. City Manager Van Milligen empha-
sized that the Dubuque Metropolitan Area Solid Waste Agency (DMASWA/Landfill) is a
separate government entity and not tax subsidized adding that the City’s Public Work
Department runs similar to the Landfill and is a City enterprise zone supported by user
fees.
There being no further business, Mayor Buol declared the meeting adjourned at 8:02
p.m.
s/Kevin S. Firnstahl, CMC, City Clerk