1 11 21 City Council Proceedings Official_SpecialCITY OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
CITY COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL SESSION
OFFICIAL
The Dubuque City Council met in a special session at 6:30 p.m. on January 11, 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and mandates for social distancing, this meeting was
conducted virtually via GoToMeeting and aired live on CityChannel Dubuque (Mediacom
cable channels 8 and 117.2) and streamed live on the City's Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/cityofdubuque. The meeting was scheduled to stream live on the
City's website at www.citvofdubugue.org/media, but the live stream did not occur due to
technical difficulties. The archived meeting video is available on the City's website.
Present: Mayor Buol; Council Members Cavanagh, Jones, Lynch, Resnick, Roussell,
Sprank; City Manager Van Milligen, City Attorney Brumwell.
Mayor Buol read the call and stated this is a special session of the City Council called
for the purpose of conducting a work session on the Draft Equitable Poverty Prevention
Plan.
WORK SESSION
DRAFT EQUITABLE POVERTY PREVENTION PLAN
Planning Services Manager Wally Wernimont introduced the work session on
the Draft Equitable Poverty Prevention Plan. Mr. Wernimont introduced Eric
Schnurer, President of Public Works, LLC, the consulting firm that the City retained
to help create the Equitable Poverty Prevention Plan. Mr. Schnurer provided an
overview of Public Works, LLC and introduced consultant Dr. Linda Rhodes, who
served as the lead on the Draft Equitable Poverty Prevention Plan. Dr. Rhodes
provided a video and PowerPoint presentation on the Draft Equitable Poverty
Prevention Plan. Topics included:
• Scope of work;
• Methods used by Public Works, LLC to conduct the work;
• Understanding poverty:
o Defining poverty in Dubuque
o Measuring poverty in Dubuque
o Rising poverty in Dubuque
o Racial disparities: poverty in Dubuque
• Taking on poverty: the determinants and promising practices
o Economic insecurity
o Transportation
o Education and skills training
o Health and food insecurity
o Racial equity
o Housing
o Children and youth
Taking on poverty: infrastructure:
o Obstacles to access:
o Promising practices
o Collective impact vs. silos
o Foundational principle
City of Dubuque office of shared prosperity:
o Leadership
o Areas of engagement
o Citizen input
o Anchors
o Data collaborative
o Grants and internships
Dr. Rhodes, Mr. Wernimont, and City Manager Van Milligen responded to
questions from the City Council following the presentation. The City Council provided
feedback on potentially renaming the Equitable Poverty Prevention Plan, establishing
goals to reduce the number of families in poverty, and the need for broad community
support for the plan. Mr. Wernimont stated the next steps for the plan are for City staff
and Public Works, LLC to use City Council's feedback from tonight's work session to
revise the draft plan. The plan will then be formally adopted at a future City Council
meeting. After the plan is adopted, City staff will work with the City Manager on
budgeting and implementation.
There being no further business, Mayor Buol declared the meeting adjourned at 8:33
p.m.
/s/Adrienne N. Breitfelder, City Clerk