The meeting convened at 5:04. Overman moved to approve the agenda; seconded by Hawkins; carried by unanimous vote. Volm moved to approve the minutes of August 22; seconded by Hawkins, carried by unanimous vote.

OFFICER'S REPORT. Kahoun reported that no Council meetings had occurred since the Board's last meeting.

NEIGHBORHOOD DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATOR'S REPORT. Kahoun said it was time for the Board to work up their recommendations for the next Capital Improvements budget, and asked for a committee to be appointed. Pulliam, Volm and Hogate volunteered to serve on the committee and were appointed by the Chair. Hogate invited the rest of the Board to call the committee with their ideas. Kahoun also distributed the Neighborhood Update.

2001 PERFORMANCE REPORTS, FUNDING AVAILABLE, AND STAFF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE 2002 CONSOLIDATED PLAN. Schulte said presentations by agencies requesting 2002 CDBG, ESG, and HOME funds will be held on September 18-20 at 5:00 in the St. Etienne Conference Room. Deliberations will be held on Saturday, September 22, at 9:00 at the Fort Des Moines. Schulte distributed Board Communication No. 506 which detailed staff estimates of the funding available and staff recommendations for procedural changes. Schulte told the Board HUD has redefined carryover funds and program income, so they were not included in the projections. Schulte said this redefinition was basically just a matter of how it was reported on HUD's forms, and the City intended to handle program income about the same as it had in the past. Staff recommended that the Board hold a separate session in October to deal with projects that may be extended, and make a recommendation for which agencies should keep their program income and use it continue the activities in their programs, and which should turn it back to the City for reprogramming.

Dozier asked if this was for the nonprofits only; Schulte said it wasn't. Dozier asked if the program income would then go into the General Fund; Kahoun said it did not.

Schulte said thirty proposals have been received; the total requested is $9.8 million. Schulte distributed a chart showing the review teams' rating and staff's recommendations for funding, and went over the rationale for the recommendations. He also distributed performance reports for programs funded in 2001. He said Carol Gathright, Enterprise Community Coordinator, would begin monitoring duties this next year.

Dozier asked for a list of properties rehabbed through Community Development's programs; Leipzig said he would provide it. Schulte asked the Board to act on the recommendations contained in Board Communication No. 506 at the next meeting.

CITY MANAGER DISCUSSION OF SCRUB AND CONTRACT SALES.

SCRUB. City Manager Eric Anderson told the Board the problems with the SCRUB program were in a way symptoms of how successful it was. He will put together a task force to examine the service provided, gather input from residents, and work out solutions to the problems. He asked for volunteers from the Board to serve on the task force. Anderson said the City is going to have to start charging for picking up appliances at the curbside. He said he did not want to rush through a solution that was just a short-term fix.

Hogate asked if the volunteers had to be Board members; Anderson said they didn't. Hogate said the task force should have members from neighborhoods that were having problems with their SCRUBs. Walden said the problems would probably be fewer if people got clearer information from their associations on what was allowed.

Contract Sales. Anderson said he had discussed this issue in several meetings with CCI, the Council Round Table, and with people participating in the sales both as buyers and sellers. He said identification of the issue was the most important step – now the community sees it as a major problem that has far-reaching effects. The Council's legislative committee has discussed it, and so has the League of Cities Commission. The City's Legal Department has investigated it extensively.

Anderson said there are three approaches to take – legislation, inspection, and education. The League of Cities wants to open the door on this issue with the State Legislature by asking to eliminate the "don't know" option on the buyer's disclosure.

For the inspection approach, Anderson said he agreed it was necessary, but he did not want to use City inspectors. He said the inspector's report should be paid for by the seller, who would then be required to give it to the buyer. As state law stands right now, however, requiring an inspection cannot be enforced. To have an enforcement mechanism to require inspections would require a change to state law. Anderson said he believed there would be considerable opposition in the legislature. Some of the legislators are realtors engaging in contract sales, and they will need to be made into allies.

Anderson said the third approach was through education of buyers. They need to know their rights and have a way to tell whether their seller is reputable. Anderson believes all this will take time, perhaps two or three years. Dozier said a three-year time period was unacceptable. She said her neighborhood was seeing a lot of housing turned into contract sales, and the buyers were people who were blacklisted by the renters' association.

The Manager said he agreed it was a big problem, but the reality was that the Council could not institute requirements that were not permitted by State law. He said inspections alone could not stop someone from buying from or selling to a bad person, but right now there is no way to impose an inspection that "had teeth" and it was necessary to approach this issue through changing the State's laws. He encouraged the Board to stick with the fight even though it might be long and hard.

Volm said she was very disappointed in his response to the contract sales issue. There have been 600 contract sales in Des Moines in the last year, and she felt the Board should be included in the task force to find solutions, as disclosure of property defects alone could not decrease the incidence of these sales. Anderson reminded Volm he had asked for Board volunteers to be on the task force. He said he agreed inspection and removing the "don't know" option from the disclosure statement weren't enough for a complete solution, but it was a way to start on the road to a permanent solution. Volm asked whether the Board should begin lobbying any legislators; Anderson said it would be good to increase awareness of the problem, but he felt it would be best to work through the League for a coordinated approach. Volm also asked if there was anything the Board could do in the meantime with the City's Federal Funds, like funding inspections. Anderson suggested waiting until the law gets changed. Lumley said there might be more support in the legislature than the Manager expected, since this is not just an urban problem. Farmers buy their houses from large conglomerates on contract so they can live near their work. Lumley said she believed demonstrating the extent of victimization and its larger effects would garner considerable support.

Pulliam asked about houses owned by the City which are not up to code saying the City had got bad press lately calling the City one of the worst landlords. Anderson said the City had been fixing them up and selling about 120 of them, although it was going slower than expected. Lumley said other states have had the same problems and it might be worthwhile to check with them to see how they solved it.

COMMITTEE AND REPRESENTATIVE REPORTS.

OTHER BUSINESS. Eric Chamberlain of CCI invited the Board to attend a meeting the next day with the FTC.. Hogate thanked Dozier, Volm, Neiderbach, and Muldoon for all the work they did on contract sales to bring the issue to the attention of the community. Volm asked what the scope of the Attorney General's involvement was. Kahoun said the City's Legal Department was working with the AG's office and Bill Brauch was also involved. Volm asked if the Attorney General lobbied the legislature; Kahoun said that office offered opinions when requested.

The meeting adjourned at 6:51 p.m.

Jerry Overman, Secretary