Committee of the Whole Meeting

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE MINUTES City Hall, 220 Clay Street October 20, 2025 The meeting of the Committee of the Whole met at City Hall at 6:20 p.m. on October 20, 2025, with the following Committee persons in attendance: Mayor Danny Laudick, Gil Schultz, Chris Latta, Daryl Kruse, Aaron Hawbaker, Dustin Ganfield, Hannah Crisman, and Kelly Dunn. Staff members from all City Departments and members of the community attended in person. COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE: Mayor Laudick called the meeting to order and introduced the only item on the Agenda, RAGBRAI Update. Mayor introduced Tourism and Cultural Programs Manager Jennifer Pickar. Pickar presented a video produced by Channel 15 Cable staff from the event. Pickar provided the mission statement created by the RAGBRAI Advisory Committee, the event theme centered around the Gateway River Park, and identified and thanked the Advisory Committee members. Pickar introduced Community Main Street Executive Director Kim Bear. Bear provided information on and thanked supporting partners, stressing collaboration; statistics on riders in the event; park/UNI/campground information and other rider housing; downtown entertainment and vendors for the event; and information on and thanked the many volunteers for the event. Pickar spoke about website and social media reach for the event and always looking for “ways to show Cedar Falls off”; presented the expenditures and revenue from the event, citing revenue of approximately $71,000. Pickar stated the Advisory Committee recommends placing $25,000 in the reserve fund for the next RAGBRAI event in Cedar Falls, and the remaining $46,000 (rounded) into improvement projects at Gateway River Park and a new downtown information kiosk. Pickar indicated that RAGBRAI would like to return to Cedar Falls, everything was very well-received by staff and riders. Mayor Laudick opened for Council discussion. Councilmembers thanked Pickar, Bear, the Advisory Committee, supporting partners, and volunteers, praising the RAGBRAI event for both planning and execution, and expressed anticipation for the next RAGBRAI event in Cedar Falls. Councilmember Ganfield expressed concern at losing revenue over cash reserves; expressed funds could potentially be used for signage at roundabouts for pedestrian/bike traffic. Director Sheetz stated there is a CIP item for on-street bike signage every year, utilize more instead of just for reconstruction. Councilmember Dunn referred to a communication from the Cedar Valley Trails Partnership requesting use of the funds for signage also. Mayor Laudick opened for public discussion. Roger White, Cedar Falls, made an alternate proposal for investing the surplus funds: White provided materials to Councilmembers and proposed to fully mark the bike network; the Bike/Ped Commission has a uniform proposal of paired signs, with painted sharrows no longer needed; the cycling community is in favor of this proposal. Bob Manning, Cedar Falls, praised the RAGBRAI event; in past put up red and green directional signs around the community and coordinated with INRCOG and surrounding communities; would volunteer to help with new signage. Mayor opened for further Council discussion to provide direction to staff. Councilmembers discussed the addition of signage funding to the proposal; distribution of excess funds between the RAGBRAI reserve, signage, and the proposed improvements; other funding sources for signage; lesser reserve amount impact on sponsorships, partnerships, and donations for future events; support of Advisory Committee’s original proposal and speaking about signage and funding at upcoming Goal Setting. Mayor asked for consensus from Council to direct staff to move forward with the proposed use of funds from RAGBRAI, with an additional interest in reviewing safety signage for bikes and pedestrians as a potential use of the funds if appropriate (to be discussed at Goal Setting). Council indicated unanimous consensus. Meeting adjourned at 7:02 p.m. Minutes by Katie Terhune, Administrative Supervisor