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2014-09-09
E IDIAN,- CITY COUNCIL WORKSHOP MEETING AGENDA City Council Chambers 33 East Broadway Avenue Meridian, Idaho Tuesday, September 09, 2014 at 3:00 PM 1. Roll -Call Attendance X David Zaremba O Joe Borton X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Genesis Milam X Luke Cavener Mayor Tammy de Weerd 2. Pledge of Allegiance 3. Adoption of the Agenda 4. Proclamation A. Proclamation for Suicide Prevention Week 5. Consent Agenda Approved (Pg 3-4) A. Approval of the July 9, 2014 Budget Meeting Minutes B. Approval of the September 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes C. Proclamation for Meridian Youth Baseball All Stars Day for the Meridian 12U Major/70 All Star Team D. Resolution No. 14-1011: A Resolution Amending the Comprehensive Plan to Amend the Existing Conditions Report (CPAT 14-001) E. Resolution No. 14-1012: A Resolution Amending the 2011 Comprehensive Plan to Incorporate the Downtown Master Street Plan as an Addendum to the Plan (CPAT 14-002) F. Recreational Pathway Easement at Bridgetower Heights Subdivision Between Cottonwood Development, LLC and the City of Meridian G. Approval of Memorandum of Agreement with Meridian Development Corporation for Contribution to Historic Walking Tour Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda — Tuesday, September 09, 2014 Page 1 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. H. Approval of City Wide, Evergreen Sole Source Purchase for Alan Bradley products from Consolidated Electric 6. Community Items/Presentations A. Idaho Humane Society Update: Animal Control Services and Proposed Cost Increase for Fiscal Year 2015 (Pg 4-13) B. Approval of Addendum A to the Professional Services Agreement for Animal Control Services and Dog Licensing Between the City of Meridian and the Idaho Humane Society for an Amount Not -to -Exceed $352,132.00 Approved (Pg 13-15) 7. Items Moved From Consent Agenda None (Pg 15) 8. Action Items A. Public Hearing Continued from September 2, 2014: Public Works Proposed Utility Rates Increase (Pg 15-24) B. Resolution No. 14-1013: Resolution Adopting the Public Works Utility Rate Increase Motion approved that the resolution be rewritten as discussed and brought back for approval on September 16, 2014 (Pg 24-29) 9. Department Reports A. Human Resources Department: Strategic Plan Update (Pg 29-37) B. Police Department: FY2015 Budget Amendment for Spending Authority for SPF/SIG Mayor's Anti -Drug Coalition (MADC) Grant Award from the Office of Drug Policy for the Not -to -Exceed Amount of $99,814.00 Approved (Pg 37-40) 10. Future Meeting Topics 9/11 Ceremony at 7:40 a.m. at Fire Station No. 1 — Public is invited. (Pg 40-41) 11. Executive Session Per Idaho State Code 67-2345 (1)(c): (c) To Conduct Deliberations Concerning Labor Negotiations or to Acquire an Interest in Real Property, Which is Not Owned by a Public Agency (Pg 41-42) Into Executive Session at 5:14 PM Out of Executive Session at 6:35 PM Adjourned at 6:35 PM Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda — Tuesday, September 09, 2014 Page 2 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearing, please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:02 p.m., Tuesday, September 9, 2014, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, David Zaremba, Keith Bird, Genesis Milam, Charlie Rountree, and Luke Cavener. Members Absent: Joe Borton. Others Present: Bill Nary, Jacy Jones, Bruce Chatterton, Caleb Hood, Clint Dolsby, John Overton, Mark Niemeyer, Patty Perkins, Mike Pepin, Tracy Crane, Steve Siddoway and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll -call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Joe Borton X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Genesis Milam _X Lucas Cavener X Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: Okay. I will welcome you here to our City Council meeting. Thank you for joining us. For the record it is Tuesday, September 9th. It's 3:00 o'clock -- or a minute after 3:00. Madam Clerk, will you start us off with roll call. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance De Weerd: Thank you. If you will all rise and join us in the pledge to our flag. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: We have three resolution numbers to add to the agenda. On Item 5-D the resolution number is 14-1011. 5-E the resolution number is 14-1012. And on Item 7-13 the resolution number is 14-1013. And with those additions, Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the agenda. Bird: Second. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 2 of 42 De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 4: Proclamation A. Proclamation for Suicide Prevention Week De Weerd: Item 4 is a proclamation and I will ask Mary Kelly with SPAN Idaho to come up and join me at the podium. Sorry, Council. I will continue to turn my back to you when I do these. It's always awkward. So, I am here to read a proclamation about Suicide Prevention Week and this is -- this is an area that touches communities in the worst way and certainly this is an item that two years ago the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council took up, because of what they were seeing happening in their schools and with their friends and -- and they wanted to be part of the prevention outreach and knowing what signs to look for and what to do at that time and also to appeal to our legislature to provide continued funding to a suicide hotline that was relevant to Idaho instead of a 24/7 hotline that was manned by people out of state. So, it is my honor to be able to read this proclamation. Whereas suicide is the second leading cause of death for Idahoans age 15 to 34 and for males age ten to 14 and overall in the United States one person dies by suicide every 13.3 minutes and whereas in 2013 alone 308 people completed suicide in Idaho and for the years of 2009 to '13 85 Idaho school children died by suicide and whereas one in seven Idaho youth attending regular public and charter high schools reported seriously considering suicide in 2013 and one in 14 youth reported they made at least one attempt and to bring it a little closer to home, one in four at Meridian Middle School have had thoughts of suicide. Whereas Meridian's youth are not immune and the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, MYAC, has created a public service announcement for the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline and advocated for funding with the state legislature and whereas suicide affects each and every one of us in some way and it is truly up to us to help those we love by being good neighbors, good friends, and good family members if we were to protect our young people from this tragic fate. Therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, here do proclaim September 8 through the 14th as Suicide Prevention Week and I call upon all of our citizens in recognizing the serious suicide -- how serious suicide is and the steps that each of us can take in preventing and protecting those around us from such a tragedy and, Mary, I present this proclamation to you and would ask if you have any comment. Kelly: Thank you. Thank you so much. I am just very grateful to receive this today and so appreciative of Mayor Tammy de Weerd and her willingness to lead Meridian and this county in this quest, because as you heard the statistics are frightening and we want to work as hard as we can to reduce that as much as we can and we can only do that by education. I represent the SPAN Idaho, the Suicide Prevention Action Network. I'm on their advisory board and we are working hard every day to educate the schools, community people, and so forth. This proclamation is going to be in the lobby of our Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 3 of 42 yearly suicide prevention conference, which is this coming Thursday and Friday at the community center on Eagle Road. I'm going to leave just a brochure of that on the back table if there is anyone here who is at all interested and -- or knows anyone that might be and may not know about it, we would love having you come. I want to say that we not only educate, but we support survivors, too. So, we think that's terribly important and thank you again so much for this opportunity. De Weerd: Thank you. And, Council, I would tell you that the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council did the video on suicide prevention and if you haven't seen it, we will send you a link, because they worked with Natalie and wrote, produced it, and it is a product of their making and so I would strongly encourage you to see it if you haven't. Item 5: Consent Agenda A. Approval of the July 9, 2014 Budget Meeting Minutes B. Approval of the September 2, 2014 Meeting Minutes C. Proclamation for Meridian Youth Baseball All Stars Day for the Meridian 12U Major/70 All Star Team D. Resolution No. 14-1011: A Resolution Amending the Comprehensive Plan to Amend the Existing Conditions Report (CPAT 14-001) E. Resolution No. 14-1012: A Resolution Amending the 2011 Comprehensive Plan to Incorporate the Downtown Master Street Plan as an Addendum to the Plan (CPAT 14-002) F. Recreational Pathway Easement at Bridgetower Heights Subdivision Between Cottonwood Development, LLC and the City of Meridian G. Approval of Memorandum of Agreement with Meridian Development Corporation for Contribution to Historic Walking Tour H. Approval of City Wide, Evergreen Sole Source Purchase for Alan Bradley products from Consolidated Electric De Weerd: Item No. 5 is our Consent Agenda. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 4 of 42 Rountree: With the additions previously made, I move that we approve the Consent Agenda. Authorize the Clerk to attest and the Mayor to sign. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion from Council? Seeing none, Madam Clerk. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea. De Weerd: Thank you. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 6: Community Items/Presentations A. Idaho Humane Society Update: Animal Control Services and Proposed Cost Increase for Fiscal Year 2015 De Weerd: Under Community Items/Presentations, we have the Idaho Humane Society update from Lieutenant Overton. Overton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it was just over a year ago that I was standing in front of you and we were discussing the simple idea of going to the Idaho Humane Society as a location for all of our lost and stray and loose dogs in the city and as I stand here today I told them I would do an introduction before I turn this over to the Idaho Humane Society. We have had one year under our belt and the best news has been the feedback. We heard quite a bit of feedback before we started this and a lot of it was -- a lot of people that told us a lot of bad things that were going to happen and none of those have happened. We have had a lot of great compliments both externally from customers in the City of Meridian and internally from members of our department, specifically our patrol officers who have worked with IHS and their staff over this past year. One of the main compliments we have got this past year has been it is so nice finally to have one place to call and one place to go for all of the dogs that need to be picked up, reclaimed, or adopted within this valley. With that being said I will be open for any questions. I want to turn this over to Leann Gilbert with Idaho Humane Society, let her introduce her staff and talk about this past year. De Weerd: Thank you, Lieutenant. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate you being here. Gilbert: Madam Mayor and Members the Council. Thank you for having us. As John -- Lieutenant Overton indicated, my name is Leann Gilbert. I am the chief financial officer at the Idaho Humane Society. With me today is Dr. Jeff Rosenthal, who is our chief executive officer, and Morris McCall, who is our animal control supervisor. I want to just Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 5 of 42 give you a little bit of a big picture of what it is that we are doing out there at the Humane Society, targeted in a little bit on what we are doing specifically for Meridian and, then, talk about the cost of the proposal for renewal of the contract. First, though, I'd like to echo what Lieutenant Overton said. Having been doing this for just not quite a year yet, to me from what -- everything I have seen all indicators are that it's been as smooth a transition as we possibly could have hoped for. I think it's been a win-win for all the parties involved. The Meridian -- City of Meridian is not having to face building a new shelter, manning the animal control function, or providing the labor to take care of the animals that will come into a municipal shelter because long term volunteers probably is not a viable option. From a community resident citizen perspective, Lieutenant Overton took my statement. We -- we provide a centralized location. If you have got a problem with an animal, if you have got a lost animal, if you find an animal, we are the central place in the valley to bring those and so we are able to provide that for the citizens of Meridian and from our standpoint, because we do service all the major municipalities and some of the smaller ones, we can obtain the economies of scale to provide those services on a much more cost-effective basis than individual municipalities could do that. You know, I don't know how much any of you know about IHS, but this year -- and when I'm referring to this year I'm talking about the fiscal year that started October 1st of "13 through July 31 is what my stats are through. We have handled at the shelter almost 11,000 animals and we have adopted out almost 6,000 animals. Our adoption rate for dogs is 98 to 99 percent of adoptable dogs. We do not euthanize for time and space anymore. We have the ability to get the animals out into homes if -- you know, if they are adoptable we get them into homes. Our cat rate -- much better than the national average -- not where we would like it yet -- is about 78 percent adoptable. We also have a very strong spade and neuter program at the shelter. Every animal that goes out our door is spade or neutered before it is adopted out. We have performed almost 7,200 spade and neuter procedures this year alone. Most of those at a reduced cost or free in conjunction with an adoption that we are doing, because part of our mission is to help control the unwanted pet population and encourage responsible pet ownership and that's a key way to do that. A couple of the programs just real briefly that I wanted mention to you that you may or may not be aware of -- we have a pet food distribution program and we provide pet food to home bound seniors who are on the Meals On Wheels program, as well as to people who might be having financial difficulties as a temporary fix for them to come in for a few months and get food for their animals. We also provide food for our foster families, because we get a lot of pets who come in that may not necessarily be adoptable right now, because they have got a behavior issue, they are injured, they are ill, or maybe they just can't thrive in a shelter environment, so we put them into a foster home for a while. So, for those three programs this year we have distributed almost 39,000 pounds of dog and cat food. Not related to animal control, but just an interesting factoid about the shelter. We also have a humane education program and we provide educational camps for students, ages eight through 14, over the course of spring break and summer. They provide -- they cover topics of dog bite prevention, responsible pet ownership, animal related careers. One of the fun things is, you know, when they get to meet an animal control officer and they find out what an animal control officer really does, it's not the dog pound catcher -- dog catcher they see on the Disney movie, you Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 6 of 42 know, they actually see that those officer are there to help them and to help the animals. You know, ultimately it's the animals that they are trying to assist. We also have a student volunteer program that I just recently found out for my own child, who is in the Meridian district, apparently every seventh grader has to take at life science class and has to do hours of community service. We get a ton of calls from those seventh graders in the Meridian district wanting to do community service through our shelter and so one of the things that our education coordinator offers is opportunities for the kids to come in and do that four hours of community service doing some sort of shelter -based projects that will help the shelter and the animals. So, that's an indirect benefit the City of Meridian receives from our program. We have this year alone 973 people that have volunteered almost 27,000 hours at the shelter, at our functions, at our events whether it's walking dogs or being in a mobile adoption, whatever the case may be, that allows us to do a lot of things that we wouldn't be able to do. That's 13 FTEs is what it equated to, you know, the hours that they are putting in. So, that's a way that we try to save money. We have this huge volunteer program, very successful, and it allows us to save money on personnel costs. This year alone we have reunited almost 1,500 lost pets with their owners. Microchips are great, but they don't -- you know, not every animal is microchipped, unfortunately, but we do our very best to reunite those animals. We hold them longer than we necessarily have to under the state statutes. The -- specifically to Meridian, every animal that we adopt out, just like any other municipality, leaves our doors with a Meridian license. We have sold over 660 dog licenses in the city up to -- to the City of Meridian residents this year, with a net revenue to the City of Meridian of over 10,000 dollars. That's one of the ways that we get back on this. Our animal contract -- you know, our animal control officers -- they are so busy. My office is actually right next to the dispatch office. That dispatcher is on the phone all day long and just for Meridian alone we have responded to almost 1,500 calls this year. That's just animal control and that's just the calls we have responded to. We also get calls that we may not necessarily respond to, because we will get -- you know, maybe we just need to counsel somebody on how to handle the situation, direct them to a different resource, whatever the case may be. But we responded to almost 1,500 calls this year and those type of calls are aggressive animals, dog bites, attacks, you know, I have got a cat locked in my garage that I want you to come pick up. Neglect and cruelty cases -- you name it, we respond on it. Our shelter took in over 1,100 animals from Meridian residents this year so far and that's just public. That's not the ones that came in through animal control. Those are the ones that came through our doors through public surrenders, where an owner couldn't take care of the pet anymore and they dropped it off at hour shelter. We are open admission. They may have adopted an animal, returned it. It may be one that the law enforcement seized and brought into us, because the owner went to jail, whatever the case may be. Or if somebody in the community just happens to pick up a stray and brings it into us. We have also returned almost 500 animals to the Meridian community by adopting them out or sending them home with the owner after they have been lost. Meridian represents about 21 percent of the population base that we service. Based on the number of calls that we responded to so far this year, it's about 24 percent of our service that we are providing just on an animal control basis. Purely animal control numbers. When we -- when we calculate our contract cost we take the population base and we take the service level and we average Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 7 of 42 that out and we look at the total population of everybody we are servicing and we try to keep each municipality's contract at a proportionate level. Meridian's proportionate level, like I said, is between 21 and 24 percent, based on population and service provided. The contract cost is -- with this increase is at 22.2 percent. So, it keeps Meridian right in line with that proportional share of the overall animal control contract service that we provide to all the different municipalities. To give you a little bit of an idea, you know, we will do this for every municipality on an individual basis. I had one contract who had no increase. I had a couple contracts that had five percent increases, because they are just not at that proportionate level yet. And, then, we have had one that had like a two percent increase. So, it's a very thoughtful analysis that we do. We also have -- I mean we are only one year into this contract and I don't anticipate that we would have significant increases going forward every year. That's not our intention. That's not our hope. We do have increasing costs as everybody knows, the cost of gas goes up -- continues to go up every year. That's a huge cost to us on animal control. So, in order to cover the cost if something goes, we have got to reduce the cost of something else to even it out or we request a small increase. So, between the -- keeping you guys' proportionate level and our cost structure, the 12,000 dollar request -- increase request at a three and a half percent increase is what we would like to see for the coming year to keep you guys kind of in that proportionate ratio. Questions? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Leann, in this professional agreement it says approximately 26 percent of your calls are Meridian locations. Gilbert: Yes. That would be -- Bird: But under the agreement of 2013 it was 22 percent was what we was paying; is that right? Gilbert: Uh-huh. Bird: So, you're asking for 3.5 percent increase in payment? Gilbert: Uh-huh. Bird: For fiscal year'15 or back to'14? Gilbert: For upcoming --the year coming forward. '15. Bird: Okay. That's -- Gilbert: Yes. '15. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 8 of 42 Bird: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Other questions from Council? Councilman Zaremba. Zaremba: Madam Mayor. I appreciate the work that you do. I have been familiar with humane societies in other cities as well that do a lot of stuff. This is kind of a sideways question. In other cities they have people show up with other things besides dogs and cats and maybe horses. Have you had anything extremely interesting show up recently? Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. We get horses and goats all the time. You guys could probably speak to the most interesting thing we have had of late. De Weerd: Dr. Rosenthal, you will have to come up here and add your name to the record. Rosenthal: Yes. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm Jeff Rosenthal, I'm the CEO of the Idaho Humane Society and I have been with the society for 15 years now and so I have seen every -- every type of critter that ends up. We see every variety -- you know, in our medical, which is, again, a separate program from the rest of the animal control, but very much related, because the hit by car dogs, you know, when they come into the shelter they get first class veterinary care right from the -- from the moment they enter our building, but we also have a number of vets that specialize in exotic animals and thank goodness we do, because we see a tremendous number of strange animals, some of which I have a hard time even identifying sometimes. We see every kind of reptile and you wouldn't think that -- you know, it's like the hare and tortoise story, every year we seem to get at least one giant tortoise that weighs about 20 pounds that has actually gone stray and about half the time we can get them back to the owner, other times we are calling the herpetological society, but I'm amazed at these giant turtles we sometimes get in. Officer McCall remembers once getting a phone call from a lady saying there is a kangaroo in my backyard and, of course, yeah, lady, what have you been smoking. And, sure enough, it was a Wallaby that got loose and so -- De Weerd: Really? Rosenthal: -- thank goodness -- speaking of animal control, a number of years ago we worked very hard -- for instance in the city of Boise to get a great exotic animal regulation that prohibited the ownership of certain animals, because, frankly, there are certain animals that are deleterious, that create big problems in communities -- De Weerd: Now which means what? Rosenthal: Oh, well, things like lions and tigers and bobcats and venomous reptiles and things like that and you would think that folks in the city would know they don't -- wouldn't need to own something like that, but sure enough there are quite a number of folks in every community and, you know, my colleagues in the southwest, for instance, Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 9 of 42 deal with this a lot, because they have very lax laws and they end up housing animals that are very difficult for organizations, you know -- you know, we have housed bobcats, we have housed wolves, we have housed lots of bobcats over the years and those all create a lot of problems. So, you never know what we are going to find and in the most unexpected places. But I appreciate that this has been a great experience so far and animal control is an extremely contentious subject and issue in communities everywhere and we have -- we have such long experience, the folks that you have right now on the front lines are very experienced in dealing with folks and working through problems and mitigating stuff, so we don't have to spend a lot of money -- or at least we can avoid it as much as possible. I appreciate it. Thank you. De Weerd: And I'll never forget -- one of our animal control officers -- I don't know if it was Brenda or Crystal, but they got a call about a monster and her -- her daughter thought there was a monster in her sandbox outside and kept saying that and come to find out there was a badger in there and there definitely was a monster in her sandbox. But it's -- our animal control officers I very much appreciate. They see a different facet of life that we don't and greatly appreciate that. Council, any other questions? Zaremba: No. That was it. Thank you. De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I do have a couple of questions again and I do appreciate everything you guys do. As a dog owner I think the world of the Humane Society. I wasn't on the Council when you came before last year, so you will have to catch me up to date on a couple of things you had touched on in your presentation that there is only rare instances when you euthanize a dog. I'm curious as to what those instances are. Gilbert: If an animal has severe health problems, something that's not treatable in a reasonable fashion -- I mean if you're talking something that's going to be debilitating. If it has severe aggression issues. You know, there is just some dogs we can't put out to adopt, because it's a liability to the public, it's a liability to us. So, we temperament test all the animals that we bring in before we put them on the adoption floor -- well, not necessarily before, but while they are on the adoption floor, if not before. So, that we have an idea are they good with -- you know, are they aggressive towards food, are the aggressive towards other animals. We can't be perfect about it, but we try to at least get some sort of baseline, so if a dog is super aggressive towards humans or other animals or is just really unhealthy and can't be treated, that's when we would euthanize. Cavener: Follow up, Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Cavener: I think in your presentation you said you bring in 11,000 dogs? Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 10 of 42 Gilbert: Yes. That's what we have brought in so far this year. So, it's probably going to be like 13, 14 thousand. And that's not dogs, that's all animals. Cavener: All animals? Okay euthanized? Five percent? Gilbert: Oh, we are talking like -- Cavener: Less than one percent? And of that are we talking one percent that are Gilbert: -- one -- zero to one and a half percent, probably. We have a 98 percent adoption rate of -- you know. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that. I'm probably a little off on that. I think adoptable dogs we have a 98 to 99 percent adoption rate, but there is other dogs that would be euthanized. I don't have the stats in front of me, but if a dog isn't considered adoptable it wouldn't be considered in that population. Cavener: And if they are not considered adoptable, then, they are euthanized? Gilbert: You know, there is certain dogs that maybe they are not adoptable, but there is a rescue out there that wants to take them on. Like when we did the big Oneida pit bull rescue last year some of the dogs weren't really adoptable, but we were able to put them in rescues that were able to house them and keep them and maybe ultimately adopt them out, like the one down in Colorado and -- so, we look at options like that. We have got five Newfee's right -- Newfoundland dogs right now that we are, you know, looking to possibly put into some sort of rescue if we can't find adopters for them. Cavener: Mayor, a couple of questions? De Weerd: Those are huge dogs. Gilbert: They range from 100 to 150 pounds. But the one we got today -- I just have to tell you -- is a great dane mastiff mix and it weighs 194 pounds. De Weerd: Oh, my God. So, those are little pet ponies. Mr. Cavener. Zaremba: Two bags of feed every day, uh? Cavener: On average how many hours a week is an animal control officer in the City of Meridian? Gilbert: Well, there is somebody on duty for the City of Meridian every day. I don't know what the patrol schedule is, but I mean we have a certain number of officers who rotate and they call -- they patrol when needed, but they are mostly responding to the different areas when they get calls in or if there is a -- you know, because we will get a call if there is a barking dog or whatever and so when they go out to that area they will kind of patrol around and check the other areas. So, four officers on duty every day to Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 11 of 42 cover the area, including Meridian, Boise, and, then, three on the weekends. And, then, there is also somebody on call from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 a.m. in order for police dispatch to be able to get a hold of in case of an emergency and we also have officers on duty on call on all holidays. Cavener: Okay. Follow up? On average if a resident calls and they need an officer at their house, what's the average response time? Gilbert: You know, it would depend on the situation. If it's a dog barking and we have got three other calls ahead of it, it's maybe an hour. If it's an aggressive dog and there is -- you know, we triage calls. We respond as quickly as possible. We have had no complaints about our response time that I'm aware of from Meridian. You know, if we have a dog locked in a hot car and it's a hundred degrees out and we have got a barking dog, we are going to respond to the dog in the car first, obviously. I can pull stats on response times. I don't have those with me. We can pull that. Cavener: Great. I'd love to see a copy of those. Gilbert: Okay. Cavener: And one more question, Mayor. My apologies. And maybe this is a misunderstanding on my part, but if I have a -- if I heard you correctly, if I have a feral cat in my garage, I can call you and you will come and get it; is that -- Gilbert: If you trap it. Right? If it's contained we can come and get it. Cavener: Great. Is there a charge associated with that if I call you out to pick up a feral cat? De Weerd: There was before. Cavener: I know there was Mayor. De Weerd: Yes. Just saying. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. That's why I'm just getting some clarification. Sorry, Zaremba: I guess I have a budget procedure question. Our next item is going to be approval of a contract addenda and I certainly think we are getting our money's worth and it would be well worth doing this addition, but we have already approved the 2015 budget, the 12,000 dollar difference. Does that need to be an amendment? Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 12 of 42 Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Zaremba, I think the Police Department -- De Weerd: It just comes out of the Police Department's budget. Nary: I think it's already accounted for. Zaremba: One less car purchased, is that what we are talking about? Milam: Half a car. Overton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, that was prepared by legal. Nary: I think it has been accounted for in the budget. So, it's already been accounted for in the budget, so it's just adding the contract. Zaremba: Fine. Thank you. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam. Milam: I do have just a quick financial question. So, the increase is due to proportionate -- not necessarily cost increase, but getting us more to the proportion of our usage; is that correct? Gilbert: It's a combination, really, of both. I mean we have got a small increase in our cost projected into our budget, because of increasing costs on our end. I think the average was like one and a half to two percent cost increase and, then, also getting you guys up to your proportionate level. Milam: Okay. So, if we -- next year we reevaluate and if our usage goes down it would -- we can have a reduction? Gilbert: We could, but we would most likely freeze it. If -- you know. If your proportionate share went way down we could reduce it. Milam: Okay. Thank you. De Weerd: If it's going up they won't charge us more. I just want to note for Council that on October 16th at Linda Yanke's house she will be hosting a get together fundraiser, so -- get together for the Idaho Humane Society. As you know they are in the process of a capital campaign and most of their gifts have been from the Boise area. So, we need to insure that our citizens know that this shelter is not just for Boise as -- as the provider of our citizens we do need to insure that we are represented as part of that facility. I know that they have been very generous in sharing the blueprints and we Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 13 of 42 have had citizens involved in the process, not only for the shelter, but also the dog park facility that will be attached to it. So, would encourage you to attend. Again, it is October 16th from 6:00 to 8:00 and if you want more details you can certainly look -- or ask me. I was really appealing to the dog lovers and cat lovers and exotic pet owners as well. So, you if guys want a nice place for the exotic pets to go; right? Any other comments that you want to make? Just wanted to make sure that capital campaign was noted on the record. Gilbert: You bet. De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further, thank you so much. Gilbert: Thank you. B. Approval of Addendum A to the Professional Services Agreement for Animal Control Services and Dog Licensing Between the City of Meridian and the Idaho Humane Society for an Amount Not -to -Exceed $352,132.00 De Weerd: Okay. 6-B is approval to Addendum A and I would turn this over to Council. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Yeah. I got a question. This -- this not to exceed 352,132. Well, that was our -- that was our contract for fiscal year '14. No? And they -- as I understand they need 12,000 more? What -- I mean am I not adding right or -- Nary: Mr. Bird, Members of the Council, Madam Mayor, remember we also have a credit with them. Remember we transferred vehicles. Bird: The contract was 370. Eighteen out of that made it 352,132. That was for last year. Now, we are putting an addendum on here, but for the same contract amount and they are telling me they want 12,000 more. So, we shouldn't exceed 364,132, if I can add right. Nary: Yeah. I didn't prepare that, Mr. Bird. I'm trying to find that for you, so -- actually, what Finance is telling me we have 357 in the budget for this contract currently for the next fiscal year. Bird: For 2015 or for 2014? Nary: For 2015. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 14 of 42 Bird: For 2015, the new -- the new fiscal year. Nary: Yes. Bird: We have got 257 -- Nary: 357. Bird: 357. Okay. So, in other words, we have to have addenda for about 7,132. Nary: Right. And what Todd is telling me in this e-mail I have in front of me was there is sufficient funds in the police budget to make up the difference. Bird: Well, it -- under the line item we are going to have to have -- we are going to have to have a budget amendment to switch to the line items. De Weerd: Well -- and, really, for the public record this should reflect the contract that we have, not just the cost to the budget. It should reflect the contract. Bird: It should reflect 364,132 dollars, if I'm adding up right. Overton: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, in meeting with Leann she says the net amount for FY 2015 -- that correct amount is the amount listed, the 352,132. Moving forward. For FY 2015. Bird: Great. De Weerd: Okay. So -- but that's not how it's reflected in the contract. Bird: That's what last year -- excuse me, Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Uh-huh. Bird: Lieutenant, this is what -- the agreement last year was 370,132, minus 18,000 credit. Nary: No. That was for '15. It was an individual one each year. This is extending that agreement. Each one had a different amount for each year with the set off for the vehicles. Bird: I mean I will be glad for the 352,132. De Weerd: Okay. Well, it sounds like the agenda is right. We want to make sure that the contract reflects the math appropriately. Bird: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 15 of 42 De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: With that I would move we approve Addendum A to the fiscal year 2015 for the animal control services and dog licensing between the City of Meridian and Idaho Humane Society for an amount not to exceed 352,132 dollars. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6-B. Any discussion from Council? Okay. Madam Clerk. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea. De Weerd: Okay. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 8: Action Items A. Public Hearing Continued from September 2, 2014: Public Works Proposed Utility Rates Increase De Weerd: So, we will move to Item 8-A under continued public hearing on our Public Works proposed utility rate increase. Is there additional information the department wants to provide at this point? Pepin: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, there is no additional information, just a continuance of the public hearing from last week. We don't have an additional presentation. I just asked Caleb to bring open the slide of the approaches that we proposed last week in and around the two percent inflationary increase to water and wastewater base and usage rates and, additionally, the proposal to add $3.75 to the monthly wastewater base fee -- excuse me -- rate for EPA compliance fee. There is no new information at this time. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. This is a continued public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony? Yes, sir. Good evening. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record. Clemens: Brandon Clemens. 4394 North Annetta Avenue. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 16 of 42 De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Clemens: I didn't make the meeting last week, but I saw it on the web and the gentleman -- we all -- citizens got this in the mail and the slide that Mr. Barry had last week was the outreach and communication to all the citizens and one phone call, one e-mail, zero social media responses, zero blog, zero letters and for 170 million dollars thought that was kind of unusual. So, I did some research and have some information on Nampa. Nampa's phase one proposals -- first phase improvements to their wastewater system at a cost of 28 million dollars. This is on their website and I can leave this here for phase one. They have a phase two over the next ten years and it is too early to tell the exact cost. And Boise is -- had some literature on their website, cost for their wastewater treatment could cost anywhere from 67 million to 92 million, with an additional four million dollars to 36 million dollars to the Lander Street. They have two wastewater systems. So, this information was the first time that I saw everything on one piece of paper at 170 million dollars. Then I got the Meridian Press that was -- the front page about the five dollar monthly increase. So, the gentleman last week said, you know, that was the first he heard of it. This is the first -- I mean the first I heard of it. So, Meridian -- or Nampa had put together for their 28 million dollar -- they put together an advisory group of local citizens. This is on their website and it has -- the advisory group members represent residents, neighborhoods, homeowners associations, industries, developers, business, commercial interests, civil, school, nonprofit organizations, elected officials, low income minority groups, environmental groups and construction contractors. De Weerd: Sir? Clemens: Yes. De Weerd: Can you summarize -- can you get to your point? Clemens: I -- here is a list. Yeah. And I was just offering to put an advisory group together for the City of Meridian, because the numbers are skewed -- 170 million, you know, I don't have all the facts, but I would offer to work with somebody from the city and try to put together, you know, community leaders to see if we can streamline some of those costs. De Weerd: Thank you. Can you tell me -- are we comparing apples to apples? I'm not as familiar with the kind of processes -- if those plants are similar to ours. If the discharge that they discharge their -- if the discharge is the same -- Clemens: Size wise Boise is bigger. De Weerd: Not even size, but operation. I do know there is a big difference in talking to the various mayors across the state that are also dealing with this very same challenge and how to meet these new requirements -- very low requirements. This is -- we are being asked to deal with a constituent that we have never had a requirement on and so, Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 17 of 42 of course, that's not been part of our operation. So, I'm not familiar with Nampa's or Boise and at what stage their sewer treatment plant is and what I'm trying to do is are we comparing apples to oranges or apples to apples? Clemens: Apples to apples I'm hoping. But the size -- you know, they are similar in size and everybody has to take care of the same constituent, but the dollar numbers here versus the other cities is so much higher. De Weerd: Well, we will ask staff, because, I'm sorry I put you on the spot to ask a citizen that kind of question probably wasn't fair. I'm just trying -- I will ask staff, so be prepared, you know, how is Meridian different from these that -- that have been brought to our attention and why is theirs less than ours and -- and those kind of things, but -- so I apologize. Clemens: Do you want -- De Weerd: No. I will have them come up and address that, because you have asked some good questions. Council, do you have any questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: One. I appreciate when our citizens want to get involved in helping the process, so I appreciate you coming down. Just for my clarification, what would be the goal of this citizen action panel that you would like to form? What would be the end outcome in your estimation? Clemens: Maybe reduce the capital cost and save the five dollar increase in the water. Cavener: Okay. De Weerd: Any other questions? Zaremba: Just a comment to help with that question. I would also ask staff to review. They have done a number of public outreach and citizen inclusion meetings over the past year or so and if they would review those for us as well. Question of staff. De Weerd: Thank you. We will ask staff that as well. Zaremba: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you for being here and certainly thank you for your offer. We -- we love to take citizens up on their offer to volunteer. So, thank you for that. Additional testimony? No? Tracy, would you like to answer some of the questions that were bought up and help put some of those comparisons perhaps in -- Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 18 of 42 Crane: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so you kind of hit it right. It's not exactly apples to apples. Treatment technologies may be similar, but it's actually the discharge permit that guides what we have to do. Specifically there is a couple of issues beyond phosphorus. So, phosphorus has been the big constituent of concern in the community. We have been planning for this for several years and when the pre - draft permit came out to extremely low limits of technology -- ammonia limits for us, which are much, much lower than some of the other cities around us have been -- are included in what we are dealing with. So, it's not just the phosphorus. I think folks have -- have focused on that, because ammonia itself has been almost as big a challenge as phosphorus for us. So, it isn't exactly apples to apples, because everybody -- they look at the discharge of the stream that you're putting it in, where in the river you're putting it in, what the flows are, the dilution capability, the reasonable potential -- they put numbers and spreadsheets and the numbers come out the way they come out and our ammonia is extremely low. The second half is part of our money that's in there, the whole 100 million -- and a lot of the numbers that are out there cities have put out dealing with just phosphorus only. For us this is one big number that we are talking about here and growth is a significant part of that and capacity is a significant part of that 170 million as well. So, we have some growth in there, we have some phosphorus certainly improvements in there and as well as nutrients, ammonia limits as well. So, it isn't a straight across apple to apple comparison at all. It has to do with the discharge limits of each permit that are proposed. De Weerd: Council, any questions regarding that? Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I apologize I missed the meeting last week. I did watch it, but I couldn't see anything. So -- and I don't know if this is something that you went over, but I would like to know is what are the Nampa and Boise rates -- base rates and usage fees in comparison to our proposed -- Pepin: Madam Mayor, Councilwoman Milam, we will get that information. If I can take a moment to address Mr. Clemens and a couple of comments he made and, then, we can get back to you, if you don't mind that, please. Milam: Absolutely. Thank you. Pepin: Thank you. So, interesting points, Mr. Clemens. So, the outreach efforts we feel have been going on really since January or February. There has been multiple articles in the newspaper about the challenge -- the NPDES permit challenge that we are facing -- Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 19 of 42 De Weerd: Mike, can you just turn this way and just know you are addressing him through addressing the Council. Pepin: Thank you. De Weerd: That was just too awkward; right? Pepin: So, we feel as a department and as a city -- because we did put together a pretty robust communications plan on how we are going to deal with the customer class of our ratepayers. Nearly 30,000 accounts that Meridian has and we feel that six or seven touch points through the media with the help of the Valley Times and the Meridian Press, to include we have gone out and we have actually provided a presentation to BOMA, the building -- Bird: Building Owners -- Pepin: Owners. Thank you, Councilman Bird. Owners and Maintenance Association. Our Director Mr. Tom Barry is at the BCA right now talking with them, trying to get as many touch points as we can out there in the community. We sent out 30,000 fliers identifying when the public could come and speak and be heard, as you have witnessed last week and, then, this week as well. So, we feel these touch points and the public outreach were very substantial considering what we were proposing to do. In addressing some of Mr. Clemens' other comments, Nampa does have a phase one, about 28 million dollars, but we were just on the phone with their public works director yesterday and their phase two portion is 100 to 130 million dollars and what Tracy hit on is really important, because what our challenge -- 170 plus million dollars, it takes into consideration not just water quality, but what Tracy's wastewater plant needs to produce, but also capacity and growth. As the tenth largest -- or tenth fastest growing community in the nation -- Nampa doesn't hold that title. We do. So, we have to also be prepared for growth as we project it to continue. So, our figure while higher than what Nampa's is right now, if you want to use that as a comparison, as Mr. Clemens is suggesting, what they are not factoring in and which they will is some type of a growth factor. Their 28 million dollars for phase one and 100 to 130 for their phase two, that's purely water quality. So, there is 160 million dollars that doesn't factor in any growth at all and we have already factored in growth into ours. Growth to the tune of 73 million dollars. So, if you want to take that off the top of what we are asking, really, water quality is around 100 million dollars over ten years. It's not all dedicated to water quality. It's a large component of growth as well, which we are speaking with the BCA and the developers to offer a proposal to City Council as well in the coming weeks on how we can collect some costs from them as well. So, I just want to provide that to Mr. Clemens in and around the Nampa comment. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 20 of 42 Zaremba: And I would also repeat something else that has been pointed out in other meetings that we have had with you and Director Barry. In covering what we expect to be roughly a five dollar greater expense to cover many of these costs, the gentleman last week asked a very legitimate question. Is there a component of growth paying for growth in this and the answer I appreciated was -- coupled with this is also the idea that we will raise the hook-up rates -- Pepin: Absolutely. Zaremba: -- so that what used to be called the latecomers fee -- I think something like that -- means that even though this proposal, including an EPA surcharge I think we are calling it, to cover the regulatory issues, current residents, including ourselves, would start paying roughly five dollars more a month to cover all of these coming expenses, but that's not covering all of them. We are recovering much of that from the hook-up fees as well, which does hit people who move in five years from now, six, eight years from now, and have not been paying this rate increase, their hook-up fee will go up quite a bit and -- and to me that seems kind of fair. Pepin: You're correct on that, Council Member Zaremba. We are -- one of the approaches that we are looking at and we will come back to Council with is a sewer connection fee, as you refer to, assessment fee, hook-up fee -- we have heard all three terminologies used, but we are looking at increasing that fee as well and that will impact the development community, which growth pays for growth is kind of our mantra. The ratepayers are not going to be asked to pay for growth. They shouldn't be asked to pay for growth, they should be asked to pay for a portion of improving the wastewater treatment plant that they also utilize. Zaremba: And the regulatory changes. Pepin: Absolutely. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: The latecomers fee pays for the sewer and water to the -- to the lot. It don't pay for the sewer upkeep or anything like that. That's user fees. Growth pays for itself. It has -- I have been on here 17 years. Our rate fees have been kept up. Our rate fees shows -- has a profit built in it for this kind of stuff and so we as a Council has got to act like a PUC, because we are the PUC for the public. Public municipal -- or public utilities having to go before them and I will guarantee you they go before them with more stuff and better prepared than what we get. They -- and they have -- they have to have a certain amount of public notice and it isn't for two weeks, it isn't for a week. So, we need to make sure that our ratepayers are paying -- are getting looked after by us and that's -- and I -- right now I just asked and I appreciate this -- I asked Mike and Tom this morning to get us current permits and anticipated proposed permits, which we know Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 21 of 42 isn't dye in the wool yet. We think it is. I'm not smart enough to read it. I wished would have had it a week ago so I could give it to somebody to read. But I appreciate that and right now I believe that with our rate fees that we have had we have been able over the last 17 years to grow our wastewater treatment plant, our water facilities, and still have a pretty nice fund balance. So, I -- I really have a hard time -- and this isn't nothing any -- new from me for any of you guys that's in the Public Works. I really have a hard time with the 375 -- even though it sunsets in ten years, I have a -- and I realize that's only 448 dollars a household over ten years. There is a lot of people that -- 448 dollars puts food on the table. So, that's the one thing I -- I really -- the two percent increases, while I don't like them, you know, I could maybe live with them, but I do have a problem with the 375 on that, but it's up to you to prove to me that we need it. De Weerd: Mr. Bird, I guess I would just say on what we have in reserves there specified to a certain element and the city has a history of preparing for growth. It's the only reason that we have been able to have the continued growth that we have had, because of our predecessors in saving and building capacity that will meet our growing demands. I think Finance will tell you that what we do have in reserves -- and I know that Public Works would, too, but if you're looking for that checks and balance, it is specific to maintenance -- maintenance of lines, of -- much of the replacement of what we need to do out at the wastewater treatment plant to maintain and continue operations -- there is two different parts. There is serving the current ratepayers and there is the new growth. That is what our staff has worked with within the engineering, the Public Works, the treatment plant, the HGR and our third -party component that has looked at all the modeling to make sure that these numbers are checked and double checked and the I's are dotted and T's are crossed to making sure that it's not just from internal and what our staff thinks, it has been a real big team approach. We have been saving for this anticipated hit, seeing what other cities have gotten in terms of the phosphorus. The ammonia was -- was something maybe not totally unexpected, but the price tag a little bit so and there are different approaches to getting us to the point where we need to get. The 375 -- and I would hope that just as we did in times of where we needed to raise our rates are evaluated annually and this Council -- and know that each one of you will stand committed that this 375 sunsets in ten years, if not before, and that each year we get an accountability follow up from the department in terms of did the crystal ball meet the needed projections or can we find savings and I would imagine since each one of you have said this, that they will expect that kind of accountability in terms of do the projects continue to be needed and that is something that we have to have an annual conversation at. Your action should sunset it and the only way that fee could continue is to go through this process all over again and I would ask Tracy or Mike is -- that's the built-in accountability to it. Crane: Madam Mayor, if I may, just a couple of quick comments, Councilman Bird. So, one thing about it is we take our ratepayers -- this seriously as well and, you know, believe I can speak for myself and the Public Works staff that we would like to do this as fiscally responsible as possible. So, we wish we didn't have regulations put on us and business as usual that we have done in the past has served us well, but, unfortunately, federal regulations forces us into doing, you know, things that we wish we didn't have to Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 22 of 42 do as far as rates go, but our goal -- we look at it and I say what is our goal? Our goal is a hundred percent compliance with the new regulations with factors figured in, such as operability, reliability, maintainability at the most cost effective price that we can. So, what we have done here is we have built in a couple studies -- the first couple years have some studies built in up front where we can do some pilot testing and try to find out of those cost effective, if you will, ways of doing it. However, the problem is is that if -- at the best available information we have today are the numbers that we have put in front of you and if we delay action and we do need that much money, then, because of the compounding effect, that hit could be bigger to our ratepayers in the future and that's really our concern. Bird: Madam Mayor? Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Thank you, Tracy. Mr. Bird, follow up? Bird: Trace, tell me -- since you -- since you have been out there has there been anytime that we have not been able to fund something that you needed out of the current rate -- or by the rate fees that we -- that we have collected? Crane: Councilman Bird, not to my knowledge today. I would say that today the information that you requested of the current permit verses future -- they are sort of night and day. When we start talking about phosphorus at the limits of technology and ammonia very near the limits of technology, it leaves me as the responsible official in a somewhat uncomfortable position as you start ratcheting down that load and our operational flexibility also gets ratcheted down that low and as we have seen in the past compliance is our -- you know, we have to comply with the regulations. So, I would say that of two years of planning and it's not like -- I guess I would also say that this didn't necessarily surprise us, but the ammonia limit did. But we have been -- Clint and I have been to multiple low phosphorus -- you know, we went to EPA's low phosphorus conference, Coeur d'Alene's demonstration. We have been meeting with multi -city consortiums for a couple of years. We did a facility planning effort with Brown and Caldwell -- or HGR and CH2M Hill. We have had Brown and Caldwell look at it. Many presentations and a lot of work up front and, you know, the conservative -- this is the numbers that we built with the information today that we think -- we hope that with the first couple of years of the studies on the implementation plan that we can find more cost effective ways, but the concern is if not, then, we need to make sure that we fund the compliance. So, I think compliance will not permit those final and we have been negotiating with -- or working with the state on the 401, so it's -- it's pretty close to being -- there will be some changes that you see, but not any real substantive changes that will make a difference on the capital improvements that we need to do, then compliance with that permit in the ten years that we will have to comply is a completely different prospect than there is today. De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 23 of 42 Zaremba: Madam Mayor. I guess my comment is that this is not necessarily a surprise. In a presentation that Mr. Barry made to us a month or two ago and in presentations six or eight months ago when he was first asking should we be exploring an EPA surcharge or changes to our rates, his presentation to the Council included several line charts that showed, okay, we are fine this year. We could leave the rates alone and are fine next year, probably we could leave the rates alone. But by three years from now or four years from now we went into the tank, so to speak, very deeply and I remember looking at those charts and the point he was making is, yes, we have been covering our expenses up until now, but the new things that are coming at us are, unfortunately, going to be at great expense and if we wait until after they have happened or after we have violated the permits and, then, try to solve them, in addition to the cost, there are fines and other things that Meridian just doesn't want to get into and we have seen those charts and perhaps they are not available to look at again today, but it was very clear to me that staying where we are right now could be okay this year, could be okay next year, but eventually it's going to bite us pretty seriously and I appreciate the -- the work that's done to look ahead and anticipate this, say, okay, we need to get a little bit of this money from here and a little bit of this money from there. The pie chart that he has shown us about all the things that are being put together, this is not all going on the ratepayers, there is quite a bit of it that's being charged other ways and this is not news. We have seen this and we know this is coming and I suppose we could ask for that to be explained to us again, but we have had it explained to us. De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions from Council? Pepin: Madam Mayor, I would like to just comment on -- Council Woman Milam's asked about the rates. The information -- so, Meridian in terms of average sewer bill compared to Boise and Nampa, that's specifically the cities you want, we are higher than each one of them by about eight dollars average bill. Total water bill, though, we are much lower than each of them. So, when you add those two together, we are right around a 58 dollar -- and that's based off of 9,000 gallons of water, 5,000 gallons of sewer. So, our average bill puts us in the middle of the pack in terms of regional comparisons. Milam: Thank you. Pepin: And if I could add one more thing to Councilman Zaremba's comments -- and will pull back to what Mr. Barry had brought to the Council a few times and what the Council had given to us in terms of direction and what you felt we needed to go do and we felt we have and one was avoid debt. We want to be a pay as you go, only ask for what you need, spend what you get, be very productive, very proactive. Conduct public outreach and we feel that we have with these two customer classes in terms of the ratepayers and the development community, which that's where Mr. Barry is today, involve impacted professional associations, that's exactly what we have done. It's fiscal conservative, yet proactive and we are and, then, don't delay. So, that message came out in April and we are here in September to reiterate what you asked of us. Thank you. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 24 of 42 De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Tracy. Anything further from Council? Okay. Thank you. If there is nothing further I would entertain a motion to close the public hearing if you so desire. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I move that we have close the public hearing. Rountree: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. B. Resolution No. 14-1013: Resolution Adopting the Public Works Utility Rate Increase De Weerd: Council, in front of you is Resolution 14-1013. 1 would -- Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I move that we approve Resolution 14-1013, a resolution adopting the Public Works rate increase. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Cavener: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Discussion? Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I just would repeat my comment. We ask our departments to plan ahead. The Public Works Department has put a lot of effort into planning ahead. I appreciate the public suggestion that maybe for future reviews -- and maybe there should be an annual review, that we do put a citizen committee together. I would not hold this up -- the work that has gone into it, I think they have shown justification for needing to get out ahead of this problems that are coming and I would express appreciation -- the work Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 25 of 42 that has been done and I believe we do need to adopt the rates as they are and coupled with that I think it would not be a bad idea to have a citizen review committee. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Bird: He just spoke. Zaremba: Mr. Bird. De Weerd: I'm sorry. Mr. Bird. I didn't want to recognize you. Bird: I will be the first to tell you that Tom and his department does do a good job at bringing stuff forward and doing it right. I just at this point, without knowing exactly what our permit's going to be -- and we don't a hundred percent, I -- I have no problem with two percent increases. The 3.75, while it don't sound like a lot, is a lot, and I think we need to -- we need to make sure that we need what we need, not to get ourself built up so that we can keep building a bureaucracy that we are seeing within the administration of that department. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I fully endorse our position that we have taken numerous times on these kinds of things in terms of pay as you go, but my recollection is is we had a number of years ago rather significant increase in utility rates. The end result was we, as a Council, thought much like Councilman Bird was talking about, that it might be too much too soon. We did it incrementally and we actually did that through resolution and it was identified in the resolution. And we have spoken a little bit about that potential with this particular rate increase, but it is not reflected in the resolution at all and Councilman Zaremba brought that up as well, is that it might be -- this might be something, again, that we have an annual occurrence and look at -- because I can tell you when we did that before with the incremental increases on the utility rates we did not implement several of those increases, because we found that we did not need them moving forward and we accomplished what we were trying to accomplish with some of the earlier rate increases. So, I'm not opposed to this. I'm in favor of pay as you go, because if we have to put this off and we have to all of a sudden do something and we have to think about an emergency bond, though it's good for the bond buyers, because it's the only place you can make any interest these days, it's really not very good for the city. So, I would like to see the resolution be beefed up a little bit in terms of maybe making this an incremental thing or at least the evaluation of it incrementally, maybe annually or possibly initially quarterly and that way as we have more definitive guidance from EPA in term of what the permit is going to look like, even though I think we do know what it's going to look like. We can take a rather immediate action, because that's Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 26 of 42 one of the advantages of local government, we can make changes in a matter of weeks, as opposed to -- Bird: Years. Rountree: -- multiple years and sessions as happens at the state and sometimes never as we find in the federal government, but I support it, but I would like to see the resolution change to reflect the concept of incremental evaluation through authorization by the Council in moving forward and these numbers that we see here be the not to exceed numbers and hopefully staff could accommodate some kind of an incremental staging of these rate increases, particularly the fixed -- fixed rate, the EPA assessment. It seems to me that's a bit premature and not have something in the resolution that it needs to be evaluated, because it could be more. De Weerd: Thank you, Council. Milam: I second that, Madam Mayor. I agree with Councilman Rountree. De Weerd: Okay. The motion was to approve this resolution. Council or -- Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Zaremba: I would comment that the resolution proposed on which I made the motion speaks to the numbers and the math. I would be happy to add an amendment to my motion that would speak to periodic review and possibly incremental implementation. De Weerd: A biannual review or do you have -- Zaremba: Maybe biannual. De Weerd: It should have a time element. Zaremba: Biannual review the first couple of years and, then, annual after that. De Weerd: And you have a not to exceed statement; correct? Zaremba: I hadn't thought of a not to exceed, but -- Rountree: As proposed? De Weerd: Yeah. As proposed. Zaremba: As proposed. Yeah. Okay. Not to exceed as proposed. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 27 of 42 Bird: It can't be more. De Weerd: Second agree? Cavener: Second agrees. Biannual, is that what I heard? Zaremba: Biannual for two years and, then, annual after that. Cavener: Yeah. Second agrees. De Weerd: And, you know, I appreciate Councilman Rountree's reminder that -- and it points to the trust level that we have in staff. When we looked at the three -- the tiered approach to utility rates and it was over a three year, our staff did come back and say we don't need it and I think that shows the diligence to making sure that it is real and it's exactly what we need and from what I hear from our neighboring cities when they got the draft it -- it didn't get more restrictive, so -- more costly. What the hope is is we convince them to not be as restrictive, but they didn't really have success in that either. So, the draft is a pretty good indicator of what to expect. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yeah. Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I would just comment in our previous approval of what was supposed to be three annual increases and turned out, as I recall, to only be the -- we only did it the first year. The environment at the time was that all of a sudden capital projects came in bid much lower than we expected. So, it isn't necessarily that they were wrong in their projection, we suddenly had an environment where work was cheap and they didn't -- they honestly came back and said, look, we don't need everything we asked for and we very much appreciate that and that's why I'm in favor of saying, okay, let's have ongoing reviews, because the -- there are other circumstances over which we don't have control that do change and sometimes in our favor, surprise, surprise. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: With this resolution I would prefer to see the rewritten resolution come back before I vote on it. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I was going to suggest that. I just wanted to clarify what you wanted in it. There is still a ten year sunset clause; correct? Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 28 of 42 Zaremba: Yes. Nary: And a biannual review of the rate for the first two years and, then, annually after that and I heard Councilman Rountree mention reauthorization annually. Is that something the Council wanted? You generally review your rates annually anyway, but do you want a reauthorization as part of this fee? Zaremba: I would phrase it that if the review -- I would say we are -- as we did last time, we put the three phase in place and said we had to make -- we had to take action to stop it from happening, which, in fact, we did for two years. Rountree: I'm okay with that. Zaremba: I would prefer to say let's put it in place and after each review we may take action to stop it. Nary: Okay. Zaremba: Or reduce it. But it will happen if we take no action. Nary: Yeah. And, generally, if you were to increase it say -- I heard that also, that there is always that potential, that would go through the normal process of any fee increase, so you would have public notice and all of that. All right. I was going to suggest if you would, Council, if that's your motion, you can vote on that's the motion for the resolution that you would like brought back for you next week, so you're not approving the one that's on the agenda today -- Zaremba: Yes. Nary: -- we will bring back the one with all the wording additions added to it. De Weerd: Okay. Zaremba: Therefore, do I need to withdraw the motion that I made? Rountree: Just make a second motion. Nary: I think all your motion is a motion to approve the resolution based on what you have stated previously to be brought forward next week. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 29 of 42 Bird: If I could make a substitute motion. I would move that we return this resolution back to the attorney to be written -- rewritten as proposed by the Council. Zaremba: I would second that. De Weerd: Okay. I do have a substitute motion. Council, any discussion? Okay. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: And we will bring that back next week for your action. Thank you. And thank you to our Public Works staff. We appreciate your diligence on this. I -- this has been a long process and we know that it's not over. So, we do appreciate your stewardship and your attention to it, so thank you. Item 9: Department Reports A. Human Resources Department: Strategic Plan Update De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 9-A is under our Human Resource Department. Their strategic plan update. Perkins: As you can see we are frozen. De Weerd: It's a popular movie. I can tell you don't have kids or really young grandkids to have gotten that joke. Perkins: No. I'm sorry. De Weerd: My granddaughter can sing you word for word the songs in it, too. Rountree: Pretty much. Perkins: The Disney -- De Weerd: Yes. Perkins: Got it. De Weerd: In fact, at our Parks Department they played Frozen and it turned into quite the sing along, as I understand it. Perkins: And I love sing alongs, but I would not have been able to participate. De Weerd: Just not right now, uh? Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 30 of 42 Perkins: Right. Right. De Weerd: Okay. Perkins: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you very much for this opportunity to present. I know how interesting HR presentations are for all of you, so I will keep this fairly brief and allow for questions at the end. I am going to be speaking on the main areas that really I think have a major impact to the city of the HR function that would be recruitment, retention, benefits, compensation, training, and, then, follow up with some special projects. This is your Human Resources team. You are I think familiar with most everyone. Crystal Ritchie, of course, has been here for some time. Laura Lee Berg was hired in March as the HR generalist and Christena Barney joined us as benefits coordinator in January on our -- we currently have an opening posted for an administrative assistant and we -- that posting just closed on Friday, so we will be pursuing candidates for interview here in the next week or so. Thank you. I just wanted to talk to a couple of the highlights for this last year. I joined the team October 21st of 2013, so just three weeks into the fiscal year and so I'm just about to complete my first year. The reason I'm here at all is because of the first bullet that there was a decision to create two distinct departments out of the formerly combined legal and HR units and I think that now that we have done that, we have got things settled, I think both Bill and I -- Bill Nary and I can say that we are very grateful to have a strong partner in the other department. There is plenty of work to do on both sides. As I mentioned, there was almost an entirely new HR team that was hired and fully staffed as of March 2014. So, we have spent quite bit of time just getting our legs under us for this past year, but one highlight that is not on the slide that I really would be remiss in not mentioning is the work that Crystal Ritchie did to hold things together during the transition, I truly do not know how she did it without totally losing her mind and I am so grateful that we -- that she has stayed with the team, that she is there. She has amazing institutional knowledge and really kept things running while I was getting up to speed, while we hired the -- the first admin while Christena came on board, she spent endless hours training people and it's a good thing that Laura Lee and Christena learned better than I do, so -- she's still training me, so -- but do want to really thank her publicly for all of the incredible work that she has done. One of the first things that you hear of when you think of HR -- or think of when you hear of HR is really recruiting. Recruiting is typically the most visible thing that we do and so I wanted to talk to you a little bit and give you some statistics about what we did this past year. It was busy. There were 49 positions filled and as five of those -- well, we posted 44 jobs in fiscal 2014 to date. There is a couple sitting on Crystal's desk. So, that number will go up slightly. We have filled 49 positions and the difference really represents five positions that were posted that were started in fiscal year 2013, but filled during this year and so this resulted in 70 new hires to the city. These consisted of 39 full time, 11 part time, and 20 seasonal groundskeepers for Parks and Rec. We did have an increased average time to fill of 113 days. That is up over about the 90 days that we had to fill an average requisition. It is important to note that at least six months of the year Crystal was really the only person that was doing any -- any recruiting. Plus we had five jobs -- three in police department and two in Public Works that took well in excess of six months to fill. So, if Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 31 of 42 you remove those five jobs that were unusual and kind of were posted and, then, withdrawn and, then, posted again, so there is a lot of noise in some of that, our average time to fill is really about 95 days. So, it's up slightly, but not as bad as it looked. To that point, Crystal is working closely with Public Works on to -- on a tasking that they had developed to streamline their hiring processes and to reduce that time to fill. So, I think next year we will see a much better number there. In addition, we are going to be reviewing and are currently reviewing our sourcing for those hard -to -fill jobs and, again, we will hopefully make up some time there. Retention. The city has incredible employee retention rate. It is 91.4 percent. We had 31 regular employees leave us last year out of -- and my number that I'm using is 362. That ebbed and flowed a little bit throughout the year, but -- so that the total of the -- the employees that left us was eight and a half percent. Four of these were retired; 16 were voluntary, and, then, 11 of them were involuntary. Two of those 11 counted the animal control officers that we had that went with the contract to the Humane Society. The most challenging positions, as I mentioned, to recruit and retain are those which where -- where we compete directly with the private sector and most of those jobs are in Public Works or in IT. We -- those are the areas where we are going to be looking at our sourcing and looking at our retention for those folks. We have been -- we have retained them and we want to continue to, so we will be giving that some attention. Benefits and leave administration is another large area of impact for the city. We did complete our 2015 fiscal year benefit design review, which was submitted into the budget a little bit ago. One of the changes that we intend to make is to have the benefits committee active year around. Up to this point it has been initiated in the early part of the year to go through a benefit design that would be effective, then, the following year. There is so much going on in the world of healthcare and benefit plan design that we really do feel that this needs to be a year around effort. We are going to make some incremental changes to the benefit plans this year, but we are really looking to make some larger changes and we need to do that in a way that will be acceptable to the employees and to the bottom line. So, it's going to take more work than we can get done with the committee in just a couple of months. So, that's one change that you will see us doing. I do want to acknowledge Christena Barney. Christena came to us in January, as mentioned, and she is relatively new to Idaho, but she held a very similar position for Yuba City in California and we are so lucky to have her. She has a very, very good understanding of benefit programs. She came in really knowing how to manage and run a wellness program and in addition she handles the FMLA leave administration, so -- but the very, very best part as far as I'm concerned is that she's really tech savvy and she can teach me and I appreciate that. But she really -- she really has streamlined a lot of things in the processes benefits administration and thanks to the budget for next year we will be able to streamline our benefit enrollment process, not for this current enrollment, but the one afterwards with these new software modules that we are getting. She did get a stand-alone software module that is -- that she runs on her for FMLA administration, so she is much -- we have been much more actively managing those leaves and more attentive to the notifications and the -- and the processes associated with that. So, that is -- we have a really good handle on what's going on with FMLA. She was able to change out our wellness program advisor or partner. We went from St. Luke's to Blue Cross and so it will allow us to better integrate our wellness program into Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 32 of 42 benefits. We still will utilize St. Luke's for some things, like our -- the matrix and the -- what am I -- what's the word? The what? On site biometrics. Went right out of my head. And so St. Luke's will still be involved and so we are still partnering with them, but Christena has really taken on the administration of the wellness program, which is what we were utilizing primarily St. Luke's for and now it's really through Blue Cross. Christena still does the bulk of it, but there is a very robust website and resources that will be made available to the employees. We have done sort of a soft launch of that, but we will be doing much more when we go through open enrollment. The next area of impact is compensation and we are continuing to work the compensation plan that was established in 2012. It is a really well designed, well thought out program, and I think that money that we spent to -- with the consultants to design that and work with us was very well -- was very well spent, because it works well for us. It started with an internal alignment and -- in 2012 and with a schedule to do that every two years and what that means -- it's really an internal look at all of the positions we have, look at the job descriptions, make sure they continue to be accurate, flag any positions that seem out of whack in terms of their grading. Mark those for the budget process this coming year and, then, really just make sure that we are all in alignment there, so it is what it says it is. It has that -- it in and of itself doesn't have a fiscal impact, it may, then, identify jobs that need to be upgraded, but, again, that will go to next year's budget program. We completed the first merit program in November 2013. Reviewed and validated with 43 employees getting some adjustments, which also included a big chunk for the Information Technology team that had not been reviewed in several years, so we caught up there. Last year we did a market adjustment of one percent for all employees, in addition to the merit program. This year we are actually in pretty good shape, so we are going to use the money that was approved through the budgets all for merit, which means that it will -- we are not going to give anybody money for sitting in their chair, which I know is philosophically where we want to be and so it -- but it really will allow us to retain the integrity of the merit program, so I'm very excited about that. As I mentioned, we updated the IT job descriptions and -- through that market review and we have always initiated an update and a review to a simpler job description template, so it will take us some time to convert our jobs to that, but in this internal alignment that will give us an opportunity to do that. And, then, of course, we have the police pay plan that we will be implementing in this year. The Mayor asked for me to provide a schedule for some major -- just sort of a schedule for the things that we do in compensation and this is what -- what you have here in front of you. The general employee positions for -- for the internal alignment, as I mentioned, is every -- excuse me -- it's every three years, not every two years, and so the first one that we did was 2011 in preparation for the comp plan. So, November 2014 will be the -- the HR team will be working with the directors and managers to validate job descriptions and so forth. We will do general employee market reviews -- and this doesn't mean that we have to look at every single job, but we do a spot check to make sure that we haven't fallen behind and we need to -- we will spot check annually and we will do -- I say a full review, but, again, it looks at all the salary review information every two years, so the next one will be scheduled for 2016. Police STEP plan we just did. That's a two year schedule. So, the next one will be 2017. And, then, fire positions get reviewed via contract, so that's a two year schedule as well. So, just another note, as I mentioned Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 33 of 42 that any new positions that come up throughout the year, you know, if -- if they aren't an immediate need, they will be slated to go through the budget position -- or the budget process. If there is an immediate urgent need we will let the directors to plead their case with the Mayor and do it out of cycle, but we really want to get everything back into the regular cycle. De Weerd: You were supposed to take me out of that, since I know how to say no. Perkins: Yeah. So -- training. We spend quite a bit of time in training efforts. Crystal Ritchie leads this effort and the employees best -- or the city's best training did continue. We conducted 20 different sessions. I say we, but through our trainer that we contract with to do this and so for 20 different sessions for employees and supervisors. We have five modules currently in development that will be ready by the end of the year. Separate from the best training we are in HR creating kind of what we call HR -101 modules that are very informal, but designed to be delivered to supervisors and managers to help them do kind of basic supervisory kinds of things in using more specific examples and working through some coaching one on one with them. So, we have come up with our first one, which we will be talking with the -- or the finance staff around how you effectively manage attendance. So, tardiness and attendance and that kind of thing. The ICRMP compliance training, which we had an opportunity to do annually and it nets us a five percent discount, was completed and so we did realize that discount for the coming -- coming year and we -- we are just going to start on that again for the compliance for FY -15 as well. De Weerd: You might note that that includes Council's participation in that online ICRMP -- Perkins: Driving is the new one. De Weerd: Yes. But you also participate. Perkins: Yes. You will have fun. De Weerd: It's just my friendly reminder. Rountree: We did. Perkins: We will be scheduling that. De Weerd: Well, thank you for that. Perkins: We also -- as part of our retention efforts we have a number of recognition programs and what we have done is taken a look and done some tiny tweaks to some of the programs that are already existing. What we wanted to do this year is to recognize some of the longevity milestones a little closer to the anniversary. We -- in the past we -- we recognized them annually at the employee picnic and while that's a Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 34 of 42 great venue, because you have got a lot of people there, for some people it's before their anniversary and for other people it's after their anniversary. So, we have taken to recognizing those and presenting them with certificates and whatever longevity recognition item that we might have, doing that quarterly. We have asked the Mayor to come and we have gotten some really good feedback from the employees. They really do appreciate that. We have also developed an on -the -spot recognition and appreciation that is very inexpensive and just kind of fun and it's got -- I provide a bunch of goofy little items for directors and managers to hand out just to say thank you to recognize a job well done and it is really just -- it's that frequent timely -- and it doesn't have to be expensive recognition. So, we will continue that throughout the year. It's very informal and we are going to be introducing a peer-to-peer opportunity, so it gives an opportunity for employees to recognize one another and we will be coming to the director team here to talk about that program here shortly. We instituted a bimonthly HR newsletter. Another opportunity for us to reach out to communicate with employees. We try to provide some interesting articles. We try to highlight a benefit. We highlight a policy. It also gives us an opportunity to recognize any kind of special achievements. Again, longevity, new hires, promotions, those kind of things and, again, we have gotten some good feedback on that. We had our annual employee event again at Kleiner Park this June and I want to give some special thanks to Laura Lee Berg. You know, it's always great to give the newbie a really big event to do and she really did a great job on. She had some great ideas. We were able to institutionalize some of them and others we decided not to, but I think it was a fun event. We had 346 1 think people show up or at least RSVP and we I think were very fiscally responsible with the budget and I think a good time was had by all. We had great weather and it wasn't super, super hot, which was one of the main complaints that we heard before. The other program that we have is the employee satisfaction survey and it is a retention tool that in and of itself may not -- doesn't -- it helps us figure out how to retain employees. We determined that it was more effective to do the employee sat survey every two years, as opposed to every year. If you try to do things that -- every year, by the time you assimilate the results, you communicate them, you get action plans and you start to implement, it's time to do the survey again. So, we wanted to have an opportunity for action plans to be implemented and assessed, so we could determine how we were doing on the next time we surveyed. So, we are going to be doing -- we skipped this year's, but we will be doing the employee sat survey next year in the spring. All right. This was our 2014 class of youth work life skills interns and we had a great time. We -- Laura Lee and Crystal worked on this and we ran this program for six weeks and we had -- if you go to the next slide, Caleb. We had 36 applications. Of those we had 32 interviews conducted with 24 participants. There were over 2,600 hours worked within the six weeks at a cost of 19,635 dollars. There were seven departments that participated and several divisions that utilized the interns. There was -- we taught them how to put together a resume. We completed a feedback for each of the interns. And, then, did an assessment of the pros and cons and, hopefully, we will have a few improvements for next year. I do want to take a minute to give Mike Pepin some special recognition, because he went kind of above and beyond in that he was very involved in the resume development workshop and he also worked with one very special intern who needed a little extra coaching and we really appreciated -- he did not need to do that, but he was Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 35 of 42 very very good to do that. So, I think all in all it was a very successful outing. They seemed to enjoy their pizza and their time with the Mayor on their final day and -- or final week and we enjoyed that. De Weerd: Patty, if I may, on -- on this program it's received attention from the Association of Idaho Cities and other -- other communities are working on replicating in their communities, because they do say that it shows their commitment to their youth. It has been a great experience, the few that have, that have implemented feedback from their departments and I know these interns and what I heard in the room when I was there is what they have learned, the new respect that they have for what is the work that's performed in our community and some of them actually now have a near -- a new career goal and as we look at a graying effect of our workforce, being able to engage and encourage our -- our up and coming leaders to take a look at some of our jobs that they may be scarce to have, this is -- this is a great investment in that to bring the awareness to the different municipal jobs that are out there. Perkins: We really wish that our -- that a couple of the interns that we had in the HR Department weren't high school kids, because we would love to hire them. They just can't work full time. I don't get it. So, for next year we have lots of work ahead of us and I -- in my budget presentation I showed a picture of my -- my board and that's still there, but a couple of the things that we are going to be working on -- and the priorities are in the process of being level, because we have an off-site schedule to -- to really run through our strategic plan for next year and that's scheduled for the end of the month, but we will continue to focus on the strength -based leadership and that's the book that I gave to each of the Council members last week and the director team has taken that assessment. We are working on some follow-up for that that we will be having here very soon on and, then, we will really want to continue that and make that an ongoing -- an ongoing learning for us and development opportunity for the directors and we will be including you all in that as well you have to complete the assessments and we go forward. So, we are really excited about that. We have a number of other projects already tee'd up and I have talked to -- I have already mentioned the internal alignment, the employee satisfaction survey. A kind of normal project that isn't on here is, you know, the performance evaluations that occur during the month of, you know, September and October and will be due around the 1st of November, so I will be getting that information out. We intend a comprehensive review on all the HR policies, not with an eye on changing really the intent or content, but maybe cleaning up some of the language, clarifying and so forth, and as we do that we will bring that back to you. The other thing that we will be doing in that is separating the procedures out of the policy and so that we have separate procedures, because technology changes, things change, and we don't want to have to come back and bring the whole policy to you, because it doesn't change the policy, it just changes how we go about doing things. We want to have more flexibility to be able to do that. We will also -- we intend to create an employee handbook out of that effort. Right now what we have is our standard operating procedures and we point the employees there and we will continue to point employees there. But it is this thick and what most organizations have is an employee handbook that is a summary and so our intention is to provide that and it's especially Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 36 of 42 helpful with new hires and, then, do this in a -- in a venue where it will be online and, then, you can link -- if you want more detail you can link directly to the policy. So, that's one of the projects that we have for next year that we hope that we will be able to complete. And, then, another big area of work for us is really around the recruiting and on boarding processes. We have a lot of opportunity for streamlining. We have some things that we have done just because we have done them and so we are really looking at streamlining that process and that is part of what -- what I think will help in that overall time to fill. And with that I will entertain any questions that you may have and I thank you again for your time and it's 5:00 o'clock and I didn't want to keep you too late. De Weerd: Thank you, Patty. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Not a question, Patty. Just a comment. the work that went into that and I really have getting that and reading through that and I love recognition that you're doing, so -- Perkins: Thank you. Milam: -- good work. Keep it up. Great presentation and I appreciate all been enjoying the newsletter. I enjoy the idea of the on -the -spot or on site Perkins: Thank you. Our liaison relationship, so thank you. Rountree: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: You mentioned that you're undertaking the biometrics aspect of the wellness program? Perkins: Uh-huh. Rountree: How secure is that data set? Perkins: Very secure. We are very aware, as is Blue Cross, around HIPAA regulations and will be very -- Christena could speak to that very specifically, but that is definitely something that is part and parcel of how you integrate a wellness program. The biometric piece is separate from the insurance piece, so it -- when you enroll in a wellness program there is a wellness coach that may get some of that if you choose to share that information and they will work with you to make sure that they -- that you are Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 37 of 42 flagging any areas of concern and work with your doctor. They don't check on you, they don't make sure you do it, there is no -- there is no follow up or consequence if you don't, it's just that it's a coaching kind of an opportunity. The HIPAA requirements are all through that. Rountree: Is there any potential liability issue for the city taking that on? Perkins: No, there really shouldn't be. There has -- the biometric piece in wellness programs have -- there are some ways that it can be. Like, for example, if you -- and we are not going to this place -- certainly not at this time. I'm not going to say never, but it isn't our intention to say, okay, well, your cholesterol is here and your goal is down here and so unless hit this goal we are going to charge your premium. Sometimes those goals can get kind of scary and can create some additional liability, particularly if you're dealing with something that might be an hereditary issue, but we are not going to take that on. We are -- the whole biometric -- reason for the biometric is to make sure that the employees have information. It's up to them what they do with it. Rountree: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Patty. Anything else from Council? As you can see, our HR staff is very busy and amidst all of that they are also working on policies and bringing up some procedure. So, still have more of -- Perkins: Doing coaching, doing all kinds of fun things. De Weerd: Yes. Perkins: Thank you. B. Police Department: FY2015 Budget Amendment for Spending Authority for SPF/SIG Mayor's Anti -Drug Coalition (MADC) Grant Award from the Office of Drug Policy for the Not -to -Exceed Amount of $99,814.00 De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, 9-13 is under our Police Department. I will turn this good news opportunity over to Lieutenant Overton. Overton: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, there will be no question on the numbers on this one. This is a four year grant that's only required to come in front of you one time, because once we set it this time it will be good for the next four years. What we are asking for today is a budget amendment to be added to the FY -2015 budget year. This is for a SPF/SIG grant award that we received and I know the question on all your minds is what does SPF/SIG mean. So, knowing that your night will not be complete, SPF/SIG means the Substance Prevention Framework/State Incentive Grant and in the past we have had a drug free communities grant that we had for five years. This is really the same federal grant, very similar, like a close cousin, but it's actually past down Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 38 of 42 through the state of Idaho to the Office of Drug Policy and we actually competitively applied for this grant through the Office of Drug Policy and received it. So, it's similar to what we had before, but only about 30 percent of the amount of work that we had to do, both us and Finance, because the state takes on most of that work in the federal reporting. So, it's good news all the way along, especially for our Finance Department. Now, with these grants this allows MADC and our department to kick back into several of the programs we did before. Now, I will just go down kind of a rough breakdown here on what this means to us, because we have to do a budget submitted for literally almost every dollar of this grant to go forward. We just can't ask for the money, it all had to be submitted in -- in advance. About 10,000 of it is training. Most of that training is required by them for us to send personnel to CADCA training and the nice thing about this grant is they are actually bringing CADCA to Boise, not sending us all over the country for the training. We have got a little bit in office supplies. There is about 49,000 dollars in contracts and agreements and a lot of that is extension of what we have already set up and started and did for the last six years through MADC. Such things as marketing for the anti-drug coalition. A new position that's called an advocacy consultant -- and without saying too much, Madam Mayor, we already have an advocacy consultant -- I got to be careful how to say this -- we can be advocates, but we can't lobby with federal money. So, we have an advocate working for our coalition that we have decided on through a vote of the executive council for MADC and it's a gentleman by the name of Monte. I thought you would like that. De Weerd: And that's by contract? Overton: That will be by contract and we are meeting with him next week to begin that process. We also have an advertising and promotion money set aside, a grant evaluator, which we are going to continue with the same grant evaluator we have had for the past five years. This will also allow us about 48,000 dollars of the money to continue on with the programs we have been successful with in the past, which are a lot of the -- the drug test kits where we go and teach the Not My Kids programs and other programs in the schools. The alcohol enforcement team where we actually lost that money through EUDL. Grants dry up as you go different places and the federal grant that allowed us to do some of that enforcement has dried up. We are able to shift some of that into this new grant and it will allow us to pay for some of those overtime costs for the patrol teams and the youth volunteers to go in and do the compliance checks and shoulder taps at our local establishments on a regular basis. De Weerd: And EUDL means underage drinking. Overton: Underage -- yes. Enforcement of Underage Drinking Laws. Yes. De Weerd: Thank you. Just thought I would -- Overton: There is always an acronym at the federal level. The other thing we continue on with is the IDAFY, which is the youth programs we have in the high schools and we also plan on continuing back into the programs for the leadership of the PAL program Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 39 of 42 and all the youth on the football program seeing if we can go beyond. So, we are really excited to have this back. It's a 99,814 dollar grant per year for four years. We get that each and every year and the only difference being this year -- when we add the federal government they were a little hard to deal with, so they let you make changes to your budget up to 20 percent. They have got a real stickler when we are dealing with ODP and one of my former employees is now running ODP and so they really are a little tight with that money. So, if we make a five percent change we have to go in front of them to justify why we are making a change. But they like our program. They like what we are doing and we are excited to get started October 1 with money. The grant actually begins August 1st. But working with Todd it was a bad time to try to come in front of anyone and say where do I want to begin this. So, we are going to start this first year on October 1 spending the money -- a few months behind on spending, but there are no personnel costs for any city employees included with this. The only ones were ones we are contracting with and for programs and events that we are putting on through this. And I stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Lieutenant Overton. And I just want to commend you for what you have done in prevention, education, enforcement, and treatment. The MADC program has been very successful. It's won a lot of recognition, but what it has done is created programs that are easily replicated. You have been championed to it. You have gone out and paid it forward, which has gotten a lot of recognition and appreciation throughout the state. So, just, please, accept my respect and my appreciation for your leadership in all of this and certainly Brenda and Jewel and the whole coalition has just been phenomenal. So, the awarding of this grant is because of the passion, the talent, and the commitment of those that are involved in MADC. So, thank you so much. Overton: Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I will pass that along to all of them. De Weerd: Thank you. Any questions or comment for lieutenant? Rountree: No. Great. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I echo those thoughts, too, lieutenant. The job you guys do over there is fantastic. With that I would move that we approve the FY -2015 budget amendment for spending authority for SPF/SIG Mayor's Anti-drug Coalition grant award from the Office of Drug Policy for the not to exceed amount of 99,814 dollars. Milam: Second. Rountree: Second. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 40 of 42 De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-B. Any discussion from Council? Madam Clerk. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 10: Future Meeting Topics De Weerd: Council, under Future Meeting Topics I do have a couple of reminders for -- and I know you are aware of the upcoming art walk and the joint meeting with the city of Kuna. But I also wanted to remind you of the 9/11 ceremony. At the ten year anniversary we had a larger event and each year they have committed to keeping it alive, keeping it small, but having a small ceremony. Would invite you and remind you that it is on 9/11 and it starts at 7:40 with a flag raising and at 7:46 we will ask for a moment of silence. So, I will be out of town. Mayor Rountree will be there. I haven't told him. But I hope -- I hope that you can -- can join in this. Zaremba: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: Interpreting an e-mail that I saw recently, in the past we have held that ceremony at Station 1. De Weerd: Yes. Zaremba: And the public was invited. The e-mail I saw said that there will be a flag lowering at every station. I was thinking I would attend the one at Station 2, close to my home. My question is is that appropriate or are we all expected to come to Station 1? De Weerd: No. That's appropriate. Station 1 is a little bit -- I guess not formal, but larger, because of the bell and some of the efforts that have gone in from our firefighters. Zaremba: But would I be welcome at Station 2 as well? Niemeyer: You would absolutely be welcome, Councilman Zaremba. Yeah. It's going to happen at every station. It's a little bit low key this year, as the Mayor mentioned, but we did make a commitment never to forget and so we are going to be doing the same ceremony at every station. This offer is to our patrol officers as well if they are out and about a station they can stop in to help participate. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 41 of 42 De Weerd: It's a few minutes out your day, but it is an important few minutes in the history of our country, so -- and those that -- that were lost. Okay. If there is nothing under this item -- Item 11: Executive Session Per Idaho State Code 67-2345 (1)(c): (c) To Conduct Deliberations Concerning Labor Negotiations or to Acquire an Interest in Real Property, Which is Not Owned by a Public Agency De Weerd: -- I will move to Item 11, Executive Session, and do I have a motion? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 62-2345(1)(c). Rountree: Second. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Madam Clerk, will you call roll. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:14 p.m. to 6:35 p.m.) De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session. Rountree: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn? Rountree: Move to adjourn. Bird: Second. Meridian City Council September 9, 2014 Page 42 of 42 Milam: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:35 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) DATE APPROVED C kO-A-U-k©tet ;AT EST: J CE OLMAN, CITY CLERK pTED A UC Q44OSyvs�Jl city of C�E IDIZ IAN,- �DAHD SEAL Fir ��F dF 9� lLe TRE SUP