HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-04-09Meridian City Council Workshop April 9, 2013
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:04 p.m., Tuesday, April
9, 2013, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, David Zaremba, Keith
Bird, and Brad Hoaglun.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jacy Jones, Bruce Chatterton, John Overton, Mark Niemeyer,
Tom Barry, Bruce Freckleton, Warren Stewart, Steve Siddoway, Mollie Mangerich,
Patrick Dilley, John McCormick, Tracy Crane and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll -call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Brad Hoaglun
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Thank you all for being here and joining us for our City Council Workshop.
We will just go right into our regular meeting. For the record it is Tuesday, April 9th. It's
four minutes after 3:00. We will start with roll call attendance, Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: A couple items to note on today's agenda. 5-B is Resolution No. 13-916.
Under Item 8, 8-13, is Resolution 13-917. 8-D is Ordinance No. 13-1549. 9-G is
Resolution No. 1398 and we need to move that to Item 10-C. So, that will be moved
down under ordinances. Under Item 10-A we need to amend the ordinance title that's
shown here from what is written to requiring carbon monoxide alarms in new and
existing dwellings, establishing requirements for carbon monoxide alarms. And 10-B is
Ordinance No. 13-1550. So, with that, Madam Mayor, I move adoption of the agenda
as amended.
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April 9, 2013
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Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Proclamation
A. Proclamation for Parkinson's Awareness Month
De Weerd: Item 4 is a proclamation. Do we have folks here for this proclamation?
Very good. Well, I will join you down at the podium. So, I will read this proclamation
and, then, I will ask you if you have any remarks. We would love to have you share
them at that time. Whereas Parkinson's Disease is a progressive neurological
movement disorder of the central nervous system which has a unique impact on each
patient and whereas according to the Parkinson's Action Network, the Parkinson's
Disease Foundation, the National Parkinson's Foundation, the American Parkinson
Disease Association and the National Institutes of Health, there are over one million
Americans diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and whereas symptoms include
slowness, tremors, problem with balance and speaking, rigidity, cognitive and memory
problems and whereas although new medicines and therapies may enhance life for
some people, sometimes people with Parkinson's more work is needed for a cure and
whereas increased education and research are needed to help find more effective
treatments with fewer side effects and ultimately a cure for Parkinson's Disease, and
whereas a multi -disciplinary approach to Parkinson's Disease care includes local
wellness, support, caregivers groups -- boy, I am really mutilating this one -- and
whereas April has been proclaimed Worldwide Parkinson's Awareness Month for all to
recognize the needs for research and help in dealing with this horrible disease,
therefore, I, Tammy de Weerd, Mayor of the City of Meridian, do hereby proclaim April
2013 as Parkinson's Awareness Month in the City of Meridian and I call on all citizens to
increase awareness of this disease and the continued need to have research, better
treatments, and an eventual cure. So, I signed this and I apologize to Lisa for my
reading of it. It still is a very serious disease and there is no doubt that we need to find
-- we need to fund better research, we need to find a cure to this, because it does affect
so many Americans and I appreciate the passion that you have for this and invite you to
say a few words.
Bain: Thank you for letting us have some time in the City Council meeting and for
giving us the month of April. My name is Lisa Bain and in addition to being a resident in
Meridian I'm the state director for the Parkinson's Action Network, which is a volunteer
grass roots organization made up of advocates all across the United States and my dad
has Parkinson's Disease. He is one of the many Vietnam veterans that developed
Parkinson's after exposure to Agent Orange, but we have a lot of people here in the
state of Idaho and in Meridian with Parkinson's and one step at a time we move closer
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April 9, 2013
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to finding a cure for this terrible disease and I still believe very strongly one
proclamation and through raising awareness we will find a cure in our lifetime. So,
thank you very much.
De Weerd: Well, I would like to present this to you, Lisa, and have this as -- just to
show that the City of Meridian does care about its residents and we join you in trying to
raise awareness for this disease.
Bain: Thank you.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of March 26, 2013 City Council Regular
Meeting
B. Resolution No. 13-916: Authorizing the City Clerk to Destroy
Certain Semi -Permanent and Temporary Records of the
Meridian Police Department
C. Acceptance Agreement for Display of Artwork of Ron Pridmore
in Initial Point Gallery through August 2, 2013
D. Sewer Main Easement for Bienville Square Subdivision No. 2
E. Professional Services Agreement with Kevin Patrick Kirk, Inc.
for Musical Talent for Concerts on Broadway on August 10,
2013 for a Not -to -Exceed Amount of $4,000.00
F. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Whitman & Associates Inc and the City of Meridian
for Building Inspection Services.
G. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Whitman & Associates Inc and the City of Meridian
for Building Official Services
H. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Whitman & Associates Inc and the City of Meridian
for Building Plans Examiner Services
I. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Jackson Code Consultants, Inc. and the City of
Meridian for Fire Plan Review and Inspection Services
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J. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between DMH Enterprises and the City of Meridian for
Plumbing Plan Review and Inspection Services
K. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Idaho Division of Building Safety and City of Meridian
for Electrical Plan Review and Inspection Services
L. First Amendment to Professional Services Agreement
Between Idaho Division of Building Safety and the City of
Meridian for Mechanical Plan Review and Inspection Services
M. Approval Easement with Various Owners for Sanitary Sewer,
Water, and Recycled Water Mains and Water Service Meters to
Properties as Part of the Ada County Highway District (ACRD)
Franklin - Ten Mile to Linder Project
Parcel # Property Owners Easement Type
3 John Morton Sewer/Recycled Water Mains
4 Jerry Bowers Water Main
4 Jerry Bowers Water Service
5 Dorothy Bowers Water Service
6, # 1 Volante Investments Sewer/Water/Recycled Water Mains
6, # 2 Volante Investments Sewer/Water/Recycled Water Mains
7 Volante Investments Sewer/Water/Recycled Water Mains
9 Joint School District 2 Sewer/Water/Recycled Water Mains
18 Calnon Enterprises Sewer/Water/Recycled Water Mains
19, # 1 Bainbridge/Conley Sewer Main
19, # 2 Bainbridge/Conley Water Main
20, # 1 Bainbridge/Conley Water Main
20, # 2 Bainbridge/Conley Sewer Main
N. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 13-001
Legacy Church by Legacy Church Located South of W. Cherry
Lane, Between East NW 1st Street and N. Meridian Road and
North of W. Maple Avenue Request: Rezone of Approximately
3.95 Acres of Land from the R-4 (Medium -low Density
Residential District) Zoning District to the O -T (Old Town
District) Zoning District
O. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: MDA 13-
002 Red Wing Subdivision by WH Moore Company Located
Southeast Corner of S., Meridian Road (SH 69) and E. Victory
Road Request: Modification to the Cavanaugh Development
Agreement to Exclude the Subject Property from the
Agreement
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P. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: RZ 13-002
Red Wing Subdivision by WH Moore Company Located
Southeast Corner of S. Meridian Road (SH 69) and E. Victory
Road Request: Rezone of 32.87 Acres of Land from the C -N
and TN -C Zoning Districts to the R-4 (16.55 Acres) and R-15
(16.32 Acres) Zoning Districts
Q. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 13-003
Red Wing Subdivision by WH Moore Company Located
Southeast Corner of S. Meridian Road (SH 69) and E. Victory
Road Request: Preliminary Plat Approval Consisting of 48
Single -Family Residential Building Lots; One (1) Multi -Family
Residential Lot; and Nine (9) Common / Open Space Lots
R. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 12-018
Irvine by Northside Management Located Southeast Corner of
W. Chinden Boulevard and N. Ten Mile Road Request:
Preliminary Plat Approval Consisting of 145 Residential Lots
and 12 Common Lots on Approximately 38.5 Acres in an
Existing R-8 Zone
S. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: PP 12-019
Rushmore by Tealey's Land Surveying Located South of W.
Pine Avenue and West of W. Idaho Avenue and W. Broadway
Avenue Request: Preliminary Plat Approval of One (1) Church
Lot, Three (3) Buildable Lots and Two (2) Common Lots
Approximately 5.31 Acres in an Existing L -O and R-15 Zones
T. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: CUP 12-
014 Rushmore by Tealey's Land Surveying Located South of
W. Pine Avenue and West of W. Idaho Avenue and W.
Broadway Avenue Request: Conditional Use Permit Approval
for a Multi -Family Development Consisting of Three (3) 8-Plex
Structures (24 Dwelling Units) in a Proposed R-15 Zoning
District on Approximately 2.17 Acres
U. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: MDA 13-
003 Kingsbridge by Stetson Homes Located East Side of S.
Eagle Road Between E. Victory Road and E. Amity Road
Request: Amend the Kingsbridge Subdivision Development
Agreement (Instrument #105092050) for the Purpose of
Modifying the Landscape Berm Height Along E. Zaldia Street
V. Final Order for Approval: FP 13-005 Spurwing Challenge
Subdivision by The Club at Spurwing, LLC Located Near the
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Northwest Corner of Chinden Boulevard and N. Linder Road
Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of Twenty -Three (23)
Single Family Lots and Four (4) Common/Other Lots on
Approximately 58.25 Acres in an R-8 Zoning District
De Weerd: Okay. After that mess, Council, we are at Item 5 for the Consent Agenda
and I will try and speak better at this point.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: As noted earlier, 5-B is Resolution No. 13-916 and with that I move approval
of the Consent Agenda and the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam
Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Discussion on Pilot Program for Subscription -Based
Collection of Residential Grass Clippings
De Weerd: Item 6 under Community Items/Presentation, I will turn this over to -- Mr.
Nary, do you want to introduce it?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we have before you in the community
items a presentation regarding a new program that the Republic Services wants to do.
Rachele Klein is here from Republic Services to explain what this subscription -based
program will be. So, Rachele is here to do that from Republic.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Klein: I have a packet --
De Weerd: If you will also pass one to the clerk.
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Klein: I may not have enough for the clerk, but I can leave -- I have an extra packet that
I'm holding and I can give you one at the end if that's okay.
De Weerd: You can have mine.
Klein: Thank you, Mayor and Council and Mr. Nary for allowing us to present this pilot
program to you today. As is our duty as your solid waste provider here in the City of
Meridian, from time to time we will bring you programs for your review and in this case
it's a grass recycling program, so we have partnered through the existing SSC contract
with a feedlot in south Meridian, it's in south Ada County and that feedlot has the ability
-- they currently make corn ensilage and they are interested in making grass ensilage
and for the first time we are looking at running a subscription program in the City of
Meridian where a resident can sign up for grass -- grass only collection and the grass
would be collected on their regular service day and taken out to -- at this point the
McGurdy Hills Farm, which is on South Locust Grove where they have constructed an
ensilage pit and the grass would be ensiled there, which is really fermented or pickled
for -- there is a pit and a grassy tight -- tightly packed, so it's in an anaerobic state
versus aerobic state, so it would be parked and pickled and within several months fed to
their cattle. They are working with a nutritionist in the Department of Ag. This is the first
time it's been done. So, in the literature you have before you we don't say -- it looks like
it's going to all be used for cattle feed, which is definitely our intention. However, if it
does not work according to plan we would land apply it and till it in as a soil amendment
if for some reason this doesn't work out. So, this is a pilot program. We hope to launch
this summer starting June 1 st and if it's successful we will probably bring it back to you
for consideration as a franchise item next summer if it's something that you would like to
add. In this case we would do the billing -- if approved we would do the billing and just
sign customers up as they are interested and the -- the rate on here -- I put down 6.95.
We are looking at somewhere between 6.95 and eight dollars and with the rate structure
in the City of Meridian the largest cart is the most expensive and, of course, it goes
down from there to the smallest cart having the lowest price. So, for customers that
keep a large cart just for their yard waste, this would be an opportunity for them to cut
their rate down and go to a smaller cart and, then, add a grass cart to pick up the grass
for the summer months. So, it would be a small -- a small incremental increase, but not
the full amount if the customer decides to reduce their overall trash and add grass
recycling. Do you have any questions? We will be taking this to SWAC next for review.
De Weerd: Great. Council, any questions?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: It sounds like a good idea to me. I think that's great. The one question
would have for Mr. Nary, when we get to the point of introducing what has not been a
fee before -- I know it's optional, but does that mean after it's been through SWAC and
others, does that mean a public hearing?
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Nary: Yes, sir. We would have to do that, so --
Zaremba: Okay.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Ms. Klein, the 6.95, does that include the cart rental as well? All costs?
Klein: Yes. It will be somewhere between 6.95 and eight dollars, but it will definitely
include the car rentals, yes.
Hoaglun: But we still have to have that due to state law there is that extra sales tax on
the rental --
Klein: Uh-huh. Yes.
Hoaglun: -- and stuff that -- okay.
Klein: And that would be the -- yeah.
Hoaglun: Yeah. There is no avoiding that one I think.
Klein: No.
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, thank you. I think this is a terrific idea. We send tons of
grass to the landfill every year and this will certainly extend the longevity of the landfill
and hopefully as it -- as it works -- and I think you're pretty positive that it will -- it could
be expanded within not just Meridian, but other communities and we can get this stuff
out of the landfill.
Klein: We hope so.
Rountree: And if it doesn't work as ensilage for cattle feed, if they are going to
land apply it maybe we could add some other woody matter to it that can be
decomposed.
Bird: Yeah.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
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Zaremba: That thought I was sort of -- you're very specific about this being grass
clippings. Do you have a way to make sure that you're not just getting general yard
waste or does that make a difference?
Klein: Well, it does make a difference. We are -- we are going to really stress it as
grass only at this point. It will be screened before it's ensiled, so -- to pull out anything --
any debris that is in besides grass, but we are trying to reduce the amount of handling
by encouraging residents to put their grass in. So, yes, that's a good point.
De Weerd: So, I guess this goes to SWAC and, then, it will come back in front of
Council with their recommendation and Council would hear it then and, then, put it out
to a public hearing, would it go -- yes. That would be the right process.
Zaremba: My opinion would be go forward.
Bird: Yeah.
Rountree: For those who don't know what SWAC is, it's a Solid Waste
Advisory Committee that's established in the City of Meridian. So, yeah. I'm for moving
forward.
Hoaglun: Yeah. That sounds good.
De Weerd: Well, thank you joining us today.
Klein: Thank you.
De Weerd: And I'm trying to think of cost as I look at getting a second container would
be less expensive than this.
Klein: Right. A second trash container would be less expensive than this and the way
-- the only incremental difference that would make it close would be if you went from a
large cart to a small cart and, then, added the grass only cart and, then, it would be
about the same as adding a second garbage cart. Does that make sense?
De Weerd: It does.
Klein: And certainly this would not be probably for everyone. It's just -- it's an option for
those -- we have had a lot of demand for a green waste program and this is as close as
we have come so far to offering a full green waste program and so it's -- it's the next
step and that's why we figured it would be subscription for -- to see what the interest is
in the community.
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Well, we look forward to you presenting this to our
SWAC and, then, coming back with their recommendations.
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Klein: All right. Well, thank you very much.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. And we do appreciate that -- I know you talked about
this when you came in front of us with the purchase of SSC and so it's nice to see you
moving forward with those items that you discussed at that time. Thank you.
Item 7: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Public Hearing: Proposed Spring/Summer 2013 Fee Schedule
of the Meridian Parks and Recreation Department
De Weerd: Item 8-A is a public hearing on the proposed fee schedule for the Meridian
Parks Department -- Parks and Recreation Department. Hi, Patrick.
Dilley: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, time again for our big season. Our --
lots of stuff going on in the parks, at the community center, and we are at our busiest
and fullest and we are excited for it, coming out of winter and we are ready to go. So,
with that said I would like to thank you, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, for
working to complete a priority use agreement with Joint School District No. 2. For us
recreation coordinators that meant a great deal and for the citizens of Meridian. It's
great that we can work with the school district to increase the amount of service we can
provide for -- not only adult sports, but especially our youth programs. I'd also like to in
the fee schedule highlight our theater happenings this summer. We are going to try to
make use of the band shell in Kleiner Park as much as we possibly can and there are
theater productions going on for youth camps throughout the summer, June, July and
August and there will be a full community center, along with two different sites for our
summer camps now, so we will be able to increase our service even more and I'd like to
thank you again for the review of our fee schedule and I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Patrick. Council, any questions at this time?
Rountree: I have none.
De Weerd: So, before I ask for public comment I will help Patrick highlight and extend
an invitation to City Council for Ball at the Hall. It's a prom for parents and Patrick is
involved with the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council and since I think you're all adults you
do qualify for attending the Ball at the Hall and so -- well, most of the time you're adults.
But I would invite you -- extend an invitation to join us on May 4th. It is a fundraiser for
Ben's Bells, which also was a charity that was introduced through the Park's
Department. I just happened to attend one of their recreation classes on that and the
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April 9, 2013
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youth council did take it on. It's a be kind campaign and so I expect to see you decked
out in tuxes and your wives in their gowns and join us on that evening.
Rountree: Sure.
Bird: I haven't wore a tux in 27 years.
De Weerd: Support the youth council.
Dilley: Thank you, Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to
provide testimony on this item? Okay. Any final comments, Patrick?
Dilley: No, ma'am. Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Council, if there is nothing further, I would entertain a
motion to close the public hearing.
Bird: So moved.
Hoaglun: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 8-A. All
those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
B. Resolution No. 13-917: A Resolution Adopting the
Spring/Summer 2013 Fee Schedule of the Meridian Parks and
Recreation Department; Authorizing the Meridian Parks and
Recreation Department to Collect Such Fees; and Providing an
Effective Date
De Weerd: 8-B is Resolution 13-917. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Would you like me to make the motion?
De Weerd: You know, I think that would be lovely.
Zaremba: I move that we approve Resolution 13-917.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have motion and a second to approve Item 8-B. Madam Clerk, will you
call roll.
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Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
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C. Public Comment: Large -Scale Special Events Update to
Temporary Use Code
De Weerd: Item No. 8-C is public comment on the temporary use code. Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This is the -- the ordinance
we discussed with you last week on changing and tiering a couple of different types of
events, the larger scale events. What we did is we added into that some examples of
the types of events that would meet those criteria that requires the 60 day notice. It
includes street closures or alcohol service as something that would require that type of
attention ahead of time. This has been noticed on our agenda today, as well as it's
been noticed to all of our current event planners that have had prior contacts with the
clerk's office and, then, we have also added them for a second and third reading for
your next two weeks and we have also added an opportunity for public comment into
our published notices, so that way if there are other folks that we aren't aware of that
sponsor these types of events we want to get them on notice now as soon as possible
that these things could potentially impact them if we -- if the ordinance passes and they
have a 60 day requirement. So, that's the only real change from last week. We are just
making sure we put some examples of these larger scale events and, then, secondarily,
that we -- I thought you would like to know how else we would advertise it to make sure
people were aware of it.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: None.
De Weerd: This is a public hearing
testimony on this item? Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Is there anyone who would like to provide
Bird: I move we close the public comment.
Rountree: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing or public comment
on Item 8-C. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. First Reading of Ordinance No. 13-1549: Large -Scale Special
Events Update to Temporary Use Code
De Weerd: We will have the first reading of Ordinance 13-1549. Madam Clerk, will you,
please, read this ordinance by title only.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An ordinance of the City of Meridian amending
Meridian City Code Section 3-4-1 relating to the definition of special events. Amending
Meridian City Code Section 3-4-3A6D relating to standards for denial of temporary use
permit application. Amending Meridian City Code Section 3-4-3C6 relating to large
scale special events and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you. And as our attorney has outlined, this will be up on future
agenda items for additional reading.
Item 9: Department Reports
A. Public Works: Rate Model Presentation
De Weerd: Okay. Under Department Reports we have our Public Works Department
and I will ask -- oh, well, hi, John. I was looking for Mr. Barry. But I think you're a great
person to do it instead.
McCormick: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I presume we are
talking about the rate model presentation?
De Weerd: Yes, we are.
McCormick: Okay. Now, if I can fire this guy up. Oh, they have got it. Okay. There it
is. Easily done. First of all, thank you very much for the opportunity to do this. It's been
awhile since we have gone through this kind of information and it's always helpful for us
to have your inputs and your review of it. This is about water and sewer utilities rate
update based on the modeling that we have done over the course of the last six
months. This process actually started back in October and so it goes through the period
that we are into now and hopefully will culminate today with your approval to move
forward. I would like to offer some acknowledgements. Thank you to our operations
and our engineering team internal to the Public Works Department, as well as the
finance team, who has been very helpful in working collaboratively with us to not only
provide the inputs for the model, but also to do the calibration of it and do sensitivity
analysis and things of that nature, as we run various scenarios with the modeling tool.
The next -- let's see. So, the agenda is to take a look at the fund status. Our current
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model projection look forward and look back in a reflective way on the fund itself, look at
some future considerations and submit a recommendation for your consideration. So --
this is not the right file. Pardon the --
De Weerd: I think I could almost tell a joke about how many engineers does it take to --
something. Or maybe MBA jokes or something like that.
McCormick: The only MBA -- well, I guess there were more than one of us there,
weren't there. Thank you for your patience in that regard. So, the first couple of slides
were correct. We want to start by looking at revenue, expenses, and operating income
and just kind of flow from that into what the status of the Enterprise Fund is, reflect
looking back, and, then, also projecting forward as to the fund itself, look at future
considerations, consider the recommendations or any discussions about that. Okay.
So, with regard to revenue, expenses, and income, we will start with revenue and the
revenue and income drivers that we consider in the rate model are the -- obviously, the
utility rates themselves and the volumes that are associated with consumption and the
mix of that revenue between water and wastewater sales. The growth that's involved as
it relates to development and the growth of accounts and our connection fee in -- we will
see this in a little bit, so I don't want to steal too much of the thunder, but our connection
fee has been used to cover operational expenses and by and large -- and done that up
until the past eight years and we have been willful in that regards in this past year.
Interest earnings and, then, any major improvements that we make in cost efficiency to
drive cost out of the system or to manage and control our costs are also helpful and that
is what helps us to drive the income portion of this. This chart you have seen before. It
is the projection of account growth into next year, but it also gives a good history of the
last five or six years and you can see from there we have a fairly stable and steady
account growth of about two percent a year. That has been very predictable. In fact,
last year we did the estimate on FY -12 and we used two percent and we came in less
than ten off of the total number, so that's quite remarkable. And you can see that the
trend line is for water, but if you plot this same trend line for sewer, which is that green
bar it would be the same slope. It would be in parallel with that trend line that you see.
This graph represents the total utility revenue. So, this includes all revenue that's
associated with water and sewer and the bar on the left, the lavender colored bar, is the
actual since 2005. The blue bar represents the budget that we had at that time and you
can see that six out of those eight years we actually exceeded our budgeted revenue
and if you integrate those areas of variance you would come up with about four and a
half million dollars of additional revenue that we brought it over budget for the eight year
period. On connection revenue it's almost the reverse and you can see here we started
in 2005 at about 10.5 million -- ten and a half million dollars in connection revenue and,
then, we took a dramatic reduction of actually about 50 percent over the course of the
next couple years and, then, a continued gradual decline from there until last year we
had a 59 percent increase from FY -11 to FY -12 in connection rate. That was largely
driven by residential assessments. This is another view of that same data without the
budget information. So, this shows historical assessment revenue. You can see that
dramatic drop off from 2005 to 2007, more gradual decline to its low point of about 2.2
million in 2011. And, then, recovery and a rebound of 59 percent from '11 to '12. That's
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the lower portion of the lower area on the graph. The upper area we found it would be
interesting just to say, okay, so what would it have been if we had a steady predictable
revenue pattern such as we have in account growth, so -- and assuming no growth at all
just from 2005 if we had flattened out revenue at that point over that eight year period
we would have gained an additional 47 million dollars in revenues that we don't have
today. So, that is revenue that is potentially lost that we would have used to fund the
operational costs. This is a view of the capital expenditures for the 2005 to 2012 period.
It is a slide that you probably recognize. I lifted this off of Stacy. She had given you an
update a couple weeks ago and there is a few of the graphics that she presented that
we were impressed with that we wanted to incorporate into the presentation today and
we did so with her permission, so -- this shows how erratic things were back in the early
years of 2005 through 2008 and, then, things started to kind of stabilize and come
together in terms of the expenditure and the budget. So, we see a convergence of
those two elements from 2009 on when we implemented just -in -time financing and it
also speaks to the efficiency of our engineering and operations teams in executing their
capital budgets. This is the carry forward and if we went back prior to 2008, for example,
we would see much larger carry forward, so you probably remember those days and
since the just -in -time concept was introduced in FY -09 we have continually reduced our
carry forward until the last couple of years it is fairly consistent, around two to two and a
half, three million dollars. So, very good performance on our operation and engineering
team behalf.
De Weerd: And, John, I guess I just want to preface it for the record in terms of it's -- it's
a different practice on the just -in -time financing is instead of budgeting the entire project
that is more of a three year project in one budget year and, then, carrying it forward,
you're doing it based on the amount of work that you can do in that particular budget
year. So, you have been able to project out those very nicely and I appreciate the Just-
in -time financing. That gives a much better snapshot of what has actually happened.
McCormick: It helps the engineers to manage their projects much more of effectively,
because they can design and construct in two separate time periods without having to
have the burden of accountability over the total budget in one time period. So, thank
you for that clarification. Then on the revenue and expense side, this is an interesting
chart, because it shows our total expenses and total revenue kind of working in opposite
directions over the course of the first few years and, then, coming together and this is
somewhat of a mirror reflection of the graph that we have showed on the just -in -time
financing. You have got wild swings in spending in the early portion of the time and,
then, a dramatic reduction in the revenue, which is consistent with the previous slide
that we spoke about.
De Weerd: Okay. So, I just don't want anyone to think it's wild spending. It was the
expansion of the sewer treatment facility. So, I'm just very cautious. I'm sure Mr. Barry
over there, who is a public record watcher, that he appreciates these clarifications.
Sorry.
McCormick: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: Your wild swings.
McCormick: And, yeah, maybe a poor choice of words on my part there. Sometimes
when you're in a dry run on these things you use words that come back to haunt you.
But certainly very accelerated spending related to capital plans that you spoke about
and the revenue drop off very much related to the assessment reduction of 50 percent
that we saw in those first few years. And, then, the good news is the recovery of that in
both cases, expenses coming down, revenues coming up, at a fairly steady state in a
very progressive way with the difference in this 2012 time frame being assessment
revenue on the rebound. So, now assessment revenue is about 45 percent of our
operational cost. Status of the Enterprise Fund. In looking back we have made several
improvements to Enterprise Fund. We strengthened fund reporting and the
reconciliation of fund activities. We did that through a collaboration with our operations,
engineering, and the finance teams. We have improved planning and the quantifying of
capital needs. Developed a ten year tool, which is forecast, basically, that expands the
horizon from five to ten years for infrastructure and capital planning. We established
some set aside operational deficiency -- or depreciation, excuse me, and emergency
reserves for both water and wastewater utilities and we established and set aside a
regulatory reserve, which is really part of the undesignated fund balance that we use,
but we earmark two million each year for regulatory purposes and, then, finally, we
adjusted our capital planning and financing strategies to accommodate anticipated
needs and available funding and to that point we also focused on prioritizing and
ranking our capital improvement projects and we did that in collaboration between
operations and engineering teams. We also made other improvements. We developed
some financial tools and strategies and improved the models to drive our accountability
and performance. The fund specifically focusing on performance benchmarks of the
organization and reporting our progress toward -- against those benchmarks. We
tracked and trended performance data using the results to guide improvements in our
delivery of programs, plans, projects and services and we used KPIs and benchmarking
to accomplish that. We also used asset management to drive and integrate
improvements into our operational area and a myriad of SOP strategies and
technologies were used in that effort and it continues to go on. We incorporated energy
efficiency in our plans and operations, namely, in wastewater we use more high efficient
turbo blowers in our tertiary building. We use methane gas instead of natural gas to
heat that building and we also used solar tubes lighting -- natural lighting coming
through the roof to light the building. Collectively those three initiatives alone save us
about 100,000 dollars a year in energy costs. This is also a graphic that I borrowed
from Stacy. It's a chart that shows the ending fund balance of 40 million dollars and
how that is segregated into the different fund categories, so you see the reserve
account for depreciation, emergency, and operating reserves and, then, the remainder
of that is what we refer to as undesignated ending fund balance of 26.6 million. Then
the view that's consistent with that is of that 26.6 million, how much of that capital is
allocated and we have about 21 -- a little over 21 million of that that is currently
allocated. So, that remains -- that leaves a remainder of about five and a half million
dollars in what we call an undesignated fund status. We used a number of inputs for
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our rate model projection. First being the operating reserves -- four months of reserves,
2.2 million of that was in water, 2.6, and wastewater for a total of 4.8 million in operating
reserves, emergency reserves at five million and, then, we also considered inflation and
growth rates and budget execution rates, which are both really big factors in swinging
the analysis one way or the other. The assumptions that we used, we assumed that
population would continue to grow at two percent a year. That our personnel costs
would be three percent a year. In reality we know that it's lower than that, because we
do have some churning that goes on in the workforce that impacts that. Our cost
construction inflation would be 3.2 percent and that's based on current estimates. Our
operating expenses are lined historically and, then, projected execution rates will meet
expectations. So, that's an important assumption. For both the operation divisions, as
well as the construction divisions. The approach here is to model the attempts to
anticipate current revenue needs based on future operational capital and regulatory
requirements. To that end seek to stabilize and manage our utility rates in such a way
that we avoid large step function rate increases and continue to maintain a pay-as-you-
go financing strategy going forward. This is the result of that modeling putting in the
input at 95 percent execution rate for personnel and operating expenses and 75 percent
for construction. That seemed to be reasonable based upon our historical performance
over the last couple years especially and given our improvement in performance on the
construction execution rate it seemed reasonable to kick it up from 72 percent, which is
last year's number, to 75 and the expectation is that we would reach an 80 percent
plateau in this CIP time period of 2014 to 2018. So, this is the effect of all of that. You
see that -- this is a familiar chart. You see the reduction in reserves for wastewater
comes down pretty significantly driven by the projects that are aimed at meeting the
regulatory requirements and improving the capacity and efficiencies at the wastewater
treatment plant. You also see that water is just on a steady gradual increase over this
time frame. These two utilities have really swopped positions based upon how this
looks compared to previous years when wastewater was kind of the one holding the
growth and water was going the opposite direction. So, in total we have reserves over
the time frame that range from 13 and a half million in today -- at today's level and
growth to 14 million, which is a modest four percent over that time frame of five years.
Our ending fund balance will stay pretty constant and pretty stable over the course of
that time, with a balance as low as 19 million in 2017, as high as 24 million 693 in 2014.
Then looking forward we want to continue to do annual planning to mitigate
uncertainties and risk around growth, around assessments, and the revenue that comes
from that regulation. Particularly as it relates to our NPDES permit, which we still don't
have complete insight on, but we do have some -- some ideas about that based on
conversations and what's happened in other areas. And we want to also be aware of
our needs of replacing assets that's part of the infrastructure life cycle and at some point
in time we will begin to do that in -- probably in 2014 we have about ten million dollars in
assets that will need to be replaced. Fund management strategy to prevent wide
fluctuations in the fund balance and rate increases. We want to avoid those step
functions increases, but we may need to have small inflationary increases kick in here in
the next year or so to start insuring that we don't drop too low in our funds and, then,
have to come back with a much larger increase at some other time. Our long term
capital improvement requirements are 54,100,000 over the -- this next five years and
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you can see the distribution of that between wastewater and water. It's very much
skewed toward wastewater. And then in 2019 to 2023 it will grow 33 percent to 70.5
million. This is actually a little bit more than it was last year for the 2014 to 2018 time
frame and a little bit less further out in the 2019 to 2023 time frame. In both cases very
heavily weighted toward the capital expenditures associated with wastewater treatment.
These are the projects that five of them specifically in this time frame that total about 19
million, so that's a fairly sizeable percent of the 53 million that relate to the wastewater
treatment plant and the largest of those is the IFAS aeration basin reconfiguration,
which gives us additional capacity to remove phosphorus and nitrogen from the system.
Four of these are kind of focused on that effort and, then, the lab building expansion you
have heard about and that's specifically tied to regulatory requirement. This is another
slide that we borrowed from Stacy. We thought it was particularly good, because it
reminds us that someday and probably well beyond the time that we have on this earth
for the people that are in this room, but we have a 200 -- about 240 million dollars in
assets that will need to be replaced, as well as any additional assets that we continue to
add to the installed base and it's difficult, if not impossible, to determine exactly how
much money is required to fulfill that, because we don't have a crystal ball and we don't
always know the aging of some of this infrastructure. For example, we are using
different materials now in the construction of wells and in the construction -- in the pipe
construction than we have in the ground that was placed there 50 years ago, so -- but
we don't know the aging of plastic, for example. If we assume that we have a hundred
year life, no inflation and no interest income, then, we would have to save 2.3 million
dollars a year to replace just the assets that we have in the ground today. That's a
pretty amazing statistic. Pretty amazing thought. And so to that point we really tried to
emphasize this save now and spend later concept, so that we have the funds available
when they are needed and we don't have to go out and find a different way of funding
those assets. And, then, most utilities built it into their rate system and those that don't
take crumbling systems that they cannot afford to replace and they are faced with a
situation that, unfortunately, in some cases could even bankrupt the community. That's
a big job, but we are starting early in the process and most of the assets have been
added recently. In fact, in the last ten to fifteen years and so we are fortunate that we
will get a pretty substantial life out of them with the funding that we have now. So, the
recommendation is that there will be no rate adjustment in 2013. And I will stand for
any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Not a question, just a compliment. Thanks, John. Very nice presentation. Very
clear and concise. Appreciate it. And no rate adjustment makes nice for me.
De Weerd: Okay. Other comments?
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Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Thank you, John, for the presentation. Certainly the slide that has the most
impact is the last one and that's always good to know.
Bird: Yeah.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I just appreciate the forethought that goes into this and looking ahead and, of
course, as with the others I'm thrilled with the results this year that it doesn't need a rate
adjustment, but that -- what you have been able to do is make me confident that that
decision not to need a rate adjustment is based on sound economic planning and with
the foresight that we will have the ability to replace the facilities that need to be replaced
as we go and do the maintenance and upkeep and we are not passing along a surprise
to somebody 15 or 20 years from now and I really appreciate that part as well. So,
thank you for your presentation.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other comments? Okay. Thank you, John. And thank you
to all the staff. I know the messenger gets the kudos and any of the arrows if it
happened to be that last line was different, but I know there is a lot of thought behind it,
having sat through the budget line by line criticisms with you all over the last couple
weeks. So, we appreciate your stewardship, the diligence that you give to the budgets
and the just -in -time financing as was shown, we appreciate the more actual and
relevant approach that you give our annual budget. So, kudos to all of you and thank
you, John, for your presentation.
McCormick: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
B. Public Works: Budget Amendment for Replacement of the
Wastewater Division's Andritz D51L High Solids Decanter
Centrifuge from Andritz Separation Inc. for the Not -to -Exceed
Amount of $214,355.00
C. Public Works: Sole Source Form with Andritz Separation Inc.
for the Purchase of D51L High Solid Decanter Centrifuge for a
Not -To -Exceed Amount of $214,355.00
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item, Item 9-B is Public Works, a budget amendment,
comments from Tracy.
Crane: I'm glad he left it on a happy note.
Bird: Because you're asking.
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Crane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you for your time. I'm seeking
approval today on, actually, two requests. The first is a budget amendment in the
amount of 214,355 dollars to replace a damaged centrifuge and, then, if we get that
approval the second would be approval of the sole source form to purchase the
centrifuge from Andritz Separation. One of our two centrifuges sustained considerable
damage from struvite precipitation. I'm sure you have heard struvite before. It's a hard
crystal compound that's made up of magnesium, ammonium, phosphate common in
wastewater plants, especially those that do biological phosphorus removal. This
centrifuge developed a small leak under its fiberglass cover and it grew and it literally
etched a grove all the way around the bowl, causing structural damage much the way a
woodworker would work wood with a lathe and so because of that it was discovered,
factory technicians were brought in and marched to a 15,000 hour overhaul of the
equipment and when we pulled it apart we found the damage. We looked at a repair
quote through the factory service people. The quote was 114,000 dollars. The machine
literally has to be pulled out and shipped to West Virginia, rebuilt, shipped back. Eight
to 12 weeks. During that time we would be down to one centrifuge, which would be --
we would need some kind of contingency plan as a backup, because we produce
55,000 plus gallons a sludge that must be dewatered on a daily basis. So, although we
have another centrifuge we would be at increased risk if something happened to that of
scrambling, so with the contingency plan and all that, the total costs are around 137,000
dollars for the repair option. So, after we got that we took a look at what it would cost to
do a direct replacement of the centrifuge and, then, one that would just bolt directly in
place and, wouldn't you know it, the factory just happens to have one that's coming off
the line and could be available in a couple weeks. The cost, though, is 214,355. That
includes some factory technicians a few days to install it. It's a complete unit. Ready to
ship. It could be here. We are recommending that option, because the repair has such
a high cost and the turnaround time. The repair cost to the existing was about 64
percent of the cost of a new one and when we get done we will still have about 15,000
hours' worth of use on the rest of the equipment and, then, we can keep this one. It was
running when we tore it apart and I instructed them to stop and it's back together and it
could be ran in an emergency process. Of course the factory doesn't recommend that,
because it had some structural damage, but it could be sitting on -- on the grounds on
the site and we would have -- whether it was for parts or emergency to keep the other
two running. It has the shortest turnaround time and it also would supply equipment
under a new factory warranty. So, with that I will stand for any questions on the
centrifuge purchase.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tracy. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: None.
De Weerd: Okay. Do I have a motion on this item?
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April 9, 2013
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Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Rountree.
Mr. Rountree. This is a perfect example of one of those things you don't plan for, but
happen, and having said that, I move that we approve a budget amendment for a new
centrifuge in the amount not to exceed 214,355 dollars and move forward with the sole
source acquisition through Andritz.
Zaremba: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-B. If there is no
discussion --
Bird: And C.
Rountree: And C.
Hoaglun: And C.
De Weerd: And C? Okay. Madam Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Crane: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tracy.
Crane: We appreciate your support.
D. Public Works Department, Environmental Division Department
Report: Fee Schedule Update
De Weerd: 9-D is under our environmental division and I will turn this over to Mollie.
Mangerich: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm here seeking
Council approval for a proposed fee schedule for the environmental division's industrial
pretreatment program. First and foremost I want to communicate to you that this is not
a request for an increase in an existing fee, but, rather, distribution of the fee across
function areas of pretreatment staff. Our pretreatment staff conduct a variety of
functions in order that we may meet EPA's regulatory requirements for a pretreatment
program, from facility compliance inspections, sampling, to meet our local limit water
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April 9, 2013
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quality standards, permitting, technical assistance, extensive data management,
education and providing enforcement when necessary. Two other functions are
completed by our pretreatment staff and that is plan review and final field inspection.
For example, in fiscal year 12 we conducted 192 plan reviews comprised of new
construction and tenant improvements, with the majority of those being the IT's. Fiscal
year to date we have completed 135. So, we are looking to meet if not exceed plan
review. In the past a flat fee of 150 dollars was placed on the plan review function and
there was no fee to be charged whether a final inspection was needed or not. In order
to more equitably distribute fees where service is provided, our proposed fee schedule
is at 75 dollars to be placed on the function of plan review and, then, 75 dollars fee be
placed on the function of final field inspection when necessary. We find this to be more
equitable and compatible with business practices and I'd stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mollie. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor and Mollie, just to make sure I understand, so the fee remains
150 dollars, but you're just breaking it out to the plan review and site inspection just to
differentiate what the costs are for each one?
Mangerich: That is correct.
Hoaglun: Okay. Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: A point also is if you don't have to have a site inspection, which saves the
applicant 75 dollars.
Mangerich: Absolutely.
Bird: I think it's a very good plan, Mollie.
Mangerich: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council?
Mangerich: Okay.
De Weerd: Thank you so much for the update.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
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Rountree: Question for Mr. Nary. We have a resolution in our packet concerning this,
but no number. Can we act on the resolution and do we need to just move forward to
the resolution?
Nary: Let me pull it up real quick. I was looking, Madam Mayor, Members of the
Council, Council Member Rountree -- oh, maybe Mollie has an answer to that, because
I think we have to advertise this change, but maybe --
Mangerich: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council Members. Emily provided me with the
order of go of what to continue with and we have already placed out in the Valley Times
public notices --
Rountree: Okay.
Mangerich: -- that's per required. So, today is my Council presentation. On April 11 th
Emily will be placing a public hearing and resolution on Council agenda.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you for the clarification.
E. Fire Department: EMS Joint Powers Agreement Presentation
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 9-E is under the Fire Department. Chief.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, good afternoon. I'm going to ask
Jacy real quick if we could pop that PowerPoint up. While we are getting that ready and
after watching John up here I'm scared to touch this thing, so I will get through it as best
I can with electronics and while we are getting this ready, as the agenda indicated, I am
here to present the EMS Ada County -City Joint Powers Agreement. I will tell you I'm
very proud to be standing before you today to talk to you about the presentation and talk
to you about the agreement I think that over time we are going to look back on this day
as very historic, very proactive looking at how we can sustain EMS in the future within
Ada County for all agencies. So, with that, before I do get started I do want to introduce
a couple of distinguished guests here with me. They are sitting behind me to the right.
And starting on the left is Mike Irvan, a former boss of mine, and currently the fire chief
at North Ada County Fire District. Sitting next to him you recognize by all these
gentlemen, Renn Ross, the fire chief with the Whitney Fire District. Darby Weston is
now the director of Ada County Paramedics and sitting next to him is Chief Dennis Doan
with the Boise Fire Department. Steve Rutherford was here, but evidently he had a
dinner reservation at some fancy restaurant that he had to get to, so -- which is good,
because if I go past 5:00 I'm going to have to buy him dinner anyway and I can't afford
Steve. So, this is going to be good. Why are we here? And I will let you read the slide
if you'd like, but -- but, in essence, EMS for 35 years we have been putting coins in a
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slot machine hoping that we hit the jackpot of collaboration, cooperation, and as you
know what we have seen is an era of lawsuits and jurisdictional boundary issues and
patient care issues and while we have had small wins here and there, we haven't had a
big win and to put it plainly, the fire chiefs and the director of Ada County decided let's
quit gambling and let's create a future that is sustainable that is full of collaboration and
cooperation to find efficiencies in the structure of EMS service delivery to reduce or
eliminate service duplications, to get our elected officials involved, to get our chiefs
involved, to get the medical community involved and really create a sustainable future
long after we are gone. And that is certainly one of the bucket lists that I have had in
my career so far as the fire chief here in Meridian. So, that's a little bit of background.
Getting deeper, this has been a process that has taken two years and Director Hagen,
the former director of Ada County Paramedics was a part of this process before he
decided to move to California. We are still questioning that -- that mind set and
decision, but that's what he did and so Darby has taken over greatly in his position. But
going back even further -- and Councilman Bird will smile at this. We really gave three
or four years of our life prior to this on the MSO task force and we were trying to
develop statewide legislation that would recognize and essentially regulate EMS
systems. What we came up with at the end of that when the legislation failed is that
Idaho is so diverse you can't create a one size fits all for Idaho. You have to look at that
local set of issues and really create a system at the local level. So, two years of
discussion and debate, it's no secret we had to lick some old wounds and get them
healed through this discussion and we did that and, then, we had a time of reflection, of
analysis and collaboration to finally come up with the EMS Joint Powers Agreement that
we have before you. The core principles and outcomes, we sat down as chiefs and as
the director and said what do we want to see out of this. We can build this system new.
What do we want to see. We came up with that content and, then, we handed it over to
the lawyers and our direction to the lawyers was very simple, make it legal, but don't
change what we are trying to do. And so they did a great job of that. Steve Rutherford
represented the city and he was in constant communication with Bill Nary and Ted
Baird. I'm forgetting who represented the districts. I just -- thank you. Bill Gigray
represented the fire districts and we had one more -- Amber Ellis represented the
county. And so we had all three different facets of this involved in looking at the legal
side of things. In a nutshell, the makeup of this is very simple. As you see before you,
there is a joint powers board. We are going to get into every one of these quickly. And
beneath the joint powers board is the administrative committee and the medical director.
And I know, Councilman Bird, this will look very familiar with what we discussed in part
of the statewide legislation. So, getting into it, the joint powers board, this is the board
that has final authority over all matters of EMS. This is the political authority and what
we have is one representation or one representative from each member agency, the
county will have two, on this board. So, the City of Meridian is the EMS agency
licensed holder for Meridian. The city of Boise is the EMS agency licensure holder for
Boise. We have Eagle fire. We have Star fire. We have Kuna fire. We have North Ada
County fire and we have Ada County Paramedics. Those are the member agencies
that we are asking to sign onto this agreement. I just do want to mention briefly Chief
Regal is not here, he was hoping to be here to show his support as well that -- Fire
Chief Regal. His father has had some health issues and he's dealing with, so he did
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April 9, 2013
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want to pass on his apologies for not being here. The joint powers board. What will
they do? They will receive recommendations from the administrative committee and the
medical directorate. They will approve standing operating procedures for the system.
They will adopt the system medical protocols. They will approve the budget and
financial plan. I want to take just a second to talk about this as we presented yesterday
to the Ada County commissioners board. They had a question about that. This system
will have a budget. To start off with currently the Ada County Ambulance District
receives 80,000 dollars a year from the state in what's called license plate money.
That's money that is generated through the sale of license plates. It's designated to be
used for EMS in a given county. So, that will be the first bit of financial input to the
system. After four years over time as we find efficiencies, the current Ada County
Ambulance taxing money will, then, go into the system as we find those efficiencies
and, likewise, this financial plan and the way we have it outlined in the Joint Powers
Agreement, it will allow for cities and districts also to contribute to the system. An
example of that is very simple. We have in our budget a line item that says medical
supplies. One of the things we want to see out of this is instead of me buying medical
supplies and Darby and Chief Doan buy medical supplies, we buy it all at the same time
under one contract and that's going to lessen our cost. To do that we will collectively
need to put financial dollars into that plan to make sure we can cover that cost. So,
that's what we talked about when we say approve the budget and financial plan.
Approve the deployment plan to response performance standards. Again, we are
looking to eliminate or reduce redundancies in the system. So, after we go through this
process of getting a Joint Powers Agreement signed onto, the next process will be all of
us sitting down to develop that deployment plan and to develop that operations plan, so
that we look at those deficiencies and find them. And lastly -- and the Mayor and I had
a lot of discussion about this one. Unanimous consent is required at this level. We
figure that -- as we will see next the administrative committee if we can't bring a good
solid recommendation to this joint powers board made up of elected officials, we
probably shouldn't bring it to you. We should be able to bring you a presentation,
whether we are talking about medical protocols, response planning, deployment
planning, a future station allocation or locations -- if we don't bring that to you and it's a
solid recommendation we are in trouble and it should come back to us. And so we
understand that it's going to take a little longer to get things done looking at unanimous
consent, but we really wanted an all in Joint Powers Agreement and that's exactly what
this is. So, looking next at the administrative committee that would be made up of the
chief administrative -- administrative officials from every agency, so myself and the
members you see behind me. What are their duties? To provide the operational
expertise to develop and recommend system standards to the board, to develop and
recommend the system operating procedures, the deployment model, the financial
planning, the QA -Q1 process for the system, to provide active coordination between the
member agencies and to solicit and incorporate stakeholder input. That stakeholder
input could be the hospitals. It could be the Central Health District, those other entities
that could have input into the system, depending on what we are talking about. Lastly,
the medical director. Over time -- at one point we had five medical directors in Ada
County. We each had our own and that created some problems, because our standing
written orders weren't always the same, so field treatments were different. We had
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clashes on scene because of those differences. What we are saying here is under this
Joint Powers Agreement we are going to have two medical directors and the reason we
picked two -- ideally we would like to have one -- but right now we have two very
significant hospitals on our -- in our county, St. Alphonsus and St. Luke's. It has been
historically over time to grab one emergency room physician from each one of those
hospitals to represent the medical director and so that's why did it this way. What is
their responsibility? To develop the system's medical supervision plan. This is a
requirement by the state that we all have to develop a medical supervision plan. It
doesn't make a whole lot of sense if we have one here, Ada County has a completely
different one and Boise city has a completely different one. We all operate under the
same system, so we will have one medical supervision plan. Clinical management and
oversight with a common direction for all agencies. Establish the scope of practice. In
other words, what levels of licensure are we going to have here in the system. To solicit
and incorporate input from the medical community. Those two docs have a lot of
connections when it comes to the cardiologists, the neurologists, et cetera, et cetera, so
they will solicit that input. And to identify opportunities for improvement of the medical
care within the system. So, outcomes. What were we looking for as we develop this.
Well, first of all, we were looking for all in. We discussed this at length at the state code
task force as well. How do we keep people from taking their toys and going home?
That's been the mantra of the past and we didn't want that to go into the future. So,
what we said by all in is once you sign onto this we are all in and we are committed to
being married for life. If you decide you want to take your toys and go home that's
great, but you will probably not provide EMS service in Ada County any longer. And to
back that up, the state bureau has seen our presentation, they have seen our Joint
Powers Agreement, they support it fully to the extent that they are willing once we get
this done to put more local control onto us to license people within our system and take
it a little bit away from the state and I think that's a good thing when you can get some
more local control right down here in Ada County and in Meridian. So, that is the all in
commitment that we have. We wanted common medical direction. We didn't want
multiple docs out there overseeing EMS any longer, we wanted two docs to give us the
direction that they want us to take. We wanted a common deployment model. I think
that we can identify areas within the entire county where we have got duplication of
service, where we have overlapping stations, where we have these types of things,
because they were never thought of ahead of time to collaborate them with each other
to truly develop a system that best represents optimal patient care and taxpayer
benefits. Joint purchasing abilities. We hit on this already. Establish process to share
resources. There is no sense in some of us duplicating some of the resources we
purchase when we can share those resources. It does have representation of all
agencies, which was a common theme as we went through this and collaborative
development of the optimal EMS system. So, with that, in closing, I will say that as we
started to develop this we started getting down to the weeds a little bit on let's develop
the deployment now. Well, we knew that we had to have a foundation to build a house.
If we are going to build the walls and the roof we have to have a concrete foundation
and this Joint Powers Agreement as it stands outlines governance, it outlines the
finances and outlines medical direction and as we evaluated EMS systems across the
nation those are the three things you have to have in place first to get that house built.
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You have to have that foundation before you start working on the others. So, with that
we are here to answer any questions. I do plan on next week bringing a resolution and
the official Joint Powers Agreement for consideration of signature. We have presented
this already to the board of the Ada County commissioners and in Commissioner
Yzaguirre's words: I never thought I'd see the day. In Commissioner Tibbs' words it
was a little bit more explicit than that, I guess. He's been around a long time and has
seen some of these battles and some of these issues play out. All agreed this is a very
good thing moving forward and a very good direction. So, I would ask for your
questions and any thoughts you might have.
De Weerd: Thanks, chief. And, indeed, this is years in the making and our
congratulations to the tenacity of those that stuck with it and brought it to the conclusion.
This is -- this is a big win. So, Council, any questions?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Thanks, Mark. We have had this copy for --
Bird: An hour.
Rountree: -- an hour, hour and a half. I have had the opportunity to peruse through
very quickly eight pages. Question for either you or Bill. Is Meridian -- by definition
inclusive and have the authorization of the rural district as the signature? So, they are
not -- they are not a signature of this, so is that recognized?
Niemeyer: That's a great question. Yeah. We looked at that and I mean I have spoken
with the attorney for the rural district and by our Joint Powers Agreement operationally
we are the EMS agency licensed holder and so, therefore, we do sign onto. We are --
with that said, we are doing information meetings with those districts as well, so
tomorrow I'm providing an information meeting to the rural district commissioners. They
are aware that we have been working on this, so that they are informed that this is
taking place. So, I'd defer to Mr. Nary as well on that -- on that answer.
Nary: He's right.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you. No matter how I slice and dice the definitions and the
articles establishing who the parties are and the membership on the board, is that Ada
County has three representatives, not two. They have two for the district and one for
Ada County.
Niemeyer: It should be two county commissioners will serve on the authority board. On
the joint powers board and, then, down below at the administrative authority, Director
Weston will be serving on that, along with the other fire chiefs.
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Rountree: But that's not what it says. It says the joint powers board membership, one
elected official representing each party and each party is identified in your articles and
Ada County is a party and the district is a party. So, Ada County is a party. There is
one. And two elected officials from the district.
Niemeyer: Good catch.
Rountree: So, to me that's three no matter how you count them.
Bird: You're right.
Rountree: So -- and your definitions lead you to the same conclusion. So, I have a
question about why and if the intent is two, let's get it two.
Niemeyer: The intent is two.
Rountree: All right. You talked about the consolidation of purchasing and that's -- that's
great and that's about as far as I got. But I do have a question on -- on one of the points
there. It talks about acquisition hold, but it also talks about disposal of real and personal
jointly owned. How -- how is that going to be accounted for? To me that sounds like it's
going to create an accounting system that I don't think you want to go to and I'm not
sure we want to go to.
Niemeyer: Sure. I can tell you, Councilman Rountree, in the discussions -- all of the
joint purchase items from the system would be in the Ada County Ambulance District
budget. We identified that as the best placeholder for that line item for those dollars.
The language regarding acquisition or dispersal of real property is by district language
in how they dispose of, acquire property or shared property or shared resources. So,
that's about the best answer I can give you right now. I'd certainly ask if any of my
colleagues want to chime in, but that's generally what's been discussed.
Rountree: If it's a gentlemen's agreement and everybody's a gentleman it works, but
sometimes it doesn't.
Niemeyer: Yes.
Rountree: Anyway, I had a question there. The last question I have on those first eight
pages -- when you talk about the withdrawal -- and I think that the intent of what you
have accomplished there is good to keep everybody playing, but I think you missed one
withdrawal and that's the withdrawal if this doesn't work you need a way to disband this
group and you don't. Basically you sign this agreement and you're stuck, unless you
meet the five -- I suppose you could all raise your hand or by a majority vote you can
disband, but it doesn't say that. It says, you know, unless you can't afford it or
somebody is doing something illegal or there is a material breach or you consolidate a
couple entities, you're forever. So, I think you ought to add another one that at least
disbands the organization if, in fact, it doesn't work and I'm not presupposing that that's
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going to be the case, but -- so we don't get into a legal argument at some point in time
in the future if that happens. Take care of it now.
Niemeyer: A few comments and I will certainly follow up with Mr. Nary to --
Rountree: And I'm not through yet, but --
De Weerd: So, I guess, Council, you need a chance to review this and, Mark, you had
mentioned coming back.
Niemeyer: Yes.
De Weerd: So, why don't we have comments at that time. If you have anything to add,
please, get them to the chief and if you will cc the -- the others, so they know the
comments.
Niemeyer: Perfect.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions or comments at this time?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: You know certainly --
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I have one that can probably be disposed of fairly quickly and it's typically a
sideways question. My question I guess is about the customers. Is there any tracking
or reporting back procedure if any one of the agencies is reporting to a certain house far
more often than anybody else's house -- and I mean the hospital emergency rooms
have an issue with people that are using that as their standard medical care.
Niemeyer: Correct.
Zaremba: Do we have any way of tracking that and would that be system wide tracking
and --
Niemeyer: That's a great question, Councilman Zaremba. Currently we do have that
ability, but because we have somewhat lived in silos our data is ours, Boise's is theirs,
and Ada County is theirs. Under this system this would be a shared data model as well,
is one of the things we have talked about as a huge potential. So, being able to acquire
that information ahead of time, so that all agencies are aware of that very issue and
recognizing even a threat to a house, if we go on a call and we have somebody that has
a gun underneath their wheelchair, for example, which is what we just had recently, we
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would have that information and, then, be able to distribute that through the system so
that everybody is on the same page. Absolutely.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: Anything else, Council?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
F. Legal Department Report: Historic Preservation Commission
Seat Designations and Appointments
De Weerd: Okay. Our next one is our Legal Department with the Historical
Preservation Commission.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this one should be pretty quick.
actually have two things. Just to back up for one minute on the TUP ordinance, you
opened it as a public hearing and, then, you closed it as a public hearing, but it's really a
public comment and we have actually noticed it for the next two weeks for public
comment. So, I just wanted to be clear that that was -- that was your intent was to allow
additional comment to be made. So, unless we hear differently that's the way we would
treat it, because it's not a public hearing on the ordinances. But I just wanted to make
sure that was clear on the record. The other matter, though, the one in front of you, the
Historic Preservation Commission, we have had a discussion actually for a couple of
years on appointments on making sure we stagger the terms of the commissioners and
it somehow did not get accomplished, which I apologize for. So, what's in front of you
tonight is an ordinance that will be in the next section, the Section 10, with the
appointments as well of the commissioners, because, actually, all are expiring at the
same time, to stagger their terms so there is one that goes -- that's only for a year and,
then, will expire three years, hence. One that goes off -- the two that go on for two
years and expire three years hence. So, they will be three year terms, but we are going
to stagger them for the next group, so that we make sure that they don't all expire
simultaneously. So, it's one, two and three, they all expire three years subsequently
and the -- like I said, it's on your Item 10-B for the ordinance change and 10-C for the
resolution appointing the specific commissioners to their seats, so it's just giving you a
heads up about both of those changes.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
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G. Resolution No. 13-918: Appointing Historic Preservation
Commissioners to Designated Seats Item Moved to Item 10C
De Weerd: Okay. Item D is moved down to Item 10 and a new C.
H. Continued from March 26, 2013: Clerk's Office: Discussion on
Room Reservation Policy
De Weerd: And so we will go to 9-H, which is continued from March 26 and it's a
discussion on our room reservation policy. So, Jacy, I will ask you to comment at this
time.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I had a PowerPoint that
I'm going to launch and, then, head down to the podium.
De Weerd: Okay.
Jones: Brief pause. Thank you. So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we are
here to talk about an update to our room reservation policy. As many of you know, the
policy was talked about originally back in early 2008 before we actually moved to the
building, so we have had a few years to play with it and see how things have sort of
sorted themselves out in the last couple of years and we would like your guidance
moving forward. As you're aware, the original intent of the room reservation policy was,
first of all, to allow our own staff to have access to that for various training meetings,
HR, things like that and, then, of course, to open it up to the public and our citizens. So,
the HOAs would have access to a fairly low cost room that they could use for their
meetings. It also has a nice facility. We wanted to make sure that we could use it to
inform the public of any upcoming road projects. We have used that a lot in this. We
find that really successful. And, then, of course, we wanted to really limit it to business
type meetings and hopefully prevent it from just being a really inexpensive way to host a
bridge meeting or things like that we have had come up as questions. So, that's sort of
what the original intent is. Highlights of our current policy -- you have the total policy in
your packets, so I won't read through this, but I mean this is -- this is generally what our
intent was and what we have learned is when you don't spell things out exactly right
some things are a little bit in the gray and people fill in the blanks a little for you. So,
that's where we are at. What we are not supposed to be doing is obviously the for profit
ventures or other commercial enterprises. We specify that in the policy and, yet, when
we have certain groups use the rooms we do have to almost reiterate it again, because
they are salesmen or realtors, things like that, and we have tried to make a very clear
line between providing information and promoting a business. I think businesses can
definitely provide without handing out business cards and hoping to generate clientele
out of that. We hope that the furniture isn't removed or added to the rooms without
authorization, largely because of staff time. The table and chairs are heavy and so they
are choosing to do that. We like the advanced notice so that we have time to plan for
that and we do respect -- you know, ask that they respect the property. We don't want
there to be damage to the building. We ask that they clean up after themselves, that
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kind of thing. Our current fees right now are 25 dollars for the first four hours and 50
dollars for the -- any usage over four hours. The fees are doubled, obviously, if they
use both of the rooms. You have a list there and there is the complete one in your
packet as well, the groups that we currently have in the policy as being exempt from the
fee. If you notice, we still have COMPASS in the policy. COMPASS has their own
building now, so now they are using that. VRT then -- again, VRT uses COMPASS's
building. So, there is some updates that we think could be made to that area and, then,
typically refunds, we only issue in cancellation within 48 hours with an advanced notice.
In my knowledge we don't issue refunds very often in this at all, just because once you
get down to that 48 hour period the meetings have already been noticed or the public
attends meetings or the groups are aware that it's happening and so it just tends to
move forward at that point. So, here is what actually happened last year. We collected
1,800 dollars in fees. We had 23 homeowners associations use the room. Not all of
those are Meridian HOAs. Two political action groups, ten developers used it for
neighborhood meetings and, then, we had a standing meeting with the city of Ketchum
for their insurance meetings. And, then, there is 46 additional groups who use them
regularly who do not pay a fee, that's just a sample, obviously, but that's not all of them
and we have provided a list in your packets as well of everything that -- you know, every
group that used it. So, we are talking 475 meetings were coordinated and held in the
Council conference room or rooms A and B. So, for our staff an estimated 15 to 20
hours of our staff time is spent each week handling room reservations. This has sort of
fallen under our administrative assistant's job and so right now Holly coordinates that.
She's been working with IT to develop a new calendar system that is through Outlook so
it's available in all of our employees' computers, so they can basically access and know
what rooms are available at what point. It's also broadcast on the web, so that
homeowners associations or those groups that do use them more frequently can log in
and check the availability from home, which we hope should help alleviate some of that
time that Holly spends on the phone scheduling those, but -- so she does schedule and
coordinate the standing meetings. There are groups that we knew rent, you know, the
first Tuesday of every month and so she works all of that. She posts directional and
welcome signs for all of the groups, especially ones that are in meeting room B,
because oftentimes if the wall is closed for meeting room A other groups cannot see the
entrance to meeting room B, so she generally puts one in the lobby and, then, in this
main hallway out here just to kind of guide. We open and close the walls between
rooms A and B, which sounds like a silly point, other than it takes two staff members to
do that. So, if we are changing the room several times during the day that's two staff
people that have to get away from the phone to do that, which can be a little bit of a time
crunch. Holly is the go to gal as far as the AV system. One of the things that the policy
does request is that if they need AV help, that they have coordinated that in advance.
What we have found is that doesn't always happen and so Holly oftentimes, to the best
of her knowledge, goes in there and assists and, then, of course, IT comes in and helps
when they can. We have found out that we also do a lot of organizing of the rooms,
chairs and tables, and we clean up after the meetings a lot. And when we are talking
clean up, we often have John help us, because it's things like vacuuming, wiping down
the tables, or finding that people bring in food, but aren't always respectful of the space.
So, that's sort of fallen under our -- our other tasks associated with this. So, moving
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forward, we would like just your guidance. These are some of the questions that we
have been working on and I'm more than happy to answer your questions and, then,
take your feedback. We can bring this back for a future meeting, so you have got some
time to look through everything that's in your packet. But this is just an issue. So,
should one sponsored meeting for an organization mean all future meetings are free?
We have had an issue where a homeowners association has had a staff member attend
their meeting and so their fee has been waived, but, then, the homeowners association
will call and say, well, last time you didn't make us pay the fee, so why do we have to
this time. And, again, it's not spelled out in the policy, so we have explained that as
best as we can, but I think having something in the policy that defines those situations
would be really helpful and, again, does a city employee attending the meeting mean
that the reservation fee is waived. I think what we have talked about is when a city
employee is sponsoring the meeting that we would waive those fees, but does
attendance in itself mean that there shouldn't be a fee for that. When a city staff
sponsors a meeting should they be a part of the setup and cleanup process. That,
again, is one of those things to sort of be respectful really of Holly's time and her time
away from the phones and assisting the general public as they walk in when she is
gone, the citizens at large sort of lose that benefit. Do we want to increase fees,
possibly, to compensate staff time? And, then, the other question that has come up,
too, is, obviously, we need to update the list of groups that do not pay fees. Right now
we don't charge a fee at all when Labrador's office has used a room. Part of that is their
lease with us, but we have had other local politicians -- Senator Fulcher, for example,
who have asked to use a room and we haven't charged the fee for him. Do we want to
have it in the policy just to make it clean across the board. So, that's sort of our thought
on that. We just think it's time that we update that a little bit and more focused on the
fact that it does require a good portion of one of our staff member's time, probably a half
time job for her during the week, which is completely fine. I just don't know if that's what
our intention was going into it. So, with that I stand for questions or would take your
direction and, of course, I guess if you would like some time to review we can bring this
back in a future meeting.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, maybe to add a little bit onto what Ms.
Jones said, when we -- when we established this policy in 2008, we tried to model it
after the use of the police's public meeting room, so that's where the fee originated
from, because that was what we were charging for the police room and so I think it's
appropriate for the Council to consider, you know, what we are talking about, because,
obviously, our use has become significantly more than the police. I have asked the
police -- I asked Chief Lavey and Deputy Chief Basterrechea if they have experienced
any significant changes to their use and they really haven't. I mean they certainly used
it, but it's used predominately by law enforcement personnel, it's used predominately --
mean it isn't exclusively, but certainly the rooms here are used greater by the public
than our police facility and it may be access or use or whatever, but it's -- it's certainly
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used to the benefit of the community, which was our intention, but there are some things
-- the clerk's office usually asks us the same questions on should we charge for this or
not. Is this one within or without the policy. The idea was to get -- like she said, it was
to make sure we weren't supposed to be -- you know, having birthday party rooms and
we weren't supposed to be the place for people that wanted to go out and sell things, it
really wasn't trying to be that, it was trying to be community access and I think we have
done a pretty good job of it, but I think just the questions that we have seen come up
and ask that you should at least weigh in and I know you have got other business that
you might want to attend to, but we wanted to make sure we introduced it and if you
wanted to do it later or come back, give you some time to digest that, we can certainly
bring it back on a future meeting.
De Weerd: Jacy, I think it would be helpful to get the PowerPoint to Council and let
them look at it and give it some thought and have it on a future meeting agenda. Mr.
Rountree.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, maybe I missed this, Jacy, but are -- are the fees that we are
collecting sufficient to at least take care of the facility? I know they probably don't even
come close to taking care of staff time that gets devoted to some of this stuff. Are there
any things that we have to do in terms of fixing broken chairs and taking care of the
carpeting and all that kind of -- is that pretty much being taken care of by the fees or --
or is this a cost center to us, as opposed to something else?
Jones: Madam Mayor, Councilman Rountree, Members of the Council, yes, we are
collecting enough in fees to cover for our costs. Luckily for us the tables and chairs are
really really heavy, they are high quality, as much as we move them they haven't
seemed to be damaged. It's more things like just general cleanup, throwing trash away
and crumbs and that kind of thing. So, it's more just some Clorox wipes type of
situation.
De Weerd: Well, I can definitely answer one of those is the staff sponsored. They
should set up, clean up, and put things back how they found it, so --
Bird: We are probably the most guilty of not doing it.
De Weerd: Well, Mr. Bird, you should do it.
:]To■0Or, -3-3
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, also maybe Council Member Rountree,
the most significant cost, probably, in those rooms would be the repair of that divider
wall, because it is electronic, if it needed to be moved. We had to rekey it, which cost of
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a little bit of money, but it was certainly covered by the fees. The original keys were
only from Ohio, didn't get a local key manufacturer, so we had to send to Ohio to get a
replacement. So, we had it rekeyed for that purpose. But, otherwise, fortunately, we
haven't had to suffer that, but I think that would be the only significant expense from a --
from an equipment maintenance facility. I agree with Ms. Jones it is more of a staff time
-- part of it is our own doing to be fair to our public that uses it. Our -- our electronic
system, as all of you can attest, they are not very intuitive to people and so to then say
you have to handle your own electronics in that room isn't really helpful to them. For
those that meet during the day we do have IT staff that can help them or the clerk's
office staff, but a night they really can't. I mean it really isn't that easy to just plug and
play as people would think. So, sometimes our staff need is really a necessity, because
it's just the way it's designed. So, I do want to be fair. It wasn't like they just are a staff
drain necessarily. Sometimes it's just by the way it's set up, so --
Rountree: Thanks, Bill.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor, question for Jacy. The -- when elected officials have
meetings I assume these are -- I think for Congressman Labrador that's a part of his
lease package as he's doing that, but for other elected officials, say a state
representative, state senator, those are for public meetings that are public, as opposed
to campaign related meetings.
Jones: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, Members of the Council, yes, they are just
town hall style meetings, so they are informational. We have not had a situation where
it's been a campaign -- campaign promoting event at this point.
Hoaglun: Okay. I would think there would be a -- we could separate those.
Jones: Agreed.
Hoaglun: As a public service versus something they have to pay for.
Jones: Sure.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Just in passing, as some of this was going by, I think I noticed that people
are able to use the rooms up until 9:00 p.m. Does that involve a staff member having to
stick around to make sure building security -- I know we have to fiddle with the timing on
the locks, so that people can get into a later meeting, but when the meeting is over do
we have anybody here to make sure the door is relocked and nobody's hiding in one of
the bathrooms and going to come out a 2:00 o'clock in the morning do some mayhem
or --
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Jones: Madam Mayor, Council Member Zaremba, Members of the Council, the answer
to that question is no. After 5:00 p.m. we do not stay. We provide dog keys, which are
to lock the doors that are not on the key card to the general public. We lock the key
card side when we leave at 5:00 p.m. and, then, we provide the dog key for somebody
else, they would check it out during the day, so we keep a log of who is checking out the
keys and Holly does a fantastic job of making sure that those are returned to us. As far
as the security risk after 5:00 p.m., that's not something that we have experienced. I
know that when we have a meeting -- for example, tonight when we leave I generally
make sure that the public and things like that are cleared out of the Council chambers
before I lock it down and leave for the night. But on a regular basis it hasn't been an
issue. It is one of the things that is part of the application we do ask for a responsible
party, so if something happened we at least have a contact person that we can go back
to. But for the most part anything that goes out late at night has really been
homeowners associations and there are groups that we deal with all the time and sort of
have a comfortable relationship and open communication with, so it hasn't been a
problem as far as security. I think we feel comfortable with that.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Additional on the security, we don't generally allow the public to rent a room on a
Friday evening, because, again, no one's here the entire weekend, so that's another
measure of security that we have implemented and, additionally, at 5:00 o'clock almost
every door in this building locks and the building is -- the building is checked prior to the
end of the day by our maintenance staff, so the only -- the key card only opens that front
door and it doesn't open any other door. So, once you're in the building there is
nowhere else to go, except exit. So, you can't enter the stairwells, you can't enter any
of the offices, you can't get to the second floor or the basement, you can only get out an
exit door and that's all you can do. So, we have tried to at least eliminate the potential
for damage. It doesn't mean that someone couldn't throw a trash can through the
window and certainly it's possible, but, otherwise, we try to eliminate access and use so
that we limit the opportunity and, then, we do have an automatic system that locks the
door at a particular time, so that if the doors didn't actually -- didn't get locked by the
user, it gets locked automatically by the system.
Zaremba: Thank you. Both.
De Weerd: And we also have security cameras, too, so -- after the fact we can see
what happened.
Hoaglun: One last question, Jacy. And that's sponsorship by employees. As an
example, Bruce Freckleton was to host plumbers to talk about carbon monoxide, just to
pull a topic randomly out of the air. You know, he's sponsoring the meeting, of course,
he's a city employee, but he's doing it for a city purpose and as an employee and it's
part of his job. So, we allow -- if a city employee wants to sponsor a homeowners
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association, they are doing that as part of that organization, not necessarily as a city
employee. Is that usually how it works?
Jones: Madam Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, Members of the Council, that's a line that
is in the gray area. A good example is that same -- yes. So, if Bruce sponsors the
plumbing meeting, the next time that the plumbing group decides to meet, they want to
meet here -- when Bruce calls and asks, we don't even have him fill out the registration
form, we, obviously, just put down him as the contact and things like that and maybe the
time that they are planning to be done and, then, we coordinate keys with him and
locking up, et cetera. But we have had instances where, then, the plumbing group
comes back again next month, they weren't aware that there was any kind of a fee,
they, then, don't want to have to pay and we also present them with the form at that
point, because now we are dealing with an outside group. We, to my knowledge -- and
I could confirm with Holly and, then, get that information back to you. I'm not aware of a
city employee asking to sponsor a group that is not related to their job or business in
some -- some situation. What we generally end up with is the city employee sponsors
the first meeting and, then, all other subsequent meetings are the ones that tend to sort
of be confused as to who paid that fee. But to my knowledge it's -- we don't have our
city employees doing that very often. I think the only thing that we do that's yearly that
is more outside of the city is the bazaar that they do at Christmastime and, no, there is
no fee for that one.
Hoaglun: So, Madam Mayor and Jacy, I guess, we just have to ascertain if that -- the
plumber's keep meeting, because it's pertaining to a future ordinance that's still a public
purpose, as opposed to a private purpose. So, somehow we need to ascertain are they
here for a public purpose or a private purpose, so --
Jones: Exactly. Yes, sir.
Nary: And Madam Mayor? Council Member Hoaglun, the other additional type where I
think city employees may be sponsoring something is you may have a city employee
that may be an officer in a statewide organization or countywide organization and they
are hosting either a meeting or an annual meeting or something like that where we
have, essentially, sponsored that, but, again, it's part of their job, it's part of their -- they
are in that position in that organization because of their employment, not because of
their private participation like your HOA example.
Jones: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Council Members, I -- just as another instance,
we did have a recent C of I luncheon here and it was in conference room B and it was
attended by several city employees and I believe it was originally coordinated with the
city employee and we did not charge a fee for that and I think that's arguably not city
related, but so many city employees attended that I think that that, again, was a little bit
fuzzy as to whether or not there should be a fee for that.
Hoaglun: And, Madam Mayor, considering it's -- Idaho is one of Idaho's finest --
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Jones: Absolutely.
Hoaglun: -- institutions of higher education, I think that was perfectly acceptable.
Nary: Finest institutions of higher education.
Hoaglun: The College of Idaho. No.
Bird: I wouldn't argue that.
De Weerd: Oh, brother. That is a stretch. Okay. Any other questions? And I think the
HOA -- now is this -- when an HOA is -- is meeting, Ken goes and spends ten minutes
with them, that they are counting that as the city staff's meeting?
Jones: Madam Mayor, no. With the HOAs, Ken attends those in his position, but we --
Ken doesn't generally coordinate them. The HOA is actually who does that. They go
through the same form they fill out and they pay the 20 dollar fee. So, there is times
where Ken has or Robert has -- we have had -- you know, Caleb attended different
community meetings for a developer, that type of thing and they have paid for those in
the past. It's -- I would think, though, that if -- if Ken were to sponsor the meeting or
start a meeting because he's a part of his own personal home HOA, that would be a
situation where I would be absolutely comfortable wanting to charge that fee.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, he usually attends just to give an update. It's not -- it's their
meeting, he's just begging off ten minutes of their time, so --
Hoaglun: So, he's part of the agenda, Madam Mayor, is what you're saying? He's not
the host, the sponsor, he's just part of the agenda?
De Weerd: We usually invite ourselves.
Jones: That's good.
De Weerd: So -- any other questions? You may want to take a look at the list. I know
staff wants some guidance on that. Anyone we are missing, some that are not relevant
to be on that list any longer, so if you can take a look at that and get the comments to
the clerk's office. Any other questions that -- we would seem to have discussed all of
them, except the list.
Jones: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm comfortable with that. I can get you
a copy of the PowerPoint so that you will have that for review and, then, if you have any
questions as you're reviewing material or come up with a scenario, you have got a
question on contacts, myself or Jaycee Holman or Holly would be in our office and we
would be happy to help you.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
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Jones: Thank you.
Item 10: Ordinances
A. Agenda amended to reflect the change in the ordinance title:
Third Reading of Ordinance No. 13-1547: An Ordinance
Amending Meridian City Code Section 10-1-3 and 10-5-2
Adding Local Amendments to the International Building Code,
International Mechanical Code, and International Residential
Code, Requiring Carbon Monoxide Alarms in New and Existing
Dwellings, Establishing Requirements for Carbon Monoxide
Alarms
De Weerd: Okay. Item 10-A is the third reading of Ordinance 13-1547. 1 will ask
Madam Clerk to read that ordinance by title only at this time.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An ordinance amending Meridian City Code,
Section 10-1-3 and 10-5-2, adding local amendments to the International Building Code,
International Mechanical Code and International Residential Code, requiring carbon
monoxide alarms in new and existing dwellings, establishing requirement for carbon
monoxide alarms and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: Okay. At this time I will invite Bruce's comments.
Freckleton: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Per your request last
week at the end of the public hearing period I did go back and make the requested
changes. You had in the ordinance delivered that to -- to the clerk's office. Hopefully
that is in your packet. As you can see we did remove all provisions dealing with natural
draft appliances and the ordinance as it stands right now is -- contains the provisions for
carbon monoxide detectors in new and existing dwellings. So, I was very happy to hear
Mark's comments tonight with regard to the Joint Powers Agreement and the
coordination that they have with their databases for the calls -- the types of calls and
that sort of thing. It's something that perked my ears up and I want to talk to Mark a little
bit more about that. As we hold quarterly meetings with the Treasure Valley building
leadership group it would be -- it would be really good information to be able to take to
those group meetings to be able to see if we do have issues that we need to address on
a larger scale. So, with that I would stand for any questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Any questions from Council?
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
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Zaremba: Just a comment. I am fully in support of this provision and only tempered by
disappointment that we are putting the other two original positions -- provisions off. I
know work will continue on those to what was the first provision to require that all new
construction have any of this equipment not be in the conditioned space. I know we are
hoping the state will move on that at some point and monitoring that and if the state
doesn't move I certainly would welcome having this come back to us for Meridian's
action. What was the second provision, I can agree that that needs more work. So, for
the moment I am happy that we are at least getting this one piece. I will comment -- the
thought struck me out of the blue the other day. Chief Niemeyer had sent around an
e-mail expressing that there have been some good successes out of the smoke
detector distribution program and the thought struck me, gee, if the federal government
is interested in helping distribute those might they help distribute carbon monoxide
detectors and his answer was that he's already working on that with a regional group as
well and my thinking is if sometime that comes to fruition we need to let the public know
that they can comply with what we are talking about passing tonight possibly free if they
have a need.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Zaremba, for that comment. Anything further from Council?
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: Bruce, you specifically identify a UL numbered single station alarm. Are
there other alarms out there that might be UL approved or are they in the making? I
guess what I'm getting at is if that's the only one, great, but if there is something else
coming down the road do we want to say this or an equivalent or this and any future UL
approved device or --
Freckleton: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council --
Rountree: Or do you enjoy bringing these things back and --
Freckleton: Councilman Rountree, it's a great opportunity for me to be here in front of
you, so -- no. You know, the -- the UL 2034 is what is in current code. The single stage
alarms are what's -- what's in current code. However, I will tell you that the 2012 codes
that the state will be taking up for adoption -- I have not looked specifically at that
section of the code, but what we are doing right now with what I'm asking you to
approve, these provisions are contained in the 2012 codes.
Rountree: All right.
Freckleton: So -- so, in other words, as they move we are going to move with them.
Rountree: And as we adopt the 2012 and then --
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Freckleton: Absolutely.
Rountree: Okay. Very good.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council?
Bird: I can make a motion.
De Weerd: Okay. Before I would ask if there is action that the Council would like to
take I would just put one more question out. Is there anyone who would like to provide
testimony or comment on this item? No? Now have had -- oh, I'm sorry.
Calkins: This is Ken Calkins again. I'm just one of the silly plumbers. In the -- in the
agenda it said prohibiting natural gas systems in occupied spaces in residential
occupancies. It wasn't what was read, but in the agenda it says that.
De Weerd: Yes, sir. We did amend the -- correct the agenda at the beginning and that
is why I asked it to be read as well.
Calkins: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: So, you heard the correct title.
Calkins: Okay. Good. Thank you.
De Weerd: So, thank you. Nice catch, though. We are glad to see you were paying
attention.
Calkins: You know, if I -- if I can just take a minute. And I just want to say -- and I have
attended a lot of Boise City Council meetings and I am just thoroughly impressed with
the City of Meridian and the way they do their Council meetings and the involvement.
I'm just absolutely impressed.
De Weerd: Thank you very much.
Rountree: Go out and corner Channel 6 and tell them that.
De Weerd: We appreciate you sitting through -- you have a lot of experience after all
three of these readings of being here for the entire meeting. So, we appreciate you
spending time with us.
Calkins: Thank you.
De Weerd: We almost want to continue this forever so you will just come back. I'm
kidding. So, we did have this read by title only and I did not ask if there was anyone
who would like to like hear it read in its entirety, but I will put that as an offer out there, in
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case someone wants to hear it all. Thank you, Ralph. I'm glad you didn't raise your
hand.
Hoaglun: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I would move approval of Ordinance No. 13-1547 and the Mayor to sign and
the Clerk to attest.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-A in its current form and
its gone through several reiterations. Any discussion from City Council? Madam Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
B. Ordinance No. 13-1550: Amending Meridian City Code section
2-1-3(C) - Terms of Historic Preservation Commissioners'
Seats
De Weerd: Okay. We did -- we do have an ordinance under 10-B. That is Ordinance
13-1550 that will be followed by a resolution, but, Madam Clerk, will you, please, read
Item 10-B by title only.
Jones: Thank you, Madam Mayor. An ordinance of the City of Meridian amending
Meridian City Code, Section 2-1-3C, relating to terms of Historic Preservation
Commissioners seats and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title only. Is there anyone who
would like to hear it read in its entirety? Seeing none, Council, what would you like to
do?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve Ordinance No. 13-1550 with suspension of rules.
Rountree: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-B. If there is no
discussion, Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Moved from 9G: Resolution No. 13-918: Appointing Historic
Preservation Commissioners to Designated Seats
De Weerd: Item 9-B was moved as 10-C. Council, this resolution is 13-918. Yes. Do
have a motion on this resolution?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve Resolution No. 13-918.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-C. Madam Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Hoaglun, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 11: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Council, we are at Item 11. Is there any topics for future meeting agendas?
Rountree: Can't think of any.
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I would have two comments. We talked maybe a month or so ago about
getting together the City Council with the P&Z Commission and Idaho Power, who
wanted to give us an update on their eastern Treasure Valley plan and get it
incorporated into our Comprehensive Plan. My understanding is we have pretty well
settled on the 5th Tuesday in July, which would be July 30th; is that correct?
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De Weerd: July 30th. Yes.
Zaremba: So, I'm just warning everybody we are talking about having a 5th meeting in
July. The other issue is I was contacted and I believe some of the other City
Councilmen were contacted by a gentleman who would like us to revisit smoking in bars
and his point was that he's taking his business to Boise where they prevent smoking in
bars, because he is -- and his buddies want to go drinking, they don't also want to be
subject to smoke and I know we are considering expanding our no smoking on city
property issues, but the question is do we want to revisit discussions we have had
earlier. The bartenders, when we were talking about it, made the point that they would
lose business by prohibiting --
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba, we can't have a discussion about it.
Zaremba: Oh. Okay. Well, I'm just saying why --
De Weerd: We just want to bring up topics and --
Zaremba: -- why this guy wanted it on the agenda and my question is do we want to
discussed again.
Rountree: Madam Mayor, I think we all had the same discussion and I explained the
history to the gentleman and he seemed quite okay with that and that we may or may
not approach the subject at some point in time in the future.
De Weerd: Okay. So, I guess that answer is we don't need any future meeting topics.
We do have the joint meeting set for July 30th and it seems like the potential topic has
been addressed at this point. Okay.
Zaremba: Thank you.
De Weerd: Anything further from any other Council?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. I would entertain a motion to adjourn our regular meeting.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: All those I favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:11 P.M.
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(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TAMMY DE WEERD DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
JAYCEE HOLMAN, CITY CLERK