HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-06-09Meridian City Council Workshop June 9, 2015
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday, June 9,
2015, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree, Keith Bird, David
Zaremba, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam and Luke Cavener.
Others Present: Bill Nary, Jaycee Holman, Bruce Chatterton, Caleb Hood, Warren
Steward, Jeff Lavey, Mark Neimeyer, Steve Siddoway and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll -call Attendance:
Roll call.
X David Zaremba X Joe Borton
X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird
X Genesis Milam _X_ Lucas Cavener
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. We will go ahead and get this meeting started. For the record it is
Tuesday, June 9th. It's a couple minutes after 3:00. We will start with roll call attendance,
Madam Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: On Item 4-E the resolution number is 15-1069 and on Item 4-G the resolution
number is 15-1070. And Item 8-F, it's been requested to amend the agenda Legal and
Fire Department discussion and approval of an interagency joint powers agreement and
with those additions, Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the agenda.
Bird: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Final Order for Approval: FP 15-015 Heritage Grove Subdivision
No. 2 by Green Village Development, Inc. Located Northwest
Corner of N. Locust Grove Road and E. Ustick Road Request:
Final Plat Approval of Twenty -Two (22) Single Family Residential
Lots and Five (5) Common Lots on Approximately 4.31 Acres in
the R-15 Zoning District
B. Final Order for Approval: FP 15-017 Timbergrove Subdivision by
Steve Arnold Located West Side of N. Centrepoint Way and
North of E. Ustick Road Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting
of Twenty (20) Buildable Lots and One (1) Common Lot on
Approximately 4.94 Acres in the C -G Zoning District
C. Final Order for Approval: FP 15-018 Vicenza Subdivision No. 2 by
Cottonwood Development, LLC Located North of W. McMillan
Road Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten Mile Road Request:
Final Plat Approval Consisting of One (1) Building Lot and Ten
(10) Common Lots on Approximately 9.34 Acres in the R-4
Zoning District
D. Approval of Change Order No. 2 to Pegasus Planning and
Development for the "PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PLAN — MULTI
PURPOSE EVENT CENTER" Project for a Not -To -Exceed amount
of $8,500.00
E. Resolution No. 15-1069: A Resolution for the Vacation of the
Existing Water, Sewer and Pressurized Irrigation Easements on
Lot 1, Block 2, Umbria Subdivision, Ada County, Meridian, Idaho.
F. Amendment to the Accela Land Management Maintenance
Agreement
G. Resolution No. 15-1070: A Resolution Adopting Meridian Arts
Commission Traffic Box Art Image Repository
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: With the previously approved addition of the resolution numbers I move that
we approve the Consent Agenda. Authorize the Clerk to attest and the Mayor to sign.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Madam Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll Call: Rountree, yea; Bird, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Community Items/Presentations
A. City Youth Scholarship Presentation to Melissa Stevens
De Weerd: I'm going to move down to the podium and, Robert, is there any packets that I
have to -- okay. Melissa, I will ask if you will come and join me up here. Melissa Steven
is one of our youth scholarship recipients and I have had the privilege of working with
Melissa over this last year. She was on our executive committee and was just absolutely
thrilled to see her blossom over this last year. Melissa is graduating from Compass
Honors High School. She has been a leader on the youth advisory council for the last two
years serving as our secretary and I will -- I have already challenged our incoming
secretary to try and do as good as Melissa did. She was awesome. She was timely. The
responsibility that she showed during this last year -- last two years has been
phenomenal. I can't say enough about that. Melissa took her role as secretary very
serious and, as I mentioned, went above and beyond. She was constantly challenging
herself and fellow MYAC members to be more efficient and effective in their leadership.
She held us all accountable for better follow up and I had also the privilege of interacting
with her when the team went to Austin with us and saw the leadership that they -- they
took during that time. They did stand out over and above all the other youth. I am biased,
but it was proven. So, in addition to her time on MYAC, Melissa served as a volunteer for
the Idaho Food Bank. She was the fundraiser director for the Ronald McDonald House.
Huddle leader for Fellowship of Christian Athletes. And president and secretary for the
National Honor Society. Melissa will begin college this fall at Point Loma Nazarene
University and study secondary English education. So, I will give you one of our City of
Meridian pins. Robert will give you whatever I was supposed to and just thank you so
much for your participation on our youth council. You have made a difference in our
community and I greatly appreciate it.
Stevens: Thank you very much. I would just like to say I really enjoyed being a part of
this city and being in the youth advisory council. I know that that had to go through
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approval to you and so thank you for all your support, it really makes a difference in all the
teens' lives and I loved being a part.
B. City Youth Scholarship Presentation to Maggie Moulton
De Weerd: It's been hard saying goodbye to our seniors this year. They were a dynamic
group and as you saw at our last Council meeting we have an incoming group that are
mostly seniors, so next year will be all the same. Our next recipient, if you will come
forward, Maggie. Is Maggie Moulton. Maggie is graduating from Rocky Mountain High
School and has a weighted GPA four of 4.15. Maggie takes every opportunity to serve
others, whether it's at church, school, in the community or in the sports area. She has
served as president for her church youth group. Participated in Rake Up Meridian and
Linder Road Cleanup. Collected over 10,000 pairs of shoes for children in Africa and
collected hundreds of cans of food for the Meridian Food Bank, as well as other numerous
volunteer activities. Maggie's greatest passion and desire to serve others through the
practical of physical therapy. She will be attending Idaho State University -- go Bengals --
to pursue her undergraduate and eventually her graduate in physical therapy. So,
congratulations, Maggie. We give you this City of Meridian pin. The check will be sent to
your university. But congratulations and thank you for your contributions for our
community.
Moulton: Thank you so much. I'd just like to say thank you so much for this scholarship
and for the opportunity to continue to pursue my education. I had so much fun serving
this year and I just want to say a little bit about one of my favor things, which was the
Read With Me program where I got to work with kids at elementary schools and I just love
serving them and seeing their happy faces. So, I have had a great time serving. So,
thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. And so I would again state to Melissa and Maggie as you go out
and spread your wings and get your education, start your careers, we hope that you start
those careers -- or return back to our community where you have already had a profound
difference in setting your seed, letting it grow, but we do want you to come back and start
your careers here and raise your family. So, we wish you great success and we hope to
see you again soon. Thank you. You know, I wish that everyone who had a criticism for
our -- our new generation or our next generation could read these applications and meet
the people that -- these students that are so involved in our community. I think that would
put their fears and complaints aside, because we have an outstanding group of teens in
our community and it makes me very proud to be able to offer these scholarships that are
really funded by the sponsors of the State of the City and give them that recognition from
the community using those community dollars to say you have community backing. So,
anyway, enough said.
C. Valley Regional Transit Annual Report and FY2016 Budget
Request from Kelli Fairless
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De Weerd: We will move on. Our next item is 5-C, which is Valley Regional Transit
Annual Report and I will welcome Kelli to the podium.
Fairless: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I always love the opportunity I get to follow those
inspiring young people and I think that happens every time I come to do this report. I think
I have come before when you have had young heroes who have called 911 and I always
feel like I wish I could be that inspiring when I'm speaking to you, but it actually warms my
hear to know how much Meridian values your youth and -- and all the great things that
your youth accomplish while they are engaging in civic opportunities and I have a
presentation I think on the system somewhere. We will see if I can get the machine to
work this time. I might have to -- there we go. Always push the power button first. Okay.
Let's see. Yep, that works. Just, again, every time I come I kind of remind you about who
Valley Regional Transit is and as a regional public transportation authority we are
accountable to local governments, that's why I come back every year and as often as you
will allow me and let you know what our activities are and how we are out there working
for -- on your citizens' behalf. We are responsible for public transportation and for
coordinating regional services and supporting private providers. So, as a reminder Valley
Regional Transit doesn't directly operate very many services, but we are -- our effort is to
try to bring different services together and coordinate them. Our priorities for the last
several years have been to secure stable funding and explain -- expand the public's
understanding of benefits of regional public transportation system. Our goals are
demonstrating stewardship, building community partnership, and improving organizational
capacity. This particular presentation I'm not so much giving a report about the last year,
we met with the board to kind of ask what sort of information do elected officials want to
know about our activities and this year the board suggested we spend a little time kind of
talking about how we are funded, you know, going back to the basics. So, some of this
may be a repeat and I apologize for that, but, hopefully, you will -- you will benefit from
the information. Just to remind you, we are divided -- our service area is divided into two
areas for our federal funding and there are federal formula areas. The red lines represent
the larger urban area, which is Nampa -- I'm sorry. Which is Boise, Meridian, Eagle,
Garden City. The purple boundaries represent the small urban area, which is Nampa,
Caldwell, and Middleton. Our urban funding -- we get what we call Section 5307. It's
about 3.4 million annually. That can go toward capital infrastructure, equipment,
preventative maintenance, planning, operations, and mobility management. Some of
those funds are what are matching the project that we are going for the Saturday route for
Meridian. Section 5339 is really a capital only -- capital equipment and preventative
maintenance. We get about 350,000 a year for that. And Section 5310, which is serving
older adults and persons with disabilities, services, we get about 350,000 in that area.
The small urban area, which Meridian also benefits from these funds, these are the funds
that support the inter -county services that travel through Meridian and those as you can
see are smaller dollar amounts. The one message is that we leverage every federal dollar
that we can with a local match in our system and we are highly reliant on federal funds.
So, every federal dollar requires a local match and it's 50 percent for operations and this is
in the -- generally 80 percent for capital planning and preventative maintenance. In the
large urban area we prioritize all of our federal funds for capital and maintenance. The
city of Boise right now over matches the federal dollars by a few million and -- and, then,
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we are able to match the capital and -- as I said, by 80120 match. In the small urban area
it's about 40 percent of the system is funded with local dollars and 60 percent is funded
with federal dollars. So, we are very reliant on the federal program to be able to provide
the services that we do. Our local contributions come from, one, a per capita assessment
and I have at the end of the slide Meridian's amount for these. A per capita assessment,
which is the same -- it's around I think 46 cents per every resident of the incorporated
areas and, then, the county does the unincorporated areas. So, they are unduplicated
population are special members which don't have their own population are the highway
district, Boise State, Meridian Development Corporation, Capital City Development
Corporation, and College of Western Idaho. They pay a flat rate every year for their --
their participation on the board. We support our regional administration and operations
with those funds. The operations contributions are directly -- are from the service
operations and those are allocated among lots of jurisdictions, so, for example, the
services that serve Meridian are also funded by Nampa and Ada County and Canyon
county, so, you know, I guess the phrase it really takes a village. For every one of these
services if one funding partner decides not to fund the service, it causes the whole thing to
kind of fall apart. So, we have been really fortunate. In the last several years we have
had really stable funding. We haven't had much increase in funding, but at least real
stable funding. A little look at our current services. In Ada County we have our 15-6 bus
stop -- bus routes. We do have one Garden City bus route and our access, which is -- it
doesn't swerve persons with disabilities, it serves persons with disabilities in Boise and
Garden City. I usually let the -- the people I'm presenting to find my typos, but that one I
decided to point out myself. In Canyon county and Meridian we have our four local routes
in Nampa and Caldwell and, then, we have the five inter -county routes. The one -- one of
those inter -county routes is funded by Boise State and CWI and the rest are funded by a
combination of the different jurisdictions I mentioned before. We also have a service for
persons with disabilities in Nampa and Caldwell. Those are our federally required what
we call ADA paratransit services and we don't provide those services in Meridian,
because the services that are going through Meridian don't -- aren't required to provide
those, because they are limited stop only during the peak hour. So, our business model
for regional public transportation is a model of coordinated mobility where all of our
services are organized under our valley connect plan and they divide up into traditional
transportation, community transportation and commuter services and the City of Meridian
really has some services under each of these categories and, then, it's all held together
through our customer information center, which we call Ride Line. Under coordinated
mobility we have Ride Line, as I mentioned. We did launch our Boise Bike Share system
in spring this year and that's serving downtown Boise. That is -- the operations with that is
being funded through sponsorships and private partnerships. The initial investment in the
infrastructure was through a federal transportation alternative program grant, so through
that federal and local partnership we have been able to launch that system and it's at least
getting a lot of positive attention and we are seeing the ridership increase. We -- under
coordinated mobility program we also are putting a network of services for older adults
and persons with disabilities that Meridian has been participating financially in. We have
been serving veterans through what we call our veteran van and we are also serving low
income job access through a program we called Mobile Village and we have been working
on a healthcare transportation access plan, which is looking at -- we got a grant through
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the National Center for Mobility Management this year and they are providing technical
support and a 25,000 dollar stipend to help us work with healthcare partners in looking at
how we can improve people's access and our particular project is focusing on lowering
readmissions. One of the barriers we are finding in our research to people maintaining
their health after a hospitalization is transportation and this is trying to help address that
need. A little review of our service design principals. I'm going to go -- I'm skipping a few
of these, because I think I have just done this recently with all of you, but just as a
refresher, our service classifications -- we have classifications that align very primitively to
the road system. In our plan -- what we call our premium corridor would be those high
frequency, high capacity, major regional corridors. This is in our long range plan and
encompasses long plans some type of high capacity service that could be rail based or
some sort of dedicated right of way for bus in the high -- in the major corridors, like 1-84 or
some parallel to that and, then, Highway 44 as well is identified. The primary route are
regional bus -- these, again, too, are high frequency and they connect communities. The
inter -county routes that serve Meridian would be a classification of a primary route.
Secondary routes are local bus services. Those tend to have lower frequency, but they
are more focused on covering and serving neighborhoods and, then, we have our special
services, which are Americans With Disabilities Act and community based transportation.
We have a classification for rural services and, then, express commuter type services.
Our service design principles are focused on high quality, which is safe, clean, and
reliable, providing a pull -- sorry -- full pallet of services, whether you're in a rural,
suburban, or urban community that our plan demonstrates regional equity, so there is
some type of service for all parts of the region. It's not a one size fits all, but it fits -- it's
the right service for that community and our design principles around direct, simple, and
easy to understand, where we don't provide service in very large loops. We focus on two-
way routes to try to minimize the travel time as much as possible, make it as convenient
for people as possible. We build our routes around 15, 30 and 60 minute frequencies,
again, for the ease of the customer to understand the schedule and all of it is based on
fixed bus stops, so it's predictable location and try to make it as seamless and customer
focused as possible and this is the visual of the plan and all of those types of services are
incorporated in our valley connect vision. The other thing around transit is this concept of
the competing goals and we spent a lot of time as we were developing our plan really
looking at what is the right ratio. It's not one or two of the other, but what's the right ratio
and our board years ago adopted a policy that 30 percent of our service hours would be
related to coverage services, which are the serving as -- people that are a little more
difficult to serve. It's not as much based on ridership and -- and productivity as much as
it's based on covering a lot of area and giving people some access, even if it's less
frequent. The productivity side of that equation is when we are serving high demand
areas, high frequency, the goal is to minimize the subsidy and have as much ridership as
possible. So, this last year we did a couple of community surveys. One, we surveyed
riders and we also surveyed what we call nonriders or the community to get their input on
some issues around public transportation. This is something we would like to do every
few years just to keep our finger on the pulse of what 's working and not working and it's
great input into our planning process. I do have a more detailed summary of that that I will
leave behind, but I was going to keep this while we went through the slides and this is,
again, more detail here. We conducted the surveys on our Valley Ride buses in Boise
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and Nampa -Caldwell, the intercounty -- all the routes, basically, and Boise State
University shuttles. Eight hundred and fifty-seven surveys were completed between April
28th and May 1 st. The consultant who did the survey planned for 400, so they were really
excited about people's willingness to participate. We ended up with a margin of error of
just plus or minus 3.3 percent at a 96 percent confidence interval, so this is a statistically
valid survey that we did. Our overall findings were that half of the riders are between 18
and 34 and if you compare that to the general population we tend to trend to younger in
our ridership. Riders are more likely to have household incomes of less than 20,000,
which always could be representative of the fact that we have a younger demographic and
probably the way the services are designed we probably tend to have more low income
riders, because for some that -- as you will see in the survey results they are very reliant
on the system. One quarter of our riders are self -disclosed as frequent riders and more
than two-thirds state they rely on the system for nearly all their trips. So, that's to me a
pretty remarkable number and it tells us that with as limited of a service as we provide the
fact that so many -- such a high percentage of people rely on it for nearly or all their trips,
they are people who really probably don't have a lot of other options. Work is the most
common trip purpose, followed by school and appointments and that the average rider
takes 23 trips per month, which is what we would expect for people who are using it
primarily for work, because that's about how many workdays there are. And the overall
riders are somewhat to very satisfied with service and to be really honest I was kind of
surprised at that, because we also get the feedback that we don't operate frequently
enough, that we aren't -- our span of service, but I think again, the people who are riding,
if they don't have a lot of other options, the good news is at least they are satisfied they
made that system for themselves, which is -- which is good. Just over half of all the riders
state that they have a driver's license, so there is a large demographic that are riding that
don't. Fewer than one-third have access to a vehicle and that vehicle might not be very
reliable, but they do -- but, then, there is two-thirds that don't have access to a vehicle.
Saturday service was identified as an area for improvement, both in Canyon county and
Ada County, because we have very limited Saturday service in the Boise area, but we
have no Saturday service in Ada County or Canyon county and three out of the five that
were -- claimed that -- that the spanned service, how early and late the buses run and
how often don't often meet their expectations. The community survey -- we had 405
interviews that were conducted between April 18th and September 7th -- or, I'm sorry,
August 18th and September 7th. This had a plus or minus margin of error of about five
percent with a 95 percent confidence interval. What we found in this survey -- again some
of the highlights -- that nine out of ten residents that were surveyed have heard of Valley
Ride. So, there is good name recognition of the service. We also found that the
awareness of CommuteRide, which is more -- hasn't been as well known to the general
population, though that's doubled since 2007 to 38 percent. So, people are becoming
more and more aware of alternative transportation options. The awareness of transit
service is somewhat lower in Canyon county, but you would expect that. That service has
been there a little less time. Two-thirds of the residents state that they are supporters of
public transportation in the valley and one-third have a positive attitude regarding how well
Valley Ride meets their expectation. So, again, with -- with as limited as our services are,
I think we will take that as a compliment, so -- one in five residents believe that if the
service was more convenient, if it -- they would have a high potential to use public
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transportation. So, that pent up is out there. They would use it for special events and
commuting to work or school and I think pointing out that comment about special events --
many people who come here from other places or have traveled to other places using
public transportation to get to ballgames and concerts is just the way to do it. They -- so
we do have an opportunity to leverage people's positive experiences with public
transportation in other places and that to me points out that people do think about those
things. The three most important growth related issues that were identified -- and this was
not -- we didn't ask people to rank order them, they came up with these on their own, was
traffic congestion, public transportation and the economy and unemployment. About two
years ago, three years ago we did a similar survey and, of course, the economy and
unemployment was the highest, most commented issue -- growth issue in our region.
Residents agree that there is value to having public transportation. Three out of five
residents stated they were either strong supporters or moderate supporters of public
transportation and compared to other communities what -- they primarily believe that --
that when you compare getting around by car, that our region is better than other places.
If you look at walking and biking that we are about the same as other places and it doesn't
surprise is to note that -- that public transportation, when compared to other places in our
region, they would say it's worse. We also did outreach to our elected officials and our
board members over -- early -- or late last fall, early this year to get a sense of what's
important to the communities that we serve from their perspective and pretty much every
-- everybody we talked to economic development is foremost in people's minds and there
being more opportunity for business growth and increasing the employment base in our
communities. We heard a lot about emphasizing sustainable, livable, healthy
communities and this was both urban and rural, Ada County and Canyon county, these
kinds of issues came up in the discussions and that expanding community connectivity is
foremost in a lot of communities' work plans, increasing path, sidewalks, and bike lanes.
There was a recognition that transportation plays a key role in economic development. It
was noted that that's relative to public transportation and airports, that people really are
thinking about this as an integrated system and not just one type of transportation or
another. Urban areas -- there was a -- more focus on public transportation as a way to
provide commuter options, reducing traffic congestion. In rural areas their view of public
transportation is really serving those underserved populations. I think being able to have
seniors and veterans and youth be able to live and recreate and get around in their
communities where they may not have other types of choices. Our service activities -- just
a quick update. These are the routes that directly serve Meridian. The route 40 is our
Nampa -Meridian express. Route 42 is the Nampa -Meridian limited stop. That's the route
that operates all day. They have been in operation since 2005. We started the Saturday
bus in the fall and I have got a report on some of that ridership for the end of the
presentation. Community Link is the service for older adults and persons with disabilities
and the Meridian Senior Center has been participating in that program. There is a little bit
of a -- we have had a little hiccup with our federal funding partners that we are working
through. We have that 350,000 dollars in our large urban area that's available. There is
250,000 dollars available in the small urban area and we are getting through an
agreement with FTA on how Valley Regional Transit coordinates that. They are used to
those fundings going directly to senior centers and our business model is to try to
consolidate or coordinate the administration, so that each senior center doesn't have to
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administer their own program. They are delivery transportation, rather than worrying
about federal reporting and that short of thing, that we become the -- the administrative
entity and it's a business model that FTA is not familiar with and so we are working
through some of those bugs. But we still are -- Meridian Senior Center is still out
providing services and hopefully within the next few months we will get some of those
bugs worked out with our federal funding partners. We have initiated an analysis of our
western Ada County and Canyon county service structure. This is going to be an analysis
and a recommendation for how to restructure those services to better fit the funding levels
that we have. So, my -- my just kind of thinking through what this will look like to kind of
prepare you, would probably be some options of -- if we stay the same, so do nothing
option against a very scaled back -- you know, what can we do well with the amount of
services we have, rather than the be all things to all people approach and, then, with the
what would it look like if it really was funded in the way that -- sort of the more visionary
option to see -- so you can compare where we are today with where we think the service
could be some day and what are the steps to get there. So, that is underway. I talked to
you when I was here the last time about our Public Transportation 101 and this is an
opportunity -- I'd really appreciate some feedback. I -- we have a lot of the elements of
this kind of pulled together. The one thing that I'm curious about -- I understand how busy
elected officials are and I know that the grand vision of every elected official to go through
the program for -- in its entirety -- because we were trying to not only do a breadth of
information, but to go into some depth of information. So, there really is an understanding
and one idea that I was doing an academy sort of approach where one or two or more
council members, elected officials from each city could participate and it would be an
opportunity to work with your elected officials throughout the region, so not only would you
be gaining an understanding about what public transportation might mean to your
community, but you were also able to, you know, appreciate how it affects the rest of the
region as well, which would require a couple of people to commit to a series of meetings
and my thought is if we do an academy style, maybe do it each year and have council
members go through it each year. The other option is that we could bring it to the elected
bodies and try to meet with all of you and do it through work sessions. I think that one is --
just because of the scheduling it would be a bit challenging for us, but we would be
committed to, you know, at least prioritizing maybe some of the larger cities where we are
working on service issues and -- and prioritize, you know, the -- especially the urban cities
in doing that. So, my question is in our discussion -- and I will -- how do you think that
could best work and, then, I wanted to thank you before my remarks for your -- we
appreciate your -- your support and have always appreciated -- and we are one of your
neighbors and a member of your community and that's something that means a lot to me
personally and I have been really excited about our new location. It's not so new
anymore, but it's been great to be in downtown and just so you have the information that
we sent -- each year we send out our funding requests, I just thought you would get a
summary of that compared to the year before. With that I would appreciate any
comments you have on the Public Transportation 101. 1 would be happy to answer any
questions you might have.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? I guess I have -- you know, that jumped up 40,000,
what that's related to?
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Fairless: I think that 167,000 probably doesn't include the 30,000 for the senior centers.
I'm guessing that because I -- it was something that I had thought about after I had asked
our staff person to put that in there, that -- that the total increase request was 2.5 percent
for this year. So, the 30,000 we showed here for the senior services wasn't included in
that 167,000. So, we haven't actually invoiced you for that full 30,000 yet, we invoice you
as we do trips, so you're only paying for the service that's delivered. But you have
budgeted the last few years for 30,000 for the senior center service. So, I apologize,
that's confusing. So, your actual amount is about a hundred -- that you budgeted last year
was around 197,000.
De Weerd: Okay. Can you tell us what kind of -- how that service has been working with
the seniors?
Fairless: It's getting better all the time as far as the coordination. I think the -- the first
year there was a little bit of just trying to learn new communication -- you know,
communication and understanding, what the system was intended to do. There is I think
a higher level of collaboration and cooperation in the system now and we haven't really
done as -- the kind of marketing that we will do eventually, because I still want to get these
bugs worked out with the FCA, but in terms of -- of what -- the delivery of services from
Meridian Senior Center, they are participating fully, they actually came and participated in
some working groups to help us figure out how to make this a more regional system and
have been participating at that level. Eagle senior center has signed up to be part of the
network and they will also be serving Meridian trips, because people will come from Eagle
to Meridian, they will do some of the edge services in Meridian that Meridian Senior
Center isn't operating those hours, so it kind of is a way to expand options to Meridian
residents, but it doesn't have to be a particular provider, we want to think of it as -- as a
service provider. The other thing that Eagle Senior Center is doing is they have agreed to
test our reservation system, so that we can start coordinating the trips more effectively
and they have been -- they have also put their vehicle in the vehicle sharing pool. So, I
think we will be able to demonstrate through the Eagle Senior Center how this system
could work and I expect that as we do that we will get more other senior centers wanting
to participate as well.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Kelli, on the Saturday route, that 60,000 --
Fairless: Uh-huh.
Bird: -- in your opinion for the ridership that we are getting on that, we could put that
60,000 in a better place I believe.
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Fairless: This -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, there probably are some other kinds of
options we could look at. I think one of the things, as we looked at ridership, we had --
September there was about 109 rides, which I think the novelty of it got a lot of people out
and trying it. October we had 63 rides. November we had 126 rides. So, there was,
again, a lot of interest and, then, when winter came it just tanked and went to 17 rides the
entire month of December. We have data missing from January, but I'm guessing
January was probably very similar to December's ridership and, then, since February we
are seeing a steady climb from month to month. What this might be telling us and what
we will know at the end of the summer is this a seasonal route, where maybe it's
something that could be done and marketed to a more seasonal audience, especially --
and that's why we want to see what happens in the summer. We started it in August last
year, so it was after school was in session and so I'd like to reserve judgment on that until
after. We are more than happy to come back mid year and offer some suggestions on
ways we can change the route to get more productivity out of it and increase and improve
your return on investment, but I think that's a very fair question and I think it's something
that we should look at.
Bird: Thank you
De Weerd: Any other questions? Comments? Okay. I just have a request and I know
that we all struggle to say what kind of services are -- our citizens are getting and have
you put anything together in terms of VRT services by city or agency, you know, by
service class, number of bus stops, number of routes, the ridership by stop and -- I don't
think you know this, but how many of them are Meridian citizens and, then, versus the
contribution of each of the agencies.
Fairless: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I -- we -- with this route restructure those -- that's all data
we are going to really dig into and look at. We do have ways of collecting that data and
have on our website -- on the Valley Connect plan, there is a list of all the existing
services by community, so we are able to say at least what's available. I think the level of
detail you're talking about is something that we need to do in relation to the route
restructures, so as we are going out to the community they see, you know, the hours of
service and -- as well, not just the different types of services and those are on the Valley
Connect plan divided up by the premium primary -- you know, the different types of
services. And, then, the other -- I lost the last thing you asked as far as information.
De Weerd: The contribution
Fairless: Yeah. And, then, we do provide the -- the contribution is -- is we keep track on a
-- more in our internal processes, but we haven't done that on an external -- in an external
way.
De Weerd: Can you put something together so this Council can see that for the budget?
Fairless: Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things that we are working on that will be part of
the Public Transportation 101 is also a profile of the types of passengers we serve,
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because I think there is kind of a facelessness to our passengers and what we want to do
is -- is not necessarily show you a person, but more of a demographic of this is what
different types of passengers -- why the use the service and compare that to the
demographic of the community. So, this would be the average income in Meridian and
this is the -- you know, we can talk about how many trips are generated in Meridian in our
system, whether those individuals are Meridian residents or not. The only way we can
track that would be through our surveys and I -- I don't know for sure, I can check if we
actually asked that question and we may have asked that question in this last survey,
because that would be the only way, you know, in that point in time sort of approach.
De Weerd: Okay. Perfect.
Fairless: Any thoughts on the Public Transportation 101 in terms of those two approaches
or a third alternative?
Rountree: Madam Mayor? Kelly, some of my thoughts on that is the first thing you got to
do is you got to deal with funding and get people to understand the funding. I think you
need to get people to understand the planning that's been done and the plan that's in
place that is not funded.
Fairless: Uh-huh.
Rountree: Get people to understand what that plan could do, who it could serve. From
there go to what you have and whom you do serve, which is different --
Fairless: Uh-huh.
Rountree: -- and what's the funding gap --
Fairless: Uh-huh.
Rountree: -- and start addressing the issue that, well, nobody rides the bus, so why
should we spend any money on public transportation.
Fairless: Right.
Rountree: Because we have a system that's, essentially, bare bones --
W-MIM 3lINJIIINIM111
Rountree: -- and it isn't convenient for people to use, therefore, they don't. So, you have
got to get people educated through -- through that so at some point in time there is
enough folks in the population that want the services and understand what's going on and
the people that are trying to provide the services understand, so we can get some funding
sources to get some of this stuff in place --
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Fairless: Uh-huh.
Rountree: -- because in 20 years we are not going to be able to build anymore lanes.
Fairless: Yeah. Yeah.
Rountree: And if we grow the way we are predicted to grow, we do need some options.
Fairless: Great.
Rountree: Or human carrying drones. I don't know which is --
Fairless: Thank you. I appreciate that.
De Weerd: That would be interesting. Traffic control alone.
Rountree: Yeah. Drop me off somewhere.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other feedback for Kelly in terms of the question she's seeking
feedback on?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think Councilman Rountree hit the nail right on the head. I think that being
provided in conjunction with some form of an academy would be interesting. I think it
would appeal to I think a lot of council members and elected officials from around the
region --
Fairless: Uh-huh.
Cavener: -- so, I think that's -- the logistics of that I think work better than trying to
wrangle an entire group as part of a workshop setting wouldn't be as successful. So, that
would be the direction I would take, but I think a lot of data and story telling would need to
happen before that.
Fairless: Uh-huh. Okay. Thank you. I think what I'm hearing is cut to the chase, make
sure it's meaningful, and that those are the kinds of things that would be meaningful to you
as council members and that the academy format would work as long as we are making
sure that we are using that time wisely. That's a great summary of that. Okay. Good.
De Weerd: And you might ask each of the local elected officials to bring a state level
official -- elected official with them.
Fairless: That's an excellent idea. That's an excellent idea.
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De Weerd: So, you had reports to give to Madam Clerk --
Fairless: Yes.
De Weerd: -- and she will get those to --
Fairless: All right. Thank you.
Item 6: Items Moved From Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 7: Action Items
A. Public Hearing: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
PY14 Substantial Amendment
De. Weerd: So, Item 7-A under Action Items is a public hearing on our CDBG and I will
turn this to Sean.
Kelly: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thanks for the opportunity to be here this
afternoon to talk to you about this. Just to give you a bit of a refresher of why we are
here, what we are doing, the community center fagade project was limited just due to
ineligibility. The staff has identified three projects to fill that hole that was left by the
community center, one of which is the slum and blight plan. Basically what we are going
to do today, Madam Mayor, is I will ask you to open up the hearing for today, barring any
comments that the public might have -- or if there are no comments, then, we can close
the public comment period as of June 12th. So, pursuant to any comments that I receive
by Friday and, then, you have a resolution that will be with you next Tuesday for the
Consent Agenda that would be approving the substantial amendment.
De Weerd: So, the public hearing is open until next week?
Kelly: Madam Mayor, the public hearing is open today, as soon as you open it and, then,
we are -- we just have to have one.
De Weerd: You're taking public comment via writing then?
Kelly: Correct.
De Weerd: Okay.
Kelly: And so they can still come in and talk to me up until Friday.
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De Weerd: Okay. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to offer
testimony on this item? See a lot of faces. Why aren't you getting up?
Kelly: They think it's a good plan, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: It was hopeful. Any comments or questions from Council for -- on this item?
Rountree: Madam Mayor, just maybe a brief description of the projects that have been
folded back in, if you might.
Kelly: Absolutely.
Rountree: Go back to your previous slide and just tell us a little bit more about those.
Kelly: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a -- the direct home ownership
assistance, that's Boise City, Ada County Housing Authority. We have worked with them
in the past. We are going to work with them again next year for the action plan. That is
down payment assistance and minor cost for first time homebuyers or low income home
buyers in Meridian. The parks and recreation, that's the Storey Park ADA upgrade. It's
not a new facility, that is an actual ADA upgrade to that existing facility and, then, the slum
and blight plan is something that I have to develop an RFD out, so that we can get a
competent authority to come in and do a study, so that we can have some justification to
do slum and blight projects like the community center in the future.
Rountree: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Sean. Okay. Well, on this item we will go ahead and put it back
on the agenda next week for your action. So, this public hearing will be opened through
June 12th. How does that work, Mr. Nary?
Nary: How does what work, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That the public hearing would be open only through June 12 and not until our
next Council meeting.
Nary: I think what I heard Sean say is they can submit anything up until Friday. Certainly
if -- I don't know if there is a regulation that prohibits it from being all the way until
Tuesday. I don't recall that.
Kelly: Madam Mayor, just a little back story on this. The two publications that we use
when we put them out, which are Idaho Statesman -- the Idaho Statesman and
ValleyTimes, they publish three days apart, so I'm giving people an extra three days to
submit to me by phone, by e-mail, or in person, for that matter, but we just have to have a
public hearing, so this was -- this is -- this meets that -- that intent of having a public
hearing. So, closing it pursuant to comments there to by -- that I receive by Friday -- any
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of those comments would be recorded and -- but whatever I would need to do to include
them with next week's resolution.
De Weerd: So, it would need to be continued until next Tuesday, so -- which would keep
that public hearing open until then.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I guess if he receives something after
Friday, then, I guess it would be up to the Council to decide whether to accept it at that
point.
Kelly: And, Madam Mayor, I'm -- there is no reason why we can't continue it until next
Tuesday. There is a resolution that is already ready to go through for approval of -- you
know, regardless of what we get.
De Weerd: Okay. Just trying to understand it.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Would we not make a motion to close the public hearing on the 12th? Okay. We
can't make a motion today to close it on the 12th? Okay. And so it won't be able to be on
the Consent Agenda if we keep it -- if we continue it it will just have to be a regular agenda
item.
De Weerd: Uh-huh. Okay. So, I do need a motion to continue this and leave the public
comment period open until our next meeting.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I move that we continue this public hearing on the Community Development
Block Grant fiscal year '14, substantial amendment to June -- we will take the 16th, 2015.
Rountree: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue this item to June 16th.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Parks and Recreation Department: Annual Update
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De Weerd: Thank you. See, you baffled us. Item 8-A is under our Parks Department.
Parks and Recreation Department. Sorry. I will turn this over to Steve.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This month is Parks and
Recreation month to present our strategic update to you and I am pleased to be here
before you with several of my staff present and to say that I am proud of what this group
behind me has accomplished as a team doesn't do it justice, but I hope to highlight for you
a few of the highlights that have been accomplished, what we are working on, and a look
at our strategic look into the future is what we are planning to focus on. So, we will try to
keep this moving and we have this broken into four sections. We will start with the
department overview and we will drill down into the parks division and the recreation
division specifically and we will go from there into the strategic focus looking out into the
future. So, first with the department overview, the -- I want to start with vision, mission,
and values items. The city has done a -- a strategic plan and has come up with some
familiar phrasing, but an update to that in the citywide vision by 2013 Meridian will be the
west premier community in which to live, work, and raise a family and I challenged our
staff with this master plan update that we are currently going through that you're aware of
to say -- to ask the question how did we as a department help to implement the city's
vision. So, what they have come up with is that Meridian Parks and Recreation is a
premier department that provides family focused opportunities for the Meridian community
and responds to a growing and changing population. Now, the city's mission -- the city
has a mission statement that's -- that's new and I love is we love Meridian, it's our town,
and our mission is to cultivate a vibrant community by delivering superior service through
community equipped employees, dedicated to the stewardship of our community
resources. Well, that fits every department in the city. So, what is our department's
mission? How do we fit into that? The Meridian Parks and Recreation Department's
mission is to enhance our community's quality of life by providing innovatively designed
parks, connected pathways, and diverse recreational opportunities for all citizens of
Meridian that creates lasting memories. I think that pretty well summarizes what our
mission as a department is to support the city's overall mission. Now, the city's values are
our values. You know them well. They are go with the acronym CARE, customer service,
accountability, respect and excellence and I don't know if I'm using the terminology right,
but outside of all of our departments we -- all the departments have selected three words,
ours are quality community fun. You probably recognize that graphic around. I'm familiar
with the fire department when they were across the way. I think theirs are dedication,
loyalty and tradition if I remember right and now the Public Works Environmental
Department is across the way from us and theirs include inspection and -- I have to look
down. Stewardship is one of their main focuses and compliance. So, I don't know if I'm
using the right terminology, but I'm going to all these focus areas and we -- we have done
some work to try and put some meaning behind those words and I won't take the time to
read them to you, but I just wanted to make you aware that we have been working on that
as part of our strategic plan and working to try to figure out how they roll into the new city
wide strategic plan. So, staffing, in our department exists of 22 year around staff, but at
times like this when we are fully staffed for the summer, we get up to 68 total when you
get all of the seasonals and everyone all together. In addition to that, got our independent
contractors that do this 80120 split with us in teaching at the community center and things,
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we got about 27 of those right now that are under contract. But this year what I want to
highlight here -- and, Jeannette and Jake, would you just stand for a second so we can
see you. There they are. Jeannette joined us in January. Jake joined us in February
when Patrick left and both have been just wonderful additions to our department and, you
know, I don't have a slide built here to recognize the rest of the admin staff, so Rachel,
Shelley -- is Ali down here? If you guys would just stand for a second. While there is not
a slide in our strategic presentation that talks about strategy, the things we do wouldn't
happen without, as you know, our committed administrative staff that helps things happen
behind the scenes and I want to thank you very much for what you do. So, let's drill down
into the parks division. This is -- this is slide that takes the most math, but by the numbers
we have 244 acres that are currently developed. You can see the breakdown there. We
also have 39 acres at 37 other sites that we maintain by contract. Our level of service, if
you calculate the -- there is 244 developed acres with a population -- the latest number we
have --
De Weerd: Where did you get it?
Bird: Where are you getting it?
Siddoway: We got it off of COMPASS. COMPASS' website is where we got it.
Bird: Can you send that up to the state for revenue sharing, too?
Siddoway: So, I have tried to call COMPASS a couple of times in putting this together to
test the numbers, but we have a second number that's floating around with 91,000, but
every number we could find is over 90 today. But there is a 91,000 and change number
and there is --
De Weerd: I think that's the approved number.
Siddoway: You think 91 is the right number?
Rountree: The one we have approved at --
Siddoway: Okay.
Bird: Yeah.
Siddoway: Okay. Then we will update this to reflect that -- to reflect that number.
De Weerd: Because that gives us better acres per thousand.
Siddoway: Yeah. It will be 2.65 with that. You know, I think when I was before you a
couple of years ago we were looking at similar numbers in terms of acres, but a lower
population and our acres per thousand was right at three. So, really since the opening of
Kleiner Park three years ago we haven't really opened a -- a major new park and, then,
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our population has continued to grow, thus the acres per thousand has shifted slightly
down. But we do many projects on the horizon. We have 135 acres of undeveloped park
land and if all of that were developed today we would be up to four acres per thousand,
which that's the goal we are trying to reach is to get to four and if we -- if we developed all
that today, plus the other few that we have out there on our horizon, like Hillsdale,
Belano, sites that we don't own yet, but that we know are coming, but looked all the way
out to the projected 2040 population of 151,000, that would -- those alone that we already
own would put us up to the acres per thousand, so -- maintenance. Roger, would you
raise your hand. Right there, Roger Norberg. He oversees the main -- he oversees the
crews. He's our foreman. There is so much going on on the maintenance side of the
parks division that it alone could make my head spin some days, but I want to highlight a
few accomplishments. One -- and I highlighted just a few things to hit it, because I'm not
going to take the time to go through the entire slide. But Settlers Park, the tennis
complex, that kiosk that's out there, the information kiosk, was built in house in our
fabrication shop by staff. The Heart Safe Meridian AEDs, I want to give a shout out to
Chief Niemeyer over here and his staff for working with us and to get those AEDs
deployed to parks and facilities and Roger has been at the front lines of getting those
deployed in combination with the Fire Department. Upcoming the drinking -- additional
drinking fountains with bottle fillers is something that we are interested in and working on
and, then, we have committed to getting the Council a float. There are many things that
could be highlighted, but I thought that might be a fun one to acknowledge. In the photos
you will see those charcoal grills. Last fall we held our first disk golf fall classic and the
proceeds that we earned from that went to funding these additional charcoal grills. It's
totally in Storey Park. They have been installed and our commission team building event
tomorrow night is going to be in Storey Park to give them one of their first tries, so --
Walter Crouch have been involved with others, primarily through the community resources
-- or, I'm sorry, I mean Information Services Department and Jacy Jones' efforts with the
historical walking tour markers and Roger's maintenance staff were deeply involved in
getting those deployed. We have a number of scout volunteer projects and this scout in
the upper right actually just received his Eagle scout just two weeks ago and very proud of
what we are able to do in offering projects like this and we are very grateful for the things
that we see, everything from picnic board -- or picnic table boards and sawhorses and
Lake View Golf Course has been a great beneficiary of projects out there. We had one
that's upcoming soon planting trees at the Heritage Middle School ball fields. Jay
Gibbons, would you raise your hand. Jay is our pathway -- parks and pathways project
manager. Many projects have been underway over the last year. Two that I want to
highlight are the new restroom that's in Centennial Park. It's the new prefab style that we
are testing out for the first time and has been very well received. And, then, the Rail With
Trail arterial crossing study, which was presented to you at the end of last year I know
you're familiar with, Jay was project manager over that and you also know that he was just
in front of you a couple weeks ago talking about updates to the pathways master plan.
So, many projects going on there. Two of which I wanted to highlight that are underway.
The Kleiner Park the playground, we are going to be installing a statue of Ben Kleiner and
actually will give you more on that here shortly when we talk about Gene Kleiner Day, but
the actual installation itself Jay has been overseeing. And the -- in Five Mile Creek
pathway he has been working on two key easements to get that pathway connected down
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from Badley to Fairview that we are anxious to get that connected. Oh. Let me go back.
Lest I forget. The 8th Street Park improvements -- we had our ribbon cutting ceremony in
November, just last fall. New playground, new picnic shelter, just some -- and the new
restroom, wonderful new amenities and we cut the ribbon on those near the end of last
year. So, we currently maintain 15 miles of pathways, which is split about half and half in
parks and, then, others like Bud Porter that are along creeks and canals. There are also
out there a number of pathways that we don't currently maintain, that are maintained by
HOAs. We have looked at what's out there. About four of those 14 have been added by
development that's occurred just in the last year or two, since our last update to Council
on the pathways master plan. Mike Barton. Mike is the parks superintendant and leads
the charge on our capital projects. We have a new irrigation well at the 77 acres that we
own down south. We talked -- came before you with budget requests for money to build
that well so we didn't lose our water right. Just want to report to you that that is done and
we have that well in place and ready for future park development. Many projects that are
underway, some -- including the Meridian Road interchange landscaping project that the
interchange is under construction and we should see work starting later this summer, I
believe, on the landscaping and coming to us this fall for -- for maintenance. Also working
on the pergola or awning in front of the Kleiner Park concessions building and that's been
identified for at least a year and is moving forward, as we have been going through bid
processes and getting the design right. I think the two to highlight the most, though, are
the Storey Bark Park development. The new dog park development is going great. It's
ahead of schedule. We won't be able to open it as soon as the construction folks leave,
because we do have to give the grass a little bit of time to grow some roots before we turn
dogs loose on it, but it will be open this summer, so -- but think of it as late -- later in the
summer and we will be working on grand opening dates and things like that as we move
forward and we are taking the commission on a tour of that tomorrow night and, then, on
April 24th we dedicated the Settlers Village Square tennis court complex. So, there is
some wonderful new amenities out there at Settlers Park. Urban forestry. Elroy. Elroy is
our city arborist and we now have been a Tree City USA for 13 years. We went to the
state capital, received our award in April of this year. We have had many projects
underway with the shade tree project in conjunction with Idaho Power. Adding trees to the
Kleiner arboretum, which is a wonderful hidden gem that we highlighted on our parks tour
last fall and I want to come back to the slide which is the Arbor Day celebration at
Ponderosa. Every day we do an Arbor Day celebration and plant a tree. This year
Ponderosa Elementary made a little video of that event. It's only a minute or two long and
they shared it with us and I would like to share it with you if this technology works. So,
Rachel, can you --
(Video played.)
Siddoway: Every year we plant a tree at one of our schools and celebrate that with the
kids of Meridian and this year at Ponderosa -- you know, usually we have the, you know,
leafy trees as I would call them, but at Ponderosa we planted a pine. It's a Jefferies pine,
which is a close cousin of the Ponderosa pine and a little more rare, so one that we
wanted to get out there in the community and they were very excited about their -- their
cousin to the Ponderosa pine at Ponderosa Elementary and kudos to Elroy and -- for
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always putting together these events. I think this slide we are celebrating, because I think
when we were looking at this last -- you know, last time we talked about it we were at
about at 50 percent, but the last couple of years of tree box replacements in downtown we
are down to 29, which as you finally can see that we are making some progress. I expect
that we -- if we continue on the pace that we are at now, you know, we should be -- have
those outdated boxes fully replaced in about four years, Elroy? So, we are very excited to
be zeroing in on that and every year we try and do a number of tree box replacements in
the downtown and this year is no different. It looks like I kept a red line. There we go.
Now we are going to the recreation division. That's it for the parks division. We are
moving on to the recreation where we will start off which Colin Moss. Colin, would you
raise your hand? Right there. Colin, as everyone knows, is in charge of our community
events and our community loves those events and they come out and participate. I won't
go through them all, but I want to let you know last Friday night was our first Cable One
Movie Night of this season, so the Movie Night season has kicked off and is underway
now every Friday night through June, July, and August. The community block party,
which is coming up at the end of the summer, I want to highlight just because it's going to
move from Settlers Park to Kleiner Park and Colin is really focusing on growing that event
into something new and bigger for our community and, then, of course, the work that goes
on with the Winter Lights Parade and Christmas In Meridian is just phenomenal and, of
course, want to thank Joe Borton and Borton Lakey Law Offices for their support of that
event every year. But in addition to putting on our own event, as Jaycee could testify if
she was here, because I know her staff is also involved in TUPs, but there are a lot of
these TUPs, the temporary use permits, that have -- hold events that are specifically held
in parks. Last year there were 53 TUPs for a total of 81 event days. So far we are
already at 52 TUPs for 79 event days, many of which are, you know, still coming. They
are in and coming, but we are already knocking on the door of last year's total and we are
only halfway through the year. So, lots of activity and events with events that others put
on in our parks.
De Weerd: And I guess I would -- at Coffee with the Mayor, we had one of the community
partners there that had nothing but kind words about Colin and I think we could say that
for all of your employees, but it just goes to show the -- that relationships are important
and so much so the organizer of Kleiner Park Live did the Kite Fest. She is doing the Kid
Fest August 1 st and it's those that really help define and continue to branch our emphasis
on the youth and everything that you showed us you're focus areas of quality, fun and
whatever the third one was.
Siddoway: Community.
De Weerd: Community. So, I just wanted to give a special note, because Sheila was
really excited about some of the things that are coming up.
Siddoway: And, Council, you should have all received an e-mail today -- you may not
have seen it yet, but about Kleiner Park Live and the concert series that's coming out
there and the dates and we are very excited. It's going to be on Thursday nights through
the summer, though it's not every single Thursday the way Movie Night is. So, take a look
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at the schedule and we hope if you're able you will come out and participate. It should be
a fun show this summer. So, Gene Kleiner Day is the one I really want to highlight to you,
because it's very timely. It's this Saturday. The Kleiners are coming to town Friday night.
1 will be meeting up with them Saturday morning and taking them on a tour of the city and
lots of the parks system. You get a little preview of the statue there with the artist Jay
Warren in the center and that is a statute of Gene's grandson, Mike Kleiner's son Ben and
it's being installed next to the playground by the splash pad, kind of just south of the
smaller shelter there and we will be unveiling this statue at the ceremony this Saturday.
So, just a quick overview of what we are doing. The event itself will kick off at 5:00 p.m.
with inflatables, face painting, balloon artists and vendors. The first of the real ceremonial
type events starts at 6:00 p.m. where we will unveil the bronze statue of Ben Kleiner. At
6:15 we have got some free ice cream coming from Whole Foods, thanks to Councilman
Cavener and Whole Foods. I think a thousand cups of ice cream are on their way --
De Weerd: Wow. Nice.
Siddoway: So, bring -- bring the family and come and get some free ice cream. At 6:30
there is a performance by Treasure Valley Children's Theater and, then, at 7:00 p.m. is
the Meridian Symphony Orchestra performance that we do to commemorate Gene Kleiner
year every year and, like I said, the Kleiners will be in attendance and Ben Kleiner's
birthday is the next day, so I'm going to let you in on a little secret, we are going to have
the symphony play happy birthday to him at the beginning of the concert.
De Weerd: Steve, I was -- I showed my mother-in-law Kleiner Park and the -- the
interpretive display, the video thing does not -- did not work.
Siddoway: We discovered that last week as well and we are on it It's not fixed yet, but we
are trying to get it fixed soon. I don't know if you have any -- okay. We are aware of it and
we are working on it. We don't have the fix yet.
De Weerd: And I was also curious as to -- the goose poop.
Siddoway: Yes. So, we are in the time of year where we cannot chase the geese. We
had no geese in the park at all at the beginning of molting season and, you know, then,
the ducks -- the geese -- goslings hatched, you know, in the surrounding neighborhoods
and along the creek there and have moved into the park and we cannot chase them off
until the goslings can fly. So, we are just doing our best to sweep the pathways and the
sidewalks and waiting for the go signal that we can --
De Weerd: Those little things to get big enough that you can --
Siddoway: Correct. Garrett White. Would you raise your hand? Garrett, is our adult
sports coordinator -- our rec coordinator over -- over sports and he oversees sports year
around. Never gets a break. In fact, winter is every bit as busy for him as summer and I
just want to -- I just want to highlight one thing on his list, which is the girls fast pitch
tournament, which just happened a couple of weekends ago. Councilman Rountree I
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believe had a granddaughter in the tournament, but through the weekend the -- the staff
put on this tournament. It was at three different sites, but primarily at the Heritage Middle
School ball fields, because that's really what they were built for and it was great to see
they are used for girls fast pitch as intended and -- but the number of complimentary
words that have come to me from different departments and people in the community
about the attention to detail at that event just was awesome to me and I wanted to
highlight that for you and share that. So, good job. We continue to grow in sports teams.
As the community grows the demand for sports also grows. We are only part way into
2015, so continue to watch for those numbers to -- to increase.
De Weerd: And can you add a few more sports? I think you just need a few more colors
on there, Garrett.
Siddoway: It truly is amazing what -- what Garrett does. Looking at our ball fields, you
know, they are maxed out with what we have available out there today. Looking forward
to building additional fields with future parks and expanding the program. Gym usage also
maxed out with the available sites that we have and, again, also something that we are
continuing to work on. Jake Garro was introduced at the beginning as one of our new
staff. When -- he's over classes and camps. When Patrick Dille left us at the beginning of
the year we were incredibly fortunate to find Jake. We lured him over from the city of
Nampa and what I want to highlight from -- from Jake is that when he came before you
and talked about the new -- the fee schedule for the summer activity guide, he highlighted
new programs, many of which were newly senior related, so we are trying to grow the --
the senior program and offerings. You can see some pictures there of the senior day trip
to Shoshone Falls on May 8th and that was a new -- some of the new activities that we
have offered in this most recent activity guide. Summer camp started yesterday, so that's
probably also worth saying. So, we now have kids at two different sites, Prospect
Elementary in the north and Amity Elementary at the south, as well as the activities that
are going on at the community center. You see the growth that we are experiencing in our
activity guide enrollments, already over 3,000 and only -- summer is only begun and we
haven't even got to the fall activity guide yet. We have had over 2,000 hours of volunteers
do projects for us. I highlighted Eagle Scouts specifically, but I wanted to quantify some of
that here, because Colin oversees the volunteer program with also quite a bit of work and
help from the -- Roger in the parks division, but to quantify that, we estimate that we have
seen 40,000 dollars worth of savings from the volunteer projects that we have had in the
last year. Our last is we have our strategic focus and we want to take just a moment to
look forward. So, as you know, we are working on an update to the parks and recreation
master plan. Our old master plan is old and largely implemented, which is wonderful, and
it's time for us to take a look out at the future. We have recently completed a survey and I
didn't know we were going to be able to do this for you today, but Ray told us you can go
ahead. Just yesterday we received from the consultants the -- the final survey results, so
-- I'm not going to go through them in any detail with you today, but I did want to share
some highlights and give you the -- the report that we just received yesterday. We have
provided a copy to the clerk, so if anybody else is interested they are available, but you --
those of you that were at the last town hall meeting saw a presentation about the -- the
survey results as they were at that point. We did have an additional 300 surveys come in
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just in the next couple of weeks after the presentation was made, so this document is
meant to summarize all of the survey results, including those that came in after that
presentation.
De Weerd: Did they change much?
Siddoway: I haven't fully digested it.
De Weerd: Okay.
Siddoway: But I don't expect that they have changed a whole lot, but they have been
weighted and truthed for population and demographics and areas of the city, so -- the
theme that comes out again and again is that pathway connectivity is really a top priority
for our citizens when it comes to the types of services that we provide. I think the Mayor
heard that on her listening tour and both presentations at the town hall highlighted that.
Shade structures, interestingly, came out and give a shout out to our commissioners Phil
Adell sits on the subcommittee. I know Ken Goldthorpe is here as well, but Phil Adell sits
on the sub committee that is focused on park amenities and they have been advising us
on opportunities for shade in the park over the past year and it came out very strong in the
-- the survey.
De Weerd: But if we could get the Ada County Highway District to step up and start
funding pathways that would be something really nice, too.
Siddoway: Indoor aquatics. Indoor aquatics scored very high in the survey as a desire for
our citizens, as well as a community rec center, community events, more athletic fields
with lighting and a desire for dog parks. So, you might recognize all those things as items
that we are working on, but they were highlighted in the survey by our citizens, things that
they are looking for. And you have much more detail than that quick little overview in the
survey result there. So, the survey is one major aspect of the master plan that we have
been working on. Another one is the level of service. Some key findings that kept coming
out of the level of service looking at the distribution and the amenity value of what's out
there, really confirmed we do have a wide variety of well distributed recreational
opportunities. Our overall level of service is high, parenthesis, if accessed by automobile.
They did a level of service analysis both by automobile and walk ability and it was
certainly more -- sorry. Level of service was higher if accessed by automobile. But even
in the walk ability one they showed that like 98 percent of youth have access to some type
of recreational amenity, even if it's under the threshold that we had set and we defined
that threshold as having neighborhood park amenities and access to a pathway all with --
both within a mile radius. So, with those definitions, with the mile radius, that goes with
the automobile accessible. Seventy-five percent of Meridian has that today and I think
that's worth celebrating. We also learned just how important our alternative providers out
there are. Western Ada Recreation District. The HOA parks that -- that Community
Development is always looking for when new plats come in and school grounds. They are
-- they are key to the -- what I would call the functional level of service. You know, our --
our goals for level of service we talked about was four. That's in acres per thousand of
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what we provide as the city to the citizens. We are not yet able to give you a number of
what I would call the function of a certain level of service, including all the HOA parks,
because the GIS data that we had available for this analysis only had those HOA parks as
points and not as acres. So, I think -- I'd like to quantify that, but that's a future project.
And, then, we would like to give the neighborhood parks more identifiable character as we
move forward. Part of the master plan update has been to look at SWOT analysis,
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I know other departments have shared
similar thoughts with you, so I thought I would work in some of the same. The full list is
much longer. I just pulled out a few highlights of each. Strengths. We have a very
knowledgeable staff with a strong work ethic and great attention to detail. The customer
service drive and the natural strain for customer service in this group is a very real one.
We do have a quality park system. That's -- and people talk about it. People move here
for that reason. They think it's a great place to live, work and raise a family because of
what is available to them. We know weakness is pathway connectivity. We know we
need rec facilities and gym space and we know we have limited programming for seniors,
teens, and special needs and those are all things that we are working to address as we
continue to grow. Opportunities are more external. Those were internal. So,
opportunities and threats. Opportunities. There are opportunities to -- for partnerships.
We are always looking for partnerships. Always. Always. Always. And YMCA, West Ada
School District. Working with the Ewings on Margaret Aldape Park all represent some of
the bigger opportunities that we have identified and are working on. There is an
opportunity for pathway connections and diversifying our recreational program offerings.
Threats. We do lack an ADA transition plan. We know we need to -- to do one. The
population growth is currently outpacing our park development, thus the decrease in our
current level of service and we need to address that and if we don't plan now for life cycle
replacement costs, you know, as we -- as our system starts to age -- you know, we need
to be aware of that and we know we need to be aware of it. So, put those out there.
want to let you know that we have three sites that we are going to be master planning as
part of the process this summer. They include the 77 acres in south Meridian. The Borup
property in west Meridian. Margaret Aldape Park up in north Meridian along the Boise
River. And we have dates sets for each of those meetings. We hope that if you're
available you will join us at any or all of them. There will be a final presentation of those
concept plans at our commission meeting on Wednesday, August 12th. So, it will be a
very full summer for us. Future projects and opportunities. Five Mile Creek pathway
connections are being worked on. You just saw in the earlier presentation the Storey Park
restroom ADA upgrade. They are part of the CDBG program public hearing that's open
right now. The Adventure Island playground resurfacing is now 11 years old and needing
to be redone. We are working with the Brighton Corporation on William Watson Park
development, though I have been told the name may change. We are looking at adding
shade structures based on input from our commission, as well as the survey. We
continue to work on Rail With Trail and we are preparing for future funding coming from
the federal government. And, then, the 77 acres. I mentioned we have the well down
there, but we are also getting ready to move into design development and phase one
construction documents to get ready for what's coming there. We are also continuing to
work on the field house and the need for gym space. We are working on the -- developing
the partnership with the YMCA and the south Meridian Y and right adjacent to it, with --
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where Marty Hill is, the Hillsdale Park. And, then, we -- with all the growth that is
happening, particularly in the rec division right now and -- we have -- we have had this
office set aside for this position with a rec -- year around -- full time year around rec
manager and we will talk more about this with the budget process. I just wanted to let you
know now that we are -- that is a position we are looking to fund. We had originally
planned to do it last year and thought the timing was better to hold off a year and come
this year. My last slide. Phil Adell and Ken Goldthorpe, would you raise your hand. Did I
have any other commissioners sneak in on me? We have a devoted parks and rec
commission and I'm very grateful for what they do. Volunteering their time month after
month to overseeing these projects and the work of each of the subcommittees. They are
champions of this parks and rec master plan. They are very interested and involved in the
Meridian YMCA south facility. They have been very connected and involved in the Storey
Park dog park project and a very real focus of theirs is the -- the connected pathway
system and we did our very first pathway tour this spring on bicycles, which is the very
first time that we were able to have enough of a connection to actually go several miles
without just having to go by van. So, that was a great milestone for us. Further at the
bottom right, Jo Greer. Just want to highlight -- Jo is our newest commissioner that joined
us at the beginning of the year and I thank both Phil and Kent for being here today. So,
with that I'm at the end of our presentation and I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Nice prevy. That was pretty awesome. Directors take note. Council, any
questions?
Bird: I have none.
Rountree: Thanks, Steve. Nice presentation.
De Weerd: Just hats off to your team. This was a great presentation, but it takes the
team to give him the material to come up and talk about. So, you have seen increased
performance in all areas and that's really exciting to see that level of service continue to
increase and, again, I hear nothing but positive, glowing remarks about all areas of our
Parks and Recreation Department and it's because we have quality people. So, thank
you for being here today and thank you, Steve, for your leadership.
Siddoway: Thank you very much
Milam: Thank you.
Bird; Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I do. Steve, just a second. Two things. Coming from -- this is for Charlie and I that
-- two of our tennis buffs that was on us absolutely loved our new tennis -- pickle -- they
are getting closer to my age, so they like the pickle ball now. They love it. They wanted
me to thank you guys for putting it in. Really great. Acres per population. I think it's the
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old adage like a speedway, you know, as long as you still got room for people to come
you're okay. It's like if you had a speedway that you seated 20,000, but you only drew
4,000, what do those 16,000 seats sitting empty look like? I like to see the parks
crowded. So, I don't go off the acres. I think we are going great. I think the parks are
fantastic. The amenities we have got are fantastic in all our parks. Anyway, thank you,
guys, very much.
Siddoway: Thank you.
B. Mayor's Office: City Wide Communications Update
Rountree: Further comments? Questions? All right. Next item is the Mayor's Office.
Citywide communications plan update.
Emery: Hello. Hello.
Rountree: Hello. Welcome.
Emery: Madam Mayor when she returns, Members of the Council. Thank you so much
for letting me present this to you today. The communications plan, when we get it up
here, I will go through it. You guys have a much larger presentation in your packet. I tried
to condense it down for the presentation. So, I will go over the highlights, if you will.
Bird: Mr. President?
Emery: While she is -- oh. Go ahead.
Bird: Kaycee, how can we get into the -- I can't get into mine on my computer.
Rountree: Oh, yeah. You have to load some program --
Bird: You have to be smarter than I am. We can't get into your program.
Milam: It's the type of document that --
Emery: It's a PowerPoint. So, maybe I will save it as a pdf and send it to you guys.
Yeah. That's what I will do.
Bird: Thank you very much.
Emery: That's not a problem at all. So -- oh. And this is my first time running this, so
hopefully I know what I'm doing. Right there.
Holman: Kaycee, in the lower left-hand corner, if you use the pen, there is left and right
arrows to advance you through. There you go.
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Emery: All right. Well, here we go. So, the overview, as you all know, we have
experienced aggressive and consistent growth and what's really important about this
when it comes to communications is you need to make sure that you're growing ahead of
the pace of the pay community, so that you're able to keep stakeholders, residents,
everyone informed and really the rational behind the communication plan is because you
can't rely on the media to tell your story. That's just not a good plan. So, we need to
implement numerous ways to get our message out to the community and, then, the goal
while we were doing that is to continue to build awareness about events, issues and
topics of interest to stakeholders, both internally and externally to the City of Meridian and
protect the brand by insuring one place represents the city with a common tone and
consistent message. So, that's really important that we are getting your message out. It's
very clear and along the same lines. So, we put together -- let everybody go here to the
target audience and I put together the external audiences, internal, and, then, we have got
the Council and Commissioners there as kind of an in between. In between the external
and internal. It's important when you're talking about communications that you have your
key messages defined. Especially everyone out there when they are in the community
that they know -- you just heard Steve in his presentation mention Meridian is a premier
place to live, work, and raise a family. He just says that now as part of his conversation,
because it's part of our key messaging. Brand. We are built for business. Designed for
living. And, then, we just wanted to develop key messages around our five strategic
goals. Responsive government. Safe and healthy. Economic vibrancy. Strategic growth.
And art, culture and recreation. So, we put together a lot of communication strategies with
the measurement, but the overall actions we want to connect with stakeholders through a
variety of methods to disseminate information and the overall result is return on
investment can be measured in resource consolidation with affected communication and
streamlined processes. I'm big on streamlined processes. The city will experience
significant time savings in promoting events, designing flyers, community outreach, and
mediating inquiries. So, community outreach is one of the strategies through flyers,
events, newsletters, et cetera. Measurement. We want to measure that by engagement
at events and also our city news reports. All the city news reports we send out via
MailChimp, now we can look at all the reports and how people are interacting with those
city news -- those bi-weekly updates. Internal communication. We want to keep
employees informed, so we have actually added the employees to our city news -- our bi-
weekly newsletter, so that goes out and now we can also see how employees are
interacting with that newsletter. And, then, we have also added them to the news release
list, because we figure if we are sending it out to the media to let them know about a city
event or city happening, our employees should know as well. So, now we have really
tried to bolster the internal communication and, as I mentioned, we can track employee
engagement via those city news reports. City website. This is a big question I get a lot.
When are we getting our new website? Well, there is a little picture of what it's going to
look like there and the redesigned schedule -- it's scheduled to be deployed to the public
in August. I think that's a worst case scenario, but we are hoping for August. It's in house
now, so that's the good thing. We have it all designed, now we just need to get it in and
test it. And, then, the measurement -- we want to increase the number of visitors per
week from an average of 11,000 to an average of 20,000, 60,000 per month. So, we are
just -- we just want to reach more residents every week. Videos. We are doing weekly
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updates. This Week In Meridian, also called TWIM sometimes. Special projects and City
Council live streaming we moved -- we did move that to YouTube and the reason was that
we wanted to reach a greater audience, so that people can now watch in on their mobile
devices. Before we were -- we were kind of boxed in by Windows Media Player and a lot
of people are able to pull that up on their devices. So, that is exciting we are on YouTube
now with our live stream and we do want to increase the views on live stream of City
Council meetings from an average of five to 25 and an increase of 70 to 150 views total.
We are seeing more views post event now than we were before, but those streams -- we
would like to increase it, but that's also about getting the message out that we are out
there and that people can now view the City Council meetings on all devices.
De Weerd: Well, I guess I would add some -- some of that we have been talking about
the sound quality and I think that can really enhance the viewership if -- if people were
able to hear better and we talked about that at our meeting yesterday. There is
challenges with our sound system and our sound system is very expensive, right, Madam
Clerk?
Emery: Very good point, Madam Mayor. And, then, we want to increase the views of This
Week In Meridian on YouTube from an average of 60 to 100 per episode and we are
already getting a lot more views on that, because we have started sending that to
employees as well. Another thing we are trying to really bolster the communication to
employees. And on Facebook from an average of 300 views to 600 per episode. So,
what we do is we do have -- we have it on YouTube, but we also upload the video directly
to Facebook, because video is king on Facebook and we are getting a ton of views of that
video. So, if you ever see it, be sure to share that video. We get a lot of hits from that.
De Weerd: Well -- and I think, Kaycee, that's another thing that you have really done is
consolidated all the different Facebook and social media pieces, so that people are not
duplicating, but tagging or sharing, so that you do have a better idea of what those views
are.
Emery: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Thanks, Madam Mayor. And, then, traditional media, we
have the press release and regular updates with local media and, then, we do want to
implement media training for those that need it or that want it, just give them some training
on what to say in front of the camera, how to make sure that we are getting our message
across effectively. And, then, the measurement of that is the tone of coverage and, then,
there is always those media stories that we can learn from. So, we -- we do appreciate
those moments as well. They are hard at the time, but we learn from them. Social media.
We streamline communications to more effectively engage the community, as the Mayor
was talking about. Our measurement -- we want an increase in the number of Facebook
likes from 2,200 to 5,000. We are up to 2,500 right now. So, we really want to see a lot
more likes on that page. It's been really fun to see it grow just in the amount it has and
how people are engaging with us more on the comments and even shares. We have had
a lot of shares lately, too. Twitter from for 4,200 to 5,000. Linkedln from 304 to 500.
Nextdoor from 5,000 to 7,500 and, then, we want to increase daily reach and engagement
on Facebook from an average of 500 to 2,000 people. So, we have got some goals that
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we have set and now we are working to meet those. And one of the ways we are working
to meet those is we developed a social media best practices and right now all social
media managers with the city have been trained and have reviewed our social media best
practices document and that document includes an overview of the process, so how -- if
you want to go about starting a social media site, how you do that involving the
communications manager. Communication strategies for posts, including tone, best times
to post and consistent branding. The city's social media policies and procedures, we did
review those and now the site -- it didn't have it, now have our terms of use and conditions
-- terms of conditions and use. I said that backwards. But they all have a link now on
their about section, so -- and that was part of the policies and procedures, so we are all
following that. How to tag and share other city pages, so that we are a unified team and a
unified front out there on social media. Crisis communication tips for getting information to
the public quickly and driving the message. How to interact with followers and end users,
utilizing pictures, videos and hashtags. The importance of reading social media analytics,
so we went over what kind of analytics and reports you can get right from Facebook and
Twitter and how you can learn from that to better engage with your audience. How to
promote events and we also went over social media tools available to us, such as
Hootsuite, which can help different managers manage multiple social media outlets. And,
as I mentioned, I'm a process person, I love processes, I love flowcharts, so we put
together flowcharts for every process that you may encounter that involves some sort of
communication with the city. Some of those processes include press releases, crises
communication, media inquiry, story ideas, social media, videos, flyers, signs, letters,
notices, newsletters, annual reports, events, website content. So, all of this has been
distributed citywide, so now all the departments understand if I want to do a letter, how do
I involve the communications manager and when. So, we have a process for every single
step on that. That's all I have. Do you guys have any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Kaycee. Any questions from the Council?
Bird: Great presentation. Thank you.
Emery: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Kaycee, great presentation. I specifically applaud your specific goals. I think
oftentimes we kind of do vague generalities about what we want to achieve and I like that
you have put numbers behind it. Do you have a deadline, a finish line for what you want
to achieve those social media numbers and outreach numbers and when you hope to
achieve them by?
Emery: January 2016. So, I'm halfway through. I better get moving on that Facebook
likes.
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Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I see a lot of measurements. I'm not sure that's the right word, but from this to
that, but what do those numbers mean? Are we more popular? Are we less popular? Is
our message more clear? Less clear? More confused? What do they mean?
Emery: Yeah.
Rountree: I mean they are a bigger number. You want bigger numbers. But what do
they mean? How do we define what they mean? Tome that's a measurement.
Emery: Yeah. Councilman Rountree, I look at it as the larger the number the more reach
we have with it -- and that's -- I think the toughest part about the biggest blockade we run
into as a city is that we have such a wide demographic that we need to reach. People of
all ages. So, some of those measurements on Facebook, it means we are reaching a lot
more people, but it also means that we might be missing out on a demographic, so we
also have to use e-mail, because we want to get this demographic over here. So, that's
why we have to look at the different measurements of all the different avenues that we
use to communicate with everyone, because now everyone is on Facebook, not everyone
is on Twitter, not everyone is on e-mail and so that's what we are up against when we
develop these measurements and so I see it as the higher the number the more we are
able to reach and that specific demographic that you're reaching out to via that tool.
Rountree: So, how do you -- how do you measure your demographic by account? Are
they categorized by their response? I mean -- to me that's the analytical part.
Emery: Uh-huh.
Rountree: How do you do it? I mean just sheer numbers don't -- yeah, we are out to get
more people, but is it folks that have a certain follow, folks that have a certain event. I'm
curious how -- how you take those numbers and put meaning to them.
Emery: Yeah. It's -- Councilman Rountree, it's a good -- it's a good question and I want to
look into it more, because I think in my analytics I can dive deeper and figure out where
these people are coming from and who is seeing different things, so I can dive deeper into
that and, then, make those measurements even more specific about what we are looking
for.
De Weerd: But I think before you can do that you do need to bulk the numbers and
measure by shares, which, then, reaches other people's contacts as well and I think what
Kaycee has done very well is continuing to try and drive people to the website where we
can get better analytics. Facebook is improving their analytics that they can start better
targeting and seeing who is going on there. The best tool I think that we have found is
really Nextdoor and Nextdoor is going to be one of those that have the neighbor-to-
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neighbor communication going on, but you can use Nextdoor to almost hone it down to a
block that you want to communicate with, because there is a trend in burglaries or you can
talk about a water incident, a water main break, you can talk about road construction, you
can push information out to this. It's pretty concerning when you go and knock on doors
and find out how people are really getting their information. It's not consistent and when
the number one response has been they got their news from Jay Leno, it's really
concerning. It really shows how difficult Kaycee's job really is in trying to find that -- that
tool to better communicate and, basically, what you find is it's a multi -tool approach to try
and get that same piece of information out to as many people.
Rountree: Well, I don't make my comment to criticize.
De Weerd: No. I understand that.
Rountree: If we are going to all get the measurements, then, we need to know how to
analyze them. Are we just mining addresses that we can hopefully mine and use as at
least a database for sending out surveys. But I'm still at a loss and I'm sure as you point
out, it's not easy to figure out how to analyze these electronic messages --
Emery: Yeah.
Rountree: -- in any form and in whatever format.
Emery: Yeah. Councilman Rountree, I think as we continue to pull out the analytics I'm
going to keep what you said definitely with me, because it is important that if we can
define those analytics even more, that's helpful in telling the larger story and it will help us
set goals in the future as well.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Kaycee, as a social media user I have noticed a huge increase in participation and
sharing and just your -- the posts -- you know, I see them a lot more frequently, so you're
doing a great job. Keep it up. You know, I think that until we really get much larger
numbers in order to really analyze them and know who -- and figure who we are reaching.
Meridian residents or -- you know. But I think for the most part what you're just trying to
do is get the message out there, right? Start with reaching human beings and, then, you
know, hopefully that will grow to where we are really getting the city's messages out to as
much of the community as possible. But, obviously, as you have found, it's a slow
process, but you're doing a great job.
Emery: Oh, thank you.
De Weerd: It is a slow process. I guess another example of the increased
communication. I guess benefit is the number of stories the media is now covering, is
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they are seeing it posted on Twitter or Facebook and they are calling Kaycee now and
saying can we get an interview on this and they are showing up more frequently at events.
So, it is, Councilman Rountree, trying to figure out what it all means and you will probably
have Kaycee coming back at some point saying this is -- this is something that will help
mine that information better and we can start seeing what is getting more like, so we know
what people are -- are looking to be informed about. You can see what's being shared to
see what are those feel good stories that people like to share. A lot of those are the
pictures that are taken at the community events, but those are trends that you can find out
from your community what kind of information they are desiring to know more about, even
on the hits of the blogs and those kind of things. So, yeah, it's -- it's a new realm for sure.
Okay. Thank you, Kaycee. We appreciate your report and thank you for the work you
have been doing and -- and really focusing people with kind of laser point, rather than just
kind of all over the spectrum. So, thank you for what you do.
Emery: All right. Well, thank you.
C. Public Works: City Hall Emergency Generator Project Update
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-C is under our Public Works Department. Max..
Jensen: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. My name is Max
Jensen with the Public Works Department and I'm here this afternoon to provide you an
update on the City Hall emergency standby power project that Council approved budget
for in FY -2013. This project was assigned to assess current emergency power needs and
capabilities and provide recommendations with estimated costs to address the gaps. The
work completed to date includes defining an emergency power duration, the time frame
for the emergency power and as well the need for each department in City Hall. We went
out -- we published a request for qualification for professional services and executed an
agreement to review emergency power needs, verify existing emergency power loads and
capabilities, recommend methods to address emergency power gaps and to provide
estimate costs to close those gaps. The result of the methods and estimated costs were
reviewed at the directors meeting and there was a discussion at the directors meeting that
the estimated costs were much higher than -- than estimated and greatly above the
budget that was set aside for that. And also for the discussion that the essential city
services during an emergency outage at City Hall could be handled -- taken care of at
other city facilities as well, such as the police department for public safety, at Fire Station
No. 1 for public safety service. Water division building could handle the needs for the
drinking water. And the wastewater division building could handle all the needs for the
wastewater facility. Each facility has a backup generator at each site as well. So, my
recommendation with the central city services able to be met at the other city facilities, I
come to you and I seek approval to release the balance of the budget amount back to the
General Fund and close this project.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: Max, we -- first of all, what -- what have we spent so far?
Jensen: We have spent roughly 12,000.
Bird: Twelve thousand. Okay.
Jensen: So, the original budget was 170,000 and we are down to approximately 158,000.
Bird: So, we have got 158 to kick back in?
Jenson: Correct.
Bird: Thank you. Max, we have a generator here already on site, don't we?
Jensen: Correct.
Bird: And it will take care of the basic electrical; right? I mean it will take care of stuff. It
won't be -- it won't be emergency setup deal, like the police or Station No. 1, which those
two were set up to be the emergency management areas. Excuse me. So, we do have
one here in case of something.
Jensen: We -- we do. Councilman Bird, we do have one that's existing here. However,
the -- the only items that are hooked up to it are IT data closets for each floor, so there is a
total of six IT closets. Also the pumpers for the fire -- for the fire system to put out a fire. It
also services the IT server room and the HVAC unit to keep that room cooled. Those are
the only services that are actually connected to the backup generator that we currently
have. And at that we would run for approximately ten and a half hours with the fuel
capacity that we have.
De Weerd: Other questions from Council? I guess, essentially, is the -- the review looked
at what are the needs and it ran the whole gamut from do we have to keep our telephone
services up, do we need computers and on what floors and those kind of things. With the
recent remodel of the police department it gave us a backup to the servers that -- and they
have a larger generator and certainly a different type of generator. So, what we originally
thought going into it and making the enhancement request, because of some of the other
facilities that have been done in the meantime, seem unnecessary, because we do have
those available, just not here at City Hall, but we figure that if we have a crisis event that
puts City Hall down, we probably don't need the workforce that we have in City Hall during
that time and where those essential services are, they do have the -- the right kind of
backup systems that will keep us in communication with those we need to be
communication with and will protect our storage and data as needed.
Bird: I agree.
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De Weerd: Okay. So, make note, 158,000 dollars back into the General Fund. Good job,
Max.
Jensen: So, we can close this project out?
16,3 T:ti'[
De Weerd: Yes. Do we need a motion on that? I don't think we do.
Bird: We do. If we had it funded.
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Is there an exact number that we need to quote or just permission to do it?
De Weerd: It's an approximate 158,000 back to the General Fund or the remaining
balance.
Bird: Remaining balance.
Zaremba: Okay. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I move we approve the -- what would be a budget amendment, I guess, to
return to the General Fund approximately 150,000 dollars was slated for generator
upgrades that a thorough study has identified are beyond the need.
Rountree: Second.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll Call: Rountree, yea; Bird, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Thank you, Max.
Jensen: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council Members.
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De Weerd: And, Max, just celebrated ten years of service to the city, so congratulations
on that.
Zaremba: How many?
De Weerd: Ten years.
Zaremba: Ten years.
D. Community Development Department: Planning Fee Waivers
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item, 8-D, is under our Community Development Department
and I -- Mr. Hood.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. It's your lucky day, I am
fighting a bug and so probably won't be as long winded as I typically am, because I'm
likely to go off in some coughing fit, so I will try to just hit the highlights here on the next
two topics on your agenda. Bruce is also here if you have any questions on the planning
fee waiver discussion, which is first up on the agenda. So, as you all know from --
occasionally we do get -- we do get requests from applicants -- potential applicants to
waive fees in the planning division and it sometimes creates an awkward situation as they
come directly to Council for that request. As you know, we don't have any required
findings or circumstances that must be present to grant a waiver or deny a waiver, for that
matter, so the reason for me bringing this up with you today is we have had -- the past two
there was some oddities, one with a daycare, another one with another business, and
proving a hardship or what's the justification again for waiving these fees. Just as a
refresher when we talked about some of that, we don't -- there is no such thing as a
waiver. There are hard costs that have to be paid, costs have to be paid to process an
application. We work with the clerk's department to notice applications and we put them
in the newspapers and those types of things and postage and staff time all cost money;
right? So, again, to get some more structure around this, I guess the main question -- I
didn't come up with a flowchart for you, but the first question would be should we even
process these. Is this something we should even still consider and I think the answer is
yes, but if the answer is no that makes it pretty easy, we are done. We just say you can't
answer fee waivers, someone has to pay that -- that fee. If the answer is, yeah, go ahead
and continue the practice and allow Council to grant those fee requests, the question then
would be what types of findings -- if you want to have this more structured, what types of
findings or considerations should be present and I listed in my memo to you today just a
few that we have come up with. Is the applicant a nonprofit. So, that would be one thing
that if it's a nonprofit. If they are providing some community service or maybe a
community service that isn't already present in our community. If they have a financial
hardship. And I don't want to get into reviewing, you know, tax returns to see how much
money someone makes and determine, like the federal system does, if there is really a
financial hardship there, but some things to consider potentially. So, should that be
something that's hard and fast or just something for you to consider, but not necessarily --
no one of those has to be present or all three or four, however many you come up with
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need to be present, but just something to kind of noodle around as you get these
requests. Excuse me. Payment plans have also been talked about in the past. Is that
something if you grant a waiver or do a partial fee waiver, maybe doing -- setting someone
up on a payment plan. I would recommend against that, but I'm just trying to, again, bring
everyone up to history on what we have done at the Council level. You talked about these
options before. So, they are not secret. But it is something that planning would like to
have some more structure around. The reason we are talking to you about this now is we
did put it in for an enhancement this year and after talking with Finance a little bit more
they are more comfortable processing these -- you know, just -- because they are so
infrequent as a -- excuse me. Instead of a set aside pot of money line item in the budget
payment, just as a forbearance of revenue as they come in. So, that's kind of their
direction was instead of actually having this be talked about -- and, again, set aside in the
budget, just to have a dialogue with you all and as you thumb throw it if they are approved
by Council it's something where your action would be to forego the revenue at that point in
time. So, just a discussion item. We can certainly come back, but, again, I -- if you want
to have some criteria, should we codify that, should it be just something that is considered
on a case-by-case basis and, then, I guess that's -- that's the end of my presentation,
because I promised you I would be fairly brief. So, that's kind of what I would like to hear
your all thought on these. Again, we don't get too terribly many of them, but would like to
maybe provide a little more structure.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I will try to get through here. I don't know what the devil is wrong. Go ahead and
get somebody else.
Rountree: Yeah. Between the two of you I'm not sure I want to get involved.
De Weerd: Any other comments? Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Caleb, on average how many a year you say? One? Two?
Hood: Yeah. We haven't actually processed one since last fall, so it's been almost 18
months since our last one, but on average we probably get about one to two a year. But
we are in one of those cycles where we haven't actually seen one for a little bit, but --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Caleb, is this potentially a tool to incentivize activity or development in a particular
area? Downtown, for example? Maybe an eligible criteria, like a nonprofit?
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Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, it's not historically been the way we have kind
of couched this. It has been more of a financial hardship type of a system. I mean if that's
one of the things -- one of the -- either prerequisites or one of the findings that you all want
to -- to have -- maybe that's a policy discussion for you all. I would just, again, point out
there is no waiver. So, if it's going to be -- someone has got to pay it, so why should the
general -- why should Joe Taxpayer have to subsidize, even downtown, that application,
depending on who they are. But -- I mean it is something we could do, if that's what you
want to do, so --
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, you bring up a really important issue
-- a big issue I have dealt with in a couple of places. There are jurisdictions that have
come up with fee reductions or fee, quote, unquote, waivers as -- as incentives for certain
types of development. What we have heard, though, in developing pilot projects around
this is that most -- most developers tell us that planning fees, which is what we are talking
about now, or even building permit fees, are such a small percentage of their overall cost
to do a project that they -- they are much more interested in reductions in impact fees, for
instance, or in finding someone else to pay an impact fee. So, what most of our
customers have said, well, yeah, that's the -- that would be nice for you to reduce your
fees, but it's not going to make a good project good for the community, it's not going to
make a good project -- it's not going to make or break it by itself. So, that's another whole
subject matter we could certainly get into if there is interest, but my experience has been
that planning and building permit fees are not a base piece of an incentive package,
unless they are coupled with other things.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Maybe I can talk now. I would prefer that we -- no more than we have, that we
continue it on a case-by-case basis. Take a look at it and stuff. And as far as bringing
that enhancement for 3,700 bucks -- I mean our employees are paid anyway and I
guarantee you that there is 3,700 bucks out there that they are not working on a fee or
something, you know, that they are doing. I -- I think that's something that -- that I would
bring it through as an enhancement myself.
Hood: And, again, Madam Mayor, we aren't. I mean it's still there, but we are having this
dialogue instead of there. So, again, just as a thought process, though, from when you
talked about it was transparency -- I mean there is a pot of money, you spend it -- if you
spend it. If not it gets carried forward. But there is some idea from the community -- I
mean it's not just an open -- and we haven't had a problem with it. It hasn't really been,
you know, again, one or maybe two every year, which is a very small -- I can't remember
what Todd told me, but it's like .002 percent of our budget. I mean it's very, very minor.
So, we aren't pursuing that anymore, but it was our thought process and why this came up
-- because of discussions last year for the budget, but, yeah, we aren't pursuing that at
this -- at this time.
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Chatterton: I think we also conceived of it as being a pilot project in case we wanted to
see how it worked and built on it if we had a good experience with it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I'm not opposed to -- even if it's on a case-by-case basis, but I think it is
beneficial for us to create some sideboards, if you will, of what -- what's a threshold for an
organization to come before us, so we don't create a precedent with one that we -- future
councils don't want to live up to down the road or, you know, to change from applicant to
applicant. I mean it's possible we could have two similar applicants within a year that are
-- one we would agree upon, one we wouldn't and I think having some set of criteria is just
beneficial, regardless if we want to make a -- you know, we don't want to budget for this,
we want to make the decision as they are presented, but having some sideboards I think
would be beneficial.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would agree with getting some sideboards, but I don't know how you do that. I can
name you a lot of nonprofits out there that -- that got a lot of bucks. Look at what they pay
their employees. So, I -- how do you do it? I think you just have to go on a case-by-case
basis and we have, I don't know, maybe Tammy, Charlie, and I have been -- done maybe
six of them in the years we have been on here.
De Weerd: If even that.
Bird: And we have done it on a case-by-case basis. I just -- because there can be some
real hardships and, then, there can be some not hardships. So, I don't know, I just -- and
don't know how you get sideboards myself.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor, I also wanted to mention that in this case -- in the case of
Boys and Girls Club, the waiver or the forgiveness of those fees was city initiated, so the
approach was a little different, but I don't know if you all saw it. The letter that the Mayor
asked us to put together, it put down the cost of each permit type and we asked our
contractors on the building permit site to do what they can and we had all the way from
them completely donating their fee to the Boys and Girls Club, to let's say a 50 percent
reduction in one case. The point there -- and I think the Mayor's approach was -- I don't
want to put words in your mouth, Mayor -- was that these are real costs and lets keep
track of them and this is a donation towards an important project. Again, that's a little
different than what we are talking about here in terms of a -- a request for forgiveness of
fees, but -- because we were -- this was a project that we were very much involved with.
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But it's important to always track these are real costs, otherwise, people get the idea that
it's not real money.
Bird: Don't have any problem at all with that.
De Weerd: I think it would also apply -- we are trying to do something similar to the school
-- what is that school called? Hillsdale School and the fee waivers to schools. I think it's
important to capture that and, you know, let the board of trustees know what -- what that
forgiveness or the agreement between the city and school districts -- what that actually
equates to, because those are numbers -- they are hard numbers and it needs to be
captured.
Chatterton: Finance's approach towards showing it as a deferral of revenue --
Bird: Yeah.
Chatterton: -- is revenue left on the table. That demonstrates that it's coming out of the
city budget. Community Development's budget, actually.
De Weerd: Yeah. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor. I'm just randomly bouncing around in my mind here -- we have
-- the Parks Department has a way to help or forgive summer camp fees, although I
believe contributions into that fund are voluntarily given -- I forget the program.
De Weerd: Care enough to share
Zaremba: And the utility billing system has -- has a way to determine whether or not a
water bill can be forgiven and I just -- I guess what's running through my mind is we have
this issue in several different places and maybe we should come up with some kind of a
criteria, because I think it is fair to help support people that really have a problem, they
need something out of the city, but they can't pay a fee. But I wonder whether we ought to
have all departments discuss it and, you know, see what a real criteria might be. That's
just a random thought.
De Weerd: Yeah. And I -- I understand your comments, Mr. Zaremba, but each
department -- there is a big difference. So, they do have different criteria and it will be
hard to -- to bring commonality. Certainly our board of adjusters have their key -- their
threshold points. The utility billing has their defined criteria through EI -Ada? Whatever
organization -- they take more of the federal guidelines. The Parks Department is -- is
something else under their care this year or program. So, I -- I don't know if each -- if
there are commonalities that you can make relevant for an across-the-board policy.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
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Rountree: My preference would be get the word waiver out of our vocabulary. Deal with
something along the lines of, okay, if you want to request some leniency on those fees,
then, request a fee transfer. So, the fee transfer is from the applicant to the city or from
the applicant to a sponsor or whatever. Or -- or possibly in addition to that kind of
language an in-kind fee and it might be I'm an art studio that wants to have some TI's and
come to town in a particular spot and I might need a rezone or I might need something
and I'd like to waive those fees. The in-kind might be put a 2,500 dollar bronze sculpture
on the corner of X, Y and Z as an in-kind, as opposed to paying those fees and, then,
again, you have a fee transfer, but at least it's a fee transfer for something, as opposed to
just out of the goodness of our heart if we happen to feel that it's a worthy cause. But the
idea of a waiver and having people think that there is such a thing is probably not a good
idea. That somebody is going to pay and if the City Council defers their payment,
somebody is going to have to pay or they are going to have -- they are going to donate
something of some value.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Member Rountree, I couldn't agree more. The
word waiver implies that we are waiving a magic wand and --
Rountree: Yeah.
Chatterton: -- the license fees are -- whatever. Something that implies that there is not
work behind it. No taxpayer money behind it. I think that it is really important, just as you
said, that -- to -- basically what you are proposing is that someone else pay those fees.
Rountree: Right.
Chatterton: And so are we funding it out of the city's budget. Are you -- as you say, is
there -- is there an in-kind that benefits the community in some way. That's an idea I have
not heard of before and that, you know, is perhaps something we could work with.
Hood: Maybe just one point in that, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we haven't
historically -- staff hasn't historically done any analysis, so usually it's just them working
with the clerk to get it on the agenda and, like you said, they pull at your heard strings and
you say, yeah, do we feel like granting this today or not. So, I mean as long as these are
things you all consider -- I mean I think they are, but, again, the question was do you want
them more structured. Do you want them right in front of you as you're talking to them
saying are you providing some service, are you giving some amount of that to our
community back? I mean what's the trade off here? Why should we -- I think that -- that
may be enough or we can -- I'm not hearing any real concerns, at least not to this point,
but I just want to let you know really at the beginning there is no -- we don't ask them to
find the fee to transfer in or have that -- know that certainly somebody could do that, if
they are savvy enough they say, hey, in exchange for my CUP fee I want to donate so
many hours of teaching or whatever to the community free of charge. But I just want to let
you know there is really no -- there aren't any sideboards now, right, and there is no staff
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analysis that goes into it. As it probably shouldn't, because I don't know who would really
recommend waivers or apply a different term, but --
De Weerd: I think you have heard enough from the Council to maybe frame questions
that can get you to a certain place. At least when they come in front of Council you can
say these questions were asked. Is there a cost offset? Was this caused by a new -- new
ordinance that now you're asked -- we are asking you to comply to, so it was really driven
by the city. You can look at some of your scenarios, however few they have been, to say
here is a yes or no type of a question that might be of interest to Council as they are
making those determinations or because you're not quite there, you don't really have a
strong case to even go and ask for the fee waiver, because you are a for profit, you just
don't want to pay the fee, so --
Hood: Madam Mayor, we won't do any screening, it's -- any and all can come and request
that and just get on the agenda, but maybe what I have proposed, based on those
comments, if coming with up some application type of a question. Are you proposing an
in-kind donation? Are you a nonprofit? I mean just have them answer a series of
questions as they work with the clerk and you have that in front of you as you're listening
to them.
De Weerd: And as they have to answer those questions at least it gets them to think --
umm.
Hood: Yeah.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Hood: Just to screen them, but at least -- and so what I will do I think, if it's okay, I will
come up -- I will frame that application, those questions, the direction I have heard and
you can add to it some more things you would like to consider. Obviously, you can -- it's
not going to be a one size fits all type of application, but we will have a series of questions
that are more typical anyways and we will go from there then.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to add -- I wouldn't put this in writing, but if it's a commercial
enterprise that's asking for a waiver, tell them the City Council works on a double or
nothing decision.
De Weerd: You said that on the record. Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor, let the record reflect there was laughter. Kind of what I'm hearing
-- and maybe it's a different approach. It goes back to Councilman Cavener's comment, is
-- is maybe you look at creating almost a pilot project -- again, what I don't want to
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encourage is all these new opportunities for people to creatively request waivers and have
those all come to Council, because we haven't given that many sideboards to measure
whether or not it qualifies or not. I don't want them all to come to Council and, then, we
have to up or down whether an art project, you know, qualifies in kind. I think the concept
is really interesting to explore, but if we are talking about developing a pilot project that
would articulate, you know, those specific limited instances when a fee transfer may occur
or an in-kind payment may occur for fees that otherwise can't be waived, it seems like it
might be helpful for staff if we give those criteria so an applicant is not empowered to ask
for a waiver or a transfer. You know, if the staff doesn't have to make that call, it's -- you
can't do a fee transfer, unless it's one of these very limited, remote circumstances,
whether we are incentivizing the conduct or not. As we develop this pilot project we might
see that we come up with ideas that might sort of paralyze staff with trying to actually
implement it. Because I don't know how you're going to make some of these
determinations.
Chatterton: Yeah. Madam Mayor and Council Member Borton, I agree with what Caleb
said earlier, asking -- especially community development staff -- we are not even
accountants or CPAs to determine a financial hardship that's really -- we don't even know
how we go about doing that. So, hopefully, we can move beyond that and get into the
realm of what public good would result from this and what are you proposing to do. Every
nonprofit -- I don't mean to sound unkind, but every nonprofit will tell you that they are --
they are creating bucket loads of public good, otherwise, why do they exist? And some of
them will even say you should be paying us to be doing this. So, that definition is
foremost in their minds. So, it's really just -- just because they are a nonprofit is not
reason enough, but perhaps if they are giving something back to the community that
would result -- that wouldn't happen otherwise, perhaps that's reason to do it.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I completely agree -- I agree with what Joe said about not giving staff
sideboards. That opens the door for Council to become the arbiter of every request for a
waiver. No is the first response and, then, along the lines of what you just said, Bruce, is
there a public good that could come out of it. Because, again, somebody is going to do
that fee transfer. The fee is not going to go away, it's going to come out of somebody's
budget.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: On that point, if you're bringing back maybe some bullet point qualifiers that could
be up for our consideration as being eligible for those types of transfers or in -kinds. Also
part of what we would want to implement is that structure to track those costs, so when a
project's fee is waived or transferred the actual hard costs we are mindful of.
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Hood: Madam Mayor, I think I will go that way and just to kind of summarize when I do
that -- bring that back, I think there may even be two different applications or checklists of
a form where it's somebody is saying your fees are too much and there is a hardship here,
because I just can't afford it or whatever. The other one is maybe where we can use it as
a tool to encourage development that wouldn't otherwise happen like you're talking about.
So, there may be -- that's the pilot project where we can use that as an incentive to say if
you can do these two, three, four things, whatever downtown or whatever those criteria
may be, you stand a pretty good chance -- or at least we can -- so the first answer isn't no,
it's maybe a no to the person that's saying I can't afford it, but maybe it's -- again, use it in
pre -apps or other things as a tool to incentivize good projects that you want to see, but
like Bruce said, I mean usually it's not a make or break deal with most of these, because
our fees are between, you know, 50 and 2,000 dollars. I mean they are not huge amounts
of money, but it's something where we can have -- because I think that's where I will go,
because there is really two different issues there. I built an illegal shed and now I need a
variance. Waive my fee for the variance, too. Well, you brought that upon yourself and
there is really no community benefit, you're just saying you don't want to pay the fee
versus, hey, we have got a nonprofit that will run this whatever in our downtown. So,
anyways, I think that's all -- we can continue that, but that's kind of what I'm hearing is
really two different issues that may or may not be of the same form, but --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: Another thought would be -- I have heard was not calling it a waiver, maybe call it
a fee deferral, that way -- so there is never even a thought in their mind originally that it's
going to be waived, but maybe deferred, which could be deferred in a payment plan, it
could be deferred in an in-kind trade, so there are a lot of ways that it could be handled,
but, then, you're eliminating the word waive, which just sounds like free from -- just from
the get go.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Member Milam, you bring up, again, a whole new
area that I have worked with quite a bit in the past. It's like you get a --generally our
building permit fees, which are going to be typically a bigger percent of the project costs
than planning fees are. Typically those are due at time of -- when the permit is pulled.
Some jurisdictions -- and we did this a little bit in Boise -- decided that for certain projects
you could defer those fees to the time of certificate of occupancy, meaning that you don't
get your C of O and your occupancy until the fees are paid and for certain projects that
brings the -- if it's there with cash flow for the project, those fees are being paid closer to
the time -- and I also mean impact fees by this as well -- they are being paid closer to the
time the developer is actually going to have income on the property. So, that's something
else, again, that was done for -- I have seen done for nonprofits as well.
Milam: Madam Mayor. And I'm also talking about even the guy who builds a shed and,
oops, I messed up, I have no money, I can't afford it, do you have a payment plan
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currently? He comes up and says I want you to waive my fees, because I can't afford it. I
have no money. So, it would be a similar thing, but even on the lower scale of, well, we
can't waive it, but we will work with you and, you know, we can set you up at however
much a month until you get it paid off.
Chatterton: Madam Mayor and Council Member Milam, I would not want to really have --
say yes or no on that without Finance weighing in, because often the administrative
burden of tracking something like that can be -- we already have a big deal with trying to
track our sureties right now for major developments, trying to do that for small ones, could
be -- it could be a considerable administrative burden there. So, that -- I don't know if it
would be --
Milam: Is that waive the fee?
Chatterton: Well, perhaps or to reduce it or to -- if it meets the criteria to pay it from the
city budget.
Milam: Thanks.
De Weerd: Any other comments that you want to put on the record? Good luck.
Hood: I will be back.
De Weerd: Just remember the answer is no first.
Hood: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, I'm glad that was short.
Hood: I know. I thought it was going to be the shorter of the two items as well, so --
Bird: We can show you how to take a five minute item and make it 45.
E. Community Development: Transportation Projects Update -
Discuss Transportation Related Studies, Projects and Programs
Including: US 20/26 Corridor Study, Pine Avenue, and ACHD's
Integrated Five Year Work Program
De Weerd: Okay. Our next item you're up again.
Hood: Okay. Madam Mayor, it's been a while, but before you is what we loving call the all
things transportation update. I'm not going to go through everything in the memo. I will
apologize up front that I didn't include page numbers, because that's going to make it a
little bit more difficult for you to follow along in your packet. I will make a note that next
time to include those page numbers there. I am going to highlight some of the information
provided in that packet, but I'm not going to go through all of these --
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De Weerd: They do have page numbers.
Bird: They have page numbers on them.
Hood: Oh, they have page numbers? Okay. Hopefully they correspond with mine,
because they aren't -- in the Word version did not show up, so -- okay. So, on page two,
the first one I wanted to highlight is the Pine Avenue, Meridian to Locust Grove project.
Brian McClure was before you in -- when was that? In January. And talked to you a little
bit about the scope of that project. Well, the scope has actually changed a couple of
times just in the past few months and ACHD just last week approved a new scope for that
project that takes into consideration some Public Works sewer project that's going to go
on, so they are going to rebuild Pine from Meridian to 6th. So, Brian will be here with the
MDC board. This is the joint meeting we talked about last time that got scheduled for next
Tuesday. So, this is something where Brian and Cody are going to be the project
manager at ACHD -- are going to kind of run through that project with you and the MDC
board next Tuesday and just kind of talk to you about what's changed. If you recall back
from January it was really just a sidewalk project and so curbs were just kind of staying
where they were. Well, now it's going to be a full rebuild, so there is an opportunity there
to really get your ultimate cross-section there. So, we are going to talk to you and, again,
the MDC board a little bit about that project and give you an update on that next -- next
Tuesday at 4:30. Flipping to page three, I just wanted some breaking news. Under 2015
construction ACHD community programs, projects, that James Court pedestrian signal is
on ACHD's commission agenda for tomorrow to approve the bids on that project. It's
actually coupled with another project in Boise, but if it's approved tomorrow, construction
for that pedestrian signal on Meridian Road at James Court should happen in July and be
done by late August, so --
Bird: Fantastic.
Hood: -- just letting you know that Bud Porter pathway --
De Weerd: Awesome.
Hood: -- that connection will be made here soon. Still on that same page, three, the
Meridian Road interchange -- I'm not going to read the update necessarily. There is some
change orders floating around, but I did want to let you know that the Meridian
interchange task force is going to be meeting next month and if it's okay with Councilman
Rountree, I think maybe it would be good, because I'm organizing ITD and their
contractors to come and give an update on the construction of that project to the
interchange task force and so what I would do is maybe extend that invite to all of Council
if you want to come to that meeting in July I will go ahead and just copy you all on that --
on that meeting, too. So, if you could -- it's about what the status is of that -- of that
project and you can come to that meeting, so --
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De Weerd: In lieu of that as well, if Council cannot participate, if they could give some
kind of a summary that would be really nice.
Rountree: Can do.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Not to put a burden on IT greater than what they already have, but during the
split corridor project ACHD was very generous in having monthly meetings with the
contractors, not only inviting Council, but inviting the general public. Is there any chance
that one of these information meetings could be open to the public?
De Weerd: Yeah. They can attend the transportation commission meeting.
Hood: Yeah. We will provide an update there in that venue of the transportation
commission. It won't probably be at the same level of the interchange task force, but I
don't think they have that resource budgeted for at the state level. I know there is weekly
meetings on Thursday out on site, but those are for contractors and city and whatnot, so
they are not really geared towards the public. Quite honestly, I haven't -- you know, the
state has done a pretty good job with the website and providing pretty frequent updates
there for people that are curious and what's the status of the project. You heard from
Kaycee, you know, there is a lot of folks that get their information that way. I don't know
what kind of hits they are getting or what kind of numbers they are getting on that, but they
do keep the website and information -- do informational videos, here is the status this
week. Here is, you know, the lane closures, changes, that type of stuff. So, they are kind
of providing that update, just not in your traditional face to face --
Rountree: Caleb, they send out a monthly flyer as well.
Hood: Yeah. And flyers.
Rountree: A status report.
Hood: Right.
De Weerd: Perhaps that can be shared on the Meridian interchange rebuild Facebook
page as well.
Hood: I do update that page --
De Weerd: Okay.
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Hood: -- when I -- I'm the administrator of that -- when I get those updates that are
pertinent to Meridian Road and Eagle Road a lot of times, I will put -- updates those just to
share those for that page, so -- get the training from Kaycee, so --
De Weerd: Caleb, maybe -- yeah. Well, you need it. Maybe you can also work with
Kaycee in getting information out prior to the transportation commission to invite the public
to come and listen in, as that will be an update.
Hood: Then on the bottom of the page -- and one of the main reasons for -- for this being
an agenda item today, is the Chinden Boulevard corridor study. As we mentioned last
week on June 25th at 10:00 a.m. at the Ambrose School ITD has a special invitation to
meet with you and I think some other elected officials that I have also extended that invite
to the Meridian Transportation Commission last -- at their last meeting to come to that as
well and talk about the US 20-26 corridor study. As was mentioned, the state has been
looking at this in conjunction with COMPASS and some other partners for about ten years
now, since 2005, and the scope of the corridor is Aviation Way in Caldwell to Eagle Road
in Boise. Right now and probably even in the next draft of the study there is three
segments of -- of that. The first one starting at the western terminus in Caldwell and goes
to McDermott -- let's see. Where is my map? Midland. So, it's on Aviation to Midland is
the first section. With the 2012 concept plan there was slip ramps and frontage roads and
overpasses kind of playing for that. It's taken long enough for FHWA to kind of question
some of those -- that design, if it was really needed, and so they encouraged I guess ITD
to reevaluate that, which included looking at new demographic numbers. CIM 24 was
adopted and so, basically, it had to start a lot of this over from scratch. The draft concept
plan that's going to be out for review now includes a six lane 20-26 all the way from Eagle
Road to Caldwell. So, basically, all of that corridor will look the same, six lane divided
highway. A couple of things that I wanted to point out to you is the Linder-Chinden
intersection. I think we talked about it. I know some of you are familiar with a continuous
flow intersection, but right now that -- that concept plan study shows a continuous flow
intersection at Linder -- a full CFI. Because some of the new demographics that were
received from the COMPASS modeling and the new transportation numbers show that,
you know, the north -south is almost as heavy as east -west. With Linder and River
Crossing there. So, ITD and Parametrics really struggled with how do you -- how do we
design something at those intersections? So, they have got a full CFI there. I think if it's
okay -- I have got a quick video and this one has been played and some of you may have
even seen this before, but Utah has some of these, so I just wanted to kind of give you a
quick -- it's a two minute video of just how you drive a CFI. This isn't -- again, we are in
Utah here, but I think this may help some of you that don't know what a CFI is, so I'm just
going to play this video real quick and it kind of shows you -- walks you through as a
motorist what it means to go through a CFI.
(Video played.)
Hood: So, some of the rationale --
De Weerd: That was clear as mud.
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Hood: I know it's a little bit weird to turn before you turn, but the main reason for this
design is you can turn your lefts at the same time you allow your through movements and
you really cut out the phase of your signals, so you can allow more green time. So, this
type of an intersection -- so, the full CFI will be -- you will do that both on the Chinden legs
and the Linder legs. So, you will have that same thing. It's not the other cross street in
that video. What I will point out is at Locust Grove and at Meridian, though, they are
proposing partial CFls, so the Chinden legs would still do this and, then, the other legs
would just be more traditional north -south conventional intersection that way. So,
anyways, I just wanted to point that out to you. It really -- I don't know what kind of
exhibits ITD is going to have there, but the line work I have seen from the aerials it makes
your head spin when you try to figure it out where the lines go and you're trying to stop
and what signal -- is this signal directing traffic that way or this way and, you know, it's
about this big and so you're trying to, you know, envision driving through there. So, I'm
just trying to help a little bit as you look at some of these TV printouts that are going to be
probably on a table of what that really looks like and if you have any questions or
comments on that, so you're a little bit oriented to that, so --
De Weerd: So, is that meeting, Caleb, open to the public or is that just for --
Hood: Madam Mayor, there is another meeting that night. There is a public open house.
This one is more for elected officials and city staff. If someone from the public came -- in
fact, I invited David Turnbull to this one, but it really isn't a public meeting. I mean, again,
don't think they are going to turn anyone away, but the public is encouraged to come later
that night and I think they will probably be fully staffed and, you know, be ready for -- you
know, cookies and drinks and that type of a thing in the evening. So, they will be geared
more for the one-on-one conversations, they want to hear from you directly what are your
thoughts on the right of way width and that will probably be a pretty big shock when you
see those, too. It's a pretty -- pretty wide corridor, let alone at the intersections. I mean
this -- this design at the Catholic church I think gets to about 12 feet to their building and
they have some nice lush landscaping out there, but the footprint for this thing is huge.
So, anyways, just kind of wanted to give you a little bit of background on that.
De Weerd: So, if we want cookies we have to go --
Hood: You have to go twice. Yeah. So, I don't know -- we talked and I don't know if
Councilman Rountree wants to refresh some of his comments from last week or not or if
we need to -- there is not really a strategy I don't think, but, you know, as was pointed out,
this is really the environmental -- getting environmental complete, so they can move
towards corridor preservation and ultimately constructing and improving the corridor, but
this is a first step and it's taken forever to get this far, so --
De Weerd: Now, Caleb, I know the city has been trying to get right of way as part of the
development entitlements. Has the right of way changed?
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Hood: Madam Mayor, kind of. So, we have -- ITD changed their policy a little bit. Back in
the day they were -- some folks over there - when Sue was there they kind of give us,
you know, here is what we need, a hundred feet from center line. Without having the
study adopted yet there is really not a true number that they will give us. It hasn't really
changed, it's just that there is nothing official and there is some changes being made to
the -- from headquarters of allowing the districts a little more authority to determine their
right of way needs, where before it was more structured on classificational right of way
and not arterials, but just your class three and four highways and them all being rural and
it's kind of an outdated classification system. So, ITD is kind of getting away from that
and, again, pushing more at a district level where there is these specific plans. So, most
of Meridian -- again, our -- the right of way impacts are real similar to what we reviewed
back in 2011, 2012. Most of the changes are in Canyon county as far as right of way
impacts. So, we have been -- are doing a great job of preserving right of way.
De Weerd: And, Councilman Rountree, do you have anything to add?
Rountree: Well, respect your question, the original right of way width that we were holding
back is probably not what they would prefer, but I think they can probably build the six
lanes in it. They can't build these intersections with the accommodations we made with
the setbacks. There is just going to be some very expensive real estate they are going to
have to buy to do it. The only other option is to put full interchanges in, which is going to
be a footprint that's even bigger than these continuous full intersections and they will
probably drive a lot better and they are certainly more understandable to the average
driver and this is a rather unique concept for the driving skill of the community that's going
to be using this, at least to the west, so if it ever happens it's going to be interesting. I
think it's going to be a real study in public involvement in dealing with public reaction at
these meetings when the public sees this and walks out scratching their head saying it's
never going to work. It does work and it works pretty, but it's -- it's not intuitive to the
average driver.
De Weerd: They can run on State Street.
Rountree: Well, they are going to do something similar to this at State and Veterans
Parkway. Except you go way through the intersection, come back to make the left turn.
De Weerd: Any other --
Rountree: I would encourage everybody to go if you have an opportunity, just to see this.
It's -- I was totally uninformed when I saw these layouts here about three weeks ago. I
had no idea that they had gotten to this point and they have done a lot of work and it's
going to be extremely expensive if it ever comes to fruition.
De Weerd: Well, we hope it does.
Rountree: Yeah. Well, there is no money for any of this, unfortunately
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Hood: Just to wrap up, then, if anyone wants to talk about that project between now and
that open house feel free to call me or e-mail or whatever. Just to wrap up the memo, just
a couple of other things. On page six the downtown place making, just, again, to highlight
that for you all, that will be also on your joint meeting with MDC next Tuesday to discuss
the lighter, quicker, cheaper report that was -- that was recently completed from a two day
workshop that was done here at City Hall in downtown on March 19th and 20th from Idaho
Smart Growth and Projects For Public Spaces, so some of you have already seen some
of that -- seen that report in other venues, but we are going to talk about that with -- with
MDC and I will give a -- just an overview of that and talk about what projects in that report
maybe we should pursue as a community, so -- and who should lead those. And, then,
the rest of the memo is just a letter and a response to our prioritized list of projects for this
fiscal year and where they stand in ACHD's integrated five year work plan, so once I hear
more on that I will provide that update, but they are in the process of coming up with an
initial draft and, again, I will share updates on that as applicable and -- when I get them,
so -- I don't know if there is any other questions about anything that maybe I didn't touch
on in the memo or anything else I would stand for those now, but with that I'm -- I'm done,
so thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor. You touched on it, but are you saying that our meeting with
MDC is now settled on the 16th and, if so, what time?
Hood: Yes.
Zaremba: Is it within our regular Council meeting?
Hood: Sorry, Madam Mayor, Councilman Zaremba, it is next Tuesday at 4:30 here. So,
was --
Zaremba: Thank you.
Hood: I didn't realize that that was -- you guys were hearing that for the first time, so I
apologize about that, but --
Zaremba: Some people may know. I haven't been checking my e-mail. I got it. Thank
you.
Hood: Okay.
F. Legal and Fire Departments: Memorandum of Understanding and
Agreement between the City of Meridian and the Meridian Rural
Fire Protection District
De Weerd: Does ACHD have any comments? No? Okay. Okay. Item 8-F is under our
Legal and Fire Department.
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Niemeyer: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, I will start this one and, then,
team with Mr. Nary on any legal issues that come up. I will try and keep this brief, while
doing no injustice to the details. The first agreement before you is an agreement update
MOU with the Meridian Rural Fire Protection District. The last signed agreement we had
in place was in 2009. During that time the cost share allocation was 80/20. Twenty
percent paid by the district and 80 percent paid by the city for the operation of the fire
department. About that same time the revenues for the district started to decrease. As
they tried to keep up with that percentage they dipped into what they would -- what we
would call a fund balance, they call a reserve account. That reserve account got down to
near zero level, so they had to start decreasing even further the cost share allocation to
the city. This creates a lot of confusion for finance, because the processes we both have
in place for the district and the city are at different times. In other words, Stacy would try
and determine on the front end of our budgeting process in the city what that cost share
was going to be, the district wouldn't set their cost share until the end of that process and
so that created more confusion as well. What we have tried to do with this update,
working with Finance, Legal and the district over the last four months is to bring an
updated MOU that creates a little bit more predictability and little less confusion. So,
would turn your attention to page two and beginning with number four -- and I will work my
way back up -- the cost share allocation for FY -16 budget will be 13 percent. That is all
based on the first part of Section Three and Four above. The gross market valuation
percentage, the population percentage and the market valuation, that final percentage
was calculated by our city Finance Department, it was sent to the rural district for their
review, they agreed with the calculation based on that -- that percentage allocation. They
also looked at where their revenues are currently and what they are anticipated to be in
2016 and for this FY -16 budget year can add two percent to that valuation, to that
percentage to help pay for the cost of personnel and operating expenses for the Fire
Department. Moving upwards up into Section Two, the funding is also there, they have
been able to rebuild to a certain extent their -- their fund balance, for lack of a better word
again. They want to continue to provide assistance with the build out of future stations,
future fire apparatus for those new stations and even up to and including covering part of
personnel costs for those new fire stations when they first open. I take you back to
Station Five. They built Station Five and they also paid the first six months of the
personnel costs for that station to help with the budgeting process of the city. They would
like to continue to do that. To be able to do that they need to have that fund balance or
that savings within their budget. Item C, within Section Two, is -- in order to meet their
desire to help continue to fund future fire stations, build them out, and even help with
personnel costs, they cannot also help to purchase replacement capital as the city moves
forward. So, replacements of fire trucks that are currently within our system. To give you
an idea on call volume that's not pertained within the percentage, but out of the 5,200 calls
we had last year about 420 of those were in the district. So, about ten percent of our call
volume is within the district. As far as that capital replacement, they would rather help
contribute to the build out of new stations and have the money to do that, as opposed to
participating in the capital replacement of fire engines. So, that is the overview of the
agreement. I guess I would turn to Mr. Nary, he's been working with their attorney John
Fitzgerald on any of the legal issues involved.
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Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, probably the only significant legal issue in
these agreements is that we wanted to make sure we identified clearly the numbers of
prior agreements and what this is replacing, but that was the intent was to create a new
working agreement moving forward and we wanted to make sure it was clear on the
record, because we have had so many different agreements for varieties of things with the
district that what was this replacing and it really is just simply replacing the operating -- the
operations and maintenance agreements that we have already had. So, not a huge -- not
a huge change. Obviously the numbers are the significant change, otherwise, the
language and the wording is pretty consistent. Mr. Fitzgerald has been their attorney for a
long time, so it's pretty consistent with the prior agreements. I would agree with the chief
and maybe add one thing on the capital replacement, that's also something our Finance
has also been very supportive of and it can be very dicey to try to get a proportionate
share of a fire -- a fire engine or equipment and so it -- from going forward that's been
Finance's recommendation as well is that we create a clearer division line between
equipment versus personnel versus, for instance, the hard cost of facilities and the
physical plant. So, I think this meets all of what the city's needs are and I know the district
is on board with it as well, so it's ready to move forward if you're willing to do that.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Any questions from Council?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton,
Borton: Just one. I asked the chief about it. Maybe I will direct it to Bill, just to be clear
on 2-B, the funding by the district of the capital outlay expenditure budget, the sentence
ends with shall be for the cost and expenses of fire department equipment outside the city
limits of the city. Does that -- does that mean it's equipment that is literally physically
outside of the city limits or is it equipment that is inside city limits, but can be used
outside? I don't know what the phrase outside the city limits -- the city means in that
context.
Niemeyer: Councilman Borton, again, the intent of that language -- I know it's confusing
language. The intent of that was to insure that it was clear -- tongue in cheek there -- that
as the district -- as the city has needs outside of the city limits for future fire stations, the
district has an intent and a desire to help contribute to the funding of those capital
expenditures. So, for example, Station Six, they bought the land for Station Six already.
That's our next planned station currently that's outside the city limits and, obviously, will be
annexed. But they wanted to make sure that there was language in there that -- that
specifically stated their intent to want to help with capital purchases in the future outside
the current city limits as the department needs grow. The wording is clear as --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Borton,
and probably if you would like -- I mean the only additional language that might make it
clearer would be something to the effect only of if any or if applicable, because there may
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not be -- the way I anticipate it -- and I didn't discuss it in detail with Mr. Fitzgerald, but if
there was a need at some particular point in time for the rural to construct a station that
would be solely outside the city, say further south of our area of city impact, but still within
the district and we are not necessarily contiguous to it yet, but yet there is a need,
depending on growth, so it might solely be outside of the city limits at that particular point
in time. I think that's what this is intended for is to allow for that if and when it's applicable.
I think, again, if it's within the city, the preference is is that they contribute to certain types
of costs, but not to necessarily some specific costs, like equipment. That's what I thought
it was intended for. If you think to clarify would help to add additional language, I certainly
don't think they would have any objection to that, so --
Rountree: Well, I have a question based on your explanation and the chief's explanation.
Does your explanation fall under the definition of equipment? I have a hard time believing
that a fire station is equipment.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council --
Rountree: I could make that argument that that's not equipment. Shouldn't it be like a
capital expenditure or infrastructure and equipment or --
Nary: I would agree, I --
Rountree: -- some definition.
Nary: Yeah. And maybe, Council Member Rountree, I mean I agree with you, because
mean one portion where a capital outlay expenditure could be a very large or
encompassing --
Rountree: Yeah.
Nary: --- term versus the second half, which is talking about specifically equipment.
Again, I don't -- chief may know, but I don't know that they would have any objection to
anything to clarify, because I think it really is an if and when and if applicable type of
circumstance. I don't think the intention is for that to be significant -- at least in the -- in
the immediate future.
Niemeyer: I agree completely. I think it --
Rountree: If that's their intent it would be nice to have it here. If they are understanding it
that it's just a truck or hose or whatever, then, it's kind of different.
Borton: Yeah. Madam Mayor, that -- Councilman Rountree's point applies also in
paragraph -- or Subsection C.
Bird: Yeah.
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Borton: That fire department equipment phrase is used again. It might create some of
that same ambiguity.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we can clarify that with the district. I think
they have a meeting this week.
Niemeyer: Yeah. Thursday.
Nary: So, I will get a hold of Mr. Fitzgerald in the morning and, again, I don't anticipate a
problem. If there is we will -- but we will put it back on for next week in anticipation of
getting it resolved, so --
1. Amended onto the agenda: Legal and Fire Department:
Discussion and approval of Interagency Joint Powers
Agreement for Apparatus Maintenance and Repair
Services Agreement with Star Fire Department
De Weerd: Okay. We have Item F-1 that was amended onto the agenda.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, the second agreement before you is
an interagency joint powers agreement for maintenance and repair of our apparatus. The
history on this is when I came in as the deputy chief in 2007 the department used city of
Boise primarily for some of their repair and maintenance work for apparatus. Chief
Anderson made a switch on that. As they grew we kind of went to the back of the line and
so it would be days with our apparatus sitting there and not being able to get work done
and so we started working with Dusty Ballantyne. He is with Hughes Equipment out of
Oregon. Hughes is an offset of Pierce Manufacturing, which is what all of our apparatus
are. Dusty from Hughes moved into the Idaho area and specifically into Meridian. Lives
off of Locust Grove. And started working out of a trailer doing maintenance and repair on
fire department apparatus. The thing with Dusty that Chief Anderson and I would agree
looked at is he is a certified EVT, which is an emergency vehicle technician. They train
specifically on fire department apparatus. He went through his training and certification
programs at Pierce and was certified at Pierce. So, we found that very beneficial. He's
done a great job for us. The challenge when he was with Hughes is that he covered not
only Idaho, but three other states, eastern Oregon, Utah and Montana. So, while we
didn't have significant delays, in getting our apparatus worked on, we had some delays,
up to three to four days here and there as he was traveling throughout those states.
About two and a half, three months ago the Star Fire Department hired Dusty to be their
mechanic. They did a -- quite an extensive study and analysis, they contacted the fire
departments in the area that used Dusty and said are you happy with his service and
would you continue to use his if the prices stay the same. We looked at the prices and
compared those with Hughes, they are the exact same. The benefit to us is that Dusty is
now here full time in the Treasure Valley and not traveling, so the reliability of having him
available has increased. We did look around, there still are no other emergency vehicle
technicians in the valley outside of the city of Boise and we know what the service level
would be there if we sent our apparatus to Boise. We feel this meets our needs. We
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would like to continue our relationship with Dusty, he's done a great job for us. We have
not had any call backs on the repair work he has done and he knows Pierce engines,
which is what our fleet is, so that is an overview of the agreement. The last section within
that that was developed and language created by the two legal folks, this time Mr. Nary
and Bill Gigray, is -- we were going to be paying for pump -- annual pump testing. Dusty
was going to be doing that for us as well. They have a need to use our pit from time to
time, our water pit at Station One behind the tower where they can flow pumps and so for
exchange in them being able to use our pit they will be doing all of our pump testing on an
annual basis for nothing and so we felt that was a very good exchange of services. So,
that's an overview of the agreement. I think it's a good one and it continues to get the
work done in a manner that we like to see it done.
De Weerd: Okay.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: My only question would be has it been passed by Keith Watts and gotten his
blessing?
Niemeyer: It has. I took it one step higher, rather than Keith, I took it right to Stacy and
she had a big smile on her face and said thank you for getting an agreement in place.
With Hughes we never had an agreement, it was just they were the service provider and
that's who we used, so she is very pleased that we have an agreement now in place tied
to the bills that we are receiving.
Zaremba: Great. Thank you.
Nary: And Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, and in addition to that, some of the things
-- the Finance Department raised, both Purchasing and from the Finance Director were a
lot of questions on the coverage and how -- how could Star stand behind this and we have
worked -- ironed all of those issues out. They have the appropriate insurance coverages
in place, you know, very comfortable with another governmental entity as the -- essentially
the service provider with the individual. We think it really does make sense and we would
like to get it in place, because the work has continued to be performed and this is the
mechanism in which the Finance Department is more comfortable in making payment,
so --
Niemeyer: I don't want to delay this, but if I could add one more thing. There is out
clauses. We are not bound to utilizing Dusty if we become dissatisfied with his service or
if another provider comes in, that this doesn't bind us to Star fire for service.
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De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Any further questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Come back for approval with a resolution or --
Bird: No. This is a contract.
Nary: You can approve it today.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: If there is no further discussion, I move we approve Item 8-F1, the interagency
joint powers agreement for apparatus maintenance and repair services with the Star Fire
Department.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-F1. Madam Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll Call: Rountree, yea; Bird, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
G. Police and Public Works Departments: Budget Amendment for
Payment and Reimbursement of the Animal Control Building for
the Not -to -Exceed Amount of $36,745.00
De Weerd: Item 8-G is under our Police Department -- Police and Public Works. So, I will
turn this over to Chief Lavey.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, thank you. I will be presenting this for both departments.
Animal control functions for the City of Meridian have been contracted with the Idaho
Humane Society. The building that housed that function was paid for by the General
Fund. However, as part of the wastewater treatment plant expansion the Enterprise Fund
is now using that building. Since these are two funds with different base of funds the
asset must be transferred to the Enterprise Fund. The Enterprise Fund, in return, needs
to reimburse the General Fund for the net book value of the building since October 1st,
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2014. That current value is 36,745. That it is based upon Finance and net gains and
depreciation and a whole bunch of other areas that I don't quite understand. In turn I
would like to request that the city forward these funds to the Idaho Humane Society
building fund to further their attempts to expand their facility in recognition that the added
-- by adding Meridian to their service area has increased their facility needs. I would like
to point out that the sooner the new facility is built the greater the benefit is to our citizens
due to the proximity of the location to the city. Because of this agreement -- we wanted a
simple legal agreement. Nothing is ever simple when you have attorneys involved. But
we do have an agreement that has been worked out. Idaho Humane Society does not
know that we were doing this and so Dr. Rosenthal's signature needs to be on there, so I
asked Emily to contact Dr. Rosenthal for her signature, so they will soon know this. If the
city is in agreement with that I would like to formally request that the two budget
agreements be approved and that the legal agreement be signed next week. And I stand
for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief.
Lavey: One more -- Madam Mayor, one more thing. I don't believe I said the amount and
that is 36,745 dollars, based upon the current assessment.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, for the record -- so, all we have done is
created an addendum to the existing agreement. So, it's about as simple as we can do.
So, it's a one page agreement. We will contact the Humane Society and hopefully have it
on for next week for the approval of that agreement, but if you would approve the budget
amendment tonight I think Finance would appreciate that. They have reviewed it. Chief
Lavey has reviewed this addendum and so unless there is a concern from the Humane
Society, I don't see any problem with having it on next week for you.
De Weerd: I doubt there will be a concern from IHS. Any comments, questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Jeff, recognizing I might put you on the spot, how much -- what's the annual
contracted amount from the city to the Humane Society for services?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I cannot tell you the exact amount, but I can
tell you it's over 300 and under 350 if that's good enough for you.
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Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up? Again, chief, not to put you on the spot. Do you
have a total amount the Humane Society is trying to raise for their capital campaign?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I do not. I do not know what total amount
they are trying to raise, nor do I know how much they need to break ground. The Mayor
might have a better idea of that.
De Weerd: A lot. I do know that the city of Boise has donated -- or contributed a half a
million dollars to -- to the shelter.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, question then?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Where is the shelter located? Or where is the proposed site?
De Weerd: It's on Overland and --
Lavey: Right next to Walmart.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Lavey: Just after Walmart on Overland.
De Weerd: So, it is a considerable benefit to our citizens to get to the new shelter
location. The IHS came and met Lieutenant Colaianni and myself and they did make the
ask -- if there was something. I contacted Public Works to -- to see if that had been
transferred and we found out that it hadn't. They got the information to the chief and really
thought that -- we donated the inside to the rescue group that continued to operate in the
city and -- because at one time we did talk about the shelter and this is much cheaper
than building one ourself. So, this seemed appropriate to put that asset back to -- and it's
been depreciated and that's why it's not the hundred thousand that was initially invested.
It's been depreciated and this is the amount that it was valued at. Further questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Seeing none, I move that we approve the budget amendment for Police and
Public Works Department for a payment and reimbursement of the animal control building
for the not to exceed amount of 36,745 dollars.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second, with a note that this will be on next week's
agenda with the agreement. Any discussion? Mr. Zaremba.
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Zaremba: Just a question of whether or not it really was a two part request. We have a
transfer between the two funds and, then, there was additional request that after that
transfer the General Fund send the money to the Humane Society. Are we doing both of
those parts?
Milam: I believe this motion was just to transfer the money between funds and that the --
the donation to the animal control -- or the Humane Society will be on next week's
agenda. Is that right?
Nary: That's right.
Zaremba: Thank you for the clarification.
De Weerd: Madam Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Rountree, yea; Bird, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
H. City Council Liaison/Committee Updates
De Weerd: Item 8-H is under our City Council liaison and committee updates. So, I will
start with Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Well, let's see. I'm on the board of Valley Regional
Transit and I think we just had a very comprehensive update on that. I appreciate Kelly's
part in that and her presentation. Liaison to the Legal Department and recently we
approved an amendment to make a part-time position full time. That has already
happened and is already proving to be effective and necessary, so thank you all very
much for that approval. Public Works Department just had a very successful Public
Works Week. Some of you participated or saw one or two of their events, but very good
attendance at their ribbon cutting at the new administrative facilities and lab facilities and
other service facilities at the wastewater treatment -- I'm sorry -- at the water resource
recovery plant is now the correct name for it. Very fine facilities that are going to be very
useful as we continue to grow and continue to have greater EPA requirements. The expo
here at City Hall on Wednesday was well attended. The weather turned out to be
beautiful. That was great. I did not go, but I have heard report that the bus trip the next
night was very well received. Every seat full and everybody enjoyed it and -- let's see.
What else happened? They had a golf tournament and went very well and they had a
Poop Scoot, which is a run that -- I think it was 150, 157 people ran in that, something like
that, and -- so, all in all it was a very successful week and got the word out to the citizens
about what goes on at Public Works, which is an awful lot of stuff all the time and that was
very good. That's it.
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De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Borton.
Borton: Fire has been plugging along, again, focused mostly on budget work and their
progress on some master planning in a cooperative effort with Kuna and Star, rural fire
and the City of Meridian, which is a pretty exciting project. That will be coming before us
here shortly, which is a great project that they have been working on for a while and, then,
Historic Preservation Commission meeting this week will be tough.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Borton: That's it.
Rountree: Well, I will let the Mayor talk about the Mayor's stuff, because she knows more
about what's going on there than I do on our -- her busy schedule. But you are in the
throws of AIC. Caleb did mention that the interchange focus group is attempting to find a
day we can meet and I haven't heard for sure if we settled on it, but you can tell me later,
Caleb. And that's the group that got together and worked with ITD and the contractors to
try to come up with some kind of a design that apparently is going some direction, but I
think of us are kind of confused what's gone on there. Hopefully we can get that squared
away in the next few days. Mediation continues on the mediation effort that the Mayor
and I are involved in and, Bill, I'm confused as to when the next time and date is, because
I -- I didn't go out of the last one with a real clarity of when it was we were going to meet
and where.
De Weerd: It was today.
Rountree: It was today? Well, apparently I missed it. All right.
De Weerd: We have another date.
Rountree: All right. So, I can't tell you if anything is going on there, but maybe the Mayor
can allude to it.
De Weerd: AIC is this week, so it starts tomorrow and we have Councilman Bird,
Councilman Zaremba and Council Member Milam that are signed up. Council Member
Zaremba's district seat is up? Is that yours or Elaine's?
Zaremba: Hers is up.
De Weerd: Hers is up. So, you might give some thought about that. Dairy Days Parade
is next week and you all have accommodations, so stay tuned. Gene Kleiner Day is on
Saturday, as Stave had mentioned. We hope you will come out and enjoy the concert. I
will spare you my conductor skills. They wanted me to do their -- their last song and I just
want to enjoy it and not have to worry about how I look up there. So, I'm really looking
forward to celebrating this generous gift to our community and -- and seeing the unveiling
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of the next piece of art that they are generously donating as well. It's such a legacy and
every time you go out there and you see our public enjoying that park, that gift, it's just
great. Memorial Day celebration was phenomenal and we just keep creating memories
out there, so -- I did want to note for -- Caleb and I met regarding Chinden and had a
conversation that soon this interchange focus group might change into a Chinden focus
group, so, again, if proved so successful in terms of having a focus citizen group in -- in
carrying the water, helping to support staff and this Council in establishing this, it's -- it's
very needed. So, I kind of need a concerted effort on that, so -- Mr. Bird.
Bird: Madam Mayor, first MDC, anybody that wants to attend our -- one of our monthly
meetings it's 7:30 in the morning here, if you happen to come out and we would
appreciate that. Parks. You got a tremendous presentation. I don't know -- and I think
every Council person on here should be very proud of our parks. I mean they are so first
class and they are maintained so first class and I can't praise Mike and his staff in that
Parks Department more because every time -- and I go through there at least once a
week through parks and I hate to tell you, I have never seen anything without a place,
brown or anything else. They -- I'm just -- I'm absolutely so proud of our Parks
Department and to see what we have done in -- because you got to realize Tully Park did
not come on until 2000 and what we have done -- and these two people right here have
been two of the biggest -- ones that made sure it happened and, you know, I just -- I can't
say enough about our Parks Department and the way it's maintained and, Mike, put that
onto your staff, because they -- they just do a fantastic job. And, then, my other one,
Finance is -- does their great job as usual. The budget books are out. Looks good. We
are going to be busy here the next couple of months getting the budget squared away and
tightening our belt and hopefully giving back some more money to the taxpayers and with
that I will shut up.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I'm going to read mine. So, the Clerk's Department, they are researching a new
way of sending post cards to notice for land use public hearings. IT is still working on
Accella reconfigurations and are ahead of schedule at this point. The staff attended a one
day Accella regional user seminar conference in Salt Lake last week and it was very
beneficial and they are continuing to assist with Tri -Tech project for Meridian PD and that
leads me into the Meridian PD. The construction on the training center is on schedule and
should be opening toward the end of July and they will have a formal grand opening
sometime in August and just gradated another citizen public safety academy and are
planning to do another one in the fall. Everything is going good.
Cavener: A couple quick things coming out of Community Development. They are
wrapping up the draft RFP for the conference center, performance art space and are on
task to have that out by the end of the month with responses back by the end of August.
So, I think that's -- you know, they have had a very audacious time table and it's great to
see them hitting their benchmarks. As Bruce mentioned last week, the New Ventures Lab
is open. I think It's important that we thank a lot of the city staff that helped make that a
reality, folks in Public Works, Max Jensen, Eric Jensen and a lot of work from our legal
Meridian City Council Workshop
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staff to make that happen. I had a chance to tour the facility and I think it's a good thing
for our community and I think there is a lot of dividends to be paid on that project down the
road. HR, a reoccurring trend, the things that we have talked about today, budget is on
everyone's mind and, you know, that's a department that always has a busy season
where we are bringing new people on and new people moving on to other things and so
we have got a great HR staff that works hard. Lastly, I really want to appreciate
Councilman Borton for -- for bringing the reminder to us Thursday at 5:30. 1 know it's
going to be a hard one for all of us and I would encourage you guys to add that to your
calendar to go and attend that. Dr. Tom is a guy that lives the Meridian Way. That's it.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
Bird: I move we adjourn.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:39 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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