HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-13Meridian City Council Workshop October 13, 2015
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:03 p.m., Tuesday, October
13, 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, Tom Barry, Clint Dolsb,
Scott Colianni, Mark Niemeyer, Steve Siddoway, Mike Barton, Laurelie McVey, Dale
Bolthouse 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. Well, welcome to our City Council workshop. We welcome our Public
Works team over there. We appreciate you joining us and our public. Thank you for
being here. For the record it is Tuesday, October 13th. It's a few 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: Under Item 3 we need to amend the agenda to include a proclamation for
Crime Prevention Month. That would be Item 3-A. Item 4-J, the resolution number is 15-
1097. Item 6-C we need to include an acronym AVR at the end of the item. And on Item
7-A the ordinance number is 15-1662. And with those amendments and changes, Madam
Mayor, I move that we approve the agenda.
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October 13, 2015
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Bird: Second.
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.
A. Amended the Agenda: Proclamation for Crime Prevention Month
De Weerd: Okay. I do have a proclamation. Am I presenting to anyone in particular?
Colaiannai: Stephanie and I.
De Weerd: Oh. Okay. Oh, I didn't even see you over there. You look so natural sitting
next to Ken. Okay. Whereas the health and safety and quality of life of everyone in
Meridian benefits from the dependable delivery of public safety and whereas Meridian is
one of the safest cities in the state of Idaho -- yes. Thank you. So, it is all hands on deck
for our 96 sworn and 24 nonsworn Meridian Police Department officers to keep the fear of
-- the fear of crime from the hearts of 90,000 plus Meridian residents and whereas the first
of its kind new public safety training center is now open and will significantly improve the
efficiencies in our police officer training and whereas each year we are excited to
celebrate Crime Prevention Month with fun and interactive public safety events, such as
Keys To Safe Driving, National Walk to School Day, youth internet safety, Celebrate My
Drive, and Public Safety Day and whereas the effective crime prevention programs
succeed with partnerships between the Meridian Police Department, other government
agencies, civic groups, schools, faith communities, bus inesses and individuals as they
collaborate to nurture communal responsibilities and instill pride. Therefore, I, Mayor
Tammy de Weerd, hereby do proclaim the month of October 2015 as Crime Prevention
Month in the City of Meridian and I call upon all our citizens to acquaint themselves with
the Meridian Police Department and actively participate in preventing crime prevention
through education and awareness and I did sign this today and am privileged to present
this to Stephanie and Lieutenant Colaianni. I will say that Officer Gomez last -- last night
gave the internet safety to the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council and I don't think there was
a peep coming out of that group of teens the entire time he was talking. I have
appreciated, Stephanie, the leadership that you have shown in crime prevention and really
instilling the safety aspect in our neighborhood, working with our homeowners
associations and showing what the crime numbers are in those neighborhoods , but also
how they can take their neighborhoods back. I have heard such favorable comments from
our citizens about your proactive approach, your -- the information that you share and the
tips that you bring to making their environment even safer. So, I present this proclamation
to the two of you and will invite you to say a few words.
Colaianni: Thank you, Mayor. I just -- I want to thank Stephanie for all the work she's
done. She has been with us less than a year and she's done a fantastic job. She's hit the
ground running and done amazing things and I look forward to the next few years working
with her closely and I'd like to thank the Council and the Mayor and our citizens for helping
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October 13, 2015
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keep this a great community, a safe community, a great place to live, work, and play. We
couldn't do it without a team effort. We have a fantastic police department and we do a lot
of outreach to our community and it pays off. But where it pays off is when you come and
let us know how we are doing and be part of that problem solving and I look forward to
working here a few more years and with this Council and Mayor. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well -- and some of those efforts will be shown tonight in our Neighborhood
Stars awards and sharing accolades to some of those unsung heroes that make a
difference in -- in our neighborhoods and, again, it's because of that -- that building of
community in our neighborhoods that we are able to continue to be a safe city to live in.
So, again, my congratulations to you both.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Approval of the Minutes from the September 8, 2015 City Council
Workshop Meeting
B. Approval of the Minutes from the September 15, 2015 City
Council Meeting
C. Approval of the Minutes from the September 22, 2015 City
Council Meeting
D. Approval of Lakeview Golf Course Capital Improvement Plan
(CIP) Project and Rent Relief
E. Approval of Agreement to ClimaTech Corporation for “Software
Support Services” for a Not-To-Exceed Amount of $6,195.00
F. Award of Agreement Renewal for “UTILITY BILLING CUSTOMER
SERVICES” to Billing Document Specialists for the Not-To-
Exceed Approved Budget Amount of $271,999.92
G. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval: MDA 15 -010
Southridge Apartments by DBTV Southridge Farm, LLC Located
South Side of W. Overland Road Midway Between S. Linder Road
and S. Ten Mile Road Request: Modification to the Development
Agreement to Update the Conceptual Development Plan for the
Site
H. Personal Services Contract with Emergency Services Consulting
International for Development of a West Regional Emergency
Master Plan
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I. Development Agreement for Approval: RZ-15-008 Avebury
Subdivision by Avebury Development Located North side of E.
Pine Ave & w/o N. Locust Grove Rd.
J. Resolution No. 15-1097: A Resolution Appointing Mike Pepin as
the Public Works Department Designee to the Solid Waste
Advisory Commission.
De Weerd: Item No. 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: With the added resolution number 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: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Department Reports
A. Public Works: Strategic Update
De Weerd: So, we will move right into our Department Reports and turn this over to Mr.
Barry with the Public Works strategic update.
Barry: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. It's my pleasure to present to
you our strategic focus update for this year. As you know, pretty much every October we
come before you and talk with you a little bit about what's going on in the department,
what we have accomplished, and things we are looking forward to working on over this
next year. So, I will just jump right in. A couple things I thought you might be interested in
from an infrastructure perspective and I'm going to be speaking mostly towards fiscal '15,
which is just behind us now. We had quite a few additions over this last fiscal year. We
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added 1,300 new water accounts and almost the same in sewer accounts. We have
added another 20 new miles of water line infrastructure, 13 new miles of sewer line.
infrastructure. We have added another 122 fire hydrants that are active and another 365
new sewer manholes. Quite a bit of infrastructure that just continues to go in the ground
as we continue to develop. We have seen over this last fiscal year in comparison to fiscal
year '14 a 53 percent increase in the number of inspections over this last fiscal year. So,
you can see the workload is certainly there and it continues to grow. We have
communicated in the past using the modified balance score card. This has been an
effective way for us, we believe, to help try to compartmentalize each of the functions of
the department into five general areas. Those area are here on the screen. Areas of
customers, employees, operations, financial and strategy. We will go through briefly each
one of these areas and talk more broadly about some of the major accomplishments and
some of the focus areas that we will be working on going forward. So, as it relates to
customers, I wanted to highlight a couple of cool proj ects we think that are making a big
difference. The first one is replaced our newest strategy of water treatment, we placed
our newest facility at Well 21. That's the one over here next to the speedway, the water
tower, and we also replaced Wells 16B and 16C. We drilled those in order to attempt a
blending type of strategy and we are costing out each of these different strategies to
improve water quality in Zone Two. I can tell you that water treatment is quite a more
expensive -- almost two and a half times more than say the blending technique that we
are using, but they are both still early in our strategy as far as operation and what we are
doing in the water division. But between these two projects alone, essentially, and some
other activities we have operationally taken, we have seen a decrease in water quality
complaints over this last fiscal year of about 18 percent. So, we feel good about that.
We'd like to keep those numbers continuing to come down. We also completed six major
line repairs -- these are water line repairs -- using internal staff at the water division. As
you know we are outfitted now with proper equipment, tools, and resources. We also
picked up a couple of very talented staff members from the City of Nampa water
department and so we have had six different projects over this last fiscal year --
De Weerd: You're not supposed to say that on the public record, Tom.
Barry: Well, I know --
De Weerd: Because I will hear from Mayor Henry.
Barry: I know. Well, they are the greatest training ground for us. We really appreciate
them sending all their trainees over. No. Actually, that -- they have got really great staff
and we have been fortunate to find them and keep them. But the reality is by having
these -- these staff members and utilizing them and our equipment on the six of these
repairs internally we were able to save 50,000 dollars over this last fiscal year and we
have also significantly reduced the amount of time the service has been out of
commission. Typically when we have to hire a contractor there is a lot more time in
mobilizing -- finding the contactor, mobilizing the contractor, getting them on site, taking
care of the issue, all of that kind of stuff. In some of these cases we have had -- we have
had the repairs done in less than six hours. So, it's pretty cool to have that kind of
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resource available to us and, of course, that has a huge impact on our customers, getting
them back into service as soon as possible. Also we have made longer range financial
operational and capital plans and we have expanded those to ten years and what that
does is it gives us a little bit more predictability. You know, we have been operating under
a five year window, now we have pushed all capital plans, financial plans, our rate
modeling out ten years. So, that allows for more stability in rates and utility fees and, of
course, that has a huge benefit to the -- to the customers as well. We did go through
some extensive public outreach this past year as it related to some of those changes,
particularly driven by improvements that we are going to need to make at the wastewater
treatment plant, the wastewater resource recover facility. We have talked about that a few
more times throughout the presentation. So, mostly in the front regulatory and growth-
related issues associated with the capacity and the NPDES requirements at the -- at the
wastewater facility. As you know, we continue to expand the interest and the attendance
of Public Works Week in the various activities. We had a record number of activities this
year with the ribbon cutting of the wastewater resource recovery facility and we ran the
same number of events that we have in the past, adding that one, of course. We
continued to see interest grow at the Expo. We had over a thousand people we estimate.
When we first stated this we had 300 people in the first year. So, we continue to grow, we
continue to get great comments and feedback from the community. We also raised
almost 3,300 dollars that we donated back to the community in three different ways. To
the parks fund for their classes and -- I can't remember what that program is called. It just
escaped my mind. Care To Share program. That's right. And, then, also to the Meridian
Food Bank and, then, finally to our own fund of -- utility fund for those folks who have
trouble paying their utility bills there is a small fund that the city manages that that money
was also put into as well. So, in any event, a lot of good things continuing to happen out
at the Public Works Week activities. Our focus areas moving forward in the customer
category essentially to really improve our public information and our public process
management. We continue to struggle here. We are really good at engineering. We are
good at operations and those type of things. Maybe not so good in communication and
public education and outreach. So, we want to definitely improve in those areas . We
have kind of limped along with adequate -- I believe adequate approaches to public
education information. We really like the folks when developing an effective customer
feedback tools we don't really get a whole lot back, we don't have the resources to go
after how we are doing as a utility in collecting information, doing surveys, and getting
information back and using that information to drive improvements in our organization.
Public education outreach, as I mentioned, is also key. There is a lot of things that we
could and should be sharing, in my opinion, with the community that simply there is --
there is not resources, time or specialty to do and, then, improving the messaging, the
timeliness and the delivery method in particular as it relates to capital construction, service
interruption, brown water calls, all of these sorts of things that we struggle each and every
time we have one of those issues to really effectively communicate with the community.
Also we will be focusing on the implementation of design standards, so we started this
project quite a while ago and we are currently in the public process right now with regard
to allowing developers and the community to provide input, so we can strengthen the
development standard and create more predictability and better quality associated with
those standards. That is something I will be coming before you probably closer to the end
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of this year, maybe the first of next year. And, then, we also want to focus, certainly, on
the water system improvements, particularly targeting Zone Two, because that's the zone
which -- our pressure Zone Two, because that's the zone that has the highest
concentration of radio nucleides, iron and manganese. So, that's where we are focusing
treatment, blending, occlusion and other types of strategies. Moving forward I want to talk
about the employee area. We have done quite a number of things in the employee
section of the balanced scorecard. I put up here the top five areas that our staff were
vocal in. Four of the five are absolutely in alignment with those of the city, the broader
city. This information comes from our 2013 employee satisfaction survey, which is the last
data that we have available. We did take another survey with the rest of the city this year.
We are waiting on those results. I understand they will be available in November
sometime. But, essentially, these are the areas that the staff have commented on.
Workplace stress in particular. You know, as everybody says, we know we run a lean
operation, we are proud of that, we do a lot with very little, but according to staff
comments, you know, there is too much work and not enough people in some cases and
in some areas and I think that probably goes without saying in just about every local
government agency across the country for that matter. Pay and benefits. Always an
issue in every survey no matter what organization you're in, whether it's public or private
or whatnot. This is an area that's still going to be a challenge for us going forward. We
will talk to you about our thoughts are moving -- advancing it, making advancements in
that area. Career advancement or opportunities for advancement within our own
organization our limited and that's been a concern for staff. There aren't a lot of places to
go, particularly in small organizations, and our organization, although it's a hundred staff
members or so, has a lot of job functions that have not clear paths to -- up and to the
ranks and so that's been a challenge. And we have made some efforts to make gains
there as well. I will talk to you about those In just a bit. Workplace safety was one of the
areas of concern for our staff. We have been making good gains there. A safety
presentation was made a few times to the Council over the past several months. Under
supervision and management, essentially, when the supervisors say there is just not
enough time to supervise, they are way down in the weeds, they are doing a lot, they are
sort of working managers. The staff say that there is, you know, simply quite -- not
enough feedback from the supervisors. There is also some supervisory skill gaps and
some poor performance that's been overlooked. In large part because we are turning and
churning. So, we have tried to make improvements there. I will showcase those here in
just a minute as well. Let's start with workplace stress. One of the things we did -- and
this kind of continued over. I wanted to highlight that. In 2014 after we got this data --
fiscal year 2014 we started really working on programs and curriculum to improve in all of
these areas and fiscal year '15, which is why we are still talking about this, was really a
major implementation push for us. So, a lot of the work, although done in 2014 from a --
from a development standpoint, wasn't really initiated until 2000 -- at least 2014 and 2015.
So, looking at the allocation graph, these are a strategy used for our senior management
team and the strategic leadership team to identify what they are working on and what they
should be working -- identify the critical -- the criticality of those and gaps in between and
try to focus our staff to work more on the business at that level than in the business. We
have empathized focusing on the business for those -- those leaders of the organization
and to encourage more delegation, engagement, empowerment at their divisional level
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and, then, improving their management upward skills, somewhat of a new concept in our
organization. We continue to try to make gains in that going forward and we have seen
lots of improvement I think. We still have a lot of work to continue an d, lastly, you might
recall we did some staffing analysis, we continue to do that, but also some modifications
late in 2014, which have had an impact in later 2014 and '15, which has helped reduce
some of the stress levels. We feel like we are adequately resourced now in certain areas
that we had complaints coming out of, particularly in inspection and engineering, back in
fiscal year 2014. On the pay and benefits side, there is not really a whole lot that we can
do from the Public Works seat. We do the best we can. I will talk to you about sort of one
of the ideas we have moving forward and how to try to make that our gains here, but
suffice it to say for fiscal year '15 we really kind of just focused on adding a benefit or
improving a benefit that already existed with the city, which was the tuition reimbursement
program. As you know -- and thank you very much for allowing that program to double in
its size. It is still less than half the federal maximum, but it's a great gain for our
employees and employees are beginning to talk more and think more about getting
degrees and going back to school and entering curriculum programs because of that
assistance. So, we are grateful of that. Under the area of opportunity for advancement,
we have developed and we maintain a skill and capabilities matrix. Every person in the
department in 2014 was required to fill out and new members are supposed to be going
through and filling out skill and capability matrix that compare their skills to the skills
required for their job and identify any gaps between that, so we can target skill-based
training for each of those staff members, closing the gap quickly, making sure that staff go
to the appropriate training and aren't wasting time in training that isn't really going to
necessarily benefit them. We have also developed a leadership development program.
You have heard about this a few times. If you have been my liaison you're pretty -- you
know, pretty familiar over the last two years with this program. It was something that we
developed in-house in coordination with our HR department and also the Boise University
-- or, excuse me, Boise State University Center For Professional Development. It's
actually considered now one of the model programs across the state, which we are pretty
proud of and this program is a series of modules of training. Also leadership retreats,
capstone courses, and a whole variety of other activities that really try to help elevate the
skills and capabilities of particular management staff. We rolled this out to our senior
executive and our strategic leadership team members in fiscal year '14 and expanded it
this past year to our secondary managers. Right now we have about 22 individuals in the
organization trained that have gone through this leadership development program and
that's got big benefits in a number of different areas, because it helps us to improve the
skill and capabilities, as I mentioned, of the existing staff, but also prepare them for bigger
roles that are likely to come, because one of the criticisms we got on our survey was, hey,
not only are there not a lot of opportunities for advancement, but when there are
opportunities we don't feel ready. So, this program has really done a nice job in helping
key positions and key staff members in certain positions think about the next level and
begin to train them for that. We have also tried to focus a little bit more on career
counseling, trying to help certain staff members that are showing an interest and desire to
move up in the organization or just up in their career, you know, what are the
opportunities, where can you go, how do you get there, what kind of training do you want
to acquire and we have modified their training accordingly. We have also modified our
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general hiring practices to look more internally before we go externally on hiring staff
members and, then, in certain cases, particularly key positions, we have been doing some
succession planning and preparing people for roles in advance of what may likely become
an opportunity in the very near future. I wanted to -- to show this graph here, because it
shows the number of promotions that we have had in the last three years utilizing these
strategies and increasing to embrace these strategies going forward and you can see that
there is quite a number of promotions -- we have promoted 19 people in the last three
years. That's almost 20 percent of the entire work force of the Public Works Department,
which is pretty astonishing. So, we are pretty proud of that and want to continue those
efforts. We know that according to the American -- or the Association -- the APWA,
American Public Works Association, that the -- one of the biggest crises that Public Works
organizations face right now is baby boomers and retirees leaving the work force and so
succession plans and internal development programs are going to be more and more
critical, particularly because it's difficult to recruit folks because the industry is not one
where we have a lot of people entering Public Works, so there are challenges there.
Workplace safety was another area that was identified by the staff as important. You all
know -- we have talked about this. I won't go into any detail really, because we have
talked about this through our safety presentations in the past, but we have done audits of
our operation, we have included the safety lighting and striping of our vehicles. We have
added safety equipment. We have increased or upgraded our facilities with regard to
safety in mind. We have done -- we do routine safety briefings and drills at water and
wastewater. We have all the departments -- we are certified in the ten hour OSHA training
course last year and there is some gaps, because we have added several staff, that we
need to go back and close. And, then, we also developed a formal program -- I shouldn't
say formal, we just developed the tenants of a program and also position to help manage
that program as a safety coordinator. So, we appreciate your support in that as well.
Again, it's very good gains on the safety side. On supervision and management one of
the things we developed as a team was a on-boarding program. We know that research
suggests that 70 percent of personnel make their decision -- of new personnel, new
employees, make their decision to leave an organization within their first six months. This
is very important, because if we don't bring somebody on board and set them up for
success and help them understand the expectations and give them the proper tools and
communicate and those types of things, we run a higher risk of losing those individuals.
Maybe not in the first six months, but eventually. So, we have really taken a broad view
and we have an on-boarding program and an implementation guide, which every
employee or every supervisor is supposed to deploy in order to bring a staff onto the
Public Works Department and we have seen a lot of good feedback from that as we
survey those people who have been on boarded we call it. We ask them to, essentially,
survey that experience and tell us, hey, what worked and what didn't work and how can
we improve it. The leadership program here, of course, has tremendously in the
supervisor and management side -- we have already talked about it, so I won't go into it.
We also do performance evaluation tutorials and quality reviews. So, what that means is
every time we go through a performance appraisal process, before that process originally
starts, we will sit down with the supervisors and we will talk to about the appraisal process,
what to look for, how to -- you know, remind them how to do it. Key areas to focus on and
those types of things and we talk about quality. When those appraisals are done the
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manager above that individual supervisor reviews them for quality and consistency across
the board. We don't want different -- people in different organizations to be getting
different scores, because different managers are treating them differently, so we want
there to be consistency across the board. We have been told by our HR de partment,
particularly our director of HR, that we have some of the best performance appraisals
done in the city. We are pretty proud of that. But, still, more to be done there. We have a
formalized recognition of work program we brought online this yea r as well. This was led
also by the staff. Staff members got together and helped us really strengthen the
formalization of our recognition and reward program and we have been doing a lot more
with the -- with the funds that have been made available to us in that front. I wanted to
recognize -- as you know every Public Works we recognize our -- we do our annual
recognition ceremony and we recognize several staff throughout the department who have
been key players or leaders in the department over the year s. The Public Works team
award went to the water division construction team with the member of Marcos
Hernandez, Bill Vallely and Joel Rodriquez who have been doing fantastic work. Those
are the ones that -- who are out there in the field doing all these replacements internally
and repairs. Our cross-functional team award went to the NPDES, the National Pollution
Discharge Elimination system team. Travis Kissire, Laurelie McVey, Clint Dolsby, Mollie
Mangerich and Warren Stewart, members of that team. Our employee of the year was
Matt Hagler and our supervisor of the year was Kathi Buttars. So, we are really proud of
these folks. That's ten percent of the organization that you see right there. What's pretty
cool is that we had 23 nominations and totaling 40 different members of the Public Works
Department. So, we feel like that, in and of itself, is a very, very cool thing to have where
we have got a lot of employees supporting and promoting their colleagues, so -- going
forward under the employee section we are still focused on recruitment and retention. It's
getting harder to find people and it's certainly difficult to retain people for a lot of different
reasons. You know, some of them are paying benefits, some of them are workplace
stress, you know, the area that we have talked about. And, then, a lot of it is just career
advancement, moving onto other organizations. If you're in the city of Nampa public
works department it's extremely difficult to hang onto people over there. Fortunately for
us. But -- but, really, you know, job loyalty is down. That's across the board. It's not just
Public Works. It's not just the city, it's not just private, it's everywhere. Job loyalty is
down. You all may remember the days where, you know, you kept a job for 20 years or
maybe ten years. Now if you keep it for two, three -- the only thing really helping us I think
in that way, based on personal opinion, is the vesting period that we with the state. So,
five years is kind of a good mark -- you know, keep you here five years and we have
employees that go right to the five year mark and they are gone. So, you know, I think five
years is good in public service, but, still, that's -- that's a difficult thing. So, we are
focusing on workforce development, trying to get the people within our organization better
skills and better prepared for leadership positions moving forward. Succession planning is
still something we are going to focus on. We do not have a succession plan. We do
succession planning in certain areas, but we do not have a formal succession plan. We
would like to do that. And, then, pay and benefits. One of the things -- when we did the
compensation analysis last year and the Human Resources Department pegged our
positions, only about half of them came in under some market comparable -- how do I
want to say this? Were comparable to the market based on their job description.
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Meaning that half of the other positions aren't really -- we can't really peg them, because
it's unique or different or we can't find a similar position to -- to market against. So, we
really feel like we need to sit down with the HR department, take a closer look at that, and
insure that across the board we are being marketable in Public Works. I think we are
marketable as a city and I think we are marketable in Public Works in certain positions, but
I'm not certain that we are in all positions and maybe that has some influence on our
recruitment efforts going forward. Okay. So, we will move into financial. We have done a
lot of things in the financial area, too. As you know, we created an NPDES
implementation plan, which identifies a number of projects and puts dollars to those. That
drove the next couple of bullets. Development of a ten year capital improvement plan,
because our NPDES plan and compliance schedule is over a ten year period and, then,
also developing utility rates, particularly in wastewater and sewer assessment fee
modifications that matched the funding we were going to need in order to impleme nt the
implementation plan. And, then, lastly utility billing software integration updates -- while
this is a finance initiative being let, there are huge implications for our utility and a lot of
really cool things that the new software is going to be able to do with regard to integration
between Public Works operations and the financial side of our organization as well. So,
we are pretty excited about that. Continuing forward, we are going to -- you know, we are
not done. A lot of these things continue to be worked at. This continues to expand and
grow. We have to continue to analyze the fiscal impacts of the NPDES implementation
plan. We are in the middle of fee leveling, meaning -- we have talked to you about this in
the past. We have different fees charged for different types of developments, say multi-
family, commercial, residential and the ERU calculation doesn't necessarily equitably
cross all junctions, at least that's our belief at the moment, and so we are going through
and doing some analysis to determine if that's the case and if there needs to be any
adjustments to make more equitable the impacts of those kinds of developments on the
utility. We also need to update the water assessment fee. This is work that has -- has
been done, but is temporarily on hold, because as we have talked the city of Hayden case
has thrown in a sort of wild card in and around how utility assessments are to be
calculated and -- and so we -- that is another project here, the rate model approach and
upgrade and validation component, which we are still working through -- we are just about
ready to wrap that work up and bring that to you. And, then, lastly, if we want to advance
this idea, this concept or strategy in putting some kind of monetary component to the
advancement of infrastructure ahead of growth, that's going to strain fiscally the
department as well. So, that's going to have to be some conversation that comes in the
future as we put those models together. Operationally we have done a lot of great things.
We have put in a groundwater reservoir two. We expanded the inventory management
system. We are tracking now almost 2,000 different items in the inventory management
system, totaling almost 1.3 million dollars of inventory on hand. So, that's been really
great. We made all the sewer and water connections to the Meridian Heights Water and
Sewer District. We have made negotiations with EPA and DEQ on the permit. You will
hear a lot more about that. I don't want to steal their thunder. Safety inspection
improvements have been done, as I already mentioned. The water asset plan, phase
three, has been completed and we are working on phase four at this point in time. Again,
continuing to add assets to the system and expanding the capabilities of that system and
how they influence our operation. We completed the It Starts at Home animations for the
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whole series, except for one, and that's the Idaho Power. That one is on hold due to
funding concerns, but we hope to pick that up here and continue that going forward. And,
then, finally we are -- we are upgrading the disinfection process to well sites and that's
been good. We want to make sure that we keep our chlorine residuals up and the water
safe to drink. Of course, the biggest accomplishment I have saved for last and this is the
completion of our facility improvements at the wastewater resource recovery facility and
that included laboratory, administration, maintenance, head works, and operations
building and facilities. So, that was great and we appreciate you coming and supporting
us during the ribbon cutting. Going forward really it's all about the permit and it's all about
growth. Those are the two areas in operations that we are really, really focused on.
Capacity at the treatment plant is becoming more of an issue for us and, of course, the
permit has always been an issue for us. But improving our incorporation of technology
and technological advancements in our operation is also something we want to focus on,
as well as improving organizational performance management and, then, lastly we are
debating whether or not warranty inspections -- warranty surety inspections are something
that we should continue to outsource or bring internally with regard to quality and turn
around and cost. So, that's going to be a project that we are going to be focusing on over
the next year as well. Lastly, the area of strategy. Our accomplishments are that we
looked at the wastewater treatment plant capacity modeling sooner than we expected to.
This is in large part because we started to get some concerns out of the wastewater
operations group that the plant was not necessarily performing the way it was expected to
perform under the design criteria, so we began looking at the issues and found out that
the loadings at the treatment plant were actually higher than design standards had
predicted and, of course, that makes perfect sense when you look at water consumption
records, which we pulled and we looked at, you know, back in the early 2000s, you know,
members of our community, residences were using on average, you know, something on
the order of 13,000 gallons per month, now it's down to 7,800 a month. So, it's a big drop.
So, if you drop the amount of water you're flushing down the toilets and drains, you
increase the loadings, essentially. They are inversely related, so -- we also reconciled our
Public Works strategic plan and we are pulling -- we completed a lot of strategies and
tactics off that plan and we are pulling forward those that didn't get c ompleted into the next
edition, which is this next five years and also now integrating them with the city wide
strategic plan. So, there is a lot of coordination that's gone on and will continue to go on.
We completed the -- we have five very, very small suggestions with regard to
documenting some process and using some specific forms. So, we feel really good about
-- about the results of the audit that we had on our capital construction program and, then,
also the south Meridian annexation strategy is one that we moved forward. As you know,
we have far more property and far more acreage that are planning to come into the city
here in the near term, so we are pretty excited about that. Some of those
accomplishments lead to additional work and so under the focused areas of strategy the
strategic plan for both the city and the Public Works Department are going to continue to
be a lot of work moving forward and, then, finally, on implementing. We have to also
update the comprehensive sewer master plan and the facility plan for the wastewater
resource recovery facility. We also, as I mentioned, want to continue this discussion
about, you know, how much and if we want to -- we want to push this infrastructure ahead
of growth strategy and, then, lastly, integrating the south Meridian annexation into our
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operations is going to be another key area of focus for us under the strategy component.
So, with that I have covered I think most of the highlights with regard to accomplishments
and focused areas going forward. I don't have anything else for you, but I will be happy to
stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tom. Council, questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Tom, great presentation. You guys have a lot to be proud o f. It's been a great
year. I'm curious -- talking about loyalty of our -- or our employees and I recognize I'm
putting you on the spot, but do you know what the average tenure is of a Public Works
employee?
Barry: We do track that and I think based -- we track it by -- I don't have a single number
for the entire department, but I'm reflecting on memory here. We track it based on
different parts of the organization and I want to say -- and if John McCormick was here he
tracks that information for us, but I want to say -- John, I going to -- it's somewhere
between four and eight years; is that right? Six and a half years. I was close. Four and
eight years.
Cavener: That's really great.
Barry: I like ranges just in case. Thank you, John. Is that --
Milam: Twenty.
Barry: Yeah. I didn't quite go that far, but --
Cavener: Great. Thank you.
Barry: You bet.
De Weerd: Other questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I will just ask one more, then, if no one else -- talk to me about
average number of employees to supervisors. What does that ration look like in Public
Works?
Barry: In our department? Typically we try to shoot for between five and seven, but there
are some areas that it's a little bit less than that. It has a lot to do with function areas;
right? So, if we have a small function, like say our environmental division has three
members that report to a manager. Pretreatment, for example, has one manager who
serves as a lead and, then, one staff member under them. But, then, we also have like
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October 13, 2015
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the engineering division or operations, which have much more -- many more staff
members that report. On average I would say that the average is about four and a half,
five direct reports generally across the entire department, with some exceptions being
somewhat larger and some being somewhat smaller.
Cavener: Thank you.
Barry: You bet.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you, Tom.
Barry: Thank you.
De Weerd: We appreciate the -- the efforts you and your staff have put together. A great
report and --
Barry: Thank you.
De Weerd: -- again, my thanks to your entire team.
Barry: Well, we appreciate your support, guidance and leadership as well. Thank you
much.
B. Public Works: National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) Permit Process Update
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. 7-B is also under Public Works. We have been waiting
enthusiastically for this portion of our meeting.
Bolthouse: And we are bringing a team to address you. I think. As he stands alone.
De Weerd: And great team it is.
Bolthouse: And a great team -- and a great team it is. Madam Mayor and Members of the
Council, thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time this afternoon so that we could
give you an update specifically on the NPDES draft permit process and where we are at.
We are approaching another milestone in the process and getting one more step closer to
the finalized permit and we are going to share a few of the details about that with you now.
So, kind of like a Dickens Christmas Story tale, we are going to break this up. We are
going to give you a little bit of a history of the past, kind of give you a view of what we are
facing right now in the present and, then, we will finish up with kind of what you guys can
expect down the road in the future. So, as I mentioned, the draft permit is currently out in
a draft form for public comments. We have been working with a lot of agencies and
groups and organizations that we will talk about and we think we are very well prepared
for the work that's in front of us. So, the purpose of our discussion today is to give you the
preparation and results of our efforts to give you a look at the implications of that permit on
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October 13, 2015
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our organization and operation and, then, some of the things that you will have to look
forward as we head down the next several years. Obviously, it takes a lot of people to
move this process forward and that's been led by a steering team, if you will. Tom and
John, Warren, Clint, Laurelie and Travis, but I would be remiss to not point out, obviously,
the great staff support that we have in the wastewater department and other areas of the
organization and we -- we certainly appreciate them joining us here this afternoon. They
have a genuine interest in making sure that we are successful in this venture. So, thanks,
guys, for -- for joining us here today. It would be remiss also to mention we did have one
other team member, but he -- he ran to the south on us and little has been heard from
Tracy here lately, but we -- we think he's doing pretty good down south, but we appreciate
his effort as well.
De Weerd: Well, Dale, we hope that your -- your team feels that this is an honor to be
here, rather than --
Bolthouse: An obligation?
De Weerd: -- than the opposite.
Bolthouse: I think they do.
De Weerd: We appreciate them being here.
Bolthouse: Truly they have a -- they have a genuine interest and have been part of the
effort to follow along and it's going to take that kind of effort to see this thing through
fruition, so -- anyway, I'm going to go ahead and pass it over to Clint and he's going to
kind of walk us through the steps that we have made in preparation to get to where we are
at today.
Dolsby: Thank you, Dale. So, I'm going to go through some of the preparations we have
made for the permit renewal. I thought it would be good to lead off with a slide that shows
you a little bit of kind of where we have been. You know, the wastewater plant was
constructed in 1976. Right there we have got four snapshots in time. As you can see
from '86 to '95, you know, there is a big circular tank. That's a clarifier down there on the
bottom of the screen that was added. Some other projects. No major changes. Even if
you go from '95 to '07, you know, we have got color, but beyond that we got a couple --
De Weerd: I was going to say in '86 we didn't have color?
Dolsby: I don't think so. So, we have a few more clarifiers that were added, but between
'07 and '12 we had a couple major expansions of the plant. You can see there is a lot of
new tanks -- there is a couple new clarifiers, which are the circular tanks and a couple
aeration basins, as well as the expansion of the aeration basins that we have, which are
the rectangular ones.
De Weerd: Crazy.
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Dolsby: Yeah. And several other elements of that. Since 2012 we have had more of a
focus on the support structures, so we built the admin, lab, and maintenance shop and
those have been completed here in the last year and we also remodeled the old
administration building into operations. So, a little bit on the permit history. Our current
permit was issued in 1999. These permits are good for five years, so in 2004, expecting
that we would get a permit renewal, we submitted an application to EPA just right on time
when you would normally submit it and just didn't hear from them, didn't hear from them,
you know, it kept getting postponed and the permit got administratively extended for 11
years, right up until a few months ago when it was posted for public comment, so -- but
between 2004 and 2015, you know, we have had a lot of projects out at the wastewater
plant, you know, it's been under a perpetual stage of construction since I started at the
city, so -- and during that time frame, you know, we recognize the challenges that would
be in the new permit, especially with related to phosphorus. I'm like -- when we were
doing major expansion projects, like, for instance, the wastewater expansion where we
added two aeration basins, we set the basins up for phosphorus removal back in '08 in
order to help alleviate some of the costs now that we would be experiencing now. We
have also had a lot of strategic planning efforts. We have got an active council member of
the WAG and Lower Boise Watershed Council. That's an advisory group to DEQ that
helps them out on several different issues, most importantly to us lately is, then, the lower
Boise phosphorus total maximum daily load on the Boise River. That's a long way of
saying that that effort led us to develop phosphorus limits that were allowable in the river
in both the winter and summer. The winter limits were higher than the summer limits,
which was a good thing that I will get to in a minute. Also we contributed to and held
multitude municipal and stakeholder group meetings. We have had a municipality group
that's been meeting for approximately the last five years discussing these issues and as
they started to come to fruition, you know, develop comments, coordinated on different
things with -- especially the Boise-Nampa-Caldwell. There has been other cities invited,
too, and they have attended as well. We have a local consultant with national NPDES
expertise that we have used through the whole process and so we had lobbied for and
supported development of that team that I just mentioned before, issuance of our permit.
Now, this is important, because if that team deal was not completed substantially before
our permit was issued we would have got much lower concentrations for phosph orus in
our permit. So, the fact that that would substantially complete it -- it hasn't been approved
by EPA yet, but EPA did put the limits that were reflective of the TMDL in our permit,
which was a really good thing for us. Also, we have actively part icipated in the lower
Boise Watershed Council. I served as the chair for this year and we completed
construction of the new lab at the wastewater plant. Also hired the staff that goes along
with that new lab, so that we could get used to running a lot of the new tests that Laurelei
will go into more detail on that are going to be required in our new permit. Also as a part
of developing that TMDL we provided a lot of help and technical expertise in the
development of the TMDL, so we want it to be as sound as possible and the TMDL has
been sent to EPA and is pending approval. At the last meeting a few weeks ago we got
word back that EPA, while they haven't had time to review it in great detail, I think it's a
pretty solid document and we don't expect any m ajor changes. Also we partnered with
EPA on the preliminary draft NPDES permit. We received that back in February of 2014,
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just days after it was received at DEQ. It wasn't officially sent to us, but DEQ let us know
they had it, so we did a public records request and were able to get a hold of it and
worked with the EPQ and resolved approximately 24 issues on our permit between then
and now before it went out to public comment. And we partnered with DEQ on the
compliance schedule and as a result of that we have got ten years from the time the
permit goes final to meet the most strict limits in our permit, most noteably ammonia and
phosphorus limits. One other thing that's -- we have been talking about it seems like
since I went to work here was the seven MPD flow cap that's been in our permit. Well,
that's finally been removed. You know, that was a big driver for our recycled water
program and it seems like we have been up here dozens of times talking about that limit,
but it's finally not in the permit anymore. And as a result of the TMDL being developed,
you know, we have got seasonality for phosphorus, higher limits in the winter than the
summer, which is a good thing. We have also got a seasonal concentration limit, which is
higher than other permits in the valley, which gives us a little more flexibility at the plant to
meet those low limits and we have preserved both the Five Mile and Boise River outfalls in
our permit. So, with that I will turn it over to Laurelie.
De Weerd: Clint, I just want to thank you for your involvement in the TMDL -- or the
Snake River TMDL. That was a -- that's a big deal. I think it was -- and it's being held as
a model, I think, in terms of seeing that collaborative effort and I think it has done our
permit for NPDES some good, at least in looking at our phosphorus winter limit. So, we
appreciate the voice that you provided there, your diligence and, actually, the team. It -- it
was -- it helps I think our community immensely and, really, the region as a whole . So,
thank you for that.
McVey: All right. So, bear with me as I try to make a presentation about the details of an
NPDES permit entertaining and bearable. So, I wanted to talk to you guys a little bit about
where we are at with the schedule. So, the infamous permit finally came out for public
comment on July 23rd. We have a 60 day public comment period and the city of Nampa
requested an extension on that for all three permits and we received another 30 day
extension on that. So, we have a 90 day comment -- public comment period that closes
October 21st. So, in just a couple weeks. After that EPA is required to respond to every
single comment from us, from other cities, from environmental groups, from citizens. They
have to respond to every single comment that's turned in. So, they have anywhere
between 30 to 90 plus days. They don't really have a time limit set on them, but they will
return the final permit with all of those comments addressed and at that time they will
release the final NPDES permit with a 30 day notification that says you have 30 days until
the effective date of the permit or, essentially, until the clock starts, so -- so, we have a
little bit of time. We are expecting that the permit will probably go final sometime in
January or February with this timeline. But even though -- like Clint said, that this permit is
for five years, there are some really long-term implications of this permit. At the five year
mark it could be renewed and we could have a whole new set of challenges and
constituents that we -- we don't even know about today. We also -- this permit is -- we are
accepting a ten year compliance schedule, so we at least go out to the ten year, but there
is also some things in the permit that we are accepting all the way out until 2027. So, this
is a pretty long-term document.
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Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Borton: Real quick to that point. Do the -- do the comments and the responses, is it just
for clarification or are there potential edits that are made --
McVey: Councilman Borton, both. So, they have the potential to just say comment noted
and do nothing. They have the potential to change it based on what you have suggested
or they can do another change on what they think is applicable. So, the re is several
things. Most comments come back as comment noted, but it is good for us to turn in
those comments, even if we don't expect anything to change, just so that it's maintained
on public record that we responded to some of those issues.
Borton: Okay. Thanks.
McVey: So, we are going to take a look at -- this is our old permit -- or I guess I should
say our current permit that was issued in 1999, so because our permit was issued so long
ago and at that point EPA didn't write things into the permit like you shall monitor this
forever and ever and ever, most of the things in our permit have expired. So, I really only
have three or so parameters that I have limits on that I only have to measure a few times a
week. So, I like to say the last guy had it pretty easy and now he's gone. So, this is a look
at -- and I hope you believe me by the end, but this is a look at what our current draft
permit looks like. So, this is the start of the table. You know, it looks pretty similar to that
other table. Phosphorus. BOD. TSS. Pretty standard things. They are a little bit lower in
concentration, but -- and they are required to be monitored a few more -- more frequently.
But there is more. The table continues. We have things like temperature that we have to
monitor year around. BOD, TSS, and pH. So, you will see things throughout this permit
that if it doesn't have a limit or it just says report, that means we don't have a limit right
now, but we have to collect data, so that we might get a limit next time around. So -- there
is more. We have things like E-Coli, phosphorus, really low ammonia limits. Something
called ethylene oxalate. I didn't know what that was when this first came out, but it is a
plasticizer that's commonly found in PVC. Not that we have any of that in our system
anywhere. But there is more. We also have things like cyanide, mercury, zinc, nitrate,
pecan, arsenic, Chlorphyrifos, another one that I didn't know what it was. It's an
insecticide that is commonly used in farming that finds its way into the system through the
food we eat. And also Chromium VI. That might sound familiar from the Erin Brochovich
movie. That was the constituent they were really concerned with in that movie. But there
is still more. I have things like dissolved organic carbon, lead, molybdenum, selenium and
one of my favorite ones is whole effluent toxicity testing. So, if you're not familiar with
what that is, I have to take my effluent from the plant and prove that I can grow and
reproduce water fleas, minnows, and algae, which is interesting, because this whole
permit the goal is to take out the nutrients , so that we don't grow algae in the Brownlee
Reservoir, but I have to prove that my effluent can grow algae. So, we will see how that
goes. But there is more. I also have to monitor a bunch of new things coming into the
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plant, so you will see that list there. There is still more. We also have to monitor Five Mile
Creek and the Boise River. So, this is all new. You will see there are two. So, there is a
whole list of parameters. This will require staff to be going out at least once a week to
sample these river sites and you will see this term continuous, so what that means is I
have to install power, communication and probes that can measure temperature and
dissolved oxygen continuously in the river. So, that was part of the enhancement we
asked for regarding the sampling station improvements was to meet some of those
parameters.
De Weerd: And, Laurelie, that -- that's at -- where is that temperature being measured? At
our outflow or --
McVey: So, there is --
De Weerd: -- at the end?
McVey: Madam Mayor, there is several locations. So, we are required to measure it at
our effluent. We are also required to measure it upstrea m at Five Mile before our outflow
and downstream and, then, we are also required to measure it at the Boise River
upstream and downstream of our outfall. Even though we are not using the Boise River
outfall we still have to measure it upstream.
De Weerd: That makes complete sense.
McVey: Yeah. But there is still more. So, you will see this list of required reports and
plans. So, you will see the ones marked in red are the ones that I have to do currently
today. The ones in black are all the new ones that I have to do in addition to the ones in
red. So, all of these types of plans are either due monthly or annually. And these are just
as important as all those parameters that you just saw, because if I miss any of these it's
just the same as a permit violation. So, these are some of the things that drove the other
guy south, as Dale said. But not only is there way more analysis, lab testing, required
plans, we also -- the technical aspect of that monitoring has gotten way more stringent.
So, one of them on this list that's interesting to me is cyanide. So, our limit for cyanide is
3.23. Well, the reliable limit of lab testing technology is ten. So, our limit is below the
reliable testing that any lab can do. You will also see our mercury lim it is .010 and you will
see the UG, that's microgram per liter. So, let me talk to you a little bit about what a
microgram per liter is. So, our old permit -- or our current permit is written mostly in
milligrams per liter, which is the same as part per million. Microgram per liter is equivalent
to parts per billion. So, it's something like one sheet in a roll of toilet paper stretching from
New York to London. Or one second in nearly 32 years. However, they are making us go
even lower than that. So, we have to go to what's called a nonogram per liter, which is a
part per trillion. So, that's equivalent to something like one second in 32,000 years. So,
our mercury limit is ten nanograms. So, that's equivalent to being able to measure and
treat to something like ten seconds in 32,000 years. So, not only do I have to have the
facilities to sterilize the equipment, I have to be able to sample without contamination, we
have to have really specialized lab procedures to measure that low and treatment
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capabilities to get us to those levels. So, that's just a little sample of how much the permit
has changed since our last permit was issued. But it's not all gloom and doom. We -- we
were, like Clint said, able to negotiate with the EPA on a ten year compliance schedule
and interim limits and that's really, really important. So, you will notice the section in
orange are the interim limits and those are effective for nine years and 11 months. You
will -- you will see that it just says report. That's great news. That means that we don't
have a limit, we just have to report the data. However, we have to be absolutely ready
that at nine years and 11 months we are ready to meet the limits that are shown in the
blue. So, we will be working really hard over the next few years to do that. Something
else that the compliance schedule ties us to is a really specific timeline of activities. So,
we will have to meet some of these design and construction goals as we go through this
process to meet those limits at nine years and 11 months. So, like I said, we are going to
submit -- currently we have 68 comments that we are going to submit on our permit on
October 21st. A variety of comments from just typo graphical errors, spelling errors, to --
like Councilman Borton mentioned, just getting certain things on the record, to just
clarifying. We want to make sure that this permit is as clear as possible and we know
everything that's expected of us. So, in summary, we have a tough permit. We have
some really low ammonia limits. The wintertime phosphorus limits are making some of
our programs challenging and all of those tables of limits and lab -- lab requirements will
be challenging for us, but some of our successes, like Clint said, the seven MGD limit is
gone. W e have higher phosphorus limits because of the TMDL and some unique mass
and seasonal concentrations, but most importantly we have that ten year compliance
schedule and those interim limits to give us some time to get to where we need to be and,
really, the support of the Council, your guys' support of building the facilities ahead of this
permit and mostly you have a really, really good team out at wastewater that cares about
the city and cares about compliance and the facility. So, with that I'm going to hand it over
to Dale to talk about what we are going to do to get -- to meeting these really strict permit
requirements.
Zaremba: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: May I ask a question before you proceed? There were a lot of things on the list
that you have to monitor for. I didn't notice anything on there that would relate to
prescription drugs. Don't we also have to monitor and remove and report stuff like that?
McVey: Well, Councilman Zaremba, not yet.
Zaremba: Okay.
McVey: The answer is there is a section in the permit that's called extended effluent
testing and we are required to do that three times in the five years and it's a huge, huge
list of all of those things that they call contaminants of emerging concern and those are
really -- depending on the -- if you get any hits when you turn in those three samples in the
five years, they use those to establish limits in your next permit. So, it's not specifically
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spelled out here, but we will have to turn in samples that potentially have the impact of
having limits further down the road and those are definitely I think on the watch list of
things coming next.
Zaremba: Thank you.
Bolthouse: I might add that Laurelei normally brings a little show and tell example of the
large Costco bottle of multi-vitamins and if you read the label on the back of that multi-
vitamins, about 75 percent of those constituents are already listed in our permit and the
rest of them are on this list of emerging concerns. So, we have got some real -- we have
got some real challenges there.
De Weerd: I would thank Laurelie for helping us stay awake. You got our attention. We
kept waiting to the end of the list, first of all, and, then, helping us put in perspective what
some of those measurements or quantities are. It's unfathomable I think in -- if you don't
live it and you don't measure it what it actually means. So, thank you for doing that. Kind
of frightening.
Bolthouse: So, let's -- let's take a look at the next steps to meet the challenges that have
been identified. I mean Laurelie and Clint, you know, certainly outlined a tremendous
amount of good work that's been done over the last several years, you know, a lot of
foresight within the organization to prepare ourself to get to this point. As Tom mentioned
earlier, you know, we do have a baseline implementation plan that is part of our permit
process and things and we are -- certainly have got a lot of work to continue to optimize
that particular plan. We have recently done capacity analysis and alternative analysis on
the kinds of ways we can modify our wastewater treatment facility to try to accommodate
and meet the expectations of the future. We are going to be meeting and will continue to
solicit the facility and infrastructure investment in order to get where we need to be and
along with that comes a continuing growth of the personnel and staffing, you know, as we
meet to expansion of the facility and the requirements, but also just an unbelievable
complexity. I still have a glaze like I had in chemistry class 20, 30 years ago with -- after
Laurelie talks about some of that stuff. It's almost overwhelming. But we have got a lot of
-- a lot of training and a lot of procedures and processes to develop and ultimately prove.
When we hit that nine year and 11 months we have to be in compliance and we will have
to have been able to demonstrate that we are capable of running in compliance. So, that
really moved the needle even further up and I know as we have talked about capita l
planning and things, we need this investment made in the first eight years, so that we can
get this process up in its conclusion, get it operating and demonstrate its compliance and,
obviously, all of this needs to be -- we have to keep a close eye on the risk management
and the emerging options that may become available. Just to briefly talk a little bit more
facilities and infrastructure, you know, we are going to need investments and that's really
covering two areas of the facility and that is not onl y the capacity to meet our growth, but
also the technology that's going to be required to remove the constituents and that covers
all three primary phases of the wastewater treatment plant. You have got mechanical
processes that are there, you have got the biological processes and you have got
chemical processes and all those have to work in concert in order for us to accomplish the
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goals of that permit. The current ten year CIP has approximately 130 million dollars
spread out over that nine to ten year period that allows us to secure the capacity and the
technology and I assure you that it is an ongoing effort to rationalize and vet those
different investment options that we have and try to make the very best value judgment
that we can as we go along. But we are moving a long a little bit with a crystal ball, always
having to count and keep an eye into the future of what that next five year permit it going
to look like. Because the permit is broken into two phases, the first five year permit, the
second five year permit, because we have interim limits and the final limits, we are kind of
taking that same approach in terms of our capital investment and things and so we are
phasing it and we are trying to match the investment to what we need for that point in time
and so let's -- let's take a look a little bit here. I have just an aerial view of the facility.
You're used to seeing this one now. This is as it looks like today. You can see that we --
we cover about 50 percent of the property that's out the re. We do have that 14 acres in
the back today that we have utilized for irrigation with our recycled water and things to
help -- help us meet that seven million gallon limit that we have had. This is some of the
early drawings of what we anticipate to be the layout as we look to the first phase and
meeting interim limits and what you will see is, basically, an expansion of the facility to the
west with a construction and relocation of the head works, process, all of the initial filtration
on the influent as it comes in, construction of additional primary and secondary clarifiers,
which are your circles there, green being primary and the gold being secondary. New
advanced process, multi-stage aeration basin equipment and that is the way it's kind of
looking out for the first phase of the project and what we will be investing in for the next
couple of three, four years. But we can't just design for this in a vacuum. We have to not
only look to the end of this permit -- double permit cycle, we also have to kind of look even
further out than that on this property and so what we have done -- and I just stepped it
forward one more set -- is that you will see that the continuation of those efforts allows us
to start to take a look at what our requirements are going to be when the city builds out, if
you will, in terms of its overall current space and capacities and what we anticipate to be
the flow. Again, this is kind of based on what we understand today is of the requirements
of our NPDES permits, but this gives you a pretty good snapshot of what that facility may
look and it nearly consumes the -- the majority of the property that's down there, but this
scenario would allow us to go ahead and look at the build out capacity that would be down
the road. Just briefly on personnel. We need to build a staff to meet the requirements
that -- that have been laid out before you and that also is something that really influences
all of the areas down at the waste treatment plant. Operations. Maintenance. Laboratory
and technical personnel, as well as even some administration when you start looking at
some of the reporting requirements it's going to be overwhelming for us to make sure that
we -- we hit those. You know, in terms of personnel, we have made some very good
progress and we appreciate your support in getting there. Back in 2014 the facility had 28
employees. Today we have 36 full-time employees. At end of the first phase, meaning
the interim permit, we are anticipating a workforce that will approach 46 employees and by
final permit requirements we could be at about 50 plus employees. So, we are
anticipating and planning as best we can. I might add that that 50 employees is still over
20 percent below what the labor report had kind of spelled out in 2012 what might be
needed -- what we might need for that size and type of facility. So, we will continue to
look very carefully and make sure that -- you know, that we have the right staff for the right
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operations. And, then, obviously, the training -- there has been a lot of effort being placed
in training. Travis and the lab group have got a good start on making sure that we are
prepared for this permit to go into place, because his is one of the first areas that gets hit.
He's got to do all this incremental testing and things and that training is starting. It simply
is a course that Laurelei has put together, an 11 course review deep dive, if you will, of
that NPDES permit and all of the wastewater treatment personnel are participating in that
training, so every single individual down there understands and knows the criticality of the
-- the limits and the plans and the exposures that that permit brings us. We do have some
-- some risk. One of the biggest being we have to complete this expansion while we are
still operating. We don't have the luxury of shutting down the sewer system and allowing
us to do this construction. So, part of our philosophy and strategy is making sure we can
construct in a manner that doesn't cause any type of disruption. We still have a permit.
We will have a permit. We cannot violate that permit. Compliance. The city of Boise is --
has a similar permit that was instituted about three years ago and they have not been in
conformance with that new permit once -- one quarter out of the last 12 quarters since
they have had it. So, it is very difficult and we are watching closely the city to the east to
see how they have managed their way through a very complex permit. We certainly have
no intention of ever violating our permit, but it -- it's a different beast than what we are
faced with today. We are also expecting that this -- along with this complicated permit we
could see increased scrutiny by the regulatory agencies. I'm pleased to say that -- that
Laurelie led a full compliance inspection here just a couple of weeks ago and that was
against our current permit, if you will, and the compliance officer left with absolutely no
comment and no -- absolutely nothing to write into the report in terms of any concerns or
issues. So, it speaks very highly for the way we approach today and we are anticipating
we will approach it the same way in the future. The compliance schedule had some very
critical milestones that we have got to meet, so we have a white board outside the
operations war room area and it has got a calendar on it that scatters out to 2027 trying to
make sure that we understand all the milestones that we have to hit in those critical dates
and, obviously, the risk of -- by the time we get five years down the road and it's time to
renew the permit we -- we are very anxious about what revelations that new permit may --
may bring us. And, finally, you know, throughout this process we -- we certainly want to
keep an eye to, you know, varying emerging technology, both in treatment and different
options on how we can legislate our way through the overall permit process terms like
water quality trading and offsets and the reclaimed water system and how that all
influences it. So, we are looking and watching that very, very carefully as we move
forward and it's, obvious, that we are always looking for the best operation and the best
value you can in meeting the overall permit. So, in wrapping it up -- very, very key
milestone. The infamous permit is nearly on us. We appreciate the support of the Council
over the past several years as you have watched us talk and try to plan for the issuance of
this permit and, you know, you can look forward to seeing our request for the money to
invest in the facility to meet the permit requirements, invest in people and staffing in order
to accommodate and meet those permit requirements and bear with us as we make
course corrections as this thing kind of ebs and flows over the course of the next several
years. So, with that we will stand for any questions you might have.
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October 13, 2015
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De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. And I guess I would just say I appreciate that you continue
to look for alternative solutions to meeting these new requirements that are more cost
effective and less disruptive. So, I know that's an ongoing effort, so appreciate that.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: A number of months ago we had strategic rates and kind of compliance fee for
a guestimated amount of cost of the permit. Are we in line? Did we miss something by an
order of magnitude? Where are we with that estimate?
Bolthouse: Councilman Rountree, the estimates I believe at that point in time were
somewhere around 179 million dollars. That included some operational cost increases
and we have since, as we have looked at the ten year CIP process we have done a fair
amount of smoothing and vetting on those capital projects, even over the course of the
last year and a half with the capacity analysis and some of the alternative analysis, we
have been able to see that number start to come down and so it is lower than what it was
for that initial rate model effort.
De Weerd: Yes.
Rountree: Another question, Madam Mayor. You talk about the -- the five year increment
in a ten year permit. Is there any anticipation based on experiences elsewhere that in five
years, based on the language you have today, that technology has not kept pace with
their anticipated levels and possibly some of those levels would increase, particularly
those that you cannot measure at this point because of technical limitations?
McVey: Councilman Rountree, that is the case. So, permits have an open ended
language in them that say if some sort of new information comes forward that you can
revise limits. One of the things we have to be really careful for is the anti-backsliding
where once they set a limit they usually don't raise it and so that's why we are going to
make specific comments about some of our limits that are extremely low or even below
the limits of the detection and say, you know, it's uncertain whether we can meet those
and so we would like to leave that open, so that when we get to that time we can
reevaluate and see if treatment technology is there, is lab technology there.
Rountree: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam.
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Milam: Thank you for an interesting presentation and I have got a much better
understanding of the whole process now, but -- and, hopefully, within 11 -- nine years and
11 months they will come up with some testing equipment that you will be able to test the
levels that you need to. But my question is about the -- build out capacity when it's all built
out, the picture that you showed. What -- what year was that based on?
McVey: Councilman Milam, well, we are not quite sure. It depends on growth. This is
modeled for about 24 MGD, so, you know, today the plant is built for 10.2 and we are
about at seven. So, it just depends on how many more building permits.
Milam: Okay. Thank you.
Bolthouse: I might jump in. So, at the end of the -- what we are calling the phase two, we
are looking for the ability to process on average 15 million gallons a day and meet the
constituents that are in place nine years and 11 months from permit issuance.
De Weerd: Because at least right now it's the -- the flow is -- is not necessarily the major
concern anymore, it's more the effluent or the solids.
Bolthouse; Yeah. Madam Mayor, the -- the concentration of the flow --
De Weerd: Concentration.
Bolthouse: -- as Tom mentioned is certainly increasing and so your ability -- the plant has
different capacities. You know, you have -- you have instantaneous flow volume kinds of
ones that -- you know, so that the plant at a given -- or originally designed concentration
was 10.2, but if you consider how the solid contents and things have gone up, that we are
probably closer to that eight and a half to nine million gallon a day capacity today as a
result of that. So, we have to consider that as part of the equation as we look at building
future capacity and what we speculate is going to happen to that concentration.
Dolsby: Yeah. An additional piece of that is just the low concentrations that we are going
to have to treat to in ten years, would also -- like if those concentrations were in place
now, they would restrict our capacity as well and lower it by quite a bit.
De Weerd: Thank you for the cheering news. Any other questions from Council? Okay.
Thank you. And really appreciate your diligence, as I said earlier, on this and continuing
to keep an eye on maybe new approaches that -- that we can meet our new limits. Thank
you.
C. Fire Department: Discussion on Meridian Fire Department
Alternative Response Vehicle (ARV)
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-C is under our Fire Department. So, I will turn this over to Chief
Niemeyer.
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October 13, 2015
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Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you. I do understand we have
a time limit with another meeting coming, so I will try and move through this as quickly as
possible to get the feedback that I'm looking for. Before we begin there are two items in
front of you. One is our new challenge coin. Our old one was minted seven years ago.
We ran out of our old challenge coins and minted new o nes. Pretty happy with the way
they turned out and if you notice the back side of that incorporates our patch. We have
had this patch on our shoulders since the start of Meridian Fire and the guys really wanted
to see that in the new coin as part of our tradition and history. So, I was very happy with
the way those turned out. And also the other item you have before you is the five year
yearbook. This was started by Chief Anderson. We have continued that tradition. Really
representative of our previous five years in capturing that history in a book that everyone
has a chance to look at. So, we hope you enjoy both of those. We are here to talk about
ARV, alternative response vehicle, and to get your thoughts and ideas as we move into
the development of that program. Two other quick items that I did want to update you on.
One is the EMS joint powers agreement, something that occurred as a result of very
significant savings through that system or that cooperative with Ada County have funds
available to them as a result of co-locating with Boise Fire and a capital improvement
project that they were planning on doing. They were going to build a stand-alone EMS
station and through the cooperative agreement and through the JPA they decided to co-
locate a station resulting in a very significant saving on their part. The county
commissioners elected to take those funds and help fund needed things for our system,
predominately our new unified report writing software. That's ESO. So, we are all going
to be under the same report writing software now, as well as the hardware that it took to
do that. And so they participated or funded the report writing software for all of our
agencies, along with the hardware in the form of MDTs, mobile data terminals, which also
dual purpose as tablets to take into a patient's side to begin the report writing process right
at the bedside. We received eight of those. Those are all going on our frontline vehicles
that currently had MDTs. Those MDTs were going to have to be r eplaced in the future
anyway and so we have put those in our frontline vehicles. That savings to us was about
40,000 dollars in hardware cost that we did not have to incur as a city. As we move into
the future we are looking at how do we replace those MDTs that would have already been
on our replacement schedule as a city. Legislatively there is two communication groups
statewide that meet that allocate funds for communication devices. One is locally called
ECPC. I won't get into the vernacular of how that plays out, but typically that group has
paid for things like radios for the system as a whole. It's never been allowed to replace
MDTs or mobile data terminals as they pertain to communications. Legislatively through
Bureau of Homeland Security and the governor's office we are looking at merging those
two groups together, those two communication groups that will allow for the funding of
replacement of MDTs. So, we are staying on top of that, supporting that heavily, so in the
future for public safety both police and fire and EMS, we may be able to use those public
funds that are allocated to our county anyway to replace MDTs in the future, which would
be a nice savings to all of us as departments. The other thing -- with the EMS JPA that
I'm really looking for your feedback on -- and this is something that's a pretty unique
opportunity, but because of our cooperative agreements and relationships that we have
built, we have the opportunity to do and that is looking at needed FTEs in the future that
we all have and can we come together and share in the cost of those FTEs, as opposed to
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October 13, 2015
Page 27 of 39
building them internally ourselves. That's something we would have traditionally done in
the past. An example of this that we are currently discussing is the need for training
captains or training officers for EMS training. Boots on the ground to go deliver the
training that the state EMS bureau and our doctors require us to maintain every year.
Currently we do not have EMS training officers. Ada County Paramedics has one. The
city of Boise has one. The other departments have none. We have identified that as a
need. We have discussed the possibility of sharing in the cost of those FTEs, instead of
us going out and doing them individually. So, really, what I'm look ing forward from Council
-- at this point it's a very high level discussion and a strategy, is that something that is
supported for us to continue to research and analyze and potentially bring to the JPA
board if it does make sense. Looking for any opposition at this point at a very high level
as those discussions are starting, is there any opposition to us continuing to look into that?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: On that -- on that item, Mark, I would like to see a much better laid out plan how we
are going to do it, who is going to call the shots, and all that kind of stuff.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Bird: As far as I'm concerned you can continue on it, but, you know, it's got to be brought
back and --
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
Bird: -- passed by the Mayor and Council. So, I'm all for that part of looking into it. I
thought that this new joint thing is the reason we got rid of our EMS training officer, but
maybe I misunderstood, which wouldn't be the first time or won't be the last.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Niemeyer: Okay. We will continue to look into that. Certainly that would be brought first
to the EMS JPA board and, then, certainly before Mayor and Council for discussion.
Master Plan with the approval tonight, by us signing onto the contract all agencies are now
signed onto the contract, so we will be moving forward. Preliminarily the departments
have been doing some work already. We have not had any work done by the contractor,
obviously, until that contract was signed, but there is a lot of data collection that goes into
the initial phase of that master plan. The agencies have already been conducting that.
For this plan I will be acting as the lead and the point of contact for all the agencies, so I
will be providing the updates to all the agencies involved. Our next steps will be to look for
the five individuals from each jurisdiction that will sit on the citizen's advisory committee as
we move through this project. I anticipate that ESCI will begin th eir work in about a week
and, then, we anticipate them being on site for on -site inspections and work the first week
in November. That's just a quick update on our master plan as that moved forward. And,
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October 13, 2015
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then, really, the reason that we are here on the agenda is the alternative response vehicle
concept. This was something at our budget hearing that Council did say they would like
something researched and brought forward for the FY-17 consideration. As we move into
that we have analyzed and determined so far three primary focus areas that we are
focused on. In other words, that question of what is wrong right now. What are we tr ying
to fix. Those three areas are reliability, distribution and concentration as they pertain to
call types, response types and resource allocations. That's a very high level beginning
point, but as we look at reliability -- and I will direct you to the back page of your handout
that I have -- that I have provided to you. This is just an example. it's an example only of
the type of data and GIS research that we have done that we are going to be taking to a
retreat to discuss this. This is a snapshot of 2011 data. We have got data from 2014 all
the way back to 2011. So, we are looking at four years worth of data as we analyze this.
This is a snapshot of all the calls that occurred in station four's district during 2011. The
green dots represent calls that Station Four actually handled. The red dots represent calls
that could not be handled by Engine 34, because they were o ut on another call. So, that's
looking at reliability. To give you an idea we had to shrink this down. All of those dots
represent 1,045 total calls. So, they are clustered as far as the GIS and how it -- how it
condenses down. We can expand that to look at every single call that happened in that
district in that year and we can analyze it by call type, by response type, and by resource
type. So, as we look at the potential for an ARV or a quick response unit, instead of
sending a fire engine to all these calls, we ask what else could have gone to these calls
and how could we become more reliable in our districts. The reliability factor for that
particular district in that year was 81 percent. Ideally we would like to be at about 85
percent, meaning 85 percent of the time the engine assigned to that district responds to
the call within their district. Reliability affects response times. It affects cost per mile. It
affects the engine wear and tear that we -- that we have as far as mileage goes. The
further out those engines have to respond outside their district on a regular basis the more
miles we put on the engine. I believe one of the things we are trying to avoid is -- is
tacking extra miles onto the apparatus that we have. How can we better use the
apparatus to respond. So, that was just a visual example of the type of data that we are
collecting. Right now we have about 15 data points that we are going to be analyzing.
You can see the assignments that have been made as we begin this project. I will be
acting as the project lead and the liaison to you and to the Mayor, as well as our partners
as we had discussions on how can we respond potentially different than we are today.
That is one of the points of the retreat we are bringing up Ada County Paramedics senior
leadership to look at are there calls that we are running today that we don't need to be
running or are there calls today that we are running that we can respond in a different
manner that's more cost effective. So, that's just an overview. It's not down in the weeds
yet. My goal is to bring back to Council the results of our -- of our work. We are going to
spend three solid days working on this issue. We have compiled the data and we have
compiled what others are doing. ARV is kind of a new thing nationwide. It's not a fad, it's
here to stay, but every department we have analyzed so far does it just a little bit
differently for different reasons. To give you an example, Spokane fire up in Washington,
they have an ARV program. Their program is staffed by mental health nursing students
out of Eastern Washington University. They had a need to put some type of mental health
crisis team together to go and respond to the mental health issues within the Spokane
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October 13, 2015
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jurisdiction. Previous their engine companies were handling that at the cost of X per mile.
Now these quick response units or ARVs handle those mental health crisis calls, so that
the engines don't have to. That's just one example of many that we have on how
communities have developed an ARV program to meet their local need, whatever that
local need is. So, really, what I would like to ask Council as we head into these
discussions is are there any of specific priority points you would like us to evaluate? I
want to make sure as we go through this we don't miss something that you wanted us
specifically to look at as we head into the discussion .
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: A couple of things, Mark. While this chart -- and I know you can do this. I'd like to
know how many of those calls state -- engine four answered with -- from their station or
within their area that they didn't from outside their area, like their car -- or their truck was
somewhere else and -- and going back to our answering without a fire truck, I think the
reason -- you know, in 1973 we started with QRI and, then, when Councilman Anderson
got on with Charlie and I we only had one station and one crew and we were going on
medical calls with a QRU with a van -- a van and, then, if we got a fire call we were out of
luck. So, we felt -- but now we have got five stations. I think we need to look at -- at going
on medical calls, which is running -- last time I checked -- and we don't get our quarterly
reports like we used to. I don't know why we don't, but we don't. Last time I checked we
was running about 83 percent medical calls out of all our calls -- is that about right, Mark?
Niemeyer: Councilman Bird, right now we are at about 68 percent --
Bird: Sixty-eight percent.
Niemeyer: -- medical calls.
Bird: But I mean of the code three calls. I'm not talking the calls like you had 600 of them
that was in good faith or whatever you call it, you know.
Niemeyer: Right.
Bird: Come help me get out of the bath tub or something.
Niemeyer: Right.
De Weerd: Thanks for that vision.
Bird: Well, at least they get -- at least they get their laughs. Anyway. I'd like to take a
look at -- and I don't -- I don't think you put one of these at every station. I mean we close
stations to go cover Star at times and -- and stuff like that. So, I don't -- but I think you
look at what it is and I think a little van -- half ton van -- 50,000 dollars vehicle is a lot
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October 13, 2015
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better than responding to a -- with a 500,000 dollar vehicle and a lot cheaper to replace.
We are not transport, so we don't have to worry about that and, you know, when we
started that, Mark, you know, we had one ambulance in western Ada.
Niemeyer: Uh-huh.
Bird: They covered Star, Eagle, Meridian, everything. Now we have got stations and
everything. So, I think we need for -- to be fair to the taxpayers and to the medical people
that we are going to be responding to, I think we need to take a hard look at it.
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Other comments?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Mark, yeah, I have discussed this before, so you know that I'm in support of
looking at this. Have you been in contact with any of the local colleges to see if there was
a need for some students -- nursing students or whatever to participate in a program to
keep our costs down?
Niemeyer: The answer is, no, not yet, because I think the first step is identifying really
what are we trying to solve. What -- what are we trying to send to where. You know,
nursing students aren't licensed by the EMS bureau at all, so they -- they technically can't
respond in our world to go out to calls. Spokane is a lot different. They have completely
different state rules and regulations. But I think that first question is what are we trying to
fix and what call types are we trying to solve, how can we do it better for what call types.
We -- we know for a fact certain call types require personnel. They are personnel
intensive. Cardiac arrest is a great example of that. It takes about eight people to run a
cardiac arrest event. But these are kind of the outliers. Those are the smaller percentage
of calls overall, as opposed to, using Councilman Bird's analysis, taking somebody and
getting them out of the tub. Tha t's a totally different ballgame that we don't have to send,
quite honestly, a three person engine company to. So, it's really analyzing what are we
trying to fix, which call types are we specifically trying to resolve.
Milam: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions, comments? Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: When I first heard the idea about the alternative response vehicle I thought, oh,
great, that's perfect. Why do we need to take a fire truck every time that it's just a medical
call. Since, then, the idea -- and maybe Mr. Bird repeated it. The idea that, okay, when --
when the crew gets out on this call and, then, they get a call to go to a fire, do they have to
go all the way back and get their -- their fire truck. So, that cooled me off a little bit to the
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idea. So, I guess if it's possible to get the data, I think what I would be interested in is
quite often our crew that get to somebody with a medical emergency before Ada County
can get their crew there, although we don't transport, the y do have to show up if a
transport is going to be needed. So, I think if the statistic can be gotten I would be
interested in knowing by how much time are we beating Ada County to these scenes. I
mean if -- if our crew shows up and, then, three minutes later they are turning it over to
Ada County or 30 seconds or 20 minutes -- I don't know if that statistic can be gotten, but
that -- it would be interesting to me.
Niemeyer: Councilman Zaremba, we do have that statistic.
Zaremba: Okay.
Niemeyer: That's part of our evaluation. What is that time difference. Part of the issue is
looking at our ALS program. I know Councilman Bird discussed this at the budget
hearing. In taking a look at our paramedic level of service and where do they most need it
and where can it be best applied.
De Weerd: I think you included in your opening comments about the number of apparatus
that respond and working together collaboratively to -- to address that and see how we
can find better efficiencies with the number of vehicles that show up on a scene. That and
-- you know, I -- I think if you get a fire call right after they have responded in a smaller
vehicle, your next station responds regardless, because even when they are still engaged
in a call that would back them up. So, it gives them time to get back. It's just looking at
what some of those things are and what that means and how the cost differences in this --
you know, the preferred model versus the alternative and what that cost difference would
be is -- would be really helpful.
Niemeyer: Yeah. I completely agree.
De Weerd: I mean you could go and you could ask the citizens, well, how quickly would
you like us to respond. Do you want our response times to be three minutes, four minutes
or five minutes. Well, tell my how much each of those cost and -- and certainly if it's me I
want three minutes, but I don't want to pay for, you know, it either. So, it's just -- we need
data.
Niemeyer: And we will have plenty of data. Just to add to it another data point that we
were looking at is what is our cost per mile per call and so as we are analyzing different
call types we will be able to tell you running this call this many times a year costs X
amount of money in maintenance, fuel, brakes, repairs, everything. That's part of the
equation for us.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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October 13, 2015
Page 32 of 39
Bird: State one more thing. To David's deal -- you know, Mayor just hit upon it. We now
have five stations, so if somebody -- if station one is out on a -- or where ever you put the
vans -- are out on a medical call and that station gets a call, you know, we got four other
stations that could cover it.
Niemeyer: Uh-huh.
Bird: They are already doing it.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Bird: I mean I don't know how m any times I have seen four and even five running
downtown, because one is tied up somewhere, but -- so I -- just good information. I think
-- I think you look at -- and I'm just throwing this off the top of my head, but you're probably
per mile responding with three guys in an engine and stuff, you're probably looking at --
everything, you're looking at over ten dollars a mile in equipment and labor and maybe
even more than that, but a van you're probably looking at maybe three, four dollars.
Niemeyer: We will have that number for you.
Bird: Uh?
Niemeyer: We will have that number for you as part of our presentation.
Bird: I'm going off of my -- what my glass trucks cost.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor. Chief, this is great to hear. I'm excited to see the -- the outcome
from this. To some of the questions I think that statistic boiled down is out of a hundred
calls how many of those would an engine be out on a call and there be a concurrent call
that needed that engine somewhere else, that even if another engine would have shown
up, had they not been on the call they would have appeared. It may be extremely small,
but --
Niemeyer: Yeah. That really breaks down to that reliability factor. How often can that
engine respond to a call within their jurisdiction and, if not, what are the -- why.
Borton: Okay.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Borton: For me one of the matrix that you -- it sounds like you're going to capture -- we
visited this in the budget in the cost of the engine and your department has done a
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October 13, 2015
Page 33 of 39
fantastic job in creating those objective measurements, the point system in determining
when it seems to be appropriate to replace an engine and some of those points are
impacted by engine hours and miles and --
Niemeyer: Uh-huh.
Borton: -- and it would be helpful to see maybe in the last two to three years all of the
calls that looking back could have been responded to with an alternate vehicle -- and what
that vehicle is I'm not sure, but -- and what that would have removed from the engine time
and miles and those objective points from our engine. Then using that to extend the life of
the engine, you can extrapolate out savings on the engine. You're going to have a
corresponding expenditure cost for those vehicles themselves.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Borton: Intuitively response times will naturally go down if you have any one of those
vehicles, as opposed to an engine. So, I don't know about the studying that as well, it just
seems like we are not going to go up. But the cost -- the trade off is really important. It
seems to be very measureable. It would be nice to see, you know, the points on the
engines after ten years they naturally acquire 26 to 28 points necessitating replacement at
500,000 dollars. If the savings can extend the life of an engine 14 or 15 years, for
example, to offset the cost.
Niemeyer: Pretty excited to be able to reply to you on that one. Chief Amenn spent the
last two months working the data and putting that into a GIS format -- and that's a plug for
GIS. But what I was able to see just two days ago is he took every call we had in Station
Four's call list -- in other words, all the calls that they were dispatched to and, then, he was
able to pinpoint those on a map similar to what you saw in the back and, then, able to
calculate the roadway miles that it took to get to that call and, then, if you duplicate it
coming back to the station, so we got a total mileage for every single call and every single
call type. So, if we say if we eliminate these call types from that what would our roadway
mile savings have been and how does that equate, then, to long-term projections of
apparatus.
Borton: That's great. Do you have that -- Madam Mayor? Do you have that for every
station?
Niemeyer: Yes.
Borton: You're halfway there.
Niemeyer: For four years worth of data.
Borton: That's awesome.
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October 13, 2015
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De Weerd: Awesome. Well, it sounds like you have got a lot of tools to have a fruitful
discussion and, Council, if you think of anything else that would be a good amount of
information or piece of information to have, please, let the chief know.
Niemeyer: Thanks.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Borton: Finally to that point, it sounds -- and maybe this is crystal clear already, but my
understanding is the direction is the report back will identify the matrix on how alternative
response vehicles can work. There may be a cost to it, but here is how to do it.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Borton: Not one that says whether or not we should incorporate alternative response
vehicles into our plan. Is that --
Niemeyer: Yeah. I think we will come with a recommendation, a finding --
Borton: Yeah.
Niemeyer: -- to include all the research done, the analysis done and, then , a
recommendation.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: And I think kind of what you have heard from Council is the expectation is you
will have this as part of the fire department strategy. It's not a question of if.
Niemeyer: We heard that loud and clear, yes.
De Weerd: Very good.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
D. City Council Liaison/Committee Updates
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Okay. Item 6-D is under Council liaison and committee
updates. I will start with Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Let's see. My departments are Public Works,
which you heard from in detail today and legal. Legal is a pretty quiet department. They
just keep trucking along and getting stuff done and they don't point at themselves and
crow very much about it, but they keep getting plenty done. VRT -- not a whole lot new
Meridian City Council Workshop
October 13, 2015
Page 35 of 39
happening there, although they are getting closer to having their VRT 101 ready to go and
they will at some time be coming around to Councils and presenting that. That's in the
future. As we see all the smoke out here I'd like to be able to say that the Air Quality
Board has identified that one diesel truck that's blowing all the smoke out, but that's not
what's happening and I apologize for the levity to the people who are out there fighting big
fire and having to evacuate their homes and being threatened by it, but it is a sad thing.
The Air Quality Board is not responsible for this one.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, we will make sure not to blame them. Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor, my -- excuse me -- department is Fire and I really appreciate the
chief's detail he's provided. Obviously, a better update than what I could provide on some
of the more pressing issues. We are going to be meeting -- it's not on a list. It's talking
negotiations going into next year as well. But, really, there is focus what he's provided
and can't share anymore than that.
De Weerd: Okay. Do you have another department? You just have Fire?
Milam: Geez. Slacker. I have got two departments and two com missions.
Bird: He didn't raise his hand. He was smart.
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree, do you have an update?
Rountree: Certainly. You all heard enough about the golf course steering committee last
week, so I won't bore you anymore and I will let the Mayor discuss her activities in the past
month. I will say in my waning days there are some things that I'd like to see either
wrapped up or at least on the agenda for discussion. One is the -- and we could have
today, if we had had more time, talk about the committee structured policy. Bill, I think it's
a policy that we are shooting for, is it not?
Nary: Mr. Rountree, actually, it's an ordinance change.
Rountree: It would be an ordinance. Anyway, it sets up the committee structures and
participation and et cetera, et cetera. Kind of standardizes them all. The internal auditor
or whatever we do come up with, a name or a job description, that's kind of up in the air
right now still, but I will be continuing to work with Patty on that. City discrimination policy
and/or ordinance that we will have something in draft from to discuss in November at the
workshop. Down to ten meetings and counting. After the election I am going to be inviting
the new Council people to participate with Council activities, so they can get a sense of
what it is they are going to be stepping into, the things that we will be caring over into next
year and if they so desire I will spend some time with them on a -- on a City Council 101
kind of a thing to get them just the nuts and bolts and some philosophical statements that
they can either listen to or reject and create their own. But that's -- that's what's on my
agenda for the next two and a half months.
Meridian City Council Workshop
October 13, 2015
Page 36 of 39
De Weerd: Thank you, Councilman Rountree, and I will say that Peggy will be reaching
out to our Council Members that we anticipate will be -- well, they are not elected yet.
Rountree: They are not elected yet.
De Weerd: But to find schedules. We talked about it today at our directors' meeting to
see how we can bit size it a little better than we did for our -- our last -- two years ago so
it's easier to digest and it will be based on their availability. But I appreciate you
mentioning your opportunity to give them some of that 101, too. AIC, the Association of
Idaho Cities, is doing on elected official's training as well that is -- is recommended,
because you will gain from questions and perspectives from other area elected officials
that -- both veterans and new people coming in. So, that's a good one to have.
Rountree: I have one more thing that I would like you to do and that's -- I think
Councilman Bird probably ought to be getting engaged in the legislative steering group.
There is no point in me being involved at this point, because I will be gone by the time the
legislature gets around. So, that and you and I need to have a discussion about
COMPASS and we need a new member for VRT and, you know, I don't see a lot of hands
being raised and at this point I anticipate -- and I think I'm the citizen rep on the Air Quality
Board. If I'm the city's rep that would need to be replaced. If I'm the -- if I'm the citizen rep
I would continue to serve in that function if it's the desire of the --
De Weerd: Are you -- are you still on it, Ralph?
Rountree: I thought I took Ralph's place, but I'm not sure.
De Weerd: Okay.
Rountree: And our director is sitting down here. David, do you recall?
Zaremba: Either you took Ralph's place or Tony Zanders did. But our c urrent --
De Weerd: I think Tony Zanders did.
Zaremba: But our current board members are Tony Zanders and Councilman Rountree.
De Weerd: Yeah. Tony is the --
Bird: So, we need to have a new one for that.
De Weerd: -- is Ralph's place.
Zaremba: Yeah. I think Charlie took my place.
Rountree: Okay.
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October 13, 2015
Page 37 of 39
Bird: Okay. That was it.
Rountree: All right. So --
De Weerd: So, those three. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. I will say that we did
pull together a task force that met originally -- or initially on our 20-26 Chinden corridor
and that was a good discussion. Actually, it came up again today in a listen tour that I
have been attending with Lieutenant Governor Little at Scentsy and certainly an interest in
improving that corridor. Thank you for signing this letter that we will get out to ITD. Also
in the listening tour we have done a listening with small businesses, with downtown
businesses and as with Scentsy and we have one other business that we will be going to.
Health insurance. One of the concerns of our HR department has been an employment --
not just the impact of the healthcare initiative and our cost, but also in terms of that
contracted -- contractor versus employee and some of the recent decisions that have
been made in the courts on that, as well as exempt employees. The other topics that
have come up certainly that are more relevant to the city is pathways -- connected
pathways into our facilities and transportation. Always high on people's mind. And, lastly,
we have convened our first meetings with the focus group in collaboration with Dr. Linda
Clark to discuss funding for schools. While it is not a city-related responsibility, certainly
we want to be present at the table and talk about how we can keep up with growth, both in
adequately funding teachers and classroom sizes, but also in new facilities. The burden
solely on the property taxes for making up what the state doesn't do, there needs to be
better tools in the tool chest. So, stay tuned, I will talk more on that. And, lastly, we did
just learn that the Idaho Recreation and Parks Association has awarded Storey Bark Park
as the best new park or facility and our director will be receiving that recognition at the
annual regional conference in Bozeman, Montana, later this month. So, very c ool. Mr.
Bird.
Bird: Madam Mayor, nice award for the bark park. The Finance Department is just
plugging along. They are looking at getting their -- Todd and Rita are going through some
new systems that they are looking at maybe getting that would update our accounting
system and help us a lot that way on the deal. The Parks Department you're going to hear
about them here shortly when we convene -- get out and start up a new one. MDC has
started a new fiscal year. We have got an RFP out for an accountant and we have got our
legislative group started to make sure that we keep our urban renewal district in line.
That's my report.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bird. Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Let's see. In the Clerk's Department Charlene, who is the current clerk admin
one, accepted a new position approved in the FY-16 budget of assistant city clerk. Barb
Shiffer from the Planning Department has been hired as the new admin one in the clerk's
office. IT is wrapping up the Accella reconfiguration project and is looking at new
additions to our Accella product. The software engineering side of the house is currently
working on writing a public records request program that will automate the request and
workflow of these types of requests. Police -- well, we had the ribbon cutting for the public
Meridian City Council Workshop
October 13, 2015
Page 38 of 39
safety training center last month. That's about it. So, things have slowed down over there
a little bit as far as that construction goes. The Arts Commission, they -- we have some
exciting news. They put an ad out and -- for their traffic box art and Alaska National
Insurance has agreed to sponsor two boxes. One will be at the corner of Eagle and Pine
and one on Fairview and Main and six of the commissioners will be attending the
Northwest Public Art Conference in Boise that's coming up. As far as SWAC, the Solid
Waste Advisory Commission, they are looking to fill two commissioner positions, so if
anybody knows anyone who is interested in a commissioner position. And the landfill
projections just came back that they -- the rates will -- projected that the rates will stay the
same for another year. So, it's looking good on that front. That's it.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Cavener: Okay. We are in overtime. Nothing major to report from Community
Development. As you may or may not know, DBS took over the review contract beginning
October 1. Bruce and I met today and he was happy to report there has been very few
sticking points and everybody is working great together and also mention that there has
been some enhancements that have come from that, such as electronic plan review,
which is a benefit to -- to our businesses. Caleb talked to me a little bit about the quicker,
faster, cheaper approach for place making and -- or, excuse me, with our parklets and
they have got a plan that they are getting ready to share with the Meridian Downtown
Business Association this week. They will get some feedback and they will be presenting
that to us down the road. In HR they are in the midst of open enrollment and they
concluded all of the open enrollment presentations as of last week. And that's it.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, we are at the end of our agenda and the
beginning of our next one. I would entertain a motion --
Rountree: Ordinance.
Item 7: Ordinances
A. Ordinance No. 15-1662: An Ordinance (RZ 15-008 - Avebury
Subdivision) of the City of Meridian Granting Re-Zoning of a
Parcel of Land Located in the Northeast ¼ of Section 7,
Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County
De Weerd: Oh. Sorry. I was trying to hurry. Item 7-A is Ordinance 15-1662. Madam
Clerk, will you, please, read this by title.
Holman: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance 15-1662, an Ordinance
RZ 15-008, Avebury Subdivision, for the rezone of a parcel of land located in the
Northeast ¼ of Section 7, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City of
Meridian, Ada County, Idaho. Establishing and determining a land use zoning
classification of L-O, Limited Office Zoning District, to R-15, Medium High Residential
Meridian City Council Workshop
October 13, 2015
Page 39 of 39
Zoning District, in the Meridian City Code, providing that copies of this ordinance shall be
filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
Commission as required by law and providing for a summary of the ordinance and
providing for a waiver of the reading rules and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this by title only. Is there anyone who would like to hear it
read in its entirety? Seeing no --
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing nobody wants to hear it in its entirety, I move we approve Ordinance 15-
1662 with suspension of rules.
Zaremba: Second.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: Thank you. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 7-A. All those in
favor -- oh, sorry. Madam Clerk.
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 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Now I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:08 P.M.
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