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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004 05-11 PreCITY OF MERIDIAN PRE -COUNCIL MEETING AGENDA Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at 6:00 p.m. City Council Chambers Roll -call Attendance: X Shaun Wardle X Bill Nary X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird X Mayor Tammy de Weerd 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Approve 3. Sewer Service Discussion by Ralph Perez of Briarwood Corporation: Discussed / Address Again (* 15 minutes) 4. Discussion of Amendments to Standard Operation Policy and Procedure dealing with hours of work, overtime compensation, and holidays by Pauline Skaggs: Discussed (*10 minutes) 5. Discussion of Surplus Real Property Lot 63, Block 14 of Thousand Springs Subdivision No. 5 by Gary Smith: Discussed (*5 minutes) 6. Discussion of ESGR Statement of Support: Discussed bring back to sign May 18, 2004 (* 5 minutes) 7. Update on Area of Impact Action: Discussed (*5 minutes) 8. Discussion of Fugitive Dust Issue: Discussed (*5 minutes) 9. Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(f): Move / add to Regular C/C Meeting Meridian City Pre -Council Agenda — May 11, 2004 Page 1 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents andtor hearings please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. "Approximate allowable time set for agenda item may change depending on discussion. Please use the designated minutes as a guideline only. Meridian City Pre -Council Agenda — May 11, 2004 Page 2 of 2 All materials presented at public meetings shall become property of the City of Meridian. Anyone desiring accommodation for disabilities related to documents and/or hearings please contact the City Clerk's Office at 888-4433 at least 48 hours prior to the public meeting. Meridian Citv Pre -Council Meetina May 11, 2004 The Meridian City Pre -Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Bill Nary, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle and Charlie Rountree. Staff Present: Gary Smith, Brad Watson, Bill Nichols, Anna Powell, Kenny Bowers, Doug Strong, Pauline Skeggs, Dean Willis and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll -call Attendance: X Bill Nary X Keith Bird X Shaun Wardle X Charlie Rountree X Mayor Tammy de Weerd Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Bird: Mr. President. Nary: I move that we adopt the agenda for the pre -council meeting as published. Rountree: Second. Nary: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as published. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 3. Sewer Service Discussiop by Ralph Perez of Briarwood Corporation: Nary: Mr. Perez. Perez: Good evening, Madame Mayor and Council I would like to thank you for allowing us the opportunity to come here this evening and beg you for some services we much need in an area that we don't currently have any. Madame Mayor, may I provide a map of the area that we are discussing to you and the Council? De Weerd: Yes. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 2 of 23 Perez: May I also give one to your engineer so he is clear also on what we are discussing? The reason we are here is we — our development firm that has been attempting to develop some land on the north side of Chinden, which is outside of your area of impact as you all know and within Eagle City's area of impact. As you probably also know, the City of Eagle does not provide sewer service anywhere within their jurisdiction. There is a sewer district — Eagle Sewer District, which is not affiliated with the City, its a private organization that provides sewer in the areas that they have lines and cans service. Unfortunately, they are primarily — well, not primarily they are exclusively down in the river bottom. They are not anywhere up on the bench area and all the development that has occurred in that area say from Eagle Road going west is larger lots — one acre lots and septic tanks, which has created some problems that we are finding now are affecting us in the way of high nitrate levels in the groundwater. Some environmental concerns, obviously that comes about by having a high density of septic tanks. In fact, as I understand it the DEQ and Department of Health had come up with new standards in the last year that require a minimum lot size of two acres to even have a septic or onsite sewer for a home, which kind of puts Eagle in a particularly interesting position where they have zoned things for one acre lots, but they don't have any services for one acre lots and you can't build on a one acre lot without sewer. Nonetheless, we are not doing one -acre lots in our development, but we do have a pretty low density for that area. It's 1.26 units per acre. There is not a whole lot of additional ground over there that is left undeveloped. Currently, the Linley Farm and the Linley's are here in the audience this evening and Mr. Linley and his family farmed this ground for 40 years and he would like to retire and we are trying to help him along the way, here, but not having much luck, so that's why he is here tonight to help support our efforts. They have got a 119 acres, which is a little under half of the undeveloped ground. The LDS Church also has a site there — a five acre site on Meridian Road, which is identified on the map, which they had went in for a building permit and were actually refused or not able to get a sequencing batch reactor system, which is a really high tech onsite sewer. They couldn't get it approved because of the high nitrates in that area. So, they are here and they have a representative, Mr. Wade. He is here tonight also to support our efforts, which they would like to participate with us and if we can get your approval to move forward so that we can resolve their need for sewer as well. Then there — Stage Realty has 80 acres and then on the corner of Linder and Chinden there is 38 -acre parcel — two parcels that make up 38 acres that is undeveloped. So, about 242 acres of ground. It is scheduled for one unit per acre. We are doing a little bit of additional density, like I said 1.26, so if I used ours as a guideline, which has yet to be seen that we can get 1.26 there would be around 305 units added to your system. The conversations that we've had with your staff, with Gary Smith and Brad Watson basically as we understand that this area is not your general concern and not within your jurisdiction, we understand those things and so it's hard for us or for even your staff to determine whether or not you might have the additional capacity in your trunk lines — the north slew trunk line to be able to bring on these 305 homes and you wouldn't be in a position to Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 3 of 23 authorize them to expend either resources and man hours and funds to make that determination because that's obviously not your area. So, we are here tonight to see if we can't offer a way to move forward that might help us without costing you and basically, we would be willing to form a coalition with these property owners and also, by the way, I might add that I am here also on behalf of the Eagle Sewer District. They have authorized me to basically spearhead the effort to form a joint agreement, be an agency -to -agency type of agreement whereby you would provide the sewer treatment for their system within these properties. So, again we are willing to expend the finances to have your engineers, I believe it is JUB Engineering that handles your (inaudible) to have them re -calculate the models and determine whether or not there is an excess of capacity that would allow you to service this area without causing any future problems for your growth in that area. Touching upon the agency -to -agency agreement, I think there is precedence set here. Garden City — they do no sewer treatment whatsoever. All of it is contracted with the City of Boise, but they do their own collection. They do their own billing and they just have this agreement with the City of Boise. The Eagle Sewer District, also has an agreement along the lines we are proposing to provide sewer treatment for it's area that they do service. Their treatment plant they had — you know they had problems with years ago and so they entered into an agreement with Boise — its all pumped up to Boise and they haven't had any problems with that arrangement as far as Boise setting a precedence of providing sewer outside their area or anything like that that could cause a problem for you when you are dealing with other areas outside of your immediate boundaries. So, I am sure you are all asking what does this have to do with us? What's in it for us? Obviously, a question I would ask if I was sitting there. Why should we be listening to this guy? One is its always good to be a good neighbor. You know, the Eagle Sewer District, you know, like I say they are not part of Eagle City and so the good neighbor thing is a (inaudible) one, but I just wanted to raise that. The other thing is that it is environmentally sound. It's environmentally the prudent thing to do. In fact, Senator Howell Bunderson, I know, that Mr. Smith and I don't know if Mr. Watson has been to any of the committee meetings, but he has formed a common sense environmental — or a environmental common sense committee to try and address this very issue on a state-wide basis and of course we don't want to wait around for that committee because the (inaudible) was really long and the interests were really divergent and I don't think they are ever going to resolve anything at that level. Maybe we can set an example and do it on a local basis. Another reason that — a couple of reasons that might benefit the City is if in fact you do have some additional capacity there again without compromising your own growth area, based on current hook-up fees 305 additional homes would generate a little over $480,000 of revenue to your Public Works Department to help with your facilities' costs and then ongoing sewer treatment billing. On average, I spoke to your Public Works Department this afternoon to get an idea. I know you base it on water consumption, but on average around a $20 a month bill would generate another $6,000 per month in income to the Public Works Department. So, that — it's not something that's going to cost you money. I think it's something that Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 4 of 23 could help you pay for your facilities and to upgrade your facilities or whatever you need to do there. Then one other consideration is that you have got an area, as I understand it, on the south side of Chinden there and I am not exactly sure how far east it goes, but in our conversations I know it would include that Catholic Church that currently has it's own system that's at the corner of Meridian and Chinden Boulevard. There is an area from there clear down to Linder Road, I believe, that cannot gravity sewer into your existing north slew line that they are building currently and so there would either have to be lift stations created for those individual properties, or a separate line and I believe your staff has looked at or at least tentatively drawn a plan for a line that would come up Linder to Chinden and then go along the south side of Chinden to allow for a gravity (inaudible) situation for those properties within your jurisdiction. So, with this effort we may be able to expedite the construction of that line which would allow your — the property owner's in your jurisdiction a much quicker opportunity to develop without having to wait for individual developments to drag that all the way to them. So, those are my initial arguments. 1 would entertain any questions. Nary: Council, any questions? Bird: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Bird. Bird: Are they on a septic system or are they sewered down over the hill by Boise? Perez: They are on septic system. Bird: They are on a septic system? Perez: They are as close, as I understand it, the closest Boise line is near Chinden on the south side says between Locust Grove and Eagle Road. I am not sure how far that comes, but it doesn't go down that far. And interesting enough, I had contacted Boise to see if they couldn't access that line since they already had this treatment agreement and they informed me that yeah, we have an agreement to treat their sewer, but we don't have an agreement to collect it, so you can't use our collection lines. You can get it to the plant, we will treat it for you, but you can't use that line. So, kind of interesting. Again, I think that is an example of how limiting these agreements can be structured to protect your concerns about this getting out of control. I know that your staff had kind of looked at that area and so you know, if we are going to go across Chinden then we might as well consider the whole area because we may end up having to sewer that eventually when septic tanks fail or whatnot occurs in the future. I think that the important thing to note here is that you as a City would not be providing sewer to this area. This area would still be provided sewer by Eagle Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 5 of 23 Sewer District. They would be in charge of collection, billing and the responsibility would still be theirs, so the limiting nature of the agreement we are proposing would only include the sewer capacity that is determined to be there currently and no future requirements or responsibilities would be — would fall on your city if their failures 10, 15 years down the road of septic tanks that would be a concern of Eagle City and Eagle Sewer District to find a way to do that. Now, they may come back and ask you, but you have the option to say, you know, we don't have that capacity and we don't want to go beyond the agreement that we were entertained earlier. I think that gives you a lot of protection as far as this not getting out of control or causing any problems like that. Nary: Mr. Watson, did you have any opportunity or did you want to have an opportunity tonight to kind of address this issue? Watson: President Nary, Madame Mayor, Council members I didn't have anything prepared. After I talked with you several weeks ago about this issue I took some direction from the consensus or the statements and just sort of dropped it. I talked with Mr. Perez the next day and told him based on the conversations or — that you had that I wasn't comfortable spending staff time pursuing it any farther and that maybe this was his best avenue that if you so directed that we could investigate it more or do whatever we needed to do. So, no I don't have anything tonight. Nary: Okay. Council do you have any other questions or direction to our Public Work's staff or want to mull it over and bring it back next week? Bird: Mr. President, I would prefer to bring it back next week. I would like to (inaudible) on it; phone calls or some of that stuff. Nary: Is there any direction to the staff at this juncture, Mr. Bird? Bird: Stay like it is. I don't see putting any money into it yet. I don't think our whole area of impact is sewered out yet is it? Inaudible speaker: No. Nary: Okay, well Mr. Perez, 1 think — is that the consensus of everyone? Rountree: I would agree with that, Mr. President. Nary: All right, Mr. President what we will do is we will schedule this again on our pre -council agenda. How are we looking? Put it out one week or two weeks would be better? Two weeks. Why don't we do that so we don't have to set it over again. We will set it for two weeks from tonight. We will set it just like this again for a few minutes for us to have a discussion and again at that juncture we will hopefully have maybe a better idea of what we would like to do or explore it Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 6 of 23 further or whether or not we would like to not do that. I guess two weeks we will just reset it on this same agenda. The time may change, so you may want to — or Mr. Berg's office can get in touch with you to make sure that in case the time is earlier than 6:00. Perez: Okay. De Weerd: Mr. President. Nary: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess I would suggest Ralph that you come with a summary of what your proposal is in terms of — we know our staff time is really stretched and would you then be personally your group or partners be hiring JUB to do a study on how this could all be put together any detail that you can provide in covering costs and the terms of the agreement — kind of a little bit about what you covered tonight, but in the Reader's Digest form. Perez: Okay, Madame Mayor that's fine. That is what we are proposing that this would not be an expense to your City — that we proposed it (inaudible) the study to determine whether you have that capacity and I would be happy to provide that information. I will send a letter over for the Council and Mayor. If anybody has questions of me on the interim, my telephone number if you would want to make a note of it is 761-4342 and I would be happy to answer any questions at any time. Thank you for your time this evening. Nary: Thank you. Oh, Ms. Skeggs, there you are. Item 4. Discussion of Amendments to Standard Operation Policy and Procedure dealing with hours of work, overtime compensation, and holidays by Pauline Skeggs: Skeggs: I am just short. Mayor De Weerd, President Nary and Council members you should have received a copy of the hours of work, overtime and holiday policies that I revised to include the compressed work week and flexible work schedules. I have been working with the department directors on this policy for several months and it's now ready for implementation. A compressed workweek is a schedule that permits full-time employees to work an equivalent of full work in five or fewer days. An example would be an employee working a four, ten-hour day or a nine eighty -work week, where an employee works 80 hours over a nine -day period. A flexible work schedule would basically be the start and end time is different from the standard operating time and it allows employees to choose their work hours within a limited time period set by the City. In the policy we put seven to nine and stopping at four to six. The advantage of offering a compressed work week is that it reduces turn over, improves employee's job satisfaction facilitates the scheduling of appointments and Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 8 of 23 next year's budget and we basically looked at $50 per employee and that pool of money will give department director's the money to use in their departments and then the breakdown of that was kind of listed. I got a list of all departments that are in there except for, I think, there is only one department missing and that was City Clerks. Are there any questions? Nary: Council, are there any questions? Rountree: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I am not finishing perusing this, but from what I see this is at the discretion of the employee. Skeggs: Right. This is correct. Rountree: I find that hard to comprehend that this isn't at the discretion of the supervisor. Skeggs: Well, the supervisor would have to approve it. Rountree: Okay. Skeggs: But, it would be available to all regular, full-time employees and right now the listing that I had given you were those only employees that once they took a survey in the departments and only six departments right now, the employees wanted to utilize it. The Police already use the ten hour work shift, but they didn't want to expand it out to their clerical support and then we had other departments as well that aren't going to utilize the compressed work week whether its because they couldn't compensate like City Clerk's because he needs all his employees there working. They don't have — they are short staffed so they don't have coverage for an employee to be gone. But, the departments that are requesting were the six that I had listed. Those are the only ones right now. Rountree: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: Another question. Is this applicable to department heads as well as other critical section supervisors and those types of reports? Skaggs: That's correct, but right now we don't have any of those individuals that would be participating and basically to go to a compressed workweek or flex hours, the approvals is based on the staffing needs and the employee's job Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 9 of 23 duties and work record. Also, if they find that employees on a compressed workweek that they need them to work overtime then they would be subject to that as well. Also, they may have to change them back if they go to compressed work week and it doesn't work out for that individual, then at the supervisor's discretion they have the right to change the employee back to a regular eight to five work shift Monday through Friday. De Weerd: Mr. President. Nary: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess I did want to clarify the documents that you have in front of you. You have received before; you just didn't know what was changed. The changes weren't noted. Rountree: The blue is different. De Weerd: The blue shows the changes Rountree: Okay. Nary: I have a couple of questions, too. I have a concern because I think there is a mixed message here. I think a compressed workweek or a flex schedule is always the management's right, not the employee's right, the management's right and although it does say here that supervisors have to approve it, it seems to be unclear when you tell the employees on one hand that every employee has the option, but we have to approve it. I think it needs to be dearer that it is — that employees can request a compressed work week or a flex schedule, but it is management's right and it is a privilege to have and I don't see language like that. On the 3.2 policy in the blue section of the policy portion the first sentence says a compressed work week or flex time schedule's may be available to non - represented, regular full time employees, but in the other part of the policy it talks about employees not covered by collective bargaining agreement. I am assuming that's what you mean. Skeggs: Right. Nary: But you should use the same term throughout the policy so they are not inconsistent. You have employees that are represented — that's not what you mean, you mean employees that are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, so I think you should make the (inaudible) consistent. Nine -eighty work weeks is not in in Section 2 of 3.2 a nine eighty work week is not employees working nine hours for nine days, its employees working nine hours for eight days and one day of eight hours. Because nine hours for nine days is eighty-one hours, so if — since you are trying to be specific, you probably need to clarify that's what that means. In Subsection E of that same Section 2, it says that the Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 10 of 23 City reserves the right to suspend, cancel or amend this policy at any time. You know, to me, that's really the whole basis of this as again it's a privilege to have this, but it says the City also reserves the right to cancel or suspend use of this schedule by any employee who experiences performance problems deemed to be related to the new schedule. I don't think it has to be related to the new schedule. It's a privilege and whether or not the employee has an issue with the work schedule; if your employee has performance problems it's not necessarily the best thing to necessarily say you have to only tie it to that. Again, I didn't have a lot of time to read it since I just got this as we got here, but the other one I have a question about is in 3.6 under compensatory time, sub 4 it says compensatory time is in lieu of monetary overtime compensation, which is given at a rate of not less than one half and one half one and one half hours for each hour of overtime worked. I am assuming this is existing language because it's not in blue, but it says the City does not recognize nor allow compensatory time in lieu of overtime payment. Those are two sentences that seem contradictory to me. Why wouldn't we allow comp time in lieu of overtime payment? That's not a downside to the City that I can think of. The other last one in 4.1 and maybe this is just my philosophical thing, but in Sub 3 it says for employees who voluntarily request to work a compressed workweek schedule, a maximum of 80 hours of holiday pay is provided. It doesn't matter whether — to me, it doesn't matter if an employee requests a workweek schedule change, once we allow it, we allow it. It's always our choice. So, it's not that the employee voluntarily wanted to go to something because most people may want to go to a schedule. We allow it because it fits the needs of the business, therefore, it's not the employee's voluntary-ness that we are doing. We are saying, they've asked and we've allowed it now, therefore, that employee has a compressed workweek and that's our convenience. That's our management choice to allow it so it seems it doesn't make sense to me essentially to penalize the employee for asking to change their work schedule and we grant it. So, those are the few things that I picked up in just sitting up here and reading it that I guess I'd like you to look at again and before we just bring these forward and there may be more, I just didn't have time to look at them. But, if you want to respond to any of those, Ms. Skeggs, that would be fine. Skaggs: Thank you, President Nary. Yes, on the compensation on the work shift we do have another policy that I put in place that says that they will be compensated for all shifts, however, in talking to the department directors, they wanted to say if the employees volunteered to do this then they wanted to pay them eight hours holiday, so I changed that. But, I do have another policy wording it just covers that everybody works a work shift would be paid that shift. So, I can get you that. I already have that done. As far as compensatory time that was eliminated. Several years ago the City used to offer compensatory time in lieu of overtime and City Council eliminated that because it wasn't being — the director's basically were allowing employees to work through their lunch to get compensatory time, so they went with the overtime policy if they worked over 40 Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 11 of 23 hours in a work week, then its paid at time and a half and we eliminated the compensatory time at that time. That's why that wording is in the policy. Nary: Well that was dumb. I mean it doesn't cost anything to — it sounds to me like you had a management issue instead of dealing with the management issue they just made it into a pay issue. That doesn't benefit anybody. Skaggs: There has been discussion from department directors that they would like to look at the compensatory time and bringing that back. So, that's something that we could discuss further and then 1 could change the policy, but I know that some of the directors have or are in favor of bringing back that compensatory time. Nary: And the issue on whether or not it's a privilege or did you want to think about that? Skaggs: Right. I'll go back and look at the policy and we can discuss it with the directors for the — Nary: Okay. Again, there may be more, again, Council hasn't had a lot of time to look at it so there might be some more things. Council do you want to have this on our agenda again or do you just want to respond to Ms. Skeggs? Do you have a preference? Bird: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Bird. Bird: I think we can respond to Ms. Skaggs, but I also think we need to have it back on the agenda and go through it. This isn't something that we want to just blow through. This is something you have got to really sit down and think and read letter for letter and make sure all the "t's° are crossed and the "I's" are dotted. Nary: All right. Well, we will look at the pre -council we have in the next few weeks and try to have it on in the next two to three weeks, depending on what our schedule's look like. We are getting a little thick, so. Does that work okay, Ms. Skaggs that we have the Council members just directly contact you with their thoughts —? Skaggs: That's fine. Nary: -- and we will try to put this on in two, three or four weeks. Skaggs: That's fine, Councilman Nary. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 12 of 23 (Inaudible discussion) Nary: Our next item is surplus, real property. Mr. Smith. Item 5. Discussion of Surplus Real Property Lot 63, Block 14 of Thousand Springs Subdivision No. 5 by Gary Smith: Smith: Thank you, Mr. President, Madame Mayor, Council members. We have got a piece of property out here in the Thousand Springs Subdivision. I will hand out a little color drawing of it. (Inaudible discussion). Smith: This property was deeded to the City by the developer at Thousand Springs No. 5 Subdivision. It was originally designated as a site for a pressure booster station for our water system and since we have got into the — farther into the water system business and our pressure zones in that area we have made the decision that we no longer need that piece of property for that use and because it is a maintenance issue in keeping the weeds down, we have no use for it and we have asked Mayor De Weerd to approve of surplusing it and in accordance with instructions from our City attorney and we need to get your concurrence and we need to establish a vaius for it and it needs to go to an auction and I assume that you have my memo of April 30th? The parcel is .18 acres in size. I have a parcel number it is — address is East Three Bars Drive — the assessor has no value assigned to it because it is a City property. So, unless you have some value that you would like to assign to it so that we can proceed with the auction assuming that you want to move forward with it, I guess the next step would be to get an appraisal of it. Is that correct, Mr. Nichols? Nichols: Mr. President Nary: Mr. Nichols. Nichols: Madame Mayor and members of the Council the statute requires that the Council declare a minimum value for the parcel. So, it's whatever information you need in order to do that. If you want to have an appraisal done in order to establish the minimum value, then that's one way to go about it. It's — you have the auction and then it's basically the minimum value sets the opening bid and if anyone bids that amount or more then it's sold and if it's — if there are no bids at the minimum value then you are free to sell it at a negotiated price. Smith: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Smith. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 13 of 23 Smith: Mayor and Council the gentleman that owns the property adjacent to this parcel is interested in it and he has made contact with Mr. Freckleton several times to see how this process was evolving. Rountree: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: How interested is he? Smith: That's a good question, Councilman and I asked Bruce today and he said he didn't know. Rountree: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Rountree Rountree: Another point. That's kind of a tricky location in terms of what use might come with that lot if it goes to auction and I would think that we might want to put some kind of — even though an ordinance would cover fencing if somebody were to put a fence even 10 feet from the back of sidewalk on that lot you are going to decrease the site distance around that comer. So, we might want to deed restrict that in some or another as well when we get rid of it. Smith: Yes, that is a good suggestion. Rountree: As far as the value, I suppose we could send out for some kind of (inaudible) value. It's not a build -able lot in that subdivision, but it would be a build -able lot in the possibly an R -S subdivision. Maybe that's the way to come up with just a thumbnail minimum value as opposed to spending $400 plus for an appraisal. Bird: I would think that the developer could give us some kind of pretty good idea of what that ground per square foot. I am like Councilman Rountree, three hundred percent and that we do need a deed restriction regarding fencing on that, 1 believe, for safety purposes, with our fence committee that (inaudible---). I would think that the developer or somebody could come up with a pretty good price on what that's worth a square foot, myself, I would think so. At least a minimum, we could start with. Nary: I am going to assume Mr. Smith, too, that the developer would have some idea of what the value of it was when he gave it to us because I am going to assume he wrote it off, so. Smith: Yes, that's correct. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 14 of 23 Nary: Using that figure is probably just as valid as anything else unless you think there is something better. De Weerd: Mr. President. Nary: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I guess, if it's a write off it might have more value than it really is worth, so — Nary: People don't do that. De Weerd: It's not build -able. It would be limited with deed restrictions on where you could put the fence, so it really doesn't have a lot of value, but it has a lot of liability at this point for the City with maintaining it and with what could happen on it. So, I guess we do want to make sure that it's reasonable in price. Nary: I guess my point, I think what Mr. just the starting point. That may not be know what that is. So, before we go c, guess we could do some of that. Bird was saying too and maybe that was an appropriate value, but we don't even at it appraised and spend that money I Smith: Okay, I will do a little research on it. Nary: Yeah, see if there is some way that we think that's a fair amount. Smith: Okay. Nary: Because I agree, it's probably not much — how big is it again? Smith: .18 acres. Nary: So, yeah, it's probably not usable for too many things anyway. Smith: I will do some research on it then and would you like me to bring it back to the next pre -council meeting or just — do you have to make a formal —? Nary: Maybe what you should do, if the rest of the Council is okay with it, maybe what you could do Mr. Smith is if you could get that and we could simply put it on a department report, let us know what that is and we can certainly take action if all we are doing is authorizing to go ahead and do all the noticing and the like for that. Maybe we could do it like that. Would that work. Mr. Nichols, to do it that way? Nichols: Yes, because what you have to do is declare that minimum value. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 15 of 23 Nary: Okay. Nichols: Once that is done then we can start the process. Nary: And that is your call whenever you want to put that on in the next few weeks. Smith: Okay, great. Nary: Great, thank you. Smith: Thank you very much. Item S. Discussion of ESGR Statement of Support: De Weerd: Mr. President. Nary: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: I did want to introduce this item as we see our reserves preparing to enter to the war efforts, I thought it was important to reinstate our support of our National Guard and reserves and contacted Charlie Brown and Max Bearden to discuss this. You have in your packet the information that they gave us as far as the statement of support. Now, l did have our, I believe, that they did speak to our HR director and I believe that we did fall under the three stars as — even though we do not have the enhanced pay or the continuation of company benefits. Under special recognition we are doing something in conjunction, as well with the Speedway this weekend. We can have special recognition for our reserves, soldiers and their families. Right now, we only have one reserve member on our City staff and so it would certainly be looking forward to when we might have additional members as well, but with that I will open it up to — are you Mr. Brown? Brown: Yes, I am. De Weerd: Okay. Nice to have you here. Brown: The Mayor called and asked that we provide her with the opportunity to sign a statement of support for the City. You may or may not know, we have about 152,000 troops that are guard and reserve that are currently involved with the Iraqi situation either coming or going. Like she says, you may only have one. We accept statements of support from people who do not have any people who are in the military and their particular entity. The ESGR — Employer Support for Guard and Reserve is an arm of the Department of Defense. We serve as an intermediary with regard to the uniform services, employment and re-employment rights act, which as you know when you have people like we do in guard and Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 16 of 23 reserve and they have military duty they are called and on orders, those types of things it affects businesses, it affects particularly those people who own and run their own individual and private businesses. We try to serve, if there are employees or employers that are having a problem with an employee to take care of any issue that might be between the employer, employee if they are having a problem leaving or particularly on return for re-employment. You may or may not know that you (inaudible) protects the individual who is in the military service and he has the rights of the same as if he were here for those activities that he would be entitled to if he was here. With that I would just like to have Max speak to what we call the Three Star Program and let him explain a little more in detail that part of it. Thank you. Nary: Thank you. Bearden: Mayor De Weerd, Councilman Rountree, Councilman Bird, Councilman Nary, Councilman Wardle thank you very much for having us as Charlie has indicated we are in a fix and a pickle in our country. Approximately 40 percent of the forces that are in Iraq right now are National Guard or Reservists. What we are trying to do in Idaho and we have been at the forefront of it is to rather than have businesses face problems not being aware of the (inaudible) law and their obligations under the Re-employment Act is to get out and be proactive so that the management and businesses know what their employee's rights are and at the same token if — (Turn over tape) Bearden: -- should have questions regarding their rights or I think the employee is abusing those rights, we go in and mediate rather than having it go to the Department of Labor and one thing or another and that way it keeps everything down on a low-key basis. ESGR is an arm of the Department of Defense under the Secretary of Defense for reserve's affairs. We are a volunteer group of businessmen and former military and housewives also and any other thing along those lines. There is approximately here in the state of Idaho, we have 125 members that are doing basically what Charlie and I are doing within their individual communities. Our State Chairman is Kip Modridge. He developed a program called the Three Star Program. In addition to signing the statement of support, which you have there, we have developed this Three Star Program and we would ask that each individual employer display this prominently in their business letting the public know that they are in support of their members to our guards and reservists. Not only would we encourage you to put up in City Hall here, but in the various departments, which you have throughout the Police Department, Fire Department or wherever and we would also like, if possible, sign the statement of port. If you could sign the statement and put it with each department head also, so that we can get the word out of what we do. And the appreciation we hold for our young men and women, who are making a sacrifice Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 17 of 23 for us and it is a big sacrifice. Basically, that's it. If there is any questions I would be more than happy to answer them. Nary: Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: I don't have any questions. I would like to sign it. Nary: Council, do you have any direction or anything concerns. I don't know that you need a resolution to sign that, unless Mr. Nichols thinks we need that. I don't see why we would, but — Bird: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Bird. Bird: I think we need to sign it. I don't care if we have (inaudible) — Wardle: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Wardle Wardle: I would also like to voice my support for entering into the Three Star Program; I feel it's important for the City to recognize not only our employees, but all of the employees that are protecting our country. Bearden: It does mean a lot to them. It really does, you know? To have a young person (inaudible) Guard or Reserve (inaudible). Be told that when they get their orders if they come back they don't have a job; it's just devastating to them. Believe me, it happens on a not too infrequent basis and Charlie's been all over the state trying to resolve those issues and letting the people know just exactly what their obligations are. I also have some fact sheets I would like to pass out to each one of you if I may, just to let you know what is involved in the law. Nary: I guess from what I am hearing, I will take Mr. Wardle's lead and I am assuming we can consider that to be a request for unanimous consent. That way we could go ahead and have the Mayor sign the proclamation and the like. De Weerd: Mr. President Nary: Madame Mayor. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 18 of 23 De Weerd: I guess what I would like to do is invite these two gentlemen back next week and also ask our reservists if he would join us for that signature ceremony. Bearden: And would it be all right if we brought our public affairs person by to take some pictures also? Bird: You bet Nary: Absolutely. Bearden: Which time would you like us to be here? Nary: Right now, we would be starting our meeting at 6:00 or do it with the regular meeting, Mayor? De Weerd: I would like to do it in the regular meeting where there is a few more people here. Bearden: Super. Nary: So, it will be approximately 7:00, so it will be some time a little after that and we will try to do it somewhat early on in the meeting. Bearden: Mayor and Councilmen, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak with you. Nary: Thank you. Bearden: You were saying next week --- Nary: Next Tuesday night. Bearden: At 7:00? Nary: Yes. De Weerd: If that works for you. Bearden: Yes, it does. Nary: Council we are running close to 7:00 and we have got two - well, three more items. The Area of Impact Action. I don't know who's the person to discuss that. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 19 of 23 Item 7. Update on Area of Impact Action: De Weerd: I guess we — I haven't been able to — I did attend a requested meeting last night from the County in Star when they had Star and Eagle there to resolve some of their issues. I have not been able to get a hold of either of the two county members that were there. Jerry Armstrong, who is the planning director or Richard Cook. Anna, were you able to get a hold of them? Powell: No, ma'am. Nary: Did you think I forgot you? Powell: No, I was laughing because she was looking at me and I wasn't (inaudible---) so I was a little worried. De Weerd: -- (inaudible) on my perspective. Nary: My recollection was is when we had this previous discussion that there was some comment period and so we were trying at least to have some comment and I think we had some of that discussion previous to tonight about what our comment was to this point, but I didn't know if there was something else. Any — do you —? De Weerd: If Anna hasn't been able to talk with their staff, I can give you my perceptions. So, it looks like Anna wasn't successful either. I did attend and I did leave early. I left probably about 7:15. There didn't seem to have been much progress made and so I don't know if anything happened afterwards. The points I raised were those that we have discussed at Council; that to give it due diligence to the property owners, that the property owners in choosing if they were to choose what area of impact they would desire to be in. That's kind of where it was when I left is there would be — since they couldn't decide among themselves — it would be to the vote of the property owners. I suggested that the property owners be given information to make that determination as far as how much it would cost to serve their piece of property. You know if they decide they wanted to go to one city and it was four times the cost to be serviced by that community, I think they need to have that information prior to. I did also talk about the different taxing entities that do bring services to those and how they depend on those being kept within their taxing districts and the challenge that Eagle does provide in kind of chipping away at our Rural Fire District and thusly, their partnership with us. It also — our Fire District goes to the Boise River. Our Meridian Library District goes to the bluff and those are two districts that do have concerns about what would happen if this area was put into a specific city area of impact. So, they did hear those comments and concerns. There was also discussion on connectivity; making sure that where those pieces of property are placed feel connected with the community that they are being added into. Now, I Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 20 of 23 have heard from some of the bench residents that they feel more connected to Meridian even though they are in the City of Eagle. So, those are just pieces of concern that I shared that I would like to see answers to. Indeed, they are going forward with the public hearing, I believe it's Thursday evening. We may want to have a representative there just to restate our concerns, if Anna, you find that is necessary that we are present. So, if you would talk to their planning staff to see if we have to attend that meeting as well. It was a battle of the attorneys and I am sorry that I didn't bring mine. But, I didn't know I needed to. Nary: Gotta love that. Anything else, Council on that or questions for the Mayor? Rountree: Thanks for the update. Item 8. Discussion of Funitive Dust Issue: De Weerd: Mr. President. Nary: Madame Mayor. De Weerd: This had been in an email that has been going back and forth between our staffs, code enforcement, DEQ, my office and then I sent it out to you and got feedback that we should have it on the agenda here tonight. DEQ currently doesn't have any plans to work with COMPASS originally to address this issue. It is a significant problem, in particular with Meridian and all it's construction that's going on. It does continue to be a source of phone calls and without very much remedy that we can offer to the residents. They have suggested that we might look at conditions within our agreements or findings of facts to control our dust and so I just wanted to open up for your comments and see what your thoughts are. Bird: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Bird. Bird: You can probably (inaudible--) I need to ask a question. Does Boise have the dust abatement ordinance in? Nary: Yes. Bird: And it's been pretty successful, hasn't it, Councilman? Nary: I know we have it — 1 guess I don't know — I think they have, I mean there is a full time staff person that that's all he does is address those issues with that. There is a lot of staff time that's taken up in working with that. I think it's probably like most programs, like code enforcement — any of the code enforcement type of program that a lot of it is the education early and getting that compliance in Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 21 of 23 working with the building contractors and the like. But, I think it has worked pretty effectively. Bird: To follow up on that I believe that we need to look at the ordinance. I believe that we need something in Meridian, but I think it's something that we need to make sure that the contractors are comfortable with. We don't want to over step our bounds, but if Boise is having — I know Boise had something like that and it is a real problem if you are a house next to a new subdivision going in, it is a major problem and it's something that maybe we can look at and see if we can't take care of it. Wardle: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Wardle, Wardle: I would also agree with Councilman Bird that we need some input from our building community and from those individuals. In my time on the COMPASS Advisory Committee I have seen some fairly egregious programs for fugitive dust, some that I think step far over the top of what the intent is and so, I think we have got some good knowledge out there that we can lean on to help us craft something that will be good for the community as well as good for our business community. Nary: Ms. Powell, do you have any particular thoughts or how we can kind of get our arms around this particular issue and go forward? Powell: Well, I guess the issue before was there wasn't a county -wide (inaudible) and as June Ramsdale said in her email it's — there was a lot of opposition from the Building Contractors Association and the Board of Realtors. At that point, COMPASS kind of just threw up their arms in the air figuratively and they were looking for us to still take ours forward, but were unwilling to even offer us support for ours as I recall. They wouldn't even go that far to support the recommendations that we had. I do think that the Boise City spends quite a bit of time and money enforcing theirs and it's more at the building department level, it's when you pull the construction permits and, you know, prepping the entrances before you even get there and sending someone out to enforce it on a regular basis. Given that we have limited building department staff that would be an issue there too because that is where the implementation of it would really be is through those building — the building inspectors as their own site and things like that. I hadn't thought about it much because the last time the issue came up it was just kind of dead in the water, so I hadn't put a lot of thought into it in all honesty at this point. It would be nice to have some support from COMPASS. I mean, I guess that really surprised me that they weren't even willing to say that they supported what the City was trying to last time. De Weerd: Mr. President. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 22 of 23 Nary: Madame Mayor De Weerd: I guess 1 would suggest it is — Boise is under the building department and in her recommendation that many growing communities around the nation have included language in the building permit applications have required sites to be wet down on a regular basis to minimize the dust and that this requirement can be added locally to control the impact that this has, that perhaps we can ask Gary to come back with — after contacting the building department in Boise, finding out what works, what doesn't work, you know, they have had a great testing site for that and if he feels that he has adequate staff in the building department at this point to even add such a condition or not. Nary: Will that work, Mr. Smith? Smith: (inaudible answer). Bird: Mr. President. Nary: Mr. Bird. Bird: I got a comment. I don't think the building permits — I think it's nice to have it at that level, but your biggest dust and stuff is when the developer goes in and starts cutting the roads and the water and the sewer and all that is where you get the most dust. So, we have got to figure out — I think the building permits is a nice place to have it on there too, but I guess in the development or findings would have to be — it would probably be best to be in the findings at that point. We need to look into it and see if it's legal. Nary: Sure. So, it sounds like someone has got to come and tell us something about this in a week or two. (Inaudible---). Nary: Does that sound like an okay timetable? De Weerd: It could be a team effort. Powell: Mr. President, Madame Mayor, members of the Council I was looking up the Ada County agenda for Thursday and both the Star area of city impact amendment are on the agenda as well as the Boise City minor adjustments — the one to the south that we had talked about with the Rural Fire Commission. So, they are both on Thursday night, so the Fire Department and I will try and attend. Nary: Thank you. Mr. Wardle. Meridian City Pre -Council Meeting May 11, 2004 Page 23 of 23 Wardle: Mr. President just to clarify real quick is what I heard is Mr. Smith is going to look at how Boise's is operating and to bring that back as, in my opinion, as a first step before we go out and ask our building community what they think. Is that everyone's —? De Weerd: Yep. Bird: That's my opinion. Nary: Item 9 is an Executive Session and Council since we are at a late hour for the Pre -Council and we could start the meeting and we could move that to the regular agenda rather than going into Executive Session now. Bird: I move that we move it to Item No. 15 when we do the agenda. Wardle: Second. Bird: With that, Mr. President, I move that we adjourn the Pre -Council meeting. Rountree: Second. Nary: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the Pre -Council meeting. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:10 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: ATTESTED: b 18 1 0¢ DATE APPROVED of �Mme'✓ ���✓' � WILLIAM G. BERG, A., CITY R AIS '°9