HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-08-23Meridian City Council August 23, 2016
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday,
August 23, 2016, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Keith Bird, Genesis
Milam, Ty Palmer, Luke Cavener and Anne Little Roberts.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Jaycee Holman, Caleb Hood, Josh
Beach, Warren Stewart, John Overton, Mark Niemeyer, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X_ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X_ Keith Bird
__X__ Genesis Milam __X__ Lucas Cavener
_X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I'd like to welcome all of you to our City Council meeting. For
the record it is Tuesday, August 23rd. It's 6:00 p.m. We will start with roll call
attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us
in our pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Tim Pusey with Valley Shepherd
Church of the Nazarene
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led by
Pastor Tim Pusey. He is with our Valley Shepherd Church of the Nazarene. If
you will all join us in the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a
moment of reflection. Thank you for joining us.
Pusey: Thank you. Heavenly Father, your word says this is the day that the
Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And we have much to rejoice in
today as we reflect on your blessings in our lives and we thank you -- we thank
you for this day and for all of its blessings . For life and health and for food to eat
and a roof over our heads and family and friends and , Lord, we thank you for this
community tonight and yet we humbly acknowledge our need for what you alone
can do in our lives. For peace in the hearts and minds of people. For hope that
sees beyond all the hardships and difficulties in life. And for love that's truly
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August 23, 2016
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unconditional and unwavering in our lives, the kind of love we find in you.
Tonight I would pray for your special blessing upon our City Council and our
Mayor. Lord, guide them in all the business that will take place this evening.
May the wisdom of Solomon and the courage of David and the love of Jesus
permeate all they do tonight and we'd ask that yo u would continue to bless the
people of Meridian and the word that you would teach us all to love as Christ has
loved us. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you. Item No. 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the Consent Agenda, 5-B, request to vacate this from the agenda. On
Item 6-B, the resolution number is 16-1158. Under Action Items. 8-B, the
request by applicant to continue until October 25th, 2016. Item C, request by
applicant to continue to October 25th , 2016. And Item 8-D is asked by the
applicant to continue to September 6th , 2016. Item 8-I, request by applicant to
continue to September 6th, 2016. Item J has been requested by the applicant to
move to September 6th, 2016. And with that I move that we approve the
amended agenda.
Borton: 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.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of August 9, 2016 City Council Meeting
C. Amended Development Agreement for Centrepoint (H-
2016-0057) with Blue Marlin Investments, LLC. located
near the northwest corner of N. Eagle Road and E.
Ustick Road, in the SE 1/4 of Section 32, Township 4N,
Range 1E
D. Agreement for Extension of Domestic Water Service
Outside Meridian City Limits with West Ada School
District for Mary McPherson Elementary School at 1050
East Amity Road
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E. Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement between the
City of Meridian and the Roman Catholic Diocese of
Boise within St. Ignatius School
F. Water Main Easement between the City of Meridian and
Western Ada Recreation District Next to Storey Park
G. Sanitary Sewer Easement between the City of Meridian
and Woodside Harris, LLC within Southern Highlands
Subdivision No. 3
H. Storey Park Temporary Construction Easement Between
the Western Ada Recreation District and the City of
Meridian
I. Pedestrian Pathway Easement Between New Oaks LLC
and the City of Meridian for a Multi-Use Pathway in Oaks
South Subdivision No. 4
J. License Agreement Between Nampa and Meridian
Irrigation District and the City of Meridian for a Multi-Use
Pathway in Oaks South Subdivision No. 4
K. Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement between the
City of Meridian and TTS Idaho LLC within Third Street
Square Subdivision
De Weerd: Item 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: As stated earlier, Item 5-B has been asked to vacate from this agenda and
with that I move we approve the Consent Agenda -- the amended Consent
Agenda and for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda as
amended. Any discussion by Council? Madam Clerk. I mean Mr. Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; P almer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Mayor’s Office: Appointment of Rob McCarvel to Seat
#2, Reappointment of Keith Bird to Seat #6, and
Appointment of Rick Ritter to Seat #7 of the Board of the
Meridian Development Corporation
B. Resolution No.: : Appointment of Rob McCarvel to
Seat #2, Reappointment of Keith Bird to Seat #6, and
Appointment of Rick Ritter to Seat #7 of the Board of the
Meridian Development Corporation
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-A under the Mayor's Office. Council, in front of you I
have three appointments of the four seats to bring to you tonight for appointment
of Rob McCarvel for Seat No. 2. The reappointment of Keith Bird to Seat No. 6.
And the appointment of Rick Ritter to Seat No. 7. These will be through the end
of their terms and I would ask if there are any questions ? Don't all jump in at
once. If there are no questions I would entertain a motion.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve the appointment -- or Resolution No. 16-1158
appointing Rob McCarvel to Seat No. 2, reappointment of Keith Bird to Seat No.
6 and appointment of Rick Ritter to Seat No. 7 of the board of the Meridian
Development Corporation.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 6 -B. If there is no
discussion by Council, I would ask for roll call attendance.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: I know that we have one of the three here -- well, two of the three.
But, Rick, do you have any comments? Really? Wow. Please let the record
note. Well, thank you for your interest and your willingness to serve our urban
renewal district.
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C. Solid Waste Advisory Commission: Republic Services
Annual Rates Adjustment Amended Report for Solid
Waste Collection Services
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-C is under our Solid Waste Advisory Commission and
at this time I know that there is an item that we didn't quite cover last -- last week
I think we talked about this and I will turn this over.
Remling: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor and Council. Rodney Remling with
Republic Services. Business controller. 11101 West Executive Drive, Boise,
Idaho. That's correct, Mayor. We presented to SWAC, but inadvertently left one
rate off of the presentation to this Council and that would be the fourth rate down
on your second page for commercial combination lock replacement . This is for
secured commercial containers that are secured by our customers and if that
lock breaks or is lost, damaged in some way, they might request a replacement.
That's what this rate is for. It would only incur if a customer requested it for those
purposes and the charge requested is 27.53 and that's the only change we have.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I do have a question. A couple, actually. I didn't see on this sheet
anywhere any cost associated with the grass collection program and I'm curious
if I have missed that and, if so, my apologies. But, if not, if you could articulate
what that rate is and I guess I was just looking for some form of an update on the
success of that program.
Remling: That is a voluntary program -- or service. It's not a required service
and that's a very small amount of the service. I would request that we take that
offline. But that is probably less than 200 customers who signed up for that and
I'd have to guess at the rate, so -- I would have to re -- and just take it off.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, maybe a follow up then. Are there other voluntary
services that aren't reflected on the sheet that we have been provided?
Remling: That are -- no.
Cavener: That would be the only one?
Remling: That should be on here and I'm surprised that it's not. I didn't take a
second to look for it.
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Klein: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: You were behind Rodney, so I had no idea who was talking. It's like I
know someone is here.
Klein: Madam Mayor and Council, I believe -- Republic Service. Rachele Klein.
111 -- or, excuse me, 2130 West Franklin Road, Meridian, Idaho. 83642. And I
believe we bill that directly, because it's not added -- it's not a franchise service
and it's not -- so it's billed independently by Republic. So, it wouldn't show up on
this rate sheet that's approved by Council, so -- and I did -- Councilman Cavener
e-mailed me and so I would like to actually offer to take the grass collection
program offline and do a workshop for anybody who is interested in that and also
an update on what's happened with the regional composting facility that's going
to be hopefully open next year, if you guys are interested in more information
about that, but --
De Weerd: I think that would be awesome.
Klein: Thank you.
Cavener: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions from Council?
Cavener: Madam Mayor? Sorry. I have an additional question. Can you give
us just some -- I guess high level explanation about how our rates and our rate
increases compare to some of the other municipalities in the area that you
serve? Are they the same because of the GPI or are the rates increase more or
less?
Remling: The rate increases are very, very similar. All of the contracts have
various CPI adjustments -- in another words, they use a different CPI or a
different time frame. When you stack the CPIs up -- it's been about a year since
I've done that, but I have analyzed the CPI changes by month and by type over a
period of five or six years, I don't remember exactly, and CPI change was very,
very similar. Only when municipalities changes the indices that they are using do
you see a change. So, if you were to change the indices you might see a
significant increase or decrease, because you're moving from indices to indices,
but generally the indices move in tandem and your rate changes are very similar
to what we have seen over the last year and a half. It doesn't look like I
answered your question.
Cavener: I was just curious if our increase is more or less than compared to the
other municipalities surrounding us.
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Remling: They are very similar. We have different -- different time frames and
we have a consolidated rate schedule that we can bring back to you. Again, I'm
going to have to be offline, but Meridian's are about the middle -- Meridian's rates
are about the middle of our rates.
Klein: Okay. Sorry. I'm -- I'm perhaps the world's worst over-the-shoulder
consultant here. You actually have a great setup, because you have somewhat
of a discount. This is the only contract that we have that's 90 percent of CPI. So,
you have a fairly low CPI. You have the all items Western index, which is pretty
standard. It's below the -- there is a water, sewer, garbage index, which has
been generally more reflective of our actual costs and -- and you guys are in this
great bucket with all items in the western U.S. and so it's lower and this year it
was -- for a residential rates it was just over one percent, but you're the only city
that I know of that only hits 90 percent of that index. So, you're actually better off
than most cities if you ask me, but if you ask Rodney, he's the real numbers
guys, but just so you know, this is the only contract I know that's scaled like that.
Remling: Rachele is correct on the -- on the calculation of it. However, they are
very, very similar. I mean you're 1.2 -- you're 1.02 percent of residential. You're
1.04 overall. The indices range in that range. I mean they are very close.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. I hate that I'm belaboring this. I guess I still don't feel
like that I have got a direct answer. Is our increase more or less than the other
municipalities that surround us?
Klein: Are you asking just for residential rates?
Cavener: Correct. Sure.
Klein: Okay. So, yours would be -- I mean like just -- like Rodney is saying that
they all went up. Yours went up one percent and it depends on which rate level
you have. So, if you have a small container it's going up . You know, you have a
variable cart rate, the smallest cart rate -- you know, I'm guessing here, but let's
say it's 14, 16 and 18, roughly. So, you figure one percent of just the service and
not the cart rent, so -- I mean it's really small and compared to others it's
probably with pennies one way or another. But you guys are --
Remling: In actual rate change you're looking at a penny or two.
Cavener: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, is there any further questions on this item ? If not,
Mr. Nary, the next steps are to bring an ordinance back or a resolution?
Nary: Madam Mayor, because of -- because of the -- the one fee that hadn't
been brought to you, they are going to begin the process of the noticing for the
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fee. So, they pushed it back a couple weeks. I think it originally was supposed
to come for the public hearing on the 6th, I believe. Now they have pushed it I
think to the 20th. So, they just need to do the process of the advertising and they
will have a public hearing.
De Weerd: Okay. Perfect. And I guess maybe as part of that if he can have the
-- the different cities and what their rate increases are, that would -- that would
answer some questions. Okay. Thank you.
Item 7: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Public Hearing: TEFRA Hearing for Cole Valley Christian
Schools
De Weerd: We will move to Item 8 under Action Items. Council, this first item is
a public hearing to -- as part of funding for Cole Valley Christian School. They
are required to have a public hearing. I am opening this public hearing and want
to talk about the purpose of this hearing. The hearing time appears in the notice
that was published and if anyone is here for that hearing we will ask them to
provide testimony. But it would be nice to know, as I have instructions here to
talk about the public hearing, what I'm supposed to say, other than it's a public
hearing. This is a requirement for this funding as I understand it. So, is
someone here from Cole Valley? Would you like to make comment?
Carr: I'm Brad Carr, superintendent of Cole Valley. Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Nice to see you.
Carr: Nice to see you again, too. This is a formality. Just like you said, I'm
about as aware of what the needs are of this as you are. We are simply
refinancing our public bond funding -- or their nontax -- their tax exempt bond, so
we have to do a public -- public hearing. And we are refinancing our building
here, as well as we just purchased the church that's in our parking lot, the
Apostolic Church, and we are looking to finish off our project on the corner of 2nd
1/2 and Carlton Street with removing the crack house and turning it into
something beautiful.
De Weerd: Well, I can tell you your field looks awesome.
Carr: Thank you.
De Weerd: And what a nice improvement to that whole area.
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Carr: Yeah. We want to finish that off. We are going to remodel that house and
have it look nice, with a nice garden area there and it should be really nice when
it's done.
De Weerd: Yes. I was part of the discussions on what we envisioned that house
could be once you bought the property, so -- I'm excited to hear what your
decision is.
Carr: Well, we are going to keep the house and remodel it. It's going to look
very similar on the outside to what it originally looked like as a little Craftsman
house. The inside will be a meeting room and restrooms and things like that.
De Weerd: Very cool. Well, thank you for being here and thank you for being
such a great community partner.
Carr: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: So, we hope to have some of your students on the Mayor's Youth
Advisory Council this year.
Carr: I know you do and we are working on that. Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you. This is a public hearing and it is a hearing on -- that is
required by the public financing to be on a public entity's agenda for the public to
comment. Is there any member of the public who would like to provide comment
on this item? Okay. Hearing none, I will officially close the public hearing and --
now what?
Nary: Madam Mayor, I don't know there is anything to approve.
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: Other than the --
De Weerd: Just need the public hearing.
Nary: That's what I understand.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, you know, just -- you're blessed.
Holman: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: We are so experienced at this. But thank you for asking.
Holman: Madam Mayor, question for Bill.
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De Weerd: Mrs. Holman.
Holman: Or Mr. Nary. There is a form that we sign saying the public hearing
happened and all of that and I believe, Mr. Carr, the Mayor signs that, so I don't
know if we need any sort of approval for her to sign that document.
Nary: It's simply acknowledging that the hearing was held and I think that's --
that's all that's necessary. I don't think the Council has to approve that. I think
the acknowledgment that we have had the heari ng -- this is for the -- just for the
record, it's called the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, so I think the
acknowledgment can be signed by the Mayor without any additional action of
Council.
B. Public Hearing Continued from June 28, 2016 for
Browning Plaza (H-2016- 0008) by SLN / Boise-Waltman,
LLC Located 505, 521, 615 and 675 Waltman Lane
1. Request: Two (2) Year Time Extension on the
Preliminary Plat to Obtain the City Engineer's
Signature on a Final Plat
C. Public Hearing Continued from June 28, 2016 for
Waltman Property (aka Browning Plaza) (H-2016-0038)
by SLN Planning/Boise-Waltman, LLC Located 505, 521,
615, and 675 Waltman Lane
1. Request: Modification to the Development
Agreement to Remove the Requirement (#5.1.8)
for Corporate Drive to be Extended North of the
Site from the Ten Mile Creek South to Waltman
Lane
De Weerd: And thank you for telling us with TEFRA means. Okay. So, we will
move to the next item and that's Item B that has been requested to continue to
October 25th. I would ask staff if there -- if you could, on the record, just give us
the reason this request was made.
Hood: Madam Mayor, the reason I believe that they are asking for another
extension is there is some interest in the property and they are doing some due
diligence to figure out if the changes that they are looking at potentially doing will
fly and get a concept plan put together. So, that would hold true for both B and C
on the agenda this evening.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Council, I would need a motion to continue --
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: I would move that we continue the public hearing on H-2016-0008 and
H-2016-0038, until October 25th, 2016.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second?
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to continue both Items 8-B and
8-C to October 25th, 2016. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Final Plat for Bainbridge Subdivision No. 4 (H-2016-
0094) by Brighton Investments, LLC Located East of N.
Black Cat Road, Midway Between W. Chinden Boulevard
and W. McMillan Road
1. Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of Thirty-
Six (36) Building Lots and Four (4) Common Lots
on 13.03 Acres of Land in an R-8 Zoning District
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-D is a final plat also requested by the applicant to
continue to September 6th. If I could ask the reason for this continuation.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, that one I'm not sure of. I'm
pinch hitting for Sonya, but I don't -- she didn't put it in my cheat sheet, so -- but I
know the applicant's representative is here, so they can explain a little bit better.
Bird: Well, there was a reason.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Wardle: Good evening, Madam and Members of the Council. Mike Wardle of
Brighton Corporation. 12601 West Explorer Drive. This item and the other two
items, I and J on your agenda that have also been requested for deferral, are
abutting properties and you will recall when we revised the Bainbridge
preliminary plat several years ago there was a 15 foot corridor that we had
proposed along the southern boundary in anticipation of kind of mirroring that.
So, these -- that's the reason that these were deferred together, so that we could
work out details, which were primarily worked out yesterday and will come back
to you on this with recommendations for approval in both cases. So, unless you
have questions that would be the short answer.
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De Weerd: Thank you so much.
Wardle: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, this item has been requested to continue to the 6th of
September. Do I have a motion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we continue the final plat H-2016-0094 to September 6th, 2016.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue Item 8 -D to September 6th.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
E. Final Plat for TM Crossing Subdivision No. 1 (H-2016-
0099) by Brighton Investments, LLC Located at the
Northeast Corner of S. Ten Mile Road and I-84
1. Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of 20
building lots and 1 common lot on 36.54 acres of
land in the C-G Zoning District
De Weerd: Item 8-E is a final plat for H-2016-0099. I will ask for staff comments.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As I just mentioned,
I'm going to cover for Sonya this evening on this project, this final plat, called TM
Crossing. It is the first phase in the subdivision . The site consists of 36.54 acres
of land, zoned C-G. It is located at the northeast corner of I-84 and South Ten
Mile Road within the recently established urban renewal district. There were -- or
are 50 preliminary plat lots and four common lots, what you see before you this
evening. It is, again, the first phase of that, which consists of 20 commercial
building lots and one common. You do have a letter in your packet from the
applicant, dated August 18th, and, then, a follow-up memo from staff dated the
23rd of August today. There was a meeting, as Mr. Wardle just mentioned,
yesterday to discuss some of the comments that were brought forth in his letter
dated May 18th and after that meeting we have agreed to some changes to the
conditions for approval, so I'd like to read those into the record and if you have
any questions we can certainly run through them. We would recommend that
site specific number one there be no change to that one . Condition number four,
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to correct the engineer's name as requested by the applicant. Condition -- site
specific conditions number ten and 11, that we would delete those and remove
those entirely. And general conditions number three, amend those as requested.
Number eight under general conditions, amend as requested. Number 19,
amend as requested. And number 23 amend as requested by the applicant. As
you know, the applicant is here, but we, basically, again, concurred with the
changes requested in his letter dated August 18th and I would stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions?
Wardle: Madam Mayor, once again, Mike Wardle of Brighton Corporation.
12601 West Explorer Drive in Boise. As you're, obviously, aware from what we
prepared and provided, there were some significant issues still to be resolved in
meetings yesterday, Mr. Stewart and Mr. Turnbull and the other Mr. Wardle got
together and addressed the significant issues relative to the pressure irrigation
system. The conclusion was that we will make provision for that eventuality, but
the city staff also acknowledges that there are some challenges that they face in
order to make that a reliable and consistent possible source . So, the
recommendations or concurrence notations of staff this evening address all of
those issues and unless you have questions I would not take mo re of your time.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions? Okay.
Wardle: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, if there is no questions or comments, I would
entertain a motion.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the final plat H-2016-0099 and to include staff and
applicant comments.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -E. Mr. Clerk, will
you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
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MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
F. Public Hearing Continued from August 16, 2016 for
Creason Creek No. 1 (H- 2016-0087) by ULC
Management, LLC Located Near the Southeast Corner of
N. Linder Road and W. Ustick Road
1. Request: Modification to the Development
Agreement to Allow the Developer to Receive
Four (4) Building Permits Prior to Recording a
Final Plat
De Weerd: Item 8-F is a public hearing continued from August 16th on H-2016-
0087. I will open this public hearing with -- this continued public hearing with
staff comments. And this was about a specific item.
Beach: Correct, Madam Mayor. This is both the development agreement
modification and less so the final plat modification, but they are one and the
same application number, so the direction from Council last week was to meet
with the applicant to discuss and come up with possible conditions for allowing
up to -- it was four this -- the original application was for four early starts with
permits. The applicant has since requested only two early start programs -- and
as you see in the memory before you and on the slide that I will show here, staff
did our best in conjunction with the applicant and the legal department to come
up with some -- some conditions that feel a little bit more comfortable now, but
there are still come concerns as to issues that could arise based on previous
experience doing -- doing things like this, but there are the conditions here.
Originally last week we just said C, we have modified that a little bit to its present
form as with D through J that were some -- some concerns that the Legal
Department brought up. I'm not sure if Mr. Nary has some addition al insight on
this application, but we have discussed it thoroughly with Fire and Public Works,
Development, as well as Legal and this is the best that we could come up with at
this time.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions --
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: -- for the applicant. Yes, I'm sorry, Mr. Nary.
Nary: That's okay. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if -- if you look at all
the conditions, part of the dialogue discussion last week was the risk to the city,
both for the early starts, if they are built to the wrong place, what happens if
people move in, they sell, the city won't give occupancy because of those things,
so we have tried to capture that in these conditions, but, in my opinion, it's still
not a good idea. The process exists for a reason and it isn't just because the
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government loves process, but because we want to make assurance that in the
future that the land is divided properly, that it's recorded properly, that the
easements are -- are recorded properly, that the requirements of development
are vetted properly and doing them out of sequence like that more often than not
ends up with a problem. So, we have tried to capture as much as we can. I
don’t know if -- you know, if nothing happens, then, it's great, but as I mentioned
last week, we would like some direction or guidance on do we need to establish
an alternative process and what it takes. As you see, we went from one
additional comment last week to allowing this to eight and that's for two lots. I
can see someone else coming in with a large scale sub and saying I want to
build 400 homes and I only want ten early starts and that doesn't seem like very
many, but that's ten individual things that we have to try to come up with. So, we
have tried to capture your concerns. If the question, again, is is there a risk to
the city, the answer is yes. I don't know how significant it is, because nothing has
happened yet. So, that's I guess my cautionary tale of what we have tried to put
in here and for you to think about in that particular request. There isn't a concern
of the second request about the modification to the plat about the -- in regards to
I think the creek and the pathway and those kinds of things. That's not the issue.
It really is these early starts that it can be problematic.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Question for staff. Josh, if I heard you right, it sounds like in addition
to the conditions that have been outlined, staff still has some additional concerns,
but I didn't hear you share what those were. I thought it might be poignant to --
and I don't know if that was what you were looking for, Mr. Nary, if there were
additional --
Beach: Sure. So, Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, that is, essentially,
what our concerns are. Like Mr. Nary said, we have a process and as you see
based on the -- the time that was spent coming up with these conditions, these
early starts tend to take a lot more staff time to track to make sure that there are
no issues to make sure that the homes are constructed in the setbacks when we
don't have a legal lot. So, we have to make sure that -- go through some extra
steps to make sure that the home is constructed how it needs to be , where it
needs to be. It's a little bit difficult to make sure that all those things are taken
care of, as well as to track potential staff changes, depending on how long it
takes for this process to go through, making sure everyone's aware. So, it can
be problematic.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, additional follow up? Josh, I hate to put you on the
spot on this one. Are these types of requests -- we are starting to see more often
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August 23, 2016
Page 16 of 72
from developers or have you had conversations with the development community
about doing early starts and does that pose a bigger question that regardless of
the decision here tonight do we need to look at some other processes to respond
to the demands of the development community?
Beach: As far as personally, I don't have personal experience as to whether or
not the development community is in favor of these or not. I'm not as
knowledgeable about that. I know that in the past year and a half that I have
been with the city we have had two or three different subdivisions that have
asked for this. One being that the one that the applicant mentioned last -- last
week, DaVinci Park, as well as another one that we approved earlier this summer
for the White Acre Subdivision. But I -- I don't from personal experience know
whether the DaVinci Park has had any issues. The White Acre project is very
early in the development, but as we were going through this and kind of
analyzing it a little bit more, we are seeing the potential issues that could arise
and I don't -- like Mr. Nary said, I don't know that we will have an issue, but there
are some risks there.
De Weerd: Okay.
Beach: I'm not sure if that directly answers your question.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions for staff? Would the applicant like to
make comment? Good evening.
Unger: Madam Mayor and Council, Bob Unger, ULC Management. 6104 North
Garrity Lane, Boise, Idaho. 83714. Representing CS2, LLC. I think, you know,
as Josh pointed out, you know, I met with staff last Thursday to discuss our
hearing from last Tuesday and I proposed some modifications to the 5 -1-C and
we had a great meeting. We discussed some of the issues and concerns. Staff
made some additional modifications to what I had proposed and, then, this
afternoon I got the additional conditions D through J provided by Legal staff and,
first of all, I want to -- I want to say we are -- we are fine with those conditions.
We have no issues with those. I mean I think Legal staff did a great job of putting
specific conditions in there that protect the city and I think that was a big concern
by the Council. And as staff said, we have decided to modify a request from --
down from four early starts to two early starts and the reason for that is -- Josh,
can you pull up -- do you have that map?
Beach: I don't think I do have it in the slides, Bob.
Unger: Okay. We have specifically identified two lots. One on -- we have two
parcels in the north section of this phase of t he project. We have two parcels.
We have identified one lot that is located in one parcel and one lot that is located
in the other parcel. In the event that something where to go astray, we would
have a house on one parcel and a house on another parcel and they could move
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August 23, 2016
Page 17 of 72
forward, you know, ultimately, and get a C of O based upon those two individual
parcels and parcel numbers. What we would provide for -- for our builder is a
metes and bounds legal description that matches identically the dimensions an d
locations of these two lots that we are proposing to build on. And I do have to
correct myself from -- from last Tuesday evening when the question came up
about the purchase of the lot from the builder. The way -- as I understand now
after discussing it with the -- with the owner, the way that works is that the builder
buys a particular piece of property based upon that metes and bounds legal
description, which is prepared by our surveyor. He pays us for that piece and the
legal description is retained by the title company until such time as the plat is
recorded. So, we do get paid by the builder at that time and not down the road .
Okay? So -- and that's one of the -- one of the reasons that we are requesting
these two early starts is to help our cash flow and also to allow the builder to get
an early start on the two model homes. We have two different builders and they
would each have one model home that they would be able to show, you know, as
soon as the plat is recorded. They would be able to show and start hopefully
selling other homes within the subdivision. I know that -- and I said it last week,
you know, DaVinci Park, we got two early starts based upon the two parcels that
we had. There were no issues whatsoever on those two early starts. We went
out with our surveyors, we staked the lots properly. The buildings were built on
the lots. They met all of the setback requirements and when the plat was
recorded they matched perfectly. So, it's something we have done before. We
know the process to make sure that we don't run into any issues . But, once
again, as legal staff has pointed -- put in the conditions, we would assume all
responsibilities and release the city of any liabilities if that were to happen. So,
based upon that, we would hope and ask for your approval and I will stand for
any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Not being a legal mind, but I know you can sit here, you can sign papers
and everything else that releases the city from any responsibility, but let me tell
you something, if it happens and it's not like the normal process or the normal
legality that we always do, I can guarantee you that we are going to put money
out to defend ourselves. We are going to be listed.
De Weerd: Any other questions for the applicant? Thank you.
Unger: Okay. Thank you.
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August 23, 2016
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De Weerd: This is a public hearing on this item for the development agreement.
Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this item? Okay.
Council?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we close the public hearing on H-2016-0087.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item
8-F. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I don't have a motion. I'm really torn on this. I -- I would like to help the
developer out. I don't like the city taking risk. They have somewhat of a proven
track record, so I keep going back and forth and if these things are going to come
for -- forth in the future, we probably should have -- I know we already have
procedures, but if we are going to have an alternate procedure it should probably
include some additional fees to cover the additional staff time and -- I mean that's
just a thought. I feel for them. I want to have -- I'd like to help them move their
project along. I don't think they are going to have a problem. I also don't want to
set a precedence so that every developer comes in and wants to have early
starts and creates problems, because somebody's headed down this road, so --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: So, I have a question for Chief Niemeyer, although the hearing is closed.
I don't know if we need to reopen it to gather that information or not. No?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Borton, if you're
just asking staff a question I don't -- we don't need to worry about that.
Borton: Chief, when you look on the map that's up there -- what was provided
earlier -- and I failed to mention this when Mr. Unger was up here -- I think it was
Lots 2 and 3, the lots closest to the existing fire hydrant across the street, were
two of the four lots proposed to be early starts and now appears as though one of
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August 23, 2016
Page 19 of 72
the two early start lots is four lots to the north, if I'm orienting that right. Is that
still within the acceptable distance from the existing fire hydrant?
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, I did talk
to Chief Palmer. Chief Palmer and Rick Jackson met with the applicant. We are
still within 150 feet of that fire hydrant, so we can lay enough supply line during
construction if we were to have a fire in that area .
Borton: Even at that new lot location?
Niemeyer: I just texted Chief Palmer to confirm that and he did to review of that
and approve it.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: While we are asking staff questions, I got a question for Josh. You had
brought up White Acre. How does -- how do these two lots -- I guess how does
this situation compare to what we did with White Acre?
Beach: Do you have a rough time period?
Palmer: I don't know off the top of my head. I can pull up that development
agreement if you would like me to look at that while you're deliberating up there
or --
Palmer: Sure. And the reason I ask is because I -- I remember there was a --
there was no concern about the head start on -- on those two lots. I remember,
you know, we were just getting after the developer about how quickly he could
get the sidewalk in, because he needed enough dirt to have to berm and, then,
put the sidewalk on and he wasn't going to have that in phase one and that was
the entirety of the discussion. I don't remember any concern over him getting --
getting moving.
Stewart: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Warren.
Stewart: I was not here at the hearing last week to hear all of the testimony, but I
did want to provide -- and Councilman Cavener -- or Councilman Cavener asked
a question about other similar situations. We did not have exactly in this format,
but similar situation where we were asked to approve c onstruction in advance of
the normal process. A couple of instances that I can think of -- The Oaks
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development, we allowed them to build some model homes and start one of the
phases of the subdivision before they had off -site infrastructure available to serve
that and without going into a lot of details , that turned out very badly for us. The
other one was the Overland Park Apartments. We allowed them to start
construction on the Overland Park Apartments in advance of having
infrastructure in place to serve that with a lot of promises and everything else and
without going into detail that turned out very badly for us, too. So, I would just be
cautious. Anytime we have a tendency to go outside of our normal process, the
checks and balances that we have in place to make sure that certain things are
done before we allow other things to move forward , they are thrown out of timing
and out of whack and unless you've got people that are just babysitting those
things it gets very difficult to monitor. So, just a word of caution. It may not be
exactly this situation, but it is similar.
De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Okay. Any other questions from Council?
Okay. Do I have a motion from Council?
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Nary.
Nary: Before you get to your motion, I was looking at the White Acre application
that Councilman Palmer asked. So, in that particular instance part of the
difference is that the developer was going to retain ownership of the parcel. So,
he was going to build them and retain ownership and, then, they could plat it and,
then, they would be sold. These are going to sell in conjunction with the building
-- with the building of the lot. So, it's a little bit different. So, that's the difference
I think between those two.
Hood: And Madam Mayor? Can I just follow up a little bit on that? I was going
to -- going to point this out. But that is one of the -- the process we have
established also protects a developer, because in this scenario if lots -- they
aren't lots yet, but they are metes and bounds legal descriptions of real prope rty
that someone else owns now, they have to sign that final plat. They are now a
signatory on the plat with the developer, so any land -- if you own it your John
Hancock goes on the Mylar that gets signed and recorded down at the county's
office. If by some chance this deal goes bad with the builder now and they say
I'm not signing the plat, we don't have a final plat anymore, because legally they
have to sign the plat. So, part of that process, again, so people don't sell
property ahead of development -- I'm not saying that will happen here, but it has
happened before. It's almost the reverse of these old farm houses that are out
there and they split them off and, then, you develop around it, it's almost the
inverse of that where you have somebody now that's building a new lot, but they
don't want to be part of the subdivision anymore, they said, no, I don't want to be
part of your HOA or for whatever reason and they don't sign the plat. So, again,
it just makes it a lot cleaner if we have got -- the legal description is a lot and
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August 23, 2016
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block and not a metes and bounds description that we -- everyone understands
what that is and can move forward. So, just another -- and if I may just real
quick, what I would propose -- and certainly you guys provide us the direction
and we can come up with something. It will probably mirror real similarly the
conditions you see here tonight. But I don't -- I don't personally believe that we
should come up with a process to do this. I think it would be better on a case-by-
case, one-off basis, if there is justification for it, we will look at it, will get with Fire,
whoever those folks are, and we will say here is the package. I will be honest,
we probably won't recommend them very much -- approval of that very often, but
instead of saying -- you know, kind of encouraging folks to do this, I think we can
still look at it like we are doing now, but I think it maybe gives the wrong
impression to -- and I don't disagree. I mean I want to help the development
community where we can, but as Warren states and Bill stated, not every time,
but these blow up in our face a lot of times and it becomes just a headache . So,
that is just my two cents.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I -- I feel that this is something that I personally can't back right now and I
do feel bad, because it was another public entity, as I understood, that held it up
and they do need to get started before the snow flies. But I -- I just don't think
that I'm ready to put the city out on the limb that I think we are putting it out on . I
probably -- it will probably -- it will probably go perfect, no worries, but there is
always that chance that it won't. So, with that I would move that we deny H-
2016-0087, the modification to development agreement to allow developer to
receive four building lots prior to recording of final plat.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion. Do I have a second?
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to deny the request for the early start
and the modification. Any discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I do among several other things. I agree with Caleb with regard to a
process or not. These very well might be best considered as one off, rare,
unique circumstances with special findings that oftentimes might not be
appropriate for the very reasons why we have the process that's been described
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August 23, 2016
Page 22 of 72
by our staff. So, I agree with the motion and I also agree with not opening the
door to try and facilitate doing things out of order as requested , unless there is a
really unique circumstance.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, nay; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: The motion passes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
G. Final Plat Approval Continued from August 16, 2016 for
Creason Creek No. 1 (H-2016-0087) by ULC
Management, LLC Located Near the Southeast Corner of
N. Linder Road and W. Ustick Road
1. Request: Modification to the Final Plat to Alter the
Number of Buildable and Common Lots and to
Move the Multi-Use Pedestrian Pathway Out of
the Nampa Meridian Irrigation District's Easement
and Into a Common Lot and to Update the
Landscape Plan, Plat and Open Space
Calculations
De Weerd: Item 8-G is a final plat continued from August 16th on H-2016-0087.
Beach: So, this was continued again from -- from last week. Essentially, the
applicant is looking to modify the final plat fairly minimally. As you see on the left
is the currently approved final plat. This is the -- the landscape plan. The
applicant is proposing to take the pathway outside of the Nampa -Meridian
Irrigation District easement due to their requirements and to modify what was Lot
4 to a common lot and to place the pathway through that common lot. With that
there are a couple other changes that are required. Plat note number seven --
currently this plat does not indicate a Lot 4, Block 1, as a common lot for the
subdivision. The plat note needs to be revised to indicate this as a common lot
that shall be owned and maintained by the HOA and also to modify condition 5-B
to read Lot 4, Block 1, shall be designed to include the ten foot wide multi-use
pathway and landscape standards set forth in the UDC, et cetera. Staff is
recommending approval and I will stand for any questions you have.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions? Is the applicant here?
Nary: It's the same project.
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August 23, 2016
Page 23 of 72
De Weerd: Oh. No comment?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: If there is no comment, I would move that we approve Item H-2016-
0095, final plat for Volterra Heights Subdivision.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion --
Nary: The one before.
Borton: Sorry. Wrong one. Strike that. The final plat for H-2016-0087 --
Milam: Second.
Borton: -- for Creason Creek.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -G. Any
discussion from Council? Mr. Clerk.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
H. Final Plat for Volterra Heights Subdivision No. 2 (H-2016-
0095) by Cottonwood Development, LLC Located South
of W. McMillan Road and West of N. Ten Mile Road
1. Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of
Twenty-Eight (28) Single Family Residential
Building Lots and Four (4) Common Lots on
Approximately 21.5 Acres in the R-8 Zoning
District
De Weerd: 8-H is a final plat that Mr. Borton was trying to move this agenda
along. We will hear this one on H-2016-0095. I will ask for staff comments.
Beach: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this -- there really are no issues
with this. This is a final plat. The entire office of W.H. Pacific was out of town
Meridian City Council
August 23, 2016
Page 24 of 72
last week, so we were not able to get the e -mail in agreement with all staff
conditions. We did receive that e-mail today. The applicant is in agreement with
all of the conditions of the -- of the final plat.
De Weerd: Thank you, Josh. Council, any questions for staff? Does the
applicant have any comments? Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve H-2016-0095, final plat for Volterra Heights
Subdivision.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-H. Any discussion
from Council? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
I. Final Plat for Vicenza Subdivision No. 3 (H-2016-0096) by
Cottonwood Development, LLC Located North of W.
McMillan Road; Between N. Black Cat Road and N. Ten
Mile Road
1. Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of
Twenty-Eight (28) Buildable Lots and Four (4)
Common Lots on Approximately 10.62 Acres in
the R-4 Zoning District
De Weerd: Item 8-I has been requested to continue to September 6th and we
heard the previous explanation on -- on this request. Council, do I have a motion
to continue?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we continue the final plat on H-2016-0096.
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August 23, 2016
Page 25 of 72
Borton: Second.
Bird: To September 6, 2016. I'm sorry.
De Weerd: Second agrees?
Borton: Second agrees with the date.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue Item 8 -I to September 6th.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
J. Final Plat for Vicenza Subdivision No. 4 (H-2016-
0097) by Cottonwood Development, LLC Located
North of W. McMillan Road, Between N. Black Cat
Road and N. Ten Mile Road
1. Request: Final Plat Approval Consisting of
Seventeen (17) buildable Lots and Three (3)
Common Lots on Approximately 5.01 Acres
in the R-4 Zoning District
De Weerd: Item 8-J is also requested to continue to September 6th.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we continue H-2016-0097 to September 6th, 2016.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue Item 8 -J to September 6th.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Department Reports
A. Presentation of West Regional Emergency Services
Master Plan
De Weerd: Item 9-A is under Presentation from our Fire Department and I will
turn this over to Chief Niemeyer.
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August 23, 2016
Page 26 of 72
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, good evening and thank you. It
looks like we just lost our person -- could you possibly click on the presentation?
So, we will -- I will preface this while we get the presentation up . This will be a
little bit longer than my normal presentations, so I do thank you for your time this
evening as we go through this. About two months ago I did present each one of
you with a copy of our regional master plan. Again, 186 pages, it's hard to pack
that into ten minutes, so this will be a little bit longer. This is an informational
presentation, so I hope to gather some dialogue, some conversation, and some
questions that you may have, with a goal of coming back to you within 30 days
after you've had a chance to kind of digest the information, with the hope that you
will look to adopt the master plan and, hopefully, in between that time reach out --
reach out with any questions that you may have . If I lose my voice I'm sorry, I
kind of got some chest congestion in San Antonio and I'm hoping it's not the Zika
virus. It was raining all the time and big mosquitoes out, so I apologize for that.
So, just a little bit of back history on how we got here and I know I have talked to
you about this before as well, but just to recap, this started as a project between
the City of Meridian and the Meridian Rural Fire District, looking at how growth
and current conditions and, then, future growth conditions are going to affect us
and how we plan for that appropriately. As we had that conversation and I was
discussing this with the Mayor and with Councilman Borton, our liaison, and the
district commissioners, we also understood that that growth is happening also in
fire districts around us. So, how do we effect growth together. I have mentioned
before the last thing we want to do is build a fire station and have another
jurisdiction build one a mile away and, then, answer to the taxpayers of why
didn't you coordinate this better. So, we did reach out to our partner agencies,
our neighboring agencies. As you all know, we had Star Fire District jump on
board both through the approval of their board and , then, financially to help
support the project. Kuna, we reached out to them, they made the decision not
to participate at this time. The other jurisdictions in Ada County had recently
completed a master plan. That discussion and approval with Star led to a
discussion with their partners that have the same issues of border growth and so
that's how we got to the point where we got four agencies involved in this plan.
Since that time Nampa has also been in discussions with us about how their
boundaries are going to grow with ours and how we look at that in the future as
we move forward. I told you how much I love this. So, an overview of the
process. Once we elected to go with a consultant, Emergency Services
Consulting International, they conducted site visits on November 16th through
the 19th. During that time we also had formed a citizen task force. One of the
things that I requested during the development of this plan -- I have been a part
of planned development before. Typically you have with consultants a citizen
group that comes in for one evening and so it's about two hours and they get an
analysis from the citizens and feedback from the citizens . I have always found
that to be a little bit deficient in my mind. I would like a citizen's group that goes
through the entire process. So, beginning, middle, and end and that's what we
did with this project. So, you can see there the citizen task force made up of
citizen representatives from each of the jurisdictions , including the City of
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August 23, 2016
Page 27 of 72
Meridian and the Meridian Rural Fire District. Met on November 18th, met on
February 24th and, then, met on April 13th. During the site visit ESCI also
conducted an environmental scan. They met with elected officials, the internal
fire department staff and, then, also with those citizens. From there they took the
information that they gathered, along with data that we had provided to them.
Did an evaluation of the current conditions that we have today and, then, looked
at future system demand and how that future system demand could be planned
for. And, then, they looked at also future delivery system models and how we
could, then, deliver service to meet the demand for the future. And, then, lastly,
they produced the -- the report that you have in front of you. That is not what I
wanted. A little help. I really don't know much about this slide. I didn't develop
it.
De Weerd: Do you have a plat?
Niemeyer: I don't. I do not have a final plat to review. All right. We will try
again.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Real quick. Chief, can you remind us -- the agencies that were all
participating in the financial contribution towards this effort?
Niemeyer: Absolutely. So, the agency that participated were the Meridian Rural
District, the City of Meridian, Star Fire Protection District, Middleton Rural Fire
Protection District and the city of Caldwell. The total cost was 70,000 dollars.
We allocated that equally based on the number of stations is the most fair way
we could come up with a compensation that paid for the entire plan . Thank you.
So, an overview of the services provided. This was an overview that we did give
the citizens as well as they went through their process . So, currently the
Meridian Fire Department provides the following services today. Fire
suppression in all structures, all vegetation fires, and all other fires. We provide
emergency medical services with the ALS non-transport license. ALS meaning
Advanced Life Support. We do provide vehicle rescue and extrication operations
at the operations level. What that means at the operations level is that we have
the knowledge and the training and the tools and the skills and ability to go out
and perform that function. So, we do cut up cars, we -- that's a bad term. We do
extricate folks from vehicles when they are in crashes. Cut up cars is not the
right term. We do provide in Meridian fire cause and origin determinations, so
when we do have a fire, our investigators go out and identify the cause of the fire
and where that fire started. We do provide fire code development, inspection,
and enforcement. We do provide fire and life safety public education through our
public education division. The last two we provide what's call ed the awareness
level. Both hazardous materials response and, then, still and swift water rescue
Meridian City Council
August 23, 2016
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response. The awareness level means that we are aware and trained and
educated in hazardous materials and in swift water and still water rescue, but we
do not have the capability to do that on our own. Hazardous materials are done
through regional teams in the state of Idaho. Our two teams that support us are
the Boise hazmat team and the Caldwell hazmat team. Those are the two
regional teams we have in this area. Still and swift water rescue require you
have a dive team. We don't have a dive team. The city of Boise has a dive
team. Eagle Fire Department has a dive team. The sheriff's department has a
dive team. So, if we do have a rescue that involved anybody getting in the water,
we do have teams that help support us. So, those are the services that we
provide today. It was also important to at least discuss the services we don't
provide, to make sure the citizens that went through this understood what we do
and what we don't provide. Currently we don't provide technical rescue. Rope.
Confined space. Trench. Heavy machinery and building collapse. Technical
rescue involves a lot of training and a lot of funding, quite honestly. It's
expensive to maintain. The one thing that does concern us -- I have had
conversations with Dennis Teller and Tom Barry about this -- is when our water
department goes into the wells and does a confined space entry , make sure that
they understand we are not their rescue team right now. We do not do confined
space. So, we do have contingency plans for that. They notify us every time
they go into the well, so we are aware of every time that you go in the well. But
that is a service that we understand that we should be providing. It is a matter of
looking into the future to determine if we need to provide that service . Some
others are very obvious. ARFF. We do not have an airport. I appreciate the city
not having an airport. Having airport firefighting is a whole new ballgame and so
we don't have to worry about ARFF from the city. Tac Med. Those are tactical
paramedics attached to law enforcement. Typically to the SWAT teams. The
tactical paramedics -- I don't have a lot of interest in our paramedics carrying
guns right now. Ada County does have a team. Sorry, John, I apologize. Ada
County does have a team that is attached to the SWAT teams with Ada County.
Community paramedicine is an -- is an evolution in medicine where the
paramedics are getting out in the community doing follow ups. When somebody
goes into the ER and comes out, the community paramedics are going out and
doing follow-ups to ensure that the proper care is being given. What that has
done is we are seeing a massive reduction in reentries into the ER from folks that
have an issue as they -- as they get discharged. Currently Ada County
Paramedics is providing that service. We do not do ambulance transport.
Incident management teams. I talked a little bit earlier about we do incident
scene management or incident command . An incident management team is
when you have a very significant large -scale event and you need to bring in an
incident management team. So, logistic support, it's planning support, it's
financial support. There is a lot of discussion right now on a regional team
approach, because no city, including the city of Boise, has the resources to be
able to provide that service. There has been some discussions on a regional
approach to that. Emergency management is done through Doug Hartman's
office through -- used to be ACON. I believe now it's the Ada County Disaster
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Services Department. I'm taking a swag there. I can't remember what their new
name is. Doug Hartman's office. And, then, arson investigation. We do not do
arson investigation. To do that under the code we have to have our investigators
deputized. We have a great relationship with Meridian PD. We have actually
sent a couple of their folks back to the national fire academy for arson
investigation, so we work very closely with Meridian PD. The other thing you
need to have if you're going to do arson investigation , if you watched -- whatever
it is. Boston Fire or whenever that -- Chicago Fire. I don't watch it. You have to
have the storage space and capacity to store evidence for a period of X amount
of years. We do not have that capacity. So, arson investigation -- we have had a
great relationship. We are going to continue that in the future. So, as we went
through the citizen survey -- and one of the things that I was really fortunate
enough to experience when we went to Washington on the Priorities of
Government exercise and talking to cities that had done that, we, essentially, did
our own little mini version of a Priorities of Government exercise within the fire
service and asked the citizens what do you want. Where are your priorities as far
as fire service and the services we offer. Not surprisingly, fire suppression and
emergency medical response one and two. As we talked -- and Jaycee Holman
can attest to this. As we talked to cities throughout Washington, typically what
they saw in their Priorities of Government exercise were law enforcement, patrol
and fire suppression was one and two in various forms and so this did not
surprise us. Fire prevention services, code enforcement, was number three.
Community education was number four. And, then, kind of distant fourth and fifth
-- or fifth and sixth I guess would be hazardous materials, response, and
technical rescue response. Quite honestly, those are low-frequency, high-risk
type calls that just doesn't get the public eye quite a bit. So, it wasn't surprising
to us to see how the citizens ranked the services they wanted. The citizens were
also asked what should be the planning priorities of the fire department moving
forward. The first two did not surprise us at all. Insure technical competence of
the responders. They want to make sure and know that when the responders
come out they are trained well and they are going to do a good job. So, that did
not surprise us. And, then, second was improve the outcomes of the
emergencies we respond to. Don't let my house burn completely down. Make
sure you get to us quickly and improve the outcome of my father , wife, husband
that is having a heart attack, et cetera. And so those two did not surprise us.
The third was really a planning function to make sure that our capital
improvement plans and the way we maintain what we have is maintained and so
completely agree with that. Again, didn't really surprise us a whole lot to say we
want to make sure we ensure our facilities and equipment are reliable and
functional. We don't want you showing up and having things not work. Kind of
the fourth and fifth were a little bit surprising. The fourth was partner with Allied
Emergency Services agency to improve services and increase efficiencies and,
then, the fifth was established performance standards that match community
expectations. I will talk a little bit about that when we get to the response time
discussion. It was an interesting dialogue. Then you can see the last two.
Utilize technology data and analysis for sound decisions. For me this was a little
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tough, because I believe that we should be using data and analysis to make
good informed decisions moving forward. But from a citizen standpoint it was
lower on their priority list as far as planning. And, then, last was partner with
community to manage costs. That one was also very interesting for me to see. I
was expecting that to be a lot higher. Last thing with the citizen survey they were
asked about staffing, response and cost. Obviously, we had to give a little bit of
background information to them on the cost that it takes to run a fire department
and so when it came to staffing they were asked do you feel the fire department
is understaffed, overstaffed or appropriate. The vast majority were in that
appropriate. Obviously, there is a big chunk there in understaffed as we talk
about how many resources it takes to get to the scene. But I believe that we are
doing a good job collectively when we respond with mutual aid to meet the
staffing needs as far as some of our emergencies go. On the response side,
nobody thought we were too heavy. Seventy-five percent -- overwhelming
majority said we feel that the response that you send out is appropriate . And,
then, 25 percent felt that it was a little bit too slow or too light. And, then, on cost
we did have 6.2 percent say we are too expensive and we had 37 percent say
we were appropriate. Forty-three percent said continue to explore and find new
fiscal tools to meet the demand of the service. So, as far as the projections go,
the ESCI presented in their plan. I know you have seen this before -- or a
version thereof -- have been here in front of other master plans or other planning
that has been done by other departments. You have seen this graphic in the
COMPASS 2040 projections. It is very similar. ESCI took a look at it two
different ways. One is a forecast total and one is a growth rate total. I believe
the forecast total more accurately resembles the COMPASS 2040 projections.
The growth rate tool is simply looking at historical growth in the past and, then,
using a formula to -- to project that out. You'll see some discrepancy there, but
either way what you're looking at is a steady increase through 2040. We've seen
that in many presentations that -- that have been before you in the past.
Likewise they project out what our call volume is going to be and so just as
population is going to increase, we know population drives calls for service and
so we anticipate that as population increases, so, too, will the call volume. As far
as the break out there goes -- and Councilman Bird and I have had several
discussions about that other category. I know he really, really likes that. The
NFIRS is the National Fire Incident Reporting System that we are required to
report to the federal government on a monthly basis. They have this other
category that we are required to report. It contains about 30 different call types
within that other category. I don't personally agree with all the categories bein g
put into an other category, but they are nonetheless. So, you can see the break
out that ESCI projects as far as the fire response calls, the medical calls, and the
other category. And we will get into all the details of all those call types, but it
ranges everything from a false alarm, a commercial fire alarm, a residential fire
alarm, a good service call, somebody has a smoke detector chirping, they need
us to come out and take a look at it. But it also can get in some call types that,
quite honestly, I believe lie within the Fire EMS category. I don't have control
over how we report that, that's a federal requirement, so I will leave it at that.
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You know my opinion on -- on the reporting side. And, then, ESCI also does a
projection of budget. Obviously, this is a projection as we know, annual to
annual budget cycle can change, the budget impact can change, so this is just
what they project based on historical budget analysis prior to 2016 . I can tell you
that there is a typo there. This is not 20116 year, its 2016. I couldn't change that
in the graphics, so that was a typo on their part. So, getting in the responses and
the piece within the master plan that discusses responses -- and I will come back
to this picture a little bit later. This was taken, as you can see, July 8th of this
year. Typically you think of our truck company going out on structure fires and
on fires that we need the truck to participate in. This was a pretty unique
situation as a gentleman that was on a -- on a residential roof and he had fallen
from one peak down to the lower level of the roof . Was hurt pretty bad. The only
way we could get him down was actually bring our ladder truck out and you can
see him up on the Stokes basket . That was the only way possible to get him
down. We looked at doing ground ladders and it was not safe to do so. Our
truck does have a variety of uses, other than just the structure fires they respond
on. So, this is an overview of the emergency by agency. You can see us in the
second column there. ESCI when they did their analysis go and looking at year
end, we actually do a calendar year. So, we do January 1 through December
31st. That ties in with some of the CAD systems and some of the data that we
can retrieve. When ESCI came in we had not yet completed 2015. That's why
they looked at 2013 and '14. We had two years worth of full data. So, you can
see the climb there between the two years. I can tell you in 2015 our total call
volume was 6,300 calls. So, you can see where that would have moved the line
is about a 17 percent increase in call volume. This year we are tracking to meet
about the same as we have for 2015. You would think -- we have grown a little
bit, you would think the call volume would be more. Part of that -- that
maintenance is we are not going on some of the medical calls that we were going
on in the past three years. As we transitioned into a new CAD system we
identified some call types that did not need to send multiple units and multiple
resources to the calls, so that's why we are kind of maintaining -- even though
overall our calls for service are probably going to be going up. So, in our
responses -- again, one of the great findings of the trip that we went on in
Washington was to see how departments are using outcomes to talk about the
services they provide and looking at their programs that they have and what are
those outcomes that makes -- make sense, that you can track events and you
can report on. So, while these are not adopted, these are suggestions that we
have within the department as we went through and looked at the master plan
and in response to it and these are very common key indicators or -- or
performance measures if you will or outcomes of two different types of
responses. From the fire responses -- one of the goals of the fire department is
to keep a fire contained to the room or area of origin. We are going to see a
video and I'm going to ask for your considerations. It's about five minutes. But
we talk about why that is very important to us. Now, we talk about either room of
origin in a residential fire or we talk about area of origin. You're going to see a
picture of a fully involved trailer fire , where we want to keep that fire contained to
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that single unit and not let it spread to the units next to it and that will become
important as we continue the discussion. We do want to have zero fire-related
deaths, both civilian and firefighters. We know that's not completely within our
control. We had a death last year that she succumbed to smoke inhalation. But
the goal of our organization of any fire department is that we have zero civilian or
firefighter related deaths. Also to maintain a one hundred percent civilian rescue
rate, meaning we still have time to get in the structure, find somebody that is
down inside the structure and get them out, and the fire hasn't progressed
enough that we simply cannot go inside and the other one is an economic im pact
outcome and that is that we maintain a higher rate of dollars saved and dollars
lost. As you can imagine when somebody has a house fire and they are
completely burned out of their home, it displaces the entire family. As a result of
that sometimes those folks need to take time off from work just to deal with the
aftermath of that. That's a loss to the employer, it's a loss potentially to the
person who lost the home. On the commercial side, if we can save a structure
and get them back in business sooner, we know the economic impact that that
causes. I can tell you in Meridian we have had commercial structure fires in
which we stopped the fire and we were able to get them back in business fairly
quickly. There was a business in town here -- and I won't say who it was, but it
was six years ago, that the fire had spread enough that they were out of business
for about five to six months. That had a very significant impact on them, it had a
very significant impact on their employees as well who were out of work for six
months. So, we know that if we can get there quicker and change that discourse
of dollars saved and dollars lost, we can have an economic impact on the
community in a positive way. On the EMS and rescue response side as far as
outcomes, we want to maintain a 75 percent cardiac arrest save rate. You may
ask why not a hundred. The reality is as a paramedic for 24 years not all cardiac
arrests are savable. That is the reality. Sometimes the heart just simply doesn't
have enough activity that we can do anything with. However, we do want to
maintain a 75 percent cardiac arrest save rate. What that means is they walk out
of the hospital and they go on to have a productive life. There is a lot there and
not just on the response side, but on the prevention side. So, there is two pieces
to that puzzle in having good prevention, good messaging, early 911 notification
and, then, we have the tools and resources to get there quickly and turn that
around. Extrication is another benchmark for us. We know when somebody is
trapped in a vehicle we need to get them out. Oftentimes when somebody
sustains that kind of damage in a vehicle time becomes of the essence. They
are injured to the point we need to cut that car open and get them ou t. Our goal
is to have that done within 15 minutes of the scene arrival . That may sound like
a long time, but if you consider it takes about two to three minutes to get all the
equipment out, the generators going, the tools going, that leaves us about 12
minutes to finish that cut. As you can imagine, you have seen some of the
pictures of those extrication of those cars. That's a pretty quick -- pretty quick
out. STEMI EKG, we have heard a lot from the American Heart Association
about heart attacks and the importance of early notification. One of the things on
the EMS side that we do that speeds up the recovery and the treatment of those
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folks is we have EKG capabilities. The new STEMI protocol. STEMI stand for
ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction, if you all want to know what the acronym
was. The quicker we can get an EKG sent to the cardiologist at the cath lab in
the hospital the quicker we get that patient directly into the cath lab. It used to be
that we would take heart attack patients, we would take them to the ER, they do
a bunch of research and studies and give a bunch of medications -- it was about
another 45 minutes before they got to a cath lab. The cath lab is the end benefit.
You go in, you open up the arteries, you get blood flowing again. We have now
got a process by which we bypassed the ER when we can confirm an MI like this,
bypass the ER, they go right into the cath lab. That's a benefit to the community.
And, then, lastly, critical trauma patients, we want to get them off the scene
within 15 minutes. This is considered a golden hour when it comes to critical
trauma. We are not the end-all prevent -- we are not the end. The treatment is
in the OR for these folks and so the quicker we can get them to the OR, much
like we just talked about the cath lab, quicker we can get them into the OR the
more chance they have for survivability. So, getting these folks off the scene
within 15 minutes, I can tell you that's a short time frame. A lot needs to be done
when you have a critical trauma patient. There is IVs, there is fluids, there is
medications, there is airways -- that's a lot of work in a short amount of time, but
that is the goal. So, talked about a video and it's about five minutes and what I
want to talk about just a little bit is on the response time -- there is a lot of
questions that have been asked what does it matter? What does it matter if we
get there quickly? And I think this video does a really good job explaining why it
does matter. This was done by the NIST -- which is National Institute -- I'm going
to start this while I talk. The National Institute of Standards and Technology.
This is not a fire department supported organization. They are an independent
organization and they did this in conjunction with Underwriters Laboratory. If
you're familiar with safety science, you will see a lot of UL stickers on a lot of the
things we buy. UL is Underwriters Laboratories. So, what they wanted to do is
compare what's called Legacy room contents and construction and there is no
other way I can put it, other than to say this is the stuff that was in my
grandmother's house. We are talking about wood furniture that was wood, it was
thick, it was heavy it's kind of like the old '66 Chevelle, it was big and heavy and
lasted. So, they took those -- those Legacy room contents and, then, looked at
Legacy Construction. Construction back 30 years ago was bigger beam stuff. It
was big wood. Today in our modern furnishing what you're going to see is what
you will find in your home today, the type of furniture you have, the draperies you
have and, then, with our construction, if you look around as buildings are being
constructed here in Meridian you see a lot of two by four and two by six
construction. We know that burns faster than thicker wood. So, what they did is
started a fire in both of these. I can tell you the environment here is exactly the
same. The temperature is the same. The air flow is the same. And so they
started these two fires what you're going to see progress is on the left-hand side,
again, they were started at the same time. On the right- hand side you're starting
to see that fire burn and you're starting to see that black smoke. If you compare
that to what's on the left you do not see that black smoke. What's on the right is
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a lot of plastics and so we are seeing that burning and what that's doing is
causing a whole lot of toxic smoke. As this fire progresses you're going to see
from the top black smoke start to work its way down . Obviously, on the left you
see that fire still burning. It's barely a fire. So, as that -- as that black smoke
comes down -- and keep in mind the front of these two buildings for this scientific
demonstration, those are very open, so you're seeing that smoke escape
because of the way they set this up. Imagine that that's a doorway and it's
keeping that smoke contained within that room -- granted it is a small room, but
it is a pretty good example of what occurs. As that black smoke starts to fall --
and we are going to see it here in a little bit where it's going to get real thick. At
that point the temperature of that smoke is a thousand degrees or greater. You
can see on the left-hand side that room is still very livable. In fact, it's probably
livable enough that somebody could grab their water hose and put it out. The
picture on the right we are past the point that a homeowner can put this out
themselves. The hope is we have got an early notification through smoke
detectors and by this time the fire department has been notified. We are two
minutes and 45 seconds into this. What you're going to see next as this
progresses is that black smoke is going to get thicker and it's going to come
down even more. You probably heard me talk in the past or if you have gone
through fire ops 101 you have heard them talk about flash over and what flash
over is -- you're going to see it and it's going to be very graphic. It is the point at
which all that gas up at the top of that room gets super heated enough that it
ignites. It creates its own ignition mechanism. At that point of flash over that
room is not livable. In fact, in this current situation right here, if we are not out by
now, we are very hot and it's probably not survivable . But you will see there is
the flash over. So, the black smoke, that gas that was up in the ceiling, got hot
enough it ignited on its own and, then, it creates this massive fire. So, when we
talk about response and why is it important that we get there quickly, this is one
of the examples. Now, there is a second piece to this that is the prevention that
we can do and the public outreach that we can do. So, I'm providing a little bit of
education here. If this were to occur in your home in a room , what we would
hope that you would do is exit quickly, but close the door behind you. The
reason that this fire is burning so fast and so quickly is it has oxygen. It has a
place to grab more fuel. By closing the door you're going to keep that fire
contained hopefully within that room to where we can get there, open the door,
and extinguish it. We do know that every room has sheetrock. There is a fire
rating on sheetrock. But when a fire is burning this hot the sheetrock doesn't last
very long. So, we get through the sheetrock. Our biggest concern with a fire like
this is it's going to get through the ceiling -- the sheetrock in the ceiling and get
up into the attic space. Once it gets in the attic space imagine your trusses in
your house, two by fours all throughout it, that wood is going to burn quickly. So,
oftentimes when we get there you will see us poking holes in the ceiling of those
rooms that have burned to make sure that fire has not extended up into the attic
space. So, there you can see that this goes on a little bit. We were at flash over
at three minutes and 40 seconds in this room. It usually takes, in the best
circumstances, about two minutes for a homeowner to recognize they have a fire
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and, then, notify us and get out. So, now we are already two minutes behind the
eight-ball. So, you can see how quickly this fire can spread without an early
notification or early response. In my grandmother's home in her room you can
see we are now at 28 minutes and we still haven't achieved flash over in that
Legacy furniture. So, the message here is building construction has changed
and the contents within our homes has changed significantly over the last 30
years and that does affect how quickly we need to get there . So, this was from
the master plan. The video wasn't, obviously. You don't have a video within your
master plan there. But when we talk about those fires, what does it take -- how
many people does it take to effectively mitigate a problem and so this is what's
known as effective response force in the fire service world. How many folks does
it take for each call type that you go on? The graphic -- and I'll start on the right.
Low risk call types. We are talking about a very simple EMS call. We are talking
about an isolated dumpster fire. We are talking about an isolated car fire in
which we may need to have one or two units there to mitigate the problem .
That's a pretty low risk and we can manage that with fewer resources, obviously.
The moderate risk is what your typical structure fire is today, given no extreme
situations as far as weather goes. So, if it's not 105 degrees out or it's not 20
degrees out, we can mitigate that with this amount of personnel. They are all
assigned a task, whether it's suppression, whether it's rescue, whether it's
ventilation, cutting off electricity and the power to the home, so we don't get
shocked, whatever those things are, they need to be done to moderate the risk or
to minimize the risk. That would be an at risk category. This is standard that we
do today throughout the valley. A typical structure fire response on the initial
alarm is three engines, a truck, and a battalion chief. That's consistent with every
department in the valley today. Now, you had extreme weather to that, one way
or the other you add wind. I noticed it was windy this evening when we came in.
You add wind to that or you add multiple exposures next to the structure on fire,
we are going to bump that up and have more resources on scene . It just takes
more people to pull hose lines, protect the structures, et cetera. The maximum
risk is one that quite honestly hope we never see , but we know it happens.
Maximum risk here. The last one I can find in Meridian -- we did have the
Washington Street apartment fire that did take a lot of resources to put out , but
that was still not even a maximum risk. Last one we had here was the Meridian
High School fire and many of you were here and remember that very well. But
we see more recent examples of that throughout the valley. We had the
Middleton High School fire that took half the high school out. We had the Oregon
Trail fire in Boise in which you had 37 of 39 resources there and most recently in
Nampa we had the old Mercy Hospital fire . That was a big maximum risk
because of the number of people it takes to put those fires out. So, with that we
take a look -- and the ESCI does this, they compare firefighters per thousand,
that's a benchmark they use to meet those effective response forces and the
folks it takes do that job. When they look at this they look at it within a population
band. So, our population band that they compared us against, you can see there
at the bottom with 50,000 to 99,000 -- 99,999 -- a tongue twister for me. And so
they compare how do you -- how do you look regionally. Region means the
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west. The 12 western states. Obviously, national is just an entire look nationally.
So, we are at about .67 firefighters per thousand. I know it's hard to compare us
against any department in the west, because we start talking about where we live
and value and all that. A comparison locally. Caldwell is at .69. Nampa is a .72.
And Idaho Falls is at a 1.9, to give you an idea of where we are. Where this
matters most to me is do we have enough folks on duty to do the job . I don't
know about comparing ourselves to others, that -- I look at what we do and do we
have enough folks to do the job. So, I think that -- you need to take this with a
grain of salt. I know I do. So, then, looking at our incidences historically. Again
it took that 2013 to 2014 data -- two years worth of data and said where are your
incidences happening today. It was a look at current evaluations. As you can
see right there in the middle Cherry Lane and Meridian is where our biggest
concentration of calls are. Ironically, that is the hardest place, believe it or not,
for us to get to in five minutes, even from the four stations that surround it,
because of road speeds and traffic that one is difficult for us. As you can see we
have some other hot spots over around St. Luke's. We have quite a few calls
that occur in that St. Luke's area and, then, also at Eagle and Fairview and we
are seeing those calls on the rise. I know law enforcement is seeing the same
thing. Seeing a lot of increased activity in call volume in 2015 at that Eagle and
Fairview area. So, we know where our hot spots are. The rest of it as far as the
yellow, that 31 to 300 incidents within the two-year study period is just a
reflection of more residential. You can see where our heaviest call volumes are
where you might have more commercial activity. So, response time
recommendation. One of the things that we talked about early on when we got
the approval to move forward with this master plan was to look at adopting and
developing a response time standard. This is something that's been discussed I
know by my predecessor and, then, by me over the last seven years is trying to
come up with some recommendation that we could compare our data to and
have an expectation so the community knows what to expect. This picture I want
to bring you back to, it -- when we talked about how many folks it takes to do the
job. I was actually on his fire. If you don't recognize it, this is the trailer park right
directly behind Idaho Pizza. I believe it was 3rd. I would have to look at that
again. So, a fully involved trailer. These burn quickly. The problem with trailers
like this is that they have a lot of windows, they are very compact spaces, so as
soon as those windows break we feed the fire , so they are very difficult to get to
and put out and keep that damage minimized. The challenge with this fire --
number one it was 98 degrees out that day. Number two, you can see the
exposures both to the left and the right. That's a concern for us. That requires
more resources to get on scene and look to mitigate that problem . You can see
that the fire has already spread. It's gotten into that pickup truck on the left-hand
side. We have the tree on fire on the backside of this structure and, then, we
have the two trailers next to it that we are receiving a lot of heat and starting to
receive damage. So, this was one of those calls where we requested additional
resources to help mitigate those things on the left and right of this -- of this fire.
So, we talk about response time and travel time. What makes that up and where
are the conflicts and what are the challenges with that. The two things we focus
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on when we talk about travel time and trying to establish a travel time standard --
one is geography. Are our stations located such that they can achieve whatever
travel time we set. We don't drive a hundred miles an hour contrary to popular
belief. Law enforcement maybe. We don't. So, we have a speed limit
requirement. We have a driving requirement. And so when it comes to
geography are we stationed well enough that we can respond to mitigate the
issue. I will tell you the NFPA recommendation -- NFPA is the National Fire
Protection Agency. They come out with standards in the fire service and
recommendations. Their recommendation is four minutes of travel. They do that
for two reasons. One is flashover. They are trying to recommend that you get
there before flashover occurs. And, then, on the EMS side we know after six
minutes of a cardiac arrest with no activity at all, brain death occurs and so that's
where the standard came from. That's the history behind the standard. And,
then, we talk about reliability. Reliability is is the call volume maintained well
enough to allow the unit within that subdistrict -- so, I will take Station One as an
example. They have a boundary. Is their call volume maintained well enough
that they can actually respond to a call in their district or is the call volume high
enough in that district that they are not available to respond to the call that
occurs. Typically that requires a little bit of overlap coverage to maintain that.
Ideally departments should strive for an 85 percent reliability factor, meaning 85
percent of the time the unit at sub-district is available to handle the call with in
that district. Currently right now our Stations Two through Five are running
anywhere from 82 to 86 percent. We do have a problem with Station 1. It's at 72
percent. We will talk a little bit about that later. So, then, to cap -- recap total
response time. We focused on travel time there in those last two. Focus on total
response time. There is three components to a total response time. One is the
call processing time. Meaning the time from when the phone rings to the time a
button is pushed to notify us. That's currently done through the Ada County
Dispatch Center. We don't have a lot of control over how long it takes, other than
to continue to meet we have -- and I will tell you Sheriff Bartlett has been very
receptive to the conversation. I will give him a lot of credit. He's doing a great
job. But we have had call processing times up to three, four, and five minutes
before we get notified. It's too long. We will see what that standard should be.
Turned out time is from the time the station is alerted and we have a call until the
time we roll the wheels out the bay and start heading out to that call. And, then,
travel time is simply the time it takes from point A to point B and there is some
challenges with that that we have discussed in the past, traffic, weather, et
cetera. So, the recommendation within the master plan. This is getting to the
heart of the recommendation. There is the call processing time -- and this is the
national standards through NFPA 1221 -- should be 60 seconds or less 90
percent of the time. That's moving. But part of the challenge we have right now
is the call taker is taking the call, they get the nature of the emergency and the
address, but they are still answering a whole lot of questions. We are trying to
propose as soon as you get the address and the nature of the call, push the
button and let us know and we can start that process to get in route. You can
follow up with all your follow-up questions that you need to ask to get us more
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information. As ESCI looked at that they could not analyze what our current call
processing time is from the dispatch center. There wasn't enough data provided
from them for ESCI to be able to analyze what that is. That's a challenge and I
have talked to Sheriff Bartlett about that. We have done some local analysis.
Boise fire has done a lot of analysis on this. We do know that they are over. We
have indications there has been three, four and five minute call processing times.
The one thing I will just mention here -- and it's worth mentioning -- is that
throughout the valley we are actually looking at a process that's called station
alerting. Station alerting is a system that's tied to the dispatch center. As soon
as -- much like I alluded to earlier, as soon as we get the address and the nature
of the call, it will send out a signal to the station, it will notify the station, even
though the call taker is still getting the information , you actually get an automated
voice -- it's a real human voice recorded -- and it will say engine 31, car fire,
Meridian City Hall and at that time the call taker is still taking additional
information, but that gets us started. Spokane Fire Department has been using
this for about five years. They have shaved about 90 seconds off their call
processing time by implementing this solution. We feel it's a very viable solution.
I believe the dispatch center is open to the conversation about that and so we will
certainly keep you updated as we move forward in looking into that . The turnout
time, the standard is what we want to abide by. Sixty seconds or less for EMS
calls, 90 seconds or less for fire-related calls. Both of those are done 90 percent
of the time. As ESCI analyzed our data, we are at 99 seconds. That's a 90th
percentile. Meaning 90 percent of time we doing this in 99 seconds or less. So,
by far of the four agencies that participated in this, we were well above
everybody else. So, our guys do a good job once they get notified of getting
moving. The challenge I will make to you -- and this will be an honest engine
moment, if -- you can try this if you like, I don't say you have to, but try it if you
like. Set your alarm clock for 3:00 o'clock in the morning, have it go off, get
dressed, get your boots on and get out in your car and back it out of the garage
and see if you can do it in 60 seconds. If you do it I will buy you lunch. It is
challenging and I will trust you if you do it. The recommended travel time that's
built within the plan itself -- I go back to the NFPA standard or -- or
recommendation of four minutes. The challenge with that four minute standard is
I have not found a fire department anywhere in the US , including the chief of the
department that was the chairman of NFPA 1710 that established that four
minutes, it is costly to do and it takes a ton of resources to do and so the
departments that I have talked to around the country, nobody is doing a four
minute standard because it's simply not achievable. So, as we look we said,
well, what does make sense? What is affordable? What still gets us there in a
quick time frame. So, we started discussing the idea of looking at travel time
objectives based on population density. The population density as you see here,
urban and metro densities are greater than 2001 people per square mile.
Suburban densities are anywhere from 1001 to 2000 people per square mile .
Rural densities are 51 people to a thousand people per square mile and our
frontier densities are 0 to 50 people per square mile . It's not livestock. That's
people per square mile. This -- this graphic in this population density concept
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follows the fire service accreditation model as well as far as densities go and how
you respond to those. I did have the opportunity to sit down with Bruce
Chatterton and have him review what we were proposing as far as the travel time
based on population density and I can tell you Bruce said there is a lot of merit in
what we are looking at. What it allows you to do -- and it just -- by its very nature
you can see where this is going. The more densely populated an area, the
quicker the response time expectation is. I think that's the standard community
expectation. From a planning perspective it helps us to understand as we grow
when do those response time expectations change. It becomes far less
subjective and actually puts some objectivity to it and so the recommendation is
for our urban metro densities it's a five minute travel time 90 percent of the time.
In our suburban densities it's a seven minute travel time 90 percent of the time.
In our rural densities nine minutes 90 percent of the time. And in the frontier
densities, which we don't have any of, is 15 minutes 90 percent of the time. I can
tell you this is a travel time objective . The other three agencies involved in this
have adopted, as well as Nampa is looking at this as well as an adoption
possibility for their -- for their service. So, how does that look? This look right
here represents that four minute travel time. You can see where we cannot get --
if we were to adopt a four minute travel time. ISRB, if you see in the upper left-
hand corner, ISRB is the Idaho Survey and Rating Bureau. It's Idaho's version of
ISO. The insurance companies use that as they -- they look at homeowners
insurance and commercial insurance. That is their recommendation. That's
where they give you maximum points in the ISRB. Again, from a financial
standpoint, a planning standpoint, it's very difficult to achieve if you ever want to
do this model. So, looking at the model we are proposing, this would be the
urban and metro. I think if you attended the presentation by SCI during the
discussion you saw the maps up on the wall, I certainly have those still and be
more than happy to sit down with you and go over those. This is what can be
achieved -- rating is over in the right-hand corner -- within a five minute travel.
This does assume that every unit is in their quarters when the -- when the call
comes out. We talked about reliability a little bit. This graphic done through a
GIS system assumed that we are all in quarters and all available to respond.
That's the coverage that you would get in a five minute travel time. Seven minute
travel time you can see that expands out a little bit to cover more of o ur -- our
southwest region and also the northwest region and, then, a nine minute travel
time covers pretty much our entire response area and, obviously, 15 minutes is
going to cover it all. There is another visual map just showing the different
layers. The five minutes, the seven minutes, the nine minutes and the 15
minutes. So, what can we do today if we adopt these standards? Again, this
was a regional look, but it does match what we can do here in Meridian . Under
that metro urban classification and the five minute travel, we can do that 85
percent. We can cover 85 percent of what we need to in that five minute travel
with those densities. In the suburban we can cover 90 percent of that. So, we
would meet that 90 percentile benchmark that we would be shooting for. The
rural is a lot more difficult and, again, we don't have a lot of rural. Typically what
we see in our rural map -- if we look at a map and put those population densities
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in, there is a lot of farm ground even within the City of Meridian that simply hasn't
developed and so you have nobody living there, because it's still a large chunk of
farm ground. That's a lot of our rural. We still have quite a bit of rural in our
southwest and a little bit to our northwest as well. The frontier, again, we don't
have any, but those departments that do, very difficult to achieve even in 15
minutes, but that would be the goal. So, when we talk about reliability -- and this
is a concern to us as we have looked historically at what we are doing and that's
call volume in conjunction with the stations that we have and so if you look back
in 2013, 81 percent of the time we had just a single call going on in the district --
in the coverage area. That has jumped down to 78.6 percent and you can see
where the secondary calls and the third layer calls are increasing. So, that
reliability piece as far as a travel time adoption does also take into account how
reliable are you to be able to respond in that subdistrict to meet that travel time
expectation that is adopted. So, this is something we will keep an eye on as we
move forward. Certainly Station Six, when we build that, that's going to help with
this reliability, because a large portion of where Station Six is going to go is
currently being covered by two engines, either Station One or Station Four.
Station Four is the only engine company -- only station we have south of the
freeway, so when they go out on a call the entire south Meridian is uncovered.
And so Station Six will help that and should change this graphic once that station
is put in. This is simply a graphic -- it was within your -- the presentation within
the report. This just shows the coverage area that we have with our one truck
company. The challenge with the truck company is that they respond throughout
the entire coverage area for the district. Anytime there is a structure fire -- we
talked about the typical structure fire response three one and one, three engines,
one truck, and a battalion chief. That truck is going throughout the entire district,
not just within the geographical area that's shown here within the representation.
So, moving into the recommendations found within the plan , there was specific
Meridian fire management recommendations that the ESCI recommended. The
first is provide performance evaluations for all employees . We do that today and
so as I met with Don Bivens, who was our liaison to ESCI, this was simply put in
as a reminder to continue doing that and it was a reinforcement statement to
continue doing performance evaluations. The second was to establish a regular
review process for department policies. Like many departments we are good at
producing policies. We are not as great at doing an annual review or a regular
review of those policies to make sure they still make sense. So, certainly the fire
department does not agree with this recommendation. The third is to conduct a
critical task analysis for common response times -- response types. You saw this
when we did the effective response force analysis in looking at all those different
call types and how many folks does it take on scene to mitigate an issue. As an
example of that, we have done some of this critical task analysis already. We
know on a very standard medical call -- an earache, a belly ache, it takes an
engine company and an ambulance and sometimes just an ambulance,
sometimes just an engine company. We know on a cardiac arrest where we are
rotating crews on CPR every two minutes under the new standard, it takes more
resources to do that than what we would have on a -- on a simple medical call.
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So, we agree with this recommendation in going through all the different call
types we have and conducting that critical task analysis, So, it's very transparent
how many do we need on these different call types to mitigate the problem.
Fourth is to develop and adopt a new strategic plan guide for the workforce. As
you know, we did develop a strategic plan in 2011 . We have completed that
plan. We are due for a new one, quite honestly, and so in September we are
going on a retreat, it's a joint management-labor retreat to talk about for the next
24 months what are those things we want to focus on. We will bring the
conversation back to Council to get your input as well. Where do you want to
see us focus our efforts so that we do have -- I'm not going to call it a strategic
plan -- the city has a strategic plan. What we are going to be developing is a
tactical plan for the next 24 months. So, we do agree with that recommendation.
Develop a policy of services offered by the department that have since been
done and so that was that first two slides that you saw that I shared with you.
The next is provide a six minute review, a QA of a featured policy the beginning
of every training session. I had asked Lieutenant Overton the company that
came in and developed their department policies was Lexipol. Lexipol. The
gentleman that owned Lexipol for a long time was Gordon Graham. If you have
ever seen Gordon Graham speak, he's a former sheriff or city office -- in
California somewhere.
Overton: Captain with California Highway Patrol.
Niemeyer: Captain. He went on to become an attorney with -- law enforcement
attorney and, then, he went and furthered himself and became a risk manager
and so this is a big thing that Gordon Graham , if you ever listen to him speak,
always says is that at the beginning of every training session take six minutes to
review a policy. So, that was put in here as a recommendation. The fire
department does agree with that recommendation. The next is enhance the
Meridian fire website, adding a description of services provided. Quite honestly, I
believe our website is very informative . We have added two components in the
last year. One is an Ask The Chief button and I know Casey Emory has been
very excited about this. It's a -- it's a button that the folks can push and ask me
any question they would like and we are getting on average two or three a week
where folks are engaging with us, asking questions. It could be something from
a -- I have got a chirping smoke detector, how do I change the battery, to a code
question. It ranges all over the place. But we have gotten great feedback and
great results from that ask the chief question. We have also added to our
website a survey. So, if we go out and -- and serve a member of our community
to have access to a survey that they can go in and give us feedback , we have
been receiving incredible feedback from that. We also send out surveys for
responses. We have -- we send 60 out every month and we have gotten great
feedback on that. So, it's a way for us to gauge are we meeting the public's
needs. So, with that recommendation we feel the website is pretty robust and we
are pretty proud of it and pretty happy with it . We are always looking to add to if
we need to. But with that recommendation we are pretty -- pretty happy with
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where we are at. The next is to examine the cross-staffing workload, response
times, and unit reliability at Station One. We did mention that early as we talked
about reliability and the ability to meet travel time expectations. That is
something that we are aware of and are looking into. So, we do agree with that
recommendation. Adopt response time performance objectives. I agree with
that one, because it's been one of the things I was hoping to get out of this
master plan is to set those expectations of the Council and the community. The
next one, implement a community risk reduction program. For the last five years
we have been heavily engaged with our community on smoke detectors and
carbon monoxide detectors and we have been very successful at that. That's an
example of community risk. How can we reduce that risk to our community. We
also provide a car seat inspection program in which we are trying to get in , help
folks install their car seat properly so we are reducing the risk that potentially they
could have in a wreck. We know there is more to do. We have elderly fall
education that we have always wanted to pursue. We have a lot of elderly folks
that fall in their homes simply because their homes are not situated in a way to
prevent that. That's an example of community risk. We do agree that we need to
further explore ways that we can get out in our community and help reduce that
risk. With the staffing recommendations, implement regular labor management
meetings to improve two-way communication. Obviously, communication is
always difficult in every department. Certainly we -- we have that challenge as
well. One of the things that we have been challenged with quite honestly, is
when we moved out of the fire station we are closer to our satellite locations, we
created some space and some void between us and, nonetheless, we know we
need to improve that. So, three months ago we started meeting monthly with the
union leadership to talk about the issues that are facing them . That's been very
productive. We have a retreat coming in September, a joint labor management
retreat where we are going to talk about strategic initiatives and that -- and that
workflow moving for the next 24 months. So, we are working to improve that
communication. Communication is always a challenge. As I get older I am less
reliant on technology. E-mails can only go so far and, as you know, when you --
when you have satellite location you tend to get inundated with e-mails and that's
not always the best way to communicate. So, we are also looking at doing
quarterly all-hands meetings where folks can come in, we provide a state of the
department address and talk about the things that we are doing currently and
those are some of the ways. We do agree with this recommendation. Develop
and implement a quality assurance program for all EMS responses. With your
approval -- and I thank you for your support -- as was presented in the budget
this year, we have a shared cost position to the EMS Joint Powers Agreement,
which we are sharing in the cost of a -- of an EMS quality assurance individual.
That's a state requirement, so we are going to be getting that accomplished
through shared resources. So, we thank you for your support. That one has
been done. The next is implement a safety committee to review accidents. This
is something we don't have today and certainly recognize and agree with the
need for it. We have discussed this with our partners. They are in the same boat
as well. And so we are hoping to work together to develop a safety committee.
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When any department does have an accident there is a panel that will review that
accident, look at what could have been done to prevent that accident , and
provide recommendations for change if we need to . So, we are working on that
currently. Consider creating a logistics position. We discussed that at this year's
budget. I appreciate the Mayor taking us to task and saying work with your
partners, because nobody else has this and everybody needs it. And so how do
we work together to get that accomplished. Additional staffing in the training
division. At the time that ESCI came in and did that we did not have our budget
process going yet. Certainly I want to thank Council for their support and the
positions that we are getting in the FY-17 budget if all goes well and goes
through to meet that need. Station One is a redundant repeat -- consider staff if
that is the case. That is what's needed. And the last one, implement ARV,
alternative response vehicles. You had that presentation from me ten, 11, 12
months ago. Do I still believe in the concept of ARVs? Yes. But I know that
needs a lot more dialogue, a lot more conversation, a lot more research. So,
while we agree with the recommendation to look into it , we are certainly not here
saying that is what we have to do. I think it -- it requires some more dialogue. I
think there is some benefit to it, but certainly that's something we can have
dialogue in the future on. Training recommendations. Develop and adopt
comprehensive emergency driving training. It is typically known as EVOC in
public safety Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. We have not been doing
this. We do the driver training through the city, as far as the ICRMP
requirements. We do an engineer development program, which is a 12 week
program for up and coming engineers that will be driving our apparatus, but we
recognize that we do need to put on a more comprehensive emergency driver's
training on an annual basis. Something every department that I have talked to is
struggling with, but we do agree with that recommendation. Continue efforts to
provide a 14 week recruit academy. That is ongoing. We start recruit academy
September 6th with our -- our planning partners, so we are sharing in the cost of
that academy. So, we are very excited about that and we will certainly continue
that. The burn room on the training grounds at Station One -- when that tower
was built it has a very nice burn room in it . The challenge that we didn't know
back then is that those tiles go bad quickly and so in order fo r us to continue to
burn in there we need to make sure those tiles are replaced on a regular basis.
We have since implementing a plan and we actually had a plan two years ago
that we have been working on to get those tiles continually replaced so that we
can still burn in that burn room in a safe manner. And, then, continue
examination of budget efforts for a two-story burn house, confined space prop.
This is a very long-term goal. This is part of the build out of the scenario village
over at the training center. As that builds out that's something that we are going
to look at and potentially propose if it makes sense. So, then, the regional
strategies that you will find within the report -- you see the list there. I will tell you
the ESCI is very jaded, if I can say that in the right way, on separating out your
dispatch center to a specific fire and EMS only dispatch center. I don't know that
I agree with that recommendation. I have talked to Sheriff Bartlett about this. I
do believe we can improve the dispatch center, but I feel that working with the
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sheriff is a better route to go than separating out. I know Meridian has some
experience on creating its own dispatch center. We don't want to do that. So, I
have talked with Sheriff Bartlett quite a bit, as well as Chief Malott has talked to
Sheriff Bartlett. In September there is going to a group put together of elected
officials, fire chiefs, and the sheriff to talk about the issues that fire is facing. We
have some pretty -- pretty glaring examples of significantly delays -- significant
delays in getting notified. We requested to Nampa about three weeks ago -- I
was talking to Chief Malott in San Antonio. It took 21 minutes to get us notified
when they needed help. So, those are things that we know can happen and an
occur and the sheriff is aware of those. So, we don't necessarily agree with the
fire and EMS specific dispatch center. We agree with working with the sheriff on
that. Implement a regional records management system. One of the things
that's being pushed in the fire service is how do we share our data and share our
information to look at are we seeing trends in fires, are we seeing trends in EMS
calls, community risk. I can tell you this one is moving forward. RMS as it's
commonly known. Records management system is where we input all our run
reports. We have been using Firehouse for years. IT was about ready to throw it
out the window. I was throwing it out the window. Regionally we have gone to a
product called ESO. So, truly we are going to be under one records
management system that will allow that sharing of information and data and
collaboration. Implement peak activity units. Again, this is not a
recommendation that I feel is appropriate for Meridian. Certainly now. If we get
to the point where we are running 15,000 to 20,000 calls a year, that is probably
a discussion point. Peak activity units are very common in the private sector.
You will see them -- if you go into Oregon you will see the Department of
Transportation vehicles parked on the side of the road. That's because their data
shows every morning at 7:00 o'clock we have an accident right here. I can tell
you we see that a little bit in the valley. In Nampa at Franklin every morning
there is typically an accident or a fender bender. We see it at Meridian Road as
people are trying to merge. We can track that data. Peak activity units are
meant to say put the unit where the call is anticipated to occur. But, again, that's
really in a system where you're running 15,000 or more calls and you're trying to
add supplemental staff to meet the demand. So, as far as a recommendation
goes, they -- they put that in every plan, I can tell you that. I've seen it before.
And it's not something I feel is appropriate to look at now. And, then, explore
regional cooperation opportunities -- activity and as we mentioned the jointly
staffed truck companies is a big thing in the fire service now. As I went back to
San Antonio and met with fire chiefs across the country, there is a lot of this
occurring, because, quite honestly, truck companies are expensive to staff and
buy. And, then, joint purchasing. As far as functional consolidations go, looking
at logistics -- we were talking about that already -- apparatus maintenance,
mobile repairs, things that we can do together to help contain costs somewhat
and just create better effectiveness by working together. The last two are
certainly ones of much longer discussion and a lot more research and
information needed to even consider the last two. So, that's what regional
cooperation looks like. I would add Nampa into this mix. We still have
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cooperation with agencies outside of these five , but not to the level that we have
with these -- with these other four I should say. So, that's what -- that's a map
that it looks like when you talk about regional cooperation. So, we do want to
give one example of what ESCI wanted to highlight in that example of a regional
efficiency and effectiveness. Star Station Two, which is down on Highway 44,
that was built by a previous fire chief. It was never staffed. It's a big station and
it's -- it's a pretty nice station. But it was never staffed. It sat dormant. It sat
empty. So, there was a lot of cost in that for nothing. When the new chief came
in -- Chief Greg Timinisky, he looked at that and said what can we do here . I can
tell you a little bit of background on our -- our vehicle maintenance and repair.
When I first came in we were sending our engines all over the place and , quite
honestly, the service we were getting was terrible. I kept asking our providers for
reports, even to tell me what our tire depth, things as simple as that, and we
couldn't get that out of them. So, we made the decision about a year into my
tenure as a fire chief we contracted with Hughes Fire Department. Hughes is
who we order our fire engines from. They had a service technician at the time,
he is a certified emergency vehicle technician, so he knows how to work on fire
apparatus. They are pretty specific. The challenge we had there at the time is
that Hughes was mobile. So, it was actually done through a pickup and a trailer,
the gentleman, ironically, lives in Meridian. He always has. But he was traveling
to Montana, traveling to Idaho Falls, he was traveling all over the place. So, our
service was when he was here. With the -- with the vacancy at Star Station Two,
between the chief and their commissioners, they said why couldn't we put on a
maintenance division and take care of our fleet and take care of those around us
to give them better cost and so they did that. They, ironically, hired the guy from
Hughes that lives in Meridian and so he is now the mechanic for seven agencies
here in the valley down at Star Station Two. We are getting better service, better
cost, and so the result has been very positive and ESCI felt that was the highlight
of how you can look at things regionally and achieve something good and so it
was worth mentioning. Just about ready to lose my voice. Good timing. So, with
that, again, this was an information presentation. What I'd like to do is come
back to you within 30 days after you have had time to digest it, certainly reach
out to me and ask questions and, hopefully, adopt this plan. With the adoption I
want to be careful there. What I'm looking for is the adoption to say we want you,
chief, to pursue these things, knowing that it still has a fiscal impact that needs to
be presented to you. It still needs to be judged based on their recommendation
and knowing there is still dialogue that occurs even though you say we adopt the
plan, that is your green light to pursue those things. Maybe we find that we don't
want to pursue them, maybe we find that we do, but it would, then, hold us
accountable to provide you updates on what we are achieving. So, with that I
would stand for any questions. I would ask -- thank you for your -- your attention.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Council, any questions or comments?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If you want to -- if you want to be here until about 12:00 o'clock I can start.
I -- to be blunt, this reminds me of about a 2000 plan that was brought by North
Ada. If you look back and go through the things, I think you will find that there is
a reason that the four big players are not involved. Boise, Nampa, Kuna and
Eagle. I think you will also look -- if you look through the ones that are involved,
with the exception of Meridian, they have had their problems or are having their
problems. To me it looks like a way that our citizens get to finance stuff. I do
have a bunch here. To -- to be fair to everybody -- and Mark and I have
discussed most of this and agree to disagree. I will get this typed out in a -- in a
form and get it to you and all the Council people to look it over and stuff. I mean I
have got pages of it that -- questions that I had and -- and questions that -- and I
will get it to you, Mark. So, I just -- if -- you know, if we are looking -- if we are
looking at saving money by buying equipment together and stuff, we can do like
the police do. We can have a state bid. We don't have to be a member of a
management team. We have mutual aid agreements with everybody and I -- I
have always encouraged that while we have had -- while we have been doing
most of the aiding, that's great. We have -- and you can't -- you know, when you
start comparing us to Nampa and Caldwell with the staff and everything, you got
to realize Nampa and Caldwell have had fire departments since the early 1900s
and their buildings and stuff are old. Twenty years from now -- you know, we
were 9,000 people when we hired our second full -time fireman and he wasn't
even a firefighter. It was a chief. So, we don't have and -- and you and I have
discussed this more that we don't have the fires that the older -- have, because
our buildings are -- you know, most of our commercial are sprinkled, which is a
great thing. So, I think the matrix that I sent -- and I've done -- I have had this
with the same thing with the police all the years I have been on here. The matrix
item is am I satisfying the taxpayers of Meridian, Idaho. I could care less
whether New York City or whoever -- whatever, I could care less about them.
Are we taking care of our citizens for the dollar they are getting and you know
what I think? I think we are. I will get this out to you, Mayor -- to everybody.
Because I don't want to stay here.
De Weerd: Me either. Any other comments? Chief, I would like to thank you for
that -- that summary. I think it was really good and I believe that Councilman
Bird did bring something up and -- and it was acknowledged in this report.
Meridian does have the fortune of having newer construc tion and much of our
community is built to newer fire codes and that's reflected in our numbers. Fires
per thousand, we were at 1.9 versus Caldwell of 5.5 or the regional average at
2.4. Our fire loss is impressive and I think that's a testament to our -- our staff
and the training and the preparedness that our fire loss per capita is ten dollars
versus the regional average of 34 and, you know, compared to Caldwell at 38 or
Star at 73, I believe our citizens can take comfort in if they do have a fire
hopefully we don't have the scenario on the right , we are more on the left and the
incidence per thousand were around 56 and the original average is 83.4 versus
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August 23, 2016
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Caldwell at 86.8. But at some point we are going to -- as we continue to age our
inventory those things are going to start to -- to balance out perhaps and we
need to be prepared. I like your summary and I would love to have that summary
as part of this document. They did an executive summary and it was -- it was to
the whole plan. They do divide it up into different sections that you have brought
into PowerPoint, but I do think that you need to look at this as the chief and say
what are those things you're agreeing with. If you want this Council to adopt this,
I think it's important to -- to say you don't agree with all of it and what you do
agree with at least then having the conversations and those kind of things and it
might even address what some of Mr. Bird's concerns might be. You might have
the same concerns. So, I appreciated the overview. That was very thorough. I
found it extremely more important and more helpful than the summary I went to
by our consultants.
Niemeyer: Agreed.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mark, I got a couple requests. Could I get your fire department policies?
Niemeyer: You can.
Bird: A copy of it? And I will get it distributed in my deal. And I have asked for
this since 1998 and I never have been able to get it. I would like to know how
many calls are responded to from our stations. Because that station alert thing
don't work if they are not in the station.
Niemeyer: Councilman Bird, I appreciate the question. We have had the
conversation --
Bird: And I know -- I know your -- your hands are tied on some of that.
Niemeyer: Yeah. The data points to obtain that --
Bird: If you can pull out the magic rabbit and get that, I would appreciate it.
Niemeyer: I will do my best.
De Weerd: Any other questions or comments at this point? I know that the chief
did mention that he would be coming back and I would like to get your feedback
on what you have.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
August 23, 2016
Page 48 of 72
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Briefly. Chief, I -- thank you as well for the summary and for the work on
this and the efforts at collaboration. And you have talked about this area that is
of particular interest to me is the establishment of some objective measures for
those response times.
Niemeyer: Yes.
Borton: And I would be interested at perhaps the next Council meeting to hear
the Council's respective ideas on that, with the proposal and the tiered concept
for response times. That's really helpful I think for this long-term planning as to
station locations, how and if an ARV concept could ever be rolled out. We need
to have some ability to consistently measure and plan for those and I think a
response time matrix like that allows us to do it. Whether at those numbers or
not, I would love to hear that discussion.
Niemeyer: And, Councilman Borton, thank you for your comments. To your
point, establishing response time standards is a local jurisdiction issue.
Bird: That's right.
Niemeyer: It really is. And so what was presented to you, if you have other
ideas or thoughts or what you would like to see, certainly I hope you will reach
out to me, we can have those conversations and, then, bring that back to another
conversation at Council.
Bird: Okay.
De Weerd: I do know that our police department had a number of comments
and, Lieutenant Overton, I guess I would ask you for what those were.
Overton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, I'm not aware of comments that they
have had to this plan, but I do want to thank the fire chief for talking so nicely
about our assistance to the fire department as we try to make their situation safe
upon their arrival and we would like to keep the guns and you keep the houses .
Niemeyer: Thank you.
De Weerd: Apparently Lieutenant Overton didn't want to do it on the record, but
perhaps you can have a side conversation . I do know this might be one of the
few last remaining City Council meetings that you attend and definitely wanted
you to have an opportunity for a last word.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, if I might, you opened the door. I will tell you I did
have Lieutenant Overton prior to Council starting look at me and say I have
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always wanted to be a firefighter. The comment was made. Jaycee Holman was
a witness, so -- just saying.
De Weerd: Oh, God. Okay. Anything further from Council?
Bird: No.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
Bird: Thanks, Mark.
B. Legal Department Report: Alcohol Beverage Catering
Permit Ordinance
De Weerd: Thank you. I need to find my agenda. Sorry. I wil l turn this over to
Mr. Nary for his legal report. Department Report.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor. That's a fairly tough act to follow. I will try to
keep it to less than an hour from the chief's presentation. There as a law change
in July. The state legislature changed the liquor catering permit law. We have
previously followed the state law, which, basically, sets a limit on the amount and
basically requires that it be processed through the licensing agent and that it be
approved by the police. And these are for everything from weddings that are
serving liquor with a licensed liquor distributor or as well as special events like
Rock The Village and other types of activities like that or events in the park. So,
they all have to have liquor catering permits. So, the change was three fold.
First, they allow it now. It used to be a three day limit. Boise proposed a five day
limit, because they have extended concerts or extended events that go beyond
three days and the problem had been that they usually have to have two different
vendors, who had two different methods of operation and sometimes they could
be problematic. So, they now allow up to five days. We don't have any events
like that at the present, but that may happen in the future. Second, they require
now that we put -- every liquor catering permit that we approve has to be
uploaded to the Idaho State Police website , so that the Idaho State Police is
aware, since they are the main control and enforcement of the Idaho liquor laws,
that they are aware of where these activities are occurring. Third, they added the
fire marshal into the process, so that the fire marshal has to approve the location
and the layout and how it's going to be done. So, what we are proposing is that
we created an ordinance so the people understand there is -- there is an actual
process they need to follow, so that we have -- we can make sure it gets properly
filed with the state police, it's properly reviewed by fire and police before it's
issued and the only real change that we are proposing, besides just having an
ordinance in place, which we don't currently, is that we have a deadline for
submission and in discussing it internally, we came up with three days as three
days -- three business days prior to the event, so we have enough time to
process, make sure we get the appropriate approvals. We looked at other cities
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August 23, 2016
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in the area. City of Boise. Some have no -- no regulations at all. City of Boise
has a five day requirement. City of Blackfoot, Coeur d'Alene, and McCall have a
three day requirement, city of Star has a ten day requirement and the cities of
Emmett, Hailey and Horseshoe Bend have a 14 day requirement. Again, as we
discussed it, three days -- three business days prior to the event gives us at least
a little bit of time to do that, because we have had people literally coming at 3:00
o'clock on a Friday afternoon to get a liquor catering permit and we are running
around trying to get someone to sign off on it. It's -- it was more potential for
error when that happened and so that's why we are suggesting a three day limit
and, again, the process is all -- the rest of what the state statute requires, so that
Chief Palmer can review it for the fire marshal side , Lieutenant Colaianni reviews
these for the police and that, basically, the clerk is the funnel point for all of that
and, then, issues the actual permit to the -- to the event. Do you have any
questions about that or concerns? A time limit issue?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Real quick. Do you run this -- have you run this past area caterers and
restaurants, some of the folks that might be utilizing this?
Nary: We haven't. We were introducing it to you first, so had planned on
bringing it back whenever you would like and if that's the direction you would like
we can take it to people like -- we don't have a lot of event centers. The Village
is probably our largest. I don't know -- I will check with Lieutenant Colaianni and
the clerk's office if -- if we get much for some of those hotels, then, we can run it
by them and see if they have any issues or concerns before we bring it back .
Like I said, the three days -- you know, it's one of those things -- if people are
really organized three days is more than enough time to get it done, but they are
not always really organized and so that's part of the problem . We don't get -- we
have seen an uptick in the numbers. In looking through they did 85 of these in
2012, 144 last year, 157 this year so far. And, again, many of them are very
simple. They are weddings and things like that, but they have to have liquor and
it's not at somebody's house, so they have to have a liquor catering permit, so
they can be very simple to do, but, again, if they are not very astute in doing
these types of things that's usually where the problem occurs.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, in a -- in a previous employment capacity I did a
significant amount of these throughout the city of Boise and I think the five day
was always sometimes a challenge in that you would decide the weekend before
you would like to serve alcohol the following weekend and five days was
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August 23, 2016
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somewhat difficult to swing. To Mr. Nary's point, I think any organization that's
organized, a three day notice seems to be sufficient. I think it would meet the
needs of organizations that plan these types of events, as well as our regular
citizens that want to serve these types of products at their own personal house. I
think three days is --
Nary: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other comments?
Nary: All right. We will contact some of our venues first and, then, report back
with that and an ordnance for you. Thank you.
C. Community Development: Community Development
Block Grant (CDBG) PY15 Substantial Amendment:
Public Service
De Weerd: Thank you. Item 9-C is under our CDBG and -- oh, there is Sean. I
saw you out in the audience.
Kelly: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Hopefully this won't
be too long. So, what we are looking at is a substantial amendment to the action
plan for this -- this current year and since we have two new Council Members
that haven't been through a special amendment process I just kind of wanted to
go over what that meant and procedurally what that is and what we are tied to
just a little bit before we talk about the actual special amendment. So, a
substantial amendment action plan -- again it's procedural side work and our
consolidated plan -- our five year consolidated plan and what it dictates is when
we change a project so much -- and in this case it's a 25 percent increase or
decrease -- in this case it's a decrease and a little bit of an increase to another --
or a complete change in priority, we are forced to do a substantial amendment. It
triggers our citizen participation plan from our consolidated plan, which means a
31 day public comment period, so in another 30 days or so I will come back
before Council and ask for -- I will recommend something tonight and ask Council
to approve that with a public hearing. Another note there, too, we like to think
that when we program things into an action plan that there is a pretty good idea
that they are going to expend, that project is going to move forward. The reality
is -- and we know what the reality that's not always the case. Even with that
expectation some projects look very well, very well organized, ready to go
forward and something can happen. In this particular case it's kind of unfortunate
the small dollar amount, because on a larger project 25 percent wouldn't even
trigger, but because we are talking about public service dollars, we have a 15
percent public service dollar cap in any given year and so since this is two public
service -- or one public service that's not able to move forward in the way that
they wanted to -- it's a smaller dollar amount, but the idea here is to reallocate
that to another public service and the same year that public service has already
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August 23, 2016
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approved, so that we are still meeting that need for -- underneath that 15 percent
cap. So, in this case CATCH is Charitable Assistance to The Community's
Homeless. We have tried to work with them for the last two years. Speaking
with their executive director again this year, because of some things that are --
they are barriers to them being able to carry out their plan, which is rapid
rehousing of homelessness or homeless, it's just very difficult for them to execute
the way that they do in Nampa and Boise here in Meridian and a lot of that is just
because of services, it becomes very easy to validate someone's immediate
homelessness when you have a shelter to pull them out of it and so we have
tried to lessen some restrictions over the last year. CATCH thought that they
could do it again this year and really use those dollars wisely. Case
management for these individuals, unfortunately, they are just not able to do that
at this time, not in Meridian and I'm willing to take questions on those, too. So,
what we do have is Meridian Food Bank is ready and willing to absorb that cost.
As of right now this is -- we don't have end of the year numbers yet -- 44,000
individuals have been served by the Meridian Food Bank and our allocation to
them right now is about 31,200. So, this would be taking money from CATCH,
who knows that this is happening, giving it to Meridian Food Bank, who is ready
and willing to spend that -- to spend those funds to continue to serve within that
15 percent. So, staff's recommendation is just what I just described, which is to
take those 10,000 dollars within -- within public service funds, move them from
CATCH. This would leave CATCH with some funds, because they have actually
still been working in Meridian, it's not -- not to the extent that they really hoped
that they could in this last year, but that 10,000 dollars --
De Weerd: Sean, excuse me. Do you -- I think Dean gets a lot of feedback from
the conversations on the side. If we could limit those. Sorry. Sorry, Sean.
Kelly: That's okay, Madam Mayor. Totally fine. That's my recommendation to
move the 10,000 dollars from CATCH to the Meridian Food Bank. It's within the
15 percent public service cap. Both organizations are well aware of what would
happen if this were the case -- both acknowledge that this is something that they
would like to be able to do. What would follow from this -- I would come back to
Council on the 27th, we would ask for a public hearing and we -- I would ask
Council for that particular -- the reason why this is important to get done before
the end of the year, September 30th, other -- other projects that are capital
projects or public projects, we can use those monies very easily in every -- in
other years. We can do -- use 2013 money in a 2016 project if it's still there.
Public service dollars and admin dollars, those get very messy wh en you try to
start bleeding the years, so if we can capture it in one year, that's probably --
that's the best. That would be my recommendation. Madam Mayor, I would
stand for any questions that Council may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Sean. Any questions from Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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August 23, 2016
Page 53 of 72
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Sean, explain to me on the CATCH thing the -- the roadblocks that HUD
has put up there. It's -- we don't have a homeless shelter to pick out of, is that
what I understand or -- what about -- I mean Nampa and Boise has got homeless
shelters and I'm sure some of the people are Meridian people.
Kelly: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, that's absolutely true. It's not that we
don't have one. It's the HUD's definition of homelessness for the immediate --
the ability to immediately identify someone as needing rapid rehousing is the
absolute most -- most absolute definition of homelessness which you can apply
from HUD, which is someone who does not have -- if they are not living in a
habitat suitable for human habitation and so anything else , which is not exactly
that, they don't meet that definition. Yes, you're absolutely right, we can look at
Boise Rescue Mission or some of the other shelters or look at Nampa shelters,
but, then, you're also looking for third-party to validate that they came out of
Meridian and we started this two years ago with CATCH that was something the
city put -- it was a restriction that we put on them internally, self-inflicted if you
will, that they would be -- that they would verify that they came out of Meridian in
the best way they could, which was very difficult. We tried to loosen that
restriction just to say, listen, if we can possibly get that -- that's not a HUD
restriction, that was our restriction and we removed that and it's still very difficult
for rehouses in Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Ms. Milam.
Milam: Turn my mike on. Okay. I will ask you the question I was trying -- I was
asking Luke. Probably better directed towards you. So, you mentioned that
there were 44,000 individuals fed from the food bank last year or this year. So, I
was thinking, wow, that's almost half of Meridian's population. So, if half of
Meridian's population is getting food from the food bank, are they feeding people
from other communities?
Kelly: Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, what that is is it's monthly counts
tabulated. So, as of July 44,000 people have come through to receive benefit.
We are looking at some of the same people of 2,000, 3,000 people that are
getting the benefit -- and I apologize if that was confusing, but we tabulate that
number, because that's how it's based off of what they are giving out on food
and so it would be no different then, 44,000 people getting that particular benefit.
So, they do have some revolving members come through.
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August 23, 2016
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Milam: Thank you.
Kelly: No, half of Meridian is not going to the food bank.
De Weerd: Appreciate that clarification. Okay. Anything further? Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Procedurally, if the recommendation is set a hearing on the 27th for the
public to comment on this proposed amendment -- is that correct?
Kelly: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, yes, that's -- the procedure is
there. It's in our com plan, so I have already set this up in motion for you. So, I
just come here to let you know what that recommendation is and, then, we will
hold that public hearing.
Borton: Okay.
Kelly: So, I don't think there is any additional action for Council tonight.
Borton: Okay.
Kelly: The decision would come from the recommendation on 27th.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Sean.
Kelly: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
D. Community Development: Transportation Programs and
Projects Update - Discuss Ada County Highway
District's Draft FY2017-2021 Integrated Five Year Work
Plan (IFYWP), the Idaho Transportation Investment
Program (ITIP), and COMPASS' Change in Motion Report
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-D. All things transportation.
Hood: Well, kind of, sort of. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, a couple of
things have come up since we did the all things transportation meeting not too
long ago, so I just wanted to get them in front of you. I did prepare a memo to
that effect that hopefully you have seen or it's in your packet anyways, dated
August 18th. There are really three or four things that I just want to highlight for
you. One is an update on ACHD's 2017 to 2021 integrated five year work plan. I
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August 23, 2016
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just gave to the clerk a spreadsheet that I mentioned in the -- the memo. What
that is is a summary, basically, of all the intersections and roadways in the county
that are in the hopper, if you will, for potential widening improvement in Ada
County. On the left-hand side is the -- the number and I have highlighted the
ones that kind of looks grayed out a little bit in yours, but I have highlighted the
ones that are in -- that are within Meridian or our area of impact. So, if you will
see there are quite a few that are in Meridian. Again, I didn't count them, but
probably half, roughly, maybe a little bit less -- 40 percent anyways are in
Meridian or are our area of impact. And, again, this is county wide. This is from
ACHD. And what this spreadsheet does is it's the way that ACHD begins to look
at projects for programming. So, it's not the end-all-be-all. Number one doesn't
necessarily mean it's going to be in the integrated five year work plan, but it
means on the far right-hand column it scores the best. It has the highest cost-
benefit ratio. We have been through this before. I'm not going to go through all
the -- the inputs that get to the adjusted cost benefit. You can see them there.
But just to show you kind of where some projects that are in Meridian stand,
because I'm not planning on going through all of these projects , but I wanted you
to have access to it and you can see in the one, two, three, four -- the fifth
column is the -- the status, basically, of where it's at. So, that's the construction
year. You can see if it's -- if it's got a year, obviously, that's self-explanatory. PD
is preliminary development. That means it's just getting ready to go into the
program with a year, but it's not quite there yet and, then, UF is even a little bit
further out than that, so it would be UF, then, PD and, then, get a year and, then,
even further out than that, future FTR. Future. So, again, future is kind of out
there somewhere, it's on the radar, but it's not really -- it's probably in the CIP,
but it hasn't made its way into this five year programming document. So, I did
want to just highlight for you some of the projects -- the major changes is what
we typically call this, because, again, I'm not going to run through all of the
roadway and bridges and intersections and maintenance projects, but some of
the more key projects and what changes have occurred year over -- or at least
potential to occur year over. So, this is the draft 2017 to 2021. So, if there is any
comments we want to make to ACHD to their commission, we have until
September 9th to do so. So, the changes -- the major changes. New projects.
Linder Road from Cayuse Creek Drive to Chinden Boulevard. So, this is by the
high school, basically, and Paramount north to finish that section off. So, it's
improved to that light at Cayuse Creek. This would improve it all the way to
Chinden Boulevard to make that -- that stretch complete. The next one -- that
one is a new project with a 2021 construction year. Linder Road, Ustick to
McMillan, that's entering the program and preliminary development. Lake Hazel
and Eagle intersection is entering the program as an unfunded project . Linder
Road and the Union Pacific Railroad Crossing is entering the program in 2020
and I will put a pin in that, because I will talk about another project here in just a
minute. Black Cat Road and the Union Pacific Railroad Crossing upgrade. This
is entering the program in 2018. So, two upgrade railroad crossings, 2018 and
2020, done in conjunction with the state and UP, obviously. And, then, Locust
Grove Road, Puffin Street to Overland Road, pedestrian improvement is entering
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August 23, 2016
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the program in preliminary development. So, there are six new products, if you
weren't tracking along. There is six new projects that enter the program this
year. There are three projects that are advancing. So, they already were in the
program and they are -- they are either getting a year or advancing in the
program with the new year. So, Eagle Road, Amity to Victory, is going from
preliminary development to 2021. Eagle Road and Amity Road, the dual lane
roundabout, so that one is currently a single lane round about. Upgrading that to
a dual lane roundabout from preliminary development to 2021 and State Highway
69 or Meridian Road, Lake Hazel Road intersection, advances from unfunded to
2021. And some of these mirror or overlap with what ITD is planning to do.
Obviously, there is a joint partnership between the highway district and ITD to do
like an intersection improvement and the railroad crossings. So, now some of
the bad news. Delayed projects. By the way, there were three advanced
projects. The delayed projects. Linder Road, Franklin Road to Pine Avenue.
So, this one is being delayed from 20 19 to 2020. So, it slips one year. But if you
remember, I mentioned the railroad crossings, that's to coordinate that
construction so you don't do the road one year and, then, the railroad crossing
the next year and, then, you're in a construction zone for almost two years. Wish
it could have been the other way and they could have advanced the railroad to
meet up with the roadway project, but they are delaying it because --
De Weerd: Yeah. This project has been delayed over and over and over.
Hood: That's right. Madam Mayor, this was actually part of the Pine intersection
widening at Linder -- time flies. I don't remember. Three, four years ago when
that intersection was reconstructed and they pulled it out, because they couldn't
coordinate with UP's contractor to get it done at that time. So, yeah, it has been
delayed and rescoped and falls back, so -- the other ones being delayed is the
Ten Mile-Amity Road intersection. Some of the notes on why that one is being
delayed. Some of the roadway widening to get their needs to occur first. It didn't
make sense to blow up the intersection with only a two lane roadway for two
miles down to get there. So, doing some of that -- the roadway widening first.
And, then, finally Eagle Road adaptive traffic signal improvements is being
delayed from 2017 to 2018, largely because of ITD -- I don't remember exactly
why ITD was pushing that back, but I did hear that from -- from the state. And,
then, there is one removed project and, again, this kind of goes to that Ten Mile
corridor. So, Ten Mile, Victory Road to Overland Road, was in the program and
they are proposing to remove that at this time. The warrants just aren't there.
So, it's still on the spreadsheet to continue to track and see what happens with
level of service and crashes and those types of things, but it is coming out of the
program for now. So, that is, again, a very quick, down and dirty summary of
major projects. You have all of them again here in the spreadsheet. We
historically -- you know, again, we sent our priorities to ACHD back in the spring
-- in March and so they have done all the updates to the program and spits back
out this -- this draft program and my question, I guess, is do we want -- do we
have any comments on this. Realizing you haven't read the whole document,
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August 23, 2016
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it's several hundred pages long, I don't know -- I haven't read it, just to confess,
but -- Justin probably hasn't either, but --
De Weerd: I bet he has.
Hood: -- realizing you haven't looked at the whole thing, are there any comments
just from what I have shared with you or do you want a little more time to think
about this, do your own research -- it's available. I have put a link in the memo
that I prepared to look at the document . You can look at just roadways, just
intersections, the entire document. Bridges. You know, whatever you -- they do
a nice job of what kind of segregating it, too. But you can look at the entire
document. My opinion, I think we thank ACHD. I don't see anything that looks
out of place here in my opinion. It's generally more good news than bad and I
really don't see any bad news. You know, Ten Mile corridor is a high priority
corridor, but kind of down where they are talking about taking this project out. It's
Kuna and really City of Meridian isn't down there and so as far as our
constituency and just overall ACHD is looking out for the entire county, not
Meridian or Kuna, but, again, just with my City of Meridian employee hat on I
don't see that being a big issue at this time. I don't get any phone calls from
anyone down there -- Ten Mile between Victory and Overland really complaining
about that. Again, most of the traffic is --
De Weerd: Well, you might have that opportunity next week during our town hall
in south Meridian when we provide comment on the road improvements and I did
come across the -- the document as I was looking up Mr. March over there or
whatever calendar month you were, Mr. Borton, but found the North Meridian
plan and how we worked with developments that were occurring in that area to
progress intersection improvements ahead of the road widening to get traffic
moving. ACHD has been diligent at looking at those intersections and seeing
how we could move traffic through them , but I do know that that will be a
conversation and, hopefully, we have extended an invitation to ACHD to be on
hand to hear the -- the comments from the south side residents. So, anyway --
Hood: Madam Mayor, maybe just a little bit on that. So, I have not -- Justin,
obviously, is here and we could invite him now. I have been talking with your
staff about that town hall and coordinating with them, but I -- I don't know that
they have formally been invited or anything like that. We are asking just kind of a
sneak peek at that town hall and I actually meet with your chief of staff on
Thursday morning I think to discuss this a little bit more -- talk about some of the
questions and we are going to be putting some roadways out there and say, hey,
where -- where should we ask ACHD to invest some of their money in south
Meridian. So, you're right, it is a good opportunity to get some of that feedback at
the town hall.
De Weerd: And we heard it during the listening tours -- and, Justin, for the
record, it is a week from tomorrow on the 31st at Hillsdale Elementary School at
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-- beginning at 6:30 and it really will focus on developments and some kind of
activities are on the south side of 84.
Hood: That's one item tonight. So, again, I will propose again a letter --
De Weerd: Hold up for a second. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. As the southernmost councilman in Meridian --
De Weerd: Southernmost? You don't have a drawl. Sorry.
Palmer: More southern than y'all. I -- to your point that you made at that -- that
Ten Mile falling back, it's definitely accurate. I work in Eagle and I take State to
Linder to Chinden to Ten Mile and take Ten Mile all the way to Amity, even
though I live at Locust Grove and Amity, to avoid Locust Grove and Eagle and all
that and I never -- traffic isn't a problem at 5:00 o'clock, 5:15 on Ten Mile,
so --
De Weerd: Oh, is that in the morning or in the evening?
Palmer: The evening. I took it today. I left the office at 5:07. So, right there
during what should be the mess, Ten Mile was really easy. So, I think your --
your points are definitely there and I love seeing Locust Grove so many times on
here now.
De Weerd: Well, just avoid Ten Mile starting tomorrow through -- through
Sunday. It's going to be closed. Just FYI.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Caleb, is there any way we can get number five moved up?
Hood: Madam Mayor --
Milam: The traffic today was -- talking about no traffic -- backed up from Ustick to
Pine.
Hood: Okay. You guys are touching on two of the other things I was going to
make you aware of . One was the Ten Mile closure and the other one is an
update on Ustick-Meridian intersection and the Locust Grove to Linder. So,
widening of that intersection and, then, the two miles going -- roughly a mile
either direction to tie in with the existing intersection. So, tomorrow ACHD on
their agenda is set to approve a contract with Knife River to begin that seven
million dollar project to include the intersection with work anticipated to start in
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September. So, that's about as quickly as it's going to go, if not -- you know.
Yeah, that's going to -- it's happening. So, I mean I don't want to jinx anything.
They need to officially approve the bid from Knife River, but it looks like they are
going to -- so, yes, that --
Milam: I thought it was happening, but then it --
Hood: It will come off this list -- until it's constructed it stays on the list. So, once
it's constructed and, then, it will be pulled off this list. Again, five is -- is moving
forward.
Milam: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hood: And, then, just, again, because it's already been brought up, do some
work at the water treatment facility and some manholes in Ten Mile, it's going to
be closed for the next couple of days from Pine -- between Pine and Franklin on
Ten Mile. And while I'm at it -- kind of going out of order a little bit, Eagle Road
also is going to be closed for night work -- not closed. They will at least leave
one lane open on Eagle Road between Franklin and Fairview beginning tonight,
so don't be on the road -- don't go to work too early -- between 10:00 p.m. and
5:00 a.m. they are going to be adding the additional northbound lane on Eagle
Road between Franklin and Fairview. So, construction zone there overnight. I
don't know how long that project is expected to last, but -- but it will be a night
project. So, that should help anyways with the a.m. and p.m, peak stuff, so -- but
got that out of the way. Back to the -- back to the integrated five year work plan.
Are there any other questions? Did we want to make any comments to ACHD on
the draft? And, again, if you need more time to look at it, there is a link, we can
do that. I have reviewed it. I think -- again, I already told you what I think, so --
De Weerd: Thank you. I think you provided a great overview and I think we
need to send out a letter to ACHD thanking them for looking seriously at some of
these projects and where they can -- adding the new projects, that's usually
unheard of and greatly appreciated. Certainly advancing a couple of these are --
are critical, so just state our thanks and our appreciation that they continue to
work closely with our staff and certainly the electeds. That is appreciated.
Hood: Okay. I will put that letter together.
De Weerd: Any other comments from Council?
Hood: I will prepare that for your signature. Okay. Thank you. So, just a couple
more things then. And I'm on page two now of the memo. It's programming time
of year. So, the Idaho Transportation Department's five year plan is also open
and available online for review. Not quite as many projects in Meridian on the
state facilities, but I listed them there and the one I want to just kind of highlight
for everybody is US 20-26, Chinden Boulevard, between Locust Grove and
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Eagle. I realize that entire corridor is not in Meridian, part of it's in Boise and
Eagle, but that is the first step of widening the corridor to Linder and, then, on to
State Highway 16 and points beyond. So, that is in there. The reason I bring this
up, again, is just the online commenting system for ITD was down. That's
unfortunate, because I know we did a big push to get people to comment on that
and we are doing it again, but the public comment period is open until August
26th now. It closed on July 30th, but their system was down, so if you
commented using their interactive map , they didn't get it. So, they are leaving
the public comment period open again.
Borton: Until Friday?
Hood: The 26th. Yeah. So, again, I have listed in the memo the other projects
that are in Meridian. I'm not going to read to you. Hopefully you can see those,
but --
De Weerd: If you use social media, if you would encourage Meridian residents to
reach out and provide comment. Certainly we -- to avoid if there would be
another glitch, so we have Adam Rush, his e-mail address that you can feel more
comfortable sending an e-mail rather than going on an online that -- that was kind
of a hassle to begin with, so we do have an e-mail address if you would prefer
that and -- we do have points that were pulled together from Caleb and Robert,
along with the 20-26 work group, so we can get that out to you all.
Hood: And, then, again, just -- as this all kind of goes in together and all the
transportation agencies tend to do this type of thing the same time of year , so the
regional transportation improvement program, which is through COMPASS, but it
mirrors the state's program for the projects that are in our area. That public
comment period is also open and it's open through September 19th. A couple of
projects I want to call out in there is the Five Mile Creek pathway that parks
applied for as a TAP grant this last year. It's in the program and preliminary
development at 388,000 dollars. There is a match required with that. But a large
chunk of that is federal -- so, that Five Mile Creek pathway is taking us up by the
wastewater treatment facility and, then, two other things I want to just -- just
highlight again and this project shows up in ACHD's integrated five year work
plan and the state's ITIP and, then, also in the TIP for the region. But State
Highway 69 and Lake Hazel, that's one where I do on a fairly regular basis --
there have been some crashes out there and so it's -- even though it's only half I
think of that intersection technically in Meridian, I wanted to bring that to your
attention. Also Hubbard, which is again south, but Lake Hazel and Hubbard both
are shown in the TIP. And, then, the 20-26, Locust Grove to Eagle. One more
thing I just wanted to mention is the Center Cal project. So, they are also going
to be adding an additional southbound lane on Eagle Road and that's being
pushed back to next year. It was supposed to be done this year and they are
pushing it back to fiscal year 2017. So, those are kind of the major changes that
are just some products I wanted to highlight for you there. And with that --
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De Weerd: Caleb, as you talked about Center Cal, when -- when is the plan for
Records?
Hood: Madam Mayor, I have not heard an update on that, but I think I know that
-- and I think you know as well, that both the plan -- the construction drawings
have been reviewed and approved by both the highway district in th e City of
Meridian. I think it's just a matter of time and the time being this year -- I mean I
just don't know exactly when to give you a date to say this is when they are going
to be out there moving dirt, but I've heard this year, so --
De Weerd: Justin, do you know? Thank you for being here.
Lucas: Always glad to be here, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. For the
record, Justin Lucas representing Ada County Highway District, 3775 Adams
Street, Garden City, Idaho. As Caleb said, we have reviewed and approved all
those plans. The way I understand the Stars agreement, it did not strictly tie
them to an exact time frame on that improvement. So, really it is in the
developer's court. ACHD is pursuing a project extending Records north of that
section and so we are hoping that we can coordinate those projects very closely
and have Records from Wainwright all the way down to Fairview once that
project is complete and timeline wise, to my knowledge there is nothing holding
them up on the administrative side. This is purely in the -- in the developer's
court right now. So, not really an answer, but the best I have tonight.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, I just had one other thing just to highlight in the -- in
the memo. At the last COMPASS board meeting Charlie Rountree asked me to
just bring this information to the Council so you're aware of it. The board just
approved the -- what they call a change in motion report, which, basically, is a
report card on how they are doing on the elements in the long range
transportation. How are we doing as a region meeting these -- there is 37
different target areas and so what I put in your packet are just some snapshots
on what the change in motion report is. I just copied and pasted from their
website and, then, I looked at it afterwards and if you go to the last page they had
some glitches as they were updating that . The -- the numbers that you see on
that last sheet are inaccurate and I let Carl Miller know and he's since updated it
online, but what you see in the packet is wrong. So, it says zero percent of our
population can walk to a grocery store in 15 minutes or less. This is another
community in the region. It's not ours. So, some of those things -- yeah. Yeah.
So, that's wrong. What you see on the website now is accurate. So, I apologize
for that. But, again, just want to make you aware of that and if you want to see
the entire document with those performance monitoring for all the communities,
again, there is a link in your packet and with that, Madam Mayor, that ends my
presentation.
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De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions for Caleb? I just want to thank you
again for your work with ACHD and -- and staying on top of things as usual. So,
thank you.
E. City Council: Discussion on Performance Auditor
Position
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-E is a City Council discussion and I will turn this over
to Joe Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will get the -- the conversation started on this. The performance auditor
position -- it came up I guess again more recently when we were addressing
budget considerations and -- and trying to knock off center what had been
discussed for, quite frankly, a year now -- is the idea of an auditor-type position
and what those job performance measurement s, job duty specifics would be and
trying to craft and create a job description has culminated in what I believe the
Mayor circulated to everybody last week, if not the week before, of the most
recent draft of what is now entitled what a strategic performance analyst position
might be, how -- what functions and essential duties it would perform. It was sent
to all of us with an idea that we can provide each other or the Mayor some
comments and feedback and one of the areas that had -- and one of the issues
that started this whole process was trying to facilitate the Mayor and Council's
need to have assistance for those audit-type services -- a fresh perspective on a
case-by-case basis, either within a department or within a particular program. At
least that's where I understood the -- the position was to have started. What I
see before me has evolved somewhat to try and capture some of the other areas
that -- that the city is trying to address with kind of a focus on data-driven
decision-making and trying to have this position provide some of those benefits
to the Council. One of the bullet points on this also makes reference to -- and it's
the last one on the draft -- that this position would respond to and coordinate
requests for program audits and budget performance, requests made by the
Mayor and/or the Council. Part of our discussion and I guess -- I don't know if
that's for now -- to provide additional feedback to the Mayor and each other is
some -- some comfort -- does that capture with enough specificity the -- the need
of the Council to be able to direct this individual to perform those audit-type of
services. If you wanted to know in department X about program Y and get some
-- some data on how it's performed, on the expenses associated with it, just
coming up with a type of an example, this position could be tasked by the Council
to do that. At least that was some of the intent that this position all started with in
the first place. So, my sense is that the discussion is whether or not any or all of
us are comfortable with this description. If so, great. And, if not, let's talk about
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specific language that might better capture what the original intent of this wa s
with regards to those audit-type services. So, that's -- all of that past work --
Councilman Bird kind of led the charge and delegated some to Councilman
Cavener and I and we really didn't do --
Bird: You did good.
Borton: But this is where we are at. So, this is the latest job description. Speak
now and share your thoughts. We want to make sure this -- if this is going to go
forward that it's something that we are all supportive of and it captures what we
all originally intended.
De Weerd: Any discussion?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I guess coming in with this a little bit late in the game, I'm still not
real clear on some things, so -- where it says in multiple places regarding
direction by City Council -- and maybe Councilman Borton can answer this
better. Does that mean like we make a motion each time we direct -- because I
certainly can't see all of us potentially directing this and I'm going to go with
position, not person.
De Weerd: I believe when Mr. Nary talked about the ability of Council to direct is
as a body and not as individuals. So, it would need to be from the direction of
City Council as a whole.
Little Roberts: Okay.
De Weerd: As a majority. Mr. Nary, did I answer that correctly?
Nary: That is correct.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, follow-up? So, Mr. Nary, does that mean it does
come each time we -- the Council would potentially direct that person it would
have to come in the form of a motion?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Little Roberts,
one of the -- one of the questions that's always been about this position is how
would it function on a day-to-day basis. So, the Idaho Code makes it very clear
that the personnel responsibilities of the city belong either to the Mayor or city
manager if you're a city manager form of government. So, the only way the
Council has any authority over directing personnel is if they are appointed,
because all of the appointed officials of the city work for the Mayor on a daily
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basis, but also work for the Council, because your appointment is how they are in
-- in their position. What you could do -- and, again, I think some of it is trying to
define the specifics, but I mean what -- what you could do is have a work plan
that the Council, then, approves on what they are doing or any issues come up
on an occasional basis on that, then, they could also come to the Council to say,
you know, is this the direction you want us to follow, but the person would still
work for the Mayor as well. So, I mean that's why I think the discussion point has
been -- is trying to capture the things that Council has thought and felt was a
need, as well as other needs of the city, to try to cover a variety of different
things. But if that's not what the group wants to do, that's fine, too, but, you're
right, part of you -- you have highlighted exactly what the problem that the code
has left us with is that it isn't -- it isn't -- the Council isn't meant to manage
employees directly. The Council can certainly direct the type of work that the
position might do, but they don't day to day operate by signing time cards, doing
performance reviews, approving vacations, those kinds of management things, in
addition to directing the workload. So, I don't know if that answers your question,
but that's why the -- the discussion has been from the legal perspective that it
really needs to be an appointee and , then, Council certainly can, then, have a
role in what the workload or what the priorities of the workload could be in
conjunction with the Mayor, so -- does that help?
Little Roberts: Yes. Thank you.
Nary: Okay.
De Weerd: Any other comments?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: As I understand it, this is a discussion. We can talk ten minutes or two
hours. It's not -- we're not adopting, approving a job description, we just wanted
to see who is on what page and if there is alternative language or structure or
reporting or appointment versus -- if we haven't shared that with each other or
with the Mayor, let's keep this ball rolling and share it.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: A couple of thoughts. When -- when I review a job posting, the first
things that are on the top I view as the most important and when you look at
essential duties and responsibilities, again, the ones that are the first are
probably the ones that are most important. And so I look at this, what I see first
and foremost is a lot of this position built around a strategic plan, which I didn't
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hear Councilman Borton really touch on in his introductory comments and to me
a lot of what is encapsulated into this position that Councilman Borton touched
on, to his point you find much later in the -- in the position and so to me what I
see is some of the things that we -- Council both past and present have talked
about as being an area of importance, have fallen to much lower priority than
some of the items related to the strategic plan. I think the strategic plan is
important, it has its merits, I question, though, if we are setting a position up for
failure if, you know, specifically related to their involvement in the department
only relates specifically to the strategic plan. I think we also need to have, quite
frankly, a frank discussion about where this position does fall in the org cha rt,
specifically related to an appointed position or someone who serves within
another department. Personally I think that this position should be independent.
I know when we have talked a lot as Council we have seen that there has been
some beneficiaries in this position being somewhat independent. As I have
talked to other municipalities across the country, one comment that has rang
true, which is that if -- if this is truly what you want to look into and want to
explore, that position needs to have a certain level of independent action. So, for
now I think that will summarize some of my comments, at least related to some
concerns about this position as it is specifically created.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: The original intent when we started this a couple three years ago --
De Weerd: Last year.
Bird: No. Mr. Rountree -- I think it was for last year's budget, which was in 2015.
But anyway -- or 2014. It was -- to me this description -- and pardon my
ignorance, because it's been -- I've only -- I have only looked for one job in my
life and I didn't even have to have a job description and that was 60 years ago,
so I am not familiar with a lot of this stuff. But to me we have got -- we got a
strategic overseer of the strategic plan and, then, we have got an auditor. I think
we need to decide whether we want this put into one person -- and it definitely
should be an appointed person. I am not familiar with the state statute that Bill's
talking about, but I will guarantee you I will get familiar with it, because other
cities council people have appointed people or -- I don't know how Boise does
theirs or Nampa does theirs, but they do. Anyway, I think it's something that we
need to -- to really continue to find out -- first, do we want -- do we -- I mean if I
look through this it's going to -- somebody's going to be an awful -- awful good
employee and be a lot more disciplined than this kid is. I -- I think it's -- and I
appreciate the Mayor getting this out for us and everything. But I think we need
to decide whether we want one to do the performance management of this
strategic plan, which is a major job in itself and, then, an auditor that goes
through -- what we had discussed was Gadrey -- isn't that -- McGadrey?
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De Weerd: McGadrey.
Bird: A person like that at the Council level. So, it's something that we -- we
need to continue with. Mr. Borton and Mr. Cavener, I appreciate you guys taking
the lead on this and, Mayor, this is great. I -- we have got to come up with
something and I don't think one person can do all these duties and
responsibilities. That's my experience.
De Weerd: Well, certainly it started out of HR and Finance in December and,
then, our new CFO HR and myself, Robert, and Jaycee sat down with the
feedback that we have received collectively and tried to -- to look at -- and focus
on performance and developing better tools to look at program efficiencies and
effectiveness related not only to the strategic plan, performance of giving tools to
Council to give a better indicator on how -- how the investment of not only budget
dollars, but also time resources are moving the needle in the direction that the
Council and the elected officials who would like to see it and so it was trying to
find a balance and a reasonable expectation in job performance and being able
to do that. In an early conversation I had was by drilling into what programs are
done in each department and having an understanding of where budget dollars
and resource and time, talent, are invested, it gives a better overview and it
builds a sense of trust to go in to do a more in-depth audit, whether it's -- what is
the tipping point in triggering a particular new program to do a cost-benefit
analysis versus I'm going in and looking if policies are followed and travel
expenses, those kind of things. So, I think relationships are important and this
will bring the person at the ground level in working with departments and seeing
how they can build better efficiencies and transparency to our citizens and where
time and resources are being spent and, in turn, accountability to those
programs. So, that -- that is the result. We hear the discussion about this
position. I think at some point a decision needs to be made at Council do you
want to move forward with this FTE or do you want to -- to move forward without
it and anything that would be recommended can go through the budget process
in a future budget years if -- if it's determined those needs are a priority and a
budget funding priority. So, certainly we can continue these conversations, but at
some point I think -- we are just looking for direction.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I'm happy to provide I guess direction from my perspective. I think to
Councilman Bird's point, I think we need to move forward with this position . I just
don't necessarily think that the job description that has been drafted is reflective
of what the position should be. So, that would be my recommendation is that we
continue to move forward, but perhaps either work with the Mayor, perhaps the
Council President or Councilman Borton and maybe a couple members of -- of
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city staff to re-examine this job description to maybe work with an outside HR
company to come up with a more accurate job description that meets I think the
desire of the Council, but I still think that this position is warranted, although
some of the essential duties and responsibilities and job summary to me are not
reflective of what this Council has previously discussed.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Hey, I'm glad you beat me to the mic on your second comment . I echo
what Councilman Cavener has stated, especially with regards to his point about
independence. When I was first introduced I guess to the position and as
discussions have gone on since, I really like the idea of it being separate from
really the rest of staff, even to the point of the office or the cubicle being in either
the area where our desks are in the Council area or in a separate building, so
that there is no -- that there is less opportunity for buddy-buddy and for potential I
guess embarrassment or retaliation for what that position might bring forth to us,
because I feel like that's the point is that they need to identify issues, if they are
there, and have no fear in bringing them forward, so that we can work on them,
rather than being in a position where they are in a position to make favorites or to
overlook things, because they are close to those around them. And so a
previous iteration of the job description, you know, I liked and, again, I agree with
Councilman Cavener, I don't think this is what it is we are looking for.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think we need to -- I think Councilman Cavener had a good point, I think
we need to sit down with yourself and -- a couple of us and HR and work out -- I
just think this is an awful busy job description, you know, and, like I said, I'm --
I'm definitely not the person to -- to be -- I know what I envisioned this employee
being, but putting it down in a job description -- I'm not the one to probably write
it. I can sit and tell you and you write it down and tell me what's legal and what
isn't, you know, but I think we need to go forward with it, but I think we need to sit
down yourself -- I would recommend Council Borton and Councilman Cavener
and Crystal and let's see if we can't work out a description that's satisfactory --
and then -- and, then, if we -- if we don't pick up the -- the management analyst
well enough, that's something you can bring back to us for years -- or something
that may be you can add to one of your people. I don't know.
De Weerd: I think the whole challenge has been trying to get an understanding
of what -- what we are trying to address with this position and what -- what
existing positions, directors or Finance, is not providing that Council sees a full-
time need to fill and I guess that's been the struggle we've had in trying to help
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this along is we haven't gotten a clear idea of , number one, what -- what do you
want this position to do that other positions are not currently doing and is it a full-
time position or is it a part-time position. Is -- is this something a consultant could
do if you want the independence. I don't see how you can be an employee and
have that separation of not being a friend to anyone in the city. I -- it's -- some of
the things I hear -- I'm not sure how we can fill the bits and pieces I have heard
tonight. So, I would love to sit down and get some maybe sound -- sound bites
of particular duties and responsibilities, so that we can see if we can craft
something and make sure it's something that would be a position that would be
successful, so --
Bird: That would be successful for the citizens of Meridian.
De Weerd: For the citizens of Meridian.
Bird: Agreed.
De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Council, you all agreed?
Borton: Yes. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: A couple thoughts that can be explored going forward, the concept of
whether it could be appointed or not I have not heard. I don't know if that's --
what that would entail. Councilman Cavener's idea of perhaps we expend a little
bit of resources and have an outside HR consultant assist and facilitate and put
some hard deadlines, maybe that's worth exploring as well. Of the discussion
those are two things that were of particular valuable to at least move the ball. I --
I have this -- this childhood flashback -- and I'm not that old, but -- but the old
thermometers -- and it was odd, but fun when we would break and -- you shake
the thermometer and every now and , then, it would break and one of the things
you would do on the kitchen counter is you --
Milam: Play with the mercury.
Borton: -- mess with the mercury and it would move and I would be kind of p oke
around and it would always jump around and I feel like I'm playing with mercury a
little bit. It's not as much fun. We kind of know what this description shouldn't
be, but we really don't know what it should be. So, we can continue to poke
around and maybe we will get there, but if an outside consultant helps, great,
let's do it. And to the extent that there is specific language that says this person
shall do X, let's say it. E-mail it, handwrite it, do something. Put it down and say
it. Otherwise, we are saying, well, we don't want them to do that. All right. Well,
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what do you want them to do? All right? Let's -- for each other and the Mayor
and maybe the HR consultant can help us do it, provide some clarity. You know,
the ones -- the one sentence among others that I thought this captured well wa s
responding to and coordination of requests for program audits and budget
performance by the Mayor and City Council and that started to capture a
sentence that addressed the audit concept. But, otherwise, I fear we are going to
be playing with Mercury for three more years. So, if we have language of exactly
what it should do, let's share it.
Milam: Madam Mayor? And, then, a thought. If you can't come to an agreement
on what the job description is, instead of playing with mercury for three years, we
can put that money into a consulting budget, though as much as I hate wasting
money on outside consulting -- and I think it's done way too much -- you know, as
long as it's done thoughtfully and kind of use that consulting to maybe figure out -
- not to create a plan, but to do the expectations that you're looking for in an
employee one at a time -- like this is -- one of the things that we want them to do
is this. So, hire somebody to do that and, then, see is that really what we want
somebody to do and you may have to put it together the hard way by having
somebody go through and do it and, eventually, they come up with that position
or it may just be something that you only need a consultant every once in a while
to take care of.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: It seems like we went to the time and the trouble with the
departments and the city to do the strategic plan and it just seems like if we had
somebody that is monitoring and coming alongside with the departments
regarding their implementation and process of the strategic plan, that most of
those things that we are looking for come under that. That anything regarding
efficiencies and things like that should all be -- are all incorporated within the
strategic plan to make that and those goals successful.
De Weerd: I see we have work to do in trying to -- first I guess we need to
understand what the -- the individual thoughts are on -- you know, I guess we
were looking at it that the Council wanted greater assurance as how we are
spending our money and how that money is being spent is -- is moving the dial
and being fiscally responsible to our citizens and following policy and those kind
of things and so we looked at it in terms of that performance manager and -- and
looking at -- at it in that fashion. So, I guess there is a couple of different ways to
-- to look at this and what I think would be helpful for each of you is to maybe
write three or four bullet points of what those priority expectations are of what you
would like a person to do and that would be a great starting point .
Bird: Good idea, Mayor.
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August 23, 2016
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De Weerd: So -- and, then, we can -- we can huddle with the team that Mr. Bird
has assigned and see if we can start at that point.
Bird: Thank you.
Item 10: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further on this one? If not, anything to consider
under Future Meeting Topics?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: May I say one thing? If you guys -- Mark give an awful good presentation,
but this is a lasting item for you young taxpayers. Make sure you read this book.
If you haven't read it, make sure you go through it and write down notes and
stuff. I will get -- I will get my things out to you here this week and I will -- I will be
talking, but make sure -- I don't know how many of you have read it, but look it
over. It's -- it's a very important item and whichever way your decision goes is --
is a very important decision and you need to be on top of it.
De Weerd: And I -- I think it would be helpful, chief, if you can get the
PowerPoint to City Council for their information and I know that Councilman
Borton mentioned putting an agenda item on for -- not next week, because that's
a special meeting, but the first week in September to discuss response time s. I
believe you wanted that discussion?
Borton: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I think in -- just as part of the master plan
discussion and if something were to be adopted, whether it's the plan at its
broadest sense or a portion of which, which is a response time calculation,
whether that's in two weeks or in a month --
De Weerd: Yeah. I think there is probably a great deal that needs to be done
behind that, then, this is another strategic plan topic is -- is levels of service and
what those cost. Yeah. So, at least come back the first week to say this is a
proposed timeline to have a -- a discussion at the level that I think Council would
need to have when you might be able to come back . So, at least report back on
that. Does that sound reasonable or do you want even more time to even put
that together?
Niemeyer: Yeah. Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Maybe I should ask Lieutenant Overton.
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August 23, 2016
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Niemeyer: Yeah. He -- he would have some input. I think 30 days to come back
and have that discussion -- I would like to allow 30 days. As Councilman Bird
alluded to, to read the report, go through the PowerPoint, have some time to ask
questions, certainly reach out to us. We can meet at any time. I know I have
received one request already from a Councilman. So, I would like that 30 day
window to have that discussion and read through the report and then, have a
discussion on the agenda for that.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: And, then, the scope, chief, that you're requesting is not a discussion
necessarily just on the response time portion --
Niemeyer: Correct.
Borton: -- but broader than that.
Niemeyer: Correct.
Borton: Okay.
Item 11: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206 (1)(c): To
acquire an interest in real property which is not owned by a
public agency; and 74-206A (1)(a) a governing body or its
designated representatives may hold an executive session for
the specific purpose of: (a) Considering a labor contract offer
or to formulate a counteroffer
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. I'm sure Mr. Clerk got that all; right? On top of it.
Okay. Item 11 is Executive Session.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 74 -206(1)(c)
and also 74-206(a)(1)(a).
Milam: Second.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr.
Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Meridian City Council
August 23, 2016
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Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (9:25 p.m. to 11:02 p.m.)
Bird: So moved.
De Weerd: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Okay. Do I have a motion to come out of
Executive Session?
Bird: So moved.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Bird: Move we adjourn.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 11:02 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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