HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-02-21Meridian City Council February 21, 2017
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:04 p.m., Tuesday,
February 21, 2016, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Keith Bird, Genesis
Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer and Anne Little Roberts.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Jaycee Holman, Caleb Hood, Kyle
Radek, Tracy Basterrechea, Mark Niemeyer, Steve Siddoway, Bruce Chatter ton,
Dale Bolthouse 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: Thank you all for joining us. We rarely get to see a full house, so
thank you. We appreciate our SkillsUSA students for being here with us today.
Always exciting to see you, to get an update and to wish you well in future
competitions. As well we have a number of Cub Scout groups here. Thank you
so much for joining us. We wish you luck on your merit badges and citizenship
badge as well and just thank you for joining us. For the record it is -- it is what?
It is Tuesday night. It is February 21st. It's four minutes after 6:00. We will start
our regular meeting with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight we are going to be
led by our SkillsUSA students. So, if you would like to come forward and direct
us in the pledge. If you will all rise.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Troy Drake with Calvary Chapel
De Weerd: We appreciate the energy you put into that. Thank you so much.
Item No. 3 is our community invocation led by Pastor Troy Drake with Calvary
Chapel. Welcome. If you will all join us in the community invocation or take this
as an opportunity for a moment of reflection. Always nice to have you here.
Drake: You, too, Mayor. Let's pray. Lord God, we just want to acknowledge that
you care so much about people and all the things that concern us and so we just
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invite you into our meeting here tonight. Lord, just thank you for our city Meridian
and just what you have given us and the freedoms that we have here and so we
just pray for our -- the people that protect our city, the police and emergency
responders and, Lord, we just pray for peace over our city tonight and that those
who need help could get it and that you would just, you know, keep folks out of
harm's way. Lord, we do pray for our country and we are grateful that we get to
elect our representatives and that we have the freedom to work where we want
to and live where we want to and -- and we just appreciate that and we pray for --
that you would protect the freedoms in our country, God. And, lastly, Lord, we
just thank you for these public servants here, these elected officials of ours that
work so hard and -- and care about all of these issues, whether they are large
ones or small ones and so, God, we just pray that you give them great wisdom to
determine what the best thing is in these decisions for our city and -- and, lastly,
Lord, we just pray that you give them a great blessing for sacrificing their time on
our behalf and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thanks for the privilege.
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 6-F the resolution number is 17-1195. On 8-C the resolution number is
17-1196. 8-E the resolution number is 17-1197. And with that I move we
approve the agenda as published.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as read. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Proclamation for Skills USA Day
De Weerd: Item 5 is a proclamation. I'm going to go down to the podium and
ask our SkillsUSA students to, please, come forward. Okay. It's so awesome
being surrounded by youth. Okay. It is my great pleasure to read a p roclamation
and afterwards I'm going to see if each of you would introduce yourself, tell us
what grade you're in. Are you all from one school? Okay. Tell us your school
and what your specialty is, what you compete in. Okay? Got it? Okay.
Whereas the City of Meridian is proud to recognize deserving citizens of the
community, especially students who accomplish great things on behalf of their
community and whereas SkillsUSA Team Renaissance willingly performed
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numerous hours in planning and reconstructing a portable classroom within one
school year in West Ada School District No. 2 under the direction of the Ada
Career and Technical Center where students worked during class time and
weekends for all deserving students and whereas SkillsUSA Team Renaissance
has demonstrated their willingness to educate not only to citizens of Meridian, but
also state and federal legislative officials about the importance of SkillsUSA and
whereas SkillsUSA Team Renaissance has demonstrated their construction skills
to build children's playhouses, which are donated to Make A Wish Foundation,
which are scheduled to be completed this school year and whereas SkillsUSA
Team Renaissance has reached out to other community organizations , such as
the Lions Club, Boise State construction program and the Building Construction
Institute of Idaho and whereas SkillsUSA Team Renaissance has established
one of the first student-to-student programs in which educates a much younger
audience for building a stronger SkillsUSA program in the future and whereas the
Mayor and City Council of the state of Idaho and City of Meridian acknowledges
SkillsUSA Team Renaissance and the efforts of their classmates and Mr. Enger
residential construction class -- that was a mouthful. Therefore, I Mayor Tammy
de Weerd, here do proclaim February 21st, 2017, as SkillsUSA Team
Renaissance Day in the City of Meridian, Idaho, and call upon our citizens in the
Treasure Valley to celebrate the accomplishments of these young men and
women of SkillsUSA Team Renaissance and I'm honored to present this to Mr.
Enger and the president. Nice to meet. Thank you so much.
Waldrup: Hi, everyone. My name is Kenna Waldrup. I go to Rocky Mountain
and I'm currently a junior and I'm competing in technical math.
Hart: Hi. I'm Jacob Hart. I go to Meridian High School. I am a junior and my
specialty I guess some call it construction.
Orroya: Hi. I am Julian Orroya. I am currently a junior and I go to Centennial
High School and I am competing in American spirit.
Taylor: Hi. My name is Matthew Taylor. I go to Rocky. I'm a sophomore and
my competition is American spirit.
Astell: Hello. I am Jonathan Astell and -- and I am junior at Mountain View High
School and I will be competing in related technical math.
McCoy: Hi. My name is Bill McCoy. I am a junior over at Rocky Mountain High
School and we are doing social bulletin board.
Cloud: I'm Star Cloud and I'm a sophomore as Rocky and as he said we are
doing promotional bulletin board.
Simpson: Hello. I'm Nick Simpson. I go to Renaissance High School. I'm a
junior and I'm participating in community service.
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Codash: Hi. My name is Emily Codash. I am a senior at Centennial High
School and I am competing in community service.
Hash: Hello. I'm Jacob Hash. I am an 11th grader and I go to Centennial High
School and our competition is chapter display.
Southern: Hi. My name is Ivan Southern. I'm a sophomore at Centennial High
School and our project is chapter display.
Smith: Hi. I'm Ethan Smith and I'm a junior at Centennial High School and I
compete in chapter display with these two guys.
Inger: Thank you very much, City Council, Mayor de Weerd. My name is Mark
Enger. I am the adviser of one of two, actually, for this particular group. We call
ourselves as Team Renaissance. We are missing a few people due to conflicts
of interest, different situations, sporting events, this type of thing where we are
constantly competing on time with kids, obviously. They are in volved in
everything and you as parents probably know that as well as I do. It seems like
they are home to eat and sleep and they are gone and I think all of us can relate
to that one. I, myself, as being a parent. So, this is your Team Renaissance and
a promising future for them is really in their hands. They have a lot for
themselves and they can definitely go far, there is no question. I see a lot of
talent in these young men and women and they will do exceptionally well I'm
sure. So, thank you.
De Weerd: While I would love to think that this room is full because they are
here to cheer on our Cub Scouts and our Team Renaissance, I realize probably
some of you are here because of a Consent Agenda and so I thought I would
turn this over to Mr. Nary before we get to that item.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, there is an item
on our Consent Agenda tonight. Item 6 -A. It's the Findings of Fact, Conclusion
of Law, Decision and Order for the Tree Farm Subdivision. The Council heard
that in public hearing on February 7th and made a decision and that's what's
before you tonight for approval. We have had some contact from neighbors in
regards to this project and their concerns about it and all of the ones I have
responded to to date I have shared with them -- there is a city ordinance to
request reconsideration that is modeled from the state code in regards to
requesting reconsideration on land use applications and we are bound to follow
both that ordnance, as well as the state law in doing that. So, I have supplied
them with a copy of the ordinance so they could see what needs to be done.
After these findings are approved they have up to 14 days from this point to ,
then, request that reconsideration and, then, this Council will hear it again to
make that determination whether they have met the requirements of both
ordinance and statute and whether the Council will, then, grant either
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reconsideration or deny that request. So, this begins that process where we are
at now. The public hearing portion of that is concluded and this is the next phase
in the code as to what happens once that decision has been made. So, that's the
item. It's not for public hearing. It's not for discussion tonight. There is no
testimony that can be taken on this item, other than -- than just the Council's
action.
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Mr. Nary, the process of that -- if there is a request for reconsideration
and it comes back before Council, that first decision is whether or not it will be
reconsidered and if that is approved, the substance of a reconsideration will be in
a second hearing; is that right?
Nary: Yes. So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member
Borton, so the statute requires and the ordinance requires that the request for
reconsideration needs to raise a deficiency in the decision that was reach ed by
the Council and that's part of these findings. The Council, then, will have to
make a determination when that is provided on whether or not it is a deficiency
and, if so, then, to reset it for hearing and, then, noticing and all that will come
forth from that. So, the next phase will be if a written request is received, this
Council will hear it in an open meeting. We will have it on an agenda for your
discussion and your vote on whether or not a deficiency has been raised that 's
sufficient enough to require a rehearing of this project.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
Nary: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 6 is the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Consent Agenda
A. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval for
Tree Farm Subdivision (H-2016-0128) by M3 Companies,
LLC Located at 4740 W Chinden Blvd
B. Final Order for Laurel's Townhomes (H-2016-0136) by
Scott Noriyuki, Northside Management Located 2116 S.
Accolade Avenue
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C. Final Order for Baraya Subdivision No. 2 (H-2017-0002)
by Schultz Development, LLC Located 3935 W. Franklin
Road
D. Final Order for Shallow Creek (H-2017-0003) by A Team
Land Consultants Located Southeast Corner of S.
Locust Grove Road and E. Franklin Road
E. Approval of Street Light Maintenance Agreement for
Bancroft Square Subdivision.
F. Resolution No. 17-1195: Adopting Applicable Provisions
of the 2016 Update of the Ada County Multi-Hazard
Mitigation Plan
G. Professional Service Agreement with Treasure Valley
Youth Theater
H. Golden Grove Subdivision Heartland Townhomes
Property Management, LLC Sanitary Sewer Easement
I. Jewel Subdivision #1 James A. Kissler, LLC Sanitary
Sewer and Water Main Easement
J. Jewel Subdivision #2 James A. Kissler, LLC Sanitary
Sewer and Water Main Easement
K. Jewel Subdivision #3 James A. Kissler, LLC Sanitary
Sewer Easement
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: As stated earlier, 6-F the resolution number is 17-1195. With that I move
we approve the Consent Agenda as published 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. Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
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De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: And I would ask Mr. Nary if you can go out into the lobby, if anyone
has any questions you certainly have an opportunity to ask that of the process
with our attorney. Thank you, Mr. Nary.
Item 7: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Community Items/Presentations
A. Transportation Commission Annual Report
De Weerd: Item 8-A under Community Items and Presentations. I will ask Tracy
Hopkins -- oh, sorry. I forgot. I at least -- put that thing back up. Kind of. Oh,
well, hi, Tracy. We will just pause for a moment. Hey, Justin, I might ask you to
also step outside with Bill and answer any questions that the neighbors might
have about the appeal process for Ada County Highway District. Okay? Thank
you. Okay. Mr. Ballard, thank you so much for joining us and I'd like to thank
you and the entire Transportation Commission for their service and attention to
detail on our transportation-related issues.
Ballard: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird,
Council Woman Milam, Councilman Cavener, Councilman Borton, Councilman
Palmer, Council Woman Little Roberts. I have been privileged to sit on the
Transportation Commission for three years and I have been asked to present the
2016 report. I served as the vice chair in 2016. Tracy Hopkins was the chair
during 2016. The Transportation Commission was formed in 2013. Has nine
appointed members, as well as ex-officio members. Mr. Cavener is one of the
ex-officio members. We have staff from Caleb Hood, staff from ACHD. The
police as well. The -- overall we looked at both short and long-term goals,
roadway planning projects, transportation service planning, evaluation of city
policies, corridor management and school zone requests. Sometimes they seem
simple on their face, but once you get into the matter the devil is in the details
and there is a lot of different perspectives and it's a very at times robust
discussion and recommendations or endorsements that we make to pass on to
you as members of the Council. Overall we are asked to prioritize or give our
opinion on prioritizing road projects for ACHD's integrated five year work plan,
capital improvement plan, and Communities In Motion, to name a few. A couple
of particular projects. In January we looked at speed zones, school speed
zones. Some school zones have them, some don't, and we looked at how that
comes to pass. The part of that is as the city grows the need becomes evident
as to why we need more protection for the children in that sense . Meridian
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Police Department, they have also weighed in on a couple of occasions with
speed limit requests and traffic counts, and we have looked at that. In particular
Ten Mile and the timing of the signals at Records and Fairview. It's a
Transportation Commission and one mode of transportation are bicycles. So, we
had a presentation from the bicycle advisory committee in February and get a
better understanding of what bicycles can offer to help move the citizens in
Meridian. In March the bylaws were amended to realign with the city ordinance,
in compliance with or make it consistent with city code. Chateau Drive in April --
as that develops, it's a numbers matter of what happens at the school bus and
traffic and maybe some suggestions on how you can better move the traffic
through there. In May we discussed the master mobility map for Meridian and
also pedestrian crossings at Records and Village Drive. Derrel McRoberts, one
of the Commissioners for several years, stepped down and in his place Brent
Knezacek was appointed. We also continued the Chateau meeting -- or the
discussion about the traffic on Chateau in June. July Paramount Subdivision, a
parking issue out there. How that works is the property -- the subdivision is being
built and the interface between students coming and going and traffic coming in
and out of that area. Still in August -- and I thought this was interesting on
Chateau Drive a resident of the subdivision came in, Brighton Corporation
representative was here, ACHD representative, and I think the result of that was
a better understanding of what the resident or residents may do to address their
concerns about calming -- traffic calming in the subdivision. But I thought that
that was productive, because it gave some guidance, if you will, to the residence.
Eagle Road, Village Drive, and River Valley Street, there was discussion about
the lane striping, what that means, and some of the plans for the future and how
that -- what the possible resolutions for that are. And as always we look at speed
limits and what the police may suggest. Again, I appreciate the opportunity to
provide service and it's a privilege to serve on the commission. If you have any
questions I will answer them and before I forget I apologize for my attire, but at
7:00 o'clock this morning I didn't have an idea that I needed a tie for a 6:00
o'clock tonight.
De Weerd: You certainly don't need a tie. I would like to thank you for your
service. Certainly, David, you are at almost every transportation-related meeting
we have here in this city, so your dedication goes beyond just the commission
and we really appreciate that you take your responsibility for being a voice as a
citizen above and beyond and we greatly appreciate your attention to -- to that
commitment.
Ballard: I appreciate that, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you, Council Members, for
allowing me.
Bird: Thank you very much, David.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Comments?
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Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just a comment. I will echo the Mayor's comments, Mr. Ballard.
You're an exceptional representation of -- of the commission. I'm glad you're
able to be here tonight. On a side note, that commission is robust in terms of
opinions and perspective and I'm always just in awe of their ability to argue
articulately and compassionately with each other about their opinions. I think
sometimes this body could take a page out of your committee's playbook,
because you're a great representation of our community and please pass that on
to the commission.
Ballard: I will do that. Thank you, Mr. Cavener.
De Weerd: Well -- and we certainly know that you get some of the very meaty
conversations as our citizens do stand in front of you looking for solutions to
parking issues or speeding issues through the neighborhoods and a number of
other things. So, we do appreciate your listening ears and -- and, again, looking
to do the best thing for our community and that -- that goes noticed and
appreciated.
Ballard: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Ballard: Thank you, Council Members.
B. Parks and Recreation Commission Annual Report
De Weerd: Item 8-B is under our Parks and Recreation Commission. Good
evening.
S.Borton: Hello. I'm Sharon Borton.
De Weerd: If you will pull that down.
S.Borton: Can you hear me now?
De Weerd: There you go.
S.Borton: There we go. I want to thank you for allowing me to come and present
to you the highlights of our commission, the Parks and Recreation Commission.
So, Madam Mayor and Council Members, we are going -- I'm going to present to
you goals and accomplishments that we have done this past year and, then,
stand for any questions that you may have. So, the Parks and Recreation
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Commission has had a really successful year and we have lots of
accomplishments to report. We have a goal to develop a connected pathway
system across the City of Meridian and we have, with your approval with budget
enhancements, been able to pursue pathway projects in the Five Mile Creek
corridor, addressing pedestrian pathway improvements between existing
pathway segments from Black Cat all the way to Eagle Road. Additionally, Jay
Gibbons has obtained all easements for the H2 segment pathway , which creates
an ongoing pathway from Pine to Fairview and we continue to work with the first
phase of Rail With Trail. We have begun implementation of the updated master
-- or Meridian Parks and Rec master plan, which really is our guide to helping us
move forward and setting and achieving our goals. We participated in providing
feedback in the design development of Rita Huskey Park, Hillsdale Park, Keith
Bird Legacy Park -- and I am anticipating an approval of a name tonight and the
South Meridian Regional Park. We have explored options to obtain, build, and
develop partnerships for a fieldhouse and aquatic center and additional park
space. We are very pleased with our partnerships with the Treasure Valley
YMCA, which led to the purchase of the Meridian Home Court facility. We are
receiving updates regarding the south Meridian YMCA and continue to support
and work with them as they seek funding to complete phase one of the south
Meridian site. We continue to support their development of the aquatic center as
a part of the south Meridian YMCA and will continue with that partnership , with
the West Ada School District, and the YMCA, which leads me to goal five. Our
fifth goal of the Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission is to engage other
commissions and agencies through workshops and partnership opportunities.
Along with the partnerships and updates for Hillsdale, we received updates for
six other agencies, including the Meridian Library District, Eagle Parks and
Recreation for a trails update and a way for us to determine if we can connect
Meridian to Eagle through pathways and ACHD roadways to bikeways. Our sixth
goal is to pursue improved tools and opportunities to communicate with citizens
and stakeholders. We are working on transitioning to a new software program to
allow online facility scheduling. We received a presentation on social media best
practices from Paisley Emory. Our marketing committee has updated the Z-Card
map and done another round of printing. One of our commission goals is to
foster a greater commission involvement in community events and we have
Commissions -- we have had commissioners attend and participate in many,
many events. We have held a team-building barbecue in June and Colin, who
had just had knee surgery, ruled the pickleball courts and really did very well,
even in a leg brace. Part of our monthly commission meeting is to work within
our three commission -- excuse me -- committees, which we restructured last
year. The three committees are the parks committee, the pathways committee
and the marketing committee. I want to update you on some quick
accomplishments. Actually, there were a lot of accomplishments. The update is
quick. On the committees that I haven't already touched on, the parks committee
has recommended the design of shade structures and the addition of trees in
parks. We have developed recommendation for adult amenities. This is part of
the partnership with the outdoor gym at Tully Park that MYAC members worked
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on through participatory budgeting. We worked with the arts commission to
reinforce park identities and currently we are working on the identity of Heroes
Park by working collaboratively with the arts commission and we are on our way
to choosing some interesting pieces of art. We are working on improving the
memorial tree program. The pathways commission works on the pathways tours
and providing a priority workshop for us to help with focus on the pathway
segments, which I think really has led to that H2 segment completion . I have
spoken about the Z-Card map, but I want to mention that one of the main goals
that the marketing committee is working on is a presentation to our community
and I'm pleased to announce that during a meeting in April at the Meridian
Chamber of Commerce you will hear about our programs for Meridian Parks and
Recreation. Thank you for allowing me to present our accomplishments to you. I
want to also thank -- take the time to thank you and let you know that our Parks
and Recreation Commission, as you know, is a pretty not -- not the commission,
rather, but the department is a pretty amazing group of employees and they help
us so much and I don't think we could do what we do without them . So, I just
wanted to mention them as well. Any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Sharon. And I can say that the department appreciates
your engagement and your involvement. The commission is very active, they are
engaged and they do go above and beyond and that's evident in your report on
all of the accomplishments working together with our staff. But also being that
voice of the community is -- is -- it's priceless.
S.Borton: Thank you.
De Weerd: So, Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor, just a comment.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I just think we couldn't have a better board in representing the city than
depicted in Sharon Borton.
S.Borton: This is not a date night.
De Weerd: This is a date night?
S.Borton: Not a date night.
De Weerd: Oh, not a date night.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
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Little Roberts: I would just like to say thank you, Sharon, for all that you and the
commission do. It just never ceases to amaze me and I'm very proud to be your
liaison and just continue all the great work.
S.Borton: Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, thank you. And if you will, again, e xpress our thanks to your
commission and let them know how much we value their involvement.
S.Borton: I will. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
C. Resolution No. 17-1196: Approving the Naming of Keith
Bird Legacy Park
Siddoway: Want me to do the next one?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Siddoway: Madam --
De Weerd: Can you do this without crying?
Cavener: Can you?
De Weerd: I think I have already have examples that, no, I cannot.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, so, Item -- Item C on
your agenda is a resolution to approve the naming of Keith Bird Legacy Park.
You heard the announcement last week at the Mayor's State of the City address.
The commission, then, formally took up action that same night and made a
formal recommendation to you to accept and recommend to you approval of that
name. While I won't read you the entire resolution, I hope you have taken a
chance to read it, because there is a lot of amazing accomplishments in there. I
would like to touch on some highlights. Keith has a legacy of coaching youth in
this community over decades. I can't even, myself, over the years think of the
number of people who have come to present that have acknowledged the impact
Keith has had on their life. He's been a champion for recreational opportunities
of all kinds from -- from parks, to our field house, friends of Meridian Parks, a
charter member of the parks and rec commission and on and on. He's a great
example of a man who loves his family and that's something we aspire to be as a
community that is the premier place for families. He's our longest serving city
council member in Meridian's history. That in and of itself is a remarkable
accomplishment. I know I have the support of Dave Turnbull and the Brighton
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Corporation who are the donors of the land for this park. We have been out to
bid -- bid awards have already been before you, but we would tonight like to bring
to you the formal recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Commission to
name our new neighborhood park that -- it will be in Bainbridge Subdivision -- as
Keith Bird Legacy Park and I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. And just -- you know, Steve and his staff have
worked diligently to make sure that the values that Councilman Bird has really
lent to -- lent to our community, but also exhibited and been a great example was
reflected in the design. Now, I will say, Mr. Bird, that I argued with him, because
I thought it should be the Birdbath Park and, you know, we could recognize all
the different types of birds and -- you know. But they turned me down. Can you
believe that? Instead it is just very appropriate that we show your love for our
youth in the design elements, your love for family and certainly part of the design
criteria will exhibit some of the characteristics that you are well-known for and it
won't be for your opinionated stances on some occasions, but more the character
that you bring out the best of us. So, Council, I would ask if you have any
questions.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Thank you very much. This is an honor beyond honors. I -- I mean this is
-- this is the greatest community that -- well, I have only lived in two, but -- and
this is the finest one I have ever lived in and, I don't know, we just -- it's beyond
words, my feelings, and I just can't say thank you enough to David Turnbull and
the parks commission and the parks department, which I think we have got the
best one in the state, if not the United States. Just go look at our parks if you
don't believe it. And I mean every park. It's -- it's just beyond belief. Thank you
very much. I just appreciate it.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Ms. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I would like to move that we accept the Resolution No. 17-1196
and approve the naming of Keith Bird Legacy Park.
Milam: Second.
Borton: Second.
Palmer: Second.
Cavener: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a unanimous second to approve Resolution
17-1196. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: That was an all ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Historic Preservation Commission Annual Report
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 8-D is under our historic preservation
commission and Blaine, thank you for joining us.
Johnston: Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council, thanks for this
opportunity to talk to you this afternoon. I am Blaine Johnston, president of the
Meridian Historic Preservation Commission. The Historic Preservation
Commission experienced a lot of change throughout last year. One of the largest
changes that HPC had to address was the retirement of Dr. Frank Thomason
from the Commission. Frank has served on the HPC for about 25 years and in
the midst of other changes in his life, stepping a way from the commission this
year made sense. Frank continues to be an advocate for history and
collaboration between agencies in Meridian and we celebrate his humble service
to our city. Frank can never be replaced, but we are blessed that his seat was
filled by former city clerk and a long time staffing liaison for HPC Jacy Jones.
Jacy brings her years of experience working with the historic preservation
commission, organizing and implementing both phases of the historic walking
tour and a passion for preservation in her hometown. More changes to our
commission came when Commissioner Robert Mortenson chose not to reapply
for his seat. Edward Landis fills Robert's seat and shares a similar passion to
maintain the heritage of Meridian and improve our future legacy. Student
Commissioner Joely Walters' seat was filled by Ella Kramer. Ella already has a
number of ideas to share with HPC and we look forward to the great things that
she can do on the commission. In April Commissioner Josh Evarts hosted HPC's
first public workshop, a value model of historic preservation in Meridian. This
workshop was well put together, but the commission determined that it needed
greater advertising. The Meridian Downtown Business Association
recommended that a session like this right after work on a weeknight, so that
more businesses -- more business owners could drop in after work. In May 2016
HPC hosted an open house at City Hall. The Historical Society graciously
allowed HPC to show off many of their archived items from the storage and
basement. HPC also played Lila Hill's recorded presentation of Settlers Make
the Desert Bloom, so that she wouldn't have to be present in person again.
Having this recording takes a little pressure off Lila, while allowing us to still
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
Page 15 of 86
share her research with the community. Many visitors were especially interested
in the maps at the archives night and Lila was able to point out many of people's
homes and properties owned by well-known Meridian families. The
commissioners and other city staff offered great ideas to make this year's
preservation month stronger and improve turnout. In May HPC also got
permission from the historical society to run If This Property Could Talk campaign
again. This was a campaign that the Mayor reminded HPC about and the whole
commission was glad to run the campaign again and see the interest, the signs
throughout our downtown. HPC has since discussed investing more into If This
Property Could Talk. I would like to see the downtown business owners get
more involved to help in 2017. The commission plans to purchase A-frame
signs and inserts that can be set out in front of businesses and taken in by
business owners. This will give our business -- businesses more ownership in
the campaign and takes a little weight off the commissions -- commissioners and
committee specialists to monitor and maintain signs around town. HPC
continues its partnership with West Ada School District and Compass Charter
and MDC to support 3rd grade field trips to downtown Meridian. This cannot be
done without the many volunteers and staff at City Hall. Although HPC doesn't
contribute much manpower or significant funding, we supported supplies for the
volunteers who did the tours at City Hall. HPC also continued its partnership with
West Ada to support continuing education courses for Meridian teachers. This
year Meridian -- this year West Ada took on a larger role and was able to work
directly with other local resources and teachers to offer course registration and
promotion to their online professional development portal. This allowed the
course to have a greater reach, extending beyond the third grade teachers alone.
Meridian historic -- history course supports local teachers' professional
development. The course was taught by returning instructors Linda Belthoff and
Amy Birch. The intention of this course is to provide resources, knowledge, and
connection for teachers to build their own history curriculum. Three of our
commissioners were able to be involved in continuing education and
development as commissioners and advocates for Meridian . Commissioners
have engaged in local organizations, taking webinars and more. Some examples
include Jacy Jones taking a leading role for the local children's museum initiative,
which was intended -- which is intended to focus on the history of Meridian. Also
participated in the Heritage Home tour presentment authored by Preservation
Idaho. One of the most humorous ways HPC guys have gotten involved took
place this summer when Josh and I were able to borrow the historic tandem bike
from the history -- historical society and participate in the Dairy Days parade
representing HPC. This bike took home third place in the vintage vehicle
division, an award that was later presented to the Historical Society. Just a note.
The bike needs a better seat. HPC looks forward to more local opportunities to
continue their -- our development as a commission, so that we can better serve
Meridian and preserve our history. This year I was fortunate to represent the City
of Meridian at the National Trust For Historic Places Conference in Houston,
Texas. Although Meridian is not as large or as old as Houston, we have our past
and our culture, a history that needs to be preserved so that our future residents
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
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can see the Meridian that we call home, not just to see some pictures of old
buildings, but be able to walk in, see and touch a history that comes to life.
Another big way we are moving forward to better serve Meridian is by developing
a digital component to the walking tour through Tour Buddy. This is a free app
that uses geolocation and additional platforms by linking diverse content to make
the walking tour easier for users looking for a bolstered walking tour experience.
HPC has partnered with Nick Herman, Cole Valley Christian senior class
president, to develop and add content to the app before it is piloted. Unbound
has agreed to support content development and to check out iPads to downtown
history walkers, so that everyone has access and can use the app. We have
received a lot of support from both city departments and outside organizations
this year. We are grateful for all those who work with us and share our vision to
preserve our history. This year Brian McClure from planning helped us map
historic site and pictorial on GIS. Many of these points are outdated, but HPC
has requested that human resources place a youth work life skills interim
specifically for HPC projects, like the inventory, collecting data and building more
robust database for us to use -- for us to input into our GIS system that can be
accessed by city users and eventually converted into a public access map
document. It is with this support from city in the form of community groups and
individuals and organizations that help us reach a broader audience, more
history, and advocate to preserve our legacy as a community. Regarding
resolution following this report, adopting the Idaho Historic Society inventory
requirements and standards for documentation by the Idaho State Historical
Society, HPC has worked with its consultants in the past to use these standard.
But HPC and city hadn't adopted a formal resolution requiring use of these
standards. Passing this resolution clarifies methods used to determine historic
sites. Thank you. Commission would like to thank you again for this -- for all
your support of HPC and I would be happy to stand for commen ts or questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Blaine. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: I will continue the trend I guess of speaking about each commission.
This is incredible. What this current HPC has done is nothing short of amazing. I
remember many years ago being so frustrated that our HPC was merely just
talking about the same old things that they had been always talking about and
this new commission has this energy and they are really going out and creati ng a
legacy and as somebody who loves Meridian's history, I just applaud everything
you guys are doing and I really appreciate this report tonight, because it opened
my eyes to some things that you're doing that I had no idea was even going on
that I'm really excited about.
Johnston: Thank you.
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
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De Weerd: Certainly I think that the commission raised the bar and it was really
after initiating the -- the third grade tour and in paying for the -- the buses to -- to
bring the kids in and I can't remember the couple's names, but I will tell you just
their passion for history, their hospitality here at City Hall, and instilling the
questions of the history tour itself. When I go and walk with the students at the
elementary schools one of their -- their favorite tour or field trip of the year is
always that tour and certainly it's been Mrs. McFadden when -- or -- not Mrs.
McFadden. Oh, my gosh that was a slip. Is the tour of the school house -- old
school house and just being able to sit in those desks and experience what it was
in days of old was really pretty cool and last hear I -- for the second year in a row
I got to speak to the history class with all the teachers and they found it very
rewarding and interesting and they bring that information back to their
classrooms. So, that kind of was the launching pad to, then, the initiatives with
the walking tour itself , with now this Buddy app and If This Property Could Talk is
-- it was an amazing thing. I appreciate you guys reinvigorating the program,
because that's -- that's pretty important and I think you forgot one thing in your
report and it really doesn't have anything to do with HPC , but I understand Lila
Hill has been recognized by the Idaho Historic Preservation with great
recognition. I don't know what the official title is, but certainly with the team that
she has -- really that has come alongside her will preserve our histories -- our
history for generations to come and in the past it's only been one pe rson. Well,
no, it's been two people, Lila Hill and Frank Thomason, and now there is a huge
community of support behind those tellers of our history that now our history will
live on and that goes a long way, Blaine. We appreciate your efforts and -- and
the energy that this commission now has. I agree with Councilman Cavener that
there was a time when I wanted to go and use some various methods to get
some energy back into that commission and it's really exciting to see the passion
that exists there today. So, thank you.
Johnston: We have a great commission. There is a lot of energy in that and
thanks again for all your support and the city's support for us. So, thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Nary, were you going to say something?
Nary: I think you covered it.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you so much.
Johnston: Thank you.
E. Resolution No. 17-1197: A Resolution Approving the
Historic Preservation Commission's Adoption of the
Idaho Historic Sites Inventory (IHSI); Requirements and
Standards for Documentation by the Idaho State
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February 21, 2017
Page 18 of 86
Historical Society.
De Weerd: Okay. Resolution 8-E is 17-1197 and -- will you turn him on? I didn't
tell him to turn you off.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's a l ittle unusual. We haven't
had a resolution done by the Commission itself, but the Idaho Historical Society
requires for certified local governments, which Meridian is one of, to adopt these
standards by some resolution of the commission itself , so that we are eligible for
both of opportunities -- training opportunities and such with the state, as well as
grants that are provided by the state and so this was passed at the last
commission meeting and my recommendation to them was to , then, bring it
before this Council for the Council to recognize that adoption by the commission
itself. If nothing else it's an easier way for us to find it later when they ask did we
do it. But this was -- again, not to -- not to belabor the point that you have all
made, this commission is really moving and they are doing a lot of things in this --
again, it's another example of that, of wanting to be eligible for opportunities for
the city in the historic preservation area and so I think it's a positive and just for
you to approve the resolution is presented.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bill. Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I move we approve Resolution No. 17-1197.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -E. If there is no
discussion, 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: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Action Items
A. Final Plat for Rainier Villas (H-2017-0008) by
Intermountain Pacific, LLC Located West of N. Meridian
Road, South of W. Pennwood Street and North of W.
Corporate Drive
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1. Request: Modification to the Final Plat to Modify
Certain Conditions to Accommodate Phasing and to
Allow Corporate Drive to be Constructed with a Later
Phase of Development
De Weerd: Under 9-A under Action Items is a final plat for H-2017-0008. I will
ask if there are staff comments.
Beach: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you said,
this is a -- an application for a final plat modification. The site here consists of
approximately 5.35 acres of land, which is zoned C-G, located west of North
Meridian Road, south of West Pennwood Street, and north of West Corporate
Drive. In 2016 a preliminary plat was approved, which consisted of 15 multi-
family residential lots and five common lots, as well as a conditional use permit
that was concurrently approved for the property to have 90 multi -family units.
Also in 2016 a final plat was approved consisting of 15 multi-family residential
lots and five common lots. The applicant received approval to develop the
property with the 90 multi-family units on 15 buildable lots. After receiving
development approval, the applicant is in the process of acquiring the four
commercial lots north of the proposed development. So, originally, it was just
this one parcel that they were going to develop. They have since worked out a
deal to purchase these four additional lots along Pennwood and with that their
project has changed. There is a pending conditional use permit application that's
been heard by the Planning and Zoning Commission to increase the number of
units from 90 to 180. During that hearing several requests were made by the
applicant. One was to delay the construction of the roadway, meaning the
corporate roadway, which would be part of this project. The applicant would be
required to construct that and their request is to delay the construction of
Corporate Drive, allow development on the property before the final plat records,
et cetera. That aspect of the approval -- the approved final plat. The Planning
and Zoning Commission continued the applicant -- this application or their
conditional use permit to March 2nd and required them to come before the City
Council to modify their final plat to reflect what they are trying to accomplish.
Hopefully that all made sense. The proposed requests are consistent with the
request discussed at the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing. And, as I
said, a condition of approval in the pending conditional use permit application
requires the applicant to obtain approval of a final plan modification prior to
applying for a certificate of zoning compliance application, which is the reason
why they are -- why they are before you this evening. So, the applicant seeks
Council approval to reduce the number of buildable lots and mo dify several
conditions of approval, which are listed as site-specific conditions of approval
number nine and number 14 approved with the final plat application. The
modifications are desired so the applicant can record a plat consistent with the
new site layout and commence with the first phase of construction prior to
recording the final plat and so as you see here the approved plat is here on the
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February 21, 2017
Page 20 of 86
left. They are going to be reducing the number of lots and they are also
requesting in conjunction with this a vacation application that will have to go
before the highway district and City Council to vacate the right-of-way that
currently exists here in a cul-de-sac. They no longer need that and we have
received a verbal approval from ACHD staff that they would be in favor of that.
So, the layout has been changed slightly and , as I said, they are also requesting
to delay construction of W est Corporate Drive, excuse me, with the development
of the second phase. So, the reason they are coming before you is both of those
things were requirements in the approved final plat that was approved last year .
So, in order to change these things it needed to come back before City Council to
modify the plat in order to get their approval with the conditional use permit. So,
there is kind of a lot of pieces in play here. Planning and Zoning didn't feel
comfortable recommending approval of the conditional use permit based on a
couple of things. One, this parcel -- moving back to the overall plan. This parcel
I'm highlighting here is not considered a legal parcel. So, in order for staff to
approve a building permit on that they to -- they needed to have a plat recorded.
So, they have since received approval for a final plat , but have not recorded it.
So, they were trying to get some open space on a lot that hasn't been approved
by the city to be built upon. So, Commission didn't feel comfortable. They
wanted Council to make a decision on that. So, as I said, currently the 5.3 acre
parcel approved with the final plan is not eligible for a building permit until the
final plat is recorded. So, the applicant -- having said that that may be confusing.
These four parcels are individual lots and are eligible for building permits. That's
where they will be building some buildings prior to getting their final plat
recorded. They are just hoping to get their conditional use permit approved and
moved forward with those -- with those few buildings there along Pennwood prior
to getting their plat recorded, with the understanding that it potentially could take
a couple of months for the county to review and approve that . So, moving to the
conditions that they are looking to modify, one of those conditions is that
corporate road -- Corporate Drive be approved with the second phase, with the
understanding that they will be required to pro vide access to an existing
turnaround on Corporate Drive that goes out to the light to Meridian Road -- has
been tentatively approved by the Fire Department and by Public Works. So, the
two conditions they are wanting to change are number nine, which will read West
Corporate Drive shall be constructed in its entirety with the second phase of
development. However, with the construction of the first phase of development
the applicant shall provide an access to the signalized intersection of West
Corporate Drive and Meridian Road as proposed in Exhibit C. The associated
landscape buffer and five foot detached sidewalk should be constructed with
each subsequent phase. The applicant will also be required to construct a water
main through the project to complete a loop from Pennwood to the east drive
access connection to West Corporate Drive and number 14 will read: The
applicant shall record a final plat prior to issuance of any certificate of occ upancy
in the first phase of development. With that we did not receive any comments
from the neighbors. Staff is recommending approval of this project and I will
stand for any questions you have.
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
Page 21 of 86
De Weerd: Thank you, Josh. Council, any questions at this point?
Bird: Not at this point.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Palmer: Josh, with the first phase back on the phasing map, was there already a
condition that there be access to Pennwood in phase one?
Beach: Correct.
Borton: Okay. Yeah. So, their access here is shown in this location here.
De Weerd: Okay. Is the applicant here? Good evening. If you will, p lease,
state your name and address for the record.
Robnett: My name is Shanon Robnett. 5103 North Zamora Road.
De Weerd: Please pull that a little closer.
Robnett: Sorry.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Robnett: Josh is correct. We came before you guys quite a while ago and
working with Josh and Bill over there, we were able to acquire the four par cels.
We already do own them, the four parcels to the north. We have increased the
density, but also increased the open space. So, we now have more open space
in this project. We have -- if you remember -- because I'm sure you all absolutely
have a photographic memory -- this was more of a four-plex style of -- of complex
and all of these now are three story apartments, so that's where we have
increased the density with that. With that you're not selling off individual four -
plexes, it was never part of our marketing plan, but it was part of our backup
strategy. With that you're not doing that in this, so we have modified the lot lines
in this final request. But in taking on such a project of that size we really did find
it necessary to phase it, just because it's now doubled. It's -- it's gotten bigger.
The land costs have gone up, because we acquired those other three acres . So,
those are the reasons that we have for doing what we have done, but I wanted to
state that, you know, in working with staff we have increased the density and the
open space and the amenity count and with the comments that we found a P&Z it
would be better just to come back and finalize that modification of the plat, so
that we can, then, continue and finish that process and, then, begin to roll out our
-- our vertical building. So, with that I will stand for any questions.
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
Page 22 of 86
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council, any further information needed
from the staff or the applicant?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Hearing none, I move that we approve the final plat H-2017-0008 and to
include all staff, applicant comments.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve this item. Any discussion?
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.
Item 10: Department Reports
A. Finance: Quarterly Department Update
De Weerd: Item 10-A is under our Finance Department. This will get the energy
back in the room. There you go. Thank you to our scouts for joining us tonight.
Thank you. Hey, C.Jay, can you go give them some pins for sitting with us for
this long. Here. Welcome, Mr. CFO.
Lavoie: Why, thank you, Mayor. Again, I'm here to bring excitement to the
house today, so, again, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we will try to
make this as exciting as possible. Unfortunately, I think -- I see I already scared
some of the Boy Scouts away, but we will see if we can --
De Weerd: They are waiting with bated breath I'm sure.
Lavoie: Yes. Again, we appreciate yo ur time tonight to present to you the
February quarterly council update. Today we are going to present to you fiscal
year 2000 actuals. Again, if you remember a couple weeks ago we had Kevin
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February 21, 2017
Page 23 of 86
Smith, our auditor, present to you a clean audit, which we are very proud of and
I'm here to just give you a 10,000 foot level of what occurred for 2016. We are
also going to present to you FYI on your top revenue sources, just in case you
didn't know the top expenditures that we as a city experienced for 2016. I will
present to you the fund balance bounces as a result of 9-30-2016 and, then, we
are going to present to you a new concept, a new way of looking financials, what
we call revenue-to-expense ratios and, then, we will disclose to you what we will
bring to you at the next exciting quarterly update meeting. So, with that let's get
into the financials. So, fiscal year 2016 has ended. This is your revenue results
for the General Fund. The top line you will see that we ended 14 percent higher
than our budgeted estimates. A large portion of that increase was due to a
positive thing here. Due to our community development. We had lots of growth.
You guys have seen that. As you can see they ended up at 150 percent above
what we expected. Again, that's all resolved because of the continued
phenomenal growth that we are experiencing here at the city. Those are directly
related to permit sales, permit revenues. You can see property taxes we came
almost at perfect. Only missed it by one percent. But at the end of the day our
General Fund revenues came in a little bit more than our budgeted, which is a
good thing, which is a good problem to have and you will see a theme here that
growth did outpace our projections in the following slides. Again, it's going to be
a common theme to the results that we experienced. This is a graphical display
of the data that you had here. Again, the important thing here is -- I will remind
you is the property taxes, that's the primary revenue source for the General
Fund.
De Weerd: I was thinking I have seen this theme there and I'm surprised it's not
green and yellow in reflection of your liaison. So, I'm glad you didn't succumb to
that.
Lavoie: Yes. So, again, the -- the green and yellow will show up for you next
time, Mr. Borton. I just want to show the actual property taxes that did come in a
little bit higher than budget and, then, out of all the revenue sources that we do
have to control, property taxes is the primary, so we definitely want to make sure
we manage the property taxes correctly going forward and for the future. Same
information for the Enterprise Fund. The Enterprise Fund ended up the year at
about eight percent above what we projected, so not a bad thing. Again,
development helped increase the number above one hundred percent. If you
look at the assessments. Assessments are directly related to the community
development, the vision, which is generating the permits. So, again, all good
problems to have. The sewer sales we came in a little under budget and I will
say that that was a mathematical error on our projections we will refine and
retune all those projections, so that we come in a little bit closer to that. Our
goal, though, is to always be right around three or four percent variance on either
side. In this -- in this case it is a little bit greater than we wanted. The good thing
at the end of the day we ended up a little bit higher than we expected. So, again,
not a bad problem to have.
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
Page 24 of 86
Cavener: Can I interrupt just --
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Todd, if you wouldn't mind going back to the other slide. The other
revenue -- the other revenue in the Enterprise Fund, can you walk me through
some examples of the revenue that we receive from --
Lavoie: Water meter sales.
Cavener: Meter sales.
Lavoie: Meter sales. Engineering fees. Your engineering division represents
performance engineering, reviewed plan fees.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
Lavoie: You're welcome. So, again, now this is just a graphical picture of that
data. Another, again, note that we will make this a different color for our
Councilman Borton, but the item I would drive here is your water sales and sewer
sales, primary revenue source for the Enterprise Fund, we want to make sure we
manage those two revenue sources accurately for the years to come. So, those
are your revenue actuals to budget for fiscal year 2016. Again, we did very well
there. So, let's get into the expenses. We are going to start with the General
Fund. General Fund personnel expenses. We ended up at 97 percent execution
rate or performance. It's fantastic. It's about average for the General Fund. So,
it's right where we want to be. You know, some departments were a little bit
higher, some were a little bit lower due to vacancy. But, again, 97 is a good
number we are looking for. General Fund's operating. We ended up at 90 -- 89,
90 percent. Again, another good number. It's good right on average for the City
of Meridian. Again, some departments ended up a little bit higher than lower. I'm
just going to point out the one that probably jumps out to you, the very bottom
one at 125 percent. That's a good thing. For every dollar above and beyond the
hundred percent that the Community Development Department spends, they
generate more in revenue. So, they would increase their expenses if they
increase their revenue. We have fantastic inspection contract agreements, so
when we experience expenses, the only time we experience an expense is
because the inspectors are generating revenue. So, if we experience the 125
percent above our budget here, the revenue, if you remember, was even higher
than that. So, this is a good problem to have to an extent, just know that 125
percent was offset by more revenue on the revenue side. And, then, last is
capital. These are the three major reporting groups. Capital end of the year at
64 percent. I can note that the four million dollars that you can see, quote,
unquote, left on the table, we have requests from all the departments to carry
those dollars forward into fiscal year '17, so the anticipation to spend the dollars
Meridian City Council
February 21, 2017
Page 25 of 86
will still occur, they just were not able to spend all the dollars in '16, but just know
that your departments are spending the dollars that they had requested, it just
takes two years to spend them. So, again, graphical picture of what's going on.
Revenue is higher than budget, which is a good thing. Expenses are under
budget, which is a good thing at the end of the day. Your departments executed
their budget quite well. So, we are going to look at the same graph -- or same
data points for our Enterprise Fund. Enterprise Fund finished the year for
personnel expenses at 91 percent, which is average for them. Again, each
department has some vacancies here and there. You can see the percentage
breakdown on those. Operating expenses came in at 84 percent, again, which is
average for the utility billing -- or I mean -- I apologize -- for the Enterprise Fund.
Again, you can see how they are displayed there right now. We will represent
the MUBs department, which came in over a hundred percent and I can explain
that the credit card fees that we incurred and the transition o f the cultural change
from our customers to go more credit card , more digital, outpaced our
expectations, so we have to adjust our fiscal '18 credit card merchant fees,
transaction fees that we are incurring because of the customer services that we
are offering to our citizens. And, then, last is the Enterprise Fund. Capital
Enterprise Fund spends about 60 percent of their budget for fiscal 2016 as
requested and working with their division I can tell you that of the eight -- or about
ten million that is quote, unquote, left on the table they have asked for nine of it to
be carried into the following year, so just like the General Fund they have
requested the 14 million, it just takes a couple of years to spend it. Again, over
the two years you will see that the Enterprise Fund will be spending the 24 million
over the two years. So, again, graphical display of the information. Again, good
things here. Revenues are to the budget. For revenues and actuals for
operating are under budget, so both good things at the end of the day. So, what
does this all mean? The General Fund. The General Fund has what we call
excess revenue. We ended the year at a little over three million dollars. That
means we had more revenues than expenses, which is always a good thing, a
good problem to have. If you want to know who contributed to the excess
revenue, here is how the breakdown shows. Community Development, again, as
we talked about came in at 150 percent. So, they generated more revenue than
we were expecting. Grants. Our impact fees, again, did great, because they are
a direct relation to your development and, then, you can see the other three
divisions -- or three functions. We utilize fund balance to make that happen. And
just want to reiterate, too, that with the negative General Fund, which is primarily
sourced by property taxes, just want to reiterate to everybody that we are not
generating a flush amount of property taxes to generate excess revenues.
Again, we are generating enough -- or not enough to pay for the current ongoing
needs. Hence why we had to go into fund balance. So, same slide for the
Enterprise Fund. Enterprise Fund, again, as we talked had excess revenues,
which is another great thing. They generated a little over five million dollars of
excess revenue and we have the same breakdown for them. You can see what
four major components contributed to their excess revenues. Capital is funded
by assessment revenues, which is derived from developments. Again,
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development is saved for overtime and paid for as a just -in-time or pay-as-you-
go. In this case you can see we had to tap into the resource -- or the fund
balances that we have been saving up for the years past, so that's how we
balanced the capital growth needs for fiscal '16. So, this is the financial results
for fiscal year 2016 at a top level. Again, all positive results. The City of
Meridian had ended both the General Fund and Enterprise Fund in a positive
position, so kudos to your departments and department heads and the teams
that led those expenditures. These are the FYI slides. If you ever wanted to
know what your top five of revenue sources are for the General Fund here they
are. The property taxes as we have talked is your primary revenue source for
General Fund and, then, as it goes down cyclical for the building permits. As you
can see it's gone from two million to five million. It's dependent on the
development and the community and the economics out there. And more FYI
just for you. The Enterprise Fund. Here is the information for it. Their revenue
top sources, if you ever wanted to know, sewer and water sales, primary revenue
source -- again, connections, very cyclical based on the economics. If you look
back in 2011 they are doing about 2.8. Now, they are over eight million. So,
again, it's up and down, ebb and flow. Then opposite side. The expenditures for
General Fund. Your number one expenditure group is the police administration
costs or personnel costs, followed by fire admin accordingly and, then, for the
Enterprise Fund your top expenditure groups -- it's going to be water construction
and wastewater construction. Probably not a surprise there. Followed by a
couple operating personnel costs by division. So, again, those slides are just
pretty much FYI. Just to kind of give me an idea where we are getting our money
from and where our money is going. Fund balances. As we just discussed, we
generated excess revenue, so that means our fund balances went up. That's a --
again, another good problem to have. At the end of the fiscal year 2016, the
General Fund sits at a little over 44 million dollars in fund balances. Again, a lot
of those dollars are restricted, accounted for and assigned. And, then, the
Enterprise Fund ended the year again with positive excess revenue. They are
sitting out about 46 point million -- 46.7 million dollars. Again, most of those
dollars are accounted for and assigned for future capital needs that we have
been saving up for, that will be spent over the next few years. So, again, great
results for 2016. Good -- good information and good data. So, again, kudos to
the team who executed the budget. Revenue expense ratios. This is something
new that we want to present to you as a different way of looking at finances.
What we do is we track over 50 different GLs, 50 different reporting groups, 50
different sources against total revenue and your primary revenue sources and
what we are doing is we want to see if there is trends that we can follow, trends
that we can utilize to help future projections and, again, we are going to utilize
these data points for future discussions with you , Council, and with future
decisions and also the departments. So, we are going to jump right into a couple
of slides. We didn't bring all 50. I know you're disappointed. But we brought a
few of them. So, the first one here is going to be for the General Fund. So, this
is an example of what we are doing with revenue-expense ratios. What this slide
shows you is your personnel, which is the blue line, as a percentage of total
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revenue generated. So, in 2004 we can tell you that total personnel costs for the
City of Meridian utilized 52 percent of all revenue sources for the General Fund.
Good, bad or indifferent that's what it was. If we fast forward to 2016, we utilized
63 percent of total revenue sources. So, we can, then, start some discussions.
Is 50 -- is 63 percent too high or is it too low? Are we comfortable with the level
of services that we are providing to our citizens and staff members. If it is, then,
we can imply that 63 percent of the revenue allocated to personnel costs is
delivering acceptable level of service. So, we can, then, imply costs associated
to what we deem as an acceptable level of service. And the red line is the same
information for operating expense. You can see that we have gone from 25
percent to 20 percent of all revenue dollars generated get allocated to operating
expenses. So, again, these are just tools to spur d iscussion to determine are we
on the right path, should we make changes, or do we, you know, move along and
just allocate more revenue to personnel or operating.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Quick question, Todd. So, what -- what changed from 2012 to 2016 that
made it go from 70 to 63? Is it more revenue or -- I would assume that would be
the -- the factor, because I don't think we have come down in staff.
Lavoie: Councilman Palmer, if I heard you correctly, what's the change from
2012 to 2016?
Palmer: Yeah. What brought it down? It kind of peaked there and it's kind of --
Lavoie: So, within that ten percent range what brought it down? Correct?
Palmer: Right.
Lavoie: Most likely it's going to be either revenue increases from other sources
or property taxes or all of our revenue sources or our personnel is not growing as
fast as our revenue sources are coming. Vice-versa. Or our revenue sources
are growing faster than our expenditures.
De Weerd: So, a combination thereof and also I think there are challenges of
filling positions -- certainly in public safety if you miss the academies, it's -- you're
waiting until the next cycle to -- to fill those openings, so --
Palmer: Madam Mayor, the --
De Weerd: -- for example. Yes, Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: That is fascinating information to me to -- I guess, you know, going
forward to have those conversations that you're talking about on -- on what is an
acceptable level on -- do we push hard to fill those open positions or are we
doing fine to maintain that ratio that is working or is it not working. So, the --
De Weerd: You don't mind overtime.
Lavoie: Appreciate the question, Mr. Palmer. So, again, a nother way of looking
-- another slide that we look at is -- again, we compare this to our primary
revenue, which is property taxes. So, again, what the previous slide was all the
revenue sources for the General Fund, this one is just representing property
taxes. So, again, this shows are we growing faster or slower as compared to
property taxes in -- in its whole. As you see at one time property taxes were -- I
guess personnel spent 121 percent, again, which is impossible, but it's showing
you that we relied on other revenue sources just to cover personnel and we are
now sitting at -- in 2016 at about a little over a hundred percent. So, still one
hundred percent of all your property taxes that we are collecting are paid by --
are just going to personnel, quote, unquote. So, we are heavily relied on other
revenue sources, which we have very little control over to pay for all your other
operating needs, all your other capital needs. So, again, just a different way of
looking at it. Things to be considered on -- or considered when we are making
decisions about property taxes and personnel and operating and so forth. So,
again, just another way of looking at how we manage our budget going forward .
In this case you can show that property taxes are not growing at an expo nential
rate. If they were, then, the percentages would be much different on this slide.
So, we are growing at probably the same rate as our staffing in this case. So,
again, Enterprise Fund, we do the exact same thing for the General Fund. We
look at total revenue compared to personnel and operating. We try to determine
is there a trend, are we comfortable with the services that we are providing. If so,
you know, then, we can imply that the cost associated to the current costs -- or to
the current personnel is acceptable and we can kind of depict what it costs or
what it takes to deliver the level of service as of today.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Todd, 2010, 2011, the operating jumped up there almost ten percent.
Lavoie: It did. Yes.
Bird: You can -- can you -- I'm trying to but my mind to what would have caused
that. Do you remember anything? There had to be -- there has to be something
that we had to -- at the wastewater treatment plant or something that we had to
bring on board or something that was a very expensive operating cost item.
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De Weerd: I think that's when we hired Dale. Oh, sorry.
Bird: No. I think that's probably when Kyle got wild with the -- with the wells or
something. But, anyway, no, I -- I mean you just don't see a jump like that in a
year's deal and I -- without having a reason and I have been sitting here think --
which I'm sure there is something there.
Lavoie: Councilman Bird, you're a hundred percent. There is a reason -- I'm
trying to go back to 2010 to think what occurred in operating expenditures and
right now I'm drawing a blank, but we can definitely give you an answer to show
why it jumped up ten percent, but it came down the year after. So, it was a one
time blip for some reason. Again, we can find out. We can get you that
information, Mr. Bird.
Bird: That wouldn't have been when we put in --
De Weerd: You need to --
Bird: And that would have been capital. I'm --
Lavoie: And this is operating.
Bird: Yeah. That's operating.
Lavoie: So, we probably did a transfer of some sort to the General Fund possibly
to pay for --
Bird: Anyway.
Lavoie: We can find an answer for you.
Bird: Yeah. Just -- it's a rarity, but it does happen.
Lavoie: Yes.
Bird: Go ahead.
Lavoie: So, again, what these slides are intended to help us do is determine are
we comfortable with how we are spending -- spending the dollars as depicted
here for personnel and operating. Again, we do the exact same h ere for water
and sewer sales. This is a primary revenue generator for the Enterprise Fund.
In this case you can see that the -- the bar's kind of going downwards, which is a
direct relation to the growth that we have experienced here at the city. As we
increase more customers, more customers generate more revenues, more
revenues generate more sales and what we can learn from this is that sales are
outpacing the personnel and the operating costs currently being managed and
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approved by the Enterprise Fund. So, we also do this for revenues. Right now
this is the percentage of property taxes allocated -- or I guess proportionate
share to the total General Fund and it's been pretty flat, which is great over the
past five years. We are right about 60 percentish for the General Fund. So,
what we can learn here is that the property taxes they are not growing any faster
or slower than our total other general revenue sources. If the property taxes
were growing faster than this percentage -- or this line would go more vertical,
because it's growing faster than the total other revenue sources. So, this is a
comfortable slide to say that our property taxes are growing at the same pace as
other revenue sources that the city is managing on a year -to-year basis. We do
the same thing for the Enterprise Fund. Major revenue source for them is, again,
water and sewer sales and what this is showing is that growth is actually
outpacing our -- our assessment revenues are outpacing our percentage
revenues in sales of water and sewer sales. Again it's cyclical. Again, you can
see how the -- this graph is much more dynamic. As assessment revenues slow
down the bar will start growing up again , because sales will generate a larger
proportion of the total revenue for the Enterprise Fund, but at this moment with
the increased assessment revenues and the increased growth for residential and
commercial, water sales and services are just sliding down, but things will
change as soon as that part of the economy slows down and water sales will go
back up as a proportionate share. As I promised I would not bring you 50 slides.
So, I'm on the last two slides to keep this exciting. This is another one that we
compare. We compare the benefits. This is the General Fund. What we are
doing is we are comparing total benefits against total revenue. Again, the blue
line is going more vertical, more -- at a higher rate than the revenue that we are
generating on a year-to-year basis. We just have to ask the question can we
sustain allocating more of our revenues to benefits on a year-to-year basis.
That's a question for us. Do we need to make changes. You know, will this spur
conversation and that's what these slides and tools are supposed to help us with.
You know, if we are comfortable with this, then, we manage it, but we just have
to cut -- or make changes to allocate the necessary expenditures to benefits over
the long run for the General Fund. Again, we do the same thing for the
Enterprise Fund. Enterprise Fund has a different looking bar, because they are
generating revenue faster than the Enterprise Fund is generating -- generating
revenue. Enterprise Fund is directly related to growth. They have water
accounts that grow faster than our property taxes or our state revenue sharing in
the General Fund. So, it's not a surprise that their line is a little bit flattened,
because they are experiencing a growth at a faster rate than the General Fund.
So, again, slides just to I guess spur conversations, discussions that are we
spending the right amount of resources at the right amount of expenses . As I
promised that was the last graph and I am --
Bird: Got to have a cartoon.
Lavoie: Are we good? Thank you. There we go. So, again, that was the last
slide as I promised with the graph. Sorry it wasn't all 50. But to recap, we went
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over the 2016 actual financials. Again, as a reminder both funds ended the year
at excess revenue, so gratz to everybody there. We gave you an FYI on top
revenue sources, top expenditure sources. We looked at the positive positions
over fund balances and we introduced a new concept known as revenue
expense ratios. And the next item is going to be our June quarterly updates.
Again, this is what we were planning on presenting to you . It's more of a
demographic employee count, just kind of what we are seeing in growth changes
and, then, we will present that in June and, then, with that -- there is your comic
that you have been waiting for. Any questions for us?
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd.
Bird: Why didn't you color the shirt green and make Joe happy.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
B. Community Development: Overland and Eagle Land Use
Planning Update
De Weerd: This is great information. We -- we really appreciate this. Council,
I'm going to -- I just figured out who might be the extra bodies in the room and I
think they might be here supporting Dale. Behind you? No? Okay. Mike is. I
was going to do your family maybe a favor and so -- okay. Then Item No. 10-B --
we are on 10-B -- is Brian. Thank you. We haven't seen you for a while, Brian.
McClure: I like to hide.
De Weerd: Well, it's nice having you.
McClure: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Brian.
McClure: Madam Mayor, City Council, thank you for having me here tonight. I'm
here to discuss the Overland and Eagle future land use planning area. This is an
update, an opportunity for Council to provide direction in an effort -- on this effort
that I brought to you last November. Can you guys see that all right? I have a
bar on my screen.
De Weerd: Yes.
McClure: As a recap to the last time I was before you , this planning area
includes the Jewel and Rolling Hills Subdivisions. There are approximately 68
properties on one hundred acres in the county. They have a low density
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residential future land use primarily. There is access to Overland Road only and
some of these properties have already been -- are already proposed for
redevelopment. The intent of this project is to evaluate the potential for a future
-- for a city -- for an area-wide future land use map change. You can see on the
map some of the projects that have occurred or are occurring in the area. As we
discussed last time, we move forward to a public involvement meeting. We held
this on January 23rd at Siena Elementary School . Forty-four people signed in,
with more in actual attendance. A few attendees were outspoken against any
change, but most -- approximately two-thirds were interested in the conversation,
with varying levels of interest. We set the project website at the link below if
you're interested. So, I guess it's kind of -- what did they say. As part of this
meeting we requested written comments shown on the map. Here is a very
generalized visual summary of those comments. Look at it like a color gradient.
So, the green spectrum are those that are, one, a sale, usually is commercial or
already have nonresidential uses occurring there and red are the kind of leave
me alone comments. I will also note that after we held the public involvement
meeting two realtors approached us. They subsequently had two of their own
meetings and they are -- and what they are doing is kind of -- I'm not entirely
sure, but on the surface it sounds like -- well, it doesn't sound like they actually
have any development ready to go or anyone really to pay anyone any money,
they are just trying to kind of put together a package to take to a developer is
kind of what I assume there, but I don't know for sure. What they are doing,
though, is entirely separate from what Caleb and I have started, though.
Apparently I lost a slide here. What I wanted to show you was a flood plain map.
Currently we have a flood plain in this issue and flood way, so you can see the
Five Mile Creek down there right where the word you is, Five Mile Creek above
Topaz. The floodway and flood plain on all the properties fronting Overland
Road and significant amounts of floodway and flood plain into the properties
north of those ones, that's important because if only the parcels along Overland
Road continue to redevelop in the piecemeal fashion that they are, you're dealing
with a limited area and more limited opportunities to correct that flood plain issue.
So, I have shown this before, but this depicts our current future land uses for the
planning area. I'm going to show you a few examples next in preparation asking
Council what they would like our next steps to be. So, this example here is what
I see stakeholders at the meeting propose to us. Basically everything south of
Five Mile Creek becoming commercial and everything north being left alone. I
should note that there were a few comments in there -- people that live within the
Jewel Subdivision, the western portion of this, that were interested in
redeveloping as well. Their comments are not reflected here. Unfortunately, this
scenario here is of limited public benefit with flood plain in the back on the
Overland properties, this change would not encourage any ownership
consolidation to make resolving flood plain issues very difficult and, actually,
would encourage the piecemeal redevelopment and access conflicts that we are
afraid of occurring on Overland Road. We have got no shortage of projects to
work on and you don't need to answer this now, but would something like this be
worth's staff's time. This example here kind of splits some of the comments. It
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doesn't really reflect anyone entirely, but kind of meets them halfway. You can
kind of envision what you see here as what happened with Portico. So, you had
a county subdivision, they were bought out, and redeveloped to b e what Portico
is. There is lots of other possibilities, too. So, with that staff is recommending
that we, again, meet with the stakeholders in that area. At a minimum that would
be to check in and update them our conversations here tonight with you. W e
could also discuss some changes to the future land use map of varying levels,
depending on your thoughts. I'd like to understand what Council wants to see,
you know, if there is any sort of threshold between what stakeholders want and
what may be good for the city before we commit to more staff time and
resources. Lastly, and completely unrelated, I want to plug -- I'm meeting next
Monday for another land use exercise in northwest Meridian looking at the
Intermountain Gas facility out there and some potential non -- nonresidential land
uses over at that facility and within the vicinity of it. So, with that I would
appreciate any direction or questions you may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Brian. Council, any questions or comments at this point?
Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Brian, what do you think we should do?
McClure: Thank you, Mr. Palmer. Madam Mayor, Mr. Palmer, I think what we
need to do is to have that other meeting with the stakeholders, let them know
what our interests are and where are -- where our limits may be. So, for
example, the -- the commercial up front along Overland Road I don't necessarily
think that's appropriate. I think that will encourage piecemeal and will just give us
more issues later. But I do think there may be a variety of other solutions that
may meet a number of the residents' needs and wants without -- most of them.
There will, obviously, always be some people that are not happy or so distressed
about it that may occur.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Palmer: Last time we -- this was brought before us I think I had mentioned that I
have been over there, because I was -- I was looking at purchasing a piece of
property that was in there for that very reason that -- the potential of the area and
so I would agree, I think there is -- there is enough potential to plan it better that I
think we can move forward, continue to investigate the opportunities for -- for
planning ahead a little bit better than it's situated right now.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: Brian, can you pull up that slide that shows people that were
interested? Because I did a quick count and it looks like you have five not
interested, I don't want to change anything, and maybe five I'm really interested
in developing now. Everybody else is kind of in the middle. Is that -- was that
reflected in the discussion that you heard at that meeting?
McClure: Madam Mayor and Councilman Cavener, thank you. The -- no -- yes-
no, sort of. This is reflective of the written comments only. During the -- the
meeting we had a number of informal kind of hand raises and most of the people
in the meeting were interested in having a discussion -- a further discussion on
this and looking into some potential alternatives.
De Weerd: What was your sense, Brian, of timing? Or is there some immediacy
to this or -- or do you have time -- and like you mentioned, you don't lack other
projects and items that you have already started working on. Where would this
play in a priority to the projects you're currently involved in as well?
McClure: Madam Mayor, I think that -- if I were to determine that -- I think it
would determine -- I think it would depend on how willing they were to -- to
actually have some conversations and meet midway between. But a lot of the
problem out there is the property owners disagreement them selves, not
necessarily what the city wants, and I think -- if they were willing to be able to
make concessions and come to an agreement on something, it would be pretty
important. Norco is going to be building out there soon, between Silverstone
Road. It's going to be extended up towards the Elk's property where the
farmstead is. That is potentially going to have some significant impacts on their
-- on what they view as their quality of life and potentially giving them an
opportunity to sell and leave before it starts impacting them. I personally think
would be a benefit to them. Some of them adamantly disagree with me and don't
think anything is going occur on the property. So, it's -- this is my opinion.
De Weerd: I guess my first blush in seeing this -- and I do believe you need to
do the follow up. I would imagine you should come to Council in the next budget
to consider a specific land use plan for this area. I agree with you, because of
the flood plain in that area, that it needs to have an overall plan, so that that is
mitigated as -- as a plan, instead of piece by piece, because that could really
impact the neighboring property based on what the current one might be
redeveloping to. So, if -- if Council would -- would be interested in -- in having
some kind of a cost estimate and what a specific area plan would -- would mean
in that area it's -- it's some information that you could bring back to the neighbors
as you did a wrap up.
McClure: Thank you.
De Weerd: That's my first blush response. Any comment to that? Because I do
think of -- Norco goes out there and if the Elk's -- there is always rumors; right?
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As the Elk's consider different proposals for -- for their area, that's going to start
putting pressure in that area and it would be helpful to have a plan.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: My two cents -- I think that residents of those neighborhoods that live
there have heard -- I'm sure their ears are closer to the ground and rumors than
maybe some of us are and have lived with those rumors for a number of years . I
don't see any glaring desire to want to change their current living situation and so
I think it's definitely worth something exploring down the road . From my
perspective it's not something worth exploring in the immediate future, for what
it's worth. And so that -- I wouldn't even include it into next year's budget
planning. I would look at it as maybe even two or three years out. If you're
looking for perspective from Council, I think it's important that we provide that to
you. That's where I'm coming from based on the information you have provided.
McClure: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other comments from Council?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would agree with Luke on that. You look at the map here and there is so
many no comments and I have to be truthful with you, I know quite a few of the
people out there and I don't think any of them that I know are ready to leave their
properties that they have built and worked on for 40 plus years. I think -- I think
there needs to be more planning done. I agree with Luke, I -- I don't think -- and,
you know, we don't know how fast the Elk's property and stuff -- it's going to go
and -- I don't know. I have heard a lot of the smoke, but I'd like to see the fire.
Thank you.
Cavener: Good Keith Birdism.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I don't disagree, but I also think one of the things we hear on occasion is
instances where individuals own property and are reliant somewhat on a future
land use map and if the intent of this area truly is that maybe the southern portion
of it to develop in some form of commercial and that's maybe how we envision it
-- we are not rezoning or changing any of the existing uses, but I don't want
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future purchases of some of parcels to think that we -- this is truly intended to be
residential along Overland Road. So, to not lose sight of this, it might be a
chance to let those next buyers be aware that changes may be coming and I
think a future land use map change would at least provide them some of that
notice that they -- they should be entitled to. So, if the process continues to
ensure that gets done, that would make sense.
McClure: Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: And I wouldn't disagree with what Councilman Borton just said either, but I
think that there is some people out there that are under the impression that -- that
we are looking to annex them at this point. I don't know of any annexation that
we have done as a Council that hasn't been asked for, unless they needed water
and sewer and to my knowledge their water and sewer probably -- they don't
have too many problems out there that I know of, so -- but they are under the
impression that we are out there to annex them and get them in on the city tax
rolls. So, I think it might be a good idea, Brian, to have another meeting with
them like -- and as far as a land use map , but I think it would be very good to
have something up like that. We have impact areas all over.
McClure: Thank you.
De Weerd: So, I guess in your follow-up meeting to stress that at this point the
city sees no urgency to plan in that area. However, if -- if they do exhibit some
interest in at least knowing what a future plan could look like -- look like, certainly
you can bring an enhancement for the next budget discussion to -- to see where
it is in the priority after meeting with -- with the residents in that area, to stress, as
Councilman Bird -- Councilman Bird noted, we have no interest in pursuing
annexation for any properties that don't utilize our services and they are not
looking for us to -- to be city dwellers, so --
C. Community Development: 2017 Transportation Priorities
McClure: Thank you. Anything further from Council? Thank you so much. All
right. All things transportation.
Caleb: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. You thought the
Finance presentations were rip roaring, just wait here. So, I got an e-mail from
Mr. Clerk he said that I need to be really brief , because you have a lot of -- a lot
of things on your agenda tonight. So, I am going to try to break a record and,
essentially, just call to your attention -- so, there is a hand out -- hopefully you all
got it. It's the same information that's in your packet. I just wasn't sure if you had
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printed that out or if you had access to it. So, it's the same information. Really,
the map that's also on the screen is really the big thing to look at here . If you
don't want to look at spreadsheets, if you don't want to look at methodology, this,
essentially, in one picture shows the properties that I'm prepared to send to
ACHD with your blessing as of right now. But before I ask for a motion or even
further discussion, just a little bit of context. So, annually the city does put
together a list of priorities and send those to ACHD at their request. For this year
ACHD has requested our project priority list by March 17th. So, we do have a
few weeks. If you want to think about this for a week or two, I can come back
and we can finalize the list or if you're comfortable when you have looked at it
over the weekend or whatever and you're comfortable with the way it is, we can
-- we can move it on. So, ACHD is putting together their 2018 to 2022 integrated
five year work plan and if you look on pages 12 and 13 -- I'm sorry, the page
numbering stops at 11, but it's the one after 11, 12 and 13, you will see how
ACHD -- their current ranking of projects. I'm not going to spend really any time
on that, but I want you just to see that spreadsheet. It's two pages. Well, really
one and a quarter pages. The seventh column from the far right is where what
we are doing comes into play. It's called support points is the name of the
column and based on our top ten or 15 projects you get bonus points or support
points that are nontechnical. They can be political. They can be your pet
projects. They can be based on level of service and those other things, but just
know level of service and safety and construction costs and all that , ACHD's
already accounting for. So, this is a chance to take, again, a project that
probably does have some merit, but maybe we want to boost it up a little bit and
give it some support points. So, again, I'm not going to spend a whole bunch of
time on that, but I just want you to be aware you have the projects and it's based
on a cost-benefit ratio of projects ACHD says this is the most beneficial project
we could do at the very top of that list. Biggest bang for the buck. All the way
down to their number 70th project. Not that that's a bad project, but the cost
benefit is not very high. So, just some things that the transportation commission
considered during their January 9th and February 6th meetings . So, as Mr.
Ballard pointed out earlier today, that's one of their main -- the main duties of the
transportation commission is to talk about and present to you draft transportation
priorities each year and so what you have before you is the transportation
commission's list of roadways, intersections, and community programs projects.
They are -- I will just, again, briefly summarize. There is not a whole lot of
change year over, but if you want to start on -- or look at the spreadsheet, you
can see the second column in from the left is our 2016 city priority ranking and
the far left is the draft proposed 2017 ranking. So, you can go by -- go down the
list and compare them side by side. You know, there were some projects that
jumped four, five, fell four, five spots. We added one new roadway and one new
sidewalk project to the list. So, a lot of the same and that's why I'm comfortable
just sort of -- and I don't want to gloss over this, but just sort of leaving it at that
with my presentation saying it's largely the same as it was last year and the
changes you can see if you just look at the far left two columns you can see
changes in year over. So, Madam Mayor, with that being said, I will stand for any
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February 21, 2017
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questions you have and if you're comfortable tonight, it's great, I have a draft --
the last two pages are a draft cover letter that -- that I would put on -- on top of
the list as we send to ACHD by the 17th. If you want some more time to look at
the list and letter I can come back to a future meeting or we can talk about it a
little bit right now, whatever your pleasure is, but that's my presentation.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, I would recommend that we put it on for
next meeting, give you a chance to look at this in more detail and have an
opportunity to ask questions and come back for discussion next week . Does that
sound reasonable or do you want more time than that?
Cavener: Works for me.
Bird: Madam Mayor, that sounds reasonable.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, we will put it on next week, then, Caleb.
Hood: Sounds good. Madam Mayor, can I just make one request --
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Hood: -- if that's where we are going to go. If you have questions this week or
before Tuesday and want to e-mail me, then, that way I'm prepared and I'm sure
that I can answer your question rather than on the spot. I might be able to field it
on the spot, but if you can shoot me an e-mail, give me a call, whatever is
preferred -- obviously it's not required, but it's preferred if you can give me a
heads up. Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Borton.
Borton: One quick question. I didn't see anything in here, other than a project
that might have been completed that -- to the transportation commission there
was a drastic swing in recommendations on any of the projects that might have
been really high and -- or a particular purpose was -- was lowered drastically or
vice-versa. Is that a fair summation?
Hood: Madam Mayor, it depends, I guess, on your definition of drastic.
Borton: More than five.
Hood: Yeah, there are a few that mostly fell more than five. I think we had one
that rose about that much. Yeah. So, even on the first page, Locust Grove and
Victory roundabout, that one jumped ten spots in the draft and there was one --
particularly on community programs, I can let you know right over here on 2nd
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February 21, 2017
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Street the city put together -- no, I'm jumping to the community programs list now.
2nd Street requested some sidewalk to kind of define the pedestrian area and
parking area. The food bank was having problems with people parking in front of
other people's properties and things like that and ACHD basically said it doesn't
score well enough for us, we are not going to do sidewalks out there. So, that
one fell quite a few spots. I don't remember the -- exactly how many it fell, but
that 2nd Street project fell quite a bit.
Borton: Okay.
Hood: No, nothing radical.
Borton: And I’m looking -- Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Borton: I'm just looking at the -- like your memo reports -- really the top 15 are
the meaty ones to look at as far as ranking.
Hood: Right.
Borton: That really have impact. So, within the top 15 nothing -- I see the ones
that you made reference to.
Hood: Well -- so, yeah, one jumped from 19 to --
Borton: Yeah.
Hood: -- nine, so now it's getting a bonus point or two, but -- so, yeah, that's why
I did the presentation, nothing -- nothing what I would consider radical, but if your
definition was five spots or more, there were a few that jumped or fell five spots
or more.
Borton: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. So, the request is if you have any questions, please, let Caleb
know, so he has time to get -- get information and feedback on that. So, thank
you, Caleb.
Hood: Thank you.
D. Fire Department: Treasure Valley Cooperative Fire
Authority Interagency & Joint Powers Agreement
De Weerd: Item 10-B is under Chief Niemeyer.
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Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, good evening. Before I
begin I just want to reach out and congratulate Councilman Bird on the park as
well deserved. He taught a lot of youth sports and your impact goes just beyond
the borders. A lot of folks I talked to know you well and I think you know probably
who I'm talking about. There is some folks that have been involved with you. So,
congratulations.
Bird: Thank you very much. It means a lot.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I am here as a follow up from
two weeks ago in the presentation I gave on the cooperative fire joint powers
agreement. Again, just a review quickly of that. What it is, it's a legal document
that allows us to do certain collaborative efforts. There are six in particular that
were called out in the agreement. That's joint testing in the academy. We did
that last year very successfully. We just want to memorialize that. Centralized
fleet maintenance and repair. We are doing that today with Star. That's been in
process for three years. Worked very well. That gets memorialized in this
agreement. Mutual and automatic aid and future deployment stations and
locations and where those are going to be, so we are not building right next to
each other. If the opportunity is there to share in a station we will be given that
opportunity to discuss that. Assured capital improvement process. That includes
joint station design potentially, design of fire apparatus and see if we can't get
consistency and lower our price point on some of those capital projects . Again,
shared software where applicable. We know we can't share all software. We
have no desire to. But a lot of times fire departments use the same exact
software and we are each paying our own independent fees for that. Just a note
there. If we do anything like that it doesn't change the fact that we work with our
IT Department still to make sure it meets their needs. So, nothing in the process
changes as far as how we do it today and, then, potentially shared purchasing of
equipment, specialized piece of equipment that we can all share in the cost of
and, then, all utilize. Again, to just hit on what it's not. It's not a merger, not a
consolidation, it doesn't take away any local control of budgets. There is no
separate budget presented in this. If you look at Section 7.1 where it talks about
the budget, it's very much the same as our EMS joint powers agreement. There
is a decision made there to come still to you for approval and if you don't approve
it we go back to the drawing board. So, no change there as far as budgets or the
approval process. So, with that -- I don't want to extend this too long, but
certainly take any questions you may have and hopefully get approval tonight.
De W eerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
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Bird: First, Mark, I apologize for not getting with you within the last two weeks,
but I have -- I don't know why I have been busier than a one arm p aper hanger,
so it -- I still, reading over this -- and I assure you I read this a couple times. I
don't see where it really, really benefits the City of Meridian. As far as MOU, you
know, I would hope to think that we would never be called out unless it was
major, major, major thing to Caldwell, Idaho. I mean if we -- if they have to
depend on our equipment to get there, they're burnt down. Anyway, I just -- and I
can't figure out is why -- why isn't Eagle and -- and Boise and Kuna jumping on
board? They are the ones that -- you know, if you want -- if you want buying
power and stuff, the four -- the four people we got here wouldn't even be a mole
on Boise. So, if you -- if you're going to do that -- I don't say it isn't a good thing
and I know you guys have worked hard on it and -- and it might -- and I might be
180 degrees wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. But I just have a hard time
figuring out where this benefits the taxpayers of Meridian, Idaho. Maybe you can
help me.
Niemeyer: Well, I think -- Councilman Bird, I guess -- first I would point to the
EMS joint powers agreement. We have had that in place for four years and we
have lowered our costs operationally in the Fire Department. So, in looking at a
model like this -- and I guess let me first go to your point about the other
departments, because I know back when we started this Councilman Borton was
our liaison and now it's Councilman Cavener. We did reach out to those other
departments. I think -- I'm just taking a stab here -- that in the future you would
see those other departments -- namely Kuna and Eagle -- coming on board with
this. They have gone through a transition in their fire chief leadership. The
previous fire chief of Eagle didn't want any part of this, but I think the transitional
team that's going in place may. That's the feedback we have gotten. As far as
Boise goes, we did reach out to Chief Doan in Boise fire to ask them if they
wanted to be part of this. Their department is large enough they basically
maximize their purchasing power today and they have 17 stations and -- and 280
employees I think. And so they maximize their purchasing power. But we did
reach out to them as well. And, then, I guess to the -- to the second point about
how does it help our taxpayers. If you just look simply a t the station design cost,
the architectural design, we have been told that's about ten percent of the overall
cost of building the station. If we do that by ourselves in a two million dollar
station, that’s 200,000 dollars. If we share that cost with other departments that
want a similar design, that's a savings depending on how many departments
participate in that. So, even if one other department does we are saving 100,000
dollars in a station design concept like that. I think the other areas where we can
share equipment and resources does affect the Meridian taxpayers in a positive
way, because we are maximizing dollars and still getting what we need to provide
service to our citizens. So, I guess that would be my reply on how that -- how
this agreement would benefit the Meridian taxpayers. I think another example of
that is the joint academy that we just held. That was where we shared our
instructors. If we had to do that all on our own without the cooperation of
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February 21, 2017
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anybody else our costs would have been a lot higher to put on that recruit
academy than it does under this approach.
De Weerd: Other questions? Yes.
Bird: Madam Mayor, can I --
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I have got a couple more. On the recruit academy I think we have done
that jointly before and I think that's great if -- it would be nice if all of us
particularly -- and Nampa included -- in the Ada County would have their training
together and I know -- I know sometimes the guy to the east thinks he's a, you
know, big dog. But, anyway, I -- and as far as the buildings, you know, I have
been very involved in all of the buildings we have put up so far and excluding
number one, the rest of them are pretty cookie cutter. What is wrong with us
having a set of prints that fits our deal and you don't have to go out and hire
somebody every time? I mean go -- go pull it off the rack. School districts would
be so much smarter if they did that, instead of having to pay the 11 or 12 percent
to their professionals every time th ey build a school. Mark, I'm going to -- I'm
going to vote yes on this this one time, but I will guarantee you I will be watching.
Niemeyer: Fair enough.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Council --
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: To -- maybe to Councilman Bird's point, Mark, future council down the
road or -- things don't always go the way that maybe we intend them to go and at
that point in time the Meridian City Council says that they want to dissolve. What
steps does that take and is that just a matter of the City Council making a
decision in a meeting that they want to remove themselves?
Niemeyer: Councilman Cavener, that is correct -- and my computer just locked
or I could get you the exact verbiage. But if the City of Meridian decided to come
out of this joint powers agreement there is a notification process, there is a timing
in which we send notification to the JPA saying Meridian is withdrawing. So,
there is an out clause, if you will.
De Weerd: Well -- and I believe this is an annual -- just like the EMS JPA, that's
an annual --
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February 21, 2017
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Niemeyer: The EMS JPA is annually renewed, but mainly it goes on the Consent
Agenda. This one as well is an annual renewal.
De Weerd: But you can always pull it off the Consent Agenda, so -- it does have
to be signed and --
Bird: It is an automatic --
Niemeyer: This is an automatic renewal, to Councilman Bird's point. So, the
plan and this -- this happened in Star. I would present an annual report on the
JPA every year.
Bird: Renew it or drop out.
De Weerd: Yeah. So, you either renew or you drop out.
Niemeyer: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Additional question if I may. Mark, when you were here a couple
weeks you provided kind of a -- a calendar of other councils across -- that were
involved with this JPA and their intent to commit. Can you provide us with an
update as to where we are on that and who is remaining to approve this?
Niemeyer: Absolutely. So, as I mentioned two weeks ago, Star had already
approved. Caldwell approved tonight. I got an e-mail or a text from Chief
Wendelsdorf, and, then, in Nampa it's on the agenda for tonight, they just haven't
gotten to their agenda item. They are running a little bit behind us. I talked to
their Chief late last week -- I think you and I discussed this. Their chief had met
with Mayor Henry and he came away very positive that they were still going to
move forward. They may have to come back for one more meeting, very similar
to what we did two weeks ago where it's presented and, then, they come back for
approval. But the last I heard out of Nampa they were very positive about this.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: There's no -- chief, it's correct that there is no intent with this once
approved for the JPA to collectively hire any particular -- a staff to help facilitate?
All existing staff will -- respective cities will accomplish its tasks?
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February 21, 2017
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Niemeyer: Councilman Borton, yes.
Borton: Okay.
Niemeyer: No intent to hire staff.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Borton: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: No other questions, I would move that we approve the joint powers
agreement for fire authority in interagency joint powers.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10 -D. Any discussion
by Council?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just real quick. I really appreciate the focus and effort to try and find
efficiencies and collaborate. I think that's one of your many strengths and this is
an example of it and you know that we are going to be asking -- we and all the
future councils be asking for reports on efficiencies and -- and highlight those in
particular financial savings that can come from it. But it cuts both ways and if -- if
the results turn out, obviously, that it's more expensive or Meridian is carrying the
load and it's inefficient in that regard for the taxpayers , the converse is true when
we may very well make a decision not to participate for that reason . So, I
appreciate where you're focused and, hopefully, it's all successful.
Niemeyer: Absolutely. I would agree.
De Weerd: Fairly noted. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton is much more eloquent than I
am. I will leave it at that with maybe an additional caveat that it would be I think
for you to inform Council when the city of Nampa approves this, so that we have
a full understanding that all of the proposed municipalities have signed onto this.
Niemeyer: Will do.
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February 21, 2017
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De Weerd: Okay. Very good. 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.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
E. Mayor’s Office: Discussion and Appointment of the
Public Works Director
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Okay. Item 10-E. Council, I'm asking for your
approval of an appointment for our Public Works Director. In front of you tonight
is a recommendation to appoint Dale Bolthouse to our Public Works Director
position. Certainly when we started down this -- this road to fill our Public Works
Director position Dale agreed to be interim only and through that process Dale's
ability to work with the entire team -- certainly he had been working with the team
on the utility side of things and introducing to the other end of the ope ration with
the engineering and administrative side, I think that Dale found that this was a
great team and certainly something that he had a developing interest in. As we
went out we had 41 applications for the director position . We narrowed that and
had phone interviews with a team that narrowed that list, then, to three. We had
one drop out, another take a position, and we did a -- an in-person interview last
month. Through this process and through the work that Dale has done with his --
his team -- I talked with Dale about an interest in this position and he indicated an
interest in talking about strengths and vision and a strong direction for the next
five years through the strategic plan and the work that this department has done
to get us to this point. He's got a vision that works with that strategic plan. You
heard a lot of what has been done tactically and operationally over the last year
that he's had a hand in and I'm asking for your approval for his appointment to
take the full reigns and see where we can bring this department moving forward.
I would entertain any questions.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Not a question, but a recommendation. I think it's fantastic. I think Dale is
very, very qualified to take on the biggest department. He's got a tremendous
business background. Anybody that can work for Robert Hansberger has got to
have something on the ball. So, I -- I think -- I'm just -- I'm just glad that he said
yes. Thank you.
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February 21, 2017
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De Weerd: Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Nobody else wants to talk, I move that we approve the appointment of
Public Works Director of Dale Bolthouse.
Milam: Second.
Borton: Second.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: Can I get some more seconds? I have a motion and a second. Mr.
Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All in favor.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: So, thank you so much. And, Dale, I would invite you forward to say
a few words. And, yes, you can applaud.
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you so much for your
nod of appointment to me to move into this role on a permanent basis. I really
appreciate your vote of confidence and I assure you I will work to continue to
gain that confidence in this -- in this effort. For the record, I think we got this
done quicker than the vacuum truck.
De Weerd: Oh, man. I'm glad you said that after the vote.
Bolthouse: No. I -- again, I really appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate the
legacy and the effort that's been, you know, put into Public Works. It's been a
great effort for a number of years and I certainly have every intention of meeting
the expectations of the citizens in the city and of the Council as we move forward
here. I absolutely agree with the comments that the Mayor has made regarding
the quality of personnel in the department. Having been out, you know, largely in
the utilities operation side of it, but still, you know, working with a lot of these
folks I have gained such an appreciation for those who are in the City Hall
support as well and it just is a -- is a tremendous collective team that I have to
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February 21, 2017
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work with and, really, I think helped assist in me making a decision and having an
interest in pursuing this. So, great group of people. Having said that, we have
got a lot of work to do. We have just got a lot of things on our plate , first of which
is staffing. We have got a number of vacancies. We need to get those
vacancies filled, so that we get our team up to full speed as we enter into a lot of
the effort and we have got a capital portfolio that I think is second to none over
the last many, many years, if not the history. A lot of large projects, a lot of
things that have to be done and got to be done right in order for us to be
successful. We are entering the budget cycle. I have got some things there to
get a little bit more exposure to as far as the budget ing operations and we are
deep into that process having our meetings on that front right now. So, a lot of
things going on. Again, thank you so much for the opportunity and I look forward
to working with the Council and Mayor more and her team. So, with that I would
be glad to stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. And certainly it was an initiation under fire with the
weather events that we had, but you and your team really stepped up there and
-- and showed the true grit that this department is made of. Certainly we have
talked about your strengths and your team's strengths and how -- how we can
move forward with a reputation -- continuing the reputation that our Public Works
Department has and that has a high profile in respect and with the vision and
what you have accomplished as -- as a whole. So, we -- we appreciate your
willingness to take on this new hat and look forward to what you and your team
can do in continuing to be leading edge and -- and serving our citizens with the
same level of service they expect.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Dale, I just want to tell you that during your presentation
last week the thought just kept running through my mind that this is the guy for
the job. So, I was really excited to hear that you had accepted and thank you.
Look forward to having you stick around in this position.
Bolthouse: I appreciate that. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Real briefly. Late last year we had the opportunity to appoint a new
CFO and I mentioned at the time that he had big shoes to fill and I think that what
we have seen Todd has done a phenomenal job. Same comment for you
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February 21, 2017
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tonight. You have got some phenomenal shoes to fill. But what I'm really
impressed with is the presence that you were bringing to what I think is the best
Public Works Department in the state. Again, to Councilman Bird's point, maybe
even in the country. And, you know, I think we saw last night a new chapter from
Public Works with -- with you at the helm and I'm really excited as to what our --
that amazing team is going to accomplish over the next few years and really
happy to have you on board.
Bolthouse: Thank you, Councilman Cavener.
De Weerd: Thank you very much.
Bolthouse: Thank you.
F. Mayor’s Office: Strategic Plan Annual Update
De Weerd: Look forward to your strategic update. Again. Three weeks in a row,
huh? Welcome to being the director. Okay. Next item, 10-F. Council, we have
our strategic plan update for you. Certainly this is our first annual review for this
-- of the strategic plan and this is a report to our Council seeking qualitative
feedback tonight, kind of a check in on the strategic plan, seeking your direction
and your priorities in how it aligns with the strategic plan and your comments on if
our priorities might need to be readjusted or aligned , if there is something
missing that's not in the plan and so your feedback and direct -- direction really
lays the framework that the team works from. The first action was taken in 2014,
as we looked at refining the vision, the mission, and reaffirming our values and
certainly these values are the conscience of what our vision is built on . The last
action you took was in January of last year and that strategic plan p riority was
officially adopted and it was recognized that this plan is fluid. Certainly as our
departments have been working with the objective that you saw last January, you
will hear from each of the -- the departments and the leads and some of those
strategies on what -- what they will focus on is what they have learned as they
have solidified and started implementing these priorities and they will -- they will
seek your direction on some of the variables -- or variables that they found in the
plan. Last January Robert said to you that when we came back for our first
annual update it was by someone other than him. He hoped. And I am thrilled
that we put in place a single point of collecting the information, of -- of really
developing that accountability piece that translates to the departments and gives
me a tool as I meet with each of the directors on where they are at in -- with their
strategic plan and the high priority action items , that we have now a tool that can
be put in place and certainly I will have Jaycee really go through that tool and at
first sight I need to give her and her team a lot of kudos to accepting this as a
point of contact and going out, doing some training, a lot of research and, then,
working with our IT staff to develop a tool that can , indeed, keep this strategic
plan alive. It allows you all to check in on the objectives to see where they are at
in the process and it gives a huge accountability piece in allowing better one on
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ones with the directors on where they are at with -- with their priorities. So, with
that I'm going to turn this over to Jaycee and you will hear from each of our -- our
departments as well.
Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, while you said that regarding
Robert handing that off , I connected a couple of dots. When I first became the
clerk and I reported to Robert and he signed me up for us to -- the clerk's office to
do temporary use permits and now this, so I'm seeing a pattern here and I'm
going to be on alert from this point forward.
De Weerd: Well, he's got your back tonight, so --
Holman: Yeah. He's behind my back. Okay. Now, quick question. I have never
-- okay. Thank you. All right. So, as the Mayor has said some of this already,
that it was adopted by resolution on May 5th, 2015. We adopted the strategic
plan priorities, which Robert presented that on January 12th of 2016 and this is
the first annual update since adoption. First I want to kind of line out how this
presentation is going to go tonight or the order of things. I'm going to discuss
what I have done since taking over the plan and kind of go in briefly to the
software. I'm not going to do a big demo of the software, because we have 64
slides, so -- I don't want to be here all night.
De Weerd: If you want to count them you can keep track of how far along we
are.
Holman: Yes. Keep track. So, then, I'm going to go over the objectives that fall
specifically under support services. So, myself. And, then, each department will
give their update on their objectives that they have made progress on this year or
that were due to start this year and kind of give you an overview and , then, I will
circle back at the end with the Mayor, see if she has any additional comments
after that and, then, invite comments from you or I will take notes and direction
and see what it looks like going forward. So, briefly, a history of the plan. It was
housed in the Mayor's office. Robert did most of the work as far as just
administering and keeping track of the objectives and tactics and all the different
spreadsheets and Word documents for the first year. I was made the support
services director in April of last and this was added to my job description at the
beginning of September. So, the first thing that I did was -- I skipped forward on
my slide. About three weeks after this becoming my responsibility and -- I knew
immediately I needed to start working with IT and developing some sort of an
interactive software that could be the source of truth for the whole plan, because
there is just so many pieces. We have 72 objectives. Each one of those
objectives can have anywhere from four to 12 tactics underneath it. So, to keep
track of that all and allow people to communicate and see everything that they
are assigned to and assign working groups and all of that, I started working with
Nick -- Nick Thiry is in our IT Department -- on a software. Now, this wasn't
totally created from scratch. IT already had the foundation for the software that
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they have developed in-house and created all of their rules around and they used
it I think in Public Works, I think they used it for a training application and they
can easily modify it. So, briefly a little segue here. This is my plug for when we
came forward and we asked you for software engineers. This is what they do.
This is I think -- Dave calculated out about how -- how much time Nick probably
spent on this, the fully loaded cost of his time, probably about 5,000 dollars at
this point. Is that correct? So -- and a software like this could cost multiple
hundreds thousands of dollars to buy one and it would be a software that we
would morph our strategic plan to fit an off-the-shelf software versus being able
to write it exactly how and to follow our strategic plan . What was interesting is
working -- I have never had the opportunity of working alongside a software
engineer in this manner and having one who works for the city was fantastic,
because I briefly told him -- well, first, I struggled myself trying to create
something in Access and they were all disgusted, so -- Mike was kind and Nick
had some down time for about a month, so he assigned Nick to me and what I
did is he -- I kind of explained generally what I wanted to do, Nick created the
skeleton of the software, so I could at least start importing the data, because all
of that data on all of those objectives, all those tactics, all the money, all the cost,
everything -- there was no way to auto import that into a software, because it was
a whole bunch of different Word documents. So, I actually hand entered all of
that information, which was bad in that it was mind numbingly boring, but it also
helped me become really fam iliar with everything that's in the plan, because I
didn't really know everything in the plan before. I was really too new to the
pieces that applied to me. So, it was very good. And what was nice is as I
entered the data I could give continual feedback to Nick saying, yeah, this is
redundant. I have got to hit this bar -- I have got to hit a keystroke six times to
get this. Boom. Boom. Boom. Five minutes later he's got it fixed. So, he
continued to -- as we rolled it out to people and let people s tart seeing it and
using it and touching the software, we took feedback all the way through the
process and he continued to refine it. So, that's my quick plug for IT and using --
having some software engineers here. They truly are brilliant people. I don't
understand how their minds work, but it is much more efficient than mine. So,
anyhow -- and it's not done. I mean we still have future pieces of this that are
being developed. So, that was excellent. So, by January 20th I started training
people who were lead staff on different tactics and pieces of the objectives . So, I
got that training rolled out and it was really fun to watch people start to use it, to
really see them get in there, dig through the data, start populating it. They came
out with other great suggestions and efficiencies and streamlining and, like I said,
this is still in progress and we have plenty ways to go . So, you can see on the
screen, this is just a snapshot of an objective in the software , which we called it
super original, CSP software, because IT likes acronyms. And, anyhow, you can
see this summary area at the top. You can see your focus area, your strategic
goal, your objective number. The lead is Todd Lavoie. He's in the Finance
Department. And the dates that you see on the screen that they plan start date
and anticipated completion date, those dates are actually driven by underlying
tactics in the operational side of this plan to have people work and possibly shift
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dates and operationalize the plan -- those dates can change, but I wanted to
capture what we originally said the start date and the end date was to keep that
tracked in time. You have the objective summary, but the part on the bottom that
I like is the status notes. As people make changes, the software is recording in
the background when a field is changed from one thing to another, but the status
notes allows the person who is making the changes to give the why and it
actually prompts somebody to actually explain why they changed what they
changed and when I talked developing the software as we go along, Councilman
Palmer actually had the idea of -- what if I'm looking at an objective and I want to
ask the lead staff a question, can I e-mail them, can I do something, and we kind
of talked about it a little bit, I went and talked to Nick and this is also where a
seasoned software engineer comes in, because they have no problem, they have
been through enough of these, you know, software writing projects to understand
that sometimes you think you want something and you really don't want that and
they are confident enough to tell you that . So, I said, hey, every time somebody
puts a status note, wouldn't it be great, you know, it will just e-mailed the lead
staff and Nick's like, yeah, it's nice, but I don't think you want that. They are
going to have 50,000 e-mails and, basically, just start ignoring them. So, what
we did is when you put in a status note you can click a box that says e-mail to
lead staff. It takes that e-mail, it sends it to their e-mail, but it also copies your e-
mail into the status notes and captures it within the software, so that conversation
is there. It also has a little -- that little small box you see on the lower right, that's
the -- you can hit e-mail lead staff there, too. So, there is two different ways to do
it. But right now we don't have it set up quite yet so Council has access to it. I
have got to work with Dave and figure out where we are going to house this so
you guys can have access to it. But you will be able to see things at that
objective level and look through the performance measurements, the status
notes on it, and you will see, as the underlying data is being updated, it will
populate the stuff at the top here, the estimated cost versus the actual cost,
percent complete, all of that. Staff can collaborate and build teams, track costs,
and track notes and changes. It enables -- if I'm the lead on a tactic I can build a
team, I can actually assign staff and somebody from other departments, put them
on my team and say, hey, when we meet about this you're going to be part of this
planning team and it should send an e-mail saying, hey, you have been assigned
to this task and the lead staff person is Jaycee. So, costs are assigned at the
tactical and operational level. They will roll up to the overall objective, which
Council will have access via the software and City Council will see these
estimated costs as they are developed through the budgeting process. We will
come to you -- we have some wild guesses as to what we think things could cost,
but as that gets more refined you will see that in the budgeting process . When --
approving the strategic plan doesn't mean you approve every estimated wild cost
we had in there. That was our guess. You weren't approving the cost. That's
just an estimate by us. Your approval happens when we bring it to you in the
budget.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Real quick question. Jayce, what's the unit of measure under estimated
effort?
Holman: Okay. Hours. Man hours.
Borton: Okay. All right. Thanks.
Holman: So, with that I'm going to go quickly into my objectives and then -- I just
want to say I will keep you posted as far as access to the software so -- and also
as you start to click around in the software, you see something that doesn't work,
something that's not efficient, you think it could be more efficient, again, give me
the feedback and we can incorporate it as we did with Council man Palmer's
request.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Interrupt you, Jaycee? I just want to point out how excited I am about
this. When you downloaded it for me and, then, that -- my motivation behind that
question was when we were first presented , you know, with the strategic plan we
all had our opinions, we got to go deep into, you know, how we felt about it, but,
then, it was done and we moved on and with everything else that we are doing
there is not really a lot of time for us to look back and, then, to try to go have
meetings and follow up and see how people are doing on their different items .
This software is going to give us an opportunity as councilmen to just look around
and see what's going on, see where we might be able to help contribute to the
effort, to ask questions about what one thing or another might mean without
really getting in the way and having to take a bunch of staff time with having a
meeting to discuss something, by simply being able to just put our question in
there and get an answer in a quick e-mail and move on. It gives us much better
-- I hate to use the word oversight, but oversight and information as to what's
going on, so that we can help make better decisions and more efficient decisions
in the future.
Holman: And I will add that one of the reports that we are in the middle of
creating right now is just a great communication tool for the directors with the
Mayor. I envisioned -- and the Mayor and I discussed this -- having a report that
I know when she's going to do her quarterly strategic meeting with a director I
can print out a report for each of them, they both have the same thing, and they
can be looking at the same sheet of music while they are meeting. So, I think
there is just -- watching the activity that has happened on this in the quick month
and people have -- kudos to the team, they have put in a ridiculous amount of
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work trying to take everything that's been tracked -- I don't even know how in
their own personal systems and incorporate it into a software and put it all at one
source of truth has been great and it's -- it's getting populated more and more
every day and used. So, I -- it's fun to watch something you have created and
envisioned be used and utilized, so -- on to support services. I have got three --
and I don't know that I necessarily am going to talk about them in this order, but
the first one that I had is 3-D-1, align resources, systems, and employees to meet
strategic objectives and priorities. I got that one -- was changed to me in
November and the first thing was -- the first item on it was basically having
somebody oversee the strategic plan, assigning that person. That was assigned
to me and I immediately went to work working on the software and I will tell you
right now that's been my main focus. So, I'm going to skip the second one and
go to conduct a priorities of government exercise to identify community
expectations and desired levels of service. My recommendation -- one of the
things that we talked about when we brought this plan to you -- I went back and
reviewed all the minutes -- is that this is a fluid document. We come back once a
year, maybe we look and maybe an objective doesn't make sense anymore or
maybe it needs to be modified. In this case I would like this objective to be
merge with another objective, because I think that 80 percent of it is redundant
and that is combining this one with the one that falls under Finance , which is --
let's see. 3-E-4. So, merging 3-E-2 and 3-E-4 and making them all one,
because I believe on the road to priority-based budgeting, a priorities of
government piece, which is the public involvement piece, is a piece in the steps
along the way. Inventorying our -- let me find my notes here so I'm not babbling.
But inventorying our city services costs and existing levels of service is the next
thing that's on my radar and I will be working on. I have reached out to the
Center for Priority-Based Budgeting and just kind of talked to them about what
services they provide with that. Could be we hire a contract person to help us to
do it. It could be I worked on it. I'm not quite sure where that goes next, but I
believe that's the first step is going through inventorying our services, costs, and
existing levels of service. Asking who are we, what's our purpose of each
department. Is this service or activity something that fits our purpose and
something we should be doing. Are we duplicating a service that another
department or agency might be doing. Did this service have a shelf life? Is it --
you have heard this before. I know I discussed it before in front of Council, but
this is something that, you know, we did for a while and we kept doing it and
maybe it doesn't make sense anymore. And, finally, should we keep doing it
and, then, inventorying all of those activities, putting a cost to it and that develops
our -- that develops basically what are current level of service is and I worked a
lot with Todd on this and we discussed it. So, if there is anything Todd wants to
add when he's up here, too. That's step one. The POG or priorities of
government, are -- I believe that's the next step to figure out how are we going to
involve the public in helping us, basically, prioritize or involving them in that
piece. When we went on our tour last year to Washington -- oh, man, they did it
many, many different ways. I got excited about almost all of them. But we need
to figure out what fits us, what fits our city, what that looks like. And, then, you're
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tying that to the budget, which is where our CFO comes in and we will work
together on that. And, then, that leads to -- I believe after that the 3-D-1, aligning
-- I'm, sorry, 3-D-2, developing and deploying a citywide performance
measurement monitoring and reporting program. So -- and, then, probably to
make Robert's life really happy, 3-D-3 we will probably move over the support
services, too, because that's a continuous improvement program. Developing
that. Which I believe comes after we put together -- we do performance
measurement, monitoring, and reporting and it's all kind of one big system. But
at this point my request, at least for the objectives under my purview, is to merge
the priorities of government with priority based budgeting and make it one
objective together, so that all of those tactics can line and flow into each other, so
-- let's see. Are there any questions on that at this point? Or would you like me
to hold the questions until the end, Mayor, or do you want me to --
De Weerd: Council, do you have questions? Comments?
Cavener: Madam Mayor, maybe either you or Jaycee can clarify what -- when it
comes to questions we have got a lot of information that's going to be presented
to us. Mayor and Jaycee, are you looking for feedback and questions on your
particular piece now? Are you looking for us to take some form of action on your
request, you just presented -- I mean a little more --
De Weerd: I guess, Luke, what I'm -- I'm sorry. Councilman Cavener. What I'm
hoping is that you will hear the department reports and we will bring this back on
a future agenda. I'd like you to kind of mull it over and give you an opportunity to
ask further questions should you have it and, then, bring it back on some of these
more specific requests from -- if it's merging two into one and eliminating some of
the 72 objectives, which I have no problem eliminating some of those 72
objectives, so -- and you will have questions to -- to get clarity on it, because
there are some that can be interpreted maybe by you as one thing and the
director as another and we are just trying to really bring those topics that we have
found have some ambiguity to them, have raised some questions on is -- is the
objective really something you want us to be focused on and those kind of things .
So, you will hear those questions and comments in -- in the different
presentations.
Cavener: Great. Madam Mayor, with that -- I don't have any questions, then,
right now. Maybe more when we wrap up.
De Weerd: Okay.
Holman: Madam Mayor? Council Member Cavener, what I would like to do is
have you, you know, take notes through this with your questions, everything. We
can -- I can gather some information at the end if you want to -- if you would like
to, you know, have me take notes, but if you're -- if you can basically
communicate back with the director and you have more questions about the
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person who is the lead of that objective, if you could copy me on that just so I can
be in the loop and things don't slip through the cracks, then, I can summarize all
that information, all of your questions, all your feedback together when we come
back. That would be very helpful for me. So, with that anymore questions for me
before I turn it over to IT? Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: I'm sure Dave's son is excited that his dad is finally presenting. You
definitely earned a pin.
Tiede: He is here for his communication merit badge, so he's excited to be here.
De Weerd: Well, you more than earned it tonight.
Tiede: He also skipped dinner, so --
De Weerd: There is dinner in the other room.
Tiede: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, happy to be here tonight. IT has
one objective, which is develop and implement technological and
communications contingency plans and programs for continuity of city
operations. This is an objective that has a handful of tactics assigned to it. We
are looking to start this objective this year. We have put our plan start date as
May and we anticipate completion being later next year. With that I will mention
that we took a couple tactics and move d them into another objective, which is 3-
C -- I lost it. I think it's 3-D-2, which is continuity of operations. So, some similar
functions, but I'm not going to speak to that one, so -- with that I stand for
questions. That is our status.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions for Dave?
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, good to see you again. I am
here to represent the three objectives that the Finance Department represents for
leads on. We have the 1-B-5, which is to develop and implement a sustainable
growth management system that includes the fiscal impact model to inform
service level staffing and general Enterprise Fund impacts. We also are leads for
-- to institute a priority based budget system to meet adopted levels of service.
Jaycee mentioned to you this is the one that we want to talk about possibly
merging and the last item that we are the leading department for is the evaluate
available tools for financing recreation on entertainment facilities. So, again, the
first item is answering as part of the strategic growth focus area. It says zero
percent complete. Again, it's not that we haven't started it. It's tough to I guess
quantify the conversation. Again, this particular item here is -- we need to
discuss with the stakeholders what exactly do we want as a city. What is the end
results. We can get very elaborate on this tool or we can get very broad, very
simple on this tool. So, the Finance Department is where we started discussing
the potential items. 2007 we had a fiscal impact model developed for us. So, we
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have had history with models. We decided as a team, as a city, what do we want
this model to exactly do for the city. So, we are going to start some
conversations within departments and we will work with you guys. We just need
to figure out exactly what we want, because, again, we can make this pretty darn
elaborate or pretty simple to satisfy the needs of the city. Again, our goal is to
possibly have this done October of 2019. We will see how elaborate we want to
go with this tool and that's going to dictate the actual end date. So, again, zero
percent is true, true, but it's hard for me to say that two percent, 17 percent -- you
know, we are talking about it, we are starting to dialogue right now on this
particular item.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: On the -- the objective summary that was provided to Council, it shows
-- and maybe I'm just not reading these forms correctly. Original start date 11 -1
of 2016. The original end date of 11/30 and, then, past priority it says as a start
and an end date. The start date is 11/1 of 2016 and end date is 11/30 of 2021
and I guess it will be a question I will have for lots of directors when they come
up to talk about changing dates and what's necessitating the change. That's just
totally different than what you articulated to us. So, clarification would be great.
Lavoie: The dates are going to be based on elaborate -- how elaborate we want
to make this tool. We can hit the 2019 date or we can hit the 2021 date. I put in
the 2021 date based on some of the conversations that we were talking about in
the department of making this a pretty darn elaborate tool. So, again, we are in
flux still trying to figure out exactly what we want to set. So, hopefully, that
answers your question. We are changing the dates based on the conversations
we are having in house to figure out what we want to do. If we go simple we may
even change it to an earlier date than '19. Does that answer the question? I
apologize.
Cavener: It does. Madam Mayor, follow up if I may. Who is driving, then, that
change if the date is -- if you're going to a more elaborate -- or if you're sticking
with what your initial deadlines were?
Lavoie: At the moment, Councilman Cavener, I have changed the dates based
on the internal conversations. Again, that day will most likely change again as I
continue to have discussions with department directors and the Council to figure
out exactly what we need and, then, we can work with a consultant to figure out
exactly what the ultimate date is. I did not feel that '19 at the point was going to
make elaborate, but, again, '19 could do a simple.
Cavener: Okay. Thank you.
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Lavoie: You're welcome.
De Weerd: And certainly I think, Councilman Cavener, this is why the annual
update is important and we have talked as a team to bring back kind of that
status as well in June during the budget hearings to kind of give an overview.
This is a living document and it is fluid and as we have started to get into the
tactics and -- and looking at how to start rolling those -- those objectives out, we
are starting to find the warts and what is reasonable and what is not and I think
that's the conversation and the questions that need to be asked is what have you
found and to be completely honest, we have a different CFO that has now to
regroup and he's got -- how many? Ten million or ten million and one priorities
right now that he's trying to also prioritize in terms of getting his arms around his
department and the direction they are going, too. So, that's -- that's the
importance of these discussions and making sure that as they are finding these
different elements that can be obstacles, is -- if this is a high priority for Council
and say I want an elaborate plan in 2019, he's going to have to reorganize a lot
of his other priorities. So, they are giving -- they are giving Council right now the
best guess as to how it starts to roll out without actually having a plan on how to
roll it out.
Cavener: Okay.
Lavoie: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Did that make sense?
Cavener: It was a struggle for me to kind of -- we can talk about it later.
De Weerd: And, actually, you're going to find that and each of the department
updates is -- a plan is this high-level document and, then, when you start working
to start to execute and start putting what are those steps in place to get there,
you find out maybe that wasn't really realistic and -- and unless you want to give
us ten more staff members to -- to get her done, you know, they -- they have to --
they have finite resources, people, and a number of hours in the day and -- and
that's why this discussion is really important.
Lavoie: And, Mayor, I appreciate the comments and just to reiterate, I mean I
agree the changes were based on resources, again, and how elaborate we want
to make the tool. We have a department of one in budget, you know, for us to
allocate resources from doing an annual budget to this project, again, we will
have to make priorities and we will have to justify why I need to reallocate her
resources to a different project. Again, this is a living document. We are going to
try to use this to communicate to you. As Mr. Palmer said, you know, you will be
able to see where we are in objectives on a daily basis. Again, it's our tool to
utilize to communicate with you guys where we stand on each objective.
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De Weerd: And I exaggerated on ten employees.
Lavoie: So, the next item that we are lead for is 3 -E-4, which is priority based
budgeting. Jaycee mentioned to you that we are talking about possibly merging
this one. Again, it says zero percent complete, because we need to determine
what we want to do as a city, how far do we want to go with priority based
budgeting. We can go everybody into the pool and we can go really deep into
this or we can take a different approach. As Jaycee mentioned we went to the
state of Washington, we saw five different approaches, five different
organizations, five different commitments. We as a city just need to figure out
what we want to do with priority based budgeting, how much of a commitment do
we want and what resources do we want to allocate to get the city to said level.
So, again, it says zero percent complete, but, again, we are talking about it's
tough to quantify discussions, but, again, we as a city just need to determine
where we want to go and what we want to do. We will be able to adjust this
going forward. And the last item that we have in Finance is the financing options
for recreation and entertainment facilities. Again I put zero percent complete, but
just to let you know we have completed a portion of this last year about this time .
We were working on an auditorium financing solution, so we have already done
the work for that portion of this, which is applicable to all city entertainment
facilities, so this is tough to quantify what proportion -- what portion of the project
that represented, but we have already started this, so our goal is to have this
done by the end of the fiscal year. That's a project that we are going to allocate
resources to. We should be able to get done and still research to get the
financing options for the recreation and entertainment facilities and with that I
stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Any questions at this point?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: More of a generic question. So, as the living document goes on and the
dates change, all of that we will be able to look at it and see if the date changed
from the original date -- all of that will be in there. So, we can kind of keep an
eye on it that way? Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: So, Crystal is sick and so Jaycee is our fill in.
Holman: Yes. Crystal tried valiantly to get here, updated me several times
during the day, and finally said it's not going to happen. So, she sent me her
notes. So, I'm going to go over her slides with her notes and, then, if there are
any questions specifically for her I will take the notes and I will convey them to
her and let her respond. So, she had noted as beginning hers that 2016 was,
obviously, a year of change and transition for HR. As a result they were
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understaffed for the majority of the year and primarily focused on maintaining
operational demands and services for customers , filling their team and, then,
training new staff on their new roles in the department and they feel like they are
there now. Three objectives. And I will go through those one at a time. Or, I'm
sorry, four objectives. So, on the first one, which is 2-B-2, the cultural and
workforce diversity. So, the objective is in progress. They are currently
researching information and diversity training options to integrate into their HR
training offerings. Once selected and developed they will map out a plan to
integrate the diversity training and messaging into their other HR training
courses, i.e., best training. The next one is 3-B-1. Cost effective and competitive
benefit plan. This is an ongoing objective each year. As you know, the HR staff,
along with the benefits committee, continually work with Mercer to ensure that
the city offers a cost-effective and competitive benefit plan. They completed a
market bid and review. Offered a high deductible health plan and are exploring
self-funding. They completed FY-16 efforts and have already begun FY-17
efforts. 3-B-3, which is succession planning program. This objective has not yet
been started. They have completed initial review of this objective, along with
analyzing their bandwidth, resources, current and future commitments and
moved this project start date to July 1st of 2017 . They have updated the
anticipation -- anticipated completion date to September 30th of '18. And once
they have a better opportunity to thoroughly review the objective, they keep you
posted of the progress. And, then, 3-B-5, maintain competitive compensation
program. This objective is also currently in progress. In 2013 we established
and rolled out a formalized compensation program. The city's retention rate over
the last several years has been above 90 percent and they are in the process of
researching and collecting neighboring municipality programs. Once collected
the information will be analyzed for competitiveness. In addition they will be
looking at compensation best practices. They have updated the anticipated
completion date to September 30th of 2018 to better align with the annual budget
cycle. And that was what she had there. So, if there is any questions I can grab
my notepad and convey those to her or grab them at the end or e-mail her those.
De Weerd: Only a question on the completion date update, because it would
have to go through a budget process and so while it wouldn't be effective until
October of '19, that she would have a completion date anticipated through the
budget process; correct?
Holman: I would assume so, yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Holman: Okay. I will note that. And the Clerk's office.
Coles: I will try and put this back together. I think they work better if they are
together. Okay. Maybe. So, for the Clerk's office we have three objectives and
one of the benefits and opportunities that came with Hillary joining our office as
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our arts and culture specialist, our committees and commissions specialist, is the
three objectives came with her. So, these were originally in the Finance
Department when Hillary was a member of the Finance team. So, she brought
these with her, which we are excited to have as part of our office. But 5-C-1, 5-
C-2 and 5-C-3 are all with us. There has been some discussion about the
completion dates. We are operating more right now on the original start and
completion dates, rather than the ones you will see off to the left of what they
might actually be. That -- those dates right now are coming from us actually just
testing and playing with the system, along with the completion percentages.
Those aren't necessarily accurate. We are playing around with the system, since
we just got it, and some of those look higher than they are, up to 22 percent or
the eight percent or ten percent. So, just, please, be aware that we are working
and operating more on the original dates than the ones that are listed currently.
So, for 5-C-1, arts and culture funding mechanisms, you can -- you can read the
purpose there, but I think what's most important -- at least as far as we are
concerned, is that as we infuse arts and culture into the community. We are
doing so to help fulfill the diverse cultural needs of our citizens . Again, the plan
start date we had as October 1 and anticipated completion date of September of
2018. So, where we are to date with that is -- actually, Finance -- and this was
part of the Finance Department -- they had done some research to figure out
some long-term funding mechanisms and what that might look like as far as arts
and culture is concerned. Some of those ideas included business improvement
districts and auditorium districts. That's what communities across the country
often use as a source of long-term funding for arts and culture in their
communities. That doesn't mean we are coming to Council at some point asking
for the creation of these districts, that's just some research that has been done as
far as communities across the country that have identified long-term funding
sources for arts and culture. Right now the Meridian Arts Commission, as their
primary source of funding, has been up to this point sponsorships. For any
activities that they engage in sponsorships have been their longest term source
of funding outside of the budget process with the city. Another thing that they are
looking at -- that's MAC, the Meridian Arts Commission, is grants. They want to
look at and identify and are in the proc ess of doing so -- different grants around
the state, around the country that they might be able to apply for, what that looks
like, and how that would be able to potentially be a long term for -- a long-term
source of funding, with the caveat of grants are usually -- it's a one-time source of
funding and so unless you reapply year after year for the same grant or you find
additional grants to apply for on a regular basis, so it's kind of a tradeoff there.
So, that is where we are at with 5-C-1. So, your questions on that one before I
move onto the next? Oh, look at that, I have the next slide there. 5-C-2, infuse
arts into public space. Again, public spaces, you will see that the purpose here is
to fulfill the diverse cultural needs of our citi zens, which is the theme throughout
arts and culture. To date where we are, again, please, pay no mind to the -- the
completion date that says, oh, it was -- I think it was the same date, 12/2 and
12/2/2016. The Meridian Arts Commission, with the aid of Hillary, have created a
database, a catalog of all of the public art throughout the City of Meridian. The
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reason that is important, because you got to use that plant or that -- that list to
create your plan moving forward where we would like to place public art within
the community. This spreadsheet includes the pieces of art that have been used
-- or have been developed using city funds and MDC funds, along with other
source of funding. They have approved -- the Meridian Arts Commission have
approved a more specific plan using the Meridian Art in Public Spaces Ordinance
or, again, we love acronyms, so MAPS. The MAPS ordinance. They have
updated their strategic plan, their five year strategic plan, which runs from FY-14
through FY-19. So, using the MAPS ordinance they have updated their five year
strategic plan to -- to include infusing public art into public spaces where art
might be able to be located within, again, their five year strategic plan. That plan
also has different focuses or foci -- I don't know what the right one is there -- that
will help, again, fulfill the diverse cultural needs of our residents. So, in FY-17
the MAPS ordinance includes five traffic boxes to be wrapped with art. It also
includes the Heroes Park Journey of Heroes art piece that will be installed there.
That came before Council I think a few weeks ago for your consideration . In FY-
18 the MAPS ordinance again includes five traffic boxes and a mural campaign
the Meridian Arts Commission would like to explore throughout the City of
Meridian, with a key component of that being in downtown Meridian, finding a
location for a large mural to be located within downtown Meridian . And, then, in
FY-19, again, five more traffic boxes that they are looking to wrap and, then, a
pathways project that they are working with the Parks Department and I believe
the Parks and Recreation Commission on developing what that looks like . There
is no identified theme there yet. There aren't really any details, they just know
they would like to partner with the Commission and the Parks and Recreation
Department to figure out how to infuse more public art using our pathway system
that we have within the community. And I probably could have -- go onto the
next slide. You can see we have got 41 pieces of public art currently within our --
within our community. And, then, 5-C-3 I'm not going to talk much about,
because our anticipated start date was and is October 1st. The Commission and
Hillary have begun to work on this a little bit, but there isn't a ton of information
yet, but connecting to the artisan community and education of utilitarian art with
the major focus being on historical Meridian and what that looks like and how to
infuse art and use art to promote the historical education of the community.
De Weerd: Thank you, C.Jay. Any questions at this point for C.Jay?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: A support component of those three is -- it's noted as the Meridian Art
Foundation. Have you had communications with that group?
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Coles: I know that the commission and Hillary specifically speaks with the
foundation. I don't know how regularly. I don't have that answer for you. But I
do know that they are in communication about how to create events together.
Borton: Will you -- Madam Mayor? Will you or Hillary -- somebody see that --
James Fullinwider is the president of that foundation right now -- that he gets a
copy of those three objectives and at least is in the loop on what's going on .
Coles: Absolutely.
Borton: Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Coles: Thank you.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. If I would have
known Jaycee was speaking on everyone who is sick and taking others from the
Mayor's office, I just would have let her continue with this today. But, as I said, I
will give you an update on the Mayor's office at this point in time. So, I just want
to start by -- these were the five objectives that we had scheduled to start in
2016. From this list that Mayor's office was listed as lead. Three were medium
priority, two were high priority, and we were able to complete one, the Youth
Farmers Market -- I'd like to think that was the first objective completed in the
entire strategic plan. There may be a few others that might say, no, they were
first. But we did complete one of our objectives from last year. We started 3-A-2.
That was one that came through with the budget enhancement in the budget
process, which did not move forward, so that one was shelved. So, starting
extending due to staff time and the resources not being there that I was hoping to
have allocated to that, but we evaluated 1-A-3 and we will talk about that one
here a little further and start on 3-A-1 and 4-C-3 in this last year. 2020,
Councilman Cavener, that's -- you know, we have updated the dates within the
plan to -- to, hopefully, move forward this year and this is the list of six adjectives
that we hope to take on in -- in this upcoming year. As a staff of one last year
that was really focused on this that was hard. Still as a staff of one I do have two
others in the office that will be helping, but kind of what Crystal said, when you
have three new staff come on every single day is a day about learning something
new for the first time and I'm not going to say we won't get to these, but this is the
goal for this year and we will see how we are able to perform towards that goal.
So, these are -- there is one of them that is a higher priority and four of them are
medium priority. I will be coming back to you in a couple weeks with the Mayor's
office strategic plan update where we will probably be focusing a little bit more
about this at that point in time. Two, I really wanted to bring to your attention
today where -- some changes we would like to do to 3-A-2, improve citizen
access to government. Obviously, when you sit there and you start working the
plan -- putting together the objective worksheets and looking at the plan and the
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dates, you hope for certain things. The performance measurement -- one of
them on this plan was tied to information that we hope to do . You may or may
not realize, we are going to be doing another City of Meridian citizen survey here
in the next couple of months. We hoped that we would start this objective, get
something implemented, and, then, use those survey results as our performance
measurement. Well, obviously, we haven't done anything yet, so it doesn't make
any sense to use survey results, instead, we will use the '17 survey results to get
our baseline for the work that will be done that will be compared to 2020. We are
not going to change the time frame of the work, we are just looking at the
performance measurement. Nothing will have been -- had completed to change
that. So, that's where the -- the request to Council for consideration and the next
time we get together is on that one specifically. The next item is an objective we
would like to delete from the plan. Reforming the Meridian Development
Corporation to maximize its use in developing downtown and there is a couple
different reasons. I know that when this first came forward there were questions
from Council about its inclusion into the plan at that time. If you look at some of
the measurements and the outcome, I think they would just like to resolve this to
a certain extent for us when they went through and said this is what your board
membership shall be made of -- made up of. In addition I have not been
informed that there is a desire for the city to be the administrator of MDC, which
is, obviously, one of the results that could occur through this process. So, for
that reason at this time we are recommending removing this one from the plan
for further consideration and, again, happy to discuss that with you further at the
appropriate time and with that -- that's what I had and happy to answer any
questions.
De Weerd: Any questions? Okay.
Simison: Thanks.
Nary: One of the things I haven't heard very much in your folks discussion
tonight is these are the lead ones and I know you all get that. Every one of these
has some involvement from a lot of different parts. So, though we may only have
two, we certainly are engaged in a number of the other ones and that's partly
what will drive some of those dates and times and participation. So, if nothing
else than for the people at home that are watching this right now, the three or
four people, to understand that. So, we have two objectives. One was establish
clearly defined roles and responsibilities of city leadership and if you look on the
sheet we have indicated it's about 75 percent done. That's an ongoing process.
That's training that we provide to you. That's training we provide to the
commissions. That's -- it takes a number of different -- because as the law
changes and the law evolves in how you folks operate and how the Mayor and
the Council operate as the legislature engages in those type of things, as the
commissions are involved, it becomes a constant tool that we use. So, we have
a baseline that we have established in doing that and how we do that with both
councils through each election cycle, as well as in the commissions as new
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commissioners come on, that's usually where the learning curve really starts,
because as all of you know, this is not intuitive stuff and so we take a great deal
of responsibility in working with all of the commissions, as well as the support
department, to make sure they understand the rules of the commissions and,
then, again, as new council members come on the same thing. Second one --
oh, I guess I skipped ahead to that slide, so that's what we do. And, then, the
next one was develop a comprehensive risk management program and this one I
will have to look back, this is -- I think is a medium priority is my recollection.
Yes. It's a medium priority and it has the same date, so -- I think for starting and
ending. So, it's probably not correct. And so will correct that and an update the
-- the program with those. This is one of those that, again, is more of an
inventory of the different processes that we already have . We do claims
management. We do safety training as a city. We do a workers comp review.
And all of those encompass a risk management program. We do all of those in
different parts and I think where we are looking at in this is, again, creating some
more connectivity between those parts, as well as the education and training
that's necessary as new people come on. The snow event was a good example
of that. We had a lot of claims, both claims from citizens, as well as claims that
we had for either our facilities or our equipment and some of the departments
that do this all the time understood that and know exactly what to do , because
they have those things happen periodically, some didn't. So, that was a good
way to at least highlight this particular one that we need to do a little bit more
training out there, because, again, as turnover comes, as some of the processes
change and evolve, we will need to do that and we will put them all into one
package, so it will be a lot easier for everybody and they don't have to look in
three or four places for one reference point. So, those are the two that we are
the leads on. Do you have any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Mr. Nary, I just checked. There were two people
watching from home and I'm sure you will hear from both of them.
Nary: I bet we will. Thank you.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Parks and Recreation had
four objectives assigned to us. None of them were scheduled to start in 2016,
but they are all scheduled to start now and as we have gone through and been
developing tactics and assigning staff resources to developing these, we have
come up with some questions that we need some further input on to make sure
that we are going the right direction that Council would like us to. The first one is
5-A-2. This one is dealing with identifying desired sports facilities and complexes
and, then, establishing partnerships to foster their development. So, we have
been defining and working on this one recently as the development of public
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sports facilities, such as the Meridian Home Court and new softball complex,
which we are working on for the 77 South Meridian -- 77 acre south Meridian
regional park. Part of the question was -- was this intended to be those types of
public facilities or was this intended to be something more along the lines of
sports facilities for a semi-pro sports team of some kind, in which case it wouldn't
belong to Parks and Recreation, it might belong to economic development or
something like that, so --
De Weerd: I'm sure Bruce just loved hearing that one.
Siddoway: We have been talking about that one for a while, but we think it
belongs to us and we think we are focusing on the public, so if you have any
direction, desires related to it being channeled one direction or the other, we
would very much welcome that. The second objective is regarding fostering
discovery parks that uniquely blend arts, culture, and entertainment, and we
brought together -- forwarded to you back in December the south Meridian
regional park design theme as a discovery park versus other options and the
discovery park theme was what was selected and approved by Council to move
forward. So, we are moving forward with design d evelopment now and in
concept development with our Parks and Recreation Commi ssion and they will
be getting an update to that next month. Our third one has to do with the city
signature events. This is another one we could use some direction on. When we
first read this one we thought it might be taking one of the city's existing events,
like Dairy Days, Movie Night or Christmas in Meridian and improving it, making it
bigger and -- and better. Our current understanding, though, is that's not what
was intended by this one when it was created, that the city wants to attract a
partnership with an event promoter to put on a new, large signature event in the
City of Meridian. So, again, I would welcome comments, feedback on what we
would want -- where we want to put our efforts there and, in fact, I can pause and
get your thoughts now or I can welcome them later as you get them to Jaycee.
De Weerd: No. A lantern event.
Borton: Madam Mayor, at first blush this -- the signature event of the city is Dairy
Days and if this enabled the city to promote an existing event, even if it's led by
another organization, that might make sense.
De Weerd: Again, give that some thought.
Borton: I'm thinking out loud as we --
Cavener: Madam Mayor, maybe then for -- just for clarification, who establishes
the initial goal and where is the confusion coming from? Because I was under
the impression the goals came from staff and so help -- so we are not creating
confusion, who is contributing to the confusing nature as to what the goals are
defined as?
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Siddoway: The original committee -- you want to take that one? I was not on it.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Cavener, I
could probably clarify this one a little bit. The steering committee kind of worked
in massaging that and we brought it to the directors group, a lot of discussion
there to get the overall objectives. I think goal of this objective was to bring some
kind of -- and we didn't know what it was, but bring some kind of ongoing
signature event to Meridian that could be counted on year after year after year
that would be large enough to attract a large number of people . The idea and
thought behind the discussion was to partner with somebody , whoever that
somebody is, to bring that event to Meridian. So, in -- in Boise you have similar
events that are -- are kind of staple events every year. They are large enough to
bring big attractions. That was the overall goal in the discussion three years ago.
De Weerd: Called the Easter egg hunt.
Borton: Madam Mayor --
Niemeyer: I think --
Borton: Oh. Go ahead.
Niemeyer: I was going to say to Councilman Borton's point I don't think this is
something the city needs to put on. This could be a partner with somebody that
wants to bring that event to Meridian.
Borton: Madam Mayor, a challenge for later discussion, does the objective
speak to a signature event and, then, the strategic goal makes reference to a
portfolio of activities, which -- which we do and I understand that, but see them
not necessarily aligned. So, for future discussion as we think through it are we
looking to focus and accomplish promoting a signature event or is it a strategic
goal of continuing to support the multitude of -- the portfolio of activities that we
currently do and enhance that, so -- that will be for -- for us to ponder.
Siddoway: Yeah. And we would welcome any and all in that direction, because
we have a number of events that we put on --
Borton: Right.
Siddoway: -- and we are constantly looking on working on improvement for
those anyway. The city's signature event has been Dairy Days and we can put
efforts to -- toward that or as was mentioned, you know, Boise has a balloon
festival and they have different things. They have had the River Festival in the
past. Do we want to, you know, look out for some type of event that we don't
currently have. Think about that and provide us some feedback if you would.
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Our last one is regarding family centered recreational opportunities. It's about
setting targets, identifying gaps between programs and activities that provide
family centered recreational opportunities. So, this is an ongoing objective for us
and in response to trends in recreation programing, with updated programs,
which we are constantly updating our activity guide with new programs a s
opportunities and things change. So, this is an ongoing one for us and definitely
one that we are always serious about. So, with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of the Counci l, I will try and get through
these fairly quickly. I know Bruce had got a bunch coming up behind me. So, for
the fire department we have eight objectives. There is a total of 36 tactics within
those eight objectives. I'm going to preempt Councilman Cavener. We have not
built all the timelines yet in all of those -- of those tactics and those tactic
timelines or what drives the overall objective timeline then. So, as we further
develop those tactic timelines you will see that articulated in the overall objective
timeline. The first one that we have is 3-C-1, develop a local incident
management team to respond during and after times of community crisis . I think
this was a little foreshadowing going on three years ago when we built this plan.
So, we have quite a bit of experience in that local incident management team.
We actually put one up impromptu using city staff, so we have completed this
about 20 percent. We have identified the key folks that need to be a part of that.
We have identified the training that would need to be done. I need a correction
on my slide here. It's not greater than a thousand, it's less than a thousand.
Much of the -- did you catch that? Much of the training that we can get to
accomplish this goal is free through Ada County Emergency Management and
the training courses that they offer -- maybe be a couple of classes that we have
identified that may have some slight cost to them, but a very low cost objective to
get done. Now, we have also found a partner. In the objective itself it talked
about a Treasure Valley wide incident management team using resources from
all of our municipalities. That was one of the things discussed. We believe that
we have a partnership in that, that if we have a large enough scale incident, far
greater than what we saw during the snow event, we have a resource from the
state that can come in and assist us. So, we are 20 percent through that. We
will continue to update that in the -- in the program. 4-A-1 is use industry
standards and benchmarks to develop and communicate the safety profile of
Meridian. It's about five percent complete. Done some discussions with Joe
Lombardo at Ada County Emergency Management on who we can best analyze
where we are at today as a city and what are threats and hazards are moving
forward. There is a lot of things we already do great. Our Police Department is
great at keeping crime rates low and it's one of the best certainly in Idaho. So,
the things that we are doing well we would continue. But also identifying where
are those hazards that we haven't even talked about that impact the safety of the
community. The county has a THIRA, it's called a Threat Hazard Identification
and Risk Assessment, but many items in that THIRA countywide probably aren't
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going to apply to us. One of their biggest threats countywide is a dam failure at
Lucky Peak. That's not going to necessarily affect us as much as it's going to
affect Eagle, Boise, Star and as the food goes down we will have the side effects.
So, there is a very specific hazards here in Meridian that we want to look through
as far as a threat hazard assessment is done. The estimated cost on that is
about 10,000 dollars. However, there is an opportunity through the Ada County
Emergency Management grant process that we can get this covered by a grant,
as far as the cost of getting that THIRA done. The next two really depend on that
first one. So, 4-A-2 and 4-A-4 are those contingent upon the one I just talked
about and so there hasn't been any work done on those two specifically. And,
then, moving into our other two. 4-B-1 is use industry standards and
benchmarks to develop and communicate the heath profile of Meridian. It's
about eight percent complete. We have done a lot of research on how we can
adequately look at a health profile for Meridian. There is a recognized program
that is the most nationally recognized program t ool as far as looking the overall
health and fitness of a community. Following that, the title of that is the ACSM
fitness index program, but don't let the title mislead you, it's not just about fitness,
it's about pathways, it's about recreational opportunities, it's about dietary habits
of your community, et cetera. So, it is about the most widely recognized and
used way to benchmark and establish a health profile. So, we are about eight
percent through that.
4-B-2 --
De Weerd: And, chief, I -- I think that the Department of Health and Welfare
received a pretty large grant, like a 40 million dollar grant, that's looking at
community health profiles and I don't know too much more about it , but I heard
about it today and --
Niemeyer: Intuit.
De Weerd: Yeah.
Niemeyer: Absolutely. 4-B-2 is contingent upon 4-B-1. Same with 4-B-4. And,
then, 4-B-5 become among the top 100 healthiest cities nationally. That was one
of the objectives. So, as we looked around and said how do you even gauge
that, how do you become a top 100? Is there such a thing or are we -- just have
an objective that doesn't really match anything that's out there. To be honest,
that's -- the ADC SM index program rates municipalities of populations over
50,000 based on a set criteria to identify the health profile, the fitness profile of
the community. Again, there is several pages of that. It's not just about you get
on a treadmill, you know, half hour every day or you eat cucumbers and celery all
day. It talks about the demographics and all that. There is a whole entire
analysis that's done as far as meeting that benchmark. It does compare you
against like cities, so there is an evaluation tool there. And with that I will stand
for any questions.
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De Weerd: Any questions? Okay.
Basterrechea: Madam Mayor, President Bird, Members of the Council, I'm here
to represent the Police Department. Our objective is to be one of the 100 safest
cities. So, simply said, this will be really short, because there is no more people
watching. I tweeted I was going to speak, so they have all got offline. So, the
way we are going to accomplish that is pretty easy. We are just going to
continue to dominate and with that I will stand for questions. So, some of the
things that we are looking at -- one of the things that is in progress right now is
we are conducting the staffing study to see where we need to be to continue to
be able to deliver the level of service that we are currently delivering to our
citizens as the community continues to grow. We are also expanding many of
our community service type of programs for some of the programs that we are
offering through crime prevention. Those include teen safety programs, internet
safety programs, violence prevention programs for females and things like that
and we are also looking at redistricting how we do our patrolling, going from two
districts to three districts, as well as continuing to study putting actual substations
that are manned for certain business hours in different parts of the city. So,
those are some of the things that we are looking at right now. With that I will
stand for questions.
De Weerd: Thank you. How do you get the top 100? By nomination?
Basterrechea: Nomination.
De Weerd: We nominate ourselves.
Basterrechea: Yes. And with that said we are currently listed in the top 100
safest cities and they do that by looking at crime statistics. One of the things that
we are going to talk to the Fire Department about is looking at a better way to
rate that as well, because certainly they are involved with safety issues within
cities. It just doesn't come down to crime rate, so --
Bird: Madam Mayor? Before you leave.
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: The amazing thing that I see at this is administration wise we have this --
basically the same amount of administration that we had when we were a 34
sworn police officer force over there and what you guys have done is amazing . I
mean just sit down and count it out, we had five or six lieutenants, we had two
captains, and we had a chief. Now, we have got seven lieutenants, a deputy
chief, and a chief.
Basterrechea: We actually have five lieutenants.
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Bird: Five lieutenants. Okay. And now we have got 109 sworn officers. I think.
I'm amazed the work all these guys do. I'm very, very appreciative of you and
the Fire Department and everything. You guys go above and beyond the call of
duty, especially your administration. Thank you.
Basterrechea: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Tracy.
Chatterton: Tracy, you didn't even advance the slide. So, I was pretty amazed a
few minutes ago to hear Steve Siddoway say that he would like to give us an
objective, because Community Development has 21. Ten of those have high
priority. We are really not -- so, I'm going to have 21 slides. Just kidding. I'm
going to emphasize four that we have made progress on or we hope to make
significant progress on very soon and , then, three that we would like to talk about
a change in priority, because of a change in circumstances. Really, not
complaining about that, because we love what we do in community development
and this is our bread and butter. So, so much of these objectives that -- the
achievement, what we have already done, what we plan to do very soon, is really
just in the slipstream of our daily work. So, we are really happy to be engaged
on these. So, the four I'm going to talk about have to do with urban renewal,
promoting job growth by attracting businesses and technology, health sciences,
animal science and food production. Creating a variety of housing options and
amenities and defining the socio-economic profile of the city. First, urban
renewal. This is one that really is a hundred percent done, except, of course,
there will be ongoing work. The Council did a great thing with approving the
urban renewal plan for the Ten Mile area. We -- we expanded urban renewal in
a sense by creating the new district, engaged MDC, and worked with property
owners and a whole bunch of other stakeholders to -- to create that plan and we
have seen the results. It's not just the two corporate headquarters, Brighton and
AmeriBen, but it is now, as the Mayor announced this morning, another 500 jobs
coming to -- to Meridian. So, there is going to be more great things to come from
that urban renewal district. It's a tool for economic development, as well as in
other areas of slum and blight, and I think it's going to continue to resonate in our
community. The ongoing work really is making sure that as the permitting
agency that we move those applications through the system as quickly as
possible, so that these developments can get built, the jobs can get created, and
folks can actually fill those -- those seats that are created. And ongoing work as
well with the Meridian Development Corporation. We have had to step in a bit
just to help, but it's been -- it's really worked well and the handoff has been
made to -- to the MDC I think very successfully. Promote job growth. Now,
specifically we are talking about job growth for health sciences, agriculture,
animal sciences, and food. A lot of -- some real hills that we have been able to
take with -- with the Council and Mayor's help and other departments as well.
First, there was that incentive package, so that the -- so, that ICOM -- Idaho's, of
course, first medical college, could be built. We continue to work -- now that
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ICOM has an incentive package, we continue to work with their team on not just
the design of their facility and making sure that we -- all lights are green as far as
their permitting, but also working with their team on the possibility of them
developing student housing somewhere -- somewhere within Meridian. I related
that agriculture would be the Fields District specific area plan and, of course, that
-- as Brian mentioned earlier this evening, that effort will be underway soon to
plan those uses around the future of agriculture in northwest Meridian. Many of
you are also familiar with Growing Together, which is our roundtable around the
future of agriculture and where the cities of Meridian and Nampa and Canyon
and Ada Counties are growing together. That's also related to -- to both food
production and a future of agriculture and animal sciences. Just one example,
really, of how we are trying to leverage the success of ICOM or the -- or what we
expect to be the success of ICOM, is that Brenda's been able to recruit around
health sciences and really play to some of the strengths that we now find that we
are going to have when it comes to have it being the home of -- of a medical
college. So, for instance, she made a recruiting trip with PKG and they were
talking to folks that make medical equipment, diagnostic equipment, et cetera.
That's just one example of -- of some of the recruitment efforts that we can do
around job growth in these -- these focus industries. Promoting housing options
and the amenities really to have a safe and diverse and livable community. First
off, like every other city in the United States, we have signed on to affirmatively
further fair housing and every single application that we look at related to
housing, mixed-use, commercial, we try to apply these things. So, with -- with
every development application as applicable we are looking at connectivity at
micropaths, at open space requirements and amenities. We have talked quite a
bit about that and dialing in our UDC requirements to make sure that we get
those amenities delivered in the right way, the way that we expect. We
constantly coordinate -- especially on bigger projects with Parks and Recreation
on situations where park land will be donated or -- or developed and every
application that we look at we try to address the diversity of housing units,
because if you have a range of product types within a development you're more
likely to be able to serve a variety of citizens within -- within our community. It
simply makes for a healthier community. And that's -- so, that last one was
ongoing. This next one, the socioeconomic profile, is important. Just as Mark
was talking about the health profile, the socioeconomic profile relates to a lot of
things that we are doing. The good news is that we have to do every five years a
consolidated plan for our CDBG funding. The consolidated plan -- not to be
mixed up with a comprehensive plan -- really provides that socioeconomic
profile. So, we have hired the consultant, BBC out of Denver. They have done a
lot of this work here in Idaho to create the consolidated plan and we will be able
to extract most of that socioeconomic profile for the city from the consolidate
plan. And that consolidated plan will, then, help inform and be informed by our
Comprehensive Plan and I think you all have seen several times the existing
conditions portion of our comp plan, it's just a wealth of information about our
community. Elsewhere we have an objective that says, okay, under this
objective we have created the socioeconomic profile, let's work to elevate that
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socioeconomic profile to make sure that our citizens have -- have what they
need. So, that -- that's something that we will be making a lot of headway on in
the next year. Priority changes. We have three. 1-B-1, 1-B-2 and 1-B-3, which
in this order basically say define the city's growth goals, identify where we should
grow and where we shouldn't and, then, finally, complete the rezoning in those
target areas in alignment with those goals. If you look at these, they may be a
little bit out of whack in terms of the priorities. So, we have got high for 1-B-1. 1-
B-2, identifying the areas is also high. Then 1-B-3 is low. Our -- our request,
what we would like to talk about, is changing the middle one to medium . It's just
a better flow. And I think it -- it shows that -- the relative importance of each of
these. First you have got to define it and articulate it. Second you have got to
identify where you're going to do it and, third, you actually have to implement. All
three are very important, but I think that shows the -- and we are constantly doing
the 1-B-3. Earlier when we talked about the -- the land use study off -- at
Overland and Eagle, we are really talking about bringing the land use plan and
zoning ultimately into -- into conformity with what the city's goals are. We have to
first define what those goals are. Another priority change. 2-C-3. This has us
pursuing key catalyst projects in the downtown. Now, when this was originally
written we thought we had some low-hanging fruit when it came to the performing
arts and a hotel conference center. That had to do with a lot of energy in the
community, we thought that we might have had that for someone say to
purchase a major track, such as the Church of the Harvest, and we thought that
we might be able to get some philanthropic funding for a performing arts center.
As you all know, we did an RFP, we didn't get any takers, and we don't think
that's low-hanging fruit, we think it's still important, though. So, we need to step
back and, actually, we are with our partners, MDC and the Chamber, the steering
committee, to see what we really need to do for the downtown . One idea that's
been advanced is to really focus on destination downtown and the work that's
been done for achieving destination downtown the last few years and where that
-- what's the future of that plan. So, I would say that, you know, medium or low
for those particular projects or perhaps even -- even rewording of the objective.
Then 5-A-1 is very similar. Develop facilities for performing arts and
conferences. Again, that -- we don't think that's low hanging fruit. Probably
should not be high priority. That's what I had for you. Glad to answer any
questions now or when you have had a chance to digest some of this.
De Weerd: Any comments from Council at this point?
Chatterton: Thank you. And I will just keep the other sixteen or so to myself.
We are working on them.
Pepin: Okay. Good evening. And I think I am the last stop in terms of
departments, so we have three objectives that the Public Works Department is
responsible to lead for the city's efforts. They are listed there in front of you.
One of them I will touch briefly on. Promote and guide desired growth. It's
something that we haven't taken on yet formally as an objective, since it's not
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time to start yet, but as you will see in that slide there are a lot of efforts that are
going on that will feed into this. So, right now the sewer and water master plans
are in the throes of being worked on with our consulting firms. You're well aware
of the south Meridian plan for our infrastructure heading down that way and,
then, we come to you with reclaimed water and you made a decision on that and
I bring that up to you, because when we get ready to formalize this group and put
it together at the beginning of fiscal '18, those plans will be done and we will be
ready to get to work on it. So, I wanted to mention that. The group did do a lot of
good work to be prepared for that. So, a couple ones that I really wanted to
focus on of the other two, more environmentally based. As you know
environmental falls under Public Works purview. So, one of them is planned to
start and has started. I throw a little example up at the top. It's not really a
recommendation, it's more of a talking point, what the Mayor spoke about and
what some of the other directors have spoke about and that is this plan is a year
old, people change, people's objectives and their thoughts change. We got into
this objective tactic and I actually was part of putting it together and I realized we
don't need to spend any money on hiring an outside consultant to do this work for
us. If we can't identify our own offerings who are we. So, why not do it ourselves
internally. So, that's what we are going to do. So, that's just an example of -- as
you know how things change and are dynamic in this plan. So, we did just hire a
new environmental programs coordinator by the name of Jason Korn. We got
him out of ACHD. So, it's really nice to -- to pull from a local resource. We will
bring him around and introduce him to you all, but he will be leading up the
efforts on the city's behalf of this initiative, so --
De Weerd: And this was his first day?
Pepin: This was his first day. Yes. So, normally, he would have been here for
this, but we cut him some slack.
De Weerd: That's all right.
Pepin: Efforts to date. As you're aware, we are always ongoing water
conservation, recycling, and energy efficiency. We do have an action plan put
together in draft form and, then, we will be getting together with those support
agencies and departments in the very near future to put together more of a
formalized work plan and moving forward with this objective. And the last one --
there are some recommended changes here. So, you looked at the previous one
and it talked about developing programs and this one talks about promoting
programs. You can't really promote anything until you have developed it. So,
this is an administrative oversight on my part when I submitted these worksheets
to Robert and, then, to Jaycee from a date perspective. We cannot do this one
until we have done the one I just previously spoke about. So, the
recommendation here is, one, to adjust the dates to start after the other one has
ended. But, then, also from a priority standpoint it doesn't mean that this one is
less of a priority, but if we are going to dedicate resources to work on something
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in the form of FTEs or budgetary dollars, the one I previously spoke about needs
to be looked at first before we get to this one. So, we would also suggest that we
adjust the priority just from a hierarchy thing, as Bruce has commented in his
portion as well. So, the two changes we are looking for is to change the -- the
dates on this one due to an oversight and, then, prioritization. And just a couple
other things. There is ongoing efforts in these areas, as you all know, and we
bring to you very often with updates to make sure our community is very
sustainable and just thinking about the environments . Any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Any questions from Council? Okay. So, I guess
at this point we -- we have the one source of truth, which you were just
introduced to today and -- and you can -- as the tool is further developed and --
and you saw where some of those opportunities are and -- and it has nothing to
do with the tool itself, it's -- it's trying to -- to be able to quantify or measure the --
the percent completed, because even though this report has zero, there are
efforts going on. So, it's trying to figure out how to quantify that percent
completed and, then, the cost piece was another point to that as when that cost
rolls up is it our best guess estimate , is it when a budget has been submitted,
approved, and now it's undergoing the process of being expended to the different
phases of -- of the -- the tactics or the work. So, we have the status completion,
the cost, and certainly looking at some of the dates on this -- this initial printout
where you have the dates started is the same as the end date and so there are
some tweaks to do and we should be working on that before it comes back to
you. If you will submit your -- your questions certainly as the single point of
contact of Jaycee, but as the party that's responsible, myself, I like to be included
on that and we will make sure that the departments follow up on getting some
information in advance, as well as be available to present to answer those
questions when we do the follow up. I guess my question to Council would be do
you want this three weeks out? We could put it on our workshop or what the
thoughts are?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think that's a -- that's a big question to ask that I'm not prepared right
now to answer without maybe getting some further clarification on a few things
and what I think would be helpful for me -- and I'm not sure how the rest of the
Council feels, but this is a lengthy document that staff has had a year for -- it's
been a year since we have seen it and it was presented in a fashion that was
familiar to the departments, but not necessarily flowing with the chart that was
provided to us that we each had to constantly flip back to try and follow the
bouncing ball. It was very confusing for me to keep track of what was being
presented with the questions that I have had versus the requests being made of
the department. It would be helpful for me -- and I don't know how the rest of the
Council would feel -- if we could get an executive summary sent to Council with
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the requests for the various departments about their recommendation s, such as
merging, omissions, changes of dates, priorities. Other things that I would like to
also see is the amount of hours that we have already spent within this project --
within these objectives versus what's budgeted. Same with time. How many
hours have been spent on this versus budgeted. I would like to know that if X
amount of hours has been spent on one objective and they don't feel they have
advanced it more than zero percent, to me that's helpful in evaluating if this is an
objective that needs to remain. I'd also like to know how many of the strategic
updates have changed hands, changed ownership, as well as how many dates
have changed. It would also be beneficial to me to have an update as to who is
on the current strategic team that was presented in the report that we adopted ,
but I know that that has changed and, then, valuation on -- if thus far if this plan
has been implemented correctly. Is staff -- Mayor, are you pleased with how the
implementations went so far. That would give me more context than the specific
numbers that I'm seeing on this plan that was presented to us . It would help me
feel much more confident in being able to say, yes, this is a strategic update that
needs to -- to remain or it's one that needs to go away. But to -- again, to follow
the bouncing ball with this presentation was very, very challenging for me and I
wouldn't feel comfortable to be any more confident in m y decision making three
weeks from now than I would be today with the information that I have at hand.
De Weerd: And I certainly understand that in terms of -- that is why it was
certainly no intent to have any action tonight . It was important to -- to have each
of the departments have a discussion with you, raise these points, and I think it's
very fair to -- to put a summary together with strikeouts and -- so you can see
where the changes are being recommended. So, an edited copy. But didn't
want to do that until they had a chance to get in front of you and at least present
it. So, coming back we can do that. I will say one of the -- of the budget
enhancements that would have been very key to putting together some of those
key performance indicators that you mentioned in terms of time spent, resources,
those kind of things, that position was really to help develop that and it was not
approved. So, you have in front of you today a first blush approach to this . As
we continue to develop the tools of accountability, the tools of tracking, and
starting to put some of those KPIs together that -- that you just requested,
because those are not in place as to what -- how many hours are put to each
tactic and how that will -- will push up into this tool that has been developed, too.
So, those are down the road and it's good to have that conversation now ,
because each of the directors now hear that and we will have to -- to discuss that
as a team as well in trying to be able to track those.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, if I could also add just a request and I know that we
discussed this a year ago, but personally I think waiting 12 months to have this
before us is -- is a misstep and that bringing this before the Council every six
months with an update only serves to help the directors and to help the team . I
think that it probably would have been beneficial for many of the people in this
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room tonight to hear those same concerns from me six months ago, as opposed
to hearing them tonight, and --
De Weerd: And I would agree with you. And, again, another comment that was
put the -- this is not going to be the only time you get to touch on this. It will be
during the budget session, trying to build the strategic goals into a budget
conversation as well and -- but I do think you have a legitimate comment in terms
of -- this needs to be looked at quarterly. If you're finding, as you're working on
your objectives, that you're finding these kind of variances, it doesn't make
sense, you don't have the resources, you've had staff changes, you have had
something that was unanticipated, perhaps maybe a weather event that is -- has
totally turned any day-to-day operations or strategic opportunities upside down,
those needs -- those variances need to come forward and a lot of this has really
been worked out in trying to pull the summary together and -- and starting to see,
oh, yeah, we can do better on that. So, it's -- I will give kudos to Jaycee and IT in
getting this tool in place. That has really helped put, in a visual form in terms of
each of the directors and better tracking. You can do a summary report and so I
think we are getting the -- the appropriate tools in place to help operation --
operationalize this strategic plan, too. Other comments? Things you would like
to see brought back?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I think -- this is great, Jaycee, and the team that you have led to get it to
this stage is fantastic. Not -- not an easy process. One of the suggestions that I
heard, which I think makes sense, maybe the workshop is too soon, but I
envisioned this calendar being the Januaryish annual review, you know, in a
three week period, give or take, where we have that next workshop to discuss
and adopt recommended changes, whether it's priorities, excluding an objective,
maybe adding one in and that's -- we will do that in perpetuity for the next
hundred years; right? Because it just continues forever. So, if -- if the March
workshop -- a summary of all the recommendations from the departments of
what priority would change, what might merge -- something in the form of how we
would entertain a motion to update the strategic plan in that fashion would make
sense. We can vet each and every one and agree or disagree on them. To
Councilman Cavener's point on the timing, I would also suggest the execution
portion of the plan that's on page nine speaks to the update process and the idea
of a biannual update to Council -- it's annual right now as adopted, but that might
be an additional change that we want to address. So, that calendar of the
frequency and the responsible party of those updates might be worthy of -- of
amending as well. And, then, also -- maybe this is for the March discussion. The
next page speaks to tactical plans. I know I have talked to Jaycee about it.
There may be some confusion as to which departments need to adopt and create
a, quote, tactical plan to accomplish their objectives. Doesn't maybe make sense
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for every department to do so, but that's not really delineated in the plan, so we
can provide some clarity on does every department really have to have a tactical
plan or not.
De Weerd: Well, I think that that's kind of -- I don't know if it was just framed
wrong or -- or it's misunderstood, but the tactical plan is under each objective.
Borton: It's a simple clarification of that portion of the plan. So, those things
have jumped out as well, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Okay. We will set this for, then, the
workshop in March and we will ask that -- again, I love the comments and --
because we are -- we are all kind of moving through this process trying to figure
out where best we can put our efforts in -- in making sure that we can bring you
back a clearer -- a process, a clearer plan, a plan that gives you an idea of where
each department comes from and maybe we can add a comment column as wel l
that describes why the change is being requested, giving further clarity to -- to
each of the -- the edits to the plan. Does that make sense? Yes? No?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, could you clarify what you're looking, then, from
Council between now and that time and what will be provided to Council between
for the workshop I think that's fine, but I also think that that may be challenging
for staff to pull something together that is meaningful that would give Council
enough time to process and digest that.
De Weerd: I think it's fair to say that they came and presented to you tonight, so
they should have comments regarding the changes that they have requested and
those can be plugged into a comment column. So, we can -- we can get that to
you -- we have our next director meeting next Tuesday and we can give a
timeline that you should get an edited plan I would say sometime -- no, that's
March. Yeah. March is just three -- two weeks -- a week away. What are we
talking about.
Borton: Three weeks from today. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: The idea of at least seeing a summation of what was already presented,
which we already have, that could be done before Tuesday of -- for a particular
department, here is my priority up, priority down, objective gone -- just a little
bullet list of the 21 requested changes we heard.
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De Weerd: I would -- I would say that we can get you something by the end of
next week, with what was presented today, with a track change. I'm so
technically --
Holman: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yeah.
Holman: If what Council is requesting is just a summation of any changes
throughout -- because I -- yeah, through the PowerPoint presentation it's
probably hard to track all of that and put it all in one location . But to put that into
a spreadsheet with -- this is the department. This is the objective. This is a
requested change, I can have that by -- easily by next Tuesday and get it out to
you. If it's -- if that's the extent of it, I already have that information, I can
summarize that for everyone.
De Weerd: Well, I want something a little bit more robust than -- than just that
and I would hope that the directors on each of their areas that they asked
questions give a little bit more background. So, I would like it to be a little bit
more meat behind what we give you. So, by the end of next week -- certainly
well in advance of the -- the workshop next month and gives you an opportunity
to, then, follow up with departments that you might have questions with .
Cavener: That's really appreciated. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from any of the directors? Jaycee?
Holman: Madam Mayor, Council Members, in summary I appreciate all of the
feedback. This was, as I said, the very first annual update. Helpful for me to
know this was confusing, I'd like it better in this form. If you tied these things
together -- all of that is helpful information to me and we can continue to mold
and shape this process as we go on, so --
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Just to add one more. Jaycee, I hope you know while it was frustrating
to me, I recognize where the direction was coming from, let's have each director
present on their stuff and I think that -- if I had multiple screens and was able to
follow everything it would have been a lot easier. I'm still navigating this
newfangled system.
De Weerd: Yeah. And I think maybe we can -- again, this is just a tremendous
tool and at some point can be -- I guess organized by the department, so you can
better follow those things. So, point taken.
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G. Clerk’s Office: Proposed Update to Mobile Sales Unit
Hours of Operation; MCC Section 3-4-2(B)(1)
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Coles: I will be as brief as I can. I know we are late into the evening. What you
have before you right now is a proposal that the clerk's office would like to make
-- to amend our temporary use code as it relates to mobile sales units. So, we
are looking to -- for lack of a better way of saying it -- restrict the hours of
operation for door-to-door sales, which are classified as mobile sales units within
our code, within a residential zone. So, door-to-door residential sales between
the hours of 9:00 a.m. and sunset. We have had some concerns recently from
citizens who have contacted our office during the winter months of having some
door-to-door sales folks knock on their door -- especially after it's turned dark
outside. They are worried about opening their door and what they might find.
So, we have had some folks contact our office wanting to know if there have -- if
there are any restrictions on hours of operation for -- for door-to-door sales and
currently we don't have any restrictions for the hours of operation for door-to-door
sales.
De Weerd: You would think common sense would prevail.
Coles: One might think so.
De Weerd: If they really want to sell something.
Coles: Right. And so in the winter months sunset, obviously, comes early in the
evening as it were. In the summer months not so early, so your door-to-door
sales might be operating a little later into the evening with the sunset rule , but we
have spoken with -- obviously, we have worked with the city attorney's office
about this and with the Police Department as well. Lieutenant Colaianni is
supportive of this as it relates to a public safety. He works with our office very
closely on looking at temporary use permits, mobile sales unit permits, and
approving and/or denying if that is the case for those permit applications , those
requests. So, what you have before you is simply the -- a draft proposal of the
ordinance, a change that we would like to make. If Council is agreeable we
would like to come back next week with the ordinance for your consideration .
De Weerd: Thank you, C.Jay.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Little Roberts.
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Little Roberts: Question. I'm a real fan of Schwan's and it looks like that would
stop my Schwan's delivery after dark.
Coles: It -- it may. That is not something that --
Nary: Madam Mayor? Maybe I can help answer that.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Schwan's is -- if they require a mobile sales unit if they do sell it door to
door, but it also is different when you order something and they deliver it to you.
So, I don't think that would stop the delivery, it just would stop the sale. So, they
couldn't sell it to a noncustomer after dark, but they could deliver it, because
that's a different transaction. So, I don't think that should be an issue. We can
discuss that. The other thing -- I didn't have a chance to discuss this with Mr.
Coles or with Mrs. Kane. Some of our ordinances say 30 minutes after sunset,
like in the park, versus sunset and part of the reason for that is when sunset is
determined by the National Weather Service, it's not always dark. In fact, rarely
it's dark at sunset. It's dark about 30 minutes later. And so I don't want to get
mixed signals from folks thinking, well, it really doesn't feel like sunset, because
It's not dark yet. I mean at night -- in the winter it's a little bit closer. In the
summer it's a little bit further. So, sunset could be at 10:00 o'clock, but the sun
actually isn't down until about 10:30 by most people. So, we can discuss those
little nuances to make sure we are consistent. But to answer your question on
deliveries it's different than sales.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Yeah. And you wouldn't be able to d eliver yours and knock on your
neighbor's door. That would be the difference. But my -- I guess, yeah, the issue
that I have a problem with is the gray area of sunset and -- and enforcement and
the problems that that could cause. If somebody thinks it's past sunset and the
sales person doesn't think that it's past sunset, would it be easier to just have a
time and, you know, from September to March it's 6:00 o'clock and from April to
-- through August it's 9:00 o'clock or something like that, rather than going with
an ambiguous leaving it up to the eye of the beholder I guess.
Coles: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Woman Milam, we
discussed several different options, several different times. 9:00 o'clock was --
was thrown out there. 7:00 o'clock was proposed as a straight -- a time frame as
well. We didn't consider looking at months as broken out. That's something -- if
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February 21, 2017
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that's Council's desire we can -- we can do that as well, to see what that might
look like.
De Weerd: I think that's an excellent idea. I -- in the long days of summer I don't
want someone knocking on my door at 9:00 o'clock at night and it's still light
outside. So, I think that's a very good suggestion in -- in looking at it in those
terms. Then they are -- they are absolute.
Milam: Madam Mayor? And I wouldn't recommend breaking it down month by
month, because that's just confusing.
De Weerd: No.
Milam: But you could do half a year, half a year, and -- yeah. In the winter at
7:30 -- at 7:00 o'clock is way -- I don't -- I'm getting ready for bed.
De Weerd: You are?
Milam: In the winter. It's way past dark. Not really. But you know what I mean.
So, I think coming up with a -- a reasonable -- that you think is around sunset --
except for the summer, because, yeah, I don't want somebody knocking at my
door at 10:00 o'clock at night, even if it's light out, so --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Okay. I have got a number of issues. The first -- okay. So, language
says no person shall operate or act as a mobile sales unit in a residential zone
and so Schwan's, for example, unless code defines a mobile sales unit as
someone who participates in unsolicited sales activities then -- and maybe we
have a separate definition for mobile delivery services or define sales as
unsolicited or solicited -- some way that way. Beyond the language issue the
question is if you have a no soliciting sign on your door , is somebody not allowed
to knock on your door to sell you something?
De Weerd: That's correct.
Palmer: So, if that's the case, then, if you don't -- if you want people to knock on
your door to sell you something, but you don't want them doing it after dark, I
would suggest you put a sign out that says don't knock on my door -- no soliciting
after dark or just no soliciting if you don't want it all together. I don't think it's the
role of government to determine when somebody can knock on your door to sell
you something. Let the person who owns the property decide that and put the
proper signage to have that enforcement there and if it's -- if there is people
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violating it, then, that's why we have got police. If they are going to violate the
sign, they are going to violate the hours.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Question for law enforcement, since they were brought up in the
conversation or cited. Has Meridian Police Department ever cited anybody in the
past five years for knocking on a door for a no solicitation sign?
Basterrechea: No.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's not -- there is no ordinance for
that. That's a private -- that's a private choice. We don't have enforcement
authority to go enforce that.
Basterrechea: You can put up all the no soliciting signs you want, but, yeah, we
can't enforce that.
Palmer: Then -- Madam Mayor? Then I would be in favor putting in the code
that if you have a sign saying don't knock on my door to try to sell me something,
that that's enforceable, but I don't think determining hours for people that are
willing to have them knock on their door is an appropriate decision for us to
make.
Basterrechea: I will make one comment. I will try to keep it to one. I guess I
want to know how big of a problem has this been? Are we creating a time frame
because we have received a couple of calls this year or has this been an ongoing
issue? We haven't responded to many that I know of.
De Weerd: That's a great question.
Coles: And I can't speak, chief, to the previous years, I just know that we have
received several phone calls and e-mails in our office this year about the winter
months and after dark having someone knock on their door and wondering why
are they allowed to knock on my door and sell something after -- after dark.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so I'm not comfortable with us
enforcing no soliciting signs, because, again, those are private choices
everybody can make and whether or not we want to criminalize that , that's a little
bit more problematic. The reason I think the direction and thought was on this is
we already require a license for people to sell things door-to-door, whether it's on
foot or in a vehicle. So, that's the ice cream truck and that's the person selling
whatever. So, we already require it that they have to have a license. It's not a
large stretch to the limit when or how that's done in areas. It's not required. It
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certainly isn't mandatory and we haven't had it in place since we have had this
ordnance in place for the last five years. If -- if you want us to just track the
complaints and come back at a later time with some different suggestions of
ways that we could address it, that's certainly an option as well. This was just a
way to address the problem that we thought was the less intrusive method with a
system that already exists, that they are required to get a license anyway. So,
defining when they can continue to operate -- and it is defined in the code
differently between orders and that they are filling orders and whether or not they
are actually just selling things unsolicited door to door. So, we can do it any way
you want. It's no big deal. But I would be more uncomfortable in trying to
enforce no soliciting signs, because, again, that's a private choice. There is
already trespassing in the code that applies in certain circumstances . If that's a
method you want to use that's different, but a no soliciting sign really doesn't
have force of law and it's not very comfortable for us to use that as a method.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Thanks, C.Jay, for trying to -- to serve our citizens that are calling with
concerns. Let them know we have discussed it in Council and, hopefully, saw
that it wasn't a big enough problem to make a code change and -- and give our
law enforcement extra things to do at this time. Unless somebody disagrees.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I guess I will go on the record that I disagree for what it's worth. I
appreciate bringing this up. I think it's a valid concern.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: We license these people, as Bill said, why -- why can't these rules and
regulations just be stated on the -- on the license when they apply for that? I
don't -- nobody likes to be bothered at night and stuff, but -- and if you -- we are
licensing them and we are getting the money out of them and I'm sure we are not
getting a hundred percent of the guys that are going door to door, but we are
getting a majority of them, so I -- I appreciate this and I appreciate that we are
worrying about the phone calls and the e -mails that come in, but let's do it in a --
we have already got a licensing. Let's make it on the license. Same way that a
driver's license -- if you're able to drive at night, you got something on there that
says you can't.
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De Weerd: I guess what they are asking is in order to put it on their soliciting
license you have to have an ordinance that -- that gives that kind of detail. So, I
don't know what to suggest at this point.
Coles: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I think what I'm hearing -- and
correct me if I'm wrong -- is perhaps we will continue to track more extensively to
see if this becomes a larger issue that we need to bring back at a later date.
De Weerd: I see people have an interest in -- in setting parameters, but I have it
on the side. What does that side think? The right side?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I think maybe if we had some more information about what the
complaints specifically were. Are they at 7:00 o'clock or are they at 9:00 o'clock?
I can see dark being a problem. I can see the verbiage being a problem. I can
see at 7:00 o'clock you don't necessarily want somebody knocking on your door
in the summer, but there is kids that are going to be sad if the ice cream truck
can't come -- drive down the street. So, it seems like it just needs more details.
De Weerd: The ice cream truck is not knocking on your door, though.
Little Roberts: It says it can't be in a residential zone. He's out there trying to
sell.
Coles: It would apply to -- as currently stated, you're right, Council Member Little
Roberts.
De Weerd: That's so anti-American. Oh, I'm going to tell them the clerk said.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, maybe if --
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if -- it sounds like we
need a little more homework and a little bit more information for you and maybe
for your workshop in March we can bring some suggestions, as well as a little
more detail, because I think you have raised what -- the concerns I think that we
have talked about internally on trying to address the issue is that as many things
seem very simple to do and they have a lot of ramifications because of it, so let's
not propose -- we won't propose putting on something next week, we will bring
something back at your March workshop with some more detail and some more
options, if that sounds reasonable.
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Cavener: Sounds reasonable.
De Weerd: Okay.
Coles: Thank you.
Item 11: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Item 11. Future meeting topics. I think we need more topics. Just a
couple of upcoming events. For -- we hope you have an interest in -- the police
department award ceremony is on Thursday evening at 6:30 at West Ada district
offices or at the auditorium. The FFA, get up bright and early, appreciation
breakfast at 6:00 a.m. -- starting at 6:00 a.m. at the Meridian Career Technical
Center. Light My Fire Banquet at Riverside Hotel on Friday, February 24th,
beginning at 5:30. If you have an interest, please, call Pam Orr. And MYAC
Ignite Youth is on Monday, February 27th, at 6:00 p.m. at the Idaho Party Barn,
so--
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I'd invite Council -- I believe March 4th is the Pipes and Drums Chili
Feed over at the speedway.
De Weerd: Absolutely.
Cavener: Two weeks before. Make plans to attend.
De Weerd: Make plans. Go taste some chili. Okay. If there is nothing further, I
would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Bird: So moved.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor? Aye.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 10:31 P.M.
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