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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-03-21Meridian City Council March 21, 2017. A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:15 p.m., Tuesday, March 21, 2017, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer and Anne Little Roberts. Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Jaycee Holman, Bruce Chatterton, Sonya Allen, Josh Beach, Jamie Leslie, Parry Palmer, Steve Siddoway, Kyle Radek, Todd Lavoie, 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 today and certainly we look forward to the proclamation for the Rocky Mountain team. We appreciate you being here with us tonight. Thank you and congratulations. For the record it is Tuesday, March 21st. It's 15 minutes after 6:00. We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance De Weerd: Item No. 2 is our Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in our pledge to the flag. (Pledge of Allegiance recited.) Item 3: Community Invocation by Troy Drake with Calvary Chapel De Weerd: Item 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led by Pastor Troy Drake with the Calvary Chapel Church. If you will all join us in our community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of reflection. Welcome. Drake: Mayor and Council Members. Please join me. Lord God in Heaven, we just want to first acknowledge your care over the whole world and as great and mighty as you are you still look at us with great understanding and mercy and grace and kindness and for that we are so appreciative. Thank you for making us. Lord, we just appreciate our country that we live in, that is a free republic as we just stated in that Pledge of Allegiance and we just pray that you would keep our country free and that we would raise up leaders to do so and so pray for a country, God, and the protection of it and, Lord, also just thank you for Meridian, this great Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 2 of 60 place that we get to live and work and play and pursue our dreams and hopes and -- and, Lord, we just ask that you would help the law enforcement officers and all the first responders tonight to keep our city peaceful and s afe and protect the citizens and -- and, then, lastly, Lord, I just pray for these folks here who have dedicated their time and many of them their life to serving our city and we just thank you for them and pray that you would give them a lot of wisdom in making these decisions tonight, whether they are big ones or small ones and, Lord, that you would just bless them greatly, give them lots of grace and so we thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do, in Jesus name, amen. Thank you 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 number 9-A the resolution number is 17-1199 and with that I move we approve the agenda as published. Cavener: Second. Borton: Second. De Weerd: Have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as read. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 5: Proclamation for Rocky Mountain Boys Basketball State Champions Day De Weerd: Okay. Item 5 is a proclamation for Rocky Mountain boys basketball state champions. I will move to the podium. So, I -- I'm going to feel short here I'm sure. I have two proclamations. One I'm just going to give your coach -- and, coach, you look like one of the boys. There you go. Roy: Well, if you get close enough the hair is pretty gray. De Weerd: Okay. If you could also join me up here. So, I will tell you that both of these will be entered into our public record. So, you can at some point when you want to impress a girl, tell your kids, brag to your grandparents that you had a special day named just for you, each of your names will be entered into the public record, so you can come back to this day anytime and show someone that you Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 3 of 60 really did have a day named after you. So, just for an FYI. We appreciate you joining us here and sharing your accomplishment. We love to recognize these big moments. So, this proclamation is for you. Whereas being a Rocky Mountain basketball players is more than scoring points, making assists, grabbing rebounds, stealing the ball and achieving the state title, it is training to build leadership, character, confidence, teamwork and resilience, all traits needed to succeed on the court, in the classroom, and in the real world and whereas for the 2016-2017 season the Grizzlies not only beat a single season record of 26 wins, but continued the basketball domination at the championship tournament by bringing home the winning trophy and whereas their strong desire to exhibit excellence in all they do resulted in a 72-51 victory to win the Idaho Class 5-A Boys State Basketball Championship Tournament and whereas capturing the first ever basketball title builds school spirit and allows these young men to walk the halls of Rocky Mountain with a little extra swagger and whereas the leadership, training and discipline of their coaches helped all team members to focus their talents and passion to become a winning team, with each player making valuable contributions to their victory. Therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, do hereby proclaim March 21st, 2017, as Rocky Mountain Boys Basketball State Champions Day in the City of Meridian and call upon the community to join me in congratulating the Grizzlies on their remarkable athletic achievement and for representing Meridian so proudly in the state tournament. I signed it for today and I will present this to your coach. Coach Roy, congratulations to you and your team. And, then, maybe we can have each of you introduce yourself and your grade, your position and we can get a picture at the end. Roy: I thank you guys very much for having us. It's an honor for us to be here and to receive this -- this award and recognition. This is a great bunch of kids, not just on the basketball court, but they really are just great, great people and I'm really, really proud of them. I'm glad this team was the first team to win a state championship for us. So, I'm really proud of these guys and they deserve all the accolades. So, they just -- yeah, thank you very much. De Weerd: Thank you. And we will start with you and, then, just switch sides and -- Anderson: Senior. Garrett Anderson. De Weerd: And position. Anderson: Guard. I’m small. De Weerd: Well -- Hall: My name is also Garrett. I'm a junior. I play shooting guard. Erickson: My name is Jacob Erickson. I'm a senior. Shooting guard. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 4 of 60 Ranstrom: My name is Hunter Ranstrom. I'm a junior and I'm shooting guard. Torpey: My name is Jaren Torpey. I'm a junior and I’m post. Hamilton: My name is Brayden Hamilton. I'm a sophomore and I play forward. O'Donnell: Tyler O'Donnell. I'm a junior and I'm a forward. Denison: Brock Denison. I'm a junior. I'm a guard. Ranstrom: Briggs Ranstrom. I’m a freshman and I play post. Lee: Kolby Lee. Senior. Big man. Terashima: Kobe Terashima. Senior. Point guard. Item 6: Consent Agenda A. Approve Minutes of March 7, 2017 City Council Regular Meeting B. Final Plat for Oaks South Subdivision No. 6 (H-2017- 0016) by Toll ID I, LLC Located South of W. McMillan Road and 1/2 Mile East of N. McDermott Road C. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Approval of Destination Place No. 3 (H-2017-0013) by Fulbright Investments, LLC Located 1510 S. Celebration Avenue D. Agreement for Extension of Water and Sewer Service Outside Meridian City Limits: 175 N. Black Cat Road E. Movie Night in Meridian 2017-2021 Title Sponsorship Agreement Between CableONE and the City of Meridian for a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $10,000 F. Task Order For Heroes Park Public Art Project for an amount not to exceed $72,000 G. Approval of Finance Department Vendor Payments in the Not to Exceed Amount of $798,771.24 De Weerd: Wow. That was awesome. I did really feel short. Council, Item 6 is our Consent Agenda. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 5 of 60 Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would move that 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. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 7: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 8: Action Items A. Movado Estates Subdivision 1. REVISED Development Agreement for Movado Estates Subdivision (H- 2016-0112) with C4 Land LLC(owner), DevCo, LLC(Developer) located on the south side of E. Overland Road between S. Topaz Way and S. Cloverdale Road, in the NE 1/4 of Section 21, Township 3 North, Range 1 East (Parcel S1121131500 and S1121141800) 2. Amended Ordinance No. A-17-1722: An Amended Ordinance (Movado Subdivision H2016-0112) For Annexation for a Parcel of Land Located in the NE 1/4 of Section 21, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, Ada County Idaho, as described in Attachment A and Annexing Certain and Territory, situated in Ada County, Idaho and Adjacent and Contiguous to the Corporate Limits of the City of Meridian as requested by the City of Meridian; Establishing and Determining the Land Use Zoning Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 6 of 60 Classification of said Lands from RUT to R-8 (Medium Density Residential District) (58.64 Acres); R-15 (Medium High Density Residential District)(44.05 Acres) and C-G (General Retail and Service Commercial District)( 11.56 Acres) in the Meridian City Code; Providing that Copies of this Ordinance shall be Filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as Required by Law; and Providing for a Waiver of the Reading Rules; and Providing an Effective Date. 3. Final Plat for Movado Estates Subdivision No. 1 (H- 2017-0004) by DevCo, LLC Located at South Side of E. Overland Road, Between S. Topaz Way and S. Cloverdale Road 4. Final Plat for Movado Estates Subdivision No. 2 (H- 2017-0005) by DevCo, LLC Located South Side of E. Overland Road, Between S. Topaz Way and S. Cloverdale Road 5. Final Plat for Movado Subdivision No. 3 (H-2017-0012) by Dave Evans Construction, LLC Located South Side of E. Overland Road, Between S. Topaz Way and S. Cloverdale Road De Weerd: Item 8-A is under Action Items. Josh. Hi. Beach: Very good. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I can give you as little or as much explanation of these items as you would like. Essentially, when this was approved by Council we had a condition that we get an updated preliminary plat, which included the area highlighted here as a lot in that plat. We caught that. The county sent it back to us indicating that it needed to be revised. We have since acquired a revised plat from the applicant and we are before you with this to amend that ordinance to get that back to the county for recordation, as well as an issue with the development agreement. When we switched from the two year time frame to the six month, we inadvertently used it -- I should say I inadvertently used a previous template indicating that the applicant had two years, then, in fact, he only had six months. So, we have also ad dressed that. In addition to those, the applicant had also submitted to the city the final plats, which we could not yet process until the ordinance and the development agreement had been signed by -- and approved by Council. So, that's why all of these items are before you. The applicant has indicated that they are in agreement with the conditions of all three of the final plats. I'm happy to go over any of those things with you if you would like. But staff is recommending approval. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 7 of 60 De Weerd: Thank you, Josh. Council, any questions for staff? Bird: Not at this time. De Weerd: Does the applicant have any comments? I'm sorry, I didn't turn the podium around. You can turn and just stand with your back to us is you want. Council, any additional information needed? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve the development agreement on H -2016-0112. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve this item. Item 8 -A. Any discussion from Council? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Okay. Item A-2 is the ordinance. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read this by title. Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Amended Ordinance No. A- 17-1722: An Amended Ordinance (Movado Subdivision H2016-0112) For Annexation for a Parcel of Land Located in the NE 1/4 of Section 21, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, Ada County Idaho, as described in Attachment A and Annexing Certain Territory, situated in Ada County, Idaho and adjacent and contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian as requested by the City of Meridian; establishing and determining the land use zoning classification of said lands from RUT to R-8 (Medium Density Residential District) (58.64 Acres); R-15 (Medium High Density Residential District)(44.05 Acres) and C-G (General Retail and Service Commercial District)( 11.56 Acres) in the Meridian City Code; providing that copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing for a waiver of the reading rules; and providing an effective date. De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there anyone who would like to hear it read in its entirety? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 8 of 60 Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Someone out there might have his hand up. I'm not sure -- no. Just kidding. But seeing none, I move that we approve ordinance number A-17-1722 with suspension of rules. Palmer: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the ordinance under A -2. 8- A-2. Mr. Clerk. Roll Call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Mr. Nary, do we need to now take action on the final plat? Plats. Nary: Yes, Madam Mayor. You can do them all together as if they were like you would have it on a Consent Agenda. So, you can do the -- the three of them as one motion and pass them collectively. De Weerd: Okay. Council, Item 8-A-3, 4 and 5 are final plats. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve final plats on H-2017-0004, H-2017-0005 and H-2017- 0012. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the final plats on this item. 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. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 9 of 60 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. B. Public Hearing for Paramount Subdivision No. 32 (H- 2017-0014) by SCS Brighton, LLC Located Approximately 1/4 Mile East of N. Linder Road, North Side of W. McMillan Road 1. Request: Short Plat Approval Consisting of Two (2) Building Lots and One (1) Common Lot on 0.71 of An Acre of Land in the R-8 Zoning District Bird: Item 8-B is a public hearing for H-2017-0014. I will open this public hearing with staff comments. Allen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. The next application before you is a request for a short plat. This site consists of .71 of an acre of land. It's zoned R-8 and it's located on the north side of West McMillan Road, approximately a quarter mile east of North Linder Road. This property was annexed in 2006 as part of the Paramount South 60 project. The Comprehensive Plan future land use map designation is medium density residential. The proposed plat depicts two residential building lots and one common area lot on .71 of an acre of land in the R-8 district. Both of the proposed lots comply with the dimensional standards for the R-8 district. The common area lot consists of a 25 foot wide street buffer along West McMillan Road, which was landscaped and a detached sidewalk constructed with a previous phase of Paramount Subdivision. Staff is recommending approval of the proposed short plat with the conditions in the staff report. Mike Wardle, the applicant's representative, submitted written testimony in agreement with the staff report. Staff will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Sonya. Any questions from Council? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. Does the applicant have remarks? Good evening. Wardle: Madam Mayor, Mike Wardle, Brighton Corporation. 12601 West Explorer Drive in Boise. Just to answer questions if you have any. But I would note that one of the unique things about this part of the project -- there is now a solid sidewalk all the way from Linder Road to Meridian Road along that whole section and that's probably one of the few mile long sidewalks in that part of north Meridian and it's been something that there have been advocates in other projects in the vicinity that had always been hoping that we would get this done, so that children walking -- particularly down to the middle school would have a safe place to go . So, that's been done. Obviously, this is a little catch-up item, two lots that -- well, we exceeded what was originally approved by two lots and so we had to come Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 10 of 60 through this process to get them. So, anyway, we are grateful to be here and glad to get this finished and the project is just about done. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions for Mr. Wardle? Bird: I have none. Wardle: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who would like to provide testimony on this item? Okay. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: Seeing how we have no public that want to speak, I move we close the public hearing on H-2017-0014. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve H-2017-0014 and include applicant and staff comments. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8 -B. Any discussion from Council? Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Just a thank you for the sidewalk completion so our kids can get to school safely. We appreciate that. De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 11 of 60 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. C. Public Hearing for Willey #2 (H-2017-0017) by Volante Investments, LLLP Located 3920 E. Lanark Street 1. Request: City Council Review of the Director's Decision to Deny the Outdoor Storage Associated with the Approved Use Bird: Item 8-C is a public hearing for H-2017-0017. I will open this public hearing with staff comments. Allen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council. The next application is a request for City Council review of the director's decision. This site consists of 2.84 acres of land. It's zoned I-L. Located north of East Franklin Road and east of North Eagle Road at 3920 East Lanark Street. A little history on this. A certificate of zoning compliance and design review application was approved last month for a 45,000 square foot multi-tenant warehouse flex building in an I-L zoning district, with outdoor storage as an accessory use. Eight foot tall pod storage units were proposed to be stacked up to three units high at a maximum height of 24 feet at the rear of the property enclosed by a seven foot tall chain link fence with slats . The outdoor storage was not approved, because it did not comply with UDC standards, which require the storage area to be incorporated into the overall design of the buildings and site landscaping, so that the visual impacts are fully contained and screened from view of adjacent non-industrial properties and public streets by a solid fence or wall with a minimum height of six feet and up to eight feet, constructed of a complimentary or of similar design and materials as the primary structure. No landscaping was proposed around the storage area and it was not fully screened from view of the non-industrial mixed-use regional designated property to the east and the screening material, the chain link with slats, is not allowed as a screening material for fences. The applicant is requesting Council review of the director's decision and proposes a lesser maximum height of 16 feet, which is two units in height, and elimination of the requirement for perimeter screening. No written testimony has been submitted on this application and I'm not sure that the applicant is here tonight. De Weerd: Council, any questions at this point? And what is your comfort level about moving forward without the applicant being present? Milam: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 12 of 60 De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I don't feel very comfortable moving forward without the applicant present unless we have heard from the applicant that they are not going to be present and that we should move forward without them personally. De Weerd: Well, I -- I believe, you know, as noted that the -- the applicant does ask for a lesser maximum height and so if you would like we can always continue this until next week. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Maybe a question for staff while on the subject before us. De Weerd: Do you want to turn on your mike. Cavener: I think it was on. I'm sorry. Bruce, under this new proposal is this something that you would approve or if they came before you would you deny this as well? Chatterton: The principal -- Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, the principle that we have followed for a long time is that while we can show more leeway within industrial -- to industrial, that we try to screen nonindustrial areas, including -- you might have a residential even within sight of that -- or office -- to protect property values on both sides. I don't know -- actually, Caleb Hood, the planning division manager, made this decision. I'd like Caleb to weigh in on that and perhaps we can do that if you decide to continue this for a week, but the -- I would -- I would try to go with that -- with that principle of whether or not this can be seen or is it adequately screened from other non-industrial areas. De Weerd: Any other questions? Sonya, any comment? Allen: The only comment I would have, Madam Mayor, Council, is that the properties to the west and north and kitty-corner partially northeast are zoned industrial. The property directly to the east is in the county currently, but it is designated for future mixed-use regional uses, commercial uses. That property is also owned by the applicant, but it is not designated for future industrial uses. So, that outdoor storage would be visible from that property -- from the back of that property and with that that it's proposing still does not meet UDC standards. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 13 of 60 Bird: While I can't figure out why the applicant isn't here, I would move that we continue the public hearing H-2017-0017 to March 28th, 2017. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to -- oh, before I -- I'm sorry. Bird: Oh, you got to ask -- De Weerd: I would like to ask if there is anyone in the public who would like to provide comment, knowing that we will continue it to next meeting. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, one of the things Bruce said was -- and I don't know if that's the driver of this motion, but that you 'd like some feedback maybe from Mr. Hood in Planning. Mr. Hood I know we will be out of the state next Tuesday. So, if -- rather than delay it longer for that, as long as you're comfortable with him providing you something in writing that could be in your packet -- if that's all right, then, that way we wouldn't put it up further for the applicant, too, so -- De Weerd: I think that would suffice and if Council felt they still needed additional information I guess they could continue it again at that point. But we will try and get you his comments with any background detail to it. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Substitute motion if I may and a comment. So, I appreciate wanting to continue this to the benefit of the applicant, who, for whatever reason, isn't here tonight. I struggle with relying on a memo from Caleb to be able to accommodate -- and a request from the applicant to extend it only a week. So, I make a substitution motion that we would continue this to April 4th . Bird: April 4th? Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a substitute motion to continue this item until April 4th. All those in favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay. Motion carries. We will continue this to April 4th. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 14 of 60 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. D. Amended onto Agenda: Public Hearing for Updates to City Clerk’s Office Fee Schedule De Weerd: Okay. 8-D is a public hearing for updates to the City Clerk's Office fee schedule. I will turn this over to C.Jay. Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I came before you on February 28th to present proposed updates to the City Clerk's Office fee schedule. What you have on your screen in front of you is the notice of public hearing publication that we put in the newspaper for the preceding two weeks to tonight, which show the three fees required to be noticed and have a public hearing on. The two -- the attorney labor -- labor for public records request and other labor, which is typically in the City Clerk's Office, because of the increase, the size of the increase, those need to be noticed for public hearing and have a public hearing and, then, adding that fee -- the Dairy Days Art Show vendor fee for -- the 20 dollar fee to cover the booth rental for artists at the Dairy Days Art Show, which MAC is -- puts on in conjunction with the Dairy Board. So, those are the fees that we are proposing to be increased and added to our fee schedule and I would stand for any questions you have. De Weerd: Council, any questions? Thank you, C.Jay. This is a public hearing on the City Clerk Office fee schedule. Any public comment? De Weerd: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Palmer. Palmer: I saw our giant audience in the corner was all looking up squinting. Can you guys see that -- see the numbers on that giant screen? Okay. De Weerd: You saw me squinting, too. I think that C.Jay took a lesson out of Finance's book and the smallest font ever. Oh, here you go. Much better; right? So, this -- this is a public hearing. Council, what's your pleasure? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would -- have we -- did we publish -- I'm dead again. I tell you what, that guy standing out there -- I mean I lost him after the first five seconds, but -- we was supposed to get this new updated technology -- Cavener: We are supposed to. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 15 of 60 Bird: I would move that we continue this public hearing -- get it published and bring it back on April 4th for a decision. Borton: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to move this on to another agenda for the ordinance to adopt and for action by Council at that time. That was what you said; right? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Okay. Yes. Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Before we are finished I just wanted to make sure that maybe I didn't have a brain dump. Did we close the public hearing? De Weerd: No. Bird: No. We want to leave it open. Cavener: Thank you, Bill. De Weerd: He wants it kept open -- Cavener: Okay. De Weerd: -- for the ordinance. Cavener: Great. De Weerd: Okay. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 9: Department Reports A. Parks and Recreation: Naming Hillsdale Park 1. Resolution No. 17-1199: Resolution effectuating naming of new park near Eagle & Amity as "Hillsdale Park." De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-A is under our Parks and Recreation Department, the naming of Hillsdale Park. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 16 of 60 Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I am pleased to be before you tonight to come before you and request an official name for -- of Hillsdale Park for the project we have been calling Hillsdale Park for well over a year now. I almost forgot that we needed to formally name it, because the name has been out there for -- for quite a while. But -- and I want to acknowledge that Marty Hill would love to be here tonight, but he is in Arizona -- De Weerd: Okay. Siddoway: -- and the reason we are moving forward while he's still there and not waiting for him to come back is he comes back just prior to the official groundbreaking and we would all really like to have an official name approved for the groundbreaking. So, Marty Hill is generously donating approximately ten acres of land out of the project known as The Hill where the YMCA and -- and other partners are involved and we are developing a ten acre park out there that's been before you previously. Mr. Hill's grandfather homesteaded that property back in 1891 and that -- that surrounding area has been -- was known as Hillsdale shortly thereafter. On March 8th earlier this month the Parks and Recreation Commission did take formal action themselves as a recommendation to City Council to recommend that the park be named Hillsdale Park and Marty did send me a few of his own words and I'd to just read to you into the record. I'm respectfully asking you and the -- this is to the Parks Commission, but City Council to name the new park near Eagle and Amity Roads to be named Hillsdale Park. The farm received a Century Farm Award in 2001. The farm itself where the ten acre park will be situated was established in 1891. The property was homesteaded by my grandfather and has been operated continuously since that time. The original school called Hillsdale school was aptly named because of the area around South Eagle Road and Amity Road was known as Hillsdale. My grandfather gave the original ground for the Hillsdale School in 1908 for one dollar. It was used until 1959 when the now Mary McPherson School was built. The original school site reverted back to my dad Earl Hill. By my donation of this ground as a park I want to be able to create a legacy for the entire Hill family. This includes both my grandparents, their five sons, two daughters and all of my cousins. It would be an honor for the Hill family to bear this lasting legacy. So, with that we bring to you this -- this request, with a recommendation from the Parks and Recreation Commission to officially name the park Hillsdale Park and I will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 17 of 60 Milam: I just really appreciate that little tidbit of information and presentation, because it just shows the generosity of this family to this commun ity for so long and it's really -- it's pretty awesome of Marty to be continuing the tradition. So, we are very grateful for their donation. Thanks. Siddoway: I will pass that on to them. Thanks. De Weerd: Well, we appreciate the work of the commission and the department to give this the identity it deserves in light of the generosity of this gift. So, it's going to be an amazing asset to our community and this is a great day to be able to memorialize this. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: It's an honor to move that we accept Resolution 17-1199 and accept the proposed name of Hillsdale Park for the park near Eagle and Amity. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a couple of seconds to approve the naming of Hillsdale Park. 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. Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'd just like to note for the record that the official groundbreaking will be on Friday, April 7th, at 2:30 p.m. out at the Hill's home and there are invitations on the back table for the audience, as well as anyone listening. It will be at 3625 East Amity Road and any questions call our department. B. Community Development: Area of Impact Waiver Request De Weerd: And I imagine they know we are having the party at their house, then? They are glad that you waited until they got back in town. Okay. Item No. 9 -B is under Community Development. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 18 of 60 Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Members, because this item really was Public Works call, we have made Kyle Radek an honorary member of Community Development for one night only and -- and he will be doing the heavy lifting here. De Weerd: Thank you. Thank you, Kyle. Radek: Madam Mayor, Council Members, Bruce Freckleton I think submitted the packet to you and I am really his messenger tonight, so I'm going to read his -- his memorandum, because I don't think I could say it any better. We received a request from Don and Kendra Taylor at 4090 South McDermott Road for a letter of waiver from a -- from a -- an area of impact requirement of Ada Code Sections 9-4-3C and 9-4-3D and this section of code -- of Ada County Code essentially requires the applicant within the Meridian urban service planning area to prepare and submit a street and utility easement plan. This plan shall provide for future resubdivision to urban densities and shall be included on the final plan. The code also requires in the Paragraph D that the applicant install dry line sewer and water lines to accommodate the future resubdivision to urban densities. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor will be doing a boundary line adjustment survey through Ada county to divide -- they have a ten acre parcel and they simply want to divide it into two five acre parcels. They have no plan for further developments and -- for the subdivision into a multi-family development and simply desire to construct a new family home on their family estate property. The subject property is currently in rural Ada county on the extreme edge of Meridian's impact area. There are no plans for extension of city sewer and water services to this area in the foreseeable future and, therefore, the request for waiver seems appropriate. This request has been reviewed by Director Bolthouse and City Engineer Warren Stewart and they both recommend granting the waiver request and sending the attached letter in the packet to be signed by the Mayor and sending it to the director of Ada County Development services per the requirements in city code, which you see in red there. The requirement may be waived if a lett er of waiver is submitted to the director and here is where the property is located. Basically on McDermott Road just -- just on the east side of McDermott Road between Victory and Amity and that is what the -- the requesters would like to do. The yellow boundary is the current parcel and the green line represents the split into two five acre lots . And that's all I have and I will stand for questions and, again, the item is to request Council to approve the waiver to the county code and for the Mayor to sign a letter for the -- the planning director. De Weerd: Thank you, Kyle. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: It seems like an odd split, but if that's what they want -- Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 19 of 60 Radek: Well, Madam Mayor, I -- I think the odd shape, if that's what you're referring to, is to make it so that it's five acres, which I think is a requirement in Ada county you can't subdivide no lower than five acres. De Weerd: Okay. And that makes a little bit more sense then. Yeah, you are sounding like a planner over there. They may not let you go back to Public Works. Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. De Weerd: Okay. You have a request in front of you. What is your pleasure? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would move that the Mayor sign the letter regarding the split on South McDermott Road and send it to Ada county planning. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the request for waiver of the provisions of Ada County Code. 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: ALL AYES. C. Finance: Comprehensive Financial Plan De Weerd: Okay. Our next item under 9-C is under our Finance Department and so as Todd gets it loaded up -- loaded up we will eagerly await his presentation. Lavoie: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Again, I want to thank you for the opportunity to provide to you the fiscal year 2018 to 2022 comprehensive financial plan. So, again, tonight what we will do is we are going to go over and review the CFP information that we provided you on March 3rd via e-mail and I think we also provided you a hard copy in your offices and, then, this presentation will deliver a general understanding that was presented to you on March 3rd and we will go over the first ever City of Meridian comprehensive financial plan. So, again, the agenda is laid out as we will go over the CFP. I will go over revenue and growth projections. We will discuss the expenditure requests that were provided to you on March 3rd in detail for the General Fund and the Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 20 of 60 Enterprise Fund. We will look at the projected fund balances as a result if the CFP as provided to you is accepted and, then, we will look at what is needed from you, the Council members, and, then, we will provide you what we believe will occur next. So, again, the question is what is the comprehensive financial plan? The comprehensive financial plan, in short, is a tool that allows and provides a short- term and long-term guide for the city to manage off of. Again, a carefully prepared CFP has many uses. It anticipates and communicates the community needs. It plans for maintenance and operations for the city departments. It will provide a basis for developing a request that coincides with the city's strategic plan. Again, the CFP is intended to be a guide, a tool, a communication, a device for not only the Mayor, the Council, the department directors, but also the citizens. Our goal with the CFP is to be able to provide the information necessary for decision-makers for not only the next year, but also the five and ten year plan. Again, the CFP is to be a starting point for discussions on the annual budget process and we know that the CFP must be flexible. This is a living document. Again, the CFP will be updated annually, just like we do with the budget process. So, the CFP will -- working I guess in cooperation with the budget on an annual basis. We will keep the CFP liquid. We will keep it flexible to adjust to not only the economic changes, the legislative changes, the political changes and all the development changes that are occurring within our city. Again, as I stated the CFP will be a living document on an annual basis. So, again, before we get into the numbers as a reminder, this is the first CFP that we have developed at the city and I will tell you it's not a hundred percent perfect. Again, this is the first approach to this. It's a new way of thinking on how we are going to plan for the city and how we are going to plan for the future. But, again, we have put in a lot of time, we have put in a lot of efforts, again, for the first CFP I'm proud of what we have delivered to you. Again, the Mayor now has a document that provides her where ever department directors want to go. She has one tool, one communications guide that she now can refer to that she can determine to work with the budget process to know where we want to go as a city. It's not only the Mayor, the Council has the same tool. The directors have the same tool and so do the citizens. So, again, at the end of the day this is our communication tool to everybody on where we believe the city needs to go between 2018 and 2022. Again, this is the first time we have done this. This is a work in process. Again, we will continue process improvements every single year. Again, we will look for input from not only Council, but we will look for input from the directors, the staff members to see how we can improve this process on the annual basis. So, again, as I stated, adjustment will occur every single year. This year I did not get a ton of input from Council. I apologize on the process. This will be a point that I will make sure that occurs in the future . We do need to get your input on the policy, on the direction we need to move with revenue expenditures. Again, this first year I do apologize, I did not get as much input as I should have, but I can guarantee in future years we will get you more involved with do we include revenues of sort. So, an example would be do we take the three percent and run it all the way across for ten years in property taxes? Do we develop Fire Stations One, Two, and Three in X amount of years? Again, we will lean on some guidance of policy, but, again, the Mayor and the executive branch will develop the policy Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 21 of 60 we believe will continue to deliver the services that our citizens expect. So, again, I apologize for not getting a lot of input from you this year, but the next process we will definitely get the policy guidance from Council in the future. So, again, apologize about that input. De Weerd: Well -- and I would just add that this has been something that has been fully developed over time and it has been a desire for -- from this Council to be able to project forward what the base will look like, what the costs will look like, and so we had a capital improvement plan, we had a comprehensive salary plan, we had a benefits plan and -- and this is kind of Todd's efforts to wrap all of those different plans that have come to -- in front of you in various forms together, so you can have a comprehensive look. So, we are excited about it. It is -- this first one is -- as we have proven in other efforts that the first one doesn't necessarily come in perfect time, but we look forward to the conversations that will ensue moving forward and making this even better. Lavoie: Appreciate that, Mayor. So, with that we will go ahead and jump into some of the revenue projections and the assumptions that we put into the comprehensive financial plan. The revenue projections we worked and developed a committee, we call it the growth summit, on an annual basis three departments, Public Works, Community Development, and the Finance Department work together to project population, permit sales and new dwellings for both -- for all residential, new commercial, multi-family. When we agree on the numbers we use those numbers to develop our revenue projections. Again, we also use historical and economic indicators to help guide the revenue projections . Again, with this as our first go around with the CFP, again, as I stated, I didn't get a ton of involvement with Council and I do apologize about that. Again, we will make sure to get you involved with the revenue projections going forward, the dwellings, and make sure that we are all on the same page, so when I present this to you next year we are all in agreement that the revenues are good, the expenditures are good and we are in good shape. So, the revenue projections. These projections and assumptions were provided to you on March 3rd. I'm not really going to go through every one of those in detail. But, again, the revenue projections are based on the growth committee that we developed. The property tax assumption I will let you know this is my opinion and my guidance to include three percent throughout the entire property tax revenue calculation. So, I did maximize the three percent in my revenue calculations. Again, going forward I will definitely seek your input and guidance on that policy. So, I apologize again on that. And, then, the final other revenue projections -- we stayed conservative, but not too conservative. They are still within margin of our actual projections and actual historical revenue generation. So, I will go straight -- straight into the numbers for General Fund. So, again, the March 3rd details I provided you, this is a summary of the March 3rd details. The General Fund for the years -- fiscal year 2018 to 2022 have 113 CFP requests. Total one-time requests a little over 17 million. Total ongoing costs about 5.7 million. And you can see how it was broken down by personnel and operating accordingly. Just want to bring to your attention that during this process Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 22 of 60 we were not able to approve everything. Thirty-three requests had to be moved, had to be delayed, or had to be cancelled in some sort. Discussions were had to determine which 33, but, again, just to let you know we did have to make some moves, some adjustments and the primary reason for that is due to lack of revenue stream. We do not have enough revenue to meet the requests that were submitted to us by all the departments. So, an example would be Fire Station Six. Fire Station Six has a potential price tag of 1.5 million dollars ongoing for all personnel and maintenance of the facilities. 1.5 million is a good amount of money for us to add to our revenue expense stream. I apologize. As you will hear in my next presentation about property tax, you will be able to see how much property tax it takes to make up 1.5 million dollars in new revenue. I understand there is also sales tax we can use, but, again, with all of that 1.5 million is one example of many requests. We had to kind of balance everybody's requests between Police, Parks, and Fire, so not everything got in the years that they submitted to us. After review some items had to get pushed out a year, so we can make sure that we generate the necessary revenue to keep the General Fund whole. So, just an example of some of the decisions and inputs that we had to take into consideration . So, the details that you have are summarized in this table, grouped up into three major categories that we have reported to you in the past, personnel, operating, and capital, with the total on the far right. Again, these are the major groups that we report to you. Admin, Fire, Parks, Police and Community Development for the General Fund. So, in total we had -- as a General Fund we had a total of almost 23 million dollars in requests and this next graph just kind of shows you the proportionate share amongst the dollar amounts above. So, as an example, the admin division contributed 13.94 percent of the total request for this time frame for the CFP. These are summary reports of the detail reports that I provided to you on March 3rd. This is another approach to looking at the details. This is what we are going to kind of term as program based budgeting to an extent. I would like to kind of start introducing a new way of looking at the budget. Program based budgeting. It's not completely new. We do it in the Enterprise Fund more than the General Fund, but what we would like to start doing, maybe, is promote to you the request based on the strategic focus areas or high importance areas. So, if we know that we have a project that is of high importance that needs to continue to happen, we know that project most likely needs to get funded or that program needs to get funded as a priority. So, instead of looking at all the -- or approving all the individual items that make up a program , we would request that you look at the program as a whole and approve that program and, then, all the underlying items that make up that program will automatically be approved. So, an example would be replacements. Replacements of the program here at the city for current existing infrastructure, the Council today -- and prior to today you have approved certain services that our departments must fulfill. At some point in time they need to replace some of those equipment items, some of those parts and some of those buildings. So, in years past we have provided you maybe 60 items on a replacement schedule, so instead of reviewing every single 60 items with a total replacement for the year -- one million dollars, that maybe that kind of -- that kind of thinking, that kind of approach you're approving the program because without Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 23 of 60 those replacements Fire and Police won't be able to continue to deliver the services that you have requested of them of today or in years past. So, just a different way of looking at it. The Enterprise Fund has done more program based budgeting than the General Fund, but it's just a different approach that I'm going to start using. Hopefully you will hear more of it. Again, this is kind of a program based budgeting approach. If we knew that municipal structures or replacement vehicles are high priority, we would approve the program in its whole, not the individual items as we have in the past. So, again, just a different way of thinking. Just a different way of looking at it. But this is the 22 million broken up in categories and subcategories. So, that's the General Fund. We are going to run the Enterprise Fund the exact same way you have seen on the four slides. We are going to look at the Enterprise Fund here for fiscal year -- fiscal '18 to '22. They had 150 requests. Total projects for one time were a little over a hundred million. Total ongoing almost three million. You can see personnel FTE operate accordingly. With the Enterprise Fund we did not have to move any -- adjust any requests. We had enough revenue to meet their CFP requests in the years that they requested. So, again, with the Enterprise Fund the same graph. You can see how the dollars are spread amongst the divisions by personnel, operating, capital. And, likewise, you can see how and what departments are proportionately sharing within each cost. Unlike the General Fund slide, the Enterprise Fund has been doing this for a while. They do it with our water service lines, water extensions, projects like that. They promote to you a request for a total program budget of let's say two million dollars for water line extensions and, then, you allow them to manage that budget accordingly to work with ITD, ACHD, other agencies for the waterline services that come up for projects on certain roadways. So, again, program based budgeting, they have been managing for years. I'm just trying to introduce that a little bit more to the General Fund. But, again, so the same example here. We looked at service lines, water. They have a number of projects within that that we would just approve the program in itself and, then, let the engineering division manage the programs -- or the projects within that program as we have in the past. Again, just a different way of thinking about it. Different way of looking at the budgeting and forecasting. So, with all of these requests that I have just presented to you and all the details that you have , this is what the General Fund balance looks like up to fiscal '22. As of right now it's -- it's viable. After '22 I can tell you right now that it's not viable, but that we are okay with that. Again, I noted that in our e-mail to you, that the first five years is sustainable. The final five years -- the second five years is not and we are comfortable with that. This is a living document. This is a moving document. This is a flexible document. We will always make sure that we are five years of sustainability. The second five years will be kind of the roadmap to guide where we want to go and we can adjust accordingly. So, again, don't let this scare you. But, again, the first five years are sustainable and we are comfortable with that and we will adjust this every single year. Discretionary income is a term that we use and that we really focus on in Finance. This is kind of that grow -- from a business standpoint this is how much money you have left over after you have paid your wages, your utility bills, your operating expenses. It's called discretionary income. This is -- these are the Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 24 of 60 dollars we use to pay for the capital needs. So, after we have paid the wages, after we have paid the gas bill, the utility bills, we now have some money available to manage the capital projects and maintain them. As soon as this goes negative, then, we can't pay wages anymore, we can't pay utility bills, so we never want this to go below zero and as you can see on this slide, we are really close on that fifth year, but, again, we are positive. But every year we are going to adjust this plan, so we never get below zero, we will never present to you an unfundable five-year plan. We will always keep each other in check. You will make sure you question me and we will make sure we are in good shape. Borton: Madam Mayor? Lavoie: Sorry. De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Todd, can you go back one slide? This one here, when I look at 2022, it appears that there is ten million. Does that represent the reserves -- General Fund reserves? Lavoie: The yellow line represents the net reserves. So, you would have -- Borton: In your 2022 though -- Lavoie: 2022. Yes. You still have some fund balance. Borton: Right. Lavoie: You actually have about a little over 30 million. But, then, we do reserves, which is the yellow line . Borton: Okay. Lavoie: So, as soon as the blue line goes below zero, then, we have -- that is the -- that's your actual cash balance. Borton: Okay. Lavoie: So, again, with the discretionary income after 2022 goes below zero. Again, we would never promote or support such as plan, but, again, we will always provide to you a fundable five year plan. This just shows you what's in the docket for the General Fund, as we have a lot of needs to continue to sustain the services that the citizens in the community have expected of us and without -- again, what this slide says -- without additional revenue sources or movement we won't be able to fund everything that the departments have submitted to us. Enterprise Fund. Same two graphs. Again, the first five years look pretty -- it's viable. The second Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 25 of 60 five years, again, we know that we can't fund it all, but, again, we are okay with this. Again, we will continue to manage this on an annual basis and, then, discretionary income, the Enterprise Fund has more flexibility with generating revenue based on new customers with adjusting their fees accordingly. So, their discretionary income is easier -- it's easier to manage than the General Fund. They have more levers and levers to pull. We do not in the General Fund. So, again, their discretionary income looks strong over the next ten years and that's primarily due to the growth that we are experiencing and we continue to project for the city. So, that gets us through the numbers. That gets us through the summary of the information I provided you on March 3rd. Hopefully, I didn't scare you too bad, but, again, I can tell you right now we will always stay fundable -- we will always be funded, we always stay fiscally constrained. This is the CFP. This is our plan. This is a guide and it's a tool to communicate to you, the citizens and the directors, of where we believe we need to go. So, what is -- what is needed from the Council? Executive branch is looking from the legislative branch, the Council, that we are on the same page. Are we headed down the right path. Are we listening, are we hearing what you guys are telling us to do , and that's what the detailed reports on March 3rd I gave you showed you, that gave you the details of where we believe we are going. So, hopefully, we are on the same page. We are looking for that -- the acceptance for the very first CFP. We understand it's not perfect, but we are looking for acceptance from you, so that the Mayor can work with her directors to develop a proposed fiscal '18 budget based on information provided to you in a CFP for fiscal year 2018. The CFP will be the Mayor's guide to enhancements. She will lean on this as a starting point for her discussions. So, again, we are looking for general acceptance of this document to help us develop our fiscal year '18 budget and going forward and we know that this is a continuous improvement document, it's a living document, and we will continue to lean on you guys for policy guidance in the future years. So -- I apologize. So, with that we will continue to receive new requests as we continue to develop this on an annual basis. We will continue to balance this CFP on an annual basis with the Mayor and the directors by either delaying requests, eliminating requests, or identifying requests for additional revenue sources. Our goal is always to align our CFP with the strategic plan, as the Mayor has promoted to you, and we will do our best to meet those strategic objectives as we have explained to you. So, again, continue to what to expect next from us. Executive branch. We are developing a new database to communicate with you Council, to communicate with the directors, the staff and the Mayor. This will be an online tool, so that you can have access to it, along with the staff members within the city. So, everybody can help inputs and manage and understand where every department is moving. An example would be the Human Resources never had a tool where they knew where the Police Department, Fire Department -- Police Department, Public Works Department was going with staffing. They can now access this database and see that there is going to be X amount of FTEs added to their roll so they can manage their staffing needs accordingly. So, it's a communication tool not only to the departments, but also to the directors to figure out their resource needs and requirements for years going forward. And with the CFP, our goal will be to report and align all the requests with Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 26 of 60 the strategic -- five strategic focus areas that we have developed within the strategic plan. So, again, that is the summary report for the CFP. I know it's a lot of data. I apologize about that. But, again, I have to say thank you to the Mayor, thank you to Joe Borton allowing the CFP concept to take form. Again, it was an idea, it's a concept, it's been in the works for quite a while. As the Mayor stated, it's many plans now put into one. It's a tool, it's a communication device again. So, I just want to extend a huge thanks -- thank you to the Mayor, to Councilman Borton, to all the staff members, all the directors for being willing to take on this new endeavor, this new approach to financial planning and financial management and with that, for Ty, any questions? De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Council, questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Questions for either Todd or Madam Mayor or Councilman Borton. First let's jump back towards the beginning, the question about the formula and the assumptions that were made. I assume you have backtracked that formula and is that formula -- and if we go back five years or ten years in the past the numbers hit where we are today? I guess what I'm trying to get at is how -- correct, how accurate do we think these formula and assumptions are in the next five years. De Weerd: They are best guess. But, certainly, I think that our Finance Department's been conservative in their projections, particularly in revenues, but it is looking at what we have done over -- historically and I don't know, I wasn't at the Growth Summit, but maybe some of the thought process can -- can be shared on how they have been trying to project what these numbers mean. Lavoie: Yes, Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener. The team that we put together looked at historical data regarding dwelling units, population units and revenue projections. We used COMPASS as our population guide. We determined that COMPASS will be used for all population forecasts. So, anything population wise we are using -- we are going to lean on COMPASS. The dwellings are based on the Community Development's input on their interactions with COMPASS and where we believe population will grow and, then, we back into how many dwellings equate to those rooftops. The revenue, obviously, the three percent I automatically applied that accordingly. I believed -- to answer your question, we are confident with these numbers based on the data that we have as a group developed on -- on this annual basis. Will continue to develop these numbers on an annual basis as well. Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up if I -- if I may. De Weerd: Uh-huh. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 27 of 60 Cavener: Todd, did you take the same formula with the data from five years ago to project to see if it's accurate to where we are today? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Lucas Cavener -- Mr. Cavener -- Cavener: Friends, Todd? Lavoie: Yes, we are. To answer your question, we did not do that in this process. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Sorry. Cavener: No. Please. I got a lot that -- Milam: So, Todd, did you take into consideration the -- the upcoming recession that's -- that's proposed? Historically. Historically there will be a recession sometime within the next five years. So, you know, as much as I hate to say that, I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but -- no, according to -- you know, nationwide planners are talking that -- about that already and so I was just wondering if you took that into consideration at all. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, we did take into consideration that growth will not happen forever. But did we take it into a negative perspective in the next five years and ten years? No. But we do take it down to a one percent growth after year number three. The next three years we still see city growth based on the Idaho economic forecast that we have leaned on. So, the next three years we still have a good amount of growth -- or a steady. Not a good amount. A steady amount of growth and we started tailing down down to a one percent growth factor. Milam: Are property values still increasing? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Council -- Milam: Get out your crystal ball, Todd. Lavoie: Yeah. Hopefully -- I know you own multiple properties. Hopefully the tax values continue to go up for you. Yes. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 28 of 60 Bird: Todd -- I know I'm technology dumb, but not that dumb. Cavener: It's not you, Keith. Bird: How comfortable are you with COMPASS's projection of population? Because I think if you will go back historically COMPASS in 2000 and 2010 had us five to six thousand more than what actually come out . I'd like to know -- they brought up -- they have got us for now and what the state has got us for. There is a difference of -- when your dues are paid by population and when you're paid by population from the state, there is a difference. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bird, that's a valid question. We asked that question in our committee and we determined that given that COMPASS has more paid employees to analyze the demographics and the future of the -- the area, we decided to lean on them rather than the few that we have here at the city. So, we are leaning on COMPASS, we are comfortable with COMPASS. They are paid professionals in what they do. We are financial analysts, financial managers, and not demographic specialists. So, we are comfortable with what COMPASS is doing. De Weerd: Other questions, comments? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Mr. Lavoie, a couple of additional questions. This is related to the assumed three percent. Can you -- you have the -- I think on the next slide or the slide after you have got the -- the flowchart that shows, you know, where things go sour in 2022, I guess the -- where does that number hit if we aren't taking the -- if we are not assuming we are taking the three percent each year? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, we did not do that projection for you. The projection that you have here is anticipating a three percent assumption. We could generate that calculation for you. I can tell you it would be sooner than this -- this graph shows. Cavener: I could do that myself. Lavoie: Yeah. Cavener: Madam Mayor, then, a follow up. Todd, can you articulate to us a sound financial decision to make the assumption that we are going to take the three percent five years out -- the next five years? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 29 of 60 Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I can answer that now or I can answer that in my three percent presentation that will occur right after this. It's up to you. Cavener: You're choice. I will take it now. I'll take it later. Lavoie: I will go ahead and present it in my next presentation. There is lots of good information there for you. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: Madam Mayor, Mr. Lavoie, I -- I definitely understand the reasoning for doing this and it makes sense to have a policy of -- of trying to guess what's going to happen, especially where we are dealing with millions of people -- well, millions of tax dollars of the people, but I -- I definitely recognize the tall task that it is to make that guess, given how quickly the makeup of this Council can change and how quickly the economy can change, you know, all these different factors that could -- could completely throw off in one year's time what's going to happen in the fact that we are in -- you know, in the budget process now that all this could completely change, really, in a few moments when we have the discussion on the three percent, let alone when we actually get into the nitty-gritty of -- of what we are going to put into the budget. And so I understand that it may become slightly more accurate when Council has an opportunity to weigh in on these things. But, really, up until we have decided what's going into the budget do we really have any idea how that's going to affect the year after that. And so I -- again, I appreciate the -- the intent, but I -- I struggle to see how it can be accurate really at all and this is -- it's even worse all the time that could be put into it given how quickly the six of us can throw it off. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, again, economic -- economic influences, legislative influences, political influences, they can definitely derail a project. A program. This is an approach I believe is sound in financial planning. Again, without looking ahead we have no idea where we are going to go. So, to not look ahead and have guidance and direction and go, yes, we are going to go down the direction of this, let's keep moving that direction and start the decisions from the document, but knowing that the document must be flexible to adjust to the situations that may influence the overall decision . Again, it's not going to be a hundred percent accurate. There is not a budget, there is not a planning device, there is not a tool out there that's a hundred percent accurate. If there is, again, I will try to find it for you and, again, it's not going to be cheap though. If it's a crystal ball, I think as Genesis stated earlier, unfortunately, we haven't found that yet. So, to not have a planning tool I think is not the best financial plan for a city and a growing community. To just look at it on an annual basis the Mayor would not know what direction to guide her team down for the next 24 , 48 months. We would Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 30 of 60 not be able to lean on you guys to figure out where do we want to go. If she was just working on a 12 month budget, I don't think that would be the most prudent and responsible thing for the citizens that would -- you know, to make sure that we are not accounting -- to make sure we are accounting for the cost that we need to maintain the services of today. Again, I understand your concerns that it's not perfect. I agree with you. But is it our best guess, as the Major stated earlier? Yes, it's an educated, informed guess of the professionals working the back side of this plan. It's our best estimate. My guess is -- you know, Mr. Bird had a business for many years, he probably had to do the same thing. I'm going to lean on -- most of you have businesses I believe. You have to have some kind of plan in place, especially when you have 113 million reasons of doing this. Again, that's just my professional opinion on planning and management for the future. You can't just look at it 12 months at a -- or 12 months at a time. I think you do have to have a plan in place to be successful and the citizens I think would expect that from us. Borton: Madam Mayor, follow up? De Weerd: Uh-huh. Palmer: And I -- I agree that it's poor policy not to try and so with that I'd like to see a parallel scenario where no tax increase is assumed and the only -- the only additional expenses planned would be life safety and public utilities and with the same draft -- understanding that that is not necessarily a great way to do a budget, but a parallel scenario where that's the case. We are not going to increase taxes, but we are only going to continue to -- to grow essential services, including life safety and essential services as population grows. De Weerd: Well, I can tell you what we do know is costs increase every year. What we do know is our new infrastructure ages and there is replacement and there is maintenance that is required and those are starting to grow in numbers, because we do have fairly new buildings and parks and those costs have a life to them. So, the three percent to our capital improvement plan, our replacement plans, our maintenance plans, our facility plans, our compensation plans and benefits indicate increases. So, the assumption of the three percent to maintain a level of service was proven certainly over time and what we have done historically, but also a commitment that has always been made by the City Council is growth will pay for itself, but growth can't be used to replace and maintain and so that is why the assumption was built in and it will be visited every single year and the Council will have those tools to show what is the net of the results or the impact s that -- that they are going to make and how will it change this CFP, so you even know what the -- what the impact of the decisions you make projected over time. My husband and I do financial planning for our retirement and we -- we have to revisit it every year to make sure we are hitting the targets that we hope that we are going to achieve. Every year is a different scenario and you don't know what's going to happen, but you have to have a goal and you have to have a plan to -- to know where you're going and you have to have an annual check in and -- and this Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 31 of 60 is just -- here are anticipated needs and these are costs of maintaining a level service, these are costs to accommodate new growth and keep that level of service and it's -- we hope it's a tool that you can -- you can use in making your financial decisions. So, it's just a tool. Other questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Mr. Lavoie, question about program base budgeting. I'm curious why -- how that pertains to the overall conversation we are having on this topic this evening and, really, who is -- who is driving that conversation. Have you heard from Council that we are looking for a different way of thinking? Is this something that staff is saying industry trends that we need to be thinking differently? To me it seems a little bit out of right field and I just need to be caught up onto the -- the reason about why we are talking about this particular item. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Mr. Cavener, valid question. Program based budgeting - - and, again, has occurred in the Enterprise Fund. I was just trying to introduce it to the General Fund as a concept to kind of plant the seed that you might be hearing it a little bit more in the future. I use this as a -- I guess a soapbox, an opportunity to plant the seed, to introduce that term going into the next budget process. So, there is no influence from any other departments asking me to use the term program based budgeting, it's a term that we have used in the Enterprise Fund, we have used it in other projects as well, it's just, again, an opportunity to plant the seed that I would like to see program based budgeting be considered in future decisions when it comes to integrating all the items into strategic objectives. So, if we know that in the future we are going to lean on strategic focus area number four, let's make sure all those items in site specific four get approved, so that is the program to approve, not the individual items associated to it. That's kind of where I was trying to lead to. I apologize. Cavener: Perfect. Thank you. De Weerd: Anymore questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Todd, is there a reason to focus them in program areas, as opposed to the five strategic focus areas? Why not categorize all future requests into one of those five, rather than the programs that you have recommended? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, again, good question. In the next steps of the CFP development we are going to categorize them based on the five Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 32 of 60 focus areas. At the moment that I'm developing this model we do not have the capabilities of assigning every single request -- that is 113 requests into the five focus areas during the development process. Going forward every request will be submitted into the CFP database associated directly to the objective and the tactics, so we can report to you on multiple levels, not only the five strategic areas, but also sub types and categories that you saw on my screen. So, we want to try and develop a tool that we can report to you in many different forms and fashions, not just personnel, operating, but also strategic focus and maybe by replacement and/or new construction or new park development. So, again, we are trying to develop a tool that we can report to you in many different ways. So, there is no right or wrong way, that's just the information we had at the time, that's as far as I can get. Borton: Okay. De Weerd: Well -- and hopefully Twin Falls is not an indication, because they have been working on integrating that for the last four years, so it's -- it's something that continues to evolve over time. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Todd, you had indicated in your presentation that planning out a year or two years in advance isn't a prudent way or appropriate way of planning. Am I wrong? Is that how we have not planned for our budget in our history or am I missing something here? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, as the Mayor stated earlier, you have had a CIP delivered to you on an annual basis . That was a five year, ten year, and sometimes a 20 year CIP. So, this -- we have always had that at our fingertips. The Mayor's had various versions of staffing plans in her -- at her disposal. This CIP is now the comprehensive -- trying to get all these plans into one -- so, to say we have never done that I would say would be false given that a CIP has been provided to you on an annual basis in years past. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: To that point what's great about this -- the potential of this tool is the financial constraints that were lacking in prior years. The capital improvement plan could be reviewed and contemplated, but it wasn't financially constrained with any -- regardless of what the assumptions were. So, it's -- if I'm correct, this tried to incorporate that planning process and that forecasting with some financial Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 33 of 60 constraints based on certain assumptions to make it a more viable plan; is that correct? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, you are correct. We are taking the -- as the Mayor stated, taking the multiple plans, the CIP, the staffing plan, the ongoing maintenance plans, we are trying to put them all in one comprehensive document, so that we can, then, counter that against the revenue projections that Finance has always provided and provide to you a five year, 25, a 20 -- a five year and ten year outlook. Is this viable. Is this sustainable. And that's the ultimate goal. Can we make decisions now that impact tomorrow in a positive direction . Borton: Madam Mayor. That's one of the challenges with how it was done before is there might be a plan that -- to, you know, build Station Six or Seven in a particular year, but there is no funding mechanism to do it. So, the value to us to plan to build that station in that example, it's not really a plan because there was no financial constraints. So, this forces -- this exercising will force us to make -- and in the departments to make some more difficult decisions to realize in this case there is 33 things that might otherwise have been included in a capital improvement plan that we have realized, due to financial constraints, aren't realistic. They are just not viable. There may be even more. But that's helpful for us to at least plan going forward. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, we could -- we agree with what you're saying. That's the ultimate goal here is to try to put it revenue agai nst expenditures. Again, as Mr. Palmer and Mr. Cavener stated, can we consider zero percent? We could definitely consider zero percent. Again, I will go get your inputs -- more involved next year. I apologize about that. I went with the assumption of three percent due to the fact -- due to trying to deliver a CFP. Again, we will work with you in the future. Can we deliver optional, you know, scenarios? Yes, we can. It's just a matter of tweaking a few numbers and delivering the report to you. Borton: Madam Mayor? To that end as this is developed and adopted by Council each second quarter of each fiscal year, it's about this time frame, maybe it's helpful to get input from Council during the first quarter with regards to that and what those assumptions may be, so once we have some consensus on what the assumptions can be, you can, then, build from there and update it? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, again, your input is exactly what we are looking for. We will lean on our policy guidance to help direct the revenue projections and expense direction that the Mayor and I will put together for you on an annual basis. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 34 of 60 Palmer: Madam Mayor. Todd, you -- I can hear the word constrained and I don't know if it has a deeper meaning than in my short time that I -- I have imagined it in my mind. When I hear constrained I imagine it's the pigs got a fence somewhere. How much -- how far out that pig can go before it actually hits the fence depends on where the zero -- when we run out of money. To me the word constrained should be more -- and maybe it does in everyone else's mind -- should be responsible that -- so, that there is plenty of land beyond the fence -- the fence at the end of the woods and so you asked for some direction as to whether we support what's been presented to -- to go forth and create a budget based on that and I would say no and, hopefully, we will have a better feel of that after the next conversation. I don't know if anyone else wants to chime in on that answer now or wait until the three percent discussion. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: If you want to hear from us on this issue, I think the Mayor brought up a really great point and that's that we have to have a plan of some sort. So, if the -- if the question before Council is does Council support the plan that's presented, I really struggle with saying yes. I struggle taking an automatic assumption of three percent for the next five years based on a best guess. I struggle with implementing, even as a germ of an idea, program based budgeting without more information for the next five years and I -- I struggle with accepting the formula and the assumptions and they are essentially given as a best guess without using the data that we have to look back in time and see if our best guess turned out to be correct. So, I agree with the Mayor that we need to have a great plan. I struggle with what's presented before us to consider that to be a great plan. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I believe we need to have a plan, but I also, Council -- there are six of you that sit up here every year that control the pocketbook and the policies . You -- if you don't plan ahead you're in trouble and think -- think twice about your three percent when you make your decision. We have very -- always been a frugal city, but we have always been able to pay our way and I hope we will always continue to be that way. De Weerd: But I guess seeking direction, does Council want to set this over and revisit it in a week or two, give it a longer time? What is -- what is your comfort level? Milam: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 35 of 60 De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: So, we are not approving any spending. Bird: No. Milam: We are approving planning in advance so I don't -- I don't see the problem with -- with the plan. I mean we should be planning in advance. And like -- like Todd said, this is a living document. It's going to change and after we have the three percent document -- or conversation it might change and after we make our budget this year it's going to change again. It's going to continually change. I think that all you're looking for is are we heading in the right direction as far as planning goes for our financial place in the city. I mean that's really what this is all about, right, and kind of lumping things together, but it still comes down to the budget. We are not approving any kind of spending. So, I don't have a problem with it and -- as long as it's going to change as we request edits. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Council Milam, that's what we are looking for, acceptance of the document presented to you on March 3rd. The details were in there. Did we communicate to you the direction that we believe the city should be going? That's what we are looking for, as Councilman Milam just s tated, we have an annual budget process. We will go through the annual budget process like we do. We will look at the resources that are available to us in fiscal '18, we will present to you the expenditure request for fiscal '18 like we always do and we will budget fiscal '18 like we always have with the revenues against the expenditures. If it doesn't tie out exactly to the CFP, we are comfortable with that. It's a living document. I know there are items in the CFP that are presented that won't be there possibly next year based on decisions and guidance and inputs from the legislature possibly. So, again, what Genesis stated, we are just looking for are you comfortable with the direction of planning. Are you comfortable with where we are going. Again, this is a living document. We will adjust this every single year. That's a continual improvement process. So, again, appreciate the comments, Councilman Milam. That's what we are looking for. Are we comfortable -- again, to answer Mr. Cavener's inquiries, I'm more than happy to sit down with you anytime in the Finance Department to go over the projections. I can work with you and the Community Development Division to help I guess reinforce your comfort with the projections that we are using regarding dwelling units, permit sales, population, revenue projections. We are more than happy to sit with you anytime, stop on by. Again that would be too difficult to do it here, but stop on by anytime, we will show you how we do revenue forecasting and I will be happy to work with you on. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 36 of 60 Milam: So, Todd, I'm assuming that next year you are going to come to us with the amended plan, but also show us what was changed and where it was changed. I think -- so, I think that being the first year this is the most difficult one to look at, because we don't really have a true path . We are starting now and if we -- if we knew where we were a year ago, looking at where we thought we would be, I think that this would be a lot more clear. So, when you -- you're going to bring us where we are, where we were and where you think that we are headed based on the changes that we have made, not just plugging in the same generic numbers; right? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, you're a hundred percent correct. Yes. Little Roberts: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Madam Mayor and Todd, I guess where I'm kind of struggling is transitioning the program, base budgeting for the Enterprise Fund that's self- sufficient, to dividing the pie differently than we divide and so I guess I'm just feeling like by picking program based budgeting are -- are we leaving out some of the details and things like that that we see every year, will that transition when you're applying it just to a program and instead of to specific things? And maybe I just need to sit down with you and learn more about it. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Little Roberts, again, program based budgeting I apologize if I confused you on this. It's not a new direction in how we are budgeting per se. We are still budgeting the same way we have always budgeted. We will still provide you the details. We will still provide you all the revenue details. I was I guess planting a seed of a concept that you might hear in the future about how to I guess group expenditures into programs, kind of like we have done in the Enterprise Fund in the past. Again, so I apologize if I confused you. I'm more than happy to sit with you, explain to you program based budgeting anytime. So, again, we are not going to change the way we do the budgeting process this year. It's just planting the seed and using a new term. Again, we have used the term in the years past. We have -- Enterprise Fund has used it for years. I'm just trying to integrate it a little bit more into what we do. So, I apologize if I confused you. Little Roberts: Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. Other questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 37 of 60 Borton: If the suggestion -- I think Todd had made it -- was I don't think you necessarily are looking for action tonight on this, but in light of the questions you have got an opportunity to visit with any of the six or seven o f us, answer more questions, and, then, it maybe comes back in a couple weeks or so to see if there has been any consensus. I think that's really important for a plan to be successful is we get some consensus one way or the other, so we are all going in the same direction. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, I'm happy to bring it back in a few weeks after I field any questions from the six Council members, if that's the direction that you wish to go. I'm more than happy to do that if that's the direction. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Would it be possible for you, since we are going to be doing this, to make another version of this without taking the three percent and let us see what it looks like with what you think are the projections that we need to spend without taking a three percent per year? To me that -- what I'm -- from what I'm hearing from my fellow councilmen is that's the main issue. So, I'm not planning for it, necessarily, but the assumption that we are just going to -- you know. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: Madam Mayor and Mrs. Milam, Mr. Lavoie, if that were the case, then, I think it -- you know, if we do do that parallel scenario that it needs to be like seriously dumbed down to where it's -- the only things we are increasing is, again, essential life safety issues and planning for expansion of public utilities to what population may grow, so that we have kind of an accurate line as to what is absolutely necessary and, then, what we may be able to add to the funds maybe left over, as opposed to planning on a quarter million dollars over the next five years and all these other issues at zero percent over five years. The line is, obviously, is going to go straight down. De Weerd: We are not going to change everything. You have already gotten plans that have evolved into this, so, you know, we can change to three percent, but these are -- this is a representation of already approved plans and -- and so it's -- it's just the forecast. We can change the three percent and you can see how that -- that changes your -- your grass, but if we want to change every document that wrapped into this, you can do that, too, but this -- this is representative of where we are at today with each of the various plans. Palmer: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 38 of 60 De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: And understanding that, but with respect we can change the plans and so that idea of the zero percent is should we choose to change the plans and not increase taxes, we can make that happen. Or we can continue on growing government at the rate that we are and continue to increase taxes at the rate that we have been. It's a great tool so we know what our options are looking five years down the road, instead of what we have been doing is what we are going to keep doing, because it's what we have always done. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I don't -- I don't want to start an argument up here with you, Councilman Palmer, but I -- I believe that -- if we just go down to just -- I mean most of the addition here is emergency services anyway and the other portion of it is new employees. We can't just stop the growth of the city at the rate that the city is growing and say, well, we are going to not -- we are going to cut off all government, we are going to take back all these programs, except for we are going to give you some police and fire -- I just -- I don't see how that would even -- that would allow to any kind of a place that any of us would want to live. Anyway. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I have enjoyed the robust discussion that we have had up here tonight, but I think -- I guess the overarching question that I guess I would have for you, Madam Mayor, for Mr. Lavoie, is is this plan that is presented in concrete or is it editable? Because if the plan is in concrete, then, there is no reason for us I think the wait a couple of weeks if the goal is to get more Council members to come on board. If there is an opportunity to take the feedback from the Council, make some changes and bring back a different plan , I'm supportive of that. I'm supportive of taking a couple weeks to work with staff to come up with something, but I don't know, Madam Mayor, Mr. Lavoie, if that is the feedback that you were seeking. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, you're correct, this is not written in stone. This is a living document. This is an ongoing guide. It's a tool. It's a starting point for all of our annual budget discussions and that's what it's intended for. It's a plan to help us develop and forecast where we need to go for not only fiscal '18, but for years going forward. Cavener: Madam Mayor, if I may then? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 39 of 60 De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: In response. That's what I was hoping you were going to say and Mr. Lavoie. I guess, then, what I would support and I'm curious wha t the rest of the Council thinks is to -- to put this off for two, maybe three weeks, with a commitment from each Council member to make some time to meet with Todd and the Finance staff to share your thoughts, to share your perspective, to allow the experts to respond and I trust that Mr. Lavoie and the Finance staff will come back with something that summarizes the response and comments from Council members and, hopefully, some consensus can be formed and, if not, we will continue to have another robust discussion in a number weeks. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: Madam Mayor, I completely agree with Councilman Cavener that I -- that I understand -- I understand that, you know, the idea of being supportive of having a plan as to what we think Council may do in the future, as long as we all understand that nobody is to ever say, when we are actually in the budget process and we decide to pull something that, oh, but you supported that in the CFP, so why would we talk about pulling it now. Cavener: Valid point. D. Finance: 3% Property Tax for FY2018 Budget De Weerd: I would not imagine any of our directors, the professionals that they are, would do that. Okay. You are up next. Lavoie: Let me get Todd for you. Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. De Weerd: Good evening, Todd. Welcome. Lavoie: Glad to be here for you. Borton: I got a question. Lavoie: I hope we are ready for a robust discussion, as Mr. Cavener would say, because we are here to talk to you about the fiscal year 2018 Budget Roadshow on three percent property tax. Again, this is the third leg of the roadshow. It's the final leg of the roadshow. You have had two previous presentations this month. Again, today's agenda will be to overview what you have heard so far to date. We will talk about the authority of us to levy taxes. Again, how do we calculate property taxes. The highly-anticipated calculated estimated amount of three percent. The Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 40 of 60 considerations for three percent from the Finance Department's perspective. The financial impacts of not taking the three percent from the Finance Department's perspective. And, then, we will have a wrap up and, then, we will stand for any questions. So, again, this is the third presentation with the Budget Roadshow. You have had a lot of information given to you so far. Again, the three topics that we have decided on have large budgetary impacts and that's why we pulled these out separately to discuss them with you and it's an opportunity for us to communicate with you and provide you the information that we feel you need for the upcoming budget -- fiscal budget year and, then, next week we will be back again for, hopefully, a robust discussion on direction. So, that the Mayor can develop a proposed budget for you for fiscal year 2018. So, again, we are not looking for any direction tonight, we are not looking for any guidance tonight, this is an informational presentation like the two previous presentations that we presented to you to date. So, with that on March 7th Human Resources presented healthcare benefits. On March 14th Human Resources presented to you the compensation plan that the city follows. I'm here tonight on the 21st to discuss the property tax and, then, next week we will be looking for some guidance and some direction from you Council members so that the Mayor can work with their directors and Finance and us to develop a fiscal year 2018 proposed budget . So, with that we will get into the fun and exciting laws of tax. Again, same presentation I have presented to you in the past, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but, yes, there are laws that direct how we do taxes and if you 're looking for some exciting reading, check out Title No. 63. It's good staff. Again, what this does is it allows the city to increase their property taxes up to three percent based on the base property taxes submitted to the city by the county on an annual basis. More state code, just kind of supports the annexation and new construction as mandated by the county to provide us our annexation and new construction rules on an annual basis by the first Monday of June. So, again, just more code and if you're bored that's there for you. So, let's go and get into property taxes. How do we -- how do we calculate them? So, again, this should be a repeat to most of you. Base property taxes is the first segment of a property tax calculation. Again per code it is determined by the highest approved certified amounts of property taxes levied in the past three years. That's Title 63. The second component of property taxes is the allowable three percent. That's why we are here tonight. Again that is the city's discretion to take up to zero or three percent property tax against the base property tax amounts. The next two amounts are kind of mandated by Ada county themselves. They will let us know what these amounts are. But, again, these represent the new construction values and annexation values that you are familiar with given the plat approvals and annexation approvals that have come before you in months past. So, that's the general understanding of how property taxes are calculated and we will give you a different perspective on how you calculate property taxes. Again, same formula. Base property taxes. But what we want to do is have you think about it in a different perspective . Base property taxes are used to cover the services that we have agreed upon in years past during the budget process. Those are the services that we have told the departments to fulfill and provide to the citizens, the community, and the city employees. So, think Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 41 of 60 of that as our base property taxes. If all things stood still from here to eternity you would have -- and no inflation, no merit, no nothing, the perfect world, base property taxes would cover the base services if you had zero growth from here on out. If that makes sense. So, if everything stood still, your base property taxes would cover the base services that have been agreed upon at that moment in time. Unfortunately, I have to tell you it's not the case. We are growing. We do live in a very dynamic environment and that's where the state has allowed citizens -- or the cities to manage your budget accordingly. The state has given opportunity to the cities to adjust their budget for what we call cost of doing business. Cost of doing business would be inflation in gas prices, utility prices. You have heard two presentations in the past. We have increases in medical care costs. We have increases in merit and compensation costs. So, again, this three percent option allows us to manage our cost of doing business, because all things don't stand still, unfortunately, and so we need to adjust and be able to adjust with things. The next two items -- these are kind of mandated by or controlled by Ada county, but we are going to label these as growth-related items. The only reason we are getting these additional revenues is because we as a city have approved plats, we have approved development, we have approved annexation. The growth is here. These items are creating new demands on our services -- the base services that have been approved in the prior fiscal years. So, again, the question comes to us is do we want to use growth revenue, as the Mayor stated earlier, for growth or do we want to use growth revenue to cover for current services. That's a policy decision we have to make. In years past, as Councilman Bird can support -- agree with this, we have always tried to do growth pays for growth, services pay for services. So, from looking at this perspective, the base at the top covers the services we agreed upon in years past. The allowable covers the cost of doing business and the reason we are getting the new growth revenue is because we have agreed as a city to improve development, approve annexations, which, then, have a direct impact on our fire services , police services, administration -- could go on and on. But those dollars are going to help pay for the new firefighters, the police officers and so forth. So, again, a different way of looking at the calculation and, hopefully, it kind of makes sense on that perspective, but, again, that's why I would like to present property tax calculation in four segments. Now that gets us to the numbers. What is the three percent this year? Last year was 750. This year is going to be 842. So, again, that's three percent. If we took the maximum three percent it would be 842,000 dollars that we will be able to utilize for cost of doing business, as I kind of explained in the past. The 28 million is for the services that you have already approved to the department s, the fire department, police department, they know the services that you expect -- you expect of them and they deliver it to their citizens. That's what the 28 million covers. The eight is going to help us cover the cost of doing business. The next two are the projected new construction, new annexation, new growth values. This is working with Ada county. Again, we are growing. This is a direct sign that we are still growing. You guys know firsthand with all the plats, all the request. This is a direct sign that we are still growing. These dollars are going to help fund police officers, help fund Station Six, help fund South Park Meridian -- you know, the 77 -- Hillsdale. That's Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 42 of 60 what these dollars help us provide the services that the new growth citizens and the community members are expecting of us. Again, all these numbers here are estimates. They are not set in stone. We are still pretty early in the number calculations. But, again, these are subject to change. So, with that we are looking at a little over 30 million dollars potentially for fiscal year 2018 to provide the services that we have provided in years past. I think Mr. Bird uses the term first class services. Our goal is to continue to deliver first class services. We want the City of Meridian to be a livable city and with that we know where we have been, we know how much it costs to deliver that, so we need to make sure that we plan accordingly, so that the future can continue to deliver those first class services and keep Meridian as a livable city that most -- or as everybody has come to acknowledge and accept. I don't have to rattle off all the rewards, but you are one of the safest cities in not only Idaho, but the nation. One of the healthiest and one of the best places to live and we didn't get that way by chance. Again, proper planning and proper funding helped you get there. Again, I changed the name. Sorry, Mr. Palmer, but this year it's going to be Dave. So, what will Dave pay. These are the, again, estimated calculations. If we were to approve a three percent -- if Dave had a 100,000 dollar home he would pay ten dollars a year to receive the first class services that Dave has become accustomed to. I have also provided you the breakdown if you wanted to see what it looks like , one percent, zero percent accordingly and what Dave would pay per 100,000. So, again, this is informational. It's the best estimates we had at the time. We will fine tune these as the days go forward. Again, not until June is Ada county by law required to provide us the final information, but these are our best estimates at this time. So, that gets us to the considerations of a three percent. Why did Finance use three percent in their calculations? As you have heard is cost of doing business is the approach I am taking with the three percent allowable. The other two factors are the growth factors. I'm not going to touch those, because those should be used for growth. Additional fire stations. Additional police stations. The allowable is I'm going to -- is promoted to use for compensation plan costs. As HR presented to you a couple weeks ago, we have an anticipated cost of doing busines s of potentially half a million dollars. Benefit claims up to 200. So, now you are up to 700,000. We have a comprehensive financial plan we just presented to you. Again, not fully funded, but, again, if we continue to accept a three percent as is, you saw what the plan looks like. If we reduce the three percent you -- again, we will present that at another time, but it will be less of the funds available to provide for the projects that were requested. The sustaining of current citizen expectations. As we continue to grow there is more fire trucks, there is more fire -- police cars, there is more parks equipment, there is more computers. That costs money. That's a cost of doing business. So, we need to make sure we can assist and contain and maintain the services and the equipment that we have today before we acquire new. The intergovernmental cost burden. That's a different way of saying the courthouse. Again, if the courthouse has issues on the city's finances, that's going to have an impact. We are going to need property taxes to pay for that. Again, the new annexations, the new development, that's for new growth. Again, we feel that we probably want to use the three percent to help fund Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 43 of 60 that -- don't use the new growth, but use the current existing three percent. Again, that's an opinion. Property tax. Current legislation. There is property tax hospitals out there that are potentially changing legislation on an annua l basis. We have seen tax exemptions happen every other year so far that could change, that has an impact on what we receive. The state -- or the state is currently looking at legislation that's going to change new construction rules, possibly, which would reduce the amount of new construction that we receive on an annual basis to handle growth going forward. Again, more impacts to our potential revenue source. And last, but not least, I'm going to bring in PERSI. PERSI is looking at potentially raising the fee to another one percent in calendar year 2018. We have a potential expenditure going forward of about 277 ,000 as of today. So, again, if you just flip those real quick, you're almost up to a million and we haven't done anything yet. No enhancements. No CFP items. We have just looked at cost of doing business and we haven't talked about gas, we haven't talked about maintenance, we haven't talked about fertilizer spray, chemical spray, all those things. Three simple items I just wanted to point out that has a cost of doing business. So, almost up to a million and those are the reasons why I believe we need to consider the full three percent in this economic environment, in this environment that we are in. And I'm going to take the opposi te way. Financial impact from not taking the three percent or the 842,000. As I explained to you in the past, this is a compounding factor. If we don't take the 842 this year it will not be there in the future and if you do that for five years you will see that you have four million dollars less in five years. So, to answer Mr. Cavener and Mr. Palmer's question as what would the graph look like if we didn't take three percent. Reduce it by four million and that's what your graph looks like. So, asking departments to run a budget -- or run a service expectation on current -- current expectations on past fiscal year dollars, again, I don't think that is the most reasonable approach. We have developed a first class service. We have developed a livable city. If we want to continue to still be the safest city -- one of the safest cities and still maintain the exceptional level of service or the parks that we have, I believe we still need to cover our costs of doing business and that entails taking th e three percent. So, if we spin the -- I'm going to tell the story in a different way hopefully . Excuse me. So, what if we did not take the three percent? We have had plenty of robust discussions of don't take the three percent. I'm going to present that to you today. If we went back to 2005 -- Mr. Bird, the Mayor, I think Mr. Borton and Mr. Nary, you guys were all involved with Council probably back in 2004 and '5 at some point. If at that point in time you decided as a policy that we would never increase property taxes ever again, as of right now if we were to do that, the revenue source would be the green line, the very first line. You would have a revenu e property tax source of seven million dollars. Just so you know, for informational purposes -- oops. Sorry about that. If you have a base budget of 38 million, you would have to reduce your base budget by more than 50 percent to make that seven million dollar number work. So, to ask your -- I will ask the question. Can you expect Fire, can you expect Police, can you expect Parks to deliver the level of services to almost 100,000 people today on seven million dollars? I don't think that's reasonable. I don't think that's functionable. But, again, that's what it would look like if we said Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 44 of 60 we will never raise taxes again. The red line shows where we are actually. That's the -- that's the cost to provide the services that your Fire Department does, your water department -- I apologize -- your Police Department, your Parks Department, your General Fund. That is the cost it takes to provide the first class services that we all come to know. The blue line is going to be kind of a meet me in halfway -- meet me halfway. We are still taking all the growth numbers, the new construction, the new annexation, but we never take the three percent. If we were to do that, that's what the blue line represents. And that's 4.7 million dollars if, back in 2005, the policy was we will never take the three percent. We will always take zero percent at Ada county. We will always do that. You will have 4.7 million dollars less. Another perspective. I would not be here today. Your entire administration department would be unfunded. Half of your Fire Department would be unfunded. And if Steve is still here, I apologize, you would have no Parks Department. So, that puts 4.7 million dollars in perspective of what that would pay for if we did not take the three percent. Again, just trying to show the numbers in a different perspective on if we took it, if we didn't. Again, I have heard questions what if we don't take three. I, hopefully, displayed if we never took three now you can see what it looks like. If we never took anything now you know what it looks like. And now you can see what it looks like as is, as we have been running the business on a year to year basis for the past ten, 12 years. So, again, to ask the departments to provide service in 2017 on the revenue sources from 2005, again, I do not think is reasonable. Is it possible? Sure, it's possible if nothing else changes. If you did not increase population. If you did not increase growth. If you did not increase, you know, economic vitality. The population down below you will see what 56,000 in 2005 is up 71 percent. COMPASS has us projected over 100,000 in a couple years. Your total taxable property, that's Fire and Police, would have to manage to make that they are safe. We have gone from three billion to seven billion dollars. To ask your city staff members to provide that exceptional level of service, that first class services on 2005 revenue, I don't think is reasonable. Again, we are in a very I guess dynamic environment. We are growing. It's exceptional. I know all the departments are trying to do what they can just to keep their heads above water, but we are in a phenomenal environment right now. We are one of the few -- it's not the norm in the -- in the United States. We are one of the top ten growing communities. So, to ask them to operate on 2005 revenue numbers I don't think is fair to them. So, again, that's my soapbox I guess we could say. You have heard the three percent pitch on both -- on positive and negative. So, you have heard from Human Resources. You have heard from me. Next week is what we are looking for from you is guidance. Where should we move the bars? Where should we move the lines? Where do -- we need to work with the Mayor on developing a fiscal year 2018 budget for you to consider. The good thing is all things can be changed up to July 19th. Just like last year. Just like the conversation earlier with Mr. Cavener. Is this set in stone? Everything is fluid up until July 19th. So, with that -- again, this was a lot of information -- informational purposes only. We are not looking for any guidance or direction tonight. This is an opportunity to provide you information on the property taxes , so that's the third leg and final leg of the roadshow. We will be back next week so you can ask us Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 45 of 60 good, fun questions. But before then, please, stop by our office. Stop by HR. You have a week to work with our department staff to find answers to your questions and, hopefully, we can answer them and, then, again, I could stand for any questions if you have. But, again, please, use your staff members that are available to you here at City Hall to answer any question. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I have a question, Todd, regarding the three percent. So, from 2005 to 2017, 12 years, a 4.7 million dollar gross and now we are looking at close to the same in five years. So, is the cost of doing business growing at that same rate? Obviously, it seems to be growing a lot faster now. Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, if you're trying to compare the two numbers I guess -- I think it would be unfair to compare them, because you are comparing a projected 842 today, compared to back in 2005, when it was probably 120,000. So, it takes a lot longer to get to 4.5 million using the smaller number, whereas using eight it would only take five years to get to that. So, I think you're trying to compare two numbers that aren't fair to compare from a cost of doing business. So, I mean I -- I'm not sure if I answered your question. Milam: You did. But I'm just curious what increased that so much? W hy is it 800 now and 120 then. What was the big -- what is the big factor in that? Lavoie: The big -- Madam Mayor, Members -- Councilman Milam, the big factor is on the screen. It's seven million dollars worth of infrastructure that you are now supporting on a daily basis for Fire, Police, and the citizens that have moved here. You have gone from 51 -- or 56,000 to 100,000 soon population. Your daytime population is going to be much larger than a hundred. Again, the populations that stay here, our sleeping population, we have people moving here for work, again, so that is the major factor of why you are seeing the number larger. You have a larger population. You have more infrastructure. You have a fantastic Village. You have Portico. You have St. Luke's. That costs money to support. If that answers your question. Milam: Growth -- Lavoie: Growth. Milam: -- pays for growth, so -- we are talking about the three percent. Kind of. I get it, but -- thanks. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 46 of 60 De Weerd: Any other questions? I know you all have a commitment to go and visit with Todd, but anything at this point? Cavener: Madam Mayor. Just a quick question, Todd. Just curious. Can you share with us a scenario in which Finance wouldn't support taking the three percent? Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, would not take the three percent? I feel -- as I tried to display in that slide, I believe you can take the three percent if you have no growth -- or limited growth to no growth. If you had limited -- no inflation or changes. Again, I associate the three percent to the cost of doing business. If we have zero cost of doing business changes and expectations, I think you can. In a major city that is built, that is just on a maintenance structure, I think that's fair, because there is not Villages coming in every week, there is not Ten Mile interchanges coming in every week. We have that in our future. Cavener: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Lavoie: Thank you. E. Mayor’s Office: City-wide Strategic Plan Update De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-E is under the Strategic -- City-wide Strategic Plan. We are bringing this back for -- we received comments from a couple of the Council members and that has been captured in the -- the document that was given to you and so this is a follow-up discussion and I believe that Jaycee has a couple of pieces of information to share as well. Holman: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is a follow up from a few weeks ago. At that time we went through some suggested changes to the strategic plan. I got feedback from the City Council. We committed to coming back and providing for you and document. We tried to summarize some of those changes by objective. I sent out that document. The objective summary 2017 changes. A couple of discussion items from the last presentation. Councilman Borton specifically asked me about 3-E-4 regarding priority based budgeting and whether if we were to try to do something like that you could do a pilot project within like a certain department first, like just try it with one department, see what it looks like. We -- Todd and I had a meeting -- or a WebEx with the Center for Priority Based Budgeting and, then, we, again, as directors had a WebEx with them . They are going to be here next week to do a presentation -- same presentation they have done to Mayor and directors, they are going to come here and do the presentation for City Council, so you can see what exactly it is we are talking about. This is the center who kind of does all of this and leads a lot of the initiatives in different cities and municipalities. So, I did ask that specific question and, yes, we could pilot it Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 47 of 60 in one department first, if that was the direction that we chose to go, so -- Councilman Cavener had a specific question. He asked about strategic plan, the small team and who is on it now, as opposed to the small team that worked on it a year and a half ago. There is no small team that -- anymore. That just -- that team work was done. Made the initial draft of the strategic plan. So, that doesn't exist. The team is all the directors and Mayor. Let's see. One of the things that I noticed -- as I was going back through all of the minutes from when this was first presented a year, year and a half ago, and we brought it back -- I believe it was in January of '16 and we actually got feedback from Council at that time about priorities. High. Medium. Low. And there were some adjusting. Some feedback that was taken from Council. Some movement that was made there. And, then, that was incorporated into our document. But when I look at the actual strategic plan that is attached as an exhibit to the resolution, those aren't memorialized in there. So, my question that I asked the Mayor and -- and she directed me to bring it to the Council -- do you want those memorialized in that document. As we decide high, medium, low under each objective, I can add that to that document that has been adopted by resolution. So, that was some feedback that I would like to get this evening if I can. And, then, our Parks director had a couple of questions and wanted some feedback on a couple of his items , so I will invite him up here at the end to get some feedback there. And, then, I'm probably going to go sit down as you provide feedback, because I want to be able to take notes effectively and -- so, this is -- we had some -- I want to show you kind of how the completion rate -- or the completion percentage is calculated. It's very simple. Basically, an objective will have X number of tactics underneath it, which you can see here. There is five tactics. You would divide the percentage complete -- or percentage of the overall objective amongst the tactic. So, if it was a perfectly-weighted objective that had four tactics, each tactic would be 25 percent. But we know -- I mean that's not going to be the case with most of the objectives. So, you can see I find some objective percentages here. All the way to the right you can see the complet ed box. So, until you check that box that says complete, it doesn't reflect in the overall percentage complete of the objective. What happens when we check that box is it will update that percentage complete, which you can see this is the summary at the top of the objective. It will also copy and paste that tactic into the objective notes and say, you know, on March 15th at 2:00 p.m. J. Holman marked this tactic complete and it lists the tactic in the notes. So, it's a way of keeping track of that also. And, then, you will be getting access to this software. I have spoken to Dave, our CIO. He believes by April 1st we can have this active and going for you . We are trying to make it easy, so you can get to it from your devices and so we will be e-mailing you a link to get to this and it will just -- you should be able to just hit that link, save it on whatever device you are on, you will just use your username and password and it will take you straight into the document and there you will be able to see all the objective summary information. You can leave notes in the objective. You can ask questions. Send e-mails to the objective lead and you can kind of stay in touch with what's going on there. So, I think that was my -- yeah, that was my last slide. So, at this time I would like to invite Steve up to get a little bit of feedback on his two items, since he's waited around for this and, then, I'd like to Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 48 of 60 get your feedback on any of the objectives and my hope is that I can incorporate your feedback tonight and update the strategic planning document and adopt the amended strategic planning document by resolution next week on the Consent Agenda, so -- but before I leave, is there any feedback on the high, medium, low, the priority levels being adopted into the document? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I think this is the right direction to include the priory levels in that master document. Holman: Okay. Does anyone else have any feedback? Okay. Well, I'm going to let Steve come up and, then, I'm going to sit down over here and be able to take some notes as you provide feedback on this. Any other questions for me? No? Okay. De Weerd: Thanks, Jaycee. Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I had two items I was hoping to get some direction on. These are objectives that are kicking off this year, as opposed to ones that are, you know, halfway through or anything and so the one is related to sports facilities and there was -- we are just seeking your direction on whether Council would prefer -- so, this is 5-A-2 for reference. 5-A-2, the policy says identify desired sports facilities or complexes and establish partnerships that foster their development. We are basically proposing that we insert the word public, but the question behind that is would Council prefer that this objective focus on attracting private commercial sports facilities, like a semi-pro sports team, or developing public recreational sports facilities, like Home Court, a new softball complex, et cetera. We -- we propose the latter, but we wanted to get Council's feedback first to make sure we were going the direction you wanted us to with that objective. So, I will stand for direction on that one first. De Weerd: Thanks, Steve. Council, any direction or any strong feelings on that? Little Roberts: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: In the discussions I have had regarding economic -- economic development, that’s been more of the strategy regarding trying to get teams -- semi-pro or something like that in -- tends to come more under economic development, were focusing on things like Home Court and things seems to fit more in parks and rec in my thoughts. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 49 of 60 De Weerd: So, is -- is that an objective you want the city to lead, then, and we will give -- we will give Bruce another objective. Siddoway: I think she was saying keep it parks and make it recreational. Little Roberts: Right. De Weerd: Oh. Little Roberts: The different strategies should stay in focusing on facilities to provide for our citizens, like Home Court. De Weerd: Oh, thank you. I thought you were saying -- Little Roberts: But, yeah, I'm open to that, Bruce. Thank you for that clarification. You had me freaking out there. Siddoway: We will develop our tactics around this one being public facilities. Okay. The second item is under 5-B-1 and this one is regarding a signature event. The objective says to determine, attract, promote and maintain a signature event for the city and the question is whether -- is about whether our focus should be on seeking a new outside event to come in and add big signature events. I understand if that was the case wouldn't necessarily have to be run by us, it could run by a partner, or the -- or would you rather have us focus on like Dairy Days as a signature event and find ways to support and -- and build that. I put in there we propose the latter. I was talking with the Mayor earlier today, though, about there being room for additional signature events and really the question is more do we just stay open to those events that usually come to us in the form of a TUP, temporary use permit, for events or do we proactively go out and -- and seek people to try to attract them to the city. So, any feedback on that? De Weerd: And I think in talking to some of the team members and in the development of this it was to continue to look at those events that reflect the identity and priorities of the community, be it the 30,000 people that would come to the Easter egg hunt or the paint run that started downtown last year. The Art in the Park that also started last year, is it growing on an event that maybe the city provides or another entity and building those partnerships to have those signature events that reflect our -- our community. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: For feedback, I think we discussed this in February and in my opinion hasn't changed that Dairy Days is that signature event for Meridian. We have a wide variety of other events that the Parks and Rec Department puts on that I think Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 50 of 60 are great and those will continue to grow and perhaps at a later point in time that emerges as a secondary signature event . If private organization links with the Easter egg hunt maybe that becomes also a quote, unquote, signature event, but, honestly, this is one of the goals that I would move to strike, because I think that we have great signature events from the block party, Dairy Days, Winterland Parade. I think having staff resources devoted to try and create something new or for something to be created just doesn't seem like the direction that I think that we should be wanting to go. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I agree about Dairy Days. But I think I would lean more towards making it very low priority and not spending staff resources into like sending people out trying -- you know, that full-time person trying to find a signature event. I think that's kind of a waste of time and money. However, be open to the idea that if something did come -- and none of these ideas that I heard today I get so excited that I think should be what it is. But if something does come knocking on our door that we are open to it and, then, at that point, you know, look at it realistically and look at spending some money and resources into creating it. But I am not necessarily thinking that we send people all over the country to events trying to find something to bring back. Siddoway: Okay. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: And to both their points, I think that if it's intended to be such a low priority that we are not investing or have no plans to invest energy into it, but I think naturally we would be open to supporting things anyway, that it makes sense to just remove it and not muddy the waters with other goals of the plan. De Weerd: Works for us. Siddoway: Anyone else or -- I'm comfortable with -- Milam: Strike it. Siddoway: We can strike it and we will continue -- if we strike it it wouldn't mean we are not open to other signature events, it doesn't mean we don't support Dairy Days, it just means we are not allocating strategic staff time towards seeking new ones. Okay. Thank you. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 51 of 60 De Weerd: Okay. Bruce, did you have anything? Chatterton: Madam Mayor, besides noting that my staff have been furiously working at the level just below the objectives and updating, no, nothing to add here. We are working -- it's good to have a plan to work and we are working the plan. De Weerd: Well -- and I think an important thing that you're working in each of your areas to appropriately reflect the lead department or division within Community Development, so that it's either assigned under building, planning, economic development. Chatterton: Madam Mayor, that's correct. We have made those assignments at the tactical level. De Weerd: Thank you. Questions from Council? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I guess this is questions and comments? Recommendations? Is that the time? Great. You want to pass these down. So, I have spent considerable time going through our strategic plan and I think it's really germinated from -- when this was first presented I was really excited about our strategic plan and I have to be really honest that each time we come back and talk about this my optimism and my excitement for the strategic plan is less and less. Before you is -- this is my draft of the strategic plan. You will notice some things are color coded. Anything that is red are strategic plan objectives that I have recommended striking and I will share with you for the most part they fall under a certain category. Arbitrary in nature, zero percent completion within the past year. There is a couple specifically related to the goal about either a city manager or the signature event that I recommend striking. The items that are in orange are items that have changed in terms of either a date or a completion level since this was presented to us in February. When I initially had requested for a copy of the form that we had in February, we ended up receiving an updated version and so I thought it was important -- one of the struggles for me has been following the bouncing ball related to the strategic plan because of the significant amount of goals, that I thought it was important for us as Council to be aware when things have changed from when they had been previously presented. So, you will notice, for instance, Item 1-A-2, it's marked at a hundred percent. I believe when it was presented to us in February that was not the case. Likewise, you will notice goals 5-C-1, C-2 and C-3, again, they were marked at certain various levels of completion and have now changed to zero percent. Some of the things that we have talked about when this process first began was how ambitious this plan was and I think it was ambitious, but at least what I took away from the February meeting was it was so ambitious that many of the directors didn't know where to start. Many departments Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 52 of 60 didn't know where to start. Which was I think reflective of the very low completion percentages that we saw in any of the goals that were supposed to either be accomplished or began this year and so for me I think those are the low hanging fruit that at least warrants discussion about if this -- if this was a strategic priority that we wanted to look at last year and nothing happened with it, one, does it deserve merit of being on our list. If it does, does it deserve to be at the rating that it is or does it need to be modified and so I recognize that my final version that I also have that I would be happy to share with you as well, that's a little bit more cleaned up, it's probably not reflective of where Council wants to go, but I saw this at least as a starting point of what I identified were options worthy of discussion. Borton: Madam Mayor? What was the key again? What's red and orange? Cavener: So, red are goals that I -- I'm suggesting we strike. Borton: Okay. Cavener: And for the most part they fall into the category of the goal is either arbitrary in nature and typically has a zero percent completion rating over the past year. The orange highlighted were goals that have changed, either in terms of priority, start dates, or completion level from when this was presented to us in February. And I apologize it's somewhat haphazard. This was me trying to fossil together what I was hoping we could have received and provided a wide variety of information in one snapshot view. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: How about blue and green? Cavener: Blue and green were created by I think the computer that used this. Green I believe is the strategic heading and I can't recall what the blues are for. It was what was on -- in one of the versions that I either got off the website or it was provided to me by Jaycee. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: I have got a couple of questions for the people that are in the room. First, Jaycee, is 3-D-2 -- is that the software for the strategic plan or is that meant for something else? 3-D-2. Holman: No. Madam Mayor, Council Member Palmer, other Council Members, that is not what it is. That is -- once we get through to the point -- we have in the Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 53 of 60 plan to develop the key performance indicators. It's a performance management and analytics on different programs and things that the city does. So, no, that is not the software. Palmer: And, Madam Mayor, if I can keep going with further questions. De Weerd: Uh-huh. Palmer: Let's see. Bruce, I think this question would be for you. If I can find which one it was. 1-C-3. Identify and preserve land for interactive educational agricultural-based destinations. Right. And so Fields District is what immediately comes to mind, but, then, the lady that presented to us -- this is another thing that worries me is the lady that presented to us about the idea of locking down land forever for an agricultural use, would what she was talking about be built into this point? Chatterton: Madam Mayor, Council Member Palmer, no, because of what we were -- and we -- we are very interested in terms of this objective and the idea of a learning farm, that basically is -- would be the intent behind the original Fields District study, which was to do research, to have an agricultural experience and to have a demonstration farm, possibly we have something like the New Ventures Lab, but have it for agriculture, ag innovation. But ag preservation really is not what we are trying to accomplish, unless you consider, you know, 40 acres of a demonstration farm with -- surrounded by urban development to be ag preservation. I don't -- I don't consider that to be significant ag preservation. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I don't want to argue with Councilman Palmer, but with all due respect -- and, Councilman Cavener, with respect to the time and energy that you spend into working on this, I -- I would like personally would be to have each director be able to respond to see this and respond to the comment and either -- either defend their -- their point, where they are, or -- or take agreement stand. I don't think that -- you know, there is a handful of you guys in the room, but there may be some other people who aren't here and aren't able to respond and I think that maybe if we could schedule reviewing this and that aspect of it for a different meeting or -- or respond in writing. I don't know how -- what the best way to be able to do that was, but I'd really like to hear on each plan -- on each point from each director their thoughts on Councilman Cavener's comments before I make any kind of decision. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 54 of 60 Cavener: And I appreciate that comment, Councilman Milam. I actually think that would be a great idea. That was something that I was hopeful to achieve. So, I know that there is motivation from department directors to move forward with our acknowledgement or acceptance of the plan , but if the rest of the Council feels that's more prudent -- again, with all due respect to Council, I don't anticipate the entire Council saying, yes, let's do this, let's cut a significant amount of these strategic plan objectives, but to me I felt it was important to just identify those that I think, based on my own subjective criteria what I thought at least warranted having the discussion about cutting, in hopes that the directors would be able to - - or whoever is in charge of each strategic plan would have the opportunity to -- to respond and provide some context. But Madam Mayor -- and I don't know how far down the rabbit hole Council wants to go, but I did want to stay at least with the question to Bruce about Objective 1-C-3 about the ag. I believe when this was presented to us in February it had a zero percent completion and is now listed as a hundred percent. I'm just curious if you could articulate what's been accomplished. Chatterton: Council Member Cavener, that -- that is not a hundred percent complete. So, we need to correct the document there and if -- if we can get that information to Jaycee, that's -- I apologize. Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Palmer: No. You're fine, because I needed more time to think about some of the other things anyway. But on that maybe even adjusting the language. The word preserve scares me. I hate the idea of eternally locking out a piece of land for one -- one use. You know, if we were to -- to preserve -- not eternally, a piece of land for a farm demo use or not -- they are still -- it's not legally binding that that's what it will be forever and so maybe even if it was identify and look for opportunities to create interactive -- I don't know how to word it. But to avoid the word preserve -- yeah. Promote. Yeah. Promote land for interactive -- that kind of thing -- would make me feel more comfortable with that staying in there. Skimming over a lot of the red ones that are in here are most of the ones that I had notes on otherwise. There is a couple other ones that I would like to just throw away altogether. For example, all the 4-Bs. It looks like Councilman Cavener has all but the last one and, then, Councilman Borton had a note on -- especially about that last point and should the city be doing it. So, I feel comfortable just getting rid of all 4-B and it's here in red and there is nothing in red that I think I disagree with, except what I had asked Jaycee about with the 3-D-2, with my understanding level of that point I'd like to keep that one in. Other than that I appreciate and like what Councilman Cavener put together. Those are my thoughts. De Weerd: Other comments from Council? Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 55 of 60 Holman: Madam Mayor, can I get a copy of the report you -- I'm fast and furious taking notes. I don't have a copy of that. So, can I get a copy of it? Cavener: Yes. I will send it to you right now. Holman: Okay. Thanks. De Weerd: I think, Council, certainly we would have loved this level of detail when we brought it to Council last year, because there is a lot of work that goes into this and certainly I have always been excited to think that we could reduce some of the objectives, because I think that we could all be in agreement that 72 were too many. But I -- I will have the -- the directors and the leads take a look at these and I think bring this back at the next workshop on the 11th of April for further discussion and -- yeah. So, I -- I think that gives each of the departments enough time to take a look and see what they -- how they best want to respond. But I will say -- and as I communicated to each of you -- that until we had an approved plan it's very difficult for the departments to -- to start working it and calibrate what makes sense in the workflow and as I started getting into it, it did change priorities or start dates, which were captured in the -- the responses that were given to you and -- and there were a couple of requests that -- for funding to accomplish one or two of these as well that they didn't get, so it got sent back and had to -- to reevaluate how the work was going to get done without the -- the resource that was requested, so -- and some of that was presented in February when this came in front of you. So, we will get this out to the team. They can provide you feedback and comments and if you have any other -- any other items that you would like to get additional information on, please, let us know and we can do that. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Cavener: I would really encourage Council to take a look at the version that I sent in to meet with the directors, to send your comments as well. Madam Mayor, I appreciate your comments about wishing that we provided this level of feedback a year ago. I think like directors we were overwhelmed with the amount of information that was presented. I think Council at that time shared some 30,000 foot view concerns over some specific goals. We had I think a very well-rounded discussion at that time, but the direction was given -- you're going to work this plan for a year and there is going to be an opportunity for us to come back and discuss. I think that Council has probably learned a lot about this plan over the past year, directors have, and I think that the feedback that's provided is warranted for this very particular time. De Weerd: Okay. Well, we will set this out for the 11th of April and further discuss. Again, if you have anything further, please, get with the lead department on that and we can walk that into what we bring back. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 56 of 60 Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: For sake of comment, it's listed a little bit in here, but -- De Weerd: Could you turn up your -- Borton: We are coming back -- De Weerd: Because we are getting -- Borton: -- coming back on April 4th? 11th? Workshop. De Weerd: Workshop. Borton: Not to be answered now, but one of the questions I had that we can discuss in 3-E-4, the idea of priority based budgeting, we can discuss at the workshop whether -- if that's to stay is it done on a pilot project or -- De Weerd: I think you were out of the room when we discussed it. Jaycee did talk about it. We do have the consultant coming in next week to do a presentation in front of Council. As you see what the -- the larger idea is, you can -- we are seeking your feedback next week -- Borton: Okay. De Weerd: -- when you have some more information on what that tool really i s. So, she's on it. Borton: Good. De Weerd: Already ahead of you. Borton: Good. To continue that, the comments that -- the inclusion of the scenario village from my perspective is critical to include that. It ties into the CFP discussion as well and I think the removal of the hundred healthiest cities -- not that that's a laudable goal -- not a laudable goal, but it's not necessarily something that I think the city should focus on and can control whether or whether or not we are able to accomplish that seemed to be a bit outside the spectrum of priorities. But from of a broader -- and we had answered Steve's question with regards to the signature event, which was -- was the other comment. But with regard to what Mr. Cavener has done, which is going to be extremely helpful, it feels like we are just now starting a strategic plan and I think a lot of the reason that we are able to have some granular discussion is the work that you have done, Jaycee, is phenomenal Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 57 of 60 in not only leading the -- the IT portion of developing the framework that can allow us to do this and now have this type of discussion is exceptional. You have done a masterful job in getting us to a point to start. Holman: Thank you. Borton: It kind of feels like that -- that might be what we are doing, as clumsy as it might be. So, it's exciting to see where this is going to go. But this kind of detail comes because you have done what you have done. So, awesome work. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I think to Councilman Borton's point, I know that it's a challenging timeline for Dave and IT to get access to the FTP portal on or near April 1st, but, obviously, the closer we get to that date is ideal, so that we as a Council have an opportunity to engage with that particular tool before we are back at a workshop. I think could be helpful as well. De Weerd: Because a majority of the work has already gotten into it anyway. So, we will see how we can get that out there. Okay. Well, good. Cavener: Madam Mayor, sorry. I hate to continue bringing up additional points, but it would also be beneficial, in light of Mr. Chatterton's comments about goals that being accurately reflected on the sheet that was provided to us, if t here could just be a quick straw poll of directors and make sure that the information that's included in that chart is accurate, so that we are looking at what is factual and true. De Weerd: Yeah. We actually thought they all owned the information on it at this point, so we will -- Cavener: Great. Holman: Madam Mayor? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, some of the issue with that is we did a little bit of a tweak of the software kind of midstream. We originally had it drilled all the way down to the detail. We were tracking hours and costs and it was extremely complex. The calculations were very, very -- it was just very -- spending more time updating the tool than actually doing the work. So, what we did is since we had last spoken with you -- so I'm going to defend you a little bit here, Bruce. We checked that -- what I was talking to you about with the percentage complete, you weight each of your tactics towards the objective and once that tactic is complete that's when a percentage complete shows for the overall objective. So, in Bruce's case I pulled that one up and he had one tactic that he had put in there one hundred percent complete, because he was doing it the way we originally had designed the software before the change, so since that Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 58 of 60 was the only tactic that had any weight to it, it, then, shows the objective as overall a hundred percent complete. So, that was just -- probably got caught up in the change of the software and I know you were fast and -- he was really impacted by that change because of the 21 objectives and they are going in there and trying to weight their tactics and kind of change that, so -- Chatterton: And just that, what Jaycee is saying, we -- we were aware of this problem and we, obviously, didn't ferret out -- ferret out all of them and get them corrected. Cavener: I was excited. There has a hundred percent. That was really -- Chatterton: I think the Mayor would be happy, because we would have fully implemented the Fields District in three months. Holman: And, Madam Mayor, one more item if I may. It's -- that's -- what you're seeing -- when I send that report to you that's the summarized report of objectives, that shows percentage complete, if people are working on that every single day, it might change every day. It is a snapshot in time of the whole software. It's not a static document that I'm going in there and just putting in percentage complete, there are -- when the Mayor spoke and Joe spoke or whoever it was about this really feels like it's really the beginning of a strategic plan, the activity that I have seen -- because I can see it as an administrator, I can see people building teams, assigning tactics, putting teams and everything around each one of these tasks -- it's really exciting to see, because there is e-mails that are flowing back and forth and people are being notified that they are now part of this team and there is a lot of work being done in there. So, it is -- it will continually change. You will not get that same report from moment to moment, because that report is to be a snapshot of where we are at right then. De Weerd: It will be a very useful tool, so -- Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Cavener: Question for -- for Jaycee then. I light of that, is there a way for when that report is sent to Council that we can see what changes have occurred since the last time it's been shared for us? Again, it's -- this is four pages and if there is a lot going on, then, for me to be able to digest all this information, I would like to know what has changed from the last time this was shared for us. So, I don't know if that's possible and that's something that for me would be incredibly helpful to be able to understand where the changes are occurring and in what specific objective and who is the lead on that. Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 59 of 60 Holman: Okay. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, you're asking for -- you will be able to see that within the individual objectives in the software. So, are you asking for a report that can show changes since the last time you saw that report? Is that what you're asking for? De Weerd: Since the report they got for this meeting. Holman: At this point, no. I would -- you can only compare it against the other report that we have in the record. So, we don't have one that will show changes since the last time you ran the report, because right now it's a dynamic report that's just grabbing what's out there. Cavener: Madam Mayor, I don't want to speak for the rest of the Council, but that would be sufficient for me is if -- if you have got an updated change from when this was first put on the record in February to whatever updated version is sent us with some ability to be able to see the changes that have occurred , that would be sufficient for me. Again, I don't want to speak for the rest of the Council. Maybe I'm the only one -- I don't know if that's valuable to you as well, but I think it is. Holman: I'm trying to technically think if they can do that or not. I'm sure they can. I know I talked about this with Councilman Borton and he had said it's important for them to see. Like they will say -- I give you a report in January that says Item 3-D-4 is 25 percent complete. He doesn't want to see six months from now -- he wants to be able to see Items 3-D-4 is 30 percent complete, but he also wants to see that it changed five percent -- the percent change since the last time we brought it to you. So, I can do that as I come to you twice a year with these reports. Is that what you're asking or are you asking anytime we run this report to see how it changed from the last time? Cavener: If you're asking me, if each time you run the report you send that to Council, whether we choose to review or not I guess is up to us. De Weerd: I think it's the twice a year that -- the bi-annual -- because it's going to be a lot of manual -- Cavener: That -- that satisfies my need. Holman: I believe we can do that, but I will talk to my IT -- De Weerd: We will address that on April 11th. Okay. Please reach out to the lead departments if you have anything further. Item 10: Future Meeting Topics De Weerd: Okay. Council, upcoming events. Meridian Mondays. Please join us out in the plaza out front at 6:00 p.m. and get active. The Closet -- the Leadership Meridian City Council March 21, 2017 Page 60 of 60 Meridian is having their Closet Bowl-A-thon fundraiser on March 29th. It starts at 6:00 p.m. at Big AI's. And encourage you to remember the Hillsdale Park groundbreaking on April 7th at 2:30. So, if there is nothing further I would entertain a motion to adjourn. Borton: So moved. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:57 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR TA Y DE WEERD ATTE C. JAY C&LES, CITY CLERK 1/y/do/� DATE APPROVED 0 PO 1�G