HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-09-12Meridian City Council Workshop September 12, 2017.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
September 12, 2017, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Joe Borton, Ty Palmer, Luke
Cavener, Genesis Milam and Anne Little Roberts.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Warren Stewart, Caleb Hood, Brian Caldwell,
Kevin Fedrizzi, Jaycee Holman, Steve Siddoway, Dave Miles and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Keith Bird
__X___Genesis Milam __X__ Lucas Cavener
__X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I'd like to open our meeting and thank you all for joining us. I think we
have two high school students in the audience. Thank you for joining us. We hope you
get extra credit for it, you know. This is -- it's always great to see our young, promising
faces in the audience. And that's not to say all the rest of you aren't, but thank you for
joining us. Okay. For the record it is Tuesday, September 12th. It's two minutes after
3:00. We will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the agenda we have no resolutions or any ordinances. Everything is going to
stay as printed, so I move we approve the agenda as printed.
Borton: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of September 5, 2017 City Council Regular
Meeting
B. First Amendment to Subrecipient Agreement Between City of
Meridian And Jesse Tree of Idaho, Inc. For PY 2016
Community Development Block Grant Funds
C. Professional Services Agreement with Blues Directors for
Musical Talent for Meridian Art Week for an amount not to
exceed $500
D. Acceptance Agreement for Display of Artwork in Initial Point
Gallery, Meridian City Hall between City of Meridian and Cara
Stone
E. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement to BHS Specialty
Chemical Products for the Ferric Chloride FY18 project for a
Not-To-Exceed amount of $100,00.00
F. Northpointe Commercial Subdivision Water Main Easement
G. Geddes Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Easement
H. AP Invoices for Payment - $1,803,440.68
De Weerd: Item 4 is our Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda as published, which includes the
invoice payment of over a million -- 1.8 million dollars for the month 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. So, Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
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September 12, 2017
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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 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Orchid Award Presented to Josh and Lori Evarts
De Weerd: So, I will move into Item 6-A, which is a presentation and so I'm going to move
down to the podium. Well, it's my pleasure to present the Orchid Award to the Evarts and
I'm just going to say a few words about this. The Evarts weren't able to attend the
ceremony where this was presented and -- by the state national -- or state Historical
Preservation Society, but I do want to say a few words. The Evarts are downtown
champions and they are not just downtown champions, they want to be stewards of our
city's history and so this Orchid Award kind of I think in many regards -- now we no longer
have a blemish as a community because we got the Onion Award before this. So, thank
you, first of all, for that. But they took great detail in preserving The Vault, which as many
of us remember it as Elite Cleaners -- really -- I'm sorry, Bittons, but it was an ugly yellow
building. That they had faced the beautiful brick behind it and -- with yellow siding and it
stood that way for a number of years. Well, the Evarts saw the vision of what it could be
and they restored this by first going to our local historian Lila Hill and spending time finding
out details about the history of this building that they were ready to restore . Then they
really spent time with our Urban Renewal District to sell them the community benefit of
restoring this to its full glory and to the facility that it is today with -- with the brick facade,
with beautiful windows, and it's a gorgeous facility. This is not their first project, but it's
their first project they really were fully in line and responsible for the restoration of this --
of our history, this building, because they are also the owners of the Heritage Building as
well at Main and Idaho. So, they are Idaho Avenue champions and now they are
endeavoring on -- they are moving south to Main and Broadway, but these are the kind
of community champions that every city would like to have and so I am really honored to
present the Orchid Award -- presented at the 40th Annual Orchids and Onions Awards
on May 20th at the community library in Ketchum and also I'd like to give you two of our
coins. We have a coin that we put together in celebration of the opening of City Hall and
so this is commemorative in that these were only made for the opening of City Hall and
the other one is the Meridian Way coin and we put together some of our greatest
employees that are known for their excellent customer service and care and ask ed them
to put something that really symbolizes what we want to be a forward looking face to our
community and delivering our CARE values of Customer Service, Accountability, Respect
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and Excellence and so they kind of coined this coin. It was incorporated -- the city was
incorporated in August 1st of 1903 and they said the Meridian Way is providing care to
our community in a timely, friendly, professional and solution oriented manner. I think
you exemplify this by your investment, by the time that you spend in cherishing the roots
of our community and continuing to invest and care about our downtown. So, than k you
so much. Well, they cleared out of here really fast, didn't they. Josh is such a public guy.
B. Marsy's Law For Idaho
De Weerd: Okay. Item D is under Marcy's Law for Idaho. Tonight -- or this afternoon we
have Todd Lakey and Jason Arlington to talk to us about this important cause. Welcome.
I don't know if I call you Senator Lakey, Todd -- but welcome.
Lakey: Madam Mayor, all of the above work. I guess I look at all of you as friends and
colleagues and fellow elected officials. I just happen to be wearing the Senator Lakey hat
this afternoon in talking to guys. I appreciate the opportunity, Mayor and Council
Members, to visit with you about our statewide efforts in pursuing an amendment to our
constitution regarding victim's rights in Idaho. It's called Marcy's Law more from a
marketing standpoint and that's part of a national group, a national movement, but the
language that you have -- I believe you have copy of Senate Joint Resolution 103. That
was Idaho language. We spent a lot of time -- many hours last session developing that
language with fellow attorneys, other legislators, prosecutors, members of the courts and
legal scholars that are involved with the Marcy's Law group in coming up with that
language. So, it's -- it's Idaho language, it's not, excuse me, some generic thing that was
taken from -- from other states or elsewhere. Marcy's Law is really about concepts and
implementing those concepts in Idaho. So, I guess I just want to talk briefly about it. Our
hope is ultimately to come back with a resolution in support from this Council, but we don't
have that in front of you this afternoon, that will be something hopefully we come back to
you with later in working with Mr. Nary on -- on appropriate language. But I want to talk
to you about the -- the effort -- the language that was included and, then, answer any
questions that you may have. But for me Senate Joint Resolution 103 is about giving the
crime victim in Idaho a choice and an effective voice in the criminal justice system and,
then, protecting that right at a constitutional level and for me an effective voice means
notice and an opportunity to be heard. There is nothing mandatory in the constitutional
provisions. A victim has the choice whether to participate and voice their perspective and
describe their impact in the criminal justice proceedings. They don't have to do anything.
It's their choice. I guess some might ask why the constitutional level. We already have
some crime victims' rights in the Idaho Constitution. But for me the victim is the only one
that is not in the criminal justice system as a result of a choice that they made . The
criminal defendant is there typically of choices they made. The prosecutor, the defense
attorney, the judges, they are all -- and law enforcement, are all there by choice. I don't
know -- some of you know that I started out in my legal career as a prosecutor and, then,
our firm has done some -- some prosecution work -- city prosecution work. So, that's
where my background and experience comes in this effort . But I think it's important
because of the fact that the victim is so deeply impacted by a choice that was made by
somebody else, that their right to express the impact that they felt should be protected at
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a constitutional level. It's a joint resolution, just for those of you who don't know, that the
process to amend Idaho's Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote of both the
Senate and the House and, then, it's put on the ballot. So, the people ultimately decide
whether to amend our Constitution or not. But it has to get votes through those two
bodies. Let me talk just briefly about the main updates of the new items that we are
adding to the Constitution. Idaho's constitutional provisions were adopted more than 20
years ago. So, with time and experience we have seen that there is a need to update
those constitutional provisions. One of -- like I said, I will hit some of the high points. The
first one is reasonable and timely notice in the criminal justice proceedings. Right now it
currently says prior notice and I hate to say it, but I have seen and experienced sometimes
the prosecutors there, they are looking at the file and they see, oh, man, the victim may
not have been notified of this sentencing hearing. So, it's a quick phone call to the victim,
hey, we have got this sentencing hearing coming up, do you want to participate, do you
want to be there. That meets the -- the requirement of the Constitution, but doesn't really
provide them an effective opportunity to take time off work to do those kinds of things.
Also it provides a reasonable and timely notice of escape or absconsion from probation
or parole. Idaho has some very tragic examples of victims who didn't receive timely notice
that ultimately lost their life because of the individual that escaped or was released. It
also provides an opportunity to confer with the prosecutor. Right now it talks about
communicating with the prosecutor. Confers is a stronger word. It doesn’t mean you can
tell the prosecutor what to do or how to accept a plea or not, but it's a more engaging type
of communication or conversation with the prosecutor. It also provides for full and timely
restitution for economic loss, but retains the ability of the courts to prioritize among various
victims, the one that may be injured more drastically, obviously, their restitution could be
ordered to come first before some other type of economic or property loss. It provides for
a reasonable protection from the accused and those acting on their behalf . We have
examples in Idaho -- and this is a reasonable standard where the victim may have been
required to wait in the same small waiting room with the accused, the individual that
victimized them or their family members and the victim shouldn't have to -- to do that.
Again, it may be a matter of space. If we are in Clearwater county and that's all the -- the
room they have, at least we could put them in the clerk's office or some other place while
they are waiting for court, instead of in the same small area. It adds some additional
proceedings that are not currently provided for. First, it adds for notice and opportunity
to be heard in post-conviction proceedings. Those are proceedings after conviction
where the judge has an opportunity to potentially modify or do something different with
the sentence if they meet the criteria. Notice and opportunity to be heard and acceptance
of a guilty plea, at parole discharge, at commutation or pardon being offered by the
governor and, then, also notice of post-conviction or post-arrest release. It also gives the
opportunity for the victim to speak on their own behalf or to have a representative or family
member. Sometimes that's the prosecutor under the current system. I have sat in court
at the table with somebody -- she just really struggled to be able to articulate what impact
a reckless driver had on her and her daughter. She just wasn't comfortable in court. She
was shaking. She couldn't really talk about it and being close -- in close proximity again
to that person that was involved. So, it gives them the opportunity to speak for
themselves, to have somebody speak for them or even have their attorneys speak on
their behalf. But this isn't actively participating. Not like an attorney that would stand up
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and object or say that the judge doesn't have grounds for this type of decision or that . It's
simply, again, to articulate what impact that they have experienced and have the judge
consider that in their decision. It also notes that these rights under the Idaho Constitution
are not -- or do not supersede the federal constitutional rights of the accused. Obviously,
speedy trial, fair trial and all those things supersede these rights. But these rights do not
supersede them. So, Mayor and Council Members, that's -- that's the high points of
Senate Joint Resolution 103. As I said, we are hoping we are building statewide support
and hopefully your support. I'm happy to answer questions if you have them now and I
would like to bring back a resolution if possible.
De Weerd: Thank you, Senator Lakey. Questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Senator, can you give kind of a history on how this went in the
2017 session?
Lakey: Sure. Mayor and Council Member Palmer, we spent probably seven-eighths of
the session in the Senate trying to get the language right. We met -- we probably started
in January needing to work on the language and it just took us that long to get the
language right. It passed unanimously in the Senate. We got over to the House with a
week left in the session and ran into some questions in the House committee that just
folks were not able to get comfortable with and so it -- it did not get out of committee on
the House side. We have been working on those questions, working with those
committee members and working with House members since then and we are confident
that we are going to be able to be successful. We will start most likely in the House this
time, instead of the Senate, because we know where the Senate is going.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, follow up. And, Senator, so were -- are you working on a better
understanding for those that had issues with it or on altering the language to get the -- or
both.
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Palmer, our preference is to keep the
language because of the effort we had -- House members and Senate members working
on it previously. Our preference is that -- and it's to keep the language that we worked
on, but it's not a concrete mind set. If there are -- are adjustments that need to be made
to help make people in the House comfortable we are open to that. So, it's kind of an --
an effort to hope we can keep this, but if we need to make some adjustments we are open
and we will do it.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, one more.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
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Palmer: And, Senator, would you -- would you like the resolution to be in support of the
bill as written or in support of the idea of Marcy's Law?
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Palmer, I guess my preference would line up
with my -- just the comments I just made. Our preference would be to support Senate
Joint Resolution 103, but we are open to language being included that's reasonable
adjustments or -- or modifications to the language, that don't change the -- the intent of
things that significantly would be open to language like that in a resolution form.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? With the little study that I have put into understanding the history
and the -- the move you guys are trying to make, I look forward to the resolution and
supporting such a move. So, thank you.
Lakey: Thank you, Council Member.
De Weerd: Additional questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Todd, what's been the response from -- I guess counties and law enforcement?
I -- I think I'm very supportive of the idea. I just know that we hear often times from
prosecutors about the time -- or I guess the lack of time that they have and they have
asked us to make changes to some of the classification of different infractions in our city
to reduce the burden on the courts and I'm just wondering how something like this will
help to alleviate or add to the burden that already exists .
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Cavener, good question. As I said, the
prosecutors were actively involved with us in drafting the language last session. Both Jan
Bennetts with Ada County Prosecutor and Holly Koole with the prosecutor's association,
were very engaged and came up with some of the changes in the language that we have.
Overall we are talking about a potential cost; right? And the changes that we made don't
really affect that ground level that much. The law enforcement level or the trial level, most
of those things are already in place. So, we -- there is kind of two ways to look at it. The
-- the fact that it's discretionary with the victim and how much they participate impacts the
courts. If somebody decides to participate it may take a little bit more time for that
particular hearing and maybe they don't hear as many cases that day. But that's a hard
impact to quantify. The additional time to send another letter for a particular type of
proceeding -- again, most of those come at a state level, but in response to that -- that
question we have engaged a group that do economic studies and the results that we are
seeing so far are fairly insignificant. We have the support of the sheriff's association. I'm
meeting with the chiefs in October to get their support. I anticipate the prosecutors will
be on board again as well. So, I think at kind of the city level I don't see any significant
fiscal impact based on what's already in place and , then, we can use some of the vine
and existing notification infrastructure at the state level.
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Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Senator Lakey, I don't have a question, but I just want to say thank you putting all
this time and effort into doing this for the victims and I am one hundred percent for it.
Lakey: Thank you, Council Member.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing how we don't have any more questions, I guess I would make a motion that
we ask our legal team to draw up a resolution supporting the Joint Resolution 103 for the
state of Idaho.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to support this. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Lakey: Mayor and Council Members, thank you very much.
De Weerd: Senator Lakey, I appreciate what you have done and the passion you have
for this. I know I thanked you earlier when we spoke, but it's nice to see that our victims
have a spokesperson that -- that is out there to protect their rights. So, we appreciate
your efforts and let us know if you need anything further from our city.
Lakey: Will do. Thank you, Mayor.
C. Verizon Small Cell Program
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-C is a presentation on Verizon's small cell program.
I will turn this to Mark Estess.
Estess: Good afternoon. For the record, Mayor, Members of the City Council, my name
is Mark Estess and I am a partner with a public policy firm here in -- actually in Boise,
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Eiguren Ellis and with me today are two representatives from Verizon. They are going to
be giving you a presentation on small cell technology and they have extensive experience
and expertise in working with communities across the -- the region and have been actively
involved with many of your community partners and so we thought the time was right to
come in and give you simply an educational presentation on what small cells are and
allow you to ask any questions in terms of things that you all may want to have a better
understanding of. So, with that I will introduce you to Crystal Canada and Casey Gibson.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mark. Hi, Casey -- or Crystal.
Canada: Yes. Madam Mayor and Council Members. Thank you very much for the
opportunity to be here to present and share about small cells. We have -- we will go
through our presentation and, then, leave plenty of room and time for any questions that
we can answer after that. So, Verizon's goal is to connect our homes, businesses, and
communities. Why we are expanding our network. Specifically to here in Idaho we are
seeing 76 percent growth year over year in smartphone usage. Verizon has the largest
market share within Ada county. We have 46.4 percent and ensuring that we have an
adequate network to support our customers, emergency services is critical for us. So,
that's one of the reasons why we are here and wanting to make the investment in small
cells within the network. So, why we are expanding our network. In 2015 the average
smartphone in North America consumed 3.7 gigabits of data per month and this is
expected to increase to 22 gigabites per month by 2021. Around 52 percent of American
households are on wireless only. So, one in every two American households rely solely
on their mobile phone as their primary means of communication. In North America the
average household has 13 connected devices , which is astronomical to think about that.
So, we are seeing on a national average 57 percent growth every year. Here in Idaho we
are seeing 76 percent growth, which is just astronomical. So, to keep up with that growth
Verizon intends to deploy macro sites, we will add as much capacity to those sites as we
possibly can and, then, we will deploy small cells. So, the difference between a macro
site and a small cell. A macro site is the larger towers that typically have 12 antennas,
three sectors of four antennas each and it's all of our technology. Voice, 3G, 4G and
some of our older technologies. Small cells are intended to be an underlay to that macro
network. They cover between 200 to a thousand foot radius and they are much slower
and closer to the user and with that they are much more esthetically pleasing. A macro
site can cover a couple miles in either direction and I get asked quite regularly why don't
you just put in more macro sites if they provide much more service and all of the
technology and in the 4G space, which is what we are seeing the usage on, if you put two
macro sites next to each other they actually cancel out service. It causes the opposite
effect of what we are trying to do. So, small cells were created to be an underlay to that
macro network. The objective -- the objective of the small cell is two fold. One is capacity
offload. So, we put them in areas where we are seeing a lot of people congregate and
use their phone, basically the 76 percent growth pretty much all throughout the City of
Meridian, we would want to place small cells. They are also great for -- to fill in coverage
areas where in a residential neighborhood a macro site wouldn't be permitted by zoning
ordinances. Small cells are much less obtrusive and that can be placed in the right of
way, so they can provide that dip in service for coverage reasons as well. Small cells --
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the characteristics are the antenna heights are much closer to the user at 20 feet to 40
feet and that's a pretty big difference and why we include that difference is because we
try to fit small cells within the existing height limits within a zone. So, in Denver, for
example, downtown Denver, their light poles are 30 feet one inch, so we put our own
poles on the right of way, because we couldn't attached to existing infrastructure and we
built them at 30 feet one inch. So, we try to blend into the existing aesthetics within a
community. They are much lower power, small cells are, than macro sites. Again,
because they are lower powered they provide a much smaller footprint, 200 to a thousand
foot radius. The benefits of a small cell are enhanced emergency services, insuring we
have adequate coverage and capacity throughout our network, improved user experience
allowing faster throughputs. It is the platform for evolving technology, so ensuring we
have a sufficient 4G network will allow us to build on that eventually to 5G. And they are
aesthetically a much smaller design and they aid in economic growth. In Meridian we are
seeing significant growth within the community. The components of a small solar -- there
is four main components. We have got an antenna, two radios, power. This picture to
the right is in Francisco and we deployed 400 small cells within San Francisco for Super
Bowl 50. This is attached to an existing light standard above -- I don't know if I can use
the mouse. Above the mast arm is the antenna in shrouding and, then, midway down the
pole you can see metal stripes and those are the two attached to the exterior of the pole.
There is a direct connection for power to the radios and fibers underground that connects
to the radios as well. All the electronics -- excuse me -- all the cabling is on the inside of
the pole. So, it's a pretty minimal design. So, what we are looking to do is to deploy small
cells within Meridian within the right of way and there is three main design options. The
first design option would be a street light and this is probably the most prevalent design.
It's an antenna in shrouding above the mast arm and two radios down the pole and, then,
direct connection for power and fiber. The second option is a Verizon owned pole in the
right of way and this is a picture in Denver that I mentioned, the 30 foot one inch pole and
this is a solution that Verizon created with Denver's public works director and planning
director, because it couldn't attach to existing infrastructure. So, this was the only solution
to provide the identification that was needed. And, then, th e third option is traffic control
poles. So, this is in Phoenix and for Super Bowl 49 we actually attached to -- we did a
big program with the city of Phoenix to attach to their traffic signals . We increased the
height of the poles by five feet and put two panel antennas and, then, did our larger radios
with battery backup. They are sitting in the gray -- excuse me -- the base box abutting
the black fence. This is the largest design that Verizon has for small cells and this is the
one that covers about a thousand foot radius. The first two cover about a 200 foot radius.
So, it's -- it's a design -- the larger the equipment that we put on the pole it covers a little
bit larger of a territory. The smaller, the smaller footprint it provides. Here is some
additional examples showing the flexibility that we have around small cell designs. The
first picture is in Los Angeles with two panel antennas below the mast arm and, then,
radios and battery backup on the ground in the left corner. The second picture is in San
Francisco and this is a three way partnership between Verizon, the city of San Francisco,
and a private media company called J C Decaux and these are existing newspaper kiosks
throughout the city and we cut off the top of a green newspaper stand and created RF
transparent material. So, there are antennas behind the top of that newspaper stand.
So, esthetically it looks exactly the same, but now it's a small cell location. The third
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picture is in St. Paul, Minnesota. Antenna above the mast arm and two radios midway
down the pole. The fourth picture is in Kansas City, Missouri, and antennas above the
mast arm, two radios and battery backup on the ground. And the fifth picture is a co-
locatable pole in San Jose. To my knowledge, Verizon is the only carrier on this pole, but
it could conceivably hold two carriers. To provide a little bit of discussion around battery
backup, that is not one of the main components that are required for a small cell, but it
does -- Verizon is willing to make that investment to add battery backup to each location
and what that does is in the case of an emergency and power goes out , the cell site will
stay active for as many hours as we have battery backup. In Phoenix we had four hours.
In Los Angeles in this first picture we had two hours. So, it is a conversation around
aesthetics, but Verizon is willing to make that investment. So, the benefits of small cells
are enhanced wireless service, ensuring that we have adequate voice, video, and data
consistently throughout the City of Meridian that is going to keep up with the growth that
the city is seeing. Public safety, ensuring our law enforcement and first responders --
many of them use Verizon as their primary means of communication -- have adequate
service. Resiliency. Our goal is to create a robust network and stay ahead of demand.
You could probably use your phones and have pretty good service right now if you have
Verizon, but our goal is to stay ahead of that -- the issues that might be coming. And,
then, we will be making a significant capital investment within Meridian and aiding in
economic benefit, including commerce, conventions, and tourism. And with that said that
is the end of our presentation and we would be happy to take any questions that there
might be.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: How many of these are you proposing to install in our community?
Gibson: My name is Casey Gibson. I'm the RF engineer. I'm local to Idaho. So, my part
was just for support to Crystal. In speaking to the numbers we have looked at -- we have
identified 41 City of Meridian poles that we would like to use and that's -- that's our near
term number. If you look at our three year plan, the number will probably double that.
You can see that they are smaller in size and that's the reason for so many of them.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up if I may. So, during Crystal's presentation she talked
about placing in the right of way, but, obviously, the images that you shared with us and
to your point, Casey, it sounds like you're looking to install these on currently city-owned
assets?
Canada: Yes. Madam Mayor, Council Member, yes, city-owned assets within the right
of way. So, we have worked with city staff to understand what poles are owned by ACHD,
what poles are owned by the City of Meridian and areas where there is no existing
infrastructure. We do have an agreement in place with ACHD and -- that allows us to
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attach to their infrastructure, but we would like to put an agreement in place with the City
of Meridian that would allow us to attach to the City of Meridian infrastructure. How the
ACHD agreement is set up is it's nonexclusive and it doesn't obligate ACHD or Verizon
to anything, it's just the overarching terms. If we were to enter into an individual site
license agreement for an individual location, after ACHD approved the aesthetics of it, as
well as the city which it would be residing in.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, one additional question. Your comment about ACHD I guess
sparked an additional question. Is the 41 proposed microcells that you would want to
install in Meridian, is that in addition to other cells that are going to be installed on ACHD
owned assets within the City of Meridian?
Gibson: Yes, it would be.
Cavener: So, what's that total number, then, that you're looking between city owned and
ACHD owned assets within our city?
Canada: Madam Mayor and Councilmen, we are looking at about 82 locations in the next
three years and half of them would be on City of Meridian owned property and we are
very careful in the numbers that we give , because those can change as technology
evolves. So, that's -- right now that's what our look would be for the next three years out
and what that would look like. Our ask would be to put something in place so it allows us
to grow to be able to deploy small cells as the community continues to grow.
Cavener: I have got more questions, but I don't want to take up everyone's time.
De Weerd: Additional questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: From the photos it kind of looked like everything was geared commercially.
Is anything designed for residential or is it all -- is it all geared more for commercial areas?
Canada: Madam Mayor and Council Member, these are -- a lot of those photos were
actually in residential neighborhoods. So, it's geared towards both. Aesthetically we have
worked with the communities, so if there is an HOA within a residential development that
has certain design standards, we would work with that -- that community to ensure that
these designs fit into the aesthetics of the community.
De Weerd: What is your experience, then, in working with HOAs and residential
communities and addressing concerns? Is there a hum? I lived by a cell tower for a
number of years and you could hear it, but what -- what feedback have you received from
homeowners?
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Canada: Madam Mayor, we have actually gotten quite a bit of positive feedback on
having the improved service and aesthetically these are much smaller designs. We are
not installing them with air conditioners, so that's typically where some of the hum comes
from, so these are quiet. They -- they don't make a noise. I live in downtown Denver and
I actually have one of the small cells right outside of my house and I love the improved
service. So, we will be -- what we have done in some communities -- we have done
outreach, study sessions in communities. We are happy to do that. We did that in
Cupertino in California. In Santa Rosa we did a joint presentation to city council and had
it open to the public for any questions. So, we are happy to provide any community
outreach and education around small cells.
De Weerd: Since you're locating on a public asset, is -- what all does the agreement
entail?
Canada: Madam Mayor, the agreement does have a revenue stream to the city.
De Weerd: What -- I guess in maintenance when we need to go in, change the -- the
light, it goes out, do we work around your equipment? Is there liability to -- if they disturb
something? What -- what kind of arrangements are made in those regards?
Canada: So, our -- what our proposal would be would be to put a master license
agreement in place that talks about all of those details and it's discussed and negotiated
between Verizon and the city. Our standard form, which has been provided to Mr. Nary,
is -- actually comes from Chandler, Arizona's, city attorney wrote it and that has been
incorporated into the form that we use. So, with regard to maintenance, we can put a
shut-off switch, so if the city is doing any type of maintenance where they want to change
out a light bulb, they can shut off the site or call us and we will shut off the site, ensuring
that public -- that worker safety is -- is met. Verizon takes responsibility for -- and liability
for our equipment and that would just be detailed out in the agreement, as it would if a
car hit the structure that had our cell site, whose responsibility would it be to put the pole
back up, what would -- so, it's worked out and I have every city -- I have had different
cities have a different response on what they would like, so it's really a discussion on what
the City of Meridian would like to see in each of those situations.
De Weerd: And have you worked with our safety departments in terms of where you do
desire placement and if it fits within their communication needs as well?
Canada: Madam Mayor, we have not had those conversations, but we -- how we would
like our proposal to structure this program would be an overarching agreement that the
city and Verizon would work out and, then, for each individual location we would have
those conversations. So, it wouldn't be a one size fits all, it wouldn't be a blanket by
putting this agreement in place you're giving us cart blanche to do whatever we want. We
would work on each individual location and ensure the needs of the neighborhood, the
HOA if it's in a residential neighborhood we meet planning guidelines, public safety,
public works is involved. So, we would go through each individual location and work with
each of the departments.
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De Weerd: I'm sure we have an interest, since we are a Verizon customer, so -- any
additional questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor and you guys, the -- the ones that are hooked up to the street
lights, does the power connection right to the same power as a street light or is it -- it's its
his own separate power source?
Canada: Madam Mayor and Council Member, power -- so, power is dependent on what
the utility company will allow. So, we can do a direct connection, but we typically do that
with municipal utilities where legally we can attach and they can provide us power directly
off a street light. Here in Meridian it's Idaho Power territory and we have an agreement
with Idaho Power to have unmetered service . So, it wouldn't touch the city's power to
each location, we would have our own service. It would be unmetered, so you actually
wouldn't have a meter at each location. So, specifically it would be very similar to the
designs in San Francisco, not in Arizona where there is a meter attached to that box.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? That's a bummer. I was hoping to maybe you guys take over
maybe the whole street light power for whatever ones you put them on. But I guess to
-- kind of as to your question, Madam Mayor, about HOA is -- I'm wearing my HOA board
member hat, I can tell you one of the huge complaints we get -- we had a giant Verizon
tree that was built just outside of our subdivision and for some reason people were asking
us when are they going to flip the switch, when are they going to pull the switch, because
they were pumped to have the goofy looking Verizon tree, which it looks fine when there
is leaves on the trees around it, just when those trees go away in the winter, then, the
Verizon tree is like what the -- so, I can tell you our neighborhood would have been
pumped to have opportunities like this and the board would have -- at least this board
member would have supported it.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, this is just for Verizon service. I mean has this created any -- any issues with
other carriers, so you guys make these attachments and are we going to have AT&T, T-
Mobile and Sprint coming to visit us next week to get theirs put on and what have you --
what have you encountered in your other territories that have done this?
De Weerd: Well, she did show one design that could have two carriers on it, but can you
supply anymore carriers than the two or is that a minimum per pole?
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Canada: So, Madam Mayor and Council Member, we can put multiple carriers on a pole.
It's a question of aesthetics is typically what happens. So, a good example is the
conversation we had with Denver. We had -- we were building our own poles, so we
could build a single carrier solution or we can build a multi -carrier solution. Small cells
are truly an under lace of every carrier's macro network, so where Verizon needs one
might not be where AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint need one. In addition to that, it's unknown
what the other carriers design components are going to be . We don't all use the same
equipment. So, what Denver chose to do was have Verizon build a single carrier solution
and, then, should another carrier want to attach to that pole, that carrier would come up
with a design that was -- what would work for Denver. Right. So, that picture -- this
picture in San Jose, that base is four feet, the far picture to the right. It's a very big base
and I believe Verizon is the only carrier there. It could be a lot more aesthetically pleasing.
This is only a single carrier solution and this might never be a multi-carrier solution. So,
it's really -- it's been a conversation. Some cities have chosen that they only want -- like
Tempe, Arizona, chose in their design standards they only want one carrier per light pole,
because they thought it was aesthetically unpleasing to have multi-carriers on the same
light pole. Las Vegas, Nevada, Clark county, the Las Vegas strip has multiple carriers on
those poles. So, it's really a conversation on aesthetics and what the City of Meridian
would like to see, but technologically there can be multiple carriers on the same pole.
Milam: Madam Mayor? Have you measured the level or radiation that these small cells
emit?
Canada: Yes.
Milam: Can you share that information with us?
Gibson: They are extremely low power. The amplifiers that we use draw a 100 watt,
same as a 100 watt bulb. So, I don't know the numbers of the emission numbers, but it's
low enough that they are safe for climbers to be up around the antennas.
Canada: So, macro sites typically have an RF output of 60 watts. These small cells are
five watts. So, they are significantly lower than the output and we are federally mandated
to stay well below the safety limitations that are set by the -- the FCC. So, we do do an
RF emissions study for every single one of these to ensure that it is well below the
emissions.
De Weerd: Additional questions, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Only because you touched on it, so you had mentioned that there is a revenue
stream that you provide the cities. I am curious if you could expand on that for us.
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Canada: Absolutely. Madam Mayor and Council Member, it is -- the revenue -- this is
not a money making venue for -- for most cities. In the city of Anaheim -- and this is all
public information. We have an agreement with them and we pay 94 dollars a year per
each location. The city of Denver we paid 200 dollars a year per each location. So, they
are in the hundreds of dollar range. The benefit -- the benefit that the city will see is the
improved cell service and we do bring fiber to each of the locations, so there will be
additional fiber brought through the city and the investment that we make for each one of
these is -- it's in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for each one.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I guess that brings up another question. Significant amount
of infrastructure that you have to run to one of these as a community that has grown very,
very dramatically, we have seen a lot of construction and I know that's one thing our
citizens would like to see a little less of. So, if you could give us a little bit of a sampling
as to what a -- installing one of these on the light looks like and the amount of time that
access to sidewalks or streets are limited as you run fiber to each one of these locations
to me would be really helpful as well.
Canada: Absolutely. I wish I had a -- like an answer that could give you the specifics
with the City of Meridian. What Verizon -- with fiber we work with the most prevalent fiber
provider in an area and we do use dark fiber, so it's really dependent on the existing
conduit and infrastructure that's here within the City of Meridian. If there isn't any we
would be adding dark fiber to an area for small cells as needed. There is two ways that
this is done. We can put a ring within the city of dark fiber and that ring is spoke d out to
each of the small cells or we can -- each new small cell -- this is probably the most
prevalent way that fiber is brought to each of the small cells, it goes back to our closest
macro site and a lot of the fiber providers have conduit already at the base of many light
standards and traffic signals already. So, there is not new -- there is not a lot of new fiber
that is new construction for fiber that is b rought to each of the sites. As far as the actual
construction for attachment to a light standard, it's usually less than a day to add that.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, since the main -- your main sale of this to us is the enhanced service, but
that's only for people that are using Verizon. Can you -- do you have any idea how many
-- the percentage of cell phone users in the Meridian area are using Verizon, as opposed
to other carriers?
Canada: I know within Ada county it's 46.44 percent is Verizon service and police and
fire do use Verizon as their primary mean communication. I don't have that broken down
into specifically Meridian, I have it broken down by county. I can probably find out and
follow up with you.
Milam: Thank you.
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De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, maybe give some of the background on the
staff side. I have been in a couple of meetings with these folks from Verizon and I ended
up volunteering to be on an AIC committee on the same subject matter for the state. I do
appreciate their approach, because our first conversation was we don't generally do this.
We don't partner with other entities to use city facilities and I was curious as to why ACHD
chose to do it and ACHD put a lot of restrictions around -- they have really pretty much
complete control over what it is, where it is, and they took the approach that these folks
are asking and we are okay with it and we are not worried if other people want to ask,
they can ask, too. So, they didn't feel the need to go put it out to an RFP or -- there is no
exclusivity to this contract. That wasn't what's intended. We are not granting a franchise
to Verizon. This is simply a business arrangement and one of the things we looked at --
maybe to answer your other question on what 's kind of in it for the city besides the
enhanced service -- we even talked with Verizon about, you know, an area to maybe --
or putting in some new lights that the city does a few every year and if there is
opportunities where we are going to put in a new light in an area that they would prefer to
have a pole there with -- with this service on it, then, they would install the light and we
wouldn't have to and, then, we would take those funds and add it to another area where
we would like to do that. So, there is lots of flexibility we could build into this and, you
know, there probably will be occasions in our conversation where the locations are going
to conflict with maybe another carrier that might ask and they were already located there
and the other carrier might want to locate there, but it's so hard to gauge that, because,
again, it's all about coverage areas and where their other cells are and so it's really hard
to anticipate trying to address that issue today since, again, depending on where it is
there may be multiple areas they could put these for another carrier that has no impact
on Verizon and vice-versa. But it's certainly doable if the Council wants to direct us to
engage in this discussion further and try to come up with a proposal and a contract for
the city, but we definitely saw from -- from the model that ACHD created that, again, the
-- the power to approve it is totally in the entity's hands. ACHD has the absolute authority
to say we don't want it there, it doesn't matter whether you want it or not, we get to choose
that. I would anticipate we would have similar language that it's always going to be our
decision ultimately. But, again, there is some value to the city in providing another
opportunity. It avoids some of the larger poles. I think that was one of the discussions
we had was you see occasionally once it come in front of you, they want a large pole,
which does sometimes impact people negatively, they don't necessarily want those large
poles. This sort of avoids that and maybe it will avoid having a lot of more large poles in
our community, too. So, we definitely saw some value that -- that is why we are here
today and if you want us to explore it further we are happy to do that, so --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The concept is interesting, but the devil is in the details I guess. The analogy I
guess is the poles are the wild west and we are explorers going to stake a claim in a
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sense. The poles have a finite capacity to them and I'm a Verizon customer, but for the
54 percent or some odd percentage who might use a different carrier . Again, those details
on how a pole can be utilized, you know, by Verizon, but still additional providers have
that opportunity to add onto it, maybe that's more than one, how that gets worked out may
be problematic, but my sense is the reason that there is a payment for use of the pole is
there is great value to Verizon in enhancing its service an overriding philosophy on
government avoiding picking winners and losers in private enterprise all comes into the
mix I guess. So, the concept is interesting, but I don't know -- there would be so many
safeguards to ensure fairness and not over dabbling in picking winners and losers, the
ability to maintain fairness for other providers and the ability for the city to remove or
control at the city's discretion where they go and how they go -- that negates the value to
Verizon, but -- so, the concept I think is great, but it sounds like there is really a lot of --
and you might already have those all addressed from other municipalities and Mr. Nary
might already have it, but those details I would want to know more about.
De Weerd: I think the bottom line is staff and myself -- we have had a little bit of time to
process the idea and -- and in the discussion and the discussion doesn't need to stop
here and this was to inform and to share the possibilities. Certainly I appreciate there is
always a leader out there in finding better service for their customers and I don't think
there should be a penalty for trying to do better . I think there is also a benefit of -- of
locating on public infrastructure, because you don't want these all over and the macro is
-- is intrusive and this -- this does have a softer presence in your -- in your community
and I agree it has an economic benefit and -- so, I think today was really to plug the idea,
to get you to start thinking we can bring this back as -- as you see, because it does -- it
does have a lot of tentacles in different areas . So, we would like you to take the
information, we can put it back on the agenda for further discussion and further questions
as you have had a chance to -- to kind of absorb -- absorb this.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, maybe this is a question for Warren. I think I have asked you
this now twice in as many months and I -- but I don't remember what your answer was.
How many street lights do we have that the city owns, off the top of your head.
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I believe the current number is about
5,500.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes. I know your point. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: What was it, 41 that you're looking to do with in Meridian? So -- and there is
four major carriers. If all of them wanted, you know, we are looking at 120 maybe out of
5,500 it would be severely insignificant. So, not one on every pole. So, I mean while
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you're asking us to take some time to think about it, I would hope that that time is short to
be able to move forward and help the private sector increase our revenues and increase
the service to our users that we serve.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: One other point to -- one of the things we didn't discuss with Verizon -- like I said,
ACHD said -- took the position they are asking, nobody else is asking, so we are not really
worried about what other people want at this moment in time . But we said we could put
out something like an RFP to make people aware we would be willing to do this if you're
interested. Now, that doesn't mean the technology for the othe r carriers is at a point
where they would like to do it today and , therefore, precluded from ever participating in
this, but it would at least put it out that we are going to do this, we are willing to do this
and were entering into a discussion with Verizon and if other carriers are interested they
can ask, too, and at least -- the least they are on notice that we have at least inquired and
put that out publicly that they can ask us if he wanted to , so --
De Weerd: And I guess I would just I ask you to also consider that, you know, although
probably everyone has their own carriers, this -- this is an important ingredient with our
public safety first responders in -- in having the service. I like the fact that we have backup
batteries, so that as we have any kind of crisis or catastrophe that it enables our
responders to continue to utilize the technology that allows them to communicate with
each other. So, I guess, Council, if you want to have a chance to process this what -- do
you want to put it on next week's agenda? I don't even know if Mr. Nary is ready with any
kind of proposal and what anything would look like, so we could seek a direction and
counsel can continue to work with Verizon on an agreement, so --
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: If I may. Thank you for asking the question about this. I think it's put us at least
to have a good discussion up here. My -- my two cents on this particular piece is that I
think that while only one carrier is asking, it's inevitable that all of them will eventually
come asking one day and rather than building an agreement based on the request of one,
looking at what is best for Meridian and its taxpayers long term and development an
agreement that we feel comfortable with regardless of who is asking. So, rather than
putting together an agreement based on one particular carrier coming to us , what is our
standard for this type of request that comes forth and that way it is a level playing field for
everyone and if it's Verizon who is asking or Sprint or AT&T or whomever the next
generation of telecoms come to Meridian, we got our -- our plan in place and if you want
to build on taxpayer funded infrastructure this is what the agreement looks like.
De Weerd: And, Mr. Cavener, that is exactly how staff has been approaching it.
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Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I think that we need to proceed with staff recommendations and we can get a master
plan, whether it's with Verizon or whatever carrier it is. We can have it. We have got --
evidently ACHD has got an agreement that works out. I think this is a win- win situation
and as the other carriers come forward they can participate in the same agreement , as
long as we get an agreement that covers everybody.
De Weerd: Thank you. So, Council, would you like this on next week's agenda?
Bird: September 26th.
De Weerd: 26th.
Nary: Madam Mayor? For an agreement or direction? I guess that wasn't clear.
De Weerd: Yeah. I thought we put it on next week for direction, give you a chance to
give it any further thought and maybe for the 26 th for staff's recommendation on an
agreement.
Bird: Okay.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton?
Borton: Sorry. No, I'm fine.
Palmer: Okay. Any -- any further -- anything further? Does that -- it seems like everyone
agrees to that approach.
Borton: Madam Mayor? All I was going to say is it sounds like we -- there was unanimous
direction to go forward, craft the agreement, work out what those details would be from a
master agreement level, so --
De Weerd: Well, next week some discussion might be pretty short , but just to -- to look
at -- and, Mr. Nary, maybe you can give Council the copy of ACHD's agreement, so that
can help you with any ideas that you would like to present or ask. Okay?
Nary: I can do that.
De Weerd: We appreciate your time.
Canada: Thank you.
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D. Quarterly Update from New Ventures Lab
De Weerd: Thank you, Casey. Okay. Item 6-D is quarterly update from the New
Ventures Lab. We have Rick Ritter here. Welcome, Rick.
Ritter: Thank you, Madam Mayor. For the record, I'm Rick Ritter with New Ventures Lab,
just across the parking lot. The city clerk is handing out the report. First I want to start
by thanking primarily legal counsel. This is a -- not a revised lease, it is a new lease. So,
this is the first appearance that you will be lucky enough to get to see me every quarter if
you -- if you pass the lease in your business item. So, what I bought today are two pieces
that I thought were -- and I might say before I start -- so, this is the beginning of a series
of quarterly reports. So, what I started with was some fairly basic information that I
thought would be of interest that you would want to know and I want everybody to
understand that if you want more than this , less than this, something different than this,
you just need to let me know and let me know hopefully in advance of the next quarterly
meeting and I will be more than willing to provide whatever that informa tion is. So, the
two pieces I brought today are -- the first piece, which is an Excel spreadsheet that has a
list of -- and you will notice it is broken down by companies and, then, members and in
this case members -- not only registered the monthly ones, because the others are in one
day, out a day, in a week, out a week. The ones that are monthly are -- typically there on
a pretty regular basis and just so you know -- so, members is a reference to the use of
the open space. We have a membership space and, then, we have what I call residents
and that's more like the incubator space. So, the companies you see are in the -- the
residents space, the incubator space. There are 12 companies and I'm giving you a
sense of the business segment that they cover. There are seven monthly members. And,
again, one thing I should mention is -- let's see here. Steve German, Cloud Spot. Sam
Jenkins of Jacob Morris are all -- those are kind of -- those are kind of interesting, because
they are not companies that are likely to locate to Meridian. They work for companies
that are not here in Idaho and so they are -- they are a virtual team member and they
chose to use the lab for a location here in Meridian, Idaho. Second page you will have a
list of -- and I call them departures and I figured I'd probably have some questions on that,
because what's a departure. So, I will let you read through that list and if you have got
questions about the departures I will be glad to address that. And, then, at the end of that
I listed the prospects and those are people that I affectionately refer to as my outhouse
folks. Not that that's a derogatory term, it's people that I think have potential to ultimately
end up in the lab, but they are not far enough along to be either in the open space or
certainly to be a resident. So, any questions on -- on that particular list?
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Rick, what is a departure?
Ritter: Well -- so, all of the folks that are on -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, all the
folks that are on that list have left the lab and the -- the circumstances for their leaving
are pretty varied. Most of them have to do with lack of market. You know, a lot of times
people come forward with an idea one of the things we try to do early on is to get people
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to understand is there a sufficient market for this idea to be a business and what -- sort
of the things we put them through and what we call customer -- customer discovery and
development is that they are -- they are going to be out there and they are going to be
out talking to people that are potential customers that are going to figure out whether or
not they are willing to write a check or give them a credit card and in a couple of cases --
at least the first three what they discovered there wasn't enough market to build a
business. The last one, coefficient services, was a company that was headquartered in
Utah, was purchased by another company in San Diego and for about six months they
operated with an office in Salt Lake, one here, and they had a temporary office in Portland
and when the -- they were bought out by the San Diego company they moved everything
to San Diego and so that was, again, just a business choice on their part. I think that
covers it on all of those. So, most of it is a market problem and even though mostly folks
spent some time in the open space and, then, some time in the -- in the -- as a resident,
it takes a fair amount of time to discover whether or not you got sufficient customers to
actually create a business that can survive. So, that's -- far and away that's the single --
not just with the folks we have there, that's the single biggest problem you see when you
read about -- you know, like the -- I think the SBA puts out a report and you hear that
seven out of ten fail in the first five years. It's not for a lack of money, it's a lack of
customers. It's a lack of market in most cases. Okay. Does that answer your question?
Any other questions? Okay. The second document I brought was just the calendar. This
is what you see -- well, you see a little more than this if you pull it up on the website and
I brought June, July and August just to give you a sense of the use of the facility. One of
the parts of the discussion that we had in the original lease was the establishment of an
engagement and collaboration center in downtown Meridian and I think you will see from
looking at the calendar that we are a fairly busy place and I can tell you that when I come
back in September we are halfway through the month and we have already had more use
in the building the first 15 days of September than we had in June, July and August for
the entire months of those months. So, things are picking up. Any questions? And I will
say that the -- probably the single largest contributor for those that don't know, we are the
interim home for the Treasure Valley Children's Theater and that has -- you know, even
though she was in the corner for a long time, I guess I really didn't have a good sense of
how much foot traffic she was generating and I will tell you it is huge . We have people,
kids, actors all day every day during the -- during the -- the day and this year they started
to pick up a lot of business from home schools -- doing educational programs for home
school groups and so that's even ratcheted that up a little bit, so -- but we are tickled to
have them, because everybody enjoys singing lessons in the afternoon and acting
classes in the morning. So, any other quick -- oh, a couple of things I did want to mention.
So, that's primarily what's going on in the building. A couple things I did want to mention.
So, we are just getting ready to kick off for those that are -- I think most of you are probably
familiar with the Young Interpreters Academy. YIA as we called it. We have gone away
from that national program and we now have a program called IDIA. Is the Idaho
Interpreters Academy. Again, the chamber and the West Ada School District are sort of
a joint venture and -- and I'm leading the program from the -- from the program side of
that. That is what -- the thing the kids are actually going to learn. And, then, the only
other thing I would mention is that we have become -- some of you may be aware of this
-- we are the home for the Meridian Development Corporation wireless network in
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downtown and all the equipment is in the building in anticipation of Farmers and
Merchants being torn down and so we -- we gave them access to use our facility and
connective the fiber that we have in the building. So, I stand for questions.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you, Rick. Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: You mentioned IDIA. What is the age -- what is the requirement? Is it similar to
what YIA was? Is it on the same parameters or --
Ritter: Councilman Milam, it's the same as -- so, it's exactly the same from the terms of
the parameters, you know, when we meet. Age group is grade six through 12, West Ada
District. Although we did last year have some kids from outside the district. And so that
-- we kept all of those same sort of parameters that were with the YIA program, which just
simply changed the programming. It's really -- the YIA program was -- and as a
Councilman Roberts can tell you, one of the things that I was sort of nasty about was it
was a very old curriculum, it was written originally in the late '80s and it was really based
around what I call the score business plan model. So, this gave you a format and said
go fill out the blanks and come back and you will have a business plan and I just found
that -- I mean we haven't used that ourselves for nearly ten years. You know, the world
has evolved in -- in terms of how you take an idea and turn it into a business and so the
program that -- programming that we are using this year is -- is more along the -- what's
called the lean startup and we were lucky enough to be a part -- we are a part of a pilot
program that's being run by the University of Illinois Urbana and a private sector person
in a book called Focus Framework and it's been interesting, because the universities --
it's 11 universities and us and the universities have all started, so we have been following
them on their -- on the Facebook. We have got a Facebook group and we have got a
whole group and so that they are out ahead of us in terms of it. So, we are -- we are
going to get the -- the benefit of having ten other schools -- again college kids use this
and learn before we get started in October. So, the parameters are exactly the same as
they have been, grade six through 12.
Milam: Thank you.
Ritter: Other questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I would just like to say thank you to Rick for all that he's done . It's been
absolutely amazing watching the businesses that have come in and grown and have just
really been I think such an asset with the meeting space and all that you have done and
are doing in downtown Meridian. So, thank you very much.
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Ritter: Thank you for the opportunity.
De Weerd: Well, yes, because Mrs. Little Roberts really brought it to the chamber in
terms of something that we could really help to inspire our young entrepreneurs, but she
-- she has sung your praises in what you have brought to the program and your dedication
to teaching these inspiring young entrepreneurs. So, we greatly appreciate that, Rick.
Ritter: Thank you. Other questions? So, once we are done with these I assume you're
going to take up the lease. I'm hoping for your favorable vote. Thank you.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Legal: Revised Lease for New Ventures Lab at Old City Hall
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, your next item is the
revised lease for the New Ventures Lab. We basically have created essentially a
replacement lease for the existing lease, so the existing lease will be terminated and this
would be a new lease. It has a rolling term as has been previously discussed. It specifies
some specificity on the maintenance and the use of the facility and the regulation of the
parking that Rick has already been doing and that the rent, basically, is these reports and
these updates from the Council and there is a three month period every three months.
The lease is renewable and definitely it can be canceled by Rick or the city on 30 days'
notice. If there is other terms that's kind of what it's here for today is to discuss any
additional terms. If it's acceptable as it is we can put it back on your agenda next week
for the resolution.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Okay. So, we will see this on the agenda next week.
Thank you, Rick.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Is that just going to go on the Consent or be in the agenda?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it will have a resolution attached to it.
B. Human Resources Annual Department Report
De Weerd: Okay. Under Department Reports we have Item 7-B is our Human Resource
annual department report update.
Ritchie: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you so much for having me this
afternoon to share with you the accomplishments that we have had over the last year
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within Human Resources. Before I get started with the information to share with you
today I would like to take a moment and let you know that I take great pride standing here
in front of all of you this afternoon. I get an opportunity once a year to come and speak
to all of you in regards to the hard work and the efforts that take place within the Human
Resources team and so I want to take a moment to say thank you to all of them for what
they do every day. So, thank you, team.
De Weerd: All of them.
Ritchie: Laura Lee was here for just a moment. Jessica is watching upstairs and Brittany
is watching it from home, because she's had a new baby. So, I know they are there in
spirit if not -- so, here is the information I'd like to cover with you today. I'm going to cover
a number of different areas in Human Resources. As you can imagine we support a staff
of 406 employees and there are five of us who do that and on any given day there is a
number of different events or a number of different questions and a number of different
services that are required from us and I'm going to make every effort to capture those and
give you an update in each of those categories this afternoon. So, you have seen this
slide before. I shared this with you last year. This is a great representation of what I just
spoke to in regards to the number of different areas of service that provide support to all
of our employees and as I referenced just a moment ago, on any given day at any given
time, sometimes between the hours of 8:00 and 5:00, sometimes after hours and on
weekends, we touch to any of these differe nt categories, sometimes multiple categories
at the same time. So, just wanted to refresh you with what it is that we do each and every
day. So, what comes up -- that's a lot and it looks like a lot and I see a nod of heads in
agreement, but the question is how we do what we do and, honestly it's teamwork. The
five of us have to come together to provide the support to the employees , the answers to
the department employees and we do that through a number of those different areas. As
a result we have great teamwork in HR and I'm very proud to stand before you and share
that with you. So, I'd like to just walk you through a little bit of the commitments that we
made last year at this time when I stood before you with our department reports and talk
a little bit about where we are with the projects and initiatives that we communicated to
you. So, this slide will look familiar to you and I'm going to breeze through these next two
slides. These are the two that we have closed out our report to you last year with what
we were going to work in FY-17 and this is the second slide of that category. What I'd
like to do is show you everything that we have accomplished . So, what you see on the
screen here in front of you are the seven different projects that we accomplished in this
past year, ranging anywhere from our internal alignment project, all the way down to the
revision and updates of existing web pages on the internet. They are used as a resource
for our employees. The next slide represents the six initiatives, if you will, that we have
been working on, but have not had an opportunity yet to complete. The first three that
you see there, the -- excuse me -- policy manual revision, the performance management
tool, and process review and the job description template conversion are planned to move
into fiscal year '18 and that's something that's going to take us a few months to get through
as we wrap up those particular initiatives and, then, the HR training, the supervisor tool
kit, and the web based delivery options we are hoping to get rolled out within the first
quarter of FY-18. And, then, the one remaining initiative that we had communicated to
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you last year -- or I had communicated to you last year was the employee engagement
survey and I did stand before you through the budget cycle this past summer requesting
budgetary funds, so that we could move forward with the vendor to provide the employee
engagement survey, which we are looking to do this spring in 2018. So, in addition to
those specific initiatives that we communicated last year, we did so much more. So, this
next slide represents the number of different things that we did handle and accomplish ,
in addition to those initiatives. And first and foremost in the upper left-hand corner of that
slide you will see that we hired over 140 employees since October 1st of last year and
that's to date and that is a significant effort that is in partnership with the different hiring
managers, the Finance Department, the HR team. It is certainly -- it takes a lot, but it
gives back a lot when we get the right people in the right jobs here at the city . You will
see that there is a couple of different initiatives there that are highlighted in bold and I just
call this out specifically as they touch the different areas of the services that we support.
We did enhance our new employee orientation this year . Some of those enhancements
included a welcome video from the Mayor. She does make every opportunity to attend
each and every new higher orientation, which we do offer every two weeks throughout
the year, with the exception of the holidays and sometimes it rolls to a third week and we
do appreciate you very much coming and welcoming the new employees to the city. They
appreciate your time there, but we recognize you're busy and sometimes you can't attend,
so we did a video welcome that we have embedded into that new employee orientation
that we show to all the employees when the Mayor is not able to join us. In addition to
that we did customize this year a new employee orientation that is very specific to the fire
union personnel. It's some of the information when they enter the city is different and
relevant, the information that we provide to general employees . I have also touched on
the internal alignment initiative that was a significant effort by the HR Department, but it
was also in collaboration with the departments that we support . Each of the hiring
managers that had identified job descriptions were sent out to those departments for them
to review and update those job descriptions and , then, they were sent back to Human
Resources for review and classification and between Human Resources and the hiring
managers in the different departments we touched about 67 app -- excuse me -- job
descriptions just this year alone. We did process -- and I will talk a little bit further about
our FY-16 performance evaluations, because, again, that is a huge annual effort that is
in partnership with our payroll department. We had a successful completion of the ICRMP
discount training program that the city participates on an annual basis. We had numerous
-- excuse me -- we facilitated numerous open enrollment meetings to prepare all of our
employees for upcoming changes and not only did we facilitate those , but Christena
actually enhanced those presentations by offering computer live sessions in the IT
training room that she made herself available for multiple meetings , so employees could
come in and work with her to go through the system and do their elections . And, then,
there at the bottom you will see that we also presented a little over 50 employees this
year with the years of service program and recognition programs . HR and the Mayor
travel around the city and we recognize, along with the department, the directors, each of
those employees accomplishments with their tenure with the city. So, with that I'd like to
just kind of talk with you a little bit about our employment efforts that we have had over
the last year. As you can see here on the slide before you HR does have a primary
responsibility for managing, assisting, and handling all of the employee-related matters
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here at the city. In the lower left-hand corner of the slide you will see that we have, as I
mentioned earlier, 406 employees to date and the data there below that shows you the
breakout per departments. Moving over to the right-hand side you will see that the city's
average retention rate as of August 31st is 98 and a half percent . Going down, the
average years of service that we have here at the city is a little over eight years and you
will see each of the categories represented there for the milestones and there at the
bottom you will see the average years of service by department . First and foremost we
would like to extend our thanks to all of the employees here at the city for their dedicated
years of service and everything that they do on a daily basis . The second employment
initiative that we offer every year and had another successful year was our youth work life
skills program. This is a program that has been several years in the making -- several
years in production and we often get phone calls roughly around the springtime, probably
February, March, from local youth in the area who want to know when we are going to be
offering and hiring for this program that happens every summer. So, this past year we
did have 19 applications received. You will see that we had 18 interviews conducted, as
one of the applicants chose a different path after they had applied . A different option.
They do come in and work with the different departments and you will see on the slide we
had ten different departments or divisions within departments support this program this
year and the key component of this program is really about the youth . It is really about
bringing them in and giving them some learning and development opportunities . We start
with providing them interview feedback. Most of them it was the first time they have ever
interviewed with us or with anyone was with us and so we do prov ide them feedback
regarding their interviewing skills as they move forward in life. They do learn workplace
accountability, more than just what it is that their parents think they need to do or not do,
they have a responsibility in the workplace as well to get here on time, to communicate if
they are running late, to ask questions for clarification on any given assigned tasks . Laura
Lee works with each of the departments points of contact to ensure that each of the
interns themselves does receive, if you will, a report card. We call it performance
feedback. How did they do? So, that they have a sense of accomplishment when they
leave the city at the end of the program. And, then, we also offer resume development
and I would like to call out a special thank you to Pamela Johnston from the Meridian
Library District. We did ask her to come in this year and she did provide this resume
development class to each of the participants this year to help them develop their resume
for that next job opportunity. And, then, you will see there the picture of all of the interns,
along with Mayor Tammy. So, I just mentioned a little while ago the number of jobs that
we filed this year, the number of employees that we hired . Well, that's a significant
recruitment effort. So, we do assist all of the different departments with their recruitment
efforts. But HR is primarily responsible for all phases of that employment process. We
do oversee recruitments, interviewing, job offers, background checks, reference checks,
start dates, et cetera. And so to date from October 1st of last year to today we have
received over 2,824 employment applications from individuals who are interested in being
employed here at the City of Meridian. The advertising and costs today are a little over
16,000 dollars. We have posted 80 different positions, filled 62 full-time jobs, and the
average recruitment cost is about a little over 200 dollars. But what's really key here, in
addition to that information, is the average time to fill that it takes us from the time a
position is vacant to the time the position gets posted , through the entire recruitment
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process and we have a new hire in new employee orientation is a little over 26 days -- or,
excuse me, 96 days. On average over the last few years we have been running at about
three months. So, we are right in line with where we have been over the last several
years. So, here is what you can look from us in FY-18 as it relates to employment. We
are going to continue to recruit for the active job postings that are out on the website
today. If you have not had an opportunity to review the website there are 22 positions
that are currently up on that website -- or job posting I should say and some of those job
postings we are hiring more than one individual for. So, we are going to continue that
effort to get the departments ready for the new fiscal year. We are going to continue our
job description template conversion. We have accomplished about 25 percent or so of
our job descriptions, so we want to continue that effort and reach a hundred percent. It's
going to take some time and, again, all of the different initiatives and priorities that we
have discussed with you today we do take time to prioritize those based on operational
needs as well. So, we have existing job descriptions for all of our positions, but some
have been converted over into the new template. We are going to work with our IT
department to enhance our employment application tool . So, one of the things that we
want to do is enhance this tool to make it more user friendly for the customers or the
citizens out there looking for employment with the City of Meridian. So, we want to
enhance this tool to enable individuals to apply for positions from a number of different
mobile devices, not just a city computer or their home computer, or sometimes we have
individuals that need to go down to the library. We are also looking to enhance this tool
that will allow an applicant, if you will, to establish an employee -- or, excuse me, to
establish a candidate profile and so they can say that they are interested for employment
in the Finance Department and if something comes up within the Finance Department
within the next six months or so it will send them an e-mail letting them know that we have
a job opening available. Those types of things. So, we are really excited to work with the
IT Department on this. We would like to develop a formalized intern program . So, one
of the things that we are seeing an increase of requests from departments is the request
for interns, whether they are college student interns, paid or nonpaid, and as that increase
-- as we have received an increase of questions about whether we can make that happen,
we have determined that it's time to be proa ctive and ensure that we have a solid intern
program available that is consistent across the city. Standard what we would call HR
cleaning house or just kind of keeping things fresh and compliant , we have selected our
interview -- exit interview process this year as one of the things that we just want to focus
on refreshing and, then, we are going to work with the Parks and Recreation team to
update their seasonal groundskeeper recruitment process. So, that takes us into
compensation administration and the HR team themselves -- ourselves, we work
diligently to make sure that we have the most recent , fresh, current knowledge to ensure
that we are providing the best advice, the best guidance, and the best service to you and
the employees each day. In order for us to do that we have to train and develop ourselves
as things change over time. So, we do attend a number of different seminars, trainings,
webinars, communications, things of that nature to ensure that we are up to date on
everything that we need to be up to date on to provide that accurate service. In addition
to that, we do receive a steady stream of phone calls, e-mails, walk-ins, that we need to
be prepared for on a daily basis, specifically around compensation, benefit administration,
and policy-related questions. So, here is a few examples of this past year's activities.
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So, the first one I want to focus on is salary administration. So, all of our city employees
did participate in our annual performance review process last fall and you may remember
I stood here last year and shared this similar information with you. The general
employees were the recipient of a two percent merit pool last year and we want to extend
our thank you to each of you for supporting and providing that to us las t year for all of the
employees. Throughout the year we had 25 different promotions and/or transfers within
the departments and were processed approximately 351 performance evaluations . Now,
that's throughout the entire fiscal year. When you break that down to the annual process,
it is a great partnership between Human Resources and the payroll department, aka Barb.
She certainly helps get us through this process. You will have a graph there that really
talks about what it is, but it's a six step process that we are all committed to. It is a
thoroughly vetted process that we audit at each other's work to ensure that the
appropriate and the accurate increase is applied to each and every single individual within
a very short period of time. You will see there at the bottom that last year we had 18
working days to make this happen . So, that each and every single employee who is
eligible for a performance merit increase did receive it on their November paycheck , which
is the final paycheck before the holidays. So, we want to call out a special thank you to
Barb. There is five of us upstairs and we all have a role, but when it gets to her it's Barb.
So, we want to recognize her for her support. So, here is the initiatives that you can
expect from us next year. We are going to be conducting a fire department wage and
benefit study. It is that time of year again every other year where we take a look at the
police STEP plan, so we are going to analyze that as well. We are going to focus on the
general employee compensation -- compensation analysis around the market and, then,
we are going to continue our efforts in regards to our strategic plan objective 3.5 , which
is to maintain a competitive compensation program. So, that takes us into our benefit
administration and as you can see there are a number of different things that our
department handles as it relates to benefits and the administration of those benefits. We
have a benefit committee that is led by Christena in the HR Department and they do meet
regularly to evaluate the different benefit plans and the different options that we need to
consider each and every year. HR did conduct last year ten open enrollment meetings.
We hosted another annual benefits fair with multiple vendors and we also processed the
workers compensation unemployment claims and the employee assistant program
services. So, a wide variety of different benefits for our employees throughout the year.
So, here is a little bit more of some detailed information as it relates to workers
compensation and our employee assistance program and there is some year over year
data for you to review. So, you will see on the left-hand side of your screen the workers
compensation, the data goes back to 2014 and currently to date you will see that we have
had a decrease in our claims, which has had a decrease to the total bottom line costs.
So, you will see that we are trending from 198,000 last year to 138,000 this year. Moving
over to the employee assistance program. You will see that our utilization rate is up where
it is from 2016, so our employees are finding great value in this great benefit that -- that
you all afford to the -- to the employees each and every year. You will see that we have
had 31 new cases and of those new cases 65 percent of those cases are from the actual
city employee and 35 percent of those cases are from a dependent of the employee . We
offer a wellness works program that Christena leads, along with the benefit -- or, excuse
me, the wellness committee and here is just a little bit of information about the different
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activities that have occurred over this past year and , then, there at the bottom you will
see that our biometrics participation has increased again from 2016 to 2017 from 62
percent to a little over 65 percent and, then, of course, we do like to capture each and
every event. But, of course, our presentation doesn't allow for us to show everything, but
here is just some demonstration from some of the participants and the smiles they have
as they participate in these wellness events. So, what can you expect from us in '18 as
it relates to compensation -- or excuse me -- benefit administration? Well, we are in the
process of finalizing our benefit broker RFP. We are going to be administering a benefits
and wellness survey an 2000 -- excuse me -- in fiscal year '18. We were going to continue
to explore the different benefit funding mechanisms. One of the things that you have
heard is the self-funding and we are going to continue to explore that and we are going
to continue our efforts in regards to developing a cost effective and competitive benefit
plan, as well as continue our development of a comprehensive f amily focused health and
wellness program for all of our city employees and/or their families. So, that takes us to
the training and development portion of what we do and so this slide here just represents
the different offerings that is either facilitated by Human Resources or coordinated by
Human Resources. So, our new employee orientation -- we had 115 employees attend
a new employee orientation this past year. We offered 251 -- excuse me -- 251
employees did participate in our best programs with 24 courses being offered over a
period of ten months. We did see an annualized savings to our ICRMP or our insurer
premium, since we had a program participation that met the requirements through
ICRMP, the discount program, the city actually saw savings of a little over 16,000 dollars
to our annual premium and, then, we did launch this year in coordination with the Mayor's
office -- there is a team for the leadership training program that consists of myself, Robert
Simison from the Mayor's office. Jaycee Holman and Mark Niemeyer from the Fire
Department and we did launch the leadership training program in May. Since May we
have had two guest speakers. To date we have had one formal training course that's
been offered. We have another guest speaker coming tomorrow and , then, we have one
scheduled for November and, then, we are looking at some different training opportunities
that we can bring forward for this program. Since we launched it in May of 2000 -- excuse
me -- May 2nd, we have had 79 participants at any given event and a total of 280
participant hours in the program. So, it has been well received. Part of the training and
development program -- one of the benefits that we have is our edu cation
reimbursements and you will see here that we have some year over year data and
currently for fiscal year '17 we had six participants who are participating in the program.
We have funded ten different requests and you will see that the total funds utilized to date
are a little over 9,000 dollars. So, as it relates to training and development, here is just a
list of the initiatives that we are looking to work on over the next year . We have been
working with the IT Department on an HR training school, which is our version of a
learning management system and so we are getting into the final phases of that
development and looking to launch that here in the next quarter . We want to explore and
implement some web based trainings. We have positioned ourselves with purchasing the
tools that we need. We have taken a look at the existing course content that we offer
instructor led and what if that content is appropriate to move to a web based medium and
so, then, we are -- we have identified that and we are looking to develop and implement
that next year. One of the things that we are really excited about and I know has been
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heavily requested throughout the different departments and the different hiring managers
or supervisors within each of the different areas and divisions, has been a supervisor tool
kit. What can we provide at the fingertips of our supervisors and our managers to help
them do what they do every day managing their people. So, we are developing a
supervisor tool kit that will be housed on the city's intranet and available to those
supervisors and so were excited to launch that and look to share some information with
you coming soon. And, then, in addition to that we are going to continue the development,
as I mentioned before, of the leadership training program here at the city, as well as the
strategic objectives that fall under training and development. So, let's talk a little bit about
employee engagement. So, we had four events, if you will, over this past year. The HR
team is passionate about promoting a culture where employee engagement is -- their
work is meaningful, it's relevant. Our employees are valued and teamwork is celebrated.
So, you will see there that we did host our annual city employee ap preciation picnic and
we do receive a lot of feedback from drop-ins from -- from employees to e-mails from
employees, to volunteers who get an opportunity to participate who actually hand wrote
cards and sent a card of thanks to Laura Lee who heads up this initiative every year. It's
a great opportunity for our employees to come together with their family when the weather
is nice and to celebrate their hard work. I have referenced the employee recognition
program that we have here at the city where the Mayor and Human Resources do travel
the city to the different divisions to recognize employees' years of service and this year I
mentioned a little bit earlier we had a little over 50 individuals that we recognized and
celebrated this past year alone. This past year we also launched the United Way
campaign and we were very excited to launch that week -long campaign. We offered a
number of -- and variety of events to help raise funds for the United Way and the total
contributions from the city -- the total of donations that we raised was a little over 9,000
dollars. So, we want to thank each and every single employee who made that happen .
It is very much appreciated by ourselves, I'm sure the Council, as well as the United Way
organization themselves and the recipients of the benefits that they receive from that
program. And, then, you see there that we do still offer our HRT newsletter and we
publish six newsletters per year. So, here is what you can expect from us in FY-18 as it
relates to employee engagement. We are going to offer in the spring our employee
engagement survey. We are going to be looking to explore the opportunity to maybe offer
an employee volunteer program. We are going to be launching another United Way
campaign in October. We are going to work with the Mayor's office to conduct that
citywide employee meeting that you budgeted this past summer and , then, continue our
efforts around the strategic objective regarding developing an employee engagement
program. And I think this is last, but not least. I think we are getting close. Policy
administration and compliance. So, these are the four areas that we focused on this year.
We do offer the compliance line every year, which is an anonymous hotline, if you will, for
employees to express any concerns that they may not feel comfortable bringing forward
personally. It is a completely confidential program that an employee can utilize either
over the computer or by phone seven days a week, 24 hours a day. In this past year we
had two reports that were received and they were around FLSA practices and what they
felt potentially could have been a policy violation . The policy manual review. This was a
two year initiative that I communicated to you a year ago where we are actu ally taking a
look at the city's SOPs, if you will, or the manual or the handbook and we have taken the
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steps this year in '17 to actually separate the policies from the procedures and we are
going to be working next year based on priority of the -- what we would call the critical
many or the critical -- the critical ones and prioritize how we are going to tackle now
reviewing, updating, and making suggestions to each of those policies that we have in
place today and that's going to take next year to do. You will see that we have an I-9
audit listed there and so one of the things that we received some information on was that
the I-9 has changed and I want to say it was as of September 18th -- is that correct? The
18th? Thank you. So, as of September 18th there is a new I-9 form that will be utilized
by employers across the United States. As a part of that they have recommended that
you go in and take a look at your existing I-9s and make sure that all of the information is
filled out correctly, so that we are in compliance. So, our staff took a proactive approach
to review each and every single I-9. We took a -- well, we went to some training to
understand what it is that's changing and it was really interesting to hear that potentially
on any one given form there can be -- let me pull it up, because I want to get this number
right. I want to say 150, but let me check. I'm correct. So, on any one given I-9 form
there is the potential for 150 mistakes to be made. Of those 150 mistakes that can be
made there is a minimum fine for a first time offense just on eligibility requirements of 216
dollars per error and on average employers were paying upwards of 1,500 dollars in fines
per I-9. So, we are in -- excuse me. We are in the process of completing our I-9 audit to
ensure that we don't have any of those errors . And, then, you see there on the lower
right-hand corner that we were selected this past year for an FBI and national FBI criminal
background check audit and so we did have an FBI agent come in from Virginia and
spend some time with us going through and interviewing us in regards to our practices ,
specifically how we secure the criminal background check information of all of the
employees here at the city and I am very proud to state that we had zero errors . So, we
were very proud of that and very happy to report that today and as I have already
mentioned, our initiatives around policy and compliance administration will be to continue
our efforts in regards to updating the city's SOP manual. So, that's a lot of information
and it's a lot of information I am giving to you today, but I have appreciated your time and
I stand for any questions that you may have, as well as Christena and Laura Lee are here
to answer any questions around the respective areas that they support as well.
De Weerd: Thank you. I'm thinking that I need to thank the super heroes of HR, so that
was exhausting. Any questions from Council?
Bird: Very nice.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: No questions. Just having dealt with HR so much in my background I just
always applaud you and your team for not only what you get done , but the quality of the
work. So, thank you very much.
Ritchie: Thank you.
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Little Roberts: You and your team rock.
Ritchie: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you for that.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just to add to it as the liaison to the department, I have had the privilege to spend
more time with Crystal and watch how this work gets done month to month and throughout
the year. It's quite amazing. You have got a very small team and you do a lot and your
attention to detail is impeccable I think for your entire department. One of the things that
is really important that might -- I don't know if it gets overlooked or not, but the -- the
various efforts to engage the employees in the wellness program and the activities and I
think that's just phenomenal and it's nice to see the increase in participation, but those --
those aren't little things. I think it's wonderful and there is great leadership at the top of
the department and it's -- it's very impressive what you accomplish.
Ritchie: Thank you. We appreciate that.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Boy, I guess I will echo Council Member Borton's comments. You are a small,
but mighty team. I was doing some quick math through your presentation. An average
of 20 applicants per job, three new employees per week -- I mean just that piece alone
dealing with new employees is a monumental task and you guys handle it so well. I'm
hoping -- there was a couple of things that I keyed in on your presentation. I'm hoping
you could talk to us a little bit more about this supervisor tool kit you're hoping to develop.
What -- what will that look like? What is it that supervisors are asking for and what are
the things that you're able to create in house versus what are we needing to get other
people to bring their expertise?
Ritchie: That's a great question. Thank you so much, Council Member Cavener. So, we
have identified a number of different categories that we can help benefit or provide
resources to the hiring managers and supervisors, anywhere from around the budgetary
process each year, if they have different types of budgetary requests that they need HR
support on, there is forms. There is instructions. There is guidance. The performance
appraisal process is something that we get questions on every year . We have existing
employees who like to refresh themselves with the current information, but we also have
new employees that maybe are in a new supervisory role who have not been through that
process before. In addition to the training that we provide them we provide documents
and resources and guidance and tips and hints on how to facilitate a performance
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discussion and those types of things. Let's see. I'm trying to recall off the top of my head.
There is quite a bit that we are looking at.
Cavener: Maybe -- Madam Mayor? Will the tool kit be available to all employees or is it
going to be in a wall garden away if you're a supervisor?
Ritchie: It will be available just to supervisors based on their login to the network through
the intranet.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? Crystal, you gave us a lot of information. I applaud your ability
to be concise with everything. A couple of items -- specifically the redistribution plan you
had talked about are forthcoming.
Ritchie: Uh-huh.
Cavener: Would you mind drilling a little bit deeper about are there -- are there road
blocks that are keeping you from being able to accomplish goals ? Are there things that
the Council can do to help expedite this process?
De Weerd: Another employee.
Ritchie: Thank you. That was what I was going to say. The primary challenge that we
have is what I would say is the staffing and the resources to do everything operationally
that we need to do for the employees every day, all year long. In addition to that, the
projects and initiatives that we take on either on our own or to remain compliant and, then,
that leaves us with the strategic plan and we do recognize its importance, we have been
working this past year, six months or so to do some additional cross-training within the
department to take some of those operational things that I have been primarily
responsible for, both Laura Lee and Christena have been stepping up to take on more of
those operational responsibilities, so that we can provide more focus to the strategic
objectives we are responsible for. But our greatest challenge has been resources. Simply
resources and time.
Cavener: Thank you.
Ritchie: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Any further questions? Thank you, Crystal, to you and your team.
Ritchie: Thank you.
C. Public Works: Environmental Excellence Awards Update
De Weerd: Small, but mighty. Okay. Item 7-C is under our Public Works Department.
David.
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Miles: I will still say good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I wanted to take just a quick few
minutes to, one, introduced Jason Korn. He is our new environmental programs
coordinator. He has been with us for about seven months and, two, I thought we would
give him the opportunity to update you on some initiatives that he has been working on
under the department's environmental program . Today specifically the environmental
excellence awards. So, with that I will turn it over to Jason and have at it.
De Weerd: Thanks, David. Welcome, Jason.
Korn: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council Members. Like Dave said, I'm here to provide
an update on renewed efforts on the Environmental Excellence Award. This is
informational and the Environmental Excellence Award is a program that recognizes
voluntary efforts of our community members for a commitment and innovation to
environmental stewardship. The awards program actually began in 2000 and a total of
18 awards have been presented over the following 14 years . Some recent examples of
awardees include Micro Tool 100 for efforts on reducing waste and pollution prevention.
And Fast Eddy's for water conservation and utilizing our city's wastewater reuse system
for their car washes. And the awards, again, have been on hold for 2015 and 2016 during
a transition period in the Public Works Department and shortly after I started as
environmental programs coordinator I was contacted regarding the awards program and
the status and the nomination procedures. So, we kind of took that time as part of a larger
environmental programs review to look at the Environmental Awards Program and what
are some of the benefits of the Environmental Awards Program. Well, like I said, the
awards program recognizes the voluntary efforts for individuals , organizations,
businesses in our community on their innovation and environmental protection and -- and
also aligns well with our -- the city's strategic plan goals of -- of -- oh, yeah. Advancing
sustainable and environmentally healthy practices . So, it was one of our strategic goals
and we felt it aligns nicely with this. So, essentially, this -- maintaining this program is an
efficient opportunity to engage our communities and accomplish those goals of supporting
our existing environmental programs, the city strategic goals, and reducing costs and
pressure to our city's utilities and with inputs from various city departments we got a group
together to kind of put a framework of the awards program and kind of formalize the
nomination selection process and try to reach a broader audience. So, the next thing that
you may see on this program will be our solicitation for nominations for Environmental
Excellence Awards. So, we have a -- have a plan to roll out over the next few months to
target Chamber of Commerce, HOAs, MYAC, SWAC, and, you know, other community
members through social media and other outlets. So, the -- our schedule, again, is to
start soliciting those nominations in October through December and we are looking to get
that selection group committee together in February to hopefully decide on our awardees
and we are looking to have a presentation ceremony at a City Council meeting probably
in April, sometime around Earth Day of 2018. Again, it's kind of following procedures that
were in place in previous years that have been going on for -- since 2000. So, I thought
it was a good program to bring back and it meets a lot of our objectives. With that I will
stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jason. Council, any questions?
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Bird: I have none, Mayor.
De Weerd: No. I am thrilled that you're reviving that and putting greater clarity to what
you're looking for, because I do think it's important to celebrate the businesses that are
doing it right, that are setting an example and showing savings -- savings to our city and
to our users. So, that's greatly appreciated.
Korn: Okay. Thank you.
D. Community Development: New Meridian Comprehensive Plan
and Growth Goals
De Weerd: Thank you, Jason. Okay. Item 7-D is Community Development.
Hood: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I am here to follow up
on a discussion that was initiated back during the FY-18 budget workshop. I put together
just a brief memo for today's meeting in your pocket. There is not a lot of information, but
the clerk just handed out kind of a -- the document that I'd kind of like to run through with
you today. But first I want to just give you a little bit more of the background and why I'm
standing here today. So, again, during the budget workshop a couple of months ago you
all removed a 50,000 dollar enhancement from that budget and direct ed staff to come
back to this workshop with a draft scope outline of what it could look like to take that
money that we had proposed in the FY-18 budget to do some growth management policy
development and marry that up with a new Comprehensive Plan for the city that we had
in the consolidated financial plan in 2020. So, accelerating the new comp plan to marry
it up with the strategic plan objective 1-B-1, which states to define and articulate the ten,
25 and 50 year growth goals for the city. So, again, what this document proposes to do
is take both of those efforts and do it under a new Comprehensive Plan. So, from
henceforth I'm really just going to refer to that as the new Comprehensive Plan. One of
the tasks as we go through that document -- and I will kind of show you where the growth
goals portion of that as -- as outlined in the strategic plan lies, but really it's under the
umbrella of the new Comprehensive Plan going forward. So, today I'd like to share an
outline, the needs, the options at a very high level and get some initial feedback from you.
I do plan on coming back in November or December with some more details on a budget
amendment. We can kind of run through that timeline a little bit more in the back of the
document and what that looks like. It's starting to become populated. But some of the
reason for that is I'd like to wait until after we get a new director on board. Want that
person to have some input and oversight into this process, work with them and Finance
to develop an RFQ and, then, do an RFP for -- for some consultant help. Overall I'd like
to think we can get it done sooner and certainly I'm optimistic that we can. But it's probably
about a two year process from now to get it -- get it done and adopted. There is a lot of
public involvement that goes in. We got the Planning and Zoning Commission, we have
you. There is going to be some iterations I'm sure in that process, but I just want to put
that out there right now. We will kick it off in FY-18 with a budget amendment, but it will
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bleed into 2019 certainly. One of the other things that will have to be a deliverable with
our consultant -- and, again, staff is going to be definitely involved as this process -- is
getting that done with the Council that will be here beginning in January. So, we will have
at least one new Council person, but having that -- that gives us from the start -- we are
starting with everybody looking at the same consultant just going through that two year
process roughly with everybody that's the same there in Council. So, that's kind of the
idea and why that time frame really I think works well. We have talked to some of our
peer communities about some lessons learned, costs, pros and cons, just some things
-- maybe what to do, what not to do as we are going through this. At a high level just to
kind of put this out there and, then, we will run through the document kind of page by
page. Essentially, the way this would work is we would have an overall steering
committee. Not quite sure who is on that yet. That may or may not be Council. That's
part of the discussion is if you guys want to be in that, certainly I think you get to do that
if you'd like to. But this community -- a committee of champions, basically, that oversee
the whole process to keep -- keep things moving forward. At a minimum I would ask each
one of you to participate in one of the six or so subcommittees. They really have specific
focus areas that we are going to look at and so I will kind of run through that. That's kind
of a -- kind of your role in this process would be to participate in at least one of those
subcommittees as almost a liaison back to the bigger group when we bring all these --
this information back together into one new Comprehensive Plan, you're kind of the
subject matter expert, if you will, for the rest of the Council that wasn't at all those sub
committee meetings on the various topics. So, more to come on that here just as we
jump into the outline itself. So, I spared you the bigger document. This is -- it's a work in
process. I do have an outline and Brian McClure -- yes, he did come in -- has been a
huge help in getting us to this point with this document. But I did take out kind of an
outline -- the structure of the new Comprehensive Plan. I didn't want to bore you with
some of those details. But just know we kind of have an outline of how this would be
structured and we can talk more about that and maybe even when I'm back next time I
will share that with you. But I wanted to kind of get to the -- the high level purpose and
need and kind of outline for this project. And feel free to interrupt at any time, too, if you
have questions about what -- what this is. So, I'm going to just read to you snippets of
this document. The current comp plan was adopted in 2011 and a lot has changed and
growth has occurred in our community. So, one of the reasons this project is to define
and articulate the city's growth goals, including a growth management system. Again,
that's from the strategic plan. Recent community survey results. Some of the top
concerns for a community revolve around growth and transportation and schools . All of
those elements are addressed in the city's Comprehensive Plan. So, there is another
reason -- a justification for doing this is it's on the community's mind to update the plan
and so we would need to solicit community input , then, in putting a new Comprehensive
Plan together. So, you will see kind of this outline. There is a lot of bringing those voices
to the various subcommittees and the overall process of -- if it's going to be the
community's plan the community needs to be involved in developing the plan. So, again,
a lot of public involvement in this process. I'm not going to run through all of the state
required elements. The next section -- just know there are 17 and what I am going to do,
though, in the next several pages is just highlight those ones that essentially lead to a
steering committee name or focus area and the first one there would be economic
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development or some version of economic development . Business community type of
things. And there is a little bit more on the next couple of pages. The next one -- and,
actually, it probably will end up being probably two separate subcommittees as land use.
One for the southern rim area, which may include even portions of south Meridian where
we are adjacent to Kuna and some of those growth areas in there and, then, the Fields
-- Fields area as well. Again, I will touch on those a little bit more. But if you're keeping
track that's roughly three so far public services and so this one most closely relates to
growth management principles. If we are going to manage growth, one of the tools we
have is to provide services; right? Sewer. Water. Support services. As well as public
safety services. So, if we don't provide or extend those services, that's probably an area
we wouldn't grow, because you need those services in order to develop or grow. So,
that's under kind of that public services element of the Comprehensive Plan where I would
lodge the growth management principles. The next one, transportation. Again, we need
to address transportation again for the reasons I mentioned before, with it being -- that
seems to be the -- the biggest -- the comment that I gave you from the Mayor's office are
just they call directly or e-mail directly is concerns about traffic and safety and kids getting
to school and congestion and those types of things. And, then, on to the next page.
Housing. And I would even put kind of a sub topic with under housing, maybe meet some
community design elements within housing. So, that's roughly the six subcommittees.
Staff would largely take on the other 11, 12 elements that are all listed there. There is 17
required elements of state code. Some of them require a little bit more touching than
others. Most of them are just to refresh -- for example, public airport facilities. I don't
think that's going to change much. We maybe slightly tweak it. Same with national
interest. Electric transmission corridors. Idaho Power has not designated that through
our community. Not a lot of work to be done there. Some of them will take a little bit more
work. Implementation for example. Depending on what comes out of some of these it
will take a little bit more, but that's probably on staff to develop that section of the plan
about how are we going to -- we have heard this from the community, how are we going
to work the plan. So, that's largely on staff. But again -- so, the various levels of effort
on the other 12 or so elements, but largely staff can take those on with some consult help.
So, just a little bit more on -- under the specific area elements and topics. Again, this is
-- this is kind of a little bit more on what I just talked about, future subcommittees. I don't
want to read that to you necessarily. I will call to your attention under some of them -- I
have got some notes in there and --
De Weerd: Caleb, before you move on, under the electric transmission corridors, while
we don't have a public utility that a handful -- less than a handful of Idaho cities do, but I
do know in terms of the easements, the public right of ways, and the ability to deliver
utilities with the power, natural gas, fiber, those kind of components, it is important to
include the utilities into the discussion and to better understand what their master plans
are and their ability to deliver their services. So, would that extend in number 16 under
that or does that fall somewhere else?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Element 8, actually, would also include Idaho Power and just
energy to -- under public services --
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De Weerd: So, it would be public in terms of city owned --
Hood: That’s a very --
De Weerd: -- but all utilities.
Hood: Franchicees. Yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: That one is very specific in state code about that -- you know, the bigger power
grid in the nation and -- but we do address under A, again, public services. The
infrastructure needs for substations, transmission lines, and the like for Idaho Power so
that they can serve -- kind of similar to the small cell discussion. They have plans that
are integrated into our plan that recognize they have future needs along various corridors
for transmission lines and substations. But, again, that's under public services.
De Weerd: And, then, the Williams pipeline is --
Hood: Right. Natural gas. Other -- yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Thank you. Sorry for the interruption.
Hood: Thanks for the clarification. So, the -- again, the next section, then, specific area
elements and topics. If you can just kind of look for some of those -- I have, you know,
placed in there some thoughts and some direction that we will need eventually -- again,
I'm not asking you for answers right now, but should we -- as I -- as we talked about
growth management policies, ultimately are we going to say we are ready to grow there,
but we are not ready to grow there and identify areas that we grow first and only provides
those services first, until we get to a certain point and, then, we go to other areas, just as
an example. We do have -- those are -- our other incentives or disincentives for growth
and redevelopment in certain parts of town, do we want to develop policies like that or
not. So, kind of a bigger question and we will see how that goes over time. But just things
to think about. Fields -- you're all familiar with Fields. Number two. I don't think I will talk
about too terribly much, but I think to just kind of put that to bed, essentially, would be to
update our future land use map with the extension of State Highway 16 and some of the
past efforts, I do believe that some changes need to be had to our future land use map
that best use the land long term in that area. We talked about the Intermountain --
Intermountain Gas facility that they have out there and some potential changes out there.
So, that may be a good subcommittee to volunteer for, because I don't know that that's
going to be a huge effort. They may be done with their work sooner than some of the
other subcommittees. South rim. There is another one that probably will take a little bit
more work to develop some policies and what that actually is in the Comprehensive Plan.
Southwest -- I alluded to that in kind of my opening remarks that in 2008 we added a large
area kind of in the southwest to our area of city impact and, then, in 2012 we put in some
land use designations. Are those still the right designations? We have some pretty rural
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designations on our plan now. Again, there is a -- some annexations that have happened
in Kuna, so we will need to at least recognize that and amend our area of city impact.
Should we look at other potential land uses down there and what is that relationship and ,
again, what's -- maybe there is a hybrid solution of the city of Kuna providing some
services, while those properties are annexed into the City of Meridian, if that's an
example, so -- did you have anything else on that one, Mayor? Okay. And, then, No. 5
-- I probably should have broke it out into two, because that's -- that's kind of how I
envision it. But it is combined into one right now, because there is a relationship between
housing and transportation -- or land use and transportation. But, ultimately, I think we
will probably have two separate subcommittees, one that talks about housing diversity
and housing stock and, then, one that talks about transportation. Those both need a lot
more definition about what they are. If you look under A, B, C under -- under five, just
some thoughts about rail corridor land use analysis, which could include some housing
or not, depending on what you do with it. Public transportation, that corridor, we have
talked about Rail With Trail before. There is another push by COMPASS right now to
really bring to the forefront the talk of the rail corridor for mass transit, commuter rail right
now. So, it's being talked about. More to come on that. But, anyways, just what does
that -- what does the rail corridor look like? Do we have the land uses in place to support
the use of the rail corridor for public transportation . The next sub B defines future transit
support in corridors or areas -- I have used the example of yesterday with the
transportation commission of Overland Road. We are getting a lot of intensity along
Overland Road. Is that a future corridor that we say -- and recognize and plan for
eventually providing fixed route transit on , because there are a lot of apartments, there
are a lot of businesses, there are grocery stores, there are entertainment, there are jobs
in the future and even now on that corridor. That makes a lot of sense to me just at a
high level if we are going to provide public transit that corridor makes a lot of sense, even
into Boise. So, working with that. And are there others. Chinden. Eagle Road. Kind of
similar, but different in that they are state facilities and higher speed right now, but really
making a concerted effort to identify those corridors and say this is the high intensity
corridor. And, then, a master mobility map. This is actually something that David
Zaremba brought up kind of his last several months as a council member. He encouraged
the city to really look at having a long range multiple mode hundred year plan for
transportation. He used the analogy of Japan and how they weren't just, you know, five
and ten and even 25 year plans. A long range plan. What does it look like
comprehensively for people to walk to where ever they want to go. To ride their bikes.
Their scooters. To, you know, get on a bus or get in their car. All modes everywhere,
what does that look like. Have a plan anyway. So, still some more to be developed on
that. And, then, I left out inadvertently the -- again, the economic development. I'm not
quite sure what that looks like, but I do think that there is a subcommittee realm to really
look at economic development and jobs and jobs housing balance even in Meridian. So,
any questions on that subsection of the -- of the memo? High level project needs. Again,
public engagement is the top one and that's really, just to be frank, I mean if we were put
into a dark smoky room by ourselves I think staff could do a pretty fine job of coming up
with a Comprehensive Plan for Meridian, but that's not fair. So, we need to involve the
people that are also -- have vested interest in the long term health and success of our
community, but it takes resources. It takes time. It takes conversation, so -- and just to
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kind of highlight that, we envision something kind of web based for those that can 't and
aren't chosen to sit on a steering committee and participate at that level, we will do regular
updates to our website. The Mayor and I have talked about our consultant doing snippets,
little video -- 30 second or a minute summaries of here is what's happened this past month
to get people up to speed. If you missed a subcommittee meeting here is the next steps.
A calendar. Here is what to expect in the next quarter. Just that type of a thing where
we can really allow the public to participate from the comfort of their own, you know, den
if they want to just look at it on their home PC or whatever . But we will encourage them
to participate and actively track this through various open houses and town halls and
other outlets, you know, again, over that 18 month period or so. So, again, public
engagement is a big -- or we can't do that as staff without some consultant help. Maps.
We do have some technical expertise -- you know, Brian's great at making those diagrams
and things and publishing the document. A lot of these things will be -- it's a team effort.
We are not just going to say, hey, consultant, you're on your own. We will definitely be
part of that. But we need some external help to make that happen . And, then, some
wants. I don't know if you want to add to that list. There is some things that we have
identified that certainly we think make the project better , but they may be, you know,
getting the cost benefit to do that may or may not be -- be present. So, again, just some
feedback on those over time. I'm not necessarily asking for that right now. You're seeing
this for the first time. But if there is those types of things or others that you think make
some sense for us to include in a contract or scope of work with a consultant , I would
appreciate that feedback. Initially we will bring back a scope more developed and refined
before we put it on the street. But, again, earlier it's certainly better for any of that type of
feedback. So, again, just real quickly on the project outline, timeline, resource and
allocation. This is me working with Bruce before he left and the Mayor to some degree
on the task and who would ultimately be the lead . Again, as I just mentioned, it's a team
effort, so we will be involved in most all of these steps, but who is the lead, who is
ultimately responsible for making the -- the description of the task happen. I just want to
start with number two. Draft the project scope and seek Council approval. Again, we
look to that this fall and, then, in the winter after we get a director, start to really establish
a steering committee and put that consultant RFP out there, so we have somebody after
the first of the year to really -- really kick that off. Again, provide project oversight and
direction and support. The steering committee, which may or may not be the Council, the
Planning and Zoning Commission, or some hybrid of both. It could include, you know,
parks commission, certainly, too. Recreation is going to be part of this. But parks has
their own plans, so -- anyways, other committees. We picked one from each committee
and they are our steering committee of the various commissions that are with the city.
Again, I will look for that feedback from you on identifying individuals or groups that should
be involved in -- in the process going forward. Number seven. Again, we are going to
lean pretty heavily on a consultant to prepare a lot of outreach and involvement, materials
and process. Some of the RFPs that I have seen from other cities that were doing this
recently, they really asked for the consultants to use their past -- recent past experience
and what's worked. Rather than me dictating to them how that process should be, they
have likely just been through a recent process. So, what worked, what didn't, you tell us,
really, how do -- you know, again, we want some -- you know, it should be web based.
Let's have an interface. But we aren't going to dictate to you exactly how that should
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work. If we are going to select you, you probably know how that's best to work. So, that's
largely going be the consultant that proposes something to us. See if there is any of those
other ones that I want to necessarily highlight in the tasks. And, again, I will come back
here later in the fall with a little bit more developed task list and even a draft budget
certainly when we do the budget amendment, so -- and this may be the last thing on that
-- No. 16, public review comments, summaries, and revisions. Kind of envision -- and
even 17. City staff I think will be presenting the final document to you, but a consultant
-- I really do think it makes a lot of sense for them to be here to present their initial kick
off and kind of outline the whole process and what to expect in the coming months with
you. Touch base sometime in the middle and, then, come generally near the end. That
may or may not be the final document , but it should be darn close. So, kind of a touch
base with you initially, some point in the middle, and some point at the end. But ultimately,
again, staff is taking on the lead and manage the project. But want them to be available
to you and seek your direction kind at those touch points. So, I don't know if that's exactly
what you're expecting this afternoon, but I'm here as directed from July and that's wh at
we put together and I would stand for any questions or direction at this time.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Milam.
Milam: Great job, Caleb. I'm looking forward to working on this. But you want community
involvement, how about software that you could -- you put out a map and let everybody
on NextDoor who thinks that they know how to build a better community than we do, put
their ideas in there and submit it and you line them all up and see what you come up with
and they would get some -- I think quite a bit of involvement without necessarily -- I mean,
obviously, that wouldn't be the final product, but if you really want a wide array of
community members putting in their -- what they -- their thoughts on what they think
should be where, I don't know if that would be possible, but I think that would be pretty
amazing.
Hood: Madam Mayor. I can address that to a degree. I mean we will put parameters
around that probably. I mean some things aren't probably within the purview of this
project. But we do have software. Community Biz. Where you can make your own -- I
mean it's a Sim City type of a thing and so we could facilitate workshops even or put them
online and let people do it themselves that way. I have also talked with a consultant t hat
really does have -- you can text your comments into the website and it -- it shows up and
they got moderators, so it's got to be appropriate and those types of things. So, I do think
we -- again, we are leaning towards kind of that next wave of public involvement. Not
everybody has the time to come to a 6:30 meeting on a Wednesday, but they can do it at
11:30 at night when their kids are in bed and that’s their down time to do whatever. So,
we are going to try to -- again, I don't want to dictate to our consultant exactly how that
needs to happen, but I think we would include in this scope some innovative practices for
public engagement, involvement. Is it Sim City? No, but I think we can do some things
like that that allow us to tap into a demographic or anybody that really can't, again, be
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there in person for a lot of this process and get a good sampling size of the community
for various elements, so --
De Weerd: Any other comments? Caleb, I guess under your -- your headline or subject
line of -- on specific area elements and topics, I -- I do know in looking at our city survey
and some of the questions or comments we have gotten at town hall meetings, certainly
schools and libraries come up and to make sure -- the schools have been peripheral in
their involvement in the past in our comprehensive plans and I think it's -- it's critical that
they are a seat at the table. Libraries and maybe even ward and irrigation districts. Their
facilities run through us and we require certain aspects within that -- their realm. We want
them as part of the conversation and, lastly, during a presentation I gave recently we
talked about market trends and what's happening in the commercial space in terms of
how is online commerce going to impact the footprint of much of our retailers and our
commercial space. So, it's that retail space versus distribution, does that footprint change
or is it just the use within the footprint. So, those are some of the topics and I think what
would be helpful to this Council, because other than Councilman Bird and I, they haven't
been -- and maybe Mr. Borton has been part of a Comprehensive Plan? I don't think so.
But it's very expensive and it's very time consuming. There is a lot of moving parts. It
might be helpful to take our Ten Mile area specific plan timeline and some of the -- the
elements that were focused on in that, because I do see in this that you have that
integration of land use and transportation, which is something that we were the first to do
in the state to integrate those two planning exercises. What that adds to it and maybe
the south Meridian area plan as well. So, just kind of give a greater overview of timelines,
what that public outreach was to give maybe a base that they can look more critically at
what we are putting out in an RFP or what to expect. So, I think that would be helpful to
give some kind of a summary, if that's possible.
Hood: And, Mayor, if it's what you're asking for, I do have the 2006 RFP that we put out
for the Ten Mile Interchange specific area plan and I can just e-mail that out to -- to the
Council and they can see kind of the scope of that. The 2012 staff just did that in house.
We didn't hire anybody, because there was such large land holdings and not a lot of
stakeholders in that area, we thought we could take it on. Warren was a big help in
that --
De Weerd: Well, when I talk about the south Meridian it's even before that. It's what we
did when we did that -- yeah, when we invited Kuna to be a party to that and the county,
that was pretty extensive as well.
Hood: So, again, Mayor, I think what I will do is I will e-mail the Council then -- I will even
go back to when Steve Siddoway was in planning and helped with the Comprehensive
Plan and that -- that scope of work and -- and the timelines that were associated there,
as well 2006 and '7 when we were talking about south Meridian and the Ten Mile
interchange, just to give you kind of an idea --
De Weerd: Okay.
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Hood: -- you know, times and -- times change, but that will give you a good flavor at least
for what we are looking at here.
De Weerd: Right. Thank you. Okay. Anything further from Council? Caleb, appreciate
this. I know you guys are slammed right now and short-handed and our appreciation.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Public Hearing for Proposed City of Meridian Consolidated Fee
Schedule including Proposed Solid Waste Fees
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8 is -- 8-A is a public hearing for the proposed City of Meridian
consolidated fee schedule regarding solid waste fees. Thank you for joining us.
Remling: Good afternoon. Rodney Remling for Republic Services. Controller. Thank
you for inviting us back. So, I guess -- are we making a presentation or are we standing
for questions?
De Weerd: I think you're standing for questions. You were here previously and I guess I
would ask the Council if you have any questions.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: It doesn't look like it.
De Weerd: Well, it is a public hearing, so I do have to give the opportunity for Ralph to
provide public testimony. Does anyone wish to provide public testimony? Would you like
-- okay. Very good.
Chappell: Ralph Chappell. 1899 South Swan.
De Weerd: You know the -- you know how to --
Chappell: At times, yeah. When I look at the bill I am trying to figure out, okay, we have
a fee for trash service, we have a cart service, we have a disposal service and a cart
container tax. Who owns the cart that I have to pay a tax on it? Do they own the cart?
Do I own the cart? Those -- I have looked at the thing so many times -- I go why am I
paying -- admitted it's just a small sum, but I can't figure out why. So, maybe they can
answer that.
De Weerd: I think is a great question and I will tell you it wasn't our idea, nor was it
Republic Services. Mr. Nary, did you -- well, I will -- we will answer your question, Ralph.
Do you have anything else?
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Chappell: That's it.
De Weerd: All right. Cool. We will get you answered.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, and for the public's purpose -- and Rodney
can answer this, too. The State Tax Commission requires it. So, there really isn't any
option on our part or Republic Services to charge that sales tax. So, it's just mandatory
by the state.
De Weerd: And they did want it to be separated out and specifically noted on our bill that
that was a tax that is being collected on the cart, which is -- is that personal property or
why did they have a sales tax imposed to begin with?
Nary: I don't recall -- Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I don't recall the specifics.
But it was a discussion we had when we went to the cart service with the state and
Republic on -- or I guess it was SSC at the time on doing that and, essentially, the carts
still belong to Republic, they don't belong to the customer.
De Weerd: So, they charge sales tax on rental fees?
Milam: They are rentals.
De Weerd: They are rentals. There you go. You don't have to like the answer, Ralph.
We didn't either.
Nary: And, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, one other point on process. Normally
when we have done these hearings you will see the resolution trailing along on the same
agenda. Because this was so comprehensive and different , especially on the -- not the
solid waste one, but the other 20 pages of fees, we put it in the consolidated fees, we
wanted to make sure everything was okay and no comments were going to come or any
changes. So, our intention is to bring a resolution of approval next week if that's the
Council's direction.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Rodney. Council, any questions for Rodney? Okay.
Bird: I have none.
Remling: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: I didn't have any questions on the -- the solid waste, but I did have a couple of
questions on the proposed citywide fees. I'm not sure if this is all placed together as an
agenda item.
Bird: That's what Rita is here for.
Cavener: Perfect.
Cunningham: Hi. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I will try and answer any
questions you have, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: First a comment. It's great -- and maybe I missed it, but it appears the fees
either stayed the same or in many cases went down. In some cases dramatically.
Cunningham: Yes.
Cavener: I guess my question is -- and also Mr. Siddoway is here, he may want to interject
as well, but two questions then. One, there is a passport fee for 25 dollars that's
proposed.
Cunningham: Yes.
Cavener: I'm curious what the fee is related to, why we haven't charged it in the past,
and why we are starting to charge it now.
Cunningham: It's actually something that the feds do allow us to charge and we have
been charging it. We have never had it on our actual fee schedule.
Cavener: Great. Perfect. And, then, just my other question was related to a lot of the
parks fees, they went down, but the amounts that are -- they aren't round dollars, they
are unique numbers. I'm just curious what the rationale was behind those specific
numbers that the parks have proposed as different fees. I can pull some up if that's
helpful.
Cunningham: There was -- actually, it was the sales tax. So, they had included sales tax
inside the fee and so they had to take that out, especially with the new software, the new
software is not going to allow that.
Cavener: Great.
Cunningham: Okay?
Cavener: That's my questions. Thank you so much.
Cunningham: Thank you.
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Bird: Thank you, Rita.
De Weerd: Thank you, Rita. We don't recognize Mr. Siddoway anyway. Still, that beard.
That gray beard just totally blows it. Any further questions about this item? Okay. As
Mr. Nary stated, the resolution can follow next week and with that being said is there any
further information needed from Council? If not, I would entertain closing the public
hearing.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we close the public hearing on the fee -- consolidated fee schedule.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing on Item 8-A. All
those in favor say. Okay. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Council, under Future Meeting Topics, this is a busy week. As you all know
it's Meridian Art Week. Art drop continues. Thursday we have chalk art and live music
at Generations Plaza. Sip as Flat Bread. Art sip at Something Special? Is it still called
Something Special? All right. And on Friday the ten year anniversary and sidewalk party,
live music at Tribute Media, Art and Brew at Pauly's. Saturday we have the Meridian
symphony in honor of Gene Kleiner at Kleiner bandshell at 6:00 p.m. We have the
Meridian parks tour tomorrow night that starts here at 5 :15. We need to meet at 5:15. It
will probably last until 9:00 p.m.
Bird: Kleiner Park.
Milam: Madam Mayor, I think it's Kleiner --
De Weerd: Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. At Kleiner Park. Near the senior center, because that
is a big park. And we have a candidate forum town hall on Wednesday, September 20th
at 6:30 at Meridian High School, followed by tours of the new additions of the high school
and just, finally, I am thrilled to let you know that Kaycee had her baby. Allie was born
yesterday at seven and a half pounds. So, if you have a moment congratulate her in
private message, because I haven't seen her really announce it lately. Okay. She did
today? Okay. Well, see, old news.
Item 10: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(j): To consider
labor contract matters authorized under section 67-2345A [74-
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206A](1)(a) and (b), Idaho Code.
De Weerd: Well, so Item 10 is Executive Session. Do I have a m otion?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(j) and that
pertains to matters on old code 67-2345(a)(1)(a) and (b).
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. What were you seconding? I'm sorry. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll on
adjourning into Executive Session.
Roll call: Bird, yea; Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:46 p.m. to 6:11 p.m.)
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Milam: So moved.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Bird: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:11 P.M.
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(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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