HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017-11-14Meridian City Council Workshop November 14, 2017.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
November 14, 2017, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Ty Palmer, Genesis Milam and
Anne Little Roberts.
Members Absent: Joe Borton and Luke Cavener.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Caleb Hood, Jeff Lavey, Brian Harper, Mark
Niemeyer, Tom Baker, Mike Barton, and Brent Bjornson.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts _ _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Keith Bird
__X___Genesis, Milam ______ Lucas Cavener
__X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Well, welcome to our City Council meeting. We appreciate you all
joining us. Thank you to our police officers in the audience as well. So, with that I will go
ahead and start tonight's -- or today's City Council workshop. For the record it is Tuesday,
November 14th. It's a minute 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: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: On the agenda Item 6-E, the ordinance number is 17-1753. Item 6-G, the revolution
number is 17-2048. And Item 9, the Executive Session, we add the -- need to add the
letter (c) to the Executive Session. With that I move we approve the amended agenda.
Milam: Second.
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Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda as amended . All those
in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Approval of PO # 18-0111 for E. Pine Avenue Landscaping and
Improvements to Ada County Highway District for the Not-to-
Exceed amount of $415,755.00. This Purchase Order is issued
in conjunction with the Cost Share Permit approved by
Council 09/27/17.
B. Approval of Cooperative Agreement between the City and
Valley Regional Transit for “Annual Dues and Service
Contribution” for a Not-To-Exceed amount of $210,938.00.
C. Tree Farm Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer Easement #1
D. Tree Farm Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer Easement #2
E. James Court Pedestrian Pathway Easement #6
F. Volterra Heights Subdivision No. 2 Pedestrian Pathway
Easement
G. REVISED Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, Decision and
Order for Rockbury Subdivision (H-2017-0018) by Rock Harbor
Church, Inc. Located 6437 N. Tree Haven Way
H. City Financial Report for September 2017
I. AP Invoices for Payment - $2,752,271.44
De Weerd: Item 4 is the Consent Agenda.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we approve the Consent Agenda as published and for the Mayor to sign and
the Clerk to attest.
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Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda . If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Bird, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
Item 6: Department Reports
A. Public Safety Annual Report - Police and Fire Departments
De Weerd: Under Department Reports we will start our workshop with public safety
annual reports and we will start with our fire -- our Police Department. I was going to say
Fire Department, but --
Lavey: But you wanted to start with the best.
De Weerd: I'm not getting involved in that one.
Lavey: Or is that best -- best is last, right, Mark? Madam Mayor, Council, thank you for
the time today. Before I get started I would just like to say that back in our budget
workshops several months ago we were successful in having you approve a couple of
new lieutenant positions and I would just like to introduce them to you as we speak,
because one of the new lieutenants is going to remain here for the rest of the evening, so
you can break him in properly. So, it's Lieutenant Sean Harper. If you could stand up
and be recognized. And Lieutenant Mark Ford back there. So, congratulations,
gentlemen, on your recent promotions.
De Weerd: Congratulations. Well earned.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, each November it's our pleasure to give a public safety briefing.
Police and Fire come forward and give kind of a strategic update of what's been going on
in their departments and we alternate back and forth who goes first . It looks like we drew
the short straw and get to go first today. Before I get started I just want to say that I want
to thank the men and women of the Meridian Police Department, because our success is
-- is because of them. Our reputation in our community, the work that we do for the
recognition we get, is entirely on their should ers and so I just wanted to thank them for
what they do for us and our community. One of our strategic objectives for the Police
Department is to establish Meridian as a premier safe community. That's one thing that
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we pride ourselves on as -- as professionals, but it's also you electives have also prided
yourself on that and, really, it's something that we cherish and that's recognized each and
every budget year when you approve the resources that -- that we request to preserve
what we have. The objective that we were operating under in -- in 2016, 2015 was to
become one of the top 100 safest cities nationally and we have achieved that . We always
have achieved that. But the good news is this last year we were at 49th and this year we
are at -- at 45th. So, I don't know if it's moving down, moving up, how you look at that,
but all I know is that we are getting better results and so we are currently at the 45th
safest city within the United States and that's something to be proud of . So, I think since
we had achieved that you wanted to make it just a little bit harder for me and we recently
updated that objective. When we set that challenge to become the safest city in Idaho
regardless of size -- now I'm trying to be optimistic. I don't know if we will ever be able to
achieve that, but it is a challenge that we take and is a challenge that I think is worthy of
it and -- and it's something that we will strive for. So, it might be a little tougher than the
other one, but we will do that. Just wanted to give you -- this -- a couple of these
benchmarks that we have here were provided to you a week or so ago, maybe two weeks
ago, in the quarterly benchmarks. But we just wanted to highlight some of the -- the calls
for service, because it really plays into the discussion we have later on today. But you
can just see there the amount of calls for service that we had for each quarter of 2017
thus far. We haven't completed the fourth quarter of 2017, so I don't have those -- those
numbers for you yet. You're going to see a little bit of fluctuation, but it's pretty consistent
throughout the year. One of the things that we always talk about when we look at are our
response times and it's something that we pride ourselves on, but also concern ourselves
over as well. We have three response times, code one, code two, code three . Code one
being a nonpriority report type call. Code two is an urgent call, such as maybe an alarm
or something. And, then, code three is an emergency call where a potential life is being
threatened. Maybe a violent domestic or robbery in progress or something like that. Just
to wrap your mind around that. We tend to look at three to five minutes for -- for a
response time on code three calls and we are still within that range, but we are in the
upper end of that range and it makes me a little nervous . We are sitting around four
minutes. And last year we were at three and a half minutes and so we have seen an
increase in our response time. Now, that can be due to a number of factors as far as
positions having been filled, light duty, traffic, construction, a whole bunch of things . So,
it's one of the things that we look at, not alarmed, but just something that we -- we pay
attention to. And, then, if you look -- and that's that red line there -- on there is the code
three calls. The yellow line is the code two calls and we have made progress there. But
that's waiting up to eight minutes on average to get a police office r there on an urgent
type call. And, then, something that -- that we can be quite proud of, because other
agencies our size often take hours to get a police officer there to do a report and we can,
on average, get a police officer there in about 15 minutes and so if you call for our police
department to file a report, such as a theft discovered overnight or something like that,
generally it will take us about 15 minutes to get there. I notice that Councilman Borton is
absent today and, really, this next part of the presentation was at his request and if you
recall back in April we gave a presentation on patrol allocation model. A PAM model is
what we called it. It's a staffing model that takes a look at several different factors and
makes the determination of -- of what our staffing level should be, rather than just take a
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simple officer per thousand comparison and that's what we presented to Council at that
time and one of the things that Councilman Borton had to ask for was several different
scenarios of what ifs. What if you changed this? What if you changed that. And so we
put several scenarios together. We are going to go really fast on this. The slides are
going to look kind of busy to you. So, I have a presentation that I'm going to give you as
well, so you can follow along. And, then, really, what we are asking you to do is just
reflect on what we have to say today and, then, I will come back in front of you at your
request and we will talk about it more in depth. And also I would invite anybody that --
that has more questions to come sit with us face to face, one on one, and we will answer
those questions for you as well, because it does get pretty -- pretty in depth. So, let me
pass these out. Beth, did we send an electronic copy to the clerk's office or do they need
a hard copy? Okay. Well, we will get you an electronic copy, C.Jay. So, Madam Mayor,
Council, if you recall we actually hired a consultant -- well, let me back up even further.
Two years ago we actually had a couple of internal staff prepare a staff ing study for us.
Beth Erickson and Sarah Skimmyhorn and they did a phenomenal job. We were really
impressed, but as we are growing at a very rapid rate we wanted to have a third party
review to just really validate the work and, really, to justify that we weren't just tel ling you
that we needed more people, that we actually had a third-party that actually agreed with
us. And, then, also the consultant was to come up with a methodology that we could
present to Council and, hopefully, eventually, have an agreement for a level of service,
somewhat like what the Police Department -- or, excuse me, what the Fire Department
did last year. And so all we did is we come up with a -- well, we didn't come up with it, it's
a model that's been in -- in existence for 20 years that takes in several different data
points and if you look at your -- either the screen or your presentation in front of you, it
takes in roadway data, workload data, operations. It looks at, you know, arterial
roadways, collector roadways, local roadways. It makes some recommendations on
staffing and as you recall when we gave that -- when we did that model back in April, we
used the data that was available to us at that time and the roadways had only been
updated since 2014 in the database that we were using. Since then we have gotten 2017
roadway statistics and so the first scenario that we did was updated the roadways within
the City of Meridian. Just allow me to give you a small -- or a short definition of -- of
arterials and collectors and local -- actually, let me back up. So, one of the things that we
had to make a determination was is how often we patrol those roadways. You will see
on that slide in front of you is that we determined that a patrol officer every two hours on
an arterial, a patrol frequency of twice a week on a collector, and a patrol frequency of
once a week in -- in the neighborhoods and if you recall I told you is that the community
expectation was probably much higher, but we put in a very conservative approach .
When we put all that into place we came up with 73 patrol officers for FY-18 and Council
approved those -- those positions. So, we were good there, based upon the study. If you
go back and update just the roadways, the amount of roadways that you have annexed
into the City of Meridian since 2014, it would be a total of 150 miles of -- of arterial
roadways. Just up there gives you an idea of the type of arterials . Cherry Lane. Eagle
Road. Interstate 84. Parts of Locust Grove. Linder Road. A hundred and fifty miles.
And, then, we have 18 -- well, I will round up to 19 miles of collector roadways in the city.
Hickory. Tower Bridge. Chateau. These are just examples. There -- there are many
more out there. And, then, local roadways. We currently have approximately 428 miles
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of local roadways within our subdivisions that we are tasked with patrolling. Now, if you
go and take all those figures -- those updated figures, run it through the model we
presented to you in April, you would need 77 officers. So, if you look at this map -- or this
slide here, if you look at the red, that's the only thing that we updated. Those numbers I
just gave you, 150, 18.75, 427, those are the updated numbers from the information that
was to your left. So, the left part of this slide has the old numbers that we gave, the red
box has the updated numbers for 2018 . That's the only change that was done to the
model for the scenario, is adjusted the roadways that were added within the city limits of
Meridian. And if you see that at the top of the page it says 77 officers. Now, on this next
one we -- trying to -- okay. So, on this one here is what if we added patrol officers into
the neighborhoods twice a week. Or no. I'm -- that's on this one. So, on this one is what
would happen if I added police officers in the neighborhoods twice a week, what would it
take. And, then, it lists the amount of officers at 77. And, then, the next slide that -- I
want to talk about is -- if you recall the presentation, we gave you an estimated speed
within the roadways and it was just an average speed that was taken for the model. Our
staff has gone in and examined the actual speed limits of every roadway that goes into
this model and made a more precise decision as to what those speeds are . When you
add in the proper speeds and not the guess or the average speed, leaving all the other
things unchanged, other than the updated roadways, it gets you 81.5 officers. Now, we
haven't figured out how to add a half officer, so we rounded it up to 80 -- 82. Now, on this
next slide we took the updated roadways, the updated speed, and we added the
frequency of patrols within the local neighborhoods . Calculated that and if you look at
that it comes up with 84.7 and that's even harder to divide, so we rounded that up to 85
officers. That's just making some assumptions as far as what growth has done to the city
over the past year. If you were to agree with how we come up with our workload figures
it calls for service, it's roadway data, it's population, those are all the factors that go into
this. Now, we went over that real fast and we just want you to reflect on what we showed
you and that's why we gave you a handout. I'm sure you're going to have far more
questions and we welcome those questions, but we wer en't going to get into an in-depth
discussion today, because we are not making that request, we are just kind of showing
you what the potential is out there. Now, for population, in the past there has always been
several different places to look at. We have looked at census figures. We have looked
at COMPASS figures. They were always just a little bit off. And now we have a third area
that we are getting growth figures from . The City of Meridian had formed a growth
committee that looks at the population and we have decided to use that -- those numbers.
So, our message is consistent for every city department. So, there is -- are these
COMPASS figures, are they census figures, are these our figures? Whose figures are
they? Whatever the -- whatever the City of Meridian's growth committee is telling us the
figures are that's what we are using. This is just an outlook, though, of -- of what that --
that guess is. The blue line is COMPASS growth. And, then, the purple line is the growth
committee's projections -- current -- current estimates and projections for the future. One
of the things that you have heard me speak to you about in the past is community service
officer positions as a potentially more cost effective method to deal with some of the low
level calls for service within the City of Meridian. I will tell you that our staff has looked at
every single resource that we have available to us. They do an unbelievable job handling
calls for service, but we do have appropriate positions that we haven't been able to fill
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and the mission still has to go on and we still have to get those -- those calls answered.
One of the fortunate things and why we are so safe is that we have very little violent crime,
but we do have a lot of crimes of opportunities and those crimes of opportunities , these
low level crimes, really affect the quality of life. Those are those crimes that really irritate
each and every one of us and we want something done about it and so we can actually
potentially hire some community service officers that would be able to do the work at a
more cost effective rate than hiring more police officers. Also a little less training or less
training time. Not as much equipment. Just has a whole bunch of different factors that
could benefit the city. Now, we don't want to reduce our level of service . We want to
increase our level of service at the -- at the most effective way that we can and these
officers might be able to spend just a little bit more time dealing with -- with each individual,
because the next call that's holding is a cold call and it doesn't matter if it waits another
five or ten minutes, but the next call that's holding for that po lice officer could be an urgent
or could be an emergency call and you can't give that time that -- that's needed to that --
to that person. Not to say that they don't do a darn good job , because they do, but
oftentimes they have to rush off to the next ca ll and that person is going, oh, what just
happened to me. One of the discussions that we had -- in fact, just yesterday was, you
know, our TIP program, our trauma intervention program, would that be able to tie into or
be available to a crime -- a crime -- a community service specialist. I was going to say
crime prevention specialist. But community service specialist. And the answer is yes.
And so they would be able to call in a TIP volunteer and deal with people that are
traumatized by being a victim of crime. But one of the things that we did is -- is we tasked
Lieutenant Colaianni to do is to research the other community service specialist positions
within the valley and you have heard me mention before that Boise has one and Nampa
has one. Well, Lieutenant Colaianni reached out to both of those departments to say,
well, what types of calls do you allow your community service specialist to answer and
this is the slide right here and on the left part of your slide is Boise and the types of calls
that their community service specialists answer. Found property. Theft report. Follow-
ups. Photo requests or photo cards. Graffiti. Vandalism. Fraud reports. Supplemental
information. Crime scene investigator. And, then, in Nampa they let theirs do just a little
bit more and you can just -- I don't need to read them off to you. You can read them off
to the --the ones on the right-hand side are what they allow their -- their officers to do.
The bottom line is is that you can allow them to do just about anything that you want up
to having arrest powers or having to go to court to testify in a court trial or something.
Usually if you find is there is suspects involved, then, you will have -- they will call in a
patrol officer to deal with it. But up there on the top you can see where total calls for
service in Nampa handled by a community service specialist, instead of a police officer,
was 16 percent. Now, what we did is we looked at the types of calls that Meridian goes
to and said, okay, if we were to do a community service specialist position, what's the
potential that they have to reduce our calls for service and at what cost and here is an
example of the last three years, in 2014, '15 and '16, the top of the page is the total calls
for service that were generated by police officers and, then, underneath that in bold is the
types of calls that a community service specialist would be able to respond to. Now, once
you build that trust up and as long as you train them, you can train them up to different --
different calls. This is just an example for illustration purposes today. This is just a graph
over the last three years to show the -- Meridian's calls for service that a community
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service specialist might be able to handle. Bottom of the page lists the percent of calls
for service that could be handled by a community service officer and not a police officer
and, then, there is always that question, well, what does that really mean? How much
cost savings would that be? And the key thing is to look at ways to be cost effective, to
save money, but still give the same level, if not better level of service, and so what we
have done is we just grabbed the salaries -- salaries only of a police officer -- first year
police officer in Boise, Nampa and Meridian. That's the top line. And, then, these are
actual figures of what Boise pays their first year community service officer. What Nampa
pays the community service officer. And, then, we just merely rounded it up to 18 for
discussion purposes. HR will make that determination, if we were to do something like
this, what that salary would be, but that just gives you an idea of -- of potential savings
that -- that we may be able to incur. Now, we covered a lot in a very short period of time,
because we have a few other things that we want to cover with you . I know this was
really, really quick and so this is just to wrap your mind around it and to start thinking
about it, but if you do have any specific questions we will take those befo re we give the
further presentation. I'd like to say the presentation is done, but the best is -- hasn't even
started yet. Great. So, what I'm going to do is -- we got the time constraints and we are
going to try to do the best that we can, but we have four additional people that I would
like to have come up here and give a short -- a short presentation. So, if we could have
Deputy Chief Basterrechea come up for this next part and that would be great. Thank
you for your time.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief.
Basterrechea: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so if you remember correctly, we
came to you several months ago talking about being asked to be featured at the
International Association of Chiefs of Police conference. They were going to create a
video. They did that. Very pleased to say I think you will be very pleased with the outcome
of it. This video played throughout the conference the entire time that we were there . It
also played throughout the hotels of the attendees of the conferenc e throughout the time
that we were there and we got very positive feedback from people who attended that
conference. I will go into a little bit of that after we show you the video, but before we go
any further, you know, we -- we talk a lot about the culture of the Meridian Police
Department and how important that is to us as an organization and the importance of
keeping that positive culture in how treat our employees and how our employees interact
with the community that we serve and so you always wonder if a video will be able to
capture that, but I think that after you see this you will see that they did an excellent job
of catching what makes us different than a lot of other agencies.
(Video played.)
Basterrechea: So, where do we go from here? Now, one of the things that we talked
about, of course, was the video is great, but what are you going to do with the video once
it's done? One of the things that has come out of this is we did gain recognition from
agencies that were in attendance at IACP. I had several of the chiefs and command staff
talk to me about our video and talk to me about how do you change a culture in an agency
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when -- when you get there and maybe it's not so good? And it's certainly not an overnight
fix. We had the -- had those conversations with some of them and they even suggested
that we possibly put together something to present at IACP, explaining coming into an
agency or being in an agency and trying to figure out how to change the culture there to
make it better than it is and so that's one of the things that I have been looking at doing
is possibly putting together a presentation and sending it off to IACP to see if they would
be willing to have us present. The other thing that certainly we think that we can do with
this, as well as the other material that was given to us, because we have all of the uncut
material as well, is working on more recruiting videos ourselves. While we were at IACP
Lieutenant Caldwell did a great job, I wish he was here so he could speak to it, but he did
a great job. He really focused on going to all of the presentations on recruiting and how
do you go out and recruit people, especially in today's day and age where things are a lot
different and we have got some great ideas for that. Some great ideas of using
technology and social media to really go out and recruit. Because the way of policing
recruits now doesn't work. I don't think that -- we are not getting the applicants that we
want, because they are not out there. I think it's because we are not targeting them and
we have got to catch up with the times and so we have looked at a lot of different ideas,
using things like NIXL and Instagram and things like that to help us begin our recruiting
and really start targeting people that we want in this profession and those people aren't
always the people that are graduating from college that are 21 and 22 years old. We
want some people with life experience and so one of the things that we have talked about
with Lieutenant Harper and Lieutenant Ford and Lieutenant Brown, the other lieutenants,
is how do we go out in the community and find those people working at jobs right now
that really have a higher calling that they want to come to work for a police agency and
maybe they have never thought about that. So, one of the things we are going to start
working on is with our employees, with our officers, talking to them and explain to them
the importance of them going out and finding people, where you recognize that service
person at the restaurant and you would like to attend and you see that they have those
qualities, why aren't we recruiting those people? Those are people within the community
that understand our community values. Those are the people that we really should be
going out there and looking for and recruiting. Getting laterals is great. We have hired
some phenomenal laterals over the last couple of years, but the other pro blem you have
is no matter how great those laterals are, they bring some different things from other
agencies that maybe aren't so -- so positive and that can erode at your culture and we
really want to protect what we have here and expand on making it bet ter and so those
are the things that we are really focusing at. The last couple of things I will leave you with
-- one of the great things about this -- we talk about celebrating our people's successes.
Once they released this back at IACP -- we waited until they released it and, then, we
sent it to the police department to have all of our officers see it and get to watch it and the
positive comments I got back from was amazing. I instantly started getting e-mails back
about how awesome the video was, how it really seemed to capture what we were about,
because we have a hard time telling people about it, unless they are there and they are
really experiencing it, our culture, and they really thought that they did a great job of
capturing that through the interviews and the last thing is -- I will say this, we could have
gone into the department and picked out anybody randomly and thrown them on this
video -- it may have been a little different verb iage, but you would have got the same
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message and that's really what makes us, I think, as a command staff more proud than
anything. We know that the people we hire are great people and if we treat them
accordingly, that's going to pass on to the community that they serve and that's what they
do. I think all of you know that. You see it through the city surveys and you have all had
interactions with our officers and they are here to serve and we are here to serve and we
want to make sure that we are -- we are doing that for you, so with that I will stand for
any questions that you may have.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Bird: I have none.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: No questions. I would just like to say how pleased I am with the video. I
was one of the supporters and just really excited to see what all we get to do with the
video, because I think it's really great. And when Kaycee gets back and has an
opportunity to work her magic with it I think we are going to see some really awesome
things, so great job on it.
Basterrechea: All right.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Basterrechea: Not that I don't want to listen to Lieutenant Colaianni, but my son has a
wrestling match that I want to catch.
Harper: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thanks for having me today. I'm going to
quickly talk about our school resource officer program, which I was fortunate to supervise
for a number of years and as most of you guys know, I'm pretty passionate about what
they do each and every day in our schools and in our community. A few things that I want
to go over where we are at current day is we have nine officers and one supervisor that
oversees those -- those nine school resource officers. We are serving over 30 campuses,
four charter schools, and a number of private schools within our community. So, the
number continues to grow, obviously, as we build more schools and have more private
schools and charter schools come into our community. As always, I think our SRO
program is by far premiere to what I have seen or experienced locally or even nationally.
The men and women that are part of the school resource officer program really are about
making a positive impact and making change with our young people and they really focus
this through the education and prevention side of things where we work closely with
MADC and our crime prevention folks, because I think in today's time with what we see
and hear in our media and social media and newspapers, sometimes it's not the most
positive and this really gives us an opportunity to represent ourselves, but also build those
relationships and I guess change the way some people think of law enforcement, because
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they get to -- get to know us and get to learn from us, so on and so forth. And what is it
that they do? It's a laundry list as you see here. They do a lot of -- a lot of great things.
A lot of programing. These men and women work long hours. They do whatever they
can to interact with the youth, whether it's from the elementary schools up through high
school, nights with parents, whatever we can to educate people in our community and
maybe open their eyes to something they didn't know prior to walking into that -- that
event. So, as you can see, we do -- we try to cover everything, because in society it's
constantly changing with -- with trends of what's going on in our -- in our community and
in our schools and what's affecting our young people and you can see here everything
from internet safety to overcoming obstacles, alcohol education, drug education, bullying.
We do a lot of stuff on driving as well as you know. We have a lot of young drivers out
there and that's a learning experience for all of us . I will be in that position here in a
couple years, so pray for me. Personal safety. Bike safety. Anything that we can do to
educate and make sure that -- that they know what's going on and they can make good
decisions or at least make a conscious decision when they are confronted with whatever
that -- that issue may be that they are dealing with, because we have all been young once
and those are challenges that we all faced at some point or another and not all of us were
given these opportunities to have this education presented to us in our schools . Over
many, many months we worked to try to -- I guess quantify or show it through statistics
what impact the SROs are having within the schools and within the community. A total
of 586 educational opportunities and prevention efforts were done by the SROs and we
reached over 20,000 people within our community and it's only going to -- next year when
this report comes out it will be even bigger and better. Some of the highlight ed events.
The lockdown training. Obviously school safety is our number priority. We want our --
our schools to be, so the teachers and administrators have a safe environment to educate
our future leaders and our future citizens of our community. Internet safety. Everybody's
familiar with our internet safety program . We all know the dangers of the internet, social
media, and this program has really opened the eyes to a lot of people, especially young
people, but more than anybody parents, grandparents, teachers, because a lot of us are
still learning about all the ins and outs of social media and apps and all that kind of s tuff.
Sexting and pornography, which is something that some people are scared to talk about,
but that dives right back into social media, the internet, and I think it's something good to
talk about and the dangers that come with it. Alcohol education. Drug education. Life
skills training. All these things are extremely important to developing these -- these young
people into those productive members of society. Now, the target audience -- the
numbers kind of -- you will look and you will see the elementary school at 7,500 kids. In
that number comes our visits to the schools, so excuse the numbers a little bit, but over
the last several years we have really worked to get the SROs more directly involved at
the elementary school level. I think it's very important that they get used to seeing and
learning about what a police officer is and what they do and, more importantly, to know
that we are -- we are part of this community, we are fathers, we are sons or daughters
and get to know us as people and I think that is huge as they move up into middle school
and see us more regularly and just build those relationships . But, again, we really try to
impact all parts of our community no matter the age, because I think it's a benefit to
everyone. So, that's -- that's about it. That's a quick snapshot. We have a full report that
-- I think that will starting coming out -- okay. You will have a full copy that gives a little
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more comprehensive review of -- of all that we are doing and that's about all I got. I will
stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Lieutenant. Any questions? Thank you.
Harper: Thank you.
Colaianni: Thanks, chief. Madam Mayor, Council Members, I get to close tonight and I
know we are a little over on time, so I'm going to go -- go through this pretty quick and --
the chief has handed out the first annual report on our outreach efforts in the community
and typically I have Stephanie and Cheryl and Kendell come up and talk about themselves
and all the work that they do, but for today's purposes I'm going to go ahead and just hit
some high level stuff for what we have done in outreach in the last year and we hope to
make this -- this report an annual thing, so we can really determine what our efforts are
turning into, who are we in contact with and what kind of things we are doing out the
community. Before I go there just really quickly. A lot of this information that you have
on this PowerPoint and this presentation that you were just hand ed is done by almost
exclusively two ladies and they are here and they don't get enough credit, so I want to
have them stand up. Sarah Skimmyhorn and Beth Erickson, if you could stand up. These
two ladies spend a large amount of time in putting these slides together, doing these stats,
working on the staffing studies. This isn't my work, this is their work, and I want to
recognize them for their efforts, because they are -- they are kind of behind the scenes
and to -- to Sarah and Beth, they -- they like it that way. So, I want to talk to you a little
bit about crime prevention. Again you have a larger report here, but this past year we
were able to reach out and program 20,000 people in the community in various ways in
events that we hosted or put on. We do department tours, neighborhood watches, Girl
Scout vision, Mayor's Youth Advisory Council, and crime prevention presentations all
throughout the community. Some of the top events that we put on are community block
party, National Night Out, trunker treat, Spring Safety Fling, and, again, the Mayor's Youth
Advisory Council. So, what we do is we put on these events and we estimate how much
-- how many people are coming to our events, coming to our booths. We can use a clicker
as we are making contacts with people. W e do follow up later on to bring these people
into either our coalitions or our crime prevention to have them become part of our
solutions in the community and our outreach efforts. And we are trying to measure as we
go through year after year how we are doing, how do we know we are getting better and
sometimes it's hard to measure, but some of the results we have seen is we have seen a
lot more homeowners association meetings being requested by us. We have a lot more
neighborhood watch groups that have signed on in their various communities as the cit y
has grown and one of the things we are working on now -- or that Stephanie is working
on now is we want to come up with a program and put together something that is going
to engage our apartment complexes and those things that are coming in the pipeline as
we approved a lot of those and they come into the city, we need to have some sort of
program, some sort of way to outreach to those people living in apartments, town homes,
and condos and so that's -- that's coming that way, too, but Stephanie, she's in
Disneyland, she wishes she were here. Doing a tremendous job. She is operating at --
at darn near capacity, but, you know, we are doing everything we can to take on more
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stuff. One thing that I have asked her to do is to increase our presence through prevention
with youth. I think we can still leverage a lot more getting the youth to come into our crime
prevention programs and kind of being the eyes and ears for us, too, and I think that's a
good thing. Finally, MADC. Kendall -- Kendall is behind me, so she's probably grading
me, so I will try and -- I will try and get this right. But more than a quarter of Meridian's
total population 26,200, received prevention education through MADC. This education
was presented at over 50 events in a one year span and much like crime prevention, we
have really worked hard as Lieutenant Harper alluded to is trying to blend crime
prevention, MADC and our SROs, NCOs and bring them all together and have a
collaborative effort in the schools and in the community and I think we have done really
well the last couple of years and we are just now trying to come up with additional
strategies, additional things to measure how we are doing. Are we getting what we want
out of it. An example would be as -- in this time we have disposed of prescription
medications in the take back program. We -- we are constantly using evaluation
processes both within the schools and in the community. Are we growing those areas.
Are we getting stronger. And as you can see by this slide here we are. We are. That's
just one -- one data from an evaluation measurement. Some of the strategies that we
work on through our grant individually to provide information, build skills, provide support.
Some of the environmental strategies that we have been using is change, incentives, and
consequences, reduced barriers, enhance access, change physical design in the
environment and modify policies and broader systems. If you have been around long
enough with our -- with our grant that we have run through MADC, we have been able to
do a tremendous amount of things, both in the schools and out in the community, and we
have been really happy with the results. Moving forward, as the grant expires, you know,
we have some opportunities to do a gap analysis and decide, you know, where are those
areas we need to focus moving forward. Where are -- where are our holes at, you know.
What do we need to do now. So, we are constantly weighing all those things to make
sure as the city grows so does our programming, so does our outreach efforts. So, we
have been very happy with it. Take a little bit of time to go through that. If you have
questions and you want to meet one on one with Kendall or Stephanie or Cheryl or me
for that matter, we would be glad to do that. There is a lot there. It's the first -- first year
we have done this and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. So, more on that later.
And I will stand for any questions you may have.
De Weerd: Lieutenant Colaianni, I think it's important to note that the cohesion and the
collaboration among the different services is -- is really impressive and it's starting to look
seamless. That -- that's been great and Kendall sent out an e -mail either today or
tomorrow or yesterday and she talked about the intangibles. We talk a lot about data and
those numbers and the numbers do tell a story, but it's also the personal stories that come
up after the program and that the touches and the follow up, note cards, and e -mails that
you get from the public that talk about the impact that -- the presentations that you and
your team are doing and that's phenomenal, that's the untold story, and so just our thanks
for what you and your team are doing with this program to bring it to the next level and
we had -- we were at a great level and you just showed that it can achieve much greater
outreach and impact. So, thank you.
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Colaianni: Well, thank you for the kind words and I think -- I think when we come back in
another year we will even have taken it a little bit further in, so I'm looking forward to the
opportunities there, but it wouldn't happen without everybody's support in front of us. You
guys support us with either the positions or the finances, the backing of what we are trying
to do and what we are trying to achieve and I want to thank you al l for that, too. That
means a lot and they do all the work. I can't take credit.
De Weerd: But it's an environment and it goes back to something earlier that I think was
-- maybe the chief or deputy chief talked about and it's attitude and it's cultu re and just
seeing the SROs that go to the MADC meetings, they go because they want to, not
because they have to. They want to know how they can get better tools and more
information to do their jobs better. So, it's -- it's a new culture. It's an improved culture
and it's noticed.
Colaianni: Thank you.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: This -- this is getting my last report, so I get to take a little time here. You guys --
chief, you and your staff and all your officers, you have always made me very proud that
we have you in Meridian. Your officers are first class and it all starts at the top and works
down. I was very fortunate as a new councilman that I got to ride around with you and a
dog quite a few times and I figured out real fast that our officers were a step above
everybody else just the way they acted and the way they have treated people. Here is
one elected official that -- thank you for making me look good for 20 years. Than k you
very much.
Lavey: Thank you. Madam Mayor and Councilman Bird, after last week's dedication for
your park, which is well deserved, I had time to reflect a little bit, too, on the relationship
you and I have for the last 20 years and I was going to save it for next month, but I recall
the first evening that you rode with me, putting a Council Member in my car, it was not
something I wanted and probably not something that Tico wanted and so our code run
down to Garden City through the hectic traffic was probably enlightening for you. The
end results was not what I -- I wanted and was trying to figure out how I could explain to
my supervisor what happened. We won't go into great detail. But, then, I also recall at
the old city hall when you and I talked about who is going to be the next chief here and
some of the reflections that I had and some of the concerns that I had and some of the
decisions that we were putting forth and so I have so many more stories than that, but we
thank you for your service and I will save the rest for next month. This is a time for us to
just kind of wrap up. I will tell you that we are slightly over, it's definitely my fault, which
is not a surprise. But it's really hard to put a barrier around success and our departm ent
has grown so much that trying to -- to come in front of you and explain everything that we
have done this past year is impossible, so we have taken a snap shot and we hop e that
that snap shot has enlightened you somewhat and if you have any further que stions now
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or in the future or want to sit down and come in for a tour or pick our brains, we welcome
you. So, with that being said I think it's time to -- to turn it over to the fire department,
unless you have additional feedback or questions of us.
Milam: Madam Mayor? Oh, sorry.
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: Chief -- and to your whole team, wonderful job and the culture that you have --
the video turned out fantastic. When I watched that and I'm -- when I'm with any members
of your department it makes me want to be a police officer. So, the recruiting factor is
really there.
Basterrechea: We have openings.
Milam: It was never even a dream of mine. So, just the fact that it even runs through my
head -- like I'm not really going to do it. However, it still makes me feel like that, because
that is the culture that you guys have in the way that you treat people and members of
the community and I have just a ton of respect for you all.
Lavey: Thank you. We have openings.
Milam: I think I'm aged out.
Lavey: We will go for a run in two hours.
De Weerd: Well -- and I know that there is a lot of moving parts in the police department
from the detectives and records and patrol and our impact team and community service.
There is -- there is a lot going on and you could probably consume the next several hours
just talking about how decisions are made and the direction your department is going, but
we hope that your message back to the entire department is one of appreciation and
gratitude and that that film did capture the culture that -- that you and your team have
been working hard at making sure it's not just talk, it's -- it's actually -- everyone's walking
the walk and -- and we appreciate that. To Council I -- I know two of our members are --
were not able to be part of the presentation on the patrol staffing. We will bring this back.
In the end we would like to see if we can solidify that level of service, have further
discussions about a presence on the arterials, the collectors, and the local roads, so that
we know as we plan that long-term staffing what we need to be focused on and , then,
further discussions that will come up during the budget session on the community service
specialist and -- and how that can be integrated into, again, a greater level of service in
addressing our service -- our citizens' needs and how we can best serve them. So, thank
you for your presentations today and -- and for all you do.
Lavey: Thank you. Madam Mayor, I just -- I should follow with just the -- the one thing
you just reminded me of that is that we -- our intent is to get approval of the methodology,
not the actual numbers, and so if you approve how we do the methodology, that's what
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we are looking for. Not that it means that you have to hire this many officers. Our plan
also with talking to Beth is that each January they would, then, update the roadway data
and the population data and calls for service data and it would have that information for
the budget workshop, so we can fully engaged in the discussion each year on what we
are going to do for staffing for the next year and so think you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Chief Niemeyer, I know you talk faster than Chief Lavey,
so it should go faster.
Niemeyer: I do and, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it's funny, because Jeff and
I have been doing this for a while now and we reminisce now that we have more gray hair
about it's just no fun to poke fun at each ot her anymore. We used to do that quite a bit
and it was fun. So, you kind of tee'd me up, I got a softball in front of me if I want it, but I
just -- I can't take it and so we will move on. The information was great and I actually
really was into everything that they were presenting, because a lot if it you will see here
as well in some of the work we have done in fire and it really ties in to the collaborative
work that we have also done with the police department. So, like Chief Lavey, the first
part of my presentation deals with an issue that Councilman Borton and Councilman
Cavener were very, very interested in, so we will catch up to them. But as you all recal l
in 2016 this Council adopted turnout time and travel time standards. Performa nce
benchmarks for the fire department. We have had about a year now to collect that data
and analyze it and so we did want to present where we are at today. If you recall what
you approved, it was a turnout time, which means the time that the bells go off in the fire
station until the time we roll our wheels and get going -- EMS calls for 60 seconds or less
90 percent of the time and fire calls were 90 seconds or less than 90 percent of the time
and, then, those travel time standards, we built those based on population densities. If
you recall we had greater than 2,000 people per square mile. Our goal was five minutes
or less 90 percent of the time and we had suburban densities which were 1,000 and 2,000
people per square mile, seven minutes or less 90 percent of the time and, then, those
rural population is 50 to 1,000 people per square mile, nine minutes or less 90 percent of
the time. So, let's take a look at where we are at. To give you a visual idea, the red is
our urban metro densities, which makes sense, it's kind of the core of the city. Those
yellow areas are suburban densities where we have those 1,000 and 2,000 people. And,
then, the green is our rural areas and that certainly meets our comp plan and how we are
growing as a city as well. So, it all makes sense there. So, prior to the evaluation that
they -- I thought it was worth mentioning if you look at the left that's 12 months' worth of
responses from November 1st, 2015, to November 1st, 2016. This is prior to when you
adopted these standards. Really now sliding over to the right-hand side, this helps tell
the story as well to some of the numbers you are going to see. So, for the period of 12
months, November 1st, 2016, to November 1st, 2017, we had 6,824 calls for service.
That was a 16 percent increase over the previous year. That resulted in 8,820 unit
responses over that previous year, which is -- which is an 18 percent increase and we
saw a pretty significant jump in call volume over the previous year. We had 1,004 calls
that were multiple apparatus responses, that made up 15 percent of our overall calls.
Those are calls like structure fires, car wrecks that we have in which multiple apparatus
need to respond for extrication or victimization stabilization. Five thousand se ven
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hundred and thirty-two of those were emergent. That made up 84 percent of our call
volume. And, then, you can see the breakdown there regarding EMS calls as compared
to fire calls. Councilman Bird will appreciate this. We have had these discussions several
times. What constitutes a fire call. There is a whole litany list of things that constitute a
fire call. Everything from a full blown structure fire, apartment fire, commercial fire, down
to smoke detectors tripping that we need to go check out and so it's a pretty broad
paintbrush scope of what constitutes a fire when you -- when you evaluate this data. So,
turnout times, EMS calls, our -- our one year performance was 92 seconds, 90 percent of
the time. Again, our goal was -- was 60 seconds or less. And on our fire calls we are at
96 seconds 90 percent of the time. Our goal is 90 seconds. What we have found most
departments are doing and we knew that there was maybe going to be some tweaks in
these benchmarks as we continue to move forward, most departments have set one of
standards for everything and it's 90 seconds. The EMS industry, including Ada County
Paramedics, also has set a 90 second standard for all calls regardless and so that is
something we will continue to look at and monitor and watch and report back on.
De Weerd: So, chief, on the turnout times, this is the amount of time it takes to get out of
the station.
Niemeyer: Yeah. So, this is the bells go off, we get dressed, we get our turnout gear on,
we get our equipment on, we get in the engine, we get the computer going and pushing
route and, then, we roll the wheels.
De Weerd: And -- and so what are you seeing some of the influencers of not meeting the
60 seconds or less? How are those being impacted? Is it that different crews or shifts
do it different ways? Is there a standard turnout protocol? I don't know enough about fire
to --
Niemeyer: There is. We have a standard turnout protocol, if you will, of here is what you
do. We do have some dispatch CAD issues that sometimes affect this. This is another
area that we are monitoring, watching and seeing if we can identify trends to see about
improvement. The reality is what we are finding and what many fire departments have
found is it takes about 90 seconds regardless of the call type to get out from where they
are, whether they are out training, they are inside, where ever they are, to get out to the
engine, get their stuff ready to go and, then, get moving. We find it's a pretty common
standard across all call types. So, that's something we will continue to monitor.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I'm quite surprised that it's four seconds difference between a medical and a fire,
because on the medical and they don't have to get into their turnouts.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
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Bird: I think the -- I think the turnout times, like you said, they could be sitting down eating
or they could be sitting there in study or whatever. I think that's -- I don't have no problems
with turnout times. My biggest problem is -- is just, you know, making sure we can
maintain it and stay there and don't fall off. Four seconds difference between fire and
EMS is pretty dad gum good. They are jumping in the turnouts pretty fast.
Niemeyer: They are moving pretty quick. Yeah. We are pretty pleased with it overall.
Bird: A lot faster than I would.
Niemeyer: A lot faster than I am, too. So, then, we go into travel time and this is
something that's -- certainly sometimes it's challenging to mine this data, because of those
different problems we work very closely with IT, they have been very helpful in helping us
to get this information, so we can analyze it. So, our real travel time -- again, the goal
was nine minutes 90 percent of the time. Right now we are achieving that 80.7 percent
of the time. So, pretty close to the world -- real world. The suburban travel time, seven
minutes 90 percent, our current performance is 66.7 percent of the time we are meeting
that seven minutes or less. So, that's a little bit concerning. It does make some sense.
Those suburban areas are a little bit further out from our primary stations. It takes longer
to get there. We know we have some traffic. The urban metro is what initially caught me
off guard and I thought, uh oh, we are -- we are in trouble here. The goal is five minutes
90 percent of the time and we are meeting that goal 38.1 percent. So, my initial thought
was why. Chief Butterfield and I worked on this, along with IT. It's interesting, because
if you take the average response time to those emergent calls, our average is five minutes
and 16 seconds for everything in our district on an emergent call. So, what that tells me
is, again, fractals like this -- we are talking about fractals, it's kind of all or none. You
know, either you were five minutes or less or you weren't. So, that tells me a lot of our
calls we were at five minutes and 20 seconds, five minutes and 30 seconds, five minutes
and 40 seconds. So, we are looking into this further to identify really where are we at at
90 percent. Is it five minutes and 40 seconds? Is it five minutes and 50 seconds? So,
we can report back exactly where we are at at the 90th percentile. I'm not as concerned
after I realized what our average was at five minutes and 16 seconds district wide. We
do know we have some factors including road congestion, we have redundant calls or
reliability issues. You saw that multiple calls that we had throughout that previous 12
months. That affects this travel time. So, this is an area that we are definitely going to
keep an eye on and we will report back to you as we continue to monitor it. So, again,
what we have learned, multiple calls, multiple unit responses, they are affecting some
travel times in the urban metro core. We anticipate Station 6 will provide some relief to
this. We are going to continue to study it, report and monitor on the individual station
reliability. We have talked about reliability here. In other words, how often can that engine
in that station handle a call within that subdistrict and, then, report on that level one zero
-- zero, one, and two readiness. Basically, that just means how often do we get down to
only two engines in the city and how often do we get down to only one engine in the city
and how often are we completely out of apparatus for a period of time. So, we will
continue to monitor that. The shoot time standard again I mentioned. It may be worth
considering as we move forward, just having one standard for all calls, but we will continue
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to monitor that and discuss that with Council as we move forward. So, other areas of
focus that we had for FY-17, the previous year, continue leadership development through
our officer development program. We have talked about that before. The benefit here is
-- the thing I want to stress is that we had the highest turnout this year than we have ever
had in the four years previous. So, we not only had up and coming officers going through
our -- our officer development program, but we had existing officers coming to some of
those classes to improve their education. And so that was a big plus for us. That tells us
that this program is working, the message is out, and it's a benefit to the department and
the leadership development of our company officers. We did conduct again another joint
labor management retreat. Now, the topics we covered were squad ARVs working out of
class, carcinogen exposure, wildland firefighting, and the annual training plan. I will report
on that a little bit later here. We did develop an EMS task force. The question has arisen
from time to time where is the future of our EMS program. Where are we going with it?
This task force was developed -- we developed an agreed upon data points that we are
going to analyze over a two year period to, then, come back, make better decisions and,
then, report to you as Council and Mayor on where we think our EMS program should go
and I think that's going to be very beneficial. The other thing we have talked about doing
is -- I appreciate the conversation that Chief Lavey had about culture. We developed fire
ground company performance standards about three years ago. Those were rolled out
to the crews. They were educated on, they were trained on, and this last year we tested
on them. We said we have had them out long enough, let's test on them and see how
proficient we are. We believe professionalism, which is one of our core values, is
demonstrated by how well we do something when we get to the call that the people called
us to. So, I'm happy to report everybody passed those company performance standards.
We actually had competitions going on between shifts and crews. We had crews that
really did well and they were still upset with themselves that they didn't do better. So, that
tells us that that training that we have been doing works and it pays off. So, we are very
pleased with that and that will continue moving forward . Access. The Ada County EMS
JPA, otherwise known as Ada County City Emergency Services System. This is not
ACEM. I know we get the acronyms kind of mixed up a little bit. The big -- the big sell
there, the big plus that we did this year was Pulse Point. We have talked about that
before. It simply gives me another opportunity on the record to push Pulse Point and to
encourage not only you, but our citizens to download that Pulse Point app. If you're
trained in CPR and you're near a cardiac arrest, you're going to get a notification. So,
you are an extension of us. You are a first responder. And if we work together on that
we can actually improve cardiac arrest survivability. So, very big deal for us. I happened
to miss the meeting where they elected the new officers, so I am once again the chairman
of the JPA committee. So, we have a -- we have a plan moving forward for this year to
look at everything we have done, make sure it's still working. It's kind of a moment to
pause, reflect, if all the things we push for are actually still working. I will say this. At the
last board meeting I attended there was some very positive comments made by some of
the elected officials in attendance. A Boise council woman who sits on this -- on this
board articulated from the Boise city council how pleased they are with where we are at
today, as compared to where we were at five years ago. Commissioner Case echoed
those same things. So, that actually was done across the room. This tells me, again, this
is working. That this collaboration is working and it's better than what we had years ago
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and we are going to continue to move that forward. Again I want to talk about a
collaboration with -- with the police department. That's the public safety academy and
the public safety day. Again, these were two very successful endeavors and it seems like
it gets better every year. We get higher attendance every year. I can also share with you
-- I was on a conference call with a group of fire chiefs in Santa Clara county , that's San
Jose and that whole area there, they were asking me a question about one of our
programs and we started talking relationships with law enforcement and they had read
some of our annual report and our website and they said, chief, what have you done to
do this joint stuff with PD. We notice you have AEDs on your rig. Is there an extension
of -- of what you're doing. You're partners in crime with -- literally with this. You have a
public safety day. You have a public safety academy. How did you do this? The easy
answer could have been, well, the Mayor directed us as chiefs that we will do this. but,
really, my comment to him is all -- it's all about relationship building with your -- with your
agencies that you work with and I think that's why we are so successful here. We build
relationships. We are not fighting one another for money. We are actually helping one
another develop programs to serve the community. We are not offended that they have
AEDs in their rigs. That doesn't offend us. That's not our turf. We love the fact they have
AEDs in their rigs. Someday they might give us guns. That would be great. But if not
we will keep moving forward. Jeff's not -- yeah. I know. He didn't -- he checked out. So,
that's another really positive this year. Our customer feedback program -- I mentioned
that last time we were here, but that's worth mentioning aga in. We did develop that. It
took a year to develop and we are very pleased with that, because the feedback we are
getting is really good and we are getting a lot more feedback than we thought we would.
These are cards that we handed out. We send them out once a month. They are mailers.
We thought we will be lucky if we get ten percent back. Our return rate has been very
high. What we are hearing from our customers that we serve and our citizens is that 88
percent of them rated us as exceeding their expectations. Eleven percent say we met
their expectations. And one percent, two people, said, you know what, I'm not too happy.
I can tell you what those two were. One was you didn't get there quick enough and I will
tell you when you call 911 -- I have been in this situation before. You call 911 and you
got something happening in front of you, you feel like it is forever before anybody gets
there. The call that she was referencing I did look up. We got there in five minutes and
ten seconds, which was pretty dang good considering where we were coming from. It
just felt like forever to her. But the other one that we had was a structure fire in which we
responded with the Boise Fire Department. One of the crews ended up breaking down a
door not in the fire area and we found out that wasn't our crew, so I was able to kind of
pass them on to the -- to the Boise chief, which was kind of fun to do. So, those were our
two that -- that had some concerns. And this is where you can find the information. You
will notice over on the left-hand side we have a comments feedback section that will take
you to the -- to the shortcuts for those surveys. Over on the right-hand side right above
the Facebook deal, we have a comments feedback page and, then, we also have an ask
the chief button and believe it or not, we get anywhere from three to five of those a month,
where people will submit a question to me and just -- they have a random question.
Sometimes it's about hiring. Sometimes it's about public outreach. Sometimes it's about
smoke detectors. It just varies. But that is a pretty active avenue for us. That's a good
way for us to engage with the community. FY-18 budget. Moving into that. Council
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approved two fire engines. We thank you. Inspection quote got completed. The
purchasing department is in the final process of that. That should be coming to you as
Council November 21st to approve the contract. I will tell you that the initial bid was higher
than what was budgeted. Chief Jones and I met -- this is Deputy Chief Jones' project and
we both agree they are going to have to sharpen their pencils or we are going elsewhere
and so we went back to Pierce and they sharpened their pencils. So, we got that done.
Station 6 -- I have a whole presentation later that I think is going to answer a ton of
questions, so I'm going to be very brief here. Just to mention for you as Council the RFQ
for architects has been completed. It's been posted. We are going to be engaging an
architect in the next couple of weeks. And active right now is the RFQ for the CMG -- the
construction manager general contractor. That list will be established and, then, we will
put those two folks together and move forward with floor plans. And, again, a lot more to
come in another presentation on Station 6. FY-18 budget continue real quick. AED
request. First order has been completed. Those will be ordered in the next two weeks.
This was to wrap up the Heart Safe Meridian program and get the rest of the AEDs out
into -- I believe the police cars, if I'm remembering right. I think we got Parks done. Our
replacement of MFO. That's been ordered and that's the surplus rig is going option. The
replacement of the extrication equipment -- the first order has been completed for that.
And, then, replacement of fitness equipment, that's going to be put out to bid. We have
not yet opened that, but we anticipate a closing December 4th. But I also wanted to hit
on -- Councilman Milam, to your point, I really appreciate your feedback on this. Are we
going to train the crews? Are we going to educate the crews? Are we going to continue
to coach the crews? So, at this point so far all of our -- all of our crews, including the
recruits, have received two hours of training and education and coaching on the fitness
program, with ongoing training plans. So, we have started that process and we will
continue to maintain that process. So, I appreciated that. That was good feedback for
us and certainly our -- our folks heard it, too, so we are moving forward with that. Current
work in progress or process. Fiber connectivity to the fire stations. That is an issue that
we are facing. We are working with IT, the Police Department, and the Mayor fo r
solutions. I just want to say something on that. Fiber connectivity does not affect our 911
responses, but it greatly affects our operational issues when we come back and need to
write reports and get those done in a timely manner. Our EMS reports we have to get
done within a certain time frame and get us to the hospital for the ER docs to review, so
that connectivity is a very big deal for us moving forward and so that's an issue that I know
is out there. Carcinogen reduction program. I mentioned this, because this is something
that hopefully the administration and the firefighters are both interested in working
together on and that is to reduce carcinogen exposure to our firefighters. We know the
data that's out there, we know the science, and it's undisputable. Firefighters have a
higher risk of cancer exposure and a higher risk of cancer due to the exposures. So, what
does that mean? We know that means we need to look at our vehicle emissions testing.
Diesel exhaust is a carcinogen. We have engaged with a firm here locally, a lab, to come
out and do some emissions testing. I mention that, because if we find that our current
systems are not working properly, we are going to be looking for what do we need to put
in the stations to protect our firefighters with regards to vehicle emissions. We also have
a speaker coming in from Washington state on December 11th to talk about health and
healthy initiatives. Fire ground things we can do at low cost to protect our firefighters
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better. So, that is coming. That's a good joint effort between us and the firefighters.
Public safety community outreach. That's another thing that's in process. Working with
the Mayor and Police Department, just to look at those at risk groups and how do we
reach out and how do we identify what their needs are, that we may not be hearing today,
so I think that's a great -- great effort on the part of the Mayor and the Police Department
and the Fire Department. Real quick. Recruit academy. Twelve entered, 11 remain.
They graduate this Friday. That -- that graduation ceremony is at Mountain View High
School in the auditorium at 6:00 p.m. Come if you can. We have folks throughout the
valley in an honor guard academy right now. It's actually being held over at the training
center and this is going to be their first event that they are going to be rolling out their
honor guard and what they -- what they do with that. So, we are pretty excited about that.
Once they complete that graduation they will have another fo ur weeks with us to complete
some EMS training and car seat technician certification, et cetera, and, then, they will get
out for their FTO time. So, we anticipate them to be available for shift vacancy coverage
beginning in April. That will be the time that they get done with all their field training
officer. Lateral hire testing. I will mention this briefly. We do have three vacancies outside
of total recruits that we hire. We are in the process of interviewing those for consideration
to hire. Those folks will come in, do some minimum competency testing. They are
already firefighters. There was a requirement to have three years of service as a
firefighter already. Again, those folks, once they get through everything, will be available
in April as well. So, we will be back to full staffing there. Other current work in process.
You're going to hear from Chief Bongiorno in the near future on the fire code adoption.
The fire code is always an interesting, fun, topic. A lot of people don't like it. We get it.
We understand it. But it really was developed through tragedies across the country.
That's how these things happen. So, when you have this super sofa store fire in
Charleston, South Carolina, that killed nine firefighters, you had a night club issue in New
Hampshire, Rhode Island that killed a hundred people. The bodies were stacked four
feet high, because there wasn't enough doors to get out of that -- that building. That's
why the fire code is what it is. We look at it from the standpoint of it's a guide for us to
help developers and help business owners keep their businesses safe, but we work with
people to try and find solutions. That's the goal. Now, very few times do we need to take
a hard stance on anything. The two important issues for us and that are important for you
coming up are -- are access and water supply issues. Those are the two biggest things
that we have. Challenges. We can get to the fire and when we get there do we have
enough water to put it out. That's really where we are at. So, I mention this, because it
will be coming to you. We are working with city staff, with other fire departments on that
water supply issue to see if we can't standardize that across the valley. How nice would
that be? Because everybody does it a little bit differently. That doesn't make us look
good. That just pits one city against another city against another district and so we are
hoping to find a way to standardize that, so it's the same across the entire Treasure Valley.
Strategic plan objectives. To review those real quick, we have 3-C-1, that's the incident
management team. That's 80 percent complete. We are recommending using internal
staff for smaller scale events, like Snowmageddon, like we did last year, and if we do
have a significant event, like an earthquake, we utilize the state type three incident
management team. I could probably go on for about an hour on IMT. I won't. Needless
to say, if we have an incident like an earthquake, everybody in this room that's part of a
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department is going to be busy out there. That leaves nobody left to manage the incident
long term. We are talking 72 hours to two weeks that we would need help in that situation.
We have identified the help. I think that's the best way to go moving forward. Forty-one
is a safety profile. Chief Lavey mentioned on that a little bit as well. We are reviewing
that, looking at risks and how can we identify those risks, both now and in the future and,
then, develop programs that meet the risk. So, we get that -- that safety rating that we
want. And, then, 41 is the health profile. That was just initiated. I reached out to Kindra
from Blue Cross, she just e-mailed me back today. She was out of town. We are going
to be meeting to talk about partnerships and how can we -- how can we promote health
in Meridian and what does that look like and we will be bringing that back to Council with
an update. Snowmageddon version two update just real quick. We have heard that it's
either going to be another terrific snow year or a none snow year. We don't know what.
So, either Frosty's coming or not. So, if it does we will be prepared. Planning group has
met twice in preparation. Rolls and responsibilities have been identified. Mr. Colaianni
is our incident commander all the time. He's going to be the full time IC. Did he leave?
Okay. We got that approved. We did learn some lessons from last year that are going
to be applied to this year in the event that we have a snow event as well, identifying the
communications with the community, response partners, volunteer group, coordination,
et cetera. We are going to meet again about two to three weeks to do a table top, just to
see how prepared we are to handle this event. I think last year we did really well on the
fly, but we learned some things and we will make it even better if it does happen.
Upcoming issues. Challenges. Fiber connectivity. I mentioned that. We are approaching
the tipping point. We are watching this pretty close and Todd has done a great job of
getting data out and getting information out about projected growth and what does it look
like. We do know there is a point -- it looks like in 2021 where we see a projection of a
pretty big spike in population. Don't know why. Just a projection. But fire departments
that we have talked to said when that happened to us -- when we had that one year
anomaly where all of a sudden it really jumped up, we weren't ready for the call volume
that followed. So, don't know if it will happen here or not, but we are watching that and
communicating with -- with Todd and the directors about this issue. Dispatch. Just kind
of an issue and challenge. Cost of service versus level of service. We do pay for dispatch.
We don't have a contract with dispatch. It's something we are continuing to work on with
the sheriff, developing those levels of service. We do have some issues that crop up from
time to time on delayed notifications to us, especially when you have three dispatch
centers in the valley and depending on where you are with your cell phone it may hit one
tower and go there or it may hit the same tower and go there and so we have some issues
there that we have got to work out. Contract negotiations are coming up. We have
multiple projected retirements. This is something that -- that I put a working group
together, we have met twice, to understand and identify -- we have potentially six
retirements in FY-18 and we know what a vacancy does to overtime and so ther e is this
correlation of folks retiring and are we ready to handle that. The nice thing is we do have
some extra folks for a little while that would help with that . But a lot of these retirees are
either the battalion chief level or captain level or an engineer level and so we do have
some promotional stuff we are going to have to do pretty quick to -- to meet that demand.
And, then, the capacity of inspectors as commercial development grows. So, with that I
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tried to stay within the short time frame to keep the Council meeting going. Certainly
happy to stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Council, any questions? Well, we will be hearing from you
again here soon.
Niemeyer: Yeah.
De Weerd: So, thank you for being here. Thank you, Charlie, for -- for what you do and,
please, tell your staff as well, we appreciate what they do and I appreciate being able to
go to some of the meetings I go to and talk about how our public safety is -- is almost
seamless and how -- and it's not just the front line staff members, it goes all the way from
top to bottom. So, to you, chief, and Chief Lavey, thank you. That's true leadership. So,
thank you.
Niemeyer: You're welcome.
B. Finance: Quarterly Update
De Weerd: Thank you. Our next item is under our Finance Department and I will turn
this over to our CFO Todd Lavoie.
Lavoie: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Again, I get the fun task
of following Public Safety again. It's finance. It's not super exciting, but I will do the best
I can to keep you engaged. I know -- I think I stand between you and dinner, so let's see
what we can do here. Tonight we are going to do our quarterly update for you guys.
Today we are going to go over property tax calculation. A lot of this might be repetitive
to you from 12 months ago. I think it's good information to share with you. We are going
to look at the current property tax levy rate and the history. We are going to look at
property tax comparisons. We are going to give you an update on our current property
tax burden. Where is our revenue property tax coming from and we are going to do a
quick property tax levy comparison between the City of Meridian and other cities in the
state of Idaho. And, then, we will give you a sneak peek of what we will be presenting to
you at the next quarterly meeting and, then, as always, we will stand for any questions
and answer any that we can find for you or research any projects that you have for us.
So, with that property tax 101. Again the state, the county, they mandate how we
calculate property taxes, how we collect property taxes. These are just two quick codes
that I like to reference for you and the citizens and our team members in regards to how
we collect property taxes. The blue font is where I kind of want you to focus. The first
one states that the city does have the opportunity to increase our property taxes up to
three percent based on the three previous years from property taxes and, then, the
second code references were the county informs the cities of the new annexation and the
new construction revenues that they will be able to collect for the upcoming calendar year.
Again, code that dictates how we collect and how we recognize revenues for the city. So,
with that property tax 101 calculation. The first part of a property taxation calculation --
again, there is four parts of this. If you remember from last year, the first one is called
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base property taxes. The base property taxes are determined by the highest approved
certified amount of taxes levied in the past three years. So, that is kind of a fixed number,
whatever the number -- the highest number was from the previous three years, that would
be known as your base property tax for the upcoming year. Again, another way to look
at base property taxes -- this is the amount of revenues that we as a Council and the city
has determined is enough revenue to cover the base services, the level -- not the level of
service, but the services that we have agreed to provide our citizens and our community.
So, that's what we call our base revenue. If all things stood still, no more growth, no more
development. Healthcare doesn't go up, costs don't go up, in theory our base property
taxes would stay flat, because everything else would stay flat. I think we all know that we
are growing. Healthcare is not staying flat. So, therefore, the state does offer us
opportunities to help recover those revenue sources to cover the se increased costs and
those are in the next three components of the property tax revenue calculation and we
talked about the three percent allowable. The three percent allowable as I presented it in
the past to you is what I kind of consider the cost of doing business factor. Again, if all
things stayed static, no more growth, no more development, but healthcare increases
occurred, fuel costs increases incurred, wage cost increases occurred, how would we pay
for those? Well, the state gives us this opportunity to request more revenue sources to
pay for those offsetting expenses, because as we explained, the base property expenses
cover what we determined was acceptable in the previous year for the services that we
are going to provide. So, again, that's only if things stayed the same. Now, we both know
-- we all know that things don't stay the same, so we need some additional revenues to
cover the additional costs if they occur and this is an opportunity for the city to take
advantage of and in the years past we have taken it and we have not taken it and we will
go over the history of that. Next component of the property tax calculation is new
construction. This is controlled by Ada county. They inform us of the new construction
that's occurring here at the city. Again, we have seen lots of new construction here at the
city. Unfortunately or fortunate, which way you want to look at it, the forecast shows that
there is more growth coming, guys. So, there is going to be more new construction
revenues that will be added to our revenue stream , but those items are items that we
would like for you to kind of consider and think of as growth items. So, the revenues
generated from the new construction and annexation, those are incurred because new
growth has arrived here and we have approved it and now we are seeing it. We would
like to kind of focus those revenue sources as growth -- new growth to help the Police
Department add boots on the ground, to help the Fire Department add boots on the
ground, to help the Parks Department add parks maintenance facility members and those
are needed because of the new growth incurred by the new construction and annexation.
Obviously, if we had no new construction and no new annexation, an argument could be
made we might not need new boots on the ground , because we have the same set of
boots on the ground, with the same set of population from previous years. So, again, the
state has allowed us a couple of different mechanisms to account for our base needs,
base services. The state has allowed us now a three percent allowable to consider cost
of doing business and, then, the last two items are for what I consider growth-related
items that we need to consider as growth continues to increase here at the City of
Meridian. So, that's properly tax 101 calculation. That is mandated kind of by the state
and the county. So, with that I'm going to show you our base property taxes that we have
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collected over -- since 2005. Yes, the base property taxes have increased, but so has
population, so has the community and so have the services that we provide to the citizens.
The next item as we explained in our calculation are the allowable taxes. This is the
allowable taxes that we can increase our base property taxes up to three percent and you
can see in fiscal years 2011 and 2012 we did not take any of the three percent. In 2017
we only took two percent. In all of other years represented on this graph we took the
three -- the full three percent allowable for those particular fiscal years. This is the new
construction increase in revenue from Ada county. They informed us of this dollar value.
Again, you can see during the great recession the revenue sources did go down, because
of the lull and the slow down in the construction. And, then, the thing with annexation.
We had a lot of annexation in the earlier years, which slowed down on the annexation
over the last few years, but, again, this all depicts the city is growing. All the annexation
is going to have development and we see that coming now and when you put all these
graphs together, you can see that the base property taxes make up the majority of our
revenue source, with a few extra dollars from the annexation, three percent, and the new
construction. So, with that I just want to do a quick reminder on property tax revenue
sources for the General Fund. As you can see on this graph, 62 percent, that is the
amount -- or that's the percentage of revenue we generate in property taxes for the entire
General Fund as a percentage. So, it's a major component of our revenue source for the
entire General Fund and if we added that, plus the intergovernmental, which is state
revenue sharing, their liquor license, liquor sales, and so forth, that's 80 percent. So,
those two alone make up 80 percent of our entire revenue source. Again, we don't have
many mechanisms to counter the property tax reductions, if there were any or any issues
of property taxes. Sixty-two percent is a large portion of our revenue source and we have
to make sure we manage that revenue source cautiously. It's not only for today's Council
and citizens, it's for tomorrow's Council and citizens. So, again, just want to reiterate we
need to manage that piece of the pie -- I guess pun intended here. This piece of the pie
for this graph, we need a manage it professionally and successfully for -- not today, but
also for tomorrow. So, property tax levy rate history. A few days ago I sent out an e-mail
to you and the rest of the city staff that we received our levy rate for the next coming year
and great news for the city and the citizens and the levy rate -- the rate went down again
for the third, fourth consecutive year. So, again, fantastic news from a levy rate
standpoint. You can see it's gone up. It's gone down. But right now we have been on a
consistent downward swing, which is awesome for our citizens and our community.
Another component of the levy rate, though, is what is called our taxable value here at
the city. This is a cumulative value that the Ada county has determined that the city has
on top of the ground, buildings, construction, housing, you know, hospitals, whatnot, they
value the City of Meridian currently at 8.27 billion dollars. So, you can see growth is
occurring. You can see the values there. The great recession we had a little bit of a down
swing, but since, then, we have been growing pretty strong. You guys know the plats
have been coming in. There is plenty of growth ahead of us, so we feel that this number
will continue to grow and if you put the two graphs on top of each other, it's more of an
FYI. It may be counter intuitive, but it's an inverse relationship. As the property tax value
or property value by Ada county goes up -- in this case 8.27 billion was the last number
we showed you. The levy rate goes down. It's an inverse relationship. I know it might
not be super intuitive. But, again, I will try to explain some of this in the next few slides.
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So, what you can see as the value is going up for the city, the levy rate is going down.
Both positives at the end of the day for the citizens of the city and the community. As you
look at this, just a reminder. In fiscal year 2011 and 2012 we did not take the three percent
property tax allowable, but you can see what happened to the levy rate. They both went
up. If you recall the last three, four years we have taken either two percent or three
percent and the levy rate has gone down. So, again, it's counter intuitive, but, again, just
want to remind you our decisions on the allowable three percent property tax does not
have the ultimate outcome that you think it's going to. The Ada county property value has
a much larger influence on what happens to the levy rate than what we decide here at
the city on whether or not we should increase property taxes three percent or not. So,
again, just want to point out that, you know, you would -- you would think the property tax
levy rate would go down if you don't take the property tax increase, but, instead, it went
up the last three years you have taken it and levy rate has gone down. So, again, just a
little FYI. It's not always as intuitive as you think it is. So, I'm going to take you back to a
little bit of calculation 101. You saw the components. This is how Ada county determines
our levy rate for us. They do all the work for us, we just submit the information. They ask
us for our total property taxes that we need for the upcoming fiscal year and that's the --
one piece of the equation. The next part of the equation is that property tax value. That's
the 8.2 billion dollars. You take one divided into the other, that's what we get as a levy
rate. So, that is how the levy rate is actually calculated. We inform the county how many
dollars we need in property taxes. They tell us our property value. You divide one into
two and you actually get a levy rate. So, again, this is a more visual concept. You can
see the formula up there on the top right-hand corner. I showed you this slide earlier.
This is our total property tax request for fiscal '18, a little over 30.6 billion -- billion. Wow.
Thirty point six million dollars. Not yet. The 8.27 billion dollar value, those are the two
components, and if you put those components together in the formula you will see that it
comes out to the levy rate of .37, which is lower than last year, which is awesome, which
I know Councilman Bird is very happy to see. So, with that, that is how levy rates are
calculated. Those are the components of the levy rates. Now, the question you guys ask
me sometimes is what does that mean to the house, what does that mean to the taxpayer.
Every year I present to you these slides. So, here we go. These are the six houses that
we show you every single year. Five of the six houses property values -- actually, all six
houses all went up for fiscal year '18 according to Ada county. They do the assessments
for us. We don't. Again, just a reminder, in fiscal year 2011 and '12 we did not take the
property tax -- allowable property taxes, so with that the shaded area is the average
amongst the six houses, just for comparison reasons. I know this is a question that you're
asking what are the property taxes looking like. Again, this is per Ada county. Five of the
six houses will see an increase in their property taxes . One house is actually going to
see a reduction in their property taxes. So, whose ever house that is, congratulations.
But the other five houses will see an increase in property taxes. The north Meridian house
will see the most in our comparative analysis. Their house it almost went up 20 percent
in value. So, again, that's a good thing for the homeowner. Their value went up 20
percent. But, unfortunately, the property taxes went up, but it did not go up in a
comparative 20 percent rate, I can promise you that. If you look at this value, the total
average change in market value for the homes in this comparison were 9.02 percent, but
the average increase in property taxes was 6.85. So, just because you can't correlate
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the increase of value to taxes, they don't correlate one to one due to exemptions that the
state has -- can provide you and so forth. So, again, we needed to consider when we
were discussing the property tax allowable three percent, it doesn't always have a direct
impact on increased property taxes. In this example we have one house that's going to
see a reduction in property taxes, but yet we here at the city increased property taxes
quote, unquote, three percent. We can see in 2011 -- '10, '11, '12, we did not take them,
but some people actually saw an increase in property taxes and, then, there is one house,
south Meridian, for the years '14, '15 and '16, they paid less taxes year over year over
year, but yet we increased property taxes year over year over year. So, again, the
influence is more on the side of Ada county. So, with that the property tax burden, part
of the presentation, this shows where our property taxes are coming from . I don't think
it's a surprise to you, the majority of it is from residential. The second largest portion is
commercial. I think the next graph will kind of show you a better slide of a percentage.
Again, this is back to 2016. We have not received the information for '17 yet. The
calendar year is still out. But, again, this for '16's property taxes generated for the City of
Meridian and this kind of shows you from a percentage we are generating about 64
percent of our revenue from residential and 30 percent from our commercial and it's been
pretty static for the last number of years and you guys see the plats, you approve the
plats, you know that we are doing more residential, so this number should stay pretty
strong there. So, with that this is a comparative analysis that we do here at the city. We
work with the AIC data that they provide all the cities in the state. This is a comparison
of City of Meridian to the other cities that we have picked here for their general fund levies.
Many cities have other levy rates. Road levies. Parks levies. Police -- public safety
levies. Airport levies. We tried to just compare the general fund levy to the general fund
levy amongst the cities and as you can see for the second largest city in the state we are
the fourth lowest in this comparison and, again, just to say we are a full service city -- I
would say yes, too. We provide many services for a -- I guess a pretty low value in
compare -- comparison to Nampa, Boise, Caldwell, Pocatello, Mountain Home. I think
this is a kudos to you, Mayor and to the Council and to all your departments, they do
stretch the dollar as far as they can. You heard from public safety just a second ago.
They do as much as they can with what we provide them . You can see that we don't
have the largest levy rate. Our levy rate went down again. Third year in a row. If things
continue to go as they are, I imagine our levy rate will continue to go down again next
year, which is awesome, but, then, we still do have to ask the question should the --
should the second largest city in the state, with the number of services that we provide,
should we be the fourth lowest levy rate in the entire state. That's a valid question. It's
just food for thought. It's -- again, we always have to kind of have it on the whiteboard,
you know, do we need to look at increasing the levy rate at some point in time in the future
to make sure that the citizens receive the services that they need. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: Todd, so wouldn't there be a correlation, though, to the fact that we don't need
necessarily a higher levy rate because of the higher property values in Meridian compared
to these other cities?
Lavoie: The correlation -- I don't think you could do a one for one, because every city is
going to be different with the services that they provide. Again, you're a full service city -
- in my opinion you're a full service city. You have fire, police, you have parks, you have
public safety, you have other government, you have community development. To say
that Mountain Home has all those, I would say I don't believe they do. Again, you guys
can confirm that. So, it's services -- the services relationship. So, I don't think you can
just say one for one, if that's what you're trying to do. I don't think you can make that
simple -- simple assumption.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I guess what I'm trying to say is that -- that Meridian have a levy rate of .0037 is
going to net more on an average per household tax -- property tax than what I would
assume would come out of Mountain Home at the higher levy rate. If Mountain Home's
levy rate was the same as ours we are going to net significantly more, because of much
higher home values of Meridian's homes compared to the average home value of
Mountain Home.
Lavoie: It's a valid question. I'd have to inquire about the average house cost in Mountain
Home. But we can look at our neighbor Boise. I think their average house cost is higher
than ours. I think. So, you can see on this levy right here they are twice as much as us.
So, your argument would be they would actually generate twice as much revenue for the
same services here in Boise -- or Meridian. So, I mean to be able to assume that simple
correlation I think we would have to tread lightly, because just next door their levy rate is
.7 and their house value might be at our level or even higher. I would have to doublecheck
that. But we are making that assumption.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: And I think that -- that would be a better comparison to -- to the point you made
of -- of our level of responsibility compared to the reckless behavior of our neighbor.
There is a million examples where we can go with that. But I think just it's important to
say it's not that we are undercharging our citizens because of the level of service that we
are providing, it's -- it's that our home values are higher, so we -- while the -- the levy rate
may appear to be half of -- of Mountain Home, Pocatello, Caldwell, the number of dollars
per property that our citizens are paying is not half.
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Lavoie: Mr. Palmer, again, levy rates are based on 100,000 dollars value. So, if you
have a 100,000 dollar home in Mountain Home and you have 100,000 dollar value in City
of Meridian, you're going to pay 370 dollars a year in Meridian and you're going to pay
895 dollars in Mountain Home if you have the same 100,000 dollar home. Again, my
guess is there is 100,000 dollar home in Meridian and it's probably a 100,000 dollar home
in Mountain Home, so the question, then, goes back to the discussion, should that same
person pay 890 dollars in Mountain Home or should they pay 370 dollars in the City of
Meridian for the services. Very good discussion points. I mean I think it's great, your
question. But, again, it does beg the -- you know, deeper in-depth analysis on where we
want to go with that discussion.
Palmer: Thanks.
Lavoie: So, with that -- again, this is going to recap where we have gone. Talked about
the calculation and how we get there. What Ada county does for us and how they
calculate the numbers. We showed the comparison. We showed the burden of property
taxes between residential and commercial and we just had a quick comparison between
us and other cities and, then, with that this is our next quarterly update, so we will show
you in a few more months, we will give you an update on our actual financials . We will
give you changes to our fund balance, so we will let you know where we currently stand
on our fund balance for the General Fund and the Enterprise Fund. We will give you
revenue expense ratios, so what we try to do is we prepare our expenses to our revenue
sources, let you know if we are asking more of our revenue sources in certain functions
of the city year over year and, then, we will also provide you our top five revenue sources
and our top five expenses for the last fiscal year and, as always, we stand for any
questions and we are happy to research any questions for you and get back to you if we
need to.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd. Council, any questions?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Not a question, just a compliment as always. Great report. Your staff and -- yourself
and your staff have -- do so much with so little and, yes, I have always watched the mill
levy, because the mill levy to me means that -- that we as a Council and Mayor and
department heads are being very conservative and throughout the whole city. It's always
been that way for the 52 years I have lived he re. I have always watched the mill levies
and I am -- I am proud to see that ours is almost half of what Nampa, Idaho Falls, Boise,
and those other cities are and it's due to our employees and to basically our CEO to make
sure that that stays that way and I know it will stay that way. Thank you very much, Todd,
for all you do and for your staff. We appreciate it.
Lavoie: Council Member, appreciate the good words. Again, don't forget to pat yourself
on the back, you have been leading us for 20 years, my friend. Thank you.
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Bird: Thank you.
C. Police Department/Code Enforcement Division: Proposed
Updates to Nuisance Code
De Weerd: And you have seen and led many of those changes. So, thank you. Any
other questions? Thank you, Todd. Okay. Item 6 -C is under our Public Works. Oh,
sorry. 6-C is under our Police Department. Tom Baker is here to address this item.
Baker: Good evening, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. Hopefully this will get
pulled up here pretty quick. So, what we are here to do tonight is put before you our
request to have our nuisance code updated, some revisions made, and what it is it's a --
approximately a year and a half collaboration between Code Enforcement and Legal and
I want to take a minute to say thank you to Legal for all the hard work going back and
forth trying to figure out what the best approach is to get this taken care of. And, then,
also before we get into the what, I'd like to talk about the why. What we had with our
current code is a lot of great points, a lot of great things that we want to accomplish in
regard to nuisance enforcement in the city, but the problem is it's not organized in the
best fashion and there is some verbiage that had to be moved from where it currently is
to other spots. What you have is two types of nuisances, basically, available in general
and whereas it was defined in one portion of the code, further down the general nuisance
wasn't defined as well and it wasn't an enumerated as well and, then, further down in
4.2.2 you find that -- and I apologize I'm going to scroll down a little bit. So, what you
would find is in 4.2.2 a lot of these abatable and general nuisance sections were actually
mixed together and so it made it -- it made it difficult for our officers to actually be able to
explain it to the public and I think it had -- had a little bit of a negative effect to when it
came to the public trying to understand it. So, basically, what we did, we just rearranged
it and put everything in the right spot and we did add a section. The first -- the first change
-- would you like me to read every side note on there? Is that necessary? Okay. So, as
you can see in the draft it explains on the side what we have done. The only thing we
really added was in regard to available nuisances, vegetation obstructing the sidewalk,
we didn't have anything in the current ordinance to address that, except for, you know,
the trees, which are handled by Elroy and not necessarily by code enforcement and, then,
we took the nuisance materials out of the available section and we decided it would be
better to take more of a mindset that we do with personal property. We don't want to get
into abating people's property or personal property off -- you know, off their actual yards.
It's -- we found that it's better for code enforcement in cities to let the judges order the
violators to take care of those issues and so we moved this material into the same section.
The next ones were just more of what I spoke to you before. We just combined -- we
moved things around. We combined some things, clarified some definitions. And, then,
you see there is not proposed changes in a lot of the sections. We are clarifying the
parties -- responsible parties' obligation to say that abatable nuisances are not addressed
or referred to criminal court. And those are the essences of what we have done and I
stand for questions.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Tom. Council, any questions about this particular ordinance or
code?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: It looks very reasonable to me. I guess make it official instead of a draft, right, Mr.
Nary?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bird, yes, we would bring
forward an actual copy of the ordinance itself and the Council can either decide to have
a public input on that --
Bird: Yeah.
Nary: -- they are not required to, but you can certainly notice it up for -- on the agenda
for public input prior to the Council making a decision on approving it.
Bird: That would be my recommendation as one Councilman.
De Weerd: Okay. It looks like that's a general direction. So, you can bring this back in
its formal --
Bird: Ordinance.
De Weerd: -- ordinance and we will have a public hearing on it.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: What was your process, Tom, in developing this?
Baker: I took the current code we have and I looked at it and I read it really carefully and
I just cut pieces out of parts where it was talking about the general nuisances and the
abatables and I noticed that the two were intermingled. If you look at -- if you look at the
current code under 4.2.2 you will see that and so I took those out, because I felt like it
was -- it was confusing and I presented it to Legal in a fashion that -- the version I
presented to them -- basically I didn't change anything, I just said, hey, you guys write the
code, but can we present it like this instead and, then, cut and pasted them into sections
by themselves.
De Weerd: So --
Baker: I'm sorry. Amongst other general nuisances and separated them.
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De Weerd: Was this in response to confusion when you were out applying this code and
questions that you got or --
Baker: It was more response to the teammates, when they were looking at it and -- they
were looking at it and saying, well -- I mean if you look at the general nuisance section
it's just a tiny little version and, then, the general nuisances are all mixed in and , then,
once again, there are certain -- certain points -- parts of it where we didn't want to be in
the business of abating general -- certain general nuisances. That -- that just wasn't we
felt like a good approach. So, it was to help the team make -- the team members the
most. The public -- the questions I have to say are a lot -- been a lot fewer. They just
see our letter and they try to comply for the most part.
De Weerd: So, this was basically a clean-up, rather than making any substantive
changes?
Baker: Yes, ma'am. That's correct.
De Weerd: Okay. Okay. Well, we will see it on the agenda -- Mr. Nary, when do you
think this might come back?
Nary: Madam Mayor, based on some of your current agendas, probably the first part of
December --
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: -- rather than over the next two weeks.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I got a question. Under each 2.B, the addition there, about adding the -- the cost
of the abatement to the utility service bill. If that were to go unpaid, could that start a
process of shutting off city services?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Palmer, I haven't
discussed this particular provision with Mrs. Kane, who is the one that wrote it, but the
law separates out collection from services. So, since it's unrelated to the service, we
could still collect on it, we can't turn off the services for it.
Palmer: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Tom.
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D. Public Works: Proposed Update to MCC 9-4-24
Baker: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-D is under Public Works. Hi, Kyle.
Radek: Hello, Madam Mayor, Council Members. Excuse me. We don't want to be
outdone, so we have our own code update we want to prepare -- that we want to share
with you. If you recall, a few weeks ago at the October 3rd Council, a gentleman named
Merlin Slyter presented to you about an appeal to a board of adjustment decision and we
had a pretty lengthy discussion about what our code regarding sewer billing had in it and
some areas that could be written better and Council directed us to go back and -- and see
if we could come up with something better, specifically Council Woman Milam said it ought
to be something that you don't have to be an engineer or a lawyer to understand, so we
had an engineer and lawyer rewrite it. But we did have Karie and Connie involved as well
and Alex Freitag, so -- so we -- we believe we have got something better that we would
like to show to you tonight and I don't think we need any action on it tonight, I would just
like to walk through it with you and see -- see how you like it and see if you have any
comments. Now, this is the current -- current code that we went over, perhaps ad
nauseum at the October 3rd meeting, and, let's see, Warren is going to pass out a copy
of the current sections of code and, then, the draft of what we propose to you in its entirety,
so you can review it at your own time. Now, we were trying to change 9-4-24, but when
we did that we found that we needed to change a couple definitions , which are in another
section, they are just related. So -- so, we did change the -- what was sewer to
wastewater user, which is consistent with the way the code was already written in 9-24
and, then, the winter average was defined in there and we took it out and we came up
with a better name for it and I will share that with you in a minute. So -- so, I'm just going
to walk through -- at first I set up a bunch of slides to explain to you what we did and why
and, then, that was taking just as many slides as if I just show you the rewrites. So, I'm
just going to show you the rewrite and walk through it. So, here is the beginning of it. 9-
4-24. This is the beginning and it reads: Wastewater user charges are comprised of
base fees, user -- use fees and, assessment fees. And, then, A, wastewater based fees.
To cover the fixed costs of the wastewater system each account is charged a monthly flat
base fee. The wastewater base fee shall be established by resolution of City Council.
So, that seems pretty straight forward. It's reorganized and we are giving -- giving people
one at a time. First, let's talk about base fees. Here they are. That's your -- that's your -
- I think it's five -- $5.85 or five something for sewer and you're going to pay that every
month, whether you use zero gallons or 10,000 gallo ns. So far so good? Okay.
Wastewater use fees now. Monthly use fees for wastewater collection, sewer, and
treatment in the city are based on the gallons of water collected and treated as determined
by water meter readings for the water used, which is delivered to the same building or
account. The fee per gallon on use shall be established by resolution of City Council.
Wastewater use is determined according to the following --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
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Milam: Kyle, I have something that might make this simpler. If you switched sewer and
put it after -- between wastewater and collection -- wastewater, sewer, collection and
treatment, it changes the sentence and it makes it more understandable I think.
Radek: Well, I think the point we are trying to make here is that -- what you're paying for
is -- is not just sewer, but you're paying for wastewater collection, which is sewer and
you're paying for treatment for the wastewater. So -- I mean we will take that --
Milam: Okay.
Radek: -- we will take that as a note and see what the group thinks. I personally think
that the sewer is describing the wastewater collection, because that's all wastewater
collection is and people -- we specifically put that in there, because people -- people refer
to it as their sewer bill, but it's -- paying for sewer is the least of what it pays for, you know,
and as you guys know, because you're -- you're always seeing Clint Dolsby coming up
here asking for money and -- and that's what -- that's where the money is, it's in
wastewater treatment.
De Weerd: You must be a water guy.
Radek: I'm a water guy, so -- so, there is another reason why I'm up here talking about
wastewater fees, should it be -- it should be Dolsby.
Milam: Okay.
Radek: Okay. So, we can go to the next one and this is where we get -- this is where we
start getting into something that could be confusing, but, hopefully, we have got it
organized a little better. So, this is -- we are talking about use fees and we figure -- figure
out how much use according to the following. Okay. Residential accounts. There are
two time periods during which wastewater use is determined during the year. Winter
period. During four winter months, between November and March, wastewater use is
based on monthly gallons of water delivered as determined by water meter readings . And
we give an example. The example of 5,000 gallons of water were delivered, then, 5,000
gallons of wastewater use will be billed for that month. Depending on the account billing
cycle, the four months that comprise the winter period will either be November through
February or December through March. I will wait and see if anybody has any questions
on that.
De Weerd: I don't think you need to read all of this.
Radek: Okay.
De Weerd: Unless Council really wants you to.
Radek: Well, I'm getting a shake of yes.
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De Weerd: Do you want him to read it all?
Radek: And, Madam Mayor, it's not going to be that brutal. It's -- it's -- this is probably
the worst slide --
De Weerd: Okay.
Radek: -- for reading. But I thought because of the discussion last time I thought this
might be the best way to just -- so I will continue if there is no objection.
De Weerd: It's all up to Council.
Radek: Okay. So, B, summer --
De Weerd: I'm thinking I could read it myself.
Radek: Okay. Do you have a question?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: So, explain to me -- help me understand why -- or how the difference would end
up being whether you end up on the November to February or on the December to March.
Radek: Okay. Thank you. Councilman Palmer, I -- thanks for the question, because I
figured somebody needed to answer that. We -- we have two account cycles. An account
cycle that ends on the 5th of the month and one that ends on the 20th of the month. And
so you -- you could get a meter read on the 5th of November and that's going to represent,
really, the water you used in October. But if you get a meter read on the 20th of November
that will really represent the water you used in November.
Palmer: Okay.
Radek: And that's the reason. You want to -- you want to get the use reflected in the
winter and if -- and we have really found that if -- if you start too early, people are still
watering their lawns in the shoulder season. So, it really screws up the billing.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? So, then, the latter would -- would -- the meter read would end
on March 5th, not March 20th?
Radek: Correct. If you -- if you were March 5th, then -- then you would -- you would be
-- be in that winter period through March, because that's your February usage. Yeah.
So, summer period. During the months outside and it counts winter period -- wastewater
use is also based on monthly gallons of water delivered until the amount of water
delivered reaches the account's wastewater use cap. This is our new term. Wastewater
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use cap. And, then, the one below is going to define it. If monthly water delivery is higher
than the account's wastewater use cap, then, the wastewater use cap serves as the
month's wastewater use for billing. Example. If 9,000 gallons of water were delivered,
but the wastewater use cap for the acco unt is 6,000 gallons, then, 6,000 gallons of
wastewater use will be billed. The wastewater use cap is calculated as follows -- so, this
is part of the question you're thinking of now is what is this wastewater use cap. It's the
average monthly number of gallons of water that were delivered to the account during the
winter period, because that's what we used to call the winter average and I think the
addition of the wastewater use cap, it's really what it is, it's a cap , it's -- you're not going
to get billed that -- that wastewater use cap -- you weren't going to get billed that winter
average before, unless you use at least that much or more in the summertime . If that
makes sense. Okay. So, now we have the -- the question that Mr. Slyter brought up
addressed in number two is default wastewater use cap. So, in any instance where the
customer's wastewater use cap calculates to less than 1,000 gallons per month or there
is no customer data to calculate the wastewater use cap, which be an example of a new
customer. The default wastewater use cap shall be applied. The default wastewater use
cap shall be established by resolution of City Council and is intended to represent the
monthly wastewater use of a typical residential accou nt. So, if it's a new account, you
have no account history, we are going to give the default wastewater use cap, which at
this point in our -- we took it out of the city code. The old city code had that as the 6,500
number that you might remember. And as you can imagine, the 6,500 number -- there
was a significant discussion about the 6,500 number. It was an old number and we need
to update that number. But we should do that as a matter of bringing to Council like
perhaps every time we do a wastewater master plan, we look at our billing records and
we say, oh, let's update the wastewater use cap, because people are using less water
now than they did five years ago. Okay. Upon request -- you know, so we provide an
opportunity for people to review. So, number three. Upon request the wastewater use
cap may be reviewed and evaluated. The determination of applicability will be made by
the city Public Works director or designee and include an evaluation of current and
potential water and sewer uses at the property and to determine if the application to adjust
the wastewater use cap was in fair wastewater billing. So, even if -- in the case of say
Mr. Slyter, your wastewater use cap was -- it calculated to less than a thousand gallons,
so it kicked into the default and you called up and said, hey, you know, my house is
vacant, I need to have my wastewater use cap reviewed, there is still a mechanism for
that, for people that it didn't quite work out right. But we think the vast majority of -- of
people that are going to end up with a -- a calculated cap less than a thousand or people
that are probably snowbirds that come back after the wintertime and, in fact, are using
water and sewer in their house in the summertime.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Kyle. So, somebody moves, so they have a new account, but there used to be
some -- there was another family that lived in that house. Do you use their winter average
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or do you go in the default winter average, because it's not their history, but it is the history
of this particular home?
Radek: Okay. I think -- Councilman -- Council Woman Milam and -- Madam Mayor and
Council Woman Milam, thank you for the question. I think we got that covered pretty well.
We say -- we say, oh there was no -- if there is no customer data calculated -- wastewater
use cap, then, we are going to put a default, but if that customer has data from somewhere
else -- like if they moved from somewhere else in Meridian, we are going to say, oh, well,
you had an account over at that other address, you just bought a new house. So, we
know how much water you use. We know what your wastewater use cap should be. Or
in the past -- and this code would still allow it. In the past Karie has said, well, you have
moved to Meridian from another town, if you still -- if you have -- if you have billing records
from the other town, you're the same family, we can set your wastewater use cap from
your customer data that you're providing us from somewhere else and I think that's still
-- that's still -- what we have written here allows the flexibility for MUBS to be able to do
that.
Milam: By customer, not by property.
Radek: Correct. So, for commercial accounts -- you may recall we had a discussion
about a year ago where we talked about allowing commercial accounts to be on the --
then what we called the credit calc average, but now we are going to call it the wastewater
use cap. If it was appropriate and Council instructed us to move forward with that change,
with the change that was going to occur in the assessments portion and that assessment
portion hasn't happened, so this change hasn't been made or -- commercial account,
wastewater use fees for all the uses -- users, such as commercial and industrial, are
based on actual monthly water delivered as determined by water meter readings. So, to
most commercial accounts there is no summer period or winter period, you just get
charged for the water that you get delivered, assuming that everything is delivered goes
down the sewer. However, A, commercial accounts, that show a residential pattern of
water and wastewater use, may be eligible for an applied wastewater use cap during the
summer period as set forth in the section for residential accounts and determination of
the applicability for that will be made by the Public Works director or designee and
including evaluation of the current and potential water and sewer use of the property to
determine if the application of a wastewater use cap will result in fair wastewater billing.
So, if we can apply that and it -- it works and it's fair, then, we can do it. Additionally, we
have the B, commercial accounts with water uses that are not collected in the sewer, may
be eligible for periodic adjustment to the wastewater portion of their bill if the amount of
water used, but not collected can be demonstrated, that's referring to like a cooling tower
situation and we have several of those right now. This just codifies the -- the practice that
we -- we are generally doing now for like a -- I'm trying to think of the companies. There
is about five companies that have cooling towers and they will evaporate water throughout
the year and those cooling towers have meters that show how much they evaporate and
they can apply for an adjustment every year and get their money back for that. And, then,
the wastewater assessment fees, I won't bother to read this, because this is where we
stopped the -- the proposed changes. There is one change to this paragraph, which is
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the last sentence. Single family residential assessment fees shall be based on one ERU,
because the rest of the paragraph talked about everything except single family residential,
but it didn't say what single family residential should be, so we want to slide that in there
and, then, this table of equivalent residential units, we are not proposing any changes to
that at this point. I think the -- the assessment fees and the ERUs is a whole separate
effort that's been undertaken by Alex and company and if you want an update on that we
can provide that. And, then, there was one other reference section that had that 6,500
and it really doesn't belong there. This Section, 9-4-27, really just says when you get a
bill you should pay it and -- and, then, it talked about for new residential construction
placed during the eight lawn sprinkling months, which is really the summer, we are talking
about that 6,500 again and so we said, well, that doesn't really belong there anyway, so
we want to take it out. So, I'm sorry -- there were a couple in there that were a little rough,
Madam Mayor, but we made it through. So, I guess we would just ask Council for any
comments and then -- and, then, obviously there is Council Members that aren't here and
will want to read the proposed changes and -- and they can get comments back to me or
Andrea at any time.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I'm sitting here imagining if it was me two years ago sitting in the
audience, that I can imagine the things going through their heads are what in the world
just happened, but that was a really big deal and I love the changes . I mean I have had
people ask me -- especially when they first moved into a place to explain their utility b ill
to them and I have tried and I just -- but if I had this side show and did exactly what you
just did, I feel like I could help them understand that the calculation s, as complicated as
they are, really are actually kind of simple and are there to benefit them. It would be a lot
easier for us to just charge what they use, but by going to this effort makes it as accurate
as humanly possible and benefits our customers. So, thanks for going through all that
and making that happen, because I think that's a beautiful thing.
De Weerd: A beautiful thing. So, Mr. Clerk, maybe you can send Mr. Palmer a link to
this particular one, so when he gets those questions he can direct them to this
presentation and a verbatim, blow by blow, call. And thank you for walking us through
that. You did clarify a lot of the different elements that Mr. Slyter had raised.
Radek: Okay. Well, Madam Mayor, well, we will just -- I guess unless Council has some
other direction, we will wait and see if they are anymore comments from the -- certainly
from any of you or from the missing council members and, then, maybe come back to you
and say, yeah, we think we have got all the hundred percent comments and we are ready
to have a final draft and we will let you know when that happens.
De Weerd: And we can set this out again for December and have it available for public
comment.
Radek: Sounds good. Thank you, Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: Thank you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: One more thing. So, it looks great to me. I really like all the changes. What --
and you said in the beginning of your presentation that you showed it to -- you shared it
with Mr. Slyter. What were his reactions?
Radek: Councilwoman Milam, he did have -- he did have a couple minor comments. He
had a comment about what I read to you on -- if we don't have any -- if we don't have any
data to calculate wastewater use cap -- and he thought of a way that that might potentially
work against the customer, he suggested something else about -- and he is looking at it
from the perspective of -- which who he is, he's a landlord and sometimes he keeps the
account in his name and a new renter moves in and we never see that and so he
suggested some other language, but with his other language we wouldn't -- we wouldn't
be -- it wouldn't allow us to say you're a new customer, but you have old data somewhere
and show it to us and we will set it to that. So, there is pluses and minuses. But it's a --
it's a pretty minor detail that I think we can maybe go back and, you know, try
wordsmithing to see if it meets his concern, but all in all I think is Andrea got his comments
and I think all in all he was fairly happy with what we did.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Milam: Thank you.
Radek: Thank you.
E. Legal: Updates to City Code provisions regarding Chief
Financial Officer/Information Services Director
1. Ordinance No. 17-1753: An Ordinance of the City of
Meridian Amending Meridian City Code Section 1-8-1,
Regarding Appointment of Department Officials by Mayor;
Repealing Title 1, Chapter 8, Article E, Meridian City Code;
Amending Meridian City Code Section 1-9-3(G)(7),
Regarding Compensation Changes; Amending Meridian City
Code Section 1-8B-2, Regarding Duties of the Chief
Financial Officer; and Providing an Effective ate.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-E is under our Legal Department.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Hopefully this will be quite
short. With the changes in our management team, with the elimination of the sports
services director position with the city, we are proposing an ordinance change, but I'm not
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going to ask you to pass this tonight, although it does have a number attached to it ,
because we did include in the title repealing the section of the code that identif ies support
services director, but it didn't make it into the draft. It should be a portion of this -- oh,
never mind. I apologize. It is in Section 2. I just missed it. So, if you want you can pass
it tonight. It simply just eliminates support services and puts their duties and
responsibilities under the chief financial officer's position for information services, for the
city clerk's office and the IT. Everything else is pretty much the same, as, again, the
duties and responsibilities of IT and the city clerk to the duties of the CFO. If you have
any other questions or if you like you can pass it tonight. If you want to have time to think
about it you certainly can do that.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Move that we approve ordinance number 17 --
Bird: Need to read it first.
Milam: No? What? Oh, she has to read it. All right. I'm trying to get through this.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Looking this over and stuff, I -- I have -- I'm willing to pass it today, but I think with
two of our Council Members missing, maybe we better bring it back for next week --
Milam: I'm okay with that.
Bird: -- and let them do it. So, if that would be with the rest of the Council, I would -- I
would entertain a motion that we just bring ordinance number 17 -1753 back next week
on November the 21st for adoption.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to continue this item until next week.
All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
F. Community Development/Building Services Division:
Emissions Testing Facilities - Permitting Recommendation
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De Weerd: Okay. Item 6-F is under our Community Development and Building Services
Division and I am assuming that Brent is -- is starting with this. Okay.
Bjornson: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm here tonight to
hopefully have a short discussion regarding the International Building Code, the
temporary use permitting component, and, then, the Unified Development fees. I have
also got Caleb and C.Jay and Mr. Nary here to discuss some of the TUP aspects and the
UDC if necessary. The issue before you this evening is that the emissions testing stations
as you can see -- I'm going to back up. The little picture there at the bottom, that's typically
what we see in Meridian as vehicle emissions. That's what we are talking about. These
stations operate in small accessory buildings throughout Meridian, Boise and the whole
state as you know. They are typically less than 120 square feet overall size. They require
electrical. And there is typically no permanent foundation. The challenge is that they
can't comply with standards for temporary use, because they are in place year around, a
temporary would be 120 days. These businesses stay year around and, then, they can't
comply with the standards for permanent use, because the IBC, Chapter 18, requires a
foundation. Foundations are challenging for existing areas of pavement. If they relocate
the small facility and it's just challenging and costly. So, in order to do a foundation we
would have to issue a certificate of occupancy and it would have to be in compliance with
the International Building Code. We are trying to provide some information here and look
at a different opportunity. The problem is that, again, with these accessory buildings used
as emissions testing, there is no foundation, they are typically less than 120 square feet,
they are year around and they do not comply with the TUP, the IBC, and the UDC codes.
Solutions would be to cite existing facilities and not allow new facilit ies and accessory
buildings. The pros of that would be removes ambiguity, challenges -- or changes
aesthetic landscape. The cons would be decreases availability of the service needed by
the citizens to get their vehicles tested. Second solution would be to create a new
category for the temporary use. Pros of that would be the facilities would be subject to
the TUP standards on 360 days is not temporary, which creates inconsistency with the
IBC, Chapter 18, issuance of certificate of occupancy and the third item there is to expand
the building code exceptions, permit section, Chapter 1 in Section 105, there is an area
for structures that are 120 square feet and less and we are proposing to include that with
the emissions testing facilities. The pros facilitates facilities subject to UDC standards,
eliminates foundation requirement, and recognizes permanent nature of use. The cons
are the aesthetic, safety issues associated with a temporary use building for a permanent
use, largely resolved by host business. Meaning that a host business typically has a
certificate of occupancy and these emissions testings are ancillary on the property. I want
to jump to the last slide here, because it has some FAQs on emission testing stations and
why and how they are different than TUPs. I won't read it all, but on the left there you can
see the emission testing stations and the temporary sales units on the right. And, then,
if you have any questions we can -- we can talk about that, I suppose, on this. Let me
guide you through it. On the left side, the emissions testing station, as you can see that
they provide a service that citizens are mandated to obtain by law. Public use per the
UDC. And, then, accessory building owned by the tenant is common model for the
emissions testing stations. The ETS is to be available inside service stations. ETS's are
accessory to permanent proprietor where they are located and emission testings are year
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around demand by consumers and operators. And on the right, you can see the
temporary sales units. Our recommendation before we talk about questions and to see
what the thoughts are, is to add emissions testing facility into Section 105 of the
International Building Code to expand that as you see in that first bullet. To allow an
accessory structure of 120 square feet or less to include emission testing facilities . And,
then, 105 there in the middle of the slide, you will see -- that's actual code language.
Work exempt from permit. And, then, in that last paragraph where it says building, that
is actual building code language as well. So, what we would do is, essentially, insert
emission testing facilities within that paragraph. So, effectively, in the building code, one
story detached accessory structures used as tool and storage sheds, playhouses,
emission testing facilities, and similar uses, provided the floor area is not greater than 120
square feet, would be exempt in the building code . Other commercial pump houses --
those fall in the same category. So, at this point I would like to see if there is any questions
-- stand for questions and, then, I do have an action item recommendation that I wanted
to let you know this right now that we are currently in a code adoption cycle. Next Tuesday
at the public hearing on November 21st is a public hearing for building code. So, this
allows us an opportunity to insert this in now with your review and approval if we decide
that's the best solution. And building code adoption is in draft -- in draft form right now.
We can notice as required to the institutions per state law and, then, I can update the
BCA and we can move forward. So, I am -- I will stand for questions and talk through this
and --
Bird: Council, any questions? Brent, I think -- I think this is a very -- very good way to
handle that and I -- I, for one, would like to see it within our code. This gives them a way
to keep their facilities without having to get a building permit and all the -- going through
all that stuff. I would like to see it incorporated in. I can't speak for everybody, but -- Mr.
Palmer.
Palmer: Mr. President. I think this is ridiculous. I think we -- a few weeks ago we had a
discussion on snow cone shacks and how we were going to make sure that they weren't
going to be allowed to stay in one place throughout a year, whether they were being used
or not, but because there is a government requirement that this testing take place, we are
going to amend our code to allow those kind of shacks to be in place year around. I think
if -- if we are going to go to such great lengths to ensure that -- that all these other
temporary use shacks -- that we clear any ways for them to get around code and have to
be moved or removed yearly, then, I think we should be consistent with our applying that
and not make an exception, because it makes it more convenient for another government
agency.
Bird: Any other questions? I don't disagree with the -- the fact that the snow cone shacks
-- I think I have pretty well -- everybody knows where I stand on that. There is a lot of
families there. I -- but I do believe that this -- we are required by state law to have our
emissions checked and -- and I think that it's got to the point where people that were doing
it are not doing it anymore, and it's just these specialized things that we need to make
sure we have them available.
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Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Just for clarification. It's not state law. It's another local --
Bird: Well, it's a county law.
Palmer: So it -- I think as long as they are going to enforce this on us, then, I don't think
we need to make any special exceptions for their often dilapidated shacks, compared to
the -- I mean they may exist, but I don't know off the top of my head a snow cone shack
that's dilapidated. In fact, even though they are only in business for a few months. I say
no way.
De Weerd: Well, there is a clear difference and I think this -- this chart shows you that
there is a year around demand for emission testing, it's not a temporary use, and with
dilapidated buildings -- I don't think a snow cone shack is going to try and do that, because
that reflects on the quality of what they are going to be serving. So, it -- it is different.
Bjornson: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, if I might add, on the temporary sales
units on the right, we did take into effect that, yes, snow cone shacks up there at the
bottom, it is, as you say, Madam Mayor, that it's a seasonal demand. I just wanted to add
one last thought, that with these emissions testing facilities that they would require an
electrical permit, we would still permit through the building department for electrical, and
in my mind they don't pose a significant life safety concern , as there is no public use.
There is typically one occupant, it's part time a lot of the times, and they are pre-
engineered, pre-manufactured structures a lot of the time. So, again, it's not for public
use, the structure itself, other than one employee, depending on the hours that it's open
and we would permit it electrically.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I definitely see Councilman Palmer's point, but given the fact that we are
required and it's one of those things I find a real pain, I think that most people do, we have
got to make it as easy for our citizens as possible to get their emissions done and -- and
make them -- let them be convenient and I think the only way we are going to be able to
do that is to grant them an exception.
De Weerd: Any other comments?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam.
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Milam: I'm kind of swaying back and forth here like a pendulum. But I definitely think we
need to make it more convenient for our citizens. So, whatever that is. If that's, you know,
making an exception for these. But maybe some standards aren't such a bad thing either
and -- and I don't know if the right answer is just removing the -- obviously, it's not a
temporary use, so that's the wrong place for it. But putting it in with a shed that's in
somebody's backyard, I'm not sure that that's the right place for it either, because it is a
public -- and it can become an eye sore and it can become a problem. So, down the road
what -- you know, if we make this too simple and so they are just popping up all over the
place, down the road what's going to happen with -- if we just have a whole bunch of old
dilapidated testing stations.
De Weerd: So, I'm sorry, I had to step out, but did you talk about how you -- how you
worked to get to this point?
Bjornson: I did not and that's a great point, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. We
have had several meetings with the city clerk's office, our Legal Department. I think we
have noodled this with planning as well. There are considerations on both sides, as you
have indicated here and as Councilman Palmer has indicated. You know, I think it is a
tough fit to Council Women Milam's point. We were looking for the best fit. We were
trying to use good judgment and trying to find the best solution and just a practical
application on how are we going to deal with these? You know, you can make them really
intensive and a lot of process. I personally don't feel a life safety element is there. I say
that with some reservation, but at the same time there was limited use and we are not
bringing the general public in and we have got a lot of temporary structures that fit into
that 120 square foot or less. So, to answer your question we have discussed it at staff
level. We have provided here our best recommendation and wanted to put it before you.
With the timing of the code adoption we are currently working -- currently working on, we
feel it's a good fit into Section 105 of the IBC and for large practical purposes it fits that
intent. Unless there is any real strong opposition or a reason to just take this into another
meeting or discuss it further, I guess the action item that I propose is just the timeline that
we feel that we have got a -- a pretty good product that we would like to get into our code
option here, so it's implemented January 1, 2018, with the building code option.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird.
Bird: I would like to see it get in -- into the code, so that these existing buildings, emission
testing facilities, do not have to be removed.
De Weerd: Well, I -- I guess we can put it in in form and put it out for public hearing and
-- and that's coming up. Do we have a date set?
Bjornson: Public hearing for the building code adoption is next Tuesday, the 21st. And,
again, that building code adoption is in draft form , so we felt it would be good to -- in
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communication with our Legal Department, put it in at that point and present it next
Tuesday. If we had the approval in this meeting to move forward.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, what's -- what's your pleasure?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I will state it again. I think we ought to put it in for the public hearing and let's see
what comes down next week at the public hearing.
De Weerd: Okay. You can bring that back with the other item s and we will address it
next week.
Bjornson: Excellent. Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
G. Community Development/Planning Division: Idaho Avenue
Amenities - Transfer of Ownership from Meridian Development
Corporation to City of Meridian and Next Steps
1. Resolution No. 17-2048: Joint Resolution of Meridian
Development Corporation and City of Meridian Signifying
Transfer by MDC and Acceptance by City of Idaho Avenue
Decks, Planters, and Bicycle Rack
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-G is under our -- or 6 -- I'm sorry. 6-H is under our
Parks Department. 6-G. So, I was correct.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm going to talk to you a little
bit about Idaho Avenue. To refresh your memory, in 2015 the city and the Meridian
Development Corporation agreed to jointly fund some streetscape improvements on
Idaho Avenue between Main and 2nd Street. Each agency spent approximately 12,000
dollars on decking, planters, other improvements to -- like paint and candles to direct
traffic on that block. We had an agreement and it really laid out the terms of how we
would proceed in coming up with what we would put down there working with Meridian
Development Corporation and the city staff. What it didn't address was ownership after
the project actually got in the street. So, that's what -- what the action item is on your
agenda today is a resolution. On November 8th the MDC board voted to approve the
joint resolution you have on your agenda today, transferring ownership of those materials
to the city. The timing was -- was pretty good in that while staff of MDC and the city were
talking about, hey, we need to clean this up, it's kind of jointly owned property, MDC had
it under their insurance. The city partially owned it. The Mayor's office received an e-
mail concern from a property owner in that block discussing some concerns they had with
the decking in particular. Really twofold. The gathering of the leaves this time of year
and the gathering in the storm drain and potential -- if we have another winter like we had
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last year, some flooding and those types of things. So, I thought it was opportunistic as
this joint resolution was before you to bring that up with you as well. Some business
owners have also questioned how successful this was as -- just as a reminder, this was
never meant as a permanent installation . It was a pilot project, kind of test drive
alternative, cross-sections in this block, and so, again, I felt the timing was good to just
touch base with you on that. Really two fold again. The street sweepers that are not able
to pick up the leaves due to the decks and planters and, then, the usefulness, if you will,
of the -- the decking that's out there now. So, after being forwarded on that e-mail from
the Mayor's office, I met with Nick Grove, who is the president of the Meridian Downtown
Business Owners Association to discuss those issues, both of them, the maintenance
and the -- the worth of the streetscape improvements and we thought it would be a good
idea to jointly host a meeting with those business owners on there. We have also had
quite a bit of turnover in that block of businesses, if you think about it, in just the two years
that this is -- the two summers that that's been out there we have had a high percentage
of businesses turn over just in that block downtown. So, that meeting is going to be
hosted here at City Hall on Monday, November 20th, at 3:00 p.m. Postcards went out
last week inviting both business owners and property owners to that meeting. So, as you
consider accepting a hundred percent ownership of these planters and the decks and the
-- and the bike rack that's out there, I just want to make you aware that these discussions
were also going on. Further, I wanted to get some feedback from you and in the memo I
kind of put some options out there. We don't have to do anything right now, but I just
wanted to let you know there are some business owners on that block that are kind of
questioning, hey, is the experiment over, what are we doing with it, what's the next steps?
So, just kind of wanted to get maybe some feedback from you even before meeting with
the business owners. I don't -- I didn't put any money in the budget for FY-18 to do any
of this, we don't have money to go and pick up the leaves or pick up the deck and put
them to the south side of the road or -- or really do anything, but I just wanted to maybe
get some direction, if you have any, in advance of that meeting and, if not, I will report
back late this winter on how that meeting went and if those business owners have a
unified idea for what they would like to see on that block. So, I think with that, Madam
Mayor, again, there is an action there, it's asking you to accept those amenities, but in
the same breath we are questioning how long it will actually be in place. So, with that I
will stand for any questions you may have.
De Weerd: I'm sorry. Caleb, is there any urgency to take action on this?
Hood: Madam Mayor, not to my knowledge as far as the joint resolution. Again, the MDC
board acted on it this week. We were just following that up. I don't know that there is
necessarily any urgency to their joint resolution. The only urgency I would say is if you
are concerned -- you share the same concerns about the leaves gathering and leaves
gathering even under the decking, obviously, that's of a concern, because most of the
trees have dropped their leaves and we are heading into the wet -- potentially wet winter
months. So, if we were going to do anything there as far as maintenance o r gather those
leaves for the businesses that are on this block, that's the only urgency I see. But, no,
nothing necessarily with the joint resolution.
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De Weerd: I think I would be curious before we accept ownership what the -- the meeting
next week -- how -- how that develops and maybe our Parks Department can go out and
-- and look if there is anything covering a storm drain, at least addressing that and, then,
we can have this conversation after you have had a chance to gauge the -- the level of
concern and the interest by the property owners in that area.
Hood: Madam Mayor, that sounds fair enough to me. Again, that meeting is on the 20th,
so I'd like, you know, at least the eight days or if not more to kind of gather our thoughts
after that meeting to put something together for you . So, maybe the first meeting in
December could put this back on the agenda for your consideration.
De Weerd: I think that sounds like a great idea.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we continue Resolution 17-2048 to November 21st, 2017.
De Weerd: December 5th?
Bird: November.
De Weerd: He would like it the first week of December.
Bird: Oh, December.
De Weerd: Yes.
Bird: Oh, I'm sorry.
De Weerd: So, that would be December 5th.
Bird: For the 5th. December 5th, 2017.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I'm sorry I misunderstood.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to continue this to December 5th. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
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H. Parks Department: South Meridian Regional Park Update
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Caleb. Okay. 6-H is under our Parks Department.
Barton: Good afternoon, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I'm here before you this
evening to give you an update on our next park. As you know -- and most of you were
there at our latest two park openings. It went very successful. Those are good projects
for the community and good to kind of get open and running and now we are -- you know,
no rest for the weary -- onto our next project. So, I wanted to -- it's been a little while, so
I wanted to give you an update on -- on where we are and what our next steps are. So,
as you -- as you remember, I kind of wanted to just take a step back briefly and talk about
some of the public outreach at this site in particular and without reading this in detail, you
can see that our park system master plan and town hall meeting s, parks and recreation
commissions, City Council presentations and, then, we did hold a neighborhood meeting
down there that was post card and had the specific surrounding neighbors. We actually
went about a mile in each direction, so we went a little fa rther out than -- than normal,
because it is kind of rural down there. So, based on all that public outreach and up front
work, we came up with this -- the current design, which is our phase one of the 77 acre
park down there. So, the overall theme is a discovery theme that's an educational
component, it's kind of a learning landscape if you will. There is a couple of lit softball
fields, open grass, restroom, concessions, playground, splash pad. We are going to try
to incorporate some unique signage in it and other amenities similar to the parks -- the
two new parks that we just opened, so we have character and maybe a unique
personality, so it's not just a cookie cutter site. The reason for the diagonal phasing line
is because that's where the gas line is and Williams pipeline is going to be replacing those
lines here in the next three to five years, so to do anything over the top of those would be
kind of wasteful. So, we chose that as a phasing line. Taking you back to the budgets in
FY-16, we had a budget request for 750,000 dollars. That got us through phase one
construction documents and also preconstruction costs with a construction manager.
Some of these -- some of what we are doing in this phase is building the infrastructure
and the support system that the park -- that future phases can be added to it with -- we
have the entrance road, the power infrastructure that's coming in. The pumping system.
There is not sewer in -- in that area, so we have a septic system with pumping that is
scalable, that we can add another restroom to, so there is some of those -- so, we are
doing some of that up front work that will support future phases . In FY-17 Council did
approve a six million dollar construction budget. So, where we -- where we started during
the design process is just at the schematic design level. We had quite a bit of acreage
drawn in. We had a maintenance shop. We had other restroom buildings. Picnic
shelters. We had all of these, you know, fully -- a fully loaded site, which does include
infrastructure for future phases. So, we got schematic design bids. These are
construction estimates, not bids. Back in at 13 million dollars. So, we kind of -- we took
a step back and we went, you know, whoa, this is crazy. So, we started to cut and we
went back in, we cut three million dollars right off -- right out of the bat with -- with -- back
to design development with a park -- you know, some estimated opinion of cost at ten
million dollars. So, at that we said, whoa, this is -- you know, we need to cut some more.
So, we kept -- kept right on cutting, we got it down at 75 percent construction documents
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down to 7.5 million. We cut more and right now where we stand at the base bid as 6.8
million. These are -- this is just -- these are opinion of costs from our construction
manager. These are not bids. So, part of the update tonight is to kind of just refresh
where we are design wise and, then, also talk about bid strategy and -- and what we are
hopeful for in the next month here, so we think we have cut it down to where we are -- we
are within striking distance of our budget. So, part of our strategy is to -- to do the late
fall, early winter bidding. We -- we are going to advertise bids this Friday and our
construction manager has already been -- has had some of it out on the street already in
talking to contractors and gaining interest in the project , with all the subcontractors there
is currently -- you know, one of the big -- one of the biggest construction packages in here
is going to be the dirt and underground work, which is asphalt paving, the entrance drive,
a lot of the concrete, the storm drains. Right now there is eight people that are going to
look at the project. We don't know if we are going to get eight bids, but there is interest
from at least eight contractors, which is -- you know, in this climate right now we want to
get -- we want to time it in such a way that we do get a lot of interest in the project, we
want to make it as simple as possible. We want -- we want guys to really, you know, put
-- give us numbers, so we do get good bids. So, in addition to that, we have our base bid
and, then, we broke out some add alternate bids and the add alternate bids are the softball
field lighting, gravel overflow parking, some additional green space on the northeast
corner, a stage for children's performances and, then, also a second picnic shelter. And
really, any of these could be -- depending on where bids come -- come in now, they can
be done -- they can be done now or they can be approved at a later date , because we
are putting -- like the softball field lighting, for instance, we are putting all the conduit in
up front, we are having the sector box and all the transformers designed in such a way
that we can -- we can add lights. We have to go in and put the piers in and do the wiring
and stand the lights up, but we won't be at the point of no return. So, the next steps that
we see, you know, depending on where bids come in, the possibility -- I just wanted to --
to, you know, have a conversation that there is a possibility, based on construction costs
right now that -- you know, we hear it time and time again that costs are going up, labor
costs, and people are busy. They charge more money. I don't think it's going to get any
cheaper. I don't think waiting is a good strategy. We don't know what next year is. It's
-- I don't think it's going to be any cheaper. So, there is the possibility of at least presenting
a budget amendment to cover some of these costs. We will have impact fees
accumulated. We have a reimbursement coming in from one of our current parks that will
go back into our impact fee account. For the two parks that we just completed there is
going to be some savings from those that will go back into the impact fee account , in
addition to impact fees collected off building -- current building permits. So, what we
would like to do -- we are planning on opening bids December 12th. We would come
back to Council on December 19th for the discussion of -- you know, we need to see
where our bids are. We -- we may get -- because there is a lot of interest right now in this
project, we may get some good bids. We are, you know, fingers crossed. We feel we
are doing everything we possibly can to have this thing -- to come back with contracts
that can be approved without a budget amendment. But the possibility does exist. So, if
everything goes as planned, we will come back to Council on December 19th for contract
award for a March 1st groundbreaking. We will construct all next summer, we will let the
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grass seed heal and establish itself for a park opening on one -- sometime in the summer
of 2019. So, with that I would be happy to stand for any questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Council, any questions?
Bird: It looks great. Get it going.
De Weerd: This isn't the first time that you have had to do some value engineering and
put it out for bid and hope for the best, and -- and we have -- we have been fortunate in
other circumstances. I hope to see favorable bids that allow us to get this going in the
fashion that -- that this park really is -- is deserving. So, it's going to be one of the --
another unique park that -- that really is responding to the -- the comments that we got
from the residents out in those areas that they are looking for and it's really focused on -
- on our kids and our families and so I'm excited to see it move forward.
Barton: We appreciate it.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I echo your thoughts there. It's -- this is something that the City of Meridian can be
very, very proud of and will be very, very proud of. Because I know that everything will
be done first class and it will be kept first class. That's the -- one of the proudest thing I
see with our -- all of our departments, all of our buildings, all of our properties, we have
made sure that we built first class stuff. But, you know what, our employees have made
sure it has stayed first class and I am -- I am so proud of that, that our employees buy
into it and make it look just like new every day and thank you, Mike, for all you do . I
appreciate it.
Barton: Thank you for the kind words and -- I mean thank you -- we can't -- we can't do
it without you guys, honestly. So, thank you.
Bird: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further?
Barton: Thanks.
I. Fire Department: Bear Creek Park and Fire Station #6 Review
of Actions and Decisions To Date and Outline for Community
Outreach and Decision Process Moving Forward
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 6-I is an update under our Fire Department. Council,
as you know, we have -- we have had an unexpected article in the newspaper and had
some outreach from the surrounding neighborhood out in Bear Creek Park about a
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concept that -- that we haven't heard much of since the initial discussions on exploring
this concept and -- and approving a budget for Station 6. So, the chief is here to update
us onto what has happened, what the next steps are, and seeking some comments.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, it's now good evening, instead of good
afternoon, like I was here earlier, but I appreciate your patience. Certainly appreciate the
folks that are here from the Bear Creek community, the folks that are watching online.
The intent of this and the goal of this is to not only provide you with -- Council with
information, status updates on where we are at, but to provide the community with
updates as well, and, hopefully, answer a lot of questions that, quite honestly, you got
some misinformation out there. So, we are hoping to answer a lot of questions this
evening, with a lot of follow-up interactions that we are going to be having with the
community as well.
De Weerd: Good. Because we all had questions, too.
Niemeyer: Yes. So, I want to take you back just a little bit. You have seen some of these
slides before. The Parks Commission has seen these slides before. But I think it is worth
refreshing, because some of the folks in our community have never seen these slides,
they have never heard this information, so I think it is worthwhile to go back just a little
bit. What was -- a partnership collaboration potential between Parks and Fire to work
together on future parks and future fire station locations. We had done some research
with other cities that said when you co-locate fire stations with parks, the outcome is good
for the community. That was the sense from those other communities and we felt that
was worth exploring and is this something that we can explore moving forward as we --
as we grow as a city. Specifically what we were looking at is an immediately need with
Station 6. As you know the budget process was moving forward. That got approved. We
were beginning the process to look for architects to begin that design process and so we
identified a conversation piece about Bear Creek, as well as the south Meridian park that
-- that Mike was just up here alluding to -- as a future park location, along with a future
fire station location. That's part of the dialogue. We talked about establishing that long
term commitment, so when we look at future land use and have those future discussions,
quite honestly, long after I'm gone, long after Steve is gone, if it's a viable option we can
continue to move this forward as a city as a way we do business. In 2016, back in
November, that's when the partnership concept was brought to everybody. It was not
anywhere near we are going to go here, we are going to go there, it was do you support
a concept of partnership between the Parks Department and the Fire Department moving
forward into the future and everybody said, yeah, we like that idea, continue to explore
that idea. So, as we looked at ideal fire station locations, every one of our five fire stations
-- and you have heard me say this before and talk about this -- every one of our five fire
stations right now is on one mile main arterial roads. At the time those were built they
were the right location, they were the right spot for sure. I don't think we understood and
projected out what that traffic congestion was going to look like on some of these main
roads, specifically on Franklin Road, certainly Eagle Road, Locust Grove, Linder. In the
morning and in the evening those roadways are very congested. It's part of our growth.
So, as we looked at that data, that anecdotal evidence we were getting from crews about
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the difficulties getting out onto those roadways to respond to calls and difficulty getting
back into the station as they were coming back , we said is that the right spot for fire
stations on main arterials. And so we began exploring that and what we looked at was is
the half mile a better place to put a fire station. Typically the half miles, then, go onto a
main arterial. As you all know, we have Opticoms on our fire engines. Those are the
traffic signal preemption devices that when we are responding to an emergency with our
lights and sirens we can -- we can initiate a traffic signal change so we can get through
those -- those intersections. Again, Franklin Road is a good comparison in a way.
Franklin Road -- the tarmac that we come out onto and the intersection right there is 136
feet. We often have difficulties getting out onto Franklin, because cars are parked in front
of our tarmac, so it makes it very difficult for us to get those apparatus out. Coming back
into Fire Station 1 right there we almost literally have to get in the left-hand turn lane of
the westbound traffic to turn into the station. It's a very significant traffic hazard. So, that
was one of our concerns is we didn't want to replicate that moving. Again, I mentioned
the easy access. We did identify that for us as we look at our call volume and we can
map this in GIS and map those call clusters, we typically see call clusters in and around
parks, in and around schools, and in and around large subdivisions, large residential
subdivisions. It really makes sense if you th ink about it. Those are where the calls are
going to occur. Outside of the roadways our rural calls, are more distance calls, are the
minority. Our primary calls are clustered within those areas of real growth that we see.
So, it does make sense to -- when we look at a fire station location placement, to identify
those areas in and around where that growth is occurring to meet, then, the future
demand. So, looking at -- at Station No. 6 as we were discussing locations and what are
optimal locations -- again, just as a refresher, the Meridian Rural Fire Protection District
currently owns -- it still does -- property on Overland Road just east of Linder. We have
had a sign up there for several years. They bought that in anticipation of a future station.
This is a long standing relationship that the city and the district have had regarding land
acquisition, station growth. That location was not ideal, mainly because of that Linder
Road concern that we had. However, in comparison to Station 1, the inte rsection to the
tarmac of the Overland property is 336 feet. So, obviously, there is a larger distance
between that and what we see at Station 1. But, again, there are some concerns with
that location, five lanes, just like Franklin Road is. So, we wanted to make sure that if we
were going to be there it was the right place through a good analysis. The planning team
did go out and explore possibilities on Stoddard Road. We identified that that was within
the same geographical area that we were looking to build Station 6 to provide service to
the folks in southwest Meridian. And in that we identified some open space on Stoddard
and Bear Creek Park and that started a discussion with Parks of is this a possibility?
That's really where the conversation started. So, this is, as you know, Bear Creek Park
and this was the concept area where we said is there any possibility of putting a fire
station here. It makes sense to us, but we need to have that discussion, we need to
further explore it, and we are still literally in that -- in that phase of exploration. So, the
next steps. And, again, this is still going back to 2016 when we initially started talking
about the next steps that we all had was to meet with the Parks staff and explore the
possibilities. We did that. We did discuss with the Mayor and Council the idea of co-
locating Parks and Fire. We did not talk about Bear Creek specifically then, we just said
do you all think this is a good idea from a policy standpoint for the City of Meridian. T he
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answer to that was, yes. We did present it to the parks commission to get feedback from
them and they liked the idea of partnerships as well. So, at that point we identified the
next steps that are pretty standard in our department when we go to look to build a new
fire station and, really, that was to engage an architect, to begin the drawings -- the
conceptual drawings of the fire station regardless of land location and, then, be able to
have a conversation with the community about here is our concep t, what do you think.
That's the way we have done all other five fire stations. That's the way we are going to
proceed with this one. To that point -- and I brought this up earlier. We are engaging that
architect -- and that's two weeks. So, we have that architect identified. So, that's the
strategy we were taking. That's the strategy we had taken before. Certainly we can
question whether that strategy was right at this point, but that was the road we were going
down. I will say this that at this point in the presentation, like every other city department
that we have, our goal is to be good stewards and good partners with our community and
if that's not a good marriage and you need counseling on the front end of that, you
probably need to revisit and so certainly whatever we are talking about here, there is a
lot of public outreach that's involved in each one of these processes and we do listen to
the community. We do not want to partner with a community that does not want us there.
That doesn't make a whole lot of sense. So, kind of where we are at today -- some
benefits real quick that we identified that we feel are benefits. For the Fire department
we love the fact that we get to engage our community. When you're -- when you co-
locate a fire station within a park and our firefighters are not running calls and they are
not training, they have an opportunity to go and engage our community to that park
interaction. We think that's a great concept. In the communities we talked to they
identified that as a positive as well. It is quick access to medical emergency as mentioned
and we do have medical emergencies in parks, whether it's sports related, whether it's
bee stings, whether it's allergic reactions, whatever it is, we do have medical emergencies
in parks. It's not a ton, but we certainly have them. This would give us quick access to
those. It is easy access for citizens with questions or mild injury that need to be looked
at. They are usually located off the main arterials and we like the idea of incorporating a
residential feel design into our fire station, as opposed to the standard real commercial,
big brick, big mortar look, we feel like we should be a part of a community in our design
process. We did like those benefits. And we give some benefits to parks as we look
forward to this. Moving forward into the future there is some 24/7 surveillance of a park
when you have a fire station. We are a 24/7 operation, 365 days a year, and so there is
some sense of security you have when you have a fire station located within or close to
a park. So, I think it does demonstrate good stewardship of public funds through
partnership, quick access to medical emergencies as far as patrons. We have talked
about a concept of a design when we have a fire station located within a park if we do
that in the future, of having a community room as part of our station design where that
local community could use that community room for HOA meetings or community
engagement and, then, also placement of AEDs and maintenance of AEDs. We know
where our AED program is going. We have them in all the parks and so this is a good
way for us to engage and be involved in that on an ongoing basis. We identified back
then some challenges to a Bear Creek partnership if that were to be a viable option. Lots
of green space. That's a big deal for the parks department. They, as you know, try and
maintain a certain level of open space per thousand residents. So, any kind of
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relationship with a Bear Creek partnership would lose park space that would need to be
made up. So, we did discuss that and identified how that could happen. There is a
possible loss of amenities to the location we had discussed, specifically the basketball
court and potential sidewalk. We identified could that be rebuilt if that were a location that
was viable and, then, certainly the Bear Creek area homeowners. We identified that b ack
in 2016 as something that would need to be -- we would need to engage with the
homeowners to ensure this is a good marriage, this is a good partnership and so that has
been the plan all along with community engagements. So, then, really what happened to
kind of get this to today. We did have an article come in the Meridian Press talking about
Station 6. I can just say I have known Holly a long time. She's a great reporter. She
didn't mean any harm by this I have no doubt. Chief Butterfield was ans wering her
questions honestly, so I think that was all honest. There was no intent to do harm, just
bad timing. This article didn't need to come out now, because we are still -- we have a
lot of road, a lot of process to do before we can get to a point of a decision. That's -- there
is a lot of work to do still to have something like this come out and talk about where it's
going to be located. So, this happened. Obviously, this caused a lot of concern.
Rightfully so. If I was a citizen located, I would be a little bit concerned about this, thinking
I didn't even get an opportunity to comment. So, we understand that -- that angst that
people have. We are very respectful of that. At the same time, unfortunately -- and Public
Works accidentally kind of mentioned this -- they had some work being done at the -- the
well expansion, they had some survey work being done, as well as a crane that was
working on the -- on the well house there. There was some folks that assumed that that
was the start of the surveying for the fire station. It was not. This was a completely
separate project. But it's on its own time line. So, they asked can you make sure that --
that we identify and separate this project that is a separate project from any kind of fire
station discussion and so -- but this was going on. That added a little bit to the -- to the
challenge. And I just wanted to mention this real quick and I'm not looking for sympathy.
So, I -- for two months I had planned to have three impacted wisdom teeth pulled out by
an oral surgeon. That was Wednesday morning and that's about the same time the
Mayor's office started getting a lot of concerns and e -mails. So, Mayor, I just want to
thank you for your team in responding back to those. I did text the Mayor -- I'm not even
sure what I texted you, but I said I'm on medication, I don't think I should reply, and so I
appreciate your office taking the lead on that and cover us during that -- that moment
when I was not able to respond. But I am now. So, where are we at today and what are
our next steps? We are still very early on in this process as you know. The budget was
approved for October 1. October 2nd we begin the process of an RFQ for an architect.
That is the first step in any kind of development moving forward. I mentioned the meeting
with the architect coming up in two weeks. Ideally we would have liked to have held public
meetings with a local community where we are considering a fire station location once we
had conceptual drawings done. It's a lot easier to have a conversation about what it 's
going to look like, is it going to be noisy and to be able to have those conversations.
Obviously, with the article coming out we want to address concerns now and not wait for
those drawings to come out and our normal process. So, our -- our goal and what we are
going to do moving forward at the prior department is the second week of December -- I
don't have a date, time, or location specific yet. It will be communicated out. We will hold
a community meeting with the residents of Bear Creek, so we can talk and listen and
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certainly understand their concerns and hear through those concerns. I would have loved
to have had a drawing to talk about, that we could certainly talk about those concerns that
they have ahead of our normal process. The other -- the other thing -- and it's the work
still to be done and I think this is really important to understand, there is two options right
now that we have for land and location. One is Bear Creek and it is in the location we
talked about. That location requires a rezone, even if the community where to say, you
know what, we changed our mind, we love this idea, it still requires a rezone and for you
on Council here you're very well aware of how that process plays out. But for folks here
in the audience and listening, there is a very extensive public input process to a rezone
application. It goes through P&Z and, then, ultimately to City Council for approval. That
is another point in time where we would identify do we have a good marriage here or do
we not. So, there is that opportunity there. The other issue that we have with a Bear
Creek possibility is we are currently researching and determining if there is a deed issue
on that -- on that park and if there is it changes the conversation as well. So, that is an
issue that's being researched, that depending on what the answer is it may move us to a
different option quickly. So, that's Option A. Option B on Overland Road, again, the
commissioners still own that property. They have not sold it. There was a lot of confusion
about that as well. I don't know if you have been by that property, but we have had some
issues with a developer in the area utilizing our property as a staging location for his
equipment and, then, they actually cut a roadway through that property. So, that led a lot
of folks to believe, well, they must have sold that, now there is development going on at
that site. There is not. So, for clarification we still own the fire station property on
Overland Road. If that is the location we go to, that's going to require an annexation to
the city, which, again, goes through a very extensive public hearing process and, then,
ultimately comes to you at Council for approval, as well as some ACHD special permitting
for signalization on a -- on an arterial. So, I hope -- and I'm certainly -- please ask any
questions you have. I hope that covered some information to clarify where we are at and
to provide clarity on the process. Regardless of which pathway we end up going down
we are still a long ways away from any kind of decision being made and there is still
extensive community outreach that is going to occur, again, regardless of Overland Road
or -- or Stoddard. So, with that I would certainly answer any questions.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mark, having been on -- the liaison when we -- when Earl purchased that land on
Overloaded Road, everybody at that time that it was a good site. With your architect now
are you having him design a building that would fit at either location, where it goes,
because I'm not too sure that I am not at this point in favor of staying at Overland. I will
tell you I don't think it's bad for future parks, especially that 77 acre, to plan something out
there. In fact, there is a nice little three and a half acre cutoff that would be perfect for a
fire station from the deal. But I -- I know the public is going to get to weigh in regardless
how we go and I -- and I want to see it done right and I know it will be done right and,
Mark, I knew you were coming back and I want to say this -- bear with me. There has
been nobody harder on the fire department than me and it started with Kenny as chief,
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went right through Ron and now you. But, you know what, I -- I respect -- love every one
of your men and a lot of them I helped get their jobs early on, but, anyway, if you would
relay that to your department, that -- I'm sure there is a whole bunch of them glad to see
me leaving, but, I will tell you what, they have got my respect. I thank you.
Niemeyer: Councilman Bird, thank you very much. And I will contradict you. There is a
whole bunch of folks, especially the ones that have been around a long time that know
how dedicated you have been to the city and the fire department and youth athletics and
everything else, and there is no glory is seeing you go. We would love to see you stick
around a long time. Your wisdom and whether we battle on things or not, I think your
wisdom is beyond gold and so certainly there is a great appreciation. We have talked
about you at our staff meetings to try and get these younger folks to understand the
commitment level that you have given to this city and ho w you have helped move it
forward and so we have been honored to be a part of you and --
Bird: Thank you, Mark. Appreciate that.
Niemeyer: I would like to get back to your question about station design and land location.
We are doing just that. So, we know the dimensions of the land available to us. We know
the size of the building, basically the number of bays, all that kind of stuff that we are
going to need for this station. That station will fit on either piece of ground, just depends
on how you turn for the ingress and egress and all that, but to answer your questi on, we
are identifying that for sure.
Bird: Madam Mayor, follow up.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Bird: Mark, one question -- and I think I -- I know the answer. We are building this station
to receive a truck if needed?
Niemeyer: It will have a potential in the future --
Bird: Okay.
Niemeyer: -- for it.
Bird: But we will have the bay for it?
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Bird: Okay.
Niemeyer: Yeah. We won't have one to start, we will have an engine in there, but as the
community grows and -- I just heard about a four story apartment potentially -- as the
community grows --
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Bird: Okay.
Niemeyer: -- there is probably going to be -- hopefully it's long after I'm gone and the next
can worry about that and I think there was one other question you had and I just lost it.
Oh. It is -- it is public record, so I can talk about this. You mentioned the partnership on
the 77 acre park. The rural district is buying that four acre corner piece. That is public
record and it's been publicized in the media, so that -- that is a partnership that we will
definitely look at in the future. That's what --
Bird: Fantastic. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? I think the neighbors came up with some really
good questions through your presentation. It looks like you have been tracking those and
trying to address them and I believe there is some board members here that may be after
your presentation you can chat with them, but we will be following up with those that have
reached out, as well as posting on NextDoor, so those that did an e-mail have kind
of some of the details that you have outlined and that will be going out tomorrow; correct?
Niemeyer: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Yeah. It was unfortunate. The article
was definitely premature and I think caught us all unaware, because -- yeah, it hadn't
come back and there has been no outline of the process. So, now it gets out in front of
you and you can get back, address it, and lay out the road map to -- to the -- how people
can have a voice and be informed and you said that the public meeting will be the second
week --
Niemeyer: Second week in December. We will be working on the daytime location. That
announcement I listened into Mike on his public outreach. I know that they said they
would extend it out a mile. We will certainly go on a limit -- that public involvement process
and certainly the folks in and around that direct area are affected, but we also want to
hear from the folks in neighboring communities that this station will serve. So, that
process will be the second week of December.
De Weerd: So, you will be reaching out to those areas around the Overland location as
well?
Niemeyer: The first -- yeah -- yes.
De Weerd: Okay.
Niemeyer: They are all kind of within the same mile perimeter. Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? We appreciate your update and I know they will
appreciate any further opportunity to ask their questions. Okay. Thank you. And thank
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you for those that have come here for this particular item and those that have tuned into
the City Council workshop for this as well.
Item 7: Action Items
A. Public Hearing Continued from June 6, 2017 for 2017 UDC Text
Amendment (H-2017-0044) by City of Meridian Planning
Division
1. Request: Text Amendment to Certain Sections of the UDC
Pertaining to Definitions; Allowed Uses in all Districts;
Specific Use Standards (Home Occupation and Retail Store,
Wine and Beer Sales and Servings); Surety Agreements
AND Establish New Definitions and Regulations to Allow the
Operation of Food and Beverage Products Processing,
Minor in the Commercial, Industrial and Traditional
Neighborhood Zoning Districts
De Weerd: Okay. Under 7-A, Action Items, we have a public hearing that was continued
from a June 6th meeting regarding the 2017 UDC text amendment and I will turn this over
to Caleb.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Don't freak out, I'm not going
to read all these code changes to you --
De Weerd: Oh, thank you.
Hood: So, I -- unless you want me to.
De W eerd: No. I -- I won't even ask Council on that one.
Hood: Madam Mayor, this -- this item was continued from June 6th. Staff proposed
changes just -- just before the June 6th hearing to several different sections of the Unified
Development Code, Title 11. Essentially, the three themes that are covered in the UDC
text are differentiating between bars and drinking establishments and wineries and
breweries and microbreweries, distilleries and those types of things. That line kind of gets
blurred with restaurants. So, that's part of what you see in your packet tonight, but I'm
not going to spend really any time on that. We covered that on the 6th. The o nly real
question that arose about that -- I believe it was Council Woman Milam brought up a
question about live music in some of the establishments , like wine bars, and we had at
that time proposed to put that as a prohibition in those and we have removed that since.
So, that was the only thing, really, that you all had comments on on June 6th and I haven't
received any other further public comment on -- again, that theme if you will,
differentiating. The second major theme is surety and occupancy requirements. This is
your permits out of order. It's actually the last thing in the packet. It's the very last section,
talking about, okay, as you go through the plating, a subdivision process, you get the city
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engineer's signature, you get building permits, you get occupancy, the way that's ordered
in code was not chronological, so, really, all we have done is change it to the right order
of this, then this, then this, not this and really step two down here and, then, this stuff up
here. So, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time, unless you want to talk about that,
but that's the very last section of the packet is talking about surety and occupancy and
life safety types of things. Again, nothing substantive in those changes, just a reordering
of that information. And, then, the third one is -- did get some play on June 6th and that
has to do with home occupations. So, staff collaborated with other city departments --
the legal staff has been busy. I think everybody that's given presentations on their code
is -- has -- it's illegal and I will be no exception to that. Emily Kane has been there every
step of the way on what you have before you. Building department and code enforcement
-- code enforcement is really the ones that -- that brought this to our attention. They were
having problems with enforcing businesses that weren't being good neighbors and ,
essentially, the ones that brought it up to legal saying, hey, we need to address this in the
code. So, that's kind of the why -- why we are here. Back before the June hearing, those
UDC changes were shared with the UDC focus group, which is largely developers, so we
didn't get a lot of feedback as you would expect. Most of them didn't care about these
changes, because they don't really affect them and same with the Building Contractors
Association of Southwest Idaho, those are our typical folks we -- we share that with and
it didn't get much comment. However, just days prior to the June 6th hearing several
letters of concern were received from the public. I'm not going to read those again, that's
part of the record from June 6th, but we received several letters of concern and in addition
to that, during the public hearing several parties testified on this topic, raising concerns
and questions with the proposed changes regarding home occupations. So, the Council,
again, continued the hearing to this meeting tonight and directed staff to establish a
stakeholder group of approximately ten to 15 people to discuss home - based businesses.
You also had some discussion -- I'm not going to try to summarize that June 6th meeting,
but we talked a little bit about process, standards, fees and maybe a tiered approach for
the different levels of home occupations. So, as you directed, we did set up a stakeholder
group and we contacted several of the parties that were present for that June 6th meeting
and invited them to participate in developing standards. We did make it clear and
everyone was on the same page, the intent was to uphold the integrity of residential
neighborhoods while still allowing home-based businesses. I'm not going to read to you
everybody that was invited, that's in your packet as well. We did have pretty good
representation. Not everybody that we invited were able to participate at all the meetings
or some of them didn't participate at all in person, but I did keep them in the loop, they
were on the distribution e-mail and I shared with them summaries of what we talked about
and the changes coming and that type of thing . So, I kept people hopefully in the know
of what we were up to. The workgroup did meet three times, once in July, once in August,
and once in September in person. I'm not going to, again, summarize everything we
talked about in there, but just know that we -- we did review and discuss how the city of
Boise treats these home occupations. We -- we came up with a new definition that we
will see in code regarding direct sales and, then, we talked about process and
enforcement and, you know, really how are we going to -- some of these calculations that
we will get into in an minute, how is code enforcement going to be able to actually enforce
the code and, then, Section 11-4-3-21, we really spent a lot of time on and I will, Madam
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Mayor, if it's okay with you, kind of read that section, but it's not -- not overly lengthy, but
I do kind of want to walk you through it and, then, the tiered approval process. So, without
further adieu I'm going to just go through the proposal you have here -- and, again, I'm
not going to touch on all of these, because it's all three of those themes in one, but the
first one I do want to call out -- and I already did in kind of that -- those opening remarks
is we added a new term for direct sales . The sale, distribution, presentation,
demonstration or supply goods directly to consumers from the fabricator or producer of
such goods through independent consultants, agents, or contractors. So, we didn't have
anything similar. It was basically retail sales is what we would say, so now there is a
differentiator between direct sales and retail sales. So, I think that -- that helps a lot in --
in where we are going with this discussion. So, I just wanted to highlight that one. Like I
said, I'm not going to read all these, but if you read something on the screen you want to
double back on or want me to explain, please, feel free to interrupt or -- and we can -- we
can discuss it. We also added to the definition, the first one on here, we modified the
term. We had home occupation already. We clarified that a home occupation is an
accessory use and that's important, because it clarifies that it's not a retail store. The
primary use is as a dwelling. Someone is living there, but you can have as an accessory
use a home occupation. So, we clarified that even in the definition of what that is, home
occupation and accessory use. So, I think that -- that also kind of helps and sets the
stage. Retail sales. We already have definition of a retail store. We added retail sales
to, again, clarify the difference between this term and direct sales. And, then, in the
allowed uses section we clarified when an accessory use permit or an AUP or a certificate
of zoning compliance, a CZC, is required for home occupations and a nonresidential
accessory use. So, essentially, what this says -- the first section is if you're -- if you're
building a home in this -- in a residential district, all you need is a building permit. You
don't need to -- you don't need to go through planning for anything. You did that when
you got your plat done. So, that's one. Two is if you are going to operate a home
occupation, accessory use, or a family daycare, you do need some approval from
Planning. You need to get this accessory use permit. And, then, three just talks about
other permitted or nonresidential accessory uses. So, this just kind of, again, clarifies the
process going forward. And, then, onto the next sheet. This, again, includes the new
definition of direct sales. Here is one item, though I do want to call to your attention and
we do have some folks that have commented on the draft that 's out there right now. There
was an error or a scrivener's error in this. This direct sales should have a one after it. As
we will talk about in Section 11-4-3-21, direct sales is a -- essentially the same as a type
of home occupation accessory use. So, the things that make you an accessories home
occupation, we also want to apply to direct sales. So, footnote number one, meeting
there is specific use standards that you need to apply -- comply with to be a direct sales
person, they are exactly the same as -- as those that apply for any other home occupation,
but there should be a little one, a footnote here, that says you need to comply with those
specific use standards and, again, I will spend a little bit of time on those here in just a
second. This is the same thing, just for commercial districts. So, the same listing as I did
here, this is just in the commercial districts. I'm going to -- unless there is any questions
on these -- this is just, again, saying where you can do the various uses in the various
zones. I didn't really have anything on this page to highlight to call to your attention. And,
then, traditional neighborhood districts. So, just to quickly call out -- so, daycares are
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really a similar -- a similar premise; right? Someone is living there, but they are also
running a business. So, they are watching kids, a daycare out of their home. So, a lot of
what you see matches up -- marries up with what you're going to see for home occupation,
accessory use, is it just makes sense. You have a lot of the same concerns with parking,
noise, and those types of things. So, for that consistency we added some things in here
that in no way shall a daycare emit smoke, dust, odors, those types of things. It should
look and feel and smell like a home. It shouldn't look and feel and smell like a business.
So, that's really just an emphasis there and that reemphasizing -- and this is -- currently
already required, but this is just reemphasizing if you are going to open up a daycare in
a home you must have a neighborhood meeting with your neighbors and discuss that with
them before applying to the city. So, this is more explicit. And, then, finally, the -- the
headliner here, if you will, is the one we spent most of our time on. I do want to just point
out as I run through this -- this is meant to be read in concert with each other. You can't
just look at one of the standards without -- you can't cover one thought for everything in
one. One section of this or subsection covers one concern, the other covers another, but
when you read it all together it gives you the full picture of the intent of the code. So, just
Section A here. Again, it the same -- this is -- a neighborhood meeting is required for
accessory use permits where you are having customer -- or actually not customer or
clients -- where you are having students or giving lessons, that is where we ended up
drawing the line. Clients and customers and students -- it really is, from code enforcement
-- what we heard a lot back from them was music lessons, yoga studios, those types of
things where there is students coming or they are giving lessons to people, those are the
ones that seem to be the most problematic for adjacent neighbors. So, where that's the
case you would need to have -- go through a similar process to a daycare and have the
-- the neighborhood meeting with your -- with everyone within a certain distance of the
residence and we drew that line at seven or more students at one time. So, you can have
six or fewer and you wouldn't -- you wouldn't trigger that upper tier, that most intense level
where you have to go through that process. But when you have seven or more students,
that's the trigger. It's -- again, it's largely based on our daycare standards, six or fewer,
seven to 12, 12 or more. So, that's -- that's kind of that first subsection there. B and C
kind of go together. This -- this clarifies the types of uses that are appropriate or not
appropriate as a home occupation accessory use. It's not inclusive. It says included, but
not limited to, but if you look at the very bottom of C-8, the director does have some
discretion. So, this isn't comprehensive of everything that may be -- you know, someone
could dream up running a type of business out of their home, but it does give you a flavor
of the types of uses that we are looking for and what we are not looking for. Basically,
anything to do with vehicles we are not looking for you to do out of your home . Again,
here are the ones that -- that are allowed as an accessory use to the home and ones
where we are likely to deny you for doing it out of your home. So, again, we spent quite
a bit of time coming up with and hashing, you know, what's appropriate, what isn't
appropriate and, again, this is -- this is what the group agreed to at least thus far.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
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Page 63 of 68
Milam: Caleb, I'm curious about pet boarding and if there is a standard to pet boarding
or just no pet boarding, because there might be people who will watch your pet for, you
know, ten bucks a day or whatever. That's not allowed or only if you have more than so
many animals? So --
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, Council Woman Milam, I don't think that came up in our
discussions. I will -- again, let's go through this and see if maybe -- if maybe you can
keep that in your mind as we are running through this. Oh, that would prohibit or allow
somebody to do that. I don't -- we didn't go through that scenario. I don't think it's been
an issue for code enforcement -- that they brought up anyway. So, again, it doesn't -- just
because it's not listed under B doesn't mean you can't do it, but those are, again, sample
uses. So, we will read the rest of these and go, oh, well, it's going be smelly, so if we get
complaints about smell, because you have got 15 kennels there --
Milam: It's prohibited.
Hood: Sorry?
Milam: It's listed as prohibited.
Hood: It is. I'm sorry, we didn't talk about that too much. But, you're right, 6-C. Yeah.
We didn't spend too much time on discussing that. Honestly, I don't know if that was a
carryover from current code -- so, I'm sorry, I didn't even realize it was listed there as
prohibited. But that is -- didn't get a lot of discussion in our group. Anything else on kind
of the first couple sections thus far? I will move on then. D is pretty much the same.
Again, it should -- it should still look like a house. E -- the new E, which was largely
Section B before, this one I wanted to just point out we had quite a bit of discussion about
this, too. On the books right now it's 25 percent of the overall living area. So, the garage
was excluded from what you could use currently. We landed on ten percent of the overall
dwelling. So, the garage can be part of your business, but it's capped in the overall
footprint, if you will, of your dwelling at ten percent of that for your -- for your business.
And, again, we spent a lot of time, you know, going through what that looks like, how we
would measure that, you know, what happens if someone is at 11 percent, you know,
there is -- and the garage definitely was a big -- big part of that discussion. But, you know,
what you see on the screen is what we all kind of agreed to try and see how it works . You
know, that goes for, I guess, all of this code, we will try it and see how it works and if we
think -- see that there is flaws in it, we can bring it back. The last section on here -- again,
this is largely the same as -- as you -- as currently on the books. It does include a
detached garage or detached accessory structure, just to clarify that, that they aren't part
of where you can store your goods or operate a business out of. So, I'm going to move
to the next portion of this same section. Again, this is -- this is the same standards we
currently have just with some -- some clarification on the language. But the next three
sections are largely the same. You can read it there. The other thing that I will just point
out is when we brought this to you originally we had different standards for single family
and multi-family. We actually prohibited these in multi-family projects and through that
discussion we decided to treat them the same . Single family, multi-family, they are both
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dwelling units. Parking is accommodated for. Shouldn't differentiate between where
somebody -- you know, if they are in an apartment, it doesn't matter, home, the same
standards apply, but allowing home occupations out of both single family and multi-family
projects. So, you don't really see that here, but that was in our first draft. And, then, H
that we struck out is actually covered in the B and C above that we talked about in direct
sales -- with adding direct sales and same with K, it's covered above. So, I think that's
kind of the -- the overview that I had. I will just continue to scroll through here. Again, a
lot more of this was -- had to do with, you know, breweries and -- and those types of
things. Oh, I did have one more thing that I wanted -- that I wanted to call to your attention
and, then, we will need to have some more discussion on it. The tiering, the different
levels of accessories uses. So, today we -- we technically do have three different levels,
if you will, but we treat -- the way we process them is a little bit different for accessory
use, home occupations that don't have customers or clients . Right now it's just an over-
the- counter paper that someone signs. They basically disclosed to Planning that they
are running a business out of their house. We don't have any way to deny that, revoke
it, to do anything and that's, again, largely why code enforcement brought this to legal
was to say this paper doesn't do us any good, because there is nothing to take away.
They just told you they are doing something and if they are in violation we don't have any
way to -- to enforce that. So, we are still -- we still have that administrative level for these
-- for homeowners, business owners, that don't have students or are providing instruction,
but we don't have a fee for that and so that's one of the things we will need to talk about
a little bit. Just as a point of reference, the daycare -- accessory use daycares and
accessory use for home occupations with customers or clients , those are typically -- we
charge 160 dollars right now and we talked about this in June -- which takes about three
hours of staff time to walk somebody through that process from when they walk in saying,
hey, I want to do this and sitting down with them and kind of walking through that process,
to writing the letters, to sending out notices through the clerk's office and those types of
things, it's about three hours of staff time and some hard costs. This new level -- I don't
envision it taking anywhere near that amount of time. Just as a frame of reference, some
of the other letters we do, we charge 53 dollars. I would say something like that will cover
our staff time. What I would propose is we try this out and we will document how much
time it takes us to process these and, then, as we do an update to the fee schedule -- the
city wide fee schedule we have now, we will bring that to Counc il and say, hey, we need
to add a fee for these in the future. I don't remember the timing of that. I didn't talk with
Cortni before this to see when the -- the citywide fee schedule is going to be amended,
but whatever that -- six months or nine months or whatever, we will process these for that
amount of time and say, hey, on average it's taking us 30 minutes, we think we should
charge a 25 dollar fee or whatever to recoup our cost. So -- but there would be those --
those three different levels, some probably administrative fee. The one that requires the
notice to people within 300 feet, the kind of higher level and, then, daycares are at that
same level. So, that was the last thing that I -- I think I wanted to point out to you and
here is the -- as I mentioned, the last slide had to do with surety agreements, the process.
If you look, the language is largely the same, it's just some of them moved up, some of
them move down, so -- I do -- just before I close, Madam Mayor, I do want to make
reference -- we did receive some additional public comment today. The folks that I'm
aware of we did receive a petition from some homeowners in the Bear Creek Subdivision
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on Hibernation Place, with some concerns. That should be in your packet. I'm not going
to run through that. There are -- there are some neighbors -- some residents that signed
up with concerns on that petition. We also received e-mails from -- and I talked to Whitney
Combs, who is the legal administrator for AIM Companies out of Nampa, talked to her
last week or the week before, shared this information. We received a letter from her and
they are in favor of the proposed changes, particularly allowing direct sales in residential
districts and I got real similar e-mails -- we received real similar e-mails from Chris
Robertson, Joyce Jensen and Sergio Fong, all within AIM Companies. Eric Ritter and
Carolyn Smith, two of our members, were here earlier, but I think we -- they were here at
3:00 o'clock and we scared them away. So, it's unfortunate, but I do -- you know,
hopefully, they listened to this. I do appreciate their involvement in this. We did -- it's my
understanding the clerk said he received a letter, an e-mail from Scentsy's legal counsel
supporting these changes as well. And, again, Eric Ritter represents Scentsy as well and
was very faithful in attending this meeting. I don't know for sure if he's got any concerns,
but he did not voice any of those to me and we shared the se several weeks ago asking
for their -- for any comments that the working group had. So, I assume -- big assumption
there, but I assume that most people are satisfied with the changes here. So, with that,
Madam Mayor, I would stand for any questions you have. Oh, no, I wouldn't. One more
thing. Sorry. It's a continued public hearing. I'm not asking you to act tonight. We just
-- we do want to allow people some more time to digest this. If you're so inclined -- I mean
that's your prerogative I guess. Staff would recommend -- you're meeting next Tuesday
is -- there is a pretty high profile project on that. I don't -- I think probably better off that
first meeting in December, allow a couple three weeks for people to fully consider the
changes here and attend. So, if you're agreeable, December 5th. We could also do the
28th of November if you wanted to do something in between. I know you have another
high profile project down in south Meridian on that agenda, so up to you. I'm not asking
for action tonight, but, again, that's -- that's your discretion, so -- now thank you.
De Weerd: Are you sure?
Hood: Pretty sure.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Bird: I have none.
De Weerd: Okay. Is there anyone signed up to testify?
Coles: Madam Mayor, Caleb mentioned Eric Ritter had signed up in favor, not wishing to
testify. Carolyn Smith, also in favor, not wishing to testify. And Tabb -- Tabb Compton in
favor, not wishing to testify. That was all the sign-ups.
De Weerd: Is there anyone who wishes to comment on this item? Okay.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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November 14, 2017
Page 66 of 68
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Seeing that no public wants to testify and the Council evidently needs no deal, I
move we close the public hearing on 2017-0044. I thought it was a public hearing?
De Weerd: I have a motion to close the public hearing. Do I have a second? Okay. Is
there a desire to continue this? To discuss it? To do anything?
Milam: Madam Mayor, what was Caleb's --
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Caleb, what was your recommendation?
Hood: Madam Mayor, Council Woman Milam, I would recommend that you leave the
hearing open until December 5th or -- or November 28th, to just make sure -- again, I'm
pretty confident, I have talked to some folks, I think we are on the right track here, but just
in case -- and, again, there was one change that -- you know, to the direct sales. I do
want to add that footnote there to direct sales. It says, hey, the -- that Section 11-4-3-21,
these standards still apply to you, too. You need to be a good neighbor while you do
sales. That's my recommendation. But --
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we -- we have discussed this a little bit
internally -- because there is a long gap between June and now, there have been some
people that have been very actively involved . Mr. Ritter from Scentsy, as well as some
others, but there was a lot of other people that appeared in June and although it was set
over at that time, I don't know the public's sense of this particular change. Again, there
has been a number of changes and so it was our suggestion that maybe using some of
our outreach methods that we have developed since June, like NextDoor, to at least get
it out there and see if there is -- so that we are not surprised again by the public's reaction
to this. We think we have got it right this time, but we thought it might be best and the
Council would feel a little more comfortable if we gave it one more shot.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: And, Caleb, I guess I would like a little bit more further information about the pet
boarding. I do know somebody who that would directly affect and if that was already part
of the law or if that's something new that was added and, you know, they haven't got any
complaints from their neighbors, I don't want to put them in a position where they are now
doing something that's against regulation.
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November 14, 2017
Page 67 of 68
Hood: Madam Mayor. I can certainly ask Code Enforcement to -- to attend and see if
that's been a problem. Again, I just don't recall us really talking about that. So, I'm --
yeah. There it is, but I don't remember really see it, talking about it.
Milam: I guess the only reason I noticed it is because I know somebody that does that,
so --
De Weerd: Okay. So, Council, do you want to set this out to the 28th or the December
5th?
Bird: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we continue the public hearing on the H-2017-0044 to December 5th, 2017.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion to continue this until December 5th. All those favorite say
aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 8: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you very much. Council, under future meeting topics, I do have
a couple of events. Certainly the firefighter recruit academy graduation that's this Friday
night at 6:00 p.m. and, believe it or not, Christmas is coming, whether you are ready or
not. The Parks Department is. They are hosting the Winter Lights Parade on Friday,
December 1st. It starts at 6:30. I don't know if you have all gotten a hold of April, but we
need you there by 6:00. We do have little Santa helpers to pass out candy. Candy cane
fun run is also on Friday. It starts at 6:25 -- 6:25? Before the parade. Okay. Twilight
Christmas Market is December 7th, noon to 8:00. Children's Winterland Festival
December 9th from 10:00 to 3:00. And downtown business decorating contest throughout
December. So, we have a lot in store for the holidays. Any other topics under this item?
Item 9: Amended Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(d): To
consider records that are exempt from disclosure as provided in
chapter 1, title 74, Idaho Code and 74-206(1)(c): To acquire an
interest in real property which is not owned by a public agency.
De Weerd: If not, I would entertain a motion to adjourn into Executive Session on Item 9.
Bird: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(c),(1)(d).
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr. Clerk,
will you, please, call roll.
Roll call: Bird, yea; Borton, absent; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little
Roberts, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (7:02 p.m. to 8:22 p.m.)
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Bird: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES, TWO ABSENT.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Bird: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor?
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:22 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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