HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-03-13Meridian City Council Workshop March 13,
2018.
A workshop meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m.,
Tuesday, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam, Luke Cavener, Ty
Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Others Present: Ted Baird, C.Jay Coles, Warren Stewart, Caleb Hood, Berle Stokes,
Charlie Butterfield, Dale Bolthouse, and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll -call Attendance:
0I11111110111
X Anne Little Roberts X Joe Borton
X Ty Palmer X Treg Bernt
_X Genesis Milam _X_ Lucas Cavener
X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. I would like to call this meeting to order. First I would like to
welcome all of you for joining us here at City Council meeting. We love to have our
public join us. For the record it is Tuesday, March 13th. It's a few minutes after 3:00.
We will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I'm going to make one slight adjustment on item -- under Item A, Item C we are
going to move to a new H. It's kind of reordering things a little bit. We will see how
things go and we stay on pace to get through all of them. With that amendment I would
move that we adopt agenda.
Cavener: Second.
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De Weerd: Have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in
favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 4: Proclamations
A. Proclamation for MS Awareness Week
De Weerd: And I'm going to move down to the podium. Okay. I'm going to ask Carla if
you and your group would come and join me at the podium for the reading of this
proclamation. So, the Treasure Valley MS Walk has traditionally been in Boise and this
year it's been moved to Meridian. So, it's going to be held at Julius M. Kleiner Park on
April 14th. So, I have been asked to make up a proclamation and I thank you all for
joining us. And, then, I'm going to ask you all to say a few words -- or whoever would
like to say a few words, just a little bit about the walk, inform us all what's going on and
whatever other details that you would like. Whereas multiple sclerosis, MS, is a
neurological disease of the central nervous system affecting 2.3 million people
worldwide and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has been committed for more
than 70 years to a world free of MS, heightening public knowledge about and insight
into the disease and whereas in Idaho more than 4,400 people are living with MS and
that the disease generally strikes people in the prime of life between 20 and 50 years of
age and whereas the cause and course of MS remain unknown and no cure currently
exists, even though more than 974 million dollars in groundbreaking research has
occurred for pursuing prevention, treatments, and a cure and whereas the Treasure
Valley MS Walk brings together the community and raises funds to change the world for
everyone affected by multiple sclerosis and this year's walk will be held in Meridian's
Julius M. Kleiner Memorial Park on April 14th, 2018, and whereas stopping MS in its
tracks, restoring what has been lost and ending MS forever is the mission of the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society and one that all Americans and Idahoans should
support, therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, do hereby proclaim March 11th through
the 17th as MS Awareness Week in the City of Meridian and I encourage all community
members to become informed and involved in the fight so we can imagine a world
without multiple sclerosis and I sign this today and I would present this, Carla, to you
and ask you or your group members if you would like to --
Ferguson: Hi. My name is Ashley Ferguson. I, myself, have the disease multiple
sclerosis. I was diagnosed in 2009 and I became a member of our society here. With
me today are people who have the disease or somebody important to them has the
disease and we are also the walk committee. So, this week is MS Awareness Week
and as Mayor Tammy mentioned, we are moving the walk from another part of the
valley to Meridian and we are very excited about that and it's going to be at Kleiner Park
this year. It's going to be on April 14th and the walk registration starts at 9:00. The walk
is at 10:00. Last year we walked in the rain around the parking lot, because part of the
greenbelt was closed off and we still had almost 1,100 people that showed up in the
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rain. So, this year we have a lot bigger goal. We would like to see over 1,200 people,
but we would really like to see 1,500 people and our goal is to raise 125,000 dollars and
we are over our target right now to do that. So, we are pretty excited about that. As of
this week -- there is about five weeks left. If you would like to join us we would be glad
to have any of you and we are really excited to bring it over to Meridian and be more
inclusive to the whole valley and the beautiful facility there.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Ferguson: Thank you very much.
Doug: This nice young lady that was just speaking, her company, the Griddle
Restaurant, is one of the top sponsors -- is the corporate sponsor for the whole walk.
So, her sponsorship in this means a lot to all of us her being the corporate sponsor for
this. So, everybody go to the Griddle Restaurant all the time and eat, because --
because she is our sponsor and I really appreciate it and thank you for doing this. And
our sponsorships -- one of our biggest sponsors is a member of your group. Genesis
and I go back a long ways, so she is one of my all-time sponsors.
De Weerd: And you do not have to stay, so -- we appreciate you being here though.
thought I better clarify that.
Item 5: Consent Agenda
Road
0157)
from
of
A. Decatur Estates Subdivision No. 3 Pedestrian Pathway
Easement
B. Shallow Creek Subdivision Pedestrian Pathway Easement
C. Acceptance Agreement for Heroes Park Public Art Project
D. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Linder Mixed Use
(H2O17-0095) by Trevor Gasser, Located at 5960 N. Linder
E. Resolution No. 18-2062: A Resolution (Kobe/Cope H-2017-
For the Amendment of the Future Land Use Map of the 2002
Comprehensive Plan for approximately 10.12 acres of land
General Commercial (C -G) to Light Industrial (I -L). Said land is
known as Kobe/Cope and is generally located on the northeast
corner of N. Locust Grove and E. Franklin Road, in the SW 1/4
Section 08, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Meridian, Idaho,
Ada County.
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F. Approval of a Sole Source Purchase for Hach Flow Meters
Equipment and Service Parts. Goble Sampson Associates, Inc.
is the only authorized distributor for Hach Flow Meter
equipment in Southern Idaho.
G. AP Invoices for Payment 3/14/18 - $2,061,020.40
De Weerd: Item 5 is our Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda as published and for the Mayor to
sign and the Clerk to attest.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is
not discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 6: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 7: Community Items/Presentations
A. Valley Regional Transit Presentation about Valley Connect 2.0
De Weerd: Item 7 under Community Presentation, we will kick it off with 7-A with the
Valley Regional Transit presentation. Good afternoon.
Hunt: Good afternoon.
De Weerd: Thanks for joining us.
Hunt: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. My name is Stephen Hunt and I am a
fiscal planner at Valley Regional Transit and I'm very happy to be here to talk to you
about Valley Connect today. So, the purpose of today's presentation is to talk about
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how Valley Connect can improve or enhance the -- and support economic activity
occurring in the City of Meridian and throughout the Treasure Valley and, then,
hopefully, we will have a chance to answer any questions or to discuss that after the
presentation. But to begin, when we talk about economic development, one of the
analogies that I find most app is to talk about fire; right? So, an economy -- just as a --
so, a fire burns hot when oxygen is able to be delivered to the fire and exhaust is being
able to take away and similarly with -- with an economy, the easier you have the flow of
goods and people, the more effectively your economy can -- can burn or can work and
that's really the focus of why we are talking about public transit and its role on the
economy in the Treasure Valley and in Meridian specifically, because there are two
specific ways that I wanted to mention that transit really helps ease the friction that
occurs between the movement of goods and people and the first of that is that it's an
efficient use of space. When we look at the amount of -- the amount of space that it
takes to move 40 people in individual automobiles, that's about 19 vehicles that it would
require, as opposed to a single -- a single bus. So, 280 feet of right of way versus 40
feet of right of way. It also means that you're able to -- to not just the roadway space
and we are talking about, but also where those cars go when they are not being driven.
In other words, the amount of -- the amount of space that the city and the public entities
need to dedicate to parking changes dramatically when you are able to increase the
number of people who are moving in -- in transit, which means you're able to bring,
again, more -- more land and more resources into productive use in the region. The
other reason that transit has a really powerful impact on the potential economic growth
of a region -- of a community is that it can lower the cost of transportation. So, when we
look at the amount of money that we spend on getting -- moving people around today, if
you look at just the cost for -- for gas and maintenance of privately owned vehicles
today, we estimate that's about one and a half billion dollars a year that we spend -- that
the residents of the Treasury Valley spend on -- on getting themselves where they want
to be. When we compare that to the amount of money that's spent on public transit
operations it's about 15 million and so what -- what that shows to me is -- it's two things.
One, when we ask people -- because one of the questions we get about public transit,
particularly in the Treasure Valley, is why aren't we seeing full buses and why -- why -- if
it's such a good use of resources, why isn't it overflowing and one of the reasons for that
is because when we look at the -- the amount of places that we can connect to in transit
versus what you can get to in a car it's dramatically different and this -- this slide helps
to illustrate that. When we say go out and use public transit today what we are asking
people to do is step out of this world of one and a half billion dollars of freedom and into
a world of 15 million dollars' worth of freedom and they end up -- customers feel that in
terms of when the bus starts running in the morning, when it quits running at night. The
fact that it doesn't run on weekends, the frequency that the buses come, all of those
things have to do with how -- how much we invest in -- in the service itself. The
frequency of transit operations. And so the other thing that this slide illustrates to me is
the amount of money that people are willing to spend on getting themselves around and
it's substantial and when we think about what we are trying to do with Valley connect is
really say if we as a region -- what can we do to lower the amount of money that -- that
we all spend on public transit -- not on public transportation -- on transportation and if
we are able to -- to use that in a more efficient way, can we connect more people to
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more places at a lower cost and out of pocket, as well as in terms of the amount of
space that we dedicate to transportation issues, because we know that when people are
able to rely on transit, as opposed to their own private vehicle for most of the travel,
households can save up to eight to nine thousand dollars a year by not having to own
and maintain another vehicle. So, that's money that can be used for other purposes
and money that can be used to go to school or to help enhance, again, the local
economy. So, how is Valley Connect proposing to do anything about that? The plan is
based on -- is based on Communities In Motion, which is the regional transportation and
land use plan and in that plan they have identified about 300,000 hours -- a 300,000
hour gap, which means we would need to quadruple our service that we have today in
order to meet the demands that are existing today and so that's how we sized this
program. So, we would quadruple the amount of service in the Treasury Valley, which
would allow us to provide service every 15 minutes or better on major corridors across
the valley, that's creating nine -- nine frequent routes and that really changes the way
people think about what transit can do for them, because no longer do they have to wait
on the sidewalk for an hour for the next trip, but they are able to -- or plan that trip so
that they say, well, I need to leave right now or else I'm going to be two hours late for
my meeting, those types of things are real and -- and when we are able to provide
higher frequency of service it changes the frequency with which people will choose to
take transit. We also will be -- we are also proposing to make investments in the
roadway to help make transit move easier through traffic, so we know that -- that
congestion exists today and if we can get transit to move faster through existing traffic,
then, that -- that does two things, it makes transit more attractive, it also makes better
use of that existing roadway, because we are able to move more people through a
congested space. The other thing, in addition to frequency, that we will be increasing --
we hear all the time from our customers that we need service that runs nights and
weekends and so Valley Connect would -- would improve the amount of service that's
available in the evening, as well as on weekends. The result of all that is that we have -
- we set ourselves a target of increasing ridership by 800 percent with this investment in
service and that's a substantial target, but it's based on quadrupling the amount of
service that we are providing, at the same time doubling the productivity of our service
and that -- that's perfectly doable when we look at what our peers produce in terms of
boardings per hour and so we would go from where we are today, which is about 12
boardings per hour to over 20 boardings per hour and, again, that's achievable because
there is a big difference between the attractiveness of buses that comes once an hour
and a bus that comes every 30 minutes or every 15 minutes or better and that's how we
are able to achieve that -- that kind of efficiency. In addition to investments in -- in
traditional fixed routes, Valley Connect looks at what opportunities are there to leverage
enhancements and technology. So, what -- what can we do to build Lift and Uber and
the number and automation to make sure that we are building a transit network that is
for the 21st century. So, as mentioned, what I wanted to focus on today is really how
does Valley Connect help grow the economy, how does it support the communities that
we serve and it starts in large part with what that -- what that transportation network
looks like. So, I mentioned that we would be making investments in over a hundred
miles of roadway and if you look at this map, those -- those hundred miles of roadway
are along these premium corridors that were identified by Valley Connect 2.0 and you
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will -- you will notice that virtually all of the -- many of the east -west primary corridors
between Boise -Meridian would be targeted for that premium level of service. So,
Chinden, Fairview, Overland, as well as frequent service on Emerald into Meridian
making connections at -- both in downtown and at The Village. Also making
connections up and down Overland by Silverstone, by Mountain View High School and
just off the map is where the Ten Mile Crossing is as well and so all of those places
becoming more accessible with -- with transit. In addition to those premium and
frequent services, we would be making investments in -- in secondary services, services
that come every 30 minutes, pushing out into other parts of the region, so you can see a
large part of north Meridian gets covered. Also trying to extend service down into Kuna
and out to Eagle, making a connection between Meridian and Nampa via Cherry Lane
and -- and Franklin, again, expanding the reach of what people are able to access on
transit. But the sum of all those investments, whether they are the capital investments
to help make transit move faster or the service investments to connect the region, it's
really how far -- or how much are we able to connect people to the destinations they are
trying to go. How much are we expanding people's freedom, in other words, by transit.
So, when we look at today some -- let me take one step back real quick. One of the
things -- one of the realities of the transit service we have today is that we haven't been
able to keep up with development. As you know -- or looking at this map you will see
the yellow lines there, they don't make it very far west, but there has been a whole lot of
development that's happened in West Boise and in Meridian, but our transit network has
not -- has not responded, has not been able to respond to that development in any -- in
any kind of real way and so when we look at an important location, such as The Village,
there -- there is no transit opportunity at that location. In Valley Connect, however, we
would be expanding the reach of transit to the central part of the valley, making
Meridian much more the center of the Treasure Valley as it is geographically. So, would
also be in transit and you will notice -- you have -- so, again, this map is showing how
far you can make it in 15, 30, 45 and 60 minutes on transit and walking at 7:00 a.m. if
we were to start at The Village with the growth network in mind and so it really becomes
accessible again on all your major east -west connections, whether that's Ustick or
Fairview, Franklin, Overland, you have connections down on the freeway. Downtown
Boise becomes accessible, as does -- as does the airport. You also will have
connections out to CWI in Nampa. Better connections up and down Eagle Road out to
Eagle itself and Linder and just off the map you -- there is also connections out to
Micron. So, many of the locations that we hear about people asking for, so why don't
we have service that does this or that. Why can't I take a bus to the airport? Don't you
guys know that there is a lot of people that work out at Micron and, of course, those are
things that we know and we are trying to be able to accommodate with -- with the
growing transit network and what we are planning for in -- in Valley Connect. So, when
we look at how well that network would connect to jobs, this is information from the
census. It's LEHD data, which stands for something that I can't remember.
Longitudinal something household data something something. But the point is it's
identifying where people work and where they live and if we look at the locations that --
where people are going in these so they can see the yellow highlighted census tracks,
people who live in those locations, where do they work and what's the density of those
locations and so typical places pop up. You can see downtown Boise is there. We also
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see Micron out on the far -- to the far southeast, but you also notice that there is -- so,
want you to compare the map that we just looked at, how far can you get to -- The
Village is in downtown Meridian. I get that. But how far can you get from Meridian to
certain places in time, compared to where people are trying to get in those jobs and
locations. You will notice you have -- Fairview shows certainly -- Fairview as a corridor -
- is obvious there you have got locations around the mall, you have got locations around
-- oh, gosh -- Cole and Overland, as well as south -- you can see -- you can see
Overland going all the way from Cole out -- out towards Meridian is a popular
destination and when we look at the amount -- here is some other interesting facts when
you think about the -- the amount of mobility or traffic that happens in and around
Meridian. There is about 300 -- not 300 -- 30,000 people that live in Meridian and are
working outside of Meridian and about 30,000 people who live outside of Meridian and
are working in Meridian. So, it's a very balanced kind of flow of people in and out and,
then, there is about 8,000 people that both work and live within -- within these -- when I
say Meridian what I'm talking about are these census tracts, which I know it doesn't
exactly mirror the city's boundaries, but the point is we have a lot of people moving both
into Meridian, out of Meridian and within Meridian and approximately 70 percent of
those trips are less than ten miles. In other words, they are the kinds of trips that we
could pick up on the -- the type of network that -- where we are developing strong east -
west connections on all of our major arterials, as well as connections out to the airport
and -- I'm sorry -- on the freeway into downtown Boise at the airport and Micron. So, in
addition to the -- the fixed route connections we -- Valley Connect would also be
building on the community transportation options that we have been able to develop in
Meridian specifically. So, we would be looking to grow the -- the Harvest Transit work
and the other community transportation options that have been successful here to make
sure that people are able to ride between the lines, make those first and last mile
connections. We also will be looking for other types of innovative approaches to that.
That's where I mentioned Lift and Uber to be able to make some of those connections to
ensure that people are able to, again, extend the reach of transit. So, just really quick I
want to talk about where we are in the process. So, we presented this draft plan to the
VRT board in January and they approved it for public comments, so we have been out
in the public since -- since the start of February. We have received about 1,200
comments so far. That survey -- that comment period extends through the end of --
sorry. The 15th of March. So, that's Thursday. And a couple of things that we have
heard and, then, we will take the comments that we have heard from that survey, make
changes -- changes to the draft plan and we expect to present the -- the changes to the
plan to the board in April. I want to just mention a couple of things that we have been
able to glean from that survey so far. So, I mentioned there are 1,200 comments across
the valley that -- that we have heard from. About ten percent of those are from the City
of Meridian, but 32 percent -- about a third of all of the people who filled out a survey
commented that Meridian is a place that needs to be connected with transit today and
so there is -- in other words, there is lots of people who are outside the City of Meridian
who must be saying Meridian is a destination that we are trying to get to and so that's
an important thing for -- for us to be thinking about as a regional transit provider about
how do we connect not just within our community, but how do we connect our
community to the other locations that are trying to get to us. The Village specifically
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was identified by 17 percent of the survey -- of the people who filled out the survey as a
location that needs to be connected with -- with transit and so we are encouraged by the
interest that the public is showing in -- in transit generally and in the opportunities that
there are for Meridian specifically to -- to really change that, because as you know the
only transit service that exists today in Meridian, outside of Harvest Transit, are the
connections that are kind of along the 1-84 corridor, Route 42 that comes in and along
Overland and so we are excited about the opportunity to extend transit into -- into
Meridian in a real way. So, our next steps, as I mentioned, will be taking the draft plan
to -- I'm sorry, the final plan with the comments included to our board in April and, then,
from there we wanted to -- we will be coming back to each of our stakeholders and --
and cities to talk about what does the plan mean for you and what are some options that
we can talk about in terms of what are the priorities that the city has for growing transit
within the -- within their cities. How can we begin developing partnerships with -- private
business owners about the value that transit brings to those locations. So, one of the
things that we have been doing with Middleton and Star and Eagle is talking about how
we serve the Highway 44 corridor and it turns out that today we have service that just
runs down Highway 44, it's called Route 44, and it goes into downtown Boise and it
turns out that a lot of the people who are living in Middleton and Star and parts of Eagle,
yes, there is a -- downtown is a popular destination, but so is Meridian and so we have
been looking at options that actually would take that service from Eagle, up Eagle Road,
make connections to the -- not just The Village itself, but all of the things that are around
The Village, Scentsy and Blue Cross of Idaho and so the next steps with those types of
conversations is what is the value of that transit service to those -- to those entities and
how can we start talking to them about the importance of helping their employees get to
and from work and bringing people -- attracting people to -- to those destinations. So,
we look forward to continuing those conversations with our stakeholders and that is
what I have to share with you today. So, I appreciate the time and would stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Stephen. Council, questions? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Thanks for the presentation. A few questions for you. How
much do you anticipate full build out of your plan to cost? A second question is where
do you intend to find that money. And the third question is -- when I was on the board
about a year and a half ago I believe that our -- per ride it cost about seven dollars of
taxpayer money to subsidize each ride on top of the fare that was charged. With the
800 percent increase in ridership, you know, at full build out with -- with the cost of
whatever that might be, how much do you anticipate that subsidy per ride to have gone
up or down?
Hunt: So, the -- I will take -- I will try and take those in order. The first question was
what -- what's the cost of it and so we -- in quadrupling the amount of service that we
would be providing, we would be quadrupling our operating budget. So, from ten to 40
million or so a year in transit operations, which, incidentally, when we look at the
amount of money that we spend on student transportation in Ada and Canyon county
for public and private -- public and charter schools, that -- that's about 35 million dollars
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a year that we spend on getting -- just on the yellow school buses for just that segment
of the population for nine months of the year, which doesn't say anything about the fact
that 40 million is definitely still a significant increase over where we are today. The
capital cost for the growth network is about -- is about 200 million and those, obviously
-- they are not -- those are annual costs, so the difference between operating costs and
capital costs, which I'm sure you all appreciate. So, we would be looking at ways of
raising those moneys that wouldn't have to be done all at once necessarily, but what's
not included in Valley Connect is a specific funding plan, as you mentioned, because
there is -- we -- as an aspirational plan we don't have a specific plan to get the money.
We are seeing this in terms of phases and we need to be able to say what's important to
the community, how -- how much does it cost and, then, come back with a question
about how do we -- how do we organize ourselves to fund that. I'm sure you're aware of
all the past efforts that have gone into -- into place to try and fund transit at different
levels. There aren't a whole lot of new ideas in terms -- in terms of that, other than we
are interested in being able to identify specific projects that are -- that are of interest to
both the community at a public level, as well as a private level, and try and find ways of
raising that money via the means that we have available to ourselves and so we also
realize that that -- that means we are not going to just ask the cities to find this in their
budget, because it's not there; right? We know that this is -- the kind of money that we
are talking about are not -- are not things that we will just be able to find in the budget.
So, it would be a concerted effort to raise revenue. But we -- we don't have a specific
plan for that yet. But that will be a large part of what the VRT board begins to look at in
the coming year. Your other question was about subsidy per rider and so one of the
things that's really interesting about transit is when you're able to get higher performing
services -- so, when we talk about doubling -- doubling the productivity of services you
would be having your subsidy per rider if you make no changes to -- to the fare
collection and so we would be looking at what can we do to increase our fare revenue,
as well as doubling the productivity of our -- of our service. So, we don't have a specific
forecast of what the subsidy per rider would be, but given the -- the outcome -- if we are
able to hit that target of quadrupling -- sorry -- eight times in our ridership, while only
quadrupling the amount of service we are providing, then, the result is we would be
reducing the amount of subsidy per rider.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Stephen, I'm so glad you're here. You're like an encyclopedia when it comes
to transportation knowledge. I saw yesterday that the -- the city of Arlington is
abandoning public transit in favor of on demand buses and I guess has there -- has
there been any thought -- there is a lot of talk in -- in the 2.0 plan about on demand, but
is there any thought or discussion about a public transit system that is without buses in
our future and, if so, how does that impact a lot of the discussion that's happening right
now with VRT?
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Hunt: So, the thing to remember about what public transit is doing, it's -- at its core --
will go back to this initial slide. At its core what it's about is about getting many people
to share a common resource, which is a vehicle and so whenever we pursue an option
that reduces the number of people in a -- in a single vehicle, which any kind of on
demand service you do really well if you get three to four rides per hour, because if
you're thinking about it, the time that it takes me to go and pick up an individual, take
them somewhere, and drop them off, go pick up somebody else, take them somewhere
and drop them off, you just don't have the ability to get the -- the productivity that you
can have in a fixed route service, because you're not asking people necessarily to walk
out to the sidewalk, you're not asking -- you're not congregating the population in a way
that allows you to move them as efficiently as a larger vehicle does. Having said that,
there are lots of opportunities that we are pursuing at VRT to become more efficient at
that low end of -- of the productivity scale. So, where we are not -- where we are not
providing five, six rides an hour, we should be looking at how can we do that more
effectively and providing on demand type services. The example that you provided with
Arlington, just -- just to put it in scale, they -- they said that they replaced their buses
and -- with the all call, which is similar to our Lift or Uber, for all intents and purposes
and they had 5,000 boardings a month. We have 100,000 boardings a month at VRT
and we are not at all, you know, the cream of the crop when it comes to transit
productivity. So, the issue is one of scale and so whenever we look at -- at these types
of services that are -- that are on demand, we need to be careful about thinking how can
we really -- how can we make sure that we are leveraging public transit to the greatest
extent possible.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, just one question. You talked about the survey results, which
I'm excited to see and I just -- I'm curious, are you planning to share the survey result
data with all the municipalities that are in the valley, so we can see what our citizens are
saying about public transit and what others are saying about the transit in our
community?
Hunt: Yes. Yes. And, in fact, that's one of the things that we have been -- we have
become more aware of is that we hear from the riders about the things that are
important to them and oftentimes that information kind of stalls with us, because --
because we are the transit provider we need to do a much better job in becoming kind
of the pass-through of information, so that the jurisdictions that we serve have a better
idea of what people are saying about transit in their communities, because I feel like we
have not always done the best job of ensuring that that -- that that information gets to
the end of the row, so to speak, and you all hear about the importance of transit.
Cavener: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Thank you for your presentation. So, what -- you mentioned in your presentation
that you guys were going to -- you spoke about different -- or that you were going to
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make some improvements or you're planning on doing some improvements to our
roadways, you know, specific priority roadways. What type of improvements would you
be doing?
Hunt: So, it would be -- the types of improvements we have been working on with
ACHD on the State Street corridor -- so, where they have been putting in transit signal
priority, which allows buses to -- to move through an intersection faster, would be the
types of things we would be looking at. We would also be looking at potentially doing
things to make it easier for -- to reduce the friction of a bus stopping and picking people
up and getting back in traffic. So, that might include things like -- excuse me -- having --
they are called bulbs, where the bus would actually stop in lane, which makes it easier
for the bus to -- to load people and move on. So, those would be the types of things
that we would be talking about. At the far end of the scale would be things like bus only
lanes, which there are a number of hurdles that we have to go over before we would be
doing things like that, but there -- that's -- in terms of the spectrum of -- of priority that
you might make in a roadway, everything from transit single priority, Queue jump, which
is all things that are targeted to getting buses through intersections faster, to transit only
lanes would be -- or HOV lanes would be at the other end of the scale.
Bernt: I'm a big believer in this. I think that as we grow as a community I think the
different types of transportation methods are important, not -- not just for those who
don't have vehicles.
Hunt: Right.
Bernt: I did -- for example, my father-in-law, who lives in south Salt Lake in a city called
Riverton and every day -- and this is pretty far south, almost to Draper, but on the other
side of the freeway. He works right next to the University of Utah and he -- and he hops
on their transit system, their light rail, and goes to work every day and comes back
home and it's full and he has multiple vehicles and is very capable of driving to work
every day, but chooses to do so, because -- because of the convenience and because
of, you know, the amount of money that he's saving and so I think it's just almost, you
know, more community outreach, continuing this discussion and helping people
understand and changing their mind set, you know, on Friday Night going to The Village
or -- and going downtown for a ball game, instead of jumping in your own car, take the
bus. Not because I don't have a car, but because in some cases I think it's the right
thing to do, you know, to get vehicles off the road, especially with the type of congestion
that we are facing today. So, thank you for your presentation and good luck and
anything I can do let me know.
Hunt: Thank you very much.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: Just another couple questions for you. And I don't mean to put you on the
spot, but talk to me and talk to Council a little bit about the thought process behind the
goals that are annotated on this postcard. And the reason why I ask is that while I think
better use of our limited roadway is important, I think you ask most people they would
believe that their neighbors should take the bus and not drive on the freeway. I think
when you look at the cost savings that is annotated there as well, those aren't real
dollars that most people take into account. It's the most like with -- with a bond and it
gets added to your house payment and you don't think about the dollars that you're
spending every month or every year to contribute to that. It's not real dollars and I'm
just curious about -- and I would take into account where the goals came from, because,
quite frankly, I think that we are missing goals and how are we making it, I don't know,
better or more convenient for our citizens. You know, why -- and to Mr. Bernt's point,
his father-in-law probably takes the light rail because it saves him time on his commute.
It helps -- it's a benefit and, sure, it's less cars on the roadway, but that's not the reason
why he chooses it and, yes, it maybe saves some money, but that's not why he chooses
it. So, can you just share with us where the goal process is, because I think that's a
critical piece that's missing and you see it addressed somewhat in the plan, but I just -- I
don't see it as being an overall major goal of -- under this new approach with VRT.
Hunt: Thanks. So, there are a couple of different ways that we have tried to approach
and communicate the message to -- to bodies such as councils that we tend to focus
most -- city councils we tend to focus a lot on. Kind of a public benefit. And the
planning connection between transit and economic development, for example. That's
not really what -- what most residents are going to get super excited about and so what
-- what drove kind of the development of these goals and the purpose of the plan is
better communicated I think with the title of the plan, which is the freedom to move and
connecting more people more places more often. And so, really, what we are -- so,
coming back to the comments that you made about your father in Salt Lake, the -- the
premise is relatively simple. It's if we can connect more people to more places more
often, then, the choice to make transit is easy. You don't have to do a whole lot of arm
twisting to get somebody to choose to take transit, because the ways that we
experience the frustrations of our existing kind of transportation paradigm is that as I --
as I grow up, if I get a job, I get a car to go to my job. My spouse, she has a job, she
has a car to go to her job. We have kids, they have activities after school, I need to take
them to their activities after school. They go to high school. They get a car so they can
go to high school. I want to go see a game, I can take my car to that; right? So, every
single trip -- every single thing that I try to do requires me to use a car to do that; right?
And that requires my time in terms of just driving -- driving requires my money in terms
of gas. It requires -- so -- and in that time question, it's not just the time that I am driving
-- it's not just the time that I'm in transit, it's the time that I can be doing other things,
even while I'm in transit; right? And so transit in the sense of in motion, not necessarily
in transit, because if you were in transit, then, you could be doing other things than --
than focusing on -- on the roadway and so those are an end. Then, as my parents age
and no longer can drive, it's either myself, who has got to figure out how to get them
where they need to go, the church community that I'm part of, make sure that they have
opportunities to get to the doctor. So, all of those are -- they are stresses that we face
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with a scenario that doesn't provide transportation options and so when we provide
more -- when we come back to this concept of all we are trying to do is grow this from
what can I get to our transit right now to many more places, the choice is -- the choice
becomes relatively easy. Certainly there is a lot we can do in terms of helping -- helping
people see the value of transit, do much more marketing, but when it comes down to
what's going to make somebody chose to do it is the fact that it's convenient and it helps
them live their lives in a way that -- that is what they want to do. So, whether that's
getting to school or whether that's getting to work or to see their -- their family, that's the
core of what we are trying to do with this plan and this is the best way that we have
come across to illustrate that. The -- the goals, though, end up manifesting themselves
in these weird things, like average number of jobs you can access in 30 minutes; right?
And nobody -- nobody here cares about that, they just want to know can I get to my job;
right? And so the way we look at measuring that is simply more is better and if we can
get more people more places more often, then, that's what we will do.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thank you for the presentation. It was very engaging and I appreciate the
information. My questions are more logistical and I -- I have never really lived anywhere
where there was public transit, so forgive me if I show my ignorance, but in a suburban
layout, the way we are for the most part, if I want to go from my house to The Village
and drive to Fairview and wait for a bus, it would be easier to drive to The Village, first of
all, and if we -- everybody wants to ride the bus to Micron say, because that would be a
safe -- a time saver, where do they park? Because -- because we are all several miles
away, riding a bike isn't really realistic, especially in the winter, so they are going to
have to get in a car and they are going to have to put the car somewhere. So, how
does that work?
Hunt: So, part of what Valley Connect is proposing to do is build larger park and rides
and have those be one of the assets that helps people use the transit services to
connect to more distant locations. But there -- there also will be a focus on bicycle and
pedestrian improvements to make it easier for people to walk to and from their house to
-- to the bus stop. But it does come down to helping extend the reach of that network to
-- to more households, so that -- so that you -- to the extent that you can limit the -- the
requirement of driving a car to the bus stop itself; right? Because by far the most
efficient way of getting transit to serve more people is by getting people to walk to the
bus stop. So, that is part of what we will be doing both in terms of -- so, when
development plans go to the COMPASS and VRT looks at them as well, we are always
looking for how can we make pathways from this development out of the roadway to
make it easier for people to get to the bus stop and those are really important things that
we do over time to try and make sure that that infrastructure is in place. But other than
that, than, yes, you would be defaulting to park and rides, which we need to be thinking
about in -- if they are going to be a significant part of the network we need to think about
them in greater -- with greater emphasis than we have in the past. A 100 stall park and
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-- parking garage -- or parking facility, park and ride, is like 120 people; right? So, that's
no -- that's not a huge dent in the amount of traffic that's going up and down 1-84,
for example. So, we should be thinking in terms of several thousand stall -- a thousand
or two thousand stall parking garage. So, that's a significant thing; right? That's not
something that we are just going to shoe in somewhere -- shoehorn into -- into
someplace. So, those are the types of conversations that we will be looking at as we
think about growing the transit network. But most importantly I think is ensuring that we
have options that allow people to walk and bike to transit and, then, looking at ways to
leverage existing -- or an upcoming technology to make those first and last mile
connections in ways that we -- that we don't right now.
B. Idaho Transportation Department Update on Upcoming SH -69
(Meridian Road) Project
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further from Council? Thank you, Stephen, for the
information. Okay. Our next item -- I will turn this over to Caleb.
Hood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I am actually just going to stall while
pull up a presentation that Erica Bowen with ITD is actually going to follow up with you.
ITD was here about a month ago and laid out some -- an initial plan for some
improvements on State Highway 69, including some access management near the
intersection of Overland Road and she's here to follow on some of the concerns that
were brought up in that previous meeting.
De Weerd: Thank you. Thank you for joining us.
Bowen: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, as Caleb said, I'm Erica
Bowen. I'm with the Idaho Transportation Department. I am District Three's traffic
engineer. Last month ITD presented the improvements associated with the State
Highway 69, Kuna to Meridian, project to you and you did have some questions about
traffic and safety and so that's what the presentation here day is just to address those
questions that you had. So, just to remind you, you asked two very specific questions.
The first one being are there currently south bound left turn crashes into the business
access that will be affected by the median barrier down Meridian Road. The second
one is how does the median barrier improve safety and is their crash data to support
this. And so the access in question is on the east side of Meridian Road. I don't know --
it's right in this area here. So, first, what I really want to discuss is to let you know that
ITD did not decide to install a median barrier based on the existing crash statistics. It
was a decision that we made for the future safety and mobility of motorists traveling in
both the north and southbound direction on Meridian Road. So, you want to know how
many crashes have we had here now? In the last five years only three. Only three
southbound left turn crashes into this business. That's amazing. That is a really good
number. What that's telling us is the configuration of the intersection as it exists today is
functioning very successfully and so to go into details of why it's functioning
successfully, I just want to describe it a little bit and the image on the right side is
northbound. On the left side of the screen is your -- is your southbound. The image got
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rotated. So, as you are traveling southbound on Meridian Road today you have a
center turn lane and this is your center refuge. So, as a vehicle trying to get into those
businesses you're going to pull into the center and you're going to sit there and you're
going to wait and you're going to find that appropriate gap that you're not going to
experience a crash or anything like that. So, while you're sitting there in this refuge you
have currently three lanes of traffic -- three conflict points that you need to be observing.
It's two through lanes on northbound Meridian Road and, then, it's the additional right
turn only lane going into that business. So, like I said, crashes, three in the last five
years. Those are numbers we like to see. So, before going into what does the future
configuration look like, I want to talk about the Overland and Meridian intersection itself
and the lane changes that are occurring. So, the State Highway 69, Kuna to Meridian,
project is improving this intersection by providing three northbound through lanes
through the Overland intersection. It will provide for a dedicated right turn lane at
Overland and Meridian. That in itself is really critical. If you stand there at the
intersection today, you will always notice there is that one person in the right turn lane
who is trying to travel northbound and is blocking the flow of traffic and so being able to
get a dedicated right turn lane will dramatically increase traffic flow through this
intersection, as well as help with some of -- with reducing some of the rear -end crashes
that we are seeing. To be able to get to this type of lane configuration there is not
space out there to actually add pavement and so what we had to do is think creatively
and innovatively. Currently today there is two northbound left turn lanes. As you will
see in this image in the future there will only be one. Today there is about one hundred
vehicles turning -- making the left turn -- northbound left turn in the p.m. peak. It's a little
bit less than the a.m. peak. One -- one lane of traffic -- or one left turn lane can serve
upwards of about 250 left turns an hour. So, we modeled this, we looked at the analysis
and said there is a lot of capacity -- excess capacity in the dual lefts. We don't need
that. The one left can serve all the traffic needs. And so by taking that second left turn,
as well as the -- as well as the center refuge, we are able to now install -- and come this
summer the three through lanes and, then, the one dedicated right turn lane. As I said,
this new configuration not only improves congestion, it improves the traffic flow. But we
are anticipating that it's going to reduce crashes in this as well. I looked at the -- so, ITD
analyzes every intersection within the state and, then, particularly within our own district
areas and so for District Three this area, Overland and Meridian last year -- well, in
2015 was ranked 30th as high accident locations and so when we look at these
intersections in rank and we look at both severity of crashes -- so, was it a fatality, was it
a serious injury, was it property damage, as well as the frequency of those crashes. So,
in 2015 it ranked 30th. In 2016 it jumped up to ninth. And so there is an enormous
amount of rear -ends and side swipes from each approach light. It's not just the
northbound light that we are trying to address. But in looking at this new lane
configuration, we do anticipate a reduction in the rear end and the side swipe crashes
that we are experiencing on these. So, for us, this was a great addition to this project.
It's not going to improve all of the congestion in this area. There is some greater needs
that we need to look at for the interchange. But this is an interim step that's going to
help your community and this intersection. So, that is what we were doing with some of
that space. That left turn lane in the center -- center refuge. So, I want to go back and
let you see what does the future business access look like with these conditions to
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make the improvements at Overland and Meridian. So, you see a median barrier here,
but let's imagine there is not a median barrier. So, if you were traveling southbound on
Meridian Road and you now wanted to make in the future a left into that business
access, first of all, there is no center refuge. So, you're going to block traffic behind you
in one of the southbound lanes. When you block traffic behind you -- I don't know if you
have ever experienced it yourself, because when you make lefts you don't always have
the center refuge. You often will start making riskier -- riskier decisions for that turning
movement, because you're blocking traffic. The people behind you might be -- be
honking as well and so now you're really getting a little bit tenser and you're trying to
find a gap so that you can clear yourself out of the roadway. Now, as you're stopping
traffic you have to actually observe five different conflict points and so those are
indicated by these right -- or these red lines. So, you're at the very start of a taper for
the one single left turn lane. You can see that there are three through lanes now
headed northbound and in addition, instead of just a dedicated right turn lane, we now
have a through lane right turn lane. That in and of itself causes a little bit of additional
conflict, because often you don't know if the driver, when they turn on that right turn
blinker, do they really anticipate to make the right at the business access or did they just
put the blinker on well in advance and they truly mean to make the right at Overland.
So, there is a lot of action going on right here. There is a lot of conflicts going on right
here. And so, again, like I said, the intersection as it's configured today, very safe, very
impressed by that. The intersection, as it will be configured in the future to make
Overland and Meridian function better, it's not a safe intersection and so that was our
driving factor with this. There is just too many decision points for a driver to make and
we would anticipate with this kind of lane configuration, if you don't have the medium
barrier there it will increase crashes and that's not something we want to see for your
community. So, increased crashes by how much? Because you did ask for crash data.
So, the closest example that I was able to come up with is a comparison of Eagle Road
and Village Drive. As you know, we have closed off this left in back in 2016. But
wanted to show you the data that was associated with it. So, if you look at this
intersection configuration, it's actually safer than the one that we will be striping in
coming this summer for Overland and Meridian at that business one. In this
configuration you have a southbound left turn lane and it has a refuge for you. You're
not stopping traffic in the southbound Eagle Road through traffic. When you're pausing
there and trying to assess your gap, you have three northbound through lanes that you
have to look for for conflict points and, then, the dedicated right turn lane as well. So,
less conflict movements, four as opposed to five. When this intersection was installed
and The Village was opened in 2013, we immediately saw some left turn crashes and
that's what the chart at the -- at the top shows and these are the total angle crashes, the
T-bone crashes. In 2013 it was five and, then, by 2016 it jumped up to 17. You will
notice that the injuries also increased as well. I was trying to put a comparison out
there, so I took some values for the economic cost of crashes per crash instance and
you can see that that value is going up as well. That in 2016 those 17 crashes related
to almost two million dollars in expenses incurred by citizens of Idaho due to medical
bills or loss of time at work, things of that nature. So, in addition to those total angle
crashes, I wanted to document your secondary crashes that you would experience as
well. So, when this was opened ITD received an enormous amount of phone calls from
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drivers stating they had to slam on their brakes, that the guy shot in front of them
making the left-hand turn and they slammed on the brakes and so there was concern
for that. So, these rear -end crashes are all those secondary crashes where the first guy
did slam on his brakes. Unfortunately, the driver behind him headed northbound wasn't
paying attention or didn't have enough space to slam on his brakes as well and it
resulted in rear -end crashes. So, in addition to the 17 total angle crashes that we saw
in 2016, there was an extra ten rear -end crashes where the -- the turning vehicle made
it through, but resulted in others crashing. So, this is the type of crashes and severity
that we would anticipate with this new configuration and so looking at this was really the
justification that we saw as a department that we absolutely had to put that median
barrier in. So, what does that mean for the businesses? Because we certainly want to
make sure that we are not hurting any economic opportunities of themselves to thrive
and people have their destinations that they like to get to. So, what does that mean?
With the barrier, yes, we do restrict the left -ins for that one business access, but there
are other access points and very safe access points for drivers to get to. Caleb handed
out this little handout here. This is something that ITD has created as part of a project
with our public involvement specialist. They will be going out to all the businesses in the
quadrants around this intersection and giving them these brochures to pass out to their
customers and these brochures explain why we are doing -- not just the median barrier,
but the whole State Highway 69, Kuna to Meridian project. But shows where there are
routes for them to get to. So, say you were headed southbound on Meridian Road and,
typically, go past Overland and make the left, you have got two other options to look at.
One is you make the left on Overland and you safely make the right -in at that first
access point to get into those businesses. Otherwise, you head through the intersection
of Overland and head all the way down to Calderwood. At Calderwood, at the bottom of
this screen, you will note that there is a refuge there for you to pull in, pause, and, then,
safely make that left-hand turn onto Calderwood and, then, do a little bit of back tracking
on a backage road, but you still have access to those businesses. So, like I said, we
have a public involvement specialist and group who is going out to these businesses.
We would be happy to provide additional handouts, posters, things of that nature to
those businesses, so they can share with their customers. We also have this
information on ITD's website, too, under our project, so that individuals know what to
anticipate coming up this summer. And, again, what to expect. Construction is
currently scheduled for the summer and fall of 2018. We will provide the business
owners these handouts, so they can pass out to their customers and, really, we just
want to emphasize that the entire project is looking to improve safety and traffic
operations on this really busy and growing corridor. The median barrier is just a
byproduct of trying to make improvements at Overland and Meridian, so we can
improve the safety and congestion there. We might be limiting some of the turning
movements from that one business access, but we are certainly not removing any
access points and we are trying to be very proactive in drivers knowing how they can
get to their favorite destinations on the southeast corner. With that I will stand for any
questions if you have them.
De Weerd: Thank you, Erica.
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Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Not a question, but a comment. After our meeting -- I frequent Red Pavilion
and Papa Johns. I know it's hard to believe, given my amazing physique, but I do go
there often. Usually I'm coming northbound, though, as I live south of the area here.
But the other day I happened to be going there and going southbound, so it's like I'm
going to try this. So, I went in through Calderwood and it really was a piece of cake to
be able to just come in behind them back in through there and to me this is a different
situation than The Village situation. I had a harder time with The Village and look
forward hopefully that opening up in a different scenario, but -- but here this -- this was
easy and we have -- in this situation we have this amazing piece of infrastructure that is
the Meridian overpass that I feel like as we continue to pile people south of Overland
Road it's going to be majorly underutilized, because we are squishing traffic into the two
lanes when there is three going over. So, I think that right here south of Overland, three
lanes to pass for that intersection is necessary and where there is no more room for
concrete, the only way this is possible is to do it this way. So, I think it makes sense
and really appreciate you coming back and explaining more and especially your
outreach with the businesses to be able to provide the materials to help give their
customers a heads up and a way to know you can get to us, just go around.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Erica, thank you so much for coming back and I was just
curious, I think Brandon was with you last time and I know -- I think he was headed out
to some of the businesses the following Thursday and I was just curious if there was
any preliminary feedback. And I do appreciate the materials and things and the
communication with the businesses. But I was just curious if you had any feedback as
of now.
Bowen: Madam Mayor, Council Member Little Roberts, I believe that ITD be held off on
going to those businesses. I will have to doublecheck with Brandon. I haven't heard
any feedback, but I believe that we were waiting for -- to be able to present to
yourselves, get any comment or concerns that you had, so that we could incorporate
that back into the businesses. We didn't want to preemptively reach out to them. But
certainly can doublecheck and if Brandon has gone out I will be sure to make sure he
gets in contact with Caleb, so that can be passed on to the City Council.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Little Roberts: Follow up?
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De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I think the sooner the information can get out to the
businesses the better off and the more proactive they can be with their customers prior
to construction and we will be in summer of '18 before we blink practically. So, I think
the more information -- information out sooner will help them be proactive. But thank
you.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I guess I'm a little bit confused, because I thought you were coming -- the whole
point of you coming back to report to us to be after the businesses were spoken to. So,
I still would like to hear the feedback from the businesses. That would -- that was the
whole point of this follow-up presentation as far as I remember -- and I could be wrong.
I could be missing something and I understand looking at this that with this configuration
you have to have the median. You can't have people stopping on a highway with
moving traffic. So, you would either have to reduce it down to two lanes and, then, a
turn lane on each side or -- and, then, a refuge lane in the middle or you have to have
the -- the median barrier. I mean there is -- I still think there are two options. I don't
know what your traffic flow would be with only two through lanes, but I really wanted to
get -- hear the feedback from the businesses in that area. Thank you for your
presentation.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I just have to look at you now. I just look over and you know I want to talk.
Perfect. Just a curiosity question. In these scenarios with traffic going southbound
wanting to take that left into the businesses, do you guys have problems with U-turns,
people just not -- you know, going an extra 50 yards to take that left into that refuge --
you know, did you anticipate U-turns when you -- when you were making the medians in
the middle of the road?
Bowen: Madam Mayor, Council Member Bernt, we often do anticipate individuals taking
U-turns, so it will be signed no U-turns. We have done a turning movement analysis.
Except for very small vehicles -- and most Idahoans don't drive very small vehicles --
you're not going to successfully be able to navigate --
Bernt: Okay.
Bowen: -- to make a U-turn headed northbound through Overland and Meridian
intersection, as well as at Calderwood. I know I have done it myself on Eagle Road
trying to make a U-turn where U-turns are permitted. I drive an extended F-350. It's
massive. I hit the shoulder and I will never make a U-turn again. So, there might be
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some of that when it's initially constructed where an individual might try to attempt a U-
turn. I don't think they will do it twice. But we are going to sign it, because we -- we
can't validate with analysis --
Bernt: Five signs, like no U-turn, no U-turn --
Bowen: We might have to do something, yes.
Bernt: To echo what Council Member Milam had said, you know, we need -- I really
would like to know what the feedback is from those businesses. Sooner the better for
this body. I would think that most anyone -- there is a lot of people that would agree
with that and, you know, listening to what Council Member Palmer had said, you might
want to just take him now. He will probably be a strong advocate for it; right?
Palmer: Sure.
Bernt: He supported talking to the businesses like --
Bowen: Yeah. Madam Mayor, we would be happy to come back next month and give
you feedback on the conversations and the concerns that the businesses may have. If
Council Member Palmer would like to come with us, we would be more than happy to
bring him along as well. You know, having the support of your City Council and seeing
how the median barrier is needed to look at overall flow, you know, that's something that
we would love to partner with you when we are going out there and talking with them.
know that our public involvement committee is very anxious to speak with them. Like I
said, I didn't believe they had gone out this last month. I could be wrong. But we would
be more than willing and happy to come back next month and give you feedback on
what we have seen.
Bernt: Sounds good. Thank you.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I don't want the blame if they don't like it. But I do have a question after the
discussion about the U-turn. So, in the drawing it appears that the -- the median barrier
stops and there is a break between that and the -- the left turn yellow line. Is it
anticipated that left -- that U-turns would be appropriate just past the barrier, but not
quite to the Calderwood intersection? The barrier actually goes all the way to
Calderwood.
Bowen: Madam Mayor. Council Member Palmer. So, the reason that there is a break
in the barrier is that we wanted to be able to allow the left -ins -- northbound left -in at
Davenport and so that's why we weren't taking it all the way to Calderwood. So, you
use some of that center refuge also as a refuge to get into Davenport. We are going to
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have to look at how would you appropriately sign, because there is not a medium barrier
to put up that sign right there at Calderwood. But it still is very similar to the same
configuration at Overland and Meridian Road where it would be difficult for most
vehicles to make the U-turn. So, that's -- it's something that we are looking at internally
of how to -- how to sign that one.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Not so much a question, just more of a comment. I think you -- you have
heard from a couple Council Members about our desire to hear from the business
community. If your team has already went out and can compile some analysis for us, to
save you having to come back a third time, to me I think -- I don't want to speak for the
rest of the Council, but that would seem more appropriate. If they haven't that's,
obviously, I think -- at least this Council was led to believe that's what was going to
happen and so being able to hear from whoever on your public information team as to
what occurred from that. You're not really seeking any feedback from Council, this is
more of an FYI and so there is not much action. If the whole business community is
opposed to where it's not going to really change anything -- but I think at least for us to
be able to be aware of what was discussed with them would be beneficial.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I agree. This is similar to one of the questions I asked before of whether or not
ITD is asking us or telling us and it sounds like we are being told and appreciate that,
but it's not a matter of -- of a decision not yet being made. So, with that, if a request for
future events like this, if there is -- one of your slides had the economic cost that is
associated with access being open, it would be -- if that's to be something to be relied
upon to support closing an access, it would be helpful data to net that against the
economic costs of closing access to the business community and net those out. If we
were to consider one, we should consider both, assuming that the economic cost is a
relevant criteria to decide whether or not to close or open access. Maybe not so much
here, but I know The Village one that was discussed and you showed what appeared to
be costs -- costs that might be saved by closing the access, but it would be very
interesting to know how that nets against the economic loss that was created by the
access closer. That might be for the next discussion.
Bowen: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, I don't know if ITD has ever done an
analysis of what the economic cost of closing an access to a business or restricting
turning movements. I certainly don't have that information for Village Drive either. It's --
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Borton: Sure.
Bowen: -- it would be something greater that we would have to do with businesses and
I'm not even sure where to start on that one, but it's -- it is a good point of looking at it
both ways, but I -- I don't think anyone at ITD has attempted to look at it from that
perspective. I was only putting cost on there to put into perspective that towards 2017
-- or '15 and '16 at Village Drive, severity was increasing and so economic cost of
crashes for fatalities or serious injuries is -- is much greater in cost. Fatalities are in the
millions. Property damage is about 1,100 dollars. So, it's in that order of magnitude is
what I was trying to portray in that, more so than just the cost.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, thank you for coming back and the good information that you brought
with you. We do look forward to hearing what kind of feedback that you get from the
businesses.
Bowen: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Legal: Resolution No. 18-2063: A Resolution Ratifying
Emergency Expenditures Necessary to Perform Road Repair
Work to Safeguard Life, Health and Property Following a Water
Main Rupture; Authorizing the Expenditures of Public Money
to
Safeguard Life, Health and Property; and Providing an
Effective Date.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Under Department Reports we will start with Resolution
18-2063. Mr. Baird.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you have before you a resolution which
is ratifying the work that was performed to repair Eagle Road with the recent sewer -- or
water break -- water --
De Weerd: Water main break.
Baird: Yes. The state emergency laws allow us to go out and secure the contractor
immediately and then -- you know, without having to seek bids and, then, you can
review and ratify that decision to get them paid. That's basically what's in front of you.
We do have some representatives from Public Works, if you have any questions about
the cost. The receipts are included with the resolution. So, with that background I will
just leave it open for questions and your motion with regard to the resolution.
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De Weerd: Thank you, Ted. I think that we got an update on this that provided you with
a lot of those details. Is there anything further or any further questions regarding this?
If not, I would entertain a motion.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
I9Za►1►[�aT1�1� Imo: • •
Borton: I move that we approve Resolution No. 18-2063.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-A. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
B. Mayor's Office: Annual Department Report
De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you for joining us. Item 8-B is under the annual
department update for the Mayor's Office.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm not going to try to
short change us, but I will try to do my best to expedite this process, because you are
not only going to hear from me, from Kaycee next and, then, the strategic plan after
that. So, we will try to move through this. This is our illustrious Mayor, as you are all
aware, but just a reminder she is the CEO of the city and has nine direct reports from
the directors to myself in the office. This is always good to get an update on the
mission, vision, and values and while I put the Meridian Way in there, that does
represent the CARE values and that is what we are all about in the City of Meridian.
But just a reminder of our Meridian vision and values. So -- oh, I didn't realize we had --
this may not work. But we are going to try. In the Mayor's office we are focused on
three elements. We have our youth component, economic development, and our
community partners working with people in the community to ribbon cuttings and other
aspects that they expect of our elected officials, one of our focus, but we are focused on
being built for business and designed for living through that process. This is the -- the
updated Mayor's office, communications, other government. That's who you are going
to hear from today. Just a refresher, we had three new folks that started in last year
and I'd like to say that we did a great job this last year getting them all up to speed and I
think Morgan has been drinking from a fire hose all year with the -- with the constituents,
as many of you are and we will touch on that here in a little bit. But we also brought on
Vincent Koontz, who you will be hearing from in a little bit about the strategic plan. He's
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been on for about three months getting things best organized -- organized as he can
during that time frame. And, then, this last year we also were without our
communications manager for about three months while she was out on FMLA and I just
want to take a moment to give accolades to the entire group here, because they were
filing in, we all took our parts filling in. When you have a small group that does what we
do and we stay focused, you know, we have one person doing social media on
Facebook and Twitter. I was handling many inquiries. Morgan was handling all the
Facebook stuff. She was creating the newsletters. Jodi was handling the NextDoor.
You know, IT -- Catherine in IT was doing all the website updates that Kaycee would
normally do on the hotlist and stuff. So, it was really a team effort to try to get through
the year with -- those three months with Kaycee being out and the only thing that I
wanted -- I want to -- a little known fact about Vincent, since he is the new person this
year, is he interned at the city several years ago and it was through his internship that
he did when he was at BSU doing his master's program, that really helped develop the
Meridian Way. So, that's a little known thing from way back when where it's coming
around full circle. So, these are just a couple of the accolades that we received this last
year. A couple of the larger ones. You know, it's always nice to receive the 100 best
places at this time for Meridian. And I haven't gone back and doublechecked recently,
but we have -- I believe that Meridian has been on this list more than any other
communities since the time that we have been tracking over the last ten years. Maybe
that will be a summer project is to verify that statement, but five times over the last 11
years is not -- not bad at all. And, then, here is some of the other accolades the city
received during this last year. 24/7. Wall Street. USA Today. You know, we have
been seeing ourselves as a community on that list regularly. I would also like to
highlight some of the recognitions the Mayor got this last year. For those that were at
AIC, the Herald Herser Award, the overall giving back to the association through her
involvement here and she was just one of the nominees for Idaho Woman of the Year
and was out with a couple of the staff and a couple other people I think up here on the
Dias last week as part of that process. So, it's a congratulations to everybody in the
city, not just the Mayor's office. The Police Department. The Parks Department. All of
them are helping contribute to these accolades that we are receiving day and day out.
As I mentioned, our focus is really in the community, youth, economic development.
These are the programs and activities that we perform day in and day out in the Mayor's
office. The little YCED kind of gives you an overview about what those elements are.
We do try to stay current and review what we are doing each year and I do have one
sad thing to report. The Mayor & CEO's Kids Book Club. That was one that when I first
started here at the city many years ago, one of the first things I was -- found out about
was that program and we are actually in the last session of doing that program after 11
years. It's been a great run, but like everything, when you look at your time and your
energy and resources and the outcomes you receive from that, it is going to come to an
end after this session. But we have had a lot of great sponsors over the years who
have helped make that possible and it has been a great opportunity for everybody.
Right now just -- you know, Jodi is not here, she is at MYAC and National Youth -- NLC
DC with our MYAC youth. So, they are learning about stuff and hope they bring back
some great stuff from that opportunity and we have also kicked off Walking Club already
and, you know, the cool thing about Walking Club is not only do we have all the public
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schools that are participating, but we also have private charter schools, home school
groups that are coming out and walking through those -- through those processes. So,
that's really where we put a lot of energy and focus and trying to make that. And each
school -- the nice part, they take portions of it and make it their own. Not everyone likes
all the elements. Some go separately. But we are getting everybody out walking and
it's a great -- a great program. One thing you should have received an invitation about
this, but April is volunteer appreciation month. So, we are working on putting together
an event for our volunteers here at the city. We are going to be doing a lunch, which
everyone here is invited to come and participate and congratulate our volunteers on
that. So, these are just examples of some of the things that we are currently right now
doing. But this is a list of what we continuously do in the Mayor's office. And, of course,
we couldn't do it without her sponsors and our partners. So, these are all the
companies that help sponsor the programs, activities that we did in the Mayor's office
over the last year for State of the City. CEO'S Kids Book Club. Walking Club. Do The
Right. Faith Leaders Luncheon. Trunk or Treat. And Youth Safety Summit. I did just
want to specifically highlight one of these right now. Idaho Central Credit Union. Right
down there in the corner. But they are sponsoring this year Do The Right, the Mayor's
Walking Club, and MYAC, primary title sponsor for all those three events. It's a huge
investment that they have made in the programs and activities that we are doing in the
Mayor's office and through the city. So, if you see Clint or one of their representatives I
encourage you to thank them, because it is a huge investment. So, this is just a quick
by the numbers about some of the things we did. Of course, you just saw another
proclamation today. We stay busy with the commission appointments, the changes that
City Council put into place through that conversation about opening up all the
commissions, so that we have an opportunity for other members of the community to
submit and that -- that does keep us busy and getting fresh people in, looking at it at all
times. But the thing I really wanted to highlight right here -- cases. So, that is the
number of constituent contacts from this last year. The cases is the number of cases --
that's how many individual issues that we opened up in the Mayor's office for a
constituent reaching out and saying I would like help, I would like your response, here is
something that happened. Here is an e-mail or a letter. The contacts -- you know, five
of those cases had roughly 1,500 communications for Linder Village, Costco, that's
where you see that and all those are being put into those systems and tracks. So, that's
-- that's quite a few. This does not include necessarily petitions, you know, the -- on
occasion we have seen petitions come through -- I didn't have -- I didn't go back and
pull the numbers on some of the petitions, but to give you an example of where things
are in that and that has been a huge time issue during this last year. So, moving on,
just an overview of the strategic plan objectives, the five that we had active during the
last year. I'm not going to speak to these at this point in time, other than, you know, we
spoke quite a bit about 3-A-2 last regarding citizen access. Kaycee is going to be
talking about one of these that's been closed out. We are going to continue working on
the other four during this next year and continue to work the plan in 2018, but we are
seeing -- we are seeing activity and action on all of these, you know, from the downtown
low down that April is working on for downtown entertainment options and getting that
out into the Meridian Press, to NextDoor and other elements as it relates to improving
citizen access to government. Streaming the commission meetings. So, we continue to
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work the strategic plan action items. This is just a quick list of some of the
accomplishments outside of our normal day-to-day activities and the citizen satisfaction
survey, getting that completed in 2017. That's always an undertaking. But something I
actually really enjoy through that process. Chinden Boulevard. I just have that on here,
because of the work that we did to reach out to the community, get comments on, the
ITIP, 344 out of 437 comments that they received for the ITIP were related to Chinden
Boulevard. So, we are engaging the community and getting them active in helping
support the need for that road improvement. The Meridian Downtown Business
Association, we have been working with them and as I mentioned about the downtown
low down that April is doing, helping promote their events and activities through the
Meridian Press. And, then, the other thing on here -- the leadership development
program, you know, I have been working with HR and fire and to create this program
that gives our employees an opportunity to go and hear from others, expand their
knowledge and, you know, emerging leaders here in the city and it's a nice team effort.
It does take my time helping work on that project, but, again, it's something that I enjoy
doing. Just a couple of goals for this next year. We will -- strategic plan performance
management, you know, you're going to get an update on the strategic plan here
shortly. There is other aspects. We are not just managing the plan, but, as
mentioned, Vincent has only been here for a few months, we will continue to get further
into some of his responsibilities and actions regarding performance management,
change management, some of those activities. We will continue to work the strategic
plan objectives that we -- are assigned to our office. Peak Academy, change innovation
training, we are actually doing that next week. So, again, that's something that's been
in process for about eight months and we finally have that three days of training coming
up where we will have 20 staff engaged. I understand City Council hasn't been able to
participate, but if you're in the area and you have got a few hours and you want to stop
in, we will be over at the public safety training center on Monday and Tuesday. So,
come and pop your head in if you're interested. The city won a lot -- so, this is
something that you probably haven't heard about, but we have put together -- are
working with the departments -- an opportunity for some people to come and learn a
little bit more about individual departments. So, we have three classes that we have put
together starting in March, April and May where we have invited some of our volunteers,
the people that have been through our public safety training academy, neighborhood
night, in the know people, Neighborhood Watch people, to come and learn a little bit
more. So, kind of doing a pilot program. We will see how that works and it's perhaps
something that will be open up and continued to do if we find we get good feedback
from the participants in that. And, then, I haven't even spoken to the Mayor about this
one, so this is a little education for her, but I think we would want to try to do a middle
school focus event, as we have always been focused a lot on the elementary and we
have the high school, due to our sponsorship that we receive from ICCU I think we have
some funds that we could probably put to a middle school activity that Jodi's been
talking about and we will be, hopefully, doing something with that in this upcoming -- in
this budget year, but within the next nine months. So, speaking of budget, as normal
just want to make you aware that you will be seeing me in the next month or so bringing
forward budget amendments for all the sponsorship dollars. They are not put into our
base budget, so I need to come forward to get spending authorization based on the
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sponsorships that we have received. So, there will be four budget amendments for that.
And, then, looking forward for FY -19 enhancements, we are currently exploring two and
they are related to the strategic action item 3-A-1 that we discussed. We have been
doing video testimony and conversations with IT. We will have to do some
modifications to our system if we are going to do that. We still need to find the best --
the best option to do video testimony, but we are still going to explore that, so that
would be a potential enhancement this next year. And, then, we are also going to have
conversations about city -- those are actually going to be occurring over the next several
weeks. So, we haven't gotten too far into it, but we have at least put that on the radar to
begin having those conversations. And with that I will stand for any questions you may
have and, then, when I'm done you will see Kaycee.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Maybe it's a question or maybe more just a future update for you, Madam
Mayor, or for Robert. Just an update about what's going on with the Core. I saw that
listed as a bullet item and I guess -- I thought they weren't even in existence anymore.
So, getting an update as to the things that they are doing and our involvement would be
awesome to hear.
De Weerd: Okay. They did dissolve over this last year, but there was still involvement
up until that point, so -- and we could include that in -- in Brenda's update at some point.
Yeah. This was last year, so -- any other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Genesis. Or Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I don't have any questions. That was a great report. You guys are really busy
and good job with filling in for Kaycee and all that you guys have done. You got a great
team up there. So, kudos to the hiring team as well.
Simison: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: And I don't know if this is the appropriate time or not, but I want to echo
Councilman Milam's comments. I think you have an exceptional staff who are available,
accountable, really I think representing what we want in our community. They do a
really great job. Everybody in that office. Ought to be proud of that team.
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De Weerd: We are. Thank you. Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Robert, Mayor, everyone, thank you so much for picking on the new guy up here
and I jumped in with both feet and I can't tell you how grateful I am for your staff, for you
and for all those who helped me get up to speed on everything Meridian. So, thank you
so much to everyone. I wanted to say that on the record. Thank you so much.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Anything further? Thank you, Robert. Appreciate that.
Hello, Kaycee.
Emery: Hi. Mayor, Members of Council, thanks for having me today. We are going to
talk communications. We are going to communicate about communication. See what I
did there. All right. So, first of all, let's go over our -- the 2017-2018 goals and actions.
So, you will see I have my goal listed and, then, I have the actions we took as a result of
those and we will go over all of this in detail in the next few slides. So, overall those
goals, communication strategy, increased outreach, drone and streamline processes.
So, the first one, communication strategy, I'm not going to go into very much right now,
because I'm going to be coming up and talking to you more on the one that we just
completed. 3-A-1. We were to evaluate and define the objectives of and adapt new
strategies to elevate participation in city activities. This was a great strategic initiative
and I am really excited about what came out of this. So, I will talk to you more about
that in the next presentation, but as a result we do now have marketing best practices
that we didn't have before. It's a checklist and we have event evaluation forms that we
did not have before. So, that's really exciting. It just streamlines everything. I have
also been working on 3-A-2 and that's identifying ways for increased engagement and
3-C-3, crafting an emergency communications plan, which is something I'm actually
working on this week. So, let's talk about social media. We had -- I had goals and here
is what we -- where we ended in 2018. Actually, I just checked it, we are up to 7,095.
So, since I added this on Friday, we have added 20 -- you know -- I'm a
communications person -- 18 more. Yeah. Almost 20. Sorry. So, our goal for 2018 is
9,000. The thing about Facebook is we are really hitting a certain demographic here.
We are hitting a lot of our -- the residents we want to -- usually the age group is 30 to
roughly 60 to 70 even. So, that's the age group we are hitting with Facebook. It's an
important demographic for us and this is where you -- I think this is just an important
analytic, because it just shows the different posts that we are posting and our average
reach on each of those different posts. So, you can see videos are still very popular.
Our shared video was hugely involved -- when it comes to engagement of our shared
video. So, anytime I shared a video from police or a KTVB news story or whatnot, those
got a huge reach, which is very interesting to me. But, yeah, our videos are still very
powerful. Our highest reach was on October 27th. That happened to be when we
posted the trunk or treat photo album. These are huge, pictures like this, because
people want to see themselves in pictures and so -- and it also connects us with the
community. So, these events are so great and anytime we can post these pictures and
connect with citizens is awesome. Our average daily reach is up. It's up about 500.
Average monthly reach is at 24,000 -- just over 24,000. And when it comes to videos,
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we had 88,000 video views in 2017. That's 29,800 minutes viewed. Once again we are
seeing that people don't want the volume on when they are looking at videos on
Facebook. They are usually scrolling, sometimes during a meeting. I just always say
that. But, you know, people are scrolling on their Facebook and we don't know when.
Maybe they are at home, they are watching TV, they are scrolling, they will stop and
watch a video, but they won't actually hit it, so that it brings the sound up, they will just
watch it on their timeline. So, we have made adjustments because of that. Our This
Week In Meridian video has all the text on it now, so that you can get all of the
information without any sound. We actually just took away the voiceover, which I will
talk about later in my presentation as to what kind of a time savings we are seeing
because of that. So, these -- these are our top video views. The Meridian Winter Lights
Parade. This is where we had Santa on video inviting people to come to the parade.
So, that was really a lot of fun. The duck rescue with the Meridian fire -- and Meridian
fire is on there again with a duck being rescued. That was a share video that we
shared. St. Luke's got that video. So, those are big ones. Do The Right day. And Did
You Hear What Happened -- Why Mayor Tammy Was Late. So, the video that started
the State of the City last year was at one of our top videos this past year. So, I didn't
look to this year. The video that started the State of the City this year, the one -- the
rising star one, it's getting a ton of views. We love that video. We had a vision and it
turned out. So, we love that and we love the Why The Mayor Is Late to the State of the
City one as well. The minutes viewed. Why this is interesting is just to show you that
Keith Bird's live video was our longest minutes viewed video and it just shows you that
those live videos, even if they go long, people will sit there and they will watch them and
also people like real videos about real people and so that was -- that was interesting to
me to see that. The other one was a Channel 6 live interview with Deputy Chief
Basterrechea and, then, the duckling rescue, Mayor's and Santa invites you. All right.
Moving onto Twitter. We have 6,200, just -- or just shy of 6,300 and our goal is 7,000
for 2018. I don't put a ton of effort into Twitter, just because my reach there is media
and businesses and we really are doing well with that reach. You only get so much time
with social media and you really have to pinpoint your different audiences where they
are on social media. This is our highest tweeted -- highest impression tweet was 70
Days Until Spring, in case anyone is keeping track. I posted a picture of a beautiful
sunny day in Kleiner Park in the middle of Snowmageddon and that got a ton of re -
Tweets and a lot of impressions and an impression just means that it was delivered to
that person's Twitter stream. Let's talk about YouTube now. We have -- had 30,648
views, 150,000 minutes of watch time. The average view duration is just under five
minutes. Subscribers 87 new, for a total of 299 total. So, we got a lot of new
subscribers this past year and I'm really going to be pushing that this year, because
when you're a subscriber you get notifications and we are going live and now we are
putting all of our commission meetings live, so those notifications are important and I
know a couple of council members have -- or subscribe to our channel and so they get
those notifications when we are live and when we upload new videos they get that. So,
you can see the top video views here. Unlimited Trash Week that you see one of our
This Week In Meridian videos made it to the top. That was unlimited Trash Week. So,
have to think that that's probably why that one went really big. That's a popular week.
Excuse me. Moving on to Linked -In. We increased followers by 445. So, that's -- that
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was a good increase for us. We are at 998. We are going to -- our goal is to do another
big increase and, hopefully, get 2,000 followers. And we post our job openings on
Linked -In and we post any relevant events, like a town hall or Coffee With The Mayor on
Linked -In and that's that community that we are reaching there. I don't bombard Linked -
In with all of our posts by any means, because that's a very -- you're getting a lot of
people looking for business updates on Linked -In. NextDoor is my last social media,
but really one that I focus a lot on. NextDoor is really important to us, because of that
middle box right there. We have nearly 22,000 members -- households on NextDoor.
That is our largest reach of any social media that we have. It is huge for us. We have
utilized NextDoor in so many more ways this year. We do notifications to specific
neighborhoods ahead of their spring flushing, so they know that if their water is a little
discolored here is what you can do. So, we are targeting that. C.Jay's team has been
awesome at getting the posts for the public hearings on NextDoor and we have gotten
great feedback on that. We are doing -- we do a once a week This Week In Meridian or
the newsletter. The one thing about the NextDoor audience is they don't want too many
posts. So, we limit that. We do one for sure a week, maybe two or three. I never go
above three, because that's a lot. We also put events on NextDoor, because that's a
great way to get that information out. So, I'm a huge fan of NextDoor and all that it
offers to us and I actually gave NextDoor an idea that I think they are going to add to
their platform that I think will be really helpful, so that we can see what other agencies --
not just in Meridian, but in Ada county and Boise and Eagle are posting when we had
Snowmageddon we were kind of -- we were all in our own silos and no one could see
what others were posting to the neighborhoods in Nextdoor and so I suggested an
agency timeline that I would love to see on NextDoor and I hope that comes to fruition
this year. They are working on it and they have been in contact with me. So, on
Instagram, our goal is 2,000. We added 783 and 2017. 1 do have an intern now and
she is fantastic. She's a communications major at Boise State University and is
interning with me. Her main focus is Instagram and social media. She is helping with
the strategic plan and research for me and any other communication programs. She
helped me with the graphics manual update that I'm working on and so she has been
fantastic and she is the age group that we are getting at on Instagram. So, I have
looked to her a lot to help us build our Instagram account. I have learned that
Instagram users are really picky. That's in all my readings of Instagram. So, not a lot of
fliers or posting a lot of pictures, we are trying to get away from fliers on Instagram. But
that really is a key audience that we didn't have that we need to build and I'm excited to
build for us on Instagram. So, increased outreach with more live streams and we have
done that. We have had a total of 71 YouTube live streams in 2017. That's up from --
that's up to -- our average viewer -- this is a huge one -- is up to 21 from ten, but let me
tell you that's when we live. We get a lot more post views now, but that's huge, you
know, that's more than double the amount of viewers when we are live and that will only
grow the more that people know that that's how they can watch City Council and
connect with the city. The average view duration. If you see that it's 30 minutes. That's
a long time. People are really engaging in our videos. Facebook live streams are at 12.
That includes Coffee With The Mayor, town halls, ground breakings and walking club
and, then, our most viewed live stream, as I mentioned, was Keith Bird's retirement. So,
you can see some of our top viewed live streams there. Those are the total views and
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now we are doing even more live streams, of course, with the commission streams and
that -- another big, you know, hats off to C.Jay and his team, they have added these
extra steps to make us even more transparent and available to the citizens and they
have added them almost as if they weren't adding more work. I have never heard them
complain or anything, they just -- now they have a process and they commit -- they
stream all the commission meetings and I think that's huge. It just -- just gives our
citizens more access to government and that's wonderful. So, great job, C.Jay and
team. Our average -- we averaged over 100 views during the live stream on the
Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on March 1st. So, I am talking about 2017,
but I really wanted to talk about that, because that was huge. People wanted to see
that meeting. Not all of them could attend and we gave them a way to view that
meeting that was already part of our process, we didn't do a special live stream, it was
just -- we live stream our commission meetings now, so it's an option for them and so
far on March 7th we had had 862 total views. So, that tells you we are offering
something citizens want. So, now on to Welcome to Meridian and, of course, let's see
here. Immediately we did send this out to -- this -- oh, this is a way -- this Welcome to
Meridian is a way to immediately welcome residents, so that they know more about the
city they live in and we think it's really important, because you never get a second
chance to make a first impression; right? So, we want that first impression to our new
residents to be a good one. We are happy that they are here. Here is what it looks like
in 2017. We sent nearly 4,000 in two rounds. The second round received the thumb
drive, so that was just over 2,000. Eighteen hundred received a postcard and the
reason we did that -- we had way more new residents than we had budgeted for.
So, this gave us a way to see, okay, which one was more well received, the thumb drive
or the postcard. Both directed people to the website. Overall our views on the website
were less than ten percent. So, while that's not ideal, I still think it's an important
program and I think we need to find a different way that maybe we can get the
information to people, but still drive them back to that website, so that we can try and
collect some analytics on it and maybe even add an e-mail to get people to come back
to it. But we are looking at a magazine right now, so it would be a combination of what
we have sent out -- a magazine with a QR code to that website and, then, that website
highlighted throughout. So, when I say little -- it's like a little magazine that we are
thinking that we mail to people and, then, it would give them updates and we would
update it with events, meet your elected officials, that sort of thing, so that they
immediately feel connected to our city. The drone goal. Yea. We launched the drone
program in 2017. 1 was able to earn my certification after a month of studying. We
worked with Legal to establish policies for the city, which was really important. We put
together a process that includes a co-pilot. Also very important. April served as my co-
pilot. Sorry. And you can see Morgan down there, she is my co-pilot as well. I put a
circle around us. So, I have -- this year I do want to get vest. That's a big thing in the
drone community now is to wear your vest, so that it says drone pilot, do not disturb.
So, that if you're out flying people won't come up and ask you what you're doing. So,
we are -- my goal for this year is to learn more ways to expand this program. Drones
offer for a lot of technological capabilities that even I am not aware of at this point, so
we want to learn more about that and what we can do with the city, but I think it's been a
great asset for us. I have had a lot of departments already request shots and videos.
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So, it's something that departments were really wanting and now we can help, which is
fantastic. This is my favorite thing to do and people probably don't realize this, but
always like to streamline processes. I like to find a process, how can we make this
easier and more streamlined and how can we make it work better. So, this is always
my favorite goal and I think I make this a goal every year, just because I always think
that you can do better. So, I talked about Canva a little bit last year. I love Canva. The
departments are loving Canva. It has really just bolstered our branding. It has brought
us to a new level. We don't have a graphic designer for the city, so this makes us all
look like graphic designers and it really is a time savings. You can build a flyer -- I can
build on as quickly as ten minutes if I need to and, then, I can take it and resize it and I
can make it for Facebook, for social media, so you're not spending hours trying to put
together marketing materials, it has really streamlined that process and it is being used
by all departments. Lumen 5 is one that I'm really, really excited about. Just brought
this one on -- in the new year. It's a video creation tool online. So, for an example, we
have a huge time savings now with this Week in Meridian. I added up the hours we
were spending with my video production intern scripting it and, then, sending me the
script, me reviewing it, making the changes, him sitting down, maybe getting B roll and I
had to -- and, then, editing it and me giving him changes for editing and, then, him
making the changes and, then, uploading to YouTube. So, I added all that -- it was
about ten hours to produce a week. Now we get this done in about 30, 60 minutes with
this new program online. So, to me for the amount of views I feel like that was a really
good step and it has freed up our video production intern, who is also very awesome by
the way, runs your Council stream every Tuesday, does a great job. It's freed him up to
do a lot of special projects for departments and there was a wait list. So, now we are
getting through that wait list, because he has a lot more hours to devote to that. Photo
storage. This was something -- I would have people calling me saying I need this
photo, where is it? People needed photos and there wasn't one shared area. So, I put
together a committee, figured it out, how we could streamline our photo organization.
So, now we have a photo storage on the public drive that all departments can access.
We set up a process for how photos are organized, what photos are put in there and
how you -- the discretion to use on what photos should go in there and so that process
was laid out and this saves a lot of time and resources. I was amazed at all the photos
we have once we got them all put together. And Mail Chimp. We added news releases
in order to track engagement. I love this, because now I can see how many times our
news releases are open, just like I could on the newsletters. I also worked with IT to
streamline employee updates. So, now when an employee signs on with the city they
are automatically added to our Mail Chimp list. So, that was important, because there is
a little bit of a gap there. I was having to manually upload them when they came on and
we get a lot of employees sometimes, so that was -- we fixed a gap there. And, then,
our open rate is about 22.7 percent, which is above the 16 percent industry average.
So, I'm really happy about that and I just love analytics. So, the more I can put on
something where I can see how many people are engaging with that the better. So,
here is our 2018 goals. I know I have been talking a lot, so I'm going to try and get
through this. We want to increase outreach. We want to identify new communication
trends and tools. That's always going to be a goal -- those first two are always going to
be my goals, because you can always do better. Media training. I'm conducting media
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training with directors and, then, I will open it up to who needs it within each department.
Track public response and media coverage. That is something we are looking at more
ways to do and there are some options out there for public agencies. So, there is a lot
of work to be done. Do you have any questions or comments?
De Weerd: Thank you, Kaycee. Any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Kaycee, it's exhausting listening to you, but I love all the numbers. I'm a
numbers person, too, so I love hearing all of this. I just want to comment about This
Week In the City of Meridian. I really miss the voice. I really really miss hearing your
beautiful voice on there.
Emery: Even when it sounds like this?
Milam: Yes. See, I'm a multi-tasker and I have got time, so I will be listening to that and
doing something else and I get two for one. Who wants to stop and read it?
Emery: Well, okay, that's feedback -- that's been -- Council Woman Milam, thank you.
That is fantastic feedback and that's feedback I always appreciate. So, if you have any
other feedback like that e-mail me for sure, because that would probably add on about
20 minutes. So, it's not a huge add on to come in and do that, I just need to voice the
strip and, then, my intern, who -- we even talked about this, that we might be adding
that back in, let's just add it to the video and we will be good to go, so --
Milam: Just my opinion, but I really love --
Emery: You're not the first person, so --
Milam: -- you know. So, this is just perfect.
Emery: Yeah. You're not the first person. So, I think we will add it back in, just
because I have heard that and I will fix my voice between now and --
Milam: Your voice is great.
Emery: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Great update.
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Emery: Oh. Thanks.
Cavener: And thanks for everything that you do. I know many of the awards that
Robert talked about in his presentation are a result of you doing a fantastic job of telling
our story and I just think it's really great to see all the work that you're doing in terms of
outreach and connecting with our citizens. I think it's really fantastic. A couple
questions, though. How many different Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, NextDoor pages
do we have? Because I see -- I struggled to make sure that I'm following all of them,
because I want to know what's going on and it just seems like there is a lot and I just -- I
don't know if someone who kind of oversees all of our public outreach if we have got
enough, if we have got too many, what role you have in making sure that everybody
stays on message.
Emery: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, thank you for that question. It's a really
good one. When I first got this job the first -- one of the first things I did was try to figure
out how many pages we had, because we do -- we have a lot and I looked over all of
them, because what -- and there is one still on Facebook that I'm wondering if we need
to drop, because what can happen is you can try and put your audience in too many
places and, then, you lose them -- you're just stretching them too far. What I found --
I'm still -- there is still one that I'm considering dropping on Facebook. So, after going
through that process there were a few that we dropped, a few that could be made into
groups, which is a different type of engagement. I can't -- I don't have a number for you,
but I could send you a list of what we have.
Cavener: I would want that.
Emery: Yeah. Because I have all the lists of what we have. I will tell you, on Facebook
all of our parks -- they made a Facebook page for all of our parks and when I first saw
that I thought no, no, no, we don't need a Facebook page for all of our parks, but, then,
after thinking about it and we talked about it, if we don't make the page someone else
might and so we don't use those pages -- those parks pages, other than Storey Bark
Park, because that's a real niche audience and that's a great -- that's a great one to use.
We don't really use those pages, but we have ownership over them and so that's good,
you know, because there are -- they are our parks, so if we ever do want to use that we
have that. So, there are some Facebook pages like that that we have just in case. But,
yeah, I can definitely send you a list.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up. Kaycee, what about boosted post. Talk to me a
little bit about what your budget is for spending to boost post, what warrants a decision
to make this post needs to be boosted, this one doesn't. That part was always
fascinated when I see stuff, sometimes I'm like, oh, I wonder why we are boosting that
or why are we not boosting that. So, can you get me educated as to the decision that
goes into -- into that?
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Emery: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener -- and I forgot to answer one part of your
other question. The process that you want to create a social media page. You have to
run it past me first, so that we know -- we do have a process in place for that. And,
then, to your next question, I have a thousand dollars in my advertising budget. So,
have to make -- and that's a small advertising budget and where I get the most bang for
my buck is on social media, especially on Facebook. So, I use most of that on
Facebook throughout the year. We -- I boost our big events that maybe I feel aren't
getting a lot of reach out there, like, obviously, State of the City is one I boost. If I have
a really engaging post, like the rising star video, I will boost that because I want people
to be aware that we have a City of Meridian, Idaho, page and that will let them know.
So, I boosted that one and said be sure to like our page, because I want people to know
we are out there so they are following us. With the new algorithm right now we are not
appearing in people's timelines as much and so I will probably be doing more little
boosts, less big campaigns. Like my State of the City was a bigger campaign, but to
maximize my money that I have in advertising I will probably be doing more smaller
boosts, just to get us in people's timelines more, because my biggest thing is I want
people to see what's happening in their community. I think that's really important.
Cavener: I agree.
Emery: And we are not seeing -- they are not seeing them, so that's why I boost.
Cavener: Okay. Thanks.
Emery: Yeah. And I get great analytics from boosting, too, by the way.
Cavener: Awesome.
Emery: Yeah. Which I love.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Speaking of the analytics and the new algorithm, is there anything that
those of us that are on social media can do to help you increase and help with the
reach?
Emery: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Council Woman Little Roberts, thank you for that
question. You can share a page and, then, tell people to -- oh, you know what, I don't
have it in front of me. There is a drop down -- it just says -- there is a drop down. You
can mark it as your favorite. I had it in my boosted post. Anyone see my boosted post?
I wrote it in there. What you need to do -- I will send it to you guys. That's a fantastic
question, because I would love that. Share our page. Let people know that our City of
Meridian page is out there and, then, I try and share our police pages, our fire pages
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and our parks pages, so that people know. Once I get them following the City of
Meridian page I'm going to get them following Mayor Tammy's page, all that stuff, so --
Little Roberts: Thank you for all you do.
Emery: Thanks.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, to kind of help answer that, you can set -- you can go into a
page and, then, where it says follow, you can determine how many notifications you get.
So, you can get like the standard of the highlights or everything. So, that's what I did.
So, I think having the list sent to everybody, so we all know what all the pages are --
Emery: I would love to.
Palmer: And another thing you can do -- especially with NextDoor, it's a piece of cake
and people actually do it, if you -- if you go on you can see within your area that you live
in everybody who is not on there and I think it starts you off with like ten postcards
where you can have it sent to your neighbors and so -- and each one of those neighbors
that actually signs up from the postcard, then, you get awarded more postcards that you
can sent to more neighbors. So, I have like 200 postcards in my bank and have literally
invited everybody in my neighborhood, because I have had so many people sign up
from the postcard that they get in the mail, because it says who it's from whatever and
it's really increased the percentage. I mean as an HOA board member, like NextDoor is
the worst thing in the world, because everybody becomes a board member with
NextDoor, but -- but as a councilman like it's an amazing thing and really having the
majority of our neighborhood on it I think has really made a difference in helping people
understand what's going on around the area. But, Kaycee, I'm really disappointed in you
that we don't have any statistics about the My Meridian hashtag this time, especially
how many times Councilman Palmer --
Emery: Oh, no. You have used it, I'm so proud.
Palmer: Rolling off the stats. I'm so proud. I'm so proud of the branding up there right
now it's just making me so happy -- going on. I should have brought that. That would
have been a great idea. I can look that up. Real quick. Robert just asked me to remind
-- or to talk to you all about something real interesting. So, the city of Provo do a lot of
things on social media and in marketing that I really like. So, I reached out to them and
I -- have met with them a couple times over the phone just to learn from them. They
are a little bit larger than us. Not too much. But I think they are about a 110 to 120
thousand. Anyway, doing great things in the marketing realm and so I have talked to
them a lot. One thing that was very interesting to me is their budget for advertising -- for
Facebook alone their budget is 5,000 dollars, so -- and I said, well, why and he said
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that's not even enough. We would spend more on Facebook if we could. So, that was
interesting from another city similar to our size. Did I mention that?
De Weerd: I think I heard you mention it. Any other questions? Thank you, Kaycee, for
all you do.
Emery: Thanks, everyone.
C. Public Works: IPDES Programs Update
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-C is under our Public Works Department on our IPDES
programs update.
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you can exhale. I'm not going to
give you the update on the IPDES. We have someone I want to introduce that's far
more knowledgeable on that particular talk, but before I do that, though, I got to tell you I
felt the energy drain from this side of the room when I found out that the thousand
pound hairball did not make the like top --
De Weerd: I know. I can't believe that.
Bolthouse: I was shocked.
De Weerd: I was shocked, too.
Bolthouse: Okay. All right. Well, we will -- it's kind of those personal pride moments. It
was just -- we felt terrible over here. We have not had a chance to formally introduce to
you our new superintendent at the wastewater treatment plant, so I wanted to do that
just real quick. In December we promoted Travis Kissire to the wastewater
superintendent. He was formally our manager of the laboratory. Has been with us for
over five years. Was instrumental in a lot of the effort to bring our facility up to
compliance. Was involved in the permitting processes. Was integral in developing one
of the finest laboratories in the state of Idaho now that we have in our wastewater
treatment facility. He's integral to the process. He's very knowledgeable and is -- is
developing into an incredible leader out in our wastewater treatment plant. So, I just
wanted to take the moment to introduce you to Travis. Travis is going to give you a nice
update on the efforts of primacy as it relates to the wastewater process. So, with that I
will turn it over to Travis. Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. And congratulations, Travis.
Kissire: Thank you. Good afternoon, Madam Mayor and Council Members. Thank you
for allowing me the time to provide an update on the IPDES program. What I have
prepared for you today will cover a quick background of the IPDES program, including
what is IPDES, a breakdown of the funding, anticipated changes under the new
program, expected impact on the city and a timeline of related events. The 1972 law
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commonly known as the Clean Water Act established basic structure for regulating
pollutant discharges into the waters of United States. EPA's National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System, NPDES, permit program controls and regulates
discharges. The City of Meridian is currently regulated by the NPDES program out of
Region Ten of the EPA, which consists of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska.
Region Ten of the EPA is headquartered in Seattle and the NPDES system is funded by
federal taxes. IPDES is state administration of the federal NPDES program. In 2014
the Idaho legislature approved legislation directing the Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality to seek delegation of the NPDES program. DEQ submitted a
primacy application to EPA on August 31st, 2016. In short, regulation of Idaho
dischargers currently performed from Seattle will be brought into Idaho and into the
hands of Idahoans. Moving to state administration is more of a norm, rather than an
exception. In addition to Idaho, states that do not currently administer their own NPDES
are Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Mexico, the District of Columbia, and various
territories, including Puerto Rico. The city has been involved in the IPDES development
process. We have been involved in development of IPDES guidance documents. City
staff members have served as a resource for technical input. The input has been well
received and resulted in favorable changes to guidance documents as they have been
developed. In this process city staff members have developed professional working
relationships with the IPDES program staff and city Public Works staff have challenged
laboratory certification requirements. These requirements would have been beyond
what the federal program requires and would incur additional costs for the city.
Additionally, IDEQ has reached out to us during development period for information,
such as our best valley study and for how we use net DMR, which is the EPA's
electronic reporting website. IDPES will have a total annual funding of 3.1 million
dollars. User fees will account for one million of the funding, which is roughly a third of
the cost. The remainder will be funded from the state general fund and federal dollars
at 2.1 million dollars, which makes up the remaining two-thirds. So, looking more
closely at the one-third cost comprised of user fees, we see that the fee structure for
permit use is by the type of permit issued. The majority of permits will, in general, fall
under one of three types, municipal, industrial or storm water, with the storm water
permit scaled by the size of the property. You will notice for municipal permits the fee is
based on EDUs. An EDU is an equivalent dwelling unit, which is calculated as a
population served divided by the average number of people per household. For
context, there are over 2,000 users in the state of Idaho. Fees will be distributed among
individual municipal and industrial storm water general permits. IDEQ has indicated that
the rationale behind this breakdown, with municipalities bearing the majority of the cost,
stems from determination by IDEA that the majority of time and labor spent will be
working with municipal dischargers. Furthermore, IDEQ has mentioned wanting to
evaluate this fee structure in five years to ensure that they are covering expenses. So,
what is the funding going to be used for? Funding will be used to staff the program
IDEA will conduct permitting, compliance, enforcement and oversight of regulated
entities in Idaho. They will issue permits for point source discharges into rivers,
streams, and lakes. To do this IPDES will have 29 full-time employees, seven
administrative employees, 14 compliance employees and these are the staff members
that will receive and evaluate the required reports that the WRF generates, things like
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monthly discharge monitoring reports and progress reports on construction. They will
also be responsible for performing on-site audits at the wastewater plant. And, finally,
there will be eight permitting employees. These are staff members that will evaluate a
treatment plant's historical data and determine everything from the pollutants to be
regulated, the frequency of monitoring and the numeric concentration of mass limits that
will end up in the permit. So, what will change under IPDES? There will be local
representatives -- local representatives of the program. Access to IPDES staff will be
easier via state and regional offices, which are in Boise, and IPDES will have easier
access to us as well. And what will remain the same. All federal regulations and
standards will remain. Anti -backsliding laws will remain. The city's current NPDES
permit will not be affected during this permit cycle by the change to IPDES. You might
be wondering what anti -backsliding means. In general, the term anti -backsliding refers
to regulatory provisions that prohibit the renewal or reissuance of an existing NPDES
permit that contains effluent limits or permit conditions that are less stringent than those
established in the previous permit. This means that we shouldn't expect a major
rollback of the program. The mission of IPDES, like NPDES, will still be to regulate
point source discharges for the protection of water quality. I have broken down the
impacts of the IPDES on the city and will address the IPDES fee, as well as identify
pros and cons. So, if you will recall, the fee for municipalities is based on EDUs. Based
on most recent census data the city has 33,908.9 EDUs. When calculated at the IPDES
rate of $1.74 per EDU, the City of Meridian's IPDES is $59,001.43 annually. The first
bill for this will be sent to Idaho municipalities in October of 2018. The fee is identified
and planned for in the base budget planning process currently underway for fiscal year
2019 and going forward there are three things that could affect this cost for the city.
The first is change to the city's population. Second is change to the city's EDU and
those are both defined by the census. And the third would be IDEA changing their fee
rate of $1.74 per EDU. We anticipate some possible positives from the program.
Negotiations for permit renewals will now be done here in the Treasure Valley. We will
have easier access to IPDES staff. So, permit writers could be brought on site to show
them the facility that they are developing regulations for. To date the city's interactions
with the EPA, such as for proactive development related communication -- permit
development related communication takes place with an EPA official in Seattle. This
was the case during the development of the city's current NPDES permit, which was
issued in August of 2017. During this time city employees were in contact with the
permit writer challenging decisions and raising questions. The permit writer was only on
site at the city's WRF one time. So, there is one chance to show him how well we
maintain our facility and explain our unique issues to him in person. Additionally, there
should be a typically shorter timeline for permit renewals. There are both pros and cons
to this one. The standard cycle for permit review and renewal is five years. The city's
previous permit was an administrative extension for 13 years. Hopefully, the upside of
having a permit renewed more frequently is that we won't see large scale sweeping
changes to the permit like we did in the last permit renewal, going from just a handful of
regulated parameters to pages and pages of regulated parameters. So, this could
make planning and budgeting easier to manage. We are also hopeful for basin one
solutions. So, this means that from IPDES we are anticipating consideration of
solutions like water quality trading options. So, we could have more options in how we
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are regulated than just X concentration at the end of the discharge pipe. So, what are
some of the risks. We anticipate increased inspection and audit frequency. IPDES is
right here in our state with their office local in the Treasure Valley. Within the first year
IPDES plans to perform on-site inspections of all facilities in the state. Even though we
do not anticipate any violations, every audit is an opportunity for IDEQ to identify a
permit violation and our current permit is far more complex than the last. More timely
permit renewals also pose us some risk. Each permit renewal is an opportunity to
receive a new limit in our permit. At that time the IPDES permit writer will evaluate the
data from the previous permit period and determine if new limits are necessary. We
also expect a general higher level of scrutiny from IPDES. They will have staff
dedicated just to inspections in Idaho, which is something that was limited with the EPA.
Here is a timeline for IPDES program phases. They will begin issuing IPDES municipal
permits in July -- July 1st, 2018. They expect to have the IPDES program fully
implemented in mid 2021. These are some of the projects IPDES is currently working
on. The city will participate in IDEQ provided training on the e -permitting system in May
and the IPDES guidance meetings and development of additional guidance documents
will continue throughout 2018. And upcoming milestones regarding IPDES. First is the
IPDES pending rules, which is adopted by the board on November 16th, 2017. It will be
effective at the adjournment of the 2018 legislative session. Locally one of the first
cities to work with IPDES on their permit rule will be the city of Boise. We will be
watching that process to see how it goes for them. And the City of Meridian WRF must
reapply for a permit reissuance on or before February 1 st, 2022, which means the next
permit reapplication process will be directly through IDEQ's IPDES program, rather than
through the EPA directly. And with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Travis. Any questions from Council?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Going back to the 59,000 dollars a year in fees that we pay to IPDES. That's for
administration?
Kissire: Uh-huh.
Milam: What -- what is in our budget and what are we currently paying -- are we
currently paying the same amount of money to NPDES or --
Kissire: So, currently the program is run by NPDES, so it's funded by federal taxes.
The 59,001 dollars will be planned in in time for next year. It's being planned into this
year's base budget.
Milam: That's additional to anything that we have spent --
Kissire: Yes.
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Milam: --until now.
Kissire: Yeah.
Milam: Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. We have no choice. Okay. Thank
you, Travis.
Kissire: Thank you.
D. Council: Election Process Follow up
De Weerd: Item 8-D under council discussion for the election process follow up. I don't
know who is leading this.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I don't either, but I will start. When we last spoke about this and discussed --
and we started the discussion of the current system and the memo that was produced
by -- I think Legal brought it, with what communities are doing by the seats versus the
pooling at large election process, it sounds like there was a good discussion of pros and
cons of each. There clearly are pros and cons of each system and there were some
questions of trying to get some additional data that might assist in making a
determination whether a change would be appropriate for the City of Meridian.
assume that's been done or been gathered by whoever needed any data to the extent it
exists. I didn't see or find and I don't think there is any data that would give some
objective measurement of participation using one particular format or the other, unless
there is some municipality that recently switched that might be anecdotal to see if you
get better turnout, but, nonetheless, that's where the conversation ended. But we
wanted to make sure we brought it back if anyone on Council wanted to drive this
forward and make a case for it, we clearly wanted to have an opportunity to close the
discussion one way or the other. That's the update.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Since I brought this up in the first place, I have -- I -- I feel that we should
change the way that we do things to the pool system and I can reiterate some of the --
some of the reasons. I think that it levels the playing field. I think more people would
run for office and not only -- you know, sometimes people don't want to run against an
incumbent, because -- well, they don't -- they just don't feel like they could win directly
or if they -- or they are like, well, you're doing an okay job, I don't dislike you, so I will
just not bother and so I think that not having the direct opponent situation, even people
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that you like and your friends would run for office if it -- it was -- it also prevents
somebody from backing out at the last minute to ensure that the opponent does get the
winning seat. Those are the -- it's less intimidating. I just -- yeah. Those are pretty
much the main reasons and some other people had some good insight as well.
De Weerd: Thank you, Genesis. I asked some of the citizens that were at the Coffee
with the Mayor and they mirrored some of your comments, that people interested in
running for Council would be running for Council, not running against someone and I
think that was the -- the biggest piece of feedback. They didn't understand the seat
system, because it wasn't a geographic area that was -- that the seats represented, they
were pretty random, and so they said that this would be more intuitive and -- and maybe
you want to put it on the ballot for citizens to weigh in, like they did with the increasing
seats from four to six and that is the feedback I got.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I didn't weigh in last time, because I was very unsure. I think both have
the pros and cons, but the more that I have chatted with people, the more I am thinking
that the pooling would encourage, because I have talked to several people that have
kind of been on the fence that would have gone ahead and run had it been a pool
situation and not -- I have to pick a person to run against if there wasn't an open seat.
As we have seen before, they tend to be much more -- many more turn out on an open
seat than do -- for the most part than do when there is an incumbent. So, I think that
maybe a pool definitely has some -- some things that we should have a serious
discussion about and maybe consider, like you suggested, putting it out to the people to
see what they think.
De Weerd: And even when we increased our -- we had a public hearing when we
considered increasing from four to six before Council wanted to explore it further, they
did have a public hearing on it and we actually had some participants weigh in.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I'm still not convinced. I think if you're doing a good job, if you have done -- if
you have been a great public servant, you have been engaged, you have reached out,
you have been honorable, you have served with integrity, I think that the chances of you
winning reelection versus having the incumbents is going to be the same. So, I'm not
fully convinced. I think a more interesting discussion, if you want more people to be
involved, isn't necessarily going to a pool system, let's talk about term limits. I think that
if you really are engaged with the public and you really want to make a change and if
you want to really mix this up and get the public involved, I -- I would -- no guarantees,
because I haven't had this conversation, but I would -- I would bet a lot of money that
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people would be way more supportive of term limits than a pool system. So, if we want
to have serious discussions about mixing it up, let's do it the right way, let's put
someone on for eight years and kick them out, you know. I mean that's my point of
view. If you're serious about it, that's the discussion in my point of view. If you're
serious about this, term limits is the way to go, not the pool system.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Amen. I will address it further. But really -- not really. I feel the exact same
way. I think Meridian is different. I don't know that it -- the city is negatively affected by
the way that we do it, given that we are definitely in the minority of the way that cities do
things. We are in the minority of the way cities do things in a lot of ways and I don't
think we are hurt by it, but term limits is a fascinating concept for a city council. I don't
know if anybody else in Idaho has that or what the -- how many around the country do,
but I love the idea. I don't want to be here forever and I would love it if whoever
replaces me one day isn't here forever either.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: With this type of discussion, if the -- a pooling system, that's a way to get the
pooling ballot, so to speak, if there is -- and I don't recall the mechanism when it was
moved from four to six as far as an advisory vote, but getting public input through that
fashion certainly seems to be -- would be a valuable asset to have and a public hearing
as well and it sounds like if we are going forward it's a decision that has to occur in the
next six months, but to get that process started seems to be one appropriate way to
move the ball that direction.
De Weerd: I think in order to put it on the ballot you need it in September? Is that -- is
the language all approved and all that.
Baird: Madam Mayor, that sounds about right. I was looking over at Robert, because I
know we have talked about this and he's nodding as well and while I have the floor, I
could see the process going that you would have the advisory vote and if you choose to
move forward you would direct us to draft an ordinance and, then, you would have your
public hearing to consider that ordinance. That would be one suggested way to map
this out.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: A question I guess for Legal. It's an interesting take. My mind set was
almost 180 degrees. We would have a public hearing first, hear from our citizens, take
that into consideration before we put it out for an advisory vote. I mean there is -- I
guess there is different ways to skin that cat. I don't know if there is a preferred or not.
Baird: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, exactly. It's totally up to you. The
only legal mechanism is that if you do desire a change it has to be in the ordinance
where you remove the seats and establish the pool. It could be at the end of
everything.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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Milam: The process itself, you know, there is the way -- there is the way to do things, so
I'm good with that. I'm also okay with term limits. I think that they are two separate
conversations and I would be happy to discuss the term limits. I think there should be
term limits in all of government personally. So, I guess my question with -- I don't know
where I was going with that. Oh. But guess with the term limits, that's a different
discussion. I say that and, then, I start talking about it. To lose half of a council all at
the same time is -- also could be hard for a city -- or for the new council, for the Mayor's
office, for the -- all of the staff. So, just figuring out how to add something else -- I will
save that for that conversation. Sorry.
De Weerd: Okay. So, any direction? Would this Council like to ask the public to weigh
in if this should be an advisory ballot measure or what -- what is your direction?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I would be supportive of scheduling an upcoming public hearing on this issue.
Let our citizens come. There is lots of mechanisms for them to come and share their
thoughts. Formalizing something that is a public hearing, if -- I know that if -- why I feel
a certain way, if I hear a certain amount from our citizens I think the other way, that's
compelling information to have. So, I would be supportive of a public hearing before we
make any other decisions about it, to maybe include something on the ballot or not.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I agree with Councilman Cavener that I think we should get some public
input. I do also agree with Councilman Milam that there are two separate issues, term
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limits versus a pool, and so I would like us, if we want to discuss both of them at the
hearing to make sure that they are separate issues, but I would definitely like to see us
go ahead regarding the pool.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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Milam: The only problem I see with putting it on the ballot is putting it on there in a way
that the public will understand what it -- what it means. You know, for us it's like we do
it, we are all here, we know how it works. A lot of people don't understand. What do
you mean a seat and does that represent this and the concept itself is not something
that they think about ever or on a regular basis, so I think the wording would have to be
so important if we are considering putting it on a ballot. It's one of those things it's hard
to get across.
De Weerd: I think maybe our Legal -- or we could probably reach out and see how best
to frame it, because I would agree, I think a lot of the things that happen that are put on
the ballot -- the language is everything and -- in terms of trying to be neutral and not
lead, but to give enough information to truly get the public's opinion.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: And maybe part of the public hearing Legal could provide an idea of what
that -- that language could be.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener and, then, Mrs. Milam.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I'm fortunate that I get to sit next to Legal and so I had asked
Ted that very question, if they could have sample ballot language for our public hearing
and Legal feels confident they would be able to do that. So, you summarized what
was going to say already.
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: You got consensus.
De Weerd: Okay. Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I will just let you keep that in --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
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Palmer: I'm really looking forward to the yard signs along the side of the road that say,
yes on Meridian pool. No on Meridian pool.
De Weerd: Maybe we could reuse some signs.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We will schedule that public hearing and eat the elephant one bite at a time.
E. Council: Commission and Board Updates
F. Mayor's Office: City's Position on Proposed Legislation
G. Citywide Strategic Plan Update
De Weerd: Very good. Council, we had a strategic plan update following your boards
and -- your commission board updates and --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Sorry.
De Weerd: Go ahead.
Borton: No. I interrupted. I was going to ask -- we have got some staff here as well -- if
it would -- if we could switch that order and get the strategic plan update going right now
and -- and put it before our commission and board update and legislative -- F and G.
De Weerd: I think in light of the lack of time, what I would like to do is introduce it, ask
the staff that has stayed here to do their close outs and, then, we can do the high
priority areas and the modifications next week.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: For the sake consistency, I appreciated we have had staff sitting in here, but
could we just do the entire update next week? That would give Council a quick chance
to grab a bite of dinner before we jump into our next meeting.
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De Weerd: Okay. Well, I do want to value our staff time that has stayed until 5:35 to be
told you're not needed.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just as one Council Member, I value their time when they don't feel like they
have to be rushed to make a certain hard deadline. That would give us the opportunity
to engage in those particular elements of the strategic plan that are being presented.
De Weerd: Okay. Well, Council?
Bernt: Madam Mayor, I'm on a diet and so if we want to do it now we certainly -- I would
be okay for it, but --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: For me I mean given, you know, where we got the e-mail on Friday, I have not
had a chance to even look at it. I think having the extra week to even dive into that
before anything and, then, having the entire conversation at once I think would be most
advantageous to the process of dealing with the strategic plan, given how every other
conversation about the strategic plan has ever gone, so I really want to wait if we can.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Who said something?
Cavener: Over here.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: And just a thought, because I appreciate staff's time and I don't know how
Council would feel about continuing this until next month, so that they are not having to
be kind of at the whim a traditional City Council meeting that has had full and long
agendas. That would give Council Member Palmer ample time to review the updates
and would give all of us the chance to review, and maybe we would make our
conversation more on point next month. Again, I don't know how the rest of the Council
and, Madam Mayor, how you feel about that, but that may be an appropriate step to
respect their time.
De Weerd: Well, I guess we will put this on next week. I stayed in town to do this, but it
is what it is. So, thank you, everyone, for sticking around. I didn't know this would be
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the last thing on our agenda or I would have set it right out of the gate. So, appreciate it
and we will put it on next week.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I don't know. I was trying to come up with a solution. We could always continue
it until after our next meeting. Just hear from this staff that's here now and, then, any
discussion can take place in a couple of hours or whenever we are done with our next
meeting. If we -- we didn't realize that you had stayed in town for that purpose. So, if
that -- we are in the middle.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would be inclined to go now and just -- just get it started.
De Weerd: Get through at least close out. Okay. So, how do I advance? Oh. I see
arrows. Okay. Well, I will at least kick this off. I spoke with Councilman Borton on what
the -- the most appropriate fashion to present this would be and this was kind of the
format that we decided on. So, we will -- we will just get into one through three and get
you through the close outs and ask for any follow ups on the areas that have been
closed out to date by previous action. So, number one. In review of the current status -
- I thought it was important to take a minute and bring it up to speed on some of the
steps that have happened since October. Key events that have happened in December
-- our director team met for a full day and walked through the entire strategic plan and
discussed every single objective. So, they made sure not only the leads understood it,
but so did the rest of the team and we were able to ask questions to -- to get more
detail. One of the -- the most important steps that we have taken is that we hired
Vincent and he has been such a great addition to this effort in terms of bringing it all into
one, bringing common language and I'm going to tell you in just a minute a few of the
things that he has done since he's been on the team. He has met with all of the
directors following that meeting in December and reviewed each of their objectives with
them. The objective leads, then, reviewed their goals and tactics to make sure that their
intent was clear and working with Vincent has really worked on making sure that we do
have some common language and it all works together. Through that, then, he rounded
it up, looked at the entire plan and we vetted each of the -- the modifications that you
will be looking at next week. Once Vincent was put on -- on board he spent hours
combing through all of our Council meetings, watching the videos and looking at all the
different changes that this strategic plan has morphed into and with that he has also
contacted local municipalities, both in the area, in the Pacific northwest, and he has
formed a cohort group that has really given him some feedback on what they are doing
in their communities and how he can incorporate some of that feedback into ours. He
has also approached the private sector and looked at what they are doing with their
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strategic planning, how they are doing their key performance indicators, and looking at
best practices. So, he's brought that all into what you have in front of you today. You
have a red lined version in both the spreadsheet and the -- the document that we will be
asking you to take action on after all this is discussed and Vincent will be attending a
local government innovation conference in April to look further at what we can do to,
again, continue to make this more user friendly and make greater sense. This is the
objective dashboard that he developed. You will have this in your quarterly updates in
terms of where we are at with our strategic plan. You saw that in the most recent
quarterly update. This tells you that -- well, in October we had nine percent completed,
with six total objectives. The current progress we have 16 complete with ten objectives
and five objectives are nearing completion. They are around 75 to 99 percent complete.
Four objectives have been completed since last October, which you will hear the close
out in just a moment. This dashboard will -- reflects the total number of tactics that have
been completed in the plan, with 22 percent completed as of last October, six -- or 36
percent have been completed to date, with 19 percent in progress. Forty-five percent of
the plan has not been started. And this is at the end of year two. So, the close out
reports. Each department lead will bring an overview of the completed objective and
this will give those the opportunity to talk about what they -- what work they have done
and to discuss the key milestones. So, Kaycee Emery will provide an update on 3.A.1.
Vincent will present in place of Chief Niemeyer, to update on 3.C.1. Christena Barney
will provide an update on 4.9.2, 4.D.2, if you were tracking me. Steve Siddoway will
update on 5.A.2 and, then, we will have a follow up on the close out that we had in 1.A.2
and Brenda will do one on 2.A.2. So, without further adieu I will call Kaycee up to
discuss 3.A.1.
Emery: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I'm excited to talk to you today about
strategic objective 3.A.1. It was to ensure all city departments are using effective and
efficient strategies in their marketing of city events and activities in order to increase
participation and create greater level of engagement between the community and local
government. So, some important events we took. We identified current events within
the city and current marketing strategies. Then I formed a committee to discuss these
marketing strategies and figure out if current events met the mission, vision, and values
of this -- of this city. We researched what other private and public entities are doing to
market their events and gauge success. We applied current strategies and research to
develop a best practices checklist for employees. The committee that I had formed at
the beginning helped finalize this list and after distributing it a few members have
already told me that it's been very helpful. So, that's fantastic to hear. Identify ways to
gauge success of events, something that is very important, but often forgotten, those
post-mortem after those events. And, again, staff members said this would be very
beneficial, a step that they were forgetting after events, but now it will just be part of the
process. Easy checklist. Easy to follow. So, performance -- performance measures.
Consistent marketing of city events. Ease of marketing, which is time savings. I'm all
about streamlining. So, we have given different ideas for reaching different audiences.
Marketing ideas to elevate participation to target levels. Evaluation process to
determine the success for city events activities. Number five, more goals will be met in
future city events. Six. We have a city survey performance measure, quality and
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variety of special events festivals. We want to increase -- we had 67 percent rated good
or excellent. We want to increase that to 75 percent. In city survey I want to add a new
question. The effectiveness of communications about events, because I want to see
what people are thinking after we have implemented these new -- this new best
practices. So, when it comes to marketing events, this strategic objective identified
gaps that we have in the city. We host several events each year, each department --
more people in the departments than you realize are hosting events with different
audiences and we are talking about even our education events, our car seat checkups.
So, in Fire and so -- and all the way to our community block party, which is a huge
event. The best practices checklist that resulted in this objective gives those putting
together events a guideline for what works and what marketing methods are out there
that they can utilize based on their goal for their particular event and it streamlines --
streamlines our marketing across departments. Another gap was the post analysis of
events. So, the initial spreadsheet I sent around to departments required them to look
closely at their events, identify goals and audiences they may not have been aware of
with all of their events that they were putting together. This was helpful. It's something
we often forget to do, look back and assess the outcome of an event. So, from here on
out with the development of the event analysis spreadsheet we have made it easier for
staff to analyze their events to see if they are meeting their goals and improvements
they can make in the future. Do you have any questions? I guess I have one more
thing. Implementation. I have shared the two documents with those who market or
organize events and I will check back in with them in a year to see if they have helped
or if we need to make modifications to those documents and I will be -- I will be
checking back in with them periodically and I have also said that if any of them want to
meet with me to go through that I'm more than happy to do so.
De Weerd: Thank you, Kaycee.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Kaycee, as a result of this process were there community events that we are
no longer going to do or support?
Emery: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, there are not. We found that they all met
the mission and vision and values of the city. There were some that -- that I felt that -- I
know that some people, now that they have done the event post checklist, we have one
event that maybe they are considering might not be included next year, but that's for
them to decide. As far as I'm concerned it meets the mission, vision, and values. But
think those checklists provide a really good opportunity for these departments to really
hone in on what events they want to focus on.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
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Cavener: Is, then, the -- the effectiveness of the overall event, is that determined via
the city survey or is that done via your checklist that you have created?
Emery: Well, the city survey helps us gauge success from the citizens. The event
checklist is kind of a postmortem where you can go through after the event to talk about
what went well, what didn't, and a checklist of did you reach your goal, did you reach
your audience, that sort of thing.
Cavener: Great.
Emery: But the survey is really our way to gauge citizens and we also have polling
opportunities on NextDoor, which is something that's part of our making best practices
that people can consider.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, sorry. That brings up an interesting point. I guess maybe
could you share with us what some of the best practices are and is it best practice -- I
mean you take an event like the, you know, Christmas parade, that's much different
than like the holiday bazaar and do you apply the same tactics to both events and how -
- and who is determining what's effective for each event and what's not?
Emery: That's why the best practices are really set to give these people organizing
events that, hey, look, this is what works, if you want to reach this audience you use
this. If you want to reach this audience, you use this. And here are -- here is what we
do with our particular events, but here is some other options for you. If you want to try
and go here you can go here. So, it's kind of a choose your own adventure.
Cavener: Great.
Emery: My favorite kind of books, by the way.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Emery: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Vince. Vince has gotten very intimate into the -- the plan, so he can
give everyone's report, actually.
Koontz: Absolutely. So, I have the pleasure of delivering this 3.C.1, develop a local
incident management team to respond during and after times of community crisis. And
chief was going to deliver this, but he had an arbitration hearing to go to, so I'm up here
talking to you about it. So, a couple of the key events that happened with regards to
this are the -- we reviewed our current city capacity to fill multiple needed roles during
an expanded incident, such as like Snowmaggedon. Snowmaggedon tested current
staffing capability to handle smaller scale local only event incidents. The regional
southwest Idaho incident management team under the state Office of Emergency
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Management was in place and functional under the direction of General Brad Ritchie.
Currently three employees of the City of Meridian are part of the southwest --
Southwest Regional Three incident management team and the performance measure
was to either -- either a Meridian standalone incident team was enacted of members of
the City of Meridian are part of the regional IMT and so the notes I got from chief said
Meridian command staff from Police, Fire, Public Works, Parks and Mayor's office and
Finance are able to assemble and began incident planning within six hours of
notification. In the event of an expanded incident exceeding the capability of city staff,
the regional Idaho type three incident management team is able to be assembled and
arrive within 12 hours of receiving request for assistance after a state disaster
declaration is made and I stand for questions, although I'm not totally sure if I can
answer them, because I would probably refer you to the chief.
De Weerd: You do have a backup over there, so maybe Charlie has your back,
because he's been very integral in the command side of things. Council, any
questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Vincent, if you don't have it, but I'm just curious if -- if enacting this team will
have a budgetary impact and, if so, what's the estimated amount?
Koontz: Do not have an answer to that question at this time.
De Weerd: Well, I will say that if a team is needed to be developed, at that point you're
not going to care about cost, because there is an emergency situation.
Cavener: I guess -- Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: If an -- if an emergency happens I guess we don't want to develop a team, we
would want to already have the team and so my question is what would be the cost to
develop that team.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener, we do have ICS training that we do in Fire and Police and
many of the other areas necessary to respond in an incident type of situation. So, they
do go through ICS training already, so there -- they are, essentially, trained and stand
ready to be pulled together and the need for responding to an incident.
Simison: Madam Mayor, Council, Council Member Cavener, just to expanded on that a
little bit, that was part of the -- I think the questions that the chief went through where he
realized that the cost of develop -- of fully developing a fully licensed IMT that was
staffed only by the city had a lot of costs associated with that, which is part of the
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reason why they opted to say there is one that can be activated within 12 hours here
that has no cost and the current staff that we have that goes through the ICS training
that the Mayor does is adequate to meet our -- our events that we don't need to call in
an outside team currently.
Cavener: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: And I think that the IMT is covered by the county and where the expertise is
needed from the state.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I just want to touch on the comment you made about that if there is an
emergency we won't care about the cost. I would contend that no matter what the
emergency is the cost should still be a relevant discussion. I think we all agreed that
during the Snowtado that we had last year that -- that while we all agreed that it was an
emergency, but the cost was still relevant and that we all got a call from Barbara saying
is what we figured out what we can do, here is how much it's going to cost and ask
some relevant questions, you had quick answers, and, yeah, let's do it. But I think the
cost was a very important aspect of that conversation and no matter of the level of
emergency it shouldn't just be a blank check. The conversation should happen.
De Weerd: That's an important point, but the Snowmageddon or Snowtado, whatever
you refer to it, is -- was not the -- the crisis incident that -- that you train towards and
oftentimes authorization to spend happens with the state of emergency and, then, you
almost come back when you have a breath to bring it to the Council and that is what
they train for and those kind of things will be brought in to the elected officials for that
spending authority as soon as they are able, but in a real incident -- and I'm not trying to
minimize Snowmageddon, but it was a great exercise to really start to pull together what
is that communication tool, what does the planning team do, what does the finance
team do and it -- it was a great exercise for our team to really pull together and -- and
work out some of the bugs and -- and be able to outline something that -- that ideally
would be followed. But, again, at the --
Butterfield: Madam Mayor, if I might jump in here a little bit. I know there were
discussions and a meeting last week that occurred between Chief Niemeyer and
General Ritchie, who oversees the Idaho Office of Emergency Management and to the
discussion that's being had here, whether or not we have an individual team just within
the City of Meridian or we have people -- employees of the City of Meridian that are part
of a team that coordinates with the state, what is coming out of those meetings is that
any time that team would be deployed the state would reimburse the city for any costs
incurred by that team, so --
De Weerd: Another lesson learned in Snowmageddon; right?
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Butterfield: Yes.
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you, Vince.
Koontz: Thank you.
De Weerd: And Christena I believe is the next objective. Yes.
Barney: All right. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for
having me this evening. So, I have objective 4.D.2, which is to develop a
comprehensive family focused health and wellness program for city employees. This
objective specifically is to curtail healthcare costs that improve the experience rating for
the city, family, employees and to be more fully integrated into the health and wellness
program offered for city employees. So, some of the important events in leading up to
the completion of this was we added communications about family involvement in the
wellness events in e-mails that are going out to the employees. We have
communicated that spouses are encouraged to participate in the on-site biometrics. So,
the idea behind that is to know your numbers, know if you are in any high risk areas
and, hopefully, get any preventative care. We had provided access to covered spouses
through the well-connected website through Blue Cross beginning January 1 of '18. So,
that gives covered spouses access to the health coaching, meal planning, fitness
tracking, online coaching that the employees have access to as well. Spouse and
children have been invited to participate in the wellness works challenge, the heart walk
and St. Luke's Fit One events. And those are advertised through those -- those
individual events. So, this objective through those efforts have been met. The
performance measures, however, will continue to be evaluated and to determine for
success. Industry standard for measuring these types of changes in this program is five
years. So, we are just now starting to collect that data and we will continue to evaluate
that to see if this change has been successful and, then, if we need to make any
changes in the future. So, I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Christena. Questions from Council?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I'm going to kind of be --
De Weerd: Can you pull your --
Cavener: -- repetitive tonight. What, if any, budgetary impacts will this program have
and what decrease in the experience rating are we hoping to achieve?
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Barney: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, I don't think that we have set that
yet. I kind of want to see what the engagement is and see what the trend is over the
first five years before we even set a matrix that we may or may not be able to obtain.
Cavener: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Siddoway: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, pleased to report on strategic
objective 5.A.2, which is the one focused on public sports facilities and partnerships
surrounding them. The Home Court partnership, as we reported back last year, was the
first success and major step toward growing our public sports facilities back in 2016.
Last year, early 2017, 1 think you will remember -- many of you remember that we come
before you to further define this particular objective. It was originally -- excuse me --
written to be more -- less about public, more about private and ideas, like attracting
Boise Hawks to Meridian or something like that -- along those lines. As a result of that
discussion Council directed us to insert the word public and change the focus
specifically to phase one of the south Meridian regional park. So, that all of the tactics
were modified at that point and changed to focus on phase one, development of phase
one of south Meridian regional park and getting it out to bid and as part of this process
we did reach out to all known potential partners. I believe there were 14 of them. Five
of them offered to meet with us face to face. As a result of those meetings none of
them had the financial resources to actually enter into a fiscal partnership at this time,
but we remain open to partnerships at all times. Mike Barton was before you in January
giving a detailed project summary of the -- the project from 2015 through 2018. 1 want
to -- he is here today if there are any specific questions related to the project itself, but
while I'm up here I want to express my own appreciation and, then, send some kudos
his way for the undertaking it has been to take this project through to where it is now
under construction. As a reminder, we are in bid strategy, including winter bidding. We
sent the bids out to 133 different contractors. Sixteen bid packages were issued. Thirty
bids were received. And on January 9th of 2018 Council awarded those contracts,
which completed this objective. And I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Thank you. Steve, with -- and the results of not any
community partners necessarily being in a position right now to hop on board in a
partnership, does that impact any phasing plans, amenities plans, or anything related to
the future that we need to be aware at this time?
Siddoway: Nothing at this time. We remain open to partnerships. I think the biggest
effect on phasing was the -- the line that you saw for the -- the gas line that runs through
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the park. Many of the sports facilities are in future phases and we remain open to -- and
the organizations out there are aware that we are looking for partners, but we are not
looking for a partnership that has us footing all the bill and giving them all the priority
use time. We want partnerships to be true partnerships and we have a -- you know, a
partnership form that's already been through Council and approved by that and when
someone is interested we provide that to them, so -- but no specific impacts.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Steve, when did that point occur where maybe we zigged instead of zagged,
because we don't necessarily have a community partner that's wanting to be, you know,
a financial partner in a particular amenity or structure or something along those lines?
Siddoway: I think it happens constantly as we go through the process of designing and
developing the next phase we will be looking for potential partners and our own fiscal
resources and impact fees that have come in and what are we able to do with the
funding resources we have and what could we do with resources that other partners
might bring to the table.
Cavener: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve. You want to advance that two. Council, the update --
the close out was on the urban renewal district and that has an update on our next
agenda. So, well just close with Brenda and talking about 2.A.2 and that was closed out
last fall and we will update you as to what's happened since then.
Sherwood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'd just like to say thank you for
having me. I know you have had a long night. I thank you guys for all the long nights
that you have had recently. Even though we closed this initiative out, it really is ongoing
for me. You know this. One of the things that we found for the performance measures
as far as success of economic development is having a ready team and most of you are
aware of this wedding -- or this ready team. This was something -- this was a model
that we took from Twin Falls when they landed Chobani and it made a lot of sense for
us to make sure that we had a diverse number of businesses, organizations always at
the table. I'd like to say thank you to Council Member Anne Little Roberts. Her role with
the chamber was how we were able to put this together. We now have -- we will
continue this meeting. I have created talking points for everyone just so that when a
company comes in they are aware of, you know, what they should be talking about, you
know, in attraction. They know that the Mayor and I are going to come onto the scene
and say, hey, this is a great place to be. What they want to hear from are that business
to business, their peers, and this is a great place to live or -- and, actually, start a
business. So, we are continuing -- I have asked Ashley because MDC -- just to give
you an idea of all the organizations that are part of the ready team, we have MDC,
obviously. So, I have asked Ashley, as the coordinator for MDC, to kind of push this
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forward with me. We will have quarterly meetings just with our partners and that also
includes chamber member businesses. We recently -- many of you are aware of
Project Clipper and when Project Clipper came in we were able to hold that meeting and
if you remember correctly that was 500 to a thousand new employees for an insurance
company. A lot of their customer service. So, we held that meeting at United Heritage
and Blue Cross was also there. So, they were able to get a feel of what the insurance
industry was like here in Meridian. So, we will continue that. The chamber member
businesses -- there is several. Food Services of America. Micro 100. United Heritage.
Obviously, the City of Meridian. The Mayor and I are always part of these. BVEP. A
big part of that. CWI. ESI. So, that they have sort of a contractor's viewpoint as well.
But we have several new members that are coming on board. My colleague Jana
Jones that was with BVEP is now with the University of Idaho. She's the economic
development director for U of I. You would be amazed at all the different resources they
have for businesses through U of I just to help companies get started. Lots of
connections. Lots of foundation help. In addition, Boise State University will also be
coming on board. C.C. Gassner. She is in charge of tech transfer. So, she will also be
a part of this ready team. So, we will continue that. Another performance measure is
provide annual number of partnerships with brokers, developers, and property owners.
We actually went through all of our contact sheets and we have had over 164 contacts
with brokers, with developers. Yesterday I actually -- I had two site selectors call me
from Chicago and I had three sites requests come in. So, on an average day you have
anywhere from, you know, three to five different calls. So, we safely -- we looked at all
of our projects. Most of those projects are always reflected in your dashboard and,
then, we have the weekly updates with the Mayor as well. So, we are kind of compiling
that. We get back with them. And, honestly, you know, one of the things that I tell
everyone -- we are very lucky to have just a handful of developers that really do a lot of
projects here. So, we are really on a, you know, one to one, you know, first name basis
where we work very closely with these developers to develop marketing pages for them
as well. So, those are weekly contacts. And, then, the final one is -- performance
measure was maintain an annual database of leads. We do this, once again, through
our dashboard. So, we had 23 site submissions through the Department of Commerce
and through BVEP. Two of those visits came into Meridian as site visits and that was
Project Clipper and, then, we also had Project Payback and that was about a hundred
back office positions. So, two -- two of those throughout the year for 23 submissions.
And that's about the average. So, we are doing that. At one point we had looked at a
new type of database that would -- more of a customer management, but after seeing
about a 55,000 dollar price tag we said, no, our contact management. So, we have
actually kind of maintained that through our Outlook. One of the things that I will say to
you while I'm up here is that it's never -- oftentimes the projects go by code names. It's
not to keep the public unaware, it's not to keep each of you unaware, we end up signing
nondisclosures primarily because those companies that are looking, they don't want
their competition to know. So, just always keep that in mind. So, sometimes when we -
- we don't always share everything right now. BVEP is no longer e -mailing out the
project list. So, we will have to get together to like have those conversations. I'm -- you
know, I don't put a lot of information on each of -- you know, the dashboard, but if you
ever have questions you know you can always feel free to give me a call. So, those are
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the performance measures that we have closed out, because we kind of, you know,
mastered how we are putting these things together. However, there are ongoing daily,
weekly, activities that I still partake in. So, any questions?
De Weerd: Thank you, Brenda. Council, questions? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, just a comment. Thanks, Benda. As you started there was a
whole bunch of questions kind of going through my mind and you like meticulously
answered every single one of them.
Sherwood: Okay. Good.
Palmer: So, I really appreciate your presentation. Thanks.
Sherwood: Oh, thank you very much.
Cavener: Oh, Madam Mayor, just one.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I have to echo Council Member Palmer. I'm writing questions and, then, I'm
checking them off as you go through. But just out of curiosity, do you see any trends,
any type of industries that are maybe looking at Meridian that Council needs to be
aware or things that we can do to help support you and the Mayor and your department
in these efforts?
Sherwood: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Luke Cavener,
actually, there is a couple of projects -- and I brought this up with our liaison -- that I will
actually engage you with. Right now we are seeing probably about 90 percent, because
of Chobani -- it's food processing. We don't have a lot of industrial land and when these
companies come in they are kind of fearful, because some of our prices are double
what they are in other cities. So, you know, I think until some of those other cities fill up
the spot -- their industrial, we will still sit on some of our industrial. But as we look at the
comp plan it might be something that, you know, we look at in other areas, so -- but
industrial is definitely needed. So, that is a big portion. We get a lot of customer
support centers. Now, don't let that like scare you, because, honestly, people get
nervous. They are like, oh, it's another call center. It's not another call center. We
have actually worked very hard to bring that workforce up. The tax reimbursement
incentive is set at 42,000 dollars a year -- 43 now. So, they have to have those wages.
When we are seeing the insurance companies come in, the insurance companies are
looking for certifications and their paying to put that workforce through those certification
programs and, then, of course, Paylocity. We couldn't have asked for a better project.
That is actually -- what they are teaching there to recent -- a lot of them are recent grad
computer students, that is almost a foundation that they are going to need for every
other technology company in the valley. So, we keep seeing that go up. Now, one of
the things that -- when we had some site selectors come in, one of the things they said
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to us is I know you don't want to hear this from us, but embrace your entertainment.
You have phenomenal entertainment. You know, we just -- at the Mayor's State of the
City you talked about Wahooz and how the park are doing. They said go after -- you
know, you have a couple more places on 84. You have got this half a billion dollar
shopping center. You have the race track. You have all these things that really are
great destination for families. So, they were suggesting going after those types of -- like
Bass Pro, you know, those big types of stores. But not only that, on our wish list is
some of those big golfing organizations or, you know, kind of like the Big AI's, but
specialize in golf. So, we are working with a couple of developers right now to put
together a lot of information and if you go to the strategic plan, I have attached some of
our videos for tourism. So, it's also just -- that's a big part of it, too. A lot of those
places want a million people, but with our tourism we are hitting that every year. So, we
are working on some things and so there is probably some things that I'm going to call
all you guys, you know, to be a part of that, because I think that they would really love to
see just our diverse Council, the Council Members as part of that. So, I will keep you
posted.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Sherwood: Anything else?
De Weerd: Thank you, Brenda.
Sherwood: All right. Thank you. Have good night.
Item 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Council, I guess in light of our next meeting lined up outside, I would
entertain a motion to adjourn.
Milam: So moved.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye.
All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:20 P.M.
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