HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-05-22Meridian City Council May 22, 2018.
A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:01 p.m., Tuesday, May
22, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam, Luke Cavener,
Anne Little Roberts, Ty Palmer and Treg Bernt.
Others Present: Bill Nary, C.Jay Coles, Warren Stewart, Cameron Ariel, Caleb Hood,
Scott Colaianni, Mark Niemeyer, Charlie Butterfield, Dale Bolthouse, Colin Moss,
Shawn Harper and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll -call Attendance:
WI 11111110111
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. We will go ahead and start our regular City Council meeting first by
welcoming all that are here in attendance. Thank you for joining us. For the record it is
Tuesday, May 22nd. It's one minute after 6:00. We will start with roll call attendance.
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: Community Invocation by Troy Drake with Calvary Chapel
De Weerd: Item 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led by Pastor Troy
Drake with Calvary Chapel. Thank you for joining us. If you will all join us in the
community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of reflection.
Drake: Council Members, Mayor, will you join me. Lord God, I just want to, on behalf of
everybody here, thank you for this beautiful day that we have, this day that you made.
Lord, we just thank you that we have life and we can enjoy it, Lord, and that you have
given us freedom in our country, all those people who have -- who have sacrificed so
that we can live free and work where we want to and pursue our dreams and family and
it's just awesome and so we just want to be grateful, first of all, for that and, God, we are
also just thankful for all the hundreds of people that are moving into the valley and it's
just so great for them to get to enjoy what we already have and -- but with it brings lots
of challenges and so we just pray for all the decisions that are being made here tonight.
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I imagine many of them are just because we have a lot of people moving here and --
and so we just pray for wisdom for all of these people who sacrifice as -- to make
decisions for our community. Lord, we also pray for all the first responders that are also
impacted by all the people that live here and we just thank you for them, God, and
asked that you would keep them safe as they keep us safe and we appreciate them so
much and so we just honor you here tonight and I just pray that -- that you give a lot of
wisdom to my friends here, these folks who are doing this and, Lord, all these various
decisions to be made, whether they are small or big, that, you know, they would have
lots of wisdom, God, and that you would give them a lot of grace for their service and so
we just appreciate you, God, in Jesus' name, amen.
Item 4: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Thank you. What a great way to start a meeting; right? Okay. Item No. 4
is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We are going to add an Item 6-N, as in Nancy. It's an agreement to extend
domestic water service to 750 Ustick Road as a Consent Agenda item and this
agreement was just presented to the city earlier today or yesterday was the reason why
it wasn't originally on the agenda as published. So, with that amendment I would move
that we adopt the agenda.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Future Meeting Topics - Public Forum (Up to 30 Minutes Maximum)
Coles: There were no sign-ups, Madam Mayor.
Item 6: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Howry Lane Subdivision #2 Sanitary Sewer Easement
B. Howry Lane Subdivision #2 Water Main Easement
C. Release of Water Main Easement Gramercy Sub No 1
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0026)
20/26
D. Final Plat for Bainbridge Connection Subdivision (H -2018 -
by Brighton Investments, LLC, located at the North side of W.
Vanderbilt Dr. and East of N. Black Cat Rd.
E. Final Plat for Baraya No. 3 (H-2018-0047) by Schultz
Development located on the south side of W. Franklin Rd.
between Ten Mile Rd. and Black Cat Rd.
F. Development Agreement for Lost Rapids (Brighton Site) H-
2018-0004, Located at the Southwest Corner of State High
Chinden Blvd) and North Ten Mile Road
G. Acceptance Agreement for Meridian Mill Mural
H. Resolution No. 18-2078: A Resolution Of The Mayor And The
City Council Of The City Of Meridian Signifying Final
Acceptance Of Meridian Mill Mural By Sector Seventeen, And
Providing An Effective Date.
I. Professional Services Agreement with Sensus USA Inc. for
Monitoring and Data Collection
J. Second Amendment to Memorandum of Agreement Between
Meridian Development Corporation and the City of Meridian for
Implementation and Construction of MDC Improvements for
Pine Avenue Project
K. Resolution No. 18-2077: A Resolution Of The Mayor And The
City Council Of The City Of Meridian Approving The Naming Of
Discovery Park; And Providing An Effective Date.
L. Award of Change Order No. 3 to The Ewing Company, Inc. for
the WRRF Headworks Expansion" project for a Not -To -Exceed
amount of $152,549.93.
M. AP Invoices for Payment 5/23/18 - $3,922,845.33
N. Amended onto Agenda: Agreement for Extension of Domestic
Water and Sewer Service Outside of Meridian City Limits: 750
W. Ustick Road
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 6 is our Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: With that addition of Item 6-N, I would move that we adopt -- or we approve the
Consent Agenda 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. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
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Item 7: Items Moved From The Consent Agenda [Action Item]
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Community Items/Presentations
A. City Scholarship Presentations
De Weerd: So, we will move to Item 8-A, which is our city scholarships. Each year we
have the opportunity to award scholarships to four students that have been great
contributors to our community. Many of them are familiar faces to the City Council and
to our city employees because of their service at the city level and sometimes we are
not familiar with the face, but they have made significant contributions to our
community. So, I'm going to go through and read something about each of the students
and I think as I start to read it -- this is just a sprinkling of information as to why they
were selected, but I hope at the end as they accept their certificate you will join me in
congratulating them and acknowledging their community service to the great City of
Meridian. So, I'm going to ask Ella if she would come forward, please. You get to stand
up here as I brag about you. So, if -- Council, if you don't recognize Ella -- and I think at
least one of you do -- Ella is on our Historic Preservation Commission. So, thank you
for your service. Ella is graduating from Meridian High. Ella has a passion for city
government and has been an intern with the City of Meridian in the past couple of years.
She is currently a member the Meridian Historic Preservation Commission and
volunteers in the city clerk's office a few hours each week doing data entry for past
property owners in downtown for the Historical Preservation Commission and the
Meridian Historic Society. When not spending time with the city, because she spends
considerable time here, Ella teaches Sunday school to children ranging from two to 16,
many whom do not speak English as a first language. Ella will continue to pursue her
passion for law, government, and policy and hopes to be a congresswoman, a city
attorney or work directly in policy as she will be attending Wisconsin Lutheran College
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with a major in philosophy and business in the chosen direction she would like to go and
eventually attend a law school and graduate with a juris doctor degree. So, please, join
me in congratulating Ella Kramer.
(Applause).
Cavener: Congratulations.
De Weerd: Okay. Our next recipient is Macy Smith. I couldn't eyeball you, because I
haven't met you before. Okay. Macy is graduating from Meridian High where she is
ranked first out of a class of 381 students. Okay. So, I get emotional, so if I cry I
apologize. Okay. Macy has a passion for giving back to her community and peers.
Through her church Macy has volunteered her time to teach young children during Bible
study or care for babies in her church's nursery. She spends her time visiting and
playing with refugee children in the valley, handing out toys and giving piggyback rides.
Macy has also participated in coat drives, turkey box stuffing, and delivering Angel Tree
presents, as well as helped in the Capital Easter egg hunt every year. Macy plans to
attend the University of Utah and she plans on majoring in biomedical engineering. So,
to all four of our recipients I think as you go off to college we want you to remember
where home is and we hope that once you go and spread your wings that you will return
here to pursue your career and to raise your families. So, congratulation, Macy.
(Applause.)
De Weerd: Okay. McKalya George. Okay. These last two are really hard, because
feel like I have been part of raising them. So, I apologize. Okay. McKayla is
graduating from Mountain View High School. McKayla has made volunteering and
giving back to the community a priority in her daily life as an active member of the Girl
Scouts of America for 13 years and if you ever want to know what Girl Scouts stands
for, you need to talk to McKayla, because she has done every single one of them and
she is the perfect example of what a Girl Scout does in their communities. She was the
creator and facilitator for the Strong Body -Strong Minds STEM Camp, which served 80
girls at the Meridian Boys and Girls Club. She has been active in MYAC serving in
several leadership roles, including chair. She has been a lobbyist for the American
Heart Association and a partner with Buckle Up For Bobby for seatbelt safety. McKayla
received the President's Volunteer Service Award from Barack Obama for her volunteer
commitment to Idaho where she has served thousands of hours in volunteer projects.
She plans to attend the College of Western Idaho and earn her teaching degree with a
focus on STEM education for kindergarten through fifth grade. So, please, join me in
congratulating McKayla George.
(Applause.)
George: I would just like to thank everyone here for all the amazing opportunities they
have given me. I have been a part of MYAC for about six years and --
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De Weerd: She gets it from me.
George: -- I loved being part of it and working close with Mayor Tammy and I'm just --
it's crazy how fast time has gone. Thank you so much.
De Weerd: Okay. Our fourth recipient is Rebecca Steed. Rebecca is graduating from
Renaissance High School and will be receiving -- I was trying to rush through. And
receiving her associates of arts degree from Idaho State University. Rebecca is a
member of MYAC and is currently the secretary of the executive council within MYAC
and I will tell you what, she's been hands down the best secretary we have ever had.
We will get the minutes that night after the meeting. So, you can't have her, she's going
off, but she's just been a dynamo. As vice -chair of the Teen Activities Council she was
one of the co -creators for the food frenzy fundraiser to promote suicide awareness,
which was an incredibly successful event that raised money for the Idaho Suicide
Prevention Hotline. Through her church Rebecca has taken on several leadership roles
and helps plan events for girls, oftentimes service projects, including food drives, visiting
the elderly, humanitarian projects as well. She has been a volunteer for the Idaho
Humane Society helping with fundraisers and mobile adoptions. Rebecca plans to
further her education and pursue her bachelor's degree in business management at
Idaho State University. So, hopefully, she won't wander too far off and eventually she
will be pursuing a masters in business administration. So, please, join me in welcoming
and congratulating Rebecca.
(Applause.)
Steed: I would just like to thank the -- the City Council I guess for the opportunities that
I have had led to serve my community through the Mayor's Youth Advisory Council. I
have loved -- I have loved being able to serve my community the feeling that I get when
I do and the lives that I have been able to touch through it. So, thank you very much.
De Weerd: So, MYAC will be holding their end -of -the -year party on June 4th. Thank
you. And we are inviting City Council to be judges of the potluck. So, we hope you will
come and help us send off our teens and thank them for all the service they have
provided our community. We have had an amazing year at the Mayor's Youth Advisory
Council and as Rebecca mentioned, she has an opportunity -- all of these members --
to touch the lives of many and their work in the organ donor legislation that was passed
this year, as well as the suicide prevention outreach that they have taken on and made
this a priority over the last several years, has, indeed, made a huge difference. So,
Council, I appreciate you being a part of that and continuing to support our youth.
B. Public Works Week Invitation to Council
De Weerd: Item 8-B is under Public Works Week and I will turn this over to Mr. Dale.
Bolthouse: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I'm going to pop in here for a minute,
because we have not had the opportunity to introduce our new communication and
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outreach specialist. So, I wanted to take a minute to welcome Shandy Lam to the
Public Works Department. Shandy comes to us from most recently Pullman. She's a
graduate of University of Idaho. Has lived in northern Idaho for a lot of her tenure and
we are so excited to have her join us on the Public Works Department. So, I wanted to
give her a proper introduction and she's going to extend the welcome to Public Works
Week tonight for you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale.
Bolthouse: Thanks.
De Weerd: Welcome, Shandy.
Lam: Thank you. All right. Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, it is my honor
to have the opportunity tonight to personally invite you to the 2018 Public Works Week
celebration. We are excited to be celebrating our tenth anniversary of this event and
would like to have all of you be a part of it. Public Works Week is a national
acknowledgement of the men and women who work behind the scenes to make our
cities, counties, and states run smoothly. The average citizen will wake up in the
morning and they will brush their teeth, use the restroom, take a shower and as long as
they get water out of the spout or when they flushed it goes down the drain they don't
give much thought to what happens before that water gets to their house or after it
leaves. The department and what we do is very out of sight, out of mind and if you ask
us that means we are doing our jobs right. So, Public Works Week -- Public Works
Week gives us the opportunity to show Meridian citizens what our team does on a daily
basis. This gives us a great platform to showcase our city -- our city, our department,
and our partners. We have two main events this year, beginning with the Go With The
Flow tour. This is the optimal way to get an up close look at the infrastructure, meet the
team, and learn about the processes used by each citizen within in the Public Works
Department. Tour goers will meet at City Hall on June 6 where we will hop on a bus
and head to location, location, location. We appreciate our Council members joining us
in years past and we are very excited to have Mayor Tammy aboard the tour bus this
year. One of our most popular city events is Public Works Expo, which will be held
June 7th right here at City Hall. This event typically draws in about 800 to 1,000
residents and is chock full of interactive displays, educational activities, and kids can
even help run equipment, work through the permitting process to build their very own
firehouse, they can even cool off with the fire hydrant flushing demo. Families are
invited to enjoy free hot dogs and popcorn as they hop from booth to booth throughout
the plaza and City Hall lobby. Even if you have been before, there is always something
new to see and with it being our ten year anniversary it's going to be bigger and better
than ever. The Public Works Week events have grown more and more each year and
our staff has continuously stepped up taking on roles from partnership plan -- from
forming partnerships, planning and executing logistics, marketing the events, leading
the tour and creating activities to engage our community. This is a huge effort by all of
the Public -- Public Works staff. This event also would not be possible without a lot of
collaboration and partnership with local businesses. The power of community is very
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apparent as consultants, contractors, and vendors come together from the city, county
-- city and county to make the expo what it is. Of course as you can imagine, this
valuable event is also not free. We couldn't do it without the financial support of our
amazing sponsors. We had a lot of great support this year and would like to especially
recognize Republic Services and Coastline Equipment for their generous platinum level
sponsorship. At the end of the week any remaining sponsorship contributions go
straight back into our community. Like we have done in years past, we would like to
donate those funds to Meridian Food Bank, the Parks Department Care To Share
Scholarship Fund, and the community recycling fund. As you can see, Public Works
Week has become a Meridian tradition. We would love to have you join us this year.
Tonight we have a personal invitation for each one of you and a commemorative coin.
Please stop by and don't forget to meet the famous Lady Poo and Hydro.
De Weerd: Lady Poo?
Lam: Lady Poo. That is correct. I will stand for questions.
De Weerd: Oh, can we get more creative with that name? I mean Lady Poop?
Lam: Madam Mayor, I believe that it was come up with by all of the kids that attended.
If you can imagine.
De Weerd: Maybe one of your first official programs you -- to rename the emoji that we
have. Council, any questions? I think -- I think all of you have been involved in the tour
and some of the events and can attest to the -- the whole experience from start to finish,
hands down, it makes us proud to show -- be able to show our citizens not only the
facilities and the service we provide, but the employees that put the face on it and show
the pride, the commitment and the dedication that they have. So, any you in the
audience that want to participate, strongly encourage that. Council, any questions or
comments?
Lam: Thank you for having me.
De Weerd: Thank you. I will look to hearing the new name.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Maybe we should put it out to a vote of the people.
De Weerd: Yeah. We will have Parky McPoop Face or something like that. Or
something. Sorry.
C. Fire Department Labor Analysis Report by RSM
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De Weerd: Okay. Item -- before I get further in trouble, Item 8-C is under our Fire
Department. Is -- chief, are you kicking this off or we are just -- John, come on up.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Council, good evening. I'm going to be brief, because John
is really the one that you're going to hear from. As you know, the city did commission a
consultant to come in and evaluate the Fire Department overtime. I would just like to
add before John comes up that it was a pleasure to work with him. We had a very good
working relationship throughout the process to look at where the issues are and with
that I will let -- John, I will let you take over and, then, we will back it up when you get
done.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Mark. Or chief. John, thank you for being here.
Croy: My pleasure.
De Weerd: Council, I believe you all received a copy -- or at least a link to the report.
Okay.
Croy: Madam Mayor and Members of the Council, my name is John Croy, I work with
RSM. I don't know if you're familiar with RSM. We are a large CPA firm --
De Weerd: John, can you pull -- yeah.
Croy: How is that? Large CPA firm and one of our practices is consulting and that's
where I fall in with respect to internal audit. So, we were engaged to do a labor analysis
with respect to the fire department and before I do that I want to thank Mark and his
staff for their utmost cooperation. We met with him several times, walked through the
process, went through our observations and recommendations and it was very, very
helpful. The report is broken down into three pieces. We have the first page is the
executive summary and, then, following that is where we go through each one of the
tasks. We identify the procedures we went through, our observations, and any
recommendations and at the end on page 13 we have also incorporated some graphs
that elaborates a little bit with respect to some of our analysis. So, I will just briefly walk
through and summarize I think the highlights of the report that I think you might be
interested in. So, on the executive summary we have the background and in the
background the objective of this audit was to assess the controls and operating
efficiency of managing the fire department's labor cost. We had three primary tasks that
was included in our objective and scope of work, but the time period of this is from
October 16th, 2014, through October 4th, 2016. We had three areas that -- tasks that
was included in our statement of work. The first had to do with staffing analysis and this
was to identify those factors, policy standards, and operating procedures that create
inefficiencies and may contribute to excessive overtime against tools and controls
identified with the collective bargaining agreement. The next had to do with the industry
standards. We want to compare what was in place with the fire department to make
sure we had best practices and industry standards in place. And the next had to do with
the control environment and I will talk a little bit about the control environment when we
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get to that task and specifically what that means in the world of internal audit. To
summarize the highlights, we compared the City of Meridian's labors and hours with
different what we call peer cities. They were Nampa, Idaho; Bend, Oregon; Hillsboro,
Oregon; Gresham, Oregon, and also Yakima, Washington. Our examination indicated
the City of Meridian's labor and hours were comparable to the peers, these cities I just
mentioned with respect to compensation, percent time work, staffing and overtime. The
one thing I want to point out was that the City of Meridian keeps very detailed records.
We have a very strong, robust system, we keep detailed records where the peer cities
may not. They may not keep records in the level of detail that the City of Meridian was.
Therefore, some of the data may not be comparable or comparable. For example, let's
talk training overtime. So, we capture and identify training overtime. Other cities may
not. They may just all roll that up within regular overtime. So, that's just an example of
some -- a situation where it is difficult to make comparisons. One thing we did when we
received a peer data, we relied on the peer data. We didn't validate that. There was
sometimes we would get back with the cities to confirm that data, but we didn't validate
the data that they did provide us. So, why were -- we are very strong with respect to a
lot of the areas with respect our efficiencies and controls. There was some areas of
improvements. It's noted on the executive summary. We had a situation where labor
was reclassified. It was transferred from shift overtime to training overtime by an
individual and we will talk about that a little bit later on. Also our training hours are
about 11 percent of our total hours, where in the peer cities it might be at the top around
four or five percent and, again, we will address that later on. And also with respect to
the 192 hours. So, an employee -- or under the collective bargain agreement will work
two consecutive 24 hour shifts and, then, take 96 -- 96 hours off. So, if you take those
two shifts and multiple that by four, you're looking at 192 hours pertaining to that where
we want coverage -- we are going to call it coverage. So, what we noted with respect to
192 hours, there was about only 34 percent of the time where an employee would work
to full 192 hours and that -- contributed to that was sick leave, which we will talk a little
bit later on and the fact -- how that plays into that. So, that's the executive summary.
What I will do now is I will move on to each one of these tasks and the -- and what we
do within each task. So, again, the first one has to do with the staffing analysis and,
again, this is where we -- we identify those inefficiencies, maybe overtime cost that was
related to the collective bargain agreement. The procedures we did on that -- we
analyzed the staffing requirements as set forth in the union agreement compared with
the current staffing levels. We analyzed the hours by union, non-union, employees. We
also analyzed the hours by station, by shift, by labor classification. Pretty fun exercise,
think of this -- all the stuff done here. We assessed the overtime hours for the City of
Meridian compared to the hours by the peer cities. We compared the compensation
package set forth in the union agreement with the peer cities. We also compared the
computation of overtime to the requirements to the Fair Labor Standards Act. So,
moving along, with respect to the staffing requirements, the union agreement, Article 23,
sets forth the staff requirements, which the City of Meridian adhered to. We were able
to do that by looking at the shift calendar and, actually, the people that worked for the
City of Meridian. The other thing that's involved that the City of Meridian has is floaters.
I mean they have floaters that will help fill in on these -- on these vacancies and one of
the things that we noted was that during the time of our examination there was a shift
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that didn't have a floater that would help back fill some of these vacancies and you will
see as we go later on how that impacted some of the financial analysis. With respect to
managing vacancies, approximately 76 percent of the union employees -- or 76 percent
is the time -- for regular time. We have eight percent for overtime, getting a total of 84,
which is very comparable to the other cities. In breaking that down between the
different labor classifications, the battalion chief works 70 percent -- that's just the
regular time. The captain 76. Engineer 72. And the firefighters 75. And one the shift
overtime we have the battalion chief at 14 percent, captain six, engineer eight, and the
firefighter eight. The battalion chief is a little higher and we will talk about that a little
later on on what's impacting that. One of the things we came across is that we have a
policy that if you're going on a vacation we give a 30 day advanced notice for vacations,
which makes sense, because we can kind of control that. People can kind of estimate
when they are going to take a vacation. That doesn't come into play when you have
sick leave, bereavement, because, obviously, we don't know when those things are
going to happen. But the other factor that comes into play is wellness. We don't have
an advanced notice for wellness. So, what we recommend is that this -- maybe take a
look at it, see if we can fall that into the same requirements as in the vacation where
they provide 30 day advance notice and while it may not be significant, it would possibly
help improve efficiency on the overtime side. One of the things we looked at was how
much shift overtime is used for vacation, because you have those things that are
uncontrollable and those things that are controllable. We talked about giving you the 30
day advanced notice for vacation. So, we should be able to -- which helps manage that
and maybe help us not use overtime to backfill for vacation. But what we noticed in our
analysis was that 23 percent of the shift overtime was used for vacation.
Borton: Madam Mayor, can I --
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I apologize to interrupt, but just on the vacation, I thought there was the
provision in the contract that vacation was scheduled to the extent it doesn't require or
create an overtime expense. The problem would be individuals would be on vacation,
that selection didn't create overtime and, then, subsequent to that there might be an
injury or bereavement or something that -- that was the factor that created the
overcome, not the original request for vacation.
Croy: Well -- and I'm not sure specifically, Joe, to that point, if -- I can't create vacation.
I know that it can, because you have incidental pay to -- or incidental time that comes
into play. I think they can also request vacation if there is other criteria that's being met.
What I did with respect to this analysis was that I said -- I took all of the -- all of the shift
overtime and say, okay, here is shift overtime associated with those factors we can't
control, that being bereavement, sick leave, those kind of things and I said what's left
over. So, I'm assuming what's left over is going toward vacation and incidental and
that's where this 23 percent is coming into play.
Borton: Okay.
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Croy: And, then, you also have this other factor -- a primary contributor that -- and we
will get into that -- is the battalion chief. So, we don't have some -- we have to backfill
the battalion chief with overtime, because we don't have qualified people to backfill that
individual when they are gone. So, we have to backfill with another other battalion
chiefs that creates overtime. Did that make sense? The other contributing factor to this
had to do with the firefighters and we talked about the floaters. So, there really wasn't
adequate floaters to meet the uncontrollable compensate -- I mean compensated
absence. Does that make sense? The uncontrollable compensated absence can be
like the bereavement, sick leave, and whatnot. So, because we didn't have that floater
we had additional overtime with respect to the firefighter, which is around 31 percent
from vacation. I don't know if that answered your question.
Borton: It did.
Croy: Okay. So moving on to the next -- the calculation of overtime and shift overtime
specifically with respect to the agreement and the Fair Labor Standards Act. The way
our agreement states -- it's in 21.1, it states that scheduled overtime shall be when a
firefighter is requested to return to work for any meetings, training, shifts or any other
reason deemed necessary by the department that is scheduled and planned. When
looking at the FLSA and the requirements there, it's really based upon -- there is people
out there that believe that it's really based upon time worked. So, overtime should be
based on times worked. So, the point is this: If we had somebody that takes vacation
for a holiday, whatever, or vacation for 182 hours, just as an extreme example, do we
bring it back in, do we have to pay them overtime, where under the strict interpretation
of FLSA we may not have to. So, that's something to look at when negotiating the next
agreement. And there is some wording that we worked with Mark on that that we may
take into consideration. I think it was the City in Nampa had some really good wording
in their collective bargaining agreement that can be taken in consideration for that.
Borton: Okay.
Croy: So, with respect to the recommendation, just to summarize that on task one, one
is the fact of the wellness time, it would be good to have advanced notice or take a look
at advanced notice similar to the vacation. The next has to do with the -- the swing up
program. I know Mark is looking at this right now, but the swing up program would be a
program where people could go up in a classification and work -- and help backfill that.
There are some requirements right now that they have be a primarily qualifier, but we
are looking -- I think Mark's looking at it from using it as a temporary employee to help
backfill, go up in classification to help in his staffing requirements. The other
recommendation had to be the floater and I know they have done this, but under the
period of our engagement we were lacking a floater in that shift C, so it would be helpful
to maintain that floater throughout, especially as the fire department grows and also with
the FLSA requirement and looking at that in our future agreement to see where -- and
see if we can look at that being based on time worked. The next one had to do with
industry standards. The procedures we did here, we analyzed the use of floaters for the
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various classifications. We compared the staffing levels with the peer cities. We
discussed and reviewed the swing up program. We discussed the training program for
the City of Meridian. We analyzed the training overtime by employee by classification
and we compared the training time for the City of Meridian with the peer cities. With
respect to our floaters, we have an average of one floater for every five to six
employees where the peer cities are about one to four. And, again, we talked about the
fact that we didn't have this floater on that shift C and what happened there, we didn't
even have enough floater -- floaters to address vacation time for the firefighters. So, the
firefighters were short a floater, you know, during our pre -examination for this shift C, so
we didn't even have enough floaters to address the vacation, so, hence, that was why
we had a little bit more overtime there. So, the swing up program is one where it allows
employees to work in a higher class, thereby gives the City of Meridian a little more
flexibility in managing vacancies. Generally we have about three individuals within the
swing up program, but we don't have any individuals again to address the swing up
program for the captain and engineers, but we don't have any individuals for the
battalion chiefs to swing up and, again, this is why we are having the -- the overtime
issue with respect to the battalion chiefs. With respect to training, what we noticed that
the -- the training hours for the City of Meridian was about 11 percent of the total hours.
We mentioned earlier on the peer cities it was about four to five percent. The overtime
that -- the overtime related to training is about .88, which is a little bit less than we came
across on those peer cities that didn't track training overtime. With respect to the
training overtime, about a third of that is related to six employees who were classified as
field training officers that provide training. The other factor that came in that was about
a third was the fact that if somebody goes on training, the person that backfills for that
person probably incurs overtime and that's classified as training overtime, which is
different than the peer cities. Hopefully that makes sense. So -- again, so if somebody
goes off in training, the person that backfills we classify that -- or as -- as training
overtime if training overtime is incurred and peer cities don't do that. So, again, that's
another anomaly when we are doing this comparison. When doing this analysis we
came across an incidence where time was transferred by an individual for several
employees and it was transferred from shift overtime to training overtime. We reviewed
this. There was a potential risk or potential control weakness there and we have asked
the city to take a look at that and, then, to -- and it may very well have been looked at.
This was under the old system, so, again, we view this one when someone has the
ability to do that as a control weakness, but that's something we brought up and that we
will be looking at. So, with respect to the recommendations when we -- again, we had
the recommendations on the floater to make sure we had that adequately staffed. We
also brought up the recommendation again with respect to this -- bringing the in-house
swing up program. The training -- our recommendation would be take a look at the
training and make sure it's necessary and makes sure that it doesn't impact our
overtime situation and also take a look at the process to make sure we don't have a
process where an individual can transfer labor from one classification to the other
without the proper interim controls. Going back to that transfer, too, I forgot to mention
there was some instances there, too, where the transfer is made and there was no
description for the reason for the transfer either. So, our third task had to do with the
control environment. So, a control environment is really the foundation of an adequate
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internal control and has to do with morals, integrity, it has to do with the fact that we
have good internal controls in place. We have procedures that are documented in that
they are -- adequately document the process and that also we follow that process. In
other words, we haven't -- we have it adequately documented and it's operating as an --
and this is all taken into consideration. It is the controlled environment. It's kind of the
attitude within a department of within an organization or even with the city with respect
to the controls and that's what this is all about. A lot of times you just can't go in and do
specific tests to determine if there is adequate controls, you have to sit for a controlled
environment, you have sit back and take a look at the entire picture and -- and assess
that and see what you have out there with respect to the environment. So, with respect
to the controlled environment, we reviewed the employees' roles and responsibilities.
We discussed the scheduling process for managing changes to stiff -- to the shifts. We
compared roles and responsibilities to the union agreement, reviewed duties that are
necessary and unnecessary. We analyzed the sick leave taken by days and by hours.
We analyzed the training overtime by hours, by day. We compared the vacancy for the
City of Meridian with peer cities. We conducted further reviews to compare sick leave
with the peer cities and we discussed the environment with the fire department
management. So, one of the requirement is to take a look at your procedures to -- to
make sure it adhered to the collective bargain agreement and the collective bargain
agreement doesn't set forth procedures, it just has requirements and the procedures --
you have met the requirements set forth in the collective bargain agreement. We did
note there was a couple of procedures that were not addressed. That happened to be
with the wellness agreement that we recommend being drafted. With respect to the
roles and possibilities of the chief, we will take a look at that to make sure their roles
and responsibilities align with the collective bargain agreement, which it did. There was
additional responsibilities conducted by the chief. I don't know if you know this, but the
City of Meridian is growing, so I used to be able to pull out of my neighborhood and not
even look, now I got to pull out, I have to look and stop at times. But anyway -- so,
anyway -- but some of these other tasks that are being performed, such as public
affairs, inspecting fires, working with citizen groups are really -- I feel they are necessary
to meet the growth that the city's undertaking right now. So, with respect to the control
environment, the City of Meridian uses a software, it's called CrewSense that maintains
the schedules for the -- the firefighters and it's a very powerful tool that they have and,
really, what it does is it goes -- in theory goes out and definitely for these people it
schedules them for the outcoming years. They also maintain that the city maintains a
white board to assist them in managing vacancies by individuals, so they can see how
they can fill positions when -- when there is a vacancy. We -- we did mention in the
report the shifting of labor. Again, we brought that up with respect to the control
environment. Yet one of the most challenging areas they have to manage, again, is
what we call that uncontrollable compensated personal absence, which is sick leave,
injured time, bereavement and wellness. These are last minute events and, again, it
would be helpful if we -- through the swing up program and make sure we have
adequate floaters to address those situations. One of the areas we did come across
had to do with sick leave. The sick leave with the City of Meridian was 141 hours per
year per employee, which was at the top when compared to the peers. There was one
other city that was very comparable. When we broke that down the sick leave -- there
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May 22, 2018
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was an anomaly I guess you want to call it, it was a little bit -- it was high with respect to
the captains. So, in other words, for the engineers and the firefighters, the average was
80 hours of sick leave and six instances per year, whereas for the captains it was about
double that. It was 161 hours per year and 11 instances for a majority of those
individuals, which is about two-thirds of individuals. There is an appendix or attachment
to this. I believe it is Exhibit H, which really lays that out and you can see by employees
the number of instances and you can see we are about -- we are in the captains --
where it is higher than it is with the other classifications. So, with respect to our
recommendations, we mentioned -- I wanted to address the procedures related to
vacation -- for wellness. With respect to the sick leave, take a look at that. I know our
bank that we have in the union agreement that they can bank for sick leave is 2,920
hours. Some of the peer cities it's considerably less than that. So, that's something to
take a look at. And, then, also, again, we addressed the swing up program in there, so -
- any questions? I know there is a lot of data in there.
De Weerd: Thank you, John. Council, any questions? Okay. We appreciate you being
here this evening and sharing an overview of the report and findings.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will ask you one just to --
Croy: You didn't want me to leave yet, did you.
Borton: No. So, you make reference to the addition of floaters as being a potential
solution to some of these issues.
Croy: Yes.
Borton: Does that mean that the background data shows that the -- the net labor costs
increase for an additional floater is greater than or less than this -- the overtime expense
created that the floater would be hired to eliminate?
Croy: I understand your question. When I did my analysis -- I don't know if I -- I didn't
do it on dollars, I did it by hours and I thought we were right at the break even point
when I was -- when I was analyzing vacation alone and the impact there. So, the
answer to your question would be, yes, I think it would be beneficial from a cost
perspective, even though all I did was -- is just look at the hours, I thought that the
impact of that individual would compensate -- would at least break even. It would break
even.
Borton: So -- Madam Mayor. Then that's -- that's a tough analysis. At the end what
you're saying there is if you spend a hundred dollars on additional labor you're going to
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May 22, 2018
Page 16 of 57
save 110 in reduced overtime, so that's -- right? So, if the net cost to the city goes
down with the add -- addition of a floater --
Croy: Yes. I was -- well -- and I did a -- Joe, I'm sorry. I thought it was at least a break
even.
Borton: Okay.
Croy: You know, again, I didn't do the financials, I looked at it more from an hour
perspective and when I did that I thought exactly it will break even and I could walk
through what I did, but I don't know if --
Borton: No.
Croy: Oh. Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor. No. I get it -- if you're basing it on the hours --
Croy: I did it based on the hours.
Borton: -- how you got there, but --
Croy: Yes. Yes. I did it based on the hours and when I looked at it just from the
vacation standpoint, I thought at a minimum it was a break even --
Borton: Okay.
Croy: -- to bring on that floater. A good question.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thank you for the report. I have read it two times now. Feeling pretty
comfortable with it. I guess my question is about the -- the cities that you chose to do --
to be sister cities for your analysis for like wage -- wage related issues, have you -- do
you do this in other areas as well? Because it seems what I know of -- like the Portland
area, their general wage is much higher than it is here, it's not really a comparable city,
and so it seems like you would use something more -- either in Idaho or even Utah, as
opposed to Oregon where the minimum wage is much higher and wages in general are.
Croy: Yeah. There was -- we sat down with the city and determined together which
ones we would use. There was one city, Idaho Falls, we had originally decided to use,
but they didn't have -- the systems that provided the -- they were going to -- yeah, we
would have to go down manually to get all the data we want, so we didn't do that. So,
what we tried to do is determine, in working with the city, those that would be the most
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 17 of 57
comparable to what we are facing right now, understanding like Portland may be higher
and there may be some in the Utah area and those -- I think the Utah area was -- there
was in that was really considered, but we -- we decided to use those that we identified
in the report. I don't know if that really answered your question, but it -- it was a
collaborative effort between RSM and the city which cities we wanted to look at. We
don't want to do it in a vacuum, because we knew you were more familiar with what was
out there in the marketplace.
Milam: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Thank you, John. We appreciate you being --
Croy: No. Thank you and everything you do for the city. Thanks.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Chief, any final remarks or Todd?
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Council, yes, I'd like to address a couple things. I'm sure we
would have these discussions further, but -- and I know you have some public hearings,
but just to address a few things. Obviously, overtime has been an issue that I have
been addressing the last eight years and a lot of the analysis that was done by John
reflected the same type of analysis that has been done by Todd and I the last eight
years. We have had these discussions going back -- we have had overtime task forces,
we have had discussions with the Mayor. Council Woman Milam, I remember you
asking me three years ago how many people do we need to hire to get rid of overtime
and that's a complex issue, as you can imagine. When it comes to floaters -- when I
came in in 2010 as the fire chief we had three floaters, a captain, engineer, and a
firefighter. That was adequate enough to cover the -- the contract that you have with
Local 4627 on the vacation allowance off. We had three people off and, Councilman
Borton, your point -- I want to clarify -- those vacation spots don't create overtime,
unless we have two captains off, that creates an overtime, because we don't have the
float to cover it. So, that is -- it goes to some of the staffing complexities when you talk
about how many to get X and I know the Mayor e-mailed me about a year and a half
ago and said I found a department that had zero overtime. I said, great, I will call them.
I called them and they had about 20 extra staff on shift to cover the vacancies. So,
yeah, they had zero overtime. So, our current float pool doesn't account for when we
get hurt -- and I know a couple of you councilmen had the opportunity to participate in
Fire Opps 101. You got to see and feel some of the difficulties sometimes in the job we
do and so that causes injuries. We don't have the floaters to account for that. So, that's
part of the analysis that we continue to do is with work comp, with bereavement, with
wellness, with sick leave, where is that magic number and I have not known a fire
department yet that has found the magic number. So, we do the best we can here in
Meridian to balance that. So, the question of hiring full-time staff versus overtime, that's
an age old question. That's fire department anywhere USA. That's a body decision by
the elected officials to say what do we want to spend to make sure there is coverage.
So, it's that threshold and what's comfortable. I know Councilman Borton and I have
had this conversation many times. Where is that comfort level in the amount. We do do
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 18 of 57
things a little bit differently in how we look at overtime. The city of Boise is a one -- and
they weren't involved in this analysis. They break out overtime in shift coverage and
training and, then, the admin assignments. That's the way we do it, so we can track our
training overtime. We know the cost of that. Our staffing overtime, we keep that
separate, because that's a mandate for the collective labor agreement. We want to
make sure we are meeting that. The reason we do that is we want to keep our engines
staffed to meet the level of service that we have committed to our community. So, that's
the reason that backfill occurs when we have somebody that's off. As far as the
controls on the time card issue, that was about four years ago. That was resolved very
quickly. That was a chief that's no longer here that -- it was the right intent, but didn't
comment on why he was doing that. He was, basically, saying you were off on training,
it got classified as shift coverage, that's not accurate in how we report things and so that
was that move that happened. John mentioned CrewSense. That actually does
realtime calculations of what are doing and we have found that to be very successful
working with Finance, so we have fixed that error. The time sheet vacancy, we have
known that for a while. We own that. The administration. We could have put it on
sooner. We were trying to work on an alternate solution there that didn't work out. We
own that piece. We are testing right now for battalion chief, so, hopefully, we have that
issue resolved pretty quickly, but we certainly own that piece. With that -- the overtime
discussion I know is going to continue. It's a comfort level. What do we want? It really
goes to Councilman Borton's question about staffing levels versus overtime, which is
more, which is less. Did look around the country at this issue. I just got an e-mail from
Todd today about an overtime issue in Los Angeles. And so it's an issue, but I think we
are balancing it fairly well and I think that was reflected in what John presented that we
are not out of whack as compared to the sister cities, as we call them, but we are
always looking for better solutions as well. So, we look forward to the continued
discussion.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Council, any questions? We appreciate you being here.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
De Weerd: If there is nothing further -- I don't see Todd walking this way. Okay. Thank
you.
Item 9: Action Items
A. Resolution No. 18-2079: A Resolution Of The Mayor And The
City Council Of The City Of Meridian Reappointing Stephan
Lewis To Seat 5, Tracy Hopkins To Seat 6 And Bryan Leisle To
Seat 7 Of The Meridian Transportation Commission; And
Providing An Effective Date.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-A is Resolution 18-2079. This is reappointing three of our
citizen commissioners to the Meridian Transportation Commission and those
appointments are in front of you today via resolution. Council, any questions? I know
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 19 of 57
we have Steve in the back row and I don't see Tracy or Bryan. But, Steve, thank you for
your service. We definitely appreciate your involvement and your contributions. So,
Council, I would stand for any questions.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I don't see anybody piping up for a question, so I will just -- just a quick
comment for -- for the Council's benefit. These three appointees that are before us
have done an incredible job on the transportation commission. They come well
prepared, reviewed the information, and make the most of our meetings. Again, you are
all good examples of what it is to be a citizen on one of our city commissions. And,
Steve, appreciate you being here tonight. Madam Mayor, with that I move we approve
Resolution 18-2079, appointing Steven Lewis, Tracy Hopkins, and Brian Leisle to the
Meridian Transportation Commission.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
call roll.
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.
De Weerd: Steve, would you like to say anything? Okay. I would echo Mr. Cavener's
comments. We have appreciated what you have added to the Commission and it's
often a thankless job, so just consider this as our thanks and appreciation for what you
do.
B. Meridian Dairy and Stock Show Request for Cost Share for
Annual Dairy Days Parade
De Weerd: Okay. Item B is under our Meridian Dairy Board to come and talk about
Dairy Days. Hans and Jerry, welcome.
Mattison: Thank you.
Bruijn: Hans Bruijn, Meridian Dairy Board.
Mattison: And Jerry Mattison, Meridian Dairy Board.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 20 of 57
Bruijn: We also have Keith Bird and Mike Murgiotio as board members here. We
brought Mike Murgiotio along to show that we are not all just gray haired old people.
We do have some younger -- not very many, but --
De Weerd: Thanks for bringing your token young guys.
Bruijn: It's hard to believe it's already a year ago that we were here last year to request
the financial support for the traffic control for the parade this year. A couple of things
that stay the same. KTVB will once again broadcast the parade, which is June 22nd,
Friday. Chobani will be back as a sponsor handing out anywhere between 15 and 20
thousand yogurt sticks. Dairy Gold came on board this year. They will be handing out
milk at the parade. We are going to try a small area where we come out of the
Speedway onto Main Street as a candy free zone. It's kind of a dangerous spot where
fairly big rigs come in and a tight turn. It's just going to be a fairly short area. We are
hoping that the parents will keep the kids back. It's just -- it's just an attempt to -- for
safety. Specialty Construction, as you can see, gave us the quote again for this year.
It's a little bit higher than last year. Some of the way had to do with the hours of wages
that they used to, you know, put out all the -- the equipment and traffic controls, et
cetera. Their quote was 5,063 dollars for traffic control. In lieu of what happened last
year, their quote was I believe 4,300 dollars. The end bill ended up to be I think a little
over 5,000 and that had to do with ACHD acquiring, you know, after we came to you
saying, okay, this and this -- this needs to be changed, you need to increase flag or
show whatever. So, what we would like to request is assistance up to 6,000 dollars, just
in case ACHD or Meridian police decide, you know, we need to do something extra or
something unforeseen coming up. Do you have anything questions on --
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Hans, you indicated that last year the cost went up because after you had
come before us you went to the highway district and they made some changes. I guess
you went to the highway district in preparation of this meeting to give some greater
clarity what the request will be?
Bruijn: We -- we send our permit to the City of Meridian, which we did some ago and,
then, they pass all the paperwork on to ACHD and it's not something that we go to --
you know, that they kind of changed their permit processing, so it runs through the City
of Meridian.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 21 of 57
Cavener: I don't know if this is a question for the clerk or for you, Hans, giving us some
timing -- when did you deliver that to us and, then, what is our process for delivering that
to the highway district I guess would be the question for the clerk's office.
Bruijn: They have had the permit request for a little over a month.
De Weerd: Well, I would ask Mr. Clerk.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council and Councilman Cavener.
So, yes, the -- the Dairy Board submits the application to us as a part of that intake
process. We submit it directly to John Wasson, who works on special events and
permitting for ACHD and send it directly to him, so he has it moments after we have it,
so he can start working on it.
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Coles: I can -- I have opened the system right now. If you give me just a few minutes I
can check to see if we have.
Bruijn: And we generally invite them to our meeting -- meetings as well and -- and at
this point he has not come to any of our meetings.
De Weerd: And -- and I think, Mr. Clerk, ACHD used to be wrapped into our process.
They over this last year changed their process that it's now become independent from
ours and so is -- that's what my memory serves.
Coles: That is correct, Madam Mayor. So, they have their own special event permit
now, which they did not have before and we used to have -- it was a citizen's use permit
that we would issue contingent on their approval. We did away with that, because they
have their own special event permit now. So, they have a process independent of ours.
However, we still work much in collaboration and cooperation with them on that
process.
Bruijn: And that is correct and we submitted that at the same time and, then, to the city
clerk just passed that on to ACHD and, then, we have paid them the fee for that permit.
Borton: Okay. Thank you.
Colaianni: Madam Mayor, Council Members, I just wanted to -- there was a split last
year in the way the process works and so it's different than it was a couple of years ago.
ACHD evaluates that independently, assesses their fees and what roadways are going
to be closed and John is solely in charge of that, so it kind of -- before it was all
together, but now it's not.
De Weerd: Not ideal, was it.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 22 of 57
Bruijn: And ACHD has the same plans, you know, from Specialty Construction as what
the City of Meridian has, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions from Council?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Not regarding the finances -- going back to you have a -- you have a candy free
zone, which I understand, and certainly for safety reasons you feel the need to do that.
Do you have -- are you going to have any kind of posting up to let people know -- I just
don't know how people get -- they just get mad at you, they are not going to understand
that this is about their safety.
Bruijn: Now we will for a very short section have several signs saying that this is a
candy free zone. How much it's going to work we will find out.
Mattison: We also have to educate the people in the floats that that is a candy free
zone. That's just the spectators, so --
Milam: Great.
Bruijn: Because, you know, we try to do our best to tell them, you know, when you are
in the parade don't throw candy out, just have somebody walk.
Milam: Yeah. We all know how well that works.
De Weerd: It's even in our Meridian video is someone throwing candy off the -- the
truck. I have just a -- I know. We only video best practices. I just have a question that
comes up every single year and I know that -- I think that you have signed it, but on the
west side of Main Street before the split corridor we have people that sit there,
regardless of the signs, and, then, they want to impede the traffic that's still coming
through there and, then, they get angry for the dangerous situation that you guys are
setting up. Actually, they say the city. So, any additional efforts in trying to add to the
signage -- volunteers to say you cannot sit here.
Bruijn: We have -- and I have seen it. We have had a -- and I have done it myself, too,
we walked up and down saying, you know, when you sit here you're not going to be
able to see the parade and, then, they leave and, then, the next group comes in and just
-- so, we will just put the signs there. The one thing that they were going to do as
Special Construction, that little -- that stretch -- well, basically, the one-way stretch from
where we get out of the Speedway until the -- the split corridor --
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 23 of 57
Bruijn: -- we will have one -- the lane of -- for the parade -- last year they didn't do a
very good job putting a lot of cones on the -- basically the center aisle, so that that
center aisle is completely closed off for -- for anybody and, then, the -- so that live traffic
will only be on the west lane. So, that's one of the things that, you know, we told them
that needs to be improved.
De Weerd: Yeah. I think that probably would help. Lieutenant Colaianni, is -- do you
have any suggestions about that area? It is extremely -- the traffic goes through there
fast and can we put up reduced speeds or -- I don't know what the answer is.
Colaianni: Yeah. Welcome to the club. Madam Mayor, Council Members, it's
something we struggled with for a couple of years. We have talked about barricades --
what we are trying to balance -- if we are going to demand certain things it's going to run
up the cost of the -- the barricades. You know, do we put in the barricades, do we put
something out and close the road down further and it causes traffic congestion and
frustration and so right now really what we are trying to do is add more candles and we
are looking at using the radar trailer with a sign on it and, then, putting people there that
just says, you know, you can't be here. You can't be here. It's not safe. This isn't
where you know, you can see the best view of the parade and try and move people and
just do it that way and continue to -- I mean don't have a real solid solution at this point.
I mean we know it's an issue and we are doing everything we can to mitigate it without
driving up the costs even more for traffic control.
Bruijn: And it has improved. I remember the first year we had parade entries throwing
candy over the live traffic to the people that were sitting there, so it is getting a little
better.
De Weerd: Council, any other questions? You do have a request in front of you and
looking for your direction.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I think again -- and we say this a lot, but I will support you guys to the end of
days, because what the Dairy Board has done in event for our community is
phenomenal and you do an excellent job of leveraging resources and manpower and
getting sponsors where ever possible and I think this request fits squarely within an
appropriate continued partnership for the city. So, we just thank you and your board for
all you do in organizing this and making the impossible possible for the city, so --
Mattison: Thank you.
Bruijn: And one -- one little struggle this year -- we have -- for the last two years the
Meridian Arts Commission have organized Arts in the Park and that was just a great
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addition to Dairy Day. Unfortunately, Hillary, who has been heading it up, decided to
get married of all weeks --
De Weerd: I know. Geez.
Bruijn: -- during -- during Dairy Days. It's just, you know, priorities.
De Weerd: I know. Where are her priorities. Oh, my gosh.
Bruijn: And some of the other members I think were out of town. So, we are going to
try to take it over just for the year and -- which causes a whole new problem with
insurance requests and everything else. That's what we are trying to work through, so -
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: If there is not additional discussion, I would move we approve the request for
the Meridian Dairy and Stock Show cost share in an amount not to exceed 6,000
dollars.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Continued from May 15, 2018: Approval of Request for
Proposals for Old City Hall
De Weerd: Thank you for all you do. Okay. Item C is continued from May 15th
regarding a request for proposals and I will -- Mr. Lakey.
Lakey: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I will give the clerk a -- Council Members, should we
wait for the Mayor or should I proceed? Okay. I will wait. The one I handed out is --
the only difference from the last one is I think I added a picture of the renewal district
boundaries. Also an addition to downtown that emphasized within that map. So, really,
the only difference from the last one. So, Madam Mayor, Council Members, again,
Todd Lakey, general counsel for the Meridian Development Corporation urban renewal
agency for the City of Meridian. Mayor and Council Members, I'm not planning on going
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through the whole presentation that we made last time. My understanding is that
Counsel Member Bernt had an opportunity to at least watch the video, the presentation,
and Council Member Little Roberts was on the joint committee. So, I will go through
and emphasize a couple of things and, then, as always I'm happy to answer any specific
questions if you have any additional ones on the -- on the RFP. Council Members, I
didn't receive any additional questions from folks, but understand Director Ariel had an
opportunity to visit with Council Member Cavener a little bit on some of the questions he
had. I just remind you of the goal of the committee and the urban renewal agency in
this case in issuing the RFP is to select an iconic signature mixed use project that will
be an economic catalyst for downtown Meridian. I emphasize also, again, that this RFP
came from the effort of the joint committee, which was comprised of Council Members
and MDC board members and citizens in the community. That committee
recommended approval of this RFP. The MDC board has also approved it, with the
understanding we were going to add some of those additional diagrams, maps, pictures
and things that we have and, then, there will also be a handout that goes with it to
provide some of the technical and infrastructure information to those that are interested
in submitting a proposal. In addition, with the additional time, we are also looking at
more of a 60 day window to respond, instead of a 45 day window. That's trying to
balance the sufficient time for somebody to put the proposal together, but also
recognizing the sense of urgency we have to get something moving and rolling
downtown. So, instead of the July 2nd date for submission, we are looking at a July
25th date for submission and, then, we will adjust the other dates accordingly. So,
Mayor and Council Members, we are asking for your approval to issue the RFP and,
again, also so last thing I guess I would emphasize is, again, MDC and the city have the
ultimate authority to decide whether or not to approve a proposal that's been submitted
and with the city and MDC approving both the successful proposal on the development
agreement before the old city hall is transferred, there is control particularly -- and the
city currently owns the property, but also the MDC board. With that, Madam Mayor,
Council Members, I would be happy to answer any specific questions if you have them.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Lakey. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think I have two questions. First, I guess maybe a question for Madam
Mayor. Can I get some better clarification as to why this item was continued last week.
I don't think it was ever really made clear on the record as to why it was being
continued, especially without a vote from Council.
De Weerd: There wasn't a vote from Council, so it was continued and I believe that Mr.
Lakey suggested that if there was any further questions -- I haven't reviewed the -- the
minutes, so I can't answer it in all confidence, but I believe that the sentiment was this
was a big decision, not all the council members were -- were present and it gave an
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opportunity for their input and participation in it as well. That's what I recall, so -- you
watched --
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I did, I watch it, and there really wasn't a reason cited for the
continuation, so I thought it was important that we put it on the record as to the reason
why we chose to continue it. So, I appreciate that. The question, Madam Mayor, for
Mr. Lakey. Todd, I don't see any part of the RFP that contemplates or articulates or
gives the applicant an opportunity to share what they would be compensating the city in
the form of either a purchase agreement or any dollars that they are planning to transfer
to the city for the purchase of that asset. Was that contemplated amongst the
committee? Was it chosen to be omitted or there is a spot where the applicant would
be able to articulate that part?
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Cavener, the RFP really leaves that
completely open to a particular entity that wants to make a proposal. It talks about
potential public-private partnerships and the transfer of the property to MDC for
development and the -- the use of a development agreement to pursue the successful
proposal, but the intent is really not to -- to specify whether they are requesting a
transfer of the property for a minimal cost or a number, a particular value, that's really
up to that proposal to describe how they foresee that transfer happening and, then, that
proposal being evaluated under the criteria that we have.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Maybe, then, a question for either Mr. Nary or for Mr. Lakey, whoever wants
to chime in and answer it. How do we -- if we are giving the property to MDC and if an
applicant wants to pay for that property, like I would hope they would, how do they pay
the city for property that would inevitably be given to them from MDC?
Lakey I will let Bill take a stab at it and, then, I will take a stab at it.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Cavener, so
maybe -- one of the things that wasn't said at the prior presentation or at the joint
meeting with the -- the issue of how the property gets transferred or the valuation of the
property as part of this proposal is really still left open. The awarding of -- or the release
of this RFP and the proposals that come in aren't the end of the discussion or -- of the
ongoing transaction, because there still is required a transfer and what does that look
like and how does it relate to what is being proposed and those agreements. The basic
reason that MDC and the city are partnering on this is because the city cannot directly
sell property to a private entity. So, if the desire is to sell the property for some value,
it's going to be balanced against the value that the RFP is going to propose they are
going to bring to the table and the city and MDC would enter that as part of the
agreement on how they would go about this transfer. So, I think as Mr. Lakey said, it
was left open intentionally, because it really is -- again, if -- again, if you were -- if you
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were going to propose a project that would create a taxable value of a 200 million dollar
building, the value of the property itself may or may not be a significant portion of that
for the applicant -- of paying for it or whether it's part of the whole package. That's why I
think it's left open. It's not going to be simply issue an RFP, pick the winner, and, then,
send the property to MDC and life goes on. I think there is still going to be ongoing
discussion on the transfer, the city's comfort level, what the city's investment into that
project will be, if any, and what the city's expectation in return is if any. All that's really
proposed at the moment is to put it out to the world to say what would you do if this
property was available. What would it look like? What would you want it to do? What
would be the long term value? And, again, what the level of investment the city would
be making or not making to make that happen, so -- I don't know if that answers your
question. And, Todd, certainly chime in if you have other -- other thoughts on that.
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Cavener, I think Bill did a good job of
describing it. I guess a couple things I would add is we will know if there is a successful
proposal that's selected what that number may be and, then, we will have the
opportunity to put together, if a successful proposal is selected, the development
agreement with that entity and also the agreement for the transfer of the property with
the city. So, we could address, if there is an amount that's suggested by the proposer,
that could be transferred as part of the transfer from the city to MDC.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: And I don't really know who to direct this question to. So, with this process,
after we get some proposals and we have the highest scoring one, is it simply -- we say
yes or no or can we say, okay, you scored the highest, but we -- you offered 125,000
and we want everything else you propose, but we want 200,000. Is that an option or is
it always yes or no?
Lakey: Madman and Council Member Palmer, I think we would have an opportunity to
have the committee look at that. They make a recommendation and ultimately we are
envisioning perhaps a joint meeting with the city and with MDC. I think that could be
part of that discussion and negotiation with a successful proposal. Ultimately they have
to sign a development agreement that specifies how the project will proceed. So, I think
we have an opportunity to have that discussion.
De Weerd: I think you have a little bit more flexibility than you do if you put it out for bid.
If you put it out for bid the highest bid wins. It's -- you can't negotiate further. Is that
correct?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, you could set a minimum price, but that
is -- that is all you could do.
De Weerd: Okay.
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Palmer: Madam Mayor? So, then, with that scenario, if we are going to go with one
you have to go with the highest scoring based on our -- what's in the RFP; correct?
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Palmer, the highest scoring one would be a
recommendation from the committee. But the RFP does not bind the city or MDC to
select any proposal. They could have the opportunity to reject all of them if you didn't
like the highest scoring one. So, you don't have to take the highest scoring one. You
can reject it.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? But can you accept the lowest scoring one?
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Palmer, ultimately there will be a
recommendation from the committee I think, the way we are envisioning that process
working and, then, the City Council and MDC would have an opportunity to interview
those two proposals. But I don't think you're bound to take the highest scoring one.
You can interview those and if they say -- have better answers to your questions, so to
speak, then, maybe the highest scoring one -- I think you're bound to take the highest
scoring proposal. I think that comes with the flexibility of the -- of the RFP process. And
maybe a better way to describe that is either -- you look at the committee's
recommendation as a recommendation or both bodies would have an opportunity to
score things on your own and you could score them differently than the committee did.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: If -- if I may jump in, Councilman Palmer. We spent a lot of time kind of
vetting out the scoring process, so I have a real tough time picturing something that
would be the lowest scorer be the desired, you know, project and so I think that it
naturally will sort itself out and I'm very excited. I have not seen the finished product.
Hopefully we will get a lot of -- or at least several opportunities to -- to vet out further
some potential development and see what can happen in downtown.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Quick question. Thank you, Todd, for your presentation. When a hypothetical
situation occurs that we don't select a proposal, are we able to put out another RFP with
different stipulations maybe or different scenarios if -- if we want to?
Lakey: Madam Mayor and Council Member Bernt, yes, again, you're not bound to pick
any of the proposals. If, as a result of the process, you see some other things that may
be of a higher priority and you want to modify the proposal and a take a fresh start, I
think you can.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
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Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: If there is no other questions, I would like to move that we accept the
RFP.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I appreciate the -- the motion and the -- the second. I would just really urge
this body to take pause on this. We have an -- we have an order from the court to
provide a court facility in Meridian. That question has not been answered and we as a
Council have worked to identify that location as the place to provide that facility, if
ultimately we are required to do that. I think that we have had that building over there
for ten years or it has operated in a similar capacity as it is today and I don't understand
the need to rush this until we have had the question answered by the courts and by the
county. So, I appreciate this is a quick motion and a second, but I would really hope
that this body takes pause and -- and puts this RFP on hold for a number of months
until we actually know what we are required to do and how we are going to address that
requirement. So, I will be voting no. I would encourage you all to do the same.
De Weerd: Okay.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: If I may kind of throw in something there. I don't see those two things as
mutually exclusive. I definitely -- you know, I'm aware of the situation with the
courthouse, but I think that getting interest and potentially something happening in
downtown doesn't need to be put on hold until -- until we have that, because we are no
further ahead when, hopefully, that gets resolved into creating something wonderful and
energetic downtown.
De Weerd: And, again, I -- I think that that has been a topic of discussion, both of this
Council and MDC, knowing that these two processes can work concurrently and there is
an exit if there seems to be a conflict. So, I -- at this point we have a lot of things
gearing in the -- I think we have a lot of things that are kind of working in a direction that
looks like there won't be a conflict with the passage of the legislation, with the county
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stipulating that they are in agreement for a stay until the legislation works its -- its
process out, that we have other options for a second proposal if we need it, if all else
fails. So, I think there are some safeguards built into this.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
Bernt: I want to applaud this committee and the detail and the vetting process that took
place. I think this RFP will provide, you know, if successful, a project in downtown to
stimulate economic development and I'm in favor of that. I also appreciate the
safeguards that were put in place in order for us to be -- to protect our interests, to have
control over the situation and know what's going to happen in that -- in that -- in that
building as well. So, I applaud the committee for their -- their due diligence and the time
taken to make sure that this RFP was done correctly.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: This is the mechanism by which we bail out the poor decisions of the urban
renewal district in giving the properties adjacent to it to the most interested party and
this property that we are not discussing. This is the wrong way to do this. If we are
going to get rid of this property it needs to be at a public auction, not through this
process where we keep picking winners and losers.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, abstain; Milam, yea; Cavener, any; Palmer, nay; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: Okay. The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. TWO NAYS. ONE ABSTAIN.
Lakey: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Council Members.
D. Public Hearing on City Council Election Process
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item D is a public hearing on City Council election
process. I will ask Mr. Nary if you can introduce this. You did such a great job at the
town hall meeting.
Nary: Could we just run the videotape? Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, what's
on your agenda tonight is a public opportunity to provide input on the question of the
selection and election of City Council members. The current way City Council members
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in Meridian are selected is by seats. Each Council Member sits in designated seats one
through six. Each election cycle three seats are up for election. Even numbers in one
election cycle and odd numbers in the other. About a dozen cities or less in the state of
Idaho operate that way. The majority of cities have them elected at large, so the
number of council members are selected, whether it be two or three per election cycle,
but they are selected as a group -- or they are selected at large, so when the electorate
votes they vote for their top two or three candidates for those seats and not by any
particular seat number, just the top three. So, you will see that in a number of elections
where it will say simply select the top three and the top three are the ones that win.
Those are two options in the state code that we can have. There is a third and the third
is by district. So, the -- if the Council so desires we can create a system where the
Council Members are selected by district and the district can be done one of two ways.
It can be done like the legislature where there are designated districts around the town,
normal process you would use is the census, because you do have to divide them up as
evenly as possible by population. You, then, have each Council Member selected by
the people that live within that district. So, it's similar to the legislative seats at the state
legislative level. The other method of selecting by district is similar to how county
commissioners are selected where the council member lives within the designated
district, but the city as a whole votes for the entire council. So, you would still have
them -- whether it's two or three per election cycle, but the entire city would vote for
them, even though they are required to reside within the district they choose to run in.
So, we currently have the seat method. The question that was posed at the city -- or at
the town hall meeting and out to the general public in anticipation of tonight was is
another method of interest to the members of the public. If so what is it? And, then, the
Council -- it would simply be a recommendation to the City Council to consider that and,
then, decide if you wish to take further action to either change the current process or
you wish to leave the current process as it is.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary.
Nary: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Any other comments before we see if there is any public testimony? Okay.
Mr. Clerk.
Coles: We do have one sign up this evening, Madam Mayor. Sally Reynolds would like
to address the Council on this issue.
De Weerd: Okay. Good evening. Thank you forjoining us.
Reynolds: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of City Council. My name is Sally
Reynolds and I reside at 1166 West Bacall Street in Meridian, Idaho. And I would just
like to state for the record I am in favor of having the City Council look into this matter
further. Personally not only because I favor the voting at large that Mr. Nary outlined, I
do believe that choosing the top two or three candidates in a city council election will
allow the most experienced people to be on the city council and it will also -- and I'm not
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sure how to explain this exactly, but if there is an issue the city is divided on somewhat
equally, it won't be just for an area or for a district. If there is -- if they want to be
represented and there is a -- there is almost a tie on that issue for them, both groups
would be represented on the city council if they did vote for the top two or three people.
One person just wouldn't be on the city council because the majority voted them in, if
that makes sense. So, I would like to see the City Council change the voting to having
the Council voted at large with the best two or three every -- every other election cycle.
Thank you. Stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Sally. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Sally, I'm just curious. Have you lived in any other municipalities that have
done elections at large?
Reynolds: No. I have been in -- in just Meridian.
Cavener: That's okay. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Reynolds: Sure.
De Weerd: Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony on this
item?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I guess it's time for us to talk. So, the reason that I wanted to bring this forward
is because I have watched the elections since before I was even in this position and I
see many times where nobody runs against an incumbent and I think that the way that -
- the way that it is currently it really discourages people from running, because it is -- it
is tough to just run against an incumbent. I think that the more -- if it was a pool
situation we would have more candidates and, therefore, we would have more quality
council members in the long run. There are only 12 cities in Idaho that do it the way
that we do, which means the other 188 or 89 -- there is a little bit of a conflict on how
many cities there are, but do it as a pool system. So, I think that is a better way to do it
and for an example, if Ralph or Sally or Becky or Deb or John wanted to run for City
Council, but they know us all and they respect us and they don't necessarily want to
pick somebody to run against, but they want -- they would love to serve their
community, it's discouraging the way that we do it and I think if it was a pool system
they might be willing to just -- to put their name in the pool and run for something, as
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opposed to against something. I think that's one of the main reasons that I think we
need to change it.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will ask a quick clarifying question to -- to maybe Mr. Nary. Of the two -- of the
200 cities or so is -- is it 12 or so that do seats and the other 180 do at large or vice -
versa?
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so -- so, in the research we found
and contacting AIC, Councilman Borton, what we found is they said -- and it's
somewhere between nine and 12 that do seats. No one does districts. So every other
city does at large, except for the -- and I said it kind of varies of when we -- who you talk
to at AIC, but -- so, I didn't go out and poll every city, but they said it was in the area of
about a dozen that did it like this. Boise is one of them. In this county Eagle -- Eagle,
Star, Kuna, all elect their cities by -- or their council members at large. Only Boise and
us select this way. Oh, Garden -- I think I left out Garden City. So, four cities in the
county do it at large, two do it by seat.
De Weerd: Speechless.
Palmer: Madam Mayor? I don't know what's going on here. I was so distracted I
wasn't really listening to what you said, Mr. Nary. Our -- do the -- I think you said some
-- the county do it the same way we do. I guess my question is do the 12 tend to be the
larger cities in the state?
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Palmer, when this
question was asked -- we also put this out to our municipal attorneys and asked the
same question, why do you do it that way, how long have you been doing it. Every
single one that responded -- which wasn't a ton of them and there was probably about
15 or 20 that responded that probably represent 25 cities or more -- all said it's the way
they have always done it. They have -- none of them had worked in the city when they
changed from at large to seats. So, all of them said it's been the way they always did it
and I think the discussion among most of them is similar to what Council Member Milam
has brought up, it really is a perception of fairness and what works for them, but it
wasn't larger or small. I mean it varied. Again, some pretty small cities -- Parma is a
city that has six. It's very small. So, it hasn't really -- there wasn't any trend we could
find. Even talked to AIC of large cities versus small cities, six versus four. I mean it
didn't have any -- it's the way most people have always done it. As I -- if you recall
when we brought this up initially, this city changed in 1987 from at large to the seat
system and the research I could find, which was really just looking at minutes, there was
very little discussion -- the legislature authorized the change in that legislative session to
go from at large as the only method you can do or districts, to allowing by seat and the
city changed to seats with no discussion I could find, other than they have authorized
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this, so we will just do it. So, I don't know that it gets debated as much as this even, so -
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: So, then, is the superior way of doing things Meridian was just kind of ahead of
the game and that was 11 friends in the business and maybe over time others will join
the better way as they have seen that Meridian does a lot of things better than a lot of
other cities and this is just one of them.
De Weerd: I guess until this topic came up I think there was questions about our
process and why we did it different than -- than the other cities, but I -- I think that
Council Member Milam does bring up a good point, is it is a struggle when you think,
yeah, I want -- I want to run for political office. I don't want to run against someone.
want to run for a City Council seat and if all the incumbents are running, you're running
against someone and that's what it's always kind of seemed. So, I hadn't thought of it
that way. I would agree that that is a perception.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
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Bernt: I want to commend Council Woman Milam for -- for bringing this topic of
discussion before this body. It's been interesting to think about the different ways in
which we elect our officials and -- and public engagement and how that works and the
process. I don't know of another topic that I have thought so much about, whether it be
for or against. I think that there is definitely some compelling arguments on both sides
and I -- and I -- I think it's one of the reasons why I wanted to run for City Council to
have the opportunity to discuss these issues and its fantastic that we can all be friends
and we can agree to disagree and in this case I think I -- I lean more toward disagreeing
and I will explain why. When I -- when I was knocking doors and in the midst of my
campaign over the fall I would be in north Meridian and after the pleasantries in
introducing myself, they would always ask me where I live and I would tell them I live in
Woodbridge, central south'ish Meridian, and they would be like what are you doing
knocking doors here, you know, they were sort of confused why I was so far away from
my house, you know, meeting people and they were sort of surprised, even knowing
how long we have been in this process, of -- just a little bit confused -- maybe they were
comparing it to legislative districts, but my experience talking to people, if we are really
wanting to discuss what the people want, I think that the people would be more
interested in -- in being represented by -- by folks that live near them, not necessarily
away for them. And I'm not saying that I support that either, it's just that I ran into that
topic of conversation much more than I -- than I have others. I'm not a hundred percent
convinced that it's tough to take incumbency out of the equation and I'm not a hundred
percent convinced that whether you're running against someone or you're running -- you
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know -- you know, against someone with a -- in a particular seat or in a general pool,
that the outcome is going to be any different and I haven't been able to talk to people or
get concrete data that would suggest otherwise. I mean just two weeks ago we were
sitting in a town hall and we were discussing this very thing with -- with Mr. Nary and the
number one topic of conversation in that city -- in that town hall was who was going to
pay for the special election. I think the first three or four questions asked were who is
paying for this. They were more concerned about who was going to pay for the election
to take place than the topic at hand, which leads me to believe they don't care and so I
struggle with it, but I lean more towards leaving it the way that it is, because I think this
is more like an interesting discussion than it is something that merits a vote to the
general public to change the status quo. So, that's where I stand. It's too wordy. I
apologize, but --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Councilman Bernt?
Bernt: Yes, here I am.
Milam: Would you be sitting right here right now had there not been an open seat?
Bernt: Good question. You know, I -- it's tough to say. I sat down with people in the
past wanting me to run against different people and having discussions about what do
you think about running against Luke Cavener and I said absolutely not. I would lose.
So, all kidding aside, my thought process was never about whether I would run against
someone or not. My thought process when it came to -- when it came down to me
running for something was more about timing. Did this time make sense for me and my
family. Did it make sense for my job? Do I have the appropriate amount of time to put
forth the effort that it takes to run a successful campaign, to go meet thousands of
people, to shake hands, to sit down with concerned citizens and -- and listen? So,
think that that was -- timing was more of a -- personally that was more of my thought
process, as opposed to who is there and who wasn't, honestly.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I can honestly say that I would not be sitting here had there not been an open
seat and I -- it was a -- we had a bigger turnout for voting that year than ever before in
history. Seventeen people. And it just -- but I would not have run against David or
Charlie or Keith or Brad, because I highly respected them and felt like they were doing a
good job. Had there been a pool system I might stick my name in there without having
a single one of them out to run against and I think the only people who benefit from the
way that we have this set up right now is the people sitting up here right now voting for
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 36 of 57
this. We are the only people that benefit from this the way that it is right now and I'm up
for election next. So, you know --
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Would you agree that it's a hair more complicated than that? Would you agree
that there is a little bit more of a thought process that goes into, you know, whether you
are going to run or not? I -- it certainly isn't -- you wake up one morning and say I'm
going to run for City Council. I mean it's so much more in depth and complicated than
that.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Councilman Bernt, yes, I'm not saying that's the only reason -- that I -- the
reason I ran is because of the empty seat. It was also the timing in my life and a lot of
other considerations. What I'm saying is I would not have run against any of the
incumbents that were the previous councilmen.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Brent.
Bernt: But you're still running against them. You're still on the stage debating them.
mean imagine yourself at Meridian Middle School and -- and in having a debate
amongst the same people that you are saying that you're not wanting to run against.
Technically you are running against them. You're wanting to beat them or you wouldn't
want to be running. So, whether you're running against them or you're running with
them -- it seems different.
Milam: You're not singling somebody out to run against.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, Mrs. Milam, you know, in this scenario of your election, the top
two vote getters sit on Council today. It worked out in our current system that the top
two vote getters are both on Council today for that race.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 37 of 57
Milam: You can't quantify that, because they were -- we were in different seats. It might
have been you and me.
De Weerd: Okay. This has been fun. We wanted to have a public conversation about
this and -- and I don't know if Council had wanted to make it exclusive only for this
evening, if you wanted to continue to contemplate and think about it, ask for public
input. What are the thoughts?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: There was a bill -- I can't remember how far it got or if it got to hearing or got to
distracted with other things -- to -- there may be a very drastic change happening to the
way cities have elections anyway in the coming -- hopefully very soon, but at least in the
coming years as it tends to take bills like that a few years to get through. There was talk
of a couple different series. One where both options of one moving us to even years
and having the elections at the same time everybody else does and also making us
partisan elections. So, there is one bill that had both, but there was also a scenario
where if that wasn't going to fly, then, just go with moving us to even years. And so with
the possible chaos coming, should anything like that happen in the next year or the next
couple of years, I think it would be wise for us to keep things the way they are, see how
that plays out and, then, if that idea goes down the drain or if something does happen,
then, we would be in a better position to knowing where we sit and, then, making a pool
adjustment or it may not -- the legislature may remove the pool option if they are to do
partisan. Who knows what might happen. But it is gaining momentum.
Milam: And Madam Member -- Madam Mayor?
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Milam: I just wanted to bring up one other point that Councilman Palmer brought up at
a previous discussion that I hadn't thought about, which is -- I think kind of something
that happened a couple of years ago in a race where there were a couple of people
running for city council and on the very last day one of them convinces the other one to
pull out and so that person that's left in that election is guaranteed a seat, where if there
was somebody running against them they might not necessarily win or if you get in the
pool situation I just think it would be -- you're going to get the better -- the better people
period. All right. I will quit.
De Weerd: Is there any further comment? Ms. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, just because I wasn't able to attend the town meeting,
just a little clarification, Bill, if you wouldn't mind. If we did decide to change it, what is
the next step?
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May 22, 2018
Page 38 of 57
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Little
Roberts. So, right now it's -- it's all set by ordinance. So, the statute in the state code
determines the number of -- number of Council Members that you can have, four or six.
How to change from four to six. How to create a district or how to create seats. So,
then, after that it's left to your code. So, technically, you don't have to make any
decision tonight at all. What's required is if you're going to change the method it has to
be done at least 120 days prior to the election and the next -- and the election is next
October -- or November. So, at least 120 days prior to that, if the desire is to change
from seats to at large, we need to change the city ordinance to reflect that. Then those
-- those three seats would still be up, they would no longer be designated individually,
they would be simply designated as the three seats that are up for election. The same
council members would still be up for election, then, the next one, but, again, it would be
the top three. But until a majority of this Council directs and, then, approves a change
in the ordinance, there is no change. If the Council wishes to direct through the
ordinance to have this discussion and debate further, you could, then, vote up or down
on the ordinance. It could be done in two weeks, it could be done in eight months. So,
it's not -- there is no time urgency today. If the desire is to change you can simply table
that and bring that up at a later time if you wish.
Little Roberts: Thank you. Madam Mayor, follow up?
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Little Roberts: Just wanted to clarify that there is no additional cost to the taxpayers, as
it sounds like it was expressed at the town hall.
Nary: Yeah. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Little Roberts,
no, the counties run the elections. All the elections are in the hands of the county.
They are going to hold a municipal election next year regardless of whether it's by seats
or by at large, it doesn't matter.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Is there a desire to continue the conversation? To
set a direction tonight?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I'd like to set a direction tonight. Create an ordinance to change to the pool
system.
De Weerd: Is that a motion?
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 39 of 57
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Well, maybe.
I914T [=MONImo: • • t
Borton: Madam Mayor. Very briefly. I -- I'm not so sure I'm on board with what the
consequences of a change might create, but -- but I think -- I like the adversarial system
of the seats and I think it provides the best mechanism if there is to be change. Our
community is big, but it's still pretty small and if there is concern over a need for a
change in any particular seat, that's the best way to create true contrast and provide the
voter an opportunity to pick -- pick a path, so to speak, within a seat, A or B, and if there
is somebody who -- who wants to serve and there is nobody amongst the current
elected officials that they believe is going the wrong way or representing the city poorly,
it doesn't necessarily mean that the -- those current elected officials should change and
we think of some of the long-term council members we have had and been blessed with
that have done good work. So, for me it's -- I think the focus is on whatever the election
mechanism that creates the best for the city, as opposed to what might be best for a
candidate interested in serving, what's best for the city and I think the current system
both -- both ways have pluses and minuses, but the current system at least provides an
opportunity in our small city to say candidate X is going the wrong way, but I can give it
a shot and run against him or her and let the chips fall where they may. I think it could
be argued that it's as easy for a bad candidate to hide, so to speak, within a group
election just by name recognition and would be more difficult to take out, for lack of a
better term. I think our current system provides that best opportunity to leave good
servants in and take a shot a removing somebody who might be problematic. I agree
with the intent and I love the discussion and the intent is something we all need to be
mindful of as we serve, but I think the lesser of two evils is our current system now, I
believe is a good way to put it. It's not really evils, but -- more benefits I guess with
contrast.
De Weerd: Interesting. Adversarial system. That's --
Borton: It's our world. And I have lost contested elections, I have won contested
elections, I have won open seats, so I have been on all sides of it. I still think it's the
best.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Bernt: It's about time.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 40 of 57
Cavener: Council Member Bernt, keeps nodding my head like he wants me to chime in.
First, I'm really proud to be a part of this body tonight. I have loved the diverse and
passionate back and forth that has occurred between some of our members tonight and
to me what that shows is that everyone is trying to do what they think is best to serve
our community. Councilman Milam wants to open -- make doors open wider for more
candidates who want to run. I think that's to be applauded. Council Member Borton, as
always, articulates that we -- he believes that his direction is what's best for the city.
Are those in conflict? Are those in adversarial positions? I don't know. I can only
speak, I think like a lot of us have done, is to take our own perspective and try to apply
that into our decision making process and so I know that I -- while I have had
opponents, I have never ran against anybody, I have always ran for the seat and five
years ago I was running for Seat 3 or I was running for Seat 6. 1 had made the decision
that I was running for something, because I thought it was important that our community
had someone who represented what our community looked like. I wasn't running
against anybody that sat in those seats, I was running for what I thought was important
for our community. I think that we need people that are like that and I think that we
have that here and we had that -- many of us have had those people as opposition. So,
I struggle back and forth and what -- oftentimes when I get ready to make a decision, a
little Joe Borton hops on my shoulder and says what about the unintended
consequences and I start thinking about that and if we move what are those unintended
consequences. Are there any? Do people, because there is now 12 people running for
a couple of seats, do they say, boy, I don't want to put my -- my hat in the race or, no,
Council Member Cavener is a bum, I want to run against him. I want to kick him off.
Well, it's a lot easier to do that when it's one specific person than when you're running
against a half a dozen or a dozen people. The other part of me takes into the feedback
that we have heard from the public and I think, if I have read the written testimony and
the testimony from Sally here tonight, is half the people are saying do districts and the
other half are saying go for an open pool. Nobody is saying stay the status quote. That
said, we have sat here long enough that we know that oftentimes people don't ever
come and testify to say keep doing what you're doing, so we have to take that into
account. The idea of districts is to me very compelling, but I think that it runs a foul to
what makes local government so great is that we represent the entire community. I
appreciate the perspective, but if I live in south Meridian I like knocking doors in north
Meridian and I'm proud that I represent our whole community and it being a struggle for
me to think that our city is in a better place by heading that direction. For me it comes
back to, boy, is there a compelling reason to change and I -- I haven't seen or heard one
that I think is large enough to say, yep, we need to do this change. I'm open to
continuing the discussion. I just don't see, yep, here is the problem, open pool elections
is a solution, let's go forth. I just don't see that. Is that enough for you, Council Member
Bernt?
De Weerd: Yes. So, unless there is a specific motion, will just continue to have
dialogue. We can bring it up in July and --
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 41 of 57
De Weerd: -- and maybe then you will say we don't need to talk about it any further.
Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Madam Mayor, this is a public hearing --
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Milam: -- so we if leave the public hearing open and, you know, maybe we can get
some -- try to encourage some more feedback from the public.
De Weerd: If -- if that is the desire, we would need to continue it to a date specific.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
Bernt: I'm okay with having a vote tonight. I think that it's pretty clear where the -- that
the vote may or may not go and I -- and I don't -- and I don't know by continuing it until
July if it's going to make a huge difference in our community and those who may or may
not want to express interest. I mean we -- I -- I move that we have a vote this evening
on this issue and not continue --
Cavener: A motion is always in order.
De Weerd: You don't need to move to do that, you just need to make a motion.
Bernt: Okay. I make a motion that we have a vote tonight --
De Weerd: No. Make a motion on what you want the vote to be about.
Bernt: I move that we -- that we have a -- I move that we deny this -- this request to --
to change the status quo in how we vote from individual seats to open seats.
Palmer: Second.
Borton: Madam Mayor? For discussion. Does that take action at all? I mean to stay
the status quo --
De Weerd: That is status -- it's to not continue the conversation.
Borton: Oh.
Cavener: Keep our elections as is would be the motion. Keep our elections as is.
De Weerd: Okay. Any discussion?
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 42 of 57
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think that when Council Member Borton started engaging with the City
Council about some of these issues that we want to address, I know that our -- at least
my goal in mind was to have these questions asked and answered. There is a lot of
issues that we as Council have wanted to address and I think it's important that we -- we
address the issue and bring it to a conclusion and so whether that is that this body
wants to move to change our elections, great, I think we should make that decision
tonight. If our -- as a body we want to keep our elections as is, great, I think we need to
make that decision night. The goal would be to have these questions addressed. We
have been talking about this particular one for a number of months. Have invited the
public, have had town hall meetings about it, it's possible there is somebody that's out
there that hasn't heard about this that will now hear about it that may bring a compelling
argument. I just -- I struggle to believe that that person exists. So, I'm supportive of us
addressing this issue tonight, regardless of how this body wants to move forward.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, nay; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
De Weerd: It was a good discussion and --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I -- you know, the decision today and to Councilman Cavener's point, that's
exactly what we are doing. We are getting off the fence on issues that we have been
wanting to discuss. That does not mean if, again, there is discussion from the
community the topic continues and what -- we are all available for outreach, this can be
revisited if there is additional information or any one of us changes their position and
wants to discuss it further you can always ask. That's kind of what we are trying to do is
be open about that and -- and give ideas, an up or down. So, I don't think our -- our
ears are closed, so to speak, to the concept. So, anyone in the community watching,
continue to reach out if they have got perspective and want to share that maybe we
missed.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 43 of 57
De Weerd: And I think it is important to continue to ask questions and say why do we
do it the way we do and can we be doing it differently and better. So, appreciate the
discussion.
E. Request for Reconsideration for Lost Rapids (H-2018-0004) by
Coalition Against Lost Rapids
De Weerd: Item E is a request for a reconsideration for H-2018-0004. I will ask
comment from Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. So, you have before you a
request for reconsideration of your decision on the Lost Rapids, H-2018-0004. It was
filed by the coalition against Loss Rapid represented by Andrea Carroll. It was filed
timely. It had to be filed within 14 days of your decision and it was. The request
required by our code, which also follows the Idaho Code, requires that the request be in
writing, which it was. The request must identify specific deficiencies in the decision for
which the reconsideration is sought. Ms. Carroll has -- has identified three areas that
she believes are a deficiency. One is in regards to a variance that was granted. There
was language in the -- in the findings is finding enough evidence under the Idaho Code
to grant a variance. That was discussed there, as well as there was an alternative that
was proposed by the other party -- or, excused me, by the applicant in that case. She
has identified the -- a deficiency she claimed in regard to how ex -parte information
entered the discussion with the Council in regards to this type of use within
neighborhoods and its impact in design and neighborhoods and, then, the third was
whether the findings were insufficient with the requirements of the Local Land Use
Planning Act and whether due process was met. The request -- then notice was
provided by the clerk's office to Ms. Carroll that this would be heard tonight. Our
ordinance, as well as the state code, says no additional evidence or testimony is
allowed at our hearing. At this hearing now the Council's tasked with either affirming the
decision you made back in -- on May 14th -- or, excuse me, May -- I apologize. April
24th with the findings. Or affirming them, reversing those decisions, or directing
modification of those findings be done and new findings be brought forward. The -- the
decision of the Council is final in this regard. If the decision is to reverse it, we would
have to notice it for a new hearing. If the decision is to modify, we would bring those
back. But the decision tonight would be final. Moving forward the Council can consider
what was in the record, what you -- reviewing of the record, reviewing of the information
you have been provided, a legal opinion from counsel as well -- from legal counsel as
well on this and you, basically, have your choice. Again, there is no evidence, there is
no presentation. There was in the record a response by the applicant in this case,
which we -- which we deemed allowable. They could provide that, but no additional
evidence or testimony is allowed at this point. So, unless you have questions, really,
Council, it is your decision on whether to affirm, reverse, or modify the decision that was
made back in April.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Council, any questions? Any additional information
needed?
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 44 of 57
Nary: Madam Mayor, let me add one more thing to make sure just for the record.
Based on your decision tonight, then, we will prepare a written decision that will be
prepared -- it has to be prepared within 60 days of the original request. So, that will
follow whether -- whichever decision you make. But that's the other piece of the
public process that occurs. But, again, your decision tonight is final after that.
De Weerd: Okay. I will ask if there is any discussion or looking for direction from
Council.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I don't see anybody jumping to the front of this, but I have had an opportunity
to review the request from the citizen group. I have also had an opportunity for review a
letter from the applicant. Taking that into consideration, I move that we approve our
findings on Matter 9-E, request for reconsideration, application H-2018-0004.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: This was a project that I had -- I had voted against on the underlying hearing,
but to the -- within the scope of the request for reconsideration I'm supportive of the
motion. I do believe that -- that the findings and action of the body as a whole were
lawful and supported by the record.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further 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.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
F. Final Plat for Hill's Century Farms No. 10 by Brighton
Investments, LCC, located approximately 1/2 mile South of E.
Amity Rd. and 1/4 mile East of S. Eagle Rd.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 45 of 57
De Weerd: Item F is a request for final plat. The applicant is an agreement. Any
additional staff comments on this?
Ariel: Madam Mayor, no -- no additional comments necessarily, just approve --
recommend approval and just -- the response was received too late to be placed on the
Consent Agenda.
De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any information needed? Okay. If not, I would
entertain a motion on Item F.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move that we approve Item 9-F, the final plat for Hill Century Farms No. 10.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-F. 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.
G. Final Plat for Sky Mesa Commons Subdivision No. 1 (H-2018-
0039) by Lionwood Properties, LLC , Located Southwest of S .
Eagle Rd. at E. Taconic Dr.
De Weerd: Item G on final plat for H-2018-0039. Mr. Cameron.
Ariel: Yes, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this also -- as of just recently I
believe the applicant and staff have come to a reasonable conclusion on the lighting
issue that was a -- was a consideration here and we are recommending approval, But,
of course, the applicant is here -- or the -- the applicant is here if they want to address
that at all.
De Weerd: Okay. Does the applicant have any comment?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 46 of 57
Borton: Briefly for the record can you let us know how the lighting issue was worked out
today?
Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Borton, so Al Christy,
who is the transportation utility coordinator and who is responsible for our street lighting
program, had conversations with Becky and basically worked out the issues that
appeared to be there with the street lighting. They are going to go ahead and install
street lighting per AI's request on that. There was a misunderstanding or some
understanding that we were going to require an additional light at an intersection that
already had a light. We assured the applicant that we weren't going to require one
there, but there would be some lights in some additional places and that they would be
placed behind the sidewalk, so that the issue with the curbing and the future roundabout
would not come into play. So, I think we are in agreement that we can move forward
and everything is okay.
Borton: Okay. Thanks, Warren.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any further information needed? If not, I would entertain a
motion.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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Borton: I move that we approve the final plat at H-2018-0039.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-G. 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: ALL AYES.
H. Public Hearing To Consider The Conveyance Of Certain City
Owned Real Property To The Ada County Highway District For
Right -Of -Way Purposes Located North And South Of
Woodbury Drive Adjacent To Meridian Road, A Portion Of Lot 1,
Block 1, And A Portion Of Lot 1, Block 13 Of The Fothergill
Pointe Subdivision No. 1 In The City Of Meridian, Ada
County, Idaho
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 47 of 57
1. Ordinance No. 18-1776 : An Ordinance Authorizing The
Conveyance Of Certain City Owned Real Property To The
Ada County Highway District For Right -Of -Way Purposes
Located North And South Of Woodbury Drive Adjacent To
Meridian Road, A Portion Of Lot 1, Block 1, And A Portion Of
Lot 1, Block 13 Of The Fothergill Pointe Subdivision No.1 In
The City Of Meridian, Ada County, Idaho; Authorizing The
Mayor And City Clerk To Execute And Attest On Behalf Of
The City Of Meridian The Deed And Other Documents
Necessary To Complete The Transaction; Providing For A
Waiver Of The Reading Rules; And Providing An Effective
Date.
De Weerd: Item 8-H is a public hearing for a very long title. I will open this public
hearing. Who is -- I guess Mr. Nary is not going to comment? Who wants to talk about
this? Don't all jump at once. This is -- Mr. Nary?
Nary: Yes.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Nary: We are at Item H.
De Weerd: Yes.
Nary: Sorry. I was trying to fix another issue before we got to that. I'm sorry, it took a
little longer than I thought. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Item H is a
statutory requirement to do -- this is to convey a certain amount of property to the
highway district in regards to -- essentially a road widening project on Meridian Road.
Based on our current agreement we have with the Ada County Highway District, they
receive that right of way at no cost to them, but we are required by statute to have a
public hearing and to have an ordinance to do that transfer. So, that's really what's in
front of you. Apologize nobody else is here to talk about that, but it really is just more of
the statutory process. Mr. Baird has been the one tracking this with the highway district.
He prepared the ordinance and he is the one that's dealt with them. So, this is really
that sliver on Meridian Road between -- just north of the Albertsons at Woodberry. It's
Woodbury and Waterbury and it goes until there is a -- just as you pass the Blue Heron
Apartments -- is that one section of Meridian where it's still fairly narrow compared to
both ends. So, the highway district's intention is to widen that to match up the roadway
from Ustick to Meridian -- or to Fairview.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. This is a public hearing. Is there anyone who wishes
to provide testimony on this item? Council, any questions regarding this item? And I
would request a closing of the public hearing and, then, we will ask the clerk to read the
ordinance.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 48 of 57
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I move we close the public hearing on 9-H.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read Ordinance 18-1776 by title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1776: An
ordinance authorizing the conveyance of certain city owned real property to the Ada
County Highway District for right-of-way purposes located north and south of Woodbury
Drive adjacent to Meridian Road, a portion of Lot 1, Block 1, and a portion of Lot 1,
Block 13 of the Fothergill Pointe Subdivision No. 1 in the City of Meridian, Ada County,
Idaho; authorizing the Mayor and City Clerk to execute and attest on behalf of the City
of Meridian the deed and other documents necessary to complete the transaction;
providing for a waiver of the reading rules; and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by title. Is there anyone who would like
to hear it read in its entirety? It would be really interesting.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Nobody is running to the podium, I move we approve Ordinance No. 18-1776
with suspension of rules.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-H-1. Mr. Clerk, will you,
please, 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.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 49 of 57
I. Parks and Recreation Department: Net Zero Budget
Amendment for Spending Authority Not -to -Exceed $1,000 for
the Hillsdale Park Grand Opening
De Weerd: Item 9-1 is under our Parks Department. I will turn this over to Colin.
Moss: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As you know, this Friday
we are going to throw a Marty Party to celebrate the grand opening of Hillsdale Park.
Of course, you are all invited. I hope you will all attend. But what we have tonight is a
budget amendment that's a net zero budget amendment. We were fortunate enough to
get a -- a donation from the Russell Corporation to go towards some of the event
expenses and we ask tonight to be able to spend that 1,000 dollars. So, we have
already received the check, so the revenue is already received by the Finance
Department, so we are just ready to spend it on some bounce houses and some fun.
De Weerd: Thank you, Colin. Council, any question?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we approve this net zero budget amendment for spending authority
not to exceed 1,000 dollars for the Hillsdale Park grand opening.
Cavener: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any 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.
J. Community Development Budget Amendment for
Comprehensive Plan Consultant Not -to -Exceed $214,954
De Weerd: Item 9-J is under our Community Development Department and I will turn
this to Caleb.
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I wasn't planning on going
through many details tonight on this budget amendment. I presented it to you last week
in detail. I recognize a couple of you were not here last week, so, please, if I'm
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 50 of 57
assuming too much I can answer any questions, but went through the scope of work
with our consultant. What you have tonight is really kind of two fold and, in fact, there is
two different items on the agenda, J and K go together. The first one, J, is the budget
amendment for the entire project of developing a new Comprehensive Plan. The
second item, then, would be for the contracted portion of that. Our consultant helped
with Logan Simpson. You have that contract signed -- actually, just earlier today by
them and given to the city clerk, so thanks to Keith Watts for bird dogging that here and
making that happen kind of last minute. But, again, the request is for a budget
amendment for 214,954 dollars to develop a new Comprehensive Plan for the city.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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Borton: Caleb, remind me -- and I apologize for not asking this before today. Didn't we
allocate some funds in last year's budget for this accelerated comp plan process?
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, no, we -- we came at last year with a
50,000 dollar enhancement request to address the south Meridian planning area and
the south rim and if you recall we had in 2020 1 believe, like a year or two out further,
development of a new Comprehensive Plan. We said, well, instead of just biting the
smaller piece off at 50,000 dollars, why don't we accelerate the new Comprehensive
Plan and combine that together to do this now. So, we are addressing -- our
enhancement request you didn't fund, you didn't fund any of that, you said come back
with an amendment to do a new plan that incorporates that.
Borton: Okay. So, in -- Madam Mayor? We spent the 50 on the south Meridian part or
no?
De Weerd: No.
Hood: No.
De Weerd: We didn't -- we withdrew that 50,000 enhancement in lieu of coming back to
Council.
Borton: Thanks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 51 of 57
Borton: It's yours.
Palmer: So, J and K at the same time?
De Weerd: No. Just J.
Palmer: Okay. Then, Madam Mayor, I move that we approve the budget amendment
for the Comprehensive Plan consultant not to exceed 214,954 dollars.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
call roll for Item 9-J.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
K. Approval of Agreement to Logan Simpson Design, Inc.
for the "MERIDIAN COMPREHENSIVE PLAN" project for a
Not -To- Exceed amount of $212,554.00
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb.
Hood: So, again, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, K is the lion's share of what
you just approved to go to Logan Simpson, with a small set aside. I do appreciate the
comments last week and like Colin was just here, we will look for corporate sponsors to
maybe help with this and so maybe we don't have to spend the -- the remaining portion,
which is a 2,400 dollars, on promotions, giveaways, those types of things. Food and
beverage. But -- but, again, the lion's share -- what Item K is is to pay to our consultant
Logan Simpson.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Caleb, last week we talked a little bit about marketing and promotion. Is that
referenced in here or is that going to be something that's going to come separately from
Kaycee? What's the plan related to that?
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 52 of 57
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, there are three -- actually three
separate line items in the budget amendment which you just approved. So, the one,
again, the lion's share is for consulting help. Line two is advertising and promotions at
1,500 dollars and the line three is food and beverage at 900 dollars. I worked with Rita -
- those are different -- what are called GL codes, so they have to be coded separately,
but advertising and promotions are all under the same type of budget expense. But
that's why I'm hoping maybe we don't even spend all 1,500 dollars on that, if we can get
some corporate or other sponsors to donate things to give away or draw attention to
this. But some of that I imagine will be spent with Kaycee to advertise this project as we
come upon, you know, major events in this series to either do Facebook pumps,
promotions, whatever they call them, and those types of things or run advertisements
on -- you know, in the newspaper or whatever. Those types of things, so --
Cavener: And Madam Mayor? Caleb, do you think the amount that you are asking for,
then, the 1,500 is going to be sufficient to do all that?
Hood: Yeah. Madam Mayor. So, again, in talking with Kayce, she recommended
about a thousand dollar budget for that. So, I'm just going off of her -- what she thinks is
a good amount to -- and I think we talked about it a little bit last week, too. She may be
able to help supplement some of that with just her general set aside that may be
earmarked for other things. She didn't say I will give you some of that, but I think we
can get some of that done without any real hard costs. She's willing to kind of help
promote this just through normal channels and interns and things like that, so --
Cavener: Great. If you think it's appropriate it's good enough for me. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
Palmer: I wonder if anyone is keeping a tally of how much I have spent in motions in
the month of May, because --
Borton: We are.
Palmer: -- it's been astronomical compared to my other two years.
De Weerd: You can count on it.
Palmer: Good thing we don't have a pool for elections, but -- I move we approve the
agreement with Logan Simpson Design, Incorporated, for the Meridian Comprehensive
Plan project in an amount not to exceed 212,554 dollars.
Cavener: Second.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 53 of 57
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-K. If there is no
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.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 10: Department Reports
A. Police and Parks & Recreation Department: Proposed
ordinance update to amend Trespass in Parks penalty from
misdemeanor to infraction
De Weerd: Under Department Reports we have 10-A under our Police and Parks and
Recreation Department. The age old discussion about Movie Night.
Harper: Yes. Good evening, Madam Mayor and Council. Thanks for having me.
Tonight we wanted to talk about Section 13-2-9C, which is the trespassing ordinance for
our parks. After working with the Parks and Legal, we were wanting to move the
misdemeanor to an infraction, which really is due to assist law enforcement with dealing
with issues in our parks after hours or outside of our director's orders when there is
specific events being held. So, with that being said, it's currently a misdemeanor. We
would like to move that to an infraction -- or change it to an infraction with a 50 dollar
fine attached. And I will stand for any questions.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Lieutenant Harper, nice to see you. Thanks for being here.
Harper: Thank you for having me.
Cavener: How many of these interactions does the Department have in a year?
Harper: I can't give you an exact number, but there are quite a few and currently with it
being a misdemeanor, it's very challenging for us to enforce that in regards to the
paperwork that's required and, then, the time spent in court over a rather miniscule
offense.
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 54 of 57
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Colin, do you have anything you want to
add? This has been a great collaboration between the departments to find a solution to
maybe ensuring that family Movie Night is family Movie Night.
Harper: Madam Mayor, if you don't mind, I think you're talking about Movie Night on top
of all the other events that we do in our city parks, but I think, really, this will help deal
with a small portion of the problems that we do have at Movie Night. It's a small number
of people causing a majority of the problems for us and I think being able to issue an
infraction immediately and deal with that problem immediately will ultimately resolve the
problem hopefully.
De Weerd: Okay.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Hearing no more discussion, I would move we accept and proceed with
the proposed ordinance updating to amend trespass in the parks penalty from a
misdemeanor to infraction.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-A. Is this -- Mr. Nary, is
the next step to -- to bring back the change?
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this ordinance is on your agenda, so you
can approve it tonight.
De Weerd: Okay. Where -- where is it?
Nary: I'm looking at it. It's part of -- it's -- it's perhaps on the top of it, Madam Mayor, in
your packet. Okay. So, I apologize, Madam Mayor, yeah, it is in the packet as a draft.
We will put it on for the June 5th Council meeting for final approval and, then, we can
take the draft notation as well.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-A. Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 11: Ordinances [Action Items]
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 55 of 57
A. Ordinance No. 18-1775: An Ordinance (H-2018-0004 - Lost
Rapids) For Annexation Of A Parcel Of Land Being A Portion
Of The Northeast'/4 Of Section 27, Township 4 North, Range 1
West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, As Described In
Attachment A" And Annexing Certain Lands And Territory,
Situated In Ada County, Idaho, And Adjacent And Contiguous
To The Corporate Limits Of The City Of Meridian As Requested
By The City Of Meridian; Establishing And Determining The
Land Use Zoning Classification Of 39.005 Acres Of Land From
Rut To R-15 Medium Density Residential) Zoning District In
The Meridian City Code; Providing That Copies Of This Ordinance
Shall Be Filed With The Ada County Assessor, The Ada County
Recorder, And The Idaho State Tax Commission, As Required
By Law; And Providing For A Summary Of The Ordinance; And
Providing For A Waiver Of The Reading Rules; And Providing
An Effective Date.
De Weerd: Item 11-A is Ordinance 18-1775. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read this by
title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1775: An
Ordinance file H-2018-0004, Lost Rapids, Brighton Site annexation, for annexation of a
parcel of land being a portion of the Northeast '/4 of Section 27, Township 4 North,
Range 1 West, Boise meridian, Ada county, Idaho, as described in Attachment "A" and
annexing certain lands and territory, situated in Ada county, Idaho, and adjacent and
contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of Meridian as requested by the City of
Meridian; establishing and determining the land use zoning classification of 39.005
acres of land from RUT to R-15, Medium Density Residential Zoning District, in the
Meridian City Code; providing that copies of this ordinance shall be filed with the Ada
County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax Commission, as
required by law; and providing for a summary of the ordinance; and providing for a
waiver of the reading rules; and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: You have heard this ordinance read by Title. Is there anyone who would
like to hear it read in its entirety? You would like to hear it read in its entirety? Okay.
Coles: Thank you. Be it ordained by the Mayor and the City Council of the City of
Meridian, County of Ada, state of Idaho: Section 1. That the following described land
as evidenced by attached legal description herein incorporated by reference as Exhibit
"A" are within the corporate limits of the City of Meridian, Idaho, and that the City of
Meridian has received a written request for annexation and re -zoning by the owner of
said property, to -wit: Brighton Investments, LLC. Section 2. That the above-described
real property is hereby annexed and re -zoned from RUT to R-15, Medium Density
Residential Zoning District, in the Meridian City Code. Section 3. That the city has
authority pursuant to the laws of the State of Idaho, and the ordinances of the City of
Meridian to annex and zone said property. Section 4. That the city has complied with
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 56 of 57
all the noticing requirements pursuant to the laws of the State of Idaho, and the
ordinances of the City of Meridian to annex and re -zone said property. Section 5. That
the City Engineer is hereby directed to alter all use and area maps, as well as the of
official zoning maps and all official maps depicting the boundaries and the zoning
districts of the City of Meridian in accordance with this ordinance. Section 6. All
ordinances, resolutions, orders or parts thereof in conflict herewith are hereby repealed,
rescinded and annulled. Section 7. This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from
and after it's passage, approval and publication according to law. Section 8. The Clerk
of the City of Meridian shall, within ten (10) days following the effective date of this
ordinance, duly file a certified copy of this ordinance and a map prepared in a draftsman
manner, including the lands herein rezoned, with the following officials of the County of
Ada, State of Idaho, to -wit: The Recorder, Auditor, Treasurer and Assessor and shall
also file simultaneously a certified copy of this ordinance and map with the State Tax
Commission of the State of Idaho. Section 9. That pursuant to the affirmative vote of
one-half (1/ 2) plus one (1) of the members of the full Council, the rule requiring two (2)
separate readings by title and one (1) reading in full be, and the same is hereby,
dispensed with, and, accordingly, this Ordinance shall be in full force and effect upon its
passage, approval and publication.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Council, any -- any questions? If not I would
entertain a motion.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we have approve Ordinance No. 18-1775 with suspension of rules.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and second to approve Item 11-A. Any 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.
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Item 12: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Any items for Item 12? We do have a couple of upcoming events. Hill
ribbon cutting at 10:30 a.m. at the Y and at 4:00 o'clock starts the -- oh, it's the park is at
4:00 -- 5:00. Okay. Hopefully you are all there to enjoy the festivities. On Memorial
Day there is a small service that is happening at the Rock of Honor at 11:00 a.m. And
Meridian City Council
May 22, 2018
Page 57 of 56
the American Legion is doing something at their facility at 1:00 p.m. And just a reminder
about Public Works Week from June 4th through 8th. With that I would entertain a
motion to adjourn.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Before I make that motion, just a clarification. The Legions event is going to
be at the Meridian Cemetery, not at their facility, at 1:00 o'clock.
De Weerd: Thank you for that.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I move that we adjourn tonight's meeting.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. All
ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:43 P.M.
(AUDIO RE ORDING ON_FILE_OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR 7 MY DE WEERD DATE APPROVED
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