HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-13 MinutesMeridian City Council Workshop November 13, 2018.
A Workshop Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m.,
Tuesday, November 13, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Ty Palmer, Genesis Milam, Anne
Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Members Absent: Luke Cavener.
Also present: C.Jay Coles, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Clint Dolsby, Warren Stewart, Jeff
Lavey, Mark Niemeyer, Todd Lavoie, David Tiede, Crystal Ritchie, Christena Barney and
Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt
__X___Genesis Milam ______Lucas Cavener
__X_ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: So, I'm going to go ahead and start today's meeting by first welcoming all of
you who have joined us for our City Council Workshop. So, good afternoon. For the
record it is Tuesday, November 13th. It's 3:00 o'clock. We will start with roll call
attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us
in the pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We have an addition. As a new No. 4 we are going to add an Executive
Session. It should be relatively short. Pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(b), as in
boy and I think that's the only amendment. So, with that change I would move we adopt
the amended agenda.
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Milam: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All eyes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 4: Amended onto agenda: Executive Session per Idaho State Code
74-206()1)(b): To consider the evaluation, dismissal or
disciplining of, or to hear complaints or charges brought
against, a public officer, employee, staff member or individual
agent
De Weerd: And Item 4 --
Borton: The new four. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: New four. Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would move that we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code
74-206(1)(b).
Milam: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (3:03 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.)
De Weerd: Okay. I will reconvene this meeting and our apologies. Our -- our
conversations when we say it's a few minutes -- unpredictable. So, thank you for your
patience. Council, I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Milam: So moved.
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Borton: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Proclamation
A. James Chad Register Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day
De Weerd: Okay. The real Item No. 4-A is a Proclamation and --
Borton: Madam Mayor, if I could take this one?
De Weerd: Yes . Please.
Borton: Come down there?
De Weerd: Ye s. You just pull the lever in front.
Borton: Diana Register here? You want to come on up. Thanks. So, I'm sort of -- I'm
taking this Proclamation. This is a -- an issue that's also pretty important to me and I
wanted to kind of steal some of the limelight and share this -- this with you as well. I
have had this impact some close members and friends to me, so thanks for allowing me
to -- to read this Proclamation. Whereas it is estimated that in 2018 53,670 people will
be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the United States and 43,090 will die from the
disease, making it the third leading cause of cancer death in the United States and
whereas when symptoms of pancreatic cancer present themselves 71 percent of
patients pass away within the first year of their diagnosis and 95 percent pass away
within the first five years. Whereas an estimated 240 people in Idaho will die this year
from this type of cancer, which has no cure, nor seen significant improvements in
survival rates in the last 40 years and whereas November is Pancreatic Cancer
Awareness month and during this month people are asked to wage hope and wear
purple to educate others about the dangers of pancreatic cancer and whereas the IAM -
- IAM 149 Foundation is committed to supporting those patients battling -- battling
pancreatic cancer in Idaho and nationwide and are committed to nothing less than a
cure, I, Joe Borton, President of the Meridian City Council, on behalf of Mayor de Weerd
and our entire City Council, do hereby proclaim November 16th, 2018, as James Chad
Register Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day throughout the City of Meridian and we all
call upon the people of our city and our community to wear purple as a way to increase
awareness of pancreatic cancer around the world and throughout Meridian as research
continues to search for early detection, causes, and effective treatment, dated this
November 13th, 2018. Did you want to --
Register: Thank you so much.
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Borton: You bet.
Register: Madam Mayor and Members of the City Council, it is a privilege and honor to
be here today to accept this Proclamation on behalf of my husband James Register.
When we created the IAM 149 Foundation to give back to pancreatic cancer patients,
we knew that his story had to be heard to bring attention to this awful disease. We are
so thankful that you have seen fit to acknowledge it. Pancreatic cancer is quickly
becoming the leading cause of cancer related deaths, with a one percent five year
survival rate in most cases. This statistic has not changed in over 40 years and that is
unacceptable. The only way to change that is to continue to try to bring awareness and
to fight for funding research and, hopefully, someday a cure. By proclaiming a day in
honor of a hero who lost his battle is one of the best steps in the right direction and for
that we are truly grateful.
De Weerd: Thank you. And thank you for joining us. We are certainly sorry for your
loss, but just so admire how you're turning that into something that is looking for a
solution for others. So, we appreciate you joining us today.
Register: Thank you so much.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Borton: Thanks.
Item 6: Consent Agenda
A. Approve Minutes of November 7, 2018 City Council
Special Meeting
B. Findings of Fact, Conclusion of Law for Smith Rezone (H2018-
0097) by Scott Smith, Located at 1321 and 1323 Main St.
C. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law Revised for Costco
Wholesale Store (H-2018-0066) by Costco Wholesale, Located
at the SW corner of W. Chinden Blvd./SH- 20/26 and N. Ten Mile
Road
D. Development Agreement for Zimmerman Auto Body (H-2018-
0029) with Brian Zimmerman located at 1775 W. Pine Ave., in
the
northeast 1/4 of Section 11, Township 3 North, Range 1 West.
Parcel#S1211417501, S1211417515, S1211417523)
E. Impact Fee Assessment and Deferral Agreement between City
of Meridian, Ada County Highway District and Compass Public
Charter School, Inc.
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F. Agreement with Kathy Drury-Bogle for Human
Resources Consulting
G. Memorandum of Agreement for Concerts on Broadway with
Meridian Development Corporation for Not-to-Exceed
10,000 Memorandum of Agreement for Contribution from
Meridian Development Corporation to Traffic Box Community
Art Project for Not-to-Exceed $5,000
H. 2019-2020 Meridian Main Street Market Event Coordination
Services Agreement between City of Meridian and Plum
Unique
Events LLC Not to Exceed $10,000
I. AP Invoices for Payment 11/14/18 - $1,045,005.77
De Weerd: Okay. Item 5 is the Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: There were no changes to the Consent Agenda as published. So, I would
move that we approve it and for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Milam: 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, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 7: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items move from the Consent Agenda.
Item 8: Action Items
A. Continued from November 7, 2018: Findings of Fact,
Conclusion of Law for Owyhee High School (H- 2018-0075) by
West Ada School District, Located at 7020 W. Ustick Rd.
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De Weerd: So, we will move into Item 7-A, which is continued from last week and ask
Mr. Nary for comments.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This item was moved last --
or continued from last week for an opportunity to review the written -- or written minutes
of the meeting to verify that the -- the findings of fact and conclusions and conditions of
approval are reflective of the motion that was made on the night of the approval -- I think
it was October 23rd. I have verified that and reviewed the minutes as well. Council
Member Borton I think reviewed the minutes, as well as his motion. I do believe that the
findings that are in your packet and the conditions that are attached to those are
reflective of the Council's motion in regard to the approval for the Owyhee High School
and so they are ready for your approval. There are documented -- or there are some
follow-up e-mails that are in there for the record as well, but in my opinion those do
reflect what the motion was and they are conditions of approval that are ready for your
approval.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other comments from Council? If not I would entertain a
motion.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would move that we approve the findings of fact, conclusions of law for
Owyhee High School H-2018-0075.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 7-A. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, nay; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE NAY. ONE ABSENT.
Item 9: Community Items/Presentations
A. Transportation Commission Recommendations: Residential
Parking Districts and Compression Brake Ordinance
De Weerd: Item 8-A is under Community Items or Presentations and I will turn this over
to Mr. Hood.
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Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I am following up on a
meeting that the Transportation Commission had on October 1st regarding to two
topics, actually. I did a brief memo that should be in your packet for today. I'm going to
take them in no particular order, but these are recommendations from your
Transportation Commission, things for you to consider. Just to give them a heads up
shortly after the October 1 Transportation Commission meeting, I did have a meeting
with some Legal staff, as well as our Police Department staff to just give them a heads
up. So, as part of our conversation today you want to or need to engage with them to
get further direction on where we go from here, they both have an -- are up to speed on
-- on kind of these two topics. Again, in no particular order I think I will tackle
compression brakes first, which are also known as -- as Jake brakes, compression air
brakes. There was a concern from some neighbors in Candlelight Subdivision located
at the intersection of Ten Mile and Ustick about the frequent use and the increase of
large trucks, particularly along Ten Mile Road. It seems like it's a -- an increasing
situation with more and more large rigs using Ten Mile -- the Ten Mile Road corridor.
There is a sign, it's my understanding, just as you exit the -- the interstate system near
Ten Mile, about the use of compression brakes being prohibited. However, the city
does not have an ordinance on the books, so those -- those signs do not exist anywhere
else out in the city. The request came from the neighborhoods to just put some more of
those signs up, but, again, without an enabling ordinance this one -- the signs we
probably wouldn't put up, because it's not against the law currently in -- in the City of
Meridian to use compression brakes. So, that's kind of where the request kind of turned
to or at least the -- the direction from the commission to you all is to consider adopting a
compression brake ordinance. Some offshoots of that discussion include unmuffled
compression brakes and, really, that's the issue, it's the noise issue. So, it's not
necessarily that the compression to brake your vehicle, but it's the noise that it makes
and the impact, the nuisance of noise on the adjacent land uses and residential in
particular. So, part of their -- their request or direction would have been to research if it
makes sense to have unmuffled compression brakes be prohibited. The other part of
that conversation was about citywide. Should this just be something that's prohibited
everywhere within the city or are there certain corridors or neighborhoods or in
residential districts that this could be prohibited. The -- the motion that was made by the
commission didn't really make it clear what their recommendation to you was, it was
more a broad, hey, City Council, consider this ordinance, but as you consider this
ordinance here is some things that need to be -- some more research done on and to
figure out where exactly they should be prohibited. But at the heart of it the commission
does recommend to you all that some form -- a compression brake ordinance be
adopted. The issue with that and the little bit of research that I have done and
information I have come across is enforcement of that. You can put up signs all you
want, but if you don't have an enforcement mechanism it's -- you're probably not going
to be all that successful. There is another kind of school of thought, though, that thinks
it's more about education, more about educating the truck drivers -- you're entering into
a community that people are trying to live and have a quality of life, so be a good
neighbor as you're driving your truck down the road and unless of an emergency, do not
use your -- your brake -- your air brake. So, just sort of -- if -- if we go with an ordinance
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I think to some degree -- and I'm channeling some of what the chief may say -- don't
expect there to be a whole bunch of tickets written for people that are violating a
compression brake ordinance, because the reality is they are down the road by the time
they get the phone call. Now, there may be a police officer, though, that can take it and
catch that truck, but enforceability of this is really not very high. So, compliance through
education, basically, if we did adopt an ordinance, put signs up, cross our fingers that
people respect the ordinance. So, again, I will kind of yield any -- any more time or if
you want to talk to the chief or Mr. Nary or whoever else, but that's the request from the
Transportation Commission. I should have stated this at the beginning. I have had
subsequent follow-up conversations with both -- kind of the champions, if you will, of
these topics that we will talk about today. They have been advised that, you know, this
isn't a public hearing today, that this will be set over for a future date where them and
whoever else wants to testify, if you will, on these topics, will have that opportunity, but
they also do understand you have some discretion, Mayor, in calling on someone if you
have questions or want to hear from them today. But they are not necessarily expecting
that, so -- so, again, with that kind of preface and background information that's the --
that's the first topic and maybe if you want to talk about that or if you want to just jump
right into the next one I can do that as well.
De Weerd: No. Let's kind of take them one at a time and -- and I did talk to the -- the
citizens as well and so they know about this is a staff report and, Council, certainly if
you want to put this out for public comment. From those that I talked to it's the signage
and just the reminder that Jake brakes are not accept -- acceptable and not to do it.
They also know that it's not a suggestion, it would be a law if we passed an ordinance
and kind of like speeding signs, not everyone follows them, but it does give us
something to enforce if there is a police officer that sees it, that is -- is there they -- they
now have something to -- to enforce. So, I -- I think most people like to follow the laws
and so just a reminder that it's -- it would be against our city ordinance if Council chose
to pass it. Council, any questions for staff? Okay. I would -- if -- chief, do you have
anything you would like to add?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I guess I can share my thoughts and if that helps Council. You
would probably have to put a -- a public safety exemption in it, otherwise, the Fire
Department trucks would be unlawful, since they have them. I'm not opposed to the
signs --
De Weerd: And wouldn't you like to ticket the Fire Department?
Lavey: We would ticket them for parking in a red zone. We are not opposed to the
signs, but we would need to talk about unrealistic expectations and enforcement and
unintended consequences. So, the old sign is probably from the county, back when it
was a county parcel before we annexed. It was not a city sign. So, we don't have an
ordinance on our books and we don't have any signs that we put up. If you say that the
use of those brakes is prohibited, you must have -- or should have an ordinance to back
it up. But you need to realize that, then, there becomes an expectation from the public
that it would be enforceable and it's something that is nearly impossible to enforce.
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Why? Because it has to be witnessed by a police officer in order for us to take
enforcement action or a citizen can witness it, but they have to be able to identify the
driver and report it and you cannot see inside those trucks at the height to actually
physically be able to identify the driver, plus you would have to do all the follow up for a
simple enforcement infraction ticket and it's just not realistic for us to enforce that. So,
we would have to set the tone that although the signs are up, enforcement action may
be limited, but, then, that defeats the purpose, then, if there is not a punishment to you
doing that. So, I don't know what the answer is there, but the other thing is is we talked
about a muffled ordinance. That makes it even harder to enforce, because, then, you're
sitting there going, okay, is it an actual muffled Jake brake, is that lawful, is that not
lawful, how many decibels is that one versus that one. Can we prove it in court? It's
just a hassle. So, it goes back to we are not opposed to the signs, but making sure that
the expectations we set for our citizens is reasonable, because once there is an
ordinance on the books they are going to expect us to enforce it. I had some insight
from the chief of staff prior -- someone must have sent an e-mail in or something
months -- months ago before it hit -- hit the transportation committee and so I reached
out to fellow chiefs in other municipalities to say, well, how do you enforce it and,
frankly, they have signs up, they hope people follow it, but they don't -- they don't do
any enforcement on it. So, just so we are aware of that as we go into this. We support
the signs, but we are concerned about unrealistic expectations if we do do this
ordinance, because simply it is difficult to enforce and also we don't have enough staff
to handle the current calls that we have, so at this lowest level we would be not
responding to them and, then, it upsets the citizens. So, we just got to make sure that
we don't put ourselves in a situation where there is expectations that we just can't follow
through on.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, other chief next to you, would -- would -- if we were to move
forward with exploring this ordinance would fire want a public safety exemption and, if
so, why?
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, yes, we would, simply because all of
our engines in our trucks have Jake brakes on them. That's a transmission retarder to
slow -- slow us down. Given the size and the weight of our apparatus with water in it
takes a lot to slow those down and so we do have Jake brakes on our apparatus.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: And you probably can't hear it over the siren, so -- Mr. Palmer.
Niemeyer: What?
Palmer: So, it's a matter of public safety that you're using those types of brakes.
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Niemeyer: It is.
Palmer: So, is that the reality with anybody else that would be using them as well?
Niemeyer: I don't know if I could speak to that. I can speak to what we do and when we
are responding code, meaning lights and sirens, and we are moving fairly quickly
through traffic, anything that -- that we have that can help slow us down is -- is a safety
issue for us and so that is why on fire apparatus you see those Jake brakes on there is
to get the apparatus slowed down quickly.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. In a non-emergency situation, say you're coming down from
Roaring Springs down Overland down that hill, would you use them even if you're just
heading back after a medical call or something?
Niemeyer: I would have to reach out and find out the answer to that. I believe that the
crews have them on all the time, so I -- my immediate answer would be yes, but I would
have to look into that further.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Good question. Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Are vehicles with much smaller -- smaller vehicles that did have them and they
are still loud and annoying, I understand that, but they are there not just to, you know,
preserve brake pads, they are there to ensure that a very large vehicle can stop in a
hurry if needed and I think that if we are to consider an exemption to fire for that reason,
that the reality is that they are there to provide that safety for you and they are there to
provide the safety for anybody else that is driving it and -- and heaven forbid somebody
else that might be in front of one wanting the one behind them to stop. So, to me it's
something that I don't think this Council needs investigate further.
Hood: Mr. President?
Borton: Yes .
Hood: Just to maybe follow up a little bit on that. So, I did, again, a little bit of research.
Some of it was thrust upon me, some of it I found myself, but Eagle, Ada county, Wilder
and Boise all have ordinances and they are all a little bit different. Some similarities.
For example -- and I have a couple of them in front of me. In Wilder they just say
except in circumstances of emergency where the use of air compression brakes is
reasonably necessary to prevent an accident involving injury to persons or property.
So, that could be for a fire truck or anybody -- no, just -- you know, I think the goal here
is to put signs and educate people and cross our fingers that they do the right thing;
right? If you actually get down to the letter of the law that seems kind of wishy washy,
like, oh, I thought I was going to run into somebody, so I use my Jake brake every time;
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right? But it does have an exemption. But, then, to contrast that with the city of Boise,
they also have similar language in one part, but, then, they specifically accept motor
vehicles owned and operated by a fire department from prohibitions of this ordinance.
So, one kind of takes a more passive approach and allows everybody, if there is an
emergency and your truck is equipped with it, go ahead, don't crash into somebody, use
your Jake brake if you need to. The other one specifically calls out fire apparatus
owned and operated by them. So, I think those are some of the details we can work out
with Legal and bring -- it sounds like we are maybe moving towards the adoption of an
ordinance in a draft form and we can have those -- a couple of options in those -- in the
draft ordinance, but it does seem like a pretty standard op -- it's recognized nuisance of
noise doesn't outweigh the need to occasionally use these to slow or stop a vehicle, so
as to prevent an accident or crash. So, anyway, just wanted to provide that, that it's not
even uniform in our area with how you address that, but there is some allowance or
acknowledgement that it can be a good thing if it prevents a crash.
Borton: Thanks, Caleb.
Hood: Again, I think that's the general direction. Maybe we will circle back at the end
with the process and how we kind of vet this through the -- the rest of the --
Borton: That -- that was going to be the question that at least now to Council, do you
want to -- with that background there is some options. We can decide to not proceed
and end the discussion. We can chew on it with this information or ask that it maybe be
scheduled for a public hearing, see some draft language, allow the public on both sides
to come and share some information before making any decisions. So, what's the
pleasure of the Council?
Bernt: Mr. President?
Borton: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I -- I always take the advice from our chiefs and our law enforcement very
seriously and in this case I notice -- sometimes I feel like this is almost a lot like a feel
good type law, like let's put it on the books, let's put up a couple signs to maybe please
some folks that have issues with it and at the end of the day I don't know -- and I --
sometimes I have issues with that. I have a little bit of problem just, you know, passing
an ordinance just to have it feel good when it can't even be enforced. To me that just
doesn't make any sense and so -- but with that said, you know, maybe there is
something out there that I -- you know, that -- some information that can be brought
before us that makes sense and some statistics or -- or information that -- that would
help us have a better educated decision or discussion. So, I'm definitely open up -- you
know, open for the discussion, always am, but I -- I'm sort of leaning toward if it can't be
enforced, then, why are we going to make an ordinance. So, those are my thoughts.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Ms. Milam.
Milam: I -- I don't see any problem with having a public hearing and at least hearing
from -- from the public on how -- how they feel about this. I think helping them realize
that enforcement will be an issue and not -- not to expect too much. However, if they do
it right next to a police officer there -- I mean there will be times when the -- it will be
easy to enforce, if they are doing it without an emergency need. So, I'm happy to see it
go forward to a public hearing.
De Weerd: I wish we could say that there are no laws or ordinances on the books that
are -- that are all -- that were all not enforceable. We have a no smoking in our parks
that is hard to enforce. It's on a complaint basis. Code enforcement is on a complaint
basis. I -- there are a lot of things that we are asked to enforce that we can't be
everywhere all the time to -- to do it. Again, having more signage out there and
reminding people -- our trucks along the truck route areas that this is an urban area,
you're not supposed to use these, is not a bad thing and as Ms. Milam pointed out, if we
see it happening, you know, we can deal with it at that time. But there is -- there are
things out there that are hard to enforce, but people know it's against the law and for the
most part I think that people want to abide by the law.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I guess the only -- the only downside that I can think of is putting an additional
burden on our Police Department. So, you know, it's hard to know what -- to predict
what -- how heavy that might be and how many phone calls, but I'm going to assume it's
not going to be too heavy.
Lavey: And, Madam Mayor, we are -- we are not worried about the extra burden. I
believe that if we are going to put signs up we need to have the ordinance to support it.
There was some discussion about let's just put signs up and not have an ordinance.
That is silly. If -- for those exact things that you talked about. There is going to be
some time when there is a police officer in the area. There is going to be sometimes
when it can be enforced because of the situation and we need to have the tools in the
toolbox to do that. So, if we are going to do signs we have to have the ordinance. We
just have to set the expectations up. Every call that comes in has to be a prioritized and
there is a lot far greater needs in the city that need to be addressed before we get down
to this -- this infraction. So, that is probably our -- our only burden is sometimes you
might have to explain to someone why a police officer didn't show up at this call,
because they were busy doing this call. But we are not concerned about the
overburden, but if we are going to put the signs up, we need to have the ordinance to
support it.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
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Borton: This is kind of the scope of where the conversation was when you came in was
trying to get some direction from Council of whether the idea just should stop here. We
don't -- we are not interested in proceeding forward or do we want to schedule a public
hearing at some future date and allow folks to testify on either side of the issue and
complete our education on whether this makes sense, so --
De Weerd: I guess I also see the -- is if Council is interested to direct staff to prepare an
ordinance and, then, that public hearing would have testimony based on the
recommended ordinance. Because, yeah, I don't think we can just stick up signs
without anything to -- to substantiate it. Okay.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, then, to draw this -- one of the two topics to conclusion, at
least for today, is it the will of the Council to draft an ordinance and that be the public
hearing or do you want to have an interim public hearing and, then, draft an ordinance
for the official public hearing? I don't know. And maybe I'm misreading the Council, but
I think at least the majority of you is moving towards at least preparing an ordinance for
consideration. It doesn't mean you have to adopt it, but at least that level of effort for
staff to prepare something for the public to review and comment on.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I think that makes sense. I wouldn't go through a whole lot of effort. I think the
ordinance in its first draft just kind of illustrates how it can be structured and how there
can be some exemptions, but not some laboring effort to create it from scratch, kind of
crib what's perhaps available nearby as the best example, that at least can frame the
discussion for the public hearing.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, just to follow up Council President. And is that -- so, that's
not an official public hearing on that draft ordinance, then, it's -- it's -- it's a draft, but it's
not an official draft to comment on? I don't know -- still not --
Borton: It's a -- Madam Mayor, it's a distinction without a difference. I don't -- it's not --
De Weerd: That's an interesting statement.
Borton: It is. It's -- it's --
Hood: Do we notice it is -- is my question. How do we notice it or get the public to --
Borton: Madam Mayor, I would -- Mr. Nary would answer that. I just don't think it would
be a first read of an actual ordinance in perfect form ready to pass that day. It's more
illustrative of here is how it could be set out.
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De Weerd: Caleb, it would be something similar to our approach with any of those is
here is -- here is what we are thinking, seek input and -- and certainly will ask for
neighbor comments at that time as well and, then, you would bring it back if -- if there is
interest to have the first reading.
Hood: Thank you. I will work with -- with Legal and probably the clerk, too, on how that
that notice goes out, then, for -- for this.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: So -- thank you.
De Weerd: And, hopefully, that's clear to the neighbors. So, if Council does want to
entertain an ordinance, they would hold a public comment during the staff report to see
if they wanted to move an ordinance forward.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, it does seem like the neighborhood has a pretty good
network, so I -- I will use Mr. Galligher to kind of get the word out to others that may or
may not be here today to -- when we get a date set and I think we can -- we can let
people know that this is up for --
De Weerd: And we can use NextDoor as well.
Hood: Yeah. Okay. One down. The second one then -- and, believe it or not, this one
is -- is -- that was more of the softball of the two. This one is a little bit more complex. I
think this visual will help for those of you that aren't familiar with the area. Maybe what I
will do is just start by -- by telling you what the transportation Commission's
recommendation to you all is and that is that you consider adopting -- establishing by
ordinance residential parking districts within the city. So, there are a couple in Boise,
just, for example, that most -- most of you may or may not be familiar with, but in the
north end around the university and I think even in the east end Boise has some
residential parking districts. A l ittle R sticker that you put on your -- in your rear view
window or your back window of a vehicle to designate that you can park on -- on public
streets. So, that's what the Transportation Commission would -- would recommend that
you consider as adopting a similar ordinance that -- that could establish residential
parking districts within the city. Now, for the story. So, this is the areial view of Rocky
Mountain High School, Paramount Subdivision. Paramount 60 was a phase that was
later added to the rest of Paramount. About two years ago the developer Brighton
Corporation did address the Transportation Commission with some issues about kids
that were parking along -- I think this is called Arliss. I got to remember where Laughton
and Arliss are. But parking along this -- this roadway here -- and they couldn't even get
onto the lots to build the homes on, because the kids were parked there on -- all around
and they couldn't get their construction equipment to build on the lots, because there
were just so many kids that were parking in this area to access the school. So, what we
did is we worked with ACHD, again through our Transportation Commission, and ACHD
put up limited restricted -- restricted parking hours on this block and I believe this block.
It's somewhere just in this general vicinity around the -- the micro pathway that says
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Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 9:30 and 1:00 to 2:30 or something like that no
parking. So, there is no parking during those limited durations, essentially, keeping a
high school student from parking here and leaving their car there all day to get to and
from school. So, that helped for about a year and a half or two to some degree. There
has been some -- some tickets issued is my understanding. It really just kind of pushed
the problem a little bit further into the subdivision and now you get kids that are parking
here, because, again, proximity to park here and deal with all the -- the student parking
lot and all that, the path of least resistance it seems like kids are now parking maybe
down here and walking and it's still -- still quicker, faster and more convenient for them
there. Kind of an ancillary problem with that that -- that I will at least bring up, although
it's not really totally pertinent to the -- their recommendation of considering residential
parking district ordinance would be the garbage, blocking crosswalks, driveways, fire
hydrants and those types of things. Trespassing on -- on neighboring properties. I have
-- we did talk to the school district about the -- the micro pathway. One of the options
that the neighborhood had brought up was closing the micro path or making it a one
way exit only into the neighborhood, not to the school, but exit only from the
neighborhood. We talked about that a little bit. There are two other micro paths that tie
in from the rest of Paramount, again just proximity to the school. This one is more
attractive than either of the two with how long it would take you to get there as a
pedestrian. That's not, in my opinion -- and I think the school district -- and I have a
correspondence from Miranda Carson if you want, but closing this or making it a one
way really is not an option for the school district and, again, my personal opinion would
be not the best solution either. That's kind of where the next phase of putting restricted
parking is in the -- further into the subdivision, which caused some of the neighbors to
say, well, then, I wouldn't be able to park in front of my house, you know, that same
restriction 7:30 to 9:30, now I can't park there or my guests can't park there. I don't like
that idea. So, it seems like some of the neighborhood is even split on what the -- the
solution is to this. The other -- again, so, then, the third option would be this residential
parking district permit. So, maybe just, again, a little bit of background, again, although
it's not only pertinent, but there have been also complaints about speeding and cut
through through the subdivision. Again, not necessarily related, but just to let you know
there are those kind of ancillary concerns from the neighborhood today about the -- the
roadway network and they are working with ACHD on potentially installing -- installing
some speed humps and other signage in there to -- to calm traffic. So, those are kind of
the options as laid out. So, part of that -- again, similar. Met with the chief and some
other Police Department staff, code enforcement, traffic division staff and Legal to talk
about this one. This one -- it's a little more difficult and I can't say it's going to be 1.5
FTE, but definitely you're looking at some enforcement. I mean if this is going to be
successful you have got to -- we have got to probably stand up some division of who
issues a -- a sticker, right, do some verification that, in fact, you live there and we issue
two or three per household or whatever that looks like and charge a fee -- who pays for
the fee. We would have to buy the signs as a city. We would have to stand up the
signs as the city. ACHD will not do any of that for us. So, there are some real costs
associated with -- different from the last conversation. ACHD, if we have an ordinance,
they will manufacturer the sign, they will stand them up for us where ever we want them
in the city. They won't enforce it, but they will at least put them up. This -- this one is on
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us, though. If -- if we -- we do this we have to buy the signs, manufacture them and
install them, maintain them, as well as enforce, write tickets if people are parked there
and they don't have the sticker or whatever else -- hang it from your rear view mirror
or whatever we end up doing. So, this one is -- is also about enforcement, but there is
some real implications to hiring folks that -- that oversee that and enforce parking
districts and the reality is if we do it here it's probably going to be somewhere else in the
city where -- where someone else is going to have similar concerns. Just a little bit --
for me it's -- it's similar to around Settlers Park. We have had similar issues out there in
the past. Parking on one side was kind of one of the solutions, if you will, that we talked
with over there. Where am I at? So, somewhat -- Cedar Springs Subdivision. We got a
lot of that, too, in Cedar Springs where we get -- and we still do, you know, people will
park along the street, but we had people parking here blocking driveways, public
streets, but, again, better access here. If my kid is playing a ball game here, to park on
one of these streets than to try to, you know, fight everybody here. So, we didn't stand
up a residential parking district or establish that here. It doesn't mean we can't now.
Some of the justification from the Transportation Commission was we are a city of over
a hundred thousand people now and these are big city problems, we are starting to --
we are starting to see and maybe this is one of the things we have got to -- it's worth
exploring is to stand up a parking division of the city that could deal with things like this.
So -- so, again, similar thing. We would look -- we would need an enabling ordinance if
we are going to do such a thing. Put that in code. We haven't really spent a whole
bunch of time talking about what -- again, one, two, three people -- I don't even know.
Maybe it's -- I don't know what this looks like, but there are some real implications to --
to having an enforcement arm and even being able to issue residential parking permits.
So, I think with that I will probably just leave it at that and that's really the -- the
recommendation from the Transportation Commission. All the rest kind of remains the
same, looking for -- I'm sharing, I'm channeling the Transportation Commission, I'm just
sharing their high level review of what they heard from a neighbor Mr. Nick Rohde, who
was there representing kind of his take. In fact, that wasn't even his -- his request. This
wasn't his solution. His solution was the one way gate. But this is what the
Transportation Commission thought would be the best for the city at this point in time.
So, with that, again, I would yield any time to -- to Mr. Nary or -- or Chief Lavey if they
have anything to add at this point or stand for any questions you all may have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions for Caleb?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: My big question would be if -- if we even start going down this road what would
be the time frame to get this put into place. That means people hired, the stickers and
the signs -- the reason I asked is because my guess is a lot of this problem will
disappear with the -- with the opening of Owyhee High School, so -- this school is
overcrowded by 600 students or whatever that -- that are going to be gone from there in
a couple years. Going through all of that for possible elimination of the issue.
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Hood: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Caleb.
Hood: Council Member Milam, I don't know that I can answer all that. In fact, I don't
know if anybody can, but I want to add just one thing real quick, because the chief is
going to answer your question. But I do want to add one thing from Miranda when we
talked about this, because one of the things that she says is there are still about 50
open parking spaces daily at Rocky Mountain High School, but students are choosing to
park in the neighborhood. So, it's not that -- everyone exits, so I imagine it's still
congested to get in and out, but there are stalls available in their parking lot she says.
So, that's not really the issue. But how long it would take to draft the ordinance, stand
up this new division issue -- yeah, I'm going to let Chief Lavey answer that.
De Weerd: Chief.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, I have an answer to that. Opening another
high school is not going to change bad human behavior. It is just not. And that's really
what it is. When it comes to littering, it's bad human behavior. When it comes to
parking in the -- in the subs, instead of parking in the parking lots, it's because they are
either lazy or they are looking for convenience. That's not going to change by opening
another high school. This is a really big topic that we need to proceed slow on. I'm not
opposed to having a public hearing or a public testimony to hear what the public wants,
but I will share our insight currently. The Police Department is absolutely opposed to
any one way gates or anything like that. We need to have ingress and egress for the
safety of our students and staff and to get in there to help. So, we need to make sure
that we have many, many exits and many, many entry points to be able to handle any
safety needs to go into that school, whether it's an active threat, whether it's a fire,
whatever it is. So, we are absolutely opposed to any restriction to any of the accesses
to those points right now. As far as a restricted -- our residential parking. Residential
parking is a restricted parking in itself and although they don't like the restricted parking
signs where you can't park on the street between this time and this time, they are
absolutely correct in that that would also pertain to the residents in that subdivision. It
would be anybody could not park on the streets between these hours, which is currently
what we have in some signs in that subdivision and also what we have in Mountain
View, because this is kind of like Groundhog Day, this is Mountain View all over again.
So, we are going to have this again in Owyhee in a few years. It works in Mountain
View right now, but it took some time and it took time working with the neighbors,
working with the schools, working with the SROs to -- to handle that. If you do a
residential only parking and you have to have a sticker on your car, that means that any
neighbor or any friend visiting, any family visiting, any contractor you have coming to
your house, any service that you have coming to your house, any other type vendors
that comes to your house have to park in your driveway, because they can't park on the
street. So, when we talk about restricted parking, residential parking only is a restricted
parking. Now, one of the things that Caleb mentioned to me -- and he says, you know,
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we are the second largest city in the state and maybe it's time to stop -- to start thinking
about this type of parking enforcement and perhaps it is, but looking at our neighbors to
the east, they do do it and this is how they do it. They actually have a parking
enforcement division of multiple FTEs, not attached to the police department, and that's
really insignificant. It's just that there is dedicated people that actually -- that's their job,
that's all they do is enforce parking violations. If we are prepared to do that, then, we
could probably make this work. If we are not prepared to do that at this time, we need
to proceed slowly, because having our current employees take on this additional burden
I think is -- is not the wise thing to do. We already have people that are -- are at their
maximum in what they are trying to do right now and this would just be an added --
added burden. But it's just something we need to keep in mind and that's only on the
enforcement side. To make this program work you have to look at the distribution side
and who is going to pay for these stickers, who is going to issue these stickers, who is
going to do the record keeping. In a lot of places that would either fall on the parking
enforcement division, which we don't have, or the city clerk's office and so this would be
a burden that the city clerk would have to take up, as well as the Police Department with
how we have things set up currently. So, if we are going to go this route, I urge us to go
slow. I urge us to do it right and invest the money that is necessary to -- to do that right.
De Weerd: Any questions for Caleb or chief? As Caleb said, this one is probably a little
bit meatier than the other, but the point that Caleb raised is this issue is -- is relevant to
Rocky Mountain, Mountain View, every neighborhood around our parks and -- and in
downtown at some point and so what we do here you can -- you can imagine will be
requested to do others and -- and as the chief pointed out, we have been working with
the neighbors at Mountain View for years and this has been a solution that has had a
positive effect in -- in that area.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, just -- this is just kind of chuckling because of the timing, but as
we were talking about parking violations, I'm sitting here getting a message from a
citizen who is upset, because we don't have anything better to do than walk around and
slap citations on cars for parking. So, I just thought it was kind of humorous. Not going
to please everybody no matter what we do.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Because this is such a big issue and impacts so many areas, because I
have heard a lot of complaints regarding the same thing around Meridian High School,
so I think parking is an issue with all of our high schools, as well as other areas, that
maybe that's, you know, something the transportation committee -- or could form a
subcommittee and start, because it seems like there is so many pieces to this, including
a piece that we don't have the employees, the officers in place, or the -- whether it's a
separate division to even start to deal with it when it would come about and so it sounds
like two things need to be happening simultaneously if we are going to go this route and
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we need a whole lot more information and potentially funding before we look at even
doing that.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: This seems to be a very long, tedious and expensive route and I would like I
guess maybe more information on expanding the limited parking to other streets the
way that has been done at Mountain View and give that a chance first just for all those
reasons. It can be a lot -- be a lot faster for the residents to, hopefully, see some results
and, hopefully, you know -- and a lot less expensive and not that -- that the parking
districts isn't something to look into, but it sounds like a big headache for everybody.
So, I think it's going to take a lot of time and research and in the meantime the residents
aren't getting any relief.
De Weerd: Chief.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I guess we should point out, though, that I hear what Council
Woman Milam said. However, I do believe -- and Caleb can correct me -- that that has
been offered to the residents and they do not want that and so that's what creates the
issue as well as is that we could put those signs farther out in the subdivisions, but we
have enough people in that subdivision that opposes that, so we don't know what the
solution is. I wouldn't want to just go -- go out there and slap those signs up if that's not
what the residents want, because that's not going to create the solution. So, that is a
possibility or an alternative, but it was my understanding that it's not something that that
-- that they wished. So, if Caleb could maybe follow up on that.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, I can let you know, at least from the few people that I have
had back and forth with on this conversation -- again I don't think they are united in this.
One neighbor wants the limited duration parking. One wants to close the pathway. One
wants to have a residential parking sticker. So, there is some -- everyone has got their
own opinion. I don't know who is in the majority or what that is. Honestly, just in my
opinion, this may be a good one to have that public hearing and basically hear from
homeowners that show up and say, hey, I would prefer this method, I would prefer that
method, here is what I want to see and all the time weighing the real implications to
everyone for whatever that solution is or a combination of solutions or an interim
solution while we work on the long-term solution or whatever. But, again, I'm kind of
getting mixed messages myself, so not to correct the chief, but just people I'm hearing
from, again, have different opinions on how to solve this problem. So, this may be one
where it's good to notice a, you know, Town Hall type of a discussion on here are some
options, what should we do. I will just provide you that update though. John Lawson is
ready to put out signs on additional blocks, but he is waiting to kind of see what
happens. If we go with this residential parking district, the district doesn't want to invest
in signs and all that to manufacture these if they are just going to be taken down in a
year or two. So, they are kind of waiting to see how this plays out with the city, but they
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do kind of stand at the ready to expand the limited duration no parking district further
into the subdivision. But, again, some of the neighborhoods don't like that approach
and they are saying, no, don't do that, we have a better solution and it's X. So, yeah,
different -- different opinions, but that is -- that is one solution that ACHD is willing to do
is -- is sign a couple more blocks of this no parking 7:30 to 9:30 and 12:30 to 2:30. That
was a sign near Mountain View. Those are the Monday through Friday no parking
signs.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions or comments? Or by chance
direction?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: There is a member of the public raising her hand. I don't know if you want to
call on her or if you just want to wait until that public hearing.
De Weerd: It's -- it's on here for a staff report and certainly this could be a conversation
we can place on an agenda for public comments and --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I guess that maybe that's the consensus from some head nods is it didn't --
there is not a clear recommendation on what to do with the particular issue. Both
ordinances I have a concern of the cost outweighs the benefit. Might not take action on
either of them. Or both proposals. But as to the parking one I'm not even sure what it is
yet. So, if there is a public hearing is this something that comes before the Council or is
it happening with the Transportation Commission? Otherwise, we are just here
wandering, talking for hours.
Hood: What -- if I can just clarify, again, Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, I am -- the
recommendation from the Transportation Commission is that you direct staff to draft an
ordinance to establish residential parking districts. That's a recommendation to you.
You can remand it back to them and they can discuss it some more. They -- you know,
I mean you have options from there, but that's their official recommendation to you is
that we spend some level of effort drafting up all the pieces that make this potentially
work. It's a recommendation. It's not -- you know, they don't get a -- so, that's kind of
where we are at. I don't think they were just punting to you, so you could kick it around,
wander aimlessly, but I think when we have that public hearing I would work with Legal
staff to have some version of a draft ordinance. I don't think this one we put as much
effort into drafting the ordinance, it's more of the concept of a residential parking district
than the actual language of how that would work and functionally. I mean I think we do
some of that research, but I don't know that it's as finished as a -- I mean these are, you
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know, that -- yeah, you probably can't see it, but that's -- you know, that's the Jake
brake ordinance. Residential parking district ordinance is probably going to be a little bit
more detailed. Anyways, again, you have the discretion. Give us direction. That's what
we are here for is to get that direction. Are there next steps? Does this die on the vine
with that recommendation? Thanks for your recommendation, but we are not doing
anything with it or -- yeah. Where do we go from here.
De Weerd: I guess just for clarity, Caleb, what we are doing by Rocky is what we are
doing by Mountain View, it's just bleeding a little bit further out. They have asked for
relief there and the -- not all neighbors agree that -- to put up time restrictions in that
area.
Hood: That's a good summary, Mayor, yes.
De Weerd: Okay. And the reason I'm not taking public comment is it was
communicated to other citizens that we wouldn't and so just trying to keep it clean.
Borton: Madam Mayor, does Council want a public hearing on this draft concept similar
to what we are going to be doing with the compression brakes?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I would say no, but if I did, then, then we would probably do it, so I'm not going
to say anything.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I mean I'm somewhat in agreement --
De Weerd: With what?
Bernt: With -- with Councilman Palmer. I mean I -- I don't want to put staff in a position
where they have to spend a lot of time on this, without knowing more about it. My only
concern is if we -- if we -- if we go toward a -- a residential parking district in this area,
there are many other places around the city that would want them as well and it would
create -- who knows what type of precedent we would be setting and so I -- I think that,
you know, parking is an issue and we need to talk about it and I would love to hear the
comments from the citizens, so maybe a public hearing would make sense, but I don't --
I think that drafting, you know, a quasi-ordinance would be a hair premature in regard to
a residential parking district in this location. That's just my opinion.
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De Weerd: Okay. Well, I have two that agree that -- I think that they don't want to say
they don't want a public hearing, because others might say you should.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Is that what you agreed on, Mr. Bernt? Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I think that -- I always like to hear from the public. However, I think it might be a
little premature to schedule a public hearing and create an ordinance without knowing
financially what that is -- the responsibility of the city will be. I think that it's unfair to
even fathom making a decision without knowing are we looking at 100,000 a year,
500,000 dollars a year? What is the expense going to be? How many residents is this
going to effect. Personally I would hate to have this in my neighborhood. I can't
imagine not having friends over or somebody fixing my appliances and having to park in
the driveway. So, I -- if you wanted to put this in my neighborhood I would fight you
tooth and nail, but it's not my neighborhood, I still go back to -- I think moving the signs -
- moving the daytime parking district -- or signs back, so I don't know. So, you see
where I'm at? I am a teeter totter. I think we should hear from the public, but I don't
think we should schedule a public hearing until we have more information on the cost.
De Weerd: You can ask the Transportation Commission to have further discussions and
maybe that the neighborhood would have to come to a consensus on a
recommendation to the Transportation Commission to discuss. I guess ACHD requires
that they have a certain percentage of people sign a petition to get speed mitigation in in
their neighborhoods and with that, then, it goes to the Commission on -- if they want to
do it and they have a conversation about the cost and it looks like the neighbors might
have a petition that they -- they have and, again, it's a conversation that -- that probably
needs to go back with some specific direction from Council on what you want answered
if it were to go back to the Transportation Commission before it could come back for
Council's consideration.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I'm not supportive of going forward on the topic any further at this point as to a
residential parking district and just to cut to the chase, this table -- it -- it might come
back to us with another request with maybe some more specifics and data, but we will
deal with it at that time, but from what I have heard right now that the -- the burden of
trying to facilitate and create a district outweighs the benefit. So, just being blunt.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
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Bernt: I -- my kiddos went to school at North Junior High, which is down at the -- in the
north and so I get why they have residential districts down there, because the roads are
about this wide and if you -- if you have people parking on both sides of the road literally
you have to wait for someone to pass before you can go around. So, I get why that --
they have residential parking districts down there. You just can't get around. I get why
they don't -- why they have them around the university, because there is, you know, ten,
15 thousand students down there at one given time and you have massive venues that
hold tens of thousands of people at one given time and so I get why they may have
residential parking districts down there. But that -- to put it or -- you know. So, I think --
I don't think the comparison is quite there in regard to why we need one around a high
school. I don't know if it's quite there personally. So, I would agree with Mr. Borton.
De Weerd: Okay.
Lavey: Madam Mayor? I don't know if it's appropriate at this time for me to say more,
but I guess I would -- my recommendation would be to send it back to the
Transportation Committee for further discussion. I wasn't there to know exactly what
they talked about, but if they have knowledge of the types of issues that come up with
these different solutions, then, maybe they could be firmer in their ask of us and, then,
we could discuss that in a public setting. But I'm not sure they had fully vetted what
they were truly asking, because what they are asking is reasonable, I just don't know if
they understand how it affects the whole city overall. I think it would be reasonable to
give them a fair shot to re-discuss it before we -- we open it up to the general public.
That is just my -- my opinion only.
De Weerd: Chief, I think what I would ask you to do before this topic goes back to the
Transportation Commission is to sit down with the neighbors. I -- I know your
department spent a lot of time with the situation and -- and trying to find ultimately the
solution that was moved forward with that incorporated the school, the ACHD and the
Police Department in that conversation. So, maybe first that your department sits down
with the neighbors to -- to really define the concerns and -- and maybe some possible
solutions before you bring it back to the Transportation Commission.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, we are not opposed to that at all. Just got to find the right venue
to make that -- to make that happen and we will make the time for that.
De Weerd: Okay.
Hood: And, Madam Mayor, I don't know if it's the right venue, but kind of maybe kill two
birds with one stone. You could have that meeting simultaneously at the Transportation
Commission and educate them on the real impacts to a residential parking district as we
are talking about solutions with the neighborhood and you got everybody in the same
room and we just sort of have the conversation out right there. I'm not saying you can't
meet with them ahead of time, but it certainly would help if -- and we do have --
Sergeant Arnold does attend the Transportation Commission. He is a regular attender
of that. But that -- maybe he doesn't have some of that information of, yeah, we are
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looking at two full time employees or whatever those things are that, you know, cost
outweighing the benefit type of information and maybe just helping me relay this
information back to them and look at maybe other solutions with the neighborhood
simultaneously could be an option.
De Weerd: Well -- and I think certainly that's a good suggestion in an informal way. The
problem is when you get to the Transportation Commission and we all sit up here, that
informality and that conversation is not as fluid. I would suggest inviting them and
noticing it, but -- that it's not that -- part of that official meeting at least in the discussion
form.
Lavey: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I was thinking about just throwing Caleb under the bus
and letting him just handling it, but I -- and I said that jokingly. However we -- however
we do it, if you want to do a pre-meet and do an hour before the Transportation
Committee, so we can have an informal setting and, then, go into the -- the -- the formal
setting, I guess what I would do is I would commit to be there for the informal discussion
and the next Transportation Committee, so we could have that dialogue. So, we are not
putting it on another staff member to sit there and say, well, what were we talking about,
just -- you know, I'm committed to be at the next transportation committee or we can
meet prior to that or even an hour before that as well. So, whatever we think works
best. But I do think we need to get back to the -- the folks that -- that come up with that
discussion originally and give them a chance to hear this additional information, to see if
it changes anything before we -- we bring it back in front of you all.
De Weerd: I would just -- yes, Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. I think three of us said and there was at least one more head
nod that we weren't interested in pursuing it further and now there is going to be more
meetings and discussion and, then, brought right back it sounds like, so --
De Weerd: You had indicated when -- no interest in the residential parking district, but
that doesn't solve the issue and so my suggestion is to have further conversations
between our Police Department, the school district, and the neighbors to talk about the
issues, talk about solutions and -- and just further define it. It really isn't about the
residential parking district, but it is about -- there is a problem and how can we best
solve -- solve that. Okay. Thank you to the neighbors for being here.
Hood: Madam Mayor, before we move on, just one last thing. And I appreciate the
chief offering to come to the next Transportation Commission meeting. Unfortunately, I
have already engaged them, they are a focus group for the comp plan, so their hour and
a half before their regularly scheduled meeting is already being used up by me for the
comp plan.
De Weerd: Yeah. Caleb, I would suggest it's not right before the Transportation
Commission. The transportation is just invited as -- to be included in the discussion if
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they have an interest, but it really is between the city, the school, and the neighbors to --
to talk about the issue at hand. Kind of like we did with Mountain View.
Lavey: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I agree with you, because it's not just a transportation
issue, it really is more than that. It's about the littering and some of those other things
as well. So, it's not just transportation.
De Weerd: I recall the Mountain View one very vividly.
Lavey: Unfortunately, I do, too.
Item 1 0: Department Reports
A. Fire Department Annual Report
De Weerd: So thank you. Okay. We actually now are under Department Reports. The
reason we are here tonight is to hear from the Fire Department and hear their annual
update.
Niemeyer: The only reason; right?
De Weerd: Oh, I'm sure.
Niemeyer: Madam Mayor and Council, good evening. We will wait for this presentation
to get up on the screen here. Beautiful. So, we will make this succinct and ask any
questions following the presentation. So, I broke this out into six different areas
covering the past year. A lot of great work going on in the fire department. A lot of great
work going on moving forward in the Fire Department that I want to cover. So, first and
foremost, talking about our operations division, one of the things that we are really
working strongly on right now is that working out of class program. This was brought to
you through the negotiation process with the -- with the union. We have been meeting
with their leadership, our leadership, we finalized the task books, those are being
printed. The program itself is being rolled out of what we call our all hands meetings.
So, all hands is when we get the entire shift together, share that information all in one
setting, so everybody has the same information at the same time. That will be rolled out
November 16th, 19th and 20th. Once we get done rolling that information out we will
open up the program. So, we anticipate this program going live the end of November.
This was a big deal. It's a good program for the Fire Department. I think it's a good
program for our firefighters, so that we are getting rid of some of the mandatory
overtime that you all heard about during negotiations. That's not a good thing
organizationally. So, I believe overall it's going to be a very good program moving
forward. Promotional testing update. We have a June 21st timeline that we are trying
to meet with regards to getting engine 36 staffed. That requires us to test for promotion.
Specifically captain and engineer. We had a 14 week officer development program that
just wrapped up. A 12 week engineer development program that's wrapping up. We
start testing the end of November and that will be completed in January. It takes us
about a month and a half to get through a testing promotional process. We are
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anticipating a good turnout on that, so that that engine can be staffed up June 21st to
meet the summertime busyness deadline that we are shooting for, so we have an added
resource on the road. We have briefed you on that before. We are still on target to get
that done. Training. We got a couple things to talk about. One is we have some
makeup dates. We had the harassment training that we did in conjunction with HR and
with ICRIMP that will, then, be rolled out city wide. Fire was the first to go. So, we have
a few folks that we are making up. We have been working with Crystal and her team,
as well as ICRIMP, to get those completion dates set up for the makeup and those
dates have been set. The other one I really want to stress and we are going to make a
big push as far as media and all that with this training that is coming up, but I really
would encourage all of you to attend. We have got some dates here. This is a center
hallway drill training that's happening behind Station One at the training tower. This is
specific to a new target hazard for us and that is the apartment complexes that are
going up. Operationally this presents a whole new challenge for our firefighters. This is
not what we typically find with regards to residential or even some of our commercial
structure fires that we go on. Hallway -- center hallway apartment complexes are very
unique. So, this training has been set up with -- by Chief Fedrizzi in conjunction with
Chief Landry with the Eagle Fire Department and involves six different fire departments
coming in to go through this drill. I will say I want to -- I want to give thanks to Franklin
Building Supply and I also don't have Great Floors on here, they donated materials for
this training. So, we are very grateful for that. If you get a chance I would really like
each of you to come over and -- and witness this training. It's in three hour blocks. You
don't have to stay for the whole three hours. I know it's a big time commitment, but to
see what they are doing and why they are doing it I think is really important, because it
helps you as Council understand when we approve new things that we are not used to,
there is training that gets involved to go meet that new challenge. So, the dates are on
there. November 14th and 15th. We have two sessions 9:00 to noon and, then, 1:00 to
4:00 and November 19th from 1:00 to 4:00. Again, you don't have to attend the whole
three hours, but if we can get you over there just to kind of see the -- the initial, give me
a call, let me know and I will make sure you get over there and get a peek behind the
curtain on what we are doing. Really good training. I'm really encouraged by it. In our
prevention department, school safety, even though Chief Lavey threatened to ticket our
fire trucks with this Jake brake issue, I will say Police and Fire have been doing some
really good work together on the prevention side. Joe Bonjiorno and Shawn Harper, we
have found a new match made in heaven I guess. They have been working together on
the school safety issues. As you recall, when all the shootings came out across the
country -- and they are still happening today unfortunately, but specifically the school
shootings, we had secondary locking devices going in on doors. That concerned us as
the fire department, because if the door is locked we can't get in and so we worked
together with the Police Department, identified solutions. We rolled those solutions out
here locally first. The solution was so good that at the statewide level school district
said we want to hear more about this and so Joe and Shawn both have been working
directly statewide to where the state is going to adopt school safety with regards to
these locking devices and procedures on how best to secure their school classrooms.
That is, then, turned into both of them presenting at the Idaho Fire Chiefs Conference in
the spring to help other fire departments and police departments around the state
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understand how you can cooperate together to come up with good solutions. I was
talking to Chief Lavey. Joe Bonjiorno just got a phone call from South Carolina. They
have somehow heard about what we are doing, they are very interested in what we are
doing. So, pretty cool stuff going on in partnership with the Police Department on that
front. Public education. And I will go to the bottom first. I want to thank you for
approving our part-time pub ed specialist going full time. Herb Griffin accepted that
position. He was a tremendous help in October. We had fire prevention month and
Pam is always overworked and overloaded. So, having Herb there full time really made
a difference. We had public safety educational day held at Fire Station One. We had
over 500 community members attend that. So, outstanding participation and support. I
do want to plug in Pulse Point again. I do that every presentation I give. This is the app
that citizens can download and be alerted if there is a CPR need anywhere in our
community. We have about 6,500 folks that have downloaded the app and are active
on the app, meaning they actually get the alerts. I know our Council liaison gets those
alerts. The Mayor now gets those alerts. So, it's a way for you to stay in touch in our
community with what's going on, but more importantly it alerts you if a CPR event needs
your help, if you have been trained in CPR. So, our goal countywide is 20,000 folks.
We are at 6,500. So, we still have a ways to go, but we are reaching out to hospitals,
schools, anybody we can to get that word out. It's a good app and it's been worthwhile.
Lifesaver safety inspections. 2019 we have 1,049 inspections planned. Currently right
now in FY-18 we are about a thousand behind. That tells you how many businesses we
have and how many inspections are going on. You can see the data there that -- the
numbers year to date. We have had 1,344 initial inspections through our fire inspectors,
1,519 reinspections and we cleared 1,219 of those. The Mayor did ask me what are the
most common reoccurring themes that we have. Typically it's blocked exits where we
have to clear something out of the way because they blocked a door for an exit in a -- in
a commercial building or a restaurant. A lot of electrical stuff that comes up as we do
those inspections. So, our folks are busy. They also double as fire investigators. We
have had 33 fire investigations year-to-date with two on staff that are eligible to do those
fire investigations. We have conducted over a hundred plan reviews and the one that
caught my eye was we have conducted over 170 solar panel installation plan reviews.
Solar is becoming very popular here in the valley and in Meridian. Those require an
inspection by one of our inspectors, so that's a new added twist to our -- our inspection
team. Fire Department safety. And I bold and underlined this, because I firmly believe
in this. Standing side by side we are providing excellent customer service, which is
what our mission is. Taking care of our folks, the physical and mental well being of our
folks is top priority. So, with that I want to update you on a couple of things. One is the
diesel exhaust capture systems. Chief Butterfield and Stacey from Public Works are
working on that RFP process and that bidding process to get that done. This is a high
priority for us and it is being worked on. It will be installed in all five fire stations. It's in
the design for Fire Station No. 6. So, again, this is a direct capture exhaust. We know
diesel exhaust has carcinogen factors to it. We want to eliminate that. Another one that
we are looking at that's in the design for Station 6 is an isolated PPE room. PPE is our
turnout gear. For those of you that have been to fire Ops 101, you see how dirty that
your gear can get. We wash that on a regular basis, but putting that in an isolated room
is the best practice. Right now it's sitting on the shelf out in the bays and not -- not the
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best place for it. So, we are looking at that as well as far as retrofitting our current
stations. Carcinogen exposure reduction program. I want to thank Randy Platt, who is
one of our firefighters. He is leading us in the effort, along with the administration, on
looking at how we can also reduce cancer when we are on scene. Times are changing.
We know more than we did ten years ago, 15 years ago, and so there is some things
that we can improve on that we are working on to reduce that exposure to carcinogens
when we are on the fire ground. I think it's a great thing and our folks are very
interested in doing that, so we are working together on that. The last that I want to
update you on is the PTSD legislation. I know it's been in the news. I have been on
that working group that's looked at the current legislation and how we can better that.
Right now to get worker's comp coverage for diagnosed PTSD you also have to have a
physical injury. Now, we have had firefighters that have submitted claims that have
been diagnosed by a clinical psychologist. Those claims have been denied, because
they didn't have a physical injury to go along with it. I am hoping that you will support us
in this effort. I will -- I will be bringing this back to you asking for your support. This is a
needed change in Idaho. Our folks are seeing things at a rate that they haven't seen
before. We have seen it here in Meridian. If you watched the news over the weekend
you know that our police and firefighters were out again on a scene that you don't want
to see, but it's what we do. Chief Lavey and I were talking about this today. We grew
up in an era where you were told to tough it out, to suck it up. That wasn't the right thing
and, quite honestly, some folks made it through that and some people didn't.
Unfortunately, today I just received word that a very well respected fire service member
in eastern Idaho took his own life. This is real and so it's our job as leaders to make
sure we do everything we can to protect our members. So, with that I would give a
thought out and a prayer to that fire department. We are moving. We have a meeting
next week within the department to look at comprehensive mental health within our own
organization outside of the PTSD. That is -- that is reactive legislation to go deal with
the injury that's occurred. The mental health issue that's occurred. We need to do
better on the front end to prevent it in the first place. So, I'm working with a team of
firefighters to develop that program for us internally in the Meridian Fire Department.
De Weerd: And, chief, I would just add on the PTSD, there is a real cost --
Niemeyer: Absolutely.
De Weerd: -- and the cost of certainly losing an employee -- a valuable employee, but
there is a cost of the impact it has indirectly on the entire department, filling the position
and -- and all of that. So, this is -- this is the right thing to do.
Niemeyer: Thank you. Fire Department performance. Chute time. The adopted goal
that we had was 90 seconds 90 percent or better. We are at 88 seconds at 90 percent.
So, we are under our target, under our goal. That tells me the guys and gals that
respond are hearing the bells and they know it's somebody in need and they are getting
out of the station quickly, which is what we want to see. The travel time for both rural
and metro urban we have had some challenges with that. I'm working directly with Matt
Hoffman. I know Matt is here and Dave Tiede, as well as Ada county dispatch. We are
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also getting together with Boise fire to see how they pull that data and report on it. We
have had some challenges there. So, I would like to come back to you in a month after
we have those meetings and looking within our databases to see how we can
accurately pull that. We pulled it from two different databases, got two different
answers. That's not the way we want to report things. So, I know you saw a change in
the quarterly reports that came out. We are wanting to get back to reporting on what
the standard was that was adopted. Just know we are having some challenges, but we
are working with it. So, I will be back in a month to give you an update on that. One of
the ones that I'm very proud of and I think if you looked at the city employee survey you
saw resoundingly our folks in the Fire Department say we put a high emphasis on
customer service. That was our highest score on the city employee survey. That's
been that way for a long time and that goes way back to Kenny Bowers, quite honestly,
setting a tone, an example for how we do things and that's continuing today. So, the flip
side of that is what are -- what do our folks out there in the community think about us.
We send out customer survey cards. I have mentioned that before when I have been
here. Just an update on that. One hundred percent of the time since I was here last we
have met the community's expectations and 87.5 percent of the time they say we
exceed them. That's a tribute to our firefighters and really a recognition for them that
they are going out and doing things the right way, helping people the right way and folks
are feeling good when we leave and that's -- that's sometimes hard, because we are
going there when they are not having a good day. So, the fact that we are leaving them
and they have a high remarks for what we do, I'm really proud of our firefighters for
doing that. Public safety. Emergency preparedness. Chief Lavey and I are working
collaboratively with the other city departments to ensure adequate preparedness. A
couple of things we are working on. We have the Alert Sense. I know that was
mentioned at the city employee meeting. I think somebody updated their information
and so we would, again, ask that all city employees get updated in Alert Sense, as the
Mayor put it, if we have a bad day and nobody is coming in, you might be here if you're
not in that Alert Sense system. So, it's a way for us to notify our employees. IT has
done a great job as well putting that out. We are working on some City Hall standing
operating procedures when it comes to crisis within City Hall. Medical emergency.
Evacuation. Fire drill. Snowmageddon version three. We learned a lot two years ago.
We have those plans still that we dusted off every year. We will see if we use them this
year. I don't think we are going to based on the weather forecast, but we might. So, the
message is if it happens we are going to be prepared. So, we are working on that
within the city. And, then, Station 6 update. Chief Butterfield couldn't be here. He's in
the PEAK Academy training. But the update for November, the building permit request
was submitted on 11/1. The interior finishes selected on 11/9 with a design team. The
final FFE review will be done on 11/16 and the update is the design team is on
schedule, currently at 75 percent completion of construction document development. I
know those have been put out for an initial bid. I received a call from one of the firms
that want to bid on it. I directed them in the right spot. So, I know that those -- those
bids are out for the construction. So, with that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Good job. Brief and concise and relevant. Questions
from Council?
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Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Not a question yet, but thank you, chief. Very , very well done and thank
you so much for your team and all that you do. A little bit off topic, but my one question
is knowing that we have got a team from this area down in California, do you foresee
any of ours headed that direction?
Niemeyer: Yeah . An update on that. We were scheduled to go. The task force that
Meridian Fire was going to send an engine with at the last second had to change.
There was another department that couldn't put the staffing together, so our task force --
we actually have two from -- from Idaho going. There is a pretty good chance they are
going to call for additional resources. If they do will be ready. This is something that
when we can we help. It isn't -- it is something that's completely reimbursed to the city,
so it doesn't cost the city. It really depends on staffing levels and availability of
resources or our apparatus if we can participate or not.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thanks, chief. That was real good. I do have a question on your inspections. I
don't remember the numbers, but you had more -- you had more re-inspections than
initial inspections --
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Milam: -- and I'm just curious how that happened.
Niemeyer: Yeah. So, when we go out and do an inspection if we find -- they term it
violation, it's -- it's the term used. If they find a violation they give a notice and they give
what needs to be done and, then, they will go out and reinspect it. There are times
where you have to go out two or three times --
Milam: Okay.
Niemeyer: -- before that thing is corrected. So, that's why the -- yeah, that's why the
numbers are up.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That is a good question, by the way. We had that discussion and -- Mrs.
Milam.
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Milam: The only other thing I'm -- so -- and I -- something I haven't seen, but I know
you're trying to get a lot of people on with the Pulse Point app. Have you used
NextDoor as a resource to -- to get people to sign up for that? It seems like the people
that are on NextDoor would be really good candidates for Pulse Point, so --
Niemeyer: That's a really good idea. I don't think we have actually reached out through
NextDoor with regards to Pulse Point.
De Weerd: I think even if you did it through NextDoor both from the city and the county.
So, that's a great suggestion if we haven't done it. Any other questions? Okay.
Niemeyer: Thank you.
B. Quarterly Finance Update
De Weerd: Thanks, chief. Item 9-B is under our Finance Department. Our CFO of the
year. You can admit it. They were yours.
Lavoie: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of Council, again, appreciate the opportunity to
present to you our quarterly update. I understand that we are running a little late, so I
will try to make my presentation as quick as possible for you, so you can get out at a
reasonable time. So, with that today -- or tonight we are going to present to you our
quarterly update for the month of November -- or in the month of November. This
presentation will go over the property taxes in the majority of the presentation. We will
go over Calculation 101, talk about the levy rate and the history. We will look at the
property tax comparisons, where we get our property taxes from. That's the burden.
And, then, we will compare our levy rate to other cities and, then, I will give you an
update of what we will present next quarter. So, again, I think a handful of you can
probably give this presentation, so we will go through this pretty quick. I will just touch
on the blue font in there. Again, state mandates how we can collect taxes from property
owners. In this case we do have one tool in our toolbox that we can pull and that's the
allowable three percent. Everything else is mandated by the state, controlled by the
state or the county. The second blue item -- line item there is where the county runs the
new annexation and the new construction. They inform us what the value is. So, again,
the only lever we thave is that 63-802 three percent allowable. So, again, we will run
this -- we will run through this pretty quick. Again, you guys have seen this. We will go
through it, though, for the thousands of viewers online. Property tax payments. Again,
we have four sections as the property tax calculation. The first one is base property
taxes. This is the amount that was collected at the highest value over the last three
years. In essence, this is the amount of money that we have agreed to -- or previous
Council has agreed to to cover the expenses necessary for the services that are
provided in the previous years. So, no thing -- if all things stayed the same, no new
growth, no new construction, no new annexation -- I mean just time stood still in theory
this amount of money will cover the necessary expenses for the city to provide the
services today. Not counting any inflation, but we are assuming no inflation. So, that's
what this is. Next section is the three percent allowable. Unfortunately we don't live in
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that standstill time, we are ever changing. The three percent allowable allows us to
collect money for -- I have used the term cost of doing business. This is going to help
us cover the costs associated to benefits fuel costs. Again, it's my approach to this.
Again there are different opinions, but this is what I propose that we use the three
percent allowable for. New construction. This is mandated -- or controlled by the
county and the state. This I propose to you is to represent new growth. We would not
have new construction if we did not have growth in its relation. So, the only reason we
are collecting this money is because of new growth. So, therefore, we should use this
money to pay for the services needed to provide the new growth customers and the
same thing with annexation, we would not have an annexation if we were not growing,
so I have always promoted use this additional revenue to pay for the new additional
growth services needed to provide for the new growth that we are experiencing at the
City of Meridian. So, we have four components. The base covers what we are doing
today. Allowable covers what we are doing today, but for the cost of doing business.
And, then, the last two only associated with the new growth. If we had no new growth
we would not have no new revenue. In theory we might not need any new services
associated to that. So, those are the four components to the property tax calculation
and at the end of the day you add all those up and that's the amount that we submit to
the county for consideration for our property tax levy. Now, we are going to put this into
work. This is your rate history. This is the property taxes we have collected from the
county or from the property taxpayers since 2008. This is our base. So, that's that the
first section. This is our base property taxes to conduct the services that we do
annually. This is the allowable increase. This is the one lever we have to pull and you
can see there is a couple blank areas. Those are the years that we decided not to take
any of the three percent and, then, in 2017 we decided to take two percent and not the
full three percent. Majority of the time we do exercise the option to take the full three
percent. New construction. This is controlled by Ada county. This shows you the
increase in property taxes associated to new construction. You can see that during the
great recession. It dipped pretty quick. Right now we are in a high growth rate. So,
again, enjoy the times when we can. It won't be this way forever. Annexation. As we
grow, as we grow, as we grow we are going to have less property to annex. So, this
slide here will just continue I think to be on a smaller side as we continue to annex the
remaining parcels within the city borders. So, those are the four components that we
spoke about previously. If you put them all together this is your total property taxes for
the City of Meridian, which is 33 million for the current fiscal year. So, now that we
know how to -- we know how much revenue we need, the question is how does the
county calculate the levy rate for them to impose on to the property owners. So, we just
went over how we came up with the property taxes, those four components, base, three
percent allowable, new construction, new annexation. And this is for the most recent
fiscal year 2019 it was 30 -- a little over 33 million. So, we send that to the county. The
county determines the property tax value. We do not. They determine all that within
their assessor's office. You d ivide one by the other and you get what's called the total
certified annual levy rate. They just submitted that to us. I believe I presented --
provided you that e-mail last month with the most current rate. So, with that, if we just
do the math, again, we started off with 33 million, that's the total property taxes. We
add in the 9.62 billion dollars that the county says we have in total property tax value.
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As you see it's been increasing for a number of years since the great recession. Again,
we take one divided by the other and at the end of the day we will have a property tax
levy rate for the city of 3.44, which is, again, six, seven years of straight reduction in
levy rates. Mr. B orton likes to point out to me that since he's been on the seat it's gone
down every year since he's been here, so thank you, Joe.
De Weerd: You're awesome.
Lavoie: Yes , he is.
Borton: I will take credit for that.
Lavoie: So, for that the levy rate for every one hundred thousand dollars of taxable
value that you have we will collect 346 dollars from you annually to live in the City of
Meridian. So, if you have a hundred thousand dollar home, you're going to pay $28.83
a month to live here at the City of Meridian for all the services that we provide you, if
that puts it in a little bit more context. So, again, levy rate 34 -- .0034 for right now. For
fiscal '19 taxable property value of 6.22 billion. I just want to point out to you that the
relationship is extremely -- is exactly inverse. We don't actually control the levy rate. I
think we have a portion of it. Ada county determines the assessment value and in years
past during the great recession we actually did not take the three percent in years '11
and '12, if you remember in that previous slide, but yet the levy rate went up. The last
four years we have taken a portion of the three percent or two percent and the levy
rate's gone down. So, again, just doesn't -- it doesn't make intuitive sense that you take
the three percent and the levy goes down, you don't take the three percent and the levy
goes up. It's not intuitive. But, again, the bigger factor is actually the assessed house
value. That has a larger factor on the decisions that we make today with the three
percent. So, again, it's not intuitive. I just want to let you know that there is an inverse
relationship and that even though we say we are going to not take the three percent,
doesn't mean we are going to lower your taxes. It actually has to do with the house
value and the next slide will show you that even though we did not take the three
percent in those years, property taxes went up. These are six homes that we compare
annually. Again, busy slide, I apologize. Again, if you're the golf course house, again,
you're the most expensive house on our analysis, so, hopefully, you're the Old Town
house. These are the values according to the assessor's office. The shaded area is the
average of all the houses together. So, we can say on average we have about a
250,000 dollar house point in the City of Meridian. You can see one house. I think it's
the north Meridian house. Their value went down this year as compared to the other
ones. In 2014, '15 and '16 the south Meridian house went down as well, while the
others went up. So, really, it all depends on what your house is, but this is saying five
out of the six houses went up. Maybe your house is the one that went down. So, the
question is how much do we spend in property taxes. This is the property tax line for
those houses. You can see the north Meridian house is going to pay less in taxes, but,
again, we put a three -- we used three percent. So, again, Ada county had a bigger
impact on this decision on the property taxes than we did. The six -- the other five
homes, yes, their property taxes did go up, but, again, it's just an example that even
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though we took the three percent doesn't mean every single house property taxes went
up. In this case theirs is going to go down. In 2011 and '12 we took the -- we did not
take the three percent and you can see everybody's property taxes went up. In 2015
and '16 and '17 one house had three years of straight declines in property taxes, even
though we increased the property taxes three times. Again, Ada county has a bigger
impact in the decisions or the property taxes that the residents pay than we do with our
one lever that we pull and that's the allowable three percent. Again, just give you a little
bit of context of how it works. Property tax burden. Probably not going to be a surprise
to you, but the majority of our property taxes do come from residential and multi-family.
You can see the different property burden payers of commercial number two, residential
is number one. Put it in a different perspective for you, the most recent year that we are
going to be looking at, 65 percent of our property taxes came from the residential and
multi-family, which isn't a surprise with all the single family homes and multi-family units
that we have been approving. As soon as more commercial gets developed, again, you
can see commercial had a little bump in 2011 -- 2011 at 36 percent, but, again, this is
related to the amount of new permits and new construction developments that we are
approving. I don't see a change in this. If anything I see property taxes paying more
and more if we continue to add more multi-family units and more single family homes
going forward. Sorry, I'm going as fast as I can for you guys. General Fund tax levy
comparison. This is something we do every year in May 2019 I will update this again.
The City of Meridian currently resides at point -- the fourth lowest of the cities that we
compare. You know, our closest neighbor Boise, they are almost seven -- almost twice
as much as us. Luke last year asked me is this apples to apples. It's impossible to do
apples to apples, but it's maybe an apple of one variety to an apple of another variety
and what I mean by that is what we do -- this next slide here is a lot of information. I will
try to go through it real quick. But this is the data file. What we do is we determine
what we call the General Fund. The City of Meridian has one actual levy. We have
Fire, Police, Mayor's Department, Finance, Parks and Recreation -- that is all embedded
in one levy. You will see some cities actually have a recreation levy. Some cities have
a police retirement levy. Some cities have a capital improvement levy. Some cities
have a -- unfortunately a tort levy. Some cities have a fire department override levy.
We have one levy and what I try to do is I try to compare our one levy, which is that line
right in the middle that's shaded, that's what this slide represents. I'm trying to do
apples to apples. We, again, put everything into one levy rate. All those other cities
began to use multiple levy rates to get the job done for their General Fund. If I actually
included that bottom line, we would look even better than all the other cities combined.
Again, if you add up these four -- those three cities to the left of us, I think they have a
total population of 60,000 combined. Again -- so we are -- we are by far the -- if you
compare the 110,000 to their three combined 60, we are doing amazing for what we are
doing. I think 344 dollars for a hundred thousand square feet -- or for a hundred
thousand dollars of taxable value for what we are doing compared to our neighboring
cities in the state of Idaho -- again, I think what we have done here at the city is pretty
amazing. What you're asking your employees to do is pretty amazing. Again, for a full
service city with one tax levy, as compared to some have nine, we are doing pretty
great. Again, we update this annually. Happy to share it with you. Again, this puts it in
perspective. Luke asked about this last year. You know, where are the details from.
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Association of Idaho Cities actually does this for us. We just put it in the report. So,
again, that's the levy rate comparison. This is just a quick idea to show you what
portion of our property taxes make up our total General Fund. Sixty percent this fiscal
year. So, an important piece to the pie. Again, we want to manage this correctly and
prudently. Finishing up here for you guys. So, what we have presented, Tax
Calculation 101, history comparison, burden comparison. Next presentation in three
months, four months 'ish we are going to give you actuals versus budget. We will have
the fiscal year audit done. Changes to fund balance. Some ratios. Top five revenue.
Top five expenses. With that I will stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Todd . Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I always love all this nerdy number stuff. So, just to clarify -- and you did a real
good 101 understanding of how the levy works, so I get that. So, I guess the only
question would be -- the only way taxes -- or the levy rate is really going to go up is if
our property value goes down. So, if we increase it -- we don't take the three percent
year after year after year and, then, the market crashes and we are still asking for that
same amount of money, but divided by a much -- much smaller number divided by it, is
going to make the levy rate go up; right?
Lavoie: Madam Mayor, Council Woman Milam, there is no guarantee to that. It all
depends on the other factors. If you add another Village in during that specific time
frame, if you add another large -- maybe a medical school at that exact time -- there is
too many variables. If you're looking at this slide on 2010, '11 and '12 during the great
recession, we all know that our value -- house values went down, but this here is your
property taxes annually paid. All your taxes went up, even though we did not take our
three percent. So, again, there is other variables. There is no way to guarantee by us
standing here and telling the citizens we are making a statement that if I don't raise
taxes -- or if I raise taxes I'm going to guarantee you lower taxes or if I don't take taxes I
guarantee you -- there is no way for us to guarantee that.
Milam: The growth factor. You lose if you don't -- because you don't grow the value --
that it's just a matter of math.
Lavoie: It does matter in math and I think Ada county has a bigger factor in it than our
decisions with three percent or not three percent. Again, this slide shows that if we
didn't take the three percent in those two fiscal years, property taxes still went up, even
though we thought that, you know, making the good claim that we are not going to take
property taxes -- or three percent, their taxes still went up year over year, as you can
see from this slide. And, then, in the years that we thought, you know, by taking it some
of them went down. So, again, Ada county has a bigger decision on this, the values,
than our three percent decision. Sorry to not be able to give you that simple answer
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that, no, we cannot guarantee anything. There is too many variables involved. But
appreciate the question.
De Weerd: Any other questions? Thank you, Todd.
Lavoie: Thank you.
C. Information Technology: Security Awareness Training
De Weerd: Okay. Next up is Information Technology. IT. Cyber Security Month was
last month and this is a follow up to that. We have been doing training and we are
hoping Council will participate.
Tiede: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you for having me here today. So,
yes, that's what we are here to talk about is security awareness training. That being
said, I will jump right into this and I will be brief. To give you a little background, a
couple of years ago we did a cyber security assessment with a third-party contractor
and one of the findings that they had was that we need to beef up our security
awareness training. Cyber security is our shared responsibility, as we talked about last
month during our proclamation. For our organization that includes every employee. So,
training these employees is key. As you may or may not know, many of the data
breaches that happen in our world today are not directly related to the technology we
are using, but the people that use that technology. So, we started this program last year
with all city employees and this year we want to make sure that we include our elected
officials. So, that's why I'm in front of you today. So, just a little bit about the program.
We engaged with a partner called Nova4 and they are a cyber security awareness
training provider. We had sent this out again to city employees. They are doing this.
What we are doing this year and we will continue to do these annually is a 30 minute
training session. It's web based. Take it online from anywhere. It can be completed in -
- over the course of multiple sessions or you can get up and leave and resume it later if
you need to. You don't have to complete it in one sitting. How it's kicked off is you will
get an e-mail like the one in front of you where you will click on a link, login, they will ask
you to create a password and, then, you will start the training. You have six weeks from
the time we kick it off, which I plan on kicking it off this evening. So, six weeks to
complete it and we would greatly appreciate your participation in this program. This is
kind of what it looks like when you get into it. It is very much interactive. There is
places where you can click on. There is little video clips. And, really, it talks about the
areas that are happening to people across the world every day. So, with that I will stand
for any questions.
De Weerd: Wow. Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
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Milam: Thirty minutes in six weeks. It's kind of a lot to ask. Sorry.
Tiede: I understand time is precious.
Milam: Yeah. Get it done.
De Weerd: Five minutes a week. Five.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: You said you appreciate our participation, but this is -- this is mandatory. We
don't --
Tiede: This is participation that we would -- yes.
Borton: We shall --
Tiede: We want all city employees and elected officials to participate in this training on
an annual basis. This is part of our -- how we are mitigating our risk as an organization
for the information that we hold. It's our organization's information, but it's also our
citizens' information and if we -- if we don't take practical steps to do that, then, we are
putting them at risk as well and that's not a place we want to be in. So, we feel it's very
important for everyone to participate.
Borton: Get it done.
De Weerd: And it is really fun. Thank you, Dave.
Tiede: Thank you.
D. Mayor's Office: Ordinance No. 18-1796: An Ordinance
Amending Title 1, Chapter 8, By Adding Article E : City Human
Resources Director And Sections; 1-8E -1: Appointment; Term
Of Office; And 1-8E -2: Duties [Action Item]
De Weerd: Five minutes a week. Okay. Item 9-D is under my office. In front of you,
Council, is Ordinance 18-1796 and this is an ordinance that essentially amends
something that we -- let me give you a little history. So, when Jaycee Holman left as the
support service director, we had all of the support services under that one single
person. That was IT, HR, the city clerk, as well as Finance. I brought back to you last
year a recommendation to appoint Todd Lavoie as our support services director slash
CFO and I did peal off HR to be a direct report as a department manager and -- and
with the premise that it would be reevaluated after a year. I know many of you
supported the HR director being -- or HR being a director role, because of the
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independent position it can be as a director. I wanted to give time to do that transition
from tactical to policy and from day to day to strategic and have come back to
recommend that this position transition back into a director position that it once was
before we split it off to support services. Now, I do agree that the independence the
position as director in that HR realm does need that level of position and so I'm seeking
your approval of Ordinance 18-1796 and I would entertain any questions. And I guess if
we do have a motion to approve it, we would need to have it read in its -- by title. I was
not going to say read in its entirety. I almost did. Let me have the clerk read this
ordinance first by title.
Bernt: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1796, an
ordinance amending Title 1, Chapter 8, by adding Article E: City Human Resources
Director and Sections 1-8E-1: Appointment; Term of Office; and 1-8E-2: Duties.
De Weerd: You have heard this read. Is there anyone who would like to hear it read in
its entirety? Seeing none.
Bernt: Mayor, I move that we approve Ordinance No. 18-1796 with suspension of rules.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Just wanted to kind of explain my vote a little bit. I -- just to simply say that I
don't feel that I have got all the information I need to feel comfortable making the
decision today.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, nay; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE NAY. ONE ABSENT.
E. Mayor's Office: Appointment of Crystal Ritchie as Human
Resources Director [Action Item]
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De Weerd: And I would also just talk about the timing of this transition from manager to
director. As I mentioned in my comments, it was to be reevalutated after a year, which
is right now, and it also makes sense to keep it as part of the new budget year, as well
as the evaluation period. So, Item 9-E is the appointment of our current HR manager
Crystal Ritchie as the Human Resources director. I would stand for any questions. I
kind of explained why in my last statement. If there is no questions I would entertain a
motion.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we appoint Crystal Ritchie as our Human Resources director here in
the City of Meridian.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just real brief. I'm certainly supportive of the motion and just wanted to
compliment Crystal. I know she's going to rise to the occasion, the responsibilities of
this. Among her many talents I think is a -- a pretty fierce independence, which this
position requires and to make tough calls and tough decisions and -- and to lead, even if
it might not be the most popular thing to do, but it's the right thing to do. So, that is a
critical element for this position to be successful and I think it's a critical skill set that you
possess and will carry forward going forward to be successful. So, amongst many other
reasons that's one that certainly makes me want to support this appointment at this
time.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Borton. Anything further from Council? Mr. Clerk, will you
call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, nay; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. ONE NAY. ONE ABSENT.
De Weerd: Crystal, would you like to make any comment? I might even take a picture
while you're standing there.
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Ritchie: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, first of all, it's a great honor to stand here
in front of you after such an appointment, so I very much appreciate that. I want to
thank each of you for the trust that you have placed in -- into me tonight. I look forward
to continuing to lead and partner with the Human Resources Department. I have stood
before you before and said they are an amazing team and an amazing staff and I
couldn't do what I do on a daily basis without them. So, thank you guys and that they
are here tonight. I certainly look forward to continuing in this capacity and moving the
City of Meridian forward, supporting the Human Resources team, supporting the city
employees and serving the City of Meridian. Thank you.
F. Benefits Committee Presentation
De Weerd: Thank you, Crystal and congratulations. Okay. It's a good thing that we
had that before the benefits committee presentation. Welcome, Christena.
Barney: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. Thank you for having us
this evening. So, Christena Barney. I know you all are aware of who I am, but I do want
to introduce Shelli Stayner from Mercer. She is going to co-present with me today. We
are going to try to make this brief. I did provide materials to you already. The
presentation. All of the materials that you're going to see tonight are in that. I will say it
is an abbreviated version, so it is not the full packet that you received. Okay. So, we
are just going to highlight some points that we want to make tonight. Okay? So, tonight
we are going to go over benefits strategy, some basic concepts, self funding. So, this is
just an education piece that we are bringing forward to you tonight. We wanted to
provide some education on benefit funding mechanisms, kind of what the benefits
committee has done, what we have vetted out, bring that information forward to you.
Some cost analysis, an overview of pros and cons and activity that the benefits
committee has done, some benchmarking information, compliance, registration
requirements, constraints and some options that we have available to us and, then, next
steps. So, just briefly I wanted to introduce to you the benefits committee. I talk about
the benefits committee and I have been before you and mentioned them, but just as a
visual this is our benefits committee.
De Weerd: I think Todd looks hot.
Barney: Stunning picture. So, we meet monthly for an hour and a half to discuss our
benefits plan, our strategy, these funding mechanisms, what our benefits look like, how
we roll it out to our employees, all of the information you received in your packet, all the
information we are going to go over tonight is things that we have met, we discuss in
depth. Every -- every decision we make is not one we take lightly. We go through a lot
of information, a lot of data. We study trends. So, anything we bring before you just
know that there is a lot behind anything that we bring in front of you. This last year I
really wanted to kind of pull back the benefits committee. We meet monthly, but it's kind
of one of those things where, you know, we -- we do it because we have always done it,
so I wanted to kind of give our committee purpose again and why -- why are we here,
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what -- what is our purpose. Why do we do this and how do we make decisions as a
benefits committee. So, we did a guiding principles activity this last year. How do we
make decisions? Why do we make these decisions? What impact did they have? And
out of that activity we came up with these guiding principles. Our benefits program
compares favorably to competitors. That was a major one for our committee. That they
are financially sustainable. So, we are looking at, you know, those cost factors. That
we have affordable offerings. It's great to have offerings, but are they affordable, not
only to the city, but to the employees. Is it user friendly? Do they -- do we promote
healthy behaviors? Our wellness program. Do we advocate those types of things? In
doing that activity we identified business priorities, cost priorities, and, then, also
employee priorities. So, these were key components and each one of these factors that
kind of helped us build those guiding principles. You know, why do we do what we do.
What are the priorities in each of these sections that determine where we need to go,
what we need to focus on, what are the important things that we are doing here. So, I'm
going to let Shelli talk more about kind of the statistics, the analytics, and those types of
things.
Stayner: Okay. Thank you. Again, Shelli Stayner with Mercer, the acting benefit
consultant on behalf of the City of Meridian. I'm also the office business leader here in
Boise. But as Christena said, we have -- we have had lots of conversations with the
benefits committee, with Christena, with Crystal and with others in conversations about
fully insured programs versus self funding and maybe all things in between. So, just
looking at this slide is just giving you an idea of the risk continuum. On the far left-hand
side we have a fully insured plan. Nonparticipating just means that the rates are the
rates, has no emphasis based on experience, followed by fully insured participating
means experience rated. So, claims experience is how the premiums are -- are, in fact,
set. Minimum premium really is something in between, between fully insured and all the
way to self funding. Self insured with stop loss, that really -- for the City of Meridian, if
you were to go self funding, would always be self funding with stop loss. In most cases
even very, very large employers are stepping back from true self funding and
purchasing the different levels of reinsurance, just for security and risk mitigation and,
then, looking at that at the bottom you really are talking that although you have a fully
insured plan, you don't have a lot of flexibility whether it's a Blue Cross of Idaho or
Regents or any other carrier doing business in the state, you really are pretty well told
what the benefits will look like and you choose the programs that make the best sense
for your population. Versus -- excuse me. Versus all the way over on a self loaded
plan, quite a bit more flexibility in what you can and can't do. In looking at that, I think
the one thing I would tell you that's really quite important here -- and, again, same risk
continuum, fully insured all the way over to self funded without stop loss -- is you will
note that the expected claims amounts don't really change a lot. What you're really
seeing is things like retention, pooling, claims margin, those concepts and, you know
what, we are going to look at those a little bit further after Christena has a couple other
pieces of this. We will change again -- and, actually, I'm sorry, I'm going to take a drink
here. So sorry.
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Barney: Shelli, I'm going to jump in really quick, just so that we are on the same page.
Currently the city is fully insured, so fully insured and, then, we are looking at a funding
mechanism of self insured with a stop loss is kind of what the benefits committee -- kind
of what we are proposing. We are bringing some information to you about that as an --
as a possible option.
Stayner: So, very quick version of education. So, hopefully, you all are professionals
on this once we finish up, but in the big scheme of things when we really look at --
especially healthcare. Healthcare and, then, maybe add in dental and vision benefits.
But there really are two major alternatives. Fully insured versus self funded and, then,
again, I mentioned something in between. You know, we have talked about with the
benefits committee with the City of Meridian and now to you all is that there is no perfect
right or wrong way. There is advantages, disadvantages both directions. However,
overall in most cases employers with a hundred, two hundred plus employee lives,
usually over a three to five year period of time, will come out the winner when it comes
to fully insured versus self funded claims management. On average -- and, again, let
me -- let me preface this, that this is the typical 49 percent that we are talking about
here. It's not specific to the City of Meridian. What we are saying is really across the
board. The typical employer moving from a fully insured environment to a self funded
environment will usually see on average four to nine percent in savings. A lot of that is
going to come in the fixed costs, cost of administration and some of those pieces and,
then, you know, the key is is that the -- any employer -- the City of Meridian does take
on a little bit more compliance, a little bit more risk than you do see on a -- on a fully
insured plan and looking at that, again, the plan sponsor, which would be the City of
Meridian, in the self funded arena, really is -- you're paying claims, but from your
employee population point of view they really don't see any difference in the way a plan
works. It really is how the plan behind the scenes is being funded. There are things like
bundled versus unbundled, meaning that you could actually self fund with someone like
the Blue Cross of Idaho now and they combine all aspects of the program all in one
versus -- I'm so sorry -- versus the other side of that is the potential to have a TPA, a
third party administrator and, then, bring it all best class services to the table. So,
again, the neat thing for the city or any employer that's -- that's self funding is you have
additional or even more opportunities than you have in just a straight fully insured
environment. And then -- then the key is is, you know, we mentioned you would never
want to be self funded without reinsurance and that definitely is the case. So, for the
City of Meridian you would purchase on -- on behalf of mitigating that risk is specific
reinsurance, specific deductible meaning it protects you from the risk or large claims on
any one person. So, maybe that amount is 150,000 dollars, meaning the city would
potentially pay claims up to 150,000. Anything over and above that -- it could be a ten
million claim and the carrier, who was chosen or, basically, is your partner of choice is
the one that would pay those claims over that dollar amount and, then, the wonderful
thing is you can also mitigate risk on the entire population. That's called aggregate
coverage. You know, so truly you're going into a self-funded arena knowing what your
risks are, in fact, going to be. Claims overall are up and continue to go up. But, again,
we are setting numbers both in individual worst case scenario and total group worst
case scenario for budgeting purposes. You know, these items here on the self funded
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analysis are things that we have looked at over and over and so just to give you an idea
of what goes into consideration when you're looking at a self funded plan, you know,
reviewing the financial and administrative considerations, you know, we have -- we have
looked actually over a ten, 15 year period of time and you are going to see fluctuating
claims, fluctuating experience or claims risk. Understanding your risk tolerance.
Understanding the difference in potential banking arrangements. Things are a little bit
different. Again, today you pay a Blue Cross of Idaho a premium. They pay claims.
They do any and everything for you. Christena has a lot of interactions, especially when
it comes to maybe questions your population might have, they act as the customer
service, the call center, all of those things and the banking piece does take a few extra -
- extra steps. State mandates increase internal administrative costs. We have had
conversations about that. The typical employer does not usually see a lot of increased
administration services, especially because you're usually purchasing or buying
services from an administrator like the carrier you have today, maybe a Blue Cross of
Idaho, and, then, evaluating your claims experience. You know, we do that monthly.
We do that quarterly. We have looked at that year over year. Utilization patterns. We
look at those kinds of things as well. Large claim impact. That is -- that's something
that -- that plays into this, because the rates for that specific deductible are based upon
potential large claims and, then, stop loss centers of excellence are just different ways
of buying reinsurance, looking at your admin fees, network discounts potentially. We
have not gone to that extent, because we have not made that firm or the city has not
made the firm decision to move forward on self funding at this point and, then, just
looking at the actuarial models and making sure that statistically and actuarially it makes
sense for the city and, then, just truly comparing a fully insured to self funding and does
it make sense for the City of Meridian. Just to kind of give you some additional inside
information or background here, when I mentioned the term fixed cost, these really are
the dollars that the -- today the carrier will keep for the fixed cost portion of the plan and
that is administrative charges. Network access, which really is paying -- paying for the
provider access and the discounts you receive within those programs. In a self-funded
world you actually can choose to use a different utilization manager or disease
management. In most cases when we use the term bundled you're getting all services
from one carrier and, then, we look at the thing -- risk charge. State premium tax. The
ACA fully insured fees. And, then, just carrier profit. One thing about the -- the self
funded arena is that you pay state premium tax only on the cost of reinsurance, which is
going to be, you know, probably 1/15th of -- of your total plan cost and, then, the ACA
insured fees, you know, they -- they went away in ' 17, they came back in '18 and now
they are on a moratorium again for '19, but the potential is -- and kind of the claim is that
they will be back again for the plan year of 2020. Any questions on that at all? I know
we are kind of racing through this. So, quick education. You know, we -- we did a quick
little analysis and looked at fixed costs we just explained. And, then, reserves, which
really is setting dollars aside to pay for claims that have been incurred, but not yet paid
and, then, just looking at potentially -- and this is based on 2019 information for the City
of Meridian. Very high level. This is -- this is not getting into the weeds, but in fixed
costs you're going to see that about 15 to 20 percent of a plan's cost in that insured
arena is for the -- the fixed costs, administration and these different fees that we have
talked about and we are going to stick in the fully insured column for right now, but
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quoted fixed costs, for example, behind the scenes, the City of Meridian pays a little
over 500 -- 520,000 dollars almost or 11.2 percent of your total cost is paid -- basically
paying say a Blue Cross of Idaho to adjudicate your claims, take care of the customer
service, do all those things for you. A pulling point, which is really very similar to what I
mentioned specific deductible pulling point is, again, limiting your risk to a certain dollar
amount. That basically the cost you have behind the scenes today is about 163,000
dollars or three and a half to four percent of your total cost. The healthcare reform, the
ACA fees, are approximately just under 190,000 dollars in -- in costs and, then, we have
the reserves. Those reserves are collected by the carrier, held by the carrier and set
aside to pay claims and, then, the claims themselves basically you are pushing fixed
costs and claims dollars to the carrier. They pay what's there and if there is -- your
claims experiences as the City of Meridian is better than what has been predicted or
collected, then, it is profit to the carrier. Period. Okay? So, there is no monies coming
back to the City of Meridian.
Borton: Shelli?
Stayner: Yes.
Borton: Can I interrupt you real quick?
Stayner: You bet.
Borton: The difference -- the quoted fixed costs under fully insured versus self insured
vary by about a hundred thousand. Does that correlate to the difference at the very
bottom or --
Stayner: Well, it does and, actually, the very bottom really is the projected claims cost.
Borton: Right.
Stayner: The differential is there. What you will usually see is with claims costs there is
not as much of a tremendous difference. Where you start seeing claims cost or savings
come into are the unique things that you can do to try to help manage the claims.
Maybe do some additional things with wellness. Do some additional things with disease
management or point solutions, which is things like supporting your population with
disease, like diabetes or weight management, some of those kinds of things. So, really
the -- the bottom bottom number is about claims cost. What you're going to find is -- is
interesting. In the self insured world you will note they are right in the middle. The
quoted fixed cost is things kind of flip flop. Okay? And what you're going to see is in a
self-funded plan the cost of administration is only a couple hundred thousand dollars or
198,000 dollars in expense for about four percent of your total and, then, on the self
funded or the cost of reinsurance is that 502,000 dollars or 11 percent. So, you will
note, they -- they pretty close to flip flop when it comes to those fixed cost numbers.
Okay? The biggest difference is that the reserves, those additional dollars that you
send to the carrier, a Blue Cross, are retained by the City of Meridian and really in your
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situation by the trust, because of the registration requirements for the Department of
Insurance and, then, the plans expense -- additional expense is limited to your claims.
Okay. So, really based on those fixed costs that we see there in the middle and the
cost of your claims costs. Those are your total expenses, you know, so you're not
seeing those additional levels of margin or profit or the needed dollars that the carrier
collects today. More of a transparent approach I guess I would tell you. Christena --
Christena is going to talk about pros and cons and let me say I hope you also had a
chance to look at some of the additional information, kind of a quick -- kind of a quick
education to try to understand all this in a matter of few minutes, but --
Barney: All right. So, as I said, all of this information that you have in front of you,
which is a much larger slide deck, has been what the benefits committee has been
going through -- through for the last couple of years. We are trying to download a whole
lot of information to you in a matter of a few minutes basically. But we did do an activity
through the benefits committee looking at the pros and cons of the self-funded plan as it
relates to the City of Meridian. You know, is this something that would or could -- should
the City of Meridian consider and in going through this activity I will say there wasn't one
-- not one glaring thing that said absolutely not, we should not do this as a city. If there
was I wouldn't be standing here in front of you today. That being said, like -- like Shelli
had said, there is pros and cons to each one of these different funding mechanisms.
You know, the cost of administration and the stop loss flip flops when you go to self
insured. But you gain the flexibility of doing these different things, investing in your
wellness, investing in disease management, which we don't have the option to do today
and so another thing that we looked at, but another piece of this vetting process is we
looked at other government agencies. So, Mercer provided this information. If you look
at the very bottom bar on here, city governments with employees of 500 -- or 500 or
more, which we are right there -- and the information for -- for 499 less is really similar
to this as well, but 77 percent of those are self funded. So, that was really powerful
information for me and for the committee to see as well and of those, once they go to
self funded, they stay there. They don't move back to fully insured and there is a reason
that they do that. It works. It works well. They have the flexibility, they are able to meet
the design needs of their benefits plan, they are able to retain any of the profits on the
good years, they are able to fund those bad years. I just wanted to put a slide in here.
There are additional compliance considerations when we are moving to a self-funded
plan. A lot of these components we currently do, but the exposure piece, that far right
side flag, those are all tied to self funding. We are aware of these. These are things
that if the Council decides that we want to move in this direction, we have in the
forefront, we know what the compliance measures are we need to take moving forward,
just wanted you to be aware that those have been a consideration. If we decide to
move this -- this forward, the registration requirements are, first, the application with the
Department of Insurance. The benefits committee has met with the Department of
Insurance, which we actually got kudos from them. They have not seen a city actually
do that before the registration process. We were very inquisitive and had them come in
before. We wanted all the information. We wanted to ask questions and they kind of
applauded us on just getting the facts before we even came to Council, before we even
made this decision. But we wanted to know what were some of the pitfalls. What were
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some of the things that people see. Do we often -- do they often see people go flip flop
back and forth and the answers were no. On rare occasions, you know, they -- cities
get into situations where they don't have the funding, but I don't see City of Meridian
getting into that situation. We have balanced funding here. I don't foresee that being an
issue. However, we wanted to have that conversation. Finance and HR also met with
the city of Boise and city of Caldwell, who are self funded and asked them, you know,
okay, how did you go through this process, what -- how did you make this decision?
Would you ever go back? Would you encourage us to do that. And the answers were,
yes, you know, we would encourage City of Meridian to do this. So, again, why we are
in front of you today. So, why -- I was in front of you two years ago bringing this
information forward, kind of giving you some information on self funding. Why am I in
front of you again today? We have some constraints in our benefits program. We are
doing a benefit valuation this year, which I would imagine is going to come out with
some results that we -- that's going to show we have some constraints. But we are in a
hugely competitive job market; right? Now we have many generations in the workforce
that vary in their opinion of what their benefit plan should look like. What's important to
them. We don't have the ability to be flexible on our benefit -- benefit options, because
the vendors are telling us what our benefits look like and what we are going to pay for
those and we don't have the ability to compete in a lot of our voluntary or alternative
benefits, because of those restrictions. So, possible options. If we decide to go with the
self-funding mechanism it kind of opens the door for us to explore some of these other
options, enhance benefit offerings, concierge services, holistic, wellness, adding
additional services to our benefits, providing a premium holiday. If we run really well,
which I am excited to say we are running really well again this year, fingers crossed,
knock on wood, we could possibly be in a situation where we could give premium
holidays to our employees and we are not currently in a situation where we have the
ability to do that. So, just exploring some of those other options, this would allow us to
do that. So, next steps. I will stand for questions of course, but we will be back in front
of you on the 27th with a formal recommendation and, then, hopefully, get some action
from you as to what direction to move forward.
De Weerd: Thank you, Christena.
Barney: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Christena, so if we decide to go that route, then, who
does all of the administration?
De Weerd: That is an excellent question.
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Little Roberts: And how that lands on your plate?
Barney: That is a very good question. Madam Mayor, Council Member Little Roberts,
so it is a combination of our benefits broker, a third-party administrator, and, then, likely
the Human Resources Department. We are bringing on a new person and have
included some language in the job to, hopefully, bring someone on that has some self-
funding experience, so that they can help with the administration of this if we decided to
go this route. If not, great, they have it and if we ever in the future decide to go that
route, we can. We lean a lot on our benefits broker to provide the actuarial services and
those types of the compliance -- the registration with the Department of Insurance,
those types of things. So, it's a -- it's a partnership between the city, our broker and
possibly a third-party administrator.
De Weerd: And so you would bring any associated costs back with a recommendation?
Barney: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council at this point?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. B orton.
Borton: So, if the decision is made today, we just decided we are going to roll out this
self funded, stop loss program, what's the chronology of events as far as the year that it
is actually implemented and it begins?
Barney: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton --
De Weerd: Another excellent question.
Barney: So, we -- it's approximately a six month timeline that is -- could be considered
somewhat aggressive, depending on internal resources. We don't currently have our
new person hired, so we are looking possibly, if the Council wants us to go in that
direction, for 2021, just to make sure that we have resources in place, that we have this
well planned out, that we complete all of the registration process through the
Department of Insurance, we have the funding mechanisms in place, will be in front of
you many more times with the funding, the reserves, all of the different components to
make sure that this gets put in place and put in place properly.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Are they -- are there exit routes along the way as you start to -- to further
delve into this and say, oh, whoa, we didn't know that. Are their exits?
Barney: Absolutely. And I will let Shelli talk more.
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Stayner: Yeah. Madam Mayor, I would say that, you know what, in most cases you're --
you would be going into this eyes wide open, both from a financial and from an
administrative point of view. You can always step back and step away, but there really
should be no surprises. I think the -- you know, the Department of Insurance, the steps
that have to take place from a registration requirement, are all drawn out, you know, so
we have -- we have supported other cities. We have done this before and so, you
know, some of the things that -- that probably up front are going to be a little bit more
time consuming, is that a trust has to be set up. You have to decide who are going to
be trustees of the plan. So, those are -- are two of the ones that aren't normal things
that you do today. But, otherwise, when it starts coming down to numbers and
projections, those are things that we do today anyway. There might be a deeper level
of say marketing when it comes down to let's look at our fully insured options for let's
say 2020, fully insured versus self funding, but -- but that's all kind of the process that
we deal with today and so even this last year we have looked at numbers from a self-
funded point of view, so it really would be looking at those and making a decision on
what makes the most amount of sense. So, there are some of the things that -- that the
department will require. Things we would want to start on early, but -- but the overall
pieces of what takes place or a lot about what Christena and the benefits committee
and others do today.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: What's the role if -- if you go this route and there is a third-party administrator,
is that an entity different than Mercer and, if so, what, if anything, does Mercer still have
to do?
Stayner: Yeah. Mercer is still -- or would be your acting benefit consultant. So, we are
helping make decisions, we are helping go to market, find the most appropriate and
negotiate the most appropriate rate for -- and when we use the term third-party
administrator, for example, you could say, you know, what we're going to go self funded,
we are going to go with Blue Cross of Idaho, they really are and, then, become your
third-party administrator. Just a different terminology. You really would, then, have an
administrative service agreement with them, versus a fully insured agreement like you
have today. So, most of the services they do, if not all the services they provide the city
today, they would provide tomorrow, just the biggest difference is just the funding
mechanism behind the scenes, you know. So, your population, if you -- if you didn't tell
them you were doing this, really wouldn't feel or see anything different, you know,
unless you wanted them to know that and, very honestly, that's -- that's kind of a good
thing is helping the population know that we are all in this together. So, whether it be
wellness and changing of lifestyles, you know, all those things help bottom line
experience, which means managing costs on behalf of the city.
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De Weerd: So, we would put that out for an RFP then, or an RFQ? What is the
process?
Barney: Well, we currently have brokerage services in place. We currently -- we would
use our brokerage in place I would imagine.
De Weerd: To be the third-party administrator.
Barney: Well, we currently have a process in place for our benefits administration. We
do tri-annual marketing and actually this year is our third year, so we would market this
year.
De Weerd: Which means an RFQ?
Barney: Mercer handles that process for us. It doesn't actually go through the city for
our benefits administration. They do all of the marketing, all of that for us, and all the
negotiations. That's part of their role as our broker.
De Weerd: But we still have state code to follow, so I would imagine we would still put it
out for -- for our benefit package -- our actual benefits packages?
De Weerd: No. No. No. For the administrator --
Barney: Oh.
De Weerd: -- the third-party administrator.
Barney: Yeah. We would follow any RFP or RFQ process --
De Weerd: Okay.
Barney: -- through our purchasing program, yeah.
De Weerd: We got there. Thank you.
Barney: Yeah. Sorry.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: I wasn't very clear. Mr. Borton.
Borton: One other final question. Was the -- the recommendation from the benefits
committee to us unanimous or is there a dissenting view or a different perspective that
would be helpful for us to hear in consideration of what to do?
Barney: It was not unanimous.
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Borton: Would it be helpful for us to -- I don't know who or how it's not unanimous, but if
there is some alternate view that has specific concerns, would it be beneficial for us to
hear those thoughts? And I'm not trying to be divisive at all, but --
Barney: I think there is a difference of opinion, so I live and breathe benefits, so I
understand different trends --
Borton: Uh-huh.
Barney: -- and so when you look at comparative data -- I look at two to three years of
data and so when I look at the data, I'm looking just at two to three years and if I look at
two to three years, we would be in a very positive situation, like two million dollars
positive situation in our trust right now if we had gone self funded two years ago. But
you have analytical personalities that are on the benefits committee and they want to
look at ten years worth of data. Well, a lot has happened in our healthcare and in the
market in general over the last ten years. So, it -- it isn't apples to apples in my eyes to
compare that data. If you look at that data we might have been 200,000 dollars in the
hole, if we compare that data, but if we had gone self funded ten years ago what I have
tried to explain -- we would have made changes to our benefits plan or structure the
offerings to offset that loss, so we would be in a completely different situation. So, now
we are -- now we are basing the numbers on assumptions and now we are looking at
assumption data, which isn't really accurate data in my eyes. So, it's just a difference of
opinion.
Borton: Okay. Madam Mayor, I -- the reason I ask -- I think that's helpful to hear. I
assume there was healthy debate over the years amongst the committee with that, but it
sounds like from what you said there is the -- the breadth of the risk that the city might
take on with regards to volatility and claims from year to year, there is a difference of
opinion in how broad that could be. The -- the swings could be wilder, perhaps, some
people think than others.
Barney: Yeah . I think that's safe to say. But as Shelli said -- I mean we have -- we
have individual stop loss and we have aggregate stop loss. So, there is budgeting
components to this where we can say in any given year we are not going to exceed this
amount and we can budget to that and, actually, Department of Insurance requires that
we do that and we set up a reserve to cover for worst case scenario and so there is
measures in place to ensure that we have enough funding in that reserve account to
make sure we cover worst case scenario.
Borton: Madam Mayor? Does the concept of the stop loss ensure those worst case
scenarios and capture the most extreme or is it the reserves that do it?
Barney: The stop loss -- so, individual stop losses -- say we set it at 150,000, we are
going to claim that's 200,000. The city pays claims up to 150 and, then, the
administrator, whoever we contract with for that stop loss coverage, pays anything in
excess and we also have that for aggregate for the -- the entire city. So, I don't know,
throw a number out there, 500,000, if that's our aggregate, we pay up to a hundred -- or
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500,000 and, then, the carrier pays in excess of that. So, we can budget to what our
stop loss -- our individual and our aggregate is and know what those numbers are and
be able to budget for those and that's -- that's the job of the trust to make sure that they
are funding to those levels.
Borton: Madam Mayor? One other. Does the recommendation today come forward to
not only go this way, but to also know the cap of where you would think we should place
a stop loss or are we not there yet?
Barney: So, today is just education. On the 27th I will bring a recommendation with
more of that information and -- and I can certainly bring reserve amounts and things like
that back.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, I really appreciate when Councilman Borton asked you about
the differing opinions that -- just the straightforward here is where the difference of
opinions were, rather than giving some kind of political answer. That was awesome.
But --
Barney: I like my job, but --
Palmer: That was perfect. That's -- wish everybody was that way. But I do have a
question. So, the stop loss premiums, are they fairly consistent or if we are were to
have a particularly bad year could that swing big -- in a big way I guess?
Barney: And, Councilman, that's a great question and I would say what -- what's very
interesting is if you think about the scenario today, fully insured and you're participating
and you're experience rated, if you have a really bad year you're going to have an
extraordinary increase and the biggest difference on fully insured versus self funded, if
you have that bad year your numbers are going to move up percentage ten, 15, 20
percent based on the bottom line. The difference is on a self-funded plan, because you
have both the specific, which is claims on any one person, those dollars are pulled --
they are pulled and experience rated, so meaning you're able to take advantage of say -
- whether it's Blue Cross or any other reinsurance carrier out there, able to take
advantage of their block of business and your experience. But, for example, let's just
say that there was a reason that you needed a higher increase in the cost of that
specific, but maybe overall the plan in total was running okay, then, you might have an
increase there, but to the bottom line, you know, that washes down to maybe -- maybe
you have got a 40 percent -- and I'm just using -- these are big numbers, so don't
consider this as -- as real, but let's just say you had a 40 percent increase in the cost of
the specific, in total that still might be only a ten percent increase to the bottom line.
The other thing about that is that the reinsurance can be shopped independently and,
you know, our local carriers don't like it, but we can take the reinsurance piece, carve
that out and have other reinsurance, even though it's a Blue Cross or maybe one of the
other local carriers or another TPA. So, really, reinsurance can kind of be replaced and
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removed without any impact to your population. So, there is -- there is a lot of really
good alternatives and great negotiation that happened with the reinsurance piece.
Palmer: Thank you.
Barney: Does that answer --
Palmer: That was awesome. Yeah. Exactly what I was looking for.
De Weerd: Well, Council, I would ask if you have anything that comes up after you
have had a chance to process the discussion tonight, the volume of information that you
received in advance, please, let Christena know and she can make sure that that is
covered when she brings it back on the 27th. It will give them time to -- to get the
information and -- and bring that back. So, we appreciate your questions tonight and --
and thank you, Shelli, for -- for joining us and -- and Christena for staying late.
Stayner: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Barney: Thank you. Appreciate it.
G. Council: Commission and Board Updates
De Weerd: Okay. 9-G. Hey, Council, you -- you may wonder what that banner is over
there for the -- two of the five of you that did not attend the staff meeting last week, we
did have in the all staff meeting a color presentation and these are the colors of our
employees that put their dot on there, so it -- we have four different colors and perhaps
you took that -- that test, but brown is direct, green is analytical, blue is people focused
and red is out the whoo. I can't remember what it is. But it's -- the what, Crystal? The
excitable, can't focus -- the storytellers. Yeah. Thank you. So, we -- that -- that is our
city employees over there and I guess I would like to kick it off in giving just a little bit of
an overview from -- from the staff -- all staff meeting. It was -- we had nearly half -- a
little bit over -- well, half of our employees there and we have gotten really good
feedback as -- as to the value that last week had. We had great speakers, very different
from each other, and they provided some great information. They covered a lot of
information in this one day event and we learned about the strategic plan, our
communication styles through the colors. We learned the results of the employee
engagement survey and each of the departments is doing a department specific follow
up and we will compare and contrast to the city wide survey as well. Those dates have
all been set. We had a growth panel that talked about growth in past, present and
future. Learned how to be better humans, thanks to Rhonda Conger, who gave a
phenomenal speech. Had HR a little bit nervous on occasion. The employees were
engaged throughout the meeting and what I did see is I saw a lot of reservation as we
started the morning, a little bit of I have work to do, why am I here, to great enthusiasm
by the end of the day and -- and that was really exciting to see. So, we plan to
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administer a survey through HR and we will bring those results back once we -- we
have had a chance to collect that.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: So, if it -- it was a mandatory meeting and there was only half of the employees
there?
De Weerd: It was, because we still had keep essential services up and going. We did
-- overtime was not in the budget, so the public safety worked their regular shifts and we
-- we did not ask anyone that wasn't at work to come in. Otherwise, we would have had
overtime. So, we -- we are talking about strategies to see how that can be increased,
but we will have links available to our -- our employees that were not there that can view
what they missed and hopefully get excited about that, too. Which will be available to
those that -- of you that were not able to be there, too.
Milam: Okay.
De Weerd: You won't get the -- the whole essence of what goes on around you. We
had -- and -- and I do want to thank Mr. Borton. He was our emcee and he did it with
humor and sensitivity and really appreciated that you accepted that -- that invitation to
play that role. So, appreciate that. And would like to thank -- and I know Mrs. Milam
was out of town, but we do appreciate -- I think it was really important for the employees
to see Council there. Mrs. Milam, do you want to give any update?
Milam: Sure. I got lots, because it's Christmas in Meridian. It's coming to town. The
Winter Lights Parade is Friday, November 30th. That's a week and three days away
and we got to be at Storey Park by 6:00 p.m. They would like to know who all will be on
the float and they have recruited a five piece band to share the Council float. So, we
will have some music playing -- live music playing Christmas on our float. And drums
and some horns.
Borton: Karaoke.
De Weerd: Karaoke.
Milam: We will be singing along --
Bernt: Christmas music karaoke. Good idea.
De Weerd: Clear the street.
Milam: And, then, Children's Winterland Festival is December 8th. So, that is the
following Saturday. Not the day after. 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Boys and Girls
Club and, then, they will have -- a trolley will drive around from the Boys and Girls Club
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to downtown and here, so people need to park somewhere else they can and, then,
there -- we have a twilight Christmas market here at City Hall in Council Chambers in
A and B and that supports the local crafters and that is on Wednesday, December 5th
from noon to 7:00. So -- and volunteers are still needed for the parade, if anybody
knows anybody. Put it out there. They have got a lot of volunteers, but could use some
more.
De Weerd: Thank you. Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I don't have a ton of updates. One interesting update, though, is on the 28th
coming up the golf committee is going to get together and we will -- I will come back
with an update from that. Sort of been an interesting dynamic. Excited to hear and see
what they have to say, but as far as my rules with Planning Department, I think we are
all aware of what is going on, you know, the different -- the organization -- you know --
you know, stuff that's going on there and with building inspection and stuff. I think we
are pretty much all up to date there. And -- and HR are good; right? We are good. So,
we are good. That's it.
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Councilman Bernt, are you going to get foot golf brought back before us?
Bernt: Golf.
Palmer: Yeah.
Bernt: I don't know. We will see.
Palmer: I really want to see it again one more time before my impending retirement.
Borton: Insert sarcasm.
Palmer: Actually, I was hoping it was going to happen. But, anyway, commissions. My
first meeting back with historic preservation is coming up on the 29th. I don't know what
they are up to, but it's probably happened already.
De Weerd: Okay.
Palmer: History. What's happened before.
De Weerd: Thank you for explaining.
Palmer: Trying to be sensitive and humorous and it's really hard. I don't have a ton of
Borton's skills.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I was -- I was gesturing over to -- to Treg if there is a comp plan update or if
they have met yet. Comp plan steering committee. Aren't you a liaison to that?
Bernt: Yes . That's -- that's coming up.
Borton: Oh. Okay.
Bernt: I haven't been to one. Let me see. That is this week? I know I have a meeting
tomorrow.
De Weerd: In December.
Bernt: December?
De Weerd: Yeah.
Bernt: I know I have a meeting tomorrow, too. Different meeting. Tomorrow is
cancelled.
Borton: There you go.
Bernt: Okay. So, I'm off the hook.
Borton: Glad to help.
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I don't have much to update. I'm new on the Arts Commission.
Liaison to it. So, just kind of getting up to speed. They are passionate and active and
so I'm trying to get sorted out where they are headed, but they have got a lot going on.
So, that's a -- not a very informative update, but that's my update for the Arts
Commission. And excited about Christmas in Meridian. It's going to be fantastic. And
the 12th annual Meridian versus Eagle flag football game is hosted -- it's in Eagle this
year, so Turkey Bowl. Big day.
Borton: A what? Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I don't think I can follow that, but the Air Quality Board
has not met since my last update. They meet next Monday and I am hoping for some
good news regarding the software being up, running, and things having finally made
some progress. But I can update you next week if you would like.
De Weerd: Thank you. Just a couple of updates. The Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition will
be meeting with Representative Moon and discuss the CBD oil issue. She was the one
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2018
Page 56 of 58
that presented legislation this last year and is going to sit down and have a conversation
with our MADC. The Chamber had a very good gala event. Thank you to those that
were able to join in the fun and they are working on developing their legislative positions
for the upcoming legislative session. COMPASS will be discussing next month an
update to the TIP to align with the changes of the Idaho Transportation Board and one
of those is to advance Chinden projects up by one year. Whoot. Whoot. That's a good
thing. Also the possible funding for purchase of right of way for the extension of
Highway 16, which I think would be really beneficial in making sure that that alignment
is -- is known and we can perhaps plan around it. Harvest Transit had 686 rides since
September. The AIC board is having its legislative summit the end of November and if -
- if you can join us we would love to have you. Also the board did vote to intervene on
the Idaho Conservation League versus EPA issue over primacy and so we hope that we
will continue to -- to move forward on the primacy. The Drug Task Force, the AIC Drug
Task Force has been really working to engage cities with their law enforcement and
have developed a list of questions that we feel are important for the elected officials to
have conversations with their -- their police chiefs regarding -- and knowing what the
issues are in their communities as it relates to drug-related issues. As well they have
been working on developing some talking points to the savings that has occurred
through the partnerships developed with the Salsa project and being able to advocate
for some of those real tangible savings to be redirected into treatment and/or prevention
type of activities. At Treasure Valley Partnership we will get an update on the Treasure
Valley opioid plan and hear an update on the diversion program that the chiefs have
been working on from the city's perspective on what we can do to help in the opioid
issues. MYAC is also working on legislative topic. They are narrowing down their --
their ideas and -- as well and looking at the participatory budgeting ideas. They have
Rake Up Meridian this weekend, if anyone is interested in joining them to rake up yards.
Our Faith Ambassadors Council has heard from Let -- Let Us Gather. That is a
Thanksgiving celebration that has been done for the last six or seven years. It's a
community dinner that the faith community all come together to provide veterans and
those that have nowhere else to go or they wouldn't be celebrating Thanksgiving.
Otherwise, if you would like information about that, please, let us know and we can get
that out. They are still looking for volunteers and -- and they would love someone to be
there to really show that the community cares. On the Salvation Army, I will be ringing
the bell this Thursday at 1:30 at the Albertsons on Ten Mile. We have a competition
among the -- the mayors, so come out, support a great cause, and -- because we want
Meridian to win. So, be there. At the Albertsons at 1:30. It's who raises the most
money while ringing their bell. One hour. I don't know where they are. I don't care. I'm
just going to tell you where I am and that is Albertson's on Ten Mile and Cherry Lane
from 1:30 to 2:30. So, we will be sharing it on our Facebook, if you will share that, and
encourage people to get out. She did talk about the programs that helps to fund and I
think when you sit there and listened to what the Salvation Army does you really get
blown away with the many, many things they do to help residents in our community and
-- and the Treasure Valley. So, it was -- it was very enlightful. The Allumbaugh House
approved a budget and that is without the county and the state increasing their
contributions, which came as a surprise. The funding committee has been working on
looking at Medicaid eligibility and how they can pursue different funding mechanisms
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November 13, 2018
Page 57 of 58
with perhaps a change in leadership at the county. The county might step up to what
they agreed going into this as, so we will -- we will stay tuned and I will let you know.
Those are the most noteworthy. Yes . Okay. Anything further on updates?
Item 11 : Ordinances [Action Items]
A. Ordinance No.18-1794: An Ordinance (H-2016-0065 – Laurel
Townhouses) For The Re-Zone Of A Parcel Of Land Located In
Gramercy Subdivision No. 1 As Filed In Book 99 Of Plats At
Pages 12,619 Through 12,622, Records Of Ada County, Idaho,
Located In The SW ¼ Of The NE ¼ Of Section 20, Township 3
North, Range 1 East, Boise Meridian, City Of Meridian, Ada
County Idaho; Establishing And Determining The Land Use
Zoning Classification From TN-R (Traditional Neighborhood
Residential) To R-15 (Medium High Density Residential) Zoning
Districts 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: Mr. Clerk, Item 10-A is Ordinance 18-1794. Will you, please, read this by
title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No.18-1794: An
Ordinance, file H-2016-0065, Laurel Townhouses, for the re-zone of a parcel of land
located in Gramercy Subdivision No. 1, as filed in Book 99 of Plats at pages 12,619
through 12,622, records of Ada county, Idaho, located in the SW ¼ of the NE ¼ of
Section 20, Township 3 North, Range 1 East, Boise meridian, City of Meridian, Ada
county, Idaho; establishing and determining the land use zoning classification from TN-
R (Traditional Neighborhood Residential) to R-15 (Medium High Density Residential
Zoning Districts 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: Council, if there is no questions I would entertain a motion to approve.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Little Roberts: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I move we approve Ordinance No. 18-1794 with
suspension of rules.
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2018
Page 58 of 58
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-A. Mr. Clerk, will you call
role.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
B. Ordinance No. 18-1795: An Ordinance (H-2018-0029–
Zimmerman Auto Body) For Annexation Of A Tract Of Land
Situated In The Ne ¼ Of The Se ¼ Of Section 11, Township 3
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 14.80
Acres Of Land From Rut To R-8 (Medium Density
Residential)(.42 Acres) And I-L (Light Industrial)(.72 Acres)
Zoning Districts 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 10-B is Ordinance 18-1795. Mr. Clerk.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1795: An
Ordinance file H-2018-0029, Zimmerman Auto Body, for annexation of a tract of land
situated in the NE ¼ of the SE ¼ of Section 11, Township 3 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 14.80 acres of land from RUT to
R-8 (Medium Density Residential)(.42 acres) and I-L (Light Industrial) (.72 acres) zoning
districts 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: Council, if there is no questions, I would entertain a motion.
Meridian City Council Workshop
November 13, 2018
Page 59 of 58
Little Roberts: Madman Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I move that we pass Ordinance No. 18-1795 with
suspension of rules.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 10-B. Mr. Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 12: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Item 11 is Future Meeting Topics. Anything for consideration? Council, just
a couple of upcoming events. The Scentsy Christmas lights ceremony is Thursday,
November 15th. It's from 5:00 to 7:00 at Scentsy Commons and City Hall will be closed
on Wednesday, November 21 st, at 3:00 p.m. We will not work on Thursday or Friday.
Or Thanksgiving. We will reopen on the 26th. If there is nothing further I would
entertain a motion to adjourn.
Bernt: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:11 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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