HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-27Meridian City Council November 27, 2018.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:03 p.m., Tuesday,
November 27, 2018, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer, Genesis
Milam, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Also present: C.Jay Coles, Bill Nary, Cameron Ariel, Warren Stewart, Jeff Lavey, Scott
Colaianni, Charlie Butterfield, Colin Moss, 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 __X___Lucas Cavener
__X_ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you all for being here with us tonight. We always love to see
certainly our young athletes and be able to celebrate successes with them in the
audience. Love seeing scouts as well, so -- and all the adults. Thank you for joining us,
too. For the record it is Tuesday, November 27. It's a few minutes after 6:00. We will
start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and
join us in the pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Community Invocation by Mark Bryan of Harvest Church
De Weerd: Item 3 is our community invocation. Tonight we will be led by Pastor Mark
Bryan. He is with Harvest -- Harvest Transit -- Harvest Church. If you will all join us in
the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of reflection.
Pastor Mark, thank you for joining us.
Bryan: Thank you for the invitation and the privilege of being with you. Father in
Heaven, we come to you tonight and we thank you for the privilege of living in the
United States of America, for being as yet one nation under God and so far indivisible,
Lord, though there are many forces against these principles. We thank you that we
have been privileged to live and to work and to pursue happiness here in this land
where there is still freedom of worship and freedom of speech and freedom of property
ownership and all those things that our nation was founded on and holds dear. Lord, I
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pray that you would forgive the sins of our nation, the violence, the disrespect for
authority, the constant turmoil and incivility in public news media, the immorality of our
land and the progressions of these things in unhealthy directions for our families and for
our societies and our cities. We ask for safety. We ask for peace. We thank you that
all lives matter and that you're a mighty God who came to bring liberty and health and
wholeness to broken lives. Tonight we just ask you for grace for all the issues that we
face. We thank you for this City Council and their willingness to take a moment to
appeal to the high court of heaven for wisdom for the issues of life. We ask these things
in Jesus' name, amen.
De Weerd: Pastor Mark, I would like to take a moment just to recognize your church.
My slip there, Harvest Transit, your church has really stepped up in providing a
community service with the Harvest Transit program. The organization, the care, the
feedback we get from the riders are unbelievable and the way they feel treated and
valued and it has just made that program so popular and appreciated. So, if you will,
please, convey our appreciation to your staff, to the team that you have assembled to
really make that program work and our heartfelt appreciation for just a job well done and
just let them know we see they care and their caring for community has just been paid
forward so many times.
Bryan: Well, we will. I will take that back to them and thank you for the privilege and for
trusting us with that responsibility. We consider it a great privilege and will be in the
parade on Friday night with our vehicles.
Item 4: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: I know. I saw that. Thank you. Okay. Item 4 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: We have no changes. Oh, it looks like we might be adding -- or at least
clarifying the Executive Session in Item 12 will be under subparagraph (1)(b) and (1)(f).
And with that clarification I move that we adopt the agenda as published.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as amended. All those
in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 5: Future Meeting Topics - Public Forum (Up to 30 Minutes Maximum)
De Weerd: Item 5. Mr. Clerk.
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Coles: No signups this evening, Madam Mayor.
Item 6: Proclamation
A. Rocky Mountain High School Boys Cross Country State
Champions Day
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you so much. I'm going to move to the podium to read this
proclamation. I will tell you that Rocky Mountain High School is producing some
amazing athletes. I think we have every athletic discipline here in our City Council
chambers to proclaim another Rocky Mountain team accomplishment. So, I will ask the
coach and the boys from the cross country team to join me in the front. Okay. So, I am
assuming -- well, I think you all look young enough to be the athletes as well. So, I have
two different versions of this proclamation that I will give to your coaches. One doesn't
have the names, which is the one I will read, but the other one has all the names as part
of it. So, if you ever want to tell someone you have bragging rights now, because your
name is listed in our city as -- your name has been part of a proclamation about your
accomplishment. So, you can always call the clerk's office if you have a hard time
finding it, but this is to commemorate an amazing accomplishment and I understand that
you won by one point. That is incredible. So, whereas being a Rocky Mountain cross
country team runner is more than scoring points, keeping a good pace, and going the
distance, it is training to build leadership, character, confidence, teamwork and
resilience, all traits needed to succeed on the track, in the classroom, and in the real
world. Whereas the defending state champion Rocky Mount Grizzlies boys cross
country team -- that's a mouthful -- knew the other schools would give them everything
they could at state, but listening to their coaches advice to pursue a mindset of
competitive greatness helped them to triumph and whereas through their strong desire
to exhibit excellence in all they do, their hard work and effort resulted in a victory that
came down to one point in the Idaho Class 5A boys cross country champion
tournament. Whereas the capturing of a consecutive state title shows dominance,
builds school spirit and allows these student athletes to walk the halls of Rocky
Mountain with a little extra swagger and whereas the -- the leadership, training, and
discipline of the coaches helped all team members to focus their talents, passion to
become a winning team with each player making valuable contributions to this victory.
Therefore, I, Mayor Tammy de Weerd, hereby proclaim November 27th, 2018, as Rocky
Mountain Boys Cross Country State Champions Day in the City of Meridian and I call
upon our community to join us in congratulating the Grizzlies on their remarkable
athletic accomplishment and for representing our city so proudly in the state
tournament. So, please, join me in congratulating these athletes. So, I am going to
give this to your coach, but I will also ask if each of you will introduce yourself and talk
about what events you participated in and if you -- I assume that you all placed number
one, which is why we were number one; right? But if you did place if you will say that as
well and, then, after you have done that I have a City of Meridian pin that I would like to
offer you as a small token of our congratulations for your accomplishment.
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Scoresby; All right. I'm Hunter Scoresby and -- well, for 5K -- we run a 5K for the race
and I helped out about running in it.
Kohler: I'm Seth Kohler and I also run the 5K. I had eighth place at state.
Heath: My name is Braden Heath. I also run the 5K and I placed sixth at state.
Pollock: I'm Gavin Pollock and I placed 16th at state.
Bernt: Hey, buddy, did you play soccer, too?
Pollock: Yes .
Bernt: I thought you looked familiar.
Heemeyer: Marcus Heemeyer and I'm placed 32nd at state.
Everist: I'm Elias Everist and I placed 15th at state.
Ghiorso: I'm Domenic Ghiorso and I was the alternate at state.
Howard: Jeff Howard. Head coach. I was kind of thinking on the way over here we
have our banquet tomorrow and actually a documentary that one of our seniors made
on Friday. So, it's kind of a week full of emotions, but this group -- I just -- the people
that are sitting here know how special this group is and they put a lot of time into this
and this is actually our third straight state championship and it's a testament to these
guys and the hard work they put in every day and just a belief that isn't wavering. Like
state didn't go perfectly, we won by one point, but I think I can look back and say that
might have been our greatest moment just by the adversity we faced and we -- we
stepped up enough to win by one. Last year we may have lost that by about 30. So, I
think we grew as a program and as a team just with our belief in each other and how
much -- how much it really matters to our program and the people that are involved. So,
I just can't say enough about how special this group of guys was.
Item 7: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Approve Minutes of November 13, 2018 City Council Workshop
Meeting
B. Settlement and Release Agreement Between Draeger, Inc. and
City of Meridian (Meridian Police Department)
C. Interagency Agreement for Joint Fiber Conduit Project
Between
City of Boise, City of Meridian, and Ada County
D. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement to Knife River
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Mountain West for the “Water & Sewer Main Replacement –
Gregory Lift Station & W Washington/W Carlton” project for a
Not-To -Exceed amount of $1,518,153.00
E. AP Invoices for Payment 11/28/18 - $1,180,231.71
De Weerd: Item 7 under our 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 it be approved, for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr. Clerk,
will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, absent; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
Item 8: Items Moved From The Consent Agenda [Action Item]
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 9: Action Items
A. Final Plat for Whiteacre Subdivision No. 6 (H-2018-0124) by
Kent Brown, Located on the West side of N. Meridian Rd.
between W. Ashton Dr. and W. Lava Falls Dr.
De Weerd: So, we will move into Action Items. Item 9-A is a final plat for H-2018-0124.
I will ask for staff comments.
Ariel: Madam Mayor. Thank you. Thank you. So, Item 9-A is for the Whiteacre
Subdivision Number Six. This is the final -- final plat for the subdivision, consisting of 34
residential building lots and eight common lots on 5.45 acres of land in the R-8 zoning
district. The applicant is an agreement with the staff report and staff received the e-mail
in agreement with the report after the deadline for the item to be placed on the Consent
Agenda, so --
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De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions? If not do I have a motion?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve H-2018-0124.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-A. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, absent; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
B. Public Hearing for Rockbury Townhomes (H-2018-0091) by
Michael Nigh, Located North of W. Chinden Blvd. on the West
side on N. Tree Farm Way
1. Request: Preliminary Plat consisting of 47 residential lots
and
8 common lots on 6.23 acres of land in an R -15 zoning
district
De Weerd: Item 9-B is needed to reset a hearing date. It was improperly posted. So,
legal counsel has advised us to renotice this, which the earliest hearing date would be
January 2nd. Is there anyone here to testify on this item? Well, I'm glad I don't need to
apologize to anyone for that, but we will get this reset. But Counsel Nary, we -- I don't
need to have a motion for that or do we need to?
Nary: No, ma'am. Since it has to be renoticed we can't even open it to continue it. We
have to just notice it completely.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Coles: And Madam Mayor, if I may interject as well. Mr. Baird in Mr. Nary's office did
also advise that due to the applicant's failure to post correctly that a full notice would be
needed, which includes the postcard and the publication and that the request would be
for the applicant to pay the city the renoticing fee for that.
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De Weerd: I don't imagine anyone on Council would oppose that. Okay.
Nary: Madam Mayor, for that one we -- probably would be helpful to have a motion to
direct that.
De Weerd: Okay.
Nary: To do that.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I would move -- and would that to be -- that date certain of January 2nd?
Coles: Of January 2nd. Correct.
Borton: Okay. Madam Mayor, I would move that we continue H-2018-0092 to January
2nd, allowing for posting errors to be corrected. The applicant would be required to
correctly post the site and pay the city to re-mail and republish the notices for that new
hearing date.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second on Item 9-B. Is there any discussion?
Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
C. Public Hearing for Proposed Parks Fees
De Weerd: Item 9-C is a public hearing for proposed parks fees. I will open this public
hearing with staff comments. Welcome, Colin.
Moss: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. You have in front of you
the latest version of Parks and Recreation Department fees and so I won't go through all
of them. I will just stand for any questions that you might have.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, do you have questions for -- regarding this item? Pretty
straightforward.
Moss: All right. Thank you.
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De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. I will go ahead and close -- ask for a motion to close the
public hearing.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Just want to make sure. Did we check -- is there anybody here that wanted
to testify about the fees before we close the public hearing?
Coles: There were no signups.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we close the public hearing Item 9-C.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the public hearing. All those in favor
say aye. All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
D. Resolution No. 18-2118: Resolution Adopting New Fees Of The
Meridian Parks And Recreation Department; Authorizing The
Meridian Parks And Recreation Department To Collect Such
Fees; And Providing An Effective Date
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Resolution No. 18-211 8, adopting the new fees of the
Meridian Parks Recreation Department, authorizing the Meridian Parks and Recreation
Department to collect such fees and providing an effective date.
Cavener: Second. Second. Excuse me.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
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Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
E. Benefits Committee Discussion
De Weerd: Okay. Item 9-E is under our Benefits Committee discussion. This is in
follow up to a previous discussion. We have Christena here with us.
Barney: Good evening, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council.
De Weerd: Good evening.
Barney: Thank you for having me again this evening. So, I'm back in front of you again
to talk about the benefits program. You received via e-mail a recommendation from the
Benefits Committee to move the city from fully insured to self insured funding
mechanism. So, I'm back in front of you with that formal recommendation to, hopefully,
get some advice and some direction from you today. So, just as a reminder, we
currently, as looking at the spectrum, are fully insured participating and the Benefits
Committee is recommending that we move to self insured with stop loss. That is the
formal recommendation from the Benefits Committee. If you were to decide to allow us
to go in this direction -- allow the city to go in this direction, the next steps in this
process would be to file the state application with -- with the state of Idaho and
incorporated in that application are these -- these following steps. So, to designate the
trustees, three to five members, likely those that are already on the benefits committee
would be those -- those trustees. They are familiar with the benefit plan. They
understand the structure already. Are familiar with the requirements of our benefit plan,
our structure, the guidelines. We have gone through the activity. They are familiar with
our plans. Specific and aggregate reinsurance coverage, that's the stop loss that we
had talked about two weeks ago and the information that you had received on that, so
we kind of need to get that set in place. A fidelity bond needs to be put in place. We
would need to meet with the Department of Insurance and review the application and,
then, ensure that we have met all of their requirements. Part of that requirement would
be to begin or develop that trust, which would include a trust agreement. We would
have to have an external attorney review that trust agreement and, then, we would have
to transfer reserve funds. So, Department of Insurance sets a specific amount that we
have to put into this reserve account to cover claims that are incurred and need to be
paid and that would require Council approval. We currently have the funds earmarked
and that was done through the budget process, but we would have to come back in
front of you at that point in time, once we have got that trust established, to actually
have the spending authority to transfer those funds into that trust. So, I would be back
in front of you at that point. And, then, we would need to decide -- and this would
probably be a Benefits Committee decision, but decide whether we want to go to market
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in that year that we go to self funding or if we wanted to just stay with Blue Cross at that
time. At the last meeting that I was at -- and when I presented this information there
was some question about the cost. So, I did bring that information back to you. The --
there is some one time costs to get this started, some startup money if you will. The
state of Idaho application -- there is a one time 500 dollar fee. To develop the trust we
have to, as I said, have an external attorney review the trust agreement, make sure that
we are compliant with all the requirements. That's an approximate cost of a thousand
dollars. The reserve amount, which is three months of estimated claims, which is based
on actuarial -- actuarial information. It's estimated right now at 1.2 million and, then,
year one -- so we have to establish that year one ongoing cost, which are listed below.
The actuarial fidelity bonds, the auditing, and, then, the FTE required for administration
as 55,990 dollars. So, all of that together are one time to move from fully insured over
to self insured would be 1.3 million. The ongoing cost moving to self insured annually
would be the Department of Insurance annual fees at 540 and that is -- it's four cents
per employee. I should have added that on there. So, that fluctuates based on our
employee count. Actuarial services is estimated -- and these are all estimated. We
won't have final numbers until we get a little further in the process, but I wanted to give
you an idea of what these costs look like. Actuarial services are estimated at 15,000.
We will have to have an independent auditor aside from the city, because once we
develop the trust it is separate from the city. Do audited financials on the trust itself and
that is estimated at about 10,000 dollars. I'm guessing, based on our conversations
with city of Caldwell and city of Boise for the administration of a self funded program --
internally we will need to allocate roughly a quarter time to a half time FTE to the
administration of this program. So, you're looking at roughly 30,000 dollars for that and,
then, a fidelity bond at 500. So, the administration of this on an ongoing basis is about
56,000. So, looking at these costs, I know that there was a question about what is this
in comparison. You received some information from me a couple weeks ago. If you
have that information you can refer to slide 25, it talks about the administration costs
and to administer the fully insured plan, the administration costs with everything
included is roughly 975,000 dollars annually. To administer the -- the self insured plan
on the high side is roughly 775,000. So, just moving over to this plan, all things
considered, we are looking at roughly a three percent decrease in just our
administrative costs. So, again, the reason that we are here in front of you today -- we
have constraints on our benefits program. We are in a very competitive job market. We
are competing with other cities and agencies that are -- have flexibility and their benefit
plans that we don't. We have many generations in the workforce that value different
types of benefits that we don't have or are not able to offer and, then, we -- I would love
to be able to provide other options to our employees, including wellness -- additional
wellness services, concierge services, those types of things. So, that's why the Benefits
Committee has made this recommendation to you this evening. So, I will stand for
questions and we are hoping to get some guidance from you on whether you feel
comfortable moving forward in this direction with the city. There was a question about
whether we can pull out of this. We can pull out of this at any time. I will tell you,
though, there is a cost associated with that. There is my time. Mercer's time. You're
looking at roughly 60,000 dollars just to say go tonight, because we have to pull
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together the actuarial services. We have to start getting these pieces together. So, yes,
we can pull out, but there is a cost associated with doing so.
De Weerd: Thank you, Christena.
Barney: Absolutely.
De Weerd: Appreciate your follow through on providing the additional information.
Council, any questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Christena, is the actuarial fee, the estimated 15,000, is that the Mercer broker
fee?.
Barney: It's -- yeah. A broker fee.
Borton: Okay.
Barney: Whether that be Mercer or whoever we have conduct those.
Borton: Okay. Madam Mayor. Got another one for you. So, how much control do we
have in the size of reserves on an annual basis that we can retain? For example, if -- if,
you know, what we are recovering is greater than the necessary expenses to pay claims
and we build a reserve, are we regulated and prevented from building up our reserves
beyond a certain point?
Barney: Yes . The Department of Insurance makes sure that -- makes sure that we stay
within a certain limit. So, we have to keep a minimum and there is a maximum and we
have to stay within that. So, if we start to reach towards that maximum we have to
either add benefits to our plan, which costs, and -- and take from that trust or provide
premium holidays to our employees to mitigate to -- or to pull from that trust.
Borton: Madam Mayor? Is the -- is the level of that cap proportional to the type of stop
loss coverage you have? So, if you expand the risk within the stop loss are you allowed
to also retain greater reserves?
Barney: That I am not a hundred percent sure on. Shelli from Mercer is here, so I will
have her come up and answer that question.
Stayner: I think what I heard --
De Weerd: Shelli, I'm sorry, I -- over here. Can you state your name for the record.
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Stayner: Shelli Stayner.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Stayner: Benefits consultant. Mercer. Here in Boise. Work with the City of Meridian.
Councilman Borton, to address your question is about the stop loss and the differential
in stop loss doesn't really adjust your funding, it's all basically calculated around your
overall total cost. What the Department of Insurance requires is that the City of
Meridian from a surplus point of view always have three months worth of total
contribution, which that would be total cost in that surplus account. In the trust. The
key is -- is what Christena is mentioning is that once the monies are earmarked and
they actually go into the trust to fund benefits, health care, you can't just take them out
for any reason. It must, in fact, be spent for benefit programs or the cost or claims and
so once it's there, it's not coming back out. We can adjust when it comes to
reinsurance, but overall from a bottom line point of view if -- if we had a -- let's say we
had a lower stop loss, it costs more from a premium point of view and if you have a
higher stop loss it rolls more dollars into claims. So, it's almost a wash. What is
important is just the overall total cost of the plan. Does that make sense?
Borton: No.
Stayner: Okay.
Borton: I apologize.
Stayner: Then I --
Borton: You kind of lost me. Here is kind of where --
Stayner: Yes.
Borton: I will ask it a different way. I apologize. If -- if the amount of the reserve grows,
are you -- is the plan able to migrate from a stop loss of a certain level towards, for
example, complete self funding and migrate away from having a stop loss coverage and
also allowing us to grow our reserves or are we prevented from having that option?
Stayner: Thank you. That -- that is a much better clarification. The key is there -- there
will, in fact, be parameters based on your size and potential maximum liability on where
we can set or where an actuary will set the specific deductible or stop loss and so, yes,
if you're running really quite well and very comfortable with a liability, we can increase
that specific deductible, so that it saves you many dollars from a premium point of view
and, then, if those claims dollars are not used you retain it in that trust account.
Borton: So, Madam Mayor, in that -- in that example if that were to occur, the -- the cap
that's placed on what our maximum reserves can be, does that cap go up to help us
account for the greater risk we would be taking by raising the stop loss limit?
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Stayner: And -- and, yes, it does.
Borton: Okay.
Stayner: Yes , it does. So -- and let me just say that, for example, if you started with a
hundred thousand dollar specific and increased it to 150, that additional 50,000 dollars
will actually go into the claim side, so you are accounting for it. The key is -- is that if
you don't spend it it's the city's to retain. Does that help?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: So, if I'm understanding correctly, about 56 K to administer this fund or this -- this
new program -- benefits program. Will those -- will those -- will those monies come from
-- can they come from the trust or the reserves or is it going to be an extra line item to
your budget -- our budget to administrate?
Barney: Council Member Bernt, after we establish the trust it will, then, come from the
trust. The trust will self sustain at that point.
De Weerd: Christena, who will be looking at our experience in -- in terms of tracking the
types of claims and -- and that sort of thing and -- and working with our employees on
preventative or -- or approaches to -- to correct certain health challenges?
Barney: So, that would still be the Benefits Committee and the trust would have a role
in that as well, looking at kind of where our highest risks are, where are high dollar
claims are, where do we need to put our education focus, the same as we do today. We
do look at large claims as the benefit committee. Where are our large claims coming
in? Are they coming in surgeries? Are they coming in prescriptions? What type of
prescriptions? Is there an education focus we can put around that? Is there some
preventative we can do? We look at that information today, so that process wouldn't
necessarily change. We might dive a little deeper and we might have access to a little
more information. Nothing specific on any individual, of course, because it's HIPAA
protected, but we might deep dive a little deeper and see if there is more preventative
education that we can provide to our employees, but the process will -- would remain
the same.
De Weerd: And, then, who would -- who would offer that preventative education?
Barney: We can coordinate with whoever we would like. Currently I work with Blue
Cross.
De Weerd: I understand that and that's why I asked.
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Barney: Yeah.
De Weerd: Because they have been an asset to us, but we would, then, have to
contract with someone to provide that.
Barney: Yeah.
De Weerd: And is it -- today is that currently provided through the Blue Cross contract?
Barney: We have an additional contract with Blue Cross to access what's called well
connected, which is their wellness side of their business, which is an added additional
fee. But that -- yeah, that -- that what?
Stayner: That wouldn't change.
Barney: That wouldn't change, although we probably could roll that into the trust. That
cost. So, right now I have a line item for wellness and we could roll that into the trust
and have that sustained by the trust, rather than on the line item for wellness.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions? No? Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I don't have any questions. More just a comment and I don't -- I don't want to
step on anyone's toes if we had questions, but I just -- thank you, Christena. Thank
you, Shelli. And thanks to the Benefits Committee for doing what I know is not work that
happened overnight, it happened over many, many, many years and I for one am in
support of -- of the Benefits Committee recommendation, but maybe some thoughts for
Council that I'd like to share whenever we are ready to move into that question.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor, just a --
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: -- couple quick ones if we could. You might have mentioned this last time you
presented. I apologize. I forgot it. Is it a single fund for vision, dental, medical or are
there separate funds for those different types of benefits?
Stayner: In regards to your question, is that one fund for medical, dental, vision?
Borton: Uh-huh.
Stayner: The answer is it can be. Okay? And that is that -- but today you have the
separate buckets. You have got the premiums you pay Blue Cross of Idaho, the
premium that you pay Delta Dental and so on. If the city wishes to self fund all of those
programs, yes, it can, in fact, be paid out of that same trust account. You still might
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have Blue Cross of Idaho. For example, for the healthcare, Delta Dental for the dental,
but -- but the key would be -- and I will say that most employers that if you choose to
self fund your medical plan, because that is the big dollar program, that is where you
can, in fact, see very very large claims and high expenses, most employers will, in fact,
self fund both the dental and the vision benefit. It just makes more sense and you carve
out, again, the profit from the carrier point of view, so you really are just paying the cost
of administration and claims. So, there is savings to the city.
Borton: So, Madam Mayor, is the recommendation before us just the medical, though?
Is that --
Barney: You know, we hadn't looked at all of that, but I would say across the board if
we are going to do it let's do it.
De Weerd: The recommendation is for medical --
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: -- at this point.
Borton: Okay.
Barney: There is cost savings to be had across the board.
Borton: Same principals.
Barney: Same -- same exact principals. Same exact reasons that we are here today.
Borton: Madam Mayor, one other question. Is the interest that's accrued on the trust
fund general fund revenue available or is it designated only for re-deposit into the trust?
Stayner: Yeah. There are some requirements when it comes to the investments of the
trust, but those monies, in fact, stay within the trust.
Borton: The interest stays as well, yeah?
Stayner: It does. Yes .
Borton: Yeah.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Thank you. Comments? Mr. Cavener?
Cavener: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I -- as I previously mentioned, I'm supportive of
the recommendation, but I would also support -- to Christena's point, if we are going to
do medical, we should be doing dental and vision as well. So, maybe that's a -- a
follow-up conversation or a follow-up recommendation from the Benefits Committee.
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The piece that -- that somewhat interests me that I think is important for us as Council to
take into account is that trustee element and that very crucial role that those trustees
play as it relates to the fund and so I -- I appreciate -- I, for the most part, support the
recommendation that comes from the -- the Benefits Committee with an addition that --
that one of those trustees be made up of a member of our City Council. The cost of
healthcare is such a huge budget item to the city and we were elected to be trustees of
the city budget, to me it would seem willfully appropriate to have a Council Member sit
on as a trustee with that as well. That would be the only addition or modification that I
would have based on what we have heard from -- from staff.
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor and Christena, first of all, thank you for all
the due diligence that you have done with this. I appreciate all the time and effort that
has gone into it and I definitely appreciate the fact that we can save the city some
money. That's always a good thing. But in this climate I'm very appreciative of the fact
that we can be more responsive to our own employees or potentially even be more
market friendly for our employees -- or potential employees in this very small labor
market, so -- so, thank you for something that's a win-win, saving money and better
benefits. So, I'm also supportive of it.
De Weerd: Thank you. So, next steps. You need direction from Council.
Borton: Madam Mayor, could I ask another question?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton, yes, you can.
Borton: Another question. Good Lord, this is -- two slides earlier -- I'm using all my life
lines. You had -- yes. The 1.2. Is that a transfer from some partial existing reserves to
start funding it? The transfer reserve funds in a trust account.
Barney: My understanding is there is funds earmarked and they were earmarked
through the budget process already. We just -- at the time that we establish the trust
and are ready to pull the trigger, we just need Council approval to actually move those
funds.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: So, I guess the -- the way to move forward is to make a motion on -- and
give direction to staff to move forward and taking the steps as outlined to -- towards
moving towards self funded.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
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Bernt: I move that we -- excuse me -- that we give our blessing to the Benefits
Committee to take the necessary steps that have been outlined for us to -- to work
toward this self funding new mechanism -- funding mechanism for -- for health benefits.
Cavener: I will second a blessing.
De Weerd: So, the motion was to approve the recommendation by the wellness -- or
Benefits Committee and instruct the benefits administrator to move forward in pursuing
self funding.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Bernt: Do I need to second that?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Then for clarification, I recognize that we are -- we are not in the early stages
or the initial stages of kind of making a decision, I just wanted to reiterate -- make -- I
didn't know if Council Member Bernt was supportive of putting a Council Member on as
a trustee, if that's a discussion for a later point in time. I just don't want anything to fall
off our plate as it relates to this.
De Weerd: And you can add that to the motion.
Bernt: Along with that motion I would like to add also to have one of the seats available
on the -- on the trustee board to -- to be a member of the City Council, whoever that
might be.
De Weerd: And second -- I don't know who seconded it. There was several.
Cavener: I second that or -- I don't want to take it away from Council Member --
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: -- Little Roberts.
De Weerd: Okay.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
Borton: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Question for -- the last part I don't know about, because there is -- I don't know
if we can be on it or even if we would really want to be on it. It sounds like it's a massive
fiduciary responsibility separate and apart from our role as Council Members that -- it
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may or may not be something we are allowed to do or should do. Unless you know
something I don't know or you guys know that that's okay.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council -- I mean that's a great question and
I think that's a question to the Department of Insurance. It is a completely separate
entity from the city, so it isn't really a city oversight to this. Once this is established it -- it
operates separate and apart from the city. So, whether a Council Member makes sense
or not, we can make -- that decision to be made later. We do need to verify with that --
that's part of the reason why, for example, outside counsel, not myself or my office,
reviews the trust documents, because they, again, want to be sure that it's completely
separated from the city -- the city as an entity. Essentially the city's initially funding it
and -- and at some point in time, then, the city is providing funds to it. But, again, the
operations and management of it is completely separate from the city itself. So, that's a
question that can be answered later and it doesn't have to be answered today.
Certainly if that's a desire of the Council and there is no impediment to it, that's certainly
something when we get to the point of approving the trustees and such, that can
certainly be brought back into the discussion.
De Weerd: And I imagine as you role -- as you start moving down this lane you know
the appropriate time to bring that back once you hear how that's established and setup.
At least you have direction and knowledge of the desire and, then, we just need a willing
Council Member that will assume that fiduciary responsibility.
Borton: Madam Mayor. And that's the reason for the question is the motion didn't --
didn't sound like it was let's go forward so long as a Council Members is part of it, but do
we want to see if that's an option, but -- but contingent upon that I didn't -- I wanted to
clarify that.
Bernt: So, Madam Mayor, maybe we -- maybe we just stick to my original motion and
with the caveat that maybe we can just table this discussion in regard to a member of
Council being a part of that trustee group and have that discussion at a later time after
this is, you know, maybe looked into and we have the answers whether or not that's
appropriate.
De Weerd: Okay. Second agree? Okay.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Real quick discussion then, because that is then -- perhaps it would make
sense that when it's the point to -- at the point where -- add these trustees, that that is
being brought back before the Council, so that it's not -- again everyone gets busy and
something happens and a year goes by and it's like, okay, what happened with that and
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it's like, oh, we already made the decision that there is -- there is a process in place to
make sure that the Council is kept up to date as to who is going to be the trustees and
at that point it would make sense that if we can, which I believe we are able to be, that a
Council Member could be in that role and if for whatever reason that we are prohibited
from serving in that role, the Council is made aware of that all collectively.
De Weerd: Christena, what makes sense in bringing back periodic updates? Is it
quarterly?
Barney: I certainly can do that quarterly. We are not looking to roll this out until 2021.
De Weerd: Right.
Barney: So, I don't know how quickly. We are going to be moving on this right out the
gate. We will definitely be working on it, obviously, but I can certainly bring back
quarterly updates if that's the pleasure of the Council.
De Weerd: Okay. For the ease of tracking that quarterly is easy and -- and the clerk
can -- can set this out, then, for an update. We can get on a calendar to have a March,
then, June, September, December update. Okay?
Barney: Perfect.
De Weerd: Okay.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I just want to add my voice to the -- I guess support of Councilman Cavener's
point and idea. I mean we look at the urban renewal district, that it's a separate entity
from the city, yet the Council that formed it had the foresight to see that we needed to
have a couple elected officials on there. So, there is supposed to be a couple
councilmen on there. We have the Mayor and no Councilmen, but I would hope that
whatever final motion to -- when we put this thing into action that it is only actually
reversible by Council If there is -- if a councilman can be on there that it happens.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further discussion? Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
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De Weerd: Thank you. And, please, send our thanks to the Benefits Committee for all
the work and I know you have put tremendous hours behind this and thank you for all
your efforts as well, Christena.
Barney: Thank you.
Item 10: Department Reports
A. Code Enforcement Presentation
De Weerd: Thanks, Shelli. Okay. Under 10-A is our Department Report and an update
from our code enforcement division. We have Lieutenant Colaianni that's going to
introduce this subject.
Colaianni: I am. Thank -- thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Members for having
us this evening. Post Happy Thanksgiving to everybody. I hope everybody had a great
Thanksgiving and time with family and got to eat a lot of food. The chief had a -- come
to us a couple of weeks ago indicating that the City Council was interested in getting a
presentation from the Code Enforcement Unit and initially when he came to me it was
my intent to do the whole thing and, then, after I gave it some thought I decided I'm
going to let somebody else do it and there is a couple reasons for that. My role here is
strictly just to kind of give you a quick overview of -- of code and, then, turn it over to the
new code supervisor. So, we have a lot of new staff, there has been a lot of changes in
code over the last 18 months, 24 months. Got a lot of new people, but we have grown
by one position. But just for some context -- and my dates are a little fuzzy, but back in
2004, 2005 we used to have -- I believe it was part time or full time code enforcement
officer in community development under Anna Canning and back in that time we
developed the UDC where it stands today. It's kind of grown into a big document and
she had a code enforcement person over in that division and we had a couple of part-
time code people back then and although they did similar things, they were on different
tracks, you know, we had a couple that worked at the police department and they had
the -- kind of the police oomph behind them and, then, we had the one over in
community development and as time went on it made more sense to bring them over to
the police department. Had a little bit more legitimacy, a little bit more power behind
working for the police department when it came to enforcing UDC and city ordinances
and different codes and it grew from part time as the city grew and the unit got bigger
and bigger and today it's six code officers spread out geographic responsibility areas
and a code supervisor. It used to be back when I was a sergeant when you worked
days you supervised animal control, the day shift team, the traffic team, the fleet team
and code enforcement. You did it all. It was -- it was a steep learning curve and over
time we have grown to the point where we have singular focus on supervision. That is a
nonsworn position. We have removed the sergeant from that position and we felt that
we were getting a better product, because we are not changing sergeants all the time
and having all these -- this constant change in that position and so I think it's worked
really well. Just, again, for some context, so what happens is when an application
comes in front of the city and it's eventually approved, it stays in Community
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Development until the CO is issued and so once the CO is issued the ball kind of comes
from Community Development over to code to make sure everything in the UDC and
the development agreement and any ordinances and stuff that we have we take care of
on the code side. So, that's kind of where the ball is passed is once that development is
done or that -- that particular thing from community services to us and so that's when
code gets involved. I'm going to introduce now our new code supervisor. His name's
Rich Everett and we hired Rich Everett in July of this year. He is a 15 year veteran of
the San Bernardino City Police Department and he has been a supervisor of a SWAT
team, a narcotics unit, criminal investigations. He has supervised both sworn and
nonsworn staff. We spent a ton of time researching his background and looking at all
these applicants, because, obviously, we were bringing a supervisor into our culture and
we are mindful of our culture that we have at the police department and who we bring
in, especially in a position like this where it's high service into the community and can be
at times a lot of conflict --
De Weerd: At times?
Colaianni: -- in the community. At times. I will say I have supervised everywhere in the
police department and this particular unit has a lot of conflict, just by the nature of what
they do. They are really into customer service and our CARE values, but we can only
do so much and, then, there is just some people that are unhappy. So, Rich has come
to us with a great background. I'm going to have him come up and introduce his staff.
We got most of them here tonight. So, you can see their faces. So you can meet him.
You can hear from him, hear it firsthand. We have about six slides for you. It's pretty
high level and, then, we will throw it out for some questions and any comments that you
may have. So, enjoy the presentation and thanks for having us.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Colaianni: Rich, come on up.
De Weerd: Welcome, Rich.
Everett: Thank you very much. Lieutenant Colaianni was very kind. I'm maybe a little
moved by my introduction. He pulled out some things I didn't know he was going to talk
about, but it's always nice to hear that I'm welcomed and I do feel welcome. So, thank
you very much. I'm here to give you a general overview. Before we start, though, I
have some of the folks that work with me. Officer Ami Nunes is on the left. She's been
one of the newer members to our department in the last year. We have Lacey Ooi, who
--
De Weerd: She a veteran now. Right.
Everett: Yes, she is definitely the veteran of the unit and an important member. And,
then, we have Todd Koehler there and, then, our newest member, who has been with us
for a whopping three weeks, is Ken Halstead and he fills that sixth spot that Lieutenant
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Colaianni had mentioned, which we are very happy to have full. So, we are operating at
full staff now.
De Weerd: Thank you for joining our team and for -- Lacy, certainly your long-term
commitment.
Everett: Yeah. We are missing two folks this evening had to attend to some family
issues. So, as Lieutenant Colaianni had mentioned, we have the city broken into five
different geographic areas and there's an officer assigned to each one of those areas.
Those officers are charged with actively patrolling those areas and ensuring that there is
compliance with the city code and that's predominantly done through education. They
are out there educating the residents about what the code is and getting them up to
speed on what the requirements are to be in compliance and, then, if necessary, then,
they move forward with enforcement actions. So, we are often asked by folks that we
come into contact with what is code enforcement, what does code enforcement do. We
do work in the Police Department, but there is a division and police action and, then, our
action and it all boils down to -- if you wouldn't want to live next to an issue or do
business next to that issue, we are going to look into it. We are safeguarding property
values and the quality of life through making sure that the folks that are doing business
traveling through or living here are in compliance with those codes that we have all
agreed to enforce. A lot of the complaints that we commonly investigate are abandoned
vehicles or parking violations, weeds, and nuisances and junk properties. We are
responsible for doing parking enforcement throughout the city. We have specific -- a
downtown area where we do parking enforcement that's timed parking and, then, we
have the rest of the city where we enforce the parking standards that are set forth. Just
a few photos here. And all these photos were taken in our city. None of these were
grabbed from the internet thinking, oh, this looks egregious, let's show them what might
happen. These are all things that we come across daily in the city and so some of the
parking issues that we see are blocking the sidewalk, like you see here. Parking too
close to a hydrant. Wrong way parking is a big thing that we deal with. For some
reason folks like to park facing the opposite direction of the flow of traffic. If they are too
close to an intersection or the ADA requirement of the curb cut out, then, they are going
to receive the ticket. Expired registration and vehicles that just are not displaying valid
license plates. This is an example of the warning that we leave on a vehicle. We -- nine
times out of ten we -- we start with a warning. We just want to educate folks, give them
a chance to fix it, unless it's something completely egregious, you know, someone
parking directly in front of a hydrant or blocking someone else's driveway or over the top
of the sidewalk. We really want to start with that warning, just so we can give that
service to the folks that we are dealing with just to inform them of what the violation is,
so they don't wind up receiving any type of enforcement. This would be one of those
egregious things where we are not going to warn. That -- that occurs from time to time.
That occurs from time to time and, obviously, it's a public safety issue and that's when
enforcement is the first go to thing. This is an example of a warning -- notice of
impoundment. Prior to us impounding a vehicle and removing it from the roadway there
is some statutory requirements that are in place that require us to give them 48 hours of
notice and to contact them. So, if folks see the orange tag on their vehicle they -- they
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are -- they are in line to have their vehicle towed. There -- there is a handful of abatable
nuisances that are outlined in the city code and it's -- essentially, if it's impacting the
quality of life or the overall health of that property or the folks that are entitled to enjoy
that property, whether it be private or public, then, it's going to be deemed a nuisance
and we are going to take action against it. Weeds is a common one that we are all
familiar with that's predominant -- that's our predominant complaint during the growing
seasons. Multiple times throughout the spring and summer properties are mowed or
they are abated. Usually we get compliance -- nine times out of ten we get compliance.
When we don't, then, we have to abate the property and that winds up being at the cost
of the property owner. Those fees are collected from the property owner through our
utility billing system.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: So, is the problem with this one that there is Christmas lights up in the fall.
Those are still on here. I just gained much greater faith in the code enforcement.
Everett: If -- if the lights are flashing it's a violation. No. The weeds up to the eaves
would be our problem here.
Palmer: I didn't even see those.
Everett: So, graffiti is an abatable nuisance. The police department -- the officers will
investigate the actual criminal act of the graffiti and they will work with the property
owner to ensure that they get it removed timely, so it's not creating that source -- or
continuing to be that source of light when it occurs. Snow and ice. Two years ago
everybody learned that this must be removed. Thankfully I missed that. Apparently I
have another 28 years or so before it happens again. So, maybe I will be okay. But
that's -- that's an abatable nuisance. It's the property owner's responsibility out to the
roadway -- from their property out to the roadway to remove that and it's definitely not
okay to push it into the street, because our partners at ACHD would not be too happy
with that. Junk vehicles. Junk vehicles cannot be stored on property. Even though it's
private property it still cannot be stored on the property if it's within the view of the
public. It has to be screened and out of public view. So, that's something that usually
starts a bit of debate. It's my private property, why can I have it here, and the answer is
we all have to enjoy the space and you're infringing on our enjoyment. Stagnant water
is something that we deal with from time to time. That's also a nuisance. Rubbish,
refuse, anything that should not be stored in public view. If it's there it's going to be
deemed a general nuisance and that's something that we take action against. So, we
are often asked how we become aware of it and that's usually the number one question
we get asked when we are taking some type of enforcement action is, well, how did you
know about this and we are moving a philosophy shift to the number one way of
becoming aware of it is through proactive activity. Now that we are up to six officers on
the -- or in the unit we have -- I'm almost afraid to say the luxury, but it is a luxury to
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have that many people to actually go out and proactively look into issues instead of only
responding to the phone calls that come in or the e-mail platform that is available or
some folks coming into other departments within the city and complaining and getting
referred. We are one of the few cities in the valley that have that ability to be proactive.
Some of our neighboring cities wait for the phone to ring, because they are not staffed
enough. So, we are very fortunate to have the staffing level that we have. In closing,
this is just a comparison of 2017-2018 year-to-date. The blue bars are just some of the
statistics that came in -- or that we monitored through 2017 and, then, to date -- in
August -- or in October, rather, we saw a 15.8 percent increase in our overall activity
and it goes back to staffing. We have adequate staffing now and we have folks that are
able to not only respond to complaints, but actually address things and that just
improves the overall appearance of our city and increases the quality of life for our
residents. And I will stand for any questions.
Borton: Council, any questions?
Milam: Mr. President?
Borton: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thank you for the presentation. I really appreciated seeing it in advance as
well, so seeing it the second time was like a lot easier to absorb and familiar with the
pictures. And so you have six officers and five areas?
Everett: Correct. So, our new -- our newest officer is Officer Halstead and he's
currently in the field training officer program. So, he's not assigned to a specific area
right now. Once he's out of the field training officer program, then, there will be a
restructuring of the geographic areas. We have some anticipated absences that are
coming up right about the time he's going to be fully trained, so that might not get put
into motion until we are back to the six, so --
Milam: So, you will have six geographical areas?
Everett: Yeah. And potentially stay with the five geographical areas and, then, place
that sixth officer as somewhat of a rover, if there is a -- an area where that officer that's
assigned to that area is having a specific problem with a neighborhood coming into
compliance or there is issues that have been brought up that are overwhelming for one
person to handle, then, we would use that person to augment each individual area until
we decided to give them their own geographic area.
Milam: Madam Mayor? And how many calls or e-mails are you getting on a daily
basis?
Everett: I can't answer specifically on a daily basis, but I can tell you on average across
the officer -- aside from the officer that's in field training now, across those officers to
date the average is somewhere around 700 -- 750 calls to date that they are handling.
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Those are cases whether they be a home occupancy permit or they be parking or
weeds or something of that nature. But quite a bit of cases. We are talking -- I guess
that would break down to -- if you didn't work days that would be six to seven cases that
they are initiating a day and the math's off the top of my head, but the average is
relatively accurate.
Milam: Thank you. Madam Mayor, one more quick question. Is there -- is there one of
those areas that -- or any -- any number of those areas that are a larger problem than
others or is it really pretty spread out throughout the city?
Everett: So, the downtown area, area number five -- and I'm just scrolling through to get
to the map for conversation sake. The downtown area is definitely the highest
concentration of folks in our city, being that it's the oldest area and things have grown
around that. We have the highest concentration of problems in that area and it's just
because of the per capita, the density -- the population density in that area causes more
issues and also a contributing factor is the age of the properties, how long they have
been used and what they have been used for and, then, zoning compliance that gets
shifted to where some of those properties are now being used as commercial spaces
that used to be homes and we have issues -- not so much issues, but we have a focus
to make sure that those properties, once the zoning compliance has shifted, that they
are now being used appropriately. So, they take up some more of our time. But
definitely that is why it's the smallest, is because there is the most workload generated
out of those. Each one of those boxes there is a reporting district. You see number
702, 703 across the top, and that area number five only has those four reporting
districts because of the -- the density of folks in that area and the use of it.
Milam: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Borton: Yeah. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: The slide -- I'm just questions tonight. The slide you had near the end that
showed the monthly average number of violations.
Everett: Yes . We are getting there. No. No apology necessary. I should know how to
advance it faster.
Borton: That one.
Everett: There we go.
Borton: Is that a reflection of actual citations or are those complaints?
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Everett: No. Those are -- that's -- that's a very good question. Those are not actual
citations. Those are cases that were opened and investigated.
Borton: Okay.
Everett: It's never -- it won't ever be our goal to end every investigation with a citation.
A lot of those are closed through educating the public on the issue at hand and having
them fix it or very rarely do -- and I don't have the numbers for you on how many of
them go to citation.
Borton: Okay. So, when I look at the very -- Madam Mayor? If I look at the very bottom
does that reflect the number of active cases open, kind of the net at the end of each
given month?
Everett: Yes.
Borton: Okay. Some are closed, some are new, and leaves you with 644, for example?
Everett: Those -- those are the number of cases initiated that month. There is no
carryover month to month. Those are --
Borton: Brand new?
Everett: Correct.
Borton: Oh, my gosh.
De Weerd: Rich, maybe you can also walk through just an example -- like weeds, since
that is one of the favorite areas of code enforcement. Once you get a complaint it's an
onerous process of tracking down the owners and notifications and so can you kind of
just give that as an example of some of the steps that you go through?
Everett: Sure. There are -- anytime that a property is out of compliance as far as the
code applies to weeds and it's deemed a nuisance, means whether they are over eight
inches or their noxious weeds that are designated by the state as just not been able to
exist on the property regardless of their height, then, that the property -- the owner is
identified through the tax roll, the assessor information is what we use to identify who
the responsible party is for that property and oftentimes if it's a repeat offender I guess I
will say, then, the officers that are responsible for the geographic areas have ownership
of it and they know, oh, that's so and so's property and they are able to right away pull
up that person's contact information and inform them. We start with a phone call if we
have a phone number available and we just let them know, because, again, we start at
that education level where we are just trying to get that person to understand what they
are required to do and how they are required to care for their property. Once the phone
call is put into place, then, the officer will assign a deadline of when the property needs
to be abated, essentially mowed or they can actually mechanically move -- remove all
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the weeds, but mowed and the property owner and the officer will come into agreement
on that deadline. Code allows for it to be as short as five days. There is no hard and
fast rule that it must be five days. We take into consideration the property owner's
ability. A lot of times we have folks who are elderly or they are absent property owners,
they are not in town, it might take a little bit of time for them to arrange for a contractor
to come in and, then, they will be -- the officer will send a letter as a notice of abate --
notice to abate and notice a violation letter to the legal owner and to the actual physical
location of the property if they can receive mail there. Oftentimes the legal owner is
absent from the property they own, so it might be a rental property where a tenant is
responsible for it, but we notice both folks and, then, once that is done, the compliance
date, if it does pass and it's not abated, then, we schedule with a contractor, one of the
local providers, a landscape company that does the -- that type of work for us and we
enter into an agreement with them where they go in and update the property. They go
in and mow the weeds or they go in and physically remove the noxious weeds and,
then, that bill is passed along to the property owners through the water billing process
and we add an additional one hundred dollars administrative fee to that for the
additional work on the city's part to bill a person for it. If the bill is not paid through that
process and it becomes an outstanding bill that eventually winds up being a lien placed
on the property itself, and which, obviously, clouds the title and it can't be transferred.
So, that will ultimately get the attention of whoever is going to be interested in
purchasing the property.
De Weerd: And so I asked for that illustration, so you could see that -- you see the
cases open each month, but they have multiple touches on every single one of those
and I think during the recession was -- and maybe Lacy is the only one that could attest
to it -- it was hard to even find the property owners. The amount of time that went
through just researching because of repossessions and -- and that sort of thing or it was
owned by a bank or it was -- so, this is time intensive in many of these cases.
Everett: Yeah. We definitely agree with you and appreciate that you recognize that.
These -- these -- these officers are charged with doing a great amount of follow up.
They don't -- just a simple parking ticket, they don't write a ticket and, then, hope that
gets fixed and never see it again. It goes into a case management system where it's --
it's in their queue and they go back and follow up the next day and if it's still there, then,
it gets another ticket or, then, they start tracking down the registered owner and they are
using different resources to find phone numbers and finding some way to remedy the
problem. They don't just sign a ticket and then forget it. They are -- they are constantly
working towards resolution of it, because our goal is that through educating these folks
it doesn't happen again and so they never just walk away from something. It stays in
their queue until it's resolved.
De Weerd: Thank you. Other questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
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Cavener: Rich, I got to echo Council Woman Milam's comment. The presentation that
you and the team put together and that's -- I try not to look, you know, for any spoilers,
but the chief made a comment and as soon as we got it I wanted to go through it and
see some of the photos and, you know, you guys are in every corner of our community
all the time, so you're seeing this on a daily basis and we often don't see this to that
level. We sometimes hear about it, but I appreciate you putting some illustrations in
there. Thanks for coming tonight. I really appreciate it. It's a rare opportunity to have
this opportunity to kind of discuss with -- with both sides of the organization and I was
just curious from you and your team's perspective, when it comes to city code are there
things we as a Council could do better Are there -- do we have code on our books that
is challenging for you and your team to enforce that creates tension and challenges for
our community. To me that's one of the pieces that I would love to hear from. If there
are things that we can look at as a body to improve life for you and your team, as well
as for our citizens.
Everett: Sure. And thank you for having me. That's a great question and I would love
to just say no, because that's the easy answer and walk away and I don't have to stand
anymore, but -- but the answer is, yeah -- yes, we can always improve and one of the
big things that I see -- you know, and I'm -- I'm the new guy here, you know, shortly after
arriving this whole subject of nonconforming properties -- properties that are
nonconforming and don't need to conform or properties that were grandfathered in and
certain rules don't apply to them in certain areas of the city. That's -- that's something
that can't be undone and I get that, but that's something that I would love to see us as a
city not allow to happen anymore. You know, development agreements that are not in
line with existing code makes things very difficult for us to deal with, because the city,
through our education efforts, the residents of the city come to know what the
requirements are and they say, yes, but what about -- and, then, we have to explain
that, well, it doesn't apply or pertain to that specific property or that specific group of
folks. So, I know we can't wind back the clock, but when -- when matters come before
this body, if -- if we can keep that in mind, then, it makes the facilitation of city
government much easier for all of our divisions if -- the more uniform the rules are the
more efficient we can be as a whole, not just as my team.
Cavener: Madam Mayor. Additional topic that I would like to get your perspective on,
because it was -- it's the first time that I had seen that and you touched on kind of your
role in retaining property values and that was -- that was fascinating to me, because we
as a body -- we don't -- we are not allowed to make a decision about if it impacts
property value good or bad, so -- and recognizing you're newer, but can you give us
some explanation of the philosophy behind that and knowing that one person's
determination about one thing will increase property values and somebody else would
determine decrease in property value. How do you weigh that and how much does that
play into the amount of calls that you receive on a -- on a monthly basis?
Everett: Sure. The -- maintaining or safeguarding the property values is something that
I feel that we are successful at as a code enforcement unit and I feel it's -- it's one of our
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primary responsibilities, because we are -- if -- if we are able to make sure folks that
own these properties in any of our neighborhoods are in -- in compliance with the set
standards that we have all agreed we want in our city, then, it creates a much more
environment -- inviting area that we are not dealing with issues of blight that some of our
neighboring cities might be dealing with with signs littering every telephone pole at
every street, you know, corner or the perpetual yard sale or the storage of these junk
vehicles. We live in a very safe city and we are blessed to live here, but if it doesn't look
clean and it doesn't look safe, then, no one can feel safe, even if the statistics show us
that it is safe here, if the first thing you see is a property that's full of trash or graffiti or
something that's not being maintained will hinder reaction is we all want to lock our
doors and maybe not go down the street again and the more proactive time our team
has to get into all of our neighborhoods and addressing the issue that might fall into that
category, the safer people are going to feel and, in turn, property values go up or at
least stay where they are.
Cavener: Thank you.
Everett: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Any other questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Just one more quick one. Do you -- do you find that most of the calls that you
get are legitimate or do you get a whole lot of people that just want to complain?
Everett: Most of the calls, yes, are legitimate in nature and they might not be
specifically what the complaining party is reporting, that they might feel -- the
complaining party might feel that their issue that they are upset with is a crime or is a
violation of the code and, then, we get there and we have to break it to them that, no,
I'm sorry, your neighbor can have a pink house. That's not a violation. But while we are
here I did notice that these violations or at hand and we will -- we will deal with those.
Just like any government entity, there are some neighborhood -- or neighbor feuds that
occur and just like any of the other divisions in the city government, we -- the folks try to
use us as their -- excuse me -- as their tool to get after their neighbor and I have got a
great group of officers that are very quick to recognize that and put that to bed right
away and not the baited into that he said she said and now I'm going to call them on you
and we are very upfront about letting folks know that we are here to do a good job, but
we are not here to work at your direction, we are here to work at the city's direction.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? Rich, how many -- what -- can you I guess ballpark what
percentage of the calls that you receive are from citizens calling about something on
their behalf or like a property manager or a homeowner's association calling on the
neighborhood's behalf?
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Everett: That's a great question and they definitely come from all of those sources that
you just said, but definitely individual residents of the city calling to complain about
specific things that are impacting their lives. We get bulk reporting done by property
management or home -- homeowners association entities where they say, hey, I have
got these 19 properties I would like to tell you about today, but the overwhelming
majority of the day-to-day calls we are fielding are coming from individuals.
Cavener: Good. Thank you.
De Weerd: Well, thank you so much for being here and for your report and --
Cavener: I just -- my heart goes out to you guys. You just -- every day you know you're
going to walk into conflict and appreciate all you do.
Everett: Thank you.
De Weerd: And thank you for joining us this evening. Okay. Any items under 11 ?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Appreciate the presentation tonight. Council
Member Borton, thanks for -- and Madam Mayor, thanks for working to get that, chief. I
think there -- there are some -- maybe some next steps to come from this that I would
like us to maybe put on our agenda, maybe in January or February. A c ouple pieces of
code that I think can be confusing for our citizens. Rich touched on it and I know it's a
discussion that's been before the Council before it and I think it just boils down to our
philosophy about, you know, homeowners rights. When I own my home is it okay for
me to park my trailer there or is it not and when it comes to life safety issues, that's the
ones that I get really fired up about, but when it comes to some of those other issues --
again, issues related to property value is kind of a stickier subject and so perhaps in
January if we can have a conversation about one or maybe two pieces of current city
code that may be worth being revised. I would also invite the chief and the code
enforcement team, if there is language that's out there now that is hard for you to
enforce or is confusing, that would also be a great opportunity to bring them all together
for a good conversation from Council. I think it's a good opportunity for us hearing from
this, what a deal with day in and day out, to make sure that our code accurately reflects
the needs and desires of our community.
De Weerd: Okay. So, is there a specific code you want us to bring back?
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I wasn't prepared to reference that at this time, but I would be
happy to work with the Council President to get that put together for the future agenda.
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De Weerd: Okay.
Lavey: Madam Mayor and Council, I will also confer with our staff and see if they have
any input. Rich did great tonight. I didn't tell him what to say and so I was surprised
that he said what he said and really appreciate it, but I'm sure there is codes out there
that we can take a look at. We always share those with legal when they come up
saying we need to fix this or we need to fix that and they have always been great. So, I
don't know of any that come to mind right now, but if you want to ask us what are those
codes that are a pain for us, I'm sure they will share that information with you and, then,
you can discuss what you want to do with it, because ultimately it's our job to enforce
and we will enforce whatever you guys come up with.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: I can answer to that. So, one of those things that we have talked about and have
had discussion with planning in how they are -- when they do their UDC changes is
something that Rich touched on is that parking of motor homes in people's driveways
versus parking them on the street, it can be very problematic in neighborhoods, both for
parking them on the street and parking them in the driveway and what happens in a lot
of those occasions is that in the past when we have had this discussion with councils
previously, maybe five to seven years ago, the -- the thought was -- is a lot of those that
are parked in a lot of subdivisions have CC&Rs that prohibit that and feel that it's
something the subdivision should take care of. Well, what happens is the property
management companies that do a lot of the management for those subdivisions call
code enforcement, because they don't have any means in which to enforce that
themselves without going to court. So, then, they, again, put our code enforcement
enforcing their CC&R rules, because it happens to be in our ordinance as well. So, we
have had conversation with code and with planning and I don't -- can't tell you the stage
it's in now, but we have had this discussion on how do we find the balance between the
life safety concern is the parking in the street and the aesthetic concern of the
neighborhood of parking them out on driveways unscreened. Again, you can't screen a
30 foot motorhome that's 20 feet tall. So, I mean there are ways that are really
challenging to deal with and so I know we have had that discussion and that's probably
one of those that we can have further discussion about amongst others, but I know
that's one that's certainly problematic. For right now not as much, because people have
parked them somewhere else for the winter, but that comes back every single summer.
So -- I know we will have more on that, so --
Item 12: 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 and 74-206(1)(f): To communicate with legal counsel
for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal
options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated
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but imminently likely to be litigated
De Weerd: Okay. Perfect. Item 12 is Executive Session.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-
206(1)(b),(1)(f).
Cavener: 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, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (7:29 p.m. to 8:34 p.m.)
De Weerd: Okay. I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Milam: So moved.
Palmer: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn?
Milam: So moved.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:34 P.M.
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