HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-12-11Meridian City Council Workshop December 11, 2018.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:00 p.m., Tuesday,
December 11, 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, Warren Stewart, Jeff Lavey, Shawn
Harper, Joe Bongiorno, Bruce Freckleton 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: Well, welcome to our City Council meeting. We appreciate you joining us.
For the record it is Tuesday, December 11th. It's 3: 00 p.m. We will start with roll call
attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: 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: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item No. 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: There are no changes to the agenda as published, so I would move that we adopt
the agenda.
Milam: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 4: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Approve Minutes of December 4, 2018 City Council Special
Meeting
B. The Village at Meridian Apartments Water Main Easement
C. Final Order 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.
D. Development Agreement for Westbridge Subdivision (H-2018-
0088) with Endurance Holdings LLC (Owner ) and Viper
Investments LLC Owner) and Challenger Development Inc.
(Developer) located at 5745 & 5865 N. Black Cat Rd., in the NE
1/4 of Section 28, Township 4N., Range 1W. (Parcel Numbers:
S0428143150 & S0424141600)
E. Development Agreement for Cherry Blossom Subdivision (H-
2018-0018) with Jayo Holdings, LLC (OWNER) and Doug Jayo,
Jayo Land Development Company, Inc.(DEVELOPER) located at
615 W. Cherry Ln., in the NE 1/4 of Section 12, Township 3N.,
Range 1W. Parcel # R8512250150, R8512250140, S1212120850,
and S1212120695)
F. Fire Station #4 Roof Warranty Replacement
G. Interagency Agreement Between The Ada County Highway
District and the City Of Meridian for Water and Sewer
Improvements for Linder Road, Ustick to McMillan Road &
Linder Road, Cayuse Creek Drive to Chinden Boulevard. ACHD
Project No. 517024 & 517032
H. Dog License Designee Agreement between Idaho Humane
Society and City of Meridian
I. Dog License Designee Agreement between Meridian Veterinary
Hospital and City of Meridian
J. Dog License Designee Agreement between Linder Pet Medical
Care and City of Meridian
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K. AP Invoices for Payment 12/07/18 - $627,301.98
L. AP Invoices for Payment 12/12/18 - $563,418.01
De Weerd: Item 4 is the Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Move we adopt the Consent Agenda as published. For the Mayor to sign and
the Clerk to attest.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is no
discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, absent; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda .
Item 6: Action Items
A. Continued from November 20, 2018: Request to Provide Water
and Sewer Service to Un-annexed Property at 5233 W.
Franklin Rd.
De Weerd: So, we will move right into Action Items. 6-A is continued from November
20th and I will turn this over to staff.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, a few weeks ago -- I put the date and a memo in your packet
for today. Public Works was here at the request of a petitioner to receive sewer and water
service to a parcel that was and still is ineligible for annexation, because it's not
contiguous to the city limits. The Public Works Department did let the Council know that
services -- those services are available to the subject property. Staff was, then, given a
chance -- planning staff was, then, given a chance to evaluate the proposed land use for
consistency with codes and our Comprehensive Plan. So, the memo dated December
6th, myself and Stephanie Leonard in my office, have done that analysis and hope you
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have had a chance to look at it. Essentially, the proposed land use is not consistent with
the city's Comprehensive Plan. If the zoning were industrial -- and that's a big if. Again,
that proposed zoning for a contractor's yard is not consistent with the Comprehensive
Plan. The layout of the site and the building itself would conform to the industrial zoning
standards for the most part. There are a couple of nits and picks, if you will, about access
and -- and whatnot in the memo. But the underlying issue is that, again, on its face the
proposed land use is not consistent with the city's plan -- the Ten Mile specific area plan
in this area. The major concern that staff really has is this sets the tone, then, for the rest
of the area. Again, we are talking unincorporated Ada county, new development, that --
that, again, sets the tone, then, for the coming years. So, there could be real lost
opportunity here. Appreciate that this is a Meridian business. I, too, want them to stay in
Meridian and, honestly, frankly, there is not a lot of industrial land for them to locate to.
So, I feel for them in that regard, but just want to really disclose to the Mayor and Council
that this is the case and, again, it isn't consistent with the city's Comprehensive Plan. All
those services, sewer and water service, are available to the property. So, with that,
Madam Mayor, unless you want anymore details, I think I will stand for any questions and
that concludes my presentation.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor and Caleb -- thank you. Caleb, could you kind of give me
a little more definition of a -- the difference in a yard -- what's a storage yard versus a
contractor's yard?
Hood: Yeah. I can -- I can look those up and read them to you , so -- we don't have -- a
storage yard is usually an ancillary use to a larger land use. A contractor's yard would be
one of the potential land uses we have in our schedule of use control. So, this use fits
that definition the best. One could make an argument maybe for another u se, but there
isn't really one that fits it any better than that within the city. A majority of the site I didn't
calculate it, but a majority of the site is used for outdoor storage . There is a 13,000 --
13,000 square foot building proposed on a six acre site. So, that's one of the issues is
that floor area ratio. Again, when you have an outdoor storage unit -- yard it's going to be
tough to meet the floor area ratio envisioned here . But a yard -- a storage yard, a
contractor's yard -- a storage yard is, essentially, part of a contractor's yard, but you can
also have a storage yard when you're not a contractor's yard. So, you could be another
type of use and just have an outdoor -- a storage area and we wouldn't deem you a
contractor's yard, if that makes sense, so -- but in both cases there -- it's an industrial type
of use. We really -- you know, it's the zoning, the underlying zoning is really the tough
thing. If this will -- if we could allow industrial out there, this -- this use really wouldn't be
a problem, but we are looking for more office-type uses and jobs per ratio than -- than
storage yards or contractor's yards.
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De Weerd: Okay. Anything further at this point? Would the applicant's representative
like to make comment?
McKay: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Becky McKay. Engineering
Solutions. 1029 North Rosario business address. I'm representing Jared Bell with Butte
Fence on this application. I did read staff's analysis and I totally disagree with their
classification of this particular use. I have been out to the Butte Fence facility on Wilson
Drive. They have been there for 17 years. They have a showroom, their office, and a
manufacturing building. I -- they operate a fabrication facility where they work on vinyl,
where it comes in on pallets and, then, they send it through different routers. Jared
indicates with their wrought iron products they -- they build gates, they build gazebos
made out of vinyl, that there is all kinds of customized products that they build out of it --
or out of that facility and their current site right now is 1.87 acres and they have just
outgrown it and we did evaluate their current site to see, okay, what is their storage area
and that is material storage. A contractor's yard is construction equipment. A lot of -- you
know, I don't see theirs as being a contractor's yard, more as a fabrication manufacturing
facility with a storage yard and an office and a showroom . Right now on their current 1.87
acre site, 40,000 square feet of that site is enclosed yard. Now, when Jared bought the
5.9 -- or this 5.97 acres -- I have worked two years with him trying to find a location. I did
the same thing with HD Fowler and I worked with Colt Collision, two long time Meridian
businesses that wanted to stay in Meridian and both -- they have all had difficulty trying
to find a larger site to expand their business and hire more employees and meet the
demand that's out there and so Jared indicated to me that this 5.97 acres is larger than
what they anticipated and we did meet with Ada County Highway District, we fully
understand that there is going to be a future commercial collector that's going to be on
the south end of the property at some point in time . They are not going to be using this
whole site. They are only going to be using the north portion of it and what he envisioned
is at some point in time when that commercial collector roadway happens, then, there
would be another use on the south side of this property and so I think staff was basically
under the assumption that this entire thing -- this has a 14,000 square foot building and,
then, everything is storage yard. Now, that's -- that's just not the case and -- and, like I
said, he -- he sees that -- his ability to have possibly two users in the long term. We also
went through the Ten Mile area specific plan and the Ten Mile area specific plan clearly
states that I-L is an allowable use -- allowable zone. All through the Ten Mile specific area
plan it talks about -- it talks about a mixture of manufacturing uses, office uses,
employment -- light industrial is a key component and along your Franklin Road corridor
we have always had light industrial uses and those light industrial uses will continue on
as we head further west toward the Canyon county border. So, I think, you know, this is
not a heavy industrial use. We are not putting something out here that I think is going to
be detrimental to the city in the long term or negatively impact the future of that Ten Mile
area specific plan. If you looked in staff's analysis they said as far as the building design,
the materials, the quality of the building, it meets the design standards out -- outlined in
the -- in the Ten Mile plan. Right now where Butte Fence is located off Wilson Drive they
are I-L and that's the same type of zoning, except the -- with the county we would be
asking for and on each side of their current facility they have residential. There is R-40,
four-plexes on one side and R-15 multi-family proposed on the -- on the -- on the other
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side of their property and on the south side of their property. So, they, obviously, coexist
with residential. What we have out there now, as far as residential, is those are all rural
five acre, ten acre parcels that have been chopped up over the years under the county's
one time split. This is a good use. They want to upgrade their facility. They want to stay
in Meridian. And as Jared told me, he says this is our last ditch effort. We have gone
from parcel to parcel. This was the only one that had size and they could get the
appropriate access, because the other parcels that were smaller in size -- ACHD was
going to restrict their access and this one gives them the access they need. So, you have
sewer and water right in front of it. We are only a quarter mile away from the city limits
and I ask that you support this waiver, because I think all of us want to see businesses
stay in Meridian and I think it's going to be a good use along that Franklin corridor. Do
you have any questions?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: No questions.
De Weerd: No?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Do you know the number of employees that Butte Fence has currently?
McKay: Yes. He currently, Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, he has -- he said just
slightly over 40 employees right now.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: So, to confirm, you're just wanting to -- he's not asking or wanting to be annexed
into -- that parcel be annexed in the City of Meridian; correct. Just to confirm?
McKay: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bernt, that is correct. We are not contiguous to the
city limits. Otherwise, I would be asking for annexation into the city.
Bernt: So, since I'm the new guy on the block, what -- Madam Mayor, follow up?
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Bernt: So, Mr. Nary, what -- what's the precedent with -- with -- with connection to city
services without being annexed into the city?
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Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bernt, so if -- if it was
annexable, then, it would be a completely different conversation, but since it's not -- our
city code contemplates when they are not able to annex, but they are able to attach to
services, the request normally simply goes directly to Public Works. What we asked for
in this particular circumstance -- now, we have probably three or four of these a year that
-- and I think part of the discussion for the future will be at changing our UDC to include
this type of application to go to Planning for Planning to comment, because of the -- again,
the longer term impacts. But the serviceability is simply one issue. But the longer term
impacts on the Planning side is really what the Council needs the information on and
that's what they have provided. So, we have normally done contractual agreements with
the property owners, so that once they are contiguous they will annex into the city as part
of their agreement to acquire the services now and I think what Planning is telling you in
their memo is that there are things about this particular a pplication that may be
inconsistent with some of your other Ten Mile area specific plans that you anticipated, but
they just want you to be aware of that if the decision is to allow them to connect to
services. Some of those opportunities may be lost by having this type of user come into
the city at this particular point in time.
De Weerd: Any other questions at this time?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: So, if we were to deny the request, they can still move there; right? They just
won't have city services. Would -- what would be their -- would they put a well and septic?
Is there -- is that already there?
McKay: Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, obviously, when we have central water
in front of the property you want to have appropriate fire protection with a hydrant . I have
had some projects where they are commercial in nature and we have had septic systems,
but normally we do have central water to meet the fire requirements. It just doesn't seem
that practical to try to put a well down when you have services available. My client's done
everything that the city's asked him to provide . He's provided a site plan. He's provided
elevations. He's provided a landscape plan. We are going above and beyond what the
county would require as far as landscape buffering. We are showing dedication of a future
right of way. We are planning for a 35 foot entryway corridor, landscaping along Franklin,
because we don't want to be noncompliant when we do come into the city. Jared's
indicated if -- you know, if -- if he's unsuccessful with this, he will have to go -- he will say
that I have to go to Nampa. He said I have -- I have shook every tree here as far as trying
to find a site that fits our needs and is in close proximity to the interstate. Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions? Mr. Borton.
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Borton: Madam Mayor. Becky, if this were to have been contiguous this would come with
an annexation application and also a request to modify the future land use map and the
Ten Mile specific area plan? That would all be part of the analysis?
McKay: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, no. I don't see that. Shari and I both looked
at the Ten Mile specific area plan and the -- the definitions and where it talks about the
mixed employment, it says mixed employment. Encourage a diversity of compatible uses,
mixture of office, research, specialized employment, light industrial, including
manufacturing and assembly and other -- other miscellaneous uses. So, no, in my
professional opinion it would not require a comprehensive plan map amendment. No.
The I-L, if you look on your -- in your sheet it shows I-L as an accessible zoning
designation under the mixed employment. In fact, the staff -- it quotes themselves saying
correlate -- the other zones correlate best, but if you look on your Ten Mile specific area
plan under mixed employment, there is no best choice, possible choice, or marginal
choice, it shows permitted uses, conditional and accessory. Office is accessory in the I-
L there and, then, it shows light industrial as the first listing under mixed employment. So,
in my opinion this fits in perfectly. I do not understand if -- if this were, indeed, a
contractor's yard one may categorize it as heavy industrial, but it is not a contractor's yard,
it's manufacturing, fabrication, office, showroom. The Council in 2017 approved an
automobile repair facility to the north of this site and staff indicated there they were
comfortable -- I quote Caleb: I am comfortable from a standpoint -- I worked with legal
and I'm comfortable that the -- that applicants are in agreement with the provisions. We
are in agreement with the provisions.
De Weerd: And was that in the Ten Mile area plan?
McKay: Yes, ma'am.
Hood: So, Madam Mayor, if I can, that had a different land use designation. It was a
different requested use with a sunset clause as well. Maybe just to clarify that there is no
reason that I have to believe -- what you have is what's been submitted to the city for
evaluation. The stuff that Mrs. McKay started out with saying, hey, in the future when this
collector roadway comes in we are willing to redevelop it. None of that's in the narrative
or on the site plan. There is nothing to that effect in -- in this request to say we can take
these steps, so we can potentially be closer with the envisioned plan for this area. That's
the first time I'm hearing this information about redevelopment of a storage yard or any of
that type of information. I don't know that that changes, you know, the analysis a hundred
percent, but it certainly plays in. Again, the floor area ratio here, we are talking about .05
percent of the site being covered with the building, when we are looking for, you know,
significantly more than that. And, again, so if we have another building or another user
that can redevelop out there, I think we are making strides to be more consistent, but
when it's largely the storage yard -- but, again, that's apples and oranges to me. That
was a different use for an auto body repair shop that has a sunset clause or
redevelopment clause within that agreement for water and sewer hookup . That's why
staff was comfortable with it. This is a significant investment. I don't see it redeveloping
anytime soon. Just -- it's different.
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Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Becky, so since we aren't looking at that this is an annexation with a development
agreement and plot, is there any kind of assurance that you could give to what you said
previously regarding the south side of the property developing into office space , et cetera?
McKay: Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, that was a conversation that Jared and I had
after we met with Ada County Highway District and they talked about that future
commercial collector and he told me that -- that even though the parcel was larger than
what they have -- what their needs are, he said I -- I still believe that it will work for us
and, then, the southern portion could have another use that, then, fronted on that backage
road and if their site enlarges -- I mean maybe they end up building another structure
back there when that road goes. I mean all I have to give you now is the site plan which
his architect prepared for his current needs, but I can guarantee you, you know, they are
going from 1.87 to -- 87 acres to almost six acres. So, that's a -- that's a big jump and --
and I think, you know, Jared wants to do this right. He wants to make sure that this, you
know, is a nice facility. I guess I don't -- I don't know what the future holds, when that road
will happen, so I don't know how to put any timeline on it. There is a lot of different parcels
there that would all have to kind of coordinate and cooperate together to make that
happen. It's not like it's one large parcel back there that all of a sudden a big commercial
developer would come in with a master plan. It would take an assemblage of parcels.
Hood: Madam Mayor, if I can on that point a little bit, I mean this -- Becky's right, I mean
it's -- it's going to be difficult to develop that road from this parcel out. That is a little bit of
the rub. I mean we are -- the city generally tries to grow from the inside out. Here we are
leapfrogging over and allowing county development -- and this kind of goes to what Mr.
Nary pointed out, we need to really evaluate -- and it's not necessarily a UDC, this request
is coming through the sewer and water sections of city code , not in the UDC. So, that's
really what needs to be looked at and is that provision there so somebody can develop in
the county with city services or is it really meant to say, hey, you know, your sewer and
septics -- your septic system fails and we have got a sewer line out there, we are willing
to allow you to hook up an existing structure. My -- I wasn't around when that code was
written, but I struggle to believe that it was written for this case where it's, hey, have city
services, but do it in the county. I just don't envision that that's why this code was adopted
back in the day. Back to the road, though. I mean that's really how the road should come
in from Black Cat and, then, continue and each -- each parcel develops dedicated to right
of way and develops their piece of that road until it eventually gets over to the mid mile
collector that runs north-south. So, we lose that opportunity with a portion of this site, you
know, building their section of that roadway or half of the section of that roadway if , in fact,
they don't redevelop it to offices and talked about, but we don't have anything that would
require that. You just sit there in the county forever, essentially, or -- or annex even, but I
don't know what provisions we could have to build the road at that point. So, we are just
-- that road becomes more difficult when you don't grow from Black Cat back to the west.
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McKay: Well, Madam Mayor, I think -- I guess I would like to address that. I mean I think
the Council could make it a condition -- you know, we have been provided an agreement
from your legal department, make a condition that they -- that they provide for that future
right of way on the south end. Their half of that, so that -- and, then, inset their
landscaping and go with a collector width on the landscaping and -- I mean I think it's
doable, so that it can fit in. You know, once your city limits start getting out into this area
-- I mean I think this is a temporary situation, you know, eventually you guys are going to
be annexing out in these areas. So, you know, it's just --
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Becky, I -- I think I understand exactly why you're asking for what you are and it's
-- you're in a tough spot. I think you have done a good job trying to frame this in a way
that works or could work. I think it's really difficult to do. Obviously, this discussion sort
of highlights that, but for me I think the balance of consideration still weigh on not
approving this request. I think staff's analysis is sound. What Mr. Hood has described
makes sense. I mean we hate to have anybody need to relocate. That happens at times,
but -- but the full vetting of what would occur with an annexation when the time is right,
coupled with the DA that outlines all these terms and conditions that make other projects
long term successful are not here. So, I'm not inclined to try and create a short term
solution that might be problematic long term . So, I'm not supportive of the application. I
understand what you're doing. I think you have done a great job of trying to make this
work, I just don't think it does in light of what would be the more appropriate way for this
to be processed.
McKay: Mayor de Weerd, Councilman Borton, if we were to basically get with our client
-- my client's stuck in Salt Lake right now. He had mechanical problems on his flight, so
that's why he's not here. He wanted to be. If I were to get with my client and come up
with some provisions that he's comfortable with for inclusion in that agreement that would
basically I guess satisfy some of the concerns that staff has with the future right of way
as far as another building on the southern end, would Council entertain deferring this? I
guess I would like to consult with my client. He wanted -- like I said, he wanted to be here
to express, you know, his comments and it was not possible.
Borton: Sure. Madam Mayor? For me they -- to be blunt, then, the -- I don't think that
would get there.
McKay: Okay.
Borton: I think that even with good intent it kind of bypasses a lot of the process. Though
it might seem cumbersome, I think it is right to vet it through that with the full staff analysis.
It would be through P&Z and public hearing process. You know, we are making long-term
decisions and there is a right -- to do it that way when it's an annexation I still think that's
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right to do it for something like this. So, I wouldn't be in favor of -- even with good intent
trying to shoehorn this towards a solution short term.
De Weerd: Any other comments or questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Couldn't we create a DA type document? Maybe it's not legal. I don't know. So,
maybe this is a -- but that would -- we know what -- the timeline for annexation as far as
the first time -- if it was within a certain period of time that they are contiguous. They are
willing to follow city code and setbacks and -- and it sounds like they are trying really hard
and we -- we claim that we are business friendly and -- and I understand that this is a long
term down the road, but it just seems like somewhere we can figure out a way to include
the things that would be included in a deed that we feel comfortable with as far as how
many buildings and the use of the other parts of the land , since they won't be using the
whole six acres for this business. It just seems to me like we could do something like
that. But would it hold -- I guess that's the question.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Sure. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Milam, I mean
certainly in our hookup agreement, you know, we have what -- conditions similar to what
we are talking about and I think Caleb alluded to the one with the -- the garage mechanic
repair facility on the north side of Franklin in that area. We tried to capture a lot of those
things, but -- but one of the things that made that doable was that -- that use is going to
go away in the future, because it wasn't consistent with the Ten Mile plan. That wouldn't
be the case in this particular instance . So, whether that we could get there I don't know.
I mean I'm always hopeful we could get enough conditions . So, it's really up to the
Council. I mean we could certainly try. I don't know that we are worse off if we try.
Milam: Madam Mayor? Follow up. I just -- I feel that with the addition of other office
space, mixed use property, that it would qualify for the use in the Ten Mile plan. So, based
on what Becky's read us and based on the testimony to add additional buildings, it kind
of changes the report, like Caleb said, because they didn't have that information prior.
So, I would say maybe a continuance on this would be better, so she can get with her
client, get more information specifically on what -- what exactly they would be willing to
commit to and, then, make a decision based on that. That's how I see it.
Hood: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Caleb.
Hood: If I can -- I don't know where you guys might go with this, but I will just point out --
and this is, again, for future workshop largely. But right now the request is for sewer and
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water hookup. They can write a letter to the city engineer at any time. I don't know how
long it's going to take to come up with Plan B or whatever additional provisions are , but
there is no charge. Anyone can write the letter and submit a revised plan. I guess I just
wonder if, in fact, it's -- if you're not agreeable to what's been proposed today and it's
denied, there is nothing like in the UDC that says you have to wait a year or anything like
that. They can turn around tomorrow and submit another letter to the city, hey, here is a
new plan -- I guess is my point. So, if we don't know, rather than you guessing, hey, is a
month enough time? Is six weeks? Two weeks? You could potentially, if you're leaning
that way, deny this subject site plan and request and they can resubmit and -- you know,
can -- can bring this back to you at any time. So, I just want to point that out. The process
is -- that's one of the things we have with the process we need to kind of clean up a little
bit. But that's the current process.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I would be interested in the applicant's feedback on that.
McKay: Madam Mayor and Councilman Milam, we submitted months and months and
months ago the request and it had to work its way through the Public Works process and
we had to call and -- and kind of find out what's going on. So, I guess my client's kind of
running out of time. You know, he's -- he's got a window. I'd rather stay in the process
than be kicked out of the process and come back through the front door and run the
gauntlet again to get to the Council. Defer us for a month and we will be back -- I mean
we met our timeline this time to provide additional information to staff and a landscape
plan and -- and, like I said, if my client hadn't of been caught at the airport with mechanical
issues on his plane he would be here to probably give you more definitive answers, but I
guess, you know, toward the middle or end of January would be perfectly fine and -- and
we will come back with substantive information and provisions .
De Weerd: Council, any other questions for Becky? Okay.
McKay: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hood: Madam Mayor, just -- I think this is the last thing that I have -- and that's fine. I
mean a month -- we can do it. I guess just -- just, again, from staff's perspective it takes
us some time to analyze it. You know, I know the memo isn't -- it didn't take me days and
days to do it; right? But there is still time; right? And there is other things going on. So,
just -- just a little consideration that way as well. Again, this request -- and we take it
seriously and we weren't trying to delay anything. August 30th the letter was submitted
-- dated, anyways, to the city on November 7th the request for -- for hookup was
presented. It was continued from a couple weeks ago and here we are today. So, I don't
feel like we have been dragging things out necessarily and I can commit to review and
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things -- whether it's continued or resubmitted, but around the holidays it's a month when
we got other things and this isn't -- it's not in the queue. I mean it's here, but, anyways, I
will stop. But that's -- this all goes to the point of this process is flawed. Anyway, so --
De Weerd: Okay. Discussion by Council?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I always enjoy Becky's presentations. Becky, you always do a fantastic job. Very
well prepared and I feel like, you know, when it comes to small businesses in our city --
you know, I'm a small businessman as well and it's really hard for me to wrap my arms
around kicking a person out. I don't think that's what we are doing, but like making it more
difficult for someone to do business in our city, but sometimes -- you know, I guess my
thoughts are in line with Council Member Borton. I would never say, Becky, you know,
this is it, draw a line in the sand, you know. If you want to come back in a month, that's
fine, but I just feel like -- I just don't know what you could do to this plan in order to
eliminate that leap frog process to -- or -- or come up with something that would be -- you
know, it says here it would be more in line with the mixed use portion. I mean I'm looking
at the memo -- or not the -- but a future land use and zoning says the subject property is
designated mixed employment, ME, and it -- and, then, it goes on to say different --
different types of land uses and one of the land uses that it mentions is not yours that
you're talking about and so I'm struggling with this one . But I think that I -- my thoughts
and opinions probably fall in line with Mr. Borton's. But I'm not saying denial or -- if you
wish to come back in a month that's your prerogative, but I don't know if my opinion is
going to change, just to give you a heads up.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just one other comment and maybe we will get a motion here soon. The -- the
other wrinkle that -- from a policy consideration is you have got an ultimate design and
build out. This will never be annexed; right? This is -- this is county property. It's not
asking to come within the city and there may never be a need in the future to ever annex.
There is not a change of use, there is not a grandfathered term and so --
Milam: Madam Mayor? Oh. Sorry.
Hood: I was just going to respond to that. We do -- in the draft -- so, Legal did put together
a hookup agreement. Don't quote me on this, but I think within 60 days of the property
being contiguous we will put them on notice that you have to annex. Now, to your point,
they may not want to or need to , but we will put them on notice -- now is the time.
Welcome to the City of Meridian. The difficulty with that is, then, we got to assign them a
zoning code -- you know, we are going to zone them I-L and you may have adjacent
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properties that are C-G or other things. So, they are nonconforming. But I just want to
clarify that -- that if sewer and water is provided to them we have got a provision in the
draft agreement that says we will let you know when you come in, so we aren't creating
an enclave into the future. We have at least got that provision.
Borton: Okay. Good. Thanks, Caleb.
Milam: That's what I was going to say. Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Oh. I move that we continue this to the January 8th workshop.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Just for the record I'm here and I was watching the stream -- not from the
beginning of the meeting, but from the beginning of this item.
De Weerd: Okay. All those in favor of continuing this say aye. Any opposed?
Bernt: Nay.
Borton: Nay.
De Weerd: Okay. The ayes have.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. TWO NAYS. ONE ABSENT.
B. Request for Reconsideration for Owyhee High School (H-2018-
0075)
De Weerd: Item 6-B is a request for reconsideration on H-2018-0075. Mr. Nary or --
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. You have a request from the
Boise Hunter counsel to reconsider your decision on the Owyhee High School decision
and findings that were done a few weeks ago. At this juncture, basically, there is no
additional testimony that's taken. You have a written request for reconsideration. You
have a response from the school district's counsel. You also have a -- all of that in your
record to consider. If you have a clarifying question you need answered for information
to make a decision, you certainly can ask that, but it wasn't for testimony today. The only
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decision point today is either to grant the request for reconsideration to either change or
-- change or modify the findings as have been previously approved or to set it for a new
public hearing in front of you or to deny the re quest, because you have -- the request is,
basically, that they would like you to consider a new decision and I don't want to try to
characterize it for them, so just what's in the record. So, it's really up to you on what
option you wish to do. So, either to grant the request and either modify the findings, grant
the request, and set it for a new hearing or deny the request.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions on the decision in front of you?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will make a motion and we can discuss it. I didn't -- I didn't see any specific
deficiencies outlined in the request for reconsideration that warranted doing so, other than
just perhaps trying to take a second look or a second bite at the apple, which I don't think
is what the specific deficiencies provision is intended to do . So, I would move that the
request for reconsideration be denied on H-2018-0075.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to deny the request for reconsideration.
Any discussion?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I think our reconsideration code is confusing and odd and nearly pointless . I
understand there is a point for it, but it's -- it's -- it's not an appeal, which a lot -- I guess it
almost appears to be. I do think that this is a mess, so you're kind of being screwed, but
I think that Councilman Borton's motion is -- should be approved, because the points he
made, there wasn't a deficiency that Council made the decision that it was allowed to
make with -- and we had all the information that we needed to make it and we were very
aware that what we were doing was to your detriment , but it was a decision that was
made and it didn't -- it wasn't from lack of information.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I -- when we voted on this motion originally I was one that voted against . It wasn't
necessarily on the basis of, you know, I was against West Ada's, you know, application,
because I was in favorite of that. I just didn't like the fact that -- you know, that there is a
potential, you know, situation where this -- this -- this piece of land could be landlocked
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and so I -- however, I do believe, after talking with our legal counsel, that currently, you
know, the -- the piece of land is -- there is access to it and, hopefully, in the future, you
know, if, you know, Highway 16 does go down that -- that corridor, that area, I would hope
that -- that ITD would make an arrangement with that land owner and -- and -- and make
it so that Mr. Hunter would have access, you know, to his property. I just -- I don't see
that there would ever be a point where Mr. Hunter would be completely landlocked. I
don't think that -- I don't know if that's legal even to -- you know, put a road right there and
because of ITD's road, which creates a situation where future -- you know, that -- that
land use is -- is locked and not being able to be accessed , I think that that -- that would
be negotiated with ITD prior to that and I think that you would probably -- that Mr. Hunter
and -- and -- would ultimately get access. I guess what I'm saying is I don't think that
you're -- the property is going to be landlocked after that right of way is taken care of with
ITD, you know, for -- for Highway 16. So, I think it's -- I think it was sort of messy. I wish
we would have taken care of it at the beginning, but I -- like Councilman Palmer said, this
is the process and so I would be in favor of denying this reconsideration. But knowing
that it's sort of messy, didn't like how it was -- it ended, you know, with the motion, but I
-- I honestly feel that you're going to have access to your property when Highway 16 --
when it -- when -- when it's built or when that property is -- is purchased for that right of
way I think you're going to be taken care with ITD.
De Weerd: Okay. I do have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Okay. Mr.
Clerk.
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.
C. Community Development: Idaho Electrical Inspector
Qualification Position Paper
De Weerd: Item 6-C is under Community Development and we have Bruce here to
present information on our position paper about the Idaho electrical inspector
qualifications.
Freckleton: A mouth full. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I wanted to first just
apologize yesterday for the -- the confusion with getting the right version in front of you
and, hopefully, you have -- you do have our position paper in your packets. We have
talked to I believe all of you before about some of the difficulties we are having in filling
some of the positions in building services. Of particular difficulty has been trying to find
qualified individuals for our electrical program. We have been at this for nine months now
and we have been able to fill two positions. We have three more to go. Other Treasure
Valley jurisdictions are having some of the same difficulties, not only in electrical, but in
-- in mechanical, plumbing and building as well. We are all kind of competing for the
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same talent that's out there and there is a very limited number of people in the market. A
lot of this is because of the record low unemployment, obviously, but there is also just
with the -- the growth and building activity that's going on there is a very high demand for
the trades and so qualified people that are out there are working in the trades and they
are making good money right now and so it's -- it's tough and there is not a lot of certified
individuals that are entering the field of -- you know, to be an inspector. Sometimes we
see people that have been in the trades for a long time and their bodies are just wore out
and they want to finish their careers out and be inspectors and those people are pretty
limited as well. With regards to the electrical in particular, current Idaho code requires
that inspectors working in the state of Idaho have to be a four year experience journeyman
electrician. Well, like I said before, if you're a journeyman electrician you're out there
making pretty good money right now working in the -- in the field. So, that has really been
a difficulty for us, because a lot of our surrounding states don't have such a requirement.
A lot of our surrounding states require different levels of certifications and qualifications
to be an inspector. So, Idaho has a little bit of a disadvantage to these other states --
competitive disadvantage because of that situation . So, one of the things that we really
see as a problem is that our inability -- not only Meridian's inability to hire individuals, but
other Treasure Valley jurisdictions and across the state is that this could have a slowing
effect on building. If we can't meet service demands because we don't have enough
inspectors to be able to go out and inspect the work that's being done , we are going to
have backlogs of inspection requests that we can only get to and it's going to slow things
down a little bit. We are -- with this position paper we are proposing to allow other
qualifying criteria in the state of Idaho. What we are proposing is the IAEI certification,
which is another nationally recognized certification . With the IAEI comes a pretty good
list of qualifying criteria to even be able to take that test , some of which are qualifying
hours, you know, you got to have some experience -- demonstrated experience to be able
to do that. The other certification that we have been looking at as the ICC or the
International Code Council. ICC is -- is the body of codes that we use for building,
mechanical, electrical, plumbing across the state. The problem with the ICC certification
is it didn't have a lot of that qualifying criteria and so there was really an imbalance in the
qualifying criteria for certification. So, what we did in our proposal was we added some
qualifying criteria to put the ICC and IAEI on the same, you know, level for qualification.
So, the proposal that we have for this -- this change of legislation, we have discussed it
with our stakeholders, we have discussed it with the Building Contractors Association, not
only the local chapter, but also David Yorgason, the government affairs director, has taken
it to the statewide BCA as well. We have also -- Robert Simison has taken this to the AIC
legislative committee and had some conversation with them, too. We have got general
support across all of those. I will say that the AIC legislative committee was also curious
about mechanical and plumbing. What we see with mechanical and plumbing is there
are some similar problems with the way that the stat utes are as far as qualifying criteria,
but they are not -- they don't rise to this level of the electrical. Electrical is really the one
that has given us the most difficulty. But AIC does -- does have some interest in possibly
addressing the mechanical and plumbing, too. So, as we go through this it might expand.
They have expressed some interest in potentially carrying this legislation and so what we
are seeking from you -- we have never done one of these position papers. This is my first
one. But what we are seeking from you is support for the principles behind what we are
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trying to do here and, you know, to go forward with this, understanding that, you know, as
we go through the legislative process there is more than likely going to be changes to the
text. I mean certain things could change as we go through this. So, that's where we are
at and that's what we are wanting to address with you and get your -- get your thoughts
and any comments or concerns you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Council, any questions?
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I'm -- my comments, really, is just that I'm excited that you're moving forward
with this plan, because, you know, we kind of discussed this a few months back and to
kind of be attacking this issue that we are having from every possible angle to -- to get
the people that we need and I think, you know, legislative fixes often seem daunting,
especially given our recent history, but they are much more doable than I think a lot of
people can realize -- or realize, especially things that makes sense and this is definitely
one of them. So, having everybody doing -- doing all the due diligence on the back end
to make sure everybody possible can be on board before we even get to the legislative
session starting, hopefully, it goes through as smoothly as possible. Good work.
Freckleton: Thank you. Thank you. You know, we do -- we do realize that this is not a
short-term fix. This is a long-term thing. It's going to take some time. You know, one of
the other things that Cameron has been -- has been trying to approach, too, is what can
we do with our local community colleges and trade schools and , you know, we got to --
we got to get more people into the industry. So, again, those are long-term fixes, but if
we don't start now working on that we are just -- we are just shooting ourselves in the
foot, so --
De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Any further comments or questions from Council?
Borton: Do we need direction?
De Weerd: I do think that our -- our team would appreciate direction from Council in the
form of a motion.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we support the principles behind the Idaho electrical inspector
qualification position paper.
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Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? 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.
Freckleton: Thank you very much.
Item 7: Department Reports
A. Police Department Annual Report
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Under Department Reports we have Item 7-A is our Police
Department annual report.
Lavey: Madam Mayor and Council, Charlie and I just agreed we are going to flip flop. I'm
going to give the Fire Department update and, then, he's going to give our update.
De Weerd: That's why you look so serious.
Lavey: Yeah. Me or him?
De Weerd: You.
Lavey: Oh. I was going to say, yeah, I'm -- if I was asked to do the Fire Department
update -- the fire station update -- Madam Mayor, Council, as always thank you for your
time. This is the time where we are going to come in front of you and give you some
updates on the PAM model for patrol staffing. Something I committed to several years
ago is coming back in front of you every -- every December and having -- having those
talks. I -- after listening to the last presentation from Bruce you're going to find a similar
story in what we have to share with you as far as our challenges in finding qualified staff
as well. We have a few other items to update you on and, as always, I welcome any
questions or any comments and we can go any direction you want , and, of course, you
know me as the chief, I can spend as much time up here as -- as you would like, but I
have 23 slides that should go fairly -- fairly quickly. So, the areas of discussion that we
chose today was to talk about staffing, share a few comments on serving our community,
briefly talk about some school safety issues, give some highlights on the city emergency
preparedness, talk briefly about the scenario village project, talk about police substations,
highlights, response times, calls for service. Briefly talk about the PTSD legislation.
Going to have a short presentation from MADC and, then, we will just do a wrap up, any
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questions or comments that you may have . As we currently stand, we are allocated 114
sworn officers and we have 37 nonsworn personnel and the bottom line is our personnel
work very, very hard to do a quality job with the resources that they have, but it's
challenging every single day as we -- as we move forward and that's just due to grow and
the inability to fill positions. Current status is we have eight openings. We have two
additional upcoming retirements that I have been notified of. So, that makes ten
openings. We have given three conditional offers that should start on April 8th. We had
a female officer start last week and so she's not part of that -- she will be part of the group
in April as well. She goes to the Academy in January. And, then, I had to update the slide
today, because when I originally did this slide I had that we were testing 50 applicants.
Well, that testing occurred on Saturday. We ended up inviting 38 applicants, because
that's all that were qualified out of that 50. Out of those 38 that we invited, 30 showed up
and out of those that did show up we whittled those down to 13, due to inability to pass
the physical test and ability to follow directions or inability to pass the written test or other
background issues that popped up. We haven't even oral interviewed them, so out of
those 13 we are probably looking at one or two out of those eight to ten positions that we
have open. So, needless to say, we are already planning on testing again right after the
holidays. It's been such a daunting task that we can't even close the application process.
We leave it open until all positions are filled. That will probably last until I decide to retire,
but we are currently accepting positions for both certified and noncertified positions, doing
everything that we can to fill those positions. We are also testing the four community
service officers in mid January. Those positions have -- we have screened the applicants
and we have oral interviews mid January to try to alleviate the pressure that our officers
are facing out there and, then, our public information officer position is still open. We had
gone through the process, chose a candidate and, then, that candidate did not work out.
Therefore, we had to start the process all over again and that is occurring over the next
couple of weeks. We continually remain understaffed as we face this growth. We had
difficulty filling the positions, as I just highlighted with you. Just to remind you that we
added seven officer allocations in FY-17 and in the past I have always talked about the
calculations and how we came up to what we actually need out there and -- and I don't
believe that -- since I'm not the one that does that number crunching, that I have done the
best job trying to explain what that all means and I get this glazed look from you all going
what are you talking about and so I have a separate handout that I'm going to give to you
that will share with you some of the calculations that we use to come up with those figures,
but we won't talk about it here today. But I will just share with you that if you recall in our
budget workshops last year we said that the PAM model that we agreed to with the most
conservative estimates indicated nine additional police officers needed based upon the
growth that the city had faced and that we had foregone hiring those positions for two
reasons. One was the inability to fill the positions that we currently had and, then, two is
the thought was to bring on those community service officers and see if we could reduce
the workload of the day-to-day things. So, the police officers and, then, use the higher
end type calls for an armed police officer and so we didn't add those nine. But as we
crunch the numbers of the miles of roadways we have grown and all the growth and the
population that we have faced, currently we are looking at seven additional officers for
FY-19. So, if you have been there doing the math, Genesis, that's 26 officers. That's
eight, plus two, plus nine, plus seven. There is absolutely no way we are going to be able
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to fill those positions by finding quality applicants, nor could we train that many people in
one year. So, I have no idea what I will be presenting to you in -- in the budget process,
but the -- the Mayor and I and our Council liaison will figure out some sort of unique
approach. But that's the -- that's the news. And before I forget there, C.Jay, I will hand
out -- give the handout to you, so you can pass it onto the other council members. Out
of that handout that I'm giving you there is one slide in there that looks similar to this one
that you see on your screen right there and it just highlights how many officers we
currently had, how many we added in '17, how many would be needed in '18 and how
many would be needed in '19 based upon the PAM model figures and I just gave you that
-- that handout. So, we don't need to cover it any further and I will just take questions on
it at the end, if -- if there is any. It just so happens that two of our stars are in the audience
Here today, Lieutenant Shawn Harper and Joe Bongiorno from the Fire Department. They
have been working collaboratively together on school safety. Back last year when we
faced one of our many tragic school shootings, we got together and said what do we need
to do on a local level to ensure that we are doing everything that we possibly can to make
our schools safe. There were some other things that had come up with people trying to
take it upon themselves to make their school safer and in -- in the process we are really
making the schools more unsafe with some of the actions that were taken and we put
these two gentlemen together to discuss response needs an d it really took off in a
direction that we weren't really expecting in regards to how to respond to fire alarms, how
to respond to active threats and such, and once we got that local meeting together, we
reached out to the other school districts, Kuna, Nampa, Boise, Meridian -- I don't believe
there is any more than that originally. But, then, the Governor's School Safety Task Force
members became involved and it soon became the platform for statewide school safety
standards and I'm not going to go into too much more than that, because we currently
have a presentation planned for January -- I believe it's January 30th with a joint meeting
with the West Ada School District when we are going to give a greater in depth
presentation on what's been occurring. But I will share with you that these two gentlemen
have -- are tasked with going to several conferences with stakeholders to present what
they have done, but it's -- it's been taken notice statewide. So, I would just like to kind of
thank them for the importance of this task and -- and not only being able to help us on the
local level, but perhaps helping the school safety across our state. Serving our
community. Probably our greatest asset -- no, it is our greatest asset -- is our people.
Our employees exemplify the Meridian Way and our CARE values each and every day. I
can tell you that since I have been chief I have seen a major cultural difference in just our
-- our internal workings, but in our interactions with our community as well a nd I couldn't
be more proud of what we see. That's not to say that we don't have the -- the typical
unhappy customer, because we still do. I guess that happens when you get arrested.
But it's few and far between. And later on in this presentation I have some additional
comments in that regard. As I said before, we are continuously challenged with our
staffing issues. I by no means put that on the backs of anyone. This Council has been
very supportive of -- of our needs. They recognize our needs and have finance -- that we
are just facing an unexpected growth and the inability to find those key people to fill those
positions is a challenge, but we are making it work. But I -- I have to recognize that some
days I don't know how our people do what they do and it's appreciated. Also it's not a
secret to you all, it's been a challenging year for our people. We have faced some things
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that no one ever wants to face in their careers, yet they have been very resilient and still
get the job done and so I thank them for that. You heard from code enforcement a few
weeks ago. I also know that a few council members reached out and asked additional
questions, so I'm not going to talk about anything on that regards today. If you do have
additional questions you can reach out to Rich or to Lieutenant Colaianni or myself and
we will make sure that we get those questions answered for you. We also wanted to do
a detailed community service crime prevention presentation, but Stephanie is getting
ready to go out on to family leave. We just hired a new crime prevention officer and we
would like to come back at a future date after March to give you a presentation on what
they are doing with that -- that second position, if it would be okay with you. Just a couple
other things. Because of the -- the nature of the -- of the holidays I want to do some -- a
couple highlights. Our annual Shop with a Cop is this weekend to assist some of those
kids out there that may not have the best Christmas. So, we will do our part to help them.
We are also assisting local families again this holiday. We have picked two families this
year to help have a great Christmas. Recently just did Rake Up Meridian with the
association and I will tell you that our Meridian Police Employees Association do things
every single month in this city and they do good things for not only our -- our employees,
but for the community and I would encourage you to follow them on Facebook if -- if you
don't already. Just wanted to highlight this, because it's been challenging looking at the
overtime in our criminal investigations division , because of some of those lengthy calls
we exceeded our overtime budget in CID. I know that we always keep a close eye on
that and so it's always a concern, but despite the staffing issues we have had, despite the
cases that we have had, we were able to return ten percent of our overtime budget back
to the General Fund this past year. I will tell you this that I don't know how that was
possible, but -- but it was and we -- we welcome that. That's a good sign. I don't have to
explain to you why we were ten percent over, but maybe this is my way of saying we
might be ten percent over next year, I don't know. So, we continually keep a close eye
on that and I will tell you the trick that we use to get instant report is using our open.gov.
The transparency page that we put to our citizens, it is easier for me to go click on that
and get the answer than it is to go through our own internal database to get that
information. So, it's there at the tip of your fingertips for any department that you want. A
couple other highlights. You know, Meridian and Nampa has bantered back and forth at
who is the biggest, probably who is the best. I know I had that conversation with just the
previous chief here two weeks ago, but we are pretty unique in the size of our cities and
the number of our people and really kind of unique in how we value our people and -- and
how we do things and so we had joined with them to work on some training issues where
we might be able to save some monies to train together and , then, to help each other out
as well. They are facing the same challenges we are of filling positions and -- and I know
that they have a need for about 15 new bodies over the ne xt five years. So, they are in
the same boat as we are. What's Plan B if we can't fill those positions and that's the
MOUs and working together and training together and so we -- we worked with Idaho
POST, state POST and we have received certification to do our own training academy if
that's what we need. Why is that significant? So, we don't have to wait until POST offers
a class. So, if we are able to get enough -- fortunate enough to get enough people on
board we can do our own academies over and over again to try to get those people on
the road just as soon as possible. The other thing that we have done in the police
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department is we used to have a once a month training day and we have grown so much
that -- and, then, trying to cover staffing that's been difficult to do. Training is the highest
-- one of the highest priorities we have in our department . We know that if we have well
trained people that we have happy people and we have people that don't get us sued
and, therefore, we had to look for unique ways to continue that training and so we put
together a block training. Block training is a week training where we establish a week
load of training and we have all instructors together and that you show up for one week
and that's all you do is train, train, train and, then, once you're done training you go back
in and hit the road and we do that for six to eight weeks, so we don't have to try to schedule
monthly now. So, that's worked -- that's worked really well for us so far. One of the other
moments -- probably one of our proudest moments -- to highlight back many, many, many
years ago we had Mike Tanner from IT had decided to come work for the City of Meridian
and he's a computer programmer and he's -- let's just say he's good at what he does and
he wrote a report writing program for us and it evolved into a case management program
and, then, we have had other computer programs out there for records management,
CAD, Computer Aided Dispatch and such and we have had difficulties at best with our
RMS system and our RMS, Records Management System, has always been in joint
partnership with the city of Boise and Ada county and so we decided to do our own. Not
only does that save us in excess of 800,000 dollars, plus the yearly maintenance fees on
top of that, ours is getting ready to be up and running in Ada county is still waiting. It's
going live January 1. So, Mike -- between Mike Tanner and IT, Dave Tiede and under his
leadership my records unit and our crime analysis unit we have written ou r own RMS
program, got it state certified, got it FBI certified and we are good to go. We will see how
it goes, but this has been a -- a two and a half year project trying to get it done on top of
all the other city needs, but kudos to that group of people for once again highlighting the
good work that they do. Probably our -- well, cross our fingers that it works, Mike. It's
probably our proudest -- proudest moment and it -- and it does work, we just haven't gone
live on it yet, but -- emergency preparedness. Chief Niemeyer had talked about this a
little bit last month. I believe it was last month. And I just wanted to highlight what we
have done. We have always put our employees' safety as priority number one, paramount
to anything that we all do and we have done a lot of work on putting together an
emergency response plan, but it seemed like it always hiccupped, hiccupped, hiccupped,
hiccupped and trying to get everybody together and have a meeting and -- and plan and
we just said this -- this isn't working. And so the chief and I had said, okay, let's just take
this under our wings and get this together and, then, we can present it and so we put
together an emergency response plan, got the Mayor involved, got the -- so, she could
put a forward into it, a letter into it, and, then, got Kaycee Emery involved for a little bit of
the marketing side and, then, it's currently in the hands of -- of Joe Bongiorno and -- and
Lieutenant Harper to take the wording that we have in there and convert it over to the new
wording that we are using for the school safety stuff , so it's all consistent -- as much as it
makes sense if we need to keep some of the old stuff in there . Wanted to have that ready
to go before the snow hit. I guess we missed that deadline, since we had snow last week.
The snow that we were supposed to get this week hasn't come yet, but we are not rushing
it, we want to make sure it's right, it exists, and, then, once it's vetted out to all the subject
matter experts, we are going to have it posted on the internet, so everybody has access
to it. But with that being said, it also incorporates the winter emergency response that we
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had. We are good to go on that. Cross our fingers that we don't need to use it, but I do
recall them saying it was going to be a light winter and very warm and so far it's -- it's not
been so light and it's not been so warm. So, we will see what happens. But the other
responses that the manual covers is active threats, medical, fire, all those typical things
that you would face on a -- potentially on a daily basis or at least the unknowns in there.
The scenario village. This has been an ongoing project that got delayed for a little while,
just because, frankly, we couldn't find anybody that would bid our project. We were so
small compared to what else was going out there it was challenging at best. So, CSHQA
was the only one that had submitted a bid and, then, we had to sit down with them and
work through them to highlight a timeline where they are available to actually do the work.
I mean they are working on a 50 million dollar project and we had a 50,000 dollar project
and so you know who is going to get the -- the highest priority. So, working through them
we did come up with a contract and the timeline that I gave them was the end of January
to have some conceptual designs in place, so that we could start preparing for the -- the
FY-19 budget workshops, not knowing what we are going to do with that, at least we
would have that -- that knowledge. But I will tell you that if we are going to have cost
estimates or as more actualities than estimates or guesses, we are going to need
additional money for a CM to come up with those estimates. Otherwise, all I'm going to
be able to give you is a best guess and, then, I'm going to have to come back and explain
why we went over. So, we will have to strategize where we go once we get those
conceptual designs in place and, then, start talking about a timeline. I will tell you that
impact fees can be used for part of that, about 22 percent of the project, and those impact
fees have an expiration date and we are in I think year five of those expiration dates, so
we have to commit that money to a project sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we have
to refund those monies. So, that will be future -- future discussion. The police substation.
A one point in time we had designed a building in -- back in 2002 for future expansion and
talking with probably a couple chiefs back and he said that, you know, we probably
wouldn't expand much at this department, we would expand out into a substation. Well,
we have done both. We have added 2,500 square feet onto our building. We are running
out of space as it stands. We have a substation out there in a fire station that we -- we
utilize for report writing purposes, but it doesn't fulfill the need for our citizens and so the
original concept was to put additional substations in fire stations and we felt that that was
not the appropriate model. So, we started looking at locations for substations. Originally
we were focused in on The Village, because -- frankly, because we had Kleiner Park
there, a 25 million dollar project, quite proud of that and we wanted to make sure that we
had law enforcement on site that could make sure that -- that place remained something
we can be proud of. The Village, to their security -- and it was a little rough at first, but,
then, they modified that and, then, working with their security stepped up and we haven't
-- well -- and I guess the fact that Toby Keith's bar didn't show up either was probably
another mechanism why it was a little bit more under control out there, but it doesn't make
any sense to put a substation out there when you do have to respond out there. It's fairly
quick to get there from the police department. Where it does make sense to have a
substation is in the northwest part of the city in the growth out there -- the growth center
out there. It takes 25 minutes to get there currently and so we are looking at something
on the Chinden corridor for a substation where a citizen might be able to go do some
business at that substation without having to drive all the way down to the police
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department, such as pay fines or fees or make certain requests, file reports and such.
So, we are currently exploring that. It's in the CFP, but also you're going to find a second
substation in the CFP for -- it's closer to ten years out in the southeast portion of the city.
If you know that out there it's starting to pick up and it's starting to grow. We have the Y
out there and we have Albertsons coming out there and we have all those developments
out there that -- although we don't have a crystal ball, from what we see so far that's going
to be another growth area that we are going to have to concentrate on in the future and,
again, it takes about 20 minutes, 25 minutes to get to that end of the -- the city limits from
the current police department. So, those are two areas that we are looking at over the
next few years to ten years. Again, I will share with you that impact fees can be used a
hundred percent for the substations if we own them and they are stand alone and without
getting into it too much right now, both Finance and Legal have indicated that we are in
year five of those funds and we have to -- we have eight years to spend them. So, we
have some work to do on that, too. Might be able to use that toward that northern
substitution. And, then, just that last bullet point is we have many people working on this
right now. We have the admin -- police department admin. We have Finance. We have
Legal. We have our impact consultant team that's working on it as well. This was also
talked about a little bit last -- last month in Chief Niemeyer's presentation on PTSD
legislation. I will just give you a couple more of our highlights is that as it stands right now
in order for workmen's comp to address any injuries to a f irst responder out there there
has to be some sort of physical injury. It cannot be any mental injury and, unfortunately,
for us we have experienced some tragic things over this last year that has really brought
to light the mental welfare of our -- of our people and they know that when you talk to
people they talk about, well, how much is this going to cost? Well, it's already costing us
and I can tell you that when you have both firefighters and police officers that are taking
their own life at a higher rate than being lost in the line of duty we have a problem and we
talk about asking people to share with us when they need help, yet we don't offer help
and when I'm speaking of this I'm speaking that as a whole, just in general, because we
as a city do a very fine job of trying to take care of our people , but we need to have that
mechanism -- mechanism in place. So, we talked about asking for help if you need it,
yet, then, we put a stigma on you that, oh, you asked for help, but we are not going to
help you and so hit the road and so we have a lot of work to do. You will probably see a
bill show up in the legislature. There is still a lot of questions that need to be worked
through, but I just ask you to review that bill and , then, reach out to both -- both chiefs
and let's talk about this together to see what we can do to -- to make sure that our first
responders are -- are cared for, because there is a cost and -- and is there an upfront cost
or how much does that cost in the end and, of course, when someone loses their life that's
the ultimate cost and, yes, I do kind of take this personal because of some of our
experiences we have faced this past year. But I will share with you that we just have to
evaluate what we do to try to keep the people that we have , because we are not having
any luck filling those positions that are open. So, that's all I have on that for now.
De Weerd: Chief?
Lavey: Yes, ma'am.
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De Weerd: I think that you want Council to weigh in on this at some point. When would
there be a draft that would be available and would you be preparing a white paper for this
Council to consider?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, I know that as the legislative session comes closer there
is going to be a draft bill in place. I do not have my hands on it. I do know that there is
another meeting next week. As soon as I have it in my hands I will make sure that it's --
it's to the appropriate people. Then we have to vet it out to see what sort of unintended
consequences the current draft would face , try to get the answers to those financial
analysis questions and, then, we will write something up for -- for this Council to consider
and we will go from there.
De Weerd: And I think they have done some of that cost analysis to date.
Lavey: They have done some of that cost analysis. I will tell you that I do not have the
answer to this question and one of the things that piqued my interest is that I -- I was
recently asked, well, what does this have to do -- what would this -- how would this -- how
would this phase someone that's self insured and, then, all of a sudden that triggered me
and that I just sat through last month a discussion of that being a potential direction that
we were going to go in the future years with Council and I knew that that was a question
I had to get answered. I do not have that answer yet. I wouldn't think that it would impact
us often and it would impact us greatly, but we have to run those figures and -- and I will
share with you -- as soon as I know it I will share with this group. Does that answer the
questions I think?
De Weerd: So, you most likely will be back after the beginning of the year with --
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, having flashbacks on how I presented last time in front
of Council on legislative issues -- yes, I will be back -- or someone will be back. But it's
important and that's what we have to talk about.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Lavey: I just wanted to give a few minutes to discuss something you're going to see in
your dashboards every quarter that we give you anyways , but I went back and started to
do a review on response times and to let you know that a code one response is just a
normal driving response. A code two response is an urgent response. And a code three
response is an emergency response. So, if you're calling to report a not-in-progress type
report type call you could expect to see an officer there between 12 and 15 minutes.
Now, I will share with you that these are average from the responses for the entire city.
So, some people may get a shorter response , some people will get a longer response
and, then, depending on what's going on there in the city at any particular time it could be
a longer -- a longer wait. But the average time is 12 to -- 12 to 15 minutes for a code one
response. Code two response it is -- averages about seven to eight minutes. This is one
that is a little bit more critical in that a code two response has a wide gamut of type calls.
Alarm calls, burglary calls, that sort of thing in that we don't have any chance of catching
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anybody if it takes us seven to eight minutes to get there, because you already have a
delay time of five minutes before an alarm comes in, but others type calls that are urgent,
but not an emergency, you're going to be waiting a little bit to get an officer there. Still not
within our parameters of what we think is -- is reasonable, but it could be felt a lot longer
than seven or eight minutes if you're the one asking for a police response. And, then, our
code three response or emergency responses we averaged four minutes. That doesn't
change much. Sometimes you see 3.9, sometimes you see a 3.8 if you're really lucky.
Sometimes you see 4.21. It really averages about four minutes. We have a range of
three to five minutes. Three minutes would be really awesome, but even three minutes
is too long when you're the one that's waiting -- waiting for help. Anytime you call 911 and
you need someone there quickly, the quickest we are going to get there is four minutes.
So, something to keep in mind with the -- the staffing that we have, that's not going to
improve. It's four minutes. And, then, just to tell you something you probably already
know, traffic-related type calls are one of our biggest calls for service . Our crashes have
seen an increase, but that's also because we have seen a population increase.
Sometimes our infrastructure -- I don't know if sometime is the word -- almost always our
infrastructure is delayed to our growth and so we are trying to fit a lot of people onto those
roadways and it creates issues for us, although I will share with you that if you think that
you're having traffic issues here, I just spent a weekend in Portland and -- and we don't
have any issues whatsoever to complain about. This is kind of sad. No. This is sad. A
lot of the calls we deal with our crisis-related type calls. Mental health calls. Welfare
check calls. Overdose type calls. People doing crazy things type calls. And almost
always it's tied to narcotics and it takes up a great portion of our time, it takes a great
portion of our resources and we are just busy. Now, I don't think any town or city wants
to say that the crises center of the -- whatever, so I will share with you that we are not
unique. This is something that is occurring not only in this valley, in this state, but across
the United States. We are not any different than what's out there. We have a lot of people
that are struggling with substance abuse, mental health issues and, frankly, there is just
not enough facilities to get them the help that they need. One thing that we are hopeful
for us when we have the -- the new hospital opening up here soon in Meridian, that they
will be able to handle some of our -- our crisis needs that -- that come up. But, frankly,
when you're -- if you don't have insurance, you don't get any help unless you get arrested
and into the system and the system's broken and I don't know what the answer is to -- to
fix that. So, we also deal with domestic violence. You have heard me say it before that
even one is too many and as much as we educate and educate and educate we still deal
with it on a weekly, if not daily basis. So, let's all work together to try to help those that
are close to us get the help they need or get out of those circle of violence rela tionships
if we can. And, then, although we have our crimes against persons that -- that -- that we
face, our number one thing that we deal with is property crimes and it's usually theft
related, shoplifting. Unfortunately, with us growing so much and having buildings, some
of our thefts have been construction theft. We have worked with the Builders Association
on how to put in place preventive measures to try to reduce those crimes of opportunity.
We put together a handout that has not only our logo on it, but BCA's logo on it that we
have been working with -- I believe planning to get it out there as a flyer, so when you
come in and ask for a building permit you get noticed right off the bat this is what you
should do to make sure that your properties are protected. So, we are working all together
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to solve those crimes and to date I believe we have arrested seven people for construction
thefts, but it's still occurring and it's not just occurring in Meridian, it's occurring in Eagle
as well and Boise, too. So, we are doing everything we can to try to reduce or prevent
those crimes. And, then, just some -- a couple highlights. We average approximately --
average approximately 13,000 calls for service per quarter and if you look at our daily log
that's -- we range between 140 and over 200 calls for service a day and we continue to
have more public calls or service reactive type calls for service than we have officer calls
for service where they proactively take enforcement. So, continually I think you will see
the handout I gave you. There is a chart in there what -- what our goal is versus what we
currently are at in regards to public calls for service and this is the point in time that we
want to share with you something that's been -- MADC and others have been working on
for a while now. It's a proposed fundraiser and it is -- has to do with an SRO assigned to
canine in our schools and -- and they want to highlight the interaction they have had with
both our department and with West Ada School District in making this happen and so I
would like to -- well, before I introduce her I will just share with you -- I have a couple more
slides as a wrap up and, then, when -- when Kendall is done, but at this point in time I
would like to invite Kendall up and, then, have Kendall maybe present to you on this
opportunity. Kendall.
Nagy: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I appreciate the time being here and being
able to give a quick update and request your future support on one of the projects that
the coalition is working on. I speak on behalf of the coalition members, our community
members, and, then, also West Ada School District and all the students that attend, which
I believe is nearly 47,000 this year and what we are working on is putting together a
project -- we went through and since I started in 2015 when I'm out in the community I
ask what prevention strategies have been most useful and impact the most community
members and across the board talking to school admin, nurses and counselors, they have
said that the canine -- canine visits impact the entire student body. So, with some of our
other efforts we will get some of the kids that are interested and they come to us and visit
us at a booth or with one of our other strategies and this is one that making an
announcement ahead of time and giving a broad date range of when they might come
and, then, having them present in the school for the sniff and, then, afterwards there is
conversation that happens as well and that, in fact, affects everyone and gets all the
student body talking. So, it's the ones that really need to have you having that
conversation and raising that prevention awareness and, then, also, of course, reducing
drugs in the schools. We have also seen this be extremely handy in the states that have
legalized marijuana, having those canines in the schools and keeping the numbers lower
for the amount of marijuana seen in the schools there . So, there has been a lot of
preliminary meetings that have already taken place. I have met with Lieutenant Stokes
who oversees the canine division. Also Lieutenant Harper with the school resource
officers. I have met with West Ada School District board members and what we are
proposing -- what the coalition is proposing is that we raise 85,000 dollars, which is the
initial startup cost for the first year of this project and, then, going forward to sustain this
and have the SRO assigned canine in the schools will be an estimated cost of 14,000
dollars a year and we propose that that is split between West Ada School District and the
City of Meridian and that is where we are requesting your future support. I have already
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met with the directors at West Ada School District and they said that they support this
project and, obviously, we are working very well ahead of the game and our date range
and planning for this project is based on when the police department is planning to bring
on more canines and train those, so that we can streamline the training process and have
this done all at once and so we are looking at an implementation date of spring of 2021.
So, if we get approval to move forward and have support for that sustaining cost going
forward, then, I will let coalition members know that we have roughly a year to raise those
startup funds and we will be looking at -- we have different strategies and ideas that
coalition members have shared and we have discussed and, then, I'm also aware of a
few grant opportunities to help with that funding as well. We -- the bulk of that cost is to
purchase a canine equipped vehicle. That's -- that's going to be a big chunk of the change
and we will be using an existing SRO as a handler, rather than bringing on a new SRO
and, then, obviously, we will need to purchase the canine. So, I stand for any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I don't have any questions, but I think that's a fantastic idea. I'm really supportive
and I -- I would have to argue -- I don't even know, but I would bet money that the states
that haven't legalized marijuana have just as many or more drugs in -- as the -- as the
states that do, from what I have heard from kids.
De Weerd: Any other questions or comments?
Nagy: Okay. We appreciate the support and the opportunity to update you and we will,
obviously, be back with updates as we move forward. Thank you.
De Weerd: Kendall, while we have you up here -- and I apologize I wasn't here at the
beginning of your presentation, but do you want to give a little brief overview of the
legislative gathering held and the movie that they were able to view, The Chronic State,
and just give us a little bit of maybe feedback that you have received.
Nagy: Sure. Absolutely. So, we held a legislative educational session for Ada county
legislators and we, meaning MADC and key partners, arranged that. We had Community
Coalitions of Idaho as a key partner. St. Luke's Health Services. Idaho State Police.
Idaho Office of Drug Policy and, obviously, Meridian Police Department as key partners
and supporting that and while we did have a lower attendance it was a smaller intimate
affair, we didn't publicize. I wanted to focus on legislators and education and we did have
-- out of the nine districts that were invited I have had correspondence with six of them,
different members, and, then, what we did is we previewed or showed Chronic State,
which is a documentary that was produced by Drug Free Idaho and it highlights and has
information from the states that have legalized marijuana and the unintended
consequences and the impact that they are seeing in communities very similar -- some
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of them shape to ours and population and the unintended consequences of that and that
marijuana normalization and so I recommend that each of you -- I included you on some
of that correspondence and I recommend that each of you view that and as we move into
the next legislative session I do know and I have met with Representative Dorothy Moon
and she will be sponsoring another CBD bill this next session. I have not seen that bill
yet, but we have got tabs on it and she did say that it would be similar to a bill that we
saw last session.
De Weerd: And the link to watch Chronic State is -- it was in the e-mail that Kendall sent
out and if you haven't had a chance to view it I -- it's highly recommended. Any other
questions or comments? Okay. Thank you.
Nagy: Appreciate your time. Thank you.
Lavey: Thanks, Kendall. Madam Mayor and Council, I guess I could highlight some of
my other Portland experiences over the weekend in regards to that, but I will save that for
a different time as I was in a gas station. In closing just wanted to talk about a couple of
the other key areas that -- that we are kind of proud of his last year, if you recall, we got
high remarks on our citizens survey. In fact, they were so high that you don't often see
those -- those results in your police department and so we are quite proud of that.
Recently we just had high remarks in our recent employee engagement survey, which is
our internal survey as well, to the point where when you were trying to pick out areas to
work on improvements on it was kind of hard to figure out what areas that you wanted to
work on. That was difficult, but the -- the more difficult part is we have set the bar so high
that being able to maintain or challenge ourselves to do even better is going to be much
harder. For a values based organization we really take it seriously and who we are, what
we represent and how we treat our people, both internally and externally. They are not
just words anymore, they actually mean something to -- to our people. We have seen a
noticeable change in the comments -- the positive comments we receive via social media,
e-mail, phone calls, letters, face to face on a daily basis. It is unbelievable what I receive
on how good our people are doing. If you recall many, many years ago we had proposed
a body worn camera program. We really proposed it before it was -- I won't say forced,
but was highly recommended that it was needed out there for law enforcement and we
had a few officers that were wondering why we are going down that route and did we not
trust them and we said it wasn't about not trusting you, it's about -- it was a matter of
proving the good that you do every single day and I tell you that perhaps the body worn
cameras are -- contribute to that, but they capture the good that our officers do each and
every day. So, what is our secret? And, frankly, it's our people and they make me, they
make you all look good for the work that they do. So, this is just a big thanks to them. I
usually thank them at the beginning, I put the thanks at the end, because I knew I would
have a hard time through it. So, with that, deep breath, and I will answer any questions.
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Chief, going back to your points about a sub -- or substations,
is it common that we have calls where officers are having to respond from the station?
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Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, yes. As you recall we are very, very busy,
yet we also have to -- part of our job is logging in evidence, part of it is switching out other
equipment, part of it is the dreaded report writing and we write those reports at the -- at
the station and so it is not uncommon to have a direct emergency response out of the
police department, because that's where they are doing all of those -- those duties. If we
have enough staff that is dispersed amongst the city, then, I guess one could argue that
there is a less need, but, then, you would still have to go somewhere to log evidence , do
report writing and all those other things that come with not just the field duties that we
have to do.
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I -- not a question, just wanted to say thank you. Having
been the previous liaison through a -- watching all of this in action, you -- you and your
team do an absolutely amazing job and the morale of your team is phenomenal,
especially considering what you have been through this year. I think it could have
decimated a less amazing group of people, but from what I have seen you have banded
together even harder and stronger and come out -- are still coming out -- through it, but
kudos over and over from the bottom of my heart for all that you and your team do .
Lavey: Well, Madam Mayor, Councilman Little Roberts, we had two choices to make.
We could either fall apart or we could -- we could band together stronger and we chose
the latter. So, yeah.
De Weerd: Well -- and kudos to your command staff, too. I think that the leadership and
the whole PD family rallied and -- and that goes a long way. I would just like to send my
-- my comments to Council that support you showed during that -- that period has gone a
long way and that was greatly appreciated and Council Member Little Roberts was very
engaged in the Police Department, just like the liaison prior to her with Mrs. Milam and --
and now Mr. Palmer. I think that that relationship is really important and that interaction
with the command staff goes a long way and I just want to express my appreciation to
Council that during that time I saw not just the PD family, but the city family really coalesce
and -- and join arms and show the support to our emergency responders, because it -- it
certainly reached out into our Fire Department as well. So, thank you to our leaders.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: In your presentation, chief, you said that it's amazing what you're able to
accomplish and you don't know how you're able to accomplish what you guys do with the
amount of resources that you have and that sort of struck a chord with me to a certain
degree, because I think it's evident. I feel this way and I know that there is not a single
council member that's sitting at the dais right now that -- that feels differently, but you have
the best dang police department in the state of Idaho.
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Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bernt, you're testing me now, because now you're
going to make me do this and the only one that usually does this is -- is the Mayor.
De Weerd: I'm so glad it's not just me.
Lavey: And -- and I know what's going on in your mind when -- when you're talking this
and so I know how difficult that is. But we are dedicated to this community and we will do
whatever we can to -- to do the best job that we can, but we are also realists in that we
know that there is those little things that people wish that we could do more of and that
we don't and whether that's spend an extra ten minutes running a radar in -- in a
neighborhood or some other minor thing, we get to it, but we have to prioritize our -- our
calls and most of our citizens really really get that. They really really understand that and
we are successful. But one of the things that makes us unique and one of the reasons
why we have been able to claim we are one of the safest cities in -- in our state is because
we still deal with those little things, because those little things, if they are left unhandled,
become medium things and, then, they become the large things and for all those reasons
that is why people are coming to Meridian is because their communities stop dealing with
the medium things. Their communities stop dealing with the little things and it came to a
point where their communities they no longer wanted to live in and so that's where it's
challenging for us and that's where it concerns me is that we don't have the time to deal
with every single little thing that we used to be able to deal with and I just know that if we
don't get a handle on this that eventually we are going to have to get to a point where we
can no longer deal with those little things and that's the part that concerns me and that's
the part that we have to conveniently discuss. So, yeah, they do some amazing --
amazing things, but we also have to realize that they are human and that we can't run
them into the ground either and so it's challenging. But, yes, they do amazing work. So,
I appreciate those heartfelt comments.
Bernt: Madam Mayor, follow up.
De Weerd: Yes.
Bernt: You know, also, chief -- sorry. I need to get closer. How about that? One other
thing, you know, I believe, you know, this -- your department is -- another reason for its
success starts at the top and to pick on some -- some of your staff that's here in the
audience, you know, Lieutenant Harper and Colaianni and Kendall, I guarantee you that
if you ask them -- get it together. My goodness gracious. Is it allergies? Is that it? And
so I know -- but I guarantee you if you were to ask them to run through a wall for you that
they would do it and so --
Lavey: I know a few of them would try, so I think I might ask them, but --
Bernt: I know that -- I know that -- I know that they would and that's the reason why you
have so much success in your department is because of your leadership and your strong
staff and those who work for you and do such a great job and I can't thank -- I can't thank
you guys enough and your staff and -- command staff and lieutenants and those who
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work for you, you guys do a fantastic job, but I also wanted to thank Mr. Harper and Mr.
Bongiorno for your safety initiatives that you're doing with the schools. It's such a big deal
and I think that we need to be prepared for when it happens here in Meridian, because I
-- and I say when. It will happen here. Hopefully not, but no surprises, but I commend
you for preparing us for that situation, so that when it does happen we are prepared. So,
thank you so much.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I -- I have never disagreed with a council member, so I got to
disagree with them on the record. They would not run through a wall for me, they would
run through a wall for our citizens.
Bernt: I agree with that.
De Weerd: Any other questions of our chief? I would like to echo the comments about
the school safety work that's been going on and that has been recognized across the
state. We are excited to -- to have the report and -- and next month, along with the -- at
our joint meeting with the school board and -- that they can hear the dedication between
Fire and Police and -- and, again, I -- this goes to a testament of the first responders we
have in our two departments that -- that collaboration and working together is -- is
unmatched I think by any department in this -- in this state and probably -- yeah. So,
anyway, we are proud of our first responders for sure and our department.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Council, just in closing I guess I will share with you, then, based
upon what you just said is that we had the pleasure of looking at a 13 minute video that
we just put together for the police patrol academy that is going to be starting in January
where our police and fire departments worked together to film this to show how it should
be done and we are the -- the stars of that video and there is other people -- in fact,
Charlie's back there, too. I saw him get his autograph. He's there. Just highlighting the
relationships that we have, because what we do have here is -- is -- is very unique, but it
can be emulated across the state if they so choose and so we are going to start sharing
that as well and I will just leave it by saying if I don't see you happy holidays and I thank
you for your time today.
B. Fire Station #6 Update
De Weerd: Thanks, chief. Okay. Item 7-B is under our Fire Department, an update on
Fire Station No. 6. Welcome, Charlie.
Butterfield: Good evening, Madam Mayor, City Council. This is the monthly update for
Fire Station No. 6. I will start off with the most current rendering that we have of the
station by our design team. It's a beautiful station as you can see. I will start off also with
the timeline. So, an update on the current timeline. The complete set of plans from our
design team will be given to the construction team in a couple of days and that is the final
set for bidding. ESI, our construction team, will create bid packages from that set of plans,
divvying up the different sections. Earthwork. Steel. Masonry. Plumbing. Electrical.
Etc. Creating those packages that will, then, go out to bid. So, it will take them a few
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weeks to do that. So, the plan is to -- to have those scopes go out to the subcontractors
for bidding in early January. As the subcontractors have -- perform all their bids, they will
have all those bids back to ESI for a bid -- final bid opening on January 29th. After that
we will have what is known as the guaranteed maximum price and, then, in February we
will be coming to Council with the guaranteed maximum price of this station from ESI and
a budget amendment at that time to be presented for City Council's review and hopeful
approval. As I have mentioned in several of my last updates, the timeline is on schedule
for us to break ground in March and we will have a groundbreaking ceremony in late
February or early March for everybody to attend. I do want to step back and just review
the entire project from the inception of this. When I was initially tasked with this project
we were looking at what a fire station would need in 20 years for this particular location .
Let's go for the future. Let's look at the future. Where are we going to be at in the future
and based on the current development and growth in the area and projected development
and growth in the area, we said we are going to need a good sized fire station. We are
going to need three apparatus bays. We are probably going to be running two companies
out of there, possibly an engine company and a truck company or a rescue company and
an engine company, but we realized in 20 years that with the growth we are going to need
enough space for the equipment and the people to run two companies out of there, 16,500
square feet was what we were looking at, eight firefighter bedrooms, a battalion chief's
quarters. So, when we initially started out with that 20 year vision , again, this is going to
be a building that's planned to be around for 50 , 60, 70 years, but in 20 years what we
are anticipating was this and we came up with an estimated cost of nine to ten million and
said, well, that's -- that's not going to work. So, what other options can we do? So, with
that in mind we scale this down in a collaboration and work with our design team, we said,
well, we want to build what we need today, but the ability to in the future add on what we
are expecting to come in in 20. So, we scaled down the size, we scaled down the scope
and we ended up with this smaller station with the ability to add on those elements in the
future when that need comes. So, we removed in additional apparatus bay. We went
down to two, instead of three. We removed the battalion chief's quarters and we removed
three of the firefighters bedrooms. We, ultimately, reduced the entire scope of the project
by about 6,000 square feet. That went out to an estimate of the cost, which came in at
about 7.9 million. At that time -- this was in April of this year. So, my direction to our
design team and our construction team at this particular point was that's still too much
money, but we really have narrowed down the square footage to the square footage we
need. So, what can we do as a team to reduce the cost, but still maintain square footage
without cutting into square footage. So, looking at reductions in -- in additional scope and
design. So, we refined it. We kept that square footage, but we refined the scope, the
design, the layout, some of the costs, some of the building materials that were initially
estimated in that. Some assumptions that were being made on cost and as my direction
was to our team, we are not going to take a scalpel to this, we are going to take a chainsaw
to it and we are going to get this narrowed down. So, we were able to reduce the price
down another 1.6 million dollars without cutting square footage. A lot of hard work went
into that. The estimated cost at that point -- this was my update to City Council on August
28th of 6,340,545 dollars. Still not entirely happy with that amount. I said we can do a
little bit better. Let's see how much more -- without reducing square footage can we get
this down. So, since my August update to City Council we have cut the costs. We have
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gone down about another 180,000 dollars. So, our current estimated overall cost is
6,161,119 dollars and that is keeping in mind a 10,500 square foot building, two apparatus
bays and five firefighter bedrooms and I do want to articulate when I say that that is the
total cost. That is the total project cost of 6,161,118. So, this kind of breaks it down a
little bit. Five million is within the industry they call the hard construction costs of the
building and site improvements just the building in it itself, by itself, is about 3.8 million.
The site improvements -- so, that's all the landscaping, the cost of putting in the
emergency signalization, the concrete for the apparatus to drive around, to drive out in
front, is about 1.2 million and, then, you can see here what design engineering consultants
preconstruction costs breakdown and, then, permits equipment, fixtures, furniture,
signalization equipment that we have to purchase through ACHD, allowances,
contingency kind of round out that number. So, when we talk about this number, this is
the entire total cost of the project. So, after we have kind of whittled this down the
conversation has been brought about from our team , well, what about adding in one of
those components that you cut out earlier in the game , the battalion chief's quarters in
particular. So, the design team and the construction team have looked at that and I said,
well, what -- what we would it cost to add that back in, since we are -- we are going to
have all of the contractors on site doing work, if we were to add that in what kind of cost
would we be looking at and they said about 61,000 dollars right now is the estimated cost
if we were to add in the battalion chief's quarters. So, that's a bedroom, a bathroom and
an office. If we were to do it later -- in talking with the construction team, if we were just
to leave this off, come back at another day, add in the battalion chief's quarters, they said
it will be double to triple that cost, because, then, you're bringing in contractors, there is
going to be removal of exterior walls to , then, create this area for this. There is a need
for this. Right now we currently do have a battalion chief on duty 24 hours a day out of
Station One. He is running out of -- have some quarters that have been set up in an old
admin section of Station One or an old conference room was somewhat turned into a
bedroom. The bathroom is the old bathroom -- used to be the public bathroom. So, we
are able to right now have the battalion chiefs over at Station One and they do respond
out of there, but this would create that own quarters for them. As you know, when we do
have responses with the battalion chief -- they don't respond on every call, so there are
times that the apparatus and the individuals in the fire station, the firefighters, do respond
to calls that the battalion chief doesn't and vice versa. So, sometimes that ability for them
to have their own space that they are not going to be interrupted by other moving people
can be very beneficial. So, looking forward to update in February I will be presenting
Council, myself and Chief Niemeyer, with the guaranteed maximum price and the budget
amendment and so tonight I'm not looking for any specific decisions or votes on adding
in the battalion chief quarters. I just wanted to bring it up that it will be presented to you
in the future when we do come with the final recommendation. There will be a cost A and
a cost B, essentially. Here is the overall cost of the project, including the battalion chief's
quarters and the project not including the battalion chief's quarter. So, it's more of an
update to let you know that that is forthcoming. For informational purposes right now. So,
with that that concludes my update and I would be happy to stand for any questions.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
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De Weerd: Thank you, Charlie. Yes, Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Madam Mayor, Charlie, thank you for your presentation. Just one quick question.
I saw a lot of dates there, new dates, you know, groundbreaking and when -- when we
are going to get information and when we will be making decisions on costs and so -- so
forth. Are we still on track to opening this thing up in January, February of the following
year?
Butterfield: That is correct. That is the -- my understanding from the construction crew
that they will have 12 months build time and that has been what I have reported in the
past, yes.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Thank you for the update and -- and the -- it looks like cost savings, Charlie. As
far as the battalion chief quarters, is there nowhere else that's more centralized that they
-- that anything could be added on for them or are we just -- this is the only location and
it is appropriate to have them at one end of the valley?
Butterfield: Madam Mayor and Council Member Milam, I think the expense to try to add
this onto someplace else, based on what -- the kind of expense we are looking at to add
this on into the construction of this current one, I think as was pointed out it could be
double to triple. Also, again, looking to the long term future as we do add additional
stations on the projected growth of the city, we will likely move into two battalions, so we
will -- once we have seven and eight fire stations it's generally a time that you end up with
two battalions, so you could very well in the future have a south Meridian battalion and a
north Meridian battalion with the interstate being the split. So, there is that potential in
the future growth projections of my vision of where I see us going.
De Weerd: Council, any other questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: No questions, just, Charlie, thank you so much. I know how diligently you
have been working on this to get the cost down and it's greatly appreciated. So, thank
you for all of your hard work on the update and all that you have been doing behind the
scenes.
Butterfield: Madam Mayor, Council Woman Little Roberts, thank you for that. Appreciate
that.
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De Weerd: Okay. Seeing no further questions, Council, if anything comes up, please,
reach out to Charlie and he can get you whatever information you might need and follow
up. Thank you, Charlie, for joining us.
Butterfield: Thank you.
C. Finance: American Institute of Architects (AIA) Contract
Process Evaluation
De Weerd: Okay. Item 7-C is -- certainly I have it listed under Finance. Council, we have
resources here in the city that are part of job descriptions in performing efficiency or
performing -- performance reviews and Vince and Brad are here to share a report they
have done in reviewing our process for the AIA contracts. Ted Baird has also participated
and helped as a resource and he will be sharing comments tonight. We did ask for a
review of the AIA contract process and they are here to report on what they have found
that didn't work so well and what worked well and -- and how we can improve this process
moving forward.
Koontz: Good evening. I guess it's evening now. I thought it was going to be afternoon,
but it's now into the evening, so -- Madam Mayor, Members of Council, we are going to
be presenting to you an overview and a report on evaluations of our current process with
contracts and capital projects for the city. Ted Baird, Brad Purser, Keith Watts and myself
were the authors of this report and we are going to present the findings to you here shortly.
Keith Watts was, unfortunately, not able to be here today, because he's had some family
emergencies and some family issues. So, certainly our thoughts and prayers are with
him on that, so -- but Ted's going to pick up the slack on -- on some of the things that --
that he was going to -- that he was going to tell Council about, so -- so, when the city
wants to do a capital project or a building of some kind we contract with design
professionals and construction managers to execute the project . Included in your report
is information from Discovery Park, Fire Station 6, the Public Works Administration lab
and operations building. We researched the AIA, which is the American Institute of
Architects, contracts and evaluated their use. Additionally, we objectively reviewed our
projects and processes in order to establish our findings ., Finally we researched other
cities current processes in order to find opportunities and best practices on how to apply
to our city's process improvements. Some of the key findings in the report. Not everything
in this report is going to be shared with you tonight. I wanted to highlight some of those
key things to you. There is 19 pages. I'm sorry about the link to that, but, you know, we
wanted to -- I wanted to cover some of that 30,000 foot -- foot view of a very complex total
process. We identified several things in this. One, there is five individual phases in a
capital project that we identified as a group . AIA contracts are preferred and that's
something that's in the report. What the departmental role should be. It is our view that
the departmental role as it -- as it currently stands is a project manager. What -- what we
found in doing research is the -- they -- they should really stand as more of an internal
customer and from right now they have multiple hats. They are are both -- their current
role as an internal customer and they are also the person that's providing input on the
project. The project manager role. Who is it? Who should fill it? What does that look
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like? We also talked about developing standard operating procedures with regards to this
process and that's in the report as well. So, the five phases we identified. One is the pre-
planning phase. This is the phase where we figure out what we need , what's included in
the project, what kind of amenities we want, the site selection, where we want to put it,
how much we estimate how much it's going to cost. The second phase is this design
selection RFQ phase and that's where we select the design team and construction team.
Phase three is to negotiate the contract. We looked at the AIA specific contracts. Phase
four. The evaluation and price determination and I know we have kind of been talking
about that with -- in Fire Station 6 tonight, so some of these terms -- some of this
terminology might seem familiar. And, then, five, price approval of the GMP and because
we were doing a process improvement project we learned some things from our PEAK
investment that we made and we developed the process when we -- when we looked at
this and we said what are all the steps in the process? We said we have got five steps in
it, we took a -- we took a look at it we said here is what the process map looks like. A lot
of post-it notes on this process map and you have probably -- you have probably seen
this, because you went through the PEAK training. So, all of these -- all of these pink
post-it notes -- and I apologize to you for so many post-it notes. So, you know, we will --
De Weerd: Yeah. What a waste.
Koontz: Yeah. Sorry. It is a waste, isn't it? But there is 81 total steps in this five phase
process that we found and each one of these post-it notes is its own action item. They
would be an action taken by an internal staff member or somebody that we contract out
with, whether they be -- you know, whether they be a contract -- or a construction
professional, design professional, our legal team, the project managers, everyone that's
involved in it and there is multiple -- multiple facets and phases of this process, but these
are -- this is kind of a visual representation of why does it take so long? Why -- why is --
why does this process -- why is this process so complex? And so this is -- this is that
visual representation of what we did as a group. So, many -- many of the steps that we
have in here could be considered wastes. We -- we did find, in fact, that there were waste
and wastes are typically identified is waiting for something, you know, we are having to
go back to the beginning and redo something, like we are having to redo a design or we
are having to go back and, you know, we estimate steps and we asked do these steps
have value. Do they provide a good -- good value to the city and good value to the
employees and a good value to external customers? This process allowed us to also
identify the blue post-it notes on there are the decision points. Where did we have to say
yes or no? Where did we have to ask for counseling? Or do we have to make a decision
where we had to wait on somebody? So, that -- that kind of overviews that. Now, what
I'm going to do is have Ted come up here and talk to some of the key findings in the -- in
our report and, then, he's going to be followed up with Brad, he's going to talk about some
of the financial findings and I will bring it home with some of the things that we discovered
from -- from the other cities that we interviewed, so --
De Weerd: Welcome, Ted. We haven't seen you for a while.
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Baird: It's good to see all of you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I will be
covering two slides tonight, focusing in on the contract negotiation process. We have
identified that process as being something that could be sped up and the main problem
the AIA contract has great acceptance in the build -- local building community. A lot of
municipalities use it. The terms are meaningful, they are well known, but every party
involved wants to make changes. The architect would like to make changes. The
construction manager would like to make changes. The city likes to make changes. We
are usually successful in making the types of changes that align the process with what's
required for public bidding, our insurance requirements, the limitations on
indemnifications that we can give. We like to fine tune the punch list items at the end of
the project to make sure that we are not into a substantial completion situation when there
is still outstanding items, the payment process included. So, those are the types of
changes that the city likes to make to the three agreements, the three main agreements
as the agreement between the city and the architect, the city and the construction
manager and, then, something called the general conditions, which applies to both the
architect's contract and the construction contract. So, there are only really three
agreements at play here. So, what we are thinking -- the problem is is that we don't
control that contract. We wait until the winning bidder decides to send us their -- their
version of the contract and that comes to us with their requested changes and that starts
a process of us analyzing what they have changed, responding to that. A lot of times just
asking to go back to the -- to the initial language, because once you start messing with it
that's when problems happen and, then, on top of that response to the contractor
requested changes we have to ask for our changes. This process takes sometimes
weeks. And, in fact, that was the primary reason for initiating this process improvement
project. So, the second slide is what can we do about that and we have identified that if
the city controls the contract process we can get things off to a great start by creating
custom templates that include the types of things that I just went over that we usually ask
for. We can also look at the contracts that we have recently negotiated and where we
have ended up on changes that are requested by the architect and the construction
manager, things that are reasonable and fair to all parties, that -- that type of thing. We
think that we can cut down two to three weeks, 25 of those 81 steps. That's pretty
significant. But this comes with a risk. It's a -- it's a little bit of a change. We don't want
to be seen as forcing terms and conditions that are seen as unreasonable on potential
bidders. We don't want to dilute the potential pool of folks that are responding, so before
we would implement any type of custom template we would want to get buy in from the
building community, the architect community, we can vet it with the contractors that we
normally use. Like I say, go back to where we ended up in our past negotiations, so that
nothing's going to be a surprise or onerous and, of course, we can consult with other folks
in the legal community, other municipalities, the International Municipal Officers
Association has some suggestions for changes, so we have got a wide variety of sources
to pull from and implementing this we are going to get started right away, so that we will
be ready when the next project comes along to go to bid. So, the bottom line with -- with
my two things was to take control of the contract process, we can cut out that two to three
weeks and 25 steps. So, I can either just stand for questions now or wait until the end, if
you have a preference, Madam Mayor.
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De Weerd: Probably wait to the end, unless a council member has something pressing
right now. Okay.
Baird: Okay.
Purser: I get to talk about estimation accuracy. The current process we have in place
now -- you saw the process map at 81 steps that we had all on post-it notes. The current
way things work is the department project manager touches I think 17 of those steps.
One thing Vincent alluded to earlier on was , you know, in addition to, you know, the role
as a project manager they are also doing their current duties that they typically have. So,
they have their current job and, then, project manager on top of that. They manage the
process. One thing we are saying is we need to move towards a -- what did they call it,
a facilities project manager who would take the lead and the department project manager
would, then, have a stakeholder, someone who has a seat at the table, but, you know,
would work with the facilities project manager to work with, you know, the building
community to make sure that we have what we need, that we are accurate. A critical part
of this is that needs to happen is that, you know, during the -- the pre-planning phase of
this -- so, once we have the department project manager working with the facilities
manager, you know, as -- as an internal customer, we also need to work on, you know,
setting in order some -- some specific timelines, project charters, that way we have some
structure to how we approach capital projects. So, not only, you know, figuring out and
determining who should be on the bus and who should be driving the bus and kind of the
internal dynamics. That way it's kind of what we are addressing in this report, but also,
you know, having some -- some structure behind timelines and -- and that. And, then,
some other factors that, obviously, impact the accuracy of, you know, the capital projects
are, you know, the availability of the subcontractors, you know, we are a very busy -- we
have a very busy community; right? We just heard, you know, scenario village, you know,
some -- they were busy, so we had some issues, you know, there. We would start from
that. And the time of the year that we get the bid all factor into, you know, how -- how
accurate we are on this. Another -- and, for example, finding -- and this kind of goes into,
you know, accuracy. You take Discovery Park, you know, that -- that park has been in
play for over five years. It started I think as a well in 2014. You know, we had just had a
maintenance building enhancement on the 19th, so spanning five years. Some things
have changed in that time, which, obviously, would affect, you know -- you know, as, you
know, adding a dog park or taking it off or, you know, what amenities we are including in
that affects the accuracy there. An example of a project where everything kind of seemed
to line up right was the wastewater administration, the lab expansion and the operations
remodel. In that case, you know, we had a very -- a very strong project manager. We
had a really strong construction manager that was involved in the process . You know,
there were three projects here they -- they took about a year each and things came in
under -- under budget. I have your 9.6 million versus the 9.9 million budget. So, there
was some savings there. You know, having a strong team contributes to that. Both
Discovery Park and wastewater administration were under the CMA agreement, which
means, like Ted alluded to, we own the relationship with all the different subcontractors,
as opposed to just one. So, you know, are all part of that process efficiency. We get this
by working with, you know, one person, as opposed to 20. It cuts the workload down
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significantly. That's -- that's also in the report. And overall just to kind of recap, having
the department manager work with a facilities manager as an internal customer is -- are
kind of a primary suggestion that we make sure we have the right people on the bus . I
think that's the end of this slide. Vincent, I think you're -- you're up next.
De Weerd: Hey, Brad, as part of your recommendations is training the project managers
to a preferred process and -- and how it works best?
Purser: Well, I mean you can. So, there is -- there is, obviously, options that we could
take. If you have a department project manager we can invest in them , you know, get
them certified or trained as project managers, so they get, you know, that additional
experience which would help. You know, you could also -- you know, if we had people in
the business -- in the building, you know, currently that have that expertise, you know, we
can have them lead that process. You know, there are recommended ways to go with the
facilities project managers and seem to have that expertise in place and -- but they would
still have a seat at the table, they would drive. These are the things that we are looking
forward to have. But, you know, I guess the bottom line is relying on the people that have
-- you know, that work with complex projects as their -- as their, you know, their regular
job, as opposed to in addition to what they are -- what they are doing, if that makes sense.
De Weerd: It does.
Purser: You can invest in them, you know, it's -- which direction you want to go, you know,
and I don't think it would be wrong to invest in, you know, the project managers and giving
them that expertise. So, you have to look at things like how much -- how many of these
projects do we do a year and is it worth that investment of training a whole bunch of
different department project managers, you know, to do a project, too. So, you know, we
need to weigh the options and which direction we need to go. Does that make sense?
De Weerd: Yes. Thank you.
Purser: Okay. Thank you. Any other questions?
Koontz: So -- and, Madam Mayor, the -- I think the question you got -- you asked will
probably be answered here in a minute from some of the research that I did from some
of the other cities. There is a variety of alternatives that we could approach with that as
well, so -- so bringing it home here. So, the cities that we engaged in doing research on
best practices and what we -- what we might find with what they are doing or what
challenges they are having, we consulted with Boise, with Hillsboro, Oregon; Bend,
Oregon and Salt Lake City, Utah. So, we tried to get a broad set of other cities that we
could gain -- gain insight from and get information from. One of the things I'm going to
highlight first, though, is about the only apples-to-apples comparison that I could find
between one project to the next happens to be part of one of our recommendations , but
we compared the Boise fire station process with our process with our last fire station and
Fire Station 6. They own the rights to the AIA agreement. They control what, you know,
Ted was alluding to where they control the process . It took 122 days to get from RFQ
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issuance to council execution or council approval, but it was 22 days faster than what our
process was in that respect. So, that was one -- that was one that we highlighted as an
example. If we are going to make this process improvement we actually have an example
from another city with how it's going to work. So, one thing we discovered -- although we
-- we made some -- didn't have a lot direct comparisons, all the cities we talked to
acknowledge that there are problems in the pre-planning process that result in loss of
time and estimation inaccuracies and, you know, I think we have -- we have seen that
with some of the projects that have been out there that we have been off in some of our
estimates and all of them acknowledge that, you know, they are currently working on --
we are all in the same boat. I guess the moral of the story is all the cities we interviewed
are in the same boat. They all acknowledge that in the pre-planning process where we
are trying to figure out what we need for a capital project or what we need for a fire station
or an admin building, there is not a really -- they don't have a really established process
for that. So, that's one of the recommendations that we are making is to establish a
project charter and better pre-planning steps and I will go into some of the things that we
found about that here in a second . All cities that we interviewed also utilized the
departmental as a point of contact as an internal customer, as a stakeholder, and not
necessarily as a project manager. There are a few exceptions, but as -- as -- as Brad
alluded to, they have invested in project management training for their staff. We are not
necessarily making that recommendation as part of our -- as part of a report. It is in there
as an alternative, but that isn't the preferred recommendation, because that will require
significant time and for the amount of return on investment we are going to get, we don't
do these capital projects that often, so, you know, who are we going to say is going to get
that project management training. So, what we looked at with some of the job descriptions
out there -- so, the facilities project managers that we have on staff right now looks like ,
according to the job description, they should have some of the necessary skills to be the
project manager on future projects and so that -- that was -- that was one of the
recommendations we made at this point. Some cities also utilize a third-party estimated
in the pre-planning phases to better set costs and this can be further evaluated if -- if
Council desires or if the Mayor desires. If expertise is not found inside the organization,
most of the cities said they will contract out project management services if -- if they have
to, because they -- you know, if they don't have the -- if they don't have the skills on staff,
why -- why try -- why try that and, you know, increase the inefficiencies of the process.
So, that I think is what I had. Oh. And, then, we have got this -- back to the process map.
If we -- if we do some of the things that we are recommending in our report, the bottom
-- the bottom process map represents a much cleaner and -- and less convoluted process.
It represents the steps we saved and, you know, that -- that process itself takes 63 steps.
It's not the 25 that we found because we actually added in post-it notes, so -- so, there is
a few more steps that we added in the pre-planning phases, but that's to ensure that our
project gets off the ground effectively from the beginnings, so -- so, what we have in
process right now and some of our future actions. So, what we have in process right now
we developed -- we are in the process of developing SOPs based on our process map
phases that we identified. We have the project manager roles and departmental point of
contact roles that we can execute if -- if so desired and, future actions, we would like to
pilot and trial AIA contract ownership. We would like to gain feedback and input from the
design construction legal community with some of the proposed changes and, then, we
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would also like to create standards with those standard operating procedures, so -- so,
then, we can audit them and say did we achieve what we said we like to in this standard
operating process. So, we can see if the process of being followed effectively and
efficiently. Any questions?
De Weerd: Council, any questions? Well, Vince, I would say -- I would add one more
bullet point at the end is as you implement these changes that after each project you have
a debrief and assess what went well and what could have been improved --
Koontz: Absolutely.
De Weerd: -- and see if those can be built into the process as outlined or if there are
some additional steps you can remove because they are unnecessary. But that -- this
way you're evaluating them as -- as you're doing them.
Koontz: Absolutely. I think that's a great suggestion.
De Weerd: Council, I know -- oh, Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I just wanted to say I'm really excited to see the PEAK
training in play. It was great to see it on, you know, before and after and even though you
only came up with 18 fewer steps --
Koontz: Yeah.
Little Roberts: -- time is money and 18 fewer is great. So, thank you very much.
Koontz: Yeah. I'm sure that we had that in the Finance conference room for a couple
months and I'm sure they were getting annoyed with it, so I'm glad we were able to get
rid of it and pull it down. But it really does highlight the skill sets we learned and how we
can apply it to process improvements throughout the city. It's important to visually process
map. I can tell you that that process map changed quite a bit as we did -- because we
involved other parties, we said, hey, you know, does this look right from what you did with
your -- with your project or your process and we added post-it notes and we took post-it
notes away, we modified post-it notes and we add a little -- little curves up at the top to
say, okay, no, we missed that and so that at 81 steps initially I think was like 60 and, then,
we went back and we said, no, no, we missed a -- we missed a spot here and so that --
that final process map is -- is a pretty good representation of what was, but it took time to
develop it and it took time to figure out we have got all these components and pieces and,
then, we evaluated the wastes and those are the low hanging fruit, the things that we
have already -- the things that are in this report are those low hanging fruit. So, the things
that we can execute with minimal effort, minimal impact, but there are things that we could
probably do in this process and it's in the report as well that -- that we can take further
and we can further evaluate some of those other five phases and steps that we identified
in the process, so --
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De Weerd: And you did mention that part of your -- your review was bringing in an
architect that has gone through the process or a CM and -- and they -- they shared their
perspective as well.
Koontz: That's -- that's something we are going to do going forward.
De Weerd: Okay.
Koontz: That was something that when Keith gets back that -- and it's assuming we were
okay with what we found out, that we would like to engage that community, so we can get
input on what we are suggesting as changes and also get that -- that customer feedback
going forward.
De Weerd: One more I guess partner group that you could ask is a builder or developer
who uses these processes themselves because they -- they, too, have to use the AIA --
AIA contract for both design and construction and have them look at your process map
and see if there is anything they see in there that is unnecessary or -- or even discuss
what their process is.
Koontz: Absolutely. Madam Mayor, we -- we wanted to make sure that we had our
internal steps in a row first and have those clarified and , you know, in order before we
wanted to get out to the external community to say do we have all these identified and,
yeah, there may be some additional steps that they bring in or say, you know, this -- this
is right on or this is something to get feedback with , so -- so, I appreciate that -- that
comment and so --
De Weerd: Okay. Council, anything further?
Koontz: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. I appreciate the thought, the efforts that has been going into this
and it kind of shows you as we look at different processes and how we can improve it,
are we following our own processes and those kind of things, that there is a lengthy review
of that, but this is -- this is kind of -- I hope, Council, what you can appreciate in seeing
that process evaluation and the various steps that goes through , looking at how we can
improve those various steps. So, thanks to each of you. I know you're evaluating your
own work and sometimes that's probably uncomfortable, but I think the report showed
truly a self reflection on, yeah, maybe this is not the best way to do it, that we can -- we
can see improvement. So, that's -- that's awesome. Yeah. Thank you.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Just a comment maybe to -- to chew on for later discussion is as you have gone
through this inaugural attempted at collaborating towards efficiencies and internal
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analysis, there is probably some -- some debrief amongst all of you to talk about what
types of analysis this group could do going forward . Having gone through it are there
different types of city functions, financial or otherwise, that you think, you know what, we
probably, you know, putting their heads together, we could look at these types of activities
and perhaps that might provide additional value to the city going forward if this process is
going to continue, which it sounds like it certainly will if it has positive feedback like this
did and it lets us get better at what we do , I would be curious to know how can we
use this tool, meaning your expertise, collectively in the future in other areas and
something --
De Weerd: Yeah. And I think that that is what the PEAK training has been and they are
-- they are pulling together a core team that will do that, but as well I think this effort seeks
comment from Council in saying, yeah, this process I really question and if you want an
in-depth evaluation of it that we have those conversations, so it can be added to a list, it
can be prioritized using your feedback and we can see how we can move forward with
that.
Borton: Madam Mayor, in follow up to that if that process is done in a way that not -- we
are not waiting for some internal process to fail or some problem to occur, we, then, see
that and, then, we will try to analyze how to do it better necessarily. We might also have
the chance just to regularly and routinely view different activities within our city that maybe
it's as efficient as it could be and maybe it's fine, maybe it's not, but just on an objective
rotation, so to speak. I don't know what that would ever look like, but I think that's where
this expertise could be really valuable.
De Weerd: Vince, you have to comment on the record, please. Or Dean might have your
head. We will have to talk about process improvement there.
Koontz: Well, Councilman Borton, Members of the Council, I can tell you that, you know,
the city of Boise also looked at some of the, you know, audit procedures that they do and
-- and -- and that's why establishing some of the standard operating procedures -- it's
hard to audit something if you don't have something in place to follow. Can't say, hey, did
we do this right? No, we didn't -- we don't know if we did it right, because we don't have
a standard process in place, so -- so, absolutely, I think -- I think that -- that's an outcome
that we can -- we can speak to once some of these -- there is plenty of established
processes that we could audit and that's what, you know, the city of Boise does with their,
you know, audit role. But I think there is plenty of -- there is plenty of those opportunities
available for us to take a look at and to evaluate down the road and there could be -- you
know, it could be those things as a group or as a collection, as we learn these process
improvement techniques and we do continuous im provement, to say could we make this
process better or to your point is this process already good and are we executing it
effectively every single time. So, yeah, absolutely. We are all for it.
Borton: Great.
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De Weerd: I know, Vince, you have been talking to those that -- that have been kind of
training as the PEAK trainers as you have identified some of those processes you're
looking to evaluate as you're listing those, but it would be helpful I think to bring those to
Council and -- and so they have some opportunity for input.
Koontz: Absolutely. We can do that.
De Weerd: Okay. Anything further? Thank you so much.
Koontz: All right. Thank you.
D. Discussion on Code Timeline Requirement for
Projects/Hearings
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. And Item 7-D. I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Borton.
Borton: Thank you, Madam Mayor. We are -- we will be real quick. This is just a few
minutes planting a seed for maybe future discussion and if you saw on the agenda
manager there was a brief description that kind of told you exactly what we are talking
about. There are on occasion multiple public hearings that all get stacked up and we
have no flexibility in some circumstances to spread them out . The code provision that's
cited in the agenda is the one that we have had for a long time, which requires basically
45 days max from P&Z to us and using next Tuesday as an example where there is six
public hearings, we are structurally set to invite poor decision-making process and the
clerk has no flexibility to spread those out. So, Tuesday will be -- for the 18th will probably
end on the 19th and so one of the options which we can consider, if you want to be open
to it, is just a simple amendment of that code provision and expand 45 days to something
like 60 or 75, which could allow chopping it up. So -- and it benefits I think -- the reason
it's worth the discussion -- I think it benefits everybody, including the development
community and the public. Nobody wants to be here, win or lose, 12:30 in the morning.
So, it seems like a week or two expansion affords the flexibility for better decision making,
happier public, happier everybody. So, I need to get a thumbs up and we will prepare a
draft, which is relatively easy, just changing a date and we can bring it back at one of the
January meetings, so --
Bernt: Mr. President?
Borton: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Also a comment. I don't believe we are trying to prolong this process, so if there
are applications that need to be expedited we are not saying they have to wait 45 days
-- you know, is there -- is there -- is there a way that we can make it go from 30, no longer
than 75, just so that we can accommodate those who might need quicker attention?
Borton: Mr. Bernt, I don't think there is anything -- there is no rule which precludes us
from going quick.
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Bernt: Okay.
Borton: I think it's a matter of staff ability to get the work done early and completely and
there is so much if it --
Coles: Madam Mayor? If I may interject, there is -- Council Member Bernt, the only thing
that prevents us from going faster, if you will, is the -- the noticing requirements and
timelines. We can only go as fast as those will allow us to go.
De Weerd: I think maybe some of the extra point to that is next week is a great example
of that and someone saying this -- is that fair -- not just to staff or to you all, it's to the
public that comes and has to wait until their thing and it's maybe 10:00 o'clock before their
item comes up on the agenda and how many of our citizens have we lost by then. So,
that's -- that's part of it as well.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I wanted to add one thing. This is a UDC
code amendment, so it has to go through Planning and Zoning first. So, we can begin
the process, but with the Planning Department, it has to go through them, so it will be a
little bit before it gets back to you.
Hood: Madam Mayor, if I could --
De Weerd: Yes.
Hood: -- piggyback on that comment a little bit. So, Bill Parsons is actually putting -- I
won't say finishing touches. He's probably got a little bit more work than that, but we are
about ready to share the next round of UDC changes with the UDC work group. So, they
have met a couple of times and, then, we are going to electronically kind of share the next
version. This isn't on their radar. It isn't something we -- but I don't know how much of a
-- how much they are going to care, especially if we are going to explain it that way,
holidays and those types of things -- we have a workshop and a holiday and perfect storm
type of thing. So, we are not trying to delay anybody, anyways, my point is we have got
folks that -- that are in the development community on that work group that we can vet
this through and add this to that and not have to do a specific hearing notice for just this
change, it can go as part of a larger group -- or not. Just letting you know there is that
opportunity to piggyback this with that process or we can process it independently. It's
going to be about on the same timeline, though. Just wanted some direction there, if you
want us to add that to this we can -- we can do that or -- or, again, process it separately.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Okay. Anything else on this? Mr. Borton?
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Borton: Madam Mayor, if there is no preference, if it doesn't cause additional delay to
piggyback on the existing process, might as well vet it all as one, but --
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you.
Borton: Thank you.
E. Council: Commission and Board Updates
De Weerd: Okay. 7-E it's Council discussion. Shall we start Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, I wish I had some good news, but Air Quality Board is still
struggling. The software has not progressed any since -- since the last two times I believe
I have reported and there is a -- in order to go ahead and have a meeting in December
they have moved it to next Monday at 9:30 a.m. So, hopefully, something will come out
of that meeting.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor, I'm still of the same report. I'm the alternate too many of your
spot, which you -- you attend, so Allumbaugh House, COMPASS, Emergency
Management, BMS, JPA are updates better in your court than from me, so --
De Weerd: Okay.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Historic Preservation Commission is still there. Josh wasn't at the meeting , so
it was less exciting than they can be. Nothing really to report.
De Weerd: Okay. You heard from Kendall with MADC and -- and so she gave you a brief
overview of the legislative outreach and -- and the documentary that they had done. I
guess just -- the Chamber will be holding a legislative preview coffee on the 19th here at
City Hall. COMPASS will meet jointly next week with VRT and they will consider the
Communities In Motion and so I will have a greater update in January on that. MDC
meets tomorrow and we will get an audit update. It looks like a clean audit and they are
trying to continue to get some movement from Union Pacific on the lease that they are
working to secure on the parking lot across the street. Harvest Transit had 626 rides in
October. We will get an update from VRT next week. AIC legislative committee meeting
went on last Friday and they discussed some of the legislative positions that they are
looking at and considering and -- and taking feedback from the cities. They will have
another meeting in January to -- to confirm those. Treasure Valley Partnership met at the
Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine yesterday -- or Monday -- yesterday and was able
to meet with the board -- their board of directors and get a tour and an update on some
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of their activities and as well had an update from West Ada School District on some
legislation that they are considering and talking with our area legislators about and seeing
if it's viable to bring it to the legislature. Not this year, but next year. MYAC had their
holiday party last night in Conference Room A and B and that was -- that was very wild
and very active, lots of energy, and they will be focusing on their participatory budgeting
proposals as they reported last week and their presenta tions that you all have been invited
to -- to come and view and also talking to our legislators about their -- their proposal on
lowering the voting age to 17. The ACCEM -- our Ada County Emergency Management
regional group met yesterday and approve d grant requests for our law enforcement and
fire in getting medical response kits and body armor for the rescue task force. The only
request they didn't approve was that from the city of Star or from the Star Fire Department,
because they are not a member.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Oh, and -- yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Oh, sorry. I just had a question --
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Milam: -- with MYAC, the legislation for the voting, is it -- so, they can vote in the primaries
if they are 17, if they are going to be 18 by --
De Weerd: The general --
Milam: The general election.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Milam: So, it goes by a specific date, not just as they are going to be 18 that year or
within a year, but they have to be 18 before the November elections; right?
De Weerd: Yes. They haven't completely written it. Once they do I will bring it to you
and --
Milam: The word is going to be probably the hardest.
De Weerd: Exactly. As they pointed out last week, other states have passed similar
legislation and they are trying to -- to incorporate what some of the other states have done
and some of the pros and cons to that and they were hoping to have that --
Milam: And there is -- the date changes every year, which is probably --
De Weerd: Yeah. I don't know. I haven't seen it, so -- that's just what they are passionate
about. And just, lastly, before I turn this over to Mr. Bernt, we do have a date set for the
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joint meetings with West Ada School District, just to remind you it's January 30, which is
a Wednesday and February 21 with Ada County Highway District, which is a Thursday.
Mr. Bernt. Oh. And we will be -- if there is any agenda items specifically you would like
to see if you can submit that to C.Jay and, then, we will -- we will get a draft agenda out
to each of you. Caleb has already weighed in. We do have a couple of items already on
the joint meeting for the school district, including an update on the school safety activities.
Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Thank you, Madam Mayor. It's really refreshing to know that you really don't have
very much on your plate.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bernt: I don't have that much to add. I was -- you covered COMPASS and so the only
other thing that I am involved with, other than liaison responsibilities, is the golf course
committee and Mrs. Little Roberts and I attended that meeting a week or two ago and
things look fairly -- not -- not a lot of new updates to talk about. I mean I think things are
coming along. He has a lot of plans and, you know, I think he's done a fairly good job out
there. So, I think that he might come before us fairly soon and he's -- I don't remember
exactly what the date was -- Anne, wasn't it like beginning of the year or -- I don't
remember. But I know that he will be maybe coming before us before -- maybe first
quarter next year.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Erik plans on coming forward with his capital improvement
plan. He did pay his bill on time --
Bernt: Right.
Little Roberts: -- this year because he didn't present a plan --
Bernt: Right.
Little Roberts: -- and get it pre-approved and then -- and, then, accomplish it, but he
doesn't plan on doing it for 2019.
Bernt: Same thing. Golf tees. Tee boxes and stuff.
Little Roberts: Tee boxes.
Bernt: Correct. That's it. I stand for questions.
Borton: Comp plan committee.
Bernt: Yes. Tomorrow night. I forgot about that. Thank you for that reminder. I am
buying pizza for the comp plan steering committee. I will be there and they will know that
I'm present and it will -- I will try to change the perception that we don't listen and that we
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truly do care and, hopefully, they will -- I spoke with Ms. LaFever this morning about it as
well. I don't know if she a hundred percent believes -- you know, believes that I will be
there tomorrow night, but I assured -- and she did order pepperoni and so we will see --
we will see how it goes.
De Weerd: Well, we will see how well you listened and whether they have pepperoni
pizza or not.
Bernt: I think pizza is going to help. Don't you think?
De Weerd: Feed them and they will come.
Bernt: I think so.
De Weerd: There you go. Okay. Mrs. Milam.
Milam: So, you all have these in your station. New activity guide that just went out today
-- or within the last couple of days. The winter-spring and, then, this is the annual Parks
and Rec annual report. There is a lot of very proud information in there and this is hot off
the press today. Read those and I have a huge update on the successes of Christmas in
Meridian. Santa's Mailbox went up on November 21st. We have already received more
than 800 letters. Last year our volunteers responded to 1,100 letters. We expect to
surpass that number this year. The mailbox comes down six days from now. The Winter
Lights Parade and Christmas Tree Lighting were a huge success. Our 42 foot blue spruce
is covered with 57,000 LED lights. That's more than three miles of light strands. This
year's parade had just over 50 entries and a second stunt Santa to keep the program
moving along. The Meridian Twilight Christmas Market operated at full capacity. It was
coordinated by staff of -- I accidently called -- the girl -- these gals who have managed
our market here at City Hall. The Children's Wonderland Festival took place at Meridian
Boys and Girls Club last Saturday. Attendees donated nearly 800 pounds -- 800 pounds
of food and 300 dollars in cash for the Meridian Food Bank. Channel 6 television covered
the event, which was extremely well attended. Sunday was the final night for people to
vote for their favorite entry in the downtown Meridian Christmas decorating contest. The
winners will be announced this week. Probably at Council Member Borton -- but, you
know, I'm just making that up. That's not official news. I have no idea. The Parks and
Rec Department, once again, raised money for charity through its holiday classic
volleyball tournament. Staff used tournament proceeds that were 2,600 dollars worth of
Christmas gifts for 68 low income preschoolers who participate in Meridian's Head Start
program and the Salvation Army Angel Tree, which is out in the front lobby, has generated
dozens of toy donations, including a bicycle, which Steve Siddoway will personally deliver
to the agency later this week. So, they read, they put new tags on three times, and they
have all been taken. There are still some available and, then, they go to the Salvation
Army and they put together a little store for families to come and shop . And I think that's
it. So, if anybody wants to get anything now is your chance. Buy some gifts. Grab a tag.
Or five.
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De Weerd: Thank you. Great update.
Milam: Shelly helped with that. Give Shelly credit.
De Weerd: And did you say three miles of --
Milam: Three miles of strands.
De Weerd: And 67,000 lights?
Milam: Sixty-seven thousand LED lights. Yeah. And I would like to publicly give kudos
to Renee for getting that band on our float, because I think it was -- it was the best time I
have had since I have been elected and in any parade and --
De Weerd: Although I'm already challenging the Council next year to have elf outfits.
Milam: They don't want us playing.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Hard pass. Hard pass.
De Weerd: Well, you're not on there anyway. You have already passed to begin with.
Oh, gosh. Where is your spirit.
Milam: Oh, Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: I don't know if this number is exactly accurate, but it's -- yes, I think Friday or
yesterday -- I don't know what the date is -- I think yesterday was the close for registration
for winter sports for our teams and it was like yesterday alone, which is the last day, it
brought in like 34,000 dollars of registration. Something like that.
De Weerd: Wow.
Milam: Yeah. A lot of stuff going on.
De Weerd: Yeah. I think there is -- every department has a lot going on and every
department has participated in that -- that spirit of giving and we -- we thank our
employees, they have really shown that -- that community giving back and it's -- it's been
fun to -- to see and I will -- I'm -- you will be getting a column about that here soon. On
our last note in -- in this update, I did want to let all of you know that Mayor Corrie died
yesterday and we -- we are working with the family. We are rescheduling the dedication
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of Conference Room A and B and naming it in his honor to coincide with his memorial
service and so the family will get back to me on when that might be. So, when we find
out we will certainly let you know and if you would, please, keep his family in your prayers.
Jeri told me earlier today that on Saturday they would have been celebrating their 61st
wedding anniversary and so they have -- they have had a long life together and certainly
Mayor Corrie had served -- he loves this community without a doubt. So, I will get you
information as we get it. I do have a picture of what the plaque will look like and I will
pass that around and -- and if you have any comments, please, follow up with me, so --
Item 8: Ordinances [Action Items]
A. Ordinance No. 18-1798: An Ordinance (H-2018-0088 –
Westbridge Subdivision) For Annexation Of A Parcel Of Land
Located In The SW ¼ Of The NE ¼ Of Section 28, Township 4
North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian, Ada County, Idaho, As
Described In Attachment “A” And Annexing Certain Lands And
Territory, Situated In Ada County, Idaho, And Adjacent And
Contiguous To The Corporate Limits Of The City Of Meridian
As Requested By The City Of Meridian; Establishing And
Determining The Land Use Zoning Classification Of 12.84
Acres Of Land From RUT To R-4 Medium Low Density
Residential Zoning District In The Meridian City Code;
Providing That Copies Of This Ordinance Shall Be Filed With
The Ada County Assessor, The Ada County Recorder, And The
Idaho State Tax Commission, As Required By Law; And
Providing For A Summary Of The Ordinance; And Providing
For A Waiver Of The Reading Rules; And Providing An
Effective Date.
De Weerd: Okay. If there isn't anything further. Item 8-A is Ordinance 18-1798 and I will
ask our city clerk to, please, read this by title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1798, an Ordinance
file H-2018-0088, Westbridge Subdivision, for annexation of a parcel of land located in
the SW ¼ of the NE ¼ of Section 28, Township 4 North, Range 1 West, Boise meridian,
Ada county, Idaho, as described in Attachment “A” and annexing certain lands and
territory, situated in Ada county, Idaho, and adjacent and contiguous to the corporate limits
of the City of Meridian as requested by the City of Meridian; establishing and determining
the land use zoning classification of 12.84 acres of land from RUT to R-4, medium low
density residential zoning district, in the Meridian City Code; providing that copies of this
ordinance shall be filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the
Idaho State Tax Commission, as required by law; and providing for a summary of the
ordinance; and providing for a waiver of the reading rules; and providing an effective date.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Council, do you have a motion?
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Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 18-1798, with suspension of rules.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-A. Mr. Clerk, will you, please,
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.
B. Ordinance No. 18-1799: An Ordinance (H-2018-0018 – Cherry
Blossom Subdivision) For The Re-Zone Of A Parcel Land Being
All Of Lots 6 And 7 Of Block 2, J .L . Towne Subdivision As
Filed In Book 15 Of Plats At Pages 982 And 983, Records Of
Ada County, Idaho And A Portion Of The Northeast ¼ Of
Section 12, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian,
City Of Meridian, Ada County Idaho; Establishing And
Determining The Land Use Zoning Classification From R-4
(Medium Low Density Residential) Zoning District To R-8
(Medium High Density Residential) Zoning District In The
Meridian City Code; Providing That Copies Of This Ordinance
Shall Be Filed With The Ada County Assessor, The Ada County
Recorder, And The Idaho State Tax Commission, As Required
By Law; And Providing For A Summary Of The Ordinance; And
Providing For A Waiver Of The Reading Rules; And Providing
An Effective Date.
De Weerd: Item 8-B is Ordinance 18-1799. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read this by title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 18-1799, an Ordinance
file H-2018-0018, Cherry Blossom Subdivision, for the re-zone of a parcel of land being
all lot -- all of Lots 6 and 7 of Block 2, JL Towne Subdivision as filed in Book 15 of Plats
at pages 982 and 983, records of Ada county, Idaho, and a portion of the Northeast ¼ of
Section 12, Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise meridian, City of Meridian, Ada
county Idaho; establishing and determining the land use zoning classification from R-4,
medium low density residential zoning district , to R-8, medium high density residential
zoning district, in the Meridian City Code; providing that copies of this ordinance shall be
filed with the Ada County Assessor, the Ada County Recorder, and the Idaho State Tax
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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, you have heard this read by title. Do I have a motion?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we approve Ordinance No. 18-1799 with suspension of rules.
Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 8-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 9: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any items under Item 9?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Oh, I just thought I would send another quick reminder for everybody to change
your passwords while they are sitting here at the computer or you get locked out.
De Weerd: And to do ICRMP training if you haven't done that already done.
Milam: Done.
De Weerd: All right. Good job.
Bernt: Seriously, you did, didn't you?
De Weerd: Okay. If there is nothing further I would entertain a motion to adjourn.
Milam: So moved.
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December 11, 2018
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Palmer: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:14 P.M.
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