HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-01-08Meridian City Council Workshop January 8, 2019.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 3:02 p.m., Tuesday, January
8, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy De Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer, Genesis
Milam, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt.
Also, present: C.Jay Coles, Bill Nary, Jeff Lavey, Shawn Harper, Joe Bongiorno, 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: Thank you for joining us. I'm going to go ahead and call this meeting to order.
For the record it is Tuesday, January 8th. It is two minutes after 3:00. We will start with
roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk.
Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance
De Weerd: Item No. 2 is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you will all rise and join us in the
pledge to our flag.
(Pledge of Allegiance recited.)
Item 3: Adoption of Agenda
De Weerd: Item 3 is adoption of the agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move that we adopt the agenda as published.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. All those in favor say
aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 6 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 2 of 83
Item 4: Consent Agenda
A. Final Order for Caven Ridge Estates West No. 1 ( H- 2018- 0134)
by New Cavanaugh, LLC, Located South of E. Victory Rd. on the
West side of S. Standing Timber Way
B. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Shelburne East (H-
2018-0112) by Shelburne Properties, LLC, Located at 4080, 4115,
4205, 4301 and 4330 Bott Ln.
C. Development Agreement for Alturas (H- 2018-0105) with Alturas
1550 Tech, LLC (OWNER/DEVELOPER) located at the North side
of W. Overland Rd., midway between S. Linder Rd. & S. Meridian
Rd., in the SW 114 of Section 12, T.3N., RAW
D. Acceptance Agreements for Display of Artwork in Initial Point
Gallery
1. John Killmaster, March 2019
2. Ruthanne Oliver, April 2019
3. Laura Yager, April 2019
4. West Ada School District, May 2019
5. Mary Gardiner, June 2019
6. Gary McCall, June 2019
7. Mark William Watkins, July 2019
8. Nadene Kranz, August 2019
E. Approval of Purchase Order for Turnout Gear to Municipal
Emergency Services for the Not -to -Exceed amount of $50, 891.
64.
F. Award of Bid and Approval of Contract to Sonntag Recreation,
LLC for the " Kleiner Park Band Shell Shade" project for a Not-
To-Exceed amount of $93, 995.00.
G. City Financial Report - December 2018
H. AP Invoices for Payment 01/ 09/ 19 - $ 338, 519. 43
De Weerd: Item 4, Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 7 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 3 of 83
Borton: No changes noted on the Consent, I move that we approve it. The Mayor to sign
and the Clerk to attest.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr. Clerk, will
you call role.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 5: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda
De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 6: Community Items/Presentations
A. Meridian Development Corporation Quarterly Report on
Development and Activities in the Downtown Core
De Weerd: Item 6-A is under the Meridian Development Corporation, our quarterly
meeting, and I will turn this over to Ashley. Thank you for joining us, Ashley. Happy New
Year.
Squyres: For the record, Ashley Squyres, administrator for the Meridian Development
Corporation. My address is 104 East Fairview Avenue, 239, Meridian. And in your packet
you should have a summary of October to December 2018 activities -- in your packet you
should have the activities of our agency from October to December and I think most of
you are probably pretty well in the know as to what we have been up to in terms of the
old city hall block. You did receive some kickoff meeting notes right before the holiday
from us, so as you can see we are on track with that project, in addition to a really
outstanding update on the Nine Mile floodplain. One thing that I didn't note in our report
is that our agency did undergo its fiscal year '18 audit in November and we were deemed
clean and so you will see that audit attached to our annual report in April. I'm hoping you
will take a little bit of pity on me today, been fighting a little bit of an infection and my throat
is a little straggly, so I didn't plan on talking a whole lot today, but I'm more than happy to
answer any questions you may have on anything that we have reported on in the -- in the
written report in your packets.
De Weerd: Thank you, Ashley. Council, any questions?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 8 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 4 of 83
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Ashley, first of all, thank you. I know that you have been
getting a lot done and it's greatly appreciated. I noticed that you said there was a change
with the Union Pacific rep and I just wondered your opinion if you thought that was going
to slow things down regarding the parking space.
Squyres: Madam Mayor, Council Woman Roberts, you know, I don't think it can go any
slower than it already has been, unfortunately.
De Weerd: Yes, it could. Don't say that.
Squyres: Knock on wood. We have -- we have had an application in since February.
When I did speak to the representative in December he was just coming on board. So, I
repackaged everything and all the communications we have had to date and sent it to
him directly. I'm going to give them until the end of this week and if I don't hear from him
I'm hoping to schedule a conference call next week with him to be able to kind of figure
out where he is, what he's thinking. We do know that he is communicating with another
property owners in our district right now, so we do know he is jumping in and getting his
feet wet. So, I'm hoping that we are going to be able to get an action plan in place to be
able to move forward as quickly as possible. He knows that we have budget, he knows
that we have interest and he seemed very receptive to working with us. So, fingers
crossed.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, Ashley.
Squyres: Thank you so much.
B. Solid Waste Advisory Commission: Report and
Recommendation to Expand Trash or Treasure Program [Action
Item]
De Weerd: Item 6-B is under our Solid Waste Advisory Commission and we have our
chair here. Welcome, Steve.
Cory: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I am Steve Cory, Chairman of the Solid
Waste Advisory Commission, and I'm here at their request. I have with me here Brett
Baranco of the Meridian Police Department. We will be discussing the Trash Or Treasure
program we do on an annual basis. If you remember that's something that Brett became
familiar with when he was attending services for his brother in law and he has helped us
by bringing it back to Meridian and giving us a unique event that is Meridian's and is not
repeated elsewhere in the valley. We are at that time where we are starting to look at the
2019 Trash Or Treasures program. As you remember it's set up to run right before the
spring cleanup -- unlimited spring cleanup. The unlimited spring cleanup for our residents
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 9 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 5 of 83
would be between May 6 and May 10th this year. So, what we are talking about is an
event that would be just immediately before that time. If you remember we had mentioned
before that we are ready to go ahead and take this program city wide and that's what I
wanted to go ahead and check and see is it -- if Council is still comfortable with that plan.
We expect with some posting of some more educational materials that this is going to
become less of an activity for the Solid Waste Advisory Commission and staff and become
something that's more owned by the citizens of Meridian and they will have the tools to
be able to participate directly without as much prep work as we have done recently. We
do intend to go ahead and put together the materials explaining this extensive outreach
activity. We are planning to do billing inserts, information on Republic's and the city's
websites and information on the city's social media sites. It will -- even so we can expect
this year that there will be a need for someone to be able to take phone calls, because
there will be more questions and so with that we realized that we are going to need a little
bit of city staff that would include Chanti over in Public Works, probably Kaycee Emery
and also David Miles in Public Works and with that I would like to kind of find out if the
Council has any questions or concerns about our initiating this activity.
Cavener: Council, any questions, comments or concerns?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: No concerns. No -- no questions. I mean I guess -- the only question I guess
is maybe before the Mayor in terms of staffing resources that -- are they available to meet
the needs of this program?
De Weerd: I guess in the marketing realm I think we can certainly address those. I -- I
think the -- the pilot has -- has brought to light a couple of concerns in how long do you
leave things out, when are they going to get picked up and, and that -- that seemed to be
a frequent question last year is, okay, I think the program is over, when is someone going
to come and pick up what -- what other people haven't taken and has that been addressed
and -- and discussed in SWAC?
Cory: We know that each portion of the city has their assigned date that the material will
be picked up between May 6th and May 10th. So, the question really kind of comes as
to when would the homeowner's associations and/or citizens want -- how much before
that would they want to have things out. Maybe the ones that are on Monday we do what
we have done in the past, which is to have it out on the weekend, but the ones that are
later in the week say they have got a Thursday pickup, maybe they are only putting it out
on the curb on Tuesday and Wednesday, if it's still there on Thursday it gets picked up
and it's gone. So, that detail I'm going to have to leave to Brett. Brett is the subcommittee
chair and he will want to figure out how to adjust the wording to match that. But it does
lead to an issue that I have not mentioned at that point, which is our current ordinance is
something can only sit on the curb for 24 hours. So, probably we need to go ahead and
have an exemption during that week where material could stay on for two or three days
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 10 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 6 of 83
before it's picked up and removed as a suggestion to Council for consideration. But I
believe that will address the issue. I suppose it's quite possible some homeowner's
associations would be comfortable with the material being placed on Saturday and not
picked up until Thursday, but I don't know if many homeowner's associations that would
endorse that.
De Weerd: Yeah. I -- I -- Brett, do you have anything that you would like to add or -- or
Dave Miles?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Milam: I know that, you know, anytime there is a new program given to people there is
going to be some confusion and so I don't -- I don't think there is any way to eliminate that
altogether. I do feel, however, though, going city wide with the program allows us to
market much more extensively, maybe starting earlier, you know, hopefully, educating
people as much as possible, so that when the time comes they understand how the
program works, but it is going to be the first year for most of the neighborhoods in Meridian
and so I'm sure there will be some -- some people that are confused and there is going
to be a learning curve and I don't think there is anything that can be about that, other than,
you know, really educating people as much as possible before the event happens. I don't
think that there will be any confusion or events that are going to be so bad that we
shouldn't do the program. Oops, nobody picked up my trash and like they can still come
back and get it or -- it's all pretty minor in the scheme of things.
De Weerd: I will ask Dave first make a few comments and then --
Miles: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. As staff we did meet internally
with Republic Services and the SWAC chair and Council Member Milam sort of touches
right on it, that we do predict or expect that there will be some challenge for
communication, but we do have the resources between Republic Services and our staff
that we think we can communicate this well with SWAC and with the subcommittee
membership to the community. It is a learning curve, though. You're talking about -- I'm
not sure how many communities we did in the past two years, but you're talking about
going from roughly a few subdivisions to every subdivision. So, there has to be an
expectation that there will be a communication that has to be done and that, hopefully,
that message gets heard and conveyed to everyone and by everyone, but there is always
room for interpretation and messaging. Some of the other aspects we talked about is
Republic Services is committed to picking up the material, so that's good to hear. And,
then, as Chairman Cory mentioned, there is a 24 hour notice for trash to be set out under
our current ordinance, so we would need to amend the ordinance if we wanted to move
forward and, certainly, I will let Mr. Nary speak to the need for that if -- if I misconveyed
that, but we need to change the ordinance to allow for a longer period of trash and material
to sit on the side of the road while Republic works through the unlimited trash collection
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 11 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 7 of 83
week preceding the event over the weekend. So, be happy to answer any questions at
that point.
De Weerd: So, beyond that we can -- we got the marketing and communication plan
down, but on all fronts the group that's met feels comfortable moving forward?
Miles: Madam Mayor, I think that's a correct statement. I think, yeah, we do have these
resources able to -- to communicate that message and to make it happen. We just want
to be clear that, you know, it's a new project, it's a new effort citywide, so there will
probably be some bumps and let's figure them out and see how they go.
De Weerd: There is bumps on every new program; right? Mr. Nary, maybe you can
address the ordinance.
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, so there is a provision in our code that
requires the removal of your trash containers for the 24 hours of pickup. There is no
exception. So, we can create an exception if the city were to designate that, that we
would grant an exception for that -- for this period of time, because, realistically, I think,
as Mr. Cory stated, if people put it out on the weekend and their pickup day is Wednesday
or Thursday of the following week, the likelihood they are going to haul it back onto their
property and, then, haul it back out to the curb four days later is pretty remote. I would
imagine most people won't. So, that is our -- you know, obviously, from a code
enforcement standpoint they do get calls today about -- about trash receptacles and
things like that. So, we wanted to avoid that issue and give the city -- and there may be
other issues in the future that there may be a necessity for the city to have an exception.
The one that came to mind is during the Snowmageddon event a couple years ago we
really didn't enforce that very heavily because it was very difficult for people to get them
to the curb and much less get them back from the curb within 24 hours. So, we did not
take an active role in enforcing that, even though that was in the ordinance at the time.
Certainly that was a rare event and, hopefully, not to be repeated, but there may be other
occasions besides this that the city may designate a longer period of time that something
could allow to remain out there, but that was our only fix to that particular question.
Otherwise, we will be fielding calls and having to address that with folks. And, again, with
it being city wide we don't know if this is going to be a huge issue or not.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions or comments? Anything -- Brett, do you have
anything that you want to add?
Baranco: Nothing to my recollection, Madam Mayor. I think everything's been covered.
I think we have had some successful trial runs and have learned from things that have
happened throughout and, again, from the start -- I believe it was 2015 I think that this
would be great for the city and I still think so today.
De Weerd: Very good. Steve, any final comments? Thoughts?
Cory: Nothing more, Madam Mayor. Thank you for the opportunity.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 12 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 8 of 83
De Weerd: Okay. Rachel, anything from Republic? You can only speak in front of the
microphone.
Klein: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Rachel Klein, Republic Services, 2130
West Franklin, Meridian. I did have a question as we were talking in our subcommittee
meeting, you know, that city code establishes a framework for all citizens to abide by, but
I don't know if HOAs could be more restrictive. Like if the city says this is an exemption
for this week and -- and code enforcement won't be out tagging carts, because we realize
people will put stuff out on the weekend and they may leave it out for collection on even
a Thursday or Friday, but I don't know if HOAs can, then, be more restrictive and say we
understand the city's doing this, but we would like to make sure that -- and, you know,
Burney Glen everyone brings it back to their garage and, then, puts it back out. I don't
know that, but that's just something that came to mind as I heard you guys talking that
you may find a little bit -- some HOAs may want to be more restrictive.
De Weerd: HOAs have their CC&Rs, but they enforce them, we don't.
Klein: Oh, sure.
De Weerd: So --
Klein: Thank you. That was the only thing.
De Weerd: Anything you wanted to add to that, Mr. Nary?
Nary: No. Exactly right.
De Weerd: Okay. Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move that we accept the recommendation from the Solid Waste Advisory
Commission to expand Trash Or Treasure program to include the entire City of Meridian.
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to move this forward. Any discussion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Part of that will be the ordinance amendment coming back to --
De Weerd: It would have to in order to --
Milam: To amend the ordinance.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 13 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 9 of 83
De Weerd: We will bring back the ordinance for Council action and by you moving this
forward it would need that ordinance change. Okay. Mr. Clerk.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Thank you.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Cory: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the City Council. Appreciate your support.
Milam: Let's start marketing.
C. Solid Waste Advisory Commission Discussion Regarding
Organization
De Weerd: Well, I -- or let's start shopping. We at least know shopping week; right?
Okay. Item 6-C is Mr. Nary's.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I know the ordinance parts
are always the most exciting part of the conversation, so I get this one. There is two and
the first one I'm going to talk about is the organization of the Solid Waste Advisory
Commission and -- and there are certainly enough people here that can answer some of
the questions of how we got -- how we got here. I can give you a little background for
both the folks here, as well as those that are maybe watching online. So, the Solid Waste
Advisory Commission was established in about 2010, but it preexisted that as an advisory
committee and had been in existence for a number of years predominantly to address the
recycling funds and how recycling funds were collected, how those were then dispersed
throughout the city through different programs, through playground equipment and some
other items around the city, and that's the main function of the Commission that existed
back in the early 2000s and mid 2000s. As it evolved and as the recycling program sort
of ebbed and flowed with how the markets were, the commission also became in place
to help weigh in on other programs, as well as the rates that were administered. There is
a -- there is a specific in the contract with a franchisee which was previously SSC, now
Republic Services, on how rates are determined annually, but there are other services
that are provided and rates related to those. So, this citizens commission was, then,
moved from a committee status to a commission status to be able to weigh in on those
issues, to participate in that, having public input about programs and rates and the
different things that are done throughout the county, each individual city throughout the
county has their own program in how solid waste is done. Republic Services handles the
majority of the waste collection in Ada county and so they have been the franchisee of
most of our cities and including us. Over time, as many of you are aware, especially in
the recycling arena, it has become very complicated. It is not quite so simple as it may
have been ten years ago where there is a very steady stream of market of where
recyclables go, how they are done, how they are managed, how they are paid, how they
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 14 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 10 of 83
are purchased, And, then, there is a revenue stream that returns back to the city. It's not
quite so simple anymore. It changes dramatically and a lot of it is driven by foreign
markets and not driven by local markets and so it has become very complicated to deal
with and many cities have done it in different ways, but our neighbor to the east has had
a coordinator on staff for a number of years to work directly with the vendor. There is a
lot of coordination of city services and city needs that are managed by staff. Well, we
haven't had staff. So, the commission has stepped into that role for a number of years
and doing that -- now you have volunteers that are made up of citizens, as well as some
city staff, to manage your commission, the agenda, the minutes and all of the extraneous
work that needs to get done, as well as processing payments that are made or processing
the payments that are received and, then, also recycling. So, it's gotten really complicated
and sometimes what happens is the disconnect between something that might be really
primarily a city function that a volunteer -- and I have to commend Chairman Cory as
probably the best volunteer we have and I don't mean that to slight any of the other
commissions, but Chairman Cory has been a trooper in handling many of these things for
the city in both being the chair of our commission, as well as the Ada county solid waste
commission and being our go between, but we recognize that it's not the most efficient
way to run a business like this and so you folks approved earlier and Public Works is in
the process of hiring a coordinator for the city and so that person will manage the city's
expectations and needs in conjunction with the commission. So, we worked with the
commission, both from the staff and the commissioners, to determine what do we need
the commission to do that's really commission work, public input, public participation,
rates, programming, the Trash To Treasure, other recycling programs. Again, the rates
are probably the key component. We would like to have that citizen component of
weighing in on what makes sense for our citizens, what services are needed and how
they get paid for and who pays for them and how that's done. We have had a number of
them this year. Again, the glass recycling is another good example of that that's come
through the commission. So, what was intended was to try to carve out what is
predominantly a city function that our city needs, whether it's the expenditure of money,
processing payment -- processing a payment to someone or receiving payments and
things that -- that way it gives Republic a contact point that isn't a commission that meets
monthly, but is a person that's on staff and so that -- that was something Republic was
very supportive of, because, again, there is a lot of daily things that occur, maybe weekly
is probably better than daily, but there are a number of activities that occur that it's difficult
to have to work through either the volunteer chair or a staff member that's a member of
the commission that has other duties to do besides that and, then, try to coordinate all of
that and, then, bring it to the Commission on a monthly basis for approval. Not very
practical. So, we looked at carving out city duties and, then, working with the commission
on what made the most sense for them and -- and that's what's before you. So, we
already have a structure in our code on what commissions look like. This is the only
commission remaining that has city staff on it and we recognize that this appeared to be
a better opportunity to remove the city staff from being on the commission to providing
the support functions which is really their intent of being there to provide whatever support
is needed and, again, allow citizen -- more citizen participation in the commission itself.
So, that's really what's in front of you is that restructure. It removes the citizen -- or the
city employee -- employee positions that are currently on there and is trying to fashion it
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 15 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 11 of 83
to fit in the industry, as well as citizen participation, because one -- as you may notice one
of the things on there for members is a person in the industry. It wasn't intended for that
person to have to be a resident, because part of what helps the commission is having
someone knowledgeable in the subject area, because there is such specifics about it.
Now, again, this commission gets a lot of support from our franchisee in getting that
information, but we felt, again, from the citizen side having a person with a level of
expertise in the industry -- right now Mr. Neil is a former -- the former head of the county
landfill, so he is currently serving in the Public Works position that is the designated -- one
of the designated slots. Our desire was to have Mr. Neil continue his service and fill that
particular position of the industry expert. The rest were all positions related to residents.
We talked about -- and we didn't include this specifically. It could be included in the
ordinance if you wish or simply an emphasis as the Mayor looks for members that have
interest in this -- in this area of business owners within the city, because we have many
business owners that don't reside in the city, but yet their businesses are impacted by the
solid waste collection and that might be another area that we may have a specific person
for that. Sometimes -- and the Mayor is probably a better judge of this -- it can be difficult
if you get too many specific positions that have to be filled, because sometimes you don't
get people that have that level of interest that fit that little slot. So, we thought it would be
better to leave it broader, but still looking for folks in that area, at least until we, you know,
feel comfortable that there really is a desire of people to serve in those different areas.
But that was really kind of the intent of that was to create a citizen-only commission that
would handle, again, the -- the issues that were really relevant to citizens weighing in on
these programs and the rates and those types of things. We could put this into place
whenever you feel comfortable. There is no need to add to the commission right now if
you don't wish. The way our commissions are all structured is all of our commissions we
allow them to be up to nine -- some have nine. I believe the parks commission and
transportation have nine. Some have less than nine. Historic preservation has seven.
So, it's -- it's really dependent on the Mayor's desire, as well as the interest that exists,
but that's totally a call that can be made at a later time. It doesn't change anything the
way the current structure of our commissions are. Removing these two positions off the
commission still leaves them five. So, there would certainly be enough for them to
continue business and, again, if the desire was to add up to nine that certainly can be
done. I would stand for any questions or, again, if you had specifics in regards to the
commission Mr. Cory certainly could weigh in, Rachel is here from Republic to give you
their perspective if you would like, but that's the basis of why this is in front of you.
De Weerd: Okay. Council, any questions?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Mr. Cory, would you entertain a question?
Cory: Certainly, Council Member.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 16 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 12 of 83
Cavener: Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Appreciate your ongoing dedication to
the SWAC. One of the pieces in this proposal that I have wrestled with and I'm curious
to really hear your perspective is I think that it limits somewhat the authority of our citizen
board to propose rules or propose changes. That part gets stricken out, you guys are,
essentially, a review and recommend committee and I'm just curious from someone who
has been involved in SWAC for a significant amount of time if you have any feelings on
that or comments you wanted to make around that particular subject.
Cory: Thank you, Councilman Cavener. Yes, having been in the environmental business
for 30 years I have certainly noticed that communities as they grow hit a point where there
are issues that start to come up that need to be directed by the city itself. Certainly
because of the experience that I have had over the last few years I have recognized that
there are issues that are coming from the county and from our citizens that need decisions
to be made and I have made major efforts during this bridge to make sure that you as the
Council are aware of these, since they are strategic and -- and directional decisions that
define how we will manage solid waste and there comes a point where those issues,
which are really ones that the city government is making, need to be made by citizen --
city employees, because of the need for authority and -- and various other issues and it
was my view at this point that we had hit that point. Boise similarly had no professional
staff until they hit about 32,000 households and we have hit 32,000 households. So, we
have, you know, hating to use only a single example, but it does seem like this is the point
where the city staff does get involved and what we have left, things like their rate reviews
and various other policy reviews, is certainly a full plate for us. We have been a partner
in the development of this ordinance. We have worked with staff and -- and with Republic
on how to go ahead and set things up. We went ahead and reviewed the draft and the
-- the commission went ahead and voted unanimously to pass it to you for consideration
with a do pass recommendation. We are very comfortable with it and we do think Meridian
has reached the size that they need this city staff support.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up.
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Steve, do you ever anticipate a time that the SWAC board would want to
propose a rule or a regulation or a fee separate from, again, a recommendation that would
come from our waste provider or from staff? Maybe that's the crux of being a citizen
group is that you do have some authority. You're representing our community to say this
is what we think is best, in addition to working with our staff and with our provider, but
there is a certain amount of authority that comes from our citizen led that he is going to
be removed. I'm just curious if there has been a time that -- or you could envision a time
where this body would want to do that?
Cory: Councilman Cavener, Madam Mayor, if I may -- Bill, I was thinking that that -- that
some of the decisions about reviewing and recommending on ordinance changes stayed
with the commission.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 17 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 13 of 83
Nary: Council Member Cavener, I don't anticipate really I guess maybe what you're
concerned with, because really the effectiveness of the commission -- all of the
commissions -- I mean very few of them, other than the Planning and Zoning Commission,
have any rulemaking authority, but yet all of our commissions work hand in hand with our
staff to make sure they are one consistent message and I don't anticipate that being any
different. I really think the most effective use of citizen commissions is to do it
collaboratively, so that way there is that give and take from -- and, again, you have a
council member as an ex-officio, as well as the franchisee. So, I anticipate the same
dialogue that occurs today on how things are working or not working or what should be
done differently. Again, I think policy consideration and recommendations from the
commission would still come to the -- to the Council for ultimate approval, but I think the
commission would weigh in on whatever those recommendations -- recommended
policies would be. So, I don't anticipate -- I think a lot of what -- like Steve was saying,
the intent here was to separate out the things that as we talk through these clearly were
things that city staff needs to do and that right now city staff is doing that as members of
the commission, which is less efficient and -- and that they should have -- and, again, I
want to commend both Karie Glenn and Andrea Pogue from our city staff that have been
on the commission for a number of years and managing that, along with their normal
duties, and here, again, I think that was why we decided to recommend to the City Council
of having a coordinator position that would, then, work with the commission to do exactly
what you're suggesting.
De Weerd: And I think this makes it consistent with our other commissions and -- and
what their role and responsibilities are. Any of our commissions can recommend an area
that they would like to see a policy change or policy in general, they would work with staff
to develop something to bring to Council -- first to the commission to recommend approval
and, then, on to Council. So, this -- this is making it align with our other commissions.
Cavener: And, Madam Mayor, that may very well be the intent. Just the way that I read
it is that their ability is to review and to recommend what is before them and so it -- it strips
SWAC's ability -- if there is something that our citizen commission thinks is important, it
strips their ability to bring that forth without it being driven by staff and so to me that --
that's the piece that I do have some concerns about. And if -- if what is being intended is
-- I just don't need it in there -- for what -- for what it's worth.
Nary: I guess, Councilman Cavener, I don't -- I don't know the context it would come up
any different than what it does today, because today, the commission itself, if they -- as
the Mayor said -- or any of our commissions have a policy desire for the city forward, it
gets voiced and discussed and brought forward anyway. So, whether it's parks or HPC
or any of them, they all have the same -- but there is no difference in what their power to
do between this commission and the others. That's -- that was what we were looking for.
Cavener: Madam Mayor -- and I don't mean to belabor this point. Help me understand
why the decision was made to remove the word propose from their duties and powers if
it's happening anyways.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 18 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 14 of 83
Nary: So, all of our commissions review and recommend policy. This is relative to their
-- all of them. They have the same language as this. So, that was the intent and the
consistency. It doesn't mean they cannot raise it as a question and a discussion point,
because they set the agenda of their meetings. So, they still have the ability to do that. I
don't -- I don't foresee that being an issue where a commission -- any commission would
say we would like to propose a new program or a different way of doing an existing
program and the staff response is, well, that's not within your purview, sorry, we don't
care. I don't think that's ever happened. So, I don't -- I don't anticipate that happening,
but -- but the functions of commissions are to review and recommend and whether it's --
again, whether it's Planning and Zoning that only has one specific area that they have
decision making authority, all of their decisions are reviewing and recommending. The
same. So, it's -- it's intended to be consistent. That's all.
De Weerd: It is for the consistency and the review and recommend is all part of the
propose, because they propose to their own body and, then, they review and recommend.
We oftentimes have -- on several of our different commissions citizen groups that come
to those commissions with proposals that they vet, they review, and, then, they bring it
forward to City Council. So, it seems like we are -- we are concerned about semantics.
The practice has been bringing this and consistency with the other commissions and --
and certainly not stripping, but bringing some clarity and uniformity to all of our
commissions. And this was the only one that still had staff members on it as voting
members. We wanted to be truly that citizens commission.
Nary: Yes.
De Weerd: Any other questions? Steve, thank you. And I would echo what Mr. Nary has
said, you have done an amazing job, above and beyond the call of duty, and -- and we
certainly don't want to take advantage of that, but we would welcome you continuing to
serve for the next two decades.
Cory: Madam Mayor, you have already honored me and I appreciate the honors that I
have had from doing this position and we will just see how the future evolves.
De Weerd: That was a very political answer. Good job. Okay. So, we are looking for
that -- that is listed as an informational item. We would bring this back --
Nary: Yes.
De Weerd: -- for action.
D. Solid Waste Advisory Commission Discussion Regarding
Wheeled Cart Collection Placement Standards
Nary: Next item, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is much more narrowly
focused. So, in the time I have been on the committee and on the commission and in
between periodically there is a conversation on where should people put their trash cans
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 19 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 15 of 83
and no matter how much we educate folks and no matter how much we talk about it, there
is a disconnect amongst a lot of our citizens on where to put them, both before and after
and where we find in Meridian primarily, at least half of the city, puts the trash can on the
sidewalk and what happens is in many of our neighborhoods the sidewalks are narrow,
sidewalks have other obstructions on them, like mailboxes and other things and so the
trash cans get in the way of traveling along the sidewalks and we get periodic complaints
yearly from ones that are left out too long or left askew on the sidewalk and so they
impede people from traveling. Lots of other areas in the city, including the city of Boise,
the trash cans are in the street and the purpose of that is to, one, make sure they aren't
obstructed by parked cars, so that they can get picked up effectively and that is an issue
that occurs here in Meridian and that also, again, they are not obstructing the sidewalk.
So, the commission's had a lot of discussion, they have had citizen input about this on
both sides and the citizen -- and the recommendation to them -- and, again, a lot of it is
in wording and all that, but the recommendation of the commission is to recommend that
this -- that the trash cans need to move to the street off of the sidewalk with the rear of
the can -- rear of the cart against the face of the curb. So, if there are areas that that's
already being done, there will be no change, and there are neighborhoods that it will take
an education effort to educate folks that that's where they need to put their -- their trash
cans in the future. But that is the recommendation, that's the ordinance that's in front of
you. It's a fairly simple change in words. It -- obviously, we have discussed it at the
commission. There is going to be a needed effort from an education standpoint, because
I think when I asked Ms. Klein about how many residences in the city put their cans on
the sidewalk it was about half. So, half will get it wrong and half will get it right. And so it
will take a little effort to get the other half to understand where to put them. Questions?
That's basically it. It's a very simple change. But, obviously, there is a little bit more effort
into making that change effective.
De Weerd: I guess, Mr. Nary, it would be similar to Mr. Cavener's question on the trash
-- the Trash To Treasure is has that communication plan been discussed and are we ready
to start educating.
Nary: So, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, we have discussed that a little bit.
Most of our communication of this type is done through two means. One through the
billing, through our normal billings that we send out, our own information through our utility
bills, as well as -- and Rachel can correct me. Is it quarterly? So, they have a quarterly
newsletter that is put out by Republic to share this level of information. So, it will take a
little bit of time and effort. We haven't got down to specifics on when we are going to put
this out. I think, again, it was to bring this forward for this conversation and, then, pick
when do you want to do this, so that we can begin the effort of getting the education out
there. Now, I'm skeptical, because I'm a lawyer, and that's kind of how we roll, but, you
know, we went and changed from unlimited trash to the cart collection system a number
of years ago, it was thought at the same time we will never get people to do this or
understand it and, eventually, they did and it didn't take a monumental effort and it didn't
take years -- about a year, maybe, not years, but it did take an effort, but people did
understand and here, again, the other side I guess maybe the -- the sunny side of my
earlier comments, half of the city already puts them in the street. So, half of the city
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 20 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 16 of 83
doesn't need to be educated on it, that's how they already do it. So, we do think that we
can -- we can handle this communication through our utility billing and through the
Republic Services newsletter and, then, of course, we will use our social media and such
to tell folks what that is and really, then, would be the issue of when do you want to make
this effective to put this into place. We did have a concern about the Trash Or Treasure,
but even in Boise -- I mean today when you have bulky items, so you have pick up of
couches and desks and other kinds of things, those still go on the sidewalk. So, this won't
change the Trash Or Treasure. The can -- the cart will still need to go in the street.
Anything else, whether, again, it's a bulky item pick up or the Trash Or Treasure will still
go on the sidewalk. We don't have the streets full of desks and chairs and couches
anyway. So, we didn't feel it was going to be a mixed message to folks. We are still going
to tell them where those things belong on the sidewalk anyway. It really is just educating
about the cart.
De Weerd: So, who enforces it if it's on the sidewalk? How is that enforced?
Nary: Well, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, that's a great question and we did
talk about that. So, our -- the way it's crafted, if you read it, it is preferred that it would be
in the street, that there are places -- and it was trying to anticipate in a code how do we
deal with areas where it is not logical or practical to put it in the street and not knowing
where those are that we said, you know, there is the ability to leave it on the sidewalk.
Right now our ordinance only cares when you put it out and when you take it back. Right
now it's -- it's preferred to be on the sidewalk, but I don't want to speak for code. The
code enforcement doesn't go out and chase people for putting it in the wrong place. They
go out and talk to people when they don't put it back. So, we felt it was okay to give
people at least the ability, if practical, to have to leave it on the sidewalk or what we tried
to clear up is it was already in the ordinance and we tried to make it a little bit clearer.
There are places where actually Republic Services has designated that you need to put
your trash can here, because of where the truck could go and so there are situations
where Republic has designated that is where your trash receptacle belongs, whether it's
in the street, in the driveway, or on the sidewalk, whatever that is. If that's the case, then,
that is where they have to put it. So, we left a little bit of room on where you put it,
because, again, at the end of the day our enforcement mechanism predominantly is
getting it back off of the sidewalk after it's picked up and not left out on the sidewalk for
two or three days. So, that's as much of a nonanswer as I can give.
De Weerd: I know. I'm still trying to sift through that to see what the answer was. So,
you're just hoping that at least we move the needle from half to three fourths of the
residents putting it in the right place?
Nary: Or better, yes.
De Weerd: Any questions from Council?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 21 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 17 of 83
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Not a question -- well, maybe for Republic. I was thinking that you guys had oops
stickers that you could put on the cart, so when they put them in the -- in the wrong place
they could -- you could let them know that they need to move them?
Klein: Yes. Madam Mayor and Council Woman Milam, yes, we --
De Weerd: If you can be in front of --
Klein: Sorry. Yes, we had a similar situation in the city of Middleton. So, two years ago
the mayor and council decided to move all carts into the street off the sidewalks and so
what we did was we had cart tags -- just a sticker printed up and so we would move --
regardless of whether that, you know, cart was on the sidewalk or not, we would -- we
would service all carts and put them back where they should be and, then, we would tag
them saying, oops, it looks like we need to get your carts into the street to improve access.
Like we just had a positive little message about why -- why we were moving carts into the
street and it took us probably six months to get everybody to comply. It was pretty easy
and once we made the case of, you know, accessibility for really kids on bikes -- I know
bikes generally go in the street, but mostly kids are on the -- they are young, they are on
the sidewalks and so we just said to keep sidewalks clear for all of our citizens we would
like you to put these in -- carts in the street with the curbs, again, against the gutter and
so that worked really well and so that would be on us, that part.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: That would be helpful. Yes, Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I also just wanted to comment. Yeah. So, personally this has been an issue and
I didn't bring this up, a citizen brought this forward, but in our subdivision it's a huge safety
issue. You see little kids riding to school and, then, they have to ride into the street to
dodge a trash can and, then, back onto the sidewalk and back into the street and so from
my perspective this is just really important as a -- as a safety issue for our kids and the
other thing is I think we are the only city in the valley who doesn't already have this in
place.
Item 7: Action Items
A. Continued from December 11, 2018: Request to Provide Water
and Sewer Service to Un -annexed Property at 5233 W. Franklin
Road
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Item 7-A under Action Items and I believe this would go to
Caleb.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 22 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 18 of 83
Hood: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Members of the Council. I'm here to talk to you
about a request for pre-annexation services, which largely includes sewer and water
hookups in advance of annexation for property located at 5233 West Franklin Road. This
item was continued from November 7th and, then, most recently December 11th. I have
updated the memo that was prepared for your December 11th item with some new
information that was provided by the applicant, which includes the revised site and
landscape plan, as well as an updated or a new narrative from the -- from the applicant.
I did -- well, did also want to mention that I did meet with Mr. Bell and Brenda a couple of
weeks ago and just kind of walked through it. As you may recall he missed the last
meeting. It's my understanding had a chance to watch it, though, on YouTube. We had
a chance to kind of talk a couple of weeks ago with Brenda present as well. So, I'm not
going to go through the whole thing, but really just provide kind of some of the highlights
or really what's changed, but I did want to restart with some of the background
information. The subject property is designated mixed employment within the Ten Mile
interchange specific area plan. So, the subject property is located right here. There are
approximately 133 acres of property with the same designation, south side of Franklin
and the west side of Black Cat on our future land use map. The zoning designations that
correlate best with the MU designation include community business, which is C-C,
general retail and service commercial is C-G, traditional neighborhood center TN-C and
mixed employment, ME, and that corresponds to the future land use map designation as
well. So, a couple things. Let me move to the aerial real quick. So, again, the subject
property is located right here. Proposed is a 13,000 square foot building on a six acre
site. The building includes a significant amount of office area and approximately half,
about 7,000 square feet of warehouse area, so manufacturing there. So, again, there is
an office and showroom retail component. A vast majority of the site is proposed for
material storage, warehousing, and manufacturing. The Ten Mile interchange specific
area plan calls for mixed employment areas to be designated to encourage multimodal
travel and convenient circulation to supporting uses located within the area. The
submitted site plan does not show the connectivity that we were hoping for. A little bit --
here there is a direct access point to Franklin Road if services are provided, if Council
agrees to provide the services and allow this project to move forward through Ada county,
would request that cross-access be provided to the adjacent properties. So, again, we
have convenient circulation for the users in the future. There is also a planned collector
-- I'm going to jump back real quick to the comp plan. It will be on this map, this dashed
line -- that purple -- purplish line. There is a future east-west collector roadway between
Black Cat and, then, a future north-south roadway as well. So, on the south side of this
property essentially. The applicant has since amended the -- the site plan. I will let him
speak a little bit more -- before this was all called out of the paved storage area -- has
significantly reduced that down to what they envisioned their business needs are for -- for
Butte Fence and, then, this future development area. There is a 30 foot right of way that's
being preserved on the site plan with an additional 20 foot future landscape buffer. So,
that's great and reduces, again, that -- that future development, preserve the opportunity,
then, for that east-west collector to happen when it -- when it gets to this property. Having
landlocked public right of way doesn't make any sense today, but preserving for that
certainly does make sense. And the last thing I think I will call out just as a change since
last month when we discussed this is he was able to locate some fencing materials, I
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 23 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 19 of 83
guess, and has called out on the revised site plan that there will be a six foot tall privacy
fence. So, before it was just called out as a fence, but it has been amended to the
perimeter will be fenced with a privacy fence. So, I think that's kind of the highlights of
what has changed. Again, hopefully, that provides a quick recap of where we are at in
Ada county. Again, this property is not eligible for annexation. Pretty rural out here. City
limits are not too terribly far away, but it will be some time I imagine before we get this
direction. But there were some improvements to this intersection that did allow our sewer
and water service anyways to be done with that intersection project and the roadway
project on Franklin Road in advance of the city limits. So, I think with that, unless you
have any -- any questions for me at that time, that's kind of the update that I have on the
new information, again, over the last 30 days or so.
De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. Council, any questions? None at this time. Is the applicant
here?
McKay: Thank you, Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Good afternoon.
McKay: -- Members of the Council. Becky McKay. Engineering Solutions. 1029 North
Rosario in Meridian. Mr. Bell is here today, so he would like to address the Council and
answer some specific questions that you may have. I would like to thank the Council,
thank the staff for giving us the opportunity to come back before you guys and Caleb did
a really good job I think re-analyzing this and I know he's a busy guy and I hate to take
up staff's time, because it is valuable, just like your time, but I think we have -- we have
addressed some of the concerns as far as making this fit in with that Ten Mile specific
plan by providing the collector, preserving that collector right of way along the south
boundary, providing for a collector buffer, so when or if that collector is ever built we have
the buffer, we have the right of way there that will facilitate and not inhibit that future
transportation plan in any way. We also -- since the site is larger than what the Butte
Fence needs are, Jared did agree to put future development there, so that when that
roadway does go through or if it goes through there is the potential that another user or
possibly he builds a secondary building for whatever uses that he has could go in front
on that collector. Staff has indicated that they want some interconnectivity and I agree
with the staff and Mr. Bell is in agreement. So, we will provide cross-access both to the
east and to the west, so that we can interconnect, because there are smaller parcels that
adjoin us and so that will be a component and that mixed employment or interconnectivity
that's envisioned in this area can be achieved and so he has agreed we will modify that
and show those -- the pavement going both to the east and west in that drive aisle
alignment. Caleb's indicated that our parking -- we show exceeds the UDC. Our arterial
buffer meets the 35 feet as required by the UDC. And that as far as the mixed use, we
do have a two -- you know, two uses on the site. We do have our office and our
manufacturing and so, you know, we are not just a single user, but two different types of
components and staff has also indicated that they are building -- our building elevation
will meet the design guidelines that the city has and, most importantly, I think -- which I
was very pleased to say that staff did strike their concern statement that was in bold
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 24 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 20 of 83
saying that they had concerns that this could not fit or would not fit in with what's planned
in the Ten Mile area specific plan and so I think they have done everything they can do
and we have done everything we can do and -- and I would ask the Council to support
this and I will turn it over to Jared real quick.
De Weerd: Good afternoon, Jared. Thank you for joining us.
Bell: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council and staff.
De Weerd: If you can state your name and address for the record.
Bell: Jared Bell. Butte Fence. 2049 East Wilson Lane, Meridian.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Bell: Sorry I missed last month's meeting. I wished I could have been here. I did watch
the proceedings later that day, but I appreciate you guys moving this forward so that I
could be here and, hopefully, articulate a little bit better my vision of a bigger, better facility.
In my letter -- in 2001 we built where we are at now. We had -- thought we had plenty of
space to be there and didn't think we would be in this facility -- or outgrowing this facility,
but we have and this is where we are at and I have been working on this for two years.
Our ultimate goal is to stay where we are and thought we had some things in place there
that I alluded to in my letter as well that kind of fell through. You know, I wanted to find
property in the city limits. I looked a long time and even earlier this summer when we met
with staff at a -- at a pre-meeting regarding this -- this property and waiver, staff even
asked if we looked at this property or this property and, yes, yes, we -- we have kind of
exhausted all efforts to be within the contiguous area of the city. So, I reached out and
had made several offers on other pieces of property and this is ultimately where we landed
after doing due diligence and thought this would be a really good fit. You know, we want
to -- we want to continue to grow. We have had a lot of success. The city's grown. We
have benefited from a lot of that construction and continue to see Meridian as our home.
So, I really would hope you guys will support this -- granting this waiver and allow me to
move our facility out there. I believe it's going to be a really nice piece of property. It's
not -- you know, a contractor's yard seems a little harsh. When I think of that I think of a
big gravel facility with maybe some backhoes and some contractor's coming in and out of
there every once in a while, but our location now is a place where we want the public to
come and we want to do business there. We want people to walk around in an
environment that replicates part of their backyard or their living space, so that they can
see the beautifications that can be made with the services that we provide and that's the
vision that I have is taking what we have now and making it bigger and better place for
people to come. We do have six acres. I was ideally looking for four or five, but this was
what was available that somebody was willing to sell me. So, part of my construction
estimates have always been to only develop three and a half to four acres. That got
missed from the landscape site plan originally, so we did make that amendment for that
future development on the south there. We plan on making it a beautiful perimeter with,
obviously, the requirements for the landscape around the outside and we know somebody
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 25 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 21 of 83
that can put up a pretty nice fence to make it look -- look nice. So, with that I am open to
answering any questions that Madam Mayor or Council Members may have for me.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jared. Council, any questions? Okay. None?
Bell: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hood: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Caleb.
Hood: While Mr. Bell is still there, I just -- part of our conversation -- I'm sorry I'm even
bringing it up, but it is in the memo, but on page three -- and I appreciate Becky talking
about cross-access and willingness to do that and preserve the collector. The other thing
I should have called it out in my presentation, but we talked about it a little bit there, too,
but it's in my memo, again, at the top of page three. Some of why I was comfortable
striking that this isn't -- not consistent with the comp plan was this provision about that
future development area and I know that we had a conversation about that. But there is
a provision that staff would recommend that if you move forward with this that the future
development of that roughly two, two and a half acres or whatever remains, again, that
-- that whatever develops there is pulled towards that future collector and has a floor area
ratio and the square footages that are consistent with the plan. So, I just want to put that
out there to give them while he's here, because I know he has some -- or at least did have
some concerns with that -- that is in the memo and that's, again, why I felt comfortable
kind of striking through that was, yeah, then -- then we got the north and the south half
that are -- that are generally consistent with the comp plan. So, sorry I didn't in my original
presentation bring that up.
Bell: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, one other note that I see that I missed here.
On page three there, too, under the paragraph B there at the end it talks about where we
added the fence and it says the subject property would be required to screen the storage
yard with a six foot solid fence if developed within within the city. I just wanted to make
sure that it was clear that if we are able to build our facility here that fence will go up
immediately, not regardless of whether we are contiguous or whatever that -- that would
be done upon construction. So, to make that clear.
De Weerd: Thank you, Jared.
Bell: Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Council, any further information needed for staff or
applicant?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 26 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 22 of 83
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Question for Caleb. The recommendation and agreement to do cross-access
east and west, does that apply to the northern parcel as well? So, would there be a cross-
access commitment on the future development site, as well as --
Hood: Madam Mayor, that was only intended for the northern parts of where that drive
aisle is coming off of Franklin, basically after the parking stalls stub that up. To the south
I think we are going to be okay, because we don't know how that future development site
is going to develop. We may in the future want to see cross-access down there as well,
but with the collector and the unknown of how that develops, I think we are okay for now
to address that maybe in the future. So, I think we are good connectivity wise for now at
least with the cross-access on the north and not the south.
Borton: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay. Any further questions?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Seeing none, I move that we approve the water and sewer to that unannexed
property at 5233 West Franklin Road, including all staff recommendations and applicant
comments.
Cavener: Second.
Milam: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, we will you call
roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
nay.
De Weerd: Okay. The ayes have it.
MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE NAY.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Hood: Madam Mayor, before we move on I just wanted to sort of circle back. I know that
there was a draft agreement, so I think this will actually be before you begin to actually
approve the -- all the terms as you just directed in the motion. So, I don't know -- I will
work with legal staff on -- if that's next Tuesday or ten days out -- I don't know how -- how
much work, but just wanted to let you know we will work on that, but you will see this
again to kind of finalize that motion you just made.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 27 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 23 of 83
De Weerd: And I guess just a comment to staff and to the applicant. I realize that there
was a lot of compromise and a lot of discussions to -- to bring this into code, so it wasn't
some -- something that didn't fit out there in the vision of the Comprehensive Plan. There
was a lot of give and take and appreciate the work that staff has done with the applicant
and -- and the representatives. So, we appreciate all those efforts.
Item 8: Department Reports
A. Human Resources Department Annual Report
De Weerd: Okay. Under Item 8-A is our Human Resource Department annual report and
update.
Ritchie: Thank you. Thank you, C.Jay. Madam Mayor, Members of Council, it's a
pleasure to be back here in front of you for another annual department report. As we
were reflecting back and putting this presentation together we were surprised to see how
quickly the time has past, but I do take great pride to stand in front of you today and
represent and communicate to you the hard work and the effort and the accomplishments
that the HR team behind me and upstairs work hard at every day, every year, to -- to
provide what we do for the employees each and every day and I will certainly try to keep
it brief. So, here are the things I would like to cover with you today. A little bit of a quick
overview of Human Resources, an update on the 2018 projects and initiatives that we
communicated a year ago. I would like to give at least a high level update on our
employment efforts, compensation administration, our benefit administration, our training
and development efforts, our employee engagement focuses, policy administration and
compliance and, then of course, I will stand for any questions you may have. You have
seen this graphic before, but it really depicts a lot of what we do in Human Resources
each and every day. I'm not going to go through that wheel, but as you can see there are
many factors in many areas that we provide support and services on to our employees,
to the departments that we support year around. Here is a look at your Human Resources
Department. These faces are all -- are the same to. No new faces. It looks a little
difference. However, you will see an additional graphic there at the bottom that we are in
the process of recruiting for the new generalist position that you graciously approved for
us during the budget cycle. So, the next time I'm in front of you I will be making an
introduction of a new employee to our team. We often get asked how do you do what
you do. How does the team do what you do each and every day, being so small,
supporting so many employees on top of all the different projects and initiatives that are
asked of us throughout the year and simply put this is how we do it. It takes teamwork.
We together collectively work very well together. We support each other. We step in and
assist each other and without that effective teamwork we would not be able to do what
we do each and every day. So, let's take a look at the accomplishments for 2018. So,
the first area I would like to just highlight for you is going to be the area of compliance and
I'm not going to go through each and every single one of the items listed on this slide, but
I'm going to call out a few that are higher level, if you will. So, another compliance arena,
if you will, the internal alignment, we are entering into the next phase of the internal
alignment effort. For those of you who may or may not recall, that is our opportunity in
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 28 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 24 of 83
Human Resources to make sure that every job description across the city is reviewed and
updated to accurately reflect the current requirements of the job every three years. So,
we take the 190 positions that we have, we have broken those down into thirds, and every
year we go through this effort to ensure that we take a look at every job description at
least once every three years. In addition to that, you will see there at the bottom of that
box we have started and are in progress and are on the edge of completing an I-9 audit
and that's very important for us to ensure that we are compliant with the I-9 expectations
and regulations and we are about 82 percent complete and we hope to complete that
here in the next few months. The next area of accomplishments are our employee
engagement and so you will see that there are several things that we do throughout the
year to support the employee engagement efforts here at the city. This year specifically
we administered an employee engagement survey. All of the departments have received
their department survey results. We shared the city results at our annual team meeting
and we are continuing to focus and put attention on action planning, celebrating the
successes at the department level for all of the things that we did do well and, then, putting
some action plans on the things that we would like to do even better. In addition to that
this year is something new for us was our all city employee meeting and we had that this
past November at the Galaxy Event Center and we had great participation. I know not all
of you were able to attend, but for those of you who were we greatly appreciated it. For
those of you who had a conflict we were sorry we missed you and we hope certainly that
we see you next year. This is a new area for us in our presentation to the Council and
this is community focus and the reason this is new for us to deliver to you is because we
are very much a centralized employee support department. So, a lot of the services that
we do each and every day focuses for the employees that are here each and every day.
We are starting to get into some efforts that have a community focus on them. One of
them most recently this past October was our United Way campaign. For those of you
who had an opportunity to stop by, we greatly appreciated you coming by and you
participating in that effort. The reason you see that there are two campaigns listed on this
particular slide is because the presentation I'm giving to you today represents the
calendar year of 2018. I generally have been in front of you on the fiscal year, because I
have always presented in September and we have moved to January. So, we actually in
-- since I last was in front of you had two campaigns. In addition to that, you see that we
continued our youth work life skills program and I'm going to talk more about that here
shortly. The next area that I want to talk about is training and development and in addition
to the standard training efforts that we provide every year, we have had some additional
training initiatives that we rolled out this past year. Most notably there at the bottom of
the box you will see that we did what we call an April roadshow -- or, excuse me, HR road
show and HR went around to all of the different departments across the city and we
provide a general employee compensation training to all general employees to help them
better understand the current compensation program that applies to them. In addition to
that we partnered with ICRMP and we have just initiated our annual training for avoiding
discriminatory harassment. We completed with the Fire Department. So, we very much
appreciate them allowing us the opportunity to pilot the training with them and we will be
continuing to roll that training out February and March across the city. Under the area of
benefits and wellness, some new things that occurred this past year. Christena and the
efforts of the committee that she works with implemented a bike share program that --
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 29 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 25 of 83
which was very well received. So, we were really excited to be able to offer that this year.
In addition to that, you had Christena in front of you a few months ago on behalf of the
benefits committee and all of their efforts this past year to come forward with a self funding
recommendation that you all approved and now that they have done a lot of that work
they will be moving that forward over the course of 2019. And in addition to the new
efforts for benefits and wellness there at the bottom you will see that we had new family
focused events that we offered this past year and we are going to talk about that here in
just a few minutes. Compensation is always big for us in Human Resources and it is
something that we do all year round. It's not a one time event. The budget is a one time
event, but this is something that we need to be focused on that we operate under each
and every day, whether it's with a job offer, evaluating and analyzing current salaries,
those types of things. So, you will see there several of the different efforts that we had
this past year. Some of this you saw through the budget process this past summer. Some
of those are reoccurring each and every year. However, you will see there that what was
new to us this year we are -- well, not new, I shouldn't say, but we did conduct very
thorough market analysis that was presented to you. We did several compensation
studies in multiple areas of the city, as well as we also participated in and we analyzed
several compensation studies and the salaries that we have here at the city to ensure
that we remain market competitive. Employee relations. This one's also big for us.
Significantly this year has been a huge focus on behalf of the team for recruitment. I was
speaking with Cameron Ariel, the Director of Community Development, recently and we
were talking about all of the recruitment efforts that are occurring for all of the departments
across the city, but with the addition of building services and their needs to fill positions
we have seen about a 25 percent increase in our recruitment efforts, which translates to
a significant amount of time on behalf of Brittany, Jessica, Laura Lee, and Christena to fill
those positions to get the departments what they need in order so they can continue the
services that the public expects. Also under the employee relations umbrella we have
spent some time this year taking a look at our new employee orientation program. I have
been in front of you over the last couple years talking about the different enhancements
that we have offered, more that we have implemented to enhance the program. We
continue those efforts this year. What we did in May was we implemented a new
employee orientation survey that goes out to any new employee within 48 hours of their
participation into the orientation, so that we can get their feedback about their experience,
their welcome to the city. Did they receive what they were expecting and any ideas and
suggestions of things that we could do differently for them to better position them for their
time with the city. This is a new focus or topic that I'm bringing forward to you this year,
which is process improvements. A lot of what we have done over the last couple years
have been operationally based and very reactive to the needs of the departments that we
support. In addition to continuing to do that, though, we wanted to take a look internally
to our department to see what we could be looking at that could make things more
efficient, a little clearer, a little better, and here are a list of some of those things. I have
already touched on the new employee orientation improvements that we have made. One
of the other things that we also implemented this year was we added on our intranet page
a resource page, if you will, that focuses on external training resources that are available
to employees and managers as they look to see what kind of training they would like for
their staff members to receive or staff would like to receive to develop themselves, both
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 30 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 26 of 83
internally for their position, as well as for professional development purposes. We often
get asked where could they go. We put it in one place at their fingertips. I'm not going to
go heavily into this slide. This is about the strategic objectives that we continue to work
on in addition to all the other things that we just covered, but just letting you know all of
the strategic objectives that we have been working on we are continuing to work on. We
will be back in front of you I believe in March when the Mayor provides her strategic
update to the Council and we are kind of excited to do that, because we have a couple
on the horizon that we will be presenting as a close out. So, if we want to focus just for a
few minutes on -- excuse me -- on employment. Staffing and employment issues are
really a big part of what we do each and every day and when I say we, it's really the team
behind me who makes this happen, but you will see here we have a city average retention
rate for 2018 of a little over 91 percent. That's remained consistent year over year in that
ballpark of the low 90s. The average years of service currently here at the city for our
employees is a little over almost eight years, so 7.84 years is our average of tenure
currently and, then, you will see there at the bottom how it breaks out by department and
you will see the highest level of years of service in each department, as well as the
average years of service as well. So, one of the things that we would like to do in the
Human Resources Department is take a moment and thank all of the employees that are
here at the city for their dedicated years of service and supporting each other, as well as
the public each and every day. Another effort that we have under employment is our
youth work life skills program. This is a program that under the leadership of Mr. Nary
when he was leading the Human Resources Department we implemented this program
and every year this program has come back and every year it has been well received and
it is a thanks to you all for funding -- providing us the funding that we need to provide this
opportunity to our youth in the community to help them establish and understand what
work and life are all about and how to interview for a job, what job expectations are, how
to write a resume, those types of things. So, you will see some details there. This is an
effort that is managed by Laura Lee Berg in our office once a year and she single handedly
-- and she will not take most of the credit for it, she does have the support of Brittany, but
she does manage this process pretty much on her own all the way through reviewing the
applications, interviewing all of the youth that apply, providing them interview feedback,
placing them within the departments, checking in on them, giving them feedback, those
types of things. We also want to give a special thanks to Pamela Johnston. This is her
second year that -- she's actually come from the Meridian Library District and we have
gotten her with these -- these kids or these youth to help them understand how to develop
an effective resume as they look for that next summer job or they look at exiting high
school and may or may not be going to college, as they exit into the workforce how to do
that effectively and represent themselves with the resume. And, then, there at the bottom
you will see it doesn't represent all of the youths that we had this year, but we did
collectively get a picture that we do every year. They have an opportunity to meet the
Mayor. We provide them an end of season wrap up party. But not only do we provide
them that opportunity, we also want to hear what the kids received and got and gained
from this -- the experience and what they are going to take away and, then, what could
we add to the program to make it even better for next year's kids. So, that's something
that we greatly enjoy. But, in a nutshell, we could not do or provide this program from
Human Resources without the support and participation from the departments across the
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 31 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 27 of 83
city. So, we want to give a special thanks to each of the departments that participated
this past year. So, here we are with some data on recruitment. This is the only slide I will
probably cover each and every single number on the slide because it does highly
represent the amount of time and commitment from our staff. This past year we received
over and processed over 2,500 external applications for employment here at the city. Our
recruitment costs -- and let me just say for this one slide it is an FY-18. It's a fiscal year
'18 representation, not a calendar year. A little over 20,000 dollars in advertising costs.
With that being said those advertising costs are the initial costs from Human Resources.
If a position needs to be readvertised or the advertisement needs to continue, then, those
advertising costs are from the department. This is just the initial cost to get the job out
there, get it advertised and get it going. We posted 61 positions this past year and the
thing to keep in mind is that is the posting of 61 positions, but we hired 147 people within
those positions. That resulted in collective efforts of Christena and Laura Lee who
participated in over 400 hours of interviews with the departments to make sure that they
were getting the right candidate for the position of their needs. The support team behind
the recruitment efforts between Jessica upstairs, as well as Brittany, is 139 pre-
employment appointments or meetings. They coordinated 251 drug and alcohol tests.
Jessica processed over 369 reference calls. The average cost of recruitment was 342
dollars and the average time to fill the positions between the partnership between the
departments and the recruitment staff was a little over 96 days. That does not include
the police department recruitment efforts. If you want to include the police department,
then, it averages about 146 and a half days. Significant amount of time, significant
amount of effort and commitment. But most of all it is a partnership between Human
Resources and the departments and collectively they work together to make all this
happen. So, here are some of the current initiatives. Those were some of the
accomplishments. But here are some of the current initiatives that we are working on for
2019. We are continuing to recruit for all of the active job postings on the website and as
of today there are 18 postings that we are currently recruiting for. I have been in front of
you previously and talked about the job description template that we have and how our
job descriptions are formatted and we are converting them to a new format and we will
continue that and, then, the other thing here we want to say thank you to the IT team is
we are going to be focusing our efforts this year on a new -- developing a new employment
application tool that will provide the applicant a much better positive customer experience.
Some things that are on our radar, though, these are things that we would like to be able
to get to if we can get through everything else is we do want to take a look at -- at reviewing
our current recruitment process here at the city. We want to apply the PEAK Academy
training that Christena and myself had the opportunity to go through this past year. In
addition to that, we want to take a look at some of our internal tools and processes and
just make sure that they are up to par and if there is anything that we can do to tweak
them to help the recruitment process that we adjust and make those changes. Under
compensation and benefit administration, one of the things that our staff does every year
is we attend trainings, we go to seminars, we attend webinars, we do everything that we
can to make sure that we are abreast of the most current updated, legal, best practices,
industry standard information, so, in turn, we are providing the best services possible for
the employees and managers that we support. And you will just see a couple of
categories that are listed on that slide. But if we look specifically at compensation
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 32 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 28 of 83
administration, specifically around salaries, every year we do performance evaluations
for employees who have been here for more than one year. They are on an annual cycle
of every October. Every employee in the city, though, during their first year of employment
receives a six month evaluation and/or a one year evaluation that occurs at any time
throughout the year following one year from their hire dates. So, this past year we
processed approximately 408 performance evaluations. In addition to that we also
facilitated 27 promotions and/or transfers and that's a lot of paperwork that happens there.
Specifically, though, for the annual city performance evaluation cycle we want to take a
moment and say thank you to Barb and Amie in the Finance Department, because we do
process -- and there it says 210 performance evaluations in the month of October and
November, over 16 working days, because there is holidays in there as well, to ensure
that each and every single performance evaluation gets processed, so that every eligible
employee for an increase gets that increase on that November paycheck. Without the
assistance of the payroll department we could not make that happen in the very short
window of time that we do. So, we very much appreciate that. So, here are some current
initiatives for 2019. That we are working on in regards to compensation. We are going
to continue a general employee compensation analysis. That's an ongoing effort that we
do every year. That doesn't change. What is new this year is we have established a
compensation committee who is dedicated to looking at our current compensation
program for general employees to ensure that the current compensation program that we
have is competitive, which is very key to the recruitment efforts that we work on each and
every day. In addition to that you will see we are going to continue our efforts in regards
to our strategic objectives under our compensation and, then, of course, what's on our
radar we know it's coming will be a review of compensation studies that we participate in,
salary surveys that we participate in. We take a look at annual data. We take a look at
-- or, excuse me, not annual -- local data, city data -- Treasure Valley data, state data,
regional data, so that we feel comfortable and confident that the wages that we have are
extremely competitive, because we want to attract new valuable employees, but we want
to retain the valuable employees that we have currently here at the city. So, for benefit
administration there is so many different things that we do in regards to benefits. The
benefit committee, as you know, meets regularly -- regularly to keep their eyes on and
focused on the benefits that we do offer at the city for medical, dental, and vision. We
partner with our benefit broker Mercer and who you have had in front of you before and
that takes a strong commitment in time from that -- from those individuals to ensure that
we keep this moving forward each and every year. Christena has done a great job this
year with open enrollment. She has facilitated 16 open enrollment meetings. She made
a little bit of a change this year in an effort to get out there in front of everyone. Rather
than having open meetings she did reach out and coordinate with each of the departments
to come into their staff meeting and provide that information. That expanded the number
of meetings that she facilitated from ten to 16, but that was time well spent and from what
we heard from employees much appreciated. So, we certainly appreciate that, Christena.
In addition to that, she has hosted the fifth annual benefits fair this year. Several vendors
participated. We appreciate you letting us use the Council chambers to offer that again
this year as the standard conference rooms were very much tied up. And, then, in addition
to that she does a great job at the FMLA administration, the workers compensation claim
processing, managing the administration and, then, making sure all of our EAP services
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 33 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 29 of 83
are out there and available to our employees as needed. So, here is some information
-- I'm not going to go into great detail in regards to workers compensation and employee
assistance program, but what you will see here is kind of the activity that we have had
year over year since 2014. Worker compensation is single -- is handled by Christena
primarily on her own. I do provide her some backup support if she's tied up in an interview,
but she is the one who manages each and every single one of these claims. She works
with the departments in regards to light duty or restricted duty, getting employees back
on the job. She liaisons with the State Insurance Fund, as well as with the medical
providers. We continue to be able to offer an employee assistance program on behalf of
the Council who provides us the budget for that every year and you can see the utilization
there from 2014 to current. It is something that our employees are utilizing, whether it's
for themselves or for a family member, and all of that information is confidential. We just
receive utilization and participation data, but the specific services are confidential
between the AICP service provider and our employees. The wellness committee is
something that Christena also manages and coordinates and spends a lot of time with
the panel member -- the participants of the committee as well and they work every year
to bring several of these events forward to us, but there are a few new ones this year that
I would like to call out. We do have the wear purple for Domestic Violence Awareness
recognition this year and there is a picture there of folks wearing purple in recognition of
that. They are to your right I believe. In addition to that, we wanted to expand some of
our activities to include families and so this year we offered a gingerbread decorating
contest, which was very well received. A lot of fun to see all the pictures are up on the
website if you didn't get a chance to see that, but it's pictures of our employees and their
families and some of them are work families, because we spend a lot of time together as
well celebrating the holidays, coming together and doing something fun. But in addition
to all of the efforts of the wellness committee, one of the things that we are very proud of
is we were the recipient of the American Heart Association's bronze level workplace
achievement award and that was recently awarded to us this past month by Ken Corder,
who is a new addition to the American Heart Association. So, we are very proud to receive
that bronze level award. However, we are striving -- and I know the wellness committee
would like to strive to see if we could receive the silver award in the future. So, here are
some current initiatives. As you all know we are in the process of conduct -- of preparing
for and conducting a benefit valuation. You all were gracious enough to approve some
budget dollars for us this past summer to do this. This is an opportunity for us to take a
look at our current benefit program compared to other benefit programs that are offered
within our local market to ensure that we have as best we can a competitive benefit
program offering for new employees and our existing employees. This has been a shift
in recruitment over the past several years. Previously in several years it's been more
focused on shifts, work hours, workdays, wages and we are seeing a lot more
conversation and question and a lot more knowledge from applicants out there in regards
to what benefits do you offer, what does that look like, when did they take effect, what
else do you have, those types of things. So, it's a great time for us to be assessing our
benefit package. In addition to that, we are going to continue the development of the self
funding option and, then, you will see there that we have closed out one of our strategic
plan objectives, which Christena communicated to you at the Mayor's previous
presentation and will be forwarding that in front of you here in a couple months with a new
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 34 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 30 of 83
one, maybe even two. On our radar is once the -- we have had an opportunity to have
the benefit valuation conducted, we will need to come together and analyze those results
and prepare any recommendations that we want to make to Council. So, training and
development. This is a significant effort on behalf of the Human Resources Department
as well. I'm only going to call out two that are on the screen. The other four are things
that we offer every year. They are consistently available to our employees. But this year
we added general employee compensation training, which I referenced earlier where we
went out to all of the employees and helped them better understand that the
compensation program that they have operating under and, then, in addition to that I
spoke as well when I talked about compliance, which was the avoiding discriminatory
harassment training. We wrapped up the pilot effort with fire. We will be rolling that out
across the city here in the next few months in partnership with Carl Ericson from ICRMP
and I do want it -- he's not here today, but I do want to take a moment to thank him. He
has to come in and partner with us and he is in every single session that we deliver. So,
we partner between Human Resources and our ICRMP partners to ensure that we are
providing an effective informational compliance driven training. So, everyone has a full
awareness and understanding. Education reimbursement is something that we also offer
to our employees. You will see here that you have some data in front of you that captures
the utilization of this program since 2014 all the way through. What it should say for FY-
19 is FY-19 to date. I just noticed I don't have that on there, but that's the current activity
for FY-19. We have 13 participants we have expensed for recently in reimbursements
and fund utilization is listed there historically as well. So, what are we currently working
on? In addition to the compliance training one of the things we are also continuing to
work on is the leadership training program that we launched in 2017 we are continuing to
offer opportunities for professional development through that program as well. We are
going to continue with our strategic objectives in regards to training and aiding our
employees, but one thing that we will be doing to this year is that we are going to be
administering a supervisor supplemental survey to the employee engagement survey that
we had a few months ago. On our radar for training we will be looking to deliver some
diversity awareness training that does feed directly into one of our strategic objectives.
We really would like to develop a supervisor tool kit, if you will, that's online and available
as a resource to supervisors who are in need of a question or a process or a tool that is
at their fingertips, rather than a phone call to Human Resources. Of course we are always
welcoming those phone calls, but sometimes we are not always available in the moment,
so we want to be able to provide that to them in the future and, then, we also want to get
out there and do some brown bags, some lunch and learns and develop some HR one
on ones and just kind of educate our general employees on some of the things that are
available to them through Human Resources that they may or may not know about.
Employee engagement. So, as it states there on the slide, HR and the team is very
passionate about promoting a culture of employee engagement here at the city. We have
been pretty consistent with offering several programs each and every year, including an
annual picnic, to communications of newsletters, but the two things here that I would like
to call out that we have added it to employee engagement is our all city employee meeting
that was new this year and in addition to that we did roll out and administer an employee
engagement survey. You will see there that the employee engagement survey did result
in 372 responses from city employees and although employee recognition is something
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 35 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 31 of 83
that we do every year, I did want to take a moment and let you know that we did take an
opportunity this year with the Mayor, with the department directors and Human
Resources, to go and present 61 employees with a service award this past year. Some
things that we are going to continue to work on in 2019. A new one that we are kind of
resurrecting, if you will, is Human Resources is working on quarterly presentations that
we will actually go out and work -- or go out and partner with departments to join their
staff meetings and really present to employees the things that HR is focused on, what are
we working on and, then, also make ourselves available to any questions that they have,
because not every employee has the opportunity of their time to visit Human Resources,
so we want to bring Human Resources to them. On our radar would be to facilitate a
second city employee meeting and in addition to that we are already ramping up in our
minds and thinking about the 2019 United Way campaign. That has been something that
has been near and dear to our hearts in Human Resources. We put a lot of effort into
making a successful campaign and I'm proud to say this past year we did the care-nival
and we raised over 16,000 dollars for those in need in our community and we could not
do that without the support of everyone here at the city and I believe we are about to wrap
up with policy administration. So, one of the things that we do offer is the compliance
line. That is the tool that is available 24/7 to any employee who has a concern that they
would like to communicate to Human Resources. We implemented this hotline, if you will,
back in 2016. As mentioned, it's available by telephone or by computer. Currently today
we have received two concerns that we have had an opportunity to quickly look into, but
generally what that service is there for is an employee to report or communicate any type
of concerns that they have with any FLSA practices, maybe what they think might be a
policy violation, if they have an ethics concern, those types of things. Of course
employees have the opportunity to also communicate with their supervisors, their chain
of command, their department head, any director within the city Human Resources and/or
the Mayor. But we also provide a 24 hour service through the compliance line as well.
We are currently still working on our policy manual revision. We are looking forward to
completing that project in the next year. I'm sure you will see us in front of you in the
future in regards to any new policies that we would like to bring forward for consideration
or any changes to any existing policies as well. I mentioned earlier that we conducted an
I-9 audit. We are not finished with that as of yet, but we are 82 percent complete. That's
very important, especially in our line of work, that we remain compliant with the
expectations that are given to us, so that when we are audited we pass. And, then, there,
again, is the avoiding discriminatory harassment training. I think each of you have had
the opportunity, as well as a lot of our city staff, to participate in the recent ICRMP training
and through that process supervisors had an opportunity to participate in a specific
training around this category that really talks about the importance and EEOC
expectations and the EEOC does highly encourage annual training that is facilitated by
live trainers, that has policy information embedded into it, that is specific and relevant to
your business and that is the time and effort that we have been working with ICRMP to
develop and that we will be delivering over the next few months. So, we are going to
continue the internal alignment, as I mentioned, and in addition to this one of the things
that we would like to look at this year is researching the criminal background check
services that are available. We currently use ISP and we have been using ISP for a while,
but we want to see if there is something else out there that would make our process more
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 36 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 32 of 83
efficient or vice-versa, if there is something with ISP that we could be using that they offer
to make our process more efficient and more timely, we want to be able to vet that out
and make any necessary changes. That certainly will benefit all of us here at the city, but
anything that we can reduce our time to fill, because of a timeline process, is something
we want to focus on, so that we can get folks joining the city and into positions as soon
as possible. On our radar will be some affirmative action reconciliation. Again
compliance. And, then, the continuation of the harassment training. So, with that I know
I delivered a lot of information. I'm hoping that didn't take an exceptional amount of time
to do that. I do want to take a moment, though, and -- I know -- I believe I have Christena
and Laura Lee here. Upstairs is Jessica and Brittany. I know you all are aware of this,
but I did want to take a moment on behalf of the HR team and thank Brittany. Excuse me.
She has joined us a few years ago when she was just starting out in her career and she
has been a huge asset to our departments, but in addition to that she's also gained
valuable skills. In her time with us she has decided that she would really like to pursue a
career in human resources, which we are very proud of, because it's a line of work that
we enjoy doing. As a result of that, though, she was recruited away from us and she will
be leaving us around the 18th of January. The 18th? The 18th of January to start the
next step of her HR career focusing on the recruitment efforts for Balsam Brands. So, if
you have an opportunity to see Brittany, please, stop by and say thank you to her for all
she's done. Even though she will be leaving us, we will still be keeping in touch with her.
She will still be visiting us. We know she is going to do well in this next stage of her
career, but wanted to take a moment and recognize her as well. And I will stand for any
questions.
De Weerd: Thank you, Crystal.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, Crystal, thank you so much for all that you and your
amazing team do. It is greatly appreciated and I know in all that you do and keeping a
pulse on what's happening out there and in our very very skinny opportunity for people
that are looking for employment, are you finding that city -- and not just our city, but cities
overall are looking more at the things beyond compensation and benefits, which are so
critical, but I'm hearing more and more about -- and I can't remember what they are called,
but like life aspects with flex time and vacation and flexibility with all of those things,
because people do so much more than just work.
Ritchie: Thank you for the question, Council Member Little Roberts. Yes. And that will
be a part of our benefit evaluation. We are getting more information from municipalities
that neighbor with us, the challenges that they face as well, but the things that we are
looking at -- and some of the things we currently offer today would be flex schedules;
right? Those types of things that you're referencing. In addition, more about work life
balance and how do we help make that happen, because the time that we do spend here
-- we are very busy in what we do and so how do we do that with vacations and what sick
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 37 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 33 of 83
leaves look like and those types of things. So, all of that's going to be encompassed in
the benefit evaluation, because we recognize that it's more than just medical, dental,
vision or a voluntary insurance. So, that's what we want to look at to see if we have a
well rounded and maintain a competitive benefit package. So, yes, we are seeing that.
Little Roberts: Thank you.
Ritchie: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Crystal, you hit the nail on the head about the work that you do that touches
every one of our departments. You know, I think from a City Council perspective our city
employees are one of, if not our most valuable resource. How can we as a body, as a
Council, continue to support your work? What are the things that you need from us?
Ritchie: Council Member Cavener, that's a great question and I will take the opportunity
to answer that, then, since you asked it. I would say at this point in time what I would ask
-- and I know I get this from Council Member Borton when he meets with me is for your
time and attention and your consideration for anything that we bring forward to you for
consideration for an addition to the city that's something that would be of a benefit and
value to our employees, whether it's a policy change, whether it's a benefit change, those
types of things, we -- we make every effort to thoroughly vet everything out and when we
come in front of you as a body for your consideration you have historically given us that
great consideration. So, I would ask that that continue, because the things that we are
bringing forward we feel are of value and we recognize there may be things that we can
do and there may be some things that we can't do, but that you just ask your questions.
Come visit Human Resources if you have questions, but really your time and commitment
to evaluating and the consideration that you give to the things that we bring forward to
you is something we would greatly appreciate. Since you asked the question, I have an
also ask. I know everybody has a very busy schedule, but it would also -- I would invite
each of you to have the -- if you have the ability with your busy work schedule as well to
participate in any of the city events, whether they are from the employee meeting, to a
wellness event, on any of the types of activities that we provide to our employees we
welcome you to join us as well. Some of you have had that opportunity to do so, but our
employees love seeing you all out there with us participating in those activities. So, I
recognize everybody has a busy schedule, but we very much appreciate if you could
participate please do and if there is any questions at any time come ask, any one of my
staff is more than happy to -- to sit and visit and -- and coordinate with you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up. You said it's been a request and know as you were
talking about employee recognition, I know that's something that's really important to all
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 38 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 34 of 83
of us and even Councilman Milam reached over to me, she goes how come -- how come
we don't know about those and so if there is an opportunity to let us know -- it may -- I
don't know, maybe we were not invited, but I would love to be able to recognize our
employees for their great work and their service to our community.
Ritchie: Council Member Cavener, that's a great suggestion and offer and comment and
I have captured it and I know I have Christena behind me who has probably already
written it down as well. So, if you will give us some time to think about what we could do
to help facilitate something like that, be more than happy to get back either to you directly
or through Council Member Bernt, who is our HR liaison, and how we can help facilitate
that.
Cavener: Thank you.
Ritchie: That's great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Director Richie, fantastic job. Great presentation. Very detailed. Not surprising
at all from you and what you do in your department. You do such a great job and you
have such a great team and as a Council we are very grateful for what you do. Thank
you so much.
Ritchie: Thank you very much for the kind words. I know -- I appreciate those myself,
but it's really the team behind me that -- that allows us to do what we do, but gives me
the opportunity to represent them to you every time I'm in front of you. So, thank you very
much and thank you team.
De Weerd: Any other questions or comments? Very thorough. Thank you.
Ritchie: Thank you very much.
B. Vehicle Sharing Program Progress Report
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-B is under our vehicle sharing program and the progress report.
Emily. Thank you for joining us.
Kane: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I'm Emily Kane. I am a deputy
city attorney in the city attorney's office. Been nominated to talk to you about our efforts
to move forward what we are calling shared vehicles in the City of Meridian, which is the
e-scooters and maybe someday e-bikes and the self service vehicles that we see in Boise
and other towns around the nation. To start, a little overview of what we have done so far
over most of the winter. So, city staff has worked as a team to learn more about these
programs and learn more about this community's needs and concerns regarding these
programs. We -- we have learned more about them from our vehicle sharing program
operators or what I affectionately call our Best Beaus. There are two programs that we
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 39 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 35 of 83
have worked with, Bird and Lime. They provided really valuable input and helped us, as
I said, understand how they work and kind of their -- their vision for Meridian. We have
also reached out to our community partners, Meridian Development Corporation, the
Downtown Business Association, the Chamber, the school district, Nampa-Meridian
Irrigation District and a lot of our pathways utilize their easements with Nampa-Meridian,
ITD and also, of course, ACHD. The Parks and Recreation Commission and the
Transportation Commission is taking a look at our draft ordinance and we have also
learned from other cities' experiences, especially Boise's. In working on this draft our
objectives were to address some of the public safety concerns that we have seen or heard
about and addressed those concerns regarding pedestrians, cars, and the riders of the
shared vehicles. We wanted to facilitate the micro mobility economy and the
transportation concept and make those options available in our community and also
provide some clarity in the regulations for the operators, the riders, our staff and our
citizens, particularly police officers. The -- state law doesn't accommodate these
particular vehicles. It doesn't contain a definition that's a perfect fit for these, so it's been
a bit of a challenge for our police officers in determining really what are these. So, this
ordinance seeks to clarify some of that confusion. The draft ordinance that is before you
establishes the nonexclusive franchise, which a franchise is sort of a hybrid between an
ordinance and a contract. It establishes a right to use public infrastructure, in this case
sidewalks and streets. The ordinance sets forth public safety regulations for the operators
and public safety regulations for the riders. We have worked extensively with the
operators and, as I said, all these stakeholders to come up with what we have before you,
but there are some specific areas where we really need Council direction to move further
to determine how this ordinance will look. So, I guess assuming that the ordinance itself
is a good starting place, there are five particular decision points that I would like to seek
your input on today. So, I will maybe just start going and if there is one someone wants
to stop at we can do that, but, otherwise, I will go through them all and go back to the
beginning. So, the first one is the number of vehicles deployed. There is a concept in
this industry called dynamic capping where the upper limit on the number of vehicles
available in a community is really determined by the market. So, we -- we set kind of a
balance between a set upper limit and dynamic capping by creating a 250 vehicle initial
limit and, then, we added a dynamic cap model where the operator could come back and
apply for more as needed. So, that authorization for more vehicles requires a showing
that the vehicles are used three times or more on average in that quarter, which is a pretty
typical method for determining usage of those vehicles in a community.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: When you say each one was used three times, is that daily?
Kane: Yes.
Milam: Or the quarter?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 40 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 36 of 83
Kane: Daily. On average.
Milam: Okay. Like -- well, I heard three times per quarter and I'm like --
Kane: That would be very low.
Milam: That would be really low. An average of three times daily in the quarter?
Kane: Yes. Madam Mayor, Council Member Milam, yes, three times daily on average in
one quarter. So, upon that showing that, for example, if an operator deployed 250 of the
vehicles and they were able to make that showing, then, they would be entitled to a 20
percent increase in their fleet under the franchise. So, there is a -- kind of corollary piece
to that. This draft limits the number of franchises available to four and that's partly to
control the number of vehicles on the street and partly to control the amount of
administrative work that's required to kind of monitor and address the public safety
concerns that are going on. Particularly in the clerk's office, who this envisions will
administer the franchise. It operates a lot like a license. They are the licensing authority.
So, this envisions that the clerk's office would administer the franchises. The -- there is
kind of a proposal on the floor that if we were to have a lower number of franchises
available, then, each franchise could deploy more vehicles. So, the -- those two issues
kind of go together. How many vehicles do we want to -- what's the cap, upper limit where
we want to set the number of vehicles deployed at least initially and how many operators
do we want to authorize to use the streets and sidewalks. So, those are two things that
go together. There is, of course, always the option of an exclusive franchise, which really
would require a slightly different process. But that's, of course, an option on the table.
So, I will move on. There is a provision on page two of the draft where there is a little
chart showing kind of a menu of ideas for how the franchise fee could be structured. A
franchise fee is not a fee for service like we think of with an application fee or even really
an assessment, it's -- it's more like consideration under a contract theory. So, it is the
value of the right to use the sidewalks and streets. So, it doesn't need to reflect a
particular city service, it needs to reflect what is the -- what is the value of using that
infrastructure. There is not really a -- there is not a statutory methodology for establishing
that, as there might be for other utilities, so ideas on the table are to structure this as a
per vehicle fee. So, $1.50, 35 cents per vehicle or look at a per ride franchise fee. So,
ten cents or 20 cents a ride. And that's, of course, the difference between those two is
one is upfront, it's a set amount that you know ahead of time and you pay that upfront.
There is a per -- the per ride is after the fact based on data. It requires a little more
administrative work to collect that data and verify that data. The upfront payment is
certainly simple from the standpoint of the franchising authority, that is the clerk's office.
There is an option, of course, to do both, to do a per vehicle upfront and a per ride on the
back end. The -- I should say that these decision points are partly because it's really
necessary to get the input of you, the policymakers, and also we have really hammered
out a lot of similar issues in working with Lime and Bird to kind of balance their needs and
our objectives and there are very few in my assessment outstanding points that we really
don't agree on. So, however, this is one, the fee for what -- the fee for the city's removal
and storage of shared vehicles. So, if a police officer needs to physically pick up a scooter
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 41 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 37 of 83
and move it out of the road and rather than setting it in -- back up on the sidewalk for
whatever reason, it's safer or more expedient to take it back to the police station and store
that. That situation is going to be rare. We don't want to be in the business of moving
these around the city and having to deal with logging them in and checking them out, but
in the rare event that we do that what fee would we charge for that. Currently our MOU
with Lime envisions a 250 dollar amount for that service, but our operators have
suggested respectively 50 and 20 for that service. So, given the overall structure of what
we are doing here, 250 might be too much, but I don't -- we don't exactly know what that
is. Finally, the enforcement of speeds or the use of these vehicles in parks. Our proposal
is that the operator controls the speed of the vehicles in parks. They can go -- I believe
a little over 14 miles an hour, but in parks the speed limit -- recommended speed limit is
eight miles per hour. So, a little bit slower in these high traffic areas. We have also
recommended geo fences around particular areas. So, the playgrounds in our biggest
parks, the dog park -- I'm forgetting -- oh, tennis courts and our special use parks. So,
the Harold Cox Park and Places, Generations Plaza and City Hall Plaza and the alternate
proposal is that the rider would be responsible for regulating their speed and not going on
those areas in the playgrounds and tennis courts. So, those are the areas where I would
ask for your input.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Before I start my probably hour and a half long line of comments, I wanted to
mention that previously when they were located here -- so, for about four days or so, I
was a Lime juicer -- someone is going to read these minutes and be like what the heck
was he talking about -- where I would pick them up and charge them, put them back out,
but I really wanted to participate in today's discussion. I haven't done it since they left
Meridian, because I'm not going to drive to Boise for five bucks, but -- and I don't plan on
doing it should they ever be back in Meridian again, so -- but I could feel good and be
legal about participating in the discussion and the decision making for this process. That
having been said, I do have some comments for what you're asking here. With the -- to
me -- I mean you all know where I stand on regulating business. I would opt not to in
almost any circumstance I could, but I think in -- in this case that there would be an
opportunity for it to make sense to have kind of the performance bond that Megan had
mentioned in her e-mail for the cost that the city incurs in having to occasionally deal with
them. You mentioned that the 250 dollar fee may not make sense as -- as being too
much, especially if we do have another model or we have another revenue source to be
able to handle them. To me, again, I go back to my four juicing days and myself and there
was an army of people out there who are willing to go out pick them up, store them, clean
them, charge them and put them back out for five bucks. So, to -- to contemplate charging
250 dollars to pick up and hold onto it for somebody else to come get it seems a bit
excessive. That's why there was kind of some chuckles and some smiles when there
was the 20 dollars even mentioned. To me even that does make sense considering that
there are people willing to come and get them from you for only five bucks and do quite
a bit more work for that five dollars. There was some language in -- in the memo -- memo
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 42 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 38 of 83
that I had some questions about and wanted to discuss. One was the point about when
they could be operated and when they had to be picked up and when they could be placed
back out by. Here this far north in the winter it gets dark early and doesn't get light until
late and so if we want to have this as an opportunity for people to use for that last mile,
first mile, whatever the lingo is for commutes, then, it just wouldn't even be an opportunity
in the winter if they have to be picked up within half an hour of sunset and can't be placed
out until half an hour before sunrise. So, to me maybe changing that language to daily
pick up and redeployment might make more sense. When it comes to the caps, we talked
about being able to request a change to the cap quarterly. My worry with quarterly -- I
was wondering if it would make more sense to possibly do monthly if they were to meet
certain benchmarks to be considered for an increase in their cap. If -- if they were to have
the data that July -- you know, the first month of quarter three ends up being their heaviest
use month, but not being able to request an increase until a few months later, really they
could be a year out from being able to take advantage of a cap increase for that heaviest
month that they have of July. It may be August, it might only be less or even better than
August -- than July as an example. And, then, the other thing that I wasn't sure on was
beacons. So, it's defined and, then, it's mentioned a couple times. I think beacons is a
-- something built into the Bird ones. I'm not familiar with it with Lime. So, I'm wondering
if it's not something that's used across the industry, if maybe that should be something
defined as when equipped and maybe you can help me understand what the beacons
are. That's all.
Kane: Okay. Thank you. Madam Mayor, Council Member Palmer, the idea of the
beacons was brought forth by Bird that was in the draft shared with Lime as well and
those are -- those are the two operators that we worked with. The beacons really are a
mechanism to establish designated parking areas. Parking is -- is to be at either a beacon
or next to a bike rack. So, it is a method to designate a parking area.
Palmer: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Uh-huh.
Palmer: So, the intent is for them not to be allowed anywhere where there isn't either a
beacon or a bike rack? Is a beacon -- is it a sign? Is it like an electronic device?
Kane: I believe it's small RF ID chip that is attached to maybe a bike rack or a pole or a
thing -- a piece of infrastructure that would be a safe place for them to park and as to your
question would this be the only place that they could park, there are parking restrictions.
So, where ever -- they can't be parked on a sidewalk, so as to obstruct the five foot clear
pedestrian pathway, but I know the -- that, really, the model is for them to be waiting
around town, so beacons is certainly an attractive idea as far as kind of corralling them
and having a designated place for them to go.
Palmer: Thanks.
De Weerd: Other questions?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 43 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 39 of 83
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I have got some questions and comments, but it might be beneficial -- I think
we have got representatives of the two propose groups here, I mean is it appropriate for
us to hear from them about their thoughts on this and provide some -- some commentary?
De Weerd: Absolutely. But I would like the chief to maybe also -- I'm curious. I know that
the police department has been involved and there is a lot of concern on what kind of time
that this is going to demand from our police department. Could you weigh in?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, thank you. Also I believe Lime left. I don't see Aaron here. He
left about 30 minutes ago and hasn't come back. I have several comments. I have
participated in every stakeholder meeting since we put it together, because I had
expressed an interest. I had some personal biases that I had to overcome as far as
seeing scooters in -- in the city and if it's something that our community wants and it's
something that we can make happen -- Councilman Palmer and I are going to disagree
on a couple things, because we tried the free market and it was a failure and I expressed
my thoughts on where we failed and that company has not reached out to me as of yet to
even address those or overcome those and although they have been participating in our
stakeholder meetings, they don't come forward with any information. They don't provide
any comments. In fact, I was provided the comments via a third party this afternoon.
When we met yesterday with them they were supposed to provide comments to us. They
hadn't. And, then, they sent those comments out to individual council members last night
and if they had not been forwarded to us via the city clerk, the stakeholder groups still
would not have those comments. That's troubling to me. On the other hand, there is
another company that has reached out to us and has been forthcoming and has
expressed a desire to work with us and to ensure that there is no problems within the city.
I will tell you that we have a mantra called the Meridian Way and we expect a prompt,
timely response to our citizens. We have created that and we provide that and if I receive
a call and say, well, that's not our problem, that's -- that's their company or they will come
and get it in two hours, don't worry about it, that's not acceptable and we are going to get
the complaints. We need to ensure whatever we put in place is simplified enough that it's
not going to require additional staff time. I know that our neighbors to the east have put
a fairly lengthy process in and they are considering now having to add additional full-time
staff members to regulate that industry, which is not what we want. But we want to simplify
it to a point where it doesn't require additional staff time, but one thing that I can tell you
is that this is beyond the control of companies -- is we can't govern poor human behavior
and that poor human behavior is going to create calls for service for the police department,
for code enforcement, for the companies and the complaints to City Hall and so we need
to ensure that there are some rules to follow that are in place and expectations, so we
don't create additional concern for us. If we expect us to respond to a call and to take
care of it and to remove it or impound the scooter, I do believe the 250 is excessive, but
50 is reasonable based upon the costs that it would cause us to incur. That would be
personnel costs, that would be report writing costs, that would be the time to impound it
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 44 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 40 of 83
and put it into evidence. If we could get that done within an hour's time, 50 dollars would
be reasonable. Now, sure, you can have a juicer or a charger come get it for five dollars
in two hours, but if it's an ADA violation and the city's aware of it and we failed to act on
it, we could, in fact, be held liable in future grant requests -- federal requests that the
government controls. That's concerning to me. It would be reasonable for them to come
out, take care of the problem within two hours, but if it's sitting in someone's front lawn is
it reasonable for us to wait two hours or do you want us to take care of it and if we do take
care of it, it's staff time, it's cost, those are the things that we have to talk about. I think
we can make it work. I think we can let the companies succeed or fail, but there is one
company that has not -- it doesn't look promising and I'm trying to be kind.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Chief, would -- say one's causing an ADA violation, would every
instance require that it be hauled off or would that be a rare occasion, as opposed to just
moving it somewhere where it's not in the way or where it could be appropriate?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, that's a very good question and if it's an ADA
violation it would just be required to -- unless you put some sort of rules in place or some
sort of protocols in place, it would just be required for the violation to be resolved and so
it could be moved, but one of the things you have to look at is where do we remove it to?
Do we remove it into the street? Do you move it into someone's personal private property
and now we got someone upset that while it's not blocking the sidewalk anymore, but now
it's blocking the entrance way of my store or it's blocking this -- you know, those are the
things. So, it would not have to be impounded, it could be resolved by merely moving,
but with the discussions with these companies they want to have a two hour window to
come and move that. I believe that's where the problem is going to be is that we would
probably want it moved sooner and if we did, then, it's going to require staff time to do
that and are we okay with that? Those are the types of questions that we have to discuss
and overcome. There is an impact to the city resources regardless if we want to believe
there is not.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: Yeah. I agree that 250 dollars is probably excessive and we are not here to try to
make a living off of a small -- of a business, but we also don't need our taxpayers paying
for that business to be able to thrive. So, you know, maybe something along the lines of
50 dollars if it has to be removed, 20 dollars if it can just be moved and, then, a daily
storage fee, assuming that they would hopefully come get it the same day, but an
additional, you know, 20 dollars a day until they come and get it sounds reasonable.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 45 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 41 of 83
De Weerd: I guess I -- I would have a question. If the group in talking with the two
companies that have been involved in the discussion, have you talked about what other
cities have done in the removal? Could -- could this be another free market opportunity
for towing companies, instead of having our police now be responsible for ADA and -- and
making sidewalks accessible and removing things from private property, it's -- I can hear
that, it's not my job, but could it be towing companies or these juicers or -- or something
other than our police who would be very --
Lavey: Madam Mayor, that's -- that's a good question. I will tell you that the towing
industry is not regulated and we have a lot of issues with that.
De Weerd: Oh.
Lavey: But also there is state codes that we have to be aware of, is that in order for a
tow company to tow something from private -- or from public property it has to have a law
enforcement officer authorizing that tow.
De Weerd: Oh.
Lavey: In order for it to be towed from private property, it has to be properly posted and,
then, our towing companies are now requiring our private property owners to pay an
upfront cost, because they are going to incur costs that they may not get back and so we
are actually penalizing our business owners and it was 75 dollars -- I don't know what it
is now -- to come out and tow a car and so that's a burden, a cost burden that is being
placed upon our citizens for a separate business. So, it's a great idea, but it has its own
unintended consequences and state laws that govern it. Hopefully I answered that legally.
If not my counsel here can clear it up.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I'm just trying to think of a situation of something else that might end up in the
way, you know, like -- and the only thing that keeps coming to mind is a trash can. You
know, if a trash can were to end up in the middle of the street and somebody calls you
and said move it out the way, you're probably going to put it in the gutter. You're not going
to put it on the sidewalk, you're not going to leave it where it is in the street, but you're
also not going to haul it off and, then, call Republic Services and say here is your 250
dollar bill, now come get your trash can. Just going to put it in the gutter.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, you are correct, and -- but there also has to
be some sort of -- of practice versus a consequence and so that is correct and that's how
we would normally do it. However, if the situation was different, whatever -- some factor
was unique, then, it would be declared a nuisance and that we would process it. So, I'm
in agreement with you is that we would just throw it on the gutter and we would move on.
However, there could be some unique circumstances that's not an acceptable response
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 46 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 42 of 83
and, then, if we have to do something greater, then, there should be some mechanism in
place to charge for that. So, we would have to put in there where even though we can do
that, it's not something we would commonly do, because it eats up staff time, which is
exactly what we are trying to prevent in the first place. But there has to be something in
there that gives a consequence, that's going to penalize both the company for allowing
that to happen or compensate us for having to do that for those unique situations.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: I agree. And, then, pondering on it more I think 50 dollars does make more
sense. You know, 250, though, I have absolute faith in -- in our officers, I spend as much
time as I can with them. I don't want it to look like it could be an opportunity for the city to
have a revenue model of, hey, we are going to get 250 bucks for every one of these that
we impound, where 50 bucks is like it's not really worth it, but it's going to cover our costs
generally if we have to run one back to the station out of the way for 20 dollars.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Palmer, the only reason that 250 is there is that's
what was in the original MOU and that was something that was discussed without police
involvement. So, I am in agreement with you, but that's why 250 is there.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Well -- and if there is a mechanism in place for the charge
of the use of the scooter, is there a way to charge it directly back to the consumer and
thus encourage the consumer for more of a proper use of a scooter?
De Weerd: I think that's a good question to ask -- Bird is in the audience and maybe when
we ask that representative up we can -- we can ask him. That's a good question. Mr.
Bernt.
Bernt: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I wasn't aware that Boise is -- is thinking of or has
started hiring full-time employees to manage their e-scooter program in Boise. That --
that causes me for concern. It really does. It -- you know, when we are -- if that's what
it's getting to where we are having to hire staff members, you know, whether it's code
enforcement or police officers or whatever, to go out and manage this at the cost of our
taxpayers, that -- that -- that's something that we definitely need to look at and discuss,
because it -- that's -- if that is the case, then, the fee that -- the fees that are being
recommended -- you know, 50 bucks may be low. Just something -- just something --
you know, food for thought.
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 47 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 43 of 83
Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Bernt, I was just going
to follow up. I mean a lot of the discussion we have had on this topic has not been just
about seizing them, I mean the police would prefer not to seize them. The time that it
takes to do that is not really practical. But the reality -- and this is -- this has been also
Boise city's experience as well -- is that city staff have to stop what they are doing when
they observe these obstructing sidewalks, obstructing handicap access, and obstructing
different public rights of way and that may be police, that could be parks, it could be public
works, I mean there are folks -- even if you're just moving them all day long from one
location on a sidewalk to a place that's less obstructive, that is time and effort that it takes
-- and that's what we were trying to balance in looking at those, both the fees not just for
the impound, but the fees for operating and Boise city took the position in creating some
of these that that is the cost of their doing business with this and having to deal with that
and that's -- I think the offshoot of that they are seeing now is that it eventually eats up
enough that it becomes enough to justify the need for now another full-time employee just
to do that, even though it's pieces and parts of 50 people moving -- moving scooters all
day long, it's enough that one person really is -- is justifiable in the cost of trying to do that
and, you're right, it does get expensive.
Kane: Madam Mayor, Council Member Bernt, so we are kind of stealing C.Jay's thunder.
This is information he gathered from the Boise City clerk's office, but I will say that they
are set up slightly differently in that their parking enforcement is part of their clerk's office.
Their -- Boise's ordinance is also pretty heavy handed on the administrative requirements
of the city and of the operators, so that was part of our objective in drafting our ordinance
was to make it pretty simple, both for our clerk's office and, hopefully, for our police, that
the business model -- the nature of the business model and how it is deployed I think is
the question for police, how that will affect them, but the part that we can control is the
administration of the license or the franchise in this case to make that simple and make it
so that the clerk's office doesn't need to verify every little piece of information provided by
the operators, but that we are still working together to make it safe and understand kind
of the data that we are dealing with, the value to our citizens and the -- the ridership that's
actually using these. So, that -- that is contemplated in our ordinance to be much simpler
than Boise's. Theirs is working well for them from what we understand, but this is intended
to make it so that, hopefully, we don't have to hire staff.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, did you have comments?
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: We don't want to steal your thunder.
Coles: I appreciate that.
Lavey: I already did. I'm sorry.
Coles: Great. Thank you, chief. Nothing really substantive to add, other than with the
knowledge that, yes, the Boise City clerk's office is looking at hiring an additional full-time
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 48 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 44 of 83
employee to manage their program. We took that into account when writing to say we --
we don't want to do that. The goal is not to do that, to not be as involved perhaps as the
Boise City clerk's office is, unless it becomes necessary after deployment and I think that's
one of the messages that they resonated with us was right now we don't have the scooters
or the bicycles or the shared vehicles on the streets and so now is the time to get that
right, because after deployment is -- then you're scrambling to try and get it right after the
fact and so that's one of the lessons that they learned was while they weren't scrambling
after the fact, now they are learning after deployment and after seeing the program work,
they are contemplating the additional full-time staff member to manage the program as
they have written it and so we have tried to find a happy medium where, hopefully, we
don't have to do that.
De Weerd: Thank you, C.Jay. I guess at this time if we can hear from the Bird
representative that would be helpful. Good evening. If you will, please, state your name
and address for the record.
Ortegon: Madam Mayor, Council Members, my name is Arthur Ortegon, I'm part of the
government partnerships team for Bird. Address would be -- well, I reside in Colorado,
but we do business in Boise and -- and so no address here in Meridian -- unfortunately
not yet, but we will have a full-time employee once we launch. One of the big questions
that we are really kind of grappling with or you're grappling with is the administrative side
and the management of scooters and one of the things that we have learned out to Boise
is getting compliance in a -- in a market with multiple operators, because what happens
in Boise -- and I have two, three, four examples of this -- is when they have an issue they
have to call multiple operators to get that compliance of, hey, something's in the ADA --
they have these kind of concrete slabs and they are having issues of Birds in line -- being
parked on those concrete slabs. So, they have to figure out who it is, contact the operator,
make sure they are compliant. So, what we see in these kind of multi -- multi-operator
markets is kind of a race to the bottom, which happens when there are compliant
operators and noncompliant operators, so on the ground what we see is this private
market fight that happens in the app and on the street. So, when someone walks up to
one of these scooters it really is how frictionless the app is who will win the game and
what that means is the different layers in the app are the kind of regulatory framework,
whether it's parking -- doesn't need a parking through the beacons, which are kind of
Bluetooth sensors, geo fence, geo speeds, different things that have been mentioned
here. Those are the different layers that can kind of -- or safety tutorials, driver's license
verifications, all these add different steps to the app and if you have those steps you're
going to lose the game, because someone is just looking to kind of get going. Once they
make the decision they want to move and for those operators who want to be compliant
with the regulators and create a real partnership and real solutions to these issues, it puts
us at a competitive disadvantage. It makes it -- it makes it harder for us -- and Bird is one
of those compliant operators -- to win the market share and so we are seeing that and I'm
not shocked to hear that Boise is looking to hire a full-time employee, because we are
fighting that right now. We are a compliant operator versus a noncompliant operator trying
to not be dragged down into the race to the bottom, because if we do those kind of steps
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 49 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 45 of 83
we will lose market share. We see that in a lot of our markets. Any questions regarding
that kind of concept?
De Weerd: Any follow up? Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. So, if I was going to get on a scooter or something and
you have got more things in place is that what you're saying, than your competitor
regarding -- you would verify my ID, payment method, credit card --
Ortegon: Safety tutorials.
Little Roberts: -- could you go into a little more depth?
Ortegon: We would like to implement that. What I'm saying is in the markets where we
have -- where it's more open and it's more free market -- oh. Free market that we have
to pull those off, because, then, it makes it harder for us to compete. It puts us at that
kind of competitive disadvantage.
De Weerd: If a user doesn't want to have to go through all those various steps, then, they
are going to go to the -- the device that has the least amount of regulation.
Ortegon: Exactly.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
Ortegon: And so that kind of gets to the second point of the number of franchises. What
we see, especially in new markets that are trying to grapple with what does this look like
in our market -- in our city, in Meridian; right? It's novel. No one really knows what it looks
like on the ground. We highly recommend doing a pilot with one operator, so you can get
scooters on the ground, start getting data. We do a tremendous amount of data sharing.
We want to make sure that our regulators know what our business looks like and can
make informed decisions, because what you guys are talking about is exactly it. It's hard
to understand these concepts in a vacuum, in concepts; right? If we could get a pilot
going six months, nine months, start to get scooters on the ground, start to understand
where the issues are, because -- so, Bird has been -- created this -- this -- this innovative
transportation option, we have been operating since September of 2017, we know the big
buckets of where the issues are, but it varies from city to city; right? Because it might be
parking in one, it might be improper sidewalk riding in another. We won't really know until
Meridian residents start to utilize this service and so -- but once we start to understand
that, then, we can start to implement the tools and abilities to solve for those. Right now
it's a big question and if any operator comes in and tells you they know what those
answers are, they are lying to you. We don't know. But we would like to find out. We
would like to develop a real partnership with Meridian to determine what those are and
how to solve those.
De Weerd: Is that -- yeah.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 50 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 46 of 83
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. So, in the process of doing this that is something we could
add as part of our rules and regulations, for lack of a better term, is you have to have
those things available or -- to access a scooter or something, that the city could require;
is that correct? That you would have to have that in place to ride a scooter? A license of
-- so somebody is responsible, so we know who that citizen is that is saying I'm
responsible for that scooter.
Ortegon: I guess before I ask you to respond to that, those were all elements in place to
ride a Lime e-scooter, but you saw kids that were not 18 or older. I don't know how they
got credit cards, but you had to have a credit card, you had to have a driver's license, you
had to have a helmet and I don't know anyone that walks around with a helmet in their
hand looking for an e-scooter. So, it's -- but, again, those were all requirements, but none
of those were followed in a number of incidents. I did see a couple of Lime scooter riders
with helmets on, though, and that was Josh Evarts and his wife.
Ortegon: Mayor and Council Woman. The Mayor is exactly right and the chief hit it well.
In practice and in law are different things; right? Just because you make it a regulation
doesn't mean that it actually -- you know, everyone will say they can and will do, but that's
what I mean by the compliant, noncompliant; right? We all agree to the rules and, then,
once we get into what I call the knife fight of the private sector out there, because it is a
very hypercompetitive industry, you start to see some of those promises go away.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Yeah. I mean when you first go to -- at least with Lime -- I can't remember when
I first did a Bird. I have, though. But when you first go to rent one it's -- you have to check
the boxes. Yes, I'm 18. Yes, I have a driver's license. Yes, I have -- I know you're telling
me to wear a helmet -- all these things. It's like we know -- we expect people to have
insurance. It's the law. You have to have insurance if you're going to drive a car, but the
number one ticket that Meridian police write is not having liability insurance. That is a
decision by the person who is going to operate it, not by the car manufacturer or ACHD
who put the road in, that's the dude that gets behind the wheel and decides to make that
decision knowing what the law is, Madam Mayor.
Cavener: Mr. President?
Borton: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I assume you have had a chance to review the -- the proposed ordinance and
my assumption also is that you have looked at these types of ordinances all across the
country and so I'm hoping you can provide some context to us as a Council. Are there
any unintended consequences or flags that stick out in this proposal that compares us
against other municipalities or are there better practices that we could look to to deploy?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 51 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 47 of 83
Ortegon: Yeah. Mr. President, Council Member, there are and I think they were
highlighted well here. So, I think the franchise fee is a great one; right? I -- most operators
will tell you we want reasonable low fees; right? We are a private sector business that
uses a business model to produce revenue. That gives us the ability to invest in these
communities and pay these fees. So, the -- the higher they are the harder it is to pencil
the market. Makes it -- that's the biggest determining factor whether we will apply and go
live here.
Cavener: Uh-huh.
Ortegon: Okay? And so let's kind of go through -- like so the per vehicle per ride. So,
these are the kind of buckets that we see and so the per vehicle we get that it makes --
it's easier on the city, but what -- what it does is de-incentivizes the operator from
increasing the vehicles. Right now we are talking about an initial deployment of no more
than 250, more than 100, but from our calculation and in our experience, the Meridian
market will see about -- should see about a thousand scooters. That's about the right
saturation point for that three rides per day that was mentioned by Emily earlier and so
-- but we don't know that and so -- and also determining how -- how many vehicles we
release a day is -- it varies; right? Because there is operational maintenance issues. So,
even though we might be given 250, one day it might be 240, one day might be 230, one
day it might be 250. It really depends on -- you know, because there is that fleet
management side. So, we really like to see the per ride fee, because what that does it
incentivizes all parties to really target the real goal here and that's your residents using
these things; right? So, not only is there incentive for the city to help us to educate and
make sure that people -- and the, you know, enforcement, but from us that is our real goal
and the more rides we see, the bigger the oversight budget that you guys see. We have
not really ever seen the last option, which I think in your -- in the ordinance is option -- the
second option is the -- the mixture of the two, that -- that is what we would consider pretty
punitive; right? That is -- you're deincentivizing the vehicles and attaching a fee to the --
or fee to the rides. So, we really like -- the operators really like to see the per ride one.
The other thing that -- and we are, once again, kind of discuss -- is the tying the number
of vehicles and the number of franchises together. Once again, in a market that this is
novel, we are looking to figure out what it looks like in Meridian, having one operator with
a higher fleet number is going to be really the best option to figure out what it looks like,
because not only are you going to be comfortable with all the data that you're getting,
instead of trying to figure out two -- once again, it's always fighting between two operators
when you have -- trying to get some consistency there. In a pilot you can really work with
one to figure out what that data looks like, compliance, enforcement, all those sorts of
things and we see that as a best practice and worth mentioning, it's easier to go from a
one operator market to multiple once you are working with the information you know, than
to put the genie back in the bottle; right? Going from two to one or three to one, it's easier
to go to one to two, one to three. So, that's a decision that you can make later if you see
-- oh, your residents are really taking the scooters and we need more than one operator,
that's a decision that can be made post the pilot.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 52 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 48 of 83
Milam: Madam Mayor? So, it sounds like you are asking us to pilot with just you at this
time and not allow any other operators.
Ortegon: Madam Mayor, Council Woman, I believe you have already tried with the other
operator. I'm saying giving us a shot.
Milam: That's what I'm saying. That is what you're --
Ortegon: Yeah.
Milam: -- implying and asking here.
Ortegon: That is what I'm asking.
Milam: Madam Mayor. I would like to know what your -- what is the fee that you pay
Boise? Do you pay per vehicle or do you pay per ride or what is that?
Ortegon: Madam Mayor, I do not know the -- or Madam Mayor, Council Woman, I do not
know the answer to that, but I can get it to him, maybe even --
Coles: Madam Mayor --
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk.
Coles: -- Council Member Milam. So, the city of Boise for their stationless bicycle share
program, there is a 5,000 dollar annual operator fee, which is, essentially, the license fee.
It's one hundred dollars per device, which is an annual device charge, and, then, it's 20
dollars per device, which is a security deposit fee. So, it's per device. So, they have three
separate fees rolled into one, depending on the number of devices they have.
Milam: So, a hundred -- 20 dollars security -- is that a deposit, a one time, or is at an
annual?
Coles: You may have to -- maybe the representative from Bird knows the answer to that.
I don't know.
Ortegon: I believe that's a one time. That's the performance bond, so to really subsidize
the law enforcement moving kind of conversation.
Milam: Thank you.
De Weerd: And the operator fee is that annual?
Coles: Yes.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 53 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 49 of 83
Ortegon: Madam Mayor, I would like to say, once again, I think someone else said it,
Boise does have pretty heavy handed rules and regulations for e-scooters and that is a
concern for that market.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Question for the soothsayer Mr. Clerk who knows all the answers. Is Boise
putting caps, then, using this dynamic cap model with their operators they have in Boise
as well?
Coles: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Cavener, with our
discussion with the Boise city clerk's office it was my understanding that an operator could
have a maximum of 250 devices with no current opportunity to increase that number and,
then, total number of devices, if you have one or four or five operators, was 750 total.
Correct.
De Weerd: Any other questions from Council? Any other comments?
Ortegon: No. I appreciate the thoughtfulness and the engagement certainly through your
office and the discussion. So, appreciate the opportunity to speak.
De Weerd: Thank you, Arthur. Emily.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I do have a couple of other follow-up questions, either for you
or Mr. Nary or Mr. Barton. Do we -- do we currently regulate speed of bicycles or scooters
or anything in our -- in our parks?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, no.
Cavener: Thank you.
Kane: I would add we do regulate the speed of cars in parks. Of course.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: And I guess we haven't experienced motorized off-road type of things either,
so --
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
Kane: And, Madam Mayor, the -- this kind of goes to the question of what are these.
Though they are vehicles and that they have wheels and they transport a human being,
so that's the definition of vehicle in the Idaho code, it's not a motor vehicle, even though
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 54 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 50 of 83
it has a motor. They are really classified as -- they are in the same family as the -- you
see the little toy jeeps that have a battery --
Bernt: Power wheels.
Kane: Yes. Or a hoverboard or -- they are considered toys by the -- and they are under
the federal consumer protection. So, they are really in their own class, which, again, is
-- there is kind of that blank in the Idaho code for these.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Madam Mayor. Is the -- is the geo fencing deal, is -- is that possible to regulate
speed? I mean is that -- is that something that's easy to do or is that something that's
been done?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Council Member, yes, we understand that that is possible. Lime
informs us that their technology makes it possible to geo fence within ten meters. So,
there isn't -- it isn't a precise location, so much as kind of a -- an area. We understand
that to geo fence a playground Bird has made the commitment that that is possible, that
-- Lime did bring up in that conversation the ten meter kind of range, a margin of error,
but our thought is it could just be a playground one plus ten meters. So, to answer your
question, yes.
Bernt: Madam Mayor, follow up. I knew that there was the geo fence -- I mean I
remember I was in Portugal and there was a geo fence where I could -- we couldn't go
on a Lime bike past a certain -- so, I knew -- I know it's geographic, but I didn't -- I wasn't
aware that you could actually control the speed within those like you like a geo -- like geo
-- that -- that was my question. I know that there is areas that you can't go past, but like
in those -- like, for example, if we put a geo fence around a park in a Lime bike or a Bird
bike, whatever goes inside a park, are we able to control the speed or -- are they able to
control the speed within the parks or a designated area through the geo fencing?
Kane: Uh-huh. Madam Mayor, Council Member Bernt, I'm sorry, yes, that is possible.
That's our understanding from talking to these operators, yes. I guess I would add, while
I have the floor, that -- that our -- our -- in looking at the number of vehicles deployed we
do want to balance kind of that supply and demand. We -- one piece of feedback
interestingly that we have heard from Boise is that sometimes people want to ride one
and there is not one available. So, there is kind of that balance between they are
everywhere, we can't get away from them, there are too many and they are not getting
used versus that people want to use them and we are supplying them with the right
number. We are making it possible for that number to happen and still serve the public
safety.
Coles: And, Madam Mayor, just to expand on that just a little bit. So, currently the city of
Boise has 500 available, two operators at 250 each. So, the city of Boise right now has
licensed 500 devices. So, they say on a nice day outside the clerk's office might get a
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 55 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 51 of 83
few calls, hey, where can I find these, I don't see any available and all are in use at that
particular moment. And, then, when it's not so nice outside there may not be as many in
use. But currently the city of Boise has 500 that are available under the license.
De Weerd: So, Mr. Clerk, they call the clerk's office to find out where they are?
Coles: That is correct, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Awesome.
Lavey: Madam Mayor. As long as they are calling the clerk's office we are good with that.
Hey, I just want to point out a couple more things. And I know that some of the
stakeholders in our discussions, you know, we might be in a disagreement as far as speed
in the parks. I know that it was really important to the parks to talk about speed -- reducing
the speeds. I will tell you that speeds are not the issue that we have in the parks, but I
think they were kind of like, well, maybe they will go slower, but you got bark -- and you
got bikes and other scooters that are also unregulated. Where our concerns are that we
have had in the parks are the races, regardless of what -- what speed they are going they
are racing side by side by side by side by side and creating a hazard for people. That's
what I was alluding to as far as you can't police bad human behavior. But one of the other
things I want to point out as we are talking about speed, the speed is regulated in the
parks under city code is 15 miles per hour, but there is also a section four in there that
talks about vehicles are only allowed on the roadways and so these scooters are being
driven in the parks on the grass, on the playgrounds, on the other plazas, on the courts
and under state code -- under city code, because they are a vehicle, they can only be
lawful driven on the roads and so that's why we were talking about some geo fencing and
stuff. And so, again, poor human behavior creates issues. Those issues create calls for
service to your office, to my office, to the clerk's office. Just something we need to be
aware of.
Kane: Madam Mayor, a follow up to that. It's as -- again, it's -- it's, essentially, a toy. So,
it can go on the roads, but it could actually go on the pathways and the sidewalks inside
the park, which are not the same as an ACHD owned sidewalk, but the intent really is to
allow them there, but to regulate the speed down for safety.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I'm reading the code right here and I think there might be a conflict,
though. It says vehicles confined to roads. No person shall drive any vehicle, whether
motorized or unmotorized in any area, except a paved park road or parking areas or such
other areas as specifically designed by the director as a parking or driving area. That's
city code.
De Weerd: So, possible conflict. Arthur, I think you were going to -- to maybe enlighten
us on a couple of -- some of the capabilities that these e-scooters have.
Ortegon: Madam Mayor and Council, sure, I can talk about those. You were talking about
geo fences and we are able to do geo speeds, no park, no rides. Once again, those are
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 56 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 52 of 83
the type of layers in the app that if there is a compliant-noncompliant, that can make it
difficult; right? If one has -- one has a geo fence around a certain park and another does
not, that impacts the rider experience; right? Because if you're riding a Bird at, you know,
a limited eight miles an hour speed and you see someone shooting by with a Lime, that
-- that causes concern. But one of the things I wanted was I was wanting to talk about
is --
De Weerd: The apps will show where they are; right?
Ortegon: That's apps do show where they are. Absolutely. Is the demand of like that
Boise has people clamoring, calling for where they are and that's a direct result of that
hard cap, because they set that cap of 250 without understanding what scooters look like
in the market and what we see is high utilization, meaning a lot of people are using them,
but not enough to supply that market, even with two providers at 250 and so that is why
we talk about that dynamic fleet, making sure that we start with the initial deployment of
a significant number, that's why I think the 500 is more appropriate for this market than
the 250, but once we have that dynamic, seeing how the 500 operate, see -- and using
that three rides per vehicle as our guide, if we are above that three we see sometimes in
most markets a two ride utilization, we are above two, we get an increase, if we are below
one, which is what most e-bikes are at, then, we decrease. But starting with the --
because e-scooters need the demand and the convenience to be used. Most people do
not use the app to go find scooters. Some do, but what we find is most people use
scooters when they walk up to them. They are like, oh, I have seen this, I have heard
about this, I want to use it and so having the right concentration and the right amount of
vehicles is really important to making this program work.
De Weerd: Robert, will you go out -- someone is out there looking for things, so --
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Sorry for the interruption.
Cavener: Sorry. No. I didn't give you a chance to finish your point.
Ortegon: No. That was it.
Cavener: Appreciate you coming back up, Arthur.
Ortegon: Yeah.
Cavener: I hear what you're saying about the ability to scale up and certainly I think that
makes sense June, July, August, September, warm days, people are going to be wanting
to utilize these as much as possible, which is great. A concern comes in January,
February, March when it's snowy and now we have got, with your example, 500 scooters
per operator, so a thousand scooters that are out there that are -- that aren't being used
that become more of a nuisance, one, for our citizens, two, for law enforcement, so what
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 57 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 53 of 83
is your proposal to give the city some type of assurance that if they aren't being used --
they are at that one ride per day that they are being removed from our streets?
Ortegon: Madam Mayor and Councilman, great question. One of the things -- that's why
we like the dynamic fleet and I liked Councilman Palmer's suggestion of using the
dynamic fleet on a monthly verse quarterly for that kind of iterative and more up-to-date
understanding of where our fleet lies. But one of the things that Bird does that no other
operator does is that we pick up every one of our Birds every night and, then, rebalances
them every morning. So, from 7:00 -- normally from 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. -- at 9:00 p.m.
they shut off on the app and turn into a bounty for our chargers, which is -- the chargers
are the people who pick them up, inspect and maintain them, make sure they are in good
working order, bring them home, charge them, and, then, put them into pre-designated
nests by 7:00 a.m. the next morning and when they do that whole process they get
between five and 20 dollars and we can talk about that dynamic pricing otherwise. But
on those kind of snow events or in the winter we have the ability to have -- to prevent the
chargers from releasing a certain amount of Birds for that day. So, if it's just a cold day
and no one is using it, if we had the ability to say -- at a fleet of 500 or a thousand, we
can release 200, 300, so we -- we have the ability to manage that fleet because we pick
them up every night and rebalance every day.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up. I'm hearing what you're saying. I think from a -- from
a business decision it sounds like you have got a plan to operate the business, but at the
same time you're investing a significant amount of money in these scooters and they are
not earning you any revenue if they are sitting in a storage center someplace, so, again,
it goes back to -- it sounds like we have got a really good plan in place and, honestly, I'm
supportive of -- of reviewing this monthly, as opposed to quarterly, for what it's worth, to
increase, but what I -- I still have yet to see is a mechanism for the city to decrease.
Ortegon: Madam Mayor, Councilman, and that's part of that dynamic fleet model. So, if
we are above that two rides per day or three, we can increase. If we are below one we
decrease.
Cavener: All right. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Ortegon: Yeah.
De Weerd: Any other questions for Arthur while we have him up here?
Cavener: We will find another to bring him back.
De Weerd: Yeah. We probably will find more. Yes. Thank you.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 58 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 54 of 83
Cavener: I know this is -- this has gone on long, but the chief has touched on a couple
things and either Emily or the chief or Bill -- it sounds like we have had a committee that
has been working on this and I just was hoping maybe you could summarize some of the
comments or thoughts or recommendations that come out of that committee, if all of those
comments are captured here in -- in your memo that's great, but I heard some things from
the chief that at least I didn't see were necessarily captured in the memo and I wanted to
make sure that at least we as a body -- because we have been really clunky in this process
I want to make sure that we have got all of the information in front of us before we
potentially are asked to make a decision.
Kane: Madam Mayor, Council Member Cavener, I don't know that I can speak for
everyone on the committee. I think it was definitely -- it's been a learning process for all
of us. It's certainly -- this is a -- this is a different business model than -- there is really no
analogy. So, kind of learning how it works and coming around to the philosophy of this is
-- this is a transportation option for citizens -- for our citizens, so if you look at it from that
perspective it's -- there are the public safety concerns, there are the -- you know, the
flooding of the market and they are everywhere and they are getting on everyone's nerves
kind of concerns, but when it works, when everything is in balance, it really is an
interesting way to approach transportation. So, that's kind of -- and maybe that's just me,
but that's -- that's one outcome of this process is really learning how it can work. I guess
to your point, you were talking about how we are to -- to that balance, talking about how
we can ratchet back when there is too many, that really is an argument for that per vehicle
pay up front model, because that -- it -- not -- not as an incentive, but it really is a check
on use -- you know, deploy what you can use. So, there -- the -- as I stated earlier, these
five kind of outstanding points, I think there is still some things that need to be polished.
In this discussion today we have kind of identified some areas that we need to look at
again, but these five areas are really where we do need some guidance. I think staff has
some recommendations with possibly the -- well, we have some recommendations on
each of these, but we do need to know really -- assuming the ordinance is the way Council
wants to go, we need to know how these things look, how we want this to look in our
community. They -- they are pretty interconnected most of them, so changing one
changes other aspects of the ordinance, so it's -- it is just a draft, but having that input
would be really helpful. I just thought of another thing. The parks -- the parks commission
really put some thought into the provisions that are relevant to parks and pathways and I
know that Kim spoke with Nampa-Meridian more than once to kind of figure out their
concerns, if any. They really don't have any. But the -- our citizen commission did take a
look at that and kind of identify those issues with regard to safety in the parks.
De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions at this point? Any other comments from any of
the members of the group looking at this?
Lavey: Madam Mayor. I guess Emily is correct in that there might be some differences
of -- of thoughts. There wasn't -- there hasn't been any -- and it's just been discussions,
but just my personal -- my personal opinion and I will answer any questions that Mr.
Cavener may have. Without getting into specifics, there has been one company that has
continued to fail through this entire process and one company hasn't and we have two
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 59 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 55 of 83
other companies out there floating around now. Spin and -- I believe it's Spin -- Snap or
Spin or something and Razor and, then, I'm told that there is three other companies out
there that are in the wind. We got to get this right. We already did it once, it was clunky,
it failed, we got to take this slow and -- and make it work for our citizens. I think we got a
pretty good plan in place. I would only go with one, but if you went with two I think you
could make it work. Let them fail again on their own, but I think we are ready to go. I do
know that there are some -- one company thinks one way on fees, another company
thinks another way on fees, it's time for us to just decide what they are going to be and
-- and move forward, but I know I shared some other things that may not have been in
that memo, so I would -- Madam Mayor, I defer to Councilman Cavener to make sure that
I have covered those or if he needs additional I can provide that probably, too.
De Weerd: I will say that our group has met with the attitude of how can we make this
work. The clunkiness was not on the city's part. We did have a deployment that -- that
didn't meet any of the -- the agreements that were out there and it did -- I guess the result
of that was bringing everyone to the table to have these conversations, which should have
happened not on the -- the word of an operator that was going to come to our community,
but to think it through the way this group has. So, I would like to think those that have
been working on this and the diversity of opinion that has been around the table, that has
been very important. We can't all be like minded to get a good policy and so that -- that
is greatly appreciated and I know a lot of work has gone into it and, Emily, your -- your
summary that you provided the -- the Council last month what you have given to the --
the two entities that have been indicating an interest in working with the City of Meridian
has been awesome and so have appreciated the approach of this work group that has
been trying to -- to do what was right for our citizens to offer an alternative transportation
option, because that is how these are utilized in other communities, but to make sure it's
-- it's the right thing for our community and it's -- it's safe for the users as well. So, any
other questions or comments? There -- also we will be seeking anything that you might
think of that you haven't yet to get to Emily, but anything -- anything further?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: What do you -- what do you want from -- from us? You have provided some
things -- I have heard you are looking for feedback, so I don't know, Madam Mayor, when
you -- when you want us to do that or how you want us to convey that.
De Weerd: I think the initial thoughts would be appreciated tonight.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, I'm happy to start if everyone's okay with that. I guess here is
-- here is my -- my take on this is that we have got to make this as -- as simple as possible.
I think complicating this is only going to create more challenges for the operators, more
challenges for our staff. The easier the better. I have tried to take some notes, kind of
taking into some feedback and -- in the ongoing conversation. So, here is just my gut
level thought to the questions at least, Emily, that you have have -- have proposed and I
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 60 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 56 of 83
have got some thoughts about the language that maybe needs to be tweaked as well, but
that's conversation for another day. So, I'm supportive of this dynamic cap model. I -- as
I mentioned earlier, I think it could be reviewed monthly, as opposed to quarterly. I think
that gives us better protections, both in terms of scaling up when there is higher demand
and, more importantly, scaling down when there is lower demand. I'm supportive of the
250. I'm not opposed to increasing that to 300. I am not as supportive of increasing the
number of franchisees to three or four. I think two is sufficient and, then, perhaps in the
language there is an opportunity for a new operator to come before the Council or perhaps
we review this, you know, every six months or every year. I have really heard loud and
clear the comments from the chief, which I think are troubling for us as a Council to maybe
even approving, you know, our franchisee that has already had so many challenges in
our community. So, that's a piece I think that we have got to have a larger discussion
about, but I think two probably makes the most sense. On the fee I think a cost per
scooter per month ties directly to the dynamic cap. Asking the operators to provide us
how many rides per month -- to me I think, again, just -- just complicates things. So, a
cost per scooter per month -- again, whatever we determine that to be to meet the needs
of the city. I may be alone on this. I actually support the 250 dollar fee to remove scooters.
That needs to be a stick to encourage private business to do what's right and encourage
their riders to return these in the appropriate place. I believe it's something that we would
rarely, if ever, charge and I think to have a fairly strong stick is in the best interest of our
citizens. When it comes to, unfortunately, speeds and use in parks, if we are applying the
same matrix to our taxpayers who are bringing scooters into our parks, I'm great with that,
but what I don't think we want to create is two classes of citizens, one who own and one
who is going through these services. A quick search in the Google machine show that I
can purchase for 250 dollars a scooter that goes 18 miles an hour that I could ride in our
parks and be fine. Why we would penalize an operator who is caring and maintaining for
these types of scooters -- to me seems to not gel. So, that's my take. Like I said, I'm
happy to kind of agree with some other thoughts about when these can operate and when
they can't, but at least the decision points that you have asked for feedback tonight I
wanted to least let you know where I'm going from.
Kane: Great. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Thank you, Madam Mayor. I'm also in favor of a type of dynamic cap model. I
think that makes sense. Number of franchisees available, I would like to start off with
one, but I don't necessarily feel like it needs to be exclusive. Right now Bird is -- seems
like they are competent, they have been able to work, they are team players, been able
to work well with our staff, so that's -- that -- that means a lot. I echo what the chief has
said. I don't necessarily think it should be exclusive, but right now I feel between -- I'm
just not a big fan of Bird. They were -- they spoke pretty, you know, initially --
Kane: Lime.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 61 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 57 of 83
Bernt: Oh, excuse me. Lime. Yes. Lime. Exactly. Lime. You know who I was talking
about. They -- you're like ooh. They -- I think they spoke pretty initially, but they didn't
come through and they have been difficult to work with. That's just my two cents. As far
as a fee, I don't necessarily care how we recoup those fees. There are folks who have a
lot more experience in this that can figure that out. I do believe that that fee should equate
to -- at some point cover the cost of a full-time employee. If Boise is needing to hire a
full-time employee to manage this and they have 500 scooters, it sounds like Bird is
saying that they want a thousand, this -- this market is going to -- it's going to
accommodate a thousand scooters, is that going to be two full-time employees? I don't
believe that our taxpayers should burden -- have the burden of the cost of -- like
something that we are -- a private business model that Bird and other e-scooters use.
So, whatever that fee is, you guys are going to figure that out and make sense. I have
full faith that that's going to happen, but it needs to cover a cost. It needs to be enough
to cover the cost of a full-time employee, because it is going to happen, whether it's -- by
April or May you're probably going to see that that's going to be needed. I'm with
Councilman Cavener on this. I believe -- you know, I think that we should put some teeth
on the cost or the fee that we -- that we charge for the removal and storage of shared
vehicles for the exact same reasons that Councilman Cavener said. If we put teeth on it,
they are going to pay attention to more. I mean they are not going to want to pay these
fees, they are going to do more to make sure that that doesn't happen. So, I -- I suggest
the more teeth the better. I'm also for geo fences for all parks. If we are going to allow
-- I think that we should allow these to be ridden in parks. I mean these -- these are fun
and I don't -- I don't want to be the old Grinch who is like, you know, we are going to
provide you scooters, but you can't ride them and have fun. I don't want to be that guy.
Who wants to be that guy? But at the same time I believe that, you know, I don't want to
have these kiddos flying down Kleiner -- a Kleiner path and, you know, likelihood maybe
being under age, not at driving -- driving age and have them not be aware of their
surroundings, because of their lack of experience and get themselves into trouble and
create a hazard for others and so I do believe creating some type of a geo fence that
controls the speed in parks makes sense. Covered it.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
Kane: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: We should have just done these one at a time. I am good with the dynamic cap
model. You know, I like -- I think it's good to have a certain amount initially, but if their
business is doing great and our citizens want more scooters then -- then they should be
able to grow that and the monthly, rather than quarterly reporting.
Bernt: Yes. I agree.
Milam: Number of franchisees. I don't think we should necessarily limit that. I think we
can decide on a one-by-one basis if -- if there is an application that we want to approve I
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 62 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 58 of 83
don't think we should limit ourselves up front. Franchise fee. I'm good with it. Two
hundred and fifty dollars, that was good then and I think that's good now and we shouldn't
waste admin time calculating how many rides on their part or ours. Removal and storage.
I'm pretty flexible on that. So, you know, I don't -- I don't know that it has to be 250 dollars.
I don't know that having it that steep is going to make people stop parking it, unless they
are -- unless they are able to charge the user for that. So, a hundred dollars or something
more reasonable, I just want to make sure that it covers all staff time and any other
expenses that we might incur. Enforcement of speeds in parks. I believe that that is just
around specific areas, like around the playground, which I'm good with. I don't think that
we necessarily need speed restrictions through the entire park, just to those special areas
that we do need to make sure that little kids aren't being run over, but if they want to ride
around the backside of the park where nobody's at, I don't have a problem with them
going full speed. I also -- I believe there was somewhere in there that talks about 75
percent of the money that we get we will use specifically towards Bird -- or not Bird, but
Vespo -- whatever it is, whether it's marketing or road improvements or stuff -- I don't think
we should necessarily have that in there hard at 75 percent, because we might have to
use some of that money for administration or for, you know, an employee or whatever
else needs. I think it could be a -- it's a good intention and I like that we are going to put
it -- you know, we should have signs in certain places, but I don't think that it should
necessarily be part of the contract.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: I think that's it.
Kane: Thank you.
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Robert.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. I'm probably not going to have as much feedback as the
others, because I really think that at this point we should go with one vendor and do
another test and there is so many variables here that we don't have answers to. I'm sorry
for the sidebar, but I think that our city clerk could end up with a lot of responsibility --
hasn't seen reports, hasn't seen how it could impact staff and things like that and I think
there is other information that we need before we can really make a decision and I think
the bottom line is I really don't want to see an increase on our police. How -- I really want
to see how we are going to monitor this that it has the least impact on our staff and
particularly the police. So, I think we also need to see if we can make sure that part of
the agreement to even do a test is if you have not plugged in a driver's license and a
scooter -- the scooter -- or the bike, whatever it is, does not work, that we need that
information. We need to be able to go back to the citizen that isn't behaving properly and
hold them accountable or have it shut off or whatever the device is. I think there is still
just too many variables and maybe I was left with a very bad taste in my mouth from the
previous vendor, but I think we need to do -- figure out how to do a test and make sure
that it's done right before we jump fully into it and say let's go for this. So, I would go --
my recommendation is one vendor to fit no more than 250 initially, that we can ramp up
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 63 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 59 of 83
as things are going well, and that we don't make a decision on fees until we really know
how those are going to impact our employees.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. Chief, anybody, do you have to be 18 to wear a helmet and have
a driver's license to operate one that you own yourself?
Lavey: Madam Mayor. The state code says you can have a driver's license at 15 with
gradual restrictions. They like -- alone. That sort of thing. Under the Idaho helmet law
you have to have one under the age of 18. Over 18 as an adult you can make that choice
on your own and I will tell you on the police perspective, we -- we don't have an opinion
on the helmet. That's a decision that you need to make as a -- as a user. We are not
going to enforce that and that's the silly thing in that you put that requirement in -- in the
app, who is enforcing it? No one. So, why put it in there? So, that's -- that's our thoughts
on --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: As if there was any doubt as to where I was standing on it, I think the only one
that I could even bring myself to vote for is if we did, you know, like a ten cent per ride,
but, you know, that 250 bucks per unit with a 250 unit deployment, that's over 62,000
dollars, understanding as it's written 75 percent that is to go towards other things, but if
-- you know, if we were to apply all that towards some future full-time city employee, fully
loaded, there is no way we would pay somebody 60 grand to move these things out of
the way or manage the program. That would be full-time job I would take. Council Bernt
just -- I guess side comment. When it comes to the speed limitations I agree that the use
of them in a park would be a great idea. I -- I was riding a Bird along the greenbelt headed
towards the stadium for a football game, which I didn't realize at the time that there weren't
going to be any when the game got over to go back to the other end of downtown, but it
was great ride there, but as soon as I hit a certain part of campus it started binging at me
and I nearly flew over the front of it, because it just -- eight miles an hour. From 15 to --
and it's hard to, you know, stop a train -- a 270 pound guy on a scooter doesn't like to go
from 15 to eight instantly. But it -- while It seems fast, I don't know -- I don't know -- it said
that it was eight, but I don't know if it's because I was so big or what, but I mean people
that were my size and bigger were walking faster than me and I'm like trying to keep this
thing going. So, I -- I don't know how consistent -- or the scooter was weird or whatever,
but I feel like it's almost a safety issue by limiting those things. But at least to start, see
how -- you know, put up a sign, hey, don't be dumb on a scooter. Go slower when you're
in the park kind of thing, to try and see how it goes before and, you know, forcing them to
do the electronic speed enforcement thing. But I -- I just -- I really struggle with, you know,
whether it's a buck a day or 250 for a year for a scooter, that is a huge cost to a business
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 64 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 60 of 83
trying out a new market. One last thing. To quote my favorite superhero Ronald Reagan.
He said if it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it, if it stops moving subsidize it.
Obviously, not supporting that idea, but that's what we are doing here today.
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor. Emily, this is really well done. I mean kind of go back to the
reason things might not have gone well end of last year is we didn't have this work done
and you have done a phenomenal job leading this group to create the structure to try and
make this program be successful. So, I can't say it enough going through this is really
what's necessary, so -- and I feel like getting this ordinance or an ordinance passed soon,
less than 60 days before March is over is critical, regardless of what's in that final form,
but this is one big missing piece that we certainly need and it's a lot of trade offs. As I
hear the discussion, its trade offs and the chief hit most of them on the head that if we are
concerned just solely with public safety, we wouldn't have these problems and problem
solved. That's one way to address that. The trade off is is we are denying the public this
transportation opportunity, so no answer is perfect and hearing this exchange of
discussions just makes that more clear. My initial perception -- and this will change
perhaps as discussion continues with the next draft of this. Exclusive franchise concept
we utilize to kind of facilitate a large capital infrastructure investment where you can't have
otherwise existing competition. Utilities are the most common ones. This isn't really that.
This isn't one that seems to necessitate such a capital investment that only one could be
permitted in order to recoup their capital costs. So, the competition seems to make sense.
Again, the ordinance is the key that makes this successful, is whether there is one, two,
three or four who can survive within their own economic model and at all times be
compliant with our ordinance and if you're compliant with the ordinance in all respects
hats off to you and if -- and if the market allows two, three, or four to do that successfully,
then, you know, we don't -- I don't have any concern with that. One part of the ordinance
that you have got in there is the revocation provision, which, you know, allows -- not only
does the city grant a franchise, but the city retains the right to revoke a franchise and
revoke that opportunity to provide the service if you don't comply with the ordinance,
which is a key part of that. So, that the 250, with a dynamic cap, seems to make sense.
It provides some capacity perhaps for some initial competition -- seems to be a more fair
way to start such a program. Again, it's trade offs. It might be a little clumsy to have two
users, but it also doesn't inhibit the second to market to not have as many app downloads
and users and really let the -- the market drive what -- what rises to the top and we will
learn from each of these users in who operates in compliance and who doesn't, who is
responsive, who is not. The franchise fee, again, the intent of the fee is merely to
recapture the additional cost to the city created by the program. I think Genesis had a
good point of removing that designation of 75 percent, 25 percent to those particular uses
-- uses, I think a more broader provision really is a hundred percent of the revenue
generated by the -- generated by the city is hopefully utilized to offset the cost incurred
by monitoring this program. The manner in which we do that is really up to the city, which
goes back to what the franchise fee is, a dollar per vehicle versus ten cents per ride, it's
all premised upon trying to recapture those costs and what best does that. Another trade
off -- you brought up a great point, Emily, is if you want to incentivize reducing the fleet at
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 65 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 61 of 83
a time of low demand, the one dollar per vehicle per day does that better than the ten
cents per mile. I don't have a head around what's the best way to -- what's the best
franchise fee necessarily, but whatever it would be it would be that which best captures
the revenue stream to offset our costs. Which is, again, kind of crystal ball. We don't
know. But once we get this going we are going to learn a lot and we are going to make
adjustments. The franchise fee might be one thing to adjust. So, you know, the dollar --
I think it was a dollar per day per vehicle -- easier to administer, less reporting. Perhaps
I would lean that way. I think I heard a couple other Council Members share that might
be a preference as well. So, the city removal and storage. The way it's drafted it's two
hours and after two hours we get it. I think the data is going to show how common that
problem is. I bet it's extremely rare and I would bet it's so extremely rare that a 250 dollar
fee would be appropriate. I hope would never be assessed and each applicant would
have great incentive to not allow it to be assessed. If their program is set up to allow a
hour recovery of the vehicle -- or of the scooter, then, it's probably not an issue, but that's
kind of the initial perception on the storage fee and, then, the speeds -- again, more data
would be provided and I would error on the side of the rider being responsible, similar to
they could be reckless with their own skateboards and bicycles. That decision might
prove to be wrong in the trade off analysis. The new accidents created by scooters might
far outweigh the liberty of driving at your own speed and we come back and say, wow, we
should amend this and require and -- and so we do. What I don't -- what I don't want to
do is over analyze it to death to the point of it doesn't get a chance to launch and stumble
and ultimately survive. So, I think the program is going to work great, again, because you
have got an ordinance with how these kind of rules of the road, the bones to it, which
helps the ultimate operators be successful. If you're going to make a business decision
to come in this market, every operator understands these are the requirements in order
to be successful in our city. So, 250 dynamic cap, four franchisees is fine. I don't know,
again, whether there is a -- is there an argument of a hard cap of total number of scooters?
It's not one of the discussions; right? So, if you have eight companies with 250 each is
that a concern that there might be 2,000 scooters? It might not be, but -- so, that was
this. The monthly -- the monthly adjustment seems fine. You know, the quicker they can
pivot the better. I don't know why we would -- unless there is a unique administrative cost
that is created by that and there very well may be, so if you want a quicker pivot on
increasing and decreasing, it might increase the franchise fee, because, again, the whole
point of the fees to recapture the cost created by the program and nothing more, nothing
less. I think that's -- that's my list.
Kane: Okay. Thank you.
Borton: Thank you.
De Weerd: There were some common themes and I -- I would probably add -- because
it -- it does -- the comment that these programs will be operated by the lowest denominator
concerns me. So, if we set expectations and they are not adhered to, then, what? So, if
the then what question -- because we want to reward good behavior and not get to the
lowest denominator way of operating in our community and I -- I guess if the -- the group
can really have a discussion around that and -- and bring back something to Council and
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 66 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 62 of 83
maybe even ask the operators that we have been discussing with what would that look
like? How can -- how can that happen?
Kane: Great idea.
De Weerd: Okay. So, I guess the 50 million dollar question is when will you be back with
this?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, I would anticipate that we would be back
likely not next week, but maybe in the next two or three weeks with the -- with the
proposed ordinance. Are we -- we have done a lot of outreach and we can continue that
with our stakeholders, but as far as the general public, this is probably their first
introduction to it. So, I don't know if there is a particular process you want us to follow as
far as outreach. We -- the statue regarding franchises does say that the franchise
ordinance can be effective 30 days after its introduction and I don't think that today is its
introduction. So, I would interpret that to mean the first reading. So, whenever it starts
that process will be at least 30 days long. So, if that incorporates some public input in
that 30 day period that -- that might just be built in.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: Would it be timely to have a new draft ordinance, perhaps February 5th, and
have it as a first reading? Understanding we very well might not take action on it, there
may be changes following from that.
De Weerd: Or bring something back on the 22nd and -- and give an opportunity for the
February 5th to -- to resemble something more along the lines of you want to have
published for public comment. Is that doable?
Kane: Yes.
De Weerd: Okay. So, again, Emily, Robert, C.Jay --
Borton: Good job.
De Weerd: -- chief, please extend our thanks to those that have been involved in the
conversation and, Arthur, thank you for joining us and -- and helping fill in some of the
gaps of our conversation, because if we didn't have facts we might have made them up.
So, we appreciate you being here. Anything further for Council? Thank you.
Kane: Thank you.
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-B -- or 8-C --
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 67 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 63 of 83
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes.
Cavener: Is it possible we could take a brief break to maybe let Council grab dinner or
use the restroom before we jump into the rest of the agenda?
De Weerd: You bet. Well, I figured it wasn't 9:00 o'clock yet, so -- but I guess we did start
at 3:00. So, I --
Kane: Madam Mayor, I'm so sorry, especially because you're taking a break, but we do
have an existing MOU with Lime and there is a 60 day termination provision. I think it's
necessary to do that if we are adopting an ordinance, just from a practical standpoint, so
would you allow me to initiate that termination process?
De Weerd: Yes.
Kane: All right. I will move forward. Great. Thank you. Sorry.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Sorry to booger it up. Is -- by -- by doing that we are also setting the -- the
effective date of our intended new ordinance that -- we don't want a gap. Would you
agree?
Kane: Madam Mayor, Council Member Borton, I think since we are in the winter season
anyway, it's effectively suspended and they are working with us to suspend their program
in light of kind of the odd roll out. So, I'm not sure that it would have an effect either way,
but, you're right, that it would leave nothing. It would leave a void. However, I think we
-- if we are looking at about a March -- the first week of March effective date of the
ordinance, the timing is pretty good.
Borton: Okay. So, I guess I would appreciate a motion.
Kane: Madam Mayor, we can't take action on this, so -- we could put it on the agenda --
De Weerd: You can bring it back next week.
Kane: Okay. Great.
De Weerd: Okay.
Kane: Thank you.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 68 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 64 of 83
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. And with that piece we will go ahead and recess to -- at
7:00 o'clock we will reconvene.
(Recess: 6:38 p.m. to 6:56 p.m.)
E. Police: Idaho Humane Society Animal Control Contract Budget
Amendment Not to Exceed $9, 528 [Action Item]
De Weerd: Thank you. We will go ahead and reconvene this meeting. Council, if there
is no opposition, I would like to move E ahead of C. So, our police and his dad can go
enjoy the rest of the evening. So, I will go ahead and -- any -- any concerns? Okay. I
will go ahead and ask our chief to start the conversation on E on the Idaho Humane
Society. There were a couple of questions that came up at our last meeting and I think
you have watched it.
Lavey: Yes. We are good. Madam Mayor, Council, I wasn't sure you wanted to hear
from me quite so soon, so I appreciate that. Last week there was a beginning of a
discussion on a budget amendment that's in front of you for approximately 9,500 dollars
and there was two council members that were absent last week, I believe, and so it's nice
to have the -- the full body here, so we can have this discussion. I'm going to keep it --
I'm going to try to keep it fairly brief and, then, just really defer to any questions that you
may have. We have been using the animal control Idaho Humane Society for -- I believe
we are going on the fifth year. Contract services, they provide us with animal control
services in our city under a contract and they cover all animal needs. Dogs. Cats. Goats.
Chickens. Horses. Cows. Whatever comes in front of us they deal with it. They also
deal with them on call after hours status as well. I know that there has been some
questions about complaints in the past. I can tell you that in the five years that we have
been dealing with them we have only had two complaints. So, that's pretty good odds.
That doesn't mean there is more -- that there is not more, but I have only received two
and with -- that we have dealt with. As far as a patrol standpoint, we don't have any --
any complaints. They have been there for us. Last year's budget was 301,000 dollars --
one hundred and -- 381,132 was FY-18 budget. We did not add an increase for FY-19,
because the information did not get to us soon enough for the budget workshop. So, we
left it the same, 381,000 and change. We also were in the process of watching IHS
purchase -- or not purchase, but to build a new facility and we put together a stakeholder
meeting to start talking about the future of IHS and in those stakeholder meetings we
finally got something that we never got before and that was transparency and a look at
what other people were paying. How they calculate all that. So, essentially, what they
do is they calculate the population and the calls for service and I know this is kind of hard
to believe, but Meridian is the second most popular user in the valley. We average about
21 percent as far as calls for service and population compared to the rest of our partners.
The other partners with IHS are Boise and unincorporated county, Eagle, Kuna and
Garden City. Star is not a part of IHS. Right now they are the only resource that we have
to provide animal control services in the valley -- or for the city and so I'm asking you for
the monies to cover the FY-19 costs. FY-19 costs are a 2.5 percent increase. That 2.5
percent increase over the last year's amount of 381 equates to 396,060 or what the
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 69 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 65 of 83
budget amendment in front of you today is for 95 something. 9,528. That's how we
arrived at the numbers that we are requesting today. The goal was to have a single
contract for all participants. That was the thought process, but -- sorry, Bill, but when we
got all the attorneys involved they all wanted to have their own unique contract and it's
not -- it's not us, it's -- it's everybody. Our goal is to still try to have one contract, but there
are some uniqueness -- in fairness there is some uniqueness that they want to cover.
This is what needs to be covered for Meridian, this is what needed to be covered for
Boise. But they also shared with us what each other entity is paying, which we have
never known in the past and I have those in front of you. I have those in front of me as
well if you want those figures. The contract is going through the final legal review. We
were done on our end. We kicked it back to IHS. It's going to come in front of you
requesting you to authorized the Mayor to sign it, but I can't ask you to authorize the
Mayor to sign it until I can financially cover it and so that's the purpose of the request for
the budget amendment. I think I heard a yeah. Boise city is 900 and -- 923,723. Ada
county is 360. Kuna is at 98,947. Eagle 107,491. Garden City 61,546. When you look
at the average use, Boise 54 percent, Meridian 21, Ada county 11, Kuna five, Eagle 5.5
and Garden City 3.1 percent. The request in front of you today is only to cover FY-19.
We are in the process of deciding what the future is going to look like, but there is limited
options. I have had Finance working on a cost analysis study to see what it would cost if
we did it ourselves. There is a meeting scheduled for February 11th with Finance and
myself and various stakeholders to discuss those findings. That's where we are at. So,
I guess I will -- I'm requesting approval for the 9,500 dollars to get us through this year,
because we don't have any other options and, then, if you want to share or ask questions
about where do we go from there I will answer those.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Any questions at this time?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Chief, the -- the cost increase, our citizens don't get any extra added value, this
is just what the Humane Society had determined as an increase in cost and that gets past
along to us.
Lavey: Madam Mayor and Councilman Cavener, it is an incorrect -- that is a correct
statement, but it's based upon the population increase and the amount of calls for service
increase. We have seen -- and I looked at the figures over the last three years. It looks
like we get -- we increase about a hundred calls for service per year change. So, it started
out about 1,400 and, then, it was 1,500 and, then, it was 1,600. Every year it seems to
be getting just a little bit -- because we are growing. So, yes, same services, cost increase
due to their calculations is population and calls for service based.
Cavener: Madam Mayor, follow up. Question again for you chief, or either Mr. -- you or
Mr. Nary. If Council doesn't approve this what happens?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 70 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 66 of 83
Lavey: You're going to have -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, come August or
September you're going to have the wild west of animals in Meridian unless you want
police officers doing it at their wages with their cars. We have tried that before. It doesn't
work real well.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: Would you choose scooters or animals?
Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Bernt --
De Weerd: You don't have to answer.
Lavey: I'm just going to make a statement. I have learned -- I have learned -- I'm not
even going to mention scooters. I have learned that when it comes to dogs and horses
and possibly cats, people are more passionate about them than they are some of their
own kids.
Nary: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Thank you. Madam Mayor, Members of Council, a follow up to Councilman
Cavener. There is a provision in the contract about termination clauses. There is a mutual
agreement termination clause, but there is also a provision that another method of
termination is to not fund the contract, which, then, requires a five day termination. So,
in theory, they could -- without funding this contract fully, they could invoke the five day
termination and cease services.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: And, then, they would refund the amount that we have already provided them?
Nary: I don't believe we have paid them more than three months. We pay on a monthly
basis. Yeah. So, then, we would have no services at all.
Lavey: Madam Mayor, just to point out to -- actually a sidebar. We are currently on a call
for service of a man that fell off his scooter and is bleeding profusely from his head, but
that's another discussion. IHS has been providing the service to us for the last two months
free of charge. So, we would have to, in good conscious, reimburse them for the services
that they have offered to us for free. I don't know what that calculated cost is per month,
but they have been operating since October 1 without payment.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 71 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 67 of 83
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor. I think we should fund this, but I also think that it should be
funded by those who have animals and we are charging very little to license them. If we
just did it on dogs to pay for the whole program it would be about 130 dollar registration
fee. I don't know that we need to be registering chickens, but maybe cats. I -- I have
never had an animal. I don't know this world. I just know that I appreciate them being
handled when they are running around free and I think that those who are letting them
run -- whether it's a large -- I try not to equate it with repo'ing cars, but that's my world. A
large redemption fee. I don't know what it's called. That's what we call it. Or a much
larger license fee. But it needs to be a much greater subsidy of this program than what it
is, if anything.
De Weerd: I think dog owners would say the same thing about your kids.
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Just saying.
Palmer: And if the police pick up my kid, I am more than happy to pay for whatever the
cost of picking up my kid was, if I wasn't the one -- if I did not take the responsibility to
make sure that my kid wasn't out running in the road without being allowed to do so.
De Weerd: My point is there is a cost to enforcement and whether it's juveniles or -- or
misbehaving adults or -- or dogs. I know a lot of dog owners who would say they are their
kids and it should be covered by what they pay. This is to -- to make good on our contract
with the Idaho Humane Society and separate from that is providing this service and what
is the best way to move forward short term and long term and I referred to that at our last
meeting, I do -- would say that they are looking at it. The cities did have a come to Jesus
meeting with the Idaho Humane Society to -- to say we need transparency, we need a
voice, we -- we need better oversight and -- and they have -- they have been cooperating
maybe a little slower than many of us anticipated and expected, but the cities will continue
to have those conversations and we will bring you back numbers when we have them.
But this is for this year's service and it is the true cost. It's been vetted.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Ms. --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: -- Little Roberts.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 72 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 68 of 83
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor, thank you very much for that discussion and bringing
information back to us and in the meantime I would like to go ahead and move that we
approve the Idaho Humane Society contract budget amendment not to exceed 9,528
dollars.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Discussion?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think I will likely support the motion, but I do think it's very troubling --
De Weerd: Is your microphone on?
Cavener: Yes, ma'am, it is.
De Weerd: Okay.
Cavener: I can turn it off and turn it back on just to be safe. Okay. I do find it's troubling
that apparently we have come to an agreement without knowing the price and what we
are essentially allowing is the Idaho Humane Society to dictate after the fact how much
our price increase is going to be and while the 9,000 seems okay on our end, what if it
was -- what if there was another zero added to that? Would we just roll along and say,
okay, that's what it is. I'm really troubled that this organization comes to an agreement
with the city and, then, sends us a price increase. I don't think that's how we would
operate as an organization and I find it troubling that we are in a business agreement with
an organization that finds that that is an appropriate course of business. I think it has a
lot more to say with how the organization is functioning when that's the type of action they
choose to take.
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener, I don't think that you get disagreement from the police
department who oversees this or -- or myself. We did ask for transparency and through
that process they -- they put numbers together that -- that showed a larger cost. They
had to replace several vehicles that are not in a capital improvement plan. Those were
added to the cost of doing business. So, there were some unanticipated costs that they
did have to wrap in and, yes, it was a surprise to all of us, but it's just like any other
department coming in front of you saying this is an unexpected cost, it is a cost of doing
business in serving the citizens and it's a cost that we have to pass on, because their
nonprofit side was not willing to absorb it and I don't think that in the animal enforcement
aspect of it the nonprofit side should have absorbed it, but with that said we have said
they need to -- to be better at their transparency and at planning for the future and having
good solid numbers and meeting deadlines of each of the funding entities, so we can
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 73 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 69 of 83
anticipate what those costs -- the true costs will be. So, I don't know, chief, if you have
anything you want to add, otherwise --
Lavey: Madam Mayor, I -- and I respect what Councilman Cavener has to say. I don't --
I don't see that is what's happening, other than the timeliness, because they -- they
actually could be charging us a lot more. When you look at what they are paying their
people and I have seen their figures now and what they wanted to charge us in operating
costs, they have absorbed a lot of that. The only thing you're covering is increase of the
population and the calls for service that we have put on them. You're not paying for
anything else. If you were paying for any of -- any of the other things that I think that they
wanted or I think that they should be paying for, you're correct, it is a much higher cost.
But because we put it back on them and said you're asking me to provide you additional
funds after my budget process is closed I'm not going to do that. But I do feel obligated
that based upon the growth that we have approved as a city and the demands that we
put on them for calls for service, we are responsible for that. Anything else they -- they
can get timely and they can get that in the future or we can look at what some other --
Palmer: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor and Councilman Cavener, to answer your question, if -- if it had
a zero at the end of that, then, I absolutely wouldn't have been supporting it, even if it was
20 to 25 thousand, because, then, it would have been clear that we would have been --
you know, they would have been attempting to help subsidize their puppy palace there
off Overland, which when they came here and presented to us saying, hey, this is what
we are going to come asking for in the future, I said, huh-uh, figure out a different way
and in the future when that does come my vote will be no. But this given as a -- as a
percentage of the total contract I feel is an appropriate change order to -- I mean
everything is going insane here, we know that, and, you know, be asking 9,500 I think is
appropriate. Much more than that to be clear they are trying to get other things funded.
De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Thank you, chief.
Cavener: Thanks, Jeff. Have a nice evening. Sorry to keep you here so late.
C. Mayor' s Office: Post Office Update
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 74 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 70 of 83
De Weerd: There you go. Robert, 8-C, update on the post office.
Simison: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. In your packet I put
together a brief memo outlining the current status of conversations that the Mayor and I
have had with the United States Postal Service over the last six months and,
unfortunately, at this point in time I don't see a true path forward. I think it's no -- we have
all seen what the current financial situation the postal service is. They are talking about
a potential government bailout. I don't know if that's even an option or not, but needless
to say, the postal service has no money to invest funds in new facilities and based on the
work that they have done here in Meridian they have found more space to make some
modifications to their downtown facility where they think that they continue to
accommodate the current growth or demands for delivering services with the continued
emphasis on contract models and self service kiosks to satisfy our community. We do
intend to continue to try to work with our delegation. They are very aware and they were
engaged. If there is an opportunity for something to come up I have every confidence
that our new representative who will be in this building will be assisting us. We will have
a conversation with him I think in a couple weeks about this, but Senator Risch's office is
leading point at this point in time on this topic for us. That being said, in our conversations
with the Salt Lake City office, they did bring up the option of looking at adjusting our zip
code boundaries. We do have certain parts of our community which we are -- in our area
of city impact that actually have an Nampa address in the south and areas in north which
are shared with Eagle and it was their suggestion that perhaps -- I don't know if it was just
to appease us to perhaps go through that process of helping clean up our lines for the
community and kind of establishing those boundaries and I put the -- I put the steps in
there and it really will come down to part of the conversations that people that live in those
areas if they want to change their address. I can speak anecdotally through a few
conversations we had with some of our legislators last week that when they heard that
we might be considering that, they were ecstatic about the opportunity to remove
themselves of a Nampa address and get a Meridian address, just because the problems
they face from getting jury summons from the -- from Canyon county, those -- those type
of things which occur. So, that is the recommendation at this point in time, is if we want
to ask the postal service to go through and look at making some boundary adjustments,
we would, obviously, work with community development to determine what that looks like
and, then, follow their steps and processes and unless you have any additional comments
or thoughts, that would be the direction we would move forward at this time. I will stand
for any questions. Or sit.
De Weerd: Thank you, Robert. Any questions? Mr. Palmer.
Palmer: Madam Mayor, Robert, Representative Monks used to bug me every time I saw
him about wanting pools in Meridian, but for the last couple of years all it's been is he
wants -- he wants a Meridian address. So, I'm sure its happening would probably bring
him back to wanting more pools. Maybe we shouldn't.
De Weerd: I kind of think that was a yes, you have support from Mr. Palmer.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 75 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 71 of 83
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: You have support from me. Certainly. For the zip code review process to be
initiated and hats off to all the work trying to understand and, then, weave through the
maze of a post office. You know, that was brought to you -- I think it came from
Councilman Cavener who had citizens. So, this vetting processes has worked well. I
wish the answer was better, but at least we know. So, great work trying to get us to this
point and it makes sense to utilize that opportunity for the zip code cleanup.
De Weerd: Well, it is unusual. We have been working on this a number of years and I
think maybe Mr. Cavener even worked in our office when we first started the
conversations and the post office has been doing countless -- every time you mention a
new post office, they do another space study and maybe they find a couple more closets
that they can turn into workspace. As Mr. Simison mentioned, it might have been just
something to appease us saying, well, you know, you could change your ZIP codes and
I don't know if part of that changing your ZIP codes will also change carrier routes that
could potentially also have a net impact on the post office in the positive. So, less impact,
because they have been doing their zip codes and their carrier routes by those zip codes
and locations. So, perhaps this, in some sense, could also help. I don't know. But those
that we have talked to about the zip code adjustments -- and I never knew that the 83646
was shared by Eagle until the last half year or a year, so -- and I do know that there are
some Kuna residents that have a Meridian zip code as the 83642 and in some cases a
Meridian address, even though they are not in our area of impact, nor have they ever
been. So, this would clean up a lot of that and we did want to bring that back before we
put time and effort into it, then, to find out that you guys weren't interested, so --
Simison: And, Madam Mayor, I would just -- from a timing standpoint what I would suggest
is as we work through the comp plan -- and I know that there is also a desire to clean up
officially with Ada county our area of city impact lines with Kuna -- that we use that as we
get more along this process before we start it. That way it is officially designated, because
that's some of the criteria in here is what -- what are the designated lines, as we expect
those to be changed, hopefully, soon or updated. That once that's done, then, we could
initiate this process.
De Weerd: And that should, hopefully, be part of that Comprehensive Plan that we at
least can start the -- the groundwork today and maybe do it all in one effort. Any other
comments?
Cavener: Madam Mayor, just a comment. Thank you, Robert, navigating the tumultuous
waters of federal government and the US postal system and live to tell about it is a
success story in itself. Appreciate the update and continue to work.
D. Legal: Conflict of Interest Ordinance Discussion
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 76 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 72 of 83
De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 8-D under our Legal Department.
Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. I provided a memo that's in
your packet regarding a city code provision that's come up in a couple of occasions in
regards to conflict of interest and the concern we have from the Legal Department is this
provision is different than the Idaho Code and the analysis is different than the Idaho
Code and the concern can be, one, is -- one, it's not written very well. I didn't write it, so
I'm not going to take any credit for it, but it's written in a way that's very hard to understand
what they were trying to get to when this was crafted and just to put this on the record, it
says whenever the performance of the official duty shall require any official or employee
to deliberate and/or vote on any matter involving financial or personal interest, the official
or employee shall publicly disclose the nature and extent of such interest and, then, be
disqualified from participating in the deliberation. So, by revealing your conflict you are
also automatically disqualifying yourself. The State Code has a different nuance to it.
The State Code is looking first primarily at financial interest. So, the case law that exists
in Idaho all surrounds the State Code. There is little to nothing in cities regarding a
separate conflict of interest. But, secondarily, in the drafting of this provision I don't know
what was intended by personal interest, but my fair assumption is you all have a personal
interest in what we are talking about. It doesn't necessarily mean you're prohibited from
participating in voting in it. So, we have always focused our attention on the financial
piece. But here what it doesn't do, which was -- which the State Code does, is the State
Code contemplates de minimis interest, that you may have a minimal financial interest in
something and -- and the best example I can give you is it's not uncommon for elected
officials to own stock in certain companies, but you have no controlling interest over stock
in Micron necessarily, but you may own a hundred shares of Micron. Under our city code
that's a financial interest since there is no qualification on what that means or how much
interest you could have, you not only have to disqualify yourself, but the rest of the Council
can't weigh in as they could under the State Code to say that's de minimis, we don't
believe that's a conflict. It's out on the record. It's clear what the issue is and we, as a
body, don't feel the need to exclude you. Now, again, if the individual council member's
conscience prohibits them from participating, that's always their decision. They can
always choose not to do that. But under our -- our city code they are, essentially, required
to reveal it with also the requirement to, then, recuse themself when they do. It doesn't
make much sense and our concern is that, one, it's inconsistent with the State Code. It
certainly is one that could be potentially overlooked and, again, there is some lack of
clarity in what the -- the intentions of the words mean, but, again, a personal interest could
mean nothing more than simply an interest in the outcome, not a personal advantage or
a benefit that's been gained by an elected official specifically, but simply an interest. So,
our recommendation would be to repeal the city code and follow the state code. State
code, again, has been vetted through the legislature through a number of cases over the
years and it has tried to deal with, you know, corruption in government, trying to deal with
influence peddling, trying to deal with people that have actual financial pecuniary gains to
be had in elected official's decisions. So, the -- the case law exists. The -- the entire
reasoning exists behind it that's already there. The Attorney General's Office offers
opinions on the subject matter, but they won't offer an opinion on a city code, because,
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 77 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 73 of 83
again, they don't have any oversight of that. So, it's come up a few times. We would
recommend repealing that and that's why I brought it to you today.
De Weerd: Thank you, Bill. If you have any questions about that let Bill know if there is
nothing right now.
Nary: Okay.
De Weerd: Okay.
Milam: Do we need to do anything?
Nary: Want me to bring it back?
Milam: Yeah. Bring it back.
De Weerd: Yes, please.
Nary: Okay.
F. Council: ICRMP Training
De Weerd: Okay. Item 8-F, ICRMP training.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton, you will have our -- our undivided attention.
Borton: I just need six minutes. If I could speak freely with the Council for this -- slow
your roll a little bit. Okay?
Cavener: We got time.
Borton: We got the sign-up sheet that you have all done the training we are about to do.
Well done. So, real quick. As part of ICRMP training annually we do this every year. We
take a couple topics. Our department, City Council, is being trained as you speak -- as
we speak. Doing this, like each other department, provides a benefit, a discount on our
insurance rates, the city and the taxpayer wins and we are all safer, which is a win-win.
So, what are we talking about today? Well, I will tell you. We are talking about distracted
driving. We are talking about cell phones and driving. Those things go hand in hand.
You each have a couple of -- a couple of information sheets here in front of you.
Distracted driving and cell phones in driving. Okay. ICRMP has provided these things to
educate you a little bit, maybe prompt a couple of questions. So, we all know that
distractions are anything that takes your attention away from the task at hand; right? And
-- and, Mr. Palmer, for example, if you do not give your full attention to the driving of a
vehicle, bad things can happen very quickly; right? So, we know that and we know that
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 78 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 74 of 83
to drive safely you must pay full attention at all times. Treg, Mr. Bernt, by doing so that
will give you enough time to react. Mr. Bernt, people's lives are in your hands, including
your own life.
Bernt: Yes, sir. Yes.
Borton: So, don't be distracted when you're driving. When you're using your own vehicle,
but you're going to city events perhaps, the city can be implicated. So, it is important not
only for your own safety, but --
Bernt: Is that true? If I'm in my -- Madam Mayor. If I'm in my own car going to a city
event I can be implicated.
Borton: I will -- I'm not the legal counsel for the city. I opened a Pandora's box of --
Nary: We can talk after.
Borton: Yes. Talk after.
Bernt: That's interesting.
Borton: Not to get sidetracked. So, I guess here is a question, Genesis, really, I wanted
to ask you. What distractions do you allow in your vehicle? Do you allow any
distractions?
Milam: Well, Councilman, I never ever let anything distract me from my driving, especially
not food or phones or friends or music. Yeah. I just avoid all of that. I never -- never ever
ever take my eyes off the road and both hands on the wheel, 10:00 and 2:00.
Borton: So, here is one of the -- one that -- I appreciate that. Well, you will find other
drivers do. This will shock you. Is that they will text, they will dial or talk on the phone.
They will eat, drink, read -- who reads? They will write. Some might change music on a
CD. Who has CDs? But they might do that. Or a radio station. Come on, ICRMP needs
to update their sheet here.
Milam: A cassette.
Borton: Yeah. The eight track. Looking for things inside the vehicle. There is just so
many opportunities to be unsafe, folks. So, let's be safe. Let's not be distracted when
we are driving the car at all times, whether you're doing city stuff or personal stuff, be
attentive. You know what you could do? Here is a little take home idea. Create a list of
distractions and discuss maybe with your loved ones, your children, how those could be
eliminated. That's a little -- a little homework for you. So, that's distracted driving. Not
paying attention. Let's not do that.
Cavener: Mr. President?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 79 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 75 of 83
Borton: Yes sir.
Cavener: Did you want us to make that list on the drive home?
Borton: Great question. No. And I wasn't clear with that.
Cavener: I just wanted to make sure.
Borton: Really -- really clear. Don't do that.
Cavener: Okay.
Borton: And nor should you read this on the way home. Get home safe. Let's do that at
home. So, one of the items -- let's wrap this up. The next part is cell phones and driving.
It's one of the distractions Council Woman Milam does not suffer from. Well, I will just tell
you that according to the National Safety Council folks, nearly one out of every five motor
vehicle crashes involve cell phones. We joke somewhat, but it's also a very serious
matter. So, we know -- most of us have kids and spouses that we have seen struggle
with that discipline necessary to not text and drive. Don't do it. One of the greatest -- I
will tell you I think one of the greatest little training tidbits is be with somebody like a fellow
council member or your spouse and hold up your phone and start texting, like blatantly
-- not when you're driving, like at a stop sign, and see what happens and they will get
on --
Milam: It's legal -- it legal at stop signs. As long as the vehicle is not moving.
Borton: The point of doing so is to -- to invite the person next to you to say something.
Like, hey, hey, what are you doing, what are you doing, and we are reluctant to do so with
a spouse or a friend. Do it. If you care about somebody tell them to knock it off. They
should appreciate it. Kids are the greatest training tools. So, text in front of your kids or
at least pretend like you're doing it and --
Milam: Yeah. They tell me all the time. Oh.
Borton: Oh. I tell you that, because multitasking impairs performance. Distracted driving
-- or drivers distracted by cell phone conversations display slower reaction times and have
difficulty staying in their lane. They are less likely to see objects, visual cues, exits. When
things change in their driving pattern they can't react quickly enough. Again, our -- our
law enforcement, seriously, have seen some tragic fatalities, quite frankly, with
pedestrians hit, by people texting, even with good intentions, trying to pay attention, they
are sending one quick text before they get home -- it's not worth it. So, just don't do it.
Take the discipline to -- to not text and drive. Well, I'm going to ask you a question,
Councilman Cavener, to wrap this up. What percentage of time, Luke, do you talk on
your cell phone while driving? Now, talking not texting.
Cavener: A significant amount.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 80 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 76 of 83
Borton: Significant amount.
Cavener: Eighty percent of my time. Hands free of course.
Borton: Okay. Not everyone has that luxury.
Cavener: Not everyone does.
Borton: So, you just got to be careful when you're doing that. Just keep your eyes on the
road. Stay focused. Anyone here -- last question. Anyone on Council. Have you had
someone that you know have a close call with a cell phone while driving. Maybe yourself,
maybe a family member. You had a close call? Known somebody who had a close call
with a cell phone while driving? Yourself included. So, that's the last take away. Cell
phones and driving, if you saw someone with a close call, that's the -- the kind of the one
bit of the apple. That's the reminder to say, holy cow, I might not get a second chance.
So, be safe with your cell phone, be safe driving and --
Milam: Wait until the red light.
Borton: -- thank you for participating.
Cavener: Thank you, Mr. President, Madam Mayor.
G. Election of City Council Officers [Action Item]
De Weerd: That was important information. Item 8-G, election of City Council officers.
We will go ahead and consider the office of City Council president.
Bernt: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: I would like to nominate Joseph W. Borton as our council president.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Does the nominee agree?
Borton: I do.
De Weerd: Okay. Are there any other nominations?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 81 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 77 of 83
Milam: I move that -- to nominate Luke Cavener as vice-president.
Borton: Second.
Little Roberts: Second.
Palmer: You got everyone's heart racing there, Genesis.
De Weerd: We didn't close --
Milam: All right. Sorry.
De Weerd: Yeah. You're out of order.
Milam: I know. Trying to hurry and get it done.
De Weerd: Are there any other nominations for president? Council President? Okay. If
not I have a motion and a second to nominate Joe Borton as council president. All those
in favor say aye. Any opposed? Okay. All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: The office of vice-president of City Council. I would entertain nominations.
Mrs. Milam.
Milam: You already did that.
De Weerd: No, I didn't.
Milam: I nominate Luke Cavener as vice-president.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any further nominations? Does Mr. Cavener
accept?
Cavener: I do.
De Weerd: Okay. If there is no further nominations, we do have a motion and a second
to nominate Mr. Luke Cavener as the vice-president. All those in favor say aye. Any
opposed? Motion carries. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 9: Ordinances [Action Items]
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 82 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 78 of 83
A. Ordinance No. 19- 1802: An Ordinance (H-2018-0105 — Alturas
1550 Tech Lane) For The Re -Zone Of Parcel Of Land
Situated In The Southeast'/ 4 Of The Southwest'/ 40f Section 4,
Township 3 North, Range 1 West, Boise Meridian, City Of
Meridian, Ada County Idaho; Establishing And Determining
The Land Use Zoning Classification Of 7. 24 Acres From I-L
Light Industrial) Zoning District To C -G (General Retail And
Service Commercial) 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. Item 9-A is under Ordinance 19-1802. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, read
this by title.
Coles: Thank you, Madam Mayor. City of Meridian Ordinance No. 19-1802, an ordinance
file H-2018-0105, Alturas, 1550 Tech Lane, for the re-zone of a parcel of land situated In
the Southeast 1/4 of the Southwest 1/4 of Section 4, Township 3 North, Range 1 West,
Boise meridian, City of Meridian, Ada county Idaho; establishing and determining the land
use zoning classification of 7.24 acres from I-L, Light Industrial Zoning District, to C-G,
General Retail and Service Commercial 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. You have heard this read by title. Do I have a motion to approve?
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I move we approve Ordinance No. 19-1802 with suspension of rules.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve Item 9-A. Mr. Clerk, will you call
roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 83 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 79 of 83
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 10: Future Meeting Topics
De Weerd: Any item under ten?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I have been working with Caleb trying to figure out a date for the next joint
Council-P&Z meeting. We have got some topics on the agenda already. So, we have
got a date to throw out to you. It fit into their schedule, working that way, Thursday --
Thursday. February. Thursday. Thursday, February 21st. Sorry. At 5:00 o'clock. This
would be before their 6:00 o'clock regular meeting as a potential date for us to show up,
do that joint meeting. Some of the topics include the comp plan update, opportunity zones
and some general motion and procedure work. There will be -- will be new commissioners
to get up to speed at that time, so --
Coles: And, Madam Mayor, just to make sure, Caleb had sent an e-mail to the
commissioners earlier today saying 4:00 o'clock on that date, instead of 5:00 o'clock.
Borton: Oh.
Coles: To check with their schedule. So, 4:00 o'clock on Thursday, February 21st I
believe.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: We also have a joint meeting with ACHD that same day.
De Weerd: Yes. At noon.
Milam: Okay. How long is that one projected to last?
De Weerd: 1:30 I believe. Or 1:00.
Milam: So, not that long. Not long enough to get anything done.
Borton: It's an hour and a half. So, that's -- the other option, if it's not February 21st -- I
think that's the preferred date --
Milam: Well, I can't do it.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 84 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 80 of 83
Borton: -- would be March 7th. Same idea. It would be probably 4:00 o'clock on a
Thursday, so --
Milam: I babysit.
Borton: -- 21st is priority one. March 7th as a backup, so -- is that --
De Weerd: I will be gone on the 7th.
Milam: I can't do a Thursday. Sorry.
Borton: Not Thursday?
Milam: I have another obligation on Thursday afternoons. After -- from 1:00 on. So, I
could do before 1:00.
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Milam: Just one person, so don't --
De Weerd: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I don't want to belabor this meeting. I think it's important for us to meet with
Planning and Zoning Commission.
Milam: Yes.
Cavener: Having two meetings in the same day with a very busy full-time job schedule
for myself will likely mean that one of those, if not both, may -- I may not be able to attend.
I think it's appropriate to move forward with that date if that works for everyone, but I just
want to go on record that I'm RSVP'ing unknown at this point in time.
De Weerd: Mr. Clerk, in talking about schedules. Does it not work to do it after a City
Council Workshop?
Coles: Madam Mayor, that might be a question for --
De Weerd: I mean not like tonight, but -- I have been working with Caleb.
Borton: So, we will circle back, Madam Mayor. It is an option. I think some of the initial
thoughts were to try and -- you know, they -- they blended with our schedule, try and blend
in with theirs if it's possible. It might not be, but that was the reason that --
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
Borton: -- we were looking at that Thursday.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 85 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 81 of 83
De Weerd: Yes. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: I think it's important for us to -- they are coming to us. I think it's important for
us to try and go to their schedule, to show that collaboration. Again, maybe as a body as
we get closer we can talk. I'm -- I'm happy to do everything I can do to attend that, but,
then, it also means I'm not going to attend the ACHD meeting. Just want to make sure
that we are coordinating our schedules, so that we have an appropriate showing at both
of those meetings.
De Weerd: Well, if Council would take a look at the first and third Thursdays of your
months and see if -- if 4:00 o'clock would work. Mrs. Milam, does -- no Thursday's work
at all?
Milam: Not for -- not after 1:00 o'clock, Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Okay. If we are trying to meet on -- on their turf and kind of before theirs, they
only meet on Thursdays and so I guess -- if you can just look at your work -- yeah. Good
luck, Joe.
Borton: We'll see. We will get as many of us together as we can.
De Weerd: Okay. Very good. Just a reminder that, Council, there is a grand opening for
Cotton Creek -- Cottonwood Creek on Wednesday --
Milam: Tomorrow.
De Weerd: Tomorrow. And I think it's 4:30 to 6:30.
Milam: Or 7:00 or something.
Bernt: 4:00 to 7:00.
De Weerd: 4:00 to 7:00.
Milam: Yeah.
De Weerd: So, they had their ribbon cutting today and it was very well attended. If there
is -- yes, Mr. Borton.
Borton: You don't have to answer right now, but there is a Doodle scheduler going around
on the budget workshops for June and July.
Milam: I already did it.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 86 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 82 of 83
Borton: So, sooner you can do it if you haven't, please, do it, because I know Jenny's
ready to go to schedule accordingly. So, at least take a look at your e-mail and Doodle
away.
Milam: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Milam.
Milam: I just wanted it -- and I'm not doing a whole update, but on this Parks and
Recreation magazine, this is a national magazine and on the back cover is Hillsdale Park.
Item 11: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74- 206( 1)( a): To consider
hiring a public officer, employee, staff member or individual agent,
wherein the respective qualities of individuals are to be evaluated in
order to fill a particular vacancy or need; 74-206( 1)( d): To consider
records that are exempt from disclosure as provided in chapter 1, title
74, Idaho Code and 74-206( 1)( 9: To communicate with legal counsel
for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal
options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated
but imminently likely to be litigated.
De Weerd: Very nice and well deserved. Okay. If there is nothing further, I would
entertain a motion on Item 11 to adjourn into Executive Session.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-2061
(1)(a),(1)(d) and (1)(f).
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. Mr. Clerk, will you, please, call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt,
yea.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (7:46 p.m. to 9:45 p.m.)
De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session.
Borton: So moved.
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda January 22, 2019 – Page 87 of 594
Meridian City Council Workshop
January 8, 2019
Page 83 of 83
Cavener: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor say aye? All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn.
Borton: So moved.
Milam: Second.
De Weerd: All those in favor? All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 9:45 P.M.
(AUDIO RECO _ DIN ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
MAYOR TAY DE WEERD
ATTEST:
C. JAY COLO, CITY C
I /22/Iq
DATE APPROVED