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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-07-16 Work SessionMeridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 18 of 18 De Weerd: I have a motion and a second and someone making up additional stuff. Mr. Clerk. Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, yea; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt, yea. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:21 p.m. to 6:02 p.m.) De Weerd: Okay. Council, I would -- I think it's past 6:00. We should close out our work session. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we come out of Executive Session. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to come out of Executive Session. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn our work session? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we adjourn our work session. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn our work session. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:02 P.M. (AUD ORDING O HESE PROCEEDINGS) q Ati �,�, a O 1 I MAYOR Y E WEERD o� s ATE APPROVED ATT E j _ o City of W CHRI OHNS N - Y C gRK` IDAHO SEAL Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 16, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Ty Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt. Members Absent: Genesis Milam. Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Warren Stewart, Berle Stokes, Mark Niemeyer, Crystal Ritchie, Todd Lavoie and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt ______Genesis Milam __X___Lucas Cavener __X__ Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: I will call this meeting to order. For the record is Tuesday, July 16th. It's 4:30. We will start with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk. Item 2: Adoption of Agenda De Weerd: Item No. 2 is adoption of the agenda. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we adopt the agenda as published. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item] A. Approve Minutes of July 9, 2019 City Council Work Session B. Approve Minutes of July 9, 2019 City Council Regular Meeting Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 103 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 2 of 18 C. Bengal Parking Pedestrian Pathway Easement D. Gander Creek North Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement E. Little Creek Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement F. Approval Of Bonfire Purchase Agreement For Procurement Software Yearly Subscription For The Not-To-Exceed Amount Of $7,250.00 For The Remainder Of Fiscal Year 2019. Subsequent Years 2-6 Will Be Billed At $18,000 Annually For A Total Of $97,250 G. Artwork License Agreement: Community Block Party Marketing for an Amount Not to Exceed $300.00 H. AP Invoices for Payment - 07/08/19 - $594,909.75 I. AP Invoices for Payment - 07/17/19 - $1,854,020.42 De Weerd: Item 3 is the Consent. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we approve the Consent Agenda as published. Cavener: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll call: Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 4: Action Items A. Human Resources: Compensation Committee Presentation De Weerd: Item 4 under Action Items. We have our HR Department to give you an update on the compensation committee. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 104 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 3 of 18 Ritchie: Madam Mayor, Members of Council, thank you so much for having me this afternoon. I'm here in front of you on behalf of the 2018 compensation committee and the efforts that we have undergone over the last several months to review our general employee compensation program, as well as our city benefits and come forward today with some additional recommendations for consideration for FY-20. So, one of the things I want to share with you is a little bit of who the committee members were this year, what our purpose and scope was as we approached this initiative. Talk to you a little bit about our general employee compensation program recommendations and our city benefit program recommendations. I'm here seeking your approval this afternoon on behalf of the compensation committee and, then, to also share with you some next steps. And, then, of course, stand for questions. So, this year's compensation committee members were Laurelie McVey, our deputy director of utilities from Public Works, Tracy Basterrechea, our deputy chief of police, Todd Lavoie, our CFO, myself, Council Member Bernt, Council President Joe Borton and Mayor Tammy. So, when we set out to approach this initiative our main focus was to review the general employee compensation and benefit program. Specifically for the employee comp -- general employee compensation program we wanted to ensure that we had alignment with the city's organizational strategy. You will see there that I have listed the strategic plan or the strategic objectives that support our efforts this year. We wanted to make sure that the program also supports the city's pay for performance compensation philosophy that is embedded within city policy, as well as into our existing compensation program and, then, we also wanted to make sure that the program recommendations that we brought forward to you today were fiscally responsible, as well as market competitive. So, our recommendations regarding our general employee compensation program for FY-20, we are to maintain the city's current pay for performance philosophy, to maintain the current compensation program design, pay structures, guidelines, processes and procedures. To establish a policy that states once an employee's current wage exceeds the assigned salary range of their position that those employees still receive pay for performance or merit pay. However, rather than having that increase added to their base, once they exceed the salary range we would, then, provide them a one time lump sum payment. So, we currently have a policy in place that supports the one time lump sum payment. It is designed currently that if an employee exceeds the salary range the first year they would still receive their merit increase to their base. Once they enter into year two they would, then, receive the one time lump sum payments. We are recommending that we change that to once they actually exceed the range -- the salary range maximum they, then, start receiving the one time lump payment for merit. In addition to that, we have an internal alignment process that's a part of the budget process every year. It's currently on a three year cycle. We wanted to recommend to you today that we move that to a two year cycle, thus allowing us to ensure that job descriptions, job requirements and associated pay and salary ranges are commensurate upon the changes needed to job descriptions and the things that we are asking of our employees to do as related to their jobs. As quickly as we are growing jobs are changing and we want to make sure that we are in alignment with that effort and, then, we would like to be able to provide total compensation and benefit statements to our employees on an annual basis. So, then, I would like to transition to our city benefit program. So, as you know we came before you last year for the FY-19 budget and asked for the funding to secure a third-party vendor to provide a benefit valuation, which is simply Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 105 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 4 of 18 a study or an analysis of our current employee benefit program compared to what we would consider other market competitors and their benefit programs. We included to be -- for that to include both private and public sector employers within the Treasure Valley and across the state of Idaho. We secured Gallagher and company to provide that benefit valuation for us and the recommendations that we are bringing forward to you today are on behalf of the results provided to us from that study and here they are. So, the first one that we are recommending is a PERSI 401(k) employer match of a hundred percent up to two percent of the employee's salary. This would be available to all employee groups across the city. The estimated costs are listed there for you and the implementation logistics to support these recommendations we would need to go ahead and work on developing a policy to support that benefit. The second benefit that we are recommending to you today is a vacation buyback for general -- or, excuse me, for general employees and Police Department employees, up to 40 vacation hours one time per year. That is available to general and Police Department employees, because due to at this time the Fire Department already has a vacation buyback within their contract. To support the benefit of a vacation buyback we would, then, need to move forward with developing a policy. The third benefit enhancement that we are recommending today would be an adjustment to our education reimbursement program. Currently today our program allows employees to receive up to 2,000 dollars per fiscal year for their education efforts we would like to make a recommendation to increase that to 2,600 dollars per fiscal year. There is some costs there that are associated with that in front of you today and, of course, the implementation requirements would involve us updating our current education reimbursement policy. And the fourth one there would be a new benefit, if you will, which would be to offer a two weeks paid maternity and paternity leave to employees. This would be available also to all city employees in alignment with our current FMLA policy and you will see that there is no additional cost for us to support that and the implementation requirements for that particular benefit would also include us developing a policy and bringing that back to you for review. So, what I'm looking for today on behalf of the benefits committee is seeking your approval of these recommendations to be incorporated -- included into the FY-20 budget. Upon your approval, then, we will begin working on the implementation requirements, policies, those types of things that we would bring back for -- back in front of you all for review and consideration no later than September 10th of 2019 and with that I stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Crystal. Council, any questions? Little Roberts: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Crystal, could you go into a little more depth about the maternal-paternal leave? I guess I'm curious why there is no cost if they are not using their vacation or they are -- Ritchie: Yeah. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 106 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 5 of 18 Little Roberts: -- if you can -- Ritchie: So, I will invite Todd to come up to speak to the financials behind it. What I can give you in a more in depth description is currently today when our employees go out on approved leave for maternity or paternal reasons, they are requested and required to use their vacation and their sick leave to make their paycheck whole. The benefits enhancement that we are providing to you today to help us enter into a more competitive arena with our benefit program amongst our local competitors for attraction and retention of talent would be, then, for the city to pay the first two weeks of that paternity or maternity leave and, then, they would continue to utilize their sick and vacation time to make their paycheck whole. Lavoie: And Madam Mayor, Council Member Little Roberts, the cost to the city is no cost on this particular report, because the way we look at an annual salary is if an employee earns 50,000 dollars a year and they take vacation or sick, they are still going to get their paycheck of 50,000 dollars a year. So, the same would apply here. If we agreed to allow them to take two weeks off, we are still going to honor their annual salary of 50,000 dollars. So, there is no tangible wage cost. Now you could argue that there is some production cost, but we wouldn't -- we don't go there with that analysis. From a wage cost analysis, though, it's zero cost, because we still will recommend -- or represent their annual salary that you agreed to pay this employee for that 12 month period. Little Roberts: Thank you. Ritchie: Thank you, Todd. You're welcome. De Weerd: Okay. Other questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Crystal, I just have I guess one question about moving HR to a two year cycle. I know that doing that is not an easy task for you and your staff and I assume you're bringing this recommendation because it's what's best for our employees, which I applaud. Just curious from an HR management side are you able to achieve that with your current resources or was moving towards that and maybe some of the extra demands of your office going to necessitate additional staffing resources for you in the future? Ritchie: Okay. Council Member Cavener, thank you very much for your question and I appreciate your consideration for the staff that we have in place to support the employees that we do each and every day. To answer your question it would be at this point in time a partnership between the Human Resources office and the HR staff, as well as with external consultants who would help us until such time as I am in front of each of you Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 107 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 6 of 18 asking for an additional resource that would focus on compensation on behalf of the city on a day-to-day basis. Cavener: Okay. Thank you. Ritchie: You're welcome. De Weerd: And that was included in the budget that was presented. The consultant amount was already in there. Ritchie: Yes, Madam Mayor. Thank you so much. It has been included in the HR's budget. De Weerd: And that to two year cycle is the cycle that our -- our police STEP plan and our union negotiations are on. So, this brings alignment across the board. Any other questions? You -- you will note that we have put a placeholder in the budget for 720,224, I believe. Something like that. And 275,000 of that was for -- it was a placeholder for the compensation. That has been removed, so the amount is now 445,223. Richie: Thank you, Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. It doesn't look like there is any further questions. Thank you. Ritchie: You're welcome. Thank you. De Weerd: Okay. So, Item 5-A is -- now, that is an action item. So, Council, we would like your direction on the presentation that was in front of you. So again -- Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. And we will need to -- I'm sorry. Just one last thing. As Crystal noted, we will need to bring policies back prior to roll out. So, those will be coming back to you in the fall. Mr. Borton. Borton: Thank you, Madam Mayor. Crystal, good job. As part of the committee, the work that Tracy and Todd and Laurelie and -- I think the discussions were -- were very active and engaging. Lots of pros and cons. I think it was much more thorough than maybe I had anticipated when I got started working on it. So, I appreciate the good work that everyone did and Todd in particular the data to help true up what the cost of options were was very -- very helpful. So, appreciate the work done by everybody on it. I move that we approve the recommendation of the compensation committee as presented and for staff to take those necessary steps to implement it as Crystal has just indicated. Bernt: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 108 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 7 of 18 Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: And I will apologize this -- as Mr. Borton had -- had noted was -- was active and sometimes maybe a little unwieldy, but there was great discussion. It took a different look numerous times and -- and the process did take longer than we expected and -- and my apologies for that. I thank you for all your good work. Ritchie: Thank you, Madam Mayor, and thank you, Council Members, for your support on behalf of the benefits committee -- or the compensation committee. We greatly appreciate this. Item 5: Community Items / Presentations A. COMPASS: High Capacity Transit - History and Next Steps De Weerd: Okay. 5-A under Community Items/Presentations we have COMPASS here to discuss high capacity transit. Good afternoon. Haukkala: Thank you for having me. Do you need my name and address? De Weerd: Yes, please. Haukkala: Rachel Haukkala. 700 Northeast 2nd Street, Suite 200, Meridian. De Weerd: Thanks, Rachel. Haukkala: Thank you for having me today. I am an assistant planner at COMPASS and I'm here today just to tell you about what we have been doing with high capacity transit and some of the history and next steps for that at COMPASS. So, I will go over some definitions, history, current planning activities and what we are doing next. So, just to be on the same page, high capacity transit is basically just a public transportation system that carries more people, either with larger vehicles or more frequent service and a fixed guideway. So, it just means that it's a public transportation system that operates on a set path, like a rail or a bus rapid transit system. So, the three main modes that we are looking at are bus rapid transit or BRT, which is a fixed route bus system that operates on a fixed path. Usually it will be bus only lanes or high occupancy vehicle lanes, so that those buses are able to move more quickly. They usually come more frequently than regular buses and they have stations that are more like light rail kind of platforms, not just regular bus stops for quicker -- to allow passengers to get on and off more quickly. And, then, light rail is the middle picture. Bus rapid transit is the last one there. Light rail is a light train that operates on a rail. It has shorter cars and also load platforms and it's very Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 109 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 8 of 18 similar to bus rapid transit in the stop spacing and the frequency of service. And, then, commuter rail, this is the right picture. That is often more geared towards the commuters. So, it takes people from the outlying areas of the city to the central city. Usually it's the highest capacity and they are the fastest -- it's fastest mode. So, it's really efficient getting people in and out of the city. There are usually fewer stations than the light rail and bus rapid transit. And all three of these modes, in contrast to the regular bus, they all operate more frequently, have higher capacity and fewer stops. So, a quick history. You may know long ago there was an inter-urban passenger train that went all around the valley and Amtrak even operated service for passengers until 1997. And after that there is kind of a gap and people still wanted passenger service on the rail line. So, in 2003 there was the rail corridor evaluation study, which looked at the Boise cutoff rail line, which is that rail line that goes from Nampa through Meridian to Boise and, then, out. That study looked at what it would take to upgrade the rail line to be used for commuter rail and how they might be able to acquire it for public transportation and just the cost and everything associated with that. And, then, in 2009 we had the Treasure Valley high capacity transit study priority corridor phase one alternatives analysis, which looked at the different options or alternatives for alignments for the rail service, because if we vote for federal funding for this project in the future we will need to look at all the alternatives and make sure we selected the best option for the region. So, this study looked at eight different alignments. As you can see on the map Chinden, Ustick, Fairview, that rail corridor. Franklin, Interstate 84, Overland and Victory and it analyzes many different aspects and came out with three preferred alignments -- these were the three alignments they recommended to move forward into the next step of the alternatives analysis and those were the Boise cutoff rail line, Fairview and Franklin Roads, and they recommended specific modes for each one also. So, for the Boise cutoff they recommended that the light rail or bus rapid transit and it says bus rapid transit exclusive of the budget means that it would have its own exclusive lane or space that's not used for anything else versus mixed traffic, which is shared right of way, which is basically what we have today, buses just operating in the car lane. And, then, as a secondary option they recommended commuter rail. But the other two they determined to be more feasible and as you can see, as I mentioned, commuter rail has fewer stops, only one or two in Meridian, whereas the light rail or BRT would have probably two to four stops in Meridian. And, then, for the Fairview alignment they recommended bus rapid transit exclusive again and these stops are not set in stone, these are just kind of what they decided for the modeling and analysis that they did. And, then, for Franklin Road they recommended BRT exclusive or the secondary option would be light rail. So, why are we even interested in high capacity transit? Communities In Motion 2040 2.0 COMPASS's long range transportation plan, it's projecting a lot of growth between now and 2040. We estimate the population for the region will be over one million in 2040 with all these increased population and households and jobs that we will need to find a way to get all these people around to and from their homes and jobs and find places for them to live and it will also increase freight traffic. A lot of the major employers are located along the I-84 corridor and in the major central business district. So, the high capacity transit here would alleviate some of that traffic on the interstate and on all of our roads really. It would continue to increase. It would also help with local and regional transportation because people can get around even within Meridian better or throughout the region and also just providing more mobility options for Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 110 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 9 of 18 people so they maybe don't have to drive into Boise every day or back and forth between Meridian and Boise. So, some of the things we have been doing more recently -- last year we finished a freight study that looked at all the freight going on throughout the region and it did look at the rail corridor specifically, so that gave us some insight into the customers that are there. The study identified 80 customers along the Boise cutoff and approximately 60 to 70 of them are currently active. So, we would definitely want to work with them if we end up moving forward with the rail corridor of public transportation and it also identified only two trains per week that are operating on the Boise cutoff right now. In bigger cities some of the public transportation systems that share the rail, they have a lot more going on, so that's not too much in our region. Also in the long range transportation plan Communities In Motion 2040 2.0 we came up with some planning level cost estimates for the high capacity transit. These estimates were for commuter rail, which is kind of the middle ground between bus rapid transit. It's more than bus rapid transit, but less than light rail. So, we estimated 339 million in capital costs for commuter rail or -- and in addition to that ten million dollars operating and that's every year. We didn't estimate right of yet. That will be another large cost, especially if it's -- if we end up with the Boise cutoff and this map shows the rail along both the Boise cutoff and Fairview. That just illustrates there is multiple options. We wouldn't use both of those. And it also identifies the State Street bus rapid transit and, then, all the other lines are the 2040 public transportation bus system that would be needed to support the high capacity transit. So, it will be a -- really a full system. We can't just put in a commuter rail, we need to have the supporting bus system in place and with that that will be a much higher investment required than just the 339 to get that service. So, were we re-assessing what -- the assumptions used in the 2009 study and what we thought we needed back then and kind of revisiting it and deciding if that's still what we need today. It's been ten years. So, we are thinking about what our vision is now to 2040 and our next long range plan will be Communities In Motion 2060, so we are looking at ten years further and thinking about what trips we want to provide and what the region -- what the region's vision really is for a potential high capacity transit and we will take a look again at those alignments, maybe all eight or maybe just the three that were recommended, decide which ones we want to move forward with into the next kind of alternatives analysis phase and I just wanted to quickly point to the other high capacity transit project going around in the region. On State Street they are planning for a bus rapid transit now. This will probably happen sooner than high capacity transit, the one I'm talking about. So, it's kind of -- we are able to look at this study and get some ideas from them and some strategies for how to phase the system into existence and looking at funding and support of land use needs and all those sorts of things. This image is from the transit oriented development plan that they just completed. So, there is a lot of things we need to consider as well. So, the next steps for our planning, the first thing is we are going to look for a consultant to help us develop these options better. We are hoping to have an RFP out this fall and we are hoping that they will be able to help us develop better cost estimates, because, like I mentioned, ours didn't have right of way and they were kind of higher planning level. So, a consultant can help us really drill down better, find out what's the real cost. We ask them to revisit the 2009 study and other past work, so that they can look at the assumptions and kind of help us figure out which alignments are the best ones and refine them more, so we know what the alignments and stops will look like and work into public Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 111 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 10 of 18 input, which will be the next thing. Probably next year later, maybe fall, we are hoping to do public input to get some ideas about what the public thinks about high capacity transit for this region and kind of what their values are and what they would want to see in a high capacity transit system. We won't be asking them which alignment they like best or things like that, but more like how fast do you want to be able to get from Meridian to Boise. Do you want to be able to make a lot of stops, go to the, you know, grocery store or do you just want to go right to Boise to go to your job or whatever it might be. And, then, we are going to be going back to Union Pacific. In the past they haven't been very interested in thinking about public transportation on their corridor. De Weerd: That's putting it nicely. Haukkala: So, we are hoping to get together with our stakeholders and partners, local partners and think of strategies to approach them and once we have this -- better cost estimates from the consultant and the public input we can, you know, bring an actual cost to them once we know what the right of way costs and those sorts of things, just kind of have more defined things we are looking for and be able to tell them what we have, what the public wants and, then, we will be looking at a funding plan, because we really need a dedicated funding source to make this all happen. Operations are an annual cost, so we can't just fund this once and forget about it. We really need something that we can depend on every year, a sustainable funding source, so that we can make the system work and, then, the system needs -- I mentioned earlier we need this full bus system in the region to support the high capacity transit, because people need to get to and from it, they don't all live right there along the corridor. We will need to make all these other connections north-south and elsewhere in the region to make it a complete system, only to look at land use policies and plans and preserving right of way and looking at supportive density and, then, also getting all the other modes together, coordinating to make it really a good regional system, because we will need to make sure we have the bicycle and pedestrian networks in place and coordinate with freight so those aren't conflicting and the road network we will need to consider and all of this planning I mentioned will be feeding into our next long range plan, the Communities In Motion 2050, so it will all come together there. And I will stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Rachel. Council, any questions? Mr. Bernt? Bernt: Madam Mayor. Thank you for your presentation. It was good. Very insightful. You know, this is -- this is -- you know, I guess recently I looked at some numbers at a COMPASS board meeting recently and -- and where Boise State reached out and did some -- some polling, you know, some questions asked what the -- what the level of interest was in public transit in our area and it's actually really high and -- and -- and not only did they poll people from Meridian, but Boise and different parts of Canyon county and those numbers are pretty much the same where ever you look at and so I wish we had the option of deciding this on our own and having the citizens vote through a public option. You know, one of these days our state legislature is going to come -- maybe understand that maybe this is something that's important to different municipalities, other than resort towns in our state, and -- and, hopefully, sooner than later we can start talking Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 112 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 11 of 18 about this. Public transit on this level is really expensive and so I don't know if we are quite there yet, but I'm glad that -- that you're bringing this discussion in front of us and making all municipalities in the Treasure Valley aware of how important public transportation is to our growth and development and economic development as well. So, thank you for your presentation. Haukkala: Thank you. De Weerd: Any further comment? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: For Council's benefit, I got to see this presentation a couple weeks ago with the Transportation Commission and I want to just first begin by thanking Rachel. I think of every agency that's ever come before us we inevitably asked, hey, can I get a copy of this presentation, can I get this document, and sometimes they come -- sometimes they come much later. Rachel like flipped it around like overnight. It was awesome. I really appreciate that. I just want to thank you on the record. A question popped up in my mind, though, from that presentation to this one and maybe this will be contemplated in the RFP, but to me the big question about any of these options is who -- who is going to lead it? Is that -- is that COMPASS's role? Is that VRT's role? Because -- and Council knows this. You have got to have somebody that's pulling these people together, because when this plan was first put together there was a lot of conversation about circulators in downtown Boise and, thankfully, that didn't go anywhere. I don't think that that would be benefiting our residents at all today. This takes a real collaborative vision from Caldwell -- honestly I think to Mountain Home and I think VRT is the -- the appropriate mechanism. I don't know who is supposed to lead it and so I guess I'm assuming you guys have contemplated that that will hopefully come in the RFP is some recommendations, but, if not, that's a piece that I think is going to be really, really critical is we have got to have an entity that we all get behind in order to make this work. Haukkala: Thank you. De Weerd: And thank you again for joining us. We appreciate that. Haukkala: And you can contact me if anyone has any later questions. De Weerd: Thank you. And, Council, if you would like this, it will be in the public record right? Very good. Thank you. Item 6: Department / Commission Reports A. Transportation Commission: School Zone Amendment Request Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 113 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 12 of 18 De Weerd: Okay. 6-A under Department Reports. We have the transportation commission to talk school zone -- school zone amendment request. Hood: Madam Mayor, that will be me, representing -- or carrying forward, anyways, the transportation commission's recent request to amend the school zone out near Rocky Mountain High School on Linder Road. Let me just back up real quick and just, first of all, inform you that the Meridian Transportation Commission has established a subcommittee -- a school zone subcommittee, so there is a -- kind of a standing committee that does organize itself on an as-needed basis and deal with issues regarding school zones, primarily around public schools in our community. They had need to meet in June and discuss the school zone around Rocky Mountain. This also is related to the parking issues that have also flared up in Paramount, so there are a -- kind of a couple different issues they were talking about concurrently, but the request that they have for you today is -- has to do with the school zone again on Linder Road. So, let me kind of orient you a little bit today. There is an overhead pole, about 150 feet north of Cayuse Creek, so the high school on the east side of Linder and Cayuse. About 150 feet north on -- if you're southbound on Linder Road there is an overhead school zone flasher in that location. That location is not ideal for two reasons. One, pedestrians have a protected crossing already at the intersection of Cayuse. You push -- you push the peg -- the pedestrian button and you're protected traffic stops and you cross the road. Two, people -- motorists coming out of Lochsa Falls, Kelly Creek, if they turn southbound onto this and go 40 miles an hour, there is no notice that this is a school zone in this area. So, police have pulled people over saying you're in a school zone and they say where -- show me where it's -- I came from here and out and so the request before you today is to ask ACHD to relocate the pedestrian -- or, excuse me, the school zone flasher from north of Cayuse to south of Cayuse, so, again, then, the motorists really are in the school zone. Let me just kind of show you the south side of that just so you can kind of see the bookend to the school zone flashers. You can see the crosswalk and the stop bars near Divide Creek. So, this is the southern boundary of the school zone, so, essentially, near the south boundary, and, again, when this gets relocated it would be near the side of the school. So, again, that is the request before you today. I do apologize you didn't have any of this background information in the packet. I was ill the last part of last week and so didn't -- I wasn't able to put that in the memo, so, hopefully, this verbal presentation will suffice this time. But that is the request that you send a request on to ACHD, because the transportation commission have no authority to ask those types of things of the highway district, so they are asking you on their behalf to petition ACHD. Madam Mayor, if -- if -- and the Council, if you're okay with that, I think an e-mail to their traffic department will suffice in this case. I don't think we need to do a letter or anything like that, but if I do have -- I don't even know if it needs a full motion, but -- but some authority granted to meet a -- to send that request to ACHD should you concur should suffice. So, with that I will stand for any questions or comments you may have. De Weerd: Thank you, Caleb. It sure makes a lot of sense, so -- Council, any questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 114 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 13 of 18 De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Caleb, I can't remember if this was discussed in the committee on the transportation commission. Recognizing it's fairly costly to relocate those poles, from -- was there any conversation about placing just a sign as that neighborhood exits that says school zone time or when children are present, kind of like we see in other parts of our community -- Hood: Madam Mayor -- Cavener: -- why was that not recommended? Hood: Madam Mayor, Councilman Cavener, I don't think they got into the -- I don't recall us getting into the details of, you know, retaking that pole and moving it over and those costs associated with it. It was simply to re-sign -- re-notice where the school zone began. So, we will leave it up to ACHD as to what method that -- Cavener: Okay. Hood: -- that includes. We would hope they would do that the most economically feasible way. So, we didn't -- the request wasn't as specific as 150 feet south and with a pole overhead and all that. It's just whatever they need to do to -- Cavener: Okay. De Weerd: Any other questions? No? Okay. Staff is seeking your direction on this. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: I think Caleb did a -- especially despite being sick -- glad you're feeling better. Thanks for the report. You always do a great job, Caleb. I think Caleb did a great job summarizing the recommendation of the transportation commission. Again, for Council's benefit we have got a great subcommittee and, really, just a stellar transportation commission. We should all really be proud and I know we -- we had a commissioner last week that we reappointed, who has been a -- done a great job as well. So, I'm -- I'm happy to move that we direct the Mayor or staff to send a piece of correspondence, whichever is deemed appropriate, to the ACHD traffic department to review and move forward with whatever they deem is the most appropriate mechanism to articulate and educate about school zones in and around Rocky Mountain High School. Bernt: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion a second supporting the request from our transportation commission. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 115 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 14 of 18 Bernt, yea. De Weerd: The motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. B. Planning Division and Public Works Department Report: Proposed Update to Approach to Connection of Properties Outside City Limits to City Water and Sewer Utilities De Weerd: Item 6-B is under our planning division and Public Works Department report. Stewart: So -- excuse me. Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I will start off and Caleb can correct me where I go astray, but the ordinance that you have before you right there -- the draft ordinance that you have before you is intended to help us correct something that has popped up over the last two or three years. So, we have had an ordinance in place for a long time that addressed situations where individual households may have had a septic system or a well that may have gone bad and they needed to connect up to city water or city sewer -- sewer in order to correct that. That ordinance didn't anticipate that there was going to be any change of use or anything else, just simply that somebody was in need, needed to find out whether or not city services were available and connect, even if they might not be eligible for annexation because they weren't contiguous to the city. Recently, within the past two or three years, we have had some situations that have arisen where it really hasn't been a household or whatever that's had a failing septic or a failing well, we have had people that actually wanted to develop new things outside of annexation, but have connection to city water and city sewer services, one or the other, sometimes both and we didn't really have the -- the ordinance the way it was written basically said, well, if you apply to the Public Works Department they will take a look at that and see if it's feasible and make a recommendation to the City Council. But it didn't really address any land use issues, Police, Fire or other -- Parks Department issues that may come about as a result of this new land use that was going to take place. So, what we have done here -- and Emily Kane's been instrumental in this -- is prepare some changes to the ordinance that basically address that issue. Essentially we still have an ordinance that covers the situation where you got a single homeowner that just wants to get connected to water or sewer and can't annex into the city and that's a very simple process. They would apply to the Public Works Department. We would provide a recommendation to the City Council and you guys would make the final decision on that. In this case what we have added is some language to address the other situation where they have -- if they want to do new development of some -- some kind it would come in, it would go through some process where everybody would -- can take a look at that and, then, collectively we would still provide recommendations to the City Council and it would be ultimately your decision. But it would also better take a look at land use, Police, Fire, and Parks issues and concerns that may come about. So, we are just really here -- and Caleb can chime in -- to seek your direction to go ahead and move forward with getting this ordinance finalized and I will stand for any questions. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 116 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 15 of 18 De Weerd: Thank you, Warren. Council, any questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: One question, Warren. Was the use of the phrase no change of use of the property -- this is talking about the added language in let's say A-1, for example. Exigent circumstances and no change of use. Is there any reason that it says that and not expansion of use. Is there a concern with expansion and not change or vice-versa? Stewart: Well, if the -- this A-1 or the first one in there considers that situation where it's, basically, a homeowner who has got a failed water or septic system and is looking to connect. In that case there is no change of use. They are still going to be a single family residential home or whatever the case may be, but they just want sewer and water service. If you go to the -- there is another section that says if there is a change of use you follow this. So, B is if there is a change of use you go through this process instead. So, A is basically no change of use, you just want water or sewer services. B is if you want to do something new on this property this is what the process will follow. And there is an A and a B for both water and sewer. Borton: Madam Mayor? Maybe that -- I'm just missing the semantics of that. So, if I'm a commercial business and I want to greatly expand my -- it's not changing what I do, just kind of expand it mightily, is that a distinction or no? Stewart: I think based on -- and we can look at the language in making that more clear if you think it needs to be. But I think our philosophy when we were drafting this is, yes, that was that state that if you're making a substantial change to whatever it is that you're currently doing, then, we need to look at that from other perspectives, not just is there a physical connection that can be made to the water or sewer system. Borton: Okay. I think I'm tracking. I thought there was a distinction between -- I thought that change of use was -- we sell tires and now we are going to be a daycare is a change of use versus -- Stewart: Maybe we can add expansion of an existing use or something. I don't -- if you think we need to add some additional clarification language I'm -- I mean that's -- Borton: Just so there is not -- Madam Mayor. Just so there is not a gap. A circumstance that doesn't fit either category. That's all. Whatever ensures there is no gap in a circumstance where you're stuck on knowing which call you can make. De Weerd: Okay. Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. With that change, I move that we accept the proposed draft to be brought back before us. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 117 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 16 of 18 Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Just for a second I just wanted to ask -- would it be best from Council Member Borton's question that we craft the definition of what change of use under this ordinance means? Because you're right, there may be a misconception and, generally, in the planning context change of use is as you stated, you're doing one type of business and you're doing now a completely different types of business. Residential to retail or something else. Here when you're talking about expansion of existing use, that is a -- that is a concern and that may be resolved by simply defining what we mean when we say change of use, because I think the committee discussion -- I wasn't part of it, but the committee discussion I think was as -- I think Warren stated -- if you have a residential use, it's going to remain a residential use, but if you do have an expansion of an existing use, that may be the gap you're concerned with and it may be simply a clarification and definition of that term, we could add it and, then, we could bring that back either for a discussion point if you would like or put that back on the agenda for a reading, whichever you prefer. Borton: Agreed. I will second the motion for discussion. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. What is the preferred approach? Would you rather see the language first before you put it -- publish it? Cavener: I do. Borton: I'm fine either way. De Weerd: So -- Little Roberts: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: I will -- De Weerd: Okay. We can put this on a future agenda. Mr. Nary, next week or in August perhaps? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, yeah, I don't know what the workload this week looks like, so I don't know if it will be next week or the next -- your next full discussion -- or work session would be August 13th. So, one of those. Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 118 of 519 Meridian City Council Work Session July 16, 2019 Page 17 of 18 Cavener: A question for Warren. First, thanks for bringing this to us. I appreciate it. De Weerd: Yes. Cavener: The question is do we have anything pressing that we need Council action on this sooner rather than later? Stewart: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Cavener, not that I'm aware of. We had one that we thought was going to be the next case, but after going through some various options I think they have determined that they can go a different direction through the county and they won't seek city services, so -- De Weerd: And you are usually the first to know. Well, maybe after Planning, so -- Stewart: One or the other of us. De Weerd: Yeah. Yeah. I don't think there is any concern if it waits until August. Yeah. Okay. So, we will put this on August 13th. Thank you. Item 7: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206 to communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation authorized under section 74- 206(1)(j) to consider labor contract matters authorized under Section 74-206A De Weerd: Okay. Item 7 is Executive Session. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(a) and -- 206(a). Cavener: (j)? Borton: (j)? Did I miss -- De Weerd: That is (j). Cavener: It says (a), but I also think there is (j). Borton: (j). Okay. Sorry. Cavener: Second. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda July 23, 2019 – Page 119 of 519