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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-24 Work SessionMeridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 24, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Genesis Milam, Ty Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt. 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: I'm going to go ahead and start today's work session. Welcome. For the record it is Tuesday, September 24th. 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: I 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 September 17, 2019 City Council Joint Meeting with Ada County Board of Commissioners B. Approve Minutes of September 17, 2019 City Council Work Session C. Approve Minutes of September 17, 2019 City Council Regular Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 4 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 2 of 25 Meeting D. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Bainbridge North (H2019-0074) by Brighton Investments, LLC, located at the SE Corner of W. Chinden Blvd./SH 2O- 26 and N. Tree Farm Way E. Agreement for Use of Sheriffs Community Service (SCS) Workers F. Addendum No. 17 to Agreement For City Prosecutor/Criminal Legal Services Dated November 1, 2002 With City Of Boise G. Amended Emergency Management Joint Powers Agreement H. Approval of Award of Bid and Agreement to Kemira Water Solutions, Inc., for Polyaluminum Chloride Chemicals not to exceed the departments allotted budget for FY20 for this specific commodity Approval of Contract Amendment No. 1 for Ferric Chloride Solution to Dubois Chemicals for the Not-to- Exceed amount of 115,000.00 for Fiscal Year 2020 J. Approval of Contract Amendment No. 2 to Berry Electrical Services for FY20 Streetlight Maintenance Services for a Not- To-Exceed amount of 61,800.40 K. Approval of Contract Renewal with Billing Document Services for Fiscal Year 2020 Billing Statements, Delinquent Notices, IVR Phone Services, and Lockbox Payment Processing for the Not -to-Exceed Amount of $299,100. 00 L. Approval of Darktrace Master Customer Agreement and purchase of Enterprise Immune Software with Darktrace for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $101,500 for a 5 year period with $20,300 for FY2020 M. Approval of Purchase Order for FY20 Polymer Chemical Contract to Polydyne Inc. for the Not-to-Exceed amount of $250,000.00 N. Cooperative Agreement for Illumination/ Lighting Project No. A021( 858) US20/26, SH16 to Linder Rd. 0. Recycling Processing Fee Contract Amendment Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 5 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 3 of 25 P. Resolution No. 19-2164: A Resolution Adopting New and Updated Fees, Authorizing City Departments to Collect Such Fees, and Providing an Effective Date Q. Resolution No. 19-2165: A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2020 Rate Schedule of So Authorizing Finance Providing an Effective Date R. AP Invoices for Payment 9/25/19 - $ 1,724,706.74 De Weerd: Item 3, Consent Agenda. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we approve the Consent Agenda as published, for 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 roll. Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 4: Items Moved From the Consent Agenda De Weerd: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. Item 5: Department/Commission Reports A. Citywide Strategic Plan Update De Weerd: So, I will move down to the podium to start with Citywide Strategic Plan update. This is my last one. I know, it -- this fall it's just a whole series of lasts. So, Council, I'm really proud to stand in front of you today to give an update on the Strategic Plan and where we are currently. How we are doing. So, today is our opportunity for that status update and to have an execution report on what our city departments and -- strategically have been doing. So, I will be looking at a number of different things, Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 6 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 4 of 25 including the current dashboards. This is the total objective completion, along with the tactics since our September 2018 update. Our total plan compensation -- or completion date is in September 2018 and, closeouts, we have three closeouts that you will hear from the strategic liaison and, then, I will touch on high priority areas and select updates. So, we will include some updates on some of the closed-out objectives, as well as some that we feel that you would be interested in an update on. So, first, the plan dashboard. Here you will see where we are at currently in the plan. There are 365 tactic and I think we are -- we feel really good that we are 67 percent complete and our goal has been to be 77 percent complete by 2020 -- December of 2020. However, it looks like we will be closer to 80 percent complete by that time. Fifteen percent of our objectives are in process and last year I stood in front of you and we had 44 percent completed. So, we have made significant progress over this last year. In the objectives dashboard there are 67 or 69 total objectives. We are 34 percent complete versus ten percent last year. Twenty adjectives have been completed and 11 of our objectives are between 75 to 99 percent complete and so I will point out that all of this information, the most current updates, have been populated by the strategic leads and the strategic plan tool and so you can go on, if you have an interest in any of those that we don't provide updates on today and get an update at that time. So, our completed objectives, we have 3.B.5, 3.E.4 and 4.E.2. These three closeouts represent two under responsive government and one in safe, healthy, and secure. Two of these three that we are closing out are high priority objectives and so I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to Crystal to report on 3.B.5. Borton: Welcome. Ritchie: Thank you. Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of Council. So, I'm very pleased and excited to stand here in front of you today and present the close out for 3.B.5, which was our strategic objective to develop and maintain a competitive compensation program that enables quality recruitment, rewards -- excuse me -- and rewards and encourages high performance and I think we need a different slide, please. Thank you, Councilman Cavener. I stand here representing a -- a team of individuals that helped us complete this particular strategic -- strategic objective within the HR team, the city employees, the director team and our compensation committee. So, this was a group effort. So, the activities that we have completed to allow us to come in front of you today, high overview, has been our compensation committee convened this year and we reviewed our current general employee compensation program to ensure that it is market competitive within the Treasure Valley. We completed our year three of our internal alignment, which is a review of our job descriptions. Been in front of you many times with updates on that as well. As a result of the compensation committee's recommendations for change, I came in front of you through the budget process, made those recommendations to you as a body, of which you approved that budget and those recommendations this past late summer, excuse me, for FY-20. As a result of that we have developed some policies to support those changes that were approved and we will be presenting this to you in the next two weeks. In addition to that, we are currently developing a road show, if you will, or a presentation from Human Resources that we will be going around to all the different departments communicating the compensation changes that become effective to them this year in FY-24, the merit process. So, the Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 7 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 5 of 25 performance measures that you have in front of you, the first one simply states that our retention rates will remain in the high 90s. So, Human Resources provides quarterly updates to the Mayor's Office and that has been forwarded on to each of you through the quarterly dashboard and as of FY-19 Q3 our retention rate was 96.8 percent. The second performance measures we have there is top performers retention rates will exceed the overall city retention rates. So, currently, for FY-19 Q3 our top performers, which would include our -- anyone who has received a superior rating in their performance evaluation or it exceeds expectation, our retention rate is 94 and a half percent. That is a point in time of Q3. Again we monitor it quarterly. We also have analysis information that we analyze and provide that data through the Mayor's Office on a quarterly basis. So, we will be continuing to monitor that and close out FY-19 to see where we end. But we are very close to the overall 96.8 percent as of Q3. The third one there simply states that salaries will remain competitive to selected private and public sector comparators. This is an ongoing process for the Human Resources Department. We continually monitor all of the different compensation programs that we have in place. We will have all of our programs validated through external consultants, who specialize in compensation, to ensure that we are market competitive and when we are not, which we have seen in the past, I do come in front of you and ask for a market adjustment to the salary ranges to ensure that we are market competitive with our pay. The third one -- or the fourth one there is to review compensation program annually to ensure program competitiveness. We operationalized a few of our tactics that were associated originally with this particular objective and we wanted to ensure that there was a performance measure clearly stated within this objective to communicate to all that we will continue, this is not because we are closing it out today, we are not done. We will continue to monitor our compensation programs. We will continue to review current trends. We will continue to ensure market effectiveness and that's our commitment to you, to our employees as well. So, with that we have considered this objective to be closed out. As I referenced we have several ongoing activities that are a part of our standard operating practices in Human Resources when it comes to compensation and we will continue to exercise those efforts as we continue on and I stand for any questions. Borton: Thank you, Crystal. Council, any questions? Little Roberts: Mr. President? Borton: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. President. Crystal, thank you so much. Couple of questions. In retention rates, do you keep those by department as well? Ritchie: So, we originally started with the overall city retention rates and we are now starting to break that down to the department level and provide those to the Mayor as well. Little Roberts: Follow up? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 8 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 6 of 25 Ritchie: Yes. Little Roberts: In retention rates I have seen companies count retirement, not count retirement, or only count early retirement against the retention rate. What do we do with that? Ritchie: Our counts include retirement and I'm looking at Christena, because she pulls this report for me on a quarterly basis and I see that she's nodding her head. So, yes, we do include retirements as a part of our retention rate. Little Roberts: Thank you. Ritchie: You're very welcome. Cavener: Mr. President? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: One question for you, Crystal. Appreciate you touching on the salaries and all the work that you and your team do to make sure that we are competitive. Just curious. You and your team do a great job of communicating that to us. Oftentimes directors are here in the room, they hear that. Can you share with the Council kind of what your strategy has been with communicating that to our employees so that they are aware of the great efforts and length that you guys go to make sure that we are paying our staff appropriately with -- with what the market supports? Ritchie: Certainly. Thank you, Councilman Cavener. So, one of the things that we implemented last year is we went around to all of the departments, hence the roadshow, and we spend time at every staff meeting and we reach out to the department director, asked for specific time committed on their staff meeting agendas to specifically talk compensation with our general employees. So, last October is -- Laura Lee and I went around to ten different departments, 11 different departments and facilitated ten plus meetings with all general employee staff members and spent significant amount of time communicating our current compensation program and also engaging in conversation and getting their feedback and answering their questions. So, we implemented that for FY-19 and we are continuing right now in FY-20 and plan to continue that going forward. Cavener: Mr. President, just a quick follow up. Are all employees invited to that? Are all employees required to attend? How does -- how does that work? Ritchie: Council Member Cavener, all employees are open to attend. That's why we reached out last year and coordinated it through department staff meetings where attendance is a requirement. If we had employees who missed a staff meeting, then, we encouraged either, A, that they visit with their supervisor who could, then, communicate on HR's behalf or we made ourselves available for one-on-one meetings with those Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 9 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 7 of 25 employees, as well as Human Resources to cover the information with them as well and answer any questions that they had. Cavener: Great. Thank you very much. Ritchie: You're welcome. Borton: Any other questions for Council? Ritchie: Thank you. Borton: Good afternoon, Brad. Purser: Good afternoon. Council, Madam Mayor, I get to talk to you about objective 3.E.4, which is implementing a cost to government program in order to evaluate and establish a priority-based budgeting system for the City of Meridian. I would just start off and say -- tell everybody thank you that has been involved in this, Mayor, and it's been a citywide effort from all the departments to bring us to this point where we can call this closed. High level priority-based budgeting ask the question what do you do, what is it that you do, how do you spend your time and in answer to that question we have come up with -- we have 266 individual programs that identify exactly what it is we do. That has been step one. The second step of that is, then, to figure out, all right, and how much does it cost to do those things that we do and to do that we take the budget -- in this case it was the 2018 budget and we allocated that budget across those programs. So, very high level. You know, that was the objective. You know, we call it the cost of government and, thankfully, that's been done. As a result of that we have a present priority based budgeting site that graphically shows the results of -- of our efforts. Again, to a little bit later what we will be bringing back to you. As far as metrics are concerned, you know, first thing we had to do is we worked with a consultant, Resource Acts out of Denver. They were a phenomenal partner in helping us navigate this. We -- second objective was a pilot program. We initially launched this with six of our departments and, then, after that we rolled that out to each of the individual departments throughout the whole city. Recently just finished that up and, you know, part of that -- you know, the last objective -- you know, then, obviously, we -- as I mentioned earlier adjusted for that cost to all the programs that I identified a few minutes ago. The last thing is we needed to estimate a -- or determine the feasibility, viability of launching -- of doing the priority-based budgeting program and it is a viable thing we can do with our current resources. So, don't think we will have any problem doing this in the future. As far as lessons learned, we have learned a few things. One thing is we have learned how everybody spends their time. It's been interesting to see -- especially from a managerial aspect the workload and how it's being spread to all the different employees. That's been insightful for a number of our -- of our departments from the feedback I have got back from -- from some of our, you know, managers and whatnot. Another thing learned is it would be good to have a uniform cost recovery methodology. Something that I think would be a great -- that we were all on the same page and that translates into, you know, our last item that I have here as far as that's concerned is in determining are we truly recovering the cost. So, if we are charging Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 10 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 8 of 25 a fee for something are we truly recouping the cost of that fee and does that, you know, match, you know, whatever the approved philosophy is. So, those are some of the things that we have learned to date that we are still working on. As far as next steps go, I will be coming back -- potentially with Todd. We are still working that part out. We will be presenting the overall result -- results in more detail, so you can see and feel and understand exactly what it is and the results of our efforts. That would be, you know, the result of phase one. We will also be presenting our next steps as far as phase two goes. Priority-based budgeting, once you understand the cost of it and understanding, you know, how we spend our time and the cost of doing it and having all that allocated to the different programs within -- you know, need to do the priority part of priority-based budgeting, which is, you know, looking at each program through the lens of our strategic objectives and identifying which ones meet that most and which ones contribute most to our strategic objectives and which ones don't. So, we will be going over kind of more of what that means and how that works and as far as -- you know. And, then, what our plan is for implementation of that program moving forward on -- on future years. So, as far as, you know, the objective for now it was implemented a cost of government. We have done that and, again, like to publicly thank you for helping me work through that. It's been an enlightening process. With that I will stand for any questions you might have, so -- Borton: Thank you, Brad. Council, any questions? Brad, I have got one for you. Purser: Sure. Borton: So -- and maybe this is for that follow-up discussion with us on your cost recovery reference. Does that modeling need some input from us to provide you philosophy on -- on items that might necessitate a full cost recovery and those that don't? Purser: Thank you, Councilman Borton. I think -- yeah, I believe you guys -- we would need your input on that. At least -- you know, if we are going to do something citywide and certainly your -- your input and, you know, direction on it would be important. If I'm wrong I'm sure I will be told whether I'm mistaken, but I believe that -- we would need your input on -- on what way we should go that way. So, yes. Borton: The reason for the question -- there is probably some recommendations from you or from the Finance Department as to those areas where we don't intend to recover the full cost of the service -- Purser: Yes. Borton: -- and those that we do and full cost recovery of all services clearly isn't obtainable. That's not what your -- Purser: That's not what we are saying. We are saying we just need to identify, you know, what programs do we advocate a -- you know, a full cost recovery, a partial or -- or no cost recovery. It really depends on, you know, the overall philosophy involved. You know, we are working on that. That is something I think you will be seeing soon and something Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 11 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 9 of 25 we are working on, so -- but it is something I think would be useful, especially when we come to me, you know, ask the question of, you know, are we recovering the cost of doing business, you know, or are we not and this process is certainly enlightening in that, so good question. Borton: Okay. Purser: Thank you. Borton: The -- the original strategic plan has this objective marked as a September 30, 2020, completion, so hats off to you. Purser: I don't think we will have any problem doing that, so -- Borton: Good job. Purser: -- been working on it. Thank you. Borton: Any other questions from Council? Purser: Thank you very much. Borton: Oh, one more question. What month are you back, roughly, to the present to Council and -- Purser: That we are -- I would imagine by the end of the year. Borton: Okay. Purser: Maybe as early as October. We are working that part out, so -- Borton: Okay. Great. Purser: Thank you. Borton: Thanks. Welcome. Miles: Good afternoon, Council Members. I have the distinct privilege of presenting what I think is the coolest initiative that we get to close out and that's developing internal sustainable initiatives, not only because does it impact and reduce, hopefully, our finances, but also improve our environment. So, it's one that's exciting to us and I would like to say thank you to Jason for taking -- Jason Korn for taking the -- the onus lead on that, because he has done a lot of good work. A couple of highlights real quick. We presented the environmental plan to you all and so what that did was sort of take all the plans and environmental initiatives -- initiatives that we saw across the city and wrap it into one document, created a timeline with some expectations that we are trying to Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 12 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 10 of 25 achieve over the next few years and with that that's the assurance that this remains operational. I would call it to close out. It stays with us. It's ongoing. It's operational work that we know we have to do. Some other things that we are working on are developing project evaluation. So, we have been working with stakeholders, both externally and internally, to help us understand our internal operations, so like Idaho Power on our streetlight energy consumption or our lighting consumption here at City Hall. We are also working on various other projects. There is a unique opportunity we have for what's called steam abatement of weeds where it uses a steam cleaner instead of chemicals. So, we have a chance to reduce the chemical uses and the chemical costs and we might pilot that over at the treatment plant to start, which is another interesting opportunity that we all get to work on around that. So, speaking to the performance letters that we have, existing plans reviewed, again, we have the environmental program plan and we feel like that achieves that objective and wraps everything into one plan, so that we can have that document going forward and, then, the performance measure about increasing perception amongst the community by I think it's the five percentage points there by 2020. While we haven't had the survey yet, we do and are implementing a communication plan internally through the Department of Public Works to educate and outreach those things that we are doing, so that we can increase that exposure to those things and hopefully that would ensure that people would begin to receive that information and see that as an updated effort and improve that exposure. Some of the lessons learned. I think it's very clear to us what we need to do and we are doing a broader outreach amongst the city. So, not just Public Works. One of the things we are considering is working with the Parks Department. I know SWAC has talked about recycling in parks and how does that work and how can we improve that or what do we do with that. We know there is other opportunities out there, whether they be facilities across parks or fire, police, there is facilities, there is energy consumption and so looking at other city aspects, rather than just the utility operations. However, we did recognize that the utilities are a major consumption of energy, so starting there was a good place for us to start. So, that's the objective at a high level and I will be happy to answer any questions that you might have. Borton: Thank you, Dave. Council, any questions? Okay. Miles: Thanks. Borton: Good job. Thank you. De Weerd: Well -- so those were three very exciting objectives that were closed out and as Crystal said in the compensation, it will continue to monitor and -- and make sure that our city stays in line. Certainly employee retention is a high priority and those things are really important and the priority-based budgeting -- really excited about the things that our departments have learned and when it originally happened we were concerned that they might see this as a stick and it -- it's just been a real educating and very valuable exercise. So, looking forward to those next steps in bringing their -- their findings and the information forward to you. One of the things that Dave -- David didn't mention is in the Parks Department. One of the examples of the environmental sustainability piece is in Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 13 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 11 of 25 HomeCourt we did the conversion from of their lights to LED and where it was 26,000 dollars a year in power, they reduced that when they were doing the cooperation piece, but with the LED conversion they reduced the -- the power consumption by half and so really excited to see -- and that cost recovery is going to happen in a couple of years versus this ongoing expense. So, a lot of fun and exciting things going on in -- in those areas. So, now we will get to our updates in the high priority areas and some of those select updates and we will be mentioning important milestones, status updates and progress on these objectives and, again, I would mention that all this information is on the strategic plan tool and you can go in on any of the particular objectives and see what's been going on. Vince makes sure that staff is going online to really make -- to keep everything relevant and updated. Okay. So, the first area is 1.A.1. This was previously closed out and we reopened it after we reworked the objective. So, some of the current downtown actions, did want to update you -- had the update on the Main to Meridian last week, that they right now are working on the utility easements. The civic block RFP was also mentioned by Cameron. I -- I think he gave me an update that Union Pacific has new personnel and they are much easier to work with -- they are interested to work with the city and that's -- that's good news, both on that piece of property across the street, but also as we look at the potential we have with the railroad corridor. So, we do have the lease for our parking. MDC has secured the keys for the buildings across the street -- for both buildings that are existing. They don't have a signed lease yet, but the discussions have been very positive and favorable and we are talking to some interested parties about that particular block as well. Keller headquarters -- you probably all read that Keller & Associates has been looking at that piece. They have purchased it, the Eric Davis, just a portion of it. They are currently working with MDC on a lease for the railroad property and they did receive staff level approval for their building, but they have yet to submit building plans, so stay tuned, we are looking forward to issuing them a permit and getting that going. Another update that I had a question on is the Calico Cattery, the second building, the building that is on the Main Street side. It's looking pretty dead. No work has been done after the rezone that we did on that piece of property and -- and the certificates of occupancy that we issued last year. We are trying to get an update on -- on what the plans are for that. Okay. Our next objective is 1.A.2. This was closed out, so this is just a couple of updates going on at the Ten Mile urban renewal economic development district. A lot is going on out there. Constantly seeing dirt being moved. The Brighton headquarter building is 80 percent leased. The Paylocity building is 90 percent leased. The Lofts, the apartments in that area, phase one is 70 percent leased with the first 120 units. New tenants out there is United Site Services. They will be doing a ribbon cutting next month. Roadies, Title Loan, and Blue Cross-Blue Shield is going out there as well. Future buildings that are currently underway. Most all of them you have heard of, but AmeriBen phase two, 75 percent of that building is already leased. Lucero is ready to commence construction and should be ready in September 2020. The Ten Mile Cantina -- that's our food service building, it will be done the summer of 2020. The Saltzer building, building one, construction is started. They are looking to move in in fall of 2020 and their second building will start, then, the winter of 2020 with a look of a start -- or a completion date of spring of '21. They are still working on the first reimbursement from the urban renewal TIF money and just to note in the -- in the last six months the value has been 20.6 million dollars in permit valuation. So, a lot happening in that part of Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 14 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 12 of 25 our community. Objective 1.B.1. This is regarding our -- our city's growth goals and this was directly tied to our Comprehensive Plan. What has been completed is the short to mid and long-term growth goals. Staff has been drafting those up. Kudos to Caleb and -- and Brian on those. This has been a huge project. I -- I know we got an update last -- last week, but mammoth project. The consultant and steering committee have been reviewing these guiding documents to the comp plan and just a couple of highlights from the analysis that was done as part of the SWAT in that. High land values are happening on the perimeter and this is versus the downtown core. A lot of that is because the growth has been allowed and driven to the edges and that is driving the -- the prices up, instead of really focusing in the in-fill. Enclaves. You have seen our Swiss cheese. This patchwork offers low value and little incentive to development. So, that was also identified. There are more trips that are coming into Meridian and staying in Meridian than going out for jobs. This is a big deal. You will see on this diagram what that looks like. We had 29 and a half thousand that are in commuters versus the 28.1 that out commute and 70 -- or 7,200 live and work in Meridian. This is exciting news and I think it just underscores the energy that's happening in our community. As I mentioned, you had the presentation last week. We did a debrief with the steering committee and had a really good discussion and talked with them about some of those sayings of what's next and what policies we need to prioritize working on after the Comprehensive Plan is adopted. It's like how do you eat an elephant. You don't eat it in one bite, it's going to take a number of bites and certainly the comprehensive plan and the FLUM are a huge step forward and, then, it's the work that happens afterwards. The plan will go to Planning and Zoning Commission next month and we are anticipating the Council seeing it in November. Again, we need to work on prioritizing what those next focus areas are going to be. Housing, which fits with objective 2.A.4. Open space, 1.C.3 and also part of the discussion has come up of districts and overlaid area with more specific area plans, similar to what we did at the Ten Mile area. Objective 1.B.2. This is identify priority growth areas and incentify growth and development. This was newly upgraded to a high priority area and is 45 percent complete. We will be having a Council workshop to discuss this. I'm looking at what those incentives and priority areas are. I know that Commissioner Visser asked what that meant and those are going to be part of the discussion that we have with all of you. We want to start the discussion now and certainly that discussion will continue with the new Mayor and the new Council as well. So, we will be kicking off those discussions here in the coming months. Primarily how do we direct our growth. How do you want to -- to look at growth. We will have better tools for that discussion. Right now we are looking at a service impact tool that will help visualize where critical city services are most readily available and -- and if those areas are serviceable and also you heard in the discussion with Ada county they are looking at a fiscal impact tool between -- and they are working with COMPASS on that. So, I imagine our staff will be involved and engaged in that conversation and it -- because it might be an another tool that you can use in making your decisions. So, this objective needs -- it has a completion date of July 2020. This was updated. It was listed as November 2019 and we think that the July 2020 is certainly much more realistic in light of bringing on newly elected officials. Objective 1.B.4 is now 70 percent complete. That's updated from last year at 40 percent. We will get additional information from the Public Works Department next month in their annual update. So, just a few things that you will be hearing and -- and that are very Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 15 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 13 of 25 noteworthy of what has been finished and completed in this objective. The water and -- water and sewer master plan and facility plans have been updated. All current projects have been prioritized to the ten year CIP and along with cost projections and that's all in the CIP. Spending scenarios are updated annually. They feel that is really important in looking at cost to income and making sure that we are constantly looking at our financial stability there. We do have this as a tool that puts us on a sustainable and responsible service growth pattern for the next ten years. The wastewater plant is 80 percent completed. That is a big deal with everything that is going on out there. Thirty-one million of the 42 million has been spent that was allocated. We have 24 million dollars worth of additional infrastructure coming online in the next five years and we do have a picture of that in the next slide that I will discuss, but next steps under this is aligning with the adopted Comprehensive Plan and looking at a growth management system to foster growth goals. The map that I mentioned -- the orange represents the -- the projects that are for our sewer system and this is a five to seven year rollout. The primary and the main projects that this represents is the South Linder service main extension, the McDermott sewer main extension and several projects at the wastewater -- or waste recovery resource facility. Something like that. Sorry. I almost went to WWTP, so -- the blue represents the water investment projects and this includes Victory to Ten Mile water main extension and four supply well projects. So, a lot going on -- continues to keep our Public Works staff very busy and I am very proud of what they do to continue to ensure that -- that we are responsible with the ratepayers' money and that -- that fine balance between existing services and providing those services and the cost to growth are -- are adequately assigned and we appreciate you guys. Okay. Objective 1.C.1. This is codifying the existing city impact -- area of city impact boundaries. As you know we have come to a gentleman's agreement with the city of Kuna. Those communications have been verbal and between staff at this point and we have realigned that through the agreement, as you saw last week. We will be working on a case-by-case basis with Kuna and you will see how some of that works at this meeting on considerations in some of those that cannot be worked out at the staff level. It needs a weigh-in by City Council. We do need to have a conversation with the city of Star. Staff worked with them directly when they were updating their comprehensive plan. I don't know if you are aware, it encroaches into our -- our area of city impact and we need to have a conversation with them. Also I think one of the things that really fits into this is a report that we have given you with the post office. The post office has agreed to work with us to allow for people in our area of impact to make a choice on if they have a Meridian zip code and address and they can change that. We still need to sit down with the post office to discuss exactly how we are going to go about letting residents in those areas know that this is an option and kind of that next steps. So, we will be reporting back to you in November on what that -- that step forward will look like. So, it should clean up those areas where they have a Nampa address or in Ada county and they have a heck of a time voting, because they have to prove that they actually are in Ada county, not the city of Nampa. So, next steps in -- in this objective is awaiting approval from Ada county and adopting our Comprehensive Plan and going through the application process and to talk about our boundaries and the future land use map and this has been moved out too early 2020, because it's very dependent on also the Comprehensive Plan. Adjectives 1.C.3 is a new objective that's been reworded and rewritten from last year. It's about open space. So, Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 16 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 14 of 25 it's all about what is open space, how do we preserve this and what do our citizens really want and I mention this under next steps primarily as a priority item added after the Comprehensive Plan is adopted. We will start discussion with this Council, but certainly it will continue with the new Mayor and City Council Members. So, we will be trying to -- to get some kind of a basis by determining questions with a survey. We have provided that to you. We have gotten some feedback. We will be polling the public this fall and we will be using the -- the same methods that we have been in engaging the citizens' voice on NextDoor, on social media outreach as potentially adding questions on the city citizen survey that we will be doing next spring. We will be identifying potential areas and policies and those kind of things that will help with the dialogue. So, that's certainly next -- a next item for the newly-electeds. Objective 1.D.1. This is something that you saw, the master mobility plan, also last week that Caleb shared. ACHD has been involved. I met with Director Wong last Friday and -- and Justin has been sharing that with the leadership. This plan is a comprehensive look at the existing and planned transportation infrastructure that's important to our viability and quality of life for our traveling public. It will create a story map with the future networks as they come online and priorities and development to change these, but the same should be communicated and a part of the decision-making process. So, the next steps are to engage with our partners and I believe this is also something that our Transportation Commission has taken on and they have been involved in this process as well. Objective 2.A.1 in identify and develop and utilize tools needed for a successful attraction and retention of jobs. You're going to see a common theme here with a new economic development administrator, she has had a chance to do a cursory look -- she did this before she even got the job offer, but she has been taking a look at these and here are a few quick spots regarding this objective. She sees that we can implement quick changes to increase the city's online presence as a competitive business location and to create a targeted marketing program that will have a detailed industry analysis with a focus on companies that will create those family wage jobs and that will be a specific priority for Tori in the coming weeks and months ahead. Last month you heard from the Community Development Department that we had a creation of over 2,400 new jobs. We saw over a hundred new businesses come to town and we have an extremely low unemployment rate of 2.5 percent, which is a blessing and a curse. It certainly presents a challenge that we have heard from most every employer that we have been talking with. Objective 2.A.2, under maintaining and developing a broad spectrum of partnerships and in our business and job arena. Quick thoughts from Victoria are continuing to foster the relationships with our real estate industry. The Chamber of Commerce has created a real estate advisory council that I will be introducing Tori to tomorrow and giving them a development update and so we wanted to quickly integrate her into those key partners. Work to solidify ties with our educational resources and we will be also having a dialogue next month with ICOM and ISU introducing Tori and I'm talking about some exciting things coming up. So, stay tuned, there -- there is some really neat meaty stuff that is coming up in this -- this health arena with our education partners. Tori will use our performance measurement system in order to set defined goals. We have started talking KTI's and she's taking a look at some of our initial draft to refine them and to -- to help us determine what does success look like in economic development and she will define the outcomes that we expect with our partners, working with them and also our expected outcomes with our marketing materials. So, stay tuned, Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 17 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 15 of 25 again, on that. These will all be updated in the March update and you will see any changes as they occur on the strategic plan tool. Objective 2.A.3 in promoting job growth, Tori has reviewed the -- the industry analysis from the comp plan and she is working to make an -- an actionable plan to that. We will bring an update to this objective next spring as well. I just would remind you -- I think that Cameron mentioned it in his update and you saw this in some of the initial material that came out after they did a draft, but the highlights and target areas are in manufacturing, healthcare, professional service and technology. And the last tactic in this area that's at 20 percent is regarding certified site analysis. We really want to wait on that until we have solidified what those target industries are, so we can make sure that it's relevant to this objective. Objective 3.A.2, improving citizen access to government. The last ten percent of this is -- is pretty meaty. We -- we want to see how tools work before we complete this. This objective was about improving accessibility to our citizens to city government. Currently we accept public comments via voicemail, text, and video text and we also have an internal voicemail system that is checking daily for citizen messages and updates. We also have an opt-in system for the texting options. We need to really see how these work, how it works with some of our policies and public records tracking and those kind of things and we should have some additional clarification on another aspect of this objective on advisory votes. They are looking right now -- do you need legislation to empower that -- a citizen vote or voice or not and so we will be bringing a presentation next month by the end of October to give you a more detailed update on -- on this objective. So, exciting things in that. And I would like to thank both Robert and Chris. The Clerk's Office has been -- been very engaged in this -- this objective. Objective 3.B.4, developing an employee engagement program. It's currently at 90 percent complete. It was last year at 55 percent. I just got back into town and I can tell you in one of the roundtable discussions that I attended yesterday, employee retention is becoming a key focus from our employers and how to retain them. So, this employee engagement piece is extremely important and here are a couple of the things that -- that have been happening and you saw the first one -- or one of them at the employee picnic where we recognize CARE champions. One of the things that came out in our employee survey is they want to see more emphasis on -- on incorporating our values of our city into our daily work, holding people accountable, holding them up and making decisions to those core values of customer service, accountability, respect and excellence. So, those CARE champions were really important. We wanted to really recognize those employees that exemplify our CARE values. A stay interview. And I think that maybe there is some touch on this in the compensation piece, but this has been developed. It's in the final stages and we want to go out and talk to some of our longtime employees and find those things that really keep them here, keep them rooted and -- and challenged and -- and so loyal to our city. So, it's really important that we -- we find those kind of things out, not just exit interviews, but the -- the interviews of our current workforce is extremely important. Engage employees to understand why they stay and right now Public Works does integrate an employee suggestion form that also we will be looked to bring perhaps citywide. So, there are many active steps that are -- are going on in this area. We have the monthly Mayor's message. New employee engagement survey incorporated into hiring. One of the things that I don't know if Crystal mentioned, but we have the HR to you, so if an employee missed a department update they -- they have a number of different ways from minutes from the Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 18 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 16 of 25 department meetings that are internal to that department, to the HR to your newsletter and the Mayor's monthly message. We are focused, so we have completed a succession planning exercise and that is to recognize our employees. We have discussed flexible work schedule that you will be hearing about next week. So, all of these are our conversations that have been important to our employees that we are actively discussing, because it is important that those tools where we can retain employees are -- are utilized. So, we will be evaluating the efficiency of programs these coming months and look for probably a close out at the -- the next update. Objective 3.D.1. This is now 65 percent complete or it was 65 percent complete last year. It's now 85 percent. The plan is on track for overall completion. Vince works the plan and all of our strategic leads and this is not a plan that sits on the shelf. We do believe the completion at the December -- end of December of 2020 will be in excess of 80 percent completion and I think that is very noteworthy. We will be starting conversations with stakeholders at the end of the year and we are going to be starting work on the next five years strategic plan starting the beginning of the year, even though we will have one and a half -- or we have one and a half years left on it right now, but they need to start a year in advance to see what you carry forward into the new plan. Vince will be taking a strategic planning facilitation training with the American Management Association late next month to see if he has the ability to lead this or if he will have some kind of need for professional services and we mentioned that during our -- our budget discussion. Objective 3.D.2 in developing and deploying a citywide performance measurement monitoring and reporting program was ten percent complete and it's now 15. Departments will be bringing their finalized KPIs, both their operational and dashboard ones for conversation with me next -- next month. But we also talked about bringing some of the discussions on dashboards to Council a couple of departments at a time over the next six weeks. We really want to know what information do you want to know and Dave Tiede and I were talking about the IT's dashboard and he -- he has done a lot of research on what different corporation board of directors want to know in order to support the -- the businesses and so he wants to come and tell you why you should care about his dashboard. And I think that those -- those discussions are really important. Some of these they are tracking irregardless. They make operational decisions, but these are the things that they feel the citizens will be interested in. We want to provide them to you, so if you have a citizen question that -- that you have that information at your fingertips. This may transcend into the next phase of opengov, because opengov now is going to take some of these KPIs and dashboards and load them onto opengov so that you can run these dashboards and have complete accountability and transparency to what we are doing in our departments and I think that information is extremely important to our citizens to be able to see and for you to be able to utilize. So, those conversations I will talk with Joe on Friday, but we would like to -- to kind of bring the departments in front of you to have that -- that initial discussion and -- and get some of your comments and thoughts. So, stay tuned. Objective 3.D.3 is deploying and developing a citywide continuous improvement plan. This is really exciting. So, this was last ten percent complete, now it's 50 percent. We have an outline of our innovation and change program that has been discussed at the senior management team. Our first class of innovation basics started with 17 participants from Finance, Wastewater, the lab, Police, Building and these 17 participants tackled four process improvements. The budget amendment, internal approvals, expired permits, training approvals and water Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 19 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 17 of 25 sampling testing. We will be getting some updates from those initial innovations and right now they are tracking on all of the departments that have innovations going on in their departments. What that saving has netted, whether it's staff time or budget dollars, we will be able to report that back. We will be highlighting at the all employee meeting some of these innovations and we will be having our innovation teams that will be doing the report to their peers. So, there is a lot of buzz going on and we are really excited about what is happening in this objective. So, next steps on strategic analyst will be reviewing program details with all the departments over these next two months and he has these classes running quarterly with a goal of producing small innovations within 30 days of their attendance at those programs and they will be reporting those back. So, Vince, this is great. I was talking to a business and they are really excited and want to see some of the outcomes, because they are kind of undergoing the same process as well and so we can -- we can exchange notes, so that's great. Objective 4.A.4. This is in our -- our public safety aspect. We got a lot of stuff going on in this objective. I think this is the first time I have reported on this objective, so I'm going to report on a couple of different areas. First in our SRO programs. Internet safety and school visits continue to be a high priority and these are ongoing and their goal is to increase the participation with the parents and to get them more engaged. They will be evaluating classes throughout the school year and have a complete full program review by the end of the summer or end of the school year in June of 2020. The training has been conducted and feedback surveys are in the works, so they can start getting feedback from the parents who are attending. School safety procedures, drug trends, SRO functions, those are all going to be part of what they will be measuring. Crime prevention. This area is 60 percent completed. They have developed three phases for an apartment crime prevention certification program. This is really exciting by giving good tools to our multi-family apartments managers to help address crime aspects. We also have been working with some of our businesses and -- and nonprofit groups, crime prevention, to -- to really measure three different areas. One education and prevention, their logs and how they are -- how they use those -- that information pre- and post-surveys for program performance and using with these businesses future growth goals and implementation analysis. So, they are using this targeted group to flush out some of these programs to see what are most effective and how we can move the -- the diamond at -- or move the needle. Traffic safety. They have conducted multiple transfer -- or traffic mobilization and training throughout this last year. These patrol saturations, if you didn't know what mobilization was, but I would give you a definition of that. These mobilizations have been in speeding and aggressive driving, as well as impaired and distracted driving. They have also conducted trainings with Alive At 25 and our senior -- senior advisory board and they are safe -- keys to safer driving. Approximately 53 percent of all injury and fatal crashes within the last five years involved aggressive driving behaviors, so -- in 2017 and '18 crash statistics show that we are moving the needle on that. They decreased by 3.9 percent through evaluations of hot spots. So, they are really focusing on where the high crash data is happening and they are increasing their patrols and education. Training programs are 80 percent complete and what's exciting on this is they create a joint academy with the city of Nampa in training our new recruits and that was -- that was a real exciting graduation I was honored to have been able -- along with Council Woman Little Roberts and -- I think it was just you and I. So, they have also had -- they have done their Lexipol policy manual and updated, got Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 20 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 18 of 25 those disseminated and they have -- are halfway done through their mental health training. So, they have been very active in the subjective and that is the last objective to be updated. I stand for any questions. Milam: Mr. President? Borton: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Madam Mayor, on that last one, 44, why is it showing zero percent complete if they have done all of that stuff? De Weerd: Because the objectives are underway, they are just not ready to -- to say they are completely done. Good question though. Borton: Council, any other questions? De Weerd: Big kudos needs to go to all of our strategic leads. To Vince for really helping get his arms around this -- this massive plan and bring consistency and uniformity to it that -- and now with the identify measurements, it lends to that next plan to be very rich. So, thank you. Borton: Madam Mayor, just -- not a question, but a comment. One of the -- this was adopted in 2015 and it's been amended time over time and increased -- De Weerd: Probably 30 percent of the plan. Borton: It's a living document. One of the things that we talked about four years ago was the burden or opportunity that is placed upon you to lead this and you have clearly taken that to heart. I think the Council has challenged you down to the tactic level to be accountable and report and track and measure and tell us and you have embraced that and this is a good example. You seem to clearly enjoy giving us updates and metrics on what's been done and what's coming in the future and it just speaks highly to the leadership. Great staff doing phenomenal work, but it doesn't happen with how the plan was originally adopted and it says -- I bring it out every time we review this -- on page nine it -- it starts and stops with the Mayor and the Mayor has to lead it. So, thank you much for doing that and showing that leadership to make these things happen and get stuff done. De Weerd: Well, thank you. It's a -- a huge team effort and, again, coming back from multiple discussions on the importance of strategy and implementation. So many people will start this and it ends upon on a shelf and our senior management team, the strategic leads, working with Vince, has continued to keep this as a living document and I appreciate the Council being flexible, understanding the fluidity of the plan and when you work the plan you really find what is reasonable and what isn't and having those conversations have been extremely valuable and it probably has lent a lot into our process improvements and -- and I -- I think the -- the resulting benefits just keep manifesting and Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 21 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 19 of 25 -- and working into -- to really good things. So, I am very honored to work with the city employees and -- and those that really understand this as an integral part to achieving our mission of being a premier city. But thank you for your comments. Borton: You bet. Council, any other questions? De Weerd: And, again, I would -- I would thank Vince. I -- I sent him probably 15 slides with changes at -- Monday at 1:00 a.m. and so I was frantically looking at it, because I just rolled in to -- to see if we had any further questions or comments. So, thank you, Vince. You're awesome. Koontz: You should be glad that I was awake. B. Meridian Arts Commission Report: Proposed Strategic Plan for the Arts, Fiscal Years 2020-2025 De Weerd: Okay. 5-B is under our Meridian Arts Commission. Leslie. Who I also saw. Mauldin: So, I have no PowerPoint. As you know we did recently lose Hillary Blackstone and so -- she usually is who kind of helped with that. So, it -- but it's pretty -- okay, I didn't know I was going to have to follow that awesome presentation. That was so interesting. But, Mayor Tammy, Council, I'm here to present our -- our new strategic plan and we have -- I echo Mayor's thoughts saying that, you know, it's a living document, you look at it and you kind of see what you have done, what successes you had, maybe what you don't have as an objective anymore and one thing we were very very careful about doing this year is to review the sections of your comprehensive plan as it was developing and tried to make -- make absolute strides towards aligning our objectives to support the arts in the city in alignment with the way the Comprehensive Plan is moving forward and so we did something different this year, we hired our same strategic planning facilitator, Delta James, but we wrote a grant for it -- it was a matching grant for half of her fee. So, that was nice. Saved the city some money and it also give us the opportunity to work with the Idaho Commission on the Arts and kind of do a test run on some of their -- their fast grant programs and they are really wonderful and we plan to utilize those more in the future. So, we did that. We worked with the current plan, made changes to clarify some of the language, just because -- oh, certain things like we had something that said opportunities that will help them prepare for life in the 21st century. You know, that was a lofty goal, but we just felt like that language -- it's kind of obscure, a bit graphic on the art side if you will, so we did some things to just make our plan more clear and concise and less artistic in its language, if not in its goals. So, we also -- like I said before, we -- we made sure that we looked at the strategic plan in alignment with the Comprehensive Plan and so to do that we added a column to the plan -- we added two columns actually. One of them -- well, we changed one column and added one column. We changed our priority column from being an annual -- like we are going to get this done in two years. Well, we decided to go with more of a strategic prioritizing of each plan, so that it's near term, mid term, or long term, so that it -- the next time we go through this process in another five years -- and as you know we will start before it sundowns to work through it. We will be able to Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 22 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 20 of 25 look at that with a little bit more clarity and say that's a long-term goal, so chances are that's one of the items that it's not surprising that we are rolling over into the next strategic plan or that was a short-term goal. Well, why didn't we get there and what can we do to -- to improve on our -- on our -- our execution. So, I will just look at a couple of successes first. I would like to start with successes -- I'm so sorry I don't have a good cool PowerPoint. Okay. So, some of our successes are that we had such a good time with our traffic boxes and I just smile every time I see a little dog in front of the -- the Boys & Girls Club. That's just got to be one of my favorites and we are still continuing to work also with sponsorships for people who want -- a business that wants to sponsor a traffic box and, of course, that brings in some private money and we get to wrap more boxes. So, we work with private, as well as our public funding that comes from MAPS to -- to do those traffic boxes and I just have loved that and we will be continuing that. We -- we have expanded our Art Week that we -- it was our third year this year and it's -- it's something that's really gained traction and so it almost has a festival feel to it now. There was chalk art this year all over instead of just downtown. We had music at Generations Plaza. We also backed up -- moved the Concerts on Broadway forward in the season, which allowed us to have a Concerts on Broadway on the day the -- the chalk art competition day. So, we were able to kind of bring those together and cross-pollinate some of those audiences to get the artists looking and listening to the music. The musicians looking at the chalk art. And so we also still had some of the booths from the Farmers Market that stayed open and so it just made it feel more like a party instead of a concert and, of course, all free to the public. So, that was something that we really enjoy doing. We had -- we put in, as you know, with -- in conjunction with Parks and Rec, we have put in several park identification sculptures. In Generations and we -- we put in I think three this year, if I would recall. And so those continue to define our -- our public parks and bring art, as well as play to the parks. We -- we continue to do Concerts on Broadway, which I just spoke in quick reference about and -- a free concert to the public and we had a big wow this last time, which was kind of a little bit off the grid. We are trying to expand our -- our choices there to make it more -- you know, some people love this concert. Just more variety. More variety. Bring more people in. And we are doing -- you see the big Zamzow's mural that's up there. We are doing more -- we are trying to use public and private partnerships to put up some of those murals and I love the cow, so -- just so much fun. And so I will just quickly go -- I realize you have got a really busy schedule tonight, but I will quickly touch on our very very much more minuscule objectives that we -- we have to go through. Public Arts. It's encouraging integration of public arts, a component in community development. That's very well defined. A good example of that is the parks -- the art in the parks and things like that and the Zamzow's mural as well. Public-private partnerships on that. We -- we have also just recently approved the deaccession policy, which is something that we didn't have, and here establish plans and policies to guide the selection placement, acceptance, maintenance and removal of public artwork. So, that's on page six under public art. We do have a deaccession policy now, so that if something ages out we have a way to move it on and so that's something we have -- we have recently already gotten done and that was a near term goal, so yea. In objective to arts -- arts education for you -- well, there is a typo and it's the word education and it is misspelled, so -- do you guys have that in yours on page eight? Is that still misspelled in -- in yours? Do you see that? Our text -- it's fixed. Okay. Good. It's not in Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 23 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 21 of 25 mine, so that's good. That's a funny word to have misspelled. We are -- we continue to participate and we have up'd our sponsorship with the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. They are doing so wonderfully. We, of course, sponsored the children's theater. We also are continuing to have student artists at -- open for the Concerts on Broadway. We had a wonderful artist play the Sibelius, the first movement, the Allegretto Moderato of the Sibelius violin concerto, which -- well, it's really challenging and he was amazing. It was amazing. Alex Trang. So, that's just something we continue to do. In the performing arts we are continuing to develop free offerings, such as I have already touched on, the -- the way we have expanded Art Week and made more free things available and events. So, we are working on that. I wanted to -- to highlight that. Number four. Public engagement. We are -- one of our main near term goals here is -- because, you know, I always tell my students you can sing the best aria or song you have ever sung in your life and if nobody is there to hear it, you know, you just worked hard and it was awesome for you, but no one else got to -- to take advantage of that opportunity. So, we are going to work with a consultant to get some help on branding and making art a more cohesive branding strategy for our art, so that more people know and can access what we have to offer. So, that's one of our most important things there. In visual arts we are continuing to have a curated art museum and it's -- it's going pretty well. Once again, that kind of follows -- you know, tracks back to what I was just talking about. There so many people who are -- who are surprised by that beautiful gallery. Everyday it seems like I -- I come across one person who says there is an art gallery in Meridian? Yes. And it's gorgeous. So, we are really going to work with that branding strategy to get the news -- the good news out. And number -- the number six goal is -- wait, did I skip one? Five? No. The number six goal is supporting local artists. We continue to do that by encouraging with the chalk art -- we even had a couple of demonstrations during -- by the artists that the public was willing -- it was invited to attend in the initial Point Gallery during the art -- our opening reception. So, we had a couple of artists that did some sampling and provided that opportunity, which was new and the most exciting thing that we have added this year is that -- and Mayor Tammy was at the Concerts on Broadway on Saturday and presented her first annual Mayor Tammy de Weerd award in the arts and it was a wonderful new tradition that we have established and it doesn't mean it will always be given at the Concerts on Broadway, we may choose Art Week or another time, but it worked well at the Concerts on Broadway this year and the recipients were Dwight Williams, Mary Jensen and Ann -- I can't remember her last name. I'm so embarrassed. De Weerd: Vaughn. Mauldin: Vaughn. De Weerd: Amy. Mauldin: Yes. Amy Vaughn. Yes. Our educator. And so we have three -- we didn't have a student artist this year, but we will next year. But we have four designations -- so, four awards to be given out each year and we are really really excited about that and the public seemed to respond very very positively and we know that -- we just are very proud of that Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 24 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 22 of 25 new edition. So, that will be a near, mid and long-term goal and we will keep that there. And that's it. I stand for questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Leslie. Council, any questions? Cavener: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Leslie, I appreciated the report a great deal. I enjoyed reading it over the weekend. Mauldin: Good. Cavener: A piece that I found missing and I'm curious if the commission had a conversation about it is lack of discussion about inclusion and I guess for me personally I have -- I have always looked an art as a way to maybe challenge some of our status quo and while a lot of Meridian looks alike and comes from the same kind of background and attends the same kind of church, we are a very diverse community and I think that art, in my opinion, is a great opportunity to promote inclusion and I didn't know if that's something the art's commission discussed. If not that's okay, I think there is an opportunity as you kind of grow I just would encourage that if it's not already occurring. Mauldin: Well, Councilman Cavener, Mayor, I -- we did have some conversations about that actually. We didn't include it here, but that is a really good point, because arts are meant to bring and point to diversity and give people opportunities to grow in that way. We do -- we have -- we have become more diverse as a commission. We have grown our diversity in that way. We would like more men, so we are going on that one, but we -- we had one wonderful man, but -- but that is a very good suggestion to have -- to have actually in the strategic plan and so we could -- point of order. Can we -- can we -- is this to be approved tonight or could we consider having another discussion and bringing it back, because I really do like that suggestion and I -- I would like to -- to take that back to the commission and see if we could add where it would make sense to add a diversity objective. Cavener: And Madam Mayor? I don't want to dictate. You know, I really applaud our citizen commissions and so don't -- please don't take that as direction from one Council Member that it needs to be in there. Certainly if Council is supportive and you would want to have a conversation with your permission before you brought back a final piece, I'm -- I'm supportive of that. Whether it stays the same or there are changes that are presented I'm good either way. Mauldin: Okay. No, I just think it's a great suggestion. I -- I think we had a discussion about the makeup of the commission, but we didn't have that discussion about reaching out to more diversity in the community and making that part of our -- possibly having that Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 25 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 23 of 25 be a focus of -- in fact, we might not need to add something. We could add it as a focus of our branding and marketing strategy. Cavener: However you see fit. Mauldin: So, thank you. Anything else? De Weerd: Certainly, Leslie, if you would like to hold this over for a week just to give that some thought on -- if you can wrap it -- if there is any changes necessary or really a lot of it resides in the tactics and -- and that -- that sort of thing, so -- Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mrs. Milam. Milam: I apologize. Real quick. I know that there has been a subcommittee working on this and they had spent a ton of hours and I do really appreciate Councilman Cavener's comments. I think there should be some -- something about inclusion in there, but this isn't something we can hold over for a week. They would have to get the subcommittee together and, then, present it to the commission for approval back to -- I think then send to us. So, it's -- we are looking at at least a month down the road and I don't know if that -- is that something that you want to do or if it's something that you want to go back and bring to the commission and -- and add right away into the next change? Mauldin: Council Woman Milam, Mayor Tammy, I -- I think that we could add this into our discussion with the marketing strategy. I think we could -- I think we could include it to there and not have to add any language. De Weerd: Certainly you can look for action in adopting the resolution. If you want to bring any changes back or if you just make them how you apply the plan -- either -- either way and talk with the commission, maybe have that conversation and -- and if a change is needed we can always do that. Mauldin: Okay. But I'm comfortable with having that thought planted and bringing that into the discussion of the marketing and branding, because I really think that's -- we can -- we can calculate it there. So, I'm comfortable with it as it is now. De Weerd: Okay. Awesome. Any other questions or comments? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Item 6: Action Items Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 26 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 24 of 25 A. Resolution No. 19- 2166: A Resolution Adopting the Strategic Plan for the Arts for Fiscal Years 2020-2025 Borton: I don't -- I agree with Councilman Cavener. I appreciate you bringing that up, but I think that's probably, you know, first on your discussion with the commission going forward. You have got great support up here for that in being one of the principles that you incorporate into this plan, but I think it's -- it's fantastic to the work that's been done. I would move that we approve Resolution No. 19-2166. Palmer: Second. De Weerd: I have a -- I have a motion and several seconds for approval of Action 6-A, Resolution 19-2166. If there is no discussion, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll call: yea. De Weerd: All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 7: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74- 206 ( 1)( c) To acquire an interest in real property not owned by a public agency and ( 1)( d) To consider records that are exempt from disclosure as provided in Chapter 1, Title 74, Idaho Code De Weerd: Okay. Council, we are at Item No. 7. We may want to look at putting this on our other agenda. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Item 7 is getting tabled to the regular agenda. I move we adjourn the work session. Milam: Second. 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. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 1, 2019 – Page 27 of 161 Meridian City Council Work Session September 24, 2019 Page 25 of 25 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:00 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MA OR B ATTEST,:_.,/� QOppSEDAUG�ST, CHRI IDAHO SEAL -zo DATE APPROVED