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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-10-08 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:35 p.m., Tuesday, October 8, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Genesis Milam, Ty Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and Treg Bernt. Members Absent: Luke Cavener. Also Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Warren Stewart, Jeff Lavey, Matt, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt (Telephone) __X___Genesis Milam ______Lucas Cavener __X__ Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: Okay. For the record it is Tuesday, October 8th. It's 4:35. We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance, Mr. Clerk. Item 2: Adoption of Agenda De Weerd: Item 2 is adoption of the agenda. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Item 5-C is an action item. It wasn't noted as such, but it is an action item. Not really an amendment, just a clarification. So, I move that we adopt the agenda as published. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published or as amended. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT. Item 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item] Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 4 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 2 of 22 A. Approve Minutes of September 24, 2019 City Council Regular Meeting B. Approve Minutes of October 1, 2019 City Council Work Session C. Approve Minutes of October 1, 2019 City Council Regular Meeting D. Butte Fence Water Main Easement E. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Millbrae Subdivision (H-2019-0066) by WHPacific, Inc., Located at 4888 and 4920 W. Cherry Ln. F. Approval of Task Order 11027 to Keller Associates for Well 18 Water Treatment Facility Design for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of 222,635.00 G. Approval of Purchase Order #20-0022 to Oxarc, Inc. for FY-20 Sodium Hypochlorite chemicals for the Not-to-Exceed amount of 105,000.00 H. Approval of Purchase Order #20-0035 to DMH Enterprises for FY-20 Plumbing Plan Review and Inspection Services for the Notto-Exceed amount of $295,988.04 I. Approval of Purchase Order #20-0036 to GeoTek, INC . for FY-20 Commercial & Residential Building Inspections for the Not-to- Exceed amount of $53,145.00 J. Termination of Well Site Lease Agreement - Well 29 K. Resolution 19-2167: A Resolution for the Adoption of Citywide Fee Changes L. AP Invoices for Payment - 10/9/19 - $459,435.29 M. AP Invoices for Payment 9/30/19 Special - $175,210.63 De Weerd: Item 3 is our Consent Agenda. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 5 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 3 of 22 Borton: Move we approve the Consent Agenda as published, for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, absent; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO 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. Police: All Things MADC/Drug Prevention De Weerd: So, we will move into 5-A, which is under our Police Department and hear from our Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition. Kendall and Cheryl welcome. Thank you for joining us. Mulvihill: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you for this opportunity to update you on work with the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition and the Meridian Police Department Drug Prevention unit. My name is Cheryl Mulvihill. I have been with the coalition since 2012. I started as a volunteer. I quickly became the parent sector representative. In 2014 I was hired as the anti-drug coordinator as a part time position and this is my fifth year. Nagy: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I'm Kendall Nagy and I serve the community as the substance abuse prevention coordinator and the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition director. So, today as we begin our presentation we are going to talk about the data that drives our prevention education and support. It 's the foundation of a comprehensive set of prevention strategies that we select for our community here in Meridian. So, the first one that I would like to highlight is the Idaho Healthy Youth Survey -- De Weerd: And, Kendall, I'm just going to interrupt you for a moment. For the record, Mr. Palmer has joined us. And, Mr. Bernt, if you need to get off the line if you will just text our city clerk, so he can note that for the record. Bernt: I can hang on for a while. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 6 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 4 of 22 De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Kendall. Nagy: Of course. So, the first data source that we want to highlight is the Idaho Healthy Youth Survey. This survey is a bi-annual survey that is conducted throughout the state with our partners at the Idaho Office of Drug Policy and also West Ada School District. The survey is administered by ODP and, then, we work -- we being the coalition and myself -- work to ensure that we have a valid sample size of data from the Meridian youth that participate in this survey. We want to include students from 6th, 8th, 10th and 11th grade to participate in this survey to ensure that it's valid as we, then, choose prevention strategies based off the data. If we look at the most recently published survey in 2017 and 2018, an example of some of the data is that youth self reported that at least once in their lifetime 36 percent of them had used alcohol and 21 percent had used a vape or e- cigarettes. So, that's just one little example of a small tidbit of data from -- from that report or survey. Excuse me. So, the next one -- the next source that we are going to look at is the Meridian Police Department annual report. This includes a lot of information that 's very important to help guide us and we focus on three areas specifically as we look at drug prevention. We look at juvenile arrests, crimes against society, and DUI report data specifically. So, again, some examples of the data that we, then, gather from these different three areas of focus. Under the juvenile arrest we can see that those arrests are highest in the month of May and that of the top three charges , possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia, are included in those. Looking at crimes against society, we see that the most prevalent crimes are drug and narcotic violations and drug equipment violations. And, then, lastly, looking at the DUI report data, collecting data from the last five years relating to DUIs we can see that the presence of cannabis has increased by 25 percent. Next we are going to talk a little bit about event specific data and this lends itself to be a little more customizable for the different prevention strategies that we are implementing in the community. Examples would be pre and post surveys. Another customized data collection that we do is at our twice yearly DEA sponsored take back events. We have youth that help us at that event each year. Usually they are a scout troop fulfilling some of the requirements for their troop. And we have them work with an adult and they administer verbally a very quick five question survey and a couple of those questions include are you aware of the permanent drop off locations in Meridian and at the Meridian Police Department that are available to community members? Another would be do you -- do you store your medications in a safe and secure location. A couple other questions are included, but those are the kinds of data that we get and that would be an event specific data source. And, then, last looking at expert testimony, these are conversations and interviews that we have with our stakeholders that are working on prevention in the community that could include school prevention specialists and counselors, some of our recovery and treatment partners or healthcare professionals and, then, of course, the school resource officer team. So, we are getting data from them and having conversations about what they are seeing in their area of specialty. So , now that you know more about the data that drives the work of the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition and the substance abuse prevention for the Meridian Police Department, Cheryl is going to share some information through a five year comparison and a single year overview. Mulvihill: Thank you, Kendall. As we look at our five year overview, our comparison, we see that our events have gone from 30 in 2014 to over 70 events in 2019. One example Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 7 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 5 of 22 of that growth can be seen in our prescription take backs. In April 2014 we took back 403 pounds of medication and in April of 2019 we took back 812, which is more than double. Keep in mind we have three permanent drop boxes in the Meridian Police Department's lobby that are emptied at least weekly and those numbers are not included in this update. So, that's quite a lot of meds that are not ending up in our landfill and in the hands of our children. So, another area of our growth is our meetings. When I started in 2014 our meetings were averaging 12 attendees and in 2019 we are averaging 20 attendees. So , that is almost double again. Also in 2014 when I started the e-mail distribution list that we have had about a 100 people on it, our community members, and now it has over 400. So, in five years we have -- we have grown quite a bit. So, now we are going to look at a single year overview using the Meridian Police Department's prevention annual report. As you can see we had over 72 events in a one year time frame. So , one example of a successful event that we hold is our breathalyzer event at the Meridian Speedway and our presence is made known during the night with announcements of Know Your Limits, Drink Responsibly. Another example is the Cable One Movie Night that was recently changed to the Sparklight Movie Night. We had Wienhoff's Drug Testing as one of our partners and they stepped up to sponsor that night for us and they also provided the majority of volunteers to work that event. So, when you look at the large number of community members that we are able to reach in a year, think about what a single event might look like, last year during the breathalyzer we were able to reach 4,600 community members and this last year we reached 47 -- or this year we reached 4,700 at one event. So, one of the ways that we are able to reach more youth is in the middle schools . We work with West Ada School District and the five Meridian middle schools. We use our natural high campaign as a positive social norm and we were able to reach 994 more middle school students this last year. So, now Kendall is going to talk about the education and prevention day now. Nagy: Excellent. So, the next slide that you will see is actually a screenshot from the data that we wanted to highlight in this report and so if you look at the top left-hand quadrant we are looking at top events and trainings and here we are defining that by the number of events and you can see that that first bar there, community presentations is 38 and it's quite a bit larger than the other ones. Part of the reason for that is on the executive committee within the coalition each sector representative that -- we have 12 different sectors throughout our community represented and part of that responsibility in serving in that position is securing speaking opportunities for the coalition within that sector that they represent. That could be a drug specific presentation , say vaping education or cannabis-related policy change, or it could be information about the work of the coalition and, then, ways that you could get involved specifically for you to fulfill service hours. So , that's part of the contribution to that larger number. In addition in that category we have Red Ribbon Week presentations that might include an all school assembly. We try to make sure that we get the entire student body population at those assemblies to hear our prevention messaging and, then, also canine demonstrations. So, again, that's -- that's the reasoning there for that larger number. Below that is the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition meetings and the number varies just a little. We have the monthly meetings held the third Thursday of the month, 4:00 p.m. at the Meridian Police Department open to the public and, then, in addition our executive committee meets quarterly and the numbers, again, Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 8 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 6 of 22 very occasionally just because we do sometimes have to cancel the meeting due to weather. So, we move down into that lower left quadrant, we are looking at top events and trainings based on the population, and understandably that first category of the community presentations, which reached over 8,000 community members, is larger due to the variety of community presentations I just described. Below that the breathalyzer event, that's a single event where we reached over 4 ,000 community members and the way that we are able to do this is our long-standing partnership with Meridian Speedway. We meet ahead of time to identify the most widely attended races of the season and, then, they welcome us to come and join them and do prevention during two of those races and so part of our preparation for that is, then, working on prevention announcements that are made throughout the evening, so that we can count the total of all the attendees that are at that race, not just the ones that we count that come by the Meridian Anti-Drug Coalition booth. So, if we go over to the top right, this really is a great kind of glance at a year's worth of work that we do. It's the number of community members and events by month and if we follow the red we can see that the number of community members we reach is highest in May and August. So, busy -- busy with outreach in the summers and, then, yes, October is peaked right up there. We are very busy in the thick of it and that is the month that we have the most events , followed by May. And, then, in the lower right quadrant looking at target audience of events and trainings, that all ages category we -- we understand that the importance of our prevention work is to really reach all members of the community and it impacts all of us and so that's why we choose to look at the data and break it down kind of by age category and looking at all ages keep in mind that does include youth. And, then, if you move over to the right you can see that we also have it broken down by school age, which is high school, middle school and elementary and if you combine those numbers we reach over 5,000 youth in the schools and that's an area that we are always looking at that data number to try to increase our reach in the middle schools, knowing that that's the age that youth are first usually exposed to choices that they are going to have to navigate as far as drug use, whether it is peer pressure, that sort of thing. So, now Cheryl is going to share some examples of current work and the success of a recent project resulting from our expanded partnerships and collaboration. Mulvihill: Thank you, Kendall. So, we are very excited to have so many wonderful partners in the community who work with us and we were able to have Meridian Speedway to have us out there to film a public service announcement at their racetrack. Telford Racing brought the race car, as well as Zach Telford, who is our 15 year old natural high ambassador. He is also a professional race driver -- race car driver. So, the City of Meridian also shared in resources. They were able to come out and help us produce and -- film and produce that PSA. So, the PSA aired during the summer at The Village theater and the Majestic Theater. Some of you might have been lucky enough to be able to go to the movies this summer and actually see Zack racing and declaring his choice to live a drug free life. For those of you who were not, we are going to go ahead and show you that now. We are very proud of this video, this public service announcement. (Video played.) De Weerd: Awesome. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 9 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 7 of 22 Nagy: All right. So, I'm going to now share some information about some of our state partners and a few of the outcomes resulting from our collaboration. It 's through the partnerships at the local, regional, and state level that we see enhanced and expanded prevention programming for our community members. So, first I'm going to talk a little bit about the Idaho -- the Association of Idaho Cities Drug Task Force Committee. The Mayor's leadership as chair of this committee has helped create a platform for prevention advocacy and education, reaching key decision makers and stakeholders throughout the state. This last year -- actually, the last two years we have participated in the AIC annual conference, helping with breakout sessions. Specifically in 2019 we helped organize a breakout session entitled Strengthening Your Community Through Substance Abuse Prevention and this was an opportunity for us to share resources for those rural communities that don't necessarily have a n established coalition in their community and really letting them know that there are other organizations where their main focus may not be prevention, but there -- there is a portion of their work that includes prevention and how to collaborate together. In addition, the second breakout session was titled Marijuana Legalization. What Does It Mean For Idaho? We talked about different facts relating to cannabis policy changes across the country and neighboring states and the impacts that we are seeing in our communities. Next up we are going to talk about Community Coalitions of Idaho, which is one of the state prevention partners that has been around since 2009. They provide resources to over 25 Idaho coalitions and other prevention focused organizations like the ones that I mentioned for rural communities to partner together on. Some examples of those resources include toolkits . One specifically that they developed about the prescription monitoring program to increase awareness and work on policy relating to that. They have grant funding available and, then, they also put together trainings to bring together some of the sectors that work together on prevention in the community. We work specifically with CCI as I served on the board the last couple years to organize two legislative education events. One was held at the beginning of the legislative session last year at the Capitol and the other was held at West Ada School District in partnership with them and, again, focused on the unintended consequences of marijuana normalization. And, then, last, but certainly not least, the Treasure Valley partnership opioid work group. It's kind of a mouthful. And we worked on the public education gold group. So, the lead organizations for this are the Treasure Valley Partnership, which is a group of elected officials that are working to positively manage growth in the city of Boise. ODP has a state work group working on -- Idaho Office of Drug Policy has a state work group working on opioids as well and what our role is at the Treasure Valley level is to develop an addendum to the provider toolkit that they are creating. The second part of our work with this -- this group is working on a public opioid toolkit for parents and educators. Once these two products are completed we will , then, work with the coalition and the sector representatives that I mentioned to implement these out in the community and share that education. See where I am here. In addition to the growth of state partnerships, we have also increased our funding sources. So , here we have highlighted the Idaho Office of Drug Policy and the Idaho State Liquor Division, because over this last fiscal year we received more than 28,000 dollars in mini grants from -- through these partnerships and you can see that I have listed a few of the prevention strategies that we have been -- been able to implement with this continued funding. The first one there is the compliance check and shoulder tap operations. This Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 10 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 8 of 22 is a great opportunity for youth to get involved with the coalition. We -- like the Treasure Valley Youth Safety Summit, we talked about what we do in the community and opportunities to get involved with the coalition. And, then, also students that might be interested in criminal justice are actually paid to work as decoys during these operations and they work, obviously, very closely with law enforcement and so it's a great opportunity. In addition we have Red Ribbon Week presenters. I did mention that we have all school -- all school assemblies that we fund during Red Ribbon Week and reaching the entire student body. We also have the cannabis tests for SROs. So, this is -- this is rather new and what we are doing is we are working with West Ada School District and our law enforcement and any of the vapes, e-cigarettes, cartridges, any of the paraphernalia that our youth are caught with they are testing them with this little -- it looks like a Q-tip, it's just a little swab, and they test it to see if there is a presence of cannabis. We are doing that throughout the year. Those tests were purchased, as I said, with this grant fund and, then, we will look at the data and that will drive our prevention efforts and not only for the coalition and the police department , but, then, also West Ada School District as they review their policy. And, then, the narcotics detection for the department. We purchased a TruNarc device and this is an important device that helps our officers when they are out in the field to identify any narcotics and without having to remove them from the packaging, which, then, puts them at high risk of exposure. It functions through a laser to identify the chemicals that are in that package. So, that was a great tool for us that we purchased for -- for our officers to keep safe. So, after reviewing the sources of data that guide our work, the growth over our past five years and a single year and the achievements through our local and state partnerships, we reflect on two quotes as we look to our future work. Mulvihill: Our first quote is from Brian Lovell, who is the president of the Idaho Fraternal Order of Police, and he states that Coalitions like yours are crucial to prevention education and we appreciate your hard work. Thank you for your support. Keep up the good work you do. Nagy: And for Mary Liz Jones, one of our sector representatives that's been working with the coalition for a couple years now: I am acutely aware that it takes a team of caring MADC professionals and volunteers to make a difference and let our community know about the facts. If our citizens do not understand more about the possible adverse effects of drugs and alcohol, they will not be able to make healthy decisions . On behalf of the coalition and community members that we serve, our partners and our youth that we advocate for, thank you, not just for your continued support over the years , but for your advocacy and active involvement from sharing personal stories about the impacts of substance abuse and using MADC prevention packets with your own families, to promoting events and referring community members to our resources. There are many ways that we can work together to fulfill MADC's mission to strengthen our community through substance abuse prevention. Thank you. We now stand for questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Kendall and Cheryl. Council, any questions? Milam: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 11 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 9 of 22 De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Bernt: No questions. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Bernt. Milam: Great presentation, ladies. Thank you very much. A lot of interesting information. One question -- and maybe you have the number or maybe you don't, but at your -- at the racetrack you said you reached like 4,000 something people, but how many people actually participate in the breathalyzer? Just curious. Mulvihill: This last -- Madam Mayor, Councilman Milam, just last year we had 90 who participated. Milam: And, Madam Mayor, follow up. When -- when people are participating are they -- are they intoxicated generally or are they the ones that are not? Mulvihill: We start out with hopefully no alcohol and, then, they -- as they progress we test them three times. Milam: Oh. Mulvihill: So, by the end of the night see where they stand. De Weerd: I have been part of one of those out in Generations Plaza and it's usually pretty interesting and we have even had bike riders. That was an interesting one. Any other questions? Little Roberts: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Not a question, just wanted to say thank you, Cheryl and Kendall. Thank you for all that you do. Over the last few years I have watched the meetings grow and seriously robust discussions and things and so just really appreciate all that you and your team do. Nagy: Thank you. Mulvihill: Thank you. De Weerd: You know, the MADC has played a critical role in the health and vitality of our community. I appreciate what you do and continue to do. One of the statistics I think you mentioned up front was an increase in use of cannabis, 25 percent. With all the efforts and -- that have been going out there -- I know it's countered by a lot of other noise, but Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 12 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 10 of 22 what do you see in our netting the best results to -- to getting the information out about the -- the impacts of cannabis and -- and what the societal impacts are as well? Nagy: Madam Mayor. I think that the best outcomes are coming from the collaboration as I referenced for other -- other preventions as well in the presentation, really working not only at the community level with our stakeholders within our sectors in the community, but, then, also at the state and national level as well. There has been a lot of collaboration to put together reliably sourced data points to help in the education really. It really comes back to that education in trying to clear up what's cannabis. What's hemp? What's marijuana? What is this .3 percent THC? How is it tested in Idaho? And there is a -- there is a lot of questions and there are a lot of leaders in not only our community, but throughout the state that are really trying to gain clarity on that as well and so I think it's that partnership right now at least with all the changes and the rapid -- the rapid change in policy, all of us trying to wrap our heads around it to make -- ensure that we make the best decision for our community and for our youth. De Weerd: I believe that the Oregon governor and the governor of Colorado came to Idaho and shared the huge impacts on their states of the legalization of marijuana. I think their advice was do everything you can to make sure it doesn't get legalized in Idaho. What kind of information has been shared down to the local coalitions on some of the talking points they had and any studies that they have to release? Nagy: Madam Mayor, to address that question we are continually working with -- we look to each reports and data source that comes out each year to update the statistics and the information that we find. There are -- there are different sources of information that come in, whether it's in a report or we look at data that is crime related or enforcement related in neighboring states and what's really a combination of multiple sources as I spoke to at the local level, but looking at the states that have made changes and the impact and we are sharing that and educating our community members that are present at the MADC meetings and the ones that are on that 400 plus list of e -mail distribution and I include educational points in there, the most recent reports, so that people can do their own homework and choose for themselves what is -- what they want for our community as we face those decisions in the future and, really, the key is going to be that -- the way that the policy is written. It's all in the policy and whatever changes may -- may come our way. De Weerd: Well, I know you have been very active and so has Chief Lavey in keeping an eye on what's going on in the legislature and some of the conversations working with the governor's office and just, again, to share certainly my appreciation for what you are doing to educate, inform, and really share the word, so that -- there is a lot of misconceptions out there. Nagy: Absolutely. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Anything further? Okay. Thank you. Nagy: Thank you. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 13 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 11 of 22 Mulvihill: Thank you. B. Fire Department: Open Burning Regulations and Amendment to City Code De Weerd: Okay. Item 5-B is under our Fire Department and I see Deputy Chief Bongiorno on his way up. Bongiorno: Madam Mayor, City Council, glad to be here this evening. Thank you very much for this opportunity to come and talk to you guys. So, what we found out was on a -- an illegal burn call about a gentleman that was burning railroad ties in the middle of Meridian in the city, which is typically not legal, and when the officer on scene was trying to find the proper code to cite against , we found out that that section of code had been removed. I think what had happened was a couple of years ago the Fire Department quit issuing burn permits and I think instead of just striking that section they removed the whole thing and so I worked with the city attorney's office, Mrs. Kane, who is, obviously, always awesome to work with, she helped me work with this ordinance to put illegal burning back into city code. So, that way our officers have what is -- what -- what an illegal burn is and -- and things that are illegal to burn. What we did is we mirrored what the county forbids for burning. Railroad ties, dead animals, stuff like that. So, our -- our ordinance will now match the county's ordinance. So, yeah, it's -- they burn some crazy things out there. So, that's what I'm bringing forth today and I will be happy to answer any questions about it. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any question? Okay. So -- Bongiorno: I believe we are on the agenda for tonight for a reading of the ordinance that we have. De Weerd: Yes. Bongiorno: Thank you. C. Community Development: Budget Amendment in the Amount of $26,725.00 for Position Reclassification and Creation of Land Development Supervisor Position De Weerd: Thank you, Joe. Okay. Item 5-C was listed as an action item as clarified in the motion to approve the agenda. We will move to 5-C, which is under out Community Development Department. Freckleton: Good afternoon, Mayor and Members of Council. Good to see you today. What we have before you is a budget amendment to reclass an existing funded position that we have in the land development section of Community Development. The position that -- that we are reclassing from is a development analyst position and we are wanting to reclass to a supervisor of the land development division . This position was identified Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 14 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 12 of 22 as part of our evolution plan when we started bringing the -- the building service in-house and, then, subsequently into our reorg plans that we developed. The reorg -- or, excuse me, the budget amendment -- you should have that in front of you I hope. We have vetted that through the process. Cameron has endorsed it. We also -- since this is an Enterprise funded position we also ran it through Public Works and Alex Freitag has -- has also signed off on that. Todd and Jenny have signed off, as well as Councilman Bernt. So, have that in front of you now for -- for your approval and we hope to get -- get the position filled as soon as possible. This will greatly help us flatten out my division specifically a little bit. It takes me down from nine direct reports down to two. So, there will be six direct reports under -- under this position and, then, we had -- as part of the reorg one of the positions -- or, actually, two of the positions moved under our administrative services. So, it helps our span of control to be a little more manageable, so stand for any questions. De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Council, any questions? This is an action item, so I would be looking for Council action. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we approve the budget amendment in the amount of 26,725 for the community development position reclassification. Little Roberts: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. De Weerd: Thank you, Bruce. Freckleton: Thank you. Item 6: Action Items A. Public Hearing for City of Meridian Business Hours De Weerd: Okay. Under Action Items we do have a public comment period for two different things. First is regarding the City of Meridian business hours. Council, in your packet there should be information on the poll that we took after the discussion that we had last week. So, just to refresh your -- your memory that this is not to change the Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 15 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 13 of 22 number of hours that the City Council -- or City Hall is open, but the hours available to our citizens, to ask for their feedback on what would be most convenient in doing their business at City Hall, to do a Monday through Thursday 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and a Friday 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. or to maintain the Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. hours. The poll results were that 58 percent would like to see the change from the Monday to Thursday 8:00 to 6:00 and Friday 8:00 to 1:00 and 41 percent on maintaining the regular business hours. So, with that, Mr. Clerk, are there any -- Johnson: Madam Mayor, there were -- nobody signed in for this topic at this point. De Weerd: Okay. We are looking for public comment. Does anyone have any comments that they would like to share at this point? Okay. Council, any comments or -- we can continue to -- to poll our community or take this as an opportunity to see a pilot test during the months of November and December, showed that there is enthusiastic acceptance of this or -- and we can use the time between now and the beginning of November to get education out to our community and work with our -- our department staff. Milam: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Was that a NextDoor poll? Did we do an employee poll or department leaders are just confident that most of the people in their departments are -- De Weerd: Our department directors have talked throughout the summer and this fall with their staffs on what -- what the feedback is and for the most part there is enthusiasm on the flexibility it provides. Milam: Thank you. Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: I'm in favor of trying the pilot program. I think that it's a good opportunity for both our community members to have extended hours during the week and employee s to have a little bit of extended weekend, so -- we still have another public hearing, though, at 6:00. De Weerd: Yes. Milam: We are not making a decision right now. De Weerd: No. No. Any other comments? Palmer: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Palmer. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 16 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 14 of 22 Palmer: I think I probably said it last time, but I -- I just really struggled with the fact that we would have a weekday where at 1:00 p.m. you can't conduct business with your city and, in fact, if it's 1:00 p.m. you have to wait until Monday. It's crazy to me. But we do a lot of crazy things in this room. What's one more. De Weerd: Okay. Well, we will go ahead and hear this on the 6:00 o'clock regular scheduled agenda and let's see if we have testimony. Okay. Thank you. B. Public Hearing for Hands Free Driving Ordinance De Weerd: The next item is Item 6-B, a public hearing for hands free driving ordinance. The chief is here. I know he has presented information a couple of times. We did put out a poll, a hands free ordinance poll on our NextDoor as well. The question is -- was should drivers be allowed to hold handheld devices while driving in Meridian. We also noted that their impact input would be provided to the Meridian City Council for consideration as they determine this ordinance and there -- in your packet was a number of comments that we received as well. On the acceptance that it should be illegal 74 percent agree that it should be legal and 25 percent said that it should continue to be allowed. There were 553 votes. And I am sorry, I didn't note that there were 117 votes on the previous one. So, we did get a number of comments and, again, those are part of your packets. So, I would ask if you have any questions before I asked Mr. Clerk if there is any signed up. Nary: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Nary. Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I just wanted to add one more comment. There are two draft ordinances in your packets. One has a fixed penalty and one has a graduated penalty. You had discussed both options and wanted to see what that would look like. The fixed penalty is a 25 dollar fine. What I based that on -- that is what the state currently is defined for texting and writing. So, it's the exact same penalty. The graduated penalty was what was proposed last legislative session that did not get passed by the House and Senate, but that was the penalties that they were proposing, other than the moving violation. So, the moving violation was added as, again, a discussion point. It doesn't have to be included unless you want that, but that's the difference between those two ordinances, why one has the fixed and what it was based on and one has a graduated penalty and what it was based on. De Weerd: And, again, Mr. Nary, this would be an infraction, not a misdemeanor. Nary: Yes, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, it is an infraction. De Weerd: Okay. Milam: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 17 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 15 of 22 De Weerd: Mrs. Milam. Milam: Also, Bill, the fee is in an addition to court costs; is that correct? Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Milam, yes. So, the fine is about -- is 25 dollars in the fixed one. The penalty -- the costs that are attached to an infraction is about 60 or so. Sixty-five dollars. So, you add another 65 on top of that. De Weerd: So, it would be about 90 dollars for -- Nary: Correct. Milam: Thank you. De Weerd: Mr. Clerk. Johnson: Madam Mayor, there are four persons signed in. Two wishing to testify. And first is Alan Maslac. I apologize if I said that incorrectly. De Weerd: Alan, thank you for joining us. If you will, please, state your name and address for the record. Maslac: My name, as previously stated, is Alan Maslac. It isn't often pronounced so precisely and correctly as what you have just done, so I appreciate that. And, I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, what was the second thing you wanted? De Weerd: Give your address. Maslac: My address is 4028 North Donovan Way in Meridian. De Weerd: Thank you. Maslac: I would like to begin my testimony in a somewhat frivolous manner in order to make a -- what I think is a very important point. I don't know how many in the Council here and Mayor have ever taken the time when you were maybe a few years younger than we all are right now to learn to juggle. It 's one of those things that kids often do, they get one of those little canisters of tennis balls and they practice with those or you can buy little sandbags, you know, the little juggling kit and learn to juggle with that and if you get fairly good at it after a while you may decide to learn how to juggle other things and if you get really good and decide you want to maybe be a street buster or work in a circus or whatever, you start doing dangerous things like sabers or the clubs with flames at the end of it and there you go juggling along. So, you're practicing at home and you're getting really really good at it and you're juggling like crazy and all of a sudden your phone rings. Now, I'm going to leave it to your imagination whether you or anybody else would stop juggling to answer the phone, keep juggling and don't answer the phone or work, or keep juggling and answer the phone. Now, I'm sure you all get the -- the relevance of the Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 18 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 16 of 22 analogy, but I'm sure there is somebody in here that will say, ah, but, Alan, you juggle with two hands. You can drive with one hand. To which I would reply that is not true. If you have ever seen a really good juggler they will juggle plates or something like that with one hand and, then, have rings spinning around with the other hand and they are completely doing the juggling with one hand. Now, how do they do that? They practice. They do it over and over and over again until they can do it without thinking. Now, let's shift gears a little bit. Human beings, which is to encompass all of us, we do things like tying our shoes or brushing our teeth and we don't think about it. We don't give two thoughts to it, because of what? Repetition. You do it over and over and over again and after a while you just do it without thinking just like the juggler does. After a while he doesn't have to think about it, he just does it. Now, let's consider driving for a moment. Okay. When you drive -- and I will bet you none of us has thought about it -- and I really never thought about it until I wanted to prepare this presentation, but when you drive you actually encompass more senses and faculties and capabilities than you do with literally anything else you do in your life. You use your ears. You use your eyes. You use your hands. You use your feet. And most importantly you use your brain. And when you are driving you are literally constantly -- it's not a hyperbole or an overstatement to say that you are constantly making minute adjustments and tweaks to everything you are doing with your eyes, your ears, your hands and your feet and you're using your brain to do that. De Weerd: Alan? I'm sorry, I didn't tell you, there is a three minute time limit. Maslac: I'm sorry, I thought it was five. De Weerd: So, if you can summarize and -- Maslac: I will summarize. De Weerd: I apologize. Maslac: No apology necessary. I thought it was five minutes. I'm sorry. So, you encapsulate all of these things with dexterity through repetition , but when you're answering a phone now you have broken up the repetition. Now you are doing something that you don't normally do or you don't normally do often enough to have reliable skill and what I would like to submit to the Council and to the Mayor is that without that skill you run a risk every time you use your -- one of your free hands to do anything, other than have your hands in the -- remember the 10:00 and 2:00 you were all taught when you learn how to drive? When you're not maintaining that you are now throwing things open to chance that that minute thing that you may have to change you no longer can change or change in the time necessary to avoid an accident or mishap and that is what I would like the Council and the Mayor to consider when considering the ordinance. Thank you so much for your time and attention. De Weerd: Thank you. Johnson: Madam Mayor, next is Shaun Wardle. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 19 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 17 of 22 Wardle: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Shaun Wardle. 2239 East Greiner Street in Meridian. And thank you, Alan, for a great presentation and being here to talk about this important issue in our community. I'm concerned about distracted driving and as traffic increases it really becomes magnified in our -- in our city and so I would like to be here to talk about supporting the ordinance and Mr. Nary has a question about a graduated scale versus a fixed fine, so I believe that a graduated scale will be more effective. There are certain members of our community that need just a little more education than some of our other members and so I think that that would hel p with that and I'm here to offer my support. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, any questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: So, Mr. Wardle, what do you say in response to those that -- that talk of the individual liberty. It's -- I'm inside my car, whether I listened to Abba or answer a phone call is my own personal business and the city has no -- no role in controlling what happens in my Nissan Sentra. Wardle: So, to answer that question I would say that the city is responsible for the safety of its residents and those that pass through our community on the streets and to that measure it is important that we have -- and our officers have all of the tools necessary to create those safe environments and one of the other q uestions that I hear is, you know, why isn't this just a state issue and I believe it should be a state issue, but I believe that Meridian should take a leadership role in this valley. We are most affected, in my opinion, by traffic and the congestion that happens along the interstates and our arterials and so for us to take a stand and for us to put this ordinance into place will allow us not just to educate Meridian citizens, but those that pass through on their way to and from. De Weerd: Thank you. Johnson: There were no additional sign-ins. De Weerd: Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to provide testimony? Yes, please. We did have four sign-in, but only two said, yes, I want to provide testimony. But that doesn't exclude you. We are appreciative that you are here. If you will, please, state your name and address. C.Maslac: All right. Council and Mayor, my name is Catherine Maslac. I live at 4028 North Donovan Way in Meridian. De Weerd: Thank you. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 20 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 18 of 22 C.Maslac: And I am thinking that this is really a no brainer. People should not be on their phones while driving. Shouldn't be doing anything besides driving. And it is a responsibility for the safety of the citizens you give up your personal car spa ce rights when you get on the road in the public. Personally, my brother-in-law was hit in a crosswalk last month and the driver admitted that she was looking at her map on her phone to try and find someplace. He is okay in that the reason he -- he was walking with a cane was that he had knee surgery and now that has to be redone, but that is -- that's the most serious. It was not a fatal incident, but it's just another example of even just looking over brief -- I mean the radio is the same problem, but I agree that nobody should be on their phone in their hands while driving. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. We appreciate you joining us. Is there any other testimony? We won't count this as testimony. We want -- we want the chief's comments. Lavey: So, Madam Mayor and Council, I know that I spoke on this two weeks ago and I won't rehash what I brought up then and I will just make myself available to any questions that come up. I do have a comment to Mr. Borton's question and he knows this already, but driving has always been a privilege, not a right to drive on the public roadways in the state of Idaho. So, that means that we as a public entity can decide what goes on on those roads and what doesn't. Interesting, last week I spent four days in Hailey, Sun Valley, Ketchum and why I bring those up is because they have a hands free ordinance and, surprisingly, I survived without being on my phone, as did everybody else. It was refreshing to actually see people actually driving and not on their phones. Now, they don't have as much traffic as we do, but they have a lot of foot traffic there and so it is really nice to see that the drivers were actually paying attention. A couple comments I just want to bring up. The NextDoor unofficial survey, 74 percent, like the Mayor said, I went and read every single comment on there. You have the people that don't support it for the normal reasons. Government intrusion. There is already laws in place. I don't want change. None of those were new to me. But I did see two themes I want to comment on and the first theme was this is a state legislature issue, not a City of Meridian issue and for that I agree. But the state legislature has failed to act numerous years and we still have the authority as a city to enact our own ordinances and so I believe that is something that we should do until such a time that the state legislat ure decides to enact. I -- I -- it's coming. Whether it's next year, two years from now, three years from now, it's coming. The other theme that I read was common sense. They talk about it's common sense to not be on your phone while you're driving and I absolutely agree. However, we have been waiting for common sense to kick in and it hasn't, but it isn't just with hands free, that's why we have laws. That's why we have DUI laws. That's why we have speeding laws. That's why we have running red light laws. Because common sense does not make us do the right thing, sometimes there has to be a consequence and that consequence -- consequence has to sting. We want that consequence to be something in a monetary value, not in the value of human life. There is talk about a fixed penalty, which -- or a graduated penalty and in the end it doesn't matter to us what -- what Council decides, we will deal with whatever, but the graduated penalty is harder for us to enforce. There is laws in place for a couple of DU -- or not DUI, driving while -- driving without privileges insurance that have graduated penalties, but we have a hard time determining in the field Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 21 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 19 of 22 whether this is first offense, second offense, third offense and oftentimes people are getting away with first offense over and over again. It just makes more work on our part. The other question I had was does the city ordinance have points assigned and does it -- a city ordinance have -- show up on the driving history and I asked a legal opinion today and, unfortunately, I got one yes and one no. So, I don't know the answer to that, but looking at the responses I got is that a city ordinance most likely will not have any points, because the points have already been decided upon by ITD and the violation of a city ordinance would not show up on a driving history. So , there is no way for us to tell if this is their second offense, third offense or fourth offense. So, we support the fixed penalty. I don't know if I support the 25 dollars and that's -- and I will tell you why. There is some talk amongst you all right now that a 25 dollar fee is inadequate to get someone's attention for loose dogs. If we think 25 dollars is an appropriate fee for an infraction for loose dogs, I sure would hope that we would think that hands free driving violation would be much higher than 25 dollars. I would submit to you that the appropriate penalty would be what a standard infraction is for the state of Idaho for the sake of consistency, which is 90 dollars, and I have reached out to all of you, I have talked to all of you, I have listened to all of you and I know that until you vote I don't know how you are going to vote , but I do know that generally three of you support it, two of you are on the fence and one of you is opposed. I would just like to say to you that Meridian has an awesome opportunity to be the leader in the Treasure Valley to do something that is going to support public safety and, hopefully, that's the catalyst that's necessary to not only get our neighboring communities to rally with us -- I mentioned before four have heard me and are kind of watching us, but, hopefully, it will get the message to the state that instead of having inconsistent laws amongst all these cities that they need to do what 's right and have a state law. With that I just urge you to consider this and support it if you can and I will stand for any questions now and, then, also be here this evening for the second public hearing -- or the continuation public hearing and if anybody has anything that is brought up I can sure answer them or answer those questions that might come up then, too. Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you, chief. Council, any questions? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Chief, on the fine amount, like any other ordinance, if we said, for example, it's 90 dollars for each violation, in the normal course we would be tracking data on violations of frequency and we wouldn't be prevented down the road from changing the punishment to something else that might fit the data that we find. Do you agree with that? Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, that's the unique thing about it being our ordinance, we can do whatever we want and we can do it quickly. So, if we find something is -- is not working or is too harsh, we can sure -- sure change that. We have done that on parking ordinances where we thought that a higher penalty is appropriate and , then, we start looking at it and start working it, you realize, no, maybe it should be a little less. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 22 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 20 of 22 What I will tell you is that this isn't about it be ing a moneymaker and that -- and I have said this before -- is if -- if we can get compliance and not write a single ticket we have won. So, whatever we think that penalty is that -- that is going to make people think twice -- because, frankly, what I will tell you is that if -- if I wanted to take the risk and there is no points on my record and it was only 25 dollars, I would take the risk. I would take the risk and pay the 25 dollars and move on. I'm sure that -- I'm not here to advocate that I would do that, but that's the thing that -- that we are going to be dealing with is people are going to say it's 25 bucks, I don't want to give the city 25 dollars, but I will if it's not going to affect my insurance and they do not realize that there is court costs that's attached to that, too, and that kind of surprises them and that hurts, but something for you to think about. It is up to you to decide what is appropriate or not. But I think one fixed cost is probably more appropriate than a graduated, but we can sure try that if you want. Borton: Madam Mayor. To follow up to that. So, if the recommendation is fixed cost 90 dollars, plus court costs for each violation, what is the recommendation on the effective date? Lavey: Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton -- and I discussed this with our traffic unit today and I have a couple thoughts, but they are not -- they are not solid, they are definitely flexible. I can't answer that completely, because it all depends on when this would go into effect. I'm assuming that if we follow the standard procedures it would be three weeks of readings, publishing in the paper, and probably 30 days to go into effect or something like that. So, I would say -- I was thinking originally the first of the year, but I think at least 60 days would be appropriate and we can sure make that longer and Council can sure give me direction on if they want it even longer than that and I would like to point out, too -- I forgot that -- is that when I was visiting those cities that have hands free ordinances they have signs that are out to educate the public. One of them is with words, hands free ordinance. One of them is with an emoji of a head with a phone up to their ear with line through it. Hadn't seen that one yet, so it really caught -- it caused me to look at it and go what are they trying to say and , then, I realized what they were saying, because we just don't see it. So, if we are going to put signs up here we need time for that. I would suggest a -- a mega social media campaign. I would suggest notifications in our water bills, utility bills, and I would do a media blitz and that is going to take us a while. So, I'm flexible on what the Council would think is appropriate, but it's not going to be immediate. De Weerd: And I think, too, when we did the texting while driving as a local ordinance we had the first month as writing warnings as a way to start -- maybe a soft -- a soft launch. Lavey: Yeah. Madam Mayor, you are correct. I think it was about 90 days and that's where you would have the ability to actually pull people over and educated them for it. You just wouldn't write them for it. And we can agree amongst all of us what we think is -- is appropriate for that. De Weerd: Okay. Other question? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 23 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 21 of 22 Lavey: Thank you. De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Well -- so, we will revisit this at our regular meeting. Item 7: Executive Session per Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(f): To communicate with legal counsel for the public agency to discuss the legal ramifications of and legal options for pending litigation, or controversies not yet being litigated but imminently likely to be litigated De Weerd: Item 7 is Executive Session per Idaho State Code. Do I have a motion? Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-206(1)(f). Milam: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn into Executive Session. Mr. Clerk, will you call roll. Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, yea; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Bernt, yea. De Weerd: All ayes. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:36 p.m. to 5:59 p.m.) De Weerd: I would entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Move we come out of Executive Session. Milam: 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: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 15, 2019 – Page 24 of 294 Meridian City Council Work Session October 8, 2019 Page 22 of 22 De Weerd: Do I have a motion to adjourn our work session? Borton: Madam Mayor, I move we adjourn. Little Roberts: 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 5:59 P.M. 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