HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-10-15 Work SessionMeridian City Council Work Session October 15, 2019.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, October
15, 2019, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Tammy de Weerd, Joe Borton, Ty Palmer, Anne Little Roberts and
Treg Bernt.
Members Absent: Genesis Milam and Luke Cavener.
Also Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Warren Stewart, Mark Ford, Jeff Lavey, Joe
Bongiorno, Dale Bolthouse and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X__ Anne Little Roberts X _ _Joe Borton
X__ Ty Palmer X__ Treg Bernt
______Genesis Milam ______Lucas Cavener
__X__ Mayor Tammy de Weerd
De Weerd: Okay. Welcome to our City Council work session. We appreciate seeing our
Public Works team out there in the audience. For the record it is Tuesday, October 15th.
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: We have a correction, at least on the public's published agenda Item L. The
correct amount for that agenda item is $23,000.76.
De Weerd: Is that exact?
Borton: Exact.
De Weerd: Sorry.
Borton: Seventy-six cents. With that amendment I move we adopt the agenda.
Little Roberts: Second.
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De Weerd: I have a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion
carried.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
Item 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Approve Minutes of October 8, 2019 City Council Work Session
B. Approve Minutes of October 8, 2019 City Council Regular
Meeting
C. Final Plat for Summerwood Estates Subdivision (H-2019-0093)
by WHPacific, Inc., Located at 4202 and 4052 W. Daphne St.
D. Final Order for Cherry Blossom (H-2019-0064) by Doug Jayo,
Jayo Land Development Company, LLC, Located at 615 W.
Cherry Ln.
E. Final Order for Gander Creek North No. 1 (H-2019-0096) by
Trilogy Idaho, Located on the South Side of W. McMillan Rd., 1/4
mile West of N. McDermott Rd.
F. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Adera (H-2019-0092)
by Chad Olsen, Located at 1680 W. Ustick Rd.
G. Development Agreement for Verona (Jackson Food Stores)
(H2019-0070) with Jackson Food Stores, Inc., Located at 4870 N.
Ten Mile Rd.
H. Approval of Purchase Order #20-0052 to Ferguson Enterprises
for FY20 New and Replacement Water Meters and Meter
Equipment for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $823,322.00
I. Approval of Purchase Order to Motorola for Police Mobile
Radios for the Not-to-Exceed amount of $794,698.27
J. Approval of Purchase Order #20-0048 to USSSOA for FY20 Adult
Sports Officials for the Not-to-Exceed Amount of $52,400.00
K. Award of Change Order No. 9 to The Ewing Company, Inc. for
the WRRF Headworks Expansion” Project for a Not-To-Exceed
Amount of $117,796.04
L. Approval of AIA G701 Change Order 2 for “Fire Station 6
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Construction” to ESI for a Not-To-Exceed amount of
$37,678.60.00 - 23,004.76 (corrected)
M. Approval of Program Year 19 Community Development Block
Grant Subrecipient Agreements
N. Resolution 19-2168: A Resolution Re-Appointing Steven Cory to
Seat 4 and Megan Larson to Seat 5 to the Meridian Solid Waste
Advisory Commission
O. AP Invoices for Payment - 10/09/19 - $160,043.36 Special
P. AP Invoices for Payment - 10/11/19 - $25,711.50
Q. AP Invoices for Payment - 10/16/19 - $3,585,343.70
De Weerd: Item 3 is our Consent Agenda.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I move we approve the Consent Agenda with that amendment on the 3-L and for
the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. If there is no
questions, Mr. Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, yea; Milam, absent; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
De Weerd: All ayes.
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. Public Works Annual Update
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De Weerd: So, we will get right into our Department Reports with our Public Works annual
update. And welcome to the stage, Dale Bolthouse.
Bolthouse: Thank you, Mayor. I don't know if I'm going to need these or not. Glasses
here, so -- thank you and I look forward to the opportunity to take the next few minutes
here time and share a little bit about what's going on with the Public Works Department.
One of the -- one of the things about doing your update in advance of the annual
performance evaluations is you get an opportunity to kind of selectively convince some
to join you in the audience and so we are -- thank you, team, for -- for sitting back there.
Actually, I have told them that with the first question I'm bailing out to the subject matter
experts. So, they do have a -- they do have a role here to -- in today to pay attention and
know what's going on. So, we are going to hopefully take, you know, maybe the next 30
minutes or so and talk a little bit about Public Works and what we have been doing and
some of the things that are kind of driving our world. This -- this first photo I just wanted
to point out that we have our water superintendent Dennis Teller teaching one of the
classes of third graders as they come through. We love doing that every year and it's no
small task. We actually teach 64 classes and over 1,600 youngsters on exactly what
Public Works is. So, by -- by doing that we -- we learn our ourselves on what to do. We
are going to walk through this a little differently than what we have I think in the past few
years. We have always kind of taken a department-by-department approach and we have
marched various members of our staff up here to share what's going on and we decided
this year to kind of turn it around a little bit and so what we are going to do is kind of walk
you through what we think are some of the key guiding operational objectives of our
department and, unfortunately, that means you get to listen to me and only me for
probably the next 30 minutes or so. So, bear with me, I will try to walk us through. But
we have got -- we have got a lot of fun things going on and so this will be kind of the
format in which we move through those. Before we dig in, though, what would it be
without some kind of fun facts and figures. I know that you guys are running out of
material at cocktail parties and other important events happening around the city. So, if
you -- if you take a look here, you know, some of the ways that we measure growth is,
you know, in orders of magnitude. So, we have got, as you can see, some 600 miles plus
of water main that we have in our city. We are approaching 38,000 water accounts this
year. Three point two billion gallons of water produced and I did a little calculation here
and that would be the equivalent of taking and filling and emptying the iconic Meridian
tower 6,400 times a year. So, if that helps you get a little scale around that. We are
averaging about 9.9 million gallons a day that we -- we produce and deliver on. The
sewer side you see we are approaching about 500 miles of main. Customer information
is something similar. Thirty-two miles added in the last year and a half. So, it's -- we are
adding to that total pretty quickly. There again we grew about 167 million gallons over
last year and to just add some -- some perspective, that's about 4,700 Olympic sized
swimming pools that we processed in the -- in the last year. So, a few fun things
associated with growing. And our first category is supporting growth. We want to highlight
some examples of what's going on for those areas. This is not a complete list and that's
in everybody's benefit this afternoon. So, want to talk about a couple of the -- of the key
projects that are in progress right now or recently committed -- completed. Two of them
are very significant that you have been a part of and been able to be out there. One is
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the head works. That project's completed. It's up and running and serving us well. The
second is the first phase of our capacity expansion, which largely focuses on the hydraulic
aspect of -- of waste treatment. That's going to be up running in the next 60 days. So,
we are approaching commissioning in early November and coming online in December.
Both of those projects really do a great job of setting kind of a superstructure foundation
of that facility and will allow us to incrementally grow on that investment over the next
many years as we continue to build out our city. It also plays a very critical role in our
permit compliance. So, big, big efforts that are coming to fruition there. We have also
got a couple of other projects that are included in this and that is the Linder Road sewer
trunk line. That completes in April of this coming year and kind of finalizes our
commitment for the south Meridian growth and annexation area, as well as some pretty
significant upgrades to our Black Cat lift stations, which will allow those to continue to
handle the larger capacity. Looking ahead a little bit, we have got a couple of projects to
highlight here for you. One is the digestion process. So, we have been focusing a lot on
the hydraulic aspects of the plant and now it's time to kind of move over and look at our
processing solids. So, we will design and construct over the next couple of years another
digester for the solid stream side of the plant and that's going to be approximately a ten
million dollar investment once it's completed. Also we are starting our initial planning
efforts, it's in our master plan, but the McDermott trunk sewer project, which takes a large
main line from roughly McMillan all the way down to Highway 84, is a phased in project
that starts here in '24 with design and, then, subsequently design and build sections on
through the end of the decade where that trunk line will be completed. That project is
extremely critical for the city's ability to grow and serve the western side of our boundary,
as well as the whole southwestern plateau in the city. So, a big, big project that is on the
horizon and getting quite a bit of an attention already by the team.
De Weerd: That's a fantastic picture. It really shows a lot and the depth and complexity
just in one picture.
Bolthouse: Just in the -- in the sewer there.
De Weerd: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Bolthouse: Yeah. We have a -- you know, as we -- as we have to extend further and
further we have a number of deep sewer services that -- that are critical to our operation.
On the water side, obviously, a lot of activity there. Typically our growth comes in the
areas of supply wells and reservoirs and distribution system and -- and, obviously, that's
no different right now. We have recently completed and brought online three new wells
in our growth areas and we have three more wells that are planned in the ten year CFP
window. Also we are -- we have visibility of our next reservoir. That's out about eight
years and is currently planned for the use to serving the western side of the city. Also on
the water growth side we have got the completion of a mainline extension down on Linder
and that Victory-Ten Mile area and -- and what's that, Treg? It's -- if I understood, 23,290
feet are being added as part of that product. Thank you for the question. So, anyhow --
so we have --
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De Weerd: Great question. It was. Good job.
Bolthouse: So, we have -- we have a lot of -- a lot of activity there. One of the -- one of
the things that -- that has a significant influence -- and I wanted to share this with you.
This happens to be a map -- a map of a lot of the projects that we have going around the
city, but I direct you to the purple sections. Those are the ITD and ACHD projects that
likely will have some influence on our ability to either adjust or upgrade or improve our
water and sewer mainline systems and there is a number of them. There is -- there is
actually 48 projects in the -- in the plan where roadwork will give us those opportunities
to make those improvements. So, partnering with them, understanding what they are
doing, is very important to -- to us on our planning side of the -- of the picture here. If you
take all of those projects and add them up and the others that are in our portfolio, we have
roughly 72 million dollars that we are planning to spend as identified in our ten year CFP
that was recently completed. So, that's from FY-21 to FY-30 and that represents about
40 percent or so of the total CFP spending is supporting growth in our city. So, not
insignificant by any stretch of the mean -- of the sense. One of our other primary guiding
objectives is certainly meeting regulatory requirements and that -- as you're well aware
we are highly regulated by DEQ, EPA, state of Idaho and just about anybody else that
has a license out there and can -- can carry -- carry the day with us. So, anyway, we want
to take you through some of the major things that are happening on that front. Believe it
or not, the -- on the wastewater side we have already completed our second year of the
new NPDES permit and are well into our third year. That's a five year compliance permit
and I am very proud of the wastewater team and their efforts and can -- can tell you today
that we have no notice of noncompliance against that permit. So, an excellent job by that
team as we move forward on that effort. The state continues to transition from the federal
control to state control over the NPDES and discharge permit systems, so it's now
referred to as the Idaho -- IPDES program and they are also taking over compliance. So,
we are still looking for I guess an elevated oversight into our operations and organization
as the state continues to make that transition. These things are -- are just constantly
evolving and to that end we have created within our department a permit planning team.
It's not too early to get started. There are some 40 to 45 permits that are outstanding
around the state. We are watching those. They have issued a few on a draft basis. There
are actually no permits that had been completely issued, but our -- but this team is tasked
with keeping an eye on those, understanding what the key issues are across the state
and the landscape, those that are here in the valley, because we likely will see those in
our new permit, which now is less than three years away, we will have to file our
application for our new permit in a little over two years. So, a very strong effort by the
team to make sure that we are aware of what's going on, we are available to comment
on them and make sure that Meridian's interests are well represented in the -- in the
permitting process. Another important project from a regulatory standpoint that you have
approved us to initiate and that is the side stream phosphorus project. We have got to
get that material out of our process stream and that's going to be critical for us meeting
the final limits on -- on phosphorus. A couple other items that are a little bit further out,
but -- but are -- but are right around the corner. You know, once we -- once we get our
current capacity expansion project up, running, and fully commissioned, we turn our
sights to the old facility and retrofitting it and it's largely going to enable us to have the
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processing capacity. So, the loading that's coming with the new hydraulic volume is what
we need to focus on next and that's referred to as that phase two process capacity and
that actually starts in design in '21 and completes in '23 and that's another 18 million dollar
initiative and it's really that processing capability, that processing time, that will allow us
to drive our nutrient limits down to the level that they will need to be. Included right on
the heels of that project is the tertiary filtration. So, we just can't get where we need to
be with biological processes and the final step will have to be a very complex filtration
effort to remove those final levels of constituents to meet our final permit. Those projects
come online and start design in FY-22 and we have to have them up and running by the
end of FY-25, so that we can confirm steady state operation and performance before our
'27 deadline for those permit requirements. I don't know why we stuck this work second
access on there, but that's an ongoing kind of thorn in the side, but we are working
diligently to still make every effort to secure a second entrance and emergency access
way into the facility as we continue to grow. We have got a primary path and we still
believe that that's going to be a possibility. So, that continues to be worked on as well.
On the water side equally proud. No noncompliance concerns in our water system as
they continue to get both federal and state regulation over them. So, great job by our
water department. We successfully navigated our way through the UCMR testing phase
one, which was done in May. You are familiar with the 50 or so constituents that we had
to test all of our supply wells and we came out of that in -- in very good shape. No health
advisories or anything of that nature were needed to be issued. So, great effort on that
front. We are also -- successfully completed design and are implementing our corrosion
control study, which is a regulatory requirement to make sure that our water does not
have a constituent or pH level that might create corrosion occurring, not only in our
distribution system, but in the homes of our -- and places of work of our constituents and
so that's a year long study that we are going to have to do and depending upon the results
of that we may have to do things like further filtration or water conditioning or something
like that to eliminate any corrosivity that's in it. So, stay tuned, we will keep you posted
on that. We are not anticipating any significant issue, but a 12 month test is actually what
will determine what next steps, if any, we have to take regarding corrosion control. If you
take the regulatory compliance areas that we talked about, add them all up, you can see
that that is also coincidentally a little over 70 million dollars in the ten year CFP, closer to
42 percent of the projected spending on those items that help us meet our regulatory
requirements. The next key area we wanted to share a few things with you on is improving
quality and -- and -- and our customer service. You have got some interesting photos
there from some water treatment. That's where those efforts really fall in -- in our opinion.
Although -- although we are blessed with good water supply, no water -- or not all water
is created equal and we do have a number of issues in our water supply that we have to
concern ourselves with and all of them are largely naturally occurring. We have -- we
have talked to death I think the manganese and the iron. We also have things like arsenic.
We have uranium. We have hydrogen sulfide. A number of those items can create both
regulatory and anesthetic kind of challenges for us. Adds a lot of complexity to what we
are doing and the water and engineering team here in the last six months or so are really
taking a deep dive down into water quality issues associated with each zone in our system
and in developing long-term strategies that will allow us to ensure a redundant high quality
supply of water that our customers demand. In support of that we have four water
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treatment facilities largely for iron and manganese that are on now -- online now. We
have one more coming on, which is Well 28, which is below BlackRock, which will help
that area and we actually have seven more water quality treatment facilities in our ten
year CFP. So, a lot of effort to make sure that we can supply quality water to our
customers. Facilitating that is the ongoing flushing program, which is largely becoming
directional -- unidirectional in nature and we can go out and hit targeted areas. We have
seen a pretty significant reduction in the occurrences of complaints associated with
discolored water or sediment and a lot of this effort has been I think -- you know, it's paying
dividends. AMI, which is the automatic meter infrastructure project that we are getting
and gaining quite a bit of experience with our census meter efforts is -- is likely to be a
substantial tool for us down the road here from a diagnostic standpoint from a
consumption standpoint, from a customer service standpoint and that will enable us to
have near continuous monitoring of water consumption by customer. This year we will
have about 40 percent of our customers that have that capability and over the next several
years we will transition that to a hundred percent. We have to make change out, it's quite
expensive to do so, but it will be -- it will be an important opportunity for us. On the
wastewater side, we -- we decided to focus on one item and that is odor control. As part
of the head works project we installed a state of the art bio filter. That's the photo that
you see on the screen here. And that allows us to generate a biological process that
consumes the constituents that contribute to odor. This takes all of the air off of the
highest odor contributing areas of the facility, which is at head works and it brings it
through here. So, this system is coming online and we anticipate it will go a long ways to
-- to helping reduce odors for our neighbors that surround the facility and to help identify
and confirm that we have planned a comprehensive odor study to be completed next
summer and we will be able to compare that back to the one that was done in 2004 and
we anticipate we have taken some great strides in reducing that issue and will continue
to do so every chance we get. One of the areas that we also believe contributes to
improving quality and customer service is our streetlight program. You know, this thing
has just really blown up over the last few years and we have a full on program now that
we are managing. You will see that we are over 7,500 lights that we are responsible for
as a city. Actually, almost 20 percent of those have been converted to LED, which is --
which is certainly heading the right direction. All new lights going in are of a higher
efficiency and as we replace and touch and change them out we are doing the same with
there. So, a big, big effort for the community in re -- you know, improving illumination for
those walking to school routes, high crime areas and any -- and other vehicle, pedestrian
safety type efforts. We are adding over 500 lights a year to this program and one of the
key things that we had to institute in the last year was -- we have to go out as part of the
811 Dig Line type system and we have to mark the power runs to every one of those
streetlights and we successfully navigated. We have a fix in place. We have a team
that's identified the variety of options and you will likely see us come forward with a
request to allow us to minimize the cost and improve the service of our location of
streetlights. Contributing as well, we have leveraged I think very well the CDBG grant
opportunities and that's helping to improve those underserved areas in our city from a
street lighting perspective. If you take those particular projects for quality and customer
service, you will see that that portfolio is a -- just a little under five million dollars in the ten
year CFP. On the improving or increasing system reliability, you know, our customers
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expect us to be performing at peak 24/7, 365, hitting on all cylinders and reliability and
the things that we do to improve reliability are really at the core of what we do every day.
Some of the initiatives that we wanted to highlight to you today is that we -- we
commissioned a long-term investment or replacement program for our buried
infrastructure and this group has completed their phase one and we are going to be
sharing that study with you in November, but we charged them with really figuring out just
exactly what we have in the ground. Profile that system. What's there? How much is it?
What's the age? What's the condition? What do we need to do about it as we look longer
term for -- as you could see over 1,100 miles of combined water and sewer infrastructure
that someday is going to be need to be dealt with. One of the snippets out of that report
is the chart you see in front of you and that's the age of the pipe in years and that's both
water and sewer and so you can see one of the things that we do have in our favor is that
we are not a 150 year old system. Most of our pipe has been installed, as you can see,
in the last 30 years and with today's knowledge of pipe life, we have some time to
understand and -- and prepare and deal with this issue and we also have various options
on ways to do that and I look forward to that team bringing forward to you the study in its
-- in its entirety, as well as discussions around some of our options to deal with it. SCADA
is another area that is just incredibly important for us as an operational unit. We have
invested heavily. I think we -- we were at somewhere over six million dollars over the past
15 to 20 years, but we cannot manage our operations without having that kind of a system
and we have made substantial improvements in the reliability of it, the trust in it. We are
developing standards. We are master planning. So, we really have a good grip on this
incredibly important program. You cannot measure a billion dollars' worth of assets
without having some pretty good information available to you and that's exactly what our
SCADA system and our SCADA team has offered for us. A couple other things on -- on
system reliability is that we do have planned in our -- in our capital planning, you know,
opportunistic replacements of pipe. Those that are undersized, those are of an inferior
material, those that are the oldest in the system, those that might have a concern. So,
we do have those. This map shows our city projects that we have planned in the CFP to
try to address some of those. Additionally, you know, we are doing a good job. We -- we
don't have a lot of problems, but the way to prevent those from occurring is our
engineering team has developed and updated design standards by which we hold all
development and all contractors to -- to make sure that we have the best chance of getting
maximum asset lifecycle out of the installations that are going into the ground today. A
couple of other final efforts to just review in this area. These are kind of the back of the
house type items. So, they are -- there is things like inventory analysis. It's -- it's the right
part at the right place at the right time at the right price and that is no easy feat, particularly
when we are doubling the size of some of the infrastructure we have. So -- so, inventory
is becoming increasingly critical and we have got a group that's done a great job of
evaluating our inventory system and making sure that we -- it's performing and supporting
our organization as needed. Warranty tracking. Nearly everything that we buy goes in,
you know, does have some kind of warranty to it. Any contributed capital that comes from
developers has a two year warranty on it. We need to make sure that we understand, we
are tracking that, we know when those things are coming off warranty. We understand
condition assessment and we are leveraging warranty and not -- not having the liability of
-- of complete cost burden to the city. Asset management planning will be and will -- will
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continue to be a critical part of our program of managing our assets, understanding their
life cycle, their cost, those kinds of things and so that in conjunction with our GIS. What's
on here is a heat map and that happens to be the heat map that was created with -- with
our GPS system for the Trash Or Treasure program that occurred earlier this summer.
So, very important functions here. One of the other areas that I -- that I'm compelled to
mention is that, you know, our staff -- part of our staff is responsible for facilities. Those
facilities for the -- for the city and you can see now we have 14 facilities approaching
300,000 square feet and there is an awful lot of work that that team does to do make sure
that our facilities are operating efficiently, they look professional and we acknowledge
them as doing a great job. Additionally, that group also supports project management for
things like Station 6, which I hope you got a chance to get out there a week or so ago.
It's coming along great and that's going to be a wonderful asset for the Fire Department.
Those items combined are 64 items in the CFP and are almost 25 million dollars in the
ten year plan for increasing reliability. Ensuring financial health is certainly important to
all of us and that's no different for Public Works. The Enterprise Fund is -- is -- is where
we live and before we -- before we take a closer look I wanted to give you now kind of a
summary view of the CFP. So, take all those little pieces of the pie and some of those
areas we just talked about in our CFP for Public Works and Enterprise Fund is 176 million
dollars. There is 197 initiatives over that ten year plan. It includes capital operational
things and those are incremental to our annual operating budget, which this year for FY-
20 is -- is 19 million dollars that we presented and that you approved. So, I wanted to
kind of give you. So -- so, how do we pay for it and what does that all look like? So, we
continually update our rate fund model. This is a copy that was just recently created
based on our CFP projections, the city's growth projections from the growth summit,
inflation factors, all those kinds are in there and you will see that we feel very good that
we have a healthy fund balance. We are in a save cycle right now and that's -- that's in
addition to significant growth, which is contributing additional money to the overall fund
balance. So -- so, we feel good about being able to fund the projections in the ten year
model. But as you can see it's not sustainable forever and this is something that we --
we need to put some effort against this year and bring you some recommendations on
what we think might be some reasonable adjustments to start to look at what this thing
looks out, you know, eight or nine, ten years from now and what small incremental things
can mean today to help avoid, you know, larger issues later. Some of those items that
we are -- have on our plan of attack for this year is we are concluding our efforts on the
assessment -- assessment fee and the system development charge. This thing still
looms, which is a play on word in the legal system, but some determinations have been
made and there is -- there is a model and a formatting and a calculation called the Loomis
Model and we have completed an assessed I guess a comparison of our assessment
fees against that model and we aligned very very carefully -- or very closely to that and
so we feel good that the assessment fees and things that we are charging are defensible
today. We are completing that work and we will bring back a little bit more detail -- detail
to you here in the next 30 or 45 days. We also have in our plan to complete a cost of
service analysis that has not been done for a number of years in Public Works and -- and
that really is to make sure that we understand our costs, we understand where they fall
in terms of rates versus base fees versus assessment fees. Are they fixed? Are they
variable? Are they direct? Are they indirect? It really is very similar to some of the efforts
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that the city has embarked on and that helps -- this will help us align and make sure that
we have true costs and fees occurring in the areas that they should and likely if there are
any adjustments we would like to see those made in the 20 -- FY-21 rate fee schedule.
So, we will keep you abreast of that activity as we go through the year. We continue to
expect ourselves to look hard at what we do, how we do it, make sure that we are both
effective and efficient. To that end we look inward as often as we look outward and try to
find those areas of opportunity. So, we do have a number of optimization efforts and
assisting in that is -- we have embarked on the path down Peak. We have our first
innovation team, which is part of our laboratory group. We have plans for teams to roll
out quarterly and we will continue to -- to dive deep into our own processes and
procedures and see if we can drive out waste and cost opportunistically. We have also
done a lot of work this year on our KPIs and we have kind of built those off the level of
service platform that includes, you know, quality, reliability, customer service, regulatory
requirements and things like sustainable operations, inventory management. We have
done an analysis on a number of things, like our MXU simple -- simple modifications to
some things that have been overlooked that are going to save the money -- you know,
the city some money. This happens to be a snapshot of one of our KPIs as it relates to
water quality calls and we were preparing and thinking about doing a deeper dive on
these, but the Mayor has prepared us to come back in the next 45 days or so and you will
get the opportunity for Public Works to present to you are 20 KPIs that we are managing
for operational purposes and we will invite you to look at and comment about those and
help us develop, you know, more forward facing measures of performance for us. Would
quickly jump through you -- you're well aware that this last year I think was kind of a
watershed year as it relates to environmental efforts. Really a foundational year for us.
We have spent, you know, a lot of time and resources in developing the environmental
program and kind of the main components of that that you have been made aware, so it's
been a -- it's been a great year on that front and we have a lot of exciting things going --
going on and you -- you heard about those recently, so I'm not going to go through those
in a lot of detail. The other category on the environmental front that you are very familiar
with that we are -- we feel good and that is the whole area of solid waste, hiring a solid
waste coordinator. We just got and will be sharing with you next week the results of our
first environmental solid waste and recycling survey. A couple of little snippets of that I
think are in these charts, but one takeaway is that you will see that people are excited
about having the government be a leader in this area and help drive, you know,
environmental activities and the other is kind of a confirmation of what's important to
customers. We talked about them as triple bottom line. They are identified here as -- as
affordability, reliability, and public health and so you will see that that matches well with
the way that we recommend we look at initiatives in this front. So, finally, certainly not
last, I guess we would like to think it's first among equals, is that we -- we find it an
important part of our objectives is to be investing in the workforce and we -- we need to
have a good workforce to carry out the day-to-day expectations and be able to carry us
into the future for the variety of challenges that exist. I love all -- all of these pictures.
There is some snippets of some different work teams you can see and we are proud of
each of those work groups. You know, one of our biggest challenges this year was really
keeping people in positions, not -- you know, vacancy rates, you will see we had 18 new
hires into our organization the past year. We continue to fight the unemployment levels
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which are low. We are competing against a lot of entities for -- for new hires and so this
churn that's been occurring in some of our -- some parts of our organization has been
problematic. It, obviously, places pressure on the balance of employees to keep the ball
rolling and get the work done and we are very cognizant of this and -- in our spending,
you know, a lot of effort to try to get our fill rate on positions up where it should be. This
photograph was just taken at the recent Public Works picnic and represents those new
staff members and we sure -- we sure appreciate what they bring to our team. In addition
to some of the employment challenges that -- that we face. We do have a number of
evolving needs and those include operational complexity, you know, as we talk about the
projects and the landscape and the regulations and things, it's -- it's adding a lot of
technical and operational complexity, increasing requirements for licensure and
certifications. I found it interesting that we -- you know, it -- it feels like it should be easier,
but 167 licensures we have that are mostly required to run the kinds of operations that
we are charged with. So, a pretty significant effort on that front and as we grow we
continue to face things like wastewater 24/7 coverage and with that brings a lot of its -- a
lot of its own challenges, but -- but we are doing well in trying to keep our arms around
those items. We have some strategies that we think are playing into -- and will continue
to play a role. I see that we are -- there it is. So, you know, as we grow we are always
looking at organization. We are forced and faced to be looking at job classification,
making sure our jobs are matching with the requirements, the skills, the abilities that are
-- that are there. One of the interesting things that -- that I want to plant a seed with --
with you today is it's really job family structure changes and -- and these -- this one
diagram is meant to kind of share how we are configured today and -- and one idea of
how we may want to be looking at our organization in the future. So, if you look at a lot
of our job class areas we have an operator one, an operator two, an operator three,
operator four and those individuals are -- are somewhat, you know, trained in that -- that
particular skill. Many of them have limited ability to move up, to grow, and, in fact, it's
very limiting in terms of the flexibility when we look across the landscape of the work we
have to -- have to get done and I would challenge you that the new strategy below is a
much better model in some of our areas of our organization where we need maximum
skill and maximum flexibility to deploy people against the challenges of the day and with
that comes increased effectiveness and increased efficiency. This is very similar to what
we have implemented in our collections team. We have -- we have six individuals and
instead of having two ones and two twos and two threes, we need six individuals that
have got the full breadth of skills that we can deploy to where we need them effectively
and efficiently, instead of having circumstances like we have had where if Employee A is
not available, the equipment sits idle, because nobody else is qualified or trained to step
in and operate it. So, just to -- just something that we are going to be spending a lot of
time on, because we have a pretty archaic process in a number of our operations where
they are structured laterally, instead of vertically like this. Another area we think holds
great opportunity that maybe offers us a pipeline for permanent employment and that is
we have got to get in and better understand the opportunities associated with the
internship programs and I know that's something that the city is looking at in a little more
detail. So, in spite of the challenges we keep driving ahead. We are proud of our team.
We believe they are capable of carrying the burden not only today, but whatever the future
holds. We continue to invest in them and a lot of them are investing in themselves as
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well. So, a couple that I just want to mention to you, you know, Dave Miles achieved his
MBA from NNU, utilizing the program made available through HR for tuition
reimbursement. Kristina Keith was successful in passing her professional engineering
exam. Dave Gassel and Rick Murray joined the very elite group, they are supervisors in
wastewater, they now hold the level four wastewater treatment licensure. So, a very
exclusive group in the state. We had eight internal promotions. I'm telling you this is the
team to get the job done and those are just a couple of examples of that and I want to
finish by just sharing with you some of the acknowledgments and recognition of some
various groups of people at our Public Works award picnic. Every year we have Public
Works awards. These are typically submitted by their peers in various categories and we
just wanted to give them due acknowledgement for the excellent work that they have
done. So, our employees of the year in Public Works was Dan Berthe from engineering
and Darcy Cummings in water. Our supervisor of the year was Travis Kissire, our
wastewater superintendent. Dave Gassel was voted the SWIOS operator of the year in
the southwest section of Idaho. Proud of Dave and as part of our CARE value efforts
round one, Don Case was our city CARE champion this last spring. We also have some
team awards and these are deserving efforts and the team of the year this year was the
SCADA team. So, this -- this historically was a -- was kind of a one person show. You
have supported organizing a group around it, adding the skills and ability to this group
and they have just done a phenomenal job for us. They have advanced the trust and the
reliability in our SCADA system, which is critical for operation and we are really proud of
-- of Marshal, Aaron and Dennis and the work that they have -- they have done on our --
on the SCADA front. Another project of the year that we acknowledge was the Well 22
water treatment and, hopefully, you got a chance to get out there when we had our open
house, but this is a phenomenal facility. We took a well -- it was at Bear Creek, whose
water quality was so poor that -- that that well was not being utilized at all. It was basically
a fire flow backup, use it only if you need to, and we -- the team put -- put together a plan
and built a treatment facility and now it's a -- it's a phenomenal well, a lead well in that
zone, and this team executed that project exceptionally well. You can see the names
down the list. It's a great mix of people from various parts of our organization. But a great
acknowledgement for that project.
De Weerd: Wasn't there a contest associated with that event?
Bolthouse; You made them water quality or cookie --
De Weerd: No.
Bolthouse: -- or cookie quality.
De Weerd: Like a cookie -- cookie quality contest.
Bolthouse: Yeah, there was. I think that was a draw. There were two --
De Weerd: No. No. No. No.
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Bolthouse: -- very unique designs of cookies that --
De Weerd: Yeah.
Bolthouse: -- I concede that Mr. Teller and the hydro water drop design carried the day,
as opposed to the -- the iconic Meridian water tower, which I thought, you know, had the
nostalgia. So, there was -- there was kind of an age breakdown on --
De Weerd: Yeah, but it had nothing to do with the shape of the cookie, it was the taste;
right?
Bolthouse: Absolutely. Yeah. Right. So, I didn't -- yeah. I didn't see a lot of them being
eaten as they were finding their way out of there. But that was a lot of fun. So, great
project. We have a cross-functional team. So, this is one -- this is a project that kind of
mixes up group, requires, you know, more than just your area and this year being
acknowledged for the effort was a long term infrastructural project. So, this is a project
that Warren and Laurelei led and really involved everybody across the organization and I
will tell you it is one of the most impressive internally developed reports that I have ever
seen and I'm excited for you to get exposure to that. So, very deserving for those efforts
and that -- that work will -- will facilitate a lot of improvements for many years to come. A
new award this year was for innovation and, you know, we have a -- we have a recognition
committee and that team felt like there was -- there was room for some innovative awards
this year. We had a number of nominees and things, but the -- the received -- recipient
of this year's innovation -- innovation award was the street light utility location team and
that -- that -- that really started with the -- the recognition that, oh, my gosh, this is
something that we needed to be doing and we scrambled and got on top of it, got
compliant and they have -- they have done a lot of great work in identifying solutions and
alternatives and as I mentioned you will -- you will see -- you will see I think very soon
here a presentation on an alternative we would like to pursue, but it was really
characterization of that whole street light program, including location that -- that was very
good work. So, although we are scattered over three locations across the city, we truly
function as one team and a team that -- that I and our management staff are very proud
to -- to work with. So, before I conclude I want to say thank you to Susie and Emma and
Sandy for their work. This isn't stuff that I can do. I guarantee you. I can barely push the
button here, but -- but they do magic. They pull together the information and really
appreciate their -- their support in putting together today's presentation. So, I wanted to
acknowledge them. And with that I would stand for any kind of questions you might have.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale. Questions from Council? Mr. Bernt.
Bernt: No questions. Dale, fantastic presentation. Very thorough. I knew for a fact you
didn't do that on your own, but -- right out of the gate. I'm not going to lie. It was that
impressive.
Bolthouse: Hey, have you ever seen me curl?
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Bernt: No, but you can see us on Instagram. I -- just a great job. You put -- you put the
city in a very healthy safe position. I don't think that people realize the complexity of what
your department does. It is vast. It's huge. I still can't wrap my arms around it. It's
complex. And --
Bolthouse: That makes two of us.
Bernt: You guys did a great job. You come up with a great plan. Not only, you know, that
five, ten, 15, 20 year plan and your team has executed it. Just -- you guys have just done
a great job and I just want to say thank you.
Bolthouse: Thank you, Councilman.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor. Dale and team, thank you. I have had the privilege of
being the liaison and it never ceases to amaze me what you all accomplished and so
great leader of a great team that does amazing, amazing things for this city. And the
comment that we got regarding being the first line of us being healthy is a healthy system
and you guys make that happen. So, thank you.
Bolthouse: Thank you.
De Weerd: Any questions?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: I will ask a sideways question. Kind of go along with -- with what is, obviously,
well deserved praise. We hear all the time these types of positive results. One of the --
some of the questions that popped up in this presentation -- one which was particularly
sideways -- it was early on when we talked about the design plan for phase two and, then,
I thought of it with the change order that was part of the consent today and it revolves
generally around the design process when -- back up. Not a very well formed question.
There are -- there are components in the change order that -- that we approved that were
elements that weren't designed -- or weren't part of the original design, so they are added
and there is great reason for it to make sense, but are those types of issues things that
-- that generally we might not anticipate something in the design and only capture it later
on or is it something that perhaps the design professional might be missing. And I'm
talking just sort of general process as we go into that next phase.
Bolthouse: Yeah. Sure. Madam Mayor, Councilman Borton, I think it's -- I think it's a
combination. Our -- our engineering staff, our operations team, in conjunction with our
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Meridian City Council Work Session
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design engineers, try to anticipate as many of those things that they can and if feel
necessary, you know, would include the funding to deal with those as part of the project.
Invariably, though, history did not keep good records on a lot of things, buried
infrastructure and stuff that always seems to create a challenge. We found nothing in
history that would tell us that when they took care of an underground storage tank gas
station over here on the corner, that they rolled that material out and dumped it on the site
that's now our wastewater treatment plant. So, those things do have a tendency to
happen unforeseen, but, you know, our group does the best that they can to try to
anticipate those items, you know, in the design process, but there are always surprises.
You know it -- it's one of the reasons why when you -- when you start the process you
have got this wide unknown, you know, category and, then, as you move from concept
you are truly designed and engineered and drawings and, then, contract, you know, you
bid it out, those very abilities keep getting narrower and narrower and we should get better
and better as that process evolves, but, yeah, there -- there is always an attempt to try to
identify and flush out as many of those things as possible, but we continue to demonstrate
that there is some that you just can't -- you just can't anticipate. I don't know, does that
answer your question?
Borton: Yes, Madam Mayor, it does, and I know there is --
Bolthouse: Yeah.
Borton: -- the flip side of it is there probably -- anything that's missed by the design
consultant that is on them, they end up probably covering the cost perhaps of any miss
and we don't see it perhaps.
Bolthouse: Perhaps. But in many cases if it's -- if it's a fault of something that they did,
yeah.
Borton: Yeah.
Bolthouse: If it's just purely an unknown thing, they wouldn't be obligated.
Borton: And it looked like this one was a good example where there is some standard
evolution of the project that necessitates those change orders, so I was just curious how
that's handled generally. The other question was -- maybe it's kind of a quick update on
what we addressed a year ago, the area of drilling concern and -- and when you talked
about water quality, if there is any snapshot update in that process and have things --
Bolthouse: Uh-huh.
Borton: -- been improved as we expected?
Bolthouse: Well, it -- you know, so the result of that effort was we did not receive an area
of drilling concern designation. However, we did get a commitment from IDWR that they
would uphold and institute the principles of -- of, you know, well construction and things
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Meridian City Council Work Session
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that would protect -- protect those aquifers and I will tell you that Kyle and his group keep
an eye on every single well that is drilled in that area. We have had some challenges that
we have had to fight to ensure that, you know, those rules and regulations do get upheld
to protect it. So, I don't know if Kyle has any other comments. Yeah.
De Weerd: Kyle, you can't talk from the back of the room.
Bolthouse: It's us amongst friends. No. So, that -- so, what Kyle is suggesting is what I
-- what I was saying.
De Weerd: Okay. You have been here long enough.
Radek: Madam Mayor, I apologize for trying to get it from the peanut gallery, but I -- yeah.
Dale -- in general, Dale covered that pretty well. We -- we basically checked up on IDWR
about a year ago and found some shortcomings and let them know and they promised to
do better and we are checking up on them again actually right now and we think they are
doing better. So, we have made some -- we have made a difference, I can guarantee
that.
De Weerd: Thank you for that. You know, what -- what impresses me, Dale, is that is
one example of the diligence that our teams do in making sure that we are aware of what's
going on in our area of impact and around us to understand the things that are going on
around us that will -- could potentially affect us. It always strikes me what you and your
team do proactively to preempt certain impacts that are unanticipated, so -- and that's a
great example, Kyle. Thank you for sharing that. And I would just add to what Councilman
Bernt said, this new format is -- is phenomenal. It -- and I think it's a great thing to have
on our videos that people can go in and see what are we doing in growth, what are we
doing in regulatory, and you saw on that pie chart the cost of regulatory. Some of it is due
to our permit, some of it is not, and maybe that is a recommendation next year to even
be able to show that delineator and that regulatory world. I love the dashboard. I am
excited to -- when they bring it back to talk about KPIs and -- and why you share what
you share, that's very comprehensive and -- and it's -- it's exciting to see, but it always
comes back to your team. Can't say more.
Bolthouse: I'm very proud of this team and --
De Weerd: Me, too. And -- and I love that they are proud of what they do in the city and
it's been hard for me not to be nostalgic as I sit here and think -- oh, my gosh, how far
you have come over this -- over this whole period. I mean you started out with this colored
water. Oh, my God. No, I actually had people walking into the old City Hall with jars of
water and remember we were handing out those little pill things that -- oh, we could go
on. But just how far this whole department has come, our facilities have come, our ability
to -- even the chart was exciting to see the different age of our -- our pipes, our main lines
and that sort of thing. I mean it's just like that's so cool. We finally can show that. So,
thank you to all of you that have -- that are sitting with us. I hope you go back and you
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 22, 2019 – Page 23 of 793
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share -- your elective pride of what you do and how you do it and the dedication that you
give to this city day in and day out. Really appreciate that.
Bolthouse: Okay.
De Weerd: Thank you, Dale.
Bolthouse: Thank you, Madam Mayor.
B. Parks and Recreation Department: Third Addendum to
Agreement for Development and Joint Use of Heroes Park and
Memorandum of Agreement for Parking Lot Expansion at
Heroes Park [Action Item]
De Weerd: Okay. Item 5-B is under our Parks and Recreation Department and this is
exciting.
Barton: Yeah. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm here
to talk to you about the third addendum to an agreement for the development and joint
use of Heroes Park, but before I do I would like to just acknowledge PAL and the effort
they do really for the community and the programs that they run with soccer, baseball,
flag football for the youth is just really, really tremendous and we are -- we are proud that
they use our parks as -- as much as they do and the other thing that I would like to bring
up is that in March 2011 they agreed to pay the city 300,000 dollars over a 15 year period
for the development of -- to participate in the development of Heroes Park. So, they had
a -- they were on a 15 year payment plan and, you know, on October 4th they made their
final payment to the city six years ahead of schedule. So, really, a tremendous
accomplishment and just the way that the organization is run and their commitment to the
city is really tremendous. So, I guess with that said we have a new agreement that we
-- that we are bringing forward and there is really two basic parts to that. There is the
design of a parking lot remodel that was discussed during the budget process. The Ten
Mile Road widening is going to remove a lot of the -- the gravel parking lot. So, that
parking we feel needs to come into the park -- in order for the park to be sustainable and
not be limited in its use going forward over the years we need more parking. So, you
funded the design of that parking for this year -- in this fiscal year. PAL is agreeing to pay
us back for half of the cost of the, design which is 25,000 dollars -- 25,500 dollars. In
addition to that, if we move forward with construction PAL would like to pay us back over
time for the cost of the parking, similar to what they did for the cost of the other
improvements in the park. So, they -- in this agreement are -- are committing to a not to
exceed 400,000 dollars to pay the city back over time. They have demonstrated that they
can and, then, they are willing to do that. So, this would add about 160 parking spots to
the park, would adequately make up for the loss of parking due to Ten Mile Road widening
and so with that I will stand for questions and ask for your approval of this third addendum
to the agreement.
De Weerd: Thank you, Mike. Council, any questions?
Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda October 22, 2019 – Page 24 of 793
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October 15, 2019
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Borton: Madam Mayor?
Borton: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Not a question, just a comment. One of my law partners had done work for PAL
to try and help with this. I have not talked to anyone with the city with it or my office, but,
nonetheless, he had helped, so I'm going to abstain from voting on it.
De Weerd: Okay. Any questions? This is an action item. Do I have a motion?
Little Roberts: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mrs. Little Roberts.
Little Roberts: I move that we approve Item 5-B and proceed with the agreement.
Bernt: Second.
De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve 5-B. Any discussion? Mr.
Clerk, will you call roll.
Roll call: Borton, abstain; Milam, absent; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts,
yea; Bernt, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES. ONE ABSTAIN. TWO ABSENT.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you, Mike.
Borton: Thank you.
Item 6: 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: Okay. Item 6 is an Executive Session. Do I have a motion?
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Move we go into Executive Session pursuant to Idaho State Code 74-201 -- 206-
(1)(f).
Little Roberts: Second.
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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, absent; Cavener, absent; Palmer, yea; Little Roberts, yea;
Bernt, yea.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (5:41 p.m. to 6:04 p.m.)
De Weerd: Okay. Council, 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.
Little Roberts: 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: FOURAYES. TWOABSENT.
Borton: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Borton.
Borton: Move we adjourn the work session.
Little Roberts: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn our work session. All those in favor.
All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:04 P.M.
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