HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-03-03 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session March 3, 2020.
A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, March
3, 2020, by Mayor Robert Simison.
Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Jessica
Perreault, Brad Hoaglun and Liz Strader.
Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Dave Miles, Crystal Ritchie, Clint Dolsby, Jeff
Brown, Mark Niemeyer and Dean Willis.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Liz Strader _X_ Joe Borton
_X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt
X Jessica Perreault _X_ Luke Cavener
_X Mayor Robert E. Simison
Simison: The meeting will come to order. For the record it is Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020,
at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this City Council work session with roll call attendance.
Item 2: Adoption of Agenda
Simison: Item No. 2 is adoption of the agenda.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we adopt the agenda as published.
Hoaglun: I will second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. Is there any
discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay.
The ayes have it. Motion is adopted.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Item 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item]
A. Keep Subdivision Fire Emergency Access Easement
B. Keep Subdivision Water Main Easement
C. Owyhee High School Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement
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D. Prevail Subdivision No. 1 Fire Emergency Access Easement
E. Stonemont Subdivision Sanitary Sewer &Water Main Easement
No. 2
F. Final Order for Jump Creek No. 5 ( H-2020-0003) by Trilogy
Idaho, Located Near the NW Corner of N. Black Cat Rd. and W.
McMillan Rd.
G. Final Order for Movado No. 7 (H-2020-0001) by Movado
Development, LLC, Located Approximately 1/4 Mile South of E.
Overland Rd. on the West Side of S. Cloverdale Rd.
H. Final Order for Silver Springs (H-2020-0002) by Todd Campbell
Construction, Located at 805, 905, 1035, 1157 E. McMillan Rd.
I. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Shelburne South (H-
2019-0106) by Shelburne Properties, LLC, Generally Located on
the North Side of E. Amity Rd., West of S. Cloverdale Rd.
J. Acceptance Agreement for Display of Artwork in Initial Point
Gallery - Idaho Commission on the Arts: 12/4/2020 - 1/22/2021
K. Agreement for Priority Use of Fuller Park Sports Facilities -2020
Season Between Meridian Youth Baseball and the City of
Meridian for a Not-to-Exceed Amount of $13,900
L. Approval of Ada County Highway District (ACHD) Bid Results
for the ACHD Meridian Rd. Utility Improvement — Cherry to
Ustick Project for the Not-To-Exceed Amount of $618,977.47
M. AP Invoices for Payment - 02/27/20 - $16,520.26
N. AP Invoices for Payment - 03/04/20 - $805,468.52
Simison: Item 3, Consent Agenda.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and the Clerk
to attest.
Hoaglun: Second.
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Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Any discussion
on the motion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Those opposed nay. The ayes
have it. Motion is adopted.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Item 4. Items Moved From the Consent Agenda [Action Item]
Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda.
Item 5: Department/Commission Reports [Action Item]
A. Historic Preservation Commission: Annual Update
Simison: So, we are going to go into Item 5-A, department report from our Historic
Preservation Commission, which will be given by Blaine Johnston and assist from Josh
Evarts. Welcome, gentlemen.
Johnston: Thank you. We are unmuted. I don't know if you can hear us or not. My name
is Blaine Johnston, I am president of Meridian Historic Preservation Commission, and
you all know Josh. He is our cohort in crime. Just here to give you a presentation on
what we have done this past year and just like to thank Mr. Mayor and the Council for the
opportunity to do this. Our commission is a diverse and enthusiastic group of volunteer
commissioners. The commission has been fortunate to retain most of our commissioners.
This year we added Donna Lusignan to the commission. I look forward to working with
her. In addition we have Brian Fitzgerald, who is a junior at Mountain View High School
and will serve as our new student commissioner. We hope we retain Brian for his senior
year of high school, which will continue to give us -- the commission some continuity and
give Brian some additional experience. We have an engaging local students campaign
and we have expanded that campaign this year to encompass a wider range of students
and projects to be accepted. We will also opened the competition up to all school aged
youth. The commission will continue to develop this program and to get more students
involved with historic preservation and hope to find more creative ways to feature their
work. After that Josh's turn.
Evarts: Yeah. Thank you, Mayor, City Council. Josh Evarts. I'm the vice-president for
Historic Preservation Commission in the City of Meridian. Yeah. I'm going to follow on
and talk a little bit about some of our initiatives last year. So, our Historic Preservation
Month is in the month of May. Last year we had actually one of our biggest turnouts, so
we decided that I would lead tours in downtown Meridian, so --
Johnson: Josh tells all the truth.
Evarts: Yes. Yeah. Well, most of this will be true. But we -- most of the stories that I tell
out on the walking tour are true, but we like that color at times. But, yeah, so we had a
group of -- a very very large group, primarily because we got two of our historic property
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owners willing to open their homes. So, the Bell house, the owners of that home, opened
it up for locals to walk through, even though they are not a part of the Bell family. They
just bought the home a couple years ago. They were willing to open it up for the public
to see. And, then, Richard Nourse, Dick Nourse -- Nourse family is one of the largest
landowners in Meridian. Dick's lived there I think for a million years, but Dick was willing
to open up his home, which is, basically, a museum and we did small group walking tours,
because that's all you can take through is maybe four to six people at a time. We set up
a tent out front where he had some artifacts laid out of Meridian history. So, we had a
great turnout. So, this year we are going to be doing the same thing. I believe it's on the
28th of May. So, it's always a Thursday night. We do our commission meeting and, then,
we are going to do those same tours and hopefully get the same access to those
properties. Likewise our historic walking tour, walking tour app, we continue to partner
with our downtown business association. They are partnered with us in helping offset the
cost of that. We continue to make improvements to that. One of the things we are going
to show you later is some virtual tours that we have paid for as a commission. We are
going to get those tours linked up on that walking tour app to kind of bring all these
technologies together. So, we are excited about rolling that out. The other thing is is we
always put out our-- if our properties could talk walking signs. So, those will be going out
in the month of May in front of historic businesses and making those stories available.
We do have some historic properties that are turning over right now and new businesses
are going in. I'm primarily talking about the saddle shop on Broadway right now. So, it's
going to be kind of a new property to show off where we will have pictures of what the old
saddle shop looked like and yet you will be able to see something new in there as far as
a new business going into our downtown. The other thing that we put out last year was
this barn calendar. So, this is part of our historic month. We went and had photos done
as part of us preserving history of these barns, some of which are in the process of being
torn down. So, we try to activate our teams when we find out and that's really our good
cooperation with city planners. When we find out historic property shows up with a permit
or something is going to happen there, we tend to activate as a commission to make sure
that we gather pictures, video, history of that site before we might lose that site to
development. So, that's a big part of what we are doing as a commission as well.
Community outreach. Again that kind of talks about all the land development applications.
One -- one relationship that happened. So, there was a work barn that was demolished
for the creation of a new subdivision by Schultz development. In us reaching out to them
they understood the value of that, so they created an infographic and put it at the location
representing the area and the installation of this kind of panel at other historic sites is
something that we are going to continue to pursue as a commission where it's appropriate
and where it makes sense, just so that we don't lose these little artifacts of history as we
continue to develop as a -- as a city. Community recognition. Frank Thomason, that you
guys probably all know, received the making history award from the Ada County Historic
Preservation Council. His years of service were recognized from the county, which was
another wonderful opportunity to show, you know, the work he had done in the City of
Meridian. Our third grade tours. We continue to partner with West Ada School District
and MDC to support the third grade field trips and though we don't have significant
manpower or funding contributions that we make to them, we do support supplies for the
volunteers who lead the tours at City Hall. That's something we are proud of. We did
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undergo a brand change. So, you will see it in the new walking tour brochures that come
out. We wanted to have a logo that was a little bit more reflective of the history of Meridian
that tied better with some of this -- excuse me -- city branding. So, we had that logo done
by a local design firm that volunteered to donate that to us, gave us some options to look
at, and we picked one. So, that will be a part of our materials going forward and I guess
last, but not least, one of the things we wanted to show you -- and hopefully -- are you
guys seeing a shot of Main Street right now? Okay. So, Hull Films, which is based here
in Meridian, they do unbelievable virtual tours throughout the country to some of the most
historic sites that -- that are out there. He happens to be a Meridian resident, a long-term
Meridian resident. We engaged with him last year to talk about what would it look like to
start creating some virtual tours of significant areas in our downtown. So, this was a
prototype that we did for this intersection of -- we actually did three. We did the Main
Street and Broadway intersection, Pine Street school and Black Cat farm. So, as you can
see, he builds a 3D wraparound image of this block. I think one of the real significant
things about showcasing this right now and why it's important to be -- I'm sorry-- gathering
these kinds of artifacts is these buildings don't exist anymore, so -- so while we are doing
these kinds of efforts and grabbing these kind of snapshots in time, we are creating this
--this legacy of what's actually transpiring. I would have loved to have had the technology
to see, for example, this view 15 years ago, like that would be, you know, a really really
cool kind of element to have and one of the things that -- that Hull is talking about is
overlaying some of the historic images with this. But all of these things have the ability
where you can click into it. For example, on this one hotspot we can show this creamery
picture and get some additional details about the creamery. As we pan around this view
we will have another point where this is a gallery of Main Street pictures. So, this happens
to be one of six. I think we can click through these pretty quickly, but it gives us some
different views of photographs that he's taken along this way. So, they can be everything
from photographs -- old photographs, videos -- we kind of can put any kind of media and
now that we have mapped this sort of Main Street location, anything we want to do in the
future to augment that we can just drop those elements in there. What's interesting about
the Pine Street school is we did a very similar tour. So, we started with the outside of the
building. So, again, we get a --we get an idea of where it sits in relationship to everything
else. We do have a map view that's down here in the left-hand corner, so we can see
that. The thing that I found very interesting about this, though, is we actually had him
come in and do an interior shoot as well. So, in the interior of this all these different
elements -- so, this was a -- the Kusler teacher certificate that Betty Kusler had for
teaching there. So, all these things that are sitting in archives through the Historic
Preservation Office, these are all elements that we can make available to the public and
-- and one of the initiatives that we are looking at for this upcoming year is potentially
sponsoring a kiosk in our -- in our main entrance for City Hall here, so that we are not
limited by the hours of Wednesday only. We have seen that there is an influx, like voting
days, where a lot of people come in and we will see an increased desire for people to get
to historical materials, but we are not always open or the historic preservation -- that office
isn't open. So, having a kiosk that has this kind of an interface we think might be a real
value add for--for residents that are coming and transacting businesses at City Hall. So,
with all of that do you guys have any questions for us?
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Simison: Council, any questions?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: No question, just a comment. This virtual tour stuff is just remarkable.
Evarts: Thank you.
Cavener: In a former life I got to work with Brandon on some projects and I remember
-- this is now 12, 13, 14 years ago, he was talking about what it could be and we talked
about Meridian and so actually how he's created something of Meridian is really
remarkable and I just think if this is something that we continue to update, you know,
maybe our grandkids will be able to look back and say, oh, here is -- here is what -- if one
day our current City Hall is known as the Old City Hall and we have got something else
that's going, I mean I think it's -- it's really remarkable to be able to capture this and hold
onto it and I just applaud you guys always moving forward and this is another good
example of a way to capture our history, but in a really unique manner.
Evarts: Councilman Cavener, thank you so much for that. I would say that we are also
trying to really lean in as budget allows us. I think our next corner we want to take on is
Broadway and 2nd just with the potential new development that's happening there. That
whole block with VRT and everything that's happening there is going to look very different
a year from now. So, being able to capture that today is important.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Josh, Blaine, appreciate your enthusiasm and excitement in preserving history.
I share that passion. Just wanted to find out. I like your kiosk idea.
Evarts: Yeah.
Hoaglun: What -- what's the time frame for that that you are looking at? Or are you that
far on the planning?
Evarts: Councilman Hoaglun, that's a great question. We spoke about it in our
commission meeting last week. I'm doing research this month with Brandon, because
he's done these kiosks in other sites. So, I'm to come back to our commission with a cost
for that and kind of a proposal. I think it's going to be a very modest cost, just based on
some preliminary research that I have done. So, I believe that we could probably make
a submission for that budget expenditure at our next Council meeting and my desire would
be to have that kiosk up and available by May for historic preservation. I think that might
be aggressive, but the tech -- we already have the tour built. That's the tough part. So
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-- and even though it's only three sites, I think getting the kiosk in place would be a big
win for potentially our Historic Preservation Month. So, that would be my goal, but -- but
if it, you know, slips a month that -- that's okay, too.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, thank you for that, and whenever it gets done that's going to be
exciting to see.
Evarts: Yeah.
Hoaglun: Thank you for doing it.
Evarts: We agree.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Thank you so much. This is a really great update and it's exciting to see how
you are blending the technology with all of the history. I think that's great. I just wanted
to mention one -- one idea. The one hundred year anniversary of women's suffrage is
coming up soon and a lot of different cities are looking at doing things, including Meridian,
and I just wanted to throw out there if there is any way you come across historical
photographs of the women's suffrage movement in Meridian or anything that, you know,
kind of aligns with that topic I think people would love to see that, because it's sort of, you
know, now all of the cities here are kind of looking back through history now at a one
hundred year anniversary. So, just wanted to put that on your radar if -- if you can think
of anything that might fit that topic. Thanks.
Johnston: Perfect suggestion. Just what we are looking for is ideas like that. We can
put it on Facebook. We can create an Instagram page for that same item, so perfect.
Thank you so much.
Evarts: Yeah.
Simison: A related question. Is the Bell operational on the Pine Street schoolhouse?
Evarts: That's a -- I don't know. Is it?
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I rang it in 2011, so as of 2011 it was still ringable.
Simison: Thank you.
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Evarts: Any other comments? All right.
Johnston: Thank you so much.
Evarts: Wonderful. Thank you, guys.
B. Human Resources: Annual Report
Simison: Thank you very much. Next up to the podium, 5-13, Human Resources annual
report. Crystal, thank you very much.
Ritchie: All right. Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor and Members of Council. Thank you so
much for having us today. I am here representing the HR Department in regards to the
annual report for 2019. I'm going to walk you through some information as it's related
here on the slide, anywhere from some of the areas of support that we provide to the
departments and, then, of course, I will stand for any questions that you may have. So,
first I would like to just take a look at our HR Department as it exists today. We are a
department at six and we provide many services in support to the departments across the
city, as well as the employees. We have an 11 bubble graphic here that represents the
different aspects and services that we provide to 500 plus employees at any moment of
any day. So, this is your current Human Resources team. We have two new additions in
2019. So, want to take a moment to call out Jess Earnshaw. She is our new
administrative assistant upstairs and she has been with us a year this month and, then,
we also joined -- or had Reba White join us back in August as our benefits specialist. So,
we were really excited to bring them on board and I would like to take a moment here and
thank everyone on the HR team for everything that they do on a daily basis for you, for
the employees, to keep things running, to keep things going. They accomplish a lot,
which you will see through this presentation, but we certainly couldn't do what we do
without them. So, we often get asked how do we do what we do and some of you have
seen this particular slide before, but we do it by teamwork. We do a lot. We support each
other. We help each other out, so that we can do everything that we need to do to make
sure that we are meeting the needs of the departments that we support and getting the
services to the employees who have a need to reach out to Human Resources. So, now
I just want to take a moment and walk you through everything that we focused on and
accomplished in 2019. Compliance. Employee engagement. Community focus.
Training and development. Benefits and wellness. Compensation. Employee relations.
And, of course, we are focused this year, as well as last year, on some process
improvements. As you can see here it's been a very busy year, as it is for all of the
departments across the city, so we are very proud of what we have accomplished this
past year and we are looking forward to 2020. So, just a quick update on our strategic
objectives. We started off with seven. Originally we have closed out in 2019 three of
those objectives and you will be getting an additional strategic objective update on behalf
of Vincent I believe later this month. So, let's take a moment and focus on employment.
So, staffing and recruiting is a significant effort by the HR Department and the team that
we have primarily with Christena Barney, Laura Lee Berg, Jess Earnshaw on the
recruitment side of it. However, on the support side of staffing we also have the addition
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of Jessica More. She helps bring everybody on board. So, here is a little bit of information
about our workforce today. You can see there you have the average years of service by
department and division. You have the highest years of service, which is representative
of the member of that particular department or division and their highest number of years
of service. Our city retention rate currently today is 89.9 percent. For FY-19 1 should say.
And our city average years of service is 6.69 years. So, we would like to take a moment
and recognize everyone across the city for their dedication and commitment here at the
City of Meridian. Recruitment has kept us very very busy and when I say us, primarily
Christena, Laura Lee, Jess and Jessica. It's a partnership with the departments. It's
teamwork within our own department. But you can see here that we have experienced a
lot of recruitment this year. Just a couple of statistics for you. Last year when we
presented the annual report we had processed approximately 3,500 applications. In 2019
it was 4,188. That's about an 18 and a half percent increase of interest in employment
with the city. Last year we had 61 postings. This year we had 85. We filled 164 positions
this year. Last year was 147. The average number of reference checks when bringing a
new employee on board went from 369 reference checks to 492. At the very bottom you
will see the time to fill from the time the position was posted and vacant to the time that
we actually filled the position. Last year at this time it was 146 days and currently it's
106.4. So, we had about a 27 percent decrease in that effort and that's primarily due to
the partnerships with the departments, the individuals on the panels, the interview panels,
the hiring managers and the recruiting staff in HR. Here is what we are currently working
on as it relates to employment. So, we are going to continue to recruit and fill the 24
positions that are currently out on the website today. We are going to be, hopefully,
implementing our new U-Recruit, our new online employment application tool here real
soon. I want to take a special moment on behalf of the HR team to thank the IT team for
all of their support in helping us develop this tool. It's going to be a user friendly tool that
is much more user friendly to the public when they apply with the city and also give us the
administrative tools here within the city to manage that process. We will be looking at
updating our exit interview process as well as our reference check tools that we use when
bringing employees on board. So, let's touch on compensation administration. So, HR
is responsible for the administration, managing all of the employee compensation here at
the city. As you can look at the chart in front of you there is a lot that goes into
compensation, anywhere from job offers to job classifications to employee
communications to ensuring that we are compliant with FLSA standards, et cetera, and
that's a team effort that we work on consistently throughout each year. One of the most
significant and time focused efforts that we have in regards to compensation is our
performance evaluation process. The annual city cycle for general employees is every
October. So, collectively we have to partner with the payroll department to make that
happen in a very small window of time and what you will see here is we had 18 business
days to process more than 200 evaluations and get those through for the November
payroll and that's a lot, because it's about auditing and reviewing and processing the
paperwork, entering it into a system, getting it down to payroll, so that they can manage
their processes as well with no errors. I want to say a special thank you to Amy in payroll
for helping us with that. She is the single point of contact. I know she has a finance team
that backs her up, but we do appreciate her supporting us in that effort every October.
So, as it relates to compensation, here are some of the things that we are working on
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today. So, we are working on a general employee compensation program review. We
have established a compensation committee who is focused on evaluating our
compensation program to ensure that it is fair and competitive. We are working on an
annual market review as we prepare for the annual budget process. A police STEP plan
review, as well as we have participated in multiple salary studies in regards to
compensation and we are looking forward to getting those results and analyzing those
results to see if any adjustments need to be made here at the city. Benefit administration
has been huge. You have had Christena here over the last year presenting to you and
talking to you about self funding. The benefits team, which consists primarily of Christena
and Reba, are responsible for managing, assembling, and assisting employees in every
aspects of their questions of their benefits. There is a benefits committee that does meet
regularly to carefully evaluate our medical, dental, and vision plans. Reba and Christena
facilitated 17 open enrollment meetings this year, along with a benefits fair and multiple
wellness focused activities. They also manage our workers compensation program,
along with our EAP program that's offered to our employees. With the wellness program
this year they did coordinate several events for city employees to participate in and you
will see those. They are listed in front of you. They had two new additions to the current
activities that we have in place. They offered a holiday potluck this year, as well as a
family and friends Halloween costume contest, and they are proud to share with you that
they -- that we were the recipient of the Workplace Health Achievement Award at the
bronze level for the second year running from the American Heart Association. In regards
to benefits, we are currently working on managing and administering the City of Meridian's
employee benefits plan itself. We are analyzing our benefit valuation for phase two for
the FY-21 budget, as well as anticipating the analysis of the benefits data that we
participated in through surveys, so that we can ensure that we have a good pulse on
where we are positioned as a city. We also have a lot of responsibilities in regards to
training and development. You will see here there are six different programs that are
offered here that we have been offering over the course of a few years now to all of our
employees here at the city. The new one that you see here today is succession planning.
This past year we did develop and implement succession planning here at the city. We
are participating in or have been participating in our ICRMP risk management discount
training program, which does offer as a discount to the city for their premiums and the
savings last year was a little over 17,000 dollars of taxpayer dollars for the premiums that
we pay for those services and that is a thank you to all the city employees who participate
in that program. They go through the training. We have a hundred percent compliance,
so that we have the ability to share relevant information to individuals, as well as receive
the discount from our provider to the city. Here is a little information regarding the
education reimbursement program. The city has a strong focus on the development of
our employees, whether it's through training courses that we offer, training that they
receive outside of the city. We also have an education reimbursement program for those
who wish to participate and you will see here there is some historical data. With FY-19
listed we have 16 participants. We anticipate 28 reimbursements and you will see some
utilization there of those that actually benefit from the program. In regards to training here
the things that we are focused on currently. We want to continue and close out the
delivery of our avoiding discriminatory harassment training. We have a leadership
development program that the committee meets on that we are continuing the
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development of that program for 2020, as well as we have a strategic objective and a few
other training deliverables that we are focused on this year. Another aspect of what we
do is employee engagement and what you have in front of you is just representative of
the things that we do to support that. We have our annual city employee picnic. This
year we recognized 62 employees for their years of service at a five year milestone. We
had our second all employee meeting. We did have a United Way campaign again this
year. It was thanks for giving where we raised over 7,000 dollars to give back to the
community and that was an effort from everyone here at the city who participated in that
campaign. We have ongoing communications to our employees from Human Resources
via our newsletter and this past year we also did a supervisor survey to solicit feedback
of employees regarding the supervisors across the city to give them an opportunity to
give us some feedback that we could share and coach and develop our people. So,
currently we are also focused on our employee engagement working on the final
development of an employee engagement program that's been a part of our strategic
objectives. We are preparing for our annual or bi-annual employee engagement survey.
We will be looking ahead to our next city employee meeting, as well as our United Way
campaign in the fall. And last, but not least, we have policy administration and compliance
and these things are really important to those of us on the legal aspect, as well as in
Human Resources. We have a lot of new people at the city and we do share the
compliance line with them when they come through orientation, but we do have that
mechanism for an employee to express concerns or questions through the compliance
line hotline and this past year we had five reports of a concern that the Human Resources
Department looked into. We have been undergoing a significant review and partnership
between Laura Lee Berg in our Human Resources Department and primarily Andrea
Pogue in the Legal Department in reviewing and evaluating our current city policies and
making sure that if any adjustments and changes need to be made that we are working
to make that happen and bring that forward at a point in time that's appropriate. This year
Christena reported out on our EEO-4 reporting for the Equal Opportunity Equal
Opportunity Commission. We have to do this report every two years. It's more or less a
workforce data report that goes out. So, we accomplished that this year, as well as
delivering our avoiding discriminatory harassment training, which we will wrap up this year
with our Police Department. So, currently under the compliance and policy arena we are
in the midst of an internal alignment, which is an evaluation of our job descriptions,
classification, FLSA exemption status, et cetera for the FY-21 budget. As I mentioned we
are doing a policy manual revision. We are going to continue our efforts regarding records
retention. We are looking to do some research in regards to our background check
providers as it relates to pre-employment or employment at the city, as well as wrapping
up the delivery of our discriminatory and harassment training. So, I thought I would stand
for any questions that you have.
Simison: Thank you, Crystal. Council, any questions?
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
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Strader: Thank you very much, Crystal, for the presentation. At some point, you know,
we are growing and we are trying to scale -- it seems like you are -- you are scaling up
your HR team and I guess what I'm curious about is at what point does an organization
start to look more like an HR operations team and like leverage software and more, you
know, sort of scalable approaches orjust maybe give me a flavor for what kind of scalable
technology and things like that that you are looking into.
Ritchie: So, first and foremost, one of the most significant things that we do is recruitment,
we started looking at our online application tool, not only from the aspect of what the
citizens encounter when they -- are utilized when they apply with us, but also from an
administration tool perspective. So, we have gone through and partnered with our IT
Department to look at different types of software that were available for us to consider
integrating or bringing onto the city. After a significant evaluation we determined to work
with our IT Department to have them develop that for us, because cities can be somewhat
customized outside of what's out there in the marketplace. So, that's been a huge
significant effort for us this year, as it will actually assist us in that process as the city
continues to grow and we need to hire more people, et cetera. So, we are really excited
about that. But that's been one of the things that we have consider -- or moved forward
with. Other things to consider, which we are not quite there yet. We still are significantly
paper driven in the Human Resources Department. We would like to get that more
automated over time. However, operationally the demands that our customers need at
this point in time have limited our ability to move forward in some of those areas.
Strader: Thank you.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I just want to echo Council Member Strader's comments about leveling up and
automating our processes. I -- I feel so bad for our staff who have to go through -- and
you are so eloquently articulate of the challenges at review time of processing all of this
review paperwork and my belief is the private sector doesn't typically use paper and have
found some -- some much better approaches and my hope is that sooner rather than later
we can -- we can start to embrace some of that. But my question was -- was about -- you
touched on the cost of recruitment just in terms of the costs related to advertising and
marketing and I don't expect you to have the answer, but what I would like to get a sense
is, you know, what does it cost the city to hire somebody if you take into account the cost
to advertise the position, the time of your team and department leadership to review that,
interview candidates, do the phone screenings and reference check, cost of drug test -- I
mean would you be able to give us a feel when we lose somebody it costs us X amount
of dollars on average to be able to replace them and that -- that's something I would like
us to be able to track --
Ritchie: Okay.
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Cavener: -- on an annual basis and my hope is that as we explore more automated
processes we can move that cost down, but it's a real cost, it's an important cost I think
for us to consider as we look at different tactics. The other question that I would like to
get from you -- and, again, it doesn't have to be right now --
Ritchie: Okay.
Cavener: -- is if we track how long an employee stays with the city after they participate
in a tuition reimbursement. Council -- for Council's benefit, but Crystal knows, I -- I -- this
has kind of been a sticking point with me is that if we are going to invest in our employees
education I hope that the taxpayers get a return for that investment, whether that's ideally
to grow professionally within the city. What we don't want is to create an opportunity for
them to grow in their education and profession and, then, leave the city. So, get a sense
of how our taxpayers are being reimbursed for that would be beneficial.
Ritchie: Thank you, Council Member Cavener. We absolutely will take the time to
research that information and get it back to -- out to all of you.
Cavener: Thank you.
Ritchie: Thank you.
Simison: If -- I'm just going to -- I would like to at least put some perspective on that
component. The thing that I think that you can't necessarily tell, especially in today's
market where you do have the younger people who are so transitional, what is the cost if
they stay here for two additional years while they are going to school or three additional
years, as compared to replacing that position. So, while there may be a cost that we can
look at in terms of what you see, but if it's a retention tool to keep employees for two,
three, or four years, I think there is a high value in that that should not be overlooked
either.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, if I may.
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: I don't disagree if you at all. I think that's where I think my first question was
about, what does it cost us to lose somebody. I think that it's not -- those are not two
issues that are in a vacuum, I think they very much support each other and what I
appreciate is this last year the budget -- HR came to us, the previous Mayor came to us,
these are -- these are investments that they need to see from the city in order to be able
to not just recruit, but to retain and I just want to make sure that -- like everything that we
spend that we are being able to at least see what that return is and if it is only for a year
maybe we are working to try and extend that to 18 months. If it's 18 months, maybe we
try and extend that to 24 months. We, obviously, want to keep those people here as long
as possible. So, I agree.
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Simison: Council, any other questions?
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: Not a question, butjust a comment. When you talk about the expense of growing
the city, you listed such a long compilation of activities that HR is critical infrastructure,
which we all know, but this was just a great reminder of the important role that your entire
department and team play in making the city successful and it is part of that infrastructure
that we have got to continue to maintain. So, I appreciate the reminder of all the good
work you are doing.
Ritchie: Thank you, Council Member Borton.
Simison: All right. Thank you, Crystal. Appreciate it very much.
Ritchie: You're welcome. Thank you.
C. Human Resources: Personnel Policy Training
Simison: Up next Item 5-C. You all will have the benefit of having the personnel policy
training that all of the other employees are wrapping up. I don't know what our percentage
is of other employees, but I hope you enjoy this presentation by Christena.
Barney: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council. I am here to do the ICRMP training
that all of the other city employees have had the great pleasure of participating in. So,
I'm going to hand around the sign-in sheet, if you could sign it.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, while she is doing that, is this an open book test or anything or do
we have to --
Barney: I don't know. I might have to put you on the spot.
Simison: There -- there is some off -- after other training that you will need to do that is
-- that you do need to pass from that standpoint, if you have not already done that.
Hoaglun: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.
Barney: Yeah. So, ICRMP is the risk management provider for the city. Lots of local
agencies, counties, special districts and things like that participate in this risk
management pool. Every year they roll out a discount program that the city participates
in. We get a hundred percent participation and we receive a discount on our premium to
them and Crystal touched on that briefly. It was roughly 17,000 dollars last year. So,
typically each year we do driver safety in-person topics, but the employee relation claims
have succeeded those auto accidents, so they have asked me to come in front of you
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and do a personnel policy review. Additionally, Crystal will be sending out an e-mail with
a link. ICRMP has a new website this year, so if you have logged into it previously you
will need to create a new username and password, but once you log in you will have
access to the personnel policies themselves and will need to acknowledge that you
understand them, know where to ask questions, know where to find them and, then,
participate in a cyber security training, which is approximately 20 minutes long. You do
have to take a test at the end. You do have to get a hundred percent. We cannot see
how many times you have taken it, so you can take it as many times as you need, but it
should take approximately 20 minutes and, then, this in-person piece as well. So, for this
in-person piece ICRMP has asked me to cover a couple of policies. So, I will just jump
right in. Employee classification. So, every employee in the City of Meridian is classified
in one of the following categories. Regular full time. Regular part time. Temporary
seasonal. Appointed official. Department director or department head. Elected official.
Union employee. Or an independent contractor. Additionally we also identify between
exempt and nonexempt employees. So, an exempt employee is salaried, not overtime
eligible. Nonexempt is hourly and overtime eligible. Standards of conduct. So, this policy
outlines the things that we would like to see in the workplace. Those behaviors and
actions that are helpful to our workplace. So, the -- it provides the ability to provide
excellent -- excuse me. I can't speak tonight -- customer service to the public and
maintain good community relations. It depends on our city employees. Employees are
expected to conduct themselves in a professional and courteous manner at all times. To
carry out their responsibilities in the most effective and efficient way possible and to
exhibit a high degree of integrity at all times. Additional expectations through this policy
are that all employees abide by the department rules, the state of Idaho's code of ethics,
perform their tasks efficiently and effectively. Report to work on time. If they are notable
to report to work letting their supervisor know in advance, so that they can make
arrangements for that. Reporting any illness, disability or medication that might adversely
affect their ability to perform theirjob function. So, the example I provide is you get injured
over the weekend, you are prescribed a medication that inhibits your ability to safely and
effectively perform your work, you need to be letting your supervisor know, so that they
can, again, make arrangements for that. Keep confidential information private. Keep
your work environment clean and orderly. Put forth your best efforts to work harmoniously
with coworkers. So, don't have to be best friends, but you do have to engage in those
work-related conversations to move the work forward. Extend courtesy and respect and
consideration to all. Avoid conflicts of interests or using public position for personal gain.
Complying with all the city's safety rules. Recognize and understand that city expressly
prohibits acts or threats of violence. And complying with the standards of dress, which
are set by each department director. Prohibited activities in a workplace. So, this policy
outlines the behaviors we would rather not see in the workplace. It is not an all inclusive
list. I do have a copy of the policies. You should have those electronically as well. They
are out on our intranet, but just to highlight a few, violations or family safety standards.
Showing up for work being under the influence. Insubordination. Discrimination in the
treatment of coworkers or members of the public. Engaging in malicious gossip or
rumors. Abusive treatment of--whether physical or verbal to your coworkers or members
of the public. Making degrading comments about a person's appearance. Teasing,
kidding, touching, telling jokes that may be perceived as inappropriate. So, we have done
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most of our harassment training around the city and in that training we explain that it's not
how you perceive it, it's how others around you perceive it. So, just be aware and
cognizant of who is around you when you're having conversations. Unauthorized
disclosure of confidential information from city records. Unlawful discrimination or
harassment of other employees. Unsatisfactory performance or the unwillingness to get
along with your coworkers. Again, don't have to be best friends, don't have to go to the
weekend barbecue, but you do have to have those work conversations. Failure to comply
or disregard employment-related rules or policies and engaging in abusive conduct to a
fellow employee or a member of the public or using abusive language. And there is a
reporting method -- several different methods of reporting that information and I will get
into that in just a moment. Harassment discrimination outlines what we define as
harassment here at the city and, really, there are two workplace harassment categories.
There is sexual harassment and, then, harassment that creates an intimidating or hostile
environment. There is also a distinguishing -- distinguishing -- oh, I can't say that word
-- at any rate -- between what is uncomfortable in the workplace and, then, what is actually
unlawful. So, actions or things that are exhibited that actually cross that line to unlawful
or is if it's a -- or a condition of your employment, if it's made for an employment decision
or the purpose or fact substantially interferes with an individual's ability to do their work,
creating an intimidating or hostile work environment. The methods in which employees
or yourselves can report these behaviors that are exhibited in the workplace and you
actually have a duty as a city employee to do that is through their immediate supervisor,
the department director, or any other director of the city. Human Resources. The Mayor.
Or we do have what's called the compliance line. So, it's an 800 number or you can log
in online. You can report using your name or you can report anonymously through those
methods. We do take these concerns and complaints serious if they are received through
any of those reporting avenues. We do look into those matters. Sometimes it's an internal
investigation through Human Resources. Other times we contract out to a third party, just
depending on the situation and the individuals involved. Through that process we do
maintain as much confidentiality as possible. There is a certain amount of information
that does have to be shared, but it is on a need to know basis. And, then, we do not
tolerate retaliation. So, if someone brings forward a complaint or is part of an investigation
and feels like they are being retaliated against or another employee witnesses that, we
do ask that they -- they file a complaint or air that concern, so that we can look into that
matter. The next policy is disciplinary action. So, reasons we may go down a disciplinary
path are violation of a policy or procedure, unacceptable behavior in the workplace,
workflow impact or substandard performance. We do have steps of progressive discipline
here at the city. So, first we try counseling and coaching, verbal-written warning, which
is kept at the department level. Written warning, which is forwarded to the Human
Resources Department and becomes part of a personnel file. Demotion. A performance
improvement plan, also known as a PIP. Suspension and termination. And I will stand
for any questions.
Simison: Thank you, Christena. Council, do you have any questions on this training?
Well, we appreciate your time and you are now in compliance.
Barney: Okay. May I ask who has the sign-in sheet? Oh, awesome.
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D. Public Works: Solid Waste 101
Simison: Thank you. All right. Up next is Item 5-D, Public Works, with Solid Waste 101,
given by Tom and with assist from Emma, I believe.
Otte: Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council. I'm going to be taking you
through a quick introduction of our solid waste program throughout the city. This is in
response to the request from Council about kind of getting a little more insight into what
is our solid waste program and what it's all about. So, I would like to start off just by
introducing the rest of the Solid Waste Department to come up here and stand with me
and you can see them all behind me here -- oh, no. Just me. Entirety of your Solid Waste
Department is right in front of you. Some things we are going to be going over tonight
are some of the key players in the solid waste business in Meridian, our current program,
what are our disposal options, what are our rates and how do they get made. Our trash
contract and franchisee. Our education and outreach program. And, then, the future of
our solid waste program. So, what is solid waste? You can see up there on your screen.
You have got our code definition of what is solid waste. Feel free to read that whole thing
if you want to. I won't really get into it with you, but just keep in mind solid waste is trash
and recyclable material, construction debris, things like that, that people want removed
that our contract franchisee picks up. And who makes solid waste? Everyone. You do.
I do. The city does. All of the homes do. Schools do. Churches do. Businesses do.
Everyone makes solid waste. But how much of that waste do we make? Well, we are
looking at residential curbside numbers from 2019. Curbside is our most visible trash
thing that people tend to have the most questions about. As you can see it's about 158
million pounds of trash picked up curbside. About 14 million pounds of recycling picked
up curbside. A little more than a million pounds of grass and leaves and about 38,000
pounds of glass. To dive into those numbers just a little more deeply, if you -- this is a
graph of our total residential trash that's collected curbside by month. You see we
average about 4,500 tons a month collected. If you look at that graph you will see there
is a little bit of seasonality in there, because we have organics in our trash system when
things don't grow in around January, December -- January, December, February, that
area, it's a little bit of a downturn in -- in tons collected and, then, as things grow it gets
up a little bit more. If you are going down to a per household average, the average
household puts out about 259 pounds per month, which averages out to about a ton per
household per year, which is right on par with the national average. So, we are right
where we should be. Again, you will see that seasonality trend. When we get into
recycling you will see it's -- there is still a bit of seasonality, but it's a little bit more of an
even keel on the graph. We are averaging about 383 total tons collected per month. You
will see the big spike in January. It tends to be right after the holidays. People are getting
rid of a little bit more stuff and they just have a few more things to recycle. If you are
going into our per household average, it's about 24 pounds per household per month.
That's due to the fact that, well, in many cases recycling is quite a bit lighter, tends to take
up a little bit more space and it just -- it's only half -- it's only collected half as often. So,
when we are speaking about our services what are the current services that we do offer?
We offer weekly trash collection curbside. We have the bi-weekly recycling collection.
We also have a paper collection on bulk items if people have items that can't fit in their
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trash container and they want to have a way to get them picked up, that is a service that
is offered at an additional fee. And we also have a paper collection on appliances we
collect both free and nonfree on appliances at an additional cost as well. In addition to
our services that are just kind of fallen under utility bill, we also have a couple subscription
services that are standalone services billed through our contractor franchisee Republic
Services. Our first one is curbside grass collection. Currently it's a grass only collection
and operates April through October. In November people can use their grass cart to pick
up -- to put their leaves in as well, so they don't have to buy this crap paper bags for leaf
collection. We are averaging about 283 accounts a month throughout the year 2019.
They averaged about 1,084 set-outs per month. It's a once a week service. And it ended
up with about 49 tons of grass collected. We also have a subscription glass service that
can also be a curbside program. Throughout 2019 we averaged about 154 accounts per
month. So, that number tended to go up and down. People kind of realized they could
consolidate down and one glass cart could serve multiple houses. It's a once every four
week collection, so you see the set-outs are significantly lower than per se at once a week
collection of about 82 and they averaged about one ton of glass collected curbside per
month. With the glass collection we also have a -- an option for people to drop glass off
at Republic Services transfer station on Franklin. That averaged about 11 tons of glass
collected per month, for a total glass collection comes to about 132 tons in 2019. People
also can participate in the optional energy bag program, which is a good landfill diversion
opportunity. Our -- our program runs in agreement with the city of Boise, so we do not
have a direct agreement with that, we have an agreement with the city of Boise and it's a
voluntary program at no additional charge to the residents of the city. So, what are some
of the key solid waste players that are actually operating in the city or are paramount to
our success? Well, you have the county of Ada in which we reside. They own and operate
in the landfill and that's where our waste goes after it goes through the transfer station.
We have Republic Services, who is our contracted service provider. We have a pretty
good partnership with them. They do all of our collection services for us. You have
Western Recycling, they operate the Material Recovery Facility or MRF where all
recyclable material collected in the Treasure Valley goes. It's all processed there. It's all
sorted there for processing elsewhere. And, then, you have Hardin Sanitation, who is --
who has recently been awarded the Ada county -- the unincorporated Ada county
collection contract and they are headquartered right here in the City of Meridian. I would
say our biggest most important player would be our city Solid Waste Advisory
Commission, also known as our SWAC. Their big job is to review and make
recommendations to you, the Council, on the rates request from our franchisee, new
program development, program direction -- really anything that might require a decision
to be made. They are comprised of Meridian residents and industry experts. They meet
on the fourth Wednesday of each month and they have a couple events that they do
annually. They participate in our Recycle a Bicycle event, which is a part of the Unplug
and Get Outside and they have the Trash or Treasure event, which immediately proceeds
our unlimited collection week in the spring. Where does our material go once it gets
collected? Well, we got a few disposal options now. The Ada County Landfill, obviously.
That's where all the trash goes. It gets collected. It's consolidated at the transfer station.
Heads up to the landfill. We also have Western Recycling, as previously mentioned,
where all our recycled material goes. And our glass all goes to Momentum Recycling,
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which is the biggest glass recycler in the country out in Salt Lake. As many of you are
very aware, the landfill tipping fee rates are going up a bit. Currently they are 22 dollars
a ton. As of October 1st, 2020, they will be 29 dollars a ton. That resolution was voted
on and approved last month by the county of Ada. That is a direct pass-through cost that
will have a direct impact on -- on our actual rates themselves due per our contract. Right
now we don't know exactly what that's going to be proven. Back of the napkin math says
probably between 65 and 68 cents per resident per month, but I don't have exact on that
yet. We will have those shortly. And we also know that the daily landfill operations known
as Push and Pack, actually moving the material and packing it, is up for RFP. That's been
awarded by Ada county. As of now I'm not sure who was that -- who that has been
awarded to, so I can't tell you what impact that may have on rates, but it could. It might
not if the rates stay the same. Speaking of rates, where do our rates sit? Well, just like
geographically we are right in the middle of the Treasure Valley in our rates. There is four
municipalities above us in costs and there is four that are below us. Our rates are
currently $19.78 per month for our 95 gallon trash service at the curb. We also offer two
subscription services. You will see there are a couple cities that have unlimited service,
so they don't really have a lot in the way of subscription services, because you can just
put out anything they want to in really any condition they want to and if you look at Eagle
and Star on that, you will see that they currently have unlimited service, but they are
working -- their councils are actually working right now to limit what can be put out for
service, so they are putting bag limits out or material limits out on what can be collected.
So, what makes up our rates? Well, there is really six things that make up our rates.
There is trash service, which is actually the vehicle going to your house and picking up
your cart. There is a recycle service. There are two separate ones. Obviously, two
different trucks going to your house. We have a separate contract amendment known as
the recycle processing fee, which some of you voted on in the past. We also have the
participation in the countywide household hazardous waste program, which is where that
collection is at the transfer station every Monday. We have current rent. There is tax on
that rent. And, then, we have the direct disposal cost, the cost to actually get that material
to the landfill and those are broken down as follows: Our trash services are $8.26 a
month. Recycled service 4.13. Our recycle processing 83 cents. Household hazardous
waste at 18, rent at $1.12, disposal $4.76 and tax at seven cents. If you do that math you
are going to get 2019's rate. The increase is on the side were how those rates actually
went up when the rate -- rate request came through. So, our rate request is based on the
CPI index where our franchisee can request up to a certain amount of that CPI index as
the cost of doing business increases. So, there was a 20 cent increase on trash service,
ten on recycling, ten on that recycle processing fee, which was not CPI, that is a separate
amendment, and, then, the CPI increase of three cents, which got us to that $19.78 rate
that is our-- effective as of October 1. We have three different service options, so people
aren't stuck with just that rate. We have a 95 gallon service, that's 19.78. We have 65
gallon service at 17.78. And we have 35 gallon service at 15.78. What causes those rate
increases? As I kind of talked about, we do have that CPI aspect of the contract where
the franchisee request an increase based on what the CPI is, but there are a couple of
factors outside of that, because of some of what's been going on with the recycle markets
it's been more expensive to process recycling, so our franchisee has asked for that
increase in recycle processing. The household hazardous waste cost as the county run
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program as more material goes through that it can cost more, but that can also go down
depending on the amount of material processed and the direct cost to the county and,
then, just the cost of disposal itself at the landfill gate rates or where ever we are dumping
our material go up, that is a direct pass through cost. Getting onto the subject of contract.
Our contract was signed in 1999. The company was originally SSI. It became SSC
shortly thereafter. We added source separated and curbside recycling in the year 2000.
Our contract has a seven year notice of cancellation period. So, if we were to cancel --
to request cancellation of the contract today it would still be valid for seven more years
after that. It has an auto renew clause, so if nothing changes the contract just continues
in perpetuity and our contract was transferred to Republic Services in 2012 when they
purchased SSC. On the topic of our franchisee, though, we do have a pretty good working
relationship with our franchisee. They tend to partner with us on city events. They do
some sponsorships of things like Public Works Week and other-- and other events. They
do donate prizes, like those trucks that you see on the screen, for things like our Trash
Talk, Facebook page, and just other little one-off events that we have and they also
participate in some of our events, like Public Works Week. That bottom picture you will
see is a truck that they actually bring to the Public Works Week Expo to let people get up
close and kind of see what a garbage truck is like and they also have been working to
convert their diesel fleet to a CNG fleet to really lessen the environmental impact of
actually collecting the trash curbside and they are currently working -- I'm not sure if it
started yet, but they are working with our wastewater division to use reclaimed water for
bin washing and irrigation at their transfer station. On the topic of a franchise, well, how
are they doing? Well, this is our --- this is per 10,000 collection. That's a pretty good
indicator of how -- how the franchisee is doing. There is not a national average on this,
because it really can vary quite a bit, but this is the most common way that it's measured
and if you look at August, that's the highest month -- and this is per 10,000. Those are
reported misses when people say, hey, my trash wasn't picked up and you need to come
back. Even in the worst month of August there was still a 99.6 percent chance that your
trash to the curb was serviced at the right day at the right time. So, I would say they are
doing pretty well in the trash realm. And this is our recycling. This is per 10,000. You
can see a big spike in October. I cannot tell you why that spike occurred, but I can tell
you that even in that pretty big spike there was still a 99.73 percent chance that your
recycling is going to get picked up on the right day at the right time. So, even slightly
better than our trash success rate, which is still a very good rate of service. If for some
reason trash can't be picked up, our franchisee does have what are called hard cards that
they can put on the cart to educate the residents as to why the material couldn't be picked
up. There is three --three columns, essentially, that we put that into. The trash was either
not out or was late and isn't set out when the driver went by. It was blocked by something.
Car or tree. Too close to something. Or there was material -- extra material outside the
cart or on top of the cart that limited their ability to pick it up. You will see from the graph
below for trash the most common reason is that the customer doesn't have the cart out
when the truck comes by to get it picked up. So, they -- that's the kind of-- that first piece
of outreach that the franchisee has to let people know what's going on. In recycling there
is even more of a big jump between late and not out and everything else. With recycling
being about half as often people tend to forget that a little bit more. I'm sure Mr. Cavener
knows sometimes you forget to put it out the night before and you -- you definitely --
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oftentimes you can catch the driver in time. As far as our level of education, our city has
a very -- our Public Works Department trash in particular has a very robust social media
presence. We use that a lot to reach out to people. It's a very straightforward way of
getting a lot of people to get a very succinct amount of information. We also do live
presentation events to specific groups and different things. I myself have done a
presentation on just the topic of recycling through MYAC last year. We have Facebook
live events for one offs. We have kind of expanded our Trash Talk page. It started out as
just an orange bag education for that energy bag program. It's expanded to anything
solid waste. New programs and new opportunities, existing programs, what are the rules,
what do I do, cart placement --- really anything you can think of we are trying to put in
there to really increase that education and make everyone more successful in what we
are doing. We are currently working to develop an education program to be able to take
out to schools and other groups that would like more education on solid waste to kind of
develop a more defined curriculum and see what people need to be able to continue to
expand that education and as things change we are updating where we put what on the
website within our -- within our section to make sure that it's easier for people to find and
understanding what they need. So, where are we going? So, we talked about a whole
bunch of things. Our key players. Our current programs. Our disposal option. Rates,
contracts and everything. And we are using those kind of six pillars that we talked about
to try to develop a solid waste plan of -- a one, five, and ten year goal plan to really steer
-- steer solid waste to where we want it to go -- where you want it to go in the future. So,
right now our SWAC subcommittee is working with myself to really build that plan,
determine what the pillars are exactly, what falls into those pillars and the direction we will
go. So, we will be coming back to you after we get that developed for feedback and say,
hey, is this the direction we should go. Is this how we want to do it? Are there particular
things you would like to concentrate on a little bit more? We are also continuing to look
at what are all of our disposal options. We know what our current disposal options are,
but are there different programs or things that will be developed with the Green Sword or
just in the future that could be beneficial to the residents of Meridian and, then, as a big
part of that we are also working on developing that education program, like I mentioned.
And with that I will stand for any questions.
Simison: Thank you, Tom. Appreciate it very much. Council, any questions?
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I was just curious, Tom. Glass recycling, you said was going to the largest
entity now in the country. Where does that glass go and what is it being used for?
Otte: Currently -- thank you, Mr. Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun. It's currently going to
Momentum Recycling in Salt Lake City and it's actually getting turned into fiberglass
insulation.
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Hoaglun: Okay. Great. Thanks. Because I had seen media reports that some of it was
just building up somewhere and I thought certainly we are -- we are using it somehow.
And, Mr. Mayor, follow-up question. Yard waste collection, nongrass. Are there any plans
in the future to being -- going into that area or what shall I tell my wife what she should do
with all her stuff?
Otte: Currently it's a -- Mr. Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, currently it is a grass only
collection program. It does go to -- the location that it goes to is curb -- has finished
permitting for a composting site. They have brought some information to SWAC that's
currently under review. So, I can't tell you where it will go, but I know that they are looking
to possibly make some changes. Before anything happens it would come to you anyway.
Hoaglun: Okay.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, just to defend my wife, she's a master gardener. She creates a lot
of yard waste. I have a composting deal that I do, but she generates more than I can take
care of. So, I look forward to seeing what we can do in the future.
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Yeah. Just a quick update as the liaison for the SWAC. The discussion on
expanding a potential composting program is definitely underway and I think we are going
to be hearing more about that soon. There is quite a bit of consideration that goes into
that and it's all going to be part of the solid waste plan, I believe, so I think we just have
to stay tuned for more detail, but I share your concern about yard waste. My composting
-- my home composting program also lacks capacity.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: Could you give us an update on the orange bag program? I was under the
understanding that the company in Salt Lake that was processing that had had to shut
down their facility for some time and it was just being stored. What's the current status?
Otte: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Perreault, currently, yes, Renewal G is down for
upgrades. I don't really have a lot of information, other than that I know the material --
DOW is currently exploring other secondary markets for what they can do and storing
material at the same time. I don't have a timetable currently for when Renewal G will be
back up. However, we do have a representative from DOW with the orange bag program,
who will be speaking to our Solid Waste Advisory Commission on the 25th of March at
their March meeting. So, I would strongly -- if you have any questions you would like me
to share with them or if you would like to attend, we -- they will be speaking at SWAC and
they would be able to more accurately answer those for you.
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Perreault: Mr. Mayor, follow-up question.
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: So, if -- are those -- is all of that still being collected and, then, stored in -- at
their facility there or are we storing it here in Meridian?
Otte: It's still getting -- like just as normal, I think most of it's -- I can't say for certain, so
will be postulating a little bit, but I think it's being stored at Western Recycling right now
or other -- or at the Renewal facility, but I can't tell you that for certain. That would be
much better answered by DOW, but it's definitely still getting collected as normal.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: My colleagues have touched on the questions I was going to ask about, I did
have a couple more and it kind of dovetails a little bit of our conversation about
composting. It's about the grass collection program and this is something that when it
was announced I was really excited about and it seems like every year we have lower
and lower participation and so I don't know if SWAC is having that conversation about
maybe as composting is something we need to explore, what we can do to breathe some
new life into that program. I recognize, like glass, it's an optional program, but it was one
that I struggled to be able to participate with as a customer. It frustrated me, quite frankly.
I want to support it. I want it to be a success in our community and from what I hear from
our citizens they want it, too, but if there is an opportunity maybe for SWAC to work with
-- with Republic to figure out how they can kind of improve that program to serve our
citizens better, as are also having that conversation about -- about composting. And,
then, I guess it's more of a comment, more than a question, but my other question was
-- I got asked this the other night and I didn't have the answer. How come our citizens
can't buy their recycling bins or their trash bins? I know that there is frustration when they
see their-- their statement each month and they are paying a few bucks for rent and they
say, boy, if I could just buy my own I would like to be able to do that. Is there a reason
why our citizens can't purchase them?
Otte: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, there is a cup -- that's a multi-part answer I will
have to give you. So, a part of it -- the reason they are paying for the rent is so if anything
happens to the container, it gets damaged or stolen, they don't have to pay anything to
get a new one, it just comes in automatically. If you are -- if you get a hole inside of your
cart, let Republic know, they will swap it out and you won't even know. They will pick it
up, they will give you a new one right after service. I believe -- and I will have to verify
this, so I will have to get back to you on it, but I believe if people want to purchase a cart
and they purchase one that's compatible with the collection vehicles, they can sign a
personal cart waiver and be able to use it, but I will have to verify that with our franchisee
before I tell you that's a certainty.
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Cavener: That would be great to hear that back and that--that would be great information
to be able to pass along is that our citizens actually do have an option about what they
would want to do.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Just a comment, at least from the conversations I have heard so far, that the --
a potential composting program in the future would be an expansion of the grass
collection program was how the gal at Republic Services explained it and so the beauty
of that would be like it -- it sounded like it could be an all year around type of service
where you could hopefully hit multiple categories, because I'm kind of with you; right? If
it's just one thing or just grass and just leaves, it's hard to justify the cost I think for the
consumer, but I think that the -- at least from the thoughts I had heard, the preliminary
thoughts I had heard about the program, it sounded like it could become, you know,
something more comprehensive.
E. Police Department: Discussion of Meridian City Code Related to
Nuisance Tree Abatement
Simison: Council, any further questions? Thank you, Tom. So, up next is Item 5-E from
our police department. It will be a discussion of Meridian City Code related to nuisance
tree abatement and it will be presented by Mr. Everett.
Everett: Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, Members of Council. Thanks for giving me time to
come before you today. Each of you has received a proposed amendment and repeal
document that applies to our city code, specific chapters are Title 4 and 13 and the driving
force behind this is to just allow for better administration of our city code and consistency
and to create appropriate due process. Our current code prohibits code department
officers from handling nuisances that are trees. The original responsibility was placed
upon the city arborist long before there was ever a code enforcement division to handle
those types of things. So, Title 13 is the only option that the city has when they are dealing
with a nuisance tree and a nuisance tree might be a tree that presents a public danger.
It's ready to fall into a roadway. It's diseased. Or it's already dead or parts of it are falling
off or it has encroached into a right of way. It's lifting a sidewalk. It's creating some type
of hazard. And right now the --the arborist is charged with handling all of those nuisances
and the main problem that is the due process that's afforded to the property owner, or the
responsible party for the tree is they can appeal to the Parks and Rec's commission.
Currently under all of our other nuisances if a property owners would like to appeal, they
appeal before this board. So, consistency is the big thing that is the driving force on it.
Excuse my cough. Sorry about that. So, right now if the appeal goes forward we have a
body that's not used to dealing with any appeals of any nature in relation -- relation to
criminal events. The nuisance is a crime if the person refuses to abate that. So, we are
trying to streamline that and get around it and make sure that our residents are dealing
with the same processes throughout across the board and we are seeing it when we go
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to a property that has been reported as being the source of multiple nuisances. We deal
with nine out of ten of them the way Title 4 requires us to and, then, we say, well, I'm sorry,
sir, ma'am, but now you are going to have to talk to the arborist and I would really like to
streamline that and make sure we are the one point of service for the community, so we
are educating them and we are able to provide that service without giving them the
runaround. The changes would completely eliminate Title 13, Section 1 . Title 13, Section
1, is the forestry code and it would be replaced by Title 13, Section 2, which would outline
the -- the arborist's duties and responsibilities, but not have them take charge of nuisance
trees. So, we are not trying to get away from using the expert advice of the arborist. The
arborist would still be encouraged to provide his or her input anytime they would like to
do so and, then, my folks would also seek out the expertise of an arborist if it's not a cut
and dry issue. If the tree has already fallen and is across the street, it's a cut and dry
issue. If the tree just happens to be in a three year dormant cycle that's indicative of that
species every 15 years, well, that's -- that's where we want the arborist to come in. But
we don't want to bug the arborist with every -- every single decision. So, the change
would make a nuisance tree an abatable nuisance, meaning -- in our code we have
general nuisances and we have abatable nuisances. The abatable nuisances are defined
as those things that we as a city have decided that these need to be taken care of
immediately and if the responsible party does not take care of them, then, we will take
care of it via our own means or hiring a contractor to come in and take care of that and,
then, the property owner, the person responsible for the nuisance, would be charged for
doing that. So, there is a few things that can make a tree an abatable nuisance and if it
constitutes a public safety hazard, the arborist deems that the condition of the tree
presents a danger to life and enjoyment of a property, it can become a nuisance. If it
obstructs free traffic on a sidewalk or a street, that's a nuisance. Or if it doesn't provide
eight feet above a sidewalk or 14 feet above -- excuse me -- 14 feet above a street, then,
it also becomes a nuisance and there are abatement measures that would be
incorporated in this amendment that would either require the tree to be pruned or its
branches to be removed -- removal of debris, roots, roots systems or stumps or -- or soil
displaced by the growth of the tree or as a last resort removal of the entire tree. It's not
our goal to move throughout the city and start saying you need to remove that tree, we
need to remove that tree. That's going to be our last resort. We noticed that -- or we
recognize that we live in a beautiful place and a lot of that beauty comes from the trees
we have. So, we have worked hand in hand with Legal and Parks and Rec folks to make
sure that we are in agreement on this and getting input from our outgoing arborist and our
incoming arborist to make sure that we are not -- we are not missing anything. So, the
Legal Department, the Police Department, the Parks and Rec's Department, we all
support this change. And I will stand for your questions.
Simison: Thank you, Rich. Council, any questions?
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
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Perreault: With this -- how -- two questions. One, about how many of these concerns or
violations are you seeing a year and, then, the second question is will this apply to
commercial, residential, and any entities in between? So, irrigation districts, any -- you
know, the -- the companies that manage along the railroad. Tell us who this would apply
to and how that would work.
Everett: Sure. Mr. Mayor and Council Woman Perreault, the first part of your question is
-- it's hard to answer hard numbers on how many we are handling, because a lot of the
-- a lot of the initial complaints are coming through Parks, because folks associate trees
with parks, so they are calling in and they are reporting to Parks, so we don't have a total
number or a grasp of how many are coming in, because they are coming in across the
board, because we don't have that consistency and we don't have an educational
campaign to let folks know, hey, if you have a problem, please, call us. But we are -- a
ballpark figure we are handling three or four them a month, where we are telling folks --
we are telling our residents, I'm sorry, this isn't anything we can help you with and, then,
we are routing them to another city department and that's the last thing I want my folks
doing is sending it somewhere else. I want them to handle everything they can that comes
to us, to just provide better service to our residents. And, then, the second question -- it
would be all trees within the City of Meridian and answer who it will impact the most or
who -- you mentioned the irrigation districts or our railroads, property lines and
responsibility is difficult to determine and it's very much case by case. The overwhelming
application or rule that fits most cases is the adjacent property owner out to the center of
the right of way. So, the center of the street. If it's from the center of the street toward
their property it's their responsibility. That's not hard and fast in every situation, but that's
where we start and, then, we figure out if it's going to stick.
Perreault: Thank you.
Everett: You're welcome.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: Rich, you're doing a hell of a job, buddy.
Everett: Thank you, sir.
Bernt: You really are. You and your team should be commended for all you -- what you
are doing, so good job. Got one question for you. If a citizen is charged for work that we
do or a third party does, how are they charged? Or how do they -- how do we collect the
money? Just --
Everett: So, it would be much like nuisance leaves right now. If we have to hire a
contractor to come in and abate that nuisance, it's the cost of the contractor's time,
whatever they bill the city, and, then, there is a one hundred dollar administration fee that
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gets added to that to ensure the processing and my folks' time and payroll's time and
MUBS -- utility billing.
Bernt: So, it goes to MUBS.
Everett: Eventually it goes to MUBS, yes. And, then, if they don't pay, then, there is a
lien process. So, that's the financial side of it and, then, there is a criminal side and if
they refuse to comply, then, it goes to prosecution.
Bernt: Okay. Perfect. Thanks, Rich.
Everett: You're welcome.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Thank you very much. This seems pretty straightforward to me, but I did want
to check -- does the property owner have an opportunity to remediate the situation
themselves before this escalates into charging them to do something?
Everett: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, yeah, absolutely. Our goal is compliance.
Our goal is never to just outright come and tell someone, hey, we are sending this to court.
We work tirelessly with property owners to develop a compliance plan and it's all based
on reasonableness. We have no hard and fast date -- if you can show me progress or
you can explain a hardship or you can show me something that is reasonable for me to
believe you, that, hey, we need more time, we are going to work with you and, you know,
sometimes we get exposed to some folks who just cannot come into compliance, whether
their age or their physical limitations or things like that come into play and, then, we have
a network of community outreach groups that we reach out to and we are always, always,
always trying to find a solution without prosecution. Very few of our cases ever actually
go to prosecution because of that approach.
Strader: Great. Thank you.
Everett: You're welcome.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Rich, a couple questions. We are -- we are a few weeks or months away from
pear tree season, these trees -- to quote the definition -- offend my senses. Does that
mean if we -- if we pass this that I get to call you guys to go bug my neighbor about their
stinky trees?
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Everett: Not at all. You can call me and you can complain about the sticky tree or the
stinky tree, but it's not going -- in that situation it's not going to meet the criteria for the
nuisance. It's not creating a public hazard. Maybe if you had an extreme case we would
have to look into by case by case, but it will allow folks to just start deeming their tree --
their neighbor's tree a nuisance.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Follow up if I may. Great. I worry a little bit about the definition piece where it
talks about offending the senses and, you know, a car not being parked in the right place,
that's pretty black or white. What offends me might not offend somebody else and so I'm
a little hesitant about that and, then, the other kind of follow up to, you know, when we go
and do abatement on -- on weeds, we fix it, or solve the problem and, then, if I understand,
then, the citizen can come and essentially say I don't want to have to pay for this and I
worry a little bit are -- will the process involve cutting down a tree and at that point there
is not necessarily the way to replace the tree. Do you know what I'm saying? So, I did
see the process -- the due process -- I mean I know what to expected, but I was just
hoping you could maybe expand on that a little bit further.
Everett: Yeah. Mr. Mayor and Councilman Cavener, I can answer the first part if you can
clarify for me where you are reading in the code about the senses -- offending the senses.
I think you might be reading a nuisance specific and nuisance tree specific definition.
Cavener: So -- Mr. Mayor? Again -- correct. The -- I'm reading nuisance and, then, below
it lists the nuisance conditions and so I guess when I read nuisance I say anything which
unreasonably injures or offends the health or senses. So, to me that's -- I hate the smell
of those dang pear trees. Man, I tell you. And so to me that -- I just -- and I say that kind
of, you know, tongue in cheek, but that does appear to be a little arbitrary for me and so
don't -- I don't know if we get any explanation as to why that piece is in there. If it's
beneficial if that part is removed.
Everett: Sure. Mr. Mayor and Councilman Cavener, if you look at the -- the part you're
referencing is the actual definition of a general nuisance and a nuisance tree is defined
on page three. If you look in the top third of the page it says nuisance tree and, then, it
lists what constitutes a nuisance tree. The definition that you are referring to is the general
nuisance and if it's an odor that offends, usually that tends to lead us to discover the piling
of animal feces that's not being removed --
Cavener: Sure.
Everett: -- and things of that nature. But the nuisance tree would not fall into the sense
-- the sense category.
Cavener: Okay.
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Everett: The offense of sense.
Cavener: Sure.
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, thanks. I get that these -- I guess we are on page two, right below
-- at the top of the page you have B, C and D and, then, nuisance is defined and, then, at
the end of that it says: Without limitation the following nuisance conditions. So, I guess
as I read that -- and we have got smarter legal minds here than I do, nuisance -- and,
then, it lists nuisance weeds, graffiti on any surface, snow or ice, vegetation, nuisance
trees -- that all of those things to me apply to the word nuisance as defined above that
specifically relates to -- I think -- and maybe I'm -- I'm being too much of a stickler on this.
I just -- I don't want to create a scenario where, quite frankly, you guys deal a lot with
neighborhood issues, that they look for issues -- reasons to call you guys to get involved
and we have heard a lot about wanting to not impact the workload on you guys and I don't
want neighbors fighting over stinky trees.
Everett: Sure. And Mr. Mayor --
Simison: If I could have Mr. Nary kind of reply to that, since he seems to be the legal
mind that wants to be smarter than everybody else right now.
Nary: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Cavener. So, as Rich stated, this specific
definition of nuisance tree doesn't include odor. That's what a court is going to evaluate
is what's the specific definition, not the general. The general overall definition is
nuisances in general, but, then, when you define them specifically and identify what is a
nuisance tree, it is the only ones that are basically a hazard. So, that call about a smelly
tree is not a -- is not a nuisance tree. Could it be rotting vegetation? Could it be something
else? Potentially yes. They have tree debris in their yard that has now created a different
type of nuisance, but it's not a nuisance tree. So, the specific will always trump the
general and so that's why it's separated out.
Everett: And there was a second part to your question, but --
Cavener: Mr. Mayor. Maybe even helping us in how many -- how many trees a year do
you guys -- is the arborist cutting down? I mean are we talking about one a year, two a
year? I don't -- Mike's here, I thought I saw Mike. I don't know if he's got any insight on
this.
Barton: Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener. We have probably cut down
two or three in the last ten years.
Cavener: Okay. Good enough for me. Thank you.
Nary: Mr. Mayor?
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Simison: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Mr. Mayor. I can also add to that. I mean we get a lot of compliance. I mean
between both the Parks Department, the arborist, and code when appropriate, we get a
lot of public compliance there. So, that's why we haven't had to do it very often. We
probably cut more weeds than we have cut down trees.
Cavener: Fair enough. Thanks.
Simison: Are there any further questions from Council? Is there anybody that would like
to provide some direction on this item? Would you like to see it come back before you?
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Yeah. I -- I understand Rich's argument that it makes sense to move this to a
more consistent place for code enforcement, because it is an enforcement matter and
understanding that he works with the arborist -- city arborist and the Parks Department
on looking at those trees and making the right decisions, I think it makes sense to move
that.
Simison: I seem to be getting general head nods, so if you want to put this on a future
agenda and bring it back --
Nary: We will put it on next week.
F. Growth Priority Areas
Simison: All right. Council, it is 6:00 o'clock. We had talked about taking a break, but
since most of the people in the room I think are here for this next item, I think we are going
to try to get through before we go to Executive Session, unless this goes down a really
long rabbit hole. I will go ahead and kick this off and we have Mr. Miles here, as well as
Mr. Hood, to help in this conversation, but back in January we talked about when -- after
the comp plan was finished we had a conversation about growth priority areas. At that
point in time it came back to the Council that I thought the -- at the city level we could take
a first stab at the growth priority area conversation. So, what you are about to have Mr.
Miles kind of walk you through is just a -- a view -- a representation of what we have kind
of looked at, which basically entails looking at our current services that we provide,
including our Fire five minute response time as a key. The sewer sheds to help identify
the areas that we believe could or should be future priority growth areas. And what this
-- we will talk about this at the second conversation after I have Dave kind of walk you
through some elements of it, but this is -- you know, absent looking at where we plan to
put in services or new facilities, that will also I think highlight this even further, but the one
thing I would kind of start off with and, hopefully, that we could all agree is enclave parcels
would be the number one priority growth areas for the City of Meridian. If we already
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surround it, they already have Police, Fire access, sewer, water, that those areas make
the most sense. So, I actually had him remove all the -- all of those off the map, because
it would just -- your attention would be drawn to all the areas that we still have on in-fill
from that standpoint, but I was hopeful that we wouldn't have to have a conversation that
that should not be number one priority to encourage growth and development in terms of
in-fill for our community.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I think I'm tracking with the logic. The only thing I would say is I would that when
we are articulating our priority growth areas that we will add the areas that are in-fill back
in, just so that there is a message to everyone in the community about, you know, hey,
downtown --for example, downtown is a pretty clear priority growth area and that that will
become part of the process. So, we are just really talking about the sticking points right
now.
Simison: Yeah. What we have not done in this conversation -- we have not gone and
looked -- I know there was -- Council, some may want to get very specific about a very
specific in-fill priority growth area. We are not at that level of the conversation. This is
big picture, 90,000 feet. So, that's what you are going to hear from us today and this is
just so we get the conversation moving, get general feedback on it. I know there was a
desire to first talk to the school district and ACHD. Those steps have not happened. So,
this was just phase one, blush one. It really to me shows what we already knew before
we even did this exercise, but, hopefully, like you see it on a map, we can come to a
general understanding, yes, that's what we think or believe. So, with that I will turn it over
the Dave to walk us through.
Miles: Thank you, Mayor. Good evening, Council Members. So, as Robert spoke, we
have got a -- we have got a map and to Council Woman Strader's point, there are
numerous layers and this might be a bit of a working discussion. We can turn things on
and off, but to the Mayor's point we tried to make it simple to start with, so we could clearly
see some -- some sort of key takeaways on areas as we move forward in the discussion.
The objective really was to look at the -- this map that you see here and what you have
got colored right now in yellow -- in the bright yellow, for instance, in this area up in the
northwest part of the city, are areas that are an amalgamation of three criteria. One is the
five minute Fire response, which we worked with the Fire Department to pull in. The other
is whether or not there is current sewer main connectivity in that area being constructed
or connected. That's compiled on top of whether or not land has been annexed. So,
those three criteria are what's represented in that yellow and I will move the map around.
It's a little slow on the server, so I apologize for that, and while it uploads as we shift,
would be remiss if I didn't thank and recognize the Fire Department, Planning Department,
the IT Department and Public Works and particularly Doug Green in IT for spending quite
a bit of time playing with these maps. They are -- they are nice pictures, but there is a lot
behind it. So, as you see down there at the south area of -- of town, you have got that
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sort of pale yellow. What that represents is land that's currently annexed and entitled and
that's it. So, as we look at these going forward you sort of get a sense at the basic level
without adding any additional confusion to the map that there is areas to the south in the
city, areas in the northwest and, then, sort of along a boundary of the current edge of the
city as it runs --what I will call southeast to northwest. Those are the properties that have
identified within the five minute response, current sewer connectivity, and annexed and
entitled at this point in time. So, I can pause there if you have got initial questions,
because I think this is going to be a bit of a discussion more than a simple
recommendation. There are additional layers that we can turnoff. We have got the sewer
trunk sheds that we can illustrate as to why some of these boundaries occur that way and
I'm happy to do that. But, again, as the Mayor stated, this is initial conversation
understanding that would this be back from you all, we would, then, take it to the partners,
development community, school districts, highway districts, to talk to them as well and get
feedback.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: If I can -- if I could just continue just for a few --
Perreault: Sure.
Simison: -- few more seconds to kind of go into a few things. So, as -- as Dave
mentioned, these -- three of these areas show you where we are likely to grow regardless
of what we say or do. In the -- in the yellow areas, because they meet most of the criteria
that development can come in and move forward. Do you want to show what was the
blue areas outside of the five minute response time?
Miles: Yeah. I will get to that.
Simison: Yeah. I think this is where the conversation really pivots into the importance.
So -- correct. Those are the sewer sheds. That sewer shed.
Miles: Bear with me. That's -- so that's the current area served by sewer, what you see
in the black crosshatched.
Simison: And why that matters -- I will just kind of talk -- and it talks about that. I think
one of the policy conversations that we would want to have is do we allow development
to occur outside of sewer shed boundaries. But those are some of those policy
conversations that if it's outside of an area of our -- that we currently could grow to, did
we want to do that or not. So, the blue is the -- kind of the important thing I think that we
all need to be aware of. Blues are areas which are outside of the five minute Fire
response time. That includes areas that are annexed and have homes, as well as a high
school that is being built in north Meridian. I don't -- we -- do you want to kind of go to the
north as well, just so they can see that element. So, you can see that area up in the
northwest, but it is also kind of in that general area and I think that this is where the
conversation really begins in terms of where do we want to grow and why. It's very easy
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for me just to sit here and say, well, we have got a fire station planned for northwest
Meridian. We have a police precinct station planned for northwest Meridian. We are
looking at potentially doing a -- a plan for those four square miles and, quite frankly, if we
build that fire station we solve a lot of issues up there in the northwest. If he turns on that
level you can see that. Similarly, in south Meridian we have area -- which is -- as is
already mentioned, has already been annexed, which was outside of the five minute
response time for Fire and, you know, if that develops -- if the people down in that area,
which pulling sewer currently want to develop at an R-4 designation, they are entitled to
do that with very little restrictions that the city can impose, whether you wanted to or not.
So, we have two extremes in our community in the northwest and the southeast, which
-- where we have very similar issues involving existing areas outside of a five minute
response time. The potential for growth in both of those areas and how do we -- what are
we -- what services are we interested in providing on those areas. So, with that I will stop
and let there be a conversation about this information and see where it goes.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I will bite a little bit. So, if I'm understanding -- so, the -- if you could just explain
what the purple versus the black little buildings with flags -- are those sewer sheds?
Maybe it's a question for Dave.
Miles: Mr. Mayor and Council -- Council Woman Strader, those are schools. One is
existing, one is future.
Strader: Thank you. And then -- and, then, I guess the squiggly gray lines -- are those
the sewer trunks?
Miles: Mr. Mayor and Council Woman Strader, yes. The one here in brown is the actual
sewer trunk. So, this is sewer shed here. This is sewer shed here. And these darker
gray lines, if that's what you are referring to, our areas within the current sewer ability
area -- areas where we are currently have sewer service and we tried to capture what
does that boundary look like.
Strader: Follow-up.
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: So, just -- if I'm looking at this --just to make sure I'm tracking, so if I'm looking
at this what this is sort of telling me is the property shaded in yellow can -- can be served
-- we can provide services to, provide a good fire response time. These blue areas
already have the potential, because they have been annexed; is that correct?
Miles: Mr. Mayor and Council Woman Strader, the blue is areas that have been annexed
and currently have sewer, but fall outside of the five minute response.
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Strader: Uh-huh. Okay. And, then, I guess this light yellow color here all the way at the
bottom by like Columbia, what is that signifying?
Miles: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, those areas that are currently annexed and
entitled, but don't have the sewer or the five minute response.
Strader: And so it sounds like we have a dilemma, which is that we have properties
annexed in that we really can't serve yet to the degree that we would like to already in the
city and there is a -- my understanding is that along -- starting at like Black Cat, Ten Mile
and moving over, that -- to serve those areas would require constructing a new sewer
line; is that right?
Simison: To a certain extent, yes, unless they were sewered out of shed with a temporary
lift station, which can only last for so long, because eventually you will eat up all the
capacity in the other upstream, but I think that's part of where this conversation ultimately
goes is what is the count -- if you set growth priority areas, then, what is Council's appetite
for allowing people to grow outside of those areas. But that would be one way that that
would occur.
Strader: Uh-huh. Okay. I think I'm following the map. I -- are we ready for some
discussion at all?
Simison: Yeah.
Strader: Okay. I have been pretty vocal about this. I have a real bias toward in-fill
development and strongly believe as a city that it's important for us to develop -- especially
density closer to transportation corridors and where we can provide the right level of
service. It will cost our taxpayers a lot more, in my opinion, to continue sprawling outward
without, you know, getting that density in the core of the city first. So, I would be struggling
I think already with improving services, especially in the area -- all the way over by Black
Cat. If the -- we would have to take a look at the numbers, but my -- my bias in general
is to really prioritize in-fill development and it sounds really unfortunate that we have a
school literally in the middle of an area that we currently don't provide services to, I would
say that that will have to be a priority now, because that decision has been made and the
school is being built. But just to kick off the conversation, yeah, my bias is usually toward
in-fill development in terms of where I think we should prioritize putting city resources.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I wouldn't disagree with making, you know, enclaves or in-fill one of the priorities.
I think that's logical for a lot of different reasons. I wouldn't even -- I would even go as far
as to say maybe give some incentives to downtown development or different enclaves or
in-fill projects and that's -- we are getting into the weeds a little bit there, but maybe that's
a conversation we can save for another day. With that said I also think it's really important
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that we continue to grow in a smart way and although in-fill is very important, where our
current infrastructure is, where West Ada has -- doesn't have every seat filled, there is a
lot of, you know, reasons why, you know, in-fill is important. However, you know, I think
that we need -- you know, having some priority areas in different parts of the city, whether
that's -- whether that's northwest or southeast or other areas maybe by -- I agree with
Councilman -- Council Woman Strader in saying that since Owyhee High School is going
-- is -- is -- is being built and will open up within a year, I think that's automatically going
to be a priority area. I think this -- you know, when a high school is built you are going to
see houses, you are going to see construction both residential and commercial. It's just
a given. And so I don't want it -- I don't want to make it -- it's really important that we are
very up front and honest with our development community. I think we have expectations
for them and I'm not -- I think it's important to say that we are still open for business in
other parts of the city, other than in-fill and -- and -- and enclaves. Where that is we need
to discuss, but I think it's important that we don't start freaking people out with this
conversation, you know, focusing on our priority growth areas as in-fill and enclaves.
Although important, but there is other priority growth areas as well.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: I completely agree on the -- on the in-fill discussion. I mean that makes sense
from a resources perspective. However, we have to make sure that development fits. I
mean we had one a month ago that just didn't quite fit. It was an in-fill and -- and, of
course, we always reserve that right to determine exactly what goes in there. The yellow
areas certainly make sense. They meet criteria, five minute Fire response. Annexed and
entitled. Water-sewer. Those are -- are things that are going to run their course. I do
have a question when it comes to the blue areas, because they have been annexed, they
are -- have water-sewer capabilities, but they are outside the five minute response. I
would assume -- and maybe the fire chief might weigh in on this as well -- that there is a
cost to being outside the five minute Fire response time by -- by your insurance. Your
homeowners insurance would likely be higher. What are the other issues that -- that we
have that-- is there anything from a city perspective that's negative to the city, as opposed
to just the individual homeowner in those situations is my question.
Niemeyer: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, as far as -- I think I see what you are alluding
to. As far as any financial cost to the city, the -- the ISO rating is a key factor in that -- in
our ability to get to a fire. I think the--the cost--and I'm going to sound a little sentimental,
I guess, but the cost is when you have a community that expects service, to what level
do you try and provide that service unilaterally, if you will, across the jurisdiction. The five
minute travel time is important for us for two reasons -- and I will keep this brief. I have
given this presentation before. In a house fire we have a certain amount of time to get a
victim out, number one, and a certain amount of time before that fire starts to double in
size within the compartment which with that fire started. Typically that's called flashover.
That -- that is when it creates very dangerous situations for our firefighters. It's a very
superheated gas that, then, essentially, ignites and some would said explodes, some
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would say it rolls over, some would say it flashes over. So, on a fire those are our two
most critical things. People first, get them out, and, then, keep the fire contained. On the
medical side, there is two issues that we really focus on. One is cardiac arrest where
time is critical to get to the patient and start recirculation and, then, administer defibrillation
shots, drugs, et cetera, to try and save a life and that window is about five to six minutes
until brain death starts to occur without the intervention. The other area that we focus on
is trauma. There is a --there is a golden hour rule with significant serious trauma in which
we need to get them to a trauma facility. So, those -- those are our reasons that five
minutes is important. As far as the financial costs, the ISO rating -- and we just had that
rating done -- certainly within the city, in close proximity to fire stations, your rating is
better than if you get further out away from a fire station. Hopefully that answered the
question.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor. Chief, thank you. Yeah, it does. It's more than just a monetary
cost, there is that -- that physical, emotional impact and I guess that's where I think the
struggle is going to be if we get a request for this particular area, how-- how do you weigh
that? How do you determine it's not just a bottom line dollar amount that we have to --
have to consider, but where -- if they are in a community there are certain expectations
that there will be the ability to be served to a certain level and if they are outside of that
does that -- does that absolve us when we approve that development that -- well, you
know, that's where you chose to live, but by our actions -- and that's -- that's going to be
the dilemma. I don't have an answer for that. It's just one of those things that it's hard to
quantify in a dollar and cents situation, so --
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: To that point, Mark, if -- if -- let's say a county sub is developed, they are the
ones that are going to serve them, too, through the rural; correct? Whether they are --
whether they are a taxpayer or a county sub, because of our agreement with the rural,
we are going to send our crews out there to fight the fires.
Niemeyer: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, great question, and I can say over
the last two years we have had much better integration with the county in them hearing
our comments and taking those seriously. I would say prior to that not so -- not so much.
Chief Bongiorno and I are going next week to give a presentation to the county P&Z, as
well as the county commissioners, on growth. So, I think everybody's thinking about
growth right now and certainly planning for it. The county subs -- typically what we have
seen is maybe three, five, maybe ten home subs, but with the growth we want to make
sure that our -- our comments are heard with regards to our response time.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
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Strader: Just one thing I -- I think would be helpful would be to understand the investment
that we have already made in some of the areas; right? So, if I'm thinking about this the
right way, like all the way down to where kind of Eagle and Lake Hazel are, we have
already invested it sounds like in a sewer line and sewer sheds and water service and so
the fire service is a piece that's missing, but we have already made that investment as a
city. So, you know, I kind of think that the -- the sewer shed discussion is a pretty key
piece of it, just because the infrastructure investment for the taxpayers I think would be
pretty significant to actually go, then, develop that, you know, all the way over to
McDermott and that we would have to really weigh the cost of going out there. I think
that's a different conversation than an area where we have already made that significant
investment and, then, maybe it's a question of timing in terms of when -- you know, how
much it would cost just to get an additional fire station and where it could be located to
help us get comfortable with the fire response time before we really expand out there.
Simison: And I think you have hit the nail on the head to a large extent and that's going
to largely depend upon what action the state legislature takes over the next two weeks. I
have challenged our chief to say what would it take to get two new fire stations in north
and south Meridian and worked with our Finance Department and, quite frankly, until we
know our -- our funding model I can't guarantee that we can produce you one, let alone
two, because the ongoing operational costs are what really hurts us. So, yes and yes in
that context and even to your -- your question about the sewer investments and -- and
that's where we --we as a city do have that ability to pull some levers --where we choose
not to make our own proactive investments in sewer and water can help to a certain
extent, you know, development -- a lot of our development community has been active in
doing that. In fact, the one in South Meridian is being done by a developer. They are the
ones that are pulling it to our park, to the home of our next fire station. So, development
in that area is actually helping us potentially do something, whether we want to do it or
not, from that perspective. North Meridian we are in a little different situation. We are in
control of placing the sewer infrastructure if we want to grow and develop in that area, but
we have been talking -- at least with the previous Council and this has been talking very
much about what that area is going to look like and the amount of resources that we are
talking about investing and with the road improvements to Chinden and Ten Mile and
many of those other roads in that area -- you know, roads I think are an important part of
this conversation when it comes to not just where the schools are going to be, but what
-- what's the road like in that area and, quite frankly, with Chinden being developed or
improved all the way out to Highway 16, that makes that area in that northwest Fields
area much more viable to develop, because you don't have to make the road
infrastructure improvements as other areas of our community, as a consideration. But
think it will be important, based upon whatever this conversation ends, we need to match
this up with what -- what the ACHD five year workplan will look like, where they plan on
making improvements. I'm hopeful -- you know, the schools -- we kind of already know
to a certain extent some of where their investment will be, but this would also give them
a roadmap to a certain extent and a time frame and I think the conversation we even have
had with the development last week where we talked about a date certain or before they
said that they would pull a building permit, those are conversations we can talk about
from a timing standpoint where if we -- if it's important to us to have a new fire station,
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does that play into this consideration. You know, what is our timing for this and I -- you
know, from my perspective I'm looking at four years. Like what do I have influence in
helping do for four years to plan for it and that's where -- if we are going to talk about
growth priority areas, that's what I think we are really looking at. Where as a city are we
looking at working with our partners to make investment -- and let's not mistake. The
development community is our partner in this conversation. To Council President's point,
they need to be hearing what we are saying and we need to be listening to them as to
what makes sense and doesn't make sense from that perspective.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Can you help me articulate from a process standpoint what would be the
difference between a City Hall internal process, if somebody -- if an applicant comes to
us in an area that we have identified as a priority area versus an area that wasn't a
priority? And Council Member Bernt put it I think pretty accurately, we don't -- we are not
saying we are closed -- I hope that's not the intention. So, if I'm an applicant and I live in
a growth area and I want to develop, what does that look like for me differently than
somebody who maybe lives across the street from a growth area.
Simison: I'm going to speak for Caleb for one second on this, but I think that, you know,
if-- last year when we were going through the comp plan, the Planning Department gave
I think some feedback to certain developers, like Council doesn't have a lot of interest in
modifying -- or processing comp plan amendments during this time frame. I think that's
the -- that's what you would start with is a general message of Council has not been
supportive of sewering outside of the shed. So, if that's what it takes for you to do your
development -- we are never going to tell no one no. Anyone has the right to apply from
that standpoint. But I think it's really giving the Planning staff the ability to give direction
to the development community about where we want growth to occur and where we don't
want growth to occur, but they are always welcome to move forward.
Borton: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Borton.
Borton: I probably won't get any closer to the 90,000 feet on this at first blush, but what
might have missed from your or Dave is understanding the broader principles that this is
trying to address that led to the selection of the metrics on the screen in front of us. There
is probably something that was defined that led you to say, for example, five minute
response time, as opposed to police response time or proximity to parks or five year work
plan overlay with ACHD or -- so, what were those principles that made the list on the left
be the ones that -- the right ones to address?
Simison: Councilman Borton, it was really where we have our services and where they
have a right. That's -- that's what it really came down to. We have not overlayed the
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other elements that -- that could or should matter to that point, but it -- I start with the --
with the general premise in any of these conversations, that Meridian residents who
currently pay taxes should get the services that they are paying for and when we can
display that our Fire Department can't get to a home within five minutes, under the ideal
conditions. It's my understand this doesn't take into account traffic jams or otherwise --
that I think helped lay the groundwork for some of the conversation in looking at these
two areas specifically. But, no, nothing else has been taken into consideration at this
point in time in terms of parks, roads, schools, just city -- city services. The police
department was in the room for the conversation. They are much more mobile, they admit
that, and as you grow you can expect additional officers from that standpoint. The Police
Department does envision a south Meridian station,just like a north Meridian station. So,
if we determine both of these areas, for example, would be the priorities and you could
probably see them coming forward to say, okay, well, we need to be thinking about where
that station should be. If it's just one, then, maybe they would -- they would prioritize their
resources to that area. Our ultimate point was we can't do what we have been doing,
which is growing all the way along this ridge effectively for the long term. Or outside of
sewer sheds where that can create a larger issue.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I'm curious if -- maybe -- I'm sure we will find out more based on what the
legislature does, but are -- are you of the opinion now that we already need to make a
choice between -- since we are prioritizing the southeastern part of Meridian versus the
northwestern part, based on a resourcing perspective?
Simison: Council Woman Strader, I'm hoping not. I'm hoping we don't have to do that.
But if the legislature were, for example, to do a zero or two percent, I think we would have
to seriously consider it. If our goal is to create a -- build a fire station in one of these two
areas. Other things not necessarily.
Strader: Yeah. I mean I think it's important to keep in mind it's also a question of time
frame, you know. Right? So, you know, it doesn't mean that people can come in front of
us in a nonpriority growth area with a thought process or an idea or a proposal on how
they want to build services or that we couldn't consider it, I think what that would be
signaling to people is, look, if you want to you -- if you want to build a significant
development in an area that we haven't invested in the sewer shed and the trunk line to
support it, that would be a huge infrastructure investment for the city that, frankly, it sounds
like our taxpayers can't pay for at this point, then, that situation is going to be exacerbated
potentially. So, you know, I don't think it's that we are closed for business, it's really we
are having to grow very smart and we are going to have to -- it sounds like make some
-- hopefully not, but maybe making some difficult choices in terms of prioritization. You
know, having a -- having a major high school in an area that to me just -- it may be my --
my bias as a parent, but I just think we can't have a high school that's not supported by
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an adequate Fire response time. That -- that to me is a bright line. I don't think we have
a choice about that. So, I could get feedback on that for sure.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: Just to -- and along Council Woman Strader's points about you have a -- have
a high school there and -- and we have got yellow out there, it meets the criteria as you
have defined and we have got yellow in other areas and you look at Ustick Road, for
example, and ACHD will have to invest and we have competing proposals where they
improve something in yellow in the northwest or is it in the south where they are dealing
with limited funds and what, you know, in some ways I'm thinking maybe my comments
aren't helpful to developers to know where we are coming from, because there are so
many variables when a development comes before us. That's -- that's the hard part and
competing interests in areas that you go, yes, that meets criteria, it fits and that fits, but
when you are dealing with other entities of schools and their capacity and ACHD and their
ability to fund road expansion purposes, that's -- that's --that's what makes it difficult. So,
it's hard to give direction saying, okay, everything in this color will -- looks good to me, but
it just doesn't work that way and, in fact, to your point, Mr. Mayor, about Chinden being
expanded is very helpful, but to get to that point you had to approve the development to
get the funding for private entities to expand and receive tax dollars and rebate. It wasn't
being funded just to -- we can have future development, it had to be funded by
development, because the dollars weren't there. So, that's kind of the deal that we are
dealing with in some of these situations. That's only on state highways. It doesn't apply
to county roads. So, it's -- it's -- it's an interesting conundrum when -- when these
applications come before us and it's just one of those things we have to -- have to work
through. That's why we get paid big bucks; right?
Simison: So, just to kind of -- like as I -- just to kind of help us move to the next place,
because, as I said, this was just meant to have a general conversation at this point in
time. Does anyone disagree that those are -- those two areas are not the areas that we
should at least be focusing further on at this point in time? Is there another area on this
map that you say, no, I think this should be our priority growth area, as compared to those
two? This is just the first step.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: When you say these two areas, are you referencing northwest Meridian and
southeast Meridian?
Simison: Correct. From outside of in-fill, but yes. Because those are the two areas we
can go look further at over the next two weeks as we see what the legislature does and
see what the possibilities could be or not be, because to the point we can overlay the
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ACHD five year work plan, but we can also prioritize road projects if you think it's important
into one or two of those areas, more so than the others in ACHD, because this is where
we are making investments, but we were -- where we -- where we would like to see
investments, where we would like to see our partners make investments, all those
different elements.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: A question maybe for you and -- or staff. Priority to me sometimes is singular.
Does staff have a recommendation about which one is more of a priority?
Simison: Councilman Cavener, we have not asked staff to make that conversation. I
think we have -- I think we all agree that we both see the challenges and the needs for
both of these areas at this point in time.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: Just wanted some clarification. So, am I of the understanding that this map is
going to continue to evolve and that we will be adding additional layers from -- with
information from ACHD and perhaps the school district before we openly define what our
set of priority growth areas are?
Simison: Yes. Absolutely. I mean we plan on having a conversation with their -- with
them, to get any feedback, if they see something differently from that standpoint.
Perreault: Thank you.
Hoaglun: And, Mr. Mayor, what you are asking is then -- to focus, then, on that northwest
and that southeast area to do additional information gathering, talking to our partners,
school district, ACHD and others to see what information is needed, what information you
can provide back to us and planning staff to -- to determine how we can move forward in
those areas?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun, yes, that is the ultimate question and I think it goes -- as
I mentioned before, it plays right into we are having a conversation about a police station
in this area. We have talked about investing dollars from our planning staff to do a more
in depth analysis of the --those four square miles up in that area. We have a library going
in. We have road improvements going in. So, you know, we can bring all that back as to
the whys from that standpoint, but if for some reason Council were all of a sudden to say
southeast Meridian is a higher priority, then, we should really think about whether or not
the investment should continue up in the northwest and convert -- or, conversely, in the
northwest is where we do it and the southeast grows as development grows, but we do
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so knowing that we may not be able to provide that five minute response time and is that
-- is Council okay with that? There is no requirement that there is a five minute response
time.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: To that point -- and maybe -- I think Council Member Borton talked about -- this
is really a 90,000 foot view. What neighboring jurisdictions with -- I forget what the term
is -- where we support each other, what that does to response times along -- and
specifically around our -- our easterly border and perhaps part of our northerly border --
mutual aid. Is that is -- and what that -- if that has any impact on our -- on our response
times and as the city of Boise, Eagle, Star and our county partners, do they adopt that
same five minute response that Mayor Simison kind of was quick to point out there is
nothing that requires that, so what -- what are other jurisdictions adopting is what would
be good to know.
Niemeyer: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, to the point of travel time, that is a
jurisdictional decision. The national recommendation is four minutes. That's very tough
for any jurisdiction to meet. We have not found one yet in the country that's able to meet
that. You literally have to have fire stations about every three blocks. The city of Boise,
for example, is a little bit less than ours. Some of the more rural departments have not
set those standards. They are typically a one station departments covering 80 square
miles. So, they are a little bit resource thin. As to the mutual aid aspect, I did meet with
the fire chiefs in the northwest corner where we have known that's going to be a priority
at some point in time to the Mayor's point. We met with the Nampa chief and the Star
chief. They have no stations planned in that area, especially over into the four square
miles or, sorry, the -- yeah, four square miles. I did have that right. Currently that is --
that four square miles is in the Star fire district, minus the areas that we have already
annexed. But the Star fire chief knows eventually that is the city's area of impact and we
will be looking to annex that. In the south with Kuna. Kuna Fire Department has one
station currently. They are looking at building a second station, but that is actually going
further east than the city of Kuna. They have a large development going on out there and
that is their planned second station. So, to answer your question in the area do we have
strong mutual aid that could help cover it, not -- not really from those two departments,
both north and south.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, follow up.
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Chief, when you talk about Boise is a little bit less, is less meaning they are
faster than us?
Niemeyer: Faster.
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Cavener: What's their -- and what's their --
Niemeyer: I think theirs is 4:30. 1 would have to confirm that, but I believe that's what it
is.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor, I think that -- it kind of gets is to -- at least where I stand at this and
it has been this piece that I have really wrestled with about this term priority growth area.
If the conversation is where do we need to have our next fire station, I think without a
doubt northwest corner is where it needs to be. To Council Member Strader's comments,
we have got a high school that's going there, we have got to support the folks that are out
there. I struggle with saying this is the area where we are going to apply our services or
create incentives that grow in a certain area, something along those lines. I'm not quite
there on that particular piece. I mean maybe this is me just not being astute to it, but all
of Meridian is a priority for us and I'm not trying to say that for any of us it's not, but to say
one area is more important than another right now, it's not something at least I'm
comfortable coming to that conclusion. It's just not something that I'm -- I feel really
comfortable to say one way or another at this point.
Perreault: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Perreault.
Perreault: If I may address your concern, Councilman Cavener, I -- I don't know that that's
what we are trying to say. I think it's more along the lines of the development community
has -- has really encouraged us to help them understand where we would like to see the
city move and grow and not only that, but there are a lot of questions that come into the
city about why a certain service isn't provided or a certain location or certain time and so
this helps us be able to clarify those specific parcel by parcel answers as well. So, I
wasn't sure if you were getting at, you know, is -- is there a point to making this map or if
you are just -- or if your concern is that we may give an impression to the -- the -- the
property that's not in those priority growth areas that they are not important to us, I don't
-- I don't think that that's what we are trying to communicate and I think the way we -- that
we share this information is important. I think that's sort of what you are -- you are -- you
are putting out there is that we want to be really clear what the --the purpose of the priority
growth areas are, that it's for us to help manage our budget. It's for us to help figure out
how we move forward as a city and, then, also to help our development community as
well. So, that -- that wasn't actually really why I spoke up, though. I spoke up because
for me the -- the piece that's missing is I would like to see -- I realize there is a lot going
on on this map and there is -- it looks like there is even more sections that can be added,
but I would like to see also an overlay of which parcels are in development stage or which
applications have been approved, if that could be added to this map, so that we can see
-- because I -- if I am remembering correctly, there are a lot of homes going into the
southeast area or that are planned to go into the southeast area, not as many going into
the northeast area, even though we have a high school there. So, I'm curious if there is
any way for us to use the tool that the Planning Department already has, which shows
what our current applications are and at the time that we make that final decision about
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our priority growth areas that we can see some sort of overlay of where those applications
have been approved, because the -- the amount of approvals that have happened are --
are significant.
Miles: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Mr. Miles.
Miles: If I may, Mr. Mayor and Council Woman Perreault, we can certainly talk to the IT
and Planning Department about layers to add. It became such a cluttered mess to work
with -- preliminary plats are something that can be added very easily and I think to the --
to some of the points of all the discussion is the preliminary discussion of where do you
start, what do you add, what do you show was that we are hearing from you all considering
applications, as well as what planning is working on from the comp plan perspective and
sort of a starting point of saying, okay, of the city services which one are those most --
those highest priority services that we should look at as we consider building a map as a
tool to support your decisions and help guide you as you make your decisions. So, that
was some of the why with the Fire response and the annexation and the service -- the
sewers.
Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Hoaglun.
Hoaglun: One of the things, too, that we need to consider -- to that point of having an
overlay, they -- is -- and maybe we take a look at commercial areas that are available for
development, because I think that's going to be a prime driver. In many ways we are
going to respond to where development is going. I mean we are not -- we are not going
to try that and when you look at Highway 16 and what's occurring out there, there are
going to be major development there and down Chinden and if they ever get a -- Highway
16 extension -- enough money for that -- but I'm not holding my breath. But to me I -- with
the high school and with development that's planned out there, that makes that the 1-A,
as opposed to the 1-B, which is in the south for -- for major areas to focus on. So, we
know what's being planned out there commercially. There is going to be a lot of money
invested and it's commercial, it's going to be residential, they are building a high school
there for a reason, to -- because of the growth that's happening. We are going to continue
to grow in the -- in the -- in the south -- southeast, but we only have so much money and
where do we put that. Probably that -- that northwest area.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: I really take Councilman Hoaglun's point well and I agree with that, I think it's --
we are going to develop southeast Meridian and we are going to be developing the whole
city eventually. I don't think we are saying that any part of Meridian is not important. I
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think it's a question of time frame, but it's a question of our investment in infrastructure
and -- and how much it costs and would it make sense to pay for at any given time. Right?
And so if we focus on our in-fill development and we try to prioritize where we clearly will
need to put a fire station, if you want to have any kind of decent service, you know, to
these areas, that needs to become a priority compared to building a brand new sewer
trunk all the way through an area that we currently don't have development. Like I am
comfortable telling people I would not feel comfortable approving a project now that would
require an entire new sewer shed and a new sewer trunk, because of the exorbitant cost.
At this time I don't think that would make sense for our budget. So, I think it's okay to say
that. You know, I don't think it's a negative thing. I think it's just helping people understand
how we are prioritizing certain areas in terms of where we are investing in our own
infrastructure.
Simison: With that I'm happy to bring this conversation to a close. If you have additional
comments or whatnot, please, feel free to pass those along directly to Dave Miles. We
will take this further -- we will talk to our partners and, quite frankly, once the legislature
wraps up for the year and we have an idea about what decisions we truly need to make,
I think that's where we will have that conversation. My understanding is that they hope to
give us a three or four year funding idea if they do something or if they give us nothing
and, then, we will know that as well, which makes this conversation very quick and very
easy. So -- okay. Thank you.
G. Fire Department: Coronavirus Infection Prevention Efforts
Simison: Item 5-G. Turn this over to our fire chief.
Niemeyer: Mr. Mayor and Council, thank you after that good discussion, we are now
going to talk about virus. We understand the COVID-19, otherwise known as the
Coronavirus, which is making the news, is certainly on the minds of you all, it's on the
minds of our employees, it's on the minds of our community, so we want to provide an
update -- J.D. and I are going to tag team this. I'm going to talk a little bit in general terms
about where we are at and, then, J.D. Hendrick, our division chief of EMS, is going to talk
a little bit about how we are prepared as emergency responders to handle an outbreak
should it occur here in Ada county. So, as you know if you follow the news -- and I'm
hoping I can direct you to the CDC's website, which we will talk about in this presentation
as the factual news regarding COVID-19, but it is being updated daily. This was taken
last night. If you look at it today we are up to 60 cases and the numbers are changing.
Currently 12 states are involved. Idaho is not yet one of them. It does not mean that it's
not here, it just hasn't been confirmed to be in Idaho. You can see as far as illnesses,
there was two deaths as of yesterday. There is now six. Those are Washington state.
All really centered around a healthcare facility, a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington.
If we can -- I will just click through here. So, there is a map, again, as of yesterday. I just
looked at it before the presentation. That map has not changed as far as the number of
states involved. With confirmed cases you can see Idaho is not one of them, but of
concern for us is that we have Washington that we know we have cases confirmed with
deaths. We also have Oregon. As recently as yesterday Pendleton, Oregon, at
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Wildhorse Casino, I believe, had a case there. So, the concern is we can't close our
borders. As with any epidemic we have faced in the past, whether that's H1 N1, whether
that's Swine Flu, anything else we have faced in this valley potentially, this is another virus
that we are prepared for and we will talk a little bit about that. So, I want to talk a little bit
about guidance. We just sent an e-mail to all city employees this evening, while this
discussion was being prepared, with some information to our employees on what they
can do today and what the city is doing moving forward as far as planning for any outbreak
that we may have here in Ada county. Part of this recommendation is really what we can
do as individuals in our business life and our personal life to really help prevent that
spread and to keep each individual as safe as possible. Avoid close contact with people
who are sick. The CDC recommends six feet. You will see other numbers that say three
feet. We recommend six. That's if you know they are sick, which I will talk a little bit more,
but -- but understanding currently in Idaho, as well as most other states, the challenge
with COVID-19 is that we have a parallel influenza outbreak as well. So, trying to discern
the symptoms, there is really no change in symptoms from one to the other. We will talk
about that a little bit. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth. A lot of people are
fearful that COVID-19 is living on surfaces. The CDC will tell you right now they anticipate
that to live on a surface for about three hours max. What you need to be concerned about
is heavy surface use, meaning door handles, some of those things that people are
touching a lot. So, part of our recommendation that you can see below is to wipe down
those heavily used surfaces, that's part of the recommendation from the CDC. Cover
your cough or sneeze with a tissue. If you don't happen to have a tissue, I don't right now,
and I have been sneezing today, just sneeze into your elbow, that helps protect -- really
what we are trying to avoid in any virus spread is those droplets that come out when you
sneeze or cough. That's really what the fear is and that's what the carry is is going person
to person. Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects. We covered that. Follow the
CDC recommendations using a face mask. There is a shortage of face masks right now
in this country. The face masks are heavily needed for healthcare workers, nurses,
emergency responders. The CDC is strongly recommending if you think you might protect
yourself with a face mask, it's not going to do a lot of good if you follow the other
guidelines. There is a lot of folks that are buying face masks, that's kind of a protective
measure. If we follow the guidelines that shortage will be stopped and we can produce
more face masks. I talked to the chief of Spokane. At Sacred Heart they are a little bit
concerned, because they are running out of face masks. So, we want to make sure the
healthcare workers have those. If you are infected, hopefully as part of the advice is you
are going to see your doctor. He or she will recommend a face mask if they feel it's
appropriate. So, that's kind of the issue with face masks. Wash your hands off. And this
is the most important thing to help spread any virus is to wash your hands off and I also
noticed you have gel in front of you. We are also making sure there is jell in every
department in the city. That is another quick and easy -- if you don't have access to soap
and water, that alcohol gel helps to contain that spread of any germs, any virus. So, really
we are focused on this message right now is how we can prevent that spread. This also
goes with the flu as well. This is the same guidelines you have with influenza. Whoa. I
did not mean to do that. That's not part of the presentation really. A little help, Chris.
There we go. So, what are we doing as a city to prepare for this. We had an initial
meeting -- a planning meeting with Mayor and his staff. Also in attendance were the
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Police Chief, HR, Legal and Finance to talk about how we are going to move forward,
how we are going to communicate. Some of the work that we are doing with the
Emergency Management Committee will be coming up. That same committee is the one
for your knowledge that there were around that kind of managed the Snowmageddon
event here in Meridian and made sure we were prepared and also mitigated that. We are
working in very strong coordination with Ada County Emergency Management. Some of
you know Joe Lombardo. That's Joe's office in the county that really oversees emergency
management for the county, as well as coordination with Health and Welfare, CDC and,
then, our local health district. We are working with ACEM on the communication out to
the public and employees. A couple other points on this. Because this is a new virus
there is not a lot known. That's the challenge with this virus. It's -- it's a novel virus. It's
new. It has its own strains. There is not a lot known. We are learning as we go with this
one, much like we learned with H1N1, much like we learned with SARS, much like we
learned with Swine Flu as well. Currently testing for COVID-19. There is an approval
process, if you will, between the healthcare provider and the health district. So, I know
-- I have asked -- been asked it quite a bit. I don't feel good. Should I go get tested for
Coronavirus. Number one, that's a discussion you are going to have with your primary
care physician or an urgent care physician. Number two, that decision will be made by
that physician. We are not here to recommend one way or the other, but I think a lot of
people think they can run to an urgent care and get tested. That's not necessarily the
case. If you don't have a lot of the checkboxes, if you will, the travel, the exposure, et
cetera, you may not get tested, because, again, there is a strong epidemic -- or I wouldn't
say epidemic -- a strong influenza predominance going on right now and this mirrors the
-- the influenza as well. So, the other information that we will be releasing to the public in
a unified voice throughout the county is we really want to push people to the CDC website.
This is where the most factual information is going to be and the most up-to-date
information is going to be. We are encouraging folks not to use Facebook as your means
of news with regards to Coronavirus or Twitter or Snapchat or -- I don't know what the
other ones are. I'm getting older. And sometimes the nightly news even kind of
accentuates things a little bit. So, we really want to push people to the CDC website for
the most up-to-date, relevant, factual information. Here in Idaho we want to push you to
the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. They are tracking COVID-19 in Idaho and
that's really where we are getting our information. So, that's where we want you to get
your information as well. Central District Health, we also encourage folks to go on there.
They have not yet ramped up any Coronavirus information, but they are mirroring the
Department of Health and Welfare for the state of Idaho. So, I'm going to turn it over to
J.D. and, then, we will wrap up and follow up with -- with some questions. I'm sure there
is a bunch. But we want to talk a little bit about what Ada county responders are doing in
preparation in case any outbreak occurs. So, I will turn this over to J.D.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: J.D., can you just scroll back one just so I can take a picture of that screen. Just
for like two seconds, please. We are good. Thank you.
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Hendrick: Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council. Kind of going forward
a little bit, as far as the Fire Department and Ada county's response, as you see before
you this is kind of the standard flu response that we would get if we suspect somebody
with the flu. So, our responders are going to have gloves, glasses, masks and, if possible,
to have gowns as well. Right now there is a shortage of all these items and so we are
trying to figure out how we can best supply those. Right now we do feel that we have
enough gloves and masks for what would be a significant call volume in the next few
weeks. As far as on scene, if the person has been evaluated by our responders, both
with Ada county and Meridian Fire, through their assessment if they feel through these
questions that the patient has -- is suspicious of the Coronavirus, then, they will, then,
contact the EMS battalion chief and, then, contact the hospital in preps for them to send
a patient to the hospital. The hospitals all are working with us on this preparation. They
have special rooms specifically designed to have these patients if they were to show up
and so this is mostly just relying on the hospitals and their reliability -- or their availability
to handle this. And, then, after the call we are just encouraging all of our crews to just
continuously use substances, like bleach solution, to wipe our equipment that we have
used on scene and we are trying to limit the amount of personnel that are within that six
foot rainbow area you might say to -- so that we don't have so many firefighters and EMS
folks exposed to that specific person. So, we are trying to limit the number of people right
there close to that person doing face-to-face interactions. And, then, lastly, we did kind
of do an emergency online training that was sent out February 3rd. So, all of our providers
have received the information and we are keeping up to date with CDC and Central
District Health recommendations as they add. Another thing that's happening -- hopefully
with the 911 dispatch center is that they are supposed to be asking people if -- because
they are getting inundated with flu-like symptoms, just in the normal influenza, call
screening, but they are trying to ask these people if they have had any travel or any sort
of connection with people who have traveled outside of the United States, specifically
Southeast Asia, but the calls -- the call takers can only do as best as they are provided
information, but they have been given guidelines as to what to ask and, hopefully, they
can be able to kind of buffer some of the responses that were going on. And, then, we
are working with all of our access partners, specifically Central District Health and the
Center for Disease Control, to make sure that we are up to date on all this stuff. We have
a major planning session for Thursday morning. All the major players will be there and,
then, we are, of course, working with Ada County Office of Emergency Management in
preparation for this. And with that we will stand for questions if you have any.
Simison: Council, any questions?
Niemeyer: Mr. Mayor, let me -- if I could, let me get to one more thing that I didn't cover
in -- in the update. From the City of Meridian's standpoint, the city currently has a COOP
plan. It's called the continuity of operations plan. We did that with the county about six,
seven years ago. It's a -- it's a plan that allows us to know if we have to shut this building
up, for example, for whatever reason. Wind event. Epidemic. Whatever the issue is.
Where are we going to move people to, so that we can continue our essential services.
That plan also identified within each department if we had to send people who -- who are
essential who are nonessential. If you look at the CDC guidelines -- and they just put one
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out today for employers. We are really following -- and what we have in that plan is the
best practice in case we have to shut some folks down, in case we have extreme
absenteeism. If we have a lot of our folks, our employees, again, infected is the word that
came to mind. Sorry. That they have to be off work for a prolonged period of time, now
how do we make it up. How do we cross over, how do we make sure the city can still run.
So, we do have that plan in place. If we exhaust all of our resources, to Councilman
Cavener's point about mutual aid even, we have talked about that as fire chiefs, so if a
department of one gets heavily infected and they lose all their employees, how can we
help them out, how can they help us out. So, those discussions are taking place as well.
I apologize I didn't cover that earlier.
Cavener: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Cavener.
Cavener: Mark, kind of teed up kind of where my -- my question is. I work for a national
organization, we are having conversations right now about our nonessential employees
to be able to work from home and, you know, take your laptop with you in case we had to
close down the building. From an operation standpoint I'm just curious are we -- are we
starting to have those discussions with our employees and, then, what type of
communication -- or I guess are you getting a lot of requests from the public about this
and what we are doing to educate the public from City Hall about this.
Niemeyer: Two great questions.
Simison: Go ahead, chief.
Niemeyer: Perfect. From the standpoint of essential, nonessential staff, if we had to go
there, the only update we are doing and we are getting the director team together, is when
the plan was created six, seven years ago -- we have some different players now and so
we will make sure that that plan is updated, so that we know if we have to flip that switch
who is essential, or is nonessential. We are working with IT to talk about remote work
and how many people can we get on that server remotely, all those good things that I'm
sure you are talking about as well. And, then, your second question community outreach,
community messaging. We want to make sure in this county--and Meridian is no different
-- that our message to the community in general is the same. We don't want conflicting
messages Boise to Nampa to Meridian. So, that's when I worked with Joe Lombardo's
office to make sure the message is consistent with the healthcare system, et cetera. We
will steer folks to the right place, for example, the websites. I think it's very important, too,
to understand -- and I think you all understand this -- if an epidemic occurs there is only
a certain level of things that our city can do. We can help our community get information.
We can help educate them. But when it comes to who gets quarantined and who doesn't,
as an example, we do not make that call. That's the Health District that makes that call
to the healthcare system. So, I think there is a lot of apprehension on what's the city
doing. I think we are doing a good job. We will do even better as we continue to meet
on getting that information out to the community, but I think in times like this
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Snowmageddon was a good example, we also need to be honest with the community,
what are we providing and what can we provide and what we can't provide here is the
resources to make sure you know who to ask.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: You know, we all have our different social media ways in which we communicate
with those that are interested in what our opinions are and what we are doing. I would
advise our City Council to probably stay away from advertising, you know, different
aspects of this Coronavirus. If you feel like you want to advertise or share posts that have
been made by the city that are -- that have been worked out with our stakeholder partners
as well, I think that's fine --
Niemeyer: Yeah.
Bernt: -- but I do believe there is a lot of misinformation out there in regard to this -- this
situation. So, I don't think it's our responsibility to be the experts of the Coronavirus in the
City of Meridian. So, I would hope that we would just step back, let the city operate and
share what the city gives us or share with the public and I think that would be fine.
Niemeyer: Certainly. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Bernt, to that point Shandy is very involved
with Joe Lombardo's office from a PIO. We just talked about this today in the meeting
with the Mayor. Joe's office is planning on doing the social media outreach on facts.
Shandy will tie into that and, you know, re-Facebook, re-tweet, re -- whatever the others
are, to make sure that we are consistent in the messaging --
Bernt- Right.
Niemeyer: -- that the right messaging is getting out. That's a great point.
Strader: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Council Woman Strader.
Strader: Thank you very much for that update. I think one thing that might be helpful -- I
like to focus on things that we can control and one thing that I -- that has occurred to me
-- I just wanted to throw it out there -- is we are having, you know, a lot of public hearings,
we have sometimes large groups of people coming into City Hall, I just think from a
practical perspective if we did see, you know, community transmission of the COVID-19,
would we want to explore or do we have a plan for like a hosted conference call, for
example, as an alternative for a public hearing if someone wanted to participate. I just
want to throw that out there, because there is good technology to have hosted conference
calls and conference calls have come up in the past as a potential technology we wanted
to explore and maybe this set of circumstances would lead us to explore that a little more,
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just so we could keep your business as usual in the event that this did happen. I would
hate for us to be unable to have a public hearing for something.
Simison: I will reply just to that a little bit. There are certain technological limitations that
are in conflict with your statements. We can't do business as usual and do a hosted
conference -- conference call. Even from a technology standpoint we -- I mean we do
have the ability to have one person in this room and everyone else could call in from the
City Council perspective. What we don't have the ability to do was to do a meeting in
here and have a host of conference call that pipes in so everyone else in the room can
hear and some of those elements. Those were -- those are some of the challenges why
we had to back off of that being able to take remote testimony from that standpoint. So,
it would -- it would somewhat of a legal question from that standpoint in terms of what
would -- what we could legally do if we were to do it differently.
Strader: And just to follow up, you know, in -- in my business in the past we had hosted
bank meetings, we have hosted conference calls with certain providers where they did
have the ability to have a speaker line for folks that were presenting and, then, they would
have a mechanism for participants to call in, provide their name, address, contact
information and dial a number to ask a question and so I'm -- you know, maybe it's an AV
thing and also a legal thing, but I -- I just think it might make sense for us to look into it a
little more, just because I had direct experience with it and it's worked great for hosting
remote meetings that are controlled where you can get people's critical information.
Simison: Council Woman Strader, I'm not saying we can't do it, I'm saying we can't do it
in this room with the public available as well in the same -- and stream it. That is not
capable. We could certainly hold a meeting with the community on an outside conference
call line to do that.
Strader: Thank you. That's helpful. And certainly, you know, plan -- plan for the worst,
hope for the best, but maybe it makes sense to make like a backup plan.
Simison: All right. Thank you. Appreciate it very much.
Niemeyer: I do believe that was J.D.'s first presentation in front of Council. Just wanted
to point that out.
Item 6: Executive Session per Idaho Code 74-206(d): To consider records
that are exempt from disclosure as provided in chapter 1, title 74,
Idaho Code; and 74-206(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
Simison: Council, we are to Item 6 on the agenda.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
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Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move that we move into Executive Session per Idaho Code 74-206(d) and (f).
Hoaglun: Second.
Simison: I have a motion and a second to move into Executive Session. Is there any
discussion on the motion? If not, clerk will call the roll.
Roll call: Bernt, yea; Borton, yea; Cavener, yea; Hoaglun, yea; Strader, yea; Perreault,
yea.
Simison: All ayes. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
EXECUTIVE SESSION: (7:09 p.m. to 8:14 p.m.)
Bernt: Mr. Mayor?
Simison: Councilman Bernt.
Bernt: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Hoaglun: Second.
Simison: Motion and second to come out of Executive Session. All those in favor? All
ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
Bernt: Mr. Mayor, I move we adjourn.
Hoaglun: Second.
Simison: All in favor? Motion carries. Any opposed nay. Motion carries.
MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:14 P.M.
(AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
3 / 10 / 20
_ MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED
ATTEST:
CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK