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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-04-14 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session April 14, 2020. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:32 p.m, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Jessica Perreault and Brad Hoaglun. Members Absent: Liz Strader. Also present: Chris Johnson, Adrienne Weatherly, Bill Nary, Caleb Hood, Bill Parsons, Todd Lavoie, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: X Liz Strader X Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt X Jessica Perreault _X_ Luke Cavener _X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Okay. I will call this meeting to order. For the record it is Tuesday, April 14, 2020, at 4:32 p.m. We will begin the meeting with roll call attendance. Item 2: Adoption of Agenda Simison: Okay. Item 2 is adoption of the agenda. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we approve the agenda as presented. Published. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I second the motion. Simison: Is there any discussion on the motion? All right. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? The ayes have it. The agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item, 3: Consent Agenda [Action Item] -Approved Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 4 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 2 of 23 A. Approve Minutes of April 7, 2020 City Council Regular Meeting B. Catalina Place Water Main Easement No. 1 C. Ten Mile Plaza Water Main Easement No. 1 D. Three Corners Ranch Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 1 E. Three Corners Ranch Subdivision Water Main Easement No. 1 F. Three Corners Ranch Subdivision Sanitary Sewer & Water Main Easement No. 1 G. Three Corners Ranch Subdivision Sanitary Sewer & Water Main Easement No. 2 H. Final Order for Gander Creek South Subdivision No. 2 (H2O20- 0019) by Trilogy Idaho, Generally Located South of W. McMillan Rd. and West of N. McDermott Rd. I. Final Order for Southridge Subdivision No. 4 (H-2020-0026) by Becky Yzaguirre, The Land Group, Inc., Generally Located West of S. Linder Rd. and South of W. Overland Rd. J. Development Agreement (H-2019-0109) for Edington Commons with C4 Land, LLC(Owner) and G20, LLC(Developer), Located at 3610 N. Linder Rd. K. License Agreement with Pacific West Builders, Inc. for Storage of Materials at Meridian Parks and Recreation Maintenance Facility L. Community Development Block Grant Program Year 2020 Potential Housing, Public Facilities, and Improvement Projects M. Fiscal Year 2020 Budget Reallocation City Hall HVAC Energy Study N. AP Invoices for Payment - 04/10/20 - $746,330.64 Simison: Item 3, Consent Agenda. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 5 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 3 of 23 Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we approve the Consent Agenda. For the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I second the motion. Simison: We have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Item 4. Items Moved From the Consent Agenda [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved to the Consent Agenda. Item 5: Department/Commission Reports [Action Item] A. Finance Department: Annual Report Simison: So, I will move into Item 5-A, Department Reports, and we are going to hear from our Finance Department, Todd Lavoie, for his annual report. Lavoie: Mayor, Members of the Council, it's my pleasure to present to you the Finance Department annual update for April 2020. For today's agenda we will be presenting to you who the Finance Department is, what we do for the city and our customers. The expectations that you should expect from the Finance Department. We will review the successes we have had since we last presented to you over the last 12 months. We will take a look at the road ahead and the projects that we are looking at completing for you and, then, last, but not least, we will stand for any questions. Mayor, Members of the Council, I get the honored opportunity to inform you that the city has 18 proud, committed, strong professionals that work on the Finance team. The team takes great pride in what they do on a daily basis and I hope you are seeing the results of that pride. The team enjoys working with each other. They share in many laughs together and they have a great time. The team helps out when a fellow team member is in need and extends a hand to all their customers. Since our last presentation to you we have had the opportunity to add anew team member to our family. I want to introduce you to our latest addition Shanee Eckert. She is our administrative assistant. From an organizational standpoint the Finance Department is made up of four divisions. We have the utility billing division, the procurement division, the budget division and the accounting division. Along with the four divisions we also oversee and manage the Clerks Department and Chris Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 6 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 4 of 23 Johnson will present the annual Clerks Department report to you separately. This slide provides a general list of what the Finance Department does for all of our customers. Our customers are you, the Council, Mayor, department staff, business partners and its citizens. We must be able to deliver the professional expectations of the Finance Department to many customers in many forms. The interactions are simple to dynamic and usually always different. We must be flexible and adaptive in this ever changing growing environment. The Finance Department strives to deliver a high level of customer service, all while maintaining strong government accountability for all financial transactions. The team acts as the city's internal auditor by providing double and triple checks on all financial transactions. We must be held higher -- to the highest levels and be accountable and transparent to our citizens and customers. This slide highlights some of the various professional projects that we have provided our customers this past year. Many of the projects are driven by the ability of our staff to provide internal audit services, efficiency analysis, and deliver accountability, transparency to our customers. As previously mentioned, the Finance Department has the responsibility and resources for the city to deliver these services today and will continue to deliver them in the future for all of our customers upon their request. Here are a few examples of the projects and services that we provide our customers. Rate modeling. Brad has been working with all city departments to establish common methodologies and approaches to justify and validate city fees. School resource officer analysis. Karen works with the Police Department each year to update the projected costs to provide to the school district for the annual SRO contract review. Business model analysis. Jenny works with the Police Department and the Public Works team members every year to update our vehicle maintenance facility analysis to determine when the correct time to bring in vehicle maintenance in-house for the city. Contract discrepancies. Keith and Sandra work with the Public Works team to assist them with the numerous contracts currently going on at the wastewater treatment facility to make sure that we are always in compliance during their construction needs. PEAK process improvement. Brad works with Vincent and the innovation team to determine a more efficient and effective way of doing our daily jobs. The Finance Department follows the city's vision statement with its own mission statement. The Finance Department mission statement is to deliver a positive experience while upholding integrity, transparency, and fiscal responsibility. The expectations of the Finance Department, with all the services defined, the Finance Department is committed to providing financial guidance, training, internal audit and customer service at the highest standards to all that we serve. This commitment takes time and we hope you do and all of our customers are noticing the changes that we have implemented. We believe as we exceed our customers expectations the Finance Department will deliver a successful clean audit to the Council, Mayor, to the citizens and all of our fellow staff members on an annual basis. The Finance Department takes great pride in obtaining a clean audit every year. This is our report card that is issued to us by our independent auditor. The audit report assures the Mayor, Council, employees, citizens and community partners that we are managing the finances for compliance, accuracy, and fiscal responsibility. The annual audit is something we look forward to each year. We embrace the process as a learning opportunity. The information that is obtained during that audit process is consumed and used going forward. The Finance Department learns each day from their successes and failures to continue to continually improve what we do for our customers. We will continue Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 7 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 5 of 23 to identify gaps, issues and problems for future training and efficiency opportunities. The auditors investigate our internal controls. They test and validate our financial transactions. They validate the proper use of accounting principles and at the end they summarize the results into the annual audit report. This slide presents some of the successes that we have achieved since we have last presented to you about 12 months ago. Starting with customer service we have continued to improve our paperless movement by reviewing and changing and adjusting our procedures and processes to meet a more streamlined paperless environment. We have also continued to work with the Legal Department to validate and verify what documents require ink on paper signatures and we have adapted and adjusted the way we have processed some of those documents moving forward. The next item that we are going to talk about is performance. Performance based processes and procedures. We have looked at our visa card system. For 1021 we have adopted a new credit card provider by Bank of America to facilitate the procurement needs for our customers. So, this year we will be deploying a new city Visa card to all employees. PEAK improvements. We will continue to look at those. As we spoke about in previous slides we are always looking at ways to be more efficient and effective with what we do. Next success is technology. We have officially deployed our new procurement system, the software system called Bonfire. April 3rd was the first date that we utilized Bonfire to facilitate our bidding process. The Bonfire system allows us to go one hundred percent paperless and to be a better communication tool than the previous methods that we have used. Open.gov has been deployed to city staff and city directors to obtain their finances from our financial system in a more viable and customer friendly system. And, last but not least, on the technology is priority based budgeting phase two. We successfully delivered to Mayor Tammy the results of priority based budgeting. We were able to complete phase one and phase two. So, we had that as completed last week of December of 2019. And, then, the last success we have is in our audit section. We were able to deliver to the city another clean audit for fiscal year 2019 and we also provided an update and rewrite of 23 financial management policies that were adopted by City Council over the last 12 months. With the final slide of today's presentation we will discuss the road ahead. You will see a theme that many of our listed projects are based on providing our customers with better tools to improve their effectiveness and efficiency, thus freeing up time to manage other aspects of their jobs. It is our responsibility to adapt to the changing landscape of the city and provide the necessary tools to our city employees. We believe that the projects we are working on will do just that. A few of the items on this list will have budgetary requests in the future from the city, while the majority of the projects on this list will be developed in-house utilizing the existing staff abilities to save the city money in both development of software and time spent on processes for all city employees. With customer service as a goal of ours, we are looking to research the electronic payment methodologies for all of our vendors. Within technology we are going to be improving our budget software, our financial reporting via open.gov and our procurement bid processes using Bonfire. Time cards. We are currently looking at improving our timecard system, so it meets our needs for the next ten to 20 years. Priority based budgeting. We would like to integrate priority based budgeting into our annual budget process, so we are continuing to work on that. Succession planning is always going on in Finance. We are continuing to work with our staff members to develop their skills and abilities, so when the time arises we can promote Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 8 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 6 of 23 within and last, but not least, as PEAK, as mentioned before, we are always looking at processes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how we do things. In closing I would like to state that none of the successes could be possible if it were not for the 18 dedicated Finance team members and the rest of the city staff. They are the ones that deserve all the credit for our successes for the clean audit and for the success of the city. There are days where we as the Finance Department must be the bad guys, but we always make sure we treat our customers professionally and with respect. I can inform you that the Finance team is here to make a difference in what the city becomes. We take great pride in delivering exceptional customer service and impacting the city in a positive way. I want to say thank you to our Finance team for showing up to work each day with -- with a great attitude and a prideful approach to making a difference for the city and its citizens. I hope that you see the difference that our Finance team is moving to make. With that I stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you, Todd. And, Council, in case you were not aware, Todd had already prepared that doing the voiceover in a PowerPoint. So, all of us are learning new tricks as we were prepared to send this out remotely until we started putting these work sessions back on. But he is live for any questions you may have following up on his presentation. All right. Todd, thank you very much for that recorded presentation and being present. B. Community Development Department: Planning Process Improvement Discussion Simison: So, with that we will move on to the next item on the agenda, Item 5-B, Community Development Department, planning process improvement discussion, and, Jessica, I don't know if you are going to kick this off or if we are going to have Caleb start it. Perreault: I believe Caleb will be starting it. Simison: All right. Then Mr. Hood. Hood: Thank you, Mayor and Council. So, I was actually going to start by just a little bit of background. I don't have any new tricks. Every day is -- is new and fresh, but you are going to hear kind of some things we have been talking about since the beginning of the year, if not longer, and I have been working pretty closely with my Council liaison Council Woman Perreault, to present what we are going to be talking about here for the next half hour or so. Forty-five minutes. There are two documents in your packet--there is actually three documents. One is just a cover memo kind of explaining the other two documents. I'm largely going to be speaking from the Word document. So, if you have that handy it might not be a bad idea -- I'm going to try to summarize that for you in kind of my presentation discussion and just to that point feel free to interrupt at any time. I have gotten this kind of broken down into bite sized pieces, but if you need to interrupt at any point in time it's not an interruption at all. So, please, feel free to do that. We are really going to talk about process improvements, but there is also code. So, I will kind of call Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 9 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 7 of 23 that out for you when something is really an internal process or policy versus something that we are looking to actually change city code on. So, I will highlight those as we -- as we move forward here. The Excel spreadsheet, which, again, I don't really plan on working from too terribly much, is largely background information. It was used to kind of keep a record over the last few months, as well as inform the Word document when draft code changes were proposed. So, then, onto the code changes, even that the -- I have got it kind of broken down into two different sections. So, today we are really going to focus on the yellow highlighted changes. So, if you look in the far left-hand column, the yellow highlighted changes are changes that staff is proposing to move forward more immediately. The red ones are proposed to be vetted through our UDC steering committee we would still share our -- you know, the yellow ones of round one with the UDC workgroup as well, but the direction -- what I have heard anyways thus far from Council are these -- these are things that, basically, you want to move forward with, but that's why we are here is to check in, to make sure that these are things that you think are ready to move forward. They will still -- again, process changes don't -- won't necessarily require a public hearing, but anything -- any code changes we will have two public hearings, one before the Planning and Zoning Commission and one before the City Council. So, again, I'm here to kind of share an update and get some direction from you on where we are going to be going here. Let's see if I can actually move -- Chris, would you mind going to page six of the Word doc and I think I'm going to start there. So, you have other things that are in this Word document that are code related and other-- excuse me -- code enforcement related and other changes to city code. If we have time at the end I will double back to some of those, but we are really going to focus on planning process and code changes to start. So, if there is no kind of initial questions that's kind of the lay of the land and what I hope to kind of get out of the next 30 minutes or so kind of the first bite sized chunk is a -- it's the big chunk, but it has to do with neighborhood meetings. So, everything I'm going to talk about now has to do with the neighborhood meeting process and this is both process and code, but I'm going to start with kind of the code changes. Our code today requires that a developer or applicant notice property owners within 300 feet of the property. We are proposing to change that to 500 feet. So, an additional 200 feet from today's current standard. We have talked about -- I have talked with, again, my Council liaison and the Mayor both, should we even tier that. Is there another option in there? Do we do 500 feet, but maybe even further if -- if the adjacent properties are one acre or two acre or five acre properties and you are only noticing a handful of them? Does it change if it's commercial or residential? At the end of the day -- and it's not the end of the day yet, but at least the draft you have before you is fairly straightforward and simple. We are a little concerned -- I'm a little concerned that if we have too many variables in there we can screw it up. So, if it's 500 feet, unless this and, then, you do a thousand or 300 feet if this condition exists -- I have faith in our staff, but we are human and we do make mistakes, so if there is too many variables in how far we are supposed to --to notice neighbors, I think we can screw that up. I think a developer could screw that up. And we are -- one of the problems we are trying to solve here is to make -- make the process more predictable, understandable, more straightforward. So, what you have before you is just the change from 300 feet to 500 feet in code. But, again, I'm going to pause there and see if there is any -- any comments and we certainly talked about other options in there, but today that is the proposal before you. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 10 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 8 of 23 Hoaglun: Just real quick. Chris, I think he wants you on page five, instead of six, to get to the right section we are discussing. Hood: I'm sorry. Thank you, Mayor. I could share my screen, too, I guess if that's easier. Simison: Council, any thoughts on the 500 versus the current 300 recommendation? Perreault: I just want to mention -- I believe Caleb shared with me that some of the surrounding cities are already at 500 feet; is that correct, Caleb? Simison: For the record that is Council Woman Perreault. Hood: Yeah. And this is Caleb. So, it does vary. There are different--you know, certainly different standards out there in the valley. So, not one unified standard. I don't -- and I don't know what the most common dimension is either. I could relook at some of my notes, but I do -- I do not have a solid answer for, again, the most prevalent distance. I will also just say before we move on from this, the neighborhood meeting notice I would recommend whatever distance we choose for neighborhood we also -- also choose that same distance for the public hearing notice, so it's the same folks that are being invited to the neighborhood meeting are the same folks that are invited to the public hearing with a -- with a postcard or a letter. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Caleb, I think -- personally I think the 500 makes sense. I will be honest, the idea of kind of tailoring that out and depending on land use is intriguing, but I, too, share the concern about consistency. So, while I think it's a unique idea to explore, I would be curious what the committee's thoughts on that were, but I think trying to keep it as consistent seems to make sense and I like the 500 number. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Yeah. Along those lines, I was giving thought, too, to -- I definitely like expanding it to 500. 1 was intrigued like Councilman Cavener about for bigger projects that have a broader impact that go further of maybe expanding that, but that does complicate things and, well, how do you define a big project? So, if we were to do something like that I think that would take more research and everything. For our purposes for right now to help the process I think 500 would -- would work. Simison: Okay. Caleb, I think you have got a general consensus on a 500. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 11 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 9 of 23 Hood: Okay. So, in this same section of code, then, if you look just below, the next section requires that the notice be provided to those folks that are within -- going to be within 500 feet five days prior--or, excuse me, five days prior to submittal of an application to City Council -- or, excuse me, to staff. We are proposing to change that to ten days to allow a little more time for collaboration. So, if there are some things that come up during the neighborhood meeting a developer can really consider those, maybe make some changes before they have a deadline to submit to the city their application. So, we are proposing to change the far end of that. So, you can't have a neighborhood meeting, you know, a year in advance or even more than three months in advance and no closer than ten days prior to submittal of an application to the city staff. So, that's the other code change that we are proposing there. So, I will pause quickly on that one. I -- yeah, I will pause right there. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, question for Caleb. Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Yeah. Caleb, on that I -- I don't mind going to ten days. I think that's a good change. I think elsewhere we talked about having them submit everything to the city five days before the hearing and if it's ten days out are we giving them enough time to get that submittal in? Hood: So, good question. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun. So, that is actually covered in another section. So, this -- we are still just in the neighborhood meeting portion of this and -- and I have got some process improvement stuff that I'm going to talk about. So, we are just in the code, but I do have some process and best practices things that I want to propose to you here in just a second. So, I'm going to put a pin in that just for a minute. I will double back and I think answer your question. Hoaglun: The minutes won't record a thumbs up, will it? So -- okay. Simison: No, but we -- if there is -- if you don't have any questions on the things and you like what's being proposed a thumbs up would be good and we can just continue to move on, so -- Hood: I will also note, then, in that section the -- we have had some subsequent discussions since this went to the clerk for printing and there are two other sections that you don't have before you in this draft, but still under the neighborhood meeting section 11-5A-6C. What we have added there is the draft subsection that --- that requires the developer to hold the neighborhood meeting Monday through Thursday, except for on a holiday, with a start time between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. And, then, I'm just going to add the next one. And that the meeting needs to be held at City Hall or within five miles of the site. So, five miles of the site is the big one there. If there isn't a viable option within five miles of the site or on the site, they could certainly have it at City Hall if it's further out in the middle of, you know, virtually nowhere, because there is pretty much opportunities within five miles of everywhere in Meridian these days, but you can't hold the meeting in Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 12 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 10 of 23 downtown Boise, you can't hold it in Ontario. On a Saturday. So, Monday through Thursday, starting between 6:00 and 8:00 or non-holidays and the meeting needs to be held at City Hall or within five miles -- at the site or within five miles of the site. So, any -- any heartburn with either adding those two provisions to where the neighborhood meeting is held? Simison: Caleb, one thing I didn't hear that I thought we talked about. Were you going to make it so it had to be indoors? Hood: Yeah. So, I'm going to just roll right into the next one, because I don't think probably anybody has any problem with Monday through Thursday. So, that is one that -- that could potentially be put in code. Right now I have it down as a best practice. So, what we have talked about is developing a handout that we could give both to applicants, as well as the public, here is what you can expect at a neighborhood meeting. Here is the best -- best practices. Here is what we encourage you to do. Now, again, if any of these things you want us to put in the code I can do that and we have toyed with some of them in code to the Mayor's point. At one point in time we had talked about putting it within X amount of miles of the site and hold it with indoors. Sometimes -- I will just be frank. I -- I can see some benefit to that, especially if it's January, February, and it's inclement weather and expecting people to come outside for a neighborhood meeting does not sound like fun. Sometimes, though, if the weather is nice, walking the site with the developer and understanding things can be beneficial to those neighborhood meetings. So, again, this kind of FAQ best practices sheet that staff will put together will have some of that to say, hey, a best practice is to hold this inside. However, if the weather is -- allows and it makes sense to hold it outdoors, that's an acceptable practice, but just be warned, again, if you held it in February and it's a snow storm, we are likely going to make you do that again, because that's not acceptable. You can't expect people to come out in a blizzard to hold your neighborhood meeting. So, again, that's sort of a best practice, but if we want that in code I'm -- I'm willing to add that. Let me just rattle through that list, then, for best practices for neighborhood meetings that we have put together. So, requests when -- when possible to hold it inside. Recording them. So, again, this is something we have talked about is recording these meetings. We are not requiring it right now, but we would say that both for the -- a developer and a private party may be a good idea to record at least an audio recording of this, so you have some record of this happening and some of that dialog. Wouldn't be required to be submitted to the city necessarily. But, again, just would create a record -- another form of a record that could be a best practice. Another one would be the city standardizing a sign-in sheet. So, when you show up to this neighborhood meeting it's got a city logo. It says here -- again, just a paragraph. As a neighbor here is what you should expect tonight from the developer. By signing below does not mean you are consenting to this application, does not mean you are endorsing their project, it just means you were here and participated in the neighborhood meeting. Contact staff with any questions. So, again, it's a -- it's not just a, you know, piece of notebook paper that says sign here, it's -- it's a sheet to sign in that's of the city and we -- so, we would create that. It makes it look a little bit more official in all cases. Another one that we have talked about -- and there is a question here -- is that invite letter to that neighborhood meeting. I have already reached out to the development Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 13 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 11 of 23 community, I have gotten a couple of templates, but we would provide that -- that -- a customizable pdf Word document on our website that anybody could go and fill in the blanks. You are hereby invited to a neighborhood meeting at X location at certain amount of time to discuss this project. But, again, the language is clear. It's concise. It's got information on how to contact the city. More questions send them to our website with more information. I don't think anybody probably has any heartburn with that. I think that's a good process improvement. I guess the question for you is should we send that letter out as the city or should we still have that on the developer? I want to go back to what problem are we trying to solve with these neighborhood meetings. We have got a lot of accusations about I never received the letter. They never showed up to the neighborhood meeting. You know, that -- when I was at the neighborhood meeting they didn't have a site plan or whatever those things are. So, we get some accusations. So, we are trying to limit some of the -- the flaws that we currently have in that and that's -- that's -- again, that's one that we get from time to time is I'm within 300 feet, I didn't get a notice. Well, if-- if Planning staff did it or the clerk did it and send that note -- sends that notice out, we can keep a record of who we sent it to. It doesn't necessarily mean they received it in their hand, but we -- we mailed it out to the property owners address. So, pros and cons to that. We have kicked that around. So, a little feedback on if -- if we should leave that wholly in the developer's hands, but provide them the template letter that they fill in the blanks or if we want to own more of the neighborhood meeting process. I guess that's the question at hand. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Good. You can hear me now. So, we have talked about this quite a bit and -- and I would like to share my thoughts and also ask the Mayor if he would share his thoughts, because we have different perspectives on it. I feel like that we should leave this to the developers and not change that, because I think that the list of addresses that we upload to public record that the --the city provides the list of addresses and that should be enough information to show who those letters should have gone to. If the postal service lost it, well, that's --we are not going to solve anything by the city mailing it versus the developer mailing it. I don't -- I don't see any I don't feel like having the developer mail these notices is going to solve any of the issues that we are hearing about why people are not getting noticed. I think it's a distance thing and I think it's also a lot of times people think they are within 300 feet and they are not. So, frequently when somebody has commented that they did not get notice, I have gone back and looked at the list of addresses and they were not on that address, because they weren't within the 300 feet and now the 500 feet. So, we investigate -- it seems like we have investigated every time somebody has commented on whether they were invited or not and most of the time it's not a mistake that's made necessarily. So, those are my two cents on that. I think that's something that -- that there aren't enough challenges to change the current process as long as we are providing that template letter for the developer to use and a list of addresses. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 14 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 12 of 23 Simison: And I will just provide the -- so, when -- when I suggested that we have the development community do this, this was when -- and I don't know where it stands yet, we haven't gotten there, but if we were going to take over the signing of the property, it was my recommendation we would just take over all aspects to ensure that those elements are provided. If we are no longer recommending that we sign the property, then, we can put that back on the developer, but the one key word that we do not never know -- we provide the list of addresses. We have no idea if those are ever actually put in the mail. I'm not saying that they are or they are not, but if we want to ensure that they are mailed there is only one way to ensure that they are mailed and that's to have the city do it. Otherwise, we are expecting it. But kind of on the larger process, you know, these neighborhood meetings are not required under state code. They are under our code. They are a best practice. So, it's really whatever we think we want to be responsible for or the development community to be responsible for in this context. So, I'm not wedded to us doing it, but I think it's the only way to ensure that they actually are mailed and to whom. The -- the last thing I will mention was just on the -- Caleb talked about the best practices for the indoor or not. Even in the middle of summer you have no idea what the weather is going to be like when you send something out ten days in advance. From the last time I have been in a neighborhood meeting that are outside at 6:00 o'clock in the middle of the summer on site, a slight breeze takes things down, you have nothing to work upon. It's really a practice -- you know, what is practical in terms of expectations. If the developer wants to hold a second one on site because it makes sense, but if -- we have had those situations in the past where a windstorm comes in, where it rains on that day, and, then, are you expecting people to show up in that situation or not. So, taking the weather out of the equation is why the -- I think the indoor has greater value than -- leaving it open is the best practice. But with that now I will -- I will turn it over, because I see everyone's mics are off. So, who would like to go next? Nary: Mr. Mayor? Simison: I wasn't expect Mr. Attorney. Bill. Nary: So, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, one other thing I thought of after Caleb and I talked about this -- I agree that sometimes on site could be really a good thing, but I think you are going to see more and more issues occasionally where there is no handicap ADA access for someone to -- to participate and go to the meeting, because it's either out in a field, it's unimproved property, there is no sidewalk, there is no place for them to hear it very well. They may have hearing issues and things like that. So, I -- whether we put it in the code or not, it's certainly the Council's call, but I think that's an issue you are going to have occasionally is that there is no ADA accessible to an outside venue, especially when you have varieties of different types of impairments that might be an impediment to people participating. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 15 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 13 of 23 Hoaglun: While we have got Bill Nary queued up, our city attorney, I would like to ask him a question about the audio. If we put that into policy or best practice requiring audio, I get -- I'm concerned about that, but, then, we are not requiring them -- or do they have to bring it to the hearing to prove that they answered this question or where do we stand from a legal standpoint on -- on requiring audio, but not utilizing the audio? Nary: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Council Member Hoaglun -- and that's -- that's exactly been my concern about requiring it to be recorded. I could see it being very messy and the common complaint that we see or hear often is the developer said one thing and he says, no, I did. And, true, their audio recording might be helpful, but what you will probably get a lot of the times is it kind of sounds like he is agreeing, it kind of sounds like he was noncommittal, it's going to be really hard to tell one way or the other. You are going to stop a hearing in the middle of it, go let's go to the tape, and it's -- okay. It was an hour long meeting. I think that was about ten minutes in. Let's go to ten minutes. I mean I just think it's going to get real clunky. I'm also concerned that if you require it you may not -- I -- I have been guilty of this, so I will admit I have recorded meetings and did not realize it didn't record until the meeting was over and, then, once the meeting is over I go back and listen to it and it's not there. Well, it's kind of done. So, now they would have to do it over. I just see more -- more problems. I think if people want to record the meeting -- most people have the capability to do it themselves. I just don't think it should be required to be done. Simison: And just to be clear, we are not putting in that this is being required at this point in time. Nary: Right. Simison: It's only a best practice. There is no requirement. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Hoaglun: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And -- and -- so, Bill, are you more comfortable -- Mr. Mayor and Bill, if it's not required, but it is available, so there is -- that -- that keeps us out of any legal requirement, then, that they have to bring forth or can citizens demand -- I mean it's still kind of like, okay, it exists and are we going to get people demanding that be brought forward, because they think the developer lied, so -- Nary: So, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Hoaglun, again, I think -- I think a best practice is great. I think the direction to the public that they are also able to record the meeting themselves if they wish. If they are going to be present they can record it themselves. They can provide that if they wish as part of the record. That's up to them and I think that, again, leaves it in the ballpark, because as the Mayor said earlier, if we want to guarantee it, then, we have to do it. If we are not going to do it, which I wouldn't recommend us doing that, I think you just leave it as a best practice and remind the public they have the ability to record it themselves if they want to. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 16 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 14 of 23 Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor. Bill, thank you. That makes sense. So, I'm good with that. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: We had had some preliminary conversations about requiring something be submitted in writing by the developer with a list of criteria that -- that be a form that's completed that says that they covered a particular set of -- you know, they covered a specific set of information. So, one of the challenges has been that one -- one applicant might give a very thorough presentation at the neighborhood meeting and one might just show up and say that they were there and so Caleb and I and the Mayor as well have had conversations about are there certain things we really want to see happening and -- and is that something that we ask the developer to put in writing and submit with their application and I would propose that I would like to see that happen. I'm curious what the other Council Members think about that. Hood: So, Mr. Mayor, before the rest of Council chimes in, thank you, Council Woman Perreault. I want to just put a little bit finer -- I didn't expand on that, but kind of the FAQ document that we are looking to put out would include that type of information and on our application checklist we -- we already require a narrative from the applicant. What I envision is expanding that with a narrative to provide a brief summary of the neighborhood meeting and any issues that came up at that meeting. So, that's how we were -- again, not a code thing, we wouldn't require it in city code, but in this best practice it is highly encouraged in your narrative, address your neighborhood meeting, summarize the neighborhood meeting and how that went and -- and, you know, bring a -- bring a site plan to your neighborhood meeting, explain, you know, what the project is and some basic information and, then, again, summarize that--that meeting. How many attended? What were -- what were some questions or common themes? So, I just want to put a -- I'm sorry I didn't bring that up in kind of that template, but that is another best practice process thing we would expect, then, the development community to address how their neighborhood meeting went and summarize it. Parsons: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Bill, I will just see if there are any Council Members that want to weigh in on these last couple items before we move on. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I -- just going over my notes, I'm -- I really like a standardized letter with expectations of the meeting being sent out to those within the 500 feet. I think the 500 feet is fine. I really like this idea of a template. Best practice that Councilman Perreault spoke about, going over specific questions and highlights that we as a body -- and even Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 17 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 15 of 23 P&Z would like to see and -- if needed. Like the idea of a sign-in sheet. I think that's -- I think that's great. The only -- the only thing that -- and I have gone back and forth about this. I originally thought that -- that recording it would be necessary in order to prevent the he-said-she-said thing that we run into a lot with --with neighborhood meetings. I just can't-- I just -- for some reason I just --we haven't been able to come up with an effective way to do it. So, unless we can figure out a way that -- that makes sense for the city and those involved and have it be effective, than, I probably would lean more toward the template idea than -- than the actual recording, but maybe leave it as a best practice, not forcing them or making them to do it, but, you know, making it a best practice, helping out the decision making process with -- with our body and also Planning and Zoning. Simison: I think that's where we currently are. Mr. Cavener, Mr. Borton, any comments? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. Caleb, on the -- the sending out the letter question, should we do it, should the applicant do it, in terms of staff time, do you anticipate if we were the ones to do it or if we offered that, that it's a -- I guess who did that ultimately fall to staff wise? Does it require a new position? Does it work within somebody else's scope of work? Help me understand that particular piece. Hood: Yeah. Mr. Mayor, Councilman Cavener, we haven't quite gotten that far, although we have talked to the Mayor and you will see in the -- I believe in the draft '21 budget Community Development does have a new administrative position where we are seeking -- that it has been one of the tasks that we have talked about this person doing is sending out these neighborhood meetings if that is something that the city takes on. So, that's sort of already in the works, if you will. There is still enough for that person to do if we don't send out the letter, so this doesn't, you know, hinge on us needing that position or not, but that is a duty that we had. If we don't get that position and still want to send out the neighbor-- the clerk would kind of -- you know, we would want to talk with the clerk a little bit, because they are probably --we have some maybe administrative capacities, but we work closely with the clerk's office on these -- on notices anyways for the hearings, so it could make some sense to either take that on from them or have them do the whole thing. Not you notice for this and we will notice for that. So, we haven't -- we haven't gotten that far. I guess I would like to kind of keep the discussion at a higher level. Do we think this is a best practice? I think staff can figure it out and I don't -- this isn't going to validate a FTE or even a halftime person, I mean it will take some resources, but I think we have the capacity to absorb that and make it happen if it's something we think is in the best interest to take on, because it makes the process better. Cavener: Mr. Mayor, follow up if I may. Simison: Yes. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 18 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 16 of 23 Cavener: And I don't know if this is a question for you, Mr. Mayor or for Caleb. Is this a process that staff is wanting to offer? I guess my question is is this something that we could provide, but not require? Simison: Yeah. I -- I guess from my standpoint I would argue that it's something we either -- you either do it or you don't do it, just from a cost standpoint. In theory if you take this on you are going to charge for the cost of -- of that part in your fees that you charge and so rather than having a variable fee for this or that, I would recommend it's -- it's -- to me it's really just a question if it's not important to Council that we verify that the letters are sent I don't think that it's necessary that we do the work. If you want verification that the letters are sent, then, we should do the work. So, as I mentioned before, if we were going to be taking on more and more aspects of this where we are going to be the ones that are essentially helping make sure that all the postings are done, all the mailings are done, rather than splitting out the developer does this and we do this, I was suggesting let's all do it -- let's either take on more responsibility or leave this responsibility to the developer, not split it where they are going to take on some and we are going to take on some. So, I -- it really kind of, to me, depends upon what happens with the sign postings where I would actually come out to say we should or shouldn't do this. Cavener: Sure. Mr. Mayor, if I -- if I may. Simison: Yes. Cavener: And I -- and I think that that -- I think that's probably the crux of as to where I am at as well and to me I would want to hear from, you know, some of our reoccurring applicants about if having the city manage this service is a benefit to them or not. To me I think there is a significant benefit that comes along with saying here, city, you go do it. It's a consistent process. It's different with applicant A or applicant B, we provide greater consistency to our community. I also would want to make sure that the cost that we are able to do it is competitive with what they would be able to do it on their own. So, there is -- there is still some what ifs for me, but I do like a -- kind of city led approach to doing this. I think it does better serve our citizens and provides a benefit to our applicants as well. Simison: And I think Caleb has heard at least from one person -- only one that I'm aware of on this specific issue, if he wants to bring that up, but let's go to Councilman Borton, if he's got anything he would like to add before we go back to Caleb. Borton: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm not so sure I would look -- I'm looking for the problem that -- that each of these is intended to solve and -- and might need to give it some more thought, because I don't know the data behind the proposed changes. There is a lot of proposed changes and -- and, for example, you know, 300 to 500 feet, do we have folks, you know, 400 feet away that didn't get notice, but, otherwise, would get noticed? I mean why 500? Why not 700? Why not-- so, I'm trying to understand what are the --the known problems that the change is solving, because it is -- these changes do create greater expense, greater delay, so the benefit must outweigh it. So, whether we mail versus the Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 19 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 17 of 23 applicant mailing, do we have any data that an applicant has reported to us that they have mailed stuff and they have lied to the city about it? I mean I'm not aware of anything like that. So, we are probably early in the process, but as part of the discussion and consideration of these -- these proposals I know there is more discussions I'm sure to go down the road, but I look at them with that in mind. What is the -- the known problem that this is a solution and the benefit that these changes create outweigh the cost. I wouldn't want the city to mail anything. I don't know why we would ever mail stuff in lieu of the developer doing it, unless we know there is somebody who has provided false information to the city about complying with what their obligations are. So, that's some of the initial mindset. I'm not supportive or opposed. As to the audio recording in a neighborhood meeting, I'm not so certain what the purpose of that would be. I don't know what I would do with it if I listened to an audio recording. If there was a disagreement between a developer and -- and a citizen as to what was said at a neighborhood meeting, so now what do I do with it? I mean the value of -- of the proposed change I'm not sure I see. I understand the intent. So, there is probably more work to come and maybe there is data there, but I look at changes that create cost or delay with some caution. Simison: Well, I will turn this back over to Caleb to try and get additional feedback. I think the short answer is there is no data on any of these things. I think it's your experience that you all have had while sitting at the dais over the last three months to six plus years. So, if you think there are issues you can certainly say stop moving forward. But, Caleb, any comments back? Hood: No. That-- and, Mr. Mayor, that's what I was just going to say. I mean I don't have that data, because especially as we are talking about neighborhood meetings, this is on the developer to do that. I don't have -- again, we are back to he-said-she-said. I never received the letter or the notice. We have had from time to time a neighbor saying I am 350 feet away, why did you only do 300 feet? Well, we are going to have somebody that's 501 feet away saying why did you pick 500? It's an arbitrary number, but I'm going off of some of the feedback I have heard from -- maybe not so much this Council, but previous councils even, too, to say, you know what, we should look at casting a wider net, including more of the -- a wider neighborhood to get in the process. So, I don't have really any data, but it is just anecdotal stories that you hear from somebody in the public coming and saying your process is flawed and I didn't get an invite. I had to talk to my neighbor and that's the only way I knew and, then, when I got there the developer said one thing and submitted something else and so, you know, it's kind of the Mayor's point, I'm not necessarily advocating for any of these, I'm reacting -- I think -- and I will just be honest, I mean it's more from the public side of the things, not -- not from the developers' perspective, this is more what I have heard at public hearings from the public saying your process is skewed in a developer's favor, you should swing that back to us a little bit, let us have a fighting chance to have --to be part of this process. So, some of these changes are doing that, but that is time and money, so that cost benefit I can't answer for you either. It's sort of optics. We are trying to really improve the process, but we are really good faith showing we are trying to let the public play a bigger role. Parsons: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 20 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 18 of 23 Simison: Mr. Parsons. Parsons: I just wanted to piggyback on some of Caleb's comments, too. The one thing that staff can't control is the change of ownership, the timing for the change of ownership of the property. So, as you know sometimes we have developers that may continue to own these buildable lots adjacent to a development and a home is constructed on that site and that transfer happens at the county, but at the time that the developer had their neighborhood meeting and submitted their application it may have showed the ownership as the developer and not the new owner and so they were not included in the process, because we don't control that. The code actually requires that the notification goes out to the property -- the property owner of record, who could either be living here in the community or living in California. So, that e-mail -- or that invite could get mailed to someone in California and not even a renter or landlord or even the new owner who just moved in. So, I just wanted to put that in -- on your plate, too, and take that into consideration as we consider these process changes. Hood: So, if we just -- Mr. Mayor. That would be --just to kind of answer I think -- and it was Councilman Borton's I think -- that's the only benefit I really see to the city sending out the notice is by chance if ownership changed we will have the most -- they could get the list of property owners from our administrative assistant 30 days before and, then, send their letter out -- well, maybe you had a house or two that sold in that time and now I'm sending letters to old addresses. If the city does it we can pull the addresses right from the county right now, we know exactly who it's going out to, the letters don't sit there for a week or two or three or whatever. But, you know, again, is that worth us take -- owning this whole process? I don't -- I don't know that it -- I'm sure it's happened, but if you ask for the list of neighbors and you don't send that letter for another 30 days, yeah, you could have -- it could be going to the wrong address. I do want to -- Mr. Mayor, move on -- just to a point of order or clarification. I know when we are in City Hall 5:30 is kind of the break point. I think we are about halfway there. When -- and I know you have a 6:00 o'clock meeting. What -- how much more time do we have today? Simison: Are we good to go until 5:45 on these items? Any problems with anybody? Okay. We will do a hard stop at 5:45, Caleb. Hood: All right. Thank you. So -- and I think inside -- and before we leave I want to talk about the inside neighborhood meeting or not. I heard some persuasive -- do you want me to put that in code, I guess? Can I get a thumbs up? Does it -- do we want to see an inside in our code, have your neighborhood meeting inside. Not just the best practice, but we are going to require it be inside. Bernt: Code. Hood: Okay. All right. So, I'm going to -- but I am going to still put it in the best practices then. I saw more thumbs down than up, so -- and this will go to public hearing, so you can change your mind through the process, but at least the draft we are going to just keep it in the best practices. We will also kind of double back to the mailing and I think Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 21 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 19 of 23 everyone's on the fence, but let's talk about the neighborhood meeting. So, that's -- or the public hearing. So, I'm going to move now to the -- the public hearing process and, again, several steps within this. Let me run through -- so, the distance -- we are going to do 500. So, that's the first section then. I lost the screen. But the first section. And we are going to just match that to be 500 feet as well, to send out the notices for the public hearing. The big question here is should the city hire a sign company? So, we have had -- and, again, I'm sorry I don't have data, but it is frequent and it seems like it's more and more frequent. Applicants are not posting the site in a timely manner. They are forgetting. Whether intentional or not, the sites are not getting posted and, therefore, you have to continue items. You cannot hear that item if the site is not posted in accordance with our code. So, the response we have to that, then, was, well, the city will hire, then, a sign company or three, you know, we could do a rotation -- and, then, the sign posting actually gets done by our contractor. Again, they are -- it's -- they are human. There is going to be mistakes, too. But you -- one would think that they would make less mistakes. It's their job to install signs. So, you would think they would do better about putting those signs up and could be a little more reliable if that problem we are trying to solve is to get the notice on the property in a timely manner consistent with our code, we could take that on. I want to put this into perspective, though, a little bit. Boise has recently gone the other way. So, for years and years they -- they had sign companies that they would hire and pass that -- those costs onto the development community. They have recently changed it to go back to putting that on their applicants. So, we are heading in different directions on this one potentially. So, the draft code you have before you actually does have that in, because that's primarily what I have heard from -- from Council is to -- we should -- we should take this on to make sure it's posted in the right location, in a timely manner -- and no guarantees a hundred by everybody. Some of the concerns I have heard, though, from the development community, you know, now -- you know, they can blame themselves if the developer forgets. If it's our sign company. Now we are liable. We forgot. How does that look, because time is money, so now it's our contractors -- it's the city's delay, what happens if our contractor hits an irrigation line or a power line on private property? So, there is some concerns with not only damage, but costs and, you know, getting onto private property. We could probably get some consent that way, but those are some of the hiccups or problems that could arise if the city takes on and owns this posting the -- the sites. We could also better ensure quality of the signs. Some have been known to blow over, get kicked down, whatever. We could make sure they are at least securely put on the site through our contractor. But that's a big -- so, I'm going to pause there and just get some direction on what you think about the city -- and I know Mr. Nary has been looking into this, too, and had some concerns. So, I'm going to just pause there. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: I would assume that -- you know, there is -- there is sign companies that post signs that this is a business and they have insurance and I would hope and assume that any contract we would create with them would -- would have a hold harmless clause on Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 22 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 20 of 23 behalf of the city if an irrigation line is hit or, you know, there is some sort of -- if they create some sort of damage, you know, that we would -- that the city would be held harmless if the property owner were to sue the sign company. Sign companies do this. They know that they have to be insured. So, I'm not sure what Mr. Nary found out, but I -- I guess I'm not maybe as afraid of that as -- as the public testimony we received, but I welcome any thoughts. Simison: Mr. Nary? Nary: Sure. Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Council Member Perreault, I would agree, we would probably create an agreement that would hold the city harmless. We would get a consent from the applicant. I do agree with Caleb, though, that some of the concerns are going to be on very large parcels that you are going to be out posting in an area that may be unimproved, they may not have a road there to -- access may be problematic. You know, right now it's on the developer and who he contracts with to make sure they are there and whether they damage something that's between them and their contractor, so -- and the other one that Caleb raised, which I don't know the level of liability it would cause yet, but if the -- if the error is by the city's contractor, whether or not we have any liability towards that delay. In the Idaho code the city is exempted from that for some reasonable -- as long as we took reasonable care. I don't know how far that would extend to contractors, so there may be problems there. I just -- very few people do this, so I don't have any real data to show that it's not a huge risk or it is a big risk. I would be curious to know why Boise went the other way. My guess is their development is so rapid and their city is so large it may be problematic for them to keep up, too. But I don't know the reason for why they changed. So, probably could -- we could probably contract around some of those concerns, but I'm not sure we could contract around all of them. Simison: And so I will just add -- it kind of goes back into my -- into my two cents on this topic. To me a newspaper posting, posting the sign, notifying people about public hearings and neighborhood meetings, they are all required either under state law or under our code. I'm fine with the city taking on any and all responsibilities, but this is where I -- where I kind of come into like, well, let's either do it all or not do it all, not pick and choose which ones we think we should be responsible for, because they are all required to the same level in our code in some fashion. That's my -- that's all my opinion is on this on either way, but all of them -- all of them have value one way or the other. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: One of the benefits that I thought of that drives me nuts is by having a contractor do it we not only control that process of posting, but it's also taking down the stupid signs when the hearing is over. We don't need the signs anymore. We can have -- some of those signs are up there a very long time and it just kind of-- it's a nuisance, but that was just kind of an aside. I like the idea of taking over the sign that can be built into the cost Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 23 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 21 of 23 of the -- the fees that developers pay and it's out there, you know it's done, and it's -- it's very visible, too. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Caleb, you had both a yellow and a red coloration marked on this. So, can you explain the timing? Are there two different times that you would -- would address the five different -- or four different changes in this code? Is that why? Hood: No. Thank you, Council Woman Perreault. I guess the question really is kind of to the other questions that were brought up. Is this something we think is a problem that we want to solve right now? Should I get to work with Finance on sending out an RFP or an RFQ to look at bringing this in-house or do we want to talk about it some more, make sure it's the right thing for our city and, then, potentially do it in round two of -- of these UDC changes that come along in the fall, rather than pushing it through right now. Do we want to -- do we want to think about it. So, the yellow is round one. Red is round two. This one is -- is marginal to me. If everyone is saying -- or a majority of you are saying we want to take on sign posting, I will work with Finance, we will get this going right now. We will have it in this first round for spring. If -- if there is enough question in your mind, you are not quite sure, let's get some of those questions answered. Let's -- let's talk more with Boise and the development community and make sure this is the right thing for the city to take on. So, that's why it's kind of half yellow, half red. I need that direction from you. Is this something you all feel strongly about and want to do right now or should it be you want to kick it around a little bit more? Perreault: Mr. Mayor, a follow up? Simison: Yes. Perreault: I think that we should take as long as we need. To take to investigate the -- any legal concerns. I don't feel like this is something that's an emergency and I don't -- I don't feel like it's enough of a problem for us to rush through the process of -- this is significant, because it's going to require additional cost to be paid by the applicant and I want to make sure that we really want to do this before we start down that road. I don't -- that's my thought on it. I am very much in favor of doing it, but I would like to really make sure we investigate it thoroughly. Hood: Anyone else on that? Is that good? Keep on the list for potentially -- have the UDC workgroup kick that around a little bit more? Okay. I didn't see a whole bunch of thumbs. Okay. I'm going to move on then. Simison: Caleb, real quick. Hood: Yes. Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 24 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 22 of 23 Simison: I have not seen the proposed agenda for next week's workshop. I know of one item that will be coming forward. My intention is since we are not going to get through this and this doesn't even touch the big items yet to ask have to be able to come back next week -- to maybe move forward to the next item. I don't know if you were going directly towards when we start the process, but I think that's a larger one that we don't want to probably open up that can to get through right now. Hood: Okay. Simison: If that was the last one you have on your list. Hood: I will just -- I will -- I will just tell you the last two that I had was scheduling projects for hearing and receiving testimony. So, those are -- those are loaded questions. So, next week if you have on the -- I don't know if the clerk is -- is available to tell us what you have on your workshop next week, but -- Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: We have -- I'm looking at the agenda for next week and we have a couple of annual reports and that is the extent. Simison: Okay. Bernt: Information Technology and we have the City Clerk annual report scheduled for next week. Simison: Okay. I think that we can work with them and if we have got to move one off to the following week, but both of those topics are probably rather large, so I would just suggest we stop now and, then, bring it back next week to continue. Bernt: Okay. Hood: Thank you. Simison: All right. Council, do I have a motion? Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we adjourn the meeting. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Meeting Agenda April 28,2020— Page 25 of 272 Meridian City Council Work Session April 14,2020 Page 23 of 23 Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I second. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. Is there any discussion on the motion? If not, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Simison: And we will start at 6:00 o'clock with the regular public hearing meeting. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:44 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 4 / 28 / 2020 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK