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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005 05-03 Special Meridian City Council Special Meetina ~.2005 The Meridian City Council special meeting was called to order at 5:10 P.M. on Tuesday, May 3, 2005 by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle, Christine Donnell and Charlie Rountree. Staff Present: Stacy Kilchenmann, Kenny Bowers, Anna Canning, Brad Watson, Bill Nary, Doug Strong and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. x X Shaun Wardle Charlie Rountree X X Christine Donnell X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Bird: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published. Rountree: Second. Wardle: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda. All in favor? ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 3. Update on Strategic Planning and Focus Areas: De Weerd: I will introduce it. This is just an extension of really where we are at during our workshop with Council. We have given an overview and I believe that Councilman Wardle and Councilman Rountree have listened to the tapes (inaudible) and the department overview them and kind of where we are at and pull a bunch of different documents into one and trying to narrow the focus areas so we are not at 13 challenge areas, rather than we are at four different focus areas that we can start getting a little bit more targeted in our objectives and our strategies and those kinds of things. So, I will go ahead and pass the com over to Mr. Nary and we can start (inaudible--------). Nary: Members of the Council, Mayor we worked extensively on this presentation. What I am handing out are a couple of different documents to Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 2 of 29 show you sort of where we are at - following up on this discussion we had previously. There are a couple of things and one is the strategic focus areas. These are in written form and individual form and what these are if you (inaudible) with all the records together, we took the challenge areas - if you are familiar with our strategic planning in the past, we took all the challenges that existed, they were originally 11 and then they became 13 (inaudible ---------) and took all of those and tried to capsulate them into focus areas because we thought as a city we needed to try to capsulate all of these different areas into something that - compass all of those 13, but took them away from being somewhat (inaudible) as they have been - some of them were more department oriented, somewhere geared towards just the Public Works infrastructure needs or some Parks Department needs and they really weren't geared toward the organization as a whole and our objective in capsulating them into these focus areas was every department would have an ownership into everyone of these four and everyone of those strategic planning areas were encompassed into these four and so we think that's what we have before being provided with city services within revenue limitations (inaudible) for community growth, organizational excellence and stewardship of the public trust. If you look at the written documents, it has the sub categories, the initiatives under each one of those to sort of encapsulate and explain what is the planning for community growth mean? So, I won't bother reading all of them to you but you have those in front of you. That's the intent, basically, of these two documents. That's how you read them together. The other one I am handing you, the values, catalysts (inaudible) of behaviors - that's a process that has been ongoing for quite a while. It had employee input, Council input, and department directors' input. What this was was to try and come up with a behaviors that could then be evolved into a performance review program, so that when we are evaluating employees and their performance, we have some template and we have talked a number of times about the frustrations with the current template that we use and it's very cumbersome, it's ten pages long and has lots of little narrow lines on it and lots of little boxes and it's visually cluttered and it's very cumbersome to use. So, what we try to do in creating these behaviors is you with the employees input, create one a week (inaudible--------), CARE statement that we came up with last year. Customer service, accountability, respect and excellence and what do those mean? What we are attempting to do is take these behaviors and then use that as part of our format for performance evaluation, so that we could basically in the training to supervisors tell them customer service, again, not meant to be a check box form, customer service is the items here. Demonstrated commitment to customer service, what does that mean? Well, that means timeliness, smile, composure, information, honesty, listening, solutions and follow up. It's not intended to be on where you have to get them all to get a good score. It's to explain to the supervisor, the evaluator this is what we mean by customer service. This is what it is supposed to be - so articulate in this person's performance and what that is all about. These are basically the criteria that we felt customer service represented and all the rest of them. What we would like to get to and I think that is part of our discussion to make sure that Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 3 of 29 Council is on board - it sort of all works in concert. If we have these strategic initiatives and focus areas and that feels right to the Council, eventually what will happen is that strategic initiatives will be part of our performance evaluation process in the form that we titled with our leadership training group, position accountability and so it has some accountabilities for every employee, so that every employee can feel just like the departments have made a commitment that they own a piece of those focus areas and every employee will understand what their piece of that focus area is as well. So, that they all recognize that everybody plays a part. It doesn't matter what your job is position here is, you playa part in the eventual outcome that those focus areas were meant to address. That alone with the behavior is going to be the tool that we would use for performance. Again, how does that ultimately mean anything to the Council? Well, the objective and it won't see as much in this budget because this budget was begun when we were still looking at the 13 challenge areas verses these focus areas. You will probably see a little bit of both in the budgeting process. You will probably see some enhancements and directors that are focused, some of them meeting the challenge areas that existed. You may see some of them as for how they are being drafted, it sort of gearing towards where these focus areas are in how they relate to them. Ultimately, that is where we would like to be. That these focus areas would be the way to drive where the budget goes. If we are going to focus it, these are what the city's are and we are going to identify when you see these different things, you know a year from now and as we go further on through time, that they are all geared towards that city focus. This is what we are trying to accomplish and this is how we are getting it. This is how this relates to the focus areas and again how the employees can be a part of that. Wardle: Mr. Nary, just a quick question. Is the ultimate overall process going to be also to have the behaviors cross referenced into the focus areas to make that part of the expectations and behaviors as achievement within these focus areas? Is that what I am hearing? Nary; Yeah, I guess. We haven't really come up with what exactly the tools are going to look like. You know what the actual document that we will be using for evaluations (inaudible), but I think the thought is that it will encompass both these behaviors and these position accountabilities because the position accountability definitions that we looked at with Aspire On, basically took our focus areas and said here is how your accountability and responsibility are to these areas and the intent is and we are going through the training now, the directors have been through two training sessions and we have another training session this week with the next level of supervisors and we will eventually have it throughout the whole organization for all employees so that they understand, essentially, their accountability to the big goal. The behaviors, like I said, I guess if I was going to capitulate it and I am going - this isn't my show, this is all everybody's show. Canning: Organizational excellence under the initiative - both communicate up Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 4 of 29 down (inaudible----------------) and what (inaudible------------) active coaching (inaudible) practice will help strengthen the (inaudible --------) and that is a lot of what the behaviors were. It was certainly a coaching tool, so I think that in the sense that there is a focus area on organizational excellence and there is specifically an initiative regarding (inaudible) and coaching. I think that that's how the two get related together. I am not sure that every performance evaluation was going to go back (inaudible) to focus areas, it's going to go more and look at the CARE prospect than it will the focus areas. It will just look at the customer service (inaudible---------------). Nary: I think (inaudible) looking at with those position accountability definition documents we are viewing is again if this is the focus area, part of the intent is to give every employee ownership in the ultimate outcome that the city's needs are. Then that is going to be their document of accountability, so they understand what's my role? What's my responsibility to the organization? I don't just perform this function, this function is part of this bigger picture. Then the behavior to the CARE document here is really how you do that. How do you do those things? Do you provide customers service? Are you accountable? Is there respect and excellence in the work that you do? I think that is the intent of how they marry them together. Canning: (Inaudible---------------). Nary: Correct. De Weerd: I guess that Bill kind of got put into this position of telling you where we are because his other teammates, Bill Musser and Will Berg, both had - well, Bill had a problem with his health and Will with his family, so he was the designated fill in. I guess where we are is similar to where we left off at the last one is taking these focus areas, we showed on the board at that time some of the 13 challenge areas that were folded into it - you have a description on a definition for each of those focus areas - now it's time to put in to priorities some of those objectives in terms of (inaudible) for initiatives that (inaudible) in so many different ways. What this Council ought to focus on is what direction is - what are your priorities (inaudible--------) a lot of our budgets have already started going forward, have been geared towards some of these things and they have to be tied into the request. So, we kind of have been going off the old one, so we would like (inaudible----------) this in so we can make sure that we as a team, the directors and the elected officials are going in the same direction together. Donnell: So, Madame Mayor what we have here is the final product in terms of the initiatives, the focus areas - the initiatives under that. This is the final product from all the work that you have been doing. De Weerd: This is the product (inaudible-----------) so far as never (inaudible ------ ----.----) until Council says it is. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 5 of 29 Donnell: So then it seems to me then that the next step is if I understood what you were asking us would be that there needs to be action plan under each one of the initiatives? De Weerd: And more objective that we can start developing (inaudible--------). (Inaudible discussion). Wardle: If I could just follow up. That was one of the questions I had when we were talking about the difference between the focus areas and behaviors. I think what I am hearing is we need to really adopt these focus areas verses the 13 specific actions so that we can - I am just seeing a little bit of a disconnect, but I think what you are asking is really permission to proceed forward and take these four focus areas and then drill down to one of those specific initiatives and behaviors are within individual departments and for those individual departments or those individual supervisors and their employees. Is that what I am --? De Weerd: Well, right now the departments are doing that, but they need the outline from you all on priorities and I think that our (inaudible) right now we are trying to start working and dissecting an action plan to it and we kind of are starting with what we think is our own because we had not gone through this process yet, but I think we just need to make sure that we are on the same page as you are. We are all going down this road together, instead we think we know what (inaudible), but maybe we don't. Canning: I have some ideas on what I think we want to do (inaudible-----), but it would be nice to know what you think (inaudible---------). De Weerd: One of the things that we did talk in the initiative is everyone needs to have a responsibility (inaudible) and it needs to have overlap in all areas, but we as departments also need to know what our responsibility to them and where that overlap lies. We are interested in what their perspective on it is and where you think what a high priority there is for you in a direction and something you want to see accomplished. Wardle: (Inaudible-----------). Charlie? Rountree: Mr. President I just wanted to comment that having heard the tapes and (inaudible--------------) myself there are some really important issues (inaudible------------------). I didn't get the sense and (inaudible---------------) and some of the fundamental stuff in the (inaudible) - you don't see anything in here about governance of the city. You don't see anything about keeping current (inaudible-------). Wrap it up with trying to find a place to fit that in here. The other thing in terms of providing services for the city, you don't see anything in there that encourages (inaudible-----------) being (inaudible) current services, our Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 6 of 29 current service costs (inaudible----------). Those are fundamental things that have (inaudible) in the past and we have not necessarily incorporated those in the (inaudible) process (inaudible---------------------------------------). How we do business and how do we program those (inaudible -------------). Then from there (inaudible-----------------------------) employees, skills and aspects ---- De Weerd: I see those more as the (inaudible----) or you know - those are a certain support to an overall initiative and - Rountree: I don't care what you call them or where you have them they need to be articulated because I know from past experience you did get overwhelmed. I've forgotten about how much (inaudible--------------------------). Donnell: So, that was kind of where I was going. (Inaudible----------------) and let's just take one for an example because I think that's where I was feeling too is that it's they are just all nice (inaudible) statements. So, if we took the initiative under providing city services with available resources, that very first one, we must search out alternative funding services and operational efficiencies whenever possible then I would expect to see under that, how are we going to do that? You know. Is it re-Iooking our fee structure? Then I see two or three real measurable actions under that particular initiative, which I am assuming is what the departments are working on right now and then I think we will see those specifics that - instead of just these broad statements that really don't say anything, but they guide. I mean, they are good statements to have they just guide. De Weerd: Exactly. That's what we are looking (inaudible). We wanted to narrow the challenge areas so they are manageable, they are repeatable, they are not (inaudible----------) gosh I can only remember eight of them and it's something that we can wrap our arms around. The statements are (inaudible) and they are intended to be (inaudible). What we would like to know is what your priorities are, how we can fit those under these initiatives and so that plans can start (inaudible--------) out and built in the action plans, the (inaudible ------) a benchmark and those kinds of things. Wardle: I have got a couple of comments on what I think is an important strategic focus area, but I would like to get back to Councilman Rountree's comment about the way the city does business. I think it's a focus area that a lot of cities and a lot of organizations in general - they go about doing the business that puts statements in place, but they don't have their supporting documents followed up because those get hard. I mean, those are a lot of work, but just in my short time on the Council we as a Council have talked about we have an ordinance, we are going to bring that forward as a miscellaneous permit because it doesn't fit into any of our ordinances and we are going to conduct our business in the miscellaneous category. I think that that has been -- because of our rapid growth that has been a crutch that we have used as a community to get business Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 7 of 29 done and I do see us using some of that miscellaneous stuff instead of putting the proper resolutions and ordinances in place, we can only have a patch for so long before someone is going to say the city is doing business like this why aren't you changing your supporting documents? De Weerd: (Inaudible-------------------)? Wardle: Well, and I want to address that too in the sense that that's a big (inaudible) but it has taken us - when was the last time we had that? Canning: (I naudible------------). Wardle: And we should because we have a document to work from and we now have all these in place, we should make it a culture in the city to update that and keep that current so we don't have to haul it all out - a new car every ten years. We can continue to change and with that said then one of my important focus areas here is the stewardship of public trust and I have got two areas that I think that can be split into. One is fiscal responsibility. Some of the things that have happened in cities, which have grown rapidly as well as businesses that have grown rapidly, we have an excellent financial management system in place and are doing a great job of that. The thing that is going to begin happening is at the employee level, the purchasing level, some of those steps if we don't put them in place, we are going to have to come back and fix that later. If we can do that today and make it part of the individual employee's responsibility to oversee that in every aspect of their job, from purchasing nuts and bolts and washers to purchasing of equipment and real estate. If we can make that a focus area and get it in those documents that's important. Secondly, the stewardship of public trust means to me the availability of information for our citizens and right now we utilizing central points, but if I have a public records request or someone makes a request we should have every department from the Water Department to the Billing Department be able to answer that in a timely manner for our customers and to have that as initiative within the city to own that responsibility from whoever's request it is regardless if it's a citizens request to the developer's request and that is part of our culture now through our customer service, but if we can refine that and encompass it into really what is a stewardship of the public's right to know what we are doing. De Weerd: Anyone want to respond to that? Canning: I missed your last one. requests? Is that it? You wanted turn around on information Wardle: Well, I want it to be measurable and manageable in the sense that if - I heard comments from certain areas of the public that really it is a - they don't know where to go to get the information they need, so they may call a department that isn't the one that they need to talk to and rather than have that Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 8 of 29 individual on the phone say well you need to call this department and then have that department tell them to call another department - to find a way that we can get that customer to the right place and own their request at all levels of the organization. Canning: That was - I am sorry (inaudible----------). If you look at customer service on the values one, they talked about that a lot and it was one (inaudible), but it was the whole thing. When our group talked about what the customer service values are almost all of it was response time and getting that to the people and then helping them so, that was a big thing for the catalyst group and I know we spent a lot time on it and I think it most applies to (inaudible), but it really applies to everything under demonstrated commitment to customer service. (Inaudible-------------------------) as well and that they were really proud of. Wardle: And what I am saying is it's a culture that we have within the city right now for customer service. What I am saying is that it's good for us to focus on that from a service aspect, but I think we should elevate that to the fact that this is not just a focus area, but we owe it to the public if they have a request for information of us as a city, not only do we owe it to them to be good service agents to help them, but we owe it to them constitutionally that we have to own that request from that customer because we are not just a business where they go to do business. They are entrusting us with their information and if they want it, it should be elevated from, I think, just a customer service request to really statutorily being what we do. De Weerd: (Inaudible-----). Canning: (inaudible-------). In that aspect (inaudible----------------). De Weerd: I guess it's two different things. It's a strategy and what are you going to do to ensure the successful evaluations, but at this point I think the city has a huge challenge because we are all over town. When we centralize into one place, it's certainly going to be a lot easier to have one counter to go through. Right now that public access, public records coordinator per se is the City Clerk's Office. They have all the point of contact. Now it doesn't seem as accessible because you know we have Planning and Zoning in one place and - Wardle: Let me step back because I am not addressing this as a current problem that we have. I am not making a comment on any of the departments that we have, I am saying that if we are strategically planned for the future, much like I said, for example, purchasing has been a problem in some of the communities within the Treasure Valley and became large problems. We need to put all policy procedures in place today so that it doesn't become a problem any time in Meridian's future. What I am saying today is we need to put some policies in future planning in place so that it doesn't become a problem to get the public's - to - holding from the public to relay that back to them in a timely Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 9 of 29 manner. De Weerd: I know what you are saying. I guess it's beyond customer service, it's strategy and (inaudible) on where is that point of (inaudible). I know I called four years ago - no before I was on Council and needed to know who was responsible for the dirt that was 24 - 7 in my back window. You know why they didn't have a water (inaudible). I called Public Works and they said call the Parks Department and it's like, why do I want to call the Parks Department on a subdivision? You know, it's - we do need to pay attention to that. We do need to educate our front line staff on where those things are. What are the strategies that are associated with that? And it's a good objective that we can all put our own passion (inaudible-------------). Bird: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Bird. Bird: I whole-heartedly weigh into the customer service in the eight years that I have been here and I know Charlie can vouch for this. We turned it around about 200 percent and still need to work towards it. We are setting ourselves up against another city that don't have a very good record of management and stuff and that all comes back to us elected officials. De Weerd: (Inaudible--------). Bird: No, you don't have anything to do with the money, you know what I mean? It's our buts that are on the line. De Weerd: Okay, I will remember that you said that. Bird: Yeah and that's the way it goes. When we lose focus of watching after stuff, I will tell you I don't believe that in the eight years that I have served on here that with our Financial Department and with our Council people like Tammy and Charlie would ever have happened to what happened in Boise because we get a monthly printout and we watch it. That's the thing that - we have got to watch out for the taxpayers' dollars as elected officials. Our employees sometimes do a lot better job than we do. Kilchenmann: I am asking a question because I am still kind of unsure about what the initiative and (inaudible---) and this, but like with the purchasing what I think you are saying is we do have a purchasing policy (inaudible) and it's words on paper, but we are getting so big that we don't really have a way to implement it necessarily or monitor it except after the fact. So, it seems like that that was one of our things then the next step that we are moving towards or some of us are moving towards like requesting a purchasing person that would have oversight. So, it's kind of like a hard, kind of this is the black and white steps that Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 10 of29 we are going through. Customer service, what you are talking about and I know a lot of it - well, I think maybe in Idaho, but cities you don't just say well we have three customer (inaudible) because that could be pretty objective to each person, but we say okay this is what we are going to do. We have a city hall and an information center and all of our phone calls are going to come into here and we are going to have certain people that are trained, you know they answer the common questions or they can be transferred kind of thing. Is that kind of what you (inaudible)? Wardle: Let me readdress just my comments specifically and that is - I can use the example of some other communities in the Treasure Valley because it became very apparent and I am not trying to put Meridian or to look at how we compare with them. What I am talking about, I guess, I was staying kind of (inaudible) level with our focus and initiative to have that become something that we drive our long range planning and for example a budget decision would be - as we are growing if we need that oversight individual then we need to take that into consideration at the top focus of our organization. Is that important to have over site of purchasing? And if the Council says that in this orientation and session and the department brings it back, as Mr. Bird had pointed out, we will decide that at budget time how important it really is and so that we can use those planned documents as a Council to give the department's direction on what we think is important. De Weerd: I guess, ultimately, Shaun brought up fiscal responsibility and public record access. Those are to be city wide initiatives that we fold into our strategic plan and we have to have an action plan to it and what the departments then will do is assign responsibility and how their (inaudible) is passed where --- how those visions will be supported, so yours is going to be different certainly than Anna's with Barb who probably does their reception, answers the calls, directs people, gets information to people - we are all going to have different types of action, but it's all focused on the same overall thing. How is the Mayor's office going to be responsible for them? That is who is going to have that over site between (inaudible) - those kinds of things. I think that's what we are asking for right now is in each of these focus areas, whether your (inaudible) - Charlie is going to have that same fiscal responsibility to keeping our fees up to date and making sure that we don't have to do it every ten years, instead we evaluate it every year. Christine mentioned that or someone mentioned over there - (Speaker and discussion inaudible) Rountree: (inaudible----) get a half percent increase in (inaudible) every year than (inaudible--------------------). De Weerd: (Inaudible------------) fiscal responsibility. Bird: Fiscal responsibility, we increased on that all along that we need to look at Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 11 of 29 these fees every year and then they fall through the crack and a lot of that is our fault for letting them fall through the crack and I will be the first to say this. You know, we need to (inaudible) somebody and (inaudible) somebody else. Nary: I was just going to add that I think we are all pretty much on the same page here and I think Council member Donnell hit it right on the head at first - this is the top layer. You know, this is not the (inaudible) down departmental plan, but we have to start somewhere and we have to start with the top layer for all of you that we feel comfortable with. Because we are talking about some of the things that are more on the detail side. That is the other piece that we haven't done yet, which is when I said every department said they owned a piece of this, you don't have their piece, but you will have their piece because that is part of how they are going to do business and that's how you hold us accountable at budget time - how are we accomplishing these things (inaudible) department (inaudible), but we have to start at the top layer. You know we talked about some of the things you know like - I feel pretty good that most of the time we are pretty compliant with the public records requirements. Police, I think we are about 99 percent compliant most of the time because they have a person who focuses on doing that. That's what they do every day. The other departments, we haven't had training city wide on this subject so I think it's kind of depending on the department. You know from the standpoint, again this is maybe too much detail for today - it's not very realistic to assume that we will always have all (inaudible) there will be this magic cord that will have all the records that you need. What you need is a person who knows where they are. Maybe in the Clerk's Office there are going to be documents that are going to be in my office that I am not going to send to the Clerk's Office because they are legal documents. There are going to be other material that are going to be planning documents that most of them will be in the Clerk's Office, but not everything is always going to be in the Clerk's Office. The person that is there that is that connecting point for the public has to know how to acquire that. That's the disconnect that other cities sometimes get. You call the Clerk and you call one department and they tell you what I got and they send it to you. But, they don't say well everybody else has this too. Somebody else may have a duplicate or somebody else may have something different because they have adopted different (inaudible) and it's not a public hearing document, so it didn't necessarily go the Clerk, maybe something else. But you need that and that's a departmental objective to get to for different departments to make sure we are legally complying as well as providing the level of customer service necessary. But, those are the (inaudible) areas that we will get to, but we have to start somewhere and this is the kind of the top layer that we think the departments are all comfortable, but this is the good top layer to start with. It takes us out of these challenge areas that not everybody knew, not everybody was very comfortable with or again they could own the few that mattered to them. The ones that didn't matter to them, they didn't have to ever deal with. Here, everybody has to own it all because they all own a piece of it. Small pieces for some people in some of these areas and large pieces of others, but everybody owns a piece of it and now Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 12 of 29 they are responsibility to their department directors is to be able to articulate what's their ownership, what's their part of it so that you could see that and what they are asking for and how they do business. (Inaudible--------). You could hold this up to them and say organizational excellence is our focus area. This is how we identified these initiatives. How does your department match up to this? De Weerd: I guess what we are trying to do is just provide it - our (inaudible) skeleton that we can start developing our plan. You will see on the form of the strategic plan from each department on how they take responsibility for each (inaudible----------------) and then they will internally develop their action plans and measurements, but can we go ahead and maybe walk through each of the focus areas and comments on - well, what we did was fold it into providing (inaudible--- -------------) and the 13 challenge areas we have the internal/external employee development, training retention and communication, IT. Now that sounds like more organizational (inaudible). (Speaker unknown and inaudible discussion). Nary: I think what we did - are you looking at the list where we looked at every (inaudible) and made sure they were encompassed in these focus areas? Is that --? De Weerd: Actually Planning for Community Growth and Land Use, park expansion, physical infrastructure, (inaudible) services, economic development and business relationships. Donnell: Were those the things that when we met before that was all under each one of those different --? De Weerd: (inaudible ). Yeah (inaudible ----------) 13 challenge areas did relate to the Donnell: Okay. So, can I just make a suggestion first? I think, really it is a good idea for us to go through here and maybe at least so that we all know that we are understanding exactly what that mission (inaudible). Rather than force all three of these ourselves, but can I just make an editorial kind of comment? De Weerd: Yes. Donnell: If I were going to publicize this as focus areas and citywide initiatives, I think the word (inaudible) with everything. (Inaudible speaker and discussion). Donnell: We must doesn't - I mean it just doesn't seem like a good strategic vocabulary and they just should say promote city and departments missions to Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 13 of29 further help our (inaudible). It says- De Weerd: (Inaudible) accountability. Donnell: But it should strive to continue to meet the current demands for services, while anticipating additions and changes and then under that each one of the departments have their particular actions and - the we must is just like okay, yeah, we must do this. It just needs to be a statement, that's just my strategic planning kind of background is that you don't put "we's" and you don't put "musts" and you take away - you make sure that all of your (inaudible---------- )- (Inaudible discussion and speaker). Donnell: But, we must remember to hold the public's trust. It should just say public trust is - I don't know - I am not trying to wordsmith it all, but I would just get rid of all those things. That is just a comment. So, let's just go ahead and take a look at the meat of them and not the vocabulary of them because I am certainly not an English teacher either, but it bothers me to read this. We must, we must, we must - De Weerd: It reminds me of (inaudible------------). Donnell: I feel like a (inaudible---------). Oh yea, that will say it. De Weerd: No, I agree it needs to not - we will work on that. Yes, Anna. Canning: The only problem with that is that you lose your structure, your similar sentence structure if you take them out of some. Some of them require it. Like that first one, if you change it to work together with a (inaudible) growth, you lose all the departments. Donnell: You just say all departments work together toward a goal of guiding growth to meet the needs of the city's citizens, but not must. Canning: But, that's not the same as the sentence structure starting with strive to continue to meet -- is it just the must that bothers you? Donnell: Yes, it bothers me. Wardle: I think what Christine is saying is - it appears to me is the method doesn't need to be a (inaudible). It's not something that we are going to stand up before every Council meeting and each of us preside. It doesn't necessarily - Donnell: Yeah, but strategic plans - have you had some copies of strategic plans that you have looked at on how they are worded? If you look at them and Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 14 of29 you see, you know, their objective and then you see the actual plans underneath them and you see the measurement or how you - or whatever that key measure is, it is a very succinct sentence. But, your action plans can be more wordy, I mean like the Parks Department can say and should be measurable - they all work to ensure safety on all playground equîpment and then under that would be these parks will have a retro of all - I don't what the heck the Parks Department is - but you know what I am going? Then it's real specific actions and then that's how it drives your budget because when the Parks Department comes with under wherever they are planning for growth and has the action plan of this is how many acres will be purchased, you know this is how the employee base and parks must be increased, this is how much you need to increase the fertilizer whatever. Again, then that drives your budget so then you can tie that budget expenditure - when we look at that budget, when it comes to us then I can look at that and say Doug is requesting this much for his department and I know you will probably have to submit some documentation that justifies it all, but it should tie back to what it is that we are about - our mission, the initiative, how we are providing the kinds of services that we should in our city. De Weerd: Can they be to (inaudible--------------). Donnell: I am sure they do. Nary: I wish Chief Musser was here because he was the one that sort of did the drafting and editing of this particular document, so it's - I know there was a reason, but I just don't recall as to why he chose that structure. Kilchenmann: He said - I think that he worked with Aspire On and I said well initiatives, whatever these are and how to have to say we must and that to me it wasn't like a reason I could grasp because I worked with strategic planning and they never - Donnell: I have never seen this. Nary: I would agree that they sort of have the tendency to look like it was sort of (inaudible ----) and really a directive. I think the intent is - I guess we don't want to lose the intent in the language and we don't want to also lose the intent by softening the language. So, we just make it clear and direct because I think Council member Donnell's point is we really are creating essentially bullets - what the specific initiatives are, what do the mean? And that's really all it is and if that's the case then that's fine. We just need to find a way to word smith it so that it clearly makes that point, but doesn't make it sound like it's - Wardle: I think what we are looking to is maybe this takes it to the next step which is how do we communicate that to the employees? We have got these four big ideas and how do we then individually communicate them? I think that's the next step and you can use words like "we must" but - and I think that maybe Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 15 of 29 that's what they are talking about with Aspire On. employees level with - When you bring it to the (Tape turned over) Donnell: I couldn't see that there was one that I thought was any more important than the other. The time when I'll decide whether something is more important or should have more emphasis placed on it is when I see what's it's going to cost. Or how it's going to affect our service or the way we do business. Then that begins to say okay that's a priority. These are statements that are broad, general in nature and they sound good. They are the things that we should be about in any organization. So, perhaps, we need to just talk about each one of them and see if all four of us, all 20 of us and be okay with them and forget about must and must. De Weerd: Okay, so any comments directed on the planning community growth? (Inaudible) said we would start integrating them and kind of like how Shaun threw out on the table for the stewardship, but the fiscal responsibility and public records (inaudible----------). Rountree: We talk about each initiative individually - (Inaudible discussion) Rountree: -- where do I find those based on who (inaudible----------------------------- ------) and plan in reference where those are. I think the statement is fine, but it (inaudible------- ). Donnell: And then the next part of that is what is work together? You know, what does that mean, working together? De Weerd: We have to huddle. Donnell: Okay, we huddle. All departments must work together. I can't imagine all departments cannot work together. Is there a department that would actually identify as not being as cooperative with the other departments? Canning: (Inaudible-------) and the former Parks Director was guilty of those actions. Donnell: So many we are addressing something that is no longer. I mean the expectation on the part of the Council and the Mayor is that all departments will work together, so in my view - Canning: I don't know, I have seen Bill Nary (inaudible------------). Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 16 of29 Wardle: Again, I think these are good statements to continue to have as a policy and a procedure because - just because - I'll throw this statement out there - just because it's happening today doesn't always mean it's going to happen tomorrow if we don't focus on the area. That was a little more of my statement. We should have those things and to Charlie's point, what are we going to use as that benchmark? If I am an employee I don't want to call four Council people and ask them how to answer a question. De Weerd: That's on the original instructions. Bird: Yeah, but you would get four different answers. Donnell: Exactly. Bird: I have to agree with Charlie on that. That first statement, guiding growth and meet the needs of the city citizens - get ten different needs- (Inaudible discussion and speaker) Rountree: You have a basis for that statement, somewhere. But, I am sure I (inaudible -----------). For clarity sake is this going to be (inaudible --------------) for all the departments and see what pieces, parts that can be incorporated into action? (Inaudible---------). De Weerd: Going to back to a kind of or a current strategic plan is the 13 challenge areas, it's kind of an introductory and fold everything into that and then you have the individual strategic plan that supports that. So, this is just the definition - it would help - and you know I don't know the initiative part of it. I thought that that was more geared toward our evaluation component, you know, putting it in individual responsibility - it's more order of the bullets of focus points that are important for us (inaudible) to (inaudible) strategic individuals for strategic planning (inaudible) - Wardle: I have got and this may be more specific, but I have three areas that I think that each department should consider when and then I will ask when my departments and how they are going to benchmark against three areas - number one is staff, number two is facilities and number three is technology. De Weerd: But, see those - I don't know. I guess I am thinking more in planning for community growth it will meet service levels and look to improve or you know, we will constantly have a baseline and we will never fall under that. That is your strategy, then you look at technology and etc., to support that. Right now your benchmark or prior response time is five minutes and five seconds, we don't want to get beyond that average. If that average starts going crazy, it's very apparent that this is a benchmark that will open up a new station. So, those are things that each department can start measuring on. Keith said it's hard to say, Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 17 of 29 you know, for each of us to define what a need is, but we do have separate - certain baselines of acres of parks, (inaudible), response times for both of our - crimes per a thousand people. I don't know how they want to set that base, but if those service problems to degrade, then our citizens have every reason to say what is going on? You are letting growth happen so fast, it's compromising the quality of the service. We don't want it to get worse, we want it to get better and consistently we have been doing that, but we want to show the benchmarks to that and that is that (inaudible) citizens that we are paying attention to that, we are paying attention to our strategic plan, so maintaining a base line of service to our citizens will be available and then each department in the strategy says that this is our service baseline, this is what we need (inaudible) maintaining our (inaudible). Wardle: So a statement such as we will meet or exceed the (inaudible) service to our citizens. Is that a general broad statement that you are looking for? De Weerd: In my opinion it is. Anna? Canning: I think the third one addresses that. I really think the intent of the first one was that all departments part that we need to work together rather than working in (inaudible), so I really think that that was the emphasis of that first one, obviously it's not here. I think that the third one was really the response time coverage, the new way to doing business and those kinds of level service things and the discussion was prompted by you know what are those needs? Obviously each department has a different document that outlines those needs and I am not sure it's really a question that we are going to be calling on (inaudible------------). We know what they are. For me from a comp plan and from what people call me and bug me about or whether it's for the Parks Department or whether it's Planning and what people call and bug that director about- Rountree: (Inaudible ------------------) but in order for you to work together to guide the city in development, we (inaudible---------------------) all the way around the room in order to work together because something (inaudible------------------------) to what you want to accomplish. I think that's what that means so I guess what I am saying is that part of working together is to make sure that everybody (inaudible) what we are trying to accomplish and where do I go as an employee to help (inaudible------------------------------) his employer (inaudible---------------------- -----------------------). Am I thinking wrong here? I think I am making it too complicated, but the intent is to get (inaudible) and I agree (inaudible) and - Nary: And I would agree with Anna, that was really the intent of that particular statement was to make sure that part of the commitment was that all departments need to work together and it sounds so basic, but yet it hasn't always been the case. So, it's obviously not that basic. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 18 of 29 Rountree: It's not basic within the organization -it sounds as if it is, but (inaudible) - Nary: But, I think for example, to follow up on that comment, you know, one of the things we discussed very recently was how would we address something like that? What we talked about, I guess maybe it was just the Mayor and I, but we talked about maybe having to - among the departments so that we made sure that we didn't work adversely or in different directions. Is there a way to do that? Probably works with Planning and Zoning because they do that a lot, but we don't always include the Parks Department necessarily or how is that going to affect Human Resources or the other departments? So, maybe we need it to have that sort of (inaudible--------) internally to stay with this focus, but also not to be working adversely to each other. Is that a way to do that? Now, if we didn't have the statement would we do it anyway? I think we would anyway, but that I think the intent is to get most of these things are to get your mind set around doing business differently and continuing to do business and be innovated and to think outside the box and do all those things we all talk about all the time. So, I think it's just to keep it on page. You know I don't think it's something that is foreign to any of this, the culture and the working relations here I think are very, very good, but - so I don't think we are writing this because we aren't doing, I think we are writing it to make sure that that stays in focus in where we are. We think we are doing that and we want to keep doing that. We don't want that to change and that's where I think we are going. So, I think - Rountree: I think the intent (inaudible------------------), but it cannot be just about (inaudible---------------) - De Weerd: And that should be across the board. I guess what I am trying to do, the product that I am looking for is something that we can start and then bringing it into our position and plan and how we are going to use it and strategic implementation. We already know that we are going to have one strategic (inaudible) or maybe a couple in each area and then you are going to have different people that are accountable to that. I guess the best example I can come up with is with the traffic safety. You know as we start walking through each of those, we saw common threads in design and responder safety and being out there. We saw accountability across departments. So, you are going to have that in the further development of these plans, we just need the key things to begin with. Donnell: I think you have them. I think that for my comfort level if you get rid of muss and you get rid of words like continue because you don't end strive. That's mealy mouthed and I don't know how else to say it. On the second one to say current demands for services will be met anticipating additions and changes. Just like that. Just boom. That's what your initiative is, then you work underneath that. I would take each one of these and make them a very succinct statement. That's the initiative and then - because I think you have the Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 19 of 29 framework. I think that you have done really good work on these four areas, these four focus areas. Wardle: And I agree and to take that one step further and all departments must work together and is a citywide issue and then the next step because we are already doing department director's meetings, the very next steps should be to be put in place a best practices committee of front line employers. That would be the next logical step from an administrative point of view and is to further that focus group and that initiative. I think we can get there. (Inaudible speaker and discussion). Wardle: The other aspect that we need to consider is our citizens and the people that do business with the city will come back to these (inaudible) as well. Just as they do when they come in front of Planning and Zoning for a rezone, that they quote comp plan and they will be looking to us to benchmark these four areas in all the actions and the Council level all the way to our front line employers. Donnell: As well as the employees. Wardle: Right. Donnell: I mean if the employees are going to be measured by a set of behaviors that are tied to these focus areas then they too will hold the Council and Mayor and department heads responsible for this as well. Especially if they are in trouble, but you didn't do that. Bowers: Yes, Mr. President, the next bulletin down there we must strive to continue to meet the current demands. That's just talking about now. Shouldn't we be talking about and the future? I mean, shouldn't there be meet the current and future demands? (lnaudible-----------)? De Weerd: I think it's an annual thing, so you have to - that would be a strategy on how you are going to meet (inaudible------). I still think that (inaudible------------ --------------------------------) receive annual service levels can be built into the language of that. Donnell: I do too. De Weerd: This does kind of encompass the whole thought. We can wordsmith it, but (inaudible--------------). Canning: From your earlier statements I would suggest that we could include the follow up or rewording - meet the current demands for services, while anticipating there will be changes as necessary - follow up with appropriate programs, ordinances and resolutions and meet those demands. ... Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 20 of 29 Donnell: Except again that would go under as an action plan, so meet current demands - Canning: What I heard is that you wanted to elevate it. So, if you want to elevate it this is the place to elevate it. Donnell: Well, I think that is a good question because I did that (inaudible---------- -------- ). Wardle: Well, I guess I need a point of clarification in the sense that my understanding was that we are looking for really metrics that will drive the city and what are the more important - or what are the important areas? We had 13 and we narrowed it down so that we as departments because we are hiring smart people, we have got good people, they can take those and put them to use. I like that statement and I think it elevates it, but how do we make all four of these cohesive? Are we going to say that planning for community growth - then when we go to organizational (inaudible) once are we going to - we can use the - we need to update, implement a fee system which continually benchmarks the (inaudible) fees against the cost per services as well as partly conditions? Canning: I have suggested wording through that one too. Wardle: Oh, okay. (Speaker unknown): I agree, I think I like the direction myself. Donnell: But I still think those are not initiatives. They are action. They are what you do. (Speaker unknown): They are responses. Donnell: They are responses. So the statement is meet or exceeds current demand for services while anticipating additions and changes. Then under that then would be the action. To anticipate additions and changes, the fee structure will be blah, blah, blah. That kind of thing. That comes under in that just general from a broad statement and then it elevates for sure because you have action to back up what it is that you should be doing in terms of meeting the demands of those services. Rountree: (Inaudible----------------------------------). Donnell: All of us have been way too much- Canning: I don't know if you looked at ours. All these were was the - they didn't have action plans before the challenge areas, they were just kind of vocal - .....- Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 21 of 29 Donnell: -- statements. Canning: Yes. So, we were adding action plans in this one, but they are department (inaudible-----------------). If the word initiative is bothering you - you just wanted to get away from challenge areas. Donnell: The word initiatives didn't bother me at all. What bothers me is that they are not succinct statement. You know an initiative is what it is that you are going to focus on. De Weerd: The bullet and not (inaudible). Donnell: Not the exact - it's a bullet. Wardle: And then below that the action plan that would be your statement. Donnell: If I were Chief Musser and I said alright folks as I sat down with my group and I said alright, meet or exceed current demands for services while anticipating initiatives. What action plans would fall under that (inaudible----------) and then the same thing would occur, you know in your department and Doug's department then they determine what are the things that they need. And there might be some of these that there isn't much, but - how much action about? And then after that action statement has to come to measurement for that action. How do you know you have gotten where you state you are ready to go? Canning: (Inaudible-------------). Donnell: It's the hardest chapter. In fact the best thing to do is to start with measurement and look backwards. Yes, this is the hardest way to do it. But, you still have to have some kind of framework, some kind of commitment on the part of the folks that are involved in it, but they are all comfortable with you know the focus areas. Canning: I actually believe (inaudible) backwards because what we did is we took all the strategic plans from last year, we evaluated (inaudible---------) the 13 challenge areas and saw where each of us has something to cover and then we move backwards and say okay which of these 13 challenge areas that we have already met and then (inaudible) fall away - which still are here and how can we consolidate them? We did really work backwards from last year's strategy plan (inaudible). Donnell: That makes it easy for you as a department head to, you know, put your actions together with this plan. And actually, Tammy, when you said it's an annual thing, it seems to me that, you know, a good strategic plan really does encompass time down, you know, along the way and then these need to be reviewed in three to five years. But, if you - you know, budget ramifications of Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 22 of 29 course are annual, can you get away from that? But, sometimes you may not meet one of the actions because it's going to take more than a year to accomplish them. De Weerd: I realize that, we still have the ongoing and has the (inaudible) and you will have the completed and some of them will just drop off like Anna had suggested. Nary: As a focus area (inaudible). Inaudible discussion Nary: The challenge here is that we had some that were so driven to (inaudible-- -----) that they really sort of fall into both. When you look at these focus areas, then I cannot fathom that that would change. It may change the wording maybe at some point, but realistically none of those four things are going to change. The initiatives under that may evolve and certainly the actions for them will evolve constantly because we will accomplish them and move on to something else that - the focus - the city may change those (inaudible---------------). Those things will change, but these focus ones really won't and that's what I think (inaudible----------- ). Donnell: I think so too. But, what I heard you say, Tammy, is are we as Council people persons can we live with them? Can we support them? When it gets right down to it, what I am thinking it's got to be is can we look at this and say, to our constituents, there is a strategic plan that is guiding the city in both governments and fiscal responsibility and planning for growth that we can feel good about and I don't think that we are going to know that until they actually see action plans, but I can tell you that I think you have done a great job getting to these four different focus areas and even though I don't like the word must, if you people want to keep it and you people all like it - but, it's giving you that framework, it's giving you that skeleton that you can really start beefing out. De Weerd: Okay, so you are good with the definitions of each focus area and the bullets underneath it? Donnell: Yeah. (Inaudible discussion) Bird: (lnaudible----------). Donnell: Yeah, take out the words re-numerate and continue and strive. I mean those are just pretty words. Take out all that - all those kind of pretty words and really get down to those verbs that say what it is that you need to do. I am going to go back to the supervisor that I had when we were learning - well we were Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 23 of 29 trying to learn how to write really good evaluations and what he said is I don't want to see a single statement that uses the word continue, don't use continue. Because in an evaluation you don't want anybody just to continue doing what they do. Believe me that is a really hard thing to do. But, I see the word continue and search out. You just will find alternative funding sources and operational (inaudible-----------) if possible. And if you just take out all those pretty stuff. Wardle: My English teacher taught me to use pretty words, so. Donnell: Well, if you are writing a novel, it's okay. (Inaudible discussion) Canning: I like pithy words up to a point. On organizational excellence, I think what I heard earlier on the second sentence where it says we must strive to provide - I think I am hearing we are obligated to provide the best service. Donnell: Just use we. Canning: No, no this is not the bullets part. This is not (inaudible). This is the top part. Donnell: If you are doing a definition, then use the words we will instead of must. We will provide the best service. Canning: No, I said we are obligated to strive. That was the word I heard (inaudible--------------------- ). Donnell: Okay. Canning: But, I think that's a very strong word and I think that says a lot, says a lot more than will. Strong: (inaudible---------) saying that though we are saying that we are responsible for the stewardship of the public trust. That implies (inaudible---------- -------) - put this all down and we start out with vision statements and mission statements that kind of set standards for where we are going. We get down to this point it should be simple language when we put them into place without all the (inaudible-------------). I also don't think (inaudible) so inclusive either (inaudible-----------) samples of the kind of thing that you want to direct yourself toward that particular focus area because when I am writing (inaudible-------) I am going to write it for what I think works or the department may not be one of the things on that list, but fall under stewardship form, customer service or something like that. De Weerd: You have to be creative. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 24 of 29 Wardle: Anna, to address maybe just a generalization of framework structure. The way I look at that sentence - the image presented by the City of Meridian through selected officials and staff appropriates, our commitment to the community reserved. I think the next statement I would utilize is Meridian expects the best service available to the community. (Inaudible speaker and discussion) Wardle: If we are talking about - we really are talking about the community then I would say our citizens expect the best service available to them. Donnell: And then it goes on and says in order to accomplish this we recognize that the staff finds value and (inaudible) that's pretty flowering, but that's really flowery - oh my goodness - and then the following are not measurements of the achievement, the following are the initiatives. They are the statements of - Canning: We can get rid of that sentence, it doesn't need to be there. De Weerd: What we can do is ask Stacy to take this exact list and send it to Anna. Rountree: We will call it the rose. (Inaudible discussion) Canning: I have got one more can of worms to open up, this is glutton for punishment, so on the last one that I heard where - let me just verify this - a stewardship of the public trust the last initiative - discount the flowery word - and sorry but continually is right in this case - sorry - continually evaluate our fee assessments and monetary oversight to maintain our current fiscal (inaudible). Donnell: Say ongoing reviews. Canning: Oh, ongoing is the same as continuing. Donnell: Ongoing - it sounds - (Inaudible discussion) Donnell: Ongoing review will be done - will be accomplished - Canning: Now you are using passive verbs. Donnell: Sorry. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3. 2005 Page 25 of 29 De Weerd: We are getting into the minutia. If we could just ask Stacy and Anna to work together we can bring this back at Pre-Council - can we bring this back next week? We need to tie them to our budget. I guess some tied into the budget- Kilchenmann: Well, the budget is already done (inaudible-----------). Donnell: When does the budget- Wardle: My suggestion would be in a question. Are we going to adopt these focus areas? Do we need to adopt them in a resolution as (inaudible------------) strategic plan? If that would be the case or if we are going to adopt them in general, I don't want to spend a large part of the public hearing word splitting a document. So, if that be the case let's get it out as soon as possible to everybody. Let's put it on as a department report. Let's take five to ten minutes to talk about the merits of it and then let's adopt it as a Council, unless we have changes, which we shouldn't at that point. Bird: Let's give it time to get it adopted. Go over and check it in two weeks and De Weerd: We have a directors meeting that Tuesday. Wardle: Two weeks, Keith? (Inaudible discussion) De Weerd: (lnaudible-------------). Wardle: So, well - would you prefer - we could this as a Council if you are not here, or we can set it out for one more week. De Weerd: I guess I would ask in the description under each focus area - are you okay with that (inaudible) description before (inaudible----) I should say? None of them have (inaudible). Okay, we will work on it. Canning: I am going to call Christine first - (Inaudible discussion) Nary: Mayor, we can discuss it at our director's meeting next Tuesday and finish that then we could either have it on the week or we could have it on the week when you get back and we can have a resolution prepared as well, so if Council is comfortable with it and wants to adopt it. I do believe the strategic plan was adopted by resolution, so since this is - Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 26 of 29 Wardle: Whatever the process was used - Nary: So, adopted by resolution (inaudible----) that would make sense or we could certainly (inaudible-------). Canning: Does everybody know about the 31 st or- Wardle: I have not but we can discuss that. Donnell: Well, is this Memorial weekend or something? (Inaudible discussion) Wardle: Anna and I have discussed the since it is the fifth Tuesday and we typically do not have it - an off Tuesday or we hold a joint workshop session with Planning and Zoning Commission. The Planning and Zoning Commission, I believe, has finished the public hearing on the new ordinance as recommended approval forward and a thought process was that Council would like to see that, we could do that at a workshop session on a fifth Tuesday or I can bring it forward as a Pre-Council. (Inaudible) timeliness we would like to do it soon, but we also want to invite some public comments. De Weerd: Well our Council will be around because I think there is a proposal on the board to Council that the 14th of June because of the Association of Idaho Cities and so that- Bird: And also the 5th of July. Shaun, excuse me, Mr. President, on this deal we need to have a full-blown public hearing. De Weerd: But this would just be (inaudible). Wardle: We are going to have - Bird: -- introductory. Wardle: Well, it's a introductory program for essentially the planning staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission and the people of the process improvement group to present to the City Council so that we can understand it to do an overview and then the Council could take - if we have to adopt it all the ordinances through the public hearing process and then we are going to do that. The question was whether you would like to see it as a big picture from that group or we could take it to public hearing. We can do it either way. Bird: That's Memorial Day and I have no problem with it because I don't know what I am going to do on Memorial Day, but I am sure there are a lot of us - some of the people and some of the staff and everything else - Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 27 of 29 Wardle: Is that Memorial Day weekend? Donnell: Yeah. Bird: Monday is a holiday. Wardle: Monday is a holiday? Donnell: Yes. Wardle: I will go back to the (inaudible----) (Inaudible discussion) Wardle: Let me ask you this question. Would you like to see that come forward in a workshop session within the month of June so that we can discuss it in workshop before going to public hearing? Bird: I would love to, Shaun. Nary: Mr. President. Wardle: Mr. Nary. Nary: Just to add to that question in trying to decide - Planning and Zoning Commission had three workshops to talk about that and some that and some of them were involving in the process of creating that, so there is a lot of complexity and a lot of change. So, it may be helpful whether you have it on a 5th Tuesday or you have a special session or maybe you have it as a workshop as a Pre- Council or half one and one, but there is a lot of changes. It's going to look very different to you and you may have lots of questions with how do we get there? Why is this that different or why is it changed so much? I think you are going to want that before you get to the public comment part and you are probably going to make it easier in the public comments section where you have at least your questions answered early on. Wardle: Well, I know that we have been getting some questions from the public and certainly that would be a public meeting and so they would be able to come and be informed and not give public testimony, but hear the same presentation that we would be getting. Okay, I will work with Anna to bring that forward into a special session and as I understand it, we don't have to cancel (inaudible) first meeting because statutorily we don't - the Clerk will just notice that there is no meeting on the 31st. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 28 of 29 De Weerd: Can we plan it for the first week in June? (Inaudible-----------). The ¡th that we maybe have a two hour - prior to an original meeting to have that? Wardle: Is everybody going to be here? Donnell: That works for me. De Weerd: Since we will be off on the 14th, then we can ask it would go to the public hearing, you know, two weeks after that. Donnell: So, it would be June the ¡th? Wardle: June ¡th at five o'clock, Police Station. (Inaudible discussion) Donnell: Okay, so there will not be a meeting on the 31 S\ then? De Weerd: And it's only informational on the ¡th, that there will not be public comment, right? Wardle: Are you going to run it or am I going to run it? De Weerd: (Inaudible-------). Wardle: I'll run it and not take public testimony. De Weerd: (Inaudible----------) I mean they can be part of it, but - Canning: I just wanted to say that I will have copies available, hopefully, in another week or so. If you prefer - if you would like me to come and go over structure, point things out to you individually I could do that as well, if you want to prepare questions for the ¡th or - there is only five of you so I (inaudible--------). (Inaudible speaker): (Inaudible-------)? Canning: Well, that's another question. I have asked before, but is there a preference - do you want PDF file? Do you want it Word file? Do you want it on CD? Do you want emailed? Do you want it paper form? Donnell: I want you to read it to me. Bird: Yeah, I want a paper file. Donnell: Yes, I want it paper form. I can red line and highlight and make pretty colors. Meridian City Council Special Meeting May 3, 2005 Page 29 of 29 Wardle: Anna, you have got two paper forms. Councilman Rountree would like. We'll take PDF and whatever Donnell: Paper for me. (Inaudible discussion) Wardle: With that, Council, is there any other --? Bird: Motion to adjourn. Donnell: Second. Wardle: Moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor? ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:30 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: '------, " ATTESTED: 1/111/ 1/1 II" "" "-"-" ~. %.