HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005 10-04 Pre
Meridian City Pre-Council Meetina
October 4. 2005
The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on
Tuesday, October 4,2005 by Council President Shaun Wardle.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Shaun Wardle, Charlie
Rountree.
Members Absent: Christine Donnell
Staff Present: Bill Nary, Anna Canning, Joe Silva and Will Berg.
Item 1.
Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X Shaun Wardle
X Charlie Rountree
X
0 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 as published. All in
favor?
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
Item 3.
Presentation on Construction of New Cell at Hidden Hollow by
Ada County Landfill:
Hutchinson: Madame Mayor, members of the Council, Deputy Director of the
Solid Waste Management Department for Ada County. Director Neil would like
to apologize for not being here, however, he says you guys wouldn't want him
around he is feeling under the weather and doesn't want to spread that about. I
am here tonight to kind of give you a brief overview of where we are and to kind
of get to some questions that this Council might have about where Ada County is
in the process of developing a new landfill. To give you a quick overview and
you do have a copy of my presentation before you so we will go over this rather
quickly. We are really emphasizing here a solid waste management system. It's
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October 4. 2005
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through an integrated solid waste management system built on a cooperative of
citizens, businesses, institutions and governments and Ada County shall provide
an environmentally safe economically sound solid waste disposal facility
designed to meet the needs of a growing population. The goals and objectives
are basically to provide the citizens, businesses, and institutions of Ada County
long-term, environmentally safe, economically sound solid waste management
disposal as part of that integrated solid waste management system. As part of
the integrated system, Ada County will build the new landfill that is available to all
residences, businesses and institutions within Ada County. The solid waste.
management system includes all residences, businesses, institution and
governments to ensure that the system meets the needs and demands and
expectations of the system's users and those are as you know the customers
that you have - the solid waste customers as well as the customers that we
serve there at the landfill. We want to go to what is a mix up and integrated solid
waste system. It's not just the landfill; it's all the parts of this system, including
the collection system, which in Ada County is contracted by the municipalities
and by Ada County for the unincorporated areas. It also includes the reduce,
reuse cycle elements in that. We have programs in place that provide
information to remote waste reduction strategies throughout the county. We also
have programs and information to promote material reuse within our community.
Also Ada County is in pretty unique shape. Every single-family residents within
Ada County has the opportunity to curbside recycle. There is not another county
in the state that has that. It's all because of the efforts that have been put forth
by the municipalities and particularly with the City of Meridian through your
contracted hauler, SSC. Also in part of that integrated system is going to be a
subtitle D landfill. Ada County does currently operate as a subtitle D landfill. The
new landfill will meet all of the requirements and will continue to be operated as a
subtitle D landfill. Also encourage the onsite programs. We have onsite
recycling of wood, household hazardous materials and refrigeration units. Also
tires and number of other smaller items that we deal with. We also have as part
of this integrated system a household hazardous materials collection program. A
permanent facility at the landfill that is available to all county residents and to
qualified businesses. They also have the mobile collection programs with the
City of Meridian, Boise, Kuna and Eagle. The nice thing about this program is
when the county first established the household hazardous collection program,
the permanent facility at the landfill, the Board of County Commissioners offered
to the cities, the communities in the county if you will conduct an organized event
or make the effort and it can't just be haphazard, but has to be very organized,
Ada County will pay for the disposal of the material that you have collected at
those events. That still continues and it's been a very, very successful program.
We just finished our fiscal year, as you guys are aware in finishing yours; we are
starting to put together our numbers so that we will now exactly what we did in
FY 2005. By the looks of it, it's been a very successful year and a very
productive year for the county. Lastly, in the integrated solid waste system are
educational resources available to schools, civic groups, institution and other
governments, including a lot of classroom presentations towards the landfill - just
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October 4. 2005
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anything that we can do to get the information out to the public regarding the
system, how it works and how to better improve it and usually that is by taking
advantage of the programs that already exist. Where we are today, Hidden
Hollow Landfill, as we know opened in 1972. It is expected to reach design
capacity about 2010, 2011. We are currently running about 1,500 tons into the
landfill every day and as you know, trash generation like sewer is you can't shut it
off and it's awfully hard - or you can never stop it. So, it is just one of those
utilities that we really do need. The community needs to provide and by state
statute, Ada County has some responsibilities for landfill. And again, Sanitary
Services has become our second largest account at the landfill and it's due to the
phenomenal growth that you guys have experienced here within the City of
Meridian. Move onto the north ravine (inaudible) and there is a lengthy process
of public involvement process in which the Board of County Commissioners held
public information meetings trying to get input from civic groups, from residents,
from governments, from anyone we could so that the Board could make a
decision on how best to deal with the long-term solid waste requirements for Ada
County and based on that long process, they decided that they would go with
construction of a landfill on property that is already owned by Ada County and the
proposed site is called the North Ravine. To give you a perspective of where this
is - the yellow line on this map is the current county boundary or property line for
the landfill property. It's about 2,700 acres. It sits north of Hill Road, northwest
of the City of Boise. Seaman's Gulf Road runs right here and goes back to a
Hidden Springs community, which is to the north of us. The City of Eagle is to
the west of us and then the City of Boise is to the south and southeast. The
current landfill is outlined in red here. It sits about 110 or 120 acres within the
middle of the property. The North Ravine cell will be developed immediately
north of our current operations. It's approximately 400 acres. Phase 1 we are
hoping to begin construction sometime in the first part of 2006 with final
construction of Phase 1 about 10 or 11 months later. Since the Board's decision
to locate the landfill, there have been a lot of things happening, including site
certification of the site. We have received that from the Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality. They certified that the site does comply with Idaho Code
39-7407, which lists the specific requirements for landfills. Also, we have
submitted our Conditional Use Permit to Ada County and it is scheduled for
public hearing before the Planning and Zoning Commission on the October 13th.
During the process we kind of ended up with being as quite a surprise, we were
notified by staff members from the City of Boise that there was a section in the
code that applied to counties that were going to build new landfill facilities, solid
waste management facilities caught us a bit by surprise. One of the
requirements was that Ada County had to provide to the municipalities a
feasibility study that address certain things that were outlined in the code. The
City of Meridian was provided with a copy of that and I think that was one of the
things that we probably need to discuss in a little bit more detail tonight. But
there are certain requirements within that section of the Idaho Code that really
caught us by surprise, but Ada County is certainly willing to discuss those with
the municipalities. As far as the Ada County disposal facility, the new facility was
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October 4, 2005
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planned for long-term, which means they have a life expectancy of over 100
years. It will utilize the existing programs and partnerships that we have
including curbside recycling, household hazardous materials' management and
the sharing of educational resources. Further we have a very good history of
cooperation with the municipalities and their contract waste haulers and looking
at development and enhancement of the solid waste management strategies
within the county and we are very responsive to our owners, which are the
citizens of Ada County and we respond quite well, particularly through the
elected officials because it is a public agency. Basically, our recommendations
to the Meridian City Council, to the City of Meridian is that we continue this
relationship that has been developed between the City of Meridian and Ada
County. That continuing relationship will increase opportunities to enhance the
programs and the solid waste management system and we believe - recommend
that you choose the best option for solid waste disposal. The next slide is just to
give you a little bit of information. I know your rates for residential trash collection
just went up October 1 st to $10.95 per month. The distribution of that fee is as it's
shown on the slide, for one month for one household Ada County for the landfill
operation gets $1.60 out of that. The city and the franchise fees get about $.66,
which is six percent of the $10.95, but it's one percent of the total pie that is
available. Then Sanitary Services for their collection and recycling services gets
the bulk of that, which includes their transportation costs of $8.69 for each single
family within. At this point I would - any questions from the Council?
Wardle: Council, Mayor any questions?
Bird: I have none, Mr. President.
De Weerd: Not at this point.
Rountree: I might after the other presentation, Ted.
Hutchinson: Okay. Thank you very much.
Wardle: With that we will move to Item No.4.
Item 4.
Presentation on Waste Disposal Facility in Elmore County by
Idaho Waste Systems:
Weiss: Thank you Madame Mayor, Council members my name is Eric Weiss
and I am representing IWS as the Regional Sales Director and my IT guy over
here is our VP of Business Development, Grant Gothier. I apologize the
presentation that I had set up for this evening was set up to give a little pizzazz,
so I wasn't prepared to have Grant stand over there, but if there are any
questions, I am sure he will answer as we go along. Thank you very much for
the opportunity to sit down with you tonight and talk about IWS and what we have
to offer the City of Meridian.
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
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Rountree: All this technology is going off at the same time.
Weiss: The topics that we are going to talk about tonight, I am going to give an
overview of Idaho Waste Services; going to review as Ted did the Idaho Solid
Waste Statute. The issues that we feel that are facing the City of Meridian; our
proposal to the City of Meridian; the benefits of that proposal; and then the next
steps in the process and obviously with the time tonight if there are questions,
please ask as we go along, otherwise we will have questions in the end. To give
you a little overview of IWS besides Grant and myself, we also have the
Management Team - Arlan Keaton is our Chairman; Bob (Inaudible last name) is
the President; Fred Perez is our General Manager sitting in the audience and
Tom Knight is our Landfill Site Manager. I want to talk a little bit about our
experience. Besides solid waste or besides landfills or in the solid waste industry
besides municipal solid waste we also take industrial waste into the Simco Road
landfill. We are currently working with clients in the northwest as well as
Montana, Nevada and Utah. We also operate three transportation contracts in
Bingham, Boise and Elmore County. Each of these facilities also does a ground
level recycling. We do a floor shore to each one of the facilities to eliminate as
much material going to landfill as we possibly can through recycling. Some
specific information about our landfill at Simco Road. It's privately held by IWS.
It's very close to Meridian. It's very close to Meridian. It's about 40 miles away.
Our total site encompasses a little over 1,100 acres and of that 298 acres is
currently permitted air space for solid waste. To give you an idea that is about
336 million cubic yards of total air space that we have permitted today. What that
means in laymen terms is we could take approximately 6,000 tons a day,
everyday of the year and our site would last about 100 years. Currently, we are
taking in around 700 tons of trash a day. As Ted talked earlier we have an
excellent history of regulatory compliance. There is no compliance issues with
IDEO or the Health District. The federal subtitle deregulations, I talk about
exceeding that. To meet the federal subtitle deregulations, you have to have a
single liner system for a landfill. We are operating with a double liner system for
extra security. It's a very safe landfill for the waste that goes in there. We are
permitted besides municipal solid waste to accept environmental cleanup soils,
industrial waste and that is what I was talking about earlier. There are a lot of
clients in the northwest that is shipping material to us. Along with the sub title D
responsibilities. we have to have closure and post.closure funding in place. The
financial assurance and insurance cover those costs for closure and pollution
liability. Currently, we have a surety payment performance bond of $2 million
and just to touch a little bit on that, the reason for $2 million is we do an
assessment year over year of how much air space is currently open and what we
do is we figure out a formula. If we were to close that today, what would the cost
be to close that and monitor for the next 30 years? That is the reason for the $2
million. So each year we close air space as it fills up. We don't leave anything
open. We close it. The pollution legal liability insurance is currently $2 million
and that's - when I talked about the monitoring that we have in place to meet our
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October 4. 2005
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subtitle deregulations. Two million dollars if we were to have any type of release.
So, that is liability insurance for our landfill. The reason we are here today as
Ted mentioned the Idaho Solid Waste statute, essentially the City of Meridian
has been given 90 days to opt in or out of Ada County's proposed landfill. I think
it is an excellent opportunity as Ted said to look at what is the best possible
option for the City of Meridian and that is why I am here today to propose our
Simco landfill to the City of Meridian. The issues facing the City of Meridian - as
I said the decision to opt in or out of Ada County's proposed landfill, the long-
term liability issues related to the material going at Ada County; the opportunity to
independently manage your solid waste and then controlling the long-term costs
of the solid waste. Essentially looking to save money over time. IWS's proposal
to the City of Meridian - we like to partner with the City of Meridian and enter into
a long-term contract for disposal of your solid waste. There are two ways of
looking at it. Either we can contract directly or go through an RFP process, either
way we are willing to partner with the city and look for the best available option.
Your current collection contract with SSC, you have an excellent opportunity or
excellent relationship with SSC and I think that that is something that we'd really
like to join. Benefits for the City of Meridian - ability to enter into a long-term
contract to control those solid waste costs over time. The indemnification of
environmental matters and the potential reduction in control over fees paid for
solid waste. I will cover each one of these individually just to give you a little bit
more background. To enter into a long-term contract, the term (inaudible)
discuss at a later date, but we are willing to commit to the City of Meridian to hold
the rates and stay competitive within the market place for a long-term contract.
Continuous management of the HHW programs - Household Hazardous Waste
and Recycling programs would (inaudible) through IWS and do what we can to
continue support for recycling programs through SSC. With each of these, our
goal is to control the costs and I keep saying that, but that is, I think, the biggest
concern for the city and the residents is to control the cost of the disposal over
time. The indemnification of environmental matters. This is a sample contract
that IWS is willing to agree to with the City of Meridian. Essentially what it says is
we are going to indemnify and hold the city harmless to any extent rising out of
contamination at our landfill. I talked a little bit about that earlier with the pollution
liability insurance. With any type of release the liability would stay with IWS
verses the city. A little bit more about the indemnification - I want to talk a little
bit about the difference between indemnification verses ownership. We are
going to indemnify you of your material coming to our landfill. At no point and
time under CIRCLA law can you transfer ownership of your waste and what that
means is cradle the grave and everybody is familiar with that - we cannot take
the ownership away, but we can indemnify you of the liability of your material
coming into our landfill. As a potential responsible party, to look at that protection
under CIRCLA the biggest things that you have to be concerned with is a
selection of a well-designed environmentally protected landfill and that is what I
talked about earlier is with our exceeding subtitle deregulations, we are a very
safe and secure landfill. And the selection (inaudible) willing to defend and
indemnify against future liability. We are willing to indemnify you because of the
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
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position that we put ourselves in to have a very safe landfill. What does this
mean for the city? Under Idaho State Law no county or municipality can
indemnify users of its landfill without two-thirds qualified vote or approval. So,
the city still carries the liability of the waste going into the Ada County landfill,
whereas coming to us we would indemnify you of that future liability. (Inaudible)
fees paid by the City of Meridian. Ada County is a very competitively priced
landfill and they have done a very good job with the programs that have put in
place, so as a compliment and what programs that they have, I would like to offer
that we're matching rates of Ada County for transportation disposal. We are
willing to enter into a long-term contract to help control the solid waste costs over
time. We are very optimistic with the recent changes in what Ada County is
offering right now that the City of Boise - we are optimizing that the City of Boise
is going to send us a percentage of their waste to our landfill. I think that that is
of huge concern to the City of Meridian just because I believe that taking some of
that waste or a large percentage of the waste out of their system could potentially
have to raise their rates then for the rest of cities or municipalities that are
shipping waste into the landfill. So, when I talk about matching the rates of Ada
County, I am willing to do that as well as look at the savings of what it would be if
Ada County were to raise their rates over time. Summary of benefits. As I said
before, compliment to you and your collection contractor - we would love to be a
similar partner with the City of Meridian. The liability associated with the Ada
County landfill or reduced liability - the ownership of the solid waste program that
you guys have right now and then the cost savings through our new contract over
time. The next steps - whatever the direction the city decides to go we are
willing to support them and try to get enough information to make the best
judgment call for the city. You need to ensure that you do get the most
competitive option, not just today but what it is going to do for long-term liability
and cost savings. So, next steps you need to determine you know if you have
enough time meet the 90 days and look at opting in or out of Ada County's plan
and then determine what is the best process to make sure that you have the best
proposal in front of you to make that decision. We will support you whatever
direction you go. Questions?
Wardle: Council, any questions?
Rountree: Mr. President.
Wardle: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You mentioned that you are optimistic that Boise might not opt in at
least for a portion. Does statute allow a municipality to determine a percentage
that they would opt into the county facility and contract with a private provider?
How does that work?
Weiss: Council member that is a very good question, I do not have an answer at
this time.
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October 4. 2005
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Rountree: My question is your slide indicated that you are optimistic that Boise
might not opt into the county landfill -- at least for a portion they might contract
with you all, so I guess my question is does the statute allow a municipality to
discriminate a percentage of their waste going one way or another?
Wardle: You have to come up here, sir.
De Weerd: We need your answer on the record.
(Speaker Unknown): Currently, we take 10 percent of the waste from Ada
County and we have met with the City of Boise and we have met with the Mayor
and they are trying to decide. I do not know if statute allows that. They have
researched and that is one thing that we have been discussing with them and I
can't answer if statute allows that. Maybe Mr. Walker can? He works with us.
Walker: Frank Walker of Boise, Idaho and I am sure Bill can address this as
well. Statute doesn't speak to the manner in which a municipality directs its
waste. You basically have a choice to opt in or opt out with the county at this
point and time. With that come obligations for the city over the long-term
prospect of that cell. So, you have got to dedicated yourself to the closure costs
and percentage of - like if you are buying into it and you are going to stay with
them. Now, whether that prohibits the city, I don't think it does from directing
some of its waste to a more practical or efficient landfill, I don't think the statute
states one way or the other. I think there are options and I think - statutes
contemplate in the sense the county provides landfill. Cities have the opportunity
to go with the county or not. As far as the nuances between that really doesn't
say, but I do think and I won't say with total confidence, but I do think there is
enough in there, again if you opt in with the county you can opt in for a portion or
a term. You have got to know what you are opting into and I think that's one of
the things that the Council has to understand is what is the long term
commitment to the county in the sense of amount of waste, dollars and cents,
years and those sort of things? Which, I don't think are before you right now and
again I think you also have options to split and go different directions. I don't
think it's totally black and white that you have got to go one way and that way
only.
Bird: Mr. President, or go ahead Charlie if you have got a follow up and then I
will go.
Rountree: Well, it's not a follow up; it's one concern I have about the state
statute and its desire to take municipalities out of a competitive environment.
Have you as a private corporation considered either through lobbyist or your
actions have a run at the statute to provide the municipalities ability to work in a
capitalist, competitive environment instead of being forced into an either or
situation it seems to me?
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
October 4, 2005
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Walker: That is a very good question, Madame Mayor and Council. I think the
statutes, again, are structured in that manner, but I don't think they are exclusive.
I don't read the statute as saying a municipality cannot direct some of its waste to
a private entity if it wants to. It is just - obviously, with the County there is a
considerable capital expenditure and it is designed so that they get their ducks in
a row as they are going forward and that is to go to the cities and say are you
going to participate or are you not going to participate. If you are not going to
participate, you go your own direction. Then you can buy back into later. There
are some provisions for that as well. I don't think it is necessarily exclusionary to
that degree. As far as lobbying and legislation, I haven't participated on that level
with this company.
Rountree: Thank you.
Wardle: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Mr. Walker the $2 million liability and other - is that do you think sufficient
enough the way tort claims are being awarded now? I mean and what does that
actually do to cover us?
Walker: Madame Chairman, Councilman no. It probably is not. It's what they
have at this point and time at IWS understanding that their facility is designed so
that there will not be an event. If there is an event, again, they will monitor the
amount of waste that they have, what they are taking in, the size of their landfill
area and adjust that to go forward. That can be something that can be
contracted with over time that you will carry "x" amount of insurance for us, not
your entire landfill, but for the City of Meridian. So, the likelihood is remote that
you would ever have an event, but certainly through the contracting process you
can get something that -
Bird: Would that not be benefit to our citizens to have that kind of contractual set
up where we are or whatever it takes to take care of the liability from the
percentage we are taking out there or whatever were disposing?
Walker: Yes, Mr. Bird, I think it would be. Obviously, the county at this point and
time doesn't have the ability to indemnify and a private company can. I think
around the country there are instances where you see it running back upstream
to the actual depositors of the waste, so it is an issue.
Bird: Thank you very much.
Wardle: Mr. Rountree.
Weiss: Excuse me. Just to expand on that. Mr. Walker explained it correctly
that based upon the waste that we are receiving today, the nature of the waste -
when I talk about a lot of the environmental companies that we are currently
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October 4, 2005
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doing business with that is of a grave concern to them based upon the liability of
a non-hazardous, but a contaminated material coming into a landfill. So, that is a
very good question and we are willing to increase that amount as Mr. Walker said
depending on what the city feels that is adequate, we are more than willing to do
that.
Rountree: Mr. President.
Wardle: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You spoke in terms of long-term contract and rates. I am not going to
hold you to it, but what does a long-term contract rates - you would hold rates to
what indices?
Weiss: When I look at a long-term contract, I think it would be something that we
would both mutually agree on. I guess it would be something no more
competitive that what the current landfill would accept as a contract with you
guys. There is a lot of information out there with other municipalities and looking
at the different contract period of time that their contract would. So, that is up to
the city.
Rountree: What kind of range?
Weiss: Ten or fifteen years. I guess - we have got a 100 years of life, but
anywhere from a minimum of 10 to 15 years and the reason that I think that you
look at a 1 O-year contract is to maintain some of the programs and really to work
with the city on looking at the recycling programs and programs are working. We
would certainly want to have a length of time to be effective and to show the city
the partnership of what we are willing to do. The rates - we discussed that
before we came here this evening. A lot of what we are working at is looking to
secure the rates for a period of time and then looking for the normal CPl's that
contract - I am sure the contract that you guys just went through, the CPI
increase that you just went through is something on an annualized basis. So,
that is what we would be looking at.
Rountree: Mr. President.
Wardle: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: As far as the indemnification, would it be fair to characterize that that
is a value, but it is somewhat dependent on how solid you as a company remains
and the county government is going to be here forever. You guys are solid, but
based on selling profits, losses you may not be here forever.
Weiss: I would say yes and I also answer the question that it's really dependent
on the environmental controls and what you have in place. When you look at
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October 4.2005
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what we have done and we try to do to exceed the requirements of our landfill
and look at the waste that is coming in, we have looked prior to taking a ton of
waste in our landfill; looking at the profitability nature. We would be making more
money if we didn't have the environmental controls in place to even back up the
city even more. So, I would say six one, half dozen the other that the
indemnification of liability of our landfill is solid based upon what we have done to
date.
Rountree: There is always that risk though?
Weiss: Yes.
Wardle: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Mr. President one of the ones - I guess I didn't hear - my reading of the
state statute says that you have to have permission or a permit from the county
you operate in and I didn't see that in your presentation that you have a permit
from Elmore County?
Weiss: Yes.
Nary: Okay and is that a renewal of every year? I mean, if that - the city opts
into your program isn't the city going to be also subject to that permitting process
you are going to go through annually with Elmore County?
Weiss: There is - Fred you may want to answer this question. Yes, we do have
a permitting process, but in Elmore County they decided to shut down their
landfill and contract with us directly, so yes there is a process that we go through
on an annualized basis, but considering they don't have a landfill, they are not in
a position -
Walker: Madame Mayor, Council members we are not an annualized permit
through Elmore County. Our conditional use permit does not have a time limit on
it. Eric is right Elmore County did shut their landfill down. We do take all of
Elmore County's waste. We also operate the transfer station for the county and
in that there is no timeframe on the conditional use permit and the mitigation
agreement that we signed with them. We also, for your information we do pay
Elmore County a percentage that comes into our site. We do have a royalty or
tipping fee, whatever hosts fee it goes to the county, so county is very happy to
have us there at this point and it is a revenue string for them.
Nary: So, are your rates - essentially you are their franchised landfill for that?
Walker: That is correct.
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October 4, 2005
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Nary: So those rates for what you pay them, are they tied then to the rates that
the city would have to pay?
Walker: We can determine the rates going into it. The way it is setup is on an
average per ton rate, we pay Elmore County a percentage of that per ton rate
whatever it is. Whether it's $4 a ton or $6 a ton; whatever that is we pay them on
a sliding scale. If it's $0 to $20, we pay them so much. If it's $20 to $30, we pay
a little bit more. If it's $30 to $40, we pay a little bit more. As you understand the
industrial waste frames are a lot more valuable or they pay a lot more money to
come to us than would a municipal waste (inaudible). So it's on a sliding scale.
Nary: Okay. Thank you.
De Weerd: Mr. President.
Wardle: Madame Mayor.
De Weerd: Now, those rates are on tonnage, but through all of the programs that
we are currently getting from Ada County also fit within that rate?
Weiss: Yes. I think basically we are going to take the waste from the city by the
cubic yard, so it is going to be apples to apples based upon the price that the City
of Meridian is paying Ada County, they would pay the same price for IWS. So,
when he said a tonnage rate, this is basically the other material that we received
into our landfill is by the ton.
De Weerd: That would maintain the hazardous waste and recycling, the
education partnership and all of that?
Weiss: Yes.
Wardle: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You mentioned you would match the programs that we have
established as it rates to recycling and household hazardous waste. Does that
include the cost or no cost - actually receipted revenues from that activity that
the City of Meridian currently enjoys and I didn't hear any mention about any
educational programs, which I personally find beneficial for the citizens.
Weiss: Council member the programs - what I would like to do is I would like to
sit down with city staff to better understand the programs. Basically, we want to
mirror to - to sit here today, we want to mirror the programs that Ada County has
provided you. Knowing a little bit about how the household hazardous waste
program is run, I understand based upon the collection of the curbside recycling,
pays for the residual that is paid from the material funds - the collection we
would be responsible for the disposal, yes, we are willing to take on that
Meridian City Pre.Council Meeting
October 4, 2005
Page 13 of 20
program. I mentioned recycling programs, other than a curbside recycling
program, I know Ada County works on a wood waste-recycling program. All
those programs we would entertain the city staff to find out what programs are
working effective, which ones they like to look at improving and then figure out
how we go forward. So, to answer your question, yes, we would adopt those
programs. The education - that is something that we would work with. IWS
would work with your staff to figure out what would be the most optimal way of
handling that.
Rountree: Thank you.
Wardle: Council, we have one additional agenda item today. Are there any final
questions for Mr. Weiss?
Rountree: I had some questions for Ted.
Wardle: Mr. Hutchinson could you please come forward? Mr. Rountree?
Rountree: If the city chose to opt out of the county program and weren't
necessarily satisfied with the portion of the contractual arrangement with another
provider as it related to education and/or household hazardous waste, the mobile
program - would the city still be able to participate in that?
Hutchinson: Madame Mayor, Councilman Rountree the system that we have set
up right now is paid for by the users of the landfill. The residents of Ada County,
the businesses that come in that is who is actually paying for everything that we
do up there. There are no tax dollars supporting our operation. I think that would
be one I would have to run by the Board of County Commissioners as far as - I
think the educational opportunities that we have it would be a shame to ever see
those diminish, regardless of where the waste went. Ada County does have that
program in place and you are still part of Ada County and very much - I am sure
that we could probably work something out very well.
Rountree: If in the process of opting in the statute doesn't give the city a whole
bunch of leverage. What kind of insurance if we opt in can we get from the
county that we won't be confronted with the issue that we had in June or July as
related to instantaneous rate in creases that we had to deal with in a week,
without public involvement, without public hearings and that sort of thing, which I
personally thought was a pretty significant issue and the citizenry that is involved
in that should know about it and they should have some say in it and quite frankly
as an elected official, I thought it was a terrible activity that went on at the county.
I know the issue needed to be addressed, but to me that is just not good
government and it wasn't fair.
Hutchinson: That's one thing that we are addressing as we proceed forward.
We do have a long-term financial plan for the solid waste system in Ada County
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
Page 14 of 20
and it does include the now programmed increases so that we don't end up with
that one - those large hits like that. It is unfortunate that that did happen
because as our department was looking at our long-term needs and looking over
the horizon, we had approached the Board of County Commissioners several
times over the years to do increases. As you know, politics, what they are and
being an elected official and answering it's kind of a hot topic when you are
talking about -
(Tape turned over)
Hutchinson: -- for and it does become the political issue unfortunately. The new
program which the Board of County Commissioners has adopted has a
programmed set of increases in it that are much more manageable and far more
reasonable than what we just experienced. It is unfortunate that the big reason
that that increase was the size that it was has to do with the household
hazardous materials program. When we started collecting (inaudible) gray tubes,
picture tubes, computer monitors, television sets the cost of our program doubled
from what we were going before. We were running at about a half a million
dollars a year, which was very manageable within the budgets that we had.
When we added that one item it the waste stream, it went to over a million
dollars. So, it was a huge hit. Our wood waste is a subsidized program.
Unfortunately, it happened at one shot and we understand that very well, we
don't want to put you in that position. We don't like being in that position either,
having that big of an increase.
Rountree: I have two more questions if you will indulge me.
Hutchinson: I will keep my answers short.
Wardle: Yeah, you are eating into Mr. Siddoway's time. Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: You mentioned in your discussion, again, the word long-term financial
plan. What does that mean?
Hutchinson: Our long-term financial plan is for the minimum the life of the landfill
itself. So, we are looking at 100 plus years on our financial plan. We do have
built in there our trigger dates in there for closure costs - we have to have in an
account specified a certain amount that will cover post closure of any landfill and
we know - we got that figured out in the plan when those things are going to
happen, but it is long-term, 100 plus years.
Rountree: Ambitious. My last question is about the question liability
indemnification. IWS indicated that it would take two-thirds majority vote of the
county population in order to allow the county to indemnify. Has the county
considered that and what's the risk?
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4, 2005
Page 15 of 20
Hutchinson: I don't think the county has really looked at the indemnification and
putting that out. We are looking at environmental liability insurance and in a fund
to make sure that we have money in the bank that will cover those costs and
again it's paid out of user fees and not additional fees in there. They point out
and they are rightly so is that the cradle to grave requirement on the waste, they
can indemnify you, but indemnification stops when their money runs out and then
it does go back to the people who placed waste in the landfill. Ada County has
the one benefit that we are a municipal solid waste landfill. That is all we take,
we don't take industrial waste. We know what is going into our landfill. We know
what those risks are and Ada County to this point is pretty - has stood up for -
enter remediation on anything that has occurred with existing landfill and the new
landfill will be state of the art, there is no doubt that it will have all of the
safeguards to prevent that. But, again, on the off chance, the county is looking at
doing long-term environmental insurance to help out to make sure that we don't
pass that through.
Rountree: In characterizing the risk and who might pay, you indicated that now
the users potentially could pay, but in the case of the county if and fact there was
a significant environmental issue to be dealt with the reality is that it probably
would be borne by each individual taxpayer in the county?
Hutchinson: That is correct and it's more or less that if they were looking for the
deep pocket it would go to - they would begin looking at records of how much
waste from this area went - from this municipality went in and would be
proportioned accordingly. It's a touch industry.
Wardle: I think Madame Mayor has one question.
De Weerd: I guess we have utilized Ada County for many decades. You have
provided a low cost and effective solid waste management program. Mr.
Rountree has raised a number of questions and certainly we do have a concern
and we would like an answer or response to great changes and how they will be
dealt with and if it's just based on the consumer index, inflation type of thing.
Those kinds of considerations. The second one, I guess, my primary concern
was raised tonight about whatever Boise is deciding and how that would impact
Ada County landfill and the rates. But, also about the second site. I participate
in all the public hearings and that one kind of came out of the blue at the tail end
of all of those public hearings. I want to know what kind of impact that would also
have. If BFI opens up a second sale on the south side, what kind of impact that
would also have on the ratepayers and how those charges would be distributed
and the help of your other programs if they would be at risk. Those are all
questions that we have.
Hutchinson: Absolutely, Madame Mayor and in our long-term financial plan we
have looked at this without BFl's participation in having a franchised landfill in
southeast Ada County and with the landfill being created. Fortunately, the way
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
Page 16 of 20
the numbers work out is if we split the waste and the interesting thing about it is
that it's a set amount that would go from - would be diverted in the waste stream
and that is 750 tons. That is about half of what we take in right now. If we
reduce our waste by half, we can reduce a number of our costs, but not all of the
operational costs - obviously not by half, but there is also a franchise agreement
with BFI regarding that landfill. The rates, I don't believe you would see other
than the programmed rates that are already our current rates and then the
program increases over time, I think it would probably be an excellent thing for
the city and the county to sit down and to let you see that financial plan and let
you see what our engineering services have worked out and again, we need to
make sure that the questions that you have raised are addressed. We have
every confidence that we can continue to provide the outstanding service that we
have done and actually improve any relationships that we have already. There is
just an excellent opportunity here to do that.
De Weerd: Just a follow up. We have a great relationship with you. I think,
though, we have had several things that have come up tonight. We also have a
solid waste advisory committee that probably needs to get together and discuss
this. We also have our solid waste provider here that as our attorney and I talked
prior to this is the decision that this body makes because I think by state code the
decision is that municipalities decision has a bottom line affect on our hauler as
well and so I think, Council that if you would like to get some of these key items
to our solid waste advisory committee. If you would also like me to work with Mr.
Sedlecek and Mr. Nary in identifying some of the questions that came up, ask
both of the presenters tonight for more clarification we can discuss at another
agenda item.
Hutchinson: With regard to that the solid waste advisory committee, Ada County
would be very interested in participating with that group, I mean it's something
that we are obviously as a disposal site in Ada County, we'd be very interested in
being able to assist your programs in anyway that we can and participation in
that advisory committee might be a really good way for us to make sure that
those channels are always open.
Nary: Mr. President, just one other addition I guess to that if I could. Has there
been any discussion with the County Commissioners about extending the 90-day
period?
Hutchinson: Madame Mayor, members of the Council, Mr. Nary state statute is
what we are operating on and like you say it came as a surprise to us -
Nary: But, state statute says that within 90 days you should respond. It doesn't
say what happens if you don't.
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
Page 17 of 20
Hutchinson: You know, that might be something (inaudible) an attorney could
probably advise it that your response is we need to talk about it. That might be -
which would be a response that you know we need to talk about it.
Wardle: Mr. Nary, what is our deadline?
Nary: November 5th.
Hutchinson: We didn't like the looks of that when that cropped up either. It
added a stumbling block here and it's not something that we were very pleased
to see.
Wardle: Thank you. Council, I think we have got some good direction to bring
back some answers to questions. Thank you to all of our presenters. With that I
am going to wrap up our official trash talk session for Pre-Council agenda and
move to Item No.5. Mr. Siddoway I am going to be providing you five minutes to
present some additional ideas to the Council and then we can certainly follow up
at a later time. I know we have a time limit on these.
Item 5.
Presentation of Meridian's Transportation Task Force Priority
List and Recommendations:
Siddoway: I know we are short on time, so my intent, if we have five minutes
would be to do three things. First introduce you to the draft list of transportation
priorities, review the highlights of that list and just ask how you would like to
proceed from here. You should have received through the Clerk's Office a memo
and the draft list of priorities. Did the Council receive those?
Bird: They are right on the deal.
Siddoway: I think you will find that the list is quite comprehensive. We have 30
potential projects listed on this year's list in comparison to last year's list had 13
projects listed on it. The Transportation Task Force has been meeting regularly,
monthly since March and there are various topics that were discussed at all the
meetings as defined in the memo. At our September meeting last month, the
task force compiled all the list of projects that had been talked about over those
months and went to a voting process to identify a draft priority list for Council's
consideration. That draft list was unanimously endorsed by the members of the
task force present that day. Our goal as you know is to have a final list to
COMPASS and ACHD by the end of October. That is our deadline to have a
prioritized list to them. A couple of items to review with you on the list - first is
the Ten Mile Interchange is and continues to be the number one priority on the
list. You will notice the glaring absence of the Locust Grove Overpass. We were
told by ACHD that since it is a funded project for this coming year that we do not
need to prioritize the '06 projects in with the others. So that is known very much
that it's a top priority. It's expected to move forward. We were told that it will
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4.2005
Page 18 of 20
move forward without being on the list this year, as it is funded and moving
forward in the coming year. The list includes a mix of projects that would be
done by ITD, by ACHD and on ACHD's end it includes both road projects and
intersection projects, all mixed together. One thing that I have done is gone
through the overall list and pulled out the top six projects that would be done by
each agency. The top six projects in order for ITD would be the Ten Mile
Interchange is number one. The rebuild of Meridian Road Interchange as
number two. The Linder Road Overpass as number three. The Eagle Road
corridor (inaudible) as number four. The State Highway 16 extension at
McDermott as number five and the widening of Chinden Road right behind it.
The ACHD projects, I think these are important to consider what order and which
projects should be in the top five in particular. The reason why that is important
is ACHD prioritization process that they go through after they receive our list is
the cities top five projects. We have 30, but the top five get bonus points in their
process. Those projects as currently proposed will include the downtown split
corridor - Pine from Meridian to Eagle. The third in order is the East 3rd
connection in downtown either to 3rd at 2 12 or straight through. In conversations
with ACHD that particular project would not receive bonus points per say
because it wouldn't be identified as a project that ACHD would do on their own.
It would be strictly a developer-funded project as properties redeveloped. They
would likely note our desire to have that done and move to the next one, which is
proposed as the Meridian Ustick intersection followed by the Ten Mile Road from
Overland to Ustick, followed by Franklin Road from Linder to Ten Mile. So, we
have in there in those top projects the Ten Mile Road improvements and the
Franklin Road improvements from Linder to Ten Mile in preparation for the Ten
Mile Interchange. Finally and I guess I won't read through them all, but the north
Meridian intersections I did put in the memo, just one thing - there has been a lot
of discussion about trying to get the north Meridian intersections built ahead of
the road improvements because we know the road improvements are costly, they
are farther out than we feel we can wait and the real bottlenecks today are at the
intersections, which are all four-way stops. So. all of the intersections were
pulled out independently and prioritized in with all the various road projects and I
have provided for you the order that they fell out. A general observation is that
the priority projects went to those that increase capacity; those that were deemed
as more beautification oriented such as the Eagle Road corridor improvements or
others that might be on the edge like Chinden received less weight than those
that were central to the city and adding capacity to the system. They also
expressed that every one of those 30 are a high priority and it was frankly tough
to figure out which ones ought to be first. But, nonetheless we have a draft list
and I can respond to any questions about it now or we can just figure out how
you would like to proceed, whether you would like to have another Pre-Council
workshop or whether you would like to have it as a department report for action
at a Council meeting. What's your pleasure?
Wardle: Steve, before I ask the Council their preference, one of my questions is
what are the odds that we may get some signalization effort in north Meridian
Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
Page 19 of 20
before those improvements come in. Is there an opportunity for ACHD to do
something temporary to mitigate some of those concerns?
Siddoway: To get signals ahead of what the road projects?
Wardle: Well, yes, both signalization ahead of the road project and any
temporary signalization. I have seen Ada County do it before, not in the City of
Meridian, but-
Siddoway: They are very willing to talk about signalization ahead of the road
projects. They just recently pulled the Linder - Ustick intersection out from the
Linder Road project because the road project is in the five-year program for
2009. You have been listening to us and our desire to get the intersections
approved ahead of schedule if possible. They have pulled it separate from the
road project and it has just started design on its own. I don't think that they are
interested in doing temporary signalization. They would prefer to build those
intersections the way that they will be at their ultimate build out with left-turn
lanes, through lanes, etc. A lot of the current two-lane configurations just don't
accommodate good traffic movement if we were to just put up a signal under the
current configuration, so their intent would be to purchase the right-of-way
needed to get the intersection built at its ultimate configuration.
Wardle: My preference would be for the Council to take a look at these items,
provide any feedback response and then potentially to bring that back as a
department report for action with any additional questions needed. Council, your
thoughts on this?
Bird: Mr. President.
Wardle: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I whole-heartedly agree with, but I believe we need to do it on the 18th so
that we can get it by the first to them. I would be favorable to just putting it on the
department report. Or we could come at 6:00 early on the Pre-Council and do it
that way we have got plenty of time to discuss and stuff and not hold the public
up that is here for testimony and stuff. I would be willing to do it either way. Your
decision.
Wardle: Okay. I'll tell you what we will do, we will have it on the 18th either as a
Pre-Council department report depending on the issues that we have seen,
questions that you have, we will either take an hour or we will take a department
report and we will have done the 18th.
De Weerd: Mr. Chairman.
Wardle: Madame Mayor.
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
October 4. 2005
Page 20 of 20
De Weerd: I would ask that Council if you have any questions, if you foresee any
bottlenecks or issues, if you will get those to Steve so we can have a good
presentation in answering those and making some recommendations on how to
proceed.
Siddoway: I could both come prepared for those questions if I got them ahead of
time. I could also if there are specific requests that certain things be moved, I
could take a stab ahead of time at a revised list if Council members wanted.
Wardle: We will see how much work the Council has got into that and if we need
a round table discussion we will have it at 6:00. Thank you.
Siddoway: Okay, great. Thank you.
Wardle: With that we are at the end of our agenda and over our appointed time, I
would consider a motion to adjourn.
Rountree: So moved.
Bird: Second.
Wardle: It's been moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. All in favor?
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:15 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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DATE APPROVED
Page 1 of 2
Sharon Smith
From:
Joshua Wilson
Sent: Thursday. October 27.20055:28 PM
To: Jessica Johnson; Tara Green; smiths@meridiancity.org; 'hillm@meridiancity.org'
Subject: FW: Magic View Development
For the Conger Management file (CPA~05~002)
From: Brad Hawkins-Clark [mailto:bhc-homeoffice@mindspring.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 27,20055:16 PM
To: Joshua Wilson
Subject: RE: Magic View Development
nope
u_- -______n_____-
From: Joshua Wilson [mailto:wilsonj@cityofmeridian.org]
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 5: 14 PM
To: Brad Hawkins~Clark
Subject: RE: Magic View Development
Brad~ did you forward this to the Clerks?
From: Brad Hawkins~Clark [mailto:bhc~homeoffice@mindspring.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2005 5:05 PM
To: Joshua Wilson
Subject: FW: Magic View Development
Josh - FYI on Conger CPA
Brad
From: RichnLois@aol.com [mailto:RichnLois@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 27, 20054:14 PM
To: wardles@meridiancity.org; rountree@meridiancity.org; dirdk@meridiancity.org; gardnerp@meridiancity.org;
donnellc@meridiancity.org; deweerdt@meridiancity.org
Cc: siddoway@meridiancity.org; hawkinsb@meridiancity.org; canninga@meridiancity.org
Subject: Magic View Development
Dear Sirs:
When making its decisions. does the City Council truly consider the opinion of those impacted by a
particular proposed action? If so.please be aware there is almost unanimous rejection by next door neighbors of
the rezone application which will allow high density residential development in Magic View. Nearly 250 residents
of Woodbridge signed a petition requesting such rejection.
This does not reflect anything against Conger Development. They have simply found a property which
can produce the desired return on investment, especially if government can be persuaded to make an arbitrary
decision in their favor.
10/28/2005
Page 2 of 2
The core issue is whether the rules should be changed after the game has begun. Most of us who selected
Woodbridge as our community did not ask what would be built on adjacent property. We simply looked at all the
For Sale signs and were told they meant commercial/office development similar to that already present in the
area.
It is obvious that if the present rezone is approved. all remaining property in Magic View would be eligible for
similar action. High density residential development would greatly increase traffic. reduce the uniqueness of
Woodbridge and its quality of life, with eventual reduction of property values~~all as a result of arbitrary decisions
of government.
We are not elitists. We simply chose a home community based on the rules in place. We do not ask for special
favors. only to be treated fairly based on governance decisions already existing.
The fundamental issue is one of ethics. We admit that you have the power to make decisions which will
adversely impact Woodbridge residents. Only you can decide whether the long term loss of respect for your
authority is worth the short term expedience of this project.
Please seriously consider the unintended consequences of ignoring the concerns of an entire community.
Respect and trust are of much greater worth than financial return on investment.
With hope.
Richard E. Carlson
10/28/2005