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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-28 Work Session Minutes Item#1. Meridian City Council Work Session September 28, 2021. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m., Tuesday, September 28, 2021, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Treg Bernt, Jessica Perreault, Brad Hoaglun and Liz Strader. Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Steve Siddoway, Mike Barton, Matt Perkins, Shawn Harper, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE Liz Strader _X_ Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt X Jessica Perreault _X Luke Cavener _X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, call the meeting to order. For the record it is Tuesday, September 28th, at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's City Council Work Session with roll call attendance. Johnson: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Councilman Borton. We can see you, but not hear you here. Councilman Borton. He is frozen. He is here. Councilman Cavener? Cavener: Here. Johnson: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Here. Johnson: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Here. Johnson: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: Here. Johnson: Mayor Simison. Simison: Here. Next item is adoption of the agenda. Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Page 4 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 2 of 19 Bernt: I move that we adopt the agenda as published. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: Joe, we can hear you and -- Borton: I cannot. Simison: You cannot hear us? Borton: I hear like every third word. Hoaglun: Let me count. One, three, five, seven -- Borton: I hear laughter. No, it's gone. Schultz: This is Sarah Schultz. I hear the same thing. It's on and off. Simison: Can we reboot real quick? (Brief pause. Technical difficulties) Simison: Why don't we go ahead and reset if that works. We don't have to recall to order, but we will resume the meeting with a new roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next time is adoption of the agenda. Bernt: Mr. -- Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: Grateful for the opportunity this fine afternoon to make a motion to adopt the agenda as published. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it and the agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Page 5 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 3 of 19 1. Approve Minutes of the September 14, 2021 City Council Work Session 2. Approve Minutes of the September 14, 2021 City Council Regular Meeting 3. Approve Minutes of the September 21, 2021 City Council Work Session 4. Approve Minutes of the September 21, 2021 City Council Regular Meeting 5. Final Plat for Artemisia Subdivision (FP-2021-0046) by Engineering Solutions, Located at the Northwest Corner of W. Overland Rd. and S. Linder Rd. 6. Final Plat for TM Frontline (FP-2021-0047) by Brighton Development, Inc., Generally Located on the South Side of W. Franklin Rd., Approximately '/4 Mile West of S. Linder Rd. 7. Final Order for Chewie Subdivision (FP-2021-0036) by Kent Brown Planning, Located on the North Side of W. Franklin Rd., Midway Between N. Ten Mile Rd. and N. Linder Rd. 8. Final Order for Prevail Subdivision No. 3 (FP-2021-0044) by Schultz Development, Located Approximately '/4 Mile South of E. Amity Rd., East of S. Meridian Rd. 9. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Briar Ridge Subdivision (H- 2021-0036) by Gem State Planning, Located on the West Side of Meridian Rd. Between W. Lake Hazel Rd. and W. Amity Rd., Directly South of the Mid-Mile Point 10. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Bright Star Care Meridian (H- 2021-0052) by Hatch Design Architecture, Located at 3336 and 3340 N. Meridian Rd. 11. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Decision and Order for Request for City Council Review of the Planning Director's Determination that a Reduced 5-Foot Interior Setback Specified in UDC Table 11-213-3 Did Not Apply to a New Structure Proposed for Construction on the Property Located at 2560 S. Meridian Road, by Clark Wardle (CR-2021-0003) 13. Approval of Fiscal Year 2022 Purchase Order to Ferguson Enterprises for Water Meters and Related Equipment for the Not-to-Exceed Page 6 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 4 of 19 Amount of$1,373,458.00 14. Cooperative Agreement Between the City of Meridian and Valley Regional Transit for Fiscal Year 2022 Public Transportation Financial Contribution 15. Market Labor Fee Contract Amendment for Fiscal Year 2022 Between City of Meridian and Republic Services of Idaho for Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Services 16. Recycling Processing Fee Contract Amendment Fiscal Year 2022 Between City of Meridian and Republic Services of Idaho for Solid Waste Collection Services 17. Resolution No. 21-2286: A Resolution Adopting the Fiscal Year 2022 Rate Schedule of Solid Waste Collection Services; Authorizing Finance Department to Collect Such Fees; and Providing an Effective Date Simison: Next item is the Consent Agenda. Bernt: Like the adoption of the agenda, I equally am grateful for the opportunity to make a motion to approve the Consent Agenda, with one item being taken off, No. 12. Item 12 being stricken from the agenda. For the Mayor to sign and for the Clerk to attest. Hoaglun: Second the motion. Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda by removing Item 12. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Nays? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is approved. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: So, we did move Item 12 off the Consent Agenda. So, do we need to take action to dispose of it further and remove it altogether at this point in time? Nary: Mr. Mayor, we will bring it back at a future date. So, we don't need to do anything other than that. Simison: So, I don't need to -- since it wasn't moved off the Consent Agenda. We deleted it. There is a difference. Nary: Yeah. We didn't move it off to talk about it. We deleted it, so -- because we will bring it back at a later date. Page 7 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 5 of — DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 18. Public Works Department: 2021 Environmental Excellence Awards Simison: All right. Perfect. Then we will move on to Item 18, which is for the Public Works Department, 2021 Environmental Excellence Awards, and I will turn this over to Jason. Korn: Again, thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. So, this is my fourth year being involved with Environmental Excellence Awards and every year I'm excited and impressed when reviewing the nominations put in from the community with our awards committee and this year was no different. The awards give the city the opportunity to recognize and promote innovation and hard work for our community members and environmental protection and, hopefully, inspire others to get involved in efforts of pollution prevention, resource conservation and a path towards greater sustainability. One of the innovations from last year's awards that came from our challenges with in- person meetings was developing videos where you can actually see our awardees in action and with that we will play our first video for our first awardee, which will be Micro 100 Tool and, hopefully, that video will start. Yeah. Johnson: J.R., did you click the share sound with video? You might have to restart. J.R., this is Chris. If you can hear me when you press share before you pick the thing at the very bottom there is a share sound button below the screen share. Choose that and, then, try again. J.R.: I have share screen. Share sound is on the video or on the -- Johnson: It's on the same -- once you hit share screen it shows all your options and it's at the very bottom of that. There is a little checkbox for share sound. J.R.: Okay. Let me -- let me redo it and see. Sorry about that. (Video played.) Korn: Thanks for bearing -- bearing with us through the technical difficulties. Dugan, can we have you come up. So, we are presenting the 2021 Environmental Excellence Award to Micro 100 Tool for efforts in hazardous waste reduction and pollution prevention. Henderson: Well, thank you. Appreciate this. This is -- this goes to the team of Micro 100. You know, they really worked towards defining a process that is acceptable to the -- to the local community. So, a lot of work goes into doing this and we just appreciate this, being recognized for the time that we have spent doing this and we will continue doing more. Thank you. Korn: All right. Hopefully it goes a little smoother playing the next video for our next awardee, which is Republic Services, and if we could get that cued up and shared. Page 8 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 6 1 - (Video played.) Korn: All right. Thanks. And not to be repetitive, but I would like to present the 2021 Environmental Excellence Award to Republic Services for commitment to responsible resource use and reducing emissions, utilizing reuse water, and providing opportunities for waste diversion. So, Republic Services is a great community partner, really defied us to try and put them in a category for this award. So, we have several categories that we could have nominated them for. So, congratulations. Klein: I guess I will leave this on. I just want to say thank you to Jason and the entire team up here, Mayor and Council and Solid Waste Advisory Commission, because we have the good fortune of sitting on that committee and really hearing feedback from the community on what we can do to better serve everyone and so the purple pipe is the latest advancement, I guess, that we have been able to -- to really tap into and we are just grateful that we are able to help the city move in the direction of the residents and the leadership. So, thank you. Korn: All right. And we will be accepting nominations for the 2022 environmental excellence awards. So, if there are any good ideas out there, anyone in the public or in the audience today, please, go to our website meridiancity.org and look for Environmental Excellence Awards. Thank you. Simison: Thank you, Jason, and the team and, Council Woman Strader, anything you would like to add as a -- I'm sure there would be. Strader: Thank you. I just wanted to say how proud we are to have these companies in our community working with us and moving us forward on these environmental initiatives and I think it says a lot about the values that we hold as a community when we see that reflected back and just want to express my appreciation for Micro 100, Republic, and the SWAC and Jason and everybody. Thanks. 19. Parks and Recreation Department: Teen Activities Night Pilot Program Recap Simison: Ditto. Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda was number 19, our Parks and Recreation Department Teen Activities Night pilot program recap. We will hear from Renee. White: Hello. How are you all? Hey -- I -- good. Good. I am back to talk about Teen Night. I was asked to give a bit of a recap to everybody. I came in April and suggested we added some activities for teens to help maybe draw away from the teens that were overwhelming Movie Night. Took some feedback from all of you. Made some revisions to the event. So, we were able to produce, with your support, three different nights. So, we were three consecutive Fridays in August. We had -- this is not moving. We were able to have cornhole, pickleball, ladder ball. We had a company who come and brought virtual reality games and, then, volleyball and basketball. And, of course, we had free Page 9 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page , of ,9 pizza. So, we were graciously donated the pizza by Idaho Pizza Company, which was a significant savings to our overall budget. It was awesome. I agree. One of the highlights was the very first night we had some of our members of our fire department come and interact with the kids. They played some pickleball, some basketball, and just had a good time. They actually taught me pickleball, which I might have to do some more of. It was a lot of fun. One of the other highlights was watching the kids interact themselves. We had quite a few that would encourage the rest of them to come and get volleyball games going, because, of course, you had to have more kids for that. So, I got to see a lot of kids who maybe normally wouldn't be hanging out together hanging out together and having a really good time. The virtual reality was a hit. It -- I would say it also ended up bringing some of -- some kids that maybe wouldn't have come to do some of the other activities. So, you can see them there eating pizza. You originally approved a budget of 4,280 dollars. We did hire security to come, although they ended up being really not necessary. Myself, I was there and, then, we had two staff members from HomeCourt. So, there was virtually no problems. Virtually sounds like there was a problem. There were absolutely no problems. So, we had a great time. So, we did have a savings of a couple thousand dollars. The one thing that we didn't achieve I would say is drawing youth away from Movie Night at all. I think the -- the youth that we served were a completely different clientele that maybe wouldn't have gone to Movie Night or, you know, were looking for something more constructive to do or -- we had quite a few kids come out that were a little shyer, that needed an activity to be --to be brought out or their parents just wouldn't have let them just roam the park with Movie Night. So, I would say we didn't quite achieve our objectives. We had probably 30 to 40 kids at each of the -- of the nights. The ones that came had a great time. It just did not achieve the objectives of drawing them away and, you know, I'm sure we could talk about a lot of different reasons why that's the case, but -- what kind of questions do you all have? Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: Thank you for your presentation. We spoke at the parks tour and I asked you to come and give this update. So, I appreciate you doing it. My question is, you know, maybe we didn't, you know, fulfill the original goal of taking kiddos -- or drawing kiddos away from Movie Night, but maybe we found another opportunity for, you know, other kiddos to be able to come and enjoy the community in a way that they never would before. So, in that regard do you feel like if we were to do this in the future do you feel like it could grow and do you think it would be worth the time? White: I absolutely think it could grow. I -- you know, I think in looking at our overall activities that we offer for teens, we have identified that as a gap. I don't know that I would suggest a Friday night, because I know that we displaced more people than we brought into the facility and so I would really lean on, you know, the facility managers there, Jake and the others, to, you know, pick a night that made sense for what was already taking place in the facility. But, yeah, it was a -- it was a good event. Page 10 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 8 1 - Bernt: Mr. Mayor, follow up. Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I think that that would -- that would be wise to look at it a little bit deeper. I think that anytime that you can get kiddos engaged in the community, recreating, getting out of their homes and their bedrooms and off their phones and doing productive things, I think is always a huge benefit and there is something to be said about momentum as well, you know. I think 30 or 40 kids year one, given what we spent, is a huge win. What -- you know, who knows what will happen next year when, you know, there is -- maybe we have more time to advertise it and get the word out and really sort of look at the nuts and bolts and maybe what we did right and what we did wrong and make it even better, so -- I'm actually -- I'm not disappointed, I'm actually quite excited about what this may look like in the future. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Sorry, my mic wasn't on. Thank you, Renee, for sharing this with us. Also at the parks tour Renee had mentioned, I believe, about how kind of staffing would work or we had some conversations about how that would work, adding this additional activity. Can you share that with us? Are you comfortable with sharing that about how staff could cover more than one event at a time and if there would be a need for additional, you know, staff that are involved in the process. Not new staff, but -- but existing staff that would need to be at these events that aren't currently. White: Sure. I can't speak to what additional staff or what else would be desired. I can say that I can't be in two places at one time to host -- to host two different events. We were able to do it this time. I trained our volunteer coordinator to run Teen Night, although, you know, when I was done with my event I did go over and make sure that she was okay and helped close. But the -- you know, whether or not the bandwidth exists for other people to take it on, I can't speak to that. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Thanks, Mr. Mayor. I think when we first brought this I was concerned about this as being trying to -- to pull people away from Movie Night. I was -- I didn't think that was going to be able to happen. There is -- to your point there is a whole lot of attractive nuisances that happened at Movie Night and even free pizza can't necessarily pull teenagers away. For Council's benefit, my oldest and a couple of his friends went to it at one night. They really enjoyed themselves. They had a great time. And so I think it Page 11 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 9 of 19 touches on a point that -- that you kind of touched on, but I didn't want to let pass, which is we need to find more activities for teenagers in our community and so while I agree with you, I don't think that this necessarily checked the box in terms of creating a, you know, deviation from Movie Night, I'm certainly supportive, if you and the department think that flushing this out and maybe kind of looking at it as another activity for teenagers in Meridian, I'm certainly supportive. I also want to be aware -- I think we should all be aware of program creep and there is only one Renee and I'm thinking, okay, if we are not going to do it on Friday nights, what are we going to do on Saturday nights, and I start to have my head shake a little bit. I don't want Renee to give up her Fridays and Saturday nights just to take care of events for our community. So, I think at least for me the door is open to hear kind of what you guys are proposing, whether that's a shift of this or an evolution of this, I think there is a good opportunity to start creating more programming for that 12 to 17 range that we just don't have enough activities for in Meridian. White: Thank you. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thanks, Renee. Where does that leave us with Movie Night, though? Do you feel like that went okay with the teenagers that were there? Do you want to come back and talk about things to help with that situation later on? It sounds like there is still kind of a need there. White: Yeah. It leaves the problem with the teens really unsolved at Movie Night and I don't currently have any suggestions. I have kind of gone through the gamut. So, yes, it's still an issue. I'm sorry. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, Renee, just thoughts, you know, because I think it was a good approach and a good idea to try. One of the things I thought of that I would like to get your thoughts on is what if you still do it on a Friday night, but have it at a closer location and -- it would cost more money, but like at a Sawtooth Middle School, leasing that gym out. It's closer to that -- to the park, so it might draw -- instead of being clear across town, it frees up HomeCourt for the regular use of activities. I don't know. Your thoughts on something like that. White: I think those things are worth a try. I think the attraction for the teens to come to the park, it's an established meeting place, it's dark, they get the ability to be there with their friends after hours, which isn't something they normally get to do and although we do ask them to sit down and be quiet there, you know, I mean it's -- we have created a wonderful event. It just happens to, you know, bring kids who don't want to watch the Page 12 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 10 of — movie, they want to hang out. So, I'm really at a loss for how else to change it. Simison: Create a secret movie night someplace else for all the families and adults to go to. White: I love that. How big is your backyard? Simison: Almost big enough. White: Okay. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Follow-up, Renee. Based on -- from the parks tour what we saw, you know, we have official meeting minutes here that -- that everything goes on the record. Do you want to be known as Renee, The Rapper, White on this record or would you like just White? Bernt: Absolutely. White: It was Nae Nae, so -- my rapper name. And no. Thank you. Simison: Council, any additional questions on this item? You know, I think there is still -- this has been going on for as long as I have been with the city and everyone else in terms of the challenges. You know, we went with the Movie Night and could almost not hear the movie because of the teens and -- but to everyone's point, you know, unless we want to be checking IDs and wrist banding and kicking people out and removing them and hire the staff to do it -- you know. But we are -- I think everyone's open for ideas to try to make it so that the movie can be more enjoyed by people there. So, I think -- I think you have an openness to Council for -- if it's resource allocation. Otherwise, what would that feel and look like, so we have that conversation, so -- Harper: Mayor, if I could add a couple of comments. To support Renee, but also I think bring to light some of the safety challenges we have with -- with the Teen Night being on the same night as Movie Night, it really makes it difficult for us to provide the staffing that we would like to have at these events. It just spreads us too thin having them on simultaneously as Movie Night. I think the conversation about Movie Night is a much more lengthy conversation. We have tried lots of things and we still end up having the same -- same challenges. I do think for Movie Night it's -- it's an important event. We are -- we are very supportive of the event. We support Renee and Parks and Rec in that event to the best of our ability, but the fact that it's so porous it makes it very challenging for us to kind of contain the event. We have talked about putting it in one of the ballparks, so that we actually have proper fencing and we have talked about moving it to Discovery Park, but we don't think that that would benefit the youth, because Settlers Park is such Page 13 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 11 of — a central location in our community. But Movie Night is very challenging. It's -- we -- we have had to remove lots of kids from Movie Night, but, unfortunately, it just pushes them to some of our local businesses, like Jackson's or further into the park where it's darker and it's creating additional issues. Most of them are juvenile-related issues, but still they are issues that we need to deal with, because it's involving illegal activity. So, we are always open to -- to have further discussions. I know Renee and I probably need to get together soon and discuss next -- next season, but, hopefully, we can come back to you guys with some better plans for next year. Simison: All right. With that, thank you very much, Renee. Appreciate it. White: All right. Thank you all. 20. Parks and Recreation Department: Draft Urban Forestry Management Plan Presentation and Discussion Simison: Next item up is Item 20, which is also our Parks and Recs Department. It will be our draft Urban Forest Management Plan presentation and discussion. Mr. Perkins. Perkins: Mr. Mayor and Council Members, thank you for giving me this time to bring you up to date on what we have been working on in the Meridian City Urban Forestry Program. Happy to be here. So, one of the first things that I was given upon taking this job was the assignment to come up with a plan for managing our urban forest in Meridian and this is what I have come up with. First of all, in order to come up with a plan to manage our forest I had to sit down and consider what is an urban forest management plan. What does it do? What do we want it to do? So, I relied on the age old questions of who, what, why, when, where and how and answered each of those. The who I think is obvious at this point. Meridian City Parks and Recreation Department, with myself as the urban forester. And the what would consist of introducing concept and a need for a plan. Then we define specialized terms that were used throughout that plan. And we briefly describe the history and the population and the trends that -- in order to paint a picture of what the city needs and we identified a mission statement and defined objectives of the plan and in the plan we discussed the process that was used to create it. Why do we need an Urban Forest Management Plan? Well, in the plan, we discuss why trees are needed and why they are an important part of -- of the city. We identify the values that are provided by the urban forest and we come up with the reasons why a plan is needed and we address those. The when is yet to be determined. Left that kind of open for zero to ten years. Is this meant to be a ten year management plan? Five years? That's still open to discussion. Where -- the where is -- is pretty obvious. It consists of Meridian parks and city owned properties. All of the trees that are within these areas. The how. How are we going to carry out this urban forest management plan we are doing. So, in the plan I describe the current policies and I describe the current status of the urban forest and identify other stakeholders and partners who are going to be there to help and encourage and participate in some of these ideas that are put forth and evaluate those findings and, then, establish goals and layout strategies to help accomplish those goals. So, the first thing we had to kind of look at was where we are at now. Meridian forestry Page 14 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 12 of — now consists of one dedicated full-time employee, myself, as the Meridian City arborist. So, a vast majority of our tree work associated with the city managed trees is performed by contractors under my supervision and that includes tree pruning, removal, stump removal and the planting. The city arborist also works with the Planning Department on tree mitigation, code enforcement for nuisance tree issues, responding to public inquiries, coordinating Arbor Day and Christmas tree projects and addressing IPM concerns as well as making Meridian -- making sure that Meridian continues to qualify as a Tree City USA. So, throughout my investigations and coming up with the data to -- to help support this plan, I used our software program called Tree Plotter and in the program one of the cool tools in the program is the ecosystem benefits calculator and it's base -- so the ecosystem benefits of our urban forest are based on and determined by the species, the DBH, and the type of land use. Throughout the inventory for every tree we have on inventory these benefits are calculated and you can see here on your screen that the value that Meridian's urban forest brings to the community is great and far exceeds probably what is most commonly just thought of as the shade that -- and the aesthetic values of trees. Something I would like to point out actually are the stormwater monetary benefits and the -- and the runoff prevention. That's water that does not end up going to our Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility. So, what that ends up being, you know, money saved. Another thing I would like to point out is that we are able to determine, obviously, what our canopy consists of as far as genus and species. Currently our most common trees by genus are our Acer, which are the maples, and Pinus, which actually that just recently got bumped up, since adding the golf course. The golf course actually really bumped up our Pinus numbers and Gledicia, which are Honey Locust and Fraxinus are the top four species and Fraxinus is a little bit alarming for me,just because we do have the impending threat of the Emerald Ash Borer that will eventually show up here, so-- moving right along. While I was developing this plan and coming up with it, I kept returning to like five common themes, areas that kept kind of popping up and everything kind of fit into these categories. So, we decided to pull these aside and call them our guiding principles. So, these guiding principles help us come up with -- with our goals and how we are to manage our urban trees and these are the guiding principles that we came up with to protect. I won't go into this entirely, because I will be happy to provide you all with a copy of the Urban Forest Management Plan, so that you can go through it, but in -- as for time sake I'm just going to itemize them here for you. To expand, to manage, inform and partner. Those were the five main categories that kept coming up. So, you will see I was able to actually coordinate each of the goals that I came up with and fit them into one of these categories. Speaking of the goals and objectives, we laid out the -- the -- the goals and objectives in a format that was consistent with the Meridian Parks Master Plan where we identified actions and looked at how the -- the capital cost estimate was going to be affected and the operational budget impact it was going to have and, then, came up with a time frame to complete those goals. I'm happy to say that the Meridian Urban Forest Management Plan identifies many areas of opportunity where we can continue to grow the forestry program in positive ways without having a substantial impact on the current budget. Under protect, which was to protect and preserve the existing canopy in Meridian, I would like to develop a more robust and diverse system for mitigation of tree canopy loss during development, because those mature trees that -- that make up the city canopy at large are important to managing other aspects, such as the ambient heat island effect and Page 15 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 13 of — whatnot, so -- so, I would like to do that by encouraging and incentivizing the retention, protection and incorporation of existing mature canopies into the development among the Meridian urban forest and I would like to explore, develop alternative options for tree mitigation where retention is not feasible. In expand, we would like to continue to create appropriate spaces for trees to grow and increase the canopy in Meridian's urban forest. We will do this by building new parks for one. We have Discovery Park phase two coming right up around the -- around the corner and on down the road we have West Meridian Regional Park is in the plans and Margaret Aldape Park and, then, I would also like to continue to work with planners and select tree species that are well suited for their location and work with designers to incorporate more tree friendly spaces and work with contractors to ensure that planting is done correctly, so that the trees can reach their full potential. In expand, we would like to continue to create appropriate spaces for trees to grow and increase the canopy of Meridian's urban forest. One of our ways to do that is working with the Arboretum where I would like to continue to make improvements to the Kleiner Arboretum by -- an example of that would be modifying some of the irrigation to address the specific watering needs of the trees. I would like to -- which would include, you know, potentially eliminating some of the turf areas within the Arboretum and expanding the bed space to accommodate the tree needs and -- and come up with some companion planting opportunities. And add --add additional features, such as naturalized shrub and perennial beds and large rocks and/or boulders. Another area where we can expand is through the Lakeview Golf Course, which we just recently took over and that would consist of conducting an inventory of all the trees on the golf course property and, then, building a management maintenance plan to address the plant healthcare concerns there and work with the golf course personnel to help guide them in the proper care for all the trees on the grounds. I'm happy to say that this goal has actually already been completed for the most part. To continue to create appropriate spaces for trees to grow and increase the canopy, we would also like to explore a system where existing trees in our parks can be potentially adopted and/or new trees can be accepted and planted as a memorial by members of public and I would like to create a mapping system for that. Now, I realize that some care would have to be taken in that process to make sure that -- that our parks don't end up looking like graveyards with tombstones and I already have some really great ideas on how to do that and it would end up being more of an educational aspect for the community at large, instead of -- for instance, the idea that's been bouncing around in my head is -- you are familiar with the signs on the trees in the Arboretum. Something akin to that, only it would be an educational blurb about the tree that they are looking at and, then, there could be a little note saying that this -- this sign was funded by -- you know, in memory of such and such person. Okay? And, then, limiting the amount of those that we would actually put in the park, so that we don't end up having a sign on every tree in the park. It would be limited to the -- you know, the singular species that might be in the park. So, just an idea. I think this is worth kind of kicking around some more. I think there is something good there that -- that we can come up with. And so in -- under managing, like to continue to find innovative and efficient ways to manage what we already have existing in our urban forest. The inventory software is one of the items that came up. We currently are using a version that is -- that we are allowed to use through the Idaho Department of Lands. It's very limited in what kind of powers I have, so -- as far as getting it to -- to do things for me that help me manage our Page 16 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 14 of — forest. It's -- it's good informationally, but it's not extremely useful for me. So, in order for -- for it to be as -- as good of a tool to us as -- as I would like it to be, we need to procure our own license for that. So, we would also manage the tree planting, develop an organized systematic plan for continued planting of trees throughout all our properties. We would review and revise the verbiage within the city ordinance text as necessary to create consistency and come up with a pruning cycle, which is -- which would be an annual process whereby all the city managed trees are pruned on a regular schedule, prioritizing trees that need the most immediate care, and, then, of course, we would support Public Works tree waste recycling program and I'm happy to say -- to report to you, actually, that the first item, the inventory software, has already been approved for the fiscal year'22 budget. So, we got a head start there, too. Thank you for that. We continue to find innovative and efficient ways to manage the existing urban forest by looking at the downtown trees. We would explore potentially taking on the maintenance of the street trees on both sides of Main Street from Franklin to Fairview Avenue. I feel like those trees are a big -- are like the face of downtown Meridian and anybody who is visiting the city or passing through drives by those trees and if anything were to happen to them I feel like it would be a smudge mark on the face of Meridian and I would really like to prevent anything like that from happening. So, I would like to also create more tree friendly growing spaces to accommodate the need for lasting mature canopy in downtown Meridian. And, lastly, I -- actually, not lastly -- under informed -- Simison: On that item, are those on private property or public property, the ones you are referring to in that corridor? Perkins: Those are on right of way property, not -- not -- not private property. Not private property trees. They are public right of way property trees. Simison: Okay. Thank you. Perkins: Those are the only ones that I'm concerned with. I do not have any -- any wish to -- to meddle with private property trees. Simison: Okay. Thank you. Perkins: To inform we would work to promote and foster community development by providing education opportunities to the public and our employees through the Arboretum and through community education classes, brochures and downloads, workshops, volunteer programs and enhancing our website. And, lastly, but not least, we -- I couldn't do all of the stuff that we have been talking about without partners and so I would like to continue to build and foster those healthy partnerships with ACHD, Idaho Power, Treasure Valley Canopy Network, other cities, downtown development, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and Arbor Day Foundation and nonprofit organizations, such as CWI, Idaho Botanical Gardens, Idaho Fish and Game, et cetera. And can't forget about the local contractors and all the other local businesses. So, as the City of Meridian continues to grow and becomes the premier place to live, work and raise a family, the Meridian Urban Forest Management Plan will Page 17 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 15 of — help guide the city arborist to build a robust forestry program that suits the needs of our community. With that I will stand for question. Thank you. Simison: Thank you, Matthew. I'm going to turn this over Councilman Bernt to take this call. Bernt: Sure. Matthew, thanks -- thank you for your presentation this evening. Questions from Council? Perreault: Council President? Bernt: Ms. Perreault. Perreault: Thank you very much. This is fantastic information. Just a couple questions. When you mentioned the -- the software and all the things you would like to do to manage the inventory of trees, what do we currently do for pruning cycles? Is it just handled by the individual parks directors to prune their locations on their own or is there a pruning cycle that already exists and you are just wanting to automate it through a software system? Perkins: Yes. Perreault: Okay. Perkins: Yes. We actually already have a pruning cycle developed and it's continually morphing and evolving with all of the new sites and stuff that we have been taking on. So, having that inventory program will be extremely beneficial in managing all of those trees. Perreault: Is the hope, then, to get it -- to get the information organized enough and systemized enough to then, add, like tree planting and improvements to the CFP in a -- you know, on five year or ten year. You had -- you had mentioned kind of how long do we want this management plan to last and so is that -- is that a goal is to actually have -- to have a plan set up such that it would be, then, added to -- an expected amount added to the budget every year? Are we -- are we kind of getting that far? Perkins: We are -- yeah. We are getting -- we are getting a little -- little far. Perreault: Okay. The director just came over, so maybe he wants to -- Siddoway: Maybe I can help with that answer. It wouldn't be the intent to put it in the CFP, because it's not capital projects. They are ongoing maintenance and operations projects and we handle them as detailed fixed costs. So, the idea would be to just -- if you just substitute the CFP part of that question to having -- having a plan lined out for multiple years that would become our detail in the detailed cost portion of the budget, that would be the intent. Page 18 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 16 of 19 Strader: Council President Bernt? Bernt: Ms. Strader. Strader: I have a couple of things. But, first of all, the report was excellent and I'm just blown away. You're a one man band. What you are accomplishing it's incredible. Perkins: Thank you. Strader: We have seven percent canopy cover based on the report. I guess my first question is how are we doing? How is that? You know, is there a benchmark? What's our, you know, guiding -- because I read the goals and the goals are great there. There are a lot of goals -- and I'm rambling a little bit, but it was a lot about having a great program that can be maintained going forward, but what I didn't see is I didn't see like an ambitious goal, like, you know, we want to map the city to find all the heat islands where there are no trees and we want to increase the canopy by X amount in those areas or we think that we should be achieving a ten percent canopy cover in the next decade and do you need like some consulting resources to drive goals like that? Do you need to hear from Council if we are interested in goals like that? I just was surprised I didn't see anything like that. Perkins: All of the above and that's -- yeah, that's still kind of in the exploratory phases here of flushing this out and figuring out exactly what we -- what we want those goals to be for sure. Ideally, yes, I would love to be able to come up with a plan like that where we are shooting for an -- an ambitious goal like ten percent canopy cover. Cavener: Council President Bernt? Bernt: Mr. Cavener. Cavener: Matthew? Matt? What do you prefer? Perkins: Either or. Go with Matt. Cavener: I'm Lucas when my mom gets mad at me and Luke when -- so, we will stay informal. One, Matt, I enjoyed getting to meet you on the parks tour and your enthusiasm for your trade I mean just comes across when you are presenting yourself and -- and like my colleagues, I really -- I did not think on paper I would enjoy like a tree plan when you look at that and it was really insightful when you look at where we are headed as a city and, initially, I had some questions -- kind of to Council Member Perreault's comments about the pruning cycle, because I just naively thought that somebody else was handling that. But that's something you are kind of handling and so as I go through this plan it's -- it's a lot and when we have people who are amazing and care about our city and are really great at what they do, I actually worry are we over -- are we self imposing ourselves to be overwhelmed at a later point in time and so I'm hoping that you could maybe talk a little bit about achieving this plan with you as kind of the lead for that and being the kind Page 19 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 11 of 19 of the sole staff resource and how achievable is it given your time and the premium that your job commands? Perkins: Yes, I do feel like it would be achievable. I will definitely need to come up with some creative ways to do that. I think in the -- in the plan one of the things I mentioned was coming up with a -- a volunteer program aimed to like the tree stewards, that would be a great, great program for me to start up. Kind of one of the first things that I wanted to jump on, because that would be a tremendous help. Most of the trees within our parks are fairly-- are on the younger side and that is the most important time to get the structural pruning done that would -- that would actually have the most longevity as far as making our canopy last for a long time and be healthy and -- and not have the problems that a neglected canopy would have. So, I think I'm going to have to end up relying on some -- some volunteers and additional other parks personnel coming -- stepping in and helping me when I -- when I come up with projects like that, so -- but I do -- I do feel like it is achievable, yes. Siddoway: Mr. President? Councilman Cavener, I appreciate the sensitivity to the overworked issue. It's very real in our department. We are a lot of one person bands, Renee earlier tonight. Matt. Great example. One of the--one of the-- I came up because one of the pieces I'm probably better suited to speak to is we do have a forestry assistant in the CFP coming up in FY-23, so I wanted to make you aware of that. It's been in there already for three or four years and we had it planned as the --for our future as Discovery Park came on, more trees, more -- multiple sites. The tree canopies -- or the tree -- the urban forest is getting older and as it ages and gets bigger the pruning needs increase. The management demands increase overall. So, we do have a need for an additional staff and I appreciate the opportunity for me to just, you know, bring that up. But we do have it planned for. We have had it planned for a number of years. It's not coming up this year, but it will come up next year. Cavener: Great. Perkins: Thank you, Steve. I wasn't sure if I could speak to that or not. Appreciate it. Strader: Council President Bernt? Bernt: Ms. Strader. Strader: Yeah. You know, one thing, too, I think to think about and -- and maybe it's just to hear from Council if this is a priority for them as well, but I would love for you to try to identify -- maybe come back with a -- kind of a goal on of where we want to go in terms of increasing our tree canopy and especially finding the areas of the city where there is a high need. That urban heat island effect is a serious issue for people in the summer and I think it's something that we should focus on and I love the focus on the outreach and education, because I don'tjust view it that, you know, our only goal is trees on city property period. I personally view it that your department could have a real community impact and could partner with HOAs, especially in underserved areas, or other organizations to try to Page 20 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 18 of — increase the tree canopy and so, you know, I think it's really important and I appreciate the plan so far. I -- I just would challenge you guys a little bit and just to give some support, I strongly support putting some more resources into this, you know, within reason if it helps us develop some ambitious goals that kind of take us into the future in the next several decades. Perkins: Excellent. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you. Hoaglun: Mr. President? Bernt: Mr. Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Question, Matthew. On -- on your Urban Forest Management Plan draft on page 41 there was the current Meridian pruning cycle and it gives the years and locations, but I'm assuming those are all the locations eventually, 20 through, you know, in future sites, that you are responsible for that, those are city properties -- right of way properties that we have to maintain. Perkins: Yes. Hoaglun: Okay. So, those are the areas that -- you know, to Council Woman -- Council Woman Strader's point, that, you know, where we can increase canopy and additional trees and look at heat islands and, definitely, you know, if we get Discovery Park, you know, phase two, there is going to be a lot of trees out there. So, you know, if you are going to meet -- oh, there you go, you have met ten percent in the one year, so -- but mean those -- those are good comments to -- to see where are those areas that we can improve or there is older trees, because some of our downtown parks are -- are older and some of the trees aren't in great shape, just because of insects and other things, disease, so -- Perkins: Just the growing space, you know, the downtown core itself would -- would benefit greatly from making some amendments to some of it. Hoaglun: Exactly. So, yeah, you do have your work cut out for you and I appreciate Steve talking about the budget and additional help and need to see what we -- we need to do in that area in the future. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. I wholeheartedly agree with Council Woman Strader. I am excited about this and I love the idea that we will not only have a management plan, but also hope that we do have a vision for it and look forward to what you bring back to us on that. There is a little saying in my industry that says you can't manage what you don't measure. So, I believe that the inventory piece of this, the software piece of it is really critical and I'm Page 21 Meridian City Council Work Session Item#1. September 28,2021 Page 19 of — looking forward to seeing how we can improve the efficiency, how we can manage better financially when we have all of the information in place that allows us to make those decisions. So, thank you for all your hard work on this. I'm really excited about it and we -- we have had the public come before us a time or two since I have been here and -- and have said things like, you know, we don't want to have huge parking lots, we don't want to have asphalt, we don't want to have a cement city and I think that these are the kinds of things that help us -- I don't want to say combat, but help us kind of manage not having that feel in our city -- is to continue to have, you know, beautification and landscaping in the areas that we can. So, thank you very much. Perkins: Thank you very much. Very happy to hear that I have so much support out there. Simison: Council, any additional questions or comments or follow up? Appreciate it, Matthew. Perkins: Thank you, sir. Thank you. Simison: Council, we have reached the end of our agenda. Do I have a motion? Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: I move that we adjourn the meeting. Simison: I have a motion to adjourn the meeting. All those in favor -- Hoaglun: Second. Oh, that's right. Never mind. Simison: Yes. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay. The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5.36 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 10 / 12 / 2021 MAYOR ROBERT E SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK Page 22