Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-08-16 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session August 16, 2022. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:32 p.m., Tuesday, August 16, 2022, 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, Cassandra Schiffler, Tracy Basterrechea and Joe Bongiorno. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE Liz Strader _X_ Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun _X_Treg Bernt X Jessica Perreault _X_ Luke Cavener(a:ao p.m.) X_ Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is August 16th, 2022, at 4:32 p.m. We will begin this afternoon work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Simison: I move adoption of the agenda as published. Borton: Second. 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: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. TM Center Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 2. Ten Mile Creek Phase 3 Apartments Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 2 of 10 3. Ten Mile Creek Phase 3 Apartments Water Main Easement No. 1 4. Ten Mile Creek Phase 3 Apartments Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 2 5. TM Creek Subdivision No. 1 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 6. TM Creek Subdivision No. 5 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 7. Victory Commons Subdivision No. 2 Water Main Easement 8. Final Plat for Skybreak Subdivision No. 2 (FP-2022-0002) by DevCo, LLC, Located at 7020 S. Eagle Rd. 9. Final Plat for TM Center East No. 1 (FP-2022-0021) by Brighton Development, Inc., Located at 700 S. Wayfinder Ave Simison: First up is the Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move approval of the Consent Agenda and for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest. Borton: Second. Simison: I have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? You ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 10. Public Works: Fiscal Year 2023 Republic Services Rate Review Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 3 of 10 Simison: So, we will move into Department/Commission Reports. First item up is Item 10, which is Public Works fiscal year 2023 Republic Services rate review. I have the name Clint Dolsby, but -- well -- well, we will modify. Norris: Name is Bradyn Norris, finance manager for Republic Services. Address 11101 West Executive Drive, Boise. Simison: Thank you. Norris: Okay. So, I will try to keep this relatively brief and to the point. I know this isn't the first time you guys have done this, but just want to start off saying good afternoon, Mayor and Members of the Council. So, the -- the purpose of our presentation today is to present the proposed fiscal year 2023 rates for solid waste that have already been vetted by MUBS, Finance, and the Solid Waste Advisory Commission. So, annually, the solid waste collection rates are adjusted in accordance with Section 21 of our contract with the City of Meridian with an effective date of October 1st. So, to summarize the changes, I will highlight the main drivers for the year and, then, just share the majority -- share the impact to the majority of the residential customers, which would be the 95 gallon cart holders, because those are the majority of -- of the residential homeowners. So, moving to the next slide -- there we go. Okay. So, to summarize the changes I will highlight the main drivers and, then, just -- and, then, any questions at the end feel free to ask away. So, first off is the CPI. So, this year it was a 5.44 percent, but per the contract we used --we have a ceiling of 90 percent, which gets us to that 4.898. The next item is household hazardous waste. So, overall no impact to the customer. Essentially Republic Services proposes to waive the one cent difference and bear the 6,000 dollar burden that we reconciled. So, no changes to the residents there. The third item is disposal. So, no changes there. And, then, just to call out -- there are no new additional rates or services being brought to the -- the Council this year. And, then, the fifth item is the -- the VTech and just to kind of call this out here -- so, the federal government, once again, awarded the alternative fuel tax credit for compressed natural gas as an alternative fuel source. This tax credit is shared with the Meridian -- with Meridian City, which the Mayor and Council have chosen to pass on to residents as a -- as a credit to the monthly rate. So, the credit for the -- for the contract was 52,031 dollars and this amount is reflected in the residential rate sheet as a credit of 11 cents for all residential customers. And, then, this leads to the last two items, so I think these are the two big ones, but just to summarize here from a recycling processing charge -- so, based on our contract with our partner Western Recycling, the recycling processing fee has increased seven and a half percent year over year over our contract due to several factors, such as labor increases, fuel and cost of goods sold, i.e., steel to bale and ship out the recycling goods. And just for general context here, last year we did not do an increase on the processing fee and the average increase over the life of the contract has been about four and a half percent and this year we, Republic, received a 13.1 percent and, then, just -- we did a review of all the recycling centers in the northwest and ours is the third lowest in comparison. So, we are in a good spot when comparing to other sites. And, then, just the last item here --so, this was brought up last year. So, we are --what we are requesting here is approval to make last year -- or the fiscal year 2022 at a cycle adjustment Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 4 of 10 permanent. This was put in place for just one year for us to reevaluate this year and this is currently in our run rate. So, we are not going to adjust anyone's rates going forward, this will just be a part of normal CPI methodology. And, then, just from an overall perspective, taking a step back for the residential impact like I mentioned, for the 95 gallon cart customers the net price increase year over year would be 94 cents. So, with that I have said a lot of words, so I will stop there. Any questions or comments? Simison: Council, any questions at this point? Bernt: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Bernt. Bernt: Sorry, Ralph. How about this? Can you provide some clarity with regard to the -- to making the adjustment permanent? Norris: Uh-huh. So, overall we stand by the labor adjustment that we did last year. So, we are not going to roll back our wages. We think we got this right, because we have been doing better with our turnover. We are getting the trash off the ground and just to kind of call out--so, last year when we passed this on --we had --we actually only passed on 50 percent of the actual increase to our customers and with the -- with that market adjustment we just feel like we are at a better spot now and, you know, just for general context, too, right, for CPI in general for the month of July, all items it was 9.1 and for the month of June it was 8.5. So, just given kind of where we are at with the market we feel like it-- it just makes sense for our drivers, so that way we are helping the customer --the customers for Meridian. Simison: Council, any additional questions at this time? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. Just a comment. You know, I appreciated that we took a look at that temporarily, hoping that the inflation would pass. Unfortunately, not. Norris: Right. Strader: You know, it feels like this sets your base to a good place where you are keeping up with inflation under the contract. I guess I -- I more had just a question about the commercial customers in the schedule that you provided on the rate sheet, which was just in general. Are those going up in a uniform way? I was taking a look at a couple of them. It didn't look like anything was totally out of the norm, but could you just give us a general overview of the rate increases for the commercial and industrial? Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 5 of 10 Norris: Yeah. So, just to kind of call out the -- so, what we did was just apply that CPI methodology of that 4.898 percent and -- and we just kept it simple that way and just applied that. Strader: Thank you. That's very helpful. Hoaglun: I see no additional questions at this time, so -- but you -- you can continue with your presentation or wrap up, whichever you like. Norris: Yep. I will wrap up. So, just want to say we appreciate your guys' partnership and we -- we really enjoy working with you. Your staff and city is -- makes the job fun. So, appreciate your time and thank you. Simison: Thank you. Thank you for Republic Services team for being here and our Public Works team who is partners with Republic Services team as well. 11. Parks and Recreation Department: MAPS (Meridian Art in Public Spaces) Ordinance Update Simison: All right. So, with that we will move on to Item 11, which is our Parks and Recreation Department MAPS, Meridian Art in Pub Spaces ordinance update and turn this over to Cassandra, who is more than ready to present to Council today. Schiffler: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and City Councilmen and Women. So, the -- I am co- presenting this with -- this is the vice-chair of the Meridian Arts Commissioner Jessica Peters and she was the chair of the Public Art Subcommittee for quite a while and has been heavily invested in the Arts in Meridian. Peters: Mr. Mayor, City Council Members, thank you so much for -- for having us today. So, as you may know our Meridian Art In Public Spaces Ordinance was adopted by the Meridian City Council in April of 2015 and this ordinance established the Meridian Art In Public Spaces Program through which City Council provides funding in the amount of 50 cents per Meridian resident not to exceed 50,000 dollars per year and this is to establish art in public spaces throughout the City of Meridian and since 2015, since the ordinance was passed, we have installed 85 pieces throughout the city and we currently have another 15 projects in the works. So, we have made a lot of progress over the past number of years. So, in 2015 the population of Meridian was about 91 ,300 people and in 2022 the population was estimated at 133,400, which is about a 46 percent increase. don't have to tell you, you know we have had a lot of growth in the city over the past seven years and as the population has grown we have also seen an increased interest in public art, not just in Meridian, but throughout the Treasure Valley really and at this point the Meridian Arts Commission feels that more funding is necessary to support public arts budget, which will attract a wider interest in artists and in -- in the project ideas that -- that we receive. So, Meridian Arts Commission is proposing to amend the MAPS Ordinance to remove the 50,000 cap on funding and this will allow funding levels to be commensurate with the population levels in Meridian and also to grow as the city Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 6 of 10 continues to grow. So, thank you so much for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Simison: Thank you, Jessica. Council, any questions? Or comments. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: You know I'm going to comment on this one. I'm so proud of you both in this growing arts community in Meridian. I think this is the right time to follow through with what you are recommending. Thought of another way -- it's almost as if there is a -- you could think of it as a level of service. Our community has grown so much in population and geographically that -- that in order to provide these opportunities for the arts to our community it's spread out amongst more folks and amongst -- amongst -- amongst bigger cities. So, by removing this cap it -- it in some ways allows us perhaps merely to maintain some level of opportunities that we have been doing, just dispersed amongst the bigger community. So, we have received great feedback from the business community and from our citizens that appreciate having this as a component of our city. I have heard a lot of good feedback and our Arts Commission does phenomenal work with very limited resources. So, this is -- it's a relatively small financial figure, but I think it's a -- a strong commitment and message to the arts community that it's an important part of who Meridian is. So, I appreciate the Commission bringing this forward. I'm fully in support. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Yeah. Councilman Borton used a word that I think aptly sums it up and that's to maintain. We are growing rapidly. We are expanding. We have got more parks coming out and expanding parks, doing different things. So, this really is a maintenance budget for -- for the Arts Commission. So, I think it's needed and certainly supported. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Strader. Strader: Thank you. Yeah. I'm supportive of this as well. I think it's an important part of our development as a city as well and supporting our economic development. It's a modest amount. I appreciate maintaining that, but having it reflect the changing city and how much bigger we are. So, I think it makes sense. Thanks. Simison: Thank you. Council, any further questions or comments? All right. Thank you very much for that item. Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 7 of 10 12. Parks and Recreation Department: Public Art Update Simison: And with that we will move on to Item 12, which is the Parks and Recreation Department Public Art update. Schiffler: Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council Members. I had actually meant to give this up before the MAPS ordinance, but I just wanted to give you an update on many of the projects that we have been working on recently and are underway. So, many of you probably know about the traffic box series. It's probably one of the most popular programs. These are a few that were installed last year and we have ten wraps ready for installation this year. Here are the ones that were selected for -- from the repository. Five pieces. And here are the pieces from the West Ada School District youth, three of which are sponsored by MDC. They would be happy to sponsor more, but they have to be within their urban renewal area, so there were only three -- three that remain unwrapped or need to be updated. We also have murals underway. This is one -- hopefully you have seen this one as you drive by Meridian Cycle. It's a great piece that was installed last year. This is the one -- and this is an agenda item, because the -- or an easement with the library that, hopefully, you will approve. This is for the Unbound Library. It was great working with the library on this. As you can see there is kind of a -- a gal on the right working on an iPad and a robot on the left reading a book and you can kind of see the flipping motion through it. So, it's a great way to sort of think about that sort of library and the technology aspect. And this is planned for installation, assuming approval during Art Week, which is next month, September 7th through 9th. This one is for -- is planned for the Meridian pool. So, working with the West Ada Recreation District to put this on the east facing wall of the pool, which is a highly visible area across from Storey Park. Another mural project, which I have been really excited about, the skate park at Tully Skate Park, that had a mural project that was instigated by an arts commissioner and a school. It was an alternative school, a youth project, but as you can see it's a little bit older and maybe needs an update. So, this project is partnering a professional artist, Miguel Almeida, who happens to also have skated at Tully Skate Park in his youth, with a youth apprentice. So, we had a call to artists and had a youth apprentice apply and they have submitted --they submitted three designs and the design review panel selected one of those designs to work with and these are the ones ready for installation. The -- the one on the right is by Miguel, the professional artist, and, then, the one on the left is the youth apprentice Macy Ratzesberger and she's a senior student at the Idaho Fine Arts Academy and does amazing work for a high school student. We have some sculptural projects underway at the Five Mile Creek Pathway Trail hub and this is the -- the site that -- the city's first gateway to the Five Mile Pathway and one of the priority pedestrian routes. We put out a call to artists for an RFP with an increased budget to 50,000 and this was a national call to artists and we had 32 people apply, which is the most Meridian has ever seen. We had national and international artists apply to that and four artists are currently under contract to develop proposals for this. So, the next couple slides I'm just going to show you some of the work by those artists. So, these are not being proposed for this site, this is just their previous work, so you have to use your imagination to think what they might propose. Andrew Kovacs from California does these very colorful installations. Has done a lot of pieces in deserts. So, you can see the Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 8 of 10 cactuses and very colorful. Miguel McLaughlin. His -- these are bronze pieces and I was surprised by some of his price points, because I don't know if you know, but bronze has increased exponentially in price. I used to be an art appraiser before this position and it's -- so, he -- he will have something proposed and hopefully it's on the scale that these ones are. Eileen Gay is from Nevada. These are -- you might not be able to tell from the images, but these are mosaics. Also really impressive work. And Steve Parker from Texas. These are -- have some musical instruments. That middle piece is actually up in Ketchum, if you have ever been in Ketchum and recognize that one. So, these artists will all be sending in proposals in September and the design review panel will select a piece. So, we will have something really interesting at the trail hub. So, what's next? The Public Art Committee has identified Discovery Park phase two as the next site of a big public art project and this has kind of been in the plans for a while with a bigger budget of 150,000. This call will ask artists to create sort of an interactive or educationally focused project following the theme of discovery for Discovery Park and the artist will be asked to create either a larger, more site integrated work, or two to three standalone pieces that relate to each other. Thank you. Thank you so much for allowing me to let you know about our really great projects in Meridian and stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you, Cassandra. Council, any questions? Good job? Thumbs up for -- in this case you can see the screen from a few. So, appreciate it. Schiffler: Thank you. 13. Parks and Recreation Department: Public Art Easement Agreement 722 E. 2nd St. Simison: All right. And one more. Item 14, Parks and Recreation Department public art easement agreement for 722 East 2nd Street. Schiffler: Mr. Mayor and City Council, as you saw in the last presentation, the plans are underway for the Unbound Library and hope that you approve the easement. Simison: Council, any questions or comments? All right. Thank you very much for all the information you provided and all the work that you all are doing for the community and how you define our streets with -- with your time and energy. Thank you. Nary: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Mr. Nary. Nary: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, do you want the -- the MAPS ordinance on next week for your agenda approval? Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 9 of 10 Hoaglun: Yeah. I think that would be appropriate -- Nary: Okay. Hoaglun: -- to do that. Nary: We will put it on. The easement agreement you can approve tonight. Simison: Okay. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Question for Mr. Nary. We just need to make a motion on the Public Art Easement Agreement and we can move that forward. So, I would move that we agree to the Parks and Recreation Department's Public Art Easement Agreement at 722 East 2nd Street for the public art that will be displayed there. Strader: Second. Simison: I have a motion and two seconds to agree to the Public Art Easement Agreement. Is there discussion? Mr. Nary, do we need a roll call? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agreement is agreed to. So, thank you very much and congratulations. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Hoaglun: And Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: For the record, Councilman Cavener had joined us during that conversation, so -- Simison- Nice catch. I saw his face, but I didn't remember to make the notation, so -- with that we have reached the end of our agenda for the work session. Do I have a motion? Hoaglun: Mayor, I move we adjourn. Simison: Motion to adjourn. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Meridian City Council Work Session August 16,2022 Page 10 of 10 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 4:55 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 9 / 6 / 2022 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK