Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-01-03 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session January 3, 2023. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:32 p.m., Tuesday, January 3, 2023, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Brad Hoaglun, Joe Borton, Luke Cavener, Jessica Perreault and Liz Strader. Also present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Laurelei McVey, Renee White, Shawn Harper, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE Liz Strader X Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun Vacant X Jessica Perreault _X_ Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is January 3rd, 2023, at 4:32 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: First up is the adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move adoption of the agenda as published. Borton: Second. Simison: I have a motion and 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: ALLAYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the December 13, 2022 City Council Work Session 2. Approve Minutes of the December 13, 2022 City Council Regular Meeting Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 2 of 16 3. Approve Minutes of the December 20, 2022 City Council Work Session 4. Development Agreement (Allure Subdivision H-2022-0050) between the City of Meridian and Percy Farms LLC for Property Located at 5385 S. Meridian Rd. 5. Ledges Business Center No. 1 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement 6. Rustler Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Easement 7. Rustler Subdivision Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement 8. Sherman Williams Water Main Easement No. 1 9. Inter-Agency Agreement between the City of Meridian and Ada County Highway District for the Construction of Water Systems Interconnect Vault 10. Fiscal Year 2023 Net-Zero Budget Amendment in the Amount of $10,000.00 for Meridian Development Corporation Sponsorship of Concerts on Broadway 11. Memorandum of Agreement for Contribution to 2023 Concerts on Broadway Between the Meridian Development Corporation and the City of Meridian for a Not-to-Exceed-Amount of $10,000.00 12. Approval of Purchase Order#23-0142 to Metroquip for one 2022 Vactor HXX Paradigm Water Excavator with a 2024 Freightliner Cab & Chassis for the Not-To-Exceed amount of $323,492.63 (written against the Sourcewell Cooperative Contract #101221-VTR per State Statute 67- 2807) 13. Subrecipient Agreement Between the City of Meridian and Neighborhood Housing Services, Inc., DBA NeighborWorks® Boise for Program Year 2021 Community Development Block Grant Funds 14. Professional Service Agreement with TAG Historical Research & Consulting for Reconnaissance Survey of Historic Properties 15. Resolution No. 23-2362: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian, Idaho, Setting Forth Certain Findings and Purposes to Declare Surplus Property and Authorizing the Donation of Certain Computer and Equipment to Computers for Kids Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 3 of 16 16. Resolution 22-2363: A Resolution Designating the Certifying Officer for Environmental Reviews Related to Community Development Block Grant Projects 17. Resolution 23-2364: A Resolution Approving Adoption of a Substantial Amendment to the Community Development Block Grant 2017-2021 Consolidated Plan and the Program Year 2019 Annual Action Plan 18. City of Meridian Financial Report - November 2022 Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council 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? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 19. Public Works: Water and Sewer Line Private Insurance Program Simison: So, we will go on to Department/Commission Reports. First item up is Item 19, Public Works water and sewer line private insurance program. Turn this over to Laurelei McVey. Welcome back, Laurelei. McVey: Thank you. Seal: Maybe you want to spend just as a quick second and letting Council know about your time on the east coast. McVey: Sure. So, I did just get back from North Carolina. So, this past year I was accepted into a leadership program at Duke University. So, I was one of 17 water Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 4 of 16 professionals across the U.S. that got to participate in that, so that was a really awesome opportunity and it was fully covered by Duke. So, the travel and the training and -- it was a really -- really great experience. All right. So, thanks for giving me a couple of minutes of your meeting this afternoon for this exciting topic. So,just so you guys know this is just an informational presentation. I am just seeking your feedback and direction on which way we want to go. So, no specific decisions that need to be made today, but just sort of looking for your input and desire. So, the premise of this presentation is whether or not we as the city should be involved in informing residents about their responsibility to maintain and repair their private water and sewer laterals and assist in providing voluntary insurance options for that. So, the city is responsible generally for water and sewer lines from the property line or the utility easement, which is usually the sidewalk. So, we are responsible from there out to the city main line. So, if anything happens in that area we are responsible for finding, fixing, taking care of it. However, if a problem occurs from the sidewalk all the way through the resident's yard and the plumbing in their house, the resident is responsible for that and a lot of people know that they are responsible for their own internal plumbing, but a lot of people don't know that the pipes in their yard are their responsibility. So, why does this topic matter and what -- what are some issues that we can see? So, the most common that we see on the private side of the lines is backups and clogging due to improper use. So, fats, oils, and greases, flushable wipes, those kind of things. We also see sometimes excavation damage. So, people digging in their yards to fix sprinklers or plant a tree or any of those things. Also in certain parts of town if you have older vegetation, sometimes trees, so they look for water and they will go into the cracks and joints of pipes and search out that water that's inside of your -- generally they go into the sewer pipes and that will cause blockages and, then, certain material and age. So, most of the City of Meridian is newer and is built with PVC, which is much more resistant to some of those things. But certain parts of older town Meridian are made with different type of pipe material, which can be more susceptible to breaking and some of that root infiltration. So, if a homeowner is not aware of their responsibility they may be caught off guard by sometimes pretty large expensive replacements to fix these -- these lines. When the city has to replace or fix our side of the lateral on the sewer side, generally we look at about a 7,000 bill. So, that can be a lot for a private homeowner. Most standard homeowner insurance policies do not automatically cover these types of repairs, so there are some insurance companies where you can get an add-on for your external plumbing, but that has to be something that you call and request and set up. So, is this an issue in Meridian? One of the things when you are looking at an issue is measuring risk. So, most of the lines, like I mentioned, in Meridian are relatively new and are made of PVC and should last a really long time without issue. However, that's not true for every resident in Meridian. So, when we started looking at this issue we looked at four options initially that we will cover today. So, like I mentioned, it's important to balance risk, cost and effort with potential impact and benefits of these. You will see the last item on there -- we won't -- I won't cover in detail. It was pretty quickly taken off the table was can the city provide insurance to residents and the answer is, no, we can't extend our city line of credit for that. So, what if we do option number one, maintain status quo. So, currently today we are not responsible for any kind of outreach to residents about their own private sewer lines. We generally don't have significant issues throughout the city. But, like I said, we -- we do have a couple that usually pop up every year and, you know, that can be a Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 5 of 16 challenging and expensive repair for residents. So, what this map shows you is this is the areas in Meridian where water and sewer infrastructure is over 50 years old and you can see there is not much. So, just some of the downtown. So, likely most of Meridian won't have problems with their lines for a long time, but that's not to say it can't happen. So, if we maintain status quo of not really doing any outreach, it's relatively low risk for the city, low effort, low cost, but for the residents that could be impacted we are -- we are not really doing anything to -- to assist. So, what I'm calling kind of the middle option is what if we take a little bit more of a proactive approach in informing customers of their responsibility for their service lines. So, there is kind of two ways we can do that. The first would be to just do it internally with our city communications team. So, what that would look like is maybe a billing insert, maybe some social media posts, maybe we create a site on our web page that has information for people. Again, relatively low cost to the city to do that, but it would impact the workload of our communications team and it may only reach a small portion of residents who use our social media or people who look at their billing inserts. So, you know, moderate impact, but definitely would not get out to potentially the whole city. So, another option that we could do is -- that would have larger reach to residents would be to partner with a private insurance company to provide an exclusive marketing campaign for the city. So, both Veolia for City of Boise and City of Nampa do this. So, what would it look like? It would be zero cost to the city. It would be relatively low impact on staff and it would potentially reach all citizens through mailings. So, what we would be agreeing to is an exclusive marketing campaign where this vendor would use the city's logo and the city's address on their material. It would come with the city's endorsement of this company. So, I'm going to talk about HomeServe. Our legal and our purchasing department have said if we choose to go through this option — so HomeServe is one of the types of companies that can provide this, but if we were to go down this we would do an RFQ, open it for solicitation, see if there was other companies. But HomeServe is the company that both Boise -- or Veolia and Nampa use. So, I will use it as an example. But it's not an endorsement today. So, what does HomeServe do? They conduct two to three mailings per year and those mailings go out -- they provide private insurance. So, all of the billing, all of the claims, all of the repairs, the payments are handled directly through HomeServe. So, there is no interaction with the city on that. They send out, like I said, letters that have the city logo. So, this is an example of a city. So, it does look like it is coming from the city and it generally has language in the letter that says that, you know, this is a program that's endorsed by the city and the reason they do that is it increases the open rate and the participation rate and gives this program credibility. So, what do they cover? So, there is various options that the customer can opt into, including external water and/or sewer line protection and, then, also internal plumbing coverage. So, what does this cost? Depending on the services that the customer selected it would be between about six dollars to 25 dollars a month. They also offer an optional revenue -- or royalty revenue sharing program. If the city chose to opt into this the rates are slightly higher for the residents, but, then, that extra revenue gets returned to the city. Most cities that do that, then, use that revenues for some kind of community benefit, so either low income utility bill assistance or some kind of repair projects. So, if the city decided to go down this path there is -- there is pros and cons. So, the pros -- there is zero cost to the city to do this. Really minimal effort on city staff. Probably the biggest impact on city staff are going to be the -- the MUBS group who get Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 6 of 16 the calls about these letters and is this a real program and do I have to sign up. We could potentially reach the whole city and we would reach them over and over and over again, because we would be doing these outreach events at least twice a year and, then, customers who want this service would have that opportunity for a relatively low cost to opt into this insurance program. So, some of the potential cons, like I mentioned, you know, people are going to get another letter and could be upset by potential feeling like it was spam. They could have some questions on whether this is a city program, are they required to opt in, those kind of things. And the overall risk to Meridian residents is relatively low for the city as a whole, but there are sections of our city that may benefit from this -- this type of program. So, essentially, I'm just looking for feedback, direction, questions from you guys on whether you would like us to go to that step of looking for an RFQ, soliciting for a third party insurance vendor. Would you like us to just do internally led city outreach or just maintain status quo, that the -- the residents are responsible for their own side of the infrastructure. So, with that I will stand for questions, comments, discussion. Simison: Thank you, Laurelei. Council, questions? Comments? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I definitely read through the memo and appreciate the thoughts around it. My opinion should we inform the citizens? Yes. I think we should inform everyone. Be a great part of the city website. I think it would be great to do an outreach campaign. Social. Bill inserts. I'm really uncomfortable about partnering with a vendor. It occurs to me that it's an inappropriate product for a lot of people and I think that it's risky for the city to be promoting a product that may not make financial sense for people considering the average life of PVC and it might make more sense to do a targeted outreach campaign to the people that are in that section that are 50 years old, you know -- that have the infrastructure that's 50 years old. Excuse me. So, I think it -- you know, really targeting maybe more specific direct outreach to that population makes sense, but I just -- you know, calculating it, even over 20 years, you know, at the high end of that range, that's over 5,000 dollars and the chances of the average Meridian homeowner running into this issue is pretty low. So, I feel like our role is to educate people. The use of the city logo. The possibility for confusion about whether it's a requirement or not, especially with elderly residents. I just -- I don't think it's appropriate for us to recommend a private insurance product. You know, we don't recommend private homeowners insurance either. That's kind of my take on it. Thanks. McVey: Thank you. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 7 of 16 Cavener: Lauralei, I appreciate the memo and you and I kind of went back and forth a little bit as well. I share I think Council Member Strader's concerns. I think the part, too, that I worry about is that insurance is all great for all of us when it works, but when there is a hang up or a hiccup, boy, that is really, really frustrating and to have the city tied to that -- I could see, you know, a citizen come and saying to the City Hall, hey, you -- you endorsed this and they are -- they are not following through on their obligation and how the city now is getting pulled into, you know, engaging with a third-party business. To -- to Council Member Strader's, you know, I think really correct examples, because there is so few that really would be impacted by this, it doesn't seem like it would be the right approach for us to partner a for profit company to market their services to our entire city. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: I think I generally agree with my fellow Council Members, but have a couple of questions. So, in your research did you happen to find out what their claims rate is and also how many of these claims are from damage that's caused from excavation versus old lines? Obviously we know our population of old water and sewer lines, but how many of these -- you know, do we know that -- those kind of ratios, even from our neighboring communities? McVey: Council Woman Perreault, I do not have those statistics, but I could get those from you, so -- or for you. So, we -- we did do research into this company and product and this specific company HomeServe is the only company that's endorsed by both the National League of Cities and AIC and they do have a customer base of over a thousand municipalities. So, we did do some calling to just see are people generally satisfied with -- with the product and for the most part and, you know, to Councilman Cavener's point when it's covered great. They do great service. The repairs happen within days. But, again, with any insurance product it's whether you need it and whether what happens is covered. But I could find out those specific statistics. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: I think it would be good to find that out, whether the city chooses to do its own educational program or whether we choose to partner. Personally I -- I agree with my fellow Council. I don't love tying ourselves to a private company where we have no involvement or influence in the outcome. But I do like the idea of--of doing an educational campaign and I don't have a problem with the city recommending multiple companies, maybe a choice of three or something, in addition to encouraging folks to contact their own homeowners insurance companies and see if there is a rider that can be added on to their policy. I like that idea. I'm curious how many of our billing customers receive their information by mail versus by e-mail or how many are paperless and if that will affect our decision as well. Obviously, a lot of folks don't pay attention to those things. So, really Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 8 of 16 kind of analyzing if that's worth the money and time --staff time investment and, you know, if we have 25 percent of our customers that are paperless and we can look at the click rates and see if they are opening those kinds of things, that may help us decide whether it's worth our staff time to do it, so -- Simison: Council, any additional questions, comments? Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: I think you -- I think you have got consensus. That middle approach makes sense. We might be blessed that it's not a pervasive problem here, but I know we appreciate you being proactive in trying to help customers avoid problems before they occur, so — McVey: Another thing we could do over the next little bit is Nampa is relatively new in their program. They just implemented it this fall and -- and they have had, you know, buy in and so we --we could try to track requests that we get over this next year for, you know, is this something the city is going to do or interest or outreach as we kind of promote this topic more. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Yeah, Laurelei. And that's something I'm interested, because, you know, we can -- they -- they possibly could get a rider on their insurance -- homeowners insurance policy, but they might not. So, is that offered? You know, what's the product out on the market. And if there is a dearth of products, then, you got to think about risk pool, so you need an entity that can provide enough coverage and cover claims and make money while doing it, of course. So, that's always -- always something that if -- if you leave people in a lurch where they don't even have an option of having insurance, you know, then, we probably need to take a look at it. But if there is private coverage that's available and insurance is just a personal decision, do you want it or not want it, so how do you -- how do you go about doing it? But if there isn't that option, then, I think, okay, we should probably relook at having that provider available and, again, you know, there is -- there is that risk, they look at and see the city logo and, then, oh, that's a city program, which -- which it is not, but because we provide city services of water and sewer to the homes I think a lot of people are under the misconception that, oh, if something goes wrong the city takes care of it, which I think that has been spoken to already. There is a need to do educational campaigning that here is where the line is, what --what happens if, you know. So, definitely think we need to be doing that. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 9 of 16 Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: Question on that, Laurelei. The common problem of root intrusion -- I'm just curious while you are here talking about it, does that impact pipes new and old? Because that— that seems to be where folks really get caught is -- is that happens. McVey: Yeah. So, Councilman Borton it's generally the older material. So, the older water pipes are -- some of them are made of metal, which they get corrosion and pitting and become more fragile. But where it actually happens more is in the sewer pipes and back -- I think they stopped making this in the -- oh, I want to say the early '50s, '60s, but it's called Orangeburg pipe and we do have some of it in downtown Meridian and it's actually pipe that's made out of cardboard and tar. So, you can imagine over time that does not necessarily hold up. So, that's where we generally see more of the root problems. But anywhere where there is joints on pipes, if the seal or the ring fails or you get any sort of cracking, the roots can find their way in and, then, once they are in it can be a problem. We -- we on the city side have older lines in downtown that we have to do routine root maintenance and clearing in it. Borton: Yeah. And -- Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: When we -- when we look at the -- the budget on the camera trucks, right, there is always images that you provide of -- of some of the shockers they find and it's root intrusion all over the place in -- in some parts of town, so -- Simison: Laurelei, I want to say thank you. I know this came from me attending some conferences and hearing about this company and -- and making sure we want to see if this was right for our community. You know, I think the one thing that's -- if we do an education campaign -- is kind of funny, when you pull up your slide and you show, you know, this is what you are responsible for, but actually the sidewalk, which is something that the homeowner is also responsible for if there is any problems with the sidewalk -- now this has nothing to do with that. I think we do have to be careful on what we communicate if we were to use a slide like that, because that's the home — according ACHD the homeowner is responsible for any repairs to the sidewalk from anything that occurs. You know, roots or cracking or other problems, so — McVey: That's -- that's a great point. It's a little bit hard to get a visual that applies for, you know, everywhere and depending on the city and their ordinance -- like for Nampa, for example, the customer is responsible for the line all the way out until it hits the -- the main line and so that -- that can be another area of significant piece that they are responsible for. So, each property is kind of different on where the property line falls and -- Simison: Or their responsibility if it's not on their side — Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 10 of 16 McVey: Yeah. Simison: -- because of ACHD has stated that they are responsible for, so — McVey: Thank you. 20. Parks and Recreation Department: Summer Events Update Simison: Thank you. Next up is Item 20, Parks and Recreation Department summer events update. Turn this over to Renee. Borton: Go summer. White: Go summer. Simison: Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Just getting started on ski season. Let's — White: Well, I hope you have all enjoyed your holidays. We are not skipping a beat in moving very quickly into planning for spring and summer within — in the Parks special events department. Of course that includes updating the website, securing our sponsors, picking our movies. So, along with what is already planned and already approved, I am bringing forward a proposal to you to get your feedback regarding the possibility of adding some other -- some additional events to our docket. We would like to -- and it has been in our budget for the last couple years -- begin producing Kleiner Park Live. The series is based on upbeat fun, family-friendly music. Local entertainers. As I have mentioned it's been in the budget for a number of years and for various and sundry reasons that I won't list here we haven't produced them, but we are very excited to begin offering those. We really do feel as if that's going to bring out a different demographic to the park on a Friday night than perhaps the movies would. With a movie you have got something that starts fairly late. It's after dark and that can be 10:30. The -- the movies are all family friendly, which is great, but not everybody is interested in seeing a G rated movie. Not everybody can stay up that late. So, that's sometimes -- yeah. Sometimes your older people and younger people. Falls on both ages. So, we would like to -- we are proposing reducing the number of movies that we offer to six. In the past we have offered them from the time school gets out -- from the time, yeah, summer starts to the time school goes back in that can be 11, 12 Fridays. This particular year we would like to reduce those down to six and on the alternating Fridays we would like to offer Kleiner Park Live. As I mentioned, both of these events have already been in the budget and have been approved. They are also both one of those rare budgets that I have to go and get sponsorship for and so we don't spend what we don't make. So, I do have to get a jump on that now. So, I come before you -- I realize that Movie Night is near and dear to everybody's heart. It's a long standing tradition. It started in 2007 when we had 64,000 people in our community. We now have -- depending on who you ask -- over 125,000. And so we would very much like to offer something of a different sort. One of the questions that we do get is how is this going to impact The Village at Meridian? They are no longer offering their Friday night concert series or any of their concert series and my Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 11 of 16 understanding is they don't do that, because it was not serving the restaurants that are there. People would come and park stay and they weren't turning over tables, which is what they need to do to make money. It was also becoming so popular it was just kind of creating that traffic jam of people who weren't shopping or, you know, eating more than they could get on a Friday night, in which they were turning over the tables. So, while we do have a -- a no compete clause that happens with the movies, in The Village we do not have any sort of -- anything that has to do with concerts. One of the other questions that we get is how is the shade coming. That's one of the reasons that we haven't done it in the past and we now have those gorgeous shade -- shade sails. Say that five times fast. And which the -- the bands appreciate and so they are shaded. We also have planted a variety of trees that are in the process of growing and providing shade for --for the people who come and aren't on the dance floor, but are in the -- the amphitheater. So, those are a few of the reasons why we are excited to start actually doing these and so I come before you and hope that you see this as an opportunity to reach -- reach more people and get them out actually moving; right? Not everyone dances, but -- Simison: Thank you, Renee. Council, questions, comments? Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Hello. Good to see you. White: Hi. Thank you. Good to see you. Perreault: So, will this be set up kind of like what we do out here in front of City Hall in September where you will have bands and we will have contracts and -- and it will be, you know, folks that bring their own chairs and -- is that kind of the feel of it? It will be at the amphitheater? White: Yeah. It will be in the Kleiner Park bandshell. And, yes, we will contract with local entertainment. So, Sole Purpose, Jukebox, local, you know, bands that are upbeat, do cover tunes and -- and fun things and so, yeah, it would be similar that people bring their own chairs or blankets and food and — yeah. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Well, first of all, I just want to rewind back to the winter holidays and thank you, because you bent over backwards to add the Hanukkah menorah to our winter municipal decor. That was very much appreciated. Along with Mike Barton and Steve Siddoway and I know the Mayor's office. So, I just wanted to say thank you for that. I think this is a great idea. I mean this is why we have a bandshell. That's the whole purpose of it. think adding live music is a fantastic idea. Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 12 of 16 Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I tend to agree. I think that live music is important. I think Kleiner Park was envisioned to serve that. I struggle a little bit with the -- the planning around Movie Night, Kleiner Park Live, Movie Night, Kleiner Park Live. Events are successful when they are predictable and I think that's why Movie Night has been so popular is that people know Friday night, Settlers Park, good, bad and different, they plan for that and I -- I worry this one foot in, one foot out every other week is ultimately going to impact both events. I also feel like and -- I -- I know that The Village isn't necessarily doing their concert series right now, but I have heard they have got some other plans for this year. You have got the Albertson's across the street that does live music. I always just get a little bent out of shape anytime we start to compete with the private sector when it's so close. So, I -- guess my -- again, you ask us what you want, you are going to get eight or nine different answers -- is to see how -- if we need to reduce Movie Night or see how the reduction of events in The Village impact what's going on at Kleiner Park. What I also don't want to have happen is if -- if the restaurants and the vendors, you know, the retailers at The Village are upset that their concert series is taking away from their customer base, I would hate that the city's event would end up doing the same and that would fill the parking lot up, but people aren't coming into the restaurants, they are going to the movies. So, guess whatever decision you all make is that it's a slow and cautious approach, as opposed to just ripping the Band-Aid off. And I for one would like to see Movie Night remain every week in Meridian. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Borton. Borton: Logistically, amongst the due diligence you did to get to today, I presume that was -- was part of it. Logistically is -- is doing a Kleiner Park Live and a Movie Night on the same night possible? White: No. Borton: I didn't think so. White: We don't currently have the staff to be able to -- to manage two events on the same evening and/or the both of these series in full during the summer without additional staff. Borton: What's the Albertson's event? I — what do they do? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 13 of 16 Cavener: The Albertson's with their -- that Marketplace, they have got on Fridays and Saturdays live local music acts that play within their facility, because they have got a restaurant and a little bar space inside. Yeah. And it's -- it's very popular. So, something -- like my wife and kids we like to go to on a -- on a Friday night, go grocery shopping and have a little bite and listen to a band and -- our gal about town Shelly Houston has lots of photos on her Facebook page of different bands that have played at Albertson's if you want to check it out. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: This is interesting. So, is it -- it sounds like it's different, though, than being outside on the grassy plaza and live music and walking around and vendors and sunshine. Cavener: Sure. I would say it would be different, but I still think that it's -- I mean it's live local music in a place that a -- you know, a private business is doing that to attract a customer base. I would hate that we would, then, do a very similar event in nature that is — would maybe take away from what they have been doing for a couple of years. Borton: Yeah. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you very much, Councilman Cavener. I think if -- if we take that a step further, you know, we can't -- I mean, then, from the city's perspective we would have to really cancel all -- all events in our fields or, you know, anything that would be happening on a Friday night that might interfere with — so, I don't — it's only six evenings. It's — you know, they have that music event — I think all year long. So, there is a lot of things that— that compete for folks' — folks' attention on Friday evenings in the summertime that happen on city property. So, I — I — I understand what he is saying. What I do like about it is I like the fact that you are having events in two different locations in the city instead of one. As a matter of fact, it would be great if we even — even got something on the south side of the freeway or something at some point. So, I like that — I like that it gives options, especially since we are getting a lot of -- from multi-family in the -- you know, over by The Village that it gives people an opportunity to walk somewhere and, you know, that's --that's just in a different area of the city. So, I like that--whether--whether Council goes one direction or the other, I like that it's in two different locations and gives people options. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 14 of 16 Strader: What -- I'm sure you thought of this, Renee, but, you know, another option could be to block it; right? So, you have six weeks of Movie Night and, then, you do six weeks of the concert series. I do think that would help with Councilman Cavener's concern about people being confused about which week is on for movies versus concerts and it might actually make things a little easier. I -- I don't know. Just thinking about blocking your time and having one focus is just something to think about. I think that could help with that issue. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I think when it comes to entertainment and people are interested in something they mark it on their calendar and they -- they do it. They may not remember when the recycling -- recycling bin is supposed to go out, but they will remember when it's entertainment and they want to be entertained, so -- yeah. And thinking through that, you know, whatever you decide on —you know, is it six and six or every other-- I am assuming the Movie Night is still at Settlers Park. White: Yes. Hoaglun: And -- and I would assume that, Lieutenant, that police presence would still be there, but that would help in terms of-- it's going to be a different -- different demographic at Kleiner Park than there is at Movie Night and -- and the time of day kind of hopefully would lessen the workload for -- for our police on that. I don't know if you want to speak to that, but those are just kind of my assumptions. If you want to speak into that. Harper: Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, we can service it. We have a --with our SRO team in the summertime as the jet team. There will be a number of officers available to support it and make sure it's a safe event. Hoaglun: Okay. But I -- I think, Mr. Mayor, to continue — Renee, you made a good point when -- when Movie Night started back in 2007 we were at 64,000 and our population has doubled and so having different events, whether atAlbertson's or anyplace else, there is an opportunity. You are not going to have everyone show up at Albertson's. It's -- it's a draw. You know, when I hear concerts at Kleiner Park and I'm thinking, oh, Village, you can go there, have dinner and, then, go walk over to the park and have that nice evening. You know, I -- I like that synergy there. So, it -- it makes it kind of special and I don't think it takes away from the other just because we have grown so much. It just offers another opportunity for -- for that -- that culture, if you will. So, I -- I - I think it's a good idea. It's just a matter of it's been discussed how -- how you go about doing that. Is it blocks? Is it every other? I -- I don't -- I don't think it matters a whole lot and -- and the fact that you sponsor both, you get private entities involved to help pay the bills and whatnot and they get advertising, so that's always a good thing. So, yeah, I -- I think it's something that you ought to take a look at and -- and just like you do with your other programs, you try something, you look at it and you -- and you tweak it if need be moving forward, so -- Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 15 of 16 Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Renee, do you anticipate that doing both these would reach the same amount of people and do we anticipate the same amount of people that would go to Movie Night, similar amount of people -- maybe different; right? But the same raw number for both events? I guess my hope would be is that if we are doing this that we are increasing the amount of participation, not decreasing, and so I guess I -- maybe you have thought about that and — White: That is -- that is my hope as well, that the folks that maybe pick one Movie Night that they are still going to come to one Movie Night. If they come all season they are still going to come all season. But that we are reaching an entirely different demographic or maybe it's the same, but still want to get out and do things with their kids. But that we are being more inclusive, because of the -- the different times that it is, the different location that it is, the different activity that it is. So, yeah, my -- you know, our-- our goal is always to reach more of our citizens. Yeah. Borton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Borton. Borton: One of the reasons that I trust your judgment over the years is you do just that, you — you think of these questions in advance and -- and taking this issue a step back is — is trying to provide additional recreation fun, entertainment opportunities in multiple locations for additional members of our community I think is where all of this comes from, which is fantastic. So, how you get there I trust you and you think of these questions and you are going to track the data, which is why you are good at what you do. So, I love the idea and I can't wait to hear how it works. White: Thank you. And I hope to see you there. Borton: Probably dancing. Maybe not. Simison: Council, any additional questions, comments? Okay. Well, they will take this feedback and if there is additional information that they would like from Council they will come back. Otherwise, you will get an e-mail informing you of what direction we will be heading this summer and just ask you all to stand behind them and if you do have a lot of angry mothers reaching out because we have cut it in half or angry Village patrons that are angry because they can't park and go to their stuff, but it — they will figure out what happens. We will know. Borton: You were going to say Village People. Simison: I was -- Meridian City Council Work Session January 3,2023 Page 16 of 16 Borton: You were going to -- Simison: I was going to say it, but -- anyways. All right. Thank you, Renee and Steve. White: Thank you. Appreciate it. Simison: All right. We are here at the end. Do I have a motion? Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, move we adjourn. Simison: Motion to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:12 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 1-17-2023 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 1-17-2023