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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-10-03 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session October 3, 2023. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:34 p.m. Tuesday, October 3, 2023, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Brad Hoaglun, Joe Borton, Jessica Perreault, and Liz Strader. Members Absent: Luke Cavener and John Overton. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Miranda Carson, Berle Stokes, Joe Bongiorno and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE Liz Strader X Joe Borton _X_ Brad Hoaglun John Overton X Jessica Perreault Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call the meeting to order. For the record it is October 3rd, 2023, at 4:34 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is the adoption of the agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Move adoption of the agenda as published. Strader: Second. Perreault: Second. Simison: 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: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 2 of 15 1. Approve Minutes of the September 19, 2023 City Council Work Session 2. C-Shell Retail Development POD 4 Water Main Easement #1 (ESMT- 2023-0134) 3. C-Shell Retail Shell Development POD 4 Water Main Easement No. 2 (ESMT-2023-0135). 4. Red Aspen Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT- 2023-0124) 5. Sessions Parkway Subdivision Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement (ESMT2023-0131) 6. Wiener schnitzel Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2023-0119) 7. Final Plat Modification for Poem Subdivision by Clint Hansen, Land Solutions, located at 3727 E. Lake Hazel Rd. 8. Annual Renewal of Restated and Amended Joint Powers Agreement between Ada County, the Ada County Emergency Medical Services District, the City of Boise, the City of Meridian, Kuna Rural Fire District, Eagle Fire District, Star Fire Protection District, and Middleton Rural Fire District 9. Idaho Transportation Department Local Professional Services Agreement between Idaho Transportation Department, The City of Meridian, and Keller Associates for the Local, Rail with Trail Pathway Project #A013(918) in Meridian for the Not-To-Exceed amount of $182,995.27 11. City of Meridian Financial Report -August 2023 Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor, on the Consent Agenda we do need to remove Item 10. That's the license agreement between City of Meridian and MDC and the Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District. There was another license agreement with ACHD and they are going to be done in tandem, so they just ended up being separated due to the length of time it took on the ACHD end. So, we are just going to move that item to number -- to October 7th. So, with the removing -- Simison: October 17th. Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 3 of 15 Hoaglun: October 17th. Yes. October 17th. Sorry. So, with that, Mr. Mayor, I move that we approve the Consent Agenda and for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest with -- with -- with Item No. 10 being withdrawn. Strader: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda with that change. 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: FOUR AYES. TWO ABSENT. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 10. License Agreement Between the City of Meridian, Meridian Development Corporation, and Nampa & Meridian Irrigation District Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 12. Ada County Jail Infrastructure Update, Proposed Expansion, and General Obligation Bond Simison: So, we will go right into Department/Commission Reports. First up is Item 12, Ada County Jail infrastructure updates regarding their proposed expansion and general obligation bond. I will turn the mic over Sheriff Clifford. Clifford: Mayor and Council, thank you for having me. I'm Sheriff Clifford, The Ada County Sheriff. I am going to talk just a little bit about Idaho's largest jail that sits right here in Ada county and services the -- one of -- the City of Meridian, one of the many here. As you know we are running for bond and I wanted to make sure that you have information on what that means, answer any questions that you may have, so that you and your constituents can make a decision and get out and vote on the ballot on November 7th. So, I'm going to see if we can navigate this. There are a couple short videos that we will have in here. Okay. So, obviously, we all know that population growth is the theme of the last decade here in Ada county and in Idaho specifically and you see that it's grown more than 38 percent since 2010. So, keep that number in your mind that it's grown 38 percent since 2010. By 2030 we are projected to exceed 600,000 here in the county. So, just a little bit about the jail. We have a section of our jail that was built in 1977 when there were 154,000 people here. In 1995, that's going to be kind of a bookmark here in this timeline, that was when a large -- a large section was added onto the jail, but big pieces of infrastructure were also added into the jail to make sure that we could run it into the future. The Ada county's population was 256,000 and we were, then, able to accommodate 560 beds. So, that's 1995. That's also the last time we ran for bond here in Ada county and that Bond paid for that, obviously. In 2003 Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 4 of 15 population is up to 327,000. We had another major expansion and added -- so we could handle 864 beds. Now we can see in 2007 we had a few more beds added and 2013 was the last time we added beds. It was not that many. Those were additions onto that 1995 infrastructure. So, we are up to 1,116 beds available in a 544,590 population. Again, look at 1995, 256,000. Today 544,000. That jail of 1 ,116 is still run on all of the infrastructure that was installed in 1995. 1 began my career 23 years ago by working in that jail. It is the same kitchen. It is the same booking area. It is the same inmate property. It is -- we have had -- had a little bit of upgrade in our laundry, but it's very similar to what it was before. However, we are running at a thousand -- 1,116 beds versus 560. So, the information I'm going to give you is about what -- what is happening with the jail infrastructure improvement. Why would we run for bond? Now, that tells a little bit of the story about why. But I will give you a lot more -- a lot more to the story. Let's see if this works. There is supposed to be a video there. Johnson: Do you see the error on the screen? Okay. It says, sorry, we cannot display this media. Sorry about that. Clifford: It's not the end of the world if we can't play it. I can -- I can certainly run without it if we need to, so we will just -- we will just keep moving on. So, we will talk about the current jail infrastructure. Again, the jail kitchen, that is a really big one. In 1995 that jail kitchen was built to accommodate about a thousand meals per day. With our jail population usually running at about a thousand people it needs to accommodate 4,000 meals per day. Again, this is the same kitchen that I -- that I saw when I started working 23 years ago in the jail. Jail booking, the same way. We have so much more traffic in and out of our jail booking area as far as transports and bookings and we need to revamp that area, so it's more ergonomic and less chaotic. What you can't see behind this jail booking is the inmate property room and that thing is amazing. I wish you could see some pictures of it. It's the same -- same size as the 500 bed facility that we put in in 1995, but now there are over a thousand inmates, all of their property stuck in that same little room and we have done things over the years that are -- years that are very creative, but if you went in there today you -- and saw it you would realize what the issue is. And, then, our jail laundry. They are doing -- I think it's 2,500 loads of laundry a week. Does that sound right, captain? Twenty-five hundred loads of laundry a week and we really need to improve that infrastructure, so that it doesn't start crumbling in front of us. So, we have about 11,000 bookings a year and the -- our population inside the jail -- I think the public doesn't realize what that population looks like. It is anywhere between 85 -- and I have seen it up to 89 percent felony -- felonies in there. So, there is a lot of kind of misnomers of, hey, just get rid of all these marijuana users and petty thefts. Those people are not in our jail. Eighty-six percent of them -- I think today it was 87 percent -- are in there for felonies. Usually five or six percent of the population is in there serving time. People also sometimes don't understand there is a difference between a county jail and a state prison. A state prison you serve your felony time. In a county jail you are usually awaiting trial or some -- some type of hearing to see what your fate will be as far as if you released or going to serve time at the prison. But there is a small amount of inmates that serve time for misdemeanor and felony convictions inside the walls of the jail. So, as of today our Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 5 of 15 average daily population is 1 ,005. That is now -- you have heard me say a thousand -- 1,116 beds are inside the jail, so it's 1,005. We have more beds. Well, that is -- that is quite the issue and -- that is an issue and I will get to that in a moment. So, sometimes people will also say, well, you should just try and get more people out of the jail. People I think don't always realize that the Ada County Sheriff's Office for the last 15 years has been very innovative in -- in the country in creating programs that help keep the right people outside of our jail and the right people in the jail. So, our alternative sentencing is -- you have seen the field work that goes on -- sometimes on the side of the -- sides of the road. This field work also improves picking up trash in parks. They help at the fair. They actually help improvements at schools. They do so much more than picking up trash on the side of the road. That's just what people usually see. We also have all kinds of community service outlets for people to do alternative sentencing. We also have a Community Transition Center. So, we have a center right there on our campus where we can help identify people -- it's -- it has to be ordered by the court, but we can identify people that are -- we can better supervise in our transition center, where we can give them some skills, we help people get their G.E.D.'s, we help them find jobs and during the daytime they leave the transition center and go to work and earn a paycheck, so that they are not homeless when they get out of jail or they can pay their bills and keep their -- their home that's waiting for them when they are done serving their time. So -- and we also offer educational opportunities in that Community Transition Center. We have our own classroom and educators that are specifically stationed in the Community Transition Center. We also have misdemeanor -- the biggest misdemeanor probation team in the state, so we can supervise people and help them be successful outside the walls of the jail, instead of serving time inside our jail and our pretrial release. It's much the same as the first three, that they identify folks that meet a certain criteria where we can say, hey, you know what, we think you should go back to work, so you can get to court, pay your fines, pay your taxes, pay your bills, support your family. There are a number of different things ranging from ankle bracelets to, you know, weekly visits to the office, to breathalyzers where we can say, hey, I think you are going to be okay, we will help you get there, but you are still going to be watched by the Ada County Sheriff's Office. So, when you talk about how we have about a thousand people inside the walls of our jail, we usually have over 2,000 people that we manage outside the walls of our jail. No video. So, the proposed -- Johnson: Sheriff, we are bringing the video in for you. Clifford: Okay. Johnson: Sound is another issue. Clifford: Well, forget it. We will bag it. I said most of the those things anyway, so we will probably be all right. So, the project itself is designed to -- we are hoping to get to 2040 with this addition on to the jail. It will add beds to our facility, about 296 beds, but more importantly it will -- it will revamp that mid-'90s infrastructure the jail is quote, unquote, functioning on today. So, we will have new booking intake -- intake being where you bring arrestees into the booking area. New kitchen. Laundry. The housing Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 6 of 15 pod with 294 beds. A transport center. There is a lot of traffic in and out of the jail on a daily basis where inmates are taken to court or they are taken to doctor's appointments or a myriad of things and because that booking area has never been updated the transports have been more and more over the years, it causes a lot of congestion, a lot of inefficiencies within the jail and it also makes it not quite as safe for us to be moving inmates in and outside -- in and out of the jail during those periods. So, we will create a whole new transport center so that we can get rid of transporting inmates through that part of the jail. Warehouse. 1995 warehouse is what is servicing that jail today. It's about 800 square feet. We need a 10,000 square foot warehouse and that's what we would build in here today in the -- in these plans. We -- it would save us money on the -- all the -- all the off-site space that we have to rent to store all of the needs for the jail. If you don't -- I know some of you have been into our sallyport area where you pull in when you have an arrestee to take them in. Well, there are car spaces there that have boxes and boxes of toilet paper and food items, dry food items that we have had to use as makeshift storage. We have filled every nook and cranny in that jail with storage that we can. With a new warehouse we can cancel all that off site and help improve our buying power as well through -- we can get a lot bigger bulk items and pay less for them. And, then, a new secure access for -- for inmates -- inmates coming in and people being released. So, that's -- that's kind of the infrastructure that we are looking at putting in. We have already acquired the land. We -- it was -- the deal was finally finalized in December of last year and one thing that people ask us all the time is what is this going to cost me as a taxpayer. Because as you know with a bond that's what it does is it costs the taxpayer. So, we figured out that it should cost the taxpayer about $3.60 per 100,000 dollars of assessed property. So, if you have -- probably your average homeowner, according to COMPASS will probably pay anywhere between 12 and 16 dollars a year for this bond. A couple of renderings there of what the new facility will look like. New add-on will look like. So, the election is in November -- November 7th, so we are trying to get out there and educate people on what all this means. Sometimes people don't pay attention to what a bond actually is or what it means for them on their taxes or -- some people don't even know that the jail -- the largest jail in the state is right here. A lot of people don't know where it is, which is totally fine. Probably great that you don't know where it is. And when I tell people it's next to the mall they are flabbergasted. But that's -- you know, that's a little bit on what -- what is -- what that bond entails. I would ask you that -- if people ask you questions that you direct them to adajai I project.org and it has all the information -- well, at least most of the information that they will need and they will have the ability to reach out to us if need be. Trying to think if I covered everything. But does anyone have any questions? Seal: Thank you. Council, any questions? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thanks, Sheriff Clifford. Appreciate you being here. Couple quick questions. So -- and I just was appreciating the difference between the county jail and the state jail. Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 7 of 15 Do you have the ability to -- if you become over beds, like where are you going to put people? Just curious how that would work. Do we -- can we send them out of state? Do we send them to the state jail? Like how does that work? Clifford: Well, as the county -- Mayor and Council. Sorry. Our plan right now has been to keep those programs robust for -- for keeping people out of jail, but that's kind of the problem is these people that are in our jail now don't meet those -- don't meet the criteria for those programs. So, right now our only option is to have them sleeping on cots on the floor. So, they sleep about four inches off the floor on -- we call them boats. They are metal -- plastic cots. We don't see an option for transporting them out of state. That would be cost prohibitive at this point. That costs a lot of money. Plus shipping them out -- out of state, they have court appearances that -- again, it's a transient population; right? Because people are -- they come and go out of the jail much more than they would the prison where they are not serving a sentence. So, it's not -- not really an option to do that. We don't really have the option of sending them to other jails, because those jails also have the same problems we do and, quite frankly, all over Idaho we see this issue and we see other jails that are running for bonds for that reason. So, I don't have a great answer to what's the next step, but we are going to have to start planning for the future one way or another. We are going to pay now or pay later. With the higher population in the jail we see higher acts of violence on inmate on inmate and inmate on deputy and taxpayers pay for that. An inmate gets hurt during a fight, taxpayers pay for the medical treatment and so we certainly don't want anybody to get hurt. So, our -- our -- our big goal now is just to educate people on what really happens inside the jail, what really is happening in their -- their community jail. Big sentiment from a lot of people is they should be having bread and water and all sleeping on the floor and that just -- that doesn't work. It really doesn't. It makes it a dangerous environment for inmates and deputies and, again, you pay now or you pay later. That's going to get us sued and it's going to cost medical and it's inhumane as well. So, we are focusing on this bond in hopes that we can -- that we can educate everybody and kind of go that way. Strader: Mr. Mayor, just one more question. Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: What is the term of the bond? Clifford: Term of the bond will be 20 years. Thirty years? Strader: Wow. Clifford: Twenty. Sorry. So, 20 years. Strader: Okay. Thank you. Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 8 of 15 Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. Did I understand that there hasn't been a bond passed since 1995? Clifford: Mayor and Council. That's correct. We haven't run for a bond in Ada county since 1995 and that bond was for the establishment of the new pods in the jail and the infrastructure we are using right now. Perreault: Mr. Mayor, follow up. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. So, I noticed there has, obviously, been a significant increase in beds since then. How have the -- the other additions and -- or I don't know if there has actually been space for capital projects that have been done. How have those been funded without having bonds for this much time? Clifford: Those have been funded through bonds at the county commission -- or not bonds. I'm sorry. Funds that county commissioners have appropriated for the expansions. They are not as -- those -- those small little band-aids didn't cost as much, frankly, as what we are asking here. But it should be noted that we are bonding for 49 million. The cost of the project is about 69. But we have already purchased the land. Already have the -- all of the architectural drawings done and some of that -- some of that cost will be offset by savings that the commissioners have instituted over the years for a jail construction fund. So, they didn't just find a big load of money sitting in a closet, they have been chucking away money, so if we found that we did have to run for a bond it would be -- at least be less of a tax burden per year on the taxpayer. Perreault: Mr. Mayor, one more question if I may. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. So, I noticed on the site plan that it looks like you will be pretty close to out of physical space to add more structures after this. So, do you have any thoughts you can share on what that means for future expansion? Clifford: So, future expansion could be a few different things. I think if this bond gets passed and we build that we would probably start planning for the future immediately. When I'm -- when I'm long gone and probably most of the employees there -- maybe not most of them, but quite a few of the employees, we need to plan for the future. Whether that means we use the existing campus for that and move all of our administrative services off site -- we always joke that, you know, in -- you know, in 20 years we may have all of our administration and executive staff in a building here in Meridian and the -- and the jail takes over the whole campus at Barrister. So, that's probably what we are Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 9 of 15 going to look into for the future. But we need to plan that as soon as we know how this is going to go. So, that's a great question. I appreciate the question. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Sheriff, thank you for that presentation. That -- that was helpful and I was curious related to the -- to the bond. Is that a simple majority or is it a two-thirds? Clifford: That will be a two-thirds majority, which is why we want to educate every -- we know a lot of people -- some people don't pay attention to bonds or what they mean, so we really need to get out there and explain to them what this is and what it does. Simison: Council, any additional questions? Thank you, Sheriff Clifford, for being here and providing this information and I think we did a good job not asking any questions we shouldn't ask you in that regard, so -- Clifford: Mayor and Council, thank you so much for giving me the time. I know you guys have a lot going in this city all the time. So, just give me a few minutes, appreciate it greatly. If you have any questions I would love it if you would reach out to me or if you want to do it through the Mayor, however you would like to do it, reach out and I will give you the answers. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 13. Meridian Intersection and Pedestrian Taskforce Findings Report Simison: Thank you. Okay. Next item on the agenda is Item 13, which is the Meridian Intersection Pedestrian Task Force findings report and we will turn this over to Miranda. Carson: All right. So, I get to come back before you again tonight to tell a story about community collaboration and dedication. It revolves around the safety of our streets and our intersections and our pedestrians. It's the story of how the Intersection and Pedestrian Safety Task Force came into existence and the tremendous effort that it's put forward for our community. Following tragic pedestrian versus vehicle crashes elected officials at the City of Meridian and at ACHD recognized an urgent need to address safety concerns and they acted to establish the MIPS Task Force. Our mission that we were charged with was to evaluate the experience of non-vehicle travelers in intersections and to look for intersection improvement opportunities, to keep our communities safe and walkable through responsible transportation planning, design and enforcement practices. This was an ambitious endeavor. It was a joint effort within our agency team, the City of Meridian, the Meridian Police Department, Ada County Highway District, the West Ada School District and the Community Planning Association of Idaho, all participated in the lengthy meetings, 14 times over the last eight months. There were also innumerable breakout meetings and discussions around this effort. No effort towards improving safety can be successful without expert guidance. The Meridian Police Department played a vital role in this effort. They performed on-site Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 10 of 15 visits and provided their professional opinions at each of these sites and an unwavering presence at every task force meeting. Early on the task force established some overarching goals. We wanted to improve the safety of mobility network users, utilize data for safety improvements and create a centralized resource for community feedback. We didn't have to start from scratch, so I received some photos today from May 1960 of the Meridian Police Department handing out lights to go on children's bikes. So, this is an effort for safety. It goes back in our history as a community and it will continue forward into the future. The taskforce looked at current ongoing efforts at the various agencies, because we wanted to ensure that our new initiatives built on those efforts and enhanced current efforts. You can see from these efforts that the various partners are all committed to the experience and safety of users of every mode of transportation in our community. One of the most critical aspects of this initiative was the safety audit. It covered over 140 sites, with 134 intersections and, then, various other corridor and areas that we looked at. It included analysis of crash data, identification of onsite hazards, a streetlight audit, a review of community feedback and detailed meticulous one-by-one intersection reviews. Engaging the community was fundamental to the MIPS mission. We recognize the importance of incorporating the perspective of our residents into this transportation planning effort. To achieve this we embarked on an outreach campaign. The Meridian and ACHD communications teams collaborated with the MIPS team to create a dedicated webpage for project updates and information. It also included links for residents to report concerns that needed immediate attention through the various ticket systems and a map survey for residents to drop pins and tell us their concerns and give us information about their experience at various intersections throughout the city. This web page and survey was shared through the city and ACHD website, city newsletter and a social media strategy that was orchestrated by both ACHD and the city. Did this to amplify awareness of the ongoing efforts and to encourage public participation. The information that we collected through the survey was, then, integrated into the MIPS recommendations. We received 62 responses and in those identified 93 comments and concerns reflecting a diverse range of perspectives and experiences. Each comment was methodically examined to determine the appropriate agency for coordination, to ensure that the community voice was matched with actionable steps. The MIPS task force work led to recommendations that were drawn from the collective expertise of the stakeholders and the residents. Ultimately the engineering and maintenance of our roadways lies with ACHD and ITD. The recommendations here are not intended to be prescriptive, but they are to further collaboration with these agencies as we all work towards continuous improvements. We found some recommendations for further evaluation, some study opportunities being a study into speed limit defaults and reductions. A bicycle facilities study that will look at current lane interactions or bike lane interactions with vehicular traffic and current application of ACHD's bike policies. A pedestrian study that would further look into pedestrian overpass and underpass opportunities and also a sidewalk gap analysis throughout the city and a study into the feasibility and maintenance of a central repository for transportation safety information. We also identified specific improvements for intersections and areas. Those include new crosswalk paint and signalization. Improvements to existing crossings. Specific areas speed reductions. Traffic -- traffic signal changes and improvements to pathway, sidewalk, and bike lane Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 11 of 15 gaps and deficiencies. It also includes a retrofit to 184 streetlights from halogen to LED. This last recommendation is thanks to an extensive streetlight audit that was performed by the Meridian Public Works Department and through collaboration of MIPS recommendation and that department it -- these projects -- these streetlights will be prioritized in the Meridian Streetlight Master Plan. The MIPS taskforce exemplifies the power of community action. This ever is a testament to what we can achieve when we work together to address our neighborhood concerns. Pedestrians have a right to feel safe on our network of roads, sidewalks and pathways and the agencies involved in this are leading the way toward achieving that vision. I could stand for any questions. Seal: Thank you, Miranda. Council, questions? Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you very much. This information was -- was really fantastic. I appreciated reading through the report. I have noticed that in the construction zones in our area there is oftentimes cones or signs or whatnot that -- that obstruct a sidewalk and there might be a pedestrian or an individual who is wheelchair bound or a bicyclist who might get injured from, you know -- or any other disability that might get injured from those, but they wouldn't necessarily call the police, because it wasn't with a vehicle or it wasn't -- you know. So, it's not something that's being reported per se. So, is there any -- likely not any way to get data on that, but does -- does ACHD know if that is something that can be remedied? Was there any conversation about that with the task force? Carson: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Perreault, that's a great question. The task force did not discuss construction zones, but I can tell you that construction providers do have a responsibility to provide alternative pathways. So, if a sidewalk is being repaired or construct -- if a sidewalk was currently existing and now it's being ripped up for any kind of construction or -- or blocked for any kind of construction, the contractor does have a responsibility to provide an alternative pathway. That does not always happen and it's a spot-by-spot basis, but, typically, I have found that there is phone numbers on construction signs and if you call you can get somebody to put out -- put out those things, but that's something that individuals have to report to each individual contractor. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thanks, Miranda. This is fantastic. Really proud of the work that you all have done and I think it's gotten really far since it first started. I was lucky enough to sit in on several of the meetings and I'm really happy with the recommendations and the direction. Just a couple questions I have. How are we putting -- and this is phenomenal work. I just want to make sure it's leveraged going forward. So, how are we planning to Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 12 of 15 use the detailed recommendations is the first question I have. And, then, the second question I have is how are we going to evaluate as a City Council on some of the next steps recommendations, like the database, the different studies that are recommended? That may be a question for the Mayor's office as well. Thanks. Carson: So, I will -- I think that the question of further studies and evaluation does fall more to the Mayor. The Planning Department can look into those things, but we take our charge from the Mayor's office and the Chief of Staff and as far as the individual recommendations for specific streetlights, we have already sent them off to ACHD and their engineering team has already begun to look at them. We did let them know that it's a draft and that we are working through the final document and wanted to bring it to Council. So, after tonight this can go to them and we will look at what order we can get these done in and they did have some concerns with some of the paint requests because of the ongoing burden for painting a crosswalk, because it's painting ladders, but we will work through the painting program request. We can work through these through COMPASS project development grants. There is several different avenues and opportunities we have to go through these individual intersection requests and really begin at looking at how we can get some boots on the ground starting to plan for this. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. Just a couple of comments. I would hope by the time we get to budget time, you know, if I'm lucky enough to be here, but maybe, you know, if Brad is here, whoever is here, that we will at least have the opportunity for the Council to evaluate some of those recommendations that are more long term in terms of the studies and the centralized database to me is a really powerful tool, because it -- one thing that I know we ran into was each agency was kind of siloed and were doing its own workstream and I think the power of this project was bringing all these agencies together and really centralizing everything. So, that's just a comment and, then, in terms of the more detailed recommendations I think -- I think you are spot on with clearly communicating where we go through our community projects priorities with -- and ACHD will use this as a tool I'm sure, but I would hope that, yeah, we could look at grant funding, even, you know, yeah, that they just -- whatever avenues we can find to try to accelerate them. Clearly from the comments, you know, people are frustrated and you can see in the heat map like where there are some clear priorities. So, I just hope that we kind of treat those with some urgency. Just not a comment just for you, but for everybody. Thanks. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Miranda, thanks for the work on this and the whole group. I didn't see anything in there, but I just wanted to find out if you had discussions about bollards in the downtown intersections. As you know we want to create more pedestrian accesses, Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 13 of 15 is more pedestrian foot traffic and that involves, you know, outdoor seating areas and, of course, we have had some incidents -- accidents where cars actually crash into buildings and I know ACHD isn't a big fan of bollards, but was there any discussion about that on any of the downtown locations? Carson: Mr. Mayor, Councilman Hoaglun, yes, there was some discussion on bollards and pedestrian -- not fences, but railings. There is some concern that with those you would have to start looking at the shy distance. So, when you are adding those things you need to add on to the width of the pathway and the sidewalks as well. That is something that we did share our recommendations for the downtown area with the Meridian Development Corporation as well, so that they can incorporate that into their planning efforts and I believe they might be looking at bollards, but ultimately the MIPS task force did not recommend the bollards in the downtown area, because they usually give a -- maybe a feeling of safety, but especially with pedestrian railings it doesn't actually stop vehicles from coming up onto the sidewalk. So, where it may make the user feel more safe, it's not actually promoting safety. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: Yeah, there -- there is -- definitely the railing type is definitely less safe, but there is interest in the bollards still and actually having something that would stop a vehicle from actually going into the building or the sidewalk at that location, wherever they are installed. So, I know there will be more work on -- on that, a lot more conversation moving forward, so we will see what happens. Simison: Just to add my two cents to -- how much I appreciate and value the team that did all this work. I know it was a lot of work and I know even on occasion maybe I was asking for a little too much, more than they were hoping to do, but I appreciate everyone going out and taking the time. From the practical standpoint I think it's -- it's safe to say irregardless of who is up here -- could be a different mayor -- that the group will bring forward these recommendations appropriately, as they should be warranted through -- either our budget or other people's budgets to make improvements that we think are important for the community. So, I think that will be something we will do. I got my first look at this last week briefly just to give some feedback for you all to help me get some additional information that hopefully you found valuable that was in here. But there is a lot of good information in here, not just the stuff, but I just want to quote one thing that I read. We spend half of our time on traffic accidents on state highways where the speed limit is over 45 miles per hour. There is little nuggets in this document that were -- whether it's intersection improvements or otherwise that have real value and benefit, you know, kind of moving forward and I do plan on sitting down with the team and kind of going through this as -- as they wrap it up and talk about where are those priorities that we can move forward immediately. We have already talked about some of those. You know, the Public Works has been waiting to prioritize these intersection LED improvements and this -- that's already moving forward, but where else in here makes Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 14 of 15 sense. So, we will definitely be doing that and if it needs to wait for a budget amendment we will, if -- if we put it in next year's budget or do it before that will be the plan, so -- Strader: Mr. Mayor? Perreault: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman -- Rochambeau -- Strader. Strader: I just wanted to thank you for putting the resources into this that you did from your office and I wanted to thank the team for all the hard work on it, because I know it was excruciatingly difficult and very detailed work, but I think it speaks a lot to the importance of public safety in our community and how we treat all different users of our roadway network. But I just wanted to personally thank all of you -- you, Mr. Mayor, as well for prioritizing it. Thanks. Simison: Council Woman Perreault. Perreault: Thank you. I'm curious to hear how this might help us inform us on our streetlight prioritization. We have talked a lot about streetlights and funding and locations over the past couple of years and I think some of this data could really be used to help out with Public Works Department as well. So, hopefully, this will cross over multi-departmental conversations about how we can use the information in a variety of ways. Simison: Do you want to answer that one or -- Carson: Yeah. I can. Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Perreault, so, yes, this did cross over between the Planning Department and the Public Works Department. As I said they did an extensive streetlight audit. They went and looked at every streetlight on every intersection of every arterial -- arterial or signalized or pedestrian intersection in the city and evaluated those to see if they were up to the City of Meridian new standards. So, for new streetlights we put in LED bulbs, because they have longer life, which means less outages. They also burn brighter. They also have a fiscal impact with savings. So, that's why these specific -- these specific intersections were identified to be at the beginning of the priority list with the master streetlight update, because they are at intersections. Simison: And maybe from -- and we do have Laurelei on the line, but the way I'm understanding their plans for FY-24 was to use the funds allocated in FY-24 to immediately go work on these projects. That was already in their path forward, they were just waiting for the report to a certain extent to be completed to go do that and get into the new budget year. And, Laurelei, if I was incorrect feel free to unmute and correct me. Meridian City Council Work Session October 3,2023 Page 15 of 15 McVey: No. You were spot on. Just so you guys know, those are -- the projects are being put together and should be put out to bid, if they are not already out to bid. So, we are already working on it. Simison: Thank you. Council Woman Strader. Strader: Just one more question. I was curious. Are we planning a similar presentation at ACHD or the other agencies or how -- how will that work in terms of the communication? Carson: Mr. Mayor, Council Woman Strader, so currently our plan is to send a recommendation -- so ACHD did have a representative on the task force and currently our plan is to send the recommendations and report to ACHD commission and have them address it with their team as -- as they see fit. Simison: Okay. And, lastly, if I -- I just want to say also thank you to Congressman Overton -- or sorry -- Councilman Overturn who is not with us today. Yeah. He got a new job. Part of me wanted to wait until he was back, but at the same time we want to get this in front of everybody and keep it moving forward and not delay on that stuff. So, I'm sure he can appreciate that as well. Carson: Yes, Mr. Mayor. He was an active member of the task force. Simison: All right. Thank you very much. Carson: Thank you. Simison: So, Council, with that we are at the end of our agenda. Hoaglun: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Hoaglun. Hoaglun: I move that we adjourn our work session. Simison: Motion to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5.21 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 10 / 17 / 2023 MAYOR ROBERT SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK