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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002 12-17 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 The Pre-Council Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, December 17, 2002, by Mayor Robert Corrie. Members Present: Robert Corrie, Bill Nary, Keith Bird, and Cherie McCandless. Members Absent: Tammy de Weerd. Others Present: Gary Smith, Brad Hawkins-Clark, Bill Nichols, Brad Watson, and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: O Tammy de Weerd X Bill Nary X Cherie McCandless X Keith Bird X Mayor Robert Corrie Corrie: (Inaudible) City Council Chambers and we would like to have roll call attendance please (inaudible). (Inaudible, tape cuts out) Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Corrie: (Inaudible) all of those in favor say aye. All ayes motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: THREE AYES, ONE ABSENT Item 3. Discussion with Jon and Mike Wardle regarding the North Meridian Area Plan: Corrie: Item Number 3 now is the discussion with Jon and Mike Wardle regarding the North Meridian Area Plan. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Before we get to Mr. Wardle I just wanted to let you know and the Council know that I need to leave at about 6:00 and so hopefully we can get through all of Mr. Wardle’s discussion by then. I need to go to my regular employment because they have a personnel issue to discuss and then I will be back for the Regular Council Meeting. Corrie: Thank you. Wardle: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, actually I believe I have a 20 minute allotment on your agenda so I don’t plan to take a lot of time unless you Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 2 of 19 grill me extensively with your questions. I gave Jonathan the week off so he’s in Utah with his wife so it’s kind of a strange twist of fate. You received copies and I th hope you have your copies of the document that we submitted on the 20 of November. Just a brief – I want to really provide more opportunity for some questions that hopefully you’ve had a chance to formulate. This effort really started 18 months ago under the leadership of the Mayor and Council with the development community. Leadership in that particular group essentially with David Turnbull at the helm and I just wanted to note that Mr. Turnbull isn’t here this evening. His father’s funeral was yesterday in Idaho Falls so he’s continuing to take care of some family responsibilities there. It was an effort that was initiated to address a number of issues. I suspect first and foremost was transportation but I really want to start and talk about the issues that are most pertinent to the city. Let’s just – I won’t go in particular detail but just to put this on for the reference. Why don’t we bring that maybe (inaudible)? Nary: We’ll put this right in front of you here. Wardle: The primary issues that we were dealing with specifically to the city’s concerns and interests obviously were those related to the land use, community facilities and services, your urban service planning issues which I believe is on th your agenda a bit later this evening. The November 15 map that was in the document that you received essentially was the third iteration of a map that was th first presented to the entire stakeholder group on January 4 of this year. The concept was introduced as a result of a number of workshops for a four tier hierarchy of mixed-use elements commencing with the village of the most locals (inaudible), neighborhood, community and regional. The plan was modified somewhat in June of this year when we presented a draft document to the entire th stakeholder group and that was dated June 6. The change that has occurred here is that we’ve updated a few of the park sites in fact we added park sites that were not in that original concept as a result of actions taken by the Council in the Comprehensive Planning effort in May. We also then added in pathway systems that were part of the adopted Comprehensive Plan. The only other significant th change that occurred from the June 6 draft to this document was we scrapped a section that was prepared at that time that dealt with essentially kind of a total redo of the entire Zoning Ordinance concept and backed away because our feeling was as we dealt with the task force groups. Including your own staff and others from the County Planning and development community that the process that you have in place through the Planned Development option the developers have frankly works reasonably well. That ordinance was not long ago updated by the Council so we took a different path. We looked at it strictly from the perspective of how can we provide an incentive. That incentive became Section C of this document (inaudible) titled the North Meridian Neighborhood Residential Provisions and it’s an alternative code or a traditional neighborhood development code. Now that would be an item that would have to be adopted by the City Council in order for somebody to physically use it. The intent was if a developer wants to go to a more new urban type development this would be maybe not on the largest scale of development but quite often some smaller parcels and certainly infill. Then they could avoid the step of going through the Conditional Use Plan Development process if they strictly adhere to the standards of that Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 3 of 19 particular code. It actually has setback standards, it has size standards, and it has even some street standard proposals. That was really probably the most significant change and if it was intended to be an incentive option to a developer instead of, going through the Planned Development process it doesn’t mean frankly, that a developer could still use that basic philosophy. We did it a little bit in Heritage Commons that you approved earlier this year. We’ve done it extensively in a project that was just submitted this last week under the name of Paramount, the former Keltic Heights. That project incorporates – let me, I’m going to just pull it out (inaudible). I did want to point out that even through the Planned Development process you could accomplish many of the same things by developing a totally connected community with spaced open areas that provide access to the community. Frankly, in this particular case we’ve kind of put the elementary school as close to the heart of this project so that it encourages access without Number 1 losing the identity of a school but it also means that children can get to that hopefully, more in the pedestrian mode than having to be transported to some remote location in that section. In addition, all of the services proposed in within this entire section are accessible. I simply want to point out that we can accomplish the same thing through well-designed Planned Development projects but we can provide an incentive for someone to do it in a new urbanistic mode by giving them an option to avoid that process if they adhere to standards that the city would be expected to adopt. The city and your adoption of the Comprehensive Plan actually included three of the land use elements that we had been working on in the mixed-use and those were the neighborhood community and regional mixed-use classifications. Those are already in your Comprehensive Plan. We are proposing that you add to that plan the so called village mixed-use and then look at the entire set of standards for all of the mixed-use elements to be certain that the hierarchy functions in accordance with the city’s own desires. All of the other issues, policies and recommendations are essentially the same as you saw early in the year and in June with the exception of the parks. Again, we’ve identified the locations but we don’t have – and I guess I’m somewhat ignorant in that sense. I don’t really know what update efforts have been undertaken to complete the adoption of a park facilities plan. That’s certainly an element that problem needs to be factored in somewhere down the line. In summary, as far as the city’s’ perspectives are concerned I think we’ve addressed the issues. I think we’ve provided some concepts and alternatives that hopefully will improve the quality of development in North Meridian but we’ve also provided a mechanism to encourage people to do that. Now the other major issue and it’s unresolved. If you read carefully, the document you saw that there was a Section D. Section D started to deal with the transportation issues that were the genesis frankly, for the entire effort. I want to give you copies of testimony that was provided to the ACHD Commission on the th 18 of November. This relates to the question of the recently adopted Capital Improvements Plan that the Ada County Highway District has formulated. What we found through that process and members of the ACHD staff are here tonight and my intent is not to really engage in discussion but this is testimony that’s on th the record and verbalized in a discussion on the 18 of November with Mr. Wynkoop to some extent. The fact is that under the adopted Capital Improvements Plan ACHD, essentially used the COMPASS model that was based on old information. That old information was what was existent before the Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 4 of 19 applications came into the city and to the county early last year that caused ACHD first to do a six-mile traffic study and then a 12-mile traffic study. That led then to some numbers in the range of 15,900 new home sites that were projected by the Washington Group Transportation Plan or study. That was the thing that actually provoked this effort. That information did not make its way into the Capital improvements Planning process. The old COMPASS numbers were used but said that there would only be about a quarter of those dwellings over the 20 period actually to 20, 25. The numbers were not used in formulating the impacts. If you look at the adopted Comprehensive Plan that’s – it actually projects by the year 2025, the improvement of McMillan Road to Eagle Road, well excuse me from Meridian Road easterly to Eagle Road this would go to a three lane facility between Meridian, Locust Grove and five lanes from Locust Grove to Eagle Road. Then the McMillan Linder Intersection is the only projects identified in the Capital Improvements Plan adopted by ACHD as requiring capacity enhancements. My point in Section D of this document and this testimony was to say we need to go back to COMPASS, we need to reconcile the numbers whether Washington Group is accurate in saying that it would build out in 20 years or whether there’s some other set of numbers we need to get the accurate numbers. We need to project those numbers and then make the determination because we’ve already done a basic analysis of that showed that there is over the long haul funding sources to take care of the infrastructure improvements. We need to have the individual – excuse me the impact fee structure based on the expected growth and not the old outdated COMPASS number. I didn’t come with intent to put a bad mouth on anybody except I simply noted in – and let me take you to Page, it would be E-S-3 and that’s right at the very beginning of the document the executive summary. E-S-3 is the action checklist. The things that are identified that would be required by the various agencies and of course with regard to the City of Meridian it would be to consider amending the Comprehensive Plan with the Land Use Map that’s been proposed. It would include the addition of a village mixed-use designation to go along with the neighborhood, community, and regional designations. To adopt a traditional neighborhood or TND code as an alternate incentive to developers to bypass the Planned Development process to give you a quality product as well. To develop a Capital Improvements Plan program for funding of community facilities and of course that goes into even the elements of your parks, your fire stations and alike. Then the last item of course relates specifically to that Park Plan. With regard to ACHD and COMPASS, it would be expected that the Capital Improvements Plan would be based on growth projections that would be representative of an updated development scenario. Now ACHD has provided the second item, which is a construction cost update for the phasing and funding of those system improvements. We did not factor that in at that point because their Capital Improvements Plan did not incorporate that information. We would also have made a recommendation frankly for more than a year that the North Meridian System Improvement Projects, these arterial roadways, and intersections to be impact fee eligible. Well it’s interesting in the adopted CIP that the improvements that they identify on Ten Mile Road from Ustick to Chinden they are in the CIP but they aren’t identified as impact fee eligible because there’s not a capacity problem under the projections of the COMPASS model as it exists today. I think we have a conflict that needs to be addressed Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 5 of 19 and so from the COMPASS perspective we need to look at and revise the North Meridian growth projections. Frankly, it’s not just North Meridian it’s the growth projections period because the same issues are confronting all of the agencies and even the city south of the freeway. Then we need to consider the reallocation of the transportation funding to match those growth projections wherever that model takes us. The last item there is to designate Black Cat Road as we’ve talked before as the principle connection from Highway 16 down to a line eventually with the Ten Mile Interchange at I-84. That’s all that I really came prepared to discuss Mr. Mayor. I would be happy to answer questions but the next step is to put out a request for a meeting for all of the stakeholder individuals, conduct that meeting and get COMPASS, Ada County, ACHD and you folks at the table together. I would be happy to answer any questions. Corrie: Any questions. Bird: I have none. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Mr. Wardle maybe you could comment a little bit. One of the things that’s been concerning to us is some of the recent projects. I think one of our discussions has been is that we have lost site of this plan. In looking through the document, I think you tried very adorably, to sort of (inaudible) what we haven’t approved, what is sort of the drawing board as well as trying to stick with the original concepts. Do you have any comment as to how that’s going? I guess that’s always been our concern is are we just forgetting the site of this plan and (inaudible) we’re trying to accomplish on one hand that all these projects that keep coming and that we have approved have we sort of lost a lot of what the Concept Plan was to begin with? Wardle: Well Mr. Mayor, Mr. Nary I don’t think you’ve actually lost the opportunity. The entire process that we’re involved in is always in flux. It doesn’t make any difference where you are at any point in time something is happening but it goes back to a question that Commissioner Wynkoop asked about, well are we too late to deal with the infrastructure issues in Meridian. My point was no because even the projects that have been approved nothing is started in Lochsa. Bridgetower is still very early in the process so the question that he asked was, well can we get these things reasonably into the Capital Improvements Plan and make our plans early enough to deal with them certainly. Absolutely because even a year from now if it took us a year to get all of these things tweaked you’re still going to have a ton of vacant land out there and very few of these projects will have more than maybe just the first phase or two. We’re clearly not beyond the opportunity. I would also believe that since the market forces sometimes change projects after they are initiated that you could see some efforts for some of these developers to come back and say you know we would like to take advantage for instance of some of these concepts that came at the same time that they were doing their planning which was kind of the more traditional or Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 6 of 19 conventional subdivision development effort. I don’t think we’re beyond any opportunity at all. There’s a lot of consideration that this Council’s going to have to deal with on it and I acknowledge that you’re going to face because you’ve got a lot of issues that you have to deal with on a regular basis anyway. This is going to add a bit. Well I appreciate your time and we’ll put out a call for the meeting with all of the stakeholders sometime early in January. Thank you. Bird: Thank you. Corrie: Thank you very much we appreciate it. Item 4. Presentation by Ada County Highway District for Overland Road Project: Corrie: Okay we’re on Item Number 4, which is a presentation by ACHD for Overland Road Project so Mr. Sales. Sale: Good afternoon Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. You’ve all been good boys and girls this year and so you’re going to get something tonight from that old (inaudible) man with a white beard. Unfortunately, my other suit is still at the cleaners and had a lot of soot on it from last year. This is the first time that we’ve been through this and I’m guided tonight by Mr. Craig Contana that I think you’ve all met. He provides my adult supervision tonight. You’re aware we’ve begun our Overland Road reconstruction project with our contractor Idaho Sand and Gravel Company. The project was begun on December first. Total cost is a little over 4.7 million dollars and it will involve Overland Road from Meridian Road to 800 feet east of Eagle Road, slightly over a two-mile length of road. Resulting road will be a five-lane road, 72 feet wide with two left turn lanes on Overland Road at each of the major intersections of Locust Grove and Eagle Road. They scheduled a completion date of fall of next year almost this year with the – this is what the road would look like superimposed on an aerial photograph. Those are striped travel lanes and a two way left turn lane in the middle. Unfortunately the vehicles using the road today don’t quite match the way it will be in the ultimate. The first phase of the project is underway and it includes the reconstruction of two minor bridges. The first one is under construction right there by Meridian Road as we speak. The second one is about half way to Locust Grove Road and then the pipe (inaudible) for hunter lateral. That project began in earnest this th week and is scheduled for completion on March 17 of this year. Phase two is reconstruction of the Eagle Road intersection that will begin following the irrigation work, irrigation and drainage relocation work and it will be constructed by August of 2003. Phase three is the segment from Locust Grove Road including the Locust Grove intersection through the Eagle Road intersection and also scheduled for completion prior to the opening of the new Mountain View High School in August. Phase four will be the portion of the project from Locust Grove on west to Meridian Road and that will be constructed there, completed a little bit later than August. We are asking for a completion date of September th 30 but the weather always seems to interfere with completion dates so we are just saying fall of next year. (Inaudible) those are – there will be no road closures during this initial phase but traffic may have to be rerouted going to gravel Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 7 of 19 detours for up to a couple of days at a time as concrete as setting and that sort of thing. The intersection of Eagle Road and Overland Road will look like this when it’s completed. These are the lane configuration actually the next light is going to show it a little more graphically but we have two left turn lanes on each leg of the intersection and then a right turn lane an additional right lane on the southbound leg and the west bound leg. As I said earlier this is scheduled to begin in March and be completed by August. The contractor is required to maintain one paved lane through the intersection in each direction at all times and he also has to maintain the traffic signal in operation at all times. I’m supposed to (inaudible) that with – except for unusual unique circumstances he’s required to do that but that’s an important contract and or intersection and we don’t want to restrict it any th more then we have to. After the 17 of June he’s not to restrict the travel lanes during the peak travel hours. Phase three will be the section from Locust Grove to 800 east of Eagle Road. Also scheduled to begin in March and be completed by August. In this section we are allowing the contractor to eliminate the paved road, maintain access to the local property to businesses and the school construction traffic and encourage through traffic to use Victory or Franklin Road to get them out of the way of the contractor and try to help him meet that schedule of August for completion. That is in observance of the anticipated getting close to the opening of school so he’s not allowed to restrict through lanes between those hours after the first of August. We are going to allow him to convert Overland Road Locust Grove Intersection to a four way stop. So that will allow traffic from the south and whatever traffic there is from the north side to get into the road and get it going either way they want to. This will show the turn lanes just as the previous one did for Eagle Road, while we are here I’m going to offer the contractor will be having their bi weekly construction progress meetings the first and third Tuesdays of each month at ten o’ clock and they’ll occur at our construction shack at this intersection and if you want to drop in and see what the progress is or what the construction activity is going to be for the next two weeks after those meetings you are obviously welcome to do so. By the way the city is installing, replacing some of your utilities in this road under the same contract with an agreement with the Highway District and that’s going to be on going through much of the project. The last phase will be the section from Meridian Road to Locust Grove Road and it will be completed after the section from Locust Grove to Eagle. In this section because of the number of businesses and the number of streets that intersect the Overland Road we are allowing, we are not discouraging traffic from using the road or requiring the contractor to maintain one paved lane in each direction and you’ll have to reduce that to one lane with flagger’s sometimes but there is always going to be two paved lanes on this segment of roadway there’ll be some times when they will be installing pipes and services across the road but there will be a trench to cross but by and large that will be a fairly good road to travel on so I indicated before our contractor is Idaho Sand and Gravel Company. These are the phases that you’ll see superimposed on each other while I’m talking about the contractor. We are glad to have the contract with Idaho Sand and Gravel. They just completed a project for us over in Boise, they completed the Federal Way project from the family shopping center there Zamzow’s out to Lake Forest Road. They worked very well with the local property owners. I attended several of their project meetings which they held there every week. But attendance dropped off to the point that nobody was Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 8 of 19 going to their meetings so they are going to back off to every other week. But we are pleased with their-- (Inaudible, tape cuts out) Sale: Thanks for asking that, didn’t mean to mislead you. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I also, Larry had a -- I think on the phase there between Eagle and Locust st Grove. He’s going to restrict traffic up until August 1. Sale: We are going to restrict through traffic for the duration of the project until it’s paid. There were some specific hours in there that related to the operation of the school. Bird: But the problem is, is you’ve got a school that’s completing out in July and you have a lot of contractors and vehicles going down through there to and that’s the only entrance they got. Sale: That access will be unrestricted. Bird: Unrestricted okay. Sale: They, any owner along the road and specifically the construction traffic for the school will be, there will be no restriction on their use of the road. They won’t be traveling on pavement in that section but they will be able to get to the school at all times. Bird: Okay, that was my main concern. Sale: The lane restriction had to do with after the school gets – well do be st honest I’m not sure why the August 1 date was chosen because the school will obviously open after that but perhaps that’s the date that was important to the school. Bird: Well yes, because you start your athletics at that time. Sale: That could be. Bird: You start your fall sports at that time. Sale: But they will be able to get there. I left a CD with Will that you can run that if you’d like for any reason. Bird: Very nice presentation Larry, I appreciate it. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 9 of 19 Sale: Thank you. Corrie: Thank you. Item 5. Executive Session regarding Emergency Communications Advisory Board per Idaho Code § 67-2345 (1)(f): Corrie: Item Number 5 is Executive Session regarding Emergency Communications Advisory Board per Idaho Code 67-2345 (1) subsection (f). At this time I will entertain a motion to go into Executive Session according to the agenda. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: I move that we enter Executive Session under Idaho Code 67-2345 subsection (1) (f). Bird: Second. Corrie: Okay motion has been made and seconded any further discussion? Hearing none. Roll call vote Mr. Berg. Roll Call Vote: Nary, aye; Bird, aye; McCandless, aye; De Weerd, absent. Corrie: Okay all ayes go into Executive Session. (Enter Executive Session at 5:40) (Come out of Executive Session) Corrie: I will entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I’d move that we would come out of the Executive Session. McCandless: Second. Corrie: Motion has been made and seconded to come out of the Executive Session. All those in favor say aye. All ayes motion carried. Let the record show that no decisions were made in Executive Session. However, I will entertain a motion to send a letter to the Commissioners in reference to ECAD. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 10 of 19 Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would move that you draft a letter sign it with the Councils consent regarding the points on the ECAD dispatch system, as was asked. McCandless: Second that. Corrie: Okay. Motion has been made and seconded. Bird: I’ll go the points if you want, or you can do it. Corrie: The three points are affirmed of the support of their reactivation of the PRC CAD system. Request that the reactivation of the PRC CAD system be online and operation as soon as possible (inaudible) and preferably before the end of the month. Also to provide that acknowledgment that only 175,000 dollars of funding has been (inaudible) of this effort and also when money is available and at the City Council has not approved any for their spending other then the 175,000 dollars. Motion has been made and seconded any further discussion? De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Just for the record that I am here so when I vote. Corrie: Yes and also for the record Mr. Nary had to leave right after the Executive Session so any further discussion? Thank you for being here, it makes it a three quorum anyway. All those in favor of the motion say aye. All ayes motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES Corrie: Thank you. Item 6. Discussion of Mill Levy: Corrie: Item Number 6 is discussion on the Mill Levy. Anybody have any ideas on what we want to do on that yet. Or have we had a chance to really think about it, any committees or any people that’s involved. Or do you want to study a little further. I know that we want to do a City Hall within a period of time so that might have some effect on the Mill Levy. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I would propose that we bring a list of names to the first meeting in January and then ask for Council approval at that time. In addition to examining, Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 11 of 19 our budget and the current Mill Levy if the Committee would have an additional look at a new City Hall and funding options for that as well. Corrie: Okay. De Weerd: That would be my proposal. Corrie: That’s a good one any other comments? That would be January 7, 2003. Does all the Council seem to think that’s going to be good? Bird: Fine with me. Corrie: We will do that and have the lists of names of people that would like to be on the Committee and also on the City Hall possibility. Berg: Mr. Mayor. I asked just if you got that information that I had on your chairs or your desk concerning the dates you can have special elections and just some State Statutes that talks about what the Mill Levy adjustment, what you can do. Thanks. Corrie: Thank you Will that was good. Thank you for the dinner sandwiches tonight. That was good too. De Weerd: So Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: It looks like per State Code we can have a Mill Levy Election four different times during the year. I guess it was discussed at our last meeting – the question was raised as far as when would those be collected. The preference of Council was we would like to do it during regular elections so that the people that come out to vote for the candidates would also be voting on – if the recommendation from this Committee was to pursue an increase for the Mill Levy that we should run it in November unless there were certain ramifications on when we could collect the new Mill Levy if we pursue this. I believe that was the lingering at our last meeting. Corrie: I remember that too and maybe I’ll get with the AIC Director, Ken Hayward and see what the ramifications at the time will be and I will have a meeting with him Thursday and I can get it back to you -- that form to let you know. I don’t know. Do you know Will for sure? I know he was telling me about some time if he did it in March, you can do it in November you can get started the next year. How it gets on the tax rolls but I will find that out Thursday and I’ll write it up and get it in your boxes because I don’t know. Do you Keith? Bird: Mr. Mayor, I don’t think there is any way regardless of what time you have that you are going to get that existing year, because of the tax rolls and the way they are done. I believe – I don’t know whether it was through Jerry Mason or somebody at one of the AIC deals, you know if you pass it in 2004. You first are Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 12 of 19 going to receive it in your 2005 taxes. I don’t know but that’s something you need to look into. De Weerd: So regardless of whether we put it out February, May, August or November, the tax consequences are all the same. Bird: That’s the way I understood it Tammy. Some AIC thing that I was at, that was brought up and I could understand wrong. Corrie: Do you know Stacy? Kilchenmann: Mr. Mayor, Council. I think that Keith is right but I’m not sure. (Inaudible) De Weerd: Well as long as we have just confirmation of that when this committee would start and I think that would be (inaudible). Item 7. Update on IT Software: Corrie: Update on IT Software. Stacy. Kilchenmann: I’m not sure what this is in reference to the Express Software that we discussed. Is that what that is, I didn’t put it on the agenda so I’m not sure what it is. Corrie: I think that’s what it is. Kilchenmann: Okay. The Mayor had asked Terry and I, there was some concern that the purpose. We purchased this software called Express that the purpose was to sit and monitor what people were doing on their computers. Actually with Express Software is it’s a computer software inventory system so that if you put it on you can look at each computer and see what software they have. Do they have Access, do they have PowerPoint, do they have Word, and you can also see how much hard drive memory is remaining. Like when I asked to replace computers in the budget process, I included printouts from that software to tell you that Anita’s computer is crashing an abnormal amount of times, it only has 20 percent hard drive memory left, et cetera. That is the purpose of the hardware so Terry doesn’t have to go out to each computer, sit down, log on and see what they have, see how much memory they have and it also tells us. Like I use Excel 100 percent of the time. Somebody might only use a computer to access it and get their email so I’m a higher end user. ***End Of Side One*** Kilchenmann: -- access it to get their email so they probably don’t need as powerful of a computer. Or somebody like Anita who is constantly using Word, she uses a high amount of memory and needs a powerful computer, et cetera. There is no way possible in the city to monitor what people are doing on their computer because we don’t have a central network so it’s only not the purpose of Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 13 of 19 it, it’s physically not possible to do that. Are there any other questions about that software? Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird: Bird: Stacy what is that software called? Kilchenmann: It’s called Express. Bird: Express? Kilchenmann: We purchased it last year and he actually – Bird: You already purchased it? Kilchenmann: Yes we purchased it last year and we actually the Information Steering Committee, it was their idea and they saw three different demonstrations and they chose this one. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess how I understood it is it was demo’d in your department and one other to see how it worked? Kilchenmann: It was actually demo’d in City Hall. De Weerd: Okay but the Committee has not specifically recommended going city wide with it. Kilchenmann: Yes they did. They actually recommended purchasing last year and it was purchased last year. De Weerd: To go citywide? Corrie: I just, with my meeting that it was not a big brother type thing. Bird: Yes I don’t want that. Corrie: Because I was assured it was not. We made those arrangements that it’s not and so consequently, it’s for the inventory more then anything else. McCandless: Mr. Mayor, I think perhaps that should be publicized more then because there is a conception out there that it is a big brother. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 14 of 19 Kilchenmann: Actually the Mayor and I discussed that with the Information Services User Committee the ideas for those users to go back and report to their department but sometimes there is somebody on the Committee one month and they can’t come the next month. The Mayor and I have decided that we will send the -- we are now taking minutes and we will send the minutes to the Department Heads so that they can spread that information and we will really emphasize that that’s the purpose of the software. Like I said the software its really just an inventory system but I think we do have policies in place that are in our policy manual that Pauline put together about the proper use of computers and what they should be used for in the city. There really shouldn’t be any worry on anyone’s part that they would have to be concerned about. You know about if somebody sees what they are doing on their computer but like I said – McCandless: It wasn’t necessarily a worry it was just a resentment of the fact that they could go in and look at everything. Kilchenmann: Yes and we can’t do that, all we can look at is what software they have, it tells how many times a computer crashes and so forth. McCandless: I was just talking about the perception that I’ve heard about and I just think that ought to be killed. Kilchenmann: Yes we will do that. Corrie: I think most of it has already been established that we are getting out to the Department Heads. Kilchenmann: And if anyone is interested we can show you a demo of what actually the software is doing. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess I have one more question regarding IT. On the email default is that been taken care of that it kicks back to the sender that they got a wrong email address? Kilchenmann: Yes. I did have a question for all of you or maybe Will can answer this. You said you wanted Terry to go through your laptops that you are having some problems. I wasn’t sure exactly, I think we were going to leave them at this meeting, is that correct Will? Leave them here so if there is anything specific you are having a problem with, if you can make a little note about it or something so he knows kind of what he is looking at and so forth. Then if you want to the first meeting you get them back he can come in the first 10 minutes if anybody has any questions or. Corrie: We can put a big X on hers. It must have a virus or something. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 15 of 19 Bird: I just want the City Code put on mine. Kilchenmann: Okay I remember that you wanted that and that you needed. Bird: I think we gave Will a list of what we wanted done. Corrie: Okay, good if you think of anything else just give it to Will. De Weerd: I have the City Code, I don’t need. Bird: How did you get it? De Weerd: I’m special Keith. Bird: You must have been. Mine says City Code there but I can’t get it to come up. De Weerd: I’ve always been able to get it. I know Bill can get his. McCandless: Bill has his up all the time. Berg: We will also try and get the Comprehensive Plan on there too. That’s on disk. Kilchenmann: And we can, if you want it at home. It’s easy to install on your home computers too. De Weerd: I have it on CD. (Inaudible) Corrie: Okay any other questions on IT? Item 8. Discussion of Finance Report with Finance Department: Corrie: Okay next on is discussion of Finance Report. Kilchenmann: Okay you have the November statements. We have two months of history now and so everything is on track, not a lot to talk about. The one thing if you look at MUBS we didn’t get the November postage until today so that makes them look light because their postage billing is fairly significant. I think everything else everybody got most of their November expenditures in on time. The interest rate keeps going down so hopefully that will turn around a couple of other things that I wanted to talk to you about and let you know what’s going on with the audit. They are still doing fieldwork, he actually had the partner come out today which is unusual, and I think that’s because some of the interest that Boise has generated. I think that is good because I think we are pretty squeaky clean and hopefully that is a good motivation to stay that way. He stayed a couple hours, left but it was nice to talk to him, and I actually had an opportunity Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 16 of 19 while they were here to review the cash receipts policy and that’s almost done. As soon as I can get somebody to help me with the typing I will stick that in your boxes for you to all look at and then I will probably put that on a January meeting. Once we get that done then we’ve got to big accounting procedures done and the rest of them should be smaller and easier to do. We talked a little bit in our staff meeting that we are going to start the next meeting we have in January about how we are going to do the budget this year because Tammy had requested some changes. If you could all brainstorm and send me any suggestions or ideas. I think basically we will use the same process and same forms and so forth but we will try to come to you with it, not just prioritized by department, by city. That was my understanding so we will be starting in January to get that done, so we get through the end of the year and then we start on the next year. Did anyone have any specific questions? Bird: I like your financial reports to us. I really do. Kilchenmann: Thank you. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: They are very comprehensive. In light of what’s been going on in our State Capital City. I think some of what’s been missed is they have a Finance Officer and I just wonder why that person is not being held accountable to some of this. I appreciate how you scrutinize the budget. I know you do but what are specifically are our checks and balances and you know how the accountability is built in so that we know, we aren’t scrutinizing our budgets as closely as we did when I first stepped on to Council but we got you so what are the checks and balances we have in place? Kilchenmann: Mayor, Members of the Council. One important factor is I think the care we take in our budgeting process and so we are also reporting and comparing what was budgeted to what was actually spent. I think we are really sticklers for that which sometimes probably makes us not extremely popular. If somebody deviates from the item they were budgeted while we’ve had a couple items come up where people say, I got the money, capital is especially this happens. I got the money to do this but I said I’m not going to do that I’m going to do this and we are going to require that comes before you before we do that. I’ll bring it and tell you why they want to do it and we will officially recognize it. Every month I go through every expenditure that every department makes and I’m looking for coding and I recode it to correct categories we kind of eliminated the idea of miscellaneous, the general expense category called operating and we make them code it specifically to what its for and I ask questions, a lot of questions. I think we have Department Heads in general responsible and understand the need for the accounting function but you know that doesn’t guarantee that it’s done. The second thing that I think is important besides the budget is adherence to policy. Number 1 having written policies, that’s why I think we have made big steps in actually getting these things written and done and giving training on them. Once you have a policy, somebody has something to look at Number 1 because a lot of times people who are out purchasing they Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 17 of 19 are not familiar with accounting. They are not a purchasing agent. Their boss said go down and get this, we need to do this and you can’t really expect them to thoroughly understand that they have governmental purchasing so I think we have really tight well written documented policy we can prevent a lot of that from occurring. Review financial statement analysis where we look at not only every expenditure but you look at the broad picture, we take. For example with utility billings I don’t just look at the current month but I’m doing a four-year comparison and if something looks funny I call Brad. Brad runs the gallons the usage and we look at it. Those are the kinds of things the auditors do at year-end when they do an analytical and I try to do that on a monthly basis so those are some of the things that we do. De Weerd: That’s great. I just had one other question because all of this had come up if we have kind of a double-checking system for each department but we don’t have it for the Mayors Department. Who signs for his stuff? Do you? You know I know a Council member doesn’t so do you do that? Kilchenmann: Well most of his, he doesn’t have any big line items in his budget. He generally doesn’t have much capital so the only other thing would be is travel and I know we grill him on his credit card. We make him turn in receipts and make him explain where he went and why he went. I don’t have the authority to sign off on that. Corrie: With that being said. I wouldn’t object to having anyone or all of you check them on mine. In fact it would make me feel better but believe me accounting goes through that very quickly with me and we don’t have any big things. The fact is sideline I had some television people come out here and talk to me and what I did and how we did it. They shook their heads and said we don’t need to come here anymore, that’s no story so they want to know if the Council knew if I was going some place. I said yes and they approved of it. If you would like to do something like that, you certainly have my blessing to do it. De Weerd: As long as it’s done. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I took it upon myself as being in charge of the finance group this year but each Council Member will get a detailed printout monthly of their department which will take care of all this and the Mayors will be printed out too. You can look at it or I can look at it. It doesn’t matter, somebody. Kilchenmann: We thought we’d just give each department your – and what it is, is a listing by vendor in account coding. Bird: I feel that the four of us are responsible for the money and you said about the Financial Director. Sure why isn’t the blame being down on her. Why isn’t the blame being put on the Council? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 18 of 19 McCandless: I wondered the same thing. Bird: If I was sitting on that Council I would be the one that would be worrying about the blame for not checking and you brought up a very good point. We used to go through when we first come on here. When I first came on, if it was a five-dollar item we looked at it and know we’ve given the (inaudible) and the people haven’t abused it thank goodness, nor would they but each department will be getting a really fine line. Corrie: And I would suggest that mine be given to each one of the Council people to look at it. I don’t have anything to hide. If anyone of them sees something that they don’t like, lets talk about it. Kilchenmann: He actually has the smallest budget of everybody. Corrie: Outside of you guys I think. Kilchenmann: No they are bigger then you are now. Bird: My thought is you know and I told Stacy today. If she’s something out of the ordinary and if its mine I’m the one who doesn’t bring in a receipt or something, jump on my case and get it out there. Because that’s what happens and its not intentional or anything else it was just something and that’s why we have to be accountable. Kilchenmann: And one thing I’ve learned is State Government is kind of been through a revolutionary process years ago that created a group called the Yellow Book that created a lot of rules, regulations about financial reporting and it just takes one thing that can ruin careers and so. Corrie: What is that old saying. Nothing is deflated quicker then a ruined reputation. I don’t think there is one of us that wants that so I think that’s a good thing and applaud Mr. Bird for doing that. Again I would just make sure that mine goes to each one of the Council people so they can see it and you can report that Jonathan. I might say you do a good job and what we are doing here. Bird: No just a very good job Stacy. Corrie: Then Stacy if you don’t then I get an email that says Mayor can you help me and then we get in to that. Kilchenmann: He does. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor I guess I have one more. In this report you have a section and I don’t know if you can answer this but on vacant position. How are we doing on these vacant positions? Kilchenmann: Actually Human Resources is generating that report now and we are – Planning and Zoning are hiring their position so they are doing, I think Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting December 17, 2002 Page 19 of 19 everybody is on top of it and the only one that might be lagging is the Police Department, you know that continually has positions open. Bird: But he’s doing his job. Corrie: I might make him Chief of Staff here pretty soon. Kilchenmann: I think his because he’s actually establishing a register through a different testing system. His is not necessarily going to be as easy to fill, not that ours are easy to fill but the process isn’t as much in house as ours are. De Weerd: Thank you. Corrie: Okay with that being the last on our Pre-Council Agenda I will entertain a motion to close the Pre-Council Agenda and meeting. Bird: So moved. McCandless: Second. Corrie: Okay motion has been made and second to close the Pre-Council Meeting any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. All ayes motion carried at 10 minutes to seven. We will recess to seven and then start the regular meeting at 7:00. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:50 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: / / ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR DATE ATTESTED: WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK