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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003 05-27 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 The Pre-Council Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 5:45 P.M. on Tuesday, May 27, 2003, by Mayor Robert D. Corrie. Members Present: Mayor Robert Corrie, Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, Bill Nary, and Cherie McCandless. Others Present: Bill Nichols, Doug Strong, Anna Powell, Kenny Bowers, Brad Watson, Stacy Kilchenmann, and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll call Attendance: X Tammy de Weerd X Bill Nary X Cherie McCandless X Keith Bird X Mayor Robert Corrie Corrie: I would like to call the meeting to order on Tuesday, May 27, 2003 at 5:45 and ask the Clerk for a roll attendance please. Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Corrie: The second item is the adoption of the agenda. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published. Nary: Second. Corrie: Okay motion made and second all in favor say aye. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES Item 3. Executive Session per Idaho Code §67-2345(1)(b): Corrie: Okay Item Number 3 is the Executive Session. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho Code 67-2345(1)(b). Nary: Second. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 2 of 26 Corrie: Okay motion made and seconded roll call vote Mr. Berg. Roll Call: Bird, aye; Nary, aye; de Weerd, aye; McCandless, aye. Corrie: All ayes go into Executive Session and be back in 15 minutes how about that David. We may even do better than that. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES (Enter into Executive Session) Corrie: I’ll entertain a motion to come out of Executive Session. De Weerd: So moved. Bird: Second. Corrie: Motion made and second to come out of Executive Session all those in favor say aye. Let the record show that there was no major decisions made in the Executive Session. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES Item 4. Discussion with Eric Davis (Retail West) regarding Earth Tech / Ten Mile Interchange Budget: Corrie: Okay Number 4 is the discussion with Eric Davis Retail West regarding Earth Tech Ten Mile Interchange Budget. Eric, Mr. Davis welcome. Davis: Thank you thank you everybody. We’ve come a long way, I originally set this meeting to talk about Earth Tech’s contract, and there were some minor differences in the budget versus the payments. That’s a minor issue compared to what we’ve brought forth tonight we can adjust that later and we’re paying the bills anyway. The bigger issue is to bring you up to speed with where we’ve come. The concept report is now 99.9 percent complete. The final version has been submitted to ITD based on all their input. Dan Thomson with Earth Tech is here tonight if you have any questions about any details in there. You’ve been given that report I think. Page 21 of that report you don’t need to go into it but identifies what we’ve set in on what we think is the target budget of 16.4 million for a what they have called the modified loop. Anything can change as we get into environmentals and site-specific things but that’s kind of what everybody’s recommending we go toward. It’s a phased interchange but we’re starting day one with full right of way and everything we need for a full 25-year projection. In the meantime, we’ve been out with all the property owners a number of times on a fundraising mission and I’ve learned a lot there. We’ve been in every place you can imagine. We’ve also been down to Las Vegas again for the second run with Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 3 of 26 the – at ICSC conference. Mike Ballantyne and I were down there last time and if you have any questions on marketing, he can talk about that a little bit. The primary feature of the evening is that we wanted to show the city what the economic consequences of the Ten Mile Interchange are likely to be. To put it in focus, you know we started I think I came to you before we had to come up with demographic projections and growth projections that were credible for ITD and Federal Highway. COMPASS didn’t want to do it they were at the end of their capabilities so we went out and hired John Church to do some economic forecasting. Those projections became the basis upon which the rest of the report was written. The traffic report followed what John set out with regard to job growth, square footage of retails and numbers of residential units and offices what not. Rather than doing a Site Plan, a hypothetical Site Plan with a lot of make believe buildings and things from a crystal ball we focused rather right on what we do know the most credible information we had which are those projections which have been reviewed and approved by everybody that we had to present to. Then we asked him to take into consideration the fact that this area will be annexed by Meridian. We took today’s levy rates and we asked John to show – be able to tell you what is the impact with or without the interchange. We said take – we want to start construction of this thing in fall of 2004, which is ITD’s fiscal year 2005. If we were successful with this, it would be open late 2005. If we are not successful and nature takes its course ITD has told us, it probably won’t happen until 2015 so there’s a 10-year difference between what happens in – and John has put that into perspective for you and he’s got some handouts. I realized we’re running out of time. Church: Mr. Mayor I have handouts for him. I guess I’ll just start and some of them just kind of work their way down. The first three pages are really reviewing materials that were in the previous analysis of how many households, businesses in terms of square footage of space that would be developed in the Ten Mile Road impact area which is essentially 10 TAZ’s that we looked at. Boiling that down there would be essentially 3,818 residential single-family homes. This is net this is net after we’ve already subtracted off what is already focused on being some development without the Ten Mile Interchange. There would be some single-family homes that would occur without this interchange subtracted those off because they are essentially in the area that would be developed into commercial. 3,818 single-family homes, 144 multi-family as it stands right now there is very little in that area that is zoned high density residential. A very small portion of that whole area is zoned high density residential. Doing an analysis on those homes and average new home values in the City of Meridian over the last eight years what has occurred and taking that and projecting it out average, medium so and so forth getting good distribution of home values. Then assessing the levy rate that would occur with these homes over the next 25 or 20 years from 2005 to 2025 would generate 83.3 million dollars of property taxes. That’s net to the whole county. The present value of that is essentially 28.5 million dollars of which 5.3 would accrue to the City of Meridian out of that difference most of that coming from single-family residential. It’s not all assumed to be high end residential this is just barely above average Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 4 of 26 for the county so it’s not terribly high priced. We forecasted that 2,750,000 square feet of additional retail office and industrial space would be developed in that impact area of the 10 TAZ’s. Using some factors to look at that we found that those retail office industrial spaces would add another 63.2 million dollars of property taxes to the tax base present value of 26.3 million dollars for that aspect of it. There’s governmental space that’s also (inaudible) that wasn’t considered I assumed all of their middle space would not pay any property taxes. You never can tell things might happen. (Inaudible) wouldn’t pay any property taxes but delaying this project and here’s the key part – delaying this project and taking those values and moving them out 10 years and letting them escalate in value because house buys do go up over time. They’ve gone up in Ada County an average of three percent per year over the last 13 years five points low points but a nice smooth average of three percent. Moving that development out 10 years costs essentially six million dollars for the commercial and almost eight million dollars for the residential. You can see this detailed analysis at least on Page 6, which is the commercial side of things. I’m sorry nine million dollars difference present value difference 9.8 million dollars. Out of that, original 32 million present value 6.6 million accrue to the City of Meridian, 13.2 to the Meridian School District, and 3.6 to Meridian Fire District. Residential makes a difference of 8.8 million dollars so between 8.8 and 9.8 we’re almost talking 20 million dollars in present value differences of pushing this out 10 years into the future. Tax revenues that would accrue but would be coming there at a later date. The problem also you might want to look at here is there’s no guarantee that just letting this slide 10 years means that this will accrue to any of these taxing agencies 10 years later. It may be that it misses it’s window of opportunity and another development comes along and makes Ten Mile Road less attractive for commercial and office development Garrity Boulevard is the one that comes to mind right off the bat for me. That one could gain some momentum and that would be the new West Treasure Valley center so to speak and interchanges at Ten Mile wouldn’t attract for new development. Given my timeframe that’s about as far as I can go at the moment. Corrie: Very good. Eric are you able to share with what you said to me about the shopping center possibilities when you were in Las Vegas? Davis: Mike you might want to talk about that. Corrie: I didn’t know whether you could share that or not. I wasn’t going to – Davis: Yes it’s okay. Ballantyne: I’m not sure which conversation you and Eric had but we’ve had a number of conversations about users and developers out on the site. Our basic issue right now is you know the field of dreams if you build it they will come. We’ve got a number of users and a number of developers who are all just basically saying let us know what happens at the end of the month at the ITD meeting and if it goes we’re there. We’re very confidant very comfortable with Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 5 of 26 the demand on use on the retail side. That of course spurs all the additional office, warehouse, and all that other growth as well. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: What is the outcome of he meetings that you’ve been having, the participation, cost, and that sort of thing? Ballantyne: I’ll let Eric talk about that. De Weerd: I’m sorry now I’m cutting to the chase you’re the bottom line person. Davis: No, we went out for a global reach of about eight million dollars. That maybe went out a little further than we maybe should have expected to go. We’ve learned a lot about the farmer’s ability to put any kind of promissory notes or debts against their land given their current financing circumstances. We are probably at a point where the group has divided itself between farmers and investors about 50/50. Of that group, we have I would call it from my perspective of course we were all excited about this it had been a probably about what I would call a disappointing result with the core group that says they’re committed. I would characterize it as if they were holding hands all wanting to jump in at once and is the water too cold is this a sure deal. We feel like we have as good as it will get you know handshakes, commitments that will you know contracts that are ready to be signed where it should land us close to half of where we start. That is still not a sure deal and on top of that, it takes the land to sell in the future before Eastborne is paid back. It all really comes down to Eastborne’s willingness to extend credit to these various parties based on you know their otherwise investment horizons and opportunities across the country. What I can kind of – what means the most in this whole thing is time. We have an investor investment vehicle through Eastborne that has a certain amount of patience and then we have a chemistry within the ITD Board that we feel as workable at this point in time that may not be that way forever. We have a site that’s standing pretty tall in the eyes of the market place. We want to get this thing moving and th be in front of the ITD Board on June 27 in their meeting in Lewiston. We’ve come to the city to ask for participation in this along with the property owners and Eastborne. We’ll cobble together the best we can but we hoped that with this presentation, you would see some value and with it in written form do they have the detail too? Okay well there’s all this (inaudible). We had come to the Mayor and asked the city to consider you know how would it be if they consider a donation of three million dollars. It would strengthen our hand considerably to approach ITD. That’s the purpose of this whole meeting and I don’t know I think the bottom line was 18 million net present value. We’ve been out there talking to the farmers in terms of contributions of somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of their profits up side to come back and reimburse Eastborne. I felt like I could stand here in good conscious and as far as a from an investment standpoint what Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 6 of 26 is the return of investment for city as far as you know economic benefits and spin on. Corrie: Eric from what I understand in the property owners are coming up with four million is that what the figure is? Davis: That’s Eastborne’s best guess as to what they’ll see if we really get down to blacking and tackling and everybody comes through. It’s come down to I don’t want to call it characterize it as a poker game but we’re going to have to make a hard commitment to ITD and we’re not going to back away from that. Corrie: Okay and ITD wants – they have four and the city has three then the 7,000 would give the ITD enough encouragement to go ahead with this. Davis: I would think so. I would think so and I think it would be hard for them to say otherwise. That’s just our gut check I’m not in the room not on the board we’re going to make it as a compelling of an argument as we can. There are a number of issues that I don’t want to bore you with now but there has been a what I call a piling on effect as to them looking at this as being you know once you do the interchange we need all the lanes on the freeway. We need to fix the Meridian Interchange and pretty soon, if you look at it from a negative perspective the interchange is not a 16 million dollars cost it’s a 50 million dollar cost with all these other things piled on. What we need to prevail with is a concept that by doing the interchange we are enabling the rest of these improvements to happen and not causing them. It’s just a basic paradigm shift that has to occur and I believe that there’s a certain at least the board members that we’ve talked to agree with that so we’re doing the best we can. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess I have a couple of points. One is I do believe we need to write a letter to ITD and say because of the importance of the Ten Mile Interchange that it has to be seen separate from the widening up to that point. It can be designed to accommodate the widening of I-84 but it has to be separated otherwise like you said, the accumulative cost is just too high that it will be hard to pencil it in. Second, I guess I would be curious as I look at Mr. Church’s figures this is benefiting the school district, it’s benefiting the county, it’s benefiting all these different entities with the tax assessments and all of that. What I don’t see in this equation and it will be benefiting ACHD – we are not we do not collect taxes for road improvements. We made an exception with the Locust Grove Overpass and we have taken some heat. We know the value as a life safety thing and I believe that Ten Mile is as well because we have to mitigate some of our congestion and the safety issues on the Meridian Overpass and that sort of thing. We don’t have deep pockets, so I just don’t know what the city can do other than do everything we can, and politically through the Mayor’s Office to Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 7 of 26 support this interchange planning centers around it. There’s -- Star benefits from it, Eagle benefits from it – Corrie: Kuna. De Weerd: -- this is not just Meridian that’s going to benefit from this interchange. The whole west valley will. Not only that and it’s something you probably can’t capture in these numbers is the amount of trips captured that are not going the eastern migration it’s going to help mitigate the congestion that’s already there. Those are all very compelling reasons I would even suggest maybe the task force to put together a real compelling argument that can be working with you in presenting a case to ITD on the importance. Include someone from Star, include someone from the North Eagle area make this a regional – even Kuna is going to have some benefit from it so make a regional plea as well. I know it is a priority at COMPASS it certainly is a priority with ACHD. I think we can do this I just don’t know what the city financially can do. Certainly, we can try and do a lot of other things as well. Davis: That’s great and you’ve been that way all along. Every time we’ve reached out for help, encouragement and there’s been, some of those turns in the road. It’s been nice to have the support. De Weerd: And we’re making a huge investment already through our sewer improvements. This is a huge investment and commitment from the city already. Corrie: Gary can you give me an estimate of how long the Meridian Interchange will last? The road itself and – I mean you’ve got some figures. Smith: Mr. Mayor I don’t have any current information on the interchange. The last information I had was that it had a sufficiency rating of around 75 but it was functionally obsolete in terms of a lateral clearance on the interstate itself one of the lanes. When I talked to the district engineer Pam Lowe about it all she said was we’ve got a lot of structures in our district that are in much, much worse shape than that as far as bridge replacement is concerned. That’s about all she would say. Davis: The corridor study says 2010 for Meridian Road overpass. That was just a projection it needs to be done by then. The lanes needed in by 2010 and the bridge needs to be in by 2010 or the new one. Corrie: So they have to have that Meridian Interchange by 2010 in order to get anything – Davis: Underneath yes. Corrie: -- to Nampa other than four lanes. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 8 of 26 Davis: Right. It’s a domino effect and it starts with the Ten Mile Interchange. We’re here to make a private donation and hopefully that that’s a compelling enough for them to make a decision to shift a few things in this program around. Bring it within that five-year plan and this proposal would give them a year to adjust that budget. We’re asking to start construction the fall of 2004 but that’s actually the fiscal year 2005. Their fiscal year starts in the fourth quarter. Church: ACHD’s contribution (inaudible) receipts out of this but you can’t see the details. You can partially Page 6 and 7. Corrie: John would you come up here so we can get it on record? Thank you. Church: We can’t see it six and seven but ACHD’s receipts of tax revenues would be about one third of what Meridian gets. If Meridian were receiving, six million dollars ACHD’s receipts of property tax revenues would be about two million dollars. Six million dollars from the commercial about 5.5 million dollars from the residential if I remember right yes six million dollars from the commercial and residential was about yes 5.3 million. About a third of those two totaled together would be ACHD’s receipts, which would be about three and a half million dollars. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: There’s one – that’s a real good plan and a lot of money showing come to the city. Except the fact that we probably won’t – if we build the exchange next year the City of Meridian probably wouldn’t have the developments. Even if we had 30 percent of them done in four or five years and be within our city limits be annexed and zoned. Then we would start receiving money. I’m like Councilwoman de Weerd that you need to be talking to the Rural Fire District. They would receive the fire district money until they are annexed and zoned. There’s no way of telling that – it could be 10 years before that’s even 30 percent developed out there. We’ve go the North Meridian thing going through here now that’s getting it out. I just I’m like Councilwoman de Weerd I’d do anything write letters we’ll do anything we can that way but I just – we put the 1.8 million into the overpass and it’s (inaudible) we’re still waiting to get that thing done and that was an absolute safety issue that we had to commit to. I as one don’t see any way, shape, or form that the City of Meridian can ruefully put very much money into this deal. I think helping with the study by Earth Tech was plenty that we have done. Davis: Thank you we were hopeful that we could strengthen our hand and make this happen. As for an investment for the city goes you’ve got ways to predict that and time. One thing that we’ve told all the property owners is that these commitments aren’t due until we start construction. If there’s no deal, it’s off. If we don’t have a construction start, they don’t have to pay. We’re also – another Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 9 of 26 point I wanted to make is that this includes widening Ten Mile Road all the way up to Franklin to five lanes. It’s one of the requirements that came out of the ITD review but it was an offsetting benefit to the fact that all the property owners along the entire frontage can see some access and something immediate that will be built right away rather than waiting. It just opens the valve that much further to promote growth. It’s also not to say that our 18 million dollars that present value number isn’t all free money. You’ve got to buy fire trucks and police cars and support the infrastructure granted but it’s just an economic development tool that’s probably one of the best you can use it as far as – at least in what we do. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Eric I know it’s very compelling and it’s very essential to the city to get this interchange. It’s awkward to be asked for money for roads when we’re not in the road business. I would see that as something ACHD should be looking at and the ultimate yes it benefits our city tremendously. It will reduce congestion in Old Town. It’s something that ever since I’ve been involved on Planning and Zoning and the City Council that has been a priority. It’s just we don’t have the money to dedicate to this because of all the other needs that we have to meet the anticipated growth out there to serve the growth that we have in other parts of our community and that’s what we owe the taxpayer. I think it would not be – anyone would argue that it wouldn’t be money well spent. We just don’t have that money. The benefactors are the immediate benefactors would be the property owners and we would hope that they could see the value of donating right of way that maybe could help mitigate the cost that that value would be given back to them tenfold because of what value that would add to their property. There are some ways to package it. I would still strongly suggest if you know through the Mayor’s Office a task force could be formed. I know Senator Bunderson has been a huge proponent that could be asked to have some political clout. I know Senator Craig and Senator or Representative Otter have indicated some willingness to listen and maybe bring their office into this. Certainly, we could ask representatives from the northern communities and the southern communities to also really provide a regional approach to this to really help with the political side of this. I just can’t see us helping with the financial side of it. I would like to see this same presentation given to the county because the county can benefit from this as well and see what they can do. We would be happy to help or the Mayor’s Office would be happy to help in that regard too. Corrie: She’s awfully friendly with my office. Davis: It’s all about – we’re just trying to get Eastborne to the strongest vote they can get. In fact, the other the way it’s working with the property owners is that it’s a loan to them. They’re not paying back till the days gone by and maybe that’s something to think about I don’t know. Well I didn’t expect a final answer I Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 10 of 26 thought we would just be doing good if we could get through the presentation so you can sleep on that and think about it. Corrie: Thank you John and Eric. We’ll do that and then we’ll see what we can do to come up with here. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess on our agenda we do have a resolution accepting the I-84 corridor study as designating Ten Mile Interchange and all of the interchanges along that corridor is our planning documents and where we want interchanges. Just to clarify and strengthen that too. Davis: That’s great there has been some conjecture about that so that actually (inaudible). Corrie: Thank you Eric. Item 5. Assessment Briefing by Ada County Assessor Bob McQuade: Corrie: Next is Bob McQuade. Welcome Bob. McQuade: Mr. Mayor thank you. I really enjoy coming out to these meetings because it gives me a chance to see an overall picture in my office I get to see just a little piece of it. When I get to your presentation like this, last one it really brings the issue of property taxes, market values, and levy’s home to me. That is something that is more than what we just discuss down in our office in a more theoretical manner. I’ve come by this evening to tell you that we’ve mailed our assessment notices. They actually went out today we had a little glitch so we expect them to be received in tomorrows mail and our phones should just light up probably 3:00 tomorrow afternoon. Last year we got over 4,000 phone calls once we had sent those out. Anyway, I just wanted to come by and just chat with you briefly and tell you what’s going on with the assessed values and the number of parcels that are going on out in your area. I think it just goes way beyond general interest. I think what’s going on in the housing market in the residential and the commercial real estate is really a good indicator of what’s going on in the economy in your community. Also, market values are a real driver of levies and that gives you a feel of what’s going to be going on in your taxes. Speaking of taxes new construction is a piece of your property taxes of your budget because your budget is – (inaudible) of your budget, increase is your new construction. With that, let me just tell you that the total market value in Meridian is 2.8 billion dollars this year and there is a hand out in front of you if you wanted to refer to that. That sets 14 percent over last year. That’s the total market value the taxable value that is the market value plus any exemptions. That would be homeowner’s exemptions or agricultural exemptions. The tax value is 2.4 billion Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 11 of 26 and that’s up 15 percent over the previous year. I always think it’s kind of noteworthy that taxable value what P said is in total values taxable values 82 percent of the total value in otherwards about 18 percent of the assessed values coming off in the form of exemptions. This year you have a new something new over in Meridian and that is your Urban Renewal Area. I think that’s important because the Urban Renewal value you get to include that in your new construction but you don’t get to levy against that. Your Urban Renewal value is 10.4 million dollars. Just as a side note Boise City now has four Urban Renewal Areas now looking at another one god, help them in their wisdom. The residential parcel count in Meridian is 16,000 a little over that and it’s up 9.8 percent. That is really a good gross number is residential parcels. Ada County to put that in perspective countywide we’re only at three percent. You’re almost 10 percent that’s just a whopping 10 percent. Market value is 1.9 billion that’s up 15 percent and again in context with the whole county that’s 11 percent countywide. To me one of the most (inaudible) numbers and that exists residential what’s going on with that. Over in Meridian immediate increase is 2.7 percent and there are a lot of different reasons for that. To me I thought that was interesting because the people who gave the presentation just before mine they said that the annual growth rate in residential property is about three percent so this is just very much in line with that. MLS multiple listing service throughout Ada County is 3.2 percent on existing so it’s just slightly less over here in Meridian. Commercial a parcel count is 2,128 and that’s if you’ll look on your chart that’s 3.9 percent decrease. I need to explain that because in commercial property we have two components of that. There is the real property component that’s the land and the brooks and (inaudible) also there is the personal property piece of that. Personal property that all person property that’s used in a business is accessible personal property would be desks, personal computers, adding machines anything that’s used in conducting a business. In a retail store, it would be counters, shelving and things like that. The reason for that decrease is there’s a piece that we’ve not put on the road yet about 10 to 15 percent of the business owner’s do not report their personal property each year so we have to estimate that. Is what we are doing this year is we are going to be making that estimate in July and August so that estimate is not included in this. Also, there were some parcels, leased equipment, and Pitney Bowes mail machines years past each machine we would have put in as a separate parcel. This year we’re putting it all in as just one parcel and then making an allocation out that way. That’s the reason that that numbers down. In the terms of the real property, the brick and (inaudible) the land this I think is really critical. In 2002, you had 869 commercial properties this year you have 941 so that is going up. You’re not going to find that on the list I grabbed that just as I left the office. The market value of all commercial property is 900 million that is up 13 percent. The medium th price on existing commercial is about on 10 of a percent or .15 of a percent. We’re seeing that all over the county where commercial is just barely going up and I think that’s more of a function of the economy. New construction again that’s important to you because part of your budget will be last years value plus a tax that will be levied against this years new construction and that’s what you get to add to that. Your parcel count residential parcel count new construction is 871 Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 12 of 26 and that’s up 16 percent. Boise City was actually just flat. The value and this was after the homeowner’s exemption new construction is 78 million that’s a 14 percent increase. Commercial parcel count is up 54 that’s up 32 percent a value of 48.6 million this is an increase of 60 percent. That is just amazing. The tax burden that is what percentage does the homeowner bearer of the property tax bill compared to commercial. Residential is 59 percent and your commercial is 41 percent. Before I would make any closing remarks, I would be happy to answer any questions. Bird: I have none. McQuade: Well I’ll tell you looking at these numbers I just think Meridian is just really – what’s going on over here is just phenomenal. Your residential is very strong and your commercial is very strong. Meridian is one of the few areas that are keeping Ada County moving along. Corrie: Good any questions. Bird: I have none Bob thank you for the report. Corrie: Nice report Bob thank you. De Weerd: Thank you very much. I was hoping you would tell us how to pay for the interchange. McQuade: Well I was listening to that I thought hmmm I wish I could help you out. Bird: You don’t have an extra (inaudible) county. Corrie: Can we tap you for three million? De Weerd: Can we use some of your budget? McQuade: Yes I think going to Ada County and looking for some help that might be a good start over there. Corrie: Okay good. Bird: I thought that was a good idea. Corrie: Thank you I appreciate Bob thank you very much. McQuade: We’ll be back next year. Corrie: Okay we’re looking forward to it. Thank you. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 13 of 26 Item 6. Discussion of SAGE -- Follow Up: Corrie: The next is the discussion of SAGE follow up. Toombs: Thank you Mr. Mayor. I’m Leslie Toombs I’m the Economic Development Planner with SAGE Community Resources and it’s wonderful to hear that great report for the City of Meridian. Council President de Weerd invited me to come and give some follow up on what the Planning Department does for cities. I don’t know did you receive a copy of the fax I sent last week? Okay terrific. In talking to Mrs. de Weerd and last year the Planning Department and Stacy Kilchenmann, your Finance Director we identified two potential projects that the City of Meridian and their non-profit communities might be interested in pursuing. One is the Senior Center has identified some needs for expansion and addressing some safety items. The other is your downtown revitalization planning and those are both potential projects through applying for federal community development block grants. Our department works with cities to develop successful grant applications in that program and through the fax I sent I tried to outline if a city chooses to pursue some of this funding it is federal funding there’s federal requirements and that’s what we’re there for. Our Planning Department has five certified grant administrators that can assist the city through the federal requirements. None of the requirements are new requirements they’re all existing laws. I believe you probably have some of the assurances and resolutions probably on file through past projects but I don’t know. That’s something that we could go through if you choose to and assist the city with those federal requirements. We do work with the community bring (inaudible) Senior Center on what the most fundable portions of what they’re looking at doing they should pursue health and safety are always first priorities as far as your downtown project. Economic development and eradicating underutilized areas. You’ve gone through it with your urban renewal planning some of that process of identifying the needs in the downtown area. I didn’t know if there were questions I could answer or if you want me to go through any of the particular items. Corrie: What is the cost of SAGE this year coming up for 2004. Toombs: For our dues – Corrie: Is it around 2,000 to 2,700? Toombs: 25. Corrie: 2,500? Toombs: That sounds about right. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 14 of 26 Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Ms. Toombs have you met with the Senior Center people? Toombs: Pat Angle from our office has met with them three or four times yes. Nary: Is that – I remember Ms. Simko’s presentation and I read the material that was provided. I can see some potential value with SAGE. It seems like when we’ve had this discussion we’ve identified the relationship that SAGE and the assistant SAGE could provide to entities like the Senior Center. I haven’t seen the Senior Center people come here too but I guess that’s the piece to me. Basically, you folks act as an assistant, a go between to assist different community groups and in securing some funding and those types of things. That’s great but for us to spend the taxpayer money to (inaudible) the organization to have that ability available in our community I guess I would like to see some of the people from our community saying yes that would really be helpful to us. That’s something that we would really take advantage of if it was available to make it feel like it’s worth us spending that kind of dollars. Have you considered that in having those folks come? Toombs: No we haven’t. We’ve go direct phone calls. We do work for the cities and we would represent the city – the block grant funding is federal funding that comes back to the states to go back to eligible projects, cities, and counties. A city or a county has to sponsor any particular application. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Since I serve on both the board for the Senior Center as well as for the Urban Renewal Area both boards have talked about this. Both boards have plans to or anticipate utilizing SAGE services provided that the city joins. The Senior Center I thought they would be here tonight they had talked about it. I didn’t call and remind them so that might be why they’re not here. They do have a number of needs. Our Building Inspectors have been through there our Fire Inspectors have been through there and there are a number of issues that the Senior Center needs that they would be pursuing through SAGE. Like Leslie said, they’ve met with them – ***End Of Side One*** De Weerd: -- different times. Just through the Urban Renewal Agency, we just started those discussions as we’re looking at next years budge. They’re not as far along as certainly the Senior Center is. Bill, I don’t know why they’re not here. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 15 of 26 Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Yes and I guess that’s really the one piece of the puzzle that we haven’t seen in both of the presentations. Again, I see the value that SAGE could provide but I guess for my comfort level I would like to see the local groups that are really going to benefit wanting to a part. I guess it would be very compelling to me if they were here whether if the MDC or whether it’s the Senior Center or any other groups that need the cities participation in SAGE to have that partnering ability to work with SAGE to get some of these things done. Because for the dues price that’s a pretty good return to our citizens but I haven’t seen our citizens I’ve just seen SAGE. You can tell me how great it is but unless I know, how you market yourself and how they’re going to know that you exist and how they’re going to know that we have joined this organization to provide that opportunity for our citizens. All I’ve heard is what you tell me and I would rather see them. Toombs: Yes we’ve also tried to be of assistance to the city. A year ago, we did supply of the City Planning Department and we have information on establishing standards for Urban Renewal Districts and resolutions for slum and blight determination. We have a lot of information that we’ve developed over the years that we have on file that we can shoot off to people so we’ve tried to be of direct assistance to the city as well as the groups you represent. Corrie: Give Bill a call, see when he can come up here, and talk to us as well. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: Isn’t SAGE basically though one of the biggest things they do is help low income housing in the cities like HUD Housing and stuff isn’t that really your forte? Toombs: No, the Area Agency on Aging the Senior Programs for Southwest Idaho are out of our office and the Work Source Development Program. Bird: So the biggest percent is for Senior Centers is what SAGE is doing? Toombs: We have a number of different programs. Bird: I think it’s HUD low income housing – Toombs: Actually we are in the housing field. Bird: You are in the housing deal on that and do help a lot of the cities and have that in their programs is what the first information that came out from when they were over here earlier. It does help the seniors too but there are other areas that Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 16 of 26 it does do a lot of grant writing and go after grants I guess there’s no guarantee you get it. It does – I know that HUD is one of them because most of your funding comes from the housing – Toombs: You would have to talk to our director about the overall budget. The Planning Department is self-supporting so when we work with a community the only way we support ourselves is through administration if we have successful projects. Bird: You take administration fees out of the grant that is written right? Toombs: That’s correct so if we’re not successful then it’s the service to the community. Bird: That’s all I had thank you. Corrie: Any other questions. Thank you. We’ll call you Leslie on this one. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Could we ask the City Clerk to invite the Senior Center and MDC Representative to join us at one of our Pre-Council to kind of share with us if they can utilize the services. Certainly from board discussions, they say they can but yes, I agree with Councilman Nary they do need to show up and indicate that through testimony. Corrie: Okay. Item 7. Blakeslee & Associates – Follow Up: Corrie: Next Mrs. Blakeslee. Blakeslee: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Hello Dawneen. Blakeslee: How are you how is everybody? Nary: Great. Blakeslee: I didn’t realize this was going to be the format but that’s all right we’ll just go right ahead. In talking with Councilwoman de Weerd and with the Mayor we talked about the need and actually with all of you eight months ago about a follow up to the customer service survey project that we did with the Building Department and the Planning and Zoning. It has been eight months since we Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 17 of 26 brought in the results and started doing some planning or the teams started doing some planning. It talked about that it’s time to look at an internal follow up and also to get on the calendar when you want to start doing like going back out and talking with the customers at the year mark which would be in September. Visiting with all of them again to complete the survey to see what has transpired within the year as was promised the customers. Just by virtue of my schedule, it’s an important part. If it’s going to happen in September October I needed to get it on my schedule now so that I have time. As you know it’s a wonderful project and incredibly, time consuming and I wanted to make sure that we got it into the plans now. Let me just give you a handout that just – sorry – gives you just some ideas about what I have for follow up. I’m going on an a premise that I do not know what follow up has been happening for these eight months so some of these points in section A could already be taken care of and you may already have all of this information so it would be a matter of just keeping me in the loop. In Section A is more about the internal follow up. Finding out from the internal side what has been happening in the field perspective and departments that were in this customer service project. How the process is that they developed, how they’re going, and what challenges they’ve incurred. I understand there was some customer service training that’s been going on through the Human Resources and whether that has been applicable to the particular needs that were addressed in this customer service survey I don’t know that but that would be something to look at to see if that has been taken care of already. Then what from the employee’s point of view has been the response from the customers with the particular changes. For example, there was a list that Gary Smith and his team provided from the Building and Public Works Department that had about 23 different items on it that they were going to really devote effort to. It would be good to see where are we with that, how well is that flowing, and have there been challenges in being able to get some of those things done. I don’t know where you are in this process so that’s why I’m here to say okay it’s been eight months. My responsibility is to kind of chase you a little bit and say okay we did an awful lot of work so you know what’s happened because of it. Then also to then in part B would be the same type of follow up customer service survey. We would have to use the same survey so you get a real good base for the numbers as to the responses from all of the customers. Whether or not we had to go ahead and interview all 109 again is up to you. I would say that we have to get at least 75 percent of that in order for it to be balanced information. Then go to a small group because then you wouldn’t the same information that we got from the massiveness of the study I did last spring. That’s what I’m here for is just to give you the information for your consideration and to let me know so that I can start putting it into my calendar and gather the information. I don’t know what you already have and if you have a lot of A already that’s wonderful because then that’s one step we don’t need to do but if you don’t have it then we need to gather it for you. Then also if there are any particular training adjustments then I’m available for that too. I did not put a price on the project because I don’t know where we’re at but you know what the price was for the initial one and it wouldn’t be any more than that. I would suspect it would be a lot less. Not a lot less but less. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 18 of 26 Corrie: Could you follow up with the two departments and find out just exactly what you’re follow up is going to entail. Blakeslee: Right yes. Corrie: Then kind of give us a report on what the cost will be. Blakeslee: Right that would be number – I mean if you say Dawneen let’s go for it let’s do this then I would need to visit with both of the departments and see which of these bullet points where are we? What have we – what do we have what don’t have? What’s going on and then that becomes part of the report and that way of course I can do the pricing. Corrie: Okay. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: Well we (inaudible) as a Council to go through this thing and get it done and complete we’re only half done. One of the checkups and I know that this is what – about the biggest thing that helped get Boise completely turned around. The point that they did was because they did follow ups and they do follow-ups yearly. I for one agree with you Mayor to have Dawneen find out what she’s got, how much has been done, how much that each department feels they have. I know that Gary has done a great job of going out and trying you know (inaudible) and doing things. I don’t know and then have her get back to us but I for one am committed to see this thing through to the end. Corrie: Okay. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: I would concur as well I think that really does complete the circle here and that’s what we really need to do. I think we just need to just get a better handle on numbers but I think the process as you’ve outlined in this letter is what we probably need to do. I think especially I don’t think Mrs. Powell’s had enough opportunity to certainly lay in on the planning side but I know Mr. Smith has done quite a bit of work and I think it may be helpful at this juncture to know how far that’s come and then how much more needs to be done. I think we do need to finish this. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 19 of 26 Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: So can some of this wrap up in meeting with the Department Heads also kind of acclimating our new Planning Director to some of the issues and working with her and Brad to bring them kind of up to the same point. Is that kind of the conclusion of the old and then you can give us numbers for the new so we st can include it in our budget year starting October 1? Blakeslee: I think it will be completed by – well half of it would be finished. Probably the internal part I would do this summer as far as wanting to see where are we. I don’t know how much the new director has been informed or what process that needs to happen as far as where she is and where Brad is and all that. It’s just me really meeting with the directors and saying okay where do we go from here. I’m operating in a void because I haven’t really been involved in it since the end of last September. That’s why Number 8 is very variable because I don’t know how much has happened, how many reports you know do you actually have a monthly tool that you’re getting with an update of this project. If you are, then you’re up to speed and we can go onto the next step but I don’t know that. It would be better to meet with the directors and get that process going first and then I can come back to you and say here’s what I found, here’s what we can do, here’s where I think this piece is still missing or this piece is phenomenal let’s just keep going with that. You know whatever the case may be. I need direction from you to come back on board again and direction for the directors to know that I’m coming back on board so they don’t go oh no, here she comes again. Corrie: I think that probably what you can do then is get with Anna and Gary find out what your direction’s going to be and then the cost then we can go from there and get it done. We want to finish it out so you know that we’re serious about that. Then you can give us all the information and maybe we can get it done all this year too not going into the next year. De Weerd: I think we do want the follow up. Corrie: Yes okay. Blakeslee: So just let’s move forward on it that’s the – okay you got it. Corrie: Okay thank you. Blakeslee: Thank you. Corrie: Thank you very much Dawneen. Item 8. Discussion of Computer Usage Policy by Stacy Kilchenmann: Corrie: Stacy can you – how fast are you pretty fast? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 20 of 26 Kilchenmann: Yes. Corrie: Okay Stacy. Then the next – you have three of them here. Kilchenmann: The first item is the Computer Usage Policy. Basically, I guess I could just ask you if anybody has any specific questions on it. It’s pretty simple and straight forward it’s just time to tell employees that city computers are to be used for city business basically and that there are certain requirements for back up of data and security requirements and some prohibitions on people loading software or loading things onto the server without the IT person doing that. Then at the back we have a series of definitions, which you’ll move to the front. It added some frequently asked questions because we sent this out to the Department Directors and the first time we all were trying to figure out you know the common language of Terry’s IT talk. There are some questions in there that make it more clear for people and so forth. This has been – the last draft went to th the Directors on April 11 so everybody’s had a chance to read it and comment on it and so forth. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Did we get it at some point and I just don’t have it today or did – it’s not on our computers. Kilchenmann: We gave it to Sharon Thursday. Nary: Because I don’t have anything to look at. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Yes, we got it in hard copy probably a month or two ago. (Inaudible discussion amongst Council Members) Corrie: (Inaudible) comments that were supposed to be done. Kilchenmann: I think Sharon was going to put it on your disk but it must not have happened. We can postpone it. Corrie: We’ll give them a week next week. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess I was curious as to what the Department Heads comments were. We only have one IT person and that’s quite a burden to say he’s the only Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 21 of 26 one that can load software when we have a lot of different applications out there. I would be very curious as to how the Department Heads see that interaction with the sole IT person of the city and trying to get that accomplished. Kilchenmann: Actually we identified some certain software applications like the Skater Program, Spillman, and Maxicon that Terry is not responsible for. He’s identified those specifically in here. Like updating patches, updates, or so forth each department can do that. Then what the policy says is that there can be within a group a designated person that the Department Head feels comfortable having them load data they can – or software they can get some basic instructions from Terry. Like for Public Works it’s Bruce Freckleton for example. Then that person is their designated representative and they can load software. The big thing we’re trying to avoid is when people bring software from home or some software they got from a co-worker down the street and they love viruses. The time it takes to clean that up is just phenomenal. Terry, for example he spent a week trying to unload a virus that had gotten on because someone was trying to load software. We think we’ve got it balanced there and that all of those representatives are on the management or on the IT Steering Committee so there is a lot of interaction between that group of people and so forth. Corrie: We’ve never really had anybody really holler about it Department Heads. De Weerd: I guess the distinguishing thing is does the city own the license. If they don’t it shouldn’t be on our computers. Kilchenmann: Correct. That was another one of Terry’s points that it’s hard to control a license if you don’t – Corrie: Okay we’ll give them a week, Gary. Kilchenmann: Okay. Smith: Mr. Mayor and Council I appreciate Stacy’s comments and all of the work she and Terry have put into this policy. As she said, one of the things that happen in the Public Works Department is that we have several programs software programs that we use for modeling our water and wastewater system. The operators of those programs Len Grady operates the water model and both Bruce Freckleton and Brad well actually Brad operates the hydro software for the wastewater collection system. They are quite often upgrading the software upgrading that program from patches that are downloaded from the Internet. One of the things as Stacy said that we’ll be able to do that internally without bothering Terry for his help. Our guys are perfectly capable of being able to do that and Bruce Freckleton is in our department the designated IT representative. He does sit on that IT Steering Committee also. We just wanted to make sure that we didn’t get our hands tied in terms of upgrading our software programs and having to wait for Terry and he would be significantly burdened with a lot of work if that did happen. We really appreciate Stacy and Terry taking into account Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 22 of 26 the comments that the Public Works Department did send. The question and answer section was very helpful. The definitions were very helpful and we just want to make sure that we have capabilities within our department to manage our software that we are using. Thank you. Corrie: Thank you Gary. Item 9. Discussion of Finance Report with Finance Department: Item 10. Discussion of Budget Items Policies: Kilchenmann: Okay the next item the financial statements I’ll just go over very quickly. On the bench in front of you, I put a couple of new sheets. One of them is the potential budget amendment for this year, I took Reta’s sheet, and I just cleaned it up a bit. The one thing I did want to get your permission for tonight is that the Wastewater Treatment Plant would like to transfer 100,000 dollars from the Five Mile Creek Project to the Boise River Repair and Creek Crossing Project. There was some difference – Jon said there were some differences between the Asbuilt Plan measurements and the actual field measurements so they wouldn’t be spending new money he would just be transferring between those two capital projects. The other thing we did on if you look at that potential amendment form at the bottom of the general fund you’ll see some items titled hold back. Those are the items we discussed when we discussed making out for the shortage and interest income. We went ahead and actually entered those and the financial statements literally held them back so that the money that we had discussed using wouldn’t be spent for other items. That’s kind of what those are. I won’t go into this in detail. Maybe if there are any more questions on it we can discuss it just briefly next week when we review the computer usage policy. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: On this item under consideration, this recreation coordinator that’s not what we talked about last week about the facility thing? Kilchenmann: It is we left out the word facilities it’s the same thing. Nary: Oh, it is the same thing. Kilchenmann: It’s the recreational facilities coordinator. Nary: We never did have an opportunity to discuss this Aspire On transfer. Kilchenmann: That’s why we put it under considerations. Nary: And so that’s something you want to talk about next week? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 23 of 26 Kilchenmann: Yes we should clear that up too. Nary: Great. Kilchenmann: And that’s all I have. Corrie: Okay any questions from Council? We’ll put you on the beginning Stacy. Kilchenmann: Okay. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Since she said she wanted approval for this 100,000-dollar transfer here do we need to do that on the record? Corrie: Okay. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: Legally I don’t think we can approve this because this is actually a budget adjustment. Kilchenmann: Well it’s not an overall adjustment it’s just moving it from one project to the other. Bird: Okay. Nary: It’s already budgeted it’s just a different line. Bird: Make your motion that’s what I have. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: I guess I move the approval of the transfer of budget item from the Five Mile Project to the Boise River Repair Creek Crossing project of 100,000 dollars of the Wastewater Treatment Plant budget for the fiscal year 03’. Bird: Second. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 24 of 26 Corrie: Okay motion been made and seconded any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor say aye. Opposed no. Motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES Corrie: Thank you Stacy. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess before Stacy leaves and it kind of falls under Item Number 10 the discussion of budget items. I appreciate the detail that you gave us outlining memberships, dues, and anticipation of some of the questions we would ask under Item Number 10. There are still some policies I think that needs to be a little bit firmed up and discussed. I don’t know if you need it in advance of our budget workshops but at some point, we need to have these conversations. It’s more Council maybe if there’s specific detail that we want for those budget workshops we need to get it to the Mayor and Stacy as soon as possible as she has done for us in providing the additional detail. That way going into our budget, workshops we can better manage our time and make sure that all the information that we feel we need to look at our budget this year is in order. Corrie: How long do you want to take to get the questions to her? One week two weeks? Nary: Mr. Mayor I guess what I thought we had discussed or had been talking about recently was having something whether on Pre-Council – a discussion about what items in the budget that the Council Members were interested in. That way we have an idea of what our interests are as well as that way when we have all the rest of the budget is presented by you we would have some way to do that. My concern was waiting until July and then as we’re sitting, here thinking of projects it’s really difficult to look at priorities. I guess I would – I know timing is always the problem for us but in trying to find some Pre-Council time for you know a 20 minute discussion about what projects we would like to be seeing or at least thinking about as we go into the budget. Again, it’s all a matter of priorities. I don’t know in the next week or two that we could have that discussion and then we would have a better way if there is some needs that we may have and Stacy or her folks trying to flush that out a little bit better for us as to what that might cost. If it’s an HR thing or whatever that way someway, we can do that. I think that would be helpful to me anyway. Corrie: Should we two or three weeks what’s your pleasure it’s yours? (Inaudible) so I’m more than happy to do that. Nary: Yes I would say I don’t know what it looks like next week or the week after. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 25 of 26 th Corrie: How about the 11 of June. th De Weerd: The 10. rd Nary: June 3 our Pre-Council Meeting is pretty short. Corrie: Yes so far. Nary: So far. Corrie: We can always shorten it even more if we have to for this. Nary: Right and if we – it looks like – Berg: (Inaudible). Nary: Right so if we add the computer policy and add this discussion onto our I guess it would be next weeks agenda for Pre-Council right now all we have is the speed limit and the alley is the discussion about that. I think Chief is – Corrie: (Inaudible) 15 already. Is Chief here? Nary: He was here. Corrie: Chief isn’t the speed limits in alleys already 15 miles an hour? Nary: No, actually we looked it up when she was here. Corrie: My mistake. Nary: I thought the same. Corrie: I don’t feel so bad then. Okay then we’ll have that one then that discussion. I was – Nary: Also to that one – Mr. Berg just reminded me if maybe we could the discussion on the Center Turn Lane Ordinance as to why the necessity of that then we could put that on the agenda afterwards. rd Corrie: Okay well is the 3 too soon. De Weerd: No. rd Corrie: Okay let’s put it on the 3. We’ll have a meeting Thursday and put that on there Bill just remind me. Nary: Okay we can always come early if we need to. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting May 27, 2003 Page 26 of 26 Corrie: Yes we can always have lunch anything else. I’ll entertain a motion then to close the Pre-Council Meeting. De Weerd: So moved. Nary: Second. Corrie: Okay motion been made and second to close the Pre-Council Meeting all in favor say aye. All ayes motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:15 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: / / ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR DATE ATTESTED: WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK