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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006 08-29 Special Meridian City Council Special Meetina Au~ust 29.2006 A special meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:05 P.M., Tuesday, August 29,2006, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Shaun Wardle, Keith Bird, Joe Borton and Charlie Rountree. Others Present: Bill Nary, Sharon Smith, Anna Canning, Bill Musser, Ron Anderson, Brad Watson, Doug Strong, Stacy Kilchenmann, Reta Cunningham and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X Shaun Wardle o Charlie Rountree X X Joe Borton X Keith Bird Mayor Tammy de Weerd De Weerd: I will go ahead and open tonight's meeting. It is Tuesday, August 29th. It's a little bit after 6:00. Thank you all for joining us. Most of your faces are very familiar to us. We will start tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. Item 2: Pledge of Allegiance: De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item No.2 is the pledge of allegiance. If you will all rise. Stacy will lead us in the pledge. (Pledge of allegiance recited.) Item 3: Community Invocation by Bill Nary. De Weerd: Well, since I don't see Bud here, I will ask Mr. Nary to give us our community invocation. If you will all join us in the community invocation or take this as an opportunity for a moment of silence. Nary: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. Lord, we thank you tonight for this opportunity to come together as a city. This is a momentous occasion each year as we prepare for another year for this city and prepare a budget and prepare the different programs and projects and such that we have both completed and look forward to in the coming year. We ask for wisdom upon the city, wisdom upon the Mayor and the Council as make these momentous decisions. We ask for these things in Jesus' name, amen. De Weerd: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Nary: You're welcome. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August 29, 2006 Page 2 of 17 De Weerd: You're good at those on-the-spot things. Nary: Thank you. Item 4: Adoption of the Agenda: De Weerd: Okay. Item NO.4 is adoption of the agenda. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve the agenda as published. Borton: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion to approve the agenda as published. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Item 5: Public Hearing: 2006/2007 Fiscal Year Budget: De Weerd: Item 5 is our Public Hearing on the 2006-2007 fiscal year budget and I will turn this over to Stacy. Kilchenmann: Okay. Welcome to the FY07 two and a half hour budget hearing. I'm just kidding. Now you will be so glad that it's not, you will just eat it up. De Weerd: Yeah. The directors are very thrilled to be here. Kilchenmann: They are all thrilled to be here. I just know it. There will be a quiz afterwards. Okay. The City of Meridian's total FY07 budget request, which includes everything, is 95.8 million, approximately. You can see that almost half of that is what we call carry forward for re-appropriation. That means capital projects that we started in prior years that have not yet been completed. About 19 million is personnel. Fourteen million operating. And new capital outlay that we are budgeting for the first time is 18 million. And, then, just another way to look at that by percentage, again, the re- appropriation is about 44 percent of that total budget. So, that 95.8 million looks pretty big at first, but, then, when you break it down most of it is re-appropriation. The total operating and personnel budget -- and, again, this is total, including all funds, is 34.6 million. And that's water and sewer and public safety each make up about 40 percent of that total piece of the pie. So, those two are significantly bigger than the rest of the smaller departments. If we look at the total re-appropriation, that 42.9 million, almost 36 and a half million is just for water and sewer projects that are either under construction Meridian City Council Special Meeting August 29, 2006 Page 3 of 17 or haven't been started yet. And following quite a ways behind is parks at 3.1 million. And, then, in the Capital Improvement Fund we still have that 2.1 million that we are carrying forward from the City Hall. We have spent approximately half of what we budgeted for the land purchase. The total revenue for the entire city is about 52.5 million. And this shows all those pieces that make up that. With, again, utility connections on the Enterprise Fund side and property taxes in the General Fund side are about equal at 24 percent. And water and sewer usage fees at 18 percent. So, the Enterprise Fund is definitely the biggest -- is half of that pie. Our funds are actually almost evenly split between General Fund and Enterprise. So, if we take the Enterprise Fund out and we can just look at what the General Fund looks like. And the General Fund, as we all know, is the general services, such as public safety, parks, recreation and in this we are looking at building inspections and planning and development services are part of the General Fund, even though we internally separate them. The biggest component of the General Fund is public safety. It's 40 percent of the city's entire personnel and operating budget and 69 percent of the General Fund budget. And just -- it's funded mostly by property taxes, which is 24 percent of the entire city budget. So, if we look at just the General Fund revenue and, again, this includes building permits and filing and application fees and so forth, but we take out the Enterprise piece, property tax is about half. So, it's about 48 percent, with the next biggest piece of that being building permits at 20 percent. And so if we take out the restrictive sources of revenue, which are park impact fees, which we can't use for anything other than park development and, then, we take out building and application fees, because we have specifically designated as a city that those go to the Capital Improvement Fund, we are left with about 18.3 million of unrestricted General Fund revenue for FY07. And so you can see of that pie, the biggest piece of that is property taxes, 69 percent. Followed pretty far behind by government sharing at 16 percent. So, if we just look at the -- at our General Fund personnel and operating budget, leaving out all capital outlay, it's 16.9 million, with police being the biggest -- almost -- well, over half of it at 51 percent, followed by fire. And, then, if you -- the second chart on the bottom shows -- we took everything, which that includes our carry forward and all our capital. The police shrinks to 37 percent, because we have a bigger portion -- or a large portion that we are either carrying forward for parks or that we -- new capital that we are appropriating for parks development. Just to talk -- since property taxes is the big -- big piece of the General Fund, it will increase about 23 percent from FY06 to '07 and 20 percent of this increase is due to new construction. And you can see just even starting in 2002 how fast the value of our new construction has gone up and how fast the population has gone up. So, because of the way the formula in the state of Idaho works, what that means is our levy rate is actually going down, because the bottom number, the market value, is going up so much faster than the top number, which is limited by the prior year -- by state statute to three percent. So, basically, it looks like a little sharper decline than it is, because the numbers are so close together. But our levy is about .003. It stays right around there and has for several years. Okay. So, to look at what each department is actually asking for in enhancements or what we are adding to our services for the new year, we will start with public safety. Again, it makes up about 40 percent of the entire city operating budget and over 80 percent of the General Fund operating budget. The police -- their total budget request is about 8.6 million, with fire at about 5.1 million. So, Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 4 of 17 specifically, looking at the police department, their enhancement request is 60 percent of the total General Fund enhancement request. And kind of driving that, of course, are the needs and the service needs from 2004 to 2005 calls for service increased 16 percent and that's -- I'm sure they don't have -- 2005 to 2006 will probably be a similar increase. And, basically, they are organized into three divisions, patrol, criminal investigations, and community services. So, the police department for FY07 is requesting to add six patrol officers, one narcotics officer, one crime scene investigator, two victim witness coordinators, two records clerks, a part-time volunteer coordinator. So, those are the requests that have come through from the police department. The fire department FY07 operating enhancement request is 8.7 percent of the total General Fund request. The fire department includes rural and the city at 54 square acres, with a combined population of 77,000. And they have also had a call volume increase. Would you like to say something? Oh. Okay. De Weerd: I'm sorry, sir. Will you, please, speak into the microphone? Kilchenmann: Okay. I misread your slide in its tiny -- De Weerd: She's probably having to read your writing. Kilchenmann: Yeah. And, actually, I was going to lose the whole fire slides. So, the fire department is on their knees begging for a Deputy EMS Chief, to increase the fire truck fund, and various miscellaneous pieces of operating equipment. The parks department -- Bird: Madam Chairman? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: Before you go on from the fire, let's also state in there for the public that 20 percent of theirs is paid by the rural. Kilchenmann: Okay. The Parks Department. Their operating enhancement request is about eight percent of the General Fund request. The capital outlay request piece is 1 .7 million dollars, which is total General Fund and impact fees. And here are some more statistics, which I hope are correct. Are close to correct. A hundred and fifty-five acres is maintained park land and about 78 acres of undeveloped park land. And parks -- besides parks and parks development, also includes recreation, which offer classes, summer camp programs, lots of different special events and sports leagues. They are requesting to purchase park land for impact fees at about half a million dollars, used for various park development from impact fees of 800,000. Park development from the General Fund of 272,000. And various operating equipment and additions to operating maintenance to go with the new park acres, plus some increase to recreation and increase to recreation is offset by increased recreation fees. Okay. The final piece of the General Fund is City Administration, which includes three departments, Financial Management, Human Resources, and Information Technology, that are split with the Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 5 of 17 Enterprise Fund, plus the Elected Officials, the City Clerk, and, then, Legal, which is split with Development Services. Their operating request is 21 percent of the total General Fund operating enhancement request and capital outlay request is about 163,000. So, their requested additions include an accountant, a network specialist, a data base application developer, a department specialist, and an executive assistant. Some training in HR support. Various supports for different community groups. Disaster recovery, which is an IT -- that's an IT disaster recovery. And, then, some various capital replacements for computers and so forth. Then, the big, exciting thing is the addition to the City Hall from the Capital Improvement Fund is seven million dollars. So, now if this budget's approved, the City Hall funding will total 16 million dollars, which includes carry forward from the Enterprise Fund of 4.5 million. And this is just -- and I won't go into every detail of this number, but this is another way to look at how the budget works, because there is such a big re-appropriated amount of carry forward, so this is sort of a balance sheet approach to seeing how much is actually new revenue, personnel, operating and capital outlay, separated from the carry forward. And in the General Fund it's important to notice that we have taken the excess of revenue over what we are appropriating to spend and we are going to add that to the CIP Fund balance, so we are saving that for one-time expenditures, rather than spending it on ongoing operating type costs. And this is the Capital Improvement Fund. It's a little misleading, because it's -- the new revenue shown is just interest income, when, actually, we will have new -- we will have money infused from that excess from the General Fund and, then, also from our Special Services Fund. And this is the Impact Fee Fund, which is what we refer to as the restricted General Fund. Okay. The Special Services Fund, we have taken functions that are related to serving development and we have set them aside and said that they will be funded by development fees. So, that fund, actually, includes several different departments. We have the Building Department, Planning Department, Street Lights, Code Enforcement, Economic Development, with the excess going to the Capital Improvements Fund, any excess of fees over costs. And this, obviously, is very development dependent. When building drops, the revenue will drop, and you can see the biggest piece of that pie is building permits. Belongs to building permits. So, their estimated budget -- or their budget request for FY07 is 6.1 million. But you can also see if you look at the bottom graph that 24 percent of that request is a transfer into the Capital Improvement Fund. So, it's a transfer from one-time money and not for ongoing operating costs. The Special Services has two -- they do have two basic revenue sources, in addition to building department fees, but if you just operate with building department fees and look at it by itself, and with the revenue being the green line and the base budget being the bottom line and the base budget principally for the building department are -- we have a few employees and, then, we have the cost of the building contractors. So, you can see how high revenue has stayed for us over the expanse. De Weerd: Oh, shoot, I missed my opportunity to show our report, whose was going off the sign over there. I see Frank can read it. Kilchenmann: I knew you were dying. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 6 of 17 De Weerd: I was. Kilchenmann: And, then, the Planning Department revenue is a little lower than the housing department revenue, so that the base budget is the black. And, then, it's -- we also have the other funds in the yellow. So, that's just how those kind of two split apart. So, their FY07 budget enhancement request, the building department has requested some money for new building permit software and, then, the big item in there is the excess revenue transfer to the Capital Improvement Fund. The Planning Department has requested one person, a principal planner, and, then, some other various equipment, software type requests. Then, kind of lumped we put lots of studies and so forth, we just put those into the Planning Department, even though they might be driven by economic development or different reasons. So, we have some requests that they always total 135,000, but they are for several different studies and memberships and so forth that we just put into the Planning Department. Then, this is just that same balance sheet looking at the Special Services Fund. And, then, the Enterprise Fund -- the Enterprise Fund is the business functions of the city and activities that are funded by user charges. For the City of Meridian those are water and sewer, we actually -- this is fairly recently that we have started to do this, but we divide them into two sides. We have the operation side, which is the revenue cost associated with water and sewer usage. So, that's your -- the daily -- kind of the daily use of water and sewer. So, we separate that out and, then, we -- as a cost center and, then, we have the construction side, which is revenue and revenue and cost associated actually constructing capital infrastructure, like this water line and the treatment plant and so forth. So, on the operations side, the base budget is the personnel and operating costs -- as I, said before, to keep the sewer and plant going on a day-to-day basis. And as we know, the number of accounts that they service has grown rapidly in the last 18 months. So, this chart looks at their operating revenue, as we have taken it and separated it out, compared to their base budget. So, revenue is projected to be going below the base budget, which because they are an Enterprise Fund that can be adjusted -- will be adjusted. And, then, the construction side is funded by assessment or connection fees and those are things like water lines, sewer lines, treatment plant, lift stations, wells, reservoirs and their income is well above -- well, their projects budget is well above their income, but those are like big one-time projects that are budgeted and ongoing costs. So, traditionally, and in the audit those two revenue sources are added together and they are looked at as one unit. So, if we look at their total proposed budget, it's 56 million dollars, but of that 64 percent is carry forward are those big projects that they are still working on. This is just another way to look at the same thing, only look at it by department and most of that carry forward is in the wastewater treatment plant. So, if we just take the carry forward out and look at their new base and their new capital, their budget request is 19.9 million. And, again, the wastewater is the biggest portion. So, they are requesting in the Public Works Department for FY07 a GIS programmer, some various software and electronics equipment, and a small amount of consulting and contract labor. The water department is requesting two additional operators, some -- about half a million dollars for additional water building construction, well water line construction of over two million, a small amount of consulting, then, every year we ask for the retro-fit meters to the radio read system and, then, some various small Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 7 of 17 miscellaneous things. The wastewater treatment plant is asking for the Five Mile metering station. The biggest chunk is in the south area trunk. Various pieces of equipment for 62,000. Two staff members. Money for the Black Cat sewer and, then, a start on the wastewater treatment plant phase two. So, this is what the Enterprise Fund looks like in the balance sheet format. Again, you can see that that big of portion is the re-appropriated fund balance for those big capital projects. De Weerd: Stacy, can you tell us on the water -- there is additional funding for the water building. What was carry forward? What was the carry forward? Do you recall, Brad? Kilchenmann: You know, I -- De Weerd: I didn't ask it to stump -- Kilchenmann: Yeah. I would say 1.5 million. De Weerd: Okay. So, this brings it to two? Kilchenmann: Yeah. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. That's close enough. Kilchenmann: So, that's the end. And it only took almost -- it took almost a half an hour. Are there any questions? De Weerd: Thank you, Stacy. Any questions regarding the presentation in front of you? I do know Chief Musser has something. This is a Public Hearing. Chief, did you have something? Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, I didn't know if it would fit into this area or if it should be better as a department report, but it had to do with information on a potential purchase that -- I was just looking for some guidance from the Council in terms of possibly picking up an incident support vehicle that's available from Idaho State police. But it's not really a part of the new budget. My understanding was that that may have to be something that was part of our current budget. De Weerd: Okay. Yes, Stacy. Kilchenmann: What I suggest is that would probably be -- if the Council wants to go ahead and do that -- because we have the amendment finished and in front of you tonight, would be to have him purchase it out of the money left over from the Capital Improvement Fund. De Weerd: Okay. We can deal with that, then, at that time. But I appreciate that. Didn't know if that was more immediate for this budget cycle. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August 29, 2006 Page 8 of 17 Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Bird. Bird: I think in the literature we got a decision has to be made by the 1 st of September, as I read this. Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilman Bird, they are looking to have some sort of decision in by the 1 st of September from interested parties that, you know, may want to purchase it. At this point I know there is at last four entities that are interested. We are one of those four. Bird: That's Friday. Musser: Yes, sir. De Weerd: Thank you, chief. We don't have you down as a department report, but we will put you down as one. Musser: Thank you, Madam Mayor. De Weerd: Okay. This is a Public Hearing. Is there anyone from our audience who would like to make comment? I don't have my glasses on. Is that you, Anna? Okay. Council? Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Wardle. Wardle: Seeing no further testimony on our Public Hearing, I'd like to thank the finance department and its director for the presentation. Excellent again this year. And move to close the Public Hearing. Bird: Second. De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to close the Public Hearing on Item 5. All those in favor say aye. All ayes. Motion carries. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August 29, 2006 Page 9 of 17 Bird: I move that we adopt the 2007 fiscal year budget and for the proper resolution be drawn up and presented on September 5th, 2006. Borton: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the budget as presented before you. Is there any discussion? Mrs. Deputy City Clerk, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 6: Presentation of the Proposed Amendments for 2005 I 2006 Fiscal Year Budget: De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 7 is Ordinance No. 06-1255. This is -- oh, I'm sorry. Do I try and skip an item almost every meeting? Bird: I appreciate that, but -- De Weerd: I was trying to get you out in quick order. Okay. Item NO.6 is the presentation of the proposed amendments for the 2005-2006 fiscal year budget. Stacy, tonight is your night. Kilchenmann: Well, we didn't -- I didn't actually do a presentation for this. I gave you a listing of everything, because you have already approved everything on the amendment list, so I can read through all of them if you want me to. De Weerd: I don't think that's necessary. Mr. Wardle. Wardle: Madam Mayor, just to clarify. Stacy, is that the amount that I see, the three million one hundred -- Kilchenmann: Yes. And, then, there is -- yeah. Reta made that -- prepared that to be read with her fine technical tools. Wardle: Thanks. Madam Mayor, with that I believe we need a motion, so I would move that we approve fiscal year 2006 budget amendment of 3,103,134 dollars and to prepare the proper resolution. Borton: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the item for proposed amendments in front of you. Any discussion? Mrs. Smith, will you, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 10 of 17 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. Item 7: Ordinance No. 06-1255 to Impact Fee Ordinance: 2nd of 3 Readings of Amendment De Weerd: Thank you. Okay. Item 7. Ordinance No. 06-1255. This is the second of three readings of amendment to the Impact Fee Ordinance. If the deputy city clerk will, please, read this by title only. Smith: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council. This is a reading by title of Ordinance No. 06-1255. An ordinance to amend the municipal code of the City of Meridian, County of Ada, State of Idaho, by repealing existing Title 10, Chapter 7, Meridian City Code and by adopting a new Title 10, Chapter 7, Meridian City Code, to be known as the Meridian Impact Fee Ordinance, to provide for the imposition, computation and payment of a police impact fee, a fire impact fee, a parks and recreation impact fee on future development. Providing authority, intent, and definitions. Providing for the establishment of separate impact fee funds for each such impact fees. Providing for exemptions, refunds, credits, and waivers respecting such impact fees. Providing general provisions, applicability, and appeals and providing for conflict, severability, and an effective date. De Weerd: Thank you. You have heard this ordinance read by title only. It will be read for the third time at next week's meeting. Item 8: Department Reports: A. Mayor's Office 1. Appointments to the Meridian Development Corporation Board: - Reappointment of Craig Slocum to 8/09 - Appointment of Joe Borton to 8/09 De Weerd: Okay. Council, Item No. 8 under department reports, I have two appointments to the Meridian Development Corporation in front of you today. I do have a third seat that will be open once filled. That seat is currently held by Ron Anderson and Ron will continue on the board until that seat is filled. So, the two in front of you are a reappointment of Craig Slocum to August of 2009 and appointment of Councilman Borton to August of 2009. If there is no questions about these appointments, I would appreciate and entertain a motion to approve. Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 11 of 17 Bird: I move we approve the reappointment of Craig Slocum to August of 2009 and the appointment of Joe Borton to August 2009 to the Meridian Development Corporation Board. Wardle: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second to approve the appointments that are listed in front of you. Is there any discussion? If not, can we have roll call attendance -- or vote. I'm sorry. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Thank you. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes. Borton: If I may, I just wanted to comment. I appreciate the appointment and look forward to working with the Meridian Development Corporation and advancing its goals as quickly as possible. I appreciate the opportunity. B. Planning Department: 1. Report on Road Requirement (Lanark Street Extension) for Land Split with Meridian Joint School District No.2: De Weerd: Thank you. I appreciate those comments. Okay. Item 8-8 is our Planning Department and we will turn this over to Anna. Canning: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, this is just an update on a project that we have been working on that will not normally come to you, so I just wanted to make you aware of it, because it does involve another governmental agency. More specifically the Meridian School District. I have handed out a little aerial to you all. I didn't -- wasn't sure what AV we would have today, so I just went with low tech with a little color aerial for you. The property that's outlined in yellow is the academy site between Franklin and the railroad tracks and it also has the stub from Lanark Street going into it. We approved a short plat for that property. A short plat is -- you can have up to -- if it's a platted lot you can have up to four lots split from it. If it's a parcel you can have up to two parcels created. As one of the conditions of approval we said that they needed to comply with the Ada County Highway District regulations. So, we have approved it with this condition. Ada County Highway District reviewed the application and they are requiring that Lanark Street be extended to the western property line to line up with -- or eastern property line, excuse me, to line up pretty much with the rest of Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 12 of 17 the roadway there. There is just one intervening property. This will, as you can see, affect their ball field. It will need to be relocated or moved. So, there is -- there is an impact to the site. But just wanted to keep you aware of this. There is also -- the school district is -- the reason they are doing the plat is to sell off surplus property for the sale of -- or for the purchase of the Jabil building. So, this will add some cost to developing that property. Also, we had a little bit of an internal dilemma with the Planning Department. Normally you can't dedicate a roadway through a short-plat process, but we didn't want to kick them out and rescind our other approval. So, we are just going to go ahead and let them do a short plat still, with the condition that they meet ACHD requirements and that requires the road building. So, it's a little bit unusual and so we couldn't think of another situation where this might happen, so -- but we do have a road being dedicated through the short plat process. The only reason that the code doesn't allow that normally is because we wanted to make sure all of ACHD's concerns were met. So, it's certainly fulfilling that function in this case. So, just wanted to keep you aware of it. I will continue supporting ACHD unless I hear otherwise from Council. De Weerd: Council, any comments or questions? Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Wardle. Wardle: I certainly agree with the planning director's decision to uphold the decision which we have already made. The one thing that I would look to -- it appears that ifthe road goes through that there is just maybe a small piece of property which would extend Lanark -- would that be all the way to Eagle Road? Canning: Yes, sir, it would. That is the one remaining link. Wardle: And I assume that ACHD is potentially looking at how that could be connected? I would encourage that. Canning: Yes. And Gary is here to answer any questions about this, too, so -- De Weerd: Okay. Anything else, Council? Bird: All I would say is Lanark was always planned on running through from Nola to Eagle Road. I don't know why it should change now. De Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you, Anna. Canning: Okay. Thank you. C. Police - Fire - Mobile Command Center: Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 13 of 17 De Weerd: Okay. Council, we did not get it in the adoption of the agenda, but if there is no objection, I will add an Item C for police and fire to discuss a mobile command center request. Any objection? Bird: I have none. Borton: No. De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Chief. Musser: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you once again. What I had was some basic information from the Idaho State Police. Thursday of last week I received an e-mail in reference their intent to make their older mobile command center available to any governmental agency within the state that might be interested in it, as they have purchased a new one. They have an equipment approximation for the vehicle and the equipment inside of it of 40,000 dollars on that. That's what they are looking to sell this vehicle for. I have talked with Chief Anderson on this, because in terms of our city-wide emergency management, having some sort of incident support vehicle for both fire and police has been a concern and something as we continue to grow that we are looking at being able to obtain and have available. Timing is everything at times I know. This is short notice, so I do appreciate you at least taking it under consideration. Basically, the vehicle is a 1989 Itasca motorhome. It's 35 feet in length, 29,000 miles on it. It does not contain a restroom as that was occupied for radio storage during their conversion on it. It does have a full communication center that's ,set up in the rear that will handle one to two dispatchers, an incident command area in it at this time, which would comfortably seat four or up to six to seven if necessary. We do have some photos showing the interior on it at this time, which also included in it are the radios, which we just saw, and the Orbi-Com consul center here as well. It probably has more than enough radio capability on both the VHF and UHF for what police and fire would need as a joint operations support center, in that it does have both of our frequency bands within it. As the city moves forward over the next few years and both fire and police migrate to the 700 megahertz trunking, it would be easy enough to apply those radios in there and also still maintain at least two VHF channels as we had talked about in our emergency planning session, so that we would have contact with other city service vehicles. So, it would meet the confines of what we are looking at down the road and possibly move us forward over the next three to five years as the community continues to grow. Basically, in terms of what we are looking at, we were looking for a little bit of direction. This was a bit of a surprise. It came up quick, which is why we wanted to get some guidance and find out if the Council was interested in moving forward on this, because it has been a concern for both police and fire and at this point I would turn it over for Chief Anderson if he has any additional comments on it as well and, then, stand for questions. Anderson: Thank you, Madam Mayor and Council. I think this would be a great opportunity for us. We have been talking about in our emergency directors meeting for the past year and a half since I have been here about the need for some type of incident Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 14 of 17 support vehicle and just in the short time that I have been with the city I can think of a number of incidents where something like this could have been used. Most recently last week with the fuel tanker that rolled over at the intersection of Eagle Road and Fairview Avenue, our crews were on the scene for over eight hours out in 90 degree plus temperatures and incident command folks were standing out there, basically, in the street with a hand held radio and this gives you someplace where you can move in and work in a climate controlled environment, you can isolate yourself from all the distractions that are going on and you can think about running the incident. Also, the water line break that happened earlier in the year, something like this could be used for that. It also dovetails real well with what you're talking about in the new City Hall and possibly setting part of that up as an EOC for the City of Meridian and that is needed to run an entire incident and you need something at the scene that you can operate the command post out of. So, I think this is a heck of an opportunity that we have stumbled across here. I didn't know the state police was looking at replacing this vehicle and getting rid of it. But I would think for the 40,000 dollar price tag we couldn't even begin to touch the radios that are in this vehicle for that kind of money. So, I would urge you, if you can find the funding, that we ought to put a bid in on it. De Weerd: Thank you, Ron. And I know that our -- in our emergency management meetings that we have discussed this and we had it as a goal to move towards. So, this is an opportunity. Certainly when we were discussing it as a team, the price tag was certainly not that -- it was significantly more. So, this seems like a really good opportunity for the city. Council, are there any questions? Bird: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Bird. Bird: I have got one statement. If our two chiefs think we need it and it's something that the community needs, 40,000 is awful cheap for that command center. Wardle: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Mr. Wardle. Wardle: Certainly I agree. One of the things that the chief and I just spoke briefly before the meeting about -- this could have some -- this was a request from the police department in their impact fee commitment. This could have some sort of an adjustment to that. But right now what I'm hearing from the departments, there are a number of parties interested. We are not guaranteed that we would be successful in this bid, but I would like to proceed forward and at least be a part of that process. Bird: Is that a motion? Borton: Madam Mayor? Meridian City Council Special Meeting August 29, 2006 Page 15 of 17 De Weerd: Mr. Borton. Borton: Chief Musser and Anderson, my only question is -- and I appreciate a great value, but I just as soon see -- or make sure that you both have the best equipment available in a command center you can get. Is there anything with going this route that you're giving up on or you're passing on an opportunity with a brand new command center, understanding it's much more expensive, but -- that we have got to consider? Anderson: I guess I would weigh in on that. Most of the command centers that -- as you can see from looking at the picture that's there right now, part of the problem -- and one of them is going to be with this vehicle, as was the one that we ended up borrowing on the fuel tanker last week was space. In that incident command post we typically bring all the fire, EMS, law enforcement folks together in what we call a unified command post and so because of the width of these types of vehicles they are somewhat restrictive. Most of the newer -- I guess latest thing that you see in command posts is the units that use slides, so that you have got more space that you can get the people in there that you need, you can layout maps, those kind of things, to -- if you have got product that you need to find out if it's going down the storm drains and those kind of things. So, this has some restrictions. But, again, I think, from what -- what we are looking at is probably -- we are probably several years out from one of those I guess latest model type of command posts and we see this as kind of filling the gap, if you will. This is something that we could use this immediately and we may still be, even with impact fees we may be a few years out collecting impact fees before we can do an actual command post type of vehicle. So, I see this as kind of a stop gap measure. But it is less than ideal. It doesn't have potty facilities in it, obviously, so we were fortunate enough to be near businesses down there that were willing to open their doors and let everybody use those on that last incident, but those are the types of things. But this could also be adapted into more of a rehab center, too. As I was mentioning to you the heat was one of the problems we were dealing with. We ended up with one of our firefighters being sent home on the shift and two IVs had to be started on him, because of heat exhaustion during that incident. So, even if this vehicle, then, is transitioned from a command post type of vehicle into a support vehicle where the personnel have somewhere where they can get in a climate controlled environment and get -- take fluids on and that kind of stuff, I think it would have years worth of use for us. De Weerd: Thank you. Borton: Madam Mayor? De Weerd: Yes, Mr. Borton. Borton: Question for Bill. If this can provide stop gap relief, does it preclude us from collecting and saving impact fees for a future purchase of a command center as originally planned? Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 16 of 17 Nary: Madam Mayor, Members of the Council, Councilmember Borton, no, I wouldn't think so, because we still are looking for a long range -- long range needs as well, you know, ten year out type of uses and needs. So, I don't think that would be a problem. De Weerd: Okay. Any other questions for either of our chiefs? Too many chiefs. Okay. Anything you would like to add? Musser: No, Madam Mayor, but thanks for the time. De Weerd: Okay. Mr. Wardle. Wardle: I would make a motion authorizing our public safety department to proceed in the bid process for the Idaho State Police Mobile Command Center. Bird: Cost? Wardle: Estimated cost at 40,000 dollars. Bird: Second. De Weerd: Okay. I have a motion and a second. If there is no discussion, I will ask Mrs. Smith to, please, call roll. Roll-Call: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Wardle, yea; Borton, yea. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: Thank you. Council, I would like to thank the directors for being here tonight. Certainly being available to answer any questions and within the Budget Presentation. As usual our Finance Department has done an outstanding job in pulling all of this together and as well today we celebrated the designation of a Treasure Valley Clean Cities Coalition and that is something that celebrates or heightens the awareness of the use of alternative fuels and we held it out at Sanitary Services. Certainly SSC is one of the leaders in this region for these kind of alternative fuels and we are very proud that they are our partner and certainly our fleet leader in the number of vehicles that they have. So, that celebration occurred today and I just wanted to bring it to your attention, just to celebrate our partnership with SSC and, again, another leading edge or cutting edge accomplishment. So, with that said, Council, if there is -- if there is anything further? If not, I'd entertain a motion to adjourn. Wardle: So moved. Bird: Second. De Weerd: All those in favor? Meridian City Council Special Meeting August29,2006 Page 17 of 17 MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. De Weerd: We adjourn at ten minutes to 7:00. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:50 P.M. MAYOR T Oq / le( / 0& ATTESTE