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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-05-06 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session May 6, 2025. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4.31 p.m. Tuesday, May 6, 2025, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor and Anne Little Roberts. Members Absent: Brian Whitlock. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Vince Koontz, Kyle Ludwig, Steve Taulbee and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE _X_ Liz Strader Brian Whitlock _X_Anne Little Roberts _X_ John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will call this meeting to order. For the record it is May 6, 2025, at 4.31 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Got one item that we are going to pull from our Consent Agenda we will get on our next action, but other than that I move that we adopt the agenda as resented. Strader: Second. Simison: I have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the April 22, 2025 City Council Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 2 of 16 2. Approve Minutes of the April 22, 2025 City Council Regular Meeting 3. Xylem Dewatering Solutions Water Main Easement (ESMT-2025-0032) 4. Progress Avenue. Flex Office Building "A" Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2025-0038) 5. Centerville Subdivision No. 2 Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT- 2025-0041) 6. Take 5 Oil Water Main Easement (ESMT-2025-0042) 7. Lavender Place Subdivision Pedestrian Pathway Easement (ESMT- 2025-0043) 8. Luna Hospice Water Main Easement (ESMT-2025-0044) 9. Elevate Self Storage Full Release of Sanitary Sewer Easement (ESMT-2025-0046) 10. Final Plat for Apex Northwest No. 6, by Brighton Corporation, generally located near the northwest corner of S. Locust Grove Rd. & E. Lake Hazel Rd. 11. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Jump Time (H-2025-0011) by Eric Anderson, located at 2805 E. Franklin Rd. 12. Development Agreement (965 E. Ustick Rd. H-2024-0063) Between City of Meridian and MMW&T LLC for Property Located at 965 E. Ustick Rd. 13. Interagency Agreement between the City of Meridian and Ada County Highway District for Meridian Intersection and Pedestrian Safety (MIPS) Project Implementation 14. Approval of Construction Contract to Gentry Civil Corp, for E. Williams St. - N. Meridian Rd. to NE 3rd St. - Sewer Main Replacement and Authorize the Procurement Manager to sign and to issue the resulting Purchase Order 15. Art Purchase and Installation Agreement Between Lorelle Rau and the City of Meridian 16. Resolution 25-2515: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian Directing the City Clerk to Destroy and/or Supervise the Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 3 of 16 Destruction of Certain Semi-Permanent and Temporary Records; and Providing an Effective Date 17. Resolution No. 25-2516: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian, Idaho, Setting Forth Certain Findings and Purposes to Declare Surplus Property and Authorizing the Donation of Certain Computer and Equipment to Computers for Kids Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I'm going to move that we vacate Item No. 5 from the Consent Agenda. With that I move that we would approve the amended Consent Agenda. For the Mayor to sign and the Clerk to attest. Strader: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to amend and approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: There were no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT / COMMISSION REPORTS [Action Item] 18. Building Safety Month Proclamation Simison: So, with that we will move on to Item 18, which is Building Safety Month Proclamation. Bruce, Sam, team, who -- whoever, if you would like to join me at the podium. Turn around. If you all want to come on this side. That way the community can see your bright smiling faces today. That's the value and benefit of this. So, I'm not going to lead into this, because it looks like your fearless leader has some note cards to go into. Oh. But I will go ahead and read the proclamation. I will just start off by saying this has one of the funist beginnings of any proclamation I have ever done, because, you know, it's -- it's exciting, you know, from that standpoint. So, whereas Game On, the theme for Building Safety Month 2025, encourages us all to get involved and raise awareness about building safety on a personal, local and global scale and whereas each year, in observance of Building Safety Month, people all over the world are asked to consider the commitment to improve building safety, resilience and economic Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 4 of 16 investment at home and in the community and to acknowledge the essential service provided to all of us by local, state, tribal, territorial and federal building safety and fire prevention departments in protecting lives and property and whereas our confidence in the resilience of these buildings that make our community is achieved through the devotion and vigilant guardians, building safety and fire prevention officials, architects, engineers, builders, trades people, design professionals, laborers, plumbers and others in the construction industry, who work year round to ensure the safe construction of buildings and whereas modern building codes include safeguards to protect the public from natural hazards, such as snow storms, wildland fires, floods and earthquakes and whereas the City of Meridian is committed to recognizing that our growth and strength depends on the safety and essential role our homes, buildings and infrastructure play, both with everyday life and when disaster strikes. Therefore, I, Mayor Robert E. Simison, proclaim the week of May 2025 as Building Safety Month in the city of Meridian and encourage all citizens to join us as we participate in Building Safety Month activities and recognize those that help to strengthen our community and protect us in the buildings that we live, work and raise our families. Dated the 6th day of May 2025. So, with that, Mr. Director, I will hand this to you and turn the microphone over to you or any member of your team that you would like to speak. Freckleton: Thank you, Mayor and Council. I want to just tell you how much we appreciate this recognition. This proclamation. It helps to reinforce the importance of -- of the building codes and -- and the work that the men and women of the -- the building services section for Meridian go through every single day to make sure that our built environment in the city is safe and sound for our citizens. So, Bret Caulder was going to be here to talk, but he went home sick today. But he did have a big long speech written. So, I apologize you won't get to hear that. But thank you very much for your support and anybody else have anything? No? Okay. Thank you. 19. 2026-2031 Strategic Plan Development Simison: Thank you. All right. With that, Council, we will move on to Item 19, which is the 2026-2031 Strategic Plan Development. I'm going to turn this over to Vincent, but before Vincent launches into his conversation this will be the last time we hear about the strategic plan from Vincent. So, if you -- in case you have not yet heard, Vincent will be with us through another nine days -- well, technically seven work days I think we are down to -- before he goes and takes another position with a competing entity that we shall remain nameless in that context, but it gives him an opportunity to grow professionally with the team, which is one of those things that I know he has been striving for and so we are excited to see him take that next step. So, he is going to go over where we are at this point in time, but I imagine we will probably put a pin in things after this presentation as we evaluate our resource allocation as we move forward in this context. So, with that, Vincent, I will turn this over to you. Koontz: Thank you, Robert. Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, I'm here to review our current strategic plan from 2021 to 2025 and also share with you a potential framework for our next strategic plan. So, I hope to discuss some highlights and lessons for our Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 5 of 16 current strategic plan today. What is left to do with our current strategic plan. What has happened in relation to our new strategic plan framework and what is coming up next. For our 2021 to 2025 strategic plan we have accomplished many important priorities for the community and in the memo there is more details as to some of the accomplishments that we have -- we have -- we have accomplished over the -- over time. We have worked to improve -- we have worked to improve communications with -- with our internal staff and to the community. There were a lot of operational items in the current strategic plan and we look to define and focus on big picture priorities for our next strategic plan. We would also like to evaluate key results and goals through our leadership team and elected officials for our new strategic plan. There is several things left to do in our current strategic plan. One is the Linder Road right of way approval and construction, evaluating a Business Improvement District in downtown and finalizing review of ordinances and policies, which have been in front of Council over the past couple years. We would also like to finalize improvements to our community pathway network, which were identified and prioritized during our strategic plan and also develop a long-term strategy for downtown parking. In our new plan what have we done so far from October to January I conducted assessments with our strategic -- with our City Council, our director team and the Mayor and asked them how things are working with their current plan, what we would like to see changed and what implications those have for our community and for our overall plan structure. I reviewed the assessment data with our Mayor and our senior leadership team during the months of March and April. We reviewed and updated our focus area statements for concise language and updates, which I provided to you earlier last week. One of the recommendations that I'm recommending for our next plan is that we have a flexible plan focused on actionable, achievable, big picture improvements for our community and truly make it a community plan. So, what's happened during our focus area assessments? As I mentioned during -- during those months of March and April we reviewed our focus area statements, evaluated them for conciseness and for completeness and made sure that the words made sense, because words matter in our strategic plan and the vision for our community. We recommended updates to that team and the Mayor and Council President reviewed those focus area updates. And, then, last week I sent those to you for consideration and review. So, what's next? I would like Council to review, update and approve the focus area changes. For the framework hopefully you can choose Council Members to work on the strategic goals and results with the executive team that you form and schedule visioning and brainstorming sessions to help flesh out what our goal should be for our community, what we should accomplish and what kind of results we want to achieve. Let me go over some strategic plan terminology, because everybody loves all of these terms. So, our focus areas, those are foundational statements that will help define our vision and mission, which are essential to build strategic goals, key results and strategies. Our goals will help articulate what we look to improve, achieve or determine for outcomes for our community. Key results, projects or outcomes. These statements support the goals, utilize smart terminology and define what should be accomplished and tells us what we are making better. The strategies that we develop through the departments will be a plan of action designed to achieve goals and objectives with well-articulated project plans, resources and key success points along the way. Also outlines some of what Council should collaborate on and Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 6 of 16 provide input for. Council will examine our focus areas, help and create and adopt goals and define what key results should look like through the strategic plan period. And, hopefully, by the end of the year you will adopt a strategic plan framework for our community. The executive branch has a slightly different role. Also to examine our focus areas, help to create and adopt Council goals with Council, define what key results will look like and what they should be achieved -- what should be achieved and adopt a framework by the end of CY-2025. They also will create strategies in alignment with the goals and key results. How will we communicate and evaluate? Well, you will -- you will be provided project based updates from the director team on a semi-annual basis. You will evaluate and update the plan on an annual basis by evaluating the key results and strategies and how well we have done with them. There will be an annual report towards the adopted goals and, then, monthly updates will be had between the director team and the Mayor on the executive side. Plan of action phase one. We have already -- we have already been working on some of these things, but for the remainder -- from May to July we look to affirm our focus area statements and the language and do our goal setting sessions by brainstorming and creating goals, by asking what can we impact, what are our strengths, what are our opportunities, aspirations and results we would like to achieve. Phase two would involve strategic engagement with our stakeholders and our community and inform our staff of the priorities that we look to achieve. We would also adopt a framework which includes our focus areas, goals and key results. Phase three would include strategy development and implementation. Strategies would be developed by the executive branch through departments by developing key touch points and deliverables and, then, after we develop those strategies we would implement and kick off and communicate our plan to the community, to our staff and publish the document that you would work on over the next five years and that's the overview that I have for the strategic plan for the City of Meridian and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Simison: All right. Thank you, Vincent. And, Council, if I could just add a few things before we get into discussion, is, you know, I wasn't in your conversations with Vincent. You know, I took Vincent's -- you know, when he came back and shared his general viewpoint on what Council had stated. So, when the directors and I had a conversation about the items that were presented and I asked Council President should -- should we hold on to these or should we come forward and -- and see where the Council conversation goes and Councilman Cavener -- or Council President Cavener said let's put it out there. We really would -- I think that they generally stay true to what was there and that was kind of the general consensus, but they were a reflection of -- I think maybe some of the areas where some of the departments found some challenges in the wording and also trying to get them streamlined a little bit, so that they -- they just were easier to digest, not just for the city, but maybe for the public in that context. If you feel like we need to have a full-on conversation and want to explore those we are happy to do that. Don't feel like this is like, you know, being put forward with an up or down vote. But we just wanted to give you the context of where this was bringing -- coming forward to you for today and whether we want to do that today or we want to have a separate conversation about those we can do that. So, with that, Council, questions, comments, thoughts? Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 7 of 16 Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: A couple kind of elementary questions not having been part of any of this when this was developed initially. When I see the value of kind of Council input and -- and the director's input, I guess a question I have for you, Vincent, and maybe, Mayor, you can chime in, too. Is this a document that is more useful and more used in executing the decisions? So, kind of you with your directors, Mr. Mayor, or -- or how is that interaction with the Council involvement with this? I'm trying to just get a sense like who is it really for? Like who is the primary beneficiary of this plan, besides the city at large. Koontz: Councilman Taylor, typically the strategic plan has been a guiding document that brings forward the -- the Council would review our -- and create our goals as a body and adopt those large priorities for the city and the goals that we want to set and the Council body has been involved in that discussion previously. The last -- last strategic plan we -- we brought Council in kind of a similar way, we asked them to brainstorm on the focus areas and the goals and, then, that helps develop that framework, so the departments can go create the strategies and the actions and the activities and the work that would be involved in creating the plan. So, the Council would be involved in the creating of the focus areas, affirming the language in the focus areas, creating those goals that we want to establish for our community and you asked who the audience is for this and -- and, really, it should be -- and I believe it is a community plan with -- with components that the executive branch executes. The Council's role is to adopt that framework, adopt those goals, create those key results that we want to achieve, what we look to accomplish, our outcomes we want to accomplish and, then, the executive branch can go create those strategies and those -- those work items in order to accomplish those things over time and they would report back on progress to those things. Council's role additionally is to support the strategic plan through budget and through policy and through influence as elected officials. Taylor: Mr. Mayor, a quick follow up on that. So, just kind of in -- kind of an additional question. If you could just talk for a minute a little bit, then, how the strategic plan kind of is interwoven with the Comprehensive Plan and, then, just our budget making process, you know. And I understand the -- the comment the strategic plan should inform our -- kind of like a bigger picture on that, but we create some specific outcomes in the comp plan that we would like to see in addition to the future land use map and how we want to develop. But I would just kind of like to understand does the comp plan help us interpret -- or inform what the strategic plan should be or the strategic plan inform the comp plan when we redo that? So, just trying to see how those kind of intertwine with each other and kind of how they -- we would like -- how I should be thinking about this as we go forward. Koontz: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Councilman Taylor, the Comprehensive Plan is definitely that long-term development plan for the -- for the community and what we have done traditionally in the past is we have looked at some of the shorter term, more Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 8 of 16 strategic minded pieces and policies from the Comprehensive Plan and we integrated them into the strategic plan. So, yes, all of those are forming this document and informing what the strategic plan should be and, yes, the budget should be a part of that as well. But the Comprehensive Plan is not all included in the strategic plan, but there is definitely elements of it in the strategic plan document, whether those be short-term goals, for longer term items that are in that -- that guiding document, but I look at those as guiding documents, that that Comprehensive Plan, we are looking to do an update to it, that should also inform some of our strategic plan goals and strategies that exist and that's currently in the strategic plan that we have currently adopted. There is a number of those initiatives in that plan, too. Simison: Councilman Taylor, if you can figure out which came first, the chicken or the egg, because that's really where there is a -- you know, you -- you don't want there to be conflict in either document, but if there is a directional change that should exist, you know, right now since we do have an adoptive comp plan I don't think we would want something in the strategic plan that was in direct contradiction to that. No different than other plans we may adopt that may be in conflict with our Comprehensive Plan, we don't want to have that precedent, but if the Council says over the next -- you know, one of our strategic plan items is to review certain portions of our comp plan that maybe -- you think should be moved in that direction. I think that there can be an evaluation part to this that pushes those question marks about those type of elements and, evidently, if -- you know, I -- I would hope that we don't have -- especially in the comp plan, but, you know, our Fire Department has a plan, Public Works has a plan, they all have a plan of some sort and so they all feed into the content as best they can. But, ultimately, if the Council thinks we should go one direction, I hope that the directors would evaluate their current strategic plan and make sure that it's updated appropriately to align. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. Thanks, Vincent. I guess a couple questions, maybe a couple comments. I thought it was interesting that you focused a lot on Council goals capitalized in -- in this presentation. Can you kind of expand on that in terms of what do you feel like is the difference of it being Council goals versus a -- like in my mind the last time we did this strategic plan was a very collaborative effort. It involved the City Council, it involved the Mayor's office, like do you foresee that changing or happening differently? Koontz: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Council Woman Strader, I highlighted Council goals because as a body I think it's important to have you adopt what goals for our community as elected officials and they are adopted goals by our Council, by our elected officials, and so I highlighted those as -- as Council, because one of the things I think I have heard from the discussions we have had is if we are going to have big priorities we need to make sure that our body and the Council agrees on what should our big priorities be and if words matter and you as a body believe, you know, where we Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 9 of 16 are going to go as a community over the next ten years, I think there should be some congruence that our Council as a body agrees on those things and that -- that's generally the feedback I got from directors and to give us a flexible plan we need to hear from our elected officials on what our big goals should be, what should our priorities be, what are our results that we want to have. If we are going to be -- if we are going to say we are going to be a premier community by 2035, what are those things that we need to do? What are those things we need to have in that time period? And so that was one of the reasons I highlighted that. I don't disagree that, you know, our goals should be established by the entire organization, but that was highlighted because of that fact. Strader: Mr. Mayor, a couple follow-ups. Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. No. That's helpful. I just kind of wanted to like get your philosophy there. So, I guess a recommendation I would have is I found it a bit cumbersome to have to flip back and forth between the original focus areas document and the updated focus areas document. I think if you do a merge and compare and create a red line that would really help everybody. I did have some comments. I think the changes are pretty subtle. I think overall they are very similar goals. I think the -- the -- the things that popped out at me -- and I would like more time, actually, to provide feedback about the focus areas and the goals. I want to make sure we are being ambitious enough. I think that's really important. I felt like a lot of the modifications we are kind of tweaking or dialing back what we are trying to achieve. I will just give one example. Our previous focus areas talked about being one of the safest cities in the west. I thought that was really important. I do think it's important that we compare ourselves to other cities and it's important to me that we can compare ourselves and say that we are the safest, if not one of the safest cities in the west. So, I -- I felt like just kind of that movement around safety still being important, but kind of taking out that language I feel like that made that less ambitious. So, that's just one example. There were some changes in the public health and safety focus area that kind of -- I felt like narrowed the focus to emergency services and kind of took out some of the environmental health and infrastructure considerations that I thought were important. I do think those areas are covered elsewhere, but I'm not sure that those changes made sense. So, there were just a few different things that I thought, you know, this is really important and if the focus areas are kind of the central thesis of what our goal is for every area, I think -- I think we all need to look at it harder and actually I felt like, if anything, we need to be a little bit more ambitious. That -- that would just be my general feedback and I think if we are going to set a strategic plan we should aim high. I think that's important. And so I just want us to have an opportunity maybe to take a couple weeks to -- and you are not going to be here, so now I'm like what are we going to do? But I think we need to take a little bit of time and kind of go through this together in more detail either individually and maybe you could gather feedback or something. I don't know how you want this all to work with you departing nine days. So, just throwing all that out there for the group. Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 10 of 16 Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Kind of along the lines of what Council Vice-President Strader said, I have a -- I'm thinking of a scenario and I'm kind of curious if this would be a strategic plan thing or a comp plan thing. Chicken or the egg. I don't know. But let's -- this is an exercise. Let's say I had an idea that was probably shared by several of us up here that we wanted Meridian strategically over the next ten years to be -- to get to a point where it was a city that was recognized for being very welcoming for entrepreneurs, for come be creative, we are going to open our arms, we are going to -- you can experiment with -- with technologies here. You can partner with the city. Something where we are trying to be a lot more aggressive to cultivate higher wage jobs, creative forward thinking tech driven kind of a thing. Is that something where we would highlight in a strategic plan? Here are some things we would like to reach for as a city to kind of -- part of being a premier city where, you know, I -- I don't want to compare it to like an Austin, Texas, but they have been very aggressive in pursuing those kinds of things. Let's say if Meridian wanted to have something like that, is that a strategic plan focus area? Is that a comp plan thing? I'm just kind of -- kind of curious, because to Council Woman Strader's point, there probably are some areas where we can, you know, have a strategic plan that is a -- like, you know, that's our -- an ambitious goal to strive towards, in addition to doing a good job running a great city and what we have, but are there some things that could cause us to reach a little bit? Where would we put those ideas? Koontz: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Councilman Taylor, what -- what you are talking about is the more aspirational piece, the visionary piece, the kind of what we will have, what we will be in ten years or five years and so those always have a place in a strategic plan. It's a matter of how do we get there and what are the steps we need to put in place and that's where the writing good goals and saying what the results are going to be and what is the outcome we look to achieve. It's easy to say we would like to be like the tech center for the Valley. Like, well, how do we do that? What do we need to put in place to do those things? But putting an aspirational statement out there about what we want to be and that vision we want to have is great, but it's -- it's always the devil is in the details about where we are going to -- what we are going to do, what we are going to accomplish, how we are going to pay for it and if it is one of those -- and what staff are going to work on it. So, that is in that strategic plan. So, that's what -- and I think that illustrates the point of why we need to set great goals for our -- with our Council body, because those are important and if we say, hey, we would like to be this in five years, how are we going to get there? What are we going to do? What are we going to put in place? So, it's great to have those visionary statements, because that -- that really sets the tone for what your strategic plan should be. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 11 of 16 Strader: I will just like maybe -- as an example I will chime in on that. I would like to support what Councilman Taylor just said. Like I think that's a great example of something where we could get ambitious together and try to find some alignment, because I think Meridian becoming a hub of technology and innovation is a really great goal. I'm guessing the majority of our Council would be very interested in, if not everybody I'm sure. So, like I think that's a great example of like an ambitious goal that we could talk about sharing. I think, you know, hanging out a shingle to be the safest, if not one of the safest cities in the western United States I think is a great goal. I think maybe if people have ideas we throw them out in this meeting or we can take them and maybe have a follow up. But I do think like getting more ambitious together I think would be really good for our next plan. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Cavener: Council Cavener. Cavener: Vince, first just really want to thank you. You have been a unique breath of fresh air in the halls of City Hall and I have always enjoyed our conversations and your willingness to challenge. I always appreciate somebody who is willing to push back on what I think is the best plan and you have been willing to do that diplomatically. Where I'm -- Council may be a little concerned is not quite knowing what the future holds for this plan, what it holds for staffing, I'm reluctant for us to start what -- what about this? What about that? I don't want us just to go through that exercise without a road map for implementation. So, I -- I think that all of us maybe have some ideas. I think probably some of us came with ideas, certainly have ideas after talking with Vince, but I'm not quite sure now is the right time for us to start elevating that without a road map for what implementation would look like and I don't know, Mr. Mayor, if you have got info to share on that or kind of what your plan is. That -- that would be helpful for me to know kind of what next steps would look like. Simison: I have no next steps at this point in time. Like I say, this is -- all kind of came in on Monday. Was that -- did we talk on Monday? Yeah. It was last week in that context. But, no, we -- and part of it, you know, Dave is out sick today, so I don't even have the supervisor here today so they can say, oh, here is what I think I can do, because he and I have not had that contact. We -- we want to get this in front of Council, see what their reaction was and, then, really, it will help us make a determination by filling the position and what to be focused on in that context. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: What might make sense, then, is maybe over the next 30 days if you can figure out what that road map is, you indicate that to Council, then, depending on timing this is something we could continue the conversation either before we move into budget season or if this is something that we could revisit in the fall after budget is set. Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 12 of 16 Simison: I think that that's -- you know, traditionally 90 days to -- to fill a position, so -- and sometimes these cannot be the easiest positions to fill. We -- we have had that experience in the past. It takes a special person that wants to do this type of work to begin with. But, yes, I think that that works and I'm sure Dave is either watching or he will go back and watch this and we can help evaluate a path forward, because we -- we want to get there. We don't want to just pause completely, but I just don't know how, much along with everything else that we are going to be taking on in the next three months, that I can dedicate resources here that don't exist, so -- Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Yeah. And just in terms of giving you some feedback of, you know, giving this -- putting this in front of us and kind of getting a sense where council would be interested in going, I view this as a -- I'm really fascinated with this idea. You know, Vincent, you and I talked a little bit about how this could translate into some operational excellence and maybe inform policies that we may or may not want to kind of look into. I like the idea of, you know, coming -- the timeline is fine and the implementation, you know, however we get there. At some point I would like to kind of dive into how this could be a bit more of an aspirational document with goals and -- and recognizing -- challenging the City Council to help kind of identify goals. I see Meridian interestingly kind of at an interesting inflection point with our growth and kind of -- rapid growth and I almost view like the next stage of maturing into like a -- I don't know, sort of this -- just evolving into that next thing whatever that looks like and I -- I think we have an opportunity, as you know, with the city leadership and the -- the Council and the Mayor to kind of chart a path forward where we what do we want to do? Because we are not well defined as one thing yet and it would be kind of a very -- I think fruitful conversation that would welcome the -- the input from the business community, from other thought leaders as to like where do you see Meridian and how could that inform what -- where we want to go. So, I like the idea. I appreciate the opportunity to kind of take a moment and reflect on this and kind of see what we have had, how it's been good or bad, some of the feedback on that and, then, really spend some time thinking about how can we use this to get ourselves outside of just the budget conversation or just the land use conversation into where do we want to go. Because the bigger picture discussion could inform how we may want to consider budget discussions and land use. So, I -- I appreciate the opportunity and sad to see you go. Wish you well with your next step, but thanks for your -- your work on that. But, Mayor, I just kind of want to provide my -- my thoughts on how I envision this exercise and what we may or may not want to do with this, you know, when we get to that. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 13 of 16 Overton: Kind of a slightly different take on this and the comments have been great. Don't get me wrong. In fact, a lot of the comments hit on things that are very important. But there is always a disconnect when we are looking at this and looking at aspirational viewpoints and that is the connection to our employees when they look at such a document and we are talking about what we want to do they are going well -- everything we are hearing and everything we are hearing with budget how -- how does that translate to us and I think there has always been a struggle with a strategic plan and how it ties into the everyday employee and how they do their job. I think we have to remember as leaders to not just want to do something that's lofty and aspirational, we have to do something that's also realistic that they can understand that they can buy into as well. So, I think putting a pin in it for right now is probably a really good idea, because this is a -- this is a very important project to try to get right to find that balance that meets all those goals. But, again, Vincent, I appreciate all the work you have done. It's fantastic. We will miss you. Wish you the best. Thank you. Koontz: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, Councilman Overton, I -- I echo that, too. You know, being someone that's been here for the past seven and a half years it is important for our employees that they see something in our strategic plan. What does it mean for them and however we articulate that I think that's absolutely important, because, you know, working here the last seven and a half years I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here, but just working with all these great individuals, like I can tell you that they -- they care about the things that you say and the actions you take and so that's important and so make sure you do, so -- Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor, Vincent, thank you so much. I can't help but compare what we are looking at now. This is so hard that I can't see you or be by the mic. Can't help but compare the first strategic plan to where we are now and it's such a big improvement. I know there are -- to me they are a living, breathing document. So, we are always working on them, always, you know, striving to see how it impacts us and how what we are doing impacts it. So, I would love to see these ideas take formation and -- and see where we can take this, but always keeping our employees in mind as we do this. And on a personal note, you are going to be missed, Vince. I got to know Vince before he was even here through the Chamber and so I have had the privilege of working with him for a while and wish you the very very best, but you will be missed. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I'm just -- I don't give a false praise ever and I'm a pretty blunt person, but, Vincent, you are just one of my favorite people -- professionals of the city. Kind of viewed you as a -- like combination of our personal DOGE, our personal innovation Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 14 of 16 team. I mean I feel like you did so many things and have done so many things for us and just want to compliment you, because change is hard and I think it's hard to be the change leader in an organization and helping to push innovation in government is -- is unusual and it's been amazing to see you. I think you have made amazing strides internally and -- and with your partners, especially the directors and trying to help them with some of their thorniest challenges. So, I just really appreciate you. I'm really sad that you are leaving us, but I'm happy for you, because it must be an amazing opportunity. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Didn't mean to talk as much, I just have lots of thoughts, but Councilman Overton's point I really appreciate that and I -- I don't -- I don't probably have the perspective of someone who worked as an employee and tried to interpret all the things that came from them from Council, so I'm -- that's kind of what one of my leading question was, who is the strategic plan for? Is it for employees? Is it for us? I'm still struggling with that a little bit, because I -- I would make the argument a strategic plan with sort of visionary ideas would be interesting for the employees to say I get to be part of working towards this goal, but, then, they got to do the day-to-day stuff to make things churn and work and so that could be a little bit like what do I focus on? So, I -- I -- I don't have an appreciation for that. I'm kind of searching for what's the right balance of should this strategic plan really inform a lot of the plans that each of the departments make? How much do we put in? So, I will probably be trying to find that balance as we have this further discussion, because I like the idea of giving ourselves something interesting and to -- to work towards, including the employees, but I also don't -- I mean not been a day-to-day employee I don't have that appreciation of what it's like. So, I kind of rely on those that -- that do to help me find that right balance. But, anyways, I just wanted to kind of comment on that. Simison: Yeah. And I think the short answer is yes. It is -- it's trying to be something to everybody in a lot of ways and -- and finding that balance and that stretch and this will be the third time going through this and I remember the challenges of the first one, remember the challenges of the second one, see what the challenges of the third one are going to be and when you are a lean organization and you want to advocate for a change environment, what you have happened is Caleb Hood gets 53 Items in the strategic plan assigned to them, because that's the one resource that you have who's not just doing the day-to-day grind of processing applications and doing that work and it's -- so, when you really look at the -- you know, what's the breadth of the organization where -- you know, what -- how many people do you have that can drive a change, you know, at that future deliverable, you know, you are probably down to about 20 people in the organization that can really move a large item of significance -- like if you want to be a tech hub, you know, so -- and, then, if that's in conflict with another -- not even conflict, but if you have another big one. So, those -- I think that there -- there is always room for big ideas. I don't want to say that there is not. But can't lose sight of the -- also the Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 15 of 16 tangible elements of the plan to, you know, work to and, you know, we -- we really learned very much about execution in plan one. You know, this was the date that we were going to do it. This was what we were going to do. This -- you know, it was very much like that. You -- you want to go big and aspirational, there is not maybe as much that you are going to expect in some regards. You know, you can say we are working towards that goal, but trying to define those things are also a little bit more nebulous. You know, how do you know when you have hit the Austin tech hub standard. No different than, you know, medical technology hub of Idaho. Yeah. So, it's -- but it's good to put out there. It's good to have that vision in that context. So, I think these will be great conversations and, frankly, when we fill the position I'm going to have to go back and watch this before they do the interview, but they will see here is what they are going into and do they think they have the skills and -- to bridge this conversation? You know, that's what -- that's what I'm going to want to know. So, Bill, I don't know if we are legally allowed to make them review, you know, stuff like this before they come in, but we will -- we will make it known to them and we will see what their feedback is at that point in time. So, Dave, if you are listening, watching, sounds -- sounds like we will continue the conversation just sans Vincent. But if you have some feedback that you want to get to him in the next week that he can leave for the next person, I'm not going to assign him -- you know, tell him, but I'm sure he will be happy to come back and spend the whole time with the next person just to show him where the information is or have a debrief over coffee or lunch from that standpoint. So, it can even be on your next employer's time. Koontz: Mr. Mayor, Members of Council, I do want to say something to you all. So, it's been a privilege working here, working with all of you, talking with all of you and sharing stories and sharing our community and I just -- I want to, you know, Luke, you know, when I had my internship back in the day, you know, tagging along with you on all sorts of crazy adventures and -- and I -- you know, just going to church with you and working with you here and, you know, everybody up here I have -- I have had some different experiences with and, Robert, thank you for the opportunity with my internship back in the day and just being able to share in our community and just be a part of Meridian and I will continue to be so -- be a part of this community, I will just be as an interested party instead of an employee, so -- but, you know, it's been -- it's been great working with all of you and I look forward to building that community throughout the Treasure Valley, so -- so thank you and I will sign off. Cavener: Thanks, Vince. You know, we appreciate you as well. Mr. Mayor, that is the end of our items for our workshop, so I move we adjourn. Strader: Second. Simison: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: FIVE AYES. ONE ABSENT. Meridian City Council Work Session May 6,2025 Page 16 of 16 MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5.15 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 5 / 20 / 25 DATE APPROVED Luke Cavener, Council President ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK