HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 03-06 Pre
Meridian City Pre-Council Meetina
March 6. 2007
The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 5:30 P.M. on
Tuesday, March 6, 2007 by President Councilman Joe Borton.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Keith Bird, David Zaremba and Joe
Borton.
Members Absent: Charlie Rountree.
Staff Present: Bill Nary, Len Grady, Anna Canning, Gene Trakel and Will Berg.
Item 1.
Roll-call Attendance:
Roll calL
X David Zaremba
o Charlie Rountree
X
X Joe Borton
X Keith Bird
Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Item 2.
Adoption of the Agenda:
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we adopt the agenda as published.
Zaremba: Second.
Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as published. All
those in favor say aye.
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
Item 3.
Presentation on the Entitlement Grant Program by Kay
Frances:
Borton: We appreciate you coming and go ahead.
Frances: It would be helpful probably for the recording?
Zaremba: Although there is a hand held if you want to walk around.
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 2 of 19
Frances: Oh, I will be all right. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for
having me. My name is Kay Frances and I am very pleased to say that I am
going to be helping you over the next several months to apply and receive a
federal grant program from HUD. I brought a hand out for each of you and my
business card and I want to cover this as quickly as we can. I would entertain
questions at any time or if you would like to wait, I was planning on leaving about
ten minutes at the end of the presentation. There is an awful lot to cover and I
know it is going to be interesting to hear about the community development block
grant program. You have been invited by HUD to become an entitlement
community. There are four separate grants that come through HUD for
entitlement and the first one is a community development block grant program
and that is the one that you are eligible to apply for right now. When we talk
about writing a consolidated plan, what HUD means is if you get one or more of
those you have to combine all of your planning into the planning cycle. So, even
though it is called a consolidated plan, we are going to be consolidating just the
first one, which is the City BG program. And what does that mean? That means
your community of a population of over 50,000 and determining how much you
get is a combination of two formulas. One is based on your population and the
other is your percentage of low and moderate income. So, we are going to get
kind of familiar with these acronyms - LMI stands for taking a look at your
median family income for the area and I do have that to show you tonight. We
take 80 percent of that amount and that qualifies the areas that we can spend the
money on. Where did the block grant come from? The Housing and Community
Act in 1974 - the State of Idaho started receiving the funds as a state in 1982
and 1987 I started running the program statewide and I have administered it here
in Idaho and in South Carolina. At that particular time back in 1974, it took eight
different categorical programs. That is why the City BG program is a little bit
multi-complex. That is a good word to use because it did take the eight category
programs together. It is the eighth largest grant program to come out of
congress. It is approximately $4.6 billion a year and the funding of course is
based on those two formulas and there are significant amount of federal
regulations, but they can be tackled and I will tell you I have the background and
expertise to help your Legal Department or your Financial Department and the
Planning Department to comply with all of those. They are just good standard
practices and you have been doing a lot of them long term and just didn't even
know it.
Zaremba: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I am sorry to interrupt Ms. Frances. I have a question on the federal
regulations - do they apply only to the money that the federal government gives
us or do they spread it to say if you receive federal money you have to do other
things in your city a certain way?
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
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Frances: If you commingle funds, yes, we will follow the more rigid of the
standards. But, actually in procurement, the city standards are way more
stringent than the federal - just an example a small purchase for federal is
$100,000, the cities are $5,000. So, we look at that and we make sure that none
of that state laws or any of the local ordinances or regulations are violated as
well.
De Weerd: Mr. Chairman.
Borton: Madame Mayor.
De Weerd: I think we have been doing them anyway. We have gotten
community block grants for the Senior Center, so we have had to adopt certain
policies and practices regardless.
Frances: And also for the industrial park where Copy Troll is located. That is way
before some of your times, but-
De Weerd: And LP, the Louisiana Pacific.
Frances: Yes. We do have some statutory goals. So we have some focus with
this money, although we are going to have some flexibility. HUD says that we
have to provide decent housing or suitable living environment or expand
economic opportunities principally for lowering moderate income persons or one
(inaudible) or a combination or all three, depends on how our focus goes. So, as
an entitlement you will have the flexibility in determining the goals and objectives
that best meet the local needs. But, how do we get there? We get there through
the development of this consolidated plan, which I am going to be working with
you over the next several months to identify what the goals and objectives are
and we are going to look at five years out so that we can look at lining up projects
so to speak in the pipeline so that then you have this extra pot of money from the
government to help you do the kinds of things that you need to do that meets
those objectives. National objective - there are three national objectives. Maybe
we don't need to even go into detail tonight, but you can either do an area wide
benefit, limited clientele, housing or jobs. This is the one I think Shaun might be
interested in where we are talking about the prevention and elimination of slums
and blight. I know that is a scary term, but I will tell you that I was able to do
many projects in downtown Coeur d' Alene under this category. So, we won't
have any problems, I don't think in Meridian and let me explain. What that
definition is - it is looking at areas within the city where the buildings or
infrastructure, sewer or water, streets, curbs, gutters, sidewalks have dilapidation
or do not meet the code or where we feel they need to be improved, so I don't
have any problems at all identifying those areas and the easiest way to do that is
within your urban renewal area so that a percentage of these funds can be
automatically spent within that downtown corridor on projects that you have
already identified. So, it is going to make it really simple or smooth I hope.
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
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Otherwise, I will help you. The third area is called imminent threat and a lot of
the money went to Katrina on this, where if you have some kind of a disaster
affecting your community, like a bridge out, a tornado or something like that there
is no other funds to meet that - or a combination of funds, it can be used in a
disaster. At the state, we had three. When we had the Challis earthquake we
helped. We had potentially a dam breaking up north and we also had a bridge
out. So, in the eight years that I was with the state that only occurred three times
and the Governor had to establish a disaster area at that time. Here is some
definite information for you. It was downloaded today from the HUD's website for
the 2006 median family income. For Meridian that is as if you took everyone that
lived within the city limits and you took their annual incomes, 1040 or Social
Security or Disability or whatever income that they may have and group together
and then averaged it by your number of population. It is $56,100 a year. HUD
does it in increments of 80 percent, 60 percent and 30 percent. The number that
we are going to be interested in is on low income, which is the 80 percent, which
says you can make $32,250 a year and qualify for as eligibility under these
programs. What does that mean? Let's break it down. On the left it is one
person in a household - two, three, four, all the way up to six people. So, I did a
quick calculation for you considering a person would work full time, which is 2080
hours per year or 173.3 hours per month. An individual could make $15.50 per
hour and qualify for these programs. So, it is not real poverty level. We would
like to get entry level jobs in Meridian that paid $15.50 per hour plus benefits.
So, we have got some ideas there. If it were a husband and wife or two people
living in a household together and we just divided that $36,900 that would be
$8.87 per hour on the average if that were a full time and then you put the little
baby in there and that keeps bringing those numbers up. So that all the way
down to eight usually is a very large household of children.
Canning: Shouldn't that be reversed, Kay? Your numbers go down and then up
again.
Frances: No, actually what you are looking at Anna are two working adults in the
family and then children, usually. So, I just did that just as a ballpark to give you
an idea of what those numbers might look like. All right. You probably are
asking what do you think our estimated annual allocation might be? HUD has
not put those numbers together, they were hoping to have them by the end of
this week, and they are always a little bit behind the curve, but I got them to give
me sort of a price range on what we might be able to expect. So, these are
totally guesstimate, estimate numbers. It could be a little higher. It could be a
little lower. I will tell you that Idaho Falls gets $420,000. Lewiston gets $275,000
and our numbers for area low and moderate income are about the same as
Idaho Falls, but our population base is less from the numbers that HUD is using.
What they proportion out - they give you a cap on certain amounts that you can
spend in different categories and your cap on administration per year is going to
be 20 percent. I will tell you all of the things that that includes in a minute. Now
on the national objectives we have two numbers that we have to meet. We have
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March 6, 2007
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to spend at least 70 percent of the money after you take the admin out to benefit
low and moderate income families or households or individuals for job creation.
Thirty percent of the money that is the cap can be spent on slum and blight or the
downtown urban renewal area per year. I can show you ways that we can wrap
the money. Now there is a timeline that you have to obligate the money and then
a timeline that you have to spend it, so it is not like you can put it in an interest
bearing account. In fact, you get a draw from HUD when you need it, not in
advance. So, it is illegal to put it in an interest bearing account. But, let's say
that we had a project that was close to $125,000 in our urban renewal area, so
we could start the project at the tail end of the fiscal year, the program year and
finish it in the beginning of the next year and that is why we kind of wrap the
money together or combine the funds and do the same thing with low and
moderate income. What can you spend the money on and this is a wide variety
of things and I will be working with the city to get them their eligibility activities,
books and regulations as well and it goes into a lot of detail on it, but let's just talk
about them. Acquisition -- we can buy land and buildings. We can do clearance
and demolition. We can do code enforcement. We can do work in commercial
and industrial rehabilitation - buildings that are owned in the private sector. If we
bought land we can also do disposition of that land. If we had to provide
relocation, reimbursements to folks we could do that with this money. There are
ways that we can actually make money with this money. It is probably a little
premature tonight, but depending on the types of activities that you want to do,
you can make profit if you buy something and then you turn around and sell it
then the profit that you make is called program income, which then goes back
into the program and then it goes back into your formula mix. So, what you want
to do is turn a profit on your investments, so we will talk about that. On public
facilities in Public Works that I am using Public Works for our Sewer and Water
Department and public facilities being all of those buildings and parks and areas
that the city owns, we can do acquisition there, construction, reconstruction,
rehabilitation, installation and inspections. There is a category called public
services and the cap on that is 15 percent. I didn't put that up there because in
looking through the phone book and looking through the continuum of care
service providers this in the public service category you give it to non-profit
service providers that provide direct services to low and moderate income
individuals or individuals that are presumed low and moderate income and you
only have three of those listed. So, maybe we will have to do some additional
research, but it seems that the folks that need a homeless shelter have to go to
Boise, which is quite all right. So, a lot of the health care clinics for low income
people are over there as well. A lot of the GED services are over there - job
training and whatnot, but we may be looking at community service projects that
would be very interested in doing that like some Boise State outreach services or
something with the school districts that would be providing alternative GED
programs to youth. So, that is something to look at as well. Removal of
architectural barriers and what that basically says is that you make things ADA
accessible. So, the money can be picked for a lot of things in ADA, including
elevators. Housing rehabilitation and this is HUD's favorite, but if we don't have
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
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something in these categories we won't be looking at it. But, we could be looking
at some residential properties that need to be brought up to code or rehabilitated.
Boise has a low interest loan program for owner occupied. We can also do
conversion of non-residential to property for housing. We talked about that
maybe a little bit in the downtown area looking at some mixed use properties or
acquisition of residential properties and then converting them. Things that we
can pay for under housing rehab - of course the cadre there of ideas - also
loans so that we would - if we would be helping someone rehabilitate their home,
bringing it up to a standard or flipping houses so that they can be first time
homebuyers, that would be a low interest loan program, they would be paying
that back to the city. Economic development - we can do micro enterprises
systems, we could do a revolving loan fund for businesses. We could help
existing businesses improve sewer, water, streets, railway spurs and that would
be if they would be creating jobs and the limit right now, the threshold on that is
for every $35,000 that you would help in any of those areas would require one
job creation. And in some instances it goes as high as $50,000, but for tonight's
purposes, I think we should talk about $35,000 a job to help a business expand.
So, if a small business has two employees and they need to sprinkle their
building or upgrade fire hydrant or something near their business and they
wanted to add one new employer or two new employees or three new employees
that is a real possibility and then they could also use that as a low interest loan if
you decided to do that and then have them pay that back over time. Other
eligible activities or technical assistance such as planning or studies for capacity
building that is capped at one percent. Then administration, I talked about your
20 percent coming off the top is to reimburse out of the grant for general
management oversight, coordination, all the public information, citizens
participation, activities that you have to do, you are asked to do one fair housing
activity a year and I have a list of low cost, no cost of those that we have seen
other entitlements use and then indirect costs that may be for legal or finance
that have internal operations that you need to reimburse that would be having
oversight of this grant program. What has to happen before the funds are
rewarded? You have to do a consolidated plan, which then sets your priority
needs and strategies. HUD gives you an option of three years or five years. We
are in a little bit of a dilemma right now with using the old 2000 census. They
have done some upgrades for Boise - that is the only city in the state that has
done upgrades in 2005. We have had some other studies done, such as our
downtown master plan and COMPASS has done some studies. We have got
some transportation studies that we could look at. I think it is up to you to decide
whether you want to do a three year plan that would take us from 2007 to 2010,
but we really won't get the 2010 census information until 2012 so we might as
well do a five year plan. That way it just cuts down on having to do more
administrative work. From the consolidated plan, we need to do an annual action
plan so that would be a 2007 annual action plan, which would say what the city's
plans are for the coming year to carry out the activities and how you will spend
your first year's allocation. There is another plan that has to be done the very
first time that you become and entitlement. It looks something like this. It is an
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March 6, 2007
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analysis of impediments to fair housing, which takes a look at ordinances and
zoning land use planning and something that I can work with the Planning
Department and get a lot of information off of the website for that. If we find
anything which is probably miniscule at this time because I have already been
surfing your websites, then there is an action plan that goes with that and I will
make sure that is low cost, no cost as well. There also is a section in the
consolidated plan, which will end up looking something like this that has barriers
to affordable housing, which Boise right now is struggling with. Eagle is
struggling with and I am sure Meridian is too for first time starter homes. So,
what is our timeline? HUD has told us that we have to begin our program here
October 1 st, which will coincide with our fiscal year, which is a good thing. But,
we are on a fast track. We have now until about the middle of June to go ahead
and pull all of our information together, have all of our public meetings and
outreach and go over the drafts and gain consensus on it. Then we will be
looking at the Mayor and the City Council to have time to review the plans and
we will have briefings before that of course for you to see where we are at, but to
come forward in a formal City Council meeting, which we will also call a public
hearing to let you do a preliminary approval of adoption, then HUD requires a 30
day public comment period where then these draft plans can be available to
citizens throughout the city and organizations, associations, special interest
groups to see if there is any problem with that. If not, well then we have a final
adoption of everything, revise anything in the documents that needs to be
changed by staff recommendation, Mayor's recommendation or City Council's
recommendation and then no later than August 15th the packet gets sent to HUD.
They have 45 days prior to October 1 st to review it and approve it and then we
can start spending the money October 1st. That was a whirlwind, but please let
me know if you have any questions.
Borton: Thank you, Kay.
Nary: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Nary.
Nary: Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Members of the Council, Kay was the
recommended selection from the committee that reviewed the RFP proposals or
RFQ proposals that were submitted - the presentation tonight was to hopefully
give you a comfort level as to the kind of the program. As you can see there is a
lot of process. The time is a little tight, but the committee felt very strongly that
Kay was the right person, the right fit to get this done - to know the morass of red
tape that exists in beginning something like this. The value to the city, I think, is
tremendous. It allows an opportunity for the city to direct projects to things that
are of needs to our citizens and have a funding mechanism to do that with. So,
there is a lot of potential upside there, but we wanted to make sure before we
finalize an agreement with Kay and began the process that you as the Council
were comfortable if that is the continuing road that you want us to be on. I guess
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
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to give you folks an opportunity to discuss that, but if you could give us some
direction on getting that finalized, writing that contract in front of you, Kay is ready
and willing to get started as soon as we get that go ahead to do that, but I just
wanted to make sure that we are on track for that.
Borton: Thanks, Bill. Council, Mayor any questions?
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: Kay with HUD when we do stuff construction or anything we are - have to
go (inaudible--) -
Frances: Davis, Bacon, (inaudible). Councilman Bird it really depends on the
type of projects that you are going to do and how you are going to go about it. If
you are going to do it a sealed, competitive bid and put it out to an independent
contractor away from the city, the answer is yes. If you wanted to look at
opportunities for any of our Public Works Departments to implement a project
and you ran it through the general fund, there would be Davis, Bacon.
Bird: That is good, Kay because the administration on the Davis, Bacon is time
consuming and very expensive.
Frances: Yes, you do have to do some interviews and you do have to check the
payrolls. We have a checklist for that and what is required. I was going to try
and give you an example of something that maybe wouldn't trigger Davis, Bacon.
I can tell you if we were doing a regional wastewater treatment plant, which
would drive the cost up by at least a third. But, where we are doing basic labor
or plumbing or electrical type of contracting work or even light construction or
rehab, actually the Davis, Bacon wage rates in some projects I have seen are
actually less than what the going rate in Idaho is because we do have unions
involved.
Bird: I don't disagree with that. Kay, you seem like a pretty straight forth person.
What kind of dark hidden holes are there out there and this comes back and bites
us ten years from now for these grants?
Frances: Boy, then years from now I have got a vision. Taking this $300,000 or
$320,000 and turning it into about $5 million is what I have in mind because what
you can do is you can take this grant program and couple it as match for other
grant programs, which you haven't even started to investigate through education
and Health and Welfare, transportation, law enforcement, public safety through
the Fire Department - there is a lot you can do with a small seed money to watch
it grow. So, I don't think there is any hidden agenda there. I am going to keep
you on the straight and narrow and make sure you get started right; make sure
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 9 of 19
you are administered right and build staff capacity over time with your existing
staff. I will tell you that even though it is the eighth largest federal grant program,
the regulatory requirements are stringent enough that you get your arms around
those regulations and everything else is downhill. It makes all the other
programs look pretty easy to accomplish, so we want to do a lot of training on the
upfront and that is what I enjoy doing.
Zaremba: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: Ms. Frances, I am going to throw a name out here that I really don't
know anything about, but it will sound great. Also have a program, I believe,
called Section 8 that has to do with subsidized housing for people. Is there any
relationship between this program and that?
Frances: Yes, there is. I will tell you that the Section 8 program for Meridian is
handled by the Ada County, Boise City Housing Authority and I will be working
with them to identify how many people currently have Section 8 housing
vouchers that have Meridian addresses and how many people are on the waiting
list for Section 8 and also be looking at opportunities for landlords that have
rental units to look at the minimum standards that they have to comply with to get
their units ready to be eligible for Section 8, so that more people if they are
working in Meridian can live in Meridian close to their work place and I think that
that is really important and that is one of the compliance requirements in the
consolidated plan. So, I will bring that information to you as soon as I get it.
Borton: Well, Kay to answer Mr. Nary's question, I for one feel extremely
comfortable with your background and experience in going forward. I think
clearly we have got a short timeframe and everything that we can do to
encourage getting the process started and these plans prepared to meet these
deadlines.
Bird: I concur.
Zaremba: I would say this is an excellent presentation and you are the
professional we need.
Frances: Thank you.
Borton: Mr. Wardle, Emily do either of you have anything to add or comments?
Not too put you on the spot, but give you a chance to get on the open
microphone. I was hoping Emily would come forward, actually.
Wardle: Thank you Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Members of the Council.
Shaun Wardle with the Meridian Development Corporation and the Economic
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March 6, 2007
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Development for the city and this program has a number of different facets for us.
Kay and I are going to meet and talk about it. Obviously she has addressed
some things in the urban renewal district. One of the things that we are going to
further explore is because only 30 percent of the money is eligible within that
area - 70 percent is eligible in the greater city and when we talk about job
creation and you look at the job creation at the $15.15 an hour, we have a
number of employers that have expressed an interest that would potentially
qualify for those and so it gives us another tool in the box to attract businesses
and bring good jobs to our citizens. We look forward in working with her.
De Weerd: Mr. President.
Borton: Madame Mayor.
De Weerd: Essentially he just told you he knows he will spend our money,
wisely.
Wardle: Wisely, yes. Thank you.
Borton: Thank you, Shaun and thank you Kay. I appreciate the presentation.
Frances: I look forward to working with each and everyone of you and your
wonderful staff.
Item 4.
Discussion with CH2M Hill OMI for consulting assistance for
Public Works Department:
Watson: Thank you Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Members of the Council.
First of all thank you for taking the time to invite or let me invite (inaudible) to
discuss their qualifications and their capabilities. I have met with them a couple
of times over the last several months and up until last fall, last summer I vaguely
knew of this company. I knew it existed and that was about it. I have learned a
lot over the last couple of months. I did send you a pack of information; hopefully
you received that and have had a chance to review that. I was just going to say
a few words here and usually I wing it a little bit, but I wanted to get my thoughts
down on paper, so if it looks like I am checking notes, please excuse me. I
guess just to start I think this company could benefit me, the whole Public Works
staff and the city as a whole in a variety of ways. These discussions that we
have had or that I have had with Gary Young, who I will introduce here in a
minute, a very intriguing and actually somewhat timely. As you may recall about
a month ago, a month and one half ago I came to Council with a budget
amendment for an environmental coordinator position. It had been on our
(inaudible) chart and planned for two or three years. But, I felt we were finally at
that point where we needed to have somebody looking at those sorts of things. I
guess first and foremost I want to state that I think the vast majority of Public
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March 6, 2007
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Works employees take their duties very seriously and want to do an excellent
job. You don't see them too much. They are out in the sewer plant. They are
out on the trucks running the water system. But, they are a prideful bunch. I also
believe that the staff - sorry I lost my spot. I also believe the staff wants to be
the best at what they do and I also want them to succeed and I know you do too.
It seems and this kind of goes back to this budget amendment - it seems that
there comes a time when one day seminars, three day conferences and even
internal training maybe don't provide the level of knowledge that we need to
reach the level that we want. We have evolved from a small city where every
employee knew each other and the red tape was minimal - that is two agenda
items where you have heard that phrase red tape, which is not a good sign.
Really, getting the job done was the primary and sometimes the only focus. We
have evolved into a relatively large organization with increasingly complex
drivers. We have our customers and ratepayers. We have the regulatory
agencies. We even have other utilities, municipalities that we are constantly
dealing with. We also have internal policies and this isn't a knock on where we
are now, but we didn't use to have in-house legal counsel; we didn't have in-
house purchasing agent; we simply went out and got a job done very quickly.
But, we have learned that there are checks and balances that need to be there
and we understand that. In this growth I think we sometimes forget that you, we
are running essentially two industries. We don't think about it very often, but the
water system and the wastewater system are really two large industries in the
city that are comparable and probably have as many employees as the biggest
private employers that you see going down Franklin Road. All the while, we are
trying to run a service organization with many thousands of customers that
demand service, not when they just show up at the counter, but 24 hours a day.
This is not an easy business. We try to make it look that way and sometimes we
succeed in making it look easy, but not all of the time. Sometimes it is pretty
difficult. The point I am trying to get to and I will get to because I know we are
running behind is that as you listen to Gary and we explore opportunities, you are
not going to get 100 percent buy in from all of our staff. We have a dedicated
staff, but sometimes when you bring outside expertise in to tell them or to
evaluate how they do the job that they have been doing for years or decades,
there is going to be some resistance. I guess the reason I tell you this is if we
proceed down this path I will definitely need your continuing support from
financial to I don't even know what to call it - the buy in. I will tell the story the
best I can to the employees of the department, but there will be some segments,
there will be some individuals that don't think we are doing the right thing
because they have been doing for 20 years and they have been doing it the way
they were taught 20 years ago. Despite that I have come to the conclusion that
we probably don't know everything that we need to know to be where we want to
be. If we go down this path, what I want to keep in mind is we are looking
forward here. We are looking at how to improve our systems and how to be
really the best utility around. I am about out of notes, so I am going to wrap it up.
With that I guess I would like to introduce Gary Young. He is the regional
business manager of OMI. As you can tell from the packets that we handed out
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March 6, 2007
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they are actually a sister company of CH2M Hill, who is an engineering
consultant worldwide - we have them currently working on a project at the waste
water plant looking at optimization and looking at what the future plant will be on
that site. They are doing an outstanding job and they are on schedule, which is
always good. They have also done various jobs for us over the years from the
Ustick reservoir, another big project to smaller jobs - some sewage lift stations
and that sort of thing. So even though I am not familiar with their operational
arm, I am familiar with CH2M Hill. Gary was gracious enough to fly over here
from Coos Bay, Oregon and I am sure he will tell you a little side story about his
familiarity with the City of Meridian. I thought he could come and just kind of
highlight some of the services that they can provide. I outlined a few of those
previously to you and hopefully we can do just kind of a question and answer and
he will present what their capabilities are. If you have any more questions for
me, feel free and I will jump back up. I will turn it over to Gary unless you have
questions for me right now.
Zaremba: Mr. President, just a comment if I may? Sometimes it is helpful to
think in terms with your staff - we have a growing organization, we have a
growing city, growing departments, growing needs and I don't think anybody is
saying that people have been doing the wrong thing, but what we know is that
procedures and activities that were right for a city of 9,000 people needed to be
adjusted when we got to 36,000 people and now they need to be adjusted again
when we get to 50,000 people and we are soon to be pushing 80,000 people and
we really right now need to be preparing for 100,000. That doesn't mean that as
we change people's work that they were wrong before. I wouldn't want anybody
- you know, if you go through it and (inaudible) a lot of stuff here that needs to
change - I would convey to the people it is not that they were doing something
wrong before - we have grown, things have changed and there is nothing
personal in saying what we do for 100,000 people is different than that what we
did for 9,000. I hope you can convey that to people.
Watson: Mr. President. Thank you Councilman Zaremba and just so you know
that this is a little under the radar too, but we have been going through this for
two years in our safety program. It has been a struggle, quite frankly at times
with some segments of the department. But, slowly but surely they are coming
along. Thank you.
Young: Mr. President, Madame Mayor and Council Members I am before you to
offer assistance, I guess. That is the main thing that OMI provides for
communities. Not only communities, but industries. About a little over 20 years
ago, OMlor I should say CH2M Hill realized that so many times you don't really
just have to build a new treatment plant or add more equipment to a facility to
make it operate properly; sometimes what you have to do is bring in resources
and tools that actually know how to work the waste water treatment plant itself.
The process - waste water or water - so back in the early 80's, (inaudible) in
Oregon was one of our first projects and it is still there today. We started off
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 13 of 19
(inaudible) our waste water plant and subsequently we added their water facility.
Twin Falls, Idaho we have been there over 20 years operating their waste water
system. So, what we do is we come in and we offer assistance, we offer
resources, we offer our tools to help you sort of address some of the needs of the
community and as these needs change as you indicated, you know the
population grows, you develop a new set of needs. Granted, the regulatory
needs are always changing. So, what we probably try to bring in is expertise
from over 1 00 to 250 facilities that we operate so we don't have to reinvent the
wheel every time. The thing we want to focus on all of the time is systems and
tools. We figure and our philosophy is if we bring in the right tools, we provide
the right assistance, we provide the right training we can accomplish anything out
there. We can do the job to meet the process needs; meet the regulatory needs
that are set forth. So, what I am here for today is to talk a little bit about different
opportunities, whether it is process control, whether it is safety, we provide
safety, whether it is environmental compliance, environmental compliance
training, whether it is CMMS, computerized maintenance management systems.
We can come in and provide this type of site specific or specific tools to assist
you in accomplishing your needs or we can do on the other hand, which we do in
a lot of communities is what is called full contract operations; where we just
operate the whole facility for you. Not only water, waste water but now the latest
trend is in Georgia, outside of Atlanta is called Sandy Springs, which is full city
services, everything but fire, police and the judicial system. So, the whole
concept of providing assistance to communities as we grow or as they grow is
evolving into a different resource base that you have at your ability, I guess at
this point. So, the main thing you know is trying to understand what specifically
would you like assistance with and then providing that from my set of tools being
the regional manager for the northwest, bringing in individuals either assigned to
the project or bring them in as time allows or site specific issues come up,
bringing them in to assist and provide the direction that you would like to see.
We are growing. I mean the biggest thing that I find in the waste water, water
industry and the utility industry is this is your largest utility as Brad indicated. You
don't hear about them, but they are running twenty-four, seven. They are
running every single day providing the service. The only time you don't hear
about them is when you turn it on and nothing happens or something happens in
the discharge where you are actually in violation of your permit. Then you hear
everything, but the other 99.9 percent of the time that they are doing an excellent
job and your staff is doing an excellent job and you don't hear about it. But, what
we need to do is provide the tools to go forward to ensure compliance all of the
time and that is through implementing system and some of our proven prosthesis
that ensure that. Setting up standard SOP's that we are going to follow all of the
time. Unit process control procedures that says if this happens do this so we
standardize it. Not just one person has the key, but we want to train everyone at
the facility to know how to operate the plant. I can continue on and on. I know it
is a new concept for a lot of folks. A lot of communities will outsource or provide
consultants to come in for most of their services. Other facilities, normally what
happens is they are going down for the third time, either financially, rate
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 14 of 19
increases, personnel issues, violation issues and finally they say let's higher a
consultant. Bring a contractor in. So, I have seen different avenues and different
aspects and my little story about Meridian - this is where I started my field.
When I went to Boise State in water, waste water technology back in 1982, we
actually moved into the waste water facility or the Meridian - it was a facility by
Jim Felton that brought this facility here and my class was the class that we
actually started at Boise State and we actually moved the facility to Meridian and
completed the second half, so I have my roots here in Meridian and I tell you it
has changed tremendously since the early 80's. I don't know if I am answering
any questions or if I am providing any insight or -
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: If he is willing for questions, I have questions. When cities outsource and
stuff and I will probably call you CH2M Hill, do you guys manage facilities for
existing entities or do you own and sell back service?
Young: No, we do not as called privatization. We do not privatize. We offer
consulting or contract operations, but we do not privatize where we buy the
facilities.
Bird: But if we were to get - and you would come in and completely run our
service excluding putting in the sewer or anything else, you would actually run
the plant? I suppose you could -
Young: We put in the sewers, distribution, water lines, parks, streets, and full
public works. We have found our services have sort of expanded upon the early
80's when we just did water and waste water - to provide other services for the
communities because what we find it's managing systems and tools and people.
Bird: Follow up, Mr. President. What are we looking at in this consulting deal?
How many hours, approximately per month will be spent by your firm at our
facilities or lining out or has this been worked into yet?
(Tape turned over)
(Inaudible discussion)
Watson: You are way, way ahead. As I said in some information that I sent to
you I wanted to bring Gary here so that you could get your arms around the
concept and become familiar before I even started down that road of negotiating
a scope of services and exactly what I would recommend and obviously with
(inaudible) buy in and bring back to you for approval. I don't have a picture to
give you tonight.
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 15 of 19
Bird: I think it is a great idea, if you want my opinion. It is great idea and we
need somebody like this on board.
Watson: Quite honestly, I am not looking at the full meal deal. I am looking at a
range here that I need to explore and that we need to explore.
Borton: Brad, I have got a question for you on the environmental coordinator
position. Do you envision this perhaps in the short term and fill in that gap until
there is a permanent hire or do you think that could be a contracted position?
Watson: Mr. President, I think ultimately it needs to be somebody in-house that
can be a service of not only to the Public Works Departments, but become
intimately familiar with all the people of all the other departments. It will
ultimately migrate as many of the things that are incubated in public works do
migrate to other departments. I think it could fill the role contractually for a while.
My expectation is these sorts of people are pretty rare and hard to find, so even if
I advertised now I wouldn't necessarily find somebody and if I did it would be
more of a junior level and I would like to fill that in-house with some contractual
expertise around so that there could be some melding of the minds and training.
Borton: For the rest of Council's benefit, I think it is important to relay in my
discussions with Brad about these opportunities and we talked about it not too
long ago. There was really a never ending discussion or concern relayed about
the program and process and operations as a whole. I mean, quite the opposite
every thing relayed to me that we discussed was all positive and to the extent
and I applaud you Brad, I think it takes some courage and leadership to venture
out and try and create additional opportunities to provide even better service.
You made reference to keeping our eye on the ball and keeping focused on
creating the greatest product for our customers. This is an additional opportunity
for that. In your discussions with me, you have been adamant in that regard and
sometimes it might be easy to not try and seek additional help and obtain other
opportunities to provide a better service, but you are doing that and I think you
are bringing (inaudible) and it is good leadership on your part and I appreciate
you doing so.
De Weerd: Mr. President.
Borton: Madame Mayor.
De Weerd: I would echo that. I think that we were looking at opportunities for
challenging ourselves in areas that we could find efficiencies and better
processes too and it doesn't mean anything is broken. It does mean that we are
entering into a population level that demands new regulatory type of oversight
and also as we move into looking at conservation techniques and practices, they
offer a broad base of knowledge and best practices from many different
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 16 of 19
examples and those are things that we have one example and it is ourselves, so
just bringing in that expertise and challenging how we could be doing things a
little different or better or maybe we will teach them a few things.
Young: We steal shamelessly. That is our motto. We can steal from one
another and that makes everyone better at that point. We really don't have to
recreate the wheel.
Borton: Gary, I have got a very weird question for you? Have you seen the
movie the Office Space?
Young: No, I have not.
Borton: Well there is a part of this movie - you have got to see this movie. They
have these guys called the "Bobs" and I am going to digress this for a second.
They come in and evaluate the efficiency of this company in the movie and one
of the funny parts of the movie, but what kind of applies here is the concern of
those employees when the Bobs come, they think they are headhunters and they
are going to fire the weakest links, etc. and it is a big moral problem. Do you
have anything you can offer us - when I am concerned about your presence
overseeing our department and poking and prodding at what we do from a moral
perspective? Is there any technique or approach you utilize to try and lessen that
stress upon the existing department employees?
Young: Well one of the focuses that we had through most of the late 90's and
what we have achieved was the Malcom Baldrige award and that is teaching
quality. That is one of the tools that we always try to bring to a new situation
because it is fear of the unknown. You have someone new coming into your
facility that you know and is going to probably critique your efforts and what you
have done in the past and you have to do that diplomatically because for one
they know the plant. We do not. We know systems, we know tools and we know
process, but we need to understand we need to learn from them. So, what we
try to do is build the team concept right away and first of all we are not going to
do it ourselves. We are trying to achieve the end result. That is the best water
possible at the lowest possible cost for the city and the citizens. So, we try to
instill quality, instill teamwork and we approach it in that effort and then we try to
focus on individual's behavior and what they provide. There will be a lot that will
want you to fail, just to prove someone wrong. That is the nature you find there.
We want to encourage the ones that are positive. We try to instill upon them the
ability, you know, as one of our mottos, we pay you to think. That is our
philosophy. We want you to think. We don't want to just do a job. We want you
to think about your job and what we can do. So, that is the culture and the norm
that we try and instill upon staff. Is it going to be perfect? Are there going to be
some doubt it and sort of stand back and try to wait and hope you fail? I am sure
there will be. We have ran into those, but there is going to be far more that you
incite and you encourage by asking them their input and getting them to
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 17 of 19
participate and then they start feeling good about their job and what they do in
the facility for you.
De Weerd: Mr. President.
Borton: Madame Mayor.
De Weerd: I guess it is too the culture and in both of these departments have
really started to turn over time and they do welcome to be challenged and I think
because they do have a large degree of pride in what they do, they want to know
how to do it better and more efficient. I think it is all - and you know we don't
know at what level of participation we will be seeking, but it is in how we tell the
story, too. This is not anything but to help us succeed, to step up to a new level
of service and serving a population, meeting new regulatory requirements and all
of that. So, I think it is in how we tell the story and how Brad tells the story and
Len and John and Rick and I think this is - if we tell our story in the manner and
the whole premise as to why we are doing it. It is going to put a lot of potential
questions at rest before it even begins. I think that as we lay the ground work
they will embrace this at whatever level we decide is appropriate to move forward
with. I am sure the leadership team will bring that back to you and we should be
able to answer those questions.
Zaremba: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Zaremba.
Zaremba: I was just going to comment that I know from my earlier business, I
was a business consultant and I would go into other people's companies that had
grown faster than they thought that they were going to grow and have to talk to
people that have been there for some time and I am sure you are sensitive to
this, but it is helpful to talk to them about it. This was a city of 9,000 and now we
are talking about 100,000 people. Are you just doing ten times what you were
doing 15 years ago? Maybe if we discuss where the work comes from and
where it goes and who else has to be involved in it and the people that are on the
ground usually have the best ideas that they think nobody has listened to, you
know, we can figure out a way to make your job easier and better because you
can't just do ten times what you were doing 15 years ago and go home, you
know that is too hard. There are ways to present it that say the end result is to
make your life easier by finding new systems that work ten times what we used
to be and I have realized it is too soon to determine exactly what your role is
going to be, but I am very much in favor of having something happen.
Young: Working smart is what we have to do. We don't always have to work
harder; we just have to work smarter. But, one of the things too that will help us
when we come in is we are not engineers. I mean our parent organization are
engineers. The folks that I have within my toolbox are operators. They came up
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 18 of 19
through the ranks. They can say I know what you are talking about because I
have done that job. I, myself, have done most of the jobs there. I probably even
did it in that plant out there, but the things is that becomes a bond somewhat
because then you are not just giving them lip service you are telling them I know
what you are doing. I know what pain and suffering you are going through and
let me show you an easier way to do it. People are going probably listen at that
po i nt.
Borton: Brad do you need more specific direction? I think we are all in
agreement to go forward and starting a scope of services. Are you comfortable
in doing that or do you need more from us?
Watson: Mr. President no not at this time. I will pursue some - I have four bullet
points, four main areas that I would like to pursue and with Mr. Young's help we
will see if we can iron something out and get it in front of you here in not too long
of a period.
Borton: Thank you, Brad. Thank you Gary for traveling over and taking the time
to explain the opportunities to us. Council, nothing further on that item. We are
onto Item No.5.
Item 5.
Executive Session per Idaho State Code 67-2345(1)(b) - (to
consider the evaluation, dismissal or disciplining of, or to hear
complaints or charges brought against, a public officer, employee,
staff member or individual agent, or public school student):
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we go into Executive Session as per Idaho State Code 67-
2345( 1 )(b).
Zaremba: Second.
Borton: It has been moved and seconded to go into Executive Session. Mr.
Berg, please call roll.
Roll Call Vote: Bird, aye; Zaremba, aye; Borton, aye and Rountree is absent.
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
EXECUTIVE SESSION:
Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting
March 6, 2007
Page 19 of 19
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we come out of Executive Session.
Zaremba: I second that.
Borton: It has been moved and seconded to come out of Executive Session. All
those in favor?
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
Bird: Mr. President.
Borton: Mr. Bird.
Bird: I move we adjourn the Special Meeting.
Zaremba: Second.
Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adjourn the Special Meeting. All
those in favor say aye.
THREE AYES. ONE ABSENT. MOTION CARRIED.
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 7:10 P.M.
(TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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