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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 03-20 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meetina March 20, 2007 The Meridian City Pre-Council meeting was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 by President Councilman Joe Borton. Members Present: Keith Bird, David Zaremba, Charlie Rountree and Joe Borton. Members Absent: Mayor De Weerd. Staff Present: Bill Nary, LeAnna Thomas, Doug Strong, Gene Trakel, Len Grady, Caleb Hood, Bill Johnson and Will Berg. Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: Roll call. X David Zaremba X Charlie Rountree o 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 that we scratch Item 3 and move Item 4 up to 3 and then for number 4 add the Executive Sessions as per Idaho Code 67-2345(1 )(c) and (1 )(f). Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in favor say aye. ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Borton: Thank you. New Item 3, the presentation by the Meridian Parks Department on a proposed after school pilot program at Meridian Middle School and LeAnna Thomas of the Parks Department will lead off the discussion. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20,2007 Page 2 of 16 Item 3. Presentation of Meridian Signal Coordination Project by ACHD Traffic Department Gary Inselman: (From the Audience): Are we having the Meridian signal coordination? Borton: No, sir that item has been postponed. I believe it will be next week, though. Zaremba: The reason for that is that the presenter, the person who is supposed to present it was very sick today and wasn't able to make it. (Inaudible from Audience) Borton: We don't know for sure. He will be flying in from out of town. (Inaudible discussion) Borton: You can always contact the Clerk's Office to find out, but it will be posted as well. Item 4. Presentation by Meridian Parks Department on After School Program at Meridian Middle School: Thomas: Thank you and Council Members, I appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening. As noted in your packet if you have had the opportunity to review it, I am here to request funding for a pilot program for an after school program at Meridian Middle School. This will be for the remainder of the school year and what we are requesting is $11,800 for staffing as well as program supplies and in cooperation with the school Principal Lisa Austin is here this evening. We have formulated a proposed program outline, which is also attached to your packets. If you have any questions regarding what that might entail, I would be happy to address those at this time. Borton: Council, any questions at this point? Rountree: Mr. President, I have none, but I think a summary for the record would be good. So, we have them in the minutes and things like that. Thomas: A summary of the program, the proposal? Rountree: Yeah. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 3 of 16 Thomas: Certainly I would be happy to share that. The after school program concept is made up of several components and it is recreation and education based. The education portion obviously will come through the school staff. They are currently providing tutoring after school assistance for students that desire that and I am sure that there are probably some who are directed to participate based on need. Our relationship with the school is to come in and provide a recreation based activities to enhance the school activities that the kids are already participating in. This program would only be open to currently enrolled students at Meridian Middle School as a pilot program and I emphasize that the pilot program - this is something that we would like to initiate to see what the response would be and also to provide a report to the City Council following the end of the pilot program to update you on measurement factors that we can pull together with the help in the school. The after school program would run Monday through Friday for the remainder of the school year from the time that school lets out, approximately 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. We would request funding for staffing to provide an oversight staff who would be a lead person as far as organizing and planning the activities and then we have additional recreation leaders as needed who would provide the implementations of the activities and interact directly with the youth. One of the greatest benefits to the city as far as Parks and Recreation vision goes is that this partnership with the school will allow us to have this school facility as a recreation base for community programs, which we have not had in the past and we see this as a great opportunity to do that. So, first of all, we will be serving the youth in the school, in an after school setting with positive role models; introducing them to a variety of activities, which they may not otherwise have the opportunity to engage in and also to provide positive role models as I am sure all of us has had the experience to have in our lives and that is always a benefit. We also are looking to partner with other community youth agencies as those opportunities arise, including the Boys and Girls Club. We recognize that they have some components that they are able to offer that we would not necessarily consider our expertise. We have had conversations with the Boys and Girls Club director regarding the possibility of partnership in those opportunities that might arise and also seeking those out. There will be other youth agencies, perhaps probably the 4-H club and the Boy Scouts and others of that nature who could bring in some program components that their staff would be able to implement in partnership with us. I know in the packet there was a quote which - or an email that I sent out which quotes that Lt. John Overton from the Police Department encouraged me to attach and I took the liberty of doing that and from the Police Department's view point they see this as a complimentary program to what the Boys and Girls Club and other community agencies are offering and based on the facility location, the kids that are already at Meridian Middle School - if I remember back to those days, it is kind of a second home to those kids. They are familiar with the physical surroundings as well as the staff that are there and inviting us in as a partner to participate in some programs with them will be just a further benefit to help strengthen and enhance their activities in their lives. The bottom line as far as dollars go, we recognize that this is an investment we are requesting, but in my Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 4 of 16 opinion it is an investment that is worth making for a number of reasons. From the Police Department's view point, if these kids are involved in some positive activities in times of opportunities as Lt. Overton refers to them - their cost to the Police Department for being called out for additional services related to police activity that juveniles might be involved in, will be reduced. That is an expectation that we would have as a result of implementing this program. We also, again, with this partnership would have the opportunity to add multiple recreation programs at a facility, like art classes, cooking classes, use of the library for computer classes and other things that could be spread across the community, not just the youth - for families, adults, senior citizens and we have the capacity to provide those recreation and community education opportunities through our instructors and our recreation staff and so in that sense we will also be able to generate revenue because we have a facility to offer those types of classes to the community. Are there any further items that you would like me to address or touch on? Rountree: No, thank you. Thomas: Are there any questions from the Council? Borton: Council, any questions for LeAnna? Bird: I have none. Rountree: Not right now. Thomas: Thank you. Borton: Thank you. Sir, in a moment I think what we are going to do is going to get some additional testimony and then - Mr. Strong, do you have anything that you would like to add to the discussion? Strong: Thank you Mr. President, Members of the Council. Just a comment related in support of this program. This is something that we have been wanting to get into the community since I have been with the city. So, this is a real positive opportunity to develop our relationship with the School District further and have it extend into other areas of our programming and recreation program growth in the community. So, we are excited about the support from the School District, from the Police Department and from other youth organizations in the community and look forward to moving forward and providing a positive program for our youth. So, it certainly has its support of the department to go ahead and something that we will continue to pursue. Borton: Doug, are you able to fulfill the requirements of this during the pilot program without the hiring of additional staff? If it is for a short term period, do you have the means to do that? Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20,2007 Page 5 of 16 Strong: Mr. President, Members of the Council I think that we certainly have some seasonal staff now that may fill these roles. We have looked at that in very initial look. I think our best approach would be to look at hiring staff specifically for this program. I am not sure whether the current staff that we have would satisfy what we are looking for. So, the cost would be the same, I guess, either way. We would still have the staffing cost for the program. The reason that we are looking at it was the timing, if we had the funding, how quickly we could move ahead to put something in place. Borton: The reason for my question was if you have some difficulty in finding qualified staff in a hiring process, is there some date that the pilot program couldn't work? With your April 9th date, you have got about 60 days more or less to try and implement it and get some results to report back on. If you can't find some qualified staff, you know, my question is hopefully you have LeAnna volunteering herself and other people to help give the program a chance to succeed, rather than not do it because you can't find people to (inaudible--). Strong: Mr. President, Members of the Council I guess my approach to that is that we are optimistic that we can find staff that would satisfy what we are looking for for this program. In answer to your question, would there be a drop dead day? I think there would be. I think there would be some point where if we couldn't get it initiated quickly that the opportunity to really test the program and make a good and factual report back to you about continuance of the program would be lost. So, I think we would need to do it very quickly. Nary: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Nary. Nary: On the personnel side in reviewing the memorandum that was provided, we don't have a classified position for a recreation specialist, so we don't have any means to classify at the moment and we don't have a job description for it. We do have - all of the seasonal positions that we currently have in the Parks Department are in a different pay grade than what is proposed in here. Currently, the recreation leader - that is what a couple of these positions are called, recreation leaders for the ones that sort of report to the recreations specialist. Those are in pay grade "A", which is significantly less than the pay grade "C" that is in the memo and we don't have a recreation specialist at all. So, we would have to have a little more information from the Parks Department to classify that. I don't know that it - it may make the funding less cost to the city because it may not necessarily (inaudible) at a grade level "E". All of the current part time seasonal jobs are all in the same pay grade. So, unless this one has something significantly different it would probably be in the same pay grade as all the other ones. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 6 of 16 Borton: Thank you, Mr. Nary. And if there is an opportunity to make the program successful, if again, not necessarily volunteering LeAnna or Colin to be the "recreation specialist" at least during the 60 days to oversee the program, it sounds like if there is an expense for personnel it may well might be well under what you are estimating, if you are going to be hiring some of the seasonal staff to be there and run the programs. Strong: That is correct. Actually the recreation specialist position is a position that we have asked for a new classification for this upcoming budget cycle in anticipation of needing to fill these types of positions in the future, it is an entry level category that we don't currently have in our recreation staffing. So, we would still have to go through that process of getting a classification there. So, we would have to rely, I guess, at this point on (inaudible) as classified positions to move ahead. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Doug, you say April 9th is the drop dead? That is less than two months, the kids I think get out the 3rd or 4th of June and can we get people in place having to go through the hiring process that is required or maybe it would be best if we get this set up and do it in September or October of next fall when they go back to school? Be ready to go. Can we get people in place by the 9th and be ready to go? Strong: Well, I would ask for a response from Mr. Nary, I guess, on that. Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council it depends. I haven't discussed it with Doug and I don't know if he has had any discussion with any of my staff. The process of hiring for example other seasonal positions that we have generally takes about two weeks and those are for seasonal positions regarding ground maintenance and those types of things - unless there is somebody in mind, unless there is an actual target pool out there to go approach and look for specific people with specific skills, generally we would be looking at a general public offering of this position, so generally we leave them open somewhere in the area of a week to two weeks, we see what responses we get, the processing of them into drug tests, backgrounds and all of those things, generally takes a minimum of at least a week. So, you are looking at about three weeks to hire if we are going to hire somebody, you know - we don't have any pool to go to, so that is about your window, about three weeks, minimum to get people hired and that is if you get a lot of interested applicants. Bird: Mr. President, follow up. Borton: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Pre~Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 7 of 16 Bird: If it takes two to three weeks, then we have got to get the program set and ready to go, unless we have already got the program set that we are going to do and how we are going to do it and everything. Strong: Mr. President, Members of the Council and Councilman Bird, we do have staff that we have used in previous summer seasonal programs that I believe LeAnna has talked to with. We also have an advertisement out right now for a number of seasonal positions that are currently posted. I am not sure what the response is to that, so we have been anticipating - as we actually had planned to bring this forward about a month ago and when we took it through the Commission, our February Commission meeting was cancelled. So, it has held us up in our timing. That is the latest somewhat. But, we feel that there is some utility in a pilot program to get in the door to look at the kind of issues and programs that really work and test it out and then part of this is an anticipation of our budget preparation for 2008 to be able to make changes in the program that would be positive for a request that we are going to bring forward for our 2008 budget request. So, we certainly can wait until fall to initiate it. We wouldn't have the value of the experience of a pilot program in our enhancement requests for the budget cycle. Borton: Doug, at least from my perspective that it seems to make valuable sense to utilize this opportunity with a pilot program and get some feedback over the summer and charge forward now, at least from my perspective. The only catch as I see it is if you make these announcements and drive up a bunch of interest amongst the students and the parents and for whatever reason we can't deliver - worse case scenario you are unable to find anybody to run it in a situation that you have to cancel it April 10th, not run the programs and then jeopardize your ability to be successful in the fall; probably not going to happen, but that is really the only concern that I have got. Strong: We would be very careful about that because certainly this is a relationship that we would want to establish, we want it to be off to a positive start with the School District. We wouldn't want to jeopardize the program in that way. I don't think the School District would want that to happen either since it is a joint effort. So, we would have to be very careful about that. Nary: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Nary. Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council I am not trying to be the naysayer or anything. One of the things that I was looking at the information that was provided in regards to this program and I did verify with Mr. Baird before tonight's meeting - one of the issues that we have had a discussion with the School District on a number of different activities, not just this activity, but other ones is Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 8 of 16 insurance. The School District has been pretty concerned about the city's insurance and their coverage and we have had meetings both with our insurance carrier as well as their attorney and I guess for lack of a better way to explain it, currently the School District does not believe that the insurance the city carries is adequate to cover them for activities on their property. When we have had some of the activities they have agreed to waive that consideration. I don't know in this particular instance that that is something they would consider or not, but we have been pondering in how to bring that up and back with all of you to discuss for the future events and activities that we would like to have in regards to the Heritage Ball Field and Mr. Baird had a meeting recently with the School District's Council about the Heritage Middle School Ball Fields and the use of those facilities and pretty much came to the conclusion that they are very adamant that our coverage is not adequate and our carrier is pretty adamant that they can't provide it in the manner that the School District wants it. The end result of that discussion is that I think at some point if we are going to carry on activities on the school grounds, unless they waive that requirement that we may need to purchase separate insurance for those events. I don't know that that would be significantly expensive; it may not be, but we haven't explored that with our carrier yet as to what cost that may be to the city to purchase separate insurance for specific activities. I think they would have to make that assessment on each of the activities on what risks there might be in regards to those, but we haven't explored that yet because I just got an email back from Mr. Bird a moment ago saying that when they had discussed this recently it was regarding the ball fields and not this particular activity. Borton: Mr. Nary, your question at least as I see it, invites the question that either Ms. Austin or Ms. McDunna might want to answer when Councilman Bird brings up whether or not - you know investigating some of the things that Mr. Nary brought up over the spring and summer in trying to set the groundwork to have a program that could start in September. Would either of you have comment on starting this program in September verses now and do you lose some great opportunity or can you still have success if it goes that route? Austin: Thank you. Lisa Austin, Principal at Meridian Middle School. Thank you Members of the Council for having us here tonight. I think that yes we are a little squeezed on time in terms of the ideal implementation, but I do feel that having a short window of time to examine not only interest, but personnel issues and other details of this could really be beneficial in terms of un-developing just the right program for the fall implementation. Difficult to address your question, Mr. Nary. Dr. Clark was invited to be here and I do know that she is very supportive of this proposal and this partnership. LeAnna and I did present in front of the members of the Board of Trustees and really asked for their blessing to come to you this evening and see if we could just go forward with this and while the issue of insurance was not brought up specifically it was a general embracing of the idea. I know that currently and Mrs. McDunna can address this a little bit further in more specifics. Meridian Parks and Recreation does utilize Meridian Middle Meridian City Pre.Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 9 of 16 School gymnasiums quite a bit currently and have done so with in agreement as you said with a waiver. But, we have also waived fees for usage for Meridian Parks and Recreation activities for several years for that access. So, again it is really a partnership and kind of a - I hope what we are proposing is a mutually beneficial partnership that can have benefits for both parties. Anything - I am not very specific there, I know, but I do feel that if we are able to start this April 9th, we also at Meridian Middle School have a pool of employees who may be likely candidates for some of those extra staffing opportunities. We have classified positions within our school that are limited to a 40 hour week and those people are often looking for additional income and because this would be a different employer they are able to work at the same building, but perhaps have that different employer so it doesn't mess up their hours with the School District. So, that is one of those opportunities that we can look at. We also may have some teachers who also may want to stay after for an art class or other things like that. So, that is something that I haven't explored fully, not knowing, again if this would actually be a go. But, I think those are some potential employees that we could have as assets to the program. Can I just introduce Rhonda McDunna, Athletic Director? She has quite a bit of experience with Meridian Parks and Recreation and really schedules our gyms and our fields at our school site and could offer a little bit more detail in terms of those partnership opportunities. McDunna: Thank you Members of the Council. We are excited about this. We think that Meridian Middle School is kind of the hub. People often refer to it as our community school. So, we have partnered with Parks and Recreation for several years. It has been nine or so years since they started to bring the programs into our gyms and the original kind of proposal was that it would truly be a partnership; that we would share in expenses for the facilities as well as upkeep and some other things and the initial expenses entailed some upgrades in like basketball rims and volleyball equipment because adults would be using that stuff rather than just students. The District and Parks and Recreation both contributed to that. Meridian Middle School didn't contribute at that time and then kind of the process was that throughout time that our facility would be used and then money would then be contributed for the upkeep of just the basic things like the scoreboard use, the bleachers, which we just replaced, padding and just things like that - just think that when you have someone in your gym five nights a week, you know the scoreboard is used more in two weeks through Parks and Recreation than we used it in an entire basketball season. So, with the turnover of personnel and different situations there haven't been any more contributions since those initial ones. We have absorbed those costs mostly through our athletic budget. Recently, specifically since Colin has been there and we have had real consistency with personnel, I feel like the partnership has really grown. I feel like that we are really the school in the District that offers Parks and Recreation our facility and we think that is important whether we absorb the cost or not because many of the guys that play basketball in our gyms on Tuesday and Thursday nights are the same guys who grew up playing in that gym when it was Meridian, Jr. High. So, we have felt like that that has been an important part Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20,2007 Page 10 of 16 of our community and our obligation to the community, but this opportunity too as it comes up would certainly engage more so. Right now we have exclusively given Wesler Gym to Parks and Recreation five nights a week. We have pulled some of the youth programs out of that, but you know we are in talks right now about summer camps and other things and because fees are waived that does become a hardship on our custodial staff and sometimes our budget. But, it would be nice to come into a mutual beneficial exchange here and even though the after school activities program wouldn't necessarily feed into my athletic budget; it again is that scope of activities for our kids. I think we do a great job hitting on a lot of kids through athletics. But we could do a better job together, you know with other kinds of opportunities for kids in the afternoons. Our kids have a spirit of participation and I think that if they gave the opportunity that it would really work. We hope that Parks and Recreation feels that way about us and that we have really opened the door, especially the last couple of years and said let's do. We have added volleyball and basketball and again we have never allowed our facility to be used five nights a week because it is so difficult for custodians and we really did that because we felt like it was the right thing to do. Thank you. Borton: Thank you, Rhonda. Council any questions? Bird: I have none. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I have a question for Mr. Nary. Have the arrangements that are in place now that we just heard about, have they been formalized by resolution and/or agreement - it is all verbal? Do you have any history if it is all verbal? Nary: Mr. President, Members of the Council, Councilman Rountree are you asking are the current arrangements like the leagues that are using the facilities currently? In our recent discussion in regards to the State of the City event is where this issue came up again. The School District had been accepting the information that our insurance had been providing to the School District to show that there was coverage and the basic difference is probably more of a legal issue to lawyers and insurance people than it is to anybody else. The city and ICRMP had been providing to the School District proof that the city had insurance and that the School District was a certificate holder, but not an additional insured. Their attorneys' advice to the Board was that they should be an additional insured and that is the rub that ICRMP has had. So, to this point it has been an accepted practice; we have provided what has been requested and that has been accepted by the School District and the School Board as adequate. That may continue again. This program, I don't know if that is what their intent is or not, we haven't had that discussion. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 11 of 16 Rountree: That addresses the insurance issue in terms of the use of the facility for leagues and that sort of thing. Aside from the question of insurance has that been formalized and - Nary: We don't have any formal agreements that come in front of you that are part of those programs. Rountree: Thank you. Borton: Council any other questions or information needed? Zaremba: Yes, Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: It is not really a question. I would comment that I sure would like to see this program go forward - and all the more things that we can in tandem with the school so much the better. But, also I - in the long run I think this will turn out to be an excellent program and I am also enthusiastic about getting agreement to do it in time to do the pilot program this school year. So, if there is some time to tweak it and think about how it would go forward. I don't know if it was mentioned, but I believe the Parks Commission recommended approval of it. After a lively discussion felt that it was a worthwhile program as well. My comment is that I am in favor of it. I think we ought to do it. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: Well being in favor of it, I too would like to see it get off the dial somewhat to be a first class deal when we do it. I don't want it done halfway and then that makes you fall on your face later on down the road. My only concern is that we are doing it for one school, one part of our taxpayers. We have got people at Lake Hazel that pay taxes just as much as people that go to Meridian Middle School. We have Sawtooth. We will have some taxpayers at Heritage when it opens this fall. But for a pilot program I think we should stay with Meridian Middle School and I don't blame the School District, I would demand being named by the insurance company, too the same as we do if we put anybody under contract of the city - we make them name us as an additional insured. I think that is something that can be worked out. I would like to see this pilot program get on and off the ground this spring for the two months, but I do want to - if it can't be done right, I don't want it done as a pilot program. Because what happens is if people get a bad taste in their mouth that is going to take us a year or two to get rid of that taste and I would hope the Recreation Department will look at all of the citizens, all the taxpayers not just Meridian Middle School later Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 12 of 16 on. But, I think for a pilot program it is a great place to go and let's try it and see what we can do with it. Rountree: Mr. Borton. Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: I have always supported these partnerships particularly with the schools. I think it is a great use of facilities and we can get the community involved into the schools as well. My only reservation and my reservation is based on past experience in these kinds of partnerships with other schools in the Meridian School District in that it has all been done on a handshake and verbally and not that I am not trusting in that regard, but people as you indicated change and over time they forget and they forget what was committed to; they forget the investment the School District has made in the facilities; they forget the investment that the city has made in the facilities. I can recall too many times being rejected because maybe the city didn't support a facility as well as people remembered - they had bought basketball hoops and backboards and mechanical facilities to raise and lower backboards, etc., etc., in the High School. I don't mean that this needs to be a formal specific everything is documented, but we have a general agreement between the two entities that we are partners; we are going to make investments; these are our responsibilities; these are your responsibilities - something very straight forward that I believe our two legal staffs can get together and resolve. Beyond that I have no reservations. I think it is a good idea. I would say I hope it starts with success, not works into success. At this point I wish you well if we give the go ahead to move forward. Borton: One thing that I would like to see - I think I have already said, I think it is a fantastic opportunity and I would like to go forward with the pilot program yesterday and get this thing up and running. One of the things, assuming it is successful and we have a report this summer that talks about what took place and who did what and what the expenses were. It would be nice to see from the Meridian Police Department their involvement and the analysis of what changes that they have seen. I know it is a short period of time and also you made reference to the Boys and Girls Club, at least in an email and how their partnership can be implicated in this going forward, maybe not during the 60 days, but it would be nice to see how they could supplement this program with perhaps their staff, the activities, supervision, etc. Those are additional opportunities; might not be available now, but going forward I think and you pointed them out, LeAnna that those are something that you want to explore. In fairness to full disclosure the District's attorney who represents them on these matters is my partner Mark, so we can go down the hall and he and I can ask you that as well. So, everything is sort of contingent upon those matters getting resolved between the two legal staff. There are issues there that hold things up and that happens, hopefully it doesn't - just the same as if you can find adequate staff to run it. I think Councilman Bird said it extremely well if this thing can't be Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 13 of 16 done just right we wouldn't want to do it. LeAnna and Doug and Lisa and Rhonda, we hope that the thing would get pulled if there is some risk because I think it is going to be successful in the long term and if this program at Meridian Middle is successful then that can be utilized in additional schools under the same framework. But, I am hopeful it is successful and I support it as well. Doug and - well, actually before I call you back up, Doug - sir, you have raised your hand and I apologize for cutting you off earlier, if you had something that you wanted to say on this? Please come forward because you have to be on microphone. I apologize for cutting you off. Furner: Council, I originally came for the traffic control thing. However, I found this subject of the schools and the after school program very interesting. Number one some of the questions that have been asked here, I think that shows to me that as a citizen that you guys are really thinking and I think you have asked some very good questions and - Mr. Bird, I was very interested in his comments about perhaps that should be delayed because I kind of agree with him that doing it so quickly, not knowing too much about it of course, just to me walking in cold and his comments and some of the comments that I have heard and trying to balance them, I think that perhaps he has a good point. So, I hope you will consider that. One of the things that I did come here for is that I heard the term volunteer used a lot; well, not a lot but several times. Let me ask you what do you mean by volunteer relative to this after school program? Borton: Sir, I am not exactly sure what you are making specific references to? Furner: Okay, I would like to be considered a volunteer. I could supply a certain amount of expertise here or support to this and the thing that I had in the back of my mind is I like to fly remote control airplanes and I could if it meets the insurance company requirements and all these kinds of things, gain some support to this for free, no staffing because to me that is what a volunteer is is somebody that gives of their time or their financial support. So, you might consider myself as a volunteer. I am sure there are other people in the community that have skills and I heard the term role models; I am sure there are people in the community that could act as role models perhaps obviously you can't fly a radio control airplane when it is on a windy day, but if it is calm you can do those kinds of things. So, those are some of the things that I would like to throw out to you gentlemen and also to the Parks and Recreation people that perhaps they could have some ideas on how to bring in the rest of the community on this. It is a good idea for what you are trying to accomplish. Borton: Sir, I appreciate the sentiment and would encourage you to maybe even after this meeting speak with LeAnna and have some discussion about program opportunities. Furner: Now, I was recently talking with the Water Department about some problems of dirty water and flushing and so forth and to them I volunteered to be Meridian City Pre.Council Meeting March 20,2007 Page 14 of 16 part of the flushing team because when they send people out to do flushing they have to send out at least two people for safety reasons. They kind of said well we don't like volunteers because of legal implications. I guess that this would go to you, Mr. Nary; does the city ever use volunteers? Borton: Sir, I am going to invite you to have that conversation at the end of the Council meeting either with Mr. Nary - it would probably take some time to get your answers, fully - Furner: So, those are the things that came to mind and I appreciate your attention and - Borton: I don't think we got your name? Furner: My name is Roger Furner and I live in Meridian on Teter Street. I believe in terms of full disclosure that your father lives across the street from me. Borton: No kidding. I apologize. Furner: So, so far it has been a good relationship and the Mayor who is not here today lives two doors west of me. Borton: Thank you for coming tonight. We appreciate it. Director Strong were you in need of a budget amendment motion this evening? Strong: We are and actually we would have to bring an amendment back to the Council next week. We do appreciate the opportunity to present this and I also wanted to comment on Lisa's comment that teachers may be interested and this is something that LeAnna and I have talked about and haven't fully pursued within the personnel at the school, but obviously from many of our programs that are based at schools because teachers don't work year round, we are looking at that as a resource for some of the programs and after school programs and it would be a very positive way to maybe get through some of the background check issues and things with HR. This isn't something that we have been putting together in a hurry. We have been talking about this for several months and it is just kind of down to the final throws and it needs to all just go into place in order to meet that April timeframe. So, we are reasonably positive that we will be able to address that. Bird: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I am glad you guys picked Middle School because representing the Meridian Optimist Football program they are so accommodating to us for our teams and I also happen to have a son that has "AA" basketball tournaments Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 15 of 16 there and they are so good to that. I do know about the insurance because we pay a pretty good chunk to be insured with them and he's been fortunate enough to turn back quite a bit of money to the deal, but you guys are a pleasure to work with. Borton: Okay, I think we are crystal clear- Rountree: -- Doug, bring back an amendment and a fee schedule if there is a fee structure. Strong: There won't be any fee structure. Bird: While he is bringing back a resolution - if he is going to go ahead, let's get Doug and get the people hired and going on - I think from the attitude of the four of us, I think we are all in favor of trying this pilot so let's get it going. Borton: I think so - Zaremba: I think there is consensus in favor. Strong: When we bring back the amendment we can give you some idea after discussion with Mr. Nary and his staff what it looks like for staffing possibilities at that time - I think that we also want to give some indication of the early formation of an agreement that would be a formal - what Mr. Rountree was concerned about was some sort of formal written agreement that outlines who is doing what. We have some sample language for that that should make that fairly easy to do. Thank you. Borton: Thank you Lisa and Rhonda for coming. We appreciate your time. Nary: Mr. President. Borton: Mr. Nary. Nary: We also have an Executive Session noted on the regular agenda and because we have such a short window before the regular meeting we can leave it all to the regular agenda if you would like. Bird: That is true, Mr. President. I would like to move that we delay Item 5, the Executive Session and put it on the regularly scheduled meeting and with that I move if it is agreeable that we adjourn the Pre-Council. Rountree: Second. Borton: It has been moved and seconded to adjourn. All those in favor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting March 20, 2007 Page 16 of 16 ALL AYES. MOTION CARRIED. Item 5. Executive Session per Idaho Code 67-2345(1)(c) - (to conduct deliberations concerning labor negotiations or to acquire an interest in real property, which is not owned by a public agency) and 67- 2345(1)(f) - (to consider and advise its legal representatives in pending litigation): MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:46 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: TAMMY D ..~jJ 4- / ~4t () 1 DATE APPROVED