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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002 11-19 Pre Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 The Pre-Council Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 P.M. on Tuesday, November 19, 2002, by Mayor Robert Corrie. Members Present: Robert Corrie, Tammy de Weerd, Bill Nary, Keith Bird, and Cherie McCandless. Others Present: William Nichols, Brad Hawkins-Clark, Kenny Bowers, Stacy Kilchenmann, Gary Smith, and Will Berg Item 1. Roll-call Attendance: X Tammy de Weerd X Bill Nary X Cherie McCandless X Keith Bird X Mayor Robert Corrie Corrie: We’ll open the Meridian City Council, Pre-Council Meeting on Tuesday, November 19, 2002 at 6:00 P.M. and we’ll have roll call attendance please Mr. Clerk. Item 2. Adoption of the Agenda: Corrie: Okay, Item Number 2 is the adoption of the agenda. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: Under Item Number 3, the update of the Impact Fee Ordinance I would also like to add an item that the Parks and Rec Commission asked me to ask the Council to do tonight if possible and I forgot to get it on the agenda. I hope that we can work it – seeing it is under Parks that maybe we could work it in with that if it’s okay with you and the Council. Corrie: What is it? Bird: It’s just a real easy thing. They would like a letter for the Lions and the PAL that we are willing to partnership with them. We don’t have to name a location like we did with baseball. Corrie: With a letter of intent without a location – Bird: Yes, without a location. Corrie: Oh, okay. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 2 of 16 Bird: If that’s agreeable with everybody. Nary: Sure. De Weerd: I don’t see a problem. Bird: If that’s agreeable then I would move that we adopt the amended agenda. McCandless: Second. Corrie: Okay motion made and second to adopt the amended agenda any further discussion? Hearing none all those in favor of the motion say aye. All ayes motion carried. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES Item 3. Update on Park Impact Fee Ordinance: Corrie: Item Number 3 is the update on Park Impact Fee Ordinance and I believe – Bird: I’m going to turn it over to Mr. Nichols to start with. Corrie: Okay. Nichols: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council with Tom Kuntz’ departure we had setback a little bit on these things but let me tell you my understanding where we are on these different items. Our office is in the process of revising the Park Impact Fee Ordinance to bring it into compliance with the 2002 Legislative Mandates. I’ve had some meetings with Elroy Huff and there are really kind of two areas that I think need worked on, and he is working on them. One is the actual proposed fees that are going to be brought to you. Tom Kuntz had put together quite a bit of material and had worked it down to basically a one-page summary of the proposed fees. They’ve been through the Park Impact Fee Committee process and I believe he had consensus from that Committee that those fees were accurate, appropriate and the assumptions that went into them were fine. It’s one of those things where if you asked a question well where did this number come from Tom could tell you but it wasn’t necessarily on the paper. Things like population figures, total acreage for existing parks, and those different categories. I’ve talked with Elroy about getting those numbers and breaking them out in a format to where anybody that picks up that document knows where the numbers came from and how they were derived. That’s the way it will need to be presented in the Public Hearing to get the Impact Fee Committee to put their blessing on the revised document, presentation if you will. The other thing is that the Capital Improvement Plan, which is a necessary element of any impact fee, which was the Jerry Dragoo Plan, which you approved but there were also Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 3 of 16 essentially two other things that needed to be incorporated into it. One was there were some comments from Planning and Zoning Department about the plan that had to be worked into it. The other thing was to work in the Pathway Plan so that we would have one document that showed all the proposed capital improvements for the Park's Department because you have to have that as a foundation for an impact fee. Elroy has been working on that and Keith told me tonight that Elroy and Steve wanted to get together with me and Jim Keller who’s on the Park Impact Fee Committee and work on getting the Capital Improvement Plan thing put together and finished so that we’ve got that part of it done. We’re proceeding but it’s not as quickly as any of us has hoped. That’s the status and you know if you have questions to the extent that I know the answer to the question I’d be glad to share the answer with you or defer to Keith or Elroy. Corrie: Bill what does it look like as a timetable? Nichols: Well my goal is to have my part of the Impact Fee Ordinance. I would like to have a good solid draft in three weeks that’s my goal. I would really -- is to be able to have it adopted by the end of December. The Impact Fee Ordinance won’t necessarily change the fees that are – but at least we’ve got all of the stuff in place that needs to be there. On the fees themselves, one of the other things we have to be sensitive to is what the effective date would be for the new fees. Since they’re paid by the builders one of the things that we run into in discussing a change in the fees is the builders say look we’ve got – working with somebody who wants to build a home they come to me, we work out the set of plans and then we price those plans. We might be a period of time out before we pull the permit when we actually sign that agreement with that owner to build that house. If you make the impact fees effective too soon, they will have already locked in the price with their buyer before they pull a permit, then they pull a permit, and all of a sudden, the fees are more than what they had factored into their assumptions in their agreement. We need to be sensitive about that but the Park Impact Fee Committee can help us with that in terms what a recommended effective date would be from the time of approval of the fees. The way I see it we would have to notice the fees for Public Hearing and then the week following that you would adopt the resolution setting the fees. I mean, if you tweak the fees or change the fees at the Public Hearing and then the next week you adopt those fees on an effective date so there’s that part of it. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Bill, on the timetables (inaudible) of the year. Did I hear you say there isn’t a legal necessity that it has to be passed by the end of the year was there? Nichols: Councilman Nary, Mayor and Members of the Council technically, our ordinance right now does not fit the current State Law. ACHD was given some Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 4 of 16 extra leeway but the rest of us weren’t necessarily given that leeway. The big thing with the builders though, was that we had been collecting – it’s in the ordinance to collect a 10 percent administrative fee, a surcharge on the impact fees for the cost of administering all the stuff. That kind of a surcharge isn’t authorized in the enabling legislation either before or since so we basically quit collecting the 10 percent fee. The builders I don’t think are in too big of a hurry to see us finish this process because the fees will be more than what they are now. Legally, yes we need to get it done. The end of year isn’t a magic number as far as what the law is but it’s just kind of a logical if we can have it done and effective by then great then at least we’ve cleaned up that part of it. th Nary: Would the 10 of December – you said three weeks to having a working draft. Is that a good target for like another Pre-Council discussion and then have th a Public Hearing on the 17? Obviously, we have to have note of it, advertising thth prior to that but having that on the 17 and that still gives us the 30 if we need fix or change or do something else. Nichols: Councilman Nary, Mayor, and Members of the Council here’s what I would propose to do. When I have a draft done, I mean the people that are most interested in this are the BCA and the realtors. We would provide them the draft because if I missed something or didn’t get something quite right they’ll be real quick to let me know. Then we have their comments then at least if there’s something that’s a policy issue that maybe I, from reading the way you’ve done things I think well I don’t think the Council’s going to buy their view of what the policy is. I think I sent you a memo some months ago and said here’s some kind of policy issues. If it’s that kind of thing I’m just basically only going to go based on probably what I think is appropriate and what I read that I’ll think you’ll do. If they disagree with those they’re free to come in and explain to you why that’s inappropriate but if there’s some technical thing in the enabling ordinance that I’ve missed then at least that gives me a chance to clean that up before that part th of it comes to you. My goal would be to have something done by the 10 but I th don’t know that it would be necessarily ready to go on the 17 and I know we’re not going to have a meeting before. Maybe it’s optimistic to have it done by the end of the year but I’ll just do my best to try to at least get the draft out and to the realtors and BCA as soon as we can. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: So you would like to have the draft out in three weeks. Will this have gone through the Impact Fee Committee within that time or that’s just what you’re shooting for to get the document itself? Nichols: Councilwoman de Weerd, Mayor, and Members of the Council that’s my goal to have it done. The Park Impact Fee Committee is really there primarily to Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 5 of 16 work on the calculation of the fees not necessarily to review the proposed ordinance. I don’t think, I mean there are some things that came out of that committee about the Park Impact Fee Ordinance but those things came from the Realtor’s Association Lobbyist and the BCA Lobbyist not necessarily as okay Impact Fee Committee how should we revise this ordinance. It came up as a result of that legislation that was passed. De Weerd: So if we were to follow our established procedure we could have the draft in three weeks in time for the Park’s Commission Meeting. Park’s Commission can look at it, give it’s recommendation and send it on to us on the th 17 just for the initial discussion Pre-Council’s discussion? Nichols: We’ll try. I mean I don’t know that there’s a magic number we’ll do our best to have it done. Again, I think that we’ve more or less identified all of the technical things that need to be changed and there is a bunch of them. The policy issues and I think there were only four or five of those there weren’t that many. There were some things that aren’t really in the enabling legislation that aren’t prohibited. I can’t think off the hand right now what all those are but there were a few things that the realtors and or BCA wanted us to ratch it way down. Like how long after they pull a Building Permit they can apply for a refund because they think the impact fee was improperly calculated or something. My preference is a shorter rather than a longer one just because of the administrative headache if nine months after or 90 days after somebody pulls a permit they think oh, wait a minute, this wasn’t correct and they want a refund just those kinds of issues. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Go ahead. De Weerd: So am I to understand then the new formula will not be a flat straight across fee for every home but based on the square footage or value of the house? Nichols: No, Councilwoman de Weerd, Mayor, and Members of the Council the Park Impact Fee Ordinance does not set those fees. The fees themselves would be set by resolution and those fees are tied to a single residential unit. If an apartment has eight units in it, they pay eight Park Impact Fees for that Building Permit. If it’s a single-family home, they pay one. Commercial development does not pay Park Impact Fees. De Weerd: So it stays the same. Nichols: It’s a flat fee. It does have two elements to it. What’s proposed has a neighborhood park element and a community park element so there’s a separate fee for each and then a combined total. Part of the rational for that was -- and Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 6 of 16 most of the new developments there’s some kind of amenity or something that qualifies as a neighborhood park actually being built by the developer. There are some areas of town that don’t yet have these neighborhood parks or for example we have the one in Autumn Faire, which is about seven acres. It’s not developed and that will need to be developed that there should be some fee paid to go toward the neighborhood parks. The builders and the developers wanted us to – and I think it’s probably appropriate, view the neighborhood park fee as one that eventually goes away. That once you got your neighborhood parks where they need to be in terms of your population, the different subdivisions in areas of town then that part can drop off and then all you’re collecting for is the community parks. By setting it up this way to where there’s a calculation for neighborhood parks, community parks and how those the different assumptions that go into it then that facilitates at a later date when the neighborhood park is done dropping that part off. Then you just have the community parks that you use. That’s the kind of thing that needs to be spelled out and done in a presentation so that when I’m gone, Elroy’s gone and everyone here is gone somebody picks up the file and you can see what’s done. Also to set in a pattern of every year having a Park Impact Fee Committee meet and look at the underlying assumptions. We’re assuming a certain price per land for acquisition and a certain price per acre for development. What did we actually spend in the previous fiscal year or two for development and acquisition? What’s the current price for raw land that developers are paying? All of those kinds of things in the more detailed without getting you know add (inaudible) but the more detailed type report then we know kind of what the punch list is that every year the Park Impact Fee Committee has to look at. There are other factors to be taken into account is when should they meet, when did those numbers get put together? It needs to be tied into the budget process so that the Park’s Director and the budget request can say here’s what we anticipate coming from Park Impact Fees, here’s where we can spend it and all of those kinds of things. th Corrie: Any other questions? Well let’s see if we can shoot for the 10 and see where we go then. Keith. Bird: Now Mr. Mayor, the second part of that is Council, PAL and the Lions Club, the rodeo would like a letter of intent to partnership with them with no specific location written by the Mayor if it would be your pleasure to do so. I would certainly think that would be the right thing to do so that they can go out and try to raise money also. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Do you think we need a motion. I certainly don’t have an objection to that. I think we’ve given one to – Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 7 of 16 Bird: We’ve given one to baseball. Nary: -- baseball coach. I (inaudible) think it’s a great idea, I think we’ve made that commitment to these folks on more than one occasion as well. I think that’s certainly fine to me as long as the Mayor’s comfortable with that as well I don’t see a problem with that. Bird: I don’t see a problem at all and what the – Park’s and Rec kind of took a vote last Wednesday and what they had basically come up with was the rest of Settler’s for baseball, Lochsa Falls for PAL and Borup for rodeo. That’s not setting the (inaudible) you know that’s – but I do believe it would be very nice for us to, for the Mayor to send out a letter to those two organizations so that they do have some firm background when they go out raising their money. De Weerd: Is that in a motion? Bird: I’ll make that as a motion you bet if we need one. Corrie: You don’t need it. Bird: I don’t think we need one we didn’t have one for the other one. As long as the Mayor doesn’t – Corrie: I don’t object (inaudible). You can vote on it if you want but I’ll write the letter tomorrow since we’re all in agreement. De Weerd: No. Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Keith, did I understand that then they’re going to discuss park locations for each of these entities then when they next get together. Are they considering meeting prior to their scheduled meeting to address park locations so these entities can start designing? Bird: I think they basically discussed that last Wednesday and took a formal vote on it of what – and I said that was the locations that they had come up with. As a park that would be their recommendation, which it isn’t formal yet, that will be coming before us to us on that I believe. De Weerd: And since it’s not formal, these entities really aren’t at liberty to proceed yet with designing. Bird: The only one that is at liberty I would say probably is because they’ve got a letter of intent that says Settler Park. I think that’s basically, what the Park’s and Rec Commission were getting after because they have already got a letter. I Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 8 of 16 think that’s why they wanted to feel if that was the majority of the Park’s Commission. It was the majority of the Park’s Commission that that’s where the baseball be located. Corrie: Yes the letter of intent was to work with them in partnership in the west end of Settler’s Park. There was no set acreage or anything else there but I think during their meeting they were discussing about if you had that all in PAL you’d never get anybody in and out so I kind of concur with – Bird: The Commission had a very nice discussion. There was some very, very good points brought up and it definitely was – I think traffic wise the baseball will probably be the best. I think PAL would impact way too much traffic out there at times. That’s -- I think most of them felt the same way so I’ll get the minutes and give everyone of you a copy of the minutes for it and you can read what their discussion was. De Weerd: I guess I would just like their firm – Bird: Commitment. De Weerd: -- commitment or firm action you know so we can I guess at prior meetings we’ve said we want that from the Commission. I understood that was a soft vote because it wasn’t published on their agenda so they didn’t feel that it could be termed an action item so it would be then deferred to the next time they get together. Bird: I don’t know how they – I don’t know what they run their rule or their meeting under. I haven’t figured out what kind of agenda or what they run because they’ve added to their agenda and they add off and on. I don’t know whether that was a soft vote or – I took it as being a hard vote. They all were very definitely vote and give their reasons. De Weerd: Then can we get a written recommendation for the minutes? Bird: Well, I would think we would be able to. De Weerd: From Bruce, just get it from Bruce and we can – Bird: Well I would do it with the Commission you bet. We can certainly get that. We can get the minutes and I think the minutes were pretty – will tell you everybody’s view. Jim Keller was not there. I think the vote was probably four to two. De Weerd: So, the ball’s in our court. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 9 of 16 Bird: I would say the ball would be in our court but I would like a formal written letter. I will ask for a written letter from them, from Bruce. I’ll get you a written letter and I’ll give you the minutes. De Weerd: Okay. Corrie: So this letter of intent then is to partnership – Bird: Just a partnership yes. Corrie: -- with no specific (inaudible). Bird: No specific location. Corrie: Okay, anything else? Okay your clocks wrong up here Will. It’s a little early that one’s just about right. Item 4. Discuss Mill Levy Adjustment Election: Corrie: Anyway, Item Number 4 is the discussion Mill Levy Adjustment Election. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess this is your item since it came up in the State of the City Address. Corrie: My main question is are we going to go for it again or are we not in the spring. A lot of people have been asking me about it both pros and cons. I got one from Doug Armstrong from Channel 7 has been bugging me he wants to get it on television and get it moving again so I thought we better bring it up and see if you had any ideas what you thought of another run at it or let it ride. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess maybe I assume that’s why Stacy has graced us with her presence to kind of give you some clarity on what’s in front of us. I know Will has put in our boxes a really good comparison to mill levy rates in both Ada County and Canyon County and even the different taxing entities which was very helpful. I think this is the first time we’ve seen something like that and I sure appreciate that. I do have my own comments but maybe Stacy can share with us the trends that are happening here. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 10 of 16 Kilchenmann: Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council this is just some information that I put together today for your discussion or just for you to consider. I think you’ve seen it before. The top chart is our levy rate, it’s been updated for the 2004 for the actual, and then the 2005 are based on a trend so you can see which direction the trend is going. The second graph is taking the top line, the red line are the general fund actual expenditures with one year of budget for 2003 and that would be all personnel, operation and capital outlay. The yellow line is the total property tax we collect which includes the amount we get for new construction and annexation. The blue line is the base property tax that’s just property tax without the new construction annexation and the orange line on the bottom is the amount for the construction annexation. It just kind of separates it into its components just for comparison purposes and the bottom line is just graphing one of the documents that Will gave you that shows the actual assessed market value by calendar as the county completes each time period and the direction it goes. They are just some graphical representations on what is happening with the levy rate and our revenue and how much we are spending. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: On the amount that is being expended is that including capital or is that only operational, on going expenses. Kilchenmann: That includes capital. That would be the actual just dollar amount total that we spent for the year. It spikes up when we added the Police Station and the overpass when it spikes in 2002. De Weerd: Can you do something that just shows operation and personnel. Kilchenmann: I can. I can separate those two. De Weerd: Cause the capital expenditures in particular, facility and land type of expenses are really misleading their one time only. Although capital as far as a fire engine expenditure, I think that’s a necessary item for and are police cars and that kind of thing. Those are ordinary and necessary in most regards so I don’t know if there’s a clear delineator on that but if you could find it. Those would be very helpful. Kilchenmann: I’ll separate the capital cause probably what’s ordinary and necessary changes from everyone’s opinion to person to person. I can just show that separately so you can see. Like the Police Station that’s in our operating every year because, as we make the bond payments but it will be easy to separate them. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 11 of 16 Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess two things. One I know through the Mayor he’s put out information that we have on December second legislative day over at Boise City Hall. I think it would be very important to have this kind of information to kind of bring along with us but also how much of the revenue is from the State shared fund so we know if they cut us the total impact that would have. I think we need to be as informed as we can go into that since we are already reading about it in the paper. Secondly, I know I had mentioned this last week but as we, look whether we need to go and look at a mill levy increase I would like to propose that we form a task force of citizens with representatives of various entities. The largest employer in our area is the school district maybe Blue Cross, Saint Luke’s and United Heritage perhaps. A chamber representation from maybe a service club or two, BCA, Association of Realtors. Our Commissions and maybe some citizens to really take a look at our budget our process that the trends that we are starting to see the narrowing gap between the revenues collected and our ongoing expenses to of operation and personnel. Look at the different revenue strings we have and really critique are we doing what we can. Are there other things that we haven’t considered and come back to this body with a recommendation on revenue sources and if this looks like something that we need to go to our citizens and ask for an increase? Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: I would concur as well with something like that because I think that the general population of taxpayers in this community aren’t really concerned with what elected officials think about raising their taxes. I think they need to hear it from other people like themselves. Like Council Member de Weerd said you are going to talk about employers, school district and general citizens that have an interest in the topic and bring us recommendations on whether or not to have an election whatever they come out of that group with will probably carry more weight with the general public then what we think. I think we’ve talked about this before and I think generally have a group how we get to that we may not all have the same idea but that something at some point is going to need to happen I think we’ve all agreed with that and that hasn’t been enough to carry the day to the general public. They either don’t perceive the need, as significantly as we do or they don’t perceive this is the way to get at that need having somebody else maybe carry that banner that might be able to be a little more closer to the general public in something that they can feel a little bit more comfortable with. Something they can wrap their hands around a little bit better has got to be better. I just think it’s worth the try to do that. I think if we just run an election and try to do it as was done last year I think we are still looking at the same kind of reaction. I just don’t think we can put it in terms to the folks, to the general Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 12 of 16 public good enough for them to sell it. I think we just need some other peoples input and some other ideas and you know if they think its not a good time to do that then I guess we need to weigh it and see what else there is. I think its got to be at least a better option then us just trying to push that forward, I think that people just don’t think elected officials really understand enough about it even though we work with it all the time. I think they want to hear it from somebody that is more like their neighbor, their co-worker, their teacher, their boss somebody else that they can relate too and I think that is a good way to try to get that. Nichols: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nichols. Nichols: Mr. Mayor a question of the Clerk. It seemed to me that we had to have a resolution on the levy, was it February Will? I can’t remember when we had to have that done. Do you remember how many weeks or days in advance of the election we had to have –? Berg: Mr. Mayor. I don’t remember exactly how many weeks in advance but if you remember, we ran election, a special election in May, and then one also on Election Day in November. The resolution was eight, six to eight weeks there was a time where we had to have a resolution to set a special election date. I don’t know if February was that far in advance or not. Nichols: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, it just raised that issue then whatever you are going to do if you intend to. If it’s the recommendation or whatever to put it on the May ballot there may not be that much time to get it organized and get it sorted out. Between Will and I we can let you know what that deadline would be so that you at least have that factored into your decision. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: I guess in terms of when we would run that I would like the task force to consider that as well. Perhaps maybe with some information from our attorney, Will or Stacy on if we run it during the next city election in November when would that increase take effect if it were to pass. If it’s to late for the next budget year I think we could also consider running it in August and that gives the Committee more time to be thorough and with their findings to this body. If it looks like there’s no difference if we do it in August versus November on when would we start collecting that increase should it pass? Then I know Council Member Bird just mentioned he’d like to see it during the general election and that would be appropriate. However if there’s a reason to do it earlier be cause of the impact it would have on the next budget to be determined then we need to Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 13 of 16 look at running it earlier if that is the recommendation. That should also be part of their recommendation or consideration. Corrie: Just trying to think. I think you only have two times you can run. One is in May and one is in November. Nichols: Mr. Mayor members of the Council I think you either have to run it on a primary election or you have to run it on a general election. I don’t think you have the option of selecting a special day. Corrie: I don’t think you do either. Nichols: I know that there is said in the Statute what ones you can go on but I think when the Legislature did it they didn’t want somebody kind of cherry picking a date when they would sneak up on people or whatever. They had it pretty well spelled out as to when those could be. Corrie: Talking with Ken I was thinking he made that pretty specific that it had to be two times. May and then you could do it the following year January the first. If it’s in November it’s got to go all the way around the clock, all the way again twice. Bird: So if it was the passed in 2003 and it passed in May 2004 that calendar year it would be ethical. If you passed it in November then it wouldn’t be ethical till 2005. Nichols: Well Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council I don’t think its quite right because even if it passes in May its effective on a particular date but that money isn’t collected until you know June the following year and so your quite a ways behind anyway. I think if it’s the November election it would still be the same timing for actual collection as the May election. I see Stacy shaking her head so I think I recall it correctly. De Weerd: If that’s true there’s no advantage budget wise so it should be during the next general election. Corrie: Yes I think it would be wise to go in knowing exactly what we are looking at. Then I’d hate to form a Committee now and then they don’t meet until June or July and then get them started. I mean what we want to look at who you want to – people you want to – I mean I’m sure you have some ideas. You were reading some ideas there so maybe we can get the people together and say okay we can form this and then the group can look at it after we got all the answers but we run the risk if we do it too soon that your going to (inaudible) to early. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 14 of 16 Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I agree wholeheartedly. We were thinking on that because if you look at the school bond they get a committee in place and they don’t get those things out unless we (inaudible). The public’s real funny. If you get it out to early they forget about it. It’s just like elections. We all know we’ve all ran for it. The last two weeks before the election is when you take the most shoe leather off. You know you go out the night before the vote day and people look at you, what election are you talking about you know, so. That’s the truth. You know so I think the Mayor has a good idea there. I think we need to look and see when we can have it and I think I’m like Tammy I think that how the money when we can do it – but I believe that the way the money is collected that whether we did it in May or November we’d still get the same time. I think our money would become available the same time or increase or whatever it is. I would prefer if that is true, I’d prefer to have it on the general election one. Hopefully we can get the people. Nary: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Nary. Nary: Maybe just the next thing to do then is just within the next couple three weeks is just getting a real clear picture of these dates and note that kind of issue. I hate to impose on anyone’s time during the holidays. It almost feels like people get stretched pretty thin as it is but if it is something that like you suggested we get these folks interested. Another thing I guess I’ll just throw out is I think a person that we would like to have as actively involved in this as possible not trying to stack this Committee at all. The school district I think like Mr. Bird just said they’ve done a pretty good job in getting these passed and I think using that knowledge and that ability they’ve had with both Christine Donnell and her staff and being able to show the public what their needs are and how they need to address it. It’s obviously a resource we need to focus on and I’m sure that she and her staff would be more then willing to help participate in this and I think that’s one of the resources here that really need to look at pretty strongly in helping us get this message out. Bird: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mr. Bird. Bird: I agree. I don’t know how active they would want to be involved cause they do have bonds coming up all the time and you know. They would be really good to lean on. To find for information and how to do it – you know and I think you can start with Christine and go right through the school board and their Committees and stuff like that and see how they do it. How and when they start it and how they do it. Like I said the 37 years I’ve lived here I’ve only known one time that the bond went down and that was the first one for Centennial and I think Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 15 of 16 that was about 84 come back six months later and passed. They got some bad information out and I think they learn a lot right then. Corrie: The demographics have changed considerably. I mean that same election was held six years ago (inaudible) but they got the younger demographics here that have kids. They want to have schools and that’s good so we can learn from them that’s for sure. The more support you get nobody likes to raise taxes. I mean in Idaho I know that’s not the popular way to do it, but I think that’s a good idea lets start working on it and see where we go with it. De Weerd: Mr. Mayor. Corrie: Mrs. de Weerd. De Weerd: Maybe in the next three weeks or so we can collect some main ideas. I know that the school district when they convene their taskforce you want to have a diverse group with a wide array of opinions, backgrounds and maybe we can start thinking about that. Yes, I’ve talked to Councilman Members and staff members on maybe some ideas that they might have. I think though that the sooner we can identify these people we can get this on their calendars cause I’m sure that they too are very busy. As Stacy and I found out before it – there will be an education period that I don’t think you can start early enough. If we started after the beginning of the year and offer them an opportunity to sit with Stacy and her staff to understand and Will to walk through the process and really get some good background before they dove into it. I think this will take a number of months for them to even formulate a recommendation, and then it’s a matter of establishing the resolution and all the technical things that need to be done in regards to that. Based on their information they can take the ball up further from there and work to educate the community on their findings and that sort of thing. I don’t think we are starting to far in advance. There’s going to be a lot of foot work necessary to even understand these formulas and how state laws impact the formulas and those kinds of things cause I don’t know how clearly how we all still understand it so just an idea. I’d like to see it get started just after the beginning of the year. Corrie: Will. Berg: Mr. Mayor if I could just comment just briefly. I think with the present situation with the states revenue it would probably be a good time for the Committee to look at what their situation is in related to what the city’s reaction would be if their funding is discontinued. Corrie: There, they have some pretty heavy getters up there talking right now. All right anything else. Okay we will get cracking on it and lets. ***End Of Side One*** Meridian City Pre-Council Meeting November 19, 2002 Page 16 of 16 th De Weerd: So maybe we reschedule it. I’m going to be gone the week of the 8 th through the 15. Corrie: Are we talking December or January. th De Weerd: December so if we could either do it the 3rd or the 17. thrd Bird: We can schedule it the 17 cause the Mayor isn’t going to be here the 3. Corrie: So you want to have names and ideas and things and that to the Council. Okay everybody work on that one and (inaudible). What day again? thth De Weerd: 8 through the 15. th Corrie: Oh okay so the 17 maybe we can have. Okay anything else? All right, I guess that takes care of that so with that being said I guess it’s 7:00. Pretty good scheduling so I will entertain a motion to close the Pre-Council Meeting. Bird: So moved. De Weerd: Second. Corrie: Motion has been made and seconded to close the Meridian City Pre- Council Meeting on Tuesday November 19, 2002. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. All ayes motion carried. Meeting close at five minutes to seven. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:55 P.M. (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) APPROVED: / / ROBERT D. CORRIE, MAYOR DATE ATTESTED: WILLIAM G. BERG, JR., CITY CLERK