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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-04-21 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session April 21, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, 2026, by Council President John Overton. Members Present: Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor, Anne Little Roberts and Brian Whitlock. Member Absent: Robert Simison. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Chris McGilvery and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock Anne Little Roberts _X_ John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener Mayor Robert E. Simison Overton: Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the City Council Work Session. It is April 21 st at 4:30 p.m. and we will begin tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Overton: Next up is adoption of the agenda. Little Roberts: Mr. President? Overton: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. President, seeing no changes I move that we adopt the agenda as published. Cavener: Second. Overton: We have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda as published. All in favor say aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. The agenda is adopted. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the April 7, 2026 City Council Work Session 2. Approve Minutes of the April 7, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 2 of 14 3. Sagarra Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 2 (ESMT-2025-0069) 4. Sagarra Subdivision Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 2 (ESMT-2025-0091) 5. Keep West Subdivision Water Main Easement (ESMT-2026-0075) 6. Core & Main Water Main Easement (ESMT-2026-0077) 7. Floyd Subdivision Sanitary Sewer Easement (ESMT-2026-0079) 8. Life Time Meridian Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement (ESMT- 2026-0084) 9. Adero Park Subdivision No. 2 Full Release of Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 2026-016751 (ESMT-2026-0087) 10. Pollard North Subdivision No. 1 Full Release of Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 2025-073625 (ESMT-2026-0088) 11. Pollard North Subdivision No. 1 Alley Easement No. 2 Sanitary Sewer Easement No. 2 (ESMT-2026-0098) 12. Sagarra Subdivision Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 3 (ESMT-2026-0092) 13. Sagarra Subdivision No. 2 Sanitary Sewer and Water Main Easement No. 3 (ESMT-2026-0093) 14. Final Order for Apex Cadence Subdivision No. 1 (FP-2026-0001) by Brighton Corporation, generally located 1/2 mile south of E. Lake Hazel Rd., on the west side of S. Locust Grove Rd. 15. Final Order for Apex Zenith Subdivision No. 1 (FP-2026-0006) by Brighton Corporation, located at the southeast corner of Meridian Rd. and Lake Hazel Rd. 16. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for North Meridian Fields (H- 2026-0003) by Emily Mueller, generally located at the southwest corner of State Highway 16 and Chinden Blvd. 17. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Latitude Forty Three Subdivision (H-2024-0059), by Rodney Evans + Partners, LLC., located at 675, 715 and 955 S. Wells St. Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 3 of 14 18. Resolution 26-2584: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian setting forth Findings and Purposes to declare Surplus Property and Authorizing the Meridian City Clerk to Donate Surplus Property (Meeting Room Chairs) to Compass Public Charter School, Inc. 19. City of Meridian Financial Report - March 2026 20. Memorandum of Agreement for Contribution to 2026 Main Street Mix Concerts Between Meridian Development Corporation and the City of Meridian Overton: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Little Roberts: Mr. President? Overton: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Having no changes regarding the agenda, I move we adopt the Consent Agenda as published. Cavener: Second. Overton: We have a motion and a second to adopt that agenda. I'm assuming that's for the Council President to sign and the Clerk to attest? Little Roberts: Yes. Since my notes are on the wrong page. Thank you. Cavener: Second agrees. Overton: Second agrees. All those in favor say aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. The Consent Agenda is approved. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Overton: There are no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT REPORTS [Action Item] 21. Ada County Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement Presentation Overton: So, we move on to Department Reports and first up is a presentation by Adam Schroeder with Ada County Weed Pest Mosquito Abatement presentation. That's a lot of -- Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 4 of 14 Schroeder: Thank you, President Overton, distinguished Members of the Council. appreciate your time. Appreciate the opportunity to come speak to you about this important issue and happy to answer any questions as we go. So, feel free to interrupt. I just have a few slides for you. Informational purposes and to try to give you a little bit of perspective on what we are seeing in Ada county as far as the rat issue. A little bit of background. Excuse me. Sorry. Clicked too fast. I'm the director for Ada County Weed Pest and Mosquito abatement. I administer the noxious weed control department, which is the entire county and two special taxing districts. I answer to the board of county commissioners. I have legal authority that is granted to me by Idaho statute and IDAPA rule. Our pest abatement district, just for your awareness, is all the unincorporated areas of Ada county. That's 894 square miles where we control gophers and rock chucks. That special taxing district -- those fees are paid by the folks who reside in those -- in that district and, then, our services are offered as part of that. Those funds go to fund our program and those are the species that we are concerned with control in those areas. The Mosquito Abatement District is -- is also a special taxing district, which includes the City of Meridian, which is all the incorporated areas of Ada county. We provide mosquito abatement services for all of the residents in Ada county or at least in the abatement district. We have three service sections, surveillance, larvicide and adultacide, where we control mosquitoes wherever we find them and as in a preventative measure as well. So, as far as rats go, rooftop and Norway rats have been identified in Ada county. Recent public sentiment indicates that we have rising population. So, we are getting a lot of reports. We are taking about two to five calls per week. That includes calls from your constituents in the City of Meridian. Both species have the ability to harbor and spread disease, Ieptospirosis, hantavirus, plague, many other diseases and -- and can damage property, of course, as you might know, cause structure fires by chewing and gnawing on electrical wires, destroying insulation, destroying property, very damaging rodents and, of course, they spread disease. So, this is certainly an area of concern that we are working on and certainly there is anecdotal evidence that these populations are increasing as the number of calls have increased and public sentiment online as you might have noticed and in the media has certainly risen in the past few weeks -- or over the last year or two I should say. So, it's unknown if rat populations are being monitored in any scale. So, through the session we have determined that, no, they are not being monitored. We are probably the only agency that folks call on a regular basis to talk about rats and we don't -- you know, because they are not in our funding structure and they are not a species of -- that we have identified or the county commissioners have identified as species of control for those abatement districts, I can't spend any money really monitoring or surveilling rats or doing any control work legally right now. So, it's unknown if public utility agencies and -- and I have seen -- I'm sorry about that misspelled there. I have seen that over the past testimony over the session that utility agencies are not monitoring for rats. There is no clear control strategy or documentation method to reduce or eradicate rat populations. As they stand now they are not an invasive species as identified by Idaho State Department of Agriculture and they are not in our codes or abatement district statutes. Lots of media coverage as you might have noticed. This is -- I had a video in there of rats crawling around in the -- in the -- you should see the window sill. Kind of scary. That was in northwest Boise. But certainly we are seeing that more folks are Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 5 of 14 reporting -- more -- more folks are talking to the media about this and it has gained a lot of attention over the last -- especially year. What really worries me is that the environmental and cultural risk that we face here in Ada county and City of Meridian are -- could certainly contribute to rat population increases. We are seeing more and more people. Rats love to be where people are. We are seeing abundant food, you know, when it comes to bird feeders or unsecured trash, restaurant trash, anything that might harbor, you know, wood piles, drum piles, that harborage is certainly present in Ada county for -- and in City of Meridian for rats to live in. We have warm weather, mild winters as we have noticed that it certainly doesn't help decrease rat populations or rat fertility. Shelter access. There is a lack of predators in the natural urban environments and certainly the community response is not organized yet and so these are contributing factors that might certainly cause rat population increases. Current challenges right now is that we have fragmented efforts. Pest control operators might respond to consumers or customers who -- who pay for their services to control rats on their property alone, but that doesn't do anything to -- any of the community rats to say -- so to say in the neighborhood or those that are traveling along the irrigation canals, which we have seen a lot of and in the rights of way. Inconsistent communications as far as local agencies and pest control operators, they don't control or -- or collaborate on control efforts or communicate with each other and there is no documentation structure and there is no legal authority as it sits right now and I will talk about the legislation that failed in the -- in the House this session and what -- what that means or what that leads to is just that we have ineffective control strategies and single case interventions certainly don't help control rat populations as a whole. Potential mechanisms in Ada county. We can add -- the commissioners I should say can add species to an existing district, but as you might have noticed before the rat populations are not necessarily in the unincorporated -- unincorporated areas yet, in the agricultural sectors yet, which is where we control gophers and rock chucks, they are primarily in the incorporated areas in the cities and that doesn't marry well with mosquito abatement. The -- this -- the types of service just really don't marry well. It's completely different types of service as far as providing any kind of control or documentation strategies and so we could -- we could certainly do that. There is also -- we could create an interim abatement district, which would, then, have to be either ratified by election or dissolved within two years. That would provide a special levy authority to the commissioners to pull together some money for rat control operation. You know, current climate with budgets and everything I'm not sure, you know, where our commission lies as far as that goes. I -- I know they are supportive of rat control. They want to do something about it. I think they are more interested in collaborative effort, as opposed to Ada county taking on the entire load. So, what we have as far as hurdles, you know, we -- I just talked about that, the -- the abatement districts don't quite marry up. We are not currently funded or staffed or equipped for -- or trained in rat control operations. It's just totally outside of what we normally do and not to mention -- and this has been borne out in the testimony over the last session, that rat control is not typically handled by municipal agencies as far as, you know, government folks crawling in attics and crawl spaces in people's homes to control rats. That's not a -- that's not a common structure that I have seen across the nation when I look at other municipalities or health -- health districts or counties that run rat control operations. Primarily what we see is that the government has a duty to Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 6 of 14 document, strategy, provide educational materials, provide free snap traps, do inspection services, those types of operations are -- are typically what's handled by government and, then, pest control -- the physical pest control is done by PCOs or pest control operators and, you know, what we worry about, of course, is that any localized control structure is not going to be able to mitigate or prevent rats from proliferating across the state -- or across county or city boundaries. Certainly the desired outcomes we would like to see is prevent disease and loss of life and loss of property. Reduce or eliminate rat populations and prevent spread. Help educate folks, build structures for systematic control actions and documentation of public efforts. The public industry government collaboration for rat control eradication, strategic planning, reporting ongoing control. I might be naive, but I think we should be able to come together to really craft a -- a solution that works not only for government and for constituents, but also for private pest control operators, as well as folks in the public who are experiencing these issues. Legislative efforts. We had a couple of House bills that amended existing law to allow rats to be declared agricultural pests. Both of those efforts didn't make it out of -- well, one made it out of committee, but that's kind of where they fell short. Senate Bill 1271 AA would -- would have declared rats as a public health nuisance and required abatement. That was also a -- a bill that would have required Idaho State Department of Agriculture to create a plan bringing the stakeholders and collaborate on solutions, but that failed on the House floor just because I think, you know, other counties in -- in Idaho see this as an Ada county problem and certainly don't want to fund, you know, something that they don't feel affected by yet. So, what now? Right now we are building a stakeholder group. It's in the early stages of formation. We have folks from Ada County Emergency Management, Central District Health, City of Eagle and Boise have members engaged. We are trying to also bring in City of Meridian. That's why I am here today to solicit your support for this stakeholder group and, you know, of course, we would like to see you guys contribute and -- and have a say in -- in how these things -- how these conversations happen and really that's just a managed space to collaborate on control concepts, educational resources for constituents, policy initiatives, information gathering and proposal formation and, of course, to investigate grant opportunities and -- and get proper messaging out to folks who are experiencing these issues. So, we haven't set a next meeting yet. Like I said, we would like -- I'm just kind of on a PR tour right now to solicit support from Idaho Pest Management Association and other cities to try to come to the table and see if we can craft a solution and with that, Mr. President, I would stand for any questions. Overton: Council, any questions? Taylor: Mr. President? Overton: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Adam, thank you. Was very helpful. I knew we were going to be getting a briefing at some point, so I'm glad to have you here. A couple of questions on -- you mentioned sort of the government's role is -- is not so much to fund all of these efforts as much as it is maybe to coordinate it, communications, a strategy -- effective strategy Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 7 of 14 and, then, allowing some of the private sector groups who specialize in this to actually do the work. Also, you know, the -- the legislative efforts that failed, but you had mentioned -- is it kind of like an emergency declaration where you can establish a two year -- like an abatement district -- an actual taxing district with the vote of the county commissioners. If you do that does that actually fund the collaborative efforts? Does that fund the efforts to actually remove the rats? Like walk me through a scenario there just to help me understand if the county commissioners choose to do an emergency declaration to set up a district now how does that actually work in terms of coordinating funding, et cetera? Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Taylor, so if -- I'm not a lawyer, but in my mind if an interim abatement district is created and there are levees assessed to folks who reside within that district, then, we are in the pest control business and -- and that's when we gear up, we buy trucks, we train, we -- you know, we go out and start, you know, killing rats and so that's in -- I think it's kind of a gray area, but in my mind if -- if it works like the pest abatement district where those folks pay for control efforts, they don't pay for just control or -- or strategy and education and -- and resources, they pay for us to go out there and take care of the problem and so if -- if a special taxing district was formed on an interim basis I believe that that would be the foundation for a government control framework. Taylor: Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. Just a quick follow-up question to that then. Would that be something that would be countywide -- like you would include all the incorporated cities within that, not just sort of segmented out to just the county properties, but probably an overlay over the entire county is what -- again, I know you are not an attorney, I'm just trying to think through some of the ideas. Is that kind of what you are thinking would be if that were the decision of the county commissioners to do that? Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Taylor, yes, I -- I don't believe it makes sense to create any kind of geographical boundary within the county if we were talking about rat control, because rats don't respect geographical boundaries and certainly if we decided that we wanted to control rats in the incorporated areas, then, all of a sudden they start transporting out to the unincorporated areas and affecting our farms and our feed lots and our feed structures and our agricultural producers. That's an -- that would be something I would try to avoid in the formation. So, at least in my ability to influence the county commissioners to do so. Taylor: Just one final question, Mr. President, if I may. Do you -- do you think this is an issue that will stay around long term or is this something that if we act now and decisively we can maybe get it in control within a couple years potentially and -- and the issue goes away or is this sort of a new reality, we are going to have to kind of continue to stay after it. What's your -- your sense -- I know you are not an expert on rats, but, you know, in this world what -- what should we expect in terms of a time horizon for addressing it? Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 8 of 14 Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Taylor, so with speaking to my pest control operator friends, you know, who have worked in big cities doing rat control, they say once you have them you have them. I guess the issue for me would be, okay, we have them, well, if we don't have any control structures or an organized effort, then, we are going to have them really bad and -- and those issues are going to start coming to the forefront and there is no standard population control or any kind of an organized effort, then, we are talking about a much bigger problem over time and a much more expensive problem to implement once we get down the road. So, I -- I don't know if that answers your question, but I think yes -- and I have spoken to folks stepping back who worked for the health district way back in the 70s and they said that they were, you know, killing rats on the Boise River and around that -- those corridors. So, I would say that rats have been here, but because of the immigration that we have seen and -- and some of the -- you know, some of these species being brought in and, then, not controlled and, you know, there is -- there is nothing there to keep them from really start -- starting to become an issue that is top of the mind for folks in our communities and neighborhoods. Cavener: Mr. President? Overton: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Adam, again, appreciate you being here and we will recognize you are not an expert. I think you are more of an expert than us and so I appreciate you sharing some -- some insight with us. A handful of questions and really my perspective is what can we do as the City of Meridian. So, my -- my first question would be is -- when I look at the -- you know, the state statute it does say that the Mosquito District, because it also focuses on other vermin of public health. It does seem within your guys' wheelhouse without having to be specifically defined. So, help me understand why you can't begin mobilizing under the current language that already exists. Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Cavener, I would say that, yes, you are -- you are exactly right that vermin word in the statute would allow for adding a species to the abatement district. Now, if we are talking about mosquito abatement district where we want to control rats right now, well, like I said, our mosquito abatement operations are completely different from rat control operations and so I think it would really require a -- a definitive and I would say an intentional effort to gear up and to really focus on hiring folks or -- you know, we have to understand what our goals are and what the control structures would look like before we add them to the district and, then, say we are in the rat control business, because I think that a lot of pest control operators would certainly be opposed to that as far as us competing in the private industry on rat control. So, mean -- I hope that doesn't sound too wishy washy, but, yes, we could certainly add them to the district, but that doesn't mean there is funding and framework for actual control. Cavener: Mr. President, if I can follow up. Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 9 of 14 Overton: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: And I guess, Adam, what's -- what's preventing from at least getting that first step going? And I -- I can understand it's a little chicken and the egg, but it -- it feels like that we have got, you know, a clock that's been ticking and the one thing I hate is government getting in the way of itself and it feels a little bit like that Spider-Man meme where like all the Spider-mans are pointing to each other saying, hey, this is -- this is your responsibility. With all due respect to the private operators that are out there that do a good job, this is a public health issue and so we should be attacking this like -- like any other public health -- health issue, which is let's -- let's get moving now and not wait for a solution to show up in a box and so I guess that's some feedback that I'm sure -- what would it take for the mosquito abatement district to add rats and to at least begin building out some of that infrastructure to start addressing this? Is it an act of the commissioners? Is it an -- is it an act of some other group? I mean help me understand what -- what would it take to at least get that process going? Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Cavener, okay, if we are talking about rat control, we add the species, say if the -- if the commissioners say, yes, we want to add rats to the mosquito abatement district, well our mosquito abatement district budget is a little over two million dollars for, you know, the entire county. So, all of that money -- and I'm asking for a lot of supplementals this year. All of that money is spent and, then, you know, as -- if we are talking about housing, training, equipping and, you know, mobilizing actual rat control operators, that's going to take a lot more levy and I think that that would be something that could -- that the commissioners would have to seriously look at before they would add the species to an existing district or even an interim district and I'm -- I'm not exactly sure about what, you know, increasing the levy by, you know -- I think it's against the law if you wanted to increase the mosquito abatement district budget by over, you know, three percent or over, you know -- in this case I would think you would be doubling it, you know, just to start out with. So, those are kind of the hurdles I think that the commissioners would have to contend with and they are not against, like I said, working on this issue, we are just trying to find the best path forward and I understand your concerns about we are letting time pass in rat control, these rats are starting to proliferate. But, like I said, we are just trying to get folks to the table and see if we can craft a solution and gather support, look at grants, look at any kind of opportunities that we can gather funds to either, you know, start and -- and we have talked about this at the stakeholder group -- start getting some information out there, start collecting information via Mobile App Survey 123, Reporter Rat, put it on our database and moderate that information that's coming in, so we can start getting a good picture of where these populations are popping up, having a reporting hotline, those are things I think that can be implemented pretty quickly and we are working on that, but as far as, you know, physical control efforts, that's an entirely other, you know, pest. Cavener: Mr. President, maybe one or two more just quick questions if I may. Overton: Councilman Cavener. Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 10 of 14 Cavener: Adam, you touched on -- you said northwest Boise is where you are seeing these right now. Are you seeing them in Meridian? Are you getting calls from Meridian? If so is it in any section of our community? North, south, east, west, central, all over? Schroeder: Mr. President, Councilman Cavener, we are getting reports from Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star. Cavener: Okay. Schroeder: Those are the -- the four primaries. We are -- we are hearing reports south Meridian now. Amity area. We are hearing reports here in town. But, like I said, I don't pin those on a -- we just collect the calls and take the notes. So, I don't pin those on a map and I don't document where those are coming from yet, but I would say that, yes, we have getting -- we are getting reports from Meridian constituents as well and that's part of that secondary effort to try to, you know, put together that database and -- and start, you know, collecting information that is useful to folks like you to make these decisions. Cavener: Mr. President, just one more. Adam, I'm going to ask you to kind of take a regional hat off for a second and look at it from a Meridian perspective. You have got the magic wand. What is it the City of Meridian should be doing like yesterday to start addressing this? Schroeder: Mr. President, Commissioner -- sorry -- Councilman Cavener, I would just say that if -- if there are folks that you can assign to our stakeholder group to help, you know, collaborate on these issues, start getting information out to your constituents, start, you know, notifying folks of these -- of these issues, I think that's kind of the number one thing. And, then, to be honest, if -- if there is a mechanism that the cities can employ to help collaborate on a fund or collaborate on an effort that would work across jurisdictions that would be something that would be useful I think to all the constituents, not only in City of Meridian, but also in Ada county. Cavener: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate you being here. Strader: Council President Overton? Overton: Council Member Strader. Strader: Thank you. I appreciate you being here. As a recovering former resident of New York City I have a lot of experience with rats unfortunately. It's such a public health issue. They are so disgusting. New York actually has a rat map, if I recall correctly, where they would map where the rats are. From my perspective it is definitely an important issue to get a hold of. The sooner the better. You will get no argument from me. I'm sure we could send someone to your stakeholder group. I cannot imagine Mayor Simison not agreeing to that or our City Council. I'm a little concerned. Can cities collaborate on a fund or effort? Certainly we could, but I think you guys need to Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 11 of 14 drive it and tell us what you need; right? Because you are -- you are the only -- you are the only agency that is in a position to address it. To your point and you understand like if the City of Meridian hires like ten people to control rats, that doesn't do anything, because they are just going to run all around and -- and proliferate. So, do you know what those action steps are? What that fund would look like? What a request looks like? Should we have any kind of time frame in mind where you are going to come back to us? Just help me understand how we could hash this out. Do the commissioners need to hear from us that we, yes, obviously, we are very interested in collaborating with them. Like what helps you to move something forward? Schroeder: Mr. President, Council Woman Strader, I would say that, yes, to your second question any communications that you have with our Board of County Commissioners are helpful and anything that you can offer in terms of support would certainly be helpful and, then, also your question as to you -- your first question, I'm sorry, would you repeat that? Strader: Yeah. And Council President Overton. Just -- you mentioned specifically cities could collaborate on some kind of a fund or effort. Like what would that look like? Do you have any initial thoughts on like what -- what kind of a contribution you would be looking for? What kind of format that would be? Just -- I'm just kind of -- are we going to have a follow-up meeting? Like help me kind of understand how do we actually move a solution forward? Schroeder: Thank you, President Overton, Council Woman Strader. Yeah. So, what it would look like we don't know; right? And that's -- that's kind of the point is that we would like to get the stakeholders together and say, okay, what does this look like? What are the legal structures that we have available to us to contribute for something like this and, then, I -- I think in my mind it's hard for me to want to reinvent the wheel. think if we look across the nation we see a program or see a structure that we like and, then, try to do the best we can to emulate something like that. You know, certainly smarter people than me across the nation have built, you know, rat control operations on -- in a government perspective and I would certainly not, like I said, want to recreate the wheel. I would try to model something that is effective in other areas. We saw that with the Alberta method, you know, that was introduced at the legislature, but it was unconvincing, you know. In Alberta, Canada, they were able to eradicate rats basically by a -- a provincial effort that was directly focused and -- and funded by the province of Alberta and they brought in experts and they really did a great job of eradicating rats in the province. So, that is not going to happen in Idaho we have heard. So, right now we are kind of back to the drawing board on what that looks like as far as a county-city perspective, but in my mind I would -- I would say -- like I said before, just try to emulate something that works in other -- in another city or municipality or other county. Strader: President Overton? Overton: Council Member Strader. Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 12 of 14 Strader: So, light hearted thought. Maybe a bounty. Get all the boys in Meridian together with their BB guns. And, you know what, we will give you a quarter for every rat you bring -- I'm just -- you never know. Thank you. Schroeder: Thank you, Council Woman Strader. Overton: Council Member Whitlock. Whitlock: Thank you, Council President. Adam, thanks for being here and thanks for the update and, you know, I'm -- I -- I appreciate all of the coverage that this has received. I think public awareness is probably the first thing that we need to focus on if we can eliminate places where these rats would like to be and work on, you know, some of the transportation routes or migration routes for these, so that they don't spread, think that's -- that's key. And just to follow on with Council Member Strader's, I mean we -- we don't even do dogs or cats. I don't think we want to add rats to the City of Meridian, so -- so, we do look to you to -- to help guide us in that conversation and, again, to her point I think there wouldn't be any pushback from -- from me or the Mayor to appoint somebody to -- to sit on the council and collaborate with you, because we do need to be ahead of this. I have also lived in places where they have had National Trap A Rat Day and they weren't hard to find and -- and you could get a half a dozen or a dozen in a day. So, yeah, I think public awareness is -- is a big part of it and collaboration and hopefully we can get ahead of it. Schroeder: May I address that, President Overton. Councilman Whitlock, yes, it -- thank you for that and to your point I would say that we have seen across the nation that municipalities have enacted code restrictions as far as rat harborage goes, you know, where the cities across the nation have said, you know, you can't have junky wood piles that are harboring rats. You can't -- you have to secure your food sources. You can't be leaving -- you know, in the restaurant certainly, you know, the health districts are always inspecting for rat droppings and that sort of thing. But that might be something down the road that the City of Meridian could help with as far as you know -- and -- and all the cities, really, as far as you know that municipal code, making sure that within the cities it is illegal to harbor rats and to let them proliferate. So, I would just add that to your comment, sir. Overton: Adam, I appreciate everything you have said. I think you have heard enough from members of our council to know that -- I think everyone of us would be committed to working collaboratively with the other cities and the county and with your agency on trying to come up with a solution for the rat problem. It's sad to me that at the state level it's not our problem. It's an Ada county issue, because if we are not careful -- I mean it doesn't take long when you look at the counties that border Ada county and now it becomes a regional issue, because we didn't decide to take quick action and do something. I think you will find we will have a lot of support to build a collaborative team coming from our city and I hope you are getting that same level of collaborative support from every other city, because if we don't it makes it really tough for us to have a team approach to take, because it's only going to work if it's a team approach. So, I would Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 13 of 14 say currently Kendall with the Mayor's office would be your first point of contact and anything we could do or help or mobilize to help with that we will be at the table. Schroeder: Thank you, sir, and I appreciate your comments and appreciate your support, Council. Thank you for your time. Little Roberts: Adam, just wanted to say thank you real quick. I also wanted to point out that our Superintendent of Parks is here and so I'm just curious -- I'm guessing that he is interested in this as well, so might be a good contact as well. Schroeder: Thank you, ma'am. Little Roberts: Thank you. Taylor: Mr. President? Overton: Council Member Taylor. Taylor: Adam, before you leave if I might. I think there is -- this is one of those issues that I don't think you will see a lot of pushback from the sense that the government needs to take a lead in sort of organizing the response. From my perspective -- and I would assume most of my colleagues here would -- we are really probably pretty anxious to see the county commissioners lead out on this. We will support that effort. But we are -- I think we are -- feel a little bit limited in what we can do other than offer our support and encouragement, because of just the way we are structured, but I don't think there would be any concerns and we would encourage the message back to the county commissioners to please aggressively lead out on this and consider all options on the table. The lack of action from the state shouldn't be an excuse to not do something when statute allows them to do that, even if it's on an interim basis to get it started, because a year passing without any action could lead -- put us in a spot that's really bad and, then, the Ada county problem is probably a statewide problem in a not too distant future and I did listen to the debate in the legislature and it was very much -- well, that's an Ada county problem, it's not my problem. It will be very soon. But I think, you know, I think that's a message if you could take that back that we -- we want them to take a lead. We are willing to help. We don't want to just put someone on a -- in a meeting to offer ideas, we really want to see some solutions. So, we would ask them to take all actions that current law allows and explore them as quickly as they deem reasonable. So, thank you. Schroeder: Thank you, Councilman Taylor. I appreciate that. I will certainly bring that message back to the Commission and I know that all of us are very concerned about this. I know our commissioners are as well. It's just we are -- we all have our, you know, handcuffs that we have to deal with legislatively, legally speaking, and, then, also, you know, financially speaking and so it's really just trying to work through those and -- and find the key. So, thank you. Meridian City Council Work Session April 21,2026 Page 14 of 14 Overton: Thank you, Adam. Schroeder: Is that it? Thank you. Appreciate your time. Overton: Council, that brings us to the end of our workshop. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Little Roberts: Mr. President, I move that we adjourn the meeting. Whitlock: Second. Overton: We have a motion to adjourn. We have a second. All in favor say aye. We are adjourned. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:09 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 5-5-2026 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 5-5-2026