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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-05-26 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session May 26, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 26, 2026, by Mayor Robert Simison. Members Present: Robert Simison, Luke Cavener, Liz Strader, John Overton, Doug Taylor, Anne Little Roberts and Brian Whitlock. Other Present: Chris Johnson, Bill Nary, Steve Siddoway, Kendall Nagy, Tracy Basterrechea and Dean Willis. ROLL-CALL ATTENDANCE X Liz Strader X Brian Whitlock Anne Little Roberts X John Overton _X_ Doug Taylor _X_Luke Cavener X Mayor Robert E. Simison Simison: Council, we will slowly call this meeting to order. For the record it is May 26th, 2026, at 4:30 p.m. We will begin this afternoon's work session with roll call attendance. ADOPTION OF AGENDA Simison: Next item up is adoption of the agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: There are no changes to the agenda although we need to be flexible with Item 10 as the Plimmer family may not be here until 5:30 p.m. Other than that I move we adopt the agenda as published. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to adopt the agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] 1. Approve Minutes of the May 12, 2026 City Council Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 2 of 24 2. Approve Minutes of the May 12, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting 3. Approve Minutes of the May 19, 2026 City Council Work Session 4. Approve Minutes of the May 19, 2026 City Council Regular Meeting 5. Final Order for Gasser Land Development Subdivision No. 1 (FP- 2026-0005), by KM Engineering, located at the northeast corner of Ten Mile Rd. and Franklin Rd. 6. Final Order for Windrow Subdivision No. 2 (FP-2026-0010) By Conger Group, located at the Northeast Corner of S. Linder Rd. and W. Amity Rd. 7. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Shafer View Ridge Subdivision (H-2025-0047) by Gregg Davis, Breckon Land Design, located at Lot 18 of the Shafer View Estates Subdivision at the intersection of S. Meridian Rd. and E. Shafer View Dr. 8. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Skybreak Rim (H-2026- 0001) by Conger Group, located near the southeast corner of S. Eagle Rd., and E. Lake Hazel Rd. Simison: Next up is the Consent Agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: There are no changes to the Consent Agenda. I move that we approve the Consent Agenda, for the Mayor to sign and Clerk to attest. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the Consent Agenda. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the Consent Agenda is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. ITEMS MOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA [Action Item] Simison: No items were moved from the Consent Agenda. RESOLUTIONS [Action Item] Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 3 of 24 9. Resolution No. 26-2588: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian Appointing Teresa (Terry) De La O Dennington to Seat 5 of the Development Impact Fee Advisory Committee; and Providing an Effective Date Simison: So, we will go on to our resolutions. Council, the item before you is a resolution appointing Terry Dennington to Seat 5 of the Impact Fee Advisory Committee. Terry is not a stranger to anybody up here and needs no introduction, but what better to have -- I'm not going to say Terry is the only resident of Meridian who reads our budget, but she is the only resident who comes to our budget meetings and actively participates and understands what we are actually doing here in the city and as a member of our Parks and Recreation Commission, along with her budget knowledge and engagement, I think she makes a great addition to our Impact Fee Advisory Committee. With that I move for this resolution, but I'm happy to stand for any questions should you have them about Terry while she is here in front of us. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I don't have any questions. Just appreciation. Terry is a great servant of our community and I'm really pleased to see that she is going to be brought forth and I'm happy to make a motion if it's an order, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Mayor, I move we approve Resolution No. 26-2588 appointing Terry Dennington to Seat 5 of the Impact Fee Advisory Committee and providing an effective date. Overton: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second approving Resolution No. 26-2588. Is there discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it, the item is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. Simison: Terry, any comments you would like to make, if so you got to come up here. Dennington: Mayor and all of the Council Members, thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate that and I hope that I am a good addition to this impact committee fee. I just think it's going to be really interesting. I have actually read some of that in the past, so I think it will be interesting to learn more about it and if there has been any changes or anything like that. So, thank you so much for your support. DEPARTMENT REPORTS [Action Item] 11. Valley Regional Transit (VRT) Overview and Fiscal Year 2027 Funding Request Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 4 of 24 Simison: Thank you, Terry. Appreciate your service. Okay. With that we will move on to Department Reports and as was noted we will need to move on past Item 10 for now, but we will move on to 11, which is Valley Regional Transit Overview in fiscal year 2027 funding requests. I will invite Elaine Clegg up to lead us off. Clegg: Well, thank you. It's great to be here. VRT is always excited to come and talk to you guys. We really appreciate your collaboration, especially in this tough budget year and we are trying hard to help make that budget year a little bit easier for you anyway. So, let's see here. Sorry there. So, today I want to talk about the things that we have done this year and been successful at. The performance in Meridian, most of which has been good, but -- but there is one place that we think we can improve and, then, a look ahead at 2027 and how we think we can do that and, then, our funding request. So, our recent accomplishments include three main areas. Capital projects, operations and service and communications. So, in our capital projects some of you were at the ribbon cutting at Main Street Station. It was a really fun event. We have added four electric chargers to the station, which do a couple of things. They provide us real resilience in the electric buses, making sure that if something happens at the base we have another place that we can charge those buses. It also adds resilience to the downtown grid in the city of Boise. We have two different transformers on two different grids and now if they need to they are able to move a little power around. If you haven't been down there you -- we would love to have you come take a look. We refinished -- refreshed all the finishes and have a really energetic new artwork. We have been doing lots of bus stop improvements. There is three major ones that we completed this year. We have 72 more slated now that we have inventoried all the bus stops. That includes 13 in Meridian. Those stops are -- are ones that especially serve two or three routes, so that as we do those stops they are helping more than others and we already have shelters scheduled for two bus stops, but there is three more, Overland and Blackmarlin currently has no shelter and likely could fit one on the existing concrete pad. Records Way and Village Drive currently no shelter. It's one of the busiest bus stops in your system. And Records and Village Way, again, no shelter and, again, a very -- very busy stop for you. So, we are looking to figure out the project that we will put together that will bring those forward for you. We did a realtime information pilot. We now have chosen a vendor, so as we do these bus stops where we have the capacity in terms of power and so forth, we will be putting in realtime information displays whenever we do a shelter. That way the riders know exactly when the next bus is coming, which will be great. We purchased all the advertising benches and while this year that was a bit of a lift, ongoing from here we should make a lot more revenue on the advertising. We were making just a tiny bit and the outdoor advertising company was making all the rest. So, now we own those -- those benches and we get to sell the advertising. We have a new contract -- transit contract with MV Transportation. We have found since we hired them that they have got a lot of experience in helping some of the really gnarly little issues that we have been trying to figure out for a time. Probably the most important of those is on time performance and through that we are eliminating missed trips that our former contractors just never could quite figured out. We have also co-mingled para-transit services with services to older adults and in doing that we have increased ridership without any extra costs to anyone. On the -- this says capital projects. That's a Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 5 of 24 mistake. I apologize. On the communications and outreach side we have a youth ride free program -- pilot program. City of Boise and Blue Cross Foundation are funding it for the next two summers. But it's available across the system. We have not said, oh, if you live in Meridian you can't do it. So, your kids are available. We already have 1 ,100 kids signed up. Our goal for the entire summer was a thousand. So, it's clear to us that this was something people have been hoping for. So, options for kids in Meridian. You could ride the 24 or the 42 or the 45 to Town Square Mall or the 24 or 45 to The Village. 42 from Ten Mile Crossing to Wahooz. The mall to Wahooz. Village to the Mall. Ten Mile to The Village and Ten Mile to Wahooz. So, we think there is real opportunity maybe for some kids who otherwise are stuck during the summer, because their work -- their parents work full time, to have access to the kinds of things that we know keep them healthy and out of trouble. So, we are kind of excited about that. We also started a partnership with the City of Boise with a couple of their housing developments. It's a pass program for those residents and we are looking to expand that, so we are now looking in Meridian at what might be the possible housing developments that would be interested in this. We are excited about that. Supplemental services. We are serving AC Boise. We are seeing enough ridership that we think it's worthwhile. What it also does is unlocks advertising and introduces new riders to the system. And, then, again, we helped host the CTAI or Community Transit Association of Idaho Transit Day at the Capitol and we will continue those ongoing discussions with -- with our state leaders about funding and how we all, frankly, are suffering a bit from lack of funding. So, in 2027 here are the things that we want to focus on. We have a -- a large number, but smaller dollar amount of capital projects. The Main Street Station project was 22 million all by itself, so it takes a few to add up to that. The Gen Fare boxes are really exciting. Our current boxes are obsolete. They don't take all payment systems. These will be whatever is in your pocket is going to work. It will take about a year to get them all up and running and get the software in place, but once it is we are very excited about it. We have completed that bus stop inventory and are starting the plans for how to do those improvements and we are focusing on infrastructure that will make the ride better and also help the drivers. You may have heard about the accident at Orchard and the connector. That one is a place we knew needed some infrastructure and investments and now we are even more clear. Thankfully no one was hurt. And the bus is going to be okay as well. We are also doing work on State Street, which doesn't directly impact you, but also gives us the example of how to do these infrastructure improvements, especially the signal timing and some of those things that I think ultimately will really help in Meridian. And, then, we are doing more improvements at the Orchard maintenance facility. On-time performance has been a challenge the last couple of years. While congestion has -- has really hit this valley I think for the first time in -- in a way that people haven't seen before, it's really impacted our on-time performance. You will see this in a slide in a minute and that negatively impacts reliability and discourages ridership, so we have done two things with these new contractors to -- to work on that. The first -- and this -- this on-time performance really does impact the 45, the 40 and the 42, because they run on the arterials where congestion is worse and so we have actually increased the run of a few buses and put the travel time for that bus at the right time, so it will -- it can stay on route at the right time without reducing -- or without increasing, excuse me, the time between buses, so the buses will still come as Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 6 of 24 regularly. In order to do that without impacting the budget we have reduced just a handful of runs where we had really low ridership, typically very early in the morning or the very last one at night. So, less than one rider per run at some point. It's probably the one that -- that makes sense to make the rest of the system work better. We know that -- even though I will show you in a minute the increased ridership in Meridian, that we can do even better. We have designed a new outreach program called Route Reach, which specifically looks at each route and the things that might increase ridership and performance on that route and, then, does outreach around that. So, we are very excited. Again, those -- those three inter-county routes in Meridian are prime for this. And we are controlling costs. Just like you we have had a lot of headwinds this year on inflation, in fuel and parts and all kinds of things, so we have been trying hard to reduce our overhead expenses to make up for that. We are introducing a new management system for our parts and inventory, for our bus maintenance facility that we think will be more like the on-time warehousing that so many companies have gone to and we hope will reduce costs in the immediate. We have also reduced nonproductive hours. We used to have drivers wait at the base and, then, be called out if there were problems. We now have them staged around the system. If there is a problem we can call that driver pretty quickly. So, we reduce the deadhead time. And we think there are other ways to co-mingle. Like I said, we were able to introduce new seats without any cost. We think we can do more of that and we are exploring lower cost service models, especially on on-demand and those kinds of systems. So, specifically Meridian. This is the on-time performance. So, as I mentioned it's not great. Our -- our goal is 90 percent. On the inter-county routes I think we would be really really happy with 80 percent. The challenge with these that they are a long distance, so if they do get stuck in congestion, if there is a bad incident, it really just kind of blows it out of the water and it's highly -- highly variable. So, as I noted we are working hard to see if we can overcome that. We have already seen some improvement. I don't have enough trend to tell you for sure, but -- but the early trend is that it's going to work. We will lean into that in the first week of June on a more formal basis. Ridership on the other hand is doing quite well in Meridian, with a couple of exceptions. You can see the Pine -- and we will talk about that a little bit more in a minute. While Ustick-Maple Grove isn't fully within Meridian, it certainly serves Meridian destinations and is partly within Meridian. That's been a very popular new route. And, then, the inter-county routes have for the most part done quite well. The Caldwell-Boise Express, again, was not only impacted by congestion, but also some construction, so we had some closed stops and some other things. We think that one is going to recover if we can maintain the funding on it. And as you can see the 45 really has been a rock star. So, East Meridian, West Boise routes in general -- that includes the Route 21, which goes all the way from Riverglen Grade School to Towne Square Mall, but it's all the same part of the Valley and all of those right -- all of those -- the ridership on all of those is improving quite a bit. We have seen a big decline on the 30 and that little bit on the 40 that I talked about. Specialized rides in Meridian continue to be strong. The senior center served a big number of people. Rides to Wellness, while we have got some headwinds there with the Medicare cuts, we have seen a 50 percent increase in demand. We didn't have enough supply for that, but we think we have with help of the healthcare center -- sector stepping up we think we have figured that one out. And Beyond Access, Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 7 of 24 you guys are about 17 percent of the regional total population. You get 19 percent of the Beyond Access rides. While that doesn't sound like a big percentage, because Meridian is the second biggest city in the region, it's a big number. So, you guys are punching above your weight there. So, recommendations. This -- let's dig into the Route 30. So, when we did our big service change in 2024 we integrated the Route 30 and the Route 45 and they go back and forth, but Route 30 is a shorter one, so the destinations aren't as numerous. We have learned that many of the folks have switched to the Route 45 and quit riding the Route 30. The combined ridership between the two is 48 percent higher than before the service change, so we think it was still the right thing to do, but clearly the Route 30 isn't performing. It's our lowest ridership route and what we are going to suggest to you is that we actually suspend it and explore better ways to provide the service to the area that it serves. We are pretty sure that most of the riders who are riding it will either switch to the 45, whatever is left of it, which will still be quite -- quite robust and/or be eligible for Beyond Access and so we -- we think that that's a way to save you a little over a hundred thousand dollars and we think it's the right thing to do. I wouldn't usually say let's suspend a route, but it's tough budget times for everyone. More importantly, I want to do the right thing in terms of service and this is the right thing we think in terms of service. This doesn't mean that we would never talk about this again. We would hope that over the next year we do a robust process with our planning staff, your planning staff, public engagement and see if we can understand a better way to serve that ridership and come back to you next year with a proposal that we hope won't cost as much as the old Route 30, but we will still provide some of the ridership and in the meantime we would like to maintain all the other services, because they are doing quite well. So, Todd serves on our board for you. Todd Lavoie. He knows that for the first time we have done a five year plan, just like ACHD and the state have always done. In it we looked at a projection over the next five years of what things could cost. In that plan, which was adopted by the board, including a vote by your member, we projected it would be a little over 900,000 for a request for you this year. Frankly, not a very big increase, still less than a four percent increase, but a little bit of an increase. Instead, if we suspend the Route 30 -- excuse me -- extend the Route 30 we can save about 112,000 dollars and our request would be below 800,000 and still maintain all the other services. The Beyond Access. The senior service. Your special assessment is a little higher than some other jurisdictions because you do lean into supporting those and it has paid off. We have seen big ridership on them. So, this would be our request this year. We hope you will take it in the spirit it's intended, which is let's figure out a way through these tough times together. We will do our part and I hope you can figure out a way to -- to come up with yours. I know it's a tough year. I know budgets are hard. I know having been on that side of the dais the difficult choices you will be facing. If we can do this, finalize the budget with those numbers, we can -- we can maintain those high performing services. We will suspend the Route 30 we would recommend in October. Move forward with those bus stop improvements on those higher performing routes. And examine strategies to reestablish service in that service area in the future. And with that I would stand for questions. Simison: Thank you. Council, questions? Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 8 of 24 Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Don't have a question for Elaine, as much as -- as a comment. I have appreciated over the past several months we have talked a couple of times about not just what we need to do as a city, but the budgetary constraints that we are going to be facing in the fall of this year and what I really appreciated in talking with Elaine is the fact that she understands. It's not just the City of Meridian, it's many cities around us are suffering from the same shortfalls of what used to be to what is and I appreciate what she has brought forward. I think it takes into effect a lot of what we have seen and we want to continue to work with Valley Regional Transit, they are -- I think they are a very important part of how we move people around this valley, how we reduce vehicle trips through this city and I appreciate all the work she has put into this and the fact that she's come together with a funding amount this year that's gone down substantially from last year, taking that into account. Clegg: Thank you. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. I agree. I appreciate the sensitivity around budgeting at this time. think a lot of different entities are feeling the pinch and us included. Looking forward, what are some of the options that you would consider to serve the people that were served by Route 30? Like just give us a high level sense of what -- what could that look like? Clegg: Sure. You know, I'm sure you have heard that Canyon county is looking at all kinds of options. We experimented, frankly, with on-demand service in Canyon county starting in 2018. If you will remember back TNC, Uber and Lyft only started a little -- a year before that. Not quite a year before that. And so this really was kind of new territory and, then, the pandemic hit and so that kind of -- that experiment, if you will, kind of sat there for a few years. Over the next -- over the last three years, especially in the last two as I have been digging into it, we have learned that transit agencies are all over the country are also experimenting with on demand and how to do it well and how to do it efficiently for a cost that makes sense -- a cost per boarding. That's more in line with what a TNC cost would be. We believe we have come up with a proposal in Canyon county that would rival that cost, about 12 dollars a boarding overall and we think as we look at Meridian, if we -- especially if we could get the 45 to an all day route, so people could rely on it all day, but even without that the area that used to be served by the 30 could potentially be served by some on demand that could be quite efficient and move the people that need to move to the places they need to go and so that's -- that's one option. Certainly another would be as -- as we grow -- one of the things I didn't mention -- of course you guys are the heart of the rail system that we are talking Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 9 of 24 about. I couldn't be more excited that our offices and your City Hall are in the heart of that system and so I think going forward, especially what we will want to look at is making connections to downtown, so that if -- when I'm going to say -- when that rail becomes a reality people will be able to get to it. But I think on demand probably is the place that we will lean right now, but we really want to work with your staff and with your public to understand what they would like. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Elaine, I'm not going to put you on the spot, but I think it would be beneficial for Council to see the amount of trips that have started and ended in Meridian, probably on 45 and 42. Clegg: Yeah. Cavener: And so -- Clegg: And I'm looking to see if I have those in my notes. If I don't I will get them for you. Cavener: And it would -- it would be good I think also to maybe compare and contrast that against maybe the last three to five year trends. So, I know since you have really come on board there has really been a lot of emphasis on reengaging riders and making ridership easier for our citizens to take advantage of. Would love to see the progress on that. I think that's helpful as we get closer to our budget sessions. Clegg: I will -- I will get you that. I did not put it in these notes -- Cavener: Okay. Clegg: -- that I see, so as I remember it as we were looking -- especially at the specialized transit of the number of that 19 percent, 12 percent were all Meridian and the other seven percent touched Meridian. I believe, if my memory serves me right, that's the inter-county routes, the 45 is actually a little stronger than that the others, because they span a little bit longer, are not quite -- Cavener: Okay. Clegg: But we will get you those. Cavener: Thank you. Simison: Maybe to piggyback off a little bit. Do we have any idea how many unique riders would be impacted on a daily basis in Route 30 with this conversation? How Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 10 of 24 many people are going to reach out to Councilman Cavener, myself, Councilman Overton, whether they start in or around The Village or they start in around Ten Mile or along that pathway? Clegg: Yeah. Simison: How many people are we displacing by this recommendation? Clegg: Well, the total yearly ridership at this point is -- I'm going to ask Stephen, because I think he has been digging into that. Hunt: Mayor, Members of Council, Stephen Hunt, chief development officer at Valley Regional Transit and the daily -- average daily boardings on the 30 are about six to nine, so -- and it runs at the same periods of the 40 -- as the 45, that's why we are fairly confident that those who use the 30 today should be able to shift to using the 45 without a lot of impact. Simison: If it was -- Clegg: One thing that we would absolutely do, if you all decide to go this way, is we will go out and put our outreach people on the Route 30 and talk to the people riding, let them know what their options are. If they are older adults or disabled they could also move to the Beyond Access system for instance. So, we will make sure they all know what's happening and what they can do. Simison: Okay. Thank you. Council, any additional questions at this time? Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor. Elaine, no questions. I just want to say thank you. I know that this has not been easy, especially the last week or so and so I just want to say thank you for all that you do and I greatly appreciate your work on our eventual rail and just keeping our people moving as best that you and your team can. Clegg: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. You know, I will make the same offer to all of you that I made in Canyon county and that is, you know, I care about Meridian. I don't just care about Valley Regional Transit. So, if there is a way that I can help as you are working through these budget struggles, given my experience over 20 years in Boise, I'm happy to do that. I think more importantly your spirit of collaboration has been so helpful for me and my staff in being able to come to you was really positive we think, really positive proposal that we hope -- you know, I'm trying to keep the wheels on, too, until we get some legislative fix and so maybe together we can all -- we can all go down that road. But thank you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 11 of 24 12. Mayor and City Council Compensation Ordinance Update Discussion Simison: Thank you. Okay. Seeing that we do not have our Item 10 folks here, yet we will move on to Item 12, Mayor and City Council Compensation Ordinance update discussion. Mr. Nary. Nary: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council. What you have in your packet is a request from legal to prepare an ordinance for your consideration for future compensation. As many of you know -- and for the public's benefit -- every election cycle for the last 20 plus years we have gathered a city committee, a variety of people from the city, the Chamber, various commissions, various people that are engaged with the city in other ways and have them come together and discuss compensation for Mayor and Council, both salaries, as well as benefits and, then, bring a recommendation forward to the Council at the time and any changes they would recommend towards those. It can be kind of clunky. It can be a little awkward sometimes for both the citizens that participate in it, as well as councils in the past, and so we were asked to simply craft an ordinance that would align that similar process to our other processes that we have for all compensation. We have three current methods of what we do for compensation for the various work groups. The methods are very similar. It varies a little bit for some particular reasons, but we do fire -- the fire union collective labor agreement in one year cycle. We do the police and their compensation structure in another cycle. And, then, we do a general employee evaluation market analysis, market study and, then, with that also is an annual review for cost of living or any other increases that are necessary to keep those competitive in the marketplace. We use different metrics on how we come to those evaluations and how we decide what makes the most sense from a compensation standpoint. We have a comp committee that looks at other benefits for the city, as well as our benefits committee that evaluates those as well. So, what this intended, if the Council is interested, is this would just align the Mayor and Council into the same work group cycle as general employees. So, each time the general employee cycle comes up for evaluation and market study and analysis of the compensation structure, that we would do the same with Mayor and Council and, again, process that the same way we do every other type of position. It would kind of take some of the awkwardness out of it from the citizen standpoint or for future council standpoint. It would just aligned in the same method and methodology that we do for everyone else. So, anyway, we were asked to bring this forward to see if you would want to do it this way and pivot from the way we have been doing it to something that's a little bit more uniform and consistent over the years for the future and so I can answer any questions you might have. Simison: Thank you, Mr. Nary. Council, any questions? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Overton. Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 12 of 24 Overton: Not so much a question as a -- as a -- kind of a follow up to that. Since I have been sitting on the Council -- and I know there is people who have sat on the Council a lot longer than I have -- this item has come up twice and both times we declined to advance a pay to the City Council. I think both times we advanced pay raises to the Mayor's position, but not Council and I understood the reasons why. This last time that we as a Council heard from the committee that we brought on board to recommend what we should do, the second part of that recommendation had to do with what we are looking at today and what I think we have accomplished now by reversing that is we would be enacting an ordinance that would put us on the same playing field with all the employees. They get a cost of living increase. We get no more than they do. If it comes time that we review each employee's pay, we would look at that as reviewing Mayor and Council pay as well. But it would put us on that routine cost of living increase that they get, instead of having nothing going forward for these number of years. I think it puts us in a far -- far better place and I think it puts us -- basically I think sitting up here on the dais it puts us on the same level playing field with over 600 employees and I think that sends the right message. Simison: Other questions? Comments? Perspectives? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Maybe just a -- a comment. I -- I appreciate I think what's trying to be proposed here and -- and I actually really like the philosophy around that. I think my hesitation about -- it's not even a hesitation. My -- the more concern is the -- when -- when would we do this? Is this something that legal staff would want to bring back next week, next year, next month? What's the timing for something like this? Nary: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, the timing is your own. So, I mean we can certainly -- again I think -- and I don't -- Ms. Hoopes is -- oh, she is back. I don't know when the general employee cycle is. I don't believe it's this -- this fiscal year. So, I -- it's probably a year or two from that -- from the market change. The annual increase, obviously, is the same. The only thing in the state statute that governs compensation -- pay compensation for Mayor and Council is simply the -- it has to be done at a certain point in time before the election cycle occurs. Cavener: Okay. Nary: But other than that our intention would be to bring it forward in any time you want. Public notice, public hearing as we normally do on most ordinances, we usually put them on for public hearing for public comment as well. So, whatever your timing is up to you. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 13 of 24 Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: I think I have been a -- as a council member been part of more of these than anybody and I also recognize that I'm pretty vocal in my opposition of taking compensation. That's kind of been my general philosophy. I would -- I would maybe ask the Council to take a breath on this and say if this is the path that we want to take, then, maybe we and -- and the compensation committee should take a big step back and say if we were establishing a city, a city of 150,000 people, what would be the baseline salary for a mayor? What would be the baseline level of compensation for council? It's been my observation that when the compensation committee has got together it always kind of starts with what do we think Council will support and -- and I understand they are trying to bring something that we would, then, embrace and I understand it can be frustrating to sit on a committee and plan and bring a recommendation and two times in a row the Council says thanks but no thanks. So, think that what is being proposed here is -- is a good path forward. I just want to make sure that we are setting the baseline for what that compensation should be if we were launching brand new, because, essentially, there will be no additional bites at the apple, too, if -- if there is concern about a disproportionate amount or taking a look at what the real time commitment is as a council member. The whole time I have been on the council nobody on the compensation committee has ever asked me about time, effort, things that we do, it's always been this is kind of where we think it is. We look at other cities, other jurisdictions and what council could approve. So, I'm not necessarily rushing to this and I appreciate Mr. Nary kind of letting us know it would sync up with -- when we would do general employee, so we have a little bit of time on this, so I would just say if we are going to -- if -- if we are generally supportive conceptually of this philosophy, great, let's ask the compensation committee to come back with a recommended baseline and, then, that can be the topic of conversation for the Council. I -- again, as one who has been pretty vocally opposed to taking compensation, I like this philosophy, because I think it's predictable and consistent. I'm going to be very open to any recommendations if the compensation committee would come back for what a baseline should be for mayor and council. So, that would just be my only comment is determining when we should do this and making sure that we are establishing the right amount for what a salary should be for the mayor and council moving forward. Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: I appreciate that input and as I reflect back on last July when this issue was before us I think that's exactly what the compensation committee tried to do was establish a baseline after evaluating what -- what they had looked at in other communities and I was comfortable voting to support both a salary increase for the mayor, as well as implementing the -- the cost of living adjustment that would tie in with the general employees. I was not comfortable with the full evaluation of what our baseline was. I -- I did feel it was kind of a random number and -- and, you know, here Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 14 of 24 is another couple thousand dollars. I was more comfortable with Agenda Item No. 2 in that proposal, which was let's tie it to the -- the employees. So, I -- my feeling is -- is very similar. If we can get to a point where we can establish a baseline -- I just don't want to wait four years to say, okay, where -- that's the next cycle for -- for general employees. In four years we will do an evaluation, establish a baseline, but, then, with the election timelines and everything else not be able to implement something for another four to six years. I don't want to extend it out that long. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Mr. Nary, we will have to take a version of this up next year prior to the Mayor and City Council elections; is that correct? Nary: So, Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, Council Member Cavener, if we want to change it, then, you do need to change it prior to the election. I think it's 75 days prior to the election is when you have to set what the salary is. So, I agree with you, I mean I think there is a couple of different things and normally for our compensation we use an outside consultant. They do look at markets. Markets vary by the types of jobs. So, I would think Mayor and Council would be similar in the sense that you don't look at the same market for engineers as you do administrative assistance. But you are going to look at markets. You are -- whether you start with the baseline of what exists today or some other baseline based on market analysis of community and community size, demographics, those types of things, that's a fairly standard way of doing it. But certainly I would -- I would suggest you do it between now and next year, so that you are in front of the next election cycle at the early -- at the latest, if not implementing this now. Again, if you want to help drive -- I -- the -- the analysis part, again, that's maybe the conversation with our consultant to say how would you do it? Maybe that's where the conversation should go. Cavener: And maybe Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: To put maybe a finer point on that, I would like us to maybe have an answer about this prior to next year's budget hearing, so that we -- we can -- you know, there is always kind of a coming after the fact, we have set the budget, then, we are coming back to adjust around compensation. It gives us a 12 month clock to work towards a recommendation that we could, then, input into this would be the fiscal year '28 budget. So, that's kind of where I'm thinking. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 15 of 24 Strader: This has like been a topic that has like frustrated me off and on for a couple of years and I will just share openly my feelings about it. I do feel that this issue was used as a political football at times in a way that didn't make a lot of sense and I -- I have always just voted for what I thought was right around it. I applaud the consistency. I think that that makes a lot of sense. My hesitation at this point is really around our -- our budgeting process and I would like to see, you know, if we have a five year balanced CFP. That's important to me. I wouldn't feel good about increasing city council or mayoral compensation in any way if I don't think that we have a path toward getting back to a balanced five year CFP and that's a philosophy issue for me. I think anything like this that moves us closer to some sort of a consistency and away from these wild swings it makes tons of sense. But I just -- I need to see that information. That's where I'm at. Simison: Well, the one thing -- that I will add -- pull up what's -- what I believe is our city code. So, I'm always interested in trying to get to it, because I was trying to remember what we did last time we did this and, you know, we did set the -- and I only pull up the Mayor's one. The Mayor's is set for the changes for 2026 and 2027 and, then, moving forward it does appear that that one is tied to cost of living thereafter, you know. So, in the context of, you know, do we feel like the Mayor's position was adequately compensated? I -- you know, I give you my two cents. I felt it was. And tied it moving forward. And so that part has in some ways been addressed and so it really is what is the Council -- you know, if you didn't go make any more changes to any ordinance it would be in effect and there would be -- there is an escalator of whatever the cost of living for employees is as of FY-28. So, I think whatever you are doing you are really looking at FY-28 at this point in time just from a practical standpoint the process that we already agreed to the ordinance that was approved, that people were elected under for a two year time frame. So, the FY-28 I think is when you are looking at the -- any potential dollar change that would go towards Council or if you decide to go change what was already put in for Mayor as well that's when you would likely make that call appropriately. But I think part of the conversation ultimately is, you know, you did have a recommendation from the Citizen Compensation Committee and it -- it be -- it would be very interesting -- I'm not going to ask Debbie to come up here and give me her perspective on whether or not she think Gallagher would do a better job at trying to determine an appropriate, you know, compensation level for elected officials when you look inside the market, which is what our team already did and, frankly, the dollar figure is so small in comparison between where -- if you look at Eagle and Star and Boise, you are not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in sway, you are -- you are into a couple of thousands of dollars of market difference, even if you said Boise was your high end and Nampa and Caldwell and you want to be somewhere within that framework, it's a very small true number about that. So, if -- I was to make a recommendation to Council on this, if you felt like taking this approach, I would look at reverting back to what the last compensation committee established, which is what they established for the Mayor, setting that as your base and putting an escalator moving forward and maybe asking the compensation committee to evaluate it in five years from now. Again, kind of go that direction, that not this next time the employees -- I don't know it has to be done every three years, because I don't think -- once you reset it Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 16 of 24 think it's going to stick in a good place for several years unless something dramatically changes, so long as you are doing minor adjustments with cost of living. That to me would at least give you a base to look at. If you look back at what the last compensation committee recommended and see how you -- all you feel about that recommendation compared to asking Gallagher, but, quite frankly, you are going to spend more money on Gallagher to have them go do the assessment than likely agreeing to what the compensation committee recommended. In my -- in my opinion, right or wrong or indifferent. But that's where I would at least say look at what was suggested. Look at it ongoing. Give it five years before you go back and you make any recommendations from where we currently are, understanding that cost of living is the dollar for the next five years once you -- once we get into the FY-28 budget cycle. That's my two cents and I will leave it at that for now. Nary: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Counselman Nary. Nary: Mr. Mayor, the other thing I would suggest -- and, again, it's -- it's a -- it's a very strange animal when trying to evaluate compensation for elected officials compared to other general positions anyway. So, I do think it makes sense for the cycles to be the same, but I think the Mayor hit it on the head. I mean even asking our -- our current contract service to give us some examples, they are going to probably use pretty similar that this committee did, too, the local markets, the local folks. Again, you are not doing recruitment and retention for elected positions the same as you do for engineers or lawyers. It's just a different animal that we are talking about. So, that baseline, as the Mayor said, when we set that at the last time with the committee, they are trying to look at kind of what the local constituencies are comfortable with and not just what this body would be comfortable with, what they perceive the public is comfortable with. But, again, it's hard to analyze. The one plus I think the committee we have had in the past for our city has been probably the most relative to the jobs is because one of the things we have always had on this committee is a former council member. So, we have always had somebody who at least understood the job that all of you do and the time it takes to perform it and the effort it takes to do the job properly, which is a little bit different than trying to just do a general analysis as you might do in a normal market study. So, I think the Mayor's right, if you look at the current wages that are in code and look at that as your baseline, right now you do have an increased amount built in and that's to avoid the bigger jumps. That's always been the biggest concern is that once you wait every two to four years to make a change, now the jump becomes instead of four or five percent it's 15 percent or more just to catch up to the marketplace. So, think the Mayor is right, if you waited a number of years and you wanted to expand the -- the scope of time, we could do that and we could change the -- the wording in here to do that as well, so -- or starting with a particular year, not the next cycle of '27, but in '29 or something like that. If you want to do that that's certainly -- you are able to do that. Overton: Mr. Mayor, just one last -- Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 17 of 24 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: -- I'm going to call it a small comment, because for those that don't know the numbers we are talking about and what it would have as an impact to the budget, we are seriously talking about six people sitting up here getting an annual increase if we followed the same increase that general employees got of under 3,500 dollars if it was a three percent. We are not talking about a big impact to the budget, we are talking about something that normally would almost be passed on a consent agenda because it's so small. It's a very insignificant increase. We are not talking big salaries and big raises. We are talking about something that's actually quite small as an impact. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor, Council, if I remember right the committee last time it felt like they put a whole lot of work into it and so if it's possible that we could get their report back I think that would be a great place for us to start that conversation again, because it really felt like it was pretty much on point and provided exactly what we are trying to have here. I don't know that they need to even meet again maybe to see if there is any revision to it, but I think that would be a really great place to start with the information that they gave us last time. Simison: I'm sure Mr. Nary can arrange to re-provide that information to City Council, so -- as a refresher on what was recommended -- recommended in that context and I'm sure you could figure out if that's what was recommended for the '27 -- or '26 and '27, whether or not you use that -- those numbers and/or did the cost of living or didn't, you could showcase what those numbers are. Nary: Okay. Simison: I mean the ten thousand -- I don't want to pretend like I can do math on the fly anymore, so I'm not going to try to guess what a three percent increase would equate to on anything, but -- and, then, Councilman Overton, I will let you have conversations about when is the right time to come back and have the next dialogue on this topic. That work? Everyone's got the -- at least we will have their information and a refresher and go from there? Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: Can I just get clarification on when the next general employee evaluation will be? We are doing CLE right now. Where do we fall in this? Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 18 of 24 Simison: And I believe it's police next year and it's the general employees in the following. So, technically, it would be the fiscal year '29 is when you would have the general employee adjustments that would be looked at. Whitlock: And Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: Just to reiterate my prior comment, I -- I'm concerned about waiting three years to do that to find what the appropriate amount is and, again, more comfortable on the -- the COLA side of things, but the faster that we can get to what an appropriate base amount is the better in my mind. Simison: Yeah. I think when it takes effect is one part. Determining the number is one thing. When an -- when something would take effect would be a secondary to that. That ought to be done in the same year and may not appropriately be done in the same year, -- so -- all right. Thank you very much. 13. Ada County Weed, Pest and Mosquito Abatement Presentation Follow-up Discussion Simison: With that I don't -- I don't see our guests yet. Okay. Then, we will go on to Ada County Weed Pest Mosquito Abatement presentation follow-up discussion. Council, I will kick this off very briefly, because I was not here for your conversation that you had, but I know this was a request to come back and maybe allow -- give Council a little bit of time now that -- you had the conversation, you maybe even have heard additional things happening out in the community. I know we had at least one resident respond to everybody on these topics, but you may all be receiving your own communication. So, I would like to open this up for -- based upon what you heard and what you know and what you have been hearing, what seems appropriate for the city moving forward. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Overton. Overton: It seems to me as we have been listening, each week we hear more and more people talking about rats. I mean from the first mention of it several months ago it was the rumor of rats somewhere in the county and different places, especially if we went farther to the north. Now, it seems like you can't escape the discussion about rats and how far they are moving through our community -- community of Meridian and the communities around us and the rural county around us and I will let Vice-President Little Roberts speak about what she just discovered that she posted for all of us next, but you have got people out there actually tracking rat sightings now, because they are so prevalent throughout our community and it's gotten to the point that -- what I'm afraid of is nobody is standing up and taking the lead and I think we as a city need to stand up Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 19 of 24 and take the lead and draft this letter, if this is the appropriate letter, and get it started and, hopefully, get other communities in Ada county and even beyond to follow suit to start to put pressure on the right people to do the right thing and step up and take care of this before it becomes a much bigger problem throughout the valley. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Little Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor and Council, yesterday I just happened to run across a Channel Six article, so I sent out the -- the article to my fellow council members about the tracking of the rats, that a gal has taken the time to create this website where you can actually track sightings and things. I sat down with one couple that in -- and I didn't bring my notes, I apologize I meant to, that in the last I believe six months have on their own property trapped -- he was almost at 30. So, 27, 28 rats and I think the -- and has video and things like that that show that people have them for quite a while before they know they are there generally, because they travel at night, they travel like instead of going across your yard where a camera will catch them, they go around the perimeter and things like that. So, when they realized they had rats, they had a lot of rats. So, think that it's going to just continue to escalate quickly now that we know they are moving through the county and into the cities and I think that I agree with the best way to handle it is to encourage the county to move forward. They are used to dealing with situations like mosquito abatement and things like that and so I believe we need to proceed maybe giving that encouragement for them to do an assessment and -- and take on the project of our rats. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? I mean -- Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: -- I think that was some general feelings coming out of the presentation we heard from the county is that waiting until January and asking the legislature to try and address this is, again, already against a ticking clock. So, I'm in full support of us sending a letter to the commissioners asking them to declare an emergency declaration and begin the process to do -- to address this issue on a countywide basis. Simison: Okay. Well, I know you do have a draft letter that was prepared. The -- we can utilize that and get everyone's signature on that letter. I think in addition to the conversation with the county there is also still a conversation with our state government, whether it's our governor and our legislature and we can continue to press those two arenas as well, either for a temporary help from the state, with what the governor may or may not be able to do or a long term that the legislature may need to help also do that. So, we will continue having those dialogues, but we will start here and we will share this with the other Treasure Valley partnership members to see how many of them we can get to follow our example in asking for the county to take some action and work Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 20 of 24 through our partners through that process. Okay. Then we will make it so. Thank you very much. 10. Brighten Day Park, Inc. (Plimmer Family) IRPA Citation of Merit - Partner Organization Award Simison: Okay. It does look like we now have our Item 10 folks were able to make it. So, I'm going to move us back to No. 10, which is the Brighten Day Park IRPA Citation of Merit and invite Mr. Siddoway to the podium. Siddoway: Thank you, Mayor, Members of the Council. I'm really excited for tonight to be able to -- to do this and prepared a few remarks, because I didn't want to just shoot from the hip, so -- but tonight it is my privilege to recognize a group whose vision and heart helped turn an extraordinary dream into a lasting gift for our community. Many of -- sorry. Many of us in Meridian have come to know the story of Eva Plimmer, an incredible young girl whose courage inspired us all, even while facing an unimaginable battle with an inoperable brain stem tumor, Eva dreamed of creating a place where children could challenge themselves, build confidence and learn that they could overcome obstacles. That dream became Eva's dream ninja course at Discovery Park almost exactly a year ago. You may remember that ribbon cutting was right before Memorial Day last year. While this project was inspired by Eva, it also took an incredible dedication, leadership to bring it to life. Shawn Plimmer, the entire Plimmer family and their nonprofit Brighten Day Park and Abbey Louie, who was our primary contact through that process, worked tirelessly to honor Eva's vision through fundraising, community partnerships, volunteer coordination and unwavering determination, they helped rally our community around something truly special. Last month we were able to nominate their organization for an award through the Idaho Recreation and Parks Association and just a few weeks ago at the end of April we received the IRPA Association's Citation of Merit Award for a partner organization and tonight it's my honor to present that award to Shawn Plimmer, the Plimmer family, the Brighten Day Park organization in recognition of their partnership with us. So, if I could have you guys join me up here at the podium for just a minute. I would like to welcome members of the Plimmer family and members of the -- the board, including Abbey Louie, who helped us get to where we are today. This is an award -- the award that was presented to me a month ago and now I want to pass it on to them. But it says Citation of Merit partner organization presented to Brighten Day Park, Inc., honoring the Plimmer family's significant contribution to bringing Eva's ninja course -- dream ninja course to fruition in Discovery Park, creating a lasting legacy for their daughter and making a positive impact on the Meridian community. So, Shawn, family, board, on behalf of the Parks and Recreation Department I want to thank you for what you have done. It's going to bless Meridian kids for generations to come, so thank you. Do you want to say anything? Plimmer: Yeah. Thank you so much just for being willing to make Eva's dream a reality and showing us what we needed to do to be able to get that done and -- and being willing to take a chance and work with an organization and that -- that had a lofty goal of Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 21 of 24 making a park of that magnitude and so without the help of you guys, our community, our friends and our board, it wouldn't be possible and, you know, I have got to share Eva's story twice today with a guy at a coffee shop and the swim lesson instructor today and, you know, I think just having the park is just an awesome easy way to just kind of start that conversation with people and a reminder that life is short and -- and that we need to embrace all that we have now and -- and we -- since Eva's passing we were in the middle of an international adoption and so we now have two new Plimmers here as of November, so this is Dawn and Happy and so -- and we got to go to the park this weekend and it was a beautiful day, so thank you guys. Simison: Just want to say on behalf of the Council and myself, you know, it's great to be able to pass this along to the family and, Steve, thank you for taking -- making those efforts to extend that recognition to -- I don't want to say where it belongs, but where it's deserved, so thank you. 14. Strategic Plan Follow-up Discussion Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to Item 14, which is strategic plan follow up discussion. Turn this over to Kendall. Nagy: Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Members of Council, along with community members. So, I'm here just to do a quick status update on the 2026-2030 strategic plan. Kind of a short recap. We worked with Lee Scott with Unleashing Leaders, who led this collaborative process with City Council, the Mayor, and directors through the different departments in the city and through that process you approved -- established and approved focus areas and goals. The focus areas were very similar to what was in our last plan. It was agreed that those are still the focus areas and represent the work of the city. There were some minor insignificant changes to a few small words there, but, otherwise, those carried forward and, then, goals were established for each of those focus areas -- three to four goals each and those focus areas are responsible growth, transportation and infrastructure, business and economic vitality, public health and safety, a vibrant and sustainable community and government excellence. The next step in that, since we have last presented to you, was to establish tactics for those goals and department directors have been working with their staff to determine what those tactics are going to look like and a complete list of those tactics was included in the tactic report that was provided to you last week and so I'm here along with directors available to answer any questions that you might have on the latest update to that collaborative process and as we look ahead we will continue to encourage liaisons to meet with the departments that they work with and as we start to work through and implement those tactics. So, I stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you. And if I could add to that, Council. Hopefully they were also shared with their liaisons that these were not -- it's not the first time a liaison would have been seeing these tactics to provide any feedback or guidance or questions through that process. So, if you have got -- if you think they are way out of whack you can start by talking to the liaison and asking the important questions of how did you let that tactic Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 22 of 24 get into there? But staff is here to answer any questions you may have. Otherwise, just know that we will begin -- we -- even though we have been working on them, now that they have been all put together, they have been put into the database that we can help track and we will continue to start working through these items as best as we can and we have the resources to do so. So, Council, with that any questions for either Kendall, myself or the team that's here from the departments? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: So, what kind of follow up could we expect to see citywide tactics at a certain point in time? Like -- I didn't see an attachment for this meeting. So, what -- what is the follow up? Nagy: So, with the strategic performance analyst position being unfilled at this time we are going to continue to watch as tactics are progressed with implementation and we have yet to determine exactly what that's going to look like. If you have requests, please, let us know, but with that position being unfilled at that -- this time we don't know exactly what that's going to look like. Strader: Okay. Simison: They -- they have been -- should have received the list of all the tactics came via e-mail that's probably -- so, that's what I would encourage is that you may have not seen them through e-mail -- Nagy: Yeah. I sent them out last week to everybody. Simison: But maybe take a look there and if we have any questions we can obviously do follow-up conversations. Again, these are things that are approved by Council, but they were to inform what we are working on and if there is any questions or feedback we are happy to provide those moving forward. Okay. For now we will -- we will -- if there's any -- if there is a lot more that we need to come back, we can come back and have another conversation about these. Okay. Nagy: Okay. Thank you. 15. 2026 Interagency Cooperative Agreement for Extra-Duty Officer Assignment between Ada County High District (ACHD) and the City of Meridian Simison: Thanks, Kendall. With that we will move on to Item 15, which is the 2026 Inter-Agency Cooperation Cooperative Agreement for Extra-Duty Officer Assignments between Ada County Highway District and the City of Meridian. Chief Basterrechea. Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 23 of 24 Basterrechea: Thank you, Mayor, Members of the Council. This agreement is an agreement that was proposed to us by the Ada County Highway District with the upcoming construction season, especially with the chip sealing that is going on and what they have requested is that on Meridian projects they would like to open up extra patrol opportunities for officers, which would be overtime opportunities, would not be part of the regular shifts, to patrol those construction zones, those chip sealing areas to help cut down on the -- the speed and the violations of laws and the safety for those workers from the highway district that are working those areas. That would be reimbursed by Ada County Highway District to the city. Simison: Okay. Thank you, Chief. Council, any questions? Okay. Council Woman Roberts. Little Roberts: Mr. Mayor, do we need a motion on this or do we wait for -- okay. Well, if there is no other comments, I would like to move that we approve the 2026 Interagency Cooperative Agreement for Extra-Duty Officer Assignment between Ada County Highway District and the City of Meridian. Cavener: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second. Is there discussion on the motion to approve the agreement? Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Real quick -- and, chief, thanks for bringing this and, Mr. Mayor, maybe Kendall or you, chief, just pass on our appreciation to the highway district for being public safety focused. I think sometimes we don't always understand the thought process that the highway district puts into decisions, that sometimes lends to us being maybe more critical because we don't have all the knowledge. I think this is a good opportunity to commend them for thinking about public safety in the county as a part of a big overall project. So, thanks for bringing this. I'm fully in support. Basterrechea: Mayor and Council Member Cavener, I agree, we actually over the last probably year and a half have really improved our relationships with ACHD. I think overall as a city, but certainly we are noticing it as a police department for sure. Simison: Okay. Are there further comments on the motion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the agreement is agreed to. Look forward to those chips sealing taking place in Meridian this summer and maybe people think it's actually Meridian doing it, not ACHD. We will see, so -- with that we are at the end of our meeting. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Overton: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session May 26,2026 Page 24 of 24 Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: So moved we adjourn. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Motion and second to adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it. We are adjourned. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 5:44 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON 6-9-2026 ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK 6-9-2026