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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-06-02 Work Session Meridian City Council Work Session June 2, 2026. A Meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 2, 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, . 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 call this meeting to order. For the record it is June 2nd, 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 tonight's work session agenda. 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. Ardyn Plaza Water Main Easement No. 1 (ESMT-2026-0112) 2. Brundage Estates Subdivision No. 2 Emergency Access Easement Agreement (ESMT-2026-0082) Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 2 of 26 3. Final Plat for Dayspring Subdivision No. 1 (FP-2026-0002) by Toll Brothers, generally located at the southeast corner of the N. McDermott Rd. bypass and W. Ustick Rd. 4. Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law for Rolling Hill (H-2025-0040) by The Architects Office, located at 1560 Rolling Hill Dr. 5. Resolution No. 26-2589: Accepting Student Artwork for Traffic Box Art and Providing an Effective Date 6. Resolution No. 26-2590: A Resolution of the City Council of the City of Meridian Reappointing David Ballard to Seat 1 and Walter Steed to Seat 2 of the Meridian Transportation Commission; and Providing an Effective Date 7. Fiscal Year 2026 Net-Zero Budget Amendment in the amount of $2,000 for America 250 Meridian Community Education and Events 8. City of Meridian Financial Report -April 2026 Simison: First up is the Consent Agenda. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: There are no items being moved from the Consent Agenda. I ask that we approve the Consent Agenda as published, with Mayor to sign and the 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: There are no items moved from the Consent Agenda. DEPARTMENT REPORTS [Action Item] 9. Public Works Week Proclamation Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 3 of 26 Simison: So, we will move on to Department Reports. Our first item up is a Public Works proclamation. So, if Laurelei would like to meet me at the podium. So -- so, Council, we are back to that time of year where we get to celebrate our Public Works team and -- with Public Works Week, so I will go ahead and read this proclamation, Laurelei, then, give you the podium to speak all wonderful things about Public Works. Only wonderful things. Okay? McVey: That's all we do. Simison: Okay. Whereas the City of Meridian residents have peace of mind with every faucet turned on, shower taken and toilet flushed thanks to the professional employees of the Meridian Public Works team and whereas each often unseen essential worker, engineer, inspector, operator, technician is committed to protecting our health, safety, environment and quality of life through the 24/7 supply and distribution of clean, safe water, efficient collection and treatment of wastewater and management of solid waste and whereas the Meridian Public Works Department educates the community about their essential role in infrastructure maintenance and service through informative and engaging public outreach and whereas the theme for the 2026 National Public Works Week, Rooted in Service Powered by Community, acknowledge that the roots of service run deep in public works and reminds us that every project, seen or unseen powers, the connection between service and the people it supports and whereas the City of Meridian hosts a Public Works Week Expo that is a free family friendly event that features exhibits, demonstrations and educational activities providing a chance for the community to learn about the department's services, including water and wastewater management, environmental programs, recycling and trash collection and disposal. Therefore, I, Mayor Robert E. Simison, proclaim the week of May 31st through June 6th, 2026, as Meridian Public Works Week in the City of Meridian and call upon all citizens and civic organizations to acquaint themselves with and to recognize the substantial contributions which Public Works employees make every day to our health, safety comfort and quality of life. Dated the 2nd day of June 2026. On behalf of myself and City Council I would like to present this to you and your team and turn the mic over to you. McVey: Thank you. All right. Well, thank you, Mayor and Council, and a little awkward facing forward backwards, but I did want to make sure to thank the Mayor and Council for their continued support of Public Works. We try to stay out of the news. We try to stay unseen, unheard, but I always like to tell our staff what we do is something that the citizens of Meridian use every single day -- every single day of the year and that is not something that very many other departments can claim. So, very proud of our staff for the work they do every day, day in and day out, in the emergency times and, then, also just the day-to-day operations. But as the Mayor mentioned I would like to invite everybody to our Public Works Week Expo, which is on Thursday from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m., a very cool event, family friendly, lots of exhibits for kids to learn about what Public Works does for our community and the environment. Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 4 of 26 Simison: Thank you all. I appreciate it very much and the entire team. I'm sorry I abandoned you. McVey: Thank you. 10. Idaho Humane Society Presentation Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to Item 10, which is the Idaho Humane Society presentation. Chief Basterrechea, any introductory comments from yourself? It's not necessary. Just didn't know. Basterrechea: No, I don't think so. Simison: Okay. Doctor, invite you up. Good afternoon. Rosenthal: Good afternoon, Mayor Simison, Members of the Meridian City Council and city staff. My name is Jeff Rosenthal, chief executive officer of the Idaho Humane Society. We also have with us today much of our leadership team. Leann Gilberg, our chief financial officer. Craig Nixon, our director of animal control services. We have our chief operating officer Kris Shaffer and even a surprise guest Andrea Williams, our assistant director of animal control showed up. We appreciate the City of Meridian's partnership and commitment. Our shared goal is to protect public safety, promote responsible pet ownership, safeguard animal welfare and provide responsive service to a growing community and as Meridian continues to grow so will the demand for animal care and control services. The Idaho Humane Society remains committed to delivering professional, efficient and compassionate services while maintaining strong accountability for public funds. So, we are going to provide the review of prior and current fiscal year performance, discuss service trends and operational outcomes within Meridian and present our proposed fiscal year 2027 budget request. Let's see. I guess I'm in control of this. There we go. Idaho Humane Society continues to deliver meaningful results for both animals and residents in Ada county. During the past year the organization helped save 10,269 pets, achieving a 95 percent save rate for both dogs and cats and, by the way, since the media is here, I just want to note that this was the first year that Idaho has ever achieved from national organizations recognition that we are now a no kill state, which means the aggregate save rate for animals in animal shelters in the state of Idaho is above 90 percent, which means we are no longer euthanizing adoptable animals in the state. That's a distinction that, unfortunately, is not shared by some of our neighbors, including Washington, Oregon and definitely not California and definitely not Utah. So, we are doing a very good job in sheltering, although we don't always get credit for being a positive state in those regards. A critical component of our work is reuniting lost pets with their families and over the past year 1,410 pets were returned home, reducing the burden on shelter resources and sparing families the stress and uncertainty of losing a beloved companion. Preventing over -- pet overpopulation remains a cornerstone of our long-term community animal welfare efforts and nearly 9,900 pets were spade or neutered this year, helping to reduce unwanted litters, shelter intake and future demands on animal control services. It's all Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 5 of 26 linked. Beyond sheltering and enforcement the organization serves as an important community resource through no taxpayer funding of course. Veterinary care is provided to approximately 12,000 privately owned pets. The majority belonging to low income families who might otherwise have limited access to care, keeping residents -- allowing residents to keep their pets out of the shelter is important and economic hardship affects both people and pets. The organization distributed nearly 85,000 pounds of pet food to financially challenged families and Meals on Wheels recipients, allowing them to continue to care for their pets. Animal care and control is more than operating a shelter. Our responsibilities include enforcement of local animal ordinances, state animal welfare and cruelty statutes, emergency response services available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and ongoing efforts to promote responsible pet ownership throughout our communities. One of the greatest strengths of the program is not necessarily the Idaho Humane Society is providing these services, but the fact that this is all delivered through a regional system. Idaho Humane Society provides enforcement and shelter -- sheltering services for every single city in Ada county, as well as unincorporated Ada county, although Garden City currently contracts for just sheltering services, expanding that partnership into full animal control services remains a future opportunity. The collective approach is what makes the program both sustainable and cost effective. Each city maintains its own contract, but we operate as a unified system sharing personnel, facilities, vehicles, dispatch functions, veterinary resources and shelter infrastructure across all participating jurisdictions. In many cases it functions like a joint powers agreement, even though the contractual relationships are separate. The model is really important, because the majority of animal care and control costs are relatively fixed. The shelter has to be staffed every day. Emergency response must be available around the clock. Veterinary services, facilities, vehicles and support systems have to be maintained regardless of fluctuations in animal intake and it takes a big increase in call volume or animals handled to have a significant additional expense incurred and similarly modest decreases in activity don't meaningfully reduce costs. So, for Meridian and Idaho Humane Society the most important factor in maintaining affordable and sustainable animal control program long term is preserving the regional cost sharing structure each jurisdiction benefiting from economies of scale that would be difficult or impossible to achieve independently and it's a lot better for all the residents in Ada county to know there is one place where all the lost pets go, instead of multiple. And I believe Meridian in the past, before contracting with us, went through that calculus of what was going to make sense. So, animal control services continue to experience strong demand in 2025 in Meridian, responding to 2,381 calls for service, exceeding the three year average of 1,857 calls. Through May 15th, 2026, officers have already responded to 776 incidents, slightly above the same period in 2025. Animal control personnel handled 1 ,931 animals during 2025. Also above the three year average of 1,843 animals. Of those animals 1 ,345 were impounded. Activity levels have remained consistent in 2026 with 637 animals handled and 392 impounded through mid-May, both slightly higher than the same period last year. Enforcement and education remain important components of the program with officers issuing 473 citations and warnings for animal code violations during 2025. Animal control also helped reunite 256 lost pets in Meridian with their owners during the year, while returned to owner numbers through May 2026 are slightly below the same period in 2025. Overall service demand and field Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 6 of 26 activity appear to be slightly trending upward and demonstrate the ongoing need for responsive and effective animal control services in this community. The volume and nature of calls received provide insight into public safety, animal welfare and quality of life issues facing our communities. Overall the call data demonstrate that Meridian residents make extensive use of animal care and control services and face challenges similar to those seen throughout the Treasure Valley. During 2025 again 2,381 calls originated from the City of Meridian, representing nearly a quarter of all the calls received. The largest category of calls involved animal cruelty and neglect investigations, dog at large complaints, barking dogs and reports of injured or deceased animals. Together these account for the majority of field activity. So, animal welfare concerns represent a particularly significant area of service in Meridian. Officers responded to 461 reports involving suspected animal cruelty or neglect. Meridian generated 411 dog at large calls and 399 barking dog complaints, demonstrating the importance of proactive enforcement and the ongoing need for education and responsible -- and responsible pet ownership. Public safety calls also comprise a substantial portion of workload in Meridian. Officers responded to 161 attack reports, 62 aggressive animal complaints and 25 bite investigations and these calls often require rapid response, detailed investigation and close coordination with public safety agencies to protect residents while ensuring compliance with local ordinances. Responded to 292 calls involving injured or deceased animals, 189 requests for dog pickups and 39 requests involving cats. Additional -- in addition, Meridian was unique among contract cities in generating a few calls involving loose livestock, something that used to be much more common earlier in my career with Idaho Humane Society. One notable distinction in Meridian is the high number of extra patrol requests, with 168 calls in this category. This reflects strong community engagement as residents and local agencies proactively seek assistance in addressing ongoing neighborhood concerns before they escalate into larger problems and most commonly concerns about dogs running loose or potentially running loose in local parks, schoolyards, sporting venues and events. It's particularly common during the summer when we have kids playing soccer and so forth, we make sure everything is okay before these events. Meridian receives a level of service that's equivalent to that provided in other jurisdictions served by the Idaho Humane Society. For the metric of response time to priority calls for service in Meridian, the average response time was 28.7 minutes, which was faster than Ada county, Boise, Eagle and Kuna. So, that's really good news, because I know a number of years ago we wrestled with the logistics of the Idaho Humane Society in Boise providing timely response throughout the entire county and, frankly, I think that's a good number and you have to realize we and no other animal control agency, whether they are government or not, we don't have sirens, we can't stop traffic, we can't speed, we can't violate traffic safety. There is only so fast we should go. Animal control officers issued 19 citations and 222 letters regarding barking dogs and other violations and 232 education contacts and warnings and that number demonstrates a balanced approach that emphasizes education and voluntary compliance, which we find to be the most successful and cost effective approach, while maintaining the ability to enforce local ordinances and statutes when necessary and I know earlier in my career we were a very ordinary -- we were a very citation-heavy organization and it just does not work as well when it comes to these issues in my opinion and experience. So, before turning the presentation on the 2027 Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 7 of 26 budget, the numbers, over to Leann Gilberg, our CFO, I would like to just briefly mention -- very briefly mentioned just two issues. Our doorman facility where all the animal care and control functions and municipal sheltering occur at Gowen Field is now over 30 years old and requires substantial renovation and replacement of systems and improved conditions for sheltered animals and the public that utilize the building. So, we are currently contracted with Erstad Architecture, the original designer of the building, to work shop this project, which will be achieved in small stages, increments over time out of budgetary necessity and also the logistics of keeping a facility that has to be open 365 days a year open while we fix and upgrade systems. We will look forward to sharing this plan in the near future with Council and city staff, including our fundraising campaign. Also rabbits are probably not a type of -- top of mind issue for this Council, but a policy change has occurred at IHS and you may at some point hear from an unhappy constituent that is not happy about rabbits. Intake of feral domestic rabbits increased by 68 percent in the last year at Idaho Humane Society and was projected to exceed 1,200 feral rabbit admissions to IHS this year. Self-sustaining domestic species, but now feral for generations, rabbit colonies now exist across the Treasure Valley. The vast majority cannot be adopted as pets. The species reaches reproductive maturity at 3.5 months of age and a female can produce a litter every single month. So, this is a species that is very well adapted to sustaining extremely high mortality rates, with no impact on the overall population, which is really dependent on food and this is an irrigated valley in which we have created a rabbit paradise, including a nice place for us to live and the impact of disease is the main controlling factor. So, it also means that impacting the overall population by spade and neuter or removal is completely ineffectual, as well as extremely expensive and so we looked across the entire country and Canada to peer organizations and communities where domestic rabbits have similarly become established in the urban and suburban environment. There are hundreds of such communities. We were looking for one success story. We found none. We found lots of money being spent and so we have sadly been forced to recognize that feral European rabbits -- once upon a time many many generations ago were owned as pets, but they are now a permanent feature in the Treasure Valley most likely and we are no longer routinely admitting such feral rabbits through animal care and control -- the animal care and control shelter. We continue to -- to accept any owned friendly adoptable domestic rabbit from the public as we always have and always will and we have created a web page with information on humane coexistence and mitigating the negative impacts of these animals, which, frankly, a lot of people in this country live in harmony with and with that I will turn the presentation over to Leann Gilberg from the money part of it all. Thank you very much and I will stand by for any questions. Gilberg: Good afternoon. As Dr. Rosenthal said, I am Leann Gilberg, I'm the chief financial officer at the Idaho Humane Society. I'm going to share the numbers of the budget with you. I'm going to try not to get too deep into the weeds, so if you have questions, please, ask while we are going through it or at the end. I will try to keep it somewhat at a ten thousand foot level. As you know we provide animal care and control services for all of Ada county, with the exception of Garden City, and so when we do the budget we do it for the whole program and, then, we allocate it to the different Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 8 of 26 municipalities to participate. As you can see in the materials that you received Meridian's population accounted for over 26 percent of the population that we service. The number of calls serviced by Meridian last year was over -- about 23 percent and the animals handled was just under 20 percent. So, keep those numbers in mind as we talk about the budget allocation. For -- and -- oh, and it comes to just about -- it's just right about five dollars per capita. So, for the budget for fiscal year '27, the total budget for the program is 3.55 million. Of that three -- just over 3.5 million dollars comes from contract fees from the contracting municipalities and based on number of calls, number of animals handled, population base, historical allocations, we allocate that out and the ask for Meridian for fiscal year '27 is 771 ,474 dollars. That equates to 22 percent of the total pool of fees and an increase of three percent or 22,470 dollars from last year. Again, this is using consistent allocation methodologies that we have used in the past and we continue to monitor, if anybody has fluctuations, anybody in the pool, you know, are we seeing large increases in population in certain areas? Are we seeing large increases in calls in certain areas? And things have actually remained fairly stable. So, in the budget you can see that we budget to be a break even. So, total income equals total expenses. Our total expenses projected for fiscal year '27 is 3.55 million and that breaks down into two pools of expenses. First you have got payroll. That accounts for 75 percent of our operation for animal control. It's a very labor intensive operation and that's -- that includes your wages, your benefits, taxes, 401(k) match, health insurance. I mean we all know health insurance has gone up double digits almost every year for the past ten years -- or last five years. But the good news is that we are seeing the pressure come off of those wages. So, we were able to keep our budget for fiscal year '27 very close to the budget for fiscal year '26, with only a 30,000 dollar over -- overall increase in payroll-related costs for fiscal year '27 and we break our payroll -- if you are interested in how we do the actual budgeting, the payroll is comprised of three different buckets of personnel. You have got animal control personnel. Those are the people that are a hundred percent allocated to the program. It's your officers, your director, your dispatchers and front desk personnel. Then you have got shelter personnel. Those are the people who service the animals in the back. They are the medical, the facilities, the auxiliary programs. They don't get a hundred percent allocated to the program. They get allocated based on usage, based on number of animals that animal control brings in versus animals that IHS brings in and, then, you have got an administrative portion, which is very small, 230,000 dollars, because we, obviously, have HR issues, payroll, accounts payable, accounting support and leadership and communication costs. So, we have a small portion of administrative. This is all consistent with how we have done it for the last many years as I can remember. The bottom line, we are looking at less than a 31 ,000 dollar increase in payroll-related costs for our fiscal year '27 budget. And, then, the second group of expenses is what we would refer to as our operating expenses. That would be supplies, everything from floor cleaner to vaccines, facilities costs, utilities. We have a lease. Repairs and maintenance on vehicles, on the building, on the washers and dryers. Computers, laptops for the officers. Gas. We all know what gas is doing. Professional services. We have to do an audit every year. We have to file a tax return every year. So, all of that factors in. All these costs factor in. Insurance was a huge issue for us the last couple of years. Trying to find an insurance company who wanted to insure the animal Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 9 of 26 control program was a bit challenging. It's not a line of insurance that many insurance providers want to cover. We were able to secure a good plan, but it was at a little bit higher cost. So, overall for our operating expenses we are looking at about a five and a half percent increase for the year, which is 47,000 dollars. Not bad. And so total expenses for the year -- it's about a 78,000 dollar increase is what we are looking at and so, again, Meridian's portion of that is, you know, 22,000, 22 percent of the total program cost and if you -- you know, you look at it as for Meridian for just about 2,100 dollars a day you are getting a team of about a hundred people, 365 days a year, who are on call, they are taking care of the animals when we are closed, on holidays, when we are open. They are servicing the public. They are going out in the middle of the night when the officers need assistance 365 days a year for about 2,100 dollars a day to the cost to the city. And, honestly, I mean I have been -- I think it's 14 years now I have been doing this and Meridian came in shortly after I started and it's been a great partnership. You know, we appreciate Meridian and we hope that you guys appreciate what we do and see the value in what we are doing and, honestly, we look forward to continuing the partnership. If you have any questions or comments about any of the budget stuff I'm happy to address them. Simison: Thank you, Leann. Council, questions? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Yeah. Would you mind going back a couple of slides, please? Gilberg: Uh-huh. Strader: Thanks. Maybe one more. Yeah. Gilberg: This one? Strader: Yeah. Thank you. That's helpful. So, I just wanted to understand -- so, it looks like our contract is going up by about three percent, but it looked to me like your total animal control contract amount was going up by like 2.3 percent. Gilberg: Very good catch and I have -- I have an explanation for that. Strader: Okay. Gilberg: So, what happened is last year -- I'm budgeting off of our budgeted expenses and our budgeted expenses last year were higher than what we ended up actually contracting for, because we ended up in a negotiation with Boise over some vehicle leases and we allowed them a slight decrease in their fees and so we are actually going to come up with a budget shortfall this year based on that, but we are budgeting based on the total budget, not what we actually received last year, so -- Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 10 of 26 Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Got it. So, if I'm following -- so -- Gilberg: Our fees last year were actually only three four oh five I think is what it actually is going to come in at as an actual, but the budget which you guys have seen before, is the three four two nine last year. Strader: Uh-huh. Gilberg: So, if you go from the three four oh five that we actually received for fiscal year '26 to where we are going, it's actually a three percent increase. Strader: Okay. Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Thank you. And, then, how does the increase in City of Meridian's contract compared to our surrounding cities? Gilberg: Everybody is getting a three percent increase this year. Strader: Okay. Gilberg: The reason we do that is because, you know, you guys don't like to see a seven percent increase one year and a one percent or two percent increase the following year. Nobody likes that. And so by keeping a consistent -- you know, as long as there is not outliers. If Eagle or Kuna -- say they double their call service or something, we are going to have to adjust them. They are going to have to pay a higher increase to get up to their fair share. But right now everybody is staying fairly consistent with their usage and their population to where we believe that it's equitable to just share the increase equitably across everybody and we typically do that most years. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Maybe one more. So, do you have like maybe a breakdown? It could come after the meeting, but of like what our usage is -- if you don't mind pulling that slide up -- of our usage over time compared to our surrounding cities I think that would be helpful. Gilberg; Well -- so, if you go back -- Madam Councilman, to page five and six, it breaks down by each individual jurisdiction for last year. Not historically, but last year. You know, number of calls, number of reports, number of animals, it -- that is the data for Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 11 of 26 everybody for last year and we have that for every year and we provide that every year to your offices in January. I would be happy to send that back over again if you'd like. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I actually think what would be really helpful for me would be like a different metric, like maybe a -- maybe it's in here and I just didn't see it, but like a cost per capita, like if you have a metric that kind of breaks down our cost as a percentage of our population compared to our surrounding cities that -- that would be helpful. Gilberg: I do actually have that, Council Woman. Five dollars -- around 4.87 last year was Meridian. Everybody ranges in the four to five dollar range within the county. Everybody's per capita is not exactly the same and we have talked about doing that, but it just -- it would be really hard to get there without making some really big adjustments for some people. I mean Meridian actually is kind of in a good position to be honest. When you look at the population and the calls versus the percentage of contract. So, we have really tried to keep it -- like I said not hit anybody with -- if we really wanted to equal it out some people would get really hit in a given year or two. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I understand. I think -- and that's fine. I think I would be sympathetic about that and certainly if you were to move to that kind of a methodology you could adjust that over time. I wouldn't expect you would have to do that in one single year. But it just occurs to me that it may not be equitable if there are smaller cities that, you know, are not paying their fair share. I just want to understand what that landscape looks like. Gilberg: Absolutely. Strader: Because you have provided our -- you know, our metrics that we could calculate on our population, but it would be helpful to have it for the other cities as well. If you don't mind following up I would like to get that. Gilberg: I do -- I do have cost per capita for the last couple of years that I could send over to you. Strader: Broken down by city. Yeah. Gilberg: Yes. Strader: Thank you so much. Appreciate that. Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 12 of 26 Simison: Council, additional questions? Taylor: Mr. Mayor, I have a question. Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: This is not really a money question. Maybe Jeff might want to answer it, too. It's sort of a --just curious. Have you been receiving calls about dealing with rats? Gilberg: Oh, my goodness. Taylor: I know it's not pets, but I'm trying to get a sense for how this is sort of -- the tentacles of the rats is sort of making its way through the community and what sort of impact that's having on your operations or calls. I just kind of -- maybe it's zero, but maybe it's something where -- something new. Gilberg: Councilman, I probably should let our animal control direct people address that. But I can say to my knowledge we are not getting a lot of calls about rats. I think people are -- we get a lot more calls about rabbits, because I think people understand that the rats are not really a domestic animal issue, so we are not getting a ton of calls about those at this point. Anything to add to that? Nope? Okay. Simison: If you want to speak come -- doctor -- doctor, if you want to come up and speak in the mic, just so you are on the record, please. Rosenthal: I would just say that, you know, with -- with -- with cats in the community being such a controversial thing for so many decades for the Idaho Humane Society and Mayor Simison, you know, I think they are a little more appreciated nowadays, because I do think that in many cases these are an important control on this growing problem. Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: Jeff, before you go too far -- can you just back up? I think it's slide five and this is just a quick question -- explanation on one line item. What is barrister sheriff's office, city Hall, etcetera, line item? Can you explain that? Rosenthal: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, this is typically things like court duty, dropping reports off specific to a municipality. A lot of it is court time. Those -- those sorts of dispatches. I believe I have that right. Whitlock: Okay. Thank you. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 13 of 26 Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Dr. Rosenthal, a couple just quick follow-up questions. And, first, thanks. The presentation and getting that to Council early is really appreciated. Gives me an opportunity to review the data before I'm hearing about it, so it gives me -- I had -- I had a laundry list of additional questions that you have addressed in this presentation by getting it to us earlier. So, I appreciate that and I think, second, I just -- I want to commend you on -- you guys have a big mission. I know we are only talking about a portion of it today and I just want to say commend and appreciate everything that you guys are doing. Basically I got just two maybe questions for you and one kind of dovetail on what you talked about previous around extra patrols and that -- that was an outlier that stuck out to me. Can you give me some flavor -- are those extra patrol calls being requested by our residents? Is it being requested by our police department? The sheriff's department? Who is generating that amount of calls from -- from your perspective? Rosenthal: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, animal control staff is here to correct me, but we had a discussion about that, because it stood out to me as well, because I wasn't quite as aware of how common this was in Meridian and it's a mixture of all of them, including I believe parks department, police and residents. So, I think it's an even mix of everyone. And schools in particular. I think. I believe I have that right. And then -- and, then, additionally, one of the reasons this doesn't show up in the Boise numbers is that -- is Boise has a specific parks only animal control team and all they do -- we used to do it and we decided not to do it after a while. All they do is, for example, patrol the Ridge to Rivers Trail system and the parks and they don't do anything else. That's all they do. They ride around on bikes. Cavener: Okay. Rosenthal: So, they serve that role. So, Boise is actually similar to Meridian. They are just having other people do that particular task. Cavener: Got it. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, just one quick follow up. Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Dr. Rosenthal, I think when you were here a couple of years ago you kind of talked to Council a little bit about what our citizens' expectations should be when they do call for service and I just was hoping maybe -- I don't know if that's changed at all and if you could give us a flavor for what our community's expectations should be if they make a call for an aggressive dog versus a vicious dog versus a dog bite, like what is that level of expectations in terms of response? I know you provided us a -- kind of an average, but can you give us a flavor for how you guys triage those types of calls in Meridian? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 14 of 26 Rosenthal: Yes. Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, so something like an aggressive animal, a dangerous animal, someone who has been injured, that's a priority one call., So that goes to the very top of the call list for the animal control officers. They are going to immediately -- if they are doing something that's a lower priority they are going to drop that and immediately respond. A very -- a very common way that gets through to us is actually through the other first responders who sometimes are first on the scene, the police, fire, ambulance, that sort of thing. Everything else kind of goes down the list with really barking dogs probably being one of the lower -- we are going to get to it, but we are not -- we are not coming out at, you know, the middle of the night to -- to deal with this and a lot of that's now done administratively, just to make sure that we don't get -- you know. And this time of year we have a lot of dogs in hot cars, so that's a priority one, too. So, an animal in distress. But human safety is going to go to the very top of the list over everything else and folks should respond -- folks calling in should have the expectation that within a couple of minutes of that being received somebody is on their way and, of course, we don't have folks just waiting around at the dorm and shelter, they are circulating in this community all day long in their vehicles and they are dispatched in the field and they are -- and they have all the information on their laptops and it's all -- everything's wired in. Cavener: Just one quick follow up. Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: Do you guys track your response times like for these different pieces here that you are sharing with us and is that something that in addition to the request from Council Member Strader you could share with us as well? Rosenthal: We -- we use an -- Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, we use a police dispatch system that has various functions, including tracking response times. I'm not sure we track every single case type and response, we track various priority calls by category and that's been a work in progress. Cavener: Okay. I think what I would really be looking for is really in the -- the aggressive side, the dog bite side, again, trying to make sure that we have a good understanding about what our -- what your expectations are to respond in terms of timing and what our citizens expectations are, so that if we get a call about that we can provide some of that perspective and clarity, as opposed to reaching out to get that answer at the time. Rosenthal: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, that is included -- that is that priority response time of about 28 minutes, which, as I said, in some cases we are going to have other first responders already there potentially, if it's something really serious. But, otherwise, I think that's about what you could expect overall given the constraints of not being in a police vehicle or a fire truck. Simison: I think our chief wants to weigh in on this one. Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 15 of 26 Basterrechea: Yes. Mayor, Council Member Cavener, our officers would be the first ones to respond to those types of calls and, then, we would contact IHS to come there to do all of the follow up on those. Cavener: Okay. Thank you. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: Don't have a question as much as a -- kind of a -- what, a ten year report card? I remember when we first signed that first contract and decided to switch over from what we were doing to work for full time with IHS as a partner to have a comprehensive plan across this county to handle animals and I got to tell you that when I look at where we are today and the numbers, it was bound to happen. The city was growing so fast and the numbers were so high and our police department was pulled every which way having to deal with all these calls on top of us having, what, two animal control officers we were trying to cover the entire city with. I have driven through our city many times and seen multiple vans from IHS driving through the city just randomly, maybe responding to a call, maybe not, but I -- it does me good to see that the response times for residents in Meridian now is one of the quickest across the valley, instead of some of the issues we had in the past. I think this has been a pretty amazing partnership over the years and who has really benefited is not just the city, but who has benefited is all of our residents who they want nothing more than when their animal is lost or they can't find it, they want one place to call to try to relocate their pet and we provided that starting about ten years ago and you guys have done a fantastic job and the fact that you can show the numbers that you are able to return to owners, as well as the numbers that you are able to now adopt out, that's -- that's impressive, because that's a very hard number to achieve. Rosenthal: Mr. Mayor, Members of the Council, thank you very much, Councilman Overton, and we value this partnership very well. I agree this has been a really good move for everybody. We have a large stake and we have for over a hundred years in animal welfare concerns in the Treasure Valley and just, by the way, it -- you know, when I -- when I mention that -- importance of this collective response of everyone working together, if you look around the state of Idaho at other counties and -- and frequently animal control is not working very well and frequently there is only one city paying the entire bill or only a county or just a few communities and if you look around the state of Idaho at other counties where things aren't going very well and folks in your position, animal control is a constant headache and a problem. It's because they are not doing it the way we are doing it where we are all working together, because this community -- you know, I have lived here most of my life, it's all grown together and everybody doing it themselves doesn't work. This is the way it needs to -- needs to happen for everybody, including the Idaho Humane Society, because this would be very difficult for us as well if we didn't have the buy in from all the other communities and, Council Woman Strader, you know, one of the things that is difficult for a small Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 16 of 26 community when they first buy into this program is things seem very very expensive and so I think this is where absolute total fairness kind of meets practicality. We like to sort of nurture these relationships along and get them up to speed and, then, ultimately it really benefits places like Meridian in decreasing these costs and just looking over at Canyon county where it's -- it's, you know, Caldwell, Nampa, the county and, then, no other community in the entire county pays anything, but that shelter is inundated by their pets, this is really important. Simison: Thank you very much. Appreciate it. And I will just highlight the same item on the extra patrol. I'm probably going to shoot myself in the foot, but I can't recall the last time we have had a -- someone reach out to the -- at least our office asking for patrols in a park because people are walking their dogs. I think those extra patrols have really helped meet the community expectations and address some of those informational issues. I mean I'm sure the police department still gets some of those calls, but I know my office they have reduced dramatically over the last two years and I think it's a direct result of that effort. So -- so, I would say kudos to you on that. Okay. Thank you very much. 11. Animal Welfare and Enforcement Agreement by and between City of Meridian and The Idaho Humane Society for Fiscal Year 2027 Simison: Okay. With that we will move on to Item 11, which is an Animal Welfare -- Welfare and Enforcement Agreement between the City of Meridian and the Humane Society for fiscal year 2027. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I would move that we approve Animal Welfare and Enforcement Agreement by and between the City of Meridian and the Idaho Humane Society for fiscal year 2027. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve Item 11. Is there discussion? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the item is agreed to. Thank you very much. Appreciate you being here. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. 12. Multi-year Agreement with Datalink Networks for Microsoft 365 Licensing Simison: With that we will move on to Item 12, which is multi-year agreement with Datalink Networks for Microsoft 365 licensing by Director Tiede. Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 17 of 26 Tiede: Thank you, Mayor, Members of City Council. I appreciate you taking a few minutes to listen to this item and I will give you some background here. As you have probably seen in the memo that I sent out, this is for an agreement with Datalink Networks for our Microsoft 365 licensing, which includes Office 365 and a number of other licenses. This came up as an opportunity to look at consolidating our licensing under a three year agreement, which will help us avoid some price increases that Microsoft has coming up over the next few years and, then, also helps us to address a license compliance gap that came up. So, this is two pieces. The first is the agreement with Datalink Networks and, then, the next part will be a budget amendment associated with that. So, with that I will stand for any questions. Simison: Thank you. Council, any questions? Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Pretty big budget amendment and it really caught my attention. Help me understand how the compliance gap occurred and what we are doing to address it going forward. Tiede: So, the compliance gap was observed by our department review of our software licensing and it was something that was subsequently brought up by Microsoft as well. These -- the security components that these licenses address are critical in nature. Again, from the budget amendment you will see that it involves things like conditional access, dynamic groups, hybrid joining network devices to intra and as part of that we reviewed with Microsoft -- and, again, they identified it after we had already highlighted it. So, working with this partner we were able to offset a lot of that cost by baking into a three year agreement and, again, that will help with the compliance that we have. So, without throwing anyone under the bus, our current partner is -- you know, was part of that equation, what happened, and part of this is actually changing partners to a partner that has helped us get through this. So, that's part of what we are -- part of the action that we are taking to address that. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: So, is -- help me understand the cadence of your licensing audits that your department does. So, is that something that you guys routinely do yearly? Is it something you do every five years? Like help me understand that and how often this kind of an issue would be flagged internally? Part of my concern -- obviously, it's important. Security is extremely important. I just want to understand, you know, kind of how we avoid a miss like this going forward, because a half million dollar budget amendment is a pretty big deal to me and I just kind of want to understand what the Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 18 of 26 compliance plan is going forward to avoid this in the future. How much of it is us versus this partner that needs to monitor this? Like help me understand a little bit better. Tiede: Council Member Strader, fair enough. So, we handle license audits as on an as needed basis in the IT department, because for the most part we maintain license compliance. That is our practice. That is our policy internally. We make sure that we are licensed for software that we need. We identified this as a gap just on an internal review that was brought up randomly to us by a partner and we are like, okay, we need to take a look at this and so we had identified, hey, look, we are -- we are missing these licenses that are a key component of what we are using and as part of that -- one other thing that happens as part of that with Microsoft specifically is they actually do an annual audit of our licenses as well annually. So, that comes up usually in the fall and, then, they have a true up process that basically goes through and tells us, hey, if you have anything that is missing, then, that needs to be addressed and we need to pay for it, which positive for us as we go through those annually and for Microsoft licenses we have not had any of those gaps over the last 15 years of using their products, which is fantastic. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: So, I -- I -- it just -- it feels to me like some kind of a regular auditing function needs to occur here. It could be maybe random. It could be one department at a time or maybe one department per year. I don't know what that needs to look like. But I just -- I don't want to find ourselves in this position again, especially because -- like this to me is an ongoing expense; right? I mean software licensing -- correct me if I'm wrong. Isn't this an ongoing expense? Tiede: Council Woman Strader, can I -- can I take a step back and kind of explain the licensing here? Strader: Please. Yeah. Tiede: Absolutely. So, this represents an upfront three year agreement for Microsoft licensing in place of an annual agreement or commitment we already have been committed to; right? So, what that means is that 580,000 dollars is in place of numbers such as, you know, 200,000 dollars a year over the next three years. So while it's a big number, it also represents a cost over three years. So, it's -- because of how we are addressing it we are actually saving the city about 140,000 dollars over the next three years versus buying the licenses annually like we have been. So, while it is a budget amendment for that amount, it is not an additional cost into what we would already planned to do. Just to make that clear. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 19 of 26 Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: I understand that. But we are now front loading a three year cost into a fiscal year that we had already budgeted for; right? And that's my issue. My issue is I -- it seems like the right decision. I appreciate the cost savings over three years. I think you are doing all the right things. The issue is the uncertainty of not -- if we start to have large budget amendments, just as a general matter; right? Whether we are making smart decisions and we are front loading something for three years in your department and, then, we are front loading something for five years in another department, if that starts to become a regular practice in the City of Meridian what we are going to find is that we are not going to have the level of fiscal discipline that we need in the long term. So, it's just trying to understand how do we get here and what are we doing going forward, so we don't have compliance issues with licenses. Just so I understand -- and, listen, I'm not a technologist by any means, which you know from a brief stint covering your department, but help me understand like -- so is this like people were not purchasing licenses for products they were using? Is that where the compliance gap was? Was it an audit of like these are the software licenses that we have and some of these employees aren't here anymore and now we have some new employees and that -- like exactly what is the compliance gap? Tiede: Council Woman Strader, to get straight to the point, the compliance gap came because vendors and Microsoft telling us that the features that we were utilizing were part of a subscription that we already had based off of bad information that they had. So, it was caused partly by the partner, partly by Microsoft. Microsoft's licensing is extremely confusing, as you may know, but, quite frankly, that's what happened and we are just in a situation of how do we move forward, if that makes sense. So, we understand the licensing. We understand where we are at, what we need to do. Quite frankly, I don't see this coming up regularly. We do look at license usage where we are at on a regular basis when we go to budget for it, when we go to pay for things. So, we have a very good understanding of where we are at -- where we are at. But, again, it was that misinformation from two parties that really created this situation. Simison: And maybe to provide some perspective. This is something we could have just done nothing about and waited and done through the budget process. That was how we normally would have addressed this and -- but they have had an opportunity, based upon these changes, to save some ongoing operational costs over the next three years. I have talked to Todd, we are going to protect -- this is not going to put a blip in our budgets. We are going to protect these dollars, because we know this is an ongoing operational cost. So, it does smooth it out. But it just means that we don't have that extra cost in FY-27, FY-28. Have no doubt that once we get off of this three year we will probably be making up whatever those costs are on a larger ongoing basis when we get to -- if we get to that point or we can stay on -- or we could just do it through our normal process and make these adjustments in the upcoming budget. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 20 of 26 Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Just probably a couple questions and, first off, this is probably not -- this is more of an observation, but it baffles me that Microsoft would allow us to use any of their products without a license. So, that -- that's not your problem, I think that's more of their problem, but it's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that we found these licensing gaps that I feel like is not the city's fault, but those who let us use these licenses. So, to that end a little bit is there any liability to the city or to your department for using -- accessing these licenses without a license that we paid for from Microsoft? Are we going to have any issues or repercussions or liabilities coming up because of this? Tiede: Councilman Taylor, that is part of the concern that we have and why we have decided to move forward at this time, rather than waiting to -- until an October date. I cannot speak to the legal implications fully, but, obviously, we enter license agreements, which are legal contracts when we purchase software or subscriptions from these third parties. The license compliance -- you know, compliance gaps that you mentioned is a common problem across the software industry where oftentimes vendors will allow customers to go over on usage and, then, they will go back and say here is your back charges. Oh. And here is some penalty fees to top it off. So, it's a situation that we have been very good at avoiding for a long time and will continue to do that. But, again, this is just a really bad one off situation. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: Yeah. And I will just maybe emphasize what Council Woman Strader said about a regular audit. It seems to me like some kind of plan for regularly auditing our licenses -- because I would be -- I would be concerned about using a license without paying for it, what liabilities that may incur and, then, being fined or a fee because we are not -- we are out of compliance. I think that would be problematic and I don't see the current situation as so much a reflection on the IT department at all, it seems like a problem on the vendor part. But I would hate for us to find ourselves down the road with some unexpected costs. Also just say I -- Council Woman Strader articulated my concerns, too, about the size of the budget amendment. It seems like the right thing to do. Technology security is incredibly important. I think we need to make sure to do it. I don't like it's such a large amount in the current fiscal year that that's difficult, but, you know, I understand what you are saying and your memo was helpful to understand this is not a great ideal situation, but this is how we are trying to navigate, making the best of a bad situation moving ahead, so -- thank you. Tiede: Thank you. Whitlock: Mr. Mayor? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 21 of 26 Simison: Councilman Whitlock. Whitlock: Maybe a question for you or Todd. But, again, just on the prepayment of this and how that smooths out. I'm used to prepaying on a fiscal year and getting 12 months. How do you do that over a three year fiscal year, so that when we get to 2030 we are not sitting here with another 600,000 dollar decision to make that, again, gets spread out over another three year period. How -- Simison: I will tell you my -- our conversation was that you put the dollar figure in the budget for this -- for FY-27, FY-28, that you would normally pay and you -- Dave and his team don't spend that money and it goes -- drops back into the fund balance. So, it stays within the confines of what your budget is, but you don't spend it and, then, that way you don't lose it in the operational side and it replay -- goes back to where the money came from originally. That's the basic part. If Todd wants to give a different answer, but that's essentially the -- the thing -- if we get to a point in three years where we are going to do another type of -- if there is a value benefit I think that's the conversation that time based upon your fund balance and everything else, but this is not how we normally have done this. But we have done it on a few things where we have had the opportunity to enter into some long-term contracts with software providers. But it's not their preferred way, because it costs them money. Cavener: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: If I'm tracking with what you are saying, then, we are going to budget the amount, but we are just going to carry over funds from budget year to budget year? Is that -- Simison: I will let Todd explain it and Todd -- Cavener: I think I misunderstood. Lavoie: Mayor, Council Members, so good questions. Maybe if I think you twisted it in a different way. Think of like when we prepay a fire truck, we give them two and a half million, then, every so often we have to amortize expense the portion of that's due. So, in year one when they built one third of the truck we will expense one third of the truck. We are going to do the same thing here. We are going to give 580,000 dollars to Microsoft. Cash has left the building. But the expense is something different on your financials. When next year comes I'm only going to expense one third of that 580, as opposed to what would have been most -- let's just say easy math let's call it 600 grand. I'm going to expense 200 grand, as opposed to if we did nothing he is -- Dave is probably going to say it's 225,000 dollars this year. Well, instead of paying 225 we are going to pay 200. That's a win-win for us. We are just doing cash out, but when the actual bill gets here we will have our discount on the bill at that time, if that makes better sense. So, instead of receiving 225,000 dollars next year as an invoice, we are only Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 22 of 26 going to have a 200,000 bill, because we decided to prepay in advance. That is how understand the situation to be. Cavener: Mr. Mayor, then, maybe just a quick follow up -- Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: -- to Council Member Whitlock's exceptional question. We are not, then, necessarily paying for three years, we are paying for two years and a partial of this remaining fiscal year then? Lavoie: Well, the timeline -- I will let Dave tell you exactly how the timeline is, but from my understanding is instead of paying 600 and something thousand dollars for this functional service over this timeline, we are going to pay 580,000 for the same level of service over this three year period. So, the city is saving 150,000 by prepaying, quote, unquote, today. So, the cash is leaving our bank account today, quote, unquote. But the expenses are going to be less in value over totality. Cavener: Okay. But, then, Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: And the savings is really because we are only paying for a partial year. We are getting a prorated amount, as opposed to paying for -- I guess we are paying for 36 months -- are we paying for -- Tiede: Councilman Cavener, correct, we are paying for 36 months. Cavener: Okay. So, back to Council Member Wilcox's exceptional question, three years from now we are going to find ourselves in a similar position, then, right, where we are going to be in the middle of a fiscal year with a request for additional licensing. Tiede: Councilman Cavener, Members of Council, Mayor, the term for the actual agreement would be October 1st of this year and, then, 36 months thereafter. Cavener: Okay. Tiede: Although we are prepaying now. Cavener: Okay. Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Cavener. Cavener: To Councilman Taylor's exceptional question, are we -- are we in a place of risk of having unlicensed software, then, between now and the beginning of the fiscal year when this contract begins? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 23 of 26 Tiede: From what we have talked to Microsoft and our vendor about, no, because we will have an agreement in place and a path to move forward. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: Is -- are these licenses general? Like this is just Microsoft 365 for everybody or is this pretty specific for specific features and products? Because -- like one question I would have is whether as part of our audit we determined like, you know what, we actually have some employees that are signed up for this unwittingly, maybe they are using some feature they didn't realize, but they are not actually using it or something like that. Like do we have a way of making sure that we are just paying for what we are actually using and not something greater than that? Tiede: Council Member Strader, we -- the bulk of the cost and the licenses under this subscription is a global -- applies to every city employee. There are maybe ten licenses that don't apply in that same way and those ones are ones that we know that we need. Strader: Okay. Tiede: But most of them are for all city employees. Strader: Thank you. Taylor: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Taylor. Taylor: One follow-up question. What happens if possibly in 18 months from now we find ourselves in a similar situation with this agreement? Is Microsoft going to say, oh, you owe us another hundred thousand for these unused licenses? Are we protected with the current agreement that acknowledges that we are doing everything correctly and that the liability is with Microsoft? Because what I worry about is we didn't intend to find ourselves in this situation, but here we are. What happens if it repeats itself in 18 months? We have a three year agreement. Are we protected? Is there anything in -- in the agreement that we are entering into that provides a level of protection should Microsoft or you through an audit find there is some -- some licenses that we are not paying for? Tiede: Councilman Taylor, so we have a general cushion of around -- I want to say it's about five percent of growth that is covered under our -- any agreement with Microsoft where we can grow up to five percent of licenses and they will just come back as a true up when we do our annual true up with them, where they will just say, okay, this is what you need to pay for moving forward. Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 24 of 26 Taylor: Okay. Tiede: So, that protection is in place. Taylor: Okay. Tiede: The particular gap that we are talking about was far more licenses than that. Strader: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Council Woman Strader. Strader: What --just curious, like what percentage was it? Tiede: For the Microsoft Intra licenses that we are using it was a lot more. I'm trying to think of a percentage off the top of my head. More than a hundred percent more. It was significant, so -- Simison: Any additional questions? Okay. Well, with that we will move on to Item 13, which is the fiscal year 2026 budget amendment in the amount of 508,034 dollars for Microsoft 365. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we approve fiscal year 2026 budget amendment the amount of 580,034 dollars from Microsoft 365 licensing. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second. Is there a discussion on the motion? If not clerk call the roll. Tiede: Question. Do we need to approve the other agreement? Simison: Oh. Sorry. Thank you for that catch. Does the motion maker and second remove their motion, so we can go back to the -- the license -- or to the contract before the budget? Overton: Yes. Simison: Okay. My -- my bad. Sorry. I jumped --jumped the gun. So, with that we will go back to the multi-year agreement with Datalink Networks for Microsoft 365 licensing. Is there a motion on that item? Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 25 of 26 Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: I move that we approve the multi-year agreement with Datalink Networks for Microsoft 365 licensing. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second to approve the multi-year agreement. Is there a discussion on the agreement? If not, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed nay? The ayes have it and the item is agreed to. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. 13. Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Amendment in the amount of $580,034 for Microsoft 365 Licensing Simison: Next up is Item 13, which is fiscal year 2026 budget amendment in the amount of 580,034 dollars for Microsoft 365 licensing. Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Councilman Overton. Overton: One more time. I would like to approve fiscal year 2026 budget amendment the amount of 580,034 dollars for Microsoft 365 licensing. Little Roberts: Second. Simison: Have a motion and a second. Is there a discussion on the motion? If not, Clerk call the roll. Roll Call: Cavener, yea; Strader, yea; Overton, yea; Little Roberts, yea; Taylor, yea; Whitlock, yea. Simison: All ayes. Motion carries and the item is agreed to. Thank you. MOTION CARRIED: ALLAYES. 14. 2026 Legislation Impacting Cities - Vacated 15. Addition of Prosecution Services to the Meridian City Attorney's Office - Vacated Meridian City Council Work Session June 2,2026 Page 26 of 26 16. Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Amendment in the amount of $271,761 for addition of Prosecution Services - Vacated Tiede: Thank you. Simison: Thanks. So, Council, we are at 5:37. We don't have the next item listed on the 6:00 p.m. agenda. Do we want to try to hear -- do we need to take a break? Do we -- can we add it? Do we do it a different week? What's the preference for -- do we want to start it and see how far we get? Spend ten -- ten minutes or not necessarily? Taylor: It seems like it could be a long conversation. I'm fine starting it, but I think we are going to be going over time, because I think there is a lot of significant questions and understanding about the legislative activity. So, I'm okay starting it if we did ten minutes and then -- but I want to make sure we have a full discussion, so if we want to just -- Simison: Let's just -- let's just wait. Okay. Yeah. We will just add it to the 6:00 o'clock, so -- okay. So, with that do I have a motion to end our -- Overton: Mr. Mayor? Simison: Yes. Overton: I move that we adjourn the work session. 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 5.38 P.M. (AUDIO RECORDING ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) 6 / 16 / 26 MAYOR ROBERT E. SIMISON DATE APPROVED ATTEST: CHRIS JOHNSON - CITY CLERK