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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007 11-13 Special' Meridian City Council Special Workshop Meetin4 November 13, 2007 A meeting of the Meridian City Council was called to order at 6:00 p.m., Tuesday, November 13, 2007, by President Joe Borton. Members Present: Keith Bird, Charlie Rountree David Zaremba, and Joe Borton. ' Members Absent: Mayor Tammy de Weerd. Others Present: Ted Baird, Will Berg, Ann Canning, Jeff Lavey, Joe Silva, Len Grady, Keith Watts, Matt Ellsworth, Rick Clinton, Kyle Radek, Tracy Basterrechea, and Dean Willis. Item 1: Roll-call Attendance: 1 Roll call. X David Zaremba X Joe Gorton X Charlie Rountree X Keith Bird 0 Mayor Tammy de Weerd Gorton: Good evening, everybody. We will go ahead and begin tonight's City Council Special Meeting Workshop. Begin tonight's meeting with roll call attendance. ' Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda: Borton: Thank you. Item No. 2, adoption of the agenda. Bird: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: We have a request to add Item 6, transfer of license, beer, wine, and liquor, for Mulligan's. And with that I'd move that we approve the revised agenda. Rountree: Second. ~i Borton: It's been moved and seconded to adopt the agenda as amended. All those in favor say aye. MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. (b) PROCLAMATION: Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 2 of 42 Borton: Thank you. Item 2B -- not on the agenda, but very fitting to read. A proclamation today from the Office of the Mayor, in light of Meridian High School's undefeated season and their soon celebration on Friday at the state championship game. We are all very hopeful. So, if I may take the liberty to read this proclamation. Whereas, the City of Meridian commends the Meridian High School varsity football team for having an outstanding season this year and whereas the team has compiled an undefeated season record with 11 wins and whereas the team will be competing for the state 5A high school championship on Friday night at Bronco stadium and whereas the Mayor and City Council of the City of Meridian acknowledges the accomplishments and ~~ efforts of this team, the school, and their supporters. Therefore, I, Joe Borton, President of the City Council of the City of Meridian and acting Mayor do hereby proclaim Friday, November 16th, 2007, a Warrior day in the City of Meridian in recognition for their successful football season and urge all citizens of this community to acknowledge and support them on this day. Dated November 13th -- 13th day of November 2007. Hopefully, everybody can get a chance to get to Bronco stadium and cheer on the warriors. 6:00 Keith? Bird.: 7:00. Borton: 7:00. And tickets are on sale that day? Bird: Tickets on sale at the high school right now. Borton: High school. Zaremba: And congratulations to them. Item 3: COMMUNITY ITEMS /PRESENTATIONS: (a) Police Indoor Firearm Range -Jeff Lavey - MPD Borton: Fantastic. We'll get good news next week. That brings us to the community items and presentations. We will begin Item 3A, police indoor firing range, and Jeff Lavey, I'll turn it over to you. Lavey: Mr: President, Councilmen, some time ago I came in front of the Council to discuss the -- the concept of an indoor range here in Meridian for the police department and during that time frame we actually discussed several different things as far as a needs assessment, a business plan, and a potential partnership with other groups in the community. Since that time I have been working with Shaun Wardle with MDC, who, basically, promised to assist with the business plan while he was a councilman and he's held to that promise and he's here today. But we also formed a committee working with members of the police department and other members of different groups here in the I Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13. 2007 Page 3 of 42 City of Meridian, to include the Department of Fish and Game, the Idaho POST, police academy, and the Meridian Optimist Club. And I have invited members of that committee here today and in the audience we have Tom McKinstry, who has been with ' us and he's representing the Optimists and Shaun is in the audience. And, then., also TRS Range Services is a consulting company that's been helping us and Grant Elwell is in the audience as well. So, if we have any questions I can't answer, they can help. Basically, we have a lot of interest in forming some partnerships with these groups. They like the concept, they want to move forward on it, but there is some reluctancy on how much of a bite are they going to take or how much this is going to cost and we have been playing with rough, rough, rough figures for quite some time now and ' believe it's time that we finalize some of those figures. And the way to do that is to do 'some conceptual drawings, some CAD drawings, and some pricing and I have also included Councilman Rountree in our latest meeting and he was present to ask those pertinent questions and so I'm here today to propose to Council a scope of work proposed by TRS Range Services to develop some conceptual drawings on CAD, some elevations, give us some price estimates based on what we think our current needs are ' dealing with those groups and I have placed that scope of work in front of the desk in front of everybody and I believe it includes 35 lanes, restrooms, a classroom, and that sort. So, the question is how do I pay for that and -- which leads me to a second item that is not on the agenda, but is closely related to it is a scope of work for the expansion of the police department. If Council will recall, during the budget workshops a capital budget item was approved for designing and consulting a future expansion of the police department and 30,000 dollars was -- was approved at that time. The scope of work for ~I the building expansion comes in at 20,000 dollars and with the excess 10,000 dollars, I would like to request the use of that monies to do the conceptual drawings for the indoor range. With that I will either offer to my committee members if they want to say something or take questions from Council. ~1 Borton: Thank you, Jeff. Council, any questions? r Bird: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I would think that this 4,000 would be part of the 30,000 that was in the budget. It is -- after all, it is looking into the police department, which was what that 30,000 was set aside for. So, I don't see where we have a budgetary problem with the 4,000 and think it's right in there right along with the 20,000. That's -- that's my take on it. I don't know about the rest of you guys. Rountree: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Rountree. Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 4 of 42 i Rountree: Reflecting on the meeting that we did have with the group that Jeff indicated, it was a very positive meeting. I think everybody was opened with their concerns about a partnership, open to the idea of -- of making a partnership and by the time we were through with the meeting I think everybody had expressed an idea of what it was they felt they needed and there was a great amount of comfort in the room, I think, of all the participants that we could make this happen. The one caveat, obviously, is what is it going to cost and depending on the cost is really -- the issue is is it going to happen if it's at a level that even the city can't bite. So, I think this recommendation on the part of Jeff to move forward with a concept and get some pricing done utilizing monies that have already budgeted is a great idea and if there is no further discussion, I would move that we move forward with this recommendation. Bird.: Second. Borton: Any additional comment? Zaremba: Maybe not. Borton: Mr. Wardle, McKinstry, either of you want to derail this one? Bird.: Just get your checkbooks out. ' Borton: Seeing none, it's been moved and seconded to approve the use of the -- approval of the not to exceed 4,000 for the TRS preliminary site design. Bird: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: The maker of the motion, did you -- you include for the President to sign and the Clerk to attest the deal with the TRS Range Services, the scope of work? ' Rountree: Certainly if it's prepared at this point, either the President or the Mayor. Bird: Yeah. Borton: Thank you. Mr. Berg. ~~ Roll-Call.: Bird, yea; Rountree, yea; Zaremba, yea; Borton, yea. ' MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.. Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 5 of 42 Lavey: One of the other things that I don't know if that motion included -- and I don't know if it's appropriate to talk about the scope of work on the building itself. Did we need anything from Council on that? Borton: Nothing other than what's -- what you had presented -- represented to you. Lavey: Thank you. Borton: The only question would be if that's sufficient design, capacity-wise, that you feel comfortable with. ,, Lavey: The actual scope of work would include a needs assessment and interviews ' and everything else, so I think we are well covered on that. ~ Borton: Okay. Lavey: Thank you. (b) Family Advocacy Center and Education Services Presentation - Kevin McTeague Borton: Thanks. Item B, Kevin McTeague with the Family Advocacy Center and Education Services. Go ahead and state your name and -- appreciate you coming out. Bower: Members of the Council, my name is Greg Bower. I'm the Ada County Prosecuting Attorney. Thank you for allowing me to come here and speak with you this evening. My purpose here is to acquaint you with Faces and to ask for your financial support in the next fiscal year. We are going from city to city in Ada County asking each city to provide us with 25 cents per resident to help run our Faces program. Before ~~ Faces was initiated and started, I came and visited with your chief of police and I came and visited with your Mayor, who I'm sad to see is not present here today. And both of them encouraged me to go ahead with our plan for Faces. Faces is a place where all components of our criminal justice system come together to provide seamless ' assistants to a certain group of victims. In Faces now we have -- we have a building where our Cares unit, which is our third-party interviewer of all child victims that's run by St. Luke's Hospital, resides. We have got about 13 staff there now, including a physician, and -- and your police agency here and all of our police agencies in this county and several counties around Ada County, bring victims for third-party interviews. That has been a -- one of the secrets -- one of the keys to our success in child abuse cases for the last 20 years is that police don't interview victims, nurses interview those victims. They are tape recorded, they are done in a manner that creates great confidence in the veracity of these victims and so we think it's an excellent model. The part that makes Faces different is it's -- is it's what's generically called around the „ Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 6 of 42 country a victim advocacy center or a justice center. This wasn't a new idea, it's not an idea that I thought of, it's an idea that I have watched other prosecutors, other justice systems, other cities and communities around the country develop. I visited my first one in 1978 and have watched them grow and mature in other parts of the country throughout the years. The good news for us is that we have had excellent support from our community and from our cities and particularly from the board of county commissioners, who have purchased and constructed for us a five million dollar facility and who provide a couple hundred thousand dollars a year worth of basic infrastructure. Heat, lights, security, those kinds of things are provided by the commissioners. Presently the Department of Health and Welfare resides there. They have several of their caseworkers.. Boise city, Ada County, and Meridian have dedicated officers. There is a place for your officers and I have been speaking with your chief and when you appoint a new chief I will be knocking on his door to determine how we are going to interface with Meridian. We have an excellent relationship with your police, your detectives do a wonderful job for us, and we need eventually to migrate one of them to Faces. I'm going to let Kevin talk about the numbers here and let you meet Kevin. This is astand-alone corporation that is run by a board and you can see who the board is here and we are in the process of expanding that board as we get more partners. Kevin is the executive director of this organization and has been with us now for a year and four months and he knows all the details. Thank you. Gorton: Thank you, Greg. McTeague: So, my .name is Kevin McTeague. I'm executive director of the Family Advocacy Center Education Services, commonly known as Faces. As Greg was saying, really, the idea with Faces is to bring together in one location all the services for investigation, prosecution, and, then, treatment of child abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault crimes. I sometimes jokingly say we bring together cops, and prosecutors, and social workers. But the idea, really, is to have this one place where a victim can come and access all those services, that they don't have to go all over town and try to get help in their period of crisis or trauma and so we are trying to make a system that lessens the trauma on victims. Bvt it also makes the system work better, because we think that through this cooperation, coordination with all these different agencies for the victim, that we are also improving the quality of the investigation, improving the quality of the prosecution. So, we make the system work better and we make it a better experience for the victim in a very difficult time for them. Let me just talk a little bit -- I have given you -- I brought a PowerPoint, but I see you have a lot of PowerPoint stuff tonight, so I'm just going to keep it to the handouts and really avoid the embellishments. Let me talk about the scope of -- scope of the crimes in our community -- and I have numbers from 2005 and yo.u can see here that St. Luke's Children At Risk program, that's the CARES program, they evaluated 966 children for child abuse, sexual abuse., and foster care placement and most of foster care placements are for kids that have been abused. Ada County prosecutor's office filed 386 domestic violence Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 7 of 42 and 77 sexual assault charges and, then, the Boise city attorney's office filed another 485 domestic violence charges. And., then, the Women and Children's Alliance fielded over 5,000 calls to their crisis line for their rape crisis and domestic violence crisis line. ' But I think what's really more telling in all of this is -- is ail of these charges, all of these crimes, occurred across multiple jurisdictions where we had four law enforcement jurisdictions involved, three hospital emergency rooms, three persecution jurisdictions and, then, more than ten medical, legal, and social service agencies. So, again, these are happening across a wide variety of jurisdictions and disciplines. So, through Faces we are trying to address that, not only multi-jurisdictional, but also multi-discipline work. We bring together at Faces -- I have got a list here of all the agencies that we have brought into Faces. I think a few of them really stand out. We have sort of as an anchor tenant at Faces, the St. Luke's CARES program. This is their child abuse risk evaluation unit. They are really the service center for all the law enforcement jurisdictions within Ada County. They have seen -- I pulled some numbers up just from our database system here a couple hours ago to see what kind of, you know, work they are doing with Meridian victims in Meridian law enforcement and about nine percent of the kids that they have seen in this last year since January were from Meridian, brought here through Meridian police department. So, we have a real close working relationship with Meridian police department and detectives. We also have the St. Luke's and St. Alphonsus joint program for the sexual assault forensic examiners. That's their Safe program and we are -- we have set up at Faces a -- one exam room for sexual assault examinations. We have done 30 of those since the middle of May when we implemented that program. About 70 percent of the Safe exams in Ada County are now being done at Faces. So, we have moved most of that work out of the emergency rooms and moved it into Faces. In fact -- and some of those have been Meridian cases. We also have -- Boise police department now has two detectives and a victim witness coordinator working out of Faces. We are about to bring in a sheriffs detective from !~ Ada County sheriffs office and Garden City has placed a detective into Faces, so these folks are based from Faces doing their work there. And, then, we have brought in Women and Children's Alliance., they have a case manager working from our center and now we are working with Catholic Charities to get them involved as well and have a stronger presence there. And particularly working with the Hispanic community and bringing in some staff with bilingual skills. And, then, the -- we have also brought in Idaho Crime Victims Compensation Program and, then, our most recent partner that i has joined us has been the Boise city, Ada County Housing Authority and we worked with them to obtain some federal funding to provide some transitional housing for ' victims that are fleeing domestic violence and sexual assault crimes. And that includes some case management money. The structure of Faces, we -- we are a service spinoff from .Ada County and the prosecutor's office. We have incorporated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so we have an independent board of directors. The list of folks is on this ' letterhead. Jerry Hershfeldt, who could not make it here today, is the administrator of ~' the Children's Hospital with St. Luke's and he is the chairman of the board. We have a pretty broad group of folks on this board of directors and they are very involved in Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 i Page 8 of 42 management and., you know, developing this center. Currently, the board of directors contracts with Ada County prosecuting attorney's office to provide the management services, which is myself and our client services coordinator for the center. Our plan is we are working to -- to spin this off entirely as a, you know, fully independent nonprofit where the employees, myself and others, are actually employed directly by the nonprofit itself, so we don't have that contract relationship with the prosecutor's office. The facility itself is the -- we are located down at -- it's next to Dunkley's Music near Bobo. It's the old John Deere farm dealership building and the county purchased that, rehab'd it, and turned it into a state of the art facility. We actually have a really great facility. People come and see that and the building almost sells itself, at least to get our partners to move in and, you know, be part of this process. Our operating budget for Faces itself is about 140,000 dollars a year and., then, Ada County is paying for the janitorial, our security, our utilities, our maintenance of the building, and our information tech support and that's running -- it's an estimated cost of about 200,000 dollars a year. This is a really big building., so it costs a lot to heat. So, the electric and gas for that building is not a small item. With the security -- we actually have a security officer in the building from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. We have frequent call-outs to the building, so we will have a law enforcement victim witness coordinator for multiple jurisdictions. Meridian has been there at the various hours as well in bringing in victims to begin investigation to do either a child abuse exam or doing a sexual assault exam with a victim there. And so we have a security guard on site to meet, greet, and., then, do some crowd control if victims or others bring family members with them, other folks. So, we have some security there for that. Our major sponsors -- Idaho -- Emergency Medicine of Idaho, which is the physician group that staffs the emergency room for all of the St. Luke's hospitals, is a major contributor. They have committed 75,000 dollars to us over three years. They have actually paid 50 of it already. St. Luke's Medical Center has given us 30,000. St. Alphonsus Medical Center has given us 30,000. We have a grant from the Washington Group Foundation, the Langroise Advice Fund, Wells Fargo, United Way, Idaho Community Foundation with their Southwest Idaho Fund, Target store and, then, the Fraternal Order of Police have all given us funding. We have also gotten a lot of support from local service clubs, the Kiwanis Club, Exchange Club, Soroptimist Club.. They have all been involved in helping us provide clothing for victims of sexual assaults. When they leave the facility they often have to leave their clothes as evidence. We are able to give them other clothes to take with them to wear out. They have stocked our snack bar that we have for victims when they come in, so they can have coffee or snacks. So, some of these service clubs have been helping us with these smaller items. Let me just talk a little bit about the return on investment. I think that's really important for what we are doing. The National Children's Alliance, which is a group that oversees all the child abuse centers throughout the nation, conducted a cost benefit analysis in 2004, I think it was, and through that analysis they showed that -- that traditional child maltreatment systems were about 36 percent more expensive than conducting an investigation through this multidisciplinary approach and that's important to us, because what we are doing in Faces with sexual assault and domestic violence ~~ Meridian City Council Special Workshop '~ November 13, 2007 Page 9 of 42 I; I, crimes is really based on this child advocacy multidisciplinary system. Within the sexual assault arena we know right now that we are doing about 70 percent now that -- I have ;; 67 percent. That number has actually gone up and I think it will grow. Of those sexual i; assault exams that are being done at Faces and we know, just from talking to law ;; enforcement, that it takes about half as much time for them to do the work, to do that i, investigation from Faces than it does in an emergency room. And, then, on the other I,, end of it, we are not utilizing those emergency room resources, so we are saving the !~ hospitals and the emergency groups money, too, which is partly why they are a major '' contributor to what we are doing, because it makes good financial sense for them. But we are saving the police departments money as well. But I think the other more ~I important thing is that it works better for the victims.. They can come to a -- essentially a less chaotic, a more nurturing environment, they have more privacy, and that it does take less time. So, it's less of an ordeal for them. Within the domestic violence arena I think it's a little too early for us to tell what the return on that investment that we are making is. We think that the multidisciplinary response will be more cost effective, but ;~ we don't have that data yet. So, we are working with Boise State University to do -- to begin some outcome evaluation and. look at our system and begin to look at how we are ,. running these and whether this is saving us money and more effective. But I will say !~ that the victim response to the work we have done has been overwhelmingly positive. ;; We are getting a lot of good feedback from victims that this is how they want to do it. ~~ And, then, lastly, our resource generation -- we have already secured over 600,000 dollars of new federal money to support our partner agencies. So, we have gone out -- j we are not only trying to, you know, take care of our own budget as a nonprofit and meet our basic operating costs, but we are trying to attract new resources to the community to address these issues. And so we have brought in two new federal grants, ~, one which will pay for a new full-time Ada County sheriffs detective to be based at ~~ Faces, that will pay for some Boise city attorney's office staff to provide prosecution ~ services for misdemeanor crimes from Faces. It also has brought in some significant ~, training money for the Women and Children's Alliance to work with local law i enforcement on their response to domestic violence and sexual assault crimes. And, then, we have worked very closely with the housing authority to help them obtain a federal grant, which will provide the transitional housing and case management for l victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. We are also now looking at a number ~, of other funding avenues that we can, again, bring more resources into the community, ~~ so we are not just taking care of ourselves, but we are really trying to build the whole li system and add to the resources and services that we offer from Faces. And that li concludes my presentation and we stand ready for any questions if you have them. ~~ Borton: Thank you, Kevin, It sounds as though there is a -- from the start at least a ,; financial request that you want to make or you need to make or planning to make. ~, ~~ McTeague: Yes. We are in the process of going around to the various city councils ;; throughout Ada County and asking the city councils to share in the cost of operating ,, ,, i, Meridian City Council Special Workshop November l3, 2007 Page 10 of 42 Faces. We'd like to eventually raise in fiscal year 2009 -- that would be our fiscal year 2009 is a January to December fiscal year -- we are trying to raise a total of about 70,000 dollars from Boise city, Meridian, Kuna, Eagle, and Garden City and so we are going to each of the city councils and asking them to pick up a share of the cost of Faces for helping to meet that budget shortfall and tactually -- I have put together a -- 'essentially athree year budget forecast to show folks where we are at. The current year that we have in here is covered. Next year we are looking at about a 44,000 dollar deficit in our budget. We are very -- working very hard now to raise that money from foundations, but, eventually, our work with the foundations is going to end, because they want to fund new programs, they want to fund startups, and as we get two or three years into this, they are looking to us and saying., okay, how are you bringing in other more sustainable longer term funding sources? And so part of what we are doing now is going out to the various communities that we serve, frankly, and help to, you know, ' improve services with these agencies. We are looking to them to help make a -- to help participate in funding Faces. We don't expect the cities to pay for all of it, clearly. But we hope that we can get some dollars put into this center and help to sustain it. Borton: Council, any questions? Bird: I have none. i Rountree: I have none. Zaremba: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I may have missed it and I realize help prosecutions be more successful to have seem to me that there is benefit both directions. you focus on victims, but does this also everything done in one place? It would McTeague: I'll let Mr. Bower answer that. Bower: Well, yes, this -- anytime that we can make this process less painful for victims, they will stick with us better. You know, 20 years ago -- 30 years ago we didn't prosecute very many child abuse cases, because we didn't have a support system to get parents and kids through it. And today it's a totally different world, utterly different landscape. Everything from Faces to victim coordinators, to my three specialists that do child sexual abuse, are all ten to 20 year prosecutors who are pros at what they do and have to tell you the first one of these cases I did 33 years ago, I didn't have a clue on 'how to talk to a child and today we have got this down. I mean we have got this to the point where women and children who are assaulted and who are treated well, and who ` are supported in the process, both by their police and by their prosecutor and by their . Meridian City Council Special workshop November 13, 2007 ~ Page 11 of 42 judge, will stick with us and stay with us through the -- for the duration and they will report this crime and we have more and more people -- kids and women raising their hands to report crimes that 30 years ago didn't get reported. Borton: Thank you, Greg. It sounds like -- and I know the program and know what you guys have done with this, it's fantastic. It seems appropriate, at least to me, that in light of the request and the need, that if there is some way to come up with a formula and perhaps it's as arbitrary as, you know, the city's percentage of population of the total area -- we know that these issues don't stop at borders -- city or county borders. If there is some way to try and pin down what the request might be and how that would relate to Eagle, Kuna, Boise -- McTeague.: We actually have that. I didn't bring that. I wasn't expecting to ask you for money tonight, but I think, you know, our intent is to try to get into your fiscal year 2009 -- your next budget cycle and we wanted to start that tonight, but I would be happy to send that out and very detailed give you exactly what the formula looks like. Essentially, what we are -- what we have pegged it at is 25 cents for -- per resident in incorporated cities. So, with the city of Boise that's about 48,000. I think with the City of Meridian I'm thinking that's around 15,000. I can't remember the exact figure. But I can pull that out and send that right away to you. Borton: Could be like a gas meter in Meridian, though. McTeague: Yeah. Borton: Slowly turning. So, we want that -- that number quick. Please submit it to all of us and let us get a chance to review it and keep it alive. McTeague: Okay. ~, Borton: Okay. McTeague: Thank you for your time. Rountree: Thank you for the early notification. Zaremba: Mr. President, I would just make a further comment for our future discussion that on the same logic that it's saving the emergency rooms money, I suspect it's saving our police money as well if these are being processed in half the time, we are saving money. So, certainly would be willing to listen to their presentation on cost. Borton: Want to make sure it gets out to the Mayor and Council to take a look at it and be ready for the next year's budget. p Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 ' Page 12 of 42 Rountree: Mr. President, my only question is where do we put this on the interim, so it doesn't fall off our radar screen in September? City clerk keep a file on these kinds of requests? i ' Berg: Mr. President, Members of the Council, I think we need to have it for July, so we will put it on our radar screen so it's put in at least as an item. Rountree: Consideration. Yeah. Berg: And when we get the final figures we can add that to it and if we need further information, maybe in April, May, we can have another presentation. Rountree: Sure. Great. (c) Water Hook Up to Irrigation Request -Doyle Bundy -citizen Borton: That's a good idea. Item No. 3-C is a water hook-up and irrigation request by Mr. Doyle Bundy. What -- I think for lack of any other formal structure to this, we have got 15 minutes allocated. We have reviewed -- the Council's all been provided some of the written history from Rick Clinton, as well as Mr. Bundy and his request. What I'd like '~ to do is have -- Rick, if you want to give us five minutes of the history as far as you know and the basis for your decision and, then, Mr. Bundy -- . We will go ahead and give you the remaining ten. minutes or I guess eight to discuss your position and the Council can ;, give some guidance on which way to go. Clinton: Mr. President, Members of the Council, earlier this summer Mr. Bundy made contact with the water department and made a request to us to disconnect his irrigation system from the pressurized irrigation system in his subdivision. He communicated to us that we had concerns that the water quality in the irrigation system was -- was contaminated and that he wanted to be able to use potable water to irrigate his lawn with. In researching the ordinances, we come up with a couple different ordinances that -- or sections of ordinance that very clearly prohibit that activity. I communicated to Mr. Bundy that probably for over a decade we have tried to encourage water conservation through the utilization of surface water wherever possible through the pressurized irrigation systems to protect -- or to conserve water and, in addition to that, we also have a very significant concern about the potential cross-contamination between our drinking water system and that -- the canal water, that I agree with Mr. Bundy it's ~, certainly not safe to drink. He sat down and visited with Chip and I -- Chip Hudson, the assistant superintendent and I, for fhe better part of a couple hours. I advised him that would issue him a written letter outlining the sections of the ordinance that -- that very clearly disallowed that action and he has chosen to bring his case to the Council. Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 1 Page 13 of 42 Gorton: Thank you, Rick. And I appreciate you and Chip doing this. I've had a chance to talk to Mr. Bundy a bit and it sounds like everyone's gone to great lengths to try and ~, explain and perhaps resolve the situation, but I know Mr. Bundy wanted a chance, nonetheless, to come before Council and say his piece on the issue. So, Mr. Bundy, ' come on forward and we will have you use the mike up here and make sure we get you on the record.. Bundy: I have had experience with irrigation water in this area and about the worst irrigation water I have seen is right there in that area. I think that little creek there has . been running for quite some time and probably all kinds of irrigation dump have been in there. I don't believe it probably ever has been dredged. A guy got approval for, you ' know, building houses there. The guy that owned it, I guess he sold it to a developer, probably a couple years ago, and in about two years houses have been built in there. They claim that area and put it underground, but that area is really messing there where it comes out of that residential area there right out at the end of Biue Field -- or, no, I guess it's Blue Herring and that it -- especially on the south side of Blue Herring -- I mean there has always been oil in there, there has always been all kinds of yuk in there ' and it's never been cleaned and the grass grows and they have -- you have Ed Meeks there, I'm quite sure he probably has dumped in there for a long time. And it's really in bad shape and it's not taken care of by Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District and I have run my sprinklers and I got a 30 mesh filter and the thing -- well, I water once a day for ' about 20 minutes each station and I don't get past a week and that filter is plugged up. And the whole area there stinks like I don't know what. And the guy right behind me waters sometimes three and four times a day, because he's trying to grow grass that doesn't have anything to it to grow and he's trying to grow it when it gets real hot in the summertime and I mean he -- his is really messy and stinky. And that water is absolutely not healthy and it's not good for the people -- especially children and animals ' and things like that and it's -- a lot of the houses are in a confined area and it sprays all over the place, the wind blows, and it's just -- just unhealthy. And even in the rivers around here, as you know, there are parasites in the water. They recommend you don't do this and you don't do that. The runoffs, you know, the animals -- up at Cascade Lake and I've had experience with fungus already. I have been here living in this area for about 12 years and I was going over to Foxtail every morning about 9:00 o'clock in the morning and practicing golf until about 12:00 o'clock and I was there on that range and they didn't keep their grass too short and I very seldom wear shorts, but I was wearing j them because it was in July, pretty hot. It was in '01 July. And I know this is -- these are long, boring stories, but this happened. And I ended up getting a fungus on my legs -- I got scars on my legs right now. I tried to -- I tried to get rid of it and you touch a real bad fungus and you can spread it to others parts of your body. I got it on my crotch and I'd like to never gotten rid of that thing. I went to a doctor -- the only doctor I have ever gone to in probably the last 15 or 20 years was a dermatologist down right across from the St. AI's Hospital and he couldn't touch it with anything. Finally he started -- he gave me some steroids and says just use this lightly, brush it across when it flares up and, Meridian City Council Special Workshop November T3, 2007 Page 14 of 42 really, he couldn't treat it. He couldn't heal it and I got some health food stuff. It was a real expensive, highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide and you put a -- you put about a capful or so in your bath, you let it pour in slowly, and through the -- through that and that and., then, getting my immune system built back up, because my immune system was really low, that's the reason why I had the problem -- and this is where the problem comes in. Young children and elderly, sometimes their immune systems are compromised and there is elderly area that has the same water right there on Blue Field ' on Meridian Road, the same irrigation water goes there, and they walk up and down right there on East Woodberry and that area and they walk through that water spraying all over the place -- I mean it's absolutely unhealthy and that's a fact and I'd stake anything on it and all you got to do is just test it and find out. I mean I'm here and -- you know, presenting this sort of crudely, but it's the truth. And I happen to have sprinklers, they are sort of a commercial-type sprinkler and they spray the water when they spray it. I got the Toro -- actually, there is not really -- but it sort of acts like a commercial grade sprayer. In other words, it doesn't spray real gentle down low and -- 'and that water -- and you can't -- you can't do -- have any activity on site. I wouldn't let ' my grandkids back there in that backyard, you know, I can't enjoy my grandkids over in ' my house, in my backyard., never have been able to and -- you know, I mean I can understand wanting to conserve water and -- you know, because the population is growing, houses being built, and, you know, there is not too much groundwater, but ~~~ there are certain people that a compromise should be made on and I have problems with my immune system and that's the reason why it doesn't affect a lot of people, ~! because that's what your immune system's for in your body, is if you keep a good immune system your body fights it off naturally. God's gift to man. But if they -- if you abuse yourself and you don't take care of yourself, eventually that thing sort of goes, then, you can catch degenerative diseases and all kinds of things. How much time do I have left? Gorton: Mr. Berg? Berg: Minute and a half. Bundy: I didn't want to run over time. You guys -- City Council is very nice and I can tell you're -- you know, you're being compassionate and -- but that's my -- you know, my point on the thing. There may be regulations and laws and all of that, but aguy -- the people across the street have city water, it's just on my side of the street and, then, up in that residential area. Gorton: Okay. Bundy: And I want to stay healthy. Igo to great lengths to stay healthy and I study it and I understand it and I keep myself built up to where I don't have to go to doctors for this and that and that and this and so -- all right. Well, that's it. Thank you very much. ~. i,: 1` I: It 1- ' Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~ November 13, 2007 II Page t5 of 42 G ;, Borton: Thank you. Appreciate you coming and sharing that. u ;' Bundy: Are you going to make a decision tonight? ~~ Borton: Yeah. You can always stay. ~~, ~~ Bundy: Are you going to make a decision tonight or what? ~: ~~ Borton: I believe so, if that's the Council's -- if that's the Council's desire to do so. Rick, ~~ do you have any last summary comments? The decision, as I understand it, is whether ,~ or not a cross connection with the city water is appropriate or not and your ~; recommendation is that it's not. li ;, Clinton: Mr. President, I stand by my recommendation that we adhere to the ordinance. '~ Again, two real key issues. I think the very most important issue is trying to minimize ~~ the cross-connections between nonpotable water and potable water and we have -- through the ordinances we allow for a single potable cross-connection to provide pre ~~ and post season water to these irrigation systems with one back flow device that serves h a number of homes and there is good reason for that. ~. Borton: Thank you. Doyle, hang on one second.. Just -- and the reason that we put ~' some structure on it, otherwise -- because I know we have had lots of conversations and we've had lots of conversations with the department and we could probably be here r all night and we are never going to agree and that's okay, that happens sometimes, that people might disagree and as long as we have got complete information and ~ understand the situation, I'd turn it over to the Council if they have any particular questions, otherwise -- Grady: Mr. President? i Borton: Yes. Grady: Just a few quick comments. Sorry. It may be appropriate -- and I think the city could offer this service, to go out and at least work with DEQ and see -- you know, help them test the water. It really is an irrigation slash DEQ or irrigation -Central District Health and I think the city is willing to help out and see if we can expedite that. And the second point is I will -- just a reminder that we are required by several of the state agencies and federal agencies to continue to conserve water. Water rights are getting harder and harder to come by and so this issue is going to be more and more critical as time goes on. But, again, the city is willing to help out a little bit there if you desire. Borton: Thanks, Len. Council? Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 16 of 42 i Rountree: Mr. President? '~ Borton: Mr. Rountree. ' Rountree: Nampa-Meridian runs an awful lot of water through the City of Meridian and ', don't know that we have ever had an issue, but I don't know that it's ever been addressed as an issue. Given Len's comments, I would suggest that you do that hand in hand with Nampa-Meridian and Settlers, John Anderson or somebody in that organization with Nampa-Meridian -- and I don't know who is in Settlers -- and any other water provider in the community and maybe address some of these questions. Certainly -- I know all about having to change your filter every time you run your sprinkler system, but I do it and finally figured out how I don't have to do it, but the water is not necessarily the cleanest in the world, but I've never had any hesitancy about utilizing water provided by Nampa-Meridian. Borton: Okay. Rountree: And I'd like to see that done before we consider it further. ' Borton: Mr. Bundy, come on up to the mike. ~, Bundy: One more thing. I would be willing to have anything done that anyone would want to be -- have done to that irrigation system so it could never be hooked up at that address again. Borton: Here is -- Bundy: And I would even put forth money out of my own pocket to contribute towards it. ' That's how serious -- and that's how -- that's how sure I am of what I'm saying... I have been living there for a long time and I study things, I have been retired, and I absolutely know that's unhealthy for me and it will -- it just takes -- takes away from -- from, you know, the pursuit of living well and living healthy. Borton: We appreciate -- Bundy: And that's the way I'd put it. And so there would be no problem with across- connect or anything. That irrigation water would not get into the city water system. No way. Besides, I'm mechanical anyway, I was a plumber, ran a plumbing business in California. Borton: All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bundy. It's -- sometimes it's difficult to -- to make these decisions, because you want to try and make things work out. I can tell l ,Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 i Page 17 of 42 you from my perspective the quick answer is to deny the request and support the decision of the water department and not allow the cross connection. I do think -- and as Councilman Rountree highlighted, what Len has talked about, if there is a way that we can assist, you know, poking the right people to get some testing done or, really, what you think, Len, we could do to help that out -- I don't think there is a -- clearly not a direct obligation that we are required to do. It doesn't mean that we can't take measures to try to help out, but rather than kind of dance on the issue, my perspective is to be crystal clear, just so you know that as of right now (wouldn't -- wouldn't support the request. But I think we can try and help out in other ways. I don't know if -- Bird: I agree with you -- I agree a hundred percent with you, Joe. Zaremba: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: I would add that I'm not ready to open the door to what could become a series of people feeling that this water is not adequate. If there is a way to improve the '° water or otherwise help, like the others, I have to clean my filter at least once a week and for some reason I don't notice it, but my wife thinks the water stinks and reminds ' me of it every time I have walked through it and come back into the house, so it's -- and the unfortunate thing is that I think one case would breed many more cases and if we '' can approach it through seeing if we can help improve the water, that would be the '~ better choice. Gorton: I don't think there needs to be a formal motion. I think that the consensus of the Council is to deny the particular request, support the reasoning set forth by Rick on the record. We appreciate you presenting your side, Mr. Bundy, both in writing and here today. It's the rare request that -- to have you come before Council, but we appreciate you taking the time tonight to do so. And, then, Len, we will follow up with you and see if there is -- if there is something that we can do to try and assist in another way, let's do that. Grady: We'll do. (d) Discussion of Coalition for Regional Public Transportation's Legislative Proposal with Valley Regional Transit & COMPASS - ', Matt Ellsworth -Planning Dept. Borton: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bundy. Item 3-D on the agenda, the discussion of the coalition for regional public transit. Matt Ellsworth. How are you doing, Matt? He's here to present -- Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 1 S of 42 `Ellsworth: Thank you, Mr. President, Members of the Council. And I'm really doing more of an introduction this evening than I am a presentation. A brief little bit of background. The coalition for regional public transportation publication is a group of ,business -- business interests representatives, elected officials, and so forth that have been meeting over the course of the past several years to identify potential funding solutions and revenue strategies to increase the level of public transportation services throughout the Treasure Valley. I'm sure you recall last year they approached the legislature with a proposal to allow local jurisdictions, local action taxing authority to do exactly that. The bill was introduced to the revenue and taxation committee where it subsequently ended up -- ended up dying prior to receiving a hearing on the floor. Since, then, Valley Transit Regional and Community Planning Association have been in conversations with both the coalition, elected officials, stake holders, and so forth and ' they have drafted an update to that proposed legislation that incorporates some interesting changes and so forth that they have been sort of shopping around to constituent jurisdictions, highway districts, cities, the counties, and so forth, in an attempt to gauge support and field suggestions that jurisdictions may have prior to 'approaching the legislature this spring. The ultimate direction that this is -- that this is going in is to, again, hear your comments, concerns, and so forth about the proposed legislation for consideration in finalizing the draft they are going to bring forward this spring and ultimately Compass and Valley Regional Transit would like to request a resolution to the effect of supporting that bill prior to moving it forward to the legislature. So, understanding the direction that this is going with that, Matt Stoll, the executive director for Community Planning Association is here with us this evening and I'll turn it over to Matt to go over some of the ins and outs of the proposed legislation. `1 Borton: Thank you. Thank you, Matt, for coming here tonight. ~' Stoll: Mr. President, Council Members, thank you for the opportunity. I'm not sure if you got all the handouts. Let me give you some additional ones, because -- Borton: I heard you and Kelli on KBOI. It was actually some time ago now. Rountree: Is this different? Stoll: I'm not sure what Matt handed out, whether he got you just the legislation or if it includes the bullet points that we have there. Rountree: It's the same. Stoll: Same stuff. Yeah. My apologies. What we have lined out in the legislation is `something that we believe is relatively innovative for the state of Idaho. It is not innovative for the rest of the nation.. If we look at models that are present across the country, we can look to the state of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and., then, also Salt Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 ', Page 19 of 42 Lake City, that have a local option taxing authority to fund their transportation systems. As succinctly put, we have looked at a different strategy that has moved away from just funding public transportation. As you're aware, the City of Meridian is a member of Compass and we have done a long-range transportation plan that looks at the transportation system as a whole in the two counties and we have identified that we have a 1.7 billion dollar shortfall in revenue for the transportation systems. So, both transit and also the roadways and as we can all but -- all of us that live in Meridian can experience, there is congestion at any point in time. We are moving, because of flattening revenue, both at the federal and state level, to a point of operation and ' maintenance of the existing system -- of roadway system and also the transit system, because we do not have adequate revenue. And other states across the country are experiencing that same challenge. They are looking at innovative techniques to deal with enhancing their revenue stream and one of the most common ones is taking to the citizens and getting a vote of the citizens to approve a local option sales tax. And it's the truest form of democracy where you're asking the citizens are you willing to tax yourself to fund a particular need for society? So, to briefly run through what the legislation has -- and this is just a brief bullet point summary and the legislation is a lot more detailed and I believe your attorney has a copy of it, I hope. You all have a copy ~ of it? The legislation takes the existing regional Public Transportation Authority Act that exists in the Idaho code and reestablished the Act as a regional transportation authority and so existing regional transportation -- public transportation authorities, signature of ~ the governor that this legislation would become regional transportation authorities and ' for areas unlike the Ada County and Canyon County area and also Idaho Falls, that would like to enact that legislation, can take it to a vote of the citizens to get their ' approval of it. There is still the requirement that you have to take it to a vote of the public the enactment of the tax itself and that would require a simple majority vote -- not a simple. I wish it was a simple majority. Super majority vote of the citizens and that's rooted in public policy in Idaho regarding the imposition of taxes that deal with property tax and we have been told by the chairman of the House tax and rev committee that to y get it out of his committee or out of his drawer, that it has to be a super majority vote of the citizens. And so we are not going to tackle that issue, because we want to get it out of his drawer and have a fair hearing. We have also heard what the chairman had to '' say and we have consolidated the four -- the four dates for voting on special tax -- taxes like this to two dates, May and November. So, any primary or general election of any given year. And, then, also we have been told that we need to have the legislation so that only elected officials can sit on the board of any regional transportation authority. Currently with Compass and with Valley Regional Transit there is the opportunity for an agency or an organization like yours to appoint a staff person to sit on that. That would be specifically prohibited in this legislation, because the legislature wants the citizens to have somebody that they can hold directly accountable for the imposition of the tax and also hold responsible in completing the program that's been identified.. The Regional ~ Transportation Authority would be charged with two primary items. One would be the creafion or the -- I'm sorry. The construction, operation, and maintenance of the public Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 20 of 42 transportation system. So, transit, buses, rail, whatever gets envisioned to happen. And., then, also the funding of the shortfall for roadways. It's not -- the purpose of this '~ agency is not to operate, maintain, build, construct roadways, it is only intended to be a funding mechanism to fund Idaho Transportation Department and also Ada County Highway District in Ada County, and, then, the highway districts in Canyon County and the cities in Canyon County for their roadway needs. The maintenance and building of those roadways would be done by those entities that are already charged with it and from our opinion are doing it successfully. The tie for this local option tax would be a regional long-range transportation plan that would be a 20 year vision at least of what the needs are of the area and so it takes into account the changing population for the region, but also takes into account the economics of the region. We already have that being created by the Community Planning Association, so an inherent part of this legislation is that any area that has a metropolitan planning organization like Compass and a transit authority like Valley Regional Transit Authority, would devolve those two organizations to form a regional transportation authority. So, effectively, what you do is instead of having two separate boards that have the same elected officials sitting on it, you have one board and those staff are merged together as one agency. We believe that that will result in a lot of efficiencies from the use of elected officials' time, but also will be a much more efficient use of the taxpayer's dollars. The voting structure that we have identified is intended to try to promote regional collaboration amongst our particular area, Ada and Canyon counties, so that you value the individual agencies that are sitting around the table, but also value the population center of the two counties. So, what we have structured is that each entity will get one seat at the table. The City of Meridian would have one seat at the table. The City of Boise would have one seat at ,the table. The Ada County Commission would have one seat at the table.. Ada County ~ Highway District would have one seat at the table. So, you end up with the six cities in Ada County having a seat, the highway district, and the county and, then, in Canyon County you have the eight cities, the four highway districts would have one representative, and., then, also the county. That leaves 18 seats at the table. The Idaho Transportation Department would also have a seat. This current version we have the Idaho Transportation Department's board members sitting at the table. So, instead of the 29 members that Valley Regional Transit currently has and the 38 members that I currently have, we narrow that down to 19 individuals sitting around the table. Each ,~ vote is subjected to two tests. The first test is a simple majority of those 18 votes and if it passes that first test, then, we move onto the second test and we take the votes in the affirmative for that first vote and apply for the cities and the unincorporated portions of the counties their population weight. Excluded from that vote would be the highway districts and also the transportation department. And if any motion passes those two tests, then., it moves forward as being passed. The only items that would be subjected to that test would be development of the transportation financing plan or the regional j long-range transportation. The transportation improvement program, the levying of the tax that would be taken to the voters and also the annual budget for the agency. What would be taken to the citizens is a complete detailing of what corridors over the next 20 Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 21 of 42 years would be improved, right-of-way that would be purchased, and if there are any administrative costs or operation maintenance costs, specificity would be provided to that. It would be put onto a ballot initiative, identifying, again, what would be accomplished and subjected to a vote of the people on any May or November time period that's adopted -- picked by that board.. If it passes that super majority vote, then, the tax would be implemented we believe the following quarter. We have to check that. After the successful pass of the vote of the citizens. And, basically, once that's passed by the citizens it cannot be changed unless there is a subsequent vote of the citizens to change that transportation plan or the financing plan. It is required that you follow through on that. There is a 20 year horizon with the tax, so that after 20 years it 'sunsets, unless it's being reauthorized by the citizens. And that's a model that we identified from the state of Arizona that has been successful -- if you have been down into the Phoenix metropolitan area, back in 1985 they did the same thing for their loop road system and 20 years later they had successfully completed it. They did some public polling and found that if they wanted that reauthorized they needed to add transit into their transportation system plan and so they have added light rail to that and they are -- and it was reauthorized by the citizens and they are in the process of building their light rail and also the additional roadway portions of their transportation system. So, it will -- by the year 2025, will have 40 years of utilizing local option sales tax as a successful measure. The city of Salt Lake has had a local option sales tax since the 1970s, the mid '70s, and they have been building their -- their transit system and also the roadway system using that financing tool. Corporate powers that are associated with this agency would include eminent domain, that is an unsavory tool in Idaho, but it ~ is a necessary tool to have available to any local government that needs to preserve right-of-way for its transportation system. It is not one that I anticipate being used on a routine basis, but is one that needs to be available to deal with the growth of this area ' as we anticipate the population doubling over the next 20 years. The initial ballot question would be brought to the citizens -- . Oh, sorry. The other corporate power that ~ that has -- sorry -- is bonding authority that would be subject to a vote of the people. So, on any particular ballot initiative you could have the levying of the tax, which would be on a rate of .1 percent to .75 percent upon the initial offering and, then, a subsequent 'request to the population could go up to a maximum of one percent. There is a one percent cap that could be had on this local option tax. That will levy approximately 54 million to 78 million dollars per year for the two counties, which is a fairly substantial dollar amount that would be available. It also has the bonding authority that would be subject to a vote of the people and that is also at a super majority level that would be required,. If at the end of 20 years the citizens decided to decline reauthorizing that local option sales tax, the local option sales tax would continue until any bond indebtedness i has been paid off. So, if they had voted previously to bond and it carries five years beyond that vote, it would be necessary for the sales tax to continue until that bond indebtedness had been paid off. With that, I will think of some -- try to summarize what the bill is. We have also done a statewide poll regarding -- from public policy standpoint regarding funding mechanisms for transportation in the state of Idaho. We have Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 22 of 92 ~ provided you a summary of that. We will be summarizing that at the Compass board meeting. Basically, what you can take away with it is people want their transportation system. They don't want to pay for it. Unfortunately, we haven't found a mechanism to make that happen. The reality is we will need to be able to ask the citizens whether they are willing to support a local option sales tax and that is all we are asking as part of this legislation is the ability to ask the citizens whether they are willing to tax themselves. At the end of the day we are hoping to have a recrafted piece of legislation based upon our member agencies' comments that we would unveil on November 29th of this month and so we would welcome any comments that you have. I know that Councilman Rountree has provided some comments to Kelli Fairless from Valley Regional Transit and the sooner you can get us your comments the earlier we can get working on things, but we do intend to have something to unveil to the coalition on the 29th and something that we can start working with legislators on. And we hope to have resolutions from each of our member agencies supporting this legislation, so that we -- 'when we go to the capitol we can speak with authority that local governments want this tool. With that I'll stand for any questions. Borton: Thank you, Matt. Council, any questions at this point? Bird.: I have none. Borton: Matt, did I -- did I hear you right that the first time when they are at the ballot box they would be voting up or down on the imposition of a tax? Are they also voting in ' a separate measure up or down on the particular plan or -- Stoll: The inherent part on the tax is that you have to have aplan -- a transportation financing plan to show the citizens what they would be taxing themselves for. So, it's + one and the same. Borton: Okay. Stoll: So, you would have the example of here are the capital improvements, the maintenance programs that would be associated with it, so that they can make an educated decision on whether they want to vote on -- Borton: I got you. Is that different than the earlier proposal, that joinder of the specific plan with the authorization? Stoll: We have gotten more specific with it. Borton: Okay. Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 23 of 42 Stoll: Yes. Based upon the models that we have looked at across the -- particularly in .the west and what they have done in Arizona and Colorado. Borton: And, then, on the -- just real quickly on the -- I think it's also new about the funding provided for road -- some construction? Stoll: Yeah. This is -- that is completely new. Borton: Is the mechanism of that, you know, X dollars that are raised -- or allocated for that portion of the plan are simply turned over to ACRD, by way of example, to, then, fall within their prioritization list or -- Stoll: No. It would be a situation where prior to going to a vote of the citizens, the board of RTA and the staff of the RTA would be working with the implementing agencies, like ACHD or ITD and identifying the particular corridors that would be eligible for this local option taxing authority. Quite frankly, with all of our transportation needs in the valley, we are not going to be able to fund every corridor with the 54 million. It will require partnerships with ACHD and ITD to build roadways. Case in point would be U.S. 20-26. That is a 200 million dollar project and there is no way that we could get that accomplished in a reasonable time frame and still have to deal with the transportation needs across the valley. So, there will be partnerships and working with folks on identifying what's going to go -- what projects would be funded. From there, once the citizens approve it, it would be a granting program, very similar to how they already deal with ITD on projects and that there would be agreements that would be developed on ;here is how much we will fund the building of this particular project, we will provide this amount of money to you on an annual basis to complete this project and to build it. Borton: Okay. Stoll: And, then, there would be accountability back to the citizens on an annual basis of what's being accomplished.. Borton: Great. Good. Council, any questions of this point? Rountree: Just a comment on that last -- last piece and that's one of the comments that I made to Kelli is that the intent is as I believe Matt stated, the language really doesn't go there. It's pretty weak in that arena and it's one of the things I think that will be 'addressed in the comments and redrafting of this bill. And I guess all fairness to the Council, I was at a growth summit, as well as Dave, the first part of -- or the end of last week, I believe, and our partners at ACHD are not at all pleased with this. So, I don't -- really wasn't sure what their issues were, other than I think they misread a lot of stuff in ;~ here or were misinformed, but there yet are some issues that need to be resolved. Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 ' Page 24 of 42 Stoll: That's true. ~' Borton: So, Matt, do you anticipate -- I guess get some comments, whatever you can from us, before the 29th, the unveiling at that point, do you expect -- do you or someone with the group coming back in December to request a formal resolution? Stoll: We can do it one of two ways, We can send you a draft resolution that you would tailor to meet your particular needs for your individual city. And we certainly would be available to come to do a presentation on the current legislation that's been redrafted and the status of the coalition and I anticipate the coalition will be renamed and there will be a broader cross-section across the state on supporting it. What we'd like to have is the -- are the resolutions passed prior to the start of the legislative session in January. Borton: Okay. Rountree: Mr. President, Ihave aquestion -- Borton: Yes. r Rountree: -- for Matt. Matt, what's your sense or what are you hearing from commentors around the state? Stoll: We just had a briefing session with the transit providers today and -- Rountree: One of the ITD sponsored sessions? Video conference? Stoll: They provided the video conferencing facilities. Rountree: Okay. Stoll: We can talk about that part -- Rountree: Yeah. Stoll: --about the lack of sponsorship. Rountree: I would assume that. Stoll: Anyway -- I need enlightenment on that. Anyhow, we had Pocatello there, Idaho Falls, folks from Lewiston participated in the process. And the general sense I got was after we had answered some of their questions and concerns that they had --and it was rooted in not reading the legislation and some reading old legislation and also some ~ suspicion on what the intent was, they have realized that, number one, it may not be Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 25 of 42 ideal, but it does seem like it has some legs and it's the only tool that's being offered to help fund transit and to meet the transportation needs across the state for individual regions and also, quite frankly, it may not -- for some of them may not be a tool that they want to use now, but it's a tool that they want available to them five, ten years from now. So, it sounds like they are going to be supporting us on it. And I was particularly pleased and surprised on Mr. Bingley's stance. ', Rountree: Oh, really? Stoll: Exactly. Rountree: Good. Borton: Well, Matt -- Zaremba: Mr. President? Borton: Oh. Go ahead. Mr. Zaremba. Zaremba: A comment, I guess. I understand the compromises that have to go into getting this to happen and to me it seems like a lot of thought has gone into it and the solutions to those compromises. I think I can buy into it and support, along with what I Councilman Rountree said, we do need to make an effort to get ACRD on board and I did talk to a couple of those commissioners -- their first instinct to everything is that everybody is trying to chip away at ACHD. This has been going on for years and years and it's not pointed directly at this legislation necessarily, but they feel that there have been so many people that have been trying to either disassemble them or remodify them or take over their thing., that they are internally afraid that this is another one of those. And there does need to be some networking or whatever you would call it to -- to get their support. I think the issue that doesn't get across is that this is not an authority instead of their authority, that it isn't chipping away at this and this is incremental, that their current taxing structure and income structure, plans for their long-range capital improvements, are not really affected by this. This is supplemental. And I don't feel that they are understanding that piece of it or even though they hear us say it, they are suspicious. You used that word. And they are suspicious that down the road it isn't going to come out that way and I -- my feeling is we need -- we need to get them on board in focusing on having the legislature give us the right to ask if there will be a local option taxing. We don't need to have all the details -- we will have to have all the details to go to our local voters, but I would rather see legislation be as general and nonspecific as possible. And maybe there are some requirements in it. But I don't think the legislation should include the plan. And, yes, the sales tax piece of it -- I mean when we go to the voters with a ballot measure, that does have to include the plan, because they have to approve -- the legislation can specify that there be a plan, but I think ACRD Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 26 of 42 conceptually can support local option taxes, they are worried about the details and if there is a way to get less detail to the legislature, knowing that the detail has to be there when we actually put it on the ballot, we may get more support out of them. That's just a comment. Stoll: Mr. President, Councilman Zaremba, there is a fine balance that we have to provide, because we have to give the legislature some of the things that they want, so `that they will give us the local option taxing authority. And they have been very clear that they want a transportation plan or a financing .plan that the voters will know what they are going to get and that will identify which corridors will be improved and that it's locked in. So, there are things that we can work on and there are some things that our advisors have told us and also some legislators have told us that if you don't have it, don't even bother coming to us, and I think everybody that's part of this -- and particularly in Ada and Canyon counties, is going to have to realize that we all need to give up a little something, so that we can get a significant revenue stream of -- made ~' available to us and have the ability to ask the citizens what they want. One of the things ~; certainly Kelli and I are working on -- working with ACRD in trying to identify what their needs are and we have encouraged them to submit comments. We met with them for close to two or three hours last Wednesday about this particular legislation. We have made available since October -- I believe it was October 5th we -- October 4th we :, initially met with their senior management staff about this legislation and we provided " copies of the legislation to get their comments and get their input on it. Last 'i Wednesday was the first time I heard a negative comment about it from them and we could use support and help from local elected officials in talking to the commissioners and talking about what their issues are, but also talking about the importance of it from '~ your standpoint on needing this to meet our needs. Our purpose is not to chip away at their authority or to take away any of their authority, it is to be a partner to help them build projects, because I have certainly sat in board meetings where I have listened to -- particularly Meridian, but also other cities, get frustrated when they hear that ACHD or ITD is asking for a local contribution towards a project when you don't have a funding mechanism to be made available. This legislation provides a certain amount of skin in ,the game, so that you can contribute to help out ACHD or ITD on projects that are critical to you and force or encourage some partnership between the cities and the implementing agencies. Zaremba: I agree that it's help -- we need to convince ACHD that it's help. Stoll: I'll take any help you can get. Borton: I appreciate you bringing this here. I think what might be best -- give us some more time to digest the specific legislation that you want submitted., the proposed resolution you'd like us to consider, with a time frame that fits your needs, when you'd like us to act on it and, then, in the meantime get questions I guess directly back to you? Meridian City Council Special workshop November 13, 2007 '~ Page 27 of 42 Stoll: Yeah. Myself or Kelli Fairless. Borton: Okay. Stoll: Either one of us will work. And we will forward it to our various Councils that are helping us out with this. Borton: Okay. ~ Stoll: In terms of the resolution, I'll get something drafted up as soon as possible and, then, quite frankly, the sooner the better that you can do it, whenever it fits into your particular Council schedules. Borton: Sounds great. Stoll: Thank you for the opportunity. (e) Update on New City Hall Building Construction -Petra Inc. & LCA Architects Gorton: You bet. Thanks, Matt. Item 3-E -- 3-E, update on the new City Hall building construction.. Petra here. We have got Wes, Gene, and team. You're up. Bettis: Thank you. Council President Borton, esteemed members of the Council and city staff, for the record, my name is Wesley Bettis, Petra, Incorporated, 1097 North Rosario here in Meridian. Over the next ten, 15 minutes what we would like to do is give you a quick update on work in progress. John Anderson, our general superintendent for the project, will be providing that. We will also look at an update of the contract schedule and the contract budget, so that all of us are talking the same language when we are discussing. this project and we really do appreciate having this ~ opportunity to come before you. Also in attendance tonight we have Adam Johnson, who is our project LEED coordinator, if you have any questions specifically regarding LEED. And we have Gene Bennett, our senior project director, who is trying to keep this posse all under control. Always able to answer questions very pertinent and very specific to your needs. While John addresses the work in progress, I'll hand out the updates on the schedule and the budget. Anderson: My name is John Anderson, President, Council Members. As Wes hands ' out the schedule, where we are at with work in progress to date, we have the second floor slab cast, which has turned up in all the first floor, as well as the basement, for all the trade rough-ins. So, the trades have pretty much invaded, for lack of a better term, ' all of the second floor, along with our framing contractor for the metal stubs. The critical Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 28 of 42 1 path, which you -- I believe Wes -- yeah, you printed those in color -- is in the red and blue is a noncritical path item. Now, that we have structure going up and will be ;~ continuing to go up through the weather, the focus for myself and my people are on the interior of the building, finishing the interior. And to do that with the trades, is to finish our partition walls -- I should say the full height walls inside the building and from there ?~, we start the under slab -- I'm sorry, under floor HVAC, plumbing and electrical systems. From there we actually will put the computer floor down and, then, put the partition walls -- the different offices and areas on top of that. The whole time that is going on, the exterior framing has started. We will actually start standing the exterior metal stubs on the south portion of the building, I believe, Thursday. So, there is quite a bit of activity on the first floor itself. We will cast the third floor slab directly after the holiday, which will turn the second floor open for all the mechanical rough-ins and full height wall rough- ins as well. We are progressing at a -- at a healthy pace. The roof is anticipated to start by the end of the month on the south portion of the building, moving to the i center section of the building. From there, once the roof is started -- the roof will actually start and be put on prior to our computer floor going down. One item that was not addressed on the schedule, the under floor rough-ins, which is actually activity number 30, we have actually pulled that ahead by three weeks to make sure that we get the first section ready to go for the computer floor that is showing up the first -- the middle of December, excuse me, on the first delivery. So, the first section of the interior partition walls will actually be coming back to the first of January as well. So, critical path for the building is from the inside coming out, as far as the progress in our structure. From there we have site utilities, site improvements, we have power into building, conduits into the building. We will be able to pull our feeders the next couple of weeks. Our actual water line to the building fire suppression will go in this week as well and the end of next week and, then, the following week, which will be the last weekend in November, we will actually be tying the sewer together. So, the site utilities are wrapping up, with anticipation of our mason starting the 1st of December. So, progress right now is moving very -- at a very quick pace. Borton: That's great. Thanks, John. Any questions, Council? Rountree: Keep up the good work. Bettis: Thank you, John. I wish I could say everything was always rosy, but we do have three problem children right now that we have addressed. The first one is our steel fabricator. Our steel erection crew has been doing a marvelous job with what they have. They have been working on average nine hour days, five days a week, and at 'least every other Saturday a half day -- several of those Saturdays have been consecutive. So, they have been making good progress, but we have been missing some of our structural steel components of the steel fabricator and erector, which is Rule Steel out of Middleton -- has been put on official notice that if they fail to meet their scheduled deadline that they will be assessed damages in accordance with their Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 29 of 42 contract and Idaho Department of Public Works contracting statutes. The second problem child was Simplex-Grinnell, our fire sprinkler contractor. They only required i one notice and that seemed to motivate them. They are on site and John has them under a very tight schedule to get their work caught up, so that they do not slow down and they will not slow down the work. Our third problem child is one that we have not been able to control and that is our weather. From the last week in September through the end of October we had 15 and a half weather affected working days in a period of 36 calendar days. It did have a profound effect on our ability to complete some of critical areas of work. It did impact our critical path. Fortunately, we had two very, very good and productive weeks the last two weeks up through last Saturday, which enabled us to close off some critical areas and allow John to shift the critical scope of work to the inside of the building and we will literally be building this structure from the inside out now and he will keep after the structural steel to see that it finishes out as a subcritical item now. If you want to look at the second page of the handout that I have given you, that is our project budget. We are currently sitting at -- with the building improvements, along with the site plaza and landscaping at 19.7 million. This includes some very good value engineering on the part of our trades. They are coming together. Some of the ", decisions that were made early in this process, like raising the building four foot, has actually resulted in a credit to this project of over 126,000 dollars. Additionally, now that we have our team on board and they are working very well as a team under John's ~i leadership, our electrician came forward and said, hey, I have got a better way to bring ' our power into the building and secure the critical nature of what is called a 200 percent neutral bus duct. That has resulted in a 13,000 dollar savings to this project that has been blessed by the electrical engineer and the design -- rest of the design team. So, the team is coming together, they are bringing together their ideas, their experience and helping us pull this project together tighter and as you noticed from your schedule, we are still on schedule to be complete and have you in this building by the end of August 2008. So, the additional items that we are looking at right now, Mr. Baird has put me in touch with the group that has taken control of the Idaho Trust or will take control of the Idaho Trust property and we start discussions about alternatives for both short-term and long-term parking to supplement City Hall. As well Mr. Baird and I are looking at two other options that we are pursuing to find the best opportunities for the city. And that is about all I have at this point. We will stand for any questions that you have of any one of us. Borton; Thank you, Wes. Council, any questions from what we have before us? Adam -- I don't know who Adam -- Adam, I don't think I have met you before, but if you would come forward and just give us a quick update on the LEED status and infamous binder ' collection. Johnson: President Borton, Members of the Council, LEED status, we are getting the documents prepared, getting our templates set up. I don't know if you guys remember the templates we passed out, getting those custom-built to our project. Going through ' Meridian City Council Special Workshop ' November 13, 2007 Page 30 of 42 the process of starting the photo documentation. We already implemented the ' recycling, which has been going since we started.. So, that's where we sit right now. Borton: Everything seems to be on pace? Johnson: Yeah. ~, Bird.: Okay. I Johnson: A lot of photos and documentation and logs. i Borton: Okay. Johnson: So, quite a lengthy process, so -- Borton: Great. Thanks, Adam. Council, any other questions on -- Rountree: I have no questions. Bird: I have none. Borton: None. Keep it going. Thanks for coming and giving us this information. Bettis: And, again., thank you, gentlemen, for inviting us. We like having this opportunity to come before you on a regular basis and keep you in the loop. I would like ' to invite any of you to come out to either get with Mr. Berg or Mr. Watts, set up an ,' appointment and we will be more than happy to give you a tour of the facility. We have had the Mayor out on site a couple of times. We have had Mr. Berg and Mr. Watts and several of the city staff at various times touring the facility and it's really fun to watch it ;come together right now. So, we encourage you to come out and see it as well. Thank you. Borton: All right. Thank you. Wes? Real quick you talk about giving updates. Do you want to either set now or think about -- is it monthly, every other month, just have a standing -- show up on the second every month, the second Tuesday. Bettis: We'd like it to be every month, Mr. President. It just will fit better and just make that astandard -- Borton: That will be great. Every second Tuesday, something like this? i Bettis: Yeah. t~ ~, ,, i~ i,: ,; ;, ~~ Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~~ November 1~3, 2007 i, Page 31 of 42 i, i ,M !~ Borton: Okay. ~; Bettis: That would be great. ~~ a Bird: When are we bidding the plaza? Bettis: Oh, thank you, Mr. Bird. Mr. President, Mr. Bird, the plaza is out to bid, along with the site landscaping and streetscapes and that bid is November 29th at 2:00 p.m. Bird: Good. That's what I -- that's why it would be nice to have it on every second, because we will have a better idea on what the total cost is right there. Bettis: Yeah. We will have a budget update the next meeting. Borton: Super. Bettis: Thank you. Rountree: Thanks. Berg: Mr. President, Icould -- just so the Council knows that we have a staff meeting every -- right now it's just once a month, the first Monday, just to keep things on board with the staff and the architect and the construction manager. And that's on an ongoing basis. We used to do it every other week, but now we have gone to once a month and if it needs to be changed, we will change it, but the Mayor is updated., as well as Keith Bird and members of the staff. (fl Findings on the state of the FEMA program -Kyle Radek -Public Works Gorton: Thanks, Will. 3-F. Getting down there. Kyle, you're up. Findings on the state of the FEMA program. You have all got materials passed out. Radek: Mr. President, Council members, the concept here is just to give you a brief ~ rundown on what's going on with the FEMA floodplain administration in Meridian. We have a few things going on and we will probably follow on this presentation with. more specifics in the future. I want to basically go over some background of the National Flood Insurance Program, some basics on the floodplain itself. Give you the status of ;some current .problem areas we have and the current program and.,, then, talk about some initiatives that we have that we are undertaking at this time. The National Flood Insurance Program, the NFIP, is, essentially, an agreement between the federal government and local jurisdictions, the community, in exchange for adopting a flood damage prevention ordinance, the citizens of our community have access to federally i1 Meridian City Council Special Workshop :~! November 13, 2007 1 Page 32 of 42 backed flood insurance and it's the only reasonably priced flood insurance they will be ~` able to find.. Meridian entered the program in 1992. The City of Meridian's responsibilities under the program, essentially, are to uphold the agreement with the federal government. We had to pass an ordinance to meet the minimum requirements of FEMA. We have to manage the floodplain according to those rules that we passed. And we accomplish that through the community's floodplain administrator, which is me. This is just a laundry list of the floodplain administrator's duties, mostly so that you know that floodplain administration isn't a super simple task. There are a lot of things that have to happen. Number one being to understand regulations and as you will find out in subsequent slides, we didn't always understand the regulations fully. Next slide, please. Some basics on floodplain. We talk about the base flood, we are talking about the hundred year flood event and that's a flood that has a one .percent chance of occurring every year -- occurring or being equal -- or exceeded I mean. And the base flood ~ elevation is the elevation that that flood is expected to reach. So, here is a graphic for j you. Essentially, there is the normal stream channel and here comes the base flood, hundred year flood, and inundates a certain area and that area is what we -- what we ~ designate as the floodplain, the hundred year floodplain. And that's the base flood elevation right there. There is the hundred year floodplain. Then, inevitably, we have development that appears in the floodplain and it's my job to regulate the development that happens in that floodplain. So, for example, we fill on one side and you notice that the water level rises up as it's being squeezed and, then, the other side gets filled -- the other side gets filled and so the water level rises up again and that's just a natural phenomenon and it's one of the -- the reason for one of the tools that -- that FEMA ~ developed when they mapped our floodplains and one of our floodplains in particular and they generally have .a rule that the -- the sum of all development that occurs in a floodplain should result in no more than a one foot rise in the base flood. If you hit the down arrow again,. you get the base flood elevation, plus one, and that is also delineated by the floodway -- what we call the floodway where no development is supposed to occur to allow that raise -- is it working? There we go. There is the floodway. And hit it one more time and show us the base flood elevation plus one. So, ~ the floodway is what needs to be preserved in order to keep that base flood from raising up more than a foot. So, we don't have floodways in all our map floodplains, but we have one. And the same kind of concept is -- is used to regulate development in -- in all the floodplains, regardless of whether they have them at the floodway or not. So, just for fun let's look at the next slide and say, for an example, what could happen in say a neighboring community if -- if we didn't quite pay attention to things as the floodplain developed, we would have fill coming in one side -- there is the floodplain. There is the base flood elevation. We have the developer coming in filling one side and he submits a letter to FEMA and says, hey, I'm not in the floodplain anymore, take me out of the floodplain. So, FEMA says, yeah, that's cool, let's map the floodplain, we are going to ~! put the floodplain there. It's also called a special flood hazard area. Now, the developer says I want to develop this piece of ground, I'm not in the floodplain anymore., I don't have to play by the rules, so I can build this house that I want to put in at whatever level ,; ~, i; Meridian City Council Special Workshop i November 13, 2007 i Page 33 of 42 want, I don't have to build it at the base flood elevation plus one, which is very common for -- our ordinance, for example, says you have to have a finished flood -- base flood elevation plus one. So, he builds his house. There it is. And he's -- he's not quite to base flood elevation, but it doesn't matter, because he's not in the floodplain. So, who wants to guess what happens next? The guy across the river develops his area and we have seen examples of this last summer where somebody said, well, I don't live in the floodplain, why do I have water in my backyard? So, that's just an example of the kind of things that happen and we have a -- one of the initiatives we have is a -- in our code is -- is to say that all the areas that were in the floodplain and were removed from the floodplain by fill, are still subject to at least the same standards at areas in the floodplain, to void that having lower standards in areas that aren't in the floodplain. The next slide, please. We have three types of regulated floodplains in Meridian and depending on how deep the flood insurance study was that delineated them, and the development rules are a little different for each type of area, the goals being the same and that one foot concept being spread out in different ways. In development it's important to understand the development includes more than building houses., it includes any kind of activity that affects the flood characteristics, such as grading, fill, dredging, storing materials, things like that. So, I want to talk about the current problem areas we have identified when we have, you know, really dug into this FEMA program and got it on its feet. We have one actual case with FEMA, which we are working on. It's two areas of town, Nine Mile Creek and Creekside Arbor. And, then, other areas we have found, partially when working on one of those cases, and, then, just -- just through our own reconnaissance, Badley Culvert, Silverstone and Silverstone Campus, and Meridian Park and Sheri Lynn Subdivision areas. Nine Mile Creek is -- like I said, it's a FEMA case, it's one part of a FEMA case. Let me start from the bottom on this and go up. The circled area is an undocumented stream channel alteration and that's something that we are supposed to -- Rountree: Kyle, let me interrupt you if you would. Could you explain the term FEMA case, so we all know where you're coming from? Radek: Yes, sir. Mr. President, Councilman Rountree, Councilmen, it's a -- it's just a -- guess Idon't know how -- Grady: Kyle, maybe I could help out. We actually received a letter from FEMA and it has a case number assigned to it, so it's a very official document. Rountree: So, it's a regulatory action? Grady: It is. Rountree: Okay. ~~, Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~~ November 13, 2007 Page 34 of 42 ~~. 6 +. ,~, Grady: Now, it's not -- it's not at a point now where we are in violation yet, but it's one of ~~-those if we don't get it corrected or we can't correct it, then, I believe we are -- Rountree: We are on official notice. Grady: We are. Rountree: Okay. ~, '~ Radek: Yeah. So, this was something that came up when an engineer studied this -- ~` this Jabil -- Jabil Circuit property and sent in a letter of map revision to FEMA and FEMA '~ said, hey, we didn't know about this. So, we have a stream alteration where the -- the ~; stream was moved from where the FEMA map shows it, to right here. And when we do ;, that, of course, we are supposed to have a permit and we are supposed to notify I'~ adjacent property owners and all this kind of thing and that stuff didn't happen. We also I! have a culvert that was put in in -- whoa. We have a culvert that was put in without any kind of a permit, but it turns out that -- if we can get the right -- there we go. Turns out that that culvert was actually larger than the previous culvert and that has also been ~; resolved in this case and what we are left with is the -- another undersized culvert that i~ was put in right here and although it's still in place, it's still undersized, it still doesn't I' pass the base flood base. We have satisfied FEMA with the plan of action that as development occurs in that area we are going to have development solve that problem. ,li The next area -- the next area on the -- in that FEMA case is the Creekside Arbor Apartments, which is the hatched area you see and that is an area in the floodway and as I explained that the floodway is the area that needs to be reserved, which means no ,development is supposed to occur in the floodway. And you can see that -- that li hatched area includes not only fill, but includes apartments. So, we were -- we were -- i; we brought on an engineering firm to help us study that and try to solve it and during that work we identified another problem upstream from that location, which is an N undersized culvert and when I say an undersized culvert, it means a culvert that doesn't ~~ pass the base flood without causing a rise in the flood elevation. And when you -- this is ~l a map of the floodway and so when you put anything in the map floodway, you can't cause a rise in base flood elevation. And so when we found that out we decided to take i'1 a little different approach, instead of hiring an engineer to -- to investigate and help us with the solution, we went to the engineers that -- that -- the engineer that worked for the -- that put this culvert in and I'm happy to say JUB's working with us to help resolve i. . ~; the issue to, among other things, study the hydraulics and hydrology of the flood H insurance study to see if we can somehow, you know, mitigate that situation we have j; there. And Silverstone and Silverstone Campus, we have a series of three culverts that are -- I hate to use the word undersized again, but they are undersized and they cause ~{ a rise of more than a foot in the base flood elevation and, likewise, with these we have I'' contacted the different engineers that were involved in these projects, we have had 11 limited success with having them step up and help us work on these problems. '• Meridian City Council Special Workshop November 13, 2007 Page 35 of 42 IF Boston: Kyle? Is that a contact that says, hey, he screwed up, come fix it or -- • Radek: No. Mr. President, Council members, I -- as a professional engineer I have to ;: be careful about saying things like that to other professional engineers and so we present it as we have -- we have an issue with -- with our floodplain and it's -- whether ' you did something wrong or not, it's a problem, so can you come to the table and help ~ll us solve this problem. And so, so far on these projects I have not had a response like ~. the JUB response, which was, yeah, we will help you look at that problem and try to ~" solve it. Grady: Mr. President, in the future we will -- we will probably be back with guidance on how to proceed., because some engineers are responding, some, aren't, and I guess those that are we will keep -- keep working through those. Some that aren't we will be coming back with -- asking for some guidance on how to proceed. Again, Kyle and I are somewhat limited in -- in dealing with other professional engineers, so -- Boston: Okay. ~- Bird: Mr. President? 1~ i! Boston: Yes, Mr. Bird.. i, ~~ Bird: Before we go on, I believe most of these are probably something that has come ~~~ through the Council and we probably approved the size of these., so I don't think we are a hundred percent in the clear. I mean -- you know, I don't think it's all on the '" engineering. They probably came forward and said we were going to put a 48 inch or -- ,: Grady: Yeah. Mr. President, I would tend to agree. However, I think the engineers ~! have a certain due diligence, they need to require -- they are required to do that study, ~~ so -- i '' Bird: I don't disagree with that, but -- ! ~~ Brady: We feel we are willing to help out and negotiate with these and see if we can come to some common ground on that how to get it solved, so -- ~' Boston: Thanks, Len. Thanks, Kyle. ~1 ~' Kyle: Yeah. So, the next slide. The -- the last one is one that you can see there are -~ houses in the floodway again there. This one is a little different. This was -- the existing !~ situation when FEMA commissioned Toothman-Orton to map the floodplain and ~~ floodway in 1989, they finished the study 1991, I believe, and those houses already l~ i. IM Meridian City Council Special Workshop li November 13, 2007 h Page 36 of 42 ~~~ ;~ showed up there.. So, this is -- this is not something that's anybody's fault. The N opportunity here is you can see the red line up there, the diagonal is a culvert that ti sends that Five Mile Creek underneath Linder Road and Ustick Road and ACRD -- i, provided that they get their funding and keep their projects on track, they have an li intersection project scheduled for I believe 2009 and so we have an opportunity to ~ oversize that culvert and perhaps get rid of some of this backwater and what we are ' going to do right now is we are working with ACHD already. It's going to be oversized at least a little bit, but we need them to do a hydrology study anyway as part of the floodplain development permit they need and we are going to work with those property owners that have all that floodway in their property and I think they might want to participate with us in putting in a bigger culvert and getting some -- some floodway off of j; their property and restudying the area, so -- and the current program -- we have an awesome program, because we have an awesome floodplain manager, of course. We !! are -- we are enforcing our code through communication, monitoring, permitting, and inspecting and some initiatives. We pretty much have our bases covered right now. We are not going to let things like I just showed you happen anymore. Our current ~! initiatives, we have a code revision that's just about ready to put the finishing touches ' on. We have not sent legal to review yet, but just pretty much ready to do that. We have a stream alterations inventory that we just completed this summer. We are looking at some mitigation projects and we are looking at getting into the community rating system. My goal is to have that by the end of 2008 and I'll explain to you in a i couple slides. The code revision, some highlights of the code revision are that we are going to raise -- we are going to propose raising building elevation standards. Apparently our standard is base flood elevation plus one foot for finished floor and as ,you can see by the graphic I showed you, that's really a minimum., because that's what you expect a base flood elevation to get to by the time ail development happens. So, I we want to go a little higher and that's consistent with what some other communities in the area have done, too. We want to require the development of base flood elevations ~ where we don't have any. That means when somebody comes in to -- to develop a floodplain area that doesn't have that information, we are going to require them to get a ~ hydraulics engineer and establish that information so we know what we are doing with the floodplain. We want to like, I -- I talked to you about that fill area, we want to require ' building to special flood hazard standards regardless of whether they filled and got out of the -- got out of the floodplain. We also want to implement a no rise requirement for all stream alterations, not just those in a mapped floodway. We completed a stream alterations inventory this summer and so now we know exactly what's out there. This guy standing on the culvert's name is John Klemmer. He came from Duluth, Minnesota, moved out here just so he could do this for us. Actually, he was -- you know, he was -- he's got a lot of different jobs. He's GIS oriented and we had a GIS intern position, but he was the perfect guy for this. He actually walked every foot of every stream and we ;have four of them in our community and he even walked every foot of one of them that's not in our community, just in case we might eventually annex into it. He measured ~ every alteration, took a picture of every alteration out there, every bridge, culvert, outfall, ~: ~' ~i 4 Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~. November 13, 2007 Page 37 of 42 II H area crossing, irrigation structure, and we have this currently mapped on our GPS -- or ~' GIS. We have a GPS position for every one of these structures with a hot link on it, so you can see the structure. So, it's kind of neat. We can -- I put all these pictures together without ever leaving my office, so -- so we really know what we have out there. We are doing some mitigation initiatives. We -- like I said., we are contacting engineers to participate in solutions to the problems we have. We have the options of "reconstructing some of the alterations some places where it's not necessarily a problem h that we caused in the recent past, like the Linder crossing I showed you. We also have the option of re-studying flood modeling that the flood insurance study established and ~~ we think there are some opportunities for not only looking at the flood insurance study ~' with a -- with some different eyes, but also even cooperating with Nampa-Meridian Irrigation District and possibly_doing some flood routing and some flood control, too, so -- and we also are looking at Five Mile Creek project and I'm going to have more ~l information on the Five Mile Creek project -- I will probably be back talking to you again ~~ in a few weeks on that. We are trying to work with Nampa-Meridian on that and get a -- ~~, get a project which, from my perspective as the floodplain administrator, will preserve ~~ some floodplain, so we don't have to wait for things to develop, we are going to develop it and., then, people will have to leave it alone. The community rating symptom is a -~ program that FEMA has put in place and it provides reduced insurance rates for ~ residents in jurisdictions that go beyond FEMA's minimums. So, you know, we are '~ currently FEMA's minimum for elevation standard is base flood elevation, so we are ~i currently above FEMA's standard. We are base flood elevation plus one. But we have ~' a lot of other things that we are going to be doing and we are going to be -- really being p proactive in our floodplain management and I think after we get all these things in place ~~ we will go to FEMA and say, hey, look at us, we are doing a great job and we need to ;' give our residents a break on flood insurance. I think that's something everybody will `! appreciate, especially because around here people don't understand that anything will ,; ever flood., so when they find out that they are in a floodplain they are kind of irate about h it. They don't like paying flood insurance when they live in a desert. So, if we can give them a break on that, then, they will appreciate that. In summary, previous programs that we have for administering the floodplain have not always met all the expectations of the National Flood Insurance Program. We have identified problem areas and are trying to work with the engineers and developers to find solutions to those problem areas. If we don't find willing partners., the city may need to consider other strategies to !' resolve those problems and we are now meeting and exceeding the expectations of the ,; National Flood Insurance Program. Are there any questions? Rountree: Very good. Bird: Just thank you very much. Borton: Kyle, that's great. i. {; f '~ Meridian City Council Special Workshop j; November 13, 2007 Page 38 of 42 1± ~-; ~~ Rountree: Yeah. Would agree with the -- i; ~, Borton: Kyle, you made reference to ordinance amendments. Is there a schedule to '~ not lose site of that? One of the things we are doing; every one of these workshops is ;" talking about ordinance revisions. Is that -- is it a January or April time to bring it back and start looking at some of these proposed changes? I j Radek: Mr. President, Council members, Idon't -- I wanted to have something in front ;i of you guys in October, but I think that the timing -- we needed to get this presentation 'i to you before and so now you're prepped and now I can put the finishing touches on our proposal with Len, get it to legal and the other thing Iwanted -- I think we might want to do before we pass a new ordinance is to find out which direction -- maybe we have already found out which direction we are going with the possible annexation down by i the Boise River. Well, we'd kind of like to have a little information on whether we should put anything about that in the new ordinance or not and, then -- whether that's -- that's going to be of value or not, then, you know, we are ready to go in as little as a month and a half, two months. Borton: What probably would happen is there would be some draft language that we would review in a workshop type setting.., not necessarily taking action on an ;amendment at that time, but I guess with that discussion we can have -- get you some ~ more information. Radek: Yes, sir. We could -- we could schedule that -- I'm ready to schedule that at any time, but I guess it's -- it's sort of -- Mr. President, if you'd like me to put that on the calendar for sometime in December, I will put it on the calendar for the end of ;December or -- ~, Borton: How about the second Tuesday in January? Radek: Second Tuesday in January. Yes, sir. ' Baird: And Mr. President? Borton: Yes. ~~ Baird: If I could just give some additional direction following up on your decision of what l to include. I wouldn't want to have anything in your draft that would presume an ~~ annexation action. That's what Anna was getting at. So, just put that aside and we can i bring it back as a subsequent amendment. Radek: Okay. i,. ~~ ~k I;. I~ Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~ November 13, 2007 '~ Page 39 of 42 i 'l Borton: Thanks, Ted. Any other questions? ~~ Rountree: No. Thanks. ~: i~ '~ Item 4: CITY POLICY REVIEW: ~, ~; N (a) Ada County Use of City Property -Ted Baird. Borton: 4-A. Ada County use of city property. City Attorney Ted Baird. Baird: Mr. President, Members of the Council. Thank you. This is an item that Bill wanted me just to raise with you and let you know what we are doing. It has to do with the Ada County's use of the top of the water tower for their communication devices, devices that admittedly may help our community, as well as the county in general, but ~, the issue has to do with our ability to control our city property and people who enter it ~: and who take actions that affect our existing facilities. In the last six months or so there ~~ have been three incidents where Ada County personnel have gotten access to the top of the water tower through some sources that probably shouldn't have given them access. Apparent authority from city actors and various departments, so what we are I~ trying to do is put together an MOU that requires a single point of contact with the IT ~, department, so that when they enter their actions are monitored., that they are ~+ indemnifying us for any damage that they'd do, sort of a license type agreement that we ~; are working on and I think what -- all that we are asking you for is to give us direction ~; that that's a policy that you'd like to see brought back before you. Rountree: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Rountree. Rountree: In terms of a policy statement, yes. In terms of somebody getting into a water facility of the City of Meridian, I don't agree that we allow it. Period. So -- how about the rest of you guys? Zaremba: I would lean that direction, but perhaps not go that far. I would suggest that it may be useful for them to have their equipment on the top of our tower, but anytime they are there it should be in the presence of one of our people accompanying, not just give them a key and have a key back and record that they did.. I think one of our responsible people should go with them. Bird: Mr. -- Borton: Mr. Bird. Meridian City Council Special workshop November 13, 2007 Page 40 of 42 Bird: Mr. President, I agree with both what Councilman Zaremba and Rountree have said and I believe that -- I'm like -- if we are going to allow anybody in there, somebody from the water department or Public Works is going to be there, not IT or not legal or not anybody like that that -- that these guys are the ones that know the facility and are, basically, in charge of it. So, I don't mind them using -- being on top of us -- on top of the tower, but I agree if they are going in there -- if we are going to allow them in there -- if we are going to allow them in there they go in with a qualified person from our Public Works or water department. Zaremba: And some release of liability in case they fall off. ~~ Bird: Well -- yeah. That would -- I think an MOU would take care of that. Zaremba: Absolutely. Gorton; Do you envision this to be more global, fill in the blank that says you -- you know, blank entity who uses any city facility property for any blank purpose, has these obligations, so it's not specific to the water tower? Baird.: Mr. President, Members of the Council, I -- this was brought up to address this particular situation. It's probably -- from a drafting perspective, start out with the specifics to this, but be able to modify it so that it could morph into something that could be used for other facilities, because we are sharing them. I wasn't aware -- well, the way it was told to me that the people that were having the problem with the access was our IT department, that what's been made clear to me tonight is we have definite water - - we have two different entities. Would there be any objection if we are going to have monitored access to have someone from both the water and the IT, because it's the IT stuff that gets -- you know, we get knocked off line when somebody else goes up there, so that -- IT wants to know -- so, if we address both concerns, is that going to be -- Bird: I have no problem with that myself. Zaremba; I agree. Bird: But I just believe that somebody from the Public Works water is the ones that should be leading the group and if IT wants to send somebody out or something, I don't see anything wrong with that. i Baird: Well, Mr. President, I will take that direction, Members of the Council, and we will bring something back that tries to take in as much of that direction as possible. i Borton: Thank you, Ted. ~4 IE.: i j Meridian City Council Special Workshop ~ November 13, 2007 ;i Page 41 of 42 ~ Item 5: CITY ORDINANCE REVIEW: -NONE I Borton: There is no city ordinance review on the agenda. Item 6: Liquor License Transfer -Meridian Mulligan's: Borton: But there is an Item 6 that was added, which I have got to dig out here. The liquor license transfer. Berg: Mr. President, do you want me to address that? Borton: Yes. Berg: Because I was the one that was trying to do good customer service and help a business that didn't know all the rules and came to our office thinking that it was just a sign license and issue it to them. This is just a transfer, so it's riot like a brand new license. Basically, the license holder that -- for Mason's, is transferring the liquor and beer license to Meridian Mulligan's is the name of the business, even though it's a different corporation. It's just a transfer. We have had sign offs from the police and the fire and also the planning director, so it seems like the big categories have been okay. ;~ They were planning and advertising for a grand opening on Friday, didn't realize that it wasn't like -- they said Boise city was just bring in their state and county and it gets signed., since it is approval by the Council. We stated that they were really disappointed and I said that since it was a transfer, it wasn't a new license, since things could be ;checked by the departments, if all those things fell into place, that the Council might consider approving it. So, even though I'm the one that really hates to add things to the I agenda -- and I hope the Mayor reads the minutes, so that my PAD is very good ~ documented customer service, I'm the one that brought it and I really hated to bring it, but I think it's not a real big concern, since it's a transfer and the state has already done the background check and the county has signed off and our departments have all signed off. Borton: Thank you., Will. Bird.: Mr. President? Borton: Mr. Bird. Bird: I move we approve the transfer of the liquor license for Meridian Mulligan's, 601 South Main Street. 'I Rountree: Second. 1 Meridian City Council Special Workshop I November 13, 2007 Page 42 of 42 i Boston: It's been moved and seconded to approve the liquor license transfer, Meridian Mulligan's. Any discussion? All those in favor say aye. Thank you. i MOTION CARRLED: ALL AYES. i ~ Borton: That brings us to the end of the workshop agenda. Rountree: Move to adjourn. ~, Bird.: Second.. Borton: All those in favor? i MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES. MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:10 P.M. i (TAPE ON FILE OF THESE PROCEEDINGS) L I i i I' ATTESTEDs i WI i l2~ ¢~~ DATE APPROVED ~~~~°'""f°"'P1°"~~~,, BERG, CITY CL `~ "\ 'Pi'9 ''js . ~' ~~~~ Ago ~ ~' ~~ ~~, ~~'~ '~ 'gyp ~r 1 s~ • .~'~ ,\`